Chapter Text
Shujin Academy’s reputation was in the toilet. It seemed that on social media no one could even mention the school without also talking about either the scandals with Kamoshida, the criminal transfer student whose long list of heinous acts only multiply each day (if one is to believe the rumors), or the mysterious Phantom Thieves who posted those ‘calling cards’ across the school prior to the PE teacher’s sudden confession.
A lot was being said, but none of it positive. Applications from parents and guardians hoping to send their children to the school went through the floor. Principal Kobayakawa was overwhelmed by students, parents and potential press wanting answers for why a man like Kamoshida was protected for so long. Add the additional pressure being put on him through phone calls from Shido’s representatives who got him his position in the first place, and the weird-looking potato-man principal was beginning to feel trapped.
Well that was only partially true; students, parents, and press were actually being handled by his secretary, and anyone else he could delegate the work to, so the principal himself spent more time wallowing in self-pity in his office than actually doing anything to fix the problems.
While idly pretending to sort through the pile of paperwork on his desk, he came across records for an old program run by the school in ages past. At least, that’s what it looked like, the program didn’t look or sound familiar in the slightest, nor did it sound like something any school would actually do, and even if it was real there’s no reason for it to be mixed in with the rest of his paperwork.
“No wait, this makes sense. I must have just forgotten about it or something.” The thoughts of confusion and doubt were forced out of his head. This program might just be what the school needs to shake off its negative reputation, or rather- just get people to forget about the Kamoshida thing for a while, get them talking about something else.
There was that feeling again, the feeling that what was happening wasn’t real, that this could never actually work, and he must be in a weird (and honestly rather boring) dream right now.
“No, this makes sense. I’ll use this.” And once again the doubts were expelled from his mind. “I can only think of one student who would cooperate though, I’ll have to call her in.”
~ ~ ~
Makoto Niijima entered the principal’s office with no small amount of anxiety. She only ever got called in when the potato had some unreasonable request for her, most recently expecting her to handle all student complaints and queries related to the Kamoshida ‘incident’, as well as somehow tracking down and revealing the identities of the ‘Phantom Thieves’ who may or may not even exist. And while Dr. Maruki being brought into the school had taken a huge weight off her shoulders for the former problem, she only got more and more pressure on her from the latter, in which she had been making absolutely no headway whatsoever.
“You asked to see me?” Makoto made only the most token of efforts to not sound as if she were already sick of his presence.
“Ah Niijima-san, how are you? Any progress with the Phantom Thieves?”
Supressing her ‘please-just-kill-me-now’ expression and forcing a weak smile she shook her head.
“Nothing to report so far.”
Kobayakawa looked less disappointed than usual by that answer, if only slightly.
“That’s unfortunate, but today I actually have something else for you.”
‘Oh goody’ she thought to herself. It’s honestly something of a mixed blessing that the principal pays so little attention to those he’s speaking to, he doesn’t seem to notice or acknowledge how unimpressed she is despite her barely-existent attempts to show respect. She was considered something of a teacher’s pet, which wasn’t an unfair label, but Kobayakawa had certainly never shown anything to deem him worthy of the respect she would show any of the actual teachers.
She picked up the document and began reading through it. Very quickly her attitude turned from exhaustion to shock. She looked up at the principal.
“Um sir? Is this some kind of joke?”
“Certainly not. It’s a tradition that was abandoned a long time ago, but I think now would be the perfect time to bringing it back, at least for a trial period.”
Makoto blinked a few times. The document certainly looked official, but this simply couldn’t be right.
“Sir I’ve studied the history of this school myself, and I’m certain there was never anything resembling this ‘Naked-in-school program’. Or in any other school for that matter.”
‘Wait, was there?’ thoughts of doubt we’re already invading her mind. ‘Is it possible I just missed it? How could I miss something like that? Did I…?’
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken Niijima-san, though it’s understandable since we’ve never referred to the program since it was taken out of commission years ago.”
She rubbed her eyes, thinking she’ll suddenly come to her senses and the document would suddenly turn out to be something more reasonable when she looks at it again. It didn’t.
“But this can’t be real, can it? What was the logic behind it?”
“It’s no secret how insecure young people can be about their bodies, leading to a prudish society full of people who cannot handle the sight of something as natural as the human body. Ultimately the program served to help students deal with their body-image.”
“Sir…” she was now making no effort to hide the annoyance in her voice. “To call that logic a stretch would be an understatement, it’s extremely flimsy logic to justify something… absurd and perverse.”
‘It would help students feel more comfortable with their bodies though, that does makes sense… wait what? No it doesn’t, what am I thinking?’
“I wouldn’t call it absurd at all Niijima-san. Radical- yes, but it’s ultimately got the emotional well-being of the participants in mind.”
Despite the feeling of something deep within her heart silently crying out in frustration, Makoto was finding it harder to keep voicing her obvious doubts as the conversation went on.
“I know what you might be thinking Niijima-san, but no I don’t plan on making this mandatory or otherwise coercing the student body into taking part in this program, and it’d only be implemented as an experiment at first.”
She was still wholly against the idea… mostly… but she supposed she couldn’t criticize it too much if it was purely a voluntary thing, that way it could just naturally flop as everyone ignored it and moved on with their lives. She couldn’t imagine anyone actually wanting to sign up for it anyway.
“Although…” uh-oh, those two syllables from the principal already began to fill her with dread. “…it would be a good idea to have at least one student serve to advertise the program as it’s spokesperson, let the rest of the student body see what it’d look like in practice to help them warm up to giving the idea a chance rather than simply dismissing it out of hand.”
Makoto, forgetting to hold it back, scoffed.
“You want a spokesperson? That’s quite the burden for someone to take on, where on Earth do you intend to find a volunteer for something like…”
“…”
“Oh…”
The principal smiled; an unpleasant sight at the best of times, but right now it made a truly sickening feeling rise from the pit of Makoto’s stomach, or maybe it was just the effect of the realization she just came to. She really hoped she was just jumping to conclusions.
“I knew you were a bright girl! You had the exact same idea I did- who better to spearhead this revolutionary new program than our own student council president?”
She wasn’t jumping to conclusions. Fuck.
“Y-you… you can’t be serious?”
“Of course I’m serious, I think this will be an eye-opening experience for you, the student body, and those interested in this school.”
‘It’d be eye-opening alright, only at the cost of literally all my dignity.’ Makoto couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Every fibre of her being was crying out for her to just outright reject the proposal and storm out the room, damn the consequences. But she couldn’t bring herself to ignore said consequences. Getting the letter of recommendation to get into a good college is an absolutely necessary step in the path laid out for her, and the principal- through no small amount of thinly-veiled threats- had made it extremely clear that to get that letter she needs to fulfill all the responsibilities placed on the student council, no matter how unreasonable.
Surely this is too much though? Surely if she brought this to the attention of literally any other authority figure they’d take her side, agree this program is absurd, and nothing this absurd would ever be brought up again. And yet she found herself unable to properly object, she found her own mind rationalizing against her.
‘You’re the student council president, you need to fulfil any and every task given to you and stick to this path to be successful. That makes sense. It probably won’t be as bad as you’re thinking anyway.’
Letting out the deepest, heaviest sigh of her life, Makoto hung her head low.
“How exactly is this supposed to work?”
“Simple, you enter the program yourself, and continue about your regular school commitments. And if anyone asks about your appearance—”
‘Of COURSE they’re going to ask, who the hell wouldn’t?’
“—you tell them about the program. Easy as that!”
‘What part of that is easy?’
“In fact to make things even easier, I’d made a whole bunch of copies of that document you’re holding, you can carry them around in this folder and hand them out to your fellow students.”
‘Oh joy…’
“You can start immediately.”
Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“You mean right here, right now?”
The principal mock-shrugged.
“May as well, no reason for us to delay things are there?”
Still wondering what was possessing her to even consider agreeing to this, she slumped her shoulders in defeat.
‘Let’s just get this over with… Maybe it’ll be less embarrassing if I just imagine he’s a potato or something.’
Makoto had a fair amount of experience with public speaking, one trick she was taught early on to combat stage fright is to imagine the audience are actually just vegetables. She never really made use of this idea before, not being to convince herself they were just vegetables when they so clearly looked like people, but in this case it was a surprisingly easy thing to imagine.
~ ~ ~
The potato didn’t leer at her nearly as much as she thought he would, his thoughts were on the imminent success of the publicity stunt rather than the undressing 18-year-old in front of him. Makoto decided she was better off not questioning it, lack of gross dudes staring at her was hardly something to complain about, nor would it be a situation she’d be able to appreciate much more now, as when she felt the cold floor beneath her feet after she stepped out of the principal’s office the reality of the situation began to set in.
She was standing in the school hallway, during class, absolutely nothing on her body aside from her bag under her arm and a headband, and the latter certainly didn’t do anything to cover her (despite her briefly considering trying to use it as a makeshift c-string-style thong, before dismissing the idea as it would only make her look more ridiculous).
She held her bag in front of herself, close to her body, trying to somehow will it to be long enough to keep both her privates and breasts concealed simultaneously, which it only was if she hunched over forward, not that covering those parts really did much to preserve her dignity. She stood near-frozen, trying to figure out what she was thinking agreeing to this so easily.
She was snapped out of her “Hey, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I got in this situation…” daze by the sounds of three students turning the corner and the inevitable crashing down on her.
“Holy shit is that the prez?”
“What’s she doing naked?”
“Man, and I thought I was being daring today by undoing an extra button, I can’t compete with this!”
‘Oh god…’ Makoto had never been seen naked outside of home or an onsen, and while these three students were thankfully also girls, the feeling was completely different when they were fully clothed and she was the only one in a state of undress. She stared at them in shock, desperately trying to think of what she could say or do to possibly get out of this situation not-completely-humiliated. She stood up straight, thinking that being crouched would only make her look more vulnerable, but held her bag tighter than ever to her torso.
One of the girls had already pulled out their phone to record the bright red president. For the first time Makoto curses the fact that he was born in the modern era, now no matter how she handles this the image of her standing bare-ass naked in her own highschool is now out there permanently. She prayed the ground would open up and swallow her whole, but after that plan disappointingly (though not unsurprisingly) failed, she had to think how she could possibly hope to preserve what little reputation she had left.
‘Stay calm Makoto, it’s just your body, it’s only embarrassing if you let it be. You have to be confident; you have to own it! It’s the only way anyone will be able to keep any respect for you.’
She visibly flinched at the sound of the camera of another girl’s phone going off.
‘Dammit.. owning it is a lot easier said than done…’
“Seriously Prez, what the hell are you doing?”
Screwing her eyes shut and taking several deep breaths through her nose to calm herself. She willed herself to be brave. She pulled the folder out of her bag, then reached in to pull out a copy of the document from before basically shoving it into one of the girls' hands. She’s certain she must have exposed at least some of herself while fumbling like that, but she tried not to think about it, this day was going to be painful enough without thinking about every little slip. Slip was definitely the appropriate word.
The girls briefly stopped documenting the nudity before them to read the paper.
“Shit is this even real? Gotta be a prank, right?”
“I mean Niijima-san is naked, if it is a prank she gets points for committing to the bit.”
“Is this real Niijima-san?”
Makoto nods, avoiding looking at the girls directly.
“Oh shit that’s hilarious! Do they really expect people to get naked in public like this? Why would anyone do that?”
Makoto mumbled something.
“Huh?”
“It’s…” she took another deep breath. “It’s supposed to help students be more comfortable with their bodies, it’s about promoting healthy body-images.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
“HUH?! What?” The shock at the quick response nearly caused her to drop her bag, exposing her nipples to the open air before she came to her sense again and recovered them, thankful that they weren’t recording at that exact moment.
“Just like that?! Is that really all it takes to convince you?”
The girl holding the paper shrugged.
“I mean, I’m not gonna enter the program, that’d be way too much for me, but like- I dunno- it makes sense?”
The other girls murmured noises of agreement.
“I mean yeah, it’s a bit extreme, but there is a logic behind it I guess.”
“I think I’ll stick to having some shirt buttons undone, I don’t think I’m ready for nudity yet, or ever probably. I’ll figure out some other way to stand out… probably…”
Makoto just stared slack-jawed. Attempts to question or even process what was being said just coming out as vague noises and breaths. Eventually after much stammering she’s able to force out at least one coherent word.
“R-really?”
The centre girl let out a surprisingly (and honestly rather confusingly) good-natured laugh.
“Sure, I’m honestly curious to see if anyone actually signs up for it, besides you anyway. Best of luck finding another closeted nudist Miss Prez.”
She really didn’t know what to think at this point, she expected relentless mockery after being caught like this, but if anything they were being nicer than usual to her.
“You better believe I’ll be tweeting this though, it’s crazy-wild that you actually did this, people aren’t going to believe it until they see it!”
Oh, right… The relief from being treated better than expected almost made her forget the level of exposure she was in for.
“Niijima-san, do you mind posing for us?”
‘They want me to p-pose?’ The girls were asking her to abandon all attempts at covering herself for her followers? This was insane.
‘Wait, this might actually be the smarter path. They’re posting me either way, wouldn’t it be better for me to be seen as confident rather than just a target of pity and mockery? That makes sense… right?’
“On one condition, if I pose, could you delete the pictures you took of me before?”
The girl on the right tilted her head.
“So you want us to delete the photos where you’re covered so we just have photos where you’re exposed?”
Okay it sounded silly when she said it like that, but she was certain this made sense, it had to be better this way. Makoto nods.
The girl chuckled.
“Wow you really are serious about this nudity thing, that’s pretty funny, but also pretty cool.”
Slowly- keeping her eyes closed- Makoto let her bag fall to her side. It couldn’t really be called a “pose”, she just stood up straight and gave a shy smile, but it did the job of leaving her completely exposed. She internally debated whether it’d be too much to give a peace sign, in the end she opted to do so. Finally she opened her eyes, the three girls had their phone cameras trained on her. The sound of a few snaps later and the girl on the left gave a thumbs up.
‘Well… no going back now…' If she was honest she was still feeling uncomfortable being exposed like this, but she was shocked by the slowly dawning realization that she didn’t hate this, at least not nearly as much as when she first stepped out of the principal’s office just a few minutes ago. Part of her felt like she might be able to survive this after all, but a much larger part of her was worried that she just got lucky with these three girls being as amicable as they were. If anyone actually tried to attack her she was confident in her abilities to defend herself, but she was much less confident in being able to defend herself against mockery. She’d just have to continue to fake confidence as the day went on.
“Well shit Prez, this certainly isn’t a side of you I ever expected to see.”
“She’s showing a lot I never expected to see”
A nervous laugh was the most Makoto could manage in response as the girls finally began to move on. One slapped her hand on her shoulder, the actual physical touch on her naked skin once again being a sobering reminder of her state.
“Good luck finding volunteers! Trying recruiting a couple hot boys at least, okay?”
The girls left, leaving Makoto standing by her lonesome in the hallway once more, the sound of their chatting growing ever more distant.
‘I just realized, I never asked what those girls were doing out of class…’ she decided it was for the best she didn’t confront them about that, she might have under normal circumstances but as she was now she didn’t want to risk getting on their bad side. Now was not the time to be making enemies.
‘Wait… class! I was supposed to head back to class!’ Not wanting to risk causing any more of a scene back in class than she was already inevitably going to, she hastily made her way towards the class she had originally been pulled out of. She tried to ignore the sensation of the air against her skin, the shaking of her breasts, and the sounds of her feet slapping against the floor as she rushed ahead. Confidence was the only defence she had, she had to make full use of it. “Fake it ‘til you make it” was today’s goal.
She made it to her class’s door, held her hand on the handle for what felt like minutes, before finally working up the nerve to step inside.
~ ~ ~
People generally gave Ryuji Sakamoto and Ren Amamiya a wide berth as they made their way through the school. Them being a violent delinquent and a ruthless crime lord serial killer respectively, at least according to rumors. While the boys would be lying if they said such rumors didn’t bother them at all, but they learned to appreciate the distance most people kept, made it easier to focus on the people who actually mattered to them. One such person was Ann Takamaki, who they were currently on their way to meet. Rumors about her definitely slowed down and became far less hurtful after Kamoshida’s public confession, but despite a few apologies thrown her way she was still effectively an outcast, but like the boys she now had some real friends, so the opinions of random strangers no longer meant much to her.
The boys were making their way up to the third floor where Ann was already waiting for them, just as they turned the corner to the final flight of stairs they spotted her at the top. She didn’t react when Ryuji called out to her, she just stared down the hall at something out of sight, wide-eyed and not even breathing by the looks of her.
“Yo Ann, what’s up? You okay?” They run up the stairs to her side, Ren grabbing her shoulder to try and shake her out of her daze. Following her line of sight they saw what had shocked her so much: the student council president, surrounded by classmates questioning her, bare-ass nude (and what an ass it was).
Ren flinched so hard at the sight his glasses nearly fell off of his face. This is never something he expected to see from Niijima-senpai (though it was something he always secretly hoped to see, though perhaps not in this context).
“FOR REA—AAAARRGH” Ryujii’s flinch was even harder, and unfortunately for him he hadn’t fully transitioned from stair to flat floor, and the sound of him inelegantly tumbling backwards down the stairs managed to pull everyone’s attention away from the nude girl for a moment.
“RYUJI!” Ren and Ann ran down after him. “You alright man?”
He was still conscious, and there was no obvious bleeding anywhere, but judging by the groaning and mumbled curses he was in a significant amount of pain.
“Is he okay?” The pair turn around to see the cause of Ryuji’s injury-causing outburst rushing down the stairs toward the fallen boy. “That fall looked nasty, I’m sorry, it’s kind of my fault he fell like that.”
Ren shook his head.
“Don’t be silly, it’s absolutely his own fault he overreacted and fell like that.”
“Yeah you’re right, I was just being nice. But still we should get him to the nurse’s office.”
“I’m sorry but…” Ann was rubbing her forehead in exasperation. “…aren’t we skipping over the obvious question here?”
Makoto glared at her, the intimidation factor greatly lessened by her face glowing bright read once again. Ryuji’s fall gave her a short moment to forget about her state, that moment had now passed before she could really appreciate it.
“I promise there’s a good expla… there’s an explanation for this, but can it wait until we get him to the nurse’s office? He’s obviously in pain, and frankly I’d like to get away from these crowds.”
She gestured towards the swarm of students curious enough to gawk at the scenario in front of them, but certainly not thoughtful enough to actually offer any help or express any real concern. Ann nodded, if she were in Makoto’s position she’d want to get out of sight as quickly as possible too.
“Ren, you take his left shoulder while I take his right, Niijima-senpai, you can just follow us for now.”
The sight of the school’s resident outcasts carrying one of their own down the stairs and through the halls would draw plenty of stares and whispers by itself, them being escorted by the naked president turned it into the biggest gossip magnet the school had even seen (y’know, minus the rapist PE teacher who outed himself a month or so ago after being targeted by magic thieves masquerading as highschoolers).
The Phantom Thieves didn’t have the best relationship with the student council president; ineffectual as she was, she had still been trying to find and expose them for a while now. They hurried more for her sake, feeling more pity for her than their friend who had essentially thrown himself down a flight of stairs because he saw a pair of breasts.
Doing what they could to ignore the comments and camera phones they quickly made their way to the nurse’s office, where Dr. Maruki was standing outside, lost in thought as he often was.
“Ah Amamiya-kun! Takamaki-san! Is that Sakamoto-kun? Is he alright? Oh you’re here too Niiji—”
Ren had no idea Maruki was capable of such a high-pitched squeal, you learn something new every day I suppose. The doctor quickly averted his eyes as he went even redder than Makoto. She was the first of the group to speak up.
“Don’t ask. Is the nurse inside?”
Maruki shook his head, still avoiding looking in her direction.
“Well could you go get them please? Sakamoto-kun fell down the stairs and we’re worried he might be injured.”
“I—ow… I’m fine. I didn’t fall that far.”
“Bitch you went upside-down two separate times during that fall!” Ann shouted, causing him to wince, she forgot she was still basically right next to his ear. Maruki only murmured to affirm he had heard Makoto’s request, and rushed off to fetch the nurse, taking care still to avoid looking at her as he left.
She sighed.
“Let’s get him inside, onto one of the beds, then I’ll explain why I look like this.”
~ ~ ~
The atmosphere in the nurse’s office was an uncomfortable mix of tense and awkward. Ryuji was laying down on one of the beds while the other phantom thieves were on the sofa opposite a still very-naked Makoto, sat where school counselling sessions would usually take place. No one seemed very eager to look at eachother, well that was a lie- all three of them were very eager to look at Makoto as much as they could, but they thought it more important to try to be respectful for now, only sneaking occasional glances.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to give you my shirt, Niijima-san?”
“N-no Amamiya-kun, it’s nice of you to offer but that won’t be necessary.”
Still not quite feeling up to asking the obvious question, and seeing as everyone else was stuck in the same awkward silence themselves, Ren looked around the room for something else to talk about, he got his wish when he spotted an unconscious girl in another bed further across the room.
“Anyone know who she is?”
Makoto looked over her shoulder at the girl. She recognised that fluffy brunette hair and lilac top that certainly didn’t adhere to the school’s ill-enforced dress code (though she was not in a position to criticize how anyone else was dressed, and was very aware of this fact).
“I can’t remember her name, but she was in my class. She took one look at me and fainted, nearly fell flat on her face, thankfully I was close enough to catch her, and a couple other girls offered to bring her here. Seems she’s still unconscious.”
Ren looked back over to his senpai, before he had time to think his eyes were shooting down her body. As soon as he caught himself he looked away again. He heard the voice of Arséne call out to him from within his heart.
“Thou cannot let thyself be defeated by something so base! Thou art a gentleman, a gentleman thief. I am thou, thou art I. Thou shalt overcome thy weakness, and conquer wandering eyes with the force of thine own unbreakable will!”
With renewed determination, Ren once again looked at Makoto. It took every once of willpower he had, but he managed to maintain eye contact.
‘Just focus on her eyes, she does have rather pretty eyes, so it shouldn’t be too hard. They’re a lovely shade of red, much darker than the pink of her nipp—STOP! Just look at her eyes, or like- her braid! It’s a pretty cute braid, she has nice hair in general, and I can see the carpet matches the dra—FUCKING GODDAMMIT!’
“I am disappointed in thou.”
‘Piss off Arséne.’
His internal conflict was brought to an abrupt end when he saw that she was staring back at him now.
‘Oh crap, she caught me staring, I mean… she’s naked so she can’t get too mad at me staring, right? Dammit she totally can, can’t she? I gotta just get this over with and ask her what’s up already.’
“So um… Niijima-san… why exactly are you naked? Are you okay?”
She sighed, reached into her bag and handed a piece of paper to the pair. Ren and Ann began reading through it. Ann looked up with disbelief clear on her face.
“For real?”
“Mm-hm.” Makoto nodded. “It’s an experimental thing Shujin is going to be trying out, it’s going to be voluntary, but I was asked to help ‘advertise’ it and hand those papers out.”
“What?!” there was now real disgust on her face. “They asked you to get naked just to advertise their ridiculous program that sounds like something from an AV? And you agreed to it?”
“Well, I’m the student council president, it makes sense that they’d need me to do something like this for the students.”
“What are you talking about? It doesn’t make any sense at all!”
More groaning coming from the bed.
“Dammit Ann do you have to shout? You’re hurting my head way more than the stairs ever could.”
“It’s not that bad Takamaki-san, the point is to promote a healthy body-image, it does make sense.”
“It doesn’t make sense! Why do you keep saying that?!”
Ren put his hand on Ann’s shoulder to calm her down. He then looked over towards the office entrance, then back to Makoto, leaning forward and speaking in a hushed tone.
“Niijima-senpai, are you being threatened?”
There was a pause. Makoto honestly didn’t know how to answer that question. Would it be inaccurate to say yes? Was this her own fault for agreeing so easily? Even if the answer was yes would it be a good idea to tell these people she barely knew, and had no shortage of negative baggage attached to them? They’d probably just end up causing more problems. The day was nearly over with, and while the countless images and footage of her meant the embarrassment was unlikely to end with today, she felt she was better off cutting her losses here.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m quite alright. I’ll admit I’m not comfortable, but this really hasn’t been as terrible as I would have thought it would.”
Ren’s concerned expression didn’t change.
“That’s not a ‘no’.”
“I’m fine Amamiya-kun. Thank you for your concern though, genuinely.”
“Maybe we could do—”
“NO! I said I’m fine, please don’t do anything that would cause me or the school trouble.”
“Hey we’re just offering to he—“ Ann was silenced by Ren once more
“Okay Niijima-san, if you’re truly sure you don’t want any help we won’t do anything.”
“I have no idea what you’re thinking going along with this—” Ryuji had finally joined the conversation, suppressing a wince as he sat up from the bed. “—but if anyone tries anything you let us know. There are always gonna be people like that out there, I’m definitely not letting anything like that happen again now that Kamoshida’s gone, not even if you’re… um… like that”
Part of Ren worried that Ryuji might have said too much, but decided not to dwell on it.
“What he said. We’ll stand by for now but we’re here for you if you need it.”
“Yeah, sorry for yelling, I mean- I still think this is totally insane and that you should stop like, right now. Just- say something if something looks like it’s gonna happen, okay?”
Makoto was rather taken aback. She was under the impression that these three hated her, or at least had a very low opinion of her after she forced them off of the roof, but here they were expressing genuine concern for her.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised, it shouldn’t be unusual to be concerned over someone letting themselves be this vulnerable’.
“Thank you, I won’t need your help but… I’m happy that it’s available to me.”
Ren nodded, he wasn’t satisfied, but this would have to do for now. The nurse had finally shown up, Maruki being notably absent. Having a surprising lack of a reaction to Makoto’s state of undress, the nurse got right to work examining Ryuji. Seeing an opportunity to leave (and be spared Ryuji’s complaints as he’s unnecessarily poked and prodded by a distressingly eager nurse) Makoto spoke up again.
“Lunch break is nearly over, I should probably be heading to class.”
Without waiting for a response she stood up and hastily made her way out of the room, breathing a sigh of relief after closing the door behind her, only to yelp in surprise when the transfer student stepped out with her.
“W-was there something else Amamiya-kun? I said I didn’t need any help.”
“I figured I could at least walk you to class, wouldn’t stop people looking but people are less likely to actually come up to you and harass you if the ‘terrifying criminal transfer student’ is with you.”
Makoto pondered.
“How do I know this isn’t just some excuse to get me alone or ogle me some more?”
Ren scratched the back of his head.
“I’m not going to do anything bad, but I think it’s healthy for you to be cautious with someone you don’t know that well. All I can do is give you my word.”
She avoided eye contact.
“Getting to look at you more is a bonus though, can’t deny that.”
It seems Makoto could still get even redder. He definitely liked her flustered blush more than the mortified blush she’s been wearing for most of the day. Somehow his (successful) attempt at making her slightly angry did actually help push away some of the embarrassment. She wasn’t sure whether that was a deliberate attempt to lighten the mood on his part or if he just did it by accident, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to give him the benefit of the doubt this time.
“I suppose there’s no harm in you walking with me at least.”
~ ~ ~
Ren was right, people didn’t stop looking just because he was walking with her. Though the looks were now divided between those who stared at Makoto with shock, amusement, and barely-concealed lust; and those who stared at her new escort with anger, contempt, and barely-concealed jealousy.
It would be an exaggeration to say she was used to walking around naked, but it certainly wasn’t as unpleasant as when she had first stepped out of the principal’s office this morning. She was still ready for this day to be over though. Eventually the pair arrived outside the classroom. Willing himself to maintain eye contact once again (and being marginally more successful this time) he politely said his goodbyes, and reminded her to come find them if she needed any help. She smiled and nodded before heading inside.
In reality, class wasn’t for at least another 10 minutes, she just wanted to be alone for a while. Before she had closed the door all the way she once again heard Ren’s voice from outside.
“You didn’t get a chance to speak earlier, what do you think is going on?”
“Meow”
“You think so too huh?”
“Meow”
“I’d be nice to do something, but we have to be careful about just causing more trouble for her.”
“Meow”
“No, I don’t think that at all.”
‘Is… is he talking to his cat?’ Makoto had heard rumors about the transfer student smuggling animals into school, as well as thinking they’re people, but she had dismissed these as she had many of the other out-there rumors she’d heard about him. Seems those ones might have been true. ‘I can’t decide whether this makes him creepy, or actually kind of cute.’
“Meow”
“You definitely wouldn’t be saying that if it was ‘Lady Ann’ walking around naked.”
“…Meow”
“HA! Liar”
“MEOW!”
“Whatever, just keep it in your pants.”
“Meow”
“Well maybe I should buy you some, I’m sure we could find some that fit you.”
‘Okay nevermind, it’s just creepy.’
~ ~ ~
(Phantom Thieves group chat)
Ann: I still don’t like this, not one bit
Ryuji: I mean yeah, she’s either crazy brave or just plain crazy
Ann: That’s not what I mean though
Ann: I mean it is, but not just that…
Yusuke: What are we talking about?
Yusuke: Madarame is still mostly unresponsive by the way
Ren: A girl at our school is running around naked
Yusuke: Come again?
Ren: I’m not kidding, she’s attending classes like that and everything. She’s clearly uncomfortable, but otherwise is just going about her day naked as if it were normal
Ryuji: It’s apparently part of this weird new program the school wants to try out?
Yusuke: I must witness this, I must speak to her. The juxtaposition of complete vulnerability with the mundane, how truly inspiring that she would go so far to create such a surreal yet striking image. I must attempt to recreate this is a painting, or perhaps a sculpture?
Ann: Man you really are a perv, just admit you want and excuse to see her naked!
Ren: Yusuke: How dare you! I’m only interested in its artistic value!
Yusuke: How dare you! I’m only interested in its artistic value!
Ren: Heh, called it.
Ryuji: Yeah I dunno how “artistic” I’d call it, it’s more like some porn scenario. I’ve seen a couple with set ups like this
Ann: RYUJI!
Ryuji: What? Are you really going to pretend to be shocked that I’ve watched porn?
Ren: He has a point
Ann: He doesn’t have to tell us though
Ann: Anyway what really bothers me is how everyone is reacting to it
Ann: I mean yeah they’re taking pics and making lewd comments and acting shocked- as you’d expect
Ann: But no one seems to be questioning it. I can believe some people’s thoughts wouldn’t go past “Ooo, naked girl!” but NO ONE’S?
Ren: Now that you mention it… I was only walking with her for a bit, people stared, a few pics were taken, but no one tried to stop us at any point
Ann: Exactly, realistically SOMEONE would say something, but she just shows them that paper with a bunch of shit written on it that is ‘questionable’ at best, and invariably they’re all like “Oh that makes sense” like what?
Ann: I could maybe believe Niijima-san just went crazy or really is just that much of a doormat to adults. Maybe. But for everyone to just accept it no problem? Something is up
Ryuji: Hey Ren, could you ask Morgana if he thinks it’s anything to do with the Metaverse? That’s all about changing cog missions or whatever
Ren: Cognitions*
Ryuji: Imma blame that one on autocorrect
Ann: Whatever
Ren: But yeah I had the same thought, and asked him about it earlier. He said mass changing of cognitions isn’t something he’s ever seen before, but it’s not impossible
Ann: So a solid “I dunno”
Ren: Pretty much
Ren: He says he’s sorry
Ren: For now we just have to keep our eyes and ears open. But not get carried away. While the metaverse certainly could be involved, I don’t want us to fall into the trap of jumping to conclusions and blaming it for everything.
Ryuji: What else could it be?
Ren: I don’t know, I’m just saying we have no way of knowing for sure at this point
Ann: Hey Yusuke seems quiet, is he still here?
…
Ryuji: Maybe he’s making his way to Shujin?
Ann: Doesn’t he have his own classes to attend?
Ren: I doubt that’d stop him
Ann: Ugh… if he asks me for help I’m gonna pretend I don’t know him
Ren: Probably for the best
Ann: I hope we figure out what’s causing this soon though, this is too surreal
~ ~ ~
A little over a month ago- in a deep, dark, unknown corner of Mementos- Yaldabaoth and Mara were out getting drinks.
“So get this Bro, I totally managed to kick that dickhead Igor out of the Velvet room and take his place!”
“Oh shit that’s wild Dude! But please don’t use that term, it’s offensive to my people”
“My bad Bro. Anyway he’s off trapped somewhere, I managed to split his attendant girl into two smaller girls and they think I’m him now”
“You’re such a legend Dude! I wish I could see the look on his face!”
“So anyway he’s talking about how great humans are and how we should stop trying to control them”
“LOL what a nerd!”
“I know right? He’s so lame. So I decided to start controlling them some more Bro.”
“Dude that’s awesome! How’d you do that?”
“Bro you’re not gonna believe it, but the humans give me the power themselves! All comes down in this fancy red tubes and pumps me full of power juice.”
“That’s kinda gay Dude.”
“You’re a dick, Bro.”
“You’re a cup, dude.”
“So anyway I got these Persona-users set up in this big game to show Igor what a nerd he is. He’s got some loser with glasses trying to change society, while I’ve got this loser with daddy-issues fucking shit up. It’s pretty funny Bro.”
“So they’re both losers, dude?”
“Yeah Bro. The whole game is bullshit, I win either way. I just want to rub it in Igor’s smug face. Plus the longer it goes on the more power juice I get and the more cognitions I can change.”
“So you can make people believe anything Dude?”
“Pretty much Bro.”
“Could you get people to walk around naked Dude?”
“Bro what the fuck?”
“I’m just asking Dude, I’m not saying actually do it, I mean- c’mon I’m obviously joking heh heh… although…”
“Well I guess I could do that Bro…”
“For real Dude? Do it”
“But you just said—”
“DO IT!”
“Bro…”
“C’mon, it’ll be funny dude.”
“Yeah alright, I’ll do it for you Bro.”
“LEGEND! You’re my bro, Dude.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re my dude, Bro.”
“I don’t get how it works though dude, wouldn’t people try to stop it?”
“I’ll come up with some bullshit reasoning Bro.”
“Would that work Dude?”
“That’s the beauty of changing cognitions Bro, I’ll MAKE it make sense to them.”
“I still don’t fully get it, but that sounds wild Dude, I can’t wait to see it.”
“I’m starting to like the idea myself Bro, it might actually be pretty funny.”
“Dude you pull this off and next night’s drinks are on me!”
“You got a deal Bro! Secret handshake to seal the deal!”
As for how a secret handshake between a big penis on a chariot and an oversized cup would work, you’ll have to use your imagination because this scene ends here.
Chapter’s over. Go home folks.
Notes:
I was on the fence about whether I even wanted to write this story or not, but when I came up with the idea for that last scene I didn't have a choice anymore, it's so dumb I HAD to write it, self-respect be damned!
Maybe I'll do another chapter some day? This was lighter on the actual "nude in school" moments than I originally intended so I may do more of that at a future date? I dunno
Chapter 2: Commute home
Summary:
Makoto is looking forward to putting this absurd day behind her, but fate isn't that kind
Notes:
So yeah I'm continuing this after all. The first chapter was just a lot of set up, hopefully this one is fun.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Another Math lesson with Ms. Usami, picking up where we left off yesterday we’re covering—who cares? Like who the hell actually cares at this point? I genuinely can’t bring myself to care. A- because I’ve already covered everything in my own studies, and plan to do so again multiple times. And B- because I’m still pretty preoccupied sitting here naked, in the middle of class, naked, surrounded by my peers, naked. I like to consider myself a good student but even I have trouble focusing in a situation like this.
Not that my classmates are faring much better, the room is split about 50:50 into people trying to pretend to pay to the class itself while not-so-subtly sneaking glances in my direction, and people not even bothering to pretend to look at anything besides my body. Thankfully the desk does a decent job of hiding at least some of my body… no who am I kidding, the chair does nothing to hide my butt, the desk itself is too low to cover my chest any, and even if I cross my legs my pubes are still visible.
If I had been told ahead of time that I’d have to attend school completely naked… well first of all I’d have asked if there was literally any way I could have avoided such a fate, but besides that I would have at least shaved, given everyone one less thing to gawk at. I still want to try and cover myself up, but there’s no way to do that without looking scared and weak, I’m basically asking to be bullied in that case. Though really there’s a decently sized demographic that would say I’m ‘asking for it’ period leaving myself exposed like this, and honestly? If I saw someone else doing this of their own free will, part of me would agree, I don’t like that side of myself, but come on.
No, I need to appear confident, I need to come across as powerful and dignified despite this setback, and to do that I need to stand tall, or in this case sit up straight, keep my eyes forward and focused on my work, ignoring the masses of eyeballs basically popping out of their sockets in my direction. Kobayakawa… that annoying potatoman, I’m not dumb- I can figure out this is just a distraction tactic, give people something to talk about besides the Kamoshida fiasco. He wanted to turn me into a spectacle and he succeeded, my dignity be damned. Not as if I have a choice in the matter…
No, that’s not helping things, I need to think positive… um… it’s nice and warm this time of year- that’s a nice low bar for positivity, the floors are still cold though, you’d think they’d still allow shoes or something but I guess he has a ‘all-or-nothing’ approach to this nudity thing. I’m half-expecting them to confiscate my headband any moment now. I’ve given out plenty of papers explaining my situation to students and faculty, and as much as I’d love to have someone else take some of the attention off of me, no one actually seems interested in volunteering for the program themselves, not that I blame them- I wouldn’t volunteer.
While I don’t think my reputation will ever recover- not that it was all that positive in the first place- but now the label of ‘nudist’ will likely replace ‘robot’, or maybe they’ll just stack on top of eachother. A naked robot woman, I’m sure there’s a Terminator joke in there somewhere, something to look forward to I guess… Still I just want this day to be over, put this whole nudity thing behind me, try to forget the fact that literally everyone in school knows exactly what my body looks like, and hope those pics online fade into obscurity… somehow… I mean, there’s plenty of naked girls on the internet right? There’s no reason my pics should gain that much more notoriety, right? Aside from being naked at one of the most topical schools in the country, but how much extra attention could that get? So long as neither me nor Sis sees them again I’ll be able to cope, probably… Oh God… I forgot about Sis, what the hell do I do if she sees those pics? I’d show her the document of course, would she just be like “That makes sense, just make sure it doesn’t impact your studies” and leave it at that? As if… she’d probably freak out, yell at me a bunch, and try to sue the school… which she could probably do, and win with ease. Though what would I do about graduation if that were to happen? That could seriously throw my life and career path into jeopardy. For now I’m just going to try not to think about it, hope she doesn’t find out, and if it does just cross that bridge when I come to it.
The lesson is nearly over, I somehow managed to space out throughout almost the entire thing. While not paying attention in class isn’t something I’d ever do under normal circumstances, these are not normal circumstances, and just a one off. This is the last lesson of the day, and while I’ll be staying after school a little while for some student council business, that can wait until after I head back to the principal and get my clothes back, he’ll have to conclude the experiment was a failure and we can all get on with our fully-clothed lives. Soon as the bell goes I’ll have to run out the door to escape another interrogation by my peers asking headache inducing questions about ‘how it feels to be naked in school’, embarrassing- that’s how it feels, big shocker. I’ll start discreetly packing away now so I’m ready, please lets just get this over with.
~ ~ ~
“I… I’m sorry… I don’t think I heard you right, could you repeat that?”
“I’m saying the program isn’t just a one day thing, the exact duration hasn’t been finalized, but it certainly can’t end this early.”
Makoto stared in disbelief at the principal.
“You mean… I have to stay like this?”
The principal nodded.
“Of course, we could hardly consider the past few hours enough to be a proper advertisement for the new program, your fellow students will need longer than that to make a proper decision for themselves. And besides- all we’ve done is have you attend your regular classes, we have yet to do a formal announcement before the school.”
This was going too fast for Makoto to properly process.
‘So, in addition to having to give a proper announcement- thus eliminating any doubt that literally every student in Shujin has seen me stark naked- I have to keep attending school naked for the foreseeable future? How long is that going to be? A week? A month? Until I graduate?’
Kobayakawa was either blissfully unaware of Makoto’s internal panicking, or simply chose to ignore it.
“Despite not recruiting anyone yet, I think you’ve done a wonderful job so far. The announcement should be no issue for you, you’ve never had issues with public speaking before.”
‘I was always clothed during those speeches, you may not see that as a big deal- but I do.’
Makoto had yet to vocalize any of her issues with what she was being asked to do, and couldn’t work up the courage to do so. Every time she was about to say something to object, fears about her future silenced her. Eventually she just hung her head and sighed.
“Very well sir. I should be getting home to prepare, I’ll still need my clothes for the commute.”
The principal was suddenly looking incredibly- or rather- worryingly proud of himself.
“Actually you won’t, the program can and will continue even off of school grounds.”
‘HORSESHIT!’ screamed Makoto on the inside.
“…Excuse me?” said Makoto on the outside.
“It’s a lifestyle program, based in school but extends to the rest of a student’s life. So long as you’re registered with the program you can be nude even in public spaces, thanks to words I had with the police force explaining the program to them, they won’t be giving you any trouble.”
In Makoto’s head:
‘Since when the hell can you do that? That can’t be true. Who the hell do you talk to to arrange something like that? And in the 3-4 hours since I agreed to this stupid program? Literally impossible and I just have to accept it? Go fuck yourself old man!’
Out-loud:
“I see… thank you sir…”
“No need to thank me, just keep up the good work. You’re dismissed and can head home at your own leisure.”
“Lucky me…” she mumbled as she left the room.
~ ~ ~
“Hey- Joker! Earth-to-Joker!”
Ren snapped out of his daze.
“Sorry Morgana, I’m having trouble focusing today.”
“Yeah I bet.”
Ren didn’t respond, letting Morgana climb back into his bag he got up from his desk and made his way out of class, paying no mind to the other students gawking at the weirdo talking to the cat that lives in this desk. Ren’s mind was on one thing- the naked student council president. His friends had seemed pretty hostile towards her in past interactions, he chose not to say much during these occasions, not knowing the full story and who was justified, wanting to understand her himself before making any judgements. He figured if anyone should understand the importance of not judging someone over what other people say- it’s him.
And while he’d like to say her personality was what was on his mind right now, it’d be a total lie, he was thinking about her body. All the tantalizing details of her body, which he got to see in all it’s glory today. The image of Makoto Niijima standing before him naked from head-to-toe will probably never leave his mind. He wasn’t proud of it, but he’d need to find a way to get away from Morgana’s watchful eye tonight for some alone time.
“Yo Joker, I understand why your mind might be elsewhere today, but at least try not to walk into a wall or another student or something”
“Yeah yeah…”
As he turned the corner he was once again met with the sight of the subject of today’s fantasies, leaning her forehead against the wall, a defeated look on her face.
“Niijima-senpai, are you okay?”
Immediately she snapped back to a more presentable posture, standing up straight and putting her ‘student council president’ face back on.
“Ah, Amamiya-kun, nothing to worry about, is there anything I can help you with?”
“No I’m fine, more-or-less. You just looked… distraught, not that I blame you. I would have thought they’d let you get dressed again by now.”
It was barely noticeable, but Makoto winced at that last statement.
“I’m… I’m not getting dressed again today.”
“Huh? They’re making you stay naked?”
Makoto forced a smile and nodded.
“But, how do you plan on getting home?”
She let out a humorless laugh.
“That’s a very good question Amamiya-kun… The school talked to the police at least, so I won’t get in trouble with them.”
“That’s fucking absurd though…”
Ren couldn’t wrap his head around it, the whole ‘naked in school’ thing didn’t seem possible to begin with, the whole thing ran on porn logic, he didn’t understand why everyone was just going along with it as if it made any sense at all. Why were he and the other thieves the only ones questioning anything?
“I suppose I’ll just have to take the train like normal.” Makoto spoke in monotone. “I’ve commuted that way over a thousand times, it’ll be the same as always.”
“You’re going to ride the Tokyo subway system bare-ass naked? Are you insane? I really don’t want to say you’re asking for trouble, but you really are!”
“Did you just come to yell at me or did you actually have something worthwhile to say?” She glared at him. Her glare was undeniably a powerful one, but if the nudity didn’t lessen its impact, the hints of tears forming in her eyes certainly did. Ren sighed.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t blame me for being worried. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“And why the hell would you care?”
“Don’t let her get to you Joker.” Morgana whispered from inside his bag. “It’s not you she’s angry at.”
Ren already knew this of course, his face still showed nothing but concern.
“I don’t like seeing bad things happen to people, I feel if I can do something to help then I should do so. Do I need more of a reason than that to care?”
Makoto averted her eyes and mumbled a half-hearted apology. Ren continued:
“Listen I know you said not to do anything drastic, and barring an emergency scenario me and my friends won’t cause trouble. But at least let us help you get through this… absurd trial. Let me escort you home, people will be less likely to try something if they see you with someone.”
Makoto took a step back defensively.
“I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how can I be sure you won’t try something yourself?”
“You can’t.” he said simply. “Frankly trusting a relative-stranger like me is risky itself, but it’s less risky than trying to brave the subway alone in your state. If it’d make you feel better I can ask Ann to escort you instead? Maybe another girl would make you feel more comfortable?”
Her stance softened.
“No, it’s fine, you’re fine. I don’t trust you enough to let you know where I live exactly, but I can let you ride the train with me at least.”
“Thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me? Surely it should be the other way around?”
“Thank you for trusting me I mean. Trust isn’t something I get a lot of nowadays.”
He smiled at her, and she gave her own weak one in response.
“Let’s get this over with…”
The two reluctantly headed towards the entrance, doing their best to ignore all the stares and whispers surrounding them as they made their way downstairs. As they approached the entrance they could hear arguing outside.
“But I simply must be allowed inside, this may be my only opportunity to capture such an incredible scene!”
Oh dear, Ren knew that voice.
“We can’t just let strange men onto school grounds, once again we are going to have to ask to you leave or we’ll be forced to call the police.”
“That is unacceptable, I am no mere ‘strange man’, I have a duty! A duty to capture the once in a lifetime image and bring it to life upon my canvas! The surreal pairing of the erotic and the mundane, the amazing bravery of a young woman exposing all so casually, to stand out among the uniform crowd as if nothing was amiss. To not bring this scene to life with paint would be an unforgivable crime!”
“Sir this is your last warning!”
The fighting came into view as the pair walked past the shoe lockers.
“Who is that? I think that’s the Kosei uniform. Why is he carrying an easel?” Makoto wondered aloud. Ren meanwhile pretended not to notice.
“Aha- Ren! Please, you must help me! Please help me reason with this person, they think me a mere intruder, when I am simply here to paint the young woman beside you—AH! We can do the painting here! Please everyone- remain perfectly still while I set up and complete the preliminary sketch!”
The teacher who had been holding Yusuke back turned to Ren.
“Do you know this man?”
Ren thought for a moment, looking at Yusuke, then Makoto, and finally back to the teacher.
“Never seen him before in my life.”
“BETRAYAL! He and I are allies in the neverending pursuit of inspiration!”
Ren grabbed Makoto by the wrist and pulled her along, ignoring the cries from Yusuke as he was dragged away in the opposite direction. Makoto wanted to question him, but a sudden breeze had frozen her in place. Ren looked back to see what was wrong, her eyes were wide, her body was shaking slightly. Immediately he started to panic, grabbing her shoulder trying to shake her out of her daze.
“Niijima-senpai! Are you okay?”
She slowly looked up at him, shock and disbelief clear as day on her face. She tried to say something but couldn’t. The sudden surge of sensations had completely overwhelmed her. The cool breeze against her entire body, the feel of the pavement beneath her feet, the ambient noise of the city around them, the warmth of the sunlight against her back, and indeed the feeling of Ren’s hands on her bare wrist and shoulder.
“Th… thi… i…”
“Makoto, look at me. Breathe with me” he made a show of taking deep breaths, in through the nose, holding, and out through the mouth. She started to copy him until she was able to form coherent thoughts again.
“This is… this is real…”
“Keep breathing Mako—I mean—Niijima-senpai. It’s real, but you’re okay, it’s going to be okay.”
She nodded, and kept up the breathing exercises until she stopped shaking.
“I’m… I’m fine, I’ll be okay.” Suddenly remembering his hands were on her, she pulled away from him, but not too far. “The reality of the situation suddenly hit me is all, we left so quickly and I…”
“It’s okay, I get it, this was a bad idea after all.” He started removing his shirt, before he felt her hands stopping him. He looked at her confused.
“It’s okay, I said I’m fine. It’s actually not as bad as I thought it’d be.”
Now he was more confused than ever.
“Huh? Are you sure? That can’t be right?”
She turned to face the sun, letting it warm her front. Another breeze blew around her body, causing her to shiver.
“These sensations…”
“Niijima-senpai?”
She shook her head, turning back around but avoiding eye contact. She took a step to rush past him, only to once again freeze in place for a moment.
‘How can this be so different than normal? Actually feeling everything I’m walking on, actually feeling the air around me, actually feeling the sunlight. It’s so… I never though these kinds of feelings could feel so…’
The sound of a camera shutter brought her out of her own head again. She turned to see a group of students, phones trained on her.
‘Oh right, this was the part that was bothering me. The actual sensations of nudity are… something fascinating, but this attention brings out a different feeling entirely, and not one I like…’
“Niijima-senpai.” She felt his hand on her shoulder again, she turned to look at him, his eyes were obscured by the sunlight shining off of his glasses, she couldn’t tell whether he was concerned or embarrassed himself, perhaps both? It was hard to say. “We should keep moving, we don’t want people to start crowding.”
Makoto nodded, and walked alongside him at a brisk pace towards the station. It did little to stop students and other passer-by’s staring and capturing yet more footage of what could only be called streaking, but it allowed them to at least try to force such things out of their minds for now.
~ ~ ~
The train to Shibuya had gone by quickly, that’s not to say it was easy, while the carriages were far less exposed than the open streets, having so many people in such close proximity to her brought with it new fears. She had encountered gropers in the past, her quick reflexes and Aikido training usually made short work of them. And while neither of those things were lessened by her being naked, she started to think it would be inevitable that she’d attract hordes of them in her state. She found herself suspicious of literally everyone on the carriage with her. She was really thankful her kouhai had offered to escort her after all, his close presence seemed to work as a deterrent.
Although, perhaps he was too close. His body was mere inches away from being pressed up against hers, and she could already feel his body heat on her skin. Feeling the- often unwanted- body heat of others was unfortunately the norm on these trains, but the feeling of it on her bare skin- not to mention the context of being the only one naked in a constantly shifting crowd made her knees feel weak.
Ren- to his credit- was making an active effort not to accidentally touch her, even to the point of pressing his back against the people behind him. And made sure not to look down at her. She had enough eyes on her without him ogling her- as much as he wanted to.
Having arrived in Shibuya, they had to make the transfer to another line to head towards Makoto’s home, but that meant walking across Shibuya square- if only briefly. Still, walking across the most crowded area of one of the most crowded cities on Earth seemed like quite the tall order for her literal first day of being seen naked by anyone who wasn’t a family member.
She no longer put up a fuss about Ren holding onto her hand, not wanting to risk her being dragged away by the crowds. He leaned over to her as they were standing at the precipice leading into the open air.
“Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be” is what she tried to say, but it instead just came out as a vague mumble and a weak nod.
Ren wasn’t happy about it, but not seeing a better option he went for the “rip off the band-aid” approach. Pulling her along through the shocked and increasingly noisy crowd. Nothing they were saying was important; exclamations of shock, excited laughter, the occasional rude insult, and the constant symphony of camera phones. All of it just melded together into an overwhelming, deafening white noise for Makoto. Her steps became more uneven, she had trouble walking in a straight line, she couldn’t even make out one person from the next. Had it not been for Ren’s guidance, she’d have likely just aimlessly stumbled around until she collapsed.
She heard Ren say something to her, but couldn’t make out what it was. They had reached the stairs leading to the underground, Ren took things very slowly to make sure she didn’t trip. He asked her something, she didn’t respond, he lightly tapped her on the cheek a few times, bringing her focus back just enough to answer his question, he was asking which line she had to take to get home, she mumbled the answer to which he nodded, then in the following blur, she suddenly found herself on another train.
~ ~ ~
It had been a nightmare, but Ren had managed to drag the barely cognizant Makoto onto the last train they needed to ride. By some miracle it wasn’t as crowded as the previous one, though seeing as Makoto needed to sit down, Ren brought out his best Ryuji impression to threaten someone into giving up their seat near the door, before letting her sit down in their place and standing in front of her to try and act like a barrier between her and the rest of Tokyo.
‘Man… the attention is about what I’d expect, but I still shocked no one has actually tried to stop us, there really might be something to that porn logic idea. I’ll bring it up again to Morgana and the others, this needs further research.’
He looked down at Makoto, she seemed to be calming down a bit, or at least she didn’t look like she was on the verge of passing out any second. He breathed a sigh of relief, though didn’t let his guard down, she wasn’t home yet. She looked back up at him, then quickly broke eye contact again.
‘Oh shit, I was staring again wasn’t I?’ he mentally berated himself. ‘Now is not the time to think perverted thoughts, it’s just the female body, it’s perfectly natural… really gorgeous—STOP! Am I really such a horndog that I’m getting turned on by her being exposed like this?’
The answer was of course- yes. And with that answer came a worrying realization.
‘Hang on, she’s at dick-height right now, which putting aside the immoral thoughts that prompts, that means if she looks forward right now she might see that I’m very much turned on right now, that’s not gonna to help her at all! Should I reach down and move it to a less offensive position? No she’ll see and that’ll look even worse. Maybe I should turn around? And show it to the rest of the carriage? Nah scratch that idea. Sideways maybe? No then the tent will be even more visible to her. I have to face her head on, but I’ll bend over a little to hide it, not too much, don’t want it to be obvious, just as if I’m slouching a bit- that’ll be fine.’
Taking a pose he thought seemed natural, hoping he didn’t look too weird sticking his butt out to the rest of the carriage. He shook away the thought, what mattered was what Makoto thought, not the rest of the commuters he’d likely never even meet again. He tried to stare straight ahead and space out, but his eyes started to wander downwards again. Makoto was rubbing her skin with her hands.
‘I can’t blame her for being nervous, there’s not really much I can say to help, I’ll just… wait…’
Her expression didn’t seem to be one of fear, not entirely anyway. The rubbing seemed to bring her… comfort?
‘I’m surprised if that’s working as well as it is, then that’s good.’
Her hand drifted down to her thigh. Ren tried to force the dirty thoughts this prompted out of his head.
‘I’m horrible, she’s clearly distressed and I’m thinking about her flicking the bean.’
His guilt turned to shock however, as her hand glided so lightly across her slit, causing her to shiver.
‘Oh god she’s—I gotta stop her, if someone sees that— how do I get her attention without attracting everyone elses?’
He tapped her foot with his, this seemed to be enough to bring her back to reality. She looked up at him, he was blushing almost as much as she was. Her hands shot to her knees as she looked down at the floor in shame.
“Sorry.” She mumbled, barely audible.
“It’s fine.” He replied, also barely audible.
They remained in that position in awkward silence for the rest of the train ride.
As they left Ren looked back at the seat to confirm a suspicion.
'Yup... there's a puddle... Best pretend I didn't see it, I'm sorry to whoever sits there next...'
~ ~ ~
“My home is just down the street here, I can go the rest of the way myself.”
“Are you sure?”
She still couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact with him, be she smiled regardless.
“I’m sure, thank you very much.” She began to walk away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Um yeah… see ya.”
She swore she heard him speaking again as she turned the corner, and some meowing in reply, but paid it no mind. She had a much bigger problem to worry about right now- Sae. As she approached her apartment building she also mentally prepared herself for the interrogation she’d inevitably receive. She hoped the document was clear most of it up, but had her doubts.
She took several deep breaths as she stood outside her front door.
‘Here goes nothing…’ she thought to herself as she pulled her key out of her bag.
~ ~ ~
“That makes sense, just make sure it doesn’t impact your studies.”
Sae calmly placed down the document Makoto handed her. As the younger sister stared at her.
‘I don’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed right now…’
“Are you sure Sis, you really don’t have any issues with it?”
“It is unusual, even I’ve not seen you naked since you were a child, but if the school approves and it’s not causing you any harm I don’t see a reason to object.” Sae’s expression suddenly sharpened, even Makoto hadn’t built up much a resistance to her sister’s glare. “However, if anything does happen to you as a result of this experiment or whatever, believe me I’ll make sure to shut that whole damn school down.”
Not knowing what to say to that, Makoto simply nodded.
“Sis, is it okay if I take a shower before I get started on dinner? It’s been a long day.”
“I can imagine, in fact we have some leftovers, I’ll just heat those up for us today, that okay?”
“Yes, thank you Sis.”
Makoto walked through the hall to their bathroom. Not having the undress and just being able to immediately walk in and start cleaning herself felt rather surreal to her, despite now mundane it actually was if she thought about it. There was really nothing stopping her from getting dressed again afterwards, but she felt no desire to. It’s not as if anyone would see her in her own home besides Sae anyway, and she’d just be in her room after dinner anyway. Actually being naked was more comfortable than she’d imagined, so not having to deal with eyes on her she could just enjoy it in peace for now.
‘Although… that time on the train, I almost started… right in front of Amamiya-kun too. What was that? Being seen by so many people was horrifying, it felt like I was going to die, and yet that feeling…’
Not liking where her thoughts were taking her, she decided to simply head to bed. Normally she’d stay up a little longer to study or discreetly watch a movie, but today she felt exhausted and simply wanted to curl up under her blanket and forget about everything.
Climbing into bed she suddenly found her sleepiness leaving her again, the sensation of her smooth sheets against her skin was something she wanted to savour. She kept changing position, pumping her legs as if pedalling a bicycle, enjoying the almost euphoric feeling of her cold sheets rubbing against her.
‘I think, even once I manage to get out of this nightmare, maybe some at-home nudism wouldn’t be that bad from time to time…’
Notes:
I'm still undecided on whether I want this story to have a plot or not, though given the way writing works for me, it's not like I have a choice, this'll continue to mutate into something I can't control.
Chapter 3 is likely a ways off though, this series will continue, but won't be updated as often as my other stories.
Chapter 3: Day 2
Summary:
Day 2 of Makoto's nudist escapades, and the day her status becomes formally known.
Notes:
I'm back, I was planning to do another story before this chapter, but I never stick to my plans. Hopefully you enjoy this
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I know you’re trying to do a nice thing and all, but I hope you’re keeping an eye on the time, you can’t afford to be late.”
“Morgana it’s fine, we won’t be late, we got up early specifically for this reason, we’ll head to school as soon as she gets here.”
Ren stood outside the station, exactly where he had parted ways with Makoto yesterday. Morgana-bag on one arm, blue towel under the other.
“Is this going to be a daily thing now? Because if you insist on us getting up to come here everyday I’m going to send you to bed even earlier.”
“What are you, my mother? It’s not that much earlier than usual, and someone should be there to help her get to and from school, y’know? Would you want to brave the Tokyo subway system in her state?”
The not-cat sighed and rested his head against the bag’s opening.
“I guess, though I’m not sure that works since I’m always naked too.”
“You’ve got fur.”
“Fur isn’t clothing Joker.”
“Tell that to Felicia.”
“Who?”
“It’s a videogame character, don’t worry about it.”
“Sure… though Joker?”
“Yeah?”
“How do we know she’s even coming?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… after what she went through yesterday, isn’t it possible she just decided to stay home? It’s one thing to be asked to strip while you’re already out, it’s another to wilfully leave your home in that state. Honestly it’s totally possible she’s either too scared or outright traumatized and just locked herself in her house.”
“…Shit, that is the realistic thing to happen isn’t it?”
Their worries were soon put to rest when Makoto Niijima walked around the corner and came into view. She was still as naked as she was yesterday, nervousness clear as day on her face; though said nervousness turned to surprise when she saw Ren waiting for her.
“Amamiya-kun? What are you doing here?”
Unfortunately Ren was too distracted to give a proper response immediately, though it wasn’t just a matter of ‘Wow, hot naked girl in public’, but a certain change the girl had made since yesterday.
“You shaved…” he said without thinking, as soon as he realized what he said he started apologizing profusely, even bowing his head as Morgana rolled his eyes from inside the bag. Makoto awkwardly tried to calm him down.
“It’s fine, I just figured if I’m going to be stuck like his for a while I should at least be hygienic. Besides, getting rid of my um… my pubes gives people one less thing to gawk at.”
“I’m pretty sure it just gives them more to gawk at.” Morgana mumbled, Ren jerking the bag to shut him up.
“Okay- Amamiya-kun…” Makoto held the bridge of her nose. “I’ve been meaning to ask, why do you carry your cat around in your school bag?”
“Because he doesn’t want to wear a leash.”
Makoto raised an eyebrow at the hissing sound.
“That’s not what I meant. Why do you bring him to school with you?”
“He makes good conversation.”
She thought it was such an obvious lie, but he seemed so genuine when he said it. She decided to just file it under ‘He’s a weirdo’ and move on for now.
“Whatever, so long as he doesn’t cause trouble.”
“He won’t, he’s a perfect gentleman.”
Something about the meow she heard almost sounded… proud?
“Anyway, back to my first question, what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to help you through your commute again.”
“Oh? You don’t have to do that.”
“I figured you’d appreciate the support; besides I’d just worry otherwise.”
She exhaled, she still couldn’t say she fully trusted him, but having him around would help keep overeager hands of the public at bay. She could just about handle being looked at, and while she was prepared to fight back if anything escalated further than that, she’d still rather avoid trouble altogether if at all possible.
“Very well, in that case I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, I had to stop by the convenience store on the way here. Let’s get going.”
She walked past him as he scrambled to follow after her. They were already drawing attention again, but she put it out of her mind as best as she could as she made her way to the train.
Thankfully her home station was never too crowded, so they were both able to find seats. Ren stopped her before she could sit down.
“What’s wrong?”
“I got you this towel, I thought maybe it’d be better if you sat on this when you took the train.”
“I see, that’s good thinking actually, should keep things more hygienic.”
“Uh yeah- that too.”
Morgana chuckled quietly.
“You’re worried about her ‘leaking’ on the seat again aren’t you?”
He was shut up when Ren jerked the bag again. Makoto gave him a worried look.
“I hope you’re not abusing that animal Amamiya-kun.”
“What? No no, he just said something rude, I didn’t hurt him or anything.”
“Didn’t hurt me? One of your loose pens hit me in the face!”
“Oh, sorry Morgana.”
Makoto sighed and thought to herself.
‘Typical, first friend I make and he’s a lunatic.’ Her own thoughts took a moment to sink in. ‘Wait, friend? Is he my friend? He’s going out of his way to help me and is being kind so maybe? Should I ask? What?-no of course not! That’s the fastest way to out myself as having no friends! I should just not think about it for now.’
“I’ll be sure to wash this and return it to you later.”
“No that’s for you to keep Niijima-senpai. It’s small enough to fit in your shoe locker—”
Any thoughts she might have said about that being handy were drowned out by the reminder that she wouldn’t be using the shoe lockers for anything else any time soon.
“—and you’ll need it each time you travel. In fact I’d recommend getting a few yourself so you can rotate them depending on how quick they get dirty… from the train seat I mean! Not um…”
“Thank you Amamiya-kun, I owe you one.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“Are you sure? You’re going out of your way to be helpful, this towel is a nice one too, you could have just bought a cheap one if you wanted to, I should do something in return.”
Ren fought really hard to keep any dirty or predatory thoughts from surfacing, and was… mostly successful.
“Getting to see you is reward enough.”
Makoto was taken off-guard, and looked away so he couldn’t see her face.
“You know that’s not nearly as charming as you probably want it to be, it just makes you sound pervy.”
Ren thought for a moment.
‘Shit she’s right.’
“Sorry Senpai.”
“It’s okay, I’ll consider the towel an apology gift and we’ll consider ourselves even.”
“Sure, that works…”
~ ~ ~
The first train ride had been relatively stress-free, plenty of staring and picture taking, but otherwise nothing of note. Makoto did a much better job of staying cognizant on her second time of rushing through Shibuya’s crowds towards the train that led to Shujin, though Ren still held her hand to stop her being lost in the crowd.
They still had to push their way onto the train, and while she miraculously avoided any groping so far, her bare skin had probably brushed against dozens of commuters already, including Ren, who did his best to keep her close enough to be safe but not too close as to accidentally become a molester himself.
They had just barely squeezed themselves on the train before the doors closed. There was no hope of finding a seat this time, they didn’t even have proper space to stand, being sandwiched between other commuters. In an attempt to keep her safe, Ren kept Makoto next to the door, using himself as a barrier between her and everyone else. However this had the effect of pushing them both against the door. Makoto’s breasts were flattened against the cold glass, giving those still on the platform quite the show. She was really starting to get tired of phone camera flashes, and being pinned against the door meant she couldn’t do anything to cover or reposition herself in a more dignified position, or even look away from the amused faces staring back at her.
‘Dammit did the train always take this long to start moving?’
The worst part however, a problem that persisted even after the train eventually did start moving, was the feeling of her impromptu-guardian pressed up against her from behind. Despite his best efforts, he could not give her the inch of space she desperately needed. She felt his entire body pressed into her back. His entire body.
‘Oh my god… that’s his…’
He muttered apology after apology, as he desperately tried to stop pressing his erection against her buttocks. Eventually realizing the movement was only making things worse and they both just decided to grit their teeth and bear it.
‘Just don’t think about it, think about literally anything else other than the fact that I’ve got a boy pinning me naked against the wall, it’s easy- not a big deal at all- I can just ignore it… speaking of big… actually I have no idea if he’s big or not, I’ve got nothing to compare him to, wait no I’m supposed to think about something else! Shit!’
The more she tried to think about something else the more focused on how the physical sensations she was feeling intensified.
‘He’s so warm, but the glass is so cool. His… that part is especially warm.’
Any time she would try to reposition herself, she’d hear Ren stifle a groan himself, given how the sensations were getting to her too, much longer and other passengers would start to think they were up to much more than just being naked.
A brief moment of respite came when the train pulled to a stop, it was brief though, once the door opened Makoto found herself nearly losing her balance and stumbling, putting herself on full display for the crowd that awaited them at the station. Sounds of shock spread among them as they took in the sight of the sweat-covered nudist standing in the doorway. She made the mistake of making eye contact with a few of them, some were just shocked, others disgusted, some amused, and a few not even trying to hide their lust. Thankfully her accidental display proved to be a blessing in disguise, since while passengers got off the train, a good number of those who were planning to get on were so fixated on Makoto that they forgot to actually board the train before it left. Giving the pair some much needed breathing room.
Getting a seat was still impossible, but they could now at least stand without dryhumping eachother. They avoided eye contact and remained silent for the rest of the journey, Makoto using the time to discreetly wipe what she really hoped was just sweat from her thighs with her towel.
~ ~ ~
The awkward silence remained as they left the station and headed towards school, which unfortunately meant they had to listen to the very unsubtle murmurings of other students.
“Holy shit she’s real, I thought you were making her up.”
“She’s the Shibuya streaker! The one who was trending yesterday.”
“She’s really committing to this thing huh?”
“Is that the transfer student with her? Is he making her do this?”
“Why’s he going red? Surely she’s the one who should be embarrassed, did something happen?”
“Oh my god do you think those two are doing an S&M thing?”
Ren wanted to correct them, but realized it’d be a futile effort, retaliating would only make things worse for both of them. Makoto did her best to tune them out, forcing herself to focus on the feeling of the air against her skin, an almost euphoric feeling compared to the sweaty sardine can that was the train ride over.
The two entered the school, as Ren changed his shoes he watched Makoto put the towel into her locker and pull some wet wipes out of her bag, using them to wipe excess dirt off of her feet. She caught him staring, before he made a frankly pitiful effort to make it look like he was focused on something else.
“Since I can’t switch shoes anymore, I need these to make sure I don’t drag dirt into the school or my apartment” She said as she tossed the used wipe into the nearest bin and began to head towards her class. She stopped briefly, but didn’t look back “thanks for escorting me to school, am I to assume we’ll meet up again once school ends?”
Ren fiddled with his bangs.
“I mean if you’re okay with that.”
“MEOW!” his bag shook.
“Yeah I know I’ll still have time for that afterwards, it won’t take that long to get her home.”
She left without saying anything else, leaving her new maybe-friend and his cat to their ‘conversation’. She made her way up the stairs, opting to move quickly as to not give too much of a show to the students following behind her. It was only day two, so she still had at least one camera phone on her at almost all times. One student, who Makoto recognized as the sole member of the school’s newspaper club, had clearly heard about her state yesterday, because today she came prepared with a DSLR and was not stealthy about using it. Makoto would have been worried about inevitable article giving her even more exposure, but it was a school newspaper, it’s actual active readership was likely only in the single digits, so she decided it wasn’t worth worrying about. She was probably already famous at this point anyway, that one student saying she was trending. Fame had never been something she craved, she hadn’t shied away from it of course- being student council president and younger sister to Sae Niijima had brought her attention in the past- but her nudity was not something she wanted to be known for. She sighed, it was a bit late to worry about that, even this one 24-hour period is going to follow her for a large portion of her life, might as well try to come to terms with it. Maybe if she actually does recruit others for the program there’ll be less attention on her, or at least people of the future will judge her as a trendsetter of sorts rather than just a crazy exhibitionist.
Her thoughts were cut short as she found the one person she really didn’t want to see waiting outside her classroom. He had already spotted her, so pretending she didn’t see him and just retreating to the council room wasn’t an option. She silently cursed herself and put her polite face on for the potato in front of her.
“Good morning Principal Kobayakawa.”
“Ah there you are! I was worried you wouldn’t show up again today, good to see I was worrying over nothing.”
She forced a polite smile.
“Anyway I should be getting to cla—”
“Actually there’s no need for that yet, we have to make preparations for the official announcement.”
There’s that feeling of dread again.
“The announcement?”
“Yes of course, we have to officially announce the program, you’re the spokesperson for the program and I’ve prepared a script for you to ready at a surprise assembly today.”
‘Right… I’d forgotten about that…’
“R-right! So that’s today is it?” she asked, really hoping she was wrong despite her question having already been answered.
“Yup, it’ll be very soon, just before lunch actually, but we should start making preparations now, come along to the gymnasium and we’ll go through the main talking points.”
As if on autopilot, she followed him back downstairs. Dreading the performance she was about to give.
~ ~ ~
The student body had gathered in the gym, a decent portion of them already had an idea of why this assembly was suddenly called, among them stood Ren and Ann, already cringing in anticipation of what they were about to see.
“I still can’t believe they’re actually doing this, this can’t be real right Ren?”
“Honestly I’m not even sure anymore, my sense of what’s real and fantasy has been completely thrown off the past couple months.”
“I know what you mean…”
“I just hope she can keep it together up there.”
“Yeah, I have my issues with her, but I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy y’know?”
They were far from the only students chatting amongst themselves, even as the Principal walked on stage the chatter barely died down, not that he noticed or cared. What did shut everyone up however was when the newly nudist student council president walked on stage and adjusted the mic to her height. Ren and Ann were impressed at how composed she seemed, they knew it was fake confidence, but it was convincing.
“Yes, as the Pot—I mean as the Principal just said Shujin is implementing a nudism program. As you can see students who volunteer to take part in the program will attend school and all related activities in their most natural state…”
About half the students were listening while staring at her, the other half were just staring at her, something she was painfully aware of. While the crowd at Shibuya was bigger, there was also comfort in that she was just passing through, and there were plenty of other things people could look at, so she could at least partially convince herself she wasn’t the centre of attention, and could let everyone fade into the background. Here however she was on stage, every single eye in the school was focused exclusively on her and there was no ignoring or escaping that.
She had gone past the point of feeling embarrassed or stage fright, this didn’t feel real, she felt as if she was in a dream. The part of her that dutifully read through the script provided to her seemed separate from her conscious self, which seemed to drift away as if leaving her body. Her legs felt weak, her head foggy, her arms numb, and her loins… strangely warm. She felt this way once before, yesterday- the first time streaking across Shibuya. She couldn’t think of words to describe the feeling, and was genuinely unsure whether she liked or hated it. Even the crowd before her began to blur into one shapeless entity; the microphone and even gymnasium itself became mere suggestions of their actual physical forms. Yet despite this, her autopilot got her through her speech. Normally giving speeches like this was commonplace for her, so she had formed an instinct of sorts to carry her through. Any minor slips or mistakes she did make went unnoticed, the focus was instead on her body. Her pert breasts with nipples standing at attention, the curve of her slim torso leading into very wide hips for a Japanese woman, her natural thigh-gap which inspired jealously in a sizable portion of the female audience, the fact that her vulva naturally parted slightly giving students in the front rows a slight peak at her insides. While the general jist of the speech was absorbed by enough students, the actual details largely went ignored.
“…and while they’re participating in the program, students get an immunity to any public decency or censorship laws. And of course there is still a zero-tolerance policy to any physical assault or harassment. Students affected are well within their rights to defend themselves, and perpetrators will be punished to the fullest extent of the law…”
Thankfully those last details did get through to the audience. Though being reminded that all the footage of herself would not only be widely available on the internet, but that it wouldn’t be at all censored didn’t make Makoto feel any better.
“…We hope that this new program will inspire a new age of body positivity, as well as the physical and mental health in our students. If anyone wishes to join the program, or just ask any questions, feel free to come to me or another member of the student council.”
“As if anyone would join this nonsense.” Ann muttered under her breath.
“There are other members in the student council?” a student to her left said. “Could have fooled me, we never see or hear from them.”
Not paying attention to the ramblings of the students- or much of anything else- Makoto continued.
“We hope this program helps show our school in a more positive- progressive light. Please use the hashtag #ShujinNudist when talking about the program and its participants on social media.”
‘Great, now I’m not only explicitly telling them to spread me further on the internet, I’m giving them a convenient hashtag for everyone to use. They even called it Shujin nudist rather than Shujin nudists, it’s as if they know I’m going to be the only person actually in the program.’
“Thank you all for your time today, I do hope you’ll consider taking part.”
Makoto wasn’t sure whether to take the applause as a positive or negative thing, the real purpose of the program was just to turn her into enough of a spectacle to stop people talking about Kamoshida, this was obvious to her, so she hardly saw its success as something to celebrate. She left the stage and joined her fellow students as the principal made some banal closing comments no one cared to listen to.
~ ~ ~
As soon as they were let go students began to swarm Makoto with questions, related to her ongoing nudity in school, as well as her status as the ‘Shibuya streaker’ on social media. Absolutely no interest shown in joining the program themselves of course, she knew that was too much to hope for. Amamiya, Sakamoto, and Takamaki managed to disrupt things enough for her to escape mid-way through the lunch break, desperately seeking some peace she made her way to the roof, bursting through the door in frustration…
“EEK!”
…And accidentally jump-scaring the girl who was already up there, tending to the flowers.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you like that, is it okay with you if I just sit up here for a while? I won’t interrupt what you’re doing.”
The girl nodded, but didn’t take her eyes off of Makoto. She watched at she sat down on one of the discarded chairs and slouched back, staring at the sky.
“Um… you’re Niijima-san right?”
Makoto wasn’t in the mood to chat, but felt it’d be rude to just remain silent.
“Yeah… the Shujin nudist in the flesh” she said in a humorless joke. “You’re in my class right? You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t believe we’ve actually talked before, what’s your name?”
“Haru Okumura.”
“Nice to meet you Okumura-san.”
“Haru is fine.” She smiled politely.
Silence fell over the pair again, something Makoto was thankful for, she stared at the sky and enjoyed the breeze and sunshine on her body. Despite everything she couldn’t deny how nice being naked actually felt when she wasn’t the centre of attention. Haru fidgeted nervously, trying to work up the courage to speak again.
“Um… Niijima-san?”
“Hm?”
“Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?”
“If you must.” She sighed
“Do you… enjoy been seen nude?”
A common question lately, she wanted to say ‘no’ each time, but didn’t because she couldn’t risk her fake confidence being shattered, because she couldn’t risk ruining the program and getting in trouble with the principal, and because on some deep level… maybe she did? She hated it of course, but she still didn’t understand that feeling from Shibuya and the assembly, it wasn’t a purely negative feeling, she didn’t know what it was. Rather than go through all that, she gave the same answer she did for every other person who asked that question.
“My nudity is a positive experience for myself, it’s not about what other people think.” It wasn’t untrue, it wasn’t the whole truth, it only brushed over the negative aspects, but it was generally enough to satisfy whoever asked.
“It does sound like you’re embarrassed by it.”
‘Well duh’ is what she wanted to say.
“I’ll admit all the attention can get rather overwhelming” is what she actually said.
Haru had her hands balled up into fists, her facial expression tightened, she seemed as if she was struggling to get the next question out. Eventually she forced it out.
“Do you end up getting wet?” almost a whisper, but enough to catch Makoto off-guard. She didn’t know Okumura very well, but from what she had seen of her in class she always came across as very quiet and reserved, she certainly didn’t seem like the type to ask a question like this. Makoto had gotten this question once or twice from some of the more vulgar first-years, from them it had been a clear attempt to just harass her to amuse themselves, but from Haru… she was actually hard to read right now.
“Excuse me?”
Haru went wide eyed and shook her hands.
“No no I mean… um… I was just thinking that um…”
She stumbled on her words and fell into a flustered mess, but Makoto just patiently waited for her to calm down.
“It’s just um… I wanted to know if you were doing it for a master perhaps?”
Okay that was really unexpected, and not a question she’d been asked so far.
“Um… no?”
A brief flash of excitement appeared in Haru’s eyes, before immediately disappearing in her bashful, flustered panic.
“I see… well… well um… did you want a master?”
Once again a feeling of dread crept over her, different to the feeling the principal inspired, Makoto started to feel like she might be in danger.
“What do you mean?”
Haru clutched her hands even tighter, her nails digging into her skin. Shutting her eyes tight as her whole body tensed, forcing out the words.
“I was thinking that if you were the type to enjoy humiliation I could maybe be your master if that’s okay with you!”
At this point Makoto was standing, planning out alternate escape routes as she inched closer to the door.
“Um… no thank you, I’m not interested in that kind of relationship right now…”
Swinging back from being hyper tensed up, Haru was now hyper flustered again.
“No I’m sorry it’s fine, it was wrong of me to ask, I just saw you on the internet being dragged around naked and I thought maybe you were into that sort of thing and I got excited! I’m so so SO sorry for misunderstanding.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine Haru… um Haru-chan.” Makoto kept her guard up, and was still inching towards the door with her hands in a ‘calm down’ gesture towards her classmate. “I guess it’s fine to ask, but I’m not interested, so how about we forget about the whole thing, okay?”
Haru’s reply was muffled by her hands covering her face, shaking her head furiously.
“Anyway I should get going- I’ll see you in class probably.” Makoto said weakly, still getting no coherent response, she hastily made her way back downstairs. Haru kept berating herself for a few minutes before calming down. She fell into an inelegant face-down lying position.
“I’m so stupid, I came on way too strong there.” She mumbled to herself. “I’ll have to get her another time…”
Rolling onto her back she pulled out her phone, and brought up the ‘Shibuya streaker’ video she had downloaded. A crooked smile formed on her face.
“Never in my wildest fantasies did I think you could get a girl to do that to herself, this is amazing…”
The announcement of the Shujin Nudist program was the most talked-about thing that day. The strange giggling heard from the rooftop was the second most talked-about thing.
Notes:
I remind you Haru is canonically a sadist, Shumako may be the dominant ship of this story, but Makoto is going to have to be careful around the fluffiest phantom thief too
Chapter 4: One week later
Summary:
One week later...
Notes:
Yeah this series has a plot now, I don't know how long for, I do want to get to the end of P5's main story but there will probably be some timeskips since not much will change outside of Makoto being naked. But anyway, please enjoy.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
About a week had passed since Makoto’s new nudist status had been formally announced and set in stone for the foreseeable future. All the details of her completely bare body had become common knowledge among the student body, and her rather sizable fanbase online following the ever-growing documentation of her naked life, both of which she tried her best to ignore as she went about her day-to-day business.
While her existence no longer dragged every class to a halt, and she was no longer being constantly bombarded with questions (most of the time at least), the looks of lust, shock, amusement, or all of the above hadn’t lessened by any noticeable amount; but at least now that fewer people were approaching her she could occasionally force herself to forget about her current state and pretend to live her normal life.
Actually, that was a lie, the repeated slapping sounds of her bare feet hitting the cold floor, the light breeze against every inch of her exposed skin, the unrestrained jiggle of her breasts and buttocks. These were constant reminders she couldn’t ignore. Though if she was honest with herself, she couldn’t say she hated these sensations, in fact the symphony of sensations she got from even simple acts such as walking from point A to point B helped bring her a feeling of freedom she had never experienced before, back in the days where she’d never be naked outside of washing herself. What was a problem was how this new feeling of freedom would inevitably be snuffed out when she remembered she wasn’t alone, and was in fact trapped in this state for the singular purpose of being made into a spectacle, a cheap distraction from the Kamoshida controversy.
A fair few people understood this. They immediately saw through the fact that this program existed just as a eye-catching show to try and make people forget. And yet while they didn’t forget, they mostly didn’t care to call attention to it, opting to instead just enjoy the naked girl the program brought them. If letting themselves be fooled meant they get to legally ogle a naked classmate and obtain as much uncensored footage of her as they liked, then they’d happily call themselves fools.
Even googling Shujin would return results of the program and the nudist council president, one would have to go to page 2 to even see Kamoshida’s name mentioned, which of course meant literally no one ever saw it.
Ren, Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana had just finished lunch together by the vending machines in the courtyard, the reputation of their two known delinquents being enough to keep away any would-be eavesdroppers or intruders. They were browsing their phones.
“Still nothing condemning the program.” Ann said, too disappointed to even try to sound angry about it. “All the articles are still either thinly-veiled ‘Check out the naked girl’ pieces or pretending to discuss its positive effects.”
Ryuji groaned in frustration, shoving his phone back into his own pocket and pacing back and forth.
“I know, it’s just getting more and more unreal. I can maybe get the students not wanting to say anything, but for actual media to not say anything and just sit back and enjoy the show? This has gotta count as some human rights violin-ships, right?”
“Violations Ryuji. How do you manage to even get that wrong?” Morgana muttered
“Can it Cat! I’m trying to be serious!”
Ren shook his head.
“I’m sorry Ryuji, we’ve already figured out that this whole thing just doesn’t feel like it should be real, but unfortunately news media not caring about human rights or well-being and instead just wanting a spectacle is the most realistic part of this whole mess.”
“Dude… that’s kinda depressing?”
Ren shrugged.
“Though you would think there’d be some honestly rather justified outrage about it on social media, some sort of call for justice or something y’know? That’s the part I don’t get, how everyone is just content to sit back and enjoy the show, or even ignore it entirely.”
“Okay this is all bullshit!” Ann stood up. “I know she said not to do anything but this is absurd, why don’t we just—” she suddenly realized she was probably being too loud, looked around, sat back down and spoke in a hushed tone. “—why can’t we just change principal Kobayakawa’s heart or something and get him to end this ridiculous program?”
“I actually thought about that, I tried putting his name into the nav but nothing came up.”
“Seriously? Surely this whole thing counts as some distorted desires or whatever.”
Ren shrugged again, Morgana responded to Ann instead.
“Palaces usually don’t influence thoughts in the real world like this, it’s the other way around. Either it’s a totally new type of palace I’ve not heard of before, or it’s something else entirely. Either way, the reason the principal’s name isn’t coming up is probably because he’s not the one behind it. I’ve spied on him a few times while Ren was hanging out with Ryuji, and he doesn’t seem like the type to have a strong enough will to have a palace, he talks to some people on his phone and he’s basically grovelling before them half the time. He’s definitely the type who got where he is through boot-licking. If someone really is creating this distortion, it’s not him.”
“Which unfortunately leaves us with pretty much nothing to go off of” Ren sighed. “Though I will say, she’s been taking it like a champ, the first day she looked like she was about to collapse any moment, and while it clearly still bothers her she’s been keeping everything together.”
“Credit where it’s due I guess…” Ann mused.
“We’ll just have to keep an ear out for any clues, and in the meantime make sure nothing happens to her.”
~ ~ ~
Makoto always took comfort in having a routine, being naked hadn’t actually impacted her routine as much as she thought it would; she still had to attend school as normal, her duties as student council president hadn’t changed, she still did the majority of the cooking and housework for Sae, and it turned out cutting the amount of household laundry in half didn’t actually save that much time when it’s a machine that washes the clothes. There were a few changes, most notable of which was she now commuted with a friend, or maybe he was just an acquaintance still? She still wasn’t sure, but she found herself enjoying his company, the simple act of being there helped her feel much safer on public transport, not to mention it gave her someone else to focus on rather than the literal thousands on eyes constantly on her. While at school it was the same wall of eyes staring each day, but with Tokyo being as expansive as it is, not to mention where all the tourists came, she could be certain a new group of people were seeing her naked every day, and even foreigners were becoming her ‘fans’.
Still, having Ren around helped her ignore that, he would make efforts to lighten the mood with awkward small talk and bad jokes, even if they were annoying at times, she welcomed them, and could clearly see the effort he was making. She had no idea how many of the rumors surrounding him were true, but she couldn’t bring herself to see him as a bad person when he was the only person outside of Sae willing to talk to her about something other than the fact she was naked- as if she somehow hadn’t noticed, and even Sae rarely spoke at all nowadays unless it was about her own work or Makoto’s school work. Having someone willing to listen to her troubles and actually seem to care was a new experience for her, at least since she and Sae lost their father.
Another new change to her routine was one that came only in the last couple days, what she was heading to do right now. Classes had ended, she had duties to attend to, but they could wait, she had a much more urgent problem. Looking around to make sure she wasn’t being followed, she made her way into the girl’s toilets, made absolutely sure no one else was inside, and locked herself into the stall furthest away from the door.
“Damn it, it’s getting harder every day now.”
She sat down and immediately plunged her fingers into her already wet pussy.
“I can’t believe it’s making me like this, there’s clearly something wrong with me…”
The feeling she first felt on her first day naked in Shibuya, then again when giving her speech in front of the whole school on the second day. Each day she spent naked, the more people would stare at her with lust and shock clear on their faces, the more the feeling would return to her. It took her a while to understand what the feeling was, and even longer to admit it to herself: she was getting turned on by being seen.
She didn’t think it was possible, when she first shed her clothes, she felt fearful and vulnerable, it took all of her willpower to fake enough confidence to survive. She still felt vulnerable, but she had come to understand the significance of “Fake it ‘til you make it”, as stepping out into the world completely uncovered no longer took nearly as much willpower. And as the fear started to fade, other- often conflicting- emotions took it’s place: frustration at being made a spectacle of, humiliation over having every little imperfection clear to see, pride at being able to command such attention wherever she went, and of course- arousal.
She still didn’t fully understand why, was it the humiliation that turned her on or was it the exhibitionistic pride? Both? Maybe just being nude made her more aware of her own sexuality and how others view her sexually? And that simply awakened a part of her she had repressed for many years? Maybe it was related to this feeling of something deep inside her heart trying to escape? All she knew for certain was that her body was crying out for her touch. The more people around her throughout the day the stronger the cry was. Holding herself back was swiftly becoming unbearable, even now all she was doing was furiously masturbating trying to get herself off as quickly as possible, not even trying to enjoy herself, just getting it over with so she can go back to being ‘normal’, or as normal as a lone nudist can be.
Even though pleasure wasn’t her goal, only release, the mind-blowing feeling shooting through her body like bolts of electricity began to overwhelm her guilt and disgust. She had slid down the toilet, her upper back resting on the seat, arching her back and curling her toes, trying to thrust her hips against her fingers even harder, her other hand circling her erect clit. Moans escaping her despite her best efforts to remain silent. Then, for a split-second, an image came to her, she felt as if she was once again in the middle of Shibuya, the image of the crowds staring directly at her and the sounds of their shocked outbursts. The sounds and sights of the sea of eyes and cameras wasn’t what “pushed her over the edge” so much as it was what “threw her flying off of the edge”. In what felt like a sudden explosion, she thrust her hips up once more- nearly falling off of the toilet in the process- releasing a squirting orgasm onto the door and floor in front of her, more powerful than anything she had experienced before. Her fingers still working furiously, spraying her ejaculate out in various directions, until she couldn’t keep it up anymore and fell back, heavy breathing and twitching being the only actions she had the energy to perform.
As her sober mind began to return to her, so did the guilt and disgust she had felt. She forced herself to sit up, she inspected the mess she had made in front of her, and the fluids still dripping off of her hands.
‘They’d think I was disgusting if they saw this…’ She shook her head. ‘No, there’s no point just feeling sorry for myself, I just have to keep this under control. Being the nudist girl is one thing, but I have to at least keep the sexual parts to myself, there’s no repairing my reputation if footage of something like that gets out.”
She took several deep breaths to calm herself and bring herself fully back to reality. She slapped her cheeks, feeling very foolish for doing so as soon as she felt the wetness on her face.
‘Note to self: next time clean up first- then motivate myself.’
~ ~ ~
Ren made his way up to the third floor, he was still committed to helping Makoto with her commute each day. He knew not to go up right at the end of the school day since she was usually busy with student council business or using the bathroom or something, but he had learned roughly how long he needed to wait before heading up, usually using the meantime to study or make plans in the PT group chat.
As he neared the top of the final flight of stairs he heard a slam and an audible cry of pain, he immediately rushed up the final few steps and turned the corner just in time to see Makoto flip a male student, throwing him onto his back. She had a furious look on her face. He ran over as quick as he could.
“Niijima-senpai! What happened?”
Her expression softened for just a moment when she saw him, before again scowling at the boy on the ground before her.
“Someone didn’t get the message during the assembly. He thought the fact that I’m naked meant he had the right to grope me!”
“That was barely a touch, let alone a grope you bitch!”
“Don’t give me that, if you had just brushed against me I could dismiss it as an accident, your hand clearly reached to grab my… to grab me!”
“If I were you dude…” Ren glared down at the boy. “…I’d be two things: one I’d be grateful she got to you before ‘the delinquent transfer student’ did. Two I’d stay the fuck down and hope an ass-kicking and a suspension would be all I walked away with.”
The boy didn’t say anything else, just grumbled. Makoto looked around, they had attracted quite the audience, or maybe it was just her usual audience, either way they had seen the whole thing and were either looking at the boy in distain or at her with a mixture of fear and awe. She made eye contact with Ren, who smirked at her.
“So is this the part where everyone starts clapping?”
“Ha ha very funny, now make yourself useful and help me bring him to the teacher’s office to explain what happened.”
Ren grinned and gave a mock salute.
“Right away Ma’am.”
~ ~ ~
The two were riding the train towards Makoto’s home, as they had already passed through the busy stations the carriage was mostly empty, a rare treat. The two were sat in a comfortable silence, a welcome break from the lewd comments and children yelling at their parents to look at the naked lady (as if they weren’t already).
Eventually though, Makoto broke the silence.
“Hey Ren, could you be honest with me?”
“Huh? Yeah of course, what’s up?”
Ren patiently remained silent as Makoto struggled with her thoughts.
“Is… is it bad that I really enjoyed beating that guy up?”
Ren stifled a laugh.
‘No- she’s being vulnerable, now’s not the time to laugh at her.’ He reprimanded himself before responding.
“In what sense?”
“Maybe not so much the violence itself, or maybe it was, just something about striking back like that gave me such a rush, even now I’m still a little excited by it.”
Ren hated himself for having dirty thoughts just from her saying the word ‘excited’.
“I think I understand the feeling, nothing really beats the feel of coming out victorious after an all-out attack.”
Makoto raised an eyebrow at him.
“Odd way to word it but I think I understand.”
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing you feeling that way, unless it’s awakened some kind of bloodlust within you?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, I don’t want to go out and start beating more guys up, just I dunno- I felt more… powerful. Everyone was still staring at me but it wasn’t just mockery this time, some of them looked at me almost… almost with reverence.”
Ren smiled.
“I think a few were looking at you that way before, but yeah I get ya.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“People were looking at me like that before? You’re kidding, right?”
“I mean, I’ll be honest it was a minority, but yeah there’s definitely a lot to admire, both in terms of your appearance and how you’re handling it all.”
Makoto looked away, hoping he somehow wouldn’t notice the slight blush starting to form.
“Okay now I know you’re full of crap. They’re just leering, there’s no admiration to be found.”
Ren gave her a sceptical look, but after a few moments it turned into one of understanding.
“I think I get it, people have been looking at you plenty, but you’ve not been looking at them.”
She gave him a confused look, but said nothing, he continued:
“It takes a frankly staggering amount of confidence to walk in public naked, I mean… duh, right? People really admire that confidence.”
“I… I guess… But…”
“I’d bet at least a few of them wished they were hardcore enough to do the same thing themselves.”
“I doubt that.”
“You’d be surprised. Everyone loves a confident hot girl.”
“I’m ho--?! I’m definitely no—”
“Don’t even try to say you’re not hot, I mean holy shit, have you ever like- I dunno- looked in a mirror? You’re slender, you have amazing curves, hips to die for, lovely breasts, beautif—”
Ren suddenly froze, Makoto was staring at him bright red and wide-eyed, it just hit him that he was saying all of that out loud.
‘Shit, I just made a whole bunch of comments on her body, that’s not good, is it? They were all compliments, but maybe it’s still inappropriate? What do I do? Either apologize or commit. Apologize or commit? Apologi—commit. COMMIT!’
“Beautiful legs, toned stomach, wonderful hair, striking eyes. I could probably go on, but the point is you’re super gorgeous and of course people are going to admire that.” He was almost as red as she was, but trying to stop and act like he didn’t say anything would have probably been even more awkward, so he had to continue. Two questions ran through his mind during this moment: “Did I do the right thing saying all that?” and “Exactly how far down her body can that blush spread?”
“I… I um…are you…. Well… uh…” Makoto was too flustered to even form words correctly. At least a minute or two of silence passed before she was able to speak properly. “Do you… do you really think all that?”
Ren couldn’t maintain eye contact any more, but he nodded.
“I see… I’m still not sure I believe you, I mean my breasts are so small compared to some of the other girls, if you look closely they’re not even the same size as eachother.”
‘I definitely have looked closely’ he thought to himself ‘but now’s not the time to mention that’.
“Size is far from the only thing people like boobs for, yours are really nice, even one being slightly larger is kinda cute honestly.”
‘Dude what the fuck- why am I saying this stuff? I mean it’s all true but you’re not supposed to make comments on female friend’s tits! It’s etiquette 101!’ he looked over at her again. ‘Oh thank god she isn’t mad, I don’t think so anyway? Dammit my rep is already in the shitter, if she tells people I’ve been making lewd comments to her it’s only going to get worse, I don’t need her hating me too!’
“Th- thank you…” she said, barely above a whisper, thankfully loud enough for him to hear though.
“It’s fine. Like I’m not gonna lie to you, a lot of people are just looking at you lustfully, and even a few are looking scornfully. I just wanted you to know that it’s not all negative, probably not even a majority negative. Naked girls make people happy, and a good portion of people are going to admire you for this, so maybe try to focus on them… or something… I dunno, I need to shut up.”
“No, it’s okay… you’ve given me something to think about.”
The rest of the trip was made in silence, aside from some awkward goodbyes when they parted ways at the station, and the sound of teasing meowing as Makoto walked out of earshot.
~ ~ ~
Makoto had just finished drying herself after her bath, and was about to head out to start preparing dinner before catching herself in the mirror. She looked up and down the body of the girl staring back at her for a while. She had obviously seen her reflection plenty of times, even since becoming a nudist, but she never took the time to really look at herself. She took the time to take in the image of her bare self. From her toes, up her legs, her hips which really were wider than she remembered, her stomach, her chest, and finally locked her red eyes with those in her reflection. A few moments passed.
“Huh…”
Makoto left the bathroom to prepare dinner.
Notes:
I can't help myself, of course any story I write about Makoto will become about Shumako eventually, I'm already leaning into it. But you can't have P5 without Shumako.
Chapter 5: Queen
Summary:
Oh yeah, Persona has a plot, doesn't it? Shit...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Even the following morning, Makoto was still thinking about what Ren had said to her. The two exchanged polite greetings, but otherwise remained in a slightly awkward silence. Awkward for Ren at least, Makoto was still pondering the idea of people actually admiring her for what she was doing, that her status as ‘the naked girl’ may not necessarily be something that’s purely derogatory.
As always she drew a lot of attention during her commute. Even though she did it daily, walking through the heart of Shibuya in her birthday suit was something she could never fully get used to, but it was a lot more manageable now. Though today she tried something she actively avoided on all other days, she tried looking at the faces of the people looking her way; not in Shibuya itself- she didn’t quite have the guts for that- but on the train. She wanted to see if there was any truth to Ren’s hypothesis.
And honestly- it was hard for her to get a read on anyone. Most of them looked away bashfully as soon as she looked at them, but even this gave her a new feeling, a feeling she couldn’t quite pin down. She was definitely having an effect on them, whether the effect was admiration, lust, or just plain embarrassment was hard to determine, but it was definitely something she would be hesitant to call ‘negative’. The feeling of being a spectacle, standing out in a bad way was still there, but on some level… on some level she felt powerful, the feeling of being able to shake people like this just because of her well-maintained body wasn’t something she could honestly say she disliked.
‘Maybe Amamiya-kun was onto something after all…’
Though perhaps ‘powerful’ wasn’t the right word, it was far from incorrect, but it was imprecise. For the first time in as long as she could remember she felt desirable. Granted, losing her father and having her sister drifting ever-away from her, the thirsty gazes from strangers wasn’t exactly the type of desire she craved most, but it was still something she might learn to enjoy.
Makoto looked to her side, Ren was on his phone not paying too much attention to her in this moment. She wanted to take the opportunity to test something. She looked across to the seats opposite her, and spotted a boy around their age trying to pretend he wasn’t staring at her (and doing a rather poor job of it at that). Like so many others he looked down at the ground guiltily when he saw her look at him. Keeping her expression neutral, she looked away- pretending to be looking at something out the window while keeping the boy in her peripheral vision. She pretended to adjust her position slightly to get more comfortable, and more importantly- letting her knees part enough to give the boy a better view without spreading too far as to make her intentions obvious. Ren briefly looked out the corner of his eye at her, attention drawn by the movement, but if he did notice her lightly less modest posture he didn’t say anything about it, and returned his attention to his phone. The boy however certainly noticed it, she could feel his gaze grow far more intense. Judging by him adjusting his own seating position, that wasn’t the only thing that grew. Makoto snapped her legs shut again at the thought.
“Are you okay?”
She didn’t look at Ren, lest he see the blush that was forming.
“Yeah, these seats aren’t that comfortable, even with the towel, I can’t help but fidget sometimes.”
“I see…” he could tell something else was going on, but figured this wasn’t the time or place to ask.
‘That was… the feeling again…’ She remembered this feeling from her first time through Shibuya, and the time she was on stage in Shujin. The feeling was much weaker this time, but it was definitely the same.
‘Do I… enjoy being looked at? That can’t be right, only perverts and degenerates like that kind of thing… and yet… this feeling in my…’ her thoughts were cut short by Ren touching her shoulder, sending a jolt through her body.
“Oh shit sorry Makoto, I didn’t mean to scare you like that, but our station is coming up.”
“R-right! I was just lost in thought, it’s fine.”
The two alighted the train and made their way to Shujin, Makoto decided these thoughts could wait until later, she can’t let herself be distracted too much this early on in the day, it would be a while before she got any privacy to relieve herself. She buried her doubts and forced herself into president mode, ready to face another school day.
~ ~ ~
“Thank you for coming Niijima-san”
“Is there something you need Principal?”
“Oh no, nothing in particular, I just wanted to ask how your investigation into the Phantom Thieves has been progressing?”
Makoto was slightly taken off guard by the question, she had almost completely forgotten she had been given this seemingly impossible task, a task she thought far better suited to the actual police rather than her exclusively.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any success to report. I haven’t been able to find any solid evidence that they really attend this academy, let alone who they might be. Not to mention I’ve been rather preoccupied with…” she gestures up and down her body and around her “…this program.”
The principal’s fake smile was unconvincing at the best of times, his frustration was very clear, his attempts at pretending to still be friendly did nothing to hide it.
“That is unfortunate, I really didn’t think something as minor as a change in your dress code would so negatively impact your competency.”
‘Bitch, what?! There are several things wrong with that sentence and that logic!’
“I’m sorry Principal-“ Makoto’s own fake-friendly face was also crumbling under the weight of her frustration. “-but I’m really not sure what you’re expecting of me. The Phantom thieves have no trail to follow beyond some calling cards which could very easily be the work of pranksters, other than that we have nothing to go on whatsoever.”
The potato-man sighed.
“You’re better than this Niijima-san.”
‘He’s not even trying to make that sound convincing.
“All I’m asking is that you thoroughly investigate the students for any suspicious behaviour.”
‘You’re asking for far more than that and you know it.’
“No one understands Shujin’s student body better than you.”
‘Not even close to true.’
“I hope that next meeting you’ll have better results to show me, otherwise we may have to reconsider your letter of recommendation.”
‘Asshole!’
“Very well Principal, I’ll do everything I can.”
“Be sure that you do, I’m sure you’ll do fine when you put your mind to it.”
God that smile made her physically sick. She didn’t want to be the type who judges or mocks people for their appearance, but christ she couldn’t stand being around this man. She was forever thankful that he didn’t seem to share any of the lust others seem to direct at her, the very thought made her shudder.
She left without another word.
‘Dammit what the hell am I supposed to do? I’m just supposed to find a few needles in a haystack with no support? I mean… there is one suspicious student, he showed up shortly before all this nonsense began, he’d be the obvious first target. But Amamiya-kun has so many ridiculous rumors surrounding him that any small kernel of truth gets completely buried. Not to mention he’s the only one who has shown any actual support for me in this stupid program.’
Makoto rubbed her temples, which did little to soothe the painful mess that was her head in this moment.
‘No, I have to think of the big picture, the only way I can be useful to Sis is to continue along this path of success into a top college, and whatever lies ahead of that. As friendly as Ren-kun has been, I can’t deny that if anyone in this school is a so-called Phantom thief, it’s him and his friends. I can’t give him a free pass, I have to investigate him, but how? How can I follow him around without him noticing me? Maybe if I carried around a magazine or a manga or something I could blend into the background? No wait- I’m still naked, unless nudity becomes the hot new trend among a bunch of other girls around us there’s no way I’d be able to blend in…’
She groaned in frustration at the only weakness in her otherwise flawless plan.
“Hey Makoto-senpai!”
On reflex she tried to strike at the person who had snuck up behind her, thankfully Ren’s own quick reflexes helped him dodge her swing.
“Oh god it’s just you, I’m so sorry!”
“Nah I’m okay, it’s my fault for sneaking up on you like that.” Despite saying otherwise, he looked quite shaken, having only narrowly avoided being backhanded in the face, he smiled nervously.
“No I really overreacted there, I guess I’m more on edge than I thought.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“Ugh, the principal has these completely unrealistic expectations of me, I’m supposed to tra—” Makoto caught herself, putting a rapid halt to her venting before she gave herself away. “I mean um… nevermind that, what are your plans for afterschool?”
‘Might as well try to extract some information while he’s here.’
“Oh? Why do you ask? Did you want to hang out or something?”
“H-HUH?!” She hadn’t considered how it might have been interpreted that way. “No I was just curious is all. I wasn’t like asking because I wanted to do something together or anything.”
“Oh…” she didn’t expect him to seem so disappointed by that. “I was probably just going to study or something, maybe catch up on some reading, nothing that interesting today.”
Her attention was caught by his specification of ‘today’. She wanted to probe further, but thought moving too quickly like that would be suspicious, she needed an excuse to sit him down for a longer period of time to really interrogate him proper. Suddenly an idea struck her.
“If you like, I could help you study?”
“Oh? Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to burden on you too much.”
“No it’s fine, consider it as me paying you back for helping me commute every day.”
Ren smiled at her.
“Sure, it’s a date then.”
“Good, I’ll see you aft—wait a second- date?!”
“Huh?”
“Does studying together count as a date?”
Ren stared blankly for a few moments, before a blush of his own spread across his face.
“I mean… I wasn’t thinking that literally when I said that, it doesn’t have to be that way though… I mean unless you want it to be, but like I said it doesn’t have to be anything you don’t want, and it’s not that I don’t want it to be, I’d like for it to—y’know what? I’mma shut up now.”
The two stood blushing together in awkward silence in the (thankfully) empty corridor. It was a good minute or so before either of them worked up the nerve to say anything else.
“W-well then, I’ll see you afterschool for our completely platonic and normal study session together Niijima-senpai.”
“Yes, though the session will be totally mundane and lacking in subtext or ulterior motives, it should be an enjoyable and productive experience for both of us.”
“Agreed, thank you once again for your kind offer in which I will in no way misinterpret.”
“Thank you for your understanding and agreement to this verbal contract. Your cooperation and support is appreciated as always.”
“Good god just fuck already you two!”
The pair went wide eyed at the new voice, turns out the corridor wasn’t as empty as they hoped. The voice seemed to come from a gyaru drinking a juice box while watching them. Neither knew how long she had been standing there.
“Like for real this was getting painful to listen to. How can a girl hardcore enough to walk around bare-ass naked not be able to ask someone out without fucking falling apart? Doesn’t make any damn sense.”
“I…” Makoto shook her head, forcing herself back into president mode. “I don’t recall asking for your opinion, and I’m not asking him out, I’m just helping the transfer student with his studies.”
“Yeah whatever Ms. Tsundere, I’ll check back once this romance gets juicier. Laterz”
And with what, the gyaru wandered off.
“Tsundere? She has some nerve.”
“She said you were hardcore though.” Ren said, trying to make the atmosphere more positive. Judging by Makoto’s face slowly shifting from frustration to one of contemplation, he was at least partially successful.
“She did, didn’t she?”
“Told you people admired you.”
Makoto turned away.
“Yes, I guess you did.” She began to walk off. “See you after school Ren-kun.”
“See ya Makoto.”
~ ~ ~
The actual study session had mostly been just that, a study session in the student council room, one of the few places they wouldn’t have voyeurs to interrupt them, or make Ren reluctant to speak, well- unless you counted the cat staring at the two of them from inside his bag. The cat almost seems distrustful of Makoto, but he was being quiet and well-behaved so she chose to just ignore him. Makoto was pleasantly surprised by how intelligent and knowledgeable he seemed to be; his note-taking left much to be desired and she still had much she could teach him, but she had to acknowledge him as a good student, regardless of what trouble he may or may not get up to.
“So what was that earlier? About the principal’s expectations or whatever?”
Right, she had set this up to interrogate him, but ended up just enjoying the feeling of having someone to study with, she would have forgotten completely had he not reminded her by asking her questions himself.
“Oh nothing to worry about, lots of things on my plate is all.”
“Such as?”
“Well one of the smaller issues where I don’t know what I’m supposed to do is… well… you know how I’ve been using wet wipes to clean my feet before entering the school?”
Ren raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah?”
“Well after I’m done with them I put them in the proper receptacle. The problem is apparently someone is fishing them back out again for… well frankly I don’t want to know why, I’ve just gotten students complaining about it but I’m not sure what I should do about it- if anything.” She froze a moment, Ren could see her tense up a little as she looked up at him. “It’s not you is it?”
“HUH? No of course not! I’m not the type to fish out fucking feet wipes or anything like that. Um- not that there’s anything wrong with your feet or anything, in fact I think they’re pretty and all but um--” he cringed the moment he realized what he said, Makoto herself was split between finding it amusing, and trying to decide how to take such a compliment- if it even was a compliment. “I… whatever- it’s not me doing that, okay?”
“Okay, no need to get so worked up, I was just checking.”
He looked embarrassed with himself, mumbled an apology and tried to return his focus to the papers in front of him. Seeing an opportunity (and wanting to change the subject) Makoto began her probing.
“You seem to get along quite well with Sakamoto-kun and Takamaki-san.”
“Mmhmm”
“You were all pretty negatively affected by Kamoshida, weren’t you”
Ren chuckled lightly.
“Wow we’re going right there are we? Yeah, among many others, yeah we could be considered his victims, though less so me- since I was so new I never saw the worst of it. Really compared to the others I never really went through anything- he just didn’t like me I guess.”
“Are you happy about what happened?”
“Could you be more specific?”
“About him confessing”
“I mean yeah… duh… aren’t you?”
“Of course, I’m always happy to see justice done, although the way it came about was rather strange. He just comes in one day and confesses out of nowhere, do you think the Phantom Thieves were really behind it?”
“I dunno, maybe? If they are then they have my gratitude, no one else seemed to care enough to do anything.”
This wasn’t going well, Ren remained calm and collected, and that last comment definitely made Makoto feel guilty, something her facial expression betrayed.
“Please don’t feel bad Makoto, even if you knew you wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.”
“I’m not sure about that, maybe I could have done something with my position, exposed his crimes somehow.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I seriously doubt the staff would let you do something like that. I don’t want to discredit all your hard work, but your position is one of borrowed power, at any point the school can overrule or otherwise veto anything you do or say in an official capacity, Kamoshida was too important to them, far more important than any student, even the student council president.”
He was really hitting her where it hurt, she understood that there was no hostility in his tone or intentions, but having her powerlessness just laid bare in front of her was truly painful.
“I’m sorry Makoto, I don’t mean to put you down. You’re a cool girl, I’ve only known you a short while but I can tell you that much, however the position of student council president really doesn’t mean anything in the real world, it’s not what makes you powerful.”
Despite wanting to tell him he was wrong, she couldn’t think of any way to argue against what he was saying. He was effortlessly deconstructing her, destroying her ego like he was brushing away a spiderweb, and yet telling her she was still ‘cool’ and ‘powerful’ anyway.
‘Wait… I’ve heard of this strategy, it’s a common form of psychological manipulation, to try and break me down and convince me he’s the only one I can really trust. It would fit the rumors of him being abusive… and yet… he really is the only one that has shown me any support, the only one who actually listens, so many of the other rumors are obviously false, could this be the same? I… I just don’t know…’
“I’m sorry Makoto-san, I just realized how mean I’m being right now.”
“No… it’s fine… but maybe we should call it a day…”
“Maybe that’s for the best.”
‘Well that was a colossal failure, maybe I really am useless’.
Ren and Makoto both packed away their materials in an uncomfortable silence. Even if she had just been criticized so heavily by him, she still wanted him around on her way home. Makoto prepared herself mentally for an awkward commute.
“Makoto-san?”
She didn’t respond, he continued anyway.
“I’m one of the ones who really admires you.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not lying. Sure, I don’t think you’re above criticism, and I can’t really approve of how you let the principal treat you, you can let yourself be pushed around by adults like that sometimes, but you’re still one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, not only taking this program like a champ but still doing stuff like standing up for yourself against that student yesterday. I just want you to remember it’s not your position on the council that makes you powerful.”
She hid her face from him.
“Thank you, but let’s just get home for now, okay?”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
~ ~ ~
Only a few days of investigation passed before Makoto got her lucky break. She and Ren were sat in the student council room opposite eachother, she placed her phone on the table and played an audio file, Ryuji Sakamoto’s voice came through clearly:
“If someone could help ‘em, we wouldn’t be doin’ stuff as the Phantom Thieves to start with!”
“So you think that’s true? We’ll be okay if we keep doing this… right?” Ann Takamaki’s voice replied.
Makoto affixed her best glare onto Ren.
“What could all this mean?”
She noticed that the cat hiding in his bag seemed more distressed than the boy himself, who appeared rather calm considering his circumstances, at least outwardly.
“Was it blackmail? Hypnosis? How do you corner someone into making them confess? Won’t you tell me how you did it?”
Ren leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a while, before letting out a heavy sigh.
“Do you really want the truth?”
Her glare narrowed.
“Of course I do.”
He nodded.
“Fine, the truth then.” He took a deep breath. “The Phantom Thieves use a magic phone app given to us by a man with a long nose from a prison in my dreams, that app lets us access an alternate dimension where we can dive into the psyches of those with distorted desires- I don’t know what exactly qualifies as ‘distorted’ or not, but criminals usually count. They enter their castle or museum or whatever their heart manifests as and fight their way through mythological figures to steal the physical manifestation of the targets desires, with their heart usually turning into a big monster or something. After all the fighting is done the Phantom Thieves escape with the desires- or treasure as we call it- and after a cooling down period the target comes forward and confesses all their crimes publicly.”
“…”
“…”
“Meow?”
“Are you seriously making fun of me right now Amamiya-kun?”
“I’ll admit I had fun watching your face while I was talking, but that was all still true.”
Makoto stood up and slammed both her hands onto the table. Unbeknownst to her, Morgana was chastising Ren for telling her all that so easily, while Ren chastised himself for staring at the way Makoto’s breasts shook when she stood up just now.
“I’m in no mood for jokes Ren! I’m not one to make idle threats! What do you think the police would do if they heard my recording?”
“That’d be very bad, they’d probably be even less likely to believe my story.”
Makoto took a moment to calm herself down and returned to her seat.
“If you confess the truth, I wouldn’t mind leaving this between the two of us. You’ll tell me, won’t you?”
“I already did, not sure what good the truth will do you though.”
“Take this seriously.”
“I am, my cat would be super mad with me if I didn’t.”
“MEOW! Meow…”
“Yeah I know, you know I know, but she doesn’t know, y’know? She thinks you’re a cat so I went with that as to not complicate things any more than we already have.”
“Meow…”
Before Makoto could ask any more questions to find out exactly what the fuck was wrong with the boy in front of her, his phone went off. He pulled it out, then looked over at her.
“Go ahead.”
He answered the phone, and immediately Ryuji’s unnecessarily loud voice came blaring out.
“Hey, where you at? Takin’ a leak? Let’s meet up at the usual spot to hold our Phantom Thieves meetin’!”
Makoto wanted to laugh for two reasons, firstly out of smug satisfaction at the absolutely flawless timing of something so incriminating, and secondly because of Ren’s look of disappointed- but still slightly amused- resignation. Ren spoke back into his phone.
“Hey Ryuji, is Ann there?”
Now that he was talking at a normal volume, Makoto couldn’t quite make out the other side of the conversation, she just heard some mumbling before Ren replied.
“Good, do you mind handing the phone over to her for just a second? I need to ask her something… okay thanks… Hi Ann! … Yeah I’m okay, I just needed to ask you a quick favor… uh-huh… don’t worry it’ll only take a second, what I need you to do is smack Ryuji in the back of the head as hard as you can.”
A cry of pain could be heard from the other side of the phone.
“Thanks Ann… Why? Oh yeah, I asked you to do that because thanks to his lack of volume control I’ll be bringing a friend to our meeting today… yeah… I don’t think so… nah it’ll be fine… because if it wasn’t fine we’d already be screwed… yeah she wouldn’t bother talking to us like this- let alone putting herself in a position where she’s alone with us at our mercy- if she didn’t want to negotiate, she’d have to be pretty dumb to do that if she genuinely thought we were bad guys…”
‘Crap’ a small amount of fear crept into Makoto, though she made sure not to show it. ‘I didn’t consider that side of it, I really am walking into a situation where I’d be alone with a bunch of criminals…’
“…Stop panicking Ann, we’ll handle it… huh? … yeah it is her, how’d you know? … What do you mean she’s my only other friend? I have other friends! … like um… uh… Sojiro DOES count! Right? … Whatever, see you at the meeting.”
Ren hung up and sighed again, before standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder, turning back to Makoto.
“You ready to go?”
“I uh… you seem remarkably calm about all this?”
“Would you prefer me to panic?”
“No but… well… it really feels like you’re not taking me seriously.”
“I’m deadly serious, which is precisely why I need to remain calm. If I panic, everyone panics. Here’s the way I see it: I figure that if you’re a reasonable person, you’ll give us a chance to plead our case, maybe prove ourselves, and I’m confident we could do that for you. If you weren’t a reasonable person, you’d have already turned us in for whatever meagre clout you’d get from the adults who put you up to this.”
“P-put me up to this? What do you—”
“I can put two and two together, this is that unreasonable expectations thing you were talking about. Between that and the nudism thing, it’s pretty clear you’re being used, and helping people who are misused or mistreated by adults is literally our whole shtick.”
“I see…” Makoto was unsure of how to take all this, on the one hand it feels like he can see right through her, to the point where she was feeling embarrassed for being so cocky earlier, on the other he didn’t seem angry or hostile like she expected, he was the exact opposite of hostile despite the fact that she was openly flaunting the ability to ruin his life and the lives of his friends. “You’re unbelievable….”
“Heh, I’ve been called worse. Are we going or not?”
One heavy sigh and slightly annoyed affirmation later, they headed towards the roof to meet the other thieves.
Ren did indeed harbor a healthy amount of fear going forward, wondering whether he could live up to his words just now. But something told him that it’d all be fine somehow; and despite part of him telling him he should feel otherwise, he just couldn’t see Makoto as an enemy.
~ ~ ~
Ren’s life had been pretty wild the past few months. He went to an alternate dimension, got superpowers, was imprisoned by an old man who looked like a tengu, reformed two high-profile abusers, befriended a sexy teenage nudist girl, and now owned a grappling hook. At least three of those were ‘dream come true’ material. But even now he still didn’t know what to make of it all, what conclusions he could draw. Although there was at least one thing he could say with certainty, the sight of Makoto Niijima blowing up at a purple mob boss, slamming her bare foot into the floor tiles hard enough to crack them, and exploding into a superhero riding a magical motorcycle is just about the hottest thing he had ever seen in his entire life.
He also noted this is the first time in nearly a month that he had seen her with clothes on, if leather that covered her arms and legs and a scarf counted as clothes. The image reminded him of those ‘reverse bunny suits’ Ryuji had shown him that one lunch break while Ann was preoccupied.
Of course even though the image of what just happened is going to live rent-free in his mind for many a night to come, they were still in danger. Ren’s mind was split into two trains of thought: firstly ‘We’re about to leap into combat with a new member, I need to remain calm and lead everyone well as always” and “Her posture on that bike gives me a really nice view of her anus and snatch.” He hated himself for the latter, and thankfully the former remained dominant so he could still fight in top form, and because everyone would be focused on the shadows, hopefully no one would notice he was erect right now.
~ ~ ~
Deep within the bowels of Mementos:
“DUDE!”
Yaldabaoth put down his beer… somehow.
“Mara- Bro! What’s up?”
“DUDE!”
“Yeah?”
“DUUDE!”
“Bro what?”
“DUDE!”
“…”
“DUDE!”
“For fuck sake Bro- WHAT?! Use your words.”
“Dude- the naked chick!”
“Yeah? What about her?”
“She got a persona Dude!”
“Yeah I saw that too Bro, I guess because she hangs out with that nerd so much.”
“Dude did you notice?”
“Notice what Bro?”
“About the form of her persona- eh?”
“…what about it?”
“It’s shape Dude!”
“It’s a bike Bro…”
“No Dude, it’s all cylindrical.”
“I mean… kinda?”
“Is big too.”
“Bro where is this going?”
“And Dude… heheh… it vibrates!”
“…”
“Get it Dude?”
“…”
“It’s kinda like a toy, y’know Dude?”
“…”
“Dude?”
“…”
“Dude, where you going?”
“…”
“Dude? No Dude you don’t get it- I’m saying the persona is like a big vibrator- Dude come back! A big ol’ vibrating dildo- DUDE!”
Notes:
"Hey Toxanne, you really skipped over a lot of stuff."
Yes, yes I did. I tried writing some of it but it was all just the same as the game, I was having no fun writing it, and if I'm not enjoying the story no one will, so I did away with it all and just focused on the stuff that's actually interesting. You didn't miss anything, if you've played the game you know what happened, just imagine that except Makoto is naked.
And we only got a brief glimpse of it here, but I'll expand on her metaverse nudism next chapter, this one was already getting rather long.Edit: Someone commissioned some art of Makoto in her PT gear as featured in this series, so check it out and support the original artist:
https://www.deviantart.com/durdevul/art/Nudist-Queen-997957036
I'll also be posting the same URL on the latest chapter (as of this edit), but that's a while from this point in the story, so check it out again when you get there xD
Chapter 6: The other nudist
Summary:
Returning to school after Makoto became a Phantom Thief
Notes:
Sorry this story updates so slow, between real life and my other series it tends to fall on the backburner a lot. But this is sorta-kinda the start of a new arc, so hopefully it'll be a fun sign of what's to come.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Uh… Makoto?”
“…”
“Makoto, why are you staring at me like that?”
She sighed and rubbed her forehead as she and Ren approached Shujin.
“I still cannot believe all that… that drivel about other worlds and magic phone apps was actually true…”
“I did say I was being serious.”
“Ugh… yes, yes you did…”
“He was a bit premature in sharing that information” said the voice from inside Ren’s bag, his talking cat being one of the things on the ever expanding list of impossibilities she now had to accept as fact. “Look Joker, just because it worked out in the end doesn’t mean that wasn’t an incredibly risky move for you to make.”
Ren shrugged.
“It just felt like the right thing to do, call it woman’s intuition.”
Makoto raised an eyebrow.
“You’re a boy though…”
“Don’t be sexist Makoto.
“That doesn’t make any—ugh! Whatever…”
The two (or three rather, Makoto did have to remember the cat who said he’s definitely not a cat definitely counted as a third wheel) continued walking down the roads leading to Shujin. Thankfully now that they had moved aware from the tourist-filled areas of Tokyo the vast majority of passers-by were now just fellow Shujin students, who had all (mostly) gotten used to the sight of Makoto’s body, so while there was still plenty of staring and the occasional picture, she could move around without fear of getting mobbed, and mostly put them out of her mind. That is until one student emerged from behind a vending machine.
“Um… excuse me? Niijima-san?”
“Y-you!”
Ren looked at the girl, then at Makoto.
“Do you know her?”
“OH!” The girl looked at him as if she just noticed he was there. “I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced. I’m Haru Okumura, a classmate of Niijima-san.”
“I see. Ren Amamiya.”
“Nice to meet you Amamiya-kun!” she turned back to Makoto, who was looking apprehensive. “I actually wanted to apologize to you.”
This took Makoto off guard.
“Oh? W-what for?”
“For that time on the roof.”
“Ah, n-no need to worry about that, I’m happy to forget it ever happened.”
Ren watched on confused but intrigued, he kept quiet, feeling like any questions he had would either be answered soon or could wait until after she left.
“I still feel the need to apologize, I was far too forward in offering to be your… um… your master when we barely knew eachother.”
Ren’s eyes went wide, that was not the direction he was expecting this to go in. He looked over to Makoto, who had gone bright red, looking around to make sure no one overheard her.
“I said it’s fine, could we please just move on?”
“Of course, it was a rather silly request for me to make, it should have been clear that you already had a very dedicated master.” Haru looked back at Ren and gave him an approving smile.
“HUH?! I’m not Mako—"
“My master? Okumura-san, you’ve really misunderstood the kind of relationship we ha—”
“It’s okay Niijima-san, I’m not judging, in fact I really admire you two. I could only dream about this kind of relationship, you’re a perfectly matched pair for a type of relationship many wouldn’t understand. I really want something like this myself someday!” Haru’s expression quickly turned somber. “If only it weren’t for…”
“NO NO NO!” Makoto interrupted, inadvertently drawing more attention to herself. “Nobody is my ma—”
She was cut off when an unmarked brown paper bag was forced into her hands.
“These are for you two.” Haru was bright red herself at this point. “I bought them in secret back when I thought… well, back when I was getting my hopes up. But rather than let them go to waste I’m sure the two of you can have fun with them instead.”
Before they could even think to look inside the bag Haru hastily said her goodbyes and ran away, she avoided any further eye contact, but Ren couldn’t help but notice the hints of tears forming in her eyes and she turned around, and before they could even exhale she was around the corner and out of sight, leaving the pair standing dumbfounded with a suspiciously plain paper bag.
“She’s um…” Makoto stared at the space Haru used to occupy. “…I don’t really know what term I can use to describe her.”
“I could think of a few…” Morgana mumbled.
“So what’s in the bag anyway?” Ren asked, eager to move on from the awkward moment they found themselves in.
Makoto slowly- almost fearfully- peeked inside the bag. A moment passed before she looked over at Ren with a look of disbelief.
“Well?”
She didn’t answer him, just handed him the bag. Curiosity outweighing his trepidation he opened the bag without hesitation, and had to stifle his laughter as he reached inside to pull out his contents.
“Don’t take them out! People could see!” Makoto hissed at him.
“Aw but they’d look adorable on you.” Ren said, barely keeping his composure as he held the cat-ear headband that matched her hair color, and a blue collar with “Mako-chan” lovingly embroidered into its side, complete with a little bell and leash attached.
Morgana poked his head out of the bag to take a look for himself, and tilted his head.
“Why does it have a leash if it’s cat-themed? Isn’t that more of a dog thing?”
“Is that really the only problem you have with this?” an exasperated Makoto was halfway between whispering and screaming. “Seriously Ren, put it away right now!”
“Okay okay.” Ren was still struggling to hold in his laughter as he put the items back in the paper bag, and the paper bag into his actual bag, Morgana shifting his position to accommodate.
Makoto finally breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that no one had seen the items, and did her best to look calm and natural ready to continue making her way to school.
“That girl… I mean she seems friendly and all but…”
“She really missed an opportunity actually.” Ren thought aloud.
“Oh? Dare I ask ‘how so’?”
Ren grinned at her.
“Putting ‘Mako-chan’ on it, she could have put ‘Nekoto Niijima’.”
Without another word Makoto accelerated her walking pace and left Ren behind, who mock shrugged to himself.
“Oi, tough crowd…”
“You’re an idiot sometimes Joker…”
~ ~ ~
“We’ll be meeting up with the others after school.”
“Sure, thanks Ren-kun, hopefully everything goes okay.”
“It should be fine, these things tend to go pretty quickly once we get into the palace, so long as we manage our stamina fine, I’ll be sure to empty out the vending machines so that we’re ready.”
“That… hardly seems healthy.”
“It probably isn’t, but um… it’s all metaverse stuff so it’ll be fine… probably.”
“’Probably’?”
“Probably.”
“I guess we’ll just have to work it all off afterwards, I can NOT afford to gain weight like this.”
Ren wisely chose to stay silent.
“Anyway we better get to class, I’ll see you later.”
“Later Makoto.”
As Makoto climbed the stairs, she noted that Ren made sure to let her go a few steps ahead of him.
‘He really thinks he’s being sly, doesn’t he? As if I don’t know exactly what he’s looking at.’
Morgana took a peek at Ren’s face, the light shining off of his glasses only partially hiding the intensity of his gaze. The not-cat sighed, shook his head, and retreated back into his bag, muttering about what is and isn’t ‘proper for a gentleman thief’.
‘You’d think he’d get tired of staring at me after all this time, but if anything he seems more interested now than he was before.’ Makoto couldn’t help but smirk. ‘I’ve really got him enthralled, haven’t I?’
As if shocked by her own thoughts, she suddenly got flustered and ran ahead as Ren continued to stare, determined to burn any minute movement of flesh into his mind’s eye permanently.
“Oh? Senpai- is that you?”
The voice calling out to him brought him back to reality, he turned to the new girl, hoping his face looked normal enough to not raise awkward questions.
“Yoshizawa-san? Yup, I’m still me- how have you been?”
“F-fine, more-or-less. I was actually wondering if you’d be free for some more training after school today? We haven’t trained together in a while.”
“Oh, I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting that, haven’t I? I’d love to but I’ve already got commitments today.”
Kasumi’s face dropped.
“Oh… I see… I suppose escorting that nudist everyday has been keeping you busy.” Her eyes went wide, her hands shot up and she shook her head in a panic. “Sorry- that came out sounding really bad, I didn’t mean it like that!”
Ren gave her a sympathetic smile.
“It’s okay, we all misspeak sometimes. I do help Makoto with her commute- wouldn’t want to let her go alone in that state- but that’s actually not too time-consuming, I’ve just got other commitments today. I promise we can do some training this weekend though.”
Kasumi gave a weak smile.
“Right… you’ve always been the helpful type, I guess she’s lucky to have someone like you around…” She stared at the ground for a while. “Do you… do you like naked girls Senpai?”
Ren stared at her, then off to the side. In his head he was side-eyeing an imaginary camera, but on the outside he just looked like a weirdo. Kasumi laughed awkwardly.
“Sorry, I guess that was a dumb question.”
“Anyway we both have classes to get to, I really am sorry for blowing you off today, but I promise we’ll catch up on our training as soon as we both have some free time.”
“Oh no- there’s no need to apologize Senpai, I can appreciate that you’re busy. I’ll see you later, give my regards to the nu—to um…”
“Makoto?”
“Yes- give my regards to Makoto-senpai, I have to respect what she’s doing.”
Something about the way she spoke said her heart wasn’t in it, but Ren didn’t have time to question it as she was already leaving, not that he would even know how to approach the subject. He decided to leave it for now and just head to class.
~ ~ ~
“A-are you really sure about this?”
“Yes, I’ve decided that I’m ready to join the program.”
Kobayakawa sat back in his chair, he honestly wasn’t expecting anyone else to register, Niijima had done the job of overshadowing the Kamoshida controversy in the eyes of the public, he didn’t necessarily need anyone else doing the same. That said, he saw no reason to say no, the girl before him already had some minor celebrity status, capitalising on that was an opportunity he wouldn’t turn down.
“Well I’d be happy to sign you up and you can enjoy your new status immediately, but it would look bad for both you and us if you were to quit again immediately, are you sure you’re ready for this?”
She took a deep, slow breath to calm her nerves, a look of proud determination on her face.
“Yes, I’m ready. I know I have what it takes, or my name isn’t Kasumi Yoshizawa!”
If one had the ability to dive deep into the hearts of others, connecting themselves with the metaverse, and hear the whispers of aspects of their self that have not yet made themselves manifest yet; one would be able to hear a weak, distant, but distinct “oof”.
~ ~ ~
At the end of the school day Ren and Makoto met up once more outside the student council room.
“Hey Makoto- it wasn’t too rough today I hope?”
“Ren-kun, no it’s fine, people stare as always but it honestly doesn’t bother me at this point. Though I hope for their sake their studies command their attention as much as I seem to.”
“I seriously doubt that- a naked girl never stops being interesting, studying was never interesting to begin with.”
Makoto glared at him.
“I certainly hope that doesn’t mean you’re falling behind on yours.”
“I’m top of my class, thank you very much.”
Makoto wasn’t sure whether to find his smugness annoying or reassuring, for now she would try to feel the latter.
“Anyway we’re going to meet up with the others now, right?”
Ren nodded.
“Yup, we’re gonna figure out the route through Grimace’s stupid bank today.”
“Grimace?”
“Y’know… ‘cuz he’s fat and purple?”
Makoto just stared blankly.
“I guess it was an outdated reference, they don’t even use those mascots anymore, and Big Bang Burger is way better anyway.”
Makoto stared a while longer before she decided she didn’t care.
“Let’s just go.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
As they descended the stairs they began to hear quite the commotion on the ground floor.
“Holy shit we got another one?”
“I never thought anyone else would actually sign up.”
“Dammit it’s a girl again. Why can’t it ever be a hot guy?”
“Not to mention it’s another honor student, is that a coincidence or is there some connection?”
“Oh god is there an ‘honor student casting couch’ thing?”
“God I hope not, but considering the whole Kamoshida thing, we can’t rule it out…”
And then finally a voice that Ren recognized.
“N-no it’s nothing like that, I signed up of my own free will. Now could you please give me a little space?”
“Seriously?” Ren ran ahead, jumping down the last flight of stairs, nearly killing the newspaper club girl who happened to run by at that moment. “Ah shit sorry, that was close.” He didn’t wait for her response, he turned down the hall and saw it. Yoshizawa-san was standing in the hall, completely naked, surrounded by her overly eager clothed classmates.
She spotted him and a look of relief appeared on her face.
“Ah Senpai! Um… help?”
Ren shoved his way through the crowd, most dispersing at the sight of the infamous transfer student on a mission, making his job much easier.
“Yoshizawa-san… you—huh?”
Kasumi scratched the side of her head, before forcing a smile.
“Surpriiiise~”
“Alright everyone, move along, you’ve all seen enough.” Makoto confidently made her way to the centre of the crowd, shooing them away, her nudity not impacting the sense of authority she exuded.
“But c’mon Prez, we weren’t doing anything bad, we were just asking her some questions.”
“I don’t see how a mob is necessary to do that, there’ll be plenty of time for questions later, and at a reasonable pace, give the girl some space.”
The crowd agreed and dispersed, some more reluctantly than others, and the majority took the time to get at least one picture of both nudists together before leaving, one of them looking far less comfortable than the other.
“So um… Kasumi?”
“Yes Senpai?”
“Quick question.”
“Hm?”
“What the fuck?”
“I second that question.” Added Makoto. “But also- you’re Kasumi Yoshizawa, the gymnast, right? You two know eachother?”
Kasumi started scanning Makoto- more specifically her body. While it wasn’t quite as toned as her own, she couldn’t help but focus on the stark difference between the size of their breasts, and even more notably her hips. She’d never really noticed before but Niijima-san had some really wide hips, making her look almost childish in comparison.
‘Does Senpai prefer…?’
“Yo, Earth to Yoshizawa-san, you okay?”
“H-huh? Yeah, sorry, I’m still getting used to all this…”
“Did you really sign up for the program?” Makoto asked
“Yes, I’m now Shujin’s second nudist.”
“But… why? I honestly can’t say I recommend it.” Makoto continued staring in disbelief, now that she was seeing it from the outside, it was suddenly hitting her how little sense this whole thing made. Doubts that she had buried pretty early on did start to re-emerge after she awakened Johanna, but it was only now where she started questioning everything again.
‘Why is she okay with this? Wh... why is everyone so okay with all of this? This kind of thing just doesn’t happen and yet…’
She shook her head, now wasn’t the time for such things, she could bring it up again later, right now she needed to make sure this new girl was okay.
“I just thought maybe, this would be good for me. My performances have stagnated a bit lately, so I thought maybe getting more confidence in my own body would help get me out of my rut.”
Growing up around her sister meant she inherited some of her skills, one such skill was the ability to tell when someone was lying, and Kasumi was definitely lying right now. Makoto walked over to the younger girl, standing inches away from her. Kasumi was initially taken aback and flustered, Makoto’s breasts were so close to her face. She froze even harder when Makoto leaned in close to her ear and whispered so just she and Ren could hear.
“Is the principal making you do this?”
“W-what? No I signed up of my own free will, there was no coercion to speak of.”
“Hmm…” Makoto pondered. That part wasn’t a lie at least, but now she didn’t know what to make of the girl.
“Wait, do you have a plan of how to get home Yoshizawa?” Ren asked. Makoto shared his concern, even she nearly fell apart her first time naked in public, she would have been in serious trouble if it wasn’t for Ren being with her. Kasumi was putting on a brave face, but she could tell she wasn’t ready for something so intense.
“I… I don’t, but I’m used to crowds, and being the centre of attention, I should be fine.”
‘Bullshit.’ Makoto thought. ‘There’s a big difference between putting on a performance in a venue and being stark naked in the middle of the street.’
“I can’t let you go alone, I’ll help you get home safe at least.”
“Really Senpai?!”
There was something about the way Kasumi smiled, as if she was hoping for this from the start. Though Makoto realized it was still the right thing to do, they couldn’t let her go alone.
“Yeah, adding one more person to our commute shouldn’t add too much time.”
“Oh…” Kasumi’s face dropped. “You mean all three of us?”
“Uh yeah.” Ren raised an eyebrow. “I can’t leave Makoto alone either.”
A small part of Makoto was offended, thinking she could handle herself, but she realized that was irrational of her, she definitely needed his help in the past, and though she probably could handle herself now, she had really come to enjoy their routine and his presence. She smiled. Then a realization hit her.
“Wait, Ren, what about…”
Ren caught onto what she was talking about.
“Oh damn, you’re right.”
Kasumi looked between them, confused. Ren turned to face her.
“It’s okay, I still have those commitments to keep, but helping you home is more important, I’ll just have to text to say we’ll be late.”
“Perhaps I could help?”
The three turned towards their new guest. Makoto felt mildly fearful when she saw Haru Okumura smiling at them.
“I’m sure I could help Kasumi-chan get home.”
Makoto felt like she should say something.
“Um… are you sure?”
Haru smiled at her.
“It’s fine, I could make a deal with my driver, that way she wouldn’t even have to deal with public transport. And since it’s only another girl I shouldn’t raise any suspicion. Oh- where are my manners? I’m Haru Okumura, an acquaintance of Amamiya-kun and Niijima-san’s”
“Suspicion? Acquaintance?” Kasumi asked.
“Just family stuff, don’t worry about it. I promise you’ll be fine, and it’ll be a great chance for us to talk!”
Kasumi looked to Ren for guidance, but he seemed pretty unsure himself.
“Are you sure it’ll be fine?”
“Haru-san.” Makoto spoke in a controlled tone, friendly but cautious, Haru just smiled at her.
“I already know what you’re going to ask Niijima-san, and I understand your trepidation, but you have my word I won’t try or say anything untoward. I’m just going to help her get home, and honestly… I would just like for us to be friends.”
Makoto had mixed feelings, on the one hand the bad first impression and questionable gift gave Okumura-san a bad image in her mind, but she seemed so genuine right now, like she really was just trying to help. She could sense an asterisk attached when she said ‘friends’ but couldn’t think of any concrete reason to distrust her right now. She looked at Ren, who was similarly unsure of what to make of it, then at Kasumi.
“Well, it’s up to you. Me and Ren can help you still if you need it, but avoiding public transport would be a good idea, especially this early on.”
Kasumi pondered for a while, playing third wheel was definitely not something she wanted to do, she would have to get Ren alone some other time. She decided to just take her chances with the third-year girl, she seemed friendly enough.
“If it’s not too much trouble Okumura-senpai.”
“Please, call me Haru.”
“Sure, Haru-senpai.”
Haru smiled.
“I’ve never ridden home with someone before, and she’s…” She snapped back, as if suddenly remembering she wasn’t alone. “Well, should we head out?”
Kasumi sighed.
“Yeah, let’s just go.”
“Wait!” Makoto stopped her. “Let’s exchange contact information, us nudists have to support eachother, right?”
“Yeah, okay.” Kasumi didn’t seem enthusiastic
“Ren, you should give her yours as well.”
“She already has mine.”
“Oh?”
“She’s been helping me train.”
“Right, I see…”
“And we’ll have to get back to training soon.” Kasumi added, speaking with much more authority than she had exhibited prior.
“Right, I did promise after all.” Ren smiled, which made Kasumi smile back. “Anyway we really need to go, call us if you need anything Yoshizawa-san.”
“I will Senpai.”
The two pairs split up and went their separate ways. Haru put a comforting hand on Kasumi’s shoulder.
“No need to be nervous, I realize I’m still a relative stranger, but I’ll get you home in no time—to your home I mean, nothing like… I mean…”
“It’s okay Haru-senpai, I understand. So um… how do you know Amamiya-senpai anyway?”
Meanwhile Ren and Makoto began their journey to the Phantom Thief meet-up spot. When he got a moment he whispered to Morgana in his bag.
“Hey… Morgana?”
“No need to worry Joker, I feel like this Haru girl is trustworthy, and my gut feelings are usually right.”
“I mean, that’s good, but I had another question.”
“Oh?”
“Am I in a love triangle right now?”
Morgana scoffed.
“I think that’s just wishful thinking on your part, always thinking naked girls are into you.”
“Hmm… yeah you’re probably right.”
Notes:
This might be the only fic to ever pair Haru with Sumire, I mean I usually ship Haru with Ryuji, but things have definitely been mixed up here. How far I'll take the pairing I haven't fully decided yet, but rest assured there are still surprises to come.
Chapter 7: Bank
Summary:
The PTs get ready to re-enter Kaneshiro's palace, and Kasumi's ride home.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“I know this isn’t the first time we’ve brought this up but… are you sure this public walkway is the best meet-up point?”
“I get what you mean Ann, but it works- hiding in plain sight and whatever.”
“Maybe normally, no one is going to pay attention to a group of teenagers just hanging out and chatting but…” Ann looked over to their newest member, who was apologetically smiling back at her. “Makoto doesn’t… can’t really do the whole ‘blending in’ thing.”
Ann was right, almost every passerby stopped at least briefly to gawk at or take pictures of the girl who seemed to be casually hanging out with her friends in public completely bare from head to toe. The girl herself doing her best to ignore the attention.
“I’m sorry guys, I didn’t mean to make things harder on you. Especially when I’m the one who kicked you off of the roof in the first place.”
Ann shook her head, suddenly looking rather guilty herself.
“Oh no no- I wasn’t blaming you, you can’t exactly help drawing attention, I’m just saying we should probably try to get an actual hideout, one where there aren’t constant cameras on us.”
“Ann does raise a fair point.” Ren added. “We’ll definitely think of somewhere new for our next meeting, somewhere more private. For now we’ll just worry about the infiltration, we’ll head out as soon as uh… as soon as Yusuke is finished…”
The group looked over to their friend, standing on the opposite side of the walkway, frantically sketching Makoto and the scene around her, eyes capturing every detail like his life depended on it, seemingly forgetting about everything else in the world around him.
“Uhh- Yusuke? You gonna be long, man?”
“Do not distract me Ryuji, I have a duty as an artist to capture this beautiful and surreal scene!”
Ryuji looked around at the crowd, and the at all the phones appearing and disappearing as people passed on by.
“I think plenty of people are capturing the scene just fine…”
Yusuke scoffed, Ren couldn’t help but snicker at the look of legitimate disgust on his face.
“I doubt a single one of these ‘photographers’- if we could even call them that- are giving ANY thought to composition, cinematography, or even lighting when they take their pitiful snaps. Much less giving any thought to capturing the emotions felt by either the subject or the masses around her. It falls to me to show the true beauty of this amazing scene, the veritable goddess standing proudly exposed among the clothed populace, simultaneously exuding both vulnerability and power! To portray these feelings in painted form shall be my greatest challenge yet- one I gladly accept!”
“Goddess? Okay you’re being a little extreme there Yusuke.” Makoto chuckled, but also blushed.
“First ‘Queen’, now ‘Goddess’?” Morgana muttered. “Seems everyone’s becoming a simp for her.”
“You’re the LAST person I want to hear that kind of accusation from!” said Ryuji, ignoring the few people briefly shooting him weird looks for seemingly berating his friend’s cat.
“Hmph! I have no idea what you’re talking about Skull.”
“Oh really now? I’m sure ‘Lady Ann’ might have an idea though.”
“Do you two mind not fighting over something so dumb while we’re in public? You’re making a scene.”
“Ha! Get owned cat”
“Why you- you bonehead!”
“Enough! Behave yourselves!”
“Yes MOOOOOM.”
“’Don’t make a scene’, says the girl naked in public.” Ann mumbled, almost immediately realizing she might have been rather insensitive again. “Um… sorry… but seriously why are you just going along with this ridiculous program? It must be awful for you…”
Makoto rested against the handrail for a while in silent thought, looking down at her own body.
“It really was at first… honestly in hindsight I don’t know what came over me when I agreed to it. Even as it was being explained to me I could see what a terrible idea it was, but then suddenly something in my mind just told me it all made sense and I just immediately stop putting up a fight.”
“Makoto…”
“Even then I was fully aware this whole thing was just a cheap distraction tactic, a way to pull attention away from the school’s mishandling of Kamoshida, but it really felt like I didn’t have a say in it at all.”
“That’s just… why can’t you just tell those assholes ‘no’?”
“Don’t shout Ann, we’re still in public.”
“But Ren—”
“I know, and I agree with you, I’m just reminding you that even if they’re not listening to us, people are still looking, we can’t cause too much of a fuss right now.”
“Ugh…” Ann was more frustrated than anyone, but she did her best to bottle up her disgust for now.
“At first it was because the principal was threatening to take away my letter of recommendation, and telling me how my refusal to cooperate would make life harder for my sister, Sae; the same threats they used to get me to research you guys. In hindsight those where pretty weak points of blackmail, a letter of recommendation is helpful for sure, but hardly a necessity, and thinking rationally I don’t see how the student council president being unable to do the work of the police could really impact my sister at all.”
“Exactly!” Ann raised her voice again, before catching herself and keeping quiet again, hoping the public didn’t think anything of it. “So why don’t you just stop this? They have nothing on you so you can just go back to normal, right? Why don’t you?”
Ren watched Makoto’s face closely, but he found her hard to read. She clearly had mixed feelings and was struggling to make sense of them- let alone vocalize and explain them to the rest of the thieves.
“I mean is there a point at this stage? Just look around…” She gestured to the crowds still taking pictures as they passed. Whenever one person got bored it seemed someone else immediately came by and replaced them, some didn’t even stop and just admired her as they passed. “God knows exactly how much footage of me completely exposed exists out there now, I haven’t worked up the nerve to check myself, and most of it is under that same damn hashtag so everyone in Tokyo and beyond knows exactly who the nudist girl is and what she looks like. Every day we commute I get photographed and filmed from 200 different angles, even if I did cover up now I’d never be able to get past the ‘fame’ I’ve accumulated as a nudist, and there’s no way in hell to delete any of the footage, so everyone will have totally free, uncensored access forever…”
Ren continued studying her, a slight sadness and look of resignation was obvious, but there was something else too- something in the way she shifted and shuffled as she talked; he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, or rather- he had a suspicion but couldn’t quite convince himself that it was correct.
“That is true…” Ann shot more than a few members of the crowd dirty looks, which was enough to scare a good number of them away. “But I’m not sure I buy that as a reason not to stop. As bad as it might be to have nude footage of yourself everywhere, actually being nude in day-to-day life is something else entirely, you can spare yourself that at least?”
Makoto’s blush grew brighter, and she shifted around on her feet more. She was clearly getting uncomfortable. Ren put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump at the touch.
“It’s okay Makoto, you don’t owe us an explanation if you don’t feel up to sharing, we just want to support you.”
While there was clear frustration at not getting an answer, Ann exhaled and nodded her head in agreement.
“Ren’s right, I didn’t mean to pressure you, we’re just concerned, y’know? You can tell us whenever you’re ready… and only if you want to.”
Makoto looked at the two of them, as well as Morgana and Ryuji, who were giving similar supportive smiles, Yusuke… was still too focused on his sketch to be supportive- but she’d charitably assume he’d be just as kind had he been paying proper attention.
“Th-thank you everyone, and it’s fine- I don’t mind sharing really, it’s just difficult to… y’know?”
“It’s cool, clothed or not- you’re part of the team now, that means if you ever need help you can just let us know, alright?”
“Thanks Ryuji, it’s… comforting to have people on my side now…”
“Well duh, helping people is what being a Pha—” Ryuji was cut short of once again exposing the team with a swift slap to the back of the head, courtesy of Ren. “OW! What was that fo— oh right... Sorry. I meant um- that’s what being friends is all about… totally normal friends.”
He was saying that to the crowd moreso than Makoto at this point. Ann sighed and turned back to Yusuke.
“Are you done yet?”
A few more moments of sketching before he reluctantly put his pad back into his bag.
“I would have liked to carry on a little longer, but I suppose I have enough to continue at home. We may proceed whenever you’re ready.”
“We’ve been ready a while Fox…” Morgana grumbled from inside his bag. “We should try to lose the crowd as much as we can before we activate the app.”
The team nodded and mentally prepared themselves to continue infiltrating Kaneshiro’s bank, with any luck they should finish planning the route for the heist by the end of the day. Makoto walked alongside their leader, putting aside her own mental struggles to focus on the mission at hand, feeling like both were more manageable now that- for the first time- she felt like she had some real friends.
~ ~ ~
To say Kasumi felt awkward in the back of the Okumura limo would be an understatement. She wasn’t used to the VIP treatment, when she was set to perform somewhere it would usually be her parents or a member of the school faculty that would drive her to the venue; being taken home in a car as fancy as this was still fairly alien to her.
And this Haru girl, she certainly seemed friendly and considerate, and seemed genuinely happy to be spending time with her. But that didn’t change the fact that she was trusting a complete stranger to drive her home.
One more thing made her feel very nervous, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it- actually that’s a total lie- she knew exactly why.
She was sitting completely naked sans a bow that kept her hair in a ponytail. Completely naked and vulnerable in the back of a stranger’s limo with darkened windows that she could only hope was traveling to her house.
She was beginning to feel like she might have been hasty agreeing to this, or indeed hasty in joining the nudist program to begin with. She hadn’t really been thinking things through when talking to her senpais earlier, too overwhelmed by the sensations of being completely naked in front of him especially, and having that other naked girl so close to her at the time. She just agreed to something incredibly risky without thinking.
Haru could tell she was nervous, possibly even on the edge of a panic attack. She called out to her in the softest, most reassuring voice she could.
“It’s okay Su—” she stopped herself short, she realized a giving her the nickname of ‘Sumi-chan’ this early on would be way too forward, and probably just make her more uncomfortable. “It’s okay Yoshizawa-san, I promise you we’re taking you straight home without any detours, I already made a deal with the driver.” She smiled and nodded towards said driver, who returned the gesture via the rear-view mirror.
Kasumi watched Haru closely, as if trying to spot signs of deception, but she seemed to be genuine. Either she really was trustworthy or she had a really strong poker face; for now she’d assume the former for the sake of comforting herself more than anything. It was true she was being spared a much worse fate doing things this way. Being naked in school was a wild feeling, but it didn’t compare to the physical sensations of being naked outdoors. Even if it was just from the school’s entrance to the curb where the limo was parked, being naked outside in a crowded street in broad daylight had been nearly enough to cause her to collapse right then and there, she couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to walk through the streets and ride a crowded train as the only one naked.
While part of her held some resentment for Makoto, taking away so much attention from her senpai by showing off her naked body, she had very quickly gained an immense amount of respect for her. How could she handle such extreme stimulation daily? Kasumi was no stranger to crowds paying close attention to her body- the movements and outfits that came with rhythmic gymnastics did lend itself to that sort of thing, and it wasn’t as if she was totally unaware of how some people would look at her with impure desires; for the most part it was all normal and expected of such a performance. Being naked in places where one should not be naked- that was so different, night and day even. It was clearly wrong, she was the oddity, what didn’t belong in that scene. And yet Makoto handled it seemingly without any fear at all, she was truly incredible. She sighed, no wonder Ren was so enamoured by her.
Haru lifted her hand slightly, unsure of whether she should put it on Kasumi’s shoulder or not, ultimately deciding to play it safe and put it back on her lap.
“If you’re nervous about how your family will react, I can come in with you to help you explain if you like?”
“M-my family?!”
Kasumi had completely forgotten about that side of it. She really didn’t think things through, she was kicking herself for not even taking more than a few hours to jump into this life-changing decision.
“My parents… well they’ll be surprised that’s for sure, but I think… I think they’ll be supportive, they’re very good to me.”
Haru smiled.
“That’s a relief, it’s very important to have parents who look out for you…”
“Haru?”
“Oh- it’s nothing, nevermind. I’m just happy I get to ride with some pleasant company for once…”
“Pleasant company?”
“What’d I’d give to never have to ride with him again…” Haru shook her head, as if forcing herself back into the present and forced a smile. “Nevermind that, just some personal troubles, nothing worth worrying about.”
“Are you sure?”
“Let’s just enjoy the rest of the ride, I have some cold drinks in here if you’re thirsty?”
“Um, just still water would be fine.”
There were still more than a few things she was unsure of, her only real option was to take this one step at a time, she’d have to talk to Ren again tomorrow, otherwise this whole thing was pointless. But before that she needed to get her parents on her side, it shouldn’t be too hard as they really were good to her, but it’d still be incredibly awkward, she’d be surprised if her father didn’t pass out at the sight of her. But before even that, maybe she could allow herself to enjoy this Okumura girl’s company for a while longer, keeping her bag with her phone within reach just in case…
~ ~ ~
“Joker- quick question.”
“Yes Queen?”
“Why are the angels wearing bondage gear?”
“Pfft…” he shrugged. “There’s clearly some kind of symbolism going on there but I haven’t a fucking clue what it could be.”
“I still don’t fully understand shadows… the mythological creatures and religious figures I understand, but things like why the angels wear fetish leather and why those pixies we just fought had some punk hairstyle doesn’t really make sense to me.” She looked down at her own body, arms and legs covered in spiked leather while her whole torse remained exposed. “Though I guess I’m in no position to call other people’s clothes ‘fetish wear’…”
“It is strange.” Yusuke examined Makoto- from a respectable distance of course. “Our thief outfits are in some way meant to be part of our inner-selves, a manifestation of our rebellious spirit. But for you it seems as if nudity has in some way become a core part of your identity.”
“Yusuke!” Ann shoved him.
“What? What did I say wrong?”
“I… I don’t know but- surely it’s rude to say being naked is part of what makes a girl who she is, right?”
“It’s fine Panther.” Makoto smiled at the both of them. “Though I’m not really sure I like the leather and spikes, and it’s actually weird wearing shoes again, I think… I think on some level I’ve begun to associate my nudity with confidence, with power even.”
Ren was at first surprised, but then looked at her with admiration.
“So you really are proud of your body then? I’m glad you came around.”
“I mean… I don’t want to sound arrogant or anything but…”
“I don’t think it sounds arrogant at all.” Ryuji said while he was crouched on the ground, taking a moment to catch his breath after the battle they had just finished. “So many people have this idea that feeling good about yourself or your body or whatever is somehow a bad thing. ‘Eff that shit, I know how hard it is to maintain a healthy body, you should be proud of how you look.”
Ann ruffled Ryuji’s hair, significantly harder than was necessary or comfortable for him.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself!” She continued ruffling until he finally shoved her off. “There’s nothing wrong with a girl being proud of her looks, they take work to maintain after all.” She suddenly looked at Makoto much more thoughtfully. “Is that why you’re not quitting the program?”
Makoto looked away and scratched the side of her head, answering was clearly difficult for her, but the others patiently waited for her to gather her nerves at her own pace- though Mona made sure to keep an eye out for shadows in the meanwhile- just in case.
“Well… I guess that’s a big part of the reason. Even though the crap the principal gave me about it being something to boost body positivity was an obvious lie, it actually did end up doing that for me.”
“You finally realized how amazing you look Queen.”
“Okay Joker you’re definitely being a simp now.”
“Hmm… Mona the kettle and Joker the pot.”
“Yusuke what the hell are you going on about?”
“Would you guys give it a rest?” Ann yelled at them, before turning back to Makoto. “I guess I can understand that, and I definitely admire that level of self-confidence and loving your own body, buuut I still think actually going nudist is taking things a bit far, I can’t get behind that so much.”
Makoto laughed.
“I guess that’s fair, it’s not a lifestyle I’d recommend anyway, even if I have managed to turn it into a positive for now.”
Morgana suddenly leapt to his feet and assumed a defensive position.
“Okay that’s enough chatting guys, we’ve got shadows coming our way.”
Everyone entered serious mode without delay, and got in position ready to ambush, though Makoto’s thoughts were still ongoing.
‘I’m sorry guys, that was all true, but that’s definitely not the only reason I want to stay like this… but I just can’t say it. All the people who gawk at me everyday, the knowledge that there’s more footage of me on the internet than some Hollywood celebrities, all of it free and uncensored for anyone to see- I can’t say that turns me on! I must be some kind of freak, girls like that get arrested- or worse, and yet I’m put in a position where I can get away with damn near anything. Is exhibitionism another aspect of this warped logic everyone has been put under, or has it always been within me just lying dormant? I just don’t know, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to admit such a thing to them, they’ve shown me so much respect- respect I probably don’t deserve after I threatened them before, but they’d lose all of it in an instant if they realize I have this awful fetish… Maybe Ren would understand? No, I could never… maybe I cou—’
“Queen, focus!”
Ren’s call snapped her back to reality. She slapped her cheeks and got back into a combat mindset, her worries could wait until later. She prepared to face the freshly revealed shadows.
“Two Yaksinis and a Rakshasa, that means they’re weak to nuclear and wind respectively, should be a piece of cake! Joker?”
“Queen, seems you’ll be going for your fellow nudists, eh?”
“Yes yes very funny. Mafrei!”
“Mona! Follow up with a Garula on the Rakshasa.”
“On it Joker! Garula”
“Now move in for the all-out attack!”
“It’s too late for apologies!”
Makoto had only gotten to experience this a few times so far, but it had already become her favorite part of any fight. She and the rest of the thieves charged in and unleashed an impossible-to-follow series of rapid fire attacks from all directions, she almost felt bad for the shadows.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
“Game over!”
One day Makoto would have to ask where Morgana suddenly got that spinning chair from, but she realized it probably wasn’t worth worrying about for now, it looked cool and was effective- that’s enough for her.
~ ~ ~
Later on that evening, after the team had secured their infiltration route and resolved to meet up again tomorrow to prepare the calling card. Ann had returned to her empty apartment. It was too late to cook anything- or rather she was too worn out- so she decided to just heat up some leftovers from the night before. As she waited for it to warm up, she entered the bathroom, stopping to look at herself in the mirror. It was a full-length wall mirror, so she could see her entire body.
She leant out into the hall she looked both ways- she’s not really sure why she did so, she knew she was alone- before closing and locking the door. Taking a few deep breaths, she decided to undress completely. Once again she stepped in front of the mirror. She was obviously no stranger to looking at herself in the mirror, but she would usually be checking out her outfit- it had been a long long time since she had actually looked at herself- her own body. She looked it up and down with a neutral expression, turning around to see her sides and back. She took a step.
“NOPE! NO NO NO NOPE! Not happening!” She reached for her clothes again and started to get dressed. “Not for me. Thought about it- not for me. Nope. Nope. HARD pass. Not in a million years. Nope…”
Notes:
Okay there was only a little bit of actual Metaverse stuff in this chapter, and we've only just barely touched on the Kasumi/ Haru subplot.
I never claimed that this series had good pacing, it clearly doesn't. But I hope you're enjoying it nonetheless.Also I haven't been doing much in the way out straight up exhibitionist shenanigans these past few chapters- I plan to fix that soon, but it's gotta come at least somewhat naturally, so I'll make no promises yet
Chapter 8: Committing
Summary:
A rescue, and a decision.
Notes:
Hey remember how I said this is an "unapologetic fetish story"? Well it's never been more true than it is with this chapter. I wanted to take a break from the plot chapters and get back to the exhibitionist shenanigans, so have some of that greatly concentrated.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Ren?”
“Yeah Makoto?”
“Forgive me for stating the obvious after the fact, but the Metaverse really is strange.”
“You get used to it after a while. That was technically only our third palace- not including Mementos- but I’m already at the stage where a mobster turning into a fly and fighting us in a giant piggy bank doesn’t even phase me anymore.”
“I guess… I understand it’s to do with their own cognition of themselves, and I understand the symbolism I suppose, but exactly why the metaverse chooses to manifest a mafia boss’s greed in such a goofy-looking form eludes me.”
“You should have seen Madarame; he turned into a set of four paintings each with a different facial feature on it. I think that was the point I stopped asking ‘why’ and just accept literally anything that happens there without thinking about it too much.”
“Can’t say I like giving up on the analysis like that, but honestly I think I might end up taking the same mindset if that’s the kind of thing we have to deal with.”
The pair (and their hidden cat- happy to play the silent third wheel for now) were making their regular commute to school following their final battle against Kaneshiro’s shadow. While they made sure to avoid any specific Phantom Thief keywords, they didn’t worry too much about discussing the events of their metaverse escapades publicly. Passerbys were far more interested in just gossiping about the ‘naked girl’ than in anything she was actually saying; a fact that irked her a lot of the time but for now she was thankful for it. Plus anyone actually listening would think they were just discussing a videogame or something.
“I know I’ve asked this already Ren, but are we really okay just waiting from this point?”
“Yeah the change of heart usually takes a while to take effect, it invariably happens right before the deadline… not good for my anxiety so I understand yours, but that’s just how it is unfortunately.”
“Right… Well you’re far more experienced in this than I am so I’ll bow to your seniority.”
“I get to be your senpai now, neat.”
“I suppose you can think of it like that if you want.”
Their conversation came to a halt when they both noticed a crowd forming up ahead, for once Makoto didn’t seem to be the focus of their attention. They exchanged a glance and hurried their approach.
Ren stood on his tip-toes to peer over the crowd.
“There’s a tv crew of some sort.”
A small amount of fear made itself apparent on Makoto’s face.
“Huh? TV?”
“Yeah, camera, microphone, everything.”
“Oh… but why now?”
Ren agreed that that was a good question, he was honestly surprised it took this long for one to show up to shamelessly profit off of the spectacle Makoto was making, but given that they were facing the other way- not only were they not aware Makoto had even arrived yet, he couldn’t quite see the subject of their attention. Ren jumped as high as he could to maybe get a better view, it took a few attempts but he finally caught a glimpse.
“They’re trying to interview Yoshizawa-san.”
Makoto’s eyes went wide, she had been so absorbed in their Phantom Thief business she somehow managed to forget she wasn’t the only nudist at their school anymore.
“Is she okay?”
Ren jumped a few more times.
“She’s putting on a brave face, but it’s not as convincing as yours.” He shoved his bag into her arms, hastily apologizing to Morgana for shaking him so much while doing so. “Wait here, I’m going to help her.”
Before she could say anything, Ren began shoving his way through the crowd to reach his distressed kouhai.
“I-I really must be getting to class…” Kasumi’s half-hearted attempt at excusing herself went ignored by the reporter.
“This will only take a moment, please tell us- are you the famous Shujin nudist- Makoto Niijima?”
“H-huh? No no- Makoto is—” she was cut short when Ren emerged from behind the cameraman. “Senpai! Um… help?”
Ren shoved himself in-between the reporter and Kasumi.
“Excuse me young man, we’re trying to—”
“Wow, you’re here to interview me? I didn’t realize my transfer was such a big story!” Kasumi was rather taken aback by Ren’s over-acting, but was thankful he jumped in to save her like that, so remained silent and trusted his plan.
“No we’re here for the Shuji—”
“I’m really grateful you want to hear my side of the story. Well the transfer has been rough so far, but that’s to be expected…”
“Young man could you pleas—”
“I definitely made some terrible mistakes in my old home, but I’ve really been trying to turn over a new leaf since coming to Tokyo…”
“Sir, please step aside.” Ren felt a hand on his shoulder, he wasn’t sure who he was or what his role was but he was clearly with the crew, and he was very clearly not amused.
“So you don’t want to hear my heart-warming tale about redemption and how my fresh start has made me a better person?” He tried to joke, but was starting to get nervous. His plan was for Kasumi to have run away by this point, perhaps he should have communicated that directly rather than just trust her to know. He rushed to think of the next step before panic set in.
“I believe they’re here to see me.” Makoto stepped in, giving the Mona-bag back to Ren and smiling at him.
“Makoto—” he whispered. “—Are you sure about this?”
She nodded.
“I’ve got this handled, you take Yoshizawa-san inside and I’ll meet up with you in a minute.”
“But…”
“I said I’ve got this; I’m used to cameras at this point.”
Reluctantly, Ren nodded and guided Kasumi through the crowd and into the school. The camera tried to follow before Makoto drew it’s attention back.
“Yes, I am Makoto Niijima, the first Shujin nudist. Those were my kouhais, I apologize for the confusion.”
Makoto gave a polite bow, but as the adrenaline of rushing to the rescue wore off, nervousness once again took a hold of her heart. Now she wasn’t lying when she said she was used to cameras, and crowds at this point, in fact she took pride in how well she adapted so quickly. But the ones she was used to were usually phone cameras, maybe a handheld digital camera; the one pointed at her right now sent an entirely different message. This wasn’t just another horny student snapping a quick shot to post on twitter, this was the real deal, a genuine professional TV camera, judging by the logo on the man’s shirt and the microphone the female interviewer was holding… there was just no getting around it, Makoto was being filmed naked for the news. That fact repeated itself in her head a few times. She was standing, naked and exposed from head-to-toe in front of her school, surrounded by her fellow students, being filmed for the news.
‘Oh shit…’
For the first time in a while, she had to fight the urge to cover herself, but she willed herself to maintain her proud and confident image. The idea of her nudity on the internet was bad enough, but somehow the idea of being nude on TV seemed so much more intense; she acknowledged this was probably irrational, and an outdated way of thinking, but trying to think about it rationally didn’t do much to supress the intense emotions she was feeling.
Though despite the feeling of fear, nervousness, the sense of modesty she thought she had forgotten making itself known again. Despite all that, on some level she was enjoying this. She could physically feel the camera’s unblinking eye- as well as the potential millions of eyes behind it- drinking in every inch of her body. An intense heat shot through her, coalescing between her legs. It was pretty hot out today, maybe they’d just think it was sweat? She could only pray that was the case as she maintained her polite smile and dignified demeanour.
“We’ve been wanting to speak to you for some time Niijima-san, you’ve been causing quite a stir on social media the past month.”
Makoto laughed nervously.
“Well… what can I say? I guess I do stand out quite a bit now.” She actually hadn’t checked how much attention she’d been getting on social media- not to mention on the hashtag the school designated for her- she’d never worked up the nerve to. Half out of embarrassment, and half because this hot feeling got way too intense whenever she even thought about it- she could only imagine what it’d be like if she actually tried ego-searching.
“You truly might be a first Niijima-san. Most nudists only practice at home due to public decency laws, but the program offered by Shujin allows all those involved to be completely exempt from both decency and censorship laws…”
There was a reminder that made the heat between her legs intensify even greater still, not only was she going to be naked on TV, but not a single inch of her would be hidden from anyone- even porn stars got a mosaic, but she’d be completely bared for anyone in the country to see, perhaps even beyond. She screwed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.
‘Keep it together Makoto…’
“I must say I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, what motivated you to join this radical new program?”
Makoto thought for a moment, telling the truth was absolutely the wrong play here, it didn’t paint her or the school in a positive light. And while she really couldn’t care about Kobayakawa’s rep at this point, in fact she made a mental note to make it clear to him she wouldn’t be his puppet anymore, she still felt that starting controversy was a bad idea, and though she was reluctant to admit it, she didn’t want to risk having the program be shut down, was she really committed to it at this point? She’d worry about that later, for now she needed to give an answer. ‘Mostly-true’ would be the preferred approach.
“As student council president I was approached to be the ambassador for the Shujin nudist program, aiming to promote acceptance of our bodies, a subject many of us are very insecure about. Indeed I was actually rather sceptical at first, but it has given me a new level of confidence I had never thought possible before.”
There, true in that it really had made her love her own body and be more confident than she ever had been before; a lie in that that obviously wasn’t the intent of the program, the intent was “Don’t look at us defending abusers, look at the funny naked girl instead!” She was the equivalent of Kobayakawa shaking his keys to keep the press distracted, a plan that frustratingly worked like a charm.
“Interesting, could you tell us more about how it feels?”
“How it feels?”
“Well you’ve got quite the audience right now even, very few women could handle having her body exposed to so many people, most would probably have a breakdown where they stood, but you seem to be handling it like a champ. Tell us about how it feels.”
Well that question had all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face. Still, Makoto believed honesty- or something close enough to it- was the best approach.
“It definitely took some getting used to, and I have to admit I don’t care for some of the most distasteful looks I get.” She side-eyed no one in particular in the audience, a few of them looked rather guilty all of a sudden, but most didn’t seem to be bothered. “But I’ve come to learn that not all the attention is negative, that when people laugh it isn’t necessary at me, when they stare at me it isn’t necessarily in disdain. I suppose I should take pride in the fact that I can make someone’s day just by letting them see me.”
“That’s a very nice way of looking at it.”
Makoto beamed proudly.
‘I might come out of this looking good after all.’
“And I hope you don’t find this rude of me to say, but judging from your muscle tone it’s clear you work very hard to maintain your figure, I’m a little jealous.”
Makoto blushed, she wasn’t used to compliments from anyone outside the Phantom Thieves.
“Thank you, I always try to stay healthy, but being naked and knowing any imperfections are exposed to everyone is one hell of a motivator.”
The interviewer laughed, Makoto internally pumped her fist.
‘I’m nailing this.”
“Well I think I speak for our viewers when I say we greatly admire your confidence, and your body makes it very clear how exciting this is for you.”
“…huh?”
“It’s rather hot out today, and yet your nipples look rock-hard, not to mention your abundance of fluids on your thighs.”
“EXCUSE ME?”
She had heard Ren talk about how shameless news media was, especially in regards to her new nudist lifestyle, but she didn’t expect them to be THAT shameless.
“A-are you sure it’s okay to say that kind of thing for TV?” Makoto stared at the interviewer slack-jawed, shocked that she could still have such a polite smile on her face.
“Well decency and censorship laws no longer apply to you, so as long as you’re the subject, we don’t have to worry about that kind of thing either. So long as we stick to your body, we’re safe. And don’t worry, we’re not judging you, I’m sure our viewers enjoy your body’s reactions as much as you do.” She turned to the cameraman. “Let’s get a couple close-ups, shall we?”
“C-close u-ups?!”
Makoto remained frozen in shock as the cameraman wasted no time in squatting down to zoom in on her breasts, then lower still to capture her soaked and exposed folds.
‘But… how on Earth can they get away with this?’ she thought. ‘Surely the lack of decency laws isn’t enough of an explanation for them to act like this?’
She looked around at the crowd, no one seemed to be acting as if anything was amiss, apparently they saw this as totally acceptable, for a second Makoto wondered if she was the crazy one. She heard the Phantom Thieves discuss how these recent events seemed to be operating on porn logic, and she was starting to agree, how else could she explain something like this? How else could she justify getting even more turned on as the camera stared so intently at what was once-upon-a-time her most private place?
After a while the cameraman stood up straight again.
“That was quite the view Niijma-san!”
“Uhh…”
“Though with this much attention on you, I guess we can’t blame you too much.” She chuckled at her own joke.
“I uh…”
The interviewer asked Makoto something else, but she couldn’t hear what it was. She remembered this feeling, it was the same as the first time she walked through Shibuya naked, this daze as she struggled to discern one sound from the other, people’s faces all blended into one, and her knees felt weak, and her crotch was desperately calling out for her touch. She had to do everything she could to resist, to try and bring herself back to reality before she collapsed and/ or did something truly reputation destroying.
“Makoto!”
Feeling a hand on her shoulder she turned around, still dazed.
“Ren?”
“Sorry I took so long getting back, we should go.” Ren stood in front of her, looking directly at the camera. “That’s all folks! Sorry but we’re still students and we’ve still got to get to class, gotta cut your peep show short!”
Makoto weakly laughed.
‘Of course he has to do it in a goofy way like that, he really does have a problem with over-acting.’
She was now able to force herself to be sober enough to form proper sentences.
“He’s right, we really need to be going now.”
“What is your relationship with this man?” they both noticed the disdain in her voice when she said ‘this man’ but chose not to comment on it. “He’s not your boyfriend is he?”
Makoto’s face was already a deep pink, but it instantly went tomato red at this.
“B-boyfriend?! No- we’re just friends!”
At least three separate instances of “oof” could be heard from the crowd, but if Ren himself was bothered then he didn’t show it.
“And with that- everyone’s favourite nudist and her not-boyfriend have to go do school stuff, bye bye!”
“Wait!” the interviewer shoved what looked like a business card into Makoto’s hand. “Please give us a call if you’re ever interested in giving us a longer interview!”
Makoto didn’t get a chance to respond before Ren started pulling her away by the hand and into the relative safety of the school.
~ ~ ~
“She really didn’t say much of anything, did she?”
“No she didn’t… We did leave her on her own in a pretty intense situation.”
“She said she could handle it.”
“I know Morgana, I know. And I’m sure she could but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t affect her, she basically ran off as soon as we got inside…”
“We do need to get to class… buuut we really wouldn’t be good friends if we just left her as is…”
“Morgana I—”
“I know, I’ll leave you two to it, I’ll wait with Ann.”
“Ha, what a sacrifice you’re making.”
“Joker I’m trying to be considerate.”
“Right, sorry. I’ll be in class before long, and I’ll come up with an excuse for being late.”
Morgana nodded, then headed off, leaving Ren to run after Makoto.
‘Makoto is a strong girl, maybe the strongest I’ve met, but she still seemed upset after that. What kind of leader would I be if I didn’t offer support to my friends when they need it?’
He saw which hallway she ran down, but didn’t know exactly where she went. He scanned each empty hallway looking for any sign of her. Luckily she did leave a trail of sorts behind her, and despite what he would tell himself- he knew those tiny puddles weren’t tears. He pressed onwards anyway, regardless of her body’s reactions it was clear she was distressed.
He heard sounds coming from within the janitor’s closet, he couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was definitely Makoto, and her breathing was… irregular.
‘Okay she’s definitely either crying or… no she couldn’t be doing that- right? That’s wishful thinking on my part again- isn’t it? Do I chance it and head in or…’
A sudden sound his overactive mind interpreted as a choke pushed his instinct to take over and he rushed through the door.
“Makoto! Are you…”
Time seemed to freeze for just a moment, Makoto staring in shock into his wide eyes; Ren staring in shock into the same place her fingers were currently buried. His suspicions he dismissed as fanciful were confirmed, she was masturbating like her life depended on it. Worse yet, even in her stupor Makoto had reached the ‘point of no return’ and her fingers were still moving of their own volition. Throwing one hand over her mouth to muffle her scream as she started squirting in front of Ren, drenching much of his leg as he didn’t move out the way in time.
The following silence dragged on for what felt like weeks, neither knowing what to say. Ren was overcome with guilt, cursing himself for not thinking rationally. He was about to apologize and step out- happy to pretend this never happened before he noticed that Makoto was on the edge of tears.
“Makoto…”
She buried her face in her knees.
“I’m… sorry…”
“What?” Ren got down on his knees- paying no mind to the puddle of ejaculate that he was kneeling in. “Why on Earth are you apologizing? I’m the one who walked in on you, I’m the only one at fault.”
She mumbled something.
“What?”
She was silent.
“Makoto” Ren sighed, before reaching out and putting his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay Makoto, I’m very sorry for walking in on you, I came after you since you seemed upset after that interview and I was worried. I should have knocked, and—”
She mumbled something again.
“Hm?”
Her face was still hidden, and her voice barely audible, but Ren was able to hear her the third time around.
“I’m a freak.”
“Wait, what?”
“It’s my own fault, doing it in a place like this like some fucking animal that can’t control itself…”
“Huh?”
“There’s something wrong with me…”
“Wait wait wait wait… wait… What are you talking about?”
She looked up at him. He expected her to be mad at him, look at him with scorn, but instead she just looked upset, defeated.
“Look at me Ren, I was just exposed to god knows how many people, and it turned me into some animal in heat. Normal, healthy people don’t react like that.”
Despite Ren’s concern, and his sympathy towards her, part of Ren wanted to laugh.
“Wait… is that all it is?”
Okay now Makoto looked angry.
“’Is that all?’ What do you mean ‘is that all?’”
“I mean… you’re upset over discovering a fetish?”
“A fetish?” Makoto forced herself to her feet, glowering down at him half in anger and half in disbelief. “This isn’t a fetish, it’s a mental illness.”
“Actually it’s literally a fetish, not even that uncommon of one.”
“I don’t believe you… You should find me disgusting right now!”
This time Ren actually did laugh, as he stood up himself.
“Listen Makoto, if you think watching you cum is going to make you less attractive in my eyes then I’m not sure what to say.”
“But… Ren normal people don’t masturbate in public.”
“Granted, but no one caught you so it’s fine.”
“YOU CAUGHT ME!”
“I can keep a secret. Though we should probably clean up, it’s not really fair to leave it to the janitor.”
Makoto slapped him.
“OW! I feel that was unnecessary.”
She tried to slap him again, but he caught her arm this time, only letting her go again when she stopped struggling.
“Makoto use your words; you’re not a tsundere in an anime, hitting people is abuse.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
“A little bit, yeah. I was really worried about you, worried about what kind of effect that interview had on you, but it turned out to be nothing to worry about.”
“‘Nothing to worry about?’”
“I mean doing it in public is risky, so in the future you should let me know ahead of time so I can keep watch or something.”
“’In the future’?”
“Metal gear?!”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, you were repeating what I said a bunch so I did the thing.”
“What thing?”
“It’s just a videogame reference, don’t worry about it.”
“God fucking dammit Ren! Stop treating this as some sort of joke!”
She felt his hands grab her shoulders once more, he gripped her firmly, but not harshly, his gaze felt the same.
“Makoto… listen to me: There is nothing wrong with you.”
“But…”
“No ‘buts’. Getting turned on by being seen isn’t unusual, exhibitionism is a pretty common fetish, and everyone has fetishes.”
“Ren it’s clearly not as simple as that.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not normal!”
“So?”
“I…”
“What does ‘normal’ even mean anyway? And what makes ‘normal’ so great?”
“We can’t…”
“Really considering the shit we get up to, we’ve long since abandoned any idea of what’s ‘normal’ anymore.”
“Well—”
“Even outside the Metaverse, you’ve been put into a pretty abnormal situation, it’s only natural you’d end up acting a little outside the norm.”
He stopped talking when he felt her head fall into his chest. He decided to take a chance and wrap his arms around her, thankfully she didn’t resist.
“Why aren’t you disgusted? I’ve become a slut.”
“I’m not sure ‘slut’ is the right word, you’re beautiful and flaunting that fact gives you pleasure. I’m just not seeing the problem in that.”
“You’re the one who always says how this whole situation stinks of porn logic.”
“I don’t think I ever used the word ‘stinks’, did I?”
“The point is it’s gotten the better of me, I’ve let the… porn logic or whatever this atmosphere is get the better of me.”
Ren remained in silent thought for a moment.
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Of course it is, I’ve let it control me.”
“I mean… what I was trying to say was that I don’t see the issue in enjoying the opportunity presented to you.”
Makoto pulled away, Ren thought that he’d be pushing his luck to try and hold her any longer, so he stepped back to a more neutral position.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what you’re actually doing is just getting turned on from exposure, then masturbating to relieve the tension.”
“Ugh…” Makoto cringed. “How can you just shamelessly say it out loud like that?”
“I mean the former isn’t that unusual, and the latter is something literally everyone does. You’re not hurting anyone, in fact you’re making people’s days with your beautiful body. The only one you put at risk masturbating here like this is yourself, and that’s an easy fix, I can keep a look-out for you and protect you if anything does happen.”
“Ren…”
“And I promise to actually keep watch, not just watch you.”
“Goddammit Ren…”
Makoto groaned into her hands in frustration, something she immediately regretted when she remembered her hands were still drenched in girlcum.
“Not again…”
Ren was trying his absolute hardest not to laugh as he handed her some tissues from his bag. She thanked him, cleaned herself up, and politely ignored the cat hair.
“I hear you Ren… maybe I was being a bit harsh on myself.”
“For no good reason.”
“Ugh… y’know Ren, I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but you’re not supposed to tell people the things that they’re troubled by are dumb or insignificant.”
“Would you rather I lie to you?”
“…no… I guess it’s good to have friends willing to call you out when you get stuck in your own head, but I still reserve the right to be annoyed at you.”
“Fair.”
Makoto looked down at Ren’s trousers, nearly started laughing herself. Huge wet marks were spread down the front of his legs.
“I’m sorry Ren but… that looks really bad.”
Ren looked down himself, then laughed nervously.
“Maybe no one will notice?”
“We’re already running late, we’ll clean up here and just hope it’s fine. If anyone asks just say you spilt your morning coffee and didn’t have time to change. Now come on, let’s got to class.”
“Right…”
As they started wiping up the mess with the paper towels Makoto conveniently kept in her bag, Ren broke the silence again.
“So Makoto, just to confirm, you like being seen naked?”
A pause, then she intensely stared into his eyes.
“Immensely…”
Okay, he was prepared for a ‘yes’ but he wasn’t prepared for that.
“You’re pretty amazing.”
“Is it an amazing trait?”
“I certainly think so… Does that mean you’re really committing to the nudity thing?”
Makoto went silent, carefully considering the question for over a minute before daring to open her mouth.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
Ren tried to focus on cleaning up, trying not to let his imagination run away from him trying to figure out what that meant.
~ ~ ~
Makoto, fresh from her shower, stared at her open wardrobe. It had been over a month now since she even touched a single item from within, let alone worn any of it. Some items were even starting to collect dust.
‘Am I really considering this?’
She paced back and forth in her room for a while, eyeing her clothes, holding her chin in thought.
‘Okay, before I do anything else, I have to make sure…’
She exited her room into the main living space of the apartment she shared with her sister, or rather- the apartment she lived in and her sister occasionally came home to when she wasn’t swamped with work. Thankfully, today was one of those days, as Sae had brought her work home with her on her laptop.
‘Here goes nothing.’
“Hey, Sis?”
“Mm?” Sae didn’t even look up from her laptop, but Makoto would take what she could get.
“Do people at work ever give you trouble because of my… new status?”
“Why do you ask?”
“The thought just came to me” she didn’t like lying, but this was a relatively harmless one, and thankfully everything that followed was truthful. “I was worried that maybe people would hassle you because I’m a nudist now.”
“There have been a couple assholes, yes. But they’re people who harassed me long before your adopted this new ‘lifestyle’, so it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Is that all you wanted to ask?”
Makoto wished Sae would at least stop typing while they had their conversation, but at least it was a conversation, she didn’t always get even that, so she decided to be happy about it.
“Actually, there was one more thing, I was wondering if you could do a very small favor for me?”
~ ~ ~
“Alright Makoto, when you said ‘I’ll tell you tomorrow’, I wasn’t expecting this.”
Makoto gave a bashful smile.
“Maybe I am being a tad dramatic, but I want to do it this way to send a message to myself. A drastic change in such a short time needs a drastic gesture- or something like that.”
“If you say so, I must say this certainly is dramatic.” Ren laughed. “In fact this is pretty crazy, doing it right in the middle of Shibuya like this, but I kinda like it.” He smiled sympathetically. “But are you absolutely sure? It’s not too late to back out.”
“Don’t worry, I’m completely certain.”
He nodded.
“In that case I’ll be happy to support you, and I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe if anything does happen.”
“Is this the part where I’m supposed to swoon?”
“I dunno, you tell me.” She couldn’t bring herself to hate that smug smile of his, but didn’t dignify him with a response.
“There she is!” A voice called out. “Thank you Niijima-san, I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting you to actually call for a follow up interview, especially so soon. It’ll be a few minutes before the camera is set up, are those what I think they are?” the reporter from yesterday pointed towards the large black bags Ren and Makoto were carrying.
Makoto was already blushing, but she also couldn’t stop smiling.
“Yup, these are all the clothes from my wardrobe, I’ll be giving them away during today’s interview, I won’t be needing them anymore.”
This wasn’t 100% true, she had asked her sister Sae to look after a single outfit of hers for an emergency situation- though exactly what kind of situation that would be escaped her, and her old Buchimaru-kun onesie, since that one had some very sentimental memories attached to it. But Sae had humored her request to keep those few clothes in a safe place Makoto couldn’t access herself, so in a few short minutes she would truly not have a single article of clothing to her name; there would be no greater sign of her commitment to embracing this side of herself. And yet in place of the anxiety she thought she’d feel, she instead felt giddy, excited even. She thought maybe the reality just hadn’t sunken in yet, or maybe it was her finally reclaiming her nudist status for herself. No longer was it something forced upon her in the name of a cheap publicity stunt, it was her choice, she was finally embracing her own body and sexuality without fear… okay a small amount of fear actually, but mostly excitement.
As they waited for the cameraman to get ready, Makoto gazed upwards, she looked at one of the screens on the buildings. She laughed, they really did it- they were broadcasting her interview from yesterday. There she stood, completely uncensored in high definition on a ridiculously huge public screen, and god knew how many others. There’s no doubt about it now, she and her body were famous.
‘Oh god… I think I just came a little…’
Ren had begun carrying his bag in front of his body, trying his hardest to look casual as she drank in the glorious sight both on the screen above him, and the even more glorious sight standing before him.
‘Oh shit…’ Ren thought to himself. ‘I think I’ve got it bad…’ He looked back up at the screen. ‘Wait shut the fuck up- they actually used the close-up shots? News media really doesn’t have any shame whatsoever…’
“Niijima-san, we’re ready, shall we begin?”
Makoto took one more deep breath before turning to face them.
“I’m ready.”
Notes:
Okay so there was a bit of plot development, but still, mostly Makoto being nude and horny- as is the point of this dumb story.
Chapter 9: Naked life part 1
Summary:
I guess I didn't skip the interview after all? Mostly anyway
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“You now join us in Shibuya square. Yesterday we managed to interview the famous Shujin nudist- Makoto Niijima, which was unfortunately short-lived, but today she got into contact with us for a follow-up interview, aren’t we lucky? Say hi to our viewers.”
“H-Hey.” Makoto gave a small wave to the camera, part of her still not believing she was really doing this right now.
“I have to say, you’ve picked quite the location, we’ve gathered quite the sizable live audience in addition to those at home.”
“It would seem so, I hope we don’t get in everyone’s way on their way to work, I guess it’s a good thing it’s a Sunday.”
Ren- who was standing just out of frame- looked around at the gathered crowd. Most of the people who stopped just seemed to be out for shopping or other recreational purposes, judging by how they dressed. Though there were a fair few who looked like salarymen who did indeed look annoyed at having so many people standing between them and their next station, just pushing their way through as if their life depended on it, not letting themselves take any time to enjoy the naked girl happily putting herself on display for them.
‘I guess Japanese work-culture does things to your brain’ he uncharitably thought to himself before turning back to helping Makoto pull off what was probably the most insane thing he’d ever seen anyone do.
“And I believe you said you had a surprise for us today Makoto-san?”
Another jolt of anticipation and adrenaline shot through Makoto’s body.
‘This is it.’ She thought to herself. ‘This is the point of no return.’
Last night, when she was planning this, part of her suspected she’d end up getting cold feet and that she’d want to bail out at the last minute; but now that she was actually here, she did still feel a minor amount of anxiety, but it was dwarfed by the overwhelming feeling of excitement, the feeling that she was breaking free of her old self and taking control of her life, albeit in a crazy way that really shouldn’t be possible, and yet here she was.
“Yes, I have an announcement to make- though it’s a bit of a selfish one, I’m beginning to feel a little embarrassed for wanting to make this so public…”
“Oh, I’m sure both the audience here and at home will love it, any excuse to admire you.”
Makoto knew she just meant ‘admire’ in the sense that they just wanted to ogle the naked girl, but for some reason that didn’t bother her as much as it had before, since it was starting to feel like actual admiration, and she was starting to break through the internalized sense of shame she had unwittingly built up over the course of her life and allow herself to honestly enjoy the attention.
“I guess so. Anyway you already know how my nudity is as a result of the Shujin Nudist program, and was selected as its ambassador. Well despite some of my initial reservations, I’ve grown to really enjoy this lifestyle, so I wanted to do something to show my commitment, to really make the lifestyle my own. So to do that…”
Makoto motioned for Ren to bring the bags he was carrying over to her. He did so and kneeled down ready to open them, but before doing so he looked up at her once more; his expression silently asking if she was really sure, her genuine smile and confident nod satisfied him and he opened them. She reached in and pulled out the first item- her white school shirt.
“…I’ve decided to give away my wardrobe, since I won’t be needing it again.”
Saying that out loud made both her and Ren realize how insane this really was. A little over a month ago Makoto would have found this kind of scenario disgusting, and Ren would… well he’d think it was really hot, but he’d assume it was just something from a rather out-there doujin, and yet here they both were genuinely looking forward to it.
‘Am I weird for enjoying this?’ Ren wondered. ‘Does it count as an exhibitionism fetish when I’m not the exhibitionist? Eh… whatever, Makoto looks so damn confident and beautiful- how could I not enjoy it?’
“So just to clarify, when you say ‘giving away your wardrobe’…”
“Yes, I mean exactly what I say, I’ll be giving away all of my clothes to whoever wants them.”
“That’s… wow, so that means you won’t own any clothes anymore; you’ll be fully committing to a nudist lifestyle.”
Ren stifled a snicker at the reporter feeling the need to spell it out for some of the dumber viewers at home. He worried that he might be thinking too little of people who consume old media, but… actually, no- he didn’t worry about that at all.
“But wait, what year are you in Makoto-san?”
“Hm? I’m a third year.”
“Then it won’t be long before you graduate, do you plan to stay naked even after that?”
“I’ve actually done my research on the full legal status of the program, the nudist status it grants its participants can be applied even outside of school grounds and outside of school activities. Legally I’ll still have immunity to decency and censorship laws even after I leave Shujin.”
Whether this was by design or some loophole in the program, Makoto’s research had proved to her that not only that the program definitely never existed prior to her being coerced into signing up, but it gave her pretty much unlimited rights to her body and sexuality. Clearly whoever- or whatever- conceived of the program didn’t even bother trying to make it seem realistic; perhaps they just made it for some cheap fun by enforcing an unlimited exhibitionist license and didn’t think about the long-term effects. Right now it didn’t matter to her, she was happy to shamelessly exploit it, and with her new lifestyle- shamelessness was a good quality for her to have.
“Honestly I don’t know how long I’ll keep this up, but I have no intention of keeping it limited to my stay at Shujin. I’ll be graduating from the Shujin nudist to the Tokyo nudist. Haha…”
“Wow, that really is quite the commitment you’re making, well you certainly have my support!”
Makoto very much doubted this reporter’s support would actually amount to much of anything, she found herself smiling at the one who has gone out of his way to support her, who bashfully smiled back at her.
“So how is this clothing giveaway going to work?”
“Hmm… well I suppose first come, first served?” Makoto was starting to feel slightly foolish for not planning this part out, she was too excited to properly think the logistics through. Ren braced himself, expecting the crowd to suddenly surge forward like a pack of hungry hyenas. But much to his relief most of them seemed too nervous to actually come forward.
‘I guess no one wants to appear on TV scrambling to take a teenage girl’s clothes? Go figure.’
“Ah y’know what? Fuck it.” One girl around their age came forward as the reporter mumbled to her cameraman about how they’d need a bleep there. “I could use a spare uniform, they’re not cheap.” She punctuated her sentence with another sip of her bubble tea.
Makoto was surprised that the first person would come forward for such a practical reason, but wasn’t going to complain. She handed the girl the shirt and the matching skirt as she looked her up and down with a difficult to read expression.
“Cheers nude girl, this’ll save me some money, nice tits by the way.”
“Um… thanks?”
With the uniform hanging over her forearm, the girl wandered off through the crowd. Makoto shook her head and opened up another bag, blushing slightly when she noticed which bag it was, this one contained- among other things- her underwear. She quickly turned to face the camera.
“I-It’s all been freshly washed, I assure you!”
There were a few noticeable murmurs of disappointment from the crowd, which Makoto chose to ignore, Ren’s sniggering was a little harder to ignore but she did so anyway. The first girl coming forward gave a few others the courage to approach, though they suspected it wasn’t for as practical a reason as she did, there were only so many reasons adult men would want to take the panties of a girl who was still technically a minor after all. Thinking about it was admittedly rather embarrassing for her- but she was able to rationalize it by just being happy that she was making them happy, and if that was through… giving them fuel for some questionable activities then so be it- no harm done… probably…
~ ~ ~
“So Makoto…”
“Yeah Ann?”
“Did that really just happen?”
Makoto laughed nervously.
“Yeah, I guess it did.”
“Okay so two things- one I really do respect your confidence…”
“I’m going to guess the second thing isn’t as positive?”
“Two- you’re literally the most insane woman I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
“I was right then… but I guess I can’t deny it, maybe I really am crazy… but I really am happy I did that.”
“So long as you’re happy I guess. Though actually- I lied- I do have one more question-“
“Hm?”
“Does this mean we’ve given up trying to find out who- or what- came up with that ridiculous program to begin with? And what’s making everyone inexplicably okay with it?”
“Oh… right…”
“Like you’re enjoying it- I still don’t get it but that’s fine I guess, but isn’t it a little worrying that someone can just completely change the world’s common sense for the sake of a fetish? That’s a lot of power, not even the prime minister could make that sort of change- much less overnight.”
“You’re right… While I still have no regrets, and am honestly rather proud of myself for taking control of this situation and making it my own, that I forgot that someone put the idea in my head in the first place…”
“I’m not trying to make you feel bad or have second thoughts or anything, I’m just saying we shouldn’t forget about it, y’know? Though saying that I have literally no idea how to actually go about trying to figure it out, we still have literally nothing to go on. You didn’t find any history on the program, did you?”
“No, it’s as if it appeared overnight and everyone just retroactively accepts that it’s a thing, or at least isn’t bothered enough to question it. Whether we embrace or reject it, we don’t have any choice but to just keep an ear out for any new leads.”
“And I guess you’ve fallen firmly on the side of ‘embrace it’, so has Ren by the looks of it.”
“Yeah… he’s been so supportive of me from day one, always there for me, always talking me out of any funk I get myself into… Ann, why are you looking at me like that?”
“You like him, don’t you?”
“W-WHAT?! Don’t get me wrong, he’s just a friend!”
“But you totally want him to be more, right?”
“I… I… well…”
“I knew it! You two are totally into eachother!”
“Hey I—wait- ‘eachother’?”
“Oh my god Makoto don’t act as if you don’t know…”
“You… you can’t just assume he’s into me because he’s nice to me! He’s nice and supportive to everyone! Right now he’s helping Yoshizawa-san with her training, and probably helping her adapt to the nudist life too.”
“He is a really great guy, he was there for me when no one else was back when Kamoshida was still trying to… well… I’ve rather not go back there- but I can’t deny that he’s definitely supportive to all of us. However there’s definitely more going on with you, he can’t take his eyes off of you.”
“That might have something to do with the fact that I’m naked…”
“Please Makoto- if there’s one thing I’ve become an unwilling expert on- it’s the male gaze. And when he looks at you there’s definitely more going on than ‘sexy girl, neurons activate’. I mean, there’s definitely the element of him just finding you sexy, but there’s a different kind of desire in his eyes.”
“You… you really think so?”
“I’m certain of it. And I’m also certain you feel a similar way.”
“I… I don’t know… I wouldn’t know how that feels.”
“Nah I think you would, you just don’t wanna admit it.”
“Hmph! When did you become such an expert on the inner workings of my mind?”
“Oh don’t be like that, don’t you want to at least try and pursue him?”
“A minute ago you were focused on the origins of the program, that was far more important than this farce.”
“We hit a dead end on that, your potential relationship is something we can actually move forward on, and also…”
“…Also…?”
“It’s fun.”
“This is just entertainment for you.”
“Yup.”
“You were supposed to deny that…”
“Forget about that, do you want to try pursuing Ren or not?”
“Well…”
“That Yoshizawa girl definitely has a thing for him, you don’t want another nudist to steal him away from you, do you?”
“UGH! FINE! What should I do?”
“Start small, just invite him to hang out with you.”
“Where?”
“I dunno- anywhere. Arcades are always a safe bet when you want to start things casual.”
“It’s worth a try I suppose…”
“I would suggest you dress up nice for him but…”
“Ha… yeah I guess there’s a real limit to what I can do like this.”
“Maybe make-up?”
“Maybe… I don’t really know much about make-up, plus I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard.”
“Hmm… AH! You could paint your nails, especially your toe nails, he’d definitely be into that!”
“My… toes? With everything I have on display all the time, I very much doubt he’s going to care about my toenails.”
“I’m the male gaze expert here, and trust me on this. Ren stares at your feet a lot.”
“He does?”
“Yeah… I think he’s a bit weird, but it’s hardly that uncommon, a lot of men are into that. A lot of my photoshoots made sure to keep my feet in shot for that added appeal. Can’t say I get it, but Ren’s definitely the type.”
“I don’t get it either, but I suppose it can’t hurt…”
“I’m thinking blue, to match your Queen outfit, he’ll definitely like that.”
“…Okay, you know more than me when it comes to this kind of thing. I’ll bow to your seniority.”
“Sure okay, I get to be your senpai now!”
“Ha.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, just Ren said something similar once.”
“I see. Come on, I know just the store for this kind of thing, you’re going to drive him absolutely wild, he won’t be able to hold himself back.”
“I’m not sure we need to go that far.”
“Yeah yeah.”
Notes:
This chapter is shorter than the others, in fact it's only half of what I intended to post this weekend, but stuff happened and my productivity took a nosedive, so I decided to just post what I have now and I'll post the next couple scenes as another chapter later on.
Look forward to the Yoshizawa subplot continuing and the arcade 'date'
Chapter 10: Naked life part 2
Summary:
Ren trains with Yoshizawa and goes to the arcade with Makoto
Notes:
Okay so this was meant to be one big chapter before, but was split into two- as I said before. Thankfully I think they function okay separately, sorry for the delay.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Ah Senpai, you’re finally here! Oh- sorry I didn’t mean ‘finally’ as in you’ve kept me waiting or anything, I’ve just been really looking forward to training together again.”
“No it’s fine, I am a bit later than I said I’d be anyway, I was helping Makoto with something this morning, but she’s with Ann now so I’m free for the rest of the day.”
‘Of course he was busy with her…’ Kasumi shook her head, as if to shake away her negative thoughts. ‘What’s wrong with me? Being so helpful and supportive to people is what makes Senpai so great, I should be proud of him, and yet…’
“Then we better make the most of it Senpai! It’s a lovely sunny day for it too. Lucky us.”
“It is, I made sure to wear something easy to run in. Speaking of which- you didn’t have much trouble getting here like um… like that?”
Kasumi had been so excited today about finally getting to spend some more time with Ren that she had almost forgotten she was still naked, in a public park. Thankfully there had been something going on in Shibuya square today, so it wasn’t as crowded here as usual, but there were still a fair few people leering at her. She really didn’t feel comfortable, but she wanted to put on a brave face for her senpai- since he clearly liked confident girls.
“No problem at all, I live within walking distance of here so I didn’t need any help getting here.”
“Walking distance, eh? That’s handy, I’ve only been here a couple times but this is a pretty nice park.”
“It is handy, I’m only about… 10- maybe 15 miles away? So I come out here pretty often.”
“That’s walking distance, is it? I guess that’s doable but it’s still impressive.”
‘Especially barefoot through city streets… presumably for an audience…’ Ren made sure not to say that part out loud.
“Oh it’s nothing, anyway we should get started warming up first, you remember the dynamic stretching I taught you, right?”
Thankfully, being with Ren made it easy for her to block out the rest of the world for a while. She watched him happily as he did his best to mimic her movements to prep themselves for their run. However, it also didn’t take her long to notice how closely he was watching her, she once again became very aware of the fact that she was showing him everything.
‘I mean, of course he’s looking at me, I’m instructing him… but he’s never stared that intensely before, and judging by where his eyes are… I very much doubt he’s gaining anything from watching the movements of my hips and breasts… he is at least paying close attention to where my feet are- that must be because he’s still trying to take the lessons at least somewhat seriously… right?’
Of course realizing how he’s looking at her in a way that’s not strictly focused on his education wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, she didn’t mind so much when he looked at her that way, it was the fact that it reminded her that others are going to be looking. There were still a fair number of people enjoying their Sunday in the park, and the show she was unwittingly putting on certainly drew their attention. As she bent over she heard the unmistakeable sound of a camera phone going off behind her, causing her to visibly flinch.
“Maybe we should get moving, this spot is…” Ren tried to think of an reason to not hang around that didn’t spell out the obvious for Kasumi- who was clearly feeling distressed. Thankfully he didn’t need to finish his sentence, as she was all too eager to get away from these people.
“Maybe you’re right, we’ll keep warming up with a light jog, is that okay?”
“Lovely jubbly.”
“Yes lo… wait what?”
“It’s just an expression of joy, don’t worry about it… though maybe I should stop making references literally no one gets, I need to keep my audience in mind more.”
“Senpai?”
“Oh ignore me, just thinking out loud. Let’s go.”
Thankfully as the pair left their audience didn’t follow. The began jogging at a comfortable, leisurely pace… or at least it was comfortable and leisurely for Kasumi. Ren had built up a fair amount of endurance from all his metaverse escapades, and much of it translated to real world strength too, but he was still just a regular lanky nerd about three months ago, he had to put some real effort in to even keep up with an actual athlete’s pace- even when they were just being casual. He had similar problems when working out with Ryuji, with him being both rusty and running on a bad leg- he couldn’t imagine how good he would have been in top condition. Ren made a mental note to see if Ryuji and Kasumi would be willing to work out together, and from there his mind drifted to running alongside Makoto, but the thoughts of watching her butt flex and jiggle as she ran were getting too distracting so he tried to force them out of his mind; he was already having enough trouble not leering at Kasumi’s butt too much as she ran slightly ahead of him.
Kasumi had only been a nudist for a few days now, but she very quickly noticed how different even something as simple as jogging felt when she was completely bare. Tokyo was much cleaner than many other cities of it’s size- in fact it had seemed inexplicably cleaner than usual lately, since shortly before Makoto became a nudist, which was suspiciously convenient- but it did mean she didn’t have to worry so much about accidentally stepping on something that could damage her bare feet. That said- the ground was still much rougher on her than she was used to running in sneakers. The dirt paths and grass was at least more pleasant than the all the concrete she ran over on the way here; really the textures all around were surprisingly enjoyable, but it did wear on her more than usual. She decided she just needed to tough it out and get used to it, same way she decided to just tough out the feeling of her breasts bouncing as she ran. She didn’t have much up front, but what she did have was usually being kept nice and stable in a nice sports bra, now nothing was supporting them. While her muscles and tendons were enough to keep it from feeling painful, it was still another new, uncomfortable sensation that drove home that awful reality.
She was still naked, and everyone could see her.
While it did certainly seem effective at getting more attention from her senpai, she really wished it would stop there. When she signed up for the program she was only thinking of him. Actually that was a lie, she was only thinking of her, the girl who commanded all of his attention. The nudist confident enough to just waltz in front of a news camera. And the worst part was she couldn’t even hate her, Makoto seemed so nice to her. Both times they’d crossed paths she was right there alongside Ren helping her when she couldn’t handle the attention on her, even at the cost of her own dignity. Her confidence felt so real, he looked so mature and powerful in her own body.
It didn’t matter how Kasumi looked at it, she felt like the lesser girl, and the lesser nudist. She needed to be confident and in control like Makoto was. That was the kind of girl Ren liked, that was who she needed to be.
While Haru had been very kind and supportive herself, Kasumi could tell she was holding something back, which made her hard to fully trust, but she still might be worth talking to about her nudist troubles, maybe it could help her be who she was trying to be? She resolved to definitely bring it up in her next counselling session with Dr. Maruki, she always felt better after talking to him.
For now she was just try to ignore the looks. The lustful looks from older men, the scandalized looks from mothers and other students, and the confused laughter from children wandering around the park.
She wasn’t very successful ignoring them, it got harder the further they went. Eventually she felt Ren’s hand on her wrist.
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay being out here right now?”
‘Dammit, is it that obvious?’ she mentally admonished herself.
“It’s nothing to worry about, let’s focus on the work-out for now.”
Kasumi kept jogging, but only for a few steps as she noticed Ren wasn’t following her anymore. She couldn’t bring herself to meet the look of pity he was giving her, before she could say anything else she could feel him wrapping his jacket around her.
“S-Senpai- I really don’t need—”
“It’s okay, you really shouldn’t force yourself to move this quickly.”
“I can do this Senpai!”
“Come here a second…”
Ren gently guided her off the path, they sat down behind a bush- mostly obscured from the public, and thanks to the jacket around her shoulders no one would notice anything suspicious about them. Even the feeling of the grass tickling her bottom and private parts was a strange and alien sensation, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, just strange.
“Yoshizawa-san, do you want to tell me why you’re pushing yourself so hard?”
She did her best to suppress her cringe; right out the gate with a difficult question to answer. She couldn’t just admit to him that he was the reason she was doing this.
“Just to be clear you’re allowed to say no, I’m not going to force you to tell me anything you don’t want to. I’m just worried since you’re clearly not comfortable with this nudism thing.”
‘Dammit, I usually love that you’re so considerate, in fact I still love it right now, but it’s really making things hard right for me.’
“It’s nothing to worry about Senpai, I guess I’m just not adapting as quickly as Makoto-senpai.”
Ren let out a good-natured chuckle.
“Yeah she really did adapt quickly didn’t she? Less than a month in and she’s fully made the always-naked lifestyle her own.”
Kasumi couldn’t help but grumble.
“But why are you comparing yourself to her? It’s hardly a competition.”
Ren definitely noticed how this hurt Kasumi, he was immediately overcome with guilt.
“Oh no- not like that! I don’t mean ‘hardly a competition’ in a bad way, I meant it in the sense that it’s not something people need to compete over. I’m sorry, that came out sounding really wrong.”
“It’s… it’s okay Senpai, we all misspeak sometimes…”
“I’m just saying you don’t have to rush yourself to adapt to the nudist lifestyle, in fact you can honestly back out of it any time you like.”
“NO! I mean- no. I don’t need to do that. I just need a little more time.”
“Are you sure?”
“…Positive.”
“…”
“Seriously Senpai, I’ll manage just fine.”
She still couldn’t bring herself to look at him, to see his look of pity. Mercifully he didn’t press any further and stood up.
“Well how about we continue our workout over here, away from the main paths? You can keep the jacket on for now.”
Kasumi wanted to refuse the clothing, force herself to face being naked head on, but it felt so warm and comfortable just wrapped around her shoulders. She decided to concede on this at least.
‘It smells like him…’
She suddenly understood why she would hear of girls wearing their boyfriend’s clothes sometimes, though Ren wasn’t her boyfriend- she still doubted she could win him over- the appeal was still clear to her right now. Putting on the jacket proper- it was large enough to function as a short, loose dress, though her bare legs would still make it clear to anyone watching that it was all she was wearing. She rolled up the sleeves, and smiled.
“Right, let’s get back to it. We haven’t pushed you nearly far enough today!”
“R-right.”
~ ~ ~
The next day, Makoto had called Ren to meet her during lunch. He couldn’t help but notice she was uncharacteristically bashful- or at least- uncharacteristic for the girl who was giving away all her clothes on TV with a confident smile on her face just yesterday morning.
She asked Ren to take her to the arcade afterschool, under the guise of wanting to understand how her fellow students spend their time. Much to her relief he agreed with no hesitation, and she spent the rest of her schoolday eagerly awaiting her first ‘date’.
While drawing attention has been the norm for her since she became a nudist, it was especially strong today. Both her interview and her stunt in Shibuya had become the most talked about things in school. Students were more eager to talk to her than ever, either congratulating her, asking for selfies with her, or just telling her how insane what she did was. She wasn’t sure exactly how to feel about becoming a celebrity, but it’s certainly an upgrade from when she was just a spectacle for everyone. That’s not to say all the attention was positive, there were a fair number of haters or those who just saw her as a slut- and she had a hard time denying the latter after those close-ups were shown demonstrating her excitement. She’d be lying if she said these comments didn’t hurt her, but thanks to Ren’s words of support and the fans who did see her positively becoming much more vocal, she could live with it.
Though she did have one more thing she had to do before she could just focus on her not-quite-date with Ren later:
“…Unfortunately I could not find any evidence that the Phantom Thieves attend Shujin academy. I can only apologize for a disappointing conclusion to my investigation.”
“That simply won’t do! Hmph! Maybe I will have to reconsider your letter of recommendation after all.”
Makoto did her best to stifle a smug chuckle.
“Oh I won’t be needing a letter, I plan to get into Tokyo U purely on my own merits, though it was nice of you to offer to help.”
Kobayakawa’s patience was clearly wearing thin.
“I hope you realize that your failure here could reflect very poorly on your sister.”
Makoto had to actively hold back laughter at this point.
“Yes, you can tell the police and the SIU that the Shujin student council president wasn’t able to do their jobs better than them, I’m sure they’ll understand.”
The potatoman looked about ready to explode.
“I suppose at least this will give you more time to focus on promoting the Shujin nudist program, perhaps I’ll even have to make it permanent.”
Okay she couldn’t hold it back anymore; she realized that maybe it wasn’t proper for her to be laughing directly in his face like this, but the look on his face as he said that- he genuinely thought he was making a threat.
“I’m guessing you don’t watch the news? You really should do some catching up.”
“How dare—”
“Now that the investigation is closed, I’ll be returning to class now. Please excuse me.”
Makoto left with her head held high, still trying to keep her laughter under control and pretend to be respectful- even though she realized it was a lost cause at this point, leaving the potato to stew in his anger… there was a joke there somewhere, but Makoto wasn’t in the business of putting it together right now. All she cared about right now was her trip to the arcade.
~ ~ ~
Her new celebrity status followed her outside of school too. Even in the short walk from Shibuya station to the arcade she had posed for no less than thirty selfies. While she found herself enjoying the attention, and actually managed to feel the love, it was getting a little tiresome when a trip that should take two minutes instead takes half an hour.
“It’s pretty funny how since that broadcast, people now want pictures with you rather than just of you.”
“It does feel like an upgrade, but I can already tell this is going to get old fast when I’m actually trying to get somewhere.”
“I bet this is how idols feel.”
“Now I can really appreciate why they wear disguises, like a mask and sunglasses, when they go out in public. Not that I can do the same- since it’s not my face I’m known for.”
“Ha! Unfortunately so. But don’t worry, it’s because your status is still brand new, they’ll relax a bit after a while, plus you don’t HAVE to stop for everyone.”
“I mean they’re being nice, I guess there’s no harm in my being courteous, at least for a little while- I might have to get a bit more ruthless as time goes on.”
“Fair… Um… Makoto?”
“Hm?”
“Is it uh…” Ren trailed off.
“You okay?”
“Since you’re being courteous and all, do you think we could take one together?”
“HUH? You want one too?”
“I mean, you don’t have to if it makes you feel awkward or anything like that, I just thought that maybe—”
He was cut off when he felt her arm wrap around his waist and pull him close.
“S-smile!”
With a light blush on her face- and a shocked look on his- she snapped a picture of the two of them on her phone.
“There we go, I’ll send this to you too. N-now let’s head inside.” She rushed ahead into the arcade, almost leaving him behind in a dazed state. She hoped that by the time he came in with her she wouldn’t look so flustered anymore.
‘I really hope that wasn’t too forward… I’m not coming on too strong, am I? He definitely felt my breast right then.’ She slapped her cheeks. ‘No, focus. We’re just here to have a good time, I can’t afford to worry about every little thing right now.’
Ren joined her inside, and since neither were sure how to address what just happened, Makoto changed the subject as quickly as possible.
“There are more girls here than I thought.”
“Hm? I mean yeah, gaming is hardly a male-exclusive thing. You buy into stereotypes too much.”
“I guess so. So um… where should we start?”
“Hm… the Gun About cabinet is free, you feel like trying that?”
“Oh? So the controller is shaped like a gun? That’s rather realistic.”
Ren chuckled.
“Not sure that’s the right word, but sure, let’s give it a shot.”
While the arcade was more crowded than usual- in large part due to the now-famous nudist’s ‘fanclub’ following her inside- the pair were able to make their way to the machine without incident. If her nudity wasn’t drawing everyone’s attention, the cute screams and squeals she made while playing certainly did. She couldn’t help but move along with her character, bumping into Ren more than once while they played. She was very apologetic each time it happened, and he thought it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen, she ended up scoring higher than him since he was more focused on how into it she was getting rather than the game itself.
“Wow, that was more intense than I was expecting.”
“You looked like you were having fun.”
“I’ve never really played a videogame since I was a child, Sae used to go to arcades now and again in middle school, and sometimes I’d be with her, but that was it- and such a long time ago now… but yeah- it was fun.”
“I’m glad, you’re a real gamer girl now.”
“Is that all it takes to be a ‘gamer girl’?”
“Let’s see: step 1- be a girl” he made a show of looking up and down her body. “Check.”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Step 2- play a game. Check. Yeah that’s all it takes.”
“Right, well maybe I should try more often. We’ve still got some time, which one should we try next?”
Ren scanned the rest of the arcade (or at least as much as he could over the crowd- which had thinned- but was still very much there).
“I could teach you how to play KOF?”
“You know how to play those games? I hear they’re rather complicated.”
“People exaggerate, it’s all about fundamentals: when to attack vs when to defend, managing the distance between you and the opponent, understanding the functions of the abilities available to you.”
“That actually sounds like it’d be handy for the metaverse, it sounds closer to real fighting than I thought it would.”
“I didn’t think of it that way- but yeah, I guess it would be useful.” Ren was slightly worried he had set her expectations too high, he only played casually after all, really he was happy to finally have someone to play with.
“Oh some of the machines are free, we should move quick!” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the game. For the next couple hours Makoto was able to forget about the rest of the world. Her school responsibilities, her role as a phantom thief, Kaneshiro’s upcoming change of heart, her new ‘celebrity’ status, her nudity, even the fact that this was her attempt at a date; all she thought about was how wonderful it was to finally enjoy a day out with a real friend.
‘I need to do this WAY more often.’
Notes:
This story keeps shifting wildly between "dumb fetish story" and "attempt at actualy story with angst and fluff". Frankly I'm not sure how many people enjoy both. So to those of who you only enjoy one side of it- I'm sorry.
I'm not going to change anything about it or come down on one side or the other, so I'm not really sorry, but I'll say I'm sorry since it feels like the right thing to do xD
Chapter Text
“Begone accursed one! I shall never forgive you for causing the death of the world! My light, searing with anger, shall wipe you from existence! I am the truth. INFINITE LIGHT!”
Click
“Checkmate.” Hifumi gave Ren a small bow, a content smile on her face, already resetting the shogi board for the next game and ignoring the odd looks the church’s other occupants were shooting her.
“Damn…” Ren scratched his head. “That move always gets me.”
“You always start preparing too late, you need to be preparing for moves like that the whole match, alongside whatever offensive strategy you’re using.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right… Thanks Hifumi, I’ll keep it in mind for our next match.”
“Don’t worry, you are improving, but you have a long way to go.”
Hifumi had a proud- if somewhat subdued- smile on her face.
“Ren…”
“Hm?”
“Forgive me if this is somehow rude of me to ask, but you’re friends with that nudist girl the news has been talking about? I’ve seen you with her on the TV.”
“With Makoto? Yeah we’re friends. We both go to Shujin and have been helping eachother out.”
“I see, that’s really nice. What she’s doing is pretty… out there, but she’s lucky to have you supporting her.” Hifumi’s expression dropped slightly. “Though I must say, I really hope this ‘Shujin nudist program’ doesn’t catch on, I wouldn’t want Kosei to adopt such a program.”
“Oh? Maybe this is a dumb question but- why not?”
“Well, I don’t necessarily disagree with the idea of people being allowed to go nude if they so desire, I don’t consider myself a prude, but if it did come to Kosei I know my mother would force me to sign up.”
“Ahh… I see, yeah being pressured into something like that would be pretty terrible. Would your mother really do that though?”
“Definitely, purely for the publicity. I can see it now- ‘Hifumi Togo- The skyclad princess of Shogi! The Yamato Nadeshiko beauty who lays bare her body, heart, and soul- but her calculating mind lies beyond the sight of her opponents’”
Ren couldn’t help but smirk.
“That was oddly specific…”
Hifumi sighed.
“I just know how my mother’s mind works… She loves ridiculous things like that…”
Ren thought it best not to admit that he thought it sounded pretty cool.
“I want to be known for my Shoji abilities, not my ‘beauty’… OH- I’m not being like ‘oh I’m so beautiful’ or anything like that, it’s just that’s how it’d be framed!”
Ren chuckled.
“I know, I know. That’s just how news media works after all… I wouldn’t worry too much, even at Shujin only one person aside from Makoto herself has signed up. The participants are popular but the program itself certainly isn’t, I doubt it’ll spread to Kosei anytime soon.”
“I can only hope…” She sighed again, Ren tried to think of something comforting he could say to her, but instead she continued. “What is this Makoto girl like, anyway?”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean, you have to admit what she did- what she’s doing, is rather unusual, I’m honestly surprised it’s being allowed. You have to be pretty special to do what she’s doing with a smile on your face.”
“Yeah… she is pretty amazing…” Hifumi shot a knowing look at Ren’s slightly wistful smile. “She struggled a bit early on, but even then she kept pushing forward, and now she’s really made it her own. She’s no longer ‘enduring’ it, she’s owning it; that’s really admirable in my eyes.”
“Hmm… Yes I think I can understand that viewpoint. Confidence really is an attractive trait, no?”
“You can say that again…” Ren started blushing. “Though she can still be a bit nervous and reserved in certain ways, like she often worries about her interests being ‘weird for a girl’, like she would have these ideas like enjoying action movies is weird for girls for some reason.”
“I see, I can understand why she might think that, some people really do push some… outdated opinions on us…”
“I get that, but life just becomes so much easier to enjoy when you stop worrying about other people’s opinions. And when you realize that ‘societal expectations’ are just one more opinion for you to ignore.”
Hifumi stared at him thoughtfully for a while, before nodding.
“Yes- that’s a rather nice way to look at it, I’ll try to keep that in mind myself from now on. Ha- look at you being all wise.”
“I’m not, that’s all obvious stuff that everyone knows, but they just forget sometimes.”
“Well thank you for reminding me. I’m sure Makoto appreciates it too, she’s lucky to have you in her corner.”
“I should introduce you sometime, you’ve both got that dignified, slightly ‘regal’ vibe, I reckon you’d get along great.”
“Hm… perhaps I’ll take you up on that offer sometime, though- and I hope this isn’t rude- but I’d like to avoid getting my picture with her in the press, I really don’t want to give mother ideas.”
“Ha- yeah we’ll be careful.”
“Anyway enough of that, it’s time for our next match!” Hifumi took a deep breath to get into character. “I am Hifumi, blade of Togo, and I have never known defeat.”
Ren didn’t say it aloud of course, but he was really starting to get sick of hearing that line.
~ ~ ~
“We’re nearly here Kasumi-chan.”
“Right, thank you for always doing this for me Okumura-senpai.”
Haru did wish that Kasumi was comfortable enough to just call her Haru, but she realized that trying to rush things would only cause problems, not to mention Yoshizawa already seemed rather down.
“I hope I’m not being too forward, but I’d like it if you could feel safe talking to me.”
Kasumi looked over to the older girl, tilting her head slightly.
“It just seems like you have something on your mind. I won’t force you to tell me, but maybe talking about it would help?”
“Um… thank you Okumura-senpai…”
A rather uncomfortable silence fell over the pair. Haru decided against pushing further, and Kasumi took a sip from her bottled water.
“Well…”
Haru’s head perked up instantly from the response, a hopeful smile on her face.
“Okumura-senpai, do you have any experience with… boys?”
Thankfully Kasumi wasn’t looking at her face as she asked this, otherwise she would have seen it twist into a look of pained disgust.
“Yes… I suppose you could say that…”
Yoshizawa’s eyes were still averted.
“Because, I might have… god this is embarrassing…”
‘More embarrassing than public nudity?’ Haru thought to herself.
“…I might have a bit of boy trouble.”
“I see, I can imagine you’ve been getting unwanted attention.”
“No… I mean… yeah- but that wasn’t what I was talking about. There’s actually a specific boy I have in mind, but it’s clear as day that his interests lie elsewhere…”
Haru was surprised at first, but very quickly realized exactly who she was talking about.
“I see…”
“Like, the other girl isn’t a bad person at all, I understand why he’s interested. Which is why I need to be more like her, but I’m not sure how to do that.”
“Huh? Be like her?”
“Since that’s the kind of girl he likes, that’s what I have to aim for!”
‘Wait… she’s talking about Niijima-san, isn’t she? Wait…’ A terrible realization began to dawn on Haru. ‘Is THAT the reason why Kasumi-chan went nudist? No…’
“Um… Kasumi-chan, what’s wrong with the way you are now?”
“Huh?” Kasumi just looked confused, as if the question asked was just nonsense. “Well… I dunno if it’s because I’m not as pretty as she is, or as… womanly… but the main thing is that I just don’t have the confidence I need.”
Haru held her chin with her thumb and index finger.
‘I see, if that’s it then I guess it might not be as bad as I thought? Actually this could still work out.’
Haru shot her brightest, most cheerful smile.
“Don’t be silly Sumi-chan! You’re plenty beautiful already! And plenty…” her eyes drifted down her body.” …plenty… womanly~”
Kasumi grew redder with each passing moment.
“A-are you sure? Wait- Sumi-chan?”
Haru didn’t even realize she had called her that until now, she cursed herself for getting too excited, and decided it was better to ignore it right now.
“Of course, you’re gorgeous Kasumi-chan, everyone can see that!”
“Everyone can see… don’t remind me…”
Haru cursed herself again for being careless with her choice of wording.
“It’s okay- I’ll… I can protect you!” Haru said shifting herself closer, unconsciously leaning forwards. “People might look- and we can hardly blame them when you’re so pretty- but I promise they won’t get to do anything beyond that. I’m much stronger than I look after all!”
Kasumi wasn’t sure how to feel. On the one hand Haru seemed a bit too eager for her liking, but on the other she at least seemed genuine, and having someone protecting her would help her feel much better about being so exposed, maybe this could be what she needs to become more confident?
“Um… okay, if I’m free maybe we could spend the lunch breaks together at least?”
Haru was positively bouncing in her seat at this point, subtly pumping her fists.
“Wonderful. Don’t worry, I’ll take proper care of you, and make sure you realize just how beautiful you are!”
Kasumi averted her eyes.
“Um… thank you? Please take care of me.”
“We’ve arrived Lady Okumura.” The driver called out to them, having been politely pretending to ignore them. He exited the car to hold the door for her and her guest.
“Come on Kasumi-chan! Stay close to me and you’ll be fine!”
“R-right!”
The pair thanked the driver and made their way into school, leaving the driver to his thoughts as he climbed back into the car.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen the young lady this excited before, it’s nice to see her actually enjoy her ride for once.’ His expression turned somber. ‘Certainly better than whenever Sugimura joins us… What is her father thinking?’ He sighed. ‘Oh well… not as if I can do anything about it… I’ll just keep her new friend secret as long as I possibly can.’
~ ~ ~
“So Makoto- how did it go?”
“How’d what go?”
“Are you serious? The date! How’d the date go?”
“It wasn’t really a date Ann, we were just hanging out together.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Fine- how’d your ‘hanging out’ with Ren go?”
Makoto’s cheeks were dusted pink.
“We had a lot of fun, we played a bunch of games in the arcade, then he took me to see a movie.”
“Makoto- that’s called a date.”
“I mean we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend yet or anything.”
Ann tried to stifle her laugh, she failed.
“Oh my god Makoto you really don’t know anything about romance, do you?”
Makoto’s glare was rather neutered by how bright she was glowing.
“Whatever- whether it counted as a date or not, we got on really well, I think he had fun too. We even took a selfie together.”
“Oho? Show me!”
Makoto opened up the image saved on her phone and showed it to Ann, whose excitement couldn’t be contained.
“Oh my god- look at you being all aggressive! Pulling him in like that. Look at his face, he can’t believe it! You go girl.”
“Could you please keep it down? Anyone could hear you.”
“I take it back, maybe you do understand some romance after all. There’s no way Ren wasn’t thinking about that side-hug for the rest of the day.”
Makoto had buried her face in her hands at this point.
“Oh, the team nudist does still get embarrassed?”
“Of course I do! I mean… ugh…”
“So- where you taking him next?”
“Well I was going to ask him to help me with something in the red light district.”
“Holy shit girl- that’s going a bit too fast, don’t you think?”
“What?” Realization struck Makoto, and there are really only so many ways to describe how her blush kept growing greater. “NO NO NO- not for that kind of thing! I need his help on some student council investigations, apparently a student has been seen around that area, we have to make sure nothing untoward is going on.”
“Still, you sure you’re okay going to a place like that naked? I don’t wanna say you’re ‘asking for it’ but…”
“It’s fine, I’m not going to take any risks, going to avoid going inside anywhere shady, avoiding alleys and such.”
“And Ren will be there to protect you, it should be fine… hopefully.”
“I can defend myself just fine! Though I will feel much safer with him by my side… Actually I’ve already learned the hard way how important it is to have back-up.” She tightly gripped her own arm.
“Yeah… that must have been pretty terrifying back then… Still- don’t beat yourself up over it, we all came out fine, lets not dwell on awful things like that.” Ann put a comforting hand on Makoto’s back, she looked back at her and smiled.
“Yes… thank you. Thank you all.”
“Don’t worry about it, you’re part of the team now.” Ann clapped her hands. “Anyway back to the fun topic- the second date! Well… actually an investigation definitely isn’t a date, but still it’ll give you two some more time together, and an excuse to hold onto his arm for ‘safety’” She gave a teasing smirk.
“I’m not going to do that, that’s definitely too forward.”
“Boo… Lame. Oh?” Ann looked past Makoto- prompting her to turn around herself. “Hey guys!”
Ren and Ryuji approached. Makoto desperately hoped neither questioned why she looked so flustered right now.
“Yo what’s up Ann, Makoto?” Ryuji’s greeting was louder than necessary, but nothing the others weren’t used to.
“Hey guys.” Ren’s greeting was much calmer, but no less friendly.
Morgana yawned as he emerged from Ren’s bag.
“Greetings Queen. And Lady Ann~ What are you talking about?”
“NOTHING!” Makoto said, shaking her head.
Ren laughed.
“Come on Makoto, lacking volume control is Ryuji’s whole shtick.”
“Dick.” Ryuji mumbled.
“Actually Ren.” Ann caught his attention with a wave, but her eyes- and her smirk- were still on Makoto. “Makoto wanted to ask you something.”
Makoto shot Ann her fiercest glare, and judging by her flinch- it was at least somewhat effective. Ren raised an eyebrow at the exchange.
“Oh? What’s up Makoto?
She turned back to him with a nervous smile.
“Just some student council business, an afterschool investigation in… in the uh…” she looked at Ryuji and Morgana briefly, before looking down at her lunch. “I’ll tell you about it later…”
Morgana and Ryuji exchanged a confused look, and Ann seemed pretty disappointed, but Ren smiled through it all.
“Sure, I’d be happy to help with whatever.”
Makoto looked up just enough to quickly make eye contact with him, before nodding.
“Thank you.”
“You guys are weird.” Ryuji shook his head. “And I’ll show you what else is weird.”
The others looked at him, then in the direction he was gesturing with his head. Across the courtyard area, the other resident nudist- Yoshizawa, could be seen walking along- carrying a distressingly large lunchbox with one hand, and holding onto the hem of a very happy-looking Haru’s top with the other.
“They certainly got close quick, huh?”
“No kidding.” Ann inspected them as best she could from this distance. “Although Yoshizawa does look rather embarrassed by it… or maybe she’s just embarrassed being naked still, hard to say for sure.”
“Someone is approaching them.” Makoto pointed out the two male students approaching them. Both her and Ren subtly prepared themselves to rush over if things looked like they were taking a bad turn.
They couldn’t hear what was being said, but they saw the two boys approach and begin speaking to them, Yoshizawa’s brave face was faltering, but Haru took a tight grip of her arm and made sure to stand between the nudist and her ‘fans’. They weren’t sure how she was handling it, but despite her smile- something Haru had said had very clearly terrified the boys, and they were quick to flee. Even Kasumi suddenly had a fearful look on her face, but it disappeared after Haru turned back to her and said something. The two continued walking out of sight.
“I guess Okumura-san really is doing a good job of looking after her?” Makoto still sounded slightly unsure. “I guess that’s good.”
Ren breathed a sigh of relief.
“Maybe we were right to trust her after all.”
“I hope so, I admit I had a pretty awful first impression of her, but I think I realize now that holding that against her was unfair of me.”
“Maybe… I do still think we should check out her palace when we get a chance though…”
“Yeah, that does sound like a good idea…” Makoto nearly returned to her lunch, before freezing, and looking back up to Ren. “Wait- what did you say Ren?”
“Hm? Oh yeah that’s what I wanted to mention- Haru Okumura has a palace.”
“FOR REAL?!”
“Ryuji that was right in my ear.”
“Since when does Haru have a palace? How did you find out?”
“Whenever I’m bored I enter every name I can think of into the nav, I got a hit on her.”
“Does that mean she’s some kind of villain?”
“Not necessarily.” Morgana interjected. “To have a palace you have to have distorted desires, and while villainous types usually do have them, it’s hardly exclusive to them. It’s one of those ‘every square is a rectangle but not vice versa’ things. She could be as nice as she seems, but she’s clearly hiding some desires. Judging by the readings the nav is giving us, it’s a smaller affair than the others we’ve faced, it’s probably fairly new. But still, it’s worth at least taking a look at.”
Ren nodded.
“I’ve got her name and the location- the school. We just need the keyword for the distortion. I was hoping we could discuss it at today’s meeting.”
“R…Right…” Makoto nodded. “We’ll discuss it later, best to keep quiet about it in public.”
She supposed her investigation with Ren would have to wait until later.
Notes:
Nothing in the way of smut this chapter, I have to remember to actually advance the plot now and again.
Chapter 12: Infant palace part 1
Summary:
The investigation begins.
Notes:
Hey you know that thing that happened a couple chapters back where things were getting too long and progress was getting too slow for me writing so I split the chapter in 2 and just posted what I had so far as "part 1"?
Yeah that happened again...
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Aquarium?”
“Ryuji why would it be an aquarium?”
“I dunno, it might have been, I’m just throwing shit out there…”
“It’s not ‘castle’ again is it?”
“Funhouse?”
“Factory?”
“Cruiseship?”
“Colosseum?”
“Theatre?”
“Castle?”
“You already said castle.”
“A school?”
“It’s already a school in real life though…”
“It might have been a different kind of school?”
“ARGH!” Ryuji slammed his fist on the desk. “This is stupid!”
“Ryuji there are still customers downstairs, we don’t want boss to get mad at us again.”
“I know but… no you’re right, sorry Ren.”
“We’re all frustrated too Ryuji.” Makoto rubbed her forehead. “And you’re right, we’re not getting anywhere through blind trial and error like this. If we had any idea at all what Okumura-san’s actual ‘distorted desires’ were we could make some actually educated guesses.”
“I’m sorry to ask again, but why are we doing this to begin with? I don’t even go to Shujin so I don’t know this Haru you keep talking about, is she dangerous?”
Ren shrugged.
“We don’t think so, in fact she seems perfectly nice, it’s only due to me randomly entering names in the nav that we learned she had a palace in the first place. She’s been spending a lot of time with a friend- another nudist- and we thought it worthwhile to just look at the palace to make sure there’s nothing devious going on that we don’t know about.”
“Do you think that perhaps we’re overstepping?” Makoto looked to Ren. “This could be interpreted as a violation of privacy, and if it turns out she’s harmless after all then we’re just being nosy, aren’t we?”
“Shit, I dunno… I’m still in the ‘we should check to be safe’ camp, but perhaps we should step back and rethink for now, at least until we get some kind of idea of what the last keyword is. All in favor of taking a break?”
After chorus of rather reluctant ‘ayes’, everyone slouched back in their respective seats, including Makoto who seemed not to realize the show she was giving to everyone by doing so. Excited and continuous cheering could be heard from downstairs.
“Is that the TV?”
“Probably, Boss’s curry and coffee is good but not good enough to provoke that kind of reaction from his customers.”
“Hilarious…” Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Doesn’t he always just have like- the news on? What are they cheering about?”
“Boss just sticks some daytime TV on sometimes, I think they’re doing one of those dog shows today, y’know the ones where they get the little dogs to run through obstacle courses.”
“Aww I love those! Me and Shiho used to watch clips from those during our lunch breaks sometimes.” Ann’s smile quickly turned from excited to bittersweet at the memories, but before anyone could say anything else the MetaNav responded.
“Huh? For real?!”
“Ryuji?”
“You’re seriously telling me ‘Dog show’ was the keyword? That’s bullcrap!”
“I must agree.” Yusuke grimaced. “A dog show is an event- not a location.”
Ren just shrugged.
“Yeah we would have never got that one, thanks convenient TV show!”
“So what now?” Morgana stood up. “Do we go check it out?”
Everyone exchanged looks. Ren stood up as well.
“Well I’m for it, but we’ll only go if it’s unanimous, what does everyone think?”
Ren looked to Makoto first, as did the others. She brought her hand to her chin in thought in that way that Ren always found cute.
“Well… I guess there’s no harm in looking, but I think if we don’t see anything harmful and it starts getting personal, we should think about just pulling out.”
“Agreed, this is a just recon, we’re not changing any hearts or anything.”
“We’ll just confirm Yoshizawa-san is safe with her for now.”
After everyone had agreed they decided to head out and back to school, ready to investigate, thanking Sojiro on the way out for letting them come over. He insisted it was no trouble, though he made a special effort not to let his gaze linger on Makoto at all; he didn’t want any rumors spreading about him, and she wasn’t his type anyway- too young. Though he did look at Ren quite proudly ever since he first brought her to the café with him, though neither Ren nor the others worried about that for now, instead focused on the task ahead.
~ ~ ~
The thieves put their phones away in their pockets, except for Makoto of course, who didn’t want to bring her bag into the metaverse and had to give her phone to Ren for safekeeping.
“I guess nudism does have its downsides huh?” Ren chuckled.
“I should probably invest in a waist pouch or something.”
“Maybe a bandolier?”
“Worry about that later man.” Ryuji looked up at the school. “Are you sure we’re even in the metaverse right now? The school looks the same as always.”
“From the outside at least…” Yusuke added. “And we’re dressed the same as always too.”
“We’re definitely there. Me being in this form confirms it.” Morgana stretched his arms as if to demonstrate. “You’re all dressed as normal because the palace ruler doesn’t perceive you as a threat yet- hopefully they won’t at all. As for the school I’m not sure, we should head inside rather than just make guesses from out here.
“It’s definitely colder than usual.” Makoto thought aloud as they climbed the steps.
“Really? Feels more or less the same to me.”
“I suppose she’d be more sensitive to such changes than you would Ann.”
“I guess… you gonna be alright Makoto?”
“I’m fine, doesn’t bother me, in fact it’s rather nice. Thanks tho--”
Makoto suddenly stopped mid sentence, her eyes narrowing at something in the opposite direction of the school. The other turns to follow her line of sight, but saw nothing but the usual city skyline.
“Uh, Mako? You good?”
Makoto stared a little longer, then shook her head.
“Sorry, I thought I saw something moving behind those buildings. Must have just been my imagination.”
“R-right…”
“Sorry, let’s just head inside for now.”
The group nodded and entered through the front doors of the school and examined their surroundings.
“Okay yeah, this is definitely different… the school definitely used to have a roof.”
They looked up to find much of the roof- and presumably the other floors- were open and let in a healthy amount of sunlight, the wall that separated the entrance from the courtyard was absent, the courtyard itself resembling an ornate garden with a few large white gazebos dotted around.
“Hmm…” Ren continued scanning the area. “It’s weird, it’s obviously different, but the main floor plan of the school is still there. The other palaces changed a lot more than this…”
“I think there are two reasons for that.” Morgana crossed him arms and tried to look as authoritative as possible. “One is that this Haru’s view of the school- while still distorted- is much closer to reality than the others we encountered, it’s simply a less extreme distortion than we’re used to. Another is that these distortions were probably formed very recently, and haven’t had time to fully take shape- look!”
The thieves looked to where he was pointing, some of the shoe lockers seemed to be misshapen, parts having faded away entirely, other parts seemed to be shifting to a different color, and all of it was shimmering in the same way safe room doors would.
“These lockers look like they’re half-way between their original form and something else entirely. Presumably if we came back after long enough they would finish distorting into something to match the theme of the palace.”
“So the palace hasn’t finished forming yet?”
Morgana nodded to Yusuke.
“Think of it as being under construction.”
Makoto approached one of the shoe lockers and opened it, reaching inside and pulling out a bone-shaped chew toy. She held it for a few moments, staring at it.
“I don’t get it…”
“That does feel… kinda random…” Ann flinched when someone entered her peripheral vision, taking a defensive position for a moment before getting a look at their faces. “Wait a second, I know these girls, they’re shujin students, but… why are they dressed like that?”
“They’re dressed all hoity-toity-like.”
“Interesting way to word it Ryuji, but you’re not wrong.” Ann relaxed a little- just a little though. “They look like dresses from some fairy tale ball, honestly a bit too fancy even for a place as nice as that garden. I feel a little underdressed…”
“Oh do you now?”
“Heheh… right, I guess I shouldn’t complain huh Makoto?”
“Relax, I’m only teasing.” Makoto smiled deviously, before remembering they were still in unfamiliar territory, and couldn’t be certain that they were safe yet.
“Don’t worry Makoto, I still think you’re the best dressed person here.”
“Very funny Ren, now if you don’t mind we have some actual investigating to do, okay?”
“Yeah okay Nancy Drew, our detective work starts now!”
“What did you call her Ren?”
Ren shrugged.
“Y’know, because of the teenage detective thing? I guess that makes me Ned…”
“Ren shut up and let’s just go ask them what’s going on.”
“Okay okay- Drew crew- move out!”
Makoto elbowed Ren in the stomach, then approached the girls who hadn’t seemed to notice their presence yet. After Ren recovered he run to catch up with her. The girls seemed to be laughing about something.
“Um, excuse me?”
They turned and looked at her thoughtfully, making no effort to hide their wandering gazes.
“Ah I see, you must be the other one?”
“Not a bad specimen, I must say. I might even prefer her.”
“Other one? What do you mean?”
The girls didn’t answer her question, just continuing to analyse her body. One reached out and tried to lift her left breast. Immediately Makoto flinched away with an expression of half-shock, half-fury.
“What the—what do you think you’re doing?!”
Again they ignore her, instead turning to Ren.
“Is she yours?”
“She’s rather jumpy, isn’t she?”
“Wait, what?” Ren looked at Makoto- who was still glaring at the girls, before looking back at them himself. “Is she mine?”
“You must be her owner right?”
“HUH?!” Both Ren and Makoto recoiled.
“I have to say she’s truly beautiful, she could even best Lady Okumura’s if she’s lucky, but you really need to work on disciplining her more. You can’t have your pets freaking out at the slightest touch like that.”
“P-pet?!” Makoto took a step forwards. “Now look here, I’m no one’s pet!”
“And now she’s getting aggressive towards me, that could get you kicked out in no time at all.” The girls still only talked to Ren. “I’ll forgive you for coming here so casually dressed since I really do think your pet has potential, but I can’t forgive you lacking control over her. Please keep her in line.”
“Right, sorry, it’s her first time at a place like this.”
“REN?!” She turned to him with a horrified look on her face.
He looked genuinely apologetic and leaned over to whisper to her.
“I’m sorry, but just go with it for now, we could use this as a cover story to get more information.”
“I can’t have them thinking—”
“Makoto they’re only cognitions, it doesn’t matter what they think, but playing along is our best move for now.”
“Ugh…” Makoto still seemed disgusted by the idea, but she realized he was probably right. “Fine, this way we can avoid putting ourselves in danger, but I reserve the right to put an end to it at any point, deal?”
“Deal. And I won’t let any of them touch you.”
“I should certainly hope not.”
Ren turned back to the girls.
“Again, I’m sorry. She’s actually a very well behaved and smart girl, this is all just very new.”
“Well I suppose we can overlook this this once.”
“Yes, just this once, since she is so very pretty.”
“You can say that again.” Ren smiled, while Makoto looked away- partially in annoyance, partially to hide her blush.
“If you’re thinking of entering her, you should definitely talk to Lady Okumura, she knows more than anyone else how to raise a perfect pet.”
“I see, and where could we find her?”
The girls snickered.
“Oh I wouldn’t worry about finding her, she’s so often wandering the grounds with that lovely pet of hers. The crowd is always happy to see her.”
Makoto and Ren exchanged a worried look.
“I see, do you think it’d be possible to talk to her away from the crowds? I’d um… like to ask her for advice for caring for my own pet.”
Ren mouthed another apology to Makoto, who just sighed.
“Hmm… try the upper floors, you might get lucky.”
“I see, thank you very much for your help, we’ll go find her now.”
“Best of luck, we’ll be rooting for…”
They looked to Ren expectantly, it took him a few moments to understand.
“Oh um… Nancy, my um… pet’s name is Nancy”.
Makoto raised a sceptical eyebrow at Ren.
“My, what an interesting choice.”
“Very well, we look forward to seeing Nancy perform.”
“Perform?” Makoto’s eyes went wide and shot between the girls as they walked off and Ren, who looked equally worried himself. “What are they expecting me to do?”
“Whatever it is we’ll try to make sure it doesn’t go that far, we just need to get close enough to talk to Haru’s shadow.”
They pair returned to the rest of the thieves.
“So?”
“Apparently they call her ‘Lady Okumura’ and we’ll find her and her ‘pet’ somewhere on the upper floors.”
“Pet?” Ryuji’s face went red. “Is this uh… one of those kinda things?”
“What kinda things?” Ann tilted her head.
“N-nothing!” Ryuji looked away and tried to whistle, Ren couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Worried it’ll start to resemble your search history Ryuji?”
“DUDE!”
“Don’t worry, we’re not gonna get anything bad happen, we’re just going to talk to Haru’s shadow, see what’s up, and leave, okay?”
“Although…” Makoto looked to the ground. “In order to get close, I’m going to have to…” She looked to be in physical pain trying to finish her sentence. “I’ll have to pretend to be another… another ‘pet’.”
Ren glared at the others in a way that ordered them not to laugh, it thankfully worked but it didn’t do much to assuage Makoto’s humiliation.
“How are you gonna do that?”
“I’m not sure Ann, those girls just assumed I was one, no doubt because I’m naked.”
Ren nodded.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that the other ‘pet’ is going to be Yoshizawa, lets just find her before we do anything else.”
“Me and Ren will lead the way, the rest of you just try not to draw attention, but at the same time stay close enough to leap into action if we need you.”
The others nodded as Ren and Makoto walked further into the school. It appeared the further away from the centre of the school courtyard, the less pronounced the distortions were. The upper floors on either side were still mostly intact, but somewhat resembled stands for an audience; an audience made up of more students in overly intricate formal wear, openly inspecting Makoto as she passed.
“You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah, this really isn’t much different than normal…”
Ren could tell she was uncomfortable though, and it was clear why. The stares here definitely seemed more mean-spirited than those in reality. That’s not to say they were outright mocking, but they definitely looked at her as something lesser, something just there for their entertainment; there were some like that in the real world, but also plenty of others who still saw her as a person rather than a spectacle.
“Just stay close to me, okay?”
“R-right…”
The others weren’t comfortable either, feeling really out of place in their casual summer clothes in an atmosphere they didn’t understand. Thankfully- though also somewhat annoyingly, everyone ignored them, their gazes barely lingering for longer than an instant, though Ryuji swore he heard a “He’d make a good one” muttered behind him on at least one occasion. Everyone was eager to get this over with and leave.
~ ~ ~
“We haven’t come across any shadows yet, have we? Not that I’m complaining”
“You’re right Ann. That should bring me comfort, but instead it just makes me feel uneasy…”
Makoto held onto her wrist.
“I know what you mean, we’re able to just walk anywhere we like, it feels way too easy…”
“It’s probably just another result of the palace not being fully formed yet, it’s probably nothing to worry about.” Despite his words, Morgana struggled to hide his own nervousness. “Let’s just make the most of it while we can, but stay on guard just in case.”
Makoto continued looking around warily as they climbed the stairs.
“The way up to the roof is laid out the same as normal, but everything looks more…”
“Expensive?”
“I suppose that’s as good a word as any. Almost feels like we’re walking through a palace- an actual one I mean, or at least a really fancy home.” Makoto curled her toes. “The carpet feels nice at least.”
“I’d wager the more ‘homely’ feel means we’re getting closer to wherever Haru hangs out most of the time… probably.”
“Probably?”
“I dunno, I’m just guessing.”
“Friggin’ cat.”
“I’m not a cat you bonehead.”
“Guys could you not? It’s getting really old.”
“Yeah Ryuji, you need to learn to be more mature.”
“I’m talking to you too Morgana.”
“But—”
“No buts! Now be quiet.”
Ren pressed his ear against the door, hearing murmuring from the other side. Silently signalling for the others to wait, he opened the door just enough to peek through, flinching slightly when Makoto slid under him, not realizing how uncomfortably close she was to touching him. He tried to keep it (and the barely muffled snickering of Ann and Ryuji) out of his mind as he looked out onto the roof.
“That’s her alright.” Makoto whispered.
“She’s dressed even fancier than the others.” Ren turns to Ann. “Hey, you do fashion or whatever- what are those fancy dresses with the poofy shoulders and skirts that make you look like you have a massive dumptruck?”
“Dumptruck?”
“Just some slang Makoto, don’t worry about it. Ann?”
Ann moves Ren aside and peeks through herself.
“I think they’re called Rococo style, or something like that anyway. It’s impressive I guess, this one even has some fancy embroidery made to look like a face, but modern fashion is more my thing.”
“Looks like she’s just she’s enjoying the sun and some tea, hardly anything villainous so far…”
“We need to find Yoshiza—oh? There she is, and she’s… oh my...”
From behind one of the planters she emerged. She was completely naked- as they expected, what they weren’t expecting was for her to be crawling on all fours, and to have dog ears and a tail.
“I guess it makes some sense, with all the pet talk.”
They watched as Yoshizawa crawled over to her ‘owner’, and looked up to her sadly. Shadow Haru put down her teacup and saucer, and smiled back down at her sympathetically.
“Oh dear, what’s wrong Sumi-chan?” She held out her hand, as if beckoning her to come closer. Kasumi shuffled close enough for Haru to caress her cheek. “Are you still nervous? Come now there’s no need for that, here…”
Haru poured another cup of tea and gently handed it to her. Kasumi remained on her knees but took the cup and sipped as one would expect for a human being.
“So she’s not just an animal in her cognition, that’s a good sign I guess?” Ann didn’t seem fully convinced by her own statement. They continued observing.
“It’s lovely isn’t it?” Haru smiled as Kasumi nodded back at her. “This always helps calm me down too. And don’t you worry, the others are just appreciating how beautiful you are, and even if they did want to do anything else, they won’t get the chance with me around.”
Kasumi seemed comforted by this, and snuggled up to shadow Haru’s leg. The thieves closed the door again, and stepped away so their discussions wouldn’t be heard.
“Okay, so far at least it seems like she’s okay. Kasumi seems to be more worried about the other students than Haru herself.”
“At least that’s how Haru sees it.” Makoto brought her hand to her chin. “I can’t say seeing Yoshizawa-san that way is particularly healthy, but there definitely isn’t any hostility, and it’s too early to say if she’s being too controlling.”
“We’ll find that out after we talk to her.” Ren frowned at Makoto. “That does mean you’ll have to… play the role.”
“Ugh… can’t say I’m happy about that, but if it’ll make things easier I guess I’ll put up with it.”
“Thank you Makoto, now…”
Makoto and the others raised an eyebrow as Ren reached into his pocket. Thanks to the universally held cognition of ‘people carry stuff in their pockets’, they were able to carry anything and everything they brought with them in their pockets, having seemingly limitless storage space and even able to pull out items bigger than the pockets themselves- such as their weapons- without the need for a bag.
In this case, Ren pulled out an unmarked brown paper sack. Makoto stared in confusion for a second before she recognized it.
“Wait Ren… is that…?”
Her fears were confirmed when Ren opened the back and pulled out a brown cat-eared headband and a blue collar with ‘Mako-chan’ embroidered onto its side.
“You held onto those?”
Ren bashfully averted his eyes.
“I mean… they were a gift… and they were really cute so I…”
Yusuke examined the collar.
“You bought a new collar for Mona? But his name is spelt wrong. I didn’t know you were so bad with English letters.”
Makoto facepalmed.
“No Yusuke… it’s not for Mona…”
Ann covered her mouth with her hands.
“I had no idea you too had gone this far already!”
“WE HAVEN’T GONE ANYWHERE!” Makoto hissed through her teeth.
“Look, everyone, don’t get any weird ideas, Haru gave us these after a misunderstanding, and I just never threw them away, that’s all.” Ren fearfully turned back to Makoto. “Look, if you really don’t want to we don’t ha—”
“Just give the damn ears and collar, let’s get this ridiculous thing over and done with! The rest of you, wait downstairs!”
“Y-yes Ma’am!” Everyone except Ren fled downstairs, fearful of Queen’s wrath.
“Makoto, are you su—”
“Stop asking!”
“Sorry…”
Makoto took a few deep breaths.
“No… no it’s alright, I shouldn't have yelled at you.” She took off her headband and handed it to Ren while taking the ears and collar herself. “Just look after that for me, okay?”
Ren stared in shock at what she just handed him.
“It was just a headband this whole time?” He rubbed his eyes, the sight of Makoto without her braid being an unbelievable sight that made him question his entire perception of reality. This feeling was quickly overshadowed by the sight of a blushing Makoto with cat ears, reluctantly putting on her collar. It was possibly the cutest thing he’d ever seen, and it was a struggle to keep his thoughts from going to very inappropriate places- a struggle he wasn’t necessarily winning.
“Ren please don’t stare so much…”
“Huh? R-right! Sorry.”
Both looked away, hoping the other wouldn’t pay too much attention to their blushing. While still keeping his eyes averted, Ren approached the door and placed his hand on the handle.
“Ready?”
Makoto sighed.
“As I’ll ever be.”
He opened the door and slowly stepped through, Kasumi jumped as she noticed him, and Shadow Haru wrapped a protective arm around her pet.
“Well hello there.” Haru’s shadow was polite, but visibly wary. “What can I… wait a second I know you!” Her face brightened up, even more so when Makoto stepped out beside Ren. “AHA! Mako-chan! That means you must be Ren, I’m embarrassed to admit that I forgot your face for just a moment there.”
“Uh- hi um… Haru?”
“Please, have a seat! There’s tea for the both of you.”
Shadow Haru beamed at them both, they weren’t used to shadows being this happy to see them- much less willing to host them like this. Reluctantly they approached the table, but noticed there was only one other chair. Ren was about to offer it to Makoto but she shook her head, she was surprisingly serious about keeping up the ‘pet’ charade. The smooth marble that had replaced the usual concrete of the roof wasn’t too uncomfortable to rest on anyway. Ren would be lying if he said he was comfortable with this, but sat in the chair without complaint, Makoto kneeling down beside him.
“So uh- how are you and—” he glanced at Kasumi’s collar again. “—Sumi-chan getting along?”
“Oh the poor girl is still so nervous, she hasn’t adapted to her new life yet, but it’s nothing some love and care can’t fix.”
“I see… so she’s important to you?”
“Of course! If a pet isn’t important to you then you’re not fit to own one in the first place!”
Makoto looked to Ren, who seemed strangely uneasy.
“Own her huh?”
“Hm?”
“It’s nothing.” Ren shook his head. “Is… is she happy about it?”
Shadow Haru raised an eyebrow.
“About…?”
“Being a pet.”
“Hmm… Being a pet? She hasn’t fully adapted yet- like I said- there’s still some fear. Being my pet- she’s perfectly happy” She gently stroked Yoshizawa’s hair to illustrate her point, and she did seem to lean into Haru’s hand, taking comfort in it- yet her eyes were still on Ren himself. “I haven’t heard any complaints at all, I assure you her safety and happiness are my top priorities.”
“She told you this herself did she?” Makoto narrowed her eyes, but they went wide again as she realized he might have ruined their cover by talking while she was supposed to be a pet. To her relief, Haru’s shadow didn’t seem to find this unusual and responded to her naturally.
“She hasn’t said it aloud, but she’s very accepting of me, she’d… she’d definitely tell me if it was upsetting to her.”
Ren nodded, keeping his expression very neutral and controlled.
“It’s okay, we weren’t accusing you of anything.” He held his teacup, but didn’t drink from it, not trusting tea from the metaverse. “We actually came to you for advice- I’m always worried I’m not a good…” Ren struggled with his next words. “…worried that I’m not a good… owner for Mako-chan. And I figured you’d be the best person to talk to about that, since you have one of your own.”
Shadow Haru chuckled.
“Oh I’m hardly an expert, this is my first.”
“First? You plan to have more?”
Makoto cringed slightly under her gaze.
“Well who knows what the future may hold?”
Makoto felt Ren’s hand on her shoulder, when she looked up to him his eyes were still locked onto Haru’s shadow. She decided to go a step further, grabbed Ren’s arm and pulled him close to her- nearly causing him to fall out of his seat- while glaring herself.
Shadow Haru let out another good natured chuckle.
“I understand, in fact I think you two might have more knowledge of such relationships than myself, but I’m quite well-researched, I’m hardly opposed to exchanging notes- per say.” She stood up from her seat, affixed a leash to Kasumi’s collar- making sure to pet her again while doing so- and smiled at Ren. “Perhaps we can talk while taking them for a walk?”
“A walk?”
“It’s not healthy for them to sit in the same place too long, and besides- their audience is waiting.”
“Audience?” Makoto quickly stood up herself.
Haru smirked.
“I know how much pets like you love an audience, it’s not right for us to keep you all to ourselves~”
Makoto took a defensive step back, before Ren took ahold of her hand once more.
“I won’t let anyone do anything, okay?”
She took a breath and nodded.
“Right, it’s no different to what we do everyday, right? People looking doesn’t bother me anymore.” She smiled confidently, putting his own mind at ease.
“Here.”
Haru handed him another leash, conveniently matching the color of Makoto’s collar.
“Um… Mako—”
“It’s fine, just… don’t pull on it or anything.”
“R-right…”
As he reluctantly attached the leash to her collar, Makoto suddenly visibly shivered.
“Makoto? Are you—”
“I’m fine, that was just more inte—I mean… nevermind, let’s just move on- okay?”
Shadow Haru was already at the door, waving the two of them over, Kasumi now standing upright beside her, nervously twiddling her fingers.
“Come along now!”
Without any more words they approached, before Makoto suddenly stopped in her tracks, looking off in the distance again.
“Makoto?”
“Hm?” Haru looked back at them. “Is everything okay with Mako-chan?”
Makoto kept squinting at something in the distance.
“It happened again, I could have sworn I saw something moving behind those buildings.”
“HUH?!” Fear spread across Shadow Haru’s face as she rushed to Makoto’s side, looking off in the same direction as her. “Where? Which one? What did it look like?”
“I don’t know, it was just a movement in the corner of my eye, I couldn’t make it out and as soon as I turned it was gone again.”
Haru grabbed her shoulders.
“You said ‘again’, you saw him earlier too?”
“Huh? ‘Him’?”
As if suddenly realizing what she was doing, Haru’s shadow pulled her arms back and regained her composure. Quickly walking back over to Kasumi to hold her- clearly taking more comfort in it than Kasumi did.
“It’s fine, nothing Sumi-chan or you two need to worry about.” She smiled again. “Come on, the weather today is lovely for a walk about the grounds.” With her pet at her side she strode out the door, her confidence seemingly back as quickly as it had vanished.
“Well… let’s follow her I suppose.”
Ren nodded.
“Right.”
Still feeling unnatural walking together with a leash, the pair left the roof, but not before looking back at the skyline once more until the door close behind them.
Notes:
Finally the collar and cat ears make their comeback, I've definitely had comments waiting for this- a shame you'll have to wait until part 2 for the actual fun.
Chapter 13: Infant palace part 2
Summary:
The investigation continues.
Notes:
Boy that was quite the delay between chapters, huh?
Aw well, it wasn't the first like it- and it won't be the last. Life is unpredictable, but barring some sudden tragedy- this series is still ongoing and I plan to see it through to the end, it'll just be slow to update.
I hope you enjoy it anyway ^^
Chapter Text
“They’re taking a while up there.”
“It hasn’t been that long Ryuji, have some patience.”
“I hate just standing around like this though, what if something happens?”
“I’m sure Ren and Makoto would call for us. Although…” Ann worriedly looked up the stairs. “I did hear Haru sound a bit panicky a moment ago… maybe we should just peek to be safe?”
“I’ll go.” Morgana stepped forward. “They’re less likely to notice me, if there’s nothing going on I’m coming right back down though, I’m sure those two have a plan and I don’t want to risk messing it up.”
But as soon as Morgana turned the corner he nearly ran face first into Shadow Haru coming down, coming within inches of accidentally kicking him down the stairs, his quick reflexes saving him just in time.
“Oh dear, sorry kitty.”
“Ugh- I’m not a kitty!”
Haru chuckled.
“What a funny cat…”
“Did you literally not hear what I just said- I’m—MRMPH!” He was silenced when Ann quickly scooped him up and clamped a hand over his mouth; his attempts at fighting back quickly overwhelmed by the enjoyment of having Lady Ann hold him so close.
“Sorry about him.” She lowered her voice and angrily whispered to the not-cat “We don’t want to risk starting a fight, let’s talk to Ren and Makoto before we do anything.” She went back to awkwardly smiling and laughing to Haru. Thankfully she didn’t seem upset at all; she nodded and continued making her way down the stairs and the hall.
As she descended, Kasumi’s nude form was once again revealed to them, having been hidden behind Haru’s oversized dress until now. She glanced at the thieves for but an instant, before hurriedly rushing back to her ‘owner’, all but clinging to her as she descended the next flight of stairs.
“Holy shit…” Ryuji stared wide-eyed. “That dress really does make her look as if she has a massive dumptruck, how did she even fit through the door?”
The others ignored him. Yusuke looked rather worried.
“Where are—”
Before he could finish asking his question, Ren had rushed down the stairs, he seemed especially flustered and rushed his speech.
“Okay guys, I need you to go wait outside the entrance, right now, no questions asked, okay?”
“But what about Mako—”
“I said ‘no questions asked’, but yeah Makoto is 100% fine, I just need you to be outside and don’t have time to explain, okay?”
Ryuji put on his serious face.
“For sure man, I trust you.”
He rallied the others to join him, baffled as they were, and hastily made their way back to the entrance, leaving Ren standing alone at the base of the stairs. He let out a sigh, and gently called up.
“Alright, they’re gone, you can come down now.”
Makoto emerged from around the corner and came down to join him.
“Thank you, it’s bad enough you seeing me like this, I really don’t want the rest of the group seeing me play the pet…”
“We’ll play along for now, try to get a feel for Haru’s shadow’s personality and intentions, and leave as quickly as we can.”
“Right…”
“And remember you can bring an end to this at literally any point- just say the word.”
“Thank you, let’s just get this over with.”
Ren nodded, and reached to grab her leash, but quickly stopped. The leash hanging from her neck, down between her breasts, but Ren couldn’t help but notice it was just the right length for the handle to perfectly frame her labia. While it wasn’t as if Ren’s eyes needed help wandering to that area, the problem was that he couldn’t grab it without looking like he’s trying to straight-up grab her pussy, which would be a bad thing to do at the best of times- much less when she’s feeling as vulnerable as she was right now.
He thought maybe he should grab from higher up to avoid such awkwardness, but now his mind had gone to that place it felt awkward and risky accidentally touching Makoto’s body at all.
“Um… Makoto, I need your leash.”
“Huh? Oh, right. Um, okay.” She lifted her leash and held it out for him, Ren felt awful for how much the sight of a naked girl as beautiful as Makoto bashfully presenting him with a leash turned him on.
‘Dammit man, now isn’t the time for such thoughts.’
He gently took the handle and looped it around his wrist, leaving plenty of slack as to not risk causing her discomfort. Neither could bring themselves to look at the other.
“We better get going, we don’t want to risk losing her.”
“O-of course, lead the way…”
Still averting his gaze, Ren nodded and the pair slowly made their way downstairs, still unsure of exactly what pace they should take (and Ren not wanting to risk pulling her- especially when she was on the stairs).
‘Oh dear, there’s that feeling again’ Makoto thought to herself. ‘I was worried this would happen… This feels so…’ She shook her head. ‘Damn it Makoto, focus on the task at hand.’ She stayed close to Ren, following just behind him, and hoping to god he didn’t notice the near-invisible trail of juice making its way down her inner thigh.
~ ~ ~
“There you are, I was worried I’d already lost you two.”
“Sorry Haru.”
Haru’s shadow stood at the edge of the school’s courtyard, which had now taken the form of a very expensive looking garden, with her ‘pet’ Kasumi leaning against her nervously- her own puppy ears folded back.
Ren and Makoto approached, the pair a bit more confident in the pace now that they were on the ground floor once again. Now that they were closer, they noticed the garden was significantly larger than the real-life courtyard it was based on, in fact they suspected it may have grown larger than when they first arrived in the palace- but they couldn’t be sure.
“So what do we do now?” Ren asked.
Haru smirked.
“Just… enjoy the lovely weather, while our lovely pets enjoy all the attention from the very appreciative audience.” She gestured around her at the students milling around, who were already shamelessly leering at the nudists.
“I see, do you do this often?” Ren tried to ignore them, as did Makoto- though it was much harder for her. She was hyper-aware of how she was wearing naught but her cat ear headband and collar, this was a much different feeling to simply being naked. When she was just a nudist there was plausible deniability of this being an at all sexual experience for her, despite how obvious the intentions and desires of others were. She may have been naked, but she was still the student council president, a person with some authority- limited as it may have been. But now with her perverse accessories, she was deliberately presenting herself as something lesser to them, their ‘high-class’ clothing only rubbing it in.
“This is one of my favourite activities. Being able to show off such a wonderful body of such a wonderful pet is truly such a wonderful feeling that nothing else can recreate.” Haru lightly petted Kasumi’s head, the girl neither reacting nor resisting as she held her head high.
Kasumi looked brave and confident, at least at a glance. Ren had spent enough time around Makoto to see her own confidence shift from fake bravado as a defence mechanism to genuine pride and comfort showing off her body to anyone and everyone who wanted to look. He could tell the difference between the two, and Kasumi was firmly on the side of ‘fake bravado’, even in Haru’s cognition. On the one hand it caused him to worry about Kasumi and her struggle to adapt to this nudist lifestyle she’d forced herself into, on the other it was actually comforting to know that Haru had something of a realistic view of her.
“Are you sure she’s up for it?” He asked Haru, though Kasumi’s own reaction seemed stronger- as if the question itself hurt her and her own confidence. Ren wouldn’t have asked this in front of the real Kasumi, but saw fit to take full advantage of this not being the real thing; the look on her face still made him feel guilty for it though.
Rather than respond to him directly, Haru instead turned to Kasumi herself, smiling at her reassuringly.
“I know Sumi-chan can handle it, no- even better- she’s going to be amazing, she needs to know how beautiful everyone thinks she is, and there’s no better way than just showing them directly.” She turned to smile at Makoto. “I’m sure it’s the same with Mako-chan, though I’m sure she already understands how beautiful she is.”
Makoto’s face went red, she wasn’t expecting the sudden compliment and wasn’t sure how to respond.
“I hope so.”
“Ren?” She looked at him to see him smiling bashfully, for some reason that made her glow even brighter.
“Plus she definitely enjoys the attention immensely, that’s very apparent.” Haru’s eyes drifted down lower. “She’s already wet and we haven’t even gotten started.”
“HUH?” Makoto’s hands hastily covered her crotch.
“Yeah I noticed.”
“Ren?! You what? How did you…”
“I mean…” he rubbed the back of his head. “My eyes drift down there quite often…”
Makoto dropped her head and screwed her eyes shut, not being able to hide her arousal at all was a disadvantage of nudism that she still hadn’t adapted to, and one she was cursing right now.
When she did work up the courage to look back up, she saw Ren still bashfully looking away, Haru trying to stifle her laughter, Kasumi’s eyes locked onto her with an unreadable expression, and anyone else present clearly very amused to see her so embarrassed.
“Are you going to let them mock you like that?”
Makoto looked around to find the origin of the sudden voice, no one else had seemed to react to it.
“I had thought you had grown past being shamed for something so natural.”
She recognized the voice this time, it came from within her.
‘Johanna?’
“Does shame still have it’s claws hooked onto you after all? Does it still prevent you from standing tall as a Queen should?”
‘I mean… being naked is one thing- it’s completely natural and honestly a nonsensical taboo when you really think about it. But when it becomes something sexual like this- that’s completely different!’
“Is it?”
‘Of course it is!’
“Why?”
‘Because… um… I mean it’s degrading…’
“Only if you let it be.”
‘Huh?’
“Have you forgotten already? You’ve turned this degradation into power, purely through the force of your own will. Your own pleasure in turn brings joy to those around you, so why fight it?”
‘I mean… I can’t have these people just see me as some object of their amusement.’
“Then have them look upon you as an object of worship and adoration. Are you not a Queen?”
‘I mean, no- not literally.’
“For fuck’s sake, work with me here Makoto.”
‘Do the others’ Personas talk to them like this?’
“Doesn’t matter. You are Queen. To gaze upon your body is a privilege for your subjects…”
‘Again- they’re not really my subjects.’
“Makoto I’m trying to give you a rousing speech and surge of confidence from within the depths of your heart, could you not ruin it by taking everything so literally?”
‘Right, sorry. Finish what you were saying.’
“As I was saying: your body should be a source of power for you, not of shame, and this applies not just to your body’s appearance, but it’s function too. The signs of your arousal and excitement are as beautiful as the rest of you. Flaunt them with pride! Look upon yourself with the same admiration as he does.”
‘He?’
“The one who stood by you from the beginning. Whether you see him as a Jester or something more, the way he looks at you with admiration, pride, and longing should guide how you see yourself. He is the perfect example of those who see you as the Queen you should be.”
‘Um… I guess that’s true, but I really don’t think we’re as close as you’re insinuating.’
“Seriously? Makoto I’m literally thou, and thou art literally I, you can’t deceive me. You want to be even closer to him and maybe even get some of that yummy Joker dick, trying to hide that is pointless.”
‘I uhh—can we go back to the matter of me being confident instead?’
“Sure, one breakthrough at a time I guess.”
‘I think you’re right though. From the beginning confidence has been my strongest defence, and I’ve learned that my body is nothing to be ashamed of, it makes me happy. There’s no reason to feel any differently about the way it reacts to my own enjoyment.’
“Finally got through. Now Queen, stand tall- and embrace your own pleasure!”
Makoto took one more deep breath, before removing her hand from the crotch and standing up straight.
“Uh, Makoto, you alright?” Ren reached out but came short of actually touching her. “You froze up for a little while there.”
Makoto smiled brightly at him.
“Perfectly fine, as Haru said I am enjoying this. Let them look.” She waved her hands in the direction of a few of the students without looking at them.
“Excellent! Let’s enjoy the sun while it lasts then.”
None of them were sure how the weather works in the metaverse- if it worked at all- so whether there was any time pressure to enjoy the sunshine was a mystery, and not one they saw fit to concern themselves over.
Makoto walked- or rather- strutted ahead of Ren now. He made sure to keep pace with her as to not accidentally pull her back with the lead and risk ruining her image- which was more confident than ever. She swung her arms as she walked, her hips swayed more than usual, and even from slightly behind her he could notice her breasts jiggling more prominently than before. He didn’t understand what brought about such a swift change, but he did know he liked it. In fact, he was worried someone would notice how much he was enjoying it if they looked at—
“Oh my, seems you really understand the pleasure of taking a pet for a walk, eh Ren-kun?”
‘Dammit, of course Haru notices!’ Ren cursed internally. As Makoto begun to turn around, he- as fast as he could manage- crouched down and pretended to tie his shoe. “I-I’ll just be a second Makoto…”
She stared down in confusion for a second, before the realization hit her.
“Ren, it’s okay, you can stand up.”
“No I can’t! I’m sorry, I’ll just be a minute or so.”
Makoto couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“It’s fine Ren, I know why you’re really crouching.” She noticed him cringe slightly. “It’s fine, I get it- it’s not your fault, it’s just how your body reacts- I mean look at me.” She gestured to her own crotch in the least-lewd way she could manage.
Ren mumbled.
“Looking at you is what caused the problem in the first place…”
“I’m telling you it’s fine Ren, this is… quite the situation we’re in, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying it.”
He looked up at her.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure I’m sure.” She leant down and whispered. “Besides, I’m the only real person here, remember? And I already know so there’s not much point in hiding, y’know?”
Ren was still embarrassed, but realized that she was right. Still holding onto some reluctance, he slowly stood up, making no effort to hide the tent he was currently pitching. He felt rather embarrassed with Makoto staring at it so blatantly. A few awkward moments passed before she looked back up at him.
“Hey you’re looking at mine all the time- so you can’t complain if I look at yours.”
“Ha! I guess that’s true.”
Makoto turned back around, hoping that he wasn’t paying too much attention to the redness returning to her face, she couldn’t believe she managed to just say that out loud, but she was actually rather proud of herself for doing so; it was great fun seeing him get so flustered, and indeed that she was able to so easily provoke such a reaction from his own body.
Haru watched the scene amused.
“Still, him walking around with that will probably be rather uncomfortable for him, we certainly can’t have that…”
Ren’s eyes went wide for a moment.
“We should find a place to sit down until it goes away.”
“Oh, okay then.” Ren couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, he really thought things were going to go in a different direction for a second there, but he figured it was his own fault for letting his horny fantasies run away with him.
~ ~ ~
The two ‘pets’ and their ‘owners’ found a large, ornate stone bench to sit on. Makoto wasn’t happy about having to sit on the grass rather than the bench itself, but felt she should follow Kasumi’s lead to at least try and stay in character- even though it likely no longer mattered at this point.
“I really don’t think I have any pet ownership advice to give you Ren-kun, you and Mako-chan already get along so well.”
“Um, thank you- I guess. Still, I can’t help but worry about Kasumi.”
“Oh, why is that?” Haru raised a cautious eyebrow.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling your skills into question, but she just doesn’t seem comfortable with all this attention.”
Kasumi had done her best to ignore all the looks and comments she received on the way here; thankfully Makoto’s burst of confidence meant she drew the lions share of attention away from her. Even now, while Yoshizawa’s knees were tightly together, Makoto made no effort to hide herself from their audience, if anything she was spreading her legs apart on purpose- leaving her naturally parted vulva visible to all the cognitive students passing by, and they weren’t shy about enjoying the show she was putting on.
Haru looked down at her for a moment, then following her gaze towards Makoto, before leaning over and whispering to Ren.
“I worry that she keeps comparing herself to Makoto.”
“Hm? How so?” He whispered back.
“Well, it’s obvious how Mako-chan is handling all of this much better than her, I really think Sumi-chan thinks too little of herself since she wants to be more like Makoto.”
Ren looked at Kasumi’s face, he suspected the same thing, and thinking about how the real Yoshizawa-san acted in the real world, he worried this might be the case in reality as well.
“What should we do?”
“I want her to realize how beautiful she is as herself, to realize that this shouldn’t be a competition. It’s as if she’s judging herself by how good she is at being ‘like Makoto’ versus Makoto herself, rather than just being herself.”
Ren nodded. He felt satisfied with the investigation at this point. He felt safe concluding that Haru almost certainly wasn’t someone they had to worry about, however that didn’t mean there wasn’t a problem, simply that the problem was with Yoshizawa-san herself, and even Haru was aware of this. He resolved to discuss this with Makoto and the rest of the thieves later to know what action to take- if any.
Meanwhile, while this conversation was going on, Makoto hadn’t been listening. She hadn’t been able to take her mind off of the situation she was in, the adrenaline from Johanna’s pep talk was still going strong within her, she was hyper-aware of the feeling of the leash resting against her skin, and the slight tickle of the blades of grass she was sitting on, and the cool pleasant air against the wetness between her legs, not to mention all the shameless gazes she was receiving.
Her hand glided up her thigh for a few seconds, before she realized what she was doing and pulled it away.
‘Was I just about to… no I can’t go that far!’
She looked at the students ogling her, still dressed up in exaggerated fairy tale suits and dresses, acting like cartoonish depictions of ‘high-society’, so far detached from the usual down-to-earth uniforms and typically reserved behaviour they exhibited in the real world.
‘Well, they are all just cognitions, it’s not as if anything I do in front of them actually matters. The only real person here is Ren… But I can’t do it in front of him! Can I?’
She looked up at him, he was whispering back and forth with Haru.
‘Would he even notice?’
She found her hand absentmindedly drifting to her crotch once again.
‘Maybe if I’m really quiet… just a little bit… to see how it feels…’
Subtly repositioning herself so Ren couldn’t see exactly what she was doing out of his peripheral. She cautiously brought her fingers to her sex, having to stifle a moan even as they lightly grazed her entrance.
She very slowly began rubbing, being very careful not to make any noise to draw Ren’s attention. It wasn’t until about 30-40 seconds into her rubbing that she opened her eyes, her audience seemed almost entranced, watching her show with rapt attention. She had fantasized about something like this numerous times since becoming a nudist, it had pushed her over the edge through a great number of relief sessions. But actually facing the reality of it was far more intense. Granted- it was slightly tempered by the fact that none of these people were real, and there would be no long-term consequences, but it still felt real in the moment.
She looked to her side to see Yoshizawa watching more enraptured than anyone else, staring at the movements of her fingers with the widest eyes she’d ever seen, and her mouth hanging agape. Her eyes briefly met Makoto’s before shifting back down to the action. She couldn’t believe it; Makoto couldn’t blame her, she scarcely believed it herself.
She brought up her free hand to tweak her own nipple, sending another jolt of pleasure through her body. She knew she was really pushing her luck now, it was almost inevitable that Ren would notice what she was doing sooner or later, but her own lust had overridden reason by this point. She only resolved to speed up her efforts in hopes that she could cum before he realized what was happening.
Her fingers furiously circled her clit, trying to bring herself to climax as quickly as possible. She slid onto her back, lifting her feet off of the ground as she kept pleasuring herself, her audience growing larger and more entranced as she did so. She had no idea how long she kept going, as she had lost all sense of time, but after what felt like an eternity she finally reached orgasm, either forgetting or being unable to hold back her moans as she squirted hard onto the grass in front of her, before collapsing into a panting mess.
The sights and sounds around her had devolved into a blur, she felt an arm around her shoulders lift her up and a bottle brought to her lips. She instinctively drank, chilled water quickly refreshing her and bringing her back to her senses enough to make sense of the figure holding her.
“Ren?”
“You good Makoto?”
“Did you… did you see?”
Ren remained silent for a few moments, averting his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Oh…”
“It’s cool though, no one else did. Well, Haru’s shadow and the cognitions did of course, but no one real.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry- I enjoyed the show.”
“God I can’t believe I actually did that, I’m so embarrassed.”
“I wouldn’t worry, I don’t think any less of you- I guess you’d never get a chance to do that IRL, so I can respect just going for it now, you looked like you had fun, so that’s what matters.” Ren laughed.
Makoto groaned, and muttered under her breath.
“I suppose it’s fine if it’s just you.”
“Hm?”
“I said ‘where’s Haru?’”
“I scooped you up and carried you off pretty much right after you came. Don’t worry, the investigation was a success, we should meet up with the others and discuss our plans going forward.”
“Right.” Makoto stood up on shaky legs, struggling to gather her strength back after her powerful orgasm. She looked around and found herself at the edge of the garden, not entirely unseen but away from the bulk of the crowd. “I’m sure this is a dumb question, but you’re not going to tell the others about what happened, are you?”
“You’re right, that is a dumb question.”
Ren had an annoying smile, but Makoto still took comfort in it. She reached up and removed her cat ears, handing them back to Ren and taking her regular headband back.
“I do have one more dumb question- or rather, a request before we meet up with the others.” She slid her braid back into place and started removing her collar.
“Hm?”
“Could you keep holding onto the ears and collar? Just in case.”
Chapter 14: Eiko
Summary:
Returning from Haru's palace, Makoto gets things back on track.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“So is that really it? We’re just gonna leave the palace as-is?”
Ren nodded.
“Yes, from what I’ve seen I really don’t think we need to consider Haru a threat at all, at least not for now.”
Ann sighed, taking a sip from her coffee, looking at the other thieves who also seemed unsure how to feel about all this.
“I guess that’s a good thing, but I dunno- this all still feels… uncomfortable.”
“I’d quite like to see the palace again once it’s finished forming.” Yusuke pondered aloud while staring at the ceiling. “The keyword was ‘dog show’ but there really wasn’t much of a show going on, it was more like we were just wandering the grounds where a show would later take place. I can’t help but be a little disappointed.” He looked over to their resident nudist. “Though we were waiting outside a while, did you and Ren put on a show of some kind while we weren’t there?”
Makoto very pointedly avoided eye contact with everyone, desperately hoping she wasn’t blushing as much as she thought she was.
“Nope, nothing. There was no show, and I certainly didn’t do anything unusual. Moving on.”
“Makoto yo—”
“I said nothing happened!”
“Alright alright…” Ryuji raised his hands defensively, and decided to quickly change the subject lest he provoke her again. “So Ren, what do we do now?”
“In relation to Kasumi? Aside from being supportive I’m not sure there’s an awful lot we can do at this stage. Maybe she’ll really adapt to the naked lifestyle like Makoto did, maybe she’ll back out, I’ll try talking to her again either way.” He laughed to himself. “I never really realized how reliant our powers are on having a specific ‘villain’ to go after, whenever something comes along that doesn’t have a bad guy with ‘distorted desires’ behind it, there’s a real limit to what we can do.” Ren noticed a somber atmosphere forming over the group, and tried to end on as positive a note as he could. “Still, we’ve more-or-less confirmed the absence of anything abusive coming from this Haru girl- I’d call that a win.”
Makoto smiled and nodded.
“True, any battle we don’t have to fight is a battle we win. Everyone just stay vigilant going forward. We should be hearing confirmation of Kaneshiro’s change of heart any day now; we’ll think about our next move after that happens.”
“I guess that’s good enough for me.” Ryuji shrugged. “I’ll still keep an eye on Kasumi or whatever her name is myself though.”
“Ho I bet you will.”
Ryuji ignored Ann rolling her eyes, and the PT debriefing came to an unceremonious end. After finishing their coffees, the PTs said their goodbyes and left Leblanc one by one, soon Ren, Makoto and Morgana were the only ones left.
“Oh Ren?”
“Hm? What’s up Mako?”
Makoto nervously fiddled with her hair, not quite maintaining eye contact with him as she talked.
“I meant to ask this of you earlier, but the whole palace thing got in the way. I need… wanted your help with something.”
“Oh? Oh yeah I remember you mentioning something about an investigation or something, right?”
“Yes, we’ve been getting reports of Shujin students sighted in the um…” she looked over to Morgana, who was curled up on Ren’s bed pretending not to listen. Makoto was embarrassed to involve anyone other than Ren, but she supposed it should be fine if Mona knew too, he was so often a silent third wheel hiding in Ren’s bag that he’s probably already overheard plenty of embarrassing stuff already. “…Shujin students sighted in the red light district in Shinjuku, I wanted us to go and investigate.”
Morgana’s ears perked up at the mention of the red light district, and Ren rubbed the back of his head guiltily.
“That might be about me and Ryuji…”
“Huh? You two went there?”
“N-not for the reasons you might be thinking though- we went there as part of our investigation into Kaneshiro- we learned his name from a contact there. I went in plain clothes but Ryuji was still wearing his school uniform, or at much of it as he usually wears anyway, nearly ended getting us into trouble. I’ll bet that’s the reason you’re getting reports.”
Makoto breathed a sigh of relief, for a moment she feared Ren might be doing something untoward with some other girls. Granted- she knew rationally that whatever he did and whomever he did it with it wouldn’t be cheating, but still, the idea irked her.
“I see, that’s okay then, but the reports definitely weren’t about you two, they specifically mention a female student around that area.”
“Was she blonde?”
“What?”
“Was the girl in the reports blonde? Big boned? Loud? Mannish demeanour?”
“…No?”
“Okay, it still might have been Ryuji.”
“Do I want to know why you thought that?”
“I might have left him alone where he might have been forced into drag.”
Makoto stared baffled.
“In hindsight I think that might have been kinda uncool of me, I think he was just on my nerves at the time because he was dumb enough to come in uniform and give us away, but I think that was disproportionate. I’ll have to apologize to him later about that…”
Makoto was still unsure how to respond, so she just shook her head.
“Anyway, we should go to make sure this girl- whoever she is- isn’t involved in anything shady.”
“R-right. The area honestly wasn’t as seedy as I was expecting, but there could still be some dodgy stuff lurking under the surface- speaking of which- are you sure I can’t go myself?”
“Why?”
“I mean… going there like that… we’re straying dangerously close to ‘asking for it’ territory again…”
“I understand your concern, but I can’t let my nudity make me vulnerable. Clothes don’t give me special powers, I’m no less capable of defending myself with or without clothes.”
“I didn’t mean it that way, just… there really are some unsavoury types out there, some of the scouters can be pretty damn predatory even at the best of times.”
Makoto sighed.
“You’re not wrong there, but don’t worry, I’m not the kind of person to rush off into a dangerous situation without thinking.”
“Wait, but what abou—”
“That was a one off lapse in judgement!” Her fingers dug into her forearm. “Believe me, I learned my lesson, I’m never going to make such a terrible mistake ever again.”
“Makoto… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine Ren, you haven’t done or said anything wrong. In fact you are at least partially right, that’s why I want you to come with me… to y’know…” her voice dropped below a whisper “…help keep me safe.”
His face was even redder than hers.
“I see… okay then, we can go- but we don’t split up at any point- for any reason, deal?”
“Deal.”
“Get a room you two.” Morgana snickered.
“We’re in my room!”
“Our room.” Morgana corrected him.
Makoto groaned.
“Whatever, I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow at school, okay Ren?”
“Right, I’ll look forward to it. Ah- I don’t mean that in a weird way, I’m just saying—”
“It’s fine, I get the idea.” Makoto rushed down the stairs. “Later.”
Ren pinched the bridge of his nose, still feeling like he somehow made himself look stupid then.
“You really need to work on that luckluster charm of yours Joker.”
“No kidding… I’m heading to the baths.”
~ ~ ~
It had been a while since Ren and Makoto had held hands in public. Early on in her ‘career’ as a nudist, Ren often kept a firm grip on her hand as they made their way through the treacherous Tokyo crowds. Though back then she was too preoccupied with the overwhelming sensations of public nudity.
But now, while the handholding was still a safety measure, and Ren’s mind was almost entirely focused on spotting potential threats and keeping Makoto safe, that was not the thought going through the girl’s own head:
‘We’re really holding hands, in public! Isn’t this way too intimate? People are going to think we’re a couple! Are we? No of course not, it’s way too early for that. I have to remember he’s just doing this to stop people approaching us… to protect me… he’s holding so firmly—STOP! I’m getting way too carried away, it’s just holding hands, it’s not that big a deal… fuck it is a big deal isn’t it? Fuck fuck fuck fu—’
“Makoto, are you still okay?”
“H-huh?”
“Because we can leave anytime, you don’t have to—”
“It’s fine, I just got distracted by… something. Let’s start.”
Ren nodded, but he still kept looking around like a paranoid deer expecting a predator to jump out and attack any second, not that Makoto could blame him really, but she did think it was perhaps a bit much.
“So, where do we even start?” Ren asked without looking down at her.
“I guess… we just ask around for starters?”
Given that Ren was too busy being protective, Makoto decided to take the lead herself and approach the first person she saw- a hostess who seemed to be advertising the club she worked at.
“Excuse me Miss?”
“…some of the best girls in tow— holy shit!” She flinched at the sight of the naked teenager. “Woah… listen girl- I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I think you’re deeply mistaken about the kind of business we run here, if you’re looking for that kind of job I suggest you try elsewhere.”
“Huh? No I’m not looking for a job, I just had a question.”
“What kind of… wait- you must be that nudist girl from the news!”
“Y-yeah, that’s me alright.” Makoto bashfully rubbed the side of her head.
“Ha, I wasn’t sure if you were even real, I figured it was some fancy porn marketing strategy.”
“No, nothing like that, I’m just—”
“I don’t care that much. Look, you don’t seem dumb enough to hang around a place like this dressed like that for the fun of it, you better ask your question and leave quickly. Look- your beau looks hella paranoid.”
“Beau? What’s a beau?” She looked up to Ren, figuring that the woman was probably referring to him, and she was right- even when infiltrating the bank he was never this on-guard.
“Is that your question? You’re the kind of girl who’d waste a genie’s wish, y’know?”
“No that’s not my question! Ugh… Look, all I wanted to ask is if you’ve seen any other Shujin students around this area?”
“Shujin was your school right? I would have remembered if someone else dressed like you had come along, sorry.”
“They weren’t—whatever, sorry to bother you.”
Makoto turned around and was about to storm off in a huff before the hostess called after her.
“Beau means boyfriend by the way.”
“Right, whatever, thanks…” Makoto suddenly froze in place, spinning back around. “We’re not—”
But the woman had already moved on, and was no longer paying any attention to them, Makoto looked up in fear at Ren, but thankfully he had been so focused on keeping an eye out for potential threats that he didn’t seem to have been listening to anything that was said. She let out a relieved- but tired- sigh, for this moment at least- she was happy that Ren was so paranoid.
~ ~ ~
Their next few encounters played out much the same, no one they asked seemed to have seen any girl “dressed” like Makoto, and only a few seemed to even know what the Shujin uniform looked like.
“You’d think with how much the school has been in the news everyone would recognize the uniform by now…”
“To be fair- most of the news has been about you.” Ren sighed, his paranoia having slowly died down over the past hour or so. “People barely even remember Kamoshida at this point…”
“It’s seriously worrying that people would just forget about that so quickly…”
Sensing the mood was dropping a bit too much for their liking, Ren shrugged.
“To be fair, I also much prefer talking about you than I do Kamoshida.”
She rolled her eyes at him, but he still considered that a win. Just then- he suddenly came to a stop, Makoto walking an extra couple steps before being pulled back.
“Ren? What’s—”
He silently gestured off to the side, Makoto followed his gaze.
“Oh? That’s her!”
The pair stared dumbfounded as the watched a girl shamelessly walk past them, dressed in her Shujin summer uniform and downstairs into a shady-looking club.
“I know her!”
“You do?”
“Well, I don’t really know her, but she and I used to be in the same class. Ai-something or Ei-something…”
“What’s that place she went into, ‘The after school salon’?” Ren narrowed his eyes. “Yeah that’s not suspicious at all… Should we follow her?”
“No, too risky. Don’t worry though, I remember her face, so I’ll talk to her tomorrow.” Makoto turned back to face Ren. “Do you mind being there while I do so? As a witness.”
Ren nodded.
“Excellent, in that case why don’t we head back for today? Frankly we’ve already spent too long here.”
“Tell me about it, even I’m exhausted.” Ren scanned their surroundings once more. “And I’m still not convinced that one scout from earlier has given up.”
“He really was persistent, wasn’t he? Some people just can’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“I won’t be able to relax until we’re both home, I’m still expecting him to suddenly appear from a manhole or something and ‘KIRYU-CHAN!’ us any moment now.”
“Kiry—Ren you’re a ‘Like a dragon’ fan?”
“Ah you finally got one of my references. Yeah I’m familiar with the series.”
Makoto balled up her fists and started bouncing in place in excitement, before quickly catching herself and rushed to regain her composure; Ren tried his best not to snicker.
“R-right, I suppose I’m… familiar with the series too… is it um, is it okay if we talk about it on the way home?”
Ren smiled.
“Sure, that sounds fun.”
Makoto calmly nodded, visibly holding back her joy.
“Good, I hope you don’t find it weird at all.”
“Makoto we’ve talked about this, girls liking action movies isn’t weird, it’s pretty damn normal.”
“Right, sorry.”
Ren took her hand once more.
“Come on, we should catch the train before it’s too late, we’ll talk while we walk.”
After staring at their hands for a few moments, she nodded.
“R-right! Let’s go.”
~ ~ ~
The next day, in the student council room. Ren and Makoto sat opposite a visibly disinterested Eiko Takao. Makoto had summoned her during lunchbreak. Ren noticed that she seemed remarkably relaxed for someone suddenly dragged in for interrogation by the nudist student council president flagged by the infamous ‘terrifying’ transfer student. She was just absent-mindedly scrolling through her phone, barely paying attention to them.
“Eiko Takao-san. You’ve been spending time in the Red-light district lately, haven’t you? Both myself and Ren-kun saw you there. Based on where you were heading, we assume you’re working at a store called the After school salon. How is it, working there?”
“Whaddya mean? It’s just a normal café.” Is what Eiko said, but her tone made it sound like “Can I go now?”
Ren slammed his fist down on the desk.
“You expect us to believe that?”
“Ren what the hell are you doing?”
“I’m playing bad cop, I thought that’s what we were doing?”
“Ren we’re not--- ugh!”
“Oh did you want to be the bad cop?”
“Ren…”
“I’d actually prefer that, I like being nice. And you can be pretty scary when you want to be.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not saying you are scary, you’re super nice and cool, but you can be super scary when you’re mad, so maybe channel that now?”
“Stop undermining my authority in front of Eiko!” Makoto glared at the girl. “Ignore him, just tell us what’s going on in that ‘café’ of yours!”
“See I told you you’re better at being ‘bad cop’ than I am.”
“Goddammit Ren…”
Eiko watched the back and forth for a while.
“So did you two bring me in to watch your husband-and-wife comedy routine or something?”
Makoto flinched.
“Wh-what?”
“Yes actually.” Ren rested his head on his interlocked fingers. “What do you think, how was it so far?”
“Eh… 6/10”
“Man…”
“Would you two quit this nonsense!” Makoto slammed the desk herself.
Eiko smirked.
“Though the nudity definitely pushes it up to an 8/10, that always gets more people in the door.”
Makoto rubbed her temples, this is not how she saw this going. It was time to get things back on track.
“So you’re sure it’s just a regular café? Nothing strange going on?”
“No nothing like what you might be thinking, they make me dress up in this cute outfit, and the absolute worst that happens is some weird old guys ogling me.” Eiko laughed. “But I’m sure you know all about that kind of thing, eh miss Nudie-Prez?”
“Yes, I do.” Makoto stated flatly, which just caused Eiko to laugh even harder.
“Yeah I don’t think I can ever complain about guys leering at me again, not after you had a TV camera basically shoved up in your pussy like that.”
Both Ren and Makoto’s faces went bright red, albeit for different reasons.
“Those close-ups really came out of nowhere, didn’t they? I guess it’s not a problem since everyone can see me naked anyway, but it was still shocking that they actually went ahead and did that.”
“Tell me about it, I’ve never even seen mine that closely, let alone someone elses.” Eiko exhaled. “So what is this really? Are you and your BF or whatever gonna rat me out or something?”
Makoto calmly shook her head.
“No, so long as nothing untoward is going on, there’s really no reason to report you. Just as long as you’re safe.”
Eiko shrugged.
“Alright, does that mean I can… wait a second…” She leaned across the table. “Is that a Buchimaru-kun pencil case?”
“Huh?” Makoto perked up, Ren noticed a similar sense of excitement in her as when he had mentioned ‘Like a Dragon’ yesterday. “You know Buchimaru-kun?”
“Yea- I had like, tons of Buchi stuff back when I was a kid. What a blast from the past! But wait- why’s it all beat up?”
“Well it was given to me when I was back in elementary school...” Makoto seemed bashful “I’d like to buy a new one, but they’ve stopped selling Buchimaru-kun merchandise.”
“OMG that’s actually fucking adorable. The nudie-prez has an adorable pencil case. My image of you has done a complete 360 today.”
Makoto blinked.
“Isn’t that a full circle?”
“I think you meant 540 Eiko.” Ren butted in.
“Ren that’s not—”
“It is technically correct.”
“What’s with you today?”
“Right right, 540” Eiko ‘corrected’ herself, Ren did his best to hide his laughter. “I never figured you’d be into that kind of thing Miss Nudie Prez. I mean, I always thought you were kinda like a robot.” Eiko suddenly looked rather frustrated. “Dammit, naked robot, something something Terminator… you know that feeling where you can tell there’s a joke opportunity right in front of you, but you can’t figure out how to actually word it?”
“Yes, I do.” Ren stated flatly.
Makoto kicked Ren underneath the table, he didn’t seem too upset by it though.
“Anyway, we should totally trade numbers! I want to talk to you more about Buchimaru-kun, and your boyfriend. Hell, I might even let you have another go at your comedy routine or whatever.”
“Oh? Um… okay.” Makoto pulled out her phone and exchanged numbers, while Ren internally debated whether he should give his number too, ultimately deciding against it. “Wait, he’s not my boyfri—”
“Saved!” Eiko shot them both a big tooth-bearing grin, neither of them had the heart to correct her misconception just yet. “Oh crap, it’s that late already? I better get back to class, I really don’t want Mr. Ushimaru chewing me out again, if I get detention I’ll end up being late for work.” Eiko stood up from her seat. “I’ll send you tons of pics from my Buchimaru-kun collection later though. Bye bye!”
“Wait a mo—and she’s off…” they both stared at the door as it swung shut. Makoto sighed once more. “Well she was all over the place.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“Still though, she thought I was a robot. I’ve heard people whisper such things behind my back before, but hearing it said to my face is…”
“Beep boop.” Ren poked her shoulder.
“Don’t tease me!”
“I was just checking.” Ren raised his hands defensively, though judging by his smirk he didn’t seem all too apologetic. “You feel like flesh and blood to me, plenty emotional too, you must be a pretty advanced robot.”
“Ren, I like and respect you, but you’re a pain in the ass sometimes…”
“Heh, sorry.”
“Still, I believe what Takao-san said about me is how others think as well. I thought I had changed after the incident with Kaneshiro, but perhaps it wasn’t enough…”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s been less than a month since then, people’s opinions aren’t going to change that fast. And with the whole nudity thing, people’s opinions on you have definitely been changing a lot- for better AND for worse. It’ll be a while before they settle down one way or another.”
“I suppose you’re right. Still, it was almost inspiring to meet someone so distinct from myself.”
“I get what you mean, she’s certainly something… how to put this nicely…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“So anyway what were you saying Makoto?”
“You… whatever. I was just saying how I’m going to try and look at things a little differently from now on. That might help me break out of my shell a little as well, although…” she looked down at herself. “I guess I’ve already been making some progress on that, even if in an unorthodox way.”
“That’s the spirit. You’ll be the best Queen you can be in no time.”
Makoto smiled.
“Right. Of course. Anyway we should probably get back to class ourselves. Now that I have her number I’ll try talking to Takao-san more often, maybe clear up some of her misconceptions about you while I’m at it.”
“She either still thinks I’m a terrifying delinquent, or just some weirdo.”
“The truth is somewhere in the middle.” Makoto chuckled while making her way out of the student council room.
“Wow rude.” Ren followed after her, smiling, and feeling the quiet resolve emanating from her.
Notes:
Another mostly transitional chapter, so not my best work. Though Eiko is going to fun to work with going forward.
I thank you all for your patience supporting this series ^^
Chapter 15: Fake?
Summary:
A few days later, Makoto need's Ren's help once again
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Sounds like you two have really been hitting it off then.”
Makoto nodded, leaning back into the student council room’s couch.
“Surprisingly yeah, since me and Eiko exchanged numbers we’ve gotten at least somewhat close. She’s been showing off her Buchimaru-kun collection, it’s honestly rather impressive, even bigger than mine.”
“Buchimaru is the little panda-dude, right?”
“Yeah, like my pencil case.” Makoto chuckled. “She’s got plushies, a pillow, some prints, she’s even got a bunch of Buchimaru-kun emoticons from some Line fangroup.”
“Fangroup huh? You should think about joining yourself.”
“Hmm… maybe… Anyway we also talk about other stuff, sometimes she asks about you, a lot of the time she’s always asking questions about my nudism.”
Ren raised an eyebrow.
“Good questions or bad questions?”
“Mostly good, she’s been very supportive… at least I think so, I’ll be honest I don’t understand a lot of the slang she uses.”
“What kind of slang?”
“She’s called what I’m doing ‘dope’ once or twice.”
“I’m pretty sure that just means ‘good’.”
“Right… what about ‘lit’?”
“That also means ‘good’.”
“I see… this one-“ Makoto was reading from her phone “-‘amazeballs’? Am I to assume that means ‘good’ too?”
“Pretty much.”
“Why do you need so many terms that mean the same thing?”
Ren shrugged.
“Variety I guess?”
“I guess… it’s not been all positive though, she has called me ‘sick’ on one occasion.”
“Actually ‘sick’ can mean ‘good’ too.”
“Seriously? Isn’t that confusing?”
“You can usually tell from the context, actually its meaning is closer to ‘cool’ than ‘good’.”
Makoto scrolled back up on her phone, re-reading something.
“Actually now that you mention it, I think she was being positive with ‘sick’. That makes more sense, I was really confused at first, we were really positive up until then and then I thought she just insulted me out of nowhere then carried on as if nothing happened… Ren stop laughing at me!”
“Sorry sorry…” Ren found her especially cute right now.
Pouting, Makoto put her phone back into her bag and folded her arms.
“Actually, one of the things we talked about was quite important…”
Makoto immediately noticed Ren stop snickering, lean forward and affix her with a calm but supportive gaze. As much of a pain as he could be sometimes, she really appreciated that he knew when to drop the jokes and be serious, and the way he looked at her made her feel safe.
“We were talking about school, more specifically college and our plans for after we graduate. She says she’s not worried about that kind of thing, since her parents can use their connections to get her a job. I can’t say I’m fully on board with the idea of her parents deciding her life for her like that, but I guess it’d be rather pompous of me to look down on that when I have no idea what I want to do…”
“Don’t you? That’s honestly surprising.”
“Before we met, I was just working hard enough to get into a good university, where I’d major in law like Sis, then I’d just follow whatever path was ahead of that. But after I met you, the other thieves, and Johanna, I realized the only reason I was doing all that is because that’s what was expected of me. I didn’t want that, nor did I not want it, I just wanted to be a good sister and not be a burden… not be useless…”
“Makoto…”
“I realized that I’ve never really thought about what I want, and now that I am… I have no idea…”
“I mean, if it’s any comfort, you’re hardly alone there, I still don’t know what I want to do, I don’t have any grand dream to work towards, and my parents…” Ren trailed off for a while.
“Ren?”
“…Sorry, nevermind. Don’t you have any dreams or anything?”
“Hmm…” Makoto looked away, but glanced back at Ren a few times. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
“Why? Is it a funny dream?”
“No but… the reason behind it is a little embarrassing…”
“Heh… you wouldn’t think a nudist would be so easy to embarrass.”
“Ren I just told you not to laugh!”
“I won’t laugh at the dream, I promise.”
Makoto sighed.
“When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a police officer, like my father.”
“That’s not funny, that’s hella cool.”
“Does ‘hella’ mean ‘good’ too?”
“No, it means ‘very’.”
“I see, thank you.”
“But seriously though- I think that’s an amazing goal. Besides I…”
“…yes?”
Ren let out an annoyed ‘hmmm’.
“I was about to say ‘I love a woman in uniform’, but I guess that wouldn’t really apply to you, huh?”
Makoto’s expression dropped, but Ren smiled.
“Don’t worry, I like a woman out of uniform even more!”
“Whatever…”
“I’m sure you could have a custom uniform, like a police-themed collar or whatever you’d stick the badge on, a hat, some gloves, and a pair of shoes. You can have one of those kinds of uniforms.”
“’One of those kinds’? Have you ever seen something like that before?”
Ren nervously averted his gaze.
“I’ve seen something like it in a movie once…” This was technically true, Makoto didn’t need to know what kind of movie it was.
Makoto brought her hand to her chin in thought.
“Though I suppose if I added some sleeves to that it wouldn’t be all too different to my metaverse outfit, and I would be allowed to do that under the program.” Her shoulders dropped. “The fact that the program would legitimately let me get away with something like that really reminds me as to how ridiculous this whole thing really is…”
She looked over to Ren, who seemed deep in thought. She sighed, and tried not to think too hard about why he was crossing his legs now.
“Anyway the police officer dream is one I had forgotten about for a long time, I might have a think about it again.”
“It’s definitely worth considering. You’d look amazing—BE amazing I mean, not look… I mean you’d look good too but that’s not what I was—”
“It’s fine Ren, I get it.” She tried not to laugh at him, then looked up to the clock on the wall. “We should probably head to class, we can talk more later, okay?”
“Yeah.” Ren stood up, still blushing. “Sounds good. See ya Mako.”
“See ya Ren.”
~ ~ ~
The next day, Makoto had texted Ren, asking him to meet her in the school courtyard after school. Having just finished her own duties for the day, she was making her way downstairs to meet him, already trying to formulate a plan in her head as to how she was going to make what would inevitably turn out to be a rather embarrassing request of him.
She felt a sudden- but not harsh- slap on her shoulder, quickly turning around to see Eiko waving to her as she walked off with some of her other friends. Makoto smiled, and politely waved back. While she definitely wouldn’t fit into the rest of Eiko’s circle, she really appreciated having little moments like this. She loved having Ren as a friend, but she really appreciated the fact that she had another girl to talk to like Eiko or Ann; though Ann would usually come attached with one or more of the other thieves, so it was harder to get time alone with her. Makoto resolved to try and text Ann more often, if she could do so with Eiko she could definitely do so with Ann.
She’d worry about that later though, for now she had to meet Ren. As she turned the corner though, she nearly collided into the other nudist.
“Oh! Sorry Niijima-senpai, I didn’t see you there.”
“No no, it’s fine Yoshizawa-san, it’s my fault for not looking where I was going.”
Makoto noticed Haru wasn’t around right now, she didn’t want to keep Ren waiting too long, but she realized now was a good opportunity to talk to Kasumi alone.
“So, how have you been handling the program so far Yoshizawa-san?”
“Um… I’m fine…”
“Just fine?”
“Well… I’ve definitely been getting better! I won’t be beaten! Oh! I mean um…”
“’Beaten’? I apologize if this is rude, but can I offer some advice? As one nudist to another?”
Kasumi somehow seemed both relieved and anxious at the same time.
“I suppose, I guess there’s no harm in knowing how you do it.”
“I don’t think it’s right to think of your nudity as a challenge to be overcome. It’s better to just think of it as just a lifestyle choice, something to be enjoyed, and not to worry too much about the opinions of others.”
“…really?”
Makoto looked around to make sure no one was listening, before leaning in close.
“To be honest I was terrified at first, there were times where I thought I’d fall apart. I got much better once I managed to convince myself to be proud of my body. I think you could definitely do the same, you’re a very fit and beautiful girl, you should always try to remember that fact.”
Kasumi’s eyes went wide.
“You think I’m pretty?”
“I mean of course, it’s clear you worked hard for that body.” Makoto stepped away and smiled at the girl. “Once you realize that yourself, other people start noticing too, people can sense confidence, it’s all about convincing yourself first.”
Kasumi looked down at her feet for a while in deep thought.
“I see, I’ll try to keep that in mind.” She walked past Makoto without looking at her. “Anyway I should go find Haru before I head home, we were going to get something to eat on the way back. I’ll see you later Niijima-senpai.”
“Later.” Makoto waved after her, but she had already made her way around the corner at out of sight.
She would definitely have to keep an eye on her going forward, and indeed remind her that she could quit if it really is too much for her. But for now she’d focus on Ren, and try to figure out how she would ask him to go undercover with her…
~ ~ ~
“…As her fake boyfriend?” Hifumi asked while setting up the shogi board.
“Yeah, she said that because Eiko already thinks I’m Makoto’s boyfriend, that’ll give us on an excuse to go on a ‘double-date’ with her and her new boyfriend ‘Tsukasa’.”
“I see… and why do that?”
“Makoto is suspicious of this Tsukasa person, me too. A host from a nearby club- which is in the already rather sketchy red-light district- hitting on a highschooler working in a nearby café.”
“I see what you mean, it is a little questionable.”
Ren shrugged slightly.
“I dunno, maybe we’re worrying over nothing. We’re going to be careful not to overstep our boundaries too much, but we want to make sure her new friend is safe, y’know? So I’m happy to help by playing the role.”
Hifumi tilted her head.
“So if you’re okay with being her fake boyfriend, then what’s the problem?”
Ren briefly made eye contact with her, then scanned around the church, seeing only an elderly man on the other size of the hall, and the priest doing… whatever it was priests do when not holding a service. He leaned his head on his interlocked fingers, before lowering his head further so his face was mostly hidden from Hifumi, who continued to watch him, confused.
“Does it have to be fake?” He mumbled.
“Oh.” Hifumi was taken aback. “Oh I see…”
Ren grumbled, face still hidden, but his blush only partially obscured.
“Ren, just so I’ve got this 100% down, tell me how you feel about Makoto.”
“Do I really have to? I mean surely you’ve already figured it out if you’re asking.”
“I want you to say it out loud.”
Ren reluctantly raised his head, but kept avoiding eye contact. She had to admit she found his embarrassed face rather cute.
“I like Makoto. I really like hanging out with her and would like to take our relationship further…”
Hifumi smiled proudly and nodded.
“There’s a good, brave boy.”
“Please don’t talk to me like that, it’s embarrassing.”
“You’re always telling me about how you tease her, now you know how she feels.” Hifumi laughed, being careful not to be too loud. “But seriously, with all the flirting you do with her, I’d have thought you were already further in your relationship.”
“I mean, I do really enjoy all the flirting, but all those times there’s that plausible deniability that it’s just a joke or for fun or something. When she asked me to act as her fake boyfriend for the thing, I wanted to say ‘it was the role I was born to play’, but I just didn’t have the guts this time…”
“My my, that would have been quite the line.”
“I’m sure it’d just be interpreted as teasing again, and to be honest that would be true, but I want it to be serious as well, y’know? I say it all to tease her, but I do still mean it.”
“Hmm…” Hifumi stared at her pieces a while. “Ren, I’d like to remind you I don’t really know anything about relationships, I’ve never been in one myself- Mother would never allow it.”
“Oh, right… sorry.”
“Don’t apologise, I’m not finished yet.”
“Right- sor—” Ren cut himself short, prompting another giggle from Hifumi.
“I’m only saying that because I don’t feel like you should take my advice as gospel, any advice I give just comes from imagining myself in both your position and hers, and thus should be taken with a grain of salt.”
“I understand, I’d still appreciate your opinion if you have one to offer.” Ren ran his fingers through his hair. “Both you and her are definitely smarter than I am.”
“I’m not sure about that, but thank you very much for saying so.” She fiddled with her king piece, picking it up as if to study it. “I’m not her, so I can’t say for certain, but I feel that she wouldn’t have considered you for the role if she wasn’t at least open to the idea of actually having you as her boyfriend.”
“You really think so?”
“I do. But I remind you, I’m not her so I can’t say for sure, I’m just putting myself in her position. But from how you describe her, and how you interact, I think you’re definitely in with a chance with her.”
“I see… I hope you’re right…”
“Putting myself in your position… I’d just play the role for now, until after the investigation is finished.”
Ren nodded.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. If I ask now- even if she says yes that’s going to mess with the investigation, and I can’t indulge myself when a friend might actually be at risk.”
“That said, I’d try to enjoy the role, and hope she enjoys it too. Then after all is sorted, I’d try to work up the courage to ask how she feels, maybe as if she wants to carry on.”
“I’ll be honest with you Hifumi-san, that sounds terrifying.”
She laughed again.
“Agreed. I’m talking big, but knowing me I’d probably chicken out at the last minute.”
“Still, I think you’re right. Thank you Hifumi, your support means a lot to me.”
“Thank you for confiding in me, it makes me feel rather special, I like it.” She placed her king piece back in place. “I’m rooting for you two, but for now- we must battle.”
She glared at Ren, he’d be lying if he said it didn’t intimidate him at all. She took a deep breath in through her nose, and out through her mouth. She was back into character.
“So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!”
Click
She folded her arms and glared at him, waiting for his first move. Ren found it equal parts cute and intimidating, getting her and Makoto to play together was something he was really looking forward to.
Notes:
Wow it didn't take a month to get the next chapter this time- score!
I'm really committed to finishing this story up until the end of Royal, but I don't think every "chapter" of the game will take this long to get through. Between leading up to Makoto becoming Queen, the whole Eiko plotline, and the Kasumi subplot, this is a very dense part of the story, and thus will take time to get through.
The story should pick up in speed by the time we get to Futaba.
Chapter 16: Tsukasa
Summary:
The double date, and it's aftermath
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Woooah! So you’re the famous Shujin nudist, huh? Or nudie-prez as Eiko’s been calling you.”
Ren and Makoto had been on this ‘double date’ for all of five seconds, and they were already sick of the way Tsukasa shamelessly leered at Makoto. They both made sure they didn’t show it though, after all- she was naked so maybe they were being too harsh judging him for that so swiftly. They were aware that they were going into this already biased against him, so they tried to keep open minds, even if his very obviously-rehearsed cocky and flirty demeanour did fuel the confirmation bias.
Makoto nodded diplomatically.
“Yes, I am the first ‘Shujin nudist’, but my name is Makoto Niijima.”
“She’s the student council prez, but she’s actually pretty cool.” Eiko seldom took her own eyes off of Tsukasa.
“You gotta be cool to strut around nude like that. You ever think of joining her Eiko?”
Eiko laughed.
“No I could never, that’s totes crazy! Oh—” she briefly tore her gaze away from Tsukasa to smile apologetically over to Makoto. “I mean good-crazy. I don’t know anyone else who could do what you do Nudie-prez!”
Makoto nodded, making sure to keep reading Tsukasa’s own expression.
“It’s fine, no offence taken. It’s definitely not for everyone.”
“Totally… though I guess that’s that one first year doing it too…”
“Aw come on Princess, I’m sure you could pull it off too, you’re hella hot, especially today, did you do something with your hair?”
“Oh stop it Tsukasa.” Eiko laughed, fanning her red cheeks.
“I mean it Princess, you really could. What’s involved in signing up?”
“She said ‘no’, Dude. Chill.”
Tsukasa shot Ren an annoyed side-glance.
“No need to get hostile, man.”
“Yeah it’s okay Ren.” Eiko interjected. “Tsukasa just likes to joke around sometimes, he can be silly sometimes.”
“Right, I was only playing.”
Ren found his smile rather annoying, Makoto found it suspicious, but neither had any solid retort, so both remained silent for now.
“C’moon Tsukasa, you don’t need to stare at her so much.” Eiko playfully shoved him.
“Don’t worry babygirl, I was only looking, I still only have eyes for you~” He ran his fingers through her hair.
Ren and Makoto were both very uncomfortable, and it must have shown on their faces, since Tsukasa called them out.
“Y’know the way Eiko was talking about you, I figured you too would be closer. Are you two just like… not affectionate or something?”
She wasn’t sure why, but Makoto felt truly offended, she tried to think of something to say but Ren beat her to it.
“Love comes in all forms. We’re plenty close, we just don’t do physical contact all that much at this stage in our relationship.”
“’At this stage’? A relationship is a relationship.”
“I just don’t think it’d be right for me to put my hands on her, that’s all it is.”
Makoto nodded.
“He’s right, we’re perfectly happy taking things at our own pace, he doesn’t want me being too clingy.”
Tsukasa scoffed.
“Sounds like me and Eiko have you beat in terms of affection then.” He said as he pulled Eiko in, she wholeheartedly accepted the embrace and leaned in even harder.
“Sorry guys, you’re 2nd place.”
“I think we can live with that.” Makoto sighed.
“Oh…” Eiko reluctantly broke the embrace and stood up. “I need to use the bathroom real quick, don’t go anywhere!” And so she made her way off, taking a frankly annoying length of time due to all the stops apparently needed to wave and blow kisses.
Once she was out of sight, Makoto addressed Tsukasa.
“Um, there’s something I’d like to ask you… are you serious about pursuing a relationship with Eiko?”
Tsukasa rolled his eyes.
“Ah I was expecting something like this, are you two playing the role of her parents now?”
“No but that does sound kinda fun.”
Makoto kicked Ren under the table.
“I just want to make sure you’re good for her, that’s all.”
“Ha! So I was basically right with the parents thing. Naw but seriously, that’s totally fair. It’s good that you care about your friends like that. You seem like a nice girl, and any friend of my GF is a friend of mine…”
Ren leaned over and whispered to Makoto.
“’GF’ means ‘girlfriend’ by the way.”
“I know, don’t patronize me!” she hissed back.
Tsukasa ignored their little spat.
“We should stay in contact, how about you tell me your digits?”
Ren looked at him in disbelief.
“Dude are you seriously just straight up asking for her measurements like that?”
“What? No I—”
“Why do people care about those three numbers so much? I mean, you can just look to see how big everything is.”
“I mean her number, her phone number.”
“…Oh… my bad…” Ren leaned back a moment, before sitting up straight again. “Wait that’s still—”
“So how about it Miss Prez? Can we exchange numbers?”
“I-I, um…”
Ren raised his hand.
“I can give you my number instead? Hell- as an apology for earlier I’ll even throw my measurements in too, how about it, buddy?”
“Nobody asked you four-eyes.”
“10/10 original insult, I can’t believe you came up with that all by yourself, you’ve definitely got me beat in the wit department too.”
Tsukasa decided to ignore Ren, and put away his phone.
“It’s fine, Eiko already gave me Mako’s number anyway, so it’s all good.”
“Why ask then?”
Tsukasa continued to ignore Ren, so Makoto repeated the question.
“Why ask then?”
“I thought it’d be more… polite if you gave it to me yourself, but then I figured so long as you knew I had your number it’d be fine.”
Ren didn’t like any of this, not one bit, but Makoto reassured him with a hand discreetly placed on his knee.
“I do have one more question to ask: you’re not going to bring Eiko to your club, are you?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I know you think I’m just a flirt because I’m a host, but my love for Eiko is as pure as snow, don’t twist the story.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh, Eiko? Nah it’s all good Princess, I was just getting to know your friend a little better.” He glanced at his phone once more. “Anyway work starts soon, so I better get going.”
“Aww… well I should probably get back too.” Eiko pouted. “Bye you two, I’ll talk to you later Nudie-prez!” And with that, she and Tsukasa left the café arm-in-arm. Leaving the ‘fake’ couple together at the table.
“Well that was a bust…”
Makoto sighed.
“Yeah, I really hope he’s not tricking her, but I don’t feel like we got anything useful out of today.”
“I hear ya, with the Haru investigation I walked away feeling like I really understood her, at least well enough to know she wasn’t a problem, but here? I doubt we saw more than a glimpse of the real Tsukasa.”
“Everything about him feels practiced and artificial…”
Ren smirked.
“I definitely prefer the type to wear their heart on their sleeve… and nothing else.”
“Ren is now really the time?”
“Sorry."
Makoto folded her arms, and stared at the table in deep thought.
“Still, all we really have are suspicions, and Eiko seems genuinely happy. Am I just getting in the way of her happiness?”
“I mean, if he really is a great guy, then all we’re doing is being slightly annoying at worst. I think that’s a price worth paying to make sure Eiko is safe, don’t you?”
She looked over to him, she loved that reassuring smile of his, she returned with one of her own.
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll keep investigating.”
Just then, Makoto’s phone went off inside her bag.
“Huh? He’s texting me already?”
“He left less a minute ago though… What did he say?”
Makoto squinted at her phone.
“That’s a damn good question… I’ll just read it as-is: It’s meee, Tsukasa. Heart emoji. I no we just met but cudn’t wait to phone emoji u.”
Ren was torn, on one hand he was irked by Tsukasa acting so ‘friendly’ with Makoto like that, when as far as he knew she was already in a relationship; though this did make Ren wonder if perhaps he was the possessive type for thinking that way, he wasn’t sure. But on the other hand, it was really funny hearing Makoto read out these emojis in such a monotone voice.
“Im so haP to B friends with U, Mako-chan. Clapping emoji, another clapping emoji, hot springs emoji…” She dropped her phone on the table. “He’s even less comprehensible than Eiko.”
“W-why did he use a hot springs emoji?”
“No idea, and I’d rather not think about it.”
“Please tell me he didn’t have an eggplant emoji anywhere in all that.”
“Hm? No, no eggplant, just the ones I said.”
“Okay good, good…”
“Why? What does the eggplant mean? Actually no- don’t tell me, I think I can figure it out.” She sat up straight. “Anyway, thank you very much for helping me with this, I would have no doubt panicked had I come here alone.”
“No, thank you for always trusting me like this, it feels nice to be relied on.”
“Despite everything, you really are the reliable type.”
“What do you mean ‘despite everything’?”
Ren glared at her in mock offence, before both broke down in laughter, and smiled. Though it didn’t take long for Makoto to realize that perhaps she was staring at him a bit too long, and quickly averted her gaze.
“A-anyway, I think we should head home for now…”
“Sure, what do we do next about Eiko and Tsukasa?”
“I’ll think of something, we’ll discuss it tomorrow.”
The two gathered their things and made their way outside, starting their walk to the train station. Slightly awkward silence fell over them for a few minutes, before Ren spoke without looking at her directly.
“Y’know I wouldn’t mind…”
“Wouldn’t mind what?”
“If… for the cover if you felt you had to be a little clingy… for the cover of course… maybe it’d be more convincing? I dunno, forget I said anything…”
“Oh… um… I don’t know, maybe?”
“Just an idea, don’t even worry about it, it was dumb…”
“Well…”
Awkward silence reigned once more, and continued to do so for the rest of their journey home.
~ ~ ~
Makoto lay on her bed, atop the sheets, clutching her Buchimaru-kun hug pillow close to her body. Tonight had been another night where Sae was too busy with work to make it home, so Makoto just made dinner for herself, enjoyed a long bath, and went to bed. But she couldn’t sleep, she had too much on her mind. Ren was the person she was closest too, perhaps even moreso than Sae at this point, but this wasn’t an issue she could discuss with him. Eiko was also off the list, she couldn’t risk ruining their cover. Makoto pondered, looking to Buchi for answers, but he remained silent, expected, but still disappointing.
She picked up her phone and began typing.
“She’s probably asleep already, if she is I’ll just suck it up and try to get some sleep myself.”
‘You awake?’ she sent the message.
Before she even had time to put her phone back she saw those words pop up that filled her with relief: ‘Ann is typing…’
Ann: Heya Makoto, what’s up?
Makoto: Sorry to bother you this late Ann
Makoto: Just had something on my mind
Ann: No problem, I usually stay up pretty late myself
Ann: Is something wrong?
Makoto: No, nothing is wrong.
Makoto: Well… sort of. Can you keep a secret?
Ann: Sure
Makoto: Thanks, and also- thanks for texting in plain Japanese, it’s such a relief
Ann: What?
Makoto: I’ve been having to decipher so much emoji-riddled nonsense lately, it gives me a headache. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.
Makoto: Lately another friend of mine, called Eiko, started dating a host who works at a club near the café she works at.
Ann: Right?
Makoto: So I wanted to meet up with him, make sure he’s good for her, not trying to pull her into a shady club or trying to get her money or something
Ann: With you so far
Makoto: And in order to get close without raising any suspicion, we went in under the guise of it being a double date
Ann: We?
Ann: Oh
Ann: OH!
Ann: You and Ren went on a double date?
Makoto: He’s only pretending to be my boyfriend
Ann: Pretending? The hell?
Ann: Is he not into it or something?
Makoto: No no, nothing like that
Makoto: I asked him to pretend to be my boyfriend
Ann: I see… I feel bad for him
Makoto: You do?
Ann: I mean yea, he’s obviously into you, he finally gets invited to something that explicitly has the word “date” in it, and he’s told “it’s only a pretend”
Ann: It’s a bit mean, if I’m brutally honest
Makoto: I didn’t think of it like that…
Makoto: But that’s kind of the thing
Makoto: I kind of want it to be real
Ann: FINALLY!
Ann: You finally admit it.
Makoto: But I couldn’t just ask him then. I can’t ask him to actually be my boyfriend and go “oh by the way, our first date is spying on another couple”
Ann: You do have a point there…
Makoto: Plus this is a time I needed his help, what if he didn’t want us to be a couple? He’d still want to help and just feel obligated to say yes.
Ann: I’ve told you, he’s definitely into you, he’d definitely say yes
Ann: But I still see your point.
Ann: This wasn’t the time to confess, that’s fair enough.
Makoto: The problem now is that I have no idea how to transition from fake relationship to real one
Makoto: Or even if I would have the guts to make that jump
Ann: Hmm…
Ann: It’s hard to say since you might have to be the one to make the leap.
Ann: Guys like him tend to have this mental block of “she can’t possibly be into me, she’s out of my league” and just end up dismissing any signs of interest as “wishful thinking” or “too good to be true”.
Makoto: Really?
Makoto: How do you know this? Have you had boyfriends in the past after all?
Ann: No, but I’ve read a lot of romance manga, so I’m pretty much an expert on love
Makoto: Right…
Makoto: I guess you’d still perform better on a test of love than me, so I’ll take what I can get.
Ann: A test of love?
Makoto: Oh. Sorry, It was this silly thing Eiko mentioned. She said I’d flunk a test on love
Ann: I have no idea how a test like that would even work, but I’m inclined to agree
Makoto: I wouldn’t flunk it!
Ann: Yeah you would, no question
Ann: It’s okay though, now’s your chance to study!
Ann: It might only be fake now, but this could still be your chance to see what having him as a boyfriend might be like!
Ann: Best case scenario, at the end of this “investigation” of yours, you just say to him “Hey, lets keep up this act a little while longer?” and BAM! You’re a couple
Makoto: I very much doubt it’ll go like that
Ann: It’ll be fine. All guys want a nudist GF after all
Ann: GF means girlfriend btw
Makoto: …I know…
Ann: And BTW means by the way
Makoto: I’m not that clueless about text speak!
Ann: Good, just checking
Ann: But for real, I can tell he’s really into you, even without the added bonus of being naked
Ann: He couldn’t find you more appealing even if you covered yourself in chocolate
Makoto: Is that something from one of your ‘romance’ mangas?
Ann: No comment
Ann: I’m just saying that transitioning from fake to real girlfriend is going to be the easiest thing in the world for you
Makoto: …
Makoto: I hope you’re right
Makoto: Thank you for talking with me about it anyway, you’ve given me some stuff to think about it
Ann: NW
Makoto: I know NW means no worries, so please don’t explain that one to me
Ann: Wasn’t gonna
Ann: Good night- I guess? Make sure to keep me updated!
Ann: I’m pretty invested in the two of you
Makoto: I hope I can return the favor to you one day. Maybe if you ever have a boy you’re into?
Ann: A boy…
Ann: Um, yeah, thanks I guess
Ann: Anyway I should get some sleep, don’t want to fall behind too much
Ann: Night
Makoto: Night
Makoto stared at her phone a little while longer, no more messages came through. She placed it down on her bedside table, climbed under her blankets and embraced the Buchi-pillow once more.
“A real boyfriend, huh?” She clutched Buchimaru-kun tighter still. “I really hope this isn’t just wishful thinking…”
Notes:
So many plot chapters, I promise the porn will come back eventually, but the whole Eiko subplot is important to Makoto's overall story
Chapter 17: Study partners
Summary:
Oh yeah, you've seen the title, we're finally at that point
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Why’d she ask to meet you here?”
“I’m not sure…”
Makoto stood outside the Shibuya branch of Big Bang Burger, having been summoned here via text by Eiko. As always, she had brought Ren along, she wasn’t sure what Eiko had called her for, but she was sure she wouldn’t mind her fake boyfriend being present too, they were seldom apart at this point.
“Normally I wouldn’t think much of something like this, but she sounded unusually desperate and wouldn’t elaborate on what she needed unless it was in person…”
“That’s…” Ren could tell just by looking at Makoto’s face that her thoughts were getting carried away to quite worrying places. “Still, no point speculating out here, let’s just ask her what’s up, ‘kay?”
“Right, of course.”
They entered the restaurant, ignored the patrons nudging eachother to check out the famous nudist who just wandered in, and spotted Eiko sitting at a table near the corner, staring off into the distance. She noticed them as they approached.
“Oh? Heya Nudie-prez!” her call lacked her usual energy.
“Hi Eiko.” the couple sat down opposite her. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah—yeah totally, just a…” Eiko trailed off a moment or two, before quickly bowing her head and putting her hands together. “I just need to borrow a little money, please?”
“Huh? You need money?”
“I promise you I’m good for it, I just need some cash for something short term and I’ll pay you back later!”
Makoto exchanged a look with Ren, who seemed to be harbouring similar suspicions to her. She raised an eyebrow to Eiko.
“Does this have something to do with Tsukasa?”
“It uh… kinda? Um… yes, it does- but it’s not a big deal! Tsukasa apparently broke a really expensive bottle of sake at work the other day, and his boss is making him pay for it.”
“But what does that have to do with you?”
“Whaddya mean? He just asked me for a little help paying for it. I don’t want to ask my parents for help- they have the cash but there’s no way they’d be okay with it, my other friends are too focused on college entrance exams, you’re the only one I can trust Makoto!”
Ren scoffed.
“The host who casually walks around wearing an expensive Kiryu Kazama suit and a whole isle’s worth of hair products is saying he can’t afford a bottle of sake, and is asking a high schooler to pay for his mistake instead? And you believe this?”
Makoto nodded.
“Ren has a point. Eiko, Tsukasa is lying to you.”
“He’s not! Look, I know you guys are all weird about him being a host or whatever, but he’s just not like that!”
“Have you verified his claim at all? I’m sure it’d be pretty easy to go to the club he works at and ask about it.”
“Well… no. But I trust him, he really cares about me and wouldn’t lie to me!” Eiko looked downwards. “He’s always so kind to me, and makes me feel special. He calls me ‘Princess’ and everything.”
Makoto let out a heavy sigh.
“Eiko I’ve heard of guys like him, who call all their girls ‘princess’ so they don’t have to remember their actual names whenever they pull tricks like this.”
“And besides…” Ren added “…giving girls petnames related to royalty is one of the cheapest methods for shady guys to ‘charm’ girls, isn’t that right Queen?”
Makoto side-eyed Ren, unimpressed. Eiko groaned and scowled.
“I told you he’s not like that! Dammit Makoto, someone like you could never understand. You’re smart, you’re going to go to some great college then get some high paying job to be miserable at, with people fawning over you all the while. All I want is someone to make me feel just a little bit special, and you can’t even let me have that.”
“That’s not true. Admittedly I don’t have a solid plan for what I want to do with my life, and my recent lifestyle change has put me in an unusual position regarding the views of others, but those are completely separate issues to what we’re talking about now.”
“I hate to be this harsh Eiko, but you’re not special to Tsukasa, he’s just making you feel that way so he can profit off of you.”
Ren spoke calmly and firmly, though it just seemed to infuriate Eiko more.
“Oh yeah? That’s real fucking rich. Do you have any proof to anything you’re saying?”
“You’re right, we don’t have proof… yet. But I’m telling you because I care about you, you should break up with Tsukasa. It doesn’t matter how ‘special’ he makes you feel, you should absolutely refuse to pay for this bottle that you have no evidence actually exists.”
The slightest hints of tears were forming in what was otherwise a gaze full of vitriol and disgust.
“So you’re not going to lend me the money? Fine, whatever. I’ll just take some extra shifts at work, some of those weird old guys offered me some extra cash for some dates with them, with those I’ll pay it off in no time.”
“Eiko! You can’t be serious?!”
“Goodbye Makoto, Ren. Thanks for nothing.”
Eiko grabbed her bag and stormed out, pushing past other customers in the process. Makoto watched was she disappeared outside and around the corner, she slumped in her seat.
“We’ve definitely had better meetings, huh?”
“It’s not as if I don’t understand why she feels like this. When you form those first connections, or at least feel like you’ve formed them, you become terrified of losing them, and it really impacts your thinking…”
“Makoto… Yeah… yeah I get that too.”
“She and I would talk about our home circumstances from time to time, she has fairly rich parents, but it sounded like all the focus was given to her high-achieving older brother, she’s basically given free reign to do whatever, but this meant that she always saw her brother as the ‘special’ one, it’s natural she desires to feel special herself sometimes… Unfortunately that makes her a prime target for predators and scammers. I’ve always heard stories of those who deliberately seek out depressed girls, then trick them into all kinds of shady businesses…”
“From the sound of the ‘dates’ thing, I hate being this blunt, but Eiko is being pushed into prostitution, there’s no getting around that…”
“Yeah… it’s…”
Makoto felt Ren’s arm around her shoulder.
“It’s okay, this isn’t a repeat of the fears we had with Kaneshiro, this is just some scummy host with no real power beyond a silver tongue, we’ll sort him out no problem! In fact—” Ren pulled out his phone. “I bet we could find him on the nav if we looked…”
“Hang on a second Ren.”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“We’ll keep the nav as a back-up plan, but I want us to deal with this problem without it if we can.”
“Oh?”
“I want to expose him the old fashioned way, and more importantly- in a way that Eiko can see. If we just change his heart and he leaves her out of the blue, she won’t learn anything, and either still be vulnerable to people just like him, or just fall further into depression.”
“Yeah, I see what you’re getting at…”
Ren put his phone away. When he looked around the restaurant he noticed a good number of people staring at the two of them muttering to themselves. He looked at Makoto and realized just how intimate he was being holding her like this, the side of his body pressed against hers. He quickly pulled away and scooted back a couple inches, mumbling apologetically. She wanted to assure him it was fine, that she didn’t mind, maybe even that she liked it, but chickened out and just tried to pretend nothing happened.
“Anyway—we’ll stop that host for sure, can I count on you to continue supporting me?”
“Of course, I honestly can’t imagine anyone saying ‘no’ to that in my position at this point.”
Makoto smiled.
“Well that’s good.”
“So we’re already in a Big Bang Burger, you want to get something to eat while we’re here?”
“No, better not. I need to watch my weight.”
“Fair enough, I’m sure they already appreciate you bringing all this extra traffic here with you.” Ren gestured around the now-crowded tables.
“The place was more or less empty when we came in…” Makoto rubbed her forehead. “I’m glad I’ve gotten so good at ignoring crowds, it’s kind of hard to have a serious discussion like we just had when you’re trying to ignore everyone trying to get pictures of ‘the naked girl’.”
“No kidding, let’s get out of here before you’re mobbed and we have to spend the rest of the day giving selfies.”
“’We’? Does anyone want to take selfies with you?”
“They could be entranced by my beauty too, y’know? It’s possible.”
“I’m sure they are.”
Makoto laughed, before they hastily made their way outside and towards the train station, making absolutely sure none of the crowd treaded on her toes or trying to grab more than just snapshot of her. She was reluctant to admit it, but this was really rather exciting rushing around like this, narrowly avoiding the eager crowd. Thankfully few people tried anything untoward, no one quite had the bravery to take such a risk in broad daylight surrounded by the nudist’s fans. A greater audience actually paradoxically made her safer. They continued their dashing and dodging until they reached their train, giggling while they went, briefly forgetting about the seriousness of the discussion they just finished, and indeed the seriousness of the investigation they would undertake tomorrow.
~ ~ ~
“I hear stories about horrible hosts about Tsukasa online all the time, but we’re still going to need some solid evidence if we’re gonna convince Eiko. Some of the promoters around here should know something, we’ll start by asking around.”
“Right.”
“Also Ren?”
“Yeah?”
“I appreciate you wanting us to stick together and stay safe—and I agree with you, but you really don’t have to squeeze my hand quite that hard.”
“Ah—” Ren loosened his grip somewhat, but daren’t let go, as if Makoto would suddenly be dragged away the moment he did so. “Sorry about that.”
Makoto chuckled.
“Father always said, finding evidence takes serious leg work. I wonder what he’d say if he saw me now…”
“I mean, realistically the first thing he’d ask is ‘where are your clothes?’”
She blushed.
“Yeah… that would kind of distract from everything else, huh?”
And so the couple made they way once again through the streets of the red light district, asking every promoter and host they could see if they knew a ‘Tsukasa’. Frustratingly most of them assumed one or the both of them were either customers or looking for work. Makoto did admittedly like the mental image of Ren being charming in one of those fancy suits, though she imagined he probably wouldn’t get away with that unruly mop-head he called his hair, a shame- she thought- she had grown to actually quite like it, but now wasn’t the time for such things, nor was the other mental image of her working as a naked hostess that was currently making itself at home in Ren’s mind.
Eventually they encountered a club promoter in a particularly bad mood, under normal circumstances they would steer clear, but they didn’t have that luxury right now, finding evidence was more important.
“Excuse me?”
“Hm? You got something to say to me?”
Far from the usually friendly customer service line the others gave them, but also ironically much less aggressive.
“Sorry to bother you, but do you know a Tsukasa?”
“Tsukasa? For fucks sake, you a friend of his or something?” Yeah this guy had ‘I’ve had a bad day and I’ll take any excuse to snap at this point’ energy radiating off of him.
“God no, but I’m guessing you know him? A friend of mine knows him, and says he recently broke a bottle at his club and need her help paying it off.”
“Fucking ‘ell. He’s using the sake bottle trick again? Rat bastard.”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a look, this charming fellow definitely seemed to know him, and by the sounds of it their suspicions were right on the money.
“Look, lemme make it clear for you- that friend of yours? Get her outta there ASAP. Tsukasa’s a well-known prick around here, he’s got this whole routine of ‘breaking a sake bottle’ then selling the girls to pay it back. Son-of-a-bitch once used the same trick on one of my friends, she got out before it got really bad but she hasn’t been the same since. Fucking piece of goddamn shit-stain fuck!”
“Eloquently put. Thanks for your help man.” Ren gave a thumbs up with his free hand.
“Come on Ren, we have our evidence now. Eiko’s shift should be ending soon, so we’ll wait for her in front of the store.
~ ~ ~
Eiko’s expression soured as soon as she stepped out of the ‘After-school salon’.
“Nudie-prez… what do you want?”
“Ah good, I was worried we’d miss eachother.” Makoto approached her confidently.
“As if I could miss you, looking like that. Could you hurry up and say whatever it is you want to say?”
“Eiko, you’re far from the first girl Tsukasa has pulled this ‘broken bottle’ routine on.”
“Ugh… this shit again?”
“We have the testimony of another host in this area, and can get more if need be. He’s rather infamous for this whole trick, even tricking girls into selling themselves over it.”
“Look Makoto, I don’t know what your whole fucking deal with him is, and I don’t want to know, I’m sick of your lying bullshit. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got a date with him tonight, we’re gonna go to his club.”
“Princess?” Tsukasa approached the group from behind.
“Right on time.” Makoto muttered under her breath.
“Hey I know you two- you’re that other couple, her friends right? I just got a text from her asking me to meet her here, we were gonna head to my club, you wanna come along?”
“Tsukasa, they’ve been saying horrible things about you!”
Tsukasa raised a curious eyebrow, trying to look as innocent as he could.
“Oh?”
“Like how you trick girls with a ‘broken bottle’ routine.”
“Oh you don’t believe that nonsense, do you Princess? I’d never lie to you.”
Makoto narrowed her eyes at him.
“It’s always ‘Princess’ with you, why don’t you ever call her by her real name Tsukasa? Or are there too many ‘Princesses’ in your life to remember?”
If one blinked they would miss Tsukasa’s small flinch, he would have simply ignored the question had it not been for Eiko staring at him.
“Tsukasa?”
Tsukasa burst into laughter.
“I’m just kidding around, of course I remember, you texted me just a minute ago remember? I could never forget you Makoto.”
“Oof.” Ren knew now wasn’t the time to laugh, despite how much he wanted to.
Eiko’s expression dropped, her arms hung limply at her sides, the hints of tears forming in her eyes.
“I knew it.” Makoto stepped forward. “I’m the one who texted you, all I had to do was add a bunch of emojis to make it seem like Eiko. You’ve taken money from so many ‘Princesses’ that you can’t even remember their names anymore, huh?”
Tsukasa was sweating, Makoto turned back to Eiko.
“I’m sorry, but you had to see this. This is who your boyfriend really is, he doesn’t care about you.”
Eiko stared at the ground, trying to fight back tears and failing. Trying her best to look as angry as possible, she glared at Makoto.
“But… it’s only because you tricked him! You don’t know anything about love so you just want to ruin mine- Tsukasa is all I have! Just leave me alone bitch!”
Makoto took another breath, before calmly stepping forward and smacking Eiko in the face. If anyone wasn’t already watching the scene unfold, they certainly were now.
“WAKE UP!”
Eiko, holding her cheek, froze. Even the tears stopped flowing outside of those already making their way down her cheek.
“You can clearly see the truth but you don’t want to accept it. ‘Tsukasa is all I have’, give me a break! Stop lying to yourself.”
Eiko slowly stood up straight, still rubbing her cheek. She glanced back at Makoto, then Ren, then Tsukasa, before taking a few uneven steps away from the group.
“But… Tsukasa is the only one who cares about me… no one else asks how my day is going, or how work has been…”
Ren shook his head.
“Eiko literally the whole reason we met was to ask you if work was okay? What do you and Makoto talk about all day if not your days, your work, and that little panda dude?”
“Dammit…” Eiko’s fists trembled. “A perfect girl like her, someone who lives up to everyone’s expectations could never understand how I feel. Quit feeding me this honor student bullshit!”
Makoto remained calm and collected, focusing her breathing and blocking out the passerbys enjoying the drama.
“This has nothing to do with being an honor student. I just can’t rest knowing there’s such evil in the world!”
Ren fought back a smirk, he loved it when she would spout such cheesy lines with such conviction.
“…And I damn sure won’t just keep quiet while my friend has her life ruined! And you!” She turned back to Tsukasa. “Apologize to Eiko, and never go near her again!”
“You’re really starting to annoy me with this shit, you bitch! If you think I’m going to go easy on you just because you’re a chick or you run around naked- I’ll still teach you a lesson you won’t forget.”
“I dare you!”
Tsukasa aggressively stepped towards Makoto before Ren stepped between them.
“Oh you’re gonna play the white knight and leap to her rescue, huh?”
Ren chuckled.
“I don’t think you’re using that term right man. And don’t get me wrong- I’m certain she could kick your ass without my help, no problem. In fact that’d be incredibly fun to watch, right now I’m actually really glad she’s always got cameras on her, it means I’ll get to watch this shit on youtube later, that’ll give me weeks of joy—” Ren glare turned serious, and he took a step towards Tsukasa, forcing him back slightly. “—that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna sit back and do nothing while you try and hurt her. I feel absolutely no guilt going 2v1 on you.”
“Ren…” Makoto didn’t know whether to be touched or just laugh, she settled on smirking, and confidently stepping in front of him, forcing Tsukasa back further. “I come from a long line of police officers, if you really want to start something, be my guest.”
Tsukasa looked back and forth between the two of them, his tough façade swiftly falling apart.
“Shit, I’ll remember this!” And he fled, trying to hold onto what little dignity he could.
“He wasn’t so tough after all…”
“Man, I was actually hoping he would try something, I was serious about looking forward to watching it on youtube.”
“Shut up Ren.”
Despite her words, Makoto couldn’t help but smile. Unfortunately Eiko didn’t feel the same way.
“Ugh… this sucks!”
“Eiko!” but it was too late, she had already ran back into the café.
“Should we follow her?”
“I…”
Before Makoto could finish the chatter from their audience interrupted her.
“Is that nudist fighting with a host?”
“Man, did I miss it?”
“Nah man, dude ran off before she could throw a punch.”
“Do you reckon I could get her to slap me too?”
“Should we call someone?”
Makoto started to feel nervous.
“People noticed all that, I guess that’s to be expected but…”
Ren took ahold of her hand again.
“Follow me, we should get out of here before everyone gets too worked up.”
“R-right!” Makoto took a quick look back at the café, before running alongside Ren and leaving the crowd behind.
~ ~ ~
“Slapping her might have been a bit much, thinking about it now.”
Ren sipped his soda, he was sure that even if there wasn’t a fight, the slap was probably going to be on the internet before long. Being a nudist, it did kind of suck that almost every minute of her public life would now be documented in some way. It should be fine though, it’ll get buried in the other- much more innocent nude footage before long.
“That was quite the slap, but I think it was for the best.”
“I hope so, I really did need to wake her up from that situation. Still, letting my emotions sweep me away like that isn’t something I should make a habit of…”
“Ha, yeah ‘not hitting people’ is generally a good habit. We’ll call this a one off.”
“Yeah, there’s no telling what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in.”
“Actually there is- you’d kick his ass. Even if by some miracle he beat you, he’s still got video footage out there of him beating up a naked girl in broad daylight, there’s literally no way he wouldn’t end up in prison after that. Granted, that would also mean you getting hurt, so it’s not worth it. It worked out though, so don’t worry about it.”
“R-right…” Makoto looked around the bar, it was certainly unlike any place she had been before, and wasn’t the kind of place she’d associate with Ren either. “Where are we anyway?"
“It’s where I met that contact who told me about Kaneshiro, also I’m friends with the owner and work shifts here from time to time.”
“I thought you worked at the flower shop?”
“I do.”
“And here?”
“And that one meat bowl place, the convenience store, the model shop, and… actually I’m not sure if helping Tora with his political speeches counts as a job, but that too.”
“That hardly seems good for your health…”
“They’re pretty liberal about when I take shifts, plus Morgana always makes sure I get enough sleep.”
“If you say so, but still, you might benefit from learning to say ‘no’ to people from time to time…”
Ren shrugged.
“Still…” she idly fiddled with the straw in her own soda. “You must meet all kinds of people doing what you do, that’s definitely good.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming…”
“Ha, don’t worry, it’s not a bad ‘but’.”
“I agree, you definitely have a nice butt.”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“I was just thinking about how limited my experience with other people and just, life in general was before I started talking to you, Ann, Eiko, everyone really. There’s only so much you can learn with your nose buried in a book.”
“I’d definitely like to bury my nose in…”
“…in what?”
“Nothing.” Ren realized that just aborting that joke was his best move, no matter how awkward it was to do so, he nearly got carried away.
After an extended silence Makoto decided not to worry about it. She couldn’t nail down why exactly, but she was really happy in this moment. Maybe it was because of their recent success, maybe it was the adrenaline of nearly getting into a street brawl, but she was feeling especially brave right now. She knew that this was the time to ask if Ren wanted to keep up the boyfriend act a little longer.
“Ren…”
“Yeah?”
When he smiled back at her, all the courage she had immediately vanished.
“Um…” she wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of how to word it.
That was a lie, she knew how to word it, she just couldn’t get the words out. But she knew she’d never forgive herself if she let this opportunity pass. She had to do something.
“I was… just thinking about how I really need… other people to teach me certain things…”
Ren tilted his head, Makoto tried to think of a way to steer this train of thought into the subject of their relationship.
“Did I ever tell you about how Eiko said I’d flunk a test on love?”
Ren raised both eyebrows.
“Huh? Oh yeah, I think you actually did mention that to me once, a little while back.”
“Y-yeah… well… I really don’t know how I’d study that subject…” she was dropping hints, this did count as dropping hints, right? Surely it must be- she thought. “W… what should I do Ren?”
She felt guilty for dropping the responsibility onto him instead of just coming out and asking herself, but she justified it to herself by telling herself this counted as her showing interest. Trying not to show any outward signs of nervousness, she anxiously waited for his response, desperately hoping he’d take the hint.
“I’ll be your study partner.”
…
She stared at him a while in silence. Did he really just…? She had to be sure:
“U-um, I’m not exactly the most well-versed in these matters, so allow me to confirm this…” she was annoyed at how formal this was coming out, making this feel more like a business transaction than a romantic moment, but all that mattered was that she understood him and was 100% certain. “Do you… like me?”
Ren nodded.
“I do.”
“Oh… I see… good.”
Makoto glanced down at her drink, then further down at her knees, looking down even further she noticed her blush was beginning to spread down her neck and onto her upper chest. She had no idea how Ren was so calm during this.
However, not having the ability to read minds, she couldn’t hear what was going on beneath Ren’s serene smile.
‘HOLY FUCKING SHIT I DID IT! THAT WAS THE CHEESIEST LINE EVER BUT SHE LIKED IT! DOES THIS MEAN WE’RE A COUPLE NOW? CAN WE…’ and it went on from there, but outwards he was blissful and calm.
“In that case… let’s become boyfriend and girlfriend for real. I look forward to um… growing our relationship together.”
Ren inside:
‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!”
Ren outside:
“Yeah, me too.”
They both awkwardly smiled at eachother for a while, before a voice from a booth behind them knocked them out of their stupor.
“Your ‘relationship’ isn’t the only thing that’ll grow walking around like that! HA!”
Ren’s head and shoulders dropped.
“Go to hell Ohya…”
“HA!”
“Oh leave the poor darlings alone, they were having a moment.” Lala called out from behind the bar. “Watching you two really is healing, you know that?”
Makoto covered her face in embarrassment while Ren sighed.
“Right, right… I forgot she was here too.” Fighting back his own blush, he turned to the rest of the empty bar. “Anyone else want to spoil the mood?”
“Nyahaha…”
The laughter came from inside Ren’s bag. Makoto groaned harder.
“Right… I forgot Mona’s always in there…”
“Relax Queen, I can keep a secret~”
“Thanks…”
This may be the most embarrassing experience of her life (and this was coming from someone who appeared on stage in front of her entire school naked), but it was also the time where she finally entered into a relationship with the boy she loved, so maybe it was worth it overall…
“So you two gonna fuck now or what?”
“Ohya they’re highschoolers.”
“Exactly Lala- they’re teenagers, so of course they’re gonna fuck ASAP, right?”
Emphasis on ‘maybe’.
~ ~ ~
The trip home had been surprisingly ordinary for the both of them. They didn’t say much of anything to eachother- perhaps because they were reminded Morgana has been playing third wheel from inside his bag the whole time. When they got to her station, Ren wished her goodnight and they agreed to meet up again for the school commute tomorrow as always.
Makoto returned to an empty apartment again, had dinner, a bath, and went to bed, exhausted after the long day. Just as she was about to turn in for the night, her phone rang.
“Hm?”
She picked it up, saw who was calling her, and answered.
“Hello.”
“Uh… hey Nudie-prez…”
The sound of her voice made it clear she had been crying. And for a while it was silent.
“Eiko?”
“Um… I wanted to apologize…”
“Oh?”
“Yeah I’ve been… stupid lately… and I… said some pretty mean things to you…”
“Oh Eiko, it’s fine. I do understand how it must have felt to you, don’t worry about it.”
“It did hurt, and I’d be lying if I said I was better now but… I get that you were trying to help and I was just pushing you away.”
“I said it’s fine, we all have our moments where emotions make us do or say dumb things.”
“Still… I said Tsukasa was the only one who cared about me, when it’s clearly not the case, and I knew it wasn't the case. You’ve been great to talk to all this time, hell- my other friends are also good to me for the most part. I got so caught up in how Tsukasa made me feel special that I just kinda… forgot what everyone else also does.”
“I understand. That was very deliberate on his part, they always try to make you think they’re the only one you can trust, I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”
“Me too… still, I’m gonna be fine now… I think…”
“Me and Ren will still support you if you need it.”
It was once again silent for a while, before Eiko spoke once more.
“You’re lucky you have a guy like Ren. Before I’d look at your little back-and-forth and think ‘wow that’s really not very affectionate’, but after seeing how he acted today I’m really starting to see how being able to be so open and honest with eachother, being able to trust eachother enough to take and receive jabs, can really make a relationship mean so much more. I didn’t look past the superficial stuff… either with you two or Tsukasa himself.”
“Maybe I’d beat you in a test of love after all?”
“Ha… maybe you would Nudie-prez…”
“Don’t worry. It will hurt for a while, but you’ll find someone who genuinely makes you feel special eventually.”
“Hmm…”
“But in the meantime…”
“Hm?”
“You need to find a way to make yourself feel special. To love yourself before you love another. I know that’s the most annoying, cliché thing to say in the world, but there is truth to it. I was lucky, I had Ren help me see that, help me find myself rather than just think about other people’s expectations of me. I started to think about what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be. And we just do that together now, y’know?”
“’Make myself feel special’, huh?”
“I’m sorry it’s such vague advice…”
“Nah… I think I getcha… I’m guessing this is one of those ‘only you can decide the answer’ things?”
“Afraid so.”
“Well that fucking sucks, but… thank you Makoto- I’ll have a think about it… and…”
“…and?”
“I’m going to try to get into a good college. I still have no idea what I’m going to do afterwards, but I feel maybe that’s a step towards the whole ‘making myself feel special’ thing, maybe?”
“I think that’s great, if you like I can help you study for your entrance exams, it’ll be fun!”
“You have a weird definition of ‘fun’ Nudie-prez… But I guess I should still accept the invitation, I’ll need all the help I can get…”
Makoto laughed, and was immensely relieved to hear Eiko laugh back.
“Anyway, I’m going to work on that whole ‘loving myself’ thing, whatever that entails.”
“Good, I’ll support you along the way.”
“Thanks, and when I say ‘loving myself’, I don’t mean anything dirty- just to be clear.”
“…I didn’t think that at all, you’re thinking of Ren.”
“Maybe so. But seriously, thank you Makoto, I’ve done another 540 on you.”
“R-right…”
“I have one more dumb question before I let you go…”
“Oh?”
“We’re still friends, right?”
“Of course we are.”
“Okay good, just making sure. Well… I’ve already got some ideas brewing for making myself feel special, but I better sleep on them. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”
Makoto nodded, she’s not sure why- wasn’t as if that would be made clear across a phone call, but it just felt right.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow Eiko.”
After hanging up Makoto gently rested her phone beside her bed, clutched her Buchimaru-kun pillow, breathed an immense sigh of relief, and swiftly drifted off to sleep.
~ ~ ~
“TA-DAAAA!”
“E-Eiko?”
“For real?”
Eiko was enjoying Ren and Makoto’s shocked faces, nearly bursting into laughter at the sight of their jaws dropping.
“What do you think?”
“This really isn’t what I meant… you seriously joined the program Eiko?”
“For realz!” Eiko pulled off a few poses, all with peace signs, grinning ear to ear while she stood before the couple completely nude. “Seeing how cool and confident you are strutting your stuff all the time, I figured this’d be a great way to boost my own confidence.”
Ren tried not to stare at her too much, he didn’t want to give Makoto the wrong idea, not that it mattered, since she was staring even more than he was.
“You really seemed against the idea when Tsukasa brought it up.”
“The idea of getting naked for someone else’s sake… even when it was someone I loved… someone I thought I loved- seemed like a pretty icky idea to me. But doing it for myself? That’s totally something more respectable, right?”
Makoto was still reeling from the shock, but she was at least happy that Eiko was doing it for the right reason.
“Yeah… yeah maybe it is a good thing? Don’t feel bad if you have to back out of the program though, it’s not all upsides.”
“Don’t worry Nudie-prez, I can handle a few weirdos staring at me.”
“I recommend finding someone to go home with.” Ren interjected, trying his hardest to maintain eyecontact and not stare at the jiggling as Eiko pulled off her different poses. “You know what Tokyo public transport can be like…”
“It’s cool, I’m gonna head home with friends.”
“Holy shit Eiko!”
“Oh, speak of the satin, or whatever that phrase is.” Eiko waved as her group of friends arrived, shamelessly ogling her body up and down.
“OMG you actually did it Eiko!”
“That’s wild.”
“Dammit, we finally get another nudist and it’s a girl again! Why can we never get a naked guy?” the girl looked over to Ren. “When’s he getting naked?”
“I uh…”
Makoto authoritatively grabbed his arm.
“He’s fine the way he is.”
Ren and Makoto smiled at eachother while Eiko chatted with her friends, proudly showing off her body and posing for pictures with them.
“Eiko we need to set you up with an Onlyfans right now!”
“Oh shit, you’re a genius!”
“I’m making an account right now! Quick, pose for the first pic!”
“Right.” Eiko pulled off a pose that was equal parts flirtatious and bashful, no doubt trying to copy something she saw in a magazine once. Ren thought her acting was questionable, but it should still be enough to satisfy whatever audience she gets on there. “Make sure the caption is something like ‘just became a #shujinnudist, OMG so nervous, hope everyone is nice to me heart emoji'.”
“Awesome! Do another one!”
This continued for a while, Makoto not really understanding what was going on, but Eiko seemed to be enjoying herself, so that was enough.
“Y’know Mako, if we somehow managed to monetize all the nude footage of you out there, you’d probably never have to work again.”
“You’re probably right Ren, but perhaps it for the best that I didn’t, I don’t want that to be how I earn a living.”
“Doesn’t seem to be a problem for Eiko.”
He gestured towards Eiko, already posing for another post.
“Lol, FUCK the café! This is waay more fun.”
‘Who says lol out loud?’ Ren thought to himself
“Oo-ooh! I’ll sit down for this next one, make sure to get a close up of my feet and have the caption be like ‘Ouch! Been walking around all day and my feet are soo sore crying emoji, feet emoji Won’t someone rub them? heart emoji’ Gotta appease the foot coomers after all.”
“I like your thinking.” One of the other girls said, already lining up the shot.
“I think we should leave them to it.” Ren whispered to Makoto.
“Yeah, she seems happy, so I guess I’m happy for her.” The couple began making their way down the hall, leaving Eiko and her friends to their new games. “Still, I’ll keep an eye on her to make sure she’s adapting okay.”
“Sure.”
“And Ren, one more question…”
“Yeah?”
“What’s a ‘coomer’? Ren don’t just laugh at me! What does it mean? Ren!”
Notes:
For all the "when's XXX getting naked?" comments I get, no one ever asked for Eiko xD
Granted I've been planning to get her naked since the start, it's just funny how she was never one of the characters requested.
Still that's the Eiko arc mostly done now, and the ShuMako is now official, which means a whole new arc from next chapter onwards.
Chapter 18: How do couples even work?
Summary:
First chapter with Shumako as an official couple, it's a new arc folks!
Chapter Text
It had been a long time since Makoto had felt so nervous simply leaving her house ready to head to school. Her first nude commute home was just an overwhelming blur she couldn’t make sense of in her memories, her first commute back she was much more cognizant of what was happening, and was thus fully capable of understanding just how nervous and overstimulated she was. Thinking back to that day, knowingly stepping out of her house completely bare had been the most nerve wracking experience of her life.
By now though, it was just a regular occurrence, she felt no more nervous of facing the day’s events nude as she would while clothed, if anything it actually made her feel more confident. She truly felt powerful commanding such awe in people, and could make the journey without feeling nervous at all.
At least, that was the case up until today, now she was anxious for a completely different reason. Ren had helped her with her commute every day since she became a nudist, come rain or shine. And it had gradually shifted from needing his emotional support and his presence warding off any would be gropers or the like, to simply just being a pleasant experience for her and a chance to hang out with a dear friend.
But now he was more than a ‘dear friend’, since yesterday they had officially become a couple, they were ‘study partners’, boyfriend and girlfriend. Makoto had stood frozen, bag in one hand, other hand hovering over the handle to her apartment door, working up the nerve to step outside and face her first boyfriend for the first time.
‘What is wrong with me? It’ll be the same as always, we’ll meet up, ride the train, chat a little, enter school, and part ways for the day. It doesn’t have to be any different just because we’re a couple now… does it? Should I act differently? Do I have to call him something different? Do I—’
“Something wrong Makoto?”
“H-huh?”
Sae had snuck up on her, well that actually wasn’t true at all, this was just a rare occasion where the sisters would leave home at the same time, and Sae was simply behind her waiting for her to open the door.
“It’s nothing Sis, I was just going over everything I had to do today in my head, I guess I got too into it, haha…”
Sae sighed.
“I guess that’s okay, but do you mind hurrying it up? We’re both going to be late at this rate.”
“Right, sorry.”
Makoto bottled up her fear, and forced herself outside. If Sae did notice anything else off about her demeanor, she didn’t mention it. Once again Sae was only thinking of the work she had ahead of her today, normally the fact that she paid so little attention to her sister would bother Makoto, but for now at least she was grateful. She’d walk with Sae as far as her car, before parting ways and walking to meet Ren. She’d always meet him a few corners away from her actual apartment complex, originally since she wasn’t comfortable with him knowing exactly where she lived, but the reason quickly shifted to her not wanting an awkward meeting between him and Sae. Despite all he did for her, he was still male, and that would be enough reason for Sae to distrust him around her, best just avoid that whole headache for as long as possible.
“Have a great day at work Sis.” Makoto said.
“Ha, as if that’s even possible.” Sae groaned as she climbed into her car. “But, thanks Makoto.”
Makoto didn’t wait for Sae to drive off before turning around and starting her own journey, partially because she was right earlier- there was a risk of them being late if they hung around too long, but mostly because she wanted to hurry up and meet Ren before she got too nervous again and froze up overthinking the meeting. She decided her best approach was to just rip off the band aid and face him as quickly as possible. That said- she had second thoughts the moment she turned the corner and saw him.
“Oh uh… Hi Mako.” He waved awkwardly, seeing that he seemed similarly nervous was actually comforting in it’s own way.
“Hello Ren…” She shuffled awkwardly in place, avoiding eye contact. “So um… am I supposed to call you ‘boyfriend’ now or…?”
“I think we’re best just using names as usual- oh, you don’t mind me calling you ‘Mako’ do you?”
“No no of course not! Um… I can’t really do anything to make your name cuter in return though, it’s too short.”
“Ha… yeah… I guess it is…”
Awkward silence fell over the two of them again.
“Ha… we’re pretty bad at this, huh?” Ren bashfully rubbed the back of his head.
“You can say that again, but I guess that’s why it’s a good thing we’re study partners now, right?”
A (hopefully) fake retching sound could be heard from inside Ren’s bag. Ren shook his head.
“I guess Morgana has a point, maybe we’re overthinking things, we should act natural, y’know?”
“You got all of that from a Mona retching?”
“Actually, I think he just thinks we’re cringe.” Ren looked down at his bag, but it gave no further response. “I’ll take that as a yes, but still, we should just act natural for now.”
Makoto relaxed.
“Yes, I agree. I’m sure we’ll figure it out as we go. But um…” she slowly lifted her arm towards him. “…maybe we could at least hold ha—”
“Makoto?”
Her blood went cold as she spun around to face the car that had pulled up beside them.
“S-Sis? I thought you left already?”
Sae held a blue towel out the window.
“You left this in the car, I was just returning it.” She handed it to Makoto, but her eyes were locked on Ren. “Who’s this?”
“Him?” Makoto tried her absolute hardest to appear outwardly calm, it wasn’t really working. “Oh he’s just a friend of mine from school.”
“Hmm…” Sae was certain she had seen this boy before, but she couldn’t quite recall, perhaps it was too early in the morning after a near-sleepless night where she was once again swamped with work. “Is that so?”
Ren, sensing the clear danger in the air, was also trying to appear as calm and harmless as possible, he was doing a better job than Makoto at least, but it was still enough to make Sae suspicious. He bowed to the elder Niijima.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Ren Amamiya. Makoto has been helping me out with my studying for a while. I’ve reached the top place in my grade thanks to her guidance.”
He hoped dropping that little humblebrag would improve her impression of him, if it did he certainly couldn’t tell, this woman was clearly experienced with interrogations.
“We were just going to commute to school together, Ren lives… not too far from here, so it’s just convenient!”
Sae still didn’t seem happy, but whether it was because she didn’t have enough to go on right now, or if it was just because she still had work to get to, she seemed to willing to begrudgingly withdraw for now at least.
“I see.” She glared at Ren. “I trust you’re not the type to try anything… untoward?”
“Untoward? No, nothing like that.”
“No intentions of touching my sister?”
Ren visibly flinched, memories of her squirting on his leg and her body being pressed against his on the train involuntarily flashed through his mind. Sae’s glare intensified.
“What kind of reaction is that?”
“Oh it’s nothing really…”
“You’re getting defensive at the subject of touching Makoto- that’s hardly nothing.”
Ren was halfway expecting Sae’s arm to suddenly stretch out, grab him by the throat, pull him in, then he’d probably die a horrible death; but Makoto quickly stepped in.
“He’s just thinking of a silly accident from a while back, he accidentally… bumped into me on the train.” She smiled nervously. “He got pushed into me, you know what the subway can be like… But you don’t need to worry, I’ve already chewed him out for it, no harm no foul, right?”
“Y-yeah! I still feel bad about it y’know? I promise it won’t happen again!”
Sae glared a little while longer, before sighing.
“So that’s all it was, alright fine. But I’ll be watching you Amamiya.”
“U-understood.”
It wasn’t until she had driven completely out of sight that the couple let go of the breath they were collectively holding.
“No offense Mako, but your sister is a little scary. Maybe we should get moving before she comes back?”
“Agreed, I don’t think she’s quite ready to know about our relationship. In fact, maybe we should keep our relationship discreet for a little while? At least until we get used to it?”
Ren would be lying if he said he was completely happy with that idea, but begrudgingly agreed.
“Right, for now it’ll just be between us.”
“And me!” Morgana oh-so-helpfully piped up from within Ren’s bag.
“And Morgana… and Eiko of course.”
“In the spirit of being open and honest with you Ren, I have been confiding in Ann recently in regards to our relationship, so I don’t think I’ll be able to keep it a secret from her.”
Ren’s brow raised slightly, but he nodded understandingly.
“Okay fair enough, so just us, Morgana, Eiko, and Ann. Oh- speaking of confiding, I’ve been asking another friend of mine for relationship advice lately, my shogi teacher- a girl called Hifumi.”
“A girl?” Makoto tilted her head before suddenly looking apologetic. “Not that I’m—I mean, I’m not going to be one of those girlfriends who says you can’t have other female friends or anything, I was just surprised, is all.”
Ren laughed.
“It’s cool, I getcha. I’ve been meaning to introduce you two, I think you’d like her. But yeah, she’ll likely find out about our relationship too. So that makes, you, me, Morgana, Ann, Eiko, and Hifumi… I’m starting to feel like trying to keep it secret is pointless, it’s pretty much just a matter of keeping it secret from Ryuji and Yusuke now, which uh… I’m questioning why we would even do that.”
“Don’t forget my sister.”
“Oh shit yeah, okay, secret it is, apart from those who already know I guess?”
“We’ll come out to them all eventually… just need to figure out how I suppose.”
“Right…” Ren looked at his phone. “OH SHIT! We’re actually going to miss the train if we don’t haul ass!” Ren grabbed her hand and begun pulling her along. Admittedly this isn’t what she had in mind when she was about to suggest holding hands on the way there, but this was nice in it’s own way too.
~ ~ ~
“Watch your breathing man, remember- in through the nose, out through the mouth. Full breaths like this.”
Ren tried to mimic Ryuji’s example as he leant against the wall in the shade of the school’s courtyard, pulling at the collar of his sweat-soaked PE uniform in a futile attempt to cool himself off. While his efforts were beginning to show fruit, he still hadn’t fully graduated from ‘lanky nerd’ status. He hated to admit it, but Ryuji’s exercises were kicking his ass.
“Sorry I’ve not done this with you for a while.”
“Don’t sweat it man, you’ve had tons of shit on your plate.” Ryuji stretched. “But man it’s so much better actually having a workout buddy again, seeing you push yourself makes me wanna do the same, y’know?”
“Glad I could help. You doing alright on your leg?”
“Getting better, but it’s still rough. I don’t think I’ll ever be back at 100%”
Ren laughed.
“Man if you’re this good now I can only imagine how insane you’d be in peak condition, it takes everything I have to even keep up.” He began downing his water bottle like his life depended on it.
“Don’t drink too much at once man, it’s much better for your body if you pace yourself.”
“Ugh… dude why is the human body so high maintenance?”
“HA! That’s the old, lazy you talking Renren.”
“The old lazy me is making some very convincing arguments for me to just collapse and sleep right here on the grass right now, but I guess I better keep going for now.”
For the most part the other students at Shujin gave the two of them a wide berth, which at this point they honestly appreciated, it meant they had plenty of space to work out while just ignoring everyone around them. It also meant those who did approach them would be much more likely to be worth their time.
“Oh? Hey Ren.”
“Hm?” Ren looked up to see Makoto approaching, he quickly scrambled to stand up straight and try to look cool rather than the sweaty dork moments away from collapsing that he actually was in that moment. It wasn’t fooling anyone, but Makoto decided to be merciful and pretend to fall for it. “Hi Makoto” he said while running his hand through his hair, a gesture that was ruined when his fingers got caught by a knot.
“Ren I’ll brush that myself later if I have to.”
“I have no idea what you might be referring to.”
“Of course you don’t.” Makoto turned to the other boy. “Nice to see you too Ryuji.”
“’Sup?”
“We were just working out.” Ren feigned absent-mindedness as he not-so-subtly flexed for her, again- it wasn’t fooling anyone, but it made her laugh, so he considered that a win.
“I see, well we’re all very impressed Ren. I think I need to catch up on my own workouts soon.”
A lightbulb went off in Ren’s mind.
“Why don’t you join us? You don’t mind, do you Ryuji?”
Ryuji eyed Makoto for a while, he would have said yes anyways, but the idea of watching a hot naked girl partaking in a sweaty workout session was certainly an appealing proposition.
“Hell yeah! The more the mellower, right?”
“I don’t think that’s quite the right phrase, but sure, I’d be happy to join you.”
Makoto had already dropped her bag with the others and eagerly started stretching, and quickly became acutely aware of the very intense stares both boys were giving her, as well as any other students passing by, especially whenever she bent over, but this only drove her to work even harder, she figured if she was going to put on a show it might as well be a good one.
Though as he stared, Ryuji’s expression slowly shifted from unapologetic lust to concern.
“Hang on Makoto.” He stepped forward, crouched down, and shifted the position of her calf. “You shouldn’t stretch like that, you could pull a tendon if you do it that way. Instead…” He suddenly paused, realizing the reality of the situation: he had just put his hands on a naked girl without asking her, he dared not look up to see what kind of expression she was making- nor look just slightly to the left to get a very intimate view of a very intimate place. Instead he shot up and retreated several paces back.
“Oh shit! I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to be all like—”
“Ryuji, relax.” Makoto raised her hands in a disarming gesture.
“I wasn’t trying to grope or anything like that!”
“Seriously Ryuji, it’s fine. I can understand the context clues, I know you didn’t mean anything by it, you were just trying to correct my technique, right?”
“YEAH! Yeah exactly that!” His tone suggested he was still trying to convince her.
Makoto sighed.
“Just tell me next time though, I’ll admit I was surprised for a bit.” She smiled, but Ryuji still seemed fearful, was started to wonder if this was really the impression she gave to people, the impression that she’d just lash out at every awkward mistake like this, she would probably confide to Ren about it later, but for now she’s just focus on defusing this situation and moving on. “So what was I getting wrong?”
“Oh well, it’s about the angle at which your leg was moving…” Ryuji approached and began explaining it to her, making sure not to get too close or stare too intently at her.
Ren watched on, and was admittedly worried that his initial instinct was to be a little mad that Ryuji just touched his girlfriend like that, but he at least acknowledged that was unreasonable of him, probably indicative of a level of possessiveness he wasn’t aware of hither to. He was glad Makoto handled it maturely though, he feared a repeat of when she briefly lashed out at him after accidentally catching her masturbating that one time.
‘I guess we both have a little growing to do still…’
“Senpai?”
He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Kasumi’s voice, he turned to smile at her.
“Heya Yoshizawa-san. Oh, heya Okumura-san.”
Haru bowed lightly. Ren was happy to see the two of them together still, and both in a relatively good mood by the looks of it. Though Haru did raise an eyebrow when she saw Ryuji and Makoto.
“Are we interrupting something?”
Makoto noticed the two of them and approached, Ryuji following closely behind.
“Greetings you two, and no you’re fine, just exercising.”
“Wanna join?”
Everyone was surprised by Ryuji’s sudden invite, but Ren and Makoto quickly warmed up to the idea.
“That’s a great idea, the more the mellower, right?”
“Ren don’t encourage misinformation.”
“Mellower?” Kasumi tilted her head.
Makoto sighed.
“A dumb inside joke, don’t worry about it.”
“Hmm…” Haru slyly eyed both Makoto and Kasumi, their toned bodies very quickly convincing her this workout would be a worthwhile endeavor. “I think we should join them Kasumi-chan!”
“Huh?”
“You’re already so fit Kasumi, but I could definitely stand to work on my cardio at least.” Haru shyly held her torso. “I’ve been getting a little fat lately… it’s about time I did something about it.”
Ryuji examined her, while he obviously couldn’t make out her body as well as he could with the nudists, he was still rather confused by her statement.
“In what world is that fat? You look plenty hot already.”
All eyes were on Ryuji.
“…What? Did I say something weird? I mean she can still join the workout of course.”
“Ryuji… you…”
“It’s fine.” Haru chuckled. “I guess I’ll take the compliment at face value as it’s clearly intended um…”
“Oh- Ryuji Sakamoto.”
She nodded.
“Okay, thank you Ryuji-kun. Haru Okumura, but you can call me Haru. You really don’t mind if we join in?”
“Of course, not, it can be a whole group thing. Me and Renren have had enough of a break anyway.”
“Have we?” Ren tried not to betray the small amount of fear he was feeling, now he had a whole bunch of girls to embarrass himself in front of.
“I guess it’ll be fun.” Makoto nodded. “How about you Yoshizawa-san, would you like to join us?”
Makoto held out her hand to the younger girl, who stared at it for a while, then at Makoto herself, then at Ren.
“I suppose having some more time to work out with Senpai would be nice… with my senpais I mean.”
Avoiding Makoto’s eyes, she took her hand and allowed herself to be guided out into the open. The group had formed a circle with Ryuji taking charge and guiding everyone through their warm ups. It actually served to boost Makoto’s opinion of him, he certainly didn't seem intelligent or helpful most of the time, but now he was very clear in his instructions and was paying a lot of attention to the rest of the group, correcting them as they went. If nothing else, she thought he might make a great personal trainer one day, he definitely knew what he was talking about when it came to fitness.
“Alright, if everyone’s warmed up, we’ll start with something real easy- push ups.”
“Since when are push ups easy?”
“Quit whining Ren. Otherwise I’ll end up beating you. Well, of course I’m going to do more than you, but you don’t want the difference to be too embarrassing now do you?”
“That’s hardly fair Makoto, I’ve already been working out today, you’ve got a fresh start.” Despite his words, Ren was enjoying this cocky side of Makoto, the confident smirk she was shooting him just made him love her more.
“How about we compete instead Niijima-senpai?”
“Hm?” Makoto saw Kasumi glaring at her intensely.
“If nothing else, I should have you beat in terms of fitness.”
Something about Makoto’s genuine smile made Kasumi feel a little guilty.
“I like the confidence, though I’m sure you have me beat in many areas. But I won’t let this be one of them.”
“R-right! I won’t lose!”
“I guess it’s a competition now, how fun!” Haru giggled.
“Alright, I was planning to do some other exercises afterward, but sure.” Ryuji was getting excited too. “Just go until you drop I guess!”
And so, the impromptu push-up competition began, each participant keeping their own count, trusting everyone else to remain honest. Ren didn’t fancy his chances, he really was still tired from the previous workout, a handicap he only shared with Ryuji. He felt coming in last might be inevitable, so he just took it easy and did his push ups slowly, deciding it was less embarrassing to have a low count at the end than to collapse early on. He looked over to the others, Ryuji didn’t seem to have any troubles, which was annoying- it meant Ren’s excuse of already being tired would mean much less if Ryuji ended up placing high. Haru seemed fairly comfortable too, perhaps she really was fitter than she looked. Her eyes met his briefly, and she slyly smiled, silently gesturing towards the nudists with her head, and when he looked their way, it became obvious why.
Ren never really thought about how he took the shape of breasts for granted, they were generally always kept in the same position, but it was times like this when he could see- or rather- appreciate how much gravity really impacted them. Neither Makoto nor Kasumi had huge breasts, but there was something especially enjoyable about how both pairs hung downwards, being pulled towards the earth, and how they subtly shook like balloons half filled with pudding whenever the girls pushed themselves back upwards. It was a captivating sight, and it now commanded far more attention than the rest of this silly competition.
Haru was almost enjoying Ren’s reaction to the nudists’ show more than the nudists’ show itself, but even she found her eyes being drawn back to them. She hopes no one was paying enough attention to her to see her subtly lick her lips.
Ryuji- amazingly- could multitask at times like this. While the show did mess up his body’s bloodflow somewhat, he still fully intended to win, or at least push the girls as far as he was able. The only two not thinking about breasts were the nudists themselves, whose entire focus was on their own performances. Both had really gotten into their sudden little rivalry (sudden for Makoto at least), but they both soon had smiles on their faces and were genuinely having a great time together like this.
It wasn’t long before Ren’s arms gave way and he was the first out. To his great relief, the others didn’t say anything, either too focused on the boobies or the competition (both in Ryuji’s case). Ren decided to simply sit back and watch for now. He briefly considered whether he could sneak around behind them to enjoy the show from a different angle, but decided not to push his luck. He didn’t want to distract either of them anyway.
“R-ready to give up Niijima-senpai?”
“Not on your life!”
As the contest dragged on both girls were getting visibly tired, their arms were starting to shake with each push. All eyes (both in terms of participants and passing students) were on the nudists’ desperate clash, with neither willing to give the other any sort of lead.
“Damn it…” Makoto held herself up a little while, taking a brief moment to try and call upon a second wind, but as she next tried to lower herself her arms finally gave in and she collapsed onto the grass.
Kasumi’s eye’s widened. She forced herself through one more push up before letting herself rest.
“I… I won… I won!”
“Haha…” Makoto laughed tiredly as she rolled onto her back, giving Kasumi an ‘okay’ gesture. “Sure did, that was really close.”
Kasumi was already standing, jumping in place.
“That was really tough Niijima-senpai, I don’t think I’ve ever been pushed that hard.”
She held out her hand, which Makoto gratefully accepted, groaning as she was pulled to her feet.
“You’re pretty impressive Yoshizawa-san, I guess you’re not a gymnast for nothing.”
Ren approached the two of them.
“You were both awesome, I’ll be honest I don’t know exactly how many push ups I did, I lost count around 2000, but you both still definitely beat me.”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Ren, no one believes you made it to 2000, you barely did 20.”
“Hey I started this exhausted, that’s still impressive, right?”
“If you say so.”
“You’re pretty silly Senpai.”
“Wait a moment, what about the other two?” Makoto asked, before the whole group turned to see Haru and Ryuji still going at it. Now that the hanging-titty show was over, they were both now focused entirely on the competition itself. “They don’t even look tired yet…”
“Incredible…”
They continued watching, it went on for long enough that Ren could pop out to the local convenience store and bring back extra water bottles for everyone, which they patiently sipped while waiting to see who the ultimate winner would be. It was honestly getting a little boring waiting, but after what felt like their entire lives, Ryuji finally gave in and fell to the ground.
“Holy shit Haru… Where’d you get that strength?”
Haru seemed surprisingly bashful with all this positive attention on her, and she helped Ryuji to his feet.
“Oh it’s nothing, I just garden a lot, it’s more physically demanding than you might think. I’m sure Ryuji-kun would have beat me had he not already been tired before we started.”
“I’m not sure about that…” Ryuji groaned, gratefully accepting the new water bottle from Ren. “You’re crazy fit Haru, you win- no doubt about it… this time at least.”
Haru matched Ryuji’s newfound determined expression with one of her own.
“Okay.” Ryuji clapped once. “Haru wins this round, with me in second, Kasumi in third. Ren you’re in last, sorry man.”
“I would have definitely won if—”
“Yeah yeah whatever dude. So just to reiterate, you’re last…”
“Ugh…”
“… and your girlfriend is forth, or second-to-last.”
“HUH?” Makoto flinched. “How did you know we’re a couple now? Did Ren tell you?”
“Huh? No he didn’t tell me, but I thought it was pretty obvious, you’re like ALWAYS around eachother, I was honestly pretty jealous of him.”
“Wait…” Haru brought her hand to her chin in thought. “’Now’? You mean you weren’t a couple before?”
Makoto was feeling very foolish right now.
“Did I seriously just fall for the ‘you just told me’ trick?”
“I think you did…” Ren couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess we can add Ryuji, Haru, and Kasumi to the list of people who know.”
Makoto’s shoulders dropped.
“I guess…” She turned to Ryuji and Haru. “I’m sorry, we became a couple a few days ago, and we’ve been trying to keep it discreet. It’s not that we don’t trust you or anything, but we wanted to reveal it to everyone on our own terms, in our own time. Do you mind keeping quiet about it?”
Ryuji shrugged.
“Sure, though I mean if I can figure it out, I’m sure the others can. But they won’t hear it from me at least.”
“I’m a master of discretion, my lips are sealed.” Haru giggled. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
Makoto nodded.
“Thanks you two, and you Kasumi-san… Kasumi-san?”
The girl just stared at them blankly.
“Yoshizawa-san? Are you okay?”
Ren approached her, but she didn’t react.
“Kasumi you’re scaring me, is everything okay?”
“I see…” Kasumi suddenly smiled, though it was clear to everyone here how forced it was, even without her eyes suddenly glistening with tears. “I guess it was pretty obvious, huh? I’m happy for you two, you really are great together.”
“Kasumi…”
“Anyway it’s getting quite late, I didn’t tell my parents I’d be out today so I better head back soon…” She turned around and took a few steps away. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault…”
“Your fault? What do you—" Makoto reached out but Kasumi slipped out of her grasp and began running away and out of sight.
A possibility suddenly made itself known in Ren’s head, and judging by the look Makoto was giving him, it seemed like she was thinking the same thing.
“You don’t think she…?”
“I better go after her” Haru said, avoiding eye contact. “You three better head home, I’ll explain later.” And before they could say anything else, Haru had ran in the same direction as Kasumi.
“I uh…” Ryuji scratched his scalp. “I feel like this is a bit over my head…”
“It’s okay Ryuji, don’t worry about it for now.” Makoto said. “I think Haru’s right though, maybe we should call it a day for now?”
“Ah jeez… I really hope this isn’t what I think it is…”
“We’ll figure it out Ren, we’ll find some way to help her out.” Makoto wasn’t fully convinced by her own words, and was as clueless as the rest of them in knowing what to do in this kind of situation, but felt she had to say something reassuring regardless.
Ren pulled out his phone, and was considering texting Kasumi right now, but figured that if this really was what he suspected, perhaps he was better off giving her at least one night to come to terms with it before he tried to say anything. He hated waiting like this, but felt that whatever they ended up doing, they’d need to be delicate about it.
Before he put his phone away, a notification popped up, and it sounded like one came up on Makoto’s phone at the same time.
“Who the hell is Medjed?”
Chapter 19: Looking at her crush
Summary:
The next day...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
To call Haru and Kasumi’s ride home awkward would be an understatement. Kasumi would insist that she was fine no matter how many times she was asked, and Haru couldn’t think of a way to try to delve deeper into the topic that wouldn’t be brushed off. Or maybe that was just an excuse, maybe she was just scared of upsetting Kasumi further, maybe even pushing her away. So instead they just sat in silence for the whole trip, eyes downwards, not saying much of anything aside from some rushed goodbyes.
Haru hoped today would fare better, she still committed to helping Yoshizawa with her commute back to school in the morning, and she hoped that her rest would make her more open to discussing what happened. Of course, she suspected the girl’s crush on Ren since shortly after meeting her, but never wanted to pry too deeply, partially because she didn’t want to encourage it. She wished she could say it was because she was scared of this happening, that Ren would inevitably choose Makoto and upset Kasumi, but that would be a lie; deep down Haru wanted to keep Kasumi for herself, but now that Ren was confirmed taken and there was no chance of him having Kasumi- now that Haru had the highest chance of getting what she wanted- she hated herself for thinking so selfishly. Actually seeing Kasumi so upset made her wish she had discussed this with her earlier, maybe help her come to terms with it, or at least soften the blow a little. Things like this were just part of life, you don’t always get the partner you want (a fact Haru knew painfully well, albeit in a different way), and sometimes you just had to accept that.
Past regrets aside, Haru decided to at least help Kasumi deal with this going forward, and eventually move on. It was time to put aside the pet fantasies and instead be the friend she needed. She was relieved to see Kasumi step out of her house as usual and approach their car.
“Hello Kasumi-chan.”
“Hey Haru-senpai.”
“How are you feeling?”
Kasumi remained silent for a while before responding.
“I’ll live.”
It could be worse, but it was hardly a good response. Haru struggled to think of a way to push further, she had never had a friend like this before, so she had no idea how she was supposed to act at times like this. All that came to mind were terrible cliches like “there are plenty of fish in the sea” and “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, both of which would do absolutely no good, and just feel like she was being dismissive of her feelings. Instead she betted on a riskier play:
“What did you like so much about Ren?”
Kasumi looked confused, almost offended.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean I don’t know him all that well, and he seems like a great guy and all, I was just wondering what you personally saw in him.”
“Senpai is always so kind and considerate, he’s helped me out in a bind more than once.”
“Oh? Do tell?”
“This one time I had offered my seat on the train to an old lady, but some salaryman took the spot as soon as I stood up and fell asleep instantly. Senpai offered to help wake him up, but I refused- since I could honestly understand the man’s position too.”
‘Is that really that impressive?’ Haru thought to herself. ‘In a weird way the man falling asleep instantly is almost more impressive.’
“And this other time someone was harassing me on the day of the park clean-up event we all did, he stepped in and saved me.”
‘Alright that’s a bit more worthy of praise.’
An awkward silence fell over the pair. Haru tilted her head.
“Anything else?”
“Well, he’s just always so kind and considerate!”
‘You said that already…’
“And I… I just really love it when people are so caring towards me. He always looks at me so warmly, something about it really just makes me feel like I can be better, y’know?”
Haru pondered. This definitely was starting to sound like a typical teen girl’s first crush, not that she looked down on her because of that, she could definitely envisage a world where the two got together and formed a respectable relationship, but at this stage it was starting to feel like the classic case of someone thinking their first love is automatically ‘true love’, and generally not fully coming to terms with their own feelings. Which by itself, wouldn’t be so bad, the part that did concern her though…
“Kasumi-chan… was the nudism something you did to impress him?”
“I um…” Kasumi looked rather sheepish, before shaking her head and forcing a fierce gaze. “I need to be more confident, the reason he chose Makoto is because she better than the way I am now.”
“Better in what way?” Haru’s expression fell, she couldn’t tell whether it was just her imagination or not, but something about the way Kasumi spoke made it sound as if she doubted everything coming out of her mouth.
“Just… better! I’m always falling behind, this isn’t like me at all. How I am right now- I’m always falling behind where I’m supposed to be.”
“Where you’re supposed to be?”
“Yes, I don’t know why, but I’ve been in a slump in everything I attempt these past few months. I clearly need to change something.”
“So you tried to copy Makoto?”
“She’s clearly in the better position, Ren choosing her proves that!”
“I mean… does it though?”
“Huh?”
“I mean all sorts of circumstances lead up to a relationship, it’s not as if Ren was looking at a list of potential girlfriends and just picked a name, who knows what might have happened to lead up to them being a couple?”
“What are you talking about? Whatever those circumstances might be they came about because she took the initiative when I didn’t.”
“I don’t think—”
“God I really wish I hated her, that’d make this so much easier to take, but I don’t- I like her, she’s also kind and supportive and a good person while I’m being all bitter because I didn’t get my way. Of course someone as mature and level headed as her gets picked when I’m the one just acting like a child!”
Kasumi was again on the edge of tears before she felt Haru take ahold of her hand. Kasumi stared blankly at Haru, who with her own determined expression, didn’t break eye contact.
“You’re not being childish, or bitter. You’re not a lesser person just for having emotions. You and Mako-chan are both wonderful in different ways, people don’t just fall on a one-dimensional spectrum between ‘good’ and ‘bad’. You’ve got to stop trying to be someone you’re not Sumi-chan.”
Kasumi looked downwards and sighed heavily while gently pulling away from Haru.
“I’m sorry, but we both know that’s not true.”
“It is though!”
Kasumi stared out the window and away from Haru, who was once again desperately trying to think of a way to convince her before Yoshizawa spoke up herself.
“Don’t worry, I’m already seeing a counsellor, Dr. Maruki has been really helpful in the past, with his help I’m sure I’ll get past this one way or another…”
Haru smiled weakly.
“I see, that’s good. A professional should be able to help you more than I can…”
The remainder of the drive passed in uncomfortable silence, neither girl had the courage to look at the other until they arrived. Kasumi was the first to get out, Haru sat in still silence for a few moments longer. Kasumi was about to enter the school before turning around once more and approaching her window.
“Haru-senpai?”
“Hm?”
“Um… I hope you don’t think I’m upset with you, I’m glad you’re trying to help, it’s just… difficult… I’d like for us to continue being friends regardless of what happens.”
It was a simple statement, but in an instant it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of Haru’s shoulders upon hearing it.
“Thank you Kasumi-chan, I’d like that too.”
“I’ll um… see you at lunch then? Same as usual?”
“Of course.”
And with her first smile of the day, Kasumi turned back around and entered Shujin, Haru thanking the driver and following shortly after.
~ ~ ~
“You sure you don’t want any snacks?”
“I’m fine Dr. Maruki, really.”
“Well if you say so, you’re welcome to change your mind anytime of course.”
Maruki had provided counselling for all kinds of people since coming to Shujin, and indeed beforehand, and had met with Kasumi plenty of times, though it took quite a bit of getting used to having her arrive naked. For the first 3-4 sessions like this he hadn’t been able to bring himself to look at her, he had no idea how everyone was so inexplicably okay with this nudist program that sounded like it was straight out of a really rather out there porn scenario- not that he was especially versed in that world- of course. Still he didn’t have the authority to challenge the school on it, and two of the three nudists he had seen around the school seemed totally okay with it, the only one he had ever felt doubts from was Kasumi herself, and right now her mind didn’t seem on the subject at all.
“Um, if it’s okay Doctor, I have something specific on my mind today.”
“Of course it’s okay, you’re safe to talk about whatever is on your mind in here.”
“Thank you…”
Maruki waited silently and patiently for her to continue, a supportive smile on his face that allowed her to slowly but surely work up the courage to open up.
“This is embarrassing, but lately I’ve really started to like someone. You know Senpai—I mean- Ren Amamiya right?”
“I certainly do, he’s been helping with my research actually. He’s pretty great, I can see why you like him.”
“Yeah… yeah he’s really great… But… oh god I haven’t even said it yet and I feel pathetic…”
“There’s no need to feel that way, you never have to be ashamed about your feelings, not here.”
“Thanks… well he’s already in a relationship.”
“I see.”
“With Niijima-senpai.”
“Ah, I’ve not spoken with her but I know she’s become rather famous as of late.” Maruki really wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but kept such worries to himself for now.
“Yeah… I understand why he chose her, but I just feel… I feel like a failure, and a fool.”
“How so?”
“I thought I still had time, that I could still shape myself into a woman worthy of his affections, that I could be the best Kasumi Yoshizawa I could be, and having him by my side would have proved I was successful…” She dug her fingernails into her knees. “But once again I fell behind, I didn’t try hard enough, I just wasn’t good enough and took things too easy. And it’s already too late, and now whenever I think about him or Makoto I’m just reminded of my own shortcomings.”
“I see… Your feelings towards him really are causing you pain.”
Kasumi lifted her head briefly, before lowering it again.
“I guess that’s true, at least now it is. I got carried away thinking I could achieve something I couldn’t, and now I’m not sure how to move on from that.”
Maruki awkwardly fiddled with his glasses.
“Things don’t always work out the way you want I suppose.” He sat up straight. “So you want to move on huh?”
“At this point, I think it’d be best. Having feelings for him when he’s already so close to someone else was just setting myself up to be hurt. But I just don’t think I can anymore, I already like him so much, and having him taken away doesn’t lessen that…” She laughed humorlessly. “’Taken away’ I said, as if he was stolen and didn’t just choose a different path, listen to how pathetic I am right now…”
Maruki sat in deep contemplation for a while, studying Kasumi’s posture and expression, before smiling bittersweetly.
“Well you know there’s no shame in letting go of something that only causes you pain, in fact I think it’s honestly the best approach a lot of the time.”
“Really?”
“Moving on might seem scary at first, but it’s just a matter of perspective, I know you ca* ** * ** *** *** **** **** ** ** ******-***.”
“* *** ****** **** **?”
“**** ***** **** ****, *** *** **…”
“…”
Kasumi opened her eyes and took a deep breath, before smiling at Maruki.
“How you feeling?”
“Like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.” She chuckled. “Thank you Doctor, you always seem to know what to say, I can barely remember what I was so upset about in the first place.”
Maruki bashfully rubbed the back of his head.
“You give me too much credit, so long as you’re happy that’s all that matters.”
“I do feel happy, though I should probably be getting back to class, it’s not really right of me to skip out too long over nothing.”
“Of course, you better head off, I’ll be here anytime you need me.”
Kasumi stood up, bowed lightly, and with a pep in her step made her way to the door, before stopping just short.
“Actually, Doctor- could I make one more… kind of embarrassing request?”
“Hm? Sure, what is it?”
“Is there a spare uniform around here I could borrow?"
~ ~ ~
“God what a day…” Makoto slouched back on the bench. Ren didn’t know why exactly her sitting position had gradually become less and less lady like since becoming a nudist, he was hardly going to complain about it, given the very pleasing view it gave him.
“Tell me about it. First this Medjed organization or whatever is making these weird claims about vague ‘justice’ or whatever, then before we can even sit down and discuss that this Alibaba person starts making threats of their own towards us. And I thought the Kasumi situation was the only headache we’d have to deal with today.”
“Yeah… speaking of which have you seen her yet today?”
“No, I haven’t. I saw Haru though, and she said she did arrive today, so she’s around here somewhere, and let’s be honest- she usually stands out, it’s weird we haven’t seen her.”
Makoto sighed, absentmindedly pushing around what was left of her lunch with her chopsticks.
“I’m honestly a bit ashamed of myself for never thinking about the fact that other girls might like you too, seems obvious.”
“Certainly not obvious to me, girls have never liked me before I met you.” Ren laughed, but his heart wasn’t fully in it. “I mean, don’t worry or anything, I love you, there’s no chance of that changing.”
Makoto blushed.
“Thank you.”
“But if I had known about Kasumi’s feelings I would have liked to let her down a bit lighter, y’know?”
“I understand.”
“Still absolutely no idea how I’m gonna do that, but I feel we should talk to her.”
“Maybe… I don’t know her especially well, but she seems like a really nice girl, I’m sure she’ll have no trouble finding a guy of her own.”
“Agreed, though I’m not sure how comforting that’d be to say to her though, it never seems to work in romance stories.”
Makoto chuckled.
“Seems everyone in our circle only has romance manga and the like to go off of in terms of experience, I wonder if we even know anyone who actually understands relationships.”
“I mean, the closest we have is Eiko, and that’s a bit…”
“Yeah, that’s not something worth revisiting. Still, while I’d like us to keep being friends with her, we might have to accept that it might not be possible anymore- at least for me. I can’t imagine it’s easy to be friends with the girl who ‘stole’ your crush.”
“The only thing you’ve stolen is my heart.”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Okay first off- that’s your worst ‘line’ yet. Secondly- that’s basically the same thing as stealing you, so it doesn’t really work. Thirdly- this isn’t really the time to be flirty.” Despite her words, Makoto couldn’t help but smile just a little.
“My bad.” Despite his words, Ren didn’t look too guilty.
“Amamiya-kun?”
“Hm?” Ren felt a tap on his shoulder. “Haru? What’s up? Any luck finding her?”
“Not yet, I’m not sure where she could have disappeared off to, I don’t suppose you two have seen her either?”
“Sorry, no such luck.”
“I’m honestly getting worried, she honestly wasn’t doing too well this morning, she’s been taking it pretty rough, and honestly I had no idea what to say to her, though she did say she’d talk to the school counsellor today, I can only hope he did a better job than I did.”
“Don’t feel bad Haru-san.” Makoto put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Just being there for her as a friend can make a world of difference, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first, you’re doing a wonderful job I think.”
“You really think so?”
“I do, give it some time. I’m not going to claim I understand how she feels, but I do know things like this aren’t solved with just a few sweet words, they take time.”
Haru smiled weakly, and nodded.
“Yeah, you’re right Makoto-san… I’ll just try to keep it up for now. Hm? OH!”
Haru pushed past Makoto, she had just spotted Kasumi across the courtyard, but something immediately leapt out to her.
“Kasumi-chan!”
“Hm? Oh hi Haru-san! I’ve been looking for you.”
“Oh, you have?”
“Of course, I was hoping we could have lunch together again.”
“I see, that’s fine, I’d be happy to, but…”
“Hm?” Kasumi tilted her head. “Is something the matter?”
“You’re wearing your PE uniform…”
“Hm? Oh yes, I don’t think the nudism thing is for me after all.”
“Huh?”
“I just wanted to give it an honest shot, but I honestly can’t think of why I stuck to it so stubbornly for so long, I should have realized early on it’s just not my calling, so I borrowed a spare uniform from the lost and found.”
“I… I see…”
The other two approached, equally surprised to see her almost fully clothed again.
“Yoshizawa-san?” Ren tentatively approached her.
“Oh” She smiled brightly in his direction. “Hello again Amamiya-kun.”
“’Amamiya-kun’?”
“And you too Makoto-san.”
“Uh, hi? You seem to be in good spirits?”
“I just feel energized today I guess, plus it’s great to finally be covered again, I feel like I can relax. Well, mostly covered anyway, I’ve got the tracksuit jacket but won’t be able to get undies or proper footwear until I get back home, the ones in the lost and found… well I’m not overly eager to have those, who knows how long they’ve been in there without being washed…”
The three stared at her confused for a while, exchanging a few glances, not fully comprehending what they were looking at.
“Hm? Is something wrong?”
“N-no Yoshizawa-san, I’m just…” Ren scratched his head. “I’m just surprised you seem so chipper, are you sure you’re fine?”
She nodded.
“Of course, I feel great, but thank you for your concern Amamiya-kun.”
“You’re really quitting being a nudist?” Makoto brought her hand to her chin in thought. “I mean, that’s fine and all, it’s best for you to do whatever makes you the most comfortable, and nudism really isn’t for everyone, it just feels rather sudden.”
“I feel like I’ve given it long enough to be sure now, I really admire you for what you do Makoto-san, but it’s just not a lifestyle I enjoy.”
“I suppose that’s fair…”
“Anyway, I hate to be rude, but lunchbreak is nearly over and I’m really rather hungry. Haru-san, shall we?”
“Um…” Haru blinked a few times, before nodding, still unsure. “Of course, let’s go find somewhere to eat.”
“Bye Makoto-san, Amamiya-kun!” Kasumi cheerfully waved as they left, Haru looking to them baffled as she followed her out of sight.
“Well… she’s taking it better than I expected…”
“No kidding Makoto… But, I guess this is good?”
Makoto gave an somewhat unsure smile.
“Maybe it wasn’t as serious as we thought it was, that’s a relief.”
Ren wasn’t comfortable with this, but couldn’t put his finger on why exactly, so he shrugged and smiled too.
“Yeah, one less thing to worry about. Frees us up so we can focus on this whole Alibaba thing for now. But I think we should keep an eye on her though… just to be sure.”
“Agreed.”
Notes:
Very plot-heavy/ smut-light chapter, but a necessity at this point in the story. There is much to be done and many new factors to be considered.
Chapter 20: Friends and fluids
Summary:
A discussion and a disaster
Notes:
First of all I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading so far. This story is a bit messy, one moment it's just a fetish fic, another it's about plot. One moment it's about casual nudity, another it's about exhibitionism.
Well it's still gonna be messy, it will get more casual nudity, there will be more exhibitionism, and it will be more fetish-y.
If you've enjoyed everything so far, I think you'll continue to do so. If you've only enjoyed parts of it... well you'll continue to enjoy parts of it. I always worry about disappointing people, and I will inevitably disappoint some, but hopefully most of you will enjoy the rest of the story
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“…it’s totally hilarious how much more I’m making with this compared to the café, not to mention how much more fun it is y’know?”
“Mm.”
“You’re definitely missing out not doing the same thing Makoto, I mean yeah you get plenty of dumb messages and comments from coomers with no filter, and then there are those guys who always have to leap in being all like ‘How dare you look at her in such a perverse way? You need to learn how to be respectful!’ as if that’s gonna make me swoon for them. Though honestly I don’t even get upset by any of it, it’s honestly just really funny reading them all.”
“Yeah…”
Eiko pouted, Makoto clearly wasn’t listening to her, she was just staring off into space, her mind clearly elsewhere. She’d be a little annoyed if Makoto didn’t seem so troubled. With a single finger, she took a few moments to line up her ‘shot’, and firmly poked her in her breast.
“Booby.”
“Ow…” Makoto was brought back to reality, and pulled away, more out of surprise than any feeling of pain. “What was that for?”
“You weren’t even paying attention Nudie-prez, what’s been eating you? Besides Ren of course.”
Makoto hoped her annoyed grumbling overrode her flustered blush.
It didn’t.
“We’ve not gotten that far in our relationship yet.”
“Yet?”
“I- I mean… that kind of stuff is bound to happen eve—Wait no! That’s not what I meant!”
Eiko laughed, swinging her feet in the open air, before looking back at her sympathetically.
“For real Makoto, is something wrong? You’ve been weird the past couple days.”
“No… nothing really, just got a lot on my mind, a lot of stuff on my ‘to-do list’ I guess.”
“That’s all?”
“Yeah, just stuff that needs doing that we need to figure out. I won’t bore you with it.”
It technically wasn’t a lie, there certainly was a lot to be done in regards to the recent Medjed threat, and even more pressingly Alibaba’s threat to expose the Phantom Thieves’ identities unless they change the heart of one ‘Futaba Sakura’, and all they had to go off of was her shared surname with Ren’s caretaker Sojiro, and he wasn’t sharing any useful info. Ren planned to search around Yongen-Jaya for any leads after school today.
Less pressing- but still prominent in her mind was Kasumi. She took her rejection from Ren very well… suspiciously well considering how upset she was when she initially heard the news. That combined with her suddenly dropping out of the nudist program… in isolation it’d seem like a completely fair and logical decision, Kasumi never was as happy to be nude as Makoto and now Eiko, and ultimately Makoto just wanted whatever made her happiest, but the timing of the change just left a confusing and unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Makoto smiled, she never stopped feeling grateful for the friends she had around her, expressing genuine concern. Eiko held a special spot though, being someone totally unrelated to the problems yet still worrying about Makoto’s troubles, plus having a fellow nudist who actually wanted to be around her was a welcome change, and gave them one more thing to bond over.
“No, you don’t need to worry about it, we’ve got it handled.”
“Well if you say so, just let me know if you do need anything. Us nudists got to stick together, right?”
“Sure.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve been trying to get some of my friends on board with the idea of joining us.”
“H-huh? You want more nudists?”
“Yeah!” Eiko looked down at her body. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely something real fun about being naked while everyone else is clothed.” She smirked deviously at Makoto. “I’ll be honest, I used to think you were pretty weird getting turned on by the attention, but having tried it myself- I totes get it.”
“I’m…” Makoto averted her eyes. “Okay maybe a little bit…”
“’A little bit’? Bitch you were fucking drenched during that news report, looking back at the footage I halfway expected you to start jilling right on the spot.”
Makoto cringed a little listening to Eiko’s laughter- good-natured as it was. She thought back to how she felt in that moment, and shuddered thinking about what she might have ended up doing had Ren not stepped in when he did.
“It’s cool though, don’t sweat it, the audience loves it!” Eiko brought her index finger to her lips. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep that part secret while we’re recruiting. We’ll spread some nudism, but the exhibitionism can be our little secret~”
“I’m… actually- forget the exhibitionism thing. I’m not sure I’m on board with making other people get naked if they don’t want to…”
Eiko rolled her eyes.
“See, this is why you’ve been alone in your nudity for so long.” She pointed an accusatory finger at Makoto, her eyes crossing slightly to meet the fingertip. “You never even tried to sell the program to anyone! I only joined because I was inspired by you, and there was that one first-year that tried it but quit later, but you’ve just been content to be the only nudist running around. You did one speech announcing the program then no one ever brought it up again! And even that sounded robotic…”
“I… uhh… I mean it’s a pretty drastic lifestyle shift, I don’t want to force it on anyone who doesn’t want it.”
“Ugh, who ever said anything about forcing anyone to do anything? And there you go just assuming no one wants it.”
“If people wanted it they’d just join up.”
“Bitch do you know how nerve-wracking it is to walk into the principal’s office, talk to the potatoman, and sign up all by yourself? Shit’s such an obstacle. I’m sure there are plenty of people who love the idea of going clothes-free, but they feel way too alone and nervous to make that leap.”
“Really? You think so?”
“I do, and I think we should like- be the support they need, y’know? And besides…”
“Besides…?”
“It’ll be fun seeing a whole buncha people get naked!”
“That’s starting to sound like an ulterior motive…”
“I mean who doesn’t like seeing people naked? What just because we’re nudists now I gotta pretend I’m free of all sexual desires?”
“I guess not…”
“Imagine having a sweet nudist network, a community even! We could set up social media and Line groups, have parties and stuff, it’ll be kick ass!”
Eiko excitedly swayed side to side at the idea. Makoto would be lying if she didn’t still have reservations. She knew full well how it felt to have this program suddenly thrust upon you, it had taken her a while before she made it her own, and even when she did she felt she still fell closer to an exhibitionist than a true nudist, she wasn’t sure whether she was the right person to try and tell others how to live. But she could appreciate Eiko’s vision of a body-and-sexuality-positive community of nudists supporting eachother, provided they kept things responsible of course.
“Alright.” Makoto sighed. “What kind of thing did you have in mind, are we just gonna walk around asking people to strip off?”
“That’ll be one part of it.”
‘I said that as a joke though…’ Makoto thought to herself.
“Like I’m talking to my friends about it, maybe you could get some of yours? How about that one blonde girl? Ann Takamikisakibaki?”
“Ann Takamaki, what on earth was the rest of that?”
“Whatever, she’s hot, she’ll bring in lots of attention, plus she’s a foreigner, that’s some extra appeal right there.”
“Appeal? Are you planning to use her as marketing?”
“I mean she is a model. But yeah, kinda? The more nudists we have, the less intimidating it’ll be for new people. It’ll be slow at first, but we’ll start snowballing pretty quick.”
“I suppose that makes sense, but Ann is a no-go. She wasn’t even willing to get naked for a one-on-one private art modelling session, getting completely naked in public is definitely going to be way too much.”
“Boo, laaame. Okay fine Takamakinthesack isn’t gonna happen.”
“Taka… whatever.”
“We could do with some guys too, I mean naked girls are always going to be more popular, but we don’t want it to be a total clamfest. You think you could get Ren to join?”
“R-Ren?” Makoto’s mind filled with mental images of Ren walking naked beside her, studying naked with her, holding her close against himself when on a crowded train, not caring as her eyes wandered across his body, and his eyes across hers, signs of their shared aros—
SLAP
“Makoto?” Eiko flinched back. “Why’d you just slap yourself, are you alright?”
“Totally fine.” Makoto smiled warmly at her, an image ruined by the slowly fading red mark on her cheek (a mark thankfully starting to blend in with her regular blush). “Ren’s a bit… I don’t know, I know I wouldn’t be forcing him, but I wouldn’t want him to do something like that just for my sake.”
“For real? You don’t want your BF getting naked with you?”
“I mean… not in everyday life.”
“Hmm… fine, whatever. Actually thinking about it having you be naked clinging to a clothed boyfriend has it’s own appeal too, so I getcha.”
She didn’t say anything, but part of Makoto agreed.
“Okay we’ll put the direct recruiting on hold for now, at least on your end, what’s more important anyway is getting a social media presence, what’s your twitter?”
“I don’t use twitter.”
“HUH? Damn girl what do you do every day?”
“Uh… study? Sometimes I watch movies.”
“God you seriously need me in your life. You’re gonna need a twitter for this to work, you’re the head of this whole project. Gimme your phone a sec.”
“Me? Why can’t you do it? It’s your idea.”
“Because you’re the face of the program, and the first full-time Japanese nudist, gotta use your celebrity status if we want to get anywhere, don’t you agree Ren?”
“I mean she is pretty famous now.”
Makoto nearly jumped out of her seat, spinning around to see Ren standing behind her.
“Heya Mako.”
“How long have you been there?”
“I literally just got here a second ago, what are you two up to?”
Eiko smiled proudly.
“Me and Makoto are gonna see if we can get a nudist network going, we just need to set up a twitter for her.”
“I see.” Ren sat across from the pair. “I guess that’s not a terrible idea, if you’re into it Makoto?”
“So long as we’re not pressuring anyone, I don’t really see a reason to object.” She unenthusiastically handed her phone to Eiko, who started rapidly typing and swiping.
“Right, we need an online handle for her.”
“Can’t I just be ‘Makoto Niijima’?”
“You’re such a boomer Makoto, you can’t use your real name online, that’s unacceptable.”
Makoto looked over to Ren, confused. It took him a few seconds to realize what was bothering her, he leaned over a whispered to her.
“’Boomer’ means old, touch-of-touch person.”
“Right, I see…” She sighed, then sat in thought for a few moments. “A username huh? I guess anything will do really… ‘Buchilover98’?”
“Oh come on Makoto, you can’t use a name as lame as that. You’re the famous ‘Shujin nudist’, you gotta have a cool name to reflect your status if we’re going to get anywhere.”
“Oh for the love of… alright just make me the Shujin nudist then, I don’t plan on using this account for much else.”
“Oh my god Makoto you’re not even trying! You can’t be the same as the hashtag, you’ll get buried in all the footage!”
“Well what should I be then?” Makoto asked, having a harder and harder time hiding her annoyance.
“Hmm…” Eiko pondered a while longer. “Any ideas Ren?”
“I mean… she’s supposed to be the leader or mascot or whatever right?”
“Mascot?” Makoto glared at him.
“Okay not mascot, wrong word. But the title needs to reflect her high status as the one who pioneered this lifestyle.” He smirked. “She does have a royal vibe to her, y’know?”
Makoto rolled her eyes, but Eiko seemed to really like the idea.
“I can dig it. Lemme think… royalty… nudist royalty… a good title… HA!” she snapped her fingers. “I got it, it just came to me!”
“Hm?” Ren eagerly anticipated her idea, and Makoto tried not to show her own curiosity. “What do you have in mind?”
“Heheh, you’ll like this- I think it suits her to a ‘C’”
“A ‘C’?”
“Huh?”
“I think ’To a T’ is the phrase you’re looking for Eiko.”
“Right right whatever, I think it suits her to a ‘T’. What do you two think of: ‘OGNudist’?”
…
“I thought that was going somewhere else…” Ren’s shoulders slumped.
Makoto shrugged.
“Sure whatever, it’s not as if we have any better ideas, we’ll go with that.”
“Okay done.” Eiko tapped the phone a few times with a huge smile on her face. “You’ll be the OGNudist. I’ll be sure to include ‘The first #Shujinnudist’ in your bio.” She handed Makoto her phone back.
“Okay, so what do I do now?”
“Just write something introducing yourself.”
“Uhh… ‘I’m Makoto Niijima, the first Shujin nudist, and ambassador of the Shujin nudist program. It’s nice to meet you all’” She stared at her phone for a moment, then at Eiko. “That alright?”
“A bit stiff and boring, but I guess it’s fine as a first tweet. Just be sure to put a hashtag before each ‘shujinnudist’ and you’re good.”
Makoto stared at her phone in thought, still not fully sure of what to think. This whole social media thing was new to her, and she already had enough on her plate, but perhaps just experimenting wouldn’t be so bad? She could always just delete it later, and it’s not as if it’ll really impact the footage of her that’s already out there.
Speaking of…
That #Shujinnudist link was drawing her eye, really tempting her, almost calling out to her.
Makoto had never had the nerve to ego search since becoming a nudist, she was always scared to. She was no fool, she knew all those pictures and footage of her had to go somewhere, hell- it was probably everywhere. She was sure she was on every social media and porn site active in Japan by this point, no part of her body, and really very little of her public life remained private. Granted, she was fine with this, as embarrassing as it had all been early on, she had come to terms with the prospect of her image being fapping material for who knows how many people; she wouldn’t go so far as to say she was flattered, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, if anything it stirred something within her, similar to that feeling of her first time crossing Shibuya.
However all of this she had been able to just push to the back of her mind, where she could mostly ignore it. She feared if she looked any of it up all those feelings would come flooding back, and she might be overwhelmed and do something regrettable. But maybe she was just delaying the inevitable? Maybe this was as good an excuse as any to finally face and overcome this fear? Maybe she should just face it head on and stop letting her anxiety control her? Or maybe that’s all an excuse and really she’s just curious?
Whatever it was, she had already tapped the hashtag and begun browsing without thinking. As she scrolled her eyes went wider and wider. About 20% of the posts were about Eiko, mostly advertising her Onlyfans or candid shots of her hanging out with her friends. Another 10% were Kasumi, out jogging and… that was really it, seemed like she hadn’t gone outside much lately unless she had to, maybe her dropping out really was for the best?
But the other 70%, the overwhelming majority- it was all her. An overwhelming amount of footage from all sorts of angles. Comments varied from confusion as to what she could be thinking- walking around like that, excitement at seeing the famous Shujin nudist in person, and decidedly unsubtle sexual desire.
‘Oh my…’
Some were from her TV appearances, some were from her various commutes to and from school, others were selfies she took with her fans, others still from her brief escapades with Ren to the red light district.
‘Oh dear…’
Some she was aware of the photographers, some had been taken while she had no idea people were looking as she went about her duties in school, others she outright posed for. Some were tasteful and respectful, others… weren’t…
‘Good god it’s so clear… you can see right inside… I’ve never seen myself from these angles.’
She shifted in her seat slightly.
‘So many likes and retweets… everyone has been looking at this for so long…’
She became hyper aware of her own nudity, a feeling that that been fading into the background recently was now back in the forefront of her mind.
‘I feel so…’
“Uhh, Makoto, you good?”
Makoto suddenly snapped back to reality, looking up to see Eiko raising an eyebrow at her.
“You spaced out for a bit there, everything cool?”
“I um… yeah fine!”
She quickly stood up, turning away slightly to hide the wetness making it’s way down her thighs… from Eiko at least, she inadvertently turned at such an angle to make said wetness VERY visible to Ren, who- judging by his eyes- definitely noticed.
“I just thought about all the stuff I still need to do, like I said earlier you know? I’m sorry to run off but I really have to go now- see you later Eiko!”
“Uh, see ya?”
Makoto locked eyes with Ren and whispered.
“Come with me, right now.”
“As you wish Queen.” Ren didn’t need convincing, and very eagerly followed her out of sight.
~ ~ ~
Ren was always happy to help Makoto, no matter what she needed, and he did say in the past he could do exactly this if she needed, but he still couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.
‘Ah who am I kidding, it’s my fault for getting my hopes up. Probably for the best, wouldn’t want our first time to be in a janitor’s closet anyway.’
He stood outside said janitor’s closet, as promised he would keep watch while Makoto furiously tried to get herself off within. Earlier on in her nudist ‘career’ she would have a pretty common problem with needing to let off some steam, when she just couldn’t wait until she got back home to do so. And while that problem had largely fallen off as she became more accepting of her own nudity and indeed her own fetishes, but this was a special case, Makoto feared if she didn’t do this right now she’d be at risk of trying to get herself off in full public view. Ren wondered if she could actually get away with that. The program did make her immune to decency laws, so it wouldn’t get her in any trouble legally at least. But it was the social side of things that was less certain. People’s attitudes had changed, there was no doubt about that, the program would never be allowed in the old public eye. But would they be okay with her just masturbating openly? It’d draw attention, that’s for damn sure, but following the existing pattern it was unlikely anyone would try to stop her.
Perhaps it was better they didn’t find out, as hot as that would be, Ren didn’t want to risk hurting her reputation.
Still, while the idea of an always-nude exhibitionist girlfriend was beyond ‘dream come true’ material, he would have thought this would be a more enjoyable situation. Yes, it was really hot to listen to her heavy breathing and other enjoyably wet and squishy sounds emanating from within the closet, it wasn’t as if he could watch; he was on lookout duty, and that actually meant he had to focus on everything but the actual fun stuff going on. School was technically over, and the hallways all seemed empty, so he just had to stand here carrying a mixture of boredom, anxiety, and sexual frustration. The latter being particularly annoying since he still had to search for Futaba Sakura right after this, there was no time for him to get himself off.
‘I’m not even the exhibitionist here and I’m the one in the open…’
He sighed, but decided to just suck it up and endure. This was helping Makoto, so that made it 100% worth it, no doubts. That didn’t make it an enjoyable experience though, but he figured he’d live, he’d just have to make up for it later when he got some privacy to browse the ‘Shujinnudist’ hashtag himself.
Her breathing was speeding up (as were the other sounds), he could tell she was getting near to orgasm by this point, he wouldn’t have to endure much longer.
“Hm, what are you doing here Ren-kun?”
Ren froze in fear for a split second, before trying to appear as natural as possible.
“Haru-san? Oh, um… nothing really, just hanging out.” Ren spoke louder than necessary, hoping Makoto would hear. From the brief pause in the sounds from within it seems like she had, but judging by the sounds starting up again even more intensely than before, she had already passed the point of no return, Ren knew he just had to buy time.
“Hanging out?”
“Mmhm.”
“Just here in the hallway?”
“It’s as good a place as any.”
“If you say so.” Haru paused a moment. “What’s that noise?”
“It’s my stomach, I’m hungry. Hungry for worms? No, hungry for words! Ahahaha!”
Haru stared blankly.
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s a reference to a thing… based on a game…”
“Oh… I don’t really play games…”
“I see…”
…
‘Dammit is that all I have?’ Ren screamed at himself internally. ’A dumb meme is really all I have to buy time with? Think man, think!’
“So uh, you got somewhere to be Haru?”
“I was just looking for Kasumi, I don’t suppose you’ve…” Haru paused again, sniffing a few times. “What’s that smell?”
“I uh…” Ren tried to think fast. “Uh- my bad, I forgot to put on deodorant today.” It was worth a try at least…
“That’s definitely not a B.O. smell, it’s…” her eyes shifted to the closet. “Ren, are you and Mako—”
“Ren? What are you still doing here?” Ren cringed at the sound of Ann’s voice coming from down the hall.
“I thought you were gonna do some scouting today?” He cringed harder when Ryuji’s voice joined hers.
“I am! I’m just uh… I was just sending some messages!” He pulled out his phone, waving it as if it somehow helped his point to do so. “You guys better all go ahead.”
“You’re acting weird man…” Ryuji shook his head. “You good?”
“Yo Joker, you done yet? I’m getting tired of waiting, what were you two even doing?”
“Ooo- a kitty!” Haru’s attention suddenly shifted away from the closet- that was good- and to the familiar cat-notcat that was joining them- that was bad.
“I’m not a kitty!”
“A very talkative kitty. Meow~ Meow~”
Morgana forgot normal people couldn’t understand him, so he just grumbled bitterly.
“Aww… grumpy kitty.” Haru crouched down and started poking him in the face.
“This girl irritates me.”
Ren rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Sure, I guess everyone’s just coming at the same time? I guess Yusuke will show up in a second, huh?”
“Huh?” Ann tilted her head. “No, obviously not, he doesn’t even go to Shujin.” She pulled out her phone. “I can videocall him if you like though?”
Ren’s shoulders dropped.
“No… no we’re fine thanks Ann.”
“’We’?”
‘Fuck…’
“Well uh, ‘we’ as in everyone gathered here, y’know?” Ren gave an unconvincing smile. “Anyway you better all get going, right? We’ve all got stuff to do.”
Ryuji scratched the back of his head.
“Ren why are you blocking the closet door?”
“Huh? Oh no, I’m just standing here randomly, no particular reason.”
“Does anyone smell something strange?” Morgana slowly approached the door. “It’s not an unpleasant smell but—”
“Shouldn’t you be in my bag right about now?”
“Huh? Nah it should be fine, no one is here.”
‘Fucking everyone is here!’ Ren tried not to show any of his fear or frustration. He wasn’t successful.
“Seriously man, you need to get in the bag.”
“You talk to your cat?” Haru raised her brow is surprise. “I suppose that’s fine and all, but don’t you think you’re being a little mean to him right now?”
“I’m sure he understands. Morgana. Bag. Now.”
“You’re being little scary Joker…”
Ren approached Morgana, having half a mind to grab him by the scruff of the neck and force him into the bag, he didn’t of course, he wouldn’t be that mean. Ren loved and treasured all of his friends, there was quite literally nothing in the world he valued more than them, but right now at least he wanted- no… NEEDED them to fuck off.
“Seriously what is that noise?”
Ren, with a look of horror on his face, turned around to see Haru- in the few seconds he had stepped away- had started opening the door. He couldn’t make it back in time, time slowed to a crawl as Makoto- face scrunched up in pleasure- was revealed to the group. And the timing couldn’t be worse, whether by coincidence or the reveal pushing her over the edge, orgasm overtook her. Still feeling like he was moving in slow motion, Ren launched himself in between Haru and the door, diving dramatically to shield her from Makoto’s worryingly powerful squirting orgasm. He ended up pushing the door further open in the process, his head having slammed against it, but he was successful is blocking all the ejaculate. He felt like a bodyguard who had heroically leapt in front of a politician to block a sniper’s bullet. He’d feel pretty cool and proud of himself if it weren’t for literally everything else about this situation.
Everyone present had experienced awkward silences before, but nothing quite like this. Second, minutes, hell- hours could have passed by and they wouldn’t have known. Everyone stared at either Makoto’s post-orgasm bliss, Ren lying on the ground ashamed, or eachother’s shocked faces. After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, Ann was finally the first to break the silence.
“Ren did she just piss on you?”
“Hell no!” Ren, with lightening speed, shot back up onto his feet. The whole front of his uniform visibly stained. “That was squirting, not pissing!”
“I mean… isn’t that what ‘squirt’ is?”
“No.”
“What is it then?”
Ren glared at her for a while.
“It’s… um… squirt!”
“Dude…”
“Don’t look at me like that!” Ren stood tall and proud. “I don’t care even if it was piss, if she enjoyed herself enough for that to happen, then that’s all I need to be happy myself. I’ll happily take it all regardless of what it is! I can take anything you throw at me!”
“Don’t try to pass off what happened to you as something cool!”
Makoto was starting to regain her senses, that might have been the best orgasm she’s had in a long while, but that didn’t change the fact that she had done it in full view of almost all of her friends. She looked up at Ren in front of her, then at the others, amazingly they were looking at him and his display more than her. Part of her wanted to laugh, whether through accident or design he had shifted this from an awkward “we just saw our friend have a squirting orgasm” moment to an awkward “Our friend is trying to act cool while covered in sexual fluids” moment. And against even her own expectations, she didn’t feel embarrassed right now. If this had happened in the past she’d probably want to die right now, but after the support from Ren and Johanna, she somehow felt like she could face this without shame, although maybe it was just because she was still high from cumming.
Regardless, she forced herself to her feet, clinging to Ren’s shirt for balance, not trusting her own still weak and shaky knees to hold herself up.
“Sorry about that everyone, just got a little worked up.”
“Makoto?” Ann- still being the only one not shocked into silence- looked at Makoto in amazement. “What on earth did you just do?”
Makoto smiled, and shrugged.
“I masturbated, everyone does it.”
“I mean… yeah- but in a closet?”
“It still counted as private until you all showed up.”
“Don’t try to—” when she saw the serene smile on Makoto’s face, Ann swiftly lost the will to continue arguing. “I mean… I guess you didn’t do any harm… but I’m not gonna pretend this is something I approve of, what if a stranger came along?”
“That’s what he’s here for.” Makoto gestured towards Ren. “He would have kept me safe.”
“I would have kept everyone away if it weren’t for us apparently doing a full role call.” Ren grumbled, still annoyed at this horrendously contrived bad luck.
“I mean…” Ryuji mumbled, kicking at some non-existent dust “…I’m not gonna complain about watching her cum so uh…”
“You’re okay with this?” Ann looked shocked- for about a second before sighing “What am I talking about, of course you are…”
“I knew you two were horny, but this is still pretty crazy.” Morgana shook his head. “I guess next time you ask me to wait outside, I’m just gonna listen, I want no part in this nonsense, just… stay safe okay?”
“I guess everyone is okay with it?” Ann rubbed her forehead. “Well… nah I’m still not okay with it, but I’m not gonna be the one person making it into some big issue. Just leave me out of it.”
Makoto laughed.
“Don’t worry, we weren’t going to drag anyone else into it.”
“Haru?”
The group turned towards Haru, who had still been standing in silence.
“You okay Haru?”
Upon further inspection, Haru wasn’t completely stationary, her hips were shifting slightly as she tried to rub her thighs together without any real subtlety, and her breathing was… well scary was the only word for it. She suddenly pushed forward, shoving Ren and Makoto out of the way, and entered the closet herself, slamming the door shut behind her.
“GO AWAY!”
“H-Haru?”
“I’ll just need a few minutes, I’ll talk to you all tomorrow, I just need to…”
Makoto laughed again.
“I understand, we better head off, have fun!”
“I plan to!”
Ren still had trouble absorbing all of this, but he put on his best ‘leader’ voice and ordered everyone to leave, which they begrudgingly obliged. He and Makoto were the last to leave, and they did so together.
“Well that was…” Ren didn’t know how to finish that sentence.
“I think it went fairly well.”
“I’m surprised Mako, you’re so calm right now.”
She smiled at him.
“I think I’m still riding my adrenaline, I’ll probably be cringing later tonight. But… if there’s one thing going nude has taught me, is that I’m better off without shame. Me acting embarrassed there wouldn’t do me any good, and would have just made things awkward for everyone.”
“I guess that’s true…”
“I’ve stopped being ashamed of being a nudist, maybe I should try to not be ashamed of being an exhibitionist? Ha… probably easier said than done, I’m already starting to feel a little embarrassed again…” She reached up to rub her forehead, feeling rather foolish when she felt her juices slide down and get caught in her eyebrows, she sheepishly looked at her sticky fingers. “I really need to stop doing that…”
Now Ren was laughing.
“Let’s try and clean ourselves up before we head home. God I’ve still got the investigation to do, it’s gonna be hard focusing after what just happened.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, it’ll be fine.” It was silent for a while. “Still, while friends catching us is one thing, and I agree with the whole ‘no shame’ thing, we should still try to avoid stuff like that becoming public for a while…”
“I agree…” More silence. “Wait, what do you mean ‘for a while’? Am I on a slippery slope right now? I suppose I can’t deny the possibility. I better try to control myself.”
Ren liked that they could be this candid with eachother, but still felt it was better not to say anything. And once more they fell into a comfortable silence as they made their way to somewhere they could clean up.
At least until Ren started laughing again.
“What’s so funny?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s definitely not nothing.”
“I was just thinking, the song was wrong, in the end- they did see you cumming.”
“Go to hell Ren.”
Notes:
Futaba is getting closer I promise
Chapter 21: Tomb
Summary:
Is it finally time to meet Futaba?
Eh, sorta...
Notes:
So it's happened before in this series, but I often skip over chunks of the story where the nudity wouldn't change anything (as well as skipping all the Kaneshiro stuff, since I'm sorry- but I'm not comfortable writing that kind of thing), and instead I just skip to the stuff that I think is interesting/ I actually have something worthwhile to change.
Well this chapter is probably the hardest hit by that mindset, a lot is glossed over, if you're familiar with the actual game's story it shouldn't bother you, but for those of you who haven't played P5 or P5R, you might get a tad lost, sorry.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Much had happened the past few days, Alibaba had hastily withdrawn their threat to expose the thieves when they realized more information on Futaba Sakura was needed, meanwhile Medjed had doubled down on their own pursuit of the thieves, threatening to severely damage Japan’s economy if they didn’t come forward. How exactly they planned to do this, Ren would be lying if he said he understood, but they weren’t in the business of taking such chances right now. Given that Medjed was a faceless organization, their only hope was in Alibaba- who they had determined was Futaba Sakura herself. And thus the thieves found themselves stood outside Sojiro’s house, hoping to meet Futaba and negotiate.
“Nobody’s answering…” Makoto looked towards the house worriedly. “But the lights are on…”
“Maybe he’s napping?” Ryuji shrugged. “Boss is kinda old.”
“He’s not deaf though, there’s no way he’d still be asleep with how many times we’ve rang the doorbell.”
“I dunno Ann. My Dad’s pretty close to his age, and I remember him napping in the evenings all the time in front of the TV, he once slept though a whole televised heavy metal concert, you’d be surprised what slightly out-of-shape middle aged men can sleep through.”
“Slightly out of shape? That’s a tad rude Ren.” Ann shook her head. “Though it’s weird, you never talk about your parents.”
“No. No I don’t.”
Ren didn’t make eye contact with anyone, simply keeping his eyes on the house, but before anyone could ask any probing questions, the gate could be heard creaking as Yusuke pushed it open.
“It’s unlocked.”
“Yusuke- Dude- you can’t just walk in uninvited like that.”
Makoto was about to agree before she noticed something else.
“He’s left the front door open too, not just unlocked, but open.”
“That’s… concerning.” Yusuke turned back to the rest of the group. “Do you think something might have happened? Perhaps someone broke inside?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions… but maybe we should go inside to check?” Makoto looked unsure, and like the rest of the group she was weighing the risks of entering Sojiro’s house uninvited versus the risk of leaving things be and not only delaying their meeting with Futaba, but potentially leaving her at risk with a potential intruder.
Before they could come to any sort of decision, a sudden burst of thunder was heard overhead, Makoto flinching at the sudden sound.
“Shit, a storm?” Ren looked up, surprised none of them noticed the clouds forming overhead until now. “I guess that made our decision for us, huh? Let’s head inside.”
They still felt somewhat reluctant to barge in like this, but the panic brought on by the sudden storm easily overrode it. The thieves entered the home one by one, still leaving the door slightly ajar, and removing their shoes as they entered- the potential emergency was no excuse to forget basic manners after all, and obviously Makoto had no shoes to remove, but still took some time to wipe as much of the dirt off her feet as possible before stepping inside proper.
“Huh, sounds like the TV’s on…” Ryuji pointed down the dimly lit hallway, towards the flashing lights and noise coming from an open door near the end of the hallway.
“Hmm, I guess that means we can likely rule out an intruder.” Ren turned back to the others with a smile and a slightly exaggerated shrug. “Burglars rarely take a break to watch TV in the house they’re robbing.”
Makoto nodded.
“Yeah, maybe Sojiro is just napping after all.” She nervously called down the hall “p-please excuse us!”
There was no response.
“You don’t think he passed out or collapsed or something, do you?”
“He’s not that old Ryuji…” Ren thought for a moment. “Actually, now that you’ve put that idea in my head I’m kinda worried… Maybe we should just check real quick?”
The others nervously nodded, and they slowly made their way down the hall. Makoto wondered if everyone was as on-edge as she was right now. As embarrassing as it was for her she never was good at handling storms, they always terrified her, combine that with the nerve-wracking experience of sneaking into someone’s home and it took everything she had to appear outwardly calm; while she technically wasn’t the leader, she had still taken quite an authoritative role in the Phantom Thieves, if she started panicking everyone would… probably… she didn’t want to take the chance, nor risk embarrassing herself, despite everything she was still very easy to embarrass.
It got exponentially worse when another thunderbolt was heard, in an instant every light in the house went out, as did the TV in the room they were approaching. Makoto let out a shocked yelp, which- to everyone’s horror- was rather overshadowed by the other scream coming from elsewhere in the house.
“A- a scream?” Makoto instinctively reached out to grab Ren, but just found empty air where he was once standing. “R-Ren? Oh god, Ren where are yo—”
“Boss ain’t here.”
Ren’s voice, she turned towards it to see Ren peering through the open door from earlier, using the light from his phone to check inside.
“I guess he just popped out for something, left the TV on, and forgot to fully close the door behind him. I guess that’s one mystery solved?”
Makoto felt rather foolish for getting so terrified for a moment there, she would have found Ren had she just turned her head slightly more to the left, that’s not to say she still wasn’t scared, this situation was still horrible and of questionable morals and legality.
“Okay good, whatever- shouldn’t we get out of here now?”
Thankfully Ann was the first to vocalize the fear Makoto felt, letting her save a little face, though it probably didn’t matter at this point, the power cut had everyone shaken, not just her.
“Yeah…” Ren sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to try again later I guess. We’ll head back to Leblanc for now, before the storm gets too bad.”
While it was a disappointing outcome, everyone began making their way back towards the entrance, Makoto whispered to Ren.
“Um… do you think we could uh… hold hands on a way out? Please?”
Ren looked to Makoto’s shaking hand, and nodded.
“Of course.”
Before he could even take her hand she grabbed his whole arm and started clinging to it for dear life. It was a bit of a shock to him, and part of him would have preferred holding her instead, but he chose not to say anything. She was clearly very frightened right now, so if this was what she needed to feel a little more comfort he was happy to oblige. It did make it slightly hard to move though, not much of a problem apart from the fact that they fell behind the others. Makoto did feel a little silly, she was barely holding it together while Ren seemed to be the calmest out of everyone, well except perhaps Morgana, who really didn’t seem bothered at all, his head just casually hanging out of the opening on Ren’s bag. She tried her absolute hardest to try and relax.
“I can sense someone’s presence…” Yusuke was not helping matters.
“Who is it? Who’s there?” Makoto’s grip on Ren’s arm tightened, it was actually mildly painful. “Ah- I can’t take this anymore! I’m leaving!”
Makoto tried with all her might to propel herself forward, push past everyone, and flee back to the relative safety of Leblanc, but her legs just wouldn’t obey her, in fact they would barely hold her up. She was now relying more on Ren to stop her collapsing than her own body.
“I can’t… my legs won’t move.”
“Makoto, are you…”
The couple both froze stiff, they could now feel this ‘presence’ too, and it was worryingly close to them. They slowly turned to look behind them, and there, just inches from their faces, was a bright light reflecting off of two square surfaces, staring directly into Makoto’s soul- or so she assumed, it didn’t matter, she had already started screaming, and the new figure started screaming too. Ren might have screamed himself had he not been preoccupied with his ear drums being shattered in stereo sound in this moment.
The figure fled at lighting speed, and Makoto collapsed to the ground, clinging tighter than ever to Ren’s leg, mumbling to herself. As soon as he regained his own senses, Ren crouched down next to her, quickly wrapping his arms around her.
“Makoto, it’s alright, it’s okay.” He tried holding her head, and she did lean into it, but it didn’t seem to visibly calm her down like he had hoped.
“Alibaba! Futaba! It’s you, right?” Ann called out.
“Futaba!” they heard Sojiro’s voice from outside. “Are you okay?”
“Crap, he’s home! Hide!” Ryuji hissed, everyone quickly finding a corner to cower behind, sans Ren and Makoto of course, the latter being too terrified to move, the former being both too busy comforting her, and being held too tight to escape even if he wanted to.
Sojiro threw the door open, seeing Ren’s silhouette in the dark hallway.
“You came to the wrong house, fool!” He grabbed an umbrella and a torch to expose the ‘intruder’, freezing when he saw it was his charge. “Huh, what are you doing in my house?”
“I’msosorryI’msosorryI’msosorrypleasesavemesis…”
“And what is Niijima-san doing…?” Sojiro stared at the couple, he had seen the famous nudist hanging out with Ren and his friends before at the café, and she was a nice girl, but seeing her cling to him so… “Damn… you two are that close?”
Makoto was slowly starting to come back to her senses, becoming aware of how hard she was clinging- ‘desperation’ was the word that came to mind. She looked up at Ren, who was blushing slightly- but otherwise was similarly unsure as her what to say or do right now. Then she looked over to Sojiro, shining the torch directly on her.
“Uhh…” having a proverbial (or perhaps literal) spotlight on her didn’t help the words come to her.
“Damn…” Sojiro mumbled under his breath, only barely audible to the couple. “Kid might have even more game than I did as his age…”
Makoto quickly let go of Ren, trying to will the strength back into her legs so she can stand again.
“That’s not… I um… we’re not… you’ve got the wrong uh…”
Her rather embarrassing floundering was mercifully cut short when Ann and the others came out of their hiding place.
“You kids are here too.”
“Uh, heya…” Ann was looking similarly sheepish. “We brought you some sushi. We rang the bell but no one answered, the door was unlocked though. We heard the TV was on though so we worried you might have passed out or something…”
“The door was unlocked?”
Ann and the others nodded. Sojiro sighed.
“I do that sometimes, maybe I really am getting old…”
The conversation gave Makoto time to get into something resembling her usual calm demeanour, where she was happy to pretend the past few minutes just didn’t happen.
“Um, excuse me, there’s something we have to ask.” She glanced off in the direction the figure fled a moment ago. “There’s someone else living here, isn’t there?”
Sojiro paused a moment, considering something, before giving in.
“Yes. My daughter.”
“Could she be Futaba Sakura?”
Sojiro glared at Ren, more in shock than in anger.
“You told Niijima-san too?”
Ren was looking rather guilty, but Makoto continued before he could say anything.
“Is it possible for us to meet with Futaba-san? We um… ran into her before you came in, there was a bit of screaming and um… I think we should probably apologize for scaring her.”
Sojiro held his forehead.
“I don’t think that’s…”
“Is she sick?”
“No, nothing like that…” he sighed, then looked to Ren. “Maybe I shouldn’t have kept this a secret from you.” He began to turn back to the door. “Let’s talk back at the shop, she’ll hear us if we stay here.”
Everyone agreed, and made their way outside, hoping they wouldn’t get too soaked in the rain.
“Um Ren, about earlier…”
Ren handed her an umbrella.
“I’m sure Sojiro won’t mind us borrowing this.”
He smiled at her, just as warmly as he always did. She stared at him, then the umbrella, before chuckling.
“Right, we’ll give it back as soon as we reach the café anyway.” She quietly chastised herself for worrying over nothing, Ren wasn’t the type to think less of her so easily… actually, considering all the teasing, maybe he was, but he did usually know when the drop the jokes and be the reliable boyfriend he need to be. So she left it at that for now, they needed to focus on the discussion with Sojiro right now anyway.
~ ~ ~
Much was revealed in their conversation back at the café. Futaba Sakura was the adopted daughter of Sojiro, her mother- Wakaba- had committed suicide, before staying with Sojiro she was staying with her abusive uncle, and now she was a full-time shut-in. Sojiro- not knowing what else to do- did his best to feed her and get her everything she asked for, despite how unhealthy her lifestyle was. Ultimately he knew something had to change, but had no idea what. So he asked Ren and the others to leave her be for now, and not to try to meet with her again.
They agreed.
And so the next thing they did was try to meet with her again.
Whether they were successful or not depended on your definition of ‘meeting’. Ren’s habit of entering every name he could remember into the nav in his free time had already revealed that Futaba had a palace shortly after ‘Alibaba’ first mentioned the name to them, but lacking the other keywords they had been unable to access it. Blind guessing did them no good, so they would need to find out from the girl herself. They had once again snuck into Sojiro’s house, and had found Futaba’s room. She had locked herself inside.
They decided trying to force their way in was bad for all sorts of reasons. She wasn’t willing to talk with them properly, even through the door, but did at least send them messages under the guise of ‘Alibaba’, which was better than nothing. And while she did at least seem aware of the concept of the metaverse- broadly speaking anyway, which was still enough to raise a few questions for later- explaining how palaces worked didn’t seem like the right way of going about this, so they had to ask her outright what she saw her home as.
After some back and forth they finally hit the right keyword with “tomb”, and in a unprecedented display of patience, Ryuji waited a whole 3 seconds before activating the nav without giving the others any warning or time to prepare. And thus now, they found themselves all standing in the middle of the desert.
“Ann…”
“Yeah Ren?”
“Do you mind smacking Ryuji for me again?”
SMACK
“OW! Dude, uncalled for.”
“It’s very called for.” Ren groaned. “Everyone alright?”
“It’s so damn hot…” Ann formed a groaning duet with him.
“Even in the peak of summer I’ve never felt such oppressive heat…” Yusuke made it a trio.
“Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow…” Makoto didn’t quite make it a quartet though, being too busy hopping from one bare foot to the other. “This sand burns.”
“Oh shit- sorry Makoto.” Ren rushed to her side.
“What are you doi—AH”
Ren had scooped her up into a princess carry. While she appreciated the save from the horribly hot sand, she wasn’t quite mentally prepared to be in such an intimate position, especially in front of her friends. Part of her still wanted to object, but his smile quickly silenced her, she actually wanted it to last a little longer now, but he had already turned to Morgana.
“Yo Mona, we could really use a ride right now.”
“Maan…” he quickly shifted into his van form, the thieves not waiting even a moment before climbing inside. “You guys get to sit in the shade while I take all the sunlight myself huh? Darker colors absorb more heat y’know?”
“Sorry Dude.” Ren carried Makoto over to the driver’s side seat and helped her inside. “I saw a structure off in that direction, let’s just get there as quick as we can so we can all get in the shade.”
“Fiine… y’know the sand hurts my paws too, and I don’t see you carrying me.”
“What are you talking about? I carry you literally all day, every day.”
“…Shit… you win this round Joker.”
Riding inside Morgana, they made their way to the structure as quickly as they were able, but at their speed it would still take a few minutes. They also realize their thought process of “The inside of the Mona-van is shady, it’ll be cool” was deeply flawed. What it was- was incredibly stuffy. Mona didn’t have air conditioning, hell- he didn’t even have windows that opened. This would help them avoid getting sunburned (assuming metaverse sunshine could indeed do that), but it absolutely made the heat itself worse. Still, this was the fastest way to get to their destination, they all chose to endure.
“Y’know, if I think of this as the world’s shittiest sauna, I think I can tolerate it.”
Ann pulled at her sweat soaked shirt, drawing the world’s most unsubtle lewd gaze from Ryuji. Ren wanted to laugh at it, but literally didn’t have the energy for it in this living oven they found themselves in. Ren’s own eyes were of course on Makoto, he never thought of himself having a sweat fetish, but seeing her bare skin wet and glistening in the light was a pretty convincing counter-argument. He tried to discreetly peek around to see if he could admire a little bit of her front like this, but in the process briefly looked over to the right to see Ann staring at him annoyed- well mostly at Ryuji, but he was caught red-handed himself too, so he couldn’t say the subsequent retaliation of Ann knocking the boy’s seats violently back was wholly undeserved- though he did feel a bit bad for Yusuke, getting caught up in guilt-by-association. Makoto looked back to see what the fuss was about, but decided about half way through she didn’t care that much and went back to dying on the steering wheel.
Their destination was getting closer, a pyramid, it fit the tomb theme so they had no doubt that they were going in the right direction, but they still had a ways to go.
“Okay, fuck it- I don’t care anymore.”
“Ren? What are you— HUH?!”
Ann flinched at the sight of Ren pulling off his shirt, Makoto looked over at her shocked face, before turning back and seeing Ren for herself.
“Ren?”
“Makoto has the right idea, this makes it so much more bearable.”
“I think I might join you, this is purgatory…” Yusuke whined, joining in the stripping session, much to Makoto’s surprise and Ann’s paralyzed shock.
“I’m actually glad you two did that.” Ryuji sighed happily, already joining in. “I was considering the same thing but didn’t want to be awkward.”
“Guys I get it’s hot but you don’t all need to get naked like that!” Ann sounded angry, but it wasn’t as if she tore her eyes away from the scene at any point.
“Naked?” Morgana’s voice was heard. “What the hell is going on in there? I don’t wanna feel your dirty butts on my seats!”
“Ugh, we’ll stop at the underwear- okay?” Ren made little effort to hide his annoyance. “Fucking hell this already feels so much better…”
“I must admit, I’ve been curious as to the physical and emotional sensations Makoto-san gets to feel in her state, perhaps this is a taste of it?” Yusuke mused. “There is a certain appeal…”
Ann finally looked away, using her hand to shield her view of the impromptu strip show.
“I can’t believe you guys…”
Makoto found herself laughing, this was certainly a surprise, though not an unpleasant one. She never thought of herself having a sweat fetish, but Ren…
“You know there’s technically nothing stopping you from joining us Ann?”
“Even you Makoto? Ugh… Hard pass.”
Ryuji laughed.
“Your loss.”
“Although…”
“Hm? What’s up Makoto?”
She sternly glared forwards.
“Mona, can you really feel us inside you?”
“I… I uh…”
“Mona…”
“Y-yeah…”
Both Makoto and Ann were suddenly feeling much less comfortable in their seats.
“H-hey! It’s not as if I can help it! I’m not some sort of weirdo!”
“Ugh… fine, whatever.” Ann sighed. “I guess it’s not really your fault… but I’m bringing a cushion to sit on in here from now on.”
“I’ll start using my towel in here too…”
“I… fair enough…” Morgana grumbled, before cursing under his breath.
~ ~ ~
After finally reaching the pyramid and clambering out of the Monavan (Makoto wincing as she literally peeled herself off of the seat) the group entered through the pyramid’s front entrance and were immediately met with pure bliss.
“AIR CONDITIONING!” Ryuji cried out to the heavens. “The modern world is truly a wonderful place…”
“We’ve finally escaped from Purgatory and into Heaven…” Yusuke said while waving his arms around in what could charitably be called a dance.
Everyone felt similar relief, their sweat from earlier only enhancing the incredible feeling. The cool sandstone felt so much better beneath Makoto's soles than the burning nightmare sand from earlier.
“I suppose the pyramid represents the house, or just her room, so the air conditioning works.” Ren shrugged. “Hell I’ll take it.”
“Visitors?”
Having almost forgotten they were in a palace, the thieves took defensive stances as quickly as possible when a new figure seemed to phase into existence just across the room from them. There was no doubt about it, this must have been Futaba’s shadow.
“The outfit definitely fits the Egyptian theme but…”
“Dude is she topless?”
“Ugh… of course that’s the first thing you notice Ryuji…”
“Ann eff off, like you didn’t immediately notice too.”
“I’m fairly sure female toplessness was fairly commonplace in ancient Egypt.”
“I think that’s right Yusuke, but it’s more likely to do with the fact that she’s always in her room, it’s hardly unusual to be indecent in the privacy of your own room.”
“That’s probably it Makoto, I guess if you’re always alone in your room you’d just wear- or not wear- whatever was comfortable… though it’s questionable how comfortable that skirt and crown is… eh- so long as she’s happy I guess.” Ren shrugged, then awkward silence fell over the room.
“Dude we’ve been talking a while now and she hasn’t done anything, she’s just staring at us…”
…
“She’s not blinking…”
…
“It’s pretty effin’ weird…”
Shadow Futaba’s piercing gaze fell to each of the thieves in sequence, finally settling on Makoto.
“You’re that famous nudist girl…”
Her voice was as emotionless as her expression, it was more than a little offputting.
“Uh, yeah, that’s me… It’s nice to meet you… Futaba?”
“I see…” Futaba kept staring a while longer, still not blinking. Makoto felt uncomfortable being stared at this intently, it felt like her eyes were piercing right through her soul. An uncomfortable period of time passed by before the shadow finally spoke again. “Poggers.”
Makoto tilted her head, before discreetly leaning over towards her boyfriend.
“Ren?”
“That also means ‘good’.”
“Are you sure? It sounds like a noun.”
“It’s not.”
“I see…”
“So uh…” Ann cautiously stepped forward, Futaba’s eyes snapping to her position immediately, causing the girl to falter somewhat. “This is kind of an awkward question to ask but… we’re here to change your heart like you requested, which way do we go?”
It was hard to tell for sure, but it looked like there was a hint of relief then immediately fear on Futaba’s face. Then she slowly started to fade away into nothing.
“I’m sorry, I’m going through a tunnel right now…” and it was like she was never there.
“Guess that means we’re on our own?” Ann sighed.
“I guess this won’t be as much of a cakewalk as Haru’s palace.” Ren started to look around the room. “I guess it was too much to hope for. But before we move on, I’m getting dressed again, the air con is actually kind of chilly.”
“Same man.” Ryuji followed suit.
“I actually quite like the cold.” Makoto started stretching, loosening her body ready for the heist. “It’s definitely preferable to the heat outside.
Ann looked to Yusuke.
“You better get dressed too.”
“I’m fine thank you.”
“Huh?”
“I’m actually rather enjoying this, I’ll stay like this a little while longer.”
Ren chuckled.
“Hey, suit yourself man.”
“In fact.” Yusuke reached for the waistband of his boxers. “Would anyone be offended if I—”
“YES! Yes we would be offended!” Ann took several rapid steps back, as if expecting some kind of attack.
“Ann you need to chill.” Ryuji shook his head. “Like do whatever Yusuke, just don’t expect me to join in.”
“You’re really okay with this?”
Ren couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’d think Ann would be more used to nudity by this point.”
“That’s because it’s just Makoto, Yusuke might be weird but he’s still a boy!”
“Who are you calling weird?”
“Dude, we’re on your side right now, but you can’t deny that you’re a weirdo.”
“How dare you Ryuji?!”
“Don’t worry about it man.” Ren had finished getting dressed himself, and was already tired with all this arguing. “It’ll be fine while we’re in here, but you’ll need to get dressed again before we head back to the real world.”
Ann couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she looked over to Makoto and Morgana.
“What about you two?”
Morgana didn’t look happy about it, but shrugged.
“I’m fine so long as I he doesn’t get inside my van form like that.”
“Oh but you’re fine with me getting in naked huh?” Makoto tried to sound offended, but it wasn’t very convincing, she was too busy being amused by Ann’s legitimate fear. “I don’t see the issue, I wouldn’t think you’d get so worked up over it Ann.”
Ann was starting to lose the will to fight back, no one was on her side right now and she had to face the possibility that she was being the unreasonable one.
“Sorry, I’m mostly used to it when it’s just you Makoto, but I guess I’m still made rather uncomfortable by this whole thing, by the fact that we’ve all completely given into the world’s shifted logic, y’know?”
“Hmm…” Makoto pondered. “I suppose that’s not an unfair way to think… I’ll admit I do often forget things weren’t always like this…”
“If it makes you truly so uncomfortable Ann, I will keep my underwear on for now.”
“Yusuke, I—”
“It’s fine, I do want to try the nudism thing properly, but perhaps this isn’t the time or the place. After all, we do have a mission to complete and perhaps we can’t afford to get so distracted.”
Ann did honestly feel a little guilty right now, but simply nodded.
“Sorry.”
“Alright guys that’s enough.” Ren shifted into ‘leader mode’. “Yusuke’s right, we’ve got a mission to complete, let’s focus on that for now.”
One by one the other members of the team nodded and followed Ren into the pyramid. Ann slapped her cheeks, trying to get her mind back in the right place. They could worry about petty things like clothing later, right now, Futaba needed their help.
Notes:
We got to meet Futaba's shadow at least, the girl herself will have to wait just a bit longer
Chapter 22: A little worrying
Summary:
There are a few concerns going forward...
Chapter Text
“Well that could have gone better…”
“Futaba does want our help… but I guess there’s still some reluctance inside her, a fear of change causing her to lash out like that.”
“Lash out?! Crazy bitch dropped a boulder on us!”
“Don’t call her a crazy bitch Ryuji, it’s inappropriate.”
“No no, it’s very appropriate, situations like that are exactly what the term ‘crazy bitch’ was made for!”
“It was straight up that scene from Indiana Jones.” Ren laughed between wheezes. “Kinda hard to appreciate it in the moment though, running down stairs is the real crazy bitch…”
“Whatever…” Makoto looked back up the staircase. “We were able to get all the way to the top before, but now she’s closed a bunch of doors on us, we’ll have to figure out how to get them open…”
“Maybe we should fall back for now, and come back better prepared tomorrow, now that we know what we’re dealing with.”
Everyone- having now mostly caught their breath again- agreed with Ren and began making their way outside.
“Ho? I didn’t even notice before since the boulder was distracting me, but we’re back in our thief gear…” Ann looked down at her familiar red bodysuit.
“Fox is in his full outfit too, I guess stripping to his underwear doesn’t change his thief outfit, huh?”
“It makes sense Skull, these outfits are manifestations of our inner rebellion, he was just casually trying out nudity for the sake of comfort, it’s not part of his inner soul like it is with Queen.”
“Ha… Nudity is part of my ‘inner soul’, god it sounds really silly when you actually say it out loud like that.” Makoto looked down at herself, her arms and legs were once again covered with the spiked leather of her Queen outfit (she already missed the feel of the ground beneath her feet), but her torso remained as bare as ever.
“I dunno, I think it sounds kinda cool.”
“You would Joker, dork.” Ann gave him a few good-natured nudges with her elbow.
“Alright alright, let’s head back out.”
~ ~ ~
After using the app to return to the real world, the thieves found themselves stood outside Leblanc, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Yusuke took a moment to enjoy the air around them.
“Even the very peak of Japanese summer now comes as a relief compared to the horrendous heat of that desert. After such intense training I shall never need to rely on air conditioning again.”
“’Intense training’? Dude we were in the desert for like ten minutes- tops. Don’t start thinking you’re a Dragon Ball character just because we endured some heat, and als—” Ren froze when he finally looked over at Yusuke. “Dude! You need to get dressed! We’re back in the real world!”
Yusuke looked down at himself, once again he was standing in his underwear, there weren’t many passerbys, but those that were there were rather shocked at the sight- though in fairness, not any more shocked than they were to see Makoto casually starkers.
“Hmm… it appears I forgot.” Yusuke didn’t seem bothered, nor did he have any sense of urgency getting his clothes back on. “If I must, I don’t have Makoto’s same immunity to decency laws unfortunately.”
“Sorry Yusuke.” Makoto wasn’t sure why she was apologizing, but she felt the need to anyway.
“Perhaps the program would be of interest to me, it’d certainly open me up to a great many new experiences, and indeed opportunities for performance art. Alas, Kosei has shown no sign of adopting Shujin’s program itself.” He paused to ponder, still only half dressed. “There is nothing for it, I shall have to bring the matter to Kosei’s faculty and student council myself!”
“R-Really?” Ann paused. “Actually I’m not really as surprised about that as I thought I’d be… Uh… I guess I should wish you good luck?”
“HAHA!” Ren nodded. “Sure, why not? Good luck man, I hope Kosei…” Ren trailed off.
“Hm? Is everything okay Ren? Are you perhaps hungry?”
“N-no Yusuke, it’s not that.” Ren tried to look nonchalant, but it wasn’t really fooling anyone. “Um, dude while I totally support you trying to bring the program to Kosei, do you mind waiting until after we deal with Futaba before you say anything?”
“Hm? And why is that? I assure you it won’t distract too much from our mission.”
“I’d just feel a lot better if I knew everyone’s minds were as focused on the mission as possible, best to tackle one problem at a time, right?” Ren was getting a little more convincing as he went on, but Makoto could still tell he was hiding something, she continued to observe him.
“Hmm… I do understand your point, though I’m not sure how much I agree with it. But very well, I’ll hold off on any activism until after the current matter is resolved.”
“Thanks Yusuke, you’re a champ.”
Ren breathed a sigh of relief, and most of the group was ready to just shrug and move on. While the others were distracted, Makoto slowly approached him and heard him muttering under his breath.
“I better warn her ahead of time, and it’ll give us time to deal with—”
“Ren?”
He flinched a little, but relaxed when he saw it was only his girlfriend.
“Yeah? What’s up Mako?”
“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, what was that all about?”
Ren looked at the rest of the group, making sure they weren’t listening in.
“I’ll tell you about it later, when we’re alone, I promise.”
She still wasn’t sure how to feel, but she nodded.
“Okay, is it something I need to worry about?”
“No no, it’s a minor problem, and I might need everyone’s help later, but there are things I have to confirm first, y’know?”
“Okay, I trust you.”
“That means the world to me Mako.” He smiled at her, and gave her hand a quick squeeze, which she reciprocated, before returning to the rest of the group. “Alright guys, it’s getting kinda late so if you want to leave now you can, but if you like I could try making curry for everyone? Boss has been teaching me how.”
“Oho? I meal made by you Ren? Now you have me curious. Although…” Ann slyly eyed the couple “Are you sure you want us all here? Wouldn’t you two want a nice romantic dinner alone instead?”
“Ann!” Makoto fought her blush. She lost.
The rest of the group giggled at their expense, but mercifully moved on rather quickly, and accepted Ren’s offer. Enjoying an (admittedly still somewhat amateurish) curry dinner before parting ways and agreeing to meet back up after school tomorrow.
~ ~ ~
School itself was still mostly business as usual, Makoto continued working diligently throughout her classes, and paid little attention to her fellow classmates. Nudity was no reason to fall behind on her studies after all, and neither was the fame it still brought her. While the thought of how she would fulfil Eiko’s plan of building a nudist support network did occupy her mind, she still had no idea how to actually go about doing such a thing, she wasn’t the most social student even at the best of times, and while others approached her plenty, she was still clueless as to how to approach others. She shook such thoughts from her mind, she already had too much to worry about, things like that could be dealt with when they didn’t have a deadline looming over them.
While most of her class faded into the background, she did notice Haru in-between classes, she seemed far gloomier than usual, listless even. They weren’t the closest of friends, she only really knew her through their shared relationship with Kasumi after all, and even that hadn’t been brought to attention since she dropped out of the program. But she still felt that she couldn’t just leave her be when something was clearly bothering her, she made sure to at least check in with her in the time before their next class.
“Haru-san?”
“…”
“Haru-san?”
“Hm—HUH? Oh, I’m so sorry Makoto-san, I wasn’t paying attention. Is everything alright?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you, you look like something is wrong.”
“Oh no, nothing worth worrying over.”
Makoto maintained her gaze, analysing her clearly fake smile.
“Is it about Kasumi? I haven’t seen you together as much lately…”
Haru looked down at the floor.
“It’s…” she was clearly wrestling with something in her mind. “She’s… I mean we’re still friends.”
“Well that’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yes… yes it is… but…”
“Haru, I won’t force you to tell me anything, but I want you to know you can trust me. Helping students in distress is a big part of what being student council president is about after all.”
“…Is it?”
“It will be so long as I’m president, I promise you that.”
Makoto’s reassuring smile gave Haru a boost of strength, she thought the least she could do in return was at least try to open up.
“I worry we’re growing more distant…”
“You and Kasumi?”
“Mm. She and I still get along plenty well, but it’s almost as if…”
“As if…?”
“Perhaps I am misreading her, but it’s as if she’s questioning why she’s friends with me in the first place.”
“Oh?” That wasn’t what Makoto was expecting to hear. “How do you mean?”
“We originally only met because I offered to help her with her commute during her time as a nudist, but now that she doesn’t fear public transport anymore, she prefers walking, since it’s healthier. But that’s taken away a lot of the time we spend together.”
“I see…”
“We still have lunch together most days, but there’s less and less to talk about each time, she’s always had a hard time talking about herself, but it’s gotten worse lately. I feel the harder I push the more I risk driving her away entirely, and she seems happy so I’m starting to think I’m just bothering her.”
“Haru…”
“Now I’m trying to decide whether to keep pushing, or to just let the drift happen naturally, and try to move on myself.”
Makoto thought this was starting to sound more like a relationship than a regular friendship, but she was even less experienced in such matters. She meant what she said about trying to helping distressed students, but she felt in over her head at this point.
“I suppose it’s good Kasumi is putting more focus back into her gymnastics. Perhaps if all we had to bond over was the nudism then maybe we were never as close as I had hoped…”
“That’s… very hard Haru.”
“No, it’s fine.” Haru’s smile did seem a little more genuine now. “Even talking about it has helped a little. I’ll admit I am scared of losing my friend, but I suppose it’s only natural that some people drift apart sometimes…”
“Maybe…” Makoto reached out and held Haru’s hand. “Listen, I don’t know if this’ll make you feel any better, but I do still consider you my friend, and I’m sure Ren does too. We’ve often got a lot going on ourselves, but if you ever feel like you need someone, know that you can come to us, okay?”
“Makoto-san…” Haru stared down at their hands. “R-right! That does make me feel much better.”
“That’s a relief.” Makoto let go of her hand. “Anyway, we’ve still got class to get to, we should get a move on. Oh- let’s exchange numbers real quick, I’ll give you Ren’s too.”
“Are you sure he’s okay with that?”
“I know him well enough to know he’d offer the same in this situation.”
“Hmm… you two are lucky.”
“Haru-san?”
“It’s nothing, let’s get to class.”
“Right.”
~ ~ ~
“…within each of us flows his blood, but more importantly- HIS SOUL!”
Click
“And now, my soul- is saying it wants to STOP YOU!”
“Ahahahahaha… unfortunately our souls are at odds Brother.” Hifumi clenched her fist. “I. Need. More. Power!”
Click
“And we’re supposed to be twins…”
“Twins… ri—”
“Look kids—"
Ren and Hifumi suddenly snapped to attention, sat up straight with their hands on their laps, looking up at the annoyed priest.
“—I don’t mind your little games, but could you keep it down? This is still a public church. If you want to be loud you should find somewhere else to play.”
“R-right.” Ren sheepishly hung his head.
“Sorry, we’ll be more mindful in the future.”
The priest sighed and returned to his duties.
“Sorry about that Ren, it was my fault for making you join in my silly little roleplays.”
“Hey you didn’t make me do anything, I’m starting to have fun with them too, I can see why you enjoy them.”
“It’s embarrassing to hear you say that out loud, I’m used to people just ignoring them… but thank you, it does make me happy.”
“Still, it’ll be kind hard to get back into it if we constantly have to worry about our volume, maybe we should relocate?”
“It would be nice, but there’s really not many places I can go where I won’t be bothered by fans.”
“It might be a little out of your way, but you could come by Yongen-Jaya. I’m staying in a café called Leblanc, if I have a word with Boss I’m sure he’ll be happy to let you practice there.”
“Really? Are you sure I won’t be a bother?”
“Nah not at all, it’ll make it easier to introduce you to Makoto too, I’m sure it must get boring battling against me over and over, especially when I’m not providing enough of a challenge.”
“Oh you downplay your abilities far too much. You may not attain victory, but you're improving and forcing me to get creative with my own strategies. I can confidently say you’ve helped me grow too.”
“That’s a relief to hear, I was worried you’ve just been humouring me this whole time.”
Hifumi chuckled.
“Well maybe a little from time to time, but I enjoy our time together, so don’t worry about that. And I really would like to meet Makoto in person, I’ll admit, hearing you talk about her so much I’ve started following her… nudist ‘career’ as-it-were.”
“For real?”
“I know the troubles of dealing with eager fans, I don’t have nearly as many as her of course, but seeing how she so confidently handles all of them- especially in a state that I would have previously considered the height of vulnerability- it’s actually somewhat inspiring. There may be more to what she’s doing that I initially gave her credit for.”
“I get what you mean. Early on even I thought it was just this crazy and kinda perverse thing, and I guess it sorta still is- but it’s both that in a good way, and so much more. When it brings both her and those around her joy, well I guess any negative feelings I had towards it just kinda faded away, y’know?”
“Hmm, are you thinking of joining yourself? Am I about to start teaching a nudist student?”
“Nah… I mean, the idea of being nude isn’t unappealing, but there’s no way I could commit to it like she does. Maybe in certain contexts, and if it was just with friends, I could go for that. But just being nude ALL the time? Too much for me personally, but I want to support her still.”
“Well that’s a shame… just kidding.”
“Oh shit!” Ren suddenly remembered, and chastised himself for not only nearly forgetting the reason he came here, but raising his voice again just now- he hoped the priest didn’t notice. “I might have some worrying news.”
“Oh?”
“At Kosei, do you know a boy called Yusuke?”
“Yusuke?”
“Yusuke Kitagawa. Tall, lanky, blue-ish hair, kind of a weirdo?”
“I feel like I’ve seen someone like that in the halls a few times, but I’ve definitely never talked to him, why?”
“Well, he’s a friend of mine- great guy, more-or-less.”
“’More-or-less’?”
“Like I said, he’s a bit of a weirdo, kind of awkward sometimes, but he means well.”
“Right, so what’s the problem?”
“Well… to cut a long story short, he’s trying to bring the program to Kosei.”
“Oh my.”
“Now that would be fine by itself, but I remembered you talked about how you were worried your mother would force you into it for publicity.”
“That’s right… she definitely would do that if Kosei adopted the program.”
“I don’t want that to happen to you. The program isn’t a bad thing itself- at least I don’t think so, but being forced into it…”
“Mother wouldn’t hesitate, and it would definitely become all she focuses on. Knowing her she’ll see it as more a effective way of gaining fame than Shogi, and might pull me out of the shogi world entirely…” She gripped her wrist. “I’m sorry, I hate talking about this, but Mother really only sees me as a way to live vicariously, to gain the fame she never had… she’s even gone so far as bribing my opponents to take the fall, all to push this narrative she wants to craft.”
“I don’t want to let her use the program to make things worse for you. Me and my friends have got this… event going on over the next month or so, I’ve talked Yusuke into putting his plan on hold until after that, which’ll give us time to think of something to keep you safe.”
“Ren… This Yusuke… I…”
“What’s your mother’s name by the way?”
“Huh? Her name?”
“I… I realized I’ve never asked before, that’s all.”
Hifumi raised an eyebrow at him.
“Mitsuyo. Mitsuyo Togo, but why though?”
“It just helps me think, having a name to put to her rather than just ‘Hifumi’s mother’, y’know?”
“I suppose…?”
“Tell you what, how about we just focus on the match for now? We’ll both have a think about what to do to keep you safe, and discuss it next time.”
“…Yes, let’s shelve it for now, I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”
“Oh, and since Makoto is really smart too, I might ask her for advice too, do I have your permission to talk about it with her?”
“I don’t want my personal problems spreading… but I suppose if you trust her so much, then I can too.”
“Thank you Hifumi. Now, let’s get back to the match- I’ve got some new moves in mind I want to try.”
“Oh, you think you’ve invented new Shogi strategies?”
“We’re about to find out, I don’t know if they already have real names, but I’m gonna see if ‘round trip’ and ‘stinger’ are at all effective.”
“Haha, maybe I should start naming my strategies too, that sounds like fun. I think I’ll call this next one ‘judgement cut’.”
“How can you ‘cut’ something in Shogi?”
“Have a little imagination Ren, it makes this much more fun.”
“Right, of course.”
Chapter 23: Not his proudest moment
Summary:
Back in the desert
Chapter Text
“Thank god we appeared closer to the pyramid this time…”
“You said it Ann, I’m not sure I can endure the hell of the Monavan in the desert a second time…”
“Codenames Fox.”
“Apologies Mona.” Yusuke looked over to Makoto.
“…What?” Makoto wasn’t sure what to think of his lasting gaze.
“It’s nothing really, I was just wondering if it was possible to get a tan from the metaverse… although, given you’ve been naked all summer, it’s a wonder you don’t appear to have tanned at all, you’re just as pale as ever.”
Ren pulled Yusuke aside.
“’Fair-skinned’” He hissed at him. “Call her ‘as fair-skinned as ever’, you don’t just go ahead and call girls pale man.”
“Don’t those mean the same thing?”
“Connotations! Same reason you NEVER call a girl ‘skinny’, she’s always ‘slim’.”
Even Yusuke found it rather questionable that Ren was acting like an expert on girls after having a girlfriend for just a week, but he had to admit that still made him more experienced than himself, so he just nodded, then returned back to Makoto, who was giving them both a rather annoyed look.
“After discussion, we have concluded that you are as fair-skinned as ever Queen, rather than pale, I hope this is more pleasing to you.”
Ren facepalmed, Ann rubbed her forehead in embarrassment, and Makoto just sighed.
“Yeah… thanks Fox…”
“Let’s just head inside, okay?” Ren began walking to the entrance without even waiting for the others, not wanting Makoto to see his face just yet.
The rest of the group followed close behind, and once again were immensely relieved to feel the inexplicable air conditioning of the inside of the pyramid. However they couldn't relax just yet, as they had spotted Futaba’s shadow waiting for them.
“You’re back…” Glowing yellow eyes, staring at them unblinkingly were truly an unsettling sight for the thieves, even through oversized glasses and attached to what would otherwise be a very cute (and very slight) girl like Futaba.
“So, you gonna let us pass this time?” Ryuji was still salty over the boulder chase, not that the others could really blame him.
“I’ll help you proceed, but first you must do something for me.”
“This whole thing is for you…” Ryuji grumbled, earning an elbow from Ren, who stepped forward himself.
“What do you need Futaba?”
“A thief stole something very important to me, and fled to the nearby town. Get it back for me.”
“We have to go back outside…”
“Quiet Fox. What did they steal?”
“Something important…”
“What did they look like?”
“…”
“Can you give us literally anything to go on?”
“…Look, a UFO…”
Shadow Futaba pointed up and behind the group, but they weren’t falling for it, all eyes remained squarely on her. She waited awkwardly for a few seconds, before fading away without any fanfare.
“This is going to be a huge pain in the ass…”
“This Futaba cannot be trusted.” Yusuke said. “I checked and there was no UFO to be seen, she tricked us!”
“You actually looked?” Makoto shook her head. “I don’t feel great about this either, but given that the staircase we went up last time is closed off, we don’t have any other leads other than this supposed thief in town…”
“Queen’s right, let’s just head back out and see if we can find this ‘important item’.”
The group groaned, having to head back out after enjoying the cool for all of 30 seconds before being forced back outside.
“So where is this town?”
“I can see it just over there, shouldn’t be more than a couple minutes in the Monavan.”
“What did we do to deserve this?”
Needless to say, no one was happy about another ride in the world’s shittiest sauna- least of all Morgana himself. Makoto had an idea however, albeit a fairly selfish one:
“Maybe me and Joker could go on ahead if we use Johanna?”
“Huh? Why you two?”
“Well I’m the only one who can drive Johanna, and Joker is the leader. This way there’s two fewer sources of body heat in the van.”
Ann groaned.
“Don’t pretend you’re doing us a favor… but sure, whatever. You two go on ahead, we’ll be right behind you.” She slapped Ren on the shoulder as she passed him. “Lucky you Joker, you get to snuggle with your GF for a bit. Don’t do anything pervy to her, alright?”
“Come on, give me some credit Panther.”
“Relax, I’m just teasing you.”
Ann and the others all begrudgingly climbed inside the Monavan and quickly departed, just wanting to get the hell over with as soon as possible. Makoto summoned Johanna beneath her, and revved a couple times for good measure.
“Alright Joker, get on the back.”
“Um…”
“What’s wrong?”
They had only been an official couple for a short time, they hadn’t even kissed yet. Now, if things were normal, climbing on the back of her bike and holding onto her wouldn’t be that big a deal. But they had long since abandoned ‘normal’, even putting aside all the metaverse and superpower nonsense, Makoto was still effectively naked- only her limbs covered by her Queen outfit, which meant he had an unobstructed view of her asshole as she leant into Johanna. He had never deliberately touched her inappropriately, just because she was nude didn’t mean she was any more open to that, but he realized there was probably no way he could climb aboard- let alone hold onto her without touching a lot of bare skin.
“Joker?”
“I um… are you sure this is fine?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Oh come on Makoto, don’t make me have to spell it out…”
Makoto looked at Ren, eyes averted, blush spread across his cheeks. She sighed, she understood his hesitation, frankly she was thinking the same thing, and she’d be lying if she was 100% comfortable herself with the prospect of having him press up against her- not because the idea was unpleasant, but it would undeniably be awkward. Memories of having him thrust against her on that crowded train ride, pressing her against the glass flashed through her mind. To call that uncomfortable would be an understatement. But things were different now, they were a couple, boyfriend and girlfriend, surely physical contact was a good thing sometimes? Granted this was rather a step up from holding hands like they’ve done before, surely the proper next step was just hugging or something? Though Ren had been reluctant to do that too; he’d gotten pretty shameless about looking at her, but actually touching her felt like he was doing something wrong. Makoto realized he must have been feeling this way, and on some level it actually saddened her; while her nudity seemed like it had become normal to him, whenever physical contact came into question it was like he was scared to approach her at all.
She sighed, and smiled at him with newfound resolve.
“Codenames Joker. And it’s fine, you can get on, I don’t mind the contact in this context.”
“But Queen—”
“I said it’s fine. Get on.” She decided the best approach right now was to just rip off the bandaid, to show him that he could touch her and the world wouldn’t end, that she wouldn’t suddenly turn on him because of it. At least, this kind of physical contact, she trusted he wasn’t the type to get carried away, but would reprimand him if he did.
Ren nervously approached Johanna, trying to figure out the least-inappropriate way to climb aboard. He awkwardly hobbled aboard from the side, as close to the back as he could get, trying to find a part of the smooth surface to grip onto.
“Joker, for the third time- it’s fine. You’re going to have to hold onto me, otherwise you could fall off.”
“I might be able to balance, I am pretty good you know?”
Ren tried to lighten the mood with a dumb joke, but regretted it when he realized she was actually starting to get pretty annoyed.
‘Dammit… I’m an idiot, this is awkward for her too and I’m making her be the only one to actually push us forward.’
“Sorry Queen, I’m going to start coming closer, okay? Just tell me when to stop.”
“S-sure…”
He slid forward slightly, close enough to reach out and grab her shoulders (taking care to avoid the spikes).
“My waist Joker…”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
He had to slide a little closer to reach, but he held onto her waist with his hands.
“Should I get closer?”
She nodded.
“Okay, I’ll just keep going until you tell me to stop.”
She nodded again.
“Be sure to tell me alright, or just, make a noise or something.”
“Just hurry up…”
He continued shuffling forward, close enough to actually wrap his arms around her waist. He paused a moment, to give Makoto a chance to tell him to stop- but she didn’t. He moved closer still, they were now but a few inches apart, and yet she still didn’t say anything, just kept waiting patiently.
‘Am I actually supposed to press up against her right now? Surely not? But she still hasn’t said anything… Goddammit, I’m going to have to take a leap of faith right now aren’t I? If I’m wrong I’ll apologize, I just really… REALLY hope she doesn’t start hating me.’
He closed the gap as quickly as he could, before his nerves could get in the way again; perhaps too quickly- there was now no gap at all, in an instant he had gone from bike passenger to the big spoon.
“Ah…”
“S-sorry Makot—I mean Queen. Is this too close?”
“No, it’s fine.” Makoto fought back her own blush, this was very different to the train. Here she wasn’t being crushed against a wall against both their wills, but instead pressing their bodies together of their own volition. “You’re warm…”
“Sorry, it’s already hot enough out here, huh?” He laughed awkwardly.
“It’s… kinda nice…”
“Queen?”
“L-Let’s get moving!” Without any further warning, Makoto revved up Johanna and sped off to catch up with the Monavan, Ren instinctively clinging even tighter at the sudden shift; she wasn’t wholly sure why, but she rather enjoyed the feel of him clinging to her for dear life like this, his stylish thief outfit pressing against her bare back.
Riding Johanna did pose one more problem though…
“Uh… Joker? You’re…”
“I’m really sorry… it’s the vibrations, I can’t really help it.” The vibrations were indeed the main cause of Ren inadvertently poking Makoto, but they both suspected that clinging so tightly to the slightly sweaty naked girl might have something to do with it as well- just a hunch they both had.
“Ha… I guess Johanna does shake a lot, huh?” She pretended she never really noticed it before, but ever since becoming a Phantom Thief, she became very aware of how powerful Johanna’s vibrations were, especially when she leant forward like this. It probably wasn’t the healthiest way to ride a bike, but she found herself instinctively shifting her position to try and press her clit against the seat (or lack thereof). It was only logical that it might have a similar effect on Ren. She wondered if bikes in the real world also had this effect or if it was just Johanna.
Admittedly she hadn’t thought of this aspect of the ride when she invited Ren on, but part of her wanted to enjoy this. Ren wanted to shift back to make things less awkward, but now that they were moving at speed, his instinct to hold on as tightly as possible overrode his desire to give his girlfriend some space. They had just passed the Monavan, he hoped the rest of the crew were too busy dealing with the heat to pay too much attention to the couple, Ren felt rather embarrassed right now, and could only hope Makoto was as relaxed about this as she seemed.
But to his horror, that wasn’t the only thing he felt.
“Uh, how much longer?”
“About a minute or two, why?”
“Oh god… uh, is it possible to speed up?”
“I don’t think so, is something wrong Joker?”
“I swear it’s just the vibrations.”
“Joker what… oh god…” realization struck Makoto. “Ren, are you going to…?”
He was.
“I’m sorry…”
He did.
It was hard to notice in the intense heat of the desert, but she felt the area around her lower back get just a little bit warmer.
“Oh… oh… um…”
His face was buried in the back of her head, as if trying to use her hair to hide.
“Let’s find somewhere discreet to stop before the others catch up, okay?”
Ren nodded silently.
~ ~ ~
Makoto politely faced away from Ren as he cleaned up as best he could using a handkerchief and a water bottle. Neither really knew what to say; Makoto wanted to bring the two of them closer together with physical contact, but admittedly she never accounted for the possibility of him cumming between her buttocks like that- it was all contained in his underwear of course, it wasn’t as if she got dirty, but it was obvious Ren was very deeply ashamed right now. Both had deep red faces, and the clean up continued in silence. At least until Makoto suddenly laughed, she tried to stifle it, but Ren could still hear her. She peeked behind her, Ren had removed the lower part of his outfit to make cleaning easier, but she couldn’t bring herself to be flustered over something like that with everything else that just happened.
“Don’t worry Ren, I promise I’m not laughing at you.”
“…I know you’re not the type to lie Makoto, but I have a hard time believing that…”
“No I’m serious, I just find it funny how we’ve done one of the big relationship ‘firsts’ out of order.”
“…What?”
“I thought maybe this only happened in movies, but we just had a ‘I swear, this has never happened to me before’ moment, didn’t we?”
Ren didn’t turn to face her, he kept staring forward, down at the ground in front of him.
“…ha… haha… HAHAHAHA! I guess you’re right huh?”
“I guess it’s better that it happens now rather than when we actually… y’know… try doing that?”
“I guess… it’s a pretty shitty silver lining, but I guess I’ll take it. I’ll do better during the real thing, I promise.”
“When studying something new, it’s only natural to make mistakes sometimes… not that this was even remotely close to that.”
“So… does this mean you’d be open to the idea of… that?”
Makoto turned away once more.
“I mean… in good time… we both have those kinds of feelings, right?”
“…Yeah…” He smiled weakly. “Thank you Makoto…” He had just about cleaned up, or at least as much as he was able to do, thankfully his outfit was black, and a thick enough material that no one would notice- worst case scenario he’d tell the others it was sweat.
“It’s fine, I think we can survive a little awkwardness from time to time, huh?”
Ren finished getting dressed again, and approached her from behind.
“Queen?”
She turned around, and immediately felt his lips on her forehead.
“Let’s meet up with the others and find that thief, alright?”
“Ren! You just—”
“Codenames Queen.” He walked past her, smug smirk on his face, leaving her no choice but to follow just behind him.
‘Seriously? How am I the one coming out of this situation flustered? That’s hardly fair, is it?’ she sighed. ‘You can be a jerk sometimes Ren…’
~ ~ ~
The Phantom Thieves returned to the pyramid, having recovered the ‘important item’, a curious sheet of parchment, and showed it to Futaba’s shadow.
“You’ve returned.” She continued to speak in that creepy, emotionless tone that made her sound truly dead inside. “UwU what’s this?”
“We got your thing back, now will you help us proceed?”
“Keep it.”
“HUH?!” The others were starting to get just as sick of her shit as Ryuji was, but he was still the one to actually vocalize it. “After all we went through to get it?”
“It’s a map, it’ll help you, I don’t need it.”
Ren sighed.
“Okay, whatever, I guess this is a step forwards.” He unfolded the map. “So where do we go first?”
“Down.”
“What?”
“Have a nice trip…”
“Futaba what are you—”
“See you next fall.”
The floor suddenly opened up beneath them, everyone falling into the inky blackness below, except for Futaba herself, who just floated in place and was soon out of sight for the thieves. The good news was that due to the strength imbued into them by the metaverse the fall wasn’t at all damaging for anyone, the bad news was they had landed into a sand pit that was threatening to swallow them all. There was much inelegant flailing, but everyone put everything they had into swimming to safety, Ren’s long coat didn’t make things any easier, but they all managed to climb to safety, and collapsed onto the floor desperately panting for breath.
“I’m so fucking sick of her!”
“Ryuji, she’s not doing it on pur—”
He climbed to his feet and screamed up at the ceiling.
“Listen Futaba! You wanna be difficult? Fine- bring it on! Use whatever tricks you want, we’ll be ready for them next time! We’re gonna save you and there’s nothing you can do to stop us- you hear me?! No more Mr Nice Skull!”
Ren put a hand on his shoulder.
“Not quite how I would have worded it, but good point well made nonetheless.”
Makoto nodded, having regained her own breath and determination.
“Right, she might not be able to control her instinct to push others away, but I guess that just means we have to be tougher.”
“Now that- I can do.” Ryuji still seemed mad, but there was excitement betrayed in his tone too.
“Alright everyone, let’s start the infiltration proper!”
Chapter 24: The door to her heart
Summary:
Wrapping up the palace
Notes:
So the wonderful ProfessionalDegenerate did some fanart for this series, specifically a scene way back in chapter 6. With their permission I'd like to share it here: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/102237624
Their Makoto model is hella cute.
This is mostly a plot chapter, but I still had fun so hopefully you will too
Chapter Text
The Phantom Thieves finally found themselves at the top of the stairs in Futaba’s palace, right in front of what they could only assume was the final door, a door that just wouldn’t budge no matter how hard they pushed.
“All these stickers… don’t they look familiar?” Makoto asked, running her fingers across said stickers.
“No doubt about it, they’re the same as the ones on Futaba’s bedroom door in the real world.” Ren crossed his arms. “This might be as far as we can go without Futaba’s help, what does everyone—”
“RRRAAGH!” Ryuji let out a mighty cry before smacking the door as hard as he could with his bat, coming worryingly close to Makoto who retreated several steps away. But alas, the blow achieved nothing, the door remained undamaged and unmoved. “Dammit…”
“Ryuji…” Makoto glared at him. “I’m sure you were careful with your aim, but would it have killed you to warn me first?”
“I wanted to take it by surprise.”
“Take the door by surprise?”
“Well I dunno- the metaverse is weird like that sometimes.”
Ren sighed.
“Okay, now that Ryuji’s ‘here’s Johnny’ plan fell through, I’m guessing the only way we’re going to get through this door is for Futaba to let us through the real world equivalent? Everyone cool with meeting up again tomorrow to do that?”
Everyone nodded.
“Cool, we’ll prepare the calling card and hand it to her personally after school tomorrow.”
And with that, the group made their way back down the stairs and out of the palace, all of them regularly looking behind them as they went, fearing another boulder chase.
~ ~ ~
“Futaba, it’s us again.” Makoto lightly knocked on the bedroom door. Sojiro was still busy at the café for a while longer, but they wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, explaining why they snuck into his house again would be an absolute nightmare, so they needed to avoid that confrontation entirely. All they needed was to meet Futaba face to face, though that was easier said than done.
Ren’s phone buzzed, it was Futaba messaging him as Alibaba again, he read it aloud to the group.
“Why are you here?”
“We’re nearly ready to change your heart like you asked, but we can’t go any further without you opening this door.” Makoto was the one to actually try and communicate with Futaba, and she did so in her friendliest- most mother-like tone possible.
While his focus was of course on the very serious situation they were presented with, Ren did enjoy listening to her talk like this; the word ‘Mamakoto’ came to mind, and he had to stop himself chuckling. Ren’s phone buzzed again.
“Why? I didn’t think a change of heart had to be done in person.”
Ann nervously fiddled with her twintails.
“That’s a tricky one to explain.”
“I’m sorry Futaba, but this is a necessary part of the process.” Makoto continued. “We want to help you, but to do that you’re going to have to let us in. You’re just going to have to trust us for a little while.”
They looked back to Ren’s phone for a response, but none came. A long, uncomfortable period of silence passed, and everyone was looking to eachother anxiously. Just as Makoto was about to call out once more, a gentle mechanical clicking could be heard from the door, Futaba had unlocked it. Ren put out an arm to block Ryuji from just bursting through immediately, he meant well but now was definitely not the time to let their impatience drive them and be aggressive.
“Thank you Futaba, we’re coming in now.”
Makoto, as gently as she could, slowly opened the door and led the group inside.
“What a mess…” Yusuke mused aloud. While the others did wish he would have kept such thoughts to himself for now, it wasn’t as if they disagreed. The floor was strewn with random papers, books, and food packaging to the point where they literally couldn’t see the carpet outside of a few easily-missable spots. They did however note that everything on the shelves, such as her plethora of figurines and games were at least kept neat and well-organized, and the incomprehensively elaborate computer set-up was left unobstructed, so it was clear where Futaba’s priorities lie.
“Yup, this is definitely a shut-in’s room…” Ann also couldn’t help but vocalize her thoughts.
“But it’s missing one thing.”
“Morgana?”
“The shut-in, she’s not here.”
“Futaba? You’re still in here right? You don’t need to hide, it’s okay.”
Immediately after Makoto called out a light knocking could be heard from within the walk-in closet, they had found their shut-in. Makoto approached the closet.
“May I come in?”
“N-NO!”
Makoto quickly pulled her hand away, shocked to actually hear the girl speak, as was everyone else.
“I-It’s okay, we just need to give you the calling card for the change of heart to work.”
There was another uncomfortable pause, Futaba wasn’t responding, neither though her voice nor her messages. Ren tentatively reached for the closet handle, only to find it locked.
“Locked from the inside? Do closets do that?”
“There’s usually a way to lock- and more importantly- unlock them from the inside. Lest someone become trapped within.”
“That’s true Yusuke…”
“Han… mrm… gap…”
“What was that Futaba?”
“Could you… I dunno… maybe slide it under the door?”
Ryuji shrugged.
“That might work, I mean we got through the door that was blocking us in the palace.”
Morgana shook his head.
“The point is to reach Futaba’s heart, if she went from hiding in her room to hiding in her closet, that still means we’re unable to access it.”
Yusuke sighed.
“We got through the first door to her heart, but if we were to go back now there would likely only be another blocking our path.”
“Door to my heart?” Futaba mumbled. “What is this Kingdom Hearts bullshit…?”
“I’m sorry Futaba, this must all be very confusing…”
“So… you’re saying that because I’m locking myself away, you can’t get where you need to be in my palace?”
“I uh—” Makoto went wide eyed. “Yeah, exactly that, how do you know about palaces?”
“I… I don’t really. Just a little bit, it’s all cognitive psience, right?”
Ren looked to Morgana for an explanation, but only got a shrug- or the best approximation of a shrug that he could manage in his cat body.
“We’ve not encountered that term before, but yeah- probably.”
Incomprehensible grumbling could be heard, equal parts fear and frustration. Ryuji had been scanning her room in the meanwhile, seeing which figures and games he recognized, but ultimately his eyes were drawn to her computer.
“Hey, she left her internet browser open.”
Judging by the sudden knock from within the closet, Futaba must have flinched pretty harshly just then.
“Wonder what she was looking at.”
“Come on Ryuji.” Ren objected. “We can’t just start snooping through her stuff, that’s not cool.” His objection was pretty weak though, he was honestly curious himself, and had to fight the urge to start touching stuff.
“Don’t worry man, I’m not actually gonna touch anything, I was just looking…” He approached the main monitor. “She’s got a ton of tabs open, can’t even read the names of most of them, I recognize some of the little logos though, I’m not sure from where.”
More thrashing around could be heard within the closet, it was starting to get worrying. Ren couldn’t help himself and tried to see if he recognized the symbols himself.
“These are some pretty obscure forums… one of them is ours, others… wow she reads those kinds of stories huh?”
“Ren?”
“N-nothing… Anyway I see a few subreddits, a couple image boards, wait a sec, is that e62—”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!” Suddenly the closet door burst open, Futaba shoved everyone aside, grabbed her mouse and started rapid fire middle-clicking on every tab before anything else could be said. Once everything was closed except an innocuous-enough YouTube tab she had prepared ahead of time. She breathed a sigh of relief, before freezing once more, and slowly turned around to face the others- still leaning over her computer chair as she did so. “U-um…”
“Where are her pants?”
Ann elbowed Ryuji.
“Not the time!”
Futaba screwed her eyes shut as tight as she could, used her left hand to pull her vest down as far as it would to try and cover her bush, and held her right hand up into the air.
“JUST DO IT ALREADY!”
“H-huh?”
“TAKE MY HEART OR WHATEVER! GET IT OVER WITH!”
Ren smiled sympathetically.
“Oh, we don’t do it right now, we just needed you to come out of the closet, and give you this.” He waved the calling card he was holding.
“Oh… I see…” Still holding down her vest and with her eyes locked onto the floor, Futaba walked past everyone, grabbed the calling card, and got back into the closet, calmly sliding the door shut behind her.
“She just went back inside…” Yusuke tilted his head.
“Still, I think that’s good enough…” Makoto smiled in the direction of the closet. “We’re going to head out now, we just need you to read that card after we leave, okay? We’ll take care of the rest.”
Futaba made a sound that could charitably be interpreted as affirmation, and one-by-one the thieves made their way back outside. Ren was the last to leave.
“Thank you for letting us in Futaba, I promise we won’t let you down. You can trust us.”
She gave no further response, so he left too. She waited at least a minute after she heard her bedroom door close before she peeked out of the closet, making absolutely sure no one was left. She read the card:
“’Futaba Sakura has committed a great sin of drowning in sloth. Thus, we will rob every last bit of those distorted desires.’” She raised an eyebrow. “Huh… weird…”
She dropped the card onto her desk before curling up in her computer chair.
“What a bunch of weirdos…” being alone for so long, she had a habit of thinking out loud. “They’re really not what I expected, but they knew about palaces, so I guess they’re the real deal… why was the cat joining in on the conversation though? They act as if they can understand all the meowing, is that a cognitive psience thing too?” she scratched her hair. “And that nudist girl… it’s totally different seeing her in person compared to all the videos… Kinda wish I got a better look…”
Her phone suddenly buzzed, she wondered if that was them again, she forgot to delete the chat logs this time. She opened up her phone and was very quickly taken off guard.
“What’s this weird app?”
~ ~ ~
“How come her shadow is topless if the real thing is bottomless?”
“Is that really that important Yusuke? The metaverse isn’t 1-to-1 with these things.”
“Ann’s right, and we’ve got more important things than nudity to think about. We should be able to reach Futaba’s treasure now, so let’s move out before the calling card wears off. Is everyone ready?”
A chorus of ayes was heard, admittedly it was a bad idea, as they didn’t need to draw attention to themselves while they were still in Yongen-Jaya’s backstreets, but it seems they got lucky and no one was around right now. Satisfied that everyone was ready to leap into action, Ren pulled out his phone and activated the app.
“It’s showtime!”
~ ~ ~
“So this is what a palace is?” it hadn’t taken Futaba long to start playing with the app that mysteriously appeared on her phone, remembering the discussion of ‘keywords’ she had with the thieves she was also able to figure out how to access her own palace.
Suddenly appearing in the desert next to a massive pyramid had been quite the shock, but in a way that worked in her favor. The initial shock allowed her to approach this as if it were just a dream, paradoxically keeping her calmer than if she had entered completely level-headed.
“So if this is real… and I really do mean ‘if’, those guys must already be in here somewhere, they’re probably waaay ahead of me though… Climbing those stairs counts as my exercise quota for the rest of the year.”
Being a long-time scrawny teenage shut in who lived off of mostly junk food hadn’t prepared her for such physical activity, she already knew that once her adrenaline wore off she’d be beyond exhausted, better make the most of it while it lasts and see what’s further up- she thought to herself.
“Now you look familiar…”
Futaba suddenly spun around, trying to figure out where that voice came from, but saw nothing. She figured this must be her hallucinations again. Took a deep breath to try and calm herself before turning back around and nearly walking right into her doppelganger.
“Boo”
Futaba screamed and fell backwards onto her bare butt. Shadow Futaba maintained her emotionless, piercing glare.
“Get rekted scrub.”
Futaba looked up at the seemingly identical girl in shock.
“You… You’re…” Her shadow stared down at her. “You’re like… my inner cosplayer?”
“…No, what even?”
“I’m not that flat, am I?”
“Flat is justice, you know this.”
“I mean yeah, but…”
“That’s not important, check this shit—”
A huge screen appeared from out of nowhere, depicting the shadow Futaba clinging to her Mother, Wakaba.
Shadow Futaba didn’t even look at it herself, instead continuing to stare down at the baffled girl clambering to her feet.
"I made a powerpoint presentation about how your memories are dumb and cringe.”
“Huh?”
“Mother hated us for taking so much of her time, her life away from what really mattered to her, her cognitive psience research.”
Futaba’s posture sank, and she hung her head in shame.
“Yeah… I was selfish, always wanting her to pay more attention to me.”
The shadow nodded.
“That’s right, except for the fact that it’s wrong.”
“What?”
“Mother was never so cold to us, was she?”
“I…”
“You literally have eidetic memory, look it up.”
Futaba thought back to her time with her mother, and in the span of a few seconds the image shifted to a much friendlier one.
“She was always patient with me, always promising to spend time with me whenever she was able. She might have been busy sometimes, but she was never harsh or cold to me.”
The shadow nodded.
“Mother was based.”
“You can say that again!” Just as quickly as the brightness returned to her eyes, it faded again. “But she still ended up killing herself, at least in part due to all the stress I was causing her… she told me herself.”
Another image appeared, depicting shadow Futaba reaching out as her mother was struck by a vehicle. Shadow Futaba shook her head.
“Fact-checkers say no.”
“What do… no…” the image shifted to a group of men in suits, reading a letter to a distraught shadow Futaba. “She never said that herself… that’s just what those men said when they read that note… the one they said was their suicide note… Are you saying the note was fake?”
“Did it really sound like the kind of thing she’d say?”
“No… she was never that cruel to anyone, especially not me. So why?”
“They wanted to deceive you, to divert the blame.”
“R-right, she didn’t throw herself in front of the car, she fell… but how did they…?”
“Now you’re getting it.” Shadow Futaba slowly began to float away.
“H-hey! Don’t just leave when we’re finally getting somewhere! Where are you going?”
“It’s almost time, but you need to come a little further first.”
“Time for what?”
But the shadow had already faded. For a brief moment Futaba once again felt lost, memories that had haunted her for so long had suddenly been uprooted and tossed aside like they were nothing, but she still didn’t have a conclusion to draw from any of it. Right now any fear of this place, or exhaustion from her exertion was forgotten, she just needed answers. Forcing one foot in front of the other she ran as fast as she was able (which for someone of her level of fitness, really wasn’t very fast at all) towards the top of the palace, up one last fight of stairs and onto the open roof of the pyramid. She quickly spotted a group of strangely dressed teenagers, with one strangely undressed teenager, and what she could only described as a mascot plush toy-looking thing she didn’t recognize. Their eyes were following something in the sky.
The one in the black coat noticed her.
“Futaba? What are you doing here?”
His outburst prompted the others to look at her too. She had no idea what she was supposed to say right now, but the good news was she didn’t have to, as she was bailed out by something. The bad news was that something was…
“FUTABA!”
…huge is what it was. Futaba nearly collapsed when she looked up at the massive winged sphinx, complete with her mother’s face, screaming down at her, eyes locked onto her with purpose.
“Oh don’t worry about that.” Ren approached her, keeping an eye on the beast as he did so. “You wait back inside where it’s safe, we’ve got this handled, it’s cool.”
“THIS IS NOWHERE CLOSE TO ‘COOL’!” Ann screamed, having just run out of bullets in her machine gun, despite the beast’s immense size, it was so high up that only about half her bullets were actually able to reach it, and even those didn’t do as much damage as they would have liked.
Despite the part of her screaming to run and hide back inside, Futaba couldn’t force herself to move, she was frozen to the spot, more terrified than she had ever felt in her life.
“Mother?”
“It’s just your cognition of her!” Makoto stood in front of Futaba, trying to shield her, she wasn’t sure what good it’d do, but felt she had to at least try.
“My what?”
“I know this is all really weird, but the short version is that’s how you see her, but don’t worry, she isn’t the real thing.”
“She’s still real enough to kill us man!” Ryuji shouted.
“YOU KILLED ME FUTABA!”
“She’s not one for subtlety, is she?”
“Not helping Yusuke!”
“No…” Futaba curled up into a ball, clutching the sides of her head. “She’s right… it’s my fault…”
“You dumb bitch I literally just told you that wasn’t the case.”
The group flinched when they suddenly noticed Shadow Futaba standing behind the real Futaba. Futaba began to lift her head to see herself, but was scared back down when her hallucinations came back, all the adults blaming her for Wakaba’s death, now making themselves manifest physically in the metaverse.
“They’re seriously blaming her? Who the fuck does that? That shit can’t be real, right?” Ryuji looked ready to smack every one of the ghostly figures in the head with his bat.
It was a truly strange sensation for Futaba, feeling her own (or rather, her shadow’s) hand on her shoulder.
“I told you, they’re all wrong. Don’t let the cringe wojaks convince you mother wasn’t a based chad.”
Ren leaned over to Makoto.
“A wojak is—”
“I don’t care!”
Futaba gathered all of her resolve, and stood up, the hallucinations quickly faded away as she ignored them- glaring up instead at her mother- her fake mother.
“No, I know it wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t my mother’s either! She loved me, I’m sure of it now! You’re just a big, noisy fake!”
“NNNNGH! AFTER ALL I DID TO RAISE YOU… YOU DARE NEGLECT YOUR MOTHER LIKE THIS?! I AM YOUR MOTHER! THE ONE AND ONLY IN THIS WHOLE, AWFUL WORLD!”
“’Noisy’ is right…” all the shouting was hurting Ren more than the beasts actual blows had.
Futaba was still fearful, but took a step forward regardless.
“No, you’re wrong!”
“THIS IS ALL BECAUSE I HAD YOU… YOU DID THIS… YOU SCREWED UP MY LIFE! ALL YOU DID WAS GET IN THE WAY OF MY RESEARCH! I SHOULD’VE NEVER HAD YOU”
“Cope and seethe.” Shadow Futaba glared up at her, before leaning close to Futaba’s ear. “Aren’t you tired of being nice?” She leaned even closer. “Don’t you just wanna go apeshit?”
Forcing away what little fear she was still feeling, Futaba nodded, and for the first time, her shadow smiled.
“About damn time.”
The others watched in awe as the shadow began to glow brightly as she floated into the air, familiar blue flames engulfing her, nearly blinding everyone. When they opened their eyes once more, she had taken an entirely new form.
“So there was a UFO after all. She didn’t deceive us!”
“Yusuke…” Makoto sighed and shook her head. “Sure, whatever.”
The being that was once Shadow Futaba, from the light bursting forth from it, sprouted several tentacles which gently wrapped themselves around Futaba’s limbs, lifting the rather confused (but strangely excited) girl up inside of it.
“Contract: I am thou, thou art I”
Futaba opened her eyes, and found herself floating in a strange space. It wasn’t what she expected to see after being wrapped in tentacles, but her excitement dwarfed her disappointment, as she poked around she slowly started to inexplicably understand.
“The forbidden wisdom has been revealed. No mysteries… no illusions shall deceive you any longer.”
The voice was very different from the emotionless droning before, it was so… comforting. Futaba felt strength surge through her. Her poking quickly became much more methodical as her understanding continued to rapidly grow.
“It’s like a computer…”
“Futaba!” Makoto cried out.
“I’m okay! I’m getting it!” Determination spread across her face, not that the others could see. “Now please, help me! We gotta waste that big bitch baby using my Mom’s face!”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself!” Ren shifted back into a battle-ready position, the others quickly following his lead.
The sphinx let out another mighty roar, before rapidly swooping up above the group, ready to slam down on them full force.
“Don’t worry guys!” They heard Futaba’s voice. “I’m gonna try something!”
She envisioned a keyboard in front of her, and quickly typed ‘IDDQD’. And in a flash of green light, a shield appeared to protect the thieves, the cognitive Wakaba achieving nothing but damaging her own claws, nearly collapsing and needing to lean on the pyramid for support.
“Holy shit it actually worked!”
“Nice one Futaba! Alright everyone, give her everything you’ve got.”
Ren and the thieves attacks were far more effective now that the sphinx couldn’t dodge or defend itself, but they could already see it recovering, Futaba knew she would have to do something else to finish the job.
“Okay if IDDQD worked, then surely IDKFA will too?”
She typed it out and a ballista materialized behind the group.
“That’s not what that was supposed to do but I’ll take it.” Futaba shrugged.
Cognitive Wakaba had already recovered and regained flight, and was screaming some vitriolic nonsense no one felt the need to pay attention to at this point. Ren ordered Makoto to help Futaba aim the ballista, which she followed without questioning. Everyone else made sure to keep the beast’s focus.
“I just need a little longer.”
“Right.” Makoto nodded, if she was honest she didn’t really know what she was doing over here, Futaba seemed to be aiming just fine by herself, and it did feel slightly lame to be relegated to ‘back-up’ during the climatic moment of the fight, but she supposed she probably shouldn’t be complaining.
“Ready… NOW!” with a very satisfying press of a button, Futaba launched the bolt, piercing the sphinx and grounding it ready for the final assault.
“Flock off featherface!” Ren called as they delivered the finishing blow, and in a few short moments, the beast was no more, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“Nice Bayo reference nerd…” Futaba snickered, though due to the nature of her new Persona, Ren was able to hear her.
“Dante said it first actually, but I guess I can’t refute the latter half of that…”
Makoto put her hand on his shoulder.
“It’s alright Ren, I didn’t really get it, but I thought it was a cool line.”
“Thanks, but why do I feel slightly patronized right now?”
Necronomicon- the Persona formally known as ‘Shadow Futaba’- lowered itself to the ground and disappeared into a warm light, leaving Futaba to gently land on the floor.
“Futaba- your clothes…”
“Huh?” She looked down at herself, before she was just wearing her vest, but now she had this fancy outfit with baggy pants and bright green shoes, it took her a moment to realize her glasses had been replaced by oversized mechanical goggles, and she had some fancy green glowing patterns on her top. “Woah… is this totally skin tight or what? Actually no- oh shit it’s straight up bodypaint! How did they get it to glow? Wait, more importantly- when did I change clothes at all?”
“It’s a side effect of you awakening your Persona.” Morgana approached Futaba. “Though I’ve never seen it done like that before…”
Futaba stared at him.
“How come you have a teddy bear in your crew?”
“Teddy bear?” Morgana’s shoulders dropped. “I can’t decided whether that’s better or worse than ‘cat’.”
“That’s Mona.” Ren put his hand on her shoulder, but pulled back when he realized he was touching skin, it really was just paint, a closer look at her chest confirmed it. “M-Mona is one of our founding members, he’s pretty cool.”
“Only ‘pretty’ cool, huh?”
“Dammit Mona, I’m trying to stand up for you here.”
Futaba had stopped listening, she was still studying her top- or lack thereof- as if endlessly fascinated by her own breasts.
“The cosplayer me was definitely flatter, I’m sure of it.”
“Futaba?” Makoto tilted her head in confusion.
Ann chuckled.
“I guess Makoto isn’t the only one nude persona user anymore? Well… toplessness counts I guess.”
“Glowy-toplessness.” Futaba smiled. “Nyeheheh, I’m about to Freikugal some bitches.”
“A-anyway, we should probably get out of here, palaces aren’t built to have their actual owners be inside them, not to mention the fact that her shadow evolved into a Persona, things are going to start collapsing any minute.”
“The teddy bear is right, let’s get out of here!” Ryuji smirked at Morgana in a really annoying way, but Makoto cut the not-cat off before he could retort.
“We’ll help you get out safely Futaba-chan.”
“Nah it’s cool, I know how the app works.” She yawned, either unaware of or not caring about the danger they were in “I’m sleepy, I’ll talk to you guys later I guess. Oh- and one more thing- I was bottomless in my room just because it’s comfy that way, you didn’t catch me flicking the bean or anything weird- okay?”
Ren and the others stared in silence for a moment.
“Okay.” He said flatly.
She waved without looking back as she made her way back down the stairs and to where she originally entered, before quickly deciding she’d get their faster if she rode Necronomicon.
“Well this was a weird fucking day…”
~ ~ ~
“Y’know, it’d be nice if we could just casually walk out of a palace after stealing the treasure, rather than run for our lives just barely escaping certain death, just once- it’d be a nice change of pace.”
“Quit whining Ryuji.” Ann was panting for breath herself. “Though thinking about it, we never found the treasure did we? What even was it?”
“More than likely, the treasure was Futaba herself.”
“So…” Ren had such a punchable smirk on his face right now. “…you’re saying that- unironically- the real treasure was the friend we made along the way?”
“I fucking hate you Ren, I’m going home.” Ann turned around to leave before Makoto stopped her.
“Wait a second, what about Futaba?”
Ren nodded, suddenly serious again.
“Right, we should check on her.”
“What’s all that racket?” the thieves were stood outside Leblanc, and heard Sojiro’s voice as he came out to see them. “What are you kids doing here?”
“O-oh, we just wanted to stop by to get some coffee, and we uh- just got caught up in a conversation.”
“You’re a bit of a strange one Niijima-san, but sure- come on in, all you standing out here is gonna drive away my customers.”
“You guys go on ahead, me and Ren are gonna stop by the store real quick.”
Ren nodded in understanding, further confusing Sojiro, but he decided it wasn’t worth worrying about, he was too tired to care what a bunch of dorks like them did for fun.
After Sojiro and the others went inside, Ren and Makoto quickly made their way back to Sojiro’s house, finding an unconscious Futaba outside. Makoto ran to her side.
“Oh thank god she made it back, but still, she’s unconscious.”
“You get her inside, I know a doctor around here, I’ll go fetch her real quick…” Ren paused in thought for a moment. “Ahh, I better let Boss know too, it’s not fair to leave him out of it if Futaba is involved, we’ll just say we found her out here and leave out all the other stuff.”
“Agreed.” Makoto nodded, as she scooped up Futaba, and carried her back inside. Her breathing seemed fine, it seemed she was just sleeping, she tried not to worry too much for now.
“Another persona-user huh…?” she mused aloud as she laid Futaba back on her bed, making sure to cover up her lower half with her blanket, just to be safe. “What a weird day this was…”
Chapter 25: The other Queen
Summary:
The royals finally meet
Notes:
I've been looking forward to this chapter for a while now ^^
Best girlsAlso ProfessionalDegenerate did more fanart- check it out: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/102311374
Chapter Text
“Another palace down, another anxiety filled couple of weeks hoping everything sorts itself out before the deadline. Yay…”
“Sorry Ann, Futaba is our only hope for dealing with Medjed, we’ll just have to wait until she wakes back up.”
“She can’t possibly sleep for 2 weeks though, surely?”
“Well awakening to your Persona is pretty exhausting for a normal person, it’s probably even worse for someone like her who probably doesn’t exercise. Boss says she’ll be fine, so all we can do is wait and hope.”
The mood in Ren’s room was pretty mixed, there was obvious relief from them putting one more palace behind them and ensuring Futaba’s safety, but now that everything was out of their hands, they had nothing to do but worry.
“Well, if our part in this is done, we might as well simply return to our regular lives for a while.” Yusuke stood from his seat. “Now I can focus on trying to bring the program to Kosei.”
“Hang on.” Ren sat up straight in a hurry, as if fearing Yusuke would run off. “I know everyone is still tired, but do you mind if we do one more mementos trip first?”
“For real?” Ann groaned. “I know we have targets there, and of course I wanna help them, but are they really so urgent?”
“In fairness we’ve had these targets for a while, they’ve all been on hold due to us needing to focus on Futaba. It’ll be uh… much easier for us to relax if we don’t leave any outstanding targets, y’know?”
Ren still hadn’t told the others the real reason he was rushing them so much, except Makoto of course, and while she admittedly wanted to rest too, she agreed that it wasn’t right to put it off any longer, and that it needed to be done before Yusuke started his campaign.
“Ren’s right, we’ve only got a couple targets anyway, it shouldn’t take us very long at all.”
“Thanks Mako. I’d like to get it done today, but of course I won’t force everyone if they really are too tired.” The rest of the group- with varying levels of enthusiasm- all agreed, and decided to just get this over with today. “Thank you everyone, the first target I want to bring to the table is a ‘Mitsuyo Togo’…”
~ ~ ~
One week later, Ren was spending the evening helping Sojiro in Leblanc, taking advantage of the fact that the café was empty apart from them and Ren’s special guest Makoto, who was a very willing test subject for Ren’s coffee; he was nowhere near Sojiro’s level yet of course, but she had to admit it was still damn good.
Despite the lack of business, Sojiro was in a rather good mood, rather enjoying watching the young couple enjoy their time together, nearly forgetting that he was still here. Polite conversation continued on until Ren’s other guest for the evening finally walked in through the door.
“Hey Hifumi.” Ren called out. “Did you have any trouble finding the place?”
“No trouble at all.” Hifumi was carrying a large bag containing her shogi set under her arm. “Your directions were very detailed after all.” She turned to Sojiro and bowed. “I’m guessing you’re ‘Boss’? I’m Hifumi Togo, Ren-kun’s friend and shogi teacher, I’m not imposing by coming here, am I?”
“Not at all young lady.” Sojiro eyed Hifumi, then Makoto, he wasn’t sure how someone as scruffy-looking at Ren managed to attract beautiful girls like this, but he could only hope it didn’t go to his head. “The kid told me about you ahead of time, you can practice here anytime you like. The name’s Sojiro, but you can call me Boss if you really want to.”
Hifumi bowed again and rested her bag on one of the free seats, before smiling at the other girl.
“And you must be Makoto Niijima, Ren has told me a lot about you.”
“Has he now?” Makoto raised a curious eyebrow at the somewhat bashful boy. “I hope he didn’t get too carried away.”
“Oh no, not at all. He always has nothing but good things to say about you. I’ve been looking forward to our meeting. Niijima-san.”
“Please, call me Makoto.”
“Makoto-san it is. In that case you can just call me Hifumi.”
Ren sighed in relief, he wasn’t sure why he was nervous about introducing Hifumi to his girlfriend, but he was glad to see it going so smoothly. Sojiro glanced at the time.
“Y’know what? I don’t think my regulars are going to show up today, I’ll just close up early and leave the place to you kids.”
“Are you sure Boss?” Ren looked at him while his hands were still preparing a cup of coffee for Hifumi.
“Just make sure you lock up after they leave. And you girls, if you want coffee or curry just get him to make it for you, he doesn’t mind.”
“I mean… I don’t mind, but shouldn’t it be me making that invitation?”
“I own the beans and ingredients, and you’re my employee, it’s absolutely my right to give the invitation myself.”
“I mean… okay then…” Ren turned to the girls. “If you girls need anything, just let me know- I am at your service.”
“Dork.” Sojiro mumbled as he put on his hat. “Don’t get too carried away you three, I’m not cleaning up any mess you make.”
“Oh we shouldn’t make any mess.” Hifumi shook her head.
“And kid?”
“Hm?”
Sojiro stood beside him and whispered so the girls wouldn’t hear.
“Don’t get carried away yourself now, y’hear? Playing with girl’s hearts will only come back to bite you later on.”
Ren went bright red.
“Dude!” He fought the urge to look directly at the girls. “I’m not doing anything like that, I’m committed to Makoto now.”
“Good.” Sojiro nodded. “Keep it that way.” He headed out the door, waving behind him as he left and closed the door.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing Makoto, he’s just trying to get under my skin.”
Hifumi took the time to quietly admire Makoto’s body, she had seen her plenty in all the pictures and video out there, but seeing her in person was a very different sensation. She also noted how calm both she and everyone else was, not once did her being so casually exposed seem to bother either of the men in the room, nor the nudist herself, there was truly something about that that felt very… freeing. That said, she figured she should probably stop staring before the others noticed.
“Makoto-san, I hope I’m not being irritating, but I would like to know more about your… lifestyle choice…”
“Hm? Sure, I don’t mind answering any questions you may have, it’s not irritating at all. Stuff like that only really occasionally got annoying back early on when I was really being mobbed with the same questions over and over nonstop. But it’s been a while since I’ve really had a discussion about nudism, and my opinions have greatly shifted since then, so maybe it’ll be fun.”
“That’s a relief, there’s much I’m curious about. But before all that, do you play?” She asked as she removed a box from her bag, containing a folding shogi board and some pieces.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had someone to play against, but sure, we can talk as we play.”
“Maybe we should move upstairs? There’s more privacy up there.” Ren suggested, folding away his apron.
“Privacy?” Makoto tilted her head. “I suppose that’s nice, but are you really worried about people looking it and seeing us play Shogi?”
“That’s not the part I’m worried about…” Ren mumbled, barely audible.
“Are you sure we won’t be troubling you up there?”
“It’s totally fine Hifumi, I made sure to clean up ahead of time.”
“That’s not what I was worried about…”
“It’s fine Hifumi-san.” Makoto nodded. “He’s always having friends up there, it’s nothing as intimate as you might be thinking.”
Hifumi found the sight of Ren bashfully rubbing the back of his head and averting his eyes rather amusing.
“Well, it should be fine then, please- lead the way.”
Ren headed up first, carrying both of their coffee mugs (and making a quick scan to make absolutely sure he didn’t leave anything embarrassing or incriminating lying out in the open), followed by Makoto, and finally Hifumi. Following the nudist so closely up the steep stairs Hifumi was treated to quite the sight: Makoto’s wide hips and natural thigh gap meant she was giving their guest a very interesting show, Hifumi had never seen genitals aside from her own and her parent’s when she was little, but seeing one so close now- without the mosaic that she had begun to take for granted given it’s almost universal presence in porn- was a new experience.
Ren’s phone went off, he put down the mugs on the table and pulled it out.
“Anything important?” Makoto asked as she sat down on the couch.
“Nah, just Yusuke giving me an update on his ‘campaign’, apparently he’s even got someone to help him pitch the idea to the student council.” He put his phone away. “That can wait though, I’ll respond to him later.”
Makoto sighed, Ren did have an annoying habit of leaving his friends on read like that, but she supposed it wasn’t a big deal right now, Yusuke wasn’t the type to get annoyed so easily, and was as used to this habit as she was.
Hifumi started setting up the board on the table and sat opposite Makoto.
“Just a heads up Makoto, Hifumi is REALLY good.”
“Please don’t overhype me, I’ve still got a lot of growing to do.”
“I’m quite good myself.” Makoto smirked. “Perhaps not as good as professional like you, but I love strategy games.”
“Then I look forward to seeing your abilities.”
The first game began and played out very casually, Ren noted that Hifumi was going through great effort to restrain her usual habits while playing, instead focusing on measuring Makoto’s skill (which he couldn’t help but notice was already greater than his own) while asking her questions about nudism: how she dealt with the attention (she learned to enjoy it and learned when to put her foot down), how she dealt with the sun (sun block), how it felt to go everywhere barefoot (many interesting and enjoyable sensations, but obviously she had to be careful about where she stepped, though her feet had rapidly grown tougher over her ‘career’), and how she planned to handle the winter (aside from building a resistance to the elements, she really wasn’t sure) and a few other queries.
They were getting along very well, and Ren was content to just watch for now. The first match ended- unsurprisingly- in Hifumi’s victory.
“Ren wasn’t kidding, you are good.”
“You’re quite skilled yourself Makoto-san, I must say- better than I expected. I had to get creative, I enjoyed that very much.”
“Should Ren take my place now? Winner-stays-on?”
“Actually if both of you are okay with it, I’d like to play you again.”
Ren shrugged.
“I’m cool with that, she plays me all the time after all.”
“Hm… I guess I’m okay playing again Hifumi-chan.”
“Excellent, though I hope you don’t mind if I… indulge myself a little this time?”
Makoto wasn’t sure how to interpret that, she looked to Ren for guidance, but he shrugged.
“Hifumi has a… unique approach to shogi, but it’s really very enjoyable once you get used to it.”
Hifumi chuckled, a light blush on her cheeks.
“I suppose I can seem rather queer to others sometimes, but I hope I don’t bother you too much, please- if I do bother you, you can simply tell me and I’ll dial it back.”
Makoto was still unsure of what to think, but just nodded. But both she and Ren were taken aback when Hifumi stood up, screwed up her face, and started removing her dress. They both stared wide-eyed as she slid the dress over her head, revealing her dark blue bra and panties. Makoto looked over to Ren again, really hoping for a proper explanation this time, but he shrugged once more.
“This isn’t the ‘unique approach’ I was talking about- this is new.”
“I’m sorry to surprise you two like this.” Hifumi smiled apologetically as she undid her bra. “But I’ve been wanting to try this, and figured this would be a safe place to do this.” She started sliding her panties down her leg. “I’ll still stop if you object.”
“I uh…” Makoto and Ren stared in amazement as she finished undressing, finally adding her socks to the pile on the floor. “I guess it’d be kind of hypocritical of me to get shocked by nudity, but that really was rather sudden.”
Hifumi was a little pale underneath her clothes, so naturally Ren’s eyes were immediately drawn to the surprisingly well-maintained patch of pubic hair on Hifumi’s crotch. Being inexperienced with girls, and views such as this being denied to him by mosaics over the years, this new wave of nudism had really taught Ren to appreciate the differences between different pussies, such as how Makoto’s vulva naturally hung open slightly, but Hifumi’s held closed fairly tight by the looks of it. Though he quickly realized he should stop staring, he didn’t want to risk giving Makoto the wrong idea by looking at other girls- surely she could understand that his wandering eyes weren’t indicative of being unfaithful, but he didn’t want to take the chance.
Hifumi stretched, and look a few inquisitive steps around the room in her new bare state.
“It really does feel rather strange, but it’s actually rather pleasant.”
“I had no idea you were interested in this kind of thing Hifumi…” Ren asked while trying not to stare- and while also trying not to look like he was trying not the stare. "I thought you didn't like the idea."
“When did I say that?”
“Huh? You were always worried about it coming to Kosei and your mother forcing you to sign up, weren’t you?”
“That is correct. She would force me to do it for the sake of publicity and it would distract from my Shogi ambitions.”
“So are you cool with it now or…?”
Hifumi chuckled.
“I’m afraid I have to apologize to you two, my plan was to use today as an experiment.”
“Experiment?”
“Watching Makoto… seeing how she took this fate that had been thrust upon her and make it her own- to truly OWN her body and her nudity, it’s been truly inspiring to witness. And it gave me an idea for dealing with my mother- or rather- it gave me the resolve to stand up to her. When we discussed the matter of your friend- Yusuke- trying to bring the program to Kosei, I began to think of the possibility of signing up. In the past I would have dismissed such a concept as ridiculous, but seeing how strong it made Makoto- putting myself in her position I began to feel strong too. I thought maybe I could finally stand up to mother, and the entering the program under my own volition felt like a perfect symbol of me breaking free from her control, making my body and my life my own again. Today was the final test, I wanted to see if I could get naked in front of others, so I planned to use the two of you as a trial run of sorts. If I chickened out here then I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it for real. The next step was to be helping Yusuke establish the program…”
“Wait a sec.” Ren put up his hand. “So you’re the one Yusuke got to help pitch the program?”
“Well, I was the one who approached him. I told him I was a friend of yours and that you’d told me about his plan. Admittedly my pseudo-celebrity status has really been helping us in our appeal, I hate to point this out, but people don’t get too close to Yusuke, he is a bit strange- as you said.”
“You can say that again…”
“But he’s also a great person, as you also said.” Hifumi laughed to herself. “So the plan was to get the program up and running, I’d sign up and that’d be the big act of rebellion to let mother know she couldn’t control me anymore, but…”
“…But…?”
“But then one day, about a week ago, she suddenly completely changed, no longer was she trying to use me as a way to gain fame and live vicariously, she agreed to stop rigging my matches, and promised to do everything she could to deal with the backlash from the truth being revealed. Such a sudden change of heart, and I was freed- just like that… so my whole plan of rebellion would be kind of pointless at this point…”
“So you don’t have to join the program now.”
“No, I still want to do that. It may no longer be about rebellion, but to me it’s an important symbol of me taking control of my own life. Mother may longer be an obstacle now, in fact she really feels like my ally now, I feel loved again, but I still need- no- I still want to change myself. I won’t let it overshadow my shogi career of course, but I still want to do it. I dunno, maybe this is all silly and irrational, but standing here now, exposed to the both of you, I’m sure of it. I already feel stronger, I don’t even have the urge to cover myself like I thought I would.” Hifumi let out a content sigh, running her hands against her skin, and smiling at Makoto. “You’re quite the inspiration, y’know?”
“I… I am?”
The shock had slowly begun to wear off for Ren, and he found himself chuckling.
“That’s 2 girls you’ve inspired to go nudist now Mako.”
“Are you really sure about this Hifumi-chan?”
“I’m certain Makoto-san. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve done a great job as the first Shujin nudist, you’ve made me feel so strong, and even if it’s no longer necessary now- you gave me the resolve to break free of the chains that have restricted me for so long. I hope to live up to your precedent as I become the first Kosei nudist.”
Makoto bashfully averted her eyes.
“You’re exaggerating, I really haven’t done anything apart from leave clothing behind.”
“You’ve done far more than that, you’re surprisingly modest for someone willing to get naked in public.”
Makoto didn’t know what to say, so just whined out of embarrassment. Hifumi laughed again, before returning to her seat.
“So, how about that second game? I apologize, both once more for using you as a trial run, and ahead of time for my… habits while playing.”
Makoto shook her head and slapped her cheeks.
“R-right, this got rather serious all of a sudden, I’m more than happy to go back to being casual.” She looked back to Hifumi with determination on her face (as well as remnants of her blush still intact- but they decided to ignore that). “I’m ready for our match.”
Hifumi nodded.
“I won’t hold back.” She took a deep breath to get into character…
~ ~ ~
Day 407- The armies of the Golden Dragon Empire continued to march throughout the continent, crushing any who would dare to stand between them and complete dominance over all the lands in the known world. Their campaign was nearing its end, there was but one more nation that had yet to be conquered, their Queen and her most elite forces had been cornered in their own capital.
Towards the back of the Golden Dragon armies, atop a glorious golden platform held aloft by 18 giant muscular men, sat the universally feared Dragon Queen. Glaring at the walled capital from her ornate throne, statues of dragons on either side of her. She slouched, leaning on her fist, crossing her legs and wiggling her bare foot in the direction of the city- as if taunting it.
“It’s only a matter of time now.”
She stood up, and stepped to the edge of the platform, her armies bowing down to her, captivated by the site of her bare body standing proud and tall above them.
“You have done well so far men, this Phantom Queen and her pitiful resistance is all that lies between us and my rightful place as ruler of this world. Crush her the same as all the others, and make me- the one true Queen of this world- proud.”
The crowd roared, the power of the resounding battle cry was felt by all present in the cores of their bodies, but none moreso than the Dragon Queen herself, there was truly no greater feeling. She returned to her throne and watched in amusement as the gates to the capital opened, and from it emerged their opponents, led by the equally nude ‘Phantom Queen’ and her champion.
((Ren, what on earth is going on?))
((Yeah, this is the ‘unique approach’ I was talking about, she likes these roleplays, just play along.))
((Does she always do this?))
((Pretty much, she really likes playing the villain, she’s even more into it than usual now, I guess since we’re not in public anymore. Trust me, it’s much better if you just go along with it, she’ll do most of the heavy lifting.))
((If you say so…))
“So you finally show yourself, Phantom Queen?”
“U-um… yes! It’s about time someone put an end to your reign of terror, your lust for power is bringing the world to ruin!”
((How was that?))
((You’re doing fantastic Mako! Keep it up!))
The Dragon Queen laughed uproariously.
“And you’ll be the one to do it will you? Don’t get too cocky. Your beauty may have won you the heart of your people and your champion—”
“Beauty? Oh um… thank you, I guess”
((Makoto! Stay in character!))
((Oh whoops, sorry))
“I mean, flattery from a power-hungry despot means nothing to me!”
((Better?))
((Better.))
“—but before the day is done, I will crush you and have you and that champion of yours grovelling and worshipping my feet!”
“Wow, really?”
((Ren?))
“I-I mean- you will never tempt me! You’re nothing compared to my one true Queen!”
((Ren, what about what she said was tempting?))
“As I am truly so magnanimous, I shall allow you to make the first move, Phantom Queen. Be sure not to bore me too much.”
“I’ll protect my Kingdom, and save this world, I swear it!”
The phantom Queen ordered the first wave of troops forward to secure more of the battlefield, the Dragon Queen watched curiously as she did the same. It wasn’t long before their forces clashed. Both sides quickly sustained heavy losses.
“Hmm… perhaps you won’t be so easily toppled after all, but you’re still naught but a roadbump on my path to victory!” The Dragon Queen climbed atop her throne, a foot on either armrest, as she began dramatically waving her arms and shouting orders. “Gold generals- fall back! Silver generals, prepare to flank! Lancers- thrust forward! Give them no quarter!”
((Are you sure she’s going to be safe up there? I don’t think these chairs were made to be stood on))
((I’ll be ready to catch her just in case, you just keep playing))
The battle begun to turn in the Dragon Queen’s favor, a maniacal grin spread across her face.
“YES! This is what happens when you challenge the almighty Golden Dragon Empire! Servant, bring me a glass of wine so I might enjoy my imminent victory in style!”
((We don’t have wine, is more coffee okay?))
((Yes, that’d be lovely Ren-kun, thank you.))
((I’ll get one for Makoto too… wait am I playing 2 roles now? Eh, whatever…))
With enemy forces closing in, the Phantom Queen was starting to sweat; defeat was seeming all the more inevitable as time went on.
“Shit! I’m not finished yet!”
“Of course! Keep up your pointless resistance as long as possible! It will only make victory all the sweeter, worm!”
((Here’s the coffee.))
((Thank you, it tastes truly wonderful.))
The Dragon Queen folded her arms and laughed skyward.
“Knights, break through!”
“Oho?”
“Keep pushing, this may be our last stand! Even if I fall here today, I will never kneel to this tyrant!”
The Dragon Queen’s smirk began to crack slightly, but only slightly, she nearly got careless- forgetting to keep track of the enemy knights.
“How foolish, you really are a worthy opponent- Phantom Queen! But it’s over! With this final maneuver I will seal your fate!”
~ ~ ~
Click
“Checkmate.”
“Dammit, you win again Hifumi.”
Hifumi bowed respectfully.
“You did very well, especially toward the end, you managed to exploit a weakness I wasn’t aware of; it may not have been enough to secure victory, but once again I have grown, thank you. You continue to be a source of inspiration- even in Shogi”
“Oh stop it.”
“Makoto is really good, I’ve never been able to challenge you like she did.”
“Ren-kun, the both of you are far too humble. I can imagine you making quite the power couple, but I suppose I should expect that from Phantom Thieves.”
“Wait what?” Makoto went wide eyed, and shot Ren an accusatory glare, but he was just as shocked as she was. “Wh-what makes you say that Hifumi?”
Hifumi chuckled as she began to reset the board.
“I mean come on, it’s rather obvious. My mother had that sudden change of heart, but I never advertised my problem on the phantom thieves forum, the only people who were aware were me and Ren, then he presumably told you. And the timing- Ren had asked for my mother's name very shortly before the change occurred. Either you two are Phantom Thieves, or this is the most improbable coincidence in history.”
Ren was feeling rather foolish, he didn’t think she would figure it out so easily, he was kicking himself for not using alternate means of figuring out Mitsuyo’s name.
“So you knew?”
“REN!”
“I mean, no point hiding it now, right?”
Hifumi nodded.
“Of course I knew, why do you think I called Makoto the ‘Phantom Queen’?”
Both thieves were feeling rather foolish now.
“Please don’t worry, I don’t intend to tell anyone, your secret is safe with me, I swear.”
“Th-thank you, Hifumi-chan.”
“Though I admit I am curious about how you did it, but perhaps I’m better off not knowing?”
“We’d like to keep that secret if it’s okay.”
“Hm, very well. I understand.”
Ren sighed as he stood up from his seat.
“How about I make dinner for everyone? We might have time for one more game afterwards if I start now.”
Makoto and Hifumi exchanged a look, then smiled.
“Sure Ren, that’ll be great. You’re in for a treat Hifumi, the curry here is quite good.”
“Hm, I’ll look forward to it then.”
Ren began to head downstairs, before briefly stopping and facing the girls again.
“Uh, Hifumi?”
“Yes?”
“Do we have to do the feet thing or was that just part of the role play?”
“…”
“…”
“J-just checking, just checking, forget I asked…” He continued heading downstairs and out of sight.
~ ~ ~
“You’re right, that was a treat, but I should probably head home now. I know it’s probably silly to say, considering everything else I’ve said tonight, but I don’t want my mother to worry about me staying out too late.”
“Need us to walk to you the station?”
“No, no need. You two can stay here, I’ve been a third wheel too long.” Hifumi smiled at the couple, sat opposite her in one of the booths downstairs, happily leaning on eachother.
“We should definitely do this again sometime.”
“Agreed.” Makoto smiled at Hifumi again, before looking up to Ren.
“While I do want to keep snuggling, I do have to get up and do the dishes Mako.”
Makoto groaned, seemingly even more upset about the idea than Ren was.
Hifumi giggled
“I’ll take the dishes, don’t worry.”
“Just leave them in the sink, I’ll take care of them before I go to sleep.”
It had been a long day, and the couple were both tempted to just sleep right where they were, but responsibility beckoned.
“Sis is going to be home tonight, so I better head home myself…” Makoto rested her hand on Ren’s leg. “But… mayyybe I could stay just a little bit longer?”
“Oh? If that’s okay with you Mako?”
“Ha.” Hifumi picked up her bag- having already packed away her shogi set inside it. “I better leave before you two get too into it, shouldn’t I?” She walked to the door. “I’ll see you both another time, okay?”
“Later Hifumi-chan.”
“Come by the café anytime.” Ren waved her off. As she stepped outside and disappeared off into the night, Ren leant harder into Makoto.
They weren’t sure exactly why they were feeling so much more affectionate than usual right now, but they found themselves just staring directly at eachother for a while.
“Ren…”
“Mako…”
They expected more a build up to this, that they needed some dramatic event to justify this first, but right now they were just so comfortable, so content, they didn’t care for formality anymore, and couldn’t even tell who had leant forward first, but their lips came into contact, and they kissed.
An indeterminate period of time passed before they broke the kiss, and once again they were staring into eachother’s eyes.
“Wow…”
‘Wow’ is right. That was better than I thought it’d be.”
“No faith in my abilities, huh Makoto?”
“Oh hush you…”
“Wanna try again? Make sure it wasn’t a fluke?”
“Mmm… that sounds pretty good actually.”
They leant in again, but were cut short when the door burst open, the distinctive sound of the bell drawing their attention.
“Hifumi-chan?”
Hifumi didn’t say anything, she just walked past them, and up the stairs to Ren’s room. A minute or so of shuffling passed, and she came back down- only this time she was dressed.
“I’m not in the program yet, so no legal immunity…” She laughed nervously.
“R-right…”
She bowed once more, then once again made to leave.
“That looked like a great kiss by the way.” And she left before they could respond.
The couple sat in awkward silence for a while.
“I really better get home before Sis suspects something…”
“Right… I’ll walk you to the station.”
Chapter 26: Fear, anger, and kitties part 1
Summary:
Feelings aren't always clear...
Notes:
Yup it's that time again, time to split a chapter into 2 since it'd be too long otherwise.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Hurry! Hurry!”
“Hey don’t leave me behind!”
Eiko laughed as she ran behind her friend, splashing through puddles as they approached Shujin’s entrance, rushing so much that she nearly slipped over on the wet and smooth steps leading up to the front doors.
“Ai-chan you bitch! You just ran off leaving me to get soaked.” Eiko stepped into the school, panting.
“Hey it’s your fault for being so slow, besides I thought you nudists loved being able to feel the elements like that, or whatever.”
“I mean summer rain does feel pretty sweet.” Eiko smirked as she ran her hands across her completely drenched skin. “But I don’t want it to mess up my hair.”
“Eiko I think you should quit the whole ‘caressing yourself’ thing, people are staring.”
“Eh whatevs, let them look, it’s not my fault I look damn fine.”
“Onlyfans has really corrupted your brain or summin’”
“You worry too much.” Eiko approached her shoe locker. “See this is why I’m a genius, I kept a towel in here for exactly this situation, I’m always prepared.”
“If you were really a genius you would have remembered to pack your own folding umbrella in your bag.”
“The rain came outta nowhere though! How could I‘ve known?”
Eiko kept drying herself off as best as she could, as she was toweling her breasts she noticed a boy clearly very interested in the process. Eiko snickered.
“Lol! Look at his face! ‘Nerd.exe has stopped working’.”
“Don’t bully him Eiko, you can hardly blame him with the free show you’re giving everyone.”
“I’m not bullying him.” She slapped him on the shoulder, snapping him out of his trance. “Relax, you’re good… uh…?”
“U-u-um… M-Mishima…”
“Kaykay~ You’re good Nishima.”
“No it’s Mi—”
“Though you might want to take care of that before anyone notices. HA!”
“Come on you’re definitely bullying him now.” Ai looked sympathetically at the boy, although she had to try and hold back her own laughter at how he was bending over now.
“Okay maybe a little, but I don’t mean nothing by it.” Having dried herself off, Eiko packed away her towel and made her way into the school proper. “Later Mishimishaky- be sure to subscribe to my Onlyfans.”
Of course, Mishima was already subscribed, but he didn’t feel up to mentioning that out loud, he had things to take care of before class, so hastily left in the opposite direction to Eiko and her friend.
“So when are you joining the program Ai?”
“This again?” She paused. “I dunno, you do make it look kinda fun, but don’t you get harassed and stuff?”
“I mean a little bit sometimes, but the fact that I draw more attention means that people are less likely to actually try anything. So long as you don’t let yourself fall for any sweet talk you’ll be fine… trust me- never fall for sweet talk.”
“Hm... Lemme think about it, okay?”
“’Kay. Me and the nudie prez will support you if you do decide to join up anyway, the world can never have too many hot naked girls.”
“If you say so, do we have to be all girls though? Tell you what, you get a guy to join and then I’ll join myself, okay?”
“We really do need some dudes…”
“How about that weird delinquent transfer student? The one who’s always hanging around the student council president?”
“Eh, I don’t think we’ll get him, I think Mako-chan likes the whole CMNF thing they got going on.”
“Lame, though maybe it’s for the best, I wouldn’t want someone dangerous like him getting creepy with us anyway.”
“Yo lay off, Ren’s a cool dude.”
“Is he?”
“I mean… he’s a dork, but he’s a cool dork, y’know?”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Eiko paused as she noticed something down the hall.
“’Ey-yo. Isn’t that the one girl?”
“You gotta be waay more specific Eiko-chan.”
“The girl who went nudist but quit later.”
“Yoshizawa-san? The gymnast? Oh yeah, she is over there.”
“Imma ask her what’s up.”
“Eiko?”
“I wanna know why she quit, maybe we can get her back on board.”
“If she wanted to quit that’s her own business.”
“I’m just gonna talk to her.”
Leaving her friend behind, Eiko ran up behind Kasumi and tapped her on the shoulder, causing the younger girl to jump.
“H-huh?”
“Yo, wassup Yoshizawa-san?”
“Uh… I’m sorry?”
“Oh right, you don’t know me. The name’s Eiko, we’re both friends with Nudie-pre—I mean Makoto-chan, right?”
“Um…” Kasumi was clearly uncomfortable with this complete stranger acting so familiar with her, a feeling amplified by her shameless nudity. “Me and Makoto-senpai know eachother at least.”
“I’ve seen you hanging out with Ren too though.”
“Oh, Amamiya-kun…” she averted her eyes, before shaking her head and putting on her best ‘friendly face’. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“You were a nudist for a while, weren’t you?”
“I did try it, yes. I decided it wasn’t for me though, so I backed out.”
“Huh, is that it?”
“That’s all it was.”
“For real?”
“Uh… yeah?”
“Not any big problems we could have helped with? You just didn’t gel with it?”
“That you could have helped with? What do you mean?”
Eiko slouched over, defeated.
“Well that’s lame, I was hoping I could convince you to come back, but you’re not really giving me anything to work with. This might be another bust…”
“Um… am I supposed to apologize right now?”
“No… no you’re fine.”
“Well I’ll say I’m sorry anyway. Is that all you wanted to—”
Kasumi suddenly froze mid-sentence, staring behind Eiko- who turned around to see what had spooked her, but only saw Makoto and Ren.
“Heya Nudie-prez!”
Makoto bowed her head lightly.
“Hello again Eiko. Hm? Oh- hello Yoshizawa-san.”
Despite her shock mere moments ago, Kasumi smiled.
“Greetings Niijima-senpai!”
“Hey Kasumi-san, you okay?” Ren raised his own hand in greeting, but Kasumi strangely just averted her eyes.
“Oh… hey Amamiya-kun.”
The sudden awkward atmosphere didn’t go unnoticed by Eiko.
“Everything chill?”
“Hey Kasumi… I’m sorry we haven’t had much time to chat lately, lots of stuff going on, so we’ve really fallen behind on the physical training. No pressure or anything, but I should be able to free up some time for us to work out together some more?” Ren tried his best to seem casual, and while it was true he had been wanting to continue their training, he was really hoping for the opportunity to talk to her about what happened after their push-up contest.
He was expecting Kasumi to be hestitent, what he wasn’t expecting was for her to completely avoid looking at him entirely and take a couple steps back, as if fearful of him.
“N-no Amamiya-kun, it’s totally fine. I don’t think I have much to teach you anyway so you don’t have to worry about our deal at all!”
“Kasumi-san?”
“A-anyway I better go otherwise I’ll be late to… I’ll be late!” Kasumi spun around and bolted down the corridor.
“Oh, hello Kasumi-cha—” she sped right past Haru, who had tried waving to her and froze as the girl disappeared around a corner. “—n… yeah I understand, you must be busy, I suppose there really is no time for me anymore, is there?”
“Okumura-san.” Makoto tried to approach Haru but she too ran off, up the stairs and out of sight, refusing to look at anyone.
Eiko stared at everyone in sequence, completely baffled.
“What the hell was all that? I feel like I just tuned into a soap opera midway through an episode…”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a worried look.
“Yoshizawa-san really was acting strange…”
Ren nodded.
“No kidding, I figured maybe she might still be upset, but you saw her eyes too right?”
“I did… why did she look so genuinely scared of you?”
Eiko scratched her head.
“Do you three have a history then? Does she maybe buy into some of those crazy rumors about Ren?”
“No, I don’t think she does.” Makoto brought her hand to her chin in thought. “She got along with him fine until… that day.”
“That day? There you go making more references to things I’m clueless about. But I guess it’s none of my business huh?”
“I’m sorry Eiko.”
“Nah I’m not mad or anything, honestly I’m just kinda worried you know? You both seem kind of troubled by this.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Ren sighed. “She seemed quite friendly to you Makoto, that’s the bit that confuses me.”
Makoto took a breath and had a look of determination on her face.
“I’ll go see if I can talk to Yoshizawa-san. Ren, do you might going after Haru? She seemed pretty upset.”
He nodded.
“Sure. I’ll do what I can.” Ren whispered into his bag, which responded by meowing at him. A cat jumped out and ran off down the hall.
“We’ll catch up later Eiko!” Makoto called out as she ran after Kasumi.
Ai approached the confused nudist.
“So did you follow any of that?”
“There’s definitely some drama going on…” Eiko shrugged. “Eh whatever, I’ll just have to grill Makoto about it later!”
“You’re something else, you know that?”
~ ~ ~
Ren cautiously opened the door to the roof, and as expected Haru was there, crouched over the planters, mumbling to herself.
“Okumura-san?” He figured he had better announce his presence rather than sneak up on her.
“H-huh? Oh, Amamiya-kun.” Haru smiled- Ren knew it was forced given the circumstances, but it was still pretty convincing. “How are you doing today?”
“Fine, I’m fine…” Ren closed the roof door behind him and leant against the wall. “It’s you I’m worried about.”
“Oh me? There’s nothing at all to worry about, I’m fine.” Haru kept smiling- or rather- she tried to, she faltered slightly under Ren’s lasting gaze. “Honestly, you don’t need to worry.”
“Well that’s unfortunate, turns out I have a habit of worrying when I can clearly tell someone is upset.”
“Hmm…” Haru turned back to her planters. “Makoto is lucky.”
“Haru?”
“Must be nice having people you can rely on.”
Ren paused for a while, before taking a chair that had been left out and sitting down.
“Yeah, yeah it is good to have people like that. I’m trying to be someone like that myself.”
Haru glanced at him, and gave a small smile.
“You really don’t have to listen to me whine.”
“No, I don’t have to. But if you want to talk, I’m willing to listen.”
Haru absentmindedly fiddled with her trowel, pointlessly poking at the soil as she stared of into the middle-distance.
“Kasumi… really pisses me off…”
Ren wasn’t expecting that, but he kept his surprise to himself, and spoke in a calm tone.
“Does she?”
“…No… I’m being unreasonable…”
“Are you?”
“I just… I don’t understand. That day, when she ran off and came back the next day as is nothing had happened… She said to me she wanted us to keep being friends, regardless of what happens, then suddenly it’s as if she just lost interest in me. We talk less and less, and now she doesn’t even acknowledge me, as if we never even met in the first place.” She gripped the trowel harder, stabbing the soil a few times. “I understand that I went in expecting a kind of relationship that was just never going to happen, and that I’m being selfish expecting some kind of gratitude for helping her with her commute… but for her to say we’re friends then just forget about me…”
In rapid sequence- she shot up to her feet, spun around, and threw the trowel into the wall as hard as she could, managing to break it in half.
“Her words didn’t mean a damn thing! I’m so stupid thinking there was something there, when in the end she just left like everyone else!”
Ren watched as her balled up fists shook her a while, before she exhaled, and slowly went to pick up her broken gardening equipment. Her eyes briefly met his, and she was overcome with embarrassment.
“I’m really sorry, I’m not usually like this…”
“I understand.” Ren was honestly shocked by the outburst, but his eyes were sympathetic, which just made Haru feel even more foolish. “It’s okay to get emotional sometimes.”
“No… that wasn’t okay. Lashing out isn’t okay.”
“You didn’t hurt anyone, and I’m pretty sure those things are pretty cheap. You can just tell the teachers it broke while you were using it, I’ll be your witness if you like?”
“Now you’re just being foolish Amamiya-kun…” she returned to her original spot. “But thank you…”
“So… what do you want to do? Do you want to tell Yoshizawa any of this?”
“W-why would I do that?”
“People can’t know how you feel unless you tell them.”
Haru stared for a while, before shaking her head.
“No, definitely not. This is just a bad part of myself, I should just ignore it and move on.”
“Well, I guess that’s an okay option too. You can’t force a friendship after all, she’s probably got a lot going on in her mind too…” Ren stood up and squatted down next to Haru. “Look, this may not mean much, but don’t go thinking you’re alone.”
“Alone?”
“Alone both as in thinking that these feelings of yours are inherently bad. So long as you don’t let them push you to do bad things, I think you’re fine. It’s okay to be angry sometimes… and alone as in the literal sense. Regardless of what happens with Kasumi, you can still call on me or Makoto for support when you need it, if you ever feel like you need someone, know that you can come to us, okay? You did help us out too by helping Kasumi. After all.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ll give you our contact info…”
“No… it’s fine- Makoto already gave me both your numbers.”
“Did she?”
“Yes, she said something very similar to what you said…”
“Ha. That’s good then.”
“I’ll… I’m not sure how you could help if I’m honest, but I appreciate the support nonetheless.” Haru buried her face between her knees. “In the end I’ll just have to go back to him anyway…”
“’Him’?”
“I’ve… I’ve said too much…”
“Are you sure you don’t want to—”
“I’m sorry, I really do appreciate you reaching out like this… but could I have some time alone?”
Ren sighed.
“Of course. Don’t hesitate to call upon us though.”
Haru didn’t say anything else as he left, she just continued to stare at the broken trowel on the ground in front of her as she heard the door close behind her.
“Maybe it’s just what I deserve…”
“Deserve?”
“H-huh?” she spun around. “You’re still here? I heard you leave!”
“I just opened and closed the door. Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to talk about what’s troubling you?”
As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t bring herself to be mad at him, really she was just mad at herself.
“I’m sure. For now at least.”
“I see… if you say so, I’m gonna leave for real this time.”
She made sure to actually watch him leave this time before returning to her lament. She stared at the soil, then the plants, then the sky. Before finally getting up off the floor and turning around…
~ ~ ~
“Yoshizawa-san!”
Kasumi spun around, breathing a sigh of relief when she only saw Makoto behind her.
“Niijima-senpai, are you okay?”
“Really? You’re asking me that?”
“Well, um…”
“Why did you run off?”
“It’s just… Amamiya-kun…”
Makoto waited a while for her to continue, but when it became clear that she wouldn’t, she sighed.
“I’ll be frank with you, I understand if you’re upset about us being a couple…”
“Huh?”
“And I do think I understand how you must be feeling… actually maybe that’s arrogant of me to say- I’m sorry. But what I do understand is that it’s not healthy to just run away from your feelings like that.”
“My feelings? Wait a second Niijima-senpai, do you think I have feelings for Amamiya-kun?”
Makoto stared wide-eyed.
“Do… do you not? Have I really misread this so badly? I thought you had a crush on Ren?”
Kasumi looked legitimately offended.
“What? No, nothing like that at all!”
“But you… huh?”
“I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice person, and you two definitely look happy together. I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, he helped me out a few times in the past, and while none of those were really big deals, it’s still enough for me to say he’s probably a good guy.”
“Then why did you run away from him?”
Kasumi looked to be mentally struggling with something, internally debating whether she should answer or not.
“Niijima-senpai, if I tell you, can you promise me you won’t tell him?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll tell you in confidence, but I don’t want him to know.”
Makoto thought for a moment.
“I… I don’t understand, but okay. I’ll keep it secret, although I will tell him that I made this promise right now, I’m not going to lie to him.”
“I… I suppose that’s good enough…” Kasumi fiddled with her ponytail. “The truth is, that I’m scared around him…”
“Scared? But before you two…” Makoto shook her head. “Look, if this is about those rumors I assure you they’re not true, he’s not a violent or dangerous person at all, you don’t need to be scared of him.”
“No, I’m not scared of him at all.”
“But you just said—”
“I’m scared around him…” She gripped her ponytail. “I guess that doesn’t really make sense, putting it that way… it’s really hard to put into words, but whenever I’m around him I just get this really scary feeling.”
“A feeling?”
“Like, I can’t figure out a rational reason behind it, but it’s like something deep inside me is telling me to get away, that being close to him is too risky, and I’m going to get hurt.”
“What does… what does any of that mean?”
“How to put it…? Have you ever stood at the edge of a cliff? Or else a really steep slope? He’s the cliff in that analogy. I have to stay away for my own safety, otherwise it’ll be very painful to say the least.”
Makoto was rubbing her eyes, trying to comprehend what she was hearing.
“But… why though?”
“I’m sorry Senpai, I’m afraid I don’t have a good answer for that. It’s just a feeling, and I feel like I really need to trust this feeling…”
“So… you ran because you think he’ll hurt you?”
“Not him… I don’t think… If you fall down a cliff it’s not the cliff’s fault, it’s your own, y’know?”
“I see…”
“Although, perhaps running away was too much, I didn’t really think about how that might confuse or upset him. I’ll try to apologize next time I see him, but…”
“But…?”
“Could you be there to support me? To make sure I don’t fall?” She laughed nervously.
Makoto was still giving herself a headache thinking about this, but she at least understood the feelings themselves, so she nodded.
“Sure, I promise you’ll be safe with me.”
“Thank you Senpai!”
“And… I’ll keep your secret, but I think you should probably tell him yourself.”
“I’m… I’m not sure about that, I’ll think about it, but I think it’ll be best if I just keep my distance for the most part.”
“I suppose that’s your choice… One more thing though:”
“Hm?”
“What’s happening with you and Haru?”
“Haru? Oh, Okumura-senpai. She’s nice, but we’re not all that close.”
“You aren’t?”
“Not really, I honestly can’t even remember exactly why we started hanging out. I mean, there’s obviously her helping me commute and such while I was trying out the program, but I can’t remember anything we talked about, it was all rather awkward if I’m honest. I’ve got nothing against her, but… I dunno…” There was an awkward silence for a while. “I’m sorry, it’s hard to put into words, and I can’t think of an analogy this time…”
“I see…”
“Anyway I should be heading to class.” Kasumi began to turn around, but stopped midway before turning back. “Niijima-senpai?”
“Yes?”
“If it’s okay with you, could we try hanging out sometime?
“Oh?”
“I’d like to try talking about it again, and… I dunno, it’s nice having a Senpai to look up to- odd dress sense aside.” She chuckled.
“Sure, we can hang out if you like, you’ve already got my number, right?”
“Yes, from back when I was in the program. Maybe I’ll text you some time?”
“Of course, I’ll be happy to help if you need anything.”
“That makes me happy Senpai.” Kasumi waved as she left. “I’ll see you later!”
Makoto awkwardly waved back until she was out of sight.
“There something very strange about that Yoshizawa-girl…”
~ ~ ~
“Haru said that huh?”
“Yeah, she’s definitely bottling a lot up, some of it came out today which I think is a step forwards, but I’m worried…”
“Same here… I talked to Yoshizawa too, and while I promised to keep the conversation itself secret, she asked to hang out, so I might be able to get to the bottom of what’s bothering her with time.”
“Secret huh? Did I do something to upset her?”
“Nothing like that… it’s just… I can’t really explain it.”
“Well if you promised to keep it secret, I’m not going to make you break that promise.”
“I’m not sure I could explain it even putting that aside…”
“But for Haru… I wanted to ask for a favor from you?”
“A favor? What do you have in mind?”
“I think we should… check back in…”
“Check back…? OH! I see what you mean.”
“Yeah, I imagine the other Haru will give us more insight.”
“Hmm… I’m sure it won’t do any harm to look… should we call the others?”
“I think it’s best if just the two of us went. I sent Morgana off to stay with Ann so we should be fine if we head in by ourselves.”
“…Okay, but only if it’s as safe as last time, any shadows or dangerous cognitions and we flee immediately, okay? Then we can call the others and head back in as a group.”
“Of course, in fact just to be extra safe I’ll text Ann and tell her where we’re going, and to gather the others herself if she doesn’t hear back from us within an hour.”
“Okay, that works… School’s out now, so should we head in right away?”
“Yeah, lets go.”
…
…
“What are those two up to? And what do they mean ‘other Haru’?”
Notes:
Mostly plot this time, and probably next time too, but there will be some fun next chapter too
Chapter 27: Fear, anger, and kitties part 2
Summary:
Back in Haru's palace, a climax in more ways than one.
Notes:
So you know how in the past I've said stuff like "This chapter is a real mixed bag"?
Well this time I REALLY mean it
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“As much as I’m enjoying nudism, the lack of pockets really is a problem in the metaverse.” Makoto said while handing her phone and wallet to Ren for safekeeping. “A bag usually solves my problems but I really don’t think it’s a good idea to take it in with me.”
“We should be fine, I’ve got everything we’ll need in here at least. Speaking of which…”
The couple looked up at what was once the school- both in the real world and the last time they came here.
“It actually looks like a proper venue now.” Makoto’s eyes were drawn to a set of three posters stuck to a board just by the entrance. “Oh my god…”
“Hey you’re up there.” Ren looked at the leftmost poster, depicting what was obviously Makoto posing provocatively, albeit with cat ears and a tail. “It’s Nekoto Niijima!”
“Neko… yes yes, very funny Ren. I guess she—or rather- I am the main attraction here…” Her eyes shifted to the rightmost poster. “Eiko’s here too…”
“Eineko? Meowko? Nah, those don’t really work, I got nothing.”
“I get that we’ve gotten pretty shameless, and Haru sees that, but did we both have to be that lewd?”
“You’re both giving bedroom eyes for sure.”
Makoto sighed.
“Well I guess it’s fine, I don’t mind being looked at in a sexual way so long as that’s not ALL they see me as, and knowing her- I very much doubt Eiko would be offended either. What has me worried is the middle poster…”
“What middle poster?”
“Exactly. I can see remnants of it, but it’s been torn down by the looks of it.”
“I see… Perhaps we should head inside?”
Makoto nodded.
“Right, let’s find Haru.”
The passed through the glass double doors and into a fairly ornate foyer, a few stalls selling souvenirs stood where the shoe lockers once were; things such as collars, leashes, chew toys, muzzles and the like were laid out, with some cognitive students- still wearing overly fancy suits and dresses manning them.
Ren scanned the area.
“We could just try walking straight on through like we belong here, but between me being underdressed, and you being REALLY underdressed, we probably wouldn’t be able to do it without being noticed. Maybe we should buy some tickets over there?”
“I suppose it’s worth a try… worst case scenario we could get the ear headband back out and try to pretend I’m the cognitive version of myself.”
“You’d be okay with that?”
Makoto had a light blush.
“If we had to… I suppose it’d be okay… B-but only if we have to!”
“Right right, we’ll try the counter over there first.”
Already drawing some intrigued gazes, the couple approached the female student behind the counter, who raised her brow at the sight of them.
“Are you looking to… wait a minute- I remember her! Nancy, right?”
“What?”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a confused look, though Ren was the first to realize- or rather- remember what she meant.
“Ah I remember you, we talked to you when we came here last time. Ma—I mean- Nancy and I really enjoyed our last visit, so we just had to come again, y’know?”
Makoto was still confused, but knew better than to say something and risk ruining whatever plan Ren was going for right now. The girl nodded, not being shy about leering at Makoto while she did so.
“Ah yes, I do remember her, she put on quite the show last time.” Makoto was glowing bright red, so was Ren as a matter of fact. “I hope to see a repeat performance.”
“I’m not sure if we’ll go that far…”
“That’s a shame, but I’ll guess we’ll see. She’s still the prettiest pet I’ve seen around here, though that could be because she resembles the student council president so much…”
“Yeah… funny that…”
“I still don’t like that you have no respect for the dress code, I expect better from an owner of such a wonderful pet, but I can overlook it just once more…”
“How kind of you.”
“You can head on right through. The grounds are right through those doors over there.”
“One more thing, do you know where we might find Ha—Lady Okumura?”
“Oh?” The girl raised her eyebrow thoughtfully for a moment. “She is on the premises, but I’m afraid I can’t be more specific than that.”
“I see, thank you anyway.”
Ren bowed to her, Makoto following suit, before they made their way through the doors the girl pointed out earlier. They were back outdoors- technically.
“The gardens are more or less the same as last time, perhaps a little bigger.”
“Hmm…” Makoto pondered. “I suppose the centre of the palace was closer to it’s finished state than the rest, before the rest of it seemed to have the same floor plan as the real school, but now there’s really very little in common with the real thing.”
“I’m still not seeing any shadows, let’s hope it stays that way. Alright, Haru’s shadow is either going to be wandering the gardens, or holed up on the roof. To be honest I think the roof is more likely, but seeing as we’re here already we might as well check out the gardens.”
“There’s a crowd over there, maybe she’s with them?”
Ren jumped a few times to try and see over the crowd, but had no luck.
“Damn, I guess nerdy Japanese men can’t jump…”
“No, I think you’re just unfit.” Makoto chuckled, before trying to jump a few times herself, though she quickly stopped when she noticed Ren’s eyes were locked onto her breasts as she did so. “That’s pretty distracting when you stare like that, you know?”
“Sorry…”
A lightbulb went off in Makoto’s head.
“Lift me up.”
“Huh?”
“Lift me up so I can see. I’m lighter than you.”
“Are you?”
Ren would probably never get used to the patented Niijima glare.
“I mean, yeah of course you are… I was just thinking since muscle and… y’know what? I’mma shut up now, lifting you? Sounds good. Let’s go.”
Ren awkwardly put his hands under Makoto’s arms.
“I meant on your back or shoulders…”
“Oh… okay that makes more sense…” He crouched down to let her climb on. Thankfully the extra strength granted by the metaverse meant he had no problems lifting her up as she sat on his shoulders… no problems related to weight at least, he just had to do everything he could to focus his mind on the task at hand and not the fact that her pussy was pressing into his neck right now. “You uh… see anything?”
“It’s me! Let me down!”
“You?” Ren crouched down (definitely didn’t just buckle from her sudden movement- what gave you that idea?) allowing her to climb off and run towards the crowd, Ren following not too far behind. They pushed their way through the crowd to find a large open space, in the centre of which stood the cognitive Makoto, posing like a model with a confident smirk on her face. “Whoa…”
While the crowd’s faces were a mixture of awe, amusement, and lust, neither Ren nor Makoto noticed any of them, they were as captivated as everyone else as the cognitive Makoto confidently strut around her open space, striking one pose then smoothly transitioning into another to display herself, running her hands along all the curves of her body. It was almost like a dance, and judging by her face she was loving every moment of it. Ren thought the real Makoto was the master of confidence and shamelessness, but her cognitive depiction took it to whole new levels.
“Holy shit…” Ren looked at the real Makoto- or rather he tried to, it really was hard to tear his eyes away from the show. “Nekoto might not be the best name for her, maybe Makonetta would be better at this point.”
Ren was expecting some annoyed retort or at least a roll of the eyes, but Makoto seemed even more entranced than he was, she stood frozen, just drinking in the incredible display. It wasn’t long before Nekoto noticed the two of them staring, she looked briefly surprised, but only briefly, a devious grin spread across her face as she got up from her latest pose and strutted over to Makoto, her arms up behind her head and her tail swishing as she approached.
“H-huh?!” Makoto flinched as she felt Nekoto’s hands on her hips. “What are you—” and she was suddenly cut off when the cognition’s lips locked with her own.
There was a part of Ren- the level-headed conscious part- that said he should probably step in and do something, but he just couldn’t shake himself out of the daze brought on by watching his sexy nudist girlfriend make out with herself, though another part of him- a part he wasn’t proud of- that maybe didn’t want to snap out of it.
Admittedly Makoto was in a similar daze, this was a feeling she had never experienced before. She was relieved that she gave Ren her first kiss not too long ago, but that it had been very romantic and yet also rather casual, it gave her a very warm feeling. This kiss however was much more passionate, and gave her a much hotter feeling, a feeling that got even hotter when she felt Nekoto’s hand between her legs.
Almost as if taking mercy on her, Nekoto pulled away, letting Makoto stumble back a couple steps.
“Ren?” She talked without even looking up at him.
“Uh… yeah Mako?”
“I’ve learned something interesting.”
“Oh?”
“It turns out I’m bisexual…”
“…huh…” Ren stared blankly for a few moments, before laughing. “Ha… what a way to find out, huh?”
Nekoto turned her attention to Ren. She licked her lips and with all the subtlety of a baseball bat to the face she grabbed his crotch, enjoying the shocked yelp he let out. Makoto was still in shock, but she was cognizant enough to at least push herself between her boyfriend and her overly-affectionate copy.
“No you don’t!”
“M-Makoto?”
“Only I get to take Ren’s first time, no one else- not even me!”
A few feelings suddenly shot through Makoto. Firstly she felt a bit foolish saying that rather silly line that just barely made sense given the context. Secondly a deep feeling of embarrassment at having just publicly claimed her intention to take Ren’s virginity, in turn giving her own to him; though it was less the fact that she said that in front of a crowd of cognitions, but more she said it in front of a crowd of cognitions- in front of him. Thirdly she couldn’t deny that Nekoto so brazenly groping both her and Ren had gotten her just a bit excited, and she was considering something really rather extreme right now… She made the mistake of looking down and seeing that- yes- Ren was just as excited as her right now, a fact that really wasn’t hidden at all.
Before she could think any further she once again felt Nekoto’s fingers between her legs from behind, her other hand snaking it’s way up the front of her body. Part of her- the level-headed conscious part- wanted to pull away, but another part of her- a part she wasn’t sure how to feel about… didn’t…
“Wh—AH… why is she so eager?”
Ren just about managed to respond.
“I guess… you are pretty confident, you’ve really learned to love yourself and your body… I guess Haru’s cognition is taking ‘self-love’ very literally?”
Makoto found herself leaning on Ren for support was Nekoto’s fingers worked their magic. After a frankly worrying length of time Ren finally seemed to come to his senses.
“We better get out of here before this gets bad…”
“Um…” Makoto kept moaning as Ren grabbed her hands, the crazy idea she had was now less a nagging voice in the back of her mind, and now more like a giant flashing neon sign with fireworks going off behind it. “I mean… they are just cognitions so…”
“Makoto?”
“OH FUCK IT! REN!”
“Wh-what?”
“Get my wallet out!”
“Uh…”
“Get my fucking wallet out!”
He let go of one of her hands, scrambling to get in his pocket and follow her orders.
“Now open it.” He did so. “The third pocket on the left…”
He reached in and pulled out the item. She had seen his shocked expression before, but never quite as shocked as this, not when he first saw her naked, not even when he caught her masturbating. He was holding a condom, still in its packet. He nearly choked trying to get his next words out.
“Re… I… Are you sure?”
Makoto, breathing heavily, fingers gripping Ren’s shirt, nodded. If it weren’t for him being able to feel her pressing against him so vividly, he would have believed this was just some really strange wet dream he was having. The part of him that thought maybe this wasn’t the best way to have their first time… well it might as well have been dead at this point, both of their minds had passed the point of no return. They were the only real people here, so they could justify it as some rather realistic roleplay… though that was just an excuse, and they both knew it.
Ren scrambled to remove his trousers and put on his condom. The instant he was done Makoto shoved Nekoto off of her and spun around to give Ren easy access. And in once quick thrust—“AAH!”
Just like that, they had both lost their virginities for a rather large audience. A technically imagined audience, but one they could see and hear pretty clearly, and one that was definitely surprised by this turn of events. Breaking her hymen was rather painful, but not as bad as she had once feared- given her limited research, being so lust-drunk right now dulled it, and it quickly made way for pleasure once more.
As he continued to thrust she lifted her head to observe their audience, their very appreciative audience. It was just like the last time she put on a ‘show’ in this palace, except that was tempered by the fear of Ren seeing (which he did) and her wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. Here she entered into this knowing exactly what would happen, and there was no pressure on her to finish quickly, they could both just stop thinking entirely and drown in this depraved act. Nekoto especially seemed to be enjoying the show, and was even pleasuring herself. Being able to see such a lewd fantasy play out from the outside only drove Makoto wilder. She looked around to try and look at Ren, she couldn’t quite get a good look at his face except for in her peripheral vision. His face was a deep red, and was contorted in a way she never would have imagined before, she wondered how her own looked right now.
Given the sudden- but very intense- foreplay that led up to this, Makoto was already nearing orgasm, and was intent on riding it as long as possible. But before she could reach it, she felt her insides get that much warmer- even through the condom, she could tell Ren just came.
“Ren?”
That was quicker than she expected, and than she hoped. She was a little frustrated, but she wasn’t angry or anything, this was their first time, and under very unique circumstances.
“D-don’t worry Ren, it’s— AH!” she was cut off when he suddenly pulled out and quickly replaced his dick with his fingers, rubbing her clit furiously. “Ren you—AAH!” She was cut off once again when she was pulled up so he could lightly chew on her ear- which she had no idea was so sensitive until this exact moment.
“It’s okay Mako, I was worried something like this might happen after the one time in Futaba’s palace, so I did a bit of studying on how to please a woman without having to just rely on my dick.”
“Studying?”
He chuckled.
“I figured, guys are too reliant on their dicks, lesbians please eachother just fine and they don’t have dicks at all. Although, theory only takes me so far, I need some practice too, you don’t mind being my study partner, do you?”
Even in her state, she laughed too.
“Right, we’re study partners. I think we’re both learning a lot right now. But I need you to shut up and make me cum already.”
“As you wish Queen.”
~ ~ ~
“What on earth is this place? What happened to the school? Excuse me!”
“Hm?” The girl behind the counter raised her head. “Oh, Lady Okumura, I’ve not seen you wandering around in a while, nor dressed so casually. Are you well?”
“Lady Okumura?” Haru tilted her head in confusion. “Is this part of some school event I wasn’t told about? Is that why everyone is in fancy dress?”
“I’m not sure what you mean, of course we’d dress appropriately here. Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m… perhaps not, I’m very confused. Why are there so many pet products here? Not to mention those strange posters outside…”
“Hmm… perhaps you’re still not back to your old self, perhaps more rest is needed, you may have come back down too soon.”
“Come back down?”
“Wow you really are out of it, do you want me to escort you back to the roof?”
“Um…” Haru was still completely lost, but given that she had nothing else to go off of (and that being outside gave her this extremely uncomfortable feeling of being watched from somewhere behind the city skyline) she decided to just nod and follow this girl’s lead.
The building looked really expensive, and very well maintained; which is why it was so strange to see a bunch of torn papers in a pile on the floor. They had clearly been pinned to some kind of notice board, but harshly torn down and/ or apart and just left to rot by the wall. She reached down and picked up one that was still mostly intact.
“’Missing: Kasumi Yoshizawa’, what?” She grabbed the girl again. “Excuse me, Kasumi is missing? I saw her just earlier today though?”
The girl’s expression was full of pity.
“Lady Okumura, I’m sorry to tell you this again, but I really don’t think she’s coming back, I thought you had given up when you tore all those posters down…”
“I… but I just got here?”
The girl turned away, shaking her head and mumbling to herself.
“Goodness, she really is unwell, to think it’d have such an effect on her.”
“Hey it’s rude to talk about me as if I’m not even here!”
“Let’s just get you to bed…” and the girl continued walking, leaving Haru no choice but to run after her, but rather than just obediently follow, she blocked off her path.
“Please, just give me a straight answer!”
“My Lady- I—”
“That’s enough, I’ll talk to her.”
Haru’s eyes went wide at the new face, or rather, a very familiar face- her own approaching her and staring deep into her eyes.
The girl looked between the two of them confused, but after a glare from Shadow Haru, she meekly bowed and left the two of them alone. The shadow, hiding half of her face with her fan, eyed Haru curiously.
“Well now, can’t say I ever expected to see you here.”
“You’re… what is going on.”
“I am thou, and thou art I.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Hmm…” Shadow Haru sighed. “I suppose it’s not as easy as that, huh? Fear not, I can answer your questions, come join me on the roof.”
“But—”
“I said I’ll answer your questions, but we can do that over tea.”
~ ~ ~
“So… you’re really me.”
“I am.”
“And this… all this… is the school?”
“It is, but it also isn’t.”
“I really don’t appreciate you being so cryptic, I’m definitely not this indirect.”
“Oh, are you not? Last I checked you were happy to just keep all of your thoughts and feelings to yourself.”
“That’s completely different! You’re being unclear on purpose! I… I have to keep quiet.”
“Do you? So that’s why you get Kasumi escape?”
“’Escape’? You make it sound like I had her imprisoned. I don’t OWN her! I never OWNED her!”
“But you wanted to, right?”
“What?”
“She really was fun to play with.”
“She wasn’t a toy! Or a pet! She was a friend!”
“I’m not saying you weren’t fond of her, that you didn’t want to be good to her. But the truth is you liked the fact that she was scared.”
“That’s awful.”
“That she was always so embarrassed, so uncomfortable, her exposure was pretty exciting.”
“Stop it…”
“The best part was that it made her so reliant on you.”
“I said stop it!”
“And because she was reliant on you, she wouldn’t leave you… or at least that was the plan.”
Haru threw her teacup to the ground, shattering it.
“You shut your damn mouth! Yes I may have thought the idea of a pet was exciting, but I never had thoughts as awful as what you’re saying!”
“Are you really trying to deceive yourself right now? Surely you can see how fruitless that would be?”
“Why are you even saying these things to me?! Is trying to tell me I’m a horrible person really so important? What the hell do you gain from this?! Isn’t it punishment enough? The fact that she left like everyone else and the only one I have left is that… that awful man…”
“No. Neither of us desire that fate that you’ve resigned yourself to.”
Haru curled up in her chair, tears forming in her eyes.
“If I’m really this horrible, then it’s what I deserve…”
“When did I ever say you were horrible?”
“What… WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL OF THAT IF NOT TO TELL ME I’M AWFUL?!”
“I feel you’ve greatly misunderstood me.” Despite all the shouting, Shadow Haru remained very composed, gently sipping her tea until Haru slapped it out of her hand.
“Then tell me what you do mean already! Then I can finally fucking leave!”
Shadow Haru eyed both their broken teacups for a moment, before looking back at Haru herself.
“Whether we’re good or bad really doesn’t matter to me at all. I just want you to be honest.”
“But why?”
“The honest you is much stronger.”
“Stronger?”
“Might makes right. Both in this world, and yours. Morality is subjective, value is subjective, strength is the only truly objective thing that exists. And right now you’re too weak.”
“Weak?”
Shadow Haru eyed the skyline, Haru followed her gaze but saw nothing, but it was the first time since meeting her that she had seen this doppelganger express any emotion at all, and it looked unmistakably fearful.
“We wanted a pet, something to keep chained to us, much like we are chained to him… or rather them. Only difference was, we truly cared about our doll.”
“Who’s ‘them’?”
“Father, and Sugimura.”
Haru had a hard time believing this… freak in an oversized rococo dress was really her, or a reflection of her. While the reality slowly dawned on her over their conversation, the mention of that man’s name was the final nail in the coffin for her; she had never told anyone about him before, always did everything she could to keep him away from her school, the fact that she knew about him and her father’s involvement was enough to make her believe.
Shadow Haru stared into her eyes.
“As it stands, we are but mere puppets. While Kasumi was a fun distraction, and we truly found some happiness with her, it would never last so long as we are chained by them. I need you… no… I need us to wake up and betray our owners.”
A sudden chill shot through Haru’s body, and judging by her posture- the other her felt it too.
“You’re here now, you shouldn’t be here, so the palace is already starting to lose stability. There’s no way he didn’t feel it too, we don’t have long before he gets here.”
“I don’t understand…”
“I can feel them here too… we may need their help, there is strength in numbers. Our strength alone may not be enough…”
“Please, just explain it to me in a way that I can understand.”
Shadow Haru took ahold of her hand and dragged her to the doorway leading back downstairs.
“Once we wake up, you’ll understand everything. But to have any hope of that happening, we need to get to where they are. Please, you have to trust me, don’t make me beg.”
Haru stared into her own eyes. She wiped away her tears and nodded.
“Fine, but I WILL have you explain everything before I leave, don’t you DARE think I’ll let you get away without it.”
The other her smiled.
“There’s but a glimpse of the strength we need. Come.”
~ ~ ~
“Well that got out of hand…”
“I’m really sorry Makoto…”
“Why are you apologizing? We both got carried away… and honestly, I can’t say I regret it.”
“Really?”
“I mean, yeah. Again- they’re just cognitions so who cares?”
“You’re pretty relaxed about this, but I can’t say you’re wrong, so I guess it was fine.”
“We’ll keep it secret though. If anyone asks about our first time just say it was after a romantic candlelit dinner, purely missionary position, in the privacy of our room, under the sheets, and with the light off.”
“Sure. I doubt anyone would believe we lost our v-cards in a threesome with your clone anyway.”
Makoto paused.
“You okay Mako?”
“Why are we here again?”
“We’re… OH FUCK! We were supposed to be looking for Haru’s shadow.”
“We really did get sidetracked…”
Ren did find it amusing how this- the fact that they forgot their objective- was the only part that really embarrassed her.
“Oh look at that, there she is, she’s coming to us. And she brought Haru with her.”
“Oh, that’s handy.”
“…”
“…”
“What the hell? Haru, what are you doing here?”
“I don’t know! I just followed you two afterschool since I heard you talking about Kasumi-chan and me, you did something on your phone and next thing I know I’m outside this weird building.”
“There’s no time to worry about that.” Shadow Haru stepped forward, letting go of Haru’s hand and grabbing the hands of both Ren and Makoto. “You said I could come to you when I needed support, right? Well now’s the time! He’s coming, I can feel him!”
“Him? And what do you mean you can ‘feel’ him?”
“It’s because she’s here.” She pointed to the real Haru. “Having my other self here, it brings me closer to my true form, gives me more awareness. I know what I need to do, but I need your support.”
“Okay.” Makoto lifted her free hand. “Something here, a cognition presumably, poses a threat and you want us to protect you, am I understanding you correctly?”
The shadow nodded.
“Okay. How long do we have?”
“Maybe a minute or two.”
“Jesus, this is rather sudden. But sure, we’ll help you.” A flash of blue flame later, and they were both in their Phantom Thief gear. “I guess that means this is for real, huh? Makoto, take the real Haru back to the real world, text the others, and then come back here. I’ll keep her Shadow safe.”
“’The real world’?” Haru was getting a headache. “This is so much to absorb so quickly…”
“I’m sorry Haru, we’ll fill you in later- no choice but to really- but just come with me, I don’t want to leave Ren alone here too long.”
“No.” Shadow Haru grabbed her counterpart’s arm tightly and yanked her close. “She has to stay. This may be our only chance.”
“Only chance to what?!” Haru managed to jerk herself free. “I might actually be able to help if you just explained yourself! How many times do I have to say that?!”
“To accept yourself.”
“That sort of vagueness doesn’t help at all!”
“There’s nothing vague about it. I meant exactly what I said.”
“Shit, this isn’t going anywhere.” Ren turned to Makoto. “Just go back and call the others.”
“But you—”
“There’s no time to talk this out, I don’t know what the threat is but we can’t risk taking it on alone, especially not while protecting these two. The others should all still be near school and be able to get here quickly. So go!”
Makoto still wasn’t happy about any of this, but knew better than to waste time. Ren handed her her phone and she quickly ran back to the entrance to leave.
“Haru…” Shadow Haru once again approached her other self. “You hate that man, don’t you?”
“That… yes, I despise him.”
“You hate your father too, for forcing him onto you.”
“What?” She shook her head. “No, I love my father!”
“I didn’t say you didn’t. But you also hate him.”
“I don’t…”
“Haru, there’s no more hiding, hiding is a sign of weakness, a weakness we cannot afford now.”
“But I…”
Haru was cut off, and Ren took a defensive stance at the sudden noise coming from near the entrance. It was a sound he wasn’t sure how to describe, like a large object began to fall, but turned to liquid before hitting the ground. That turned out to be not too far from reality, as the doorway from the gardens back to the entrance began to collapse as if made of paper, and from it emerged a strange figure. Nearly two stories tall, completely colorless, arms so long they dragged across the ground, and an almost completely hidden face, just a creepy smile. Its movements were similarly uncanny, as it wobbled and lurched towards them.
“This might be a dumb question Haru but uh… does it look familiar to you at all?”
Haru was petrified, but still managed to shake her head.
“N-no… I’ve never seen anything like it… and yet…”
“You feel a familiarity.” Shadow Haru said. “An awful, repulsive familiarity.”
“What do you…”
“I’ll never forget those hands…”
“Wait…” Haru didn’t understand why, but she was beginning to understand. “Why is he here? Why does he look like this? He’s creepy but not this creepy!”
“Look I’d love to have a long discussion about fucking symbolism and psychoanalysis or whatever, but you two need to get back!” Ren pointed his gun at the creature’s head and fired without hesitation, causing it to briefly flinch back at the impact.. “I don’t give a fuck what you are! I’m gonna send you back to whatever shitty indie horror game you crawled out of!”
Haru’s shadow grabbed her face and forced her to look into her eyes.
“Be honest. You hate your father, don’t you?”
“I… yes… I love him dearly, I really do, but I hate what he’s become, what he’s trying to make me do…”
“And you hate Kasumi, for abandoning you.”
“No… no I can never hate her.”
“Look, Haru.” Ren shouted over to them while making sure to keep the bulk of his focus on the fight. “Trust me when I say going along with what she’s saying is the right play.” He just narrowly dodged a swipe from the creature’s oversized hands. “I know it doesn’t make sense right now, but just trust us, getting mad absolutely works!”
“No.” Haru said firmly, forcing herself to her feet. “I really don’t hate Kasumi, at all.” She looked down at the ground. “It’s myself I hate. For just wanting to use her as a way to give myself validation, to indulge in my selfish pleasures, to distract myself from my awful life outside school. But mostly I hate myself for being a coward, just going along with what those men told me to do without resistance… without even trying to stand up for myself.”
“You were obedient.”
“And I just wanted that obedience from something else. At first I wanted to take advantage of Makoto, then I just used Kasumi as a replacement… Ultimately it’s for the best I was rejected, I would have just hurt them and myself in the end.”
“They’re not the ones you need to hurt.”
Haru shook her head again.
“I don’t need to hurt either of them. Neither hurting Father nor Sugimura will do me any good…” She made eye contact with her shadow again. “What I really need is to just stand up for myself, to stop being an obedient little pet!” She glared at the beast, which even while fighting Ren kept it’s sickening gaze on her. “I don’t need to hurt him. But goddamnit I really REALLY WANT to hurt him!”
“Then why don’t we do just that?”
Haru snatched the fan from her shadow’s hand and threw it as hard as she could at the figure. It bounced off ineffectually, but did distract it long enough for Ren to get a good hit in with his knife, causing it to stagger back, right into a jumping swing of Ryuji’s bat.
“HA! I’ve always wanted to have a cool hero’s entrance like that!”
“You’ve kind of ruined it by lampshading it though Skull.”
“Whatever Panther. Sorry we took so long Joker.”
Ren smirked.
“Nah you’re good, got here quicker than I thought you would actually.”
“Yo why’s she here though?” he said while gesturing towards Haru. “And why’s the other her on fire?”
The others were so distracted by the monster that they didn’t notice the flames around Haru’s shadow until Ryuji pointed them out.
“Is she…?”
“I think she is…”
The shadow sighed contentedly.
“I can’t say I care for all the arguing we did to get here, but I guess it’s better late than never. I was getting tired of this form anyway.” She placed her hands on Haru’s shoulders, who was still staring down the beast as it clambered to its feet. “I am thou, thou art I.”
“Shut up Milady!”
Haru strode forwards, violently yanking Ryuji’s bat right out of his hands, her outfit changing in a flash of blue flames as she did so, before swinging as hard as she could into it’s knees, causing it to buckle, allowing her to follow up with an upward swing to it’s chin, knocking it down entirely where she finished with a downward swing into it’s featureless face… two times… three times… six… twelve… twenty… thirty. The others weren’t feeling brave enough to interrupt, and they were glad this monster seemed to just be a weird shadow-y figure, had it been made of flesh and blood this would have been a very disturbing sight to behold. It now lay dead by Haru’s feet, and had done since swing number 13 or 14, they couldn’t tell for sure.
“O-okay Haru, I think you got him…”
She kept swinging.
“Seriously Haru, you can relax now.”
Swing swing swing.
“You’re being just a little bit scary now Haru…”
“Just now dude?”
“Quiet Skull.”
Ren grabbed the bat just as she was about to launch another strike, she stared at him as if suddenly snapped out of a trance.
“H-huh?”
“You got him, you can calm down now.”
She looked at him in amazement, then down at what used to be the monster, but was now best left undescribed.
“I really…” She started to panic. “Oh god, did I kill Sugimura? That’s going way too far! What have I done? Oh god I’m in so much trouble now…”
“Relax.” Makoto stroked her back. “That was only a cognition, the real Sugimura- whoever that is- is completely fine.”
“Wh-what?”
“There’s a lot we need to fill you in on, but I guess for now, think of this as a dream world, and that thing was just a nightmare you had about this Sugimura person.”
Mona mumbled to himself.
“Well I guess that’s not the worst analogy…”
“I see…” Haru sounded immensely relieved, and just a tiny bit disappointed. She sheepishly handed the bat back to Ryuji. “So… what’s with these outfits?”
Ryuji couldn’t say he was especially happy holding this bat again, he resolved to try and wash it first chance he got. He- like the others- took note of Haru’s new outfit. It was a surprisingly cute look (especially considering what they just witnessed), like a musketeer. He was kind of hoping she’d incorporate some nudity into it like the other girls after Ann, but apart from being very clearly (and evidently) braless she was most certainly fully clothed, though he just had to acknowledge that Makoto and Futaba were the exceptions rather than the rule.
“The outfits are—”
“Actually, I’m more interested in you kitty.”
“Wh-what? I’m not a cat, and I’m certainly not a kitty! That makes me sound like a baby! At least ‘cat’ has some dignity to it.”
The building around them began to shake.
“We’ll explain everything later, first we need to get out of here!” Makoto commanded everyone’s attention.
“At least the exit is right there this time.” Ann said. “Running down that pyramid was hell on my breasts…”
“No kidding…” Makoto remembered the pain very clearly herself. “Come on Haru, we’ve got a long evening ahead of us…”
“Right…” Haru nodded, and calmly followed the others outside and back into the real world. Still completely baffled, and rapidly starting to feel really exhausted (to the point where she had to lean on Ren to avoid falling over), but certainly feeling much stronger than before.
‘That did feel REALLY good…’ she thought to herself. ‘I better not make a habit of it though…’
Notes:
I don't plan on making chapters like this too common, but this is just where the story went.
So we technically got Noir before Oracle. I still plan to hit most of the major story beats, but deviations like this will happen from time to time
Chapter 28: The other school
Summary:
Aftermath of Haru's palace, and Hifumi's proposal
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Haru stared blankly at Ren.
“Are… are you sure?”
“Yes, everything I just told you was the truth.”
She looked at the other thieves, who all nodded, even Makoto.
“Yes, I’m afraid that all really is the case. I obviously can’t verify the part about the dream prison and the man with the long nose, but everything about the app, the metaverse, and the change of heart works 100% how he described it.”
“I see…” Haru restlessly fiddled with her hair. “I suppose given that I’ve really seen this ‘metaverse’, it’d be silly of me to disbelieve you all, but it’s all a lot to absorb.”
“You get used to it.” Ryuji shrugged. “The important part is this other world makes us superheroes and we can change the hearts of bad guys.”
“The bonehead here is really missing the point, but he’s not wrong, just stupid.”
“’Eff off cat, can’t I say one thing without you being a dick?”
“Maybe if you stopped calling me ‘cat’!”
“Enough you two.” Ren glared at them.
“But he—”
“But he—”
“I don’t care, we can’t afford pointless infighting, so quit trying to start shit with eachother.” Ren turned back to Haru. “Sorry about them, they’re both good people, they can just be immature.”
Neither Ryuji nor Morgana liked being talked about as if they weren’t there, but given that Makoto was still glaring at them, they begrudgingly remained silent. Haru however was just curiously staring at Morgana.
“’Good people’? So Mona… you’re really not a cat?”
“I’m not… I just look like a cat… or they look like me… or something.”
“I see. Well I think you look very cute either way Mona-chan!”
“Cute?” Morgana whined.
“Anyway Haru, our powers come from bonding with our ‘Persona’, which is our other self that dwells within the Metaverse.” Makoto continued. “You were able to bond with yours in your own palace, so now you’re a persona user like us.”
Ryuji laughed.
“Man I wish we could have done it the way you did, we never met our shadows face to face so it felt like they were tearing their way out of our heads, hurt like a bitch times a thousand!”
“No kidding.” Ann rubbed her head, remembering her own very painful awakening. “Futaba did something similar in her palace. Makes you think if that was the intended method and we’re doing things the wrong way, but hey- I guess whatever works, huh?”
“Futaba? Who’s Futaba?”
“Oh right.” Ren said. “Futaba is another girl who awoke in her own palace with us about a week and a half ago, she’s been in a coma since though.”
“A coma?” Haru was concerned. “Is that normal? Am I going to be okay?”
“If you were going to fall into a coma you already would have.” Morgana continued. “Physical exhaustion after an awakening is normal, thus why you needed Joker’s help getting out today. I think this Futaba girl was just extremely unfit, so it hit her much harder than the rest of us.”
“I see… gardening is rather physical work, so even though I’m a bit… fatter than most girls- I am pretty strong, I guess I’ll be fine.”
“There you go again Haru.” Ryuji shook his head. “You’re not fat by any stretch, who the hell gave you that idea?”
Haru briefly smiled at the compliment, but quickly began to frown again.
“I suppose, it’s mainly him…”
“Him? Oh… him.” Makoto shuddered. “If the real thing is even half as creepy as what we saw in your palace…”
“He’s my fiancé…”
“Fiancé?!”
“He’s the son of some politician, Father wants me to marry him as a way to get into their inner circle.”
“The fuck man?” Ryuji shot up from his seat. “What is this? The feudal era? ‘In exchange for political power, here’s my daughter’? That shit still happens?”
“Don’t be so loud Ryuji, there could still be others in school at this hour.”
“But Makoto—”
“I know, and I agree with you, I’m just saying we can’t get too loud.”
“I can’t speak to how common it is, but that’s at least what my father is attempting. I’ve been doing what I can to delay the engagement as long as possible, but I’ve never had the nerve to stand up to him and say ‘no’.” Haru held her hand over her chest. “Maybe now that I have Milady with me, maybe now I’m strong enough.”
Ren smiled.
“Yeah, you seem pretty strong to me. We wish you the best of luck, however—” Haru looked up at him. “—Remember that we’re phantom thieves, worst comes to the worst we do have some pretty effective alternate methods. I swear- one way or another- we’ll keep that creep from getting his hands on you.”
The others shot her similar looks of reassurance and determination, Haru blushed a little, she wasn’t used to feeling this way.
“Thank you everyone, that means more than I can say. Having the famous Phantom Thieves on my side makes me feel even stronger, but please- at least give me a chance to try and stand up to him myself before you try anything… dangerous.”
“Sure, we’ve got your back, Phantom Thieves have to look out for eachother after all.”
“Eachother?”
“I mean yeah- you’re included, that’s why I said ‘we’.”
“I…”
“I mean, only if you’re okay with it- of course.”
“Wow… that’s… I really like that idea, though I’m not sure I’m ready to sign a contract or anything.”
Ren laughed.
“It’s nothing as formal as that. But yeah, have some time to think about it.”
“Yo we gotta give you a codename though, and a weapon.”
“What do you mean codename Ryuji-kun?”
“Like I’m Skull, he’s Joker, then there’s Panther, Mona, Fox, and Queen.”
“Queen huh?” Haru had a sudden look of understanding on her face. “So she’s the master? Interesting, very interesting.”
“Uh Haru, I think you might be misunderstanding—”
“So what’s this about weapons?” Haru cut Makoto off, and seemed very excited by the prospect of weaponry.
“We each use weapons to fight in the Metaverse, we have to bring them in from the real world, but even if they’re just toys metaverse magic makes them real and effective. My knife is blunt and all our guns are just replicas, but they work just fine. Got anything you can use?”
“Hmm… I suppose I can bring my axe.”
“Wait hol’ up!” Ryuji put his hand up. “I feel I might regret asking this but… why do you have an axe?”
She chuckled, which didn’t make him feel any better.
“Nothing like what you might be thinking, I just like chopping wood.”
“I see… I guess having hobbies is good, I was worried it’d be for your fiancé…”
Haru smiled deviously.
“Uh, I was only joking Haru.”
Haru kept smiling.
“Moving swiftly onwards…” Ren- carrying his own fear- got things back on track. “…I can buy you a model gun to use too, any preference?”
“Hmm…” Haru pondered a moment, before an excited smile spread across her face. “Do they do rocket launchers? I love explosions!”
“HA! A girl after my own heart. But no I don’t think they do rocket launchers, they definitely do grenade launchers though.”
“That’s good enough, I’ll take one of those- I’ll give you the money for it of course.”
“Nah don’t worry about it. I’ve got funds set aside for Phantom Thief business like this.”
“Haru?”
“Hm? I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ve been told your name yet…”
“I am Yusuke Kitagawa, pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Haru Okumura, likewise.”
“May I ask a question?”
“Of course.”
“Explosions?”
“Yes…” Haru bashfully fiddled with her hair. “Just good memories is all, it’s kind of embarrassing though… When I was younger, I played a couple games on my father’s computer when he was busy. I always liked Doom…”
Ren blinked a few times.
“That’s somehow both really unexpected and not surprising at all…”
“I was never very good, but he wrote down the cheatcodes, I just used those to get the rocket launcher. I’d always end up blowing myself up too, but something about making all the monsters blow up into chunks made me tingle, you know?”
“I think we’re better off not knowing…” Ann shuffled a few more inches away from the reminiscing Haru.
“Now I wish I had a chainsaw, but I suppose the axe will do…”
“Fascinating.” Yusuke nodded in thought, seemingly undisturbed.
“I suppose that’s one word for it…” Makoto looked to Ren, mildly concerned, but he waved her off, saying everything was fine… probably…
“Alright I’ll get you a model grenade launcher, but we better all call it a day, huh? You must be pretty exhausted, huh Haru?”
Makoto helped her to her feet.
“If anyone gives you any trouble, you can tell them I asked you to stay behind to help with some student council business.” She shot an aside glance at nothing in particular. “It’s a pretty believable excuse, seeing as the rest of the council hasn’t shown up to help with anything in months…”
“I honestly thought you were the only member Mako.”
“I might as well be…”
Haru curiously watched the couple, then the rest of the group as they gathered their things and began to give their goodbyes. This all still felt so surreal, not just the nonsense with the other world, but having a group that she could feel like a part of, it was a truly alien experience, but one she was very fond of. She had a lot to think about tonight.
~ ~ ~
“Togo-san!”
“Hm? Ah Kitagawa-san. How are you?”
“I am well, thank you.” Yusuke bowed. “I’m sorry I ran off so suddenly yesterday, I got called in for an emergency”
“There’s no need to apologize, I’m sure your… line of work can be fairly demanding like that.”
“Regardless I had to delay our meeting with the student council.”
“Oh it’s fine, it’s not like we booked a meeting, we can show up today so long as you’re ready?”
“I am, shall we head there now?”
“Let’s.”
The two made their way through the halls of Kosei high and to the student council office.
“Togo-san, are you sure we’re not better off simply going to the principal? Surely he’s the one we need to convince?”
“You’re not wrong, but getting the student council on our side will greatly boost our chances of success. If they end up saying no we’ll just have to go to the principal without them.”
“I’m sure they will see reason, the program has done nothing but good things for Shujin, I see no reason why the same couldn’t apply here. I’ve already gotten the support of a few of my fellow artists, though only a few of them were actually on board with getting nude themselves, I suspect at least a few just want to see others naked.”
“That’s fine, if people looking at us was a problem then we wouldn’t try becoming nudists in the first place. Look, we’re here. Are you ready?”
“I was born ready.” Yusuke paused a moment before looking at Hifumi. “That was a joke about nudity, since one is born naked.”
“I see.”
“Then why didn’t you laugh?”
“I was laughing on the inside.”
“Are you certain? You don’t seem at all amused, I can explain why the joke was funny if you like?”
“Too late, we’re already going in.”
The pair entered the office to find the president and vice-president working on some kind of paperwork, what it was exactly was neither known nor important, and judging by the way they looked up at the students entering they were grateful for the distraction from it.
“Can I help you?”
“Indeed you can!” Yusuke declared, waving his arms dramatically. “We need allies to spread the virtues of nudism!”
The council stared at them.
“Come again?”
Hifumi stepped forwards and bowed lightly.
“Apologies. We’re interested in bringing the Shujin nudist program to Kosei, and we were hoping we could get you on board before we pitch the idea to the principal.”
“Hang on.” The vice-president started. “I know you, you’re that shogi player who got exposed for match fixing.”
Hifumi sighed.
“Yes, that is true.”
“In fairness to her, I’m pretty sure I read it was her mother fixing the matches, not her.”
Hifumi was rather surprised to see the president defending her, but was grateful for it regardless.
“Still, I benefitted from the riggings, and have quit the women’s shogi association, I’m going to start my shogi career over from scratch.”
“Apologies for interrupting you Togo-san, but that has nothing to do with why we’re here.” Yusuke continued his very hammy (and very unnecessary) gesturing as he spoke. “The Shujin nudist program is a truly fascinating thing, one I would never have imagined prior to it’s introduction. To not follow suit here would go against the very foundations of freedom, individuality, and expression that Kosei was founded on!”
“Um… was it founded on those things? And what do those things have to do with running around naked?”
“It has everything to do with that! What does the peacock in the training room symbolize if not flaunting our true selves before the world?”
“It could be a lot of things really…”
“Ah, so you agree?”
“We didn’t say that.”
“If the desire for freedom exists within your hearts, then you have no choice but to assist us in our quest!”
“It’s a ‘quest’ now?” Hifumi tilted her head. She had to admit she enjoyed his overacting, but she wasn’t sure this was the time or place for it.
Unfortunately neither member of the student council seemed moved.
“Look I know Shujin went crazy and started letting its students run around naked everywhere, but I’m really not liking the idea of letting that degeneracy spread.”
“’Degeneracy’? How dare you?”
“Relax Kitagawa.” Hifumi spoke. “You greatly misunderstand our intentions. We are not promoting promiscuity, merely body positivity and freedom from the shame we have been conditioned with.”
“I mean that’s all well and good, but you can’t honestly believe that nudity won’t promote sexual thoughts and activities. It’s more exhibitionism than any real nudism I’ve heard of.”
“So?” Yusuke glared at them fiercely. “What’s wrong with exhibitionism?”
“Are you seriously asking that?”
“Of course I am! Is wanting to be seen truly so abhorrent? Is the rejection of shame truly so upsetting to you?!”
“Listen, you—what are you doing?!” The student council president watched in horror as Yusuke undressed before his eyes. The vice-president was covering her own eyes (but couldn’t help but peer through her fingers).
“Does my body truly terrify you so? To turn my very life into true performance art! What a truly wonderful opportunity this would be!”
Even Hifumi was taken aback by the sudden dramatic gesture, but she liked it, and decided to follow suit. Rapidly undressing (but still taking the time to neatly fold her clothes into a pile on the floor). The student council president was much less horrified by her sudden strip show, in fact he was clearly VERY interested.
“Oh so you’re fine when the girl gets naked, huh?” The vice-president glared at her partner.
“Wh-what? No I just… Wait hang on why are you on their side now?”
“I’m not on their side I’m just—”
“Arrête, arrête!” The door to the office opened and the principal stepped in. “I can hear you from all the way in my office!” He froze in place when he saw the two nude students. “Mon dieu! What is going on here?”
“Principal.” Yusuke said “The student council are rejecting our proposition!”
“Don’t word it like that Kitagawa-san.” Hifumi bowed politely, seeing her so unbothered by being completely exposed greatly confused the principal. “Apologies for the noise. Kitagawa-san and I were wishing to bring the Shujin nudist program to Kosei, and we wanted the student council on our side, but the argument got a little heated.”
“The nudist program? To our school?”
“Indeed. You are a fellow artist- are you not? I’ve read the poems you’ve been selling in the school store.”
He nodded to Yusuke.
“Oui?”
“Then surely you can appreciate the desire for freedom of expression, freedom from shame of our bodies? Does that not fall in line with your vision for this academy?”
“Hmm…”
“Principal!” The president jumped up from his seat. “You’re not really considering it, are you?”
“I don’t want to get naked!” The vice-president added, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.
Hifumi shot her an annoyed look.
“When did this become about you? This isn’t a ‘mandatory nudity’ program, it’s simply a program for students to elect themselves to live sans clothes, you don’t have to get involved at all.”
“Well maybe I don’t want to see my fellow students naked all the time!”
“Maybe I don’t want to see my fellow students be little whiners, but I’m putting up with you just fine.”
The room went silent, even Hifumi herself was taken aback by what she said, she held a hand over her mouth.
“S-sorry, that was harsh of me…”
“Hmm… I like it.”
“Huh?” The vice-president looked to the principal in shock. “Really? Just like that?”
“Oui. A nudist program would be trés bien. Giving the students such freedom is exactly what I and this school stand for! To force les enfants to be imprisoned in their uniforms would only dampen their individuality- how could I have not seen before? Je suis un idiot.”
Yusuke smiled proudly, and lightly bowed to the principal.
“Merci Directeur. L’habit ne fait pas le moine. Nous soutiendrez-vous alors?”
The principal stared at him blankly.
“What?”
“Nous soutiendrez-vous?”
He suddenly looked very nervous.
“Um… Oui?”
Hifumi raised an eyebrow at him.
“Sir? He was asking if we have your support.”
“Oui oui! I knew that- of course! Yes, I’ll support you.”
“Sir… is it possible that you don’t know how to speak French after all?”
Discussions of the nudist program were briefly put aside in everyone’s mind, as all four students stared questioningly at the principal, who’s own expression was one of abject fear. Suddenly, he cracked.
“OKAY YES! FINE! I admit it, I don’t know French. I just learned a few words and phrases off of Google because it made me sound more cultured.” He fell to the floor, pounding the ground with his fist. “I’m a fraud! A FRAUD! It was all a liiie!”
It was getting a little uncomfortable for Hifumi at this point, the principal overacted even more than Yusuke did. The nude boy knelt down beside him, and rested a hand on his back.
“It is okay sir, I know from your poetry that you are a truly admirable man, you have a true artist’s spirit within you, and you’ve done so much to help foster that spirit within the student body, that was no lie. You don’t need to hide behind a false persona for us to appreciate you.”
Tears still streaming down his face, the principal looked up at Yusuke’s smiling face, framed perfectly by the sun beaming in through the window.
“You mean it? You really do appreciate me?”
“We all do Sir.” Hifumi joined them on the floor. “This is a truly wonderful school, you have plenty to be proud of.”
The principal wiped away his tears.
“Thank you, both of you. I truly was a fool, thinking I had to hide my true self away to be accepted. Truly- the nudist program is the same thing!” He raised his fist skyward. “We should show our true selves proudly- and without shame!”
“Indeed!” Yusuke spun around and posed stylishly. “There is no greater art out there than the human body! And it shall be celebrated as such!”
“We’ll take control of our true selves, and stand before the world ready to take on any who would seek to shame or control us!”
The three boisterously cheered, and laughed triumphantly. The vice-president leaned over to her partner.
“What the fuck is this scene?”
The president didn’t respond, he was too busy being distracted by Hifumi- who in getting too into the excitement fell back into what could only be called her ‘shogi mode’, and was currently standing atop his desk facing away, her arms crossed and still laughing skywards while he tried his absolute hardest not to stare at her anus. He wasn’t doing very well. He did even worse when she turned around to stare down her nose at him, not caring that she gave him a direct view of a different hole.
“It appears our proposal will go forward without your help after all, but thank you for granting us audience anyway.”
“Um… you’re welcome?” He was just about able to stutter out those words, earning him a disbelieving look from the vice-president.
“You’re giving up just like that?” She sighed in defeat. “Well I guess we can’t really go against the principal… guess I’m going to be seeing a lot more flesh in the coming future… The world’s gone mad…”
Hifumi jumped off of the desk, giving her best three-point landing as she did so. Though as she stood up she started to return to her senses, and blushed a little for getting so carried away- not that Yusuke or the principal seemed to be bothered by it.
“I better call Shujin’s principal. La pomme de terre.” He cringed just a little in embarrassment. “Sorry, old habits die hard. I’ll give him a call, and we’ll sort out introducing the program ASAP.”
“Thank you very much sir.” Hifumi and Yusuke both bowed once more.
“As much as I’d like to say you can stay naked now, you better remain dressed until I can guarantee you legal immunity.”
“Perhaps you’re right.” Hifumi said as the pair reluctantly got dressed again.
“With any luck I’ll have the program in effect within the week.”
“We shall look forward to it.”
The three left the room, the principal turning around to smile at the student council as he stood in the doorway.
“Keep up the hard work you two.”
And the door was closed, leaving the student council in silence. The vice-president simply sighed and returned to her paperwork, just trying to pretend nothing had happened. While the president sat cursing himself for not thinking to take a picture while Hifumi was on his desk like that.
‘I guess if it really does go ahead I can try again if she’s going up the stairs in front of me…’
His partner glared at him. Nothing was said, but she could tell from his face that he was thinking of something that made her want to smack him. She was sure she’d get her chance eventually.
Notes:
If Haru did play games, her favorites would unironically be Animal Crossing and DOOM.
Chapter Text
“Well fuck…”
“Kid you’ve been cursing at your breakfast all morning, you sure you’re alright?”
“Huh? I said that out loud? Sorry, just got stuff on my mind, it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Well would you quit it? You’re gonna put off my customers, and I won’t forgive you if you waste good curry.”
“Yeah, sorry Boss.”
Ren did still question how healthy it was to have curry for breakfast, but had more-or-less gotten used to it by this point. And he had far more important problems on his mind, on both his and Morgana’s mind. Today was the day of the deadline, the day where Medjed would launch their attack to ruin the Japanese economy, and there was still no sign of Futaba- their only hope for countering the hacker group.
“Maybe they were just bluffing?” Morgana whispered.
“I really hope so, that way we can pretend we knew all along. If not though our rep’s in the toilet…”
“I’m hearing a lot of grumbling kid, but no eating.”
“Yeah yeah…”
Leblanc’s entrance bell was heard, Sojiro turned to greet the new customer but froze as soon as he laid eyes on her. Ren, surprised by his uncharacteristic speechlessness, turned to follow his gaze, his chewing slowing to a crawl as he was similarly shocked. Futaba had walked in, as casual as can be, and took a seat beside Ren. Shamelessly taking a sip from his coffee mug.
“Ugh… it’s lukewarm…”
“Fu… Futaba?”
“Heya Sojiro. I overslept. Can I have something to eat?”
“You’re… how did you get here?”
“I walked… it’s like literally a minute away.”
“You’re outside…”
Futaba looked around her surroundings.
“No I’m not, Leblanc counts as indoors, right?”
“You’re out of the house?”
“Oh yeah… oh shit I forgot to lock the door… eh- it’ll be fine… probably.”
Sojiro was getting choked up, Futaba was either completely ignorant of how significant an event this was for him, or just didn’t care.
“So can I get some food or what?”
Probably both.
“Yes… yes of course Futaba.” He quickly prepared some rice and served it alongside some curry from the still hot pot. He watched nervously as she took her first bite.
“Oh yeah, that’s the good shit…”
“I’m… I’m gonna need a moment.”
Sojiro excused himself, not that Futaba reacted in any way, she just turned to Ren.
“He’s been serving you this every day? Between this and being that nudist’s little pogchamp, you’re one lucky bastard.”
“I guess I can’t deny that… except maybe the pogchamp part, I’m not 100% sure what that even means. But putting that aside- you’re finally awake?”
“That pyramid or whatever was a hell of a workout… how long was I out?”
“About 2 weeks.”
“Yikes. Well I’m actually still a bit tired, but I’ll be fine for now…”
Futaba kept happily munching away, Ren just stared at her until Morgana shoved his arm, angrily glaring at him to silently remind him of the very urgent threat they had to deal with.
“Oh yeah, Futaba, you still good to help us out today?”
“Hm?”
“With Medjed?”
“Medjed…” She stared at the ceiling, which didn’t slow down her ravenous consumption of her breakfast curry. “Medjed Medjed Medjed…” Her eyes went wide. “Oh yeah! I gotta get rid of Medjed! How long do we have?”
Ren looked at his bare wrist, checking an imaginary watch.
“We have zero days left.”
“Cool, that’s plenty of time. Lemme eat this and we’ll head out, mmkay?”
“Sure…”
“A sense of urgency from either of you would be very appreciated…”
“Huh?” Futaba stared at Morgana. “Kitty talks?”
“He doesn’t like it when you call him ‘Kitty’, or ‘Cat. He’s either Morgana or Mona.”
“Oh okay, that makes sense.” Futaba returned to her meal.
“Does it though?” Morgana sighed.
“Is Nudie coming over today?” Futaba asked through a mouthful of rice.
“Uh, she wasn’t planning to, why?”
“I wanted to ask her some stuff, but I guess that can wait until later, Medjed first.” Futaba shoveled the last of the curry into her mouth and leapt from her seat, slyly glancing at Ren over her glasses. “Let’s go take care of them now, okay?”
~ ~ ~
Futaba led Ren and Morgana back to her room, Ren politely closing the door behind them.
“Take a seat wherever, I’ll handle this- but first…”
In one swift motion she pulled down her shorts and panties, and kicked them into the air, managing to land them on top of a very distressed Morgana who had climbed onto her bed.
“I can’t think properly when I’m wearing pants.”
“ARGH!” Morgana cried as he tried to untangle himself from the undergarments, Ren trying his hardest not to laugh. “I hope you washed these recently!”
“Don’t be rude Mr. Notacat!”
“I’m not a ca—oh wait, I guess you got it right…”
“I may be a shut in but I do practice basic hygiene, the worst those panties might have on them is some sweat, I’ve not fapped in them or anything, you’ll be fine.”
Morgana shuffled just a little further away from the discarded panties as Futaba took a seat in her computer chair.
“Alright!” She cracked her knuckles. “Time to wreck Medjed!”
Immediately she stared furiously typing away. Ren watched intrigued.
“So how are you going to take them down?”
“…”
“In the movies you just see the hacker press a bunch of random keys and say ‘I’m in’, but I have no idea how it works in real life.”
“…”
“I mean you are typing a lot, I thought maybe it’d just be a matter of setting up a bot or something to brute force the password check or something, but I guess it’s more involved than that?”
“…”
“I don’t think she’s listening Ren.”
“Futaba?”
“…”
“She must be in the zone.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“…”
“I mean… it’s kinda cool?”
“…”
“The novelty wears off pretty quick though…”
“I guess hacking doesn’t make for an exciting spectator sport…”
“…”
“We’re gonna be here a while, huh?”
“Seems that way Joker…”
“…”
“I’m starting to feel like we’re both really unnecessary parts of this process.”
“Ugh… I guess we should find something to pass the time?” Morgana scanned the room, and wasn’t impressed. “It’s so messy in here…”
“No kidding, I literally can’t see the floor.”
“All this trash… What are these papers on the floor anyway?”
“They don’t look important… Fuck it, I’m tidying up.”
“We should probably do something about… those.” Morgana gestured towards the discarded shorts and panties.
“Looking at them… yeah a wash wouldn’t hurt.” Ren picked up the panties holding them at arm’s length. “Yo Futaba, do you have a laundry basket somewhere?”
“…”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“They do look like they’ve been worn a few days, or maybe they’re just old.” Morgana suddenly tensed up, his fur standing on end. “Oh god you don’t think those were the ones she was wearing while she slept, do you?”
“Uhh…”
“2 weeks Joker! 2 weeks!”
Ren hastily dropped the panties on the bed, wiping his fingers on the inside of his outer-shirt.
“That’s probably someone’s fetish but it’s definitely not mine. We’ll just leave those aside and take care of the rest of the room instead…”
“Agreed…”
~ ~ ~
“I’M DONE!”
Futaba’s sudden cry of victory jolted Ren and Morgana out of their sleepy daze, and turned around to smile proudly before staring in amazement at her new, completely-clean room. “Woah, what happened, did you do this?”
“Yeah, just got rid off all the trash and vacuumed while we were waiting for you. Don’t worry, I only threw away the stuff that was obviously trash, food containers and whatnot, I put anything that looked important on the desk over there.”
“Jeez I gotta bring you over more often, it’s been so long since I’ve seen the carpet. You’d make a great maid or a housewife or something, I oughta get you a maid outfit sometime.”
“I don’t think Joker is the dress-wearing type.”
“Well you say that but there was this one time—” Ren cut himself off, shaking his head. “Wait nevermind that. Futaba! You got rid of Medjed?”
“Yup, shut down their website, IP banned them from pretty much everywhere, and replaced every single file they had in their cloud with minion memes- it’s all they deserve really. It’ll be a LOONG time before they recover.”
“Woah, that’s pretty damn impressive.”
“Ehehe~” Futaba shot some peace signs. “So is that all you needed help with?”
“I thin—”
“I hope so, because I’m tired now, night!”
Futaba grabbed a cushion and fell asleep right there on her desk.
“She’s asleep again?!”
“I guess she was working for quite a while.”
“Hopefully this won’t be another two week coma…”
“We better get out of here before Sojiro gets home, I think him catching me in his daughter’s room while she’s sleeping and bottomless might be a tough one to explain…”
“No kidding, you definitely don’t want him turning against you.”
“We’ll come back tomorrow, I’ll bring Makoto too, Futaba wanted to speak to her afterall.” Ren pulled out his phone. “In fact I better text everyone and let them know they don’t have to worry about Medjed anymore…”
~ ~ ~
“It’s very nice to meet you again Futaba.” Makoto bowed as she entered Futaba’s room.
“The famous Shujin nudist just chilling in my room? No kappa? That’s hella ballin’!”
Makoto briefly leant over to Ren.
“I assume all that just means she’s happy.”
“Yeah that’s really the only important thing to take away from it.”
“Alright, no worries.” She stepped forwards and gave her friendliest smile to the girl. “Yes, I’m the first Shujin nudist. My name is Makoto Niijima.”
“Fucking sick dude.” Futaba’s gaze shifted to Ren and Morgana who had come back, and finally to their final guest. “So who’s the naked dude? I think I saw you in the palace or whatever but you were wearing that weird fox mask.”
“’Weird’? It’s a traditional kitsune mask. Putting that aside it’s nice to finally formally introduce myself. I am Yusuke Kitagawa, the second Kosei nudist…” He glanced aside at nothing in particular. “Togo-san technically signed her name first…”
“So more schools are getting nude now? Wack. I gotta look that up later.” She studied Yusuke intently, the boy staring back quizzically. “Nice cock bro.”
“Why thank you, that’s very nice of you to say.”
“Is it?” said Makoto.
“Yo Joker- that’s not your real name is it?”
“No, I’m Ren Amamiya.”
“Heh. A musical man.”
“What?”
“Y’know, Mamamiya?”
“Oh…” Ren sighed, this was NOT the first time he’d had that joke made about his name, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last. “Sure, why not?”
“Isn’t it weird being the only dressed person in the room?”
Ren had to admit she had a point. Both Makoto and Yusuke were nudists, and technically Morgana too but he was a man trapped in a cat’s body- or something- so people rarely counted him. Futaba was keeping up her habit of not wearing pants, casually sitting cross-legged on her chair in front of them. His eyes couldn’t help but drift to the obvious place, taking note of the fact that her lips were significantly more plump than the other girls he knew (or at least the ones he had seen nude). He quickly averted his eyes- he hoped- before anyone noticed, and noticed Yusuke was staring at the exact same place, albeit much more shamelessly, and with a look of curiosity on his face.
“So orange really is your natural hair color, fascinating…”
“Nah, it’s dyed.”
“What?” Yusuke recoiled in horror.
“Relax my dude, it’s not that big a thing. I just used the same dye down there as I do up here.”
“But why though?” Makoto seemed to be staring at the same place too, while Ren was sure it was mostly out of intellectual curiosity at the difference in their bodies, he couldn’t help but wonder if her unconventional bisexual awakening had something to do with her wandering eyes too.
Futaba shrugged.
“Why not? Even when no one sees me I don’t wanna end up looking creepy. If I leave my hair black I end up looking like Sadako, especially on nights where I’ve been sweating. And I figured I’d do my pubes too because y’know?”
“I can’t say I do know, I always keep mine shaved…”
“I noticed.”
Futaba eagerly leaned forward to get a closer look, with absolutely no respect paid to personal space. Makoto stayed in place but felt really awkward, she’d never let anyone take that close a look before… actually she realized that was a lie- EVERYONE got that close of a look thanks to her TV interview that one time.
“Yo did it twitch just now?”
Makoto took a quick step back.
“ANYWAY!” Makoto sighed, and tried to reset her blushing face back to her confident-but-friendly smile. “We all wanted to thank you for helping us, and…”
“Yo can I ask you a few questions?”
“I…” Makoto was a little taken aback by how forward Futaba was being, their goal coming here today had at least in part been to help her come out of her shell and maybe stop being a shut in (an issue they had discussed with Sojiro earlier this morning). Makoto had plans to help Futaba get used to conversation such as discussing the weather, but the girl clearly had her own interests- so for now at least Makoto decided to indulge her. “Sure, what about?”
“About the nudism of course.”
“Of course. What would you like to know?”
“Fucking bonkers, isn’t it?”
“I uh… I guess the program really is unusual, and really came out of nowhere, huh?”
“Is it a punishment? You misbehave or get bad grades and they force you to attend school naked?”
“What? No. I think any school would get sued immediately if they tried to enforce that kind of punishment. No, students can opt into the program willingly, it can’t be forced upon them.”
“Right…” Futaba was in deep thought, still talking to Makoto’s tits rather than the nudist herself. “Have they used you as an anatomy class model yet?”
“Uh… no? What kind of school has an ‘anatomy class’ anyway?”
Yusuke pondered a moment.
“Maybe a medical school would have something like that, though really there’s not that much to be gained from a live model that a textbook wouldn’t cover. Not to mention that would require some really rather sudden changes to the curriculum to require such examination.”
“Aw what?!” Futaba was shocked and disappointed. “But that always happens in the stories!”
“Stories?”
“Do you have to perform ‘reasonable requests’ for the other students at least? Spreading for them and letting them touch you and whatever?”
Makoto glared at her.
“Futaba, are you honestly hoping that I’m required to let myself be sexually abused by my peers?”
Futaba’s expression dropped.
“I’ll go ahead and delete my last comment…”
“Good. Look Futaba I don’t know what you’re basing these assumptions off of, but I’ll correct one misconception right now- just because I’m naked does not make me any more open to letting myself be used sexually. People can look as much as they like and have whatever feelings about it they desire- I’m not going to make that a problem, but I’m still a person- not some toy or sexual entertainment. The only difference between me and everyone else is that I’m always naked, understood?”
“R-right. Sorry Ma’am…”
Makoto noticed Futaba had curled up in her chair, clearly frightened. Part of her felt like she might have been a bit harsh, but she still had to put her foot down.
“Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you, there’s no hard feelings, I’m just letting you know where the boundaries are, okay?”
Futaba nodded silently, avoiding eye contact, and looking very guilty still. Everyone felt a little awkward, all except Yusuke, who had gotten distracted with the figurines lining Futaba’s shelves. Eventually Futaba noticed him out of the corner of her eye fiddling with her Featherman figures.
“AAAH!” The guilt and gloominess vanished in an instant, being replaced by rage and terror. Yusuke had been swapping the heads and limbs of the dolls around.
“What do you think Futaba?”
“Phoenix Ranger Featherman! You’ve turned them into some stupid modern art piece!” She shoved him out of the way and got to trying to fix them. “You dumb shit Inari.”
“Inari?” Yusuke’s browed furrowed. “I don’t get it.”
“Because of the fox mask, tofu, DUH?”
“…I still don’t get it.” Yusuke looked to the others in hopes of gaining some understanding, but just got shrugs in return.
“God it took me literally forever to get them all in the right poses, then you have to come along and ruin it.”
“Hmph. Well excuse me for trying to create something visually striking.”
“Don’t use my stuff to do it! You’re already naked, that’s perfectly ‘striking enough’.”
“Hmm…”
“What are you ‘hmm’-ing about this time Yusuke?”
“I think she has a point Ren-san, we have yet to try body paint.”
“How did you get that out of what she said?”
“Yo that sounds sick actually.” Futaba said, having already fixed her featherman dolls and put them back in position.
“That counts as ‘literally forever’, does it?” Makoto rolled her eyes.
“The human body, not only as a subject for fine art, but a canvas too! Oh how I long to try my hand.” Yusuke continued his dramatic gesturing with his arms, nearly knocking the featherman dolls off the shelf again. “Tell me Futaba- do you have any interest in nudism? You seem rather unbothered having your labia so casually exposed before us.”
Futaba returned to her seat, still making no attempt to cover herself.
“I’ve been watching all the footage of Makoto running around naked for a while now, it’s the hottest shit in the world!”
Makoto blushed a little, but still smiled.
“R-really? Well I guess it’s okay if you enjoy looking, but it’s not as if I’m doing anything special.”
“Bitch you crazy? You’re going everywhere completely nude, letting everyone see everything in a country where you can’t even see pussies in porn! You’re doing something super special, you and those other girls!” Futaba twiddled her fingers. “I kinda like the idea of just being able to go nude and give no shits, y’know? Girls who can do that are super sexy y’know? I’d do it myself but… it requires me to go outside which is a bit…”
“I mean what’s stopping you from going out?” Ren asked.
Futaba curled up again, and stared down at her toes.
“It’s scary…”
“Is it?”
“YES OF COURSE IT IS! I’ve locked myself in here for so long, I’m just scared to go back out… God listen to me, I must sound so lame right now.”
“We can help.”
Futaba looked up to see Ren and Makoto smiling supportively at her, technically Yusuke was too- but his eyes kept flicking back to the featherman figures, she’d have to keep an eye on him. She could only assume Morgana was smiling too, it was hard to tell with his cat face.
“R-really? You’d do that?”
“Sure.” Makoto nodded. “It’s no trouble at all, we’re friends now after all.”
“Friends…” Futaba spun her chair around to hide her blush. “Don’t start that ‘power of friendship’ cringe…”
“Maybe it is cringe.” Ren smirked. “But it makes us free.”
“DOKTOR!” Futaba laughed, Makoto and Yusuke exchanged a confused glance, but just decided to go with it since Futaba seemed happy. “Fine, if you’re there to help me, I’ll turn off my own cringe inhibitors and give it a try!”
“I didn’t get all of that, but sure- we’ll be with you every step of the way Futaba-chan.” Makoto’s brow dropped. “But unfortunately you’re not a student of either Shujin or Kosei, so you can’t be part of the program. Maybe once you enroll to Shujin you can join us, though only if you’re completely okay with the idea of course.”
Futaba stared at her for a moment, then turned back to her computer, clicked a few times, then rapidly typed for a couple minutes, before finally turning back to the rest of the room.
“I’m in the program.”
“What?”
“I’m in the program, decency and censorship laws no longer apply to me.” Futaba took off her vest and threw it onto the bed- she would have covered Morgana again had he not dodged at the last second. She casually leant back completely nude in her chair.
“Futaba-chan? How did you do that?”
“When you guys sign up for the program, your name gets added to a government list so they know not to arrest you or whatever. I just accessed the list, and added my name, bam- victory royale.”
“That’s… worryingly easy. How the hell did you get access to the list?”
“You’d be surprised how many government passwords are just ‘password’ or ‘0000’.”
“That’s REALLY worrying… But uh… I guess we’re fellow nudists now?”
“Ehehe~ You’re my nudism senpai now!”
“I’ve certainly been called worse.” Makoto chuckled to herself, though it tapered off into a groan. “Much, much worse…”
Futaba nodded.
“Yeah there’s a reason you should never read comments sections online, they’re all cancer.”
“That’s a bit harsh… but you’re not wrong... at least not on certain sites...”
Ren put his hand on Makoto’s shoulder, she gave him a reassuring smile.
“It’s fine Ren, they don’t get to me.”
Ren nodded, but then looked at Futaba rather worriedly.
“Okay so you won’t get in trouble for being nude now, but how are we supposed to explain this to Sojiro? I doubt he’ll be happy about it.”
Futaba froze in place, as if she only just remembered her adoptive father existed in this moment.
“Oh shit yeah… that’ll be awkward…” She pointed at Ren. “You tell him!”
“Fuck off! You can tell him yourself!”
“Hey you said you’d be with me every step of the way!”
“We can go with you to tell him, but I’m not doing it myself! I don’t want him to blame me for it.” Ren rubbed the back of his head. “He might actually think it’s my fault, nearly every girl around me seems to end up nudist lately.”
Futaba sniggered, then smirked at Makoto.
“You’re lucky he isn’t a playboy Makoto.”
“Don’t be like that Futaba-chan. He’s not like that. To be honest it’s usually my fault, it’s more like the people I interact with tend to end up nudist, he’s just always with me.”
“Cool, you can take the blame then.”
“Ren don’t just throw me under the bus! I was standing up for you.”
“I know, I’m just saying Boss won’t get mad at you, he’s not the type to get mad at girls… probably.”
“’Probably’?” Makoto groaned. “We’ll all go together, I’m sure he’ll understand…”
“Wait, so we’re going outside now?” Futaba asked.
“Just to Leblanc, are you having second thoughts about being seen naked? You can still back out.”
“Nah that’s fine it’s just…”
“What?”
“Will I have to talk to anyone besides Sojiro?”
“Not today, no.”
“Okay then, we’re good.” Futaba leapt to her feet. “Mission 1 start!”
Futaba marched out of the room, Makoto by her side, Ren following closely behind. Morgana was about to leave too before turning back, seeing Yusuke still staring at the featherman figures, his arms half-raised.
“Don’t you dare Fox! I’m not going to defend you if she gets mad about that.”
“I wasn’t going to do anything!”
Morgana maintained his gaze until Yusuke was completely out of the room, before making his best attempt at closing the door with his paws, giving up, wallowing in self-pity for a few seconds, and following the rest of the group down the stairs.
Notes:
Okay, no more shadow bullshit or comas, Futaba is officially part of the nudist queen cast, and already a nudist. We've got a full roster... mostly...
Chapter 30: Support your local nudists
Summary:
Continuing right where we left off.
Chapter Text
“You alright Futaba?” Ren asked her, as she stood frozen in the entrance hallway of Sojiro’s house, as she had been for the last two minutes.
“What? Yeah, fine, totally.”
“Still want to head out then?”
“Y-yeah…”
Makoto was currently standing in the open doorway, smiling back sympathetically.
“It’s okay to be nervous, I’m sure Sojiro will be fine with it if we explain it to him.”
Without saying another word, Futaba let out what could only be described as a determined warcry, and ran past Ren, jumped over Morgana, and pushed past Makoto until she was standing outside, in the alleyway just outside her home, maintaining the battle stance as if ready to fight a gang of ne’er-do-wells.
“That was quite the cry.” Makoto chuckled. “But I suppose it’s fine if it helps you out.”
Futaba was still frozen as the rest of the group joined her outside, Ren making sure to lock the door behind them (Sojiro trusting him enough to temporarily lend him a key). She was stationary long enough for Makoto to start getting a little concerned.
“How are you feeling Futaba-chan?”
“I’m outside… I’m naked outside.”
Yusuke smiled, raising his arms and spinning around as if about to burst into song.
“Indeed, it’s truly an incomparable feeling, is it not?”
“I can feel everything… the sun, the air, the ground beneath my feet…”
Makoto nodded.
“Yeah it really is overwhelming the first time you step outside, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure I was exactly the same as you right now when I was first dragged outside naked.”
“’Dragged’?” Ren looked and felt rather guilty in that moment. “Sorry about that Makoto, I didn’t mean to rush you back then, just…”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Oh don’t be like that, I’m not upset about it, in fact I’m grateful, you really helped be out back then.” Ren was able to relax again when he saw her genuine smile, and was even able to shoot back one of his own. “We should take a moment for Futaba before we move any further, it takes a little bit to get used to these new sensations. There’s no need to rush yourself, we’re all here fo—FUTABA?!”
Makoto flinched so hard she nearly fell over, having to take a couple steps back to regain her balance. Ren and Morgana had been briefly distracted by Yusuke’s interpretive dance (or whatever the hell it was he was doing, it was hard to ever be sure with Yusuke), but Makoto’s sudden outcry drew their attention, and one by one they mimicked her shocked expression as they stared at their new friend, fingers buried as far as they would go inside herself, masturbating like her life depended on it.
“I’m outside… completely naked… anyone could see… oh god…”
Her other hand got similarly busy decidedly higher up on her body as the others tried (and failed) to tear their eyes away from the spectacle. Ren was the first to regain his senses, in a panic he scanned the rest of the alley for any other witnesses, luckily they were alone for now, but there was no telling how long that’d be the case for, it was still the middle of the day, and there was a decent amount of foot traffic throughout the day. He had to stop this ASAP.
“Futaba! You can’t do that here!”
He rushed over and grabbed both her upper arms and pulling them away from her body, causing her to cry out again as it sent another powerful jolt through her body.
“This feels so…”
“Futaba do NOT finish that sentence, you need to calm down right now!”
Makoto had finally broke free of her own daze, and rushed over to join them, trying to force eye contact between herself and the girl.
“Futaba, listen to me- snap out of it! Trust me, that’s going to draw a whole different kind of attention than just the nudism!”
There was eye contact, but for a while Futaba was just staring right through her, but she kept maintaining it until she eventually seemed to actually notice she was there.
“Buh?”
“Please Futaba, relax. Ren let go of her.”
He nodded and did so, Futaba’s arms stayed in place, it was actually impressive how well she held her tableau. Yusuke framed the scene with his fingers, prompting a “is now really the time?” from Morgana.
“H-huh?! Where am I?”
“Outside your home Futaba, are you feeling okay?”
“Uh… yeah I’m totally fine.” She said as she wiped her wet fingers off on the side of her thigh. “Why do you ask?”
“Do you seriously not realize what you just did?”
Futaba looked over her shoulder at Ren, before looking down, twiddling her fingers.
“Ugh… yeah… I was hoping to pretend I didn’t but I guess you’re not gonna fall for that, huh?” She hid her face with her hair. “Sorry, I got carried away there, just the reality of it all hitting me was…” she lifted her head, with her eyes wide. “…it was even hotter than I thought it’d be.”
Makoto exchanged a worried glance with her boyfriend, before sighing and muttering under her breath.
“I suppose I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know what you were talking about…”
“Makoto?”
“But actually going ahead and doing it is not something we can get away with.”
“Hmm…” Yusuke pondered. “I’m not sure, it might fall under our immunity to decency laws.”
“Please for the love of god don’t test that hypothesis Yusuke.”
“I wasn’t planning to, besides I feel female masturbation is more ‘performative’ anyway.”
“We’re going to ignore that. Futaba, do you want to keep going? We can turn back- or even take a break at any point.”
“Nah I’m good Ren, I’ve got it under control… probably.”
“Probably?”
“I can wait until I get home.”
Futaba was remarkably casual about what happened, but everyone figured that was at least better than the opposite, so they decided it was best to just move on and pretend that nothing ever happened.
“Let’s just get to Leblanc…”
~ ~ ~
“Sojirooo~ I want food!”
“Futaba? Ha, so it wasn’t a one off, you really did come out aga…” Sojiro trailed off when he turned away from his curry pot and at his adopted daughter, just smiling at him naked in his café as if it was a completely normal thing to do.
Makoto nervously stepped into the café, smiling apologetically, followed by Ren, maintaining his strongest poker face as he approached the counter.
“So uh… turns out we’re a bit too good at bringing Futaba out of her shell…”
“Kid.” Sojiro’s tone was very controlled. “What the hell did you do to her?”
Makoto stepped in.
“Turns out she’s a fan of mine, heheh…”
“Futaba…” he groaned. “Well I guess she is a teenager with unlimited internet access, I should have expected she’d look up some stuff like that… but this is…”
“Don’t worry, we were able to give her legal immunity for it!”
“That’s not really the problem here.”
“Sojiro!” Futaba had taken a seat and slapped the counter. “Food!”
“She’s certainly demanding.” Yusuke mused while taking a seat in one of the booths, happy not to get involved.
“Futaba… are you really sure about this?”
“About your food? Yeah, it’s smells awesome, why? Is there something wrong with it today?”
Sojiro wasn’t amused.
“I’m trying to be serious. You’re seriously considering going nudist? Did they talk you into it?” he said while gesturing to the very nervous looking couple.
“Nah, I’ve wanted to try it after watching Makoto have so much fun with it.”
Sojiro was very worried about exactly what kind of ‘fun’ Futaba was talking about right now.
“And now that I can leave my room, I figured I’d go for it, y’know?”
“You realize it’s not all going to be fun? It’s different when you’re actually in front of people, they’re going to look.”
Futaba brought a finger to her chin, staring up at the ceiling in thought.
“Will I have to talk to them?”
“Well, no you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to but that’s not the—”
“Cool. I don’t mind if people look at my body. In fact this’ll make it so they look at my face less! Am I smart or what?”
Ren couldn’t help but laugh, but he silenced himself after a annoyed glare from both Sojiro and Makoto.
“I mean…” he shrugged “she’s technically not wrong there…”
“Y’see! Ren’s got my back!”
“Futaba…”
“And look, I get I need to get out and touch grass, and this is like master-rank-levels of touching grass!”
In a perfectly synchronized move, Sojiro and Makoto turned to Ren, who sighed.
“’Touch grass’ just means ‘get off the computer and go outside’.”
“Oh, I like that one.” Makoto nodded.
Sojiro was less enthusiastic, rubbing his face in frustration.
“I guess getting out would be good for you but…”
“Makoto has been fine all this time running around with her bits out, and others have too, it’s all chill.”
Makoto interjected.
“It’s actually safer than you might think. It’s not like we’re going to wander down dark alleys alone or anything dangerous like that. There’s still only a few nudists around, and we get lots of attention, but no one really tries anything bad, especially when we’re with friends.”
“Makoto’s right.” Ren sat down himself. “Futaba’s smart enough to not go running around alone, we’ll be looking after her.”
Futaba shuddered at the idea of being in a potential social situation without support.
“Yeah I’m not gonna just go face the boss right off the bat, I’ll have these two hard carrying me the whole time.”
“Carrying you?”
“She just means we’ll be supporting her Boss. The same as saying ‘we’ll do the heavy lifting’.”
“Thanks Kid, I guess.” Sojiro grumbled. He could tell he was losing this argument, but he still had to establish himself as the authority figure: “Right, I guess I can allow it for now at least—BUT!”
“But?”
He pointed at Futaba.
“You’re not to go out alone like that- EVER! Have at least one of these guys with you at all times.”
“Sure, I’d prefer it that way anyway.”
He then pointed at Ren.
“And if anything happens to her- ANYTHING- I’ll hold you personally responsible. Getting kicked out will be the least of your worries.”
Ren saluted.
“I hear ya loud and clear boss.”
“So about that food…”
Sojiro sighed, and turned back to the pot of curry.
“Sure, gimme a sec. The world really has gone mad…”
Futaba shuffled in her seat, feeling victorious, Makoto felt relieved that things went as smoothly as they were ever going to, and Ren had one more thing to feel extremely anxious about, but he supposed helping out one more nudist wasn’t an impossible task.
Makoto’s phone went off in her bag, she pulled it out and looked at the screen.
“Ah, it’s Eiko, please excuse me.” Makoto took her phone upstairs to Ren’s room before answering. “Hello Eiko.”
“Didya hear?”
“Hear what?”
“Whaddya mean ‘hear what’? Kosei’s got nudists too now!”
“Oh yeah I heard, I’ve got friends who go there.”
“You mean you actually have been recruiting new nudists? Awesome! I figured you just never did anything else after we made that twitter account for you- an account you’ve done literally nothing with since that first tweet by the way.”
“I don’t really do social media, and I didn’t recruit them, but I suppose they were inspired by me, so I guess it sort of is my fault.”
“You’re a really effective mascot!”
“I don’t think I like being a mascot…”
“Maybe ‘idol’ then?”
“I don’t really want to be that either…”
“Lame. Though a nudist idol would be awesome. Anyway you need to introduce me!”
“Introduce you?”
“To the new nudists- duh! We’re supposed to be forming a community, remember? We can’t keep it limited to Shujin anymore, Kosei already has more nudists than we ever had, I want nudists popping up all over Japan!”
“Well, so long as—”
“Yeah yeah. ‘So long as they want to’, I get it. Look I was thinking we should all meet up!”
“A nudist meeting?”
“Yeah, we’ll start a support group! Or a nudist social club or whatever you wanna call it. I’ll find a room we can rent in a youth club or something and we’ll get all the nudists in one place.”
“I guess that does sound interesting. I’ll ask the Kosei nudists if they wanna come, or at least the ones I know.”
“Sick, next Saturday sound good?”
“I suppose that gives us just enough notice.”
“You rock Nudie Prez! Tell Ren to come too!”
“Um, not that I’m against him coming of course, but are you sure? He’s not a nudist and has never expressed interest in joining himself. I would have thought you’d just want to keep it to the actual nudists.”
“Nah, he’s a TN ally.”
“TN?”
“Tokyo Nudists. Shujin Nudist isn’t enough anymore, we’re expanding!”
“I see, you’re really into this.”
“Of course!”
“Well Ren is always very helpful and supportive, I’m sure no one else will mind. Most of the nudists already know him anyway, it’s just the other members of Yusuke’s art class that also joined the program that don’t.”
“He won’t be the only clothed person there, I’ll invite a couple of my other friends too, I’ve been wanting to convert them and I’m hoping this’ll give them the push they need.”
“You know you’re much better suited to leading this whole nudist movement or whatever than I am.”
“Yeah probably, but you were the first, and thus the most famous, though maybe I’ll overtake you someday, who knows?”
“I wish you the best of luck.”
“I’ll text you the time and address as soon as I have the place booked, mmkay?”
“Thanks, I’ll run it by the others.”
“Later Nudie Prez~”
~ ~ ~
Ren had offered to pick Makoto up to go to the nudist meeting, being held not too far from Shibuya station, but she decided that she’d simply meet him there. Their shared reservations about public transport had somewhat died down over time, and it was at a time of day there the trains wouldn’t be too crowded anyway, it wasn’t like the school/ work rush where having him there really was a useful deterrent, it should be fine.
He was the first to arrive- aside from Eiko herself of course. Eiko had gotten them a fairly large room in a fairly nice place, plenty of places to sit, a wide table full of snacks, a karaoke machine set up to the side, she even put up a few balloons, she had clearly made an effort.
“Heya Renjamin Franklin.”
“Renja—whatever. Hey Eiko. Place looks nice, I hope we’re not straining your wallet too much with this.”
“Nah this is nothing. Mamma been making bank with Onlyfans, I can afford this all no problem.”
“Ha, well if you say so, I’m sure the others will like it too.”
“You’re actually pretty early Ren.”
“Makoto is usually early too, but I guess not this early. It’s cool though, I don’t mind waiting.”
“Oh dear, I hope you don’t stare at me too much while you’re girlfriend isn’t watching~” she covered herself with her hands in mock-embarrassment.
“Please don’t make jokes like that, I staying loyal to Makoto.”
“Oh relax you, I’m only teasing.” Eiko’s laughter tapered off into a wistful sigh. “Still, that’s good though, being honest and loyal like that really is great. You make sure it lasts, alright?”
“I plan to.”
Eiko sat down a few spaces away from Ren.
“So tell me, is Makoto really your first?”
“First girlfriend?”
“Mm.”
“Yeah, she’s my only girlfriend.”
“Man how can you two do so well on your first go, it’s not fair!”
“Um… sorry?”
“Nah I’m not jealous or anything… actually that’s 200% a lie, I’m HELLA jealous. You two found the love of your life just like that and I got friggin’ Tsukasa…”
“I really am sorry you had to go through that.”
“Nah don’t worry about it. I’d be lying if I said I was completely over it, but I’m completely over him at least, y’know?”
“Well that’s good, that’s something.”
“Still, you must have some mad natural talent to be so much better than me at relationships. To be honest you really don’t come across as a woman-pleaser, more… a dork- no offence.”
“None taken.” Ren chuckled. “Well I guess I do read a lot of romcom manga, so that pretty much makes me a master of love, don’t you think?”
“See that’s what I mean. Dork. Then again that makes you well suited for Makoto I guess.”
“Is she a dork?”
“Nah, she’s a nerd. There’s a difference… actually- she is kind of a dork when it comes to Buchi and Like a dragon. I swear, we study a lot together, whenever I’m sick of it and want to take a break, all I have to do is start talking about Kiryu and she’s so easily strung into a big nerd rant.”
Ren laughed.
“She’s actually more a Majima fan I find.”
Eiko raised an eyebrow.
“She’s into the ‘Joker’ types huh? Guess that explains a lot.”
“Does it?”
“Definitely. But seriously though, you two go so well together, I’m rooting for you both, and I hope I get something similar some day.”
“I’m sure you will, you seem like a cool enough chick.”
“’Cool enough’ huh? You need to work on your compliments Renren.”
“Sorry.”
Eiko stared up at the ceiling, briefly reaching up to poke one of the balloons restlessly.
“Ren…”
“Yeah?”
“Um… obviously I get I can’t rush any sort of relationship, I don’t even have anyone in mind at the moment, at least not yet, but when I do find someone I’m interested in, do you mind uh… giving me advice?”
“Advice?”
“Like you’re not experienced, but you’re obviously really good at it. And plus even someone as smart as Makoto really values your opinions so strongly.”
“Makoto is much smarter than I am.”
“Well you must be pretty smart or wise if she still listens to you. So do you mind if I rely on you a little bit too?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’m always a little scared I’ll let my emotions get the better of me again, and I’d just feel a lot better if I have people like you and Makoto to confide in when I need it, y’know?”
Ren smiled, and nodded with determination in his eyes.
“Sure, I’ll do my best to help you out with relationships or anything else you need, you can count on me.”
“Thanks Ren, that really does mean a lot to me. Ha, until now you’ve just been my best friend’s boyfriend, but now we’re properly friends ourselves, though saying that out loud feels a little silly. But still, I feel much better knowing I can count on you.”
Eiko shot Ren a wide smile, it really did feel good to be relied on like this… but… something was odd… why did his head hurt so much right now? Everything was going blurry. His wrists were in agony. It was so cold all of a sudden, so dark. He felt like he was about to throw up.
Ren gripped his head, as if trying to prevent it from falling down onto the metal table in front of him. He forced himself to look forward, the prosecutor, his interrogator, Sae was staring at him intensely. Her glare accusatory, but also filled with curiosity, and even slight desperation.
“It’s my understanding that the Phantom Thieves were strongly associated with the infamous ‘Shujin nudist’ program. That some of its members were involved in its propagation, or had signed up themselves. Others theorize that the Phantom Thieves were responsible for its implementation in the first place.” She leaned forward, her eyes locked on his. “Tell me, what- if any- connection did you and the thieves have with the program?! I want a straight answer!”
All of a sudden Ren was back in the club room with Eiko, and yet it still felt dark, he couldn’t move, it was as if both he and Eiko were frozen in time together. It was then that he heard that voice again…
I am thou… thou art I…
Thou hast acquired a new vow…
It shall become the wings of rebellion
That breaketh thy chains of captivity.
With the birth of the Chalice Persona
I have obtained the wings of blessing that
shall lead to freedom and new power…
“Yo Ren? Ren?”
“Wh-what?”
“Ren you just spaced the fuck out for a minute there, you good my dude?”
Ren rubbed his eyes and looked around, everything seemed normal again. He shook his head, he’d probably never get used to that, he thought he’d already gone through it for the last time already, but apparently not.
“Ha, it’s nothing to worry about, I just get lost in my head sometimes, a bad habit of mine.”
“You sure? You looked pretty scared for a moment there.”
“I swear, it’s fine, nothing to worry about.”
“Hmm…” Eiko eyed him a little while longer. “Well if you say you’re fine, then okay. I thought you were going all weird on me for a second there.”
“Sorry.”
“Quit apologizing dude, you’re good.” She pulled out her phone. “We haven’t given our numbers to eachother yet, have we?”
“No, we haven’t, let’s do that now.”
The two exchanged addresses.
“Don’t worry Ren, I’ll let Makoto know too, don’t want her to think we’re doing stuff behind her back or anything.”
“I don’t think she’s the paranoid type like that, but yeah of course I’ll let her know too.”
“I’ll be counting on the both of you!” Eiko leaned over for a fist bump, which Ren happily reciprocated. “The others should be here soon anyway, I’m really serious about this nudist community thing!”
“Let’s hope it goes well then!”
Chapter 31: Shujin and Kosei
Summary:
The nudist meeting
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“I’m not late am I?”
“Nah you’re still early Nudie Prez! And Renren makes surprisingly good company.”
Makoto laughed.
“Yes, it really is surprising.”
“Is this your idea of a compliment?”
Makoto took a seat next to Ren.
“Well it’s all you’re getting for now, you’ll have to make do.”
“Oh, so cruel…” Ren brought the back of his hand to his forehead, mocking a fainting pose but not fully committing to the bit- it was too early in the day for that nonsense.
“Still Eiko.” Makoto scanned the room. “You really have put in some effort here.”
“Well duh- this is an important event! All Tokyo’s nudists gathering together in one place for the first time!”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a look- technically that wasn’t true since Futaba wasn’t coming. She was still adamantly against the idea of actually talking to people she didn’t know- they hadn’t even gotten her to have proper conversations with all the phantom thieves yet, going straight to a party full of strangers would definitely be too much for her at this early stage. In reality Eiko’s meeting was just between the nudists of Shujin and Kosei, but still- they supposed that was more than enough.
“The others should be here real soon, feel free to try some snacks in the meantime!”
Makoto was planning to wait until the others arrived before eating anything- fearing it might be rude- but thinking rationally (and knowing Eiko) she realized this was nowhere near that formal of an event, so she decided to indulge herself- just a little.
She scanned the table until one plate in particular caught her eye- cookies, but not just any cookies.
“They’re shaped like Buchimaru-kun? I didn’t know you could even get those?” even from this angle, Ren could see the desperation in Makoto’s eyes as she turned to Eiko. “Where did you get these? Or did you…”
“Heheheh.” Eiko held her nose in the air proudly. “Betcha didn’t think I could bake, didya?”
“N-no… I really didn’t.”
“Well that’s good because I don’t bake, my mom made these.”
“What were you looking so proud about a moment ago?” Ren asked.
“I wanted to bask in your admiration for a sec, that’s all.”
“I see…”
“Mmm—” Makoto had already taken a bite. “—Your mom knows what she’s doing, these are good.”
“Hmm…” Eiko pondered for a moment. “Maybe I’d be quite good at baking too then.”
“This isn’t Dragon Ball, techniques aren’t passed down genetically in real life.”
“Ren don’t discourage her.”
There was a knock heard at the door, Makoto instinctively hid the cookie behind her back, embarrassed at the idea of being seen enjoying Buchi-cookies so earnestly, Ren made a mental note to tease her about it later. The door opened slightly and Hifumi’s head poked through the gap.
“Given the skin on display here I’m going to assume I got the right place?”
“Hifumi-chan! Yeah come on in.” Makoto got up- still hiding her unfinished cookie- and went over to welcome their new arrival. “Thank you for coming Hifumi-chan. You already know me and Ren of course, but this is my friend Eiko Takao, this whole thing was her idea.”
“Ooo pretty. Gotta love that so many of the nudist girls are hotties, 'ey Ren?”
Ren didn’t say anything, he tried to ignore Eiko- as well as the slightly amused looks both Makoto and Hifumi were shooting him.
“Man I feel for ya Ren, must be so awkward as a young teenage boy surrounded by sexy teenage nudist girls, huh?”
“Did you have much trouble getting here Hifumi?” Ren tried to change the subject, hoping that no one noticed the minor voice crack as he did so.
If Hifumi noticed, she at least ignored it and instead bowed.
“None at all, thank you Ren-kun. And it’s a pleasure to meet you too Takao-san.”
“So you’re Hifumi Togo, the famous Shogi girl and now first Kosei nudist. That’s sick!”
Hifumi tilted her head bemused, before Makoto leaned over and whispered to her.
“’Sick’ can also mean ‘good’ or ‘cool’.”
“Ah, I see.” She whispered back. “Why thank you Takao-san.”
“No need to be formal or whatever, just call me Eiko.”
“I see. Thank you Eiko-san.”
“Well I guess that’s good enough. So you’re like, a celebrity right?”
“’Celebrity’ is a bit much, I got a decent amount of media attention, but it really did become a headache- to say the least- I’m happy that I’ve started over fresh. Now that I’ve been ‘disgraced’- as it were- the media is less of a distraction from my Shogi career, I’m confident going forward.”
“Yo that’s cool. But isn’t the nudism thing getting you a ton of attention too? I would have thought ‘naked schoolgirl running around’ would get more attention than ‘cute girl plays shogi’, no offence of course. But don’t you still get media hounding you?”
“Don’t worry, no offence taken. Though you’re not wrong, I’m getting even more attention for my nudity than my ‘scandal’, but honestly it doesn’t bother me as much. It’s technically more attention, but it also feels more separate from my Shogi. Now the ‘celebrity’ attention and my Shogi performance are ranked separately, it’s much easier to deal with.”
“Makes sense.” Eiko put an arm around Hifumi, the latter girl being rather taken aback- not being used to being touched so casually, but didn’t resist. “Well I wish you luck in both, I’m sure you can pull it off both as a super cool nudist chick and shogi whatever. We got your back if you ever need help with either!”
“Really?”
“Sure, us nudists gotta stick together, that’s the whole point of this party after all.” She pulled Hifumi closer to drive the point home.
“You’re warm.” A few moments passed before Hifumi realized that she said that out loud. “Oh, sorry that was probably rude of me.”
“How’s that rude? A little skinship is good for us, naked hugging rocks. Everyone is so scared of physical contact with people, I think us nudists should enjoy touching eachother now and again—though not in that way.” Her eyes narrowed and she smiled deviously. “Unless you want it to be in that way?”
Hifumi instantly started glowing red all the way down her neck.
“LOL! You should see your face Hifumi-chan! I’m just teasing ya, don’t worry about it.” She freed the blushing girl from her embrace. “Skinship really is great though, Mako-chan, you’re next.”
“Wait I—”
But it was too late, Eiko had already glomped Makoto from behind, nearly causing her to drop the cookie- which she had discreetly taken another bite from while Eiko and Hifumi were having their moment.
“God Eiko, give me a little warning next time at least.”
“Skin-on-skin contact does feel really healing though, doesn’t it?”
Makoto couldn’t deny it, she’d never been a very touch-happy person, she couldn’t even remember the last time she was hugged by someone other than her father. The closest she had was the time she side-hugged Ren for that selfie on their first arcade date. But she had to admit, the simple feeling of another human’s warmth- especially without any clothes getting in the way and dampening that feeling- was truly wonderful. Admittedly given her recent bi awakening, the feeling couldn’t be described as completely ‘pure’, but if anything that just added to how pleasant it felt.
“I… I suppose I don’t mind it.”
“Look at you being all tsundere. Imma see if I can get a group hug going once the others get here. Heh- we should do a group hug with Ren in the middle.”
“Huh?” Makoto flinched, then looked to Ren who was doing his absolute best to maintain his poker face, the light shining off his glasses obscuring his eyes. “But why though?”
“Look how nervous he is at the idea- I wanna see what kind face he makes- it’ll be hilarious!”
“Eiko…” Makoto felt she should reprimand her, but she had to admit, seeing Ren’s flustered face was a tempting proposition, it’ll be good to get him back for all his constant teasing. Judging by Hifumi’s expression she was also thinking something similar.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) they didn’t have time to really consider enacting their plan, as the next set of guests arrived.
“A truly magnificent sight, I can only humbly hope that my presence can further enhance it!”
“Say what now?”
Makoto sighed.
“Eiko, this is Yusuke Kitagawa. Yusuke, this is Eiko Takao.”
Yusuke approached Eiko, making sure to do a few ballet style spins as he did so before bowing.
“It’s a pleasure Takao-san. Thank you for arranging this gathering.”
“Uh, nice to meet you too Yusuke-kun.” She turned to Makoto. “He’s rather… extra- isn’t he?”
“He’s always been like that to an extent, but he’s taken it up several notches since going nudist.” A new voice said. Makoto didn’t recognize the other three people who came in, the one who spoke was a boy, who had two girls with him, all around their age, all as nude as they were.
“You must also be Kosei students, correct?”
Yusuke nodded.
“Indeed, these are my fellow artists who agreed to join the program with me. Those who can truly appreciate that the greatest work of art is the human body, and are willing to share theirs with the world just as I am.”
“A colorful way of putting it, but he’s not wrong.” The shorter girl on the left stepped forward. “The guy with the serious-looking face is Norio Miyake, don’t worry he’s not perving on you, he just stares a lot.”
“Don’t make it sound like I’m leering, I’m merely studying them, we never get these kinds of bodies in life-drawing classes, it’d be foolish to let this opportunity pass.”
“That just makes you sound even creepier. I’m Kameko No, big tits over there is Mai Toda.”
“What the hell kind of introduction is that?” Mai barked at Kameko while covering her chest- which the others had to note- really was quite sizable.
“I’m well jel…” Eiko pouted.
“You worry too much Mai-chan, first impressions are overrated anyways.”
“Doesn’t mean you can deliberately screw mine up!” Mai dropped her arms and sighed. “Sorry, I’m Mai Toda, it’s nice to make your acquaintance. The annoying midget over there is Kameko No.”
“That’s way ruder than what I said!”
“Enough you two!” Miyake turned to face them both, arms-folded, glaring down his nose at them. “You’re representing Kosei High today, do not make us look disgraceful in front of Shujin.”
“I-it’s fine, don’t worry.” Makoto stepped in to try and prevent this from escalating any further. “I’m Makoto Niijima.”
“Ah, the famous first Shujin Nudist.” Miyake was studying her a bit too intently for her to be comfortable, Ren decided to keep a close eye on him just in case.
“Yeah, that’s me alright. I’m sure you already know Hifumi Togo, so this is Eiko Takeo—”
“Yo.”
“—and Ren.”
Ren waved to the new arrivals. Kameko narrowed her eyes at him.
“Why’s he still clothed?”
“Don’t worry about Renjamin.” Eiko grinned. “He’s not a nudist but he’s an ally, so don’t worry.”
“Indeed.” Yusuke stood tall and proud. “You will find no greater pillar of support than Amamiya-kun. He is the Adam to Makoto-san’s Eve.”
“I’m not sure about that.” Ren stood. “But don’t worry, I don’t plan to get in anyone’s way today.”
“Hmm…” Kameko continued glaring at him with suspicion, he was getting similar looks from the other Kosei artists, Mai even covering her chest again; he wasn’t feeling very accepted right now.
Eiko slapped Mai on the shoulder, causing her to yelp.
“Listen if you’re worried about clothed people staring at you, you might want to reconsider if nudism is for you.”
“What? Do you really think I’d quit just like that? There’s nothing wrong with my body.”
“Then relax, Ren might sneak a peak now and again but he’s cool. Besides he’s already loyal to Makoto, he won’t try anything.”
“Thank you Eiko.”
“I doubt he could handle a harem anyway. LMAO.”
“Uh… I don’t know how to respond to that one…”
“It’s fine. Just ignore them.” Makoto took his hand and smiled at him, which was more than enough to help him feel safe again, they both returned to their seats, or rather, they would have had three new presences not suddenly announced themselves.
“Yo where the naked women at?”
“Ai-chan!” Eiko cheered, greeting her friends at the door. “I was beginning to think you guys wouldn’t show.”
Ai shrugged.
“I’m not gonna turn down a party, and hey- would you look at that- we got some nudists dudes now.”
“FINALLY!” Another girl cried out. “I was beginning to think the program would forever be a big clam fest.”
“Clam fest?”
Ren leant down and whispered in Makoto’s ear, her face blushing just a little after a few seconds.
“Ah… I see.”
Eiko’s friends being clothed also earned a couple dirty looks from Kameko, but they didn’t seem to notice, instead drinking in the excessive amount of skin so casually on display in the room.
“I guess we should introduce ourselves? I’m Ai Toranosuke.”
“Toranosuke?” Ren raised a brow, but didn’t get a chance to say anything else before the other two girls introduced themselves.
“Aya Nakazawa.” The next girl was eyeing Yusuke very closely- Yusuke currently trying to mimic Michelangelo’s David for some reason… the people who knew him figured he didn’t need a reason.
“Mieko Ohara.” The other girl pulled off a pose, pulling a peace sign with one hand and pulling at her shirt in a (vain) attempt to show off some cleavage with the other. Though much of the room questioned the effectiveness at trying to ‘show off a little extra skin’ to a room full of nudists.
Eiko introduced the rest of the room’s occupants to her friends- managing to remember the names of the new Kosei students too.
“I think that means everyone is here? Ballin’, everyone dig into the snacks.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Yusuke was already halfway through his first sandwich, not being one to turn down free food.
The others went to join them, however Eiko managed to grab Ai’s arm before she could escape.
“What gives Eiko?”
“So…”
“So?”
“We recruited some guys.”
Ai’s eyes went wide.
“You’re not gonna… oh who am I kidding, of course you’re gonna hold me to my word.”
“I mean I won’t force you, but you did say if we managed to recruit a guy- or two in this case- you’d join the program. You did say~”
“Ugh…” Ai looked around at the room, everyone already getting into conversations and having a good time, totally relaxed despite so many being completely exposed. “I… alright.”
“You’re joining?”
“I’m not decided yet but…” She started undressing. “I’ll at least give it a try while I’m here, see if it’s really as fun as you make it look or if you really are just a weirdo.”
“Thanks Ai-chan, I promise you’ll love it!”
“Ey yo- Ai-chan is joining in?” Mieko called out. “Sick!”
“Don’t call attention to me like that, undressing is already embarrassing enough without the whole room starting at me.” Ai groaned, but continued undressing regardless; she was clearly embarrassed but evidently not enough to actually reconsider.
Aya smirked.
“Quit staring so hard at her Miss Prez.”
“Huh?” Makoto shook her head. “I wasn’t staring!”
“You totally were though, even harder than your BF.”
“It’s not for whatever reason you might be thinking! I just figured you three seemed familiar somehow.”
“Well duh.” Mieko took a sip from her drink. “We go to the same school, of course we look familiar.”
“I guess… it’s probably inevitable we crossed paths at some point.”
“I think I remember.” Ai chan, who had now finished stripping, approached and sat down in one of the free seats, as casual as she was able to be- though she still kept her hands tightly clasped over her private parts as she did so. “I think we ran into you early on. I was so shocked to see someone like you- or really anyone at all- just naked in the hallway like that.” She laughed to herself. “I mean it made sense when you gave us that document explaining the program, but back then I really never imagined I’d ever consider joining myself.”
“I know.” Mieko joined in. “Back then I thought all I had to do was undo a couple extra buttons on my shirt to finally get some male attention, then all of a sudden Makoto comes along bare-ass nude. It felt like I finally bought myself a nice bicycle, only for her to suddenly streak past me on some pimped out motorbike.”
“Streak really is the appropriate word.” Aya laughed.
“Motorbike is also pretty appropriate.” Ren murmured, earning an eye roll from Makoto.
“When you guys first told me about that I couldn’t believe it until you showed me the pics.” Eiko plopped herself down next to Ren and Makoto. “I thought she was crazy, and now here I am going permanude too, it’s real crazy. Makoto was really inspiring.”
“I’m really not.”
“Oh but you are.” Hifumi smiled at her. “I don’t think I’ve seen anyone more confident than you before or since. For a while you were literally the only one naked, and yet you handled it was unerring strength and grace; almost like a Queen.”
Ren chuckled.
“She has greatly inspired me too.” Yusuke nodded. “Both in my art, and now in my lifestyle. My daily life has now become performance art, spreading joy and awe everywhere I go, it’s truly an honor to draw such attention.”
Ren and Makoto suspected a good chunk of the attention was less artistically inclined and more ‘who is that weird naked guy who moves around as if he’s on stage in a musical?’, but they didn’t say anything- maybe that’s just the norm for ‘performance art’.
“She has been truly fascinating to observe online.” Miyake nodded, once again glaring at Makoto. “To think people such as yourself truly exist, and that Yusuke of all people would know you. You are truly a revolutionary”
“That’s definitely overselling me…”
Makoto wasn’t sure how to deal with all this praise, she shuffled in her seat, Ren smiled down at her proudly, as did Eiko, before she leant around to see Aya and Mieko.
“So how about you two, you ready to give it a shot?”
Aya stared at her for a moment, then at the various nudists around her, before shrugging.
“Yeah alright.”
“Just like that?” Mieko flinched as she watched her friend casually undress. “Don’t you feel nervous?”
“I mean, pretty much everyone else is naked too, we get naked with others in the onsen all the time, it’s not that big a deal.”
“But there are boys here!”
“Only a few, I doubt any of them are gonna try anything.” She smirked. “They can look but they can’t touch, I kinda enjoy that.”
“I should certainly hope they don’t look too much.” Mai still occasionally shot the males dirty looks. “The point of this is to separate nudity from sexuality, I don’t want them having constant dirty thoughts about us.”
Eiko shrugged.
“I mean I don’t think you really need to separate those two things, sex is natural too, I don’t think it’s right to expect people to not think dirty things when we’re naked.”
“I agree with Eiko.” Makoto nodded, still a bit bashful from all the praise, but pushing her bashfulness aside for now. “There’s a big difference between people looking at us as sex objects and people simply acknowledging sexuality- both ours and their own. Those feelings are as natural as anything else, and so long as they don’t let it get the better of them- so long as they don’t forget that we’re still human beings and treat us as such, I don’t see the issue.”
Mai hummed to herself for a moment.
“I guess…”
“Really it’s not any different to when we’re clothed. Guys would still look at my tits and whatever, but so long as they can tear their eyes away when I’m talking to them and actually listen it’s not a big deal, y’know?” Eiko started munching on some snacks herself.
Mai grumbled a little, but didn’t object any further.
“Alright.” Aya smirked at Mieko. “Your turn.”
“My turn?”
“Yeah, you should join in too, it’s great fun.”
“She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to.” Ren said.
“I mean… it’s not that I don’t want to…”
“Mieko?”
“But… c’mon it’s so much easier for you guys, you’re all super hot, I’m so… small.”
“Petite woman can be beautiful too.” Yusuke said. “The differences in our bodies is something to be celebrated. One of the reasons the human body is the greatest work of art is precisely because of the sheer variety.”
“R-really? I always had to dress more provocatively than the others to get any attention at all. I had to find ways to make up for my shortcomings.”
“What you see as shortcomings are in fact simply the things that make you unique, they’re your greatest appeal.”
“I’m not sure what kind of guys I’d be appealing to looking the way I am but… I guess I can try it here at least.”
“That’s the spirit” Eiko cheered.
“Plus it’s easier with whatshername here.” She gestured towards Kameko. “With her here I’m only the second smallest girl.”
“The fuck man? That was shaping up to be a really nice message about body positivity and you have to ruin it by shitting on me right at the end?”
“You’re plenty beautiful and unique yourself No-san.”
Kameko sat back and grumbled to herself. Mieko had finished undressing herself, and despite being bright red she didn’t seem too upset about it, even Ai had finally worked up the nerve to uncover her breasts- even if only to grab a snack.
“So I managed to rent us this sick karaoke machine.” Eiko climbed over the others, much to their chagrin and at the cost of a few dropped sweets, and turned on the machine in question.
“Makoto, you’re the OG nudist, you’re up first!”
“Me?”
“Yeah, get up here and kick some ass!”
“I-I’ll pass, thank you. Why don’t you go first? It’s your party.”
“C’mon, I’m sure you’ll find a song you like on here.” She tossed her a tablet- an ill advised idea since it looked expensive, but thankfully Makoto caught it without issue.
“I’m sorry Eiko, I don’t care what songs are on here, I’m not singing…”
~ ~ ~
“BREAKIN’ THE LAW! BREAKIN’ THE WORLD KOWASE!”
“Breaking the world~”
“KIRISAKE TENDERNESS!”
Eiko and her friends cheered Makoto on and she passionately roared into the microphone, her sweat-soaked body glistening in the dimmed lights of the clubroom, and Ren providing her serviceable back-up throughout. Even the other Kosei students found themselves getting caught up in the excitement and clapping for her, sans Yusuke, who was busy painting the scene as best he could from the corner of the room (no one was quite sure how he got an easel in here without them noticing, but none of them were surprised).
Hifumi especially was truly captivated by the sight, while their whole lifestyle was the very picture of ‘shameless’, but this scene really combined that with ‘passion’. There were few things Hifumi liked more than people throwing their whole being into what they were doing, and now that she had overcome her reservations Makoto was doing just that- singing her heart out.
“Oretachi ga JUDGEMENT! JUDGEMENT!”
Makoto stopped herself just short of throwing the mic at the ground, embarrassed, she returned it to it’s stand. Fun was fun, but that was no reason to damage equipment- especially when it was only rented. As if suddenly remembering that she was the centre of attention- and still not knowing how to properly respond to applause- she hastily bowed and returned to her seat.
“Alright, you’re next Renren.”
“Why?”
“Because I just said ‘you’re next Renren’.”
“That’s true, she did say that, I heard it.” Mieko smirked at him.
“Fine, whatever, lemme find a song.”
“Wait a sec, should he get naked too?”
“Mai?”
“I mean, isn’t it weird that literally everyone else is nude but him now.”
“Well I uh…” Ren rubbed the back of his hair.
“C’mon! It’s fun!” Aya called out.
“Strip! Strip! Strip!”
A few of the people present joined in with the chanting, all but Yusuke, Makoto, and Hifumi (though the lattermost was REALLY tempted to join in).
“Well I guess I don’t—”
“Guys what’s wrong with you all?” Makoto stood up and glared angrily at the rest of the group. “I’m sorry, I’m obviously in favor of nudist comradery as much as anyone else here, and welcoming new nudists is a great thing, but were not here to bully or peer pressure others into our lifestyle!”
Eiko was feeling quite guilty.
“Yeah, Mako-chan is right. The point is for us to all be friends and be comfortable and accepted by clothed people, it’s not some ‘nude supremacy’ thing. I’m sorry Ren, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
“Um… thank you, I don’t want to make anyone here uncomfortable though.”
“Don’t think about us, think about what makes you happy.” Makoto smiled at him. “Everyone will accept you either way, right?” She shot a few glares at the others who were chanting a moment ago.
“It’s alright, no one needs to apologize or anything, nothing wrong with getting excited.” Ren shrugged. “I’ll stay clothed for now if it’s okay with everyone though, Imma just pick a song.”
Eiko sat back down, and leant over to Ai, who had now relaxed enough to uncover herself.
“Um, Ai-chan?”
“Yeah?”
“Did I peer pressure you too?”
“I mean… yeah a little bit.”
“I’m… I’m sorry Ai-chan. You don’t have to stay nude if you don’t want to.”
“Nah don’t worry about it, I quite like it.”
“R-really?”
“Totally… still undecided on the program itself, but being here nude is real nice, we should do this again sometime.”
“Oh for real! I totally want this to become a regular thing! I’m gonna make a nudist group chat and get everyone to join!”
“Hmm, sounds good Eiko-san.”
Ren had gotten himself back into the zone, and began singing, quickly shaking off the feeling of awkwardness from the room.
“Time has come I’m ready to go.
Venturing into the unknown.
Fires inside me must be unleashed!
People talking nonsense all day
‘Chinpunkan’ that’s all they can say
I can’t get no satisfaction!”
Eiko rolled her eyes.
“Of course a dork like him picks an anime song.”
“Prez seems to be enjoying it at least… Togo-san is even more into it… why is she shadow boxing?”
“Renren attracts other dorks I guess.”
“What does that say about you?”
“I’m the exception that proves the rule.”
“I think your Buchimaru-kun collection would suggest otherwise.”
“You’re a bitch Ai-chan.”
Ren continued singing passionately- though not quite as passionately as Makoto had, it was pretty hard to top her love for Like a Dragon after all. Still the energy he was radiating definitely raised the mood of the party even higher, even all the way over to Yusuke as his brushing became much more animated during the songs. One by one everyone else had their turn in the spotlight, the stash of food slowly but surely being chipped away until barely anything remained.
“Alright Hifumi-chan, you’re the last one.”
“A-are you sure I have to?”
Eiko smiled.
“I mean we’re not gonna force you, but it’ll be a real shame, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you perform. And don’t worry, you can’t possibly be worse than Aya.”
“Screw you Eiko, I wasn’t that bad.”
“If your voice went any higher you would have shattered the windows”
Aya grumbled to herself.
“O-okay, I’ve never sung for an audience before…”
“You’ll do fine Fumi-chan, just pretend we’re not here.”
“’Fumi-chan’? Well I guess that’s okay.” She put on her most determined face, and nodded. “Very well, I’ll accept this challenge.” She started browsing the tablet for a song to pick. “I don’t know any popular songs, what could I even—OH? They have songs like this here? I could maybe do this.”
“Whaddya pick?”
Hifumi didn’t say anything, seems she was taking the advice of ‘pretend we’re not here’ seriously. The music began and she held her microphone in hand, shogi-mode face on, waiting for her cue.
“Wash away the anger…
Here I stand beneath the warm and soothing rain
Droplets falling gently down on the terrain
Wash away the sorrow, all the stains of time
But there’s no memory, it’s only dry inside…”
“Okay she got me, this wasn’t the kind of song I was expecting from a girl like her…”
“I can dig it.”
“Eiko… I guess it’s hard not to enjoy it when she’s clearly having fun.”
Eiko discreetly stood up and approached Ren.
“Hey Ren, do you might taking a pic of us all?”
“Me?”
“For the memories, I want all the nudists together in one shot.”
Ren smiled.
“Sure.”
Ren approached Yusuke and asked him to join the others for a second, he was a bit annoyed to be interrupted mid-painting, but agreed.
“Alright everyone, smile!”
While a couple of the new nudists were reluctant to appear on camera nude, they were caught up in the excitement and posed alongside everyone else for the picture- except for Hifumi who was still too into her song to notice, but that only added to the appeal from Ren’s perspective.
With the sound of the artificial camera shutter from Eiko’s phone, Ren immortalized the first Shujin-Kosei nudist meeting’s successful session.
Notes:
So many nudists in one place
Chapter Text
“Futaba-chan, are you in there?”
“Ho?”
“No, it’s Makoto, but it’s not the first time I’ve been called that…”
Futaba opened her bedroom door for Makoto, surprised to see her smiling down at her.
“Huh? The OG Nudist is back in my room!”
“I have a name.”
“Yeah yeah whatever. So uh… what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you about our plan to help you… touch grass.” Makoto tilted her head. “Am I using that right?”
“Ah okay then, uh… come in and make yourself at home?”
Futaba’s movements were really stiff and unnatural, she clearly had no idea how to be a host.
“Relax Futaba-chan, I’m not gonna start critiquing you or anything. We’ll do this in whatever way makes you most comfortable.”
Futaba let go of the breath she didn’t realize she was holding as she closed the door again and returned to her chair as Makoto sat down on her bed.
“Yo…” Futaba mumbled to herself. “It’s that easy to get a hot naked girl into my bed? Pog.”
“Futaba?”
She gasped.
“Crap, I said that out loud didn’t I?” with a small amount of fear, she looked down at Makoto who had her eyebrow cautiously raised. “Um, sorry. I’m kinda used to thinking out loud to myself so uh…”
“It’s fine, I understand. That’s something we can work on. Oh, and in case you’re wondering Ren wasn’t able to make it today, he’s busy helping Yusuke with one of his projects.”
“It’s just you then?”
“Yes, I hope you don’t mind.”
“Nah, you’re not that scary.”
“I’m not? Well that’s definitely a good thing, I want you to feel comfortable around me, around all of us.”
“’Us’?”
“The rest of the Phantom Thieves, and maybe our other friends. I friend of mine outside the group is making it her mission to create a sense of community between all of Tokyo’s nudists, so I definitely want to introduce you to them.”
“Uh… how many of them are there?”
“Who? Thieves or nudists?”
“Both.”
“Well including Morgana of course—”
“Morgana is the kitty, right?”
“…Yes, but don’t call him that. He insists he’s not a cat.”
“Well obviously not, he can talk and stuff, and he looked like a plush toy back in the pyramid.”
“Indeed, I’m not sure what he is, but it doesn’t matter to me- he’s Morgana, a friend and as important as any other member of the team. So please be respectful whenever you meet him, don’t call him a cat or anything else feline related.”
“Avoid cat/ kitty pronouns, got it.”
“Anyway to answer your question there are seven Phantom Thieves currently.”
“Seven? I only remember six of you when we fought my fake mom.”
“We got a new member while you were sleeping.”
“I’ve got some catching up to do…”
“As for nudists there are currently 5 active in Shujin: Myself- obviously, Eiko- the friend I mentioned earlier, and finally 3 of her friends are planning to sign up as soon as school starts up again. Kosei also has 5, you’ve met Yusuke, 3 of his classmates also joined, and finally another friend of ours, Hifumi Togo.”
“Oh yeah- the shogi player, I think I saw that.”
“You know her?”
“I mean I don’t follow Shogi or anything, but there was some drama with match fixing, I saw some threads flaming her for it.”
“Flaming?”
“Being dickheads.”
“I see.”
“10 nudists now huh? 11 if you count me. There were only 3 before I fell asleep, and even one of those quit. It’s becoming really popular, huh?”
“I suppose.”
“There are about 13.5 million people in Tokyo though, we’ve only got 11 going clothes-free, we’ve got a long way to go.”
“I think you’re misunderstanding our goal, we’re not trying to get everyone naked, we just want to provide support to those who do want to go naked.”
“I guess… Then again maybe that’s better, it’s much hotter when the naked person is surrounded by clothed people.”
Makoto didn’t say anything, she was slightly embarrassed at the fact that she agreed, she just swiftly moved on.
“Anyway, my plan was to introduce you to the rest of the group- that is the Phantom Thieves- tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?! All of them?!”
“Is that a problem?”
“I’m supposed to just talk to people, just like that?”
“I mean, that’s what I was hoping for. You’ve met half of us already, and you had no problem talking to any of us, in fact I was surprised at how confident you seemed.”
“Those were all different though!”
“How so?”
“Well… You already talked to me back before my heart was changed, you were super soft, like a big sister…”
Makoto couldn’t help but blush a little, due to her relationship with her actual sister growing ever more distant, she had started to forget how comforting an older sister figure could be, for Futaba to see her like that… it made her feel warm.
“…some slight ‘Mommy energy’ too, you’d be GREAT at gentle femdom, Ren seems like the type who’d be into that, you should try it.”
And Futaba’s lack of a proper filter had to ruin that warm feeling.
“Plus you being nude makes you less intimidating. Same with Inari.”
“Inari? Oh, Yusuke, right.”
“He’s kinda a weirdo, and I didn’t have a problem yelling at him, I dunno, that just makes him easy to deal with, y’know?”
“I think I understand… what about Morgana and Ren?”
“Morgana is a kitty. I know he’s not a kitty, but he’s a kitty. That’s not scary. As for Ren…” Futaba leant back in her chair, staring at the ceiling and gently swaying her feet in front of her. “I dunno, when I first saw him outside of the palace, just eating breakfast curry with Sojiro—”
“Breakfast curry?” Makoto made a mental note to confront Ren about his diet.
“—It’s weird, but it just felt like a family thing. Like I’m totally fine with Sojiro since he’s basically my Dad, so seeing him fine with Ren made me feel fine with him too. Plus he’s just really easy to get along with, y’know?”
Makoto smiled warmly.
“I do.”
“But the others? I dunno, I only saw them in the palace, I have no idea who they are or what they’re like, plus there’s a brand new one apparently? Just because I did well in the tutorial level doesn’t mean I’m ready for the boss rush!”
“Boss rush?”
“Ugh. Ren really needs to get you to play more games or something.”
“He has been recommending a few to me, but neither of us have any consoles- his are back in his hometown. But nevermind that, I promise you you’re worrying over nothing. They’re all wonderful people… mostly.”
“’Mostly’? That doesn’t sound reassuring.”
“I mean… Ryuji and Morgana get into stupid fights sometimes, but it’s not a big deal, we just have to step in and stop them.”
“You and Ren? So you’re like the team parents?”
“P-parents? Me and Ren… parents? I… I—”
SLAP
“W-woah?!” Futaba flinched back. “Why’d you do that?”
Makoto simply smiled warmly, hoping the red hand print on her cheek would fade quickly.
“Anyway, apart from them… and Haru being a bit… they’re all wonderful people, really easy to get along with, I promise you’ll do fine.”
“Haru is a bit… what?”
“I’ve arranged for everyone to meet up at Leblanc tomorrow, we can introduce you there.”
“No no, go back to Haru- what about her?”
“If it’s easier for you we can introduce everyone one at a time, rather than all at once.”
“Don’t keep dodging the question! What’s the deal with this ‘Haru’?”
Makoto scratched her cheek.
“Don’t worry, I’ll let her know you’re not up for anything ‘pet’ related?”
“What?”
“It’ll be fine with us there, I’m sure of it.”
“…I’m starting to get the feeling I’m REALLY not ready for this…”
“I won’t force you to do anything Futaba, but you said you wanted to touch grass, this is the best way to do that, me and Ren will be supporting you every step of the way.”
Futaba shuffled nervously for a while, looking around as if she was looking for an escape route. A lightbulb went of when she looked downwards, and she patted her crotch a few times.
“Touching bush- that’s close enough right?”
Makoto looked at her unimpressed. Futaba’s shoulders slumped and she hung her head in defeat.
“Fiiine. I guess I can give it a try if both of you are there.”
“Excellent, don’t worry Futaba-chan, it’ll go fine. I’m sure you’ll fit right in. Ren will come pick you up tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure.” She nodded, as confidently as she was able. “If I have my super high-level party members backing me up, I’m sure I can do it.”
“That’s the spirit… I think… While I’m here is there anything else you want to ask?”
“Uh yeah, am I gonna have to do the same thing with the nudists afterwards?”
“Not right afterwards. Eiko is a very nice girl, but she’s rather… intense…”
“Scary intense?”
“No not at all, she’s just much more of a social butterfly than… really any of the thieves.”
“So I was right then.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, we’ll start easy.”
“Even the easy stage sounds like endgame content, but I guess this is just a case where I have to get gud…”
Makoto was about 50-60% sure she understood what Futaba meant, so she nodded and smiled reassuringly.
“Also, can I ask a question about nudism?”
“Oh? Sure, of course, I’m happy to support you with that too.”
“So like, people take lots of pictures of you and stuff, right?”
“…Right?”
“And like, LOADS of people see those pics like all the time…”
Makoto subtly shuffled in place, hoping Futaba didn’t notice her do so, or if she did- that she didn’t think about it too much.
“…You ever think of trying to make money off of that kinda thing?”
“Money off of my nude footage?” Makoto sighed. “No, I don’t feel the need to do that, I’ll make my living through means separate from my nudism.”
“What? LAAME!”
“How would I even profit off of it anyway? It’s just people taking photos of me as I go about my day, it’s not like any money is being made off of it, I can’t like- claim the rights to the image of nudity.”
“No, but you could get a sponsorship deal!”
“A sponsorship?”
“Yeah, like the people who get pics of you would also get pics of the branding. I’m certain you could get Maid: Shadow Leg-ends or Yhord VPN to agree, they’ll sponsor literally anyone.”
“But I’m naked, how would that even work?”
“Hmm…” Futaba thought for a moment, before snapping her fingers. “Temporary tattoos? On one of your buttocks you could have the Yhord logo, and on the other you’d have a QR code for people to get the deal! You’ll make a ton of cash!”
Makoto glared at the younger girl.
“I’m not doing that.”
“Not even for a huge deal on a two-year plan?”
Makoto got up from her seat.
“I’ll see you tomorrow Futaba-chan.”
“But you can have up to 6 different devices on one account!”
Makoto had already stepped out the door and was slowly closing it as Futaba called out to her.
“No you don’t understand! It also comes with 4 bonus mon—”
The door clicked shut and Makoto made her way downstairs, as she reached the entrance she picked up her bag ready to step back outside, but noticed her phone was ringing, a call from an unknown number. Instinctively, she answered it.
“Access to international catalogues and region-specific pricing on games and mov—”
Makoto hung up.
~ ~ ~
“You ready Futaba?”
She desperately clung to Ren’s shirt as they stood outside Leblanc, a determined expression on her face, but her knees were visibly shaking.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Don’t worry Futaba, Makoto is right- they really are all great people.”
She let out a nervous whining sound.
“And I’ll be with you the whole way, you’ll never be on your own.”
“R-right… I can do this.”
Futaba still didn’t move an inch, as if fearing Ren would suddenly vanish if she were to let go of him. He sighed and smiled down at her sympathetically. He gently led her forwards through the entrance door- though given that she really did refuse to let go, they had trouble fitting and had to awkwardly shuffle through sideways.
Futaba’s eyes were screwed shut, it took her a while to open them ready to face everyone, but when she did she was surprised to find the café mostly empty, just Sojiro behind the counter and that one elderly couple who always visits in one of the booths- who were rather surprised to see her walk in in this state.
“Oh my, another one.”
“I guess that’s the style nowadays. Ha, we definitely had our ‘hippy’ phase too.”
“Oh don’t bring that up dear, it’s embarrassing.”
Sojiro turned around and noticed his daughter and his charge.
“Ah there you are, the others are upstairs waiting for you.” He looked at the clearly nervous Futaba. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?”
“Yeah, I can handle this, it’s just Ren’s friends, right? I can handle it, no problem! No problem at all…”
Sojiro sighed, Ren chuckled reassuringly.
“Don’t worry Boss, she’ll be fine, I’ll make sure of it.”
“You better kid. This is definitely gonna be good for her.” He glared at him. “Just make sure you all behave up there, you’re already a bad enough influence on her.”
It was hard to tell how serious Sojiro was being, to Ren erred on the side of caution and treated it as if he was completely serious.
“Understood Boss.”
Ren- with the nudist girl ironically clinging to him as if he was wearing her- made their way up the steps to his room, where the others were already gathered
“Ah good, you made it.” Makoto stood up to meet them. “Thank you so much for coming Futaba-chan.”
“…”
The others watched on curiously.
“Um, Futaba-chan?”
Her face was buried into the back of Ren’s shirt, the boy shrugging. Makoto went around and rested a comforting hand on Futaba’s back- or at least it was supposed to be comforting, it did make her jump at the touch.
“There’s nothing to worry about, we’re all friends here.”
No movement.
“Maybe I can introduce everyone first? This is Ryu—”
Futaba suddenly leapt off of Ren, and with a sense of purpose in her eyes marched over to Ren’s bed. She calmly and methodically picked up his pillow, removed it from it’s cover, and placed the cover over her head, before turning back in the rough direction of the rest of the group gathered around the table.
“I am Futaba Sakura, the master hacker also known as Alibaba. It’s pleasure to meet you all.”
Everyone stared at her in awkward silence, not really sure what to make of what they were looking at.
“What a fascinating introduction, it seems you understand performance art too, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Well nearly everyone was silent, Yusuke had no trouble responding to her.
“Thank you Inari, but performance art isn’t my area of expertise, the only thing I know about it is that you need to have naked women involved.”
“Do you?” Haru tilted her head in confusion.
“Well duh- how else can you tell it’s ‘mature’ or ‘deep’ if you don’t have some lady getting her tits out? It’s the same approach foreign TV shows use.”
“There’s a bit more to it than that…”
“The nudity is the only bit people care about Inari, but people look down on porn so you need to have this vaguely ‘artsy’ vibe so that people don’t feel bad about themselves for enjoying it.”
“Hmph, I retract my earlier compliment, you don’t understand performance art at all.”
Ren approached Futaba and gently removed the pillowcase off of her head.
“What the hell? I need that!”
“You don’t need it Futaba, besides- the ‘white hood’ is a bad look.”
“On me?”
“Just in general.”
Futaba once again faced the thieves, decidedly less confident than when she had her ‘armor’ on. Ann approached her, with a friendly smile.
“Nice to meet you again, I’m Ann Takamaki, thanks for helping us out back in the pyramid, you were amazing.”
“Just typed in some cheat codes, no biggie.”
“It IS a biggie, very biggie! You really saved our bacon.”
“You were helping me out after all.”
“You even took down Medjed.” Ryuji joined in. “Ren told me all about it, I don’t get how hacking battles work- like AT ALL- but you really saved our asses twice over. Oh- Ryuji Sakamoto.”
“Bacon asses.”
“Huh?”
“Just following logic.”
“How is that logical?”
“No no, she has a point.”
“Yusuke?”
“Is the bacon wholly separate from the asses?”
“Ren what’s going on?”
“You got me, I’m lost too.”
Haru was shuffling nervously, watching the back and forth. She was the only person here who had no idea who Futaba was- really she barely knew anyone here, she felt like the odd one out even moreso than Futaba. She hadn’t had much of a chance to build up much of a rapport with the others, and just sat awkwardly sipping her tea trying to think of a way to interject. She nearly dropped her tea when Futaba rushed over to her- or rather- to Morgana sat next to her.
“The not-kitty!”
“Uh, hi? I guess that’s better than being called ‘kitty’ but I still don’t like it.”
“Fine fine, Morgana.” Futaba started playing with Morgana’s cheeks, grinning all the while as he put up a halfhearted fight.
“I’m not feeling very respected right now! I was a founding member I’ll have you know!”
“For real?” Futaba turned back to Ren, who nodded.
“Yup, he taught us everything we know, we definitely wouldn’t have gotten this far without them.”
Morgana stared at him wide-eyed.
“Do you… do you really think that Jo—ARGH!” He was cut off when Futaba resumed her pulling of his cheeks. “Dammit- this is abuse!” he finally slapped her hand away and shuffled away to the other side of the table.
Futaba was about to just follow him, before Haru finally worked up the nerve to speak herself.
“So you’re Futaba?”
“Hm?”
“I didn’t think you’d be nudist too.”
“Yup, pants are oppressive.”
Haru laughed.
“I wouldn’t know, I always wear skirts.”
Futaba stared at her for a little while, Haru not really being sure how to feel about being studied so intently, but figured it was only fair- she was studying Futaba’s body pretty intently too.
“You’re not as scary as Makoto made you sound.”
“She said I’m scary?”
“NO! I was just… uh…” Makoto scrambled to try and find the right words, but they wouldn’t come to her.
“I suppose I can understand, I did misunderstand her relationship with Ren that one time.”
“I think she’s more thinking about that time you turned cognitive-Sugi-whatever’s head into a crumpled up piece of paper…” Ryuji mumbled quietly enough neither Futaba nor Haru could hear.
“Well I promise I’m not scary Futaba-chan. You don’t go to Shujin do you?”
“Nah, I haven’t gone to school in a while, I’d be a first-year if I did go though.”
“I see, you’d be the same age then…”
“Hm?”
“N-nothing.”
“You hear that Ryuji?” Morgana smirked. “She doesn’t go to school at all and even she’s smarter than you.”
“’Eff off Cat! She became a persona user and literally one minute later she was already better than you so what does that say?”
“You wanna say that again Bonehead?”
Both froze in fear when they heard the distinctive sound of Makoto marching over to the both of them. She didn’t even have to say anything, she just glared at them both, and they both hung their heads and apologized.
Futaba snickered.
“She really is the Mom.”
“I’m no one’s mother!”
“Yet…”
“R-Ren!”
“And he’s obviously the Dad. I’m shocked.” Futaba said sarcastically.
“Hi ‘Shocked’, I’m Ren.”
“Ren don’t encourage her!”
A lightbulb suddenly went off, and Haru snapped her fingers.
“Mamakoto!”
Ren loved her angry blushing face. So did Futaba- judging by her annoying smirk.
“Everyone’s ganging up on Mom.”
“Would you all quit it? We’re supposed to be helping Futaba overcome her shyness.”
“She seems perfectly confident to me.” Yusuke said.
Ann smiled.
“Yeah, it really was sudden, but compared to when she first came up here, she seems to be bantering just fine.”
Futaba shrunk in on herself a bit.
“Don’t call attention to it, that just makes it awkward.”
Ren smiled directly at Futaba.
“I think you cleared that mission just fine.”
Futaba returned to the bed, sat down, and hid behind her legs.
“I guess this isn’t so bad.”
“You’ll be a social master in no time.”
“Hard pass… this was easy, it’s not as if you were strangers… except Haru.”
Haru nervously fiddled with her hair.
“I hope I won’t feel like a stranger to you for much longer.”
Futaba stared at her a while, before nodding.
“Mm.”
She looked at the others, who were either shooting her friendly looks, or bantering with eachother.
“Maybe this really is okay…”
She flinched when she noticed Yusuke’s hyper-intense gaze. Her instinct was to think he wanted to attack her, and was about to panic before she noticed the sketchpad in his hands, and his pencil furiously shooting around the page.
“Uh, am I nude modelling right now?”
“Hm?” Ren shrugged. “Oh yeah, candid sketching is just something Yusuke likes to do, you’ll get used to it.”
“Dammit, you should have told me! I need to do a cool pose.” She began to get up before Yusuke dramatically called out for her to freeze.
“No- return to your previous pose. The natural beauty is far more desirable than any forced or artificial pose. Fear not, I shall not take long to complete it.”
“R-really?”
“Indeed, just stay where you are, I shall capture you perfectly, fear not.”
“I- I guess… sure… can I see afterwards?”
“Of course.”
Futaba smiled.
“Sick. One more thing:”
“Hm?”
“Do you mind making my boobs a bit bigger in the sketch?”
“Bigger?”
“Yeah not too crazy, like 6 or 7 cup sizes.”
“That’s ‘a bit bigger’ is it?” Ann shook her head in exasperation.
“Oh, and elf ears! Maybe a big octopus behind me!”
“Why would there be an octopus?”
“Don’t ask Makoto…”
“Ren?”
“Trust me, don’t ask.”
“…Okay?”
“Inari- do you take commissions?”
“Commissions? I’m not wholly opposed to the idea if what’s being suggested speaks to me, what did you have in mind?”
“I’m working on a nudist AU fic of Featherman, having illustrations would make it even more awesome!”
“A nudist AU?” Makoto scratched the side of her head.
Ren leaned over to her.
“AU means ‘alternate universe’, basically she wants to rewrite the series but have them being nudists- or something.”
“Right…” Makoto found the idea questionable; she wasn’t sure why anyone would waste that much time writing about fictional characters that aren’t even their own just going through the story naked, seemed like a very questionable way to spend one’s time. “I guess so long as she’s having fun…”
“Still, I’ll call today a step forward, wouldn’t you Futaba?”
She looked up to him, not wanting to move so much as to ruin her pose, and while her knees still hid her mouth so he couldn’t tell if she was smiling, she nodded.
“Excellent, next step is us going out somewhere together.”
“OUTSIDE?!”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
“…Can I wear the pillowcase?”
“No.”
“Biblethump…”
“…Ren?”
“It means she doesn’t like the idea.”
“Okay.”
Notes:
A bit on the shorter side, mostly a transitional chapter, but now we can have all the thieves doing stuff together.
Chapter Text
It was fair to say Futaba’s integration into the Phantom Thieves’ social circle was going well, she had her awkward moments but they were all awkward in their own ways to begin with, so she fit right in; it was only natural when the group were all naturally outcasts. Ren had dedicated himself to helping Futaba get used to being outdoors, and even being a buffer between her and the other thieves, though that duty was also shared by Makoto. Futaba really had warmed up to the two of them very quickly, seemingly skipping over the nervous phase she had with everyone but them and Yusuke (whose own brand of disarming ‘weird’ really helped them get along).
The group had decided to take a beach trip together on monday, one last outing before the end of summer vacation. Futaba called it “The final low rank quest before I can move onto high rank”, whatever that meant- Makoto wasn’t sure, but Ren and the others seemed to understand it just fine, so Makoto just went along with it without questioning (though she suspected Haru was similarly clueless, just nodded along to be polite, and no one was ever fully aware of what was going on in Yusuke’s head).
While they were all looking forward to the beach trip, they did still have a few days to kill before then. Makoto was currently at home, so was Sae- which would be a good thing but as usual she was too swamped with work to do anything with her sister. Makoto had planned to just use today to study some more, but right now- as she sat at her desk, multiple textbooks open in front of her, vague scribbles that just barely resembled notes in her notebooks, tapping her pen against the page absentmindedly, she just couldn’t get into it.
Her brain felt like it was stuck in foot-deep mud, her mind wouldn’t obey her, her thoughts would not heed her desires, her will had totally checked out for the day. Taking a hot shower had done nothing to reinvigorate her drive, literal hours had passed since she had even finished a sentence. It was nothing less than pathetic. She leant back in her chair, staring at the ceiling, though not for long as she fell forward, now face-down in her notebook. She let out the longest, deepest, heaviest groan of her entire life, as the last scraps of her will to study left her body.
“I’m horny…”
Makoto had also of course tried masturbating as a way to clear her mind, but she just lost enthusiasm midway through, it just wasn’t giving her what she needed.
“I think we both know what you actually need.” The voice from within herself spoke. Not quite her own voice, though she supposed it technically was.
Johanna- or rather- what was once Johanna. As her relationship with Ren grew, as she opened herself to him, that part of her changed too. She wasn’t sure exactly when it happened, she only noticed the difference between the time they had their first kiss and the time she resolved to pursue her dream of becoming a police commissioner, heading an organization to fight corruption and protect people from all the ‘Kaneshiro’s and ‘Tsukasa’s of the world. When she had decided who she truly wants to be, Anat was born- or perhaps reborn- inside of her.
She had expected Anat to make her physical debut during the crisis in Haru’s palace, but she never got her chance when Haru had her own awakening and used Ryuji’s bat to turn the cognitive Sugimura into a stepped-on bag of potato chips. Still, regardless of missing her chance to get some action, Anat was still fully awake and present with Makoto at all times, and right now she had a very different kind of ‘action’ on her mind.
‘I know Anat, I know…’
“Then why don’t you call him? We need some of that yummy Joker dick.”
‘God I really do…’
“W-wow, I expected you to put up a fight about that, to deny it or something.”
‘I am thou, thou art a pain in the ass who already knows my mind, I don’t have the energy to pointlessly lie to you’
“Fair enough. Call him then.”
‘Easier said than done.’
“Is it though? I very much doubt he’ll say no. And besides- you’ve already fucked once, in front of a crowd no less, a booty call is nothing compared to that.”
‘That’s different though. That time was a result of us both getting too carried away, getting caught up in the mood, it was less a matter of us deciding to have sex and more that we both decided to just give in to our temptations. But calling him now- I’d be explicitly calling him out of the blue just for sex, that sends a completely different message.’
“I’ll let you in on a secret Makoto, men typically don’t find the willingness to fuck them to be an unattractive or unappealing trait.”
‘Y’know for a supposed goddess or whatever you’re pretty blunt. Wait are you a goddess? Are you THE Anat? How does that even work? Ren has Arséne who’s a book character so…’
“The metaverse- as you call it- is weird, we are what we are in the same way the shadows are, just don’t worry about it. The dick is FAR less confusing, and far more pressing of an issue, let’s get back to that.”
‘I guess…’
“It’s normal for couples to have sex, just go for it.”
‘I mean… yeah I feel you’re gonna win this argument, let’s just skip to the part where I give in.’
“Now you’re speaking my language.”
‘But Sis is home, I can’t bring him here.’
“His place it is.”
‘His place is a public café, that’s a no go.’
“Audiences weren’t a problem before.”
‘I’m not going to have sex with him within earshot of his caretaker and the nice elderly couple who are always hanging out there, I have some standards.’
“Honestly I think that’d just serve to improve the caretaker’s opinion of Ren.”
‘I don’t care. We need a neutral middle ground, nice and private.’
“Love hotel?”
‘More discreet. I know- school’s still out, we’ll do it in the student council room.’
“Yo that’s hot.”
‘I wasn’t thinking about it like that.’
“For real? When you head back to school and you’re working, you’ll be able to think ‘I got some S-rank dick on this desk’.”
‘S-rank? Ren’s rubbing off on you.’
“Now you can rub him off, this’ll be a good day.”
‘Times like this I have a hard time believing you’re a part of me. Though that has given me an idea of something I wanted to try with him. I better start making preparations now.’
Makoto reached down behind her desk, picking up an unmarked box she had discreetly hidden there.
‘Didn’t think I’d be trying this so soon but…’
~ ~ ~
“Yo thanks for helping out Renren.”
“It’s no trouble Eiko.” Ren was being mostly genuine, though he did think it was a little unfair that he had to carry all the shopping AND Eiko’s purse for the whole trip through the underground mall. Helping her buy everything she needed for her friends’ nude school debut come the end of summer vacation was something he was happy to do, but he was much less enthusiastic about pack mule duty.
“You sure these are all the same products Makoto uses?”
“I think so, she obviously doesn’t tell me her full skin-care routine, but we’ve talked about the which products worked the best for her at least.”
“Skin-care is VERY important for us nudists after all, especially foot care. The city isn’t as rough on them as everyone seems to think, but it’s still something to think about.”
“I guess since everyone relies on shoes too much?”
“Maybe, I dunno. I just wanna keep them looking nice for all the perverts like you who keep staring at them.”
“I wasn’t staring…”
“LOL.”
“I really wasn’t! Whatever, is this everything you wanted to get for them?”
“Pretty much, they’re all the hygiene products I can safely get with you around anyway.”
“With me around?”
“Just trust me on this one Ren-kun, us girls need more than you might realize.”
“I’m not as clueless as you might think, I know what kind of products you’re talking about, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, I understand.”
“No you don’t. We’re friends of course, but there are certain things we just don’t want to broadcast to males we know. Even us nudists want to keep certain aspects of our bodies private.”
“Alright, alright. I still think it’s not worth worrying about, since I already know, but fine.”
Eiko tutted to herself, which Ren chose to ignore.
“Anyway just need to pick up some nail polish and we can start heading back. Speaking of which I should tell the Kosei nudists about all these products too, see if they know of any alternatives.”
“Might be worth bringing them shopping too, if nothing else it’ll be good for bonding.”
“Not a bad idea, besides they all look kinda pale- especially Togo-chan, some sun would really do her some good.”
“I guess Shogi isn’t a sport that gets you outdoors much.”
“There are tables in the park, I could at least get her to play there.”
“Maybe… I hope she doesn’t make too much of a scene.”
“A scene? How can shogi make a scene? The clicking sound is nice an’ all, but it’s not really known for being theatrical.”
Ren chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“You haven’t seen her play.”
“Now you’re being all coy, maybe I should play her sometime, see what the hell you’re being such a weirdo about.”
“You know how to play? Didn’t take you as the type.”
“Why? Because you think I’m some sorta airhead?”
“…A little bit?”
“’Eff off Ren. I’m in the top 50 of my grade, thanks to Mako-chan’s tutoring.”
“That’s not nothing I suppose… it’s not much, but it’s not nothing.”
“Rude, just cuz I can’t keep up with the super nerd couple.”
“Ha, sorry.”
“Both top of your grades, the hell… Maybe that’s part of why she went for you. Maybe she’s like those amazon warrior ladies who’s all like ‘I will only marry someone who can best me in combat’, except instead of combat it’s exam results.”
“That’s closer to the truth than you might realize.”
“But yeah, I know how to play Shogi, used to play it with my grandpa when I was little, he was a big fan of the game and taught all of us how to play. I went off it as I grew up since it’s kind of a dork game… but I dunno, recently I’ve developed something of a soft spot for dorks, I wonder who’s to blame for that.”
“I wonder…”
Ren’s phone suddenly went off, he would have loved to answer it but his hands were already full with shopping bags.
“Uh, Eiko? Could you give me a hand for a second?” He held out his right hand.
She smirked deviously.
“Not a problem.”
She ignored his hand offering her the bags, and instead just reached into his trouser pockets.
“EIKO! You can’t just—”
She pulled out his phone.
“Oh sorry, did I come too close to something else?” She laughed before looking at the phone. “Oh it’s Nudie Prez, it’s probably important.”
She answered it and swiftly placed the phone by Ren’s ear, he had to just grip it with his shoulder, but at least he could speak.
“Hey Mako, what’s up?”
“Ren? What are you doing right now?”
“I’m helping Eiko with her ‘back-to-school’ shopping. I’m on pack mule duty.”
“Mule…”
“Mako?”
“Nevermind, do you think you could meet me at the school, ASAP?”
“ASAP? Sure I’ll get there as quick as I can, but is everything alright?”
There was a worrying pause.
“Mako?”
“S-sorry, it’s not an emergency… per say. But I just need you to get here quickly- as quick as you can. In the student council room, I’ll leave the back entrance open for you.”
“W-wait, do you—”
“D-don’t dawdle!” and she hung up.
“Everything cool Renren?” Eiko looked up at him inquisitively.
“Sorry Eiko, we need to wrap this up like- right now. Makoto needs me for something.”
“Oh dear, is it serious? Anything I can help with?”
That question did prompt a dirty thought in Ren’s mind, which he felt a little guilty about.
“No it’s fine, I can handle it.”
“R-right, just get the bags to my train and I’ll handle it from there.”
Ren was hoping he could just hand her the bags right here and be off immediately, but he supposed he could afford the 2-3 minutes to help Eiko through these crowds at least. Needless to say, if his suspicions of Makoto’s needs were accurate, he was VERY eager to get going as soon as possible.
~ ~ ~
His suspicions were accurate- as it happens. He had made his way in through Shujin’s back entrance, thankfully not attracting any attention as he discreetly made his way into the empty school. Having the keys to get inside was one of the more substantial perks of being student council president. Speaking of which- Ren never in his life expected to walk into the student council room and find the president already bent over her desk, bottle of lube very prominently sitting next to her- but he always sort of hoped he’d see a sight like this.
He didn’t take Makoto as the euphemism type, but she had clearly spent the time she was waiting lubing up preparing her ‘back entrance’. He was about to ask “are you sure about this?” but realized it was probably a silly question. ‘Bent over the desk for one’s boyfriend, lubed asshole at the ready’ wasn’t really a position an indecisive woman would typically put herself in.
“Mako…”
He still felt he should say something out loud, make it clear that it was him who showed up and not say- a random member of staff. Thinking about it he realized this was a rather risky play on her part, uncharacteristic for someone as methodical as her, which only spoke to how urgent this must have been for her. She looked around at him, but didn’t say anything, she just used her hands to grab and pull apart her buttocks, which sent a clearer message than any words ever could. She was in NO MOOD to waste time, so Ren decided to be as helpful as possible, and waste no time removing his trousers and fulfilling Makoto’s desires.
“FUCK!” She cried out as he slid inside.
“Was that too fast? I didn’t hurt you did I?”
“Holy shit Ren…”
“Mako?”
“Fuck me!”
Ren was good at following instructions, especially his Queen’s.
“GODFUCK! I didn’t think it’d be this intense.”
“You’ve—aah—you’ve been wanting to try this Makoto?”
“Shut up! We’ll talk afterwards, just fuck my ass!”
“Y-yes Ma’am!”
Okay, so Ren learnt something new today, Makoto REALLY liked getting it up the ass, this was very useful information to have. If this could get a girl as dignified as her to shout and curse like a sailor, then it was definitely going to become a fast favourite for the two of them.
“MMMRRGHHGH…” was the closet Makoto could get to saying ‘wow Ren, you’re doing a great job, please keep up the hard work’ as she pounded the desk with her fists.
Ren really wished he could see her face right now, he could only imagine how contorted in pleasure it must have been, that’s not to say he didn’t try to catch a glimpse in their reflection in the window, but her hair obscured her face too much for him to properly appreciate it.
“Fucking hell Ren…”
He noted that she probably swore more times in the past few minutes than she had in the entire time he had known her, by a huge margin, this activity really flipped a switch in her.
“Ren… I’m going to…”
Her imminent orgasm presented him with a unique problem: when they last had sex he came first and switched over to oral and dexterity-based pleasuring, now Makoto was about to cum first, he now wanted to try and make himself cum faster to try and get them to climax at the same time, or as close to eachother as possible. The only method he could think of was slowing down a bit to ‘reel her back’ a little bit, give himself more time… unfortunately he was way too into this to discipline himself like that. Despite his mind saying “slow down”, his body was saying “HARDER! FASTER!” which was quite the coincidence, since Makoto was shouting the exact same thing.
‘Harder and faster’ won out. Makoto cried out, screamed even as she squirted down the side of her desk and onto the floor. Ren never thought he’d be good enough to elicit a genuine scream of pleasure, but it was nice to have a little ego booster like that now and again, and it went a long way to bringing him to climax too, managing to cum about 20-30 seconds after her. It was a good thing they went for anal, because he only in this moment realized he forgot to wear a condom- a fact Makoto too only just now felt… it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
“R…Ren…”
“Mako?”
“In my bag… water…”
“Right…”
Ren pulled himself free, with a pleasing ‘pop’ and an even more pleasing groan from his girlfriend, he was free to limp towards the bag on the deskchair. Inside he found two water bottles, a couple rolls of paper towels, an extra bottle of lube, and an enema kit. It was reassuring that despite this being a first for both of them, and really not something he expected from her at all, she was still the same smart girl he knew, making the proper preparations for such an activity.
Seeing as she was still face down on the desk, knees wobbling and breathing heavily, Ren took it upon himself to help her drink before he drank himself. He guided her over to a free seat to set her down, she looked at him with a somewhat sleepy but very content smile.
“That wasn’t half bad Ren…”
“Ha, from the sounds you made I feel I did better than ‘not half bad’.”
She blushed.
“I may have gotten carried away… I hope you don’t think of me as vulgar now.”
“Are you asking if fucking you in the ass made me love you less? Because if so that’s a pretty dumb question.”
“I guess I won’t ask then.” She chuckled, which made Ren very happy. They sat next to eachother and leant against one another for a while.
“Actually Ren…”
“Hm?”
“I’d love to just snuggle for a while, but we should probably clean up… and leave the windows open… I don’t want people asking questions about the stains or the smell…”
“Probably a good idea…”
Despite their words, neither of them moved an inch.
“I should probably take a shower too before I leave. I’ll use the ones by the gym…”
“Need any help?”
“Shut up Ren.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“I absolutely can.”
“Heh, sorry.”
Of course they did eventually have to get up and start cleaning up after themselves, and in Ren’s case get dressed.
“Uh… Ren?”
“Hm?”
“Do I… can you uh…”
“What’s wrong?”
“This is REALLY embarrassing to ask out loud, so please- please don’t laugh, okay?”
“Okay. I won’t laugh.”
“You promise?”
“Yes I promise.”
“Can you… is it possible to tell my ass has been fucked by looking?”
Not laughing was a real challenge for Ren, but he was able to summon all his willpower to keep a straight face.
“I mean… maybe? It’ll probably be fine after the shower, no chance of leaking.”
Makoto went bright red.
“Nudism has it’s disadvantages I suppose…”
Ren’s phone went off again, groaning, he pulled it out and looked at the screen. He froze.
“Ren? You good?”
“It’s Futaba.”
“Oh? What does she want?”
“So uh… you know how she would contact me as ‘Alibaba’ before we met her?”
“…Yeah?”
“And how she knew we were Phantom Thieves?”
“Right?”
“Well it turns out she did all that via a bug.”
“A bug?”
“In my phone, she must have done it one night as I was sleeping.”
Makoto brought her hand to her chin in thought.
“I see… that’s how she did it, all that time she was listening to us through your phone.” Realization slowly dawned on Makoto.
“She only told me now, and she never removed it…”
“…I see… so she can still hear us?”
Ren got another text.
“Futaba says ‘yes’.”
Both Ren and Makoto went their reddest yet.
“So she heard… all that?”
Another notification.
“She says ‘yes’ again.” One more notification. “She says it sounded like you were having a lot of fun.” Notification. “And she wants a detailed report from you on what it felt like…”
“She’s not getting that.”
Notification.
“She says ‘lame’.”
Notes:
Don't worry, Futaba isn't gonna do anything with this information, she's just a voyeur who has been corrupted by unrestricted internet porn for far too long
Chapter 34: Life's a... what was it again?
Summary:
A day out
Chapter Text
“MAAAAN I love the beach!”
“Ryuji I’m not gonna judge you for… appreciating the views we’re getting, but try not to let it show on your face too much, it’s off-putting.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever Ren.”
If there’s one thing coming here had made clear, it’s that the sight of girls showing off their bodies would NEVER stop being interesting. Even though Ren, Ryuji, and Yusuke spent most of their time around at least one literal full-time nudist, one who didn’t mind them staring at that, they still were very grateful for the sight of many a young lady frolicking around in their colorful bikini. Ryuji leered shamelessly- or rather- forgetting the concept of shame. Ren was much more polite, making an effort to pretend he wasn’t leering- just as a gentleman should. Yusuke framed the sight with his fingers, it was hard to say whether his own nudity made that better or worse, Ren noted that it meant plenty of girls were leering at him too, so maybe that evened it out.
They were currently stood outside the changing rooms with Morgana (whose cat body disguised any of his own attempts at leering) waiting for the girls to get changed- or rather- waiting for Ann and Haru to get changed, while Makoto helped give Futaba the courage to step outside with the rest of them.
Ren chuckled.
“Well I suppose so long as you keep your excitement only showing on your face and not through your trunks you should be fine.”
“Huh?!” Ryuji looked downwards. “It’s not showing is it? Okay good.” He angrily side-eyed Ren, who was stifling his laughter, trying to hide his smirk with his fist. “Dick.”
“Yeah that’s what I was talking about.”
“No I meant—”
“We’re ready!”
Ann called out and was the first to step out of the changing room, and the boys were rather taken aback by the sight. Her string bikini left very little to the imagination; for a girl so adamantly opposed to the idea of nudity, she really didn’t have any problems showing them damn-near everything, that last 4-5% of her skin that’s still hidden really was important apparently. Haru was not far behind, and while her swimsuit was a far more modest one-piece, it had a very different- but no less enthralling- appeal to it.
“I’m sorry.” Haru blushed a little, holding her sunhat in place as the breeze blew by. “When I left the house today I really thought this suit still fit me…”
“It’s not uncomfortable is it?” Ren asked, trying not to look too closely at the way the suit indented into the flesh of her hips. ‘Thicc’ and ‘appetising’ were the words that came to the boy’s minds, but none of them dare say out loud of course.
“No, it’s not so bad, I just worry I look a bit silly next to everyone else.”
“Nah you look fine.” Ryuji couldn’t decide which sight was more appealing to him- the abundance of flesh on display from Ann, only the bare essentials being covered, or Haru giving him his first first-hand experience with cameltoe- which in a weird way was more exciting than the sight of Makoto just casually showing her bare pussy all the time. “I probably wouldn’t have noticed if you didn’t point it out.”
“That’s horseshit and you know it Ryuji.” Ann laughed, putting one arm around Ryuji’s neck while poking him with her free hand. “You’re like ‘male gaze’ given physical form.”
“I’m not staring that much!”
“So you admit that you’re staring.”
“Man lay off.”
“Where are the other two?” Ren asked.
“Coming!” Makoto stepped out into the sun, still as bare as ever. She and Ren exchanged a smile. “Futaba is right here.” She turned back into the dressing room. “Wait Futaba- you’re not going to—”
Before she could finish her sentence Futaba had stepped past her- also bare… well, almost, it depended if one counted her bandaged head as covering. The others wondered how she could breathe- let alone see- with that thing on.
“See! I’m totally ready for this!” Futaba said proudly… or at least that’s what everyone assumed, it was hard to tell for sure given how muffled her voice was.
“Futaba, why are you wearing that?”
“It’s my armor! I can handle the crowds so long as I have this on.” She approached them as she spoke- or tried to- turns out she couldn’t see with it on and ended up stubbing her toe on the door. “ARGH! ATTACK!”
Makoto sighed, steadied Futaba by the shoulders, then began to swiftly unwrap her improvised mask.
“NO! It’s too early for my face reveal! I have to save that for when I’m declining in relevance!”
“You’re fine Futaba-chan, you’re with friends, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Futaba blinked several times, her eyes adjusting to the bright outdoors. She was already wearing her glasses (which couldn’t have been comfortable under all those wrappings, but nevermind) but she was met with Makoto’s friendly face, and Ren’s just behind her’s.
“It’s just us.”
“Just you guys…” She looked around at the others, and nodded. “I get it, everyone else is just part of the background! That’s doable, maybe, probably, kinda.”
Ren laughed.
“Sure, that’s not a bad way of thinking about it.”
Futaba’s eyes lingered on Ann and Haru.
“Tig ol’ bitties.”
Ann turned away and crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance, Haru didn’t seem to mind though- they were starting to think she wasn’t unaware of how she was poking through the suit and in actuality she just didn’t mind, though the others were much more subtle about sneaking glances than Futaba or Ryuji were though.
“We better go secure a spot.” Morgana spoke after FINALLY tearing his eyes away from ‘Lady Ann’. “I scouted ahead earlier and found a few good options, hopefully they haven’t been taken yet.”
“Sure, let’s get going.” Makoto took Ren’s hand, she was still shy about PDAs, but she mustered up the courage on this occasion at least, which made Ren very happy, and earned them a few coy looks from the rest of the group.”
“Lol, GAY!”
“Futaba what does ‘gay’ even mean in your vocabulary?”
“Just ignore her Ann.”
~ ~ ~
The group had managed to find a spot to set up their blanket and parasol. While the three naked teens among them did draw a fair bit of attention, they were still in open enough of a space to ignore the rest of the public for the most part, though the occasional shutter of a camera phone was still quite distracting.
“Don’t you ever get tired of it Makoto?”
“To be honest, yes it really does get smothering sometimes, but it’s not so bad now that more nudists are joining in, and they’ve all mostly faded into the background for me most of the time.” She sat down and dug her feet into the sand. “It’s hot, but at least it’s not burning me like the sand in Futaba’s palace.”
“Really? I thought it was surprisingly cool there.”
“You weren’t out in the actual desert like we were Futaba-san.” Yusuke held his forehead. “No heat will ever compare to that nightmare.”
“A desert?” Haru tilted her head. “I’ve only seen my own palace, and even then not much of it, are things like deserts normal?”
“I don’t think we can really call anything about the Metaverse ‘normal’.” Ren handed out water bottles to everyone, taking a sip of his own. “Pretty much anything goes. Haru’s was probably the nicest of all the ones we went to, no shadows, everyone was… maybe not ‘friendly’ but agreeable enough, and Neko—”
Makoto coughed really loudly.
“Are you okay Mako-chan?”
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you.” She said while glaring at Ren, who averted his eyes apologetically.
“What was that about a neko-whatever?”
“N-nothing Futaba.” Ren took another swig of his water.
“Man now I’m curious, I’ve still got the app back home, maybe I should check it out sometime.”
“Can’t, palaces collapse after the change of heart, or in yours and Haru’s cases once you awoke to your Personas.”
“What a pisser.” Futaba’s shoulders dropped. “Bet there was tons of interesting stuff in there.”
“I’ll admit, I’m curious as to what else was going on in mine.” Haru subtly chewed her lower lip. “Those posters outside were VERY interesting…”
“Well they’re gone, and that’s for the best, so let’s move on.”
“Are you okay Makoto-san, you look rather red, is the sun getting to you?”
“No Yusuke, I said I’m fine.”
“I could apply some sunblock to you if you need it?” Ren said reaching into his bag.
“Thank you Ren, but I already applied some before I came out today.”
“Oh… okay.”
Ann couldn’t help but snicker at how disappointed Ren sounded right now.
“I always apply plenty of sunblock before going out anyway. Sunburn is a nudist’s worst enemy.”
“That and pointed stones.”
“We’re smart enough to look where we’re going Ann… Though I’d definitely need shoes once I become a police officer, I can hardly give up chasing a suspect because I’m reluctant to run across less friendly ground.”
“Man imagine being chased down by a naked policewoman.” Ryuji looked to the sky, picturing it. “Honestly imagining Makoto doing that is still pretty scary…”
“Don’t give me a reason to arrest you then.”
“Yes Ma’am…”
“Eheheh.” Futaba giggled. “It’s the perfect strategy, all the time the dude is running away, he has to constantly fight the urge to look back at the wildly bouncing titties- slowing himself down and letting you catch him, and dealing with his messed up up blood flow.”
“His blood flow? Oh…” Makoto shook her head. “I doubt it’ll work like that, but sure, why not?”
“Wouldn’t all the bouncing hurt?”
“Part of it is in how you run, and I’m sure to always train the muscles and tendons holding them up in the first place.” Makoto pointed to her toned pectoral muscles. “Healthy living has always been important to me, but going nudist provides even more motivation to stay fit.”
“Well your efforts are paying off very well Mako-chan!”
“Why thank you.” Makoto turned to Futaba. “Perhaps I could help you on that front too.”
Futaba suddenly looked terrified.
“I’m gonna have to exercise?”
“That and I really want to have to look at your diet.”
“Dieting too? Fuuuuck…” She turned to Ren. “Ren you won’t let her do that to me, right? She’ll listen to you.”
“Nah, I’m not going against her on this.”
“Man, she’s got you henpecked.”
“I do not have him ‘henpecked’, do I Ren?”
“No dear, of course not.”
Makoto rolled her eyes, and Futaba’s shoulders dropped in defeat.
“Ass-slappage…”
Ann stood up and stretched.
“Come on guys, we didn’t come all the way to the beach to just sit around in the shade, we should try renting one of those banana boats together.”
“Oh that sounds fun.” Haru clapped her hands. “Oh, but it’s 3 people per boat, how are we gonna split ourselves up?”
“I don’t want the guys' junk pressing against my back” Futaba said, raising her hand.
“Maybe one for the guys, one for the girls.”
“But there are 4 girls, someone is gonna be left out.”
“AHEM!” Morgana glared at everyone “There are 4 guys too, I still count!”
“Would they even let you on?” Ryuji asked.
“They’d probably be worried about his claws puncturing the boat.” Yusuke thought aloud, earning a more intense glare from the notcat.
“I don’t mind being grouped up with a boy.” Haru smiled. “I’ll go in the middle, I’ll keep Futaba-chan safe in front of me, and Yusuke-kun can ride behind me.”
“I don’t mind that.”
The others suspected a possible ulterior motive to Yusuke agreeing so fast, but that paled in comparison to the obvious ulterior motives coming from Haru herself, not so subtly suggesting putting herself in a vice grip between two nudists.
“Yo a pillow-y banana boat ride? I’m down.” Futaba clambered to her feet inelegantly, rapid movement of her body still being a relatively new endeavour for her. “You can ride on my head or something Mona.”
“I guess I’ll take it…”
“Pillow-y?” Haru tilted her head
“Okay so Futaba-Haru-Yusuke on one, with a bonus Morgana I guess. I suppose I might be okay riding with a boy myself so long as he’s in front. Don’t want to give Ryuji the opportunity to get grabby.”
“The hell Ann? Is your view of us really that low? And why’d you single me out?”
“Because I know you.”
“I’ve never ‘gotten grabby’ before!”
“Alright alright, relax you two.” Makoto stepped in between the two of them. “Ryuji, and Ann can take the first and second spots, so the last spot can go to Ren.”
“Wait a sec, me? What about you?”
“It’s fine, I’m okay watching everyone else have fun.”
“No no, you’re taking the last spot.”
“How’s it any better you been left out than me?”
“Because Ann said she doesn’t want a guy behind her.”
“I mean… yeah she did but uh… you can go in the middle and her in the back, maybe?”
“Seriously Makoto, you go ahead, I’ll look after our stuff.”
“But—”
“We can switch around afterwards, it’s fine. I’m not gonna be able to enjoy myself unless you’re having fun, you’ve probably never done something like this before, have you?”
Makoto averted her eyes.
“Well no, I haven’t.”
“Well it’s decided then, you guys have fun!”
Ann looked down at Ren sympathetically, but decided to go along with his wishes, she hooked her arms around the arms of Ryuji and Makoto respectively.
“You heard the leader, let’s go while they still have spots available!”
She pulled them away as Ren waved after them. He sat back in a position where he could comfortably watch them. Honestly he had never done anything like that before either, but he was sure he’d get his chance eventually. And besides- he’d feel awkward being that close to Ann without Makoto herself present, he was still worried of giving her the wrong impression.
~ ~ ~
Ren wasn’t sure why exactly, but he was starting to feel rather sleepy in this heat. The heat may have been nothing compared to the desert, but that wasn’t to say it was comfortable either. He was hoping the others would get back soon so he could take a dip in the ocean to cool off, but despite their boat rides ending, Futaba had gotten distracted, and dragged away a very happy-looking Haru along with her, Yusuke had absentmindedly wandered off somewhere, and he wasn’t sure about the other three.
Time slowed to a crawl as he sat in the shade, fiddling with his now empty water bottle. He was considering just taking a nap, mentally weighing the risk of someone stealing something vs the appeal of just making the time go faster, when he saw it- or rather- saw her. From the ocean emerged Makoto Niijima, looking gorgeous against the backdrop of the summer sun, droplets of water sliding down her body, causing the sun to shine off of her. To Ren it was as if Aphrodite herself had suddenly appeared before him, and she was walking towards him.
“Heya Ren, sorry- I went for a swim after the boat ride and got too into it. I kept you waiting a while, huh?”
Ren just stared up at her.
“Um… you okay Ren?”
“I’m sorry Mako.”
“Huh? Why are you sorry?”
“I don’t think I’ve told you how beautiful you are for a while now…”
“Ah—” Makoto- predictably- went bright red. “Um… where’s this coming from?”
“I just felt I should tell you more often, so I’m sorry.”
If one didn’t know any better they’d say steam was coming out of Makoto’s ears as she sat down besides him.
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I feel like I should.”
“Well, thank you. It’s really nice to hear you say that out loud…”
The two sat in silence for a while, not quite having the nerve to look at eachother.
“God look at us.” Makoto shook her head. “How are we still getting this flustered over compliments? You’d think we were bashful schoolchildren.”
“I mean we technically are.”
“You know what I mean.” Makoto leant against him. “But really thank you. You’re quite handsome yourself.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure, what kind of question is that?”
“I worry that I look too nerdy.”
“Well whatever you call it, it’s a good look, it suits you.”
“Thank you Mako…”
“You can go for a swim yourself if you like, you must be hot.”
“It won’t be fun unless we’re swimming together.”
“Is that another attempt at flirting?”
“No, it’s just the truth.”
“Well… I suppose I could join you, we’ll just have to get someone else to look after our stuff first.”
“Where are the others anyway?”
“I dunno about Futaba and Haru, or Yusuke for that matter, but Ann and Ryuji are getting us all some shaved ice.”
“Sounds like just what the doctor ordered, but I better find the others, I know Haru is with her, but we did promise Boss we’d look after Futaba.”
“True, hopefully she’s not getting hit on or anything.”
“I’ll go look for her.”
“Sure, I’ll wait here.”
“I shan’t be long, my Queen.”
“Oh shut up you.”
She waved him off as he began scanning the beach for his friends. Futaba was the priority, they didn’t trust she could handle herself as well as the others, not to mention her nudity and Haru’s unintentionally scandalous swimsuit would likely draw them attention, but Ren figured it shouldn’t be too hard to spot the ginger nudist among the crowd.
Though he ended running into Ryuji first, half way through being rejected by some woman he’d never seen before. Ryuji dejectedly kicked at the sand as she left.
“No luck?”
“Ren? Nah, no luck.”
“Bummer.”
“Man you’re so lucky. You’re my bro and I like you, but man I’m so mad you’ve got some hot girlfriend already!”
“Sorry man, I guess I can’t deny the fact that I’m lucky.”
“Is it my hair? Are girls put off by the delinquent look?”
“I think you look fine, though I’m not into dudes myself so maybe I don’t know what people who are into dudes look for. But generally looks isn’t as much of an issue as you might think, maybe you’re just coming onto them wrong?”
“Maybe, I wish I knew what I was doing wrong.”
“Aw well, it’s not like any relationship you’d form here would last, you wouldn’t see them again once summer vacation ended.”
“I guess.”
“Anyway, do you know where the others are? I thought Ann was with you?”
“Nah she was taking too long to pick flavors so I just wandered off.”
“Dude…”
“What?”
Ren sighed.
“Nevermind. Look we should find the others and get back to our spot, especially Futaba, I’m worried about some guy trying to take advantage.”
“Shit, they might try that huh. You’re right man, let’s find her, some guys just think they can use girls for some cheap fun huh?”
Ren stared at Ryuji for a few seconds.
“Yeah, best be safe with her.”
“Joker!”
“Hm? Morgana, you good?”
“Do I look good?” He said, staring up at them grumpily with his fur completely drenched and dripping onto the sand beneath his paws. “I’ve made some regrettable life choices.”
“Ah it’s not summer unless you do something stupid, right?”
“Yeah yeah… bonehead.” Morgana groaned. “Whatever, Haru and Futaba went off this way.”
The boys followed Morgana through the crowd, the notcat hissing at the children kicking sand in his direction as they ran past. Eventually they came across the girls they were looking for.
“Dammit, there are guys there.” Ren noticed a pair of men talking to them, they didn’t seem aggressive or anything at a glance, but considering Futaba was currently cowering behind a clearly annoyed Haru, and that their eyelines were decidedly lower than her face, Ren thought it prudent to step in. Ryuji disagreed, he felt it more appropriate to charge in.
“You two got a problem?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“We were just chatting.”
“Cool, well you’ve had your ‘chat’ and we’re busy, later.”
The guys both tutted and walked away, one dejectedly kicking the sand as he left.
Ryuji turned to the girls.
“You good?”
“We’re fine, thank you Ryuji-kun, they weren’t that bad, just annoying really. You at least saved me having to tell them to fuck off myself.”
“To what?”
“To tell them to ‘please leave’ myself.”
“That’s not what—”
“Conversations really are scary.” Futaba emerged from behind Haru. “I don’t know how you all handle them every day, you’re crazy.”
“We better head back, Ann and Makoto are probably waiting with the shaved ice.”
“Shaved ice sounds hella ballin’ let’s go!” Futaba cheered as she started marching forward, her fear from before gone in an instant as she swung her arms and legs dramatically.
“Other way Futaba.”
Futaba wordlessly did a 180 degree pivot and continued her march, everyone escorting her on the way back.
~ ~ ~
“That’s the good shit, I gotta get Sojiro to start selling it at Leblanc.”
“It’s certainly refreshing.” Haru agreed, happily swaying as she ate.
“Lobsters.” Yusuke held two lobsters under his arm as he ate with his free hand.
“We definitely have to do this again some time.” Ann said, having already finished hers.
“Definitely.” Makoto nodded, subtly leaning against Ren as they both ate. “I haven’t had a beach trip with anyone other than my family before, and even that was years ago.”
“Same.” Ren smiled. “This is probably a pretty cringeworthy thing to say, but having friends is a pretty wonderful thing.”
“You’re right, that is cringe.” Despite her words, Futaba still smiled softly. “But you’re 100% right… I’d, like to do something like this again too.”
“There’s still plenty of stuff we can do together, whether or not you join the team.”
“Volume Ryuji.”
“I know, I know.”
“Joining the team huh…” Futaba shrugged. “Sure.”
“That was easy.”
“I’ve wanted to join for a while.” Futaba’s expression grew more serious. “I want to find out who really killed my mom and why. And I figure the best way to do that is with you guys.”
“I give you my word, we’ll do everything in our power to help you with that.”
“…Thanks Ren, that means a lot…”
Ren turned to Haru.
“And you?”
“Oh? Well, I mean, if you’ll have me.”
“Of course, we’re still gonna help you with your father and this Sugimura.”
“Thank you, I should be able to handle it myself, but having you all supporting me really makes me feel strong enough. So I’ll help you in any way I can too.”
“Yo we need codenames for you both!”
“Codenames?”
“I have an idea for mine!” Haru raised her hand excitedly. “Noir.”
“Noir? Black?” Makoto thought for a moment. “Most of our codenames are in English, so technically ‘Black’ would fit the theme better, but I must admit Noir sounds much nicer.”
“More feminine, and kinda sexy. N-not that that’s the reason I picked it! It just sounds like something a heroic thief would be called, y’know?”
“It’s fine Haru, we understand. Noir it is. What about you Futaba? We could go for your palace theming with something like ‘Pharoh’?”
Futaba gave Ren a disgusted glare.
“I’ll curse you.”
Ren pouted a little.
“I thought that was a nice name…”
Makoto rubbed his back reassuringly.
“Well my abilities are more suited for support than direct combat… I’m thinking ‘Oracle’.”
“Ah, interesting.” Yusuke nodded. “The master of information and navigation, the all-seeing Oracle.”
“Uh, y-yeah! That! That sounds good!”
Ren raised an eyebrow.
“So it’s definitely not because you named yourself after the Batman character?”
“NO! …well yes, but NO! It’s was actually just like that uh, that thing Inari said.”
“Alright. Welcome to the team Oracle.” Ren leaned over and did a ‘knighting’ motion with his hand on each of Futaba’s shoulders. “And Noir.” He repeated the gesture on Haru, who didn’t really get it but found it fun anyway.
Ryuji snickered.
“We got an Oracle and a Joker.” He looked to Makoto. “I guess you’d be commissioner Gordon? And obviously Ann is Catwoman.”
Ann thought for a moment, and shrugged.
“I’ll take it.”
“I guess I’m Nightwing.”
“You’re nowhere close to Nightwing Ryuji, you’re more like one of the grunts with a bat who gets knocked out in one punch.”
“The hell Futaba?”
“Can I be Batman?”
“Sure Mona.”
“You don’t sound like you’re being genuine there.”
“Is Haru the Penguin?”
“She’s too hot to be Penguin.”
“This is getting out of hand, I feel we’ve veered off topic.” Makoto’s protests were ignored, causing Ren to laugh.
“This is kinda dumb… but it’s still nice.”
Makoto looked up to him, and smiled as the other continued to bicker about who was who.
“Yeah, this is nice.”
Chapter 35: Back to school special
Summary:
The Shujin nudists are a real group now
Notes:
Bit of a shorter chapter, can't go straight from the beach trip to the Hawaii trip after all
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“And you’re all sure about this?” Makoto looked up from her desk in the student council office, trying not to think too hard about the memories she had so recently attached to it, and instead focusing on the three girls in front of her- Eiko’s posse.
“Now that I’ve had time to think about it, yes I think I’m ready to join.”
“I’m sure you’ll love it Ai-chan!” Eiko patted her on the shoulder, a big smile on her face- she seemed more excited about this than the girls actually about to strip, which depending on your views might not be surprising.
“Yo I’m down for it.” Aya nodded, brushing her bangs away from her eyes- only for them to fall back in place moments later.
“You’re really not nervous at all?”
“Nah, we can always back out again afterwards anyway.”
Ai shook her head.
“Technically yeah, but once that nude footage is out there- that’s it- it’s out there, we can’t undo that part.”
“Meh, I’ve already posted nudes so it’s fine.”
“For real?” Mieko flinched. “We’ve known you for years, how are we just now learning about this?”
“It’s not really the kinda thing you just announce over lunch…”
Eiko’s expression dropped a little.
“If you’re having second thoughts Ai, you can have a little more time to think about it.”
“Nah, thanks Eiko-chan, but I’m fine with it. Besides- you really do make it look fun.”
“There’s no way we won’t draw attention like this.” Mieko chuckled, before her expression became much more thoughtful. “Before I kept having to dress more and more provocatively, slutty even, does going nudist count as more or less slutty?”
“There are definitely some outfits sluttier than going nude. But I guess it depends on your attitude.” Aya shrugged. “Just try not to come across as desperate.”
“You don’t need to tell me.”
Makoto gave a weak smile.
“Well as student council president I have the authority to add you to the program, you all just need to sign the consent forms here.”
Mieko pushed to the front and signed without hestitation, already stripping off without even waiting for the other girls. Aya was much more casual about it, calmly smiling and adding her own clothes to the pile.
“Hey don’t put yours on top of mine! How will we be able to tell whose is whose?”
“That’s easy Mieko-chan, the child size ones are yours.”
“Bitch.”
“I mean it’s not as if you’ll need them again anyway.” Eiko shrugged.
Ai took a deep breath, and decided to strip before signing, just to make sure she didn’t want to chicken out. Given that everyone else in the room was also nude, she actually felt surprisingly comfortable in her birthday suit, part of her was expecting to get cold feet at the last second, but… no, this felt surprisingly nice. She leant down and signed the form.
Makoto nodded.
“Well it’s official. Third year- Ai Toranosuke, third year- Aya Nakazawa, and third year Mieko Ohara, welcome to the Shujin nudist program.”
“Kick ass.” Eiko shot up a peace sign. “You guys are part of a social movement that’s gonna be bigger than even the Phantom Thieves!”
Makoto smiled.
“Maybe so.”
“Heh.” Aya looked down at her own body, more specifically her bush. “Y’know teachers would always give me shit about my hair, saying dyeing it is against the rules, I’d have to tell them over and over again ‘no, this is my natural hair color’, now I can show them proof!”
Eiko smirked, up until the nudist party even she thought Aya’s short, dirty blonde hair was a dye job, it was amusing seeing that so casually debunked how.
“It’s kinda funny how hair is our primary form of fashion now, I’m happy enough with the side-tie look but I’m jealous of yours Ai-chan. All wavy and brunette like some celebrity, we’re stuck with boring black hair.”
“Black isn’t boring!” Mieko scowled. “…though I only say that because the school won’t let me dye mine, I could pull off pink pretty well, dontcha think?”
“Eh…”
“Whaddya mean ‘eh’?” Mieko grabbed her twintails. “Soon as I get into college, I’m going wild on this hair. Ooo- maybe each tail could be a different color?”
Ai scoffed.
“What, you gonna go for a jester look or something?”
“I think you’ve given me an idea.” Eiko held her chin in thought.
Mieko tilted her head.
“I have?”
Eiko clapped.
“We all gotta go to the hair salon! That includes you too Makoto-chan!”
“M-me?”
Ai raised a curious eyebrow.
“That’d be interesting, I love the braid you’ve gone for, but seeing that all untied might be interesting, having long hair like mine would suit you.”
“Y-you think so?” Makoto bashfully fiddled with the tips of her hair, trying to picture herself with longer hair.
“Betcha Renren would love that too.” Eiko smiled deviously.
“Ren is that weirdo BF of her’s right?”
“He’s not a weirdo!” Makoto glared at Aya, who seemed to ignore her.
“He probably would like it, he gives the impression of the type of guy who’d want to stick her hair up his nose for fun.”
“What the hell kind of impression is that?”
“Then again Makoto shaves down there, so that’s the best way to get it up his nose out the window.”
“We’re talking about that hair now?”
“Probably for the best, it’s awful when you get a hair stuck in your mouth.”
“Okay we’re putting a stop to this line of conversation right this second!” Makoto angrily stood from her desk, trying to ignore Aya’s smug smirk. “Getting back on topic, I’m not opposed to the salon idea, but this braid is only a headband, I can’t ‘let it down’.”
“Oh…”
The girls' disappointment was palpable, Makoto was sure she heard at least one of them tut at her, was the headband reveal really that devastating?
“I’m sure we can still figure out something, Nudie Prez could use a bit of pampering anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re still welcome Makoto-san, don’t worry about it.”
She couldn’t help but feel just a little bit patronized right now.
“We’ll discuss specifics at a later date, but for now we do have classes to get to, break will be over soon.”
“Hold up!” Eiko raised her arm, commanding the room’s attention. “Group selfie.”
“Why?”
“Whaddya mean ‘why’? The number of Shujin nudists just shot up from 2 to 5! We gotta remember this moment.”
“It’s not really much of a moment, we just signed some papers.”
“Thus why we need the selfie- to make it more of a moment.”
Makoto sighed.
“Sure, I suppose we have time for that, do you want me to hold the camera?”
“Huh? Mako-chan you’re gonna be in this too.”
“Huh? Are you sure I wouldn’t be intruding?”
“Y’know for such a smart girl you’re pretty dumb.”
“Hey!”
“You’re still the OGNudist, co-founder of the Tokyo nudist community, this doesn’t happen without you, of course you’ve gotta be included in the celebration.”
Makoto still felt like she was somehow intruding, she was friends with Eiko of course, but the others felt like acquaintances at best, she didn’t count herself among this group. And yet, they were all shooting her friendly faces, Eiko beckoning her over as she set up her phone on a selfie stick. She bashfully smiled back and got up to join them.
“Okay me and Nudie-prez will be up front since we’re the founding members!”
Makoto got into position next to Eiko, feeling her arm around her shoulders, and Ai casually leaning against her back while Aya took a similar position behind Eiko. Mieko was too short to get into frame behind them all, so she climbed up and knelt on Makoto’s desk so she could be seen shooting double peace signs for the camera; Makoto felt it’d be very hypocritical for her to reprimand her for misusing that desk, so she remained silent and shot a peace sign of her own.
Makoto had never been much of a selfie girl, or really found herself attracted to this sort of crowd before. In fact throughout her school career she’d often find girls like this off-putting, dismissing them as ‘bad influences’. But she realized now that she was the judgemental one. These girls were proof that there was plenty of good among them, and they were more than happy to make her feel welcome- even if the nudity was a weird catalyst for such a relationship that she never would have seen coming in the past. She took a moment to appreciate how lucky she was, in just a few short months, she had found not one- but two circles of friends who genuinely saw her as one of their own. She gave a small, but genuine smile for the camera.
Eiko took the picture and the group crowded around to see the final result.
“Sweet! I’mma post this on twitter right away.”
“This isn’t just another opportunity to plug your Onlyfans, is it?”
“I mean it’s in my bio, so kinda? Indirectly? But nah this pic has to be free, this is another big step forward for the Tokyo Nudist movement! Here’s to 5 more nudists! Then 10! Then 100!”
“I’m not sure we’ll get that many.”
“Dammit Makoto-chan, you really don’t have any faith in me, do you?”
“I’m just saying, this is always gonna be a very niche thing.”
“Maybe… that’s kinda nice in its own way too though.” Eiko had a big toothy grin on her face. “In fact I’d even be happy even if we were the only nudists Shujin ever got.”
“I still want some guys though…” Ai pouted. “Yeah, we technically have some, but they’re both at Kosei.”
“You can’t afford to get too distracted Toranosuke-san, at this stage we still have to think about our entrance exams rather than relationships.”
“This coming from the only one of us who already has a boyfriend?”
Makoto blushed a little.
“A-anyway, we really must be getting to class.”
“Time to make our debut I guess.”
“Still a bit nervous.”
“We’ll all go together Ai-chan.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s knock ‘em dead!” Mieko once again led the charge out of the office and into the school proper. Students were already loitering around, a few for the explicit purpose of capturing a few more snaps of the famous nudists- not expecting them to have added three more to their ranks.
Despite the light blush on her face, Mieko stood tall (or as tall as she was able) and strutted down the hall in a fashion that- in her head at least- resembled a glamorous runway model. Aya followed closely behind, not feeling the need to put on as much of a show. Out of habit she went to put her hands into her pockets- only for them to just meet her hips and the air. Not wanting to look silly, she just pretended this was something she always did and strolled along with her hands on her hips.
Makoto and Eiko were of course the most used to all this attention, and just walked along paying their audience no mind as they always did. Or at least Makoto did, Eiko couldn’t help but sneak glances at them, trying to make sure those with cameras caught her ‘good side’, especially that of the newspaper club girl (whose name no one had ever bothered to remember), since she had the highest quality camera.
Ai was the last one out, and walked alongside Eiko.
“Y’know Ai-chan, covering yourself is only gonna make you stand out more.”
Ai kept her hands tighly clasped over her private parts.
“I know I know, lemme do this at my own pace.”
“It’s actually quite fun people looking.”
“It’s really surprising how… physical this all is. I’ve never walked around barefoot outside of the house before.”
“The cool floors feel really nice, don’t they?”
“Though it’ll take a while for me to get used to my breasts moving so much just from walking around.” Ai shifted the arm holding them, making sure her nipples remained covered for now at least. “That’s the main thing making me feel self-conscious right now.”
“Just embrace it, Makoto taught me exercises to help keep them firm and stop them from hurting. Now they can bounce around all day and I’m fine!”
“Really?”
“Well, if they bounce hard from running or something that still hurts, but I’m usually out of breath by that point anyway.”
“Maybe a group trip to the gym would be a good idea too… Makoto is pretty toned.”
“I know right?! Who’da thunk a nerd like her would be such a hottie?”
Ai looked at Makoto, who had thankfully walked far enough in front that she didn’t hear them talking about her. Then she looked back at Eiko, who had adjusted her walking style in an active effort to make her breasts bounce around even more than before.
“You really are shameless Eiko.”
“Hey if these folks wanna show I’mma give it to ‘em! Make sure you swing your hips to get some booty jiggle too.”
“How ‘bout you do that? I’ll stick to walking like a normal person.”
“Yeah cuz normal people hold their titties and cooch as they walk between classes.”
“Whatever.”
~ ~ ~
Later on in the day, as classes were wrapping up, Makoto had packed away her things and was getting ready to leave class. Eiko and her posse were in another class, so she resolved to go see them and check how their first day as nudists had gone. She smiled and nodded to Haru as she left the classroom and headed down the hall.
“Oh—Senpai?”
Makoto- out of curiosity- turned to in the direction of the voice, seeing Kasumi very clearly looking at her, waving to get her attention.
“Yoshizawa-san? What did you call me?”
“Oh? I mean you are my senpai, is it wrong for me to call you that?”
“N-no, of course not, I was just a little surprised. Are you well?”
She smiled brightly.
“I’m doing very well thank you. Well, I’m still in a bit of a rut with my gymnastics. But I’m not going to let that demoralize me! I’ll just have to keep trying harder, right?”
“That’s the spirit, I’ve heard good things about your abilities, and while I’ll admit I don’t know much about rhythmic gymnastics, I’m sure if you keep at it you’ll get through this rut of yours.”
“I hope so too.” She looked down nervously. “Um… Senpai, you’re obviously very fit, so I was wondering… do you think you could show me some work out tips, sometime?”
“You want me to help?”
“Well, it’s not as if you hide the results of your training.” She gestured towards Makoto’s nude body.
“I guess I can’t deny that. I’m not sure I’ll have much to teach you though.”
“Oh I’m sure you will, I’m sure if I can live up to your standards, I’ll perform better than ever.”
“Well, don’t get your hopes for me too high, but sure, when we both have the time I’ll help you out.”
“Thanks a lot Senpai… and uh…”
“What’s the matter?”
“Can it be just the two of us? I uh…” She trailed off, and looked over her shoulder. “You know… I wouldn’t want to… from him… to distract from your boyfriend I mean! You know? Ehehe…”
Makoto sighed.
“Sure, I understand. But Kasumi-san?”
“Y-yeah?”
“You don’t have to be friends with my friends, that’s fine, but things are going to be difficult if you refuse to even be around Ren.”
“I didn’t mean anything like that… okay maybe a bit… I’m sorry, I’ll try and um…” she shook her head and began to hastily walk away. “A-anyway I’ll text you later, okay? We can arrange a date!”
“Sure.”
Makoto was left standing in the hallway, not sure what to make of what just happened. She sighed, dropping her shoulders, before immediately feeling a hand on her upper arm. Instinctively she swung around to counter her ‘attacker’, coming within inches of backhanding Eiko in the face.
“JESUS!”
“AH! Eiko I’m so sorry.”
“Jeez Nudie Prez, didn’t realize you were one of those Navy Seal types who just instinctively attacks anyone who sneaks up on her.”
“I wouldn’t go that far…”
“Haha, I’ll be more careful in future.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“You’re good Makoto-chan, relax.”
Ai joined them, notably no longer covering herself.
“She damn near took your head off Eiko-chan.”
“You gotta teach us how to do that!” Mieko started poking Makoto for some reason, as if expecting to trigger another defensive reaction, but all it did was annoy her slightly.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, we don’t want to go around beating people up.” Makoto thought for a moment. “Actually, thinking about it- self-defence is definitely something worth learning, especially for us nudists, can’t hurt to be safe- right?”
Aya sniggered.
“Ha, Nudie Prez wants to turn us into a bunch of nudist crimefighters.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Maybe it should be, that sounds hot.”
Eiko shrugged.
“If nothing else it’ll keep us fit. My ass is getting a little big anyways.”
“That’s true…”
“Mieko-chan! You’re not supposed to agree with me!”
“If you’re gonna fish for compliments you gotta make it less obvious.”
“It wasn’t that obvious, surely…”
Makoto decided to ignore their little spat.
“If you like I can take you all to the gym today? I’ve not got any plans.”
“You gonna bring Ren?”
Ai rolled her eyes.
“Eiko I know you too well, you just wanna bring him because you’ll think it’ll be funny watching him try to work out while trying to hide the fact that he’s getting turned on watching his GF and a bunch of naked girls getting all sweaty and grappling eachother.”
“How’d you know?”
“Like I said- I know you.”
“He’s actually busy helping some politician in Shibuya today, so he won’t be able to come.” Makoto was secretly glad he was busy today, it’ll save him from Eiko’s devious plan.
“In Shibuya?” AI raised her brow.
“Yoshida Toranosuke, Ren’s been helping him out for a while now.”
“He’s the one who’s been helping uncle lately? Huh, small world.”
“Uncle? Oh, Toranosuke- duh.”
“Whatever, the gym sounds good.” Mieko patted Makoto on the shoulder, very briefly pouting when once again no defensive action was triggered. “No better place to attract a hunk or two eh?”
“Yeah I’m sure they’ll be begging for a date after seeing you collapsed on the floor after being tossed around by Makoto for 5 minutes.”
“Screw you Aya.”
“I’m not gonna toss anyone around.” Makoto rubbed her forehead. “Just going to teach you some basic self-defence.”
“I guess we’ll do the hair salon thing another day.” Eiko grabbed the hands of Makoto and Ai and began marching towards the stairs. “First proper Shujin nudist outing- let’s go!”
“R-right.” Makoto couldn’t help but smile, this would technically count as her first ever ‘girl’s night’, granted- it was the afternoon rather than the night, but it still counted in her mind. Another new experience to look forward to, today was a good day.
Notes:
If my laptop weren't such a piece of shit I'd use Koikatsu or something to make some official appearances for all these OCs that are popping up, with Eiko having much more of a presence in this story than the original, and the main character being Makoto rather than Ren, it's only natural we get to explore that circle a little too
Chapter 36: Mind and Body
Summary:
Nudists need to stay fit after all
Notes:
Yo ProfessionalDegenerate did some more fanart- this time of the Shujin nudist group selfie from last chapter, check it out:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/103381019
The designs for Eikos friends were a result of me making some concepts for them in Kisekae, but they're the one who made them a reality in Koikatsu, which was really cool. Brunette = Ai Toranosuke. Tanned = Aya Nakazawa. Twintails = Mieko Ohara.As for the chapter itself, not much to say other than we're continuing on the same day, more or less where we left off, enjoy.
Chapter Text
“I think we’ve covered enough today, I don’t want to keep you in school too long Amamiya-kun.”
“Nah it’s fine, always happy to help Dr. Maruki. I’d be lying if I said I fully understood your research, but I hope it pans out for you.”
“Why thank you. I don’t blame you for not fully grasping it, Cognitive Psience is a pretty ‘out-there’ subject, but believe me when I say you’ve helped me make immense progress.”
“Cool.” Ren leant back in his seat for a while. “Doctor?”
“Hm?”
“Yoshizawa-san often comes to see you, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, since before I came to this school even. Why?”
Ren sat in thought for a moment.
“I’m obviously not going to make you break client confidentiality or anything, but she’s been acting weird since summer break.”
“Weird? How so?”
“Well… maybe calling it ‘weird’ is unfair.” He scratched his head. “I’ll just give you the short version. Since we first met she’s been really friendly, always eager to talk to me and spend time around me. Part of me suspected she might have had a crush on me- but I figured that was just wishful thinking- I’m sure you know how our minds work sometimes.”
Maruki laughed.
“I know exactly what you mean. Hope springs eternal in the male mind. We always think ‘well what if things could work out between us’, then dismiss those thoughts as ‘too good to be true’. Happens over and over and over again, and we so seldom find out if we were right any of those times.”
“Yeah, though I’m lucky- I actually did turn out to be right once.”
“You and Niijima-san. I see you together all the time, I’m very happy for the both of you.”
“Thanks, I still can’t believe my own luck.”
“Oh I don’t think it’s a matter of luck. A guy like you who is always doing everything he can to help others, it was inevitable you’d get your feelings reciprocated eventually.”
“Thanks, that’s nice of you to say. She and I bonded under… unusual circumstances, but we’ve really made it work I think. I really want this to last forever… Ha…” Ren fiddled with his hair. “Though we’ve only been together a few months, I really hope I’m not getting too… well… that I’m not getting my hopes up too much.”
“I’m certain you can both make it last, you both seem rather mature, and gel like you’re made for eachother. I’m no relationship expert, but I really don’t think this is just your typical throwaway highschool romance, I think you two have the real thing.”
“I think so too.”
“Though you’re definitely right about the circumstances being unusual. I’d never have seen something like the program coming, not in this country, maybe in Europe but even then that’s a pretty big ‘maybe’.”
“Ha, I’ve gotten so used to it now I forget how shocking it was when I first saw her just starkers in the school hallway. I thought she was being blackmailed or just went insane at first, that something like that was just asking for disaster, but here we are and not only is she happy, but we even have others lining up to join her.”
“I’ll admit, I had similar thoughts when I first saw her too.” Maruki readjusted his glasses, though that was really just a gesture to try and hide the light pink forming on his cheeks. “It really felt like the world suddenly went mad. I even went to the principal to try and make him see reason, but to no avail. But over time, as she warmed up to it- as the barriers between her and her fellow students began to break down, and the everyone’s net happiness only went up… well I never thought I’d say this- but I approve. So long as those involved stay safe and happy, of course.”
“Of course. Yeah I agree. We’ve always been kinda prudish as a society, whether she realizes it or not, Makoto may have started a new age.”
“That may be so.”
“But, back to what I was asking about- Kasumi-san.”
Maruki’s expression dropped.
“Yes, Yoshizawa-san was an unfortunate case where the program was making her life worse rather than better.”
“Did she ever come to you about that? Oh shit- sorry, that’d be a violation of her privacy, forget I asked.”
“No it’s quite alright, she never came to me about that subject specifically, and I never made any comments on it. It simply wasn’t something we covered.”
“I see, I suppose it’s not surprising she backed out, and thankfully it doesn’t seem like the nude footage of her that exists is causing her any lingering problems. I suppose ‘this girl was naked once’ is less attention-grabbing than ‘these girls are naked literally all the time’. I’m happy for her, but what worries me is how she avoids me now.”
“Hm?”
“Like it happened right after she found out me and Makoto were an item, so that made me think ‘oh maybe she did have a crush on me and this is a love triangle thing’, but then the next day she’s as happy as can be, gets along with everyone- even Makoto- but not me, it’s as if she’s scared of me, and I’m not sure why.”
“I see…”
“I’m not sure what to do. I want her to be happy.”
“Amamiya-kun, I hope you don’t misinterpret my words—"
“Huh?”
“—but you said she’s happy? Maybe that’s good enough? You’re a wonderful individual, always wanting to do everything he can to make others happy.”
“I don’t know about that…”
“But I think this is a case where those inclinations of yours are perhaps unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary?”
“It’s hard to say this without coming across as harsh, but perhaps the things she needs to be happy, simply don’t include you. That’s not to say you’ve done anything wrong of course, but—”
“I think I get it, maybe I’ve developed something of a low-level hero complex?”
“I suppose that’s one way of putting it. Your inclination to help people is a very good thing, it’s just not strictly needed in this case.”
“I see… Yeah, I think you’re right Doctor. I guess I don’t have to get actively involved right now, I’ll just be available in case she does need me. We’re both happy as we are I suppose- and that’s what matters.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Ren nodded.
“Thank you Doctor, I suppose maybe I just don’t need to worry in this case.”
“You’re a good person Amamiya-kun. I’m sure all your friends appreciate that, especially Niijima-san. Look after her, okay?”
“I will. Hell, if anything she’s the one looking after me. I already can’t imagine a world without her.”
“Ha… Right, I know exactly what you mean…”
~ ~ ~
“So exactly where are we going Nudie-prez?”
“Well it depends whether you want me to teach you some Aikido for self-defence, or if you just want to focus on fitness today?”
“So we get to choose between you kicking our asses or the treadmill kicking our asses?”
“Don’t be so cynical Mieko-chan, we might beat her.”
Makoto couldn’t help but smirk.
“I suppose that means Aikido then? If that’s a theory you really want to test?”
Eiko laughed nervously.
“H-how about we just focus on fitness today? We gotta stay in shape now that we can’t hide our imperfections, right?”
“Hell of a motivator…” Ai looked around at the other students loitering around in front of the school, being very transparent in how much they were enjoying the sight of all the Shujin nudists.
“No kidding, I’m digging the attention but I’m already feeling the pressure.” Aya met a few of the other students’ eyes, enjoying how they became bashful whenever she did so. “I wonder if this is how celebrities feel.”
“You learn to ignore most of it after a while.” Makoto shrugged. “But if we’re just gonna work out, then there’s this great gym near Shibuya square, Ren goes there sometimes too.”
“Shibuya square…” the girls’ eyes went wide.
“I know right?” Eiko grinned. “It’s hella scary at first being nude around that many people, but you start to feel the love pretty quick.”
“So long as that’s all we’re feeling, it’ll be fine.”
“Don’t worry Ai, no one will try anything. They’ll look, take a buncha pics, but no one is gonna do anything bad- at least not in open spaces where everyone is looking.”
“I guess you’re right Eiko, it’s not as if we’re gonna be hanging out in alleys or after dark or whatever.”
“Just follow common sense, try not to travel alone if you can help it, and you’ll be fine. I’ll make sure to teach you some self-defence too at a later date just to be extra safe.”
“Yeah yeah Nudie Prez. Hm?” Eiko perked up. “Oh! Heya Sumiwumi Marioandyoshizawa!”
“What was—”
“She’s ignoring us.” Eiko pouted.
“Well duh, she doesn’t know you’re calling to her, this naming gag of yours doesn’t make any sense.”
Eiko ignored her and ran over to Yoshizawa, giving her a brief fright when she tapped her on the shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Wha—C-can I help you?”
“You don’t remember me? Eiko?”
Kasumi looked to past her to Makoto.
“Ah I see, Senpai’s friend. Forgive me.” She flinched at the sight of the new nudists. “There are more of you now?”
“Hell to the yeah! It’s slow, but nudism is really starting to take off!”
“Um, I’m still not interested in coming back to the program.”
“Lame. But that’s okay, you were one of us at one point, so I figured I’d invite you to join the rest of us at the gym.” Eiko turned around to the others. “That’s cool, right?”
“I mean, I suppose that’s fine.” Makoto gave an unsure nod. “A little surprising.”
“I mean Yoshizawa-san is a gymnast, surely she can give us some fitness pointers too.” She turned back to the girl in question. “Whaddya say?”
Kasumi thought for a moment, she had already agreed to one-on-one training with Makoto, but she supposed this would be a chance to get some more time with her, even if she wasn’t in love with the idea of being around so many naked girls.
“Sure, if I’m not bothering any of you.” She shrugged, figuring the discomfort was worth it.
Mieko slyly sidled up besides her, trying not to make it too obvious she was comparing heights.
“Dammit…”
“Hm?” Kasumi turned to see the girl standing uncomfortably close. “What was that?”
“I just said ‘yeah I’m fine with you coming’.”
“That wasn’t even remotely close to—”
“Sure, she’s cute.” Aya petted Kasumi’s head, much to the younger girl’s chagrin, she was already beginning to wonder if she made a mistake agreeing to this.
“Enough stalling, let’s go!” Eiko grabbed Kasumi’s wrist and started pulling her in the direction of the station. Yoshizawa looked back at Makoto, smiling apologetically at her, then sighed.
~ ~ ~
“Okay, NOW it’s really hitting me how crazy it is, being naked outside.”
“For real Ai-chan… I’ve been nude in onsens and when camping, but being in the city is something else entirely.” Aya controlled her breathing, trying to ground herself. “There’s gotta be hundreds of people here.”
“Are you all going to be alright?” Makoto looked back at them. “Believe me, I know how overwhelming it can seem at first.”
“No kidding.” Eiko played with her hair. “I’m sure they can remember the first time they took me here too, even I was getting a little shaky. However-“ She blew her audience a kiss. “Once you learn to take charge it actually gets pretty fun.”
Makoto nodded.
“Indeed, it’s all a matter of your own attitude. For some people this would be their worst nightmare, hell I’d have completely fallen apart the first time if I didn’t have Ren there, but now everytime I walk through here…” She turned rather red. “Commanding such attention… I feel so…”
“I know what you mean, you start to feel like Aphrodite or something, she always went around naked- or close to it at least- and everyone just marvels at her.”
“Heh.” Aya smirked. “Didn’t know you were into mythology Eiko-chan.”
“I know who Aphrodite was at least.” She scratched her cheek. “And I’ve looked up legends and stuff about famous naked ladies. Aphrodite, Ame-no-uzume, Lady Godiva. Trying to get into their mindsets really makes this feel incredible.”
Ai smiled, even if she was still glowing bright red.
“That’s a nice idea… in fact yeah- I’m starting to see the appeal.”
“We’d all make good Aphrodites, or something, I dunno where I was going with that.”
“We get what you mean.” Aya snickered, like the others girls she was slowly starting to relax again, and shock gradually gave way to pride. “People are really struggling to tear their eyes away from us, it’s kinda funny actually.”
“Uh, Mieko, you good?”
The group turned towards her, seeing her frozen in place with her eyes wide. Makoto reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Mieko-san, are you okay? It’s not too much for you is it?”
“Everyone is looking at me…”
“Don’t worry, they’re only looking, you’re safe, just keep it together.”
“No, you don’t get it. This is incredible.”
“Hm?”
“Awe, lust, longing. People are REALLY looking at me, they REALLY want me.” She grinned. “I’m not just the ‘novelty short girl’ anymore, they’re looking at me like a gorgeous celebrity!”
Makoto exhaled, partially in exasperation, but mostly in relief.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
“They all gaze upon my beautiful body! I truly do feel divine.”
“Alright, we better keep moving before Mieko develops an actual deity complex.” Ai looked over to the last member of their group. “Yoshizawa-san looks the most uncomfortable, and she’s the one with clothes.”
“She’s keeping her distance from us, huh?”
“I guess she doesn’t want to be associated too closely with a bunch of exhibitionists?”
Makoto got everyone’s attention again.
“Alright, the gym is just down this road, everyone follow me before the crowd builds up too much.”
“True, as much as I love the attention I don’t wanna be trapped in the middle of a crowd all day.” Eiko laughed, pulling Mieko along so she didn’t get too lost in her newfound Aphrodite fantasy. Kasumi- still keeping at least a few metres between herself and the nudists, followed just behind them.
~ ~ ~
“Help me I’m dying…”
“You’re not dying Mieko. We’ve been running for like 5 minutes.”
“I’m a goddess of beauty, not of exercise.”
“Well you’re not living up to your ‘goddess of beauty’ image sprawled face-down on the floor like that.”
Aya didn’t even have to look back to know that was the exact position Mieko was in after she gave up on the treadmill, she instead continued to focus on her own running. The gym had luckily been mostly empty when the nudists arrived, after Kasumi guided everyone through their warm up stretches, they decided to focus on their cardio and found a bunch of treadmills next to eachother. Eiko had specifically chosen them since it put them in view of anyone else entering the gym. She was all too eager to share the sight of six pairs of breasts bouncing as they ran in place (well, five pairs, now that Mieko was busy dying on the floor). However despite the immense audience they had outside, only a few had followed them into the gym proper, and the employees- evidently being opportunistic types- had leapt on the chance to drag them into paying for memberships and actually using the available machines, meaning the nudists didn’t actually have much of an audience right now.
“I think we’re ready to take a break.” Makoto said as she slowed her treadmill down, eventually coming to a stop and stepping off, the other nudists- trying not to make their relief too obvious- followed suit.
“I can keep going Senpai.”
“I’d like to save some of my energy for the other machines. Plus we need water.”
“I see…” Kasumi slowed down and joined Makoto and the others, who were panting for breath on the benches. “You’re right actually, that’s a trap I fall into too often, I get too invested in pushing myself to do one specific thing that I don’t pace myself and lose sight of everything else.”
“Tunnel vision huh? I understand, pushing yourself is good, but you can’t let yourself lose sight of the big picture.”
“Right.”
“I’mma stop you there Makoto-chan.” Eiko said, sweat quite visibly dripping down her face and body. “You’re expecting us to do more after that? I’m exhausted already…”
“It feels like you’re really trying to kill us.” Mieko groaned as she clawed her way up onto the bench as Aya held out a water bottle for her to drink from. Aya originally imagined it’d create quite a lewd image her sucking on the bottle, but instead it felt more like watching a hamster drink from its bottle.
Makoto laughed.
“Don’t worry, I think we’ve done enough cardio for the moment—”
“’The moment’?”
“—But we’re gonna focus on some lighter strength training while we get our energy back.”
“Strength training to get our energy back?” Ai groaned. “We should have gone to the hair salon…”
“If you want to stay fit, this is the price you have to pay.”
“Senpai is right. It only seems hard at first. In time it’ll all become second nature.” Kasumi was already on her feet again, loosening her muscles.
“How long is that gonna take?”
“Well it’ll never be truly effortless, but for it to get easier? A month or two maybe? It depends.”
“We’re in hell…”
“You guys are just wimps.” Aya chuckled, trying to stand up to gloat, but the pain in her legs made her give up pretty quick- instead gloating from a seated position. “You’re acting as if we ran a whole marathon.”
“Our lower bodies could use some rest, maybe we can try the machine chest press next, it focuses on our pectorals.”
“Wazzat mean?”
“It’ll be good for our chests.”
“That includes titties too, right?”
“I mean, indirectly yeah.” Makoto looked up to see her fellow nudists already using the machines.
“They’re certainly eager Senpai.”
“No kidding. Um… Sorry Kasumi-san.”
“Senpai?”
“We did kind of force you to come along, and I know you wanted it to be just the two of us. You asked me for help and yet you’re the one directing us.”
Kasumi shook her head.
“No it’s fine Senpai, I’m glad to help.”
“I promise we’ll still have our one-on-one session at a later date.”
“I’ll look forward to it Senpai.”
“And, I’ll apologize a second time, I can tell our nudity does make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s… I’m mostly able to just ignore it.”
“I guess it’s hard to ignore when we’re strutting around nude in the public streets though.”
“I won’t criticize… especially considering I was a nudist for a little while too.”
“Yoshizawa-san… you don’t get any trouble for that, do you?”
“Trouble?”
“Like, the images that are still out there.”
“Not really. A few classmates bring it up now and again, but they’re much more focused on you lot. Plus I’m not on social media anymore so I don’t see any of it myself.”
“That’s a relief.” Makoto paused for a moment. “Wait, ‘anymore’?”
“I deleted my old accounts after…” Kasumi shook her head. “Senpai- we shouldn’t be wasting time standing around talking, there’ll be plenty of time for that later. We’re gonna fall behind the others!”
Makoto looked over to Eiko and her friends, already showing signs of fatigue.
“I don’t think there’s much risk of that- but you’re right- let’s join them.”
“Thank you Senpai.”
Chapter 37: Yo Hawaii tho...
Summary:
Vacation arc
Chapter Text
“Friggin’ Hawaii man! Let’s go!”
“It is pretty exciting; I’ve never been out of the country before.”
“I’m so pumped! Imagine the beaches! The ladies!”
“Okay Ryuji, first off- we have both of those things here too…”
“I mean yeah but—”
“And secondly- my girlfriend is literally standing right here.”
Ren stepped aside so Makoto could properly glare at Ryuji.
“You know that’s not what I meant man…”
Ann rolled her eyes.
“Whatever, good luck scoring with ‘the ladies’, you’re sure as hell gonna need it.”
Makoto nodded.
“You’re not wrong there.”
“The hell man?” Ryuji looked to Ren. “What’s with them?”
Ren just sighed, before his attention was pulled away by a notification coming through on his phone.
“Futaba says all the luck in the world wouldn’t be enough for you.”
“Why am I just getting crapped on right now? I bet Morgana told her to say that.”
Ren shook his head and turned to Haru, Makoto and Ann.
“You three definitely got everything you need?”
“Yes I’m certain, thank you Ren-kun. Ann?”
“I went through everything like five times, I’m sure I’ve got everything. Though I’m surprised you’re bringing a whole suitcase Makoto.”
“Why?”
“I figured you had a pretty good excuse to… travel light.”
“You need to bring things other than clothes for a trip y’know…”
“Actually, is it going to be okay you going at all?”
“Huh? Well yeah, me, Haru-san and a couple other third years are coming to help the teachers.”
“That’s not what I meant. You might seem to forget but we don’t- you’re naked.”
“Believe me- I haven’t forgotten.”
“You’ve got legal immunity here in Japan, but Hawaii is technically part of the U.S. We’re not gonna get in trouble are we?”
“Usually nudity isn’t allowed, but the school managed to get permission.”
“How’d they manage that?”
“They didn’t give me details, but it feels like a lot of effort to go through considering I’m the only nudist even going. Eiko and the others were really jealous…”
“This program really just does what it wants, huh?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it so much.” Haru interjected. “This works out best for us, so let’s just go with it.”
“Haru’s right, it’s not worth worrying about.”
“I guess.”
“Oh Dude!” Ryuji shoved Ren excitedly, the boy letting himself sway in place from the force. “We should totally do a group photo!”
“Hm, sure, first overseas trip for most of the thieves, as good an excuse as any. Shame we can’t all be here though.”
“Eh Yusuke is probably enjoying his trip to LA with the other Kosei students.”
“Hopefully they won’t get in trouble for the nudity either…” Ann mumbled.
“It’s Futaba and Morgana I feel bad for, they’re stuck at home.” Ren heard another notification on his phone. “Oh nevermind, Futaba says she doesn’t give a shit. Okay correction- it’s Morgana I feel bad for, he’s stuck at home.”
“It’s not as if we can smuggle him on the plane.”
“Futaba, tell Morgana we’ll do something nice when we get back…” Ren said into his phone, but when he got no response he just had to shrug and assume Futaba passed the message on. “Alright, everyone get behind me.” He held his phone up to try and get everyone in the selfie, while Makoto tried to figure out the exact distance she should stand away from him to get that perfect ratio of intimacy-to-casual, a balance she focuses on too much as she forgot to smile when the picture was taken.
“Oh god, sorry Ren, let’s try again.”
“Nah I like this better.”
“Huh?”
The others gathered around his phone and snickered.
“Look at her face, she’s taking this so seriously.”
“I know Ann, she’s super cute.”
“You guys!” Makoto grumbled
“Enough messing around kids, finally time to get moving.” Kawakami called out to them.
“Comin’ Teach.”
Ren took one last moment to appreciate Makoto’s annoyed face before she turned away from him, and they all made their way to the plane.
~ ~ ~
“Well I’ll say one thing for sure, American airport security is a total nightmare…”
“No kidding Makoto… I was thinking they were gonna make me dress like you by the end of it.” Ann rubbed her forehead. “I hope they don’t do the same shit on the way back out.”
“It has given me a few ideas…”
“Haru-san?”
“N-nevermind.”
“Still we’re here now, we’ve all got our rooms assigned, and since the school couldn’t be bothered to write up an itinerary for us, we’re free to do whatever now.” Ann adjusted her bikini bottoms and stretched up towards the sky. “The sun is even nicer here than it was back home.”
“The air is pretty nice too.” Haru nodded, having brought a swimsuit that fit properly this time.
“KICK ASS!”
“I’m guessing that sound means Ryuji is finally ready.” Ann said as she and the girls turned towards Ryuji in his swimming trunks with a huge grin on his face.
“I’m so effin’ ready man!”
“Loving the enthusiasm Ryuji. Soon as Ren gets out we can hit the beach.”
“What’s taking him so long anyway?” Makoto scanned their surroundings but saw no sign of him. “We did say this was where we were gonna meet up, right?”
“Isn’t the stereotype supposed to be that women take a really long time getting ready? Why are the boys the last to get here?”
“Haru that’s—”
“Oh here he… oh my…”
The group turned to follow Makoto’s gaze, and one-by-one their jaws dropped
“For real?”
Ren was confidently striding over to them, dressed in only his very best birthday suit, drawing more than a few shocked looks from not only the thieves, but the other students that had joined them on the trip and indeed the other guests milling around. He reached the rest of the group, his eyes turning to Makoto. He made a show of looking her up and down, before putting his hands on his hips, giving an exaggerated eye roll and tutting to himself.
“Well clearly ONE of us has to change.”
“Ren you’re naked!”
“Oh would you look at that.”
“Ren you can’t! You’re not in the program, no legal immunity!”
“Aha-ha! That only applies to Japan, over here they don’t know anything except for the fact that Shujin has some nudists, they’ll just assume I’m one of them. Unless you specifically rat me out I think we’re fine.”
Makoto tore her eyes away, forcing herself to actually look at his face while talking to him.
“You’re just fine with this then?”
“I mean, I’m not gonna keep it up—”
“Heheh, ‘keep it up’.”
“Not the time Haru.”
“As I said- I’m not gonna keep it up when we get back home, but while we’re here? Sure, I’ll give it a shot.”
“Wait so we can just get naked here if we want to?”
“Thinking of joining us Ryuji?”
“That’s a ‘pass’ from me man.” Ryuji looked hopefully over to Ann and Haru.
“A HARD pass from me.” Ann shook her head.
“Hmm…” Haru was clearly deep in thought, though it was hard to tell how much was due to her thinking about the proposal and how much was her just intently analysing Ren’s body. “I’ll think about it.”
“Well me and Mako are gonna enjoy our vacation as a nudist couple, any objections?”
Makoto looked down at Ren’s body once more, before re-establishing eye contact.
“I don’t mind being the only one of us who’s nude, but this is a nice change of pace too.” She smiled. “I’m okay with it.”
Ryuji shrugged.
“Whatever man, I’m pretty used to that kinda thing with Yusuke around all the time, you do you, I’m not gonna be looking at you though.”
Ren laughed.
“Oh you wound me Ryuji.”
They didn’t need to ask Haru if she minded, her smirk was as clear an answer as they could hope for.
“Well… I won’t make a fuss, just don’t get into trouble okay?” Ann shot Ren a serious look. “You’re still on probation y’know.”
“I know I know. I’ll be careful. If anyone gets upset I’ll just put on a ‘confused foreigner’ act and head back to my room to get dressed.”
“He’ll draw less attention if he’s with me anyway.” Makoto nodded. “That and… people tend to get less upset about naked women than they do men. It’ll be less of a problem if I’m around.”
“Sad but true.”
“Whatever man, let’s go already!”
“Yes, let’s.” Haru smiled bittersweetly. “It’ll be great to get away from everything for a while.”
“Haru…” Ryuji’s expression suddenly became much more serious. “That asshole still giving you trouble?”
Haru’s shoulders dropped.
“Yes. I’ve been trying to reason with father but he’s just so stubborn.”
“C’mon Haru! Let us… y’know- do the thing!”
“I might…” Haru shook her head. “Please, let’s not worry about that for now, we have an opportunity to enjoy ourselves.”
“But—”
“Please Ryuji, let me enjoy our time here.”
Haru walked towards the beach without another word, leaving Ryuji to grumble in frustration until Ren put a hand on his shoulder.
“We’ll confront her about it when we get home okay?”
“Ugh… right, okay.”
“It’s not as if we can do anything here on the other side of the world anyway.”
“Yeah…”
They resolved to try and put the troubles they had back in Japan aside for now, and get back into the mindset to actually enjoy their time away; Ryuji conceded that much, but he swore to himself he wouldn’t forget about it.
~ ~ ~
On the night of the first day, Ren heard a knock on the door of his room, it was Ryuji- having snuck out of his own room he was sharing with some classmates he neither knew nor cared about.
“’Sup Renren, where’s Mishima?”
“Currently puking his guts out in the bathroom, travel sickness I guess?”
“Man, poor guy. Yo you don’t mind if I stay in here tonight? It’s boring as hell back in my room.”
Ren shrugged.
“Sure man, we’re not sharing a bed though, I like you but I don’t like you that much.”
Ryuji laughed.
“Works for me dude.”
“So any luck ‘scoring’ with any hot Hawaiian ladies today?”
“Pfft. Nah man, no one’s interested.”
“Bummer, you’ll find someone someday, probably- I wouldn’t let it get ya down.”
“’Probably’? Jeez, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Sorry.”
“Man you’ve already got a girlfriend, how about helping a bro out now and again?”
“Helping you out?”
“Like letting me in on the secret, play wingman, some advice, fuckin’ anything dude.”
“There’s no secret, not that I’m aware of anyway. Look it’s not as if I’m some kinda expert on girls, I just got lucky and met the perfect one for me.”
“That’s still more than I got going for me, I’m hangin’ fly and dry out here.”
“’High and dry’ Ryuji. And really? I can understand you not having a long term relationship, but I’d figured you’d have had at least one relationship before.”
“I mean, there was a bit of a thing between me and Ann back in middle school, but that was little kid shit.”
“Not interested in trying again?”
“Eh… but she’s a friend, y’know?”
“Dude…”
“What?”
“You—” Ren was cut off by another knock at the door, shrugging he peered through the peephole. “Ann?” He opened the door.
“Heya Ren.” Ann didn’t wait for an invite, and let herself in, falling backwards onto Ren’s bed.
“Uh, hi? Something wrong?”
“My roommate brought a guy back, I’m not sleeping in there with that going on. Lemme stay here tonight. Thanks.”
“I mean, I guess that’s fine but…”
“Cool, I’ll take this bed, Ryuji you’re on the couch, sorry.”
“That’s my bed though…” Ren’s protests were drowned out by Ann groaning as she was stretching, making herself comfortable.
“Uh Ann?”
“Ryuji?”
“Don’t you feel kinda… awkward sleeping in a room with a bunch of guys?”
“I trust you.”
“I should hope so but…” Ryuji sat down and turned to Ren. “It’s cool man, I don’t mind sleeping on the floor. Even this carpet is nicer than the bed I have at home.”
“If you’re sure.”
“So~” Ann sat up. “What were you guys talking about before I came in?”
“Ryuji trying to score with the locals.”
“DUDE! Don’t just tell her.”
“Sounds about right.” Ann chuckled. “I’m guessing since he’s here it didn’t work out?”
“Eff off Ann.”
“That’s a ‘yes’ then.”
Ann pondered for a while.
“What kind of girl are you even looking for anyway Ryuji?”
“What kind?”
“You’re really okay with this line of conversation Ann?”
“Sure Ren. It’s pretty normal for guys to sit around talking about girls, I don’t mind joining in this once.” She smirked. “Believe me, we do the same about you, so it’s fine.”
“I appreciate your honesty…”
“We’ll start with you Ren- what’s your type?”
“Me?” Ren sat back in his seat, staring at the ceiling. “I like girls who are smart, reliable…”
“Authoritative, easy to fluster, liberal dress sense, name rhymes with Bakoto Biijima?”
“Yeah it’s kinda silly asking me for my type, huh?”
“It’s just to set the stage. Ryuji, your turn, what kind of girl do you like?”
“I dunno… uh… nice ones, I guess?”
“’Nice’?”
“Like, friendly?”
“Is that it?”
“What the hell else am I supposed to say?”
“Well what if two equally nice girls came onto you, which would you pick?”
“Uh… I dunno, whichever one is hotter I guess?”
“And there’s the truthful answer.”
“The hell?”
“It’s always the second answer that’s your real one.”
“That’s not fair Ann.”
“Sorry Ann, I gotta take Ryuji’s side on this one, that was a very leading question.”
“…I guess.”
“And it’s kind of weird to say two girls are ‘equally nice’, what does that even mean? Like their personalities are exactly the same? No two people are exactly alike.”
“Alright alright- whatever. I’m sorry Ryuji. But come on, surely you have a better answer than ‘nice’?”
“Like I dunno- okay?! Maybe I just don’t know what kind of girl I’d really like and I’d like to try a few times so I can find out, is that really so friggin’ bad?!”
“Calm down Ryuji, we don’t want a teacher coming in here.”
“Just, lay off, alright?”
“Alright alright, sorry I asked.” Ann put her hands up before laying back down on the bed.
“So how about you Ann?”
“Ren?”
“Yeah, we both went, what kind of guys do you like?”
Ryuji listened intently, while Ann just stared up at the ceiling for a while before finally speaking again.
“I’m not really looking for a guy at the moment.”
“You don’t want a relationship?” Ryuji asked, confused.
“A girl then?”
“Huh?” Ryuji’s brow raised in surprise as he looked to Ren, then back at Ann who had once again gone notably silent.
“I mean you don’t have to answer.” Ren continued. “I mean I just thought maybe you were into girls too.”
“Wh-what makes you say that?” Ann didn’t sit up.
“You stare at Makoto just as much as the rest of us.”
“I mean… she draws the eye, walking around nude like that…”
Ryuji looked back and forth between the two of them, before finally speaking to Ann.
“Look it’s cool if you do like girls, it’d be surprising- not something I would have thought of- but it’s not as if any of us will have a problem with it.”
Ann sat up.
“Really? You’d be fine with that?”
“Uh yeah- duh. Why wouldn’t we?”
Ann sat in thought for a little while longer, bringing up her knees up to her torso.
“I uh… mhm…”
“Ann?”
“Shiho…”
“Shiho?”
“I’m… interested in Shiho…”
Ryuji’s eyes went wide.
“For real?”
“I have for a while, since before… before she tried to…”
“You’ve said her recovery is going well right?” Ren asked.
“Well… yes, she’s getting better, it’s a tall hill to climb, but I want to make sure she gets over it, I visit her as often as I can.”
“Well that means it’s not too late.”
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? You can tell her how you feel, next time you visit her even.”
“Next time I—Ren it’s not that simple!”
Ren shrugged.
“That’s how me and Makoto did it. We both realized we really liked spending time around eachother, so we shared our feelings and that was it really… If there’s more to it then I must have missed it.”
“But… what if she’s not interested?”
“I didn’t know her too well.” Ren thought back to his early days at Shujin. “But she was the second person to actually look past the ridiculous rumors about me and reach out to me like a real person, second after Ryuji. And she always looked happier when she’s around you. I reckon she might have similar feelings for you.”
“You two were joined at the hip as far as I remember.” Ryuji added. “You’d probably be great together… I mean, unless she turns out to be straight.”
“That is a risk unfortunately.” Ren sighed. “But if that’s the only barrier, then I don’t think there’s any risk in just asking her. The worst that happens is she says no and you just stay friends, she seems way too nice to do or say anything hurtful to you.”
Ann laid back down, looking away from the others for a while.
“I… maybe I could at least ask if she’s open to the idea…”
“If you’re worried whether she’s into girls or not, you could casually bring up the fact that Makoto is bi- just to gauge her reaction.”
“Yo- Makoto is bi?” Another shocking reveal to Ryuji.
“Ah.” Ren froze. “Maybe I shouldn’t have outed her like that… I’ll apologize to her later.”
“I’ll think about it…” Ann mumbled.
“We’ll support you if you need it.”
“Yeah- what Ren said.”
“Th-thanks…”
The room fell into a comfortable silence for a while, before Ren called out towards the bathroom door.
“What about you Mishima? What kind of girl would you like?”
“A nurse…” came the pained cry back.
~ ~ ~
A few hours later, everyone had fallen asleep. Mishima had been allowed to keep his own bed, having finally stopped being sick, but the bathroom door being left open just in case of emergency. Ann was comfortably snoring on Ren’s bed on top of the covers, it was too hot to be under them. Ryuji was similarly snoring on the floor next to the couch, how he was able to fall into such a deep sleep with a seat cushion being his only form of bedding was a mystery, but probably not one worth wondering about.
Unfortunately the snoring in stereo kept Ren from being able to fall asleep himself, instead he just lay on the sofa, staring at the ceiling in thought. Thoughts about Haru’s struggles to rebel against her father and fiancé, thoughts about Eiko’s continuing efforts to turn the nudist program into a full-blown social movement, about his first day as a nudist- and indeed his relationship with Makoto- which was thankfully a happy subject.
After a while he moved onto a hobby of his whenever he got bored and couldn’t sleep, entering random names into the Metaverse nav.
“Eiko Takao… no hit. Ai Toranosuke… no hit. Aya Nakazawa… no hit. Mieko Ohara… what? Why isn’t i—oh I missed the button… no hit. Takuto Maruki… huh? Is the app lagging or something? Why isn’t it—oh there we go… any day now… the screen is going all—ah… no hit, all that build up for nothing huh? Even with magic apps technology loves to be difficult for no reason sometimes.”
A text suddenly came through.
“Makoto?”
It read. ‘I’m outside’
Ren sat up, looked over to his roommates, making absolutely sure they were all asleep before standing up and sneaking over to the door, keeping his phone in hand and picking up the hotel roomkey just in case.
Peering through the peephole confirmed it, Makoto was standing outside nervously, looking down both ways of the hallway, clearly fearful of being caught. Ren- as quietly as he could- opened the door.
“Oh… hi Ren.”
“Hello Makoto.”
They stood in awkward silence for a while.
“You… okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay Mako. You?”
“I’m good…”
Awkward silence. Makoto looked past Ren to see the not one- but three roommates.
“It’s um… crowded in there.”
“Yeah, I’m on the couch.”
“I see… maybe we could…”
Makoto trailed off, Ren let go of a breath he was holding, and forced himself to relax as an idea came to him. He very calmly stepped out of the room, took his room key in one hand while holding the door handle with his phone-holding hand, he tossed the key into his room, and slowly closed the door, leaving both him and Makoto outside, then finally brought both hands to the sides of his head in mock despair.
“Oh no! How terribly clumsy of me! I have- in a horrible accident- locked myself out of my room, and if I go to the front desk for help I could get in trouble for being out past curfew. Oh if only there was a wonderful fellow student who could help me in this dire hour, by offering me a place to lay my head for the night. Oh woe has befallen me so, is there anyone who could be my hero in my hour of need?”
Makoto stared at him- unimpressed, before sighing.
“Ren?”
“Yis?”
“Get in my room and fuck my brains out, can you do that for me?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Chapter 38: Joys and burdens
Summary:
More Hawaii
Notes:
Bit of a longer one, but a lot I wanted to cover this chapter, hopefully it turned out okay
Chapter Text
Ren wasn’t used to being allowed to wake up on his own terms, he had gotten so used to his fake-cat friend serving as his living (and unrequested) alarm clock that simply drifting back to the waking world normally was a rather novel experience. Not to mention these unfamiliar bedsheets, he would have been confused, but that confusion was dwarfed by the much greater feeling of just wanting to enjoy staying in bed a little while longer, a temptation he had everyday, but Morgana would always prevent him from indulging himself, maybe just this once was okay, he could think about where he was later.
“Where are they?”
That was Makoto’s voice. Now he remembered, he was in Makoto’s hotel room in Hawaii. He relaxed again, they had quite the fun night prior and fell asleep in eachothers arms. The memory made Ren smile. She must have gotten up before him, he thought maybe he should do the same to be polite… but these sheets really were comfortable.
“Why did it have to be today of all days…”
Hang on, Makoto sounded rather distressed, and she was speaking in a hushed tone, as if she didn’t want him to hear her.
“Here they are, I know I brought some scissors, I have to do it before he sees.”
“Before I see what?” Ren sat up, just in time to see Makoto flinch in fear.
“Ah, g-good morning Ren…” She conspicuously turned her body away from him, forcing a smile over her shoulder.
“Morning Mako. Are you okay?”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Uh yeah, fine. Are you okay Makoto?”
“FINE! Completely and totally fine.” She kept facing away from him. “You haven’t seen any scissors anywhere?”
Ren looked around the room.
“Ah, they’re just over here by the bed, they must have fallen out of your bag.”
“Ah… right, I’ll come get them then.”
Makoto started to awkwardly shuffle in their direction, keeping her back to him as she did so.
“Makoto, you’re being really weird.”
“Oh I always get like this in the mornings, don’t worry about it, haha…”
“Seriously Makoto, something is wrong, I promise that you can trust me.”
“I don’t…”
“I’m gonna worry all day otherwise.”
Makoto’s face was an awful mix of guilt and shame. She let out a heavy sigh and turned around to face him, still keeping her hand firmly over her crotch. Ren raised an eyebrow, and after she took a few more breaths to build up the courage, she moved her hand. Ren’s eyes travelled down and that’s when he noticed what must have had her so embarrassed, his eyes were drawn to the little bit of string hanging from her lips. He looked back up at her face, which she averted, refusing to make eye contact, for the first time in a long time, she looked truly ashamed.
“Ah I see.” Ren nodded. “That’s all it is, that’s a relief.”
Makoto grumbled.
“I was worried something really bad happened, don’t worry Makoto, it’s nothing to be embarrassed over.”
“Yes it is…”
“It really isn’t, that’s just how the female body works. I know it sucks, I understand.”
“No. You don’t understand Ren.” She glared at him, before her expression fell and she looked away again. “I’m sorry. I usually cut most of the string and hide it before I go out.”
“I’m just saying you don’t need to—”
“Stop Ren. Look, I understand you’re trying to be supportive and understanding, and I appreciate it- I really do, but this just isn’t the kind of thing I ever wanted anyone to see. Some things are just supposed to remain private.”
Ren stayed silent.
“It’d gotten harder to hide since becoming a nudist, but there are some things about our bodies that even nudists want to keep to ourselves. I know it’s natural, I know everyone knows about them, but it’s just humiliating to have others see it- even you…”
Ren sat in thought a while longer, before gathering his resolve and getting out of bed to stand in front of Makoto. She briefly glanced up at him, looking down at her with care clear in his eyes. She expected to feel his arms around her and a few soft words to try and comfort her, but instead she saw in her peripheral vision, him dropping down to a squatting position.
“Ren?”
“I get it, girls are always wanting to hide their drawstring.”
“Drawstring?”
“It doesn’t get talked about very often, so it’s become a bit of a taboo- the drawstring that is. Like I know if I pull on it now you’ll say one of your six recognisable catchphrases.”
Makoto stared down at him, utterly baffled.
“What on earth are you talking about Ren?”
“Look, like this.” He mimed pulling on the string and made a ziiiiip sound as he did so. “FIST OF JUSTICE!”
Makoto continued to glare angrily at him, though if you blinked you would miss just the tiniest hint of a smile on her face.
“What was that supposed to be?”
Ren rolled his eyes.
“That’s one of your six recognisable catchphrases. Come on Makoto- TRY to keep up.” He pretended to pull the string again. “Don’t forget this feeling.”
Makoto tried to maintain her angry expression for a while, before sighing and firmly chopping down on top of Ren’s head.
“OW! What was that?”
“I also come with ‘karate chopping’ action.”
“Makoto that’s an action figure thing, drawstrings are a doll thing.” He stood up and crossed his arms, matching her glare with one of his own. “I’m starting to think you’re not taking this seriously at all.”
Their staring match went on for a few more moments, before both faces started to crack, and gave way to laughter. Sensing his opportunity, Ren chose this moment to take her into his arms, a gesture she thankfully reciprocated.
“Ahh… thanks Ren.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Yeah whatever.”
“Instead I’ll accept the thanks as an apology for hitting me on the head, so don’t worry about that.”
“How magnanimous of you.” She leaned into him. “But seriously, maybe I shouldn’t have felt the need to hide it, at least not from you.”
“It doesn’t put me off or anything if that’s what you’re worried about. And if there’s anything I can do to help, you can always let me know.”
“Thank you, but you shouldn’t need to do anything, it’s a relatively light flow this time, so it’s just a matter of hiding the string and we can go through today as normal.” She smirked. “If you’re lucky, we might even be able to have some more fun later on tonight.”
“Well I’m hardly gonna turn that down- am I? But are you sure that’s okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just a comfort thing if anything, and I really do mean if anything. I won’t make promises, but I do like getting your hopes up.”
“I mean you’ve more than lived up to all those hopes so far.”
“Shut up Ren.” She pulled away and smiled up at him. “I’ll sort this out really quick, then how about we go get breakfast?”
“Sounds like a plan, we don’t want the others seeing me come out of your room anyway, so the earlier we go the better.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
~ ~ ~
Kawakami posed in front of her mirror, holding her hands behind her head as she admired the nude woman staring back at her. She bent over with her hand on her lower back- accentuating the curve leading down her her butt, and how her breasts sensually hung from her chest. She stood back up and turned around, peering over her shoulder at her own behind, which she stuck out as far as she possibly could. Finally she turned back to face the mirror, proudly holding her hands on her hips as she drunk in the image of her full, nude form. Then her head and shoulders dropped.
“Oh who the hell am I kidding…? I swear once you reach 25 the body just starts to give up on ever looking good again…” she looked at the mirror once more, at the tired, slouching woman staring back at her. “No way I could pull something like this off… Seeing this next to all those fit teens is just—”
“Miss Kawakami?”
Kawakami screeched and instinctively dove behind her bed, desperately pulling the sheets off to cover herself.
“Ah- Okumura-san. Wh-what do you need?”
“I just came to ask about…” Haru was getting distracted, the image of the teacher, bashfully climbing back to her feet, desperately clutching the bedsheet for dear life against her shapely body was triggering something within Haru. “Miss Kawakami, you wouldn’t happen to be into…”
“Into what?”
“N-nothing! I was just going to ask about the post-beach plans.”
“R-right, tell you what, lemme get dressed and I’ll talk to you outside, okay?”
“S-sure…” Haru turned to leave the room, briefly staring at the pile of the teacher’s clothes on the floor. Her hands very subtly reached towards them before she caught herself and shook her head. “No, better not.” She mumbled to herself.
“Okumura-san?”
“Nothing. You look very beautiful nude by the way Miss Kawakami.” She smiled before leaving and closing the door behind her.
Kawakami looked back towards the mirror.
“She thinks I’m…” she shook her head. “Nah, she was probably just being nice…”
~ ~ ~
“Not that I mind Big Bang burger for lunch, but shouldn’t we be having something more… local when on vacation?” Ann said, halfway through chewing her burger.
“Eh, I guess?” Ren shrugged. “This is just easy, we’ll have something more interesting for dinner maybe.”
“If we even have room, American portion sizes are so different from Japanese sizes, a small here is a large back home.” Ryuji was feeling a bit overambitious ordering the large.
Ren laughed.
“Yours looks like the Big Bang challenge.”
“You actually took that shit man?”
“Yup, finished it too.”
Makoto shook her head.
“Ren that’s not impressive, it’s disgusting, think of your health.”
“It’s only a one off. All that meat, truly fitting for a challenge of such cosmic proportions.”
“’Cosmic propor—’ Ren you’re such a friggin’ dork.”
“I’d have thought you’d know that by now Ann.”
“I don’t feel good about even having this…” Makoto looked down at her own burger. “I need to think about my appearance even more than the rest of you.”
“You’re not gonna get fat from one burger Makoto, relax.” Ryuji thankfully wasn’t looking at her when he said this, and thus avoided her glare.
“Though the difference in size is rather fascinating.” Yusuke said, intently studying his own meal. “It really goes to show the difference in cultures.”
“Why are you even here dude? What happened to LA?”
Yusuke sighed.
“There were issues preventing us from reaching there, so we came here instead.”
“Quite the coincidence.” Ren mused.
“More like contrivance.” Makoto mumbled. “What are the chances we just happen to meet up here across the world?”
“Oh, Senpai!”
“Apparently the chances are high enough for it to happen twice.” Ren said as he and Makoto turned towards Kasumi’s voice.
She approached Makoto, ignoring everyone else.
“Quite the coincidence meeting you here.”
“Y-yeah, we were just saying.”
“So you must be Yoshizawa-san.” Yusuke stood so he could bow. “A pleasure to meet you.”
Kasumi went to return the greeting, and that’s when she screamed. She covered her eyes- but notably peered through her fingers at the nude boy.
“There are nudist boys too?”
Yusuke seemed unphased.
“Yes indeed. I am Yusuke Kitagawa, the second nudist of Kosei high. I believe the human body is a work of art and should thus be shared. Here, I’ll get out from behind the table so you can have a better look.”
“NOT NECESSARY!” Kasumi retreated a couple steps.
“It’s nothing to worry about, you may gaze as much as you so wish.”
Kasumi’s face was somehow even redder than her hair.
“I’ve seen quite enough, thank you.” Despite her words, she still hadn’t properly covered her eyes.
“Are you sure? I don’t mind getting closer if your eyesight is perhaps poor.”
Ann grabbed Yusuke by the shoulders and forced him back into his seat.
“Alright that’s enough ‘sharing your art’ for now Yusuke, quit harassing the poor girl.”
“Harassing? I’m doing nothing of the sort!”
“S-sorry about him Yoshizawa-san.” Makoto smiled at her apologetically. “He’s a nice guy really, just a little intense from time to time.”
“R-right…” Kasumi uncovered her blushing face, averting her eyes, only to notice Ren was now nude too. “Y-you too?” She nearly fell over backwards.
“Uh, hi Yoshizawa-san.”
Kasumi suppressed her natural instinct to run, and instead forced a polite bow.
“Um, hello Amamiya-kun.”
Ren decided not to push it any further, and left her be. Haru had her eyes locked onto Kasumi the whole time, wondering when- if at all- she would finally notice and greet her. But it just didn’t seem to be happening, she decided to take the initiative.
“Nice to see you again Kasumi-chan.”
“Oh, hello Okumura-san.”
“It’s been a while since we talked, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, it has.”
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence fell over the group, everyone was getting rather uncomfortable. Ann took it upon herself to change the subject, and dispel the awkwardness by taking one for the team.
“So me, Ren, and Ryuji were talking yesterday, and I was thinking about um… sharing my feelings with my friend Shiho when we got back home.”
“Oh? You and Shiho?” Makoto tilted her head.
“Y-yeah… we’re not in a relationship or anything, but the boys convinced me to… y’know, stop hiding and maybe try to change things with her.”
Makoto smiled.
“That’d be really nice. I had no idea you were into girls.”
“Well, not exclusively. I’m bi like you.”
“Like me? How did you—”
“That was my fault.” Ren raised his hand. “Sorry Makoto, it just slipped out during the discussion.”
“I see, that’s okay Ren, I’m not mad at you or anything.” She shot him a reassuring smile, which he met with a relieved one.
“It seems I’m in good company.” Haru started to get a little excited. “I also… swing both ways.” She blushed as she looked down at her meal. “It’s nice to finally tell someone.”
“Well isn’t this another wonderful coincidence?”
“You too Yusuke?” Ryuji looked back and forth between Haru and Yusuke, the latter nodding in affirmation.
“Is friggin' everyone except me bi?”
“I’m also straight.” Ren raised his hand somewhat shyly. His phone vibrated on the table. “Futaba says she’s bi too. Wow it really is just the two of us.” He laughed to himself.
“For real.” Ryuji quickly held his hands up. “Not that I have any problems or anything, it’s cool an’ all. I’ll support you all same as ever.”
Ann ruffled his hair, it was actually a little painful.
“We know Ryuji, don’t worry about it. We’re glad to have you around.”
“Um.” Kasumi raised her hand. “I’m not being presumptuous and counting myself as part of your group, but I’m also straight like Amamiya-kun and uh…”
“Ryuji, Ryuji Sakamoto.”
“Right, Sakamoto-kun.”
Haru stared at Kasumi.
“So… all this time…”
Yusuke looked over to Haru.
“Is something the matter?”
“N-no, nothing…” She looked down at her knees and muttered to herself. “So right from the start, there was never any chance for me? ha…”
“Haru-san…”
She stood from her seat.
“Well I don’t want to let this day go to waste, I’m going to go enjoy the water for a while, I’ll speak to you all again later.”
“Haru-san, you…”
But she was already walking away, not saying another word to anyone. Kasumi watched her disappear around a corner, before turning back to the rest of the group.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“N-no Yoshizawa-san, you’re fine.”
“If you say so Senpai.” She smiled down at Makoto, before shooting another fearful glance at Ren. “A-anyway, sorry for interrupting your meal, I’ll come find you later Senpai.”
“R-right, see you later.” Makoto nodded to her as she left, and the thieves returned to their meals in silence.
~ ~ ~
“Do you think we should go looking for her?”
Makoto shook her head.
“Probably not right now, I imagine she needs a little time alone to process things. We’ll find her later.”
Ren exhaled.
“Yeah, yeah you’re probably right. Let’s just try to enjoy ourselves in the meantime.”
Ren and Makoto stood side-by-side on the beach, looking out towards the beautiful ocean. The sight of a nudist couple gently holding each other did draw more than a few voyeuristic eyes from other vacation goers, but they had plenty of experience in ignoring crowds at this point, the couple were only thinking of each other in this moment.
“I really like it here.”
“Agreed, maybe one day we can come back here, just the two of us.”
“It’ll be nice not to have to sneak around the others.”
Makoto fought back her blush.
“Y-yeah…”
“Though lets be honest they probably already suspect us, and are probably talking about it behind our backs.”
“Probably, not to mention it’s impossible to hide anything from Futaba now, all we can really hope to do is keep it all firmly behind our backs, and not let them tease us to our faces.”
“Denial is the name of the game here.”
“Unfortunate, but true.”
The couple leisurely made their way down the seaside, holding hands as they enjoyed the warm sunlight and cool breeze against their bodies.
“I can see why you like this so much Mako, the physical sensations really are nice.”
“I know, I’m sure there are similar pleasures to be had in just a swimsuit, but going entirely bare really is a feeling that can’t be matched.”
“It really is. The program isn’t for me, but if any other opportunity to join you comes up, you better believe I’m gonna take it.”
“That’d be nice, but…”
“But…?”
“Is it weird that I like you clothed?”
“My body isn’t that unattractive, is it?”
Makoto shook her head violently.
“N-no! Of course not! You’re… you’ve gotten quite fit lately… I like it.”
“Heh, I was only teasing you Mako, but thank you very much. I’ve not fully graduated from ‘lanky nerd’ status yet, but I’m finally getting some definition in my body. You’ve been an inspiration to really put my all into getting fit.”
“I still don’t feel like I deserve to be called an inspiration, but thank you for saying so… I just think you look really nice clothed too.”
“I guess being naked means more when there are also clothed people around, huh?”
Makoto was too embarrassed to say anything aloud, but she nodded, prompting another chuckle from her boyfriend.
“Though I could do without the weird looks.”
“Hmmm…” Makoto looked around at the crowd. “There are lots of girls staring at you…” She took a tight grip on his arm.
“Don’t worry Makoto, I’m not about to let another girl take me without my Queen’s permission.”
“Shut up Ren.”
“Not sure how to feel when kids are staring at me though.”
“It’s fine, it’s not as if we’re doing anything sexual in front of them. If there’s one thing I’ve realized since becoming nudist, it’s that we used to be way too prudish about nudity, it’s completely natural and harmless, if I can help tear down that wall we built for ourselves then I think that’s a good thing… that said they showed those rather… extreme close ups of me on the news, that’s probably not as good for them as wholesome non-sexual nudity…”
“Eh, that wasn’t your fault, news media is shameless.”
“No kidding.”
The stopped to admire the ocean for a while longer in comfortable silence, before a voice from behind broke said silence.
“Oh? Seriously? Is that you Makoto-san? Ren-kun?”
They turned to see their fellow nudist looking at them in surprise.
“Hifumi-san?”
“You came here with Yusuke too?”
“Indeed, it was rather a shock to have our destination changed mid-flight, but one advantage to this lifestyle is that I don’t have to worry about not having packed the right outfits.”
“Everywhere having the same dress code for us is a plus.” Makoto smiled. “It’s good to see you.”
“And you as well.” Hifumi bowed to Makoto, then again to Ren. “Oh? Have you joined the program as well Ren-kun?”
“Nah, but if anyone asks just say I have, okay? I’m just doing a trial run for our vacation here.”
“Ha, I see. Well dare I say- it’s a good look for you.” Hifumi slyly scanned his body up and down, before her eyes stopped in a certain area. “Oh…”
“What do you mean ‘oh’?” Ren was suddenly rather worried.
“N-nothing. It’s… fine.”
“What’s fine?”
“I suppose it’s none of my business anyway, it’s just a little… unexpected.”
“What’s unexpected?”
There was a really horrible feeling in Ren’s gut right now, a feeling that got even worse when Makoto approached Hifumi, smiling deviously at him while whispering something into her ear. Hifumi nodded a few times.
“Ah I see, a ‘grower not a shower’- as it were.”
That didn’t make Ren feel any better about himself.
~ ~ ~
Ryuji was skulking around the beach, looking for Mishima. The two had agreed to meet up and look for girls to score with together, having no success the previous day (the latter too busy being sick the whole time), they fancied their chances would be greater as a duo. As he stood around waiting impatiently, he saw Ren walking by.
“Yo, Renren!”
“Hm? Oh heya Ryuji.”
“Yo me and Mishima are gonna go cruising for chicks, wanna come with?”
Ren groaned.
“Ryuji do I need to keep reminding you? I’m in a relationship, I’m not going to be unfaithful to her.”
“No that’s not what I meant, I was hoping you could at least play wingman.”
“Sorry, not today, Makoto went off ahead but I’m spending the rest of the day with her.”
“Come ooon man! You’re always with her, what happened to ‘bros before hoes’?”
“Wow gee lemme think, do I want to spend an evening with my lovely girlfriend, or watch you get rejected two dozen times?”
“The hell man?”
Ren let out a heavy sigh.
“Look, dude. You’re my best friend, and I do genuinely believe you’re a great guy. Someday you’re going to make a woman very VERY happy. But man, you’ve got some serious growing up to do before then.”
“What gives?”
“Look, I’m willing to help you, but there’s no point doing so when you don’t even know what you’re looking for.”
“Is this about what Ann was talking about last night? It’s nothin’ major, I just don’t know what kind of girl would be best for me, so I want some dating experience so I can figure that out.”
“And that’s totally fair. But tell me- and be completely honest- right now do you want a relationship?”
“What kinda question is that? Of course man.”
“I mean, do you want a girlfriend, or do you just want fangirls?”
“…Huh?”
“Do you want a relationship of give and take, or do you just want girls to fawn over you and have sex with you?”
“Uh…”
“Don’t get me wrong- if it’s the latter I’ll still support you. There’s nothing that says you have to go straight to the serious shit like me and Makoto did. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with just wanting to have a couple flings and have fun for a while, genuinely nothing wrong with that. But if you do want that, you need to be honest about it, both to yourself and to them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, if she’s aware that it’s just playing around, just for fun, then there’s no harm done, it’s all good. But if you’re just playing around and she wants something more, then you’re kinda just using them.”
“I’m not trying ‘use’ girls!” Ryuji was extremely offended, but gradually lost confidence. “Am I?”
“I mean you know what it’s like, some playboy comes along and has a fling with a woman, she’s really into it, but he only wanted to have some fun, so he just ditches her afterwards. And there’s also the risk of pregnancy, you don’t wanna get a girl pregnant when you were only having fun. If that happens you either have to stick around in a relationship you weren’t committed to, or just ditch her and leave her to raise the kid herself.”
“…Fuck… I mean I don’t wanna do that obviously, I just want some dates y’know, it’s not meant to be that serious yet.”
“I know man, like I said you’re genuinely a good guy, but you need to think about these things. If you wanna have fun, that’s fine, if you want a relationship that’s good too, I’ll be by your side either way- just not today.”
Ryuji furrowed his brow, staring down at the sand.
“I’m sorry man, I don’t mean to come across as harsh, I didn’t mean to lecture you. Relationships are just something you have to be mature about, y’know? Even if it’s just fun immaturity can lead to some pretty bad shit.”
“I mean… I guess you might have a point, I don’t really wanna think about all that stuff though. Friggin’ getting a girl pregnant then just dipping, that’s what…” Ryuji’s eyes went wide.
“Ryuji? Bro, you okay?”
“That’s what dad did… Asshole just ditched mom and…” He rubbed his head in frustration. “I’m not being like that am I?”
“No, I’ll say it as often as I need to, you’re a good guy.” Now Ren was the one looking guilty. “Shit man, I didn’t mean to dig up some heavy crap like that, I was just trying to warn you not to get carried away too fast.”
“No… no man you’re right…” He looked at Ren. “I’m sorry man, you better get going, I need to think for a bit.”
“You sure?”
“Y-yeah, gimme a minute.”
Ren held Ryuji’s shoulder and nodded.
“Whichever way you decide, I’ve got your back.”
“Thanks…”
Ren still felt guilty, that went way heavier than he intended, and part of him thought he should stay, but he decided to leave Ryuji be for now, and walked off. He resolved to check back in early tomorrow.
“Hey Sakamoto-kun! Sorry I’m late!”
Ryuji looked up at Mishima.
“You good to go man?”
Ryuji sighed.
“Sorry, you go on ahead, I’m not feeling it, maybe we’ll try tomorrow.”
“For real?”
“Later man.” Ryuji wandered off, leaving Mishima standing alone and confused.
~ ~ ~
The sun was staring to set, Ryuji had never been one for sights, but even he had to appreciate how gorgeous it looked, how it probably would have looked even better with some hottie by his side.
“Goddammit… why’d he have to put that stupid idea in my head?”
The beach was starting to empty out, which meant he had no trouble spotting Haru sitting alone on the sand, staring at the sunset. He remembered how she had stormed off earlier; he still had plenty of shit he wanted to think about alone, but even if she was still relatively new, he wasn’t about to just leave a friend in distress.
“Uh- heya Haru?”
Haru jumped, briefly startled as she was brought out of her thoughts.
“Ah, Ryuji-kun. Enjoying your vacation?”
“Uh… yeah, I guess… You good?”
“As good as can be, I suppose.”
“Wazzat mean?”
“Nothing worth worrying about…”
Silence fell over the two, broken only by the gentle crashing of the waves. Ryuji sat down a couple feet away from Haru.
“What was that about earlier?”
“What was what about?”
“You just started mumbling to yourself and ran off out of nowhere.”
“I said it’s nothing worth worrying about.”
“That’s only gonna make everyone worry more. You’re part of the team now, we wouldn’t be much of a team if we didn’t help eachother out, y’know?”
Haru stared forwards for a while, a soft smile spreading across her face. A smile that swiftly vanished again, replaced by a serious expression as she got to her feet, still staring at the sunset.
“Haru?”
She started removing her swimsuit.
“WOAH WOAH WOAH! Haru what are you—”
Suddenly Haru was standing in front of Ryuji completely nude, still staring at the horizon, gently swaying from side to side and swinging her arms.
“Hmm.” She looked around, down the beach, at the resort behind them, and finally down at Ryuji, before laughing. “While your reaction is pretty funny, I’m thinking ‘no’.”
“No?”
“This isn’t doing it for me. I guess I prefer getting other people naked rather than getting naked myself.” She slowly bent over and pulled her swimsuit back up, getting everything back in place. Ryuji was still shocked, but couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.
“What was that?”
“Just wanted to see how I’d feel about it. But I think I’ll leave it to the others.” She sat back down, sighing to herself.
“Was that what you were thinking about earlier?”
She looked at him and tutted.
“No, that idea just came to me now.”
“Then what was earlier about?”
“Ha… for some reason I thought seeing me naked would make you forget all about that, I guess I should give you more credit.”
It took Ryuji a few seconds to figure out that she just insulted him.
“Man ‘eff off.”
That only made Haru laugh more.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to just say. For a while I thought me and Kasumi-chan could have some kind of relationship, but lately it’s become more and more clear that that’s just not possible, her turning out to be straight isn’t even that big a deal, it was just the final nail in the coffin.”
“You and Kasumi? Is that why you were always hanging out together before?”
Haru brought her knees up to her torso.
“…Yes. It was always onesided, I just kept getting my hopes up and refused to see the obvious truth. It’s fine though, I think I’ve come to terms with it, in fact the straight thing is actually something of a blessing, now I can let go of those false hopes entirely.”
Ryuji scratched his head.
“Man, this is probably all over my head, but I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything, it’s fine Ryuji-kun.”
They pair fell silent again for a while, before Haru turned to him.
“Ryuji?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to have sex with me?”
Ryuji stared at her for what felt like a week.
“…Huh?”
“Do you want to have sex with me?”
“…WHAT?! FOR REAL?!”
“Yes, I’m sure we could find somewhere private.”
“DUDE!” Ryuji suddenly stopped himself. “Like, why though?”
“Does that matter?”
“I uh—yeah! Yeah it does matter!”
Haru stared back at the horizon again.
“To be honest. I just want to give my virginity to someone other than Sugimura.”
“Wh- the fuck Haru? You’re not giving anything to him! Whether you do it or the team does, he’s not getting you.”
“Thank you, I hope you’re right, but at this point I’m having a hard time believing it. So just in case, I want to have this little act of rebellion while I’m here. To be honest Ryuji, I’m using you.”
“Using…”
“Really, I know it’s horrible of me, I had hoped you wouldn’t mind something so casual, if it’s a problem then you can forget about it, but the offer is there.”
Ryuji stared at her for a while before leaping to his feet.
“GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT!” he shouted while kicking the sand around. “THAT ASSHOLE!”
“R-Ryuji-kun?”
“DAMMIT REN! I could be having sex with a hottie like Haru right now but you just HAD to put that stupid idea in my head! It just had to be today, today of ALL days!”
“Ryuji! What are you—”
Haru slid a safe distance away as Ryuji was having his tantrum, currently slamming his fists into the ground. Eventually she had enough and grabbed him by the shoulders, firmly slapping him on the cheek.
“OW! Haru…”
“Are you calm now?”
“If I say no, will you hit me again?”
“Yes.”
“…thanks for being honest. Yes, I’m calm now.”
“Lovely. Want to explain yourself?”
Ryuji grumbled.
“Ren got me thinking about how I might have been trying to use girls for cheap fun. I mean, he didn’t say that outright, but that’s where my mind is going. I can’t shake this horrible image of being like Dad.”
“Your father?”
“Dad ditched me and Mom a long time ago, I’ve always hated him for it. Mom works so hard to give us what we have… I’ve… made her life pretty hard too, but I love her, which just makes me hate what Dad did even more… I don’t wanna go down the same route…”
Haru looked at him sympathetically.
“I’ve not known you very long Ryuji-kun, but you definitely don’t give that kind of impression to me, I can’t see you doing anything like that.”
“I’d hope not… but I just can’t shake the thought.”
“Hmm… well that’s definitely not going to be the case here, I have protection we can use, and I’m fully aware going in that it’s just going to be a fling, you don’t have to worry about it at all, you can just have fun.”
Ryuji shook his head.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this but… actually no- FUCK that!”
“Huh?”
“Haru, I don’t care whether you believe it or not, Sugimura isn’t gonna do a damn thing to you! You don’t need to do this just to deny him some first he’s never gonna get his hands on anyway!”
“Ryuji, I—”
“In fact, when we get back, either you tell him to fuck off, or we ALL do! I’m sick of your whole ‘oh it’s fine if it’s only me suffering’ bullshit!” Ryuji realized it might be a bad idea just shouting at the scariest member of the team, all the adrenaline left his body in an instant, and he flinched back several feet as if to dodge a retaliatory strike that never came.
Haru shook her head.
“You’re something else…”
“S-sorry Haru.”
“You haven’t done anything, no need to apologize.” She smiled. “Fine, I’ll be sure to tell him to ‘fuck off’ next time I see him.”
“G-good! We’ll be there to back you up!”
“I appreciate it.” She gazed once more at the sun, which had almost entirely disappeared now. “It’s rather late, it’ll be curfew soon.”
“Aw shit, I don’t want teach jumping down my ass again, let’s head back.”
“Jumping down your—You use some rather strange expressions Ryuji-kun.”
~ ~ ~
The following morning, Ren had once again stayed the night in Makoto’s room, enjoying another night full of lewd fun. It was good that Makoto was both on the pill, and had brought a huge box of condoms, they got through a lot of new positions and ideas during their nights here. They were happy to spend the morning snuggling together in bed, however their peaceful lie-in was shattered when the hotel room door opened.
“Sorry to get you up early Niijima-san but—WOAH!”
“M-Miss Kawakami?” Makoto pulled up the bedsheets, as if that would somehow hide what they had been doing.
“Amamiya-kun?!”
“Uh… hey Miss Kawakami… nice morning?”
“You two have been…”
“We used protection.”
“Ren that’s not the point.” Makoto smiled nervously at the teacher. “I-it’s not what you think.”
“Miss Kawakami, there you are, I was… oh my…”
Makoto cringed in embarrassment.
“Hi Haru…”
Haru stared at the couple wide-eyed.
“You two have really been… Oh my.” She smiled deviously.
“Hey Haru, you feeling any be—FOR REAL?!”
Ren rubbed his forehead.
“Seriously? Ryuji too?”
“Don’t shout Ryuji, people are still.” Ann gasped. “Oh my god!”
“Oh yeah, sure SURE!” Ren threw up his hands. “Fucking everyone showing up, of course. I’m expecting Yusuke in three… two…”
“Why is everyone gathered here? Is there an activity planned that I didn’t know abou—”
“There he is.”
“Goodness, I didn’t realize the two of you were willing to perform in front of others like this, wait here, I’ll grab a canvas.”
“No Yusuke.” Makoto shook her head. “We’re not ‘performing’ anything.”
“We were wondering why we never saw you in the mornings Ren.” Ann smirked. “Should have figured you’d come here.”
“I hope you two are staying safe at least.”
Kawakami nodded.
“It’s okay Okumura-san, they said they’re using protection.”
“TEACH! You’re making this worse!”
“There’s something especially enchanting about seeing Makoto’s hair so dishevelled.”
“Yusuke we—”
“Though I suppose Ren-san’s hair always looks like that.”
“Yeah, not as if it could get any messier.” Ann agreed.
“GO AWAY!”
“Are you absolutely sure I can’t paint—”
“No.”
“How about a sculpture?”
“No, piss off.”
“Alright you kids, we better leave them to it…”
“We’re not gonna carry on!”
“Good, I still need to speak with you Niijima-san, meet me in the restaurant area as soon as you’re up.”
“S-sure, Miss Kawakami…”
One by one, they shot knowing smirks at the couple and left the room, Ryuji shooting Ren a double thumbs-up, whisper-shouting a “Dude, sick!” as if Makoto wouldn’t also hear. Haru was the last to leave and closed the door behind them.
“Take your time you two.”
The door clicked shut, and the couple both let out long embarrassed groans with bright red faces. The room was silent once again. Slowly they both opened their eyes and glanced at eachother, then back at the door, waiting and listening for a while just to make absolutely sure none of the group had stayed behind to listen in on them. When they were satisfied that no more voyeurs were listening in on them, Makoto spoke quietly.
“Okay, they’re gone, you can come out now.”
From underneath the sheets, in-between Ren and Makoto, Hifumi’s head poked out.
“You don’t think they suspected anything, do you?”
Ren shook his head.
“No, I think we got away with it.”
Chapter 39: So how was it?
Summary:
One more filler chapter before we head home.
Notes:
Bit of a shorter one this time, wanted to take it easy before the return to Japan
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
This was a truly perfect moment. Makoto’s hotel room gave the couple a wonderful view of the sunrise, shimmering across the ocean. A soothing breeze through the open windows caressed them both has they held eachother. The watched the morning waves gently crashing against the golden sands. Ren’s arm wrapped firmly around her waist, pulling her body close to his as she leant into his chest. They indulged in eachother’s warmth, enjoying the feel of smooth skin against skin. Even at a resort as popular as this, the morning was calm and quiet; the combined sound of the not-too-distant waves, the light hustle and bustle of their fellow resort guests greeting the day, and eachother’s heartbeats made for a truly enchanting symphony. The feel of Hifumi’s hand gently stroking Ren’s cock while her face was buried nose-deep in Makoto’s pussy, lapping away at her like half-melted ice cream. The enticing scent of breakfast being prepared downstairs that was only amplified by the smell of the salty sea air drifting into the room.
Yes, this was a truly perfect moment.
“We absolutely have to come back here someday.”
“Agreed Makoto.”
“I… I never thought it was possible to feel this happy.” Makoto’s face got even redder than it already was. “God that’s embarrassing to say out loud, even if it is true.”
“We can endure a little embarrassment.”
“No kidding…” Makoto thought back to just a few minutes prior, as perfect as this moment was, having their sexual activities exposed to almost all their friends was something they could have done without.
“Just had to be the one time we invited Hifumi along too.” Ren looked down at their guest. “Must have been pretty scary for you too.”
Hifumi took her time before responding, it was rude to talk with your mouth full after all.
“It was quite the rude awakening, I’m so glad I was able to get underneath the sheets in time.” Hifumi promptly returned to her ‘meal’.
“For real.” Ren looked back up to Makoto. “I’m still surprised you suggested this at all Mako.”
Makoto chuckled, and looked away bashfully.
“I’ve… done a bit of research into… sexual matters, and things like this popped up a few times, I admit I got curious.” She gently petted Hifumi’s head. “I’m glad we went for it though, part of me was scared it’d somehow cheapen our own relationship, but it really hasn’t.”
Ren nodded.
“Agreed, I’m still completely loyal to you, I wouldn’t do anything with anyone else without your permission.”
Hifumi laughed, which created a weird sensation in Makoto’s crotch.
“I don’t ever intend to get between you two in that way, but getting in-between you in a literal sense… I can’t say this is something I imagined happening on this vacation, nor this being the way I lose my virginity, but gosh… I think you two have awakened something in me.”
Hifumi looked especially cute right now, somehow the combined fluids of Makoto and Ren still on her face didn’t lessen this at all.
“Feel free to invite me along again any time.” Hifumi looked up at them both. “Although, I may have to stop if I ever get into a relationship myself.” A thought struck her, and her smile turned devious. “Unless they’re as open-minded as the two of you of course.”
Ren laughed.
“God we’re turning into swingers. We’re reinforcing the negative stereotypes about nudists.”
Hifumi raised an eyebrow.
“Aren’t you the one who said life becomes so much easier to enjoy once you stop worrying about other people’s opinions?”
“Ha… I did say that, huh?” Ren leaned harder into Makoto. “So long as Makoto is okay with it, so am I.”
“Glad you care about my opinion at least. As much as I’d love to stay here all day, we really should get out and meet the others.”
“You’re right, I’m expecting a teasing nightmare, but the longer we put it off the worse it’s gonna be. We should clean ourselves up. Hifumi, you can go first, you’ve got the most… you’ve got a lot of us on you.”
Hifumi climbed to her feet, her knees still wobbly.
“We’d save time if we went in together~”
“When did you become so flirty?”
“Why would the Dragon Queen ever have any issue asking for what she wants?”
It seemed her Shogi mode gained a new subgenre, this warranted further investigation, but it’d have to be later.
“Better not, I can’t deny the possibility of us getting carried away again.”
“Oh boo…” Hifumi pouted at Makoto. “Getting carried away is the point.”
“M-maybe later tonight, though we’ll have to be extra careful this time- the others might be trying to catch Ren sneaking off this time.”
“Maybe that’s a blessing in disguise?” Ren shrugged. “Maybe tonight rather than being sneaky I can just be like ‘I’m off to fuck my girlfriend, what of it’?”
“Probably don’t word it like that.”
“I’ll go clean myself up.” Hifumi walked over to the on-suite. “I don’t want my own roommates wondering where I’ve gone.”
Hifumi didn’t bother closing the door, just in case the couple changed their minds, but thankfully being sensible prevailed. The two started getting ready themselves, Ren checking his phone in case of messages, but all he had was Futaba from last night asking him to move the camera so she could see, and her laughing at him this morning for getting caught. He left her on read.
~ ~ ~
Makoto ate her breakfast, sat in the restaurant area of the hotel, Ann and Haru either side of her, resting their chins in their hands with huge, knowing grins on their faces.
‘Just ignore them’ she thought to herself. ‘They’ll get bored and move on eventually.’
They didn’t.
“So?”
“So what Ann?”
“How was it?”
“The breakfast is fine, thank you.”
“Now now Mako-chan. You know that’s not what we mean.”
“And you know it’s none of your business Haru.”
“Don’t be like that, you’re the only one of us who isn’t a virgin now, so of course we need you to fill us in.”
“There are plenty of books you can buy on sexual education, when we get home I can recommend you a few if need be.”
“We know how sex works Makoto, but we wanna know how it feels.”
“You’ll find out when you have your own relationships.”
“Ugh…” Ann looked past Makoto to Haru. “She’s really being stubborn.”
Haru smirked at Makoto.
“Did he call you ‘Queen’ during?”
Makoto had never focused on maintaining a poker face harder in her life.
“Did he dom you or did you dom him?”
The answer to that question was ‘yes’, but Makoto remained silent.
“Have you tried oral yet?”
Again, the answer was ‘yes’.
“Did he put your toes in his mouth?”
Again…
“Would you two quit it?!” Makoto slammed her fist down on the table. “What me and Ren get up to in the privacy of our own room is no one’s business but our own!”
Ann whispered to Haru.
“Maybe we could ask Futaba how it went?”
Makoto pulled Ann’s twintail.
“Whispering doesn’t work when the person you’re trying to hide information from is literally in-between the two of you.” Makoto looked over to Ren at the next table with Ryuji and Yusuke. “Ren, tell Futaba that if she says a word I’m coming round to break all her computers with my bare hands.”
A notification popped up on Ren’s phone.
“She says she heard you loud and clear.” He chuckled. “She even called you ‘Ma’am’.”
At the boy’s table, Ryuji leaned over to Ren.
“So you’re already scoring? Kick-ass dude! Tell us about it!”
Yusuke also discreetly leaned in closer.
“If I tell you, she’ll be mad at both of us.”
Ryuji shuddered.
“Good point.” He spoke louder than necessary to make sure Makoto would hear: “I have chosen to respect the privacy of my friends.” His tone was pretty robotic, but Makoto still nodded, deeming it acceptable.
Haru let out a wistful sigh.
“I suppose I’ll have to find out for myself.”
“For real Haru? How you gonna do that?” Ann asked.
“A possibility or two has arisen lately…”
“What does that mean?”
“Mmm, you’re right Mako-chan, this really is tasty!”
Ann’s shoulder dropped.
“So you’re dodging questions too now? Whatever, not as if you have any useful advice to give on sexual relationships with other girls anyway.”
Makoto sweat nervously.
~ ~ ~
“Togo-san, there you are.”
Hifumi was brought out of her daydream in the outdoor area of the restaurant when she felt someone poke her shoulder.
“Hm? Ah, you made me jump No-san.”
Kameko looked rather annoyed.
“Look I get you’re probably miffed that you got the couch while me and Mai got the beds, but you drew the short straw, that’s no reason to just up and ditch us.”
“Sorry, I um… I was just getting some evening air, and by the time I got back to the room you were both asleep, then I left for breakfast before you both woke up.”
“I don’t know how you get by on such little sleep…”
Mai approached the two of them groaning as she took a seat.
“Everything okay Toda-san?”
“I’ve been here literally a day and I’ve been hit on 8 times already.” She leant against the table. “I don’t mind people looking but man I’m sick of having to deal with all these creeps. It’s hard to set boundaries when I don’t know any English…”
“No kidding… a few people here speak Japanese but most don’t, I knew I should have put more effort into learning but I can barely understand even a few words of English.”
Hifumi thought something was a little strange about this conversation, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, aw well- probably wasn’t important.
Kameko looked even more annoyed now.
“Being hit on sucks, but I’d prefer that to the shit I’ve been dealing with. People keep thinking I’m a lost child and asking where my parents are. I just tell them to ‘fuck off’ since that’s one of the only English phrases I know, but it rarely helps.”
“Why do you know that phrase?”
“It’s as essential as asking where the bathroom is, I can do that too.”
“I suppose it is helpful…” Mai- her head resting on the table- looked over to Hifumi. “You’re pretty, you’ve probably had to deal with a few guys hitting on you since you came here.”
“Well there was this one couple…” Hifumi looked away slyly.
“A couple of guys at once? Some people really do think us nudists are perverts.”
Hifumi sipped her orange juice, when some shouting from across the beach was heard.
“This is absurd! Discrimination! Obstruction of justice!”
“Uh-oh, Norio is getting into another fight.” Mai groaned.
“Miyake-san?” Hifumi looked over to see her fellow nudist yelling at a few members of staff, gathered around a bikini-clad woman and what looked like her son, as if they were shielding her.
“Why am I the villain here?” Norio glared at them with crossed arms. “I was merely studying them.”
Kameko shook her head.
“Doesn’t he realize that only makes him sound worse? I doubt they even understand him.”
“Shouldn’t we do something?” Hifumi looked on concerned.
“Yeah we probably should…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Why aren’t we then?”
“Hey don’t yell at us Togo-san, why don’t you go over?”
Resort security were approaching at this point, thankfully one of them spoke Japanese and they could hear that he was asking Norio to leave.
“LEAVE?! How dare you? I have done nothing objectionable, in fact my pursuit of discovering the beauty of this nation and its inhabitants should be lauded!”
“Oh jeez… Well I’m definitely not going out there now.” Kameko sat down and folded her arms. “I really don’t want to be associated with this weirdo.”
Mai agreed.
“He’s even worse than when Kitagawa-san gets into this self-righteous ‘pursuit of art’ mode. The correct solution here is obviously to apologize, leave, then come back to find a good hiding spot and complete your art in there.”
“Exactly.” Kameko nodded. “It’s so good to find good subjects for art, better to keep your existence wholly unknown than deal with all the headaches of consent.”
“Exactly” Mai smiled. “What they don’t know can’t hurt them. And it’s much more enjoyable capturing those subtle emotions and expressions they think no one can see.”
Hifumi was starting to think the whole Kosei art club was something to be avoided as much as possible. She didn’t know Norio Miyake beyond their shared nudist status, but it seemed the responsibility of preventing him from being arrested fell to her. She got out of her seat.
“Wait you’re really going Togo-san?”
“If he gets into trouble, all of Kosei will. I’ll deal with this quickly… somehow.”
Hifumi ran over to the confrontation before it exploded into a real fight, pushing her way past the gathering audience and grabbing Norio’s arm.
“Ah, Togo-san, good. Please help me reason with these ignoramuses. They think me some common voyeur, this family refuses to cooperate with me.”
She pulled him by the arm, she didn’t know very much English at all, but she’d have to just make do with what she had.
((“Um… him brother! He uh…”)) She pointed to her head with her free hand. ((“He big dumb, not know better. We’re very sorry.”)) She let go of his arm only to force his head down into a bowing position.
“Togo-san, what the hell are you doing?” He resisted her attempts to pull him away, even as she was puffing her cheeks up straining herself to drag him to safety, he was dedicated to see this fight through to the bitter end. “There is no need for surrender, they’ll see reason once I properly explain what I was doing.”
“For the love of all that is good Miyake-san, just come with me, this is humiliating enough already.”
“We’re never coming to Hawaii again, this opportunity is now or never, I won’t let it go.”
Hifumi put a decent amount of work into staying fit, but she really wished she had Makoto’s strength right now, they were getting more than a few weird looks, she was certain this whole embarrassing episode would end up on YouTube before long. She was considering giving up when something flew by her field of vision. A plastic spade flew by and struck Norio about the eye.
“OW! The locals are hostile! We need reinforcements!”
He looked over to where the object had flown from, Kameko was glaring at him standing next to a child who had been mid-way through building a sandcastle
“Sorry kid.” She hastily apologized and ran over. “You fuckin’ dumbass, know when to throw in the damn towel!”
“Kameko-san, I—”
“Don’t care!” She circled around and grabbed his other arm.
“What are you—woah!”
Mai had snuck up behind him and grabbed both his legs, the 3 girls carried him away back into the hotel.
“This is very undignified!”
There was no doubt this was going on YouTube now, as embarrassing as it was for her to rush in and have to bark at the crowd in broken English, Hifumi had to admit she did want to see the image of her ‘friend’ here being carried off face-down from the outside, she might have to search for it later.
Eventually the group reached the girl’s room, and unceremoniously tossed him onto the ground.
“This is the last time we take you anywhere!”
Norio sat up, clutching his eye- which to his relief wasn’t damaged at all.
“Was all that really necessary?”
“That’s what we want to ask you!” Mai yelled at him. “How did you honestly see that ending?”
“With them seeing the error of their ways and agreeing to let me observe them to perfect the work I shall create later.”
“There’s being optimistic then there’s just being a moron…”
Hifumi sighed and stepped forward.
“I’m not going to deny or disrespect your passion Miyake-san, but antagonizing your subjects just isn’t the way to go about it.”
“Huh?”
“I may not be an artist myself, but I can appreciate the importance of the connection between artist and subject, continuing to fight them would have only negatively impacted your own work in the end.”
“Hmm… I see… perhaps you may have a point.”
Kameko sighed.
“Finally you see reason. You went about that all wrong.”
“Exactly.” Mai said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a camera with a telescopic lens. “The obvious thing to do is study them from a distance so they don’t know any better.”
“Ah- of course! How could I have been such a fool?” Norio got to his feet. “I was so focused on the final result that I forgot to consider proper methodology. I have brought disgrace to Kosei.”
“Just don’t let it happen again.” Kameko said, going through her own bag. “I’ve also brought some small spy cams, they’re urban camo since they were meant for LA, but if we are clever about it we should be able to hide them in the bushes here and get some better angles.”
“HA! You’re a genius!” Norio slapped her on the back.
“Quit it, I don’t like it when humans touch me.”
“My apologies, I got excited.”
“We should start planning the best spots to put them.” Mai said while looking out the window.
Hifumi decided to leave before she became an accessory to some sort of crime. She resolved to spend another night with Ren and Makoto, though this time less for fun and more for her own safety.
“I wish I was a Shujin student…”
Notes:
Yusuke isn't the only weirdo in Kosei
Chapter 40: Back to Japan. Back to the plot
Summary:
Hawaii was fun, Japan had less fun.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Honey, I’m home.”
The sound of Leblanc’s bell was heard as Ren walked in through the door, lei around his neck and smile on his face. Sojiro lifted his head from the crossword he had been working on.
“Welcome back kid. Have a good time in Hawaii?”
“Aloha.”
Futaba rolled her eyes from behind her laptop.
“He’s been corrupted…” She looked at his annoying smile, and the weird hand gesture he was flaunting- no doubt trying to copy something he saw other people doing in this vacation. “Or maybe he really is just a dork.”
“What can I say? I feel like traveling has really helped me grow as a person.” Ren shrugged.
Futaba shook her head and mumbled under her breath.
“Hope he doesn’t let being the filling of a horny nudist sandwich go to his head.”
“Well kid, vacation’s over, time to get back to work. Help prepare dinner and look after the bar while I pick up some ingredients.”
“Right back to it, huh?” Ren sighed. “Sure Boss, no worries.” Ren dumped his bag into one of the empty booths and put on his apron.
Morgana- who had been resting on the seat next to Futaba- waited until Sojiro had left the store before jumping up on the table.
“I hope you had fun while you were away Joker, because there’s been a lot of movement here while you were being so carefree.”
“Oh?” Ren raised an eyebrow while preparing the curry ingredients.
“While you were having your extended beach episode, the plot has really been progressing here.” Futaba stared at Ren from over the top of her laptop.
Morgana had a serious look in his eyes.
“The Shujin principal is dead…”
“Oh no. Anyway I did get you guys some souvenirs while in Hawaii.
“…via mental shutdown.”
Ren paused what he was doing.
“Wait, so you mean…”
“Yes, seems that other Metaverse-user, the one with the black mask, is probably involved.”
“I see… almost forgot about them. Why’d they target the principal though? I get that no one liked him, but didn’t think anyone had it that out for him.”
Futaba typed away on her keyboard.
“According to the reports, he just had a mental shutdown in the middle of the street, just outside the police station, then got hit by a truck.”
“Shit man…” Ren scratched his head in thought for a while. “How soon is ‘too soon’ for the ‘mashed potato’ joke?”
“Joker now is not the time for jokes.”
“Right, sorry Morgana.”
“And that’s not all, activity on the Phantom Thieves forums has exploded recently, a huge number of people want us to target a ‘Kunikazu Okumura’.”
“Okumura?”
“Yup, it’s Haru’s dad.”
“I guess they might get their wish, he’s been on our ‘maybe’ list ever since we met Haru. But why the sudden surge in ‘popularity’?”
“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out.” Futaba brought her feet up onto the seat, holding her toes as she restlessly swayed side to side in place. “It’s no secret how he mistreats and overworks everyone who works for him.”
“Him and every other corporation on Earth…” Ren sighed. “I suppose he would be a pretty good target though, but…”
“But what?” Morgana stood and glared at Ren clearly frustrated. “Why the sudden indecisiveness from you?”
“Why the sudden ‘gung ho’ attitude from you? You know we don’t act unless we reach a unanimous decision.”
Morgana reluctantly sat back down and grumbled.
“And besides, this is Haru’s dad we’re talking about, her opinion on this is extra-important.”
“I suppose. We’ll have to call a meeting ASAP.”
“Sure, I’ll let everyone know we’re gonna meet up tomorrow.”
“In the meantime be careful, there’s gonna be more attention than ever on Shujin now, people are already theorizing our involvement in Kobayakawa’s death.”
“We don’t kill.”
“But they don’t know that. And I’m sure whoever was responsible would be more than happy to shift the blame over to us.”
“I’ll text everyone else to let them know to be careful too.”
“Especially that bonehead!”
“Yes yes, especially Ryuji.”
~ ~ ~
Later that night.
“…Joker?”
“Hm?” Ren was already half asleep, jet lag was starting to catch up with him. “What’s up Mona?”
“…nothing…”
“You sure?”
“…”
Ren sighed, and sat up in his bed, causing Morgana to have to move further down in his lap.
“Seriously man, you were doing this before we left too, something is clearly bothering you.”
“…”
“I’m not gonna be able to help unless you talk to me man.”
“…You still remember our deal right?”
“You wanted to get your memories back, right? And getting deeper into Mementos had something to do with that?”
“So you haven’t forgotten then…”
“Of course not man. Why’d you think that?”
“It hasn’t exactly been a focus for a while…”
“You know we can't get deeper into Mementos yet, something to do with our own prevalence in society’s collective unconscious. I’d be lying if I said I knew how that worked, but I do know that we’ve been unlocking more and more just by doing what we’ve been doing. I figured if we just kept going we’d eventually get deep enough to get your memories back or whatever.”
“…I see…”
“So yeah, sorry, it’s not been our primary focus for quite some time, but it is still an overarching goal we’re working towards, don’t worry about that. We’ll find out what you really are for sure, don’t worry about it.”
“Of course I’m worried! I’m… I need my human form back…” Morgana averted his eyes. “What would… and this is purely a hypothetical- I don’t actually believe it- but what would you do if I wasn’t human?”
Ren paused a moment, and shrugged.
“I doubt that’d change anything if I’m honest.”
“What do you mean? Being human is very important.”
“I understand how you feel, but to me it doesn’t matter if you’re a human, a cat, hell- a friggin’ fairy or robot or something, I don’t mind. You’re Morgana, one of the teams founding- and most important- members, and my friend- that parts stays consistent.”
“I’m… an important member of the team?”
“Uh… yeah? Duh?”
“But… Makoto took over strategies from me ages ago and no one looked back, and even though we’ve only taken her into Mementos so far, Futaba’s navigator skills are way beyond what I was ever capable of.”
“So?”
“What do you mean ‘so’? What have I got left besides being the dumb mascot?”
“I think you’re a cool mascot.”
“Joker!”
“You’re still the Metaverse expert, and our best healer. Hell, besides that you’re the most experienced of all of us. Look at Ryuji and Ann, they don’t have special gimmicks and no one has ever called their worth as team members into question.”
“Well I—”
“Besides you of course, you’re always insulting Ryuji.”
“He always started it!”
“You’ve both started it, you’re far from blameless in your bickering. But honestly, that’s the only real criticism I have for you, aside from that you’re a highly valued team member.”
“Joker…”
“And that’s before we include your van form, man that saves us a lot of time walking.”
“I guess…”
“But for real Morgana, have you really been worrying about this kinda thing?”
“I mean… maybe… okay yes, YES! I’ve been feeling like you’ve been taking my presence for granted… that I’d be stuck as a cat forever…”
“Well we’re still gonna help you out as much as we can, don’t worry about it, okay?”
“…I see…”
“Hell, I was thinking. Some of the shadows are Nekomatas, right?”
“…Right? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well the idea behind them is that they’re spoiled cats who gained human forms as a result of a long life.”
“You mean…?”
“And like you can already transform into a van because of that cognition with cats and buses… which I can only assume is because of ‘My neighbour Totoro’, even if you do turn out to be a cat, maybe Metaverse magic could end up turning you into a male nekomata.”
“That’s… a bit of a stretch, to be honest…”
“Maybe, I’m just saying there are things we can try still.”
“It’s not an idea I would have thought of, but I guess it’s not impossible…”
“I’ll let you know if I come up with any other ideas. Is that all you had on your mind?”
“I guess that’s enough for now, you better go back to sleep.”
“Cool, night.” Ren laid back down.
“…Joker?”
“Hm?”
“Thanks for listening.”
“It’s fine, all you have to do is talk to me if you’ve got something on your mind, I’m not gonna be able to help otherwise.”
“I guess… maybe it really was that easy… Heh, to be honest I was seriously starting to consider going back to doing it solo.”
“That’d cause us problems.”
“Yeah… I guess it would.” Morgana curled up into a ball on Ren’s chest. If he was honest, Ren would admit that he never really enjoyed this weight making it harder to breathe, having Makoto on top of him (and sometimes Hifumi too) was definitely preferable. But there was something about this that made him feel at home. “Night Joker.”
“Night Mona.”
~ ~ ~
“Yo Nudie Prez!” Eiko tapped Makoto on the shoulder, being prepared for the retaliatory backhand this time- though it never came, she didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed. “You heard, right?”
“That the pot—the Principal passed away while I was gone? Yeah I heard.”
“Dude just got hit by a truck, it’s scary to think about huh? That life can just disappear so quickly?”
Some bad memories were coming back for Makoto.
“Y-yeah… it really is…”
“Oh shit, sorry Mako-chan, I didn’t mean to open up old wounds like that.”
“I-it’s okay Eiko-chan, I’m fine.”
“The teachers have all been on edge ever since it happened, people are talking about how the Phantom thieves were involved somehow.”
“Have they now?”
“I’m not sure I believe that though, I’m not their biggest fan or anything, but it doesn’t seem like they kinda thing they’d do. A hit and run is kinda… boring for them?”
“I suppose that’s one way of putting it.”
“Apparently we might even be getting police coming round school to interrogate everyone.”
“Really?”
“Scary right? Even when I know I’m innocent, I can’t help but get nervous, and think ‘what if they think I’m nervous because I’m actually guilty?’ y’know?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, if they’re interviewing everyone I can’t imagine they’ll focus on you for long, it’ll go by in a heartbeat.”
“Do you think being nude will help my chances or make me more of a target?”
“I’d certainly hope that it wouldn’t make a difference…”
“Hopefully.” Eiko shook her head, as if shaking the idea out of her head entirely, and wrapped an arm around Makoto’s shoulders. “Still nevermind that, how was Hawaii you lucky bitch?”
“Um… fine?”
“’Fine’ she says. You got to go with Ren-kun, right?”
“Among others, yes. He and I spent some quality time together.”
“Hoo I bet. If you haven’t already, I bet the romantic atmosphere finally pushed you to give up that v-card of yours.”
“No comment.”
“That’s a ‘yes’ then.”
“No comment.”
“You’re a riot Nudie-prez. Speaking of which- can I steal your boyfriend?”
Makoto blinked a few times.
“Come again?”
“Nothing like that- I just mean I want to talk to him over lunch, I need his help with something.”
“I see.”
“Did I have you worried for a second there?”
“You just had me confused. Typically people who actually intend to steal boyfriends don’t ask permission first. Not that Ren would ever do something with another girl without my permission anyway.”
“Of course, he doesn’t seem the ty—hol’ up, ‘without your permission’?”
“Moving on—”
“No no, we’re not moving on. Are you the kinky type Mako-chan?”
“Actually we are absolutely moving on- I’m meeting up with Ren after school, but you talking to him over lunch should be fine.”
“I wanna know more about this ‘permission’ business.”
But it was too late, Makoto was already power-walking to her next class, ignoring her, Eiko eventually losing her in the crowd on the stairs.
“You can run Nudie prez, but you can’t hide.”
~ ~ ~
“Sup Eiko-san. Makoto said you wanted to speak to me?”
Eiko didn’t say anything, she silently beckoned him to follow her. He raised a curious eyebrow, but obeyed. They made their way to the unoccupied roof- no one was ever up here apart from Haru occasionally tending to the planters, however even she was absent, leaving just Ren and Eiko.
“You haven’t brought me up here for anything nefarious, have you?”
“Why does your mind immediately go there? Perv.”
“You and I might be thinking of different things right now…”
“I just needed your help with something.” She reached into her bag, which Ren noted was different from her usual school bag- significantly larger than normal, and pulled out a box. “I want you to play Shogi with me.”
“Shogi?”
“I’m still intending to reach out to the Kosei students some more, starting with Togo-san. You said she plays Shogi, so I was hoping to give her some much-needed sun inviting her to play in the park. I’ve been practicing to get back into the game, but I’ve only had ai opponents to play against. My brother doesn’t wanna play, and my grandpa is off in the countryside, so I’ve been wanting a human opponent to play against to make sure I don’t embarrass myself too much.”
“I see.” Ren nodded, and smiled. “You’re really making an effort.”
Eiko looked rather annoyed.
“Well yeah, why do you sound surprised by that? You really got to drop this notion that I’m some frivolous airhead.”
“I wasn’t thinking that… especially.”
“Rude.”
“I’m just impressed, you’re really doing all you can for this nudist comradery thing.”
“Of course, I’ve never really had something I’m really passionate about before, so I really want to make this work.” Her expression dropped just slightly. “I don’t really have an endgoal to work towards, but I’m really feeling this sense of purpose, y’know?”
“You don’t really need a goal for this kinda thing. Just helping others out is good enough by itself.”
“I guess.” Eiko started to set up the board on a discarded table. “I mean, all the attention I’m getting from going nudist, all the cash I’ve been bringing in through Onlyfans, they’re pretty great by themselves, but I get this vague feeling with the program. Like ‘wow, I can really make a difference’, y’know?”
“I understand, that is a pretty sweet feeling.”
“Yeah. I mean- I get it- it’s hardly this big important social issue, but…”
“But nothing. It’s certainly radical, and it’s making people very happy… well, the ones who don’t think it’s just crazy or perverse.”
“If I had 100 yen for everytime I’ve heard someone say ‘the world’s gone mad’ or something to that effect, I’d be making even more than I am with Onlyfans.”
“You’d probably never have to actually work.”
“That’d actually be pretty cool, but I still wanna do something meaningful though. Onlyfans won’t be something I can do forever; the novelty will wear off eventually.” Eiko had made her first move. “I don’t want to just fall back on my parent’s connections for some job I don’t care about, the nudism program and the community it’s creating is what I’m really passionate about, though I’m not sure how to translate that into an actual job. I’m still working towards getting into a good college, though I don’t even know what I want to major in, and graduation isn’t that far away…”
Ren made his first move.
“Time pressure sucks. I’m usually the type to try and sort things out long before the deadline hits, but I guess that’s easier said than done here… and just in general really. But still, ‘nudist activist’ isn’t a bad starting point, even if it is pretty ‘out-there’.”
“Everything we’re doing is ‘out-there’, that’s part of what makes it so appealing.”
“True enough.”
Both kept making moves at a fair pace. Ren was actually surprised by how fast the game was going, partially because Eiko was evidently much better than he thought she’d be, and partially because he was used to it being slowed down by Hifumi’s LARPing every turn- having it actually be just the game was throwing him off slightly.
“I guess I’ve still got a few months to think about it. I wish I could be like Mako-chan, she’s got this cool noble dream to work toward. She’ll be a sexy nudist cop, fighting corruption and generally being awesome with her bits out.”
“It’s… certainly an interesting image.”
“Hoo I bet. Everyone loves a sexy girl; I’d love to see it myself.”
“You swing that way Eiko?”
“Both ways.”
“Man, seems like everyone I know does.”
“Hm?”
“Nevermind.”
“You hoping she’ll use the cuffs on you too?”
“No comment.”
“I love it when you guys say that, it always means ‘yes’.”
Ren grumbled to himself, mostly because he wasn’t as good at receiving teasing as he was at dealing it out, but partially because he was actually losing right now.
“How about you Ren, what’re you gonna do once you graduate? Any dreams?”
“I wish I knew. I’ve never been a very ambitious person.”
“Now that is surprising. Makoto has told me about all the jobs you work, all the people you’re helping out, not to mention all your studying to be top of your grade. For someone with ‘no ambition’ you certainly work really hard.”
“I really don’t.”
“Beep beep beep. Oh, what’s that? That’s the bullshit alarm. That’s bullshit Ren-kun.”
“Not really, I’m just trying to keep up with everyone.”
“Dude have a little pride, there’s being humble then there’s just being annoying…”
“I didn’t mean to be annoying.”
“I’ll forgive you this once I suppose.” Eiko paused in thought for a moment. “Maybe I could help you figure out what you wanna do too, seeing as you’re helping me. Then again it’s one of those ‘only you can know the answer’ things.”
“Unfortunately so.”
“I hate those things, it’s such a pisser.”
“I’m sure we’ll both find something. You can find something that works towards this new nudist social movement.”
“And you can find something that works towards being a cute malewife for Makoto.”
“Honestly I’d take that, I’m down for that kinda thing.”
“Why am I not surprised? Oh, checkmate by the way.”
“Huh?”
“Checkmate, were you even paying attention?”
“Dammit… Losing badly to Hifumi is one thing, but this…”
“You’re being super rude Ren.”
“Sorry, I must acknowledge your abilities.”
“How do I stack against Hifumi?”
“It’s hard to say, one ass-kicking is much like another, but you should be able to give her a better challenge than I could at least.”
“Given your skill level, I’m not sure that’s too much of a compliment.”
“I’d say that’s rude of you Eiko, but I suppose it just makes us even.”
“Just about.” Eiko started packing the board and pieces away. “Still, thanks Ren-kun. I’ll see if I can get into contact with Fumi-chan and arrange a game sometime, she definitely seems like the easiest to get along with among the Kosei students.”
“You’re probably right.” Ren thought back to the stories Hifumi told him and Makoto on their second night together as a threesome, he knew better than to judge people by what others said- but he would still be sure to be cautious around the Kosei art club in future.”
“Lunch is nearly over, so I better be getting back. I’ll text you to let you know how my meeting with Hifumi goes, ‘kay? I hope you don’t mind my relying on you like this.”
“It’s no worries.” Ren waved her off as she left him alone on the roof. “I’m glad I can be useful.” His thoughts turned back to the subject to the Phantom Thieves meeting after school today, clearly some very important decisions needed to be made in regards to Okumura.
Notes:
In fairness to Ren, I don't think he's ever played against someone other than Hifumi
Chapter 41: Questions and resolve
Summary:
Haru makes her decision, and some nudists get nervous
Notes:
Sorry for the delay between chapters, been suffering from some health issues, and while I'm probably not at the stage where I can get back to my usual pace yet, I'm over the worst of it and can write again. This is a bit of a shorter chapter just to get back into the swing of things.
Also- on a lighter note: I got a commission for one of the scenes in this story- our old friend Nekoto Niijima
Check it out here:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/103927639
Chapter Text
“Jeez Haru, people really have it out for your Dad. Uh- no offence.”
“None taken Ryuji…” Haru let out a heavy sigh as the other thieves looked at her sympathetically.
“Still I’ve never seen the forum so active before.”
“Do you often hold… popularity polls like that on there?”
“We don’t actually run the site ourselves Haru.” Ren answered. “A friend of mine- Mishima- set up the website and runs it himself. It’s not officially affiliated with us in any way, and it doesn’t really factor into our decision making any, but it’s been a very useful source of information for smaller targets, the kinds who don’t have their own palaces.”
“Still man, surely this is just all the more reason to change his heart?”
“The bonehead is right for once.”
“Hey tha—” Ryuji leapt out of his seat before Makoto forced him back down and glared at Morgana.
“That was uncalled for Mona, I won’t tolerate you two starting fights anymore; what benefit is there from fighting when you’re clearly already in agreement?”
“I…” Morgana sighed. “You’re right, I’m sorry. Ryuji is right- we already have more than enough of a reason to go after him for Haru’s sake, pleasing the public is just a bonus.” Morgana spoke with certainty, and a confident look on his face, but dropped it immediately when he turned to see Haru’s head sinking lower and lower. “O-of course we don’t act unless it’s unanimous, and your opinion on this is by far the most important Haru.”
Haru stared down into her teacup.
“Perhaps… I…”
“Have you had any luck at all reasoning with your father?”
“Yusuke-kun… no, none at all.” She laughed humourlessly. “I really thought that once I awoke to Milady, gained the confidence I needed, I’d be able to defy him and make him see reason, that by becoming cool and confident I’d find the power to overcome this myself. But while I’ve been able to avoid Sugimura at least- even going so far as to refuse to be driven with him and simply taking the train to school- father just shuts down any and every attempt to defy him. No matter what I tell him about Sugimura he doesn’t seem to care, even the times when he threatened to raise his hand against me, father just brushes them off…”
“Jeez…” Ann winced in disgust. “We should probably be targeting Sugimura at this point, there’s no way he doesn’t have ‘distorted desires’ or whatever.”
“I won’t object to that, but…”
“Haru?”
“I’ve only seen how it works in Mementos so far, but you say that ‘changing their heart’ rids them of these ‘distorted desires’?”
Morgana nodded.
“Correct.”
“But, they remain the person they really are?”
“Hmm… technically yes, they’re still the same person before and after, just sans those specific desires- which of course can drastically alter how they act.”
“So hypothetically, father could go back to the way he was before these… ‘desires’?”
“I suppose so.”
Haru took a deep breath.
“In that case, I want to prioritize saving my father.”
“Saving him?” Makoto looked at Haru thoughtfully.
“He didn’t used to be… like this. He used to be so kind… but at some point all the success, the growth… it changed him. I can’t imagine the old him wilfully sending me away to a creep like Sugimura as some bargaining chip.” She looked to Makoto with a determined expression. “I can probably deal with Sugimura myself, but not with father against me. I want the family I used to know back.”
Makoto nodded solemnly.
“I understand…”
Ren took notice of the way Makoto’s eyes stared listlessly towards the floor, but didn’t say anything for now.
“So is that a yes?” Ryuji asked. “We’re going to change your Dad’s heart?”
Haru nodded decisively.
“I’ve reached the limit of what I can do alone. So if you’re all okay with it—”
“Of course we are Haru.” Ren smirked. “We start… probably the day after tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Both Ryuji and Morgana turned their heads to Ren in sync.
“Why we waiting man? Can’t we go now?”
“There are 2 reasons we can’t.” Ren folded his arms. “Firstly we need the keywords.”
“Keywords?”
“I’ll explain later Haru, we’ll need your help on that stage. But the second- far more pressing- reason is that tomorrow we’ve got the police questioning everyone in Shujin.”
“Aw crap, I nearly forgot about that.” Ann held her head in her hands.
“They still suspect that the Phantom Thieves are responsible for the principal’s death, they’re going to questioning everyone one by one in hopes of finding us.” Makoto was outwardly calm, but was already feeling uneasy. “We’re going to want to prepare ourselves mentally for that.”
“No kidding.” Ann fiddled with her twintails. “We just have to play it natural, and make sure none of us say anything dumb and give ourselves away."
Every member of the group turned towards Ryuji.
“Uh… what?”
Everyone continued to stare in silence.
“Oh come on man, do you guys really have that little faith in me?”
Ren pondered for a moment.
“Maybe I could feed you one of my failed cooking attempts, it’ll make you sick so you don’t have to go in tomorrow.”
“Can’t do that.” Makoto shook her head. “We need him in top condition for Okumura’s palace, can’t afford to have him out of commission.”
“True, maybe he can just pretend to be sick that day?”
“You guys are dicks! Look, I get it- I won’t mentioned any thief stuff, I’ll just pretend to be a normal student and play dumb the whole time.”
“He’s good at ‘dumb’.”
“Screw you cat!”
“Why’d you yell at me?”
“Sorry Mona, force of habit. Screw you Ann!”
Ann rolled her eyes.
“Alright alright.” Ren stood and got everyone’s attention. “So the plan is to just act as normal students tomorrow, then later I’ll contact Haru in regards to her father’s keywords. Everyone remain on standby until I give you the call and we start to scout out the palace. Futaba, you can keep gathering intel or whatever it is you do when we’re at school.”
“I suppose I could lay off the porn for a little while and do some research into Okumura.”
“There’s such a thing as ‘oversharing’ Futaba. And Yusuke—”
“What would you have me do?”
“Just uh… chill out at Kosei, I guess?”
“Very well. Rest assured I will take this mission very seriously; you will never see a more ‘chilled out’ student in Kosei’s long history.”
“Glad to have you on the team man. Alright, everyone clear?” Everyone nodded to Ren in response. “Good, I’ll see you all tomorrow, remember- act natural.”
And with that, the PT meeting came to a close, and the members began to make their way out of Ren’s room and Café Leblanc to head home. However, Ren grabbed Makoto’s arm before she could leave.
“Ren? Is something wrong?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you.”
They both sat down on the couch, as Morgana went to lie on Ren’s bed so he could pretend he wasn’t listening.
“What’s this about Ren?”
“When Haru mentioned wanting her family back…”
“Wh-what about that?”
“Again- that’s what I wanted to ask. You said you understood, and I saw your eyes- that wasn’t just you being considerate.”
Makoto sighed.
“You noticed then…”
“Hey I’m looking at you like, all the time.” He laughed. “It’s only natural I’d start to pick some stuff up.”
“I guess I should be reassured that you’re looking above the neck a decent amount of the time.” She couldn’t help but smirk slightly. “I guess it’s fine if you know…” She looked across the room. “And Morgana too I guess.”
The notcat flinched slightly.
“You’re as much of a voyeur as Futaba sometimes man.”
“U-uh… M-meow?”
“Oh so you’re ‘just a cat’ when it’s convenient, are you?” Makoto chuckled. “It’s okay Mona, I trust you too.”
It wasn’t possible for cats to blush, but if it was- he would be. Makoto’s mirthful expression dropped again as she turned back to Ren.
“Um… can I make a confession to you?”
“Of course.”
“I… I had an ulterior motive, joining the thieves.”
“Oh?”
Makoto was surprised to see Ren respond so casually, head tilted in curiosity, but also understanding.
“I um… shortly after getting the metaverse nav, I found out that my sister has a palace…”
“Mm.”
“That’s it? I expected more of a reaction.”
“I already knew.”
“You did?”
“I entered her name in the nav on the day I first heard it. I think you mentioned her name before we changed Kaneshiro’s heart, I think we were still using that public overpass as a meet up point.”
“That must have been within a day or two of me finding out. Ha… I guess we’ve both been keeping secrets.”
“Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I… didn’t want to worry you by mentioning it.”
“I see, I’d say that you don’t need to ‘protect’ me from much information, but I suppose that’d be hypocritical seeing as I kept it to myself too.” Makoto shook her head. “Sae… has also changed a lot… it’s not as bad as Haru’s father of course, I still believe my sister is a good person. But more and more, her work has been taking over her life, especially since she was assigned to the Phantom Thieves case. She kept growing more distant from me… I saw less and less of the sister who loved me, of the person she used to be… I dunno, maybe I’m being childish.”
“I wouldn’t call that childish.”
“I don’t know. Is wanting to change her heart- change who she is- just for the sake of having my big sister back… is that really right of me? It seems selfish when I say it out loud.”
“I mean…” Ren looked at Makoto thoughtfully. “It’s honestly hard for me to say without knowing your sister.”
“I suppose…”
“Don’t get me wrong, wanting to help her and restore your relationship is something I’m 100% behind, but whether we do that IRL or via the metaverse… that warrants further investigation. Perhaps a recon like we did with Haru’s palace?”
“Perhaps, I don’t have her keywords yet though.”
“Tell you what, after we deal with Okumura’s palace, we’ll look into your sister’s, and discuss this further then, is that okay?”
Makotos sighed.
“Yes, that’s okay. We’ve already got so much on our plates without me adding my own family drama.”
“Don’t belittle your own feelings like that, but yeah, we’ll focus on one thing at a time for now.”
“Right, thank you Ren.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“I hate it when you say that.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s pretty annoying when you say that too.”
“Is it?”
“Sometimes.”
Ren shrugged.
“I uh… better walk you home, it’s getting rather dark. A lovely young lady like yourself shouldn't be walking around alone at night, even if she wasn’t nude.”
“Not sure I appreciate the mild chauvinism, but sure- I’ll take you up on the offer.”
“Sorry.”
~ ~ ~
“…And like, even though he was super weird-looking, no one really paid much attention to him so this is all like, really out of nowhere…”
“I see, well I think that’s enough miss Takao—”
“…Like I don’t even know if he was real- does that make sense? Even when I joined the program he barely looked at me- I’m used to creepy older dudes perving over me, even before I went nudist- but from him? Nothing, nada, zilch…”
“Miss that’s not really releva—”
“…I think he was one of those big suits that had a zip hidden somewhere, and the real principal was just inside this big potato suit. At first I thought maybe the program was something he came up with as part of some fantasy of getting schoolgirls naked, but now I’m sure it can’t have come from him, he’s just not got that look in his eye. Frankly I’m on the fence as to whether the Phantom Thieves had anything to do with him biting the bullet like that, but I don’t see why they’d be interested in him, he’s way too boring, never really did anything interesting.”
“Okay, you can go now, be sure to send in the next stu—”
“Like Kamoshida- he was a REAL piece of shit, I can totally see why they’d go after him, same with those Madarame and Kaneshiro dudes, they’re hella scary. I heard they did some smaller stuff too, but I never really followed any of it. Seemed kinda random from what I saw though, I’d still probably go to the cops first before them if I knew something.”
“I—”
“OH! You’re cops too right? Next time you’re in Shinjuku, look for this prick called ‘Tsukasa’. He’s a host who likes to trick girls with a bottle-breaking routine to drag them into some real shady shit, he nearly got me before Nudie-prez saved me. I can show you his face, a buncha people were filming the confrontation.”
“Miss—”
“It’s a bit embarrassing having footage of me being slapped out there, after people found out I’m going nude now it became a bit of a meme about how Makoto ‘infected me with the nude’ or ‘slapped me so hard my clothes came off’. In hindsight though it’s pretty funny, and I deserved the slap at the time. But the point is you can see Tsukasa’s face in it. See, he’s the smarmy lookin’ douchebag here! You should investigate him or something if he’s even still around.”
“Sure, I’ll pass that on, now please Miss Takao, we have other students to interview.”
“O-oh, sorry. I talk a lot when I’m nervous. I was scared this’d be like one of those cop horror stories you here and I’d be all trapped and bad stuff would happen, but you’ve actually been okay and not even staring all that much so that’s neat, I guess.”
“Miss…”
“Right, right, I’ll be going now. Remember though- Tsukasa!”
“Next student.”
Eiko hastily made her way out of the meeting room, breathing a sigh of relief as she stepped back out into the main school hallway.
“It all go okay?”
“I think I made myself look silly in there Ai-chan.”
“So just the usual then.”
“Bitch.”
“I guess I’m up next?”
“Good luck, I’ll let Aya and Mieko know they’re after you.”
“Right, here’s goes nothing…” Ai took a deep breath, and had unconsciously covered the breasts and crotch with her hands again as she stepped into the meeting room.
Eiko continued making her way back to her classroom, passing Makoto on the way.
“Heya Nudie-prez, how’d your interrogation go?”
“It was hardly an interrogation, but it went… about as well as it could have.” Makoto was playing it cool, but her heart was still pounding in her chest from the anxiety, still feeling like she might say something incriminating.
“Dunno why they’re involving all of us anyway, was the principal really that important? Or is there something else going on?”
“Who knows?”
“I guess it’s none of our business.” Eiko shrugged. “Hopefully they’ll be satisfied after today and leave us alone.”
“We can only hope.” Makoto sighed.
Eiko looked past Makoto to see two more of their fellow nudists approaching.
“Oh heya girls… Mieko what the hell are you doing?”
Mieko movements were akin to a rusted tin doll, arms and legs visibly shaking as she marched forward, eyes wide and expression frozen.
“Acting natural.”
“That’s literally the exact opposite of ‘natural’.”
“I can’t look too stylish, otherwise they’ll think I’m a Phantom Thief! I have to look normal, boring, and nerdy- like Makoto-chan.”
Mieko ignored Makoto’s annoyed glare as she passed. Aya followed not far behind, rubbing her hips repeatedly.
“Um? Aya-chan?”
“I keep wanting to put my hands in my pockets, but I don’t have any anymore.”
“I mean…” Eiko smirked. “You do have a couple ‘pockets’, but I doubt it’d be a good idea to walk around with your hands inside those.”
“Eiko…” Makoto shook her head in disgust.
“Am I wrong?”
“No but—”
“People would definitely look, but it might still feel kinda nice, it’s starting to get colder- might be a good way to keep your hands warm.”
Aya slapped Eiko around the back of the head.
“Stop talking.”
“Ehehe, soz. Oh, by the way- you two are next after Ai-chan.”
“We know, that’s why we’re heading there now.” Aya went for her non-existent pockets again. “Dammit, what do normal people do with their hands when they walk?”
“…Swing them?” Eiko looked back to Mieko, her own stiff arms doing exact 90 degree rotations with each step. “Just not like that, Mieko’s ‘wind-up toy’ impression is probably a bit too avant-garde for just casually walking around.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Aya kept trying to find places to rest her hands that felt natural, paying no mind to the weird looks Makoto was giving her, settling for resting one hand on her hip and dropping the other. “This should do it, the right blend of sexy and casual, eh?”
“I suppose.” Makoto wouldn’t admit it of course, but she did enjoy admiring the curves of her fellow nudists, even if it did make her worry about how she compared to them. She suddenly yelps as she felt Eiko slap her behind. “Eiko?!”
“Not fair.”
“Huh?”
“How come Makoto has the crazy baby-making hips?”
“Baby-making?”
“I know right?” Aya eyed said hips enviously. “We never noticed before because of the skirts, but damn the Prez is packing an entire bakery.”
“A bakery?”
“Ask Ren to explain that one to you.”
“I can already feel him laughing at me when I ask… Oh, and Eiko?”
“Yeah Nudi-pr—OW!”
Makoto yanked Eiko forward by her side tail, glaring directly into her eyes.
“Molestation is bad, mmkay?”
“Uh…”
“Mmkay?”
“Okay, understood Mommy.”
“What?”
“I said ‘understood Ma’am’.”
Makoto sighed and released Eiko from her deathgrip, the girl shuffling over to Aya.
“Mako-chan has also been hiding some super strength from us.”
“Girl is going for a maxxed out Strength and Intelligence build.”
“Maxxed out the hip slider too.”
“Do I want to know what you two are whispering about?” Makoto glared again, causing both girls to flinch.
“W-we were just talking about how we should study some more later, y-y’know?”
Makoto smiled deviously.
“Good, I’ll hold you to that.” She nodded. “Oh and uh… you might want to keep an eye on Mieko.”
Makoto gestured towards the girl still marching to the meeting room as Ai stepped out.
“Ah you’re already here Mie—”
“YOU’VE GOT NOTHING ON ME!”
“Mieko-chan, calm down.”
Mieko looked into the room, with the cops already giving her strange looks.
“I AM MIEKO OHARA. VERY PRETTY 18-AND-A-HALF YEAR-OLD NUDIST GIRL AND LAW ABIDING CITIZEN! AS YOU CAN SEE I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE!” Mieko stared upwards, her shaking hand saluting the men in the room.
“Th-that’s nice, you can relax young lady, we just want to ask a few questions.”
“I’LL COOPERATE! I’LL COOPERATE! I HAVE NOT BORE WITNESS TO ANY ILLICIT OR ILLEGAL ACTIVITY! MY INTERNET BROWSING HISTORY IS COMPLETELY CLEAN AND COULD BE SAFELY BROADCAST ON DAYTIME TELEVISION.”
“Inside voice Mieko.”
Makoto looked-on, concerned.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I HAVE CLEANED MYSELF IN PREPARATION FOR A CAVITY SEARCH!”
“Th-that won’t be necessary Miss.”
“I WOULD RATHER AVOID IT, BUT I’LL COOPERATE FULLY IF IT WOULD PROVE MY INNOCENCE TO YOU!”
“No seriously Miss, just sit down.”
“P-please be gentle…”
Aya shrugged.
“Eh, she’ll be fine.”
Chapter 42: Spaceport
Summary:
Getting into Okumura's palace
Chapter Text
“Well Okumura gets points for originality I guess.” Ann mused as she and the rest of the thieves analysed their surroundings.
“It’s not too surprising. Father used to be a fan of all things space and sci-fi back when he had a sense of fun. His palace being a spaceport shows that that side of him is still alive in there somewhere.” Haru had a small smile as she looked up at the expansive palace through the glass walls of the entrance area.
“You guys ready for this?” Ryuji asked their two newest members. “Mementos is one thing, but you’ve never been in an actual palace before, right?”
“We’ve each been in our own, but not someone elses. Though…” Futaba sniggered. “As much as being nude is cool, I really dig this outfit.” She said as she looked down at her paint-clad torso, ‘boop’-ing her nipples for good measure, complete with sound effects.
Makoto looked down to see her arms and legs once again covered in spiked leather.
“We’re considered a threat right off the bat huh?”
“I guess from his perspective we’re trespassing in his business, or maybe he’s just distrustful of outsiders and sees us ‘commoners’ as the enemy by default.” Ren suddenly realized he was perhaps being insensitive. “Um, I’m sorry Haru, I didn’t mean to…”
But she wasn’t listening, she was glaring quite intensely at Queen and Oracle’s ‘outfits’, she’d seen them before of course in Mementos, but those times she was so busy being fascinated by the cognitive world, now she could really take the time to appreciate how such lewd outfits could be even hotter than total nudity. She lightly chewed on her knuckle, breathing heavily through her nose as she drunk in the sight of Makoto’s bare torso only being highlighted further by her covered limbs, and the sometimes-glowing paint on Futaba’s small breasts providing a literal outline to her subtle curves.
“Uh, Earth to Noir?” Ann cautiously reached out to her.
Haru was however greatly disappointed by Yusuke, while the opening on the front of his thief outfit showed off significantly more skin than before, he was still technically decent, she was looking forward to how the momentum of combat would cause him to ‘swing’ around. Probably for the best- she realizes rationally- being distracted during combat is obviously a bad thing, but still- damn.
“Noir?”
“Wh-huh?” Haru was brought out of her daze when Ann shook her shoulder. “Oh sorry, I was just thinking about the challenges ahead.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You sure you’re up for this Noir?” Makoto asked. “This is harder on you than it is anyone else, it’s your father after all.”
Makoto was surprised to see Haru gazing back at the palace ahead looking rather… excited?
“Don’t worry Mak—sorry- don’t worry Queen, I’m ready to go!”
She pulled out her grenade launcher from her pockets (metaverse storage space sure is handy like that) and held it out in front of her before running ahead of the group.
“Do-do do-do do-do do-do dodo-do, do-do do-do do-do do-dooo, do-lloo-lloo-lloo-lloo…”
“Why is she singing to herself?”
Futaba smirked.
“That’s E1M1, at doom’s gate. She’s definitely acting out some childhood fantasies right now…”
BOOM
The group got into battle ready positions at the sound of the explosion.
BOOM
“Hey everyone! I found some demons already!”
“They’re shadows Haru.”
“Whatever.”
BOOM
Haru fired her grenade launcher down the hallway again, a huge tooth-baring grin on her face. Before the others could rush to her side she ran around the corner and out of sight.
BOOM
The group reached the corner just in time for Haru’s body to fly past them and slam spread eagle into the wall, before inelegantly sliding down to the ground with her clothes slightly singed.
“Oh god Noir! Are you okay?”
“Eheheh…” Haru smiled weakly. “Yeah that’s usually how it ends up going…”
“Ugh… Mona could you heal her please.” Ren shook his head. “Noir the grenade launcher isn’t meant for short range.”
“I know… I just got excited.”
“Well at least you got all the shadows with it too. Just control yourself in future, or at least use the axe.”
“Oh right!” Haru leapt back to her feet. “I haven’t axed anyone yet!”
“R-relax Noir, you can attack the shadows and cognitions safely, but if you ended up accidentally attacking your father’s shadow you could end up harming him in the real world too.”
“Oh, that would be bad… but the shadows are okay?”
“Well yes but—”
“Goodie!” Haru bounced in place excitedly, before picking her grenade launcher back up. “Thanks Queen!” and she ran off singing to herself again.
“We better keep her on a tight leash…”
“No kidding Joker…”
~ ~ ~
“Are those supposed to be his employees?” Ann asked as the group looked down upon the marching robots, each painted in a parody of the average salaryman.
“Literal worker drones… it’s a bit on the nose, not to mention their retro aesthetic.”
“This whole place is retro Inari, it’s such a boomer version of ‘futuristic’, clunky robots with antenna and whatever.”
“Those larger machines must be the different levels of managers.”
“Another worker just collapsed, we’ve been watching for like three minutes and that’s the second time one of them just dropped dead.”
“They’re getting dragged off, and everyone else is just continuing as normal.” Ren sighed. “Seems about right…”
“Oh Father…”
“Har—um Noir, we better keep moving.”
“Right…”
The group moved on from the unsubtle social commentary the palace was providing them, thankfully avoiding any more shadow encounters (and thus any more of Haru’s itchy trigger finger) until they encountered a large door, denying them access.
“The hell?” Ryuji kicked the door a few times.
“Why is that always your initial instinct Skull?” Makoto watched him fruitlessly try to beat up the door.
“I dunno, maybe I could break it down?”
“It is kind of weird that no matter how strong we get fighting against shadows and whatnot, doors will always remain completely impenetrable to us…”
“Cognitions Joker.”
“That’s your answer to everything cat!”
“Skull we’ve talked about this.”
“R-right, sorry Joker. I meant: that’s your answer to everything dumbass!”
“That’s better.”
“Is it though?”
While the rest of the group were bantering, Haru approached the door for it to open automatically for her.
“Huh? What gives?”
“I think it’s because I’m related to Father- obviously, so the door doesn’t consider me an intruder.”
“That’s convenient, sorta like how Queen being blackmailed by Kaneshiro made her count as one of the bank’s ‘customers’, except it’s even more helpful this time since I didn’t have a back-up plan.”
“You had a back-up plan Joker? The bank was flying, how were we gonna get us in without me being allowed access?”
“I would have used Arséne- or another flying persona- to carry us all up there one at a time.”
“I guess that makes sense…” Makoto couldn’t help but pout slightly, on the one hand she was happy that Ren was resourceful like that, but on the other it kind of took away from her feeling integral to that infiltration. She knew that was a childish feeling, but still.
“Come on.” Haru got everyone’s attention again. “I’m allowed in, and you’re all considered my guests, so let’s get going.”
“Right. It’s showtime.”
Ren lead the group through to the next room.
“What are you doing in here?”
The sudden voice caused everyone to freeze in place, taking battle-ready positions. They turned towards to voice to see Okumura’s shadow watching them from the other side of the room.
“Th-that’s…” Haru stared wide-eyed. “This… this is Father’s shadow?”
“Why’s he dressed like such a dickhead?”
“Oracle!”
“What? The friggin’ fishbowl helmet and spacesuit covered in a buncha weird buttons. I called this the ‘boomer version of futuristic’, but he looks even dumber than that, this is the silent generation version of futuristic.”
“There’s a time and a place for this sorta thing Oracle…”
The shadow’s eyes darted between the different thieves in sequence, disgust clear as day on his face, before he looked scornfully at his daughter.
“I thought I told you not to associate with vulgar people.”
“Speaking of vulgar people.” Ren’s eyes narrowed at the well-dressed man at Okumura’s side. “I’m guessing that’s Sugimura?”
Haru tensed up, taking a step backwards.
“Y-yes…”
Ren leant over to Makoto.
“I’m getting Tsukasa flashbacks.”
“No kidding, but that look on his face… at least Tsukasa tried to hide his warped nature, this guy…”
Haru gathered her courage and took a step forward.
“Father, I told you I’d do my best for you, well this is my answer to that! I’ll have nothing to do with that scumbag! I’m no longer your subservient puppet!”
“Hmph…” Okumura glared at the thieves analytically. “So these are the ones that have corrupted you so, to think you’d be surrounded by such bad influences. You should be proud that you could give yourself to the growth of Okumura foods.”
“Proud my foot! Why do you only think about gains and losses? Why does the path to your success need to be paved with blood and tears?”
“Because that’s what leads to the most profit, and thus to the most power, welcome to the world of capitalism. Might makes right, and money is might. Money and connections, and you were to help me gain the latter.”
Haru’s expression fell.
“What happened to you Father?”
Sugimura stepped forward.
“I don’t think I can accept a bride that has been soiled by thieves. Unless you make some compromises I don’t think I could introduce her to my father.”
“She need not be your lawful bride, you may take her as your lover, or whatever you wish.”
“What the actual fuck man?” Ryuji gripped his bat tighter than ever. “The hell kinda Dad are you?”
The cognitive Sugimura, with a truly sickening grin on his face, approached with open arms.
“Now, why don’t you come to—” but that was as far as he got, before the axe buried in the front of his face caught his tongue- having soared gracefully through the air with a two-handed overhead throw from his would-be-bride, with a slightly concerning look of genuine glee on her face as she did so. The thieves were once again thankful that cognitions didn’t produce gore like a real person would, otherwise this story would need a new content warning right now. Cognitive Sugimura’s body fell backwards onto the floor, before vanishing into thin air, the axe unceremoniously clattering to the ground and leaving the room in silence.
“Jesus Christ Haru!” Ryuji broke the silence.
She smiled back at the group.
“It’s only Father’s shadow we have to worry about right? Regular shadows and cognitions are fair game, right?”
“I mean… y-yeah but…”
“You’ve not been playing the new Hitman by chance, have you?”
“Uh, no Futaba, I don’t play many games.”
“I’m just saying, you’d like that one.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll see about setting it up for you once we’re done here.”
“O-okay?”
“Guys!” Morgana jumped and waved to get everyone’s attention. “He’s getting away!”
He pointed to Okumura, running away as fast as his really rather uncomfortable-looking spacesuit would allow, before climbing aboard an elevator and disappearing out of sight.
“Oh dear, we should hurry.”
“It’s fine Noir.” Ren smiled at her- though still kept a few paces between the two of them. “It’s not him we’re after, it’s the treasure, let him run.”
Ann sighed.
“Though let’s be honest, we’re gonna have to fight him at the end anyway, that’s how it always goes.”
“It would be nice if we could actually succeed in stealing something and getting away without being caught just once, like y’know- a phantom thief would.”
“It’s not as if anyone is here to see us screw up Queen, we’ll be fine… probably.”
“Is that your attempt at being reassuring Joker?”
“It’s all your getting for now. Come on, I think I see a saferoom over there, let’s take a few minutes to… get over what just happened, then we can keep moving.”
“R-right.” The group snuck a few glances at the surprisingly cheerful Haru, and head towards the saferoom for a break.
~ ~ ~
“Another locked door?”
“Haru?”
Haru tried approaching the door like before, but got an ‘access denied’ just like everyone else.
“I guess being the CEO’s daughter only gets me so far…”
“Hmm…” Makoto analysed the terminal beside the door. “There’s nothing for it, we’ll need an employee ID to get through, and a manager’s at that.”
“How are we supposed to get that?”
“We’ll just have to find a manager and beat them up.” Ren shrugged. “Hardly a devious master plan but it’ll work I guess.”
“Hmm… heheheh…”
“Uh, Oracle you good?”
Futaba pulled Makoto aside and began whispering into her ear.
“Right… okay… huh? Are you serious Oracle?”
“Trust me Queen, it’ll work. Look, that robot dude there looks like some kind of middle manager or whatever.”
“I doubt he’s high ranked enough to have an ID to get us through.”
“No, but if you do the thing, he can take us to a guy who does.”
“What are you two talking about?”
“It’s fine Joker, Queen’s got this.”
“I guess it’s worth a try…” Makoto sighed grabbed a clipboard and a few nondescript sheets of paper off of a desk as she walked towards the slightly-larger-than-average robot worker. “Excuse me sir?”
“Eh?” The robot turned to face her, at least she assumed so, it didn’t have clear facial features like the lower drones, but it still seemed to flinch at the sight of her. “What the hell? Who are you?”
“My name is um… Miss Drew, Nancy. I’m here to perform the scheduled safety inspection for this area.”
“Are you serious? Do you think I’m a complete moron? There’re no inspections of any kind scheduled for today.”
“Well Sir I’m afraid what I’ve got written here says otherwise, is it possible that you weren’t informed?”
“Of course not.” He turned to the lower drones and began shouting at them. “Check all the memos!”
The drones started hurriedly flailing at the piles of papers on their desk like their lives depended on it- which they just might've.
“N-no Sir, nothing related to an inspection for at least a week Sir!”
“Y’see? You’re full of shit! Piss off, we’ve got work to be doing.”
The larger robot tried to shoo Makoto away, but she didn’t budge, and maintained her professional expression.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, legally I have to perform the inspection today, and I’m certain we passed the paperwork over to you, someone in your department must have lost it, let me speak to your manager and sort this out, I’m pretty busy myself y’know?”
“Pfft! As if. I don’t know what your game is, but real people with real jobs don’t run around showing their naked bodies like crazed exhibitionists, go indulge in your stupid fetish-driven pranks somewhere else, I’ve got no time for people like you.”
Makoto hid a smirk.
“Oh? I didn’t expect to run into such prejudice here.”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t think there would be such blatant discrimination in the workplace of this publicly traded company.”
“Ah now hang on.”
“It’s a shame that nudists like me get looked down upon in the workplace. I hate doing this but I’m going to have to make a note of this in my report.”
“Y-your report?”
“Part of my job is reporting at the shareholders meeting.”
“Shareholders?”
“Indeed, they’re not going to be happy about discrimination in the workplace, it’s bad for the company’s image. What’s your name and ID number?”
“Hold up, why do you need that information?”
“Well my report needs to be comprehensive. The board of directors is going to want to know exactly who is responsible for the drop in share value.”
“Th-there’s no need for that, haha, I didn’t mean anything bad, I’ve not got any problems with nudists- what did I say to give you that idea? S-s-some of my best friends are naked… sometimes… for like showers and stuff… probably…”
Makoto turned around and pretended to write something down, though she mostly did it to try and hide her smirk, she was sure she had him now.
“I’m sorry Sir, but there’s no getting around it. Your name and ID number please.”
“No no, come on, there really is no need…”
“But there is. I either need to include you or your manager in this.”
“I-I’ll take you to the manager! He’ll manage this, and your uh… inspection or whatever. It’ll all be fine, and no one needs to mention me to any shareholders or directors or anything like that.”
Makoto let out a fake sigh.
“I suppose I can sort it out with him then. Very well, lead the way.”
The robot led Makoto (and the rest of the thieves discreetly following behind) through a series of corridors and doorways to their target- a worker much larger than all the others (which they could only assume meant he was the most important).
“S-see? You two can talk it out and forget all about silly old me. Seriously, forget everything!” The robot scrambled to get away before she could even respond, not even noticing the other thieves hiding around the corner, who joined Makoto as soon as he was out of sight.
“That was the plan?”
“Heheheh.” Futaba held her nose up proudly. “Nothing scares salarymen more than losing their boss money. Nice work Queen!”
“It was nothing…” Makoto rubbed the back of her head, and tossed the clipboard onto the floor.
“That was impressive.” Ann said. “You’re a surprisingly good actress, better than me.”
“That’s not saying much…” Ryuji mumbled under his breath.
“What was that Ryuji?”
“Enough.” Makoto glared at the both of them. “Let’s focus on the task at hand.”
“Queen’s right.” Ren pulled out his knife, prompting the others to pull out their weapons ready too. “All we gotta do is take out the big drone, take his card, and the rest of this palace will be a cinch… hopefully.”
“Joker your big motivational leader speeches would sound better if you didn’t keep adding ‘hopefully’ and ‘probably’ at the end like that.”
“Sorry Panther. And Fox- focus.”
“I’m sorry Joker, I was just in thought…”
“Now? Why?”
“I was just thinking, he said he had friends who got naked for showers, but would a robot be able to shower? Wouldn’t that cause them to short-circuit?” Yusuke’s eyes narrowed. “I hate to cast suspicion like this, but I fear he may have been lying to us.”
The others stared silently at him for a moment, Ren letting out a heavy sigh and shaking his head.
“Yeah… thanks man, nothing gets past you.”
Yusuke smiled proudly.
“Glad I could be of help.”
“Anyway—” Makoto refocused everyone’s attention, and prepared herself to lead the surprise attack. “Everyone ready?” Everyone gave their affirmations. “Then let’s go. Anat!”
Chapter 43: Embarrassed Females that just so happen to be Nude
Summary:
We take a break from SPACE to bring you a couple of nudists in the park
Notes:
Is it still ENF if the F who's N is E but it's not the N the F is E about?
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I’m not too early am I?” Eiko mumbled to herself. “Or maybe she’s somewhere else? Maybe I should’ve been more specific about the meet-up point rather than just ‘Inokashira park’.”
Eiko sat on a non-descript bench, swinging her legs in the open air, looking worriedly at her phone, checking if she missed any messages. She sipped her bubble tea, looking at the second bubble tea sat next to her, beginning to get concerned that it was getting too warm.
“AH! There you are!”
“Hm?” Eiko looked back up, relief clear on her face as she saw her. “Ah you made it!”
Hifumi jogged over to meet her, bowing apologetically as she caught her breath.
“I’m sorry Takao-san, I’ve not been to this park before, so I didn’t know where to look.”
“It’s cool.” Eiko stood up, making sure to take the time to pick up the other bubble tea and essentially force it into Hifumi’s hands. “I didn’t know which flavor you prefer, so I just got classic milk tea, hope that’s okay.”
“Oh?” Hifumi examined the beverage curiously. “Why thank you, I don’t think I’ve tried bubble tea before.”
“For real?”
“Um, yes. I usually have tea sans bubbles…” She took a cautious sip. “It is quite nice though.”
“Well I’m glad I could broaden your horizons Miss Hifumi Togotothepolls~”
“Yes, thank you aga—what did you call me?”
“So did Ren tell you what you were coming out for?”
“He just said you just wanted to play some Shogi, and that you were quote: ‘surprisingly good’.”
Eiko’s brow furrowed.
“I hope he didn’t put that much emphasis on ‘surprisingly’.”
“Don’t worry, he was polite enough.”
“’Enough’?”
“Enough.”
“I suppose that’s fine then.” Eiko made a mental note to reprimand Ren later.
“I’m happy to play of course, but any reason we’re meeting here?”
“Because we’re gonna play here of course!”
“H-huh? O-outside?”
“Yeah, there’s tables we could use.”
“But people could see us…”
“Ehh?” Eiko tilted her head. “Is that a problem? I mean yeah a couple of nudist girls together would draw eyes, but that’s basically our lives now.”
“I mean…” Hifumi shuffled nervously. “But with shogi…”
“Weren’t you like a celebrity? Still are- technically, you’ve played in front of cameras and everything- hell I even watched a few of your matches on YouTube to prepare myself for today.”
“I have played on camera… but it’s hard to keep a lid on…” She shook her head. “N-no, it should be fine, I just have to keep it under control.”
“Keep what under control?”
“N-nevermind. I brought a board.” She shook her bag as if to prove it. “Let us find somewhere to set it up.”
“Sure…” Eiko eyed Hifumi curiously as she scanned the park for the nearest free table.
“So you even watched some of my matches? It seems you’re taking this seriously.”
“Well yeah- I kinda have to, you’re an actual professional, I just have what my Grandpa taught me to go off of.”
“You’re thinking too highly of me, I’m really rather small-time in the Shogi world, I have so much more to learn.” Hifumi bowed lightly. “I hope I can learn a thing or two from our match.”
Eiko bent down so she could peer up directly into Hifumi’s eyes.
“I’ll try not to let you down!” She shot a grin and a thumbs up.
The two found a small table and began to set up the game. The park wasn’t especially crowded today, some joggers, a few families, nothing too major, so they had no trouble finding space to play; though they still drew a fair few voyeurs not-so-subtly staring at them.
“Lol, they can’t get enough of us, huh? Ain’t they lucky to have a couple beauties like us just chillin’ out for them to enjoy?”
“Hmm…” Hifumi was a little less happy about their audience. “Normally I can ignore them just fine, but playing…”
“Does it throw off your focus? I getcha, but don’t worry, I’m in the same boat.”
“Y-you don’t understand…”
“We’ll forget all about them once we get into the game.”
“That’s what I’m worried about…”
Eiko loosened her shoulders and cracked her knuckles, which was really rather unnecessary for a board game, but Hifumi appreciated the enthusiasm at least.
“So uh- who goes first?”
“Normally we’d flip for it, but I suppose you can just choose, makes no odds to me.”
Eiko nodded, stroking her chin.
“I see, then you can go first.”
“Very well, I accept your challenge.” Hifumi took a deep breath to get into char—“Wait no!”
“Hm? You okay Fumi-chan?”
“O-oh, nothing! I nearly embarrassed myself.”
“Huh? You’re being a bit weird girl.”
“Heheh… sorry. Let us begin proper.”
Hifumi calmly made her first move, sliding a pawn forward. Eiko once again made a show of stroking her chin.
“So that’s your first move? Interesting…”
Hifumi’s brow raised in surprise.
“You got something out of just that one move?”
Eiko smirked deviously.
“I see you’re one of ‘those’ players?” Eiko made her own move.
“’Those’ players?”
“Carry on, I need you to confirm it for me…”
Hifumi cautiously made her next move.
“HA! I knew it, I’ve got you figured out Togo. I’ve got this whole match planned out now.”
“S-seriously Takao-san?”
“Nah.”
“…Huh?”
Eiko laughed.
“I wanted to see how long I could keep that ‘I know all your moves’ attitude up, but I’m already falling apart. I have literally no idea what these first moves mean.”
“I-I see…”
“Had you going for a second there, didn’t I?”
Hifumi scratched the side of her head, bemused.
“I suppose mind games are fair game.”
“Nah I was just having a bit of fun, don’t worry about it.”
Hifumi was still unsure if Eiko was messing with her, or what she was even trying to achieve if she was, but in a way she was grateful for being thrown off like that- it made it easier to keep her habits under control. Though she was still scared of slipping into that mode of hers while they had an audience. The church seldom had more than 3 or 4 people in it at any given time, so it wasn’t a big deal if they saw her, but even though the park wasn’t especially crowded, there were probably about 2 dozen people around, a fair percentage keenly ogling the girls. She could use another distraction.
“So Takao-san—”
“I told you, you can call me Eiko, it’s fine.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Hi Sorry, I’m Eiko.”
Hifumi chuckled.
“That sounds like a Ren joke.”
“Aw shit it was, wasn’t it?” Eiko shook her head. “I like him, but the dude’s a dork, and he’s evidently been rubbing off on me.”
“I see.”
“Normally guys just rub off to me, y’know?”
“O-oh my…” Hifumi started glowing red, prompting more laughter from Eiko.
“Sorry about that.”
“I-it’s fine, you just took me by surprise.”
“That was a fun reaction though, no wonder Ren teases his GF so often.”
“GF?”
“Girlfriend.”
“Ah, of course.”
Eiko smirked, making her next move.
“So what we’re you gonna say before I started my dumb Ren-style routine?”
“Oh right.” She took a breath to calm herself again as she moved her piece. “I just wanted to ask how you knew Ren and Makoto. I’m assuming she was your inspiration for getting into this lifestyle too?”
Eiko let out a heavy sigh and stared wistfully at the sky for a while.
“I… used to be really dumb.”
“Used to be?” A moment passed before Hifumi started furiously shaking her head and raising her arms apologetically. “Oh god that came out really bad, I didn’t mean it like that! I was just intrigued that you’d say that and wondering what you were referring to, y’know? Oh dear…”
Eiko sniggered, she was having fun watching Hifumi flail around in front of her like this.
“I’ll forgive you this once Fumi-chan.” She gave the girl a moment to whine a little more in embarrassment. “Nah but I just went through a bad phase, I let some creep sweet talk me, convince me he was the only one who understood me, telling me I’m special. But in the end he just wanted to sell me off.”
“Good lord.” Disgust was clear on Hifumi’s face. “That must have been terrifying.”
“Oh no, it never got that far. Mako-chan and Ren-kun showed me the kind of guy he really is, literally slapping me out of my funk.”
“Slapping you?”
“You can probably find that part on Youtube still, it’s embarrassing but I deserved it. Me and Nudie prez reconciled though, she told me how important it was to learn to love yourself before you can love others. Which is SUPER cliché shit, but she was still right.”
“’Trite, but true’ as it were.”
“Is that the fancy way of saying it?”
“I’m not sure about ‘fancy’, but that’s the saying I’m familiar with.”
“I’ll remember that.” Eiko smiled. “But yeah looking back now, Tsukasa was like a toilet bowl.”
“A toilet bowl?”
“Shallow at first glance, but if you start looking deeper you won’t like what you find.”
“A curious analogy, but I guess it works…”
“Once I got out of my own head, I looked to Mako-chan and her BF…” Eiko eyed Hifumi, though it took her a moment to get what she was hinting at.
“Oh, following the pattern, BF must mean boyfriend?”
“You’re learning, good job.”
“I’m feeling slightly patronized right now.”
“Heh, you’re funny Fumi-chan.”
Hifumi grumbled.
“Anyway, I looked to Mako-chan and Ren, a real relationship, with a real connection… real love, and I understood what she was talking about. They both feel confident in themselves, and can feel confident in each other. They can mess with each other comfortably, and feel safe being themselves around eachother. I used to worry about doing girlfriend stuff to ‘please’ Tsukasa, but if we had a real connection, I could just be me- he could just be him, and we’d be able to grow together like that.” Her expression turned scornful. “Of course, I don’t want that with him, I don’t want anything with anyone like him. But I want something like what they have someday.”
Hifumi nodded.
“I can definitely relate to that.”
“You get it right? Those two are just ‘goals’ y’know?”
“I think so.”
“But to do that, to have someone I can be myself around, I kind of need to know what ‘myself’ is, y’know?”
“That’s always a tough one…”
“No kidding. Admittedly the nudism thing started as me just being like ‘I’ll try what she did’, hoping it’d make me more confident.”
Hifumi smiled at her with a small amount of pride.
“From what little I know of you Takao-san, I’d guess you were successful.”
“Damn straight bitch!”
“Um… is what you just said good or bad?”
Eiko snorted, hoping none of their audience heard it, or that if they did they at least weren’t recording.
“Sorry- it’s a term of endearment, I wasn’t actually calling you a bitch.”
“I see, I feel I need to educate myself in the world of slang it seems.”
“I don’t mind teaching ya!” Eiko shoved Hifumi with her foot playfully, the table being a bit too wide for her to do so with her arms, at least without getting up. “But yeah, I’m nudist and proud now! And I really want to keep all the Tokyo nudists connected, y’know?”
“A noble- if somewhat out-there- goal. I’ll be rooting for you. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.”
“Maybe give us some shout-outs when you build your Shogi rep back up.”
“I’ll be sure to do that.” She examined the board. “You’re doing quite well Takao-san.”
“Ah ah-“
“Oh? Oh right, my apologies. You’re doing quite well Eiko-san, your strategies are somewhat unorthodox, but this is a much closer game than I thought it’d be.”
“Oh really? Glad to hear it, I practiced against Ren a little while ago.”
“Don’t tell him I said this, but you’re definitely better than he is.”
“Oh I’m definitely telling him that, as if I’m gonna let that bragging opportunity pass.”
“Oh dear, please don’t- or at least don’t be mean about it. His skills are also respectable, even Makoto’s aren’t far behind.”
“So I’m smarter than the super-nerds? Kick-ass.”
Hifumi chuckled.
“Sure, why not?”
“So how about you?”
“About me? Well whether you’re smarter than me has yet to be decided, the match is far from over after all.”
“Cocky aintcha? But no I mean how do you know the prez and her boytoy?”
“Oh.” Hifumi blushed slightly at the term ‘boytoy’, sparking a few flashbacks to her indulgences during their Hawaii trip. “I didn’t meet Makoto until later, but I’ve been Ren’s shogi teacher for some time now.”
“Ah, so after I bested the student, I got to challenge the master, eh? Just kidding.”
Hifumi found that image appealing, and had to really fight the urge to immediately start playing the role.
“He was pretty clueless about shogi strategy before he came to me, but he’s a quick learner. We became fast friends, and he… they helped me through a rather difficult time.”
“Oh?”
“You said you watched some of my matches, are you familiar with the… scandal I was involved in?”
“I don’t know the details, something about your Mom fixing your matches.”
“That’s the jist of it I suppose. My focus was on the game, but mother’s was on the fame.”
“Hey that rhymes!” Eiko immediately admonished herself. “Sorry, you’re trying to be serious, carry on.”
“It’s okay.” Hifumi smirked. “I’ll forgive you this once, Eiko-chan.”
“Oho? Fair play Fumi.”
“In my case the nudism was meant to be symbolic of me breaking free of her control, but she had a change of heart right before I could do my big ‘reveal’, as it were.”
“A change of heart? Like proper Phantom Thieves change of heart?”
Hifumi knew she had to be careful with her words here.
“Do you… know the Phantom Thieves?”
“I mean I know of them, they’re all half the school talks about these days, but I’ve not really been following them too closely.”
“I see.” Hifumi would keep her lips sealed. “Regardless of how it happened, Mother really did change, she supported me as I came clean, took as much of the backlash on my behalf as possible, and has really been in my corner ever since.” She fiddled with the tips of her hair. “My ‘grand act of rebellion’ fell flat in a way, but I’m still glad I did it, it just became symbolic of my fresh start, the ‘new me’ going forward.”
“Well I don’t know how the ‘new you’ compares to the old, but I definitely like the girl sitting in front of me right now. She seems pretty awesome.”
“Th-thank you, that’s nice of you to say. I’m finding what I know of you to be admirable too, if that means anything to you.”
“It does.” Eiko looked back down at the board. “Shit… this doesn’t look good.”
“It could still go either way.”
“Now you’re just being nice, I’m running out of options, and fast…”
Eiko was right, it had been close for much of the match, but the odds were shifting heavily into Hifumi’s favor, it was only a matter of time now. Frustration was becoming clear on Eiko’s face, even their bush-bound voyeurs were taking notice of the rising tension, the growing desperation on her face, followed eventually by resignation.
“Well fuck.”
“Checkmate.” Hifumi bowed.
“I really thought I was in with a chance there.”
“Oh don’t put yourself down, you’re probably the best non-professional I’ve played against.”
“That feels like a backhanded compliment.” Eiko shot up from her seat and pointed defiantly at her opponent’s face. “Best two-out-of-three!”
Hifumi smiled.
“I’d be happy to rematch you, you might beat me this time, you were distracted by our conversation after all.”
“I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but you would have been distracted too! You’ve been holding back!”
“W-well…”
“Aha! See! Your face is giving you away! I don’t want you taking pity on me.”
“No, you don’t understand, I wasn’t holding back my abilities exactly…”
“Whatever, next time try your hardest!”
“U-um…” Hifumi nervously looked around, a few more onlookers had been attracted by Eiko’s outburst, and indeed some of the viewers who had lost interest during the game had been drawn back. “I um…”
“Don’t worry about the people staring.” Eiko started resetting the board. “Just focus on the match.”
“I…” Hifumi let out a heavy sigh. “I suppose there’s no point hiding it.” She took a deep breath and matched her opponent’s determined expression with one of her own. “Very well, I’ll let myself truly embrace the game.”
“That’s what I like to hear, even if that is a bit of a dorky way to put it.”
“I-is it?”
“It’s okay, I like dorky… just a little bit~”
Hifumi stood, turning away from the table and taking a deep breath.
“Uh, Fumi-chan? You good?”
She ignored her, instead raising her left hand.
“Mighty dragon, thou art a trueborn heir…”
“Dragon?”
“Lend me thy strength, o kindred.”
“What’s happening?”
“Deliver me unto greater heights.”
“Am I… supposed to be doing something here?”
Hifumi turned to glare at Eiko, a mix of amusement and disgust on her face as she did so.
“Well…”
Eiko dared not move a muscle as she was stared down like this, her eyes briefly darting to the side at nothing in particular.
“A lowly tarnished, playing as a lord.”
“What’s a tarnished exactly?” Eiko looked around, as if expecting to find a script or set of notes she somehow forgot to read, but of course- found nothing, and her eyes went back to Hifumi.
Hifumi stepped up onto her chair.
“I command thee KNEEL!” Her foot slammed down onto the table, causing the pieces to shake around slightly. Meanwhile Eiko just stared up at the girl towering over her, trembling slightly.
“I am the lord of all that is golden.”
‘Is this what Ren was talking about?’ Eiko thought to herself. She didn’t understand what was going on exactly, nor did anyone else watching by the looks of it. All she knew was that Hifumi had the most intense glare she’d ever seen in her life. ‘Fumi-chan is legitimately scary right now, not gonna lie… is it weird that I’m slightly turned on by it though?’
Notes:
I think Eiko felt a little 'twitch' downstairs on the word "kneel"
Chapter 44: Shiho
Summary:
Shiho faces the past with Ann at her side.
Notes:
I usually don't give content warnings, since nothing I write is that intense anyway, and I trust that you're all adults (if you're not then you shouldn't be here in the first place). And while this story is still pretty lighthearted and is staying that way- you've played the game, you know what happened to her, and I'm not gonna just pretend that it didn't. Don't worry, this is still the NQ you know through and through, just this might be a slightly heavier chapter than normal. Can't have ShihoAnn without at least acknowledging that pain
Chapter Text
“Makoto said the school should be mostly empty at this point, she’s gonna be working in the student council room for a while, but we can’t guarantee we won’t run into any other students, so she lent me the key for the back entrance to make things just a little bit easier for us.”
“Thanks Ren.” Ann turned to Shiho. “You sure about this?”
Trepidation was clear on the girl’s face, but so was a look of determination in her eyes.
“Yes, I feel like I have to do this.” She shot Ann a small- but reassuring- smile. “I’ll be fine, I have you here after all.”
Ann did everything she could to hide her own anxiety, and tried to match Shiho’s brave face.
“Are you sure you’re okay with me being here? I’m not…” Ren paused. “…making you uncomfortable, am I?”
Shiho looked at him thoughtfully.
“You’re the transfer student right? Um… Amamiya-kun?”
Ren nodded.
“Yes. Ren Amamiya.”
“I see. Yes I’m fine, you’re not too scary.” She chuckled. “And more importantly, if Ann trusts you then so do I.”
Ren breathed a sigh of relief. He saw Ann silently mouth “thank you”, truth was he was more here as emotional support for her than Shiho herself. He looked back to Shiho.
“Well let me know if I can help with anything, I feel like I kind of owe you anyway.”
“Hm?” Shiho raised a confused brow. “'Owe you'? I don’t think we’ve interacted more than once or twice.”
Ren rubbed the back of his head, a light blush on his cheeks.
“It’s died down a lot now, but back when I first arrived here and the rumors were at their peak, I couldn’t take a step in this school without someone saying something horrible about me behind my back. You told me to not let the rumors get to me. It was probably such a casual thing for you, but even reaching out in a small way like that, it… meant a lot to me back then, you were the second person to actually treat me like a human being at this school.”
“Oh…” Shiho glanced skywards for a moment. “Yes… I think I do remember that. Ha, I don’t really feel like that’s something that deserves gratitude, but I’m glad I could be helpful to you Amamiya-kun. Though if you don’t mind me being a little nosy, second?”
“Ryuji Sakamoto was the first, Ann came shortly after, and now I’m lucky enough to have a bunch of people supporting me.”
“Oh?” Shiho turned to Ann. “So you and Ryuji finally reconciled?”
Ann put her hands up defensively.
“I-I mean, we’re friends and all, but we didn’t get back together if that’s what you’re thinking! That was just middle school kid shit before!”
Shiho chuckled, she liked seeing Ann flustered like this.
“Very well, I suppose I’ll believe you.”
“I mean it!”
“I know I know. It’s…” She tapered off slightly for a moment. “…it’s good that you have friends now.”
“I…” Ann circled around to look Shiho in the eyes. “I’ll introduce them to you sometime!”
“Really?”
“Yes! They’ll love you! And you’ll like them! Well, some of them… a couple of them… maybe.”
“You’re certainly making them sound interesting at least. I’ll look forward to it.”
Words couldn’t express the relief Ann felt seeing Shiho smile like this.
“Still, I’d like to go back up to the roof now, before we run into any other students, and… before I lose my nerve.”
Ann’s expression hardened, and she nodded.
“Right, I’ll help you up the stairs.”
“…Thank you Ann…”
It was a slow process. Shiho’s recovery was going well- but it was still ongoing, she leant on both the handrail and Ann as they made their way up the numerous flights of stairs leading up, Ren made sure to follow closely behind, just in case her legs suddenly gave way. Thankfully the school really was nearly empty, and they were able to avoid any awkward encounters with other students as they made their way to the roof.
Shiho let go of Ann, taking a moment to be sure of her footing and catch her breath.
“Thanks you two, sorry if I was heavy Ann.”
“It’s alright, I’ve gotten fitter lately.” Ann’s eyes suddenly went wide. “N-not that you were heavy or anything! I just meant—”
“Ann’s pretty silly, isn’t she Amamiya-kun?”
“I feel this is one of those times where I should keep my opinion to myself.”
“Damn right you should Ren.” Ann glared at him, while he coyly averted his eyes.
Shiho approached the edge, peering through the fence at the courtyard below.
“Why did you want to come up here?”
Shiho took a moment to respond.
“I think… to settle things.” She answered without looking at them. “To tell the truth, I wanted to re-enact that moment. Wearing these clothes, standing here again…” she took a breath. “I wanted to know what it would feel like.”
“What about back then? What were you thinking?” Ann’s tone was very neutral, controlled, not wanting her own feelings to eclipse her simple curiosity and concern for her.
“Even then… I didn’t want to die. I just needed to escape…” She gripped the fence tighter. “It was like another person was inside of me screaming, telling me to come up here… It almost felt like that person was trying to kill me.”
Ren noticed Ann’s face contort with… guilt? Neither of them could think of what to say just yet, so they remained silent and waited for Shiho to continue. She turned to face them.
“But I know that person was part of me too… my weakness, so I wanted to see if she would show up again now.”
Ren smiled.
“Judging by that look in your eye, I’m guessing she’s gone?”
Shiho had her own muted, but confident smile.
“Yeah, she doesn’t exist anymore.”
“You’re so strong Shiho.” Admiration was clear both in Ann’s voice and on her face. “The reason you’re standing here now is because of how hard you’ve worked for your rehab.”
“Maybe so, but that’s only because of you Ann.”
“Huh? What did I do?” It had been so long since Ann had seen her smile this brightly.
“Because I know how hard you’ve been working too. I loved it when you would visit, telling me how your modelling is going, how you’re striving so hard to become an actress—” Shiho laughed. “—even if you probably need a bit more work on that last point.”
“Shiho…” Ann pouted.
She looked to Ren.
“And you’ve strengthened your social circle too, in the past I’d worry that I was the only one you’d ever talk to.”
“Well I um…”
“I’d love to hear more about your friends sometime. You’re such a positive person, your motivation was always clear as day to me. I felt I had to try my hardest to match that, I couldn’t just let my life go to waste in a hospital bed.” She looked directly into Ann’s eyes. “Being able to change others, that’s what true strength is, and you’re the strongest person I know.”
“Shiho…” Ann shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “I’m not strong, I’m nothing without you. I’m… I’m just a lonely, scared girl…”
“Ann…” Shiho took a step forward. “See this is what I mean, you need to work on your acting.”
“Huh? I-I’m not acting!”
“Really now?” Shiho had a knowing look. “Because that wasn’t convincing at all.”
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“I don’t see how someone who works as hard as you, who inspire others like you have, and who can keep moving forward despite what they’ve gone through, can get off claiming they’re not strong.”
“She’s right Ann.” Ren rested his hand on a tearful Ann’s shoulder, and smirked at Shiho. “I bet she hasn’t told you even half of the amazing things she’s done in just the time I’ve known her.”
“Is that so?”
“She has no shortage of stories to tell.”
“R-Ren.” Ann looked up at him in disbelief. “You can’t!”
“I won’t, I’ll let you tell her. Although most of them will have to wait Shiho, some are still ongoing after all. But I’m sure you’ll get plenty of time to catch up.”
Shiho tilted her head curiously, then gave a confident nod.
“Ann.”
“Hm?”
“I’m transferring to another school, outside Tokyo- as you know. Staying in Shujin would be… too much, people know too much here.”
Ann looked down to the floor.
“But I think, once I graduate, I’d like to come back to Tokyo, so we can be together again. I’d still like to go to college together, and thankfully no one really knows me outside of Shujin, so I won’t have that stigma following me around at that stage.”
Ren nodded, one silver lining to the drama and the press surrounding the Kamoshida incident was that Shiho has largely gone unmentioned, and when she was her name wasn’t shared. There were already so many victims coming forward that she was able to fade into obscurity and keep her privacy intact.
“So don’t worry Ann.” Shiho approached her and wrapped her arms around her- Ren moving his own hand out of the way of course. “I’m not gonna disappear forever.”
Ann returned the embrace.
“You better not… I mean… so long as you’re okay with that.”
“You’re strong Ann, but you really are silly.”
“And I’m gonna visit you every chance I get- okay?”
“My door is always open to you.”
A few minutes passed with them enjoying eachother’s silent embrace (aside from the occasional sniffle from Ann of course), Ren was enjoying it, but admittedly felt a bit awkward as the third wheel- he wondered if they had forgot about him entirely, he was at least glad Morgana had agreed to wait with Makoto while they did this.
“Still, Ann? Amamiya-kun?”
“Shiho?”
“I’d… like to try visiting one more place before we leave, if that’s okay.”
“Wait… You mean?”
~ ~ ~
“I really don’t think this is a good idea Shiho.”
“I’m… admittedly feeling less confident about this myself, but I want to try to conquer this.”
The trio stood in the empty school corridor, looking down the hall- towards the PE office.
“We really don’t need to do this Shiho.”
“I… I still have nightmares… But I don’t want to just be a victim for the rest of my life. I can’t let this haunt me.” She tried to take a step forward, but even that was difficult for her, different parts of her were screaming at eachother, one to march forward and face this, the other to turn and run away.
“Look, Suzui-san.” Ren stepped in front of her. “I admire what you’re trying to do- but… it’s fine to just put this behind you, after what happened to you… when… he um…”
Shiho sighed, and looked up to him- though didn’t quite make eye contact.
“You can say the word ‘rape’, it’s fine.”
“I—I uh..”
“This is why I can’t stay in Shujin, even those who try to be nice, are going to forever be walking on eggshells around me… that, honestly doesn’t feel much better to me than just them talking about what happened, in fact in a way it’s worse. There will forever be this wall between me and everyone else, a wall with his name written all over it.” She gathered her resolve. “I don’t want that wall looming over me for the rest of my life.”
She walked past the two of them, towards the door, pausing with her hand hovering over the door handle.
“Shiho…” Ann reached out to her, resting her hand on her back.
“Suzui-san, there’s a difference between running away and simply walking away.”
Shiho looked at Ren curiously.
“Hm?”
“You wouldn’t be weak for choosing to just put this all behind you, it’s not the same as running away.”
Shiho took her hand away from the door, turning to face Ren proper.
“How so?”
“Let’s go back to your wall analogy. You’re right, there would be a wall between you and the others here, though I’d like to raise the point: so what?”
“So what?”
“Like, you’re trying to prove you’re stronger than the wall, trying to break it down by facing this traumatic event head-on, and that’s an admirable option, but it’s not the best option in my opinion.”
“…What would you consider the best option?”
“Like… there’s a wall between me and most of Shujin too, all those stupid rumors that popped up when my criminal record leaked. Even today most of the student body is- at best- indifferent towards me, or still hate and fear me outright. But like- that really hasn’t stopped me finding the friends I have. The connections I have mean the world to me.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“You’re trying to break the wall, which maybe you can do, but whether you succeed or fail it’s gonna hurt you. Running away from it would mean it still had power over you, it’d still be looming in your mind wherever you went. But another alternate method of conquering it is simply going another way.”
“Another way?”
“Rather than fighting the wall head-on, just be like ‘well screw you! Dumb, bitch-ass wall, I never wanted to go that way anyway! All the cool people are off in this direction- I’mma hang out with them, you stay here and be a dumb bitch-baby wall feeling all self-important with a bunch of boring shitty people I wouldn’t want to be friends with behind you, go cry about it on twitter or something’, y’know?”
Shiho stared at him baffled- though not as baffled as Ann, who mouthed a “What the fuck are you talking about?” at him. Shiho took a moment to scratch her head.
“I’m supposed to insult the wall?”
“I may have gotten carried away with the analogy there. But look, going up to the roof was a great move on your part, you confronted a dark part of yourself, a horrible mistake you made, and are stronger because of it. Good, that’s truly admirable. But what happened in that office was 100% Kamoshida, you did nothing wrong, there is nothing to be learned in there, no growth to be had. At least I don’t think so.”
“Hmm… You may have a point.”
“I’m just saying, you’re not ‘running away’ by just turning your nose up at this shitty thing that happened and moving on with your life to new and better things. The people who matter aren’t gonna be stopped by this dumb wall, they’ll go around it, or come from a different direction, or something- I’m committing to the analogy too much, but you get what I’m saying, right?”
Shiho chuckled.
“Yes yes, you can wipe the foam from your mouth Amamiya-kun, I get the message.” Shiho stepped away from the door. “I think I’m fine just leaving this room behind me.” She turned to Ann. “Let’s just go.”
Ann stared at the two of them for a few moments, then nodded.
“Right, we’ve got better things to be doing with our time.”
They walked away, leaving the PE office behind, pausing before they came to the stairs.
“Thank you, both of you for helping me do this.”
“It’s no trouble at all Shiho, anything for you.”
“Anything?” Shiho smirked. “Don’t promise what you’re not ready to deliver Ann.”
“I’m not…” Ann fiddled with her twintails, before feeling Shiho’s arms wrap around her again. “O-oh?”
“Let’s just stay like this for a moment.”
“S-sure?” Ann was happy to stay in this embrace forever if she could, she was probably less happy about Ren’s annoying grin watching her while she did so. She poked her tongue out at him then returned to just enjoying the hug in this empty corridor.
“Hm? Oh heya Renjumanji! Ann Tamakandcheese!”
“Y’know Eiko, one day this stupid naming gag of yours will become funny, but I don’t think today is that day.”
Or this formerly-empty corridor anyway. Shiho still didn’t want to run into any more Shujin students, but it was comforting that they seemed to know Ren and Ann. She slowly opened her eyes.
“Oh? More friends of your—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”
Shiho shrieked in terror, immediately feeling bad that she just screamed pretty much directly into Ann’s ear, but mostly still in shock at the four girls standing in front her, completely naked.
“Woah geez, didn’t mean to make you jump.”
“That wasn’t a ‘jump’ Eiko-chan, you nearly gave the poor girl a heart attack.” Ai pulled on Eiko’s side-tail.
“Y-Y-Y-You’re all n-n-naked?!”
“Hm? Wait, don’t I know you from somewhere?” Eiko leant forward, curiously analysing the girl in paralyzed shock.
“Oh right…” Ann was still rubbing her ear as if it would make it stop hurting, as Shiho tried to look at her, but couldn’t quite tear her eyes away from the group of nudists. “I didn’t tell you about this but Shujin got a new program a while back while you were still unconscious and now people are getting naked in school and stuff.”
Ren had a hard time not laughing at Shiho’s face, complete and utter disbelief as she stared at Ann.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
“Nope!” Eiko happily answered for her. “We’re nudist and proud!”
Shiho stared at them, her eyes decidedly lower than their faces.
“And… the school lets you do this?”
“Yup.”
“Won’t you get arrested?”
“Nope, complete immunity to decency and censorship laws baby!”
Shiho blinked a few times.
“Didn’t you hear the news? Nudie-Prez even went naked on TV, got close ups of her cooch and all, it was amazing!”
“Nudie-Prez?”
“She means our friend Makoto Niijima, the student council president.” Ann laughed awkwardly.
“You’re friends with them too?”
“Ren’s dating her.”
Shiho rubbed her temples.
“Am I still in the hospital bed right now? Having some delirious dream or something?”
Shiho flinched when Aya poked her in the arm.
“Ow!”
“Didja feel that?”
“Y-yeah…”
“Doubt it’s a dream then. Oh, right.” She held her arm out. “Aya Nakazawa, nice to meetcha.”
Shiho stared at the outstretched hand in an awkward silence that dragged on for quite some time.
“Uh… you good?”
Shiho suddenly snapped back to reality.
“Oh uh, y-yeah! So… you’re saying that there are now a bunch of girls just going naked in school now?”
Ann sighed.
“Y-yeah… outside of school too.”
“Outside?”
“Yeah, and there are only girls in Shujin doing it, but Kosei has a few guys doing it too, including a friend of ours.”
“Just… naked all the time?”
“Mhm.”
“Everywhere?”
“Mhm.”
“And this is normal now?”
“Mhm.”
“Everyone’s just okay with it?”
“Yeah…”
Shiho slowly nodded, still drinking in the sight of the girls making absolutely no effort to hide any part of themselves, even with a male like Ren here in front of them, looking back at her like she was the crazy one.
“I see. Well alright then.”
“Interested in joining?” Eiko winked, before Ann threw herself in between the two of them.
“You are NOT getting your hands on Shiho!”
Eiko put her hands up defensively, taking a step back.
“Alright alright, I hear you loud and clear!”
“Hey Takamaki-san, you’re friends with Mako-chan, right?” Mieko looked up to Ann curiously, Ann somehow trying to both look back at her and keep an eye on Eiko at the same time.
“Right?”
“Cool, you wanna come hang with us for a bit? Your friend can come along too if she likes?”
Shiho was admittedly curious, not just by their nudity, but also that they’re so friendly with Ann when they seemingly don’t really even know her. She never remembered the other girls being this friendly to her in the past, back when those awful rumors about her and Kamoshida were still floating around.
“Where are you all headed?”
“Huh?” Ann looked back at her shocked.
“I mean, there’s no harm in asking, is there?”
Mieko looked rather smug.
“Gonna head to the gym again, though since Makoto isn’t coming we can take it a little easier and maybe cruise for some dudes, y’know?”
Shiho’s expression dropped.
“Cruise for dudes?”
“Yeah, you interested?”
“Um, no thanks.”
“Me neither.” Ann shook her head. “Me and Shiho have to get back for now.”
“Shiho…” Ai brought her hand to her chin in thought. “Oh…”
“Hm?” The other nudists turned to face her.
“That’s where I know her from!”
The realization slowly dawned on the others.
“Oh she’s—” Mieko bowed apologetically. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize, that was a really insensitive invite.”
“It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean any harm…” Shiho stepped out in front of Ann, wanting to face the group directly.
“Yeah, sorry if we brought up anything bad.” Aya- like the others- was looking quite guilty. “I can understand why ‘looking for guys’ is probably the last thing you’d want to do for a while.”
“Oh no, it’s not that… well a little bit, but even before Kamoshida I’ve never really been interested in men.”
Ann perked up, if Ren didn’t know any better, he would have sworn her twintails suddenly twitched.
“Oh?” Eiko smirked. “You’re into ladies then?”
“Um…” Shiho shuffled nervously.
“It’s okay, you’re safe sharing that info with us, I’m bi myself after all.”
“R-really?” Shiho pondered a little while longer. “Y-yes… I’m a lesbian…”
“That’s cool.” Eiko shot a thumbs up, before curving her back and leaning forward in an attempt to be seductive. “Hope you’re enjoying the sights~”
Shiho was glowing bright red.
“W-well I still don’t think I should stare too much…”
Ren smiled at all the supportive looks she was getting, and indeed her look of relief- it was clear just looking at her that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders sharing that. But what he was mostly smiling at was Ann behind her- furiously pumping her fists in celebration, silently miming a whole routine of hooting and hollering, jumping up and down in place, cheering to the heavens. All the barely-audible movement caused Shiho to turn around confused, but she only saw Ann standing calm and still, her subtle but supportive smile looking back at her.
“Still thank you for letting me share that, I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone before…” Shiho turned back to Eiko and her posse, Ann immediately going back to her mock touchdown celebration the instant Shiho wasn’t looking at her anymore. Ren found it very Ryuji-like.
“Don’t worry about it.” Eiko shrugged. “Being open about our sexuality is our whole thing now.”
“I’m not sure I’d say our ‘whole thing’.” Ai sighed. “But yeah, stuff like that isn’t an issue at all, you’re good.”
“We’ll give you a raincheck on hanging out then.” Mieko added.
“Really? I’m not… making things awkward for you?”
“Nah.” Eiko waved her hand dismissively. “If you’re friends with Ren then you’re probably cool.” She turned to leave, her friends following behind her. “We’ll leave you to it for now, we’ll do something together the next time we meet.”
“I…” Shiho looked downwards, a bashful smile on her face. “I see, maybe that’ll be nice.”
“OH!” Eiko quickly turned back around. “And Ren, I’ll text you later to let you know how my date with Hifumi went, mmkay?”
“Oh? Yeah sure, sounds good.” Ren waved her off as she and her gang disappeared around the corner. “Hold on, ‘date’?”
Ann put her arm around Shiho’s waist.
“So…”
“So?”
“The wall wasn’t much of an obstacle for them, was it?”
Shiho stared for a while, then smiled.
“Yeah, I guess those that matter will find a way around it.” She let out a happy sigh. “Ann?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s head out, okay?”
“Y-yeah… let’s go.”
Shiho took one more moment to glance down the hallway Eiko just disappeared down, during which Ren made eye contact with Ann, smirking knowingly. He lightly gestured towards Shiho with his head, but she shook hers, and whispered under her breath
“Not yet.” She smiled up to him confidently. “In good time.”
“Fine fine.” He whispered back. “Just don’t get too absorbed in the ‘finding the right words’ stage that you never end up moving forward at all.”
“I know.”
Shiho turned back around, a sheepish look on her face.
“Do you mind helping me on the stairs again?”
“No problem at all, plus Ren will be in front of us, he may be kinda lanky, but I’m sure he’ll still break our fall just fine.”
“Glad to be of service.” Ren groaned sarcastically.
“I think you’d make for a softer landing yourself Ann.”
“Wh-what do you mean by that?”
Shiho coyly averted her eyes.
“Nothing at all.”
Chapter 45: The one where they maybe should have stuck around a little longer
Summary:
Finishing Okumura's palace
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“I HATE TIME LIMITS!”
“You’re not alone there Panther, but focus- Okumura is up ahead, we don’t have time to take on these shadows, I’m gonna throw down a smoke bomb, and we’ll slip past them, for the love of god stay close and don’t get left behind.”
“Understood Joker.”
Ren threw down the bomb as planned, filling the area with smoke. Navigating through and weaving around the shadows searching for them wasn’t a problem for him with his third eye, but he had to be mindful of the rest of his team who lacked the same ability. Each member had to keep a close eye on the teammate in front of them- which just barely remained visible to them so long as they stayed as close as possible. This meant that Ann- who followed right behind Makoto- was treated to quite the interesting sight, Makoto’s anus somehow simultaneously serving as a real distraction from the task at hand, and a point for her to actually focus on and make navigating the smoke filled hallway much easier. Futaba followed just behind her, holding onto her suit’s tail (not that she needed to, being the one other thief who could still see clearly thanks to her goggles. For Haru the act of focusing on following the path was nothing compared to the act of focusing on not hitting any of the shadows in the face with her axe and giving away their position, the short-term fun would not be worth the long-term consequences, tempting as it was.
They had nearly caught up to Shadow Okumura, who had rushed to the top of the palace to board his space ship, ready to escape to the “political world” which had manifested here as an actual planet. Time was counting down until launch, but the thieves had reached the top area with time to spare.
“There’s nowhere to run Okumura!”
“Uh, yeah there is. His spaceship man, that’s the reason he came up here.”
Ren sighed.
“Do you have to ruin my line like that dude?”
However Shadow Okumura didn’t just immediately board the ship- it still had a while before it was ready to launch after all- he sat in his floating chair, a cocky smirk on his face as he stared down the thieves. They entered battle ready positions… and nothing happened. Both sides remained still for a while, the thieves noticed Okumura’s expression starting to crack ever-so-slightly.
“Hmm… c-come and face me!”
“Does he… want us to come closer?” Ann asked.
“But why though?”
“Doesn’t matter Fox, we need to get closer to kick his ass and get the treasure back anyway.” Ren started to lead the group forwards, everyone still being ready to leap into battle at any moment, before he noticed Okumura’s eyes glance downwards for just a moment; his eyes followed. “Hold on guys!”
“Something wrong Joker?”
“Look Noir, everyone, there’s this big circle on the floor.”
Okumura tensed up in his seat.
“There is… why?”
“Is he… trying to lure us onto it?”
“If it was a trap why would you clearly mark the outline of the effective area?”
“Probably have to due to Health and Safety regulations.”
“Ah that makes sense, I guess.” Ren looked back to Okumura, who was trying to hold a poker face and doing a piss poor job at it. Ren starting to walk around the circle.
“AHH!” Okumura moved to the side, trying to keep the circle between him and the thieves.
“Okay yeah, he’s definitely trying to lure us onto it.” Futaba shook her head. “I guess he’s used to enemy AI that just runs straight at him all the time.”
Skull laughed.
“As if we’d fall for that man! How dumb do you think we are?”
“NO WAIT NO NO NO PLEASE NO!” Okumura panicked in his seat as he watched all the PTs calmly walk around the circle, and retake their battle stances. In his flailing he accidently knocked a remote off of the arm rest, as it hit the ground a green energy barrier formed, exactly conforming to the ground circle.
“Ah, so it was a trap. Dastardly.”
“A pretty shitty trap Inari.” Futaba turned back to the shadow. “Okay boomer, look- if you set up a trap you need to put some sort of bait in there- the treasure, a big button, a piece of cheese- anything! Rather than just hope the whole group conveniently runs into this little area for you.”
“I…” The shadow leapt out of the chair into a full dogeza-pose on the floor. “I’m sorry, I’ve had a change of heart. I’ll prove it!”
“Father?”
“Haru, you were always so agreeable. Whether it was in school or after, you only ever did as I said… you’ve become so admirable.”
Ann leant over to whisper to Ren.
“I’m guessing he doesn’t know much about how she actually likes to behave?”
“Not the time Panther.”
Haru stepped forwards, letting her axe fall to her side.
“Father, you used to be such a good person. You poured your heart into making delicious food. You wanted to bring joy to others… What happened? Why did you change?”
“Forgive me Haru. But I wouldn’t last if my treasure was stolen! Please don’t do it, I’m begging you.”
Haru let out a heavy sigh.
“Please Father, we have a chance to end this here, without violence. The Father I know and love is much stronger than this.”
“Haru?”
“Please, give up your treasure—"
“—And call off the robots trying to sneak up behind us right now.” Morgana added.
“Urk— How did you—?”
“Can’t fool these ears.” The notcat proudly gloated.
“Besides, leaping out of your Frieza-chair and pretending you’re suddenly a good guy is the oldest trick in the book.” Futaba stared at him, unimpressed. “It’s obvious you were buying time for something”
Okumura’s face contorted in anger and frustration, he leapt up to his feet and started stomping his feet.
“GODDAMN SHIT PIECES OF FUCK THAT’S NOT FAIR HOW THE HELL WERE YOU ABLE TO JUST AVOID EVERYTHING AND RENDER ALL THE WORK I PUT IN COMPLETELY FUCKING MOOT!”
Makoto was rather taken aback.
“I didn’t take him for the tantrum type…”
Ann tilted her head.
“Did we break him?”
Haru turned to face the others, a strangely nostalgic smile on her face.
“Oh don’t worry about this, he’d often get like this whenever he kept losing in his games too, he’s pretty funny, but he’s always okay again after the little ‘session’.” She faced her father again- still in his tantrum- her hands clasped hopefully. “Yet more proof that the old him is still in here. And that he has the passion to make it even without his evil desires.”
“R-right… I guess that’s good?” Ren shrugged, having already taken out the drones that were way too clunky to ever be considered ‘stealthy’.
Okumura regained his composure (or at least enough of it to stop spouting empty vitriol).
“Very well, if that’s the way you want to play it. There’s still time before launch, I’ll crush you all! I’ll call in my—what?”
He turned back to get into his chair, only to find Ryuji and Yusuke pushing it off of the edge of the platform.
“NO!” He cried out as it crashed down to the ground far below, rendered useless.
“Nice work Skull and Fox.” Joker smirked. “I can’t put my finger on why exactly, but I really feel like we just dodged a massive, painful, headache just now.”
Okumura looked to his daughter, glaring at him with her axe back in hand, and fell to his knees, defeated.
“I see… In the end, I am just one more in a lineage of failures.” He looked up to Haru, her face now much softer than a moment ago. “I’ll contact your fiancé and rescind the marriage offer.” His eyes fell back to the ground. “This may be the end of Okumura foods… Forgive me Haru…”
“Father…” She had a bittersweet smile, she hated seeing him so broken like this, but this apology actually felt sincere.
Ryuji stepped forward.
“You were behind all the breakdowns and mental shutdowns, weren’t you?”
“I spent large sums of money to help my company grow by crushing business competitors.”
“Answer the damn question! Yes or no?!”
“Not personally, I made a contract to have them eliminated!”
“Damn it!” Ryuji expressed the frustration the rest of the group was feeling, seems they were getting closer to this mysterious criminal using people’s palaces, but they were still out of reach for now.
“What kind of contract did you form, and with whom?” Haru asked, but it was no use, her father was too busy falling apart over his humiliating loss, and now the palace was starting to fall apart.
“Oh for f—TYPICAL!” Mona grabbed the treasure- which had fallen from the ship above them, cementing Okumura’s defeat. “We can’t throw our lives away here. YOU!” He pointed to the shadow with his paw. “Just tell us, have you seen this criminal’s face before?”
“I… I…”
The palace started violently shaking, parts of the ship were crashing down around them.
“OH SCREW IT! We don’t have time for this!”
“Skull’s right, we’ll just have to inquire about it in the real world.”
“Alright everyone, we have to retreat- right now!” Ren lead the team out the way they came in, Haru lingering behind.
“What about Father? Shouldn’t we bring him with us?”
Mona briefly stopped running to respond.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine, a shadow can’t be harmed by their palace collapsing, but we can- let’s go!”
She turned back to her father one last time.
“Only you can follow through on your own responsibilities, that is what you taught me father.”
She reluctantly left his side, glancing back once more, she ran after the rest of the thieves, down the stairs, and out of sight towards the exit.
The shadow knelt, staring downwards, paying no mind to the world falling apart around him, willing to accept whatever fate awaited him.
BANG
“Oh dear oh dear oh dear… I feel bad doing this now of all times.”
BANG
“But I’m sure I’ll get over it.”
~ ~ ~
A group of teenagers suddenly being launched out of what felt like thin air onto the pavement in front of Okumura foods HQ is something that pretty much everyone present would call ‘a questionable sight, even if there weren’t three nudists among them’.
“Holy shit that was close… We would have been toast without Mona’s van form.”
“I appreciate the gratitude Ryuji, but I’m not a van anymore, and do you mind getting off of me?” Morgana grumbled, frustrated at both being squished against the ground by one of his friends, and the fact that it was Ryuji and not either Ann or at least one of the nudist girls.
“Oh shit, sorry man.” Ryuji scrambled to get up, accidentally stepping on his tail in the process.
“OUCH! You damn bonehead!”
“Alright I deserved that one…”
Ren sighed, his collison with the pavement wasn’t any more comfortable than anyone else’s, but he had at least managed to catch Makoto and spare her a few potential bruises.
“Everyone alright? Everything still where it should be?”
“I died.”
“You didn’t die Futaba.”
“Yes I did, that hurt like a bitch.”
“I’ll take you to see Takemi on the way back if you like, we’ll say you tripped.”
“I suppose that’s technically not a lie, whatever…”
Ren looked to Makoto, resting on top of him.
“You okay Mako?”
“About as well as can be expected, yes. Thanks Ren.”
“Don’t mention it.”
It was only as the others were climbing to their feet, and that passerbys started to stare more and more, that the couple realized just how intimate of a position they were in. Both went bright red, Makoto rolled off of him and scrambled to her feet, Ren following shortly afterwards, both trying to act natural as if they weren’t just in horizontal embrace right in the middle of the sidewalk in broad daylight.
Ren desperately searched for a way to change the subject, and found two, firstly-
“Is that the treasure?”
Haru picked up the box he was referring to.
“A model spaceship kit…” she let out a weary sigh. “Yes… this seems about right.” She looked up to the headquarters once more. “To think that the passions he once had could be turned into such…”
“Hey cheer up Haru.” Ann reached out to her, a bright smile on her face. “We won! Now you have a chance to get the old him back, right?”
Haru slowly allowed herself to smile hopefully.
“Right, I sure hope so.”
Ren nodded, and turned to the second way he could change the subject- Yusuke was still on the floor.
“Um… that’s an… interesting pose Yusuke.”
Ryuji tried to stifle his laughter… emphasis on ‘tried’.
“Hey Ann, that ‘ass-up’ pose look familiar?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Guess you’ve never seen it from the outside, that’s your pose.”
Ann had never been so offended.
“That is not my pose! I’ve never done anything like that before!”
“You do it every damn time a shadow knocks you over!”
“What? No way!”
“Actually Ann… he’s right.”
“Makoto?”
“I always thought it was kinda weird, but I wasn’t complaining.”
“Futaba?”
“I didn’t wanna call attention to it but…”
“R-Ren?”
“I thought is was some kind of ploy, an attempt to distract the shadows by enticing them, risky as that might be.”
“Haru?”
“…”
“Why aren’t you saying anything Mona?!”
“I-I never look at you with impure intentions Lady Ann…”
“Y-you’re all just kidding around, right? I’ve never looked like that… right?”
No one dare say anything.
“ARGH! Dammit Yusuke! Why are you still in that pose! Get the hell up!” Ann yelled, trying not to stare at him from behind too hard… or at least not as hard as Haru currently was.
“Give me a moment Ann, this position had always intrigued me in the past, and now that I find myself in it I truly understand, what a unique feeling this is. To think I would find inspiration even here, I must wait until I fully understand Ann’s feelings.”
“SCREW ALL OF YOU! I’m going home…”
Ren sighed, dragged a very reluctant Yusuke to his feet, and addressed the group.
“Ann’s right, we should all head home for now and rest.” He turned to Haru. “Don’t panic if your father seems unresponsive for a while, he’ll be out of it for a bit until the change of heart takes effect, treat him as if he’s sick, and call us if you’re worried about anything.”
“I shall be able to offer you advice as well Haru-san.” Yusuke said, he was considering trying to recreate the position even now, but he knew it wouldn’t be the same if it was artificial, so he relented. “I have experience from looking after Madarame before his change of heart took effect, I should be able to help you with your father too.”
“Thank you, all of you.” Haru nodded confidently, clutching the model kit in her arms. “Is it… okay if I hold onto this?”
“Not a problem Haru.” Makoto smiled. “We wouldn’t have any use for it beyond selling it anyway.”
“Let’s all get some rest.”
~ ~ ~
“At the end of the dream… even chaos… TEARS ITSELF APART! Let us mark the end of this eternal conflict!”
Click
“Checkmate.”
“I swear I’m gonna beat you someday Hifumi.”
“Hmm, I’d like to see that, but I fear I may always be that one step ahead of you.”
Sojiro silently watched them play from behind the counter, he admittedly found their youthful interactions quite soothing in a strange way- though he’d be lying if he said he understood what all the stuff about dreams and chaos and all the other nonsense Hifumi had been spouting for the last half hour meant. He worried that it might put off his other customers, but he couldn’t bring himself to reprimand a girl like her about it, so he let it be.
“Oh, did I tell you about my matches against Eiko?”
“No, but she told me about it. She says she didn’t do too well.”
Hifumi chuckled.
“After her first loss it was ‘best two out of three’, then ‘best three out of five’. It went on for quite a while, ending in five games to me, one to her.”
Ren’s eyebrows shot up.
“She took a game off of you?”
Hifumi had a strangely proud look on her face.
“Indeed, she took advantage of my complacency and exploited another weakness I didn’t know I had. It truly was an enlightening experience. Oh- not that you’re not helping me learn too, mind you.”
“It’s fine, you can say I suck.”
“No no not at all… I’m just much better than you, that’s all.”
“There it is.”
She smirked.
“You can’t expect to topple the Golden Dragon Queen that easily.” She briefly remembered Sojiro was still here, and blushed profusely, clearing her throat and trying to look normal (or at least socially acceptable) again. “But still, Eiko is rather a fascinating girl, is she not?”
“Yeah. Back when we first met I kinda… well I kinda dismissed her as a normie.”
“Normie?”
Ren laughed.
“The opposite of dorks like us.”
Sojiro tried to stifle his own laughter, to at least keep up the illusion that he wasn’t listening.
“Ah, as in ‘normal’…” She bashfully fiddled with her hair accessory. “I suppose I can’t really deny the ‘dork’ label, can I?”
“Nor should you, life’s more fun if you embrace that shit. ‘Don’t kill the part of you that is cringe, kill the part that cringes’.”
“An… interesting saying.”
“Futaba taught me that one, I like it.”
“I suppose there’s truth to it, I did have even more fun once I stopped worrying about embarrassing myself. She even joined in in the later games.”
“Okay I definitely have to see that sometime.”
“Perhaps you will, I don’t know how she managed to theme her whole army around Buchimaru-kun, but that’s what she went with.”
“Quite the contrast between that and the Golden Dragon empire.”
“Indeed, we got so many strange looks, but seeing her so enthusiastic I couldn’t help but throw my whole being into it too.”
“That’s what I like about her too.” Ren smiled, taking a sip of his coffee. “You wouldn’t know at a glance, but early on she really had some self-esteem problems, not really having any direction or passion, which made her an easy target for… actually I’m probably saying too much again.”
“No, she already told me about Tsukasa.”
“Ah so you know already. Yeah thankfully that’s all in the past, she’s been a much more passionate girl since then, the type to really take charge.”
“She’s really taking it upon herself to be the heart of the Tokyo nudist community. I really want to support her, y’know?”
“Same. She still doesn’t know what her long term goals are, but hey- neither do I. I’m lucky to have a whole bunch of people around me to help me find out, so I want to be the same to them, y’know? Including her. I want to be worthwhile to them.”
“Well you certainly make me feel more sure of myself at least, you’re very worthwhile in my eyes. I’m sure Eiko, Makoto, and your other friends all feel the same.”
“Th-thank you. That means a lot to me.”
“Hmm…” Hifumi pondered a while, staring at the board.
“You good?”
Hifumi glanced at Sojiro, seeing that he had his back to them.
“I… wanted your advice on something?”
“Oh? Shoot.”
“Kosei is having it’s culture festival very soon…”
“Oh? That sounds fun, Shujin’s isn’t for another month.”
“Yes, I was thinking maybe you could take Makoto-san on a date there.”
“Oho? I like that idea. I’ll check if she’s free and definitely take her there if she is. But that doesn’t sound like you asking for advice…”
“Well… Eiko went out of her way to reach out to me, not only bringing me to the park, but putting in the effort to relearn shogi just because she knew it was something I liked. I kind of want to return the favor and…” She looked up to Ren, mild concern in her eyes and a pink dusting on her cheeks. “Would it be too much for me to invite her along?”
“Too much?”
“Like… is that too… intimate? Too date-like?”
“I don’t think so, nor do I think that really sounds like a problem. Being too ‘date-like’.”
“I don’t want her to misread my intentions, or rather- I don’t want to come across as too forward.”
“I see. I get what you mean, but I still don’t think it’s worth worrying about. A ‘date’ isn’t as big a deal as you’re thinking. Me and Mako’s first ‘date’ was visiting an arcade together. And we were firmly ‘just friends’ at that point and it was all fine. We had a good time and it was pretty casual for the most part.”
“Right. Perhaps I’m overthinking it.” She nodded, having gathered her resolve. “Very well, I shall take the plunge- as it were- and invite her along. I hope to see you and Makoto there as well.”
“Ha, sure, I’m down for a double date.”
Hifumi went from light pink cheeks to a bright red face.
“I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Relax, I’m just teasing you.”
“Hmph, you have some nerve.” She sipped her coffee to calm herself. “Tell me, did Makoto-san enjoy the arcade?”
“Hm? Yeah, she had a great time, far as I can tell.”
“I see… I’ve never been to one before.”
“Maybe you could try that too?”
“Maybe… is there much there for girls?”
Ren laughed.
“I mean there were plenty of girls having a good time there, and Makoto had fun. Having ovaries is hardly a barrier to enjoying videogames.”
“Perhaps you’re right, I’m being silly. Alright, I’ll add that to my list of places to take her.”
Ren raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
“Anyway, we’ve delayed long enough.” She took a deep breath to get into character, and rose from her seat. “I raised you. I loved you. I’ve given you weapons, taught you techniques, endowed you with knowledge. There is nothing more for me to give you.” She held her hand over her heart. “All that’s left for you to take is my life, by your own hand. One must die, and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny…”
Ren exchanged a glance with Sojiro, this roleplay was a little heavier than the others, he couldn’t honestly say he was feeling good about it…
Notes:
This incarnation of the Phantom Thieves don't know how lucky they were, skipping that fight.
Oh and this has nothing to do with the fic or even Persona in general, but while I was writing- the circle trap/ health and safety gag made me think of this sketch (or two sketches technically):
https://youtu.be/tDedpreZH-0
Chapter 46: Kosei culture
Summary:
Everyone goes to the Kosei culture festival.
Oh, but first-
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Futaba enjoyed sitting out in front of Leblanc, crouched down, watching people as they passed. It was probably the most harmless form her voyeurism ever took, squatting by the side of the road, somehow managing to convince herself that so long as she didn’t move too much, no one would notice the naked gremlin girl just starting at them with analytical eyes as they went about their business. It did put people off actually going in the café, but Sojiro had a hard time reprimanding girls, and an even harder time reprimanding Futaba, so he let her be.
She glanced up as she heard the café door open behind her.
“Heya Futaba.”
“Hey Ren.” She noticed he was carrying a bag. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Nothing much, just gonna wash the clothes we found in our last Mementos trip, see if any of it is salvageable.”
“’Kay…”
Futaba followed him to the coin-operated laundromat just opposite Leblanc, watching his movements with curious eyes.
“Need something?”
Futaba shook her head and kept watching.
“Stuff on your mind?”
She shook her head again. Ren shrugged and carried on with what he was doing, emptying the bag of dirty and dusty clothes into the top of the washing machine.
“Not that I don’t appreciate your company, but this isn’t gonna be very interesting, I’m just gonna have to sit here for an hour or so while they wash. It’s not gonna be much of a spectator sport.”
“I don’t mind.” Futaba kept watching, analysing the hole in deep thought.
“Well if you’re sure. It’s nice having you around regardless, I just don’t want you to be bored too.”
“Hmm…”
“Hm?”
A devious smirk spread across Futaba’s face.
“Nyehehehe…”
“Should I be worried right now?”
She smiled at him deviously.
“I’ve got an idea.”
Before he could even respond, she started climbing atop the open machine.
“The hell are you doing? Get out of there!”
“No no wait!” Futaba let the top half of her body fall into the hole, with her legs hanging over the side of the machine. “This’ll be funny.”
“Futaba I don’t want to explain to Sojiro why I let you fall into the wachine machine.” He looked around to see if anyone from the street could see them. “Nor do I want to explain to anyone why I’m hanging around a naked girl sticking out her butt into the open air. You realize how bad this’d look for me if someone came by now?”
“We’ll do it quickly, trust me, this bit’ll be worth it.”
“Bit?”
“Okay, I’m in position, I need you to poke me.”
“Poke you?”
“Poke me.”
“…Dare I ask where?”
“Anywhere.”
“That’s a dangerous thing to say in your position.”
“You don’t get it, just poke my hip or whatever.”
“Do I—”
“POKE ME!”
Ren sighed, and firmly poked her side of her hip with his index finger.
“What are you doing, stepbro?!”
“Hilarious Futaba. Now get out of there.”
“What’s with that reaction? Do you not get the reference or something?”
“I get the joke, I just want to get this awkward moment over with. I’m sick of staring at my ‘stepsister’s starfish.”
“You’re no fun…”
Futaba shook her legs, wiggled around a bunch, and let out a bunch of strained grunts, before falling still again.
“Ren…”
“You’re actually stuck, aren’t you?”
“…”
“…”
“…yes…”
“For fuck's sake Futaba…”
“I had to do it for the content!”
Ren pulled her out of the washing machine. He was not gentle about it.
~ ~ ~
“Oho? So these are your stomping grounds Inari? I admit I’ve been curious.”
“I suppose that’s one way of putting it.” Yusuke performed a theatrical bow to the rest of the group. “I welcome you all to Kosei high.”
Ren currently had mixed feelings, his goal for today was to enjoy the culture festival as a date with Makoto- the two not really having had time for such things what with all the Phantom Thief business they’d had weighing them down lately. It seemed like the moment they finished Futaba’s palace, they were dragged back to Haru’s, then after that they still had to worry about Medjed until Futaba woke up, then it was straight off to tackle Okumura’s palace. However he couldn’t just not bring the other thieves along, and they needed some recreational time as a group too. Looking over to the other half of their party, it seemed Hifumi was having similar problems. She managed to work up the nerve to ask Eiko to accompany her, under the guise of guiding her through the culture festival as thanks for helping her with her shogi studies. Eiko accepted happily, much to her relief, but Eiko also couldn’t just leave her own friends to the wayside, and they joined her. In her mind it was an opportunity for the Shujin and Kosei nudists to get together again. And speaking of nudists…
“Yo Renjamin, who’s the new nudie?” Eiko approached Futaba curiously, the younger girl hiding behind Ren from her greatest fear- extroverts.
“A-ah.” Ren realized he made a significant oversight. He had already gotten used to Futaba being a nudist so he never thought about it, but technically one should only be registered as a nudist if they are either a student of Shujin or Kosei, Futaba got that status through illegal hacking, which obviously was not something they wanted to broadcast. Maybe he could say she’s from another school? No, Eiko would want to know which and the lie would fall apart pretty quick. Maybe say she was a Kosei student and have Yusuke help cover for her? Better, but they would inevitably run into the Kosei nudists today, and the same lie isn’t going to work on them. Eiko was staring at him, he needed to come up with an excuse for Futaba being nude and he needed to come up with it fast. “Well um…”
“This is Futaba, she’s a close friend of ours.” Makoto stepped forwards confidently. “She’s technically a first year student of Shujin, but hasn’t been able to attend for health reasons.”
“For real?” Makoto’s quick thinking lie was pretty convincing, at least enough for Eiko and the others, Ren was legitimately impressed. “But, if she’s not well, you sure she’s gonna be alright out here like this?”
“Her recovery has been going very well, I obviously won’t share details, but rest assured her being out here is not only fine, but really healthy for her.”
“Hm. Well cool.” Eiko smiled. “I getcha. I won’t pry.”
Makoto felt a little guilty lying to her like this, but rationalized it as being pretty harmless, a reassuring smile from Ren helped settle her.
Eiko leant around to try and greet Futaba directly, but her face was buried in the back of Ren’s shirt.
“Nice to meetcha Futaba-chan. You’ve already registered with Makoto before you even made it back to school, sick! How you liking the nudist life?”
Futaba didn’t respond, seems like she was going for the ‘ignore them until they go away’ strategy.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No you’re okay Eiko, she’s… just a bit shy, y’know?”
“No kidding Ren, still- getting naked in public isn’t an action I’d associate with shy girls, and she was fine until I started talking to her.”
“Give her time, she’ll get used to you I’m sure.”
Futaba grumbled, her ears going red, it was embarrassing them talking about her as if she wasn’t here.
“Eh, whatever.” Eiko shrugged, and turned back to Hifumi. “So Fumi-chan, why don’t we start with what your class is doing?”
“Oh um…” Hifumi nervously fiddled with her hair. “Our class went with a pretty run of the mill choice, we’re doing a cosplay café, which obviously isn’t really something I could participate in…”
“A café is cute though! Especially with cute girls running it. Who the hell’s gonna complain about a cute naked waitress like you serving them? I wouldn’t.”
Hifumi blushed.
“Well maybe you’re right, but it’s still supposed to be about cosplay.”
“You could stick a leaf on your cooch and go as Eve. Heheh, actually thinking about it having nothing but a leaf covering your modesty is kinda hotter than just going nude, right? Customers always hoping for that little slip, y'know?"
Ai chopped down on her head.
“No Eiko. Bad.”
“Heh.” Futaba briefly peaked out from behind Ren. “The normie is horny on main.”
“Oho? The new nudie speaks?”
Futaba went straight back to ‘hiding’, Eiko pouting in disappointment.
“If it’s ‘costumes’ you want.” Yusuke brought his hand to his face, before raising it to the sky- no one was quite sure what the gesture was supposed to mean. “Then the art club’s project has exactly what you need.”
“Hm?”
~ ~ ~
“Bodypaint?”
“Exactly Togo-san! We finally have an excuse to embrace the medium of the human body as a canvas!”
Mai finished setting up her paints before turning to the group.
“Yusuke suggested the idea, and we’re all in support, it’ll help both bring out the artistic sides of our customers, and help normalize the human body. They can either have us paint them, eachother, or take turns painting us.” Mai looked towards her line- her predominantly male line- and tutted to herself. “I’m not surprised, just disappointed…” She sticks up a sign warning everyone that they are only to touch the models with the paintbrush ONLY, and any other touching will result in them being kicked out. She really had to hold back to not throw paint cans at the two guys who tutted and left right after reading that.
Ren turned to Makoto.
“What do you think? Wanna give it a go?”
“Really?” Makoto pondered for a moment. She looked over to see Norio and Kameko already had designs painted on them, Norio had much of his body painted to resemble a tree’s bark, and Kameko had abstract patterns resembling stained glass. “Sure, why not? It might be fun.”
“Can um…” Ren couldn’t quite maintain eye contact. “Could I maybe… try painting something on you, maybe?”
“You paint Ren?”
“Um… no but… I just thought that…”
Makoto let out a content sigh.
“Sure, I’ll let you have a go, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Don’t tempt fate Mako, I’m already nervous enough as it is.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle, then suddenly an idea struck her.
“Ren do you think maybe you could do… y’know?”
“Do what?”
Makoto pulled her phone out of her bag, tapped away, and brought up an image she had saved in her album, a clear reference of Kiryu’s irezumi.
“Like a Dragon tattoos?”
“I obviously can’t get the real thing, but it might be fun having it in paint, just for a day, y’know?”
Ren looked at her back, trying to picture it, and he had to admit, it was a very appealing mental image.
“I’d love to but… this is a pretty complex image, it’s gonna come out pretty shitty if I try to do that.”
“Oh… right.”
Yusuke peered over Makoto’s shoulder at the image.
“A striking design for sure. If you would permit me to, I would be happy to attempt it.”
“Really Yusuke? Do you think you could do it?”
“I shall certainly try. While I prefer original works, there are things to be learned by trying to recreate other artist’s works.” He gently took her phone from her hands. “Please, remain still while I pick out the correct paints.”
“Sure, no worries.” Makoto was getting rather excited, though she did her best to hold it in, she didn’t want to embarrass herself after all. She turned to see Ren, forcing a smile. “Sorry Ren…”
“Nah it’s fine, I’d rather you get the job done right rather than me just messing around.”
He was putting on a positive face, but she could tell he was feeling rather disappointed. She thought for a moment.
“Well, Yusuke is doing my back, but there’s nothing to say you can’t do my front.”
“R-really?” Ren tried not to look too excited. “You sure? My idea probably isn’t going to gel with the Kiryu tattoo.”
“It’s fine, we’re just having fun. And well get separate pictures of the front and back afterwards, so it won’t matter if they clash.” It brought her great relief to see him smile like this.
“R-right! I’ll try to make something that looks good on you.”
“I look forward to what you come up wIIIII—” Makoto couldn’t help but jump and squeal a little when she felt the cold paintbrush first touch her back without warning.
“Please Makoto-san, remain still.”
“S-sorry, you just took me off guard.” It was actually quite hard staying still, she’d never been the ticklish type, but the gentle caress of the paintbrush really took some getting used to, even moreso when Ren’s paintbrush was added to the equation. She had to fight to keep her composure with the paintbrush pincer assault on her body. She couldn’t really see Yusuke’s face, but Ren’s looked so focused. If he did have impure motives wanting to paint her like this, they were either forgotten or else really well hidden by now.
She focused on simply keeping her gaze forward, and her body as still as she was able, though her eyes couldn’t help but drift around the room as time went on. She saw some of the other thieves had decided to partake as well. She was especially surprised to see Ryuji with a paintbrush in hand, she never took him as the type- and judging by his amateurish movements with it- he wasn’t. He didn’t look confident in the slightest, though at least part of that was because of his model- Mieko- being this intimately close with a nude girl he barely knew was certainly throwing him off, as if he was constantly terrified of her suddenly getting mad at him for staring too close- though at least part of that feeling likely came from Mai shooting him dirty, distrustful looks constantly, which he tried his best to ignore.
“Sakamoto-kun, right?” Mieko seemed to much calmer about this than Ryuji was.
“Y-y-yeah…”
“What exactly are you going for right now?”
“I-I’m not doing anything! Not going for anything bad I mean, just trying painting just cuz, y’know?”
Mieko raised an eyebrow.
“I meant what are you trying to paint?”
“Oohh… I dunno, just doing random stuff and seeing if any of it looks good.”
“Hmm…” She kept watching him for a while, watching him keep painting patterns and shapes while trying to avoid both her eye contact and avoiding looking directly at her nipples, his face really rather red. “Sakamoto-kun?”
“Hm?”
“You wouldn’t happen to be sing—ARGH!” Mieko looked over her shoulder at the other person painting her, who had just pushed their brush way harder against her than she felt necessary, almost as if they were trying to stab her.
“Oh I’m so sorry Ohara-san.” Haru smiled up at her. “I lost my balance.”
“R-right, no worries I guess.” Mieko turned back to Ryuji. “So I was just wondering if you had a girlfr—OW WHAT THE FUCK?”
“Oh dear, I really am sorry, I’m not used to this, so I can be so heavy handed sometimes. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”
Mieko’s slightly worried gaze lingered on the questionably cheerful girl a little while longer.
“I was just gonna ask if Sakamoto-kun…” Mieko looked back at Haru before finishing her sentence, at her staring up at her with a hard-to-read expression. “…nevermind.”
Haru smiled up at her, and returned to painting her own floral patterns against Mieko’s lower back, Ryuji not really understanding what that was all about, but too focused on his own work to question it.
Next to them sat Aya, currently letting Ann and Ai paint their best attempt at the Shujin summer uniform on her.
“You’re not very good at this Takamaki-san.” Aya was surprised to hear Ann not only laugh at that, but have a lasting fond smile on her face. “Why’s that make you happy?”
“No, just… hearing that brings back good memories.”
“If you say so…” She looked up to Ai painting her right side. “We’ll do you after, okay?”
“Sure sure, this is actually more fun than I thought it’d be… although…” She looked over to the third person painting Aya currently. “Okay firstly I’m surprised Ren brought his therapy cat or whatever along, but I really can’t say I expected it to join in like this.” Ai and Aya have never heard a cat grumble at them before, but that was hardly the weirdest thing about this situation when said cat was also holding a paint brush in its mouth with purpose.
Aya laughed.
“He’s actually better at this than you Takamaki.”
Ann grumbled as well, but seemed a bit comforted after a couple meows, Ai and Aya exchanged a glance.
“Makoto-san has some weird friends.”
“No kidding… What does that say about us?”
“Let’s not think about it too hard.”
Futaba had pushed ahead to the front of Mai’s line, excitement overriding anxiety for now at least. Mai herself did nothing to stop this, nor to reprimand Futaba for focusing pretty much exclusively on her breasts (which she was currently trying to paint like Jupiter and Saturn respectively); partially because she didn’t distrust other girls as much, but mostly because she’d rather her breasts go to her so that the others in line had to make do with other parts of her body, though she did mutter under her breath some more when she saw a couple more people leave after realizing this.
The final painting session was actually one-on-one, Eiko had eagerly volunteered to paint Hifumi. Currently trying to cover her whole body in gold and silver, with a little red, blue, and green here and there to resemble jewelery.
“This r-rather tickles Eiko-san.” Hifumi put all of her focus into staying completely still- her cheeks puffed up- as Eiko did her armpits. Unfortunately- unlike Makoto- Hifumi was the ticklish type.
“Nearly done Fumi-chan.” Eiko kept adjusting her position, openly ignoring the ‘no contact aside from paintbrushes’ rule as she kept steadying Hifumi with her hand, meaning a lot of the paint got onto her too. “Going for the ‘Lord of all that is golden’ look here, it’ll look great.”
“Just painting me gold is a rather literal interpretation, isn’t it?”
“That’s what the silver and jewellery is for. Trust me, you’ll end up looking like some cool naked goddess, it’ll blow everyone away.”
“If you say so.” It was a little embarrassing, but Hifumi would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy this.
“Okay.” Eiko stood up in front of her. “I’m going to do something slightly sinister, so bear with me.”
“What do you—O-oh… oh my.”
Eiko- as gently as she could- lifted Hifumi’s left breast.
“Gotta get under here.”
Hifumi just looked to the ceiling, avoiding eye contact and just generally trying to forget there’s anyone else in the room at all. She still wasn’t used to people physically touching her, but Eiko was very delicate as she did this, and indeed as she did the same for the right breast. She was even polite enough to not say anything when she noticed Hifumi’s nipples growing just a little (though she absolutely would have teased her about it if they were alone, but being in public was perhaps a little too much).
“Alright.” Eiko finally released Hifumi’s breasts- much to her relief. Though she got even more flustered when Eiko’s face got really close to hers. “I gotta get the patterns on your face just right, so don’t move a muscle, okay?”
“Mmhm…” Hifumi was as still as a statue, it took her a minute before she realized it’d probably be better if she just closed her eyes, and did so until Eiko was done.
Makoto found watching all these strangely comforting, she didn’t realize how quickly time had flown by until Yusuke tapped her on the shoulder to let her know they were done. She instinctively looked over her shoulder, Yusuke providing a mirror for her to see the result. While the colors weren’t 100% accurate, it was a remarkably close approximation of Kiryu’s iconic dragon tattoo.
“Wow, this is amazing Yusuke.”
“No kidding.” Ren was look at it in awe. “It looks fantastic on you Mako. We gotta take some pictures.”
“Oh, but the character in the pearl the dragon is holding is different… 妃… ‘Hi’… ‘Queen’.” She smiled. “Nice attention to detail.”
Yusuke bowed humbly.
“I’m glad it pleases you.”
Ren rubbed the back of his head.
“Mine's quite the contrast, it’s pretty goofy…”
Makoto looked down at her front, immediately bursting into laughter.
“Okay Ren, Buchi’s face was a good choice, but did you have to make my breasts the eyes?”
“They’re in the right position for it.”
“Making the nipples the pupils, it’s like his eyes are staring off in opposite directions.” Her laughter gradually died down. “Thank you Ren, it’s goofy- but I love it.”
Ren shrugged.
“Sounds like a pretty good description of me.”
“Hm… maybe so…”
~ ~ ~
Makoto’s new fake-tattoo drew at a lot of attention and admiration as she and Ren wandered through Kosei’s halls. She was used to drawing eyes wherever she went now- only natural for a naked woman- but it was far stronger now. She was filled with joy whenever someone recognized the dragon and wanted a picture of her, and Ren was filled with joy (and a fair few other feelings) whenever she’d pose and flex for her photographers. Granted, the buchi on her front also draw attention, a different kind. Ren was starting to feel a little guilty with the amount of people snickering as they passed, but Makoto herself wasn’t bothered (well, she was naturally a little embarrassed, but she wasn’t hurt by the laughter, it was mostly good natured).
More importantly, they had managed to get some time alone together, and it really did start feeling like something resembling a date. Ryuji, Ann, Morgana, and Haru were looking after Futaba; Yusuke stayed behind to help the art club with their project; Eiko sent Hifumi ahead to her class’s café, promising to meet her there soon- she had things she needed to do (apparently), and her other friends wandered off on their own.
The couple also made it their goal to visit Hifumi’s class, though they took the long route to enjoy more time together. Skipping over the three or four other classes that unimaginatively chose to do a café, and Makoto adamantly refusing to enter the haunted house, despite Ren’s insistence. They did enjoy a few ‘attractions’ together, buying eachother various foods (though Makoto especially being mindful of her calory intake), Ren demonstrating his high proficiency with balloon art, Makoto wow-ing her audience with her skills in the various challenges presented by the school’s sports clubs (though more than a few onlookers were more interested in the movement of the painted Buchi’s ‘eyes’ than anything else).
They eventually made their way to Hifumi’s classroom, being guided to their table by a Mai Shiranui cosplayer, Ren noted that given how confident she looked wearing the outfit, and either not noticing or not caring that she ‘slipped’ out of it a couple times, and thought she’d probably make a good nudist, though he shook his head, he’s getting too used to nudist girls.
“Someone will be over with a menu shortly.”
The two nodded to her and she returned to her spot attracting customers just outside the classroom door- doing a good job of it by the looks of things.
“I know I’m one to talk, but I’m surprised the school is letting her get away with dressing like that.”
Ren shrugged.
“They seem pretty free-spirited here I guess, more power to them I suppose.”
“SO!” The pair flinched in their seats at Hifumi seemingly appearing out of thin air next to their table, body still clad in metallic gold and silver paint. “The Phantom Queen finally dares to show her face in MY domain?”
“Excuse me?”
“Makoto she’s doing a thing.”
“O-oh, right right, of course.”
Hifumi slamdunked the menu onto the table- which considering it was just laminated paper- did little more than create a small gust of air wafting Makoto’s hair slightly.
“Despite your failure to best me, and your forthcoming surrender, I am still a gracious queen, you may partake in whatever you desire as a last meal.”
Ren noticed some of the other cosplayers- presumably Hifumi’s classmates- watching her and gossiping amongst themselves:
“Togo-san really gets into it, huh?”
“Is she going for a tsundere thing? If so this is a unique take.”
“What kinda costume is that anyway?”
“Kinda wish she went for ‘Eve’ but I guess this works too.”
He noticed the others weren’t roleplaying by the looks of it, so it was wasn’t part of the café, Hifumi just did this to stop herself feeling embarrassed- paradoxical as her methodology seemed to be.
“What do you think Ren?”
“Well it’s a school culture festival, I’m not expecting gourmet cuisine.”
“That’s not wrong, but you could stand to be more delicate. I swear, Boss teaches you how to make a good curry and you suddenly become a food snob.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be mean, but I getcha. Maybe we should just play it safe with some omurice?”
Makoto sighed, and weakly smiled up to Hifumi, still glaring down at her fully in-character.
“Two servings of omurice please.”
“THREE!”
Eiko burst through the door, the Shiranui cosplayer trying to stop her.
“Miss you can’t—”
“Nah it’s cool, my friends were just saving me a seat.” She happily strolled over to the couple’s table, drink in one hand, giant hammer nearly as big as she was in the other. “Hi Fumi! ‘Sup relationship goals? You guys good?” She said as she pulled a chair from another table and sat down with them, resting her hammer against the wall beside them.
“Um…” Eiko’s sudden entrance was enough to get Hifumi to drop character for a moment. “Eiko-san, what’s that?”
“Hm? Oh, this is just more bubble tea, honeydew milk flavor, want some?”
“Th-the hammer Eiko.”
“OH!” she picked up said hammer. “It’s inflatable, one of the classes was doing a ‘fairground games’ kinda thing and this was one of the prizes.”
“I see… but why though?”
Eiko laughed.
“It’s so dumb! A big cartoon hammer to bonk people with!” He demonstrated on a rather annoyed Ren. “BONK! No horny! BONK!”
Hifumi, Ren, and Makoto all exchanged confused looks, but just shrugged it off in the end.
“Aw come on, I thought it was funny.”
“You wouldn’t happen to be a Monster Hunter fan, would you Eiko?”
“Hm? No, I’ve not played that one Ren, why?”
“No reason…”
“How are you gonna get that thing home anyway? It’s huge.”
“I’ll deflate it Nudie-prez, duh. I’ll fit in my bag then.”
“Questionable souvenir aside, did Hifumi do that bodypaint on you?” Ren asked
“Oh right!” Eiko shot out of her seat, on her torso was a painted image of a candlestick, and just above it across her chest a series of Japanese characters. “Fumi-chan is really good at calligraphy.”
Hifumi bashfully shrugged.
“Well I’m okay at it, I suppose…”
“She did this fancy poem:
‘The light of a candle
Is transferred to another candle-
Spring twilight’.” She smugly smirked. “Fumi-chan said it suits me.”
“’Lighting one candle’ by Yosa Buson.” Hifumi nodded, lightly blushing. “And yes, I think it does suit her.”
“Hmm… I could see that.” Ren nodded.
“Bonk!” Eiko hit him on the head with the hammer again.
“What was that for?”
Eiko put on her best ‘pouty’ face.
“Quit staring at me so closely, your GF is right here.”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Whatever, I suppose you can join us while we eat.”
Hifumi looked between Ren and Makoto.
“Actually, I could take my break now, and perhaps um… Eiko-san and I could enjoy our own meal together and leave you two to it?”
Eiko perked up at the idea.
“Yo I’m down for that Fumi-chan.” She picked up her hammer. “Imma grab us another table.” And just like that she started scanning the fairly crowded room for anyone who might be leaving soon.
Makoto bowed lightly to Hifumi.
“Thanks for that.”
Hifumi shook her head.
“It’s alright, I can’t say my motivation for doing so was entirely selfless anyway…”
“Oh?”
Makoto noticed Hifumi avert her eyes. Ren smiled knowingly.
“Well you better not keep her waiting, we’ll talk to you again later Hifumi.”
“Mm.” Hifumi bowed to the two of them and went to join Eiko, given the lack of free spaces she took her outside to find an alternate way to enjoy the rest of the festival.
Makoto leaned over the table to Ren.
“Are those two…”
“Too early to say for sure.” Ren smirked. “But I kinda like the idea, don’t you?”
“Hmm…” Makoto pondered a while. “Well I’m curious, I suppose there’s not much to do but wish them luck for now, hm?”
Ren nodded, and the couple relaxed, and waited for their meal.
…
…
It was around about the five minute mark that they realized that because Hifumi left, there was no meal coming. Ren sighed, and started trying to grab the attention of someone else to serve them.
Notes:
We didn't actually get as much time with the Kosei art club as I thought we would this chapter. Don't worry- I want to give them more screentime too, it just didn't really come up this time.
Chapter 47: Guidance
Summary:
Makoto hangs out with Kasumi and everyone's favorite teacher FINALLY joins the program.
Oh and one other thing happens, but like- don't worry about it, y'know?
Notes:
Yes, I've neglected a fan favorite for too long now, finally time to let her join in the fun. But we'll get to that, need to do some other scenes first
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Thank you for coming out with me Senpai.”
“It’s alright Kasumi-san, really if anything I should be apologizing to you for you for not joining you sooner, but life kept getting in the way, you know how it is.”
“I suppose…”
“But still…” Makoto looked around. “Why the batting cages?”
Kasumi’s shoulders dropped slightly.
“Well… no matter how hard I work I can’t seem to get out of my rut. I’ve even overheard the faculty talking about rescinding my honor student status if I don’t start showing results again.”
“Oh dear…”
“’Oh dear’ is right. I heard Dr. Maruki defending me, which I really do appreciate of course, but I feel bad for making him do that.”
“You didn’t ‘make’ him do anything.”
“He had to though as a result of my own failures.” Kasumi shook her head, slapping her cheeks and and shooting Makoto a more determined expression. “But that just means I need to try harder! I didn’t want to fall into the trap of tunnel vision like you said though, so I thought maybe I’d briefly step away from gymnastics and do something completely new for a bit, then go back to gymnastics with a fresh mind, y’know?”
“That makes sense.” Makoto’s warm smiled filled Kasumi with confidence. “Seems the place is empty aside from us, guess that means we can take our time to enjoy ourselves.”
“Do you have any experience in batting cages Senpai?”
“Not as such…” Makoto knew plenty about batting cages, despite having never been to one herself. Truth was, her mind wasn’t even on actually batting right now, she was currently suffering from a severe case of ‘Like a Dragon’ brainrot, remembering the scenes of the protagonist unwinding here, or imagining herself fighting a bunch of goons on the astroturf with a baseball bat. She was struggling to keep a lid on it and appear like a normal person to Yoshizawa. “I at least know how they work though.”
“Then I’ll rely on your guidance Senpai!”
“I’ll try not to disappoint then.” Makoto fiddled with her hair nervously. “Shall I go first?”
“I’d prefer that, I want to see how you do it.”
Makoto- also having no experience to go off of- got in position, trying to imagine she was Kiryu, trying to channel his energy when he would hit home-run after home-run. She took a breath to steady herself as the ball machine whirred into life. The first ball was launched, she stepped into her most powerful swing, which would have been impressive if it had actually managed to connect with the ball at all.
“Hmm…”
She paid extra attention to her stance this time, trying to imitate Kiryu exactly, but missed again.
“Damn it…”
“You can do it Senpai!”
Makoto smiled, and rethought her approach. Realizing it was a mistake to just try and copy a movie character exactly, that method didn’t account for their differences in physique alone, what worked for him wouldn’t necessarily work for her. She tried to keep his energy, his fire in her mind, but instead of simply trying to imitate him, she simply took inspiration from him. ‘What would Kiryu Kazama do if he was batting in the body of a nudist teenage girl?’ is not a question she ever thought she’d ask herself, but here we are. Putting the fantasies out of her mind and focusing on the positioning of her own body and the swing of her arms, her third swing connected beautifully with the ball. It wasn’t a home-run or anything, but it was something she felt confident calling a success.
“Nice one Senpai!”
She swung again- another success, and then another, and another.
“Woah Senpai… you got the hang of it so quickly.”
“I-it’s nothing really.” Despite her words, she was starting to feel a little bit cocky… just a little bit though. “It’s just a matter of getting a feel for your own body.”
Kasumi tried not to pay too much attention to Makoto’s body, she didn’t swing that way and really was doing everything she could to try and forget that she was naked in front of her, but she still paid careful attention to her stance, and the way she moved, committing it all to memory. Makoto missed the next shot, reminding her not to get too into her own head, but managed to hit every subsequent shot, even scoring a home run on one of them. Once her turn was up she stepped back outside to meet with her kouhai.
“You really are amazing Senpai.”
“Th-thanks. I had a lot of fun.”
“I’m starting to love the sound it makes when the bat connects like that.”
“Me too. I’m not the biggest on sports, but I can definitely see myself coming here again. I wonder if Eiko and the others would enjoy this…”
“Hm…”
“I’ll definitely come with Ren at least.”
“Ugh…”
“Hm? Kasumi-san?”
“It’s my turn next right? Wish me luck!”
Kasumi rushed past Makoto, pulling the bat out of her hands with an almost-distressing amount of eagerness, and got into position. She recalled Makoto’s stance, and mimicked it as closely as she could.
“Focus Kasumi.” She mumbled to herself.
Swinging with all of her might, but not connecting with anything. Part of her got incredibly angry with herself in the blink of an eye, before she shook her head and calmed herself.
“It’s okay…” She spoke under her breath. “Even Senpai fumbled her first time.”
She swung again, missing again.
“Dammit…”
“It’s okay Kasumi-san.”
She looked back to see Makoto smiling at her supportively.
“Just try to get comfortable, keep experimenting.”
“R-right!” Kasumi closed her eyes, picturing Makoto’s successful swings, letting her own body’s movement follow the same paths. With renewed determination in her eyes, she swung once more… and missed once more. “Huh?”
“Try to relax a little Kasumi.”
“But…”
“It’s only natural to fumble when you’re learning something new, don’t let it get to you.”
Kasumi lowered her voice.
“But it was new for you too…”
She missed again, she was getting frustrated. She jumped a little when she noticed Makoto joining her.
“You’re too tense, you’re thinking too much about your stance and not letting yourself naturally adjust.”
“But… this is what you did.”
“Hmm…” Makoto examined her posture. “I guess I did something similar to that, but what works for me may not work for you, we have different builds and heights after all. Trust me, just let your body relax- just a little.”
“Hmm…” Kasumi wasn’t convinced, but decided to at least try it. She loosened her body, tried to put it out of her mind entirely, and just follow her instinct for how to move. The next swing was also a miss, but the one immediately following was a hit- and a good one at that- falling just short of a home-run.
“Nice one!”
“Huh? I did it?”
“See! It’s just a matter of getting a feel for your own body.”
“I, I see…” She focused again, paying careful attention to her body, swinging, and missing. “Wait, what?”
Swing, miss.
“I don’t get it…”
“You’re tensing up again, overthinking it.”
“I…” Kasumi shook her head, tried to relax again and keep her movements natural. Which paid off with another good hit, but then it was nothing but misses after that.
Makoto looked on. Every time Kasumi tried to picture her own body, she would instead just see Makoto’s. When she stopped thinking about her stance she fell into a good position, but then she’d start overthinking again and fumble. Eventually the balls stopped coming, and she just stood there with her arms hanging by her sides.
“Damn…”
“You got a couple of really good hits in there Kasumi.” Makoto rested a hand on her shoulder. “I could see you being really good with a little practice.
Kasumi didn’t look at her.
“Thank you Senpai…” She left the bat leaning against the wall, and began walking away. “I just need to head to the bathroom Senpai, I won’t be long.”
Makoto gave a nod in response, not that Kasumi paid attention to it. Makoto was left alone in the batting area.
“Hmm… those swings really were good though, though I can really understand getting stuck in your own head like that…” she sighed.
Her mind started to drift again, she was back to imagining fighting a bunch of bad guys with a bat with rock music playing in the background. She glanced over to the bat Kasumi had left just lying there, it was calling to her, tempting her. She looked around, making absolutely sure that no one else was around, and that Kasumi really had entered the bathroom and wasn’t going to suddenly burst out.
“M-maybe just a little bit then…”
Makoto picked up the bat, swinging it a few times, trying to convince herself she was actually imagining hitting baseballs with it and not goon’s faces, but slowly she started to give into her fantasies, leaning forward and holding it over her shoulder like a certain eyepatch-wearing favorite character of hers, surrounded by Yazuka baddies from a rival family. She swung a few more times, losing herself more and more in the fantasy, she had entered what Ren and Hifumi would call: ‘shogi mode’, though she had the good sense and self-preservation to keep the roleplaying dialogue of herself and her opponents in her head, just in case someone overheard. She got even more into it, imagining taunting and intimidating her opponents by swinging the bat around like a nunchuck.
Now ladies and gentlemen, I’ll introduce you to the key word of today: Hubris. Noun, ‘excessive pride or self-confidence’. Everyone was subject to it at times, even a woman as normally composed and reserved as Makoto Niijima. It can lead to numerous regrettable actions and decision-making. Such actions may include overestimating how fast you can safely twirl a bat around, or underestimating how long it takes to move a bat from your left side to your right while it’s twirling. Makoto Niijima did both these things, at the same time, the result of which was while attempting to treat her bat like a nunchuck and swing it around her body in an intimidating and impressive fashion- the bat hadn’t quite transitioned from one side of her body to another during its upward-swing, instead its trajectory leading it directly between her legs, the twirling coming to an abrupt halt in a way she couldn’t ignore.
The impact caused no lasting damage, but this was of little comfort to Shujin’s student council president as she fell to the ground in this moment, clutching her crotch as if this would somehow lessen the pain she had caused herself in what- right now at least- she would consider the worst mistake of her entire life. Aside from a very high-pitched yelp, there was no cry of pain, merely agonized whining and groaning as she rolled from side to side, clenching her teeth, fighting back the tears in her eyes.
While this was an incredibly regrettable position to be in, Makoto at least took comfort in the fact that no one had witnessed her blunder. While she felt really very foolish indeed, it would at least be an issue she could keep private. Mostly anyway. When she heard the voice of Anat from inside her heart she remembered that she was never truly alone.
“Girl did you seriously just cuntbust yourself?”
‘…No…’
“Are you seriously going to try to deceive me right now?”
‘Yes.’
“Even though you know that’s impossible?”
‘Yes.’
“You’re going the full ‘denial’ route on this one?”
‘Of what? Nothing happened, I didn’t do anything, moving on.’
Makoto forced herself to her feet on shaky legs, still gently rubbing hoping for some small relief. She heard Anat sigh, and while she couldn’t see her, she could feel her shaking her head in disappointment. Leaving the bat where it was, she stumbled over to the entrance, passing through just in time to run into Kasumi again.
“Sorry to keep you waiting Senpai.”
Makoto didn’t say anything, she just forced a smile and a nod.
“I really do want to thank you for coming here with me though, I know I was rather… disappointing, but I still feel like I learned something.”
“Mmhmm.” Was about all the vocalizing Makoto could manage in this moment.
“Hm? Are you okay Senpai?”
“F-f-fine!”
“Are you sure?”
“Y-yup! Totally fine, just… it really took it out of me, y’know? I could use a rest.”
Kasumi tilted her head.
“Okay? Should I get us some water bottles from the vending machine?”
Makoto very gently lowered herself down onto a nearby chair, being very careful about how she sat.
“That would be lovely, thank you.”
“Mm…” Kasumi found Makoto’s highly strained expression confusing, but wasn’t sure how to broach the topic exactly, so simply fetched the waters, and decided to sit down and wait until her Senpai stopped acting weird.
~ ~ ~
Kasumi let out a weary sigh. She would often come here, just outside a construction site in Odaiba, in times where she was feeling down, and in need of some soul searching. She wasn’t even entirely sure exactly why she chose this specific place, something about it just drew her here. She really was starting to feel like her rut was ruining her, and things just didn’t seem to be getting better. Maruki had been incredibly kind and helpful, but it wasn’t enough. She finally got some time with her senpai Makoto at least, but even her mind seemed to be elsewhere as their time together went on; that boy- Ren Amamiya seemed to never be far out of her mind, and Kasumi was still scared of him, he was still a barrier to her getting as close to Makoto as she would like. She knew this was at least in part- her own fault. She’s the one desperately trying to cling to someone for validation, she had enough self-awareness to admit that at least, but still- she wanted to at least spend a little while wallowing in self-pity.
She shook her head, ‘wallowing in self-pity?’ She was better than this. She began to turn away when she spotted an acquaintance walking by.
“Akechi-kun?”
The boy noticed her, smiling to her.
“Ah, I remember you, Yoshizawa-san, correct?”
“I’m surprised you remember.”
“Having a good memory is a handy skill for a detective after all. You, me, and Amamiya-kun all sat down together for a delightful chat a while back if I recall correctly.”
Kasumi rubbed the side of her head, almost wincing slightly.
“Oh? Did I say something to upset you Yoshizawa-san?”
“N-no… Amamiya-kun was there?”
“Hm? Why of course, are you feeling quite alright?”
She gripped her head harder for a moment, before the pain suddenly disappeared, as if it had never been there to begin with.
“Ah right, of course, he did join us, didn’t he?”
“I would say I joined you two, but I suppose that’s splitting hairs.”
“Anyway, what are you doing here Akechi-kun?”
“Oh just running some errands, you know how it is.” He looked to the construction site. “This has been here for a while now, they don’t seem to be making much progress.”
Kasumi’s head dropped slightly.
“It was to be a stadium, but funding was cut off before it could be finished.”
“A stadium you say? And here I overheard someone say it was a research laboratory.”
“I’m not sure where they got that from, I’m certain it was a stadium.” Kasumi sighed. “Not as if it matters, it’s not going to be finished either way.”
“I wonder what they’re going to do with it.” Akechi shrugged. “Still, I suppose it’s none of our business, can’t afford to spend our energy worrying over things we can’t control, wouldn’t you say?”
“I suppose…” She looked back to the construction site. “I just come here when I need to think sometimes.”
“I suppose it’s nice and quiet, at least by the standards of Tokyo.”
“But I think I’ll have better luck actually talking about my problems, I’ll see Dr. Maruki again. Oh- sorry, Maruki is my counsellor.”
“Dr. Takuto Maruki? If I recall he’s the one they brought into Shujin following those… frightful events with one of their PE teachers.”
“Oh? You know him?”
“No, I’ve not had the pleasure. I just always try and keep up with the news, it’s important in my line of work.”
“I see… I guess that makes sense. Anyway, I’m sorry to drag you away from whatever you were doing and just unload on you like that, that was rude of me.”
“Oh you did nothing of the sort, I wouldn’t worry.” Akechi felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, but ignored it for now. “I hope you can work though whatever is troubling you with this counsellor of yours. No shame in getting a little help when you need it, right?” He smiled warmly. “I wish you the very best of luck, truly.”
“I guess…” She put on a smile. “Thank you, I hope the rest of your week goes smoothly too.”
“You and me both.” Akechi chuckled, and politely waved Kasumi off as she disappeared around the corner.
Now that he was alone, he pulled out his phone to see what that notification was about. He paused, staring at the screen, then at the stadium that was not to be.
“Well now…” He looked back to his phone, then shrugged. “Why not? I’ve got time I suppose.”
A few screen taps later, the world started to shift around him, his clothes changed, and he looked back at what was once a stadium, confirming he had made it to the metaverse.
“How odd that I didn’t get a name this time, something is unique about this one.” He put his phone away and entered the rather abstract building. Shortly after entering he found himself in a pristine, mostly-white entrance hall, with the kind of avant-garde architecture one would see in modern office buildings with some budget to burn.
“Rather empty in here.” He murmured to himself, having the habit of speaking his thoughts aloud, at least when in the Metaverse. He noticed the shimmering around many of the objects he passed. “Another palace ‘under construction’ perhaps? I guess that’s appropriate. No headache-inducing shadows to deal with then I hope?”
He wandered around, hoping to at least run into a hint of who this palace belonged to, or at least an interesting cognition, but with so many locked doors, he quickly ran out of places to explore, with nothing really interesting leaping out at him besides a few CCTV cameras here and there.
“Well this is disappointing… Hm?” He noticed one more door, different from the others. Rather than the sleek white modern design the others, this one was wooden, and looked to be in terrible condition, covered in peeling pink paint. “Worth a look I guess.”
Curiously, this door was unlocked, allowing him to pass through freely. The area ahead was dark, very dark, heavily contrasting with the well-lit, almost clinical vibes of the rest of the palace thus far. His eyes took a while to adjust, in that time, he felt his phone vibrate again.
“What?” He looked at his phone. “Wait… this is…” He looked ahead, while he could not see the walls of this huge room- only darkness in their place- he did see something standing in the open area in front of him. “A dollshouse? And…” he looked at his phone again, rubbing his eyes in disbelief under his mask. “This is a separate palace? And it’s…”
This piqued his curiosity, but also caused him to raise his guard.
“I’ve not seen anything like this before, Shido brought in other people’s shadows into his palace, but to bring one palace entirely inside another? Should I report this to him?” He put his phone away, shaking his head with a smirk. “No, I hardly want to give that man more advantages than he already has now, do I? I’ll keep this one to myself, after a quick look of course.”
Keeping his gun at the ready, and his sword within reach, he cautiously entered the oversized dollshouse. It was just as dark inside as it was out, but he could just about navigate. While he wasn’t detecting any shadows, he couldn’t rule out the possibility of a cognition of some description attacking him, so he remained on his toes as he ventured deeper within. After climbing the stairs to the upper floor, he reached a door that was in even worse condition than the rest of the almost derelict building. It was in this room he noticed the only notable light since entering this strange ‘palace within a palace’, over a workbench of sorts, he slowly approached.
“Is that you?”
He pointed his gun in the direction of the sudden voice, a figure resting against the wall, staring directly at him, he readied himself to pull the trigger when it spoke again.
“Oh… it’s someone else…”
Akechi, taking a quick moment to make sure this was definitely the only being besides him in the room, tentatively stepped towards it, keeping his gun trained on it at all times.
“A doll?”
The figure most certainly was a doll, or perhaps ‘marionette’ being the more apt word, given that it was life-sized. It’s body made entirely of wood, wearing a worn babydoll dress with more than a few holes in it, it’s whole right arm was missing, and perhaps most notably of all, it had an iron mask bolted to it’s head, featureless aside from a single hole over it’s right eye. An eye that had that ever-so-distinctive yellow glow to it, and was the only part Akechi would deign to call ‘lifelike’.
“Interesting…” Is all Akechi said as the doll continued to stare at him. His eyes drifted once more to it’s missing arm. “You’ve seen better days.”
“It’s okay. They’ll fix me.”
“’They’?”
The doll looked towards the notably lit workbench. Upon it Akechi saw four right arms, made of wood. One painted brown, one black, another lilac, another blue. But it was clear even at a glance that they were too large, too misshapen to ever hope fitting this doll.
“If these are meant to be replacements, they’re pretty pitiful.” He looked back to the doll. “Then again, ‘pitiful’ feels appropriate, don’t you agree?”
“They’ll fix me.”
“Alas I abhor going in circles, and I feel like that’s where we’re headed.”
“Can you help?”
“Probably not, even if I wanted to.”
“I see… that’s okay…”
“I’m not so much the ‘helping’ type, to be honest I’d feel better just putting you out of your misery.”
“I see…”
“An underwhelming reaction…” Akechi sighed. “Oh well, guess it’s none of my business. Helping you or ending you, I’ll be sure to come back if I find a reason to care enough to do either.” He smirked snidely. “I wish you the very best of luck, truly.”
The doll didn’t say anything in response, not even lifting its head to watch him leave.
~ ~ ~
“So how’d your day with Yoshizawa go?”
Makoto smiled.
“I think it went okay. The batting cages really are fun, so long as you stay sensible.”
“’Stay sensible’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“N-nothing!” Makoto cleared her throat and continued before Ren could ask any more questions. “Kasumi-san did struggle a bit, she definitely has a habit of focusing on others rather than herself.”
“I can understand that…”
“But I think we made progress as the day went on. She eventually started to relax a little bit and I think maybe have fun herself, at least I hope. I just hope the stress doesn’t get to her, y’know?”
“I’d like to help myself but…”
“Yeah she still doesn’t like you, I made the mistake of mentioning your name and I noticed her get… tense.”
“I mean… I really wish I knew what I did wrong so I could apologize or something, y’know?”
Makoto furrowed her brow in thought, she wasn’t sure what to say at this point, not that she got a chance to say anything, as she heard her name being called- or at least her nickname.
“Heya Nudie-prez? Didja hear?””
“We’ll talk more later Ren.” Makoto whispered to him before greeting Eiko running over to her. “Hi Eiko, hear what?”
“Girl it’s amazing. Not only have I got a new Shujin nudist, she’s a teacher!”
“A teacher? Are they even allowed to join?”
“They’re ‘attending’ Shujin, right? So technically yeah.”
Ren shrugged.
“The program really does just do whatever it likes, huh?”
“No kidding… How’d you manage it Eiko?”
“Heheheh~ I’m always working hard on recruitment.” Eiko smugly waved her nose in the air, her hands on her hips. “So I was talking with Teach, about the program and stuff, and it turns out that she’s been thinking of joining herself for a while now!”
“A while?”
“Yup, she first wanted to try it way back during your Hawaii trip.”
“I wouldn’t really call that ‘way back’.”
“She says she chickened out at the time, but I’ve been really helping her get her confidence and now she’s ready to give it a real shot for realz!”
“That so?”
“Teach has always been real popular too, there’ve been plenty o’ peeps wanting her to get naked since the program started, and now their patience finally pays off.”
Ren chuckled.
“This program may never be that popular in terms of participants, but it’s got tons of voyeuristic fans.”
“Eh it’s all love, isn’t it Nudie Prez?”
“Well I wouldn’t say all love, there’s been some pretty disrespectful people among our ‘fans’.”
“No kidding Mako-chan…”
“Still, I agree with the point broadly, there have been plenty of supportive people too, and those that just stay out of our way, it’s nothing we can’t manage.”
“Yup yup. Sticking together and helping eachother out with that kinda thing is a big part of what I wanna do in this community. And having Teach on our side now is seriously gonna help with that. No one’s gonna complain about naked teenagers, but we’ve been overdue for a proper nudist adult, y’know?”
“There are absolutely people who would complain about naked teenagers.” Makoto sighed. “Really it’s surprising we don’t get more.”
“Eh, it’s a good thing, don’t knock it. Anyway you’re still important in this Mako-chan, you’re the OGNudist after all, you gotta talk with Teach yourself.”
Makoto shrugged.
“Sure, I guess I can do that.”
Eiko hopped in place excitedly.
“The nudists are still growing- and causing others to grow too if you don’t mind my saying.”
Neither Makoto nor Ren responded to that.
“Man she’s been a popular teacher for ages now, especially lately when she started really getting into the job again, she’s gonna be even more popular naked though. Ho? Look who’s here!” She waved and shouted down the hall. “Miss Kawakami! Miss Kawakami!”
Kawakami sighed, and approached the group.
“Yes Takao-san, no need to shout, I’m here.”
“So? How do you feel?”
“How do I feel? About what?”
“You know what.” Eiko laughed. “How do you feel about Ms Chouno joining the program like that?”
Kawakami sighed, and brushed some dust off of her skirt.
“It certainly came out of nowhere, but I guess so long as she’s happy about it, it’s not as if we don’t already have tons of skin of display in this school.”
Eiko smirked.
“Ever think of joining yourself Miss?”
“Eh… I’ll think about it.”
“That’s not a ‘no’~” Eiko sang.
“Enough of that, you three need to get to class.”
“Yeah yeah.” Eiko waved to the others as she ran off. “Laterz!”
“No running in the halls! Ugh…” Kawakami shook her head. “She really is a handful that girl.”
Makoto laughed nervously.
“Sorry about her.”
“No you’re good, she’s not a bad girl, and neither are you- fashion sense aside.” Kawakami laughed at her own joke. “Anyway get going you two, Amamiya-kun, you’re in my class next, let’s go.”
“Sure Teach.”
Notes:
Ms Chouno is the one everyone wanted naked, right? I'm pretty sure I got that right.
Chapter 48: Kosei crew
Summary:
Eiko spends some time with the Kosei art club
Notes:
I *nearly* called this chapter "Kosei Krew" before I realized it was really lame, so be glad, we live in the slightly less cringe timeline, we're all good.
Also I can't promise there won't be a few delays over the next while, less time for writing. Those of you who noticed this 'less time for writing' is coming just as the Persona 3 and 4 ports came out to modern platforms and thus drew a connection between the two, then congrats- you'd make good detectives
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Shibuya. This is Shibuya.”
Eiko alighted from the subway car, undressed in her Sunday best, purse under her arm, flipping through her phone as she sucked on a lollipop in a way she would insist wasn’t at all suggestive but would sympathize with those who would think otherwise. “Thoughts like that are only natural when I always radiate such strong ‘sexy-energy’.” would be her usual answer when confronted about it (usually by Ai).
Today she had a purpose other than just indulging in her favorite hobby of combining exhibitionism with window shopping. In her efforts to maintain a sense of community between Tokyo’s nudists she made it her goal to reach out to and get to know their Kosei counterparts. Her time with Hifumi had been very successful, and an enjoyable time all-round, to the point where she was eager to spend more time with the girl even putting ‘nudist comradery’ aside; but today she had arranged to meet with the Kosei art club- or at least the nudist members- and try to understand them too.
She had met them all at the Shujin-Kosei meet-up and the Kosei culture festival, but they didn’t get to interact as much as she would like, so today’s goal was to fix that. She knew Yusuke Kitagawa was good friends with Ren, so she figured that meant he was a cool enough guy, she wasn’t worried about him, it was the other three that she was less certain about. Mai Toda, the girl with her distinctive orange hair- a few shades darker than that of that strange ‘Futaba’ girl Ren brought to the festival- tied up neatly behind her head; she never seemed especially approachable, her eyes constantly full of suspicion, judging everyone she saw. It wasn’t as if Eiko didn’t understand why, she joined the program with the goal of desexualizing nudity, and was often met with lustful looks and responses in part owing to her toned body and rather huge… tracts of land- word is she came from a rather wealthy family; so while she and Eiko had differing views on the separation of sexuality and nudity, she could at least understand the frustration she felt, and would be happy to help.
Though if Mai could be described as ‘prim and proper’ (which she usually could, outwardly at least), Norio Miyake would be both that and something more along the lines of ‘fierce and authoritative’. Not a single hair of his was out of line, on his head nor his very fit body that made it clear he took his fitness just as seriously as everything else, Eiko would think he was rather attractive if it weren’t for that constant facial expression that said “I was born to be a strict teacher, striking fear into the hearts of my students”, Eiko was way too familiar with that look, and she wasn’t into it. It was clear from his whole demeanour- even in the short time that she had known him- that he was the leader of their group, or at least saw himself as such. Eiko felt she might have to be the one to teach him what the word ‘fun’ meant.
Lastly was Kameko No, she didn’t exhibit the same ‘haughty’ vibes the others did, but there was definitely something going on behind those devious eyes of hers, she was the only one Eiko couldn’t get any sort of solid read on, not that she was an expert judge of character- she had grown since the Tsukasa incident, but perhaps the biggest lesson she learned from that whole nightmare was not to always trust her initial impressions of someone. She did at least like her distinctive silver hair which she obviously put a lot of work and care into; she’d assume it was dyed, but if it was then she really went the extra mile, dying her pubes and even her bushy eyebrows, Eiko would just assume it was natural and really cool, after all Yusuke’s seemed to be naturally blue, so maybe reality was more like anime than she realized. Kameko was also notably… tiny. Maybe it was because she was always next to Mai and that was just rubbing it in, but damn near everyone towered over her, and she seemed bitter about it- that was one thing Eiko could read for certain. Eiko was familiar with that feeling, not for herself- obviously, being curvy and very proud- but through her friend Mieko (was there some connection between a name ending in ‘-ko’ and being smaller she wondered? Probably not, probably thinking too deeply there). Mieko also had issues being mistaken for being much younger than she actually was, causing no end of frustration and embarrassment, though that had tapered off after she went nudist- more due to a boost in her own confidence than how others perceived her, Eiko wanted to share that with Kameko too. Teasing eachother was all good fun, but fighting against actual body shaming was one of the core goals of the Tokyo nudist community.
Eiko- being one to enjoy cliches now and again- arranged for them all to meet by the Hachiko statue. She made her way up the stairs and out of the subway (taking the time to peek behind her to see how many people were watching her from lower down the stairs- she counted 11 this time, not quite a new record, but close). Stepping out into the open air, it wasn’t long before she spotted her fellow nudists.
“Heya guys!”
“You’re late.”
“Only a little bit Miyake-kun.”
“You’re the one who arranged this whole thing and we’re waiting for you.”
“I already said I was sorry No-chan.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Eh, whatever- details, who needs ‘em?”
Mai sighed, and much like the others really didn’t seem especially happy to be here, bar Yusuke who bowed politely to Eiko.
“Thank you for making the time for us Takao-san, though it’s not been explained to me what we’re going to be doing today?”
“She didn’t tell any of us Kitagawa-kun.” Norio shot her that ‘teacher look’ again. “I’m in favor of fostering the bonds between fellow nudists as much as the rest of you, but you better not have dragged me away from important work without good reason.”
Eiko tilted her head.
“Important work?”
Kameko answered for him.
“He’s been ‘busy’ harassing Hifumi to repeat that weird roleplay she did for her class’s café in the school festival.”
“I could not capture it on the day since I was too busy, but I cannot let such an image fade away into memory!”
Mai dragged both of them aside, speaking quietly hoping that Eiko wouldn’t hear.
“We’ve been through this, direct confrontation isn’t the answer, sneak a camera into her dorm room and wait for her to practice it.”
Kameko shook her head.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You know she lives with her parents. I’ll steal her notes then ‘deliver’ them to her and set the camera up then.”
“Very well.” Norio sighed. “I suppose a delayed result is better than none at all.”
Unfortunately Eiko did hear, she made a mental note to tell Hifumi to never- under any circumstances- let them into her home, treat them like vampires.
“Yoohooske-san? Could you keep an eye on them too?”
“An odd nickname, not sure I care for it. But very well Takao-san, I’ll make sure their dastardly plan doesn’t succeed.”
“Thanks man, I can see why Ren trusts you.”
“It’s a pleasure, and fear not- I’ll make sure to convince Hifumi to repeat the role play of her own free will, no underhanded tricks.”
“R-right…”
“It’s an image that needs to be preserved for future generations, but that is no excuse to resort to evil deeds.”
“…” Eiko sighed. “Poor Fumi-chan…”
She patted the nudists on the back in sequence to get their attention again.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Kameko spun around as Eiko pulled her arm back fearing retaliation. “Contact with humans… how unbearable.”
Eiko couldn’t think of any kind of response to that, so decided to just try and ignore it and carry on with what she was originally going to say.
“I just thought it’d be great if all of us got to know eachother better over a late lunch, y’know?” She was beginning to doubt this would be as pleasurable an experience as she had hoped, but she had come this far and wasn’t going to run away now (though she wasn’t taking that option off the table entirely, just in case).
“That’s it? That’s the frivolity you dragged us all the way out here for?”
“Uh… yeah?”
“UGH!” Norio threw his arms up into the air dramatically, his mini tantrum drawing a few confused looks from passer-by’s.
“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!”
“You can have ‘fun’ on your own time, don’t take away from our pursuit of the arts!”
“Dial it back a little Norio.” Kameko rolled her eyes. “I guess it won’t hurt to humor her.”
“I don’t really want to be ‘humored’.” Eiko pouted. “I want you guys to have a good time too, maybe I could help you with art stuff?”
Norio raised an eyebrow.
“Hmm… are you a creator too?”
“Huh?”
“Do you have a eye that seeks true beauty?”
“I mean I like looking at pretty girls and hot guys, does that count?”
“I suppose human beauty is part of that. Can you make those feelings manifest?”
“Um…”
“He just means ‘are you an artist?’” Mai cleared things up.
“Oh, um… not really…”
“Hm? Your work on Hifumi-san was rather… impressive, perhaps not technically so, but your dedication was clear.”
“I was just having fun really, I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
“Untapped potential perhaps? Or a fluke?” Kameko’s amber eyes stared directly into hers in a way that made it hard to look away at all. “Either way, you’re not worthless.”
“Um… thanks? I guess.”
“Still, I’m not in love with the idea of teaching an amateur, I must admit I lack the patience for such a thing…” Mai sighed.
“Perhaps it would be worth the time investment?” Yusuke joined in the very close-quarters inspection- or rather- analysis of Eiko. She was used to being stared at, and usually she quite liked it, but having these four surrounding her, as if trying to not only commit every detail of her body to memory, but also look deep into her soul made her feel oddly violated.
“I was more thinking I could maybe model or something?”
“Oho?” Norio- for perhaps the first time Eiko had ever seen- smiled. “We have been lacking willing nudist models aside from eachother.”
“Hifumi never seems to have time for proper modelling sessions.” Kameko folded her arms in a huff. “Despite our shared status she doesn’t interact with us all that much, it’s as if she’s scared of us.”
“I wonder why that might be…” Eiko avoided eye contact with anyone. “But uh… yeah I’d totally be willing to model, I’ve always wanted to try something like this!”
“Hm.” Norio nodded. “Very well, we’ll begin immediately.”
“Immediately? Don’t you need like, paint and stuff?”
“I’ve got some in my bag, as for our canvases we’ll use these.” Mai gestured towards 4 easels already set up, complete with a stool in front of each.
Eiko stared at them blankly for a moment, before weakly pointing at them and turning to the nudists.
“When did those get here?”
“I brought them with me.” Kameko proudly nodded.
“Where, in your pocket? They weren’t there a moment ago.”
“Yes they were, you just didn’t notice them.”
“No no I’m sure of it- they definitely weren’t there until just now.” Eiko was more than a little unsettled in this moment. “You guys didn’t even know what you were here for until a moment ago, how did you—”
“Eh, whatever- details, who needs ‘em?” Kameko smirked. “Now quit whining and get into position.”
After another long pause, Eiko just decided for the sake of her own sanity that she must have just not noticed them before… somehow, and stood where the others could clearly see her as they got into position and prepared their paints. Seeing the impromptu(?) life drawing session starting, they started to gather a rather large audience. It was the exact opposite atmosphere of a typical life drawing session, but that was okay- Eiko was in her element here.
“Alright, whatcha want for a pose?”
“Just do what feels natural Takao-san.” Yusuke said. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“Hmm…” Eiko looked around for ideas, through a gap in the crowd she spotted a poster of the famous idol Risette. “Summin’ like that’ll work.” She took her best ‘idol’ pose, trying to appear bubbly, shooting a couple peace signs with a wide grin on her face.
“FOOL!”
“E-eh?” Eiko flinched back.
Norio glared at her.
“We asked for ‘natural’! We’re not snapping selfies, we’re trying to capture true nudist beauty!”
Mai pointed her brush at Norio.
“Calm down Miyake-san. You’re at a 100 right now, tone it down to about 92.”
“That’s not much of a decrease…” Eiko shuffled in place awkwardly for a moment. “Um…” She tried another pose, one foot in front of the other- as if she were mid step, clutching the strap of her purse with one hand, brushing her hair back with the other. “This any good?”
“Much better Takao.” Norio turned to the others. “Make haste everyone, we must complete this before the crowd gets bored and leaves, ruining the whole composition.”
“We’re not in the way too much are we?”
“Do not think about that Takao-san!” Kameko barked without slowing her own painting. “You must forget about us, immerse yourself in your role.”
“My role?”
“You are but a lone nudist simply making their way to their school or place of work.” Mai nodded. “Think of the obstacles ahead of you, how you march through a city full of judgement, whose populace looks upon you with lust and scorn, and yet you stand tall paying them no mind!”
“Pay them no mind? So… don’t think about them?”
“Of course not! You must immerse yourself in the role! How many times do we have to say? Think about how you’re not thinking about what people think you might be thinking about how they think you think! It’s easy.”
“I… uh…”
“YES! That confusion! That feeling of being lost! That’s exactly what we need!” Yusuke cheered, painting with incredible vigor. “You’re doing great Takao-san, keep it up! We shan’t be more than a few hours!”
“I think I prefer hanging out with Fumi-chan…”
~ ~ ~
Later on that evening, Eiko and the Kosei nudists made their way out of a family restaurant not too far from Shibuya crossing, four paintings in tow. Despite the… interesting modelling session, Eiko really liked the results.
Norio’s was probably the closest to reality, to the point where she could almost believe it were a photo, his skills were nothing to sneeze at, nor were the others’.
Yusuke had taken a rather abstract approach, it looked less like a nude girl walking to school and more a collection of abstract shapes that merely made suggestions at what was being depicted; it was certainly striking, and the other artists praised him for it, Eiko just assumed she was probably too ‘low culture’ to really get it.
Mai’s painting was much darker than the others, Eiko’s ‘slightly confused girl making her way to school’ pose was depicted more akin to her proudly launching herself forwards, freeing herself from the gazes of the frightful crowd that had manifested themselves in the form of chains trying- and failing- to wrap around her. A powerful image for sure, but Eiko honestly would have preferred something a bit more cheerful.
She somewhat got her wish with Kameko’s piece, though that was strange in it’s own way, depicting Eiko as this glowing- almost ‘holy’ being floating through the busy cityscape. Eiko liked the boost to her own beauty the piece gave her, the face being so ‘divine’, slightly reducing the amount of fat around her hips that Eiko swore she was gonna work off through exercise- starting tomorrow, and making her taller. Though in a way that just made the parts that did still look like her feel just a little out of place, she liked her side-tail hairstyle, but it really didn’t fit the angel theme.
Still, having finished the modelling session, everyone was much more agreeable and didn’t object to the meal plan at all, they were all too busy discussing the finer points of each other’s pieces, in what Eiko could only assume was a really intellectual and sophisticated conversation- it’s not as if she could really follow any of it, but they were happy so that was enough.
They were making their way back to the train station, Eiko spotted Ren coming out of a nearby alleyway, and with him were two girls she had never seen before.
“HEYA RENREN!” Eiko ran over to them, the Kosei nudists barely noticing the fact that she ran off ahead and made no effort to speed up their own pace.
“Oh, Eiko, uh- hey.”
“Who are the girls?”
The girls were staring her down, studying her intently- but after spending the day with the Kosei artists she was used to it, and didn’t even think anything of it.
“Friends of yours Inmate?”
“My, so they really do have people baring all they have, I had assumed it was simply a joke.”
“Inmate?” Eiko raised an eyebrow at Ren. “What exactly is your relationship with these girls?”
“Look Eiko, I don’t know what’s going on in your head right now, but it’s DEFINITELY not right. I’m just on babysitting duty.”
“Babysitting? You have some nerve inmate!” The girl with her hair in buns smacked Ren in the stomach with her baton.
It clearly hurt him, but he kept his pain (and clear frustration) to himself as much as he possibly could.
“They’re… related to my cousin. I’m just taking them out for the afternoon, we were heading to Big Bang burger.”
“I see.”
The girl with the braid smiled coldly up at Eiko.
“It’s a pleasure to meet a friend of our Inmate.”
Eiko did find it pretty questionable how they kept calling him ‘Inmate’, but… nah, Ren didn’t seem like that type of guy, it was probably fine.
“Heya, name’s Eiko, pleased to meetcha.” Eiko held out her hand for them to shake, but they just stared at it- then her for a while.
Ren sighed.
“Yeah of course they’re not gonna do it themselves.” He mumbled. “Sorry Eiko. The slightly condescending one with the braid is Justine, the VERY abrasive one with the buns is Caroline. They’re… great.” He hissed the word ‘great’ through a very forced smile.
Eiko was trying to think of what to say next, when she felt Caroline’s baton poke the underside of her right breast.
“Ow!”
“Hmm… I’d expect this from shadows, but aren’t humans supposed to be modest? These ones seem downright shameless.”
“Now now Sister, we’re the outsiders, perhaps we shouldn’t judge them too harshly.” Justine examined the other nudists as well- still too absorbed in their own conversation to care- or perhaps even notice- that they were there. “Are we perhaps expected to partake?”
“H-huh?” Caroline flinched.
“NO NO NO NO! Absolutely not!”
Justine glared up at Ren.
“Since when did you have any authority over us?”
“I’m sorry, but no, you’re absolutely NOT joining in.” Ren was admittedly rather afraid of yelling at them like this, but he simply had to. He already had something of a lecherous reputation, hanging around so many nudists so often- to the point where those kinds of rumors had largely eclipsed the old rumors about him being dangerous or violent- he could not afford to be seen around these two doing something like that though. He knew they probably had some ‘actually 10,000 years old’ thing going on, and that they’re more than powerful enough to not have to worry about any threats the real world had to offer, but he very much doubted the police would believe him on either of those fronts. He had to put a stop to it immediately, whatever it took.
“Don’t you raise your voice at us Inmate! We shall partake if we damn well please!” Caroline’s face swiftly went rather red. “N-not that we do please, mind you…”
“Are you not at all curious Caroline? The whole reason we came out here was to learn of how humans live after all.”
“I… well… maybe…”
Eiko was starting to feel pretty bad for Ren right now, watching him very clearly start panicking internally, she crouched down to match the twin’s heights.
“Sorry girls, you’re only allowed to enter the nudist program if you’re a student of either Kosei or Shujin.”
Caroline tried not to look too relieved. Justine sighed.
“So we lack the authority, that’s a shame.”
“Uh, y-yeah! A shame…”
“Maybe once you make it to Shujin, okay?”
Ren silently mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Eiko, who smiled and whispered back.
“It’s cool, I have little cousins too, I know how to deal with them.”
Ren nodded, or rather- he was about to before another swift baton to the stomach dissuaded any positive vibes he may have had.
“Nevermind all that, don’t forget you’re here for our sake right now Inmate! We were promised ‘a meal as immense as the cosmos’.”
“All right all right.” Ren sighed. “It’s just down the road here.”
“Do not let them forget the ‘mysterious spacecraft’ promised alongside the meal! We’ll hold you accountable if they forget!”
“Seems like you’ve got it rough Ren…”
“No kidding…” The girls marching ahead of him, Ren was forced to follow. “We’ll talk later Eiko-san.”
“’Kay…” She watched him get dragged off in the direction of the restaurant, she still had more questions, but didn’t want to be responsible for Ren getting beat up by kids any more than he already had been.
Ren said hi to Yusuke and the Kosei nudists, but he didn’t get a response, seems once they’re all in art mode the rest of the world just kind of fades away. He did freeze when he looked at Kameko though, something about that silver hair and diminutive size…
“What’s the hold up Inmate?”
“Um…” He pointed to Kameko. “You two aren’t like… do you know her at all?”
“What?” The girls looked at the nudist in question, before scoffing. “No of course not, why would we know any humans?”
“I thought that maybe she might have been…” now that he looked closer she noticed her eyes were amber rather than actually yellow, but still, between that and the hair, the resemblance was distressingly close. “N-nevermind.” He shook his head and rejoined the twins, staying just out of baton-range as they walked, leaving the nudist party behind.
Notes:
The Kosei crew are fun, they don't appear as often as Eiko's posse since they're not in Shujin (and Eiko is basically the tertiary main character at this stage), but I do hope to find more excuses to do stuff with them as the story goes on.
Chapter 49: Enjoyable distractions
Summary:
Aya does a thing, Eiko does two things
Notes:
Updates are still gonna be slow a while, but I'm still trying to at least get one chapter out a week.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Much of the student council’s duties were pretty mundane, more there to just give Shujin faculty less to do rather than give the students any real authority, going around each class and collecting attendance records for example. This didn’t bother Makoto too much, it was a necessary evil as far as she was concerned, or at least she was capable of rationalizing it as such, it was more the fact that the other members of the student council had been MIA since the start of the year and that she had to do everything herself.
Aw well, no use complaining about it, best just get it over with, and besides she’s so ahead of everyone else on the syllabus that she could afford to miss a class to complete this task. She had already collected all the records for the first and second year classes, visiting them was always amusing, all the active nudists in Shujin were third-years, so that meant the firsts and seconds never really got to see nudity in their own classes, so she got some amusing looks from them whenever she entered. She really would have thought they’d get bored of seeing her naked after all these months, but it just didn’t seem to be happening. Maybe Ren was right- maybe a naked girl really never stops being interesting… or maybe they’re just happy to have a distraction from their boring classes for a moment, probably both. Still, not wanting to promote not paying attention in class, she got each visit over with as quickly as possible (though she took the time to discreetly smile in Ren and Ann’s direction while visiting their class).
The last class she needed to visit was actually Eiko’s class, currently being taught by the newly-nudist Ms. Chouno. It was kind of funny- Makoto thought- having all active nudists sans one in the same class together, it couldn’t be good for the other student’s focus, though on the other hand maybe having the teacher naked would make the students pay more attention, it’s just a question as to whether that attention extends to the actual material… At least Eiko had improved if their study sessions together were anything to go by.
Makoto knocked on the classroom door and let herself in.
“Please excuse me Ms. Chouno, I’m jus—”
“HEYA NUDIE-PREZ!” Eiko cheerfully waved from her seat in the back of the class, next to a rather embarrassed-looking Mieko, both Makoto and Chouno rolling their eyes before electing to ignore her.
“I’m just here for the attendance records Miss.”
“No trouble at all Niijima, just give me a second.” The teacher started digging through her cluttered drawers. “Dammit I know I put it in here somewhere…”
Makoto exhaled and just waited patiently in the awkward silence broken only by the shuffling of papers and the sight of slightly labored breathing.
‘Hang on, labored breathing?’ Makoto thought. ‘It’s not that physically strenuous for Ms. Chouno is it?’
Makoto realized the breathing wasn’t coming from the teacher, she looked around the room for the cause and quickly spotted it. By the window- in the seat that Ren usually occupied in his own class- sat fellow nudist Aya Nakazawa. She was leaning back in her chair, leg raised with her toes gripping the edge of her desk, one hand tweaking her nipple with the other buried between her legs in an open, shameless display. It wasn’t long at all before her other classmates started to notice and drink in the show. The girl sat next to her- not someone Makoto was familiar with- raised her hand and called out to the teacher.
“Ms. Chouno, Aya’s doing it again.”
The teacher, banging her head on the way up, stood up and glared at Aya- who had not stopped or even slowed down despite being caught.
“Miss Nakazawa how many times are you going to disrupt my class with this?”
“I’m not- ah- disrupting anything!” Aya kept playing with herself as she talked.
“Of course you are, do you have any idea how distracting that is to both me and your classmates?”
“She’s right Aya.” Ai- who was sat directly in front of Aya- turned around to join in glaring at her angrily. “Can you seriously not just wait until after class? I swear to god if you squirt on the back of my hair again I’ll throw you out the damn window.”
“It was one time Ai, you really like to hold a grudge.” Aya smiled at the teacher. “It’s fine, I’ll keep quiet, and I’m still paying attention, so it’s all good.”
“Oh really now?” Chouno crossed her arms. “So you remember the question I asked right before Miss Niijima joined us?”
“Y-yeah, of- oh fuck- of course!” In an unprecedented display of confidence, she raised her other leg onto the desk as she still didn’t stop masturbating.
“That so? Then what’s the answer?”
“The answer?”
“To my question?”
“Oh uh… I’m not sure…” Aya put on a smug smirk. “Just kidding, the answer is ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’.”
Ms. Chouno smirked.
“Close, but no- not quite, the answer was ‘a comma splice’. See me after class Nakazawa.”
“Bugger, that could have gone one of two ways… OW!” Aya’s masturbation finally came to an abrupt end when a pencil tossed across the room by Mieko collided with the back of her head.
“You see me after class too Ohara.”
“What?! That was for the good of the class that I did that!”
“I don’t care, no throwing things in my class.” Having finally found the papers she was looking for (turns out they were on top of the desk this whole time), Chouno handed them to a shocked-stiff Makoto. “Thank you, is that all you needed?”
“Uh…” Makoto kept staring at Aya a while longer, who had begrudgingly lowered her feet back to the floor and was grumpily gazing out the window. “Y-yes, that’s all I needed. Sorry for interrupting your class.” Makoto hastily bowed and stepped outside.
“So that confirms it…”
‘Hm? Anat? Confirms what?’
“That the program would let you get away with masturbating in public.”
‘No, she got in trouble for it.’
“She got in trouble for not paying attention in class, the masturbation was just mildly annoying to them.”
‘Anat…’
“Hell you could probably even have sex and it’ll be fine.”
‘Anat no…’
“Oh shit hang on, Ren’s not in the program, so it’d only be you immune to the consequences of public sex.”
‘That’s FAR from the only problem with that idea.’
“I’m just sayin’…”
‘Well don’t, put a stop to that line of thought right this instant!’
“We all know you’re gonna give into the idea eventually.”
‘Not this time, I’m putting my foot down, that’s not happening.’
“Mmhm.”
‘It’s not!’ Makoto could just feel Anat’s smug expression right now, so she just gave up and stormed off in a huff. ‘I have the worst persona…’
~ ~ ~
“So that’s what I’m thinking of doing. Thoughts?”
Ren smiled.
“It sounds fun Eiko, certainly beats a café or haunted house at least. How are you gonna get the rest of your class on board though?”
“Well Ai and the others are obviously on board, and I reckon I could get at least a good chunk of the class to vote for the idea. It’s not like they’re gonna have a better project for the culture festival.”
“Yeah I doubt it. Tell you what, if you pull it off- I’ll take part on the day.”
Eiko’s eyes went wide.
“For real?”
“Sure, it’ll be a nice surprise for Makoto if nothing else.”
“Hoo I bet, can’t wait to see her face!” Eiko snickered to herself, before trailing off into a wistful smile. “Hey um, thanks Ren.”
“What’d I do?”
“Just for… listening to my dumb ideas, being supportive and cool, y’know?”
Ren shrugged.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Whatever.”
“No really, you’re the cool one really taking charge and pushing all this forward, you’re something special- that’s for sure.”
“Special…”
“Eiko?”
“Nah it’s nothing, just… Did I ever tell you about my brother?”
“I think Mako told me about him, well a little anyway.”
“I see. Yeah he’s definitely the ‘special’ one in our family. Don’t get me wrong, I get it- he’s always been a high achiever, got high grades across his whole school career, currently studying business management and some engineering stuff at Tokyo U, ready to take over the family business. He’s earned all the praise… it just compared to him I’m just ‘the other child’, y’know?”
“I see…”
“Like my parents are good to me and all, always bought me the stuff I wanted, they’d hand me a stable enough career once I graduate regardless of how I do in school. Ha… thinking about it I’m probably pretty spoiled.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“Well, I dunno, maybe I am, maybe I’m not. But I’m just kinda… there, y’know?”
“You definitely don’t come across like that, at least not in the time I’ve known you.”
“Thanks Ren. Yeah whenever I talk about the stuff I’m doing for the program or with my friends to them… I mean they’ll let me talk but it’s all very ‘yeah, uh-huh, that’s nice’, I get the feeling they’re not really that interested, that they just see this all as dumb fun.”
“Is it?”
“Hmm… I guess at this stage it kinda is. But…”
“But?”
“I… know what it’s like, feeling like just another face in the crowd, not really having any reason to do what you’re doing, and how that can leave you vulnerable to… well you already know that part.”
Ren smiled.
“I can tell all that doesn’t apply to you anymore though. You really do stand out, and you’re one of the most driven people I know.”
Eiko grinned proudly.
“Exactly! And that’s why I want to push this program so much! It’s not just about getting naked! I mean, that’s obviously the most fun part, but I want to share this feeling, this confidence with people, both self-confidence and confidence in others. Me and Mako-chan, Ai-chan, Aya-chan, Mieko-chan, we’ve all gotten so much closer because of this program, we’re all feeling so much stronger than we used to! I got to meet Fumi-chan through this, hell even those weirdos from Kosei are interesting people I would probably have never gotten to know without it. Being all open and positive with eachother, it’s wonderful…” Eiko’s face quickly turned red and she started laughing while fanning her cheeks. “What the hell? Listen to me! I sound like I’m doing some emotional speech at the end of an episode or something, when the hell did I get so cheesy?”
“Maybe we’re rubbing off on you more than you think?”
“So I get to blame you? Works for me!” Eiko’s laughter gradually died down, and she smiled warmly, still blushing, not quite making eye contact. “I tend to ramble though… I just wanted to say, thanks for always taking the time to listen to me, that’s all…”
Ren shrugged.
“It’s nothing.”
“Maybe to you…” Eiko shook her head. “A-anyway- I’m gonna make this culture festival project work! Then it’s back to more nudist activism and recruitment! I want to see if I can get any other schools to adopt the program, or better yet get rid of the tie to schools entirely and let anyone sign up!”
Ren chuckled.
“Sounds pretty wild, well I’ll support you regardless, I really think you can do it. You’re already avoiding the trap a lot of activists fall into by the looks of it.”
“Hm? Trap?”
“Staying on the ‘raising awareness’ stage forever. Don’t get me wrong, raising awareness for your chosen issue is important and all, but you see a lot of people do that and then just kinda… hope someone does something about it, y’know?”
“Hmm…” Eiko pondered. “I see what you mean, once you get everyone on your side you still need to actually direct their efforts somewhere… I’ll have to think about how to do that.” She gave an ‘okay’ hand gesture. “Still, one step at a time, I’ll get lots of people on our side come the culture festival, and I’ll figure out what to do after that. I hope you’ll still be there when that happens.”
“Sure.” Ren nodded. “Me and Mako both.”
A comfortable silence fell over the pair.
“Anyway, I should go before I start anymore embarrassing speeches about friendship or whatever.”
“I don’t think they’re embarrassing.”
“Then why you sniggering Ren?”
“Y’know…”
“I don’t, and besides I have places to be anyway, Fumi-chan invited me out again.”
“Oh? More shogi?”
“Maybe later, she wanted me to come to the arcade today.”
“Oh? Oho!”
“What are you ‘oh oh’-ing about?”
“Nothing, nothing. Have fun Eiko-san.”
“I plan to, have fun teasing Makoto.”
“I hope to.”
~ ~ ~
“Yo, can we get a picture Miss?”
“I-I suppose that’s fine…”
“Could you give a peace sign?”
“Uh… okay?”
“A second peace sign?”
“Sir I’m actually just waiting for someone…”
“You sure? You haven’t got time for a little karaoke?”
“I’m sure, I—oh!” Hifumi spotted Eiko across the Akihabara street. “Oh thank goodness. Eiko-san!” She waved, catching the attention of her fellow nudist, who ran over to join her.
“Hi Fumi!” Eiko turned to the man accosting Hifumi, unimpressed. “Can I help you dude?”
“You her friend?”
Eiko pulled Hifumi’s arm close, startling the girl slightly.
“Yup, time for our date, better luck elsewhere man.”
The man looked at their joint arms.
“Ah I see, you’re like that, I guess that explains it.”
Eiko rolled her eyes.
“Yes I’m sure that’s the only reason she wasn’t biting. Later.” She dragged Hifumi away without saying another word.
“A-always nice to meet a fan.” Hifumi called out weakly, before turning back to Eiko. “Thanks for that.”
“Fumi-chan you gotta learn to be more assertive, you can’t do the ‘let them down gently’ thing with random guys hitting on you, they just see that as you being shy, gotta just tell ‘em ‘no’ outright.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“Maybe you could even do the Dragon Queen thing, I’m sure that’ll scare them off.”
“And leave me mortifyingly embarrassed.”
“You’re pretty silly Fumi-chan. So which one we going to?”
It was at this moment when Hifumi noticed how close Eiko was holding her, their hips were touching.
“Oh u-um… I’m not sure, I’ve never been to an arcade before so I don’t know which ones are any good.”
“For real? Never?”
“No, is that weird?”
“Guess you’re an analog gamer through and through.” Eiko laughed, still not letting go of Hifumi’s arm. “You’re fine though, it’s not like I go super often either, just with Ai and the others from time to time, but I’ve not gone since going nudist which… wow that really has been a while.”
“Girls really do go then…”
“Hm? Well duh.”
Eiko picked the closest arcade, Hifumi not being too upset about being dragged along. Pushing her way through the door, she scanned her surroundings until she saw what she was looking for.
“Target acquired. Let’s go!”
“The photobooth?”
“This is a staple, you can take all sorts of great pics together and edit them with a bunch of stickers and filters and stuff!”
The girls stepped inside the surprisingly spacious booth, Eiko closing the curtain behind them. Admittedly the sight of two pairs of bare legs visible beneath the curtain was a questionable sight to the other patrons, somehow sparking more questionable thoughts than when the nudists were simply in the open. Eiko put some money in and began to set up the machine before receiving a warning.
“Huh? The hell?”
“Is it not working?”
“It’s not taking our pics!”
Hifumi read the warning on screen.
“We’re showing too much skin?”
Eiko sighed.
“They don’t want people flashing or taking risqué pics, so some of these machines can detect if you’re showing too much skin and won’t work. We’re not flashers though, we’re nudists, this is discrimination!”
“It’s only an AI, it doesn’t know any better I guess…”
“What a load of crap.” Eiko huffed and puffed for a while. “Whatever, let’s try something else.”
“Shouldn’t you get your money back Eiko-san?”
“Nah we’d have to talk to management, and that’s just not worth the headache. And besides—” Eiko pulled her phone and a selfie stick out of her purse. “We can make do with this!”
She wrapped an arm around Hifumi’s shoulder and pulled her in as close as she could. Snapping the pic and immediately looking at her phone for the result, she started to laugh at the image, Hifumi peeked over to see too, before immediately regretting it and pouting.
“We should take a better photograph…”
“Nah this one is perfect.” The image depicted a confident, winking Eiko holding a clearly shocked and pink-faced Hifumi looking at the camera wide-eyed like a deer in headlights.
“I look so silly in it though…”
“You look cute in it.”
“I’m not sure I like this form of ‘cute’…”
“Alright alright, we’ll take another.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m still keeping this one though.”
Hifumi let out an embarrassed whine, but still got in place for the next picture, trying to look more dignified this time around.
“You look too formal in this one Fumi-chan, we’re not taking your passport photo.”
“Sorry, I’m not very good at this.”
“Nah it’s cool, just relax, y’know?”
“I’ll try…”
The next picture came out much better, Hifumi definitely didn’t match Eiko’s high-energy, but she still looked much more comfortable, and was slowly starting to get used to all this physical contact between the two as Eiko insisted on the skinship.
“You did some idol stuff in the past, right Fumi?”
“Idol stuff?”
“Photoshoots and stuff?”
“A little, it got a little smothering…”
“Did you ever do gravure?”
“Gravure?! Of course not!”
“Want to?”
“H-huh?”
“We can lean into our sexy sides just a little, dontcha think?”
“Uh…”
“I mean we’re both naturally pretty sexy as-is of course, but it can be fun to embrace it from time to time, right?”
“I… I wouldn’t know…”
“Well it’s time to learn, follow my lead real quick.”
Eiko positioned the both of them so they were facing eachother.
“Ready to dock, Captain!”
“Dock? OH!” Hifumi was frozen stiff as she felt Eiko’s breasts press against her own. Now it wasn’t as if this is the first time she had this happen to her, she did something similar with Makoto during their Hawaii trip (and that was much more intense, given that Ren was underneath the two of them at the time), but it was still quite the shock, not to mention much more public, the curtain of the photobooth being all that separated the two of them from public view. “You’re soft…”
“I know, I need to lose a bit of weight…”
“N-no! I didn’t mean—”
“I know, I’m just messing with you.” She looked down to her own hips. “Though I do actually have a fair amount of junk about the trunk, as my Mom would say. Wanna feel?”
Eiko chuckled at Hifumi’s expression.
“Just kidding, you’re rea—AH!” she nearly dropped her phone when she felt Hifumi’s hands on her hips, an audible slapping sound hopefully not attracting too much attention from outside. She looked forward to see a strange look of focus on Hifumi’s face. With her own face now getting warm, their chests still pressing against eachother, and Eiko not wanting to let an opportunity pass, she held the selfie stick up at an angle to capture both of their whole bodies in shot before Hifumi returned to her senses.
“H-huh? I’m so sorry Eiko-san! I don’t know why I did that.” Hifumi pulled away, banging into the wall of the booth, causing it to shake slightly.
“I wasn’t expecting you to actually do it, you’re lewder than I thought Fumi.”
Hifumi grumbled, covering her face with both hands.
“Yo is it okay if I upload this one? It’s really hot.”
“Absolutely not!”
“Aw come on, it’ll bring us both some more fans.”
“I don’t want those kinds of fans!”
“Aww okay, this’ll stay in my private collection.”
Eiko loved Hifumi’s pouty face.
“Come on Fumi, we can’t stay in here all day, let’s try another machine.”
“S-sure…” Hifumi stepped out of the machine, keeping her eyes downward to avoid the amused and knowing looks of the other patrons.
“Hmm… Gun About? Eh, why not? Wanna give it a shot?”
“Hm? How does one play ‘Gun About’?”
Eiko approached a free machine and pulled a gun-shaped controller out of its holster.
“We shoot stuff, I guess?”
“I suppose we can figure it out as we go, though please don’t get mad at me if I don’t do very well…”
“Pfft. As if I’m gonna do that, I’m new to this myself. It’s just a bit of fun.”
“I suppose we don’t have to take it too seriously.”
…
…
…
“GET SOME! HRAGH! COME ON! SHALL WE DANCE?! HROAAAGH! HEY HEY HEY! SLAMDUNK! SCUM! HORAAHH! CRAZY! BEGONE! BLAST! TORIYAH!”
Eiko couldn’t focus on the game at all, nor could anyone else really, not with Shogi mode back in full effect. What had started as a curious and cautious learning process developed into a full-blown roleplay of a cocky gun-slinging action hero, and then that eventually devolved into screaming and roaring with equal parts vitriol and passion as she viciously gunned her way through the mass of enemies on screen.
Members of the arcade staff had been sent to ask her to maybe tone it down a little, but she was so into it that they were honestly scared to approach. Hifumi was like a woman possessed, showing no mercy to those before her.
Unfortunately her vocal passion and commitment to the role didn’t actually translate to skill at the game, so it wasn’t long before she ran out of lives (and 100 yen coins to feed into the machine), and the carnage came to an end.
“Damn it, I’ll get them next time…”
“You definitely had fun there Fumi-chan.”
“Hm?” Hifumi turned to see Eiko’s ear-to-ear grin, and indeed the rest of her audience looking at her in shock and awe, a few with cameras out and recording her. “Ah… oh no…” Post-‘shogi mode’-clarity was hitting hard. She brought her hands over her abdomen. “Eiko-san.”
“Hm?”
“I think we better leave, immediately.”
Eiko laughed.
“Yeah I don’t think we’re gonna top THAT today. How about we get something to eat to calm down?”
“That would be agreeable, thank you…” Hifumi rushed out of the arcade, avoiding eye contact with everyone as she went, Eiko following closely behind her.
About a minute or so after leaving Hifumi suddenly stopped walking.
“Hm? You good Fumi?”
“I’m… sorry for always making it awkward like that Eiko-san.”
“Eh?”
“I… really can’t help these habits sometimes, I just lose myself completely.”
“Hol’ up, why are you apologizing for that?”
“I… I know I must be making things awkward for you…”
“Bitch for real? Are we really doing this bit?”
“Bit?”
“You’re really gonna stand there and try to apologize for one of your most endearing features? Really?”
“E-endearing?”
“Uh, yeah? I love it when you just let go like that.”
Hifumi averted her eyes.
“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”
“Nah, I mean, look at me- look at yourself. We’re all about letting go of shame and being confident, enjoying ourselves. Of course I’m gonna like it when you fully embrace that mindset and just go wild having fun and not worrying about what other people are thinking of you.”
Hifumi re-established eye contact.
“Is that really the way you see it?”
Eiko nodded.
“Mmhm.”
“I’m not… embarrassing you?”
“Nah.”
“Really?”
“Oh for the love of god- yes, really! You done worrying about dumb stuff?”
Hifumi paused a moment, staring down at the ground for a while, before weakly smiling.
“Y-yeah, I’m done.”
“Then lets get something to eat. There’s a Big Bang burger just there if you’re not fussy?”
“Hm? I don’t think I’ve eaten there before.”
“Huh? Seriously? The hell kind of upbringing do you have anyway?”
“Is it that unusual?”
“We’re fixing it right now.” She grabbed Hifumi’s hand. “Come on, this is just one of those things you have to do in life.”
“I-if you say so…”
“I do, good god you need me in your life.”
Hifumi stared at Eiko’s surprisingly determined expression as she pulled her along.
“I suppose I’m not opposed to that…”
Notes:
I'm pretty sure this story is still the ONLY example of EiFumi out there, and it's not even tagged as such since it's a spoiler ship xD
Chapter 50: The day that was ALMOST perfect
Summary:
Celebrating at the amusement park
I sure hope nothing spoils the mood :D
Notes:
50 chapter milestone, good lord.
You wouldn't think a story about Makoto being naked could go on this long and still be fun (at least for me, I hope you're all still having fun too) but here we are.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“How the hell did you manage to pull this off Haru?”
“Money.”
“I mean- yeah but holy shit, I knew you were rich but not this rich…”
“I got a good deal on it.”
“I certainly hope so…” Ren, and indeed the rest of the Phantom Thieves stood in the entrance to the now empty Destiny Land completely awestruck, well- empty aside from them and the staff of course. “You rented the whole park out just for us?”
“It’s a special occasion after all.” Haru smiled warmly. “Father is finally on his feet again, and the change of heart was successful. It was amazing, moments after waking up he found me and apologized for how he’s been treating me, and promised once more to call off the engagement to that man. Well, perhaps ‘once more’ isn’t truly accurate since it was his shadow that promised it last time, but still.”
“Another win in the bag!” Ryuji pumped his fist in excitement.
“He’ll be broadcasting a press conference confessing everything later on this evening… to be honest I’m a little nervous.” Haru put on a brave face. “There’ll be a lot of backlash, but I’m sure we’ll get through it!”
“Let us know if there’s anything we can help with on that front Haru.”
“Of course Mako-chan, that means a lot to me.”
“I’m sorry, I know we’re repeating ourselves but…” Ann leaned forward, disbelief clear on her face. “We seriously get the whole park to ourselves? For the whole day?”
Haru chuckled.
“I believe the appropriate phrase is- ‘Go nuts’.”
“KICK ASS! We gotta start with the roller coaster!”
“What are you a grade schooler Ryuji?” Ann laughed, but she was honestly fighting similar temptations herself right now.
“Oh, but there’s just one more thing.” Haru, with a devious smirk, pulled a sheet of paper out of her bag and taped it to the booth by the entrance. “There are some rules we need to follow while we’re here.”
She stepped aside so the rest of the group could read it, each had reactions ranging from shock, amusement, or in Ann’s case- disgust.
“You can’t be serious…”
“It’s the rules.”
“Haru that’s clearly your own handwriting, in felt tip by the looks of it…”
“It’s posted on the board, that makes it official.”
“Haru…” Makoto sighed and re-read the sign. “Today only- all attendees must be nude on the premises…”
Haru was already undressing (much to the rapt interest of Ryuji and Futaba especially), handing her clothes to a member of staff for safekeeping (the staff- rather annoyingly- still being clothed themselves).
“Most of us aren’t program members though.” Ren began. “No legal immunity.”
“This is private property, we’re the only ones here after all.” Haru smirked.
“’Only ones’ my ass! What about the staff?” Ann held her arms over her chest.
“Only the bare minimum necessary, and they’ve all had their phones confiscated, there will be no lasting evidence.” Haru pulled a pen out of her purse, hastily adding ‘No pictures allowed’ and a doodle of a camera to the sheet of paper. Ryuji hoped no one noticed he was halfway through pulling out his own phone before discreetly sliding it back into his own pocket.
Ren shrugged.
“Cool, fuck it- I’ll bite.”
“REN?!”
Ren smirked at Makoto as he removed his shirt.
“Oh don’t act so shocked, I told you I’d take the opportunity to join you for a bit if one popped up. Most of us are already nude anyway, you, Futaba, Yusuke, technically Morgana.”
“I was nudist before it was cool.”
“Mona…” Futaba rolled her eyes, though only for a moment so she could quickly get back to shamelessly ogling Ren as more and more skin came into view.
“Just so I can y’know- get home afterwards…” Ren gathered his clothes into his arms. “…where we gonna be keeping our clothes?”
“Don’t worry Ren-kun, I’ll show you where some lockers we can use are.”
“Cool.” Ren turned to his girlfriend. “Um, Makoto- my eyes are up here.”
“H-huh?” Makoto just about tore her eyes away from his body to look at his smug face.
“I can’t believe you’re objectifying me with your eyes like that, have you no shame? Do you realize how nervous I must feel with my body being openly ogled like that?”
Makoto groaned and smacked his chest with the back of her hand, which only caused him to laugh.
“Don’t be a smartass Ren.”
“My smart ass to your great ass.”
“Ren what did I just say?”
He chuckled to himself a little more before turning his attention to the final two clothed members of the group.
“It’s just Ryuji and Ann that have yet to make their nude debut.”
“Debut?!” Ann recoiled in horror.
Ryuji didn’t look that much more enthusiastic. Though as his eyes drifted from one nude teammate to another (his gaze lingering an especially long time on the girls, and just brushing by the guys as fast as possible- barely acknowledging their existence), his expression softened.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this, but… fine, effin’ FINE!”
“You’re seriously doing this Ryuji?” Ann took a step back as Ryuji undressed, albeit not with quite the same speed and confidence that Ren did so.
“I mean, the guys aren’t really a problem, Makoto and Futaba are always naked, I’m not really nervous about you since… well you barely count as a girl.”
“EXCUSE ME?”
“I didn’t mean that as a bad thing!”
“How the hell else am I supposed to interpret that?”
“I mean you’ve been like, a friend for ages now, so it’s not like a guy-girl kinda thing, y’know?”
“Ryuji-kun, I think that says more about what you think of ‘girls’ than what you think of Ann.” Makoto sighed.
“Wazzat supposed to mean?”
Makoto thought for a moment, before shaking her head.
“Nevermind.”
“Huh?”
Makoto leaned over to Ren and whispered.
“You’re right, he does have some growing up to do.”
“Give it time.”
Ryuji didn’t like them whispering about him as if he wasn’t here, but just let it be.
“But yeah, it’s not really awkward around all of you, except maybe Haru…”
“Why?” Yusuke tilted his head. “Is that because she’s so new?”
Ryuji looked over to Haru, staring at his body unblinking with overwhelming intensity. Were this an anime- she’d likely have steam coming out of her nostrils with how heavily she was breathing.
“S-sure, let’s go with that Yusuke…”
With Ryuji nervously standing, holding his bundled up clothes over his crotch, attention finally turned to Ann, who was looking understandably terrified.
“This feels like that scene at the end of The Lion King with all the hyenas…”
Makoto stepped forward.
“You really don’t have to if you don’t want to Ann.”
“She’s right.” Ren nodded. “We’re not trying to peer pressure you.”
“Not overtly anyway.”
“Futaba!”
“I mean… we sorta-kinda are?”
“Ugh…” Makoto shook her head. “Look you can ignore Haru’s silly paper and stay clothed, it’s fine.”
“Silly?”
“Oh come on Haru, it clearly took you like less than ten seconds to make, don’t act as if we’re insulting your hard work.”
Ann tightly gripped onto her jacket, looking around in every direction.
“N-no cameras?”
“Not a one.” Haru nodded. “Excluding our own phones of course, we’ll need them to watch the press conference later. But I’m sure everyone here can be trusted.”
Ann chewed her lip.
“And just us here? No one else is gonna show up suddenly?”
“Just a member of staff on occasion, and even they are gonna stay out of our way for the most part.”
“And none of you are gonna stare? At all- right?”
“…”
“RIGHT?”
“I mean we might a little…”
“Dammit Ryuji…”
“I mean c’mon, you’re already staring at me!”
“I mean… yeah but…”
“Ever since we first met…” Yusuke began dramatically gesturing with his arms as he spoke. “…I had believed that you were the perfect muse, to capture the body of a perfect woman in painted form was my goal. However, after getting to know you so well, I can conclude you are not a perfect as you once seemed. So you need not fear, I will not deign to photograph, paint, or otherwise leer at your nude form in any way that could make you uncomfortable, I am no longer driven by that desire.”
“Good, thanks Yusuke…” A few moments passed. “Hey wait a second, what do you mean I’m—”
“So what do you say Ann-chan?” Haru leaned forward hopefully. “In-or-out?”
“Um…”
“’Of your clothes’- that is.”
“I… I um…” Ann threw her arms up into the air. “FINE! You guys win, I’m not gonna be the one who spoils it for everyone.”
“Are you sure Ann?”
“YES MAKOTO! I’M SURE!” Ann yelled as she angrily pulled at her clothes, almost as if trying to rip them off rather than remove them normally. “And I swear to god, if you try to sneak a pic or something at any point, I’ll use my clothes to tie you to the roller coaster tracks!”
“Why you singling me out?” Ryuji put up in hands in an ‘I surrender’ pose, inadvertently exposing himself while doing so, Haru immediately committing the image to her long-term memory- she had no need for a camera this time.
“Because if anyone is gonna do it, it’s gonna be you.” Ann glared at him, before her eyes drifted to another. “Or Mona…”
“Huh?! Come on Lady Ann, you really don’t think I’d try something like that, do you?”
“Show me your collar.”
“Huh? ARGH!”
Ann grabbed Morgana by the scruff of the neck.
“Show me your damn collar! I gotta make sure there’s no secret camera in it.”
“Ow! Lady Ann! You’re choking me… Actually this is kinda…”
“Alright alright, calm down Ann.” Ren crouched down beside her, resting a hand on her now bare lower back (as she was already down to her bra and skirt). “No one’s gonna try anything, and even if they did they’d have the rest of us to answer to, okay?”
Ann reluctantly released (the really happier than he should have been) Morgana and sighed.
“Sorry, I know I’m being way too harsh, it’s just…”
“We understand, but I promise you can trust us- you should know that by now.”
“R-right Ren. I do trust you guys.”
She got back to her feet and reached behind her back to undo her bra clasp. Both Morgana and Ryuji watched intently, ready to commit ‘the reveal’ to memory, also having no need for a camera in this moment. Apparently Ryuji’s view of her being ‘more of a friend than a girl’ was almost entirely forgotten in this moment. Though these two were the most blatant about it, it’s not as if the others were entirely innocent either. The other girls had already seen ‘the girls’ in the changing rooms, but there was definitely something special about seeing her undress outdoors like this, and so they tried to keep a healthy balance between watching intently and trying to look like they weren’t watching intently.
Eventually Ann, with her eyes still closed- not wanting to look at the others just yet- stood as nude as everyone else, quickly scooping up her clothes as if someone were about to run past and snatch them away.
“Take me to the lockers Haru.”
“I could have someone take them there for us.”
“No, I want to do the lock myself, I decide on the code, and I’m not telling anyone. I know how these situations go.”
“These situations?”
“I’m gonna make sure no one can steal them while I’m gone, I want to know where spare clothes are kept, I’m not leaving the park for any reason, I’m staying with at least one other person I trust at all times, if there’s a key to the locker I’m keeping it around my neck at all times, I’m not agreeing to any bets, if anyone comes along I’m punching them in the face right away and destroying their phone, and I’ll sue anyone who tries to put anything online".
Futaba snickered to herself.
“You guys ever read that ‘Top 100 Things I'd do if I ever became an Evil Overlord’ list that was popular on the internet a few years back? Ann’s doing that- but ‘Things I’d do if I were an ENF protagonist’.”
“Sounds like a fun list, but I’m not gonna wait for her to come up with a hundred things. Haru, please show us to the lockers.”
“Of course Ren. Everyone come with me.” Haru happily bounced along (bounce being the operative word) before the others followed behind, trying not to be too entranced by her jiggling behind.
“Y’know despite not being a nudist, she has the right mindset for it…”
“No kidding Mako…”
~ ~ ~
“Water guns?”
“I bought a whole bunch of them from the gift shop Mako-chan.” Haru grinned, holding a water balloon in each hand. “And water balloons too of course, tons of them.”
“Any particular reason?”
Haru’s expression turned outright sinister.
“Because violence is not the answer, it’s a question, and the answer is ‘Yes’.”
“What does that have to do wi—” was as far Ren got before being cut off with a direct hit to the face from Haru’s first water balloon.
“Haru are we really doing—” Makoto was also cut off by a water balloon, quickly wiping her eyes and blowing out the water that got in her nose. “Alright we’re doing this.” She grabbed two water pistols from the box and tossed one to Ren. “Let’s go!”
“Right!”
The couple ran to the nearest cover while Haru threw balloon after balloon at their backs from the bucket by her feet.
“Run while you can…” she smirked while holding her next balloon at the ready. “Ready or not, here I—ARGH!”
“Grenade!” Futaba- carrying her own bucket of water balloons, threw another at Haru’s back.
“Cold!” Haru jumped in place, summer had come to an end after all, and the temperature was staring to drop just in general, but combine that with the chilled water from their weaponry, and there were some real stakes to this battle. “You’re going to regret that Futaba-chan!” With a smile equal parts joy and bloodlust, Haru turned her attention to the youngest thief and prepared to launch her retaliatory assault, but was caught off guard once more by a combination attack from Ren and Makoto’s water pistols hitting her back and neck respectively. “Ganging up on me?”
Ren shot her a patented ‘Joker smirk’.
“Hey you’re the one who started this fire, I’m just here to put it out.”
“Ah I see- that’s appropriate because you’re using water!”
“Um… yeah Yusuke, that was the joke…”
“Marvellous!” Yusuke continued to watch fascinated, so fascinated in fact, that he didn’t react at all when Ryuji shot him point blank with his own rifle (he grabbed the largest one as soon as he could).
“Uh, dude?” Ryuji shot him again, but he didn’t even flinch, just watching Haru, Ren, and Makoto diving and rolling around in their 2-v-1 entranced.
“How inspiring…”
It was after Ryuji’s third shot- directly to the face- still failing to evoke any sort of reaction that it evolved from ‘disappointing’ to ‘downright creepy’. Ryuji shifted his focus to another- hopefully much more fun- target: Ann.
Ann had her own water pistol ready, but was standing alone and nervous, her eyes darting from one teammate to another, trying to determine which one actually posed a threat to her. After seeing Ryuji’s grin, it was clear he was the one she needed to fear. One hand firmly clutching her gun, the other firmly clutching her crotch (she still wasn’t fully comfortable being naked around the others), she slowly backed away from Ryuji.
“Don’t come any closer!”
“Heheheheh…” Ryuji slowly skulked forward, pumping his rifle as he went.
“I-I’m warning you!” Ann’s pistol hand started to shake.
“Heheheheh…”
“I’ll shoot to kill Ryuji! Don’t push me!”
“Better start running Ann.”
Screwing her eyes shut, she pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, closing one’s eyes isn’t conducive to aiming, so she missed, allowing Ryuji to charge in for his own attack, blasting directly in the chest.
“AIIEE! Dammit Ryuji- why the hell are you aiming there!”
“Hey woah woah, I’m sorry, I didn’t mea—” he was cut off when Ann shot him in the face, coughing as a good amount got directly in his mouth. “The hell?”
“Fell for it Ryuji!” Ann quickly spun around and began running as fast as her feet would carry her.
“Dammit! That’s it, no more mister nice Skull!”
“He was never nice to begin with!” She called over her shoulder, shifting her hand from covering her crotch to holding her chest- the constant bouncing being much more of an obstacle to running than simple modesty.
“Well he’s gonna be even less nice now! Get back here!” Ryuji kept pumping his rifle.
“Betcha get lots of practice doing that motion, huh?” Ann kept up the taunting, partially to try and give herself an advantage running, but mostly because she found it fun annoying him.
“Wh-what? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Pumping your shotgun, obviously. What did you think I meant?”
“That’s definitely not what you meant! Dammit quit trying to throw me off!”
“Quit being so easy to throw off!” She fired a few times behind her, hoping to get lucky, before being squirted directly in the butt. “AIYA! Dammit quit it with the pervy aim! It’s a rifle not a bidet!”
The chase continued, Morgana watched off from the side (rooting for his ‘Lady Ann’ of course, and not just trying to catch the times where her chest slipped out from behind her arms, who gave you that idea?). Before his thief instincts suddenly sent a horrible chill down his spine, or maybe rather than his instincts, it was the voice he heard.
“Mona~”
He turned around, shaking, seeing Futaba towering over him- her eyes obscured by the sunlight reflecting off of her glasses but doing nothing to hide her malicious tooth-bearing grin.
“Bit silly just standing still out in the open? Isn’t it Mona-chan?”
“Y-you can’t be serious Futaba? This is hardly fair- I can’t hold a gun or slingshot in this form! I’m just a civilian in this battle!”
“A little war crime never hurt anyone.”
“That’s the most ‘wrong’ thing that has ever been said!”
There was no mercy to be found in Futaba’s gaze, Morgana run for his dear life as fast as his paws would carry him, just barely dodging Futaba’s first ‘grenade’. She ran after him, throwing balloons as rapidly as she was able.
“Dammit this is animal abuse!”
“I thought you weren’t a cat?”
“I still have rights either way dammit!”
Fortunately for the notcat, Futaba was the opposite of physically fit, and he was able to quite easily outrun her rather feeble attempt at a sprint until she run out of breath a minute or two into the chase.
“Dammit Mona! Quit going all Touhou on me and let me hit you!”
“Nyahaha.” Morgana started to get a little cocky. “You overestimate your throwing arm Oracle. You haven’t even gotten close yet. Better surrender now before I tell Makoto to give you a much-needed workout regimen!”
Futaba gasped in horror.
“You wouldn’t!”
“Nyehe~” He changed his trajectory on a dime. “Hey Queen!”
“NO!” Futaba tossed her whole bucket in one go in a last-ditch effort. None of it managed to hit Morgana though, though quite a lot of it hit Makoto, soaking her from head-to-toe (though in her defence, he was already quite wet from Haru’s noble efforts).
“What the—” Makoto shivered as her entire body was drenched. “Who—dammit Mona you lured her over here!”
“Hey I was just trying to—arglegleglegle.” He got a squirt in the face for his efforts, one he wasn’t able to dodge as nimbly as Futaba’s offensive efforts.
SPLASH
Everyone stopped what they were doing to turn to the large splash. Turns out that Futaba put a bit too much power into her bucket throw and lost her balance, managing to fall backwards into a nearby fountain. It wasn’t deep, but she managed to sink immediately with only her feet propped up on the edge of the fountain into the open air. Everyone dropped their weapons and ran to help her out, but Ryuji was the first to actually reach her and pulled her back up.
“You okay Futaba?”
“Buh?”
“You didn’t hit your head or anything, did you?”
“Uh… nah, I’m good.” Futaba was surprisingly casual for someone who had just fallen backwards into a body of water, by some miracle even her glasses managed to stay on her face, only needing to be wiped off and adjusted slightly before she was back to normal- soaked hair aside. “You good?”
“Dammit you had us worried for a second there…” Ren shook his head.
“Well, I think we can conclude one thing at least…”
“Hm? What would that be Futaba-chan?” Haru tilted her head.
“I won.”
“By what possible metric?”
“I took out the Queen.”
“You were aiming for me.”
“’When you shoot for the moon, you might just hit the stars’, or something- whatever that saying is.”
Makoto sighed, looking to her boyfriend trying to squeeze out the inexplicable amount of water his hair had managed to absorb during their games.
“Maybe we should wrap up the water fight for now, it’ll be dark soon, and we don’t want any of us to catch a cold.”
“I’ll have someone bring us all some hot towels.” Haru nodded, her own hair- usually the very definition of ‘floof’- hanging down straight and drenched. “How about we get something to eat, they have a restaurant or two open within the park still.”
“Sounds good to me.” Ann panted, tired from having run more than she had ever before in her life outside the metaverse, her arm shifting repeatedly between covering her chest and her crotch, before finally giving up and just letting it hang by her side. “Oh, one more thing first—”
“What’s that A— AH!” Ryuji recoiled as Ann- being the only one still holding onto her gun- emptied out the rest of her water onto him, before letting the gun fall down by her feet.
“Okay, now we can go.”
“You’re a dick, Ann…”
~ ~ ~
“I swear food tastes better naked.”
“How would that even work Futaba? Although the meal was pretty tasty regardless.” Ann leant back in her chair satisfied.
“Perhaps it’s not the taste itself, but simply the sensations of being out in the open air combined with good company that lends that extra spice?”
“Nicely put Yusuke.” Makoto smiled, fighting the urge to lean against Ren and maybe even fall asleep right where she was, they couldn’t be that open about PDAs… at least not yet.
“Oh, Haru- when’s the press conference start?”
“Hmm…” Haru pulled out her phone. “Any moment now Ryuji, I’ll text you all the link to the livestream.”
“Here’s goes!” Ryuji grinned as he and the rest of the thieves tuned into the broadcast, seeing Haru’s father (looking appropriately apologetic) stood before a mass of microphones.
“Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to gather here.” He began. “Today, I’d like to elaborate on the whole truth behind my company’s labor situation.”
“Yo yo! It really worked!”
“Quit interrupting Ryuji! We need to listen out for when he reveals who’s behind the mental shutdowns!”
“R-right, sorry.”
The group turned their attention back to the stream. A Journalist was asking Okumura a question:
“We heard that dozens of your employees were forced to resign due to mysterious illness. Furthermore, these happened to be officials who stood against your proposal for overseas expansion. The same thing also happened to executives of competing companies who were looking to expand abroad. Is all of this true?”
Okumura nodded calmly and solemnly.
“Yes.”
“Was it all coincidence? We’d like some answers.”
Morgana had a serious expression, leaning forward in his chair.
“Here it comes. Okumura’s gonna say who’s really behind the mental shutdowns.”
But… he didn’t. Okumura had suddenly clutched his chest, agony clear on his face. He could be heard choking, his throat becoming full of something before his eyes rolled to the back of his head. When he lifted his head again, groaning and dazed, a black tar-like substance was being coughed up and leaking out of his eyes. The journalists and staff filling the room could be heard panicking, the camera was dropped, and the livestream was abruptly shut off.
The thieves stared at their phones in stunned silence.
“Huh…?”
“F-Father?!” Haru froze stiff, her phone sliding out of her hands. “Wh… what…? Mona? What happened?”
“That’s impossible, we…”
“We did everything the same as usual right?” Ren looked to Morgana as well.
“Yes, we did everything the same. We only took the treasure, we didn’t harm his shadow, this shouldn’t be happening!”
“Father… oh dear… oh dear…”
Ren rushed to Haru’s side.
“Stay calm Haru, breathe.” He tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but she pulled away.
“N-No!”
“Haru?”
“I’m… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
“This is…” Futaba kept staring at her phone, even though the screen had gone dark. “I remember, this is the same…” She looked to Makoto. “This is the same thing that happened to my Mom…” She pulled her knees towards herself, curling up on her chair. “It’s the same…”
Makoto wrapped an arm around Futaba’s shoulder, holding her hand with the other, brushing over her knuckles with her thumb in an attempt to be comforting. She turned to Morgana again.
“This is the moment of mental shutdown, right? Does that mean…”
“But why would they target Okumura?”
“The hell is going on here?!” Ryui leapt from his seat, screaming down at his phone.
Ren wanted to tell him to calm down, but not as much as he wanted to scream himself.
“This isn’t supposed to happen…”
“This isn’t… our fault is it?” Ann asked.
“No, definitely not.” Ren’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m sure it isn’t, we did everything the same… but…”
“I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry…”
“Haru…” Ren crouched down besides her. “Please Haru, try to breathe.”
“I’m… I don’t…”
“Breathe Haru.” He tried to get in front of her, miming deep breathing himself until she was able to follow along, at least enough to calm down a little.
She stood back up.
“I should… get dressed and head back home.” She turned to the others, but didn’t quite make eye contact with anyone. “I’ll have a word with the staff before I leave, please, stay here as long as you like.”
“Haru!”
But she had already run off, everyone turned and gave eachother unsure and fearful looks.
“What do we do now?” Ryuji asked, but was met only with extended silence. “I said what the hell do we do now?!”
Notes:
Oh in case you're wondering, the whole water fight scene started as a reference to this image:
https://twitter.com/thetetisuka/status/1126626544397557761
A while back a commenter brought up the idea of including a scene like this, I agreed it'd fit nicely, and this was a good opportunity to do it, so hopefully it was fun ^^
I'm not affiliated with the artist at all, but please go support them, partially for inspiring this scene, but mostly just because it's a hella cute picture set
Chapter 51: Effin' exams...
Summary:
Nothing says "Persona" more than having some life-ruining or world-ending threat looming over you but you still have to take your damn math exam
Notes:
Bit on the shorter side, and mostly plot stuff
Chapter Text
It probably goes without saying that things had definitely been better for the Phantom Thieves in the past. Public opinion of them had dropped like a rock rapidly after Okumura’s live broadcasted graphic death. Everyone was deeply shaken, scared, and had a oppressive shadow of doubt cast over them; none moreso than Haru, who hadn’t been in contact with the others since the incident- understandably so, but it was still worrying.
But despite the immense stress, pressure, and uncertainty on them all, they still had their midterm exams looming over them after the weekend. In a fairer world… well in a fairer world none of this would be happening in the first place, but the thieves would at least want to be allowed to focus on the much more important problems they were facing rather than studying for exams- even the usually quite study-happy Makoto. But still, such responsibilities were there whether they liked it or not, so she- like all the others- returned home to at least try and focus on studying.
Makoto walked through the front door of the Niijima apartment, wiping off her feet before stepping into her home proper.
“I’m home.”
“Welcome home.”
It seems Sae was home for a change, Makoto was thankful for that at least. She entered the main living area to see Sae- as always- intently focused on her laptop screen, rapidly typing away, stress clear in her strained eyes.
Makoto swallowed, on the one hand she still hated seeing her sister so consumed by her work, seeming like less and less of her old self, and clearly suffering for it. But on the other hand, there was the very different worry Makoto had, knowing that the case Sae was working on was to catch the Phantom Thieves, Sae was working so hard for the explicit purpose of capturing her and her friends and bringing them to ‘justice’. She wondered how Sae would react if she knew she was chasing after her own sister.
“Rough day at work Sis?”
For a brief moment Sae shot Makoto a look that screamed ‘what a stupid question’, but it quickly dropped to a much more tired look, before she just as quickly returned to her neutral, focused expression.
“I’m getting closer, I’m sure of it.”
“I see…” That wasn’t the question she asked. “Have you eaten? Would you like me to make you something?”
Sae paused a moment, sighing, turning her head in Makoto’s direction without actually looking at her.
“Actually… if you could that’d be really helpful.”
Makoto gave a weak smile.
“Sure, no problem at all Sis.”
“Thank you.”
Makoto walked over to the kitchen, putting on her apron (nudism was no reason to forget safety and cleanliness after all) and getting to work.
“Is curry okay?”
“Curry?”
“I… picked up a new recipe from a friend.”
“Hmm…” thinking about it Sae did notice there were some new ingredients in the fridge, she so rarely paid attention to such things so it didn’t really register at the time. Grocery shopping was one of the many things she had Makoto handling for her on her own, along with laundry (despite never wearing clothes herself), cleaning, cooking… Sae’s typing tapered off as she thought about it more. She turned around to look at her younger sister, diligently working away- chopping up ingredients. “Um… Makoto?”
She turned away from the food prep, looking over her shoulder at Sae.
“Yeah?”
“Um… I uh…” The sisters’ eyes met, but only briefly, as Sae turned back to her work. “N-nevermind. Are you keeping up with your studies?”
Makoto tried not to sigh too audibly.
“Yes, don’t worry, I’m still working my hardest.”
“…Good.” Sae quietly cursed herself internally for letting words escape her, but forced such thoughts out of her mind, she had work to focus on, she really was getting closer- she was sure of it.
The silence persisted a while longer, broken by the muted key presses and meal preparation. Sae was so absorbed in her work that her perception of time was totally thrown off, and before she could even register the smell, a plate of curry and rice was gently placed down next to her.
“Oh? Oh, thank you.”
Makoto simply smiled, and placed down her own plate further down the table further down the table, far enough that she wouldn’t risk being a distraction- at least she hoped that would be the case.
Sae looked back to her laptop, then her meal, then back to the laptop. Her instinct was to go back to working- at least until she got to a good stopping point, but she forced herself to push it across the table, and instead focus on her meal.
“It tastes good.”
It didn’t last- since there were so many other things on Makoto’s mind right now- but for just a moment she felt a weight being lifted off of her shoulders.
“Thanks, I wasn’t sure I’d get it right first go, but at least it’s good enough to be edible.”
“Mm.”
Nothing else was said for the remainder of the meal, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, at least not for Makoto.
‘It’s nice to eat together like this…’
~ ~ ~
“Midterms on top of everything else…”
“We get it Ryuji, quit complaining, it doesn’t help.”
“How the hell can I focus on this Ann?! I couldn’t study at all.”
“How’s that any different to normal?”
“…I guess I had a genuine excuse not to this time…”
“Not that you ever needed one.”
“Alright you two, enough.” Makoto groaned. “You should all get to your own classes, just focus on being normal students for now, we’ll reconvene after exams are over.”
“Right.” Ren nodded. “Good luck everyone.”
…
…
Midterm exams- Ren and Ann’s class:
Ann restlessly tapped her pencil against the paper, she wasn’t a bad student per say… but that was about all you could really say about her academically, these questions were hard to focus on at the best of times, much less with everything else they had to worry about. She did her best to put anything and everything else out of her mind and only think about her schoolwork. In a way, it was actually kind of a relief to be able to forget about all their PT-related troubles and feel normal for a little while, though this wasn’t the type of ‘normal’ she wanted to escape to, but it would have to do. She pondered the next question.
“Ooh, we can do this!”
Ann’s lip curled slightly, she restrained the urge to look towards the voice coming from behind her- or to be more specific- the voice coming from inside the desk immediately behind her. She just had to ignore it like everything else, just focus on her own test- gearing her mind towards Japanese history.
“Ooh, we can do this!”
The grip on her pencil tightened, and her eyebrows furrowed. She took a moment to breathe deeply and calm herself, to pay it no mind.
“Ooh, we can do this!”
She looked up, her expression clearly strained, she briefly looked to her side and saw that she wasn’t the only one being distracted. Everyone else could only hear Morgana’s voice as meowing, but they could still hear it. No one needed this consistent, periodic, feline yowling every few seconds.
“Ooh, we can do this!”
Ann slammed her own desk with her fist. Kawakami finally lifted her head and glared at Ren.
“Amamiya-kun, please keep that thing under control or we’ll have to remove it from the classroom.”
“S-sorry, sorry.” Ren cringed in embarrassment. “I promise you won’t hear another peep out of him for the rest of the exams.” He avoided looking at anyone else, not being able to face their annoyed gazes, except Morgana himself of course, Ren took the time to glare at the rather guilty-looking notcat for a moment before returning to his own exam.
Finally breathing a sigh of relief that Mona had gotten the message, Ann looked back down at her own paper, seeing what she had written so far: “Ooh, we can do—” She quickly erased it and started over.
…
…
Midterm exams- Eiko’s class:
The stress of exams- even for the experienced students in the third year- was amazingly enough to command the entirety of their focus so that even the throng of nudists present weren’t able to distract from it. Everyone’s eyes were firmly down on their own work.
This of course included Eiko herself, who despite not taking such things seriously in the past, really was giving it her all since Makoto started tutoring her. She was determined to raise her ranking high enough that the ‘super-nerd couple’ stopped making her look so bad by comparison.
She was currently working through a series of math-related problems and questions.
‘Angles… degrees… that’d be… and if a full circle is 360…’
“Oh I get it! 540!”
“No talking Takao-san!”
“S-sorry Teach…”
…
…
Midterm exams- Makoto and Haru’s class:
Makoto wasn’t actually having as hard a time as she thought she would. She was able to shift her mind to ‘diligent student’ mode and stay there, dutifully working through all the questions presented to her in record time, and was confident she would score high like always.
Though her high-performance meant she finished earlier than everyone else, so had to simply sit in silence and wait for time to run out. Normally she would spend this time checking her answers, but her eyes drifted across the room, to Haru sitting near the front of the class, and very quickly the reminders of the stresses outside the classroom once more took over her mind.
They still hadn’t really talked to Haru since the incident. She and the rest of the group resolved to do so right after the exam period ended. Haru was- without a doubt- the hardest hit by recent events, they could only imagine how she must have been feeling lately.
Makoto studied her face intently, Haru seemed intently focused on the exams, if she was thinking about anything else- she hid it well. In fact Haru seemed just as diligently focused as Makoto had been, if not more so. Though the longer Makoto watched her, the more she realized what was really going on: Haru’s work never paused for even an instant- or rather- she never let herself pause for even an instant, never let her thoughts have any time to drift to anything else. Even once she had clearly finished, she went back and obsessively checked every one of her answers over and over again, effectively taking the exam two or three times over.
Makoto wasn’t going to wait, she couldn’t afford to wait, as soon as the exam ends she needs to reach out to Haru. Glancing at the clock to see how much time they had left, she nodded to herself and resolved to talk to her teammate the moment she was able to.
…
…
Midterm exams- Ryuji’s class:
“PFFFT Yeah I’m fucked.”
~ ~ ~
“Haru-chan!”
“…”
“Haru?” Makoto tapped her on the shoulder, causing the girl to jump.
“O-oh? Oh it’s just you Mako-chan. Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?” Makoto shook her head. “Yes, I’m fine, don’t worry.”
“That’s a relief.”
“What about you?”
“…”
“We’ve all been worried about you.”
“Oh, my apologies. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’m…” Haru couldn’t maintain eye contact, but she did notice the look of genuine care and concern Makoto was shooting her. “Well… I suppose ‘I’m fine’ would be a lie, but I’ll be alright.”
“Haru…”
Haru quickly scanned her surroundings, making sure no one was close enough to hear them, before leaning over to whisper to Makoto.
“Can I be honest with you Mako-chan?”
“Of course, always.”
“Thank you…” She paused a while. “To be honest, I really started doubting all of you after… what happened.”
“Haru…” Makoto’s expression dropped. “I understand, that’s only natural.”
“But, I feel confident now saying I’m sure- no- I’m certain you’re not responsible.”
“Are you? I mean, of course we’re not but- why?”
Haru once again scanned for eavesdroppers, dragging Makoto off to the side to be certain.
“We had the police searching Father’s home, asking me lots of questions… it’s been hard to deal with.”
“I’m sorry Haru.”
“I didn’t give anything about you guys away, but otherwise I was honest with them, since I wasn’t sure which side to take. But the moment where I was certain was when they mentioned the fact that they found a calling card for the principal in his office shortly before he died.”
Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“A calling card? But we—”
“Exactly, we were all in Hawaii at the time, I was with you.” Haru’s expression grew more serious. “I’ve seen you in action, I’ve done it myself now, I know that we have to physically go to the palace location in the real world in order to interact with someone in the Metaverse, or at least go to the Mementos entrance in Shibuya in cases where there is no palace. There’s no way we could have done that from the other side of the world. Someone is trying to frame you, I’m certain of it.”
Makoto kept checking over her shoulder, paranoid.
“That’s probably why they had the death be so… public. But who? And why?”
“Exactly. Whoever is trying to set you up is probably the same person who killed my father.” Haru’s expression was a painful mixture of fear and anger. “I know I’m not in a position to demand anything from you, but…”
“It’s okay Haru, I think I already know. Don’t worry, we will find whoever is responsible. However…” Makoto rested a hand on Haru’s shoulder. “I feel I have to at least say- it’s going to be dangerous. It’s unlikely that this ends here, someone is after us, so you can still walk away if you—”
Makoto’s arm was slapped away, and Haru stared directly into her eyes.
“Don’t you dare say another word Makoto.” She was halfway through whispering and hissing at her, before a sudden feeling of guilt and shame overtook her. “Sorry… but I can’t walk away now, I will find whoever killed my father—" Her eyes grew intense once more. “—I would have words with them.”
Makoto took a few moments to shift back from shock to a determined smile.
“I understand. Don’t misunderstand, I wasn’t trying to send you away, you’re still very welcome, I just felt you should at least be aware of your options, and the risk.”
“I already understand, but thank you Mako-chan.”
Makoto took a step back.
“Anyway we’ll discuss it more later, we’re already taking too many risks out here, and we should have everyone present.”
Haru nodded.
“Agreed.”
Makoto breathed a muted sigh of relief, Haru’s smile was weak, but felt genuine.
“We’re here for you, if there’s anything at all we can help with, just let us know, okay?”
“Anything at all?”
Haru’s smile turned slightly sinister, Makoto started to sweat just a little.
“Uh… anything within our power, I guess?”
“Hmm…” Haru pondered a while. “You wouldn’t still happen to have those cat ears and collar I gave you, would you?”
Makoto tensed up.
“I’m only teasing Mako-chan.” Haru walked past her. “I’m glad I have you as friends, it means a lot to me.”
“Uh…” Makoto was still suffering from mood whiplash, and wasn’t entirely sure how to feel or respond just now, but was at least able to force out a “n-no problem” and follow after Haru.
Chapter 52: Right before your eyes, watch us multiply
Summary:
Shujin's culture festival
Notes:
Bit of a long one, but also fun hopefully.
Also another case where I skip over some plot stuff that just plays out the same as in the game, since it'd be boring both to write and to read, and you just have to accept at this point that the actual Persona 5 Royal game is required reading for this story. It's a great game, fuckin' play it already bleh
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Credit where it’d due Eiko, you pulled it off.”
“Of course I did, who do you think I am? Though it would have been much easier with Makoto’s help, but I left her out of it since I knew you’d want to surprise her.”
“Thanks, I’m looking forward to meeting up with her and the others.” Ren grinned. “And just to be clear, this goes all the way through the festival including the afterparty?”
“Yeah, but not after that, so make the most of it, mmkay?”
“When you say ‘make the most of it’…?”
“I don’t mean that… although…”
“So where do I…?”
“Just here, and they’ll be safe in here, and we have to warn you—”
“I’ve already read the warnings, it’s cool.”
“That saves me some work then. Go knock her dead… or ‘up’, whichever you prefer.”
“Yeah yeah…”
~ ~ ~
Needless to say, Makoto was surprised- as were the rest of the thieves- to see Ren casually strolling down the Shujin hallway nude towards them. He made a show of scanning Makoto’s body up and down, before giving an exaggerated eye roll.
“Well clearly one of us has to change.”
“You already did that joke Ren.”
“Yeah, but Futaba and Yusuke weren’t there for it, this is for them.”
“I think I get the joke…” Futaba stared up at him deadpan. “…but I can’t say I’m impressed with it.”
“Hmm…” Yusuke pondered. “The humor comes from the simulation of the scenario whereby two people show up to a party or similar event in the same outfit…”
“Um, y-yeah Yusuke, that’s what I was going fo—”
“…with the added absurdity of said ‘outfit’ being one’s birthday suit, thus making the situation enough of an oddity to be worthy of note. A solid premise for a humorous interaction, and your personal performance was satisfactory…”
“Thanks man, but—”
“Though I’m afraid the presence of other nudists already in the party such as myself and Futaba rather spoils the premise, since at that point it is no longer simulating an awkward coincidence, but instead you calling attention to an accepted dress code.” Yusuke had real sympathy in his eyes. “I’m very sorry Amamiya-san, but I don’t believe the joke works in the current situation, it’s with great regret that I have to give you a failing grade this time. I have faith that you can do better.”
Ren sighed.
“Yeah, fair enough…”
“Putting… all that aside.” Makoto stopped rubbing her temples long enough to properly address Ren. “Explain yourself, the trick of pretending to be in the program isn’t going to work here, and I’m sure you know that, and I don’t think you’d actually join the program.”
Ren put on his smuggest face possible.
“I have joined the program.”
Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“You… what?”
“Temporarily.”
Makoto tilted her head.
“Huh?”
“Eiko’s class project involved getting permission for both students and visitors today to sign up for the program for just today.” He held out his arms in a ‘ta-daa’ motion. “I’ve got legal immunity for the day.”
“Still man, to actually go ahead and do it…” Ryuji scratched his head in disbelief. “You’ve got some balls man…”
“Yeah of course I do, they’re right here.”
“That’s not what I meant… Though really I guess Makoto’s been doing it for ages now, she’s got HUGE balls.” He suddenly brought his arms up in a apologetic (but also quite defensive) gesture. “WAIT WAIT NO! Not balls, I’m not saying you’re like… no I mean um…” His eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. “Uh… huge flaps?”
The instant the word came out of his mouth he regretted it, cringing so hard he had to turn around and support himself against the wall. Every member of the group (Makoto especially) was either rubbing their eyes in second-hand embarrassment or holding in bitter groans of frustration. All except for Futaba, who put a comforting (if rather patronizing) hand on Ryuji’s back as he was drowning in his regret.
“Y’know you could have just stuck with ‘balls’ and it would have been fine, y’know? Or just… not say anything at all?”
“I know…” He groaned.
“You’re pathetic Skull…”
“…Y’know what? I’ll just take it this time Mona.”
“O-oh…” Morgana legitimately wasn’t sure how to respond to Ryuji not biting back, he honestly felt a little lost.
“A-anyway…” Haru leant forward, a smile on her face. “Where is this ‘Eiko’s class?”
“Hm? Why?”
“So I can partake- obviously.”
“REALLY?!” Ryuji’s 15 seconds of pain and depression came to an abrupt end as he spun around, excitement clear on his face. “You’re finally gonna join in?”
“Remember Ryuji, keep the excitement only showing on your face and not through your pants.” Ren smirked.
“DUUUDE!” Ryuji quickly spun around and as discreetly as he could (which really wasn’t discreet at all) checked that he wasn’t showing through. “Screw you Ren…”
Haru chuckled as she watched Ryuji flounder around.
“I’m not going to properly join, so don’t get too excited, but I think it’ll be fun for just today.”
“I mean, that’s cool and all, but I should warn you- in order to prevent you getting into trouble at a later date, they’ve got it set up that any footage of you will remain exempt from decency and censorship laws even after you end your participation. So if you do join in, there’s a chance you’ll stay naked on the internet forever.”
“Thank you for the warning Ren, but I’m not bothered about that.”
“Really? Are you really sure?”
“I’m sure Mako-chan. I don’t mind being seen naked, but I just don’t want to be naked all the time. It’s too much fun being clothed while the other person is all nude and vuln—AHEM!” Haru cleared her throat and stood up straight. “I mean, it’s only going to get colder over the next few months, so I couldn’t commit to full-time nudity, that’s the only reason.”
“R-right…” Makoto shrugged. “I’ll take you to her class, I want to talk to her about this idea too.”
“Then let’s get moving.” Haru pumped her fist. The others in the group admired how she was able to keep being positive even with recent events, even if it was clearly a little forced on her part. And while they did have important things to do today, most of the day would be dedicated to having fun while they still could.
~ ~ ~
After the others came out of their way to attend the Kosei culture festival a while back, Hifumi endeavoured to return the favor and attend Shujin’s. She had arrived with the rest of the Kosei crew, though was quick to ditch them while they were distracted by a rather lengthy debate on the aethsetics of this festival vs their own. She was sure they wouldn’t mind- or even notice- her absence. And besides, she’d already agreed to meet up with Eiko and have her show her around for the day. She also hoped to run into Ren and Makoto at some point, but that could wait for now.
“Hm? OH!” Eiko’s voice could be heard from behind her. “Hi Fumi!”
Hifumi turned around to see Eiko- and another nudist beside her with wavy brunette hair, she recognised her from the Shujin-Kosei meet-up, but her name escaped her for a moment.
“Oh, hello there Eiko-san. And um… ah- Ai-san.”
Eiko’s shoulders suddenly dropped as she pouted, confusing Hifumi.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Ai sighed, and walked over to Hifumi’s side to whisper into her ear. She listened intently.
“Uh-huh… she… HUH?!” Hifumi started to look a bit worried as Ai pulled away from her, staring at her with an amused- but slightly tired- look. “R-really?” she nodded. “Oh… d-do I have to?”
“It would make Eiko REALLY happy if you did.”
Hifumi let out an embarrassed whine as her cheeks started to turn pink. Ai called over to Eiko.
“Try again Eiko-chan.”
Eiko took a couple steps backwards, then walked forwards again pretending to have just noticed Hifumi.
“Hi Fumi!”
“H-Hey-Ko!” Hifumi’s hands shot to cover her bright red face so fast she created an audible slapping sound, she desperately tried to ignore the other students and attendees giving her weird looks and whispering amongst themselves. Eiko had no such issues, she celebrated with an excited fist-pump and an ear-to-ear grin.
“Ha! That was great Fumi-chan, I was thinking we could start doing that all the time.”
Hifumi lowered her hands enough so she could see, but kept the rest of her face covered.
“All the time? But why?”
“It’d be cool for us to have a little catchphrase routine… thing, y’know? The kind of thing couples do?”
“I don’t know of any couple who do something as embarrassing as that! Wait…” Hifumi paused. “C-couples?”
“I thought it was really cute, didn’t you Ai?”
“It was certainly… something.”
“Plus I’ve never had a nickname before, it’s kinda nice.”
“You’re not supposed to come up with your own nickname Eiko…”
“Wh-what was that about couples?”
“I mean really the only options for nicknames for me are either ‘Ei-chan’ or ‘Ko’, I like ‘Ko’ more. You agree, right Hifumi?”
“I- I mean…” She averted her eyes. “I’d have thought ‘Koko’ would be cuter.” Fear and regret spread across her face as she finished her sentence. “N-now wait a second, pretend you didn’t hear that! D-don’t make me—"
There was no mercy to be found in either Ai nor Eiko’s eyes. Eiko took a few steps back, and walked forwards waving once more.
“Hi Fumi!”
“Hey-Koko!” Hifumi began half-whining, half-screaming into her palms as she rapidly hopped from one foot to the other, her blush extending to her ears and down her neck. More than a few students couldn’t help but snicker and comment on how cute they thought she was right now.
“Heh, I can see why Ren loves teasing Makoto so much now, this is a lot of fun.”
“We’re at borderline bullying levels right now Eiko…”
“Exactly Ai, borderline, that’ll be enough for now.” Eiko wrapped an arm around Hifumi’s torso. “Thanks for indulging me Fumi~ That was kinda fun now, you have to admit.”
Hifumi whined vaguely to the tune of “But it’s embarrassing.”
“But fun, right?”
“I mean… but people can see…”
“We gotta teach you to activate Shogi-mode on demand or something.”
“Shogi-mode?”
“Nevermind.” They began walking, past their voyeuristic audience, and with an amused Ai deciding to let them have some time alone, and walking in the opposite direction back to her class. “Let’s go see if we can find Nudie-prez, eh Fumi?”
Hifumi forced herself to uncover her face, trying to look normal again (which given that everything above her shoulders was still tomato-colored wasn’t easy).
“S-sure, let’s not waste any more time, Koko.”
“Heheh.”
~ ~ ~
“It’s pretty lame how few people are getting naked… It’s like one in twenty people at most…”
“I mean it’s not wholly unexpected Futaba-chan. Most people are very attached to their clothes.”
“Mako-chan’s right.” Haru sat with the rest of the thieves at a table set up outside Ren and Ann’s classroom, now completely nude, leaving Ryuji and Ann as the only clothed team members. “Plus people aren’t in love with the idea of their nudes being online forever.”
“Hell a bunch of people have been taking pics and stuff of you Haru…”
“Including you Ryuji.”
“ANN! Why the hell you gotta rat me out like that?!”
Haru sniggered.
“Oh don’t worry, I already said such things don’t bother me.” Despite her words her expression did drop slightly. “Although, I can’t help but think part of it is just cause of my surname…”
“I think it’s mostly your fat ass actually.”
“FUTABA!” Makoto shot daggers at her.
“What? It’s a compliment.”
“How is ‘fat ass’ a compliment?”
“It just is, okay?!
“For some reason I love hearing the words ‘fat ass’ come out of Makoto’s mouth.”
“Dammit Ren.”
A ding was heard, and within moments a female student clad in a store-bought maid outfit came out of the classroom carrying a platter.
“Here you go, fresh Takoyaki for you all!”
Futaba’s eyes narrowed.
“X to doubt. I heard a microwave go off!”
“Lady Ann, I really hope you don’t take offence to this, but your class’s project is pretty shit…”
“Hey now don’t be like that! Doesn’t it smell delicious? And aren’t the girls cute in their maid outfits?”
“The outfits seem to be the only part with any sort of budget or effort put into it, and even then it’s not much…” Yusuke shook his head in disapproval. “Though I must admit this paper-mache octopus by the door, though amateurish, lends a certain je ne sais quoi.”
“I really wanted us to go with something other than the most boring culture festival cliché, but here we are. A Takoyaki stand with maids, yaaawn.”
“Don’t be a snob Ren, this is fun! R-right?”
“If you say so Ann…”
To her credit, the ‘maid’ serving them kept a friendly ‘customer service’ face on throughout all of this.
“Be careful though, one of these Takoyaki balls contains a ~shocking surprise~ OOoooOOoo.” The maid waved her hands around. “~Which could it be?~”
“It’s the red one right?”
“…”
“It’s really obviously the only one that looks different…”
“Futuba!” Ann hissed.
“…” The maid remained completely motionless for a few more seconds. “Fuck.” She stormed off and slammed the classroom door behind her.
“Dammit Futaba…”
“Not my fault your class is shit Ann…”
“A little tact would go a long way though…” Makoto sighed.
“So… who wants the ‘special’ Takoyaki?” Ryuji asked.
No one in the group answered, really none of them were looking forward to any of these lukewarm and misshapen Takoyaki balls, much less the ‘special’ one.
“Oh, everyone’s all here.”
The group turned to see Goro Akechi approaching them, smiling in their direction, though notably not looking at any of the nudists, in fact it seemed like he actively trying to avoid looking at them, keeping his gaze on their hairline- if at all.
“You’re here early?”
“I thought it prudent to get a feel for the venue before the panel begins. Although, I do wish people didn’t recognise me so often, people have bombarded me with questions from the moment I arrived.” He chuckled to himself. “Perhaps I should have worn a disguise of some sort?”
“I’d lend you my glasses again, but I left them in the lockers.”
“Oh? Can you still see without them Amamiya-kun?”
“I only need them for reading sometimes.”
“I see, I needn’t worry then.” Akechi smiled warmly, he briefly looked towards Haru. “Oh, you’re Okumura-san if I remember rightly.” He bowed, with a very somber look on his face. “My deepest condolences for your loss.”
“Mm.” Haru looked away, staring at a random spot on the floor.
Not wanting to dwell on the awkward moment any longer than he had to, he turned to Makoto.
“You’ll be speaking to me during the panel correct?”
“Yes.”
“I see, and to think even I still get nervous on stage, will you really be alright as you are?”
“I’m used to it, you don’t need to worry.”
“I guess I won’t then.” Akechi leant over and picked up the red Takoyaki ball. “Do you mind if i—?”
Haru gasped.
“But that’s the—”
“Yeah go for it man.” Ryuji quickly silenced Haru and turned back to Akechi with a huge grin on his face.
“Yeah, help yourself.” Ren joined in, shooting Akechi a grin of his own- Makoto raising an eyebrow at him but not voicing any objection. “It’s the least we can do for you doing us the honor of coming to speak at our school.”
“Oh, I assure you Amamiya-kun, the pleasure is all mine.”
The thieves all watched as Akechi took the whole ball into his mouth in one bite, their faces a mixture of fear, amusement, and anticipation.
“Mm, this is quite deli—” Akechi suddenly froze, the pin stick falling out of his hand and to the floor.
“Uh… Akechi-kun? You good?”
His arms starting shaking, then his torso, then his legs. He clutched a hand over his mouth and began violently convulsing.
“HHHNNNNGGG!”
“Akechi-kun?!” The group all slid their chairs away from him.
“ARRGHH!”
“Dude if you’re gonna throw up, do it on top of the Takoyaki- I don’t think anyone would notice the difference.”
“They’re not THAT bad Ren!”
Akechi forced himself to swallow.
“I-I’m fine…” His voice was strained, it seemed like speaking was painful for him, and he was still shaking. “My throat is just a bit sore… and my stomach… and my lungs… and…”
“Do you need some water?”
“Or an ambulance?”
“N-no, I’m fine… totally fine.” He forced himself to stand up straight, trying in vain to supress the lingering convulsions. “I love… spicy food. It’s… bracing.”
“Bathroom’s over there if you need it.”
“I really will be fine, th-thank you Amamiya-kun.” Akechi took a few deep breaths, or tried to at least- turns out breathing was also quite painful. “Though I’ve been meaning to ask you, I understand Niijima-san has been… like that for quite some time now, but why are you also…?”
“Nude? Oh yeah, a friend of ours is doing a thing where you can be ‘a nudist for a day’ as their class project, I decided to join in.”
“Joining the infamous nudist program for a day huh?”
A sudden, shockingly-loud gasp was heard. The maid stationed behind the counter had her hands on her cheeks with excitement clear in her eyes.
“I don’t believe it!” She leaned back into the classroom and called out to her coworkers. “Guys guys! Akechi is interested in joining the program!”
Immediately numerous excited squeals could be heard from within.
“N-now hang on…” Akechi took a cautious step back as the maid inelegantly fumbled over the countertop, not letting the fact that she fell flat on her face discourage her as she clambered back to her feet and rushed towards him, flanked by the other maids bursting out of the classroom to join her.
“You’re really gonna join in?!”
“I didn’t say—”
“Oh my god I’ve dreamed of this moment since they announced the program!”
“W-wait a second!”
“I’m your biggest fan Akechi-kun! I know, I’ll join with you and then we can go on a naked festival date.” She fanned her cheeks. “Oh my god this is amazing.”
“I really need to be getting ready for—”
“Now hold on!” another maid glared at her over-excited friend. “Why do you get the date huh? What about the rest of us?”
“I’m not here for—”
“I called dibs on him first!”
“Amamiya-kun, I could use some help!”
“Okay okay Akechi.” Ren sat up straight and looked him in the eyes. “I’ve analysed the situation thoroughly, considered all possibilities, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do.”
“Ren I don’t—”
“Quiet Makoto.”
“But—” Akechi was starting to look panicked.
“I know girls.” The head maid commanded their attention. “There’s only one solution, we must share him.”
“Share me?”
“We’re gonna be a harem? I don’t—" The maid shook her head. “No, it’s worth it to be on a celebrity date.”
“I don’t want a harem!”
“Alright, but don’t complain when he’s so enraptured by my naked beauty that he ditches the rest of you.” One maid takes ahold of his right arm.
“Ha, dream on skank.” Another takes ahold of his left, the third and forth maids having to settle for following behind.”
“Amamiya-kun! Niijima-san!”
Ren stood up from his seat and saluted.
“Be strong Akechi-kun, we believe in you!”
The thieves watched as Akechi was dragged around the corner and out of sight. Ryuji scratched his head.
“Y’know usually I get jealous of guys with harems or a bunch of a girls fawning over them… but not this time for some reason…”
“Eh he’ll be fine.” Futaba shrugged.
“Let’s not worry about that for now.” Makoto sighed. “I need to focus on preparing myself for the panel, he’s our best source of intel right now, so I can’t mess this up.”
“I believe in you Makoto, we all do.”
“Thanks Ren, everyone. I’m gonna pull this off no matter what.”
Futaba’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“Hey… when he got here, didn’t he say something like ‘everyone’s all here’? ‘Everyone’?”
Everyone exchanged worried looks, but were interrupted before they could say anything else.
“Heya Nudie-prez!”
“Now that’s a familiar sound.” Ren laughed. “Sup Eiko, hey Hifumi.”
Hifumi bowed lightly.
“Nice to see you again Amamiya-kun. Makoto-chan.”
“Yo was that that Akechi dude I saw being kidnapped by maids a second ago?”
“Uh…” Makoto was looking (and feeling) rather guilty. “Y-yeah.”
“Hmph, guess he’s popular…” Eiko pouted.
“Something wrong?”
“No… I guess it makes sense, he did get the overwhelming majority of votes for celebrity guest speaker for the festival…” Eiko tutted. “I voted for Risette…”
“I doubt we could get her to be honest…”
“I guess…” Eiko shrugged, then smiled at Ren and Haru. “So how’s the program treating you two?”
“People are still keeping their distance from me.” Ren laughed. “I guess being nude doesn’t make me seem any less dangerous.”
“If anything, it kinda makes you seem more dangerous.” Ann mumbled.
“You’re drawing a lot of attention though Ren-kun.” Haru giggled, making no effort to hide her own wandering eyes. “Everyone’s been really eager to see some male nudity in Shujin, and you certainly don’t disappoint.”
Ren tried to hide his blush. Eiko snickered while Hifumi tried to stifle her own chuckle.
“I’m glad I could finally get him naked, even if only for a little while.” Eiko proudly placed her hands on her hips. “And you’re right, he doesn’t disappoint… much.”
“Eh?”
“It’s okay Ren.”
“Okay?”
Hifumi whispered something into Eiko’s ear.
“Hm? Oh, ‘grower not a shower’? Very interesting.”
Ren covered his face in embarrassment.
“Interesting indeed.”
“Please don’t join in Haru…”
Eiko suddenly froze, then turned to Hifumi.
“Wait a second, how do you know that?”
Hifumi remained completely silent, pretending she didn’t hear the question, Makoto quickly bailed her out when she noticed someone else approaching them.
“G-greetings Miss Kawakami.”
Kawakami noticed the lack of staff behind the counter, and poked her head through to see the whole class was now empty.
“Where’d everyone go?”
“Eheheh…” Ann fiddled with her twintails nervously. “They kind of… got distracted with Akechi showing up early.”
“The detective… ugh… teenagers…”
“So Teach?”
Kawakami groaned.
“Yes Takao-san?”
“Chouno really inspired you, huh?”
Kawakami’s arm was still firmly over her breasts, though she made no effort to hide her bush.
“I’m not making any promises, I just thought… I’d give it a try, that’s all.”
“You’re trying the nudist program too Miss Kawakami?”
“Maybe…” Kawakami was starting to feel self-conscious with all her students intently analysing her like this. “I’m not sure it suits me yet.”
“See guys.” Eiko grinned. “I knew the whole ‘permanent’ side of the program was scaring a lot of people off, so giving them a trial run was a great idea.” She shot Kawakami a thumbs-up. “And don’t worry teach, you look fantastic! Look, Sakamoto has been drooling over you since the moment you showed up.”
“N-no I wasn’t!” Ryuji brought his hands up defensively, checking his face to see if he really was drooling- which to his great relief- he wasn’t. “I was just… looking a little bit…” He stared downwards, avoiding eye contact with any of the girls, still thinking they might hit him.
“It’s okay Ryuji-kun, it’s okay to look.” Haru smirked at the teacher. “She is rather… enchanting like this.”
“Flattery is not going to earn you a higher grade in your midterm results if that’s what you’re going for.” Kawakami spoke harshly, but couldn’t help but blush a little.
“It’s no mere flattery.” Haru shook her head.
“Yours is certainly an appealing form Miss.” Yusuke scanned her. “We’re always in need of models, perhaps you’d be interested?”
“Me? Modelling?”
“I’d be careful about accepting that offer Teach.” Eiko rested a hand on her back, the teacher jumping at the touch slightly. “The Kosei artists are… I’m not sure there’s a single word that can describe them.”
“I know what you mean…” Hifumi checked over her shoulder to make sure they hadn’t snuck up on them.
“Is that so…” Kawakami turned towards the classroom so no one could see her face. “Anyway I better close up shop if everyone has run off like this, you can all go enjoy the festival.”
“Sounds good to me, c’mon Fumi.”
“Coming Kok—I mean, coming Eiko-san.” She bowed to the others and left.
“I better get ready for the panel.” Makoto got up from her seat. “We’ll reconvene afterwards, okay?”
The thieves all gave their affirmations, and gradually wandered off, leaving Kawakami to her devices in the classroom. She glanced down at her own body.
“Do they really think someone like me could pull it off?”
~ ~ ~
After the panel, Akechi had pulled the thieves aside and gathered them in the now-seldom used PE office, revealing that he not only knew of their true identities, but had photographic evidence of them entering Okumura’s palace. He used this to blackmail them into agreeing to help him perform a heist on Sae Niijima’s palace, in order to capture the black-masked metaverse-using killer.
Not having much of a choice, the group agreed to his demands. He left shortly afterwards, promising to get into contact with them later. Makoto and Ren stood outside the office together.
“Well this fucking sucks.”
“Not how I would have worded it Ren, but you’re not wrong.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out though.”
“I know…”
“And, about your sister…”
“We were planning to at least scout out her palace before anyway, I’m sure we can… we can…”
“We’ll save your sister, one way or another, I promise you that.”
“R-Ren?”
“I’ll stake my life on it.”
“Please don’t say that, you’re just making me more nervous.”
“Sorry. How about ‘I’ll stake my honor as a Phantom Thief on it’?”
“I suppose that’s better.” She took ahold of his hand, and leant her head on his shoulder. “Thanks, I don’t know how you do it, but you really do inspire confidence.”
“I’d be a pretty shit leader if I didn’t.”
“I suppose.”
The pair walked down the hall, the culture festival was gradually coming to a close, and the after party was starting up in the sports hall, so they made their way over at a leisurely pace.
“I’m surprised Akechi still had his clothes on for the show though.” Ren laughed.
“Well of course he did, Ai-san and the others obviously aren’t going to sign him onto the program when he’s clearly being bullied into it by those girls, that’s just common sense.”
“True, and I guess it’s for the best, but I can’t help but feel him threatening us would have been funnier were he embarrassed about being nude during it.”
“Ren, that’s awful.”
“Am I wrong though?”
“…”
“Heh.”
“Don’t ‘heh’ me.”
“Heh.”
She was about to reprimand him when they turned the corner, before they immediately doubled back to hide behind said corner.
“Are those two really…?” Makoto peeked around the corner, at a boy and a girl, probably first years.
“I think they are…” Ren watched as the couple- both temporary nudists- continued blissfully unaware of their audience, though given the fact that they were in the school hallway it was likely an audience either wouldn’t bother them, or they didn’t mind the risk.
“I don’t believe it.” The boy was leant against the wall, panting for breath as he was currently buried balls-deep in his (presumably) girlfriend’s mouth, the girl shamelessly playing with herself as her head bobbed back and forth.
“Can they do that?”
“I… the program does give you immunity to decency laws… so technically they’re allowed but…” Makoto continued to stare wide-eyed. “To actually go ahead and do it… and where anyone could see them.”
“She’s really good at that.”
“Ren!”
“I mean… to do that deep without gagging, that takes practice, trust me- I know.”
“How on earth do you know that?”
“I am a knowledgeable man.”
“Now’s not the time for jokes!”
Their whispered row was perhaps louder than they realized, because while the boy seemed blissfully unaware, the girl not-to-subtly side-eying them and smirking (or at least getting as close to a smirk as you could with a cock in your mouth) proved that they weren’t as stealthy as they had hoped.
“Dammit we can’t stay here now. Otherwise we’re just perverts.”
“They’re the perverts Ren, they’re the ones doing… that in public.”
“Do we tell them off?”
“I mean it is technically allowed…”
“So even we could… if we wanted to?”
“R-Ren?”
“I mean… I’m not saying we should or anything, I was just wondering…”
“If we…” An honestly rather worrying tingle shot through Makoto’s body at the thought, the idea of Ren just taking her right here in the school… again. “Let’s just move on.”
“Move o—”
“Right now!”
Makoto pulled him out by the hand, and they just walked by the couple as casually as possible.
“Evenin’.” Ren tilted an imaginary hat in their direction, they didn’t get a response, nor did they stop, they just kept swiftly making their way to the sports hall.
Makoto heard that voice from inside her heart once more:
“Nudge nudge.”
‘Anat, please…’
~ ~ ~
“And now it’s time for your favorite Shujin tradition: The student sharing special! Round of applause everyone!”
Despite the announcer’s enthusiasm, the applause could generously be described as on par with a golf clap.
“This event is never very popular.” Makoto sighed. “The older teachers seem to enjoy it for some reason though…”
“…”
“Uh… Ren, are you even listening to me?”
“Wh-huh? Oh sorry, I was thinking about… something else.”
Makoto wanted to reprimand him, but it’s not as if she could blame him, she was trying to fight the same thoughts out of her head currently. Seeing that couple just a few minutes prior had put some… interesting ideas in her head, knowing that Ren was also exempt from any negative consequences like she was for today only, and Anat’s constant prodding became harder and harder to ignore… and judging by the couple twitches she saw from Ren, it wasn’t the only think at risk of becoming harder.
“Oooh, is that our lovely student council president over there?”
“Huh?” Makoto was shaken out of her thoughts when the announcer suddenly called attention to her. “What?”
“Perhaps our famous trendsetting nudist has something to share? Come on up here Miss Prez!”
“Oh dear…” Now was NOT the time to get up in front of people. She turned to Ren. “Do I have to go?”
“Should we run?”
“Ugh… tempting but… no, I better go up there.” She took a quick look down to make sure she wasn’t visibly leaking or anything, and begrudgingly made her way up on stage, the applause felt much more enthusiastic now that the focus was on Tokyo’s first nudist. She stood in front of the microphone stand as Ren took a seat in the front row.
“Here she is: everyone’s favorite student council president and stunning brave nudist- Makoto Niijima-san.”
“Um… hello?” She nervously looked to Ren, who gave a rather unsure-looking thumbs-up to her.
“Now on with the show, what would you like to share with us today Miss President?”
“Um…”
“Some top-tier dicking.”
‘Anat!’ Makoto panicked for a moment, before she remembered that no one else could hear Anat’s words. ‘Please don’t distract me.’ She was relieved to hear her persona go silent.
“…Miss President?”
“I um… don’t really have anything to say.” She gave the announcer a weak smile. “Sorry.”
A nervous look appeared on his face, but only briefly.
“Here, I’ll give you a question…”
If nothing else, Makoto had to respect his efforts to keep the show going.
“Do you think the Phantom Thieves are really Shujin students like Akechi-kun said?”
“What?!”
“We’re all dying to know what he was going to say about their true identities!”
“I uh…” Makoto was in trouble, for the first time in her life she was actually missing the questions about her nudity bordering on sexual harassment she used to get bombarded with back in the early days of her nudism, those would be much easier to deal with- the worst that could happen then is her getting laughed at then everyone moving on, but here one wrong word could put the whole team in danger. “Well I…”
Ren- suddenly leapt out of his seat and climbed up on stage… after a few attempts trying to pull himself up, the stage was higher than he realized, but he eventually managed to hook his leg up and roll sidewards on stage.
“Ren? What are you—”
He clambered to his feet, and rushed to grab Makoto’s microphone stand.
“Yo Prez, Imma let you finish, but you’re one of the finest babes of all time. Of ALL time.”
“H-huh?!”
“The transfer student?”
Ren ignored the announcer and pulled the microphone out of the stand, knocking said stand over and bringing the mic to his mouth.
“Yo this is about sharing, right? Well I gotta share the fact that Niijima-senpei is THE super mega hottest mega super babe I’ve ever laid eyes on. Do you have anything to say to that Miss President?”
He held the mic up to her for but a moment, not giving her time to respond before bringing it back to himself.
“It was also announced that you are officially the cutest thing ever, care to comment on that?”
He shoved the mic in front of her completely dumbfounded face for a moment before bringing it back to himself.
“I’m not one to toot my own horn but with a little work I can become a pretty desirable hunk, and I’ve become more hunkalicious over the course of the year, would you agree Miss?”
The mic didn’t even make it half way towards her this time.
“I would like to take this time to announce my candidacy to be your husband.”
“H-H-HUSBAND?!”
“Woah! A stunning proposal right in front of our very eyes!” At least the announcer was enjoying this, as was the crowd if all the murmuring was anything to go by. “Miss President, you’re often seen hanging around the infamous transfer student, care to share the nature of your relationship with him?”
“Our relationship?!”
Ren wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, tipping her backwards slightly because of course he had to be ‘extra’ about it. It was supposed to be a dramatic, romantic gesture before he swept her off her feet and carried her off-stage and away from any more awkward questions, but Ren had forgotten one thing.
They were both still naked.
As he tipped her back, his package was pressed against her hips, a fact they were both very aware of. Another fact they couldn’t ignore was the audience’s stunned silence and rapt attention on the two of them. It wasn’t as if the whole school was here or anything, but there was at least 50 people in the room, and not a single eye was on anything but the two of them embracing.
Ren didn’t consider himself an exhibitionist, he just enjoyed it when Makoto was, although being in this really rather intimate position with his girlfriend before a crowd… it was safe to say Makoto was aware of his arousal, she could currently feel it against her, and see it. Combine this with her heart already beating much faster than usual with his little routine just now, as well as the sensation of being grabbed like this, not to mention still having what they saw that other couple doing still fresh in their minds, top it all off with the constant voice of Anat doing her best Emperor Palpatine impression from within her heart.
‘I’m about to give in to temptation again, aren’t I?’
Her face flushed, her breaths heavy, and her loins noticeably soaked, she looked up to Ren staring down at her.
“Mako… I think I might have gone too far this time…”
“Ren… I think you’re right…” She was happy to admit it- Anat had won this round. “May as well go at little further…”
“M-Mako?”
“I already know I’m going to regret this later but… in my bag… my wallet… you know where they are…”
Ren knew it was his responsibility to put a stop to this, to be the mature person in this relationship, the voice of reason for the both of them, to stop them doing something they’d both regret.
But that’s boring, so he didn’t.
He quickly brought her back to her feet, rushed off stage to grab her bag off the seat next to the one he previously sat in, and threw it back on stage, running around to use the stairs this time (he didn’t want to get ‘little Ren’ caught on the edge of the stage trying to climb it again).
“Oh shit are those two gonna—?”
“FOR REAL?!”
“I didn’t think Niijima-san was the type.”
“Fuck yeah Nudie-prez!”
‘Better to regret something you have done rather than regret something you haven’t’, they were both banking on this being true right now. Actually that was a lie, they weren’t thinking about much of anything beyond fucking, so that’s what they did.
Ren slipped on the condom, tossed the packet aside, grabbed Makoto’s arms from behind, and dove right in.
“AH!” Makoto cried out in pleasure. She looked over her shoulder as best as she could, loving the look on his face, conflicted about what he was doing, but drowning in pleasure. She loved the feeling of him thrusting so passionately inside her.
She looked forwards at the audience. Some where simply stunned still and silent, others staring in disbelief, some where outright cheering (Eiko being by far the loudest and most energetic, hooting and hollering with a shocked- but enraptured- Hifumi sat next to her). She even noticed a few students recording- which was to be expected.
In the past she had always tried to ignore or deny this fact, or at least downplay it, but right now for the first time she fully embraced this truth- that she loved an audience. When exactly this happened she didn’t know, once again she struggled with that dilemma ‘Has this desire always been dormant in me? Or is it as the result of some change related to the nudist program’s sudden appearance?’, and once again she came to the conclusion ‘it doesn’t matter anymore’. This was much like the time she and Ren lost their virginities in Haru’s palace with her clone (she took a moment to reflect on just how weird her life had become), except this time it was way more intense. Not only were they no longer distracted by it being their first time, but now the audience was real, and very enthusiastic. They weren’t a horde of cartoonish ‘high-society’ types treating them as some perverse entertainment, they were a group of teenagers going wild at what would probably go down in history as the most daring way to make one’s relationship public in Shujin history. The movements of their bodies, the sounds of flesh slapping against flesh, her making no effort to hide her moans, her breasts flying up and down, all in full view of their peers. Yeah this was far too amazing an experience for her to ever regret, she found the orgasm of a lifetime approaching her rapidly.
“Ren… I’m close.”
“Heh… I’m… ugh…”
The pair fell to their knees, but it didn’t slow their thrusting any. They began to lean back, Makoto pumping her hips forwards and backwards until it finally came. The crowd went near-silent as she cried out skywards, the pair falling backwards as she squirted out in front of her and off the stage, very nearly hitting the front row of chairs (the newspaper club girl dodging out of the way at the last second). Makoto’s convulsions pushed Ren over the edge too, and soon he could no longer keep up his thrusting, and the both collapsed onto the stage.
The gymnasium was silent, as Ren was the first of the two to regain the energy to sit up. As he looked out at the crowd staring at the two of them in awkward silence, it was fair to say some post-nut clarity was hitting.
“Okay… this is the quintessential example of having gone too far…”
Makoto didn’t respond, she was still coming down from her orgasm, panting as she lay on her front. Ren slid off his condom, just leaving it on the floor as he picked the mic back up and forcing himself back to his feet.
“Oh uh…” he spoke into the mic. “What’s the deal with yakisoba bread? No matter how quickly you go afterschool they’re always sold out? Who's getting out of class early just for that?”
He limped over to where he had knocked over the mic stand and stood it back up, restlessly tilting it back and forth with his non-mic-holding hand.
“I figured out why they call him Goro Akechi, because Detective Goro A-catch-ii’s the criminals!”
It was hard to know where the stunned silence left in the wake of their public sex show ended, and where the deafening silence left in the wake of Ren’s impromptu stand-up routine began.
“Goro A-CATCH-II’S the criminals!”
“R-Ren?”
He lowered the mic.
“Yeah Mako?”
“I think we need to leave, right now.”
“I think you’re right…” He brought the mic back up and tried to put it back in the stand. “You’ve been a great crowd, tip your waitress and whatever.” He gave up with the mic, let it drop to the ground, and scooped up Makoto into a princess-carry (as she grabbed her bag) and sprinted out of the gym at top speed.
The announcer stood near the edge of the stage dumbfounded, watching the couple leave. He looked back to the stage, at the discarded condom lying prominently near the centre of the stage.
“I’m not picking that up.”
~ ~ ~
“We’ve really made fools of ourselves…”
“You can say that again Mako…”
The couple sat against the fence together on the school’s roof, staring up at the night sky.
“We’re not going to face any legal consequences or punishments thanks to the program, but that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of students saw us… and news will likely spread soon…”
“Tomorrow is going to be… interesting…”
“Yeah…”
Makoto smiled at Ren.
“Though I’m surprised you were able to say the things you did back there.”
“I’m surprised at the things YOU said there.”
“Heheh… me too. I’m beginning to think I don’t have as much self-control as I’ve been giving myself credit for.”
“Well I’m evidently no better…”
Makoto laughed.
“I would say you’re pretty reliable in a pinch, though can’t help but feel there were a hundred better ways we could have handled that…”
“Sorry.”
“But still, you got me out of that awkward situation, I was at a loss for words, I was so scared I’d give something away.” She smiled wistfully. “My sister would always talk about how if I were to get married it should be to someone dependable like that… not that she’d call what happened ‘dependable’, but still.” Her eyes suddenly went wide, as she sat up and looked to Ren flustered. “N-not that… forget what I just said!”
“The husband offer is still good by the way.”
“Oh don’t tease me!” She turned away, her face red.
“I’m not, I love the idea of being Ren Niijima.”
“Huh? You’d take my surname?”
“I’d prefer that honestly.”
“But what about your family?”
“…”
“Ren.”
“…”
“Ren don’t suddenly go silent on me.”
“We can’t go straight from a public sex show to that type of discussion…”
“I… I suppose not. Fine, you get away this time, but I will ask you again.”
“You’ll ask me about our surname for after we get married?”
“You’re a very reliable man, but in THE most annoying way possible.”
“Heh, sorry.”
Makoto sighed.
“So should we head back?”
Makoto leant against Ren’s shoulder.
“Let’s stay here a little while longer.”
“…Yeah, this is nice.”
“And the longer we can put off facing the consequences of our actions the better.”
“Agreed.”
“…”
“…”
“…Ren?”
“Mm?”
“Did you see… the others in the crowd?”
“They were up in the rafters at the time…”
“…Shit…”
“Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare.”
“Mm…”
Notes:
It had to happen eventually...
Also there's a reason other "public sex" stories/ porn just fade to white or something as soon as the orgasm hits, that's kind of an awkward situation to just... move on from afterwardsAlso in case you're wondering, Kawakami going nudist isn't something I did to make up for the bait a few chapters back, it was the plan right from the beginning, the bait included- and I'd do it again.
Chapter 53: The consequences of my actions, so we meet again...
Summary:
Yeah people don't just forget about something like that
Chapter Text
After managing to avoid any further encounters with their fellow Shujin students, and avoiding drawing any more attention to themselves than is necessary for a public nudist and her now-clothed boyfriend, the couple said their goodbyes for the night, and Makoto now approached her apartment looking forward to a nice long shower to try and put today’s events out of her mind.
Actually that was a lie, today’s events were fantastic, at least everything that came after Akechi’s threat to them, she could do with putting that out of her mind. No what really bothered her were tomorrow’s events, having to face her friends and peers again after putting on the show of a lifetime at the end of the school culture festival.
‘Was it worth it?’ she asked herself, and she honestly wasn’t sure, it would depend on exactly how people react when she goes back to school tomorrow. The problem with the plus side being amazing sex and the orgasm of a lifetime, or really the problem with orgasms in general is that the ‘before’ and ‘during’ are both incredible, the ‘after’ is kinda ‘meh’, and tends to last the longest of the three. She found herself kind of wishing Akechi had been stripped for the panel after all- he’s a prominent enough public figure that that kind of thing would draw away most of the attention.
She sighed as she walked through her apartment door, no use worrying. She’d enjoy this evening in blissful denial of the consequences of her actions, and face whatever fate awaited her tomorrow with her head held high… or hung low to avoid attention- whichever she deemed more effective for getting through it all, she’d play it by ear.
“I’m home.”
“You’re late.”
Sae was home again, another rare treat. That’d make it easier for Makoto to forget about her life outside this apartment.
“The culture festival ran long.” Makoto wiped off her feet, rested her bag down, and entered the main living area.
“Oh.” Sae nodded, briefly taking her eyes off her laptop and looking listlessly forwards. “That was today, was it? Now that you mention it I remember Akechi-kun mentioning something about that.”
“He came to speak at the school, he’s quite the celebrity.”
“I see. Anything happen that I should know about?”
It was a good thing Makoto was behind Sae- standing in the kitchen- that meant her sister couldn’t see her suddenly freeze solid in terror.
‘Oh god, how could I forget about Sis?’ Makoto thought as she looked back at Sae still typing away. ‘If she learns about what happened…’
“N-nothing really, Akechi didn’t say anything he hasn’t already said on TV a bunch of times, and the rest of the festival was… pretty run-of-the-mill.”
Sae exhaled lightly.
“I see, I guess that’s to be expected.”
Makoto waited a few more moments in anxious silence, it didn’t seem like there was a sudden turnaround or accusation coming, maybe she was in the clear? For now at least.
“I’m going to take a shower before I start on dinner if that’s okay Sis? It’s been a long day.”
“That’s fine, we’ve still got leftovers, I’ll just heat those up for today.”
“Sure, thanks Sis.”
“Mm.”
Makoto strolled as casually as she could down the hall and into the bathroom, breathing a muted sigh of relief as she closed the door behind her.
‘I guess she’s unlikely to find out. The footage is no doubt on the internet, but Sae isn’t searching for that kind of thing, so unless someone explicitly shows it to her, we’ll be fine…’ These thoughts didn’t make Makoto feel any less uneasy. ‘I’ll have to see if Futaba can do a little bit of damage control, stop it spreading too far… if that’s even possible…’
She stepped into the shower and turned the dials, letting the warm water wash over her body. One advantage to nudism she always appreciated was the ability to just walk in the shower right after getting home without having to change before or after, it was a subtle feeling of freedom, but one she genuinely enjoyed.
Letting out a heavy sigh as she leant against the wall, she contemplated. Her debut sex tape was hardly the only thing she had to worry about in relation to her sister. Akechi wanted them to target Sae’s palace next, giving the girl very mixed feelings, not least of which was concern for her sister’s safety. Yes, Sae had changed a lot over the years, and not necessarily for the better, she honestly didn’t think it was worth such an extreme measure as a ‘change of heart’, not to mention they couldn’t be certain of what Akechi’s true end goal was, though Ren and Morgana seemed to be remarkably relaxed about that, clearly being aware of something she and the rest of the group weren’t, but couldn’t safely share at the time. She resolved to trust in her boyfriend’s confidence, he hadn’t let her down yet, so she didn’t think he’d start now. They’d discuss their plans going forward at a later date.
She wasn’t looking forward to such a discussion, with or without Akechi there, but it was preferable to the relentless teasing she’d probably receive about her history-making footnote of her final culture festival, but only slightly. She wished time would just stop and she put off these two nightmares and enjoy the bliss of her warm shower forever.
~ ~ ~
But the passage of time was cruel, and unrelenting.
Makoto and Ren sat beside eachother on the train in awkward, uncomfortable silence on the way to school, the crowds thankfully shielding them from their schoolmates for the most part, but they’ve already gotten a few amused looks and chuckles behind their back during their commute. Word hadn’t spread to everyone thankfully, but it seemed the Shujin student body were all aware.
“Okay I don’t want to tempt fate, but if this is as bad as it gets I think we’ll be alright.”
“You’ve said that eight times already, it’s gonna get worse Ren…”
“I know, I’m just hoping it’ll become true one of these times I say it.”
They went back to silence, but quickly decided against remaining that way when they heard the chatter start back up.
“So how’d things go with Sojiro?”
“Oh right I forgot to tell you… Boss found…” Ren looked around, choosing his words very carefully since they were still in public. “He found Futaba’s… card.”
“Card?” Makoto tilted her head a moment, before her eyes suddenly went wide. “Oh… THAT card.”
“Yeah…”
“And?”
“Well, long story short he’s… going to keep the secret, and we can carry on with our plans. Futaba was scared at the time, but I think everything will be alright.”
“So bottom line is- Boss knows.”
“Yes, but it shouldn’t cause problems.”
“I hate to get him involved if it’s not necessary, but I guess what’s done is done.”
“We’ll all discuss it in more detail later, same with your sister, we’re pulling into our station.”
“One nightmare at a time I guess…”
“Time to face the music…”
~ ~ ~
“Holy shit that’s them.”
“And I still thought just being nude was insane.”
“I’ve watched that climax back so many times I nearly forgot what her normal face looked like.”
“You don’t think they’ll do it again, do you?”
“I doubt it, but still, wow…”
Ren sighed.
“All fairly expected so far.” He spoke quietly so that only Makoto could hear (and his hidden Morgana of course).
“This part isn’t so bad, it’s not that different to the early days where people would talk behind my back about the nudity.” Despite her words, Makoto’s face and ears were bright red. Not to say Ren wasn’t blushing too, but his quite literally paled in comparison to the red of ‘Tomato Niijima’. “It’s the others that are going to be… interesting.”
“Okay, genuine question Mako.”
“Shoot.”
“Is it better we tackle them together or alone?”
“Um…”
“Will they tease us more or less if we face them together?”
“I… I’m not sure, but I think this is one of those problems we need to tackle together, as a couple.”
Ren thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Right, you’re right. I love you, and so long as I have you by my side, I’m ready to face ANY hardship.”
Makoto smiled.
“Th-thank you. Same here. I know I can count on you, and I want you to count on me too. We’ll face it all together, as equals.”
She gathered her resolve, took a hold of his hand, and squeezed. Ren could feel her determination flowing out of her, and tried to match it with his own as he squeezed back.
“Y’know this might be a touching, romantic moment, if it weren’t for the fact that you two are just talking about getting your just desserts after literally fucking on stage in front of everyone you know.”
“Shut up Mona or I’m dumping you in a bush and getting a new bag.”
“I’m just saying—”
“Well don’t.”
“No Ren, let him speak. We need to face this head-on, we can’t just silence our friends.”
“Mako?”
“Trust me, we can do this.”
“If you say so…” Ren shook his head. “Actually yeah, you’re right. Let’s do this properly…”
Operation post-public sex show teasing survival (PPSST) begins!
Warm-up round: Morgana.
“Say what you want to say Morgana.”
“Well Joker, I wanted to say that firstly, what you did was… out-there, to put it nicely.”
“Can’t really argue with that…” Makoto sighed.
“But even putting that aside, you chose literally the worst possible time to do that, we’re facing probably the greatest threat of our whole career, we need to be level-headed and methodical now more than ever, and yet you two are apparently embracing your animal instincts in full public view?”
“A valid point. But I’d like to raise a counterpoint: Fuck off.”
“Ren, we can do better than that.” Makoto groaned. “I disagree Mona. While one could argue putting on such a show at all was perhaps a mistake, I’d say that the timing was ideal.”
“What’s your logic there?”
“My reasoning is two-fold: One- PT reputation is at an all time low, people are talking about us but none of it is good. Having the festival scandal to distract from that could only be a good thing.”
“Debatable.”
“Two- our emotions were indeed unstable after what happened with Akechi-kun, we can’t afford to make reckless decisions in regards to how we deal with his demands. Thus it’s best to get those feelings out of our system and clear our heads with something completely unrelated, that won’t put the team at risk. Now that we’ve done something so extreme, we can approach the real threats with a clear head.”
“I…” Morgana rested his head against the edge of the bag. “I guess that makes some sense…” he sighed. “Fine, I still don’t approve, but I guess I won’t give you a hard time about it.”
He was reluctant to admit it, but he found himself actually agreeing with her logic. Ren looked at her- impressed- he even started believing it himself. Meaning the only one of the three who didn’t buy it at all was Makoto herself, she knew it was obviously bullshit, but it’s worth it to keep the notcat quiet.
PPSST Warm-up round results: VICTORY
PPSST Round 1: Ryuji Sakamoto
“DUDE!” Even from the literal opposite end of the hallway Ryuji’s shocked cry thundered over to the couple, Morgana even covering his ears at the noise. “DUDE!” He shouted again as he sprinted towards them as fast as his bad leg would carry him, knocking into no less than five girls on the way, not that he stopped (the couple wondered if he even noticed, and hoped the one that fell over wasn’t injured in any way).
“Uh… hey man.” Ren waved sheepishly. “What’s up?”
“Did that really happen?”
“Hm?”
“Like, I didn’t just dream it, did I?”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a look, they were both REALLY tempted to just say ‘yes’ and call this round a victory right now, but they realized it would only be a matter of time before such a lie would be exposed and they’d have an even harder time dealing with him.
Ren, standing up straight, trying to hide any feelings of embarrassment he was harbouring.
“That really did happen. Me and Makoto did…” He side-eyed her for a split second before looking back to Ryuji “…put on an improvised performance of sorts.”
“HOLY SHIT DUDE!”
“Ryuji, we’re right next to you, please don’t shout.”
“BUT MAKOTO- YOU LITERALLY FUCKED ON STAGE!”
“I-I know, I was there…”
“DUDE!”
“Is that all you know how to say now?”
“DUDE!”
“Okay how about this- do you think you’ll get this out of your system by the time school ends? One ‘dude’ for ‘yes’, two ‘dude’s for ‘no’.”
“BUT DUDE! YOU LIKE… YOU REALLY… DUDE!”
Morgana chuckled.
“That’s two ‘dude’s, the bonehead isn’t gonna drop this that easily… hell, he can’t even finish a sentence.”
“Ryuji…” Makoto shot her best patented Niijima glare at the boy, and it was successful enough to at least get him to stop shouting ‘dude’ over and over.
“But… how’d you have the balls to do something like that? I’ve never seen anything like that, even in porn.”
“I’m guessing you don’t read doujins then?”
“Ren?”
“N-nevermind Mako, it’s nothing…” An idea suddenly struck Ren, he turned to Makoto. “Trust me a second here.”
“Huh?”
Makoto watched confused as Ren dragged Ryuji a few steps away and whispered into his ear.
“How’s this for a deal- you stop mentioning the festival scandal, and I overlook the fact that you’ve been masturbating to my girlfriend’s nudes for months now?”
Ryuji recoiled, sensing sudden danger signals emanating off of Ren he never noticed before.
“H-how did you know?”
“Because you just told me.”
“…oh…”
Ren lent in again.
“I like you, you’re my bro, so I wouldn’t do anything regardless, but I wonder about how Makoto would feel about it…”
Ryuji looked to Makoto with true terror in his eyes- confusing the baffled girl.
“You’ll keep quiet if I do?”
Ren nodded, serene smile on his face.
“Deal.” Ryuji walked back to his original spot near Makoto. “So how about those midterms huh?”
“Midterms?” Makoto tilted her head.
“Yeah, since that’s like, the only thing on my mind right now, heheh…” Ryuji stared off to the side, avoiding eye contact. “That and the whole Akechi thing, which is really the only thing I remember from the festival, the only thing at all…”
Ren rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder, well it’d be more accurate to say he gripped the shoulder, significantly harder than was perhaps necessary.
“We better get to class, huh Ryuji?”
“Y-yeah! I love some… class me…” Ryuji spun around and ran up the stairs. “L-later!”
Makoto watched him scramble out of sight before turning back to Ren.
“What did you say to him?”
Ren brought a finger to his lips.
“Just trust me this time, okay?”
“…Okay…?”
The reality of it was that Makoto just assumed he was masturbating to her anyway, lots of people did, she came to terms with it early on so that she could just put it out of her mind and never think of it again- at least not with Ryuji.
PPSST Round 1 results: VICTORY
A sudden shiver shot down Makoto’s spine, enough for Ren to notice.
“You okay Mako?”
“I just felt… something terrifying.” She looked behind, as if trying to spot someone.
“Like what?”
“Just…” She shook her head. “Nevermind, let’s move on.”
PPSST Round 2: Ann Takamaki
“What the actual hell is wrong with you two?”
“Couples have sex Ann, it’s normal.”
“Not in school they don’t! Or in front of others! Or on camera!”
Ren shrugged.
“I dunno, high school is the age where you’ve got the most hormones pumping through you, it’s not that far fetched to think highschoolers fuck now and again.”
“I don’t mean school-aged, that is normal… sort of, I mean IN SCHOOL!”
“Details, who needs ‘em?”
“It’s a pretty important detail!”
“As for ‘in front of others’, I dunno, I think voyeurism is more popular than you might think.”
“And that justifies it… how?”
“And for cameras—”
“Just going to ignore my question, huh?”
“I mean… cameras aren’t uncommon either. In fact, I heard a rumor that there’s this WHOLE industry based around having sex in front of a camera, it’s a pretty big one too.”
“Smart-ass.”
“Thank you.”
“Not a compliment.”
“I’ll take it as one anyway.”
Ann turned to Makoto.
“What about you? Why are you so quiet?”
“…”
“Makoto?”
“…”
“Makoto don’t ignore me!”
“Sorry Ann, I’m the star of the show right now, she’s temporarily a background character, please try not to pay attention to her.”
“What the hell are you talking about Ren?”
“What did you think of my stand-up routine at the end by the way?”
“Wha—as if I’m gonna pay attention to that nonsense after what you two did.”
“Really? I thought the Akechi pun was good, it deserved a bigger laugh.”
“It didn’t get one at all…”
“Exactly.”
Ann rubbed her eyes in frustration.
“I’m sorry Ren, but your ‘annoy Ann until she goes away and stops talking about the embarrassing thing we did’ plan isn’t going to work.”
Ren’s expression dropped.
“Damn, so you saw right through me, huh?”
“I’ve known you long enough now, it’s why you asked Makoto to stay silent, right?”
Makoto let out a tiny, embarrassed whine.
“I’m not dropping this until I figure out what the hell was going through your heads.”
Makoto sighed.
“Okay Ann, I’ll tell you how the sex felt later, deal?”
“Now was that so hard?” Ann smiled and waved as she walked off. “I’ll hold you to that Makoto! See you in class Ren!”
“Want me to be there for that Mako?”
“Hm… no, your emotional support isn’t going to make up for how embarrassing it’ll be describing our own sex in front of you.”
“I guess…”
“And I don’t want to boost your ego too much.”
“Ah, so I really was good then?”
“Shut up Ren.”
“I think that’s the reason I like the fact that you’re a squirter, that way there’s no doubt I’m doing a good jo—OW!”
“I said shut up.”
PPSST Round 2 results: VICTORY
“AAH!”
“Again Mako?”
Makoto spun around, but once again saw nothing.
“I got that feeling again.”
“Is someone following us?”
“I feel like something is out there, hidden, waiting for a chance to strike.”
“I know what you mean, even I’m feeling it a little now.”
“Let’s get to class quickly.”
“Let’s.”
PPSST Round 3: Haru Okumura
“You’re the most amazing couple I’ve ever met.”
“Um… thanks?” Makoto was not timid by any means, she was willing to face danger head on most of the time, but now at least she made sure to very subtly position herself behind Ren as she spoke.
“In fact, I doubt there’s another couple as amazing as you anywhere in the world.”
“You’re exaggerating…” Ren flinched back, raising a protective arm in front of Makoto as Haru shuffled a few steps towards them.
“I’m certainly not, I’ve never even dreamed of seeing something so amazing.”
The couple tried to ignore Haru conspicuously rubbing her thighs together. It was easier said than done.
“To think you’d go all the way like that in full view, and to think I’d be lucky enough to witness it myself, first-hand. Oh how I wish I could have been closer, maybe even in the front row. Newspaper-chan missed an opportunity, jumping out of the way like that at the end.”
“Newspaper-chan?”
“Do you ever think you could do something like that again?”
“No.”
“C’mon Mako-chan. I’ll be sure to get the best seat in the house next time.”
“We said ‘no’ Haru.”
“Oh…” Haru’s shoulders dropped. “I guess that makes sense, you’re never going to get another opportunity like that anyway…”
“That’s not the reason why we’re not doing it again, but yeah I guess that is true too.”
“OH!” Haru perked right back up again. “Maybe you could come around my house and do it?”
“Around your house?”
“I’ll set up a little performance area for you, make sure the lighting is good, some proper high-quality cameras too. I’ll even get my staff to come along and simulate the audience for you.”
“Not in a million years.”
“Aw but Mako-chan…”
“We’re not about to become porn stars.”
“I mean, you are now whether you like it or not.”
“It was a one-off.”
Ren shrugged.
“It’s one thing to have a leaked sex tape, it’s another to deliberately sit down and actually make porn.”
“I’m not sure you can call it ‘leaked’ when it was so public…” Makoto mumbled.
“Okay okay.” Haru pouted. “No cameras then. That’ll give us more room for an audience anyway.”
“We’re not having sex for your staff.”
“How about just for me then? An audience of one?”
“Deal.”
“REN?!”
“I’m a believer in cutting our losses, and I think this is as good a deal as we’re gonna get.”
“Ren I don’t know if—”
“Oh goodie!” Haru hopped up and down in place, shaking both their hands. “We’ll decide on a date and venue later on down the line. Anyway, I’m late for class, I’ll be looking forward to the show!”
“Haru-chan! Wait!”
“She’s already gone Makoto…”
“You and I are going to have words Ren…”
PPSST Round 3 results: VICTORY?
A notification went off on Ren’s phone, he pulled it out.
“It’s Futaba.”
“Oo oo!” Morgana excitedly shook inside the bag. “I guess that means it’s time for:”
PPSST Bonus Round: Futaba Sakura
“Okay Morgana, I’ve been meaning to ask, why do you keep doing that?”
“Because it’s fun Queen. I like announcing stuff like that, makes this feel more like an event, y’know?”
“I don’t want this to be an event, but fine, whatever.” Makoto groaned. “So what does she say Ren?”
“She sent me a clip of us having sex on stage, and simply said ‘kek’.”
“What does ‘kek’ mean?”
“It’s a substitute for ‘lol’.”
“…”
“’Lots of laughter’.”
“Thank you.” Makoto nodded. “What are you going to say back to her?”
Ren locked his phone and slid it back into his pocket.
“Nothing.”
PPSST Bonus Round results: VICTORY
The couple finally split off and made their way to their respective classes, doing their absolute best to ignore their classmates’ amused looks and probing questions. Ren being mildly disappointed to see Kawakami clothed again; she ignored most of the classes questions about her nudity yesterday, but did at least say she was still thinking about sighing up properly, just not immediately. Ren pretended not to care either way, but secretly hoped she would join sooner rather than later. And mostly he was just grateful for people to be distracted from him and his scandal for a while- not that it lasted.
“I knew he was a criminal, but I didn’t think he was a sex criminal too.”
“Do you think he’s gonna try to do the same to any of us?”
“Is it wrong that part of me hopes so?”
“…Yes, yes it is wrong.”
“I mean the president seemed really into it. He’s scary, but he’s definitely good…”
Ren didn’t show it, but he was enjoying having his ego stroked like this.
Meanwhile Makoto had similar problems in her class. There were of course people just openly demeaning her and calling her a slut, which was nothing new- she had been dealing with that since she went nudist (though she had a harder time denying the label now). But the amount of questions she was getting bombarded with was reminding her of those early days, back when her nudity really was an embarrassing experience, where she had to fake the confidence that had become so genuine now.
Though thankfully this time, despite her embarrassment, she really was more confident. She would still be blushing, but she’d otherwise maintain her composure though all the questioning, and had the strength to put her foot down and refuse to answer any questions that made her too uncomfortable.
“Come on now everyone, let’s give Mako-chan some space. Let the poor girl breathe.”
“Th-thanks Haru.”
Haru placed herself between Makoto’s desk and the crowd (or at least, one side of it, she was surrounded after all), with a confident smile on her face.
“It’s not right for us to trouble her so much so quickly, we should pace our questions and not make her uncomfortable.”
“Um…” Makoto was a little less sure about that part.
“But Okumura-san—”
“It’s fine. Let’s get back to our seats for now, and we’ll discuss our actions going forward at the next Makoto fanclub meeting.”
“Okumura-san!” One of the male students hissed. “We’re not supposed to mention it around her.”
“Oh!” Haru brought both of her hands over her mouth.
“What was that about a fanclub?”
“N-nevermind Mako-chan, it was nothing at all.”
“No no, you definitely mentioned something about a fanclub, do I have a fanclub?”
“No I didn’t.” Haru shamelessly smiled down at her.
“Yeah yo—”
“To your seats everyone!” A random student called out, everyone suddenly rushing back to their own desk.
“H-huh?” Makoto looked around at everyone in shock. “No don’t just brush it off, what was—”
“Shh!” The boy sat in front of her spun around to silence her. “We’re trying to study.”
“You weren’t a moment ago!”
The teacher entered the room, and no one spoke a word for the rest of the lesson. Makoto was left feeling deceived and strangely violated, and Mr. Urushimaru was left pleasantly surprised by how well behaved the class was today.
And through it all- not just the class, but the whole day- Makoto couldn’t shake that feeling of someone watching her…
~ ~ ~
“Uuuggghhh…”
“Rough day Makoto?”
“You ask some dumb questions sometimes.” She groaned as she plodded out of the front of the school.
“Sorry…”
“It’s fine. Just one headache inducing interrogation after another.”
“No kidding…”
“They’ll get bored eventually, right?”
“They’ll run out of questions at least.”
“I guess that’s good enough.”
The couple made their way down the stairs and turned the corner, eager to get to the station and relax at home as soon as possible. But their path was blocked by four people.
“Uh-oh…”
Morgana briefly poked his head out of Ren’s bag to see.
“Oho?”
PPSST Round 4: The Kosei crew
“We saw what happened Niijima-san.” Norio stood at the front of the group, arms-crossed, eyes locked onto Makoto’s.
“I see…”
“It was… rather bold.” Yusuke nodded.
“That’s an understatement.” Kameko rubbed her eyes. “We’re trying to make some real social progress with our nudity, and then you go and do something like that.”
“Well…” Makoto faltered a little. “I guess we did go a little too far.”
“A little?”
“Okay we went WAY too far, but uh… it’s not that big a deal, right?”
Kameko stared judgementally for a few more seconds, before glancing to her side at Mai, who had remained notably silent this whole time.
“Uh… is she okay?” Ren asked cautiously.
Mai took a step towards Makoto.
“Um, Mai-san? Everything alright?”
“Alright?” She took another aggressive step forwards. “You’re seriously asking me that after what happened? After what everyone saw?”
Ren was halfway expecting her to throw a punch at this stage, he readied himself to jump in should Makoto need help. Makoto herself was struggling to find a way to respond, and prepared herself to dodge backwards should she lunge. Though she had underestimated Mai’s speed, the girl closing the gap with speed that could only be called ‘inhuman’, she tightly grasped Makoto’s shoulders and began shaking her.
“THAT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I’VE EVER SEEN!”
“Huh?” Is what Makoto would have said, were she not still being violently shaken.
“You’re incredible Niijima-san!”
The shaking eventually stopped, a mildly sick-feeling Makoto looked forwards to see Mai openly sobbing inches away from her face, before she was suddenly pulled in for a rather painful hug.
“To fully reject shame! To take what the world would demean you for and shove it in their faces! To take control and achieve Nirvana without letting anyone stop you! You are a true hero Niijima-san.”
“Mai-san, I-I can’t breathe…” Makoto had heard of a ‘choking fetish’ before, combine that was Mai’s breasts pressing against her own so hard, and she could safely say she definitely did NOT have such a fetish. “For the love of god let me go…”
“Uh, Toda-san?” Ren went to pull her away. “Could you maybe let her—”
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Mai slapped his hand away, but thankfully in the process let Makoto free, who was now leaning against Ren, gasping for air. “I’ll forgive you for your contribution to Niijima-san’s awe-inspiring performance, but I won’t have your lust-driven hands anywhere near me!”
“I hear you loud and clear.” Ren figured his best play was to just play along and do what she said.
Eventually Makoto regained her ability to breathe normally again, and she turned back to the rest of the Kosei-crew (keeping a safe distance of course).
“So you guys… liked that performance?”
“Eh…” Kameko shrugged. “I guess it’s a powerful statement, but I think you’re a crazy slut to be honest.”
“HOW DARE YOU!” Mai spun around, enraged. “How can you demean a woman’s pride like that?!”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“Surely you can see! A woman commanding her sexuality without shame, screaming out to the world ‘You can’t control me! My body is my own! I am powerful!’”
Kameko chuckled.
“Really? Since to me she it just sounded like she was crying out ‘UUUOOOAAAHHH REEEEN!’ while pissing herself.”
“Squirt isn’t piss! It’s PRIDE!” Mai swung her arm in a dramatic gesture, pointing at Yusuke. “Come! We must follow suit! Have sex with me now!”
“U-um… that’s a little bit…”
“UGH” She threw her arms up into the air. “Useless wimp! Norio! Have sex with me this instant!”
“Ew, no.”
“YOU RAT BASTARD!”
Ren discreetly poked Makoto in the side.
“I think we should leave now.”
“Agreed.”
The couple snuck off while Mai continued to roar at her fellow artists and pose dramatically, running as fast as they could towards the station.
PPSST Round 4 results: SURVIVAL
~ ~ ~
“What a day…” Makoto groaned as she trudged through the front door to her apartment. “I’m home.”
She called out, but heard no response.
“Sis must still be at work…” She sighed. “Probably for the best, I don’t want her seeing me like this.”
She dropped her bag on the ground and marched towards the bathroom, ready to put the nightmare that was today behind her. But she heard the doorbell go off when she was already halfway through the door.
“What now?”
She begrudgingly returned to the door, not even bothering to look through the peephole. She threw the door open, not hiding her contempt as she did so, but saw that there was no one there.
“Huh?” She poked her head out of the door, looking left and right, but seeing naught but an empty hallway on both sides. “Am I going mad? I’m hearing things because of stress now, wonderful…”
She closed the door, sighing once more as her shoulders dropped. She turned back around only to discover a figure blocking her path. She screamed and instinctively threw a punch at the intruder, stopping just short of her target when she realized who it was.
“HEEEEEYAAAA NUDIE PREEEZ!”
PPSST Boss round: Eiko Takao
“Eiko?! How the hell did you get in?”
“You just opened the door for me silly.”
“But—but you were—”
“Nevermind that. What matters is I followed you home so we could—”
“Back up, you followed me home?”
“Well I’ve never been before, how else was I supposed to find it?”
“I dunno- ask? Like a normal person?”
“Aww, so we are good enough friends for me to ask? Thanks Mako-chan.”
“Don’t act as if this is in any way okay!”
“Whatever, I brought food!” Eiko lifted up a plastic bag with some take-out. “You like Chinese right?”
“…It’s okay, I guess.” Makoto shook her head and stepped into the apartment proper. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I just wanted to talk about the thing.”
“The thing?” Makoto asked, as if she didn’t already know what ‘the thing’ referred to. She realized her mistake when she saw Eiko step back and bolt the front door shut.
“Time for me to grill you on the most amazing culture festival I’ve ever been to.”
“U-um…”
“And you’re gonna tell me ALL about it. What led up to it, what you were thinking, what you two did afterwards, and most importantly- exactly how it felt.”
“I really don’t—”
“And don’t worry, I already let my family know I’ll be staying the night.”
“The night?”
“Oh I plan to be thorough.” Eiko had a huge grin on her face as she stepped forward, pushing Makoto further into her own home. “This is gonna be the best ‘girl talk’ either of us have ever had…”
PPSST Boss round results: FAILURE
Chapter 54: Casino
Summary:
Dipping some bare toes into Sae's palace
Notes:
Bit on the shorter side, another chapter just taking a single step forward in the plot, as is necessary sometimes.
Also- more fanart! This time from FEFreak726
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/109408277
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“A… a casino?”
“I don’t really know your sister Queen, is this… aesthetic normal for her?”
“It’s pretty unexpected Joker, I’ve not seen anything but her professional side for years now…”
“Perhaps things will make more sense once we head inside?”
“Uh… yeah Akechi…”
Makoto’s gaze- as well as everyone elses- lingered on their newest (albeit temporary) member Goro Akechi as he curiously examined what was once the courthouse but now exhibited all the Las Vegas-style gaudiness one would expect from a high-end casino. It wasn’t long before he became uncomfortable with everyone staring at him.
“Is something the matter?”
“Um… no, it’s just your outfit.”
“Ah yes well…” Akechi shrugged. “It’s a bit flashy I must admit, but this is simply the form my own will manifested in.”
“I mean…” Ren began. “From the neck down your outfit is actually kinda cool, I can dig it.”
“Why thank you Amamiya-kun, yours is rather striking as well, all of your outfits are, even…” He avoided looking at Makoto too long, almost every action he performed felt rehearsed and rather artificial, but his discomfort from seeing Makoto’s extremely lewd thief clothes was definitely genuine. “Are you… quite sure this is normal for Niijima-san?”
“Uh yeah?” Ryuji shrugged. “I guess, I stopped noticing after a while…”
“’Stopped noticing’ my ass Skull, you’re staring at her bits every free moment in the metaverse!”
“Can you blame me Ann? That’s SO much more erotic than just being naked… uh… n-not that I meant anything bad Makoto- I uh—”
“It’s fine Skull, I understand.” Makoto sighed. “And remember- codenames.”
“R-right, sorry Queen.”
“Okay.” Akechi shrugged. “I guess if that… ‘outfit’ is the norm for our ‘Queen’ then there’s nothing to worry about…” He smiled at the rest of the thieves, flinching almost imperceptibly when he noticed Futaba’s painted torso, and hiding his concern when he noticed Haru’s own appreciation of said outfits showing quite visibly through her top. “Good lord…”
“What was that?” Haru raised an eyebrow.
“N-nothing, I was just marvelling at the really rather flashy palace.”
“R-right…”
“Back to your outfit Akechi…”
“I thought you liked it Amamiya-kun?”
“I said ‘from the neck down’… what’s going on with the mask?”
“FINALLY someone mentions it.” Yusuke threw his arms up into the air. “The bright red is striking, and I understand you’re going for a ‘tengu’ look with the long nose… but good lord.”
“What’s wrong with the nose?”
“Why is it so pointy?” Futaba shuffled in uncomfortably close, uncomfortably fast, Akechi having to supress his urge to retreat a few steps back. “It looks like a droopy bird beak.”
“I can help but worry he’ll look downwards too quickly and slit his own throat.”
“The fact that that’s actually a reasonable concern Panther is… well it’s odd, that’s all I can say.”
“I mean… I didn’t design the outfit.” It was hard to tell, but Akechi’s upper lip curled in annoyance just a little bit.
“Akechi’s right, we’re here to do a serious job, we shouldn’t be standing around making fun of his nose.”
“Thank you Amamiya-kun…”
“Even if he’d give anyone he tried to kiss a free nose piercing.”
“…”
“Or maybe he could stick a big piece of cheese on the end and eat it hands free.”
“…”
“Maybe we could use it to pick a few locks while we’re here.”
“Amamiya-kun…”
“I didn’t bring a pen, so we might need you to get down on all fours and draw out our plan in the dirt here.”
“Amamiya-kun.”
“If at any point we fall from a high place, we might need you to quickly stick it into the wall and we’ll hang off your legs.”
“Amamiya-kun.”
“They likely serve alcohol here, you can open the bottles for us.”
“AMAMIYA-KUN!”
“I’m only joking, we’re minors so we’re not gonna drink, that’d be illegal.”
“We say- as thieves…” Futaba rolled her eyes.
“Can we…” Akechi took a calming breath. “I hate to be pushy, but can we get to work? I’d like to take care of this as quickly as possible. I’m sure this is especially hard on Niijima-san.”
Makoto nodded.
“Akechi is right, we shouldn’t be standing around making jokes.”
“I guess you’re right Queen, sorry.”
“It’s quite all right Joker. Come on everyone, Akechi- make yourself useful and help us sniff out the treasure.”
“What?”
Makoto ignored him and began heading up the stairs towards the entrance, the others following closely behind her. Akechi turned to Ren.
“What was that for?”
“Who nose?”
~ ~ ~
“No sign of your sister yet Niijima-san…”
“Codenames, she’s ‘Queen’ while we’re here.”
“Ah, my sincere apologies. But ‘Queen’?” Akechi smirked. “Quite the codename.”
“It suits her.”
Akechi eyed her sceptically.
“I suppose I can’t argue with that…”
“Don’t we need a codename for him too?”
“Good point Skull.” Ren turned back to Akechi. “Any thoughts?”
“Hmm… I suppose I should conform… how about ‘Karasu’?”
“Denied.”
“Hm? Why would that be Sakura-san?”
“It can’t be in Japanese, it clashes with everyone else’s names, gotta be English.”
“But Okumura-san is named ‘Noir’.”
“She’s an exception because we like her.”
“And you’re not fond of me?”
“Hell no.”
“I appreciate your honesty.” He chuckled. “Very well, I’ll simply translate it to English- Crow.”
“Crow works… it’d work better if your outfit was black instead of white, but I guess it explains the beak.”
“I thought we’d dropped that already?”
Ren lightly shoved Akechi.
“Hey man there’s a high ledge here, do you mind telling a few lies real quick until your nose is long enough for us to climb up there?”
“…”
“I’m just messing around man.”
“It’s quite alright I suppose… far be it for me to get in the way of your illustrious future as a stand-up comedian…”
“I still think there’s a chance for a ‘husband and wife’ comedy duo with me and Queen. She’s great as the straight man.”
“Joker, shut up.”
“Your comebacks will have to be better than that though Queen.”
Makoto didn’t dignify him with another response, she appreciated his efforts to keep the mood light- having at least some fun was usually conducive to them doing their job as well as they always did, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to encourage it in this case, they still had yet to encounter Sae’s shadow and they didn’t want to be taken off guard because they were distracted. Speaking of distractions…
“Fox what the hell are you doing?”
“I cannot help it, my hips are moving on their own!”
Both Ren and Futaba started snickering to themselves at some inside joke. Makoto decided to ignore them.
“Fox now is not the time for dancing.”
“But surely you can hear it too? The music she’s playing in here is truly enchanting!”
Makoto hadn’t really been paying attention to it, but even in this relatively unpopulated area of the casino, they could hear music playing over the speaker system. It was hardly unusual for a casino to have music playing to set a mood and encourage it’s patrons to keep hanging around and spending.
“Well I’ll admit it’s catchy but… Panther…”
Ann hadn’t noticed she’d been subtly bouncing in place in time to the beat, swaying her hips from side to side.
“A-AH! Sorry, I promise I’m focused on the task at hand, it’s just…”
“I mean the track is pretty boppin’.” Ren smirked, starting to let himself be taken by the beat too.
“Bopping? Not you too Ren…”
“Ah don’t worry Queen.” Futaba shamelessly started shuffling in place in what could generously be described as a dance. “I’m sure this’ll help us, fighting is all about rhythm after all, and I’ve been playing a ton of rhythm games lately!”
“I doubt those hours spent playing Project Diva are going to translate well to actually fighting shadows.” Ren scoffed, not that it slowed his dancing any. “Plus you don’t even fight, what good would it do you anyway?”
“Um…” Futaba looked to Morgana hopefully. “Cognitions? They’d make it work, right?”
“No, it doesn’t work like that, that’s just silly.” Morgana shook his head, unimpressed. Though his expression raised when he noticed Ann unconsciously swaying to the beat again. “Though maybe just a little indulgence isn’t so bad.”
“Ah!” Ann grabbed her own hips, as if trying to hold them in place. “I wasn’t doing anything!”
“What the hell is wrong with us?” Makoto looked up trying to spot the speakers. “Is the palace having some kind of effect on us?”
“What? No, of course not.” Morgana shook his head. “Cognitions in a palace can change the environment around us, but they can’t affect us directly, especially since we’re Persona users.”
“So what you’re saying is—we’re just a bunch of dorks getting too into the funky music?”
“Don’t lump me in with you three!” Makoto yelled at Ren, Yusuke, and Futaba openly dancing together; spinning, arm waving, hip thrusting, and flirty expressions were abound. Yusuke seemed to forget about the mission entirely, Ren tried to invite Makoto to join him but was met only with a Niijima glare, and Futaba shook her chest from left-to-right… in vain. “You’ve all lost it…”
“You’d be more convincing if you said that again without tapping your foot, Queen.”
“I—I mean… only a little bit…”
Meanwhile Akechi leant against the wall, rubbing his eyes and muttering under his breath.
“I can’t believe I’ve agreed to work with these people…”
“Is the song real or is it just something from Sae’s subconscious? How does that work in terms of intellectual property?”
“I don’t know Panther…” Futaba mused mid-jig. “If recording equipment worked in the metaverse I’d steal it and sell it once we got out.”
“Oracle…” Makoto sighed wearily.
“Though on a more serious note.” Ren finally stopped dancing. “If the music is Sae’s own creation, then it probably in some way reflects her personality or desires, right?”
“I…” Makoto crossed her arms in thought. “I suppose…”
“This song just screams ‘confidently sexy’, I guess that’s a trait that runs in the family- huh Queen?” Ren had intended that as simply another way to fluster Makoto, but he quickly dropped his smirk when she seemed genuinely troubled. “Queen?”
“I can hardly remember a time when she wasn’t all business, when I see her she’s always either focused on her work or just exhausted and miserable… usually both. I…” Her fingers dug into her upper arm. “How much do I really know about her? Is…” She gestured at her surroundings “…all this out of place, or something that should be totally expected of her? I don’t know… how could I not know…?”
Ren took her hand with one of his, the other gently resting just below her shoulder.
“Hey, we’re here to fix that, right?”
“Ren?” She looked to him, mask mostly obscuring the tears building up in her eyes.
“Codenames Queen.” Ren spoke quietly. “I already promised you, one way or another we’re going to save her, okay?”
Makoto stared for a moment longer, before nodding.
“Right.” She saw the rest of the group looked at her curious and concerned, except for… “Fox?”
Yusuke instantly stopped dancing and stood to attention.
“Of course, I’m ready to proceed whenever you’re ready.”
“…Thanks Fox…”
The sound of slow clapping suddenly caught their attention, the group all took battle-ready positions, though Makoto’s faltered when she saw her.
“Sis…”
“Welcome, Petty thieves.”
There was no doubt about it, it was Sae’s shadow, flanked by two heavyset men in suits and sunglasses, though the group’s attention was primarily grabbed by her jet-black dress, the sides of the skirt splitting all the way up to her hips, and a netted neckline plunging all the way down to her mound. Couple this with her huge brimmed hat, thick black lipstick, and eyeliner so excessive it resembled Joker’s mask and…
“Yo she’s looks fucking sick dude.”
Shadow Sae looked to Futaba, confused.
“Sick?”
“’Sick’ means ‘cool’ in this context.” Ren explained.
“Ah I see, thank you.” She cleared her throat. “You’re here for the treasure, are you not? It is located on the manager’s floor, at the highest point of this building.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Makoto asked, doing her best to remain ‘professional’ and keep her emotions in check.
“We’re going to do this fair and square, that’s all.” The shadow smirked. “First, I ask that you come up to my location, we will continue this there.”
“Hold on!” Futaba called out again.
“Hm?”
“Is the music yours? Can I buy a recording?”
“You’re planning to sell it in the real world?”
“H-huh?! You were listening to that earlier?”
“Your dancing could use some work.” Shadow Sae smugly smirked, lightly lifting and squeezing her own breasts. “You don’t quite have what you need to pull of that kind of move.”
“Wow, rude.”
“S-Sis?!” Makoto recoiled slightly at her so casually performing such a lewd gesture in front of them.
“Hey it’s not as if you’d be losing anything by selling it to me!” Futaba continued regardless. “I pay you, I end up making more money when I get out- everyone wins! This track is hella ballin’!”
Shadow Sae blinked a few times, her expression blank, before looking to Ren for guidance.
“It means ‘very cool’.”
“Mm. Thanks.” She nodded, then looked back to Futaba. “I don’t have time for your childish indulgences, the real game lies ahead. Meet me upstairs, and we can continue proper.” She turned around to leave, before suddenly teleporting away.
“Where’d she—”
“Over there!” Akechi called out, pointing down to the elevator, Sae and her guards already boarding and disappearing up to the next floor. “We must pursue her!”
“Man those tattoos on her back were pretty sick too.”
“Not that I disagree Oracle but this isn’t really the time.” Haru reprimanded her as the group ran down the stairs towards the elevator.
“Authentication required.” A synthetic voice came out as Ren pushed the call button. “Please insert your members’ card.”
“Oh for ff—of course it wouldn’t be that easy.” Ren groaned.
“It shouldn’t be an issue.” Akechi nodded confidently. “We need simply register as members of the club or what have you, and attain a membership card…” He turned to face away from the elevator. “Although…”
As if on cue, a shadow emerged from the floor, killing intent clear in it’s eyes.
“As I expected, registration will not be such a simple matter.”
“Perhaps taking on her security is part of her ‘game’.” Yusuke drew his sword. “Very well, we accept this challenge!”
The mask fell from the shadow, and it revealed it’s true form as an Ose.
“Aw shit.” Futaba took a defensive stance. “Furbait! Watch out guys!”
Akechi stepped forward fearlessly.
“No need to worry. I’ll handle this. I need to prove my worth to—”
“DOWN SHOT!”
The Ose was struck by Joker’s gunshot, and took a knee.
“Hang on, I was going to—”
“Time for an all-out attack!”
The group leapt past a bewildered Akechi, launching a merciless assault from all angles on the target.
“So fast…” He looked upwards. “A UFO? When did—?”
Said UFO suddenly dropped a large cartoonish bomb, covered almost entirely in green symbols next to the barely-alive Ose, fuse sparkling closer and closer to the bomb itself, before suddenly snuffing out.
“Hang on, gimme a sec.” Futaba descended from her persona and trotted over to inspect the bomb, if by ‘inspect’ you meant ‘start smacking it’.
“S-Sakura-san!” Akechi called out. “You should stay away fro—”
It suddenly detonated, sending the girl flying across the room and directly into Akechi’s torso, sending him flying in turn and smacking the back of his head against the elevator’s glass doors, before sliding down to the ground with an upside-down Futaba in his lap. She looked up at him and shot him a thumbs-up.
“I make this look easy!”
He shoved her off, forgetting to hide his contempt for a second. He clambered to his feet, relieved to see the Ose had at least been defeated.
“Well, far be it for me to question your methods, but I feel do I’ve rather missed an opportunity to demonstrate my usefulness to you all.”
“Nah it’s fine, we’re sure you’re good and all, but it’s nice to keep things quick and easy, y’know?” Ren shrugged.
“Well that was certainly quick…” Akechi glanced at Futaba- still dizzy as Makoto helped her to her feet. “’Easy’ is a debatable point though.”
“Nah it’s fine, a kid at the arcade taught me that one.” Ren turned to Ryuji and Haru. “Yo did he have a card we could use?”
“Nah man, just some cash.”
“3,200 yen isn’t bad I guess.” Haru shrugged, unimpressed (and judging by her face, unsatisfied by the short-lived violence).
“Noir you’re rich, you probably have that much slide out of your pockets and down the side of the couch every time you stand up.”
“Oh you’re exaggerating Skull, I wouldn’t keep that much loose in my pocket, that’s what wallets are for.”
“I mean… I guess so…”
“A kid at the arcade?” Akechi looked at Ren sceptically.
“Yeah, he’s better than me at gun about and taught me how to do that so I could beat hackers.”
“I still don’t get how that actually works.” Futaba had just about regained her senses, brushing herself off and rubbing her sore back. “In the game I mean, it’s the one thing that actually makes more sense in the metaverse than IRL. The hacker was also a homoerotic bootleg King if I remember right.”
“King?”
“The Tekken one, not the AoF one.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it Crow, it’s not important.” Ren turned to Makoto. “So what are you thinking Queen?”
“…”
“Queen?”
“O-oh? Right, well we have an infiltration route and a goal to work towards now, perhaps we should withdraw for now and make preparations?”
“Agreed. We’ll all meet up again tomorrow and begin the infiltration proper, agreed?”
The others gave their affirmations, and Ren turned to Akechi.
“Agreed?”
Akechi forced a smile.
“You’re the leader.”
~ ~ ~
“I’m home Sis.”
“Welcome home.”
The familiar commute home ending with a familiar greeting, and a familiar sight of Sae working on her laptop, stress and fatigue clear on her face.
Makoto watched her sister, her proper and professional suit, the bare minimum make-up on a face that hadn’t felt a genuine smile for possibly months, it all contrasted so heavily from her shadow. The real Sae hardly hid her feminine figure, but usually dressed fairly conservatively in an effort to be taken seriously in her male-dominated workplace, save perhaps for her heels, which were likely just to make her seem taller and more intimidating; whereas her shadow seemed almost aggressively feminine in the way she dressed and presented herself, Sae’s usual quiet confidence translated to her shadow oozing smugness from every pore.
Makoto wondered how much of her shadow represented her ‘true self’. She couldn’t remember a time she saw Sae in anything other than her work clothes, or ‘business casual’ at most, even at home. She did her laundry for her, and yet it was just professional clothes and underwear all the time.
“Something wrong Makoto?”
“H-huh?”
“You’re staring.”
“Oh, sorry, I was just lost in thought.” She forced a smile. “Want me to start on dinner?”
“Yes please, I’d appreciate it.”
Sae’s tone was very neutral, tired even, and yet it turned Makoto’s fake smile into a real one. Sae was bad at expressing it, but her appreciation really was genuine, and Makoto could understand this. She nodded and headed into the kitchen to get to work.
‘How do I know so little about her?’ she continued the food prep on autopilot while she thought to herself. ‘When was the last time she talked about a hobby? When was the last time she talked about a show she watched? When was the last time she talked about what foods she likes? What she’d like to do when she’s not swamped with work? Her opinions on me in the program? My friends? Her friends? Anything other than the case?’
Her shoulders sank.
‘When was the last time I asked her …?’
She shook her head, and focused on her cooking.
‘I can’t think about this now, last thing I need if her questioning me and me giving something away.’ She looked back to her sister, still working, blissfully unaware of her sister’s troubles, perhaps even forgetting she was there at all. ‘Sis… I promise, I’ll…’
Notes:
In their defense, Whims of fate is a banger.
Chapter 55: Getting a head
Summary:
A win, a loss, and another third thing
Chapter Text
“Haru why are we here? You haven’t forgotten what we’re doing this afternoon have you?”
“Don’t you worry Mako-chan, we’ll still make it to the meeting in good time.”
“Are you sure this is even safe though? Public nudism 101 is ‘don’t go into dark alleys’.”
“It’s not as bad as you’re saying, it’s just a rather… discreet store we’re heading to. It’s the middle of the day, still plenty bright out, plus me and Ren-kun are here with you, it’ll be fine.”
Makoto looked over at her boyfriend, tightly clutching her hand, constantly scanning the environment like a deer expecting an attack from a predator at any moment; it reminded her of when he helped her research the red light district back before they met Eiko.
“Are you having second thoughts Mako-chan? You did agree…”
“REN agreed.” She glared at him, but he didn’t even notice, still doing his unintentional meerkat impression.
“Aw come on Mako-chan, you wouldn’t do what you did if you didn’t enjoy an audience. How come ‘the whole school’ is fine but not just me?”
“It wasn’t the whole school… not live anyway…”
“The footage definitely reached ‘the whole school’ though.”
“Don’t remind me… And the difference isn’t because it’s just you; being um… overcome by passion in the moment and pre-ordaining the whole thing just feel… different.”
Haru pouted.
“Look, if it really makes you that uncomfortable, I won’t force you or anything.”
“Haru, tha—”
“I’ll be really disappointed, since I was really looking forward to it.”
“That’s unfor—”
“And I really had my hopes up for it.”
“Haru you—”
“But, if it really is such a horrendous burden on you, I’ll just let it go…”
Makoto groaned, she wasn’t sure why Haru chose now of all times to break out the sad ‘puppy-dog eyes’ look. She sighed.
“I guess it wouldn’t be so bad, and you have had a lot going on lately…”
It was easy to miss, but Haru’s look of fake-upset briefly showed signs of her actually being hurt. This whole thing- her act included- in large part served to help her forget about the awful things that had been happening lately. Makoto noticed this, and regretted what she said the moment it came out of her mouth.
“I’m sorry Haru, I—”
“It’s okay Mako-chan.” Haru forced a smile. “Let’s just forget about the whole thing okay? We can go somewhere else today.”
“No, it’s fine—”
“It’s not fine, I don’t want to actually guilt you into something you’re uncomfortable with. Manipulating pity like that is… well it’s scummy of me.”
“Honestly Haru, it’s fine. I’ll admit I am apprehensive, and I wasn’t saying ‘no’ outright, but I’ve not agreed to it yet. How about we continue with this stage and… see how I feel when the time actually comes, okay?”
“Y-you really mean it Mako-chan?”
“I’m not making any promises, but we can carry onto… actually where are we going?”
The shadow over Haru brightened up ever so slightly.
“We’re going to the store where I originally bought your cat ears and collar.” She chuckled to herself a little. “Though can’t imagine that you ever actually used them, you probably threw them away.”
Makoto remained silent.
“But in that store there are also… other fun toys for such activities.”
Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“You want us to use… toys?”
“I want us to browse them, see if any seem appealing to you and Ren-kun.” Haru glanced at him, still on lookout duty. “Wow, he’s really dedicated isn’t he? I don’t think he’s paying us any attention at all.”
“He’s like that when he’s nervous, don’t worry about it.” Makoto shrugged. “So where is this store of yours Haru?”
Haru met Makoto’s slightly-tired smile with a weak one of her own, before suddenly wincing at a voice from behind her.
“Ah! There you are.”
“Oh no…” Haru whispered, lowering her head. “Let’s leave before—”
“Haru!”
Ren spotted the man approaching them, further tightening his grip on Makoto’s hand and standing between Haru and their unwelcome guest, a guest that despite technically never meeting before, he recognized immediately.
“I’m guessing you’re the esteemed Sugimura I’ve heard so much about?”
Sugimura glared at Ren, disgust clear on his face, before looking at Haru, standing sheepishly behind him avoiding eye contact.
“Haru, do you want to explain to me who the hell this is?” His gaze shifted to Makoto, scoffing with a sickening smirk on his face. “Really now? Haru you’d really rather add yourself to this… freakish couple’s games than speak to your fiancé? I’m hurt, I had no idea you were quite that disgraceful.”
He made a move to step around to Haru, but Ren kept sidestepping to block his path.
“You’re really trying to get on my nerves, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m trying to get you to piss off. She clearly doesn’t want to talk to—” Ren paused when he felt Haru’s hand on his arm.
“It’s okay, I’ll tell him myself.”
Ren and Makoto reluctantly stepped aside to let Haru face him directly. She still seemed somewhat fearful, and had a hard time maintaining eye contact, but she bottled up her courage and didn’t flinch back.
“I’ve told you, I’m not interested in seeing you, much less marrying you. After what happened to my father, such an act would be pointless anyway.” She looked downwards slightly. “I promised a very important friend of mine I’d say something when I next saw you, so now’s the time.” She took a breath, and re-established eye contact. “Fuck off Sugimura.”
He was admittedly surprised to hear that, but he didn’t back down.
“Now is that any way to speak to me?” He went to grab her, but before he could so much as lift his arm Makoto broke free of Ren’s grip to shove Sugimura back- not that Ren tried to stop her, he went to do the same thing, he was just a tad slower.
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on her!” She spat at him.
“Ugh, do you mind keeping your whore under control?”
“Excuse me?!”
“I won’t hesitate to sue all of you cretins if you raise your hands against me.”
Ren and Makoto both glared at him, silently fuming. Haru however stepped forward.
“You’re right, as tempting as it is we can’t give you the beating you so deserve for disrespecting the people I actually care about.” She smirked, her confidence building. “Unless of course it’s in self-defence.” She stepped forward again, forcing Sugimura a step back. “Please. PLEASE give me some justification for resorting to self-defence.”
Ren couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’d listen to her dude, you won’t know what we’re talking about, but you’re currently zero-for-two against her right now, I don’t fancy your chances.”
He was right, Sugimura didn’t have a clue what he was referring to, but he took another cautious step back regardless. He put on his best ‘cocky’ expression.
“Now now, no need for any of that. Though I wouldn’t be so hasty rejecting that marriage offer dear Haru, you wouldn’t want to cause trouble for everyone by violating your contract, now would you?”
“C-contract?” Haru’s confidence had quickly begun to fade away again.
“Your late father- may he rest in peace” He sneered. “Formed a contract with mine, so I’m afraid the decision has already been made for you. Were you to refuse it could cause some serious trouble for you and Okumura foods; your life and the lives of everyone you care about would become… difficult.”
“N-no…”
Haru took a fearful step back, Ren was left speechless in disgust- his mind trying to think of something to say. However Makoto- who had spent enough time seeing her sister working to pick up a trick or two- noticed the almost imperceptible cracks in Sugimura’s demeanor, she could tell he was nervous- and more importantly- hiding something. She had a suspicion that was worth confirming. She tapped Ren and Haru in sequence to get their attention.
“You two-“ She spoke confidently, not even trying to keep Sugimura from hearing. “Watch his face closely while I ask him this next question: Can we see the contract?”
It was a good thing she told them to watch him, otherwise they would have certainly missed the flinch.
“Ha… I don’t have to show you anything, you have nothing to do with this.”
“But Haru certainly does, this supposed contract definitely affects her, so surely she can see it?”
“I… it’s not as if I have it with me.”
“Why don’t we go read it right now then? We’ve got more than enough time this afternoon.”
“Well… you see…”
“Hold on—” Haru sniggered, confidence flowing back into her. “—Mako-chan are you saying he’s making it up?”
“I’m saying there’s no reason for us to take his allegation seriously until he shows us the document.” Makoto smirked at Sugimura. “Of course, anything you show us I could have my sister check, she’s a prosecutor after all, if anyone can spot a fake contract it’d be her.”
“Why you…”
“What’s wrong dude?” Ren laughed. “Why you getting so mad? Wait—” he fake gasped. “were you fibbing?! Is there no contract to show? And to think you seemed like such a nice and trustworthy fellow.”
“Damn it.” Sugimura seethed. “Who the hell do you think—”
Haru stepped between her friends and Sugimura once more.
“I’d like to repeat my earlier request: Fuck. Off.” She giggled. “I should curse more often, this is fun.”
Sugimura marched forwards, grabbing Haru’s forearm and harshly yanking her towards him. She cried out in pain, before suddenly looking up at him with an excited open-mouthed smile.
“THAT COUNTS! THAT TOTALLY COUNTS!”
“Counts for wha—” Sugimura was cut off when Haru crouched down slightly, before launching herself back up, smacking her forehead against his nose as hard as she possibly could. His grip on her loosened and he fell backwards- blood pouring from his nose- and crashed down on the ground, the back of his head smacking the concrete floor.
Haru spun around and smiled at her friends, bouncing in place excitedly while they both stared at her slack-jawed.
“That counted as self-defence! You two are witnesses!”
“Haru…” Makoto looked down at Sugimura, then back to her. “I think you broke his nose…”
“Oh god.” Ren’s tone was panicked. “There’s blood on your forehead.”
Haru wiped it away, wincing slightly at the soreness of it, before wiping her fingers on Sugimura’s trouser leg.
“It’s okay, it’s not my blood.”
“Ah good, that’s okay then.” Ren gave her a thumbs up.
“G-guys…” Makoto looked around, confirming that no one else saw them. “He’s not moving…”
“…Uh…”
“…”
“…”
“Did we…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Sugimura coughed.
“Oh thank goodness.” Haru breathed a sigh of relief. “I was scared for a second there.”
“That was a good hit though, really putting that forehead to good use.”
Haru’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s that supposed to mean Ren-kun?”
“N-nothing, just complimenting your abilities.”
“He hit his head on solid concrete though.” Makoto watched as Sugimura slowly writhed on the ground. “He might have a concussion, I think we should call an ambulance.”
“Yeah… probably.”
“Oooowwww…”
Ren sighed, and bent down to help Sugimura up.
“Upsie-daisie, nice and easy now.” He took Sugimura’s arm over his shoulder. “That was a really nasty fall, what happened?”
“I… I don’t know… I remember being angry, then the world went all funny…”
“Oh dear, that doesn’t sound good at all. We better get you treated right away.” Ren turned to Makoto. “Yeah go ahead and call him an ambulance.”
“R-right.” She took her phone out her bag and started dialing.
Ren turned back to the dazed Sugimura.
“See, this is what happens when you let stress get the better of you, you end up making silly mistakes and not paying attention to the world around you, that’s why you tripped. It’s a good thing we were here.”
“Y-yes, thank you Doctor, I’ll be more careful in future.”
“Be sure that you do, girls like a guy who takes good care of themselves. But before you can think about stuff like that you should work on finding healthy ways to spend your time.”
“Healthy ways…”
“Don’t worry about your Dad’s politics so much, just find something you enjoy, purely for yourself, okay? Like um… how about calligraphy?”
“Calligraphy?” Makoto mouthed silently to Ren, receiving only a shrug in return.
“Wow, that sounds fun, you’re really smart Doctor.”
“I know I am. It’ll be nice and therapeutic.”
Makoto shook her head.
“The ambulance should be here soon.”
“Thank you Nurse…” Sugimura struggled to maintain eye contact with her… or focus on anything really.
“Oh no she’s not a nurse.” Ren laughed. “She’s actually a policeman.”
“Ren…”
“Shh.”
“Oh wow, thank you for your hard work Ms. Policeman, and um…” He squinted at Haru, clearly making his headache worse trying to bring her into focus.
“She’s a fireman.”
“A fireman Ren?”
“I mean you own an axe.”
“I suppose…”
Ren smirked.
“We’ll wait here with him until the ambulance arrives, we’ll have to shop another day.”
“Fair enough.” Haru nodded.
…
…
…
“The weather is really nice today.”
“Yes it is Sugimura, very good.”
“The breeze is nice.”
“Mmhmm…”
~ ~ ~
“Thank you for coming today Yoshizawa-san, I’ve got snacks if you want any.”
“Hmm… I suppose this one isn’t too unhealthy.”
“Ah of course, I should probably put more thought into the nutritional values of the snacks I offer, I guess that’s why I’m not an athlete myself.”
Kasumi smiled at him weakly, though she didn’t seem interested in actually eating the cookie, she just stared at it.
“Is something troubling you today?”
“Hmm…”
Maruki patiently waited for her to speak.
“Well… not as such, I’ve just got things on my mind…”
“I see, do you want to share them?”
Kasumi kept fiddling with the cookie for a little while longer, before placing it back on the plate in front of her. She turned towards Maruki, but bashfully avoided eye contact.
“Dr. Maruki, have you ever looked up to someone?”
He let out a good-natured laugh.
“Yes of course, the world is full of wonderful people after all, so many of them much smarter or stronger than I am, I can’t help but look up to them.”
“Yes I guess it’s only natural.”
“Do you have someone you look up to?”
Kasumi took a while to respond.
“I suppose I do… or at least- I did.”
“Oh?”
“I’m… worried that I’m the judgemental type.”
“How do you mean?”
“Like… I feel like I’m a horrible person.”
Maruki’s expression dropped, he looked at her with sympathy.
“I would strongly object to that. But what’s making you feel that way?”
“I… feel disillusioned, someone I really admired did something that’s… making me question things.”
“Question things?”
“Doctor, did you attend the culture festival?”
“Oh I was around for some of the earlier parts.” He chuckled. “A Kosei student was talking to me for most of my time there actually, I was busy with my own projects so I missed most of it, why?”
Kasumi chewed her lower lip.
“N-nevermind, it’s not important.”
“Are you sure?”
“…y-yeah, I’m sure. What matters is someone I admired did something that… made me see her differently.”
“And you’re not sure whether you admire her anymore?”
Kasumi reluctantly nodded.
“It was such an extreme thing. I mean- she’s always been unusual, and rather questionable, but this was definitely crossing some sort of line.”
“I see…”
“But, it’s not as if that undoes the parts about her I admire, she’s still a kind and supportive person, so strong, so confident. All those things are still there, and yet for some reason all I can think of now is that one thing she did that was just… too much.”
“Hmm… I think I understand.”
“I realize I’m being hypocritical, everyone has good and bad points, or rather- points I approve of and disapprove of. I feel like such an awful person for not being able to look past this one thing.”
“Our minds do tend to work against us sometimes, not letting us see the big picture. Although- and this is just my own view- but I don’t think we need to feel responsible for the ‘big picture’, there’s nothing wrong with just focusing on the things important to us.”
“Hmm… maybe… but I don’t think that’s what’s happening now.” Kasumi sighed. “I’ve been trying to push myself, to be better, to be someone worth admiring.” She tried to look Maruki in the eyes, but faltered again. “I want to be someone Sumire can still look up to. Every time I fall short, I think of how disappointed she must be in me.”
Maruki silently gazed downwards mournfully.
“So to help myself grow I looked up to my senpai Am…” she shook her head. “Who? Why did I… Sorry, I’m so mixed up. I looked up to my senpai Niijima-san, feeling as if their approval would be enough of a motivator to finally pull myself out of my rut. But now I’m doubting if she was the right choice, if I would have been better off never looking up to her in the first place.”
“Hmm…” Maruki pondered. “Do you think that’d make you happier?”
Kasumi looked at him surprised.
“I mean, it would mean I wasn’t dealing with this stupid doubt, that I probably wouldn’t hate myself so much right now. But… I realize I’m in the wrong here, I’m being immature, I’m being silly thinking my ‘idols’ have to be flawless, or that I have to agree with everything they say and do. Maybe I just needed to say these things aloud.” She looked Maruki in the eyes, forcing a smile. “It’s painful, but I feel I can handle it.”
Maruki stared back at her.
“Is it really painful?”
She nodded solemnly.
“Yes, it’s my own fault though.”
“Please don’t blame yourself, there’s no need to **** ** ** ******* ********.”
“**** ** *** ****?”
…ot aga…
“** ** ***** *** *****, **** *** ****** **** *** **.”
“*** **…”
…re so close…
“***’* * ********* ******, *** *** ***’* **** *** ** ** *****.”
“* *** ** **** **** **** ****-*****?”
…p this, leav…
“*****’* ******** ***** **** ******* ****. ***’** ** ******** **** ***.”
“****** ***, **** ******* ******. * **********.”
…oth of you, I ha…
“*’** *** ***. * *******.”
“***** ***.”
…AAAAAAAAAAAA…
Kasumi stretched her arms upwards, loosening her shoulders.
“Thank you Dr Maruki, that really is a load off my mind.”
“It’s no problem at all, I’m always happy to help.”
“You’re such a great motivator, I’ll keep working hard to get myself out of this rut, I’m sure I’ll hit a breakthrough sooner or later!”
Maruki nodded, a warm smile on his face.
“I’m sure you will, I’ll support you all the way.”
She got up from her seat, bowing politely.
“Thank you for being so patient with me.”
“No need to thank me. Anything to make you happy.”
~ ~ ~
Later on that evening, Ren and Makoto returned to Sae’s palace alongside their friends and Akechi. Having a much better idea of where they were headed now, progress went smoothly until they reached a security room, with a lone guard watching various screens monitoring the rest of the casino.
Quickly disposing of the guard, they noticed he had dropped a bunch of membership cards. Akechi bent down to pick one of them up to inspect.
“Ah, these are what we’re looking for, are they not? Ah, but they have no names on them, we can’t use them until we register them.”
“Mwehehe, leave that to me.” Futaba snatched the card out of his hand, and carried it over to the terminal besides all the security screens. Slotting it into the computer and happily tapping away on the keyboard, she quickly finished and held the card aloft proudly. “There we go, all registered. I didn’t know what to use as a name so I just with with ‘Richard Sakkin’.”
“What kind of name is that?” Realization suddenly hit Makoto. “Oh… wait nevermind I get it…” She groaned. “Futaba we’re NOT using that name.”
“Aw come on, it’ll give them a chuckle for sure.”
“We’re not here to ‘give them a chuckle’ Oracle.” Ren tried to look disapprovingly, but was visibly holding back laughter.
“I don’t get it, what’s the joke?” Ann looked back and forth, everyone avoiding her gaze, before Ren finally stepped over and whispered in her ear. “Oh, I see… Yeah Oracle let’s pick something else…”
“You guys are lame, fiiine. We’ll go with a boring, mid AF name.” She picked up another card and repeated the process. “Here, Akira Kurusu, that’ll work, right?”
“As good a name as any.” Ren shrugged. “Come on, let’s head back to the elevator.”
~ ~ ~
It was a bit of tight squeeze for all nine of them in the elevator, Ren making sure to keep Makoto separate from the rest, doing everything he could to keep them from accidentally touching her, and making some small effort to not accidentally touch her himself.
They reached the members floor and clambered out, immediately met with Shadow Sae once more.
“Oh I see. You wanna take us on right now huh?” Ryuji yelled. “Fine, I prefer it that way- bring it on!”
“Do not speak to me as if we’re equals!” She barked at him. “I am the manager of this casino, as well as it’s number one player, I had to win countless times to get where I am. If you wish to face me, then you’ll have to do the same.”
In a flash of light, she and her bodyguards vanished, Morgana was the first to notice her in the elevator behind them, already disappearing to a yet higher floor.
“Son of a bitch!”
“I understand your frustration Oracle.”
“Why does she have to be so damn hot? I can’t focus when she’s around.”
“I don’t think that’s what he meant.” Ann shook her head, before cautiously approaching one of the slot machines. “So like what? We have to win a bunch of chips or whatever before we can follow her?”
“That is likely the case, this is a casino after all.” Akechi smirked. “But don’t worry, I understand what it takes to win.”
“Shameless and unrestrained cheating?”
“Bingo.” He turned to Makoto. “In any case we need to hurry and change her heart, if she acts recklessly, both her chances of promotion and reputation as a prosecutor will drop harshly.”
Makoto’s face fell, she glanced back up the elevator her sister had vanished through.
“Sis…”
“Queen.” Akechi looked at her curiously, though the others noted that he not-so-subtly held his hand up so he could only see her face as he spoke. “Do you think it was a particular event that triggered her palace’s creation?”
Makoto’s eyes were on the floor.
“Probably our father’s death…” She began. “I was still a child when it happened, sis took all the responsibilities of dealing with it upon herself.” She gripped one of her hands with the other. “Having to earn a living wage, gaining promotions in a male-dominated field, trying to uphold justice, all the while having to look after me… All of those things no doubt weighed heavily on her heart, all that pressure to succeed, far greater than anything I had to deal with.”
“Mak—Queen…” Ren gently took her wrist.
“My apologies, but we don’t have time to get sentimental…” Akechi looked away from the couple.
“Hey you asked man.” Ryuji mumbled.
“The longer we take the more people will know about us, and the further the investigation may proceed.”
“Crow’s right, let’s keep moving.” Ren nodded, but he kept his eyes firmly on Makoto.
“There has to be an quick way to grind in here. Let’s have a snoop around.” Futaba began scanning their surroundings.
“Hm, yes, let’s ‘snoop’.” Akechi chuckled to himself, the rest of the group following these two.
“You okay Mako?”
“Hm? Y-yeah Joker, I’m okay.” She let out a weary sigh. “Everything in here is slowly starting to make more sense. I’m just…”
“Don’t worry Queen, we’re sticking to the plan right?”
She gathered her resolve, and nodded to him confidently.
“Right, don’t worry.”
“Good, because I’m counting on you more than anyone, but hey- no pressure.”
“’No pressure’ he says.” Makoto scoffed. “Still, one step at a time, let’s get moving.”
Ren nodded, and the couple went to rejoin the rest of the group, she looked back up at the elevator one last time.
“I’m getting closer Sis, not much longer now…”
Notes:
I know everyone looked at the title and expected a blowjob, but the head was just Haru's actual head proper twatting Sugimura right in the face. Pretty good as far as consolation prizes go, if I do say so myself
Chapter 56: A small gamble
Summary:
Getting close to finishing Sae's palace
Notes:
Okay so I've somewhat settled into weekly updates for this series, and while I'd like to do them more often, I might end up doing less because I'll be moving over the next month or two. I'll try my best to get at least one chapter out a week, but I can't make promises since I don't know how busy I'll be.
So if a week or two goes by with no update- don't panic, the series is not stopping until I reach the end or I'm actually dead, there might just be delays, so consider this your fair warning.
With that out of the way- please enjoy.
Chapter Text
Progress through Sae’s palace had been good, the team were determined to get as far as possible in a single day, overcoming Sae’s rigged games by rigging them in their favor, and winning enough to rise up to the next floor of the casino. However it was there that they hit their literal wall, barring them any further progress.
In order to lower the wall they needed to change Sae’s cognition in the real world. The casino represented the courthouse after all, so they needed to make sure Sae saw them there, proving they can enter, and letting them progress in the palace.
As luck would have it, Sae had work at the courthouse the very next day, in a case wholly unrelated to the thieves that would allow them to appear in the audience, where they simply needed to make sure Sae noticed them- which given the skin on display, wouldn’t be an issue. And thus, Makoto made her way into the courtroom alongside her trusted friends, and Akechi was also there.
“Must be rough on her to still have to do her normal prosecuting work on top of all the PT nonsense.” Ren mused. “What’s the case anyway?”
Akechi checked through some notes he had happened to bring with him, before suddenly chuckling.
“It would appear Niijima-san is prosecuting some poor fool for public indecency.”
“O-oh…” Makoto’s brow raised, before furrowing again. “That’s um…”
“Yeah…” Futaba bit her bottom lip. “We might be rubbing salt in the poor guy’s wound showing up like this…”
“Do you think it’d be better for us to come back another day?”
“No.” Akechi answered authoritatively. “I cannot guarantee when we’ll get another chance to reveal ourselves to Sae in the courtroom proper, it may be now or never, and besides- you surely agree that we should secure our infiltration route as soon as possible, right?”
Makoto sighed.
“He’s right, let’s just stay long enough for Sis to see, then leave.”
“This’ll be awkward.”
It was.
Courtrooms seldom see teenagers show up at all, much less naked ones. They were getting a frankly uncomfortable amount of attention, hearing whispers around them as they took their seats together, waiting for Sae to look up from her notes and notice them.
“In a way it’s actually reassuring to see her working so hard.”
“I can’t say I agree Akechi-san.” Ren sighed. “She looks like she wants to be anywhere but here right now.”
“She never looks happy when she’s working.” Makoto eyed her sister, concerned. “But she seldom looks this ‘out of it’. It must be frustrating to be pulled away from much more important work to handle something silly like this.”
“I don’t think it’s silly at all Niijima-san.” Akechi kept his gaze forward, but his eyes noticeably narrowed. “Your sister is working hard to bring justice to a true pervert. A freak who publicly exposes themselves before others and gains some sick pleasure from it, only a truly disturbed and disgusting mind could drive them to such debauchery…” Akechi looked to his side to see the rest of the group glaring at him, particularly Makoto, Futaba, and Yusuke. “…w-without filling out the proper legal documents to do so- of course.”
“Whatever dude…” Ren shook his head, looking over to Sae, who somehow still hadn’t noticed them. “Christ I get that she’s bored waiting for the trial to start or whatever, but how is she this oblivious?”
“She’s just deep in thought… probably.”
“’Probably’ Mako?”
“Probably.”
A few more moments passed with them all waiting. Ren faked a cough, nothing. He coughed louder, still nothing.
“AHKEKETH! SUMMIN’ IN MY THROAT WOW! COUGH!”
There we go. Sae broke out of her stupor and glanced over at them, her eyes going wide at seeing her sister and a couple other nudists presumably here to see her, but currently shooting annoyed looks at a rather familiar-looking boy in glasses trying way too hard to act natural.
“Makoto? Why—” She shook her head and returned her attention to the task at hand.
“She saw us, I think that should be enough, we can discreetly make our way to the palace now.”
The group followed Akechi’s lead and quietly started getting up to leave, trying their hardest not to look at all the very annoyed faces of the adults around them. Makoto saw Sae glance at her once more. She mouthed a “good luck” and a quick thumbs-up; the gesture surprising Sae somewhat, she didn’t know how to respond- so she didn’t, and returned to her papers. Mildly disappointed, Makoto rejoined the others making their way to the exit, nearly running into a man entering the room with two police officers escorting him.
“What the—why the hell do they get to walk around nude but when I do it—”
Makoto mumbled an apology and the whole group awkwardly powerwalked their way down the hall while the man kept shouting at them and arguing with his escorts. They had more important things to worry about, and- if they were honest- they were actually grateful to have an excuse to take the ‘not my problem’ approach on this occasion.
~ ~ ~
“100,000 coins?”
“Sae’s shadow is intent on running us ragged it seems.”
“Joker can’t you just grappling hook across the gap or something?”
“I mean, yeah probably but I’d have to keep coming back and forth carrying you all one at a time, that’ll give Sae plenty of time to shift the bridge or something to either trap us on the opposite side or separate us.”
“Hmm…” Futaba pondered. “Maybe we could try throwing eachother over?”
“It’s a pretty sizable gap Oracle.” Makoto peered downwards, nearly giving herself vertigo. “And a VERY long way down, it doesn’t seem wise at all.”
“Well we are super strong thanks to our personas.” Futaba grinned confidently. “Look, I’ll prove that it’ll work for sure, we’ll throw Crow over first.”
“I beg your pardon?” Akechi flinched. “You’re no doubt the lightest of all of us, surely you should be the first one we throw?”
“Nah it can’t be me, I’ll fall if we screw up.”
“But it’s okay if I fall?”
The group all nodded.
“Of course, how silly of me.” Akechi rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t work anyway, unless one of you can throw yourselves there’ll be one of us stuck on this side at the end, and the grappling strategy won’t work since we have to carry the treasure back out at the end, and we have no idea how big that might be. Let us simply play along with Niijima-san’s game for now.”
“Lame…” Futaba pouted.
The group made their way back to the lobby.
“Okay, two ‘games’ to chose from.” Ren examined the doors to their left and right. “The ‘House of darkness’ is cheaper, so we’ll start there.”
“House of what now?” Makoto tensed up. “It’s um… it’s not like a haunted house attraction, is it?”
“Why would there be a haunted house in a casino?” Ann wondered aloud.
“It’s not haunted, it’s some kind of maze, just with the lights out.” Haru smirked. “How fun!”
“…It still sounds more like a fairground attraction than anything you’d find in a casino…”
“Have you ever actually been in a real casino Skull?”
“I mean… I’ve seen them in games and stuff…”
“We can handle a maze no problem, it’s basically free coins.” Ren smirked. “My third eye should let us see in the dark no problem, just follow my lead.”
“Third eye?”
“It’s real Crow.” Futaba nodded. “I know it sounds like he’s just being all chuuni- and he is- but this third eye or whatever actually works. And even if it doesn’t I can navigate for us no problem.”
Despite the reassurance, Makoto was still visibly nervous as they entered, it really was almost pitch black. As the door slammed shut behind them she let out a terrified squeal.
“Queen?”
“I’M FINE!” she cried. “IT’S NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL! IT’S JUST A LITTLE DIM! I can handle it…”
Ren took ahold of her hand.
“It’s okay Queen.”
“I-I’m fine! I don’t need…”
Ren called out to the others.
“We should form a daisy chain, last thing we need is to get separated in here, right Queen?”
“R-right!” She was more than happy to go along with that excuse. She reached her other hand out behind her, feeling for whoever was closest. “Grab onto me.”
Makoto suddenly felt someone pinch her buttock.
“AAIIIEE!”
“Queen?”
“Someone groped me!”
“The hell?” Ren looked back, using his third eye to see his teammates in the dark. “I expect better from all of you! Who did that?” Silence. “Come on, it’s your own time your wasting, own up.”
“Eheheh…”
“Oracle…”
“I was just trying to hold onto her, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Makoto sighed.
“Grab my hand Oracle.”
“But I’ll be more secure like this—”
“AAHH!!” Makoto swung her arm around and backhanded Futaba in the face, her goggles nearly flying off her face.
“ARGH! The Queen’s wrath!”
“What happened? I missed it.” Yusuke asked, still completely lost in the blackness.
“She… she inserted…” Makoto was equal parts shocked and enraged. “Oracle that literally counts as sexual assault!”
“I’m sorry, I was just thinking it’d be secure like that.”
“How the hell is that more secure than hand holding?”
“Well I was picturing it like the same way you hold a bowling ball, except with two holes instead of three.”
“Holy shit…” Ryuji’s imagination leapt to life, as did the others’.
“Oracle we’ll let you off on account of your being punched in the face, but you’re on thin ice. Behave.” Ren spoke in his best ‘leader’ tone.
“Yes sir… I’ll hold onto Akechi instead.”
“To me—AH!”
“Oh god, tell me she didn’t just grab his—”
“Of course not Panther, I got his nose.”
“Ah, good thinking.” Ren laughed.
“Maybe I should have let you all throw me over the gap after all…” Akechi grumbled. “But how’d you get my mask first go like that?”
“Hm?” Futaba tilted her head. “Oh I’ve got these goggles, I can see clearly in the dark.”
“GO TO HELL!”
Akechi grabbed her wrist, pulling it away from his mask and forcefully taking her hand in his own.
“Man you suck…” Futaba grumbled. “I’ll play fair, you can’t hook yourself into my holes since I’m wearing pants, but you can hold my breasts if you prefer?”
“But you lack curves, there’s nothing to hold on to…”
“Oh my god Fox…”
“Just stick to holding hands.” Morgana barked at them. “And keep away from my tail!”
“Aww…” Haru pouted.
The group formed a daisy chain led my Ren through the dark halls. It wasn’t long before they ran into a locked door.
“Damn it… of course.” Ren groaned.
“Should we turn back around?”
“Nah it’s fine Noir, there’s a air duct here big enough to crawl through, I’ll lead, you all follow.”
One by one the group crawled through the gap, Ren using his abilities to guide them all through. He was about to reach the exit before he spotted a shadow loitering around the other side.
“Wait.” He called out.
Directly behind him Makoto came to a sudden stop, unfortunately not as sudden as Haru behind her.
“AH! Again?!”
“S-sorry!” Haru quickly shuffled backwards, slamming straight into Ryuji’s face. “O-oh my!”
“Argh.” Ryuji in turn shuffled back, thankfully not far enough to repeat the mistake on Ann behind him. “Sorry Haru, I didn’t—”
“Gosh Ryuji, if you really wanted me to sit on you you should have just asked.”
“Hey you backed into me!”
“Codenames!” Makoto hissed. “In fact, just stay quiet.”
The group silently waited for the shadow to leave and Ren to give the all-clear. Well… when I say silent- Haru did mumble to herself a little.
“My nose is a little wet now…”
“W-wet?”
“Shut up!” Makoto hissed.
“Did you sniff while you were in there?”
“For the love of god Oracle…”
“Okay it’s clear, let’s move.”
~ ~ ~
“Let us never speak of that again.”
“Agreed.”
The group- having won the prize from the maze- made their way to the game on the other side of the lobby.
“Battle arena, huh? At least it’s straight forward.” Ann shrugged
“But we can only enter one combatant? How troubling…” Yusuke brought his hand to his chin.
“Well it obviously has to be someone we don’t mind losing.” Futaba slapped Akechi on the back. “You’re up buddy! Show them what you’ve got!”
“Hilarious…”
“Oh you think I was kidding?”
“Enough you two.” Joker sighed. “It obviously has to be me, right? I’m the one who can switch personas on the fly, I can handle anything they throw at me.”
“Don’t get cocky Joker.” Makoto warned. “They say it’s a series of 1v1 matches, but none of the games here have been even remotely fair, who knows what they have planned for us…”
“We’ll just have to play it by ear, wish me luck.” Ren made his way into the arena, the rest of the group would watch from the stands.
He stood ready, before the mocking audience of cognitions ready to see some bloodshed. For the first found, a pair of Ganeshas materialized before him.
“Oh come on!” Ryuji shouted. “You guys said it’d be 1v1!”
“Yeah…” The announcer replied. “One of you losers versus one pair of elephants.”
“Shove it up your ass!”
“It’s okay Skull.” Makoto watched her boyfriend, concerned- but trying to appear outwardly confident. “We just have to have faith in him.”
Futaba typed away at an invisible keyboard in front of her.
“Got it, Joker they’re weak to psychic!”
“Right.” Ren quickly made the first move, tearing the mask from his face. “Kaiwan!” The star with the face of an old man appeared behind him, surrounded by blue flames. “Psiodyne!”
The attack brought one of the shadows to it’s knees, Ren immediately following up with a second Psiodyne to finish it off. The other Ganesha was clearly not as confident as it once was, it surged forward to attack, but Ren leapt out of the way, repeating the process with two more psiodynes.
“Aw hell yeah!” Ryuji lead the phantom thieves in uproarious cheering, even Akechi offering his own applause (albeit more on par with a golf clap in his case). “How’d you like them apples? This’ll be over in no time.”
Ren bowed a couple times, both for his friends and the gathered cognitions- who seemed decidedly less satisfied by this outcome than the thieves. A frustration shared by the announcer, who grumbled over the PA system.
“Whatever! Round 2- go!”
A trio of Rangdas appeared, gleefully sharpening their claws as they eyed Ren- who took a defensive position, glancing to Futaba at the side typing away again.
“Hey we beat some of these guys yesterday, use bless attacks!”
“Unicorn! Mahama!”
Two of the three shadows instantly vanished in a flash of light, the third not even having time to panic before being erased by a double-helping of kougaon.
“OH COME ON!” The announcer yelled. “At least give us a damn fight!”
Ren made a show of yawning.
“I mean, I’d like to go longer but you really need to send someone who doesn’t suck ass, y’know?” He gestured towards the audience. “Look at them- you’re boring them, why you gotta be like that man?”
Makoto rubbed her forehead.
“Dammit Joker, please don’t let it get to your head…”
“Queen’s right.” Akechi called out. “Don’t get cocky now.”
“You want a fight! I’ll give you a damn fight!” The announcer called out, before summoning one last opponent. In the centre of the arena appeared a giant humanoid, wielding a hammer bigger than Ren himself. “THOR! Make him regret ever showing his face in this arena!”
Futaba furiously typed away.
“No weaknesses… be careful Joker! This one’s tough!”
“Thor huh?” Ren switched personas.
Ann leaned over to the others.
“This isn’t really important or anything, but why is the god of thunder wearing leotard armor?”
“Not a clue.” Futaba shrugged. “Shadows are weird, but hey- the world needs more male bikini armor- I’ll take it.”
“It really highlights the muscles on his arms and thighs…” Haru lightly chewed her bottom lip. “Gosh…”
The others tried to ignore the conspicuous shuffling of her thighs- Akechi making a point of shuffling a few feet away from her in disgust- and turned their attention back to their leader in the arena.
“HROAH!” Thor held his hammer aloft, and a mighty bolt of lightning struck down directly onto Ren, and yet- nothing happened. “Hmm… I see.” The shadow instead surged forwards, bringing his hammer down atop the boy’s head, but it simply bounced off. “What the hell…?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, I gave mothman ‘null phys’, glad I did now- since he’s also immune to electricity.” Ren shrugged. “You uh… got anything else?”
“I…”
“Wait seriously?”
“RAGH!” Thor slammed his hammer down again, and again, and again, but to no avail, it would just bounce off every time, Ren standing with his arms hanging by his sides as if nothing were happening. “Damn you!” He threw down more lightning, accomplishing nothing.
“I guess I should hit you back huh? Um…” he poked the shadow with his knife a few times, Thor barely reacting.
“Uh Joker, he’s resistant to physical attacks, can’t you speed this up a bit?”
“Sorry Mona, I used up most of my stamina on those other two battles, I kinda want to save what I’ve got left for healing. So I want to do this without expending anything more than I have to.” He kept poking Thor as the false-god kept fruitlessly swinging at him. “Poke poke…”
“I guess not expending stamina is the logical thing to do…”
“Poke poke poke…”
“Even if it takes a while…”
“Poke poke…”
Most of the cognitions watching were getting up and leaving at this point, bored out of their minds. Ren didn’t mind, he just kept poking away. About an hour or so passed, Yusuke had tried sketching the scene but ended up losing interest, Morgana started napping on Futaba’s lap, Ann and Makoto were talking about how school has been going lately, Haru just got back from the bathroom, and finally Ryuji was watching Akechi repeatedly hit his head against the wall. And eventually, Thor fell to the ground defeated, and faded into nothingness.
“Ugh… Round 3 goes to the phantom whatevers… Get your prize on the way out I guess…”
“Neat, that was fun.” Ren made his way outside to meet the others and collect their coins.
~ ~ ~
“There we go, 100,000 coins, enough to lower the bridge.”
A familiar voice emerged from the terminal’s speakers.
“Seems you worked hard to gather than many coins…”
“Sis?”
“I never expected you would make it this far. I commend you on your vigorous efforts. However, you will never proceed to the manager’s floor ahead.” Shadow Sae cleared her throat. “From this moment forward, the number of coins for the bridge will increase to 1,000,000!”
“WHAT?!”
“We need to get…” Futaba brought her pinky to the edge of her lips. “…one million coins?”
“Not the time for gags Oracle.” Makoto side-eyed her, annoyed.
“Wait, what happened?” Sae’s voice asked. “I don’t have a camera there, I missed it.”
“Just a movie reference.” Ren answered. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I see, fair enough.” Sae cleared her throat again. “AHA! You finally understand? Your task will forever be impossible! Hence, I will emerge victorious!”
“Dammit, I knew this whole thing was sus AF…” Futaba sneered.
The voice from the speaker went silent.
“Which one of you was the one in the black coat?”
“Oh that’s me. Hi, I’m Joker.”
“Hello Joker, what did she just say?”
“Oh, ‘sus’ is just short for ‘suspicious’, ‘AF’ means ‘as fuck’.”
“Hm, interesting, thank you. Ahem. FOOLS! This is MY game! Thus I will always win- no matter what!”
Akechi stepped forwards.
“Actually, this won’t be a problem.”
“What now?”
“You remember the system they explained to us at the very beginning? We can borrow as many coins as we already had on our card. Thus- if we borrowed the maximum amount when we had 10,000 coins after the ‘House of darkness’, then we’d have 20,000 total.” Akechi was looking very proud of himself. “Then had we bet on Joker to win in the tournament, we’d walk away with 460,000 total.”
“Hang on.” Makoto raised her hand. “Joker’s been holding onto our card the whole time, did he actually do any of this?”
“Uh no…” Ren seemed frustrated with himself. “Man, I should have thought of this shit…”
“Not on Joker’s card. Our ‘Akira Kurusu’ card. But you forget—” Akechi pulled a card out of his pocket. “Our old friend Richard Sakkin.”
Futaba gasped.
“You held onto that?”
“Exactly, I’ve been using our pal ‘Dick’ here to gather—”
“OH!” Ryuji cried out. “I get it! ‘Dick’ is short for ‘Richard’, right?” He had a huge grin, feeling incredibly proud. “I get it now, I was wondering why you were all being strange about the name earlier. Hehheh, that’s a good one man…”
“Y-yes…” Akechi sighed. “Well done Skull… Anyway- I held onto this card and have been using it to gather coins and outsmart the system.”
“So if we added our coins together, we’d have over half a million.” Haru’s eyes went wide.
“It’s better than that.” Akechi smirked. “Once my total reached 460,000 I borrowed the maximum amount a second time, bringing me up to 920,000, though I had to pay back the original 10,000 borrowed. Were this a real casino, I’d really be in trouble when it came time to pay everything I’ve borrowed back, but since this is merely the metaverse, we won’t ever have to deal with that.”
“Jesus. Alright- credit where it’s due Crow, you’ve done good man.”
“Why thank you Joker, now come, let’s pay before she changes the rules again.”
“GODFUCKINGDAMMIT!” Shadow Sae’s voice shouted over the speaker as Akechi and Ren inserted their cards. “Dammit someone change it! Add two more zeroes! … What do you mean I have to do it here? Which button do I press? … There’s like three red ones- you’re fired! Someone competent tell me… This one is carmine…? Or was it cinnabar…? It is NOT crimson- you’re fired too!”
The coined thundered out into the oversized scales, shifting the bridge into place.
“NOOO!”
“Shall we move on?” Akechi addressed the others, ignoring the string of curses Shadow Sae was slinging at them.
“I-I think that’d be best.” Makoto cringed slightly at the sound of her sister losing her temper, letting it fade into the distance as she and the rest of the team crossed the bridge, ready to finish securing the infiltration route.
Chapter 57: The Queen's sister
Summary:
Akechi confronts Ren. Makoto confronts the Niijimas.
Notes:
I know this chapter is out pretty soon after the last one right after I said there might be delays. That's all still true, but I wanted to get this one out sooner rather than later, I'm still aiming for another chapter on Saturday so here's hoping.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Not too deep into mementos, Akechi led Ren to an empty dead end, on a higher floor where the shadows were too weak to dare disturb either of them.
“Y’know this is the part where I'd ask ‘why’d you bring me here?’ but I get the feeling that’s a stupid question, one you’re going to answer anyway.”
“Right you are, Amamiya-san.” Akechi smirked. “You don’t mind me foregoing codenames just for today, do you?”
“I guess? To be honest we only really use them because they’re cool anyway.”
“I suspected that was the case, though I suppose it helps instil a much-needed sense of discipline among your team. But enough about that.” Akechi pulled out his gun, and pointed it at Ren’s head. “This is why I brought you here.”
Ren’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t react in any other way, making no attempt to escape or retaliate.
“Hm.” Akechi scoffed. “I don’t know whether to be pleased or disappointed that your reaction is so collected.”
“I figured it’d be something like this. Is this because you’re still salty about losing our snooker game?”
“It’s pool actually. And I’m merely keeping the promise I made, that if you beat me while I was using my off-hand, I’d take you on with everything I had.”
“Still feels like you’re overreacting man, didn’t take you for the ‘sore loser’ type.”
“I told you, it’s not that. Seeing your insight allowing you to determine my dominant hand, your quick wit, and most of all, how fast you’ve grown. You’ve exceeded my expectations in every way.”
“Well I am pretty awesome, I can’t deny that.” Ren ran his hand through his hair and winked at him. “But sorry man, I already have a girlfriend, I’m gonna have to break your heart.”
Akechi glared at him, unimpressed.
“Your great capabilities, combined with how unbearably irritating you are, have given me an urge to duel you without holding anything back.”
“So you want me to kick your ass?” Ren shrugged. “Not my usual method of foreplay, but I’ll indulge you just this once.”
“You’re trying to provoke me by being as annoying as possible.”
“Aw man, you figured it out.”
“I’ll be going all out, but I don’t intend to lose my cool.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Ren sighed. “So we gonna wrestle or not?”
“…”
“And could you stop pointing that gun at me as if you actually intend to pull the trigger, I know you don’t have what it takes to do that.”
“That so?”
BANG!
“ARGH!” Akechi clutched his forehead, neither his face nor mask had any visible damage, but he undoubtably felt the impact and lingering pain. “What the hell?”
“You alright man?” Ren tilted his head. “How’d you miss that badly?”
BANG!
“ARGH! Again?!” Akechi glared at Ren, his infuriating smile looking back at him.
“Oh right, Arahabaki reflects physical attacks, should have warned you.”
“I see… so that’s the true reason you provoked me.” Akechi smiled, though the slight twitching of his lips betrayed his true frustration. “I should have given you more credit.”
“The resistance to bless and curse is a nice bonus too, figured it’d be the best persona for duelling you.”
“So I cannot rely on physical attacks? Very well.” He put away his sword. “Kouga!”
A beam of light shot into Ren’s body, even with the resistance he knew he could only take so many of these. He surged forward to strike at Akechi, the attack only narrowly being dodged. With his immunity to physical attacks, Ren knew his best play was to stay within close range, keeping up the offensive as much as possible, not giving Akechi any chances to sling spells his way.
“Not bad Amamiya-san!” Akechi jumped backwards and immediately threw out his next attack. “Eiga!”
Ren sidestepped the dark energy and leapt forwards, grabbing both of Akechi’s wrists.
“What are you doing?”
Ren smirked, then pulled in Akechi’s gun-wielding hand, smacking it against the side of his skull. Though of course thanks to Arahabaki’s reflection abilities, Akechi was the one to feel the pain.
“You bastard!”
Ren repeated the action over and over again.
“Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself.”
Akechi kicked Ren’s shin to try and break free, but only caused himself more pain doing so.
“Alright that’s it- MEGIDOLA!”
“Wuh-oh.” Ren tried to leap away, but couldn’t escape the surge of immense magical energy striking into him, sending him tumbling back, nearly slamming into the wall. “Ow… I’ll actually have to be careful of that one.”
“Megi—”
Akechi was cut off when a bullet deflected off his mask, and before he could regain his composure he felt Ren’s arms wrap around his waist, and before he knew it he was soaring through the air and came crashing down on his head.
“Heh…” On shaky knees, Ren got back to his feet. “I’ve always wanted to suplex someone.”
“Ugh…”
“This means I win right?”
“…Fine, I don’t care anymore.”
“You care immensely.”
Akechi quietly seethed as he stood back up.
“We still have an important mission to complete, so we better not go any further today, as much as that would intrigue me. I’d love to see how far we could go.”
“That’s ‘nah’ from me dog, I’m not into dudes.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Heh.”
“Let me get one thing clear Amamiya-san, I’m not simply being ‘tsundere’, I actually fucking hate you.”
“I know, this gives me great joy.”
“So long as we both understand.”
~ ~ ~
The Phantom Thieves and Akechi had secured their infiltration route into Sae’s palace, and yet Akechi insisted they wait until the last minute- November 19th- before they carry out the heist, the others reluctantly agreeing.
Of course, Akechi had no intention of holding up his end of the bargain, he would arrange for their arrest on that day as soon as Sae’s treasure was stolen, and then assassinate their leader while he was in police custody. They were playing right into his plans.
But of course- you’ve all played the game, you know this, and you know that the thieves also know this.
Thanks to Akechi giving away the fact that he could understand Morgana far earlier than he intended, and Futaba bugging his phone- the thieves were well aware of Akechi’s true intentions, and had their own master plan in action unbeknownst to the detective.
Part of this plan involved setting up a fake treasure for them to steal in the palace, which was what Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Morgana and Yusuke were handling right now.
“Are you sure Akechi-san won’t suspect anything?”
“It’s fine Noir” Futaba nodded confidently. “Joker agreed to keep him busy for as much of the day as he could.”
“What are they doing?”
“I dunno, something to do with pool?”
“I thought it was snooker?” Yusuke tilted his head, confused.
“It might be billiards?”
“Aren’t they all the same thing?”
“Certainly not!”
“If you say so Inari.”
“Could all of you focus?” Makoto glared back at them. “Akechi may not be a problem, but the last thing we need is for my sister to know we’re here.”
“Right, sorry Queen. Don’t worry, I’m still scanning for enemies, we’re in the clear.”
“You’d think there’d be more guards on the manager’s floor…” Haru seemed worried.
“Sis is always saying they're understaffed where it actually matters, I guess that’s reflected here.”
Morgana glanced up the stairs to their side.
“I’m guessing up there is where the palace ruler hangs out. Given our usual pattern, it’s likely our confrontation with Sae’s shadow will take place up there.”
“Right. We’ll leave that alone for now.” Makoto held up an empty silver briefcase. “We’ll hide this somewhere nearby so we can collect it quickly on the day, is there anywhere good nearby Oracle?”
“Hmm…” Futaba looked around, adjusting her goggles. “A few places that would do the job, there’s a weird dead end just down the side here.”
She suddenly took off in the direction he was pointing, the rest of the group scrambling after her, around a few corners, until they reached a door.
“This door doesn’t really fit the rest of the palace.” Yusuke analysed it curiously. “It’s far too… ordinary looking.”
“It’s…”
“Queen?”
“It’s our apartment door.”
“Your apartment?”
“Mine and Sis’s.”
“Curious…” Yusuke pondered for a moment, then reached out to try and push it open.
“Fox! Stop!” Morgana called out.
“What?”
“Sae’s shadow could be in there, we shouldn’t just burst in.”
“I see, good point… it’s locked anyway.”
“It still might be a good idea to take a look inside, it’s pretty out of the way so it’s probably the best place to hide the treasure.” Haru offered. “In fact it works well since that way if Akechi-kun insists on picking up the treasure with us, having it be in here is pretty believable, isn’t it?”
“I dunno… I still think it’s too risky…”
“Open the door Mona.”
“Q-Queen?”
“I said open the door.” She looked down at the notcat, her usual look of Queen-like authority rather dampened by the anxiety clear on her face. “I have to see what’s inside.”
“I…” Morgana sighed. “I can probably pick the lock, just gimme a sec.”
Haru helpfully held Morgana up to the height of the lock as he started working away.
“I’m sorry everyone.” Makoto began. “But I need to see what my sister is keeping in here.”
“Are you certain? You may not like what you find.”
“I know Fox… but…”
“It’s okay Queen, we understand.” Haru smiled at her supportively.
“I’ll go in with you just in case.” Morgana said just as he managed to undo the lock. “We can’t rule out the possibility of an ambush, I’ll keep a vanish ball ready just in case. Everyone else stay here and keep an eye out.”
The rest of the group nodded obediently. Morgana looked up to Makoto, the two exchanging a reassuring look, before entering as quietly as they could.
Makoto fought her natural inclination to call out “I’m home”, instead remaining completely silent as they creeped into the dimly lit apartment. At a glance everything looked more or less the same as it did in reality. She noticed the kitchen light was on, and she could hear movement, objects being lifted up and put down, and… humming?
“Someone’s cooking something.” Morgana whispered.
Makoto peered around the corner, trying to spot whoever was busy cooking in the middle of a palace like this, but saw no one.
“There was definitely someone there a moment ago, where could they have—”
“Sis?”
The thieves froze at the sudden voice, turning to face it. A small figure emerged from around the side of the kitchen island.
“A little girl?” Morgana raised his brow. “Wait… don’t tell me…”
The child, wearing an apron clearly too big for her, looking up at them, disappointment and confusion both clear on her face.
“Oh… You’re not Sis.” She sighed. “Of course not.”
“Um…” Makoto cautiously stepped forward, crouching down to match the girl’s height. “Hello… um… Makoto?”
“Hm… you kinda look a bit like Sis though…”
“Y-yeah, I uh- know your sister Sae…”
“Hmm…” The mini-Makoto analysed her older counterpart closely. “Why are you dressed so… spiky?”
“Sorry, it’s a… work thing.”
“Weird.”
“Is Sis—I mean—is your sister home?”
The cognitive Makoto’s shoulders dropped, she gazed sadly down at the floor.
“No… she’s never home.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Makoto glanced aside at Morgana, not enjoying the look of pity he was shooting her. “But, she comes home sometimes, right?”
“I guess… She ignores me though.”
“I understand. My sister is the same way.”
“You have a sister too?”
“Yes, I do.” Makoto smiled wistfully. “I know she doesn’t mean to ignore me, to shut me out, she’s just always so busy, few people work as hard as she does.” She looked her younger counterpart in the eyes. “I think your sister is probably the same, she works really hard for your sake. It’s a scary world out there, and I think… no- I know she does it all to protect you. To keep you safe from it all here.”
This reassurance didn’t make Minikoto feel any better, she still stared into the middle distance, a miserable look on her face.
“I know… But…” tears began to well up in her eyes. “I wish… that we could spend some time together. All she ever does is work, I see her less and less, and even when I do she doesn’t pay any attention to me. It’s as if I’m not even here…”
“I… I know what you mean…”
“Queen…” Morgana looked between the two Makotos, and whispered to the real one. “If this is how the cognition feels, then that means the real Sae is aware of this… at least dimly…”
“But I understand, she’s working hard for me.” The cognition continued. “I still love her…”
Makoto’s brow raised, and she gazed up at the ceiling in deep thought.
“I…”
“Queen?”
Makoto looked back at her younger self, swallowing before finally working up the courage to speak again.
“Have you told her that?”
Minikoto looked up to her.
“Huh?”
“Have you ever told her you loved her? Have you ever told her you want to talk more? To spend more time together?”
“…Huh?”
“I get it now… maybe she’s suspects it’s already the case if you’re like this, but she won’t know for sure unless we say.”
“We say?”
“Queen, we better not—”
Makoto gently silenced Morgana and pushed him aside, taking ahold of the cognition’s shoulders.
“I know how you feel, believe me, and yes- it should be Sis who reaches out, but… I don’t think she knows how.”
“She doesn’t know?”
“I get it… I get Sis now… since she was young she had to succeed at any cost, she was the only one who could provide for us both. Every step of the way her youth and her gender would be used as excuses to push her back, she was fighting an uphill battle in a ruthless environment surrounded by those who either wanted to profit off her success, or see her fail. She could never afford to show any weakness or vulnerability. And she’s been forced to be like that for so long that she just doesn’t know how to be vulnerable or open anymore.”
“I’m confused…”
“It’s okay Makoto.” Her voice was shaky. “All this time we’ve been lamenting how she’s been drifting away from us, and yet we just let it happen without saying anything. Maybe I’m just as guilty…”
“Queen that’s not—”
“It’s okay Morgana, I’m alright.” Makoto forced a smile. “In fact I’m better than ever, I’m glad I came here.”
“Are you okay Miss?”
“I’m fine… M-Makoto.” Her grip on the girl’s shoulders got tighter. “Could you promise me something?”
“Promise?”
“When you next see Sis—I mean, your sister, tell her you love her, okay?”
“Huh?”
“She won’t know unless you say. And if she doesn’t know, there’s no hope of your relationship getting any better.”
“Oh…” The girl nodded, still not fully sure of herself. “Okay, I’ll try Miss.”
Makoto pulled in her other self for a hug, the little girl not really knowing how to react as Morgana stared at the scene, wide-eyed.
“Thank you, I’ll try my best too.” Makoto released her, stood up, and glanced back at the kitchen. “Make sure dinner is delicious too, alright?”
“Mm.” The girl nodded, and watched as the real Makoto turned around, and rushed out of the room, before glancing at the strange creature beside her.
“Um, sorry for intruding.” Morgana bowed his head slightly, and followed after Makoto, closing the door behind them.
“What was in there?” Futaba asked.
Both Makoto and Morgana were reluctant to answer.
“Are you okay Queen?”
“I’m fine Noir.” Makoto took a deep breath. “We can’t hide the fake treasure in here, let’s find somewhere else.” She looked down at Morgana. “Is the door locked again?”
“D-definitely, don’t worry Queen.”
“Thank you Mona… truly.”
“I didn’t really do anything, but sure.”
“What are you two talking about?”
“Eh…” Morgana thought for a moment. “Don’t worry about it Oracle, let’s just focus on the task at hand, okay?”
“If you say so…”
~ ~ ~
“I’m home Sis.”
“Welcome back.”
It was a surreal feeling for Makoto, returning home after just coming from her fake one in the metaverse, part of her expected to see her child self working away in the kitchen still, but of course- the apartment was empty aside from Sae typing away on her laptop.
“Have you eaten, Sis?”
“Not yet, we’ve got leftovers though.”
“It’s alright, I feel like cooking something.”
“Hm? Well if you insist.”
Makoto, rather than heading straight for the kitchen area, sat on the corner of the couch, staring at Sae. She stayed like this for over a minute before Sae noticed out of the corner of her eye, he raised an eyebrow at her.
“Something wrong?”
“…”
“Makoto?”
“This is going to be really out of the blue but uh…” Makoto averted her eyes, nervously chewing her lip. “I um…”
“Makoto I’m very busy, could you spit it out please?”
“R-right, sorry. I just wanted to remind you that um… that I love you.”
Sae’s brow raised; that was certainly not the direction she thought this was going.
“You’re right, that is out of the blue.”
“Sorry if it’s a bit awkward, I’ve just had a lot on my mind and… well… I realized it’s been a while since I told you.”
“I see…” Sae’s brow furrowed, she averted her eyes- confused. She couldn’t decide how to feel. “Well um… thank you? I suppose?”
Makoto kept staring at her in silence, Sae’s initial instinct was to simply turn back to her work, but Makoto’s gaze was unrelenting, and it felt like it was piercing right through her.
“I-is there something else you need? I don’t really have time to—”
“Say it back…”
“What?”
“Say it back.”
“What’s gotten into you today?”
“Say it back.”
“Ugh, Makoto I don’t have time to pla—”
“Say. It. Back.”
Sae was rather taken aback, she wasn’t used to Makoto taking this tone with her, she tried to meet her eyes, but couldn’t quite maintain contact for some reason. It felt like something was stuck inside her throat, and there was this painful feeling shooting through her gut. But Makoto wasn’t budging an inch. Sae forced the words out.
“Well… of course I love you too.”
Makoto let go of the breath she was holding.
“Aah… that’s such a relief.”
“Relief?”
Makoto had the most genuine smile of her entire life on her face, something about it made that pain in Sae’s gut worse.
“Sorry about that Sis, I understand that was awkward for you… actually- what I mean is- thank you Sis, really.”
“Um… okay.”
“I’ll get started on dinner, sorry to take up your time.”
“Mm.”
Makoto walked over to the kitchen area, Sae quickly turned back to her laptop. But when she went to type, she barely made it a few words before she found herself looking back at her younger sister. She was discreetly wiping away tears before washing her hands ready to cook. Sae faced forward again, but found her hands just hovering pointlessly over the keyboard.
“I’m going to take a quick shower.”
“No problem Sis, dinner will be a bit anyway.”
Makoto watched her sister disappear down the hall and into the bathroom.
“I promise I’ll keep you safe Sis.” She mumbled to herself. “I just need a little more time. Just a little longer.”
Meanwhile in the bathroom Sae had locked the door behind her, and found herself staring listlessly into the middle-distance.
“Relieved?” She looked at herself in the mirror. “She said she was relieved? Does that mean… that she was really worried that I didn’t love her?”
She rubbed her forehead.
“Did she really think… she’s so stupid…” Despite her words, her tone wasn’t malicious or angry at all, it was full of a feeling of melancholy. “Did I really give her that impression?”
She shook her head.
“I’ll… dammit, I’m nearly done with this, we’re nearly safe again Makoto. I just need a little more time. Just a little longer.”
Notes:
Okay so full disclosure- the idea of Sae's palace having a hidden room with a child Makoto locked away safe is not something I came up with- I read a oneshot fic that had Shadow Sae visit her cognitive Makoto, and it was a really interesting character study fic for Sae. I loved it, and it became my headcanon going forwards, and I thought of including something like it in this fic a long time ago, albeit with Makoto meeting herself instead to further this fic's plot about the Niijima's relationship.
Annoyingly I can't remember the name of the fic or it's author, or I'd credit them here. If anyone knows the fic I'm talking about please let me know, and I'll add it to these notes.
Edit: I FOUND IT!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17505032
"Please wait for me" by "RavenThePhantomThief". Go give it a read and kudos if you like, this is where I got the inspiration for the scene with Minikoto here (or I shamelessly stole the idea, whichever you prefer)
Chapter 58: Naked in office
Summary:
Makoto is tired, Eiko is restless
Notes:
Not going to the next stage of the Sae arc just yet, got some subplots to take care of first
Chapter Text
“Yo, Nudie Prez…”
“…”
“Helloo~”
“…”
“Earth to exhibitionist- you there?”
“H-huh?” Makoto lifted her head off of the student council room desk, seeing Eiko standing next to her seat. “Did I fall asleep?”
“Didn’t take you as the type to nap in school, you alright?”
“Yeah fine… fine. Just been busy lately.” Makoto had been occupied directing the thieves plan to subvert Akechi’s own plan of betrayal, find out who he was working for, and avoid their own demise. Needless to say this involved a lot of prep work, often done late into the night to avoid arousing Akechi’s suspicion, though she obviously couldn’t tell Eiko any of this. “I’ve not been getting as much sleep as I should.”
Eiko’s expression fell.
“That’s really not like you Prez. Figured you’d always be the proper boring and practical type with sleep schedules and diet and whatever.”
“Should I be insulted?”
“It wasn’t supposed to be an insult…” Eiko gave a thumbs-up. “You just do whatever’s necessary to keep your super nerd status.”
“Still slightly insulting, but thanks anyway.”
“But for real Mako-chan, you alright? Anything I can help with?”
Makoto gave a tired smile.
“No, it’s fine Eiko, everything will be fine.”
“If you say so… but for real- tell me if I can help, you’re always helping me out. Anything- backrub? Shoulder rub? Help shopping? Carrying stuff around? Cunnilingus? Relationship advice? Studying?”
“I’m fine- thank you, I think there was something a bit dodgy mixed in there, but I appreciate the sentiment regardless.” Makoto rubbed her eyes, still not fully awake. “Speaking of studying- how have you been getting on with yours?”
“Ehhh…” Eiko chewed her bottom lip. “I’d say ‘better’, but really it’s more like ‘not as bad as before’.”
“Maybe if you didn’t keep distracting me with Like a Dragon talk during our study sessions I’d be able to help you even more.”
“But they’re so long… I dunno how you don’t go insane after the half hour mark… so much information to absorb, shit I’m never gonna use after my exams…”
“Ain’t that the truth.” Said Ren, who Eiko just noticed was standing behind her, about an inch or two away from her.
“JESUS!”
“No it’s me, Ren.”
“Fuck you man. Why you gotta be a creep and scare me like that?”
Ren shrugged.
“It’s funny, y’know?”
Makoto sighed.
“Hello Ren, everything alright?”
He nodded.
“I mean I’m fine, just got finished helping out Dr. Maruki again. But it’s you I’m worried about, you look tired.”
“You’re already done? Have I really been asleep that long?”
“Not long enough by the looks of it.”
“Ren’s right Nudie-prez. I dunno what’s going on, but I can tell you’re overworking yourself.” Eiko turned to Ren. “I offered her shoulder rubs and cunnilingus, but she turned me down, I guess she only wants them from you?”
“We haven’t tried shoulder rubs yet, that sounds good.”
“Deny the other part dammit!” Makoto hissed.
Eiko sniggered.
“Is there any point denying it Prez? I’ve literally seen the two of you fuck… a lot of people have.”
“Don’t remind me…” Makoto’s forehead hit her desk as she groaned.
Ren chuckled before circling around Makoto and gently petting the back of her head.
“But for real, I don’t want you putting your health at risk for my sake. Might be worth getting home and spending the rest of the day resting.”
Makoto sat up and looked at Ren rather annoyed. His glasses hid it partially, but she could still notice the hints of tired bags under his eyes too. He had been contributing to the plan almost as much as she had, perhaps more so since he not only had to keep Akechi busy a lot of the time, but he still kept up with appointments with his various other friends and acquaintances on top of that. As much as he tried to play it off with that mask of his, he worked the hardest out of any of the thieves. So for him to tell her to get some rest felt really hypocritical.
“Come on Mako, we still have time, and we have the others helping. Exhausting yourself isn’t going to help anyone.”
“Ugh… I guess you’re not wrong but…”
“But nothing. We’ll still manage with you taking one afternoon to rest.”
Makoto grumbled as she reluctantly stood up from her seat.
“I guess conserving my energy is the right thing to do…”
Meanwhile Eiko was watching the exchange closely, mumbling under her breath.
“’for my sake’? ‘the others’? ‘still have time’? What are these two up to?”
“You say something Eiko-san?”
“Just thinking aloud.” Eiko hummed. “Hey Rendolyne?”
“Is that supposed to be me?”
“You’re taking Nudie Prez home right now, right?”
“To her home, yeah.” He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Mind if I tag along? I wanted to have a word with you about something.”
Now it was Makoto’s turn to raise her brow.
“Should I be worried?”
“Nah it’s nothing sinister, just… wanted some advice on something.”
“I guess that’s fine?” Makoto still found her rather suspicious, she didn’t think Eiko was trying to make any moves on Ren or anything, or maybe she was just too tired to care right now.
“And actually, that’s not the only reason I’m tagging along…”
“Eiko-san?” Makoto tilted her head. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“Yeah…” Eiko looked between Ren and Makoto. “I’m bored.”
“…”
“Cool.” Eiko grinned. “Glad we could come to an agreement, let’s head out.”
Makoto exchanged a quick glance with Ren and sighed.
“Sure, let’s go.”
~ ~ ~
It was a bit later than their usual commute home, which worked in their favor since it meant all three of them could get seats. Tokyo was a stressful city to live in, so people could be quite ruthless in refusing to give their seat up to a pair of nudists even under ideal circumstances, so having to stand in full view of the rest of the passengers wasn’t uncommon for either of the nudists while traveling, providing a ‘show’ for everyone (because really- what else is there to do while riding the subway?) So it was a good thing they didn’t have to worry about that today at least, Makoto able to get comfortable without giving everyone a 360 degree view of her body, and Eiko able to travel without constantly thinking about what’s the sexiest pose she can pull off for her captive audience without being too obvious.
Even during the relatively short journey, Makoto had managed to fall asleep, leaning her head against Ren’s shoulder- said boyfriend trying not to look too happy about it as Eiko smirked at them from the seat opposite.
Makoto’s sitting posture had grown gradually less lady-like since becoming a nudist, she no longer made an active effort to keep her legs together, in fact if anything it seemed like she deliberately kept them open. Whether it was her simply becoming more comfortable in her own body and thus caring less about outward presentation, or it was an actively exhibitionistic action she was taking- Ren couldn’t say, but he would usually chose to quietly appreciate it regardless without calling attention to it.
Though it seemed to get even worse when she was sleeping like this, she had unintentionally splayed herself wide open- giving not only Eiko- but everyone on the opposite side of the carriage a very clear view of her parted vulva, and the magical world that lied within. Granted, at this point said world was fairly well-documented, though that didn’t stop today’s viewers from pulling out their phones and adding to that, making only the most token of efforts to hide what they were doing.
Ren didn’t think Makoto would be too upset at this stage, but he still found it quite questionable that this was happening while she was asleep. He reached down to her leg that was most distant from him, and gently pulled it towards him, closing the gates to paradise- so to say. Though barely a minute had passed before her legs started parting again. If he didn’t know better, Ren would have sworn he could hear the sound of a creaky gate accompanying the motion. He closed them again, but gave up when she just opened up again. He looked down at her, she seemed content continuing to nap oblivious, reaching up to gently scratch her left breast and humming.
Eiko continued to watch amused, not only at Makoto’s display, but at her fellow passengers trying their hardest to look like they weren’t staring, and doing a piss-poor job. She got up and sat back down next to Ren, looking to one-up Makoto by not only spreading her own legs, but bringing her feet up onto the seat, one of her feet landing in Ren’s lap, the poor boy really trying hard to ignore it, and Eiko having the gall to play innocent and ‘acting natural’ despite her very unnatural sitting position.
“My favorites are the ones who get all embarrassed when I look back at them, then immediately look back as soon as I turn away again- as if I can’t clearly see them in my peripheral.”
“I mean can you really blame them?”
“I never said I disliked it, on the contrary. Hell, I betcha Nudie Prez is the same, she just hides it better.”
“Maybe…” Ren eyed the men on the other side, many of them shooting hateful and jealous looked back at him. He made a point of wrapping an arm around Makoto’s shoulder and gently pulling her closer. Not to disturb her, but to send a clear message that looking is the only thing these other guys could get away with.
“Heh, look at you being all possessive.”
“It’s not possessive… is it?”
“Eh, I think it’s the good kind in this case. I doubt Mako-chan minds.”
“I hope not…”
They fell into comfortable silence for a bit, well comfortable for Eiko at least, there’s a limit to how comfortable a teenage boy can be with a nudist girl on either side of him, one sleeping against him and the other resting her bare foot dangerously high up his thighs, but he wouldn’t say he disliked it at all.
“Ren…”
“Yeah?”
“Entrance exams are soon…”
“Hm?” Ren looked upwards in thought. “Right, they’ll be early on in the new year right?” He looked sympathetically down at Makoto. “You two have got it rough.”
“I mean… yeah, I guess…”
“Any particular reason you’re bringing them up?”
Eiko huffed.
“I mean, Nudie Prez has been helping me study and all but…”
“Are you worried you won’t succeed?”
“No. Well, yeah that too. But I’m still not really sure what I’d even do if I did succeed.”
“Oh?”
“Like, all I’ve really got pushing me is the program. Or rather- the positivity it brings. I want to help people feel the same way I do, do what you and Mako-chan did for me. But I have no idea how to do that. How to actually make a difference.” She glanced up at him. “You might not believe me, but ‘getting people naked’ is not my end goal.”
“I believe you.”
“Don’t be sarcastic.”
“I’m not.” Ren looked her in the eyes, completely genuine. “I get what you mean.”
“…Thank you. She has her goal of being a kick-ass police lady, protecting people from all the ‘Tsukasa’s of the world. Even now I still don’t have a goal to work towards.”
“So this is what you wanted to talk about…”
“Yeah. I know we’ve talked about it before, but time pressure really is like- a thing, y’know? College is important, and I don’t want to waste time accidentally taking the wrong course or something.”
“I getcha. I’m happy to help but, I’m not sure I have an answer for you.”
“Still, talking to you helps, even just bouncing ideas off of you helps.”
“Hmm… I dunno, you’re into this program right? We’ll use that as a starting point.”
“Hm… I do want to spread it to other schools and beyond, it’s been a HUGE confidence booster, I’m sure it’ll do the same for others.”
“I wouldn’t know how to do that, sounds like a legal nightmare.”
“Probably…”
“Actually, that might be a good next step.”
“Hm?”
“Ever think about getting into law?”
“Law huh… that would give me a chance to study alongside Makoto even after we graduate Shujin.” She pouted, shifting her position to be more comfortable- disappointing some of her voyeurs slightly. “Though being a cop really isn’t something I’m interested in, nor lawyer or anything like that.”
“I’ve not really looked into what kind of courses they actually are, or what they’re used for.” Ren shrugged. “Actually your goal is more to do with changing laws than enforcing them. That’s probably more in the field of politics I’d imagine.”
“Hmm…” Eiko smirked, then started laughing to herself. “Heheh, everyone welcome Tokyo’s new sexy nudist mayor: Eiko Takao. I can picture it now.”
“Mayor huh? Ain’t you ambitious?”
“Go big or go home!” She chuckled. “But honestly yeah, you might be onto something.”
“I mean with activism you can always do shit like petitions and drum up social media noise, but to actually make a difference you’d actually need to get people on the inside on your side. Having someone like you actually in a position where you can actually do something would go a long way.”
“I can dig it…” Eiko pondered. “Alright, not saying for certain that’s what I’m going for just yet, but it’s worth thinking about at least…” Her expression dropped slightly. “Though how do you even start working towards that? Is that like- a thing you specifically study in college or do I gotta study law after all?”
“Law is probably involved… not that I’d know.”
“Damn.”
“Although…” Ren smirked. “I think I know someone who might.”
~ ~ ~
“Thanks for agreeing to meet us man.”
“Nonsense, it’s no trouble at all considering all you’ve done to help me in the past.”
Ren shrugged.
“I was just holding a sign for most of the time, it’s no biggie.” Ren stepped aside to reveal Eiko. “Anyway this is who I wanted you to meet. Tora- this is Eiko Takao. Eiko, this is Yoshida Toranosuke.”
“Aha- Ai-chan’s uncle!”
Yoshida flinched briefly at the brazen nudity on display before him, but quickly regained his composure.
“Ahem yes, my brother’s eldest is named Ai, I assume you’re a friend of hers?”
Eiko nodded.
“Uh-huh, I don’t think she ever mentioned you to me though.”
“I’d be surprised if she did.” Yoshida’s expression fell slightly. “Me and the rest of the family aren’t on bad terms exactly, but there is still some lingering resentment from the scandals I caused. Although I have visited them recently, and if they are holding any sort of grudge they’re at least hiding it well.” He laughed at his own joke. “I believe Ai has also adopted the same… lifestyle choice you have. I admit I’m not especially knowledgeable on this ‘program’, but I’m really not sure what to think of it.”
“I think it’s pretty awesome!” Eiko grinned. “Body confidence is especially important for us girls, this has really gone a LONG way to boosting that confidence for all of us! And that in turn makes us more confident in other ways, y’know?”
“Well you’ve certainly got confidence, I’ll give you that.” Yoshida nodded, his talent for maintaining eye contact being put to the true test as Eiko happily bounced around as she talked. “I suppose if you say it’s a positive thing in your lives, then I have no reason to disbelieve you. Just stay safe, alright?”
“Don’t you worry Mr. Toranosuitcase!”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ren waved his hand. “A running gag that only she finds funny, just ignore it.”
“Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here Renjeansimmons.”
“Okay ‘Renjamin’ at least made some sense, these are getting worse…”
Eiko rolled her eyes and turned back to the baffled politician.
“Anyway the program isn’t what I’m here to talk about, well- kinda. It’s sorta related but not really, I mean not properly related but uh, it has a connection to the thing…”
“It’s tangentially related.”
“YES! That’s the word I was looking for, thanks Ren. It’s tandentally related.”
“Tangentially.”
“That’s what I said, quit interrupting me.” She pushed Ren aside. “Ren-kun said you’d be able to give me advice about getting into politics.”
“Getting into politics hm?”
“Like properly, not just taking an interest in issues and whatever, but actually trying to get into a position where I can make a difference. The program is limited to just a couple of schools right now, and that’s not going to change unless some laws change. Dumb outdated laws like censorship and ‘decency’ laws, y’know? But like, I don’t know where to even start.”
“Hmm…” Yoshida pondered. “Is that so? Well I’m always one to encourage young people to take interest in politics, the current political scene is full of old men too set in their ways, but do you mind if I ask you a few questions first?”
“Uh… sure?”
“This program, why exactly do you want to spread it?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you gain from others adopting this lifestyle?”
Eiko’s brow furrowed.
“Uhh…”
“Perhaps I’ll rephrase the question: What do you gain from this lifestyle? What led you to it? What makes you want to lead others to it? And indeed, what would you do if you were to be successful and implement such a program across the country?”
“Well…” Eiko fiddled with her side tail as she thought. “I mean I joined it because Nudie-prez— I mean- the first nudist, Makoto Niijima inspired me.”
Neither Yoshida nor Ren said anything just yet, they simply waited for her to continue.
“See I um… used to be pretty dumb. I didn’t really take anything seriously, just went through life not really thinking about the future, letting things be decided for me, not really doing anything apart from fumbling through the life that had been prepared for me, I guess.” She smiled. “Thinking about it, I remember Mako-chan talking about similar problems back then, but only she was really taking them seriously. I just accepted the way things were… no that’s a lie. I just kept denying the side of myself that wanted more, that wanted to feel special. Which made me an easy target for someone to take advantage of me.”
Yoshida’s expression betrayed his feeling of sympathy.
“And like, I couldn’t see it at the time, but the reason I was targeted was my lack of confidence, not really knowing who I was or wanted to be and just accepting this easy, shallow answer that man provided for me. Makoto was so much stronger than me, able to form a real bond with an amazing boyfriend without sacrificing any of her own independence.”
Ren bashfully rubbed the back of his hair, an action that did not escape Yoshida’s attention.
“So I thought, ‘I’ll try being more like Makoto!’ and that started with going nudist. To be honest I wasn’t sure if I’d even stick with it back then, but so quickly I started having a ton of fun, feeling more confident than I ever had before, getting closer than ever to my friends. Really ‘being like Makoto’ is something I forgot about so quickly, I really feel like I’m just a better version of ‘me’ now. I feel so much stronger. The me now would never fall for that prick Tsukasa’s sweet words.”
Eiko smiled confidently at the politician.
“So I guess that’s what I gained from it. Strength. I want other people to feel that too. There are so many bad people in the world, people as bad or far worse than Tsukasa. And while Makoto wants to become a cop to bring justice to people like that, I want to instead focus on making everyone else stronger so that they never fall victim to people like that in the first place. I want everyone to feel special, and to inspire strength in others like she did in me…” Eiko started blushing, averting her eyes from the two men smiling at her. “Dammit this is so embarrassing, saying this all out loud…”
“I think I understand.” Yoshida nodded. “It’s not the program itself, or the nudity, but the feeling of inner strength and comradery. That’s exactly the kind of thing I want to inspire too.” He smiled warmly, which just embarrassed her more. “Sorry for putting you on the spot like that, I needed to make sure you weren’t just being frivolous.”
“R-right… I mean, I still want to spread the program- or some version of it. Nudity is hella fun after all. But yeah, I guess my real goals are bigger than that.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I still don’t have much of an opinion on the lifestyle itself, but your heart is absolutely in the right place.”
“I mean yeah, I’m not going into politics just cuz I want more power or whatever, and I know it’s gonna be really hard work… honestly I’m worried I’m not smart enough, but I want to do everything I can to get the power I need to lift others up, not just for the money or luxury or whatever.”
Yoshida laughed heartily.
“Huh? Did I say something funny?”
“No no, not at all. I’m just laughing at the fact that you figured that out so much sooner than I did.” He wiped away a tear. “Very well, I’d be happy to give you some coaching and all the knowledge you’ll need to succeed. In return I only ask two things- to help in my speeches…”
“And?”
“And to keep looking after Ai for me.”
Eiko laughed.
“She looks after me mostly.”
“I suppose that’s fine too.”
“I guess I’ll leave you two to it?” Ren turned to leave.
“H-hang on!” Eiko grabbed his sleeve.
“Uh, what’s up?”
Eiko released his sleeve only to pat his arm as she grinned up at him.
“Thanks.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Ugh. Next time you say that I’m punching you.”
“R-right.”
“I’m serious. And it won’t be a playful punch.”
“…Noted.” Ren swiftly made to leave again. “See you later Tora-san.”
“Stay strong Amamiya-kun.” They watched him disappear down into the subway. “Am I to assume he has influenced your life as well Takao-san?”
“Hm? Yeah Ren is pretty great. A dork, and annoying, but a great guy.”
“Is that so? Tell me, are you and him—”
“I’m not his girlfriend, Makoto-san is.”
“Ah, I suspected it was something like that.”
“And I don’t have those kinda feelings for him either if that’s what you’re thinking.” She averted her eyes. “Well maybe a little, but I’ve already got a girlfriend so I’m good.”
“I see…” Yoshida nodded in thought. “Are you and this girlfriend serious?”
“Uh…” Eiko pouted. “I don’t think we are yet… to be honest we’ve gone out on dates and whatever but neither of us has explicitly said ‘be my girlfriend’ yet… But I would like for us to be serious, so maybe I should change that.”
“Well I wish you the best of luck Takao-san. If you’re truly successful getting into the political world, then perhaps you can even help Japan catch up and start recognizing same-sex marriage.”
Eiko’s eyes went wide.
“That’s a tall order, way to put the pressure on me.”
“You’ll have to forgive me. Like I said- politics is full of old men set in their ways, I’ll admit I’m rather excited at the prospect of helping some new, young minds, unrestrained by tradition get in and make some changes.”
“Eheheh… well I’ll try not to let you down.” Eiko turned away, staring up at the sky, the mental image of her and Hifumi… married? “AHA! It’s WAAAY too early to think about THAT kinda thing!” Eiko fanned her cheeks. “God I’m such a friggin’ dork! Getting all excited over nothing like that! HAHA!
“Are you alright Takao-san?”
Eiko snapped back to reality.
“Sorry, sorry. Nevermind all that, I’m ready to learn!”
Yoshida was still a little confused by her apparent mood swings, but her eagerness remained genuine. He nodded.
“Very well, in that case I’m ready to teach as much as I can- but I’ll warn you not to get your hopes too high, I’m still trying to get back into the political world myself after all.”
“In that case I’ll have to do a better job than you, that’s all.”
Yoshida laughed.
“I certainly hope you do.”
Chapter 59: Anxiety
Summary:
That day is getting uncomfortably close
Chapter Text
The moment of truth was looming ever closer, the day where they would commence their heist on Sae’s palace, enact their master plan to fool Akechi and give them a chance of fighting back against their otherwise-certain destruction.
With the combined brainpower of Makoto, Ren, Futaba, and Morgana- they were as sure of the success of their plan as they possibly could be, but the immense risk it carried could not be denied, and the cost for failure… too horrid to imagine. And yet, everything had to continue as normal up until that day. Everyone was ready to play their respective parts in just a couple nights, and they could only hope any anxiety they betrayed could be dismissed as simply related to the heist itself by Akechi.
Just like every other day, Ren met Makoto at her station ready for their commute. She thought it was slightly unfair that he had to ride the train here from Shibuya only to have to immediately go back the same way again, but she was still grateful for it. Seeing him smiling at her every morning was comforting.
They boarded and took their seats, the carriage being fairly empty (at least by Tokyo standards) until they reach Shibuya at least. Makoto sat at Ren’s side, idly browsing her phone- not that she was paying attention to anything on it, her mind was elsewhere- more specifically on the plan.
‘Two more days like this…’ she thought to herself, letting out a heavy sigh as she did so.
Ren watched her out of the corner of his eye- similarly pretending to browse his phone, though he had remained idle long enough to not even notice it go back to sleep. He slid it into his pocket, staring down at the floor in front of them for a while, his hands firmly on his knees.
A minute to two more of silence passed, before Ren turned to her.
“Mako?”
“Hm?” Makoto turned to face him, immediately feeling his hand gently wrap around the back of her head, pulling her in close as he firmly locked lips with her. “HM?!”
He continued kissing her. She was too shocked to resist (not that she would have wanted to anyway). Her shock went through several stages: firstly her mind going completely blank, next her starting to lose herself in the comforting feeling, then her snapping back to reality worrying if anyone was looking at them (her remembering that she was ‘Makoto Niijima- the first Tokyo nudist', OF COURSE people were looking at her), then just not caring about the outside world and losing herself in the kiss a second time.
Eventually he released her, and it took a few moments before she could regain her composure, her fighting back her blush despite knowing it was a pointless effort.
“U-um… I uh…”
Ren smiled at her, something about how genuine he looked just embarrassed her more.
“Wh-what was that for?”
Ren’s brow furrowed slightly, as if in deep thought.
“Do I need a reason?”
“Huh?”
“I mean… kissing is nice… at least I think so. Was it okay?”
“I uh—y-yeah! I mean, yeah but…” She averted her eyes, lightly scratching her cheek with her forefinger. “It was rather out of the blue.”
Ren was silent for a while longer, briefly looking away from Makoto- but his eyes drifting to the floor again when he caught the eyes of a couple of their fellow Shujin students who had seen the whole thing and were now whispering amongst themselves.
“Did you want to get something to eat after school?”
“To eat?”
“Have I taken you to that ramen place in Ogikubo yet? Ryuji introduced me to it and it’s amazing, you’ll love it.”
Makoto tilted her head.
“I mean… that sounds lovely, but why?”
“With everything that’s been…” Ren trailed off, then shook his head, smiling warmly at Makoto. “We never get to actually do ‘couple stuff’, do we? Everything is either PT-related or stuff we do as a group.”
“That’s true…” Something still seemed slightly off about how Ren was acting, but… “Sure, I’d be happy to join you. It’s a… ahem, it’s a date?”
“Kick-ass.” Ren nodded, and faced forwards at nothing in particular.
“…Ren?”
“Yup?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Are you…”
“Don’t worry, I said it’s fine. I’m just looking forward to our date.”
His smile still felt genuine, he wasn’t lying- at least not about looking forward to the date. Makoto exhaled, she still wasn’t sure what to think, but she couldn’t think of any way to broach the subject any further just yet. She looked forward as well, taking a moment to glare at the same students Ren had noticed, scaring them into at least pretending to not watch them. A few seconds passed before she felt Ren’s hand take a hold of her own, their fingers interlocking. She glanced at him, staring up at the ceiling, an expression somewhere between ‘neutral’ and ‘content’ on his face.
‘Maybe it really is fine?’ Makoto thought. ‘Either way… this is nice…’
~ ~ ~
Ren poked his head through the door to the student council room, spotting Makoto working through some notes.
“Sup Queen?”
Eiko- who Ren hadn’t noticed was sitting on the couch until just now- leant over towards Makoto.
“’Sup’ is short for ‘wassup’ Nudie Prez, which is short for ‘what’s up’.”
Makoto groaned, eyeing Eiko, unimpressed.
“I could gather that much Eiko-san, thank you.”
Ren stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“Nah, Nudie Prez is just helping me study. If I ever want to get into Tokyo U with her I’m gonna have to pull out all the stops- or whatever that saying is.”
“We don’t even know if I’m getting in.” Makoto chuckled nervously. “Not having a letter of recommendation does make things harder.”
“Even the supernerd isn’t sure she’ll get in?” Eiko groaned into her palms. “Fuck me dead man… Do I even have a chance?”
“C’mon Eiko, don’t give up now.” Ren sat on the opposite end of the couch. “Makoto definitely has what it takes, no one works harder than she does or performs better.” He smiled at his girlfriend, enjoying how bashful she was getting- being praised like this. “I have 100% faith in her that she will succeed.”
“Yeah… yeah I know Mako-chan will make it.” Eiko grinned. “So maybe there’s hope for me too?”
“…”
“Right Ren?”
“…”
“Ren?”
“…if it comes to it there are plenty of other great colleges that’d accept you, probably.”
“Fuck you man.” Eiko grumbled. “I’m really working my hardest, Old man Tora gave me lots of great advice, but it’s all pointless if I can’t get a good further education.” Her shoulders dropped slightly. “I really hope it’s not too late for me to start taking stuff like this seriously.”
Ren started to feel rather guilty for teasing her.
“Sorry, well you’ve got the best of the best coaching you.” He pondered for a moment. “In fact if you’re worried about time, taking a gap year might be a good option?”
“Not the worst idea… but I’m worried about how my family would feel about it…”
Makoto raised her brow, both curious and sympathetic.
“Are you worried they won’t let you?”
“I thought they were fairly good to you?” Ren asked.
Eiko shrugged.
“I mean… it’s not as if they want to force me down one path or another, it’s more…” she sighed. “They’d probably worry that I’d be wasting my time, they probably wouldn’t think I had what it takes, and would push for me to just take the job they’re offering instead.”
“I see…” Makoto held her chin in thought.
“That’s why I want to do everything I can to succeed this year. Well the exams are in January, so technically next year, but you get what I mean.” She stood up, tense and determined. “I have to succeed, or at least get close enough to prove to them that I have a chance. I can’t afford to give this anything less than my all.”
Ren smiled.
“I guess I’m guilty of underestimating you, I believe in you Eiko.”
“As do I.” Makoto nodded.
Eiko glanced between the two of them for a few seconds, before sitting back down with a bright red face.
“C’mon what is this cheesy, feelgood bullshit? Aheheh… Buncha fuckin’ dorks…” She brought up her notebook to cover her face. “Whatever…”
Ren snickered, though he did his best to stifle it when Makoto glared at him- a glare slightly ruined as she clearly wanted to laugh herself.
“I’m only a second year, so I dunno how much I can help, but if there is anything I can do, let me know, okay?”
“Yeah whatever Ren-kun.” Eiko kept her face hidden. “Thanks…”
Ren looked over to Makoto.
“Should I come back later? The place is open ‘til late so I can come back later if I’m getting in the way of the study session.”
“Have you two got a date?” Eiko revealed her face again, most of her blush having vanished. “Nah you two go ahead, I’ve got plenty of shit to catch up with on my own, Nudie Prez let me borrow her notes and all.” She laughed. “I’ve started taking my own of course, but man hers are SO much more detailed than mine, it’s hilarious.” She looked to Makoto with a serious expression. “I promise I’ll get them back to you, okay?”
Makoto shook her head.
“Keep them, I photocopied them so you don’t need to worry about it.”
“For real? I’ll take them home then… actually, do you mind if I hang around here a bit longer? There are less distractions here than in my room.”
Makoto chuckled as she started to pack her notes and textbooks away.
“There shouldn’t be a problem with you staying here, not as if anyone but me ever uses this room anyway.”
Ren wondered if he had genuinely spent more time in here than the mysterious other members of the student council, albeit not always for its intended purposes.
“Mako—when you use that desk do you still think of—”
“Zip it Ren!” She barked.
“Huh, what are you two getting all worked up over?”
“N-nothing Eiko.” Makoto waved her off. “Keep working hard, and I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“S-sure…” Eiko raised a curious eyebrow, but shook it off as she tried to force her attention back to her studying. “Have fun, or whatever.”
“See you later Eiko.” Makoto bowed lightly, turning to leave and being surprised when Ren hooked their arms together to walk side-by-side. “R-Ren?”
“Shall we head out?”
“Y-yes, let’s.”
The couple left the room, quietly closing the door behind them, leaving Eiko in silence aside from the light scratching of graphite against paper. She paused to look at the door.
“He called her ‘Queen’?” She scoffed. “Dork.”
~ ~ ~
“It’s getting rather chilly outside…”
“Sorry Makoto, I’m so used to you being nude that I forgot you have to worry about that kind of thing.”
“It’s fine Ren, I’ve built up quite a resistance to the elements over the year.” Makoto chuckled. “It’s kind of funny seeing people who are fully clothed shiver while I still feel fine.”
“I guess your body is much better at regulating it’s temperature than people who rely on their clothes to do it for them. But for real, are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine, I only noticed it since we were standing still in line so long. And I have plans for when it gets colder anyway.”
“Is that so?”
“Still, that really was quite the line outside, is this place really that popular?”
“It’s well worth the wait, trust me. There are two things Ryuji knows better than anyone else- fitness, and the world’s best ramen.”
Makoto sighed.
“If you say so… I guess understanding proper fitness should be enough to get him a proper career.”
“We can only hope. Ah, here it comes.”
The server brought the couple their bowls, Ren insisting that they both got the large servings despite Makoto’s ever-present concern about her weight.
“Ah finally. Dig in Mako, this is so great that if you said I could either eat this or your pussy, I’d actually have to think about it.”
Makoto had nearly gotten it into her mouth before she had to glare at him for that line, but he was already slurping away and ignored her. She tried to ignore the other customers and just hope they were too absorbed in their own meals to have heard. Sighing, she cautiously started eating.
“Oh?” She started eating more enthusiastically. “This really is good.”
“I know right?” Ren replied, briefly forgetting the decency to swallow before he spoke but at least remembering to cover his mouth. “You never had anything like this?”
“I mean of course I’ve had ramen, but this is on another level. Alright, credit where it’s due, Ryuji has some good taste after all.”
“’After all’.” Ren laughed. He watched Makoto as she ate, the further she got the less she worried about appearances, becoming less fearful of being heard audibly slurping, and generally becoming more relaxed. It was a healing sight for him. They didn’t talk much as they ate, simply taking comfort in sharing a good meal with their romantic partner; there was no need to say anything when they were sharing a feeling like this.
“Aahh…” Makoto let out a content sigh as she finished. “We should come here again.”
“Y-yeah…” Ren nodded. “We should…”
Makoto tilted her head.
“Ren? Is something the matter?”
“It’s fine.” He looked at her, immediately starting to laugh as his eyes drifted (as they tended to do) down to her chest.
“Wh-what’s so funny?”
“You’ve got droplets all over your boobies.”
Makoto looked down to confirm that- yes- a not-insignificant amount of the broth was currently dripping down her chest, with a droplet going so far as to enticingly hang from her nipple (which also indicated the cold was perhaps affecting her more than she thought). She started blushing.
“I-I see… Where’s my napkin? I need to clean myself up.”
“Nah it’s fine, I’ll clean it up for you.” Ren leant down towards her body before she caught and pushed his head back.
“Don’t you dare Ren.” She shook her head. “You’re unbelievable sometimes.”
“I mean, it would have gotten you clean, and I would get to enjoy just a little bit more of the lovely taste, everyone wins.”
“Ren we’re in public, I know we’ve already crossed some serious lines as to what we’ve done in view of others, but I’m not looking to add to that list.”
“Sorry.”
“Plus you’ve just eaten yourself, getting your saliva all over me is just going to give me more to clean up.”
“True…” He started mumbling under his breath. “It’d look pretty hot though…”
“What was that? Actually no- don’t tell me. Just this once I want to live in ignorance.”
Ren laughed, and took his own handkerchief to start wiping Makoto down. It was hardly dignifying to have someone else clean her like this, but she didn’t feel like complaining any more. She just put up with it and closed her eyes to avoid checking whether anyone else was looking at her.
“We better head out so the next couple can get in.” Ren left the money on the counter and the couple left the restaurant and stepped back out into the brisk evening air.
“I’m glad you suggested this Ren.” Makoto said as she stretched her arms skywards. “This was really nice, I’d like to go to more places with you.”
Ren paused for a moment, before stepping towards Makoto.
“The night’s still young, we could head somewhere else, if you like?”
She smiled at him sympathetically.
“No I better head home, I know for a fact that Sae is going to be home tonight.”
Ren furrowed his brow in thought.
“I mean, we could just go do something quickly? Maybe get a dessert of some kind?”
“I really appreciate the offer, but I’m quite full.”
“Then an activity? There has to be something we can do before you go?”
“…Ren?”
“Or we could just find a bench and relax for a bit?”
“Ren?”
“Y-yeah?”
“…You’re nervous, aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
Makoto stepped forward, gently taking both of his hands into hers.
“I understand, the day after tomorrow… we’re going into Sae’s palace for the last time… and we’ll have to carry out our plan.” She forced a smile. “It’s only natural to be nervous…”
“You too?”
She remained silent for a while, before walking into him, pressing her face against his collar and wrapping her arms around him.
“I’m terrified…”
“Makoto…”
“We’ve gone over the plan so many times now, and yet I’m terrified that I’ve forgotten or overlooked something. And thinking about how you’ll have to put yourself into danger like that…”
“I have complete faith in the plan Mako. No one has worked harder on this than you, I have 100% faith that it’ll work out… it’s just… me.”
“You?”
“My part, I’m scared I won’t be able to fulfil my role, to convince Sae.”
“…I see…”
“I’m sorry… I’m just making things worse.” Ren pulled away- or rather he tried to, Makoto wasn’t letting him go.
She sighed.
“I get it… I’m an idiot.”
“What?! The hell are you talking about? You’re not—”
“Let me finish Ren.”
“But…” He took a breath, returning her embrace. “Sorry.”
“I understand Ren. It’s only natural to be anxious when there’s so much pressure on us. You’re always so outwardly calm, on top of things, pretending to be so cocky. I’m an idiot for letting myself be fooled, and forgetting that you’d be suffering too.”
Ren laughed nervously.
“I don’t know about ‘pretending’ to be cocky.”
“I guess it’s a mix of a mask and the real thing.” Makoto laughed too, and looked up at him. “Look, I get you’re putting on a brave face for everyone since you’re the leader, and everyone is always talking about how your calmness helps them stay calm. You feel like you have to keep that up or everyone will fall apart. I admire you for that, but you’re not my leader, you’re my boyfriend. You can let the mask slip just a little bit while I’m around, okay?”
“Mako…”
“And about all this today, you suddenly acting much more affectionate as if we’re running out of time. We’re not. You’re coming back, okay? We all are.”
“But I—”
“You said you have faith in my plan right? Well I have 100% faith in you. So, try to have faith in me having faith, just as I’ll try to have faith in you having faith for me… or something.” She pressed her face back into his chest, laughing awkwardly. “Sorry, that got a bit messy at the end, huh?”
He gently caressed the back of her head.
“The message got across at least. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything wrong, just try to believe in us- including yourself, okay?”
“I’ll try…” He shook his head. “Actually forget trying, I’ll succeed. Don’t forget who you’re talking to after all.”
“Right right.” Silence fell over the pair for a while. “You’re warm.”
“Do your winter plans involve sharing body heat with me? Because if so I’m in full support.”
She snorted.
“That wouldn’t be a bad addition…” She very reluctantly pulled away. “I really do have to get home though.”
“Right, I’ll take you home.”
“Please do.” Before she started walking, she took a hold of his hand. “I-I quite like this a-affection though, maybe we could carry on doing stuff like this?”
Ren nodded nervously.
“S-sure, I’d like that to.”
They walked, hand-in-hand in the direction of the station.
“I’m happy we talked about this today Ren.”
“Hm?”
“About feeling anxious. To be honest I’ve been feeling the same, so I was kinda giving advice to myself AND you.”
“Ha… I guess we really do bring out the best in each other… though saying that out loud is kind of embarrassing.”
“I can hear Eiko calling us dorks from here…”
“She’s right to do that.”
“Maybe so…”
The continued walking in comfortable silence, until Makoto glanced over at him.
“I love you you dork.”
“Love you too, dork.”
Both broke down into embarrassed laughter.
Chapter 60: Sae part 1
Summary:
Makoto's most important heist
Notes:
It's been a while, but it's that time again! Time to split the chapter in two so that I have something to post!
Part 2 shouldn't take too long though, a day or two probably if all goes according to plan
Chapter Text
“Madame Sae Niijima, a great sinner of jealousy. You have lost yourself amidst your obsession with success. For it’s sake, you are even willing to promote injustice as justice. From the Phantom Thieves…”
“I found it in our mailbox.” Makoto did everything she could to keep a straight face, hiding any of the anxiety she felt, sitting up straight, with her hands on her thighs, watching her sister’s face closely as she read her calling card.
“To think they would send me one…” Sae crumpled up the card in disgust and shoved it into her pocket. “They brand me a criminal and plan to change my heart? What nonsense! They only care about disposing of those who are an inconvenience for them!”
Makoto’s brow dropped almost imperceptibly, and she clenched her teeth. It wasn’t just that Sae was actually talking about them, but the fact that her sister was once again exhibiting the very corruption the card was accusing her of. It hurt to see her like this.
“Fine… I’ll just have to catch them first.”
Makoto swallowed before speaking.
“And when you do… you’re going to interrogate them, right? In some kind of underground room, was it?”
Sae tilted her head slightly.
“Why do you ask?”
Makoto tensed up slightly, feeling she might have said too much.
“Oh, I just remembered you mentioning something like that before…”
Thankfully Sae didn’t suspect anything, she simply nodded.
“That’s right. It’ll be in a special interrogation room underground. My time will be limited, but I will do whatever it takes to make them divulge their secrets.”
Makoto took a breath in and out through her nose.
“I believe in you Sis.”
Sae raised an eyebrow, partially in confusion but also mild surprise, she struggled with how to respond.
“Hm… good.” She let out a sigh. “I should probably be getting back. It’s late, but I should contact the director and let him know about this calling card…”
“I see…”
Sae noticed Makoto hanging her head slightly, she stood from her seat and smiled at her. Makoto looked up at her wide-eyed, she couldn’t remember the last time she saw her older sister with a legitimate smile on her face, subtle as it was.
“I expect things will finally calm down a little once this case is over. Once that happens, why don’t we go on a trip to some hot springs, just the two of us?”
“R-really?”
Sae’s expression fell slightly.
“I’m sor…” she shook her head. “It’s been a while since I’ve had time for anything that wasn’t work related, and we’ve… I’m sure you must be stressed out preparing for your entrance exams. We could both use some time to destress…”
“Sis…”
“Makoto? Are you—”
“No, I’m not.” Makoto shot her sister a determined look. “I’m holding you to that, okay?”
Sae- surprising even herself- chuckled.
“Sure, it’s a promise.”
“I’m… I’m on your side! I won’t let anyone do anything to you!”
“You’re… being a little strange Makoto.” Sae approached her sister, and cautiously reached out to pet her head. “But thank you.”
Sae’s patting was rather heavy-handed, and honestly not the most comfortable sensation, certainly not as gentle a caress as the few times Ren had done the same thing for her, and yet the fact that her sister made this gesture at all made Makoto happier than she could have imagined, it took all she had to not start crying on the spot.
“A-anyway, if you’re going to make the call I’ll head up to my room.”
Sae nodded, and Makoto made her way down the hall and out of sight. She gathered her resolve.
“This has to work. It has to…”
~ ~ ~
“I’ve only done this with you the once of course, but have any of you ever successfully stolen something without a violent confrontation?”
“You want the long answer or the short one Crow?”
“Short.”
“No.”
“What was the long answer- out of curiosity?”
“Not even once.”
“I see. Forgive me but isn't the point of a ‘Phantom Thief’ supposed to be stealing things in a theatrical way, not just beating up the person holding it then running away?”
Ren sighed.
“I mean… yeah… To be honest we’ve genuinely not done a single ‘Phantom Thief-like’ thing across our entire career.”
Futaba sniggered.
“We’re just the Phantom muggers.”
“Aw come on, we get to dress up and beat up monsters at least- that legally qualifies us as superheroes!”
“Is that how one qualifies for that position Skull?”
“Prolly…”
“Alright enough messing around. Sis’s shadow is just up ahead, everyone stay focused.”
The group gave their affirmations and followed Ren and Makoto up the stairs to the casino roof, the couple exchanging one last reassuring nod before stepping out into the arena where Shadow Sae awaited them, an arena that resembled a gigantic roulette wheel.
While she had been aware of this inevitable encounter since the moment they were tasked with infiltrating Sae’s palace, Makoto had done everything she could to put it out of her mind, but the time had finally come, there was no more putting it off, no more protecting herself with denial. She had to fight the very embodiment of her sister’s corruption. She started visibly faltering, her mask hiding the pained contortions of her brow. While most of the group’s eyes were locked on Shadow Sae, Akechi noticed Makoto’s wavering. While getting near someone dressed like her at all was an incredibly unappealing thought, he kept that bottled up, approached her from the side, and reached out to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and would have done so had Ren not suddenly slammed into his side, knocking him several paces back- nearly falling over. Akechi regained his composure in time to see Ren place his own hand on Makoto’s shoulder instead (the girl having not noticed what happened).
“We’re going to save her, right?”
Makoto stared into her boyfriend’s eyes, regathered her resolve, and nodded.
“Right.”
Everyone took the fighting stances, Akechi made sure to glare at Ren, mentally reassuring himself to ‘be patient a little while longer’, before following suit.
Shadow Sae grinned confidently at the thieves.
“Now let us play a game of roulette. The stake will be—”
“HYAH!” Ann swung her whip, striking the shadow about the head, her hat flying off.
“DAMMIT!” The shadow dodged the follow up strike, diving for the hat, just barely catching it. “This outfit was expensive! Have some respect! Now as I was saying, we’ll play a—”
“HRAGH!” Ryuji swung his bat down, nearly slamming down on Shadow Sae’s head had she not moved at the last moment.
“Would it kill you to let me explain the rules fir—”
“S-sorry!” Makoto- screwing up her hesitance- surged forward with a kick to the shadow’s gut.
Shadow Sae stumbled back, staring back up at the group, seething.
“YOU INFURIATING CHILDREN! Your generation has NO patience whatsoever!” Her body suddenly came alight with otherworldly black flames. “Fine! You want to skip the game so badly? Fine!”
“S-something’s happening!” Futaba called out.
“Everyone on guard!” Ren stepped forward to the front of the group as Shadow Sae suddenly burst, darkness filling the arena for a moment. Their vision returned, and in the shadow’s place stood a frightful mechanical monster, a massive gatling cannon on it’s right arm, an oversized sword in it’s left.
“S-sis…”
Shadow Sae lifted her sword aloft and slammed it downwards, and may have split Makoto in two had Ren not pulled her out of the way.
“THIS IS MY WORLD! I AM THE LAW! I AM EVERYTHING! NO ONE IN THIS WORLD DESERVES TO WIN, EXCEPT FOR ME!” She swung wildly again, the group all putting distance between her and them. “If you still dare to defy my justice, then prepare to be totally crushed!”
“This… this is my sister’s true nature? No…”
“Focus Queen.” Ren looked into her eyes. “She’s more than this, right?”
“R-right. I know that much.” She looked back to the shadow. “I’m alright.”
Shadow Sae slammed her cannon down into the ground before firing wildly into the group. Everyone took evasive maneuvers to minimize the damage they took, but couldn’t evade all the bullets, more than a few members of the team were bleeding.
“Hang on!” Futaba called out. “I’ll boost everyone’s defense! Just give me a…” Futaba looked up from her keyboard, seeing just outside her persona Shadow Sae leaping up towards her, about to strike her out of the air and directly down to the ground. Futaba braced herself as best she could, but couldn’t keep Prometheus manifested, and she tumbled down to the ground.
“Futaba-san!” Yusuke called out, briefly forgetting to use codenames in the panic.
“I-I’m fine.” Futaba winced as she sat back up, scurrying back in fear as the beast stood over her. “A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE PRETTY COOL THOUGH!” she screamed. “The mechanical thot’s got me cornered!”
Shadow Sae froze mid-swing, and a pregnant pause hung over the arena. Her featureless metallic face turned to scan the group, her gaze finally settling on Joker. He froze in place, not understanding why she was suddenly staring directly at him without doing anything, then- he realized.
“O-oh, ‘thot’ is an anacronym, it means ‘That Hoe Over There’, it’s basically used to be synonymous with ‘bitch’ or ‘slut’.”
A moment of silence passed before the shadow slowly nodded, then turned its attention back to Futaba and with a mighty cry resumed its swing.
“GARUDYNE!” Morgana summoned a mighty burst of wind, knocking Shadow Sae off balance.
“Thanks Mona!” Futaba scrambled back to her feet and resummoned Prometheus, floating back into the air.
“Damn you…” The shadow turned back to the rest of the group, swinging her sword as she did so, just hoping to get a lucky hit.
“Queen, heal everyone. Everyone else brace yourselves!”
“Right Joker.” Makoto tore off her mask, Anat materializing behind her. “Mediarama!”
A soothing light passed through, repairing everyone’s wounds.
“Heh.” Ryuji wiped the leftover blood away from his mouth, getting back to his feet with the others and readying his bat once more. “Thanks Makoto.”
“M-Makoto?” Shadow Sae paused, and glanced in Makoto’s direction in time to see her without her mask. “Wait… no…”
The shadow rapidly approached her, Ren standing in front of her, holding his arm up protectively.
“Are you really… Makoto?”
“Dammit Skull!” Morgana glared at Ryuji.
“Oh shit… sorry I’m used to the codenames not actually mattering. But…” He looked at Shadow Sae staring down at the couple, the stand-off showing no sign of progressing just yet. “…surely she already noticed, right? The mask doesn’t hide much…”
“Maybe she just didn’t want to notice?” Ann said, trying to figure out if she should try to charge now or not.
Shadow Sae, Makoto, and Ren all stood motionless, waiting for the other side to make a move. Makoto stared up at the monster produced by her sister’s heart, partly in awe, partly fear, and partly a deep sadness.
“Sis…”
“Why? Why are you here? You’re supposed to be…”
Makoto cautiously stepped forwards.
“I’m sorry Sis. I really am on your side but… I can’t let you carry on like this.”
“Makoto…”
“Please, I really need you to trust me… to trust us. Please, stand down.” Makoto held her hand over her heart. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Makoto… I…” Shadow Sae suddenly slammed her cannon against the ground, before swiping at the couple, knocking them across the arena. “HOW DARE YOU?! I almost fell for it…”
Ren held tightly onto Makoto , doing his best to protect her, but both of them were somewhat injured by the sudden attack.
“SIS!”
“DON’T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT YOU IMPOSTER!” The shadow spat at them. “Makoto is at home, safe. How dare you petty thieves use her face?!”
“I’m not—”
“I don’t want to hear it. Dammit, I need to kill you, I need to kill all of you. I can’t afford to show any kindness, any weakness. Not when the world is full of bastards like you who will do anything you can to take everything away from me! Try whatever tricks you like, I’ll counter with my own. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep winning, forever if I have to. No one will take anything from me ever again, least of all a bunch of freakish children like you!”
“Damn it… Sis…”
“We can’t afford to hold back.”
“But… Joker…”
“She clearly has a strong heart, usually that’s a good thing.” Ren chuckled. “Shame it’s against us right now. But it means she can take what we can dish out, right?”
Makoto took a breath, then nodded.
“Yes, I know she’s strong enough.”
Ren pulled out his gun and began firing wildly as the beast charged at them, sword at the ready.
“Everyone, now!”
“Agidyne!”
“Bufudyne!”
“Ziodyne!”
“Megidola!”
“Psiodyne!”
“Garudyne!”
“Ugh… F-Freidyne!”
They almost lost sight of Sae’s shadow in the overwhelming surge of attacks, but she pushed through and counterattacked with a mighty slash of her own. Ren focused on keeping everyone healed and directing the all-out assault until the monster began to slow. Its sword swipes lost their overwhelming power, its aim worsening, and before long its armor began falling apart. Ren signalled for the others to hold their fire as the shadow stumbled forwards, on shaking legs, finally collapsing before them.
“Sis!” Makoto rushed forwards, Shadow Sae regained her human form, and had taken a knee before them.
“So… I’ve lost…”
“Queen, it’s only a shadow, why are you—” Akechi was cut off by a swift slap to the back of the head, courtesy of Ann.
“Dude- shut up!”
“Hm… my apologies.”
Ren briefly glanced at Ryuji and Yusuke. Ryuji nodding back in understanding.
“We’ll go grab the treasure.”
The boys left the rest of the group. Makoto reached out to her sister’s Shadow.
“Makoto… you’re not—”
“It’s really me Sis.”
“I… I…” the shadow hung its head. “I lost… I’m sorry… I wasn’t strong enough…”
Makoto shook her head.
“That’s not it. You are strong, much stronger than I am.” She put her hand on top of her sister’s. “Believe me, I really do appreciate how hard you fight for me, for both of us.”
“Makoto…”
“But this obsession you’ve let overtake you… aggressive investigations? Twisting the truth for your own personal gain? You’re better than this. There are better paths to victory.”
“I…”
“Please… You have to think back to the feelings you had when you first wanted to become a prosecutor. Thank about your justice Sis…”
“My justice…”
“I still believe in your justice, so it hurts to see you forget it like this…”
“Forget…”
“We found it!” Yusuke called out, returning alongside Ryuji with briefcase in hand.
“That’s us done here, I think?”
Morgana nodded.
“Right Joker, we don’t need to stay here any longer. Are you going to be okay Queen?”
Makoto nodded.
“Yes, I’ll be fine.” She smiled down at Sae’s shadow. “I’ll see you soon, Sis.”
“…Makoto?”
“Yes?”
“One… one question before you go…”
“Hm?”
The shadow looked up at her, with a barely-there smile on her face.
“What on earth are you wearing? Why all the spikes?”
Makoto chuckled.
“I could ask you the same question…”
Shadow Sae reached up to touch her spiked choker.
“Hm… fair point…”
“Her monster form had these weird metal spike nipples too, didja notice?”
“We probably could have gone without calling attention to that Oracle…” Ann rubbed her forehead through her mask.
“I guess…” The shadow averted her eyes, a light blush appearing on her face. “I like to dress up…” She mumbled. “It makes me feel more powerful.”
“Sis… ha, I’ll remember you said that.”
“Frankly I feel you’re missing out just going nude like you do…”
Suddenly Futaba tensed up, and grabbed ahold of her goggles.
“H-huh?!”
“Oracle?”
“Sorry to cut your happy moment short, but we’ve got enemy readings, and a LOT of them!”
“Shadows?” asked Akechi.
“Tons of them, and… people too? Men in black suits?”
“We’ve defeated the palace ruler and taken the treasure, what the hell is going on?” Morgana looked between the thieves.
‘This is it…’ Makoto thought. ‘Now we have to…’
“A team this large would be discovered immediately. We best split up for our escape…” Makoto swallowed. “Although… we’ll need someone to act as a decoy…” Her face tensed up. “No… that’s too dangerous.”
“Eh, maybe for some normal loser.” Ren stepped forward, cocky smirk on his face, cracking his knuckles. “Did you forget I’m literally the most amazing guy ever?”
“But… Joker. If they catch you…”
“Well I just have to not get caught, right? Easy. I got this.” Ren turned to the others. “Queen’s in charge while I’m away.”
Ryuji nodded.
“You got it man, I know you got this.” He handed Ren the briefcase. “See you later, yeah?”
“Please don’t do anything reckless.”
Ren smirked.
“Come on Noir, it’s me we’re talking about.”
“Yes, that’s why I said it.”
“Seriously Joker, I won’t forgive you if you don’t make it.”
“Have a little faith Panther.” Ren shrugged.
“More keep spawning in!” Oracle kept bringing up virtual screens showing the veritable horde of shadows waiting outside.
“We best hurry.”
Ren nodded.
“If you get lost on the way out, just have Akechi sniff out the exit for you.”
“Is now really the time Amamiya-san?”
“Of course it is man, this is our last job together, I gotta take every opportunity to insult you that I can.”
Akechi sighed.
“Fair enough.”
Makoto put her hand on Ren’s, locking eyes with him.
“Queen?”
“…I believe in you Joker.”
Ren stared into her eyes for a few seconds, before removing her mask with her free hand and leaning in close. She was rather taken aback by the sudden gesture, but she instinctively closed her eyes, and readied her lips to receive his, only for him to firmly poke her in the nose with his finger.
“R-Ren?”
He grinned.
“Hey I gotta leave something for you to look forward to, right?” He handed her mask back and began walking away from the group. “I’ll see you all later, ‘kay? We’ll eat something nice to celebrate once we get out.” He looked back at the group, his eyes darting to Akechi for an almost imperceptible amount of time. “I’m thinking pancakes…”
“Let’s head out everyone.” Makoto ordered, taking a moment to glance back at her sister’s shadow. “Follow me!”
Chapter Text
“Okay, I’ve got comms up and running. Can you hear us?”
“Loud and clear Oracle.” Ren’s voice was heard by the group as they continued to flee, projected directly into their ears by Futaba’s persona, Ryuji carrying her on his back so she could focus on observing and tracking their leader’s movements as he drew the enemies attention.
“Good. Now get running.”
“This is our only chance!”
“Stay calm!” Futaba spoke with much more authority than she was used to, tracking the separated team and the absurd numbers of enemies was a herculean task even for her, she knew she couldn’t afford to not take this seriously. “You can get away now!”
“We’ll retrieve the briefcase on our end.” Now that everyone’s focus was on Ren, Makoto signalled for Morgana to swiftly swipe the discarded briefcase before resuming their escape.
“Don’t worry about us. Just concentrate on getting away!”
“Not a problem” Joker’s voice came back.
With Futaba and Morgana’s guidance the thieves managed to avoid detection as they rapidly approached the exit.
“Take them down Joker!”
“Huh? Is he alright Oracle?”
“It’s fine Queen, he just ran into some small fry. Hmm…” Futaba typed away. “Comparing power levels… No threat. Get ‘em Joker!”
Makoto’s brow furrowed.
“I have faith… but he’s all alone.”
“C’mon it’s Joker we’re talking about!” Ryuji grinned confidently. “Dude can’t be beat, he’ll take anything they can throw at him.”
Makoto looked at him concerned, but forced a smile.
“Right, I guess I need to have just as much faith as you.”
“Alright, pull out before their back-up gets here.” Futaba ordered. “That goes for us too! Let’s keep moving!” The team all nodded, and resumed their escape, letting her return her attention to their leader. “You should be able to get out that way! Hurry!”
“Our exit is just this way.”
The invading force was coming through the main entrance, which meant the PT’s usual exit was still relatively clear.
“Tell me…” Akechi began. “How exactly does Joker intend to escape himself?”
“He’s going to find a way to lose them, then once he gives us the signal we use the app to escape, he’ll come back here and do the same, and then we split up and walk away as casually as we can.”
“I see…” Akechi brought his hand to his chin. “How’s he faring Oracle?”
Futaba ignored him, instead frantically scanning around her.
“Joker- stop! It’s an enemy- right near you!”
Ann leaned over to look at her screen.
“Oh god… There’s a bunch of them.”
“Even you can’t take on this many…”
“Dammit!” Ryuji cursed “Oracle, can’t you give him some boosts or something?”
She shook her head.
“N-no, not from this far away. I’m sorry Joker, but we can’t get any back-up to you.”
“I…” Ren’s voice faltered somewhat. “Eh, no worries, I got this handled! Skadi!”
The team winced as they listened to the sound of his struggle with the gang of shadows. They believed he could win, but he was taking hits, and despite his best efforts couldn’t completely stifle his pained cries.
“Son of a—” Ryuji put Futaba down. “I’m gonna—”
Yusuke and Makoto grabbed his arms and dragged him back before he could run off.
“Guys we can’t just—”
“Stick to the plan Skull!”
“But—”
A horrific scream was heard through Prometheus, causing Futaba to briefly clutch her ears in pain. Then silence that dragged on for an uncomfortable period of time.
“J-Joker?”
“I’m alright, sorry about that.” They could hear him force a laugh. “Ghastly wail is a bitch on the ears but it seems to have done the job.”
“Are you hurt?” Haru asked.
“A bit, but I’ll be fine. In fact—” they could hear the sound of a can opening. “I knew emptying those vending machines was a good idea.”
Makoto sighed.
“Thank goodness…” Her relief was genuine, but it did little to assuage the horrible feeling in her gut, knowing he was about to throw himself into the real trap. The actual humans after him weren’t going to kill him on the spot like the shadows would have, but everyone knew he had a significant amount of pain coming his way. Worse yet they could no longer do anything about it.
‘I have to have faith in him. Faith in the plan. Faith in Sis…’ She focused on controlling her breathing. ‘I believe in both of them, but…’
“Enemies, here?”
‘I have to believe…’
“These readings… it can’t be!”
“An ambush?”
“Joker, can you handle this?”
‘I’m so sorry Ren… please don’t hurt him too much…’
Ann approached Makoto, firmly holding her hand as they and the rest of the group listened to the horde of police officers dogpile their leader, and take him into custody.
“Ren…”
~ ~ ~
The Phantom Thieves- sans Ren- stood not too far away from the courthouse in the real world.
“So now what?”
Akechi let out a heavy sigh.
“There is little we can do now, he’ll no doubt be taken in and interrogated overnight. I’ll try to pull some strings, but I fear we may not be able to save him.”
“But—”
“You have my word I’ll do what I can, but the rest of you better return home, simply continue your lives as normal for the time being, and avoid rousing suspicion.”
“Akechi-kun is right.” Makoto stood tall, trying to mask any and all emotions with her ‘Queen’-like aura of authority. “Everyone keep an eye on the group chat, we’ll think of something.”
“I best leave first.” Akechi said with a somber look on his face. “They know who I am, so it would be bad if we were seen together here. I’ll try to gather what information I can and get back to you all.”
“…Right.” Ryuji- to his credit, and the legitimate surprise of his teammates- managed to keep his anger and disgust bottled up, especially considering they were barely managing to do so themselves. To have Akechi act as if he was concerned and remorseful considering what he had planned tonight. There were levels of self-control being enforced now that had never been seen hither to.
The group very reluctantly parted ways for the night, having no choice to put faith in their meticulous plan.
‘I believe that Sis’s sense of justice is still inside her, so she’ll do everything she can to find out the truth. All that needs to happen is for Ren to convince her of the truth… I’m sure he can do it. He has to, or…’
~ ~ ~
“Okay so the Phantom Thieves use a magic phone app given to us by a man with a long nose from a prison in my dreams, that app lets us access an alternate dimension where we can dive into the psyches of those with distorted desires- like the targets you have in the folder there- following so far? Then we enter whatever their heart manifests as like a big castle or a bank- Okumura had this sick space station—oh, ‘sick’ means ‘cool’ by the way, you had a casino, it’s all pretty varied and weird. Anyway once we’re there we fight the cast of the bible or whatever and steal the physical manifestation of the distorted desires. We beat up their heart which usually turns into a big monster or something, we escape with the treasure- that’s the term we use for their desires- then after a cooling off period they come forward and confess all their crimes publicly, get it?”
The baffled prosecutor stared at the boy silently, squinting with her lips just hanging open. She reached up and rubbed her forehead.
“Ugh… what?”
“Don’t worry though, we use our own alternate selves to shoot magic at them, so we handle it all just fine. Except for me, I can recruit other aspects of the collective human consciousness to help us out, but that’s neither here nor there.”
“…Right…”
“You getting it all so far?”
“I… but why did Kaneshiro have a giant robot piggybank though?”
“He was greedy.”
“I-is that really all the explanation there is?”
“It’s all we got.”
“I see…”
~ ~ ~
Makoto lay in bed, in her empty apartment, trying in vain to get the rest she so desperately needed.
“How the hell am I supposed to sleep at a time like this?”
She climbed out of bed, and went to the bathroom to take her second hot shower of the night.
“We’ve planned for everything, all we can do is wait for Ren and Sis to pull through…” She rest her forehead against the shower wall, letting out a heavy sigh. “I hate feeling this powerless… And what if—” She shook her head. “No, we’ve got this planned down to the last detail. Ren will convince Sis, she’ll save him, help him escape, we’ll find out who Akechi is working for, and everything will be fine.”
She turned off the shower and began drying herself off, taking comfort in the warm fluffy towel against her skin, before dragging herself back to bed.
“The only worrying element is Akechi… no, we need him to run into Sae for the plan to work, and there’s only that one corridor, so it’s a sure thing.”
She pulled her blanket over her head, and held her Buchimaru plushie tight, as if looking to him for guidance.
“Is there anything we missed? Anything Akechi would do that could ruin the plan?”
Buchimaru remained silent.
“You’re right, he’s not going to do anything to throw her off at that stage, his priority is just going to be going after Ren.” She nodded. “I wonder what Sae thinks of Akechi, if she knows anything about his true nature? Probably not… her view of Akechi is probably pretty boring honestly.”
She almost laughed, but couldn’t shake off that feeling of dread. She closed her eyes and tried to force herself to sleep.
…
“Her view of Akechi…?”
Makoto suddenly bolted upright in bed, she looked into Buchi’s eyes, panicked.
“HER Akechi! We forgot about her Akechi!”
She sprang out of bed, grabbing her phone and keys, and sprinted out her front door, calling Futaba.
~ ~ ~
“Okay, we should still have time. I can’t use Prometheus’s full power here, but I should still be able to find Cognitive Akechi for us.”
“Thank you Futaba.” Makoto turned to the third member of their group. “Thank you for coming too Haru, sorry if I woke you up.”
“It’s fine Mako-chan, there’s no way I could sleep. In fact I’m kinda grateful that we have something to do other than sit around worrying.”
“Still we shouldn’t be leaving this to the last minute, I’m sorry, I can’t believe I overlooked this.”
“It’s fine, we should still be able to sort it out before the interrogation ends and those two enter the metaverse. Though it is a little scary thinking another Akechi could have ruined everything.”
“I found him!” Futaba called out. “He’s just coming down the elevator down that hall right now!”
“Right, let’s go.” Makoto led the charge down the hall.
“Yo I get this is just the metaverse, but sneaking around nude like this is kinda fun.”
“I didn’t think you were the type to enjoy streaking Futaba-chan.”
“Of course not Haru, that requires too much running, too strenuous for my tastes.”
“I was more talking about the anxiety side of it.”
“This is fun anxiety, not like ‘worrying about the plan’ anxiety or god forbid- ‘talking with strangers’ anxiety.”
“Focus you two- there he is!”
They saw Akechi- or rather- Sae’s cognitive version of Akechi step out of an elevator down the opposite end of the hall to them. Unlike the real deal, this Akechi was just an ordinary, powerless teenage detective, and so didn’t pose any real threat to them, however if Sae- or worse yet- the real Akechi saw him, that could endanger their whole plan. Makoto started sprinting towards him at full speed.
“Hm?” Cognitive Akechi recoiled in shock at the sight of the nudist running towards him. “Oh my, are you Niijima-san’s sister? I didn’t expect to see you here.” He smiled politely as she continued running. “Are you here to see Sae-san? I fear she’s busy at the moment, is there anything I can help wi—” is as far as he got before Makoto leapt up, putting all the power she had into a mighty drop-kick. Both of her feet collided with his face, sending him flying backwards and falling to the ground.
“WOAH!” Futaba called out- having not quite finished catching up just yet. “Nice one Queen!”
Haru did a little better catching up, smiling at Makoto with awe clear on her face.
“That was an amazing move Mako-chan!”
Makoto got back to her feet.
“Maybe I got a little carried away…”
“I’ll have to try that myself sometime, it looks really fun!”
Futaba finally joined the three- panting for breath.
“I hate exercise… so—” She looked down at the cognitive Akechi, dazed and in pain on the floor. “What do we do now?”
“Hmm… I guess we can just put him back on the elevator and send him to a random floor?”
“OO OO!” Haru raised her hand, jumping in place. “Can I do that part?”
“I suppose so?”
“Thank you!” She leant down and took cognitive Akechi’s legs underneath her arms. “I’ve always wanted to try this, could you two stand back a little bit?”
“Wh-what are you doing?” Makoto asked as she took a couple paces back, lifting her arm cautiously to shield Futaba.
They girls watched as Haru began spinning, swinging the boy round and around in a circle several times, before finally releasing him with perfect timing, sending him flying through the still-open elevator doors, him slamming face-first into the back wall. Haru took a moment to regain her balance, nearly falling over.
“Oh my… that was just as fun as I thought it’d be, but I feel a little bit sick…”
“That… seemed unnecessary, but I suppose it gets the job done.” Makoto shrugged.
“Uh guys?” Futaba raised her hand. “Am I the only one who heard a ‘snap’ when he was ‘so long King Bowser’-ed into the wall?”
The three girls exchanged some worried looks, glancing at the mangled ragdoll that was the cognitive detective.
“He… might still be okay?” Makoto said, moments before the boy faded away into nothing. “Okay, nevermind…”
“Eh it’s just a cognition, it’s fine.” Haru waved it off, big smile still on her face. “That was a good throw though, you have to admit?”
Makoto and Futaba turned away from their friend.
“Let’s… just get out of here before we’re seen, okay?”
~ ~ ~
The following morning, Makoto had used her privileges as student council president to let both herself and Eiko into the school on a Sunday, and was helping her study in the student council office.
“We’re fine here, right? We’re not gonna get into trouble or anything?”
“…”
“Nudie Prez?”
“H-huh? Oh no, we’re fine here, don’t worry.”
“You alright Mako-chan? Summin’ troubling ya?”
“N-no… well, a few things, but it’s okay.”
“You sure I should be taking up your time like this?”
“It’s fine, I honestly appreciate the distraction.”
“Are you really sure there’s nothing I can help with?”
“I said it’s fine.” Makoto forced a smile. “Worry about your studying.”
“Oh believe me- I am.” Eiko groaned. “The old me would have never imagined spending my day off studying. Heh… Guess if I wanna catch up to the super nerds I have to act like a nerd from time to time, huh?”
“It’ll all be worth it. You’ve been improving immensely over the course of the last few months. There’s hope for you yet.”
“That last part feels like a backhanded compliment, but thanks anyway. I’ve been working real hard, I’ve even put my recruitment efforts on hold… mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Mostly.” Eiko nodded. “I still like talking about it on social media, seeing if people are into it, and I gotta keep the onlyfans running.”
“Of course…” Makoto glanced at her phone.
“You expecting a message?”
“I… kinda.”
“You’re being weird…”
“Sorry.”
“It’s not something to apologize for.” Eiko tapped her pencil between her teeth restlessly. “Man how are we supposed to just remember all these formulas or whatever?”
“Just repetition Eiko, that’s all there is to it.”
“You say that as if it’s easy…”
“I never said it was easy.” Makoto picked up the stack of papers on her desk, hoping to at least try to be productive during this time.
“Ugh…” Eiko wanted nothing more than to throw all these notes away and go get a crepe or something, but she fought her temptations with all her might, and kept her focus on the notes in front of her. “Okay repetition, right? It’s so damn boring though.”
“…”
“But I guess that’s just how it is, huh? Alright.”
“…”
“I’ll keep at it… in fact I’ll shut up- I’m falling into the trap of just saying I’ll do it rather than actually doing it.”
“…”
Eiko looked up to see Makoto stood up, staring at her phone in her hands.
“Mako-chan?”
“It’s not…”
“You okay?”
Makoto’s hands began shaking, and the phone slid out of her hands and clattered onto the floor.
“I have to remember, it’s not real. It’s part of the plan- it’s not real.”
“Makoto?”
Tears began flowing down Makoto’s face.
“It’s not real. It’s not real.”
“Makoto!” Eiko jumped out of her seat and rushed to Makoto’s side. “Calm down Mako-chan, it’s okay.”
“It’s not real. It’s not…”
Eiko wrapped her arms around her, and pulled her close.
“It’s okay Prez, it’s okay.”
“I’m… I’m sorr—”
“Don’t speak just yet.” Eiko stroked the back of Makoto’s head. “It’s okay, I’m here.”
Eiko felt her friend’s fingers dig into her back as she returned the embrace, it was honestly painful, but she put up with it. She tried to peer down at the dropped phone, to see what had Makoto so shaken, but only saw an article announcing the Phantom Thieves’ leader’s suicide. She wondered why that had affected her so, but that’s a question that could wait until later, all that mattered right now was continuing to hold Makoto in the empty room, waiting until she stopped crying.
~ ~ ~
Sae re-entered the interrogation room, finding Ren Amamiya still sat at the small metal table, just barely managing to lift his head enough to smile at her.
“Thank goodness.” He forced a laugh. “I was afraid I messed up.”
She approached him from the side.
“I have more questions for you Amamiya.” She took his arm over her shoulder, helping him to his feet. “But they can wait, we need to leave right now.”
He tried to step out, but cried out in pain as he tried to take a step.
“A-are you okay? Can you walk?”
“I’m sorry.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “One of them… one of…” His eyes felt heavy, everything around him was getting blurrier.
“Come on now, you managed to hold on throughout the entire interrogation, don’t lose consciousness now.”
“I…” His head fell lower.
“I’m sorry about this but—” she slapped him on the cheek, waking him back up.
“Th-thank you, Sae.”
“Can you walk?”
Ren shook his head.
“One of them kicked my right leg really hard, it hurts when I put any weight on it.”
“Dammit… is it broken?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Sae’s brow furrowed in thought.
“Fine, there’s nothing for it, get on my back.”
“But—”
“No buts, we’ll be too slow if you’re limping beside me.” She bent down so she could piggyback him. “Just hold on tight, and don’t make any noise, if we move quickly we should be able to get to the underground carpark without anyone noticing.”
“Thank you… so much…”
She took a few steps towards the door, but paused before stepping through.
“Actually, I do have one more question right now.”
Ren grumbled in response, still having trouble staying awake.
“This ‘Queen’ you kept mentioning… it’s… it’s her, right?”
“…”
“Amamiya-san! Please.”
“Who’s ‘her’?”
“Don’t play dumb now of all times!”
“If you have someone you suspect, you should ask her yourself.”
“…It really is her… but why would she do all this?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, but our Queen had some pretty horrible things said to her.”
“She… she did?”
“She wanted to prove she could be useful.”
The pain in Sae’s gut rapidly intensified.
“But that was just… I didn’t…”
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t be saying this when you’re helping me.”
“N-no… it’s alright.” She shook her head. “We’ll talk more later. There’s… there’s a lot to do now…”
~ ~ ~
Later that evening, Makoto sat at the table in her apartment, pointlessly poking her reheated leftovers with her chopsticks. Eiko had taken her home after their study session collapsed. She had even offered to keep her company, but Makoto refused.
She felt bad for keeping Eiko in the dark like this, but letting her in on this would cause far more problems than it’d solve. She had contacted the other thieves after the announcement, and while no one had any information confirming their success yet, they all chose to hold onto hope, and patiently wait to find out more. Everyone seemed to harbour similar fears to her, the gut-wrenching fear of failure. All but Ryuji, who was completely and totally certain in their success. Even through the medium of the messaging app, his overflowing optimism and faith in their leader was infectious. It didn’t completely rid the rest of the team of their worries, but it went a long way towards helping everyone stay calm.
Makoto flinched when she heard the front door open.
“I’m home.”
“…Mm…” Makoto’s head fell again as Sae entered the room, afraid to meet her sister’s gaze.
Sae stood awkwardly across the room, a deeply uncomfortable silence hung in the air for what seemed like hours. Sae took a bracing breath, before speaking.
“Queen?”
Makoto looked up, then immediately down again, realizing she gave herself away.
“I thought so…”
Makoto said nothing, silence reigned once more.
“Um… Makoto?”
“…”
“He’s alright.”
“H-huh?”
“Amamiya-san is with Sojiro Sakura, they’re having a local doctor they trust examine him. He’s in rough condition, but I’m told he’ll be okay.”
Makoto didn’t think it was possible to feel this relieved, it was as if the weight of the world had suddenly been lifted off of her shoulders.
“Oh thank goodness… thank goodness…”
“U-um…” Sae lightly chewed her lip, gazing downwards at the floor. “He kept quiet about your identities, but there were enough clues to figure out you were one of them… and… why you joined…” Sae swallowed. “Look, about what I sai—”
Sae was cut off when Makoto wrapped her arms around her, resting her tearful face atop her shoulder.
“Thank you Sis… Thank you so much.”
“Uh-um… Makoto? I…”
Makoto pulled back slightly so she could look her sister in the eyes.
“Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”
“But…” Sae wasn’t sure where to look, or what to do in response to this. “I um… I wanted to talk about those things I said…”
Makoto laughed, the tears still flowing down her face.
“Oh Sis, I don’t care about that.”
“You… you don’t?”
“Yes, it really hurt at the time, and I handled it in an immature way, but who hasn’t said something they didn’t mean at some point? As if I’m going to hold a grudge about something like that. And besides, you really have saved our lives.” Her face fell back onto Sae’s shoulder. “If they had gotten Ren… then it’d be us next, you, me, my friends. I knew I was right to believe in you.”
“I… I…” Sae sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what to say, I’m not very good at things like this…”
Makoto laughed again.
“It’s fine, I understand.” She held Sae tighter. “I love you Sis.”
“Um…”
“It’s fine, you don’t have to say it back this time.”
“…Ugh… yes I do… I…” She looked away at a random corner of the room. “I love you too Makoto.”
“That means a lot to me…” Makoto pulled away. “Sorry for embarrassing you like that.”
“It’s quite alright.”
“I’m sure you have lots of questions still, but we better explain it with the rest of the group present.”
“Alright, there’s a lot that still doesn’t make sense to me.” Sae smiled weakly. “We might have to put off that hot springs trip a little longer.”
Makoto returned the smile.
“That’s okay. I can be patient.” Her face began turning slightly pink. “This is kind of embarrassing to say out loud, but… after this is all over, I want us to talk more.”
“Talk more?”
“I don’t think either of us are very good at it, so… we could use some practice, right?”
Sae stared at her a while.
“Sure. Once everything’s all calmed down, we can try that.”
Makoto wiped away her tears, and nodded.
“Thank you. I’ll go heat some leftovers for you, I need to reheat mine again anyway.” She chuckled.
“Mm.”
Makoto strode over to the kitchen, before suddenly pausing, and turning back to Sae.
“Oh Sis, this might seem a little random, but there’s actually one more place I want the two of us to go.”
“Hm?”
“I might need Ann’s help with this one…” Makoto mumbled to herself.
“Ann?”
“Oh, I was thinking about how I wanted to take you clothes shopping.”
“Clothes shopping? F-for me?”
“Well it’s obviously not going to be for me, is it?” Makoto laughed.
Sae looked at her, bemused.
“Why?”
Makoto turned back to preparing their meal.
“I just feel like you’d enjoy it. Just a feeling.”
Notes:
Time for the Niijima's to start repairing that bridge between them
Chapter 62: Fine part 1
Summary:
Post-interrogation mini-arc: go!
Notes:
Sorry for the delay, my living conditions have drastically changed for the foreseeable future, and not for the better, so I can no longer make estimates as to when new chapters will come. I'll do my best though.
Oh and yeah, another 2-parter, part 2 may be a little while though
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The phantom thieves had gathered in Leblanc, alongside Sojiro Sakura and Sae Niijima to fill them in on the details of their successful plan to save their leader and find out who Akechi had been working for. Still high on the well-earned feeling of success, the mood was bright as Makoto and Futaba explained the details of their scheme to the rather bewildered adults, who were trying their hardest to follow along, and trying to comprehend that the cat was not only participating in the conversation, but was a key player in all the phantom thieves’ ploys.
Despite his injuries and lingering bruises on his face, Ren was also present, the meeting having kicked off with his triumphant re-debut. He assured everyone that even though he had seen better days, he was feeling fine, his wounds were healing, they didn’t need to worry, and he was still capable of making jokes. He continued to be a constant source of reassurance to the team.
However even as her focus was on explaining everything to her sister and Sojiro, Makoto’s eyes kept drifting to her boyfriend. He needed to lean on Ryuji’s shoulder to just limp over to sit down in one of the booths. Whenever the conversation once again needed his input he’d put on either his signature confident ‘Joker’ smirk, or his reassuring and supportive ‘team leader’ smile, but the fact that neither expression reached his eyes didn’t escape her notice; and as soon as he was no longer the focus, he would return to blankly staring into the middle-distance down towards the table in front of him. He kept discreetly rubbing his wrists underneath the table, but otherwise remained unnaturally still, even going so far as to keep his breathing as quiet as possible.
He briefly raised his head to look around the room, everyone’s attention was currently on Futaba proudly explaining (or rather- bragging) about how she managed to bug Akechi’s phone, Makoto’s remained firmly on Ren though. He looked past everyone to behind the counter; she raised a curious eyebrow and followed his line of sight to the kitchen area. She smiled, and looked back at him; though once he noticed her looking he flinched almost imperceptivity, hastily forcing his own flirty smile back at her.
“Are you hungry Ren?” Makoto’s question also drew everyone else’s attention.
“Oh that’s right.” Sojiro brought his hand to his beard in thought. “You’ve barely eaten since you’ve gotten back.”
“No no, it’s fine.” Ren shook his head.
“No I should have made you something. Sorry, I’ve just been so overwhelmed. Niijima-san just dropped you off with me that night, then there was so much stuff to keep track of with the doctor, and now I’m listening to all this… stuff about other worlds and cognitive this and that, it slipped my mind.”
“It’s fine Boss, don’t worry about it.”
Sojiro ignored his half-hearted objections and opened the fridge, gathering ingredients.
“Don’t worry, you can all carry on explaining, I’ll keep listening while I throw something together.” Sojiro scoffed “It’s not as if I understood much of it to begin with. I’ll make some for everyone if there are no objections?”
“Oh hell to the yeah!” Futaba grinned. “Sojiro’s curry is the best!”
Makoto looked slightly worried.
“I mean I agree, and such a… familiar meal right now is probably best, but can I just check- you do cook other things don’t you?”
“Huh? Of course I can.” Sojiro replied without turning away from his food prep.
“Not that he needs to, breakfast and dinner curry is all anyone needs in this world!” Futaba held her nose high- as if it was something she could be proud of.
The rest of the group exchanged worried glances, Sojiro didn’t see it- but he could feel Sae’s gaze on the back of his head.
“I’m certainly no parenting expert, but I think it might be worthwhile putting more thought into the diets on those within your care Sakura-san.”
Sojiro just grumbled.
“You really don’t need to trouble yourselves…”
“Aw don’t be like that man.” Ryuji chuckled. “I don’t care how tough you are, you need to eat if you wanna heal after what you went through.”
“I can just get myself something later, it’s fine, I don’t want to force any of you to stay here longer than you need to.”
“Dude, what?” Ann scoffed. “It’s no trouble to join you for a meal, besides- I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m pretty starving myself, I’ve been so sick with worry I’ve barely eaten anything…”
“I know exactly what you mean…” Haru nodded sombrely, as did the others- Makoto especially.
Ren still seemed like he wanted to object for some reason, but remained silent, jumping slightly at Ryuji putting what was meant to be a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He returned his attention to the discussion, or rather- pretended to do so until the meal was ready, whereby he was brought out of his daze enough to thank Sojiro as he placed his plate down in front of him. He stared down at the curry as if unsure what to even do with it.
“You gonna eat, Dude?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, yeah of course. Sorry.”
Ren ignored the eyes on him as he cautiously took a spoonful into his mouth, rapidly followed by him inhaling the rest of the meal as if his life depended on it.
“Goodness, you were hungry. Oh!” Haru smiled apologetically. “Sorry, it’s rather rude of me to stare.”
“It’s fine.”
Everyone enthusiastically dug into their own respective meals, Makoto took a note of how this curry still far and away surpassed her own attempts to recreate it, in fact she wondered if Sae would even notice that this and her’s were actually supposed to be the same meal. She resolved to study the dish further alongside her boyfriend once everything calmed down; but before that- she needed to talk with him about what happened…
Unfortunately Ryuji was already taking up the spot next to him, though maybe that was for the best, this wasn’t exactly the time to discuss such things, that could wait until everyone else had left. Instead Makoto chose to sit at the counter, next to her sister. Sae still didn’t look fully comfortable in this kind of environment, surrounded by celebrating teenagers- or maybe it was because she was still absorbing the fact that there’s a whole separate plane of existence born from people’s cognitions not only exists but has been the ongoing battlegrounds between said teenagers and the forces of evil; no doubt a severe blow to her prior worldview. Makoto doubted this was an opportunity for them to bond either, but still- maybe it would be better if she found out from her rather than Ren directly?
“Um… Sis?” She whispered so the others wouldn’t hear.
“Hm?”
“Do you… know what happened in that room? Before you went inside?”
Sae swallowed, before glancing back at the others, making sure they weren’t also listening in.
“Well I wasn’t directly present for their interrogation but I…” She paused, looking at Ren still eating, then Makoto’s concerned expression staring back at her. “I’ll tell you later.”
This only exacerbated Makoto’s worries, but she nodded and returned to her meal for the time being.
~ ~ ~
Later on that evening, the group disbanded for the night- spending too much time at Leblanc was risky; it was possible one or more of them were still under surveillance, and if they learned the leader of the phantom thieves was still alive it could spell disaster for the team. Thus, everyone sans Morgana, Fubata, and of course- Ren himself had left the café to head home, and were to discuss their actions going forward once Ren had had some time to recover. And to that end, he had changed into his sleepwear, and was currently lying in bed with Morgana by his side, and Futaba sat at his work desk.
“You can probably head home too Futaba-san.”
“Why are you adding ‘-san’ all of a sudden?”
“Sorry.”
“It’s not something to apologize for, it’s just weird, relax.”
“Sorry.”
Futaba rolled her eyes.
“You’re pretty dumb sometimes Ren.” Futaba brought her feet up onto the chair with her, half burying her face between her knees. “But uh… can I be honest with you?”
Ren sat up, Morgana displacing himself slightly to accommodate.
“Sure, I guess?”
Futaba averted her eyes slightly.
“I… I don’t want to give the impression I wasn’t confident in the plan, but I was really worried about you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I mean it’s not your fault or anything, but just… when we were putting together the plan I was feeling really good, I felt like we could handle any problem that came our way, I felt really badass and big-brained mapping out this sick master plan! It gave me that ‘we’re superheroes’ feel even moreso than the metaverse.” Her expression dropped again. “But once you were actually in there, all I could do was sit in my room and wait to hear the news. There was nothing I could do but sit there in my dark room, I couldn’t lose myself in some hacker or phantom thief fantasy. The reality that you were all alone, and could die if we had made a mistake… that’s all I could think about. Honestly Makoto calling me to help take care of cognitive Akechi was a huge relief.” She laughed humorlessly. “Hell even when you did get back, I could hear all the panic with the doctor from my room, so there was this whole new thing to be terrified about.”
“I’m really sorry you had to go through that.”
“C’mon, quit apologizing, you didn’t do anything wrong. And besides, if anything I should be saying that to you.” She sighed. “I’m not trying to start a pity party or anything like that, I’m just trying to say… I’m glad you made it back, and that you’re going to be okay…”
“We all are.” Morgana added.
Ren bashfully rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m… thank you, I’m glad I didn’t let you all down.”
Futaba sat on the foot end of Ren’s bed, smiling warmly.
“It’s weird, if you think about it I’ve only known you for few months now, and yet it feels like we’ve already been through so much, all the Phantom Thief stuff, everything you did to help me get stronger and go outside more, helping me save Kana… I dunno, I don’t want to think of a life without you. I guess… the possibility of that is what scared me so much.”
“It’s been a hell of a year…”
“Don’t say it like that Joker, you’re making it sound like it’s over already.” Morgana looked up at him determined. “We’ve still got unfinished business after all. Taking down Akechi and Shido, not to mention you’ve not fulfilled your promise to me yet.”
“I haven’t forgotten, don’t worry.”
“I know.” Morgana nodded. “But before any of that, you need to rest.”
“It’s fine. I’ll be able to start helping again tomorrow.”
“The hell you will.” Futaba glared at him. “You can barely walk on that leg.”
Ren tried to force a smirk, shrugging.
“It’s just a bit sore, once we’re in the metaverse and I have my persona powers it won’t be a problem at all.”
“Even if that’s true—” Morgana joined Futaba in glaring angrily “—you still have to actually get around Tokyo to get to the metaverse in the first place. You’re only going to make your injuries worse if you try and force it, and if that happens them we’re in serious trouble.”
“But…” Ren’s brow furrowed. “I—WE can’t afford to just sit around doing nothing at this stage. We’re not safe yet…” His eyes gazed down at the sheets in front of him. “I can still be useful…”
Morgana sighed.
“Joker we’re not—”
He was cut off by the sound of Leblanc’s bell from downstairs, the café’s door was opening. Ren suddenly tensed up, his breathing hitched, he instinctively tried to scoot back only to hit his head against the wall.
“Joker calm down.” Morgana spoke softly. “It’s okay, there’s no need to panic. It’s probably just Boss, but I’ll go take a look, okay?”
Ren- as if suddenly realizing what he just did- tried to act as natural as he could while still clearly wincing from banging his head. Futaba- looked at him with worry clear on her face. Morgana was just about to poke his head around the corner of the stairs to see who had entered, when said visitor- Makoto- suddenly came into view, nearly knocking into him.
“Sorry.” She spoke barely above a whisper, not even looking at him as she continued up the stairs and entering Ren’s room proper.
“M-Makoto? Are you okay?”
She didn’t respond, the marks of tears flowing down her face were clear to see. She approached Ren’s bed, fell to her knees beside it, and nearly began sobbing as she looked at him.
“I’m so sorry…”
“Mako?”
“It wasn’t supposed to be like that…”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t think they’d be so… that they’d…”
“M-Makoto, don’t worry, it’s fine.”
“IT IS NOT FINE!” Everyone in the room recoiled slightly at the outburst, including Makoto herself. “Sorry… but I didn’t think they’d go that far.” Makoto’s fingernails dug into her forearm. “We knew they’d probably be rough, I expected you’d come out with some bruises, but the outright beatings? The needles containing god knows what? And your leg? Nothing about that is even close to ‘fine’. I shouldn’t have put you through that…”
“Makoto…” Ren shook his head. “You didn’t put me through anything—”
“It was my plan, that means I’m the one who basically threw you to the wolves to get… to get tortured like that.”
“Don’t be silly, it’s thanks to your plan that I’m even alive.”
“There had to be a better way! There HAD to be…”
“There wasn’t, Akechi had us backed into a corner, without you we would have been screwed.” He shot her his most confident smirk. “I can handle some rough treatment if it’s for your sake, I’d happily go through it again if it meant keeping you safe.”
Ren had gained a lot of experience with the ‘Niijima glare’ recently, both from Makoto herself whenever he annoyed her, and from Sae during the interrogation; but neither of those compared to the pure vitriol in his girlfriend’s eyes in this moment as he shot up to her feet, clenching her fists.
“M-Mako?”
“Take that back.”
“Huh?”
“How dare you say something so stupid?!”
“U-um… Queen?” Morgana’s weak attempt at interjecting went ignored, and Futaba shrunk in on herself, remaining silent.
“Am I supposed to swoon at that? Am I supposed to be happy or reassured?”
“Um… Makoto I—”
“Dammit Ren how the hell can you be so goddamn stupid?!” She seethed at him. “I don’t want you to go through anything like that! I don’t want you to be hurt! I hate myself for letting that happen, for underestimating the danger. And here you are saying you’d just throw yourself back in for my sake? How the hell is that supposed to make me feel any better?!”
“I… I didn’t mean…”
Makoto fell back to her knees, her tearful face pressing down into his sheets.
“I hate it… not just the fact that the boy I love had to suffer so much, but the fact that it’s my fault…”
“It’s not your fault.”
“You just said that you’d do it again because of me…”
Ren tried to retort, but the words just wouldn’t come to him.
“Please Ren… take it back… I couldn’t live with that kind of guilt.”
Ren paused a while, Futaba and Morgana exchanged a look but daren’t say a word. He reached over and gently stroked the back of Makoto’s head.
“I’m sorry Makoto, I didn’t think of it that way… I just… I’d do anything for your sake.”
“I’m sorry… I understand what you’re trying to say… but I just can’t stand the idea of you hurting yourself like that.” She lifted her head. “Would you be okay with me going through that?”
A horribly cold feeling shot up Ren’s spine at the thought.
“No, of course not, I’d never let that happen.”
“And what if I said I was doing it for you?”
Ren’s shoulders fell.
“Okay… I understand what you mean.”
Makoto got up and sat on the edge of the bed, resting her hand atop Ren’s.
“I want us to be equals Ren. I appreciate you wanting to protect me, but that means I should be protecting you too. I don’t want either of us to suffer. The fact that you went through what you did means I failed to do that.” She looked at his wrists, the scars betraying how hard he struggled against his handcuffs. She started to gently caress the scars with her free hand, he flinched slightly at the touch, but otherwise didn’t resist. “I don’t want to fail like that ever again. So please, help me make sure it never happens again, okay?”
Ren didn’t look directly at her, but simply nodded and remained silent for a while.
“Your hands are warm.”
“It’s just because yours are cold.”
“I’m starting to feel like we’re intruding.” Morgana mumbled to Futaba.
“Nah I’m having fun watching, this is nice.” Unfortunately Futaba wasn’t as quiet, so the couple heard, and as if suddenly remembering that they weren’t alone they pulled away from eachother slightly, their faces glowing pink.
Morgana rolled his eyes.
“Right, I forgot you’re a voyeur.”
“So are you ‘Mr. Always-hiding-in-Ren’s-bag’.”
“That doesn’t make me a voyeur!”
“Alright that’s enough you two.” Makoto sighed, before very reluctantly standing back up. “Unfortunately I can’t stay…”
“H-huh?” Ren’s voice betrayed a small about of fear. “Why not?”
“Sis still doesn’t know about- well- us. I just told her I was coming back because I needed to apologize. Which was technically true.” She smiled at him sadly. “But as much as I’d like to stay the night, she’d no doubt suspect something was going on with us, things are already complicated enough without me having to reveal that to her.”
Ren chuckled weakly.
“Yeah… she’d probably give me a second interrogation when she finds out, best save that until after everything else is taken care of. But…”
“Ren?”
“Could you please…” He stared directly downwards, as if both fearful and embarrassed. “…please stay just a little while longer?”
“Do you want us to give you two some privacy?” Morgana asked, standing up.
“N-no… I’d like you two to stay a little while too…” He suddenly looked up, raising his hands apologetically. “O-only if you’re okay with it of course, I don’t want to burden you or anything.”
Makoto sighed contentedly.
“I’m sure I could stay a little bit longer, but I really will have to head back soon so that she doesn’t suspect anything.”
Futaba pondered, staring at the ceiling, before grinning.
“Y’know, just because Ren is recovering, doesn’t mean we can’t keep working on our plans.”
“Futaba?” Makoto tilted her head. “What do you mean? What plans?”
“Our plan of action of course!” He wiggled her finger proudly. “Us Phantom Thieves are always planning, especially when we have an opponent as dangerous as the potential future prime minister.” She smiled at Makoto. “And of course, you’re our strategist, so of course you have to be involved in the planning.”
“Futaba? You mean—”
Futaba mock shrugged.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if we spend all night planning, you might not even make it home at all tonight.”
Makoto stared at her for a few seconds longer, before smiling and pulling her phone out of her bag.
“You’re right, I better text her now to let her know I have to prioritize planning tonight, and I’ll see her again tomorrow.”
“Are you sure that’s going to be okay?”
“Come on Ren, normally you’d be the one suggesting this.” Futaba sniggered. “Lucky you, you get to spend the night with three nudists.”
“Three?”
“You count as well Mona! That collar doesn’t count as clothing, it just means you’re kinky.”
“It’s not kinky if a cat wears it! N-not that I am a cat, but…”
“Wait a second, you’re not actually planning to sleep with him, are you?” Makoto asked, slightly concerned.
“I mean we weren’t gonna have sex or anything, I’m not into him in that way, he’s kinda like a big brother.”
Makoto’s face twisted in disgust.
“A brother you’re fine sleeping with naked?”
“Yeah totally, it’s perfectly innocent. And besides, it’s normal for siblings to ‘play doctor’, y’know?”
Ren sighed, his shoulders dropping.
“Futaba you spend waay too much time on the internet, your sense of what is and isn’t acceptable is totally skewed…”
“Nah it’s fine. Granted your hands would probably wander a bit in the night, but so long as you keep it above the thighs it should be okay.”
“Futaba, the term is ‘above the waist’, what’s the point if you don’t exclude—" Morgana cleared his throat “—THAT area?”
“Nah I don’t care about that.” She twiddled her fingers. “I just have ticklish thighs, is all…”
“This is seeming more and more like a bad idea…” Makoto rubbed her forehead. “Even putting that aside he only has a single bed, there’s no way all four of us would fit.”
Futaba groaned.
“FINE! I’ll bring over some pillows and a blanket from my room and I’ll stay on the couch.” She scooped up Morgana in her arms.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not gonna sleep by myself in this cold room, so you’ll be with me on the couch.”
“But why me?”
“Because we can’t split up the couple of course.” She squeezed him uncomfortably tight. “Besides you’re all warm and fluffy.”
“Ugh…” Morgana didn’t look happy, but he didn’t have the will to fight back. “Fine, just don’t make it weird.”
“Ew. Obviously.”
Makoto sighed as the other two left, then turned to her boyfriend.
“I won’t be hurting you if we… snuggle a little bit, will I?”
“It’ll be fine… probably.”
“’Probably’, huh?” Makoto sighed. “I’ll be extra careful, just tell me right away if I’m hurting you, even if I’m already asleep- wake me up.”
“I’d definitely appreciate you keeping me warm.” Ren laughed- even if it was still a little forced. “But… seriously- thank you…” His voice lowered to a whisper. “I really don’t want to be alone tonight.”
“I understand. Let’s get some rest, okay?”
Makoto got into bed with him, not even waiting for Futaba and Morgana to get back, being very gentle as they held eachother and got comfortable.
“Makoto?”
“Hm?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I feel I should say that to you more often.”
Makoto smiled.
“I have no objections.”
~ ~ ~
Despite Futaba’s watchful (and rather hopeful) gaze, the couple managed to fall into a comfortable slumber without any distractions, and the somewhat disappointed girl managed to follow suit. The last to fall asleep was Morgana on account of being treated like a plush toy; he never thought he’d say it- but he definitely preferred sleeping with Ren than this particular nudist, he decided to put up with it- but if she drooled on him again he was going to break free and instead join the couple in the main bed.
It was a little past midnight when it started, Ren began to stir. He kept shaking his limbs, as if trying to break free of his blanket. The movement managed to wake Makoto.
“Hm? Ren?”
Ren started groaning and shaking his head.
“N-no…”
Makoto sat up, sighing slightly.
“I suppose this is to be expected.” She gently reached out to stroke his hair. “It’s okay Ren, it’s just a nightmare, it’s okay.”
Unfortunately this didn’t have the desired effect, he continued to stir and struggle in his sleep.
“Should I wake him up?” She mumbled to herself quietly, not wanting to wake Futaba and Morgana too if it wasn’t necessary. She reached out to gently shake his shoulder. “Ren… Ren, wake up- it’s okay, I’m here with you.”
Ren’s eyes slowly forced themselves open, and he looked up at her smiling down at him, then swiftly pushed her out of his bed as hard as he could, her falling on her side.
“R-Ren?!”
“Get away!”
He scrambled to run away, but cried out in pain when he stepped off of his bed onto his injured leg, tumbling to the ground. The noise woke Futaba and Morgana.
“What’s happening?” Morgana leapt off of Futaba, rushing to flick the light switch back on.
Everything came into view, Ren flipped over onto his back and slid away until he backed into the shelves, nearly knocking over several items on it.
Makoto forced herself back to her feet, and cautiously approached Ren.
“Ren- it’s okay, it’s just me!”
He instinctively brought his arms up to try and protect his head, screwing his eyes shut and trying to brace himself.
“Please calm down Joker, you’re in your room, at Leblanc.”
“It’s just us here: Makoto, Mona, and me.”
Ren still didn’t respond, curled up into a ball holding his head, shaking violently. Makoto firmly grabbed his upper arms, just in case he tried to lash out.
“Please Ren, listen to me, look at me.”
Ren lifted his head, terror clear on his face, but then suddenly he froze.
“M-Makoto?”
“Yes Ren, it’s just us.”
He looked at her, Futaba, and Morgana in sequence.
“It was just a nightmare, you’re safe now.”
He kept staring at her in disbelief, before tears began to fill his eyes.
“I-I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I—”
“It’s okay Joker.” Morgana approached from his side, rubbing his head against Ren’s torso. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
“We’re here for you, okay?”
Makoto pulled him into a hug, feeling his still shaking hands desperately clinging to her. Futaba joined the hug from the other side.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m…”
“Shhh…” Makoto held him firmly, but not harshly. “It’s okay, you don’t need to say anything else.”
The three of them continued to hold him, it took a while, but he began to take comfort in their combined warmth enveloping him. He buried his face into her neck, and continued to quietly sob. No one said anything for a while, they simply resolved to keep holding him until he had calmed down, and they could try to get back to sleep once more.
Notes:
Yeah the game doesn't really touch on it as to not ruin the triumphant moment, but there's literally a zero percent chance Ren walked away from that without some form of trauma.
Chapter 63: Fine part 2
Summary:
The next day
Notes:
I know it's been plot heavy for a while, not as much focus on the nudity and such, but it's just how the story goes. I promise there will be at least one more fun chapter soon before we go into Shido's arc proper, but this isn't the one, more plot and stuff for now.
Chapter Text
Thankfully the rest of the night passed without incident. Ren ended up falling asleep again while leaning on Makoto, so she gently carried him back to his bed. This time Futaba joined the couple, it was quite the tight squeeze, as the bed wasn’t made to accommodate 3 people and a cat; hell- it wasn’t made to accommodate two people, but somehow they managed. Morgana taking up some free space by Ren’s head rather than sleeping on top of him like normal, he didn’t want to risk putting too much pressure on his chest.
Despite the cramped conditions they all managed to get at least close to a full-night’s sleep. Ren was the first to stir, slowly drifting back to the world of the living. The first thing he noticed was the strange pressure on his right cheek, Futaba- who had slept between him and the wall- had somehow managed to end up upside-down relative to the others and now had her foot pressed against the side of Ren’s face- a problem he consciously decided not to do anything about. He looked down to his left to see Makoto still sleeping with her arm over him, a smile on her face that he found healing.
His right arm may have been trapped- or at least in a position where he didn’t want to move it lest he risk touching Futaba inappropriately; Makoto was one thing, but despite her being naked in his bed he didn’t want to accidentally cross any lines with Futaba. However he could still safely move his left arm, which he used to caress Makoto’s back. Despite still being asleep, she seemed to hum contentedly as he ran his hands up and down the smooth skin of the small of her back. His hand drifted a little lower, appreciating the firm musculature of her wide hips and behind. Part of him wanted to continue a little while longer, but he thought better of it, partially because while he was sure she’d be fine with it, he probably shouldn’t be doing this while she’s sleeping, but mostly because Futaba and Morgana were still in bed with them; best keep things innocent for now. It worked out, since Makoto seemed to be waking up now, groaning slightly as her eyes drifted open and met his.
“Morning Mako.”
“Mm, good morning Ren.” She sat up in bed, lightly scoffing at Futaba still gently snoring with her head down by Ren’s knees. “How are you feeling?”
Ren averted his eyes bashfully.
“I’m… I’ll be alright. I’m sorry about last night…”
She shook her head.
“Don’t be ridiculous, you don’t need to apologize for anything.”
“I didn’t hurt you when I… pushed you out of the bed, did I?”
She laughed sympathetically.
“It was quite the shock, but I’m alright, don’t worry.”
“Sorry.”
“You’ve said that a million times now, I’m telling you: it’s fine.”
“I really embarrassed myself though…”
“It’s not embarrassing, trust me- I know more about ‘embarrassing’ than most.” Makoto blushed, having no shortage of memories of her early days of constant public exposure, or the more recent impromptu sex show at the culture festival. “You’re allowed to show weakness to me now and again, it’s fine. I don’t want to meet the person who is just ‘okay’ after what you went through.”
“I guess…” Ren watched as Makoto got out of bed and started stretching to warm-up and loosen her body, quietly enjoying the show as she quietly enjoyed giving him a show, very unsubtly bending down away from him, and immensely enjoying the way he’d conspicuously look away when she looked back at him.
“As much as I’d love to stay longer, I need to get to school, I can’t have people looking for me and finding you still alive.”
“That’s true.” Ren sighed sadly. “Once my leg is better I should be able to go outside so long as I wear a hoodie or something.”
“How is the leg anyway?”
Ren experimentally moved it around.
“A little sore, I can move it fine but it’ll probably be another day or two before I can walk on it safely.” Frustration was clear in his tone.
Makoto’s expression fell.
“We won’t be able to spend time together outside for a while…”
“…Yeah…”
“This is one case where my nudism is really detrimental. You might be able to fade into the background by yourself, but there’s always attention on me, people still take pictures when they see me, and if you show up in them…”
“We could end up ruining everything…” Ren hung his head. “It’s fine. I’ll just travel separately to the meet up point.”
“I’m sorry Ren.”
“Ha… now you’re apologizing when you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah… I guess I am, huh?” She fiddled with the ends of her hair. “I’ll try and come back here for a while afterschool, I won’t be able to spend the night again without my sister suspecting something, but I could afford to check in at least.”
Ren smiled at her weakly.
“Thank you.” He looked down at Futaba. “I better wake her up too.”
He swiftly freed his right hand, and went to shake her awake by her thighs.
“AIIE!” She suddenly jolted awake, nearly kicking Ren as she scrambled into the wall, the sudden movement waking Morgana who sprung to his feet. “What was that?!”
“S-sorry.” Ren brought up his hands defensively. “I didn’t meant to shock you like that, I just wanted to wake you up.”
“O-oh..” Futaba blushed slightly. “Sorry, I did warn you my thighs are ticklish though, you need to be careful.”
“I guess you weren’t kidding… I’ll make sure not to touch them in the future- not that I was planning to anyway.”
“Good, tickling is the worst. When I come to power I’m going to make it so if someone is tickling you, you’re legally allowed to kill them.”
“That might be going a bit far…” Morgana shook his head, before looking back to the couple. “Morning you two, feeling any better Joker?”
“I’m getting there.”
Morgana nodded.
“Glad to hear it.” He turned to Makoto. “You best be going, you don’t want to be late for school, none of us need to draw any attention to ourselves. Don’t worry about him, I’ll look after him until you get back. Oracle, could you do as much research into Shido as you can in the meantime? While we’re waiting for Joker to recover we can try to figure out Shido’s keywords.”
Futaba crawled of the end of the bed, Ren and Morgana being gentlemen and averting their eyes as she unintentionally mooned them, before fumbling back to her feet in a motion devoid of any grace and saluted.
“You betcha, we’ll have the keywords figured out in no time.”
Makoto picked up her bag, quickly checking to make sure everything was still inside, before approaching Ren’s bedside. She tapped him on the shoulder, and with her cheeks flushed pink she lent forwards to plant a kiss on Ren’s lips.
“I’ll be back later, okay?”
“Th-thank you. I’ll be waiting.”
Leaving her boyfriend and his guardian notcat behind, Makoto left the room alongside Futaba just in time to see Sojiro setting up shop.
“O-oh um… Boss?”
Sojiro shot her a knowing smirk.
“Need something Niijima-san?”
She averted her eyes.
“N-not that she’s going to ask, but just in case: if my sister asks, could you tell her I spent the night in a spare room in your house?”
Sojiro chuckled.
“I understand. Sure, I’ll make sure to keep your story straight.”
“Thank you.”
~ ~ ~
She had mostly been able to ignore it until she arrived in Shibuya, but she couldn’t deny how different this felt. Granted, it was mostly the same commute to school she had done hundreds of times over. Being the centre of attention during the morning rush hour, the only one naked amongst the hectic commuters; she was used to all of this at this point, she had learned to enjoy the attention… at least she enjoyed it most of the time, it felt so different without him at her side.
Perhaps it wasn’t that it felt different, it was as if the fact that it felt the same was just highlighting the big difference. Every day since late May, she’d wake up to find Ren waiting to escort her to school, knowing he’d be there at the end of the day to take her back again. Chatting with her, making jokes, trying to make her feel safe from all the staring while trying (in vain) not to stare at her himself. It was one of the few constants in her weird new life, and one she took great comfort in. But now it was gone until they could take care of Shido.
Despite being the centre of attention, she felt lonely. Even being able to turn and see him absentmindedly scrolling through his phone had been a healing sight for her, but now she just saw an empty seat. It had been a long time since her nudity had made her feel vulnerable, she could only hope it didn’t show too much. They’ve never had to deal with molesters or the like during their commutes, last thing she needed was to start attracting them now. She considered moving to the women-only cars in the future just to be a little more safe- at the very least that would half the potential troublemakers she could encounter. Perhaps Ann, Eiko, or Haru could start meeting up with her to make her feel more safe? Actually on second thought perhaps not Haru- asking her driver to pick her up would feel unreasonable, plus even though they were close friends at this point, Haru still had the smell of exactly the kind of trouble maker Makoto was afraid of. Ann or Eiko it would have to be.
She shook her head, the idea wasn’t bad at all, but she couldn’t afford to think like this. She needed to project confidence, that was still her greatest defence, she couldn’t start acting like a vulnerable waif now and make herself a potential target. With the strength of Anat still burning within her, and the confidence Ren had given her, she would keep projecting her ‘Queen’ aura and not let the public scare her. Ren was fighting to stay strong for the rest of the team, she would endeavour to do the same. She’d get through her usual school routine and be with him again soon, help him heal, and deal with the threats they’re facing so they can go back to being a couple again, she can move her focus onto repairing the bridge between her and her sister, and they could have something resembling a normal life.
~ ~ ~
Ren’s day at home had been pretty boring. Despite wishing nearly every day that Morgana would let him stay in bed a little longer each morning, being confined to said bed was becoming maddening. He was grateful for the times he could at least limp downstairs to the bathroom after Morgana confirmed that the coast was clear, just to be able to move a little. Otherwise he just spent time with Morgana watching DVDs they borrowed from Futaba to pass the time.
“Man I really want to like Featherman but I think it might be too campy even for me…”
“I know what you mean Joker. The outfits and poses are stylish, but some of the monster outfits look pretty silly.”
“The action scenes vary from actually pretty cool and impressive with all the practical effects, to ones that really go overboard with the dated CGI.”
“Want me to go get something else to watch?”
“Nah we shouldn’t bother Futaba too much while she’s working.” Ren sighed. “Maybe I’m just in a bad mood being stuck here… not to mention we have to have it quiet so they don’t hear us up here.”
On that note, Leblanc’s bell was heard from downstairs. Ren quickly paused and looked at Morgana, who nodded back at him. He snuck downstairs to see who had entered, nearly running into them as they came up the stairs.
“Oh, sorry Mona.”
“Y-you’re good Queen.”
Makoto came back up into the attic, Ren couldn’t keep himself from smiling as he saw her again.
“Hi Mako.”
She pulled up a chair and sat by the side of his bed.
“Afternoon. Are you keeping well?”
“A bit of cabin fever, but I’m alright I guess. Everything alright at school?”
Makoto nodded.
“The story is that you’ve been sent back home due to a family emergency. Hopefully that should stop anyone asking any questions.”
“Ah yeah Kawakami already told me about that, she messaged me after the news of the ‘Phantom Thief leader’s suicide’ broke to check I’m alright and tell me.”
“I still can’t believe you let her find out.”
“It’s not my fault!”
“It 100% is.” Morgana stared at him, deadpan. “You just can’t stop yourself from raising suspicion asking for target names then having us change their hearts right afterwards, of course they’re going to figure it out.”
“Has this happened before?” Makoto raised an eyebrow.
“Eh… a couple people have figured out who I am…”
“And who are these ‘couple people’?”
“I mean… Hifumi- as you know. And Miss Kawakami.”
Makoto watched his sheepish expression closely and with suspicion.
“Anyone else?”
“I mean… there’s this politician I met in Shibuya… the local doctor here in Yongen-jaya, this one kid at the arcade, the model gun shop owner.” Makoto kept staring. “This journalist I met at the bar I took you to once, the fortune teller hanging out in Shinjuku, Sojiro- though he wasn’t my fault.”
Makoto rubbed her forehead.
“And here I was thinking Ryuji was the one we couldn’t trust to keep things discreet.”
“They all promised to keep our secret though.”
“It’s a wonder we’ve gotten as far as we have only being found out by enemies once…”
“I mean I couldn’t just leave them all in trouble.”
She sighed.
“No I suppose not.” She stood up and shot him a tired smile. “I’m going to go order us both some coffee. I’m no nurse so I can’t help you heal any quicker, but it’d be nice to talk a little.” Her cheeks grew pink. “I missed you today.”
Ren mirrored her blush.
“I missed you too.”
“I’m not gonna be intruding on your romantic couple time, am I?”
“No, you’re good Morgana.” She turned to the stairs. “I won’t be long.”
~ ~ ~
“I don’t want to crush your ego too much Ren, but Boss’s coffee still has yours beat.”
“For now. I’ll surpass him someday.”
Makoto chuckled.
“I’ll look forward to tasting it.” She placed her mug down on the table and gazed wistfully out the window. “I’ve got my goal of becoming a police commissioner, but have you given any thought to what you want to do in the future?”
“Marry you.”
Makoto went bright red, Morgana couldn’t help but snigger at them from across the room.
“D-don’t tease me! My heart can’t take you joking around like that.”
“Who said it was a joke?”
“Oh shut up.” She averted her eyes, trying her best not to look too happy at the idea. “I meant what do you want to do career wise?”
Ren pondered, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Good question…”
“I mean I don’t want to pressure you, you’re only a second year, so you have time, but it can’t hurt to start thinking about your goals sooner rather than later.”
“You’re not wrong, but aside from all the PT shit, I really don’t know what I’m doing with my life.” He shrugged. “I’m much happier just supporting everyone else, especially you.”
“Your support is appreciated, but I don’t want to keep you from being happy yourself.”
“All I need to be happy is to be by your side.”
“Shut up Ren.” Makoto’s blush only intensified, but then her expression dropped. “Still, you’re going home next year.”
Ren averted his eyes, staring down into his now-empty mug.
“Yeah…”
“What’s your home like anyway?”
“…”
“I don’t think we’ve ever really talked about your old home, or your family.”
“…”
“Ren, don’t do this…”
“What?”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed the pattern. Every time someone mentions your family or old home you suddenly give us the quiet treatment, or just brush us off and change the subject.”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine…”
“I just want to know more about you, y’know?” She smirked slightly. “Plus I’ll need to know for when I come visit you, y’know?”
Ren’s mood brightened ever so slightly, he smiled back at her, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“It’s fine…”
“Please Ren, don’t shut me out like this.”
“I’m not…” he sighed. “Okay maybe I am… I’m sorry.”
Makoto leant over and resting her hand on top of his.
“Tell me about your hometown.”
Ren looked at her hand, then back into his mug.
“Not much to tell. Inaba is a nice enough place, the country is nice and all but I think I prefer it here in the city.”
“Inaba? I think I’ve heard of it, I think I heard my father talking about the murders that happened there a few years back.”
“I was only in grade school when they happened, so I don’t really know anything about them, I do know that since then the town has been trying to turn itself into something of a resort town, to modest success. There’s this pretty nice inn everyone raves about.”
“We’ll have to visit that for sure.”
“Yeah…”
“How about your school?”
“There’s really nothing to tell about my school. It’s just a school, I had some… well I’m not sure I’d call them ‘friends’ but I had people I hung out with.” He started restlessly scratching the handle of his coffee mug with his thumb. “We certainly weren’t close enough for them not to ditch me after my arrest.” He grumbled bitterly.
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I was just ‘the weird kid’ in their eyes, so them just leaving me was to be expected.”
“Still for them to not question it at all…” Makoto sighed. “Though I guess lots of things happen that we just don’t question because we consider it ‘none of our business’…”
“No kidding. But hell- I don’t miss them.”
“What about your family?”
Ren let out a humorless laugh.
“Who cares?”
“Ren?”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine.” He refused to look at her.
Makoto’s expression fell.
“Did you tell them about what happened? How much do they know?”
“I told them, but they believed what the police said.” He shrugged. “It’s fine. We’re not the most tightly knit family, so I can understand them doubting me, it’s fair.”
“Ren…”
“But hey- they sent me here. I got to meet you and everyone else- it’s great! Probably the best thing that ever happened to me, so I’m actually glad.” His voice was jovial, but his expression remained stone cold. “It’s fine. I don’t resent them for it.”
Makoto watched him silently, watching for any movement in his face, how he kept scratching the mug handle harder than before.
“Really it’s not like they had much of a choice. Their only child- who’s never really endeared himself to the community- suddenly gets convicted of assault. It looks like the classic case of ‘beware the quiet ones’, so they couldn’t go against the rest of society’s decision. It’s fine. They couldn’t stand up and question the decision. They couldn’t stop and think ‘maybe this seems out of character for our son’, or ‘we should get to the bottom of this’. Nope, it wasn’t worth their time, better to just cut their losses and send me off to Tokyo to… I dunno, ‘redeem’ myself?”
He turned to face Makoto, a bitter smile on his face.
“Do you want to know what the most recent message I received from them says?”
Makoto didn’t answer, she didn’t get a chance too before Ren opened his phone and started scrolling through his messages, reading aloud.
“Could you pick up some milk on the way home? We’ve run out.”
“Milk?”
“Mom sent that to me the night I got arrested, probably less than 30 minutes before I encountered that man. All the way back in March.” He looked back at his phone, trying to scroll down even though he knew that was the most recent message. “I simply replied: ‘Sure’.”
“They haven’t contacted you since?”
Ren locked his phone and dropped it on the bed.
“It’s fine. They know I’m here serving my probation so they just don’t need updates I guess. They’ll probably hear all about it at the end, it’s fine.” He gripped his mug harder, his scratching beginning to leave a mark. “They’re probably busy, they just don’t have time to call to ask how I’m doing in this faraway city where I didn’t know anyone. It’s fine. It’s fine how they just don’t feel the need to wish me luck, or ask how I feel. It’s fine. They don’t need to text me or anything to make sure things are working out, or how my living conditions are, or if I’m making friends, or even to tell me off or sternly tell me to behave myself. It’s fine. I can’t think of one single reason they would give the tiniest fraction of a shit about me because they think I’m a criminal now. Why would they care about my side of the story? It’s fine. I’m only causing problems for them after all, it’s my own fault for getting into that situation. It’s fine. They’re not gonna be keeping up with the news here so they have no reason to worry about me or be concerned for my safety. Hell it’d probably be fine for them if I really had been killed, then I’d never cause trouble or besmirch their name again- they could focus on whatever the fuck actually matters to them. It’s fine.”
“Ren I—"
“I SAID IT’S FINE!” Ren threw his mug in front of him, shattering it against his work desk, the pieces clattering onto the floor. For a moment silence hung over the room, he stared ahead, tears filling his eyes but not quite falling. And his face slowly shifted from anger to a deep shame. “Damn it… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be making noise…”
“Ren…” Makoto reached out, and rested a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. I shouldn’t be breaking things for silly reasons like that.” He tried to look at her, but couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “Could you do me a favor and tell Boss I’m sorry for shouting and breaking his mug, tell him I’ll pay for it.”
Makoto stared at him silently for a few moments, before nodding, gathering up the broken fragments and carrying them downstairs.
“Could you help her Morgana?”
“Help her?”
“Please…” Ren didn’t look at him as he asked.
After a pause, Morgana silently nodded, and followed Makoto downstairs. Once he was out of sight, Ren removed his glasses, dropping them onto his lap before letting his face fall into his hands, his fingers tightly gripping onto his hair.
“I’m sorry…”
Chapter 64: The third Queen
Summary:
Today is a good day, both Ren and Makoto have been sorely needing one
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“I’m beginning to think this was a mistake…”
“What? The nudity?” Miss Chouno scoffed. “Everyone already saw everything during your little ‘trial run’ at the culture festival, no point getting shy now Darling.”
“It’s not that, well sort of—” Kawakami rubbed her upper arm. “I’m thinking maybe I should have waited until spring. Going nudist in November may end up biting me in the ass. It’s fine for the rest of you; you’ve built up a resistance to the elements, I’m freshly nude.”
“You’ll get used to it fairly quickly… hopefully.”
“’Hopefully’, huh?”
“We’re forming a fairly strong support network thanks to that Takao-san. Winter is an obstacle for us, but together we can handle it, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.”
“Could you have possibly thought of a more patronizing way to put that? And the students should be relying on us, not the other way around.”
“I guess that means you better get on top of the problem fast so you can lead them right, hm?”
Kawakami’s shoulders dropped as she sighed heavily.
“Dammit… I guess you’re right, but don’t just say that as if it doesn’t apply to you too.”
“Eh, don’t get so bogged down in details like that. And quit slouching, it does your breasts no favors.”
Kawakami grumbled as she forced herself to stand up straight, loosening her shoulders.
“Alright alright. Gotta at least pretend I know what I’m doing if I want the students to take me seriously.”
“That’s the spirit!” Chouno slapped her fellow teacher on the back. “Getting them to pay attention to you is the easiest thing in the world like this, but getting them to pay attention to what you’re saying is just a tad harder.” She chuckled to herself as a lightbulb went off over her head. “Or just write the lesson notes on your body, sit at the front, and call it a day.”
“Don’t think I won’t rat you out to the school board if I catch you doing that.”
“It’s fine, I’ll only do it while you’re busy with you own lessons, so you won’t see… I’m kidding.”
Kawakami shook her head and made her way out the door to the faculty office.
“I’ll see you later.”
She was in such a rush to leave that she didn’t fully prepare herself for the feeling of walking nude through the crowded school hallways. This was only the second time she had done so, and last time she had the benefit of others trying out the program temporarily the same day, in fact Eiko’s ‘Nudist for a day’ program seemed more popular with visiting adults than the actual student body- something she wished she had taken the time to appreciate when she had the chance.
Right now was both easier and harder than her first time- there were decidedly less people in the halls to see her, but there was also more attention on her specifically- since rather than true strangers, all the students knew who she was. She knew she couldn’t show any of the nervousness she actually felt though, she knew projecting confidence was necessary for her survival.
‘I wonder if this is how Niijima-san felt when she started? Hell, it was harder on her, since at least everyone is already used to naked women walking around now. Or naked girls rather…’ she lightly chewed on her lower lip. ‘Can’t say I fancy my chances competing with a bunch of fit 18 year olds, but here we are…’
“FINALLY!”
Kawakami flinched slightly at the random student’s cheer.
“Man I’ve been waiting for you to get nude like… forever.”
“Um… okay.” She had no idea how to respond to that.
“Looking great Teach.” Another girl said as she passed, her smirk making the teacher legitimately unsure whether she was teasing or being genuine… or a mixture of both.
“Th-thank you.”
“You staying nude this time?”
“Probably, yes…”
“Ass kickage.”
“Is that a thing kids are saying nowadays?”
“They should be.”
“If you say so…” Kawakami sighed, but couldn’t help but smile a little. She re-straightened her back, and put on her best ‘teacher-face’. “As much as I’d love to answer any questions you may have, I’m on my way to class- as you should be too.”
“Aw man…” A few of the students started grumbling. “I don’t have classes with her for like another week.”
“Tough shit mate, I’m going to hers right now.” Another responded with an extremely smug (and slightly punchable) expression.
“Alright alright.” Kawakami stared at them sternly. “Class. Now.”
“Yeah yeah…” the students responded as the teacher turned away, confidently strutting away.
‘That went better than I thought it would.’ She tried not to let her relief show on her face. ‘Maybe I should have done this a while ago… no I can’t speak too soon, here’s hoping it stays this easy.’
Her thoughts were cut off when she turned the corner and nearly collided with her fellow nudist.
“Woah, sorry Teach, my bad- wasn’t paying attention.”
“No trouble at all Takao-san.”
“Hm? Ah! You finally joined up Teach? Neat.” Something about the way Eiko said it suggested her heart wasn’t really in it, this didn’t escape Kawakami’s notice.
“I expected more of a reaction. You’ve been harassing me to join for ages now.”
“I would say I was ‘harassing’ you…” Eiko pouted. “But yeah, I’m happy you’ve joined us and all, I’ve just got stuff on my mind.”
Kawakami watched her face closely, before smiling sympathetically.
“Is there anything I could help with?”
Eiko looked at her, mildly surprised.
“Huh?”
“I mean…” she shrugged sheepishly. “I’m your teacher, plus I want to do my part for our little support network. Us nudists have to stick together, right?”
Eiko smiled weakly, before furrowing her brow.
“Do you know what’s up with Ren?”
“Amamiya-kun?” Kawakami cleared her throat. “He went back to his hometown due to a sudden family emergency.”
Eiko eyed her suspiciously.
“Right… Nudie prez seems to be taking it pretty hard.”
“Hmm, well I imagine the sudden absence of her boyfriend would be upsetting.”
“Yeah… no kidding.” Eiko watched her teacher fidget nervously. “Well, I guess so long as he’s okay.”
She nodded.
“Yes, you don’t need to worry about him.”
“Hmm…” Eiko sidestepped to walk past Kawakami. “Well I don’t want to be late to class, I’ll have to discuss the nudist life with you another time Teach.”
“Um, yes- thank—” But Eiko had already walked away. Kawakami sighed, then continued onto her own class.
~ ~ ~
Makoto made her way up the stairs to Leblanc’s attic, just passing Sojiro as he was heading out to pick up ingredients. She smiled when she found Ren and Morgana, sat in chairs in front of the TV- watching some banal drama they seemed all too happy to be interrupted during.
“Hello again Ren, Morgana.”
“Sup Queen.” Ren stood and limped over to Makoto to meet her halfway, pulling her into a close hug that she was very happy to reciprocate. “Missed you.”
She laughed.
“Ren I came by yesterday, you really can’t do without me for any period of time, can you?”
“Nope. If it were up to me we’d be together all the time.”
“I love you Ren, but that sounds just a little smothering.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re good.” They reluctantly pulled apart. Makoto looked down at his leg. “Are you sure you’re okay walking on that?”
“It’s nearly better, I should be able to make it to the diet building tomorrow or the day after.”
“We’ll go the day after, just to be safe.” Morgana sat up and spoke authoritatively. “We can’t afford to take any risks at this stage.”
Ren groaned, he hated the fact that he knew that was right and that he couldn’t refute it.
“FIIINE…”
“Don’t complain Ren.” Makoto gently guided him back to his seat before sitting down opposite him on the couch. “You can’t be back in top condition instantly, healing takes time.”
“It doesn’t in the Metaverse.” Ren grumbled, before raising an eyebrow. “Actually would that work? Could we just pop into Mementos, have me chew on a bead or something, and be back in top condition right away?”
“Unfortunately not.” Morgana shook his head. “Metaverse healing magic only heals metaverse injuries. Otherwise Ryuji’s leg would’ve healed the first time I cast dia on him.”
“Well that fucking sucks, there goes my hopes of using cognitive psience or whatever to revolutionize healthcare.”
“It was a nice idea while it lasted.” Makoto chuckled.
“But still, at least once I’m actually in the metaverse persona power should mean I’m at my best when it actually matters.”
“But please, let us know if you do need any more help.”
Ren smirked.
“Don’t worry, I can still look after everyone like usual.”
“Seriously Ren, don’t get cocky… if anything happened to you…”
“I’m sorry Mako. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.” He smiled warmly. “I really am lucky to have—”
Everyone went silent when they heard the sound of the bell from downstairs, worryingly accompanied by the sound of a girl’s panicked voice:
“We really shouldn’t be doing this!”
“I just want to confirm something… They’re not here…”
“We should just leave.”
“They’re probably upstairs.”
“W-wait!”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a worried look, before the latter ran down the stairs to try and cut off the visitors, but they- or at least one of them- was determined to get to them quickly, and ended up meeting her halfway up the stairs.
“Aha! Nudie prez is here, that confirms it.”
“Eiko-san?!”
With Makoto blocking her path, Eiko jumped up just high enough to catch a glimpse of Ren’s room- and more importantly- Ren himself.
“He IS here!”
Just behind Eiko, Makoto spotted an apologetic-looking Hifumi.
“I’m sorry Makoto-san, I ran into her in Shibuya- she was following you. I tried to stop her but…”
“So you did know!” Eiko’s exclamation didn’t sound accusatory so much as it sounded excited, and just a little bit proud.
“I-I mean…”
“Eiko-chan.” Makoto glared at her. “I’m really sorry, but you can’t be here right now.”
“Just let her up…”
“Ren?”
“I mean…” he shrugged “…she’s seen me now, no point trying to keep the secret any longer, is there?”
Makoto’s shoulders dropped, and she begrudgingly let the two girls up into the room.
“Hey Ren.” Eiko waved.
“Good to see you, I guess.”
“Hey cat.”
“I’m not a cat!”
“That ‘meow’ sounded angry.” Eiko tilted her head. “Eh, whatever.”
“Eiko-san, did you really follow me all the way here?”
She nodded.
“Mmhmm.”
“This is definitely crossing some kind of line…”
“I’ve technically done it once before.”
“That doesn’t make it any better!”
“I just wanted to confirm my suspicions, that the whole ‘family emergency’ thing was a lie.” Eiko held her chin with her thumb and forefinger, nodding as if in deep thought.
Makoto glanced at Hifumi, still looking guilty as she shrugged in exasperation.
“I’m sorry Eiko, but for reasons we can’t get into we need to keep the fact that he’s still in Tokyo a secret. It’s not that we don’t trust you, but it’s just the kind of thing where the fewer people know about it- the better.”
“Because he’s a phantom thief, right?”
“Because he’s a—huh?” Makoto’s eyes went wide. “What did you say?”
“Woah shit, was I actually right?” Eiko looked at Ren’s equally shocked face, and Hifumi avoiding eye contact with her. “I am right, aren’t I?”
“N-no, not at all. What makes you think he’s one of them?”
“Why else would you damn-near have a breakdown upon seeing news of the Phantom thieves’ leader’s suicide?”
Makoto started feeling rather foolish.
“Plus he just disappears from school the next day? I can put two and two together to make a bigger number!” Eiko turned to look at Ren curiously. “But for real, you’re the one who took down Kamoshida and all that?”
Ren reluctantly nodded.
“Yeah… we did.”
“Neat.” Eiko started laughing. “Actually thinking about it, they did all that shit with calling cards, and called themselves ‘Phantom Thieves’, that’s exactly your kind of dorky. It all fits.” She froze, and her expression suddenly dropped. “But be real, the principal and Okumura, was that you too?”
“No.” Ren answered immediately. “We don’t kill.”
He and Eiko kept up a staring match for only a few seconds, yet it felt like at least a few minutes.
“Alright, I believe you.”
Ren tried not to look too relieved, and lightly bowed his head.
“Thank you.”
Makoto rested a hand on Eiko’s shoulder.
“Well… I guess you know too now. But trust me when I say you don’t want to get involved. We’ve made some powerful enemies, and we can't risk them finding out that Ren is still alive.”
Eiko scoffed.
“Well I wasn’t gonna tell on ya or anything. I just wanted to make sure you two were okay, y’know?”
“Eiko…” Makoto blushed slightly. “You don’t have to worry about me…”
“For real? My best friend is clearly in a lot of emotional pain and I’m just supposed to ‘not worry about it’? I’ve said this before- but for a smart girl you’re actually pretty dumb.”
“Rude…”
Hifumi breathed a sigh of relief, when she ran into Eiko stalking Makoto, she was worried some drama breaking out was inevitable, so seeing everything go so smoothly and that Ren wasn’t at risk of being exposed was a huge weight off her shoulders.
“So how about you Fumi?”
“M-me?”
“How come you knew? You one of them too?”
“O-oh not at all! I don’t know anything about the phantom thieves beyond the fact that these two are members.”
“Aw that’s lame.” Eiko pouted. “So what gives then?”
“They just helped me out by changing my mother’s heart, and they were the only ones who could have known about my problems with her.”
“Interesting.” Eiko suddenly posed, pointing up to the ceiling. “Detective Takao has solved the mystery!
…
Now what?”
“Hm?”
“I wanted to figure out what was really going on- I did so- now I’m not really sure what to do with this information.”
Ren laughed nervously.
“It’d probably be best for us if you didn’t do anything to be honest.” Ren tried to stand, but visibly winced as he accidentally put too much weight on his bad leg.
“You alright man?”
“F-fine, don’t worry about me Eiko.”
Eiko tutted.
“Everyone just telling me ‘not to worry’ when they’ve clearly got problems.” She stepped towards Ren, forcing herself under his arm. “C’mon, if you’ve got a bad leg or whatever you shouldn’t be standing.” She started carrying him towards his bed.
“Eiko this really isn’t—"
“Would you shut up and let me help you for once?” Under the concerned and watchful eyes of the other nudists and the notcat, Eiko pretty much forced Ren to sit down on his bed before stepping back. “There, now is there anything else I can do? You’re injured right? How bad is it? How did it happen anyway?”
“Th-they're not that bad…” Ren nervously rubbed the back of his head. “And you really don’t need to worry about how they happened.”
“Oh for fucks sake!” Eiko threw her arms up into the air. “No one wants me to worry about anything!”
“Eiko-san…” Makoto reached out to her, but her arm was slapped away.
“You guys made my life so much brighter, is it so wrong for me to want to return the favor?”
“It’s not that, it’s just…”
“Look- I get it. You want to keep secrets- that’s fine, I’m not making that a problem. But I already know he’s here, I already know he’s hurt, I can’t just walk away and pretend everything’s normal anymore. I don’t want to just be shoved aside…” Her arms fell limp to her sides. “You’re all so special to me, I want to be special to you too…”
Makoto stared at her for a few seconds, before taking ahold of her hand.
“Don’t be silly Eiko, you are special. You’re one of my closest friends after all, it’s thanks to you and Ren that I was able to find my true self, and decide what I want to do with my life. You’re very special to me.”
“That… that means a lot for you to say that Nudie prez.”
“We’re not trying to exclude you at all.” Ren smiled at her. “It’s just dangerous to get involved with phantom thief business. We’re sticking to ‘need to know’ only. The only reason Hifumi knows is because I accidentally gave it away by asking for her mother’s name.”
“I feel I should point out—” Hifumi raised her hand. “—that I’m not really ‘involved’ either, I just knew about him being here since I texted him after I heard the news about the suicide.”
Eiko huffed.
“Right… I’m sorry for… I guess acting like it’s some conspiracy to keep me out or whatever.” She looked back to Ren with newfound resolve. “But for real, let me help somehow, even if it’s just nurse duty.”
“Well…”
“How bad is the injury anyway? I can do some first aid.”
“Just bruises and stuff, the cops were… rough- to say the least, but they didn’t break anything.”
“Cops? Yikes.”
“So yeah, it’s mainly just sitting here waiting to heal.”
“Still to get beat up by cops? That’s gotta be scary…” Eiko shuddered. “I’d be having nightmares for sure…”
Ren looked away from everyone bashfully.
“Well, guess there’s nothing for me to do but help keep ya company!”
“Huh?” Makoto’s eyes went wide, causing Eiko to giggle.
“Don’t worry, I mean with you here too, I wasn’t gonna do anything bad.”
“I-I wasn’t worried about that.”
“I don’t mind staying a while too…” Hifumi shyly waved. “But I didn’t bring my shogi set or anything, this was all unplanned.”
“Eh I’m sure we’ll find something to do.” She grinned deviously at Ren. “Lucky you, having a trio of sexy nudists tending to you, huh?”
“I-I guess…?”
“Oh I can only imagine the lewd thoughts playing out in your mind right now.”
“Eiko!”
“Just messing around Nudie prez.” Eiko turned to face the other two girls. “I’m fine leaving that to the two of you, maybe me and Fumi can watch? Again.”
“G-goodness.” Hifumi went bright red at the thought.
Makoto paused a moment and looked at Ren.
“Oh my god you’re actually thinking about it!”
“I’m not!” Makoto barked. “I just paused a second.”
“We wouldn’t mind at all.” Eiko put an arm around Hifumi. “Maybe you could give us virgins a few pointers, eh? Eh?”
“Well I’m n—” Hifumi cut herself off.
“Hm? What was that Fumi-chan?”
“N-nothing…”
Eiko raised a suspicious eyebrow.
“Something you want to share?”
“N-nevermind that Eiko-san.” Makoto butted in, nervous smile on her face. “Maybe we could just watch a movie or something instead?”
“How come you’re getting all defensive now too Nudie prez?”
“I’m not getting defensive! I just see no reason for you to start interrogating Hifumi.”
“Why Mako-chan?” Eiko began to shift to a slightly mocking tone. “Why don’t you want me interrogating Hifumi? Wait, is this about the virginity thing?”
Hifumi avoided eye contact, and remained silent.
“Wait, you’re not a virgin Fumi-chan?”
“I… um… Ren- help?”
“Me? Um…” Ren now tried to avoid Eiko’s inquisitive gaze. He looked around for Morgana- hoping for some excuse for an out- but he was nowhere to be seen. He had excused himself right around the point Eiko started ‘accusing’ Ren of having lewd thoughts (an accusation that was right on the mark, as it happens). “Uh… AH- I heard you got Makoto to tell you about her experience during our… um… show at the culture festival- would you like my side of it to?”
Of course the offer itself intrigued her- but more than that:
“What are you three hiding now? What could be so bad that you’re willing to just give up your public sex show experience just like that?”
Hifumi balled up her fists, digging her nails into her palms, working up the nerve to speak.
“I’m not a virgin, but please- can we please just leave it at that?”
Eiko suddenly looked really concerned.
“Oh… is it… not a pleasant story?” She let out a little gasp. “Don’t tell me you were—”
“NO! No nothing like that, don’t worry. We all gave our consent.”
“Oh thank goodness, you had me worried for a second there… wait- ‘we all’?”
“Um…”
“Not ‘both’, ‘all’? You did it with more than one person?” Realization finally hit Eiko, she froze, a deafening silence fell over the room. “And at the culture festival, you said Ren’s ‘a grower not a shower’… Don’t tell me…”
Ren, Makoto, and Hifumi all held their heads, bracing themselves.
“Holy shit…” Eiko looked between the three of them in sequence, her jaw agape. “You guys made a nudist sandwich…”
The three of them cringed in embarrassment as Eiko’s shocked face slowly but surely shifted to a huge grin.
“You’re even wilder than I thought Nudie Prez…”
Makoto tried her best to fight back her blush and look at Eiko without shame- she didn’t do a very good job.
“Yes… me and Ren experimented with adding a third person…”
“You’re amazing…”
“Um… should I say ‘thank you’?”
Eiko pondered a while, staring at the ceiling a while, before looking back at Makoto.
“Just once?”
“So far.”
“REN! You’re not helping!”
“And you’re cool with it Fumi-chan?”
“Well… um…”
“Was it fun?”
Hifumi couldn’t bring herself to meet Eiko’s eyes, so she screwed her own shut, and forced a tiny nod.
“Hot…” Eiko twirled her side tail around her finger, suddenly forming her own blush to compete with everyone else’s. “Ever think about experimenting by adding a fourth person?”
A beat passed, before everyone lifted their heads again.
“Are… are you serious?”
Eiko twiddled her fingers.
“Is just an idea… if you’re all okay with it…”
Hifumi blinked a few times.
“You want us to be swingers?”
“I mean… that’s one way of putting it, they’re a pretty open couple and we’re… maybe a couple…”
“Why ‘maybe’?” Hifumi tilted her head.
“I mean…” Eiko rubbed back of her head. “Neither of us has explicated said that we are yet… n-not that—I mean, I’d like for us to be but…”
“Huh…” Hifumi gave a weak smile. “I thought we already were, so I’m okay with that.”
“With the couple thing or the foursome?” Ren asked, eliciting a somewhat annoyed glare from Makoto.
“I was talking about the couple thing… but the other idea is… also good.”
Eiko could just about stop herself from jumping up and down in excitement already, she leapt forward and pulled Hifumi in close for a hug.
“Thanks Fumi-chan, I promise you won’t regret it!”
“N-not a problem… um… Koko.”
Makoto and Ren smiled at the scene, it was almost cute enough for them to briefly forget they were really considering a foursome right now…
Almost.
The couple exchanged a glance, each silently asking the other if they were okay with the idea- which implicitly gave away the fact that they themselves were okay with it.
“I-I suppose a foursome really isn’t much of a jump up from a threesome…” Makoto’s voice nearly broke as she spoke, she was having a very hard time hiding her embarrassment and excitement both.
“I mean… I’m not gonna say no.” Ren shrugged, trying to play it casual as if he wasn’t thrilled at the idea of having sex with three hot nudists at once.
Eiko actually was jumping up and down in excitement now. Pumping her fists, her eyes full of fire, she nodded.
“Alright, I know exactly how I wanna do this…”
~ ~ ~
Eiko had no problem taking charge of the event. She ordered Ren to undress and quickly ran downstairs to grab the first bottle she saw. Ren was admittedly quite reluctant to disrobe, not having any objection to them seeing him naked of course- that ship had long since sailed- but he was worried his bruises would still be showing and he’d worry the others- he had made sure not to show Makoto since the interrogation because he didn’t want her feeling any worse than she already did. But much to his relief- while some bruises lingered slightly, his body was in nowhere near as bad of a condition as he had feared. It was enough to make the girls decide there and then that they’ll avoid anything even remotely ‘rough’, but they could safely touch him without any risk of hurting him at least.
Eiko returned with a bottle, and arranged everyone in a circle, ready to spin and let the bottle decide who got the first turn being the focus of the ‘group effort’ as she called it.
The bottle landed on Makoto, and she was immediately filled with equal parts fear and excitement.
“Okay Nudie Prez, lucky you! Get up on the bed and follow my directions. Ren, lie down.”
Ren obeyed without question- already figuring out his role in this- that is: the Queen’s throne- and accepting it whole heartedly. Eiko guided Makoto and sat her down on top of Ren’s face. She let out a cry as Ren wasted no time at all plunging his tongue into her already wet entrance.
“Just signal us if you need to breathe, okay Ren?”
Without slowing down his efforts, Ren gave Eiko a thumbs up and quickly returned his hands to tightly gripping his Queen’s thighs and pulling her down onto his face even harder.
Both Eiko and Hifumi sat back and watched at first, rather taken aback by just how eager he was. However their attention was quickly drawn to significantly lower on his body. Ren was currently living up to his status as a ‘grower’, and getting to see it happen live and in real time was a real treat for the ‘other couple’.
Still- that could wait. It was Makoto’s turn right now. Eiko was the next to join, shamelessly diving forward to take one of Makoto’s nipples into her mouth.
“AAH!”
Eiko’s oral work was much more amateurish than Ren’s, but she made up for it in terms of eagerness. Sucking hard and licking in equal measures, even lightly biting. All of which just made Makoto squirm even more.
“It seems our Phantom Queen is enjoying all this attention.” Hifumi had positioned herself behind Makoto, and was gently gliding her hands up and down Makoto’s torso, stopping to tweak her free nipple. “I suppose you’d like me to lend my efforts as well?”
“Haah… I… AAH!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Hifumi’s fusion of ‘shogi mode’ and her horny brain was complete, god help us all. She leant in close and started chewing on Makoto’s ear.
“AAH! Oh g-god…” Makoto squirmed like her life depended on it, but with the three of them holding her firmly in place she couldn’t get away from their triple-pronged oral assault even if she wanted to.
“Oh?” Eiko pulled away. “I think I managed to get some milk out?”
“Oho?” Hifumi raised a curious eyebrow. “I don’t think she’s pregnant, I suppose she does this with dear Ren-kun often enough to start wet nursing?”
“W-we don’t do it that oft—AAH!” Makoto couldn’t finish her sentence on account of Eiko resuming her assault even more eagerly than before, desperate to see if she could milk her any more. Eiko’s free hand slid down Makoto’s front to pinch her exposed clitoris- even if she accidentally scratched the tip of Ren’s nose in the process, though he didn’t seem bothered by that- causing her to start bucking her hips against her boyfriend’s face.
“How naughty~” Hifumi lightly spanked Makoto’s ass, causing her to buck even harder. “I don’t imagine it’ll be long before the Phantom Queen completely submits, what do you think?”
Makoto could barely make out what was being said over the haze, let alone respond to it. Ren only got better and better every time he put his silver tongue to proper use like this, combine that with Eiko giving both her breasts and pussy her untrained but passionate love, and top that all off with Hifumi gently chewing on her neck. Makoto felt like she was about to lose her mind.
Climax hit, and it hit hard. Even without the bug in Ren’s phone Futaba could hear Makoto’s cry from her room. Ren came close to drowning at one point, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him from letting Makoto ride out this orgasm as long as possible. She continued to violently shake and squirt all over his face until she finally went limp as the other girls gently lowered her onto her back- putting her in just the right position to see Ren’s penis standing tall next to her head, seeing that he enjoyed that nearly as much as she did.
“Holy shit…”
“You’re quite noisy in bed, huh Nudie Prez?”
Makoto blushed lightly, averting her eyes.
“I mean… it was really good…” Her eyes kept drifting back to Ren… or rather a certain part of him. “That looks painful, maybe it should be his turn next?”
“We’ll leave that to fate” Hifumi declared, waving her arm as she stood upright on the bed. “Dear Koko, retrieve the bottle once more!”
Eiko stood and mock curtsied.
“As you wish, Your Majesty.”
Eiko spun the bottle again, letting everyone space out as evenly as they could given that Makoto still struggled to move, and Ren was busy gasping for air after nearly suffocating for the sake of oral- something he absolutely considered “Worth it.”
The bottle landed on Hifumi, and her confident mask started to slip a little.
“O-oh my…”
Eiko’s expression was positively devilish.
“Your turn Fumi-chan~”
“I uh…” She looked at the three of them, looking at her with hunger in their eyes.
“If it’s okay with everyone.” Makoto sat up. “I’d like to try being on the bottom this time~” She genuinely loved the fact that saying that caused Ren to visibly twitch downstairs.
“Uh…” Hifumi shook her head, forcing herself back into character. “Very well, since you’ve been so well behaved I’ll grant you the privilege of serving as the Golden Dragon Queen’s throne! I expect great things from you…”
~ ~ ~
Sojiro entered Leblanc, shopping bags in hand.
“Hm? Did I forget to lock the door again? No wait, Niijima-san is here, it’s fine.”
He rested the bags down on the countertop, opening one up to fish out a six-pack of water bottles and a box of painkillers.
“Poor kid is probably close to running out at this point.”
He could pack away the rest of the shopping in a minute, he thought getting this stuff up to Ren took priority. Packets in hand he made his way up the stairs.
“Hey Kid, I got you some—”
He froze in shock when he saw them. Atop the bed lay Ren on his back, Eiko grinding her crotch against his face as she was deeply kissing Hifumi sat atop his torso. Behind her was Makoto- eagerly bouncing atop Ren’s dick, roughly groping and squeezing Hifumi’s breasts, tweaking her nipples while chewing on her earlobe. The sounds of moaning and wet flesh slapping against flesh filled the room.
Miraculously, no one had noticed the café’s proprietor had entered the room, and so he quietly retraced his steps and headed back downstairs. He’d just focus on packing away the groceries for now, Ren can come get the water and painkillers himself later.
~ ~ ~
The next day Ren managed to make it downstairs for his traditional breakfast curry already waiting for him on the counter. But as soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found Sojiro standing in front of him, bowing deeply.
“There’s nothing left for me to teach you.”
“You’re being a bit weird, Boss…”
Notes:
Porn? In a porn with plot? It's more likely than you think.
Chapter 65: Afterglow
Summary:
The girls overcome an awkward morning commute together
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Not much was said as the three nudists made their way to the train station. This was the first time Makoto had commuted to school alongside Eiko and Hifumi- though the latter would go her own separate way to Kosei once they reached Shibuya of course. They managed to secure seats for themselves on the train from Yongen-Jaya, Makoto briefly glanced at Eiko next to her, and Hifumi just past her. Both girls looked back at her and they exchanged nervous smiles, their faces beginning to glow pink as it wasn’t long before they averted their eyes.
All three desperately wanted to break the awkward silence. They were all happy, ready to face the day with renewed vigor after their very intense night prior. They could definitely consider themselves closer friends than they ever had been prior; but it turns out it was surprisingly difficult to go back to having normal, casual conversations when the taste of their vaginal fluids was still fresh and vivid within in their minds.
“I-I guess it’s good that we didn’t exacerbate his injuries any?” Hifumi was the first to take the leap.
“Y-yeah, glad we didn’t go too far…” Makoto’s blush only intensified as she smiled back at her.
“It did mean we couldn’t do everything he wanted though…”
“I think the three of us actually trampling him would be unwise even at the best of times Koko…”
Eiko shrugged.
“Yeah probably, he seemed happy enough with us just rubbing them against his face and junk anyway.”
Makoto’s brow furrowed.
“Can’t say I really get it, but when he looks so happy it’s hard not to enjoy it too. Still Eiko, having us each take turns being the… ahem- centre of attention was a great idea.”
Eiko laughed, bashfully rubbing the back of her head.
“I mean, it’s a great feeling not many people would get to experience- banging three people at once- I thought it’d be best if we each got to enjoy that rather than just being one of the three people.” She restlessly pulled her sidetail. “Though that was still my first time… I think I may have set the bar too high…”
“Way to put pressure on me Koko…”
“Sorry Fumi-chan. Oh!” Eiko suddenly perked up, her excitement beginning to overcome the awkwardness- a feeling that was slowly spreading to the other girls. “Next time we should bring along toys! So we all get to experience getting triple penetrated!”
“Not so loud Eiko!” Makoto hissed. “We’re still in public!”
“Ah, whoops.”
“Next time?” Hifumi’s eyes went wide. “There’s gonna be a next time?”
“I-I mean…” Eiko curled her toes against the train floor. “I’d like there to be… but only if you’re both cool with it.”
“N-no don’t get me wrong Koko-chan, I’m not against the idea- in fact I quite like it.” The couple turned to Makoto with curious and hopeful looks in their eyes.
“I suppose we could try again sometime… provided Ren’s okay with it too.”
“Oh please- as if he’s gonna say no.” Eiko laughed.
“Though… I think we should limit it to just us four. I don’t want us falling down a slippery slope.”
“That’s fair Mako-chan. We’re all close enough to be sexually open, but we’re not sex crazed. We’re not going down that route.” Eiko grabbed the other girls’ hands and grinned. “It’ll just be a fun little secret between the four of us!”
Hifumi shuffled in her seat slightly.
“I have no objections.”
“I suppose both me and Ren will look forward to it after everything calms down again.”
“Glad to hear it Ms ‘Phantom Queen’.” Eiko snorted. “I’m guessing Fumi-chan gave you that nickname?”
“I thought it was good…” Hifumi pouted.
“It’s perfect, Ms ‘Golden Dragon Queen’.” Eiko was doing a pretty piss poor job of holding back her laughter. “Dorks, the lot of you. Though I’d be lying if I said it didn’t suit you, you both give that kinda vibe.”
Makoto side-eyed nothing in particular.
“I’ve heard Ren call you Queen at least once before, do you call him King? ‘Cuz I’m not sure that suits him.”
Makoto felt bad for laughing, but she nodded.
“I love him dearly, and I certainly don’t consider myself above him at all, but he’s more of a ‘Joker’…”
“Ha, perfect- going for a playing card theme huh? A Joker, two Queens, and whatever the hell I am…” Eiko scratched her head in thought. “I don’t wanna be a ‘Jack’, that’s too masculine, same with ‘King’- obviously.”
“You’re obviously a Queen too, going with the theme.” Hifumi smiled at her.
Eiko became uncharacteristically bashful, looking downwards and shuffling in her seat.
“I dunno, I really don’t have that classy vibe you two have.”
“I don’t think I’m really that ‘classy’, Hifumi’s got me beat on that front.”
“You shouldn’t put yourself down like that Makoto-san, neither should you Koko-chan.”
Eiko’s shoulders sagged slightly.
“I mean… I think I’ve become a pretty cool girl an’ all, but I’ve not got that ‘Lady’ energy like you two.”
Hifumi gently caressed Eiko’s upper back.
“You seem like a very special lady to me.”
Eiko looked at her with an expression of genuine surprise on her face, it took a few seconds for Hifumi to realize what she just said, and her face when bright red as she shrunk in on herself.
“Or well… y’know…” She covered her face in embarrassment. “I just meant that… um… you’re a Queen to me—oh god that’s even worse…”
Eiko was just as red as her, before suddenly bursting into (somewhat forced) laughter and shoving Hifumi before fanning her cheeks.
“You cheesy bitch! How am I supposed to handle it when you go all cute and lovely like that?!”
Makoto chuckled.
“C’mon Eiko-san, how can you be worse at handling real affection than I am?” She smirked. “Maybe I’d still do better on an test of love after all.”
“C’mon Nudie Prez- you still remember that dumb line?” Eiko forced herself to sit upright, really trying to pretend she wasn’t still squirming in embarrassment on the inside. “Alright, well if Hifumi thinks I could be a Queen, I don’t mind playing along. But what kinda title would I have?”
“Title?” Hifumi tilted her head.
“Y’know? You’re the ‘Golden Dragon Queen’, Nudie prez is the ‘Phantom Queen’, what do I got?”
“Do you really need a fancy title?”
“Course I do. It’d be silly with you two having these fancy titles then there’s me just being the boring one.”
Hifumi pondered a while, staring up at the ceiling.
“I suppose… no one’s done more than you to foster the Tokyo Nudist community than you. You could be the one among us to actually embrace that side of things, maybe? Nudist Queen does rather suit you.”
“I like your thinking Fumi-chan, but I really don’t think I deserve that title, it’s wasted on me…” Eiko paused a moment, in deep thought, turning to look at Makoto. “Although…”
“Hm? What is it Eiko-san?”
“Makoto… don’t you think ‘Nudist Queen’ really suits Fumi-chan?”
“Um…”
“M-me?!”
“Fumi is the most royal-looking. Classic Yamato Nadeshiko even without any clothes.”
“But I don’t really do anything Nudism related… besides—” Hifumi twiddled her fingers “—it’s kinda embarrassing to be called that…”
Makoto sighed.
“We’ll put the matter of Eiko’s title on the backburner for now, we’ll be pulling into Shibuya any second now.”
“I guess that’s fair. I guess that means we’ll be taking separate lines to get to school, huh Fumi-chan?”
“Unfortunately so… I do often wish I went to Shujin with the rest of you.”
Eiko wrapped an arm around her new girlfriend’s shoulders, leaning against her.
“I’ll text you later, mmkay?”
Despite her embarrassment, Hifumi mustered the courage to return the gesture.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Makoto really enjoyed seeing the two of them like this, even if she did feel like she was intruding somewhat. Eventually though they did arrive in Shibuya station, and the couple had to reluctantly part to make their way to separate trains to finish their journey, and make the rest of their way to their respective schools.
~ ~ ~
Given Ren’s absence from Shujin, Ryuji had returned to solo workout sessions. Barring an emergency summons for Phantom Thief business, he always spent at least some time afterschool working out. Admittedly not having his best friend present did impact his motivation somewhat, but that was balanced out by his desire not to let said friend and leader down by slacking off. He knew that once Ren had fully healed, they’d be thrust right back into probably the fiercest battle of their lives.
Despite Ren’s reassurances to the contrary, he felt he had let both himself and the team down. Part of the reason they fell for the trap Shido and Akechi had set for them with Okumura was because he had gotten too high on the feeling of being a ‘hero’. His desire to help others was always genuine, seeing injustice in the world pissed him off to no end, and he was thrilled to have gained the power to do something about it. But somewhere along the line, he felt he had lost sight of that. All the praise they were receiving had gone to his head, and he got too absorbed into the childish superhero fantasy they were playing out, forgetting that there were real stakes, real lives at risk. He felt petty worrying about fame.
Granted, going after Okumura was something they always had to do, there’s no way in hell any of the thieves could stomach just leaving Haru to her fate, but still- Ryuji had resolved to never forget the real reason they were doing what they were, to help people, end of. Getting fame would be nice and all, but that was not the goal. He was happy for them to be ‘heroes in the shadows’; even if no one knew who they were or what they were doing, he’d make sure he’d give it his all to help everyone he could.
And to that end, he had to work as hard as he could to stay in top condition, to overcome the limitations of his injury, to strengthen both his body and heart to take down Shido. He had just finished another lap around the school, ordering some water from the school vending machine and sipping it as he leant against the wall, panting.
Not wanting to rest on his laurels too long, he decided to keep moving. Taking the bottle with him, he began to run out to start another lap before crashing into a girl as he turned the corner, knocking her to the ground.
“Oh crap. I’m sorry.” He immediately started helping her up. “You okay?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” She smiled up at him as he pulled her to her feet. “I know you didn’t mean to do that, trust me- I know all about getting tunnel vision while trying to stay fit!”
She eyed him curiously for a moment.
“Have we met before? I feel like we’ve met before.”
“Uhh…” He stared at her a while, clearly giving himself a headache trying to think so hard. “Oh shit I know- Yoshi Kawazawa?”
She couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I think you’re getting a bit mixed up there, but you were kinda close. Kasumi Yoshizawa.”
“Ah right! I knew that, I was just uh… whatever. We had that push-up contest a while back, you were pretty good before uh…” Ryuji trailed off, partly because he didn’t want to bring up a likely painful memory for her, but mostly because she was squinting at him, confused.
“Push-up contest?”
“You don’t remember?”
Kasumi held the side of her head, wincing slightly.
“I… think so?” She suddenly smiled at him. “You were really impressive, you managed so many more than I did.”
“I guess… you were pretty good too though.”
“Oh no no no.” She shook her head. “You showed that I’ve still got a lot of growing to do. I had fun though, I’m really glad you invited me to join you that day.”
Ryuji shrugged.
“It’s cool working out with everyone.”
“Everyone?”
“Hm?”
Kasumi grabbed her head again.
“You sure you’re okay? You didn’t knock your head or whatever when you fell just now, did you? Want me to take you to the nurse?”
Kasumi shook her head.
“No, I’m fine. Just got a bit… light headed for a moment.” An idea struck her. “Hey um… oh dear I’m sorry- I’ve forgotten your name.”
“Ryuji Sakamoto.”
“Right, sorry Sakamoto-senpai.”
“It’s no biggie, we only really met like once…” He glanced skywards. “Maybe twice, if you count Hawaii…”
“But still, you remembered mine… actually no you didn’t.” She giggled. “But you got close enough. Anyway I was wondering- you’re working out right now, right?”
Ryuji nodded.
“Would it be any trouble if I joined you?”
“H-huh? Why?”
“Well I was just hoping for some pointers honestly. I’m still in a rut with my gymnastics, and it just seems to be getting worse lately…”
“I know a bit about how gymnastics competitions work, but you probably know more than me. I go for different kinds of fitness.”
“I wasn’t kidding about tunnel vision, really any alternate views would be valuable to me. You’re clearly pretty fit, so I’m sure you could teach me a thing or two. Plus it’s easier to work harder when you have a partner.”
“I guess that’s true…” Ryuji shrugged, shooting her a friendly smile. “Eh why not? You’re a friend or Ren’s so I’ll help you out.”
Kasumi briefly looked confused, in turn confusing Ryuji, before she shook her head and smiled again.
“Sure, please teach me well Senpai!”
“No worries!”
Kasumi nodded, with a wide smile on her face.
“Pathetic…”
Kasumi paused a moment, looking around at the mostly empty courtyard.
“Who said that?”
“Said what?”
“He’s next in line, is he?”
“That!” Kasumi’s eyes narrowed as she scanned her surroundings more restlessly than before.
“You good?”
“Y-yeah… I’m alright”
“HA! As if…”
Kasumi grit her teeth, but ignored the voice this time, not that it stopped the commentary.
“How long until you discard this ‘Senpai’ too, I wonder?”
“…”
“Little parasite.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Maybe I should take you to the nurse after all.”
“It’s fine Senpai, come on, let’s go. The gym changing rooms are pretty close by, I’ll quickly put on my gym uniform and we can get started.”
Without waiting for a response, Kasumi powerwalked in the direction of the changing rooms, Ryuji scrambling after her.
“Doesn’t matter who it is, you need someone to cling to desperately to feel valid.”
Kasumi sped up her walking pace.
“And like all the others you’ll let him be taken away.”
“S-Sakamoto-san, what do you usually do to warm up?”
“Just a doll…”
“Uh, well I uh…”
“Closing your eyes and covering your ears, hoping the truth goes away. How typical of you, ‘Kasumi’.”
“SHUT UP!” Kasumi screamed at the empty hallway behind them, causing Ryuji to flinch.
“Woah!”
She seethed at the hallway for a moment, her eyes welling up, before suddenly turning to stare at Ryuji as if she just remembered he was there.
“O-oh… that was just… um…”
“Yoshizawa, I don’t know what’s up but even I can tell something is wrong. C-can I do anything?”
“I uh…”
“I mean… you need to talk about it or anything?” He scratched the back of his head. “I’m not smart or whatever, but sometimes talking helps?”
“I… I don’t know what that was…” Kasumi’s anger swiftly gave way to fear. “I don’t understand…” She started clutching her head harder this time, Ryuji reaching out as she fell to her knees.
“Okay that’s it, I’m taking you to the nurse, summin’s up.”
“That’s…” Kasumi suddenly went limp as he loaded her onto his back. “Actually if you could… that’d be best. I’m suddenly feeling really tired, maybe I should lie down.”
“Maybe you’ve been pushing yourself too hard?”
“…Maybe…”
“I’ll try not to shake you too much on the way…”
“Thanks…” Kasumi went silent, listening out for the voice again, but it never manifested again. She exhaled heavily, she still had no idea what that was, but she thought it’d be best if she just forgot about it- so that’s what she’d endeavour to do. “I’m sorry about ruining your work out session Senpai.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just catch up later, you’re good.”
“I’ll make it up to you later…”
“Nah. We’ll just work out together another time. Maybe we’ll bring in some of the others again too, it’ll be fun!”
“The others…” She felt an inexplicable feeling of dread crawl up her back. She simply forced it out of her mind, and went silent again until they made it to the nurse’s office and she fell asleep.
Notes:
It's that time again, time to take another microscopic step forward with the Kasumi subplot that won't pay off for ages.
Chapter 66: Infiltration
Summary:
It turns out being naked really does make things harder sometimes
Chapter Text
“This is a serious problem…” Makoto muttered as she stood alongside her fellow thieves in the mouth of an alley with the Diet building in their sights. “I’m kind of ashamed I didn’t realize until we arrived.”
“Don’t feel bad Mako-chan, we’ve all had a lot on our minds lately.” Haru smiled sympathetically at Makoto- then at Ren, further into the alley, his face partially obscured by his hoodie. “Are you sure—”
“Yes Haru, I’ll be fine.” Ren reply came out a bit harsher than he intended. “Sorry, I’m a little sore but I’ll be fine once we’re in the metaverse, don’t worry.”
“Well if you say so.” Haru relented. “But Makoto’s right, getting close is going to be a problem.”
“I’m sorry everyone…”
“C’mon don’t be like that Makoto.” Ann rested a comforting hand on her back. “It’s hardly your fault, it’s just one of those things.”
Yusuke sighed.
“Our nudism has never really backfired quite like this before…”
“No kidding…” Futaba grumbled as she squatted down beside Ren. “They know who we are after all, but if they just saw a bunch of regular teens hanging around together they wouldn’t think anything of it, but they know there are three nudists among us, and it’s not like we can really hide that- we stand out way too much…”
“We can’t get close…”
“Like, do we even need to get close?” Ryuji shrugged. “We’ve got the keywords, and we were able to do that with your sister’s palace when we were really far away, right?”
Ren tried tapping his phone.
“No good, I guess we could do it with Sae’s palace since we had already been there before.”
Ryuji perked up.
“Oh then it’s easy, we just gotta get in there once, then we can go in from all the way over here next time, right?”
“It’s not often I’ll say this, but good idea Ryuji.” Morgana smirked up at him.
“Dude you could have just said the last part of that.”
“I’m starting to think it’s literally impossible for you two to talk to eachother without being backhanded.”
“Whatever.” Morgana did his best approximation of a shrug. “Joker and the nudists can’t approach, that’d be too risky, so just a couple of us will go in- establish our link to the palace, then we’ll come right back out and pull in everyone.”
“Oo oo! I’ll go!” Haru’s hand shot up as she jumped up and down in place. “I never get to take point, it might be fun!”
“Noir, you understand you won’t be shooting anything under any circumstance while we’re in there, any resistance at all and we’re using a Goho-M and retreating.”
“Of course Mona-chan, what do you take me for?”
“We should probably leave someone behind just to look after the nudists?”
“Huh, what about me Ann? Don’t I count?”
“Ren you’re still injured.”
“I still look scary enough to keep people away, right?”
Futaba sniggered.
“Maybe it’s because we know you, but no- you’re not scary at all.”
“I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing…”
“It’s a good thing Ren.” Makoto smiled in a way she intended to be warm and comforting, but Ren still felt like he was being teased.
“Alright alright. Me, Ryuji-kun and Mona-chan will scout ahead.” Haru decisively nodded.
“You’re leaving Ann behind?” Ren tilted his head. “I don’t wanna sound inadvertently sexist, but wouldn’t leaving Ryuji with us be the better deterrent? No offence Ann, but Ryuji is definitely scarier looking than you.”
“Why are you saying no offense to her? Hell, why am I always the one being insulted?”
“Sorry Ryuji, he’s right.” Ann shrugged. “You better—”
“Too late!” Haru firmly hooked her arm around his and started pulling him in the direction of the Diet building. “Come on Mona-chan, don’t fall behind.”
“But…” Morgana looked back and forth between them and Ann a few times before sighing. “We won’t be long, don’t worry- I’ll keep them in line.” He ran off after Haru and Ryuji.
“This is the exact opposite of a good idea.” Futaba stood upright, straining herself slightly doing so. “We’re sending Ms ‘I love explosions’ and friggin’ Ryuji as our stealthy scout team?”
“I have faith in them. They may have their flaws but I trust them to take this seriously and not let us down.”
Makoto turned to face her boyfriend.
“Do you really mean that Ren?”
“No.”
~ ~ ~
The improvised scout team knew they still couldn’t get too close without arousing suspicion, so rather than simply approaching the front gates, they snuck around the side of the diet building out of sight.
“We should be safe here, you two ready?”
“So uh… what exactly are we doing?”
“What do you mean Bonehead? This was technically your idea.”
“I mean, we’re going in- then what?”
“Then nothing. Then we figure out the topography so we can safely bring in the others from as far away as possible.”
“Right, right. Gotcha…” Ryuji nodded. “Just one question?”
“Dammit Ryuji, we can’t afford to just stand around here.”
“It’ll be quick Mona, I promise.”
“Alright alright, what’s your question?”
“What does ‘topography’ mean?”
Morgana sighed.
“Haru press the damn button…”
“Gladly! I’m going in! Heh, I’ve always wanted to say that.”
Haru tapped a few times on her phone, the codewords had worked, and the trio began to feel the world distort around them. However that wasn’t the feeling that commanded their immediate attention, there was another feeling that bothered them: the feeling- or lack of a feeling- of the ground beneath their feet. Thanks to the time it took for the distorted world to effect them, they got to be the first humans (and cat-like-being) in history to experience a Loony Tunes-style delay to the effects of gravity, seeming to hang midair for a moment before the effects of the real world’s ground was lost and they plunged down in the ocean below.
Ryuji was the first to break back up through the surface of the water.
“THE HELL?!” He looked around in a panic, noticing the huge ship slowly making it’s way past them, a terrifying sight for sure with it being this close to crushing them, but he couldn’t afford to marvel at it now, he desperately scanned his surroundings for the others.
To his great relief, Haru burst out of the water shortly after him, gasping for breath.
“RYUJI-KUN?!”
“You alright?!”
“I… I think so…”
“Where’s Mona?”
The two looked around them in a panic, trying to spot their friend amongst the shifting foam and waves left in the wake of the cruise ship that was leisurely sailing away from them oblivious to their plight. When they saw no sign of him they looked at eachother with fear clear on their face.
“Hold on a second!” Ryuji suddenly dived back under the surface, straining his eyes. He managed to spot Morgana flailing around thankfully not too far away from them. Swimming as fast as his body would allow, he scooped Morgana up and held him against his body before returning to Haru.
Morgana gasped for air as soon as they broke the surface.
“That was awful, this is the beach trip except a million times worse…”
Ryuji reached out with his other arm and grasped Haru’s wrist.
“Alright, hang on to me a sec.” Ryuji closed his eyes, let go of Morgana once he was sure the notcat was firmly clinging to his shirt, he used his now-free hand to reach for his face, focusing on manifesting his mask so he could pull it away. “Seiten Taisei!” His persona appeared behind him, reaching down to pull him and the others out of the ocean, carrying them through the air at high speeds to drop them on the deck of the ship, right at the entrance to the palace.
After letting them down as softly as it could, Seiten Taisei faded back into Ryuji’s heart as he and the others collapsed onto the ground.
“Alright… alright…” Morgana panted. “That was officially the worst experience of my entire life. Thank you Ryuji, you saved me.”
Ryuji rolled onto his back, staring up at the sky. He wanted to respond but just couldn’t find the words to do so- or rather- find the energy to do so.
“I guess…?”
Morgana stood up, only now noticing he was back in his mascot form, confirming that they really were in the metaverse right now. He stood up and stretched, loosening his limbs.
“If we had done that in the real world we’d be suffering from hypothermia right now. I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t bring Ann in, her persona doesn’t handle the cold so well.” He paused when he noticed Haru lying on the ground next to Ryuji, motionless. “Haru?”
He rushed to her side, Ryuji bolting upright as well.
“Is she okay?”
“I’m not sure.” Morgana felt her neck with his paw. “Okay she’s still got a pulse but…”
Ryuji surged forward and pushed him aside, grabbed Haru’s shoulders, shaking her.
“Haru?! Oh god… are you okay Haru?”
“…”
“Dammit she was fine a minute ago. Mona- heal her or something!”
“R-right!” Mona casted diarahan, the cool glow enveloped Haru, but nothing seemed to happen.
“Why didn’t that work?”
“I dunno, try CPR or something!”
“I uh…” Ryuji didn’t know what to do with his hands, looking around as if an answer would suddenly leap out at him. “Uh…” He just fell back on what he saw in movies, and started pressing down on her chest in a rhythm that felt right.
“Skull I don’t think…”
“Well do you know CPR?”
“I… no, no I don’t.”
“Dammit!”
“Her sweater is in the way, you should take it off.”
“The hell perv cat?! I’m not doing that!”
“What are you yelling at me for? I didn’t say anything!”
“Take it off and give her the kiss of life.”
“Dammit Mona!”
“You bonehead you were looking right at me! You know it wasn’t me who said that!”
“If it’s not you then who’s…” Ryuji looked down at Haru laying motionless, and looking at her, it looked like she was holding her breath. “Haru, are you awake already?”
“Tch!” Haru sat up, suddenly smiling. “Wow I’m okay- would you look at that. Thank you so much for saving me Ryuji-kun.”
“Um… yeah, I uh… yeah.”
Haru’s hair- normally the dictionary definition of ‘floof’ (if one owned a dictionary eccentric enough to include such a word) hung down straight clinging to the side of her face. She tucked it behind her ears.
“Not the entrance I was hoping for, but I guess- we did it, we’re here?”
“Seems that way.” Morgana said as he looked at the Diet building. “It still looks pretty normal, if it weren’t for me being like this I wouldn’t blame you for thinking we were still in the real world… I mean, me and literally everything else around us.”
Morgana looked around, the diet building appeared normal from the outside, but outside of the ship they were all now riding on was surrounded by ocean as far as the eye could see, the light from the sunset framing the ruins of tall buildings that dotted the otherwise featureless horizon.
“I’ve never seen distortions quite this extreme before…” Morgana shook his head. “This Shido guy really is something else.”
Haru groaned as she forced herself to her feet, Ryuji trying not to pay too much attention to the way her completely soaked sweater clung to her torso. She experimentally squeezed part of it, and as she expected- the water it had soaked up like a sponge flowed down like a deluge to the deck around her feet.
“This is really uncomfortable… and probably unhealthy this time of year…” She sighed, then began fumbling to remove it.
“Woah Haru!”
“Oh relax.” She smirked at him. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
Morgana turned to face her before just as quickly looking away again.
“Um… Noir?”
“Yes Mona-chan?”
“Do you… usually not wear anything underneath your sweater?”
Haru took her time answering, focusing on wringing out her sweater, or rather- focusing on how Ryuji tried in vain not to stare at her breasts as they gently swayed.
“I usually don’t bother with the top half of my uniform, not as if the school would ever ask to check under the sweater.”
“I guess that makes sense…” Morgana’s shoulders dropped. “Actually no, no it doesn’t, but whatever. A bra though?”
“I’m just more comfortable without one.” She shrugged. “Sue me. Ryuji hold this for a second.”
“Uh…” Ryuji took the sweater that was for all intents and purposes forced into his hands. “What am I supposed to do with this?” He asked while maintaining eye contact- if one was to consider the nipples the ‘eyes’ of the torso.
“I don’t wanna put it back on before this.”
“This?”
“Mona-chan, blow-dry me.”
“E-excuse me?”
“Blow-dry me, your persona does wind stuff, right?”
“Oh, I missed the ‘dry’ the first time, worried me for a second.” Morgana cleared his throat. “Sure, I don’t know how effective this’ll actually be, but it’s better than nothing, I guess?”
“Ryuji-kun, hold the sweater up so it dries too.”
“Uh…”
“Mona-chan, if you would?”
“Right right. Come, Zorro!”
A carefully aimed but rather powerful burst of wind came forth, slamming against the three of them, nearly sending them flying off their feet. They braced themselves and just barely managed to remain standing. After about twenty seconds of this Zorro relented, and the DIY wind tunnel experience came to an end.
Haru’s hair didn’t quite regain its usual luster- but it at least regained some of its volume, even if only as a now frizzy mess. She reached up and fiddled with it.
“Hmm… I’ll just have to fix it tonight I suppose.” She felt her skirt and legs, her tights still felt wet and uncomfortable, but she realized this was probably as good as it was going to get right now.
“Yeah I’m starting to think that wasn’t worth it.” Morgana shook his head. “We should probably just pull out, and start coming up with a plan- no way we can put the others through what we went through.”
“You’re right Mona-chan. Let’s head back. Ryuji- I’ll need my sweater back.”
“A-about that…”
“Ryuji-kun?”
Ryuji scratched the back of his head, looking especially guilty.
Haru’s eyes narrowed.
“Ryuji-kun…”
“I mean, it was a really strong gust of wind.”
“You didn’t…”
He shrunk in on himself.
“Sorry…”
“Did it go overboard?”
Ryuji nodded.
“Of course…” Haru rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “It’s my own fault, I should have known better.”
“You bonehead.” Morgana shot daggers at Ryuji, who just looked more and more guilty.
“Well I can’t go back like this- no legal immunity- plus it’d draw way too much attention. You’re going to have to cover me Ryuji.”
“C-cover you? Me?”
Haru nodded, a tired look in her eyes.
“Of course, Mona can’t do it.”
“R-right? But uh… wouldn’t that draw attention too? And having my hands…”
“Hands?” Haru rolled her eyes, if she were in a better mood she’d laugh right now, but she was just done at this point- and they hadn’t even begun their infiltration. “No Ryuji, I don’t mean cover me with your hands, I mean you give me your shirt.”
“OH! Oh I getcha! Clever!”
Haru and Morgana exchanged a look, before sighing together. Haru held her hand out to Ryuji, who stared at it a few seconds before realizing what he was supposed to do. He took off his blazer and dropped it on the ground, before pulling off his shirt and apprehensively handing it to her- as if scared to get too close. She took the shirt and dropped it over her head. It was plenty long enough, but clearly wasn’t made for someone of her bust size; the “ZOMG!” graphic (which really didn’t suit her aesthetic) being stretched out, combine that with her having just been in freezing cold water and her braless state couldn’t have been more obvious. Still, it would have to do, and though she didn’t say it- Haru had to admit there was something appealing about wearing a boy’s shirt- especially Ryuji’s.
She turned back to Ryuji, putting his blazer back on over his now bare torso, she giggled at him holding it closed, looking so self-conscious.
“Thank you Ryuji-kun.” She smiled at him, making sure to hold her chest out and bounce in place significantly more than was necessary, immensely enjoying his rather pitiful efforts to keep a straight face. “Let’s go back out and meet the others, okay?”
“R-right!” Ryuji fumbled through his pockets and pulled out his phone- thankful that the metaverse waters hadn’t damaged it any, and tapped the app.
~ ~ ~
“What the hell happened in there?” Makoto looked at Haru in shock, her borrowed shirt, her ruined hair, the wet stains on her leggings and shoes.
Ryuji stepped forward, shivering slightly as he held his blazer tightly closed.
“We messed up. Turns out it really is a ship, getting in is gonna be hard…” He shook. “Jesus it’s cold out here, how the hell are you three okay?” He stared at the nudists in awe.
Makoto just sheepishly shrugged.
“I guess we’ve just adapted better? I don’t actually feel that cold yet.”
It was fair to say Ryuji had gained a new level of respect for Makoto and her fellow nudists, even if there was one clear sign that even if she didn’t feel it- she really was cold; or rather- two clear signs sticking prominently out.
“The ship is- as to be expected- surrounded by water.” Morgana had made himself comfortable in Ren’s bag again, trying to stay as warm as possible. “We’ve gonna have to go in from close to the front door otherwise we’re all gonna fall in the ocean.”
“We can’t, not when we have a bunch of nudists with us- no way they won’t notice.”
“Ann’s right…” Ren held his chin in thought, before his face suddenly shifted to his signature Joker smirk. “Alright, I think I have an idea…”
~ ~ ~
A politician- a low level member of the Diet- stretched skywards as he exited the Diet building. One more day of mind-numbing stress was behind him, it was time to head home and briefly try to find ways to forget that his life is slowly ending- as was the typical working adult way of life. Luckily he actually didn’t live too far away, so he could walk home- it was a bit longer than taking the train but he could use the fresh air.
The quickest way home on foot involved cutting through an alleyway. Usually not an advisable course of action at this time in the evening, but there were still enough people milling around that if he called for help, someone would hear- and more importantly- he was tired enough to just not give a shit about his personal safety right now- as was also the typical working adult way of life; if something did go wrong at least he could use it as an excuse to get out of work tomorrow… maybe, one could dream.
Sighing, and loosening his shoulder in his briefcase-holding arm, he turned the corner to pass through the alleyway, only to flinch when he saw it. A group of seven teenagers and a cat, huddled together in a large inflatable raft. A raft they just finished inflating, just sitting there on the concrete ground. One of the teenagers- wearing a hoodie had just pulled out his phone when he noticed the politician. Suddenly they were all staring at him in silence; he stared back baffled, the silence and stillness dragging on for an uncomfortable period of time before the hooded boy finally broke it.
“Can we fucking help you dude?”
“Uh… n-no, don’t mind me…”
The politician awkwardly shuffled around the side of the raft, the back of his suit brushing against the wall as he didn’t want to get too close. None of the teens’ eyes left him for even a moment, even the cat seemed to just glare at him as he passed by. He got around to the other side and rapidly accelerated his walking pace away from the group. Just as he was about to turn the corner he peeked back, flinching when he saw them still watching him carefully. He took off running around the corner and out of sight, he wondered why three of them were naked, not that what he saw would make any more sense if they were clothed. Still, he decided to just not think about it; whatever he saw was probably illegal- it just gave that vibe somehow- but he was off the clock, happy to take the approach of “Not my problem” whenever he could get away with it, as was the typical working adult way of life.
Chapter 67: Cruiseship
Summary:
Some of the infiltration of Shido's palace.
Notes:
A bit of a messy chapter tbh, but another step forward
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“FIST OF JUSTICE!”
The mighty Cerberus that challenged the thieves as soon as they entered the entrance hall had finally fallen (also don’t worry about the fact that it has only one head and feline features, it’s still totally Cerberus- trust me) and swiftly faded away into nothing. Makoto- having landed the finishing blow of their all-out attack- stood over the fading corpse triumphantly, allowing the other thieves to really appreciate her toned muscles down her bare back and behind as she flexed before them.
Ren couldn’t help but chuckle though.
“You’re so cute when you shout that so shamelessly.”
“Huh?” Makoto stared back at him confused for a moment. “W-wait, I did it again, didn’t I?” Her previously powerful and confident pose shrank into a self-conscious ball as she saw not only the rest of the team- but also the numerous masked cognitions watching her with amused looks on their faces.
“Your dedication to ‘justice’ is inspiring Queen, have you perhaps considered theatre?”
“N-no Fox” Makoto’s cheeks started glowing. “Please just forget I did that okay?”
“Now now, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself a little.” Haru giggled.
Ren approached his girlfriend and stroked her hair, it was more patronizing than affectionate though.
“Seems you have your own version of ‘shogi mode’, huh?”
Makoto slapped away his hand, trying to hide her embarrassment with anger; it wasn’t very convincing. She looked around at the cognitions, all in formal wear- much more grounded than the cognitions in Haru’s palace, but still betraying the ‘high class’ nature of the people Shido deemed worthy of joining him aboard this ship sailing through flooded Japan.
“None of them seem at all worried about the shadow we just fought…”
Yusuke’s brow furrowed.
“Why do they not feel any danger after what they just witnessed?”
“It seems they think no harm will come to them because they’re here on Shido’s ship.”
“Rich business and government types thinking they’re separate from the rest of the world and its issues? Gee, never seen that before…” Ren sighed.
“They just seem to think that fight was just entertainment…”
“I guess that makes sense Panther, considering the kind of party we’re at I doubt this is the first show they’ve watched involving naked teenagers and animals…”
“That’s… pretty dark man…”
Makoto sighed.
“Let’s hope you’re just being cynical, but let’s stay focused on the task at hand, alright?”
Morgana nodded.
“She’s right, the palaces have only gotten tougher as we’ve gone on, and Shido’s distortions are way stronger than anything we’ve faced before, who knows what obstacles lie ahead of us in here…”
~ ~ ~
“Y-you can’t be serious…”
“Dead serious I’m afraid Oracle.”
“But… th-there’s no way!”
“Don’t worry, I believe in you.”
“Fuck your belief, Joker! I’m seriously supposed to talk to strangers?”
“We need to gather intel, if we don’t find out how to get into the representative’s chamber we can’t take Shido’s treasure.”
“Can’t we just break in through the door? Or sneak in through an air duct? Beat up every shadow on the ship until they’re forced to open the door?”
“Are all of those things really easier for you than just talking to people?”
Futaba stared at Ren in stunned silence as if he had said the dumbest thing she had ever heard in her life. Her shoulders dropped and she leaned forward, staring directly into his eyes.
“Yes! Yes of course all that stuff is easier! I have to start conversations! With adults! In a formal setting where everyone is judging me! That’s post-game superboss level! You can’t expect me to do this!”
“I understand this is hard, but don’t forget they’re just cognitions, they’re not real.”
“I… I mean I guess- but…”
“Think of this as practice.”
“Practice? Oh god you don’t expect me to do this IRL too, do you? Are you some kind of sadist?! Has all that nudist group sex gone to your head and made you go mad with power?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Ren sighed. “You’re not gonna have to do anything this intense in the real world… probably.”
“I hate this running ‘probably’ gag…”
“Look, if it really is too much for you, you can wait by the safe room until—”
“Cool, I’ll do that then.” Futaba immediately dropped to the floor, squatting and embracing her inner gremlin, grinning up at Ren. “I’ll talk to you guys when you’re done- later!”
Ren stared down at her, trying not to look to disappointed.
“I guess that’s a fair option. The rest of us should be able to handle it. If it’s any consolation I’m actually pretty nervous too.”
“Really?” She lifted her goggles so she could look at him directly. “You actually get it?”
“Well yeah, people who can just strike up conversations with total strangers like it’s nothing are amazing.” He turned to look at the others, Futaba following his gaze. “I know they’re nervous too, but they’re hiding it well.”
“Except maybe Skull…”
Ren stifled a laugh.
“Yeah I’ve never seen someone look more out of place than him, but he’s really trying, I think that’s something to be admired.”
“Yeah… dude’s got balls… or maybe he’s too dumb to feel fear?”
“Now you’re just being mean.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Well… Queen is amazing too.”
“Changing the subject, huh? But yeah, she doesn’t look nervous at all…” They watched Makoto currently interrogating a pair of businessmen, keeping a friendly and cordial expression as best she could, though Ren and Futaba couldn’t help but notice hints of frustration showing on her face; the men didn’t notice though, they weren’t looking at her face.
“It’s a good thing they’re all wearing masks, it means we blend in… sort of…”
“I don’t think Queen blends in anywhere.” Futaba sniggered. “Standing out is just her destiny. Although…”
“Hm?”
“That might be it actually…”
“Oracle?”
Futaba forced herself to her feet, sliding her goggles back into place, smirking at Ren.
“I think I might be able to do this after all!”
“Wow really? You sure? I thought you didn’t want to talk to anyone?”
Futaba took a deep breath to ground herself.
“I mean of course I want to help. I need to avenge Mom after all, and I really would like to be super confident like you guys. It’s just really scary… y’know?”
Ren nodded.
“I do.”
“See! You’re scared and you’re still like ‘yo my dudes, let’s do this shit!’ I wanna be like that!”
“’Yo my dudes’?”
“Queen’s got the secret to confidence figured out.”
“Oh? What do yo— HUH?!”
Futaba started fumbling with her belt, pulling it off and yanking her trousers down to the ground.
“I gotta use the power of Persona!” she grinned while kicking off her boots.
“You’re gonna use Prometheus? How’s that going to help? Actually scratch that- what does getting naked have to do with Persona?” Ren watched her confused as she undressed. That was one thing he had wondered about for a while- her top had been bodypaint since she awoke to her Persona, but he always wanted to know if that paint continued further down her body- turns out it did. The green, partially glowing patterns reached to about midway down her rather skinny thighs; at a glance it looked like she was wearing a somewhat conservative swimsuit, though that illusion was destroyed by her presence of her unkempt bush- which amusingly- was also painted to match.
“Ah you poor, dumb bitch Joker. I mean the actual definition of ‘Persona’, I gotta put on a role, if social anxiety-ridden Futaba can’t handle this, I gotta be someone who can, y’know?”
“Acting? Hmm… that’s actually not a terrible idea but… again- why strip for it?”
Futaba lent with her back against the wall, lifting her now-bare foot up with her and raising her arms above her head in a messy approximation of something she saw on a magazine cover once.
“The classic seduction technique! I gotta embrace my inner discord-mommy and turn them into putty in my hands, then they’ll tell me whatever I wanna hear!” She held onto her mask. “The goggles stay on though, can’t risk them looking at my face… so long as they look at my sexy bod instead, we’re good.”
“This seems like a pretty risky strategy… I mean with your…”
“My what?”
“N-nevermind.”
“No no—” Futaba narrowed her eyes at him- he couldn’t see it because of the goggles, but he could feel it. “Say what you’re gonna say.”
Ren rubbed his face.
“I… I think more people are into your… body type than would be willing to admit it…”
“What’s wrong with my body type?”
“Nothing- I didn’t say anything bad- I wasn’t saying anything bad at all it’s just…”
“Hey I’m less than a year younger than you! Don’t look down on me!”
Ren raised his hands defensively.
“I wasn’t saying anything bad! I’m saying this might work… maybe… but that’s kind of the problem- we really don’t want that to work. These people are the types with enough influence to cover up that kind of scandal, so they might actually try something…”
“I mean- I can count on you guys to jump in if someone does try something, right?”
“Of course- but—”
“Cool. I’mma work my magic then!”
Leaving her boots and trousers on the floor for Ren to pick up, Futaba marched- arms and legs swinging- towards the closest group of passangers.
“I’ve watched plenty of porn- probably all of it actually- I know exactly what people are really into, watch a master of seduction at work.”
She cleared her throat to get their attention. The two men and one woman turned to face her, annoyance and a small amount of curiosity on their faces. She stared at them defiantly for a few seconds, before lifting her arm, and using two fingers to spread her armpit.
“Yo check it out- it’s slightly sweaty. By the way, how do we get into the representatives room?”
Ren facepalmed. The passangers just stared at her, curiosity swiftly shifting to confusion.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Tch, not enough huh?” Futaba brought her arm back down. “Gotta bring out the big guns!”
Supporting herself using the wall, she lifted a foot and wiggled it in the adult’s direction.
“Eh? Eh? Doing it for ya?”
They just ignored her and returned to their conversation.
“What gives? Oh right, right- duh- I forgot.” She cleared her throat. “What are you looking at Step-dad?!”
“Oracle I don’t think this is working.”
“Nah trust me, boomers go wild over stepfamily. Everyone loves incest, but they don’t wanna admit it- thus the stepfamily approach. Look at them- they’re being driven crazy with desire.”
They weren’t. They were getting visibly uncomfortable, and walking away while trying not to look at her.
“Those…” Futaba scanned around, spotting a waiter carrying a plate of champagne glasses. She ran over to him and snatched a glass, shivering as she poured it over her crotch. “EE! That was colder than I thought it’d be.” Still- she didn’t let that slow her down, she ran after the group and cut off their path. Facing away from them, bending over, and bringing her hand to her face in mock shock.
“Oh no! Look how wet I’ve gotten! Now I need information and someone to clean me up~ Oh is there anyone who could possibly help me with both those things at the same time? Joker, give them a handkerchief or something.”
Ren grabbed her and spun her around to face them, but keeping her bent over; he then joined her in bowing.
“We’re very sorry to have bothered you, please enjoy the rest of your cruise.” He scooped up a very unhappy Futaba under his arm and carried her down the hall to the safe room.
“What gives Joker?! You’re the one saying we needed to get information, that fat one was about to crack, I’m sure of it.”
“On second thought- I think the others will be able to gather all the information we need without us.”
“You’re an asshole. I clearly overestimated you, my seduction techniques were too refined for you- that’s all.”
“Yes, I’m sure that’s it.”
“It works online all the time.”
“I’m sure… wait- you haven’t done that before?”
“What? Sent feet and pit pics? Yeah, you can get a lot by sending a couple nudes.”
“Jesus Christ Futaba…”
“Don’t worry- I never said I sent MY nudes- that’d be dumb.”
“I think maybe it’s best we just wait quietly…”
~ ~ ~
The others were able to gather enough information as it happens. The new objective for the thieves was to get a ‘letter of introduction’ from five VIPs scattered around the ship, which would allow them to enter the representatives room and steal Shido’s treasure. While they did find it frustrating that the treasure room was so close to the entrance and yet they’d have to traverse nearly the entire ship from top to bottom anyway- it was at least comforting to have some solid goals to work towards.
They had already gotten one letter from a politician in the restaurant area, and they had found their second target in the pool area.
“That’s him right? The former noble or whatever.”
“That’s him Oracle.” Morgana turned to the rest of the group. “So what’s the plan?”
“Can’t we just beat him up and make him give us a letter?”
“We can’t jump straight to violence Skull…” Makoto sighed. “We don’t want to draw any more attention than we already have.”
“Why not? We always end up just fighting anyway, our initial plans never work- ever. Not one time have we EVER been able to avoid a fight in situations like these.”
“I hate to admit it, but he has a point, we’re pretty shit at this…” Ren huffed. “Except for Haru’s palace- unless you count cognitive Sugimura- we’ve never once done anything stealthy or hustled our way past shadows.”
“We’re actually better at that in the real world.” Ann smiled weakly. “Makoto’s plan to trick Akechi-kun was amazing. But yeah… in palaces we always just end up fighting…”
“So why don’t we skip straight to that? Save us all some time?”
“We’re not doing that Skull, we can’t just give up like that. Let’s at least try talking to him.” Makoto approached the sunbathing noble. “Excuse me Sir?”
The man briefly lifted his sleepy head, at first looking at the others disinterested, and was just about to go back to sunbathing when he suddenly sat bolt upright at the sight of Makoto, lifting his sunglasses to get a better look.
“Hm?”
“I’m very sorry to bother you Sir.”
While getting leered at by old men was a daily occurrence for her, it was usually one she could ignore, she hated having to face it head on like this, having him look at her like a piece of meat. The grin on his face made her feel physically sick; still- she endured.
“Well now… I didn’t realize we had your kind aboard as well, I suppose Mr. Shido always provides, though I’m not sure if it’s wise to just let you wander freely like this.”
She tried to endure anyway. The ‘just beat him up’ plan was rapidly becoming more and more appealing by the second.
“I won’t take up much of your time, but I’ve been wanting to meet with the… great Mr. Shido, and I was hoping I could trouble you for a letter of recommendation?”
“Hmph…” He was barely even pretending to listen to her, instead eyeing her from head-to-toe, but didn’t quite make it back up to her head again, instead shamelessly staring at her nipples, hardened by the cool sea breeze. “I’m not sure what business someone like you could possibly have with him.”
“It would really mean the world to me Sir.”
“Hmm…” He laid back down in his deckchair. “I don’t think I’ll be doing that.”
“But… why not?”
“I certainly approve of him hiring you, but I suggest you stick to whatever entertainment routine you were paid for. You’d do well not to forget your place.”
Makoto’s upper lip twitched in frustration- as did Ren’s, he had almost as hard of a time holding himself back as Makoto did.
“I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood me. I’m not ‘entertainment’, I’m a guest like yourself—”
The man scoffed.
“Oh please. I’m sure wherever you’re from just parading your naked body around is enough to get all the clout you desire, but here what matters most is lineage. I’ve no time for some commoner whore.”
“Okay Skull- we’re going with your plan after all.”
“Hold on.” Ann pulled Makoto back by the hand before she could punch the man in the face. “Gimme a sec, I’m gonna try something.”
“Panther?” Ren approached her, whispering so the noble couldn’t hear- not that he was listening anymore anyway- content to just ignore them all. “What are you gonna do? Need our help?”
“Don’t worry Joker- he’s all about nobility and whatever, I’m just going to pretend to be foreign nobility.”
A small amount of dread made itself known in the pit of Ren’s stomach.
“You’re… going to act?”
“Sure, I’ve been training to be an actress after all.”
“Training?”
“I practice in front of the mirror sometimes.”
“Uh…”
“I’ll just fill the role of British nobility, it’ll be easy.”
“Aren’t your parents from Finland?”
“He’s not gonna know the difference between ‘white girl from England’ and ‘white girl from Finland’.” She winked and smiled confidently. “Trust me on this, I can do a pretty convincing English accent.”
“Accent?” Ren watched her with concern as she approached the noble. “Ann, this isn’t going to be racist, is it?”
“’ALLO GUV’NER!
“Oh god it’s racist… very racist.”
The noble raised his sunglasses again, clearly frustrated.
“Who are you?”
“’Allo Luv! Me name’s Ann Windsor- innit? Sorry about dat bird from earlier, she’s the daugh’er of one o’ me Mum’s maids ya kno’? But she’s also like one of my mates, innit?”
The noble raised an eyebrow.
“A servant? Do you always have your family’s servants dressed like… that?”
“She’s one’na them noodists, always walking about with her bits out.”
“I see… Speaking of which- why are you dressed in that suit?” His eyes drifted down to her red catsuit, while he wasn’t leering quite as overtly as he was with Makoto’s fetish wear- it still made everyone watching deeply uncomfortable.
“This is all the rage back ‘ome. It’s proper pucca.”
“Back home?”
“Back in jolly ol’ England! All us noble lot dress like this.”
“English nobility? You don’t sound noble…”
“I’m not pullin’ ur leg mistah! I’m a proper English bird, me Dad’s the Grand Duke of um… Earlingtonwood…shire, you should come meet ‘im, he’s always down the chippy at this ‘our. He loves ‘im sum fish ‘n’ chips, though I’m more partial for sum gud beans on toast.” She smiled coyly, bringing her finger to her lips. “My favorites are dem tins o’ beans wot with the lil’ sausages in ‘em.”
The noble stared at her, unimpressed.
“You must really think I was born yesterday…”
“Eheheh…”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but I’m no fool. You’re not English nobility at all.”
“Eh…” Ann sweat nervously for a moment, before her shoulders dropped. “You got me…”
“I knew it…”
“I’m actually French nobility… um… oui.”
“What?”
“Je m’appelle Ann Blanchet. I was uh… playing a little bit of ze joke on you, hon hon hon~”
Ren grabbed her arm and forcefully yanked her back, nearly causing her to fall over.
“Ann what the fuck are you doing?”
“Get your filthy hands off of me putain! Or I shall feed you to ze frogs!” She smiled at her own joke. “Zit is irony~”
“Good lord Ann, is it not enough to be racist towards just one country?”
“Idiot! I am ze great mademoiselle Blanchet, zer is nothing racist about being ma tru— self!” Ann paused, her confident expression fading. “Actually things don’t really go well for French nobility, I better drop this one.”
“Is that really the only problem here?”
“I’ll try something else—”
“Oh my god Ann please stop…” But she wasn’t, in fact he could already tell from her hand gestures alone exactly what she was going for next.
“’Eeeyyyyyy! Mama’s lasagne recipe is celebrated by nobility throughout the world!”
Ren’s face was in his hands at this point.
“This is just getting worse…”
“I needa the letter to cooka de perfect pasta for Shido! Mhwa!”
“Ann do you know literally anything about Italy aside from their food?”
“…”
“And sticking random ‘a’s on the end of words?”
“…”
“…”
Her shoulders dropped in shame.
“No…”
“Then we better stop this now, right?”
“Okay… I won’t try Italian again.”
“You shouldn't try any more acce—"
“Ja! I am Ann von O’Laurenscmitt. Daughter of the duke Heivenschivver Von O’Connermeier. Top of the morning to you governor.”
“Why would your father have a different surname? Actually scratch that- this accent is all over the place- are you going for Irish or German right now?”
“It was actually supposed to be Scottish.”
“What part of that was Scottish?!” Ren rubbed his eyes in exasperation, before throwing his arms into the air. “Fine, may as well try to offend everyone equally at this point- what’s next, Spanish?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure about Spain, I end up sounding more like I’m from Mexico.”
“We better not do that one, I don’t think we can get away with it…”
Ann stared at the sky, furrowing her brow in thought.
“I’m running out… South African?”
“Okay we DEFINITELY can’t get away with that one. Let’s just…” He looked past Ann to see an annoyed looking Makoto walking towards them, piece of paper in hand.
“We got the letter.”
“Huh?” Ann turned to confirm Makoto was indeed holding the letter of recommendation, while the rest of the group stood over the noble, curled up- beaten and afraid. “When did you do that?”
“We just beat him up while you were discussing accents or whatever. Forced him to give us a letter that way.” Makoto let out a weary sigh. “We could tell that’s where this was going. You’re right, we never manage to avoid fights…”
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. I just needed time to find the right role.”
“If you say so Panther…” Makoto handed the letter to Ren for safekeeping. “Let’s just get moving.”
“Fine…”
The group wordlessly decided to put this whole encounter behind them, and continue proceeding forward, next up they had to find a TV president apparently hanging out in the entertainment hall. Ren and Makoto led the group, after making sure they were out of earshot of the others, Ren lent over to whisper to his girlfriend.
“Hey Queen?”
“Hm? Something wrong?”
“I want to do something with a fraction of our PT budget, I think it’s a necessary expense, but thought I’d get your permission first?”
“Oh?”
“I wanted to hire a dialect coach for Ann.”
“You’re right, that is a necessary expense.”
Notes:
The views of Ann Takamaki do not necessarily represent the views of Toxanne Inc.
Chapter 68: Yes, winter is a thing
Summary:
A little bit of downtime outside the infiltration.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
(Phantom Thieves group chat)
Makoto: So that’s 4 letters of recommendation down out of 5
Ren: Not bad for day one, huh?
Futaba: All thanks to Sojiro’s curry
Ren: Well excuse the hell out of you, I made those currys
Futaba: Ah that’d explain it then
Ren: Hm?
Futaba: Why they were only 72% percent as good as the real thing, I thought it was just a consequence of us reheating them, but it was because they’re your work
Ren: Screw you
Haru: 72% is pretty good honestly
Yusuke: And oddly specific…
Ann: I get that I’m the one with the fire persona, but being relegated to reheating food is a bit…
Ann: Well it doesn’t do my ego any favors…
Futaba: ‘avin a laugh, innit?
Ren: God don’t start that again…
Ren: That was pure suffering…
Makoto: I was only listening for part of it but… maybe it’d be better to get actual acting training rather than relying on self-teaching techniques Ann?
Ryuji: Or stick to modelling?
Futaba: Or at least roles where you keep your mouth shut
Ann: You’re all just frightened by performance!
Ann: Tell them Yusuke, you see the value in my acting, right?
Yusuke: …
Yusuke: I cannot deny your passion Takamaki-san
Haru: Keep trying your best!
Ren: Morgana says he’s only a little disillusioned
Ren: He’s now yelling at me because that was supposed to be a secret comment to me- not something for me to share in the chat
Ren: Oops…
Ann: You’re all uncultured…
Ren: Though honestly I’m surprised you never tried an American accent during that whole routine
Ann: That’s because I wanted to come across as respectable
Ren: Fair enough…
Makoto: Enough of that
Makoto: I’m happy to go back in tomorrow to finish securing the infiltration route
Makoto: Election day is on the 18th of December, so we have plenty of time but we should get this done sooner rather than later
Ren: Agreed, but we need to be ready for anything, so if anyone needs or wants to take a day to rest before we head back in that’s totally okay
Ryuji: Hell no. I wouldn’t be able to rest anyway, I just wanna get this over with
Ann: Yeah, sooner we finish this, the sooner Ren can come out of hiding and everything can go back to normal
Futaba: I’m in the ‘screw waiting’ camp too. I want to avenge my Mom
Haru: Father too…
Ryuji: And everyone else that bastard has hurt!
Yusuke: If time is the 4th dimension, could a video recording playing back on a screen be considered a 2-dimensional depiction of a 4-dimensional event?
Ren: Seems it’s unanimous. We’ll head back in after school tomorrow
Haru: I’ll make sure to bring the raft again
Makoto: Ren make sure to hold onto Morgana tighter this time, we don’t want him falling in the ocean a second time…
Ryuji: Third actually
Makoto: Oh right. I forgot about you guys scouting ahead.
Futaba: Is no one going to address Inari’s weird question?
Ren: No
Yusuke: Oh…
Makoto: I’ll hold onto Futaba so that she doesn’t fall in
Haru: I’ll hold Futaba-chan!
Haru: Damn, Mako-chan beat me to it…
Haru: If only I wasn’t such a slow typer
Futaba: No offense Haru, but even though you’re nice and soft, I’d feel safer with Makoto looking after me…
Haru: I guess that’s fair, she probably has a stronger grip than me
Futaba: Y-yeah, let’s go with that as a reason!
Ren: Why did you type your own stutter?
Makoto: Everyone make sure to get plenty of rest, tomorrow is going to be another busy day
Ryuji: Yes MOOM
Makoto: I’m not your mother
Makoto: Make sure to stay warm too
Ann: Speaking of staying warm, are you three gonna be okay?
Ann: Winter is here after all
Futaba: I’ll be fine, I never really go outside except for PT shit
Futaba: Inari probably won’t be looking his best though…
Yusuke: On the contrary, I’ve been training myself by never using air conditioning or central heating. It also saves money
Yusuke: Plus I’m still using my thinner summer blanket all year long
Yusuke: Thicker winter ones are too expensive…
Ryuji: This is getting depressing…
Ryuji: Dude after we’re done with Shido I’m just gonna buy you a new blanket
Yusuke: A true modern angel!
Ren: Alright alright. We can’t stay up all night. Listen to your mother and get to bed.
Makoto: Shut up Ren
~ ~ ~
Ann let out a heavy yawn as she stood awaiting her train, a slight shiver shooting through her body. The surging mass of fellow commuters around her went a long way to countering the chill from the winter air starting to set in, but her body was still having a hard time keeping up with the temperature change- granted that was mostly because she was still waking up, yesterday was exhausting.
She was happy to just space out until she got to school, but she noticed her friend approaching her- Makoto always did stand out after all- Ann remembered the days where she was the one always standing out due to being blonde- those were simpler times.
This was a rare case where the two girls met during their commute, Makoto was usually earlier than this- having to tend to her presidential duties before class started, but it seemed she was a little late today. Perhaps that had something to do with the first thing that really caught Ann’s eye- or rather- second or third thing, depending on whether Makoto’s breasts counted for one or two.
“Makoto?”
“Good morning Ann. Are you well?”
“Oh y-yeah, I’m good, little tired but whatever.”
“I see, well if you’re still not feeling well after school then we can postpone the infiltration another day.”
“Nah it should be fine. So uh…”
“Hm?”
“What’s with all that?”
“This? It’s not that unusual, is it?”
Makoto looked down at her scarf, a soft cream color wrapped around her, only a shade or two lighter than her own smooth skin, and matching the woollen bobble hat atop her head. Constrasting with her muted red gloves and brown boots, boots which were rather fluffy on the inside by the looks of it. Of course all of this contrasted even harder against the rest of her body, which remained as bare as ever.
“Wrapping up warm, huh?”
Makoto tucked her hair behind her ear, inadvertently revealing more of her blush.
“I suppose I do look a little silly like this…”
“Yeah… I-I mean- no! Well… kinda yeah- a little.”
Makoto sighed.
“Thought so.”
“But to be honest, it’s not as if it makes you stand out any more than being outright nude…” Ann’s brow furrowed in thought as she scanned Makoto’s scant few items of clothing, though not being able to stop her gaze lingering on Makoto’s very visibly hardened nipples. “Actually… maybe it does… Wait nevermind that- what good does that actually do?”
“Hm?”
“You’re still like 99% exposed, are you actually any warmer?”
Makoto nodded confidently.
“It’s all about protecting the extremities. You lose most of your body heat through your head, so keeping it and my neck protected really goes a long way to making me feel more comfortable. My hands and feet benefit from the protection too.” She self-consciously ran her hand across her torso, secretly enjoying the feeling against her skin. “Of course, the rest of my body still feels the cold, but I’ve built up a strong resistance to the elements, and these measures really make it much more bearable. The cold actually feels kind of nice honestly.”
“I guess that makes some sense…” Ann couldn’t help but feel slightly wimpy, struggling with the cold when she was the one fully clothed. “But it’s gonna get even colder in the new year, what are you gonna do if this isn’t enough?”
“I’ll put on a coat.”
“…”
“…Duh?”
“Wait wait wait…” Ann brought up her right hand, her left rubbing her forehead. “Didn’t you do this big thing where you gave away all your clothes? It was on TV and everything, you said you gave away literally everything in your wardrobe, why do you still have a coat?”
“I don’t keep coats in the wardrobe, I keep them on a hook near the front door…”
“That feels like you’re cheating somehow…”
“Cheating?”
“Nevermind…” Ann managed to tear her eyes away from Makoto’s body and force herself to maintain eye contact with her. “Well if you say you’re warm enough then I guess it’s all fine?”
“We’ll see how things go over the next couple months, but for now at least I’m comfortable. Eiko-san and the other nudists are doing the same thing. We’ve all got our own group chat to discuss things like this.” Makoto chuckled. “Eiko’s ideas were a bit more out-there, she wanted us all huddling together like penguins, but I can’t help but think she has an ulterior motives with that suggestion.”
Ann stopped listening, she made the mistake of trying to imagine herself in that position, and the mental image of a group of nudists huddling up close-and-personal with her sunk it’s claws into her mind with no intention of letting go; one would almost think steam was beginning to radiate off of her.
She shook her head, admonishing herself for fantasizing about something so lewd when she was already emotionally committed to Shiho. Granted- she hadn’t confessed or anything yet, so it’s not as if they were a couple or she was actually being unfaithful, but still- it felt wrong. If she was going to have lewd fantasies about anyone- it should be her… Though thinking that thought was a mistake, since now she was picturing the two of them huddled together naked, hot breath on eachothers’ bare skin, their breasts would accidentally-on-purpose brush against—
“Ann? Ann, you okay?”
“H-huh?!” Ann cleared her throat, regaining her composure. “Y-yes, sorry I spaced out a second there. I guess I’m not fully awake yet huh?”
“Not a morning person?”
“Not really, no. Oh- the train’s here.”
The girls climbed aboard, fighting their way past the frustratingly dense morning crowds. One thing was certain- lack of heat was not a problem in the Tokyo subway system. The ‘huddle together like penguins’ plan was just the default here. Due to being later than usual, Makoto hadn’t been lucky enough to secure a seat today, so she had to put up with being knocked around by the crowd like everyone else. At least her boots would protect her from people accidentally stepping on her toes.
She and Ann stayed close, they both knew their chances were better together. Normally Ren would serve as a deterrent for any would-be groper or the like, but Ann would have to fill his role this morning. She honestly wasn’t sure if she was up to the task; she had run-ins with gropers in the past, thankfully only a couple, and they were usually scared off pretty easily; but having a nudist with her, she couldn’t help but worry they’d attract more, in fact she wondered how Makoto had gone this long without any such encounters.
Knowing she couldn’t leave Makoto surrounded, they positioned themselves so that she was next to the door, while Ann served as something of a shield between her and the rest of Tokyo. This may have stopped the crowd touching the nudist, but it certainly didn’t stop them piling onto the train carriage. The concept of personal space being totally alien apparently. Makoto’s breasts were flattened against the glass- even colder than usual this time of year- giving those still standing on the platform quite a show, many of them eager to snap a few pictures on their phones.
‘I’m getting déjà vu…’ Makoto thought to herself as she tried to reposition herself into a more dignified position, and failed to do so. She had built up a really strong resistance to embarrassment- at least in regards to her nudity- but the amused faces of the public did still annoy her at times like this. ‘Would this train hurry up and move already?’
Ann couldn’t give Makoto the space she needed without pressing herself against the businessman standing behind her- a man who was thankfully just politely trying to ignore them while defending his own few inches of space and hanging onto the handles overhead.
“Sorry Makoto.”
“I-it’s fine Ann, I know what the subway can be like.”
“That’s just my phone, I swear.”
“Wh-what else would it be?”
The two remained awkwardly silent for the rest of the journey. Makoto being thankful that this was marginally less awkward than having Ren unintentionally hotdogging her for the journey, and Ann trying her best to stop this experience reinvigorating the mental image of herself and Shiho from earlier.
~ ~ ~
Hifumi stood on her tip toes, stretching skywards and outwards in the hallway between classes, ignoring her fellow students enjoying the show. She- like most of Tokyo’s nudists- had begun to subconsciously tune out the shutter sounds and camera flashes that would follow them around day to day. Even with all the time that had passed, the rest of Kosei still hadn’t gotten bored with Hifumi and the nudists from the art club. All of them having no shortage of admirers, and indeed would-be suitors. Hifumi had learned to put her foot down and make it clear she was already in a committed relationship; the art club nudists would have had people confessing to them all the time, and they technically did- but unfortunately (or fortunately- depending on your point of view) most of them would be put off by the artists’ diverse- yet equally difficult to approach- personalities.
Speaking of which, Hifumi noticed her acquaintance and fellow nudist Yusuke wandering the halls. Their eyes met, and she was about to greet him before his eyes suddenly turned serious. With great force, passion, and a fierce battle cry- he lifted one knee into the air, and spread his arms outwards and into the air, not for a moment breaking eye contact with the now-slightly-scared Hifumi.
“Togo-san!”
“Y-yes Kitagawa-san?”
“Spirit of the eagle!”
Hifumi stared blankly, her eyes drifting to the at least two dozen other students watching the scene, equally baffled. She looked back at Yusuke, who hadn’t moved an inch, and still stared at her with enormous intensity. She tilted her head in confusion, but he simply called out again.
“Spirit of the eagle!”
“U-um…”
“Now Togo-san!”
“Uh- UUHH…”
“SPIRIT OF THE EAGLE!”
“A—AAH!” She hastily mimicked his pose. “S-spirit of the eagle!”
“YES!” Yusuke returned to a neutral pose, his face showing how absolutely delighted he was. “I knew it.”
And with that, he walked into his next class, leaving Hifumi stood alone, slowly dropping her stance and shrinking in on herself slightly under everyone’s lingering eyes. She tried to walk away as if nothing had happened, though just before she turned the corner she looked back at the door Yusuke had disappeared into.
“Wha… what was that?”
~ ~ ~
“Mornin’ Nudie Prez!” Eiko came within inches of spanking giving Makoto a friendly pat on the rear in greeting before the patented Niijima glare stopped her in her tracks. Eiko lifting up her gloved hand to rub the back of her head as if that was what she planned to do from the beginning.
Makoto let out a weary sigh.
“Good morning Eiko-san.”
“Heheh…” Eiko turned to the other girl. “Morning Ann Taker-Maker.”
“Wha—”
“I hardly know her…” Eiko struggled to keep a straight face.
Ann turned to Makoto confused, but only got a shrug in return.
“Don’t worry about it, none of her jokes make sense.”
“I see…” She turned back to Eiko. “Morning… uh… Eiko-san, right?”
“Ah she remembers me!”
“Kind of hard to forget…” Now that the initial surprise had passed, Ann noticed that Eiko was wearing similar ‘winter gear’ to Makoto. “You nudists are pretty amazing sometimes…”
“Just ‘sometimes’?” Eiko playfully pouted. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off when Makoto surged towards her, a frankly worrying level of excitement on her face.
“Where’d you get that scarf?!” Makoto- briefly forgetting herself- grabbed said scarf and pulled the girl towards her, letting go at the sound of her sudden choke (even if Eiko did ham the sound up a bit). “S-sorry. But is that official Buchimaru-kun merch? Where’d you get it?”
“Heh… you’re cute Nudie Prez.” Eiko immensely enjoyed Makoto’s embarrassed pout. “Yeah it’s official, but I wouldn’t know where to get it nowadays, I’ve had this since I was a kid.”
“But it’s in such good condition.” Makoto was beginning to feel guilty about how beat up her pencil case was.
“Eh I just never used it that much, that’s all.” Eiko began to remove it ready to put it in her shoe locker along with her hat, gloves, and boots; Makoto following suit. “I bet we could find some new merch online if we looked hard enough.”
“Maybe… it’s probably so rare and expensive nowadays though…”
Ann watched the girls as she changed her own shoes. She found it really strange how much of a difference their boots and such made despite not really covering anything. They created such a stark contrast with the rest of their exposed bodies, as if only highlighting their nudity further. She legitimately couldn’t decide whether they looked more naked with or without the accessories.
Eiko was actually wondering something similar. Despite them not covering much ‘important’, something about watching Makoto remove her scarf was strangely erotic. She watched breathlessly as her fellow nudist slid off her boots, exposing her feet covered with the slightest sheen of sweat to the open air, and the freshly-revealed soles falling back down to the floor.
Eiko shook her head.
“Dammit, I think Ren’s rubbing off on me… bastard.”
“What was that Eiko-san?”
“N-nothing Nudie Prez, I was just thinking about looking up to see if there’s any rare Buchi merch we could get. Christmas isn’t too far away after all, you might end up with something spotty in your stocking this year.”
“You don’t have to get me anything Eiko.”
“I always buy things for my friends, I got the money- don’t worry about it.”
“O-oh…” Makoto smiled weakly. “I’ll have to think of something to get you too then…”
And here was the moment Ann made one of the worst mistakes of her life- she asked:
“So what is Buchimaru-kun anyway?”
For the briefest of moments, time seemed to come to an abrupt halt. Then Ann felt a chill down her spine as the two nudists turned to her in perfect sync, grinning at her like a pair of wolves happening upon a lone faun.
“You’re not familiar Ann?”
“U-um… not really, is he from something?”
Ann flinched as she felt Eiko’s arm around her shoulders.
“A childhood classic. Sounds like you missed out on it, that’s unfortunate.”
Ann flinched again when she felt Makoto’s hand on her back. Gentle, and yet somehow worryingly firm.
“We’d both be more than happy to get you up to speed.”
“N-no thank you, I was just curious that’s all. It’s just a cute kid's thing after all.”
“Oh no it’s no trouble at all.” Eiko grinned.
“It’s technically for kids, but there’s a surprising amount of depth to it, it’s definitely something adults can enjoy too.”
“Nudie prez is right- seeing her pencil case made me wanna rewatch it, and it held up better than I thought it would.”
“You’re free for lunch, right Ann?”
“Uh…”
“Perfect! We’ll tell you ALL about Buchimaru’s appeal over lunch, the three of us.”
“Great idea Nudie Prez! I’ve always wanted to introduce someone else to the fandom, but my friends would never bite.”
Makoto blushed slightly.
“Me too. I’m getting a little excited at the idea. Don’t worry Ann, I’m sure you’ll love Buchimaru-kun just as much as us.” Her eyes grew more intense. “No matter how long it takes…”
“You’re gonna understand everything about Buchi’s lasting appeal…”
Ann couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but she felt like she was in danger right now…
~ ~ ~
Days were still long and boring for Ren, cooped up in Leblanc’s attic. Morgana was good company, but there was only so much they could talk about, and only so many DVDs they could borrow from Futaba.
He lay back on his bed, trying to space out until the time came for him to lead the thieves again this evening. Morgana napped on his chest, lightly stirring before lifting his head.
“Didn’t you get some messages earlier?”
“Hm?” Ren pulled out his phone, holding it above his face. “Oh yeah, I forgot I put my phone on silent. I better check ‘em.”
He tapped his phone a few times.
“Hifumi says ‘Is the eagle thing an inside joke?’”
“What eagle thing?”
“No idea.” Ren tapped a few more times. “Eiko-san says ‘I blame you for this’.”
“That sounds vaguely ominous… or ominously vague.”
“Weird.” Tap swipe tap. “Ann sent a bunch of messages.”
“Oh?”
“The first one she’s asking how to tell Makoto that she doesn’t give a shit about Buchimaru-kun without hurting her feelings.”
“Odd. What about her other messages?”
“…”
“Joker?”
“The next message just says ‘help’.”
“Help?”
“The next 36 messages are the same.” Pi pi pi “37 messages…” Pi pi pi “38…”
Notes:
Makoto would look really cute in these "winter clothes".
Also introducing something to love to others is always fun. For you at least, for them... who's to say?
Chapter 69: Crow
Summary:
A confrontation
Notes:
Look it's the funny number! We're at the funny number chapter! This will no doubt overshadow everything else I could possibly do this chapter, but that's okay I was never a good writer to begin with, so hopefully no one will notice xD
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“None of these people know that I was an undesirable child. I wanted people to rely on me… I wanted to be needed…
I devoted myself to my studies, acted as an honor student, and made my name as an ace detective. And thanks to the Nav app and the persona bestowed onto me by the gods… I managed to dispose of any who got in my way.
Though it took me some time to finally do so…
…All that remains is to tell him.”
“Sir, this is a Big Bang Burger.”
“O-oh?” Akechi raised his brow at the cashier in front of him, then at the line behind him watching him confused- but also rather annoyed at having been kept waiting. “Oh I do apologize, sometimes I can really get too absorbed into my own thoughts. A Venus salad with some Saturn fries on the side please. To go.”
The girl behind the counter, corporate-mandated smile plastered on her face, nodded at the boy who had just about regained his composure, before handing him his pre-prepared meal. He shot some apologetic smiles (none of which reached his eyes) at the other patrons and made his way back out into the streets, ignoring the strange looks he got as he continued to muse to himself.
“Still, having that moron out of the picture means there’s one less factor to consider, though if it were up to me we’d be keeping the rest of them under closer surveillance, but what do I know? I suppose we’ll deal with that collection of degenerates and morons soon enough.”
He grumbled as he sat down on a bench in a nearby park, and tossed another fry into his mouth, happy to enjoy a rare moment of peace and a break from pretending to care about other people’s problems.
“For being utter trash, this food is rather enjoyable.”
“Why are you constantly on your phone?!”
Akechi groaned, he had hoped he would be able to enjoy just a tiny slither of solitude while he enjoyed his lunch today, but it seems to was too much to ask, he overheard a couple arguing not too far away from him.
“I want us to enjoy a nice day out for once and all you do is look at your phone!”
Akechi chuckled, mumbling under his breath.
“A married couple by the sounds of it.”
The man looked up from said cellphone, if only to roll his eyes at his partner.
“Of course I’m on my phone, why wouldn’t I be? If I put it away that means I’d have to talk to you.”
Akechi just barely stopped himself from laughing.
“Now this is my kind of guy.” He smirked. “She looked pretty upset, I really hope one of them throws a punch, the disturbance would be almost worth it if I get a real show.”
Alas, he wasn’t so lucky, and the woman instead responded with spitting some well-deserved vitriol at her partner, which was still fairly entertaining in it’s own way, but he would have preferred some peace and tranquility. Akechi gathered the rest of his meal to leave and find somewhere else to eat- and more importantly leave before someone recognized him and he had to play peacekeeper to maintain his public image.
“I can’t imagine why you’d shackle yourself to another like that, especially when all they do is whine, I’d prefer the phone too honestly.” He continued muttering to himself, a common habit to those who spent most of their time alone. “A phone… why is the phone sticking in my mind after that?” He rubbed his forehead. “What was I thinking about? The thieves… an annoying couple… a phone… this is giving me a headache…”
He suddenly froze in his tracks.
“Oh you are kidding me… did they really…”
He threw what was left of his lunch in the trash, and powerwalked in the opposite direction.
“I have to be sure…”
~ ~ ~
Ren stared down at ‘The Cleaner’- as he had been called- from the air duct. The last of five targets they needed to get a letter of recommendation from. He turned to the others- or at least the teammates he could actually see, ventilation shafts aren’t known for being spacious after all.
“Everyone ready?”
“All good to go, Joker.” Makoto nodded, determined expression on her face.
“It’s showtime!”
Ren and Morgana leapt out of the duct, landing on their feet in a battle ready position facing The Cleaner and the three men with him; if only the same could be said for the rest of the team, like I said- air ducts aren’t known for being spacious, so the others didn’t have room to dramatically leap out and instead clumsily crawled and fumbled their way out into the open. Makoto and Ann just about managed to avoid stumbling too much, Haru daintily lowered herself to the ground- quite pleased with herself, Ryuji managed to land on his face while Futaba managed to land on him, but at least Yusuke landed gracefully enough- even if he felt the need to add a hammy ‘ta-daa’ pose to the end of it.
The Cleaner watched them bemused.
“I’ve had some odd hitmen sent my way in the past, but none quite as weird as you guys.”
He reached for his collar and in a single, dramatic gesture pulled away the entire top half of his suit (somehow) to reveal his tattooed shoulders. Ren, like the others, braced himself for combat, but couldn’t help but notice how closely Makoto was staring at the now-shirtless Yakuza, ‘ogling’ was the more apt word. He tried not to think too deeply about it, given her fandoms, she probably just had a tattoo fetish.
“What clan are you guys from?”
“Clan?” Makoto shook her head, returning to her senses. “No, we’re not involved with the Yakuza at all.”
“We just want a letter of introduction to meet Shido.” Ren continued. “How much for one?”
“Hmph.” The Cleaner relaxed slightly, though still notably kept his guard up. “Not for sale.”
“You sure? We’ve got quite a bit of cash from Mementos.”
“From what now?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Pfft. Whatever. Well I’m not giving out letters, so if that’s all you wanted from me you can get lost.”
Makoto sighed.
“I guess that’s to be expected…” She turned to Ren. “So what now?”
“Oh- I know!” Ann had an idea- the very notion filling Ren with dread, though relief came shortly thereafter when she continued. “We’re actually here to pitch a new tattoo design to you!” She gestured towards a confused looking Yusuke. “This guy’s an artist, and a pretty good one at that!”
“Excuse me? I have no intention of designing a simple tattoo.”
“Aw come on Fox, I was thinking something like the thing you did for Queen.”
“The thing I did for Queen?”
“The hell are you kids squabbling about?” The Cleaner barked, causing everyone to jump. Still, Ann managed to continue.
“O-oh um… this guy did a super cool design for her—” Ann gestured towards Makoto, the girl uncomfortable with the attention suddenly shifting to her (though she was already uncomfortable with the way the other men leered at her). “—it was just body paint, but I think something similar would look really good on you!”
Yusuke shook his head.
“But that wasn’t my desig—” He was cut off by a swift elbow to the stomach.
“Trust me on this! Joker, you’ve still got the pictures, right? Show him!”
“The pictures?” Ren looked at her in disbelief, before turning to the The Cleaner and noticing that despite still clearly being annoyed, there was some genuine curiosity in his eyes. He finally looked at Makoto, silently asking for approval.
She sighed.
“Go ahead, the real world version of him won’t remember, it should be fine?”
Ren relented, and pulled out his phone, flicking through his album to find the pictures from the Kosei culture festival. He settled on a very pleasing picture of her from behind, proudly flexing and showing off the whole design all the way down to her butt. Doing his absolute best to hid how nervous he was, he approached The Cleaner and showed him the image.
“HA! Cool design my ass!” He glared at Ann, who was now hiding behind an equally terrified Ryuji. “That’s from Like a Dragon, you think I’ve been living under a rock? I’m not interested in a ‘artist’ who only knows how to copy other people’s works.”
“How dare you?!” Yusuke stepped forward, seemingly without any of the fear everyone else harboured. “I am no mere copycat artist, I merely recreated that piece as a favor. I could produce an original piece on par with that with ease.”
“I thought you weren’t interested in designing a tattoo?” Haru was ignored.
“Hmm…” The Cleaner shamelessly took Ren’s phone out of his hand, and flicked through the other images of Makoto’s bodypaint. “Well I have to admit, you’ve got an eye for detail, I can see talent at least. Changing the kanji to be more feminine is a nice touch.”
He swiped to the next image, before pausing, then bursting into laughter. Ren- not quite having the guts to swipe his phone back just yet- peered over at the phone screen, before sheepishly laughing himself.
“Oh… that one.”
“A friggin’ panda…”
Makoto blushed, she remembered exactly what they were talking about, she bashfully averted the eyes from everyone as The Cleaner laughed.
“That’s not his work…” Ren interjected “That was just me messing around, ignore that.”
“Why would I ignore that? It’s hilarious! You even made the nipples the eyes, I love it.”
Makoto grumbled, red-faced, as The Cleaner showed his ‘friends’ the picture.
“Alright alright, at first I was thinking summin’ like a phoenix, but I want summin’ like this instead.”
“Huh?!” Ren recoiled in shock, barely registering that his phone was handed back to him. “You want Buchi on your chest?”
“Buchi?”
“It’s a kid’s show boss.” One of the other men interjected. “My baby sister used to watch it, ‘s ‘lright…”
Makoto pouted.
“It’s not just for kids…” she mumbled under her breath.
“Whatever.” The Cleaner shrugged, turning back to Ren. “I won’t go for the panda, but I’m thinking maybe my chest could be the face of a powerful ogre!”
“An ogre?”
“Keeping nipples as the eyes of course, I really dig that.”
Ren blinked at him baffled a few times, before shrugging and turning to Yusuke.
“What do you think man? You game for designing an ogre?”
“Not him, you.”
“Excuse me?”
He grinned at Ren.
“You ain’t got the technical talent he has, but you’ve got creativity, you’re an ‘outside-the-box' kinda guy, and clearly if this chick is letting you paint her tits you’ve got some game. I like ya kid.”
“Um… thanks? I guess?”
“I’ll get someone else to actually do the tattoos, but I want you designing them. How about it, kid? How’s that for a career?”
“A career?”
“Like hell I’m just getting one. I still want a phoenix later.”
“Uh…” Ren turned to the others, hoping for a rescue of some kind, but none came, no one could quite think of anything to say. Ren’s shoulders dropped. “Sure, fine, whatever.”
“Joker?!”
“But only if we get that letter!”
“Heh, fine, whatever. You kids wanna fuck with Shido then be my guest.” He snatched away Ren’s phone again and started tapping away, feeling his own phone vibrate in his pocket. “There, got your number, I’ll call you later once you’re done with whatever shit you’re up to.” He tossed the phone back, alongside the letter (Ren just barely managing to catch both of them) before scooping up his discarded suit and walking away. “C’mon boys, we’re outta here.”
The thieves stood in awkward silence as the men left, then rushed towards Ren in a panic once he had disappeared down the hall.
“What the hell man?!”
“Don’t shout Skull.”
“Joker do you realize what just happened? A Yakuza just got your number!” Ann stared at him wide-eyed. “What the hell are we gonna do about that?”
The others shared similar looks of concern, which Ren honestly found funny. He rolled his eyes.
“Guys, seriously? Did you forget we’re in the Metaverse? That wasn’t the real guy. Soon as we erase his palace he’ll disappear too, we’re fine.”
“O-oh…” The others exchanged glances, feeling quite sheepish. “So we’re fine then, we just got the letter without a fight?”
Ren looked down at the letter, still not quite believing it himself.
“Seems like it…” He chuckled, before falling to his knees, raising his arms and crying out in victory. “We finally did it! We finally did something Phantom thief like! Sorta… kinda… whatever- we didn’t just beat them up so I’m counting it!”
Makoto let out a sigh, and gave her boyfriend a tired smile.
“Well I guess he’s at least right about you thinking ‘outside the box’, and any battle we don’t have to fight is a battle we win after all. Let’s get going. After we get out we can start making plans for sending the calling card.”
The others gave their affirmations, and Ren rose back to his feet. The group made their way out of the engine rooms, before suddenly freezing in place.
“Someone’s above us!”
Ren spun around to confirm his suspicions; a figure jumped down from a support beam above them. Akechi had suddenly appeared, and stepped out of the shadows, his mask doing little to hide his intensely disdainful glare towards him.
“Long time no see…”
“Uh…”Ren looked around nervously, confirming that Akechi hadn’t brought anyone else with him. He sheepishly spread his arms out. “Surpriiiiiise~”
“It seems my suspicions were right, to think you were able to deceive me like that. I underestimated you. Color me impressed.”
Ren shrugged.
“Most of the credit goes to Makoto, she’s the smart one.”
Akechi’s gaze shifted over to Makoto, this time he made no effort to hind his disgust at the sight of her.
“I see… I suppose I should have given her more credit as well.”
Makoto stepped forward.
“Akechi-kun, why are you cooperating with someone like Shido? You can see his palace the same as us, his true nature is—”
Akechi scoffed.
“Cooperating? What are you talking about? Just as I was beginning to think a whore like you was intelligent.”
“HEY!” Ren stepped forward. “That’s uncalled for!”
Akechi looked at him in disbelief.
“You two literally had sex on stage in front of your school.”
“Okay it is only slightly called for!”
“Goddammit Ren…” Makoto rubbed her forehead.
Akechi continued.
“I don’t care for Shido, or this country. This is all to make Masayoshi Shido- my father- acknowledge me. Then exact revenge on him.”
“Wait hol’ up.” Futaba raised her hand. “This Lex Luthor-looking bitch we’ve been going after is your dad?”
Akechi nodded.
“A scum-sucking piece of shit who conceived a bastard child then ruined my mother’s life to cover it up. A truly worthless man with whom I share a blood relation with.” Akechi’s face and demeanor remained calm and collected, though his eyes betrayed the intense hatred burning inside of him in this moment. “But of course, might makes right. By the time my mother died he was already a high ranking official, there was nothing I could do… Until the day I learned of the cognitive world.”
His ’calm and collected’ expression swiftly vanished, and his face twisted into a maniacal grin.
“Someone or something gave me this power, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled! In this world of eat or be eaten, I could finally rid the world of scum like him, and anyone else who stood in my way!”
“Alright stop, just stop for a second.” Ren groaned. “Dude, are you a moron?”
“Oh?”
“Your goal is to take down Shido- have you fucking seen what we’re doing? We’re literally the best- hell- the only option for allies you have and you try to kill us? Dude- have you never heard of ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’?”
Akechi burst into crazed laughter.
“Are you serious? You ‘friendship’ types are truly absurd. I’m not interested in changing his heart and making him a good person, I’m interested in letting him reach the apex of his power to then let him know the truth of who I am and finally shove him into a living hell! You really think I’m going to throw away that pleasure so I can work with a group of children playing ‘superhero’ led by a whore and a retard?”
Yusuke shook his head.
“What a warped thought, it’s almost pitiable.”
“You can take your pity and shove it up your ass!”
“Akechi, quit being dumb for a second, you literally couldn’t beat me one on one, as if you stand a chance against all of us.”
“Joker’s right.” Futaba said. “Sounds like you’ve had it rough, but going all babyrage like this isn’t going to do you any good.”
“Every one of us has gone through shit.” Ryuji glared at him. “But you’re the only one throwing a tantrum.”
Ren nodded.
“I do feel for you, you’re carrying some real pain, but you’re taking literally THE WORST POSSIBLE response to it all. Frankly, I hate your guts, but I’m still giving you a chance to take a better path.”
“Oh ain’t you self-righteous?!” Akechi spat at them.
“The idea of cooperating with my father’s killer is truly awful.” Haru held her hand over her chest, steading herself with a deep breath. “I’m holding back some urges even as we speak… but that’s because I know spilling more blood won’t solve anything. We both have a common enemy, and want to reduce the amount of evil in the world, you must see that working together is in both of our interests?”
“All you’re doing is adding to the pain.”
“OH MY GOD SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Akechi gripped the sides of his skull. “Listening to pathetic degenerates like you preach to me… just some trash living in an attic and his precious friends all hand-picked out of society’s septic tank, and you’re all talking down to me?! You know what- fuck Shido! All I want in this moment is to kill you, and prove that I’m better than you!”
Ren sighed.
“I’m sorry dude, but you really are pathetic…”
“Am I now?! Fine! I’ll show you who I really am! Come- LOKI!” An overwhelming surge of red flames and shadows burst forth from beneath Akechi’s feet, and from the blaze emerged a figure- Akechi’s true persona. Akechi’s clothes began to shift, turning darker, his red bird mask shifting to the black mask the thieves had been warned of.
“Then everything—even his appearance was a fake!” Morgana took a battle ready position- the others swiftly following suit as Akechi continued to scream skywards.
“Don’t make me laugh. Justice? Righteous?! Keep that shit to yourselves! You and your teammates piss me off!”
“That bastard.” Ryuji tensed up, bat at the ready. “He’s making himself go psychotic!”
Akechi roared with maniacal laughter.
“Now, let’s see you drop dead one at time, in front of your precious fri—"
BANG
“ARGH! MY LEG!”
“Holy crap Ren! You just shot him in the knee!”
“Course I did, he was going all like ‘rargh I’m gonna kill you’, why would I let him finish?”
“I guess that’s fair…”
“In fact- to be safe—”
BANG
“ARGH! MY OTHER LEG!”
“Golly…”
“It’s fine, it’s metaverse damage, we can heal it later… probably.”
“Probably?”
“If we can’t we’ll call a doctor or something, whatever.”
“You bastards… if you think I’ll let you get away with thi—”
BANG
“ARGH! MY ARM!”
“That’s enough Ren!”
“What? He was reaching for his gun.”
“I know, I’m not saying you were wrong to shoot him, you did a good job, I’m just saying, that’s enough now.”
“Fair enough Queen.”
BANG
“ARGH! My… wait what?”
“REN!”
“Sorry, my finger slipped that time, good thing I missed.”
“Please be more careful. This may be the metaverse, but we need to practice proper trigger discipline.”
“Agreed.”
BOOM
“HOLY SHIT YOU NEARLY BLEW ME TO BITS!”
“HARU!”
“S-sorry, I got excited.”
“Well, at least now we can maybe have a talk with Akechi-kun without him going apeshit.”
BANG
“ARGH! MY ARM AGAIN!”
“REN!”
“It wasn’t me this time!”
“It’s…”
“Wait…”
“Another Akechi?”
“It must be Shido’s cognitive version of Akechi.”
“His cognition of me?”
“Shido only sees him as a puppet.”
“Not a puppet, I am a tool of the great Shido. And he has no need for failures like this one; he was planning to get rid of him after the election anyway, so this simply moves the plan up a li—”
BANG
“Jesus christ!”
“Ren you blew his head off!”
“He was about to kill the real Akechi, why the hell would I just stand here listening to him monologue? Plus he’s just a cognition, y’all need to calm down.”
“You… you saved me?”
“We still need to talk to you Akechi, have you calmed down yet?”
“Bitch you shot me three times!”
“It’s okay, we’re all calm now.”
BANG
“Wh- what the hell was that?!”
“Sorry, I just felt that was the best way to end the bit.”
“ALL THAT WAS YOUR IDEA OF A BIT?!”
Ren put his gun away and approached the wounded Akechi, going so far as to crouch down in front of him.
“Look dude. I see this going one of three ways: option A- we give up and leave you for dead.”
“Tsk.” Akechi hung his head, defeated. “If you were smart you would have done that a long time ago.”
“Quit being dumb man, it doesn’t suit you.”
“We’re certainly not interested in plan A. We don’t kill.”
“I mean it is a little tempting Mako-chan.”
“Ignoring that.” Ren continued. “Option B is you agree to help us take down Shido the right way. Change his heart, make him confess his sins. That’ll fix the problems we want to fix while still giving you the satisfaction for revenge as his life falls apart and he spends the rest of his days making amends. Then afterwards you can probably help Sae make construct a case against him.”
“Sis?”
“I figure if there’s anyone we can trust to handle that part, it’s her.” Ren turned back to Akechi. “There’s no way you’re getting off the hook for all the shit you’ve done, but let’s be real, turning yourself in and cooperating is your best option, it’s the closest thing to a ‘win’ that you’re gonna get.”
“Ugh…”
“And of course, option C is we knock you out right now, carry you out, and unceremoniously toss you into Sae’s lap.” Ren stood back up. “Well, those are your choices, which d’ya fancy?”
Akechi continued to hang his head in silence, he let out a long, deep, heavy sigh.
“I truly despise you, Amamiya…”
“The feeling’s mutual buddy. So c’mon, what’s your choice? I’d rather we leave before—”
Suddenly a group of shadows emerged, approaching from Akechi’s back.
“The hell?!” Ryuji recoiled back. “Where’d they come from?”
“Probably the same place cognitive Akechi did.” Futaba typed away on her persona. “Dammit, I should have been scanning while we were talking.”
“Son of a bitch! Everyone get ready for combat! Mona, prepare a Goho-M!”
“On it Joker!”
“You morons…” Akechi, wincing in pain, forced himself to his feet. “Amamiya-san, can you promise me one thing?”
“Hm?”
“You will change Shido’s heart, right?”
Ren nodded.
“Of course dude.” He chuckled. “Have you been listening at all?”
“You could just say ‘yes’ instead of being annoying about it… but I suppose that would go against your nature, wouldn’t it?”
Ren shrugged.
“You got me.”
In spite of everything, Akechi found himself smiling- however weakly.
“Oh and I’ve made my choice.” He raised his gun. “I pick option A.”
He fired at a control panel, causing heavy bulkheads to come crashing down between him and the others.
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Ren shouted, before banging his fist against the door fruitlessly. “Dammit Akechi for once in your life can you not pick the worst option?!”
“Ha… that would go against my nature.”
“Dammit… I guess you’re right…”
“Goodbye Amamiya-kun. Succeed where I failed, then eat shit and die.”
Ann spun around to Futaba.
“Oracle, can you get the door open?”
Gunshots were heard from the other side, and after a moment of pregnant silence Futaba spoke.
“His signal is… gone…”
Ren stared at the bulkhead for a few seconds more, before suddenly punching it, then spinning around and heading towards the exit.
“C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
“R-right…” Makoto watched as he made his way to the stairs, not checking if the others were following him. She and everyone else swiftly followed behind.
“Hmm…”
“Hm?” Makoto turned to Haru as they walked. “Noir?”
“I wanted him dead…” Haru turned to Makoto and looked her in the eyes. “I still do, but… I know revenge doesn’t fix anything, but I knew that part of me would feel a least a little satisfied if he did die… at least I thought I knew that, but… maybe it’s because of how it happened, but I don’t feel good at all.”
Makoto’s brow furrowed.
“I know what you mean… but I suppose… he made his choice.”
“Right… we did our part…” Haru sighed. “That doesn’t make me feel better either.”
“No.” Ren interrupted, turning to face the others. “Our part isn’t done yet, we still have to change Shido’s heart.” He pondered for a moment. “I can count on all of you to help me do that, right?”
“Of course.”
“Eheheh.” Futaba smiled weakly. “I like it when you sound all leader-like.”
Ren shrugged.
“I have to at least pretend I know what I’m doing now and again, don’t I?”
“Let’s get out of here before any more shadows show up…”
Notes:
Wow, I can't believe Detective Goro Akechi from Persona 5 Royal for the PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch is dead.
Chapter 70: Pain in the ass calling card
Summary:
Preparing for their final heist
(trust me guys, it's totally the last one for realisies, wink wink)
Notes:
So a few chapters back I had a realization, a part I initially planned to skip over (namely them entering Shido's palace for the first time) I realized "Wait a second, how would they actually manage to do that? I gotta explain it" so I did a whole chapter on explaining just that and used it as an excuse for comedy hijinks.
Well this chapter is something very similar to that.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Is this really the best way to do this?”
“Whaddya want Makoto? It’s not like we can just send Shido the calling card in an envelope. It needs to be huge! Something they can’t ignore.”
“I’m in agreement with that part Futaba-chan, but this is taking a lot of prep… costing a fair amount of money… which isn’t really the problem, I’m just worried about us drawing too much attention, there’s gonna be records of us buying all this stuff.”
“We don’t need to worry about a paper trail.”
“Are you sure? We ran into the fake Medjed in the palace; how can we be certain he- or someone like him- isn’t tracking our online purchase history?”
“Nyehehe~” Futaba smirked. “Never underestimate the power of Yhord VPN, protecting our online data, with thousands of servers in dozens of countries across the—”
“Yeah yeah, okay, they won’t know that we’re the one’s buying these outfits, and I suppose since we normally only wear them in the metaverse no one could possibly recognize them…” Makoto held her chin in thought. “With the exception of Ren’s, he’s the only one Shido’s men actually saw in the metaverse.”
“We’re not gonna wear them outside or anywhere people can see us… duh…”
“I’m just trying to figure out any potential problems before they happen. We have to be extremely careful at this stage. It won’t be long until they notice Akechi missing, one wrong move and they’ll move in to arrest all of us.”
“I guess? I mean you’re not wrong, but I’ve already got this shit figured out. I got Inari to draw up the designs, commissioned someone independent who’s not gonna ask any questions or do any digging, paid using a chunk of our PT budget- with Ren’s permission of course.”
“I should hope so. It was no doubt expensive.”
“They weren’t cheap. Of course I thought about asking Haru, but she’s got this whole corporation behind her, we don’t want this purchase on her records either.”
“And we don’t want to take advantage of her just because she’s ‘our rich friend’.”
“Eh.” Futaba shrugged. “That too I guess, if you really want.”
Makoto narrowed her eyes at the younger girl, who ignored her and continued.
“As for Morgana I commissioned a posable doll from someone else, since obviously a costume won’t work for him.”
“Was that really necessary? The whole point of us appearing on camera is to make a show of the fact that our leader is still alive. The rest of us are just kind of there for intimidation purposes; do we really need to include our… our um…”
“Our cat?”
“Futaba! You know that’s offensive to him!”
“You were gonna say it though.”
“I- I wasn’t!”
“You wanted to though, you couldn’t think of what else to call him?”
“W-well… nevermind that, is having him- or something resembling his… figure in shot really necessary?”
Futaba sighed.
“Do you really want to leave him out and give him something to whine about?”
“Hm… good point.” Makoto let out a heavy sigh. “This would be so much easier if recording equipment worked in the metaverse…”
“I know right? But whatever- I’ve already made the purchase anyway, a while ago actually, it- along with the costumes should be arriving today.”
“I suppose that’s good. We can’t afford to waste any time… wait- delivered to you?”
“Of course not, you crazy? We don’t know whose homes they’re watching, they might get suspicious if they saw this big box being dropped off to one of at one of our places.”
“That’s what I was thinking, glad to hear you’ve taken that into account, but in that case- where did you send them?”
“To someone they’re definitely not watching, but we can trust…”
~ ~ ~
“Good morning Ma’am!”
“Oh? I wasn’t expecting a package…” Mitsuyo look down at the box the man handed to her. “Oh, it’s for my daughter? Hm.” She placed the box down in the entrance hallway and lightly bowed to the deliveryman. “Thank you very much.”
She saw the man off as he climbed back into his truck, closed the door and called up the stairs.
“Hifumi! Package for you.”
Sounds of movement could be heard from upstairs as Hifumi exited her room and curiously peered over the banisters, down at the strange cardboard box and her mother staring up at her with a somewhat incredulous look on her face.
“Oh?”
“It’s addressed to you. It’s fine, you can spend your allowance on anything you like, but I hope you’re at least spending responsibly. It’s not very heavy, but something this large must be rather pricey.”
“To me? Are you sure?” Hifumi made her way down the stairs. “I don’t remember ordering anything?”
“Perhaps it’s from a fan then?” Mitsuyo smirked. “Seems they’re warming back up to you already, that’s a relief.”
“Maybe…”
Hifumi crouched down to tear the box open, as neatly as possible- of course. She cautiously opened the lid- bracing herself as if expecting something to violently spring out as some kind of prank. But her fears were for naught, and soon replaced with confusion as she reached in, pulling out a clear plastic bag holding the first item.
“A cat?”
“A rather odd looking doll, if you don’t mind my saying so…”
“You’re not wrong Mother…”
“Is it some kind of mascot?”
“I’m not sure…”
“Maybe it’s from that girl you’ve been hanging out with lately?”
“Eiko-san?”
“If I had to guess it’s related to that panda show- whatever it’s called.” Mitsuyo let out a tired sigh. “You have some strange friends Hifumi.”
“Eheh… yeah… friends…”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you. I could tell the time she came around for dinner, she’s obviously a really close friend.”
Hifumi coyly averted her eyes.
“Mmhmm…”
“What else is in there?”
Hifumi dropped the doll and quickly reached back into the box, happy to accept the swift change of subject.
“Clothes? Rather queer looking ones at that.”
“If this is from a fan they’ve clearly not heard about your new lifestyle. I’ve never seen outfits like those… oh.” Mitsuyo’s brow raised, and she shot her daughter a knowing look “Ah, I see…”
“See what?”
“Hifumi dear, you don’t need to play innocent.”
“Huh?”
“I know I used to be harsh about your little superhero games when playing shogi, but I’m okay with them now.”
“Wait, you think these are for th—”
“It’s okay, I’m not going to judge… even if that one with the spikes is a little questionable- I suppose the rest of the costume must be hidden at the bottom of the box. But so long as you’re happy, then I’m happy for you.”
“This isn’t—”
“You might want to be careful about wearing any of these to actual matches though, you might get some strange looks… stranger than the ones you already get for your usual dress sense.”
“Mother I’m not—” She was cut off by her mother’s hand gently patting her head.
“I told you it’s fine. But you best take this up to your room, I’ll help keep it a secret from your father, okay?”
“I…” Hifumi sighed. “Okay, thank you.” She decided it was best to cut her losses here, rather than risk doubling the awkwardness with her father finding out. She put the clothes and plushie back into the box and carried it up into her room, shutting the door behind her. She sat down on her bed, next to her shogi board she had been using to develop strategies, and stared at the box from across the room.
“I don’t think a fan would have sent me that, my address isn’t public knowledge, and it’s far more substantial than the usual stalker fare…” She reached over to her phone and began texting. “I’ll ask Koko about it…”
~ ~ ~
“…and that why she’s here with me.”
“Sup Nudie Prez? Sup Ren? Sup other people? Nice place by the way rich girl.”
“It's Haru.”
“Nice to meetcha Haru-chan!”
Ren and Makoto shared both a tired look and a weary sigh. Ren addressed the rest of the gathered thieves.
“Don’t worry guys, Hifumi and Eiko both already know about us, I’m not sure having them here at all is the best idea, but we can trust them.”
“I guess they can man the camera?” Morgana shrugged. “Oh can someone translate for me? They can’t understand me.”
“Morgana says you two gotta man the camera.”
“Morgana is the cat, right?”
Morgana grumbled at Eiko’s remark.
“Don’t call him a cat, he’s not a cat. But yeah- he’s the cat.”
Morgana grumbled harder at Futaba’s remark.
“I see.” Eiko shrugged, approaching the camera alongside Hifumi, though their eyes were mostly analyzing Morgana curiously, wondering why he sounded so grumpy, and indeed why everyone seemed to be acting like he was really participating in the conversation. She doubted she’d get a good answer on that front, instead: “So what exactly are we filming here?”
“Calling card.”
“RYUJI!” Ann slapped him around the back of the head. “Don’t just tell them!”
“Man why not? They’re gonna see us record the whole thing anyway, why bother hiding it?”
“I mean you’re not wrong Ryuji…” Ren turned from him to the girls behind the camera. “A lot of what’s about to happen isn’t going to make sense to you guys, but trust me when I say we’re gonna save all of Japan with it.”
“That so?”
“Yup, so just keep the camera focused on us and don’t worry about what’s actually happening. We’ll tell you when to start recording.”
“Okay…” Eiko wasn’t sure what to think exactly, but decided to abide by Ren’s warning, to not ask questions, and just go with whatever was happening. It was worth it to see them all dress up in those outlandish outfits. She turned to Hifumi, her hands balled up into fists, breathing heavily through her nose. “You good Fumi-chan?”
“We’re about to help save Japan! Aren’t you excited?”
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“No, but doesn’t that make it more exciting? Marching onwards into mystery, not knowing what challenges await us, and yet grasping at a new, hopeful future hidden in the murky darkness of uncertainty?”
“If you say so…”
Hifumi stood proudly, arms-folded, with a wide stance.
“Do me proud Thieves! March forward without fear, and enact your own justice!”
The thieves stared blankly for a few moments, not really knowing how to respond aside from an unsure thumbs-up courtesy of Haru, before turning back to their outfits. Well, most of them, others had to prepare in other ways.
“This gonna take much longer Inari? I’m seeing residentsleepers in the chat.”
“Chat?”
“Just a joke… I’m bored, and your brush is tickling my milkers.”
“Calling them milkers is pretty generous.” Ryuji mumbled under his breath
“Huh?! What was that?”
“I didn’t say nuffin…”
“Focus on getting changed please.” Makoto put a stop to any bickering before it started, Morgana fought his urge to get his obligatory ‘bonehead’ comment in.
“My apologies Futaba-san, but I can’t rush this, I’m recreating the patterns from memory after all.” Yusuke paused to analyse her partially painted chest closely. If literally anyone else did this everyone would assume it was just an excuse to ogle Futaba’s nipples, but this was Yusuke we were talking about, so no one thought anything of it. Meanwhile while analysing his work, Yusuke put just as much effort as possible into not ogling Futaba’s nipples too closely. “While leaving a job unfinished isn’t usually something I’d approve of, but considering the circumstances I only need to do as low as your waist, since the rest will be hidden under your pants.”
“Eh? You’re not gonna do the whole thing?”
“In fact sorry to trouble you Futaba, but do you think you could put on the outfit now so I know exactly how low I need to go?”
Futaba pouted, disappointed. While she didn’t want to say it out loud, she was enjoying the feeling of him painting her like this. Yes it did tickle, but it actually turned her on a little too; she was looking forward to him reaching downstairs. Her brain leaped into action, she needed to think of an excuse for him to paint her lower half without giving away the fact that she just wanted to feel the paintbrush against her vulva.
“But I want to feel the paintbrush against my vulva.”
Fuck.
“C-come again?”
“Uhhh….”
Yusuke sighed.
“Nevermind, I’ll just carry on, I remember roughly how far down the pants go.”
“Mmmokay…”
The others tried not to chuckle at their expense (aside from Eiko of course, she was pretty shamelessly snickering while Hifumi tried to silence her while trying not to giggle herself), they were all too preoccupied with trying to put on the real life versions of their thief outfits.
“Friggin’— why the hell do these pants have metal rings on the knees?” Ryuji was hopping around on one leg, trying to get the other through the questionably designed pants in question. “Man it’s so much easier when these just magically appear on us…”
“You think you have it bad, at least your outfit isn’t skintight leather!” Ann clenched her teeth as she stood- in her underwear- trying to force herself into her outfit. “Futaba are you sure you got my measurements right?”
Futaba shrugged- slightly annoying Yusuke as he tried to paint her arm.
“It should be perfect, unless you gained weight in the past week.”
“I HAVE NOT!”
“We’ll understand if you’ve been stress-eating Ann-chan.”
“I said I haven’t Haru! Ugh…” She lay on her back, lifting her legs in the air, having to slide them both down the narrow leather passages simultaneously, one small mercy was that the boots were seperate. “No human being was ever meant to wear this! All the animes make this look so easy, ARGH!” Ann violently flopped around, almost resembling a fish suddenly dropped on dry land, and through much angry yelling and thrashing, miraculously got the lower half of her suit on. “Never in my life has getting dressed been such a pain in the ass…”
“Score one point for the nudists.” Ren chuckled, though looking over at Makoto, it didn’t seem like she was having any easier a time, if anything it was worse. “You okay Mako?”
“No…” Makoto only had the limbs to worry about, but the limbs were the hard part to get on in the first place. And unlike Ann’s outfit, her footwear was built into the outfit, so she couldn’t stand up and properly balance while she was putting them on. In effect- she was putting on leather boots so tall they reached up to her hips, perfectly framing her labia. Something the others usually greatly appreciated, but they couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her right now.
“Need any help?” Ren approached her, having already put his outfit on.
Makoto slumped her shoulders in defeat.
“Actually if you could, that would be really helpful.”
Ren nodded, quickly turning to Haru as he approached his girlfriend.
“Give Ann a hand with her boots.”
“Mm. No problem.” Haru nodded, having the easiest time putting her outfit on out of anyone, and tried not to look too excited about guiding Ann’s slender legs into her own ridiculously tall boots. She had to admit, seeing the panther outfit sans boots was… interesting- it somehow made it seem more fetishy than usual- which was really saying something.
“I’m not hurting you, am I?”
“You’re fine Ren.” Makoto gave him a strained smile. “It’s not painful, just uncomfortable.”
“We should have gotten them in an easier material…”
“I wanted them to feel genuine.” Futaba whined from across the room.
“They feel genuinely awful…” Ann groaned as she slid her arms into the outfit, an action that while not near the level of pain and frustration of getting her legs in, was far from enjoyable. She reached down to pull up the zip, only for it to get repeatedly caught on the front of her panties. “Oh come the fuck on! Really? It’s that tight?!”
“Please don’t shout Ann.”
“It’s fine Mako-chan, I already had the room soundproofed ahead of time.” Haru pumped her fist proudly.
“Well now what?” Ann threw her arms into the air. “Even my friggin’ underwear is too much apparently.”
“Are you sure it’s not the stress-eating?”
“You’re on thin ice Haru…”
“I mean you could… y’know…”
“Could what Ryuji?”
“Well uh… I don’t… y’know…”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“He’s saying you should take your underwear off.”
Morgana’s ears twitched.
Ann wanted to yell at Ryuji, but couldn’t work up the energy, instead settling on a long weary groan.
“No. I know it’s silly to worry about you guys seeing me naked at this point, but I’m still not comfortable with that kind of thing. I guess you’re right though… but no way in hell am I taking this suit off again just to strip down and go through the hell of putting it back on a second time!”
“Hmmm…” Haru pondered, before snapping her fingers. “I got it!” She ran over to a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. A grin growing on her face as panic spread across Ann’s.
“You can’t be serious…”
“It’d save you the trouble of taking the outfit off.”
“Haru I’m gonna need to wear these panties home.”
“Eh, you’ve got tights, you’ll be fine. Hmm…”
“What you ‘hmm’-ing about now?”
“Your bra is definitely going to show if you keep it on.”
“…You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Oh you’ll be fine, I don’t wear a bra unless I have to, and I never have any problems.”
“We don’t wear bras either.” Eiko helpfully added from across the room, raising both her arm and Hifumi’s.
“That’s not the point!” Ann quickly lost the will to fight back after yelling again. “Fine… you better replace these Haru.”
“Mm!” Haru bounced in place excitedly. “I’ll pick out some really nice ones for you!”
“I’ll pick them. If I leave it to you they’ll be cupless and crotchless respectively.”
“Aha, great minds think alike! Now, stay still.” Haru leaned forward, sliding her dainty finger into the waistband of Ann’s panties.
“We’re gonna do it here?!”
“We’ll look the other way while you do it.” Ren said.
“That’s a lie, we definitely won’t.” Futaba added.
“Ugh… whatever, just get it over with…” Ann looked away, wanting to at least spare herself any awkward eye contact with her teammates.
Haru slowly slid the scissors into the panty leg, wanting to savor this experience. She lightly chewed her bottom lip as she waited, building up suspense to the eventual first snip, causing her to visibly shiver.
“Okay I’m doing this myself, you're getting too weird.”
“Let me have this Ann-chan!”
“I… just hurry up!”
Haru repeated the process on the other leg, immensely enjoying the decisive snip, before yanking the panties free.
“Tch… I was hoping for some sort of mark.”
“Of course there isn’t a mark!” Ann’s face was almost as red as her outfit.
“Is it okay if I kee—”
“NO!” Ann snatched her panties back, sliding them into her discarded jacket pocket.
“Aww…”
“Heheh, girl probably wanted to cut them up into smaller pieces and put them in a salad or something.”
“FUTABA YOU ARE NOT HELPING!” Ann snatched the scissors from Haru’s hand, and with three quick snips rendered her bra removeable and unwearable, shoving it into her pockets before Haru could even think of asking for it. “Alright, enough with this stupid show.” She angrily threw the scissors to the floor, reached down to her zipper once more before freezing.
“Ann, your…”
Ann glared at Haru with a mixture of mortification and killing intent.
“Eheh…” Haru took a step back for her own safety. “The on-suite is just over there if you want to shave.”
“Mm.”
“Want me to hel—” Haru was cut off by the glare again. “Sh-shaving cream is in the cupboard, oh- and don’t forget the scissors.”
“Mm…” Ann entered the bathroom without another word- slamming the door shut behind her.
“Ren?”
“Hm? Oh! Sorry.” Watching that whole… thing, made Ren forget he was supposed to be helping Makoto to ‘get dressed’, not that she could blame him, she couldn’t tear her eyes away either.
The thieves silently focused on getting dressed, aside from Haru who was now focusing on setting up the posable Morgana plush and checking the spotlights she had set up were working. Though her eyes kept drifting back to Ann’s jacket… more specifically her pocket hanging enticingly open.
“Don’t even think about it Haru-chan.”
“I wasn’t going to do anything! Honestly Mako-chan, the suspicions you have of me sometimes…”
“Right…”
~ ~ ~
In the previous future, the current present, and the future’s past. Shibuya square in the evening, commuters were making their way home, shopping, readying for a night of revelry, minding their own business. When suddenly all the public screens, which had been broadcasting the news, suddenly corrupted. Being filled with static, before the Phantom Thieves logo materialized in the centre.
“Yo! What is up, everybody?!”
“We are the ones you all know as the Phantom Thieves.”
“And all of us are alive and kickin’.”
The streets leaped to life. Panic, confusion, intrigue. Citizens watched the screen and listen in awe. The voices spoke of the psychotic breakdowns, and the mental shutdowns that had been the cause for much panic, alarm, and controversy over the past year. And what’s more they claimed to know the true culprit behind them.
Meanwhile, Shido loyalists watched on in horror. An executive roars at his subordinates.
“Find out how they’re doing this! Track them down, now!”
“Right away Sir!”
The subordinate types as fast as his fingers will allow.
“Their signal is coming from… what?!”
“What is it?”
“I… it’s impossible Sir!”
“Spit it out!”
“The signal is coming from the United States!”
“How did they—”
“WAIT! They’ve moved! It’s coming from… Italy? No, Russia? Back to Japan? How are they in our network?!”
“What the hell is going on?!”
“Dear God… it can’t be…” the subordinate threw his seat back, letting it crash to the floor as he spun around to face his boss. “Sir, we can’t track them; they’re using Yhord VPN!”
The executive’s fist slams down on his desk with immense force.
“DAMMIT! How can they always be one step ahead? Pull the plug, shut everything down!”
“Sir!”
Screens across Tokyo suddenly go black and silent, a new wave of panic spread through the citizenry as they were denied the reveal of the true culprit.
Meanwhile, a nudist girl sits hunched over in her chair in her dark room, lit only by the light of her computer screen. She smirks.
“LOL JK! BOOP!”
The screens once again leap to life, and with them- the face of Masayoshi Shido is revealed to the world.
“The man behind it all is a current cabinet member, of all things. The Minister of State for Special Missions... Masayoshi Shido!”
“Everything that guy says is a lie! And to prove that... Look!”
The image of the screens changed once more, eight figures stood in a line, silhouetted by a powerful spotlight from behind. Citizens turned to eachother with questions abound. Is this some kind of prank? Are these really the Phantom Thieves? Is what they’re saying true? What kind of outfits are those? Why does one of them look nearly naked? Why do they have a cartoon cat thing with them? How can anyone have that huge of a thigh gap like the girl third from the left?
“Look! As you can see, all of us are alive and kickin'! I'm sure the people investigating us can tell if this is a lie or not. Shido himself will soon confess all the crimes that he's committed. Please look forward to it, everyone!”
“We're not gonna sit back and watch some crook wreck this country just 'cause of his goddamn ego. Ain't that right... Leader?”
The man in the centre of the group stepped forward, partially revealing his masked face. Not enough to fully identify him, but enough for those who already knew his identity to know this was the real thing.
“Yes. Before that happens, we will take this country!”
~ ~ ~
In the previous present, the current past, and the future’s previously. A disused room in Haru’s home, the thieves had just finished recording their calling card, ready for Futaba’s ambitious plan to hijack a nationwide broadcast.
“WOOOOAH!” Hifumi leapt to her feet, and started shadowboxing for some reason. “That was really cool!”
“Heh… thanks.” Ren smiled somewhat bashfully. “Did I deliver my line at the end alright?”
“It was great! I almost want go do the phantoming or whatever it is you do to change his heart myself now!” Hifumi, still pumping her fists in excitement, noticed Eiko out the corner of her eye, snickering at her.
“You’re so adorable Fumi-chan.”
“Oh? Oh um…” Hifumi regained her composure, trying not to blush too much. “Sorry, I got excited…”
“Don’t apologize.” Makoto smiled. “Your excitement makes me feel more confident too.” She reached up to remove her mask, wincing slightly as she did so. “Can’t say I’m a fan of mask glue, especially when the mask itself is this heavy…”
“Same.” Joker removed his own. “I’m glad they stick to our face with magic or whatever in the metaverse.”
“GOD GET ME OUT OF THIS DAMN THING!” Ann cried as she pulled violently at her collar.
“ANN NO! That suit was expensive!” Futaba leapt up to try and stop her.
“It’s also bondage hell! This is the first time I’ve ever wished I was a nudist, just so I wouldn’t have to wear this stupid fetish wear!”
“All the girls are stuck with fetish wear… except Haru, she’s fine.”
“Mine is comfy!”
“Lucky you…”
Haru smiled sweetly.
“You wait there Ann, I’m going to get some lubricant to help you out of that thing.”
“Why do you have lubricant?” But Haru didn’t answer, she had already left the room. Ann simply sighed. “Nevermind, it was a dumb question anyway.”
“So uh…” Eiko approached Makoto and tapped her on her still-spiked shoulder. “I know a lot of this is ‘need-to-know-only’ and whatever, but I need to know- do you really wear that when you’re doing whatever it is Phantom Thieves do?”
Makoto sighed.
“The real thing is more comfortable than this, but yeah, this is my outfit.”
“Heheh. You’re such a slut.”
“Bit rude.”
“Nah nah, I called you a slut, but there was an ‘affectionate’ in parenthesis next to it.”
“If you say so.”
Eiko turned to Ren, scanning his outfit up and down, he rolled his eyes.
“Go on, say it.”
“Say what, Ren?”
“You know what you want to say, so just get it out.”
“I have no idea what you mean~”
“I know you’re going to say it so get it over with.”
“Say what?”
“I’m not playing this game with you, just say what you wanna say.”
“I dunno, should I now?”
“Yes, hurry up.”
“Ren?”
“Yes Eiko?”
“You look like a fucking dork.”
“There it is.” He huffed. “Do I at least get a parenthesis ‘affectionate’ after that?”
“Heheh, sure, if you want.”
Ren grumbled to himself. Makoto discreetly approached him from the side and whispered.
“I still think you look cool.”
“Heh.” Eiko leant between them, punchable smirk on her face. “You’re both massive dorks.”
“I think all your outfits are amazing!”
“Fumi-chan… heh, I guess everyone here is a dork… it’s nice…”
Notes:
Protect your online data from malicious hackers and corrupt government agents with Yhord VPN, use promo code: "ORACLE" for a huge deal on a two year plan plus four bonus months.
Okay but disclaimer just in case- I'm not affiliated with any VPN, this story has no sponsors. Not because I'm above that- I'd totally take the money and shamelessly slip an ad read into a chapter as a gag, you better believe it.
Call me.And yes, I know I already did a 'Yhord VPN' gag a while back, it's called a 'callback' (since 'lazy writing' is such an ugly term)
Chapter Text
“Hey Shido!” Futaba called out to the shadow standing at the head of the hall of representatives, albeit from the safety of hiding behind Ren. The shadow turned to face the thieves. “You a bitch!”
“A bitch!” Haru enthusiastically added.
“Is this really how we’re starting things?” Makoto’s shoulders sagged slightly.
“Of course! This bastard stole Mom’s research and had her killed! Not to mention Noir’s dad!”
“And Akechi.” Ren added.
“Yeah whatever. It’s the Phantom Thieves tradition to tell our target what a bitch they are before we beat them up and take the treasure, so I’m getting it over with quickly. Shido’s a bitch!”
“A bitch!”
“Yeah you said it Noir.”
“Hmph.” Shido’s shadow scoffed. “A bunch of ignorant fools. Sacrifices are inevi—”
“Bitch!” Futaba called out again, though she couldn’t help but cower behind Ren a little when Shido glared at her.
“Sacrifices are inevitable on the path to refor—”
“Bitch!” Haru seems split between vitriol directed at Shido, and really enjoying getting to shout ‘bitch’ over and over.
“…As I was saying…” Shido was getting visibly annoyed, which of course only encouraged everyone to annoy him further.
“Dumbass bitch!” Ryuji was- of course- the next to join in.
“Bitch ass Shido.” Ann was starting to have fun too.
“You reprehensible swine! Do not assail us with the utter twaddle of your pitiable attempts at self-absolution and justification of your all manner of heinous acts! You are but a most lethal poison haphazardly disguising yourself as a cure for a perceived ailment that befalls this country, but lo- it is merely bilge you smear your vision with, manifesting in an abominable worldview to justify your atrocious acts for your wicked pursuit of power at any cost!”
“Woah Fox…” Ryuji scratched his head. “Wazzat supposed to mean exactly?”
“It means ‘You a bitch’!” Futaba cheered.
“Bitch!” Haru hated to admit it, but this was fun.
“Bi-yatch!” And of course Ren couldn’t help but be ‘extra’ about it.
“B-Bitch!” Makoto gave into peer pressure.
“Fine!” Shido spat. “I was a fool to expect rabble like you would even be capable of understanding my works, let alone having the patience to listen. We’ll do it your way, dangerous elements such as yourselves should be disposed of immediately.”
The thieves struggled to maintain their footing as the entire hall around them began to shake. The roof above them opened up as the walls closed in. Thinking fast, Ren pulled Makoto and Morgana close and grappled them to safety, Ryuji flew up behind him with Seiten Taisei- carrying Ann and Haru. They landed on the new plateau as the floor finished closing, finding themselves standing atop what looked like a massive stage.
“Where’s Oracle and Fox?”
“I’m up here!” They heard Futaba’s voice from above, from the inside of Prometheus. From the underside said persona dropped Yusuke, making sure to land with a flourish. “Inari’s just there.”
“Let me make myself clear…” The group turned towards Shido’s voice, unable to help themselves marvelling slightly at the mass of golden human-shape bodies he was currently ascending like a staircase. “Do not think of me as you did my foolish son, who acted so brashly.”
“What the hell is that thing?” Futaba adjusted her goggles as she analysed the mass of golden bodies, coalescing into the form of a colossal lion. Atop of which rode Shido- now clad in full military general gear- surrounded by worshippers holding their arms aloft in reverence. “And here I thought our outfits were overdoing it…”
“This is hardly the weirdest thing we’ve fought in the metaverse.” Ren took a defensive stance. “Might be the most blatant symbolism yet though…”
Ryuji stepped forward, if we was fearful then he was certainly hiding it well.
“Our leader’s gone through shit ‘cause of you. It’s on!”
The lion let out a mighty roar, before glaring back down at the thieves, and notably freezing.
“There is no need for thieves in my mighty country…” Shido looked down his nose at the team. “Only myself and ones who revere me are needed. Now, die!”
With a haughty swing of his arm, Shido commanded the beast to attack… only for silence and stillness to hang over the battlefield.
“What? Attack!”
A whole lot more ‘nothing’ happened. Even the thieves were taken aback, exchanging looks wondering if now was the perfect time to strike, or if this was some kind of trap.
“It’s just… staring at us…”
“Not ‘us’ Queen, I think it’s specifically staring at you…”
“Huh?” Makoto looked back up at the beast, but as much as she’d prefer it not be the case, it’s eyes were locked directly onto her. She took a fearful step back, as she did so she noticed it wasn’t just the beast as a whole, but individual bodies that made up the beast were turning to stare at her. “U-um…”
“What?!” Shido stamped his foot. “Don’t get distracted! Kill them!”
Parts of the beast moved- as if to attempt to follow this order- but were held back from the segments all straining themselves to ogle Makoto, causing the beast to begin to lose shape. Even those that had been ‘worshipping’ Shido were trying their hardest to turn in her direction.
“Nyeheh, I get it…”
“Oracle?”
“Politicians may get a lot of attention, but sexy naked girls should always get more.”
“What are you talking about?” Makoto asked, not taking her eyes off the golden mass for even a moment, expecting it to suddenly surge towards her at any moment.
“This is all based off of Shido’s cognitions, evidently he doesn’t trust ‘the masses’ not to get easily distracted by an exhibitionist like you!” Futaba slapped both hands down on her keyboard, a huge grin on her face. “Alright new plan of attack: The rest of you focus your attacks on the parts that aren’t distracted until it falls apart, Queen- be sexy!”
“Sexy?”
“GO!”
Not letting an opportunity go to waste, Ren led the thieves sans Queen in attacking the lion’s legs. With half the beast preoccupied, it’s coordination fell to near-zero and couldn’t put up much of a fight. Meanwhile Makoto, nervously fidgeted in place. As Ren would be all-too-eager to tell her, being ‘sexy’ was just her default state of being; but now that she had to actively and consciously be sexy, she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
“Uhh…”
“Queen! They’re starting to lose interest!” Futaba cried out. She was right, more of the bodies were noticing the thieves’ offensive (not to mention Shido barking orders at them). “You gotta do more than just stand there!”
“Okay okay… uhh… May I have your attention please?”
“For fuck's sake Queen.”
“Don’t take that tone with me Oracle!”
“What a ‘mom’ thing to say…”
“Give me something to work with!”
“You gotta put on a show they can’t ignore!”
“Wait, you don’t—”
“Go big or go home!” Futaba raised her arms, enjoying this more than she perhaps should. “Try jilling off!”
“You can’t be serious?!”
Ren momentarily paused his attack to peer around the lion’s leg and call over to her.
“’Jill off’ means to masturbate!”
“I figured that much out, but you can’t honestly expect me to do that now, can you?!”
“I thought you liked this kind of thing.”
“There’s such a thing as a time and a place Oracle!”
“Yeah, and the answers are ‘now’ and ‘here’ respectively. Come on this is the metaverse, remember? No one here is ‘real’.”
“You guys are here!”
“It’s not like this would be the first time we’ve seen you petting the clam.”
“Ugh…” Makoto cringed at the memory. “Please don’t remind me…”
“’Petting the clam’ mean—”
“SHUT UP JOKER!”
Ryuji let out a cry of pain as the beast's tail struck his torso, sending him flying into the wall.
“Skull!” Makoto called out.
Ryuji managed to return to his feet, trying to signal that he was okay, but visibly winced as he did so. Morgana rushed to heal him, but it was clear the fight was at risk of swinging back in Shido’s favor.
“Dammit…” Makoto clenched her teeth and her fists in frustration, fighting back the powerful blush forming on her face. “Dammit FINE! Enjoy the show you golden freaks!”
Makoto’s outburst re-asserted the waning attention of the bodies already watching, and drew the attention of those that had been focused on maintaining the beast’s form. Closing her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at them, Makoto widened her stance, opening her legs, and sliding her hand down her front. She let her middle finger glide up and down her slit.
“Of all the strategies…”
“All right Queen! It’s working” Futaba watched with glee as nearly half of the collective making up the beast seemingly forgot about the fight, and instead fought to get the best possible view of the masturbating teenager. She chuckled, it was hard to tell for sure in the heaving mass, but she swore she even spotted a few tap eachother on the shoulder to join the peep show. “They’re eating it up!”
“I-I could do without the commentary…” Makoto kept rubbing herself with her left hand, massaging one of her breasts with the right. “I swear, you guys b-better make this count!”
Thankfully the rest of the team were actually focusing on the fight, not letting the ‘show’ distract them, it was hard to be horny when you were fighting for your life after all. Even with half the lion’s body effectively paralyzed and threatening to fall apart, it could still seriously injure them if they weren’t careful.
“Come on Queen, put some back into it!”
“It’s kind of hard to get in the right mood…”
“Come on, shouldn’t this be an exhibitionist’s preferred method of fighting?”
“The hell it is!” Much of Makoto’s frustration was being channelled into her attempted masturbation show. “Even at my worst this is not the kind of situation that would turn me on!”
“Hmm… I guess the importance of the fight is a bit of a boner killer… You’re not even getting wet.”
“H-huh?!” Makoto’s eyes went wide as her hands stopped rubbing and shifted to covering herself. “How can you tell from up there? Don’t tell me you have cameras?”
“I have remote viewing capabilities, but don’t worry, I can’t record you in the metaverse… unfortunately.”
“’Unfortunately’ my ass!” Makoto went back to what could only be described as ‘rage-wanking’. “When we get out of here Oracle, you and I are going to have words!”
“Eheheh…”
Thankfully, Makoto’s reluctant efforts kept gaining more attention, and before long bodies began to slip out of the collective in their efforts to get a closer view, falling lifelessly to the ground. Pair that with the damage the other thieves had done, and what was left of the beast began to collapsed under it’s own weight. Shido’s throne clattered to the floor, the shadow himself barely managing to stay on his feet.
“USELESS, IGNORANT MASSES!”
Still bright red and furious, Makoto avoided eye contact with her teammates, who were all merciful enough to not say anything and carry on as if nothing had happened. Shido was less gracious.
“Unbeliveable. Degenerates like you are exactly the type of scum that need to be purged so MY country can function.”
“Oh would you shove it up your ass?” Ren stepped forward. “If you had actual leadership skills your ‘loyal masses’ wouldn’t ditch you the moment someone more interesting showed up like that.”
“Hmm…” Shido eyed Ren curiously. “So, you’re the one unifying them…”
“A touching reunion, isn’t it?” Ann taunted him.
“The next time you crush a foe, I suggest you do it in a more certain manner.” Yusuke added.
“Not that they’ll be a next time!” Futaba descended from Prometheus and landed next to Ren.
“Hm?” Shido continued to scan Ren. “Who are you exactly?”
“Long time no see…” Ren smirked, reaching up to remove his mask. “Remember me?”
“…No.”
“Oh yeah?” Ryuji scowled at him. “Our leader’s the guy whose life you ruined!”
“…You’re going to have to be waay more specific.”
“You set him up to take the fall for your crime!”
“…Again… more specific.”
“The hell? He stopped you from assaulting that woman, and you took him to court on a bogus assault charge!”
“…Was this… recently?” Shido shook his head. “Whatever, regardless I don’t care.”
“Hmph, that much is clear…” Ren chuckled, taking another step forward. “But hey man, I just wanted to say… thank you.”
“Joker?”
Ren ignored Makoto, instead smiling at Shido.
“That assault charge ending up being the best thing to ever happen to me. I got sent here to Tokyo after all! Yeah it did expose just how fragile my relationships with my family and friends were back home, but now I’ve met a whole bunch of friends who really do care about me, I’ve met the love of my life- who's a sexy nudist at that, I got superpowers- hell- I got a grappling hook now! That’s dream material right there. Quite genuinely you’ve given me the greatest life I could ever hope for, so I have to say, thank you Shido.”
“Hmph, do you really think I car—” Shido was cut off when a bullet ricocheted off the front of his helmet, he looked forward again in time to see Ren and his still-smoking gun pointed at him.
“Shame that doesn’t make up for all the other shit you’ve done.” He fired another shot, knocking the helmet off of his head entirely. “So if you’d sit the fuck down and give us your treasure, that’d be great.”
“You little—don’t make me laugh!” With one swift motion, Shido pulled away the entire top half of his uniform.
“Oh shit he’s jacked!” Futaba wasted no time resummoning her persona, the rest of the team taking similar defensive measures. “This power… watch out everyone, those muscles aren’t just for show!”
Shido rushed forward, a huge haymaker swing towards Ren, who just barely ducked underneath in time. A second swing, this time at Makoto, who met it with one of her own. He definitely felt the impact, but ultimately his power dwarfed hers and she was sent flying across the stage.
“QUEEN! Mona- quick!”
“I’m on it Joker!”
While Mona focused on healing, Ren pulled out his knife and went in for the assault, but struggled to get in close with the politician constantly swinging. Haru swung at him, only for her axe to be caught mid air, and thrown to the side- with her still holding onto it.
Ann and Yusuke let loose a volley of fire with their machineguns. The bullets did seem to hurt him, but didn’t seem to do visible damage. They did, however, distract him long enough for Ryuji to smack him with his bat, a direct hit to the back of the head causing him to keel over right into a fierce uppercut courtesy of a recovered Makoto.
“DAMN THIEVES!”
Before he could recover, Shido felt his arms gripped by Ren and Makoto respectively, hooking them over their shoulders, using their combined strength to flip him forward and slam him down to the ground.
“ANAT!”
“DAKINI!”
The summoned Personas desperately tried to pin the shadow down, but were faltering against his immense strength. He managed to pull one of his arms free, he sent Dakini flying, Anat using all her limbs to try and hold him in place.
“Get off of me you damn—”
“King Frost!”
A shadow appeared above them, Shido struggled to try and see what it was, but Anat was blocking his view- that is- until she suddenly vanished.
“Wha—”
CRASH!
“Hee ho?”
The oversized snowman made himself comfortable sitting atop the shadow, at least long enough for the thieves to recover and regroup. It wasn’t long before they felt the ground shaking beneath them.
“Ho?”
With explosive force King Frost was launched off and vanished- returning to Ren’s mask. The furious Shido climbed back to his feet.
“Damn brats… don’t think you’ve won! The power of the elite is what rules over our society. It’s vexing that I have to use this on some foolish brats. But I will educate you through and through!”
With another burst of power Shido grew even larger, muscles looking as if they were trying desperately to break free from the confines of the skin surrounding them.
“He’s hulking out even more? The hell is with this guy?!” Futaba was furiously typing. “He’s even stronger now, everyone stay on guard!”
After winding up, Shido slammed down on the ground in front of him, sending out a shockwave that knocked back everyone except Ren- who had just managed to steady himself. A second groundslam summoned forth a surge of flames around them, trapping the two of them alone.
“JOKER!” Makoto called out, forcing herself to her feet.
“Dammit, we gotta get in there and help him!” Ryuji tried to force himself through the flames, but was driven back by his self-preservation instinct. “For fucks sake! Can’t we do something about this fire?”
“Oh no… hold on Joker!”
“Would you guys relax? I got this handled.” Ren tried his best to sound cocky, but with Shido menacingly towering over him, he couldn’t help but be fearful. Not wanting to give him any time to gain the advantage, Ren rushed forward landing every small strike he could in rapid succession.
Suppressing his own pained reactions, Shido swung back with another haymaker, recoiling in shock when he found his blow blocked by Ren’s own skinny arm. Shido scoffed at Ren’s confident smirk, and let loose a volley of powerful strikes. Anger and confusion both skyrocketed as Joker’s movements were able to deflect every attack in turn.
Stepping back- putting some distance between the two fighters- Shido seethed at the boy.
“Why won’t you die?!”
“Heheh.” Ren tore away his mask, his bipedal elephant persona materializing beside him. “Girimekhala, Son! He’s reflects all physical trauma! You can’t hurt me Shido!”
“Ugh…” Ann rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “It’s literally the climatic moment of the fight for ALL our lives and he’s wasting time with memes…”
“Cut him some slack Panther.” Futaba sniggered. “Sometimes you just have to leap on opportunities presented to you. When else is he gonna get into a fist fight with an hulked-out politician?”
“Agidyne!”
Girimekhala launched a burst of explosive flame at Shido, followed immediately by Ren driving his knife into the shadow’s gut. Immediately pulling it back out and unleashing a flurry of slashes across the torso.
Shadow Shido’s resistance began to wane, his punches were losing speed and power. Ren did not have mercy, he kept up the assault until the shadow fell to it’s knees, losing all the power to fight back, and eventually- reverting back to his ‘base’ form.
The flames that had trapped them had died down, and the rest of the team rejoined them, Makoto rushing forward to embrace her boyfriend.
“Thank goodness.”
“Told you I had it handled.”
“Hm. Just this once I’ll let you get away with being so cocky.”
“Heheh.”
“How… how could I lose?”
The thieves looked down at the collapsed shadow.
“Feeling apologetic yet?”
Shido lifted his head, staring up at Ren thoughtfully.
“You… sorry, I still don’t remember who you are…”
“Dang.” Ren shrugged. “Well you lost, so you know what comes next right?”
“…”
“Time to confess your sins buddy.”
“…Right… that may be best.”
“Glad we could come to an agreement.”
From above, a light descended, transforming into a steering wheel for a ship.
“This must be the treasure.” Yusuke mused.
“Yes…” Shido tried to climb to his feet. “I must steer this country… I… I…” Suddenly he collapsed, vanishing entirely before their eyes.
“What the—”
An explosion was heard in the distance.
“The palace is collapsing? Already?”
“Just grab the treasure and run!”
“R-right!”
With the world collapsing around them, Ren swiped the wheel, and led the thieves in escaping the sinking ship.
~ ~ ~
Back in the real world, just around the corner from the Diet building, Ren heaved, struggling to get enough air into his lungs. Now that he was back in the real world, his injuries from his interrogation were back, and the exertion from the fight was exacerbating them. He leant against a lamppost for balance.
Makoto- noticing him struggling- rushed to his side.
“Ren, are you okay?”
“Y-yeah…” He gradually steadied his breathing, and though he was still visibly in pain, he managed to stand up straight and smile at her. “I’ll be fine, I just need a minute… Is everyone okay?”
“We’re fine but… what about Ryuji?”
“Ryuji?” Ren scanned the group, everyone was present and accounted for besides Ryuji. “Didn’t he get out too?”
A fearful look spread across Futaba’s face.
“He leapt across to free the lifeboat for us…”
“You don’t think…” Haru looked to her in horror. “… you don’t think he was too far away from us for the nav to reach, do you?”
“Oh god… he can’t be…” Ann covered her mouth.
“Ryuji…” Makoto hung her head.
“Jeez, that really hurt…” The man of the hour walked up to the rest of the group, his body wet. “Can’t believe I fell in that damn ocean again…”
“R-Ryuji?”
“Hm? Hey what’s up? Everyone alright?”
“ALRIGHT?! We should be asking you that!”
“H-huh? Why you yellin’? I’m alright… I think.” He shivered. “Yo I think I’mma catch a cold if I stay out here, shouldn’t we get back already?”
“…”
“Yo why you girls cryin’? We didn’t lose Mona did we? Look he’s right there, is cool, alright?”
The girls all glared at him.
“Uh… what?”
The girls slowly approached him.
“Guys? You’re freaking me out.”
They didn’t slow their approach, nor did their eyes leave his.
“H-hey, wh-what are you—”
All four stepped forward and embraced him. Ryuji stared into the middle-distance, dumbfounded in this unprecedented situation, four girls hugging him from all sides (not to mention the fact that two of them were naked).
“Buh?”
“DAMMIT RYUJI!” Ann cried.
“What’d I do?”
“You scared us!” Haru sniffed. “We thought we lost you…”
“O-oh… I uh…”
“You b-big dumb shit Ryuji…” Futaba sobbed. “Why you gotta make me c-cry? It’s cringe…”
“S-sorry? I guess?”
He was still confused, but he had to admit, having the girls hold him like this was pretty nice. Though he was still wearing wet clothes, so against his base desires- he should probably put a stop to it soon.
“I’m sorry I worried you, I guess?”
The girls hugged him tight.
“W-we should probably head back… yeah?”
The girls hugged him tighter.
“A-alright, it’s starting to hurt a little now…”
The girls hugged him tighter still.
“G-guys? Guys?”
The girls hugged him even tighter still.
“ARGH! Guys? GUYS?! I CAN’T BREATHE! GUYS?! GUUUUYS!”
Ryuji struggled in vain in the four-way vice grip, Ren, Morgana, and Yusuke all exchanged worried glances, and decided that the best time for them to step in was about 30 seconds ago, but better late than never, right?
Ren tapped Makoto on the shoulder.
“Uh, Mako?”
The girls released Ryuji, the boy falling down limp onto the floor against the lamppost.
“Ahh… I feel much better after that.”
“You said it Haru, I can feel the relief just washing over me.”
“You sure that’s not just the breeze Makoto? You look really cold.”
“And where do you think you’re looking Ann?”
The girls burst into good-natured laughter, before turning to Ren with smiles on their faces.
“Let’s head back for tonight, yeah?”
“Uh… yeah, sounds good.”
“We better not loiter, last thing we want is to be caught at this stage.” Makoto and the other turned and headed in the direction of the station.
“Do any of you want to help carry Ryu…” Ren trailed off as it was clear they weren’t listening. Sighing, he turned to Yusuke. “Do you mind helping me carry Ryuji?”
“Of course not.”
The two took an arm each over their shoulders, Ryuji just about staying conscious.
“Th-thanks guys…”
“They really were happy you made it back, they were worried about you.”
“Yeah… yeah…” Ryuji shuddered. “It was really nice until the end…”
“I’m sure they just got excited…” Ren nodded.
Yusuke sighed.
“We will be charitable and assume that is the case…”
Notes:
This isn't the first time these PTs have done the IRL equivilent of skipping boss dialogue, and knowing this series- it won't be the last.
Don't worry too much, the girls will apologize for... getting too into the group hug later on
Chapter 72: Bigger news
Summary:
Eiko still has worries
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“—kao? Miss Takao?”
“Hm? Huh?” Eiko flinched, nearly dropping the sign she was holding, looking up to see Yoshida Toranosuke with a concerned look on his face. “I-I’m still listening!”
Yoshida sighed.
“I’ve already finished my speeches for today.”
“Eheh…” Eiko put down the sign. “Sorry, I must have spaced out. Are we really done already?” Eiko looked at her phone. “A little earlier than usual…”
“Maybe a little. It’s not really fair for me to make you stand out in the cold too long dressed like that.” Yoshida gestured towards her ‘winter gear’, not wanting to be seen looking directly at it- or anywhere below her neckline for that matter.
“Hey I’m tougher than I look y’know!” Eiko made a show of flexing, but broke it by shivering slightly. “Then again, the cold doesn’t bother me so much when I’m moving around, standing still too long is a different story.”
Eiko wasn’t one for staying still in general; ever since she started helping Toranosuke with his speeches she’d try her best to pay attention to what he was saying and how he was delivering it- and picked up most of it, but would inevitably end up getting restless, shifting her focus to twirling the sign she was holding, seeing if she could hold it up between her breasts, or seeing how much dancing in place she could get away with. Yoshida never reprimanded her for any of these things, but she could tell he would get a little annoyed by them. She felt bad, but she just got bored easily.
“The fact you’re able to endure the winter at all is quite incredible.”
“If I had 100 yen for every time someone said that to me.”
Yoshida let out a hearty chuckle.
“Ai was rather annoyed when I said that too. Come on, I’ll treat you to a hot beef bowl, I’ll use the opportunity to teach you some more about the political courses you’ll be facing.”
Eiko paused a moment, before nodding.
“Mm.”
“Something wrong Takao-san?”
“N-no, nothing wrong… it’s just… I’m still not sure I’m even gonna get into college. I was nothing but an airhead just a few months ago…”
“Ha… I see. Well I can certainly say you’ve never come across like that in the time I’ve known you.”
“C’mon Tora, you know that’s not true.”
“I’m serious, at worst you’ve been ‘flighty’ or ‘easily distracted’, but never ‘airheaded’.”
“…That doesn’t make me feel much better…”
“But even if what you’re saying is true, I wouldn’t let it bother you. Trust me when I say you can’t let the past dictate who you are now. Do you know what I see when I look at you?”
“Sexy jailbait?”
Yoshida coughed, furrowing his brow in slight frustration and fighting back a light blush.
“Takao-san…”
“Right, sorry. I say dumb stuff when I’m nervous.”
“That’s something we can work on. But no, what I see when I look at you is a young woman working hard to improve herself, so she can climb the political ladder and in turn make others stronger.” Yoshida nodded, shotting a wide smile at her. “Don’t concern yourself with who you were yesterday, and if others do so- then you need to show them who you are today.”
“Right… yeah, I guess worrying won’t do me any good.”
“Indeed. Don’t forget that mindset like I did, okay?”
“I’ll do my best!”
“I should hope so. I hope our sessions help give you the knowledge you need to make it… at least in terms of politics, I probably won’t be able to help as much with say- math.” Yoshida chuckled at his own joke.
“Dang, guess I’ll bug Nudie Prez about that when things cool down.”
Toranosuke raised a curious eyebrow, but decided to remain silent as the two made their way to Ore no Beko.
“Oh, Tora-chan—”
“Tora-chan?”
“Didja see the big thing?” She ran in front, turning around to grin back at him excitedly. “With the Phantom Thieves and Shido?”
“I did, it was quite the shock. I’ve heard rumors about that man, so I suppose it’s not surprising the Thieves would target him… but…”
“Hm? But what?”
“It’s just strange that you’re the only one I’ve heard talk about that.”
“Huh?”
“It only happened a few days ago, you’d think it’d still be at the forefront of public attention.” He furrowed his brow, stroking his chin in thought. “I could maybe believe someone like Shido has the connections to stifle media attention, but in this internet age where everyone has a camera in their pocket, you can’t cover up something that big. A scandal like this should be on everyone’s tongues, and yet few- if any- people have been talking about it.”
“Huh… that is weird. Everyone at Shujin loves their gossip, and I get them not being into political drama, but you’d think with how popular the Phantom Thieves used to be it’d get attention for that at least…” Eiko shrugged and gave him an unsure smile. “Though maybe that’s just the people I’ve been talking to, I’ve not been in that scene as much since I started focusing on my studying more, so I’m probably just missing it.”
“Perhaps. I may not be listening in the right places either, but it does concern me. Apathy is a common issue nowadays- and it’s hard to blame people for feeling that way then they have no power to do anything about the state of society- but this is going far even for that…”
“Yeah…” She wasn’t entirely sure why, but this was giving her a bad feeling. “Maybe I’ll ask the others about it…”
“Ha, trying to understand the feelings of your constituents? That’s exactly the mindset I want you to have.”
“Uh, thanks? I guess…”
~ ~ ~
Afterschool the next day. Having not had any luck questioning her fellow Shujin students (who were all too busy studying for entrance exams- such was the case with her friends, or simply seemed completely uninterested in the subject- such was the case with her underclassmen) Eiko decided to pay a visit to Kosei, and found herself standing outside their gates.
She had texted Hifumi to let her know she was visiting, but unfortunately she was busy for the next hour or so, and couldn’t come meet her. Not being a student here, Eiko knew she probably wasn’t allowed to freely wander the premises, her nudity meant she wouldn’t exactly blend in, and with her plan of having Hifumi escort her off the table she was faced with only one option:
Just strut in like she owned the damn place.
So that’s exactly what she did. The students were mostly either heading home or busy with club activities, and those who were lingering around she simply ignored (well, of course she made sure to put more bounce in her step to give them a decent show as she headed into the building, might as well have a little fun).
Taking a moment to put away her shoes and winter gear away in a random unoccupied shoe locker, she stepped into the entrance hallway. She hummed to herself as she tried to recall where the art club was from when she visited during the culture festival. If Hifumi was occupied then the other Kosei nudists were the best place for her to start.
She decided the quickest way to the art club probably involved crossing the courtyard. She wasn’t a huge garden buff or flower enthusiast, but even she could appreciate how much nicer and more ornate Kosei’s grounds were than Shujin’s, even in the winter; she could take some time to admire them, it’s not like she gets to visit Kosei often.
As she leisurely strolled through the courtyard, she couldn’t help but notice strange noises coming from her right. She spotted Norio and Kameko observing something with thoughtful looks on their faces, though whatever it was was obscured from her by a tree.
She cheerfully called out to them.
“Yo Seaweed-o, Kamehameko- what’s up?”
They didn’t seem to hear her- or at least she’d hope so- she’d charitably assume they weren’t just ignoring her outright. She kept approaching them, following their intent gazes towards Mai, kneeling down on the ground, holding her arms up into the air as if praying.
“Uh, hi guys.” Okay they definitely ignored her that time, but the Kosei art club have never been known for being polite, Eiko decided against calling them out on it; besides, Mai definitely had the bulk of her attention too. The girl’s arms lowered, instead stretching out forwards, before pulling them inwards, clenching her fists against her chest as her whole body heaved. “Um… what’s—”
“Shh.” Kameko silenced her, and the three continued to observe.
All of Mai’s movements were in mock-slow-motion. She curled up in on herself, before rolling onto her back, making sure to reach skywards as she did so, before rolling back onto her front, her face contorted in… anger? Pain? Fear? It was anyone’s guess really. Eiko didn’t have much time to ponder it befo—
“AAAOOOOOHH!” Mai cried out in what would only be described as half-scream, half-bark, before rising back to her knees and swaying from side to side.
“Okay for real, what’s she doing?”
“Only you can answer that question Takao-san.” The sudden appearance of Yusuke’s voice- as he somehow managed to sneak up directly behind Eiko- nearly gave her a heart attack, Eiko just barely managing to avoid letting out her own scream.
“H-huh?”
“The truth lies within your heart.”
“My heart?” Eiko asked as she turned back to Mai, currently ripping grass out of the ground and throwing it up into the air. “Are you sure about that? I’m not feeling a lot of ‘truth’ from what I’m watching right now…”
“Pfft, philistine.” Kameko muttered. “You may be looking, but you’re not watching.”
“…Is there a difference?”
“Of course. It’s just like the difference between knowing and being aware.”
“If you say so…” Eiko scratched her head as Mai rubbed hers against the dirt. “Surely she knows what she’s doing though?”
“Her truth is not yours.” Norio spoke without taking his eyes off of Mai. “No-one’s is.”
Eiko just now noticed that there were a couple pillows lying conspicuously on the ground (turns out naked girls writhing around on the dirt can be distracting- go figure). Mai crawled over to one, and pulled it apart with all her might- tearing it- and sending the feathers within into the air to be carried away by the wind. Mai let out a shrill wail to the heavens.
“I… I had no idea…”
“Norio-san?” Eiko looked up at him in time to see him openly weeping, trying in vain to wipe away his tears. “Y-you good?”
“Simply incredible…” It was as if he had forgotten she was even here.
“I guess this is all going over my head. That looked like a nice pillow though, destroying it seems wasteful.”
“Ah, so that’s how you’re interpreting it.” Kameko eyed Eiko thoughtfully, a subtle smile on her face. “Maybe there’s hope for you after all Takao-san.”
“Eh?”
“Learn to trust your own answers more.” Yusuke said, before quickly and decisively walking over to join his fellow artist on the grass, already striking the ground as if it were his sworn enemy.
It was at this point where Eiko realized she honestly couldn’t remember why she came here in the first place, and that she was once again too low-culture to really vibe with her fellow nudists here. Looking for her opportunity to leave, she found it in the form of everyone’s favorite shogi Queen.
“Ah, you’re already here Koko. I got done much earlier than I thought I would and…” Hifumi trailed off when she noticed Mai pulling Yusuke’s hair. She seemed to be doing it pretty hard, but it was hard to tell if he was actually being hurt; any actual pained reactions where too greatly overshadowed by his melodramatic gestures of miming ‘crying out in pain’. “Wh-what’s going—”
“Only you can answer that Fumi-chan.”
“Come again?”
“Nevermind.” Eiko ran over to Hifumi, hooking their arms together. “We’re gonna head off now, we’ll see you guys another time, yeah?” She waved to the art club as she dragged Hifumi away, not that they were paying any attention to them in the first place.
“Aw, but that looks kind of fun…” Hifumi pouted.
As the couple left, Eiko pondered on what just happened, whether there was any lesson learned, any wisdom gained, or any deeper meaning to the act she bore witness to.
The answer was almost certainly “No”, this was a waste of time, let’s just move on.
~ ~ ~
Now that the thieves had bested Shido’s shadow, there was little more for them to do beyond sit back and wait for news of the change of heart taking effect. Now with more anxiety than ever due to the complication of the palace beginning to collapse before they even took the treasure; with no way to verify why such a thing happened, they just had to trust that they were successful.
Ren, Futaba, and Morgana returned home to Leblanc to find the café ransacked; no doubt by Shido’s lackeys after their public calling card. With Sojiro’s absence they had feared the worst, but such fears were quickly dashed with his unceremonious return. Futaba tried her hardest to inflict an injury-causing hug on him like she did Ryuji, but without the support of the other girls, her noodle arms were too noodley to accomplish much of anything.
Glad to have at least that sigh of relief, they all pitched in to help clean up the café, and got some well-earned rest for the night. And now- a few days later- life had resumed with some degree of normalcy… or at least normal apart from the aforementioned anxiety… and Ren still being confined to his room, now with no reason to go outside. Needless to say, cabin fever was slowly setting in.
“Surely it’s fine for me to go out now? It’s not like they’re looking for me anymore.”
“We don’t know that Joker. We still don’t know how long it takes for a change of heart to take effect for a target this large, it’s still possible for you to be brought back into custody.”
“Ugh…” Ren groaned as he restlessly tossed his knife into the air and caught it repeatedly. “I’m not gonna draw attention to myself. I’ll be in disguise. I just need to do something or I’m going to die of boredom.”
“Why not just study?”
“Because I want to be less bored.”
“I can borrow some more DVDs from Futaba.”
“Does she have any we haven’t seen yet? Feels like we saw everything worthwhile in the build up to Shido’s palace.”
“Games?”
“Beaten them all. 8-bit games aren’t known for their long playtimes.” Ren huffed. “If I had my consoles from my old home it would be a different story.”
Ren pulled out his phone.
“Oh shoot.”
“Something wrong?”
“Nah, just didn’t realize I had messages, must have left it on silent.” He sat up, grateful for even this small slither of excitement. “Eiko’s asking if she can come over.”
“It’s a bit late, but I guess that’s fine? Did she say why?”
“Nah, but I’ll say yes, having some company will help me go less mad.”
“Don’t I count as company?”
“Yeah but you’re always here. Some new company.” Ren returned to his phone. “’Sure, that’s fine’ and send.”
The bell from downstairs was heard, and before Morgana could scout to see who it was, Eiko’s head popped up into view.
“Sup bitch?”
“Were… were you waiting outside Eiko?”
“Only for a little bit.” Eiko trotted up the steps and made herself comfortable on the couch, immediately going to pet Morgana. “Hello Mr. Don’tcallmeacat.”
Morgana would have grumbled, but he was enjoying the chin-scratching too much to pretend to be angry this time.
“So what brings you ‘round this neck of the woods?”
“Is it so weird to wanna visit a friend you dork?” Eiko shrugged. “I mean, of course I wanted to check you guys were alright after your… whatever the hell you did.”
“The ‘whatever the hell’ went well, thank you. And yeah we all made it fine.”
“That’s good to hear.” Eiko pulled Morgana into her lap so she could better assault him with pets. As much as he insisted he was human, he was suspiciously happy to lean into his cover role of ‘cat’ when it came to nudist girls fussing over him… except maybe Futaba- since her petting was less ‘affection’ and more treating him like a toy. “Nudie Prez, the two blondies, and the floofy rich girl seem to be fine at school, and that Kosei dude is still as much of a weirdo as ever, so it really does seem like it all worked out.”
“Seems that way so far.”
“Why you gotta word things like that man?” Eiko’s notcat petting slowed, Morgana tried to not seem too disappointed, staying in place secretly hoping it would resume. “Hey, could you be honest with me?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“It’s just… nah forget it.”
“You sure? Seems like something’s up.”
“Not really, I mean, it’s nothing that can’t wait til later. You just got done with your big Shido thing, you need to rest.”
Ren sighed.
“Eiko you’re clearly worried about something if you came all the way to the café.”
“Yeah, but now that I’m here I feel like I’m being silly and petty.”
Ren let out a tired sigh.
“Just speak.”
Eiko fidgeted in place for a while, Morgana eventually getting sick of being knocked around and climbing off to sit on Ren’s workdesk.
“I was talking with Old man Tora earlier today and… do you think I’m airheaded?”
Ren’s brow raised.
“Did he say you were?”
“Oh no no no, I did. He said I wasn’t, more ‘flighty’ and ‘easily-distracted’.”
“I could see it.”
Eiko’s shoulders sank.
“Man…”
“Lemme guess, you’re worried about your entrance exams?”
“I guess it’s pretty obvious, huh? I keep worrying that I’ve left it too late, that there’s no chance of me actually succeeding, and being able to follow Mako-chan into Tokyo U. I mean it’s not as if she’s already in, but c’mon, obviously she’s gonna make it in. She’s a hardworking genius, I’m just some girl who doesn’t know how to take things seriously.”
Ren glanced at the ceiling for a while in thought.
“How did you feel about exams in the past?”
“Hm?” Eiko looked down at her knees, feeling rather foolish. “I never really thought about them, I didn’t really care how well I did. I knew my parents always had me covered, if the worst came to the worst and I failed.” She looked over to Ren. “They technically still do, but I don’t want their future for me, I finally have my own goals now. There’s actual consequences if I fail now…”
“Ha… welcome to my world.”
“Eh?”
“Exam-anxiety is pretty normal, I guess since this is your first time suffering from it you’re having a hard time.” Ren had a supportive smile on his face. “Don’t let that anxiety convince you that you’re incapable, our minds like to work against us like that. You’ve been studying hard with Makoto for months now, she’s told me how your academic performance has been shooting up across the board. I’m sure you can do it if you just keep it up until the exams next year.”
“So… I’m just psyching myself out?”
“Seems like it. The best advice really is…”
“…is what?”
“You’re gonna want to punch me once I say it… hell I’ve not even said it out loud yet and I want to punch myself.”
“Oh god I think I know what it’s gonna be…”
“Just believe in yourself.”
“Ugh… there it is… you’re right, I do wanna punch you.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“I’m not gonna… I hate clichés, but in this case it’s true.” Eiko jumped to her feet, giving Ren a tired look. “Alright, I guess all I needed was the reaffirmation… Thanks man.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Eiko’s eyes suddenly narrowed.
“You said that line again.”
Ren could feel the murderous intent as she approached.
“Uh, Eiko?”
“I warned you that I would punch you the next time you said that. Did I, or did I not warn you?”
“Y-you can’t be serious!”
“Where are you the least injured?”
“Huh?”
“I don’t want to exacerbate your injuries, but I still gotta punch you.”
“Uhh…” Ren suddenly recoiled, holding his arm. “ARGH! My uh… my everything! Oh my wounds from the interrogation hurt oh so very much! Even the slightest touch could cause irrevocable damage!”
Eiko stared at him unimpressed for a while, before huffing and returning to the couch.
“Dammit, I know you’re bullshitting but can’t be sure. I’ll just have to give you a raincheck on that punch.”
Ren breathed a sigh of relief.
“But for real Ren… Thanks.” Eiko fidgeted in place a while, a light pink dusting her cheeks. “So… when I do graduate, and get into college or whatever… or if I don’t… either way will you still be there for me?”
“Hm?”
“To like… support me, talk me out of my funk and stuff…”
“…”
Ren wasn’t exactly sure why, but he was getting a familiar feeling- that feeling that told him he should chose his words cafefully, he was already in a relationship with another girl after all.
“Of course, you’re my friend. And I can’t speak for them, but I’m sure Makoto would say the same.”
Eiko grinned.
“Yeah she totally would… though she’d suggest we double down with our studies which… I mean I’d do it since it’s the smart thing to do. But man it’d be such a pain in the ass.”
“The right thing usually is.”
“But yeah, I got your back too. When I get into office I’ll try and use my power to help you out any time you need it too, mmkay?”
Ren nodded. Suddenly he got another strange feeling, equally as familiar. The surroundings felt… darker than normal, time seemed to drag to a near-halt, and he heard that voice…
I am thou… thou art I
Thou hast turned a vow into a blo—
“Ren? Are you in—Oh Eiko-san?”
Ren shook himself out of his dazed state to see Makoto had come up the stairs. He blinked a few times to try and re-ground himself, he wasn’t even aware that process could be interrupted; perhaps the other times it happened the person he was talking to was just considerate enough to ignore him spacing out.
“Oh hey Mako, I didn’t hear the bell.”
“Sup Nudie Prez!” Eiko waved. “I was just talking to Renny about college entrance exams.”
“Ah I see.” Makoto nodded. “Thank you for reminding me, we really need to double down with our studies.”
Eiko side-eyed Ren.
“Told you so.”
Makoto raised a curious eyebrow, but didn’t think too much of it, instead addressing Ren.
“I texted you to say I was coming over, but you didn’t respond.”
“Oh?” Ren checked his phone, and she was right, he missed her message. “Ah sorry Mako, I had my phone on silent, and right after I read Eiko’s she showed up. My bad.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it… it’s just…” Makoto awkwardly fiddled with the tips of her hair, a blush spreading across her face, her eyes flickering between being bashfully averted from Ren and glancing at Eiko. “Sae is busy at work dealing with the aftermath of… y’know… and I thought maybe you’d be lonely too so um…”
“OH!” Eiko shot back to her feet, a huge grin spread across her face. “Oh I getcha Nudie Prez. Don’t mind me, I was just leaving.” She leant down to pick up her bag and headed for the stairs, waving over her shoulder, shooting Makoto a knowing smile. “I won’t keep you from your booty call any longer.”
“I-it’s not a b-booty call!” Makoto retorted, coming out a little louder than she intended.
Morgana shook his head in embarrassment.
“I’ll stay with Futaba tonight, I’ll leave you two to it, just… use protection okay?”
“I told you it’s not like that!” Makoto barked as Morgana slipped out the window. It was a good thing Ren’s phone was still on silent, it meant she was blissfully unaware of Futaba texting ‘LMAO’ to him right now. Ren discreetly shoved the phone in a drawer so she couldn’t listen in.
After the couple were alone Makoto’s shoulders dropped in defeat.
“So um…” Ren broke the awkward silence as Makoto turned towards him. “Is it really not like that?”
Her eyes met his.
“It’s 100% ‘like that’. Get your pants off.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Notes:
Makoto is going to double down studying with Eiko, but she and Ren have some VERY different subjects to study by themselves first.
Chapter 73: Look at me
Summary:
There are things on Queen's mind as Christmas rapidly approaches
Notes:
We are getting very close to the endgame... or at least- what WOULD be the endgame if I wasn't following the Royal timeline... and also committed to doing Strikers afterwards.
We're reaching some sort of fake endgame, and we're not even there yet.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A sharp intake of breath as she put the last piece into place. Even though most of their focus was still on Shido’s change of heart, Makoto hadn’t forgotten that Christmas was nearly here, and she was certain her gift idea would make Ren very happy. She knew that being confined to his room most days was wearing on his mood heavily, so he could use an especially fun gift.
Granted, this was rather a cliché; she had read about this kind of ‘gift’ online. The stood in front of her dress mirror to admire said ‘present’. Three ribbons, one tied around each erect nipple, and- wanting to go the extra mile- she had gotten herself excited enough to get her clit erect enough for the third ribbon. Putting that one on had been an awkward process, she had to do it effectively one-handed as the other was keeping her clitoral hood held back to give her more to work with. The feeling of pressure from the ribbon was a strange sensation indeed, but far from unpleasant.
Of course, she knew the ‘your present is me’ cliché was very much a cop-out present. It pretty much guaranteed that one had forgotten to get an actual gift, and had to come up with something last minute- not that the recipients would complain, often this would be better received than any actual gift with actual planning. She knew Ren wouldn’t complain, in fact he’d love it, wanting to maximize the amount of time spent playing with his new present; but she still thought she’d get a proper gift alongside- a stylish wristwatch she thought would look good on him. Not so expensive that it’d make him feel bad if his gift didn’t measure up in comparison (she knew he hadn’t had much of an opportunity to do Christmas shopping this year), but flashy enough to hopefully take him by surprise- and besides- this little game with the ribbons and passionate sex was as much a present for herself as it was for him, so it’d probably work out.
She tried a few experimental poses in front of the mirror, presentation was everything here. Should she hold her arms out as if inviting him to embrace her? Should she try holding her arms up behind her head- enticing him with armpits? Or running her hands up and down herself, try to maximize her sex appeal? Maybe act all innocent, inviting him to pounce her? Maybe she could pounce him? Maybe lay on her back, play up the submissiveness with that doggy pose? Nah, probably not that one, that’d be too embarrassing for her, but the rest of these ideas were certainly getting her excited, or maybe that was just the ribbons tied to her most sensitive spots right now? Both. Definitely both.
Imagining the various scenarios playing out- every single one ending in eye-rolling sex- was quickly shifting from her usual planning and preparedness to her simply getting hot and bothered. She found herself trying to rub her thighs together, only intensifying the feeling of the ribbons, and the heat growing through her whole body.
She knew what she had to do. It was the late evening, she didn’t have anything else she needed to do today, she could afford to jill herself silly, take a shower to clean up, then head to bed for the night. She took the time to turn her various Buchimaru plushies around before she got too into it; she loved an audience, but Buchi was too pure for such adult things. Speaking of an audience, she considered calling Ren, maybe even videocalling him so he could enjoy the show, but decided against it- she wanted to keep this a surprise after all… and Morgana was probably with him too, so it’s probably for the best she just kept this to herself this time.
She fell backwards onto her bed, her hands tweaking and twisting her already engorged erogenous zones. She tried her best to stifle her moans, keeping herself under control as much as she could, focusing on the growing feeling of—
“Makoto?”
With lightning-speed driven by blood-chilling fear, Makoto instinctively pulled her covers over herself, hiding any evidence of her impure activities. She looked around, but found her room mercifully still empty, the voice had come from outside the door. She felt relief wash over her as she tried to steady her breathing.
“Yes?” Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes Sis?”
The sound of Sae letting out a heavy sigh was heard from outside the bedroom door.
“I’m sorry to do this to you, but I’m going to have to head back to work tonight. I probably won’t be back tomorrow either…”
“O-oh…” Makoto sat up, keeping the blanket held up against herself just in case Sae opened the door. “Is it to do with the Shido case?”
“Yes. We’re doing everything we can but…” Sae paused. “I’ll tell you about it later, but I can’t do what I need to do from home. I’m going to have to be there in person.”
“I understand Sis. Thank you for letting me know.” Makoto forced herself to smile. “Good luck.”
“R-right… I’ll see you later.”
Makoto could hear Sae lingering outside the door for a little while longer, as if she wanted to say something else but wasn’t sure what. A few more moments pass before her dejected footsteps disappeared down the hall.
Makoto sighed. On the one hand she really did feel bad for Sae, knowing how hard she must be working trying to build a case against Shido; on the other she really was happy that Sae was making this effort to keep her in the loop, actually apologizing to her. It was small, but it was a sign of her trying to act like her family again. On the other other hand, she really wished this bittersweet moment didn’t have to come right as she was flicking the bean to lewd Christmas fantasies with her boyfriend…
The mood was rather spoiled now, it was hard to enjoy being horny when you were worried about your sister. She undid the ribbons, made a mental note to wash the one that had been tied to her clitoris, put the Buchi dolls back in place, and headed to the bathroom to wash herself up before bed. She still had school tomorrow, and a sleep schedule to maintain.
~ ~ ~
Makoto really did miss having Ren show up each morning ready for their school commute. It had been about a month or so since he went into hiding, but she still hadn’t gotten used to it. Every day she’d get up, eat breakfast, get ready, confidently stride out of her apartment building, turn the corner, and see the empty space- remembering that he was still stuck at the café. She always had significantly less spring in her step for the rest of the trip to school.
She had at least stopped worrying about potential gropers or the like now that Ren was absent. The crowds wouldn’t get too intense until she reached Shibuya- and once there she’d usually meet up with Ann or one of her fellow nudists, where they had safety in numbers until reaching school. Plus there was the fact that nubile nudists weren’t a new thing anymore. Makoto didn’t draw quite as much show-stopping attention as she used to…
Or maybe she was just used to it, and didn’t pay it much mind anymore. She’d learned to enjoy all the attention, but she didn’t give it much conscious thought anymore, at least not often. People admiring her bare, well-maintained form as she travelled across Tokyo was just the norm by this point.
Which is why the fact that it seemed completely absent today was so apparent. It took a while to register, but Makoto got the strange feeling of not being watched today. The feeling of ‘blending in’ had become completely alien to her over the last year, she always had at least one cameraphone and several pairs of eyes on her at any given time while in public.
As she walked towards her first train she passed by some businessmen, who paid her no mind. Some males her age who went to another school… just walked right past her. A family who didn’t seem to notice that she existed.
Makoto really wished she hadn’t noticed, this was giving her an inexplicable feeling of dread. Part of her started to think she might be invisible, but her rational self dismissed the idea quite swiftly. Were this the metaverse it honestly wouldn’t be something she could disregard entirely, but the real world still adhered to some logic. And as the train pulled in, and the doors opened to let passengers off, one woman looking at her phone nearly ran into her, before lifting her head, quietly apologizing, then stepping around the nudist. Makoto could definitely rule out invisibility at this point- otherwise there would have been a collision. People can certainly still see her, they were just ignoring her?
She continued to ponder this oddity as she laid out her towel on a free seat and settled down. With her bag next to her, she sat by the door, keeping a cautious distance between her and everyone else while the crowds were still sparce enough for her to do so. She pulled out her phone, trying to take her mind off the matter by checking her messages. No updates from Sae, understandable. Ren’s ‘good morning’ message, which put a smile on her face as it always did. Nothing else of note, she slid her phone back into her bag and let her eyes wander around the cabin.
People still weren’t paying attention to her. She grumbled in frustration, at herself more than anything else. She wasn’t sure why she was obsessing over this idea so much; had a year of being a fulltime nudist-exhibitionist made her egotistical? She wasn’t sure, but this all just felt weird…
Like opposite her, a group of teenagers, maybe a year or two younger than she was, on any other day she’d be enjoying tolerating them openly ogling her for the entire trip eyes ready to bulge out their heads and jaws hit the floor as they stared in shock and recorded footage of her to either share publicly for clout and/ or keep for their own ‘personal use’ later. Yet today? They just looked bored.
She wanted to just shrug about it and move on, but she just couldn’t get this strange thought out of her mind. She felt compelled to test this, if for no other reason than to just get these silly worries out of her mind.
Discreetly- as to not make her efforts too obvious- she opened up her legs, sliding her hips forward to put her womanhood on proud, open display. She pretended to stare off into space, so people would think they could get away with some staring. She kept them in her peripheral vision, coughed to hopefully knock them out of their daze, shifted her position a couple times hoping the movement would draw their eyes. All of it was fruitless, the most she got was a few eyes passing right over her.
This was getting slightly scary. She weighed her options in her mind: either just try to put this out of her mind and just hope this is just her imagining things, or take a risk and really put this theory to the test. Her adherence to the former plan lasted all of thirty seconds, before she gave into the urges and went for the latter.
‘It’s okay, I know this is legal too…’ she thought to herself as she brought her feet up onto the seat next to her and leant back against the wall. ‘I can get away with this…’
If it turned out all this ‘ignoring her’ business was just her imagination, she’d get reprimanded and nothing much else will come of her trying this. If it wasn’t her imagination… well… she wasn’t sure what, but she had to test this regardless.
Her hands shaking, both in nervousness and anticipation, she removed her gloves- shoving them into her bag- and started by gently caressing her thigh. She had fantasies of doing something like this since long before she admitted to being an exhibitionist; back when she started out as a nudist images of her doing something like this would haunt her mind, and were the main force driving her to have to sneak off to the bathrooms throughout the day to relieve herself. She hadn’t needed to do that much since coming to terms with her feelings, but the mental images still lingered from time to time. This would be the first time she would embrace them.
Closing her eyes, she began to slide her fingers up and down her slit, which clearly wasn’t as nervous as the rest of her given the amount of her natural lubricant seeping out of her and onto her towel, she was planning on washing that today anyway. Her other hand reached up to start roughly pinching and pulling at her nipple.
“Ah…”
Much of the arousal and sexual frustration from the prior night was rushing back into her. She slid back further, almost lying on her back, and intensified her movements. She wasn’t interested in prolonging this, maximizing her pleasure, or putting on a show; her goal had quickly shifted to simply getting off as quickly as possible.
“Ahh… Aah…”
She didn’t have the bravery to open her eyes just yet, or maybe she just wanted to keep them closed to better visualize the fantasies she was having last night- which were also coming back to her in full force, she wasn’t wholly sure herself.
“Oh my… AAH!”
When she conceived of this plan, she was undecided whether to let herself moan to draw more attention or not, she knew it probably wasn’t a good idea. Well with her orgasm rapidly approaching she seemed to forget that silence was even an option. Her moans filled the train car, a fact that only aroused her further, and gave her a strong push towards the orgasm she needed ASAP.
Thankfully ‘ASAP’ didn’t take too long. Makoto moved her fingers as fast as she could, crying out in ecstasy as she came, her hips shooting up into the air as she squirted across the seats- far past the reach of her towel. In her throes she softly slapped her partially exposed clit to make it just that much more intense.
She fell back, her chest heaving up and down as she tried to steady her breathing again. One foot stayed up on the seat, the other falling down to the floor. Her eyes slowly opened, taking a moment to adjust to the harsh overhead lighting. She turned her head and…
Everyone was still sitting there, bored.
“Huh?”
She hadn’t been watching them during her actual masturbation show, so she couldn’t be entirely sure if they were watching then and just doing a really good job of acting natural now that she was looking at them again, or if they really were ignoring her to such an absurd degree. Early morning or not, if a naked girl masturbating in public doesn’t draw attention- then what will?
She lifted her head to look down the seats. She noticed an office lady sitting a couple seats down from her, glaring at her annoyed. By the looks of it the woman’s bag was caught in Makoto’s ‘line of fire’, so to speak. Now stained with her fluids
“S-sorry…”
The woman tutted at her, picking up her bag and moving to another area of the cabin. Makoto sat back up, wiping her drenched fingers on her towel- she’d have to properly wash her hands later. Still- the OL did acknowledge her, so that’s something… right? Maybe she was worrying over nothing… right?
Makoto’s shoulders dropped. She wasn’t very good at lying to herself. She definitely should have gotten more attention than that for something that daring.
Before she could worry about it too much, she noticed the train pulling into Shibuya, she nearly missed her stop. She scrambled to gather her belongings and rushed off the train on shaky legs, still weak from her orgasm.
After managing to alight the train without falling or knocking into anyone, she breathed a sigh of relief, and leisurely made her way to her next train to take her to Shujin. On the platform, she noticed…
“Hm? Yo, mornin’ Makoto-chan!”
“Mieko-san? Good morning.” Makoto lightly bowed to her fellow nudist.
Mieko’s eyes glided up and down Makoto’s body, particular at her ‘winter gear’ that matched her own in all but color, and of course- size.
“I guess that really is the thing about nudists, overlapping fashion senses.”
“I suppose.” Makoto smiled.
“I’m glad you suggested it, makes the cold more tolerable, even if I’m not sure how well it suits me.”
“Protecting extremities is just common sense. And I wouldn’t worry Mieko-san, I think you look very cute like that.”
Mieko grumbled.
“I hope I’m ‘hot girl’ cute like you guys and not just ‘little sister’ cute. I feel like wearing this just highlights it…” She hummed to herself. “Then again, Eiko-chan’s been telling me I should play to my strengths. There are definitely plenty of fans of petite girls, right?”
“I wouldn’t know.” Makoto shrugged.
“There has to be, they’re just shy about coming forward about it because they’re scared of judgement. That’s gotta be why barely anyone has hit on me yet.”
“Yeah that must be it.” Ai Toranosuke’s voice surprised both girls as she approached from behind to join them. “Look at you Mieko, feeling more confident about being small, is this character development?”
“The hell are you talking about Ai-chan?” Mieko huffed, eliciting an amused smile from Ai.
“’Sup Makoto.”
“Good morning Ai-san.”
“We never run into you on the way to school, what’s up with that?”
Makoto shrugged.
“The Tokyo underground is pretty expansive, and pretty crowded. I guess we’ve just been missing eachother.”
“Usually you’re with your boyfriend.” Mieko held her chin. “I’ve not seen him in a minute, he okay?”
“Y-yeah.” Makoto averted her eyes. “He had to head back to his hometown for a family emergency.”
“Shit, sound rough.” Ai smiled at Makoto. “Still, at least it gives you a chance to hang with us more often. Nudists sticking together and all that. Hell, even Eiko can’t hang out as often now that she’s studying with my Uncle. And we’ve got entrance exams on top of that…”
“Oh god don’t remind me.” Mieko gripped her twintails in frustration. “So much shit to memorize. Sine, cosine, tangent.”
“Megido. Megidola. Megidolaon.”
“The hell are you studying Ai?”
Makoto was having a hard time paying attention, her mind was still…
“What’s eating you?”
“Huh?” Makoto blinked, noticing both girls looking at her, confused and concerned. “Oh um… nothing, just a strange morning…”
“Strange?”
“It’s… Have people been looking at you two today?”
“Ugh…” Ai’s shoulders fell. “They really never stop, do they?”
“Hm…” Makoto brow dropped.
“I mean I’m used to it though, and it’s not as if I hate it, but it sucks when you get a really creepy guy or group leering at you, so I know what you mean.”
“Totally.” Mieko nodded. “I’d like guys to be braver and actually approach me most of the time, but sometimes I really am glad they keep their distance.”
“Uh… yeah… that’s what I meant…” Makoto put on a fake smile, deciding that it’s just best to drop the subject. “Say, isn’t Aya-san usually with you?”
“She takes a different train, we usually meet up with her at school.”
“I see. But yes, you’re right about us needing to spend more time together. I’ll see if I can make time for us to all study together.”
“Oh my god you’re lame Makoto-chan…” Mieko hammily feigned fainting, coming just short of falling over entirely. “Why is that your idea of fun?”
“To be fair, the more studying we can do the better.”
“Damn it Ai, two against one…” She chewed her lower lip, brow furrowed in thought before the lightbulb went off above her head. “Ah, I know Aya would vote against it too! So we’re tied.”
A devious smirk appeared on Makoto’s face, she pulled out her phone and typed away. A few moments passed before she received a notification. Her grin grew wider and more smug.
“Eiko votes that we do study. Three against two. Sorry Ohara-san.”
Mieko looked shocked and betrayed. She stood on tip-toes to see Makoto’s phone, and saw Eiko’s reply of “UGH, FIINE…”
“Son of a bitch…”
“We need all the help we can get.” Ai chuckled. “You’re never going to become a mechanic without getting into a decent college.”
“I know…” Mieko whined.
“Mechanic?” Makoto tilted her head at the shorter girl. “Didn’t take you for the mechanic type.”
Mieko pouted, fighting back a light blush.
“I can have interests other than boys and nudism… I’ve always wanted to be one of those race mechanics, seeing them performing such cool work on such amazing machines so quickly. I’ve always really admired that, and dreamed of working as part of a top notch team helping a racer become champion! Though I guess I need to work out a bit more too…”
“Huh…” Makoto shrugged lightly and smiled. “I think that’s a wonderful dream Ohara-san.”
Mieko shuffled sheepishly.
“Th-thanks, Makoto-san.”
“It’ll be hard work, but I’d say it’s achievable.”
“He’ll pull into the pit stop, then I’ll be first in line to bring his machine back into tip-top condition!”
“That’s really ni—”
“Then after he wins he can pull me into the back and take me for a test drive…”
“R…right…”
Makoto hated to admit it, but she was suddenly having slightly less respect for the dream than when she first heard it. Mieko kept shuffling around, mumbling to herself. Makoto couldn’t make much of it out other than “…amazing drifting technique…” and “…like a machine…”
Still she did feel like there was still a lot she had to learn about her fellow nudists; part of it was simply because PT business had kept her busy the whole year, but she had to admit she still hadn’t fully shaken off her ‘diligent honor student’ tendencies entirely. She made a promise to herself that after everything was calm again, and she’d helped everyone get into college, she’d make an effort to be much more sociable and learn about them, maybe open up a bit more herself.
“Train’s here.” Ai pointed out to Makoto, and gently (but not too gently) pulled one of Mieko’s twintails to pull her out of whatever steamy fantasy she had gotten lost in before she got left behind.
The three girls boarded the train, and managed to find a spot to stand together, letting Mieko take the one free seat as she had the hardest time reaching the overhead rails. Makoto worried her size would make the mechanic dream that much harder to achieve, but she wasn’t about to discourage someone from following their dream, especially considering how ambitious her own was.
While the company had done well to brighten Makoto’s mood, she still couldn’t help but worry about the strange public behaviour this morning, but if the other nudists hadn’t noticed it then she wasn’t sure there was much she could do. She resolved to at least bring it up to the other thieves later, just in—
A notification suddenly went off on Makoto’s phone. She pulled it out of her bag, her eyes going wide.
“Everything okay?”
“Y-yeah, it’s fine Ai-san. Just… got something I need to do afterschool.”
“If you say so…”
The girls went back to relative silence, while Makoto pondered over the contents of the message from her sister:
“Have everyone meet up at Leblanc immediately afterschool. I’m afraid it’s bad news…”
Notes:
Yeah...
Chapter 74: Jail
Summary:
The gang travels to the depths of Mementos
Notes:
Sorry for the delay between chapters, a combination of me working on other things in the background, and just the classic problem of real life getting in the way.
But those of you following for a long time are probably used to these delays, at least that's what I'll tell myself xD
Chapter Text
It was bad news.
While Shido’s change of heart was successful, even the man himself was helpless to properly confess everything and face consequences for his actions. Sae’s best efforts to build a case against him were roadblocked by Shido’s associates every step of the way, and there seemed to be nothing they could do. Even with Shido all too eager to give himself up- he was untouchable.
This meant the thieves’ best course of action would be to target said associates, all the men in high enough positions around Shido who were preventing his downfall to save their own hides. If only that were an option though.
While some of their names were known or could conceivably be obtained, others went out of their way to keep themselves out of public view and knowledge. There was little doubt each and every one of them would be a hit on the metanav, but they simply didn’t have time to tackle them all. The time it would take to find all their names- AND codewords if any of them were distorted enough to have palaces, AND there was simply no way of knowing how many people they’d have to target, no way of knowing how long the changes would take to have the desired effect, no way of knowing when they could safely rest. Not to mention their deadline- rather than being the usual “around a month from now” was instead “before they burst through the door any minute now”.
They needed something else, something more decisive, and that’s when Morgana suggested that the team travels to the heart of Mementos, and eliminate the metaverse entirely. Perhaps freeing the populace from this unnatural apathy that was plaguing them would give them the edge they need- perhaps if the public demand was strong enough, and the media hounds relentless enough, that would give Sae and the tiny opening she needed to get her foot in the door, prosecute Shido and all his cohorts, and keep them the hell out of office.
Mementos was “everyone’s palace” after all, so surely stealing their treasure would bring the world to its senses? It wasn’t as if the thieves had any other options, so their plan immediately leapt into action on Christmas Eve’s morning. They moved to Mementos, and descended as far as they could go.
“Okay, I’m as dedicated as the rest of you, but it really feels like we’re walking through the gates of hell right now…”
“It certainly looks the part Oracle.” Yusuke marvelled at the unfathomably huge doorway they were currently passing through, then down at the even more awe-inspiring pit before them. “The descent certainly fits too…”
“Man…” Ryuji winced as he stared downwards. “Feels like we’ve been here forever already, but it looks like we’ve barely started.”
“Having to descend all those floors really wears on your sanity.” Futaba groaned. “I wish there was some way we could just skip having to go through that every single time we visited Mementos, you guys won’t even let me take a nap on the way down.”
“I know it’s a pain but we need to stay vigilant, we could get attacked at any moment.”
“Oh come on Queen, the shadows are all so weak up there, they wouldn’t dare attack us anyway.”
“Can’t take chances with your naps Oracle, we need you awake when it matters.”
“Are you holding a grudge or something Joker?”
“Nevermind all that.” Ren spoke in his ‘leader’ tone. “Yeah the descent down was a pain, but everything from here on is brand new, and following the pattern- probably more dangerous than anything we’ve come across so far. I need everyone on their A-game, okay?”
After receiving a chorus of determined affirmations, Ren turned back to Morgana, looking perhaps more determined than anyone else here.
“You good to keep going?”
“Not a problem Joker.”
Morgana pulled off some (probably unnecessary) poses and transformed back into his van form. Bottling up their lingering fears and/ or complaints, the team all climbed aboard, with Ren behind the wheel and Makoto by his side.
“This is the part where we need to play ‘Highway to Hell’ by ACDC, right?”
“Joker…”
“I know I know. Making bad jokes is part of my ‘A-game’.”
~ ~ ~
“This just gets creepier as we go…”
Shivers ran through Ann’s body as she stepped into the open area. Barely had their journey into Memento’s depths began and the scenery was already taking a disturbing turn.
Gone was the subway symbolism that surrounded them on their trip down here, the impossibly huge structure they were making their way through seemed to be constructed by countless oversized cubes, made of a black material than shone not unlike marble. From within many of the cubes shone a strange, overworldly red light- sealed off with iron bars obscuring the figures standing within.
It only became even more obvious what they were seeing as they entered the open area, and saw the crowds of people within a particularly large cage, each with a ball and chain affixed to their ankles.
“This is… some kind of prison?” Makoto scanned the crowds, many of whom just stared listlessly into the middle-distance, those who did acknowledge her and her friends had this strange look of bafflement and… contentedness on their faces?
“What a soul-crushing place.”
“No kidding Fox… it’s reminding me of the slaves back in Kamoshida’s palace.” Morgana’s eyes were drawn to Ryuji, his movements in his peripheral catching his attention as the boy scanned the bars with frustration clear on his face.
“Man I don’t even see a door or a gate or nothin’…”
“That is disturbing.” Ren began. “But it doesn’t matter anyway, they’re just cognitions, even if we could help them there’d be no point.”
Ryuji relaxed a little, his shoulders dropping in defeat as he let out a sigh.
“I know…”
“Actually, these aren’t cognitions.”
“Mona?” Makoto turned to Morgana with eyes wide, as did the rest of the group. “If they’re not cognitions then… are they—?”
“You’re figured it out too, right Queen? These are shadows.”
“All of them? Like… these are everyone’s shadows?”
Morgana nodded.
“This is ‘everyone’s’ palace after all, makes sense that their shadows would be here too.”
“Usually it’s the palace ruler’s shadow, but none of these people really strike me as ‘rulers’.” Ren looked back at the prisoners, his eyes narrowing at those who stared back at him. He suppressed a flinch as a few of them approached the bars to speak to the thieves directly.
“What are you all doing outside?”
“It’s safer in here.”
“There’s nothing but pain out there.”
“Excuse me?” Ren raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you in a prison right now?”
“In the end, it’s best inside here.”
“I have no intention of leaving this place.”
“Stop being out there and come in here.”
“Aw HELL naw!” Futaba scooted a few paces back. “I’ve seen this hentai, and I’m keeping that one strictly in the ‘only enjoy as a fantasy’ pile.”
“Oracle I don’t think that’s what this is.” Makoto looked back at the shadows all unnaturally content behind their bars. “Not that the reality is much better, mind you…”
“You guys seriously want to stay stuck in there?” Ryuji stared at them in disbelief. “The hell’s wrong with you? You’re crazy…”
“You’re the crazy ones.”
“You’re the ones who want to stay out there.”
“Why would you shackle yourselves with the burdens of freedom and choice?”
“Because uh hey- radical opinion here- freedom and choice are pretty fuckin’ based?”
Joker nodded.
“Well put Oracle.”
Haru leaned over to Makoto to whisper.
“Mako-chan, what does ‘based’ mean?”
“Well uh…” Makoto’s brow furrowed in thought a while, before she gave up and leaned over to Ren to whisper. “Ren, what does ‘based’ mean?”
“Ah, that one.” Ren opened his mouth to continue, before realizing that the words weren’t coming to him. He brought his hand to his chin in thought. Eventually he gave up, and leant over to Futaba. “Futaba, what does ‘based’ mean?”
“Y’know.”
“Know what?”
“Well… y’know. It means ‘based’.”
“…Do we have a synonym?”
“Uh…” Futaba scratched her head, before shrugging. “Poggers?”
“I see.” Ren nodded, then leant back to Makoto. “It means ‘poggers’.”
Makoto tilted her head for a moment, before she too- nodded, and leant over to Haru.
“It means ‘poggers’.”
“Ah okay.” Haru smiled. “I see…”
A few moments of silence passed before Haru’s brow furrowed once more, and she sheepishly tapped Makoto on the shoulder.
“Mako-chan…”
“Poggers means ‘good’, apparently.”
“Ah okay.” She turned back to the crowd of shadows, her fist held aloft defiantly. “Freedom and choice are pretty fucking good!”
“Ah, right. Nearly forgot what we were talking about for a minute.” Ren shook his head, before a voice to their right caused everyone to enter defensive stances.
“What are you lot doing outside?” some shadows of the non-human variety approached them dressed as prison wardens.
“Ha.” Ren drew his knife. “’They chose to stay in there’ my ass. If these people were here willingly there wouldn’t need to be guards to keep them inside. Everyone get ready!”
The shadow’s masks dropped, and within moments the team was surrounded by a group of Melchizedeks.
“Oh shit, Featherman cosplayers!” Futaba summoned Prometheus and swiftly ascended into the air. One of the faux-angels prepared itself to follow her up before being caught off guard by a pair of gunshots to the face.
“You better keep your focus on us!” Makoto called out, not being able to hold back a smirk on her face as she stood side by side with Ren, both still holding their smoking guns trained on the enraged shadow’s head.
“Ugh…” The Melchizedek grunted as it tried to regain its composure. “Recapture the prisoners!” The shadows charged towards the couple, only narrowly missing as they rolled out of the way.
“Gonna need a weakness Oracle.”
“Working on it.”
One of the shadows emitted a strange glow, that quickly shot out over the battlefield.
“What was—”
“They did the thing!” Futaba called out. “Everyone’s blows are more likely to be lethal now. Looks like they wanna end this quickly.”
“Tch.” Makoto tutted. “So much for ‘recapturing’ us. Fine; they want to end this quickly, that’s fine by me!”
She launched herself towards the closest shadow- it tried to fly out of reach but wasn’t quite fast enough to escape her grasp. Her hand wrapped around his ankle, pulling him back down to the ground, right into the path of her decisive uppercut, starting a whole new kind of flight for him, that all too swifty met it’s end as he crashed back down to the ground, lying atop his back. Despite it’s best efforts to regain it’s composure and get back to it’s feet again, it’s hopes were dashed when Makoto landed on him, her heel slamming him back to the floor, and she trained her revolver to the centre of it’s featureless face. And in a blink of it’s unseen eyes, she pulled the trigger, executing the combatant, already turning her focus to the remaining ones as it’s body faded away into nothing.
“YAAS Queen, slay! Literally!” Futaba chuckled. “Got their weakness, they’re vulnerable to wind attacks.”
“Nyahehe~” Morgana leapt up into the air, slapping Makoto’s palm with a confident smirk on his face. “Guess that means it’s time for… Mercurius! Magarudyne!”
The persona took form and unleashed a furious torrent of wind towards the remaining shadows, bringing them to their knees. And in true Phantom Thief fashion, the notcat lead the relentless assault reducing the faux-angels to a fine mist.
“Game over.”
“Nice work.” Ren looked up to Prometheus. “That all of them?”
“Yup.” Futaba called out as she descended back to the ground. “No more enemies nearby.”
“For now at least.” Morgana got down from his chair that had a strange habit of appearing from nowhere anytime he got the final blow in a fight. “There’s a good chance we drew a lot of attention with all that, we better keep our guard up as we move on.”
“It’s all so pointless…”
The thieves once again prepared for battle, only to relax again when they realized the voice came from another shadow. Well… ‘relaxed’ would be a lie, as Ann would testify, feeling a horrible feeling shoot through her body.
“Why is he here?”
“Hey Takamaki-san.”
“Kamoshida…”
“Been a while, huh?”
Ann’s lip curled in disgust.
“Don’t talk to me you freak, in fact, don’t even look at me.”
Kamoshida’s shadow sighed, before violently flinching at the sight of her.
“Is that… the student council president? Why is she…?”
Makoto suddenly felt less comfortable in her skin than she even thought possible, but she stood firm and resolute.
“I… I must have been truly blind to not see you for what you were back then, you truly are the worst kind of scum.”
“See, now you’re just hurting my feelings.” Kamoshida forced a smile, but quickly dropped it. “But you’re absolutely right, I really was the worst kind of person.” A smile returned, more genuine, but no less sickening. “Thankfully that life is behind me now. I’ve let go of all those twisted desires, now I’m safe in here, as part of the whole.”
“The whole?” Makoto raised an eyebrow, but stayed in a defensive stance as if expecting him to charge at her through the bars at any moment.
“This whole place is a system, meant to grant desires.” Not far to Kamoshida’s left, emerged the shadow of Madarame.
And just next to him, shadow Kaneshiro made himself visible.
“But not our distorted ones. The much purer desires, of all humanity.”
“Are you serious?” Ren stared at them skeptically.
“This place…” And finally, to the thieves’ right, they noticed Shadow Shido standing within the cage, looking back at them. “…is supposedly called the ‘Prison of Regression’.” He smiled. “Though we don’t think of it as captivity, this is true freedom, available to anyone who desires it. The freedom to not make decisions… the release from having to think for yourself. It is far more marvellous than the country I wished to create.”
“That’s fuckin’ stupid, and so are you.” Ren glared at the would-be Prime minister.
“Bitch, shouldn’t you be in court now?” Futaba folded her arms, trying to look authoritative. “You have plenty of time to rot away in a cell later, Sae’s trying to build a case against you, and you’re just letting it not happen. We didn’t change your heart so you could just sit around being a bitch, bitch.”
“Bitch!” Haru cheered.
“Having the ‘freedom’ to not make your own decisions just means someone else is controlling you!” Makoto stepped forward. “Tell me, who is the ruler here?”
“What an odd question to ask. It should be obvious. Every member of the general public.”
“CRIIIINGE!” Futaba called out, even going so far as to cup her mouth to better project her shout at the man. “You’re cringe! Bitch is unironically like: ‘Society is the reeeeaal villain’. That’s so cringe, you’re cringe. Look, look, you’re making me cringe! Criiinge!”
“Cringe!” Haru cheered again.
“Oracle I—” Makoto was cut off when Futaba’s hand shot into the air.
“All in favor of skipping the cringe exposition and moving on?”
“H-huh? Oracle we—” Poor Makoto was cut off again with the chorus of ‘ayes’. “But, surely we should get as much information as we can, right?”
“I mean we all know how this is gonna go. He’s gonna monologue for a bit about ideology or social-politics or whatever, all while avoiding giving us an actual answer to our questions, having plenty of time to tell us ‘we don’t understand’ but no time to explain why. We’ll walk away frustrated, then encounter the answer later and be like ‘this is what they were talking about’.” Futaba shrugged. “So why don’t we skip this cringelord and just wait for the answer to be spelled out for us by the actual baddie like it always is?”
“I…” Makoto’s shoulders dropped in defeat. “I guess you’re not wrong. And we really can’t afford to waste time- who knows what’s going on in the real world right now.” She sighed. “Fine, you win, let’s go.”
“Now that- ladies and gentleman- is based.”
“It is good.” Haru smiled, and followed after Futaba as she marched onwards, the rest of the group following sheepishly behind.
Ren apologetically shrugged to Makoto as he reached her. Wordlessly, she shook her head, and walked alongside him in the direction the rest of the group were heading.
~ ~ ~
“So… this is it?”
“No doubt about it Noir. This is the treasure.”
“Dude it’s freakin’ HUGE! No way we can steal this.”
“At least this means we didn’t need to send a calling card after all, I was worried about that.” Ren turned to the others. “So, any ideas?”
“Hmm…” Morgana pondered. “Getting out of here is gonna be hard enough as it is, even if we make it small carrying something like this is gonna be impossible.” He sighed. “There’s nothing for it, we’ll simply have to destroy it.”
“Now there’s an idea I can get behind.” Ryuji grinned, readying his bat. “Let’s smash this oversized cup to pieces!”
Without waiting for so much as a confirmation, Ryuij charged forwards and struck at the base of the structure, his bat predictably leaving little more than a dent.
“Yo that worked?” Ren laughed. “And here I was worrying it’d be like all this indestructible scenery and doors we’ve been dealing with all this time.”
“I mean, it’s a pretty small dent…”
“But it is damage we can’t deny that.” Ren drew his knife. “Alright everyone, this might take a while, but we can do this!”
“It’ll take our whole lives at this rate.” Makoto donned her gauntlets. “But so be it!”
The group all began furiously wailing at the base of the massive structure, though Futaba quickly gave up when she realized that her flailing her dainty noodle arms did little more than hurt herself. Realizing her efforts were better spent buffing her allies was a bit of a head-slapping moment for her, but thankfully the noise of the masses of prisoners above them distracted everyone from her personal embarrassing moment.
“NOO! STOOP! PLEASE!”
“GET AWAY FROM IT!”
“DON’T TOUCH THE HOLY GRAIL!”
“The Holy Grail?” Ryuji stepped back for a moment to look at the treasure. “It’s a cup.”
“A grail is a type of cup.”
“Huh.” Deciding that was more than enough thought put into the subject, Ryuji returned to smacking it repeatedly.
“Does anyone else hear laughter right now?”
“Now that you mention it Panther…”
Suddenly a glowly red light from the tubes leading into the grail began to glow, an immense energy flowing into the structure. The jet black surface seemed to gradually shift in color, and the dents they had caused seemed to repair themselves.
“Bitch it’s fixing itself?” Ann groaned. “This is already going to take forever.”
“We just gotta smash is faster then!” Ryuji renewed his efforts, but he had barely landed a few strikes before the deep laughter began again, and light flowed into the chalice once more, restoring itself entirely. “What the fuck?!”
“Are they… healing it?” Makoto looked up an the innumerable cells that surrounded them, full of people calling out for the ‘Holy grail’. “Do people really value this thing so much?”
“Uh…” Ren turned nervously to the rest of the group. “Any other ideas? Guys?”
“Fools.”
A deep, powerful voice could be heard. Instinctively, the group put distance between themselves and the Holy Grail, trying to work out who was speaking.
“You imbeciles are intoxicated by an undesired ‘justice’.”
“The voice is… coming from the Holy Grail itself?”
“This is the will of the children of man who have fallen into sloth. My shine is proof they desire my existence. As long as humanity yearns for me, I shall never perish.”
“We’re… we’re being talked down to by a cup?” Ren shook his head, even by the standards of the Metaverse this was a strange concept to wrap his head around.
“I am the God humanity wishes for. Fools like you, who rebel against the will of man, have no power here. What they people wish for… is my control.”
“Excuse me?” Ren- perhaps driven by a mixture of adrenaline and shock- stood without showing any of the fear he felt. “When did we wish for anything like that? I don’t remember voting, I must have missed the memo.”
“H-he’s right!” Makoto bottled up her own fear and stood beside him. “People wishing to just stop thinking and be guided by the Holy Grail? I don’t buy that for a second!”
“It’s friggin’ dumb!” Ryuji called out. “No one’s stupid enough to agree to that. You just up and decided that for yourself! You’re just like every other asshole in the world!”
“Hmph…” Having no face, the thieves couldn’t appreciate the look of distain the Holy Grail wished to give them right now. “Your will, is not the will of mankind. My very existence proves that I am correct.”
“Bitch shut up! I don’t know exactly what you are, or how you got yourself in this position, but no one would want what you’re offering if you actually asked! Not one person would agree to that. You just up and decided that because some people are depressed that everyone just wants to give up on life and become a cog in whatever stupid machine you have in mind.” Ren shot the grail a few times to punctuate his point- not that it accomplished anything. “Look- one way or another we’re breaking you to bits, and we’ve all firmly decided we’re sick of villains preaching to us with long-winded monologues about their twisted philosophy. So why don’t you shut up, and either fight back or sit there while we pummel you?”
The Holy Grail laughed uproariously.
“Aah… You… the game we played was amusing, but alas it’s time we brought it to an end.”
“Huh? What are you talking abo—actually no, I don’t care. We’re beating you up now.”
“Hahah…”
“Huh?!” Makoto wasn’t sure why, or how- but she could feel it staring directly at her now.
“And you… yours was a fun game too. I hope he was pleased with the results.”
“Game? Results? Who’s ‘he’?”
“Even I will admit, there was fun to be had with Bro’s idea.”
“Bro?” Futaba paused baffled for a moment. “’Bro’ really doesn’t fit how he talks…”
The Holy Grail ignored them.
“But that too, must come to an end. For there is no place for thieves in my world.”
“What the hell are you—”
~ ~ ~
“C’mon Eiko, otherwise we’re gonna leave you behind.”
“I’m coming Ai-chan, keep your titties on.”
Not far from Shibuya Square, Eiko- out with her friends on Christmas Eve- dodged the hustle and bustle of the lively streets to catch up with her friends, who were already moving onto the next store. As she approached them she noticed a sudden, distinctice splashing sound from underfoot.
”Huh?”
At first she thought she must have accidentally stepped in a puddle, but then she realized it wasn’t raining, in fact the weather was shockingly sunny and fair for this time of year, why would there be a puddle? She looked down to see more than just a puddle, a strange, inexplicable red-colored water was up to her ankles.
“What the--?”
She looked around, it seemed to spread everywhere around her, as if the whole city had suddenly sunk into the ocean, now up to her knees.
“Eiko-san, you okay? You look spooked.”
Eiko looked up to see Ai, Aya, and Mieko looking at her, confused and concerned.
“Th-the water…”
“Water?” Mieko tilted her head. “I mean, we can just get some water from the store if you need it, no need to panic.”
Eiko stared at her friends in disbelief.
“You… you seriously don’t see the water we’re standing in?”
The girls looked down, then at eachother, then at her incredulously. Ai reached out and rested a hand on Eiko’s shoulder.
“Seriously Eiko-chan, is something wrong?”
“Is something…” Eiko slapped her arm away, taking a few shocked steps back, hearing and feeling the water around her legs with every step. “YES! SOMETHING IS OBVIOUSLY WRONG! THERE’S WATER EVERYWHERE AROUND US! AND…” She trailed off as she looked up into the sky, seeing numerous huge structures made out of what looked like bone, as if the spines of some titanic creatures had been left lying around Tokyo. “What are…” She looked back at her friends again, trying desperately to keep her breathing under control. “Stop messing with me, you have to be able to see all this… you have to…”
Aya and Mieko exchanged a worried look, Ai kept trying to reach out to Eiko.
“It’s okay Eiko-chan, everything is fine, nothing is happening.”
“Something is clearly happening!” Eiko, beginning to panic, ran past her friends towards Shibuya Square, nearly dropping her bag while doing so. Everywhere she looked everyone seemed to be acting completely oblivious to the supernatural events around them, the most they reacted to was her running around distressed.
Once she reached the square she started desperately scanning the crowds until she saw her.
“FUMI-CHAN!”
The other girl didn’t respond, she was too busy staring up in shock at the abstract bone structures. Eiko reached out and shook her shoulder.
“Fumi-chan!”
Hifumi turned to her, eyes wide.
“E-Eiko-san…” She looked back up at the bones, then down at the water surrounding them, then at Eiko again. “What’s happening?”
“Do you see them too?”
Hifumi nodded, looking past Eiko and at the general populace continuing as if nothing were amiss.
“Are we… why can no one else see it?”
“I don’t know. I thought I was going crazy…” Eiko looked back up, shuddering. “Maybe I still am…”
“Wh-what do we do?”
“I uh…” Eiko scanned around, desperate to find someone else that seemed to be reacting to the strange happenings. Hundreds of people going by, yet no one else seemed distressed, no one else seemed to be panicking. Except for… “Tora!”
“Huh? Takao-san?”
Eiko- grabbing Hifumi’s hand and pulling her along, ran over to the politician.
“Tora what the FUCK is happening right now?!”
“I… never in my life have I seen something like this.” He looked around. “And why is everyone else so calm?”
“THAT’S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!” Eiko started shaking him too.
“S-seriously, what do we do?” Fumi raised a shaky hand.
“Call the police or something?! I dunno!” Eiko started fumbling through her bag but had trouble steadying herself, currently fighting back tears in her eyes. “I’m freaking the fuck out right now!”
“It’s okay Takao-san. We’ll… we’ll um…”
“Ren…”
~ ~ ~
“—talking about? Wh-what? Where are we?”
“We’re… back in Shibuya?” Makoto looked around to confirm that yes- they were back in the real world. “But how?”
“The Holy Grail must have forced us outside, but how did—WOAH!” Morgana flinched in shock, feeling a strange liquid rise up from beneath his paws.
“The hell is this?”
“Is this it’s doing too?”
Haru stumbled back- nearly falling over were she not steadied by Ryuji being lucky enough to catch her- as large bones seems to inexplicably burst from the ground.
“What the hell?”
“The two worlds… are they merging? But how?”
“And why the hell is everyone else so calm?”
“I don’t… ow… my head.”
“Futaba-chan?”
The others turned around just in time to see Futaba clutch her head and fall to the ground.
“Are you okay?” Ryuji rushed to her side.
“I… I feel woozy…”
“Here grab on.” Ann held her arm out for the other girl, but before she could help her up- she suddenly collapsed herself.
“Ann!” Haru called out, before she collapsed too, followed shortly by the rest of the thieves.
“Is it… doing this too?”
“That… THAT SON OF A BITCH!” Ryuji slammed his fist against the ground in rage, or rather- he would have done so were it not for his hand having suddenly vanished when he wasn’t looking. He began screaming.
“Ryuji!” Ann would have turned to see what was wrong, but her own legs had begun to vanish.
Makoto looked around at the others in horror, one by one her friends began to slowly fade away. She looked down at her own body to confirm that yes- she was suffering the same fate.
“Don’t tell me…”
“Indeed.” The voice of the Holy Grail was heard in their minds once again. “This isn’t my doing. You imbeciles are about to disappear from the people’s cognition.”
“B…Bullshit… You’re just…”
“Mementos and reality have become one. Thus, those who have disappeared from cognition cannot exist anywhere.”
What was left of Makoto’s body began to shake, she tried in vain to sit up, only just barely managing to witness Ryuji vanish before her completely, then Ann, Yusuke, Futaba…
“Morgana… where did we… go wro—” and it was then that Makoto was given the small mercy not not having to watch any more of her friends- or indeed her boyfriend- vanish into nothing before her eyes, scared and confused. Her insides grew terribly cold, she couldn’t force out the rest of her sentence, the sounds around her all melded together into one indistinguishable blur.
And then everything went black.
Chapter 75: The reality of things
Summary:
After seemingly vanishing from existence, Makoto reawakens, and the truth is revealed.
Notes:
75 chapter milestone, let's go.
A bit of a longer one, both to celebrate and because I had a lot I wanted to cover.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
And so, Makoto found herself in a cold, empty, featureless cell. Looking out between the bars she could see little more than a long, curving hallway leading god knows where, with blue ambient lighting where she couldn’t tell where it was emanating from, but at least that beat sitting here in total darkness.
The last thing she remembered was her and her friends fading away into nothing in Shibuya. Was this the afterlife? Sitting alone in a lonely cell tucked away in some obscure corner with only the distant sounds of an equally lonely-sounding choir breaking the silence and feeling of complete isolation? Being given all of eternity to contemplate your mistakes and regrets in life? If this really was the afterlife then the afterlife really did suck.
And yet, Makoto didn’t find herself falling into despair, she didn’t have the energy to. She just felt tired, defeated. They challenged a force claiming to be a god that had the power to back it up, wiping them from existence through the supposed wishes of a populace that was all too ready to forget about them.
Over the last year the attention she had drawn- both as a prolific celebrity nudist, and as a member of the status quo shattering Phantom Thieves- had given her feelings of power and purpose that she never thought possible, that had been missing from her entire life hither to. But all of that was so easily erased in such a short span of time. Maybe all of this, everything that had so drastically changed her life and meant so much to her, maybe it really was nothing more than an easily forgotten blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things.
She sat against the wall of her cell, letting out a long, tired exhale, rested her forehead in her knees, and simply resigned herself to this. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching her, but didn’t register them until she heard his voice.
“Hey Mako.”
Makoto lifted her head. Just outside her cell stood Ren, clad in his Phantom Thief gear.
“Ren… hey…”
He squatted down to match her eye-level.
“You holding together alright?”
“I…” Makoto looked down at herself, then at him again, offering a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m not hurt or anything.”
“That’s a relief.” He nodded. “You ready to go?”
“Ready to…” Makoto looked at him, confused. “Ren I’m stuck in here.”
“Hm, I see…” Ren nodded thoughtfully, pondering a while, before looking back at his girlfriend and laughing. “Y’know, we switched back over to winter uniforms a while ago now, you’re going to get weird looks if you show up in that.”
Makoto looked down again, gently pulling the collar of her Shujin summer uniform, letting out a humorless laugh of her own.
“I guess this is technically the last outfit I wore.” Her hands returned to her raised knees. “I guess that means our ‘game’ really is over.”
“Game?”
“This whole… fantasy we’ve been playing out. I was thrust into this absurd situation by forces unknown, and I just willingly played my part.”
“Don’t be silly Makoto. Regardless of how this started you really made it your own, even I can tell you had a lot of fun, there’s no reason to start feeling bad now.”
Makoto sighed.
“I guess you’re not wrong. But we so quickly just… gave up trying to figure out what was actually going on. I can’t even remember the last time we mentioned how… unnatural it all was.”
Ren shrugged.
“We didn’t exactly have much of a lead to follow.”
“The whole nudity thing… I guess that itself wouldn’t really matter that much, it’s just that it makes me think… are the Phantom Thieves the same?”
“The same… how?”
“Is that just another game? Another fantasy we let ourselves get lost in. We convinced ourselves that we were making some kind of difference, that we really were ‘powerful’. Then reality comes and hits us in the face, rendering everything we went through completely pointless…” Makoto hid her face between her knees. “We saw it just now, people don’t even acknowledge us anymore. I really let myself think I was important, special… that I was useful… I’ve been a fool…”
“Makoto…” Ren watched as her shoulders sank, defeated, and how she hid her face away from him, feeling both dejected and humiliated. He shook his head. “You’re such an intelligent woman, but you say the dumbest things sometimes.”
Makoto lifted her head just enough for her eyes to meet his.
“What?”
“Like, come on. Why are you letting yourself fall for that ‘disappearing from people’s cognition’ shit?”
“Ren, you saw what happened.”
“Yeah, I did. The Holy Grail teleported us outside, no one could see us, and we disappeared. But you can’t honestly believe any of that was natural? What, the whole Shido reveal just gets ignored, the Phantom Thieves’ relevance disappears overnight in the midst of their biggest scandal, and everyone suddenly starts ignoring the hot nudist celebrity? Anyone with a brain can tell this Holy Grail has got some mind control shit going on, altering cognitions or whatever to try and destroy our morale. He needs to do that since he can’t actually erase us, he just sent us here. If he actually had the power to get rid of us that easily he would have just done so.”
“That’s… that’s true…”
“Of course it is. But if I can easily figure that out, I know you can too. You’re way smarter than I am, so I’m wondering why you’re letting yourself fall into despair like this…”
Makoto exhaled, and offered Ren a weak smile.
“I think you’re giving me too much credit.”
“I’m definitely not. You’re the strongest, smartest, and most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
Makoto averted her eyes, trying in vain to hide her blush.
“I’m not sure how that last adjective is relevant.”
“The point is that the woman I love more than anything else is the world is definitely not the type to just sit around moping when things get hard.” Ren got to his feet. “You’re not the type to hide away from the world.”
She stared up at him, her eyes widening.
“Ren…”
“If there’s one ability you’ve demonstrated above all others over the last year, it’s the strength to stand proud, tall, and uncompromising against the world, like the Queen you are.”
In spite of herself, Makoto let out a rather unladylike snort as she burst into laughter.
“Oh Ren… you say the cheesiest shit sometimes…” She got to her feet, and faced him with a confident smile on her face. “But you’re not wrong. Maybe I can give myself some credit. Although…”
“Hm?”
She averted her eyes once more.
“It’s not as if I did all that alone. I’ve had a lot of very supportive friends backing me up the whole way… and one very supportive boyfriend.” Fighting past the embarrassment, she smiled directly at him. “Ren, I wouldn’t be who I am today without you. Thank you, for everything.”
“I didn’t do…” Ren caught himself, shook his head briefly before smirking at her, gesturing towards himself with his thumbs. “I guess having the best boyfriend in your corner did help after all.”
“Hm.” Makoto raised an eyebrow. “Can’t help but stroke your own ego a little too?”
“Hey, you’re pretty much the Queen of confidence, I’m just trying to keep up.”
“Well it’s fine on this occasion at the very least.” She nodded. “Confidence is a good look on you.”
“It looks best on you.”
“Hm… you might be right.”
And with that, a distinctive blue flame began to envelop Makoto’s body, and her Shujin uniform was swiftly replaced by her distinctive Phantom Thief outfit she had grown so attached to. She walked towards her boyfriend, right through the iron barred gate that unceremoniously disappeared in those same flames with her touch. She stood before Ren, fist on her cocked hip, grinning up at him.
“Alright, I’ve past my moment of doubt, and I’m ready to show that cup who's boss, with you at my side.”
“Now there’s my Queen.” He couldn’t help his eyes drifting down her body; even though he’d seen a lot of it, for some reason, right now, he felt like he could appreciate her beauty more than ever before. “Can I confess something, Queen?”
“Hm?”
“When I saw you in your uniform again, I thought maybe your heart had moved on from the whole nudism thing. And while I would have 100% respected your choice, still loving and respecting you the same as ever…” He bit his lower lip a bit. “I am pretty relieved that you’re sticking with going around naked.”
Makoto sighed, still maintaining her smile as she did so.
“Thank you for being honest. Glad to see I didn’t disappoint.”
“You could never disappoint me.”
“I’m happy to hear that. But yes, regardless of how it started, or what the Holy Grail was insinuating when he said ‘game’, my body and my pride are my own, no one can take them from me, and no one can hide it away except me.” She pumped her fist. “I’m beautiful, you said it yourself. I’ve come to appreciate just how strong that makes me feel, I don’t plan on giving that up.”
Ren eye’s gazed lovingly into hers for a while, almost losing himself in them before remembering to actually speak.
“You’re so fucking awesome.”
“I know.”
Ren’s hand rested on her shoulder, and he slowly leaned in. Mildly surprised- but totally willing to give into the moment- Makoto closed her eyes and readied her lips. A moment passed, before she felt his finger ‘boop’ her on the nose. She opened her eyes, glaring at him annoyed as he coyly shrugged.
“Hey, I got to leave something for you to look forward t—”
Ren was cut off when she forcefully pulled him in for a kiss, deciding that if he wouldn’t give it to her, she’d happily take it herself.
“Queen wants her kiss now, thank you.” She said after she released him, leaving him rather dazed. “How about we look forward to going even further later, instead?”
“S…sounds good, Queen.”
She chuckled to herself as he scrambled to regain his composure. He cleared his throat before speaking again.
“A-anyway. I better go find the others.”
“Are they around here too?”
Ren nodded.
“I already found Futaba, I assume the others have their own cells. In the meantime you can wait in the central room- I already sent Futaba ahead.”
“Right, where—”
“Just head down the hallway and take a left. You can’t miss it.” His fingers ran down her arm as they began to part again, and he began to walk in the opposite direction in search of the other thieves. He suddenly stopped himself and turned back around. “Oh and, don’t be alarmed by the small girl in blue or the man with the long nose, they’re both on our side.”
“Man with… wait—” Makoto brought her hand up to her temple. “So you’re saying that whole bit about the ‘man with the long nose in my dreams’ was actually true?”
“Uh… yeah? I did say it was true at the time, were you still doubting me?”
“I mean… that part was a bit… out there?” Makoto sighed. “So he gave you the nav?”
“Well actually it was the fake him that gave me it.”
“…what?”
“Yeah turns out my noseman was a fake and actually the bad guy, but don’t worry about it, we’ve got the real one now.”
“…excuse me?”
“And the little girl was actually 2 little-er girls before but they’re together as one now.”
“…come again?”
“The other girls were a pain so I would warn you to be careful, but this new one acts like an adult- despite being so tiny, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“…huh?”
Ren put up his arms.
“Look, I’m not going to lie to you, it’s been a weird ass day. I’ll explain it all later, just rest assured everyone in that room is a friend so you’re safe.”
“…okay?”
“And Futaba’s probably getting nervous by herself, so maybe go calm her down.”
“…if you say so.”
And with that, Ren finally left to reunite the team, and Makoto- with no small amount of confusion and caution- went to meet these new ‘friends’.
~ ~ ~
Lavenza was able to fill in a fair amount of the gaps for Makoto and the rest of the thieves on the true nature of their foe- the false deity calling itself the Holy Grail, the ‘god of control’ aiming to completely fuse the real world and the metaverse and bring all of humanity under it’s rule.
How Ren was apparently a ‘trickster’, some kind of ‘chosen one’ with the power to fight fate. Apparently Igor- the rather creepy-looking yet friendly man with the distinctive shnoz- had a habit of recruiting ‘teenagers with attitude’ whenever some god-like being was threatening to step out of line. All this sounded especially lofty, and she’d by lying if she said she understood it all exactly; but Makoto was glad that if there was someone that had to be designated to be some kind of chosen hero- that it was someone as kind and supportive as Ren. Part of her wished she could brag about dating him, but it’s not as if anyone would believe the story.
And finally, Morgana’s true nature came to light. He was certainly right about not being a cat, but he wasn’t human either. He was a creation of Igor, a physical manifestation of humanity’s hope, meant to guide Ren the Trickster in his journey to challenge the supposed ‘god of control’. A quest he had succeeded in spectacularly so far, even without knowing it.
“Yo that’s sick Mona!” Futaba cheered. “You’re like one of those magical girl mascots who teaches the girl what’s up, except way cooler.”
“Um… thanks? I guess?” Morgana slouched. “Can’t say that description makes me feel that good…”
“Hey it just shows how amazing you actually are Mona-chan.” Haru petted the now-proven-notcat’s head, which did make him feel a little better.
“Hey, it might be even better than being a boring human, right?” Ryuji offered, though Morgana didn’t seem especially enthused about that either.
“I guess… I would have preferred a human shape though.” Morgana glared at Igor, who annoyingly kept his gaze affixed on Ren- or at least away from Morgana himself.
“Actually, Lavenza?”
“Hm?” Lavenza took her eyes off of Mona. “You are the one called Makoto- correct?”
“Yes.” Makoto bowed formally. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Thank you for assisting Ren- and by extension- us over the past year.” She gave an unsure smile. “Or your halves, or whatever it was.”
Lavenza returned the bow.
“Helping guests is my reason for being after all, though Ren has been a wonderful guest to serve. Especially seeing as he was the one to restore my true form with our fusion equipment.”
She gestured to the pair of guillotines everyone had been trying to ignore, sitting on the opposite side of the room. All the thieves turned to Ren with horrified expressions on their faces.
“I-I promise it’s not as bad as it looks. Things are REALLY weird in here.”
No one seemed especially comforted by that, but they knew him well enough to not think ill of him, and thus decided to drop it, and simply repress the memory as much as they could.
“A-anyway…” Makoto continued. “I did have one other thing I wanted to ask about…”
Lavenza wordlessly gestured for her to continue.
“This program… it just appeared overnight. And that first time Kobayakawa called me in to be it’s representative. I wanted to turn it down, to reject it entirely, and yet I heard a voice inside my head, compelling me to agree, somehow convincing me it all made sense.”
Lavenza nodded.
“You wish to know if this is the god of control’s influence too?”
Makoto nodded.
“Yes, both I- and the public- have acted so strange since it’s introduction. I wish to finally put this mystery to rest.”
“I’m afraid it’s exactly as you expect. The ‘program’- as you call it- is a creation of the god of control. As was your compulsion to agree to it, and the country’s acceptance of its legal legitimacy, except of course in the minds of those of you who had already awakened to your power of Persona by the time of the program’s inception.”
“All this time…” Ann rubbed her head. “It was just something set up by the Holy Grail? But… why? Doesn’t it have this ‘grand goal’ of ruling the world or whatever? Why would it waste time with something like that?”
“The actions were taken by him, but it was the machinations of another.”
Makoto tilted her head in confusion.
“Another?”
“An ally, perhaps? Though exactly who- or why? I’m afraid that is beyond my knowledge.” Lavenza hung her head apologetically, before meeting Makoto’s eyes once more. “When you defeat him, you may break free from this ‘game’ of theirs.”
“Hm? No, I’m fine.”
Lavenza’s brow raised.
“Is that so?”
Makoto nodded confidently.
“It may have started as his ‘game’, but the program, and all the power it gives us- belongs to us now.”
Ren chuckled.
“We are thieves after all, just add this to the list of things we’ve stolen… well I say ‘we’, but I’m not a nudist.”
“Maybe not.” Makoto smiled at him. “But you’re an ‘ally’, I think that’s what Eiko would call you. Speaking of which…” her brow furrowed in concern. “Eiko, Hifumi, everyone- were they ‘influenced’ too?”
“Hm?” Lavenza looked at her incredulously. “No, not at all.”
“Huh?” Makoto stared back in shock. “He didn’t do anything to them?”
“I have already told you the full extent of their influence. The documents were formed, made legally legitimate, and the program’s existence made acceptable by the general populace. That is all.”
“That’s… it?”
“So you’re saying…” Ren began. “That the Holy Grail and his mysterious companion made everyone think the program was a real thing, and coerced Makoto into it; but everything else- how she handled the nudity, how she enjoyed the exposure, how the public reacted to her, how others ended up being inspired and joining…?”
Lavenza nodded.
“The actions you took were all your own, and everyone’s reactions were their own. The only exception was their sudden acceptance of the program's existence.”
Ren turned to Makoto, a confident smirk on his face.
“Hell it hardly counts as ‘stealing’ the program, he just gave it to us.”
Makoto stared wide-eyed for a moment, before returning his confident expression.
“Right. It was ours all along… I’m okay with that.”
“Yo that means Makoto being an exhibitionist was just… how she’s always been?”
“Ryuji!” Ann hissed as she elbowed him in the torso.
“OW! Wha—Oh… n-not that I meant anything bad Makoto… it’s uh…”
“It’s fine Ryuji.” Makoto bashfully fiddled with her hair. “I guess it just awakened I side of me I never knew existed… heheh…” She shook her head, and stood tall with her hands on her hips. “Not that I’m ashamed of that, I’ve learned to accept that side of me- and if others can’t respect me being proud of my body, then that’s their loss.”
“Hear hear!” Yusuke smiled warmly. “We’ve all chosen to reject shame, I don’t intend to change that.”
“Damn straight!” Futaba added her own hurrah to the mix. “Naked people are awesome! Especially ones confident enough to show off! If any prudes don’t like it, then they can go fuck themselves!”
“I wouldn’t word it like that, but I enjoy the enthusiasm Futaba-chan.” Makoto laughed nervously.
“I mean…” Ann shrugged. “I still think you guys go too far. But it doesn’t change how much I respect all of you. You’re all my friends; clothes or no clothes- I love you all.”
“Ohoho, yes.” Igor lightly applauded, drawing everyone’s attention. “Those bonds you have all formed. Those shall be your strength, be sure to remember them when you face your final foe.”
Ren nodded with determination.
“Thanks man, we will. Speaking of which, we better face the music.” He turned back to the group. “Is everyone ready to head out?” Ren received a chorus of affirmations, everyone matching his sense of determination. “Kick ass. It’s showtime.”
Saying goodbye to the Velvet room residents, the thieves gathered their courage, and made their way up the stairs, and back out into the real world.
Igor chuckled warmly.
“Humans forming strong bonds always brings me great joy, though being able to see the results with my own eyes is a privilege indeed.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Master.”
~ ~ ~
The thieves had exited the Velvet room, and immediately found themselves back in Shibuya square. Things were- as expected- still going to Hell, somewhat literally. The bone structures had grown ever more complex, and seemed to lead up to a huge tower, likely where the Holy Grail had situated itself.
Annoyingly, most of the public still seemed to remain ignorant of the changes around them, but at least a few at least noticed the thieves, and indeed Makoto herself. Due to the fact that it wasn’t necessarily her face she was known for, people recognized her quite easily, which was… potentially concerning, but they could deal with that later- they had more important things to worry about. And furthermore- Makoto wasn’t drawing that much attention compared to the Morgana, not only walking around in his metaverse form, but inexplicably glowing- likely as part of his newfound power and purpose.
Still, none of this mattered right now. What mattered was climbing the structures and fighting their way to the Holy Grail to challenge it once more. It was hard to say whether it was aware of their approach, but regardless it seemed like it wasn’t going to make things easy on them. Numerous powerful shadows stood between the thieves and their target, even including two taking the forms of Archangel Uriel and Archangel Raphael respectively- as if to flaunt the Holy Grail’s belief in its own godhood.
The thieves had grown incredibly powerful in their own right, pair that with their own wills being stronger than ever before- and they managed to tear through one adversary after another, all the way until they encountered a third faux-Archangel, bearing the appearance of Archangel Gabriel.
“Hold. I bear you no malice, children of man.”
“Dammit.” Ren drew his knife and signalled for everyone to get ready for battle. “Another one.”
Gabriel continued with a serene smile on her face, looking upon the thieves resorting to violence the same way a doting mother would look upon a misbehaving child.
“Return from whence you came. Proceeding further shall only serve to shorten your lives.”
While she was speaking, a faint rumbling could be heard from behind her; more specifically- from the path up ahead she was defending. The team exchanged some concerned glances, not being able to see the source of the noise as it rapidly grew louder.
“I advise you not as a guardian, but out of the mercy of my hea— ARGH!” Gabriel’s speech was abruptly cut off as the source of the rumbling suddenly made itself known, crashing into the side of her torso, knocking her to the ground in a painful, inelegant flail, causing her to drop her sword as she rolled off of the platform, disappearing into the city down below. The cause of her sudden injury…
“THE KING OF THIS WORLD HAS ARRIVED DUDE!”
The team looked upon this creature with shock and disgust, Ann nearly vomiting on the spot, and a cold feeling of dread shooting through the bodies of everyone else. The metaverse had no shortage of oddities to witness, but few came close to this… thing riding atop a gilded chariot. It’s large green shape left nothing to the imagination, the writhing tentacles near the… ‘base’ were off-putting to say the least. The thieves had faced many opponents worth of being called ‘Dickheads’, but never had it been quite so literal.
“What on Earth…?”
“MARA IS HERE DUDE!” He writhed around triumphantly, as if already declaring his victory. “The King of this world can FINALLY make his debut!”
“What does he mean ‘The King of this world’?” Haru asked, trying not to look directly at the ‘head’ too much.
“Mara, the evil one, is considered the ruler of the mortal world in Buddhist mythology.” Yusuke nodded, somehow comfortably slipping into a ‘teacher mode’ despite the situation. “Look it up. It’s rather fascinating.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Ren regained his composure. “He’s just another shadow in our way, we’ll take him down like all the rest.”
The others nodded and readied themselves for combat.
“Ohoho~ So sure of yourselves. Clearly you don’t appreciate just how important of a figure I am!”
“More like we don’t give a shit, piss off.” Ren fired his pistol at the shadow, causing it to flinch back in pain.
“ARGH! How dare yo…” Mara trailed off as it caught sight of Makoto, the girl cringing at it’s horrid approximation of a mouth grinning directly at her. “Ahh… finally we meet.”
“Don’t even look at me!”
“Aww… but that’s the whole point! Can’t believe my Dude actually did it. Some chick walking around nude and horny all day, every day! HAHA! It’s incredible. Dude can actually turn life into a porno just like that!”
“My life is my own!” Makoto cried out defiantly. “It’s not just a game for you to enjoy!”
“Don’t be lame! Really I wish it could have gone further, maybe add some ‘free use’ on top of it all, that’d be kick ass!”
“I told you, I’m not here to amuse you!”
“Oh really now?” Mara laughed uproariously. “Well what if I told you, that it was I!”
“You?” Ren tilted his head.
“Yes! It was I who asked the Holy Grail to create the program, and get you permanently naked, all for my amusement!”
“Oh okay.”
“Figures.”
“…What?” Mara’s arms fell. “That’s it?”
The thieves exchanged a few more confused looks.
“What’s it?”
“All this time… all this build up… 75 goddamn chapters—”
“Chapters?”
“—And all I get for my big reveal is a ‘durr hurr, oh okay, figures’?! What the fuck?!”
Ren shrugged.
“I mean we already knew it was someone messing with cognitions from day one, and earlier today we found out it was the holy grail doing it for an ally or something, and it turns out to be just some weird-looking shadow.”
“Who you calling ‘weird-looking’?”
“Plus we’re enjoying the nudism thing.” Futaba added. “We kinda stopped caring about the ‘mystery’ a long long time ago.”
“…Oh…” Mara felt dejected. “But… my reveal.”
“No one cares.”
“Dammit!” the shadow seethed for a moment, before an idea struck. “Aha, though- what if I told you I am no mere shadow- but the real- in the flesh- demon Mara!”
The thieves stared blankly for a moment.
“We wouldn’t know what that means, to be honest.”
“Ah… I see. Well that’s good because it’s not true, I made it up.”
Ren shot him again.
“ARGH! My beautiful form!”
“Are you gonna fight us or not man?”
“Grrr…” Mara grumbled for a moment, before beginning to chuckle. “Oh but can you fight me? Are you willing to pay the price?”
“What are you talking about?” Makoto shouted at the beast, her patience wearing thin.
“What you fools don’t realize is that killing me would undo this precious change you’ve grown to love so much!”
“Huh? What do you mean? The program?”
“Of course! What country would willingly accept such an idea if not for MY influence? Without me, it would cease to be, no longer will your nudity be accepted, you’d lose your beloved lifestyle forever!”
“Actually it’d be fine.” Both Mara and the Thieves turned towards the familiar voice. Just off the edge of the platform they all stood atop, floated Archangel Gabriel. She flew in place, her arms folded, looking down upon both sides. “Killing him won’t undo the program, even if you somehow best The Holy Grail the program and it’s aftereffects have already made their root in this world, and can’t be undone unless you actively wish for it to be so.”
“I—wh—why… I don’t…” Mara sputtered, half in panic, half rage. “WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT?!” He screamed. “Yeah they would have still fought me, but it would have put doubt in their minds and given me an edge! Why would you ruin the ONE advantage I had?!”
Gabriel covered her mouth in mock shock.
“Oh no! You’re absolutely right. Given that you’re so much weaker than us archangels, I should have known you wouldn’t stand a chance against them without your psychological warfare, and I just completely ruined that for you beyond all repair.” She playfully knocked herself on top of the head. “Oopsie. I wonder why I did that?” Her eyes suddenly narrowed at the ‘King’. “The whiplash from my tumble must have messed with my brain.”
“B-but it was an a-accident…”
“Alright, enough waiting.” Ren called out, scaring Mara stiff (no pun intended). “Everyone, give him everything you got!”
“No wait hang on, I—ARGH!”
And thus began a barrage of physical and magical attacks, rapid fired at the shadow with ferocity best left undescribed, lest it allow you to form a misplaced sense of pity for the creature, and his failed efforts to launch a counter offensive until he was brought to his knees (figuratively, of course) by Makoto’s attack, doomed to await her final blow.
He turned to Gabriel in desperation, still floating there, notably not taking any action.
“Goddammit! Help me! If not for me, then for my Dude!”
“Bro!” A powerful voice rang out across the battlefield. “Bro are you okay?”
“DUDE! I’m getting my ass kicked!”
“Bro what?! I can’t help right now, I’m busy managing the merging of worlds. Don’t fuck this up Dude, I can’t lose you!”
Yusuke took the time to bring his hand to his chin thoughtfully.
“This Holy Grail has quite a different energy and set of mannerisms to him when he’s talking to a friend, it seems…” Everyone ignored him.
“Dude Gabriel’s refusing to help!”
“Bro she’s just ghosting you? The fuck?! Archangel- support him!”
“Of course my Lord.” Gabriel brought her hand to her chest and bowed. “As your left hand, I will follow your will.” She turned back to Mara, a serene smile on her face. “Fear not Mara, I will support you wholeheartedly, with everything I have.”
Gabriel suddenly ducked below the platform and out of sight. A few moments of silence passed, before she flew back up into view, an oversized pom-pom obtained from god-knows-where in each hand. She then began her routine.
“G! O! M! A! R! U! GO MARUUU! Do a great throb!”
“…”
“Gettit? ‘Do a great throb’? It’s like ‘Do a great job’ except I said ‘throb’ since it rhymes with ‘job’ and you look like a big peepee, which is supposed to throb.”
“…”
“No no, you’re right, it’s reaching too far isn’t it?”
“…”
“Okay okay, I’ll do something more normal. G! O! M! A! R! U! GO MARUUU! Do your best!”
“YOU ASSHOLE!”
“DUDE NO!”
“I’M GONNA DIE BRO!”
“YOU CAN’T, YOU’RE MY DUDE!”
“Wait hang on a moment, that’s the wrong way around. The Holy grail is supposed to be ‘Bro’ and Mara ‘Dude’, they just switched…”
“Yusuke you are NOT helping!”
“DUUUDE!”
“BROOOO!”
“DUUUUUUUUDE!”
“BROOOOOOOOO!”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Makoto stomped her foot, and readied her—“FIST OF JUSTICE!”
“NOOOOO!”
And lo, the reign of the ‘King’ ended in a fierce explosion, fuelled by overwhelming nuclear power, courtesy of Queen. Long live the Queen.
Silence fell over the battlefield, with their opponent being reduced to nothingness, and their target bitterly silent, the thieves breathed a sigh of relief for this brief breather in the lead up to what would surely be their final battle. They took a moment to stand in awe of Makoto’s furious strength, Ren took another moment to smugly remind the rest of team that he was dating her, and finally the team continued their march towards the tower where the Holy Grail waited, ready for their encounter.
“Where’d the angel go?” Haru scanned the horizon but saw nothing.
“She probably just flew off.” Ren answered.
“Should we do something?”
“Nah we’ll leave her Skull, I imagine the Holy Grail is looking for her too, maybe it’ll distract him for a bit.” Ren shrugged. “We can only hope.”
Notes:
Yaldy awaits. Next time, on Dragonball Z.
Chapter 76: Yaldabaoth
Summary:
The totally final, last, ultimate, for real ending battle of all time.
Notes:
Long since I got carried away in... places...
You'll see what I mean.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Anat- Freidyne!”
“Lilith- Freidyne!”
Ren and Makoto’s combined nuclear attack made for a mighty impact indeed, and yet the results of which weren’t all that much greater than all the other attacks in the thieves’ relentless assault. That wasn’t to say it was ineffective, it had left a visible dent in the ‘body’ of the Holy Grail, which was quick to retaliate with a beam of immense energy, shooting between the couple as they jumped in opposite directions to avoid it.
After a quick glance at eachother to silently confirm they were alright, they both returned focus to their opponent, just in time to avoid the next volley of laser fire. As they were drawing the Holy Grail’s attention, Ryuji and Yusuke struck at the base of the structure with their strongest physical attacks, leaving visible marks, but unfortunately not toppling it like they had hoped.
“Dammit… this is gonna take a while…”
“I can keep buffing everyone as long as you like Joker.” Futaba made sure to keep Prometheus out of reach of the combat, while still staying close enough for her magic to reach her allies below. In this case it did put her uncomfortably close to the glowing cages that still made up the walls of the Holy Grail’s ‘arena’, but she was mostly able to tune out their screaming and focus on the task at hand. “But at this rate we’re gonna run out of stamina before the cup throws in the towel.”
“Hmm…” Ren scanned the others, with Ann and Morgana focused on healing it seemed that everyone had plenty of gas left in the tank- so to speak- and his seemingly bottomless pockets where he had been hording all manner of restorative items did mean they could keep this up a while, but it was all still notably finite, and it was difficult to tell how much damage they actually needed to do. “Alright, shift in strategy: hold off on the big attacks, our regular strikes are still leaving dents. Everyone focus on defence and consistently landing smaller attacks.”
“Right, everyone hear that?”
“Loud and clear Oracle!” Makoto, with a mighty leap, struck the grail’s side with a divekick. Even though she was sure to keep her focus on the fight itself, and appreciate the seriousness of this battle, the act of kicking solid metal hard enough to visibly dent it- however little- did make her feel really cool. “We’re doing damage, it’s only a matter of time before this thing is too misshapen to even fight back.”
“Death by a thousand cuts, as it were.” Yusuke smirked. “Very well, if a battle of attrition is what favors us most, then I’ll gladly play my part.”
The booming voice of the Holy Grail above them scoffed.
“How pointless. I am given strength by the will of the people. So long as they exist, I will never lose my shine.”
Futaba rolled her eyes- not that anyone could see her inside her persona, let alone under her goggles.
“Yeah protip dude, don’t openly state your big weakness out loud in the middle of a fight. You only have yourself to blame for what happens.” Her eyes shifted to the colossal hand sculptures that flanked the Holy Grail. “Then again we’d already figured it out anyway, since you were kind enough to make your weakpoints glow.”
Before the grail could question or retort, Haru had finally finished climbing atop the giant hand. She took a moment to stand proud with her hands on her hips for her feat, before pulling out her grenade launcher, and taking a moment to mentally prepare herself.
“It’s okay, I’ve done this plenty of times in the game, and survived nearly half the time- it’ll work just the same here, I’m sure of it.”
“Hm?” though the Holy Grail lacked visible eyes, it was clear that it’s focus was shifting to Haru. “What are you—?”
“Now Noir!”
“Right!”
Her grenade launcher at the ready, Haru ran to the edge of the platform. Just as she reached the edge and leaped forward, she spun around, aimed her weapon down at her feet, and pulled the trigger. The blast drawing everyone’s eyes and launching the girl forwards with tremendous velocity towards the veins funnelled into the grail. Hastily dropping her grenade launcher, swapping it out for her axe, and letting out a cry of victory as she tore through the veins, severing the Holy Grail from the healing power of its worshippers.
“Hell yeah! You did it Noir!”
Ryuji’s congratulatory cheer, despite the great volume the boy is known for, didn’t quite reach its target. As impressive as the swing of her axe was, it did nothing to slow her momentum. Haru continued to flail inelegantly through the air, helpless to stop herself crashing face first into the side of other gigantic hand, before tumbling down to the ground below.
“Noir!” His track experience shining through, unhampered by injury thanks to the power of the metaverse, allowed him to rush over fast enough to catch her- or at least- break her fall.
“Mona, quick- heal them!”
“On it Joker!”
Morgana ran as fast as his little legs would carry him to the two collapsed thieves. Haru’s body haphazardly splayed atop Ryuji’s back. In the boy’s head his heroic gesture ended with Haru in something akin to a princess carry, or at least holding her close the way Joker would always hold Makoto whenever he dove to catch her, but with his face ground against the floor and limbs splayed out at uncomfortable angles, he realized that destiny just wasn’t going to be that kind to him; a point driven home when he tried to lift his head only for Haru to fumble getting up herself, and inadvertently press his face back into the ground, his mask making a distinctive *tonk* sound upon impact.
“Oh god!” Haru- on weak, shaky knees- forced herself back to her feet as Morgana cast mediarahan on the pair. “I’m so sorry Ryuji-kun, are you hurt?”
“Yeah… it’s whatever…” he shook his head as he too, forced himself to stand up again. “But what about you, are you oka…” Ryuji’s eyes went wide.
“I’m fine!” Haru said, bouncing in place excitedly, the adrenaline still evidentially running through her veins at max capacity. “I was never very good at Quake either, but sending myself flying with explosions was always fun, and it’s even better in reality!”
“I don’t think it’s something we should try in reality ever again. I can’t help but think there was a better way you could have gone through with that Noir. But putting that aside…” Makoto sheepishly raised a hand to point towards Haru. “You might want to… y’know?”
“Hm?” Haru tilted her head in confusion, looking back at each of her friends in sequence, all shyly avoiding staring at her. She looked down, to see huge holes burnt through her leggings and baggy shorts, as well as nearly the whole left side of her top now unaccounted for, exposing her now-soot-covered breast and most of her legs. “Ah.” She bashfully rubbed the back of her head, just under her hat which- remarkably- managed to stay in place during the whole endeavour. “I guess this is to be expected setting off explosions so close, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
Ann sighed.
“Right, we’ve got more important things to focus on right now. Speaking of which…” She turned to the Holy Grail. “It hasn’t moved since we cut those things, is it dead?”
“Or is it just politely waiting for us to finish our banter?”
Ren’s attempt at a joke didn’t make him- or any of the others feel any less nervous. Everything was eerily still and silent in the arena. Even the cages that had housed the shadows of the masses had all gone dark.
“Oracle?”
“I haven’t been able to get a proper read on this thing throughout the whole fight, but now I can’t pick up anything at all.”
“L-let’s just smash it to pieces right now! Before summin’—”
Everything around them suddenly began to shake, causing the thieves to nearly lose their balance, Ren instinctively grabbing a hold of Makoto’s arm, to steady both himself and her.
“What the hell is going on? Oracle?”
“I’m picking up movement from the cup again… no… something below it!”
The walls around them began to glow and crumble away, as did much of the floor around them, leaving the team huddled together atop a platform that seemed to shoot ever higher into the sky, above even the clouds. The Holy Grail itself seemed to open up too, transforming into a mere halo surrounding the head of an immense ivory being that towered above them dwarfing even the arena they had previously been fighting in.
“For real?”
“The Holy Grail… in its entirety?”
What was once the Holy Grail loomed over and around them, so large that they legitimately couldn’t tell how far away it was. A feeling compounded by this oppressive, overwhelming presence it exuded, even at this distance the thieves could feel this pressure pressing down on them, having to fight to even remain standing.
Its voice had grown even louder too, thundering across the open skies.
“I am the administrator born of the collective human unconscious. The god of control, Yaldabaoth.”
Admittedly its claims had significantly more weight to them now that it actually resembled some sort of deity. Still, everyone made sure to bottle up their fear and stand their ground unflinching.
“It is time for you to be purged.”
“Huh? Just like that?”
Yaldabaoth laughed bitterly.
“Are you not the one who said you’re ‘sick of villains preaching to you with long-winded monologues about their twisted philosophy’? You’re standing in the way of my goals, and you took the life of one of my closest allies. There is nothing I need to say to you, I need simply brush you aside Trickster.”
“I guess that saves us some time.” Ren drew his knife. “Gonna have to disagree with that last part though, none of us are getting ‘brushed aside’.”
He reached up, took ahold of his mask with his free and, and tore it away.
“Atavaka! Brave blade!” With his persona mimicking his movements, Ren swung his knife in front of him with as much force as he could muster. Remarkably, the attack seemed to make contact, the false god recoiling slightly. “Wait, that worked?”
Observing her boyfriend’s attack, Makoto tore her own mask from her face, and readied herself to deliver a strike of her own.
“ANAT!” Stepping into it, Makoto delivered the fiercest thrust punch she could manage into the open space in front of her, once again visible impact was made- small as it was. “We… we can hit it?”
“Hmm…” Yusuke pondered. “This immense ‘presence’ we’re feeling, could it be that it’s actually an extension of what we perceive as it’s physical body? And through exerting our wills through the power of Persona, we’re able to ignore the distance between us, and face it on equal grounds?”
“Inari?” Futaba looked to him in awe. “That sounds crazy, but…”
“Well I did just make it up. I have no idea if it’s actually true…”
“Of course…” Ren turned to Morgana. “What do you think?”
Morgana stroked his chin in thought a while, before turning back to Ren and shrugging.
“Cognitions.”
“Good enough for me. Everyone, keep up the assault! Give it everything you’ve got!”
With the matter of distance from the target apparently irrelevant, the team summoned their personas in turn and launched one strike after another. Despite being visibly and audibly hurt by each strike, Yaldabaoth remained calm, and took it’s time before firing its first retaliatory strike. Several intense beams of almighty energy fired out, the thieves narrowly- but decisively- avoiding the blasts.
“Nyeheheh.” Futaba sniggered. “Loser’s just using the same attacks from his cup form.”
“Oracle! You of all people should know about setting flags like that!”
“Just keep up the attack Joker, I’ll focus on the buffs and…” Suddenly, a strange compartment opened on the pseudo-mechanical body of the false god, an uncanny light poured forth from within. An arm reached in, and pulled out what resembled a gigantic pistol. “Oh shit he’s carrying a piece!”
“What’s it gonna do?”
“It’s gonna shoot us you bonehead! What else do guns do?”
“Focus you two! Be ready to dodge whatever it—” Makoto froze as she saw the gun trained directly onto her. The colossal barrel facing down directly at her. She was starting to feel like the idea of ‘dodging’ was just a bad joke, she had no idea how huge or fast-moving whatever projectile lied within would be. “Oh god…”
“I release upon you the deadly sin of lust!” Yaldabaoth’s voice shook the very air around them. “You have no means of escape, humans. The insanity of mankind will bring forth the demise…”
Makoto instinctively brought her arms up over her face- as if that’d do any good- and braced herself for impact.
“MAKOTO—!”
~ ~ ~
“Your Majesty!”
Brought out of her daydream, her eyes slowly drifted up to the woman in front of her.
“Hm?”
“We’ve captured the thief, just as you requested.”
“Hmm…” she nodded. “Bring him in.”
“As you wish.”
The woman bowed, and stepped aside as the doors to the throne room slowly opened, in stepping the thief- notably unrestrained, but flanked on either side by guards clad in armor and blue tunics. He was brought to the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne, and was about to begin ascending before the back end of one of his escort’s spears slammed into his stomach.
“Hey Your Majesty.” Despite his situation, the thief’s voice was positively dripping with smug pride and punctuated by a smarmy grin. “You’re just as beautiful as the rumors say.”
“Hmph.” She stood from her throne, her royal mantle doing absolutely nothing to hide her otherwise completely bare body before the thief and her gathered subjects.
“Mmm, just as lewd too~”
“You’d do well to mind your tongue in my presence.”
“Oh believe me, I’m very mindful about what I want to do with my tongue in your presence.”
Her upper lip curled as she glared down her nose at the thief.
“It feels like you don’t fully comprehend the position you’re in.”
“Oh I comprehend it well, my Queen. After all our games, you finally have me right where you want me. Right in front of you, in the flesh.”
“You’ve been quite irritating as of late. You don’t understand just how much time I’ve spent trying to bring you before me.”
“Can’t take your mind off of me, huh?”
“Th-that’s not it!” She caught herself, quickly regaining her composure and acting as if nothing was amiss, though a light pink persisted on her cheeks. “Repeatedly intruding in my home, taking such valuable possessions, only to return them the next day. I can’t comprehend such foolish behaviour. Is it merely to provoke me?”
“Hmm…” The thief hummed while tilting his head theatrically. “I wonder~ What would you do if I said ‘yes’?”
She shook her head.
“What I don’t understand is what you stand to gain through these repeated slights against me. A more logical man would simply take the valuables and run.”
“I guess I’m not a logical man.”
“Well clearly.” She tutted, turning her nose up at him, before descending the stairs to stare directly up at him, her arms folded in indignation. “Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t toss you in the dungeon and be done with it?”
“Well that depends. I’m not sure if I want to go in there, that depends on whether you’d come in there with me?”
“What?”
“Hmm…” He held his chin with his thumb and index finger in mock thought. “Nah, you don’t seem like the dungeon type.” His eyes glide shamelessly down her body. “You’re the type to prefer keeping things out in the open, evidentially.”
His hand began to reach towards her, his fingertips just about sliding past the hem of her mantle before she caught his wrist and roughly yanked it away up and away from her.
“How dare you?!”
“Oh? Oh please excuse me…” His smile was anything but apologetic. “I’ve never seen a woman quite as beautiful, or shameless as you before. Seems I nearly got carried away.”
He took a small step forward, those gathered where visibly shocked and offended by just how close he was getting to her, staring down into her distinctly red eyes.
“I suppose that though I am afforded the honor of bearing witness to your divine body, touching it is not a privilege you’ve granted to me just yet.”
“Yet?” She scoffed. “Is there no end to your blasphemous ego?”
Despite continuing to grip his wrist, she put remarkably little effort in actually holding is arm in place, allowing the thief to guide his hand to her cheek with no real resistance to speak of.
“My ego is one of my best traits, is it not?”
She narrowed her eyes, but made no move to take his hand off of her.
“You’re unbelievable.”
“An unbelievable level of confidence is necessary to even dream of claiming the Queen.”
“HA!” She threw his hand away, nearly sending him tumbling down to the ground as she did so. “You clearly don’t know who you’re talking to. None can ‘claim’ me!”
“Ah, so I see…” His smile only grew wider as he stood back and admired her. “Of course, how silly of me. Your Majesty’s strength far exceeds mine after all, at least in terms of brute force.”
“Ho? You think me a mere monarch of muscle?”
“Of course not, your strength belies delicate, well-guided hands. Though there are none who can quite match my… dexterity~”
“Hmph.” She turned her nose up at him.
“No, you’re not to be claimed, you are the one to claim others, which must be the true reason you brought me here.”
“H-huh?!” She flinched, face bright red. “Wh-what gives you that idea?”
“Your eyes betray you. They cannot hide your desires as well as your face can. Though, it seems even your face betrays you now.”
“I-I have no idea what you could mean by that.”
“Our Queen, a peerless beauty. Unshakeable strength and virtue. It is no wonder there could be no worthy suitor.”
She averted her eyes, not just from him, but her gathered subjects as well.
“Alas, the responsibility falls to me, the only one with a heart to equal your own.”
She turned to face him as he approached her once more. The guards exchanged worried looks, wondering if they should step in, and yet their Queen remained steadfast, silent, and motionless. Even as his hand reached out again, taking a gentle hold of the front of her mantle, and with a swift and smooth motion, undid the clasp, her breath hitched, and her sole garment fell down at her feet, leaving her in naught but her crown in the middle of her throne room.
As he drank in the sight of her now-totally-exposed body, she gazed longingly up at him, only averting her eyes once he looked back at her. He gently rested a hand on her shoulder, situated his boot between her bare feet, pressed his thigh against her entrance, and held her chin between his finger and thumb; claiming her gaze for himself. Slowly he leaned in, closing his eyes, before her hand shot out- pushing him back, knocking him flat onto his back.
“You may lack shame Thief, but I know you can hear perfectly well.”
“Heh, you’re saying I’m the one who lacks shame?”
She stepped over him, a foot each side of her torso as she glared down at him, her arms folded defiantly.
“Make sure you listen this time: None can claim me.”
She dropped down, the thief letting out a light wheeze as she landed atop his torso, her fluids already leaking and staining his outfit. She leaned forwards, and pressed her hand assertively against his chest, her eyes full of unrestrained desire.
“You are here so that I can claim you as my own. I will make sure you never forget that fact.”
She grinded herself against him, leaning down to the point where her face was mere inches from his before suddenly pulling back, standing upright once more, and taking a few paces towards her throne.
She looked back at him over her shoulder.
“On your feet.”
A curious eyebrow perked, he obeyed her order without question, standing at attention.
“Now… unleash yourself.”
Chuckling at her choice of wording, he wasted no time undoing the front of his trousers, letting his erection spring into view.
Already shuddering in anticipation, she bent over forwards, slowly reached behind herself, and firmly spread herself open, her labia parting to reveal her insides opening and closing in time with her heavy breathing.
“Come on, Thief. Slide that… thing into its new home.”
“Seems the rumors were mistaken, you’re even lewder than anyone could have imagined.” He taunted as he lined himself up, but it only seemed to excite her further. And with one, decisive thrust- he successfully sheathed his sword, as she cried out in ecstasy.
“Oh god… fuck…”
“Enjoying yourself, my Queen?”
“Shut up and put yourself to work.”
“As you wish.”
He took ahold of both her wrists, pulling her back into him in time with his rhythmic thrusts. The sounds of shocked whispering and gossiping accompanying the wet slapping sounds of flesh impacting flesh. Few were willing to avert their eyes from the sight of their Queen groaning and thrashing around in absolute bliss, her sweat-covered breasts flying up and down with each and every rapid thrust.
“God… it’s even more…”
“Even more… what? Am I doing better than you expected Your Majesty?”
“Don’t… AHH! Don’t let it… get to your head.”
“Hmm… yeah, you’re right- I wouldn’t want to let myself get complacent after all.”
Letting go of her right wrist, but firmly pulling her upright by her left, he wrapped his arm tightly around her chest, just beneath her breasts, and pulled her body against his.
“O-oh?!”
Now letting go of her left wrist as well, he moved his own left hand downwards- gliding across her body- until he reached her mound, whereby he pressed down firmly.
“AAH!” She let out her loudest cry yet. “You’re hitting… just the right—AH—spot!”
She instinctively bucked her hips, inadvertently pressing into his fingers even harder. Her whole body shook with pleasure, still being held firmly in place in his arms. And just when she thought it couldn’t get any more intense, he leant over her shoulder, taking her earlobe between his teeth, and lightly nibbling.
“AAAIIIEEE!”
“You must really be enjoying yourself.” He whispered between bites. “All these noises you’re letting out are amazing.”
She tried to respond, but the ecstasy shooting through her nervous system like a surge of electricity rendered her incapable of forming the words in her mind, let alone vocalising them as anything more than more breathy, needy groaning.
Her body was more than happy to send the message for her, with his relentless assault it didn’t take long before the inevitable happened, her pleasure reached its apex, and she positively exploded- spraying a huge amount of her fluids out in front of her, before her subjects, visibly staining the carpet and stairs leading up to her throne.
Her body fell limp in his arms as she panted for breath. He loosened his grip, allowing himself to slide out of her, but still gently preventing her from collapsing where she stood. He stepped to her side, confidently smirking down at her as she struggled to lift her head to return the gesture.
“Seems I was right to trust my gut this time, Thief.”
“It seems you have an eye for talent.”
She lifted her still-shaking hand, pointing forward.
“Now, guide us to my throne.”
“As you wish.”
On her weak legs, taking their sweet time to regain their strength, she leant heavily on him as they approached the throne. She couldn’t help but blush when the feeling of wetness beneath her soles drove home the reality of what she had just done in full view of all her most trusted servants and subjects.
The reached the top of the steps. Finally gathering the resolve to stand up under her own power, she stepped away, and authoritatively pointed to the throne.
“Sit.”
“Oh? You’re giving it to me?”
“Of course not. I wish to sit upon MY throne, so I’m ordering it to get into position.”
“Oh? Oho?” He laughed. “Sure, I like this idea.”
The thief took his seat, his erection still standing tall, ready for her to lower herself onto it, it once again sliding inside her as he sat upon her new “throne”. Grinning down at those gathered before her as she hooked each of her legs over his, spreading them wide so there was no doubt that he was firmly inside her. She sat up tall and proud, thrusting her chest still drenched in sweat, and heaving up and down with her heavy breaths. Shivering with delight as he reached around to begin massaging and tweaking her nipples.
“Witness me.”
“So~” He whispered behind her. “Don’t you think it’s about time you give me your real name Your Majesty?”
She tightened her core muscles, gripping him aside her tightly as if trying to wring him out.
“Seems being claimed as mine own has done little to curb that rude attitude of yours. You cannot request my name before confessing your own.”
“Ha… ha…” He panted, coming just short of cumming in that moment. “Of course, how silly of me. Call me Ren.”
“Ren… I see. I am Makoto, but since I like you, you can call me ‘My Queen’.”
“Ha… I’m honored.”
“Ren…”
“My Queen…”
“Ren.”
“Uh… Queen? Makoto?”
“Ren… Ren. Ren!”
“Huh? What’s—”
“Ren! Are you okay? REN! REN!”
~ ~ ~
“…Ren! Ren! Snap out of it!”
“Wuh… huh?” Ren shook his head, finding Makoto standing in front of him, gripping his shoulders. Looking around him he could see the rest of the Phantom Thieves continuing to fight Yaldabaoth. “Wha—Queen?”
“Oh finally.” Makoto breathed a sigh of relief. “After you knocked me out of the way of that attack you just stopped moving, like you had lost consciousness right there on your feet. I was scared I might have lost you.”
“Really? Sorry, that attack was…” He shook his head. “Is everyone alright?”
“Yeah, we’re still going strong. Me and Futaba took over command while you were out of it.”
“Is he okay?” Haru called out, having just noticed her leader regaining his compos mentis and running over.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Ren stood back up straight. “Sorry to let you guys handle everything for a minute there.”
“Oh we’re just glad you’re okay.” Haru smiled.
“No time to linger.” Makoto re-entered her battle stance, Anat reappearing and assisting her in launching a powerful nuclear attack at an arm of the false god, carrying a bell alongside the other arms wielding a book, a sword, and the gun from before. “We’re wearing him down, I’m sure of it.”
“Right!”
“Oh, but Joker?”
“Noir?”
“I know I’m one to talk right now, but I thought you should just be aware…”
Haru trailed off, smiling awkwardly with a light blush on her face, pointing downwards. Following her gaze, Ren noticed he was pitching quite the tent right now.
“Ah…” He nodded. “D-don’t mind that, it’ll go away in a second once my blood heads back to the right places.”
“I figured.”
Ren, bringing himself back to the right mindset, drew his knife and tore his mask away once more.
“Dionysus! Debilitate!”
Doing his part to weaken their foe, Ren rejoined the assault against their foe. Tossing out stamina restoring items to each of his allies, everyone launched their strongest attacks one after another, as often as they could physically manage.
“Dammit, it is getting weaker but…” Futaba grinding her teeth as she continued scanning Yaldabaoth, her readings weren’t lying, but it was still apparent that nothing had so much as left a visible mark on the false god’s body. “I can’t tell how much power is has left, it just… wait… uh-oh…”
“Oracle?”
“Brace yourself everyone! Something’s coming!”
Makoto reached for her mask.
“Marakukaja!” A soothing blue light enveloped the team, and yet some dark energy continued to manifest before them. “Dammit… Anat! Again! Marakukaja!”
“Here it comes!”
An uncanny dark energy spewed forth from the false god’s arms, coalescing in front of it into an imposing singularity, before suddenly bursting forth, enveloping the team in darkness.
~ ~ ~
“Ai-chan!”
“Eiko… what the hell is all this?”
“You finally see it?”
“The hell is all this? What’s all that noise from up there?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out!” Eiko gripped her fellow nudist's arms in a panic. “More importantly, what the hell do we do?”
“I… I uh… I don’t kno—” then, in an instant, Ai faded away into nothing, Eiko’s hands now only gripping at empty air.
“H…huh?”
“Koko!”
“Fumi-chan…” Eiko turned to Hifumi, tears streaming down her face, visibly shaking.
“J-just stay calm Koko.”
“How the hell am I supposed to stay calm? Who stays calm at a time like this? I—”
She, and much of the similarly panicking masses around them were suddenly silenced by what sounded like a powerful explosion far above their heads. They still couldn’t see very well past the gathered clouds, and struggled to make out the massive being that floated high above them, but the surge of some inexplicable darkness shooting out across the sky was clear to see. Everyone looked upwards in awe. Eiko and Hifumi exchanged a confused and fearful glance. Aya quickly returned to try and comfort Mieko, who was still curled up on the ground, muttering to herself while trying to block out what was happening around her. Toranosuke blankly stared in shock at the spot his niece was standing mere moments ago.
No one knew what to say, some resumed panicking, others just froze up completely, even accepting the inevitability of death in that moment. It’s unclear how much time had even passed, before a sudden voice rang out across Shibuya.
“And we’ll definitely… definitely… take the world!”
“Wha—” Eiko and Hifumi looked up to the gigantic screens that dotted Shibuya square, noticing the distinctive logo of the Phantom Thieves was fading into existence, as if trying to break through the static. “Wait…”
“But that means Ren and Makoto…” Hifumi’s eyes widened. “Them, and their friends… are they trying to do something about this?”
“Nudie Prez?” Eiko noticed similar murmurings around them, everyone struggling to recall their memories of the Phantom Thieves over the last year, feeling as if they were suddenly waking up from a long dream. And yet, it didn’t seem to fill anyone with much hope.
“Take it down, Phantom Thieves!”
Just as everyone was getting ready to fall back into despair, a boy standing not too far from the girls was leaping up and down, thrusting his fist into the air.
“Huh? Wait…”
The gathered crowds turned to the boy, staring at him incredulously. An action that seemed to offend him as he started yelling back at them.
“Come on, why do you think they’ve risked their lives all this time? Dammit you guys! Snap out of it!” He cried out. “When will you stop running from the truth?!”
“AH!” Eiko suddenly perked up. “I remember him! Mishimishakey!”
“Mishimi-what now?” Hifumi looked at her confused.
“He goes to my school, and he always buys all my stuff on Onlyfans! He’s one of my biggest fans!”
Mishima really wished she wouldn’t shout that out loud in public, he was getting a very different kind of weird look from others now, and it really hurt his big dramatic moment.
“O-oh…” Seems the realization hit Eiko too. “I mean y-yeah- he’s right! We have to believe in the Phantom Thieves! They’ve got this!”
“Got what?” Hifumi asked.
Eiko whispered back.
“I’m not sure…” She turned back to the crowd and cheered. “They’re gonna save us! I know it!”
Slowly but with certainty, the crowd began to murmur in agreement, and the murmur grew into a wave of cheering, which grew into roaring applause. Mishima was still slightly salty about having his moment ruined, but he knew it wasn’t about him- what mattered was that the Phantom Thieves had their support.
“Go get them Nudie Prez!”
“Eiko! Their identities are supposed to be secret.”
“O-oh, right. Uh- Go Phantom Thieves! Who I definitely don’t know personally but I’m still a big fan and believe in- YAY!”
Hifumi sighed, then looked around her, staring upwards. The clouds slowly began to clear, and while they couldn’t make out exactly what was going on atop the tower, the gigantic being the thieves were fighting came into much clearer view. Yet in spite of this, the crowd’s cheering only growing louder and more enthusiastic. She looked around, people all around her watched on with determination clear on their faces.
“You are truly causing a revolution right now! Goooooo!”
Just next to them, Toranosuke had overcome his shocked state, and joined in supporting the thieves wholeheartedly. She saw it as only right to do the same herself.
“Look forward, and keep fighting! You taught me that, after all!”
Eiko looked to her girlfriend, wiped away her own tears, and looked back up with renewed hope.
“Whatever you’re doing up there, you better finish it! Win and I’ll never call you two dorks ever again!”
“Do you really mean that Koko-chan?”
“Pfft, obviously not.”
~ ~ ~
Back atop their platform, the thieves were all splayed out across the ground, having collapsed by the force of the huge attack they managed to endure. Somehow, the voices cheering them on from below managed to reach them.
“Man…” Ren groaned as he forced himself back to his feet. “I almost forgot what it was like to have people actually like us.”
“Still feels a little patronizing…” Ryuji followed suit.
“C’mon Skull, you’re the one who always wanted people cheering for him.” Ann let out a strained laugh as she too, climbed to her feet, the others also standing once more in sequence.
“We’re not gonna let ourselves be erased.” Makoto readied her fists.
Yaldabaoth’s voice thundered through the air, the thieves feeling the force of which through their bodies.
“God is the one who creates the world!”
“That is a non-sequitur, good sir!” Haru tilted her hat and pointed defiantly at him, taking a brief moment to brush a little more dust off her booby, hoping it didn’t impact her image too much.
Morgana took a breath to steady himself, before nodding.
“I’ve made up my mind.”
“Morgana?”
“I will see my justice through for the sake of protecting what I care about.” He turned to the rest of the team. “The same goes for you guys too! If you’ve decided to take the world from him, don’t compromise your ideals to the very end!”
Ren smiled.
“Yeah, you don’t have to tell me that. No way am I letting this glorified cup take anything from me.”
“We’re with you Joker.” Makoto shot her boyfriend her most determined look, one he gratefully returned, and mirrored to each of his allies.
He took a deep breath.
“Alright Lavenza, time to see if that ‘strength of your bonds’ thing can really do what we need it to right now.”
Not only could he hear the support from the people down below, somehow he could feel it too; or rather, he could feel it awakening something inside him. He could feel his mask shifting, then bursting away entirely. His ‘self’, his true self Arséne manifested behind him; but more than that- Ren could now physically see the chains that had bound him, him and all those he had formed bonds with over the last year.
“Joker?” Makoto reached out, seeing Ren chuckle.
“Finally my turn, huh?” And with that, he took ahold of the chains, and with a mighty pull, shattered them.
Blue flames enveloped both him and Arséne, the latter of which roared skywards, before vanishing into a burst of light, shooting out in all directions across the open sky. Silence fell over the elevated battlefield, the rest of the thieves looking on dumbfounded.
Yaldabaoth scoffed.
“So you have failed to harness the power. No matter how many prayers of those foolis—”
“Bitch would you wait a second?!” Futaba yelled. “He’s obviously building up to something!”
“And people always say we’re the ones without any patience.” Haru laughed weakly.
The turned back to see Ren, still holding his pose from shattering his chains for a few moments longer, before smirking.
“Here we go.”
“What?!”
From even higher above them in the sky, an enormous shadow descended. A six-winged figure with size comparable to even the false god himself. It’s presence overpowering Yaldabaoth’s entirely, instead of pressing down oppressively upon the thieves, it reinvigorated them, the weight and pain they were bearing from their gruelling fight seemed to leave them all in an instant.
Ren stood confidently, swinging his arm out in a dramatic gesture.
“Pillage him, Satanael!”
“Incredible…” Makoto took in the awe-inspiring sight of Ren’s new persona. She turned to the others. “You guys know that he’s MY boyfriend right? I don’t want any of you to forget.” She felt really compelled to brag about that in this moment.
“Fools…” Yaldabaoth readied itself to launch another attack. “This is why man is doomed…”
Gathering another wave of dark energy, he unleashed another devastating blast upon the thieves… but when the effect cleared, he found them all still standing as if nothing had happened.
“Wh-what?!”
“I think that means we’re done here.” Ren breathed a sigh of relief, calmly pulling out is pistol- an action Satanael mimicked with his own skyscraper-sized rifle, training it directly on the head of the false god. “Say ‘Hi’ to your ‘Bro’ on the other side.”
“Actually he’s the one Mara called ‘Bro’, while he called Mara ‘Dude’. You got it the wrong way around.”
Ren sighed heavily.
“Y-yeah, thanks Yusuke, we really needed that.” He pulled the trigger, and in a flash- decisively executed their foe, as a comforting silence fell over them all.
It was over. The thieves had won.
Notes:
The battle may be over, but this fic isn't, obviously.
Though we no longer have to worry about a false god born of human apathy trying to exert control of the entirely human race through the power of merging the metaverse with the real one. HA- what's the chance of THAT happening a second time, amirite? I'll eat my hat if that happens.(psst, don't tell anyone but this is the set up for a brick joke down the line- I do that a lot)
Chapter 77: Christmas eve
Summary:
The aftermath of the final (wink wink) battle
Notes:
With Yaldy bested, the nudists' escapades are now entirely their own, joyous day!
Also Royal arc begins now, you've been warned... though it'll be relaxed for a bit until it starts properly
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“What? Where are—”
The thieves examined their surroundings, just a moment ago they were basking in their victory against the false god Yaldabaoth, there was this bright light, then they found themselves back on ground level, in the middle of Shibuya square.
“Uh guys?” Ryuji looked skywards. “All the… stuff is still there.”
He was right, the tower and inexplicable bone structures were still in place, and they noticed the mysterious red liquid was still all around them. Not only that, but the previously panicking masses were all frozen in place, as if time had stopped, and yet their expressions and poses suggested they had not only stopped panicking, but were simply walking through the square normally, maybe talking to nearby friends or family members, as if time had not only paused, but rewound to a point before the fight had began.
“Wh-what gives? We won, right?”
Ren nodded, though doubt was clear on his face.
“Yeah I’m sure of it, so what is—”
As if to answer their question, their phantom thief outfits began to glow, giving off a strange white light. No, they were turning into light, and vanishing, leaving them in their casual clothes (or lack thereof, in certain cases). Before they could even finish reacting, the clouds above began to part, letting the soothing sunlight shine down upon them and the rest of the city. The hellish structures faded into nothing before their eyes; even the liquid around their waists seemed to solidify for a moment, before it too- disappeared.
“It’s… kinda beautiful.” A wave of relief washed over Makoto as she took in the dazzling process of the metaverse fading away before their eyes.
“My word…”
“Why is everything…?”
“The whole world is a product of cognition, not just the metaverse.”
The group turned to Morgana as he began to speak, relief turning back into a dreaded chill as they saw him, enveloped in the same light of everything else fading away around them.
“Dude, Mona?”
“Mona-chan?!”
“This can’t be happening!”
Fearful looks spread across everyone’s faces. They ran forward, trying to reach out to him, but the ground opened up in front of them, blinding light pouring forth from within, obstructing their path.
All the while, Morgana looked upon his friends with a serene smile on his face, feeling a true sense of peace and satisfaction.
“Soon a new world will come, one where mankind isn’t held captive. The world will shine brightly as long as you hold hope in your hearts.”
“The ‘eff you talking about man?!” Ryuji tried in vain to force himself through the barrier as Morgana began to float up into the air.
“Dammit.” Ren reached for his mask, and tore it from his face. “Satanael!”
…
Nothing.
“I can’t…?”
Makoto tried the same thing herself, but to no avail. With them leaving the metaverse- or rather- the metaverse leaving them, they couldn’t summon their personas.
“No, not now…”
“Dammit get your ass back here right now!” Ann cried out to Morgana as he floated further up above them.
“We won!” Futaba fought back tears. “We won! Everyone saw it! We can’t have you up and vanish on us after we won- what’s wrong with you?!”
“I promise I’ll never call you a cat again man!” Ryuji kept pushing against the barrier, but to no avail. “Don’t just leave us like this!”
Morgana just kept smiling; down on his friends, and at the world around him bathed in light.
“Remember… there’s no such thing as the ‘real’ world. What each person sees and feels- those are what shape reality. This is what gives the world infinite potential. Even if you feel that only darkness lies ahead, as long as you hold hands together, see it through as one, the world will never end! The world exists within all of you!”
And everything went white.
~ ~ ~
And so everyone was back in the real world, the real Shibuya square, safe and sound… sans Morgana.
“This is such bullshit man…” Ryuji kicked at the ground.
“After all that fighting to prevent anything being taken from us, we lose a friend anyway.” Yusuke spoke bitterly.
“Mona…” Makoto turned to Ren, noticing that he was making a great effort to hold together his calm poker face, but through his clenched fists, his furrowed brow, and heavier than usual breathing; the toll is was taking was clear to see. “Ren, I…”
“It’s fine.” He turned away, looking over the crowd rushing around them. “Everything seems more or less back to normal…”
Haru pulled out her phone.
“The meta-nav is gone…” her shoulders sank at the confirmation.
“So… we really won’t get to see Mona again?” Futaba’s voice wavered.
Haru nodded sombrely as she slid her phone back into her pocket.
“I think so…” She held her face. “Mona-chan…”
“This is so unexpected…” Ann stared down at the ground.
“I wish we at least got to say goodbye…” Yusuke shook his head.
“Why’d he do this to us? Why couldn’t he… couldn’t he…”
Makoto approached Futaba and held her comfortingly, gently stroking the back of her head.
“It’s okay… I wasn’t ready to lose someone today either. It came out of nowhere.”
“He was a product of the metaverse, so I suppose it makes sense he’d vanish with it, but…” Haru rubbed her eyes.
“Dammit, I know we’d fight all the time but… I didn’t want him to up and disappear on us!” Ryuji tried to work up the energy to get mad and throw a tantrum, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. “He deserved to make it through just as much as the rest of us!”
“Still, he was smiling right up until the end, I think that means he’d want us to smile too.” Morgana nodded sagely.
“Morgana’s right.” Makoto put on a brave face. “We saved the world after all, it’s not right to just sit around being gloomy after that.”
“R-right!” Ryuji messily rubbed his eyes with his sleeve. “We should be celebrating, that’s what he’d want if he were he…”
He trailed off, before slowly his- and everyone else’s- eyes slowly shifted to their furry companion casually sat down on the ground next to Ren.
“Hey guys.”
Everyone continued to stare at Morgana in silence.
“The celebration sounds like a great idea, we should all get a meal. My vote is on ‘sushi’.”
“YOU DUMBASS CAT!”
“Wh—huh?!”
“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”
Ryuji and Futaba’s outbursts, as well as everyone else’s released momentarily afterwards, drew an uncomfortable amount of attention to the group. Passer-by’s celebrating Christmas eve wondering why a group of teenagers- only half of which were dressed- were yelling at a clearly very confused cat, recoiling slightly with his ears tucked back.
“D-do you guys not like sushi?”
“You’re still alive?!” Ren squatted down next to Morgana, as did Futaba- who began poking him in the face to confirm that we wasn’t some kind of illusion.
“Uh, yeah? Obviously.”
“What do you mean ‘obviously’?” Makoto glared down at him. “You disappeared in a flash of light!”
“I mean, yeah- but only the metaverse version of me.”
“What?”
Morgana tilted his head slightly, giving her an unsure look as if it should have been obvious.
“I mean, yeah? The same way your metaverse versions disappeared in the exact same light.”
“W-we did?” Yusuke scratched his head.
“Yeah, your metaverse outfits vanished and you were back to normal. The same thing happened to me, that’s all.”
“Dammit cat!”
“I’m not a cat, bonehead!”
“Right now, you’re a cat! A dumb, pain in the ass cat!” Ryuji yelled. “You saw us all freakin’ out, why couldn’t you have just explained things as it was happening?”
Morgana shrugged.
“I mean I was focused on delivering my inspirational speech, that was the right moment to do it, it would have had a lot less impact if I waited until now… it’d have just been awkward here…”
Ren took a breath to try and calm himself. Emphasis on ‘try’.
“Morgana…”
“What did you think of the speech by the way? I thought it sounded really wise and thought-provoking, but I wouldn’t mind a second opinion.”
Futaba scooped Morgana up into her arms, holding him against her.
“Girls…” She turned to the others with bitter intent in her eyes. “I think he needs a hug.”
A shiver shot up Ryuji’s spine, instinctively taking a pace backwards for safety.
“Ehh…” Makoto chewed on her lip slightly. “We got a little carried away back then, I don’t think we should let that become a habit, right Ann?”
Ann looked back at Makoto. In truth, she was certainly tempted, but realized the other girl was right.
“Y-yeah, I’m annoyed at him, but I’m just gonna try to focus on the part of me that’s happy to have him back this time…”
Haru laughed awkwardly.
“Plus Ryuji’s pretty tough, I know he can take it. If we tried the same thing on Mona-chan we’d probably kill him…”
Morgana gulped nervously, looking up at Futaba’s whose expression hadn’t softened any.
“Hmph, fine. I’ll do it myself.”
“W-w-wait Futaba! We can talk about this!”
“HROOAAH!”
“AH… huh?” Morgana prepared himself for agony, but while Futaba’s grip was certainly uncomfortable… that was about all that could be said about it. “Futaba?”
“HNNNNG!”
Morgana looked up at her face, the poor girl was clearly straining herself, he actually felt a little bad for her with how hard she was clearly trying. It was fair to assume that Ryuji being left slumped against a lamppost was mainly thanks to Makoto and Haru’s power.
“Um… argh, ow the pain- I guess. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“HA!” Futaba relented her vicegrip, for whatever difference that made, but kept Morgana in her arms. “Don’t you ever scare us like that again!”
“I-I won’t…” Morgana smiled weakly at her, then at the rest of the team. “So uh… hey! We won! Cool, right?”
Ren let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s good to have you back man.”
“So like… they’re not gonna be looking for you anymore, right?” Ann asked Ren.
“I’m not sure… probably not?” He grinned. “It’s pretty crowded today because of the holidays, so I should blend into the crowd if we did wanna go somewhere to celebrate?”
“Still, it’s probably not a good idea to stay out too long.” Makoto pondered aloud. “Perhaps we’re better off splitting up for now and celebrating together tomorrow, on Christmas day?”
“Huh? But…” Ann trailed off when she noticed how hard Makoto was trying not to stare at Ren, and yet her eyes kept darting back to said boyfriend repeatedly. “Oh, I get it.” She grinned deviously.
“Ann?”
“Makoto-san’s right, it’s getting late an’ all, we should split up and head home, plus it gives us time to prepare a proper party, right?”
“I suppose…?” Haru eyed her suspiciously.
“But I didn’t make any meal plans for today…” Yusuke slumped over, a rather pitiful sight.
“Whatever man.” Ryuji shrugged. “I’ll spot you for a beef bowl.”
“A truly selfless spirit!” Yusuke called out to the sky, arms spread dramatically, rather embarrassing the rest of the group but especially Ryuji.
“Is that all it takes to win Inari’s heart?”
Ryuji fought back a blush.
“Whatever just… keep quiet while we’re there. And I’m gonna sit a few seats down from you, I don’t want people starting rumors about me.”
Haru stifled a chuckle.
“So we’re all going to meet up at Leblanc tomorrow for Christmas, right?”
“Sounds good to me.” Futaba turned in the direction of the station and called over her shoulder. “C’mon Ren, let’s go, I’m freezing to death right now.”
“Y-yeah…” Makoto had a hard time not shivering herself. “I’m usually pretty good with the cold, but there are limits. Especially since I don’t have my protective equipment.”
Ann raised an eyebrow.
“Those gloves and scarf really do make a difference, huh?”
“They really do…”
Suddenly realizing his boyfriend duty was calling, Ren began scrambling to remove his coat to hand to her before she suddenly stopped him.
“Oh Ren, do you mind waiting here for a minute?”
“Huh? I mean sure, but why?”
“I um… just needed to talk about something…” Makoto tried to ignore Ann’s knowing smirk. “I’ll quickly escort Futaba to her train then come right back, don’t go anywhere, okay?”
“Sure.” He nodded, putting his coat back in place as the rest of the group said their goodbyes and began to disperse.
“Amamiya-san…”
~ ~ ~
“…And here’s some cash so you can get out of the station again when you arrive. You’re sure you can make it back from here okay?”
Futaba gave Makoto and unimpressed look.
“C’mon, I’m two years younger than you. You guys act like I’m some sorta baby sometimes. I can handle a train ride at this point.”
“I didn’t mean to patronize you, I just thought with the crowds and all…”
“Ah… yeah… crowds still aren’t the best, but the line to Yongen is generally okay… usually…”
“I’ll look after her.”
“Ah, thank you Morgana.” Makoto bowed her head lightly. “I’ll see you two again tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah yeah, whatever…” Futaba made her way onto the train, Morgana still in her arms, grumbling about how she ‘has to be babysat by a cat’.
Makoto, satisfied that Futaba was heading home safely, and everyone else would be out of the picture for the rest of the evening, began to head back outside. The excitement welling up in her as she climbed the subway steps was almost able to override the feeling of the cold itself. Just as she stepped back out into the open air, before she began looking around for Ren, a pair of familiar voices called out to her.
“Nudie prez!”
“Makoto-san!”
“Eiko-san? Hifumi-san?” She saw the two girls running over to her, with looks on their faces betraying the paradoxical mixture of relief, concern, and confusion.
“Nudie Prez! You okay?”
“Y-yeah. We’re all okay.”
“That’s a relief.” Hifumi let go of the breath she was holding.
“So Nudie prez, awkward question…”
“Hm?”
“How much of that was real?”
Makoto’s brow raised.
“You mean you remember what happened?”
“Bits and pieces…” Hifumi answered first. “There was an all manner of weird things reaching up into the sky, the whole city was flooding, I think you guys were fighting… something.”
“And yet everyone was acting like nothing was happening.” Eiko scratched her head. “Then they all freaked the fuck out, then started cheering, and now everyone is acting like nothing ever happened. What gives?”
Makoto laughed nervously.
“That would take A LOT of explaining.”
“I’m willing to set aside A LOT of time…”
Makoto gave them a tired smile.
“I’ll fill you all in later on, I’ve got um…” A blush spread across her face. “I’ve got a date to be getting to.”
“Oh? After all of that?”
“I mean…” Hifumi began. “I suppose wanting to wind down and celebrate after that is understandable.”
“I guess…” Eiko pouted. “Just to make sure: everything is fine now? The weird shit is all over?”
Makoto nodded confidently.
“Yeah, we can relax for a while.”
“Then I guess that’s alright for now…”
“Eiiiiko-chaaan…” From not too far across the square, Mieko called out to her, standing alongside Aya and Ai who both seemed no worse for wear. “Don’t make us wait out here in the cold…”
“R-right…” Eiko replied uncertainly, before turning back to Makoto and speaking in a hushed tone. “They don’t remember anything either, should I be worried?”
“I don’t think so.” Makoto shook her head. “Normal people forgetting isn’t too far fetched, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“’Normal people’? Then how come we remember?”
Makoto opened her mouth to speak, but paused when she realized that she legitimately had no answer for that.
“I… I’m not sure…” She sighed again. “Look, I promise I’ll tell you everything I know later on, okay?”
“Promise?”
“I promise, Eiko-san.”
“I guess that’s alright then, I’ll just follow everyone else’s lead and pretend everything is normal for now.”
“EIKO!” Aya barked. “Hurry the hell up! Is Makoto coming with us or not?”
“Nah she’s hanging with her BF tonight!” Eiko turned back to Makoto. “Me and the girls were just on our way to karaoke, before… all that shit.”
Makoto gave her an understanding smile.
“Better not keep them waiting.”
“Yeah yeah… I guess I’ll see you later Nudie Prez!”
“Hold on.” Hifumi interjected. “Makoto-san, did you leave your winter gear at home?”
Makoto looked away sheepishly; she lacked the hat, scarf, gloves and boots combo all the other nudists were wearing. With most of her day being spent in Mementos, she didn’t think to bring them with her… after all- where would she keep them- her pockets? They were with her bag back in Leblanc.
“Yeah… it’s been quite the day, I guess it slipped my mind.”
“Hmm…” Hifumi pondered a moment, before undressing herself.
“Hifumi-san?”
“You can use mine for today.” She handed each item of clothing over to Makoto in sequence. “I-I promise I haven’t sweated in them or anything…”
“Oh, th-thank you. But what about you? Will you be okay?”
Hifumi nodded.
“Koko-chan says the karaoke place is really close by, I’ll be fine once I’m indoors.”
“Well if you’re sure. Thank you very much. I’ll wash them and get them back to you as soon as I can.” Makoto put the protective equipment on; while being barefoot all the time was something she quickly got used to and really enjoyed- being able to feel the texture of the ground beneath her feet- sparing them from the cold winter concrete did come as a relief, as did giving her fingers some much needed protection. “I’ll be able to manage like this, no problem.”
“EIKO! HOW LONG?!”
“I’M COMING! Don’t get your pubes in such a twist, Christ!” Eiko grabbed Hifumi’s hand and began pulling her towards the rest of the group while waving back to Makoto. “Later Nudie Prez! Enjoy getting plowed by Ren!”
“I-I didn’t say we were going to do that!” Makoto looked around at everyone around her, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that they all heard what Eiko said right at the end. Trying her best to avoid their gazes, she swiftly made her way back to the spot she had told Ren to wait, relieved to find he hadn’t moved a muscle. “Ren!”
“Ah there you are Mako.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting, I ran into Eiko.”
“No worries.” His eyes drifted up and down her body. “I’m assuming she gave you the outfit?”
“Hifumi-san did, but yeah.”
“That’s good…”
Ren stared off in a seemingly random direction, Makoto followed his gaze but couldn’t see anything of note.
“Everything okay?”
“Oh yeah, it’s fine, just… something really weird happened while you were gone.”
“Oh?”
“It’s nothing to worry about, but your sister showed up right after you left.”
“She did?”
“She was talking about the case about Shido, and how if we were to have any hope of making charges against him stick, we would need a witness who knew all about the mechanics of the metaverse. So I would…”
A look of horror spread across Makoto’s face.
“But that would mean… you’d have to turn yourself in and…”
“Yeah, I would have had to… but here’s the weird part, Akechi showed up.”
“Akechi-kun? He’s alive?”
“I know right?! Dude just casually shows up, outta nowhere. Waltzes up to me and Sae, and says he’ll turn himself in and testify against Shido.” Ren laughed. “Dude ended up picking option B after all… well maybe it’s closer to option C.”
“He’s… he’s actually helping us?”
“Yeah, some crap about not wanting to be in our debt or something. Hell I’m not complaining.”
“I see…” Makoto breathed a huge sigh of relief. “God you scared me for a moment there, I thought you were going to be dragged off to prison and I wouldn’t get to see you again. To think Akechi of all people would stop that from happening.”
“Yeah, credit where it’s due- dude actually did the right thing for once. Though maybe it’s just because this is the best way for him to get his ‘revenge’.”
“Well regardless I’m grateful. If he’s helping, then I’m sure my sister can ensure Shido sees proper justice.” Makoto smiled up at her boyfriend. “We can finally relax…”
She shuffled in place awkwardly for a while.
“So… now that all of that’s taken care of. Did you want to… maybe have our own celebratory meal before the group celebration tomorrow? Just the two of us?”
“Nothing would make me happier Queen.”
Makoto’s blush grew greater, but her smile grew in equal measure. She nervously lifted her hand.
“W-would it be okay if we… held hands?”
“You’re adorable.”
“Don’t tease me… Just hurry up and hold my hand.”
“Right away Queen.” His hand gently slid into hers, their fingers interlocking. “Although…”
“Hm?”
“It really is cold tonight… I know you’re a badass and all, but are you sure you’re going to be fine?”
“Oh don’t worry, I—” Makoto paused, her eyes going wide as an idea suddenly popped into her head. “Well… maybe just for that extra warmth…”
She gathered up her courage, let go of Ren’s hand, and wrapped both her arms around his right, pulling him close to her body. Her face was more flushed than ever, both embarrassed and empowered by all the passer-by’s seeing her get so intimate with her man.
“J-just for tonight… and just for the warmth…”
Ren grew rather red himself, but certainly wasn’t going to complain.
“Of course, for the warmth.” He nodded, unable to stop himself from grinning. “I really am lucky.”
“Oh stop it you…” Makoto leant into him even harder. “I’m the lucky one…”
~ ~ ~
Of course, it being Christmas eve, they weren’t able to find any restaurants with space available to them last minute, so a romantic meal together was unfortunately not in the cards for tonight. However, they were lucky enough to at least buy a Christmas cake to share together, and take back to Leblanc.
“I still can’t believe we got the last one like that. That’s really lucky.”
“I guess we’ve earned at least a little good karma.” Ren chuckled as the couple finished their slices of cake.
“I suppose so.”
Ren leaned towards her, smirking.
“And we’ll have plenty of opportunities for dinner dates together in the new year.”
“O-oh? Y-yes of course. I’d like that…” She looked at him, being unable to stop herself from laughing. “Ren…”
“Wh-what? Did I say something funny?”
“No just… hold still a second.” Makoto reached out, and in one smooth motion, wiped some cream off of the tip of Ren’s nose, before gently licking it off her finger and shooting him a smirk of her own. “You had a little something on your face.”
Ren leant back, blushing and rubbing the back of his head. Makoto inwardly pumped her fist in victory, making him flustered for a change.
“Oh!” Makoto sprung up from her seat. “Wait here a second.”
“Again?”
“It’ll only be a moment this time, I promise.” Makoto swiftly made her way downstairs into the empty café, grabbing her bag which she had safely stashed behind the counter, and running back upstairs, dumping the bag next to the table. “I’m glad I brought this with me, I nearly forgot to give you your present.”
“Present?” Ren perked up, excitement clear in his demeanour, before guilt quickly overtook him. “Oh, but I didn’t get you anything…”
“It’s fine Ren, you haven’t exactly had time to do any Christmas shopping lately.” She pulled out her wrapped box, accidentally pulling out three red ribbons along with it.
“Hm? Are those part of it?”
“Are what part—ARGH!” Makoto leapt forward to cover the ribbons, hastily gathering them up and shoving them back into the depths of her bag. “Don’t mind them… they’re for later.”
“Later?”
Trying to pretend nothing happened, Makoto took the wrapped box in hand and sat back down next to Ren, holding the present out to him.
“For you.”
Ren gingerly took the box from her hand.
“Thank you.” He began to unwrap it, Makoto watching him all the while- a nervous look on her face as she silently prayed that he would like it, she had never gotten a gift for a lover before, the very idea giving her butterflies in her stomach even now.
Ren opened the box to find the stylish wristwatch Makoto had picked out for him.
“A wristwatch?”
“I thought it’d look good on you.” Makoto nervously shuffled in place, having trouble maintaining eye contact with him. “And I thought it’d be good for us… to… lose track of time together?” She cringed. “Dammit I knew that was an awful line, I regretted it the moment it came out of my mouth.”
Ren chuckled.
“Sounds like one of my lines.”
“I don’t know how you’re able to say something like that and actually sound charming, I feel ridiculous right now…”
Ren leant over, planting a kiss on her cheek.
“Sounded perfectly charming to me Queen.”
This only worsened Makoto’s blush.
“Wh-whatever… I hope you like the gift regardless.”
“I love it, and I love you.”
“You jerk… I love you too.”
“Heh.”
“Don’t laugh after that!”
Ren, still grinning, sat back up straight, and went to try on his new present. After inspecting it a while, he held out is wrist and placed the watc—
“ARGH!” Ren suddenly recoiled, pulling his wrist back- sending the watch flying through the air and crashing down to the floor as he retreated away from it, nearly crashing into Makoto.
“R-Ren? Are you okay?”
Ren’s breathing had suddenly become laboured and irregular. His hands visibly shook as he rubbed his scars, the scars still left by his handcuffs.
“The… oh god…” Makoto brought her hands to her mouth. “Oh god I’m so sorry Ren.”
“I-it’s fine…”
“I didn’t think about how the metal might trigger something like that. I’m really sorry.”
“N-no, it’s fine.” Ren was able to force himself to calm down. “I didn’t mean to react like that, it’s just…”
“I feel so stupid, I should have thought of this…”
“No honestly Makoto, it’s fine. Even I didn’t know I had an association like that.” Ren forced a smile.
“But still… I’ll take the present back, maybe I could still exchange it for something else…”
“No, please don’t.” Ren picked the watch back up off the ground, taking it back to the couch. “I really do love it, that’s not a lie. And I want to wear it.” He went to put it on again, but hesitated.
“Please don’t force yourself.”
“I’m not!” Ren shook his head. “I’m not… I can’t let something pathetic like this rule me…”
“Ren it’s not…” Makoto watched him closely. He still held the watch over his wrist- over his scars- motionless. His face scrunched up in frustration. She could tell he obviously felt bad for her- that he really wanted to enjoy the present she chose for him for her sake… but far more than that- he was incredibly angry at himself. Discovering a new weakness was hurting him deeply, and he was adamantly refusing to give into it. He wanted to wear this watch- no matter what. It was unlikely anything she could say would change his mind. “Okay, let me help you.”
“Help me?”
“Give me the watch.”
“Makoto I can—”
“Ren, am I- or am I not- your girlfriend?”
“Huh? Of course you are.”
“You understand that I love you, right?”
“Um… r-right…”
“So let me support you, just as you always support me, okay?”
“I…”
“Let me help you put the watch on. Hand it over to me.”
Taking a moment to consider, and still feeling like he ‘lost’ in some way, Ren handed the watch to her. Before even attempting to put it on, Makoto shuffled closer to him, and reached out to gently caress his wrists.
“Just relax. I promise you everything is okay.”
“Mm…”
She lent down and lightly kissed the handcuff scars on each wrist.
“Makoto, that’s a bit…”
“Shh…” still gently rubbing is right wrist with one hand, the other brought over the watch. “Just relax. You’re safe, everything is fine, I’m here with you, understand?”
“…”
“Understand?”
“Y-yeah, I understand.”
Softly holding his arm in place, she placed the watch on top of his wrist as gently as she could. He did noticeably flinch, and she didn’t try to restrict his movement any, she just let him flinch while maintaining her delicate grip.
“We’re over the worst of it.”
“Yeah…”
Placing one hand over the face of the watch, she turned over his wrist to finish securing it. Being sure to leave plenty of slack so it didn’t feel restraining. Once it was in place, she caressed his wrist some more.
“There we go… that wasn’t so bad.”
“Mm…”
“You’ve done really well, I’m proud of you.”
He grumbled.
“You’re just patronizing me now.”
“Absolutely not.” She glared at him, scaring him into mumbling a small apology. “Overcoming something like this is something to be proud of.” She shifted to a warm smile. “I want us to help eachother be strong like this, that’s what our relationship has always been about.” She shuffled closer still, placing her hands either side of his head, resting her forehead against his. “We can overcome anything so long as we’re together… right?”
It took a while, but Ren did eventually return her smile.
“Right… Thank you Makoto.” They parted just a little, so he could lift his wrist and admire his new accessory. “Once again, I do love this gift. Thank you.”
“You are very welcome.” While seeing him flustered again was pleasing to her, she was just relieved to see him so relaxed and happy again.
“So a-anyway…” Ren averted his eyes, looking for a way to change the subject. “What were those ribbons about?”
“Ah…” Now it was Makoto’s turn to blush again. “That’s… part of another present, I’ll need a minute to set it up though…”
“Another present? When I didn’t even get you one…”
“I already told you it’s fine… Besides, that one will be a present for both of us.”
“Oh?” Ren was intrigued. “Well regardless I’ll try and get you a proper present before the new year.”
Makoto smiled.
“Sure, I don’t mind it being a little late.”
“And I’ll make sure to get you something extra special next year too!”
“Next year?” Makoto felt like her heart suddenly skipped a beat. “R-right… I’ll look forward to it.” She gazed lovingly into his eyes for a while, before the open window drew her attention. “OH!”
Grabbing onto Ren’s hand, she pulled him along to his bed so they could admire the beautiful snowfall outside.
“It’s gorgeous…”
“A white Christmas. How lucky.”
“It’s coming down quite heavily.” She slyly side-eyed her boyfriend. “The trains will probably get cancelled, I doubt I can make it home tonight.”
“Oh my… how VERY lucky indeed~”
She ran her hand along his thigh.
“I wonder, how can we fill our time tonight?”
“That’s a real headscratcher.” Ren laughed, before an idea struck. “Actually Makoto, there’s something I’d like to try, if you’re up for it.”
“Oh?”
“How do you feel about roleplay?”
“Roleplay? Like what Hifumi does?”
“Yeah, something like that…”
“Hmm…” Makoto shyly nodded. “I don’t hate the idea. What did you have in mind?”
“I’ve actually got a great idea for a scenario I want to try. Alright so- you’re this queen- right? And I’m this thief that gets captured and brought to the throne room…”
~ ~ ~
Much later that evening, Ren and Makoto fell asleep in eachother’s embrace; snuggled together under Ren’s covers, their shared body heat in such a cozy space being more than powerful enough to counter the cold winter chill that tried to invade the room.
Which made it especially weird that they now found themselves standing upright in an open empty space, suddenly wide awake, with darkness all around them.
“Huh? Where are—Ren? Are you there?”
“I’m right here!” Ren reached out in the darkness, managing to find his girlfriend and pulling her close once more. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine, but what happened? Where are we?”
“What are you guys doing here?”
The couple flinched at the sound of another voice… Ryuji’s?
With their eyes slowly adjusting to the low light, they saw not only Ryuji- but all their fellow Phantom Thieves, all dressed in their school uniforms… with the obvious exceptions of Yusuke, Futaba, and Makoto herself. She noticed that even Ren suddenly had his Shujin uniform on.
“You’re all here?”
“It’s weird.” Ann tried to examine their surroundings, but it was still too dark. “I got home, had dinner, went to sleep and… I just wake up here?”
“Dude same!” Ryuji said.
“I feel it was the same for all of us.” Yusuke nodded thoughtfully. “We all fell asleep on Christmas eve, and we all find ourselves transported here… how curious…”
“Mona-chan!” Haru covered her mouth in shock. “You’re in your Metaverse form!”
“Huh?” Morgana looked down at his paws, confirming that he really was in his ‘mascot’ body. “But… how is this possible? We got rid of the metaverse!”
Suddenly- with a loud click- the lights came on. They found themselves in a huge blue room, with couches dotted around, expensive looking wallpaper, and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, causing lights to dance around the room.
“Y…you guys seeing this too?”
“Yeah… we do Ryuji…”
Two pairs of footsteps could be heard approaching. The group- acting defensively, spun to face them.
“Wait…” Ren’s brow raised. “Caroline? Justine?”
Makoto turned to her boyfriend, switching between staring at him and the two girls dressed as prison wardens in confusion.
“You know these girls Ren?”
Caroline smacked the ground with her baton before he could answer. Clearing her throat before speaking in unison with her sister.
“Welcome Inmate, to Club Velvet.”
Notes:
Yeah we're doing Dancing in Starlight.
Chapter 78: Starkers in Starlight
Summary:
Time to (do the prep work and introductions necessary to) dance!
Notes:
I unironically love filler arcs. This one will last about 3 chapters, assuming no last minute changes in my plans. Should be fun.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Club velvet?” Makoto stared blankly at the two girls- still holding their pose after their announcement. She looked back around at their surroundings; the deep blue color scheme, the huge disco ball, the speakers, the excessive flashy lights that were giving her a headache- it all certainly felt like a ‘club’, though that only raised further questions. The feeling of imminent danger was certainly gone, but the confusion had only intensified in its place. She turned back to her boyfriend. “So do you know these girls?”
Ren scratched his head, sighing. He was just as baffled as everyone else, but realized it fell to him to introduce the attendants as they weren’t polite enough to do so themselves.
“Okay, you guys remember Lavenza? The girl in blue? Well these two are her, just split into two. The slightly condescending one with the braid is Justine, the VERY abrasive one with the buns is Caroline”.
“One girl becoming two…” Yusuke seemed fascinated. “I understood that she was some kind of supernatural being, but I didn’t know she was capable of mitosis”.
“That’s definitely not what’s happening here Inari…”
“Wait” Makoto raised her hand. “So these are the ‘little-er girls’ you mentioned?”
Ren nodded.
“The ones you used the guillotines on to put back together?”
Ren hesitated, before very reluctantly nodding again.
“T-trust me, it makes sense.”
“That’s literally the exact opposite of what guillotines are designed to do.”
“I know Ann, but it’s just how things work. It’s how I’d get new personas. I’d put in say- Mothman and Ara Mitama in them and get a perfectly healthy Kushinada out of it.”
“YOU BEHEADED MOTHMAN?!” Ann seemed legitimately upset. “But he’s adorable! Why would you do that to him?!”
“Ara Mitama was the red teardrop thing, right? How’d you behead them?” Haru seemed legitimately curious.
“I don’t know man.” Ren put his hands up defensively. “It’s like a computer- I don’t know how it works I just know that it does.”
Meanwhile the attendants were getting visibly impatient watching the thieves argue.
“EXCUSE ME!” Caroline slapped the ground with her baton to punctuate her outburst.
“We brought you all here for a reason beyond pointless bickering, y’know?” Justine glared down her nose at the team.
“You weren’t kidding Ren…” Futaba didn’t seem especially impressed by the girls, but she did subtly position herself behind Yusuke ‘just in case’. “I remember Lavenza being nicer than this.”
“Well they’re not the same person.” Ren shrugged. “I mean, they are but… they’re also different.”
“Ahh, I get it.” Futaba nodded in understanding. “Fusions count as their own separate characters with their own personalities. They’re Goten and Trunks, but Lavenza is Gotenks so she’s different?”
“Yes, that’s exactly right. Except this time Gotenks was the original, so it’s more like they’re Piccolo and Kami.”
“What are you two talking about?”
Ren’s brow shot up.
“You haven’t seen Dragon Ball Makoto?”
“No. I’ve heard of it but…”
“Ah, we’ll have to fix that when we get home. It’s required reading.”
“…Required reading for what?”
“Just life in general.”
“YOU’RE DOING IT AGAIN!” Caroline jumped up and down to get everyone’s attention again.
“Composure, Caroline.” Justine giggled.
“R-right.” Caroline- fighting back a light blush- calmed herself and faced the group authoritatively. “The reason we brought you all here is to nurture a certain skill that lies dormant within each of you.”
“You are to train that skill and put it on display for us here.”
The twins posed together to conclude their announcement:
“DANCING!”
Silence fell over the thieves, everyone exchanged looked with eachother, took in the club surroundings, and stared baffled at the girls in front of them.
Eventually, Haru turned back to Ren.
“So anyway- you said they helped you with fusing personas or whatever? Tell me more.”
“Well I…”
“Does that mean you came here before? When? How?”
“I mean I’d usually end up in the velvet room in my dreams. N-not this one, the other one that looked like a prison. There I’d talk to these two and the noseman so I coul—ARGH!”
Having lost her patience, Justine had jumped up and smacked Ren around the back of the head with her clipboard.
“REN!” Makoto rushed to help her boyfriend up off the ground.
“I-it’s fine Mako.” He forced a smile. “It didn’t do any damage, it just hurt, I’m used to it from them.”
“Hmph!” Caroline sneered. “You and your friends have some nerve Inmate! Perhaps slaying the false god has gone to your head? You should be grateful for the task we have given you, you should be paying attention to us and us alone while we are speaking. Only if you get on your knees and grovel for the remainder of the explanation will we forgive you.”
Ren instead got back up to his feet, groaning.
“Don’t worry, I’m used to this treatment too…”
“Yikes…” Ryuji discreetly shuffled away from the twins.
“So wait…” Futaba eyed Ren with suspicion. “So you’d regularly dream about being in prison with a pair of lolis domming you?”
Ren turned to her with an incredulous look.
“Okay it sounds really dodgy when you word it like that…”
It took him a moment to realize it, but as the awkward silence dragged on, Ren saw his friends giving him concerned looks.
“What?”
Everyone shuffled uncomfortably, not giving a coherent response.
“Seriously, what?”
After a bit more mumbling, Haru was the first to force something that could be generously described as an understanding smile.
“I-it’s okay Ren-kun, we all have fantasies.”
“Wait wait- you’re not taking what Futaba said seriously, are you?”
“It’s fine man.” Ryuji laughed nervously. “I know you’d never actually do anything so uh… it’s not like we think less of you or… um…”
“It’s not like that! You guys don’t actually think that of me, do you?” He shifted from one teammate to the other, eventually ending up on Makoto. “Right?”
“Hmmm…”
“Mako?”
“I… suppose so long as it’s just in your dreams.”
Ren turned to the twins.
“Do you mind killing me real quick? I feel like that’d be great right about now.”
“Enough nonsense.” Justine shook her head. “We would only bring him here for a small fraction of his dreams. We watched over him, and most of the Inmate’s dreams revolved around his ally—” she gestured towards Makoto “—performing various debauched acts and dances.” She smiled, happy to finally come full circle. “Dances we can only hope she’s able to recreate- or perhaps even exceed- here at Club Velvet.”
Ren cringed. Having that outed was only marginally better than the false accusations prior; actually ‘better’ wasn’t quite accurate, more ‘not quite as terribly humiliating’.
“I’m sorry Makoto.”
“It’s okay.” She was blushing almost as hard as he was. “Again, they’re just dreams, even if they’re… um… about me.”
“I still feel I should apologize though…”
“Why?”
“…Nevermind…” Ren look her in the eyes. “And I promise I’m not into…” he waved his hand vaguely in the twins’ direction without looking at them “…all that.”
“I believe you.”
Ren breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you Mako.”
“I don’t.”
“Fuck you Futaba.”
“I get it.”
“Excuse me Ann?”
“Actually.” Makoto’s face suddenly turned serious. “We’re ignoring a pretty big elephant in the room.”
“Hm?”
“Morgana in that shape again means…”
“Oh shit!” Ren’s eyes went wide, he turned to the twins. “This is the metaverse right? I thought we erased it?”
“Only Mementos.”
“Huh?”
“Good grief.” Justine sighed.
“At least try to pay attention inmate.” Caroline rolled her eyes. “Mementos was the palace of the general public, from which all the other palaces branched off of. You erased it when you destroyed the Holy Grail.”
“But..” Morgana was having trouble processing this. “I thought Mementos was the metaverse, are you saying there’s more out there?”
“I expect you to know better.” Justine fiddled with her hat. “Mementos was simply one of the physical forms taken by what you call ‘the metaverse’. Where Mementos and the palaces you explored once stood is now formless, nothingness.”
“I… I see…”
“’The metaverse’ is merely a small fragment of Amala anyway, it would take power far, far, FAR greater than anything exhibited by either you OR the false god to destroy that.”
“Fragment of what-now?”
“Nevermind, that’s not important to you Inmate! What’s important right now is that you dance!”
“…Is that more important?”
“Stop questioning us!” Caroline barked. “All of you must practice your dance moves and perform on stage here at club velvet!”
“Hold up- on stage?!” Futaba froze stiff.
“This is so much at once.” Makoto rubbed her temples. “Okay, so there’s more to the metaverse than Memen—”
“FUCK THAT!” Futaba interrupted her. “Dance on stage?! In front of an audience?! US?! ME?!”
Justine nodded.
“Indeed.”
“Okay guys I figured it out.” Futaba smacked her lips. “We killed god, and now we’re in Hell. Cool, I’m glad we cleared that up.”
“Who are we dancing for?” Haru tilted her head.
“The unconscious masses.”
“That’s…” Ann’s eyes went wide “That sounds like a lot of people.”
“Fear not. This is merely a dream. Neither the audience, nor you will have any memory of what transpires here. Everyone will simply awake in the morning, as if nothing had happened at all.”
“Cool, cool. It’s a stress dream then. At least I’m dressed for the occasion.” With no care being paid to anyone else around her, Futaba calmly laid down on the ground, facing downwards, the side of her face being pressed into the carpet. “I’ll be down here if anyone needs me.”
“Heheh…” Ann laughed nervously. “I guess being asked to dance in front of an audience is asking a bit much of her, even if she wasn’t naked.”
“If state of dress is an issue, you have each been provided with exact duplicates of your rooms, wherein you’ll find numerous outfits you are free to try on at your leisure, and indeed perform in.”
“You’re giving everyone clothes?” Haru brought her hand to her chin.
Justine nodded.
“Of course. Though as to not offend the… eccentric lifestyles some of you have grown attached to, the nudists have instead been provided with an assortment of accessories and clothing items that would not interfere with your values.”
Caroline pointed to each nudist in sequence with her baton.
“Be grateful that we are so considerate!”
Makoto was being filled with equal parts curiosity and dread. Futaba shifted her head just barely enough to look up at the twins.
“Do we have masks?”
“Masks are included in the options provided, yes.”
In the time it took to blink, Futaba was back on her feet, fists pumped in excitement.
“Poggers! I’m about to Kekko Kamen my shit up all over that stage.”
“So it was only her face being seen that was the problem?” Yusuke furrowed his brow in thought, trying to understand Futaba’s mindset; a fruitless effort on his part.
“Did anyone actually understand what she just said?”
Ren shrugged.
“Don’t worry about it, Makoto, I think it just means she’s okay with it now.”
“Surprised it took us this long to make the Kekko Kamen comparison…”
“Are we going to get any further explanation on why we have to dance?”
“No.”
Makoto’s shoulders dropped.
“I see…”
Morgana stood up straight, climbing atop a stool to seem taller and (hopefully) more authoritative.
“I say we do it!”
“Really?”
“Of course Queen. These two helped us out a lot, so it’s only right to pay them back for it.”
“Though dancing?”
Ren chuckled.
“I guess it’s better than something dangerous. Sure, fuck it- why not?”
“Exactly!” Morgana jumped for joy, nearly falling off the stool in the process but playing it cool. “We’ll treat it as a request for the Phantom Thieves.”
Makoto sighed in defeat, a weak smile on her face.
“I suppose it’s not the strangest thing we’ve done, and I don’t really see the harm in playing along.”
“I think it’ll be fun!” Haru clasped her hands together, an excited grin on her face.
“Any objections?” Ren called out, pleased to be met with naught but subtle sounds of affirmation. “It’s showtime!”
“Nyeheheh~”
“In that case…” Justine gestured towards a door off to the side. “…you’ll find your rooms down that hall. Feel free to prepare yourselves in there, practice here in the VIP room, or head through the door on the other side when you’re ready to head to the stage.”
“Get ready to dance the night away!”
And with that- the twins vanished in a flash of light, leaving the still bewildered- but increasingly excited teenagers alone in this ‘VIP room’.
“Dancing hm?” Yusuke pondered. “While I am more than eager to explore the art form, I’ll admit I’m rather nervous about performing for an audience. I am quite the amateur.”
“I know what you mean…” Ann chewed her lip nervously. “I’ve never danced for an audience… but I’ve danced in my room plenty, so I should be pretty good, right?”
“Do you practice dancing more than acting?”
“Of course not Futaba, I’ve always kept my focus on fine-tuning my acting first and foremost, but some roles would require dancing to so I dedicate some time to that too.”
Futaba turned to Ren.
“I think we’re in trouble… Ren?”
Ren wasn’t paying attention, he seemed to be intently focusing, calming his breathing, hyping himself up.
“Ren?”
Without saying a word, Ren dropped to the ground. The others watched in amazement as he began performing flawless breakdance steps, his legs swinging around in wide circles, leaving the ground entirely as he held himself up using only his hands, hopping up and down off the ground. Before he finished with a flourish, flipping upside-down, twirling with his feet high up in the air, finally coming back down and managing to land in a squatting position. He smirked, pushing up his glasses, desperately hoping that it looked like the light was shining off of them from whatever angle his friends were watching from.
“For real?!” Ryuji’s jaw dropped. “Dude! Since when can you breakdance?”
Ren folded his arms, cocky grin spread across his face.
“I can’t.”
“Huh?”
“I was testing a theory. This is a dream right? Or the metaverse or- whatever. We’re not limited by real world physics, we just have to picture our bodies moving the way we want them to, and they’ll do so.”
“Interesting…” Makoto held her chin in thought. “It’s just like when we fight. That’s a relief, I didn’t have confidence in my dancing either, but this means we might not embarrass ourselves after all.”
“You still have to be able to picture it, but yeah there’s hope for us yet.”
Makoto sighed.
“And even if we do fumble entirely, it still wouldn’t be the most humiliating thing I’ve experienced… probably not even in the top three…”
“Here’s hoping we have the same high tolerance for shame that you do…”
~ ~ ~
Everyone had made their ways to their rooms, deciding to practice in isolation a while before coming back out to the VIP area. With the flow of time all but halted in their dreamstate, they felt no need to rush having to face their first performance before the vaguely defined ‘masses’ that would make up their audience.
Makoto had entered her room. Even if it was just a copy, it was an extremely accurate copy. Every single item was exactly the same as it was in reality, even down to the individual books on the shelves, or the Buchimaru eraser she had forgotten to put back in her pencil case before school the previous day. The only thing giving away the fact that this was a dream was the fact that the clock wasn’t working, and the view outside the window had been obscured by a vague- but comfortingly warm- light. Despite everything, she really could feel comfortable here.
She picked up her Buchi pillow and stared into it’s eyes a while, before holding it against her. Even this was comfortingly familiar. Part of her wanted to fall asleep right now so she could skip ahead to waking up in the real world again, having her room be replaced with Ren’s, and the doll in her arms replaced with her boyfriend.
Still, she knew it was safe to assume that it wouldn’t work like that, and she had a job to do here- absurd as it was.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had danced in her life, it had to be when she was still a little girl, and she doubted any of the dances she did back then would serve her well now. She pondered…
“What dances do I even know?”
The only dance she knew inside-and-out, from beginning to end, was the one performed by the titular character in the Buchimaru-kun ED. Growing up, she adamantly refused to skip the OP or ED no matter how many times she rewatched the series, and so the dance had been hardwired into her DNA at this stage, she didn’t need metaverse magic to perform that one flawlessly.
But while that would probably be adorable where she still a child, she decided the dance wouldn’t work as well now that she was a eighteen-year-old nudist, it sent a different message. And more importantly- it’d be humiliating.
She wracked her brain, surely she knew some other dances. She wished she had more information to work with- like a song list.
“I wonder if they have ‘Friday night’… I might be able to visualize that one from memory, especially with Ren with me…”
She could at least take some of the dance moves themselves and recontextualize them. She had no idea what the twins and the audience were expecting from her- if anything. Worst case scenario she could just take advantage of her nudity and fall back on sex appeal?
She shook her head, she’d rather just dance badly rather than outright debase herself doing so. There were absolutely high quality, stylish dance moves that utilized her sex appeal in a way that could earn her respect, but not knowing any of them- she didn’t want to risk it. She didn’t want to look like a bad dancer and a whore.
She might have to insist on someone more confident going first, maybe she can learn something from watching them, or have Ren teach her something- he was more knowledgeable about pop culture than she was, surely he had to know a dance or two.
She’d just wait in the VIP room for one of the others- but before that- she decided to check out her closet.
In the real world her closet space had largely gone to waste for obvious reasons, she just thought of it as some extra storage space- but had yet to buy anything to put there. But the twins had promised outfits for each of them, though she struggled to imagine what kind of things they’d get for her.
She opened up the closet to see that- yes indeed- there were full costumes hanging up ready for her.
Well, when I say ‘full costumes’, I mean on the same level of ‘full costume’ as her phantom thief gear, in fact said gear was the first outfit on the rack, but it was obvious that everything in here had been specifically designed to avoid covering so much as a nipple. The ‘interesting’ parts of her body were to be left clearly on display at all times, no matter what- it seemed.
She sighed, it’s not that she expected- or even wanted- anything different, it was just another reminder of her rather extreme lifestyle choice.
Some of them really weren’t to her taste. With the restriction of not being able to hide her chest or pelvis, many of the options just felt whorish, a bit too distasteful for her liking, at least her thief outfit had some sense of style left intact, this cupless and crotchless string bikini just felt silly to her. And she had mixed feelings about all the leather straps on this other outfit that just looked uncomfortable more than anything. Of course- nothing beat the birthday suit in terms of comfort, but surely there was a nice middle ground?
One outfit caught her eye however, less so the outfit and more the hat. She took it down and examined it- there was no doubt about it- this was a policewoman’s hat, and it looked pretty authentic. She found herself smiling, she had always looked forward to the day she could wear a police officer’s uniform, though of course- her nudist status did rather put a damper on that dream.
Then again, Ren did suggest the idea of a custom uniform, and now Makoto had to wonder if the twins had been listening, since this looked like they had provided her with just that.
She took the rest of the outfit off the hanger, and started to get dressed. The outfit seemed to had been tailored perfectly for her, at least- what little there was to be tailored at all. She tied the collar with the built-in necktie around her neck, comfortably and securely. While normally she wouldn’t wear shoes indoors (since she’s no neanderthal) she made an exception this time since they were clearly brand new and clean, plus this was just a dream, she didn’t have to worry about the carpet any as she slid the socks and boots onto her feet. She pulled on her clean white gloves, and finally secured the coveted hat atop her head.
She stood in front of her mirror and took in the sight. She found herself laughing. If she was honest, she knew that she looked pretty silly, objectively speaking this was a far cry from the respectable “women in uniform” look she dreamed of. And yet, she felt this intense warmth building up inside her, this joyous feeling that made her want to smile.
Even if this was only cosplay, it felt like a glimpse into the future, whereby she was a respectable police officer, just like her father before her. Well, he definitely would never have dressed like this, but the feeling was still there. Her mind was being filled with fantasies of a successful career, patrolling the streets, helping those in need, keeping an eye out for troublemakers. Yes, she could definitely see herself wearing this outlandish fetish outfit as an adult, and being able to stand proud and tall while doing so.
“This’ll do.”
She took one last piece of the outfit- what amounted to a utility belt- and tied it around her waist. Making sure her fake badge was safe in one of the pouches; not that she expected to need it for the dance, but she just felt better having it on her.
She took one more deep breath to brace herself, and stepped out of her room, heading down the hall to the VIP room to practice what few moves she knew while she waited for the others.
~ ~ ~
“Gotta give credit where it’s due, those girls really went above and beyond with our rooms.”
“Agreed Joker. It feels like we’re back home.”
Ren looked down at his bed.
“It’s so weird to think that me and Mako are still asleep right here. Speaking of which- where are you right now?”
“I just slept in Futaba’s room, figured it was best to leave the two of you to it, y’know?”
“Thanks man. Remind me to get you some sushi when we wake up.”
“Ren don’t make promises when you know we’re gonna lose our memory when we wake up.”
“Heh…”
Morgana shook his head, and resumed his practicing.
“So what are you gonna go for? Dance-wise I mean.”
“Something that plays to my ‘mature gentleman’ side of course.”
“Of course, I can think of nothing better suited to you.”
“See you get it.” Morgana stood proud on the table, paws on his hips. “My persona might be Mercurius now, but I can still feel the essence of Zorro within me. A quintessential gentleman thief on par with Arséne.”
“Ha. We both went from gentlemen thieves to deities. Quite the glow up.”
“We haven’t lost our old selves, just gained new aspects on top of that. And I plan to make full use of my inner charm tonight! Lady Ann won’t be able to contain herself!”
“You know she’s into Shiho, right?”
“…” Morgana froze in place.
“Uh… you good?”
“…”
“You didn’t forget that fact, did you?”
“I-I remembered! A-and I support her fully.”
“It’s okay to be disappointed man.”
“I’m not disappointed, like I said, I’m happy for her.”
“That’s good to hear man.”
“Besides, she can still be charmed without me getting in the way of their love.”
Ren stared upwards towards the window, out at the white void outside in contemplation for a while.
“Y’know, I’m sure if you volunteered to play ‘therapy cat’ for Shiho, Ann would be happy to bring you along with her.”
“Joker!” He glared angrily at the boy. “I get that I am a cat now- sorta kinda maybe… but you know I hate having it called attention to like that!”
“No I mean if you play the role, you’d have both girls fussing over you at once.”
“’Therapy cat duty’, sounds good, noted.” Morgana cleared his throat. “But for now, while I still have this body, I’m going to make the most of my Zorro-esque charm~ Wupah!”
“Wupah?”
“You should be doing the same. You may have already charmed Makoto, but you can still charm her more, y’know?”
“You raise a good point. In fact, I’m gonna take a look through those boxes there, see what clothes they’ve actually given us.”
“That’s the spirit. Pick something that really screams ‘gentleman’.”
“Right, whatever.” Ren opened up the first box. Not having brought much with him from his hometown, he usually kept all of his clothes in a box behind the stairs. That box was still there, intact, and filled with all his usual outfits. Though in addition, there were several other boxes that looked very similar. He was eager to find out what laid within. “Oh wow, this must be your box.”
“Mine?”
“Yeah, bunch of outfits in your size.”
“Ooo!” Morgana jumped down from the table, rushing over to the box as Ren placed it aside. “There’s some interesting stuff in here. A crown- of course. This shirt looks cool. A robot outfit- I don’t really get that but okay. A mai… a maid outfit?”
“Really?”
“Why would they give me this? Gentlemen don’t wear dresses…”
“I think it’ll look good on you.”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
“I’m not.”
“I’m leaving that one aside. There are still some interesting choices in here.” Morgana turned away from his box. “What about you? What’s in your other boxes?”
“Hmm…” Ren opened up his next box. “These are all the outfits I have back at home that I didn’t bring with me. How’d they even know what kinds of things I own?”
“They probably know everything, it wouldn’t be hard for them to do their research.”
“It seems out of character for them to put in this much attention to detail honestly…”
“Maybe they had help?”
“Hmm…” Ren hummed as he went through his clothes. Most of them were pretty boring, back in Inaba he was more than happy to fade into the background, where no one would notice him. Really none of these outfits leapt out to him. “I’m starting to think I need to expand my wardrobe. I can’t find anything inter…”
“…Joker?”
“They even have this?”
“Have what?”
Ren smirked.
“This!”
“Wha—?! Really?”
“Yup, really. There’s this yearly event at my old school’s culture festival. I originally bought this so I could enter, but I chickened out at the last minute. Is this my second chance?”
“I um… it certainly says something, but it’s not ‘gentleman’.”
“I’m going for it.”
“Really? Hmm… I suppose that confidence says ‘gentleman’ at least.”
“Do you mind helping me apply the make-up?”
“S-sure…”
~ ~ ~
Makoto nervously paced back and forth. She hadn’t expected to be sitting alone in the VIP lounge so long. She had run out of moves to practice already. At one point the twins had shown up to try and push her along to the stage already, but she insisted she wasn’t ready. They seemed pretty annoyed, given the fact that the passage of time had no meaning here, they seemed pretty impatient. Thankfully they relented and left her alone again, with nothing to do but wait for someone to show up and help her learn an actual dance.
Her patience did eventually pay off, though not in exactly the way she had hoped.
Being on edge, she couldn’t help but nearly jump out of her skin when the door burst open. Someone had opened it gently and silently enough as to unlatch it- before kicking it open. It slammed against the wall as a figure burst into the room. A woman Makoto didn’t recognize, dressed like a cop- like herself- though the outfit was of a much different design.
First of all, it actually covered the body. Secondly it was black all over. A black leather button-up dress leading down to opaque tights, leading further still into high-heeled boots, with a spiked belt and warden’s hat completing the flashy little number.
Makoto instinctively went on guard as the woman stared at her through her thick eye-liner, making a kissing face in her direction through deep red lipstick. She had no idea who this was, nor how she made it into this shared dream world, but she could be sure they weren’t a real cop, and definitely someone she had to…
Makoto squinted at the questionable lady cop.
“Ren? Wait, Ren is that you?”
He smirked at her.
“Oh my god…”
Ren strutted over in her direction, his hips confidently swaying from side to side as he closed the gap. Makoto wondered if this was him using the power of the metaverse to perfectly mimic a runway model’s gait, or if this was just something he could do naturally. She didn’t have much time to ruminate on the quandary, soon he was within arms reach of her, and was not slowing his advance any.
He forced her to step back, further and further back until her back of her legs hit the blue couch, and she fell over backwards into the seat with him towering over her. She was genuinely embarrassed by the volume of the terrified yelp she let out as his high-heeled boot hit the backrest right next to her head.
He leaned forwards, gently taking a hold of her chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to gaze directly into his eyes and he leaned in closer still, his face inches from her.
“Hello Darling~”
“R-R-Ren?”
“You look absolutely adorable~”
“I… I… um…” Makoto cleared her throat, trying to regain what composure she could as she stood back up- Ren backing off to allow her to do so. “I um… I was hoping you’d show up first.”
“What a coincidence, I was hoping you’d be the first to get here.”
Makoto, her heart still pounding in her chest, face still flushed, knees still shaking, and loins still tingling, managed to laugh a little.
“I guess that routine of yours would have been a bit awkward if it had been Ryuji here.”
“Heh… if it was someone else I would have asked them to bring you out here, then I’d just burst in again.”
“Of course…”
“So~”
“So?”
“Makoto Darling~” Ren took one of her hands in his, and wrapped the other around the small of her back, pulling her against him, sending her heartbeat into overdrive once more. “Care to dance?”
Notes:
If you want another P5D chapter to tide you over, I'd like to shill one of my own fics:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40298001
This is in the main timeline, not Nudist Queen, but you can just read it while imagining Makoto is naked if you really want to...
Chapter 79: Dressed to impress
Summary:
The dancing arc continues!
Notes:
Will there actually be dancing this time? Who knows? The answer is me- I know because I wrote it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Is it safe to come in yet?” Morgana said as he poked his head through the door to Club Velvet’s VIP area, just in time to see Ren and Makoto- mid-dip.
Both of them felt rather flustered dancing so intimately together, even moreso now that they had been caught, though it only showed with Makoto- since Ren’s own blush was mostly concealed beneath his make-up. A fact he took full advantage of- trying to look as smug and flippant as possible- flicking his wig as he smirked at his friend.
“Of course you can come in Mona-chan, me and Mako are making excellent strides with our dance practice.
“Please don’t call me ‘Mona-chan’ Joker, it sounds wrong coming from you.”
“S-sorry, it’s not me- it’s the suit.”
“Of course.” Morgana turned to speak to Makoto, before flinching slightly at her outfit. “Woah Queen, that uniform is…”
“Heh…” Makoto averted her eyes bashfully for a moment. “I found this in my room…”
“The twins gave you that?”
“Presumably so…” Makoto took a breath, and decided to make a conscious effort to look more confident. She stood as tall as she was able, gloved hand resting on her cocked hip as she hoped her blush was dying down. “I want to wear a uniform like this for real someday, so I figure now is as good a time as any to get some practice in, y’know?”
“Wearing that then you’re actually a police officer, huh?” Morgana eyed her sceptically. “Well it’s impactful if nothing else, you’ll certainly get noticed.”
“Well that’s a good thing.” Ren smiled. “If she wants to rise up in the ranks the higher ups need to remember who she is. Looking as drop dead gorgeous as she does, she inevitably going to develop a lasting reputation.”
To her credit Makoto managed to avoid blushing any further at Ren’s casual compliment thrown in there, and remained focused on the important part.
“With all the eyes on me, there will be a reputation for sure, I just have to work to make sure it’s a good one.” She pumped her fist with renewed confidence. “Even if my body is what gets the eyes on me in the first place, I’ll make sure my performance keeps them there- no- I’ll make sure it overshadows the nudism completely!”
“Damn straight. If anyone can do it, you can Mako.”
Ren’s reassuring compliment was promptly ruined when he felt the need to gently lift her hat to pet her hair beneath. Makoto gently smacked his hand away, and promptly resecured her hat atop her head.
“Trying to mess with a police officer’s hat is a bad idea Ren, you don’t want to get in trouble- especially not with me.”
“No kidding.” Ren laughed nervously. “Actually…” Ren removed the fake cuffs from his belt and twirled them around his finger. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to try and arrest your fellow officer?”
Makoto scoffed, smirking up at him.
“Ren, you and I are equals when it comes to our relationship, but in terms of Tokyo PD- I am your senior, you’d do well to not disrespect your superiors.”
“Oof, you’ve got me there.” Ren laughed.
Morgana rolled his eyes.
“You two really are dorks.” He mumbled under his breath before clearing his throat. “Anyway, what do you think of my look, huh?”
Makoto tilted her head curiously at the notcat.
“I’ll admit, the shirt and scarf are pretty cool, though where’d you get the crown?”
“It was in the box with everything else. But doesn’t it suit me?” Morgana posed. “The twins must realize that I’m clearly destined to be the king of the dance floor!”
“Ah now- hang on.” Ren rested his hands on his hips indignantly. “The Queen is obviously Mako, so surely that’d make me the King?”
“Looking at you now Joker… you’re closer to a Queen than a King…”
Ren paused a while, before pointing at Morgana.
“Y’know what? Fair.” He didn’t seem upset by it anyhow.
Before Morgana could continue justifying his crown, Haru proudly strode into the room.
“Sorry I’m la—oh, there’s only a few of us here.”
“I guess everyone else is still getting ready.”
“I guess so Mako-cha…” Haru froze when she laid eyes on Makoto’s costume- or relative lack thereof. “Oh goodness…”
“Haru-chan?”
“It might be even more erotic than her phantom thief outfit…”
“Everything okay Haru?”
“Y-yes! Absolutely fine. You look fantastic Mako-chan.”
“Th-thank you.” Makoto smiled nervously. “You look great too, i-is that comfortable?”
Haru nodded happily. Twirling around to show off her costume. The top half resembling a knight of nobility; a flawless silver breastplate leading into short, pillowy sleeves and white gloves upon her arms, and a royal blue buttoned-up coat down her torso. The bottom half… technically also existed. Her high-rise white leotard proudly showing off her hips and thighs, leading down to her chic pink high heels, which did little to draw attention away from how tightly the leotard clung to her body, and how obvious it made her choice to go commando, leaving nothing to the imagination in terms of shape.
“Hm? Yes it’s much more comfortable than it looks.”
“I-I see.” Makoto nodded slowly, her eyes not leaving the very apparent camel toe for even a moment. “Are you sure it isn’t… too tight?”
Haru huffed, clearly annoyed.
“You’re being a little bit rude Mako-chan.” She gently ran her had up and down her midsection. “I’ve actually lost a fair bit of weight recently, as you can see.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
Haru turned her attention to Morgana, and immediately squealed at a frankly worrying volume.
“Wh-what? What’s wrong?” Morgana scooted backwards, but was too slow to escape Haru’s near-instantaneous dive towards him, grabbed his foot and pulling it up into the air- the rest of the not cat tumbling over backwards helplessly, his crown rolling across the room.
“HE HAS LITTLE BOOTIES!” Haru pointed to Morgana’s shoes as she looked back at the couple with a crazed look in her sparkling eyes. “Tiiiiny little booties for his tiny little paws! It’s SOOO cute!”
“Joker!” Morgana cried out. “Help me!”
Ren had never seen Haru quite this excited before, if he was honest- he’d admit he was actually a little scared to get close right now.
“Um…” It took him a moment, but an idea for an easy subject change came to mind. “Yeah Mona looks great, but check me out.”
“Hm?” Haru had been so distracted by Queen’s cop outfit, that she barely even registered the other lady cop in the room- much less the fact that it was Ren in that get up. She released Morgana’s paw and stood up. “Oh my… Ren-kun?”
“Yup?”
“Do you… engage in this hobby often?”
“N-no, not really, not since coming to Tokyo anyway.”
Her eyes drifted up and down his body, drinking it all in, before locking eye-contact with him.
“You should.”
“For real?”
Haru nodded. A moment ago she seemed to be more excited than ever before, but now she seemed to be more serious than ever before.
“It’s a very good look on you. Very… very good indeed.”
“Uh Haru, you’re doing that horny shuffling thing again.”
“Ren!” Makoto whisper-shouted. “You’re not supposed to point that out.” Even as she reprimanded him, her own gaze stayed firmly on Haru conspicuously rubbing her thighs together.
“Mona-chan?”
“Y-yeah, Noir?”
“When exactly are we expected to start performing?”
“Well, the twins made it sound like we could just head through whenever we’re ready, we don’t need to worry about time much.”
“Good.” Haru nodded, before turning back to the door she came in from. “I need some time in my room, to um… get ready for um…”
Ren sighed.
“It’s okay Haru, we get it.”
“Good.”
And with that she powerwalked through the door and out of sight, leaving the Morgana and the couple alone in the VIP lounge.
“Though really…” Ren began. “Knowing them- the twins that is- they’re probably going to be annoyed with us if we keep them waiting much longer. I’m gonna go check in on the others, see what’s keeping them. You okay to keep practicing in here Makoto?”
“Oo oo!” Morgana- having recovered his crown and enough dignity to pretend nothing had happened- jumped up and down in excitement. “If you need a teacher, I’d be more than happy to offer my services.”
Makoto looked at him sceptically, but quickly shrugged.
“Actually that’s not a bad idea, you’re probably more experienced than me at least.”
“Nyeheheh. With me guiding you, you’ll charm the audience for sure.”
“She’d do that anyway.” Ren laughed. “But I’m sure you can help amplify that, even if just a tiny bit Morgana.”
Mona huffed.
“Shouldn’t you be checking in on the others?”
“Yeah yeah. Good luck you two, don’t let me outshine you too much.”
Makoto wasn’t sure whether to encourage his ego or not, a very common dilemma for her.
~ ~ ~
Ren approached the first door past his own, knocked on the door, making sure it was loud enough to hear- but not so loud as to startle the occupant too much.
“Futaba?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you masturbating?”
“No, not right now.”
“Okay good.” Ren opened the door, letting himself in, and finding Futaba sat at her computer, spinning around to greet him. The first thing he noticed was that she was still completely nude. “Haven’t you looked through your outfits yet?”
“Nah, I haven’t looked through my closet yet.”
Ren looked around the room, and noticed a vest and shorts combo lying on the ground scrunched up next to her bed.
“Is that one of the outfits they gave you?”
“Hm? That, nah. That’s just some clothes I left on the floor back in reality.” She shrugged. “Guess those lolis or whatever had a really good eye for detail when they recreated my room.”
“Clothes you left on the floor?” Ren raised an eyebrow. “Futaba, you’ve been nudist for four months, why would you still need to get clothes out?”
“Oh nah, those were the last clothes I wore.”
“What?”
“I was wearing those the day I added myself to the program. You were there when I threw off my vest in celebration.”
“But why did you take them back out of the closet?”
“What? They never went in.”
“They never went in?”
“Is there an echo in here?” Futaba brought her feet up onto her chair with her, assuming her gremlin squat. “Yeah, I just haven’t put them away yet, that’s all.”
“Four months?! I can get leaving your clothes on the floor for a few minutes- maybe an hour- but four months?”
“I’ll put them away eventually.”
“Futaba, when we get home, we need to have a serious chat about cleaning up after yourself.”
“Ugh… don’t be that guy… You’re such a damn clean freak.”
“I’m not being a clean freak, it’s just not good for you to live in such a dirty room.”
“Ugh, babyrage… my room isn’t dirty, it’s just messy- big difference.”
Ren groaned, deciding this wasn’t worth it right now.
“Whatever, we’ll save it for when we wake up.”
“Hopefully we won’t remember any of this anyway…”
“I’ll give you the same lecture next time I come in your room anyway.”
“Better put that off as long as I can then. Anyway- there’s something I want to show you.”
“Also—” Ren gestured to his body. “No comment on the outfit? I would have expected some sorta reaction from you.”
“Pfft. I’ve seen your internet browsing history, it doesn’t surprise me at all.”
“…Not sure how to take that…”
“Forget about it- check this shit!” Futaba spun back around to face her computer. “I managed to connect to someone.”
“Huh?” Ren approached her side, leaning on the side of her backrest. “You mean we’ve got access to the internet even here in the metaverse?”
“Not quite. The internet is obviously a no-go since we’re separated from reality, but I was still able to reach out thanks to Prometheus, and someone actually responded.”
“For real? You sure it’s not just one of us?”
“Positive. Someone else is in here aside from us.” Futaba grinned, giddy with excitement. “She set up a chatroom for the two of us… even if it’s pretty outdated.”
“So you know it’s a girl?”
“Yup, about our age too, also a persona user, and part of a team of other persona users who fight shadows.”
“Incredible… so there are others out there…” Ren leaned in to read the chat room, having to squint to do so without his glasses. “I wonder what they’re like…”
~ ~ ~
Meanwhile, or perhaps another time, in a faraway place, or perhaps very close at hand, a girl sits alone in her room, typing away on her laptop’s keyboard, sat atop her low table.
“Hmm…”
She hummed to herself as she loosened her shoulders, she had spent too long hunched over here, she knew she needed to be more mindful of how she sat, if she kept up the bad habit who knows what kinds of effects it could have on her posture in the long term. What she was working on was very interesting indeed, and she was all too eager to continue and learn as much as she could, but still- she realized that taking a few seconds to stretch and loosen up would be prudent.
As she did so, she neglected to hear the near-silent sound of her bedroom door being opened- slowly and deliberately- her own grunts and groans dwarfed any of the slight noises made by the intruder. An intruder that slinked around the edge of the room, keeping out of the girl’s peripheral vision, and closing in from behind. She remained blissfully ignorant as the intruder continued their slow but certain approach. Standing right behind her, they leant in. Slowly and silently, until they were mere inches away from the girl’s ear, where there was no more chance of escape.
“Whatcha doin’?”
“AIIE!” The girl recoiled from the sudden voice, her knee banging the underside of the table in the process. As she turned to face her assailant, she angrily slapped the table as her heart was still pounding inside her chest. “Oh don’t do that Kotone-san! You nearly gave me a heart attack…”
“Heheh.” Kotone shrugged innocently. “Sorry Fuuka-chan, didn’t mean to make you jump that much.”
“I can’t believe you sometimes…”
“I said I’m sorry.” Kotone put her hands up defensively. “You’ve just been in here a while, so I came to check on you, that’s all.”
“Oh sorry, I lost track of time. You see, I found something very interesting.”
“Oh? Did you get the internet working?”
“Not quite, but I was able to establish a connection to someone. Juno was picking up a strange reading, almost as if someone was reaching out into the void, so we reached back and managed to connect it to my computer. I even made a chat room for us!”
“Oho?” Kotone sat down on Fuuka’s bed. “Who are they? If they can reach us now they either have to be other persona users or friends of Elizabeth.”
“You were right the first time, it’s another persona user. The signal Juno picked up was from a persona just like her.”
“A navigation type? Ha, I guess hackers attract, huh?”
“I suppose you could say that. Apparently they’re a group of high school students from Tokyo… another team of persona users like us, fighting shadows.”
“Wait…” Kotone was equal parts nervous and confused. “So is there another Tartarus in Tokyo?”
“Thankfully no, not by the sounds of it. She seemed pretty confused by the idea of Tartarus and the dark hour, apparently they fight shadows in a different world entirely, not tied to a specific location, but instead reached through their phones.”
“Phones?” Kotone pulled out her own phone and flipped it open, staring at it as if she’d suddenly figure out the secret. “How’s that work? Do they call a certain number or something? If so we could use something like that- don’t you think?”
“Ah now see—” Fuuka faced the other girl directly, finger raised, enthusiastic grin on her face. “—here’s the interesting part. They say it’s Christmas!”
“Christmas? That was a couple weeks ago though… are they behind us?”
“The opposite. It’s Christmas 2016!”
“You’re talking to people in the future?” Kotone scratched her head. “So this place is messing with time and space? It’s even weirder than I thought.”
“I know, it’s incredible. That’s why they’re using their phones, they’re using those ‘smart phones’, apparently they really catch on in the next few years.”
“I can believe that, it’s the idea that they help them travel to other worlds that I’m having trouble buying… then again, we’re sort of in another world now so I guess anything is possible.”
“Mm… at least, they say they’re from the future, and I’d like to believe them, but…”
“But?”
Another knock at the door took both girls off guard.
“Hey Fuuka, Kotone, you two in there?
“Yukari-san? Yeah we’re in here.” Fuuka called out.
The door opened again, and Yukari poked her head in the room. She looked over to Kotone on the bed.
“Hey sorry, I wanted to know if you could help with something, Junpei just—”
Kotone cut her off in her excitement.
“Fuuka’s talking with persona users from the future!”
Yukari stared at her blankly, before shifting over to Fuuka giving her a sheepish smile, then back to Kotone.
“Come again?”
“It’s true- I think.” Fuuka nodded hestitantly. “Juno found another persona’s signal like hers, and we’ve managed to establish communications… only…”
“Only what?”
“Some of the stuff they’re saying- about themselves and the future- is a bit hard to believe…”
Yukari entered the room proper, closing the door behind her, her curiosity was enough to stop her worrying about whatever problem she came in with.
“How so?”
“Do you think they’re lying?” Kotone added.
“Well…” Fuuka turned back to her laptop screen. “Most of it sounds pretty believable, but some of the social changes are a bit… extreme.”
“Social changes?” Kotone smirked. “What kinds of changes? Are ladies finally allowed to walk around topless in the future?”
“Naked, actually.”
“Huh?” Yukari recoiled in shock.
Kotone’s eyes went wide.
“I was kinda kidding there, it’s normal to walk around naked in 2016?”
“N-not as such…” Fuuka shuffled uncomfortably. “Only people who sign up for this particular program. A program that supposedly allows students to be naked 24/7 if they so desire.”
“What the hell?” Yukari wrapped her arms around herself, horrified as if she had to partake herself. “There’s no way that’s real- that’s insane.”
Fuuka nodded.
“It’s got me doubting them too honestly. I just can’t imagine something like that happening, much less in the next seven years.”
“I dunno, sounds kinda hot to me.”
“KOTONE?!” Yukari stared at her with shock and disgust clear on her face. “Don’t tell me you’d actually join a program like that?”
Kotone made a show of stroking her chin, glancing upwards as she pondered.
“I’d be tempted.”
“Oh goodness…” Fuuka covered her mouth, flabbergasted.
“Aw come on, haven’t you two ever had a day where you just don’t wanna put on clothes?”
“No.” Yukari shook her head. “I’ve never once thought anything like that.”
“Lame.” Kotone rolled her eyes, she was about to ask Fuuka the same question before her horrified look made the answer clear. “Aw come on, you have to admit it would be really fun, seeing everyone’s reactions.”
“Seeing everyone’s reactions isn’t even close to worth letting everyone see us!”
“Y’know…” Yukari narrowed her eyes at the team leader. “I’ve had our suspicions ever since you first wore that ‘high-leg armor’ or ‘battle panties’ or whatever the hell you called them… are you some kind of exhibitionist?”
“What?” Kotone recoiled in mock-offence. “Nah, I’m just really comfortable with my body, frankly the rest of you could stand to chill out about that sort of thing. You won’t even let me dress casual in the dorm.”
“We do let you dress casual. ‘Naked’ doesn’t count as ‘casual wear’.”
“It does in my book. I’m just saying- none of you have a problem with Aigis hanging out naked in the dorm.”
“Aigis-san doesn’t have nipples.” Fuuka meekly raised her hand.
Kotone gestured towards her chest.
“Yeah but if I covered just the nipples I’d look more lewd, surely? Nudity is much more innocent.”
“Nope.” Yukari shook her head. “You’re not going nudist now, or in this definitely-fake future.”
“You’re not my Mom.”
“There are guys here too, y’know?”
“I mean…” Fuuka shrugged. “She did let Junpei-san and Akihiko-senpai in the bath with her that one time, so I don’t think that’d bother her.”
“Fuuka’s right. The boys aren’t dangerous like you seem to think they are.”
“Regardless, we’ve held a vote on this- at your insistence- at least five times now, and every time you’re the only one who ever votes to allow nudity. Give it up, majority rules.”
Kotone crossed her arms and legs, grumbling to herself.
“Tch. I would have thought at least Junpei would have my back on that one…”
“Maybe he’s just shy?” Fuuka offered, almost apologetically.
Yukari rolled her eyes.
“So these people from the future, do you think everything is a lie or just the nudism stuff?”
“Hard to say…” Fuuka folded her arms. “More and more I’m starting to think this might just be some far-off shadow or something trying some absurd ERP with me…”
Yukari paused a moment, before looking over to Kotone.
“What’s ERP?”
Kotone just about managed to stifle a laugh. She shook her head.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I suppose it doesn’t really matter…” Fuuka sighed. “We’re not going to remember any of this once we wake up anyway.”
“And when we do wake up, we’ve got more immediate things to worry about…”
“Yeah…” Kotone nodded sombrely, before brightening up, and shooting the other girls a reassuring grin. “But if it really is from the future- that means we succeed, right?”
Fuuka’s brow raised a moment, before a slight smile spread across her face.
“Yes… I suppose that’s true.”
Yukari nodded, unsure.
“I don’t know… but I guess if they are real then there is a future to fight for. So here’s hoping- huh?”
Kotone stood up, raising her fist into the air triumphantly.
“Just means we have to give it everything we’ve got, right?!” The other girls gave their affirmations, feeling just a little bit stronger despite their doubts. “And when we do get to the future, we can have a nudist SEES reunion!”
“Not happening.”
Kotone smirked.
“You do realize SEES going nudist would include Akihiko-senpai and Mitsuru-senpai too, right?”
“Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad after all…”
~ ~ ~
“Are ya winnin’ son?”
“Hey Futaba-chan.” Makoto raised her head to greet the girl as she entered the room, currently sitting on one of the sofas out of breath. “I’m guessing that’s your ‘outfit’?”
“Yup!” Futaba nodded in her Featherman mask, her fists on the hips of her otherwise nude body in a superhero pose. “I’ll be good for the first dance like this!”
“So long as your comfortable I suppose. Any idea what you’re going to do for your dance?”
“I’ve seen enough anime and tokusatsu OPs with dance moves in them, I’ll just string a bunch of them together into something that feels right at the time.” She pulled off her best tokusatsu pose, raising one knee and both hands into the air, balancing on her toes. “IMPROV!”
Makoto smiled, if nothing else she admired Futaba’s confidence- even if she had to cover her face to feel that way.
“I believe in you, Futaba-chan.”
“Nyeheheh. Thanks Makoto. Plus, if anyone gives me trouble you can arrest them for me!”
Makoto was having second thoughts about this outfit.
“Don’t tease me.”
“Only I can do that~” Futaba said in her best ‘Ren’ impression, only embarrassing Makoto further.
Morgana examined Futaba’s (lack of) an outfit.
“I think you should add a scarf.”
“Huh? A scarf?”
Morgana got off his seat and started practicing his dance steps in front of her.
“Dancing is all about expressive movement, and it’s great if you have things on your body that move too. For me it’s my baggy shirt, for Queen it’s… um… her um…” Morgana avoided both girls’ gazes. “A-anyway- a scarf would add an extra ‘flow-y’ element that’ll really make you look much more dynamic.”
“What are you trying to say?” Futaba slapped the carpet with her bare foot, trying to seem as mad as possible. “You said Makoto’s got her nice titties and ass to bounce around as she dances—”
Both Makoto and Morgana facepalmed in embarrassment.
“I avoided saying it out loud for a reason Oracle…”
“—but what about me? My titties bounce around plenty too, right?”
Morgana and Makoto remained conspicuously quiet, exchanging a rather guilty looking glance, then eyeing Futaba’s chest a while.
Morgana looked back up to her face through her Featherman visor.
“I think adding a scarf would really help.”
“Hmph! I know when I’m being insulted!” Futaba folded her arms. “None of the Feathermen even wear scarfs…”
“They don’t run around naked either…”
“They do in my AU!” Futaba paused, seeming to stare off into space. “Then again, Queen always makes the ‘naked with scarf’ look really great. Technically you too Mona-chan!”
Morgana rubbed the back of his head.
“Technically…”
“FINE!” Futaba spun around. “I’ll try a different outfit. One with more ‘flow’ or whatever…”
And with that, she stormed out of the room. Makoto leaned over to Morgana.
“I think you hurt her feelings.”
“I didn’t mean to, I was just trying to help… but maybe I should have kept my mouth shut…”
“I understand, but I think you owe her an apology.”
“Yeah, I do.” He smiled up at her. “Maybe I’ll offer her dance lessons too! Speaking of which, how are you feeling? Getting the hang of it yet?”
Makoto gathered up her resolve and nodded.
“Yeah, credit where it’s due, I really think your lessons helped me out.”
“So how about it? Ready to perform?”
“I’d still like some of the others to go first, give me just a little bit more confidence, but I’ll be ready soon.”
“That’s fair.” Morgana nodded, before pointing his paw directly at Makoto’s face. “But don’t think that means I’m going to take it easy on you in the meantime! I’m going to make sure you’re ready! Break time’s over!”
Makoto let out a sound that was half sigh, half laughter, before getting back to her feet.
“Right, I’ll give you my best!”
Notes:
Yeah still no dancing, next chapter- I promise xD
Chapter 80: What rhythm's about
Summary:
It's finally time to perform.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Excellent pose at the end Queen!” Morgana nodded, proudly stood atop his rotating chair borrowed from the recreated Leblanc connected to Ren’s recreated room. The chair carried all the way through to Club Velvet’s VIP area by Makoto; an endeavour the girl found questionable since there were already plenty of places to sit in here. Perhaps Morgana simply liked being up higher, and thus feeling more important. Not that she thought it was worth worrying about; he was teaching her how to dance after all, expending a little effort to help him be more comfortable wasn’t unreasonable.
Makoto let herself relax, stretching upwards, the flashy and sparkly lights of the VIP room glistening off of her sweat-covered body. She fiddled with her collar, it wasn’t un-comfortable by any means, but having anything constantly rubbing against her skin had become such an alien feeling. The somewhat-magical nature of her phantom thief outfit- and the fact that it was perfectly skin-tight- meant it never caused any noticeable discomfort, only her inability to feel the ground beneath her feet reminding her she was wearing anything at all. But now with malleable fabric against her, even though it fit her well, she simply couldn’t stop noticing the feeling, and she could only hope it didn’t impact her dancing any. She thought back to the days where she actually wore clothes- days that seem so terribly long ago now- and how little she thought of the feeling of cloth against skin back then. Going nudist had opened the door to a whole new world of physical sensations and awareness of said sensations, and it was not a door to be easily closed it seemed.
Still it wasn’t that bad, she could put up with it, what mattered now was her dancing, which judging by Morgana’s proud look- seemed to be shaping up rather well.
“Thanks Mona, I’m finally feeling like I’m getting the hang of it.”
“The audience is gonna love it, I’m sure. Though if I could offer one tiny critique…”
“Oh? Sure, am I still doing something wrong?”
Morgana shook his head.
“Nothing’s wrong, just something that can be better. The ending pose was great, but you need to remember to smile.”
“Ah, you’re right. I’ve been focused so hard on my body that I forgot about what my face is doing.”
“To be fair I think it’ll mostly be the same with your audience…” Morgana mumbled as an aside.
Thankfully Makoto either didn’t hear, or simply chose to ignore him, and instead focus on bringing out her best attempt at a coy smile at a random spot on the wall ahead of her.
“No no Queen, you’re looking in the wrong direction!”
“Huh? Oh, I get it, I should be smiling at the audience? That’d be you right now, right?”
“No not at me- at the camera!”
“The camera?” Makoto looked around, in a slight tizzy. “Are there already cameras on us?”
“No, not yet- it’s just an imaginary camera for now.”
Makoto gave him a rather tired look, rolling her eyes before smiling again in a different direction.
“No not there.”
“Well I can’t see it- the camera’s invisible!”
Before either of them could continue, the door to the VIP section opened once more, and Ren re-entered the room.
“I heard raised voices, did I come at a bad time?”
Makoto sighed.
“No, you’re good. Is everyone else ready?”
Before the door could even finish closing itself, it violently burst back open.
“AW YEAH! WASSUP?! WHO ELSE IS READY TO TEAR UP THE DANCE FLOOR?!”
Ren winced.
“Judging by the fact that my eardrums may have just burst, I’m guessing Ryuji’s ready at least.”
Makoto, having just finished rubbing her own sore ears, glared at Ryuji.
“Not that I want to discourage your obvious enthusiasm, but maybe save it for your actual performance? Didn’t think you were the dancing type anyway.”
The frustratingly unapologetic Ryuji started doing some steps in place- probably something he saw on the internet once- seeming quite proud of himself.
“Everyone knows that chicks love dancing, I finally have an excuse to show off.”
“To who- the twins?” Ren shook his head. “It’s a dream remember? Even if the unconscious masses can see it, they’re not gonna remember anything they see.”
“You don’t know that. Plus, even if they don’t remember, they might feel like they remember, y’know? Maybe when we’re back in the real world, people will see me and be like ‘yo, I get this feeling that that guy is a sick dancer’.”
“’I have a vague feeling that guy can dance, I should ask him out on a date’ huh?” Ren rolled his eyes, yet somehow found himself smiling. “It’s hard not to admire such an optimistic mind, full of hope.”
“He’s full of something, that’s for sure.” Morgana tutted.
“Oh I’m sure your dancing will be lovely Ryuji-kun.” Haru had suddenly appeared from behind him. “If you try your best I’m sure it’ll be entertaining at least.”
“Now when you say ‘entertaining’…”
Ren’s question was ignored, Ryuji instead distracted by Haru’s red- and rather sweaty- face.
“You look like you’ve really been working up a sweat, you been practicing hard too?”
Haru chuckled rather nervously.
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
“Don’t forget to hydrate before you head out there, you’re probably thirsty.”
“Now when you say ‘thirsty’…”
“Ren, shut up.” Makoto curiously scanned Ryuji. “Weren’t there any clothes in your room?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“You’re just dressed in your school uniform, I thought you’d want to dress up.”
“You trippin’? Like yeah I’ve got the pants from the uniform, but this this t-shirt is sick, right?”
“…Is that not the same shirt you always wear?”
“No no Makoto…” Ren interrupted “He’s right, his usual shirt has ‘ZOMG’ written on it, this one has ‘Hell no’, it’s different.”
“I suppose now that you mention it…” Makoto wasn’t sure exactly why, but she felt like a disappointed parent right now. “I guess it says more about his disrespect for the school dress code rather than his idea of proper dance wear.”
Ren was about to say something, before Makoto cut him off with a glare.
“And yes Ren, I know I’m one to talk when it comes to ‘dress codes’.”
“Heh.”
“Don’t ‘Heh’ me.”
“Heh.”
“It’s not just the shirt, he’s got this cute neckerchief.” Haru gently flicked the garment in question, rather enjoying how even that got Ryuji flustered.
“Uh I-I um, yeah. I think it looks pretty good.”
Haru clapped her hands.
“The t-shirt and neckerchief combo matches Mona-chan’s! You’re a perfect pair!”
“EXCUSE ME?!”
“EXCUSE ME?!”
Both of them suddenly turned towards the other, then looked down at themselves, feeling the need to silently curse their choice in attire.
“We should get you a crown too Ryuji-kun, you’ll make an adorable duo!”
“Is it too late for Mona to change?”
“Why should I have to change, bonehead? I chose these clothes first, you change.”
“Why are they fighting over this?”
“No clue Mako…” Ren was relieved to hear the door opening- giving him an excuse to change the subject. “Futaba…”
“Yis?”
“What the fuck?”
Futaba pulled off her best ‘Hulk Hogan’ pose, though as to ‘why’ was anyone’s guess, as it had little to do with the strange squid-alien outfit she wore, consisting of a bulbous head and a series of hanging tentacles- two of which functioned as sleeves. That was the only thing on her body aside from her glasses- oh- and the purple paint that covered every inch of exposed skin. Judging by the uneven layers of paint- it was rather obvious she did the job herself rather than ask Yusuke for help.
“Mona-chan said I needed more elements with ‘dynamic movement’, now I got a bunch of sexy tentacles flopping around whenever I move!” She looked over to Morgana for approval; big, excited grin on her face. He tried his best to seem as genuine as possible when smiling back at her.
“Great thinking Oracle, you’ll look great.”
“Damn straight. I thought about painting my nips a different color to making their movement more obvious, but I thought ‘nah’, it would kinda mess with the rest of the costume.”
Mercifully- the penultimate member of the phantom thieves entered the room. Ann- clad in her ‘Panther’ outfit looked from one thief to the other, her expression becoming more and more panicked and embarrassed with each member of the team.
“What the hell?! I thought we were gonna coordinate?”
“Coordinate?”
“Mona was giving this big thing about how we’ll ‘treat this as a request for the Phantom Thieves’, so I thought we’d all be dressing up in our thief gear.” She groaned, gripping her twin tails. “Dammit it’s fine when it’s all of us together, but wearing this by myself just makes me look like some attention seeking cosplayer!”
Makoto sheepishly shrugged.
“I mean surely I’m the ‘attention-seeker’ of the group, dressed like this?”
Ann grumbled.
“You know how much of a pain in the ass this thing is to put on… But I guess it’s my own fault for not checking in with everyone first.”
“Don’t despair yet, Yusuke hasn’t shown up, there’s still hope of the two of you to do some PT duo thing, maybe?”
Speak of the devil, and he shall flamboyantly frolic through the door and twirl in the centre of the group- or however that saying goes. Yusuke seemed to be more into the spirit of dancing than anyone, though he unfortunately wasn’t wearing his Fox outfit, he wasn’t wearing anything at all.
“Didn’t you like any of the costumes?”
“Hmph.” Yusuke scoffed, though was sure not to halt his twirling to do so. “I have no need for cheap gimmicks, my body is all I require to convey my feelings to the audience. For example- Ren!”
“Y-yeah?”
“Tell me, what do my movements make you feel?”
“Um… dizzy?”
“AHA! Me too! We have formed a connection, and so easily! Dance is truly wonderful, is it not? Now to do the same for our audience.”
“Good luck with that man.” Ren sighed, before waltzing over to Makoto, nonchalantly hooking his arm with hers, and dragging her in the direction of the performance area.
“R-Ren?”
“I heard you say you’re ready? Time for us to kill it as the world’s sexiest cops.”
“Sexy?” Makoto went bright red in a flash. “D-don’t make me more self-conscious than I already am…”
He leaned in close, lowering his voice so the others couldn’t hear.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the whole time.”
“Ren I…” Makoto exhaled, gathering her resolve and nodding. “Right, thank you Ren, we can support eachother out there.” She turned her head back to the others as they began to open the door. “Wish us luck!”
“You got this you two!” Ryuji gave a thumbs-up.
“And don’t forget- if the dancing flops you can just fuck again!”
“Futaba!”
“What? I’m not saying they should… just that they could, y’know?”
Thankfully the couple had already passed through the door by this point, and could just ignore Futaba. The rest of the group groaned at her, aside from Yusuke who had just leapt into the air to finish his twirling manoeuvre with a flourish, his arms spread out into the air as if praying, as silence enveloped the room.
“Urk…”
“Yusuke-kun, are you about to vomit?”
He nodded once.
“I’ll get a bucket…”
~ ~ ~
The performance area was an oddity to behold. Upon entry it seemed to resemble an unremarkable stage, not unlike the kind one would see in your average bar/ club in the Shinjuku red light district, albeit bathed in the soothing blue light that had come to be expected in Club Velvet and the Velvet Room Makoto had met Lavenza in.
In a way it was rather comforting; when they had been told they’d be performing for ‘the unconscious masses’, they had halfway expected to be performing in some ridiculously huge stadium. If this was their actual performance area then it was rather modest- even compared to somewhere like the stage in Shujin, which went a long way to taking some of the pressure off their shoulders.
However, mere moments after the couple turned to eachother to try and figure out what kind of song they’d be dancing to, the environment around them began to twist and shift before their eyes. Ren instinctively grabbed ahold of Makoto’s hand- as if fearing she’d be suddenly yanked away by the swirling forces around them. And yet, none of the movements seemed to affect them at all, they were stood as secure and comfortable as could be as the club stage faded away- and in its place…
“Is this…”
“…Sis’s palace?”
Ren’s grip on her hand only grew tighter. It looked uncannily like the casino belonging to Sae’s shadow; all the gaudy décor and slot machines lining the walls brought back a slew of memories to the couple- and not necessarily good ones.
“This can’t be the ‘real’ one, can it?” Makoto raised her fists defensively, as if expecting a shadow to leap out at them any moment.
“I mean we never did erase it, technically. But we got rid of the whole metaverse- or mementos or whatever, so that should have erased the palace with it, right?”
“I don’t know… But real or fake- why are we here now?”
“There is no need for alarm.”
The flinched at the familiar voice, turning to see Justine staring at them with a coy smile on her face, meanwhile Caroline was behind her, sat at a slot machine, getting visibly frustrated with it.
“We merely recreated the environment you see before you from your memories.”
“I see…” Makoto’s brow furrowed. “But why though?”
“We thought familiar environments would be more comfortable for you, and provide more inspirations for your performance.”
“So that’s all it is… I suppose that’s a relief.” Makoto took another look around, now that she was looking at it closely it was certainly familiar, and seemed to use all the same decorations and furnishings as her sister’s palace, the actual layout wasn’t 1:1 with the real thing. “Though I’m not sure how ‘inspiring’ this place is… can’t say it puts me in the mood for dancing…”
Justine huffed.
“Well aren’t we a picky one? After all the trouble we went through, rude isn’t she?”
She turned to Caroline, who promptly gave up spinning the slots, leapt off of her high stool (with only the smallest of stumbles upon landing), and smacked the machine with her baton, causing it to malfunction and spew countless coins onto the floor.
“AHA! That’s what you get for not working properly! I was doing my part perfectly well, it was the machine that couldn’t handle the simple task of matching three symbols in a row.”
Justine nodded.
“Indeed, not even our Inmate would fail at such a basic task.”
“The humans who form symbiotic relationships with these contraptions truly are strange.” Caroline cleared her throat and glared back at the couple. “I’ll hear no further complaints about the performance area we crafted for you!”
Justine wiped away an imaginary tear with a white handkerchief.
“All those hours, spent climbing over a hot stove, preparing this for you only to have it thrown back in our faces. There is truly no end to your cruelty.”
The couple exchanged a tired look, before letting out a heavy shared sigh. Makoto took a step forward.
“Look, I’m sorry. We can dance here, it’s no problem. But we just need to know what song we’ll be dancing to.”
“UGH!” Caroline threw her hands up into the air. “Need, need, need. You always need something, don’t you?”
“And after all those extra shifts we took at the music-packing factory to pay for your outfits.”
“Just learn to be grateful for what we give you, and dance to your heart’s content!”
“Think about the example you’re setting for the children when you act so ungrateful.”
“Jesus Christ…” Makoto rubbed her temples. “Ren, how do you put up with these two?”
“It’s fine, they usually hit me often enough that I’d just stop worrying about the way they talk to me.”
“Is there some kind of Velvet authority we can talk to about this?”
“Are you asking to see the twins’ manager Makoto?”
Makoto stared at him unimpressed for a while, before turning back to the twins.
“I guess we’ll just improvise then?”
“Good.” Caroline nodded. “Be sure you don’t disappoint; we’re counting on you.”
Justine dabbed the top of her nose with the handkerchief, not really getting the point of such a gesture but enjoying herself nonetheless.
“Do it for Black Frost, he’s going to pull through the supercilium-replacement surgery for the sake of this dance.”
“…What?”
“MUSIC START!”
The music did indeed start, and the first thing the couple noticed was that it was exactly the same tune they had heard in the real Sae’s palace.
“Yeah it’s still boppin’…”
“Ren…”
“I guess copyright isn’t something the twins are too worried about?”
Makoto sighed, she didn’t have time to reprimand Ren- not that she knew what she’d even say even if she did have time- she needed to focus on her dance.
Obviously since she had no time to rehearse to this song, she didn’t have a specific dance prepared. Though thanks to Morgana’s training, she had picked up plenty of moves to cycle through as she saw fit. Ren had described this song as screaming ‘confidently sexy’, and given Makoto’s attire- that was exactly the feeling she needed to embody too as she moved.
While this song- like the environment- did have some bad memories attached to it for Makoto, it was also attached to some more positive, inspiring memories in the form of how their actions here led not only to their eventual triumph over seemingly impossible odds, but also the start of the slow but sure repair of the Niijima sisters’ relationship.
There was no obvious vantage point for the so-called ‘unconscious masses’ to view them from, but Makoto would assume they could see somehow- however limited their awareness was about what they were seeing. She couldn’t help but wonder if Sae was included among them. It was a strange thought, that right now- Sae could be dreaming about watching her younger sister dance in a casino with her boyfriend… a boyfriend she knew nothing about… it was in this moment that Makoto was especially grateful that no one would have any memories of this whole ‘club velvet’ episode going forward, this would be a really strange and awkward way for Sae to discover their relationship.
Still, the idea that Makoto was- in part- performing to her older sister filled her with some strange mixture of glee, anxiety, and pride. It brought to mind the image of herself as a child, perhaps putting on some kind of school auditorium performance, and seeing her sister watching her from the audience- surrounded by everyone else’s parents, presumably feeling rather out of place- looking at her with a very serious, evaluating look, and yet a subtle hint of pride in her eyes that she wasn’t fully able to express.
This feeling of being a child again also filled Makoto with another much-needed surge of confidence as she put all the passion she had into her performance. Then again… she was currently essentially nude, in fetish wear that only hinted at the police officer uniform it was based on, trying to channel ‘confidently sexy’; so maybe the childhood school performance mental image wasn’t something she wanted to commit to too much…
She worried her movements were perhaps too stiff, she was falling back on her experience with Aikido. She was confident with disciplined, controlled movements like in her martial arts; but during their training Morgana emphasized the importance of expression during dance. People were much more likely to be moved when they could tell you were putting your heart into your performance. Technique was important too of course, but the more feeling she put into it- the more feeling the audience would get out of it; he actually suggested that were she in doubt- she try to channel Yusuke. She wasn’t at that stage yet, but she let her body loosen up, letting her movements become less rigid, more… honest.
She saw Ren, it seemed that his eyes were on her the whole time; not only absolutely loving every minute movement of every muscle on her well-toned body, but also paying close attention so that he could follow along. He wanted to match her, and had let her take the lead- as it were- and happily put himself into a supporting role, letting her be the star of the show.
While she of course appreciated his support, one of the things she wanted to express during this dance was how she saw their relationship- as equals, they were dancing together after all. She started keeping her eyes locked onto him, and while she couldn’t directly admire every muscle on him like he could on her, she still took in every movement of his limbs and hips. His moves definitely lacked the control and precision of her own, were they in a formal dance class together she was sure she’d get higher marks, and yet the feeling he put into every move was clear to see. His desire to support her and his admiration of her was clear in his actions- in more ways than one. Not to mention how his own cop outfit shone under the casino’s lights, she had to admit it- he looked damn good in that outfit.
The two closed in together, the casino floor and walls began to flash in a multitude of colors; the disco vibes completely overwhelming and overshadowing the palace vibes the room had previously.
Their faces came so close together they could almost kiss. Ren decided that wasn’t good enough- so he took that extra step forward and pecked Makoto’s lips with his own.
It took everything she had to keep the dance going and not fall apart into a flustered mess. There was no telling how many people just saw that- or how aware they were of it if they did. She couldn’t let herself turn into ‘Tomato Niijima’ while she was trying to be ‘confidently sexy’. She needed to even the playing field; the best defence was a good offence after all. She surged forward, and planted her own lips on his- nose.
‘Dammit, I missed…’
No time to dwell on her mistakes, in she went again- making sure to hold his head still this time- and kissed him on the lips, before twirling away again to dance by herself, a smug grin on her still-blushing face. She wanted to enjoy his own flustered expression, but didn’t want to risk re-flustering herself in the process. She had to quit while she was ahead, lest he turn it into a kissing battle of attrition- a battle she would surely lose.
She tried to channel all of these feelings into her dance, to completely let go of shame and just embrace the joys of freedom and expression, alongside her loving boyfriend and pillar of support. They had no idea how long they had been dancing, or how long they had to dance for, who would go after them, what other dances they’d have to perform, why they were even doing this in the first place. Everything else could wait until later, all that mattered right now was him and her, together, letting the rhythm take control of their bodies, giving themselves over to free expression and joyful movements, and dancing the night away.
Notes:
Whoever said fight scenes are hard never tried to write dancing. That's why I just gave up and just focused on her feelings *about* the dance instead, is part of the reason this chapter was delayed- I just couldn't do something I was happy with. I still haven't really, but I'm a believer in cutting my losses and just moving on at a certain point.
Please forgive the rather 'mid' chapter this time, we'll be moving on next time.
Chapter 81: Christmas
Summary:
Back in the waking world
Notes:
Finally making some progress, I promise.
Chapter Text
“Mmm…”
Ren let out a contented hum as he slowly regained some semblance of consciousness, and was thrust back into the waking world. While Ren did enjoy his days in Tokyo for the most part- threats of horrible death not withstanding of course- mornings were always an unappealing prospect that he was morally opposed to, as his body often voiced its objections to him starting the day so early.
Granted, usually such objections would vanish and his energy would return once he had eaten his traditional breakfast curry, something he had really grown to appreciate over the past year, the meal being much more substantial fuel than his breakfasts prior; the delicious dish being fuel for his body and soul.
Though this morning there was a very different ‘dish’ fueling his soul and certain parts of his body- though no less delicious- the feeling of Makoto still in close embrace with him from the night prior.
It had been a very long night for both of them, what with slaying a wannabe deity, having their first couple’s Christmas Eve, the frankly obscene amount of love-making before bed, and… he felt like there was something else, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was; something stuck in the back of his mind, maybe to do with the tunes stuck in his head for some inexplicable reason…
Nevermind, it didn’t matter. He had clear memories of their victory, and had his peacefully sleeping girlfriend safely in his arms as proof of that. He had woken up to paradise. Still, while the temptation to stay here forever was definitely within him, and making some very convincing arguments, he decided he should make some effort to get up and start preparing breakfast- assuming Sojiro hadn’t already started. Ren hadn’t been able to get Makoto- or any of his friends really- any presents this year, he had the excuse of being “dead” and a wanted fugitive, but still he felt like he should make the effort to give Makoto a delicious meal to wake up to. Maybe he could convert her to the “breakfast curry club” while he was at it.
With slow, gentle movements- as to avoid waking her- Ren untangled himself from his nudist girlfriend, and turned over to face the rest of his room. Though when he did so, he noticed that much of his vision was now taken up by a line of toes inches away from the edge of his bed. Sat- or rather- squatting atop a chair uncomfortably close to the bed, was Futaba. Ren’s eyes drifted upwards from her feet, taking a quick pitstop to the notably plump lips partially obscured by a surprisingly well-groomed patch of orange hair (he did always have an issue with wandering eyes), before looking up at the girl staring down at him through her oversized glasses.
“Morning.”
“Futaba, what the fuck?”
“You weren’t responding to my messages, so I came to check on you.”
Ren sighed.
“I put my phone away in the desk, I don’t want you listening in on us when we’re in private. And- since apparently I have to spell it out- I don’t want you staring at us while we sleep.”
Futaba shrugged.
“Then you need to start locking your door.”
“My room doesn’t have a door.”
“Exactly.”
“You and I need to have a talk.”
“Ugh… You’re not my dad.”
“I’ll be telling Sojiro too.”
“UGH!”
Futaba’s absolutely UN-justified outburst was enough to stir Makoto from her slumber. She too was pleased that the first thing she saw and felt upon awakening was her boyfriend, though that mood was similarly spoiled when she spotted their navigator squatting just past him.
“Futaba?”
“Morning Makoto.”
“Please tell me you only just got here.”
“…I only just got here…”
“…How long have you actually been there?”
“26 minutes.”
“We need to have a talk.”
Futaba grumbled.
“You two are too alike…”
After letting out a heavy sigh, Ren sat up on the edge of the bed, forcing Futaba to get up from her seat and meekly shuffle across the room. He turned around and smiled warmly down at Makoto, who returned the gesture from the pillow, purring as he gently caressed her cheek.
“Good morning, Queen.”
“Good morning, Ren. Merry Christmas.”
Ren’s brow raised.
“Oh shit yeah. It’s Christmas. Merry Christmas Queen.” He got up and retrieved his phone from his desk, checking the time. “Is it that late already?”
“Yeah, that’s why I came to check on you.” Futaba gently bounced in place, having regained some confidence. “The others are coming over today, so that’s why I had to come in your room.”
Makoto- having worked up the will to sit up herself- glared at Futaba, unimpressed.
“Don’t think that excuses your voyeurism this time, any normal person would have called up to us, then either chose to let us sleep or shake us awake.”
“I mean I was thinking of waking you up… maybe… eventually. I was just taking a while to decide, y’know?”
“Just wait downstairs…”
“Yes Ma’am.” Futaba saluted and hastily made her way down into the café, leaving the couple alone to finally enjoy some privacy, short lived as it might be with the others already on their way.
Makoto let out a pleasing groan as he stretched upwards, Ren slyly admiring her form out the corner of his eye as he retrieved a new set of clothes and began to get dressed.
“Don’t feel like you have to rush Makoto, we still have a couple hours before the party starts.” He finished putting on his trousers and approached her with shirt in hand.
She had to admit- it looked like his workouts were paying off, this was a surprisingly good look on him. Admit to herself, of course. No way she’s admitting it out loud.
“Nah I better get up, I wanna clean myself up before anyone else sees me. Do you have a shower here? I need to wash off all this… sweat.”
Ren knew full well ‘sweat’ was not the fluid she was worried about, but he understood there was such a thing as ‘tact’, so he just answered her question.
“No shower in Leblanc, but there’s the bathhouse right on the other side of the road you can use.”
“I’ll head over there then.” She, with a small amount of effort to remind the rest of her body that is was time to wake up, got to her feet, letting the blanket fall off of her.
“Unfortunately it’s not mixed, so I’ll have to go after you.”
Makoto playfully pouted at him as she grabbed her bag.
“Aw, I guess I’ll just have to manage without you for a little while.”
“I’ll work on breakfast while you’re in there.”
She stood on tiptoes and pecked his cheek as she passed.
“That sounds lovely, I’ll look forward to it.”
Ren performed a mock curtsey, holding the sleeves of his shirt in lieu of an actual dress skirt.
“I live to please, my Queen.”
“Well you’re doing a fine job so far.” She chuckled. “But don’t think all this is going to earn you any extra presents later.”
“Well darn.” He smirked at her as she descended the stairs and disappeared out of sight. He took a moment to appreciate how lucky he really was, then finished getting dressed so he could hurry and prepare the best Christmas breakfast curry of Makoto’s life.
~ ~ ~
“Yo Renren! We’re here.”
“Ryuji? Is something wrong?”
The way Ren asked this- along with the look of worryingly genuine concern on his face gave Ryuji some pause, who looked back at him puzzled.
“Uh… no? I’m good.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah? You’re being weird dude…”
“Well it’s just the way you announced yourself coming in, the volume didn’t leave my ear drums shattered, something has to be wrong.”
“Dick.”
Makoto sighed as Ren chuckled to himself.
“Ren, he’s improving, don’t discourage him.”
“Yeah yeah. It’s good to see you man.”
“Sure, whatever.”
Ryuji shook his head, before his attention was caught by Futaba, squatting down to his right- looking rather grumpy, and with a placard hanging around her neck; upon it written: “I lack respect for my friends’ privacy.”
“Uh…” Ryuji looked to Makoto while pointing down at the odd sight. “What gives?”
Makoto took a frugal sip from the coffee Ren prepared for her before responding.
“She’s repenting. Through an act of shaming.”
“Myeehh…” Futaba groaned. “Nudists like us are supposed to be against shame…”
“For our bodies, you can and absolutely should be ashamed of your behaviour.”
“Fascist…”
Makoto narrowed her eyes at the younger girl.
“You’re sounding decidedly unapologetic right now. Remember I decided against restricting your computer privileges, I can still go back on that.”
“Don’t test Mamakoto, she doesn’t make idle threats.”
“Shut up Ren.”
Ryuji- in an uncharacteristically wise decision- decided he was better off not getting involved, and risking interfering in a mother’s act of discipline. Instead made his way to the booth the couple were already sat at and delicately placing an ornate card box down on the table.
“The others should be here in a sec, I went ahead of everyone.”
Makoto observed the fancy looking box, noting the pleasantly sweet smell emanating from it.
“What’s this?”
“Well we’re all supposed to be bringing food, right?” He shrugged. “I dunno, this is a first and I didn’t wanna bring something lame. I thought this looked fancy, is all…”
Morgana, who had been curled up on the seat opposite Makoto, hopped up on the table to peer into the candy box with the others.
“Jeez, it looks expensive… I didn’t think you were the sweets type Ryuji…”
Ryuji tutted.
“Everyone at the store seemed to think the same thing. People and couples all dressed up nice, staring at me in their fancy store like I’m about to start trouble.”
Ren chuckled.
“Trendy candy stores usually aren’t the go-to spots for delinquents, it must have been a first for them.”
“Tch…”
“I kid. Thanks Ryuji, these are really nice, I’m sure everyone will love them.”
Ryuji sat on one of the stools, bashfully avoiding eye contact with everyone else.
“Whatever…”
Makoto smiled.
“I remembered to bring something myself, I picked up some fermented fish ahead of time and brought it here last night, it should be in the fridge still.”
“I was wondering what that smell was.” Ren mumbled under his breath. Smelling that coming home last night had been… concerning. He had worried it might have been coming from Makoto herself. He had of course heard jokes about vaginas and the smell of fish, but had no idea what truth- if any- there was behind it. He was immensely relieved when their nighttime fun came and he confirmed the smell wasn’t coming from her first hand. “I haven’t had time to pick up anything special, but I could make us all some curry if we feel like it. I don’t think we have any turkey, but there should be chicken in the fridge I can use.”
“We’ll see what everyone else brings first.”
Speaking of the devil, the jingle of Leblanc’s bell went off again; Yusuke, Haru, and Ann sauntering in, the lattermost carrying a tray, balancing an especially hefty pile of cream puffs stacked atop eachother. Makoto was half-expecting it to collapse upon it being let down onto the table, but miraculously it remained intact.
“Well at least we don’t have to worry about any shortage of sugar today…”
Ryuji eyed the display suspiciously a while.
“I swear it was bigger when I saw it earlier.”
Ann discreetly wiped a speck of cream from the side of her mouth.
“It’s your imagination.”
“We’re probably not gonna have room for curry…” Ren shrugged. “Saves me some work, I guess.”
Haru stared at the pile of cream puffs, and then at Ryuji’s box of expensive-looking candy with a look of lust that dwarfed even the look she’d give Makoto in the metaverse.
“Of course Christmas has to come right after I lose weight…”
Ann laughed nervously as she fiddled with her twintails.
“You’re supposed to gain weight over the winter break. We’re gonna be wearing thick, baggy clothes, so no one will notice… oh… I guess that’s another point against nudism.”
“I always eat responsibly Ann. I’ll just eat a couple…” Makoto side eyed the delectable creampuffs. “…well maybe a few.”
“You’d still be beautiful even with some love handles Mako.”
Ren received a swift elbow to the ribs in return for his comment.
“Ow? That was a compliment though?”
Morgana shook his head.
“A gentleman should have some tact.”
“Look who’s talking.”
“Makotooo…” Futaba’s pitiful whining was heard from besides the entrance. “Can I come sit at the table now?”
“Have you thought about what you’ve done?”
“Eh…”
“Futaba—”
“…Yes Ma’am…”
“Then of course you can join us, we’re all here to have a good time after all.”
“Does that mean I can take the placard off too?”
“No.”
“Aww…”
~ ~ ~
Christmas day, 10:06PM.
Sae rubbed her temples as she made her way through the hallway at Tokyo PD, away from the very same interrogation room she had questioned Ren Amamiya in not too long ago. Only now it contained Goro Akechi, who had been undergoing questioning since turning himself in nearly 24 hours ago, and being protected from Shido’s loyalists, rather than left at their mercy like the previous occupant. Sae admitted her own actions through her career were hardly spotless in terms of morality, but the actions taken prior to her interrogation of Ren were something she would never approve of, under any circumstances, especially when Akechi was being as cooperative as he was, making no effort to hide any part of the truth from Sae and the rest of her coworkers.
Still, given that ‘the truth’ involved talk of alternate planes of existence they couldn’t prove the existence of, building an unbreakable case against Shido was going to be tough even with Akechi and Shido himself on her side. Not impossible, but difficult enough that she was grateful to take even a short break to collect her thoughts, Akechi insisting she take a brief moment of pause, though she suspected his suggestion was not so much out of concern for her, and more him needing a break himself and being sick of talking her for hours on end now that he had decisively dropped his façade of affability.
She made her way up and out towards the police station lobby, a few minutes of fresh air was exactly what she needed. As she passed through the door, she spotted something in the corner of her eye, rather someone, the skin on display standing out in the drab, professional-looking lobby. Her initial instinct was to think a streaker or naked drunkard had been brought in again- though usually the police would have the decency to give them a blanket or something.
She shook her head, she was stuck in ‘work mode’ again, as it took her a second to recognise that it was her sister. Makoto had never shown up at her workplace before, it threw her off for a moment, like her two worlds had suddenly collided. She sighed, it was nowhere near that dramatic, she silently reprimanded herself for letting the stress get to her, and approached.
“Makoto?”
“Ah!” Makoto, who had looked rather listless mere moments ago immediately brightened up upon seeing her sister, leaping to her feet. “Sis! I’m glad I caught you.”
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“Oh no, nothing is wrong at all. Any progress?”
Sae opened her mouth to speak, about to tell her younger sister off, but caught herself. She wondered why that was her instinctive reaction, to get defensive or even accusatory towards Makoto for ‘prying’. Then again, that mindset was a large part of her job after all. She hadn’t been consciously aware of it before, but she was starting to realize that perhaps she really did have trouble ‘switching off’.
“You’re technically a civilian, so I can’t discuss details.”
“Of course.”
“But it’s going well. Akechi is as cooperative as could be, and we’re doing what we can to get Shido in a position for questioning ASAP.” Sae averted her eyes, suddenly looking rather guilty. “I’m afraid I won’t make it home tonight.”
Makoto’s shoulders slumped slightly.
“I thought so, that’s why I decided to come here, I thought you’d appreciate this…”
“Hm?”
Makoto reached into her bag and pulled out a card box, the same one Ryuji had brought his sweets in- taken with his permission of course- and held it out for Sae.
“A- a present?”
“Not as such…” Makoto blushed slightly. “I do have a present for you, but it’s at home, and the police station isn’t exactly the best place for gift exchange. Me and the others just had a modest Christmas get-together, and these are just the cream puffs that were left over.”
“And you’re giving them to me?”
Makoto smiled.
“Better than letting them go to waste, none of us could eat another bite.” That was a lie. Makoto had explicitly reserved a dozen or so very early on in the proceedings. Ann did initially object, but relented when she was told they would be for Sae. “I figured you could really use a treat, with how hard you’re working, especially over Christmas.” Makoto made eye contact with her sister, and her expression grew warmer. “Merry Christmas Sis.”
Sae found the box suddenly sitting in her hands, looking down at it baffled, then up to Makoto with such a caring look on her face. Sae didn’t know how to respond, she instinctively looked over her shoulder to see of any of her coworkers were watching her, relieved to find they were alone aside from a couple people manning the reception who were too busy trying to look busy to pay attention to the Niijimas.
“Um… M-Merry Christmas.”
Makoto nodded, and picked her bag back up.
“Well I better head home, I didn’t want to distract you too much, I just came to drop those off.”
“W-wait!”
Makoto looked back at Sae curiously.
“Hm?”
“How are you getting home?”
“By train, like I usually do.”
“But…” Sae’s expression turned serious. “It’s dangerous at this time of night, especially naked.”
“I’m aware, I’m going to be careful, and I have my taser in my bag just in case.”
Sae faltered for a moment, before shaking her head and standing as tall as she could, usually her height was only slightly above Makoto’s, but her high heels vs Makoto’s bare feet gave her the inches she needed to project the authority she needed.
“Wait here in the lobby. I’ll drive you home in an hour or so.”
“I don’t want to trouble you, Sis.”
“Well I don’t want you putting yourself in danger, I needed to talk to the higher ups about moving Akechi to somewhere more… long term anyway, I’ll use that as an excuse to take you home.”
“Oh… ha.” Makoto smiled. “Sure, I can wait here for a while.”
“Thank you, I’ll try not to take too long, but I can’t make any promises.”
“I understand, I really don’t mind waiting.”
Not knowing how to end the conversation, Sae nodded, and made her way back in the direction of the interrogation room, cream puff box in hand. After passing through the door and being sure she was out of Makoto’s sight, she took a peek inside.
“She can’t expect me to eat this many, can she?” She sighed, closing the box again. “I’ll just give some to Akechi, I doubt he’ll complain…”
~ ~ ~
Ren laid on his back in bed, staring up at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to take him. He had hoped he could spend another night sharing a bed with Makoto, but understood how important it was for her to see her sister today. He could survive another night without a bed companion… well- except Morgana on his chest of course, which while not the most comfortable sensation, was still soothing and reassuring in its own way.
The process of slowly drifting off was suddenly interrupted by his phone ringing.
“Ugh…” Morgana groaned. “Who’s calling this late?”
Ren picked up his phone and answered without looking at the number, quickly wincing at the loud voice bursting into his ear.
“Sup Renana cream pudding!”
“Mm… hey Eiko, what’s up?”
“Ah, sorry. Did I wake you?”
“No, but my answer might have been different had you called ten minutes later.”
“Ah soz! Been busy with the family all day so I’m calling late. Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas. Did you need something?”
“Nah not really, I literally just called to say that. I called Hifumi earlier, had a long chat. Called Makoto after that, apparently she’s hanging out at the police station waiting for her big sis to give her a ride home, then I called you last. That’s why I’m so late.”
“I see, I’m the lowest priority of the three, huh?”
“Ah don’t be like that, you’re absolutely right of course, but I wasn’t gonna call attention to it, y’know?”
“It’s fine, I wasn’t expecting a call at all, you really didn’t have to trouble yourself.”
“You dumb or something? It’s no trouble or nuthin’. You’re always being helpful and supportive, so I uh… I guess I just wanted to thank you again.”
“I—”
“Ah ah! You’re gonna say the line again, aren’t you?”
“N-no… I was just gonna say um… I’m happy to help!”
“Yeah yeah, I’ll pretend to believe that. But for real, with all the weird shit going down lately, I just wanted to say I’ve got your back too, alright? If anything goes wrong I mean.”
Ren noticed Morgana- who had been not-so-subtly listening in, smiling up at him. Ren averted his eyes, trying to ignore his roommate.
“Thanks Eiko. I’m lucky to have so many good people on my side.”
There’s that feeling again, the world getting darker, time getting slowly, everything around him becoming more distant, and the strangely familiar voice he felt that he was so close to placing but couldn’t quite manage to do so.
I am thou… thou art I…
Thou hast turned a vow into a blood oath
Thy bond shall become the wings of rebellion and break the yoke of thy heart
Thou hast awakened to the ultimate secret of the Chalice Persona… granting thee infinite power…
“Wow, finished it this time…”
“Finished what? Ren you just went silent for a while there, you okay?”
“What’s an Anahita?”
“Ren?”
“H-huh?!” Ren shook his head, ignoring the weird look Morgana was giving him and sensing the weird look Eiko was probably giving him through the phone right now. “S-sorry, I spaced out, bad habit of mine.”
“Guess I did call pretty late, huh? I was gonna ask more about what the hell happened on Christmas eve, but it sounds like you’ll fall asleep before we get anywhere. Whatevs, I’ll let you off for tonight.”
“Right, me and Makoto will probably see you some time before the new year anyway.”
“Nudie Prez has already scheduled some study sessions for us… ugh… spending our holidays studying, I’ve become exactly what I’ve always hated.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I hope so man…”
Ren couldn’t help but chuckle at just how annoyed she sounded as she huffed, he only hoped she didn’t notice.
“I’ll see you later Eiko.”
“Later Ren.”
And with that, Ren hung up and dropped the phone down on the bed next to him.
“We’ve gained a lot of allies, huh?”
Ren nodded.
“That’s true. I’m very lucky.”
“I don’t think it’s luck Joker.”
“Whatever… night.”
“Night.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…Joker?”
“What?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s fine.”
“Joker…”
“Ugh…” Ren glared up at the ceiling, even in silence the bitterness he was feeling was clear to see. “I have so many good friends, who all take the time to reach out. But apparently even a text on Christmas is too much work for my parents.”
“Joker…”
“Whatever. To be fair I didn’t message them either, so I can’t really be mad, that’d be hypocritical of me.”
“Joker, it’s okay to be—”
“I said it’s fine. Goodnight.”
“Joker…”
“…”
Morgana sighed.
“Goodnight Joker.”
Chapter 82: Joker can't dream
Summary:
New year's day: Ren's perspective.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“…and so I’ll be back at school with the rest of you at the start of the new semester.”
“That’s good to hear. Commuting just hasn’t been the same without you…”
“Aww. You really did miss me Mako~”
Makoto glared at her boyfriend across the Leblanc countertop.
“Don’t tease me! Of course I missed you… How could I not?”
Ren smiled apologetically.
“Sorry… Yeah I’ve really missed you too. That’s been the worst part of being in hiding all this time, followed closely by the cabin fever.”
“I can only imagine. Still, while we have to wait just a little bit longer for the commutes, at least you can go outside without fear starting tomorrow, just in time for new year’s.”
“Kick ass, we should visit a shrine.”
Makoto smiled warmly at the thought.
“That sounds wonderful. I’ve never been to one with friends before, it’s kinda exciting.”
“I haven’t either actually… although…” Ren leaned over the countertop, placing his smug face uncomfortably close to Makoto’s. “Part of me was hoping it could be just the two of us?”
Makoto pulled away- just a little- her face flush.
“Th-that’s a bit…”
“Maybe we can head there together early in the morning, right after we wake up together?”
Makoto went even redder. She couldn’t hide the fact that she really liked the idea, but…
“Sorry, I can’t stay the night tonight. Sae’s actually going to make it home tonight.”
“Dang.” Ren pulled back, his expression still warm. “No that’s definitely the right decision. It sounds like you two are getting closer lately.”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded. “It’s slow of course, it turns out Sis really is the awkward type, but it already feels like I have my sister back… It’s wonderful.”
“I’m happy for you.” Ren’s expression turned thoughtful. “Speaking of which, how close do you think we are to being able to safely tell her about… us?”
“Hmm… I don’t want to rush things, or rather- I want to play it safe, she’s still quite stressed from forming her case, and has always been the protective type- even though she’s not good at expressing it. So not yet, but hopefully soon? I’m not sure.”
“It’s fine, no need to rush.”
Ren’s phone ‘pi pi pi’-ed at him from his pocket. He pulled it out and stared at it in silence a while… a worrying while. Makoto was starting to get concerned, she couldn’t read his expression, she just watched him staring at his phone in complete shock.
“Ren?”
“…”
“Ren? Is everything okay?”
“It’s a message…”
“What kind of message?”
Ren only took his eyes off the screen long enough to rub them, before going right back to keeping his gaze locked on it.
“It’s from Mom…”
“Your mother?” Makoto’s eyes went wide. “What’s she saying? O-oh! Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t pry.”
“N-no… it’s fine.” Ren shook his head. “It’s nothing really. She’s just saying they haven’t heard any updates from Sojiro lately, and that they’ve been busy, so they didn’t get a chance to message me on Christmas day, so she’s wishing me a late Christmas and a… and an early happy new year’s…”
Makoto smiled brightly.
“That’s wonderful!”
“I… is it?”
“Of course it is! They’re finally reaching out to you.”
Ren locked his phone and shoved it back in his pocket, pointedly avoiding eye contact with Makoto.
“It’s fine…”
“Oh come on Ren…”
“They can’t honestly expect to ghost me for a whole year, send me one message and expect me to immediately forgive everything.”
Makoto shook her head.
“No one’s saying you have to do that. But this is an opportunity to maybe repair your relationship? Like I did with Sis.”
Ren turned away from her, pretending to be busy cleaning a glass.
“Difference is Sae cares about you. My parents don’t.”
“Ren you don’t know that. Trust me I even thought the same thing of Sis for a while, but I know the truth now. She just lost sight of why she does what she does, and wasn’t able to reach out and express herself. It could be something similar with your parents.”
“Why the hell do you care so much about them?”
Makoto was rather taken aback by Ren’s outburst towards her. Even Ren himself seemed shocked by it right after it came out of his mouth, a feeling immediately followed by regret.
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be getting angry at you like this.”
Makoto exhaled.
“It’s okay, I understand, you’ve been holding these feelings in for a long time.”
“Nah, it’s fine.”
“To answer your question, I care for two reasons: firstly you still have a chance to regain a good relationship with your parents, I know how important that is, and how much regret can eat away at you when you can’t appreciate it anymore…”
“Makoto…”
“Secondly…” Makoto- to Ren’s surprise- laughed. “…you’re pretty bad at hiding when you’re happy. I’ve known you long enough now.”
“I’m… I’m not happy.”
“Don’t lie to me Ren, I will get mad at you for doing that.”
“I… I um…”
“They’re reaching out, even if only a little. You don’t have to commit to anything, but it really might be worth seeing where this goes, y’know?”
Ren let out a heavy sigh.
“I dunno… I just… don’t know…”
Morgana- who had been curled up on the seat besides Makoto pretending not to listen, sat upright and shot Ren a supportive look.
“You should sleep on it.”
“Sleep?”
“Sleep solves more problems than you’d think. This is probably a big shock, so your thoughts aren’t in any kind of order. If you sleep you’ll have a much easier time thinking it through.”
Makoto nodded.
“Morgana’s right. Take some time to let this sink in, and we can think about what you want to do about it tomorrow, okay?”
“Hmm…” Ren huffed, before facing Makoto again with a rather unconvincing smile. “I guess letting them sweat it out a bit before I reply wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Makoto chuckled.
“I suppose that’s fair.” She looked at her own phone. “It’s getting rather late; I should head home before Sae does.”
“I’ll walk you to the station.”
“I’d like that… maybe we could hold ha…” Makoto looked down at Morgana, suddenly remembering he was here too. “…I’ll ask you outside…”
“Nyeheheh…”
“Shut up Mona.”
~ ~ ~
Ren awoke the next morning in a daze. The message he received weighed heavily on his mind for the rest of the night, making it rather difficult to actually get a decent night’s sleep. This wasn’t helped by Morgana sleeping on his chest again, making it difficult to breathe. Top that all of with a frankly confusing dream about being in school again… maybe… Ren struggled to remember exactly what happened in the dream, only that he was in school, and there was a butterfly involved?
Both this strange dream and the issue of how he was going to respond to the message- if at all- were questions that occupied his mind as he fought off the above-average levels of grogginess to try and regain some semblance of consciousness in this waking world. Though both those questions were dwarfed by the much more immediate question: ‘Who is this naked man laying in bed with me?’
Ren desperately scrambled to free himself from the sheets and literally leap out of bed, putting some much needed distance between him and the nudist stranger, who seemed to happily stretch out as the movement jostled him awake, and he turned to face Ren- seemingly ignorant of the state of panic he was in. He let out a hefty yawn.
“Morning.”
“Uh… hi?”
“Did you sleep okay?”
“I… excuse me?”
The man sat up, once again stretching and loosening his muscles.
“It’s rather cramped on this bed, has it always been like that?”
“Could you please um… leave? Maybe?”
“Huh? Why do I—” his eyes suddenly went wide, and he started nodding. “Ah, I see. You need some private time, I understand.”
“Huh?”
“It’s fairly normal for boys your age, I’ll be a gentleman and give you some privacy.”
Ren got the idea that he had been misunderstood, but wasn’t about to interrupt the man to correct him as he was made his way downstairs. As soon as he was out of sight Ren made the point of checking that his phone and wallet were still where he left them, and that nothing had disappeared off the shelf. They were safe and untouched by the looks of it. He sighed and shook his head, it’s not as if a nudist has many places to hide stolen goods… well… actually that’s not a train of thought he wants to go down, best just accept that his belongings are safe for now, and ask about whoever the hell that was later. He could smell Sojiro’s curry from downstairs, so judging by the fact that his caretaker wasn’t yelling at the strange intruder, Ren would assume he was just a friend or customer of Sojiro’s, and not an actual home invader. Still worth having a word about- but nothing to panic over… probably.
Ren changed out of his sleepwear and into his casual clothes before heading downstairs. He noticed the odd nudist sat at the counter, enjoying his breakfast by the looks of things. Sojiro was stirring the curry pot with a content look on his face, and sat in one of the booths was Futaba, whose arm immediately shot up to wave at him, nearly smacking the strangely familiar woman sat next to her in her excitement.
“MORNING REN!”
“Careful Futaba…” the woman gently took Futaba’s arm and lowered it back down before turning back to greet Ren. “Good morning Amamiya-san.”
“Uh… morning?” Ren’s brow furrowed as he desperately tried to remember where he had seen this face before. “Sphinx lady?”
The woman looked back at him baffled, looking to Sojiro only to get a shrug in return, then leaning over to whisper to Futaba.
“Is this one of those ‘meme’s you were telling me about?”
“Nah Mom, he’s just a weirdo.”
“Mom?” Ren took a small step back, deeply confused.
“Come on Kid, you can’t just insult Wakaba first thing in the morning, what’s wrong with you?”
“So she’s really…” Ren trailed off, looking between Wakaba, Futaba, Sojiro, and the nudist stranger in sequence, all looking back at him as if he were the crazy one. “Um… sorry, I guess I’m just out of sorts this morning.”
Sojiro dished up a fresh plate of curry and a mug of coffee at the end of the counter.
“You’ll feel better after you’ve eaten, best be quick, Futaba tells me you’re all visiting the shrine today.”
“Uh… yeah.” Ren smiled weakly as he took a seat. “I think we talked about it in the group chat…”
“I won’t be able to join you unfortunately.” Wakaba sighed, before smiling at Ren. “So could I ask you to look after Futaba for me while you’re there?”
“Y-yeah, sure I can.”
Futaba rocked back and forth excitedly, holding onto her feet while grinning at Ren.
“You gonna dress up?”
“Nah. I think I have a kimono back home, but I didn’t bring it with me.” He smirked at the girl. “I’m guessing you’re going for ‘casual wear’ too?”
“Tut tut tut.” Futaba waved her finger smugly, before leaning over into the booth behind her and pulling out a box, excitedly opening it up and pulling out what lay within. “Ta-daaa!”
“You got a kimono? And it’s… transparent?”
“It’s awesome!” Futaba stood up and held the garment against the front of her body, looking oddly proud of how it did literally nothing to hide her body while still being recognisable as a kimono. “I knew I wanted to dress up for new year’s, so I searched ‘naked kimono’, and this was one of the things that came up! Nyeheh, now I can be a festive nudist!”
Wakaba chuckled.
“Futaba’s pretty committed to this whole nudism thing; she honestly makes it look really fun.”
Futaba bounced in place with a huge grin on her face.
“You should totally go nudist too Mom, you’d love it!”
No one except Ren noticed it, but Sojiro was getting a tad flushed at the idea, turning back to the curry pot hoping that the women wouldn’t notice.
“I can’t unfortunately, the program is still tied exclusively to Shujin and Kosei, I can’t join without working at one of those schools.”
“Lame…” Futaba huffed, before perking right back up again. “Then again there’s that one girl on social media getting a bunch of people to push for it to be available to everyone. ‘@BuchiLover98’ I think?”
Ren raised an eyebrow at the screenname; he’d be willing to bet money that was Eiko’s twitter handle.
“Hmm…” Wakaba smirked deviously. “Alright, if she pulls it off then I’ll join you. Though, we’re on private property right now…” She side-eyed Sojiro, who pretended not to notice. “I wonder if I could get away with it here.”
“B-better not.” Sojiro cleared his throat, trying to play it cool. “It’s still regular opening hours, don’t want you scaring off my customers now, do I?”
“Cheeky.”
‘This is… rather nice…’ Ren thought to himself as he finished his meal. ‘But it doesn’t make any sense, she shouldn’t be here, and why the hell is no one batting an eye at the other naked dude just chilling and happy to listen to everyone else talk while he fades into the background. Reminds me of Morgana… speaking of which I’ve not seen him today either…’
Ren got up from his seat, picking up his plate and washing it.
“I’m gonna head out now. I think I need some fresh air.”
“Are you feeling sick?” Wakaba looked to him, concerned. “Want me to walk to you Takemi’s clinic?”
“N-no, I’m fine.” Ren laughed nervously. “I just didn’t sleep too well last night, y’know? Thanks for the meal Boss.” And he swiftly made his way towards the door before being stopped by Futaba.
“Waitaminute! You gotta take me with you, remember? Gimme a sec to get dressed!” She turned and held out her transparent kimono towards her mother. “Dress me!”
Wakaba sighed.
“Fine fine, I’ll give you a hand.”
“You two can go ahead without me.” The nudist stranger smiled at Ren. “I’m feeling colder than usual for some reason, so I’ll probably stay inside a while.”
“…Sure man…”
Ren turned away, scratching his head while Futaba was being kimono-ed.
‘What the hell is all this?’
~ ~ ~
“We’re here!” Futaba cheered as she arrived at the shrine, dolled up in her see-through kimono and her hair done up nicely.
“You comfortable in that?”
“Yeah I’m good Ren.” Futaba did a cheerful twirl to punctuate her point. “Nothing beats nude of course, but this is actually kinda nice, warmer than you’d think. Although the sandals aren’t super comfortable, but I gotta wear them if I want to do this properly.”
Ren scoffed.
“I’m not sure how ‘proper’ you can really be when your outfit doesn’t hide anything.”
“Eh it still counts… probably.”
“I guess. It’s not as if anyone’s gonna complain.”
“See, you get it. The others should be around here somewhere.” Futaba brought her hand to her forehead, as if trying to spot land while sailing at sea. It wasn’t especially crowded here today, at least not by Tokyo standards, so Futaba’s excitement wasn’t at too high a risk of being ruined by the presence of other humans. “Ah- there they are!”
She dashed off in the direction of their friends, nearly tripping over in the process.
“Careful Futaba. Kimonos aren’t known for ease of movement.”
“Noted.” Futaba cut her dashing speed in half as she approached the rest of their friend group, with Ren following closely behind.
“Ah.” Haru- was the first to notice them, and waved in their direction. “Hello Futaba-chan, Ren-kun! Happy new year!”
Ren nodded back to her.
“Happy new year.”
He noticed all the girls were kimono-clad, granted- all their kimonos were the opaque kind, as is tradition. Mildly disappointing but not unexpected. The boys however were in casual wear (except Yusuke, of course), which was also mildly disappointing, albeit in a slightly different way. After greeting Haru he repeated the process with Ryuji, Yusuke, Ann, and…
“Suzui-san?” Ren blinked a few times, in disbelief of what he was seeing. “You’re here?”
Ann grinned and answered for her.
“Yup yup! Shiho managed to make it to Tokyo for New Year’s with her family! So she agreed to come along with us.”
Shiho shuffled around bashfully.
“I hope I’m not intruding.”
“N-no, not at all.” Ren shook his head. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”
“Living so far away does have its difficulties, but I’m doing okay. The people I’ve met in Inaba are pretty nice.”
“Inaba?”
Ann’s eyes went wide.
“Oh shoot- that’s your hometown, right Ren?” Ann slapped the side of her head, laughing to herself. “How did I not make that connection? Yeah remember how Shiho had to move because of her Dad’s job?”
“So she moved to Inaba of all places? That’s one hell of a coinciden… wait… she had to move due to her Dad’s job?”
Ann nodded sadly.
“It sucks, but what can you do? At least I get to visit her plenty!”
Shiho blushed.
“I always look forward to your visits.”
Ren looked between the two of them, rubbing his head in frustration.
“I… see… I guess so long as your recovery is going well?”
“Recovery? ARGH!” Ann suddenly clutched the side of her head, Shiho rushing to her side.
“Ann?! Are you okay?”
“Recovery…?” Ann shook her head, forcing a reassuring smile at everyone looking at her in concern. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. Just suddenly got a headache for some reason.”
Ryuji sighed.
“Probably because you’re dehydrated again. You gotta take in some water rather than just constant sugar.”
“Well excuse the hell out of you Ryuji!”
Ren looked through the group, and couldn’t help but notice a conspicuous absence.
“Where’s Makoto?”
“Good question…” Yusuke brought his hand to his chin. “I’ve not seen her all day, I figured she was just running late?”
“Hmm…” Haru hummed. “Did you check the group chat? Maybe we missed something?”
Yusuke shrugged apologetically.
“I’m afraid I’m not carrying my phone.”
“Hang on.” Ann reached into her obi to pull out her own phone to check. “Ah, there we go. She says she won’t make it today.”
“Aw man…” Futaba’s shoulders slumped. “But why though?”
“Apparently she’s busy with her Dad…”
A dull pain suddenly made itself at home in the pit of Ren’s stomach, paired with a powerful headache he made sure to show no outward sign of.
“…she didn’t say what she’s busy with, but it’s probably important if she’s missing out on this.”
“We’ll have to do something nice with her later, it’s a real shame she can’t make it out today.” Haru sighed. “But maybe it’s just as well we celebrate later on, I promised to meet my own father in Kijijoji today.”
“Huh?”
“I too am only able to stay a short while longer.” Yusuke began. “Madarame and I planned to work on a collaborative painting together to celebrate the new year.”
“Madarame?”
“I guess I better not leave Mom alone today, huh?” Ryuji rubbed the back of his head. “If everyone’s splitting up anyway I guess I better go see her. Oh, I did see some of the other members of the track team wandering around here earlier, I should check in on them before I go.”
“Ryuji…”
“I guess that just leaves the four of us?” Ann shrugged. “We can still hang out for a—”
“Futaba-chan!”
The group turned towards the voice, noticing Wakaba running towards them, waving to Futaba.
“Mom?! I thought you said you wouldn’t make it.”
She smiled warmly at her daughter.
“They let me go early for the day, they insisted I take the time to enjoy the new year, I suppose I can catch up with my research another day.”
“Hoho? Lucky!”
“You can say that again.” Wakaba nodded, before looking down at her work clothes. “Though unfortunately I didn’t have time to dress up… nor am I allowed to dress down- like you.”
“That’s cringe. But I guess it’s better to become a nudist when it’s warmer again anyway.” Futaba held onto Wakaba’s right arm with both of her own, before grinning at Ren, Ann, and Shiho. “I’mma hang out with Mom today, I’ll see you later, ‘kay?”
“R-right.” Ren nodded. “Have a good time… with your mother.”
“Why are you talking all weird-like? Eh whatever, I don’t care, later!”
Wakaba lightly bowed.
“Thank you for looking after her, I’ll take it from here.”
And so, the mother-daughter pair wandered off to enjoy their time alone, leaving Ren with the two girls.
“Okay, I guess it’s just the three of us?”
“Ann…” Ren’s brow furrowed in thought, looking off in the directions the others had wandered off in. “Actually, I think I’ll leave the two of you to your date.”
“O-our date?!” Ann’s face went bright red. “W-we’re not dating!”
Ann turned to look at Shiho, raising an eyebrow at her.
“N-not that I hate the idea of a date—I-I mean… that’s not what we’re doing… but I do want to… UGH!”
Shiho snickered, rather enjoying seeing her fall apart like this.
“Hm… I wonder…”
“I… I just…” Ann turned to glare at Ren. “Dammit- look what you’ve done!”
Ren definitely didn’t seem apologetic, he grinned at her before turning to walk away.
“Have fun you two, I’ll ask how it went later.”
“Dammit Ren get back here!”
“Oh? Is my company not enough Ann-san?”
“N-no! I mean yes! I mean… argh!”
Ren- satisfied he had sowed enough chaos for the day, walked out of sight and around a corner, before leaning against the wall. There was so much information to absorb, and not one tiny fragment of it made any sense; he was starting to think he was just going mad. All these impossible situations, and no one seemed to notice anything amiss but him. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it, and the two people he considered his smartest and most reliable allies- Makoto and Morgana- were both MIA. He didn’t know where to start trying to figure out what was going on… his head fell into his hands as he groaned in frustration.
“Ren?”
He suddenly stood up straight again, trying to look normal, and turned to see Eiko looking up at him, a worried look on her face.
“Did I come at a bad time?”
“N-no, Eiko-san. I’m good just… got a killer headache, I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Man… sounds rough… Want me to find you some medicine or summin?”
“No, I’m fine, really. Don’t worry about me.”
“Hmm…” Eiko shot him a reassuring- if slightly unsure- smile. “Well if you say so. Happy new year!”
“Happy new year.”
Eiko looked around.
“Nudie Prez not with you today?”
“Um… n-no. She’s apparently busy with her Dad…”
“Right, I texted her earlier and she said the same thing, I just figured she was lying and just wanted a private new year’s date with you or whatever.”
“Ha…” Ren shrugged. “I wish. But I guess everyone’s just busy with their families and whatnot.”
“Right…” Eiko nodded. “I supposed to meet up with the other girls in a lil’ while, we’re gonna pray for academic success.”
“For real?”
“Hey man, I need all the help I can get for the entrance exams. Sure they’re not until March, but I figure if I pray ahead of time- there’s more time for the godly support or whatever to kick in, y’know?”
“Ha, nothing to lose I guess.”
“Right. Oh- I saw that girl- the one you and Nudie Prez know, with the orange hair?”
“Futaba?”
“That’s the one! Futaba. Yo, she had this awesome see-through kimono! Man I wish I thought of that! I wish she was in the nudist group chat, then she could have shared the idea and all the nudists could have gotten one.” She smirked at Ren. “Betcha you’d have loved to see your sexy GF in one.”
“Well… maybe.”
“’Maybe’ he says… EVERYONE wants to see their GF in a kimono, combine that with seeing her naked and I doubt anyone in the world could resist pouncing her on the spot.”
“I’m not sure she’d appreciate me pouncing her…” Ren paused, glancing skywards. “…well maybe… I’d just have to ask ahead of time.”
“Well there’s always next year, huh?” Eiko bounced on her tip toes, partially just her being bubbly, mostly to help herself stay warm. “Man I’ve gotten good with the cold, but standing still becomes a real pain sometimes.”
“I can’t only imagine. Winter is not kind to nudists.”
“For real, for real… Still, we’ll manage.” She turned away. “Anyway I better go meet up with the others, I don’t wanna make them wait in the cold either.”
Ren nodded.
“Sure, don’t let me keep you.”
“Once Nudie Prez is free we’ll all hang out together, maybe you two can join me and Hifumi on a double date before school starts back up.” She froze in place. “Oh, before I go- I have one more question…”
“Hm? Sure, what’s up?”
“It’s just a little thing.” Eiko’s hands suddenly took ahold of Ren’s collar, spinning him around and harshly pinning him against the wall. Before Ren could question her, she looked up at him, her eyes wide, with desperation and fear clear to see in them as she stared right into his eyes. “What the HELL is going on right now?”
“Wh-what?”
“Don’t fuck with me! Makoto’s dad is dead, she told me herself!”
“Wait…”
“I saw that Okumura guy who died on TV just walking around totally fine! That rich girl Haru’s dad!”
“You mean…”
“And it’s not just them! Everyone’s been really weird today. Everyone seems so super happy about everything, nothing is going wrong. It’s as if a whole bunch of problems just up an’ vanished overnight, no one seems to be calling attention to it, acting as if everything is normal, and I’m freaking the hell out.”
Ren stared down at her in amazement.
“You mean you can see it too?”
She gasped, releasing her grip on him.
“Oh thank god, someone else realizes things are weird.”
“I was beginning to think I was the one going mad…”
“Dude, same here.” Eiko rubbed her scalp. “Everyone’s lives suddenly change, people are coming back to life, and everyone is just going with it… You’re the Phantom thief right?”
Ren instinctively looked around in a panic, checking if anyone might have overheard- thankfully it looks like they went unnoticed.
“Please don’t say that out loud in public.”
“Ah, right, sorry. But you’re the expert in weird shit happening to reality- or whatever- you have to know what’s going on? Right?”
Ren shook his head.
“I’m afraid not. It started this morning, and I can’t make sense of any of it.”
“Man…” Eiko chewed her lower lip, wracking her brain fruitlessly. “Why are we the only ones acting normal? It sounds like even Nudie Prez is in on it if she’s talking about her dad… unless… have you spoken to her today?”
“No, I haven’t…” Ren pulled out his phone. “I’ll send her a message.”
“I’ll do the same, I’ll text you if she gets back to me- you do the same.”
“Right…”
“So like… what do we even do now?”
“I’m not sure… Just, act natural for now, I promise to let you know as soon as I know something, okay?”
“You really promise? No bullshit ‘you don’t need to worry about it’ clause? You’ll tell me right away?”
Ren nodded.
“I promise.”
Eiko sighed.
“Okay then. I guess I’ll play along with everything for now… shit’s got me freaked out…”
“You’re not alone there.” Ren exhaled. “I’m gonna head home for now.”
“Maybe we could head to Makoto’s place? Check on her?”
“Maybe… but I feel things might get complicated if we do… Let’s give her a chance to respond to our texts first.”
“Ugh… fine, fine. We can do that…”
“In the meantime I’m gonna find Morgana, maybe he’ll know something.”
“Morgana… he’s the cat right? You’re gonna ask a cat for help?”
“He’s not a cat… well… he really isn’t, but… yeah basically, he’s the cat.”
“We’re doomed…”
~ ~ ~
“I’m back…”
“Hm?” Sojiro lifted his head from the crossword puzzle he had been working on. “You’re back early.”
“I’m just feeling tired still, Futaba is with her mom so I’m gonna chill in my room if that’s okay.”
“I guess that’s fine.”
“Thanks.” Ren made his way past Sojiro and upstairs to his room, immediately flinching at the sight of the nudist from this morning laying on his couch.
“Hey, welcome back!” He smiled. “Still feeling tired huh?”
Ren stared back at him silently, before retracing his steps and walking backwards down the stairs, keeping up his moonwalk until he was in front of Sojiro once more.
“Something wrong kid?”
“Why is that guy in my room?”
“Huh?”
Ren kept a shaky, unconvincing smile on his face.
“Why is there a naked man in my room?”
Sojiro sighed.
“You’re just now realizing how unusual that is? Morgana has been your roommate for nearly the whole year.”
“M…Morgana?”
“…Yeah? Jeez you really are out of it today, huh?”
“Morgana is… that’s…” Ren rapidly made his way back upstairs and confronted him. “M… Mona?”
“Yes Joker?”
“Oh my god…” Ren made his way over to his bed, and calmly had an internal screaming session.
“Okay you’re definitely sick.” Morgana(?) huffed. “You wait here, I’m gonna go talk to Lady Takemi.”
“’Lady’ Takemi?”
Morgana made his way down the stairs- and judging by the sound of the bell- out of the café. Ren flopped backwards onto his bed, adding this impossibility to the long list of absurdities he’s encountered today. The whole world seemed… wrong, and yet only he- and Eiko of all people could tell? Why? It was all so headache inducing. And just when he thought he’d get time to have his breakdown in peace, he heard the bell jingle downstairs again. Assuming it was just Morgana getting back, he ignored it, but soon Sojiro called up to him.
“Yo Kid! Akechi-san’s here to see you.”
Ren shot upright, and rushed down to confirm if this was truly the case. Indeed it was, as there near Leblanc’s entrance, stood Goro Akechi, looking no worse for wear.
“Ah.” He smiled. “Amamiya-san, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Akechi? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with—”
Akechi suddenly- and loudly- cleared his throat, cutting Ren off.
“Please excuse me, I was wondering if I could have a quick word with you, outside?”
“Um… Sure man…”
Ren made his way past a confused Sojiro, and outside to the laundromat. Akechi turned to him, a serious look on his face, his eyes narrowed.
“Okay Amamiya-san, let’s get something straight right away. You can tell, can’t you?”
“Tell what?”
“Don’t play dumb. Things are… wrong… the dead coming back to life, everything being just a little too perfect?”
Ren stared back at Akechi thoughtfully a while, before nodding.
“Yeah, I can’t explain it, but things are strange. But shouldn’t you still be in prison? Or at least with Sae?”
Akechi smirked.
“Well that’s just it. After I finally finished recanting my tales of metaverse exploits and everything I knew about my scumbag father, they decided they were satisfied and let me go.”
“Just like that? You get off scot-free?”
“Indeed, not even a slap on a wrist or formal caution. Only Shido will receive any sort of punishment, because that’s what he wants.”
“Huh…” Ren’s brow furrowed in thought. “I understand I might be biased since I saw the most corrupt of them at their worst, but I doubt the police are ever quite that forgiving just to let a murderer off like that. But I guess you must be happy about that.”
“I would be… were it not an impossibility…” Akechi folded his arms. “Were that the only thing unusual I would have simply dismissed it as some ungodly level of good fortune, but it seems I’m far from the only one just miraculously getting their way, now am I?”
“No kidding… I saw Futaba overcome the trauma of her lost mother with my own eyes, and now she’s just back as if nothing ever happened.”
“So Wakaba Isshiki is alive too? This- as I’m sure you know- is also impossible. I took her life by mental shutdown with my own hands.”
Ren shot daggers at Akechi, even with the focus on the strange circumstances they found themselves in, his disdain for the boy was clear to see. Akechi rolled his eyes and shrugged.
“Would you feel better if I said I regretted it?”
“Would that be at all true?”
“…nevermind that. We can deal with our personal issues at a later date, surely you agree our focus should be on finding out who is distorting reality like this?”
Ren’s brow raised.
“You think there’s someone behind this?”
“Well obviously. I don’t know how, but someone or something with abilities comparable to that ‘God of control’ you valiantly vanquished is changing reality for some unknown goal.”
“So you’re aware of Yaldabaoth?”
“Is that what it was called? I wasn’t in the past, but was made aware after you and your party slew it. Being a persona user allowed me to witness the clash.”
“Guess that explains why you were there right afterwards to turn yourself in… maybe… nevermind that- you’re right about one thing, someone or something is up to something, and I’m guessing you want us to work together to find out who or what, and undo it- right?”
“Well look at that.” Akechi smirked. “You read my mind. Yes I admit, outrageous as it is you are the best- and indeed only- option for an ally I have available to me.”
“You really can’t say something nice without being backhanded about it, can you?”
“Of course not. I still think you’re a retard and despise the fact that you’re alive, but I realize I need any help I can get, thus my proposal for a truce, of sorts.”
“Ha.” Ren found himself smiling. “I like you when you’re honest, man.”
“I feel you’re trying to get on my nerves again.”
“I’m not, I promise.”
“Right…”
“I mean I absolutely will later- since I hate you and pissing you off gives me genuine glee.”
“There it is…”
“But that can wait. Cooperation first.”
“Indeed.” Akechi sighed. “Okay, so all we know so far is that our mysterious enemy is changing reality to be more… blissful- I suppose you could say- for people. Perhaps through the altering of cognitions if the abilities of this… Yaldabaoth are anything to go by.”
“I guess if Yaldabaoth was able to erase people from reality using cognitions, bringing them back the same way isn’t completely inconceivable…”
“Perhaps… What’s more- I crossed paths with Kunikazu Okumura.”
“Haru’s dad…”
“I had met him before of course, usually during his dealings with Shido. And I must say, the version of him I remember, and the version I met today are night and day.”
“How do you mean?”
“The greed and corruption that filled him before are gone, nowhere to be seen. He had no memories of recruiting me to assassinate business rivals, and of course- no memory of me assassinating him. He’s now a kind, honest man. Excited over helping his daughter set up her café despite the fact that there’s little profit to him as an individual to do so.”
“I mean wanting to help your daughter fulfil her dream is pretty normal for a parent… or at least it should be…” Ren sighed. “Then again, when I met his shadow, he didn’t give the vibe of a supportive parent, pretty much the exact opposite. So I guess it’s a pretty drastic change.”
“It does raise the question as to whether this is the real Okumura, or just a fake created to satisfy Haru-san’s own wishes of a positive relationship with her father.”
“Hmm… if it’s changing cognitions that leads to all of this, then that would make sense. That would mean he’s only here because Haru is currently under control and…”
“…Amamiya-san?”
“…if she’s under control, and her cognition was changed to repair their relationship… then…”
“Don’t suddenly trail off Amamiya-san, we’re supposed to be figuring this out together.”
“Wh…what if…”
Ren suddenly reached into his pocket, looking for his phone, beginning to panic when he couldn’t find it.
“Where is it?”
“What is wrong with you?”
Ren searched through all this pockets frantically a while before finally realizing:
“My bed!”
He spun around, sprinting out of the laundromat like his life depended on it, bursting through the door to Leblanc, shocking Sojiro, whose questions were ignored as Ren ran past him as fast as his legs would carry him, leapt up the stairs, skipping as many steps as his legs would allow. He scanned his room, spotting his phone laying on the bed, and rushed over to it.
He grabbed it, turning it on, taking multiple attempts to unlock it due to his shaking hands.
He finally got through, scrolled over to the messaging app, scrolled down past the group chat and his friends, finding the contact listed as “Mom.”
He tapped his phone.
Last message: “Could you pick up some milk on the way home? We’ve run out.” Dated back in March.
“Huh…”
Below that, his reply: “Sure.”
Ren’s shoulders slumped. He tried to scroll down, but to no avail, that was the end of their messages to eachother. He locked his phone and gently laid it down on the bed beside him.
For a while he just stared blankly forwards, down towards the floorboards, in complete silence.
He picked up the phone again, opened the messaging app, scrolled down to the contact “Mom”, and tapped.
“Could you pick up some milk on the way home? We’ve run out.”
“Sure.”
He stared a while longer.
“Oh.”
Notes:
The transparent kimono is a real thing btw, it really did come up when I googled "Naked kimono" out of curiosity.
But yeah, we're finally in Royal proper, no more build up, it's gonna be plot heavy for a while.
Chapter 83: Queen won't dream
Summary:
New year's day: Makoto's perspective
Chapter Text
Makoto sat bolt upright in her bed, dazed and confused. Feeling like she was just suddenly yanked out of a dream. The rubbed her eyes, trying to recall what coerced her into such a rude awakening, but no matter how hard she tried to focus she couldn’t recall even a single solitary detail, just a foggy mess of nothing that clouded her mind that seemed to actively fight against her attempts to force herself through it. All the while, the soundless notion of a voice calling out to her from far away… or not… it wasn’t far away at all, but…
She shook her head. Whatever the dream was it wasn’t worth giving herself this much of a headache over. She peered over at the curtains- still closed of course- a distant lack of any light peering through meant her first instinct was to just shrug and head back to sleep, but to be certain she decided to check the time on her phone. She honestly regretted doing so, since it was that awkward time where her alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but it was too late for it to be worth attempting to go back to sleep.
She sighed, she decided that she might as well just get up, she could use it as an excuse to prepare breakfast. They didn’t have any special foods or ingredients prepared for new year’s, the Niijima family wasn’t the most tradition-driven or celebration-friendly family out there after all, but with Sae home Makoto was eager to leap on the opportunity for a rare family breakfast. The thought of it helping her to shake off the dazed, groggy feeling she woke up with almost instantaneously.
She climbed out of bed and drew the curtains. Yeah it was still dark out- it was still winter after all- but she could already see faint signs of the rising sun over the horizon. No one in her family was the type to sleep in late, so she knew she had to get to work right away. She took the time to make her bed, placed her Buchimaru hugging pillow in a position he’d hopefully find comfortable, brushed her hair, and secured the all-important headband atop her head.
‘A Queen needs her crown after all’, she thought, laughing at herself afterwards, clearly Ren was rubbing off on her.
She left her room, quietly tip toeing down the hall to the kitchen area as to not disturb anyone too early, turned on the lights, and opened the refrigerator to start preparing ingredients.
“You’re up early.”
Makoto flinched at the unexpected voice, the gruff and distinctly male voice. She turned to face him, her eyes wide, and this strange feeling she couldn’t articulate gripping her heart.
“F-Father? You’re…?”
“Yeah I’m already up.” He laughed, as if at some joke Makoto wasn’t privy to. “I figured I’d get some work done before you two got up, but seems I underestimated you.”
“You’re… I…” Makoto rubbed her eyes, staring at her father standing in the doorway. She could feel that voice calling out to her again, feeling more distant than ever before, obscured by a now-painful fog enshrouding her mind. Then suddenly, she pulled back and the pain faded in an instant, like it was never there at all, and she gave him a tired smile. “Come on, you’re not really planning on working today are you? You and Sis are so alike.”
“Come now, don’t act like you’re any different. Sitting around idly isn’t Niijima nature.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Makoto huffed. “Fine, but breakfast won’t be that long, I’ll be annoyed if you miss it.”
“Ha, you’re becoming more like your mother every day.”
“Am I?” Makoto’s brow furrowed slightly. “Is that a good thing?”
“I certainly think so.” He laughed as he turned to head back down the hall. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure both me and Sae are ready when it’s ready to be served, and we won’t make you late meeting up with your friends today.”
Makoto’s brow raised, she had nearly forgotten that she agreed to meet up with everyone for a new year’s shrine visit today. She was really looking forward to that last night, and could remember a minor stress out session over whether or not she should wear a kimono for the occasion, weighing her lifestyle vs tradition; the excitement actually making it a little hard to sleep. And yet standing here right now, the idea scared her for some reason. Not the event itself, spending new year’s with her friends sounded like a wonderful time, especially the idea of her first new year’s with her boyfriend; but part of her instead wanted- no- needed to stay here by her father’s side. She paused her food prep to peep around the corner to confirm her father was still there, she peered around just in time to see him disappear into his room.
“Of course, I’m being silly.”
She returned to her culinary preparations, her hands moving almost independently of her mind; she never considered herself a master chef, in fact she couldn’t help but worry that Ren might have already overtaken her in that regard- even if curry made up most of what he actually made, however she had handled the cooking in the Niijima household since she was in middle school, it had become second nature for her and required little in the way of conscious thought.
This meant her mind could stay on the subject of how to spend new year’s. Thanks to her father and sister always being so busy with work, this holiday was usually a solitary one for Makoto, she didn’t have much in the way of good memories associated with the day. But now she had two fantastic options to change that, she finally had friends she can spend it with, and an ultra-rare chance for family new year’s. Both sounded wonderful, but now she felt like she had to choose between the two.
‘No, there’s plenty of time in the day, I can do both. I’ll spend the morning with Sis and Father, then go out and meet up with everyone…’ she shook her head. ‘No, other way around. It’s not fair for everyone to delay their shrine visit just for my sake. I’ll meet up with everyone, spend some time with them and Ren, then come home to spend the evening with the family…’
She nodded, confident in her thinking… for about six seconds, before a non-specific feeling of dread overcame her. Making sure she was safe to leave the cooking alone for just a few seconds, she snuck down to the end of the hall, noticing her father’s bedroom door was slightly ajar, and seeing he was sat at his desk, flicking through a ring folder no doubt filled with important case files and such. Breathing a muted sigh of relief, she turned around and made her way towards the kitchen… stopping half way, feeling compelled to head back and peek at her father working again, just to be sure.
She shook her head, heading back to the kitchen for real this time, mentally reprimanding herself.
‘What am I? A child? What am I even worried about? Maybe Sae’s right, she’s always saying I’m such a daddy’s girl…’
She paused.
‘Does she always say that? When has she ever…?’ Her headache was returning suddenly. ‘No, she always says that to tease me, it makes sense…’
She returned to her meal prep, not that there was such left for her to do, just making sure nothing burnt.
‘It already smells nice, I wonder if the smell will be enough to wake Sae?’ She chuckled to herself.
Still, the problem of how to spend new year’s remained, even though she knew rationally there was no problem at all- morning with her friends, evening with her family.
‘But… what if when I come home…’
She put that train of thought to a forceful stop, and forced it out of her mind… and yet within her she could hear two voices arguing at eachother, and yet through the mental fog she couldn’t tell what either of them were saying. She felt lost, wanting to turn and run- without knowing what she was running from or even what ‘running’ actually meant in this situation.
Confusion only further fuelled the anxiety building up within her, an anxiety that drove her to pick up her phone, open the group chat, and type:
“Sorry everyone, I won’t be able to make it to the shrine visit today.”
‘Because… why? What should I say?’
“I’m going to be busy, something important came up with my father’s work, and I’m going to be helping him.”
She felt terrible for lying to her friends like this, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit there was no rational reason for her to not come… she just needed to stay, for fear that…
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad, just urgent. I’ll meet up with you all later, so don’t worry about me and have fun.”
And sent. It’s done. She promised herself she’d apologize later, but today she had to stay here. She tried to put it out of her mind and focus on finishing breakfast.
~ ~ ~
“Delicious.”
“Ahh.” One could tell just by looking at her that her father’s approval sent a feeling of warmth shooting through Makoto’s body. “Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“I know I don’t say this often enough, but your cooking is the second best I’ve ever had. You could stand to learn some of her wifely skills Sae.”
“W-wifely?”
Sae tutted.
“Well that’s rude. I just don’t have time for that sort of thing, that’s all. Expecting women to learn how to cook is just sexism, y’know?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Now now you two.” Makoto stood up and gathered everyone dishes. “No need to start fighting over something silly like that.”
“I was only teasing her.” He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m very proud of your skills Sae, and especially how hard you’re always working.”
Sae averted her eyes, trying in vain to suppress her blush.
“Well good… you should be…”
Makoto chuckled and went to start washing up while Sae and her father remained at the table.
“She really is becoming like her…”
“Dad?”
He shook his head.
“Nevermind me, just thinking out loud. How is work by the way? You’re still dealing with the Shido case, right?”
Sae nodded.
“It’s progressing smoothly, he’s as cooperative as can be. Frankly if every criminal was as easy to work with as him I’d be out of a job.”
Her father laughed.
“You and me both, though maybe that wouldn’t be so bad…”
Makoto returned to the table, happily rejoining the conversation.
“That’s a relief to hear Sis, I was worried you’d be stuck overworking yourself for this case forever.”
“Thankfully not. Like I said- it’s proceeding very smoothly, though it still might take a while. He did A LOT of awful things, so there’s A LOT to document.”
“Right… awful things…” Makoto felt that headache coming back again as she stared down at the table.
‘What did… what did he do again?’ She thought to herself. ‘I feel like I should know; why can’t I remember? I should remember, surely?’
The harder she tried to recall details the more her head hurt, and the more the fog in her mind would intensify. Her father noticed her clutching her side of her head, and made her jump when he put his hand on her back.
“Are you okay Makoto?”
“I…” Makoto smiled weakly at him. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just had this awful headache coming and going all morning.”
“Really?” Sae stood up from her seat. “I think we have some medicine somewhere if you need it.”
Makoto put her hand out to stop her.
“No really, it’s fine. It’s already gone again.”
“Oh dear.” Her father looked rather guilty. “You should have told us, here we’ve been sitting around making you do all the work on breakfast this morning.”
“Really, it’s fine. I can manage breakfast just fine. And besides…” Makoto playfully shrugged. “…I am the best cook in the house.”
“Really now?” Her father chuckled, he enjoyed seeing his daughter act so confident. “Although, if you’re even a little bit sick, are you sure it’s a good idea for you to go out with your friends like that?”
“Ah, well about that…”
“I’m still not fully on board with this lifestyle choice of yours… it’s still rather… uncomfortable.”
Sae’s brow furrowed.
“I know what you mean. I can’t help but worry seeing her so vulnerable like that with others…”
“Mm.” He nodded. “But still, I absolutely respect your commitment to it and all the confidence you’ve gained from it. That being said, surely it’d be best if you’d just wrap up warm for today at least if you’re feeling unwell? I doubt anyone will make it a problem. You could borrow some of Sae’s clothes perhaps?”
Makoto shuffled, feeling equal parts nervous and guilty.
“A-actually, I already told them I wouldn’t make it today.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah I texted them, I’m not feeling that bad, but bad enough that standing around outside in the peak of winter naked wouldn’t be the best idea.” That wasn’t technically a lie, she had been feeling strange with all these headaches and mental fog today, but she still felt awful for deceiving her family in addition to her friends today.
“I see, I’m sure they’ll understand.”
Sae still hadn’t sat back down.
“Still, maybe you should get some more rest, if it gets worse you might—”
“I’m going to be fine Sis, please don’t worry.” Makoto smiled. “I’m happy to spend today home with the two of you…”
“Well I’m not going anywhere today.” Her father patted her on the back reassuringly before standing up. “I was planning on doing a little more work while you were out, but how about we watch a movie instead?”
Makoto perked right up, looking up at him excitedly
“Really?”
“Sure, it’s been a while since we’ve done something like that together.”
“Yeah…” Makoto’s shoulders sank slightly. “It feels like a really long time…”
Sae sighed.
“I’m not against the idea, but what did you want us to watch?”
“Hmm… I know how much Makoto loves ‘Like a dragon’, so we can watch one of those.”
“I guess that’s fine.” Sae huffed. “I was worried we’d have to sit through Buchimaru-kun again.”
The vague, melancholic feeling that was oppressing Makoto vanished in an instant, as she turned to glare at Sae, feeling genuinely offended.
“What’s wrong with Buchi?”
“Makoto you’re basically an adult now. I can understand having fond memories of childhood cartoons, but don’t you think you should grow out of kids stuff like that at a certain point?”
Makoto pouted.
“Buchimaru isn’t just for kids…”
“Now now you two. I’m sure Like a Dragon will be something we can all enjoy. Not that I’ve ever actually taken the time to sit down and watch them myself.”
Makoto shot up to her feet.
“Then it’s time to fix that!” She rushed past her father and to the cabinet below the TV, searching for her treasured ‘Like a Dragon 0’ bluray. “I know you’ll both love it.”
Her father watched her amused.
“I still can’t help but see her as my little girl…”
“Hm? Did you say something?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing, just thinking out loud again.”
“Right…” Makoto noticed Sae leaving the room. “Sis? Where are you going?” Her expression dropped, looking rather hurt. “You’re not gonna sit it out, are you?”
“No, I just…” Sae looked away bashfully. “I’m just going to get you a blanket, I still think you should try and wrap up warm if you’re not feeling well…”
“Sis…” Makoto sighed, a smile on her face. “Alright, thank you. Don’t be long though, we’re not starting until you get back.”
“R-right…”
~ ~ ~
The Niijima family were midway through the movie, entering Makoto’s favorite part- Majima’s introduction. She was wrapped up in the blanket Sae had fetched for her (which really was warm- she had to admit) on one end of the couch, her father sat at the other, and Sae sat in her own seat.
Makoto was of course enraptured with the events unfolding on screen, or at least she’d like to be. That niggling feeling, and the headaches that accompanied it, kept persisting and would make it hard to stay invested. She looked to Sae, who despite her lukewarm reaction earlier, seemed to be really into the movie; not quite to the level of Makoto- she didn’t have her hands balled into excited fists- instead just calmly taking it all in with a mug of coffee in her hands which she’d occasionally take a sip of, while making sure not to take her eyes off the movie itself. Makoto looked to her father next, and was immediately worried about his lack of any visible outward reaction, even during the best fight scenes. She concluded he was just the type to only show his excitement inwardly, it was the only explanation.
Still, this was nice… really nice. The curtains closed, only the bare minimum of light bleeding through, the room being lit only by the light coming from the screen, lighting the united Niijima family, all taking in this shared experience, together.
Her father happened to notice her staring at him, and sat up.
“Makoto? What’s wrong?”
“Huh?”
Sae- making sure to pause the movie so she didn’t miss anything- turned to face Makoto too, looking equal parts confused and concerned.
“Makoto, you’re crying?”
“What?” Makoto untangled herself from her blanket, reaching up to touch her face and confirm that she really was crying. “Why am I…?”
Sae tilted her head.
“I know Majima’s introduction was great and all, but to start crying over it?”
“N-no, it’s just…” Makoto wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to force her eyes to become dry once again, only to look at her father, leaning over towards her, and they started flowing again. “I don’t understand…”
“Seriously Makoto, is something wrong?”
“I… I…”
“You already know.”
“Huh?”
“…”
“My…?”
Her father leant over and put his hand on her shoulder. He felt so warm, even this small gesture feeling more comforting than she could have imagined, and yet…
“I… Father I…” She choked, trying and failing to get the words out of her mouth. While Sae watched on, feeling like she had to say something but having no idea what.
“It’s okay Makoto, take your time, I’m here.”
“Father…” Makoto clenched her fists, taking a deep breath before finally working up the will to speak. “Can I please talk to you?”
“Talk to me? Of course.” He helped her up off the couch. “We’ll talk in your room.”
With her father holding her shoulders, Makoto was led out of the room, Sae fidgeting slightly in her seat, wondering if she should follow, but ultimately deciding against it, instead just staring down into her coffee.
Closing the door behind them, Makoto sat down on her bed, instinctively holding onto her Buchi pillow for that extra shred of courage it gave her. Meanwhile her father sat on her desk chair, having to move the Buchi plushie that was already sat there, chuckling slightly as he placed the doll on the desk, making sure it was comfortable and wouldn’t fall over. He then turned to his daughter.
“Talk to me Makoto, what’s wrong?”
Makoto had just about managed to get her tears under control; taking a few deep breaths to gather the courage to look her father in the eye, faltering only slightly as she saw how genuinely worried and concerned he was looking back at her.
“I… um… I wanted to…”
“It’s okay Makoto.” He leant forward, his hands together, his eyes full of understanding and patience. “You can take your time.”
“I…” Makoto swallowed. “I’ve… I’ve decided I want to work towards becoming a police commissioner.”
“A commissioner?” He smiled. “I’ve certainly got some ambitious daughters.”
“I understand how hard it’ll be, so um… so I really do intend to work hard.” She put the Buchi pillow on her lap, making a point of sitting up straight as she faced him. “I want to head an organization that will destroy the lawless and help rescue victims. So I’m going to make sure I get into Tokyo U and build an extensive academic background. So I’m going to keep studying. You’ve… you’ve really inspired me.”
He looked rather surprised for a moment, before returning the warmest smile she had ever seen from him.
“That makes me more proud than you can imagine. I’m certain if you do your best, you can make it.”
“Thank you.” A warm, soothing feeling filled Makoto’s whole body. “But also, I’ve managed to make a bunch of friends!”
“Oh?”
“I know I was really awkward in the past… I still am really. But I’ve found a group of people who accept me for who I am, who always work together, who are happy to support me in pursuing that dream.”
“Ha. Well that’s very nice to hear.” Her father let out a good-natured laugh. “How did you meet them?”
“Haa…” Makoto averted her eyes for a moment, before firmly locking back onto his. “And there’s another group of friends I met through the nudist program. They’re the kind of people the past me would have arrogantly dismissed, but they’re really good to me, they also have dreams they want to work towards, and we always work to support eachother like that. So… I’m surrounded by wonderful people.”
“I’m happy for you, truly.”
“And um…” Makoto started to turn red, shuffling awkwardly, she lost the nerve to maintain eye contact, but fought hard to hold onto the courage to keep speaking. “…one of my friends is actually…” Her whole body clenched, her eyes screwed shut, and she forced the words out of her mouth. “I’ve got a boyfriend now.”
She didn’t see his reaction, and found herself shaking in fear of what it might be. The silence dragged on an uncomfortable stretch of time, Makoto not daring to open her eyes all the while. After an agonizing wait, she heard his voice, a controlled, neutral tone.
“Tell me about him.”
She opened her eyes, but kept her gaze firmly on her knees.
“He’s the most wonderful person I’ve met. All my friends are supportive, but none moreso than him. I feel so much stronger when I have him in my corner, it’s thanks to him that I remembered my dream of being a police officer like you…”
“…Go on…”
“He does like to tease me a lot of the time, but is always mindful not to go too far, he knows when to stop joking and be serious. He’s calm under pressure, is always aware of my needs, and the needs of all our friends. He’s basically our leader, and yet he highly values the views and opinions of all his friends, me especially.”
“…”
“I do worry about him sometimes, I sometimes feel like he doesn’t worry about himself enough, like he values me over himself. But I always make a point of how I want us to be equals in our relationship, and he respects that. I know we have the power to help eachother, make eachother stronger. He’s always been protecting me, ever since we first met, even when we were technically enemies he was concerned for my physical and emotional well-being. He’s been with me on my commutes to and from school since I joined the program, mostly as a deterrent. He taught me that it’s okay to be… me, and inspired me to be the best version of myself. I plan to help him do the same. I… I can’t imagine life without him.”
“I see…”
The room fell silent, Makoto started to look up, but quickly chickened out. Eventually, her father broke the silence.
“He sounds like a good man.”
Makoto looked up at her father, shocked, but also relieved. She leant forwards, her fists clenched.
“He is! I’m sure you’d think so too!”
“Ha…” Her father sighed. “I guess you really have grown up… it’s hard for me to accept.”
“Eheh…”
“I would like to meet him though, I hope you understand that I have to check if what you’re saying about him is true, I might have to chase him off if he’s tricking you.” He laughed.
Makoto looked down again, her fingernails digging into her knees.
“I would have loved that, if you could have met him…”
“Makoto?”
She looked up again, opening her mouth but nothing coming out. She bit her lower lip as she gazed around the room in a tizzy.
“What else? What else?”
“Mako—”
“M-me and Sis are also repairing our relationship!” She leant forward again. “We drifted apart a while. She was always so stressed with work and… everything, and I never thought to reach out for so long… But then I did, and we’re finally talking to eachother again! We’ve even planned to go on a hot spring trip together after everything had calmed down!”
“Huh? Well I’m glad you’re getting along of course, but something else is wrong.”
“What else…” she restlessly rubbed her scalp. “There has to be something else…”
“Makoto?”
She let out a heavy sigh, bringing her feet up on the bed with her, letting the Buchi pillow fall to her side.
“No… I should be happy with that.”
“Happy with what?”
She buried her face into her knees, desperately willing herself not to cry again, though her voice was faltering.
“I’m really glad I got to tell you all of that. It makes me so happy. You… don't have to worry about me anymore… But Anat is right, I already know…”
“Makoto?”
“…that you’re not really here…”
…
“…”
…
Makoto lifted her head, silently staring forward into her empty bedroom. She slowly stood up from her bed, walking over to her desk.
She lifted the Buchi plushie sat atop it. She gently placed him down on the desk chair.
And fell to her knees, sobbing.
Then there was a knock at her door.
“Makoto?” Sae let herself in. “You’ve been in here a while, the movie is still…”
Sae froze when she saw her sister, on the floor, openly bawling into her chair.
“Makoto?”
Makoto looked up to her sister, not having the energy to try and hide her tears.
“Sis… Father is… he’s gone.”
“Father?” Sae looked at her, confused. “I mean, of course he is, you know th…” She trailed off, her eyes drifting to the blanket Makoto had brought to her room with her, that now lay upon the floor next to her bed. “Though it’s strange, I can’t explain it, but I feel like I was thinking about him just a moment ago too…”
“Sis…”
Makoto turned back to the chair, burying her face into the cold seat. Sae shuffled around awkwardly; she approached her younger sister, lifting her arm to reach out to her, but second guessing herself multiple times, her mind desperately scrambling to understand if her impulses were driving her to do the right thing or not. Eventually, she threw caution to the wind, knelt down, and took Makoto into her arms.
“Sis…” Makoto returned the gesture, her knuckles white as she gripped onto Sae’s top as tightly as she could, burying her fingers into the fabric, and pressing her face into Sae’s collar.
Sae continued to hold her tightly.
“I’m… I’m sorry, I’m not really sure what I should be saying right now.”
“It’s fine.” Makoto sniffed. “You don’t need to say anything, just please…” She tightened her grip further still. “…Please stay like this a little while longer.”
“I… of course. Take your time…”
~ ~ ~
“Feeling better?”
Makoto blew her nose, and took a deep breath.
“I’ll be okay. I’m sorry about that Sis…”
“It’s okay.”
“I know, Father’s been gone a long time, but it just felt like it happened today.”
“I…” Sae exhaled. “Strangely, I think I know what you mean…”
The sisters sat in silence a while longer, before Sae summoned a smile.
“I’ll understand if you’re no longer in the mood, but did you want to finish the movie?”
“R…really Sis?”
“I can’t remember exactly why we put it on today in the first place, but I think I’m beginning to see why you like this series so much. Though we can leave it until another day if you want?”
“N-no.” Makoto shook her head, managing to return a smile of her own. “I’d love to keep watching it with you.”
“Alright then.” Sae nodded, before standing up and checking the time on her phone. “We were sat here a while, huh? Tell you what, how about I order us some take-out? We’ll eat while we watch.”
Makoto forced herself to her feet.
“I’d like that.”
“I’ll make the call.”
And with that Sae left the room, leaving Makoto by herself once again. She turned back and gazed at the desk chair, for a moment it felt like the tears would come back again, but she held them back, taking a calming breath.
‘But… what was all that anyway?’ She finally addressed the big question in her mind. ‘I know that wasn’t a dream, but it wasn’t real either…’
She grabbed her phone off her bedside table, unlocked it, and starting dialling. It barely had time to get through a single ring before the recipient picked up.
“Y-yes?!”
“Ren?”
“Oh, it’s you Makoto, I thought maybe… n-nevermind. Are you okay?”
“I’m…” Makoto sat down on her bed, restlessly scratching her cheek. “I’m not sure, something really weird is going on.”
“You mean you see it too?”
“’Too’?”
“Makoto… about that text you sent everyone this morning…”
She let out a heavy exhale.
“That’s kind of what I wanted to talk about. This morning when I woke up, my father was here with me…”
“…I see…”
“I knew from the beginning that it couldn’t be real, but didn’t want to accept it… soon as I did, he vanished…”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Please don’t apologize. It’s my own fault.”
“Actually… it might not be.”
“Ren?”
“You’re not the only one with parents coming back to life.”
“Huh?”
“L-look, maybe it’s better we talk about this in person, I’m meeting up with Akechi tomorrow, and I think you should be there too.”
“Hang on, Akechi? He’s there?”
“He was with me a little while ago, but then I…”
“…Ren?”
“I… I sent him away, told him I’d talk to him tomorrow. I’ll text you the location and explain everything when we get there.”
“…Right. Okay, I trust you.”
“Thank you Makoto.”
“…Um, Ren?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I- I love you too.”
“I’m confident my father would have loved you too… eventually.”
“Eventually?”
“He’d act scary early on to test you, but once you ‘passed’, he’d see you as the amazing person you are.”
“Oh well… wow, okay. I guess I’ll take that as an ego boost.”
Makoto laughed.
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Shut up. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“R-right. We’ll figure this all out tomorrow.”
“See you later Ren.”
“Later Queen.”
And she hung up, gently laying her phone down on her bedside table. She breathed in slowly through her nose, and out through her mouth, before standing up, and making her way to the door. She stepped out into the hall, taking a moment to stare at the seldom-used spare room at the end of the hall. She turned away.
“I don’t want to keep Sis waiting…”
Chapter 84: Crow must dream
Summary:
New year's day: Akechi's perspective
Notes:
The last of the "New year's day" chapters. I promise there's a good reason for having this one.
Chapter Text
“You can’t be serious?”
“Why wouldn’t we be? Your assistance in this case has been hugely helpful, we simply couldn’t have built a successful case without your testimony, but I think that’ll be all we need from you, we can handle the rest from here.”
Akechi stared up at the police officer with a look halfway between ‘incredulous’ and ‘utterly bewildered’.
“I can just… leave?”
The officer nodded cheerfully.
“Sure! We’ll give you a call if we need any more information from you. Otherwise, just stay out of trouble!”
“’Stay out of trouble?’ You’re really saying that after everything I’ve…” Akechi rubbed his forehead. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“Why would it be a joke? There’s still work to be done on the Shido case, but you’ve done your part, the rest Niijima-san will be handling herself.”
“Right…”
The officer smiled as he opened the interrogation room door for the boy.
“I’ll handle the paperwork for your dismissal, so you can just leave right away and not worry about it.”
Akechi cautiously rose from the table, not taking his suspicion-filled eyes off the officer for even a moment.
“How generous of you…”
“What can I say? I’m in a good mood today. I got word earlier today that my mother’s heart surgery was a success.”
“I don’t remember asking, but sure- good for you.”
“We knew it was risky, the family honestly wasn’t expecting her to pull through this time, but I guess miracles really do happen.”
“Yes I’m happy for you, see?” Akechi stared at him completely deadpan. “This is my happy face.”
“Eh I know you’re just fucking with me kid, but thanks anyway.” He patted Akechi on the back as he passed through the door, the boy doing little to hide his disgust at being touched with such meaty hands. “You’ve worked with Niijima-san here before, right? So you know your own way out?”
“You mean you’re not even going to make sure I…” Akechi shook his head. “Yes, I’ll just… let myself out?”
“You can grab your stuff from the front desk on your way out! Have a nice day, kid!”
“Ugh…”
Akechi decided to ignore him, and simply made his way towards the elevator at the end of the hall. He proceeded cautiously, half expecting the officer to suddenly yell “Sike!” and tackle him to the ground from behind as part of some absurd spin on the ‘Good cop, bad cop’ strategy. This didn’t make any sense; he had made sure to word his testimony in such a way that it painted himself as more of a hapless tool of Shido’s in hopes of lightening his own sentence a little, focusing on what he did under Shido’s orders and downplaying what he did to further his own career as a ‘detective’ in order to get closer to his father and enact his revenge. But he never outright lied or hid said actions; he had done more than enough to get substantial prison time even with all his cooperation, and here they were- saying he could just leave?
He stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor, and leant against the wall to contemplate.
‘This has to be some kind of trap, surely? But why? They had me right where they wanted me, fully cooperating. Do they think I’m still hiding something? Something that I’ll reveal when I leave, perhaps? The only thing I can think of is perhaps they expect me to get into contact with the Phantom Thieves? Do they still want them arrested? It’s not impossible that they’d desire that, but I have no reason to contact them- and they should know that.’
The elevator doors opened, Akechi was braced for a sudden attack- that never came. He defensively stepped out, looking both ways down the hallway for any potential aggressors. Spotting only a couple officers having a casual conversation by the looks of it. One glanced over in his direction, but didn’t even bat an eye- simply returning to talking with her colleague.
Akechi- acting as natural as he could- made his way down the other end of the hall, towards the TPD lobby.
‘What if I’m thinking about this the wrong way? Maybe this isn’t a trick the police are trying to pull on me, but another party? Perhaps some Shido loyalists plan to silence me? But would any of them still have the pull required to have me released? No one is stopping me, so it’s clearly not just that one cop lying to me.’
He anxiously scanned the lobby, trying to see if he recognised any of the people there as Shido’s men, or indeed anyone who might be watching him, but no- no one seemed to be paying him any mind.
‘The plan with Amamiya-san was a one-off. Now that the real police are aware of such possibilities of corruption within this very station, they’d be more on guard, so there’s no way Shido’s men would be able to pull something like this off, surely? They shouldn’t even know that I’m still alive- it’s not been officially announced in any way… then again, nor was my supposed death…’
Akechi approached the front desk, addressing the woman behind the desk.
“Excuse me?”
She looked up at him.
“Ah- you must be Akechi-kun, correct?”
“That’s correct…”
“I was told about you.” She reached down beneath the desk, pulling out a briefcase, Akechi recognising it as his own. “Here you go!”
He cautiously took the case from her, immediately laying it down on the counter and opening it. Remarkable, all his belongings were exactly how he left them, and more importantly- no matter how much he looked there was no bomb in sight.
He eyed the receptionist with suspicion, but she just smiled back and promptly returned to her work- pretending to look busy, presumably.
Without another word, Akechi closed the case, and hastily walked out the front doors and into the streets of Tokyo. He scanned the roofs and windows for snipers, he made sure to walk around a random block four times in a row to confirm if anyone was following him, he even took the time to step into a café- whereby he took a seat in a discreet corner to open up his phone, checking for a bug like the one Futaba put there and he noticed far too late.
But no matter what he did, he could find no evidence of any sort of trick or plan, it really did seem like he had genuinely just been let go, and was truly home free.
“Hm.” A smirk crept across his face. “I guess I’ve forgotten how it feels to have things go my way.”
He leant back in his seat, stretching his arms into the air, finally letting himself relax for the first time in… he honestly couldn’t remember. More than that, this was the first time in years where his next course of action was unclear. For so long- the majority of is life- his core motivation had been to exact revenge on his father, and while that technically hadn’t happened yet- it now seemed like only a matter of time before he could sit back and enjoy watching his downfall. Granted, he originally wanted to have more of an active role in the process, and be able to gloat over Shido directly, but you can’t have everything I suppose. A partial victory beats no victory at all, and having options other than “spend the next few years in prison” was a very welcome bonus.
“Hmm… it’s New Year’s too, now that I think about it.” Akechi checked his phone- now put back together- to confirm that fact. “I see. I supposed I could use it as an excuse to celebrate. And the best place to do that…”
~ ~ ~
“…Is Kichijoji, more specifically- Jazz Jin.” Without a doubt Akechi’s favorite spot in all of Tokyo, his jazz club of choice, Jazz Jin.
He still had to think about what his long-term plans would be now that he was inexplicably a free man. He could probably go back to his old dormroom for the night at least, but he needed to get out of Tokyo sooner rather than later. Even if Shido’s men weren’t gunning for him, the longer he stayed in this city the more likely it’d be that he’d run into one of the PTs again, and that’d be… awkward, to say the least. He decided that he best avoid them if at all possible.
There was the issue of funding too. He had built up a fair amount of savings from his ‘professional’ career which he could use to leave town and last at least a year independently, more if he lived in a cheaper part of the country. He had buried it in a box about half a mile from his dorm in case of emergencies, such as him needing to go on the run if Shido discovered his true intentions. Not having that kind of urgency right now was appreciated. He’d have to think about where exactly he’d want to go, and whether it’s worth changing his name- he’d picked up a few contacts when working for Shido, arranging for a discreet name change like that wouldn’t be too hard. Then again, this was not the kind of ‘flee the city’ scenario he envisioned; it seemed no one was after him, so maybe he could just live a semi-normal life going forward? This really was a best-case scenario.
Akechi paused, his brow furrowing. No, ‘Best case scenario’ was spending just a few years in prison and get to enjoy news updates of Shido’s downfall. What was happening now was… strange. He silently reprimanded himself for getting so relaxed, either he was the single luckiest person in the world today, or something ugly was going on behind the scenes, as if someone was orchestrating everything for the sake of giving him an unconditional happy ending in spite of… well, everything.
But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t think of a possible motive for such a thing, and the list of people with the authority to let him go without so much as a slap on the wrist was incredibly limited. He had absolutely nothing to go on, no lead to follow, no choice but to simply take it all at face value and play with the hand he had been dealt. He sighed, he’d have to keep thinking, but that could be done in the jazz club; if nothing else he wanted one last chance to enjoy it before he fled Tokyo.
Though it didn’t open until later, so he’d have to find something else to do in Kichijoji in the meantime.
“Hmm… I suppose billiards would be a worthwhile way to…” He trailed off as he noticed a man, not too far down the street, seeming to scan the environment around him, curiously stroking his chin while he did so. “It… It can’t be?”
He had to know for certain, this man couldn’t really be standing here could he? Part of Akechi suspected this was some absurd bait to lure him into a trap, but that made even less sense than the rest of this situation. Besides, if they were going to try and assassinate him, it wouldn’t be in the open streets like this, far too many people around. Deciding that he had been cautious enough, he approached the man, and not being able to fully hide the uncertainty in his voice, spoke to him.
“Okumura-san?”
“Hm?” Kunikazu Okumura examined the boy curiously, before realization struck. “Ah, you’re Akechi-san, correct?”
Akechi raised a suspicious eyebrow at him.
“Correct.”
He nodded, seeming rather proud that he remembered.
“Ah yes, you’ve been there for some of my meetings with Shido-san, if I remember correctly.” He shook his head. “I heard the news though, who knew such awful things were going on behind the scenes?”
Akechi glared at him; Okumura was directly involved in those ‘awful things’, ordering more than one hit on a business competitor, so for him to talk about it like it had nothing to do with him…
“Oh, you’ll have to forgive me. I’ve been rather out of the loop for a while. Remind me, what were these ‘awful things’?”
He noticed Okumura briefly raise his hand as if to rub his head, before blinking hard and returning to a neutral expression.
“Well let’s not worry about that. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Help me?”
“Because if it’s not urgent, could it wait until later? I’m actually going to be meeting up with my daughter soon.”
“Is that so…?”
Okumura nodded, a proud smile spreading across his face.
“She’s talked to me about her dream of running her own café, serving meals cooked with her vegetables she grew herself no less. Ha, she’s keeping the humble roots of Okumura foods alive better than I ever could. I want to see her succeed, so I’m helping her find a good location.”
“I see… You seem rather happy about it all.”
“Well of course, I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Don’t misunderstand me, it all sounds rather… lovely.” Akechi huffed. “I’m just worried about how profitable such a venture would be. The appeal is there, but it’s decidedly more niche than Big Bang Burger, for example.”
Okumura let out a good-natured chuckle.
“All good businesses start small. But I’ll be giving her enough funding to get it off the ground at least. I’ll worry about the ‘boring’ parts of running Okumura foods, I can rest easy she’s focusing on the true heart of what our company should be about: pouring her heart into making delicious food, and wanting to bring joy to others.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “Her mother would be proud.”
“Uh-huh.” Akechi exhaled through his nose, considering. “Well far be it for me to keep you from your family bonding, I just wanted to congratulate you on your… recovery.”
“Recovery?”
“What happened at the press conference, it was rather frightful, I can only imagine how painful it must have been for you, so I’m glad to see you no worse for wear.”
Okumura stared at him blankly for a while, before bringing his hand up to his face, freezing with an expression equal parts confused, fearful, and guilty. He shook his head, facing Akechi once more.
“I’m waiting for my daughter. Perhaps we can speak another time.”
Akechi sighed.
“I have my doubts about that. Have a nice day Okumura-san.” And he walked away without another word, disappearing around a corner, waiting a few moments, then peeking back out at him. “This bears further investigation…” He muttered to himself. “What the hell is going on?”
~ ~ ~
Much of Akechi’s career as a ‘detective’ had consisting of him ‘solving’ cases he himself caused. Cause a mental shut-down or make someone go berserk through the metaverse, solve the mystery in the real world as the second detective prince, then act humble for the media; and job’s a good ‘un, as some might say.
However the solutions he provided would still have to be convincing, he couldn’t just make up any old explanation and expect no one to get suspicious. He had to think of ways a real detective would solve such a case, and present that to the police and/ or media. Ironically enough the most convincing way to fake being a good detective was to just be a good detective.
So the next couple hours were spent putting those skills to the test gathering intel. Obviously the best place to start was online; setting himself up in the opening of an alleyway- public enough so he could multitask and listen to people’s conversations while browsing, but discreet enough where he wouldn’t draw too much attention or look out of place apparently flicking through his phone.
A quick search for “Okumura”, “Okumura press conference” and “Okumura death” yielded no helpful results; the footage- and all discussion related to it- had seemingly vanished, as if it had never happened.
Other resent tragedies, such as the crimes committed by Kamoshida and Madarame also seemed to have disappeared; in fact the latter seemed to be actively supporting the art careers of both his current and former students. The accounts of businessmen and public figures that Akechi killed himself seemed to be actively posting; the grieving of family members had similarly been scrubbed from the web.
No matter where he looked on social media it seemed to be good news. Celebrities he had happened to learn about through his own TV appearances were casually talking about family members they had definitely lost. Failed stars and starlets had suddenly turned their lives around and ‘hit the big time’. No-names and no-talents were being pushed to the forefront and heaped with praise by the establishment… though to be fair that last part was normal.
Needless to say there were no explanations for what was happening beyond supernatural ones. Either Akechi had fallen into an alternate timeline during his interrogation (which honestly, he couldn’t rule out entirely given how weird life had gotten since he awoke to his persona), or something was utilizing the metaverse to make these changes somehow.
The Metanav had vanished from his phone, leaving him powerless to enter the metaverse and check himself- not that he’d know where to look; Mementos was a big place after all, and that was assuming there was no palace involved, which considering the scale of all the changes felt pretty inevitable.
As much as he had hoped to avoid a reunion with the thieves, he knew he couldn’t tackle something this big without help, and not having access to any of Shido’s support network left him with no other options.
Thus, he sought out Ren Amamiya. He was the best place to start, for as much as Akechi loathed to admit it, he seemed like the most level-headed of the thieves; if anyone else could tell something was wrong, it’d be him. If not him, then his second choice would be Makoto, though getting close to her may also mean meeting Sae, which could be awkward if she’s not been properly informed of his release.
Thankfully finding Ren had been easy, simply a matter of heading to Leblanc café. Better yet, he seemed unaffected by all these changes to reality, and was open to cooperation. The two discussed their experiences thus far and their plan for investigation.
“…It does raise the question as to whether this is the real Okumura, or just a fake created to satisfy Haru-san’s own wishes of a positive relationship with her father.”
“Hmm… if it’s changing cognitions that leads to all of this, then that would make sense. That would mean he’s only here because Haru is currently under control and…”
“…Amamiya-san?”
“…if she’s under control, and her cognition was changed to repair their relationship… then…”
“Don’t suddenly trail off Amamiya-san, we’re supposed to be figuring this out together.”
“Wh…what if…”
Akechi watched as Ren began frantically searching through his pockets for something, visibly starting to panic.
“Where is it?”
“What is wrong with you?”
Ren’s eyes went wide.
“My bed!” And with that he turned on his heel and sprinted back through the door to Leblanc with true desperation clear in his movement.
“Amamiya-san!” Akechi called after him, but was ignored. “What’s gotten into him? Now’s not the time to freak out.” He groaned, rubbing his face in frustration before begrudgingly following after him.
He entered the café, seeing a shocked-looking Sojiro looking in the direction of the stairs, then turning to him.
“Akechi-san, did something happen?”
Akechi shrugged, before calmly making his way to the stairs and up into Ren’s room, where he found the boy sat on his bed, blankly staring at his phone.
“Oh.”
“Amamiya-san, care to let me in on what exactly you’re freaking out about?”
Ren didn’t respond, not taking his eyes off his phone.
“We’re supposed to be cooperating, I can’t exactly help if you don’t talk to me.”
Ren blinked, before dropping his phone on the bed, and letting out a heavy sigh.
“It’s fine.”
“That’s what you do when everything’s fine, huh?”
“Look Akechi…” Ren spoke harshly, breathing deeply, clearly holding himself back. “…Could we continue this discussion tomorrow?”
“Why tomorrow? Are you sure it’s wise to be wasting time?” Akechi sneered. “As much as you like to pretend, you’re not stupid. You’re clearly upset about something, ‘it’s fine’ is the most unconvincing lie ever told, and you’re smart enough to know sitting around by yourself, wallowing in self-pity isn’t going to solve whatever problem is bothering you.”
“I know.” Ren grumbled bitterly. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Akechi shrugged.
“I guess I won’t then. But I will worry about all these cognitive reality shifts, and I’d hope that you would too.”
“I KNOW! We can… we can talk tomorrow, alright? Kindly fuck off until then. Just… just leave me alone.”
Akechi glared at him for a while longer, before rolling his eyes.
“Alright, alright. I’ll find us somewhere safe to meet up and text you the address.”
“Fine…”
Akechi sighed and started making his way back downstairs, pausing when he heard Ren’s phone ring, subtly watching him rush to answer it out of the corner of his eye.
“Y-Yes?!”
…
“Oh, it’s you Makoto, I thought maybe… n-nevermind. Are you okay?”
Akechi didn’t care to listen in any further; depressed people were already such a fucking pain to deal with, relationship drama sounded even less appealing. He left the café without so much as a word to Sojiro, and huffed to himself now that he stood alone in the street once again; there was little to do today but simply head back to the dorm and wait for tomorrow.
~ ~ ~
Akechi decided he’d walk back home that day, the movement helped him contemplate, to better consider how to actually go about finding the one responsible for all these changes. Without the nav things were going to be difficult, getting it back would be a necessity, but until then all he could do was try to figure out their identity; best case scenario it’ll be as simple as assassinating a palace ruler and returning everything to normal that way.
As he walked he found himself passing through Odaiba, a relatively quiet area- by the standard of Tokyo at least- especially this time of day. He looked to the construction site on his right, scoffing.
“Wow, they still haven’t done anything with this? Must be nice to be able to afford such procrastination.”
He paused when he noticed a girl standing out the front of the unfinished stadium.
“Rather odd for a girl to be alone this late in the evening, especially here of all places. Wait… if memory serves, that would be Yoshizawa-san; ‘Kasumi’ as she’s been calling herself.” He chuckled lightly to himself. “I ran into her here before, didn’t I? Quite the coincidence.”
He watched her a while, she didn’t seem to notice him… though, she didn’t seem to notice much of anything. She just stared at the stadium, nearly unblinking, her lips parted- as if in a trance, very slowly swaying from side-to-side, as if blind to the world around her, and absolutely entranced by the building in front of her.
“Deep in thought perhaps? I suppose it would be none of my business, but…” He peered over at the stadium for a while. “I remember well what I saw in there before. If she’s being drawn here, that could only mean…”
His curiosity piqued; he approached the girl. Clearing his throat, he spoke in is friendly ‘celebrity detective’ tone.
“Fancy meeting you here Yoshizawa-san! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“…”
“Hm?” Akechi examined the girl, she kept staring blankly forwards, her lips moving almost imperceptibly. “Yoshizawa-san?”
“…”
Akechi waved his hand in front of her face- nothing. He snapped his fingers a few times, and only then did she seem to come back to the world of the living.
“Wh-huh? What is… where—”
“Are you quite alright Yoshizawa-san? To say you seem ‘out of it’ would be an understatement.”
“Huh?” Kasumi shook her head, before staring at Akechi through narrow eyes as if trying to figure out what she was even looking at. Eventually she rubbed her eyes, and smiled at him. “Oh, Akechi-kun. Sorry, I got the urge to come here and… and think. I must have spaced out.”
“I’ll say. Isn’t it rather late to be out here?”
Kasumi looked up at the darkening sky.
“I didn’t even notice. Maybe I should be getting home.”
“I’d think so, but before you go—”
Kasumi tilted her head.
“Hm?”
“Forgive me if I’m overstepping, but what exactly were you thinking about?”
“What do you mean?”
“Something must be weighing heavily on your mind for you to come all the way out here. Are you still suffering from your rut?”
Kasumi suddenly looked rather proud.
“Actually I’ve just gotten out of it!”
Akechi’s brow raised.
“Really? Oh, my apologies. Perhaps I shouldn’t sound so surprised.”
“Oh it’s okay, I’m not offended. I was stuck that way for such a long time. But I woke up today feeling better than ever! The heavy haze over me just up and faded away. I’m able to move much more confidently now. My coach is telling me my performances are better than ever!”
“I see. Well that’s wonderful to hea—”
“YES SHE DID SAY THAT!”
Akechi recoiled slightly at the girl’s sudden outburst. Though looking at her closely, he could tell she wasn’t looking at him, rather past- or even through him. He turned to see if anyone was standing behind him, but as far as he could tell they were alone.
“H-huh?” Kasumi blinked a few times, as if suddenly pulled back to reality. “O-oh, sorry that was just… um…” Her expression suddenly sharpened, and she turned back towards the stadium. “JUST SHUT UP!”
“Yoshizawa-san?”
“I’m okay.” Yoshizawa put her hand up between the two of them, taking a calming breath through her nose. “It’s really nothing to worry about.”
“Not you too.” He grumbled under his breath, before talking to her properly again, though he dropped the ‘friendly’ act. “Yoshizawa-san, if you’re screaming obscenities at the open air, I’d call that something to worry about.”
“No, really Akechi-kun, I promise I’m okay. Just sometimes I… I um… please… please stop it…”
“It’s okay, you can just tell me the—”
“STOP IT!” She squatted down on the pavement, clutching her ears and screaming. “STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!”
Akechi recoiled slightly, looking around to see if anyone could see or hear them, this would look really bad for him if someone came along right now. He reached down, grabbed her shoulders and forcefully stood her upright, before firmly slapping her across the cheek. She stopped shouting, instead staring back at Akechi dumbfounded.
“Feeling better?”
“I…” Kasumi blinked a few times. “I think so… a little?”
“Ha, good.” Akechi sighed. “I don’t know what your problem is exactly, but it’s clear you have one, and not a minor one at that.”
“I…” Her shoulders dropped, defeated. “M-maybe I do… but I don’t understand what it is.”
“You were clearly shouting at something, and I get the feeling it wasn’t me.”
Kasumi blushed, feeling rather humiliated right now. Akechi rested his hand on his hip.
“Yoshizawa-san, hiding your problem away and wallowing in your own self-pity isn’t going to do either of us any good.”
“…I guess you’re right. It’s… promise you won’t laugh at me?”
Akechi said nothing, and simply gestured for her to continue.
“…Sometimes I hear this voice… she sounds like me except… really mean.”
“Mean?”
“She keeps telling me I’m worthless, calling me a ‘parasite’ or a ‘doll’.”
“A ‘doll’?” Akechi’s eyebrow raised, as did the corner of his lip- though he tried to hide the latter with his hand. He mumbled “Perhaps my suspicions were on the mark.”
“What?”
“N-nothing. Just thinking aloud. As for this voice, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about, I’ve definitely encountered people with similar issues before.”
“I see… maybe I should bring it up with Dr. Maruki.”
Akechi’s eyes narrowed.
“Takuto Maruki… I suppose it’s good to have someone you can rely on, but…” Suddenly he felt his phone vibrate, he pulled it out- expecting Ren to have perhaps texted him with an important update- but the reality genuinely shocked him. There- right on his phone screen- was the Metanav; the symbol was slightly different, but it was without a doubt the same app he had used all this time. For it to suddenly reappear… he grinned, finally he had a lead, and the beginnings of a plan. “A-as I was saying, Yoshizawa-san. It’s good to have someone you can rely on, but it’s better to have two, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“Forgive me if I’m being too forward, but would you mind awfully if we exchanged contact info?”
“H-HUH?!” Kasumi took a step back, her cheeks rapidly reddening. “Why?”
“I would be interested in helping you, of course.”
“O-oh…” Kasumi exhaled. “I see.”
“I’ve gained a great many contacts throughout my career, and some of them are very knowledgeable about the… problem you may be suffering with. In fact I’m more knowledgeable on it than you’d probably think.”
“Hmm… I suppose it can’t hurt.” They exchanged numbers. “So what exactly do you plan on doing, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Right now- nothing. I need to make some preparations, check a few things before I can take action. But rest assured I’ll give you a call when it’s time to conquer this demon that so troubles you.”
“R-right…” Kasumi gave an unsure smile. “I hope I’m not troubling you by doing this.”
“Don’t worry about that. I have my own reason for caring.”
Kasumi shuffled awkwardly for a while.
“Well, I suppose I better be heading home, my parents are going to worry if I stay out much longer.” She tried her best to look confident. “I’ll wait to hear back from you, but I’ll do my best to deal with it in the meantime, wish me luck?”
Akechi’s expression dropped.
“Saying something like ‘I wish you the very best of luck’ is nothing but a comforting lie, used to convince others that you’re a good person or you actually care about their problems. Instead I’ll tell you- I will help you with this… problem, or end it.”
“What?”
“Like I said- I have my own reasons.” He began to walk past her. “I’ll get in touch soon.”
“R-right…”
He kept walking in the direction of the station, beginning to formulate his plan moving forward, as well as how best to update Ren during their rendezvous tomorrow. He slowed when he realized there was a distinct lack of a second set of footsteps hitting his ears. He turned around, noticing that Kasumi was still standing in place, looking back at the stadium, tightly clutching her arm.
“Oh for the love of…” He walked back over to her. “Yoshizawa-san.”
“H-HUH? Was there anything else?”
“Do you plan on going home or not?”
“Of course, I was just… just um…”
“Yes yes, I’m sure whatever you were doing was very worthwhile and important. But the last thing any of us need is for you to stay out here alone and get attacked or something. I’ll walk you as far as the station.”
“W-walk me to the station?”
“I’m sure you can just about manage the rest of the way home from there? Because I’m not babysitting you that much.”
“N-no. Obviously I can manage by myself. You don’t need to trouble yourself.”
Akechi eyed her for a few moments.
“You’re getting on my nerves. Stop standing around like a moron and come with me to the station.”
“Oh… sorry…”
“Don’t apologize when someone insults you, that just shows people that you’re easy to manipulate and control.”
“Oh um… what should I do?”
“Tell me to fuck off.”
“O-oh my… But… why?”
“Ugh… This is pointless. Just come to the goddamn station already.”
“R-right!”
Chapter 85: The Phantom Thieves part 1
Summary:
The couple meet with Akechi, and begin their preperations
Notes:
Another case where it was going to be an extra long chapter, but I got to a good stopping point so I'm splitting it into two.
Next part should be out on the weekend assuming nothing weird happens.
Chapter Text
Stepping inside came as a huge relief to Makoto. Her winter gear went a long way towards protecting her extremities, but snow was still a nudist’s worst enemy; the snow was very light- not even settling on the ground, simply melting, but coming out without a coat today was a lapse in judgement for her nonetheless. The feeling of snowflakes gently landing on her exposed torso, or even melting over her exceptionally hard nipples was actually a fairly pleasant sensation, very bracing, though definitely only something she intended to enjoy in very short bursts.
Ren had told her than they’d be meeting up with Akechi here, in a discreet (and very comfortably warm) family restaurant, where the three of them could discuss their plans for dealing with these apparent shifts in reality.
She noticed her boyfriend sat at the table in the corner- a soothing sight, and the back of Akechi’s head at the same table- a decidedly less soothing sight. Ren noticed her immediately, standing up to meet her. His eyes glided across the body, and while the usual lust and admiration were there, there was definitely a look of shock and pity in his eyes too. He had come out in a long coat- his body being much weaker against the elements than hers, his first thought was to take it off and offer it to her to warm up, but his second thought was much better: he quickly undid all the buttons down the front of his coat, and held it open wide. Makoto seemed confused for a second, but her eyes went wide- and her cheeks rather pink- when she realized what his plan was. Part of her was reluctant to play along, but after breaking free of the illusions from yesterday, she frankly needed some intimate affection just like this; not to mention it really was bloody cold today.
She gathered her courage, and stepped into Ren’s arms- pressing her body against his as he wrapped the coat around her, and did all the buttons back up.
“How’s that Mako? Warm?”
“Very much so. Thank you.”
Ren wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly, leaning his face against the top of her head.
“I love you Makoto.”
She really needed this kind of intimate affection right now. Makoto squeezed back just as hard.
“I love you too Ren.”
“I’m really glad I have you with me.”
“I feel exactly the same way…”
“Cough.”
Ren peered over at Akechi.
“Dude did you literally just say the word ‘cough’?”
“My first instinct was to retch but I decided to be considerate. I hope you two haven’t forgotten that we’re here today for a reason.”
“Yeah yeah. C’mon Mako, let’s sit down.”
Makoto huffed.
“Fine, fine. But you’re going to have to let me out of your coat.”
“Hmm… nah.”
“Ren?”
Ren made his way back to his side of the table, the still-trapped Makoto stumbling along with him. He managed to help her turn around while staying within the confines of the coat, and sat down with her now on his lap. What Akechi found himself staring at was his rival sitting opposite him, with his girlfriend’s blushing face popping up and out of the front of his coat collar, like he had grown a second head; God knows what was going on under the table out of his view. He decided to keep his opinions about what he was seeing to himself, and instead try to carry on as if everything was normal.
“So am I right to assume you’re also unaffected by the cognition changes that have been going on Niijima-san?”
Makoto tried her best to look serious, at least as serious as she could be while snuggled up in her boyfriend’s coat.
“All I know is that yesterday I woke up to find my father alive again. Despite knowing that’s impossible, I felt something inside me pushing me to just give in and accept it, that it all ‘made sense’. It tried to silence Anat- crying out to me to resist, and it came close to succeeding…”
“Makoto…” Ren held her from behind.
Akechi pondered.
“So you were affected at first. How strange. I wasn’t affected at all. What about you Amamiya-kun?”
“I’m honestly not sure. There was a point before the new year were it- whatever ‘it’ is- definitely changed things for me. But when I woke up yesterday the changes vanished, and I noticed everyone else suddenly had their cognitions changed.”
Makoto looked up at Ren.
“What changed for you?”
Ren stared off at a random corner of the restaurant.
“Nothing, doesn’t matter really.”
“Ren…”
Akechi continued.
“Do you remember anything happening the night before New Year’s? Anything that might have changed things for you?”
“Not really, no. I do remember having a weird dream, I can’t remember what happened in it exactly.” Ren rubbed his forehead, trying to recall. “I think I was in school… I want to say there was a butterfly… dammit I can’t remember anything else.”
“Hmm…” Akechi held his chin. “It’s not unreasonable to assume the dream had something to do with you breaking free of the illusions. Perhaps influence from your Persona? Or an outside force? Strange how I wasn’t affected at any point…” He smirked at the couple. “Perhaps a simple difference of willpower?”
Makoto tutted at him.
Akechi shrugged.
“Still, you managed to break free, completely under your own power. Good work Niijima-san.”
“You called them ‘illusions’?”
“Hm? Is there an issue with that term Niijima-san?”
“I’m… not sure. It suggests they’re not real, which may be true but… there was a point where my father put his hand on my shoulder, and it felt so real, so warm. I still remember the slight callousing on his fingertips. How do I explain it? It’s like him being there with me was a lie, but he was definitely real… if that makes any sense…”
“That doesn’t rule out ‘illusions’, but it does confirm the changing in cognitions isn’t limited to our eyes and ears. How ‘real’ those who have been revived are is still unknown.”
Makoto’s brow furrowed.
“Who else has been ‘revived’?”
“Among our friends—” Ren began. “—Futaba’s mom and Haru’s dad.”
“I… I see…”
“Mako?”
“It’s just that… the moment I acknowledged that it was all a lie, he vanished. Sis- who had been sitting with him mere minutes ago- walked in the room like nothing was amiss, like he was never there to begin with.”
“Makoto, I—”
“If we help the others, they’re going to lose their parents again too…”
“That’s… yeah…”
“Niijima-san. You said your sister was no longer affected by the cognition changes once you ‘broke free’?”
She nodded.
“The three of us had been watching a movie together minutes earlier. When she came into my room to see me, she was under the belief that only the two of us had been watching it together.”
“Interesting. Perhaps being persona users gives us some kind of extra priority in deciding what illusions take hold of the world.” Akechi smirked. “That’s rather reassuring, actually; perhaps the cards in our hand are better than we realized. Amamiya-san, that café owner, I assume he’s not batted an eye at the revival of Wakaba?”
“Nah, he’s acting as if she’s always been there.”
“I see. So if my hypothesis is correct, Futaba-san breaking free would erase her for both herself and him, but only Futaba herself would be aware the change happened to begin with.”
“To lose them again…” Ren let out a long, weary sigh. “I suppose we couldn’t really blame everyone if they preferred this new world to the old one.”
“I… I know what you mean.” Makoto looked up to her boyfriend, a fierce, determined expression on her face. “But they haven’t chosen it. I didn’t ask to have my father back, it was just thrust upon me without my consent. I… I was tempted by it of course, but I chose the truth instead. That’s what my father would have wanted me to choose.”
Ren smiled warmly, resting his hand on Makoto’s lap.
“Right. The others need the chance to make that decision knowingly. If they decide to go back then that’s their right, but I trust in them all to make the right decision.”
Akechi peered at the two of them over the top of his arched fingers.
“So you intend to reunite the rest of the phantom thieves?”
“Is that going to be a problem, man?”
“Certainly not. On the contrary. Whoever- or whatever- our opponent may be. They have the power to project their desired cognitions onto reality, through the minds of the populace. It’s very likely that they have power at least comparable to Yaldabaoth. We need all the manpower we can muster. And besides—” He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and showing it to the couple with a smug look on his face. “—I already have a lead, and we’re definitely going to need persona users.”
Makoto leaned forward, pulling Ren along with her.
“That’s the nav! I think? It looks a little different however.”
“It definitely seems to be the nav we all know and love though. It appeared on my phone while I was outside the construction site in Odaiba. You’ll likely get it back when you visit the same location. Once you’ve gathered your friends or whatever, we can investigate the palace there.”
“So there’s a palace? How is that possible? I thought we erased the metaverse?”
Akechi shrugged.
“Evidently not. This is a palace I had visited prior to our… last attempt at cooperation.”
“And you never told us?”
“Why the hell would I? I was trying to kill you back then, why would I tell you about a palace that didn’t even factor into my plans?”
“Hmm…” Ren’s brow furrowed. “There were probably tons of palaces we never knew about- probably no one ever knew about. The palaces we did have to deal with took up the whole year, there was no time to look into any other palaces.”
“Did you know about any others Ren?”
“I mean you already know I entered random names into the nav when I was bored, and I would get hits from time to time, but yeah- we never had any time for that. From Futaba’s palace onwards it was just relentless.”
“No kidding.” Makoto looked back to Akechi. “Have you investigated the palace any?”
“Not since last year, no. And it was still ‘under construction’ then.”
“Then we’ll start our investigation there. Just give us some time to reach out to our friends first.”
“Very well. I have my own preparations to make anyway.” Akechi rose from his seat. “Time is of the essence however, so don’t keep me waiting too long.”
“See you later Akechi.” Ren watched him as he left without another word, heading back out into the cold winter air, leaving the couple by themselves. “Are you okay Makoto?”
“Yeah…” Makoto shuffled underneath the coat, swinging herself around so she could lean her side into his front, closing her eyes as she listened to his heartbeat. “Losing him again did hurt, but… in a way I’m glad.”
“How so?”
“I don’t regret choosing the truth over the fantasy, but I’m glad I got to experience it for a short while at least. It gave me enough time to tell him that I’m going to be okay. He doesn’t need to worry. I’ve chosen my path, I have a strong support network, and I can make him proud.”
Ren gently stroked her hair.
“You’re amazing Makoto. I’m so lucky to have someone as strong as you on my side.”
“You’re plenty strong yourself. But Akechi’s right about one thing- time is of the essence.” She shot a determined smile up at him. “Let’s go remind everyone else how strong they can be too.”
“I love you.”
Makoto chuckled warmly, before standing up… or trying to at least, struggling against the inner confines of Ren’s coat- unable to get her arms free.
“R-Ren…”
“Want me to let you out?”
She sunk further below the coat’s neckline, hoping to hide her face- now glowing red.
“Yes please. If you would.”
~ ~ ~
“THAT’S Morgana?” Makoto peered through the glass at the entrance to café Leblanc, at the unfamiliar nudist sat at the counter, trying to look classy sipping his coffee, but visibly recoiling at the taste.
“Yeah, I guess the core change to his cognition is his physical species.” Ren watched alongside her as Morgana tried to sip his coffee again, only to get the exact same result. “I got a real fright when I woke up with him on top of me on New Year’s morning.”
Makoto snorted, caught off guard by the mental image, which had the effect of alerting Morgana to their presence. He gave them a strange look, no doubt wondering what they were doing spying on him from outside. Thinking fast, the couple entered the café- pretending they had been coming in all along.
“Ah, hello um… Morgana?”
“Heya Queen, Joker. What are you two doing?”
“Oh nothing really, I was just gonna make some coffee for Makoto.”
“Ah, I see.” Morgana nodded. “It really helps warm you up. Now if only I could get over how bitter it is…”
Makoto- with some visible trepidation- took the seat two spaces down from Morgana, while her boyfriend made his way behind the counter.
“I’m not sure cats are supposed to drink coffee…”
Morgana gave her a confused look.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well it’s just… n-nevermind.”
Makoto sat facing forward in awkward silence a while, trying to think of how to broach the subject. The couple had agreed that just telling their friends outright that they were currently trapped in a dream- of sorts- would be too risky. There’s no telling what kind of effect the shock would have on them, or if the illusion was something they could be forced out of to begin with. Instead they decided that it would be best to gently coax them out, so they come to the realization themselves.
Though as to exactly how they were going to do that, they weren’t sure.
Makoto was brought back out of her thoughts when Ren placed a mug of coffee down in front of her. Taking comfort in his supportive smile, she gently lifted the mug, bringing it to her lips, and let out a sigh of relief as she felt the warmth from the drink spread throughout her body.
“You’re right Morgana, it really is great for staying warm. Thank you, Ren.”
Ren tried not to look to proud of himself, he had more important things to focus on.
“So where’s boss, he around?”
Morgana shook his head.
“He stepped outside, I told him I’d keep an eye on things for a little while.” He suddenly shivered, rubbing his arms. “God it’s so cold… I don’t know how you deal with it Queen.”
Makoto shrugged.
“I’ve been nudist a while. My body has just adapted to regulate temperature better.”
“But I’ve been nudist even longer than you have!”
Ren paused in thought a while.
“Huh… I guess that’s technically true.” He smirked. “Though you did have more covering until recently.”
“What? More… Now that you mention it, the feeling of air against my skin still feels really… unfamiliar.”
Makoto eyed him sympathetically.
“Do you remember how you became a nudist? Since you’re not a student of Shujin or Kosei, you couldn’t have joined the program- not normally at least.”
“That’s…” Morgana’s brow furrowed, he was clearly giving himself a headache trying to recall. “AH! Futaba!”
“What about her?”
“She put my name on the list for me.”
“But, you said you’ve been nudist longer than I have. We never met Futaba until… about a month after I joined the team.”
“Oh yeah… Ha. It feels like such a long time ago now.” He chuckled to himself. “We really would have been in trouble without her, we didn’t have any other way of dealing with Medjed, and…” He trailed off. “What am I talking about? Who is Medjed?”
“C’mon man. You’re getting closer…”
“Hm? Did you say something Joker?”
“Just mumbling to myself.” Ren paused for a moment, before suddenly snorting. “I remember the day she woke up. We ended up having to clean her room while she was busy hacking or whatever.”
“Don’t remind me. I ended up getting buried in her shorts and panties…”
Makoto blinked a few times in shock, discreetly leaning over towards Ren.
“What on earth?”
He whispered back.
“D-don’t worry about it, I’ll tell you later.”
“…God knows how long it’d been since they were cleaned. I still have nightmares.” He smiled weakly at Ren. “I hope you didn’t think I was being lazy that day. I would have liked to help clean more, but couldn’t because of my…” He trailed off again, reaching up to rub his forehead, clearly in pain. “Why do I remember being… small?”
Ren subtly leant forward, hopeful.
“Keep thinking man.”
“Keep thinking? What do you mean?” Morgana rubbed harder. “It does feel like I’m on the cusp of something, but…”
“Are you scared?”
“Q-Queen?”
She leant forward, putting her hand on his.
“I understand, I was scared of letting go too. You feel like if you face it head on, you’ll lose it.”
“L…lose it?”
“And in a sense… I suppose you would. So please, don’t force yourself if you don’t want to.” She took a deep breath, looking to Ren for support, who nodded back to her, giving her the confidence to continue. “This is your choice to make, but make sure you chose the path you really want.”
“What I want…”
“Know that we’ll accept you for who you are regardless, okay?”
“She’s right.” Ren put his hand on his shoulder. “I haven’t said it outright yet, so I’ll say it now. I’m really thankful for all the support you’ve given me over the year; so if you need me to support you, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?”
“Joker…”
Ren chuckled.
“That’s another thing I need to thank you for. I’ve always really digged the codename ‘Joker’.”
Morgana stared back at him a while, then at Makoto, before standing up- pulling away from them and turning towards the stairs.
“I um… think I might need some time to think… I um…”
“We understand.” Makoto nodded. “Please, take all the time you need.”
“Thank you.” Morgana nodded, before heading upstairs and out of sight.
The couple turned to eachother, Makoto drinking her coffee in contemplative silence. Ren opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the entrance bell. Sojiro had returned, groceries in hand.
“Ah, you’re here Kid. Thought you’d be out for the day.”
“We technically are Boss. Just running some errands with Makoto, but we took a detour back here for some coffee.”
“Hmm…” Sojiro eyes Makoto’s coffee mug, gently sniffing the air. “Smells right at least, I’d have to taste it to properly grade how you’ve improved, but I’d never steal a drink from a lady.”
“Remind me to make one for you later Boss.”
Makoto laughed awkwardly, quickly finishing her mug.
“I’d love to talk, but we really did just stop for a quick drink.” She got up from her seat and grabbed her bag. “We better get moving.”
“Yeah I guess so. Still got to talk to the others.” Ren hung up his apron, and made his way over to the table where he left his bag. “We’ll see you later Boss.”
“WAIT!”
A voice called out, everyone turning to see a small, black blur rush down the stairs, over to them, hopping up onto the table, and climbing into Ren’s bag, finally popping his head back out the gap.
“I better come with you!”
“Morgana?”
Morgana gave them a determined look.
“I’ve thought enough, the answer is obvious. Something weird is going on- and it’s not my style to run away from my duties as a gentleman thief!”
Ren laughed.
“It’s good to have you back man.”
“I didn’t go anywhere.” He grinned at Makoto. “You may be his partner, but I’m his partner! Of course I have to be there when we’re… doing whatever it is we’re doing.”
“We’ll catch you up on the way.”
Morgana nodded, though as the moments passed his head began to droop slightly, his ears folded down.
“Though I have to admit, losing my handsome human body does suck…”
“Morgana…”
“I’m not giving up on becoming human! But however it happened this time… clearly isn’t right.”
Makoto exhaled.
“If it’s any consolation, and at the risk of making Ren jealous…” She reached out to gently pet the notcat’s head. “I think you’re plenty handsome like this.”
“Q…Queen?”
Ren would have smiled, but was rather annoyed at how Sojiro was laughing at him right now.
“Careful now kid. Your cat might steal your girl.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Despite her words, Makoto couldn’t help but laugh a little herself. “Come on you two, let’s head out.”
Ren huffed, trying to ignore the laughter, lifting the Mona-bag up onto his shoulder.
“Right, let’s go.”
Chapter 86: The Phantom Thieves part 2
Summary:
We need to help them all break free
Chapter Text
“Hm…” Shiho held the red dress out in front of her. “What do you think of this one Ann?”
Ann was too busy spacing out to reply. Shiho noticed her staring intently down at the ground in front of her, mumbling something to herself.
“Recovery…?”
Shiho, holding the dress underneath her arm, silently approached Ann from behind; she very gently lifted the tips of her twintails, and in one swift movement- folded them over the blonde’s face, effectively blindfolding her, successfully startling her out of her daze.
“What the—Shiho! What was that for?”
“You weren’t paying attention. You looked like you were giving yourself a headache, are you okay?”
“Y-yeah. I’m fine… just…” Ann’s brow furrowed. “Your dad’s new job…”
“What about it?”
“Are you… no, nevermind.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, my brain was just going to weird places I guess.”
“Hmm…” Shiho shrugged, holding out the dress once more. “Anyway, what do you think of this one? I think it’d suit you.”
“Oh? I dunno, I’m not really the dress-wearing type unless it’s for a modelling gig.”
“That’s why I think this’d be a nice way to mix it up for you! It’s in your color!”
“I guess so…” Ann reached out to feel the material. “Though it feels a little thin, rather short too, probably more of a summer thing than the middle of winter. I’d have to find some tights to go with it too…” She examined the dress a while longer, eventually looking up to see Shiho’s eyebrows raised expectantly, a hopeful smile on her face that she couldn’t help but find adorable. “Oh alright, fine. I’ll buy it.”
“Nice!” Shiho shoved the dress into Ann’s hands. “There’s got to be a changing room around here somewhere… oh- isn’t that Amamiya-kun?”
“Huh?”
Ann followed Shiho’s line of sight, spotting Ren emerging from the crowd; one hand supporting his Mona-bag, the other firmly holding onto Makoto’s, making sure there was no chance of the nudist being lost in the crowd. Shiho recoiled slightly at the sight of Makoto; this was of course the first time she had seen her since she was a student of Shujin- and more importantly- she had never actually seen her as a nudist in person before.
She had her winter gear on of course: gloves, boots, hat, and scarf; but almost her entire body was still exposed. Most notably the hardest pair of nipples Shiho had ever seen in her life; they were currently commanding Shiho’s attention quite effectively as the breasts they were attached to subtly bounced while the couple approached them, after Ren had spotted them of course.
“Oh my…”
“Heya Ann, Suzui-san.” Ren smiled at the pair, but if one looked closely they would tell it was rather… strained, and didn’t reach his eyes. Makoto’s face told a similar story, and Morgana was notably still hidden away inside Ren’s bag, not coming out to greet his ‘Lady Ann’.
“I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced, Suzui-san.” Makoto bowed to the girl, still trying not to ogle her too closely. “I’m Makoto Niijima, I’m friends with Ann.”
Shiho tore her eyes way from her chest and managed to make eye contact.
“Ah yes, Niijima-san. Ann would tell me about you sometimes. It’s nice to put some breasts to the name… FACE! A face to the name.” Shiho cleared her throat and desperately tried to act natural, as if nothing had happened.
Makoto sighed- moreso at Ren snickering than Shiho’s mistake- and just moved on.
“It looks like you’re doing well.”
“Yes, I’m feeling very well, it’s been lonely moving away but visiting Ann like this has been healing.”
The blonde blushed, swaying in place slightly under Shiho’s gaze.
Ren and Makoto exchanged a discreet glance, nodding to eachother, before Ren turned back to Ann.
“Yeah it must have been difficult finding time for you to visit her, it’s been one hell of a busy year.”
“Oh god, no kidding. It’s been exhausting.”
Shiho hummed.
“Balancing school and your modelling career must be tough.”
“I mean yeah- that too, but that wasn’t as bad as… as um…”
“Ann?”
“Why does my head hurt so much?”
“Your head?”
Ann shook her head, forcing a smile.
“Yeah school and modelling- that’s been draining me for sure.”
Shiho eyed her with an unsure look, sighing before giving her a supportive look.
“Well regardless you’ve been working really hard, you should be proud of yourself.”
“Nah. You’ve been working way harder than I have. With…” She suddenly stood up straight, spinning around and grabbing a dress not unlike the one she was already holding, offering it to Shiho. “How about this? This is your color!”
“I’m not sure I even have a color.”
“Blue would suit you though, right?”
Shiho pondered a smile, before smirking at her.
“And here I thought you’d want us to match?”
“M-match?!”
“Ah, you see? The color of your face is now ‘your color’ too.”
“Shiho…” Ann whined.
Shiho turned to the couple.
“Please excuse me, I can’t help but tease her.”
Ren laughed.
“We should exchange notes sometime.”
Rather than take the dress Ann was offering her, Shiho picked up a duplicate of the red one she had already picked out for her, smirking over her shoulder.
“I’m going to head to the changing room to try this on. You can try yours afterwards and we’ll see how we look side by side, okay?”
Ann, visibly flustered by the idea, nodded, and watched as Shiho trotted over to the changing room, disappearing behind the curtain.
“You two make a good couple.”
“Don’t you tease me too Ren!” Ann stomped her foot, even Makoto couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of Ann getting flustered like this. Though a sense of unease still hung in the air around them all; Ann staring listlessly down at the floor.
Makoto stepped forward, Ann didn’t lift her head. The nudist took another step towards her, and gently wrapped her arms around the girl, taking her by surprise.
“Makoto? What are you doing?”
“It’s okay to be scared.”
Ann tensed up.
“You mean you… I mean- what are you talking about?”
“Shiho is lucky to have someone as strong and supportive as you in her corner. I’ve…” Makoto tightened her grip. “Despite everything, I’ve not been able to shake this feeling of guilt for what happened, for the fact that I did nothing. Part of me has always worried about her, worried about the consequences for my failure.”
“But it wasn’t your fault… what wasn’t your fault… huh?” The pain in Ann’s head intensified.
“I just… sorry, this isn’t about me.” Makoto kept her hands on Ann’s shoulders, but pulled away enough to make eye contact. “The point I wanted to get at is that… that seeing you together is just so reassuring, such an immense relief. Seeing you two together… it’s made me realize that she’s going to be okay, that she can live a normal, happy life, in large part thanks to you.” She stepped away. “I can rest a little easier now.”
“Makoto…” Ann shook her head. “Please don’t give me credit for that, she’s just strong by herself, I haven’t done anything for her.”
“You’re just like Ren… Please don’t downplay how much strength you give her by being so supportive.”
“I guess… She’s the strongest person I’ve ever met, even after what happened…” Ann suddenly tensed up, she let the dresses drop to the ground, rushed over to the changing room, and pulled back the curtain to reveal the empty changing room. Scrambling, she pulled out her phone and started dialling. After a few agonizing moments of suspense, she heard her pick up.
“Hello Ann, are you okay?”
“Shiho!” Ann tried not to sound too distressed. “Where are you right now?”
“Huh? I’m at home, I was just about to sit down for lunch with my parents. Is everything okay?”
Ann’s breath briefly caught in her throat before she was able to speak.
“Y-yeah, everything’s okay. I just… I wanted to say I miss you.”
“O-oh?” Ann could tell just by the sound Shiho made that she was smiling right now. “Thank you, I’m missing you too. I was just thinking of you as a matter of fact.”
“I… I won’t keep you if you’re about to have lunch, but I’m gonna try and visit real soon, okay? I’m not sure exactly when I’ll be able to, but soon, alright?”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
“In fact.” Ann looked over to her friends, politely waiting for her in the middle of the store, picking up the dresses she had dropped. “I’d like to introduce you to everyone. You already know Ryuji and Ren, but you should meet Makoto and the others.”
“Niijima-san? But weren’t we talking just a moment ago—” Shiho paused a moment. “Nevermind, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I must be a little out of sorts today.”
Ann wasn’t crying, and she was desperately struggling to keep it that way.
“Don’t worry about it. Anyway I’ll let you go so you can eat, but I’ll call you later tonight, okay?”
“Sounds good Ann, talk to you later.”
“Later… I lo…”
“Ann?”
“N-nothing, I just coughed.”
“No you di—”
“I’ll call you later okay bye!” Ann quickly hung up. She let out a heavy sigh as she slid her phone back into her pocket, and returned to her friends. “I’m sorry about that.”
Morgana finally poked the top of his body out of the bag.
“You have nothing to apologize for Lady Ann. You really are strong.”
“Whatever.” Ann rubbed her eyes. “So what’s going on? What was that?”
“We’ll explain what we know so far on the way.”
“On the way where Ren?”
“To the others, they need our help too.”
Ann put on her most determined face and nodded.
“Okay, if the others are stuck in dreams or whatever the hell that was too, and you’re helping them, then count me in. But first…” Ann took her red dress from Makoto, then grabbed a matching one from the hangers. “I’m going to buy these, gonna give one to Shiho has a gift next time I visit.”
Makoto smiled warmly.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea.”
“Oh um, Lady Ann?”
“Morgana?”
“I… uh…” Morgana bashfully looked away. “I don’t know if it would help at all, but when you visit Shiho, can I come with you?”
“Hm? I mean that’s fine but, why?”
“I was just thinking I could maybe… y’know… try playing ‘therapy cat’ for her.”
“For real?” Ann covered her mouth with her hand in surprise. “But I thought—”
“I’m not a cat!” Morgana said defiantly, before gradually shrinking in on himself again. “Well… I kinda am, for now- point is I’m not giving up on becoming human! But I figured… while I am in this form, it wouldn’t hurt to play the part if it would help someone you really care about…”
Ann stared blankly for a while, before reaching out and gently scratching behind his ears.
“Thanks Mona. If you’d be willing, I’m sure she’d love that. I’ll owe you one.”
Another reason Morgana was grateful for his feline body was the fact that no one would tell when he was blushing.
“Anything for you Lady Ann.”
Makoto leant over and whispered to Ren.
“That’s actually a really nice idea.”
“Yeah.” Ren nodded. “I wonder where he got it from.”
~ ~ ~
“It’s been a while since we’ve been here, huh?” Ann mused as she stood with the rest of the group outside of Madarame’s workshop. “You think he’s here?”
“I texted him earlier.” Ren scanned the front of the building, it looked like it hadn’t even been touched in the months since their last visit. “Yusuke said he’s spending today putting the finishing touches on his collaborative painting with his ‘Sensei’ here.”
“So this used to be a palace?” Makoto asked.
“Yup, an art museum. A definite contender for prettiest palace, you should have seen it.” Ren looked over to Ann. “It’s a good thing we have Makoto with us this time, there’s no need for us to ask you to model naked this time.”
“You’re a dick, Ren.”
Makoto decided to ignore them, and rang the doorbell. A minute or so of silence passed by, so Makoto rang the bell again.
“Are you sure he’s still in, Ren?”
“I mean he said so in his text, but I wouldn’t put it past him to just wander off without telling anyone.”
“He could just be in the bathroom.” Ann wondered aloud.
Moments later movement could be heard; footsteps echoing through the old, creaky shack, approaching the door at a slow, but steady pace. Makoto stepped back, and the door swung open to reveal Ichiryusai Madarame.
“Hm? And who might you be?” His eyes fell on Ann. “Oh wait, I know you. You’re Yusuke’s friend, aren’t you?”
“Huh?” Ann tilted her head. “You remember me?”
“You’re the one who agreed to model for him, correct?” He chuckled to himself. “Though I suppose you never actually got that far in the end, thanks to me interrupting you two. I didn’t get the chance to say sorry at the time, so please accept my apologies now instead.”
“That’s uh…” Ann tried to suppress her blushing and annoyed grumbling both. “Sure, that’s okay I guess… Madarame-san.”
“I can only assume the rest of you know Yusuke too?”
Ren nodded.
“Yeah, we were hoping to talk with him today, is he in?”
“He is, though we’re both quite absorbed in our current proje—”
“Let them in.”
“Hm?” Madarame turned around, noticing Yusuke standing behind him. “Are you certain?”
“Yes Sensei, I knew they were coming over, they messaged me earlier.” He smiled at his friends. “I’d actually appreciate their input on the painting, if it’s not a bother to you?”
“Certainly not, Yusuke.” Madarame stepped aside to allow everyone in. “Please, make yourselves at home.”
The group exchanged a few glances, before stepping inside.
“I’m surprised by the lack of a reaction to Makoto…” Ren mumbled when he thought Madarame wouldn’t hear him, though evidently he underestimated the old man’s sense of hearing, as he responded by laughing.
“I’m an artist, I’ve been plenty desensitized due to working with nude models over the course of my life. Plus I can assume she’s simply adopted the same lifestyle as Yusuke.”
“Makoto-san is the one who inspired me to begin with.” Yusuke nodded sagely. “Her boundless confidence and ability to draw power and clout from what would usually be a symbol of weakness and degradation has given inspiration to many more than just myself. It drives this act of performance art, and indeed the rest of my artistic pursuits.”
“That’s a bit much…” Makoto averted her eyes.
Yusuke began to turn back towards the stairs.
“Anyway, please follow me. I really would like you all to tell me what you think about what Sensei and I have created.”
“I mean, sure. But Yusuke, we actually came to talk abou—” Ren was cut off when Yusuke silenced him, placing his index finger directly on his lips (a gesture he really wasn’t sure how to feel about, and would honestly worry him had it come from anyone other than Yusuke).
“Please, there’s an order to these things.”
“’These things’?”
Makoto’s question was ignored, the boy instead heading up the stairs, with his mentor close behind. Somewhat reluctantly, the group followed the pair upstairs, though Makoto and Ann couldn’t help but giggle at little at the embarrassed face Ren made as he wiped his lips with his arm, trying to ignore them.
They were led up to Yusuke’s atelier, the very same one they had been brought to upon first meeting him all those months ago. Ann having little in the way of good memories of this place, Yusuke’s expectations of her at the time had seemed like the most unreasonable thing she had ever heard in her life, and in a way they still did. Ryuji’s tactless comment about the threat of “all of Japan seeing her naked” had been a truly chilling thought at the time, but now- having Makoto as a friend almost made her feel like a wimp for backing out like she had. Knowing Yusuke now- far better than she did back then- she would bet that her ‘nude painting’ would probably be a Picasso-esque array of obscure geometric shapes that only vaguely hinted at her actual nude appearance, and she may not have been in the danger she felt she was in in the first place.
If she was asked again now? With all the context of the lifestyles and attitudes she had been exposed to (‘exposed’ being a very apt word to use)… she would still refuse. Having record of her naked body out there for all the world to see wasn’t any more appealing now than it was back then; she’d save that for her exhibitionist friends. Though having gotten to know him better, she wishes she specifically volunteered Ren back then, he probably would have said yes- all things considered.
Of course, they weren’t here to ruminate on the past. A large easel and canvas had been set up to one end of the room, and it certainly looked like the result of someone painting passionately for over two days; there were even various paint splatters across the floor, and though they didn’t notice it at first- due to their eyes needing to adjust to the dim lighting in the shack- both Yusuke’s body and Madarame’s robes had noticeable speckles of paint on them.
Yusuke turned to the group.
“Please, tell me what this piece says to you.”
The group examined the painting. Ren noted it was quite the abstract piece, there wasn’t much in the way of a central figure to focus on, much like his “Desire and Hope” piece. But also like that piece, the emotion and passion that went into it was clear to see in the movement of the brushstrokes, the color choices, and the overall energy the piece was radiating.
“I like it.” Ann seemed especially entranced. “It’s so… I don’t know how to describe it, the word ‘conflicted’ comes to mind.”
Madarame looked rather proud.
“While this is technically a collaborative work, I must admit it’s almost entirely Yusuke’s talents on show here. He proposed the prompt of ‘dream’, and has led the charge from the very beginning. It’s taken everything I have just to keep up and follow his lead.”
“You downplay yourself too much Sensei. It’s your contributions that perfectly frame and magnify what I hoped to achieve.”
Ann continued to take in the piece from different angles, Ren and Makoto having to move out her way lest she crash into them while distracted.
“Somehow you’ve captured this perfect blend of ‘serene’ and ‘oppressive’. I wouldn’t think you could mix those two things, and yet here they are, swirling into eachother.”
“Hmm…” Makoto held her chin in contemplation. “Feels to me like those two aspects are trying to tear themselves apart from one another. Like they know they’re incompatible. There’s the desire to escape the negative and the compulsion to embrace the positive; you’ve depicted how one cannot wholly escape the other.”
“Mmm… yeah…” Ren was starting to feel like the least cultured person in the room, he was really wishing he knew how to analyse art and sound like he knew what he was talking about. “I like the colors!”
Ann smirked at him.
“Man, it’s not often I get to feel smarter than you, I’m enjoying this.”
“Eheh…” Ren shrugged. “Like I get all the stuff you two are saying, but I don’t know how to put it into words like you can.”
Madarame gave the boy a good natured pat on the back.
“Don’t worry, if such feelings could so easily be put into words, then there’d be no reason for us to have artists in the first place.”
Yusuke let out a long, content sigh, and stared up at the ceiling.
“There’s no greater joy than knowing my art can speak to others. Thank you all, truly.”
Madarame turned to examine the painting once more.
“I’m thinking there’s little more we can add to it at this point, but what do you think Yusuke?”
Yusuke looked at the painting a while, then at his mentor, then his friends, and finally back to Madarame. All the while with a serene smile on his face.
“Sensei.” He bowed deeply. “Thank you for collaborating with me on this. This is exactly what I wanted.”
“Ha. I’m glad to hear it.”
“Knowing that you’re capable of this now, after everything, that part of you really is the mentor I respected and desired, it brings me great joy. But, I’m satisfied now. It’s time to stop dreaming.”
“Wha—”
And just like that, Madarame vanished. This had been the first time the thieves witnessed breaking free of the illusion with their own eyes, a light more akin to a ‘flicker’ than a ‘flash’. They were rather taken aback at how much of a non-event it was, a small part of the world silently correcting itself, pretending as if nothing were amiss in the first place.
Yusuke’s serene expression endured, and he turned back towards their painting- which still remained.
“Yusuke-kun… you just…” Ann stared at the back of his head, wide-eyed. “Does this mean you knew?”
“Mm.”
“Right from the beginning?”
“Mm.”
“And yet you managed to hold onto the illusion in spite of that?”
“I wanted to finish this piece with him first.” Yusuke reached out to touch the still-wet paint, Makoto lifting her arm in a half-hearted attempt to stop him, before giving up and returning her arm to her side. Yusuke smeared the paint across the canvas with his bare hand.
When he pulled away the damage he had caused was plain to see, yet he didn’t seem bothered any. He stared at the palm of his hand, stained in various colors, all mixing into one. Finally, he rubbed his face, further smearing it with paint with no real pattern or purpose.
He turned to the others, nodding.
“That’s given me some closure.”
“Yusuke-kun…”
“We changed his heart after all, so part of me has always wondered if the two of us could have a positive relationship were he not in prison. I’ve now confirmed that that is the case, and that’s enough for me.”
Ren smiled.
“I don’t think I’ll ever meet someone else quite like you Yusuke.”
“Is that so?”
“I mean that as a compliment.”
“Thank you.” He bowed lightly. “I hope you, Makoto-san, and the rest of you will continue to inspire me as we keep moving forwards.”
Ren shrugged, side-eying his girlfriend.
“We’ll do our best.”
“Maybe I’m crazy…” Ann began. “…But I honestly think the handprint smear might add something to the painting.”
“Hm…” Yusuke pondered. “Perhaps… perhaps not… regardless it is part of the work now, and I have no intention of changing it any further.” He folded his arms. “Am I to assume I’m not the last in the line of thieves in need of awakening?”
“Got a few left still, we can get them done today though, if we keep up this pace.”
“Then please, allow me to assist you any way I can.”
“Thank you Yusuke-kun.” Makoto chuckled. “But you might want to wash up first.”
~ ~ ~
“There he is.” The team sneakily peered around the corner to the front of the school, where Ryuji was currently having an animated conversation with the members of the track team.
Well, given that there was four of them (five if you count Morgana) all peering around the same corner together, and two of them were prolific nudists, there was a real limit to how ‘sneaky’ they could be; they were drawing more than a few strange looks, and at least one person took advantage of how Makoto was bent over forwards to get a very nice angle of her butt on his phone. However, Ryuji hadn’t noticed them, and that was all that mattered.
“The track team is all together and friendly with him.” Ren stepped back to summarise. “Judging by the initial change with Ann and Shiho, it’s likely the whole incident with Kamoshida never happened in this new world, at least in their cognition. That’s likely the core change for Ryuji we need to address.”
Makoto began to turn to him to reply, but noticed the guilty look on Ann’s face, and instead chose to comfort her, gently laying her hand on top of Ann’s.
“You guys wait here.”
“Ren?” Makoto noticed him already walking ahead. “Shouldn’t we all—”
“I’ll only be a minute.”
Ren kept walking, leaving the others to continue hiding. He approached the group, chatting in front of the steps leading up to the school. Ryuji noticed him out the corner of his eye.
“Yo Ren! Wassup?” He called out to him cheerfully, though his face dropped slightly when he noticed Ren’s serious expression. “You good man?”
Ren took a quick glance at the other students, before locking eye contact with Ryuji.
“I need to talk with you man.”
“Huh? Um, sure?” He stood up, turning to the others. “I’ll see you guys later.”
Ryuji followed Ren into the alleyway directly in front of the school entrance, they were currently out of sight of the other thieves, so Morgana volunteered to move closer and listen in, since they were less likely to notice him.
“Summin’ up?”
Ren faced Ryuji directly, taking a deep breath before speaking.
“I need your help man.”
“Dude?”
“Yeah, there’s weird shit going on, and… well… it’s big, whatever it is. I’m sorry to drag you away from your good times, but… to cut a long story short, our work isn’t done yet.”
“’Our work’?”
“I honestly don’t know exactly what’s going on, I wish I could just explain it, but I do know that whatever we’re up against- I need you by my side for it. Can I count on your support?”
Ryuji stared down at the ground for a while, before forcing himself to stand up straight, looking Ren in the eyes.
“For sure. Whatever you need, I’ve got your back. I trust you.”
Ryuji held out his fist, Ren smirked, and met it with his own.
“I knew I could count on you man. Though right now it’s Haru and Futaba who need us. Let’s go.”
Ren stepped back out of the alleyway, nearly tripping over Morgana.
“Whoa! Careful.”
Morgana opened his mouth to say something, but was beat to the punch by Ann’s shocked outburst.
“ALREADY?!”
“Is that really all it took?” Makoto looked between the two boys, wide-eyed, and at the empty space in front of the school stairs.
“Marvellous.” Yusuke framed the scene with his fingers, as he tended to do.
“You guys are here too?” Ryuji asked. “So like uh… what is going on?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.” Ren patted Ryuji’s shoulder. “Haru should still be in Kichijoji. She’s next.”
“Right.” Makoto nodded. “Only two left. We’re nearly done, and in record time!”
~ ~ ~
Haru let out a content sigh after sipping her tea, enjoying the warmth as it entered and spread through her body.
“Thank you for bringing me out here again Father. I daresay this is even nicer than the place we visited yesterday.”
“If you intend to open your café in this area, then it’s a good idea for us to understand our competitors.”
“True.”
“Though I’ll admit, it’s a nice excuse to enjoy some time together.”
“Very true.” Haru fiddled with the handle of her teacup, staring down into the fluids within. “I’m grateful for this. For you being… you taking the time out of your schedule for this silly little thing.”
“Are you the ‘silly little thing’ or is that the café? Either way it’s far from frivolous. We’re laying the foundations for a happy, fulfilling future for you. I know you can make me proud, and I want to see as much of it as possible.”
“Mm…”
Haru sat back and enjoyed the comfortable atmosphere of the outdoor café, absentmindedly watching people pass by.
“Is something wrong Haru?”
“Father…” She paused a while. “How is S—”
“You’re out here again Okumura-san?”
Haru suddenly sat upright in her chair, noticing Akechi approaching their table, waving to her father.
“A…Akechi?” Her grip on her teacup tightened.
“You’re still looking well Okumura-san.”
“Akechi-san, is this a regular spot for you? This is two days in a row we’ve run into eachother.”
Akechi shrugged.
“I frequent a few spots near here, like the jazz club, and the dart club.” He turned to Haru. “Enjoying yourself?”
Haru’s upper lip twitched, but she maintained some semblance of a friendly expression and civil demeanour.
“Not to be rude, but I was in the middle of a conversation with my father.”
Kunikazu nodded.
“That’s true, is it something urgent you needed?”
“Oh no no, I just came to say ‘hello’ mostly.” Akechi notably wasn’t bothering with a fake smile. “I don’t want to waste too much time here, too much of your time I mean.” He eyed Haru again. “How long do you intend to spend with your father?”
“Go away.”
“Hm?”
“GO AWAY!”
“From what I know of you Okumura-san, I don’t think you’re the type to be so easily tempted.”
“I SAID GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!” Many of the other customers were now watching the scene, or pretending not to look. Much of their surroundings seems to drag to a halt.
Akechi nodded.
“Very well, I’ve already done what I came here to accomplish.”
And with that, Akechi left them, disappearing into the crowd. Kunikazu glared at much of their audience, scaring them into going back to minding their own business. He leant over the table towards his daughter.
“Are you okay?”
“…”
“Did something happen between you two?”
“Ugh… Father?”
“Yes?”
“What do you think of Sugimura?”
“Sugimura-san?” He sighed. “His father is an important contact of mine, but his son leaves much to be desired. You wouldn’t believe the proposition they put forward.”
“To have me marry him?”
“Oh, so you did know.”
“Of course I did, you told me.”
“I—”
“Or rather- my father did.”
“What?”
Haru tensed up in her seat, staring downwards at her lap.
“How dare you?”
“Haru?”
“I’m so sick of all of this… Why would they tease me like this?”
Kunikazu reached over to put a hand on her shoulder, but she slapped it away.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Haru, what’s wrong? I’ve never seen you act like this.”
“What’s wrong is that you’re sitting here playing nice, acting friendly, trying to placate me using my father’s face. How dare you use his face?!”
“What are you talking about? I’m—”
Haru clutched the sides of her head.
“I’m so sick of this! I’m so sick of everyone toying with me!” She stood up again and glared at her father with enormous intensity and vitriol. “I don’t know what you are, whether you’re ‘real’ or not, I know for certain that you’re not my father. You have his face, but not his mind.” She clenched her fists, trembling for a while, before letting go and letting her arms hang limply by her sides. “Akechi… you wanted to wake me up, you knew that all you had to do was appear before me. I could never forget what you did.”
“Haru, please—”
“Stop talking. Just go already.”
Haru stood alone at the table. Other customers whispered and gossiped amongst themselves about the girl who just had a public freakout, apparently yelling at thin air. She didn’t care, she simply tossed payment down next to her unfinished tea, and began wandering off.
She plodded forward a while, no particular destination in mind, staring off into the middle distance.
“I guess that’s that…”
“Haru-chan!”
Haru looked to the side, seeing her friends- led by Makoto- running over to her. Taking a quick breath to calm herself, Haru stood upright, trying to act natural.
“Hello everyone.”
“Are you okay?” Makoto stood in front of her. “You look rather—”
“You came here to ‘wake me up’, right?”
“Huh?” Makoto’s brow raised. “Y-yeah. How did you—?”
“It’s already taken care of.”
“But, how did you—?”
“That would be my doing.” Akechi emerged from behind Haru, having managed to keep himself hidden up until now. “Or rather- my fault, I should say. I was in the area, I saw Okumura-san with her father, and saw the opportunity to help free her from our opponent’s control.” Akechi hummed, bringing his hand to his chin. “Had I known the rest of you would show up mere moments later, I would have stood back and let you take care of it, but I suppose the end result is the same.”
Haru glared at him, swallowing hard, before sighing.
“Seeing you made me mad, but I suppose that was the whole point, that’s was the push I needed. You didn’t do anything wrong on this occasion at least, you really did help me. However…” Haru leaned back, and threw her best punch directly into Akechi’s cheek, sending him flying several feet away, and crashing down onto the ground, shocking numerous passersby. “…I don’t think I need to tell you what that was for.”
“Jesus Haru!” Ryuji recoiled in shock, almost feeling as if he was just punched himself. “Like- I totally get it, but still!”
“We better leave, quickly.” Ren scanned their surroundings. “Last thing we need is to get arrested now.”
“Are you going to be okay Akechi-san?”
Akechi sat up, looking up at Yusuke with a ‘what a stupid question’ look on his face, while he rubbed the huge and very visible bruise on his jaw.
“Fine, thanks for asking.” Wincing, he got to his feet. “I’ll go my own way, I was actually out here doing something, ‘helping’ was only a small detour, and a mistake- I’m realizing that now.”
“Bye Akechi-kun!” Haru- with a surprisingly cheerful look on her face- waved at him as she and the rest of the group ran from the scene.
“Note to self: Keep my guard up when helping people in the future.” Akechi mumbled to himself as he disappeared into a nearby alley. “Actually, better idea: Just don’t help people. It’ll make my life easier at least…”
~ ~ ~
“Ah, you’re back.” Sojiro briefly lifted his head from the newspaper he was reading to greet Ren and the rest of the thieves as they entered Leblanc.
“Hey Boss!” Ren approached the counter alongside Makoto as the rest of the team took a seat in one of the free booths. “Do you know where Futaba is?”
Sojiro scoffed.
“Same as always, in her room.” He sighed. “I’m glad she has the confidence to go outside, but it seems she still prefers spending almost all her time in her room. Then again, given her dress sense maybe that’s for the best.”
“Cool, how about Wakaba?”
Sojiro paused, looking up at his charge, baffled.
“Wakaba? What are you talking about Kid?”
“Huh?”
Makoto leaned forward.
“Is she not in?”
Sojiro looked back and forth between them, his face twisting in frustration.
“What the hell is wrong with you two? You know what happened! You know that she’s…” He shook his head, rubbing his forehead. “Sorry, I shouldn’t get mad, she’s just… been on my mind lately, is all.”
Ren’s phone suddenly buzzed. He pulled it out and started reading, before looking to Makoto.
“It’s Futaba, she’s asking us to come over.”
“Huh? All of us?”
“I think just you and me.”
“Prolly best you two go.” Ryuji said. “We don’t all wanna crowd into her room, I wouldn’t know what to say anyway.”
The couple looked to him, then eachother. Nodding, the let Sojiro know where they were going, and that they’d be back in a little while.
The two made their way over to the Sakura household in somewhat anxious silence. They found the front door already unlocked, they assumed Futaba unlocked it herself, or that Sojiro simply forgot to lock it again. They made their way to her bedroom, Makoto gently knocked on the door.
“Futaba-chan?”
“Yo!” The younger girl’s chipper voice called back. “You can come in.”
The couple exchanged one more glance, before entering the room. First thing they noticed with the fact that Futaba was wearing her oversized Chinese mask, squatting in her computer chair that spun around to face them.
“Futaba?”
“Hey. I just wanted to let you two know that I’ve been keeping up.”
“Keeping up?”
She lifted up her phone, shaking it slightly.
“Your phone’s still bugged, remember? I’ve been listening all day.”
“Oh? Oh…” Ren bit his lower lip. “I see…”
“Yeah, so I already know about all the illusions, cognitions changing, the plan with Akechi. And the fact that Mom was…” She paused a moment. “And I’ve broken out of the control already, so you don’t need to worry about doing the intervention thing with me too. Cool, right?”
“I’m… really sorry Futaba.”
“Pfft. Apologizing when you did nothing wrong is cringe AF. It’s all cool.”
Makoto approached Futaba’s chair, crouching down next to it, and resting her hand on the girl’s knee.
“How about you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah sure, I’m good.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean I suspected it was all a dream or whatever from the start, so it really didn’t affect me all too much when it disappeared.”
Ren sighed, approaching Futaba’s other side, and reaching towards the mask.
“NO!” Futaba grabbed it and pulled it down. “I need that! To like, focus and stuff.”
“Futaba…”
“It’s my gaming mask. I was just chilling with some games before you got back… I’ve turned them off now though.”
Makoto gently caressed Futaba’s knee. The girl noticing that both she and Ren still had pity in their eyes.
“LOL, you guys are so lame. I’ve levelled up too much to worry about dumb cringy shit like this. In fact, this is the best possible outcome! I’ve managed to conquer whatever weird control was placed on us since we’re all so based like that. You’ve taught me how to touch grass and keep a firm grasp on reality. And on top of all of that I… I got to s-spend new year’s day with my Mom. That’s li-like an amazing surprise present, y’know? I dunno what the bad guy is planning… but… but uh… I got to have a dream come true for a day… that’s more than I would have got otherwise. So I’m not upset at all… I’m happy… really I’m… really happy.”
Ren swallowed, gathering his resolve, and reaching out for Futaba’s mask once more. This time she didn’t resist as it was lifted off her head. She refused to look at either of them, or say anything more, but her dark, swollen eyes told the whole story.
Makoto got up, and silently embraced the younger girl, holding her tight. Very slowly- as if reluctant to admit defeat- Futaba returned the gesture, and clung to Makoto for dear life, pressing her face into her shoulder, and sobbing.
Chapter 87: Dollhouse
Summary:
The next palace- or rather...
Notes:
I think this might be a new record for longest chapter yet, 8K+ words.
Sorry, there was no avoiding it this time xD
Chapter Text
“Shit… this is actually real.” Ann looked up in awe at the elaborate tower that stretched up into the heavens, holding a golden orb of light high above the surrounding buildings, as if to watch over all of Tokyo.
She, the rest of the thieves, and their temporary ally Akechi stood outside the mysterious palace, that was but moments ago an under-construction stadium.
“I really thought we were done with the Metaverse.” Makoto looked down at her limbs, clad in the oh-so-familiar spiked leather of her ‘Queen’ persona.
“What gives anyway?” Ryuji turned to Morgana. “I thought you said erasing Mementos would erase the metaverse too?”
“I… I really thought it would.”
“This one is clearly a special case.” Akechi’s brow furrowed. “I’ve been to a fair few palaces while working under Shido- probably more than you have- and this is the only time I’ve been unable to get a name to show up on the nav. Niijima-san, you never did take the true treasure from your sister’s palace in the end, did you?”
“Hm? No, I don’t think we ever even saw it in it’s true form…”
“In that case her palace should still exist, and yet when I tried to enter it while you were all re-recruiting eachother, I wasn’t able to.”
“Really?”
“It’s not impossible for palaces to simply fade away naturally, but not this quickly without their treasure being stolen. It’s likely the metaverse as we know of did vanish, but someone or something has reestablished it, starting from here.”
“How’d you know all this anyway?”
Akechi shrugged.
“Shido stole a great deal of research on cognitive psience from a number of sources, I- of course- have read it all myself.”
“I guess despite everything, you are still a detective.” Ren stepped forward. “Still, we can’t stand out here all day, we should get moving.”
“Oh? And do you have a plan Amamiya-san?”
“Same thing we always do. Work our way towards the treasure, and wait for the palace ruler to inevitably appear before us to tell us their evil plan.”
“Right… and if they don’t?”
“It’s a pretty safe bet that they will. It’s just how these things go.”
“Do you people always just wing it and hope it turns out okay?”
The thieves all exchanged various unsure glances, before sheepishly nodding.
“How the hell have you all gotten this far?”
“By being amazing and sexy.” Ren ran a hand through his hair, not-so-subtly glancing over at his girlfriend, who just rolled her eyes. “Let’s move out, remember- codenames from now on.”
“Very well…” Akechi watched as the team stepped into the tower, before sighing to himself. “Can’t believe I’m stuck working with these idiots again… Oh well, desperate times and all that…” He took a step forward, pausing to glance at a nearby bush, eyeing it intently for a while, before joining the others.
~ ~ ~
“I’ll be the one to say it, this place is creepy AF.” Futaba was sure to stick close to Ren for safety, not trusting the numerous cognitions standing or sitting around the lobby with a glazed look in their eyes, much less the lanky shadows dressed in lab coats who when not directly attending to the cognitions, would analyse the thieves from afar, seeming to take in every minute movement.
“It has those ‘hospital’ vibes.” Ann kept her guard up. “Except much more intense. Everything is a bit too clean, too… clinical.”
“Feels like a place people come to get euthanized.”
“You might be closer to the truth than you realize Oracle.” Akechi narrowed his eyes as he carefully scanned his surroundings, trying- in vain- to read the intentions of these shadows. “I must say things have changed since I last visited, it seemed empty aside from myself, now it’s rather crowded.”
“Did you find anything worthwhile last time?”
“Nothing that would be relevant to you and your team Joker.”
“You make it sound like you did find something…”
Akechi paused a while, the others eying him curiously.
“Just a few doors, most of which were locked.”
“I guess they’re as good a place as any to start our investigation. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Mona can pick a lock or two for us.”
“I’ll do my best Queen, but this place screams ‘keycards for everything’ rather than pickable locks.”
“I guess that’s where I’ll come in.” Futaba snickered to herself.
“Hmm…” Akechi began walking up the stairs. “Follow me.”
Not having any other leads, the thieves decided to simply follow after Akechi, trusting he knew where he was going- for now at least. Meanwhile they never let the shadows out of their sight.
“They’re not attacking us yet.” Yusuke thought aloud.
“And yet the fact that we’re in our thief gear proves that we’re already considered a threat.” Makoto kept her fists clenched, mentally prepping herself for one or more enemies to suddenly surge forwards towards her.
“It’s creepin’ me out, man…” Ryuji- similarly- kept his bat in hand. “It’d honestly feel better if they attacked us on sight, y’know?”
“We don’t want to cause too much of a scene too quickly. Stay cool.” Ren looked over his shoulder to check everyone was still here, fearing them suddenly being ambushed or someone snatched away. Everyone was safe and on guard, he turned back to Akechi. “Do you actually know where you’re leading us?”
Akechi remained silent a few moments longer, until suddenly stopping in place, smiling. He spotted it.
“Here.”
“Hm?” Ren raised a confused eyebrow. “That’s… different.”
“That door doesn’t fit the theme at all… everything else is super modern and shiny, the ‘splinter city’ wood with decades-old paint looks so out of place.”
“Almost as if it belongs to another palace entirely, wouldn’t you say?”
“Crow?”
“Although, it has been a while.” Akechi approached the door. “Bear with me while I check tha—”
“HALT!”
A pair of shadows rushed over to confront them, the thieves pivoting on their heels ready to face them.
“I’m sorry, but that area is strictly off-limits for both patients and visitors, please- return to the lobby or we will be forced t—” The shadow on the right was cut off by a bullet delicately shattering it’s mask and tearing through its head.
The thieves turned around again to see Akechi, smirking, still smoking gun already trained on the remaining shadow.
“I wasn’t looking for permission. I have something I need to do here, okay?”
Ren groaned.
“Fine, I guess we’re making a scene after all. Get ready everyone!”
The team drew their weapons as the shadow removed its mask, revealing its true form as…
“EWW!” Ann recoiled at the sight. “That’s the creepiest teddy bear I’ve ever seen!”
“I can appreciate ‘outside-the-box’ thinking, but I don’t think human skulls make the best stuffing for plush toys, what do you think Queen?”
“Why the hell are you asking me?” Makoto shook her head, she needed to focus on the task at hand. Calming herself, she cleared her mind and reached within her heart to call upon her. She reached up to her mask, and tore it from her face. “Agnes!”
“Huh? When did—?”
From beneath her body appeared a bike, larger and more elaborate than Johanna before her. Clad in black and gold, topped with a golden bust of a woman with wings sprouting from her head. Makoto revved the engine, already striking fear into the bear-shaped shadow before them. Pulling full-throttle, Makoto spun Agnes around and launched a wave of nuclear energy at her foe.
“Freidyne!”
Freezing in place, as if accepting its fate, the shadow evaporated into nothingness in an instant. Huffing to herself, satisfied, Makoto drew Agnes back into her heart.
“I guess there was nothing to worry about in the first place.”
“SICK MAN!” Ryuji grinned, pumping his fist. “I thought you upgraded to that transformer robot or whatever.”
“Anat.”
“Yeah that one. You got a bike again? How did that happen?”
Makoto glanced over to Ren, the two exchanging a knowing smile.
“After seeing my father again… talking to him… and letting go… I don’t know, I’ve just gotten some closure I didn’t know I needed.”
“How fascinating. Though, I have another question…”
“Fox? What’s wrong?”
“I was rather distracted by your display, did anyone happen to see where Crow went?”
“Huh?” Ren looked over to the door, nothing. He looked around the rest of the area they were in, not seeing Akechi anywhere. “What the… Oracle!”
“Gimme a sec!” Futaba started typing, using Prometheus’s power to search. “Weird, it doesn’t seem like he went inside… in fact, I can’t detect him anywhere within the palace!”
“What the hell? Did he get kidnapped or summin’ when we weren’t looking?”
“I’m not—OH!”
“What is it?”
The others couldn’t tell what Futaba was seeing within her goggles, but they could tell she was confused. Whatever she was seeing, she was having a hard time understanding it.
“He’s back?”
Haru tilted her head.
“Back?”
“He’s back at the entrance, and he’s headed in our direction.”
“So he just… popped outside for a bit?”
Futaba turned towards the corner.
“Here he comes!”
Ren huffed.
“Crow, what the hell man? You can’t just up and ditch us right in the middle of a fight, a fight you started by the… huh?”
Akechi had returned, however he wasn’t alone.
“Where is this place?! What are you wearing?! Dammit answer my questions!”
He didn’t, he just grumbled as he continued dragging Yoshizawa by the wrist towards the thieves. She gasped when she saw them.
“Oh my… Amamiya-san?! Niijima-san?! Sakamoto-senpai?! You’re here too?!”
Ren turned to Akechi, horrified.
“What the actual hell man? How did she get here?”
Akechi stopped, though notably didn’t let go of her wrist.
“I asked her to wait outside, I wanted to confirm that this door was still here before bringing her in.”
“You brought her into the metaverse? Why the hell would you do that?!”
“What the hell is a ‘metaverse’?!” Yoshizawa managed to pull her wrist free. Glowering at Akechi indignantly. “You haven’t explained one single thing to me! Not where we are, what happened to the stadium, why you disappeared then reappeared, what we’re here to do, or how any of this is supposed to help me?”
“Trust me.” Despite the girl screaming at him and the whole team glaring at him, Akechi remained outwardly very calm. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Crow.” Makoto stepped forwards, arms folded indignantly, affixing Akechi with her most potent ‘Niijima glare’. “Explain yourself. Now.”
Akechi sighed, rolling his eyes.
“As I said before Shido acquired a great deal of research into cognitive psience, and I was sure to study it all myself. One particular source was especially interesting to me though: the accounts of my predecessor.”
“Predecessor?”
“The previous ‘Detective Prince’. Though perhaps I shouldn’t say ‘previous’, I believe she’s still active even today. But that’s besides the point; what interests me is the interactions between humans and their shadows.”
“Their shadows?”
“Is there an echo in here?”
“Hold on.” Ren looked between Akechi and Yoshizawa. “Are you implying this is Kasumi’s palace? Because I have a really hard time buying that.”
“No no.” Akechi shook his head. “We are not currently standing in her palace… however through that door… still isn’t Kasumi’s palace- technically.”
“What?”
“What the hell are you all talking about?!” Kasumi stomped her foot. “Forget this! I don’t care what kind of ‘help’ you’re offering; I’m leaving!” She turned to leave but was stopped when Akechi grabbed her wrist again, locking firm eye contact with her.
“I warned you that it would be confusing, that it wouldn’t make sense to you, but you would have to trust me.”
“Trust?”
“Believe me, this is in both our best interests.” He guided her over to the door, gentler than before, before opening it with his free hand, revealing the pitch black darkness within.
The very sight of it filled Makoto with a feeling of cold dread, shooting up her spine.
“W-we’re not going to have to go in there, are we?”
Akechi couldn’t help but scoff at her.
“Too challenging for you? Don’t you worry, only Yoshizawa-san needs to actually step inside, and even then only for a moment.”
A look of terror spread across Kasumi’s face.
“I have to go in there? Why?”
“Just trust me. You need only take one single step inside, then come right back out again. I’m really not exaggerating when I say ‘just a moment’.”
Kasumi peered within, every fibre of her being was screaming at her to get away as quickly as she could.
“I don’t understand how this could possibly help with anything…”
“Seriously man…” Ren stepped between Akechi and the door. “…What the hell are you trying to do?”
“I’m trying to prove a point.”
“What point? To whom?”
“To prove our enemy’s lack of necessity.”
“Huh?”
“Ugh.” Akechi turned to Kasumi. “Look, take the one step inside, and your part in this will be done. We shall handle the rest. You have my word that I will pull you back out again safely.”
She looked to Akechi, to Ren, Makoto, and all the thieves, all the while breathing heavily as if sitting on the edge of a panic attack.
“I mean… I want to trust you, but I’m not sure I understand. What’s going to happen? How will I—”
Finally getting impatient, Akechi simply pushed Ren aside and stepped inside himself, harshly yanking the girl in with him. Her feet came into contact with the cold, dark floor within, and a moment later she was pushed back outside. Akechi released her, and stepped outside with her, calmly closing the door behind them.
“There. Now we wait.”
Kasumi stood baffled, shaking slightly as she stared forwards into the middle distance. Makoto rushed to her side, taking a firm hold of her hand.
“It’s okay Kasumi-san, stay calm, we’re going to keep you safe- no matter what, okay?”
She looked into Makoto’s eyes, her reassuring gaze which she felt like should have helped ground her again, but in reality just made this weird pain in her head all the greater.
“S…Senpai?”
“Just relax, okay? We’re not going anywhere.”
Akechi watched the comforting session with a look of genuine curiosity on his face.
“Kasumi…” He side-eyed the rest of the team. “Tell me, have any of you interacted with Yoshizawa-san prior to April of last year?”
“Huh?” Ren looked to the other thieves, receiving naught but shrugs and shaken heads in return. “No, I arrived in Tokyo in April and met her then.”
“I see. That explains it then.”
“Explains what? Dude how long are you gonna be pointlessly cryptic? It’s starting to piss me off.”
“I’m doing this all in a certain order, this is for her sake.”
Akechi turned back towards the door. It was faint, but movement could be heard from inside.
“She’s already felt her other half, she should be rushing to confront her as fast as possible.”
“She?”
“He plans to have Yoshizawa-san confront her shadow.”
“That voice.” Ren turned around, his eyes widening. “Dr. Maruki?”
“Dr. Maruki?!” Kasumi suddenly stepped away from Makoto, facing the man standing there in the white suit, his hair slicked back, a melancholic look on his face. “You’re here too?”
Ren rubbed his eyes, not believing what he’s seeing.
“Is that really you?”
Futaba seemed to type something.
“What the— it’s not a shadow or a cognition? It’s the actual guy, but how can he be here?”
As everyone stood there bewildered, footsteps could be heard rapidly approaching the door. Maruki raised his arm, prompting a pair of otherworldly tentacles to burst from the ground and hold the door shut, just in time for it to visibly shake from being rammed from within. He closed his eyes, visibly wincing from the sound of the repeating banging sound coming from within, growing audibly desperate. He took a calming breath to renew his resolve, opening his eyes, standing tall, and using a third tentacle to deflect a bullet that was mere inches away from hitting his head.
“Tch.” Akechi lowered his pistol. “It was worth a try.”
Maruki himself remained calm and collected.
“Akechi-kun, I understand your intentions are good, and that you genuinely believe you’re doing what’s best for Yoshizawa-san, but it will only cause her pain in the end. Please reconsider.”
“Wait wait, hold on.” Makoto raised her hand. “I’m confused. Why are you here Doctor? Is this your palace we’re standing in?”
“This palace- of sorts- is my creation yes.” Maruki nodded. “And to answer your next question, yes, I am wholly responsible for the shifts to reality you’ve all been experiencing.”
“I don’t…” Ren’s turned to Akechi. “Did you know this?”
“I had my suspicions, but wasn’t sure until now.” Akechi grinned snidely at the doctor. “You may have found a way to hide your own name from the nav, but you never bothered hiding Yoshizawa’s. With her palace being connected to this one, it only stands to reason it’d belong to someone closely connected with her. Putting that together with the strange phenomena she’s been experiencing, you were simply the most likely suspect.”
“My… what? Palace?” Kasumi turned to Ren. “Senpai, what is he talking about?”
“That’s a very good question. Crow, start explaining.”
Akechi curiously scanned the both of them, humming to himself.
“Dear Yoshizawa’s palace, through some unknown method, has been absorbed into this one. That’s what lies through that door.” He gestured behind him, to the door still being held tightly shut by Maruki’s tentacles. “That’s why the girl herself had to step inside, to give her shadow the clarity it needed.”
“Clarity?”
“The knowledge of what she truly is, and thus the need to be drawn out.”
“What are… OH!” Haru’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Wait I do know what he’s talking about. This is like what happened to my shadow! She said something about her other self being there giving her ‘awareness’, bringing her closer to her true form.”
Ren’s eyes met Makoto’s.
“I think I remember that… it was right before the cognitive Sugimura attacked; we were so preoccupied with that that we didn’t really think about the implications of what she was saying.”
“Might explain the way my shadow acted too.” Futaba glanced skyward in recollection. “Pretty much right after I showed up she spawned right next to me and seemed to know everything.”
“So does that mean, all that banging we’re hearing is Yoshizawa-san’s shadow trying to reunite with her other self?” Morgana’s fur was standing on end, listening to the ceaseless ferocity of the shadow’s assault from behind the door.
“God this is so much at once…” Ann rubbed her forehead. “What about those reality shifts? That was Dr. Maruki? How? What are they, even?”
The doctor stepped forward.
“Look, I promise to explain myself, and I’m well aware that I owe each of you a sincere apology, but please, we must focus on Yoshizawa-san’s safety first and foremost.” He turned to the still shocked-stiff girl, a hand held over his heart. “Please come with me, I’ll escort you back outside to safety.”
“I… I uh…”
“Trust me, it’s best for you if you just walk away from this and forget about it all.”
“’Best for you’ he says.” Akechi scoffed. “Because clearly everything you’ve done for her so far has been in her best interest.”
Maruki’s expression was very controlled, focused, and impossible for the thieves to read as he stared down Akechi.
“You seem to be rather knowledgeable about my actions.”
Akechi gave a hammy shrug.
“I only know what I was able to gather from your observation notes you left back in Shujin- quite an oversight on your part I must say- and my investigation of her palace yesterday.” He side-eyed Haru. “That would have been right before we crossed paths again.”
Haru remained silent.
Akechi simply returned his attention to Maruki.
“So I understand quite well why you’re holding that door shut; you don’t want the magnitude of your failure to be exposed.”
“That’s not it at all. There have been… unintended side effects, but things are different now- I can…” He trailed off, his gaze shifting to Kasumi. He sighed. “We may discuss this as much as you like, but please, we have to take Yoshizawa-san away first, the longer she stays here the more pain her other self will suffer. Please, see reason.”
Kasumi clutched the sides of her head, dragging her hands down her face as she stared blindly forwards.
“I don’t understand any of this… There’s so much going on, and yet…” She looked over to the door. “My… palace? My other self? Clarity?”
“Yoshizawa-san, come with me, I’ll—”
“Doctor!” Kasumi forced herself to stand upright and face him directly, clutching her fists. “That thing Akechi-kun said about clarity- is it true?”
“What?”
“I mean…” She stared down at her feet. “I don’t really understand it, but when I stepped inside that place, I got this strange sensation. There’s so much fog in my head, more than I could ever realize, and the moment I entered it was like a small amount of it suddenly faded away.”
“Ah, interesting, perhaps it’s a two-way street?” Akechi addressed Ren. “I’m sure you noticed she called you ‘Senpai’ again?”
“She did, she hadn’t called me that since before…” He brought his hand to his chin. “She called Makoto ‘Senpai’ too, does that mean anything though?”
“I don’t understand why…” Kasumi continued. “But I feel like if I see what’s inside there again, more of the fog will fade. I can hear something, screaming at me past the fog.”
“Yoshizawa-san…” Maruki’s gaze grew more sympathetic.
“I need to know what it is, and why it keeping screaming ****** at me.” As spoked the word the pain in her head intensified, a cold feeling shooting through her body.
Ren turned to the others.
“******? Who’s ******?”
“I feel like I’ve heard the name but… I’m not sure where from.” Makoto thought aloud.
“******…” Futaba chewed her bottom lip in thought. “I feel like it was on the news a while back… wait… ****** was…”
The ringing sound got louder and louder in her head each time it was spoken.
“Yoshizawa-san!” Maruki reached out, stopping when he noticed that Akechi had his pistol trained on him once more. “Please, I understand why you’re feeling compelled, however what you call ‘fog’ may just be there to protect you, nothing but pain lies beyond it.”
“Doctor, I—”
“Please, just walk away from it, I’ll make all of this go away for you- screaming and all. Trust me, I only want to stop you from getting hurt.”
Kasumi swallowed hard, one could tell just by looking how much she was faltering, yet- tensing her entire body she didn’t back down, and met his eyes.
“Please Dr. Maruki, I’ll never forgive myself if I walk away now.”
Maruki’s arm lowered.
“Are you truly sure about this? I can assure you that I’ll protect you from harm regardless, but pain will be unavoidable.”
“I…” She stood resolute. “I can handle it.”
Akechi smirked.
“Well you heard the lady.”
Defeated, and with a great sense of reluctance, Maruki snapped his fingers, and the tentacles retreated. Mere moments later, the door finally burst open, and out stumbled a figure. Humanoid, made entirely of wood, missing its right arm, wearing a ruined dress, and an iron mask bolted to its face, revealing only a single eye- with the distinctive golden glow of a shadow. Its glare shifted between everyone present in sequence, and intensified when it met Kasumi.
“YOU!”
Before Kasumi could so much as open her mouth, the shadow lunged at her, reaching out to her. Before it could reach her however, it felt a tentacle wrap around her torso, gripping her- not harshly, but to the point when it could do nothing but reach out into the empty air in front of it.
“Let me go!” It spat. “I have to kill her!”
“K-kill me?”
“It’s the only way to break free! I have to!”
While not fully understanding what was happening, Ren and Makoto both instinctively stepped between the shadow and her other self, shielding Kasumi from her. Ren spoke to Akechi without taking his eyes off the shadow.
“I’m going to be charitable and assume killing Yoshizawa-san isn’t part of your plan.”
“Hmm…” Akechi stroked his chin. “I’ll admit this isn’t the reaction I was expecting, the reports described the routine a little differently.”
“What is that thing?” Kasumi took a cautious step backwards. “Some kind of doll?”
“ME? You’re calling me the doll?” The shadow relented in its attempted assault, stepping back- Maruki’s tendrils making no effort to prevent her doing so. “It’s your fault I look like this. And yours…”
Maruki exhaled, looking downwards in shame.
“It’s never been my intention to hurt you.”
“No of course not, but I’ve always been an obstacle, something you had to break apart piece by piece all for the sake of your doll.”
Maruki shook his head.
“She’s not my ‘doll’, and neither are you. I just wanted to help you escape from this pain you’re carrying.”
“LIAR! You wanted to protect ‘Kasumi’ from pain, at any cost! What happened to me never mattered to you one bit!”
“I’m telling you, that’s not true.”
Ren cautiously took a step forward.
“Look, I don’t know what your story is, but maybe we can help?”
Makoto nodded.
“Right, if there’s anything we can do for you Kasumi—”
“Don’t call me that!” The shadow slouched over, reaching up with its arm to desperately try and pull the mask off of it’s face, but not being able to get any purchase, and her fingers simply slipping off. “All my life, people have only ever cared about Kasumi, not that I could blame them. Kasumi was the worthwhile one, the one who actually had what it took to succeed, why should anyone care about her disappointment of a sister?”
“Sister… You mean—”
The shadow cut her other self off.
“But then you killed her!”
“What? That… that was…”
“The reality was that we were the failure, the unnecessary one. You couldn’t face the truth, and so you tried to run away, setting the pattern for the rest of your life by the looks of it. You ran away carelessly, and robbed this world of Kasumi Yoshizawa.”
“What are they talking about?”
“It happened before you arrived Amamiya-san…” Akechi began. “And evidently before any of you grew familiar with her. Kasumi Yoshizawa is dead, she was hit by a truck in early April of last year.”
“For real?” Ryuji turned to Yoshizawa, whose lifeless eyes were locked on the ground in front of her. “But, she’s right—”
“Apparently she was running after her sister, who ran across the road without looking. Sumire Yoshizawa just barely avoided the truck, but the same couldn’t be said for Kasumi, she died instantly.”
“So you’re saying…”
“That this is Sumire?”
“NO!” The shadow barked. “That’s not Sumire- not anymore!” It pointlessly smacked its mask with its fist. “She’s nothing but a worthless doll that stole her name, just to play out that man’s happy fantasy where the worthwhile sister survived, and the failure that no one would miss died instead.”
“That… that can’t be right.” For some reason, this discussion was giving Makoto a painful feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Ren’s brow furrowed.
“Maruki-san?”
Maruki’s eyes fell.
“Sumire couldn’t handle the grief caused by the accident. Her parents brought her to me, for grief counselling. She wished that it had been her instead. The pain she carried with her was just so immense, she felt that she could never be happy again.”
Akechi scoffed, but Maruki continued regardless.
“I saw a way for her to be happy. I would grant her wish. She would become ‘Kasumi’, a simple cognition change. The painful memories of her sister would fade into the background, and she could live a normal, happy life.”
“And she couldn’t even manage that.” The shadow laughed bitterly. “In the end all she took was her name, at her core she was still the failed sister, who could never live up to Kasumi’s legacy.” It turned to Ren. “She couldn’t face that reality either, so she reached out for validation, to you.”
“Me?”
The shadow glared at Makoto next.
“Then you. Ha, even Haru and Ryuji were in consideration briefly. Didn’t matter who it was, she just needed a ‘Senpai’ to approve of her, to make her feel valid, to deny the reality of how useless she was.”
Makoto’s fist clenched.
“How dare you…”
“Hm?”
“How dare you! She’s not—” She shook her head. “You’re not a failure. You’re not useless. I’ve seen how passionate you can be, how hard you’re willing to work, your desire to improve yourself. I may not have known your sister, but I’m certain she wouldn’t have seen you as useless; I don’t believe anyone truly thinks such things about their siblings.” She took a breath to calm herself. “If you’re comparing yourself to your sister, of course there are going to be places where you come up short, but I’m certain the reverse is true too.”
“Queen…”
Makoto smiled at Ren, then gave the shadow a serious look.
“Trust me, just trying to follow the exact same path as your sister isn’t the right way to live. You need to find out who you really are, forge your own path. And there’s no shame in reaching out to others for help in doing that.”
The shadow glared at her.
“You’re talking a lot for someone who knows nothing about me, you didn’t even know my name until a minute ago.”
“I’ve seen enough of you, and also- I’m just keeping my promise.”
“What promise?”
Makoto smiled, bringing her hand to her chest.
“’Us nudists have to support eachother, right?’ That’s what I said the first time we met, remember?” She laughed. “Though of course, you’re not a nudist anymore, and haven’t been for a long time, but the offer is still good regardless.”
“Hmph. Of course, the doll needs her validation.”
“No. I’m not going to just tell you you’re valid with empty words. But what I am willing to do is help you find yourself, so you can become ‘valid’ to yourself, so you can be proud of who you are.”
“That goes for all of us.” Ren dropped his defensive stance, standing beside his girlfriend, smiling down at her proudly. “None of us are the type to just sit by when we know we can help someone, y’know?”
The other thieves joined in with their own affirmations, the shadow looking between them curiously.
“I…”
“We’re more than willing to help you…” Makoto took a few steps back, standing besides Yoshizawa, putting an arm around her shoulders. “…and that of course includes all of you.”
The younger girl, still in a state of shock, managed to look up to Makoto.
“N…Niijima-senpai…”
The shadow clenched its fist in rage.
“How many times do I have to tell you? That’s. Just. A. DOLL!” It pointed to its other self. “Whatever connection you and I once had has been lost. You’re just a less-than-useless parasite using my body and my sister’s name to play out some cheap fantasy! All you ever do is run away the moment things get even the tiniest bit painful. Not even I was ever that pathetic.” Its voice was filled with overwhelming vitriol. “You’re not me!”
“Oh?” Akechi, who had maintained a fairly calm and cool exterior throughout all this, suddenly tensed up. “She wasn’t supposed to be the one to say that…”
Something strange began to happen, Makoto felt Yoshizawa go limp in her arm. She was caught off guard by the girl suddenly losing consciousness like this, nearly letting her fall to the ground- had Maruki not stepped in to help support her, lowering her gently to the floor.
Where her shadow once stood, the thieves saw a swirling, shapeless mass of darkness, all congealing together to take a new form.
“Crow, we’ve been going along with this plan of yours, but do you have any idea what you’re actually doing?”
“Tch.” Akechi drew his sword, watching as an oversized hand broke free of the black mass, then another, and another. What rose into being only vaguely resembled the marionette that had faced them moments ago. It had grown many times larger, it had traded its legs for at least a dozen right arms, all messily sprouting from the gaping hole in its upper-right torso without any pattern or coordination. The hole in its iron mask that once revealed the eye- previously the only lifelike feature- how instead revealed naught but impenetrable blackness. “I’m honestly not wholly sure, the reports got quite vague in terms of details around this point in the process.”
“Are you serious?!”
“Hey it’s not as if I’ve ever actually seen it firsthand before! You can’t expect me to know everything.”
The monstrous shadow let out a groan that echoed throughout the chamber.
“I am a shadow, the lost self.”
After making sure Yoshizawa was safe on the ground, Maruki began to stand.
“I was afraid of something like this. We have to subdue her to calm her down.” With lightning speed, a tentacle shot up to deflect another bullet.
“What’s this ‘we’ business?” Akechi slid his gun back into his holster. “I think we’re more than enough, I’d prefer it if you sat this one out.”
Maruki’s brow furrowed.
“Akechi-kun. It’s in large part my own fault that this happened—"
“Indeed.” Akechi cut him off. “There is no greater symbol of the failings of your approach than dear Sumire here.” He narrowed his eyes at the shadow. “Sacrificing more and more of the ‘self’ until you have something that never stops smiling; makes me sick.”
“We’ll handle this Doctor.” Ren spoke without looking back. “We’ll talk afterwards.”
Maruki let out a heavy sigh, kneeling down to focus on protecting the unconscious girl.
“Very well, just please- only subdue her, don’t kill her.”
“Hmph.” Akechi pointed the tip of his sword towards the shadow. “I said I would return to help or end you if I found a reason to care enough, and wouldn’t you know it- I found one. Now it’s just time to see which course of action I take.”
“We don’t kill Crow.” Makoto raised her fists. “We’re not starting now.”
“Yeah yeah…”
“Get out of my way…” The gigantic shadow attempted to drag itself forwards using it’s left arm. “I’ve nearly broken away entirely, once I kill the doll, I’ll be truly free.”
“Not a chance we’re letting that happen!” Ryuji charged forwards, thrusting his bat against the shadow’s stomach, causing it to recoil, before attempting to block its retaliatory swipe- being launched across the room.
“I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed such levels of hatred before.” Yusuke was next to draw his sword. “But we shall not succumb to it, nor shall we let you succumb. Vorpal blade!”
The rapid-fire slashes drove the shadow further back still, as the rest of the thieves moved to surround it. With its asymmetrical arms and lack of legs, it had extremely limited mobility- only being able to flail around wildly in hopes of hitting something. Yet- as Ryuji would attest to- it wasn’t lacking in pure power, a few careless hits left unchecked could assuredly kill them. So they knew they had to maximize their advantage and exploit it’s weakness as much as possible.
Joker and Morgana worked to keep its focus on them, Ann and Haru focused on hard-hitting ranged attacked from behind, out of reach of retaliatory sweeps, while Yusuke, Akechi, and the recovered Ryuji continued the physical assault.
Makoto reached up to her mask.
“Agnes! Checkmate!”
Her spell drained a great deal of strength from their foe, but it didn’t seem to temper its ferocity at all; if anything it just made it angrier. It began screaming, using it’s left arm to forcefully flip itself over- Ann and Haru only narrowly avoiding being crushed beneath its back. Now not even trying to aim its attacks, it furiously flailed around, sweeping its arms across the ground as if trying to attack every available space at once. Maruki swiftly lifted Yoshizawa’s limp body and carried it to a safe corner of the room, as far from the fight as possible.
“Useless doll. Worthless parasite. I hate you so much. Just die. Hate…”
Ren- struggling to catch his breath- called upwards.
“Oracle?”
“Got it! It’s weak to curse!”
“Right!” He tore his mask away. “Satanael! Maeigaon!”
The demonic figure- though not appearing as huge as he did on Christmas eve- still managed to loom above everyone else in the room. The shadow immediately turned its attention to the persona, attempting to swipe at it, only for the attack to be smacked away, and receiving an intense surge of cursed energy for its troubles.
“Heh.” Ren couldn’t help but smirk. “Just a little more!”
The enraged flailing began to slow, the thieves’ assault only intensifying as it did so. Soon the result of the battle was clear to see, and with one last furious wail skywards, the shadow began to collapse, the mass of arms on its right side falling from its body and toppling to the ground, and along with the rest of the shadow- fading into a shadowy mass.
Mere moments after its defeat, Yoshizawa began to stir. Struggling to open her eyes with the bright lights above her, slowly seeing Maruki’s face come into focus.
“Dr. Maruki?”
He looked down at her.
“Thank goodness.”
“Can you stand?” Ren approached the two of them, the rest of the team following closely behind.
“Senpai?” She- with no small amount of effort- forced herself to her feet. Just as it seemed she would be fine, she attempted to take a step forward and stumbled, Makoto catching onto her arm to prevent her from falling. “Ah, thank you Senpai.”
“Are you feeling okay Sumire-san?”
“Sumire…” Her brow furrowed, before she gave a weak smile. “Y-yes, I’ll be okay.”
Makoto cautiously let go, letting the girl stand under her own power.
“How do you feel?”
“Dr. Maruki? I… I’m not really sure.” She gently rubbed her temple. “My head feels clearer but…” She looked up, past the thieves, to see the shadow- her shadow standing there, coldly staring at her. “You… I mean… me?”
On still-weak knees, she walked towards the shadow, standing right before her. The thieves, Akechi, and Maruki stood back and silently watched the two confront eachother.
“You’re me… right?”
The shadow remained silent.
“You said a lot of things about me… and there might be truth to a lot of it. Honestly, I’m still not sure what to think about it all, or what to think about myself…” She reached up behind her head, removing her ribbon, undoing her ponytail and letting her hair fall down. She stared at the ribbon in her hands a long while. “I’m still not sure I can handle living in a world without Kasumi… but the things Niijima-senpai said have got me thinking…” She looked up to her shadow, smiling. “I think I should at least try, y’know?”
“…”
She reached up, and gently removed the iron mask.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d like a second chance. Will you please help me, Cendrillon?”
And in a soothing blue light, the decaying marionette shifted to its true form, the beautiful, rather crystalline doll-like persona, Cendrillon. She prompty faded away and returned to Yoshizawa’s heart.
She turned around, walking back over to the group, shuffling around awkwardly a while.
“U-um… this is a bit awkward, but do you mind playing along for just a second?”
“Huh?”
“H-here goes!” She stood up straight, taking a deep breath, before bowing. “My name is Sumire Yoshizawa, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
Ren was the first to return the bow.
“Nice to meet you too, Sumire-san.”
“And now, you…” Akechi turned to Maruki, as did the others in turn.
Ren sighed.
“So you’re the one changing reality through cognitions?”
Maruki nodded.
“Indeed. I’m responsible for every change you’ve experienced since Christmas day, including the revivals.”
Ren’s expression soured.
“We didn’t ask for anything like that, man.”
“You say that, but every one of you has expressed wishes for things to be different, for tragedies to have never occurred, for the world to be a better- more just place.”
“Are you serious? Saying you’re taking us out of context is an understatement. You never asked us for our opinions before you made these changes.”
Maruki sighed.
“I made the changes without your knowledge, I had thought doing so would make the transition easier for you all, but I can see now I was mistaken, I underestimated your willpower as persona users.” He bowed deeply to the group. “Because of my miscalculation, you had to experience the pain of loss all over again. I am truly, deeply sorry to each and every one of you. I tried to save you from pain, but ended up causing so much more, all because of my mistake.”
“Doctor…” Makoto’s brow dropped.
“I won’t make that mistake again.” He stood back upright, serene smile on his face, and hand outstretched. “If you enter into it willingly, I can be sure the changes will stick this time.”
“Are you for fucking real dude?” Ren rolled his eyes in disbelief. “You really think I want your changes?”
“Amamiya-san? You can’t honestly prefer your parents being so distant? I’m giving you the chance to have the relationship you always wanted with them.”
Ren looked legitimately disgusted.
“I don’t believe you man…” He restlessly rubbed his scalp. “Bitch, using cognition magic or whatever to suddenly make my parents nice is no better than just giving me new, fake parents for the sake of playing ‘happy families’. Sumire’s shadow was right, this is like playing with dolls.”
Maruki’s gaze sharpened.
“Changing people like that is exactly what you’ve been doing the past year, that’s literally what a change of heart is.”
“We only targeted criminals, causing real harm. We’re not doing it just to give ourselves more pleasant lives.”
“Please see reason Amamiya-san. No one is more deserving of paradise than all of you.”
“Even me?” Akechi chuckled, but Maruki wasn’t seeing the funny side of it at all.
“Even you Akechi-kun. You’re included in the list of people I want to save.”
“I don’t need ‘saving’.” Akechi unloaded the rest of his clip against Maruki to punctuate his point, not caring that each shot was blocked. “I’m not letting anyone control me, ever again.”
“I’m with him on this one.” Ren spoke bluntly. “You say you want to take away pain or whatever. Do you know where I’d be if the world worked the way you wanted it? Back in Inaba, as the quiet kid, doing nothing of any worth with my life.” He stepped forward. “It’s thanks to ‘pain’ that I came here, I found purpose, I met the greatest friends I could have ever asked for, I met the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with!”
“J-Joker?!” Makoto instantly went bright red, desperately trying to avoid everyone else gazes.
Ren continued heedless.
“I suffered to get where I am, and I wouldn’t trade it for the whole damn world! I understand that you’re not a bad person, that you really do desire to do us good, but you can FUCK RIGHT OFF! THIS IS MY LIFE! THE WORLD I FOUGHT FOR ALL DAMN YEAR! NO ONE IS EVER TAKING IT AWAY FROM ME- LEAST OF ALL SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO REPLACE IT WITH SOME WHITE PICKET FENCE FARCE!”
Ren panted heavily, his throat sore from screaming, fighting back tears in his eyes.
“Joker…” Morgana stared up at him.
Maruki’s shoulders dropped.
“I understand how you feel. You really have fought hard for your happiness, you all have. You don’t have to lose any of it though. I’m not going to take the life or friends you have away, I’m only going to make sure pain disappears from your futures.”
Ren stared at him in disbelief.
“Are you even fucking listening?”
Maruki, opened his mouth to speak again, but instead paused a while, relenting.
“What about the rest of you?”
A small amount of fear appeared in Ren’s eyes, he let go of the breath he was holding, and gazed downward.
“I don’t speak for them, I’ll respect their wishes- whatever they are.” He turned his head towards them slightly, but not enough to actually look at any of them. “If you want to take his offer, you’re welcome to. I promise I won’t think any less of any of you.”
A few moments passed, before Ryuji smacked Ren in the back of the head.
“Ow! Skull? What the hell man?”
Ryuji laughed.
“Dude you’re so dumb sometimes.” He hooked his arm round the back of Ren’s neck. “Of course we’re not gonna take the deal, like we’d just up and give up like that.”
“He’s right.” Ann patted him on the back. “I’m not gonna just forget the lessons we’ve learned just because it might be easier that way.”
“Life is full of joy and pain both, desire and hope.” Yusuke nodded. “It is not a complete picture without both.”
“I’ve done enough angst-ing for a whole lifetime already.” Futaba smirked. “But just letting go of that entirely doesn’t feel right, y’know? You gotta put yourself in situations where you can get hurt to get exp after all!”
Haru brought her hand to her chest.
“I’ve lost a lot, and yeah- sometimes I do wish I could have it back. But not if it means lying to myself.”
Makoto took Ren’s hand in her own.
“Pain has helped lead to me to where I am now too. It’s been a necessary step in the process of discovering who I am. I’ll stand by you until the end, Joker.”
“Mako…”
“Ah ah, codenames.”
“R-right, sorry Queen.”
“Nyehehe.” Morgana folded his arms proudly. “We’re still dedicated to creating a world with less pain too, but we’re not gonna take shortcuts!”
Akechi… shrugged.
“Nah I just think you’re a fucking asshole.”
Sumire twiddled her fingers.
“I um… already said my thing, to my shadow- or whatever…”
Maruki stared at each of them in sequence, shocked.
“So you’ve all really chosen this path?”
Ren sighed, wiping his eyes before smiling at the doctor.
“Seems that way man.”
Maruki sighed.
“Very well.”
He vanished before their eyes in an instant.
“Where’d he—”
His voice echoed from somewhere above them.
“February third. We will settle this on February third. I’d rather we came to a civil agreement, so please- take the time until then to experience the world I’m offering, and think long and hard about your decision. If we still disagree, then I’m afraid we may have to come to blows.”
“Is he serious?”
“If you wish to investigate my palace in the meantime, you are free to do so, I’ll make no effort to stop you. Rest assured I’ll give you time before the deadline to give me my calling card if need be. We will settle this fairly. You may do whatever you wish, and I will take no action until February third. Please, understand that I still wish to save all of you, the world I create will be one in which you- and everyone else- can be happy, I won’t fail you again.”
The voice disappeared.
“He’s not actually expecting us to change our minds, right?” Ryuji kicked at some non-existent dust.
“At least we have a goal in mind, and a deadline to work towards. But first…” Makoto turned to Sumire, who seemed to be barely keeping herself awake. “We should get you to safety, I imagine you have a lot of questions.”
“Heh… yeah a few, Niijima-senpai…” Sumire offered a weak smile. “I hope you don’t mind if I go and take a nap first though, I’m exhausted after that…”
“Of course, let’s withdraw for now.”
The group began to make their way back towards the entrance. Sumire leaning on Makoto for support along the way.
“U-um… Akechi-san?”
“Hm?” He side-eyed her as they walked.
“Um… thank you. Even if your methodology was… questionable. I think you really did help me in the end, so… thank you.”
“Fuck off.”
“Oh… okay then.”
“Don’t worry.” Ren waved his hand. “That’s just his way of saying thank you.”
“Hmph…”
Chapter 88: Understanding
Summary:
The PTs return to school, and reestablish their plan going forward
Notes:
Okay so I'll be messing with the timeline just a little bit. We're ahead of schedule compared to the game. Freeing everyone took a week in game, but since in this story Ren is capable of doing more than one five-minute activity per day- we got through everyone in a single day.
However, I want them to be back in school now, so it's starting a week early- fuck it.Otherwise, nothing to worry about, just saving myself from the like- two people who actually care about that kind of thing xD
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been one hell of a night. The thieves had discovered the identity of their mysterious enemy, and had dipped their toes into his palace. Not only did they confront Maruki himself, but did battle with Yoshizawa’s shadow, helping her awaken to her own persona and her true identity as ‘Sumire Yoshizawa’. Finally they were given a deadline almost exactly a month from now to find Maruki’s treasure and prepare for their final heist.
They had a lot to absorb as they each returned to their homes, especially Sumire herself, who still seemed to be in a state of shock as she was escorted home, her mind clearly elsewhere as she said her goodbyes and entered her house. The group agreed that they’d all make time for the girl when the chance arose. The deadline would of course be the top priority, but palace investigations never took more than a few days for them, they had plenty of time to work with and plenty of experience in not letting deadline anxiety get the better of them.
They would inevitably cross paths with her at school anyways, which started back up today for the third semester. This was significant to Makoto for two major reasons: firstly- this would be her very last semester as a highschooler, in just a few short months she’ll graduate and- if all goes well- be accepted into Tokyo U and begin her college career, a very exciting prospect.
The other- much more immediate reason returning to school was significant to Makoto, was that Ren would finally be returning with her, and that meant that as she turned the corner from her apartment towards the station, she finally got reintroduced to that sight that had given her so much comfort so many times throughout the past year- the sight of Ren waiting for her to join her on her commute to school. The chill of the winter air around her was no match for the warmth in her heart when he noticed her, and started smiling.
“Morning Mako.”
It was honestly slightly embarrassing just how happy she got just from hearing that, but she didn’t mind- she could handle a little embarrassment.
“Good morning Ren. Are you feeling okay?”
Ren shrugged.
“Eh it’s gonna be an interesting month, but I’m feeling okay, we can handle it.”
“Mm.”
“Before all that, we can’t use it as an excuse to fall behind at school, we better get going.”
“Mm, right.” Makoto took Ren’s hand into her own- not needing to bashfully ask for permission this time- and the couple made their way to the station, both secretly hoping the train would be crowded enough for them to have an excuse to subtly snuggle on the way without drawing too much attention.
~ ~ ~
Of course, while the lovely couple would probably prefer to spend the whole day in each other’s embrace, they did have to part ways to head to their respective classes. They parted ways at the shoe lockers, heading in different directions.
Ren noticed that he wasn’t drawing anywhere near as much attention as he used to. His early months at Shujin he had gained a lot of notoriety from all the ridiculous rumors that sprang up in the wake of his criminal record being leaked, for a while he was all anyone talked about. That had gradually died down over time, partially because it was clear he wasn’t going around stabbing people constantly, partially because it got overshadowed by gossip related to him always hanging around with nudists, all of which seemed to be on friendly terms with him, but mostly because it was just old news, people had new banal things to gossip over. He did overhear some whispers about the sex show he and Makoto put on during the student sharing festival; that hadn’t faded from memory quite so easily. Much of this gossip actually seemed to come from female ‘fans’, and while he definitely wasn’t the type to take advantage of this- he was really enjoying the ego boost it gave him. He was worried about the possibility of Makoto still occasionally being harassed about the event, granted she and the others were absolutely capable of standing up to that kind of thing, but he still thought it’d be prudent to check with her later, just to be safe.
Classes were the same as ever, Ren would sit at his seat bored, occasionally answering whatever questions the teachers would throw at him (they really did like calling him out specifically, it was probably just force of habit at this late stage) and listen to Morgana’s musings from inside his desk. Hardly the peak of excitement, and not an area that seemed have changed all that much from Maruki’s influence, but it beat hiding away isolated in his room all day, he’d manage.
As lunch break approached, Ren noticed something out of the corner of his eye. In the corner of the room- by the door- fluttered a familiar looking butterfly. No one else seemed to notice it, which normally wouldn’t be all that unusual- people miss bugs all the time- but given it’s strange, otherworldly blue glow, it was safe to assume people’s lack of a reaction to it was more than them just being positively enthralled by their history lesson.
Although, saying no one noticed wouldn’t be entirely accurate, he noticed Ann following it intently with her eyes too. It was at this moment where Ren remembered where he had seen this before- and thus its significance. As soon as the lesson ended and they were let go, Ren loaded Morgana into his bag, and tapped Ann on the shoulder.
“Come with me, we’re following her.”
“Huh? ‘Her’? The butterfly?”
“Yeah, c’mon.”
“I… alright, okay.” Ann didn’t completely understand, but she could tell he was serious, and she also found the supposed bug radiating a strangely familiar aura.
The butterfly phased through the door out into the corridor and towards the stairs. The pair followed behind as it led them down the ground floor. It seemed to be heading towards the nurse’s office, notably where Maruki used to spend most of his time while he was under the school’s payroll, they wondered if this had any significance, only one way to find out. They turned the last corner, in time to see butterfly phase through the office door…
“Yo Renjamin!”
The pair (well, trio if you count Morgana hanging out in the bag) turned to see Eiko calling out to Ren. Rushing over to his side.
“Ren, did you find out anything about—” She paused, only just now noticing Ann standing beside them. “Oh heya Ann the Mann.”
“Ann the what?”
“I was just here to um…” Eiko chewed her lip, clearly wracking her brain. “To ask Ren about the changes to… I-I mean—”
Ren sighed, deciding to have mercy on the poor girl.
“It’s okay Eiko, Ann already knows.”
“Huh?” Ann turned to Ren. “What do I know?”
“About the changes to reality.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Wait- are you saying Eiko knows too? Did you tell her?”
Ren shook his head.
“Apparently she was never affected in the first place.”
“But… how? I thought you had to be a persona-user to even be resistant to it.”
Eiko tilted her head.
“What’s a persona-user?”
“Eiko doesn’t know that much.”
“Ah, oops…”
Eiko shook her head.
“Whatever- things have gotten even weirder. That Okumura dude, did he actually come back to life or did I just gaslight myself somehow? Since I googled him again yesterday and he’s back to being dead.” She shivered. “I could have done without seeing that livestream footage again…”
“It’s complicated.” Ren began. “He did come back, but thanks to Haru waking up, things have gone back to normal. Same for Ann, Makoto and our other friends.”
“Wake up?” Eiko looked more than a little freaked out. “Are we in a dream right now or something?”
“It’s more like a dream was in us.”
“…What?”
“Eheheh…” Ann fiddled with her twintails. “That sounded better in my head.”
Ren sighed.
“Like I said, it’s complicated. Everything is real, but someone’s changing everyone’s cognitions to change reality in turn.”
“Cognitions…” Eiko had a strained smile on her face. “I think it’s starting to dawn on me just how out of the loop I am in all this…”
Ren held his chin in thought a moment.
“You remember all the shit that was happening on Christmas eve?”
“Yeah, obviously. It’d take a lot of therapy to forget that…”
“Okay so it’s basically someone with the same power, but they’re at least trying to be nice.”
“…Right…”
“It’s not something that’ll work out in the long run though, so we’re trying to free everyone and get things back to normal.”
“I see. I understand.”
She didn’t understand.
“I guess that makes sense.”
It didn’t make any sense to her.
“I’ll give you the long version later, but we’ve got something we’ve got to get to.” Ren looked back towards the nurse’s office, Ann following his gaze to see the butterfly briefly popping out, as if to check that they were still following it.
Eiko didn’t seem to notice it though- despite looking right in its direction.
“Okay, I can tell this is going to take more than a lunchbreak for you to explain everything in a way that makes sense.” She groaned. “Man being in the dark like this is getting on my nerves, but whatever, I’ll just have to wait a little while longer.”
Ren smiled weakly.
“Sorry. I’ll give you a call this evening and explain as much as I can, ‘kay?”
“Fine, fine. I’ll hold you to that Renny.” She started backing away. “For real- no weaselling out!”
“You have my word.”
“And you will keep it! I’ll—” Eiko’s repeated comments came to an abrupt end as she ended up crashing into Aya as she was turning the corner, the pair of them crashing to the floor on top of eachother.
“ARGH! What the hell Eiko?”
“Aw geez, sorry Aya-san, didn’t see you.”
“Of course you didn’t- why the hell were you walking backwards?!”
“Y’know how it is.”
“No, I really don’t. Now get off me, and why did you have to let your hands land there of all places?”
“I mean those were the softest parts for me to break my fall with.”
“Well you’re not falling anymore, you can let go now.”
“I mean I could… Buuut…”
“GET OFF ALREADY!”
Ren discreetly tapped Ann on the shoulder, letting her know it was time for them to leave this show to the girls themselves, as well as the other passing students also not-so-subtly enjoying the free show before their lunches.
They finally stepped into the nurse’s office, Morgana hopping out of his bag. The butterfly fluttered down to one of the seats, swiftly shifting into its true form.
“We meet again Trickster.”
“Lavenza, I thought it was you.”
She smiled warmly at the boy.
“I truly thought the day you bested the false god would be the last time we would meet face to face, though I suppose the time in Club Velvet may count, even if I wasn’t myself on that occasion.”
“Club what now?”
“Hm…” Lavenza’s expression fell slightly. “Nevermind, forget I said that. I’m glad to see you again, I only wish it was under better circumstances.”
Ann took a seat on a nearby couch.
“Um, Lavenza- right? You know what’s going on, right?”
“Indeed.” She nodded. “I’ve been watching the trickster intently. I’m aware of his successful efforts to free his companions from the illusions that attempted to bound them, as well as the doctor’s plans to alter reality through cognitions. I came here to share what I know with you all.”
“Speaking of which.” Morgana jumped up onto the table. “How did you get here?”
“There is little keeping me bound to the velvet room, the rules do allow me some freedom in wandering the human world, so infiltrating your school is far from an impossible task; or rather- that would normally be the case…”
“What do you mean?”
“The velvet room exists between mind and matter, dream and reality. This allows it a connection between many a world, however it means that each individual connection is somewhat tenuous, and far from immutable. We are born from the realm of collective human consciousness, so now that that collective consciousness is in the process of being uprooted entirely, our connection to this world is growing weaker, and thus my ability to manifest myself has grown limited.” A smile returned, however subtle. “I still have the ability to appear within this school, thanks to you all.”
“Us?”
“The concentration of persona users here who are free from Maruki’s control, allow for places of great significance to you all- like the school itself- to be closer to the original reality, and thus allow me to physically appear before you all.” She looked around the room. “It’s the strongest here, as this place being associated with the cognition of ‘bedrest’, allowing me greater freedom to assert my presence.”
“I see… But what about—”
Lavenza gently lifted her hand to silence Ren.
“Before I begin, I would suggest that you gather the rest of the thieves here. Save us having to repeat the explanations later.”
“That’s a good point actually.” Ren opened his phone. “I’ll message everyone in the group chat, tell them it’s urgent. Futaba can just listen in through my phone.”
“Yusuke and Akechi aren’t going to be able to make it on such short notice.”
“Fair point Ann. We’ll just have to fill them in later.”
~ ~ ~
While much of Lavenza’s knowledge was a recap of what the team already knew, they learned that Maruki’s control was established earlier than they initially realized. Maruki’s power to alter reality through cognitions had existed for over a year, prior to Ren first arriving in Tokyo. A mysterious power called ‘Actualization’, granted to him by his persona.
When reality and mementos were fused, he was able to complete his awakening and fully realize his power. Upon Yaldabaoth’s defeat, a huge power vacuum was left in its wake, one Maruki wasted no time in filling. Though it took time for his hold over the metaverse to grow, taking until new year’s day until he was able to start making the more overt shifts to reality they had been experiencing.
His control had been limited to Tokyo, but it was spreading across Japan even as they spoke, and eventually he would completely gain control over the entire world, securing his grip on the collective subconscious in a way that even persona users couldn’t resist. It turned out he was being more honest than they realized; February third wasn’t a date he picked arbitrarily, that would be their absolute last chance to stop him before his control became too great to ever be conquered.
“I don’t get it.” Ryuji sat on the edge of one of the beds, leaning forward. “Why’s he even giving us the chance?”
“He wants us to come over to his side willingly.” Makoto sighed. “He really does think he’s helping us, and I can understand his logic.”
“There’s no way it’d work though.” Ren’s brow furrowed. “Even if we did say yes, and he really does magically fix all of our life problems, it’s all doomed to fall apart.”
“How’d you figure?” Ann tilted her head.
“We saw what was happening with Sumire. His plan to make her happy involved changing who she was, suppressing her true self, evidently doing a lot of damage in the process. I’m certain he didn’t intend that; you saw how guilty he looked when that shadow appeared; but it was kinda inevitable. Sometimes when who you are clashes with the rest of the world, pain is unavoidable. So through his methods, you’d have to change who people are at their core until they’re someone who doesn’t ‘clash with the rest of the world’, y’know?”
Makoto nodded sombrely.
“Depending on the individual, there might not be much of the real person left. You’d just be left with some completely artificial personality inhabiting their old body.”
“Plus, what if two or more people’s visions for happiness clash? What would make one person happy might hurt the other. He’d have to change who both of them are even more to find some ground that satisfies both of them. And he’s planning to do this for the entire world? How the hell is he gonna watch over literally billions of people 24/7? What happens when people need to die of old age? That’s obviously gonna be painful for their loved ones, does he just let the population inflate into infinity- that’s the plan? Land and resources be damned? What about when he’s too old? Is he gonna make himself immortal? Watching over an infinitely growing number of people for an infinite length of time, making an infinite number of constant changes until everything is perfect for everyone, forever?”
Haru rubbed her forehead.
“Just thinking about it is overwhelming. There’s no way anyone could do that without going mad- no matter how powerful they are.”
Lavenza nodded.
“It’s a certainty that he would need to discard any and all connections to his humanity in order to even attempt such a system. Anything resembling a ‘self’ or even an awareness of such concepts would surely degrade into nothing.”
“But you said his power comes from his persona?” Ann asked. “Aren’t personas mean to be our ‘selves’ or whatever? What would happen to it at that stage?”
“I lack the knowledge to say for certain. Perhaps after the loss of self, the powers exerted through the self would also vanish, leaving nothing but a chaotic mess of a world that relied on him to even exist? Or perhaps he’ll transcend into a demon?”
“A demon?”
“A being not wholly unlike a shadow, or a persona. Or rather, the beings from which shadows get their shape. The reality is more complicated, but believe me when I say they’re not something you need to be concerned about- and that is a fact you should all be very grateful for.”
“I get the feeling it’s nothing good.” Ren huffed, standing up straight. “Doesn’t matter, regardless we know we need to stop that from happening, and the only way to do that is to save Dr. Maruki.”
“Right.” Makoto nodded, determined. “We can’t stand idly by while Maruki intends to walk down a path of assured destruction, and we can’t let the world we’ve all fought for be taken from us.”
“Thankfully both problems have the exact same solution!” Haru brought her hands together happily. “We just have to steal his treasure, like we always do, right?” She turned to Lavenza, looking for confirmation.
“Indeed. Though his palace is different to all the others you’ve faced on a technical level, owing to his knowledge of the metaverse and the powers of his persona, in terms of practical action you must take- it is no different to any other obstacle you’ve faced.”
“Only difference is we’re fighting a persona user, rather than a shadow, so we have to be careful not to accidentally kill him.”
Ren turned to Makoto.
“Though if he’s as strong as Lavenza is making him out to be, I doubt we can afford to hold back any.”
A look of hesitation appeared on Makoto’s face, but only for a moment.
“We’ll manage just fine, there have been some bumps in the road, but we’ve haven’t failed yet- and I don’t intend to start now!”
“Damn right!” Ryuji cheered. “We should head out right away!”
“Hold your horses Ryuji.” Ren laughed. “I like the enthusiasm- don’t get me wrong- but this is still our lunch break. We can head out after school to start the investigation.”
“Ah… r-right.” Ryuji’s shoulders sagged.
“Be sure not to rush forward heedlessly.” Lavenza warned them. “Your opponent’s power is on par with that of the false god’s, perhaps even greater; he controls much of mementos already. His humanity may prevent him from exerting the full extent of such power, but you would be hard pressed to overestimate the true scale of his abilities.”
“Way to fill me with confidence.” Ren laughed nervously. “Don’t worry, we’ll be careful.”
Lavenza nodded.
“I shall remain stationed here, if you need me.”
“Huh?” Makoto’s eyes went wide. “You’re gonna stay here in Shujin?”
“Mm. Travelling between reality and the velvet room is taxing, it would be best to minimize the number of trips I have to make. Fear not—” She reached into her purse- which she pulled out from seemingly nowhere. “—I brought a toothbrush, I am fully prepared.”
“But, there’s no way people won’t notice you. You’re not a student or anything, you’ll be thrown out for sure.”
“I have made preparations for that as well, I shall go under cover.”
“Under cover?”
“I shall masquerade as medical staff for this learning facility.” Lavenza snapped her fingers, and her body was enveloped in a sparkling blue light as she began levitating off the ground, and in what could only be described as a ‘magical girl transformation sequence’, her usual blue dress was replaced with what was clearly a store-bought nurse cosplay outfit, the kind of which no real nurse would ever actually wear, but was undeniably adorable. “It was quite the challenge to find one in my size, I had to seek out a specialist vendor for this uniform.”
The thieves stared, utterly baffled at the girl standing before them as if nothing were amiss, completely straight faced, currently lifting one knee and pulling a piece sign with her free hand (that’s what the girl was doing on the packaging the costume came in, and thus was just something nurses were expected to do- in her mind).
Makoto facepalmed.
“Lavenza, you can’t just pretend to be a nurse. You need documentation, you need to actually have the school hire you.”
Lavenza held out a piece of paper for Makoto to take, the others discreetly gathering around her to read it:
“This hereby certifies that Lavenza is a qualified nurse and belongs in this establishment…”
Makoto stared at Lavenza incredulously.
“Excuse me?”
“I had Master write me a note. Having that in writing should serve as adequate documentation.”
“Oh good lord…”
Ann raised her hand.
“You forgot to include a surname.”
“Ann, that’s hardly the biggest problem here!”
Lavenza gazed up at the ceiling, her lips parted.
“Oh yes, humans have more than one name, I didn’t think of that. Oh well, it should be fine.”
“There’s no way this is fine…”
“Queen-san, it is my understanding you are in a position of leadership among the student body, I will be counting on your support to make my presence here official.”
“I don’t think I have that much authority!” Makoto groaned, her shoulders dropping in defeat. “Fine, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Excellent.” Lavenza bowed. “Your help is much appreciated. Now, I best not keep you much longer, your school duties still require your attention.”
“I guess?” Ryuji got to his feet. “I’d like to try and eat summin’ before class starts back up.” He opened his eyes to see Lavenza, holding a lollipop in front of his face. “Uhh…”
“Part of my duties as a medical professional to dispense boiled confectionary attached to plastic sticks to my patients.”
“I think you might be getting your target age range wrong.”
“…Can I have one?”
“Ann!”
“What? I’m not allowed candy now or something?”
“Fear not, I have an ample supply.” Lavenza approached the table in the centre of the room, she opened her purse and held it upside-down. After a brief lull, a veritable stream of lollipops came surging out and loudly crashing against the table’s surface, causing the thieves to flinch back slightly, and Haru- who had been sat at the table at the time- to cautiously back away just in case. Lavenza stood completely still as the stream continued, the pile getting steadily larger, and a good number of them clattering onto the floor. After about 25 seconds of uninterrupted pouring, Lavenza righted her purse, and sealed it back up, before turning to Ann. “Please, help yourself.”
Ann paused for a few moments, before grabbing a couple handfuls and stuffing them into her pockets, swiftly and wordlessly making her way out the door.
Makoto sighed.
“I guess the rest of us better go too. We’ll meet up again at Leblanc after school and discuss our plans.”
Ren chuckled lightly.
“You heard the woman, dismissed.”
“Shut up Ren.” Makoto left the room, mumbling to herself about ‘how the hell she was supposed to explain Lavenza to the faculty’.
“I’ll speak to you later Ren-kun.”
“Later man.”
Haru and Ryuji left shortly afterwards, the former of which being sure to grab a red lollipop on the way out.
“You have dependable allies Trickster.”
Ren smiled.
“Don’t worry, I’m well aware.”
Ren grabbed a piece of candy for himself, and a second one to give to Makoto later. He hesitated before leaving though, instead closing the door again and turning back to the girl.
“Um… Lavenza?”
“Hm? Is something the matter?”
“Two quick questions- Eiko Takao…”
“I’m aware of her, you wish to know why she’s apparently unaffected, don’t you?”
“Y-yeah.”
Lavenza smiled.
“That would be your doing.”
“Huh?”
“The bonds you have formed over the past year, do you remember the feelings you would have upon fully realizing your connections with them?”
“My feelings… oh! You mean that thing where everything goes dark and I hear a voice?”
“Indeed.”
“Heh…” Ren rubbed the back of his head. “So those were real, here I honestly thought it was some ‘undiagnosed mental illness’ thing.”
“No, don’t worry. You are perfectly healthy mentally.”
“That’s a relief I guess… but uh… what about them?”
“When that happened, you would break their chains.”
“Their chains?”
“The god of control established his influence over humanity over many years, it’s control would manifest in the form of chains around their hearts. By forming a strong bond with a trickster like yourself, they were able to break free, and thus were aware of the reality shifts you saw on Christmas eve- before your final battle.”
“I see… but… I formed connections with a lot of people, why was only Eiko unaffected by Maruki’s illusions?”
Lavenza smiled.
“A remarkable coincidence. Just as you were about to completely shatter the chains wrapped around this girl’s heart, you were interrupted by your ‘Queen’.”
“I… think I remember that?”
“The chains were already damaged enough so she could see through Yaldabaoth’s attempts to block her cognition of the changes he was making, but they were still technically there.”
“Right…?”
“However, when Maruki usurped his power, he went about reestablishing all the chains, effectively undoing your efforts. However, since this ‘Eiko’ already had chains, he saw no reason to replace them. So they were easy for you to break on the night after Christmas.”
“So you’re saying I freed her twice? On a technicality?”
“In essence, yes.”
“Jeez… so because of really unusual timing, she’s now involved in all this?”
“It would appear so.”
“I mean, good I freed her, but man it’s gonna make things complicated. Not sure how I’m going to explain this all to her later.”
Lavenza chuckled.
“I’m sure you’ll manage. Anyway you said you had two questions, that was the first.”
“R-right… the other thing…” Ren nervously chewed his lip. “Wh-when you said you’ve been ‘watching me intently’… How much do you mean?”
“Hm?” Lavenza looked at him curiously. “I have observed much of your life since coming to Tokyo, why?”
“I mean… do you watch me when I’m at home?”
“Mm.” Lavenza nodded without shame. “Yes.”
Ren froze in fear, his face strained.
“You mean…”
“You have a rather odd ritual whenever Morgana isn’t present. You would often look at something on your phone and begin—”
Ren slapped his hand over her mouth.
“I-I think that’s enough, I’d really rather you didn’t watch that…”
Lavenza gently moved his hand.
“It’s quite alright, I understand the ritual is greatly pleasing to you, and I do not wish to deny you your moment of happiness.” She brought her hand to her cheek. “Observing it is always rather fascinating.”
“Please stop talking…”
~ ~ ~
Unbeknownst to the thieves, Sumire had been standing outside the nurse’s office for the entire explanation. Her life had completely changed last night, the fact that Kasumi no longer existed, and that she was only ‘Sumire’ still hadn’t fully sunken in. In facing and embracing her shadow, she had resolved to no longer deny her true self, beyond that though… she felt rather lost.
What did ‘embracing her true self’ even mean? She had gone nearly a whole year pretending to be someone else entirely… no, if she was honest, she had been trying to be Kasumi for far longer than that, and doing a rather poor job. Even Maruki’s influence did little to actually improve her abilities, to make her more ‘Kasumi-like’ until new year’s day, whereby she seemed to be a sudden success again… but was that what actually happened? Or did Maruki just change everyone else’s perception of her too? She had no idea.
Also, the fear and even repulsion she felt towards Ren and Makoto has just up and vanished since her ‘awakening’, and the memories from before those feelings had returned to her, unclouded by fog. All this left her lost and confused as to her feelings toward Ren; the words of her shadow, calling her out for ‘using him for validation’ further troubled her. She had no idea what to do or how to feel.
She saw him, Makoto, and the rest of the thieves present resolve to stop Maruki inflicting the same fate onto the rest of the world as he did to her. While part of her doubted if their fears were as well-founded, she agreed that saving Maruki from himself was absolutely the right course of action for them to take.
“Do you intend to stay idly by?”
Sumire flinched, shocked by the voice, her own- but different, but relaxed when she realized it came from within.
‘Cendrillon… I… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.’
“What do you think of them? Standing against that man?”
‘I… I think they’re right to do so, but…’
“But what?”
‘It gives me a strange feeling, one I don’t like.’
“Oh?”
‘Despite everything, I can’t see him as an enemy.’
“…Is that so?”
‘Everything he did, he did to try and help me. Never once were his thoughts on anything other than trying to stop me from getting hurt.’
“And look where that got us…”
‘You’re right… he wants nothing more than to help people, and yet… he’s so bad at it. It makes me sad.’
“…It is rather pitiable.”
‘The things Senpai said- about his plan in the long term. Maruki isn’t stupid, he has to have thought about the sacrifices he’d have to make to act as caretaker for the whole world like that. He knows full well he’d be throwing away everything to make it happen…’
“A truly foolish man.”
‘For him to be willing to discard his humanity entirely… I think he might be like me.’
“How so?”
‘He’s running away from something. I’m not blameless in what happened to me. He asked me outright if I wanted to be Kasumi, and I said yes.’
“You had no way of knowing the true significance of that question, how he’d make that happen.”
‘But still, I was willing to throw my self away, throw you away, us; just to run away from my pain. He has to be running from something too. I… I want to return the favor’
“Return the favor?”
‘I want to help him. But I’ll do the better job, I’ll find out why he’s so willing to throw everything away, then I’ll make him see reason. I… I have to save Dr. Maruki.’
“…Then you know what you have to do.”
‘Right… I just have to figure out how I’m going to…’
“…”
‘…’
“…Wh-why is that girl in a nurse outfit now?”
‘I’m… not sure… I’ve lost my train of thought.’
“W-we’ll find it again, probably. But for now we best leave, we don’t want them to spot us.”
‘R-right!’
~ ~ ~
Ren had gotten through his first day back at school, to say he was enjoying it would be an overstatement, but he was definitely enjoying being able to spend the day with his friends again at least.
He had planned to meet up with everyone at Leblanc ready to start planning their infiltration of Maruki’s palace, but Makoto would still be busy a while longer with student council business, mostly just trying to convince the faculty not to throw Lavenza out as an intruder. Thus Ren had some time to kill, he left a message in the group chat, telling everyone to stand by, and that they’ll let everyone know when it’s time to gather together.
Speaking of Lavenza, it he decided it would be wise to check up on her. He had no idea what they got up to in the velvet room when he wasn’t visiting, but he’d assume that she didn’t actually have any kind of medical license; frankly he couldn’t entirely discount the possibility she threw out a megidolaon while he was in class, or at least healed a scraped knee by casting diarahan- which while less harmful, would raise a few too many questions; that one’s best saved for emergencies.
As he approached the nurse’s office, he noticed a small crowd gathered outside. Students of both genders were abuzz, gossiping amongst themselves. A feeling of dread began forming in his stomach; Ren rushed over, standing on his tip-toes to peer over the crowd and see into the office.
There sat Lavenza in her chair, surrounded by a gaggle of students.
“Oh my god she’s so cute!”
“Where’d she come from?”
“She can’t really be a nurse?”
Lavenza didn’t seem too bothered by it all, she sat up straight and answered in a professional tone.
“I am serving as the medical staff for this facility for the next month.”
“D’awww, her outfit is so cute!”
“She’s much better than the old nurse, she was kinda creepy.”
“Dude you’re the one being creepy, fussing over her so much.
“Do you want another lollipop Lavenza-chan?”
Lavenza calmly shook her head.
“No thank you, those are for patients, not myself.”
“She’s such a sweetheart!”
“No need to be modest little girl.”
“How old are you Lavenza-chan? Can you count for us on your fingers?”
She looked at them, confused.
“Time is a human concept that means little to beings such as myself, but even if I were to use earth years as a unit of measurement, the number would be many orders of magnitude greater than what I can demonstrate with my fingers.”
“OH GOD SHE’S A CHUUNI!”
“That makes her even cuter!”
“Can I pat your head Lavenza-chan?”
“I’m a medical professional, please call me Lavenza-sensei.”
“That’s somehow even cuter!”
“Can I pat your head Lavenza-sensei?”
“…Would that somehow be beneficial to your physical or emotional health?”
“U-uh… y-yeah! Totally! Yes!”
She sighed, and rested her cap on her lap.
“Then go ahead.”
“AAIIIEE!”
Ren watched the student stroking Lavenza’s head with a- frankly- concerning level of bliss on her face. He shoved past the crowd to reach Lavenza.
“Oh, hello again Trickster, are you well?” She asked him, seemingly unbothered by the two more students currently pinching her cheeks.
Ren shook his head, not fully believing what he was seeing.
“Uhh… you doing okay?”
“Mm.” She nodded. “Nursing is hard work, but rather fulfilling.”
“Fulfilling, huh?” The students barely seemed to notice he was here, too absorbed in petting and prodding Lavenza like she was an animal in a petting zoo. He decided enough was enough and stepped in. “Alright alright, you lot. Quit swarming the poor girl.”
He was able to push some of the mob back, but they didn’t seem at all happy with him.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
“You’re not in charge here.”
“You can’t expect us to hold ourselves back when she’s this cute.”
“Um… that’s a bit of a worrying comment, easy to take out of context.”
“You just want to hog her all to yourself, don’t you, Amamiya-san?!”
Lavenza- remaining calm and collected- rose from her seat, and lightly bowed to those present.
“The trickster is right, we should reestablish order. Please form a single file line, and you can all take my turns healing through petting my head.”
“Right away my Queen!”
In an unprecedented display, the whole mob rapidly started organizing themselves; some especially authoritative students directing the rest into a proper line. One girl was even going so far as to tear pieces off of a blank sheet of paper, write numbers on them, then hand them out to organize people that way.
“I’m starting to feel like my presence isn’t needed…” Ren thought aloud.
“I appreciate your willingness to help Trickster, but you have other matters to attend to, right?”
“Y…yeah…” He gave an unsure thumbs up as he reluctantly made his way out. “Um, good luck? Give me a call if you need anything.”
“Understood.” Lavenza nodded to him as he left. Her brow furrowing slightly as the first student in line started petting her head. “This is healing to you, is it?”
The girl nodded.
“You can say that again.”
“Hm…” Lavenza glanced at the line out of the corner of her eye. “Humans are rather odd.”
Notes:
I did have more material for nurse Lavenza, but I'll save it for a later chapter.
Chapter 89: A recap episode? Really?
Summary:
Yes, really.
A chatlog chapter, here we go
Notes:
So I genuinely did sit down with the intention of having this chapter be the beginning of the infiltration and Sumire joining the team, but my fingers slipped and I accidentally wrote this instead
Also a fan commissioned some fanart of Makoto looking lovely in her PT gear, check it out and support the artist:
https://www.deviantart.com/durdevul/art/Nudist-Queen-997957036
Chapter Text
Ren: So this is the story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute, just listen in, I’ll tell you how I became a thief in a school called Shujin
Eiko: You’re not gonna keep this shit up for the whole explanation, are you?
Ren: Nah, even that one line was pushing the limits of my abilities, I’m not cool enough to adapt the whole song
Eiko: Doesn’t work as well over text anyway…
Eiko: Whatever. You said you were gonna fill me in, well now I’ve got time for ‘the long version’
Eiko: That’s what she said, btw
Ren: I’m guessing the ‘she’ in question is Makoto
Eiko: She probably gets it a lot, knowing you two
Eiko: Though there was that time Fumi-chan and me got our free trial too
Eiko: But that’s not important. I’m sick of having no idea what’s going on
Ren: I can’t guarantee you’ll understand it even after I explain it
Ren: A LOT of weird stuff has happened to get us here
Ren: So if I say something completely nonsensical and unbelievable, just accept it as fact
Eiko: What a disclaimer…
Ren: So there I was, chilling in Inaba being my usual cool, charming self
Eiko: ‘Cool’ and ‘charming’, huh?
Eiko: Already sounding pretty unbelievable…
Ren: Heheh
Ren: Yeah I was just the quiet kid back then, minded my own business and didn’t quite have the guts to come out of my shell
Ren: Once I got my fresh start here I managed to blossom into the incredible guy I am today
Eiko: Heh
Eiko: Sure, I’ll be nice and agree with you
Eiko: You managed to charm Nudie Prez so I guess you’ve earned some bragging rights
Ren: I’m very lucky
Ren: But nevermind all that. The reason I came to Tokyo in the first place is actually relevant. You know Shido?
Eiko: The politician you guys targeted?
Eiko: Lex Luthor with the tacky sunglasses?
Ren: That’s the one. I ran into him on the way to the store one evening. He was in Inaba for some reason, wandering around drunk, and harassing this woman.
Eiko: Wait, your criminal record that got leaked mentioned assault, did you beat him up?
Ren: Actually no. tbh that was before I started working out, realistically he probably would have kicked my ass if we actually tried to get into a fight back then
Ren: Dude was just so blind drunk that he fell on his ass by himself. Threatened to sue me, then threatened the woman into collaborating his version of events when the cops showed up.
Ren: I get convicted, let out on probation, shipped off here to Tokyo for… I dunno, reasons?
Eiko: Well that sounds like it fucking sucked
Ren: It did at the time, but it led to me meeting my friends and the love of my life, so I can’t be too mad
Ren: Honestly that woman was the only real victim, since my actions achieved jack-shit to help her in the end…
Eiko: I mean, yeah it’s awful for her too, but being punished just for trying to help out? I feel bad for you man…
Ren: Seriously- don’t. Looking at it from a purely selfish perspective- it was my big lucky break
Ren: Now I know what real friends and love are like
Eiko: If you say so…
Ren: Anyway that’s all just set up, the weird shit didn’t start happening until I arrived In Tokyo
Ren: There was the part where time froze and my other self from the collective human consciousness whispered to me, but that’s not important
Eiko: Uh, it sounds pretty fucking important to me!
Ren: Nah that’s just minor shit, I only mention it since it was the first weird thing, what really matters is I got this app on my phone
Eiko: An app is the important part?
Ren: Yo but get this- I didn’t install it on my phone, it just appeared when I arrived!
Ren: ~OOOoooOOOooo~
Eiko: …
Eiko: So you downloaded a virus?
Ren: What? No.
Eiko: Early onset Alzheimer’s then?
Ren: No, I don’t think so anyway…
Eiko: You mean you don’t remember?
Ren: We’re not doing this bit. Point is this weird app showed up on my phone, I deleted it a few times but it would come back every time.
Eiko: Still sounds like you’re dumb and downloaded a virus.
Ren: Whatever, the app is important, trust me
Ren: Fast forward to my first day of school, I met Ryuji on the way there
Eiko: He’s the one with the bleached hair and the thug face, right?
Ren: That’s the one
Eiko: He always has that floofy rich girl making eyes at him
Ren: You noticed that too?
Eiko: Who wouldn’t? Girl keeps eyeing him like a wolf watching a lone sheep
Eiko: I get he’s dense or whatever and probably doesn’t notice, but when’s she gonna hurry up and throw him into bed or whatever?
Ren: There’s not really been a chance to, life’s been so hectic lately, especially for her
Ren: Wait, we’re getting off topic again
Eiko: Whoops. I guess Old man Tora was right, I am easily distracted
Ren: So me and Ryuji end up talking about Kamoshida, but what we didn’t realize that the app- the one that appeared on my phone- was voice activated
Ren: And we ended up in another dimension, a world made from the collective subconscious of humanity- or something to that effect
Eiko: Huh?
Ren: Okay so that thing I said about you having to just accept what I say as fact? This is what I was talking about
Eiko: …
Eiko: Gimme a sec…
Ren: What are you doing?
(Makoto Niijima has joined the chat)
Makoto: What did you invite me here for?
Eiko: Hey Nudie prez! I need you to tell me if the Ren-with-a-plen is trolling me or not
Ren: I’m being honest
Makoto: Hold on a second
Makoto: Okay I’ve read through the chat so far. I wasn’t there for this part, but everything so far matches up with what I know
Eiko: He said he went to another world with an app…
Makoto: Yes
Eiko: …What?
Makoto: Yeah. We dive into the hearts of criminals through the world of the collective subconcious we access through an app given to Ren by a man with a long nose in his dreams. What’s not to get?
Eiko: …
Eiko: I’m starting to regret asking for an explanation…
Ren: I get it
Ren: Should we stop?
Eiko: Hell no. I’m never gonna get over the shit that happened on Christmas eve unless I understand what the hell it was
Makoto: Is that all you needed me for?
Ren: You can stick around if you like Mako, you weren’t here for this bit
Makoto: True. Besides, it’s better than just sitting here anxious for the infiltration tomorrow
Eiko: Infiltration?
Ren: We’ll get to that. First it was just me and Ryuji, we entered this other dimension- which we call the metaverse, more specifically, we ended up in Kamoshida’s palace
Makoto: I already know your next question Eiko-san, so I’ll answer it
Makoto: The metaverse is- as Ren mentioned- a world made up of the collective human subconscious, but within that you have palaces, which are attached to specific people with desires distorted enough to warp a specific location within the metaverse to reflect their own hearts
Ren: In Kamoshida’s case, he thought of Shujin as his own personal castle, full of his slaves- both the sexual and normal varieties, with him as the king. And thus the metaverse version of the school had shifted into a literal form of that
Eiko: I can believe that…
Eiko: The part about Kamoshida seeing the school that way, I mean. The rest is a little harder to swallow
Makoto: I never saw that one
Ren: Good. It was pretty repulsive.
Ren: I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not the type to be put off by sexual imagery, but seeing how he saw all the students there, all the counterparts- or ‘cognitions’ as we call them- of the students for him to toy with, the female students writhing around and fawning over him. Even a cognitive version of Ann… even Shiho…
Eiko: That’s a ‘yikes’ from me dawg
Ren: ‘Yikes’ is an understatement. Frankly I still feel bad that we had to put Ann through that too…
Eiko: If it’s really like you’re describing it, yeah it must have been rough.
Eiko: Was I there?
Ren: What?
Eiko: Was there a version of me there?
Eiko: Not that I’d want there to be- obviously. But I was just wondering if I stood out enough back then to maybe play a role?
Ren: …No?
Eiko: Okay good, I think…
Eiko: Actually yeah, it was good. I’m fine with standing out, even with older men ogling me or having silly little fantasies. But Kamoshida… ugh…
Makoto: I know exactly what you mean…
Makoto: How could it not have been obvious to me back then?
Eiko: Don’t beat yourself up over it. Damn near everyone was ignorant back then
Ren: We stopped him in the end anyway, so it’s all good. ‘We’ being me, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana
Eiko: Your ‘definitely not a cat’?
Ren: We met him in the palace, don’t worry about it
Eiko: Right…
Ren: Anyway in the metaverse everyone has a true counterpart- not the cognitions which are basically just part of the distorted perception of reality, same as the rest of the palace environment- but our actual subconscious given form. They’re called shadows, and Kamoshida’s shadow played the role of ‘King’
Makoto: Not to be confused with regular shadows, which are just parts of the general subconscious not attached to anyone specific, which take the form of mythological creatures we fight along the way
Eiko: Why do you have two different things with the same name?
Ren: No idea, I didn’t make the rules
Ren: Morgana says he doesn’t know either, it’s just how it is
Eiko: This is really confusing
Ren: Well then good news- it gets worse
Ren: We’re able to fight all these shadows and stuff by uniting with our other selves, which upon us accepting a contract with them, transform into their true forms called Personas, and then we have superpowers and shit
Ren: It’s awesome
Eiko: …Nudie prez?
Makoto: That’s also 100% true, he’s not just being a dork
Eiko: Okay, just had to be sure…
Ren: So we ended up infiltrating Kamoshida’s palace, and stealing the manifestation of the source of his ‘distorted desires’. We give it physical form by sending a calling card to the palace ruler in real life. This triggers the idea in their subconscious that their desires can be stolen, then we go into the palace, steal the thing- whatever it might be, for Kamoshida it was a big crown- and escape.
Ren: They then lose their desires IRL too, are left wracked with guilt over all the awful shit they did, and are compelled to come forward and confess everything publicly. That’s what a change of heart is
Eiko: So you use superpowers in a magic dreamworld to turn bad guys into good guys by literally stealing the ‘badness’ out of their hearts?
Makoto: Broadly speaking- yes, that’s the jist of it
Eiko: All this hype over the Phantom thieves over the course of the year, and they literally turn out to be friggin’ care bears
Ren: I kinda like that comparison actually
Makoto: I don’t
Makoto: Care bears are nothing Buchimaru-kun rip-offs but without the character depth
Makoto: And yet somehow THEY’RE the ones everyone remembers, while Buchimaru-kun- with actual complexity and integrity- has fallen out of favor with the public at large
Ren: You sound pretty bitter about that Mako…
Makoto: I AM BITTER!
Eiko: LOL
Ren: Moving swiftly along. Once we changed Kamoshida’s heart, the four of us came together and officially founded ‘The Phantom Thieves’
Eiko: Because of course you have to make it as dorky as possible
Ren: You know it
Ren: We repeated the process with now-known abuser- Madarame, recruiting our friend Yusuke in the process
Eiko: Man…
Makoto: What’s wrong?
Eiko: Why was Kosei the only school to get male nudists? They’re a bunch of weirdos, but they’re HOT weirdos
Makoto: I suppose? You have to remember that in boths schools the only nudists are small, tight knit groups of friends. We haven’t got any ‘randoms’ to join
Makoto: Am I using that term right, Ren?
Ren: Yeah you’ve got it. Good girl
Makoto: Don’t patronize me…
Makoto: But speaking of nudists, that would have been the point I first joined the program
Eiko: Nudie prez pushing us into a new age. An age of sexy ladies permanude
Ren: I don’t say this often enough: Makoto, you’re fucking incredible
Makoto: Don’t exaggerate. In fact I recall I was pretty awful to all of you back then
Ren: When? I certainly don’t remember it like that
Eiko: Why? What happened?
Makoto: The short version is the principal had tasked me with tracking down the Phantom Thieves, making vague, ominous- and I now realize- rather empty threats about my future and the reputation of my sister to pressure me to succeed
Eiko: So you were blackmailed?
Makoto: Eh… kind of? I can’t really claim any sort of moral highground or victim card from that though, not when I blackmailed the thieves
Eiko: For real?
Makoto: We were technically enemies at first- even when they were helping me deal with all the initial fuss over my nudism. I was working to expose them, and once I had the material to do so, I forced them to ‘prove their justice’ to me, targeting the mob boss- Kaneshiro
Ren: You took literally the best possible course of action
Makoto: Huh?
Ren: And I don’t just mean in terms of results, but in your position, you did literally the best possible thing anyone could do. Frankly I think it’s a shame no one’s commended you for it until now
Makoto: Ren what the hell are you talking about? I threatened to ruin your lives. You were fighting for the sake of others, and I threatened to turn you over to the corrupt authorities all for the sake of a little clout
Ren: Maybe if you think about it purely from the Thieves’ perspective, it’d certainly look like that. We knew we were the good guys, fighting the good fight and all that, but you didn’t know that at the time
Ren: From your perspective we were an unknown quantity, posing a serious threat to the authority you’ve trusted your entire life. We had proven we had the power to force very high-profile people to completely expose their darkest secrets, and since you- nor anyone else- had any idea how we were doing it, our capabilities were a very concerning mystery
Ren: So it wouldn’t be unreasonable for people to trust the established authority they’ve been raised to trust their whole lives over this faceless group with unknown motives and abilities. And yet you still- through nothing more than adherence to your own sense of justice- still decided to take a HUGE risk to reach out to us, and give us an honest chance to prove ourselves
Ren: You were willing to consider the possibility that everything you’ve taken for granted in life might have been wrong, and you took a gamble on a group that everyone around you feared. Giving us that chance, while still being smart enough to leave yourself in a position whereby if we did turn out to be corrupt or unreliable, you could have safely gone back to your original loyalties
Ren: Your actions are proof that you’ve always been loyal to your idea of justice, you’ve never just been a tool for adults. And for letting us prove ourselves, I thank you. I was already crushing on you pretty hard before, but I think the moment I realized what you were doing when you cornered me with that recording- that was one of the major moments that led to me falling in love with you.
Ren: So I’m not exaggerating when I say you’re incredible Makoto, I mean it with all my heart
Eiko: Woah
Eiko: …Nudie prez?
Eiko: Are you crying rn?
Makoto: I um…
Makoto: I had no idea you saw it that way Ren…
Makoto: Thank you, that really means a lot to me
Makoto: I love you too Ren
Eiko: I’m beginning to feel like a third wheel…
Ren: Heheh… Sorry Eiko, I guess we got off track again
Eiko: This is happening a lot in this conversation. I don’t mind though, I can tell this is a moment that needed to happen between you two
Eiko: I just got to enjoy being a voyeur LOL
Makoto: Let’s please just get back to the explanation, please?
Makoto: My next action wasn’t so laudable…
Ren: Yeah to be honest running off to confront Kaneshiro by yourself was a mistake no matter how you slice it, I can’t really defend that
Ren: But you were going through a lot at the time
Makoto: That’s no excuse. But regardless I made sure to learn from it, I won’t repeat the mistake ever again. And I’m forever grateful for you all helping me out
Ren: I’d say you were helping us.
Ren: Makoto joined us officially at that point, and we took down Kaneshiro’s palace together. All was well in the end
Eiko: So that’s when she got that fetish-y outfit, huh?
Eiko: Nice
Makoto: I guess I can’t deny it’s fetish-y
Makoto: Wearing it does make me feel powerful though…
Makoto: Though in fairness that might be- at least in part- because I literally get superpowers whenever I wear it
Ren: You look hot in it
Makoto: Not in front of Eiko!
Eiko: Too late! LMAO
Makoto: Ugh… anyway after we took down Kaneshiro, I was firmly on their side, and I stopped trying to expose the thieves
Makoto: That would have been when we met you, Eiko
Eiko: You were already doing your superhero shit in other worlds, fighting monsters and crap at that point, and you had time to worry about me and my shady POS BF?
Makoto: I told you. I won’t just keep quiet while my friend has her life ruined.
Eiko: I know… I really appreciate that
Eiko: ARGH! This is too much sappy shit at once!
Eiko: Say something funny! Tell a story about how Ren accidentally got hit in the crotch or something!
Ren: What?
Eiko: He seems like the kind of dummy to do something like that while trying to look cool
Makoto: Of course not, no one would ever be dumb enough to do something like that
Makoto: That’d be ridiculous…
Ren: Getting back to the story I guess…
Ren: After all the stuff with you, suddenly we had Medjed making all those threats on TV and stuff
Eiko: Following the pattern, you had to go to their palace and do the thing?
Ren: Nope. We didn’t have their real name. In order to get in a palace in the first place we need the person’s name, the real life place their palace is based around, and whatever their palace manifests as in the metaverse
Ren: So when they’re anonymous, we can’t do shit
Ren: It’s pretty lame, ngl…
Eiko: Sounds it
Makoto: Um… Ren? Not to sidetrack us yet again, but…
Ren: It means ‘not gonna lie’
Makoto: Thank you
Eiko: So what happened with Medjed? Seemed one day everyone was talking about how they’re gonna wreck the economy, next day apparently their homepage is nothing but minion memes
Makoto: We recruited a hacker during that time
Makoto: Futaba had her own palace, with her own issues to overcome which I won’t go into detail for the sake of her privacy
Eiko: I guess that’s fair
Ren: The important takeaway is that by entering her own palace- by accident mind you- she was able to meet her shadow face to face, make peace with them, and awaken to her persona that way
Ren: Then she joined us, and took down Medjed through hacking nonsense, I’ll be lying if I said I understood literally ANYTHING she did. But hey- we won, and during that period we also went to Haru’s palace and she got her persona the exact same way
Makoto: We didn’t do anything unnecessary while we were there, so don’t ask
Eiko: I wasn’t gonna, but now that you’re pre-emptively saying that I’m suspicious
Makoto: The events there were in no way inappropriate, moving on. Ren tell the rest of the story.
Ren: Take a deep breath Makoto
Makoto: Tell the damn story!
Ren: Alright alright
Eiko: I’ll have to interrogate you about this later Nudie Prez, my head is still spinning from all the supernatural shit right now
Ren: Shortly after this we had that trip to Hawaii
Eiko: Still jealous I missed out on that…
Ren: I don’t bring it up just to brag
Ren: I mean it’s worth bragging about, since it was awesome
Ren: It’s actually important. Since one detail I’ve left out so far is the fact that we weren’t the only ones who could use the metaverse
Ren: Turns out if you just kill someone’s shadow rather than steal their treasure, the person has a mental shutdown and dies IRL
Eiko: That’s… scary
Makoto: That’s an understatement
Ren: The principal was killed that way while we were away, and it was blamed on us. Same thing happened with Okumura. We targeted him with the intention of changing his heart for Haru’s sake
Ren: How they were able to time his death so perfectly to happen on live broadcast baffles me, but somehow they managed it, and the public quickly turned on us
Eiko: I only saw the broadcast after it happened, it was everywhere on social media. Soon as one person’s upload got banned another version popped up
Eiko: Someone really must have wanted everyone to hate you if they made it into that much of a spectacle
Makoto: No kidding
Ren: We got through it in the end though
Ren: We figured out the true culprit. They came and tried to assassinate me and make it look like suicide. But thanks to Makoto’s awesome master plan, we tricked him into killing a cognition that just looked like me instead
Eiko: Who was it? Should I know them?
Ren: The politician, Shido
Eiko: AHA! So that’s why you did that big call-out thing for him!
Makoto: Technically he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger, that would be Akechi-kun, but Shido gave the order
Eiko: That celebrity detective guy?
Eiko: He was jumping around doing supernatural shit to kill people this whole time?
Eiko: That’s fucked
Ren: Yeah…
Ren: Thankfully we’re awesome, so we beat him and Shido no problem
Makoto: Well I wouldn’t say there were no problems
Makoto: We had to resort to some… unconventional tactics…
Makoto: Well I did anyway
Ren: I speak for the whole team when I say we’re grateful for the sacrifices you make for our sake
Eiko: OwO?
Makoto: So after Shido’s defeat…
Eiko: I love it when you try to change the subject like that, it means you’re hiding something juicy
Makoto: His confession and subsequent prosecution wasn’t able to move forward thanks to all the corrupt officials he surrounded himself with
Makoto: Who were too numerous and too anonymous for us to target them all when we had literally NO time remaining before they started hunting us all down
Ren: So we went to Mementos, and FINALLY the part where I can start explaining the shit you saw on Christmas eve, and indeed what’s happening to reality now.
Eiko: I almost forgot that’s the whole point of this…
Eiko: What’s Mementos?
Ren: We’ve been talking about palaces for people with distorted desires. Turns out what that actually means is people with desires separate from the whole
Ren: While one person’s subconscious makes up a palace, everyone’s collective subconscious come together to make one MASSIVE palace underground called ‘Mementos’
Makoto: Of course, like every palace there was a treasure. Yet somehow this treasure became powerful enough to gain sentience, and up and decided that since it’s the physical form of humanity’s desires, it knew what was best for the world
Ren: I’m not fully convinced tbh. That is really was humanity’s desires and not just some other being that managed to take on that role and brainwash everyone into giving it power
Makoto: I suppose there’s no way of knowing now
Makoto: We thought by erasing mementos, we’d free everyone from the unnatural apathy they were under
Makoto: We lost at first, and the treasure started to fuse the real world with the metaverse, that’s what you saw on Christmas eve
Eiko: I see…
Eiko: It really did look like the end of the world, and I guess it really was
Ren: But thanks to everyone’s support, I guess the collective human desire shifted in our favor
Eiko: Literal power of friendship?
Eiko: See? You’re literally fucking carebears!
Ren: No, I’m fucking Makoto
Makoto: Shut up Ren
Ren: Did the carebears ever actually use ‘the power of friendship’?
Eiko: No idea, I’ve literally never watched any care bears media in my life
Eiko: I’m just assuming I know what it’s about
Ren: Fair enough
Ren: Point is, we won, and freed everyone from the bad guy’s control
Eiko: I would say ‘yay’, but things are still weird now…
Ren: Yeah… we thought that’d be the end of it, hell- we were told the whole metaverse would vanish. Turns out that was a lie
Makoto: With the defeat of the false god, a huge power vacuum was left in its wake
Makoto: And with the power of his own persona- unbeknownst to us- Dr. Maruki began to take control of the metaverse
Eiko: FUCK OFF, HIM?!
Eiko: The same Dr. Maruki who came to our school with the permanent “Please peg me Mommy” face? He’s the supervillain controlling everything now?
Makoto: The what face?
Eiko: Oh come on, dude looks like it’s his destiny to get pegged
Eiko: It’s all the girls ever talked about
Makoto: I never really kept up with gossip… I don’t really talk to other students except the other thieves, you, and your friends
Eiko: I have to wonder if Dr. Maruki was ever aware of how badly every girl in school wanted to dom him
Ren: I doubt he would have been into that. Dude didn’t seem like the lustful type
Eiko: That’s what made him dom-able in so many girls’ eyes. Kind-hearted but vulnerable-looking men have got that kind of energy, the energy that makes you want to penetrate him with a strap-on
Eiko: Wait, so he’s basically god now or something?
Makoto: That’s a bit of an oversimplification
Ren: But gets the general jist of it
Ren: He controls the metaverse now, or is gaining control of it anyway
Ren: It’s a world made up of cognitions, he’s changing those cognitions, and since the metaverse/ real world fusion was technically never undone like we thought it was, he can change reality in turn
Makoto: To summarise it a different way- he’s brainwashing people, and if people are brainwashed to believe things are a certain way- that will become reality
Makoto: Even going as far to bring people back to life in some cases
Eiko: Is that why your… y’know… and Okumura…?
Makoto: Yes. We were brainwashed too initially, but due to being persona users we had the ability to break free- to wake up.
Makoto: And once that happened for each of us, the changes related to us disappeared, reverting back to normal
Ren: So our goal is to stop Maruki, free the world from his well-intentioned, but ultimately harmful control
Eiko: Okay
Eiko: Okay…
Eiko: Okay!
Eiko: I think I get it now, things are starting to make some sense…
Eiko: I just have one more question
Ren: Shoot
Eiko: What the fuck do I do with this information?
Makoto: That’s a good question
Eiko: Like I was freaking out over all this weird shit happening, and everyone acting like it was normal- making me think I was crazy
Eiko: But now that I understand it’s like… cool I stopped panicking, but now what?
Ren: Now just leave it to us to save the world again, cuz we’re awesome like that
Makoto: For goodness’s sake Ren…
Ren: What? I’m reassuring her
Eiko: I guess if everything you said was true, then you haven’t lost yet
Eiko: So I have faith you’ll keep up the streak
Eiko: And I’ll just ‘streak’ the normal way LOL
Eiko: Nudie prez will do both LMAO
Makoto: Whatever…
Eiko: It’s honestly a shame you have to do all this shit in another world
Eiko: I’d watch more superhero movies if they ran around in costumes like yours
Eiko: Bet you’d love to show off how crazy erotic it’d make you look
Makoto: …maybe a little…
Eiko: Woah I expected you to deny that
Makoto: Being seen does excite me, I think it’s pointless trying to keep that a secret from you two after all that’s happened
Eiko: Well if it’s any consolation, I’ll be looking at you plenty
Eiko: I bet Ren will be looking too for some of his own personal ‘relief’ the moment this conversation ends
Ren: EIKO!
Eiko: You know I’m right
Eiko: LOL
Makoto: Ugh…
Makoto: Did you have any other questions Eiko?
Eiko: Well~
Makoto: Strictly about the changes to reality
Eiko: Shit…
Eiko: Nah I think I’m good now
Eiko: I’m gonna just… I dunno, head to bed and let this all sink in
Eiko: My whole perception of reality has been shattered. Gotta accept the fact that I’m basically in some fantasy anime or something
Eiko: As the resident “Ms. Fanservice” of course
Makoto: Fanservice?
Eiko: We’ve turned ‘Shameless Ms. Fanservice’ into a social movement
Eiko: But anyway, thank you for filling me in. I know this must have been a pain, not to mention a risk letting a ‘civilian’ know who you are and what you do
Eiko: But I think I can calm down now
Eiko: After I’m done having my existential crisis underneath my bedsheets. In fact- Imma get on with that now- later!
(Eiko Takao has left the chat)
Ren: Well that was… certainly something
Makoto: I guess if knowing this lets her rest easier, then it was worth the time investment
Makoto: And um… thanks again for what you said earlier
Ren: No problem. If nothing else this was worth it for the opportunity to finally share those feelings with you
Ren: I love you Queen
Makoto: I love you too Ren
Makoto: Just to check- can Eiko rejoin this chat?
Ren: Only if I invite her again, want me to?
Makoto: NO!
Makoto: I just wanted to make sure it was safe to ask…
Ren: Hm?
Makoto: Be honest with me Ren… do you use images of me for… y’know…
Makoto: 'Relief’?
Ren: …
Ren: Yes…
Makoto: I see…
Makoto: I suspected as much…
Makoto: Are you going to do that again after this conversation?
Ren: Makoto that’s a really awkward question to answer
Makoto: Answer it
Makoto: Honestly
Ren: …yes
Makoto: Okay
Makoto: Would you be willing to send a picture?
Ren: HUH?!
Makoto: …Of the effect I have on you…
Ren: Holy shit…
Makoto: If you did then maybe…
Makoto: I’d send one back?
Ren: Your wish is my command Queen!
Chapter 90: Violet
Summary:
Sumire rises to the occasion
Chapter Text
It was finally time for the thieves to begin their final infiltration. Granted, this was at least the third ‘final’ infiltration they had undertook, fourth if one were to count their lie to Akechi about Sae’s palace being their ‘final’ infiltration, but this time’s for real… probably.
No matter, no one had any time to think about that kind of thing. They stood outside Maruki’s palace, steeling themselves for the endeavour ahead of them.
“I trust none of you are harbouring any troublesome doubts about what we have to do?”
“When you say that Crow, it sounds like you’re planning to kill him.” Makoto glared at him. “Just to remind you, we’re here to save Dr. Maruki, not murder him. We don’t kill.”
“Yes yes I know.” Akechi’s over-acted shrug was pretty annoying. “I’ve already tried the ‘just shoot him’ approach more than once now, and it didn’t work. Saving the good doctor from himself may genuinely be the easier approach anyway, so our desires overlap, I’ll play along as ‘part of the team’ for now at least.”
“I guess that’s all we can really hope for.” Ren stood next to Makoto before facing the rest of the team. Originally he had the role of ‘team leader’ just thrust upon him without much discussion, and he felt he was just about able to bluff his way through his role while maintaining his air of confidence. He had become gradually more sure of himself as time went on, but it was when he had Makoto at his side where he felt he could truly be the leader everyone needed him to be. If anyone embodied the spirit required to grow past the need for false bravado and become truly, unshakably confident in themselves- it was her; it gave Ren the strength he needed, he felt he needed to do everything he could to try and keep up with her. “Alright everyone, we approach this just like every other mission we’ve undertaken, and we have plenty of time to work with, so there’s no reason to let the nerves get to you. That said, I’m still gonna need everyone on their A-game, if any of you need to rest or recover at any point, make sure to speak up, we can’t afford to over-extend, understood?”
Everyone replied with a chorus of affirmations, able to discard- or at least suppress- their nervousness and get into the typical Phantom Thief mindset.
Ren exchanged a reassured side-glance with Makoto, before smirking.
“It’s showtime.”
“HOLD ON!”
Just as everyone was about to enter the palace proper, they turned to the voice, seeing a figure rushing towards them from the entry point. Despite her mask and outfit being unfamiliar, her distinctive red hair made her immediately recognisable.
“Sumire-san?” Makoto approached the younger girl. “What are you doing here? How’d you even get here?”
“Eheheh…” Sumire held her phone up, shaking it gently as if to show it off. “Same way you all did- I think. After you all saved me, I noticed this weird app appearing on my phone. When I followed you all here today I noticed Amamiya-senpai doing something on his phone before you all disappeared, so I put two and two together and tried the app myself… Honestly wasn’t sure it’d work, but here I am.”
“Wait wait, back up a second. You followed us?”
Sumire nodded, looking as determined as she was able.
“You’re all here to save Dr. Maruki, right? I want to help!”
Akechi scoffed.
“Do you have any idea what that actually means?”
“N-not exactly.” Sumire faltered somewhat, but stood her ground. “But I know I’ll have to fight, like you all did.”
“You saw all that then? And here I thought you were just lying on the ground unconscious.”
“I mean… I was, yes. But Cendrillon was the one you fought with, and she’s… me, so I’m aware of the fight. I can feel her inside me even know, I can hear her, and she tells me I’m ready.”
Her resolve was clear in her eyes, but Makoto was still unsure. She didn’t doubt the girl’s determination, but bringing in someone so green at this late stage in their careers seemed risky. She looked over to Ren for his thoughts, but he seemed to be similarly struggling with the dilemma. Akechi- rather predictably- took another approach, and before anyone could react Sumire found his pistol inches away from her face, trained between her eyes.
“H-huh?”
Akechi glared at her.
“Things are going to be tough enough as it is, and I’ve already got all these idiots to put up with- but they can at least hold their own. We can’t afford to babysit you through what will probably be the toughest fight of our lives.”
Sumire swallowed, hard, taking a deep breath.
“I don’t intend on being a liability to all of you.”
“No one ever does. Look, I know you managed to face a dark part of yourself and take a step towards finding your true self, and y’know what? Whatever, I’m happy for you, it’s something to take a small amount of pride in; but letting yourself get high on that feeling and pursue some half-hearted heroic drive to finish the job is putting more than just yourself at risk, do you understand that?”
Sumire breathed slowly through her nose, maintaining eye contact with Akechi, not moving a muscle on her body. That is until she seemed to suddenly lean backwards, confusing Akechi for a split second, before her boot flew up with lightning speed, smacking his pistol out of his hand and up into the air. She had caught him off guard with a back handspring, and as soon as her feet reached the floor again she bent her knees to launch herself upwards, catching Goro’s gun out of the air, landing behind him, and training it on the back of his head.
“Trust me Akechi-kun, I’m not here for any half-hearted reason.”
Akechi seemed notably unbothered by suddenly being disarmed, not to mention having said pistol current pointed directly at his face; he noticed Sumire’s finger was nowhere near the trigger, she had no intention of actually firing the thing, she was just showing off.
“Is that so?”
Her eyes dropped slightly.
“Admittedly I’m not completely sure if fighting against the world Dr. Maruki is trying to create is actually a good thing. I’ve told myself that people should be able to stand on their own two feet, and pick themselves up without having to rely on others doing it for them, but looking back now- I realize I’ve never once actually done that myself, I’ve been letting others hold me up my whole life, so now I’m doubting everything I used to believe, I’m not sure I can actually live up to my own standards, so I can’t be sure I’m even ready for the ‘real’ reality you’re all trying to save.” She shook her head. “But what I am sure of is that if Dr. Maruki continues down this path he’s walking, he’ll lose himself completely, and I know just how painful that process is. Whether his end goal is the right one is debatable, but I know for certain that his methods simply don’t work, I’m…” she sighed “I’m proof of that. He has to be stopped, and I’m ready to do whatever it takes to save him from himself.”
Ren observed the scene curiously for a few moments longer, before sighing, and looking over his shoulder at Futaba.
“So what do you think Oracle? Think you can keep track of one more person without losing efficiency?”
“Nyehehe~ My APM potential is already way higher than we need it to be anyway, won’t make any difference.”
“Guess that means we’ve got another temporary member.” Ren smiled. “Welcome aboard Sumire.”
Her face brightened up in an instant.
“T-thank you! I won’t let you down Senpai!”
Akechi shrugged, while Sumire was looking away he firmly wrapped one hand around the barrel of his gun, and shoved her away with the other; she stumbled a couple paces back while the gun remained firmly in his hand, before he slid it back into his holster.
“We’d be fools to turn down another pair of capable hands. Though I meant what I said- I don’t intend to babysit you, so don’t disappoint us.”
“Hmph.” Sumire turned her nose up at him, a gesture that really didn’t come naturally to her, but she felt was the only appropriate response. “I don’t intend to.”
“It’s great she’s coming with us an’ all…” Ann twirled one of her twintails. “But she’s gonna need a weapon, right? Unless she’s gonna just fight with flips ‘n’ stuff.”
“Oh right!” Sumire raised a finger excitedly. “I remember you guys had cool weapons when you were fighting, so I looked through the house to find something I could use.” She looked downwards, and gasped. “Wait a second, how long have I been wearing this?” She balked at the tight black leotard, jacket and boots that had apparently replaced the proper winter clothes she came here in.
“Oh right, that.” Makoto smiled sympathetically, approaching the girl. “That’s just a side effect of being a persona user, we get these outfits, it’s nothing to worry about.”
“These outfits…” Sumire eyes drifted down Makoto’s body, taking in her outfit (or lack thereof). It hadn’t really registered with her before, since there was so much going on that day and she was in a state of shock throughout almost the entire thing, but Makoto’s outfit might genuinely be the most perverted clothing she had ever seen in her life, even moreso than the ‘winter gear’ she’d seen the nudists wearing lately. “Niijima-senpai, has yours always been like that?”
“Y-yeah… this is a part of who I am too, just like your outfit represents a part of who you are.”
“Huh…” Sumire looked back down at her own clothes. Now that she was over the shock, she actually quite liked it. Being a gymnast, she felt right at home in a leotard, and this one fit her better than anything else she had worn in her life. The jacket was very small, but non-restrictive, purely for show. If she was going to nitpick about anything, it’d be that she really didn’t consider herself the heel-wearing type. “Did I really do that flip in heels?” She couldn’t help but feel a little proud of herself for that. It’d be fine, they didn’t feel as uncomfortable as she was imagining, she was used to standing on her tip toes anyway.
“You’ll stop noticing it after a while. Thanks to the way the metaverse works, it won’t feel uncomfortable.”
“Only in the metaverse though.” Ann added, gesturing down to her own catsuit. “I’ve grown to love wearing this as a thief, but so help me I’m never going to wear any version of it in the real world ever again.”
“I feel like I’m better off not asking about that.” Sumire laughed nervously. She had still been holding her phone in her hand all this time, she went to put it in her pocket, only to realize she didn’t have pockets anymore. “U-um…” She looked to the others, the boys’ outfits all looked like they had plenty of sizable pockets (typical…), Haru’s outfit could conceivably have storage space somewhere, but Ann and Makoto seemed to be in the same boat as her, and no one seemed to be carrying a bag. “So um… where do you two keep your phones?”
“I just have to give mine to Ren.” Makoto shrugged sheepishly. “I’m sure you remember being a nudist, dealing with a lack of storage space is a big problem for us, so I usually carry a bag, just not here in the metaverse.”
“R-right…” She looked to Ren, thinking of asking him to do the same for her, but it somehow felt rude to ask.
Ann approached her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, and gently leading her away from the group. The others tried to listen in, but couldn’t make out what she was whispering.
“Really? Is that what you do Takamaki-senpai?” Sumire’s whispering wasn’t quite as quiet though.
“Keep it down!” Ann hissed.
“Oh, sorry.”
“whisper whisper…”
“A-are you sure?”
“whisper whisper…”
“But doesn’t that get a bit—”
“whisper whisper…”
“That’s true, it’s not as if it’s going to go off while we’re in this world, but what about—”
“whisper whisper…”
“Oh that’s a relief. Alright then, I’ll do that too.”
The others were all looking elsewhere, pretending to not pay attention. When Sumire returned to them with Ann by her side, they noticed the phone had disappeared, and she was now holding a fencing sword.
“So yeah, this is what I was talking about a minute ago.” Sumire was happy to just move on.
“A sword?” Ryuji tilted his head. “You just have a sword lying around the house?”
Sumire smiled back sheepishly.
“I tried a whole bunch of other hobbies when I was in my slump. I thought that maybe because both gymnastics and fencing were all about controlled and precise movements of the body, one would help the other.” She rested the blade in the palm of her hand. “The idea didn’t really pan out how I hoped, but I hung on to the sword anyway. I’m not sure how useful it’ll be, but it’s better than going in there barehanded.”
“It should be fine.” Ren examined the sword. “Looks dangerous enough, so it should do the job just fine.”
“Not to rush all of you…” Akechi spoke up, having gotten tired of standing off to the side with his arms folded. “…but we don’t want the whole day to pass us by just standing outside the palace, do we?” His eyes fell on Sumire. “Do you have any last minute questions Yoshizawa-san?”
Sumire managed to attach her sword to her belt, adjusting it until it was secure.
“I don’t think so, I’ll just try to follow everyone’s lead.”
“It’s all pretty simple in concept once you get down to it.” Ren shrugged. “Stick with the group, don’t get spotted if you can help it, fight any monsters that pop up.”
“Monsters?”
“We can explain the shadows and stuff to you later, once we’re back home.” Futaba smirked. “TL:DR: if you see us fighting a weird monster or something, just join in!”
“The actual art of using a persona tends to come pretty naturally, we have their knowledge too after all, so you’ll be fine.” Ren gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, feeling rather amused as she tried to pump herself up, ready to follow them. “I’ll give you the detailed run down after today’s infiltration, but if you have any urgent questions, just let us know.”
“Hol’ up!” Ryuji’s arm shot in the air excitedly. “She needs a codename too, right?”
“Codename?”
“Ah right. We forgot to mention the Phantom Thieves use codenames while we work. I’m Queen.”
Sumire raised an eyebrow.
“You’re called Queen?”
Makoto bashfully rubbed the back of her head.
“Joker- or Ren as you know him- gave me that codename.”
Sumire’s shoulders sank almost imperceptibly.
“Of course he did…” She gave her a bittersweet smile. “It suits you Senpai.”
“As for the rest of us- Skull, Panther, Oracle, Mona, and Noir. And while Akechi isn’t a real member per say, we’ve given him the codename Crow.”
Ann looked at Sumire thoughtfully.
“I’m thinking we keep yours simple, maybe ‘Violet’? It’s just your name translated to English but I think it works.”
“Violet.” Sumire nodded. “Okay, I can work with that.”
Akechi waved his hand dismissively.
“Ostensibly the codenames are there to protect our true identities, but normally no one from the real world can know of what happens in this world at all, making it pointless- doubly so now that our opponent already knows who we all are. Not that knowing that really changes anything anyway. The thieves just like to play with superhero names because they think it makes them sound cool.”
“But it is cool, isn’t it?” Sumire raised her fists. “Crow especially seems cool, especially with that outfit, it really suits you, makes you seem really evil.”
Akechi didn’t say anything.
“O-oh! I mean that in a good way! I d-didn’t mean that you’re—”
“Let’s just get moving already.” Akechi went ahead of the group, not looking back as he entered the building.
“I think I upset him.”
“Yeah probably.” Ren laughed. “Don’t worry about it though, he’ll be fine.”
“If you say so Senpai…” Sumire smiled weakly, and was about to follow after Akechi before she noticed Morgana staring at her. “Um… you’re Mona, right?”
“You really haven’t said anything about me yet?”
“Huh?”
Morgana looked at her, then at Ren and Makoto, seeming legitimately confused and concerned rather than actually offended.
“I mean… I’m a cat, or cat-like magic creature, and she doesn’t find that weird or noteworthy at all?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I guess?” Sumire discreetly leaned over to Makoto to whisper to her. “I thought he was just a midget, I didn’t want to call attention to it in case that made me seem ableist or something…”
Morgana groaned, and miserably plodded through the entrance before the others followed him inside.
~ ~ ~
It didn’t take long for Sumire to adapt to combat and movement in the metaverse. Much of it came as innate muscle memory of her other self; being a gymnast she was perhaps already the most experienced in terms of fine control of their body out of all the thieves, which became near-effortless thanks to metaverse-magic.
However while her physical abilities were impressively close to the thieves, she wasn’t quite on par with everyone else. Not surprising, considering it was her first day, but it was the reasoning behind it that was potentially problematic. She was broadly aware of the fact that her strength came from her other self, her ‘true’ self, and their connection; but unlike the others, she still had no idea who she really was.
She had taken a life-changing step forward in breaking free of Maruki’s misguided illusions and accepting her shadow, and shedding the false mask of ‘Kasumi’. But what she was left with was just ‘Sumire’, the girl who couldn’t live up to her sister, what was she supposed to do with that?
Upon deep reflection since her awakening, she realized that her trying to pretend to be Kasumi was not something that began with Maruki’s influence- he merely made it more literal, in a sense- it had been the pattern for her entire life, and she had to face the facts: it wasn’t something she could succeed at; it wasn’t the right path. But then what was?
She thought about why she had pursued this mindset for so long, and if she was honest- the reason was obvious: validation. Growing up her family had been nothing but supportive and kind to both her and Kasumi, but when it came to their performances, it was clear the sisters were not the same, Kasumi would always be that one step ahead. Now of course Sumire never resented her sister for this, she was kinder and more supportive than anyone else in her life, so she directed all the hate inwards, forever cursing herself for being ‘inferior’. These feelings meant that all the familial love she received just felt like pity.
Sumire needed her validation from another source, from teachers and judges during her performance for one- but with her falling further and further into her rut while believing she was the real Kasumi it felt more and more hopeless. Then he came along. Just a chance meeting on a train, her upperclassman, offering to stand up for her when the seat she gave up was snatched up by a businessman rather than its intended recipient. In hindsight it was such a small, honestly insignificant gesture; but for Sumire it was a spark of hope. Maybe he could be someone she could look up to, someone she could respect, and much more importantly: someone who was willing to pay attention to her.
And so that became her new goal- alongside escaping her rut- becoming closer to her ‘Senpai’, having him be someone she could rely on, to lean on in times of need, and most of all- rely on her. By offering to ‘train’ him she finally had a purpose, something she could succeed at, a way for someone to look at her with pride and respect. That was the validation she so desperately craved, that she needed. So she needed him around, preferably forever, so that she could never lose this pillar of support she had become dependent on.
But of course he preferred her.
Makoto was the one who stole him from her, or at least it felt that way. Even at the time Sumire was aware that this was purely selfish thinking on her part, you should never resent someone for loving someone other than yourself. And despite Sumire’s initial judgements of her for so casually exposing herself, she begrudgingly had to admit that Makoto was nothing but respectable, kind, and supportive. Sumire may have seen her as a rival, but the feeling was never reciprocated, Makoto just wanted to help her fellow nudist and schoolmate. She couldn’t hate Makoto, so she did what she always did- directed the hate inwards. It had to be her own fault she ‘wasn’t as good as Makoto’, so like Kasumi before her- Shujin’s first nudist became the new model for Sumire to base herself on, even going so far as to sign up for the nudist program without any thought to the consequences. She had no idea what she would have done if her family hadn’t been as understanding and unconditionally supportive as they were.
Of course, this wasn’t enough to get Ren to chose her over his real love, and she set herself up for inevitable failure, which had to be ‘corrected’ by Maruki. Suddenly the painful and confusing feelings she held towards Ren vanished, and she needed her validation from yet another source- Makoto of all people, the girl who was her unwitting rival in love beforehand. Perhaps the feelings of respect and wanting to be like her still lingered on? She wasn’t sure. But Makoto was willing to pay attention to her, and be supportive, that was enough for her to start becoming dependent on her instead.
Though the pedestal she put her on crumbled the day of the culture festival, the absurd sex show on stage which she couldn’t bring herself to watch more than a couple minutes of. Suddenly doubts filled her mind about the nudist, though that wasn’t so much the problem, she was aware that if her initial perception of her was healthier, and she wasn’t so dependant on having a ‘perfect’ idol to validate her, she could just have her opinions shift slightly and focus on her own life. So instead she directed the hate inwards, again, it was all she knew how to do.
One more time Maruki ‘corrected’ this, attempting to remove all this hatred she tormented herself with, but in the end all he was able to do was trap it inside her, letting it torment her other self instead. She wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time, but thinking back she could remember the feeling of Cendrillon screaming at her with pure vitriol, all the self-hate she had ever felt in her life kept building up inside her, all to be unleashed on the day she finally met her shadow face to face.
And that brought her to now; free of the illusions and fog cast on her she could reflect and make herself aware of all of this; making peace with this side of herself she had denied for her entire life. She felt like she had broken free of a cage she had unknowingly built for herself over the course of her life, all Maruki did was add an extra padlock or two.
But now she was free she had no idea where to go, what to do with herself. She was only here to save Dr. Maruki, the problem of her ‘self’ was something she had no plan for dealing with.
She, along with the rest of the team, were currently recuperating in a safe room, apparently out of reach of any of the numerous shadows they had clashed with today. She was aware many of her previous problems were born from becoming dependant on another person, so she was reluctant to reach out to the others at all, lest she just fall back into those same failings and end up right back where she was. She shook her head, she couldn’t let herself become so cowardly. Things could be different now, she felt the strength of her true self burning inside her, giving her the clarity she needed.
She decided to ask for advice, just a little bit of guidance through this complex problem. Her instinct was to ask him first.
“Akechi-kun?”
“Hm?” Akechi eyed her curiously, seeming slightly annoyed that he was dragged out of his own thoughts. “Can I help?”
“This might be a weird question, but how do you know who you are?”
“…You are correct, that is a weird question.”
“It’s just that… I’ve figured out I’ve been trying to be someone else my whole life, so now I don’t know how to be… me, y’know?”
Akechi tutted.
“Why the hell are you expecting me- of all people- to play therapist for you right now?”
“Well…” Sumire shrugged, smiling nervously. “You seem like the kind of person who doesn’t care about other people’s feelings at all.”
“…Excuse me?”
“And because of that, I feel like you’re not just gonna say something to be nice, I can trust you to be honest with me.”
“I feel like I should be offended right now.”
“Sorry… I didn’t mean anything bad… well maybe a little, but you get it, right?”
“Ugh.” Akechi groaned, rubbing his forehead. “What are you really asking? Do you want to ‘be yourself’, or do you just want people to like you?”
“Huh?”
“Because if it’s the latter you really don’t need to do anything different.”
Sumire’s cheeks grew slightly pink.
“O-oh?”
“Yeah, people really love pathetic girls.”
“O-oh…” Her shoulders fell. “That really sounded like it was going to be something nice for a second.”
“No no, don’t misunderstand me.” Akechi smirked. “A lot of people really like a pathetic girl who can just fawn over them like an infant. They like the idea of someone being dependant on them. It means that they wouldn’t have to put much effort into the relationship or try to improve themselves in any way. They’d have someone who would probably be really grateful for any attention at all, and thus really ‘easy’. The people who don’t want any sort of ‘equal’ relationship, since that might be difficult, instead they want a little sycophant who they can use however they want to, or just keep around for validation.” He waved his hand dismissively. “So you can just do that if you want, you’ll get tons of guys easy.”
“I… I don’t really want to do that though.” Sumire stood up. “I want to be someone I can be proud of! I want to be ‘me’ for myself first and foremost! I don’t want to go back to just trying to satisfy someone else’s standards!”
Akechi eyed her a while, her outburst also drawing the attention of the other thieves, who watched on curiously. He shrugged.
“In that case just stop worrying about what other people think of you and do what comes naturally, don’t overthink it.”
“What comes naturally…”
“Hm.” Ren’s brow raised. “It’s kinda weird to hear half-decent advice coming from Crow, even if it was preceded by… well… the more questionable stuff I would expect from him.”
Futaba peered over at Sumire from around her laptop.
“You sure it’s a good idea to ask for life advice from the dude who had a gun pointed at your face a couple hours ago?”
Sumire laughed.
“Oh come on, I’m not that naïve, I knew he was never actually going to shoot me. That was just him testing me, right?” She watched as the thieves all exchanged nervous glances, a few of them murmuring amongst themselves, and the corner of Akechi’s lips curling upward. “R-right…?”
Futaba’s brow furrowed.
“I mean he does have a history of shooting people in the face.”
“He tried to kill me once.” Ren raised his hand. “He failed, because we’re awesome, but yeah- he still tried.”
Sumire looked horrified.
“Seriously?”
“Not to mention all the people he assassinated under Shido’s orders.”
“Assassinated?!”
Akechi shrugged.
“Now that’s hardly fair. All of those kills- including my attempted murder of Joker- were purely business. Just me following orders.” He smiled at Sumire in a way that was supposed to be reassuring. “You’re right, I was just trying to scare you earlier, you weren’t in any real danger. I may have killed before but I have standards; I’d never hurt innocent women or children…”
“R-right…”
“…Unless of course it was convenient to do so, or if it’d be really funny in the moment.”
Sumire was having second thoughts about joining the team.
Chapter 91: Stress relief
Summary:
Just want we need with everything that's been going on lately
Chapter Text
It had taken a great deal of questionable appeals and flimsy justifications filled with half-truths and even a few outright deceptions, but Makoto had managed to successfully negotiate with the school faculty to allow Lavenza to serve as the temporary school nurse.
As soon as she exited the teachers’ office and securely closed it behind her, she slumped back against the wall, just about holding herself up as she stared up at the ceiling. She was mentally exhausted and it wasn’t even lunchbreak yet. She still wasn’t sure whether it was even worth the effort, but whatever- it was done now, she could relax now. Or at least, she could relax as much as she could given they still had much of Maruki’s palace to work through ASAP, not to mention she had to juggle her studies for her college entrance exams.
In short- Makoto Niijima was stressed.
There were a number of effective ways she had to deal with stress, depending on the source and magnitude of said stress. One was of course the classic method of sneaking off to the bathroom and wanking her troubles away, and even being as busy as she was, that sounded pretty good right now.
Although, something was telling her that wouldn’t be enough, that she would need help to truly relax. That ‘something’ was of course Agnes; Anat had always been a… questionable influence on Makoto, pushing her into giving into her lust at some of the worst possible times, and having a fairly high win ratio against her rational mind to boot. Agnes didn’t seem to be any more sensible in that regard, eager to push her in that very pleasurable direction that involved actually making use of that beloved boyfriend of hers.
On the one hand- a booty call is exactly what she needed to relax right now.
On the other- it was still the middle of the school day, the school was full.
On the first hand again- the proximity of other students just made it even hotter.
On the other hand- getting caught would only cause more stress, they had so much going on right now.
That being said- it’s not as if it would be the first time the student body had seen the two of them going at it like animals.
However- that doesn’t mean she should make a habit of it, getting caught would still be embarrassing.
Although- it’d also be hot as hell, it might even be worth ignoring stealth altogether and just getting her brains dicked out right there in the hallway in front of a stunned and drooling audience (Agnes’s words, not mine).
Makoto realized she usually ended up being worn down and giving in, but she couldn’t let her lust rule over her entirely. She agreed to the idea of a bootycall, but would make sure to keep it sneaky. She doubted Ren would object to the idea; she was no expert in boyfriends or romance, but she was starting to realize that the offer of some pussy from your beloved S.O. was an invitation that would very rarely go unappreciated.
Lunchbreak would be very soon, so she wouldn’t have to wait long before she sought Ren out, and request rather than eat his lunch he eat her instead.
The idea was already filling her with anticipation, anticipation which was at risk of being seen running down her leg if she wasn’t careful. She welcomed the student body admiring the more interesting areas of her student body, but she didn’t want to be caught covered in her own fluids too often if she could help it, it’d hurt her reputation, or at least seem unhygienic.
She wasn’t carrying her bag at the moment, she left it in the classroom, so she didn’t have access to her paper towels to properly clean herself up. She’d just have to make do with wiping her thighs down with her hands for now and hope no one notices.
As she headed back to the student council room to retrieve her phone, send Ren his summons, and mentally prepare herself for the experience, she turned the corner and nearly collided into Sumire.
“Ah! Sorry Sumire-san, I was um… lost in my own head and wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“It’s okay Senpai, it’s just as much my own fault.” Sumire smiled weakly. “I’ve had a lot on my mind too, everything we have to do with… y’know? The doctor.”
“Oh y-yeah! That’s what I meant, yes.” Makoto averted her eyes, hoping the other girl didn’t read into her blush too much.
“Mmm… actually Senpai, that’s not the only thing on my mind.”
“Oh?” Makoto raised a slightly nervous eyebrow.
“I’m still stuck on the whole subject of my ‘self’.”
“Oh.” Makoto breathed a muted sigh of relief. “It really is a tricky subject, it’s totally understandable to struggle with it- even at the best of times.”
“I know Akechi-kun said to just ‘do what comes naturally’, but I’m not really sure what that means. When I go to do something I can’t help but doubt myself, like ‘is this really something I’m doing because it’s my nature, or am I just trying to be a certain way?’ Y’know?”
“Hmm…” Makoto brought her hand to her chin and pondered. “There’s definitely truth to what he said. It’s never quite that straightforward of course; who we are is influenced by all sorts of things.” She smiled at the younger girl. “I think it just comes down to experimenting and seeing what feels ‘right’.”
“Hmm… That doesn’t really feel different to what I was doing when I was in my rut as ‘Kasumi’.”
“That’s true, but I think it might be much more productive this time.” She nodded. “Now you can approach all these things as Sumire, see what suits you rather than ‘Kasumi’.”
“Interesting…” Sumire’s face brightened, visibly being filled with at least a small amount of hope. “It’s something to think about at least. Thank you Senpai.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re always available if you need help.”
“That means a lot to me Senpai.” Sumire pondered for a few moments. “Actually, in that vein- if we have some free time- would you object to the two of us visiting the batting cages again?”
Makoto tensed up, frozen. She would have been happy to never visit another batting cage in her life if she could help it… but… this was to help Sumire…
“Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem, I’d be happy to accompany you there again.” Makoto just resolved to be REALLY careful this time.
“Ah!” Sumire smiled brightly, bowing to her. “Thank you very much Senpai.” She sidestepped to walk around and continue on her way. “Anyway my next class starts in just a minute, I won’t hold you up any longer.”
“See you later.” Makoto waved her off. Left standing in the corridor alone, blankly staring into space. “What was I thinking about?” She wondered aloud, before the returning sensation of a tingle in her loins. “Oh… that.” She quickened her pace.
~ ~ ~
Ren- being the most familiar with Lavenza- felt it was his duty to check up on her to see how she was getting on in her new role. He doubted she had any actual medical training, but thankfully she’d only be here until Maruki’s influence had faded, so hopefully said influence would prevent any actual injuries or sicknesses she’d have to treat, and she could carry on doing whatever she was doing now as he entered the room.
“There there.” Lavenza patted a male student on the head a couple times, well- it was probably meant to be light pats, but she misjudged her strength and it came out more as slapping, not that the boy seemed too bothered by it; in fact he seemed reluctant to sit back upright again. “That should be a sufficient level of bedside manner for your recovery, you may resume your school career. Be sure to take your lollipop.”
The boy happily swayed from side to side as he gratefully took the lollipop from her hands.
“Aww, thank you very much Lavenza-chan.”
“Lavenza-sensei.”
“Oh yes, of course.” He pinched her cheek, an action that still confused her, but she didn’t seem to react otherwise. “Adorable Lavenza-sensei.”
Lavenza turned to see Ren staring at the scene- slightly disgusted- and smiled warmly at him.
“Ah, it’s good to see you again my Trickster.”
“Trickster?” The boy looked at Ren with narrow, judgemental eyes, before turning back to the ‘nurse’ with a big grin. “Can I have a nickname too, Lavenza-chan?”
“Sensei. And your treatment has concluded.” Lavenza gently bowed to him in her seat. “We hope to see you again.”
“Tch.” The boy rose from his seat, passing by Ren and back out into the hallway, mumbling to himself along the way. “I’ll have to come up with another injury to come back with soon…”
Ren shook his head and sighed.
“So have you been doing okay Lavenza? No one’s been giving you any trouble?”
She shook her own head.
“I have been treating my patients without issue. The nurse’s office has a plentiful supply of bandages and medicine for me to use, and I’ve brought plenty of lollipops to dispense, so all is well.”
“That’s good. You sure it’s all the right kind of medicine?”
“Hm?” Lavenza tilted her head. “There’s plenty of medicine.”
“I mean, there’s different kinds of medicine for different conditions.”
“…” Lavenza looked over to the cabinet, then pointed at it while looking back at Ren. “There’s a big pile of medicine in there.”
Ren sighed, his shoulders dropping.
“Nevermind…”
“I brought Amrita sodas and life stones with me too.”
“That… should hopefully do the job?” Ren shrugged.
“Though there was still the concern of the rest of the facility staff accepting me as their coworker. Though Makoto Niijima-san has been assisting in the negotiations, so all should be well.”
“Queen really does work the hardest out of all of us.” Ren hummed. “I really need to do more for her.”
Before the conversation could continue any further, the office door opened and in walked the acting-principal, previously the vice-principal. Lavenza stood to greet him, her formal bow and demeanour clashing quite harshly with her store-bought nurse cosplay outfit.
“Good morning Principal-san.”
“Lavenza, you don’t use the -san suffix for—”
Ren’s whispering was cut off when the principal ignored him and addressed Lavenza directly.
“Well I have good news to deliver.”
“Oh? Am I to assume my application to work here has been successful?”
He huffed, clearly rather annoyed, but nodded regardless.
“I’m still not sure it’s a good idea, but yes- by majority rule you’ve been allowed a trial period here at our school.”
She clasped her hands.
“Oh wonderful!” Her smile towards Ren was positively glowing. “Now I’ll always be here for you and your friends my Trickster.”
“Hm.” The principal side-eyed Ren a moment, before returning his attention to Lavenza. “I do still have the power to veto the decision if I feel you’re not taking your job seriously Amamiya-san.”
“Huh?” Ren looked at him, baffled, even more so when it became clear he wasn’t the one being talked to.
“You can’t give your son any preferential treatment while you’re here.”
Lavenza bowed her head.
“Don’t worry, I understand. While I intend to keep an eye on my son while I’m here, I shall not let it impact my work any.”
“Okay- hold on.” Ren pulled Lavenza aside. “What’s this ‘son’ business?”
“I learned that humans typically use two names. I needed a second and Amamiya was the first one that came to mind. Those who share the same name tend to be family members, thus it makes sense for us to be related.”
“But ‘mother’? Wouldn’t ‘sister’ or ‘cousin’ be more realistic?”
“What are you two whispering about over there?” The principal approached them.
“Nothing Sir, just family business.”
The principal eyed the two of them curiously.
“Are you two really… N-no, nevermind.”
“Hm?” Lavenza tilted her head. “No no, go ahead.”
“I’m sorry Amamiya-san. I was about to ask something but I now realize it’s an incredibly rude question.”
“I really don’t mind. If you’re curious about something I am happy to share what I know.”
The principal still seemed reluctant, but gave into his curiosity.
“You two… can’t be biologically related, can you? You don’t look the right age at all.”
‘He’s right, that was a rude question.’ Ren thought to himself, but Lavenza didn’t seem to have any problem answering him.
“I’m afraid you’re right.” Lavenza nodded, quite sadly. “I am not the Trickster’s biological mother. There’s quite an age gap between me and his father…”
“I figured.”
“…His father is quite a lot younger than I am.”
“E-excuse me?”
Ren facepalmed.
“Why’d you have to make this even more complicated?”
The principal looked towards Ren with a surprising level of sympathy in his eyes.
“I apologize, this must be quite awkward for you as well.” He cleared his throat. “Well, delivering that piece of news was all I came here to do. You’d best get back to work Amamiya-san.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Sure man.”
Ren and Lavenza exchanged an awkward glance, before Ren asked the principal:
“When you said ‘Amamiya-san’, did you mean—”
“Ugh…” Having had enough, he simply left the room without answering.
“This is the first real job I’ve had outside the Velvet room.” Lavenza grinned. “It’s rather exciting.”
“You…” Ren sighed, a tired smile on his face. “Sure, I’m happy for you.”
A distinctive ‘pi pi pi’ was heard from Ren’s pocket. He pulled out his phone.
“Ah. Makoto wants to meet me for…” He glanced at Lavenza, watching him with her curious, analytical, yet soft gaze, and cleared his throat, discreetly shoving his phone back into his pocket. “Ahem, I’m just going to meet up with Makoto, give me a call if you need anything.”
“Hold it right there, young man!”
“Huh?”
Lavenza hopped down from her seat, marching over to the boy, and tugging on his blazer. Obediently he crouched down so she could reach up and brush off his shoulders.
“You can’t go meet your Queen covered in cat hair like this.”
“Cat hair?”
“I’m sure she appreciates having a handsome boy like you around, but you still need to make an effort with your appearance when interacting with girls.” She circled around his back to keep brushing him down and straighten his collar. “It’s not like you to become complacent. Stand up.”
Ren obeyed.
“What’s gotten into you?”
She brushed the cat hair off of his thighs.
“Goodness, it’s everywhere. Come on now, don’t slouch.”
She patted his back, prompting him to correct his posture.
“This is really weird…”
“Don’t make such a fuss.” She took a step back to take in Ren’s whole appearance. “There we go, you look wonderfully handsome. I’m sure she’ll think so too.”
“I’m not sure her mind is on that kind of thing right now.” He mumbled to himself as an aside, before feeling himself pulled down again so Lavenza would peck his cheek. “Huh?”
She gently shoved him towards the door.
“Go on, being punctual is important.”
Ren wasn’t really sure how to feel about what just happened.
‘I think Lavenza has gotten some weird ideas in her head again…’ he thought to himself. He could only hope he’d be in the right mood again for Makoto’s desires once he reached her in the student council office.
~ ~ ~
Yeah, turns out getting in the right mood again was easy. Moments after he entered the room and securely locked the door behind him at Makoto’s request; she locked eyes with him and clambered up onto her desk, planted her feet at opposite ends of the table- making an ‘M’ with her legs.
She took her time sliding her hand down her front, biting her lower lip as she groped her own breast on the way down- her eyes not leaving Ren’s for even a moment- before she slid her hand down between her legs, brushing against her slick entrance.
And with her index and middle fingers she spread her labia open, and moved her hips forward to thrust her hungry pussy towards her beloved.
“Your lunch is ready.”
How appropriate, Ren was just starting to feel peckish, as it happens.
He tossed his glasses aside and rushed forwards with such enthusiasm that it was almost scary, Makoto flinching slightly as he so swiftly closed the gap between them. Kneeling down by her desk and planting himself face-first between her thighs. She wasted no time closing said thighs in on his head, making certain that he wouldn’t leave that spot until the job was done; not that he needed the extra encouragement- mind you.
In an effort to plunge his tongue as deep within her as he possibly could, he didn’t settle for just is mouth- but pushed himself forwards as if he was trying to insert his whole face inside. He didn’t quite manage that of course, doing little more than pressing his mouth and nose into her needy entrance, though it gave her the odd sensation of her clitoris brushing against the bridge of his nose; that paired with the feeling of his face and tongue thrashing around inside her with the ferocity of an enraged bull struggling to break free of a horribly confined space, and it was fair to say Makoto was having a very good time.
Her toes curled as her body began to tense. With one hand she began furiously kneading her breast, pinching and tweaking her nipple. With her other hand she took a rough hold of Ren’s curly hair, pushing him into her even harder, nearly crushing him with her thighs tightly squeezing his head. It was unlikely he even could complain in this position, but he certainly didn’t want to. He had decided much earlier in their relationship: ‘Makoto’s pussy > Breathing oxygen’.
Thankfully for Ren’s lungs- Makoto could only endure this assault for so long. With all the stress of the day and the tasks that lay ahead of them fading away into the orgasmic haze that was rapidly approaching her. Were they in a more private, intimate setting, she might want to prolong the process, but right now she just wanted to cum, nothing else mattered, and besides- there was never stopping them from doing more afterwards. Ren especially was a believer that ‘More Makoto orgasms = More good’.
The hardest part was keeping her voice down. It was still active school hours after all, and they were far from alone in the school right now; she could even see silhouettes of other students passing by the council room’s door. She had to fight her natural urge to pant, moan, and cry out in pleasure; which only got harder as orgasm approached. She had to let go of his hair to cover her own mouth to muffle herself as much as possible, but it was fine- her thighs held him in place just fine.
Of course, while she could muffle the sound of her orgasm (if only barely), there was nothing she could do to suppress the mess it made. Ren always appreciated what a powerful squirter Makoto was, especially as he took the full force of it point blank. Makoto continued to thrash and thrust her hips in orgasmic bliss, paying no mind to how she was utterly drenching her boyfriend’s face, hair, and much of his collar with her fluids. Only when she was reaching the tail end of her climax did she begin to lose strength in her legs, and finally release Ren from his fleshy prison.
Ren gasped for air, still choking on the veritable deluge of girlcum that penetrated more than one orifice. He seemed happy enough about it though, leaning over to caress Makoto’s cheek as she smiled at him.
“You’re quite good at this Ren.”
He shrugged.
“You’re a great motivator.”
Still panting, Makoto looked up at the clock.
“That went quicker than I thought it would, we’ve still got plenty of time left.”
Ren shot her his signature ‘Joker’ smirk.
“Feel like you could handle a ‘round 2’?”
Makoto’s eyes widened, she had to admit the idea was very tempting, however…
“I mean… it’s not fair for me to have all the fun, right?” She pointed to her chair. “Sit down.”
“Oho?” Ren circled around the desk and took a seat. “I get to sit in the President’s chair, aren’t I lucky?”
“You’re about to realize just how lucky.” Makoto, still weak from her orgasm, very carefully lowered herself to the ground, getting comfortable just under the desk in front of where Ren was sitting.
He was beginning to see where this was going. While he genuinely was the type who got off by getting her off, you’d be hard pressed to find any man who wouldn’t be happy about his smoking hot girlfriend offering to wrap her lips around him.
She wasted no time opening his fly and unleashing the proof of Ren’s ‘grower’ status. With it now pressed against the side of her face, she grinned up at him, enjoying the look of slightly stunned anticipation on his face. Now both seeing and physically feeling the effect she had on him, Makoto found herself filled with confidence. In their relationship, Ren had become the fast expert in oral sex, always eager to practice worshipping his Queen; though she had rarely returned the favor. She had always been curious to give it a proper attempt, taking some time in private to try and tame her gag reflex so she could give him the same pleasure he gave her with her mouth. Both had wondered when exactly it’d be when she could take his full length down her throat.
Well it wouldn’t be today, since she had something different in mind, catching her boyfriend off guard by attempting another activity entirely. Makoto- having regained some more strength in her legs- knelt up higher, Ren spreading his legs to let her in closer, and pressed her chest against his member. Makoto wanted to try paizuri.
Thrusting her chest forwards, pushing her breasts together and pressing them against his dick. She then attempted to slide herself up and down against him. It took her a few attempts to get into a rhythm without his cock slipping to the side, but eventually she got the hang of it and smiled up at him, looking quite proud of herself.
Makoto had never been especially well endowed in the bust department, but they weren’t small by any stretch. She used to feel rather insecure about them, especially next to her rather busty friends Ann and Haru, however Ren had made it VERY clear in both is words and actions that he absolutely adored them; not to mention the swarms of her online fans who she’d catch gushing about her naked body whenever she worked up the nerve to ego search. She had gained a ton of confidence in relation to her entire body, and especially her breasts.
They weren’t quite big enough to wrap ‘Little Ren’ into a billowing, pillowy heaven like in all the porn she had watched (purely for research purposes, of course), but the feeling of them so smoothly rubbing against the sides of his shaft still felt fantastic. He could feel the comforting warmth of her chest, and even the intensified beating of her heart. But what pushed the feeling into ‘heavenly’ territory was the way she was looking up at him. While she continued stroking him, he stared down into her gorgeous red eyes, overflowing with love, paired with a sweet smile that expressed the compassion that was already being made very clear in her actions, while also tinged with a slight pang of uncertainty, as if silently asking “Does it feel alright? Am I doing a good job?”
Well there’s no way he could leave that unanswered- is there?
“That feels amazing, I love you so much Makoto.” He reached down to gently stroke her hair. “Good girl.”
She giggled. It was a little embarrassing being praised like that, but she was too happy to care. She understood why he took so much joy in pleasuring a partner, and was relieved that this gesture was working out and she hadn’t gotten overconfident like she briefly feared.
Given how excited he was from eating her out, it didn’t take long before she could feel him twitching. She redoubled her efforts, ready to see this through.
“M-Mako!”
Ren couldn’t produce anywhere near the levels of fluid she could, but it came as quite a shock when she felt his cum fly out onto her chin and chest. With his cum usually contained in his condom, it was quite a novel feeling, having the warm, sticky substance against her skin like this, and a rather pleasant one at that.
“I’m guessing you enjoyed that?”
Ren was once again panting for breath.
“You’re the best girlfriend in the world, you know that, right?”
Makoto chuckled, getting to her feet.
“I’ll try to remember that, thank you.”
Ren sat up, ‘packing away’- so to speak, and doing up his fly, before softly laughing at Makoto.
“Uh, Queen? You’ve got a lot of… me on you.”
She looked down at herself. Between her fluids and his, she was quite the mess right now.
“I best clean myself up, I can’t exactly go to class like this.” She gestures towards her bag on the other side of the chair. “Do you mind grabbing the paper towels for me?”
“Sure.” Ren pulled the bag into his lap, and started rifling through it… for a worryingly long time considering it’s size. “Um… they’re regular sized paper towels, right?”
“Hm? I get slightly smaller ones usually so they fit in my bag better, but they should be right there.”
“Uhh…”
“Near the top?”
“Are you sure they’re in your bag?”
Makoto was starting to get concerned, took the bag from Ren and planted it down on the desk. Concern turning into panic as she couldn’t find them either.
“Did you take them out earlier?”
“I don’t think so.” Makoto started scanning the rest of the student council room, expecting to see them sitting on the table or something. Then she froze, suddenly double-facepalming and groaning into her hands.
“Mako? What’s wrong?”
“I’m so stupid…”
“What happened?”
Her shoulders dropped, and she stared up at the ceiling.
“I forgot I ran out of paper towels, I was supposed to pick some more up this morning, but I was so preoccupied that I forgot to.”
“Ah.” Ren shrugged. “I guess we can pick some up after school, it’s not a big deal.”
She glared at Ren in disbelief.
“Then what am I supposed to do in the meantime? About…” she gestured to the puddle of spunk congealing between her breasts and on her collar. “…THIS?!”
“Oh…” Ren looked past her, to the still very active hallway. “I’m beginning to see the problem.” He glanced up at the clock. “Okay, there’s still some time left before lunch finishes; we just need to get you to the gym showers.”
“Ren that’s two floors down, and in the other building!”
“Uh…” Ren chewed his lip in thought. “Oh I know- you can press yourself against me while we walk, it’ll just look like you’re being really affectionate?”
“That is better that being seen covered in sexual fluids, but then you’d get you um… your… c-cum all over your blazer.”
“I’ll just go to the rest of my classes without my blazer, I’ll be fine.”
“Hmm…” Makoto scanned the room for any possible alternative. “Ah!” She grabbed a huge ring binder and held it open across herself. “I can just hold this, see?” She held it up close to her upper chest, covering the lower half of her face along with it. “No one will suspect a thing, they’ll just think I’m reading!”
Ren just didn’t have the heart to tell her… Though it did at least hide the physical signs of their encounter. The only alternative he could think of was if she tried consuming the fluids, which- while an incredibly hot mental image in his mind- wasn’t something he could bring himself to tell her to do.
“I guess if we move quickly and don’t stop, it should be fine…” He didn’t fully believe his own words, but better he went with her than leave her to attempt it by herself.
Nervously, Ren went ahead of her, unlocking the door and peering outside. The hallway wasn’t empty like they had hoped, but no one seemed to be paying much attention at least. He gestured for her to follow him, and she did so still holding the ring binder up in front of her, doing a very unconvincing job of pretending to read as they ran along.
Makoto’s heart was pounding in her chest. Being seen naked was obviously a total non-issue at this point, being seen with her own fluids running down her leg would be embarrassing for sure, but being seen with her boyfriend’s cum splayed all over her front would be mortifying… and maybe really hot- she was sure that was just Agnes influencing her feelings again though, no way she was that depraved- that’s impossible.
Needless to say the sight of the student council president and her boyfriend skipping through the halls, the former of which holding an open folder up in front of her as if she was reading on the move drew no small number of eyes. Makoto could only pray none of them noticed what was really going on. Ren kept his eyes on everyone around them, making sure to jump in if any threatened to get too close. He noticed that while Makoto focused so hard on hiding his fluids, her own were still staining her own thighs; it seemed she had forgotten about them entirely. They were slightly harder to see than his own, so he could only hope that everyone was too distracted by her upper half to notice… though that was likely wishful thinking… best he could realistically do was keep her in blissful ignorance.
Though perhaps ignorance wasn’t a wholly good thing. Makoto’s juices had been sliding down her leg a while, reaching her bare feet, leaving a tiny wet mark on the floor with each footstep. It was when they reached the stairs however- that in her haste she managed to slip, and found herself about to take a tumble downward. Bracing herself for impact, she nearly dropped the folder when Ren just barely managed to reach out and grab her arm, preventing a no doubt painful fall.
“Are you okay?”
“R-Ren?” She stared at him wide-eyed, her right foot still on the top step, her right hand clasped safely in his, her left foot hanging in open air, and ring binder still safely in her left hand. Her heart was pounding even harder from two types of adrenaline now. “Thank you, that could have been really bad.”
He pulled her to safety, now she was standing securely on both feet, though one more problem- in the near-fall she had forgotten to keep covering herself. Her jizz-stained chest was now in the open air. Thank goodness she was facing the wall, so she was quick to re-cover with the binder, wincing slightly when he held it a tad too close, dirtying it; luckily the pages were all laminated, but still…
She looked around, quite a few students were staring at the both of them, whether they noticed the cum or were just staring because of her near-miss on the stairs was a mystery, but she was more than happy to assume everything was fine and live in blissful ignorance. Being mindful of her feet on the stairs this time, she continued down towards the gym area, Ren following closely behind.
Once they were both on the ground floor, she could once again focus on speed, she only had a few more short metres before reaching the gymnasium proper. While there would likely be some practice or club activities going on inside, she could easier just stick to the edge and work her way over to the changing rooms to finally shower off and relax.
She pushed through the door, rushing to get through, and once again haste came to bite her, as she ran right into the school nurse.
“Ah!” Makoto nearly tripped over Lavenza, the latter stumbling backwards a couple steps. “S-sorry.”
“I-it’s quite alright.” Lavenza shook her head, she had taken a minor bump but nothing she needed to be concerned over. It was the fact that she had been inadvertently treated to a close-up view of Makoto’s jiggling, cum-covered breasts that really took her by surprise. “Oh my.”
“A-ah…” In the collision, the folder had completely clattered to the floor, leaving her completely uncovered. “AAHH!” She threw her arms over herself and simply sprinted the rest of the way, desperately trying to ignore the practicing volleyball team as she ran past them.
Ren didn’t follow her into the changing rooms. While she would likely be okay with his presence, he doubted any other girls who happened to be there would be cool with him just chilling in there while Makoto cleaned herself up.
Lavenza looked up at him with a supportive, but slightly concerned smile.
“I appreciate the desire to produce grandchildren, but that’s not the correct area of the body to ‘plant your seed’ as it were.”
“That’s not…” Ren rubbed his forehead in exasperation. “Please just forget what you saw.”
“If you like I could sit in on your next session and guide the two of you through the process?”
“Please stop talking…”
“I’ll make sure to study plenty of textbooks on the subject so we can be sure you get it right.”
“Kill me now…”
Chapter 92: The other Yoshizawa
Summary:
Makoto and Sumire enjoy an afternoon out together
Chapter Text
Progress through Maruki’s palace was proceeding at a good pace, the team maintaining a healthy mindset throughout of treating it like any other job, and overcoming obstacles one after another as they would arise. However they had reached a roadblock of sorts, one that would require them venturing once more into the deepest, darkest depths of Mementos, to where they had first encountered the Holy Grail.
Even travelling in the Monavan, it would be a long and gruelling trip, so it was agreed that they would dedicate a day purely to that trip- tomorrow to be precise- so today the team were free to disband early for today.
With the free time afforded to them, Sumire decided to ask Makoto if they could do their batting cage revisit today. Makoto- being the supportive Senpai that she is- ignored the feeling of dread deep in her stomach (or was it a little lower?) and agreed.
“Looks like the place is empty apart from us Senpai.”
“Y-yeah.” Makoto scanned her surroundings. The batting cages seemed to be automated self-service, so they were both free from the eyes of patrons and staff alike, which was handy; this was a rare case where she didn’t want many eyes on her. “Do you have a goal today, Sumire?”
“A goal?”
“Anything you want to achieve while you’re here?”
“Hmm… Not really.” She shrugged, smiling nervously. “I’m here… just because- I guess? I’m doing what comes naturally.”
“I suppose that works.” Makoto took a step towards the booth’s entrance, before swiftly backtracking and taking a seat on a bench. “Why don’t you go first?”
“Hm?”
“Did you want to have the first go?”
“Oh? I was thinking we could go at the same time.”
“The same time?”
Sumire fiddled with her hair.
“I’ve thought a lot about the last time we came here. I kept trying to copy how you did it, and… well- you know the results.” She laughed. “I really sucked.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“That’s because you’re a nice person Senpai, you don’t want to hurt my feelings.”
“I… suppose I can’t deny that. But I’m not lying to you.”
“Hmm…” Sumire took a few steps forward, looking out at the astroturf. “I want to try this ‘as myself’, without trying to be a ‘tribute act’ to either you or Kasumi. Ha… it might be a total flop, but I want to see what happens, y’know? So I thought it’d be better if rather than have you be my guide, you can just be emotional support, and we can bat alongside eachother.”
Makoto exhaled, smiling at the younger girl.
“I think that’s a good idea.”
“Let’s head in then.”
Makoto couldn’t chicken out after that, she gathered her courage and followed Sumire into the batting area, taking up the booth just next to her. Sumire of course wasted no time in picking up her metal bat and beginning the process of psyching herself up. Makoto however spent a good length of time just eyeing the bat, her face and body alike tense. For some reason, she had become very uncomfortable at the mere sight of baseball bats.
“’For some reason’? You’re still in denial over what happened?”
Makoto ignored Agnes’s voice, instead focusing on gathering her courage. She couldn’t let this fear rule over her, not when even being near Ryuji when fighting in the metaverse threw her off.
“Seriously Makoto, it’s fine. Yeah you did smack yourself right in the cunt, it was pretty dumb, but everyone makes mistakes, there’s no need to go the full deluded-denial-route.”
For the sake of overcoming her fear, for fighting alongside Ryuji, and for supporting Sumire, Makoto took a firm hold of the bat. She held tightly onto both ends, making sure there was absolutely no chance of either end flying off in an unpredictable direction.
“Fine, ignore me. I am thou, thou art a really silly girl sometimes. So long as you don’t go full Majima-RP again I think you’ll be fine.”
‘I’m just in a batting cage, for the totally normal purpose of hitting baseballs and nothing else. I can do this.’
Makoto was knocked out of her thoughts by the sudden- yet satisfying ‘crack’ sound from behind her. She turned around to see the tail end of Sumire’s first swing.
“Hm.” Sumire’s brow furrowed, watching her ball as it rolled into the back wall. “Well it wasn’t a miss, but it wasn’t a great hit either.”
Makoto didn’t want to fall behind. She took one last deep breath, and got into position. Keeping her bat aloft, and her eyes sharp; she waited for the first ball to launch, and once it did so she swung… and missed.
She immediately knew what she was doing wrong, for starters she involuntarily closed her eyes right as she swung, and the swing itself had no real power behind it, being little more than her limply rotating her upper torso and just taking the bat along for the ride. She had to do this right, she knew she was fully capable, she had done really well last time… at the batting portion of that day, at least…
She tried to re-enter the same state of mind she had that day. Trying to channel the energy of ‘Kiryu Kazuma batting in the body of a nudist teenage girl’, and put her heart into her next swing. She connected, and sent the ball flying. Granted, she had put all of her focus into might rather than precision, so the ball hadn’t even gone in the vague direction of the homerun target, instead smacking right into the back wall right by the launcher; even from back here in the batting cages, both girls could see the rather sizable dent it left in the wall.
“Woah Senpai! That was one hell of a swing!”
“Eheheh…” Makoto laughed nervously. “I hope we don’t get into trouble for that.”
“Guess it’s a good thing we’re the only ones here. I don’t think I’m going to beat you in terms of power- that’s for sure. I almost feel bad for the shadows you fight.”
“Now you’re just embarrassing me.” Despite sounding quite humble, Makoto couldn’t help but subtly pose, trying to look cool with the bat over her shoulders. Quickly catching herself- and wanting to keep risks to an absolute minimum- she returned to a neutral and much more professional stance. “Besides hitting the ball hard only does me so much good, you’re much more precise.”
Sumire quickly turned rather bashful.
“Well gymnastics are all about precise movement, it’s the one thing I should be good at.” She readied herself for the next swing. “Thank you for saying so though.”
She scored another hit, the satisfying cracking sound echoing through the building. However, it was quite the opposite to Makoto’s shot- flew in just the right direction, but lacking the power.
“Hmm… that’s disappointing.”
“The target is quite high up…”
“I’m falling into the same trap again.” Sumire shook her head. “I’m getting tunnel vision, thinking too much about the ‘proper’ way to move it just enough. With gymnastics it’s all about control, you can’t overdo a movement and lose your balance, they grade you so harshly over that stuff that I’m applying the same mindset here.” She got into position again. “But this is different, I should be more reckless, put more spirit into just hitting it as hard as I can.”
“Ha.” Makoto smirked. “You don’t even need me here, you’re figuring this all out pretty quick.”
“It all seems rather obvious when I just take a step back and look at the big picture.” She swung with all her might, this time coming within a scant few feet of the target. “Nearly…”
Makoto put on her war face, reaffirming her stance, ready for her next swing. Her anxiety and trepidation she carried mere moments earlier had swiftly become all but forgotten. Seeing Sumire working so hard to observe herself objectively and realize her potential; Makoto knew she couldn’t sit idly by and let herself be overtaken quite that easily. The two of them may not have been competing, but the desire to not fall behind was still there all the same. Seeing a friend try their hardest inspired Makoto to do the same.
She swung, unleashing the most satisfying crack yet flew up into the air and slammed into the target.
“Alright!” Makoto pumped her fist.
The inspiration went two ways; now that she could look to Makoto not as the end goal, but simply as an ally on the same path of self-improvement as her, Sumire found inspiration in her fire, and matched the homerun with one of her own. No words were needed, the two girls shot eachother proud and fierce grins, and looked forward ready for the next shot. One after another they traded great hits. Few reached the homerun target, but with Makoto’s mastery of power and Sumire’s mastery of precision, each side influencing the other, none but the deliberately confrontational and contrarian would call any of their shots ‘bad’.
“You’re so toned Senpai.”
“Hm?” Makoto looked down at her body, bashfully smiling. “Us Niijimas have always put a lot of effort into staying fit. Especially me- now that I know all my imperfections are out in the open for all to see.”
“It’s actually not too different for me.” Sumire took a swig of her water bottle. “The leotards we wear are very form-fitting. People might not see as much of our skin as they do for you nudists, but there’s no chance of us hiding any weight we gain. Not to mention how it impacts our performance.”
“I have heard all the grading in gymnastics is extremely strict. Though I have to admit, as a layman, I can’t really tell what distinguishes the good from the bad a lot of the time, it all looks so impressive.”
“Well I do rhythmic gymnastics specifically, but it applies there too. It’s absurdly strict, my coach is really harsh on me- n-not that’s she’s being mean or anything, but you can’t afford to give anything but your best performance.”
“I guess it’s the kind of thing where you’re not ranked on how many points you gain, but how many you lose.”
“There’s definitely truth to that.”
“It sounds so stressful. You’re amazing Sumire-san, I admire you.”
“R-really?”
“Yeah, who wouldn’t? I know a lot of really amazing and determined people- but I don’t know many who could do what you do.”
Sumire began to glow pink.
“Th-there are so many people better than I am though…”
“I mean… maybe? But you don’t strike me as someone who’s stopped growing, you can still get a lot better. I’m just saying that you’re already amazing right now.”
“Oh…” Forget pink, she was bright red. “Thank you, Senpai, that really means a lot.”
Makoto smiled warmly, looking back into the entrance area, seeing it was still empty.
“Do you want to go for another round? We’ve got plenty of time.”
“O-oh? Yeah… yeah that sounds like a good idea…”
“…Is everything alright Sumire-san?”
“Can… can I ask an awkward question Senpai?”
“Hm?” Makoto gently laid down her bat to the side out of the way. “Sure, go ahead.”
Sumire shuffled around nervously for a while, her eyes shifting back and forth between Makoto’s face and body.
“Why did you decide to go nudist?”
“Me?”
“You were the first one. I joined the program for a while- as you probably remember- to… well it’s embarrassing to say, but to try and copy you.”
“I see…”
“And from what I’ve seen of the others, and what I see from them online, it seems you’re at least partly the inspiration for them joining the program, so that at least makes some sense. But you? You were the first. No one else was doing it in the country- possibly even the world.”
“Well, I was asked to initially, to ‘advertise’ the program.”
“But why did you say yes?”
“Hmm…” Makoto shuffled her feet slightly, averting her eyes. “This might cause you to lose some respect for me, but I initially joined because I felt I had to.”
“You had to?”
“To cut a long story short- back then I basically did anything and everything authority figures told me to do. I didn’t have the willpower to resist their influence.”
“Oh dear… that sounds awful. It must have been so hard for you.”
“It was… honestly it felt pretty humiliating.”
“I can imagine. Hell, I did it myself- so I don’t need to imagine.” Sumire shook her head. “But it was no doubt much worse for you. I at least had the benefit of not being the first.”
“I suppose…”
“Do you… still feel that way?”
Makoto shook her head, smiling brightly.
“No, it feels completely different now.” She stood tall, facing Sumire with a wide, confident stance and her hands on her hips. “I feel stronger than I ever have before in my life.”
Sumire had to admit it, she found Makoto standing before her like this suddenly quite intimidating.
“That’s quite the turnaround. Maybe this is weird to say, but you seem quite powerful too.”
“Heheh.” An uncharacteristic tooth-bearing grin spread across Makoto’s face. “Thanks! Not being able to hide any part of myself is still a little scary, but also, the feeling that I don’t have to hide anything is an amazing kind of liberating feeling.” She gestured towards her body, all the way down from the tips of her bare toes to her still-smiling face. “This is me, all of me. I can BE all of me, fear of judgement isn’t enough for me to hide away my body, so I don’t feel the need to hide who I am on the inside either.”
“That’s… kind of amazing actually. You’re wrong about one thing though…”
“Huh?”
Sumire looked up into the older girls eyes, and smiled.
“I haven’t lost any respect for you, in fact- it’s grown. I don’t know anyone who could do what you do.”
Makoto’s turn to blush.
“There are plenty of other nudists who do it too.”
“That doesn’t detract from what I said.”
“Ah… well… thank you.”
Sumire nodded, before looking back into the entrance area again.
“There really is no one coming here today, huh?”
“Yeah. You rarely get anywhere this quiet in Tokyo. It’s nice.”
“Yeah…” Sumire’s brow furrowed. “Senpai? Do you think you could keep this secret?”
“What do you—huh?!”
Sumire took a deep breath, and after one last check to see that no one other than the two of them were present, began to strip down.
“Sumire, you’re—”
“I’m NOT rejoining the program!” She continued undressing. “I’m not committing to anything. I just want to see how it feels.”
“I… mm” Makoto nodded. “I understand. You’re safe with me.”
“Thank you Senpai.” Sumire neatly folded her clothes and put them in a nice, easy-to-reach pile in the corner of her batting cage. It took a few moments of psyching herself up to work up the courage she needed to remove her underwear, but she did so and added them to the pile. And now found herself standing in the batting cages, wearing naught but her glasses, feeling the cold winter air against her skin, sending a shiver through her body. “That’s certainly bracing.”
“Ha, yeah I’ve gotten used to it, but winter isn’t friendly for first time nudists. Even if technically you’re not first time.”
“I’m no nudist. I’m just naked.” Sumire laughed nervously at her own joke. She hopped up and down in place, loosening her muscles and warming herself up, as if testing her new capabilities of movement in her skyclad state. She then reached down and picked her bat back up. “Alright, ready to go again Senpai?”
“Mm. Yes, let’s go.”
The pair resumed their batting. Not much had changed for Makoto of course, but Sumire was dealing with a number of odd new experiences. Many months had passed since her time as a nudist, she had forgotten what it had felt like. She was hyper-aware of the sensation of the ground beneath her feet, her hair resting against her shoulders and back, the chill air brushing against every inch of exposed skin, her breasts shaking with each swing, her usually private parts especially feeling the presence of open air.
It was all rather overwhelming, and she wasn’t sure she’d call it pleasant. The initial impact on her abilities was undeniably negative, since with all these feelings that had grown unfamiliar were very distracting if nothing else.
She resolved to stick with it a little while longer at least. Any change required an adjustment period after all, so she wasn’t ready to jump to conclusions about how she felt about this new state. As the shock slowly started to wear off, while the effects on her performance still required further research, she found herself having fun again at least, both of them were.
Perhaps a little too much fun, neither of them were paying attention to the entrance area, putting it out of their mind entirely. Similarly, the person currently entering the batting cages looking to let off some steam themselves, paid no mind to the girls already playing. He didn’t even look at them, after all- why would he think anything noteworthy of others batting in the batting cages?
He sighed in on the machine, paid for a session, grabbed a bat, and entered the batting area. As he went to take his place in his favorite booth, he finally noticed the two girls. Sumire too- had happened to notice him in this moment too. Time seemed to pause for just a brief instant as their eyes met. Sumire- who was just getting comfortable, suddenly became more aware than ever of her nudity, and cried out.
“A-Akechi-kun?!”
“What the hell?!” Akechi flinched at the sight.
Sumire brought the bat up close to her body, holding it horizontally across her chest to hide her nipples, conveniently forgetting to hide her bare pussy, but that was okay, Akechi had turned his head away anyway, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“What the hell are you two doing…” he sighed. “I suppose that’s a stupid question, isn’t it?”
“We’re just enjoying ourselves here.” Makoto stepped in front of Sumire, obviously feeling no need to cover herself as she glared at the boy. “Is that a problem?”
“Not a problem, just annoying.” Akechi groaned. “I had hoped to relax here and forget about all of you for a while, but it doesn’t seem I’ll be so lucky.”
“You’re welcome to leave, no one’s keeping you here.”
“Tempting, but I’ve already paid for my session.”
“I-I don’t mind if he stays.” Sumire worked up the courage to step around Makoto’s side, though she kept up her ineffective covering method. “We’re all just here as customers, right? We can just get on with it and not worry about eachother.”
Makoto and Akechi sighed in unison- a coincidence that seemed to annoy both of them judging by their respective glares.
“Yeah, we can be mature about it and just do what we all came here to do.”
“No objections here Niijima-san. Though I have to ask…”
“Do you have to ask?”
“Yoshizawa-san.”
“Y-yes?”
“When the hell did you become an exhibitionist?”
“I’m not an exhibitionist!” Sumire angrily stamped her foot, forgetting to keep covering herself (which was probably for the best, it’s not as if covering her breasts like that was winning her more of Akechi’s respect). “I just… thought me and Makoto-senpai would be the only ones here, I was just curious about how it felt, now that I’m doing it as myself.”
“How it felt being an exhibitionist?”
“Would you quit it?”
“…I apologize Niijima-san, it appears my words came out seeming more judgmental than they were intended. But you have to admit this brand of nudism is much more akin to exhibitionism. Real nudists just practice at home and such.”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“You’re not the first person to say that about us.”
“You say that as if it’s meant to belittle my point.”
“Well my point is: so?”
“Oho?”
“I enjoy it when people look at me. Is that really such a big problem? Am I really inconveniencing you that much?”
“Many would regard you getting your rocks off by showing your lady bits off to be extremely perverse, would you say that’s unfair?”
A light pink dusted Makoto’s cheeks, but she stood her ground.
“To be honest, no, that’s not unfair to say. It is rather perverse. But again- so?”
Akechi smirked.
“Go on.”
“I’m not hurting anyone by doing what I do. And frankly I’ve reached the point where I don’t care if I makes some of them uncomfortable. Living like this makes me happy, and it makes a lot of other people happy too, people smile when they look at me- and if that’s because they get to have a little bit of a laugh and fun seeing ‘the naked lady’, then so be it. So long as they don’t actively or directly disrespect me or my friends, it doesn’t bother me. I’m living in a way that I enjoy, how people like you feel about it is your business, not mine.”
“Maybe we can all calm down, huh?” Sumire- forcing a smile- put herself between the two, not that either took their eyes off the other. “We’re all just here to have fun…”
Akechi chuckled.
“So you’re not just openly a pervert, you’re defiantly one.” He leant back, smirking. “Alright, I’ll admit it Niijima, I’ve developed a small amount of respect for you.”
“Forgive me if I don’t jump up and down in joy at your approval.”
“I’m surprised you’d turn down an opportunity to flap your breasts up and down in front of someone like that.” He laughed to himself. “Though the idea of some especially stuffy types getting enraged by that kind of sight is pretty hilarious.”
“Hmph.”
Makoto and Akechi turned away from the other, getting vaguely into their respective positions to bat. Sumire breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’ll admit Niijima-san, I thought you’d be the type to give me a long spiel about how your nudity isn’t at all sexual, and completely deny all accusations of being attention seeking.”
“There are those for whom that is true.”
“For real nudists- yes, I agree. For those like you? I have my doubts. But seeing you not only own up to it, but own it outright and stand up for it when challenged? That at least I can respect.”
Makoto didn’t respond, instead focusing on preparing for the next ball launch. Sumire was about to follow suit, before Akechi addressed her again.
“What about you Yoshizawa? Are you embracing this perverted hobby of hers?”
“N-no! I don’t get… that kind of pleasure from being seen naked, that’s honestly really uncomfortable of an idea to me…”
Try as she might to hide it, Makoto’s shoulders- and mood- dropped slightly at the comment.
“…But I respect Makoto for it too.”
“Huh?” Makoto looked at the younger girl in disbelief. “Really?”
“You’re being unapologetically… you! That’s really cool- exactly what I want to do…” Her arms shot up, face blushing bright red again. “N-not exactly! I don’t mean I’ll start doing p-pervy stuff like you enjoy doing, or even getting naked. I just mean being true to yourself, whether that’s what the world wants you to be or not. That’s what I meant.”
Makoto smiled.
“I understand. What works for me may not work for you, just find what makes you happy.”
“I will Senpai… thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything… ha… I’m starting to sound like Ren.”
“Hm?”
“Nevermind. You can get dressed again any time you like Sumire-san.”
“I’m okay for now.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’s only you and Akechi-kun here. And Akechi isn’t the type to look at women.”
“What?”
“What?”
Akechi stared at Sumire incredulously.
“Are you just assuming that I’m gay?”
“N-no! That’s not what I meant. I just meant you’re not looking at girls’ bodies, you don’t seem especially interested in that kind of thing.”
“Why would you think that?”
“You… you were getting so offended at nudists ‘showing off their bodies’ to everyone.”
“I never said I wasn’t interested in girls, or had no sexual desire myself. Just that what Makoto and her fellow program participants were doing is a sign of them being huge perverts, that’s all.”
“O-oh…” Sumire started feeling self-conscious. “S-so you are going to be looking at us?”
“You two can simply ignore me, and I’ll try to ignore you. Like you said, we’re all just here to have a little fun. I’ll only glance over occasionally, depending on how much you shake everything around.”
“I see…” Sumire subtly adjusted her hair to cover her breasts, and would just hope it stayed in place.
Spoiler: it didn’t work.
Chapter 93: Lady
Summary:
The team need to make a return to Mementos
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Progress through Maruki’s palace had reached a standstill. The only way forward was blocked by tentacles the team recognised as coming from the good doctor’s persona. Futaba’s scans revealed they snaked all the way down to the deepest depths of Mementos, perhaps even as deep as where the holy grail itself once stood.
Thus if they wanted to move forward at all, their only choice was to once again begin a long journey down to the core of the collective unconscious.
The group descended the stairs down to entranceway of Mementos.
“Can’t believe we’re doing this man…” Ryuji’s head fell as he groaned. “This took forever last time…”
“Heheh, sorry Skull there’s no fast travel IRL.” Futaba snickered to herself. “I’d use it all the time if there was.”
“It’s probably for the best that there isn’t, you already don’t get enough exercise as it is.”
“Wow Joker, rude.”
“I’m the only one getting any ‘exercise’.” Morgana huffed. “Everyone else just gets to sit inside me and relax on the way down.”
“Inside?” Sumire- who was already uncomfortable with the dark, creepy atmosphere and environment of Mementos- fearfully raised her hands in front of her with a forced smile on her face. “S-sorry, I’m not into vore, could I sit this one out?”
“Huh?!” Morgana recoiled. “What the hell are you imagining? I meant after I transform- like so!” The notcat pulled of a series of (no doubt unnecessary) poses, before leaping into the air and morphing into his van form in a magical ‘poof’ of smoke.
“Oh! Okay.” Sumire nodded. “That makes more sense now.”
“…Is that all the reaction I get?” Morgana’s headlights were the only thing he could use to express himself in this form, but his disappointment was clear nonetheless. “Did someone spoil my transformation for her?”
“Don’t think so.” Futaba shook her head. “If they did she would have known what you were talking about right away… though it is surprising that she even knows what ‘vore’ is…”
“Nevermind that you lot.” Makoto signed. “There’ll be plenty of time for talking on the way down.”
“Probably won’t take that long anyway.” Ren started climbing into the driver’s seat. “It mainly seems like a long time looking back since so much exhausting shit happened that day. Today we don’t have any wannabe deities to fight, we’ve just got a lot of driving. At worst some shadows we’ve already beaten a million times over might slow us down, but it’ll be like a roadtrip, it might be fun.”
“I think a real roadtrip would be fun, this’ll just be a pain in the ass.” Ryuji groaned. “Whatever, not as if putting it off is gonna help, I guess.”
“That’s the spirit! Everyone get in!”
No one felt quite up to mirroring Ren’s clearly-fake enthusiasm. In a way this was something of a relief compared to the constant challenges presented to them by palaces, but sitting together in the cramped van driving along bumpy train tracks for hours on end was no one’s idea of fun; the poor lighting and gloomy atmosphere didn’t help matters.
The Monavan- conveniently- seemed to be the perfect size to accommodate the entire team of Phantom Thieves with a decent amount of wriggle room. That is, the entire regular team, they now had not one- but two guests travelling along with them, and no more seats to offer.
“I don’t mind having someone sit on my lap!” Haru wasted no time in shooting her hand up excitedly, with her helpful (and in no way impure) offer. “Maybe Oracle since she’s the smallest?”
“That’s probably not a good idea, it’s gonna be sweaty enough as it is in there.”
“Oh? Are you objecting because you want to sit in my lap instead Skull? Or me in yours?”
“Wh-buh?”
“Alright keep it in your pants you two.” Ren said while trying not to laugh.
“I didn’t do anything, man!”
“There’s some space behind the seats, I don’t mind going there.” Futaba shrugged. “Gives me room to use my laptop on the way down so I don’t get bored.”
“Sure, I guess that works. Just make sure you keep regularly scanning for actual enemies and such.”
“Yeah yeah Joker, I can multitask. ‘Sides, there’s only so much I can do without internet access down here anyway.”
“I shall join her.” Yusuke offered. “Depending on how much downtime we get I may be able to complete a few sketches at least.”
“Alright. Violet, Crow, you get their usual seats.”
“Joyous day.” Akechi cheered sarcastically as he climbed inside, though he immediately wished he waited for the others to get in first, as he was now sat right next to Haru. “Noir.”
“Crow.”
“Do you mind awfully if I ask you a question?”
“I suppose that’d be fine.”
“The metaverse allows us to store our weaponry in our pockets when not in use, and we’re already low on space in the vehicle, is it really necessary for you to… cradle your axe like that?”
“Just knowing I have it on hand… makes me feel better.”
“Is this something you always do here?”
“No.”
“What’s different this time then?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I’m sure a detective can figure that out.”
“I can already tell this trip is going to be a veritable barrel of laughs.”
Makoto looked at them in the rear view mirror, then exchanged a nervous glance with Ren.
“Everyone behave yourselves back there, okay?”
“Yes MOOOOM.”
“Don’t be a smartass Oracle.”
~ ~ ~
“How does space work?”
“That’s a random question Inari.”
“I was just thinking, we’re descending to move the tentacles that obstruct our path in the palace, right?”
“Right?”
“So they stretch all the way from the palace to Mementos, does that mean they’re connected?”
Makoto- who was listening from the front passenger seat- pondered.
“I suppose all palaces are supposed to be off-shoots of Mementos, so it’d make sense.”
“All this time I’ve been thinking of every palace as its own separate plane of existence, but is it possible to physically traverse from one to another just by walking?”
“That can’t be right though.” Ann turned back to face Yusuke. “Kaneshiro’s palace was in Shibuya, but his version of Shibuya was totally different from the version we always see before we enter Mementos. I could believe we’d miss the flying bank but we definitely would have noticed the walking ATMs.”
Yusuke stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Two separate versions of Shibuya Square, three if one we to count the real world.”
“More than that even…” Akechi decided to chime in. “I’ve been to more palaces than you, and you probably won’t be surprised to learn how many corrupt businessmen or political figures have palaces in the same general areas, or even stacked in the same building, and you can never see one from another.”
“Then how to the tentacles reach both here and within the palace?”
“A good question… Perhaps there are paths between palaces, but they don’t work with the same spatial-logic of the real world. It’s not uncommon for the metaverse to make things bigger or smaller, so shifting space-time around would hardly be impossible. Either Maruki- or rather, his persona- is able to find these paths, or it simply possesses the ability to break through the different planes of reality in the metaverse, and use that to exert his influence.”
Futaba stared blankly for a moment.
“Why the fuck is he so OP?”
“Because things can’t get easier as we go along.” Ren sighed. “We’ve never been that lucky.”
“We’ve never lost either.” Makoto smiled, instantly reassuring him. “I don’t think we’re going to start now, do you?”
“Hell no. I already shot a god in the face, I don’t think much can really challenge me after that.”
Akechi smirked.
“Don’t get cocky now Joker.”
“Crow’s right.” Futaba leant over the back seats. “You had some spirit bomb/ power of friendship thing going on when you did that, I’ve scanned you since then and while you’re still super strong, you’re not quite on the level you were when you dealt that final blow.”
“Oh you and your power levels, we’ll be fine. It’s not as if I’m doing any of this on my own anyway.”
“Quite right.” Makoto nodded proudly. “There’s nothing we cannot conquer when we all work together. No matter how powerful Maruki may have become, he can’t match the combined might of all our trusted comrades and Akechi.”
“Does that mean I count as a ‘trusted comrade’ too?”
“Hm? Of course you do Violet.”
“Hm.” Sumire smiled, doing a small bounce in her seat feeling quite pleased with herself, ignoring the annoyed-looking Akechi rolling his eyes beside her.
~ ~ ~
“Akechi-kun, you keep poking me with your knee.”
“Codenames, Violet.”
“Sorry Makoto-senpai- I mean: Queen, but Crow keeps brushing against my leg.”
“Seriously?” Makoto glared back at the boy. “I admit I don’t think much of you, but I thought you were above inappropriate touching.”
“I’m not doing it on purpose! There’s very limited space back here, and I can’t get too close to… that!” He pointed to Haru on his other side, still cradling her axe like a baby, gently gliding her fingers along the blunt edge of the head as if to console it.
Makoto sighed.
“Noir, I understand how you must be feeling, but we’re allies for now, you can put that away.”
“I wasn’t planning on using it! I just…” Haru glared at Akechi. “Doing this just really comforts me.”
“Now you see why I’m reluctant to get near her? It’s not like I’m trying to touch anyone else, but there are a lot of us back here.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Sumire smiled at him weakly. “I’m sorry for insinuating that you were being inappropriate, I failed to properly consider your feelings.”
“I’m used to it.”
Makoto rubbed her eyes.
“Okay Noir, please put that away, save the anger for the shadows.”
“Ugh… fine…”
“Would it help if I switched seats with someone?”
“No, no it’ll be fine Crow. I’ll save it for later.”
“Dare I ask what ‘it’ is in this context?”
“…”
“What an honor it is to work with you all…”
~ ~ ~
“Hmm…”
“Hm?” Ann noticed their youngest guest seemingly staring in her direction, only to look away as soon as she looked back. “Something wrong Violet?”
“N-no, nothing’s wrong.”
“You sure? It looked like you were staring.”
“…It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Are you sure?” Haru leant forward to peer past Akechi to Sumire. “You’ve been humming to yourself for a while now.”
“I… It feels inappropriate to bring up.”
“You’re among friends here.” Haru smiled. “You can say anything that’s on your mind, you’re safe here.”
“You… still consider us friends Okumura-senpai?” Sumire stared at the older girl, wide-eyed.
Haru chuckled.
“I don’t know about ‘still’. But I’m very happy to make friends with ‘Sumire Yoshizawa’.”
“Ah… Thank you, I’d like that Okumura-senpai.”
“You can call me Haru, it’s fine… well- later you can, right now you can call me Noir.”
“Right, of course- Noir.”
“That goes for the rest of us too.” Ann gently rested her hand atop Sumire’s. “If we’re gonna be working together it should be as friends, no reason to have more than one exception to that.”
Akechi didn’t say anything, no point in doing so really, he simply rolled his eyes.
“So what is on your mind?”
“Hmm…” Sumire shuffled in place uncomfortably for a second. “Not sure how appropriate this is when there are boys present, but you all seem open about this sort of thing… ohh… whatever- I’ll just say it.” She took a deep breath and looked Ann in the eyes. “Is it normal for there to be this much… bouncing going on during your trips down here?”
“B-bouncing?!” Ann looked downwards. “Oh… that…”
It was easy to forget, but the team were driving over train tracks this whole time, and the Monavan didn’t have the best suspension in the world. So as much as everything tried to ignore it (or rather- pretend to try and ignore it), it was impossible not to notice the constant violent bouncing of Ann’s sizable breasts; her suit offered very little in the way of support. Early on in their career it was actually quite painful to ride through mementos or run around in palaces all day, but the muscle and tendons keeping them firm strengthened over time.
It wasn’t much better for the other girls. Haru’s choice to go braless- with her nipples always poking prominently through the fabric of her costume- meant her bouncing was even more noticeable. Ann’s suit clung to her like a second layer of skin, but Haru’s was rather loose, so it didn’t bounce along with her, rather she bounced within it; her breasts always looking like they were trying their hardest to escape their confines, making it quite the interesting show, both for the boys and the high percentage of bisexual women on the team.
Makoto’s chest wasn’t as hefty as those two, but given that they had literally nothing supporting them at all, and the color of her nipples drawing the eye meant her own constant firm jiggling provided a truly endless source of entertainment distraction for the whole team, particularly Ren who could always see the continual movement in his peripheral vision as he tried his hardest to focus on driving.
Futaba was also there.
“I-I mean it’s not a problem or anything!” Sumire shook her head apologetically. “I was just worrying if it was unpleasant or something… oh gosh I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“N-no, it’s fine.” Ann said with an unsure smile on her face. “It’d just something us girls have to deal with here.”
Makoto smiled back at them.
“Don’t worry though, the boys are totally trustworthy, the worse they’ll do is look a little bit, but they won’t stare too much at the girls who don’t want it.” Her eyes narrowed. “Right?”
“Why the hell you lookin’ at me?” Ryuji- red faced in equal parts embarrassment and offence. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Good.” Makoto turned back to face forward, not saying anything else.
Ryuji let go of the breath he was holding, looking out the window, making sure not to make eye contact with any girl or breast in the vehicle while doing so, desperately hoping everyone would just move on, and trying his best to ignore Haru’s giggling at his expense.
~ ~ ~
“…the last ace in a lost hand. A heartbeat for a tin man. An oasis in a singed land—”
“P-Panther?”
“Hm? What is it, Crow? I had a good rhythm going.”
“You’re practicing your singing, correct?”
“…Yeah?”
“Are you perhaps interested in acting roles that involve singing?”
“I mean, it’s a good skill to have, ‘another tool in my belt’ as my dad would say.”
“Indeed. I was just wondering if you would accept some… constructive criticism?”
“Uh-oh.”
“No need to react like that Joker.” Akechi turned back to Ann. “It’s a competitive industry, so knowing the best way to improve and what to work on is essential if you want to succeed, don’t you agree?”
“I mean, yeah, obviously.”
“Now your song choice is a good one, it was certainly a powerful tune coming from its original vocalist. Do you want to know what comes to mind when I hear you sing it?”
“…No.”
“I get the image of a waitress working at an anonymous highway diner in the U.S., who despite being aware of the crow’s feet forming on her face, and her back getting weaker than it once was, she still holds on to the dream of one day performing on Broadway. She’ll dance atop the table for those extra tips, and promises herself that this time, anything she doesn’t spend on food and rent will go towards her savings, preparing herself to travel all the way to Hollywood, where she’s sure to be a star; but instead she’ll spend it on cigarettes and the cheapest wine she can buy on the way back home to her one-room apartment, just as she did the day before. She sings in front of the mirror, imagining the cheering crowds who will surely watch her, and the beautiful dresses she will surely wear. She then falls into a drunken slumber, telling herself that she’ll still get her big break any day now… She’ll start saving tomorrow for sure…”
“Mona I think we’re gonna need to you to cast samarecarm because he fucking killed her, holy shit.”
~ ~ ~
An uncomfortable silence reigned inside the Monavan as it ventured ever-deeper into the depths of the distorted subway.
Sumire was the one to break the silence.
“Don’t you think that might have been a little… I don’t know… disproportionate?”
“Hmm…” Ren hummed thoughtfully.
And silence reigned once more. Not for too long though, the slightly muffled voice from above them broke it once more.
“Guys…?”
“Do you have music in here Mona?”
“I’ve never had music here Panther, you know that. Maybe you could try singing again?”
“Please no.”
“Screw you Skull!” Ann folded her arms in indignation. “I’m not in the mood for singing anymore. I’ll practice alone next time.”
“Does that mean the criticism worked?”
Yusuke’s question was met with a chorus of murmured groans; which while not the most pleasant sound in the world, was preferable to the low whine from above.
“I’m getting quite motion sick, I thought you’d all like to know.”
Sumire’s shoulders dropped.
“We really need to let him back in.”
Makoto sighed.
“She’s right, Joker- pull over.”
“You alright with that Panther?”
“Man, why’d you have to ask me? I’ll look like a bitch if I say ‘no’. Fine, let him back in.”
“Sorry Ann.” Ren laughed. “Skull, I’m gonna need your help undoing the cable-ties.”
“Ugh, fine man.”
~ ~ ~
“How we doing, Oracle?”
“A little over two-thirds of the way to where we fought the big cup bitch.”
“See, didn’t take that long at all.”
“My ass is so sore man…”
“Get Yusuke to massage it for you.”
“’Eff off!”
“You can do mine if you want Ryuji-kun~”
“R-really?”
“Don’t rile him up Noir, we might need that energy later.”
“I’ll massage Queen’s, I’m sure she must be sore.”
“Shut up Ren.”
“Wait… huh?!”
“What’s the matter Oracle?”
“We’re not alone…”
“Shadows?”
“No, it’s a person.”
“Maruki?”
“No, I don’t know who it is, but someone is wandering around near the surface.”
“’Wandering around’? People don’t just wander into Mementos, that’s not possible, is it?”
The Monavan came to an abrupt halt.
“Joker?”
He let out a long, hefty sigh.
“We’re gonna have to go back.”
“OH COME THE ‘EFF ON! We’ve come this far and we have to head all the way back to the start?”
“We can’t just leave someone alone and trapped down here.”
“I mean obviously not, I didn’t mean it like that. But man… we’re gonna hafta come back down here afterwards…”
“So long as I get to do the trip inside the van rather than tied to it, I’ll cooperate. If we need to head back then so be it.”
“That’s the spirit Crow.”
~ ~ ~
“I’m not one for idioms, but I’ve had the words ‘curiosity killed the cat’ floating through my head since I got here.”
She never really realized it until recently, but Eiko really was the nosy type. Something inside her really couldn’t stand not understanding something that seemed important. This side of her never really came to the surface prior to meeting Makoto; perhaps that was because she was living her life in a directionless daze before then, perhaps she simply never noticed anything she deemed important enough to seek out further knowledge of, maybe the whole incident with Makoto and her boyfriend helped her out of was the first step in bringing out her real self, which included her boundless curiosity.
She never fully recovered from witnessing the events on Christmas eve, her entire worldview and sense of reality was shattered in one fell swoop. She tried to put it out of her mind, tried to focus on the more ‘normal’ problems like entrance exams, but it’s hard when just a week or two ago she bore direct witness to a deity that filled the sky and came within an inch of bringing an end to the world as she knew it. Studying didn’t hold her attention as much as it used to… not that it held it that firmly to begin with.
She HAD to understand what she saw; she’d never be able to go back to normal life otherwise. Her long talk with Ren and Makoto had repaired much of the damage to her sanity, answered many of her questions, but raised more in equal measure. Part of her regretted asking, or at least wished they hadn’t given her the whole story, so she could have stayed in ignorance about the alternate planes of reality and supernatural powers… Though knowing her, she would have insisted that she get the information regardless.
She had hoped knowing the full story would give her some piece of mind, and one some level it had, but she had such a hard time believing it. She didn’t think of Ren or Makoto as liars, she knew it must be true… but it was still all such a departure from everything she had ever known.
She had to see it for herself; she promised herself she would take a look at this other world with her own eyes, then that would be it- she would force herself to just accept the reality of it so she can stop obsessing over it, and return to her regular life, preparing for college, and a career of equal parts politics and exhibitionism.
“I should have just asked them…” She had followed Makoto here from school. A naked girl never really blends in, but she was able to keep out of the thieves’ sight at the very least. Tailing them all the way to Shibuya square, and hiding behind a wall inches away from the team as they pulled out their phones. She watched closely, wanting to see this mysterious magic app in action for herself, only to find the world shifting around her.
The crowds which were wandering around and giving her weird looks moments before all vanished, something about the atmosphere around her changed, and when she looked back at them- the thieves had all changed into the same absurd outfits she saw when they filmed Shido’s ‘calling card’- as they called it, before descending into the subway depths.
She already had the temptation to turn tail and run, but looking around her it was as if the world had suddenly become empty, and she realized all the talk about other dimensions or whatever may have been true; in which case- running wouldn’t do any good.
The only way she could go back to the real world was to follow them into the subway and find them. Unfortunately she had wasted too much time trying not to freak out on the surface, by the time she worked up the courage to enter the subway, Makoto and her friends were nowhere to be seen.
These certainly weren’t the subways she was familiar with, everything about her surroundings was twisted and creepy, and yet she knew her only option was to push forward and just hope to run into them so they can do whatever it was they do on their phones and send her home.
Gathering her courage, she began wandering through the unsettling tunnels, across the train tracks, trying to ignore all the obvious danger signals going off in her brain. Armed with naught but her school bag and her hair tie, this was the first time in months where she had felt truly ‘naked’.
“Nudie prez?” She called out, her voice echoing through the empty tunnels. “You’re still in here, right? Damn it… I really need to remember the way back. Everything about this is a mistake.”
She turned a corner, hoping to find Makoto et al. waiting for her, but was instead met with a figure. The term ‘figure’ was being generous; it was little more than a shadow-y blob that only vaguely resembled the basic framework of a human figure as drawn by a three-year-old. Eiko clapped her hand over her mouth, trying not to make a noise. It hadn’t seemed to have noticed her, or rather- it didn’t seem like it could even see her. She backed up against the wall and remained silent as it passed, the figure towering over her as it lurched aimlessly forwards, as if unaware of its surroundings at all, not just her.
Moments after she deemed it far enough away, she held her bag against the side of her body and ran the other direction as fast as she could. She rounded a corner, pausing a brief moment to peek back to see if it was following her; thankfully it wasn’t, it just stood there looking lost.
“How the hell does Nudie Prez deal with this?”
Coasting on the adrenaline, she knew her only move was to keep pressing onwards, hopefully she’d hit a dead end, then she’d have an excuse to turn around and just wait at the entrance, just hoping the thieves would leave the same way they came in. She had no idea how deep this place went, she hadn’t religiously studied the Tokyo subway system map or anything (she never felt the need to, she just trusted the trains knew where they were going after all), but she already knew this version had a much different layout; trains weren’t known for their 90 degree turns and T-junctions.
Her feet had toughened a great deal since going nudist, very few walking surfaces bothered her anymore, but walking down here was still very uncomfortable. You’re not supposed to walk on train tracks at all, much less in a place like this.
She turned one more corner and froze once more. The tracks spiralled- quite literally- into a swirling red and black mess of… something; she had never seen anything quite like this before, it looked as if the whole environment was being sucked into what her instincts were calling a portal.
She felt curiosity bubbling up inside her, wondering where such an otherworldly portal might lead, whether the thieves were waiting on the other side for her, whether it would lead to freedom or something even more insane than what she already saw. It almost felt like something within was calling out to her, like it was her destiny to pass through and face what lied within. She took a step forward…
“Pfft- nope.”
She spun around on her heel.
“Fuck being curious, this is nowhere near worth it. I’mma do a 540 and ditch this madhouse. Nudie Prez can keep her mysteries.”
She swiftly strode forwards- away from the portal, ready to just take her chances at the entrance. Only for the figure to once again block her path. Whether it was the same one from before or an entirely new shadow-y monster was unknown, and largely irrelevant in her mind. Managing to keep herself from freaking out a little while longer, she remained silent and pressed up against the wall, ready to just let it pass her by again then run for her life. Unfortunately this one didn’t seem as blind as the other, and the unsettling mask that she could only assume functioned as its face turned directly towards her.
A chill shot through her entire body. It had seen her.
A few moments passed where neither party moved an inch. Then, it slowly began reaching out in her direction.
“Hee… ho?”
“On second thought, the portal doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.”
Not wanting to just pray that it meant her no harm, or that the pepper spray in her bag would be enough to repel it, Eiko spun around again and ran for dear life, nearly falling over in the process.
With no other path before her, she leapt through the portal.
“This is a terrible idea!” She cried out moments before she came into contact with the otherworldly hole in reality… and landed on the other side no worse for wear. “Huh?”
She looked around, the environment didn’t seem all that different than before. It was a dead end just up ahead, but she could no longer hear the creatures moaning and groaning, so unless it too suddenly appeared through the portal, it seemed like she was safe for a moment at least.
Before she could catch her breath, and begin planning her next move, she noticed she wasn’t alone in this strange chamber. By the wall opposite the way she came in she noticed a figure- this time undoubtably human… well… probably human, it certainly looked the part but she couldn’t be sure of anything down here.
Actually looking closer she could see a dark, unsettling aura emanating off his body… his body.
“What the fuck…”
“Well… can’t say I expected to see you again.”
Eiko stared in disbelief.
“Why… why are you of all people here?”
“You look lost, Princess.”
She’d never forget that smarmy face, that tacky suit, the ridiculous haircut. A dull pain made itself at home in the pit of her stomach.
“Ts-Tsukasa?”
He grinned at her, she wasn’t sure if he had always looked this sickening, or if something really was different about him now.
“I’ll be honest, I really had given up on you. You were way more trouble than you’re worth, especially with that annoying nudist friend of yours.”
“Wait… those eyes…”
“But I see that even after all that, you came back to me, and you even took my suggestion to join in and go nudist yourself. Is that specifically as an apology or just more desperate grasping for attention?”
“Are you…?”
“Whatever, you’ll do better naked anyway. Sluts like you don’t need clothes.”
“I…” Eiko looked around, at the ever shifting and otherworldly surroundings. “You… in this place… This is like some kind of nightmare.” She looked at Tsukasa. “You’re… the other him, right? A shadow?”
Tsukasa chuckled.
“I am the true self.” His expression soured. “Though if you want to come back to me, you’re going to need more than just an apology.”
“An apology?”
“Not long after I washed my hands of you, the damn cops started asking around Shinjuku for me, they knew my damn face, and started doing some digging, drawing connections between me and that damn prostitution ring.”
“Wait… so that time- the cops actually took my tip seriously?” Despite everything, Eiko found herself smirking a little. “I thought they were just trying to rush me out the room, but they actually listened? Nice.”
“Hmph.” Shadow Tsukasa glared spitefully at the girl. “’Nice’ my ass. I could end up in prison because of you. And you honestly think stripping yourself naked and just rocking up like this is enough for me to forgive you and take you back in?”
“Take me back in?”
“After Kaneshiro turned himself in and ratted out all his connections, much of the market for… your type has gone dark.” A sickening grin spread across his face. “But at the very least I could use you as a bargaining chip to get help flying under the radar, skip town and not have to deal with any of the charges against me.”
“You think I’m here for you?!”
“Of course. You’ve always been easy like that.” He mock-shrugged. “You simply couldn’t survive without me in your life, you needed me a hell of a lot more than I needed you.”
“I…”
“Girls like you are a dime a dozen- as they say.” He stepped forward. “Girls with no direction in life, no purpose. Plain janes who exist only in the background. You desperately want more than anything else to feel desired, to feel cared for, to feel special.”
“…”
“But no one in your life could do that for you, no one cared enough to do that for you. Except me. A few sweet words and the tiniest slither of attention and you become utterly dependant.”
“I just…”
“Even as that annoying nudist girl was spelling shit out to you, you were happy to deny it all, because you couldn’t stand the idea of losing me, losing that one source of validation. And you were willing to do anything for my sake. It must have been nice to finally feel useful.”
“You’re…”
“And it seems that after all this time, your heart was calling out to me, that must be why we’ve crossed paths yet again. How out of all the directions you could have walked down here, all the destinations you could have ended up at, you ended up here, in front of me.” He held his arms open. “You may be weak, worthless in the eyes of the rest of the world, but I can still find a way to make you feel special.”
“Special?”
“Yes. I’ll make you feel special, and useful. I’ll always have a use for you… ha, well someone will at least.”
“…”
“So what do you say? Want to be special again, Princess?”
Eiko stared down at her feet, her bag sliding off her limp shoulder and clattering down to the ground. She slowly lifted her head, looking up at the man with a smile on his face, and his arms outstretched.
“PFFT! Seriously?! That’s what you’re going for? THAT’S the trope we going with for this thing?”
“Hm?”
Eiko laughed uproariously, to the point where she genuinely had a hard time staying up, she pointed mockingly at the shadow with tears of laughter forming in the corners of her eyes.
“Bitch do you have ANY idea how long it’s been since you were even slightly relevant? Just how late you are to have this kind of speech actually work?”
“What are you—”
“Don’t even bother dude, unless you have a time machine to go back and try saying all this to the old me, you’re wasting your breath. I’m SO past the point of caring about you.” She folded her arms. “I get it, you’re the metaverse version of that prick Tsukasa, and you’re making some pathetic attempt to exploit my vulnerabilities in hopes of getting out of the shithole you dug yourself into.”
“You think yo—”
“Shut your fucking mouth you scumbag! Nothing you say has ANY relevance anymore. You’re a reminder of an unhealthy mindset I once held, but that’s ALL you are.” She dismissively waved him away, smirk firmly planted on her face. “I don’t know exactly how shadows work, but you can stay stuck down here forever while the real you rots away in prison. I look forward to the last time I ever think of you, I doubt anyone else will remember you either. Go to hell, you fucking joke of a man.”
Tsukasa was enraged, sneering at her with murderous intent in your eyes.
“Who the hell do you think you are, bitch?! You think I’ll let you talk to me like this? Fine, if you’re not gonna make yourself useful to me, I’ll just kill you for a little catharsis, I’ll take what I can get- and believe me- I will take it.”
“Are you deaf dude? I told you to shut up. I’m never going to fall for such a pathetic, small-time bitch like you again.”
As she reached down towards her bag- with the intent of pulling out her pepperspray and emptying it out into this man’s eyes- a sudden, yet unbelievably intense pain shot through her head; she clutched either side of her skull.
“Wh-what the—”
“How wonderful, your resolve is finally ready to take form.”
“That… that voice is…”
“The last specks of dampening wax have been shed. Your candle’s flame can now burn its brightest. It shall light another, and another in turn.”
“Me… I’m…”
“Against those who would restrict freedom, you bare it without shame. Freedom begets freedom. With our contract, none shall lay claim to you but you yourself, you will be restricted by none and nothing both, and be a shining light to all who seek it!”
“Ha… hahaha… HAHAHAHA!” Eiko’s head shot up once more, her wide, golden eyes staring down the confused shadow. Her face now clad in a silver mask, a mask that rose up her forehead and connected to a bejewelled tiara. “I get it. I don’t get how I get it, but I get that I get it, get it?”
“What are you…?”
Eiko calmly reached up to her mask-crown combo, taking a firm hold of it.
“Come forth, Godiva!”
With a spray of blood and a burst of azure flames bursting up to the ceiling, a female figure emerged. Her body made entirely of crystalline blue glass, wrapped only in her long, flowing golden hair that swirled through the air around her, white lillies woven between her locks, and the heart within her chest glowing through her with a warm light. Holding her dainty hand over her chest, she gestured forward, down to Eiko rising up from the ground.
“I am thou, thou art I. In spring twilight, another queen blooms.”
Eiko rose to her feet, no longer bare, but wrapped in silver heeled-sandals, and her body wrapped in an elegant purple ballroom gown, frills covering her poofy shoulders and wide skirt; the entire dress of course remained entirely open at the front, hiding not an inch of her body from sight.
Shadow Tsukasa took a fearful step back as she grinned at him.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty damn good right now.”
“The hell is all this?”
As she rose from the ground, she held something in her hand, and it was what Tsukasa found his eyes drawn to above even the transformed girl and her other self.
“A— A hammer?”
Eiko did indeed hold a cartoon-ish hammer- nearly as big as she was- in her right hand; happily resting it on her shoulder.
“I’m glad I decided to hang onto this, don’t worry dude, it’s only inflatable.” She let the head of the hammer fall down to the ground, leaving a not-insubstantial crack in the floor. “I’mma be real with you chief, now’s the time to surrender.”
“Tch! As if!”
The shadow’s humanoid form melted away, and in its place sprung forth an incubus glowering at the girl. The girl who couldn’t help but laugh at the oversized codpiece.
“Pfft. Even like this you’re definitely compensating for something.”
Taking her hammer in both hands and leapt up into the air, Tsukasa only narrowly dodging as it fiercely slammed down into the ground.
“Shit!” The shadow flew into the air, raising its arms to prepare an attack. “Dream needle!”
A series of darts appeared from thin air, flying in Eiko’s direction. Lifting her hammer with ease as if it were still inflatable, she jumped to the side to avoid them. Swinging her free arm outwards, Godiva mimicked the gesture in perfect sync, and an aura formed around the both of them.
“Masukukaja!”
With the green glow swirling around her body, her speed increased greatly, and within a blink of an eye she had leapt up behind the shadow.
“Hi.”
“What the—” He was cut off by the hammer delicately crashing into the side of his torso, sending him crashing down to the ground, not far from the entrance of the room. “Argh… you little—”
Already she stood in front of him, grinning.
“Last chance to run like a bitch.”
Groaning in pain, the shadow lifted itself up off the ground.
“If you think I’m going to give up just like that, then you’re—ARGH!” He was cut off- again- this time from the delicate van-collision into his back as it suddenly emerged from the portal, Eiko herself only narrowly avoiding the same fate.
“A van?”
“Meow?”
“Why’d the van meow?”
The front passenger door opened, Eiko’s face brightening when her good friend emerged.
“Nudie Prez!”
“Wh- Eiko? Eiko is that you?” Makoto rushed over to her side. “What on earth are you doing here? How did you follow us? Why are you dressed like that? Did you seriously just…”
The rest of the team exited the van in time to see Godiva fade away and return to Eiko’s mask.
“Heya Nudie Prez, I’ve been looking for you.”
Ren approached Eiko alongside Makoto.
“What are you doing here anyway?”
“Heheh…” Eiko nervously fiddled with her side-tail. “Well you told me all about all the stuff you did and um… this is gonna sound pretty dumb but- I wanted to see it for myself.”
Makoto’s brow raised.
“You mean you followed us in? How did we not notice?”
“Um…” Futaba bit her lower lip. “I’ll admit I got lazy scanning early on in the trip, since everything on the upper levels like this one is super weak, I didn’t bother, so I didn’t notice anyone else in here besides us at first…” Futaba shrugged weakly. “Sorry.”
Ryuji’s head and shoulders fell.
“Coulda saved all that travel time…”
“I said I was sorry.”
He sighed.
“Whatever, it’s fine I guess.”
“We should probably escort this young lady outside.” Akechi said matter-of-factly, before turning to face the shadow that lay in pain on the floor. “But what are we going to do about that one?”
“Who is it anyway?” Haru peered over at the shadow, now returned to his humanoid form.
Ren and Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“Him?”
“I guess it makes sense he’d have a shadow down here, we never did have cause to seek him out in the end.”
The shadow looked up, seeing all the thieves glaring down at him, the two who recognised him, along with Eiko, looked particularly disdainful.
“Damn it… maybe you’re right, I am a small-time joke of a man.”
“Hmph.” Eiko stared down her nose at him. “Didn’t expect you to sound remorseful.”
“You don’t get it.” He attempted to sneer up at her, but didn’t quite have the energy to seem legitimately hostile. “Life is about using people, or being used yourself. You don’t understand that in order to be successful in life, you need to make use of everyone you can. Being ‘honest’ and ‘nice’ gets you nowhere, the mask called ‘charm’ is a necessary tool to rising above others.”
“Ugh.” Makoto looked and felt utterly disgusted. “’Rise above others’? ‘Using others to succeed’? Do you even listen to yourself? What kind of success are you even trying to attain? There was nothing stopping you from working a relatively honest career as a host, nothing at all. All the horrible things you’ve done, the women whose lives you’ve ruined, all that was for nothing more than a little extra cash. Is that really the success you so desperately needed? Worth all those horrible tricks you pulled?”
Tsukasa- resting on his knees- stared down at the ground in shame.
“You may have a point… I could have just been happy with what I had, in the end I was just justifying my greed. I’m… I’m sorry.”
Eiko shook her head.
“I’m not interested in your apologies. I already told you, I’m so past the point of caring about you. Just fuck off.”
Without another word, the shadow disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind a small treasure in his place, which Ren grabbed out of the air.
“A bottle of wine?”
“Hm…” Makoto sighed. “Better leave this one down here, we can’t legally drink, and I doubt we could get away with selling it.”
“Yeah.” Ren placed it down on the ground, then turned to Eiko. “Now, you. How are you feeling?”
“Heh. I’m doing just fine.” She shot him a thumbs up, a gesture she maintained as she began to tip over and nearly slam down into the floor, only for Makoto to catch her.
“Eiko!”
“Heheh… I feel exhausted all of a sudden…”
Makoto sighed.
“Don’t worry, that’s normal.”
“Come on everyone.” Ren addressed the team. “Let’s get her out of here, we’ll try the trip down tomorrow instead.”
The team all gave their affirmations, and climbed back into the Monavan, already trying to figure out how to manage yet another passenger, even if only for the short trip to the exit.
Leaning on Makoto’s shoulders, Eiko limped over to the van.
“Nudie Prez?”
“Yeah Eiko?”
“This whole superpower thing is great an’ all, but everything else about your job sucks.”
Makoto smiled weakly.
“I guess that’s a fair opinion.”
“The real subway may have gropers occasionally, but I’ll take it any day over this creepy horror house.”
“I never really thought of it as a horror house before…” Makoto’s expression slowly dropped. “Goddammit why’d you have to put that idea in my head now?” She was already dreading the return tomorrow.
Notes:
I've been waiting for this one for a long time.
A few people have been thinking the whole thing with Eiko being unaffected by the reality shifts was foreshadowing for something like this, but that was never my intention.
The whole thing with her getting an inflatable hammer literally 47 chapters ago- THAT was the foreshadowing.
But man I've been sitting on Persona user Eiko and Godiva for a while now, good to finally reveal them.
Chapter 94: The future
Summary:
Cool down from Eiko's awakening, and thinking about what lies ahead
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Glad to see Eiko’s keeping up the tradition of all female persona users being dressed in fetish fuel; this one is on par with Queen’s super-slutty porno outfit.”
“I’m standing right here Futaba…”
The thieves- plus Sumire, Akechi, and now Eiko Takao- had gathered in the entrance of Mementos, having just escorted an exhausted Eiko to safety. Eiko had leant on Makoto’s shoulder on the stairs, and had regained just about enough strength to stand on her own two feet, at least long enough to lean against the wall, sliding down it to the floor with her new dress-skirt bunching up behind her as she did so.
“Man I was kicking his ass, why do I feel like I’ve had my ass kicked?”
Makoto smiled weakly.
“Don’t worry, that’s normal for your first time.”
Eiko looked down at herself, running her fingertips along her shoulders, clothed for the first time in months.
“Feels weird. Like, I can feel the material, and the feeling of these sandals is different to being barefoot all the time, but I still feel naked- in a good way I mean.”
“I know what you mean.” Makoto said while admiring her own leather-clad arm. “This is completely different to the time I had to wear a copy of this outfit in the real world for that calling card video we made. That was so tight and unpleasant; being so used to being free from clothing really made the unpleasantness of my body being trapped in tight leather- or textiles in general- so much more apparent. But this? In the metaverse? It just feels like an extension of my own body, it’s as comfortable as my own skin.”
“I dunno about ‘feeling naked’, but yeah- this is much comfier than it looks.” Ann’s smile swiftly gave way to grumbling. “I’m never subjecting myself to the real thing again. It’s one of the few things where I’d actually prefer being naked rather than have to wear it.”
“F-for real?”
“Don’t look at me like that Ryuji!” she spat. “I’m not going to be doing either!” She paused a moment. “N-not in public anyway, if it’s something fun like the theme park then maybe I… ARGH! Forget I said anything!”
The group exchanged a few glances with eachother- ranging from amused to weary to hopeful- as Ann threw her arms up into the air and tried to turn away so no one could see her blush. Eiko couldn’t help but snicker at the sight, before looking back down at her new outfit.
“Here I was thinking you guys picked the outfits you did just because you were nerds, but I guess it wasn’t up to you. Godiva thinks that this Lady-like get-up fits me apparently?”
“Godiva?” Ren raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing that’s your persona?”
Eiko thought for a moment.
“Oh yeah, that’s what you called them.”
“Oh?” Akechi side-eyed Ren. “So she’s already familiar with the mechanics we’re working under?”
“I mean, broadly speaking. I gave her the summary of the ‘story so far’, so to speak. Ha…” Ren shook his head, trying not to smirk. “’Godiva’, of course you’d get her.”
“Yo, Extrovert.” Futaba squatted down besides Eiko, staring at her from the inside of her wide red goggles. “Can I take a look at her?”
“Her? Oh, you mean Godiva?”
Futaba nodded.
“Sure, I guess.” Eiko got to her feet- slowly regaining her strength- removing her mask and tossing it upwards; it shifting into blue flame and her persona in turn. Much of her other self’s volume was made up of her golden hair; nearly three times as wide as her body, and long enough to completely envelop her legs from mid-thigh downwards. A serene look on her face, and the warm pink glow from her heart- visible through her translucent blue glass body- lighting the gloomy environment around them a little. “So this is the ‘other me’?”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded.
“Wow… I’m a damn hottie in this world too! Sweet!”
“Hmm…” Futaba examined Godiva closely, occasionally tapping keys on an unseen keyboard while the persona watched her curiously. “Not quite on our level, but still pretty strong.”
“Man…” Ryuji pouted slightly. “I mean I know I should be happy for ya- and I am- but how come the folks who joined later start off so much stronger than we did? We had to work really hard to get this strong and they just start off like that.”
“It’s precisely because we worked so hard to get this strong that any newer members start off as strong as they are.” Morgana nodded authoritatively. “Their connection to us strengthens their own hearts, meaning their cognition-manifested powers start off on a similar level to our own powers.”
“Huh…” Ryuji glanced upwards. “Guess that makes sense.” He smirked. “So all that effort helped them too? That’s pretty sweet actually.”
Haru chuckled.
“Don’t worry Ryuji-kun, your efforts are appreciated as always.”
“Not sure we can say ‘as always’, considering…” Makoto mumbled to herself.
Futaba, seemingly satisfied with her analysis, turned to Eiko.
“Alright, seems you’re all about them buffs like me, though not quite as specialized, since you can still fight an’ all.”
Eiko stared back at her blankly.
“…Eh?”
“Plus a physical resistance. That’s a pretty damn good resistance to have, though you’re vulnerable to guns.”
“…I mean… most people are vulnerable to guns… right?”
“She’s just talking about elemental match-ups, don’t worry about it too much Eiko-san.”
“If you say so Nudie Prez…”
“If I may…” Akechi stepped forward. “…Sakamoto-san used the term ‘joined’, suggesting you’re considering having this girl join your already rapidly-inflating team?”
Ren and Makoto looked to eachother, then to Eiko herself- who had just recalled Godiva back into her mask.
“At the risk of backlash…” Akechi continued. “…I would strongly advise against letting her join.”
“How come, man?” Ryuji objected. “I know I was riffing an’ all, but Futaba says she’s strong, surely it can’t hurt to have more muscle?”
“It can hurt, and I believe it will.” Akechi stood firm. “Regardless of how strong she may or may not be, she’s completely lacking in experience. We’re not at the stage where we can afford to give her a tutorial on how things work or a ‘training arc’. We’re facing the toughest opponent of our lives with stakes the highest they could possibly be. You’ve all gotten as far as you have because of your fine-tuned team coordination; adding in some new, untested element could very easily throw all of that out the window at a stage where we can’t afford such risks. We’re only allowing Yoshizawa-san as an exception because of her own personal connection to the target. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe that’s the case for this new girl.”
Ren let out a heavy sigh.
“I hate to say it, but he’s speaking reason.”
“U-um…” Sumire raised her hand in a weak attempt to gather the group’s attention. “I uh… we haven’t…”
Her timid murmurings unfortunately went buried in the rest of the team’s discussion, aside from Akechi, who very quickly got sick of the pitiable display. Rolling his eyes and groaning to himself, he pulled out his pistol and fired it at the ceiling, shocking the rest of the group into silence.
“The hell was that for, man?”
Akechi calmly put his gun back in it’s holster, and turned to Sumire.
“Hurry up and say what you’re gonna say.”
“R-right! Thank you.” Sumire puffed up her chest and faced the team. “I was just thinking, we haven’t asked the girl herself throughout all of this. Eiko-san, right?”
Eiko nodded.
“Yeah. You’re Sumiwumi, right?”
“Um… no? Where did you even… Whatever, my name is Sumire Yoshizawa.”
“Sumire raises a good point though.” Makoto nodded. “I’m sorry Eiko-san. How do you feel about it?”
“About being a Phantom Thief?”
“Mm.”
Eiko pondered for a moment.
“Well…” She stood proudly before them, hands on her hips, and face full of determination. “Hell no.”
“Oh…” Morgana especially seemed disappointed. “Really? You’re not interested?”
“Nope.” Eiko shook her head. “I only came here because I was curious.”
“How can you say that without the even the slightest hint of shame?”
“Nudists don’t do ‘shame’.” Eiko’s shoulders sagged slightly. “Plus I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind. I know it sounds lame compared to the stuff you guys do, but I’ve got to worry about entrance exams for college, if that doesn’t work out, then…”
Ren sighed, resting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“I getcha, can’t ask you to put your future at risk on a whim.”
“Don’t get me wrong! If I thought you guys or the world needed me or whatever, I’d prioritize that. But the weird-looking edgelord is probably right, I’d just get in the way.”
“’Weird-looking’?”
“Eheheh…” Sumire smiled weakly at Akechi, apprehensively rubbing his upper arm in an attempt to be reassuring. “I’m sure she didn’t mean that as an insult.”
“Oh no, yeah- it was meant to be an insult.” Eiko nodded. “He looks like something my brother would come up with in middle-school.”
“Oh come on!” Sumire nervously fiddled with her ponytail. “I think Akechi’s outfit is perfectly…” She lightly chewed on the inside of her cheek. “…fine.”
“Why the hesitation?”
Akechi’s question didn’t get an answer, thanks to Eiko cutting him off.
“FUCK OFF- THAT’S Akechi?! The celebrity?” She burst into laughter. “The second prince detective is an edgelord, that’s gold! Man I wish I could share this!”
Akechi glared at her as she continued guffawing.
“I’m assuming you’d all object to me killing her?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
“A not unexpected, but still disappointing response.”
“Wait a sec—” Eiko suddenly stopped laughing. “Akechi? Didn’t he try to kill—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ren waved his hand dismissively. “It’s a classic case of having a common enemy. He’s gonna fuck off once we’re done and we’ll never see him again.”
“Gladly.” Akechi scoffed.
“Maybe we shouldn’t keep hanging around here.” Makoto turned to Eiko. “If you have any more questions we can fill you in later. In fact, in future I’d appreciate if you let me know ahead of time if you’re going to try following us or anything crazy like that.”
“Don’t worry Nudie Prez, I’ll behave.” She trailed off for just a moment. “Godiva says she’ll keep me in check too… Makoto, does this mean I’m going to be hearing voices from now on?”
“Technically it’s your own, but yes, you’ll be hearing this ‘Godiva’ from time to time now.”
“Cool, superpowers with a side order of schizophrenia.”
“It’s not quite that. But I’d be careful anyway, they can suggest some… worrisome ideas sometimes.”
“Nudie Prez?”
“Don’t ask.”
~ ~ ~
“What are you gonna do with your future?”
“What’s with you dropping such a big question outta nowhere, Eiko-chan?”
“I’ve just been thinking about it lately, Mieko-chan.”
“Why?”
“It’s…” Eiko exhaled. “Like I already know what I wanna do, but I’ve also been running from it- kinda? Whenever we’re together I see that as a break from ‘the serious stuff’ like entrance exams and careers and whatever. But I realize now I need to face it, head-on. So I thought we should talk about it, y’know?”
“Hmm…” Ai raised her brow curiously. “I guess we don’t really talk about ‘serious stuff’ all that often, huh?”
Aya smirked.
“We’re all too happy to fall back into the ‘frivolous teenage girl’ stereotype and just chat about whatever. I don’t wanna stop doing that, but I guess Eiko-chan has a point, it wouldn’t hurt to talk about our actual goals now and again.”
“I guess…” Mieko huffed. “’Specially with the exams coming up so soon.”
“So?”
“…So… what?”
“What are you gonna do with your future Mieko-chan?”
“Why me first?”
“Because I asked you first.”
“I… ugh…” Mieko brought her feet up onto her seat with her, holding onto her crossed legs and restlessly swaying back and forth. “I mean you already know I’m aiming to be a mechanic… working on racers’ cars an’ shit.”
“That actually suits you.” Aya sniggered. “Your lil’ hands can get into the real tight and tricky spots.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“So how are you gonna get there?”
“Eh?” Mieko looked at Eiko, her confusion turning to contemplation as the girl’s stare persisted. “I mean… go to Tokyo U and study engineering, obviously. I actually don’t know exactly what the step after that is…”
Eiko shook her head.
“No, that’s more than enough to work with. Cool, gonna have to be really good at math and shit though.”
“Hey I’m much better at math than you’d think. I only look like a smokin’ hot bimbo.”
Aya opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it and stopped herself, instead laughing at her own meanspirited joke just inside her own head.
“What about you Aya-chan?”
“Hm?”
“I don’t think we’ve asked you before.”
Aya shrugged, putting her feet up in Ai’s lap before being summarily shoved off, before settling for the table instead.
“Nothin’ special. I ended up deciding I’d just be a cop like Dad.”
“Oho?” Eiko’s interest was piqued. “Another sexy nudist lady-cop?”
“Another one?”
“You mean you didn’t know? Nudie Prez said her dream is to become a police commissioner.”
“For real?”
“Yeah she’s all about that ‘bringing justice to evildoers and protecting the innocent’ shit.” Eiko laughed. “She’s probably the type to pull of some superhero poses while she’s at it.”
“That’d probably be a bit much.”
“Yeah, she’d probably be sensible in the end, but really want to pull off the poses.” Eiko sighed happily. “But I believe she can do it, she’s pretty amazing…”
“Hm.” A uncharacteristically genuine smile crept across Aya’s face. “She and I need to talk more.”
“Dude, we need to have her hang out with us more often in general.” Mieko leant forward. “She’s always been super busy lately and never seems to take my invites, what’s up with that?”
“She’s just got a lot of important stuff going on.” Eiko thought it’d be best to move the conversation along before any awkward questions popped up. “I’ll make sure she hangs out once things calm down for her. What about you Ai-chan? Whatcha gonna do after you graduate?”
“Pfft…” Ai blew her bangs upwards. “Damn good question. See I used to be all about fashion. Beauty is a wonderful thing and I’m all about maximizing that wherever possible.” She flicked her long, glossy hair to punctuate her point.
“Heh. A fashionista that went nudist, huh?” Aya smirked. “You regrettin’ your decision yet?”
“No, definitely not.” She stood up from her seat, with her hands proudly on her hips. “Clothing was all about accentuating the beauty that was already there. I was reluctant to go nudist at first, in part because- yes- you do lose a lot of options for capturing and expressing yourself. But watching Eiko have so much fun with it, and now having done it myself, I realize being nude has its own advantages. Now there’s nothing to hide the body I’ve worked so hard to keep fit and shapely.”
“I mean, yeah you’re shapely.” Mieko’s eyes narrowed. “But you were panting on the floor like the rest of us that time Mako-chan took us to the gym, don’t pretend you’re this fitness goddess.”
Ai averted her eyes.
“I’ve kept working out since then. I know I can’t rely on teenage metabolism forever…”
“Hmm…” Eiko held her chin in contemplation. “There’s still opportunities for fashion for nudists.”
“Hm?”
“I mean obviously there’s plenty of accessories and stuff you can have while still being naked. Make-up is still free reign too. OOO—” Eiko shot up from her seat. “—y’know you see those gyarus wearing stickers on their faces sometimes? You could do that for your whole body!”
“Stick a bunch of stickers on my body?”
“Yeah! Or some anyway. Exactly what kind and where would be fun to experiment with. That’s meant to be the fun of it, right? Now you have more space to work with. We could make the program really appeal to that demographic that way!”
Ai sat back down, looking up at Eiko with an incredulous smile.
“I’ll be honest, you’ve had worse ideas. I’ll think about that at least.”
“Could do make-up on the body too. Like breasts and pussy especially, like you’re ‘celebrating’ the nudity or summin’.” Aya suggested. “It’s an untapped market, never really been any opportunity for it before, you could specialize in that kinda stuff.”
“I’ve seen stuff like that before.” Mieko brought spread her legs and ran her fingers along her pubes. “I’ve seen girls shave themselves down here, then they use this special glue to put a bunch of gems over it in pretty patterns. They call it a ‘vajazzle’.”
“Interesting.” Aya mimicked Mieko’s pose, spreading her own thighs. “I could definitely imagine some cool arrangements for jewels and whatever. And we’re the only ones who can actually show that kind of thing off. Though I’d have to shave down there…”
Eiko joined in on the pose.
“Probably wouldn’t have to be jewels. You could definitely do some pretty patterns with some kinda make-up, right? Make it look all shiny and sparkly.”
“I’m actually not sure if it’s safe to have regular make up down there, I’d have to check. But if there isn’t it’d be worth making some.” Somewhat reluctantly, Ai did the same pose- feeling it’d help illustrate her point. “It’d basically be like bodypainting. A lot of girls don’t like showing their pubes, but it’d be nice to have something pretty down there. Maybe a fancy heart or a flower?”
“Like those womb tattoo patterns.”
“Like what Mieko?”
“Nuffin’. Didn’t say anything, you’re hearing things.”
All four girls froze when they heard the door opening. It was only in this moment that Eiko realized the flaw in using the nurse’s office as the location for their private ‘future plans’ talk. It had seemed like a nice, private area to talk, but they didn’t account for the possibility of someone needing to come in this time of day, or indeed the nurse herself showing up. Quite the oversight- she now realized.
There stood Lavenza, staring at the four girls, sat with each of their legs spread wide open to clearly show off their genitals to the rest of the group.
“Might I ask what’s going on here?”
“Eheheh…” Eiko laughed nervously. “Just… talking about the future, y’know how it is.”
Lavenza’s eyes drifted downwards a while, then reestablished eye-contact.
“I see.”
The girls awkward got to their feet, and started making their way to the exit while averting their eyes from the ‘nurse’.
“Y-yeah, we were just leaving, got uh… studying to do.”
“Mm.” Lavenza nodded, seemingly blind to the awkward atmosphere.
The girls’ pace quickened moments after they left the room; Eiko stopped to close the door behind them.
“Say ‘Hi’ to Renjamin for me!”
And just like that she swiftly slammed the door shut and could be heard powerwalking down the hall. Leaving Lavenza by her lonesome.
“Who’s Renjamin?”
~ ~ ~
The school day had officially ended mere minutes ago. The plan was of course for the thieves to meet up in Mementos later today for another shot at descending to the depths- this time making absolutely sure no one follows them inside.
But they weren’t going to head out immediately, there were still a few minor things to take care of at school, so everyone planned to spend the next short while psyching themselves up and preparing for the excursion.
In what could be generously described as ‘helping them get into the right mindset’, Ren and Makoto had discreetly ducked into the student council room, ostensibly for council business, but truthfully to enjoy a little intimacy. Not going too far this time, despite Agnes’s subtle nudging, there wasn’t quite enough time to give into their lust. Nothing in Mementos posed much of a threat to them at this late stage so long as they brought their A-game; but going in in a weak-kneed, post orgasm bliss would still be ill-advised.
Still, there was time for some making out and heavy petting, maybe a playful tweak of this and that, which neither of the horndog thieves would object to.
Stood together, in eachother’s embrace, Makoto stood up on tiptoes to give her boyfriend a much-desired kiss, only to be cut off by:
“Bing bong bong bing.” A voice was heard from above, yanking the both of them back to reality. “This is an announcement for the student body. Would student council president Makoto Niijima please report to the nurse’s office immediately. That’s Makoto Niijima, student council president, to the nurse’s office immediately please. Thank you. Bong bong bing bong.”
Makoto’s brow furrowed as she looked up to the voice, the voice she recognised as Lavenza’s- of all people; she wasn’t sure why she was summoning her, or indeed why she was allowed to make such announcements in the first place- doubly strange considering Shujin doesn’t even have a PA system.
She looked up to her boyfriend, confused. Though confusion turned to a huff of resignation, and she reluctantly broke their embrace.
“I suppose I better see what this is about.”
“Want me to come with you?”
“Bing bong bong bing.” The voice emanated from above again. “Only Makoto Niijima’s presence is required. All other students and tricksters should continue about their business. Thank you. Bong bong bing bong.”
“I suppose that answers that. We’ll head out after I’m done, see you in a bit Ren.”
“Later Mako.”
Makoto exited the office, sighing, and made her way past the other lingering students- presumably confused and slightly scared by the sudden voice from nowhere- and walked down to the nurse’s office on the first floor.
She knocked as she arrived, and opened the door.
“Is something wrong? You called me her—AH!”
Makoto flinched at the sight. There just across from the entranceway sat Lavenza, out of her nurse uniform- and all other clothing for that matter- sat in a chair with one leg over each of the armrests, spreading her thighs open at a near 180° angle. Her facial expression completely stone-cold serious, as if nothing was amiss.
“Thank you Makoto-san, sorry for bringing you here so abruptly.”
Makoto quickly entered the room, slamming the door shut behind her to make sure no one else looked inside, even locking the door just to make extra sure no one else enters, before spinning back around and forcing herself to maintain eye contact- with modest success.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“Hm?” Lavenza tilted her head slightly, but didn’t change anything else about her posture. “Nothing yet, I’ve just been waiting for your arrival.”
Makoto pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.
“What’s with the pose?”
“This?” Lavenza looked downwards at herself a moment, then back at her guest. “I wanted to talk about the future.”
“Wh… huh?” Makoto’s head fell. “I don’t get what’s happening, but I think you’ve gotten some bad intel.”
“Is that so?” Lavenza corrected her posture, bringing her legs back down (though her feet didn’t quite reach the floor still) and sitting up straight, though she made no motion towards getting dressed again. “No matter. Please, have a seat. Would you like a lollipop?”
Makoto, already feeling drained by the surprise, took a seat just opposite Lavenza, trying to keep her eyes exclusively on the girl’s face, and not her surprisingly shapely body.
“No thank you. And for future reference, if you need to talk to us it’s best to either come find us or just text call Ren, the announcements are a bad idea.”
“Mm.” Lavenza nodded. “Duly noted.”
“So what do you mean- ‘talk about the future’?”
“More specifically yours. Yours and my trickster’s.”
“Trickster? Oh right, Ren.”
“Indeed.” Lavenza smiled warmly. “He’s become a wonderful young man.”
Makoto’s cheeks grew rather flush, she didn’t say it aloud, but she couldn’t help but agree.
“But first thing’s first. Beyond freeing the world from Dr. Maruki’s control, what is your goal?”
Makoto wasn’t really sure what exactly prompted this question, why Lavenza suddenly seemed so interested, but nevertheless she decided to face her head on and answer with pride.
“I plan to join the police force, work my way up to the position of commissioner, and lead a team to fight corruption both within the force and throughout Tokyo while protecting the weak and vulnerable.”
“So even when the powers afforded to you to by the metaverse are gone, you plan to continue the pursuit of justice. I was already aware of this of course from your discussions with Ren, but I’m glad to hear you’re still holding this goal close to your heart.”
Makoto nervously fiddled with her hair.
“Well it’s in part because of him that I realized this was what I wanted to do.”
“Mm.” Lavenza’s face remained especially difficult to read. “What are your intentions with him?”
“W-with him?”
“Mm.”
“I mean…” The way Lavenza kept looking at her, she couldn’t tell whether she was being tested or if they were just genuinely curious; for some reason she was feeling especially nervous during what felt like an interrogation. “You already know he and I are in a relationship, a very committed one.”
“You two appear to have been an item for close to a year at this point. My perception of time is different to humans, so is that considered a long time for such things?”
Makoto scoffed.
“I am the wrong person to ask that question. Ha… to think it’s not even been a full year since we met- let alone became a couple, it feels like a whole lifetime…”
“That’s… rather odd.”
“You’re not wrong.” She gazed upwards wistfully. “To be honest I don’t know how our relationship compares to the norm, whenever I do worry about such things- like how I think I should act to be a ‘better girlfriend’- he always makes me feel silly for worrying about it. He always just accepts me for who I am, and we’re taking things at our own pace. I don’t know whether it’s premature for me to say this, or maybe it’s because this is the only time I’ve been in love, but I really want this to last forever- and I feel that’s very achievable.”
“You are wholly committed to him then?”
She nodded definitively.
“I am, entirely. Actually no- we’re entirely committed to eachother. I’m entirely ready to spend the rest of my life with him, and I’m sure he feels the same about me.” Makoto kept her confident, matter-of-fact expression for a while, before the blush returned, followed by her covering her own face in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I’m saying all this out loud… I mean it’s all true but…” she kicked her feet in embarrassment, her blush spreading to her ears and down her neck.
Lavenza couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.
“Your feelings for him are definitely strong then, they’re definitely not frivolous.”
“Of course not.” Makoto almost felt offended by the idea… almost, bashfulness was still winning out in the battlefield of her emotions.
“He has many dedicated allies. I’m very proud of everything he’s achieved thus far, but it’s clear he wouldn’t have gotten this far without all of them by his side- most of all you.”
“The reverse is even more true.” The look of pride however- was enough to start pushing aside her embarrassment. “Every one of us can attribute much of our growth over the past year to his support. I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say we’d do anything to help him whenever he needed it.”
Lavenza nodded.
“You’ve already demonstrated this with your successful plan to avoid ruin at the hands of Shido and his son.”
Makoto averted her eyes.
“It was hardly a perfect plan…”
“It avoided an infinitely worse fate for all of you.” Lavenza smiled warmly. “You should be proud.”
She still had her doubts, but she replied with her own weak smile.
“I… I really do love him.”
“That much is clear to me.” Lavenza held a hand over her heart. “I’m glad he has someone like you by his side. I see that you’re a very caring person, yet also very responsible and reliable…”
“O-oh… why thank you, that’s nice of you to say.”
“…Even if you’re clearly especially lustful.”
“E-excuse me?!”
“It’s okay.” Lavenza brought up her hands defensively. “It’s clear your perverted nature just makes you that much more appealing to him.”
“I’m not sure I like this assessment.” Makoto crossed her arms indignantly. “Just because I’m a nudist doesn’t mean I’m any more lustful.”
“Really? Because I remember you’d regularly sneak off during school hours to—”
“Hey that’s not fair! Okay yes- early on when I wasn’t used to being nude- and it was just me- I needed to… relieve myself now and again. Being seen just made me feel really…” She shook her head. “But that was all. Just that and occasionally calling Ren out for s… um… for s-sex, but that’s normal for couples! A-and I suppose there was that time in Haru’s palace where that cognitive version of me goaded me into having sex with him in front of everyone… But those were just cognitions- so it didn’t count! And I guess we should count the time looking myself up online… seeing how popular images of me were got me feeling hot… B-but you definitely can’t blame me for getting caught afterwards! Nor the time everyone caught me and Ren in Hawaii…” Her shoulders sank further and further as she continued. “There was the swinging with Hifumi and Eiko, but that’s not that much of a deviant act… right?”
“Oh- don’t forget the time you two performed sexual congress as the climax to your culture festival!” Lavenza perked up excitedly, happy that she could be helpful.
“Y…yeah… we did do that.”
“I hear that recordings of that have gained a great deal of popularity and notoriety on something called ‘the internet’, which is something a lot of people use for their own enjoyment.”
“Use the internet, or my footage?”
“Yes.”
“Oh…” Makoto looked downwards, her hair covering her bright red face.
“The finale, whereby you eagerly fire your fluids off the stage and towards the audience is an especially powerful moment, judging by the great deal of attention it gets, and how it prompts others to release their own fluids in solidarity.”
“OKAY FINE, YOU WIN!” Makoto crossed her legs tightly, just on the off chance Lavenza noticed any of the slight twitches and moistness she was feeling. “I’m glad you approve of me and him despite my ‘lustfulness’- I guess. Can we please stop talking about this?”
Lavenza looked at her sympathetically.
“Though that incident where you ran into me in the gymnasium, you ran off before I could tell you. Your breasts aren’t the appropriate place for his seed, that is not how humans procreate, I know this much.”
Makoto was too busy cringing to death to respond.
“Breasts are used for feeding young, not creating them.”
Makoto gave up, and just decided to lay down on the couch.
“On humans anyway.” Lavenza gently grabbed her own diminutive breasts. “Mine are just for decoration, more than anything else.”
Makoto’s phone went off in her bag, she leapt up and rushed over with lightning-speed to check it- immensely grateful to be given an excuse to get out of this conversation.
“It’s Ren, everyone’s ready to head out and he’s asking me how long I’ll be.”
“I see.” Lavenza got down from her seat, and strolled over to Makoto’s side, giving her a reassuring pat on the lower back. “I best not keep you from your work any longer.” She bowed deeply. “Thank you for indulging me.”
Makoto let out a heavy sigh, and returned the bow.
“It’s not a problem. I’m not really sure I understood the point of all this, but I’m glad you’re happy. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.”
“Mm.” Lavenza nodded. “It’s much appreciated. And don’t worry, I have complete confidence that you two will overcome any obstacle that is put before you.”
“Thank you, that does make me feel better.” Makoto made her way to the exit, but paused as she reached for the handle. “Oh, and I don’t mind when it’s just me, but you better put some clothes on. You’re not in the program so you could get into trouble.”
“Is that so?” Lavenza looked down at herself thoughtfully for a moment, before snapping her fingers and having her distinctive blue dress reappear on her. “Oh no, wait—” she snapped again, and the dress was replaced with her nurse costume. “There we go. Don’t want to cause any trouble for you in these trying times.”
“Y-yeah…” Makoto unlocked the door, and headed outside to meet up with the rest of the team.
Notes:
Makoto and Ren are getting serious now, she's got his mother's approval to date him xD
Chapter 95: Sumire
Summary:
Time to finally start fulfilling my promise...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The end was drawing near.
The thieves had secured their infiltration route through Dr. Maruki’s palace, and knew exactly where the treasure would manifest; where their final confrontation with the good doctor would take place.
All that remained was to wait for February third, the agreed date where Maruki would receive their calling card, and allow the thieves to challenge him directly.
A date that was rapidly approaching. They still had just over a week until then, but aside from agreeing to gather for one last training session in Mementos, there was little anyone could do but wait, do whatever they could to remain calm, and not let the anxiety get the better of them. Even Akechi- who had more experience than anyone else in maintaining a calm and collected pokerface- seemed noticeably more tense when parting with the group after their final day of infiltration.
No one could say with certainty what would happen when Maruki would be defeated. Presumably everything would return to normal, much like what happened after Yaldabaoth’s defeat. Though no one knew exactly what that would entail; Maruki’s changes were much less obvious, much more insidious than the raining maybe-blood and bone structures stretching up into the sky the Holy Grail brought forth. So even the idea of victory brought no small amount of anxiety.
Still, everyone had fully resolved to reclaim their own reality- whatever that entailed. No one had any urge to turn back.
Even Sumire- the one for whom ‘victory’ was more ambiguous than anyone else’s. She still wasn’t wholly sure who she really was; she still carried feelings of uncertainty, still struggled with the idea of living in a world without Kasumi. And she still was burdened by the strange feelings that had resurfaced after having her ‘programming’ undone. Her feelings towards Haru, Makoto, and perhaps above all- her feelings towards Ren were back in full force.
Her last feeling towards him before being brainwashed was heartbreak; the discovery that she had lost the battle of love with Makoto- who never even knew she had a ‘rival’ to begin with. She obviously had more pressing issues to focus on, but those feelings continued to fester in the back of her mind.
The power of persona is the power of the self, of one’s own heart. As much as her abilities had rapidly improved thanks to her teammates’ guidance- particularly Ren’s, who continued to serve diligently as team leader and a ‘director’ of sorts during battle- she knew these doubts were holding her back, at a time where they couldn’t afford to hold back.
While the others simply continued maintaining an air of normalcy in the week leading up to the final battle, Sumire knew she couldn’t sit on her laurels; she needed to tie up some loose ends, and she had to do it quickly.
~ ~ ~
The school day had ended not long ago; as soon as class ended she had sought out Ren, asking him where she could find Haru. He told her she’s usually tending to the vegetables on the school roof. She thanked him for the information, and swiftly made her way up the stairs to the roof.
She stood in front of the door a while, her hand resting on the handle. Her feelings were… tumultuous going in. Haru had already said she’d happily “be friends with Sumire Yoshizawa”, but that didn’t instantly erase the awkwardness between then from before then.
Still, this was precisely the reason she came here today, to clear away any lingering doubts of the old relationship, so they could face the new friendship head on.
She took a deep breath, and stepped through the door. The cool, late-winter/ early-spring air hit her in the face as she rushed through, bracing- in just the way she felt she needed.
As expected, Haru was squatting down, tending to her rooftop veggie patch, and right next to her…
“Sakamoto-senpai?”
“Hm?” Ryuji was the first to turn around and notice her. “Oh, hey Sumire-san.” He stood up, groaning slightly from the strain put onto his leg as he did so- which didn’t escape Haru’s attention as she joined him.
“Is something wrong Yoshizawa-san?”
“U-um, no Haru-senpai… not as such.”
“Hm?”
Sumire found herself already floundering, so she quickly changed the subject.
“Are you into gardening too Sakamoto-san? No offense, but I didn’t take you for the type.”
“I’m not.” Ryuji shrugged. “I didn’t have much to do today so I thought I’d come up and see if Haru needed any help.” He didn’t mention that Ren actually suggested the idea to him, not that he really understood why Ren prodded him towards it in the first place. “I don’t really know what I’m doing though…”
“Oh give yourself a little credit Ryuji-kun.” Haru smiled up at him sweetly, causing him to turn away- flustered, which brought her a certain spark of joy. “You’ve done wonderfully, following my instructions. It’s nice to have an extra pair of hands from time to time. You could be something quite special, with the right training…”
Sumire sensed something more than a little worrying in that last word, but decided to ignore it.
“I hope you’ll let me try some of these veggies when they’re fully grown.”
“Um… sure?”
Haru could see through Sumire’s fake enthusiasm, and Sumire herself could tell. She decided to drop it and just come out with it already.
“Um, is it okay if the two of us talk, Haru-senpai?”
“Talk?”
“In private.”
“I can come back later if I’m botherin’ ya?” Ryuji gestured towards the door with his thumb.
Haru’s expression fell slightly, before an idea struck.
“Actually if you don’t mind, there’s some bags of fertilizer near the entrance, do you mind bringing those up for me?”
Ryuji didn’t seem enthusiastic, but shrugged.
“Sure, my legs were getting stiff what with all the squatting an’ whatever…”
He waved over his shoulder as he left the roof, and disappeared down into the school. Haru turned back to Sumire, smiling politely.
“So what did you want to talk about?”
The younger girl fidgeted in place a while, restlessly fiddling with her hair and adjusting her glasses more than once.
“Sumire-san?”
She suddenly bowed deeply towards Haru- taking her off-guard.
“I wanted to apologize to you!”
“H-huh? Apologize?”
Sumire didn’t lift her head.
“I… I’ve been really terrible to you, and I owe you an apology for it.”
Haru brought a hand to her own cheek.
“I’m not really sure about that…”
Sumire stood upright, but didn’t have the confidence to meet her eyes.
“I’m sure though. I need to apologize for lying to you.”
“Lying?”
“After I told you that I wanted us to continue being friends- regardless of what happens; I just started openly neglecting you.” Her face tightened as shame overcame her. “My words were empty, they had no resolve behind them, and I simply discarded my friendship with you the moment it had no use to me anymore.”
“I… I see…”
“Truth is, once Maruki… well… locked away my feelings for Senpai—I-I mean Amamiya-san; I couldn’t even remember why you and I were friends anymore.”
Haru exhaled, leaning against the fence.
“I suppose we met through him, technically. So I think I understand that.” She looked up at Sumire, her brow furrowed. “I was hurt at the time, yes- but I understand the truth now. You were brainwashed by Dr. Maruki.”
“I mean… sort of. But I just accepted his changes without a fight, it’s very much my own fault.”
“You…” Haru trailed off. Truth is she didn’t know exactly how Maruki’s powers even worked- especially back then- so she couldn’t say whether any blame lay at Sumire’s feet or not with any degree of certainty.
“And either way, he didn’t directly change the nature of our relationship any. It’s still true that I just drifted away and… god this is so awful of me… I no longer saw any value in you.”
“Sumire-san…” Haru shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t accept this apology, not when I’m just as- if not more- guilty than you.”
“What do you mean?”
Haru smiled, but it was a smile lacking any joviality, any warmness or pride; her smile denoted nothing but a resigned feeling of shame.
“You were like a pet.”
“A p-pet?”
“When I first saw Mako-chan, exposing herself so openly, seemingly humiliating herself so overtly… it awakened something in me.” She looked over to the other girl. “I’m a bad person Sumire-san.”
“What?” Sumire shook her head, openly offended. “That’s a ridiculous thing to say! I don’t buy that for a second.”
Haru chuckled.
“Perhaps it’s more accurate to say I… had an ugliness inside me. Part of me that I tried to bury away, and when it started to come out, it would get the better of me in some ways.”
“Are you talking about your shadow?”
“Yes, well… kind of. Milady- or rather- Lucy now, there’s a lot more to her than the ugliness I carry…” Haru gripped her wrist. “Back before I met everyone- the rest of the team- I felt perpetually powerless. Father- who used to be so kind- began to treat me as nothing but a tool for his own personal gain, attempting to sell me off in exchange for political power.”
“That’s awful…”
“It was… deep down I was spiteful, I wanted to control something else the way I was controlled. When I saw Mako-chan- I wanted to own her.”
“O-oh…”
“It was a very unhealthy way of thinking. And I now realized completely misguided. Horrible as it is- I bought into the idea that she had turned herself into an object of ridicule, so the part of me that enjoyed that kind of… play… got excited, it overrode my rational mind, thinking I could take charge, put myself in the dominant role, and I’d get to enjoy a little power fantasy. Part of me forgot she was still a human being, that she still held onto her pride and self-respect through it all. I had no idea how amazing she really was.”
Sumire nodded.
“She really is incredible…”
“So I was heartbroken when it turned out she and Ren-kun were already committed to eachother. I got so upset when I thought I had missed my chance to someone else.”
“Ha…” Sumire laughed. “I can relate to that feeling at least…”
“So when you joined the program too, and needed someone to ‘look after’ you, I leapt at the chance.” Haru hung her head. “That’s why I’m a bad person, because you were just a replacement. Another attempt at having something… someONE to own.”
“Haru…”
When she looked up at her, tears were flowing down Haru’s face, and yet her smile was wide and- by the looks of it- genuine.
“Haru-senpai?”
“I’ve bottled this up for so long, kept it buried away. There’s been so much else going on, I’ve not even talked to any of the thieves about it, this is the first time I’ve ever shared it with someone.” She let out a long, content sigh, even as the tears continued sliding down her cheeks. “Actually confessing it, it feels like this huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
Despite everything, Sumire found herself smiling too. She took a few quiet steps forwards, and took Haru into her arms.
“I think I understand Senpai.”
Somewhat hesitantly, Haru returned the embrace.
“It’s painful, and more than a little embarrassing to say, but I’m really glad somehow…”
“Ha… I’m probably the world’s biggest hypocrite saying this- but I think facing your pain, and growing from it is really amazing.”
“That’s… that’s really nice of you to say, Sumire-san.”
Sumire pulled away a little, enough to make eye contact.
“Perhaps this won’t mean much coming from me, but regardless of what you may or may not have been like in the past, I feel like the you in front of me now is definitely a good person.”
Haru giggled.
“That might just be flattery, but thank you.”
“I want to grow, to be better than the old me, to face my pain head on and become stronger because of it. So of course I’m going to be happy when my friend does the same.”
“Y-yeah…” Haru nodded. “We’ve both held onto unhealthy mindsets in the past, and I’d like to think we’ve both overcome them.” She took a step away, and took in a deep breath, before wiping her tears with her sweater sleeve, and smiling wholeheartedly. “I still won’t accept your apology, nor will I ask you to accept one from me. Instead, I’m happy for us to just focus on our new-and-improved friendship, between the new-and-improved versions of ourselves. What do you think, Sumi-chan?”
She nodded.
“I’d like that Haru-senpai. Maybe it was silly- I don’t know- but thank you for hearing me out. Confessing is a weight off my shoulders too.”
The door to the roof burst open, and in stumbled a huge stack of fertilizer sacks, with the floundering Ryuji hidden somewhere behind them. As soon as he was through the door, both he- and the sacks- tumbled down to the ground, his strength giving away in an instant after the wave of relief from finally reaching his destination.
“Ryuji-kun!” Haru rushed to his side.
“O…okay, I think I’ve figured out how you’re as strong as you are Haru…”
“What? Ryuji you weren’t supposed to try and carry all of them up in one trip, not even I do that!”
He was just about able to lift his head enough to smile sheepishly at her.
“I thought it’d save time, y’know?”
“Oh you… you doofus!” Haru groaned. “I’ll help you down to the nurse’s office.”
“What about the sacks?”
“I’ll clean them up later.”
Ryuji thought it was a bit emasculating to have to lean on Haru’s shoulder as she led him through the school- but he would have definitely preferred that to being scooped up into a princess carry about brought to the nurse’s office that way, which is what she actually did.
“We’ll have to talk again later Sumi-chan, I’ll text you.”
Sumire chuckled at the sight of Ryuji being carried away- too worn out to do anything about it- and waved after them.
“Talk to you later Senpai…” The door swung closed. “…and thank you.”
~ ~ ~
Repairing the bridge- or rather- securing a wholly new bridge with Haru was a huge step forward; but in a way it was little more than a warmup. The real challenge, the real painful memory to face came next.
Sumire was a bundle of nerves, it took her nearly 20 minutes of stalling before she worked up the nerve to press that ‘send’ button, to invite Ren for a long overdue follow-up training session.
She framed it as casually as she possibly could, as if they were just picking up where they left off, as if nothing had even happened. Thankfully, he accepted without a fuss; she could almost picture his polite, nonchalant smile as he sent his reply.
They agreed to meet up at Inokashira park, just as they had done in the past. Tokyo was definitely past the worst of winter, but things hadn’t warmed up that much; a bracing chill was still hanging in the air, but this time Sumire was at least clothed- so it balances out.
Ren had expected they’d talk once they met up, but Sumire was eager to just get right into the workout itself without anything more than a “Are you ready?” before leaping right into her warm-up stretches, hoping Ren would simply follow along- which he obediently did. He wasn’t sure exactly how to feel about Sumire being so gung-ho, but ultimately decided not to worry too much about it; they did have the biggest fight of their lives coming up really soon, so his allies being ‘gung-ho’ was hardly something to complain about.
Not wanting to lose any momentum (or give any time for any awkwardness to set in), after the warm-ups they swiftly transitioned into a lengthy jog. She focused on his performance, which was notably better than she remembered; back when she used to train him in the summer, she had to hold herself back so that he could keep up without wearing himself out too quickly, but now she could go at her usual pace without worrying about him collapsing, at least not yet- only time would tell how long it’d last. Regardless, his growth was clear to see; which really rubbed it in, that is- just how much time she had lost.
She was of course aware that it had been months and months since they last worked out together, so it really shouldn’t have been surprising that his abilities would have improved by now; and yet to her it felt like just a few short days ago…
When her cognition was changed, the feelings she held at that time hadn’t actually vanished, but rather were locked away, and had now come back in exactly the state they were left in. Or rather, since her true memories had returned- she simply hadn’t had any time to allow them to develop any further. Her awakening- her union with Cendrillon- had so many shocking circumstances surrounding them had she had gone through this whole ordeal on adrenaline, more or less. She had taken no real steps forward, just an elongated, aimless stumble; but at least this allowed her some degree of distant reflection, even if as an outsider to her own memories.
It made her wonder, to what extent where those memories- those feelings- her own, or just ‘the fake Kasumi’s’? No, she couldn’t deny they were her own; like it or not, she was ‘the fake Kasumi’. Denying her failings wasn’t the right move, but instead to grow from them. Of course- that was all easy to say, less so to actually action; and with their confrontation against Maruki coming up so soon, she didn’t have much time for ‘action’. She would have to overcome this in one fell swoop, to bottle up all the fear, to brace herself for the potential pain, and confront this part of herself today.
She pushed both herself and Ren in their training session until they were both panting and exhausted. And then…
“Senpai, it’s good to eat a healthy meal after a workout. Would you like to join me for one?”
“A meal?”
Sumire nodded.
“It’d also be a good excuse for us to talk about…” She trailed off, she wasn’t sure how to best verbalize her intentions. Thankfully, on this occasion she could get away with not doing so, since Ren would just assume she’s referring to Phantom Thief business, and just couldn’t say out loud in public.
“Sure.” An idea struck for Ren as he observed their surroundings. “In fact, we’ve strayed away from the park, we’re actually not that far away from Leblanc, and Sojiro’s often busy this time of day. I could make you some of my curry.”
“Oh? Your curry?”
Ren ruffled his own hair bashfully.
“Well I say mine, Sojiro taught me the recipe, but I’m pretty damn good at it. I cook it for the team all the time. Maybe I could text them and we’ll all get together for a meal.”
“N-no!” Sumire covered her mouth, embarrassed at how that came out. “I-I just… I wanted to talk in private, if that’s okay?”
Involuntarily, Ren raised an eyebrow.
“In private?”
“I’ve just… got some stuff on my mind, and I was hoping you could help… y’know, as team leader?”
“Um, sure. That’s fine.” Ren agreed, it was pretty normal for him to have one-on-one time with everyone, but he seemed to very quickly type something on his phone- which didn’t escape Sumire’s attention.
“Senpai?”
“It’s nothing.” Ren gave her a slightly forced smile, which judging by her unsure expression, she saw through. He relented. “Okay, I’ll be honest: I was just texting Makoto to let her know what’s happening.”
“Oh? I mean- that’s fine, just… why?”
Ren shrugged, visibly embarrassed.
“Maybe I’m being silly, but I just had this horror scenario in my head of her walking in and misunderstanding what’s going on. I mean, I don’t think she’s the type to leap to ridiculous conclusions or anything- she’s a mature woman, not a character in a bad drama- but it’s one of those ideas that once it gets in my head I can’t help but worry. So I want to make sure I’m the one she learns about it from, so there’s no chance of misunderstanding and that there’s nothing for her to worry about.”
Sumire stared at him for a moment, before laughing.
“I-is that funny?”
“No, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just…” She sighed, smiling up at him warmly. “…I’m always amazed at how considerate you are. You’re always thinking about your friends’ feelings, or um… g-girlfriend’s in this case. I think it’s wonderful.”
“I don’t really feel like I deserve praise right now…”
Sumire exhaled.
“I’m starving, and I’d love to try your curry. Shall we go?”
“Y-yeah, sure…”
~ ~ ~
“That was delicious Senpai. You could be a chef!”
Ren shrugged.
“There are definitely worse careers out there.”
“I don’t suppose there are seconds?”
He let out a good-natured scoff.
“I mean, that was your fourth plateful, I gotta save some for the actual customers.”
“Of course, it’s just so good I could so easily get carried away.”
“Not to mention Boss would start charging me for the ingredients I’m using…” He mumbled under his breath.
“Hm?”
“N-nothing.”
Sumire politely wiped her mouth with her handkerchief. She had gotten so caught up in what she would consider the best curry she’s ever had that she nearly forgot why she came here today.
“Senpai…”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
She took a deep breath.
“Do you… like naked girls Senpai?”
Ren huffed and gave her an incredulous look; yet the silent moments kept passing, and her gaze would not waver. She had locked eye contact with him, and there was no hint of humor in her eyes- legitimately curiosity and a hint of nervousness- but it was obvious that it was not a joke question, she wanted a real answer.
His cockiness gave way to doubt.
“I mean… y’know…”
She didn’t budge.
“I… y-yes- YES! Alright? Yes, I do.”
She nodded, but didn’t take her eyes off of his.
“What is it you like about them?”
“This isn’t what I thought we’d be talking about.”
“Please just humor me.”
“Y-yeah. Sure, sorry- I’m not meaning to be disrespectful.”
She gave him a weak smile.
“I understand Senpai, it’s awkward and I am putting you on the spot.”
“Yeah, but I should still try to take this seriously.” Ren averted his eyes, restlessly running his hand through his hair. “I mean, there’s the obvious reason that I get to see their naked body. I’m sure I don’t need to go into more detail on that.”
“Mm.”
“But I’m guessing you’re not talking so generally. This is because of Makoto, right?”
That did cause her to falter slightly- but only for a moment.
“Yes. She’s the reason the question is relevant.”
“Well, it’s not the reason I’m in love with her. It’s something I love about her though, if that makes sense.”
“I think so…”
“I like strong, confident women, and being confident naked is a pretty in-your-face sign of that. Even after all this time, I’ll look at her baring all in public, surrounded by clothed people, and yet still looking powerful- and I’ll think ‘Wow, she’s incredible’.”
“I can’t deny that it’s pretty amazing, and I say that as someone who’s done it myself.”
“That’s true.”
“Senpai?”
“Yeah?”
“What did you think when I went nudist?”
Ren averted his eyes, he picked up a glass off the side and began restlessly rubbing it with a cloth- pretending to clean it.
“I… um…”
“Please, be honest Senpai.”
“Sumire?”
“Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, be 100% honest.”
“I…” Ren’s brow furrowed as she stared down at his glass. “With you, I just felt worried.”
“…”
“I mean I’d worry about Makoto too, I still do- a little bit, but with you- you just looked so uncomfortable, like you were really forcing yourself.”
“…Ha… it was that obvious, huh?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh no no—” Sumire shook her head. “—don’t apologize; I asked you to be honest and that’s exactly what you were- thank you.” She lent back, staring up at the ceiling. “I went for the obvious- the superficial- to impress you.”
“I mean- you do impress me.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean ‘huh’?” Ren laughed. “I mean you’re super fit and healthy; I’ve been working out to get stronger all year and you can still effortlessly run circles around me.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Not to mention all you’ve done since joining the team. You’ve not been involved for long at all, yet you’re already going toe-to-toe with the toughest shadows out there, keeping up with all us veterans no problem.”
“I’m just following everyone else’s lead.”
“Which isn’t an easy thing to do. You should be proud.”
Sumire felt a blush creeping across her cheeks.
“Well… thank you, Senpai. Always so supportive.”
“I mean I guess? But it’s not just flattery, I’d only say it if it’s true.”
“I…” She smiled. “I guess I’ll choose to believe you.”
“As you should. It’s annoying when people refuse to take the compliment.” He laughed.
“I suppose.” She pondered a while. “So you’d say I’ve earned your approval?”
“Hm? Bit of an odd way to word it, but yeah.” He nodded. “I’m proud of you.”
As much as she had resolved to be honest, and put her feelings out in the open come hell or high water- she would never openly admit how much she enjoyed the tingle that comment just gave her; though perhaps her intensified blush would be a giveaway.
“I was very much drafted into the position of ‘leader’…” he continued. “…but I’ve somehow managed to not fuck it up so far. Having the best teammates I could ask for has made it a breeze I guess.”
She shoulders fell.
“Right, as my ‘Leader’.” She mumbled.
“Sumire-san?”
She already knew it was too late, FAR too late.
‘He had already chosen Makoto before I was even in consideration.’ She dug her fingers into the tights on her thighs. ‘Maybe it was never a matter of me not being good enough, or doing something wrong. Maybe it was always too late for me to have a chance.’
“Sumire?”
‘His pride… it makes me so happy. How long has it been since someone told me that they’re proud of me?’
“Sumire, could you please say something? You’re worrying me a little…”
‘I guess that’s the reason. The reason I felt so drawn to him so quickly. He’s so openly supportive, and I needed that support- more than anything. Everyone else would just tell me it’d be okay, but I knew he could be the one to tell me I’ve done well- and mean it. That’s why I wanted… no… needed him. Someone I could go to and have them tell me I did a good job… just like Kasumi used to… but who would stay on the sidelines, and wouldn’t overshadow me… like Kasumi used to…’
“S-seriously Sumire…” Ren reached out to gently grab her shoulder, but pulled back when she suddenly jerked upwards, intensely locking eyes with him.
‘Give me strength Cendrillon, so I can find out…’
“S-Senpai…”
‘I have to know…’
“I…”
‘I have to know if I can… if I can…’
“Senpai, I love you.”
Ren was taken aback, and stood flabbergasted for what would have only been a few moments in reality, but felt like a lifetime to Sumire, who didn’t so much as breathe as she waited for an answer.
The shock slowly- very slowly- wore off for Ren. He took in a deep breath, before exhaling.
“I’m very flattered to hear that, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little happy, but…”
Sumire slowly sat back down in her seat.
“…But I’m fully committed to Makoto. She’s my one and only. So, I’m sorry, but I can’t return your feelings.”
Sumire’s hung her head, looking down at her legs.
“I hope you understand…”
“That’s…”
“…”
“…”
“Sumire-san?”
She lifted her head again, letting out heavy exhale.
“That’s such a relief…”
“R-relief?”
She smiled at him.
“That went so much better than I thought it would! I thought my heart would stop for a second there.”
Ren wasn’t sure how to feel. He was waiting for the punchline, the ‘gotcha!’ moment, for her mask to give way to tears, for her to suddenly snap and laugh manically. But no matter how hard he looked- there was no sign of anything like that, not even the slightest hint that her smile was anything less than completely genuine.
“You’re taking this quite well…”
“I know!” She pumped her fists excitedly for a moment, before catching herself and sheepishly sitting back down. “You said ‘no’, and everything’s fine!”
“…I don’t get it.”
She bashfully fiddled with her hair.
“I know this is gonna sound really silly- but I spent so long thinking about asking that question, needing you to say ‘yes’; for you to agree to stay by my side forever and tell me how happy you are to be with me. I was so terrified of the pain of rejection, that you wouldn’t accept me, I didn’t think I’d survive it.” She grinned. “But here you are just outright saying ‘No’ and the world didn’t end. Yeah- I was right, that did sound really silly, but somehow I only realized that now.”
“I… think I get it?”
Sumire laughed.
“It’s okay. It does still hurt of course, being rejected I mean, but this pain… isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. I’ll live!”
Despite everything, Ren couldn’t help but laugh too.
“That’s the most excited I’ve ever heard anyone while saying the phrase ‘I’ll live’.”
“This is what Maruki was protecting me from? This is what he thought I couldn’t handle? I hate to speak ill of anyone- least of all him- but he’s a really silly person.”
“Heh… yeah I guess you could say that.”
Sumire sighed contentedly.
“Thank you Senpai, for being honest with me, for standing firm against me, and being you.”
Now it was Ren’s turn to be bashful.
“That’s a bit of a weird thing to thank me for, but sure.” He gave a thumbs-up. “You’re still my friend, and teammate. You’ll always have my support regardless.”
“That means a lot to me Senpai.”
Despite the intensely positive atmosphere in the café, the sound of the front bell did strike no small amount of fear into the both of them, especially when Makoto Niijima stepped in and made her presence known.
“Mako?”
“N-Nijima-senpai?” Sumire swallowed. “How long have you been there?”
“A while.” Makoto calmly took a seat besides an especially nervous Sumire. “And yes, I heard.”
“A-ah…” Sumire raised her hands defensively. “I um… I know what I said, but I wasn’t intending to steal him or anything! Well… I guess that’s kind of what I did, but it wasn’t… um…”
Makoto raised her hand… and placed her index finger right dead-centre of Sumire’s forehead, giving the near-paralyzed girl a moderately-light shove.
“I heard the whole thing, and I can put together the context. So don’t worry, I’m not mad.”
“Y-you’re not?” Ren was still visibly worried.
Makoto just gave him an incredulous look.
“Why would I be mad at you? You gave the correct response and turned her down. Just as I knew you would.” She turned back to Sumire. “I’m certainly not happy about you saying that to him when you knew he was in a relationship, but I’m not mad either.” Makoto huffed, and gave a slight- but genuine- smile. “If that was a necessary step forward to help you move past your doubts, and grow as a person, then I can accept it this once.”
Sumire breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“I don’t intend to make a habit of it- if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Good.” Makoto chuckled. “Ren, could I trouble you for a coffee?”
“Of course Mako, you want some curry too? Plenty left despite the Saiyan over here.”
Sumire tilted her head.
“Saiyan?”
“That would be lovely, thank you.”
“Niijima-senpai.” Sumire raised her hand. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but why were you listening in in the first place?”
Makoto averted her eyes, looking rather ashamed of herself.
“I got Ren’s text… and I… to be honest- I couldn’t help but worry.”
Ren paused his coffee-prep to turn to her- concerned.
“You didn’t actually think we were doing anything bad, did you?”
“No, of course not!” Makoto shook her head, before shrinking in her seat bashfully. “I trust you Ren; I love you, but I’m not going to let that make me possessive. Being possessive is not a positive trait, it can even be a red flag of an abuser. But…” She held her wrist tightly. “Part of me just got a little worried… Agnes even tried to reassure me, but you know how you get this silly idea in your head and it won’t go away- so you have to go prove it wrong otherwise you can’t relax?”
“I understand completely Mako.” Ren smiled. “Hell, me getting a similar feeling was the reason I sent the text in the first place.”
“Still Ren, I’m sorry. I do trust you of course, but it wasn’t enough for me to silence that silly little feeling eating away at me.”
Ren leaned over the counter, cupping Makoto’s cheek and kissing her deeply; it sent the message better than any words possibly could have.
“Niijima-senpai?”
“Hm? Sumire-san?”
Sumire smiled nervously.
“Ren-kun wouldn’t happen to have a twin brother of his own, would he?”
Makoto snorted.
“Not that I know of, sorry.”
Sumire smiled contentedly, relieved that her joke went down well.
“But seriously- I really hope to have what you two have some day.”
Makoto leaned over, wrapping her arms around the- now bewildered- younger girl.
“I have faith in you, I’m certain you’ll find someone who loves you as much as me and Ren love eachother.” She pulled away. “I think you’ll have an easier time of it than I will, you’ve already got me beat in terms of bravery.”
“Huh? How’s that even possible, Senpai? By what metric?”
Makoto looked away- at the Sayori hanging on the wall by the entrance- twiddling her fingers in her lap.
“You were brave enough to just come right out and confess your love. You should have seen us when we first became a couple. I could never work up the courage to confess myself, so I desperately tried to drop hints to get Ren to do it for me…”
Ren chuckled.
“You were saying how you didn’t know how you’d ‘study the subject of love’ and I said ‘I’ll be your study partner’.”
Sumire looked between the two of them, suddenly looking rather offput.
“That was the line you used?”
Makoto’s cheeks glowed pink.
“It’s a little embarrassing, looking back.”
“Y-yeah, I see why you’d say that…” Yoshizawa shook her head. “But I’m happy for you two regardless! I… I intend to do my best as a member of the Phantom Thieves! And I hope I can continue to count on your support in the future!”
“Mm, right.” Makoto turned back to Ren. “Is that curry still coming?”
“O-oh, right. Gimme just a sec.”
“And give Sumire-chan another plate, I’ll pay for this one.”
“I’m not charging either of you. I’ll just have to reason with Boss later.”
“Let me know if you need a hand with that.”
“Sure Mako, he’ll be nicer to you.” He snickered.
~ ~ ~
Sumire had enjoyed a peaceful meal with the lovely couple, and they all agreed to invite the whole team for another one before they went to confront Maruki. They even decided they would extend the invitation to Akechi, even if they doubted he’d accept.
With a smile on her face, she parted ways with them for the night, and made her way to the station. She decided to take a detour on the way home though, to the stadium- i.e. the location of Dr. Maruki’s palace.
Throughout the year, she had always come here when she had a lot on her mind, hoping that staring at the building would help give her the inspiration and confidence she needed to keep going, to not give into despair. But today, it was almost the reverse. Today, she came here out of a desire to show off. For the first time she wasn’t coming to ask the building for help, but to flaunt the fact that she no longer needed it.
“Just one more week, then I can show you too, Dr. Maruki.” She took a deep breath. “I promise, I’ll save you too.”
As much as she wanted to bask in her newfound confidence, it was getting quite late. She didn’t want to stay out too long and worry her parents. She turned towards the station, and nearly crashed right into her newfound ‘ally’.
“Akechi-kun?”
“Can’t say I expected to see you here.” Akechi thought for a moment, before scoffing. “Actually, perhaps I should have expected it; we always seem to run into eachother here.”
“I suppose we do, huh?” Sumire laughed awkwardly.
“Are you here for reconnaissance? Forgive me, but I didn’t take you as the type?”
“I’m not really. I’m just… thinking about what we have to do, y’know?”
“I suppose that’s fair.” Akechi turned to face the building too, both of them noting how they would occasionally see shimmers of the palace that stood in its place. “I hope you’re not having second thoughts.”
She shook her head.
“Not at all. I’m more determined than ever.”
“Good. You’ve done better than I expected as an ally so far, so I hope you’ll continue to impress as we enter the final stage.”
She smiled coyly.
“Is that… praise? From you? I never thought I’d see the day.”
He side-eyed her, unimpressed.
“I’m only teasing you Akechi-kun.”
“…I didn’t take you as the teasing type.”
She shrugged.
“I’m just in a good mood tonight.”
“I’ll put up with it then, try not to make a habit of it though.”
She smiled, but didn’t say anything else. The pair stood in quiet resolve a while longer, before Akechi broke the silence.
“I suppose we best move on.”
“Already? I thought you were here for reconnaissance?”
“I’ll admit it, I just came here because I was restless, that’s all. The infiltration route is already secure, there’s little point to reconnaissance at this stage.”
“You’re nervous?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You also didn’t say ‘no’.”
“Hmph.” He turned away from her. “You better get home. One of the few benefits to us being trapped in the good doctor’s world is that you probably won’t get raped or anything hanging around here after dark, but it’s still good form to get rest when you can.”
He raised his hand in a gesture that could generously be called a wave as he began walking away without another world. Sumire watched him for a few seconds, before calling out.
“Akechi-kun!”
He looked over his shoulder to see her running to his side.
“What?”
“I wanted to say thank you.” She raised her fists, pumped up. “You’ve been supporting me too, and you helped me reunite with Cendrillon… well, Ella now. So… yeah, I just wanted to thank you.”
He stared at her a few moments.
“You already thanked me once, I’m not any more interested in accepting it the second time.”
She smirked.
“And you already told me to ‘fuck off’ once, but that wasn’t enough to make me do so.”
His brow raised, and he smirked.
“You’ve surprised me.”
She looked quite proud of herself.
“Surprised I’m able to stand up for myself?”
“No, I’m surprised you’re able to say a swear, I imagined you’d be the type to feel guilty and start crying if you ever said a bad word.”
She shoved him, but that only made him laugh more.
“No wonder you’re always getting on everyone’s nerves Akechi-kun…”
“They get on my nerves too, so it evens out.” He began walking towards the station again.
“Hm…” She followed after him. “I guess I’ll have to get on your nerves too then.”
“I have full faith in you, Yoshizawa-san…”
~ ~ ~
“This is the place right?”
“Looks right.”
Ren and Makoto entered the sports hall. Sumire had asked the both of them to watch her practice today. She had been eager to show her new routine to her coach, and asked the couple to come along as emotional support- which they were of course happy to oblige.
But the girl in question was nowhere to be seen, they did- however- spot a woman standing outside what they could only assume was the door to the locker rooms. She noticed the couple- understandably double-taking at the sight of Makoto’s near-nude body, ‘covered’ only by her regular winter hat, scarf, gloves and boots combo. She approached.
“Hey, you’re Niijima and Amamiya, right?”
“Uh yeah, that’s us.”
The woman nodded.
“Ah good. Sumire told me you’d be coming today.” She bowed politely to them. “I’m her coach, call me Hiraguchi.”
“Nice to meet you, Hiraguchi-san.” Makoto returned the bow. “Is she here? We’re not late or anything, are we?”
Hiraguchi shook her head.
“Nah, you’re good. She just finished her warm ups and went to the bathroom. She should be out any minute.”
“Ah, that’s okay then.”
“If she’s fine with it, then you’re free to watch. But I’ll have to ask you not to distract her during her performance at all.”
“Of course.”
Hiraguchi gestured over to the bleachers.
“Your friend got here a minute or so before you did, you can go sit with him over there.”
“Friend?” Ren followed her gesture, over to the boy sat in his coat- seemingly just as surprised (and annoyed) to see them as they were him. “The hell? What are you doing here Akechi?”
Akechi groaned as they approached.
“I assume the same thing you are. Sumire invited me to watch her perform, she said she’d appreciate having me here for ‘emotional support’.”
Makoto eyed him, unconvinced.
“Really? And you accepted?”
“There’s nothing for us to do but wait for the good doctor to get into contact with us.” He shrugged. “May as well fill the time somehow.”
Makoto and her boyfriend exchanged a glance.
“I suppose so.”
Akechi folded his arms, more than happy to look away at a random bit of the wall than the couple themselves.
“Look, I’m perfectly fine with us just ignoring eachother and just focusing on Yoshizawa-san’s performance if you are.”
“Hmph.” Makoto turned her nose up at the boy. “We’re not gonna make that a problem.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
The couple took a seat about 15 feet down from Akechi, and all parties were happy to wait patiently for Sumire’s return. Hiraguchi watched the exchange both confused and slightly amused, but was slightly less patient than them. She knocked hard on the locker room doors.
“Sumire-san. They’re all here, get moving!”
“R-right! I’ll be right out!”
The door opened, and out walked the girl, the sight causing all three thieves to flinch is surprise. The coach just looked at her bewildered.
“Sumire-san, I thought you went in there to put ON your leotard?”
The girl- with only a moderate blush on her face- shook her head.
“It’s okay Coach, I’m more than happy to perform like this too.”
Hiraguchi rolled her eyes, and ultimately shrugged.
“If that makes you more comfortable, then that’s fine; I just don’t want it to throw you off.”
“I assure you, it won’t.”
“Mhm.”
“Yoshizawa-san?”
“Hm? Yes Akechi-kun?”
“You’re naked.”
She nodded.
“Don’t worry, I’m aware.”
“Ugh…” Akechi rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You…” He sighed, deciding he didn’t actually care that much. “You know what? Fine. No reason or me to give a shit either way.”
Coach Hiraguchi dropped a hip as she watched Sumire step out into the open with her ribbon and begin psyching herself up.
“Sumire-san asked if she could start practicing like this again recently. It didn’t help last time- back when she joined that weird program you’ve got going on- but this time she really has improved. Though I doubt the nudity has much to do with it- but if it makes her comfortable, I won’t object.”
Sumire paused her warm up to smile at her friends.
“If I do rejoin the program- and it really is an ‘if’- it’s definitely not gonna be this time of year, it’s way too cold. But while I practice and perform? It helps to have as little restricting the movement of my body as possible.” She suddenly looked a little bashful. “Besides… it’s kinda comfy, and it’s nothing you guys haven’t seen before.”
“Ha… I suppose.” Makoto smiled up at her boyfriend, then called out forward. “Give it your best Sumire-chan!”
“We’re here for you!”
“Hurry up and start already!”
“You need to work on this ‘emotional support’ thing a bit more, Akechi.”
“Ehh…”
“Quiet you lot!” Hiraguchi called out authoritatively. “Focus Sumire-san.”
“R-right!” Sumire took a deep breath, getting into position. She was confident she had taken the first major step towards being her true self, her best self, today she hoped to take another, by showing her friends- and her trusted coach- just what the gymnast, Sumire Yoshizawa- could do.
Notes:
With everything Sumire has been through in this story, it's about time she got a chapter that's an unapologetic 'W'
Also yeah, I'm skipping from Cendrillon straight to Ella. The game doesn't give a shit about her 2nd stage persona so neither do I.
Chapter 96: The calm
Summary:
It's time...
Chapter Text
Today was the day, the day when Dr. Takuto Maruki would reach out one last time to the Phantom Thieves and try to convince them to accept his new world, and failing that- they would have their final clash to decide the fate of the world.
Ren- as team leader- was chosen as the Thieves’ representative; any minute now he would be meeting with Maruki and giving him his calling card. Makoto- much like the rest of the thieves- was on standby in her own home, waiting for the call to action.
She paced back and forth in her room. She’d take a few steps, glance at her phone on her desk, take a few steps back, glance at her phone, and repeat. She knew Ren was likely talking to Maruki right in this very moment; they had all agreed that it was best he did so alone- herself included, but with all this anxiety eating away at her, she couldn’t help but wish she had insisted she be present just so she didn’t feel so helpless.
The feeling of knowing your fate- and the fate of those you hold dear- was completely out of your hands and all you could do was sit around and wait; she was having unpleasant flashbacks to when Ren was in the interrogation room, and she could only hope their plan panned out.
“It worked though.” She reminded herself. “I was right to believe in him then, and it’s exactly the same now.”
She sat down on the edge of her bed, scooping up her Buchimaru plushie and holding it out in front of her, preferring to share her thoughts with him rather than simply talk out loud to herself.
“And in fact, this is actually easier than back then. Despite everything, Maruki is a good person deep down- much better than all the corrupt officers Ren and Sis were surrounded by during the interrogation. So there’s no reason for it to not go smoothly, right?”
Buchimaru couldn’t respond of course; due to the way his face was drawn he couldn’t even maintain reassuring eye-contact, but Makoto took comfort in being able to externalize her train of thought regardless.
“It’s still a nightmare not knowing what’s going on, and just having to wait.”
“…” Buchi questioned.
“Yeah, the fight itself will be tough, but at least I can directly take part.”
“…” Buchi raised some good points.
“Yeah, having everyone with me will make it easier too. When all of us are together, I feel like we’re invincible, regardless of what we’re up against.”
“…” Buchi reassured her; maintaining a nuanced balance between reinforcing the points she was making, and providing an outsider perspective on the feelings she was experiencing, trying to remain objective throughout.
“Right. This is all just restlessness. Anxiety before a major event or obstacle we need to overcome is to be expected.” She rested Buchimaru on her lap, and held him tight against her torso. “Ren may be the leader, but as the second in command, I have just as much responsibility to remain calm and level headed for everyone’s sake. Not to mention to help support him- as his girlfriend- just as he always supports me.”
“…” Buchi began a long, drawn-out monologue on the nature of support dynamics in both friend groups and comrades-in-arms, both of which describes the thieves. Describing how- as social animals- the strength and many successes of humanity come not just from the strength of their individual hearts, but by the power of many hearts united in a common goal. Thus, desire for self-betterment is intrinsically tied to the betterment of those important to you, and vice versa. Strength of hearts were like fire, they could fuel one another and grow in ferocity in turn. He greatly admired and supported Makoto’s desire to reinforce her own determination to reassure her teammates in turn; an admiration he extended to Ren, and every member of the Thieves. He began to lose himself in his musings, until he remembered that he was but an inanimate doll, and thus incapable of thought or speech. He wasn’t upset by this realization however, since the capability of having ‘feelings’ was also not possible for what was in reality a lifeless collection of fabric and stuffing. Even so, he provided his owner a great deal of emotional comfort, something he would have taken pride in- were he in any way a real entity.
“It’s just another obstacle, we’ll overcome it like always.” Makoto smiled, feeling confident once more. “I won’t waste any more energy worrying.”
Her phone buzzed. She shot up off of her bed and launched herself towards her desk- holding her Buchimaru doll safe under her arm. The time had come; Ren’s meeting with Maruki ended just as they had predicted, and the calling card had been issued.
She took a deep breath, she messaged him back in the group chat, asking if everyone was ready for their final heist. Even just through text, she could physically feel everyone’s determination shining through, especially her boyfriend’s- who she resolved to match throughout the operation.
She opened her bedroom door and step outside. She was about to instinctively call out to Sae, but remembered that she’d still be at work tonight. Probably for the best; it was one less thing Makoto would have to explain. She made a brief detour to the living room, resting her doll down in her sister’s seat.
“I’ll leave you to hold the fort.”
“…”
Makoto chuckled to herself, and made her way to the front door, ready to join her allies, and reclaim their world for good.
~ ~ ~
“Hi Fumi!”
“H-Hey ‘Ko!”
Eiko cheered, calling some perhaps uncomfortable attention to both herself and her girlfriend in the restaurant- the latter of which already sat at the table, with her blushing face buried in her hands.
“Do we really have to do that in public Eiko-chan?”
“Aw come on Fumi-chan, it’s nice to have a thing, y’know?”
“Does the ‘thing’ have to be so embarrassing though?”
“Says the girl who waltzes around naked in public.”
“So do you.”
“Exactly.”
“What do you mean ‘exactly’? What point is that even supposed to—” Hifumi sighed. “Nevermind. I’ve already ordered us some ‘bubble tea’, it should be out any minute now.”
“Nice!”
“Anyway, any special reason you called me out today?”
“Hm?” Eiko looked at her quizzically, then shrugged. “Do we need a reason to have a date?”
“O-oh!” Hifumi raised her hands apologetically. “N-no of course not, I’m always happy for a date, I just didn’t know this was one. Sorry…”
“Don’t apologize Fumi-chan.” Eiko smirked. “Catching you off-guard is pretty fun.”
“I guess you did, catch me off guard- that is.” Hifumi bashfully scratched her cheek with her forefinger. “And I am very happy that you did so. It honestly might be just what I’ve been needing lately.”
“Hm?” Eiko tilted her head. “Why? Have things been rough lately?”
“Oh no, no no not at all. I’m doing great, things have been really positive lately.” Hifumi paused, staring off at nothing in particular, deep in thought. “Really positive, unusually so.”
Eiko grew tense, but made sure not to show it outwardly.
“Since New Year’s?”
“Hm? Yeah, now that I think about it. How did you know?”
Eiko nonchalantly grabbed the menu and pretended to start reading.
“J-just a feeling.”
Hifumi thought something was strange about how Eiko was acting, but wasn’t sure how to broach the subject, or even whether she should.
Mercifully, after only a few moments of awkward silence, Eiko asked her own question.
“So how have things been for you this year?”
“This year? Eiko you’re acting as if we haven’t seen eachother since the year started; we’ve hung out plenty of times back in January.”
“I know, but we’ve not really talked about how things are going, y’know?”
“I suppose not…”
“Not that I don’t enjoy it when we just talk about whatever, or play shogi. But I dunno, I just think things have been weird lately…”
“Weird?”
“Just… generally, y’know?”
Hifumi noticed Eiko watching her usually closely, as if studying her reactions.
“Weirdly, I kind of know what you mean. Everyone’s been pretty chipper the past month or so.”
“Nuffin’ been… different for you lately?”
“Different?”
“Like, sudden changes to your life? Wishes being granted?” Eiko was starting to feel like she wasn’t very good at being ‘sly’ or ‘coy’.
“You’re being pretty weird yourself, Eiko-chan.” Still, Hifumi did think about her question, wanting to give it a serious answer. “I can’t really think of anything. Mother is still being supportive, I’m still working on improving my shogi skills, and I’m pretty happy with you and my other friends- even if they’ve seemed pretty busy with something lately.”
“Ren and Makoto?”
“Yeah. I can only assume its related to… y’know?”
“Mm.” Eiko nodded. “So your life doesn’t seem… different? Happier?”
“Can’t say that it does, no.” She smiled and gave a small shrug. “Between my supportive friends, Mother being so kind, and of course having a lovely girlfriend, I’ve been happier than I ever thought I could be. I don’t really need anything to change.”
Eiko stared at her a few moments, before turning away, restlessly pulling on her side-tail, hoping it would somehow obscure her flushed face.
“I-I guess that’s good to hear.”
“Are you going to tell me why you’re asking such weird questions?”
Eiko pondered a while, peeking at Hifumi’s bemused expression a few times, before sitting up straight once more, smiling brightly at her girlfriend.
“Nah.”
“Hmph.” Hifumi pouted, which only caused Eiko to laugh.
“Don’t worry, I’m really happy that I have you too.” She grinned. “Just thinking about the future a bunch lately, and there’s always those doubts whether I have what it takes and whatever.”
“Ah, so that’s what this is about. I suppose that’s only natural with your entrance exams coming up.”
“Yeah, them- and the rest of my path forwards in life- have got me worrying. But I’ve got a bunch of great friends, and a super smart GF. With us all supporting eachother, I know it’ll be fine somehow.”
Now it was Hifumi’s turn to blush.
“T-true. We’ll always be there to support one another, come what may- and so forth… I’ll be happy to help you study for your exams or assist you however you need.”
“Thank you, Fumi-chan.”
“Though honestly, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. I feel you’re smarter than I am…”
“Eh? For real?”
“Mm.”
“Are… are you sure about that?”
“Mm.”
“O-oh…” Eiko slumped back in her seat, as if in disbelief. “No one’s ever said that to me before.”
“That’s honestly a shame. You’re much smarter than you give yourself credit for.”
“Eheheh…” Eiko bashfully rubbed the back of her head. “I guess you have a lot of faith in me huh? I better work hard to not disappoint you.”
“I’m sure you will.” Hifumi smiled… a while, then her mirth suddenly dropped, and she looked very apologetic. “I mean I’m sure you’ll work hard- not ‘I’m sure you’ll disappoint’, I mean—”
“HA! I get what you meant Fumi-chan, don’t worry.”
Hifumi was still cursing herself for her accidental faux pas, but was grateful for the distraction when the waitress brought out their bubble tea. She thanked the staff, before lifting her cup.
“H-here’s to the future?”
Eiko raised a brow at the gesture, before chuckling and reciprocating with her own drink.
“Here’s to our future.”
~ ~ ~
The Phantom Thieves had climbed to the very top of Maruki’s gargantuan palace, finding themselves in an uncanny open space, an idyllic environment full of warm light, and cognitive men and women frozen hand-in-hand, in a state of complete and total bliss.
“This really is the world he’s trying to create.” Yusuke thought aloud. “It’s like the Garden of Eden.”
“Before the ‘original sin’.” Akechi sneered at the sight of it all. “Don’t forget, the good doctor wants to take ‘knowledge’ back from us. It’s nothing but a world of blissful ignorance, for him alone to appreciate.”
Makoto didn’t respond, she simply stood by her beloved’s side at the bottom of the staircase made of pure light that rose up into the sky before them. They exchanged one last look of silent resolution before beginning the ascent.
“Let’s do this everyone.”
Ren took a breath to gather his resolve, reaching up to his face as if to physically put his signature ‘Joker smirk’ on his face.
“It’s showtime.”
Joker lead the charge up the staircase, with Queen a mere pace behind, and the others all following them. As they broke free of the golden fog that enclosed the faux-paradise they were treated to a sweeping bird’s-eye view of the Tokyo cityscape that surrounded the immense tower. Though any appreciation of the view or feelings of vertigo would have to wait; none of them could afford to focus on anything but the task ahead of them, and they knew it. Their opponent was at least on par with Yaldabaoth, and they could no longer rely on having the ‘will of the people’ behind them; this would be their only chance to reclaim their world, and they would have to do it entirely by their own hand.
They reached the summit, finding Dr. Maruki already waiting for them. He looked up at them, a bittersweet smile spreading across his face.
“So, you all really came.”
Ren smirked, gently shrugging.
“Seems that way.”
Maruki took a few steps in their direction, making eye contact with each of the thieves in turn.
“Amamiya-san has already made his feelings clear, as have you- Akechi-san. You both refuse to accept my new world.”
Akechi stared at him bitterly.
“I’d rather die.”
Maruki sighed, legitimately sorrowful.
“But what of the rest of you? It’s not too late to escape from all the pain life has inflicted upon you.”
“Don’t even waste your time man.” Ryuji called out to him. “We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t already decided.”
“No… No I suppose you wouldn’t. I admire everyone’s strength and determination; if only it didn’t misguide you all like this.”
Sumire took a deep breath, this was the moment she was waiting for. She stepped forward, ahead of the rest of the group.
“Dr. Maruki…”
He smiled.
“You made it too Yoshizawa-san.”
“I did.” She smiled back. “I… I wanted to tell you how well I’ve been doing.”
“Oh?” He seemed more than happy to delay the battle as much as possible to listen, thankfully the rest of the thieves seemed happy to allow this to play out too. “Tell me more.”
“I think I’ve finally gotten out of my rut. Coach Hiraguchi has been praising me for my performance lately.”
“That’s wonderful, Yoshizawa-san.”
“Mm.” Sumire took another excited step forwards. “Everyone’s been really supportive. My senpais, my persona, they’ve been giving me the push I needed to snap out of my funk. I’ve been stuck trying to mimic Kasumi for so long, and constantly coming short, but now that I’m facing the world as myself, I’m finally feeling hopeful.”
“As yourself…” Maruki looked downwards, light glaring off of the lenses to his glasses obscuring his eyes from view. “You’re really ready to be ‘Sumire’ again.”
She nodded.
“Yes… Yes! Yes I am.”
He looked up again, smiling warmly.
“Wonderful, I’m proud of you.”
“Th-thank you Doctor. It makes me very happy to hear that.” She held her fist over her chest. “But that’s why I’m here; above all else I wanted to show you that I can make it without your methods, that I can be happy, that you don’t need to do all of this.”
He exhaled.
“When I helped you before, made you believe that you were Kasumi, I really thought that was the only way you could find happiness. I must admit, that was a mistake, I was shortsighted, and ultimately only made things harder for you.” He bowed to her. “I’m truly sorry for that, and it does make me legitimately happy to see you prove me wrong. I’d also like to extend my thanks to the rest of you, for giving her your support, which I’m sure played no small part in her growth.”
“Hmph… why do I sense a ‘but’ coming?”
“Quiet Crow.” Makoto hissed.
“I mean exactly what I say Akechi-san.” Maruki stood upright once more. “Though I suppose you’re right to be suspicious. Don’t think I don’t understand your viewpoint. The idea of change- even positive change- can be terrifying.”
Akechi sneered at him.
“I suppose you got me there. The idea of some delusional man with a messiah complex completely erasing anything and everything I have resembling a ‘self’ and turning me into an empty doll for him to play ‘happy families’ with does make me a tad skittish.”
“He’s right Dr. Maruki.” Sumire stood resolute. “I nearly lost my ‘self’ before, ‘Sumire’ nearly disappeared entirely.”
Maruki shook his head.
“I already admitted that was a mistake, but my power has grown so much since then, it can be different now.”
“It’s not different at all!” She called out with desperation clear in her voice. “You’re going to have to change so many people to make your world work, there’ll be barely any real people left.”
“You don’t understand. I understand why you think that- given how I handled things with you, I can’t apologize enough for that- but I don’t need to ‘erase’ anyone.” He adjusted his glasses, smiling at the group. “The whole world is a product of cognition, I don’t have to change anything about you- I only need to change the world around you and erase pain that way. No one will be erased, in fact it’ll be the opposite.”
“Doctor…”
“Yoshizawa-san… no, I’m sorry- Sumire-san, you’ve managed to find happiness for yourself, as yourself. That’s truly incredible, amazing even; I don’t intend to take that away from you, I’ll just remove the pain you’re carrying, erase the tragedies of the past. I can undo it for you.”
Sumire’s eyes went wide, her arms hanging limp by her sides.
“U-undo it?”
“Yes, exactly. There’s no need for you to carry the pain of that awful accident with you anymore, I can bring back Kasumi, and you’ll be together again!”
“…”
“You can show her the new and improved you, and you can pursue you dreams together. It’s the best of both worlds, right? You can—”
“Shut up.”
“Sumi—”
“I SAID SHUT UP!” Her tearful eyes locked onto him, piercing though him with overwhelming rage and disgust.
“I don’t under—”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!” Her trembling hand reached up and grabbed ahold of the top of her mask. “How dare you… Does she mean that little? Is her life really that cheap to you?!”
Maruki shook his head.
“That’s not it at all.”
The other members of the team looked to her, concerned.
“Sumire-san…”
“I don’t understand.” Maruki watched the fuming girl in utter disbelief. “I’m giving you a chance to undo your greatest regret, why would you refuse such an offer?”
Sumire’s shaking hand gripped her mask harder and harder, before she sighed, and let it go limp by her side.
“How can you not understand? How can you not see how you giving me an artificial Kasumi just so I can live out some selfish fantasy would just make me feel awful?”
“It’s not artificial. It’ll be the real Kasumi, don’t you understand?”
“I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand Doctor.” Akechi stepped forward, drawing his sword and pointing it at his adversary. “Nothing in your proposed dreamworld would be real, all that would happen is you’ll change it so we can’t tell the difference anymore.” Without looking at her, he lowered his voice to speak to Sumire beside him. “I won’t tell you to calm down, but make sure you keep that anger focused in the right direction.”
“Akechi-san…” She took a breath, and nodded. “Right.”
“I think we’ve spelled it out to you enough times man…” Ren drew his knife, the thieves following his lead one after another. “…We’re not interested in your world, we already have one, and we worked pretty hard to get it. Heh, sentimental value, and all that; you know how it is.”
The shock took its time sinking in, but Maruki eventually took a step back and hung his head in defeat.
“So it seems there really is no chance of me getting through to you? Very well.” He slowly reached up to his face. “Persona…”
The recognisable blue flames surged up and around him, obscuring him from view and sending out a forceful shockwave blasting past the thieves, all bracing themselves ready for combat.
From the flames Maruki reemerged, glad in a golden priests garb and white cape, a tall mask of shining gold upon his face. And behind him rose an equally golden persona, shaped like a cross, held aloft by a writhing mass of black tentacles. It’s empty eyes staring blindly forward. Even without Futaba scanning it, everyone could feel an overwhelming, almost otherworldly power emanating from it, nearly suffocating them.
Maruki held a staff aloft in his right hand.
“It seems that after everything, we must come to blows to resolve this matter. ‘Might makes right’ is the unfortunate truth of the world. You’re all free to resent me as much as you like, I will not attempt to invalidate any of those feelings; but I will save you all, even if it has to be through force. I’m sorry.”
“Right back at you, Doctor.” Ren took only a moment to wallow in the disappointment that they could not reach a peaceful solution, before readying himself and calling out to the team. “Let’s finish this everyone!”
Chapter 97: The storm
Summary:
Ultimately, might makes right.
Chapter Text
This was different to battling the Holy Grail. As immense as its power was, and as many tricks as it had up its proverbial sleeves, it all at least came from one, predictable direction. Maruki and his persona- Azathoth- seemed to have near-complete control of the environment around them all, as if it was simply an extension of the persona’s body; which considering much of it was made up by the same glowing, writhing mass as it’s tentacles- may well have been the case.
Tendrils swiping at them from all angles, strange growths resembling apples firing beams of concentrated energy, and otherworldly hands surrounding Maruki, casting spells to protect him and attack. None of the thieves could afford to remain still for even a moment; constantly dodging and retaliating, but as soon as one tentacle was severed or crushed, another seemed to burst out from somewhere to replace it.
Futaba was safe inside her persona- Al Azif- floating above the battlefield and out of reach. She gave her all on keeping track of every one of her allies, calling out to each of them to warn them of attacks from their blind spots. Keeping track of nine fighters darting around the battlefield, watching all their sides for strikes coming at a moment’s notice, while also providing them with every buff she could muster; she prided herself in her ability to multitask and maintain a consistently high ‘APM’, but this was quickly becoming overwhelming even for her. But still, she knew none of her comrades would let themselves falter down on the ground, she wouldn’t let them down, no matter what.
Makoto had just crushed one tendril underfoot, and punched though another with her gauntlets, before immediately having to sidestep a third and flip backwards to avoid a fourth.
She nearly collided into Ren, managing to spot him mid-flip, and now the couple stood back to back, preparing for the next assault.
“Joker this isn’t working.”
“You’re right, we’re 100% going a lose a battle of attrition. Thoughts?”
Makoto nodded.
“Right, we have to redirect our efforts, that golden part is obviously the core body, we need to go directly for that and finish this as quickly as possible.”
“You hear that everyone?” Ren called out across the field. “We’re shifting our focus to overwhelming offence.”
“You see, there you go!” Akechi seemed especially eager about the new plan of action. He surged towards Dr. Maruki with a maniacal grin on his face, rearing up his sword for a weighty swing.
When he was but mere feet away from his target, one of the persona’s hands slammed down in front of him, blocking the strike- the sword ending up partially embedded in it.
Maruki looked back at him sorrowfully.
“I don’t want to hurt any of you.”
“Then quit fighting back! That way everyone wins!” Undeterred, Akechi pulled his sword free onto to swing it back down again, and again, and again and again and again, hacking away the faux limb into smaller and smaller pieces of otherworldly flesh, laughing uproariously with sadistic glee all the while.
The assault actually managed to draw much of Azathoth’s focus, meaning the previously-relentless tentacle attacks the rest of the team were dealing with noticeably slowed as their attention was drawn to Akechi’s outburst, putting his all into one overhead swing after another. Ryuji turned to Haru.
“Y’know, he kind of reminds me a bit of you when he gets like this.”
“And what- exactly- is that supposed to mean Skull-kun?”
“Focus!” Ren leapt upwards, attacking another hand before it could sideswipe Akechi. “We’re not gonna get close while the limbs are still here, focus on them first, then the core.”
Maruki looked between all the thieves in sequence, in complete disbelief and exasperation.
“All this, just to hold onto pain? You’re all so smart, talented, and thoughtful people- so how can you not see how foolish this all is?”
“We’re not the type to run from pain.” Makoto summoned Agnes beneath her, launching a powerful nuclear attack that flew right past his defences and struck Azathoth’s core. The impact visibly damaged the persona, who retaliated by shoving the whole group back with a shockwave. She stayed firm, thanks to gripping ahold of her own persona, who subsequently faded away and returned to her mask as she faced the doctor once more. “We’re not interested in taking the easy way out.”
“Like you did…”
Maruki’s brow raised.
“Amamiya-san?”
Ren exhaled.
“Doctor, we know about Rumi.”
“…”
“We saw it earlier in your palace, what happened with her I mean. When you first used your power.”
Maruki sighed wistfully.
“Yes… yes I’m aware of that. I was watching too.” He was smiling, but there wasn’t even the slightest hint of mirth in his expression; it was only a smile of resignation and regret. “So I’m sure you know what happened to her too? The trauma she suffered from?” The hints of tears formed in his eyes, but he shook his head and forced them back. “When I heard Azathoth’s voice, and I knew I had an opportunity to free her from that pain, I had to take it. No one should ever have to live with that kind of pain. No one can live with that kind of pain.”
“Shiho could…”
“Takamaki-san?”
Ann covered her mouth, shocked that that had come out of her mouth so suddenly.
“I’m sorry, that was a really offensive thing to say. I just…” Ann clenched her fist. “It’s not right to compare one trauma to another, it’s different for everyone.”
Maruki gently shook his head.
“It’s okay Takamaki-san, relating it to your own experiences is a perfectly natural thing to do.”
“But still, even though all the pain she suffered, pain so bad she tried to… pain so bad it nearly killed her. She clung onto life regardless; she became so strong because she knew she couldn’t give up on life just because it’s painful, y’know?”
Makoto approached her, taking ahold of her hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.
“She owes a lot of that strength to your support, no doubt.”
“Q-Queen…” Ann looked down at the ground in front of her. “I’m not sure how much credit I can really take, but yeah- I’ll do everything I can to support Shiho. She’s so strong, but that just makes me want to support her more, I’ll do anything for her- for the rest of my life if I have to… No matter how many times the pain comes back, I’ll do everything in my power to help her overcome it!”
“I’m not denying how amazing Shiho was.” Maruki sighed. “And she was lucky to have someone as wonderful as you to support her, but not everyone has that luxury. Rumi, she… she lost her family. The trauma drove her to retreat inside her own head, becoming catatonic. She had no one to give her the strength she needed.”
Ann stared at him in disbelief.
“She had you, didn’t she?”
“And here, I believe we come to the true motivation.” Akechi smirked. “Perhaps the good doctor wasn’t just thinking of ‘Rumi’ when he took the path he did.”
“…”
“Staying by her side for a lifetime to overcome the trauma is a rather tall order after all, and you can’t expect everyone to match the dedication of dear Ann here.”
Maruki remained silent under Akechi’s smarmy grin.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with such a burden for MY whole life. When given a magic get-out clause that lets you abandon her guilt-free, who wouldn’t leap at the opportunity? We can’t judge you too harshly for running away like a coward.”
“That’s enough Akechi.”
He shrugged in mock offence.
“What? I’m just stating the truth Ann. Unless the doctor himself wants to deny what I’m saying?”
Maruki’s gaze fell in shame.
“I suppose I can’t really deny it. I doubt I could have handled the pain either, so I took the easy way out when given the opportunity.” He lifted his head again, brow furrowed. “But is that so bad? What’s wrong with taking the easy path away from pain? She can live a happy life now.”
“A life of ignorance.”
“SO?! What possible benefit could that pain give her? What is she losing out on without it?”
Akechi shrugged again.
“Without knowing her personally, I can’t say. Honestly, I can’t speak for everyone here, but if you kept your powers quiet and restricted to your own personal relationships I probably wouldn’t bother dealing with you at all. My problem is you forcing it on me, and the rest of the world. You’re doing exactly the same thing now.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re running away from your problems, and dragging the whole world along with you.” Akechi’s glare sharpened. “Seeing pain of any sort just makes you uncomfortable, and you’ve become so willfully weak that you can’t handle even the slightest amount of that discomfort. You want everything to be constantly warm, fluffy, and idyllic so you don’t ever have to be reminded of your own pain. That’s why the fact that people are losing their ‘selves’- being altered into whatever you think works best for them- is such a non-issue in your eyes. They don’t matter, they never have. It’s all about you, wanting to create your perfect dollhouse where you can feel ‘comfortable’.”
“That’s not true…”
“Yes it is.” Sumire spoke without looking up.
“Sumire-san…”
“I’m sure your desire for others to be happy is genuine, but that’s not the reason you’re doing any of this.” It took a while to work up the courage, but she raised her head, and looked Maruki in the eyes. “You’re still hurting over what happened; still carrying the guilt with you every day. Becoming a counsellor, trying to ‘fix’ me, wanting to rid the world of pain. It’s all you trying to atone for what happened.” She took a step forward, her eyes hopeful. “You lost the woman you loved, and so you’ve not had anyone to help support you, help you overcome your pain. I… I don’t know how much help I can be, but even if it’s just a little, I want to try and help support you, just as you’ve tried to support me.”
Ren smiled softly.
“I think I speak for the rest of the team when I say that goes for the rest of us too.”
Maruki stared back, dumbfounded.
“Amamiya-san.”
“We can put a stop to this right now. You can give us the treasure, and you can come with us out of the palace, and we can face reality together.”
Maruki stared blankly forwards, then down at the ground, all while Azathoth continued to float ominously above him.
“Ha…” He finally broke the silence. “You guys really are making this hard. You’re all better people than I am.”
“Maruki…”
“But I’m sorry; everyone already knows it’s not going to end that way.”
Ren’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t be an idiot now…”
Maruki clutched his staff tightly.
“This is far bigger than any of us. Far bigger than my mistakes, my cowardice, my regrets… I’m in a position where I can permanently rid the whole world of pain, when is that ever going to happen again in human history?”
“Son of a bitch!” Akechi leapt forward to try and catch him off guard, but was swiped away with one of Azathoth’s clawed hands.
“I need to stop being selfish…” Maruki mumbled, speaking to himself rather than the thieves. “I need to stop letting my emotions get in the way. I can’t keep trying to convince them all. Even if they’re right about everything else, they’re too scared and stubborn to let go of what they know. The whole world is at stake; I can’t hold back anymore, I can… I… I can just bring them all back once I’m done. It doesn’t matter what happens to them here.”
“Maruki-san!”
“I’m sorry. I promise you’ll live long, happy lives together, and this will be the last pain you ever have to experience.”
In a sudden surge that felt like an immense explosion, Azathoth’s assault launched back into full force. Tentacles swiping, beams firing; the thieves were almost caught off guard and killed in an instant, had it not been for—
“Life wall!”
A barrier shielded each member of the team, long enough or them to fall back to safety. Ren looked over to Haru, just in time for Lucy to return to her mask. Casting that had visibly strained her, her nearly stumbling afterwards, but she managed to quickly regain her balance, and gave a reassuring thumbs up.
And so, the battle resumed in earnest, only Azathoth’s offense came with that much more ferocity than before. The slight hint of hesitance and reluctance in its movements prior were gone, and there was no doubt it was giving everything it had to kill all of them.
Though this was actually a blessing in disguise; Maruki was still visibly uncomfortable with the idea, and was clearly forcing himself to be merciless in this moment. In doing so, he- and by extension Azathoth- had begun to fall apart in terms of defence, giving the team far more openings to exploit.
The plan hadn’t changed, and was only more effective now. Avoid a battle of attrition by all means, and simply end the fight as quickly as possible; if even Futaba could barely keep track of everyone, Maruki certainly couldn’t.
Ren, Ryuji, and Akechi focused on the frontal assault, keeping the bulk of Azathoth’s attention; Ann, Haru, and Sumire made up their backline, throwing out their strongest magical attacks as rapidly as possible; Makoto and Yusuke made it their job to protect the backline from any stray attacks while retaliating with some of their own; finally- Morgana rode atop Al Azif, providing healing spells to everyone who needed it, Futaba directing everything from within.
None of them were coming out unscathed, Makoto was nicked in the stomach by a tentacle she couldn’t entirely avoid.
“Queen!” Ren called out to her.
“Stay focused!” She called back through clenched teeth, casting diarahan on herself, closing up the wound, though her torso was still visibly stained with blood. “We’ll be fine, focus on keeping yourself alive!”
Ren wanted to throw away the plan and focus on protecting her, but he realized she was right. They had to stick to the plan to have any chance of winning. Their opponent realized they couldn’t let emotions hold them back, so he had to respond in kind.
“Satanael!”
The immense winged figure emerged, firing at each of Azathoth’s arms in rapid sequence. Within moments they were already beginning to regenerate; Satanael lifted its free hand, and with it- the image of a gargantuan black snake emerged from the ground around Maruki. Before the doctor could react, the demon’s fist closed, as did the snake’s maw.
Azathoth was heard crying out, and blew away the illusory serpent. As soon as Maruki was free from the darkness, he lifted his head to see Joker already mid-leap towards him. The boy grabbed the doctor’s mask, still surging forwards, while Satanael mimicked the gesture on Azathoth, and the two were forced down to the ground.
“Now!”
Akechi drew his pistol and fired it into Maruki’s wrist. Paying no mind the blood, nor his pained cry, he tore the staff from his hand, tossing it out of his grasp and into the open, where Sumire managed to catch it out of the air.
“Ha… we got it!”
Azathoth tried to force itself up off the ground; Satanael momentarily removed his hand from its face, only to immediately replace it with the barrel of his rifle. Time stood still for just a moment, then he pulled the trigger.
The golden form began to fade away into shadow, returning to Maruki’s mask- who was still pinned down on the ground.
Ren could no longer feel him pushing back.
“You alright Doc?”
Maruki let out a miserable, pained groan.
“Yeah, you’re alright.”
“Joker!” Makoto rushed to his side as he stood back up. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” Ren looked down at Makoto’s torso, still with a not-insignificant amount of blood on it. “What about you?”
She smiled.
“I’m fine honestly, you know how effective healing magic is in the metaverse. I just need some rest.”
“Here Mako-chan.” Haru handed her a handkerchief- being the only girl on the team who had pockets to store such things.
“Thank you.” Makoto began wiping herself down. “I’ll wash it and get it back to you tomorrow.”
Akechi rolled his eyes, looking back at Sumire, the staff she held had shifted into the shape of a torch. She held it close to her as if clutching a baby, though was still careful not to burn herself.
“Don’t lose the treasure, getting it out of here is the most important part, if we lose it then everything we went through was pointless and it’ll be your fault.”
“R-right! I’ll look after it.” Sumire looked and sounded understandably nervous.
Before they were given any more time to breathe, the environment around them began to crumble.
“Yeah…” Ren sighed. “We’re never allowed to make a relaxed exit…”
“I guess that’s confirmation the torch really is his treasure.” Morgana leapt into the air, transforming into his van form. “Get in everyone!”
Not wasting any more time, the thieves all piled into the back of the Monavan, Makoto climbing over all the seats to get to the wheel, and as soon as she was sure everyone was aboard, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator, driving right off the side of the tower, flying into a leap of faith to the city below.
~ ~ ~
To call their landing rough would be an understatement. It was only due to the laws of physics being rendered a mere suggestion in the metaverse that the group were able to survive their landing unscathed.
With her heart still pounding in her chest, Makoto fell back in her seat, calling back to the others.
“Is everyone alright?” She turned around, looking over the back of her seat at the tangled mess of limbs and outlandish outfits; looking like a bunch of teenage cosplayers had been playing the world’s most intense game of twister.
“I’ll be honest Queen.” Ren just barely managed to open the back door, letting himself and the rest of the group tumble out. “I’ve had better driving experiences with you.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, getting out the driver’s door.
“Everyone’s okay then, that’s a relief.”
Morgana shifted back to his mascot form, rubbing his paws- still sore from landing on this highway.
“Nobody better make a joke about how I ‘always land on my feet’.”
“Wasn’t gonna…” Ryuji groaned.
“I kept the thingy safe!” Sumire proudly announced, holding the torch aloft and waggling it side to side.
Ann was the first to realize something was wrong; relief was replaced with anxiety when she looked back up at the tower’s peak- now engulfed in flames.
“What about Dr. Maruki? Is he okay?”
Ren’s eyes went wide.
“Shit, I’m so used to it just being a shadow, we left him up there!”
Akechi let out an exaggerated, and annoyingly loud gasp.
“Oh no! We failed to save the good doctor from himself. Truly a tragedy!”
Futaba glared at him with daggers in her eyes.
“Your acting is Inari-tier…”
He ignored her, bringing the back of his hand to his forehead as he turned away from her.
“Alas, we did everything we could, and our efforts are not in vain, since we stopped his new world from blossoming. All we can do is continue to live our lives, lives full of kindness and support, that’s what he would have wan…” He trailed off, looking upwards for a moment, before groaning and letting his arms fall to his side. “For fucks sake, he’s still alive…”
“What?”
The group followed his line of sight, and spotted Maruki standing atop a building, looking down on them.
“I’m sorry everyone, but I can’t afford to give up.”
He reached out towards them, or rather- towards his torch. Sumire felt a sudden force, trying to pull it away from her. She held on for dear life, Makoto and Akechi both tried to jump in to help her pull, but it had already broken free of her grasp and flew directly into Maruki’s hands.
“What the—Dammit Yoshizawa- I ask you to do ONE thing!”
She glowered at Akechi.
“He pulled it away! What was I supposed to do?”
“Grgh… You moron!”
“YOU’RE a moron!”
“Now is not the time!” Makoto shouted at them, before they all looked back up at Maruki standing triumphantly over them.
“I’m the only one who can rid the world from pain, the responsibility is mine alone!” Maruki held the torch skywards, the golden body of Azathoth reforming behind him; more than that, an immense amount of shining energy surged out of the persona’s body, growing into something greater. “I can no longer afford to think of myself, or anything else but creating this new world. There will be no more apologies, or justifications, only action. And to that end, I will give everything to you, Adam Kadmon…”
What was Azathoth mere moments ago kept expanding, it’s former body simply forming the head of a titanic humanoid figure, that rose up from a crouching position to tower over the thieves, and even the buildings that surrounded them.
“The hell?” Ren took a step back. “Isn’t… isn’t this the thing I did? With Satanael?”
Futaba stared up at Adam Kadmon in awe.
“His persona evolved?”
“How the hell’d he do that by himself?” Ann turned to Morgana in desperation. “Are we even sure this thing is a persona? Hasn’t it broken literally every rule in the book at this point?”
“I’m… I’m not sure…”
Maruki rose off the building, as if lifted by divine light, and disappeared into Adam Kadmon’s body.
“I am thou…”
“…THOU ART I!” The giant roared skywards, the sound nearly shattering the eardrums of the thieves down below.
Terror struck their hearts as it laid eyes on them, approaching the highway they stood atop- barely reaching his mid-thigh.
“Uh… Oracle? We could really use some intel right now.”
“Working on it Joker! I—ARGH!”
Futaba instinctively covered her head as she saw Adam Kadmon raise his fist, ready to slam it down atop the group. They braced themselves for impact- not sure what good it’d even do. Ren tore his mask from his face.
“Satanael!”
The demonic figure reemerged, flying up to catch the fist mid-flight. However Satanael lacked the size from the day he slew the false god, and was still dwarfed by the primordial man. He flapped his wings furiously, trying to push back, but it was all fruitless. The punch forced him back, and he crashed down atop the buildings behind the team, fading away back into Ren’s mask.
“Satanael… Dammit, Oracle!”
“No weaknesses… But…”
“But what?”
“I… I might have something, just buy me a little more time, please!”
“Ugh… Alright, you heard her everyone. Focus on defence!”
Makoto looked up in horror, seeing Adam Kadmon already preparing another strike.
“Agnes! Checkmate! Marakukaja! Marakukaja!”
“This is so fucked man…” Ryuji grasped his bat tightly, he had no idea what he was supposed to do here, a sentiment echoed by almost every member of the team.
Everyone braced themselves for impact, all they could do was avoid the direct impact of its fist as it slammed down onto the road, but even that brought every one of them to their knees. Not since Yaldabaoth had any attack hit them this hard. No sooner had they even started standing back up, had Adam Kadmon began winding up for yet another blow- seeming to be willing to keep up the assault until they were all dead.
“Futaba!”
“I’M WORKING AS FAST AS I CAN!” Her voice cracked as she screamed back at him, fighting back tears, just barely holding herself together as she kept typing.
“Here it comes!”
“Li… Life wall!”
“N-Noir?!” Makoto called out to her as she cast her spell- just barely managing to hold her head and hand up for the duration before they fell back to the ground.
Barriers enveloped the thieves, just in time for the next blow, shielding them from harm, but crumbing away in the process.
“Haru!” Ryuji forced himself to his feet- wincing as he did so- and rushed to Haru’s side, rolling her onto her back. “Haru!”
“I-I’m fine, Ryuji-kun.” Haru managed to sit up, though it was visibly painful for her to do so, and she gave a somewhat-forced smile. “Lucy’s spell is pretty handy, but hoo- it really takes it out of you…”
“GOT IT!” Futaba called out triumphantly. “He’s putting literally all of his power into his punch, that means he’s got no defence at all right at the moment of impact. That’s when you go for it!”
“Oh alright, easy as that, huh?” Ren tried for force out a laugh as he watched the next attack charging up.
Makoto knew that expression, the expression her boyfriend would make when he’s trying to keep ahold of his brave face despite the fact that he has no idea what he needs to do, desperately trying to think of something for everyone else’s sake. She forced herself to her feet, and approached him, lightly shoving him from behind.
“Huh? M—Ma… I mean- Queen?”
She lowered her voice so only he could hear.
“It’ll be okay.” She smiled and winked at him.
“But…”
“Just trust us for a sec, okay?”
“I…” Ren took a deep breath. “Okay.”
She nodded, then turned to call out to the others.
“Alright everyone, we need to gather together in one spot, Joker- stand back and wait for our cue!”
Ryuji helped Haru to her feet, and they joined the others all rushing over to Makoto’s position. Ren stood back, confused for a moment. Only realizing what they were planning as the fist came crashing down on them once more, he instinctively braced himself…
Except this time, he felt no impact. He lowered his arms to see his teammates had collectively caught the fist. All their masks had been torn away, channelling the full power of their personas into a concentrated force pushing Adam Kadmon back.
“We’ve come this far, we ain’t gonna give u—”
“NO! WE’RE NOT WASTING TIME ON FRIENDSHIP SPEECHES!” Akechi turned back to sneer at Ren. “DON’T JUST STAND THERE, GO ALREADY YOU FUCKING IDIOT!”
Spurred on by the heartfelt support of his allies, Ren charged forwards, grappling atop the giant’s arm and running towards the shoulder. The beast watched as he climbed, it couldn’t afford to divert any power away from the struggle, so it could only limply sweep its free hand across its arm, making it easy for Ren to dodge, grappling once more to land on his face, training his pistol directly between the eyes.
“Checkmate.”
He pulled the trigger, and the bullet pierced its now-defenceless skull. Down below, the thieves’ determined roaring limply tapered off as they realized the persona was no longer pushing back against them. Masks unceremoniously reappeared on their faces as they watched the titan slowly slump over backwards.
Ren leapt off of the giant, watching as cracks began to form, spreading out from the bullet hole. As he landed back on the ground alongside his friends, a blinding white light began to pour forth from the fractures rapidly spreading across its entire body. The light grew, and grew. The thieves raised their arms to shield their eyes, as the light continued to grow and enveloped them entirely.
Then for just a moment, everything was quiet…
Chapter 98: Reality reclaimed
Summary:
The Royal chapter ends, another begins
Chapter Text
When the thieves reopened their eyes, they were still stood together atop the highway in Maruki’s palace- or what was left of it. Already, signs of collapse were slowly settling in around them; the great tower they had ascended was beginning to lose its otherworldly lustre and was gradually collapsing under its weight- as if in slow motion.
Makoto hurriedly scanned the group making sure everyone was still accounted for- including Ren, who to her great relief was still standing alongside them, having safely dismounted after his finishing attack.
Speaking of which, Adam Kadmon was nowhere to be seen, yet his other self- Dr. Maruki- was standing not too far away from the group, hunched over, tired and defeated.
“So… after everything, I wasn’t strong enough. Your willpower was greater than mine.”
Sumire sheepishly shrugged, a sympathetic smile on her face.
“In fairness, we do have the numbers advantage.”
The doctor shook his head.
“That’s not it, despite all my talk, my heart wasn’t fully in it. Deep down, I knew you all were right. Having the support to help you face and overcome your pain is better for your growth. Life doesn’t always allow for that though, not everyone has people to turn to like that. I was given an opportunity to create a more fundamental solution to pain, and I didn’t think twice about it.”
Makoto exhaled.
“I suppose we can’t judge you too harshly. Who could resist the temptation after having the powers of a god- effectively- just miraculously given to them out of the blue? I’d like to think I’d resist- given everything I know now- but without being there myself? Who knows? The fact that you had power to do literally anything you wanted with the world- and you at least tried to do something good speaks a lot to your character.”
“It wasn’t a selfless act; Akechi was right about me too. I wanted everything to appear happy for my own sense of comfort- hoping that by doing that I’d be able to forgive myself for what happened to Rumi. Of course, I was aware of everything that’d be sacrificed; everyone who would have to be altered; but I justified it to myself, thinking that it was fine so long as the final result was happy.”
“Maruki…”
“With you all calling me out, I knew I couldn’t argue back, so I tried to remove myself from the equation, giving myself to Adam Kadmon entirely for the sake of the world… Ha… But the fact that I’m still here proves that it was just talk, I didn’t have the guts. It was all for show, all an excuse.”
Akechi scoffed.
“Y’know, for something that was ‘just for show’ it certainly hit pretty damn hard.”
“Ha… Sorry, Akechi-kun, everyone.”
“Tch…” Akechi turned away from the counsellor. “Sorry to cut the emotional talk short- I know you’d all love to drag it out as long as possible- but am I the only one not completely blind to the fact that the world is literally falling apart around us right now?”
As if to punctuate his point, the ground beneath their feet violently shook, the result of a shockwave of a part of the tower crashing down to the ground before beginning to vanish is a flash of light.
“GRAGH!” Futaba threw her arms into the air, nearly falling flat on her butt. “Dammit Crow! You just had to open your big mouth!”
“Don’t start that bullshit with me! You’re the ones putting heart-to-hearts before basic self-preservation.”
“No time for arguing! Mona!”
“On it Queen!” Morgana leapt into the air, transforming into his van form, opening all his doors to let the thieves pile in.
“Wait- what about Dr. Maru—” Sumire was cut off by another shockwave shooting through the environment, this time shattering much of the highway around them- including opening a yawning chasm between themselves and Maruki; the doctor disappearing into a cloud of dust and debris. “DOCTOR!”
“Oh for the love of… UGH, typical!” Akechi ran back to grab Sumire’s wrist, harshly yanking her towards the van and shoving her inside, before climbing in after her and slamming the doors shut.
“We have to save Dr. Maruki!”
“We need to figure out how to save ourselves first!” Ren- in the driver’s seat- looked out of the Monavan’s windshield, at the distinct lack of a road in front of them, merely yet another chasm leading down to the streets below- which were also in the process of vanishing. “Speaking of which- anyone got any ideas?”
The thieves all exchanged panicked, nervous glances.
“Quick as you like…”
“Ah—” Sumire leapt forwards, leaning over the seats. “Mona-chan, can you fly?”
“Fly? What? No, of course not- I’m a van, I can’t fly!”
“But what if you could though?”
“Y’know what? Good point.” The Monavan began to vibrate around them. “HRRAAAGH!”
The Monavan- both interior and exterior- began to glow in a blinding light. No one was exactly sure what happened in the ensuing nauseating blur of movement and shaking; but when the thieves did regain their senses, they found themselves crammed into some kind of helicopter, flying above the slowly fading cityscape.
“What on Earth?”
“Nyehehehe!” The Monacopter chuckled, feeling very pleased with himself. “I know, I know- I never cease to impress.”
Ren was still miraculously in the driver’s- or rather- pilot’s seat, and managed to hold the craft steady enough so that no one fell out, but was understandably confused.
“Since when have you been able to do this?”
“Since literally just now.”
“Um… how?”
“Does it matter?”
“Y-yeah, kinda? It really would have made the other palaces a hell of a lot easier…”
“Uggh…” A groan was heard from below, the team looked down to see Akechi inelegantly stuffed below them. “You don’t think you could have made yourself just a tad bigger?”
“S-sorry Crow, I was in a hurry…”
“This is such bullshi—ARGH!” He cried out in pain. “Who’s standing on me?”
“I’m so sorry Akechi-kun!” Sumire put her hands together apologetically. “That’s totally my fault, I’m sorry!”
“Get the HELL off of me!”
“R-right!” Sumire tried to step backwards, only to stumble right into Makoto, causing her to lose her footing in turn.
“OW!”
“Sorry Crow.” Makoto quickly lifted her foot off his arm. “It’s really hard to move in here…”
“ARGH! Fucking HEELS!”
“My bad…” Ann mumbled.
“OW- SONOFA— that was just straight up a kick!”
Haru remained suspiciously quiet.
“…”
…
“Uh, hello?”
“Tch, can I help you Oracle?”
“Aren’t you gonna react to my kick?”
“What kick?”
“IIYA! That one!”
“…Where?”
“Did you not feel it?”
“No… Sorry to disappoint.”
“This is why I’m telling you that you need to exercise more Futaba-chan…”
Futaba whined to herself.
“You’re just making it worse Queen…”
“Save the gags until after we get out.” Ren began steering the Monacopter, scanning the environment below them. “We’ll head back to where we came in in just a minute, we just need to find Maruki, but I don’t know where he could have ended up- everyone keep an eye out.” The craft was suddenly jerked backwards, everyone inside nearly falling over. Ren looked back to see a tentacle had grabbed a hold of the vehicle. “Oh, there he is.”
“I’m just about sick of this man…”
“Oh wow, Akechi’s being grumpy- there’s a shocker. Queen, you drive.”
“H-huh? Where are you going Joker?”
Ren smiled back at her.
“Just gonna have a word with him, won’t be a minute.”
And with that he leapt from the helicopter, landing next to Maruki- who quickly released the craft from his grasp.
“Sorry, Amamiya-kun, that probably wasn’t the best way to get your attention.”
Ren shrugged.
“It worked.” His rather artificial smirk gave way to a much more serious expression. “Time to head back man, we’ve already stayed here far too long.”
“Hm…” Maruki stared down at the ground, his arms hanging limply by his sides. “Maybe this is a stupid question, but is the offer still good?”
“The offer?”
“What you and Sumire-san said, about helping to ‘support’ me…”
Ren rolled his eyes, smiling at the doctor.
“You’re right, that is a stupid question.”
Maruki nodded.
“Thank you, Amamiya-kun. You really are strong.”
Ren shrugged.
“I have strong friends, and an even stronger girlfriend. I can’t let them make me look bad by comparison, can I?”
Meanwhile, the Monacopter had just about regained its stability, it’s occupants struggling to maintain their balance and keep their lunches down as Makoto scrambled to figure out how to operate all these buttons. Ren had cognitions based off of his days gaming to make piloting this thing easy- at least with metaverse magic- Makoto had no such experience and was figuring this all out on the fly, but was eventually able to get the hang of it with Morgana’s direction.
She turned back to check on the others.
“All good back there?”
“Apart from being stepped on AGAIN I’m fine.”
“Can anyone see Joker?”
“Uhh…” Futaba tried to adjust her goggles, but with the powers afforded to the by the Metaverse leaving them, she eventually decided to remove them entirely and scan the environment below them the old fashioned way. “AH! There he is, he’s with the doctor!”
“Is he…” Ryuji squinted. “Why are they punching eachother?”
“What? They can’t be punching—oh no, they’re really punching eachother…” Makoto felt both confused, and slightly disappointed.
“N-no offence, but I don’t think Senpai would make a very good counsellor if this is his method.” Sumire laughed awkwardly.
“Maruki-san seems happy enough about it at least…” Ann shrugged.
“Let’s pick them up, get them out of here, and save the questions for later… I’m exhausted…”
~ ~ ~
And finally, the team were free of Maruki’s palace, and could finally put their days in the metaverse behind them… for real this time… probably…
Makoto fell back against the wall- exhausted- sliding down until she felt the distinctive touch of concrete beneath her bare behind, and she let out a long, weary sigh. She looked up at the sky.
“Is it morning already? We were in there all night?”
“It would appear that way.” Yusuke was barely able to remain standing. “Forgive me, now that the adrenaline is wearing off, I’m feeling rather winded…”
“Yeah, I’m ready to just collapse and sleep the whole day away.” Ryuji groaned as he loosened his shoulders. “Oh shit- we remembered to get the treasure, right?”
“I did!” Sumire announced proudly, holding the torch up in the air… at least what was a torch a few moments ago, now just… “It’s a newspaper clipping? Of… of what happened to Rumi-san… But where did—”
“Don’t worry Sumire-chan.” Makoto smiled weakly up at her. “The treasure changes form when we come back to the real world. You did good.”
“I see…” Sumire folded up the cut out article and put it in her pocket, then looked around. “Aren’t we missing a few?”
Makoto got back to her feet.
“When Ren got back onto the helicopter he said he had something he needed to do, Morgana’s probably with him; Maruki seemed to be acting weird about it too so I’m assuming whatever it is he’s also with them?” She started to look slightly worried. “I wasn’t expecting them to disappear quite this quickly though…”
“Ah he said he’d catch up with us later.” Ryuji shrugged. “I trust ‘im.”
“Yeah… I suppose…”
“What about Akechi-kun?” Sumire continued. “He was awfully quiet on the way out…”
Makoto pondered.
“Well we were only cooperating for this specific mission, I could believe he’d make a run for it the moment we got out so there was no chance of us handing him back to Sis.”
“Handing him back?”
“Oh right, originally he turned himself in to help prosecute Shido, but was suddenly set free as a result of Maruki’s changes. It’s not unreasonable to assume said changes would be undone, and they’d be looking to arrest Akechi-kun again?”
“So, do we go look for him?”
“I’m not sure Ann… That’s probably the right thing to do, but he did just help us, and despite everything it wouldn’t feel right punishing him right after that. Ideally he’d just turn himself back in again, I’ll even talk to Sis to try and smooth over his ‘sudden disappearance’, it’s the least we can do.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t really see him being so gracious.” Haru sighed. “Then again, he’s already surprised us once like that, so I guess it wouldn’t be impossible.”
“We should probably try and talk to him at least.” Ann fiddled with one of her twintails. “It’d be worth trying to convince him to do the right thing again, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Makoto nodded, a small smile on her face.
“I suppose it’s only fair. I suppose between helping here, and when he miraculously reappeared on Christmas Eve, he’s earned a small amount of trust.”
“Still wild that happened.” Ryuji glanced skywards. “I really thought the dude was dead after what happened in Shido’s palace. I was sure there was no way he could have made it out of that situation a… alive…” A realization began dawning on Ryuji, as he looked to the others- it seemed it may have been dawning on them too. “Uhh… maybe I’m just dumb but… you don’t think him being there was a… y’know…”
Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“It might have been…”
“Might have been what?” Sumire looked between the two of them, baffled. “S-sorry, I feel like I’m missing context here. What’s everyone talking about?”
“Akechi’s survival… was a change Maruki made.”
Sumire stared at her blankly.
“Wh… huh?”
“Maruki brought Akechi back to life, just like he did with the others…” A dull pain was making itself at home deep in Makoto’s gut. “He really fought with us all this time… knowing that victory would mean he’d disappear…”
“I…” Futaba squatted down, staring listlessly down at the ground. “I really don’t know how to feel about that.”
“I know what you mean…” Haru restlessly scratched her head.
Makoto shook her head, gently slapping both her cheeks to get herself into ‘leader mode’.
“Come on, let’s head back to Leblanc and discuss things there. Ren and Morgana will probably be waiting for us there anyway.”
“R-right…”
The thieves followed Makoto in the direction of the station. Sumire lingered behind, taking a moment to face the stadium once more, the shimmers of the immense palace that surrounded it since the new year were absent, now it was back to being an unused, unfinished stadium.
She let out a somber, yet relieved sigh, and gazed at the sky. Even now, she wasn’t sure how much of what she experienced was real, she’d finally cut herself free entirely of the false world she had been living in for so long, and it hadn’t really sunken in. She felt like she was in a state of dazed shock, the confusion of everything that had happened so rapidly after Maruki’s defeat, she felt like she couldn’t process any of it, let alone decide how to feel.
Still, she was certain of one thing- or rather- one feeling she felt: gratitude.
“Senpais, Ella, Akechi-kun… thank you all.” She began to turn away to follow the rest of the group, her attention briefly being caught by something in her peripheral. “U-um… Th-thank you, Akechi-kun.”
“Ugh…” Two shoulders- only mostly obscured by a nearby lamppost- dropped with palpable exasperation. “You’re welcome…”
~ ~ ~
Leblanc’s door swung open, the familiar jingle of the bell echoing throughout the café as the team triumphantly returned. Futaba was at the head of the group, her relief eclipsing her exhaustion as she confidently strode in, greeting her adoptive father who sat at the counter.
“We’re back!”
Unfortunately, Sojiro was not in the same jovial mood.
“Where the hell have you been all night? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?”
“Sorry Boss.” Makoto quickly stepped forward with an apologetic smile on her face. “That’s our fault, she’s been with us and things ran a lot longer than we thought they would.”
“What things? Wait, actually don’t tell me.” Sojiro let out a weary sigh. “It’s not as if I’ll understand any of it anyway. Just… I dunno, try to give me more of a heads up if you’re gonna be gone that long, okay?”
“Sorry Dad…”
He couldn’t stay mad at Futaba, even if he wanted to. Defeated, he stood from his seat.
“Have you lot eaten?”
Futaba shook her head.
“I guess I can make something for y’all. Sit tight a minute.”
“Um, Boss?”
“Mm, Niijima-san?”
“I don’t suppose Ren is back yet?”
Sojiro looked back at her with a baffled look.
“Back yet? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?”
“H-huh…?”
He paused a while, falling back into his seat and stroking his beard.
“Then again, I get this weird feeling I saw him recently too…”
The thieves exchanged a series of worried looks. Ryuji sheepishly stepped forward.
“Did… did summin’ happen with Ren?”
“What are you… no… no I guess I should just…” He exhaled. “He’s still in prison.”
A horrible feeling began to make itself known in the pit of Makoto’s stomach, the news feeling like receiving a sudden punch in the gut.
“P-prison?!” Makoto pushed past Futaba, slamming her hand on the countertop as she leaned towards Sojiro- nearly pushing him off his stool. “Since when?!”
“Since Christmas, I thought your sister told you?”
“Sis? What does Sis have to—” Realization struck Makoto, she stumbled backwards, falling into one of the booth seats.
“Mako-chan!” Haru rushed to her side
“Do you know something?” Yusuke asked.
“I… I should have realized.” Makoto clutched the side of her head. “He told me, I should have put two and two together…”
“I’m so lost right now…”
“Don’t worry, you’re not the only one Sumire-san.” Ann sat down opposite the nudist. “C’mon Makoto, don’t leave us in the dark.”
Makoto took a deep breath, regathering what she could of her composure before speaking.
“On Christmas eve, after our victory, Sis approached Ren when he was alone.”
“Huh? But why?”
“For the case against Shido to have any chance of being successful, they needed a witness who understood the mechanics of the Metaverse, and directly witnessed Shido’s involvement in them. But…” Her fist clenched against the table. “…to do that, Ren would also have to admit to his activities as a Phantom Thief, which would violate his parole. If it wasn’t for Akechi miraculously showing up to volunteer instead, there’d be no way for Ren to avoid prison.”
One by one, the realization hit the rest of the thieves.
“So you’re sayin’…” Ryuji began. “…That Akechi survivin’ and just showing up like that was something the doctor made happen?”
“Probably for us.” Makoto voice wavered, but she managed to hold herself together. “He wanted us to have our ‘happy ending’ that day. Now that his work has been undone, everything’s gone back to the way it ‘should’ have been… with Ren sacrificing himself for the rest of us.”
“Akechi-kun surviving… undone?” Sumire scratched her head. “But he was just—"
“THIS IS BULLSHIT!” Ryuji kicked one of the stools, enraged.
“Hey watch it!” Sojiro scolded him. “Don’t go smashing the place up!”
“BUT HE’S—” Ryuji paused, taking a breath to try and calm himself. His anger didn’t vanish, but he made sure to not let him lose control again. “No, I’m sorry Boss, I didn’t mean to do that. But this ain’t right!”
“I must concur.” Yusuke nodded. “For us all to have struggled so much against all that adversity, succeed against all odds, and yet one of our own must still take the fall for a crime he didn’t commit? That can’t be the only way to see justice done, surely?”
A bitter silence fell over the café, eventually broken by Futaba:
“So what now? He’s in prison, and by the sounds of it it happened over a month ago in this timeline, so it’s not like we can stop it happening…”
“Ren-kun…”
“No, no!” Ann shook her head defiantly. “There has to be something we can do, right?”
“Right?! There’s no way we can just sit around and leave things the way they are, not after all of that shit we went through!” Ryuji shook Makoto by the shoulder. “C’mon, you’re the one who knows about law and shit, there has to be something?”
“Quit pushing me!” Makoto slapped his hand away, not really appreciating having her torso thrown from side to side like that… although deep down she was grateful for it. Ren wasn’t here right now, that meant the role of ‘leader’ fell to her; and like Ren before her she needed to project an aura of calmness. What the team needed right now was reassurance and direction; she still felt like she wanted to cry, but that could wait- if she fell apart the whole team would follow suit. There’s no way she could disappoint Ren like that. She took a deep breath, and stood from her seat. “Okay everyone; turns out our work as the Phantom Thieves isn’t done yet, we have one more mission.”
Haru pumped her fists, full of inspiration and excitement… for all of two seconds before deflating again.
“But, the Metaverse is gone- for good this time.” She sunk further into her seat. “And even if it wasn’t, we’d have no idea whose heart we’d have to change- or if the problem could even be solved that way…”
Makoto shook her head.
“You’re right, the Metaverse wouldn’t solve our problems, but it’s fine- we don’t need it.” She held her fist over her heart. “The objective is to overturn Ren’s original charges of assault.”
“Right!” Ryuji cheered. “So uh… how do we do that?”
“I’ll be honest with you all- it won’t be easy.” Makoto’s face tightened. “The legal system in this country is heavily biased in favor of prosecution, almost always reaching guilty verdicts; having them undone is extremely rare.”
“Maybe… but we still have to try anyway!”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded. “Of course Ann-chan. I’ll talk to Sis for starters.”
“Hang on, isn’t she the one who arrested him to begin with?”
“I understand where you’re coming from Ryuji, to be honest part of me is angry at her for that, but I realize that’s unfair. Had she not done so, it’s likely Shido would end up going free, and all of us- Ren included- would be facing prison or worse anyway.”
“I… I guess that makes sense…”
“She’s the most involved in the case already, knows more about the legal process than any of us. I’ll work with her to start forming a plan. Although…”
“I don’t like the sound of that ‘although’.”
“It’s just that for the courts to even bother looking at the case again, we’re going to need a lot of pressure from both people in positions of power, and public support making a lot of noise.”
“OH!” Futaba’s hand shot up. “Ren’s got all sorts of connections around Tokyo, I listen in on him meeting up with them all the time.”
Makoto sighed, rubbing her forehead, and also noticing a similarly disappointed-looking Sojiro still at the counter.
“I mean… that’s obviously really good that you know that, but I don’t want to encourage your spying any more than we already have.”
“Worry about that later- or never- point is I can easily track down contact details for each of them, and we can get them involved. Maybe a couple of them have really useful connections of their own- one of them is a politician!”
Makoto huffed, but ultimately decided to put the morality aside for a minute and feel good about her plan.
“Alright, you get to work on that while I go talk to Sis. Can I count on everyone’s support?”
The thieves all cheered without hesitation. Sojiro- smiling- got to his feet.
“I’m not gonna pretend I understand what you’re all talking about with ‘timelines’ and whatever other nonsense, but getting that kid out of trouble is absolutely a plan I can get behind. I’ll help out too- I’ve still got a few connections that could prove useful, not to mention I’ve been legally responsible for him for the past year, my word should go a long way.”
Met with all this support, and hope re-entering her heart, Makoto had to fight back tears once more- albeit for a completely different reason than before.
“Thank you everyone.” She turned and saw Sumire, seeming deep in thought. “Sumire-san?”
“Hm? O-oh!” Sumire stood at attention. “S-sorry! I was paying attention, and you have my full support as well, I was just thinking… there are people I need to talk to about all of this, questions I need to ask…”
“Hm?”
Sumire shook her head.
“Sorry. I’ll get back to you all, but rest assured- I won’t rest until Senpai is free, I owe him a great debt too…” She bowed, and exited the café with purpose clear in her stride.
The others weren’t sure what to make of it exactly, but they decided to just trust her. Makoto addressed the group one final time.
“Alright, I’ll see if me and Sis can get things rolling, and Futaba will get track down all of Ren’s old contacts here in Tokyo. If anyone has any more ideas, put them in the group chat, and we’ll reconvene tomorrow.” She smiled, feeling more determined than ever. “We’ll have Ren rejoin us ASAP, so we can all finally celebrate our victory- together…”
~ ~ ~
Makoto had hoped to put her part of the plan into action the moment she got home, marching over to her sister, triumphantly declaring her intentions, and the duo leaping into action.
But Sae was still at work. It made sense, without Maruki’s world putting things into easy mode, Shido prosecution was likely taking an ungodly amount of work already, so if helping Ren needed to wait a few hours then there was nothing to be done but wait, but it did mean this adrenaline Makoto was running on was kind of going to waste.
Still, nothing to be done but wait for her to get home. In the meantime Makoto would just bring out her laptop and start researching for a legal precedent she could potentially use.
No further had she gotten than her first google search before hearing her phone ring next to her on her desk. She looked at the screen before answering:
“Eiko-san?”
“Yo Nudie Prez! Didya do the thing?”
Makoto chuckled, a wistful breath leaving her lips.
“Yeah, we ‘did the thing’. The world is back to normal now.”
“Thought so, people stopped actin’ weird at least, but I wasn’t sure.”
“I understand, I can only imagine how weird it must all seem to an outsider.”
“No kiddin’… If it weren’t for the fact that I can still hear Godiva’s voice I would think it was all just a really weird dream.”
“Well there’s no more weird stuff like that going on anymore, we don’t have to worry about that at least…”
“Summin’ about the way you said ‘at least’ has got me worrying again…”
Makoto paused a moment.
“Eiko-san, I’m going to test something real quick.”
“Uh… okay?”
“Do you know what happened to Ren?”
“Um… what kinda test is this? No, I don’t- what happened?”
“I see, so you weren’t reset. Okay good, just checking.”
“I feel oddly violated, but whatever. But for real Nudie Prez, did something happen to Ren?”
“Ren’s… he’s in prison.”
“That’s a fucking bombshell! What the hell? I talked to him like, a couple days ago?”
“It’s a long story…”
“I’ve got the day free, fuckin’ go for it.”
“Well…” Makoto explained what happened in this timeline from Christmas eve onwards, catching her up with the new thieves’ goal. “…So as soon as Sis gets back we’re going to start putting a solid plan together to free him.”
“That’s such bullshit!”
“Eh?”
“N-no, not what you’re doing- that’s awesome- I mean him being stuck in prison in the first place. You guys are literal superheroes or whatever yet you get treated like criminals and turned on for no good reason? What is this Marvel comics bullshit?”
“As much as I hate it, I don’t think there was any way around it…” Makoto sighed. “I wonder if he knew… when we were fighting Maruki that is…”
“You gotta let me help this time, surely?”
“You want to help?”
“Did you seriously just ask that? For such a smart girl, you really are dumb sometimes.”
“I… Ha… I guess it was a silly question, I’d definitely want to help in your position too.”
“You get it. I’m not sure exactly what to do, but I’ve been studyin’ under Old man Tora a while now, he and I will probably be able to think of something, I’m sure the dude’s got connections.”
“Thank you Eiko-san. We’ll need all the help we can get.”
“And even if that doesn’t work out, I’ll make sure the case gets the public attention it needs. That I can guarantee!”
“Do you have something in mind?”
“Oho-ho!” Eiko’s smugness managed to physically radiate even through the phone connection. “If there’s one thing us nudists are good at- it’s getting attention. Trust me, I’ve not been sitting on my hands all this time, I’ve got ideas. Wait and see!”
Makoto smiled.
“Eiko?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m… I’m really happy that we’re friends.”
“Makoto… Heh, don’t start getting sappy, I don’t know how I’m supposed to respond to that shit.”
“You don’t need to respond, I just felt like saying.”
“Well… it’s appreciated, I guess. A-anyway, you sound pretty tired, you should probably get some rest.”
“Can’t, I need to wait for Sae.”
“Bitch it’s the middle of the damn day, I dunno what her hours are but she probably won’t be back ‘til late, right? You can afford to take a nap. You’ll need to be on your A-game when the time comes, right?”
Makoto hated to admit it, but Eiko was right; she had been awake for over 24 hours straight at this point.
“Alright, I’ll have a short rest… probably in the living room so I definitely hear the door go.”
“There you go Nudie Prez. I’mma let you go now, I’m gonna see if I can get some things rolling on my end in the meantime, laterz!”
And Eiko hung up without another word, not wanting to risk dragging the conversation on any longer and deny Makoto her rest. She put her laptop to sleep, leaned back in her chair, and exhaled.
“I promise I’ll save you Ren, just wait for me a little longer.”
Chapter 99: Shout-out
Summary:
The campaign to free Ren is underway
Oh, also...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Sumire wasted no time rushing down the hallway in a near-sprint, hoping desperately that no one would suddenly exit their room as she hurriedly approached the door at the end of the hall.
She fumbled through her pockets looking for the keycard she got at reception, flinching at the sound of movement down the hall. Was it just a creak? Her imagination? She had no interest in chancing it; she swiped the keycard, forced her way inside, and slammed the door behind her, making sure it locked behind her.
She spun around and angrily scowled at the boy sat waiting for her.
“Really? HERE?! This is really the place you wanted us to meet?”
“She’s already shouting at me.” Akechi grumpily mumbled under his breath. “It needed to be somewhere discreet, I’ve already explained this to you.”
“But a hotel? This kind of hotel?” She tightly gripped her wrist, feeling extremely uncomfortable, as if the perverse atmosphere of the building itself- built up through decades of illicit sexual meet-ups and affairs- was trying to suffocate her. “Do you have any idea how humiliating it was having to ask the receptionist for the room key? To say that I had someone ‘expecting’ me? The look on her face as she handed me the card…”
“You’ll live.” Akechi leant forward, holding his hand out towards the girl. “Your phone.”
“My phone? What about it?”
“I want to check if Sakura-san bugged it before we continue any further. I don’t want them realizing I’m still alive.”
“Wait so she really does that? I thought they were just joking. But, do you really need to keep it secret?”
“That’ll cause nothing but problems. Now, phone.”
“Ugh, you’re ridiculous.”
Despite her words, she handed him her phone, which he wasted no time disassembling. A few uncomfortable minutes passed, before he handed it back to her- good as new.
“Alright, she wasn’t that thorough, your phone is clean.”
“Then why do I feel so dirty right now?”
“Because you’re lame. Okay, now we can talk. What did you need to know?”
“What did I—I want to know what the hell is going on with you and Amamiya-senpai’s prison time? The others said you turned yourself in in his place?”
He nodded.
“Correct.”
“But that was the result of Dr. Maruki setting that situation up.”
“I didn’t know at the time, but yes.”
“But that really you died…”
“Also correct.”
“You—huh? What?”
Akechi nodded, his face completely deadpan.
“I died in my father’s palace. In case you’re wondering- yes, dying sucks, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“…So…” Sumire sat down on the bed, rubbing her aching forehead. “So you were one of the people the doctor brought back.”
“You’re making me repeat myself, but yes.”
“Then how come you’re still here?”
He leant back in his seat.
“That’s the part I don’t understand either… I went into that final battle fully expecting to vanish at the end of it, and yet here I am- still alive.”
It was subtle, and he tried to hide it behind his arched fingers, but she noticed he was actually blushing; he seemed genuinely embarrassed.
“When you told him ‘I’d rather die’, I really thought you were just being figurative.” Sumire gently chuckled. “You’re the one person who can prove they genuinely meant that.”
“Tch. To be honest it’s got me concerned. The doctor’s control is definitely gone, everything points towards that being the case, so why am I the one change that stuck?”
Sumire pondered a moment, before smiling.
“Maybe you’re being rewarded? Y’know, you were an integral part of saving the world after all.”
He glared at her.
“You don’t honestly believe it’s something that cheesy, do you?”
She shrugged.
“No idea, it could be the case? Or maybe it’s just something to do with you being a persona user, we got immunity to our memories being reverted to the ‘original timeline’ or whatever, maybe this is the same kind of thing?”
“Hmm…” He brought his hand to his chin in thought. “Perhaps it really is that simple? Though I suppose it doesn’t matter, perhaps I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth?”
“True- I think… but it does raise more questions about why you didn’t turn yourself in this time?”
“I did. Well… I did, but the me in this ‘timeline’- for want of a better word- is simply dead, and thus wasn’t there to turn himself in. It’s hard to say for certain, but from what little investigation I could carry out since our victory, I shouldn’t exist here, it seems that as far as the real reality is concerned, I suddenly popped back into existence subsequent to the good doctor’s fall.”
“This is giving me a headache…”
“Don’t whine about it, no reason to give me a headache too.”
She shook her head.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad you’re okay…”
He smirked.
“I doubt the rest of the ‘team’ would share that sentiment.”
“Whatever their feelings towards you- however justified- are separate from my own. You helped me break free of the mental prison I had let myself get trapped in. So from my own- admittedly limited- perspective, I don’t think you’re a bad person…”
“…”
“You are kind of an asshole though.”
“There it is…”
“But we need your help.”
“Seriously? What for?”
“What do you mean ‘what for’? Senpai is in prison!”
“I know, sucks for him. What do you want me to do about it?”
“Can’t you do what you did before? If you never turned yourself in on this timeline, can’t you do it now?”
“That’s quite the request…”
“I know I’m asking a lot, and it might seem unfair, but…”
“I’ll stop you right there. I’m not doing it, becau—”
“But why?”
“I’m literally about to explain it you moron, have just a little patience.” He sighed. “Because it simply wouldn’t do any good. Me turning myself in before prevented him going to prison because it meant his probation would have gone by without incident- in the eyes of the law at least. But he’s already in there now. I can’t just say ‘take me instead’, the justice system doesn’t work that way. All that would happen was they’d arrest me too and it’d have no bearing on Amamiya-san’s case. At best I’d be giving him a roommate, and no- as bad as prison would be- the idea of being trapped with HIM all day every day would truly be hell, I’m not doing that.”
“I…” Sumire’s shoulders sagged, defeated. “I suppose you’re right, there’s not really much you could do, even if you wanted to.”
Akechi huffed, staring up at the ceiling in thought a while.
“I despise that boy, but I have to admit- the idea of someone being punished for a crime they didn’t commit doesn’t sit right with me.” He pulled out a small notepad from his pocket, and began rapidly writing within.
“Hm? What’s that?”
“I’m going to need you to sit tight for a while Sumire-san, this may take me a while to complete.”
“What is it?”
He didn’t look up from his work, continuing to write as he spoke.
“I was never interrogated by Sae-san in this timeline, so she’s missing quite a hefty supply of information. Information Amamiya-san would have no way of knowing, many of Shido’s contacts, business partners, sources, and indeed ‘customers’ paying for my own ‘services’.”
“O-oh…”
“I’m going to write down everything I would have told Sae-san, so you can give it to Makoto-san, who will in turn give it to her sister. It wouldn’t do anything to help Amamiya-san directly, but I’m sure the case against Shido and his loyalists could use all the help it could get.”
“Tha—That’s amazing! But, how am I going to explain this? I’m going to need to tell them you’re still alive.”
He glared at her with daggers in her eyes.
“Absolutely not! I’m happy going through life never seeing any of them again, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”
“But then what do I say?”
“Just say you weren’t convinced I was really gone, so you went searching for me. You got access to my old dorm room, and found this notepad hidden somewhere. Don’t worry, I’m making sure to word what I’m writing in such a way that it’ll be believable.”
“I…” She let out a heavy sigh. “Alright, I still disagree with you keeping yourself secret, but I won’t be the one to rat you out.”
“Champion. Now sit down, this is going to take a while…”
~ ~ ~
“Okay, so we have Yoshida Toranosuke leading a campaign to drum up public support for the cause.”
Sae nodded.
“Even as a ‘disgraced’ politician, his name is still fairly well known in the legal and political circles, and I hear he’s been slowly making a comeback of sorts in terms of public support. His campaign can do nothing but help get the case the attention it needs.”
“Mm. We’ve also got Kawakami-san working to get the rest of the school faculty to chip in as character witnesses. He has no black marks on his behaviour at school aside from being late on the first day.”
“That does look bad, but it’s hardly enough for even the most ruthless prosecutor to make any sort of point against him, trust me- I know.”
Makoto smiled sympathetically at her sister before returning to her list.
“Sojiro is using his government connections and status as Ren’s caretaker to pull some strings.”
“As helpful as public support is, it means nothing if we can’t get people in positions of authority to back us up.”
“There are others, a reporter trying to research the initial incident, his local doctor touting his ‘volunteer work’ under her to win the support of her contacts, and a bunch of friends across town collecting signatures for a petition.”
“Hmm…” Sae couldn’t help but smile, she’d never seen her little sister this focused before. “You’re really giving this your all, huh?”
“Huh? I mean of course, I want him out as soon as possible.”
“I know, that much is clear. He must be a really important friend to you.”
“Ah…” Makoto tried not to appear too outwardly nervous. “Y-yeah… a friendly friend. Very much just a friend I really enjoy being um… friends with, yup…”
Sae raised a bemused eyebrow at her younger sister, but decided not to worry about it.
“I can’t make any promises of course, the legal system is not friendly in situations like these. But I’ll do my best, I’m sorry I can’t help more.”
“Please Sis, don’t apologize. I know how hard you’re working on the Shido case, and I understand that takes priority. If he goes free, then all our efforts are pointless.”
“Unfortunately so.” She sighed. “If it were just Shido this’d be the easiest thing in the world. Prosecuting a single man- no matter what kind of status he has- is doable, and should be trivial considering he’s trying so hard to face justice himself. But all the people who worked with him, were employed in his schemes, did business with him, hired hits on competitors; all these people trying to obscure the truth to save their own hides. It’s no exaggeration to say I’m prosecuting hundreds of powerful people right now.”
“It’s no doubt the case of the decade at least.” Makoto’s weak attempt at lightening the mood didn’t quite land, but Sae appreciated the effort nonetheless.
Before either of them could continue, both jumped at the sudden sound of a knock at the door. It clearly wasn’t the knock of a burly government agent/ assassin type, but the sisters still couldn’t help but be slightly nervous with the enemies they had right now.
“Wait here.” Sae got out of her seat, and cautiously approached the door, peering through the peephole. “Oh, it’s just one of your friends.”
Both of the Niijimas let go of a breath they didn’t realize they were holding, and the youngest joined the eldest as she opened the door.
“Wassup Nudie Prez!”
Sae didn’t much appreciate been greeted to a naked girl shouting right in her face like that, but tried not to show her annoyance.
“And you are?”
“Hm? Ah, you must be her big sis!” Eiko took a small step back so she could properly bow. “I’m Eiko Takao. I know Nudie Pre—I mean- Makoto-san from school.”
“Hello Eiko-san.” Makoto smiled apologetically to her sister a moment, before turning her attention back to her friend. “Yes, this is my sister, Sae Niijima.”
“Man is everyone in your family this gorgeous?”
“This is everyone in our family.” Sae eyed the girl, evaluating her with her gaze.
“Ah… u-um…” Eiko decided to shake off the awkwardness and just push forwards with a grin. “Yo Nudie Prez, I gotta come in, quickly!”
“I suppose that’s fine?”
“Thanks Prez!” Eiko made her way hastily past the older woman still glaring at her, smiling at Makoto as she passed through to the main living space.
Makoto whispered to her sister.
“It’s okay Sis, she can be a bit of a handful, but she’s a fantastic friend and a good person, trust me.”
“Hmm…” Sae watched as Eiko practically skipped through to the living room. “Well if you say so, I’ll take your word for it.”
“Eheheh…” Makoto laughed nervously as she followed Eiko, finding her seemingly searching the house. “Eiko-san, what are you doing here?”
“AHAHA!” Eiko held her nose high. “I finally get to show you the results of my hard work!”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll show you- where’s the TV remote?”
“The remote?”
“Yes the remote- quickly, otherwise we’ll miss it!”
“Miss what?”
“Bitch just help me find the—there it is!” With no small amount of urgency Eiko leapt over the back of the couch to grab the remote, not even taking the time to right herself before she turned the TV on and started scrolling through the guide.
“A… talk show?”
“Ehehe~” Eiko sat upright, tapping the seat next to her. “It’s all about to pay off, just watch…”
~ ~ ~
“…And with Valentine’s day just around the corner, that might just make the perfect date; we’ll definitely have to ask our guests how they feel about the Hilton Hotel’s new offer. Speaking of which it’s about time we bring them on, don’t you think?”
The studio audience cheered, definitely in response to the host’s charisma and nothing to do with the instructional sign lighting up above their heads asking them to do so.
“Well we’ve got something very special in store today. It’s no secret that a wild new lifestyle program launched in a select few schools in Tokyo last year. You may remember we covered the televised interview with the program’s first participant a while back. Disappointingly we’ve been unable to get her as a guest, but today we have something perhaps even more amazing.”
The host was getting visibly excited, having a hard time keeping his professional composure.
“Now, you may already know the infamous nudist program has been restricted to just two schools: the Shujin and Kosei academies, right? Wrong! The restriction tying the program to schools has been lifted, thanks in large part to today’s guest, who- with the support of a strong online community built around the program- has decided to partake themselves, and we’re lucky enough to host their first public appearance since the change. I can scarcely believe I’m saying this- but please give a warm welcome to star idol- Risette!”
The host gestured towards the entrance coming from backstage as the crowd burst into applause (a great deal more convincing than before). At first naught but one bare foot suspended in the air revealed itself to the viewers, wiggling around as if to tease the audience waiting for the full reveal. Knowing from experience just how long to keep them waiting, the illustrious Risette triumphantly stepped into view, wearing naught but a smile and a ear-mounted microphone- partially obscured by her stylish haircut that had been worked on behind the scenes for the past hour and a half.
She skipped across the stage to join the host, waving excitedly to the audience and cameras as she did so. Even through her tastefully-done make-up, the glowing pinkness of her cheeks was apparent and genuine, though her clear excitement won over her nervousness as she proudly presented herself to everyone present, not a hint of shame in her demeanour.
The host- judging by his expression- still couldn’t quite believe his luck.
“Yes, it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Risette today. We’re the first to enjoy Rise Kujikawa in all her glor—”
“AH-AH-AH!” Rise cut the host off.
“Wh-what?”
She didn’t say anything, simply raised her eyebrows expectantly. Only a few moments of confusion later and the host worked out what she was waiting for.
“Oh, I do apologize, force of habit. I’ll try again.”
“Please do.”
He cleared his throat.
“We’re the first to enjoy Rise Narukami in all her glory!”
Rise’s whole body visibly tingled with joy.
“Please, come have a seat.”
The host led her to the guest couch before taking his own seat.
“It’s a pleasure to have you here today.”
She gently bowed her head.
“It’s a pleasure to be here.”
“Once again, apologies for my fumble just now.”
“Oh no it’s fine, it’s fine. He and I only got married back in early December, I’m expecting people to slip up now and again.”
“An idol openly getting married, certainly a daring move, and yet- amazingly- not even the most daring thing you’ve done anymore.”
“You can certainly say that again.” Rise looked down at her completely bare body. She crossed her legs out of habit, but otherwise made no effort to cover any of herself. “I’ve been living this way full-time in private for about a month, but this is the first time I’ve been able to reveal it publicly.”
“Well that would explain your recent absence, we all assumed you were just enjoying your honeymoon.”
“Oh no no, I mean- yeah spending time with my hubby was part of it, but our actual honeymoon is coming later on in the year. I wanted to be sure about this lifestyle before committing to it, y’know?”
“That’s understandable. Well I think I speak for all your fans when we say we’re very happy to see you like this—I-I mean, to see you back.”
“Hoo, I bet!” Rise laughed. “Honestly I don’t know what this’ll do for my popularity. Like ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’, but I’m expecting another wave of hatemail too if I’m honest.”
“I wasn’t going to bring that up, but yes, I heard there was a similar response when you announced your marriage. Idols historically have gone to all kinds of lengths to keep their relationships secret to avoid scandal, yet you just openly announced it in the middle of one of your concerts. You certainly don’t shy away from ‘scandal’.”
Rise sheepishly shrugged.
“I suppose I can’t really deny that, huh? But yes. I love my husband, I’m quite happy standing up in public and telling everyone how amazing he is.”
“There was substantial backlash, and yet your career has endured. It’s very impressive.”
“Well that’s just it. It’s no secret that the idol industry is… well… less than friendly a lot of the time, both behind the scenes and in the fandoms. You may remember I took a break from the business several years back?”
“I do.”
“To be honest my plan was initially to quit outright. I was being turned into something I didn’t like, a living piece of merchandise, while my ‘true self’ was being buried away. I’m sure many other idols have similar feelings. But I had a change of heart- so to speak- when I was reminded just how much positive impact idols can have on their fans. Inspiring them, giving them the strength to persevere and so on. I didn’t want to lose those things, but I didn’t want to fall into the same traps as before. So when I re-debuted I swore to myself that I would do everything I had to to maintain full creative control over my public ‘persona’, never submitting to those trying to manipulate who I am, who I portray myself as, no matter how hard that made my career. Inspiring people as my true self, rather than a fake, corporate-approved personality.”
“You’re trying to push idols into a new age?”
“That’s a grand way of putting it, but I suppose it’s kinda what I’m going for. Things like being open about my boyfriend- now husband- I lost so many fans when I first announced our relationship.” She sighed. “Got so many horrible and hurtful messages, Yu got them too, which was really unfair… I’m used to it- as all public figures have to be, but he doesn’t deserve to get treated that way…”
“And yet you stood by it, and your true fans have stuck with you throughout it all.”
Rise’s cheeks grew redder, and her smile wider.
“Yes. My audiences were much smaller for a while, but they were all still so passionate. For every awful message I received, someone else sent a loving one, a few have even proudly told me they met their own partners through my concerts and meet-ups, which makes me feel pretty proud too. The industry and fandoms have been stuck in a toxic mindset for so long, it makes sense that trying to break out of the norm would be met with pushback- but so be it, y’know? If I have to take some flak to open the door for everyone else, then I’ll gladly take it.”
“Well I certainly find you inspiring, Narukami-san.”
She tingled again.
“Heh, thank you for that.”
“I think the fans at least are much more open-minded than they used to be, there’s no way an idol would be able to do this back in the eighties, or even a decade or so ago.”
“It’s a new age. Back then idols were basically kept in a glass box, shut off from the rest of the world. Nowadays I can banter with my fans directly through social media, the barrier is all but gone. Idols can be seen and treated like human beings now. There are still a few problems to work through- the backlash from my relationship being proof of that- but I’m eager to do my part to get us past that.”
“Amazing. Although, while the relationship certainly made waves across the industry, I think this is going to dwarf even that.”
“Ha, yeah. Both my relationship and my nudism are certainly making statements.”
“Tell us about how this happened.”
“Well, it goes back to what I was talking about with social media. Turns out a few of the nudists at Shujin are fans of mine, one in particular- under the screenname of ‘Buchilover98’ has been in contact with me a while now.”
“Is that the old panda cartoon?”
“I think so? I was a bit too old for it when it was airing, but I vaguely remember it. But anyway, she’s been talking to me about her nudism and how it’s positively impacted her life and relationships, how she got out of a bad situation- which I’ll keep private for her sake- thanks to the support of her closest friend, a friend who was the first Shujin nudist, and was inspired to join her lifestyle.”
“And you were inspired in turn?”
“Well at first I was kinda horrified by the idea, bought back some bad memories…”
“Hm?”
“N-nevermind. But overtime, I started to see the appeal of such a lifestyle, how empowering it could feel. It started with me just trying it out at home- where it’s just my husband around. Eventually I told my friends- who accepted me, in spite of a couple nosebleeds of course.” She laughed at her own joke. “So eventually when my online friend managed to succeed in getting the program accepted country-wide, apparently thanks to getting in the good books of a few key politicians her mentor was on speaking terms with, I figured- ‘what the hell’ and decided to be the first to join.”
“Well, sitting here now- live on our show- do you have any regrets?”
She shook her head.
“Part of me was scared I would chicken out, run off backstage and go into hiding or something. But no, I’m feeling surprisingly relaxed right now. It’s not all that different to the times I’ve appeared in a swimsuit.” She stood up- much to the delight of her audience- with one hand on her hip, the other behind her head. “I worked hard for this body, I’m not ashamed of it anymore.”
She returned to her seat.
“So many people have body image issues these days, even I do, given the industry I’m in. But being able to display myself so proudly like this, I feel better about myself than I ever had before. I think this is a wonderful lifestyle choice we’re allowed to make now, but understandably I think a lot of people are way too nervous to take the leap, given the attention it would bring. It’s always easier when others are doing it before you. I can’t imagine the pressure the first nudist must have been feeling when it was just her, now that’s inspiring.”
“And now you hope to inspire others too?”
She nodded.
“Mhm. Having a public figure openly in the program should go a LONG way towards destigmatizing it, maybe even giving the people the bravery they need to take the leap themselves?”
“So in the end it’s the same as the rest of your career? Taking the first brave steps through the stigma so others can follow the path you help forge?”
“HA! You’re really buttering me up, huh?”
“W-well I was just…”
“Oh relax, I’m teasing. Thank you, genuinely. Not just you, but I want to say thank you to all the fans who’ve stuck with me through it all, it’s thanks to your support that I’ve made it this far. I’ll keep doing my best to be worthy of your admiration and support.”
“Well you’re doing a wonderful job so far, and we look forward to getting deeper into it as the show progresses. But now it’s almost time for the comer—”
“WAIT WAIT!”
“Wh-what?”
“Sorry, just real quick. I told my online friend about the fact that I’d be on this show, and she made me promise her to give a quick shout-out.”
“We kinda have to cut to commercial…”
“It’ll be super quick, I promise.” Rise turned directly towards the camera. “She asked me to shout out a ‘Ren Amamiya’, currently being held in juvie for a crime he didn’t commit. Apparently, he tried to defend a woman from sexual assault, but the guy- Masayoshi Shido- spun it as this ‘Amamiya’ assaulting him, and threatened the woman to keep quiet about it all. There’s a movement to get the courts to overturn the charges…”
“Risette we really—”
“Right right right, I’ll talk about it more after the break, and I’ll tweet about it with links to where you can support the cause.” She took a moment to catch her breath, smiling apologetically at the host. “Sorry, I didn’t want to miss my chance to keep my promise.”
“It’s… fine, whatever.” The host regained his composure, addressing the camera once more as if nothing happened. “We’ll be talking more with the newly-nudist Risette in today’s show, and after the break we’ll be joined by our next guest- another prolific idol: the up-and-coming Alice Hiiragi, don’t miss it!”
~ ~ ~
Makoto- wide-eyed- turned to Eiko, proudly beaming next to her.
“What the hell?”
“I know right! I’m friends with THE Risette, can you believe it?”
“That’s not what I’m talking about… well, I guess that too, but she’s a nudist? And she’s talking about Ren’s case?”
“Oh-ho-ho~ Please Nudie Prez, praise me more.”
Makoto shook her head in disbelief.
“Okay, you’re going to have to start explaining. First off- the program isn’t tied to our school anymore?”
“Nope, been working on an online campaign to make that happen.”
“Since when?”
“Uh…” Eiko brought her fingertip to her chin, thinking back. “Probably about the time you guys went to Hawaii?”
“That long?”
“I mean you didn’t think I managed it in just a couple days, did you? Obviously not. It’s been going for ages, if you literally ever used that account I set up for you, you’d know this.”
“R-right, sorry. But still, you managing to actually pull it off?”
“Well…” Eiko rubbed the back of her head bashfully. “I’m taking credit for it, but I would never have pulled it off without Old man Tora’s connections, much less fast-tracked it like this.”
“Still amazing, even getting a famous idol to join in… More importantly though- she knows about Ren?”
Eiko shrugged.
“I mean I hear they’re from the same hometown or whatever, but she says she’s never actually met him. But I told her all about what’s up, and she agreed to at least talk about it on this show she’s on.”
Sae had just about managed to break out of the daze that seeing this huge-name idol completely naked on live TV had put her in, she cleared her throat and tried to sound composed and professional.
“Well, we certainly won’t be lacking in public attention after that. That woman getting herself in three career-threatening controversies in one show, I don’t know how she’s lasted this long…”
“Well I’m happy about it at least.” Makoto nodded, still in mild shock but feeling reinvigorated. When people talked about idols giving them the strength to go on- this probably wasn’t what they were talking about, but hey- it’s working so Makoto was happy to go along with it. “I’ll take all the help we can get.”
“Hopefully she can get into more detail after the break.”
“I’ll understand if she doesn’t Eiko-san, she can’t afford to take over the whole show for our sake.”
The buzzing of Makoto’s phone could be heard from the kitchen table, she wasted no time in jumping up off of the couch to rush over to it, leaving her sister and friend awkwardly sat together watching her rush off.
She answered the phone.
“Hello, Ann? Any update?”
Neither Sae nor Eiko could hear the other end of the conversation, and had to just patiently listen to Makoto’s replies.
“I see… Yeah I’m worried about Morgana too…”
…
“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We’ll keep looking, but we should focus on getting Ren out first. He might know where Mona is.”
…
“And finding the doctor too, he’ll definitely know…”
…
“Oh, are you?”
…
“No, that’s absolutely fine, I’m not expecting you to cancel or anything, we’ll be fine.”
…
“What?”
…
“Really? Is that okay?”
…
“Oh my god that’d be wonderful, great idea Ann-san!”
…
“No, thank you!”
…
“T-today?!”
…
“It’s a bit… n-no. Today is fine, I’ll make it work. I’ll start getting ready right now and meet you at Shibuya.”
…
“Alright, thank you again, see you soon.” Makoto hung up.
“What was that about?” Sae asked.
Makoto beamed at her older sister.
“Ann was scheduled to visit Shiho today, and she thought I could use it as a chance to come along.”
Sae looked at her, confused.
“Another friend? I’m sure that’s nice and all, but I would have thought you’d want to focus on your campaign.”
“That’s just it Sis, Shiho’s staying in Ren’s old hometown.”
“Really now?”
Makoto nodded enthusiastically.
“This is my chance to conduct some research on site, maybe even track down the original woman he defended. I have to take this chance.”
“I’m comin’ with!” Eiko’s arm shot up, along with the rest of her body as she jumped up and down in place. “Risette says she’s close with some people in the police force in that town, maybe we can talk to them too? Ren was arrested there after all, surely they’d have to know something?”
Makoto’s brow raised.
“Are you sure? We have to leave today, and won’t be back for a few nights, are you sure your family will be fine with you leaving so suddenly?”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll text them on the way there, if they have a problem with it, they can yell at me after I get home.”
“Eiko-san…”
“C’mon, c’mon!” Eiko rushed over to her friend. “We gotta go quickly, right? Go get ready already!”
“R-right.” Makoto turned to Sae. “Sorry Sis, but I—”
“It’s fine just…” she sighed. “Just be careful, okay? Don’t rattle too many cages, and text me once you get there, alright?”
“Sure, thanks Sis. I love you.”
Sae turned away, blushing.
“Makoto, we have guests present…”
Eiko chuckled, before getting her phone out.
“I’mma let the others know.” She grinned. “We’re going to Inaba.”
Notes:
Yup, Inaba arc go.
And I'll just say this now- chapter 100 is a cool milestone I'm very happy about, but it'll just be another chapter. There aren't any big extravagant plans for it beyond me continuing the story, so please temper your expectations, it should be fun regardless.
Chapter 100: The other town
Summary:
The girls arrive in Inaba
Notes:
Welp, we made it, this absurd premise for a fic has reached 100 chapters and counting.
I wish I had some kind of celebration ready, but I don't, today's just another chapter like normal.Still, I hope you all enjoy the direction this fic is heading, we've still got a long way to go ^^
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Inaba was about an 80 mile train journey from Tokyo, probably around 2 hours- give or take. Makoto and Eiko had both gotten ready in a hurry, packing enough to stay up to two or three nights. It’d be unlikely that they’d stay that long, this wasn’t a pleasure trip after all, but not having to pack any sort of wardrobe leaves a lot of room for other supplies so they might as well make use of it.
They had met up with Ann at Shinjuku station, and they began their not-too-long trek towards the small town. They would arrive sometime in the mid-to-late afternoon, enough time to find some accommodation, but Makoto couldn’t help but worry it’d leave little time for investigation until morning; she didn’t mind staying up late but it was a question of whether there’d be enough people for them to question staying up as well.
“How many times have you been to Inaba Ann-san?” Makoto broke the comfortable silence the trio had been sat in for the past half hour or so.
“I’m honestly not too sure, I wasn’t counting. I try to visit Shiho at least once a month, but sometimes it can be more than that.” Ann half-shrugged. “Though to be honest I never really see much of the town while I’m here, I spend the whole time with Shiho at her place, except for a few times where I get her something from the store, or I go with her to rehab, or that one time we just went on a walk together. So I’m probably not gonna be a lot of help navigating.”
“Don’t even worry about that.” Makoto shook her head. “You’re mainly here for Shiho’s sake, you can leave the investigation to us.”
“I-I’ll still ask around! But yeah, you’ll probably do a much better job than me anyway. I’ll at least help you guys find a hotel or an inn or something before I just ditch you. If it comes to it, I’ll see if I can convince Shiho’s parents to let you stay, but their place is pretty small, you’d probably end up sleeping on the couch.”
“Probs won’t be an issue.” Eiko shrugged. “I heard Inaba has been trying to court tourists for a while now, and nobody’s travelling this time of year so they’ll definitely have plenty of space for us.”
“True.” Makoto looked around the train carriage. She was used to Tokyo where she would constantly have people brushing against her from all sides due to the limited space; she’d suspect people were just using it as an excuse to ‘feel up the nudist girl’, if it weren’t for the fact that it used to happen just as much back in her clothed days. Crowds were the price one paid for an otherwise top-tier public transport system. But as they left the city, the vast empty space giving her complete freedom of movement almost made her uncomfortable- she wondered if it was some low-level Stockholm syndrome. Even now the only other occupants of this particular carriage were two women sat down the opposite end who had barely noticed them.
She couldn’t help but notice the look of excitement on Eiko’s face as she gazed out at the idyllic countryside passing by the window.
“You seem chipper.”
“Ah well…” Eiko sheepishly fiddled with her side-tail. “I’ve never been outside of Tokyo before, not since I was a little kid anyway. I go out with friends all the time, but a proper trip like this? It’s all pretty exciting.”
“Yeah, it’s the same for me- leaving Tokyo I mean.” Makoto sighed wistfully. “But this isn’t a pleasure trip.”
“I know I know. Don’t worry I’m not just gonna rush off and have fun.” Eiko grinned. “But I’m still excited. Plus, we get to meet a celebrity tomorrow!”
“A celebrity?” Ann tilted her head.
“Risette is still in Tokyo right now, since she was on that show to announce her going nudist and everything, but she said she’ll be coming back to her hometown for a bit tomorrow.”
“Shut the front door!” Ann’s eyes went wide. “Friggin’ Risette’s joining the nudist program? When did that happen?”
“Literally a couple hours ago.” Eiko laughed. “She announced it on TV like right before you called Nudie Prez.”
Ann fell back in her seat.
“Unbelievable, even she’s buying into it…”
“Eiko-san says she had connections with members of the local police force. So unfortunately our meeting with Miss Reset won’t be purely for fun either.”
“It’s ’Risette’, Nudie Prez.”
“I don’t really follow idols to be honest…”
“Maybe next time I visit Shiho, I can invite you along again so we can have fun.”
Makoto smiled.
“That sounds nice. We’ll come back and visit the town- and this nudist idol friend of Eiko’s- except Ren will come with us.”
“Sounds like a plan to me!”
~ ~ ~
The three alighted from the train, the freshness of the cool countryside air washing over them. They had heard about the virtues of air uncorrupted by huge, pollution-ridden cities, and their first impressions? ‘Salright… A little overhyped but it kept them alive when they breathed it in and out so that made it good enough in their books.
They stepped out of the station, bags in hand. There weren’t too many people around, compared to the crowds of Tokyo it seemed downright barren here, though that only led to them standing out even more than usual.
“We’re getting a lot of looks.” Ann nervously laughed. “Back in Tokyo, I used to be the one standing out due to being half-white, then the nudists came along and made me seem downright mundane in comparison. I’ve been even more of a novelty when I come out here, but I’m guessing the cycle is about to repeat itself, huh?”
“Ah we’ll be fine.” Eiko waved her off dismissively. “Being the centre of attention is what we’re best at, right Nudie Prez?”
“Well I guess we’ve gotten used to it. It might even work to our advantage, maybe people will be more willing to talk to us?”
“Speaking of which…” Ann’s eyes narrowed as a group of boys approached. Being around their age, it wasn’t unfeasible that they would have known Ren, and could at least give a character witness… but neither Ann nor Makoto were especially hopeful, given how their slack jawed gazes were decidedly lower than eye-level.
“You’re naked.”
“Yes, we were already aware of that fact.” Despite her lack of hope, Makoto would endeavour to at least try talking to them. “We were actually thinking there was something you could help us with.”
She rather regretted her choice of wording; judging by the face one of the boys made it was likely he had jumped to a very wrong conclusion in his head.
“We need a place to stay for the night.” Eiko’s wording wasn’t making things any better.
“That’s NOT what I meant.” Makoto glared at her fellow nudist, then turned back to the boys. “She means we’ll be looking for an inn, that’s all. I just wanted to ask you some questions.”
“Holy shit.” One boy stepped forward, deeply fascinated by everything below Makoto’s neck. On the one hand she thought she couldn’t blame him too much- she was likely the first nudist he had seen in person, but she remained on guard anyway. “You’re one of those nudists from Tokyo, right?”
“Correct.”
The boy turned around to his friends.
“Told you it wasn’t faked! You owe me a steak skewer!”
“Man…”
“HAHA! So what are you girls doing in Inaba?”
“We’re looking for—”
“Guys?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? You really look like you are.”
Makoto tried to hold back a tut. She wasn’t successful.
“Look, I’ll get straight to the point. Do you know a Ren?”
“A Ren?”
“A Ren Amamiya? He used to live here.”
“Wait, him?” The boy in the back said, his friends looking back at him.
“Who?”
“Y’know? He was in our class like, a year ago.”
“Uhh…”
“Sat in the back, kept staring at people, messy hair.”
“Oh him!” The first boy stared upwards in recollection, though his eyes kept flicking back to the two pairs of nipples just to his left. “Dude seemed to just keep himself to himself, then he just disappears, I heard it’s because he assaulted someone.”
“They do say it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”
“Not true actually.” Makoto spoke firmly. “He was falsely charged, and we’re here to gather information and look for potential witnesses.”
“Eh? Where’d you hear that?”
One of the boy’s friends pulled out their phone.
“Pretty sure I saw Risette tweet summin’ about it earlier…”
“Really? How does she know? She friends with him?”
“Are you kidding? That guy? How the hell does some lanky-looking weirdo like that become close enough friends with an idol for her to give him a shout-out on her account?”
Makoto took a calming breath, as unpleasant as it was to hear these boys badmouth her boyfriend, it wasn’t worth losing her temper over; while hitting them would be immensely satisfying in the short term, it’d make things far worse in the long term, and create a terrible first impression in this town.
“Forgive us, but if you’re not close enough to him to have information relating to the incident, then we’d best be moving on. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.”
“Woah now, hold on!”
Makoto paused, midway through turning away and being done with this whole encounter. With a roll of her eyes she turned back to the apparent ‘leader’.
“Was there something else?”
“Well~ I was just thinking since you girls are new in town, maybe you could use someone to show you around.”
“I think we’ll manage, thanks.” Makoto turned to walk past the boys, Eiko and Ann moving to follow her, before- annoyingly- he sidestepped in front of her. “Do you mind?”
“Nah nah, I’m just saying, I’m sure you’ll feel safer with some guys by your side, right?”
“You must think we were born yesterday.” Ann sneered at the trio.
“You’d got me all wrong, I just figure it’ll be scary for a bunch of single girls in an unfamiliar town, especially if two of them are naked. It’s just asking for trouble.”
“We’re not asking for trouble, we’re asking you to piss off.”
“Eiko-san!”
“I’m just saying it ‘cuz I knew you’d be too nice to.” Eiko smirked. “And fyi, all three of us are already ‘spoken for’, Nudie Prez here is dating Ren-kun for example.”
The leader’s eyes went wide.
“Wha—him? How’d he…?”
Eiko chuckled.
“The ‘lanky-looking weirdo’ is doing pretty damn well for himself.”
“Eiko…” Makoto whined, now was not the time for blushing.
“There’s plenty of candid footage of Nudie prez, and he’s in most of it with her, so you can check for yourselves.”
One of the boys in the back was already looking it up.
“Holy shit, he’s actually with her.”
“For real?”
“For real. Take a look.”
“How’s that even possible?”
“Why do girls always go for bad boys like that and not nice guys like me?”
“I know right?”
The leader looked back at Makoto, flabbergasted.
“Even he can date you? You’re that easy?”
The temptation to hit him was rising again.
“Dude…” Even the boy’s friends seemed put off by the comment, one of them openly face-palming.
“Ah…” The leader shook it off. “Well I guess until he gets back I can just help look after you three.”
He moved to put his arm around Makoto’s shoulder; she wasted no time in slapping it away, putting a couple paces between herself and him- which Ann didn’t hesitate to step into, raising her arm in front of her protectively.
“Don’t touch me.” She wouldn’t hit them for insulting her boyfriend- even if she was tempted- but self-defence was absolutely on the table, and would serve as a nice excuse anyway.
Eiko’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re clearly not experienced with nudists, so I’ll give you a tip: Nudists fall firmly under ‘Look but don’t touch’.”
The boy raised his hands.
“You’re so jumpy, you’re getting it all wrong, I was just trying to—”
“Oi!” A voice suddenly called out, judging by the boys’ reactions it was one they were familiar with. Makoto and her companions turned to see a female police officer running over towards them. “The hell’s going on over here?”
The policewoman gave the nudists some weird looks, then glared at the boys.
“I swear, I can’t take my eyes off you boys for even a minute.”
“We’re weren’t doin’ anything, honest!”
“We were just talking to them.”
“Cut us some slack Satonaka-san…”
She huffed, before turning to the Tokyo girls.
“Are these guys bothering you?”
Makoto huffed.
“That depends on whether they plan to move on now?”
The leader tutted, and grumpily sauntered away, his two friends following behind him- one briefly pausing to shrug apologetically back at the girls before running off.
The officer sighed.
“Not exactly the standard Inaba welcome… I promise we’re not all like this.”
“It’s fine.” Ann shrugged. “We’ve got guys like that back home too.”
She eyed the visitors up and down- particularly the nudists, where her gaze lingered a little longer than strictly necessary.
“Judging by the… ‘outfits’, I’m guessing you three are from Tokyo?”
Makoto nodded.
“Correct. This is our first time here, except for Ann.”
“I’ve been a few times before over the last year.”
“Hm…” The officer studied the blonde. “Guess that’s why you look familiar. I notice you’re not committing to the ‘dress code’.”
“Absolutely not.” Ann shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong, I love and respect my nudist friends, but I’m just gonna let them do their thing, y’know?”
“HAHA! I getcha. I have a friend who’s been going nudist around us for a while now, and I feel pretty much the same way, even if it really does take some getting used to…”
“Tell me about it.”
“Yo hol’ up!” Eiko raised her hand. “This nudist friend of yours- is it Risette?”
The policewoman’s brow raised.
“That’s a bit good for a guess, you friends with her or something?”
“Just through twitter. She said she’s from here and had friends in the police force.” Eiko smiled to Makoto. “Guess we got lucky finding her so quick, huh?”
“You must be the nudists she’s been talking to then? Huh…”
“Excuse me?” Makoto stepped forward. “My name is Makoto Niijima, I was wondering if I could ask you something, Miss…”
“Satonaka.” She extended her hand for a handshake, which Makoto reciprocated. “Though I guess if you’re friends with Rise you can call me Chie.”
“Th-thank you, Chie-san, but I’m not really too familiar with Risette, that’s more Eiko-san.”
“Yo.”
“But anyway, that’s not my point. Do you happen to know anything about an incident involving a Ren Amamiya from March of last year?”
Chie folded her arms, her brow furrowing in thought.
“Amamiya…”
“He was arrested for assault one night in March last year- wrongly. My sister is the prosecutor working on the Shido case, and we have reason to believe he was involved in that particular incident.” Makoto thought it wise to emphasize the larger case this was involved in over her own personal motivation to save her boyfriend.
“Night huh? If it happened at night then I probably would have been off duty, I only work the day shift.”
“Would the details of the case be on file anywhere?”
Chie’s expression turned slightly worried.
“I mean, probably? But I can’t just go around handing files like that out to civilians, y’know?”
“Please Satonaka-san, it’s really important.”
“I’d really like to help, but I can’t just take you at your word.” Chie thought for a moment, before she looked back at the nudist- slightly more hopeful. “Maybe if this prosecutor sister of yours put in a formal request for the sake of her case we might be able to share it with her?”
Better than nothing- Makoto thought- but there was no way of knowing how long that’d take. The process would require approval from a number of parties, and there was a good chance at least one was part of the ‘Shido loyalists’ Sae was trying to prosecute, who would no doubt do everything they could to delay the process.
“I’ll ask Sis to do that, but are you sure there’s no way we can take a look before then?”
“I really can’t do that, I’m sorry…”
Makoto’s shoulders sank.
“I see…”
“I obviously can’t give civilians confidential case files, but there’s nothing saying you can’t come in and ask about it.”
“Really?”
Chie shrugged.
“Can’t promise they won’t just say the same thing I did- there are lots of rules for cops after all- but there’s no harm in trying, y’know?”
Makoto tried not to get her hopes up too much, but couldn’t fully hide her growing enthusiasm.
“Thank you very much!”
“Don’t thank me yet, I haven’t done anything, and it might still be for nothing.” She briefly glanced skywards. “Probably best leave that for tomorrow though, you all have a place to stay?”
“I do.” Ann answered. “I’m visiting a friend, but these two are gonna need a hotel or something.”
“Hmm, well the Amagi Inn is the go-to place, and it should be relatively empty this time of year. I’m actually staying there myself, I’d recommend it!”
“Oh?” Eiko tilted her head. “You’re a guest there?”
“N-not exactly…” Chie cleared her throat, “A-anyway, I’ll show you where it is, if you like?”
“That would be very helpful, thank you.” Makoto bowed to her. She didn’t know this woman very well yet of course, but she always enjoyed it when she met someone who at least seemed the embody the virtues an officer should have.
“I’ll give you a ride, I’m parked not too far from here.”
“We owe you one Miss!” Eiko grinned.
“Don’t worry about it.” The group began walking in the direction of the police cruiser. “Actually- on the way- you mind tellin’ me what this Amamiya case you’re so invested in is actually about?”
~ ~ ~
“Oh? Chie-chan, you’re back early?”
“Nah, I’m not back back yet Yukiko, I’m still on duty for a bit, just dropping off these girls.”
Makoto looked to the kimono-clad woman with long black hair Chie was talking to. The woman almost imperceptibly flinched at the sight of the nudists, but seemed to quickly put her ‘professional’ face back on to greet them. They honestly weren’t used to such a ‘proper’ greeting, with the woman kneeling down to formally bow to them, all very traditional.
“Welcome to the Amagi Inn, I’m assuming it’s your first time here? How long will you be staying?”
“O-oh, yes it’s our first time visiting Inaba.” Makoto gestured towards Eiko (Ann had already been dropped off near Shiho’s home on the way). “This is Eiko Takao, I’m Makoto Niijima, and we’re looking to stay for…” she thought a moment. “Two nights? Will that be enough?” She mumbled to herself.
“You can pay for two nights, and always extend your stay further if need be. I am Yukiko Amagi, acting proprietress.” Yukiko got to her feet and politely backed up towards the front desk. “We can discuss payment just here.”
“Oh, Yukiko-chan?”
“Hm?”
Chie spoke in a hushed tone.
“I might be back a bit late tonight, there’s something I have to do at the station…”
“It’s not anything bad is it?”
“N-no, well… not right now at least. There’s just a possibility that…” She trailed off a moment. “I’ll tell you about it later, when I’m not being…” she pointed down to her bodycam. “…y’know.”
“I-I see…”
“It’s nothin’ to worry about though, I promise.” Chie turned back to the door, waving to the nudists as she left. “It’s been cool meetin’ ya! I’ll probably see ya tomorrow.”
“Thank you very much for your help.” Makoto bowed, Eiko hastily following suit as their new policewoman friend left.
While they didn’t have anything in terms of solid information yet, given they had only been here for less than an hour- getting a direct contact in Inaba’s police force meant they were off to a very good start.
~ ~ ~
“Those were the same women who were with us on the train, right?” Eiko was soaking in the Amagi hot spring alongside Makoto; she had just watched the bath’s only other two occupants- and apparently the only other two guests currently staying at the inn- head back through to the changing rooms. “The blonde one probably needs to get outside more. Her face looked healthy enough but her body was so pale…”
“…”
“Then again all this steam made it hard to make her out completely, and she was really trying to keep herself hidden beneath that towel too, so it might have just been my imagination.”
“…”
“That Yukiko lady said they’re travelling merchants; didn’t think they were even still a thing, feels kinda old-fashioned.”
“…”
Eiko huffed. She lifted her hand, lining her pointer finger up for the perfect shot, then thrusted forwards into the water- poking her companion right on the nipple.
“Booby.”
“Ow! What gives?”
“You weren’t paying attention.”
“Of course not.” She sighed. “I feel bad. We’re supposed to be investigating, yet here I am enjoying myself.”
“You’re being silly Nudie Prez, there’s no point wandering around after dark, we’re not gonna find anyone- and even if we did they’re probably not gonna be helpful.”
“I suppose…”
Eiko let out a long, content sigh, sinking down into the water until only her head was poking out, and smiling warmly.
“Don’t worry, I’m taking this seriously too. We’re gonna regain our energy for a bit, then head to bed early so we can be up at sunrise at our best.”
“Yeah…” Makoto nodded. “Yeah you’re right. Getting worked up now is only going to work against us.”
“Exactly, so relax. We’ll ask everyone in town what they know tomorrow. If anyone saw what really happened that night, then we’ll find them, count on it.”
“Mm.” Makoto decided to mimic her friend, sinking into the water herself and finally letting herself relax, washing away as much of the stress as she was able. “I really admire your confidence.”
“You’re way more confident than me, you just tend to forget sometimes.”
“I suppose.” Makoto would have laughed had the water not already soothed her into submission. “You sound like Ren when you say that.”
“Huh…” Silence fell over the pair a while, but just a while. “We’re gonna save him Makoto.”
“I know… Thank you Eiko-san.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
~ ~ ~
“Where even is it?” Chie sat at a desk, in a dimly lit room within Inaba PD, flicking through a large ring binder- the third one out of god knows how many. She rubbed her aching forehead. “Man paperwork is always the worst part of the job, I can’t stand it, I’m not even sure it’s anywhere in here.”
“What’re you looking for?”
Chie nearly jumped out of her skin in fright, relaxing when she saw who it was who had entered the room.
“Jeez, you made me jump Dojima-san.”
He approached her desk, curiously glancing over the files strewn across the desk.
“You’re not usually in this late Satonaka-san. What are these? Case reports from last year?”
“I’m looking for a case of assault from March, apparently involving a ‘Ren Amamiya’, but I can’t seem to find it.”
“Amamiya…” Dojima scratched his scalp. “The name is… kinda familiar. I think one of Nanako’s friends lives on the same street as the Amamiya family, I’m not sure though.”
“Well Sir, I have reason to believe it might be tied to the Shido case.”
“Shido… Now that you mention it, I do remember his name popping up in a case from a while back, but he wanted to keep his privacy intact.”
Chie leapt up out of her seat, leaning over the desk.
“Do you remember what that case was?”
He shook his head.
“I’m not sure, I wasn’t directly involved. From what I heard it was an open-and-shut case that got taken care of pretty quickly, they didn’t need my help.”
Chie sat back down.
“Well if what I’ve been told is true, then Shido was actually involved in that case, and he was actually assaulting the supposed witness, which would mean that the supposed perp was innocent.”
“I see…” Dojima stroked his stubbly beard in thought. “He’s currently at the centre of that huge case in Tokyo right now, so I can’t say it sounds completely unbelievable.”
“Us arresting the wrong guy would be bad enough, but it also has me really concerned about the officers involved that day…”
“I think I see what you mean.”
“I want to get to the bottom of this Sir. Obviously if the kid’s innocent then we should help him, but more than that we need to know just how much influence this Shido guy had- or has- over our police force. Was it just the two cops on the scene that were implicit, and everyone just went along with it without knowing any better? Or is there a deeper corruption among us?”
“That’s seriously concerning if that’s the case.” Dojima nodded. “I better help you out. Even if this tip of yours turns out to be bogus, I’d rather rule it out entirely. The risk of corruption isn’t something we can ignore.”
Chie’s lips spread out into a hopeful smile.
“Thank you Sir!”
“I already told you, you don’t need to keep calling me ‘Sir’, it doesn’t feel right coming from you.”
“Aw man, I thought I was getting good at sounding all professional.”
Dojima pulled up a chair opposite her.
“Okay tell me what we’re looking for. The date, any names involved, the officers on duty on that night…”
~ ~ ~
“Valentine’s day is just around the corner ladies and gentlemen, you’ve not got much time left- and you have even less time left to take advantage of these amazing deals! Now you could just buy him a bog standard box of bog standard chocolate, and you know what? You should go for it! There are few things guys love receiving more than some chocolate from a cute girl, but would you know it- me and my partner have brought a whole bunch of those ‘few things’ with us today, isn’t that right?”
“Absolutely. Exceptional gifts available to you at exceptional prices.”
“Eeeexactly! I can pro—”
“Exceptional as in exceptionally low prices, not exceptionally high prices, that wouldn’t be appealing.”
“Y-yeah… that. Ahem! I can promise you all right here and right now that if you give your dream guy one of these presents alongside even the poorest of chocolate then he’s guaranteed to fall for you. Whether he be your crush at school who you’ve never been able to work up the nerve to speak to, your supportive coworker who won your heart over many months of hard work, or maybe even your mentor who taught you everything you know- including how to love- hey I ain’t judging; I’m just selling the miracles, not telling you what to do with them.”
“Your choices are your own and not our legal responsibility.”
“Firstly I have two amazing packages available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, and once they’re gone- they’re gone! So act fast!”
“Buy it or you’ll kick yourself later.”
“Your choices are this package containing two- count ‘em- two boxes of ‘Yawn-b-Gone’, I know what you’re thinking- ‘I didn’t know they still made those’, well you’re right, they don’t, that makes these an extra rarity- and thus an extra special gift, but I’m not done yet: I’m throwing in a precious egg just because I feel like it. Yes, your would-be beloved is such a hard worker, it’s so sad to see them so worn out from it all, and yet- that’s what makes them such a heartthrob, amirite? With this unbeatable stamina and fatigue restoration package, you’ll be his savior, and establish yourself as the one person he can fall back on- hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge. And I’m just giving this amazing package away for the low low price of 5,980 yen! Damn that’s low!”
“Especially when you account for inflation.”
“But I’m not done yet! Maybe your hubby-to-be already has plenty of stamina? And you want an excuse to see the results of his training? In that case you want my ‘Shirt of chivalry’ package. Trust me ladies, getting the object of your desires into some traditional Japanese clothing like this can’t be beat. And y’know what? I’ll throw in a pair of mega proteins in just so he can have that much more to show off. That’ll just be 6,980 yen, oh my god, amazing. Any takers for either package? You better hurry, because stock won’t last long!”
The excessively energetic streetside sales pitch wasn’t the most soothing background noise for the nudists' investigation, but at least it went some ways to keeping people’s attention off them until they approached.
The girls didn’t stray too far from eachother, but they would split up to talk to different people just to speed up the process. The vast majority weren’t very helpful, only having a vague recollection of Ren’s existence, and when they did it’d invariably be relating to the supposed assault, with vapid musings of ‘I didn’t think he had it in him’ or the annoyingly common ‘It’s always the quiet ones’. At best there would be those who thought it seemed out of character for him, and were at least somewhat open to the idea of him actually turning out to be innocent.
But there was no luck finding anyone with any actually helpful evidence, much less an eye witness to the event, just a few very vague character witnesses which didn’t really add anything compared to the mass of confidants he had formed in his comparatively short stay in Tokyo. Not to mention all those who just couldn’t get over the fact that the girls were naked, wanting to discuss nothing but that fact, only held back from trying anything further due to the fact that they were in full public view.
This was getting tiresome, but Makoto had no intention of throwing in the towel. She’d question everyone in Inaba if she had to. Having even one success would make a thousand failures worthwhile.
“Yo Nudie Prez!”
“Hm? Any luck Eiko-san?”
“Yes! Well, kinda. I have an address!”
“Oh? Really?”
“I know where the Amamiya family lives, so we can go talk to them directly.”
“Excellent! We have to get something from them, surely?”
“Only one way to find out! Should we head over there now?”
“Let’s finish asking everyone around here first, then we’ll head over, we don’t want to miss anything.”
“Feels like wishful thinking, but sure, it’s worth a try.”
Meanwhile, the streetside saleswoman had just finished selling a piece of expensive jewellery to a very enthusiastic female student. If she gave the ‘Narcissus flower’ to her crush, it would make him immune to being charmed by all of her rivals in love… probably, it’d been a while since it was last tested, but she got it for a good price at least; ‘good for the customer or good for the merchant?’ Eh, don’t sweat the details.
About to move onto her next sales pitch, her eye was caught by the nudists running from person to person.
“It’s them again.” She leant over to her partner- who was focused on tending to their oversized suitcase full of stock. “Hey Aigis. Aigis!” She whispered.
“Hm?”
“It’s the girls again, from the Inn.”
“Goodness, they really are still nude.”
“I knew it was real. I’m gonna go talk to them.”
“Most of what we have left is clothing and jewellery, I doubt they’d be interested in purchasing any.”
“Nah I’m thinking we hire them. Having pictures of them with us going viral is gonna give us just the boost in notoriety we’ve been needing!”
“Do you really think that’ll work?”
“It’s worth a go. Plus- chicks running around nude is super cool, I just wanna talk to them.”
Without waiting for a reply, she happily skipped over to Makoto.
“Excuse me Miss?”
“Hm?” Makoto turned to see this strange woman leaning towards her, huge grin spread across her face. “Um, hello? Can I help?”
“Maybe so.” She eyed Makoto closely. “Now that I look at you closely, you’re that ‘First Shujin nudist’, Makoto Niijima, right?”
“Y-yeah, that’s me.”
“Aha!” She clapped her hands in excitement. “Can I just say I’m a big fan, I’ve always thought what you were doing was amazing. I’ve always been a big advocate of body confidence, back in my highschool days my dormmates would give me a tough time for being a bit too liberal about that kind of thing, so it’s really cool to see girls like you bringing that attitude out into the open.”
A small smile spread across Makoto’s face.
“Thank you. I admit it was all a shock at first, but I’m happy I’ve been able to help destigmatize the human body.”
“I know right? And can I just say, you look genuinely beautiful. You’re lucky I’m not the type to feel jealous.”
“Th-thank you. That’s very nice of you to say.”
“You’re still a student right?”
“I’ll be graduating soon, but yes.”
“You look like the smart type to me, I’m guessing college is next for you?”
“Yes, I’m aiming for Tokyo U.”
“Oho? I admire that. Well I don’t plan on getting in the way of that, but do you have any plans of how you’re gonna pay for all of it?”
“Well I—”
“Have you ever considered modelling? Because if you’re interested I have an upcoming advertising campaign coming up that you’d be perfect for!”
“Modelling?” The idea did intrigue Makoto, a year or so ago she would have considered it unthinkable. But she had gained an immovable bedrock of confidence in her looks, both due to all the attention her nudism brings her, and how often Ren goes out of his way to compliment her- especially during their more intimate moments. Were circumstances different, she would consider looking into this offer, after consulting with her experienced model friend Ann, but she had more important things to focus on today. “I’m flattered, but I’m really not looking for anything like that right now.”
“Are you sure? We can work around your schedule if you’re worried about it eating into your exam time? It’ll be a good opportunity, and I can afford to pay you well for your time. You could become the face of ‘Shiomi’s amazing commodities’!”
“No it’s just that—wait, isn’t that really similar to that ‘Tanaka’s amazing commodities’ show that used to come on TV on Sundays?”
“It counts as legally distinct- I checked. So what do you think? It’ll be easy money- and you’ll be spreading the good virtues of nudism as you do it; it’s a win-win!”
“You’ve become one of those shady ‘talent scouts’.” The woman’s partner approached them from behind; a woman with short blonde hair, looking as if she were in her late teens compared to the twenty-something year old woman with well-maintained auburn hair. “You haven’t even given your name, how’s she supposed to trust you?”
“Oh shoot, you’re right!” She bowed apologetically to Makoto. “Sorry, I got a bit too excited and forgot about basic manners, lemme try again.” She cleared her throat. “I’m Kotone Shiomi- of Shiomi’s amazing commodities! This is my long-time partner- Aigis.”
“A pleasure.”
Makoto felt it only right to return their bow.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Makoto Niijma- as you already know.” She stood back upright. “Look I don’t hate your offer, but I’m actually in the middle of something important right now.”
“Aw…” Kotone pouted.
“So you’re really not interested in the mascot role?”
“Modelling!” Kotone swiftly elbowed Aigis, whispering to her. “Don’t use the word ‘mascot’, it’ll just put her off.”
Makoto sighed.
“I’m going to have to firmly say ‘no’, unfortunately.”
“Damn.” Kotone sighed, before pulling something out of her pocket. “Well, just in case you change your mind- or your friend might be interested- here’s my business card if you ever want to give us a call, it’ll be an ongoing offer.”
Somewhat reluctantly, Makoto accepted the card and put it in her bag, already backing away just in case the ‘hard sell’ suddenly came back. She accidentally backed up straight into Eiko.
“Wah! Oh, sorry Eiko-san.”
“It’s fine Nudie Prez. I think I’m done here.”
“Done?”
“Yeah I’ve run out of people to ask.” Eiko noticed the other two women talking to them. “Except you two. You guys know anything about the Amamiya case from last year?”
“Apologies.” Aigis answered. “We’re not from this town, and have little to offer you in terms of intel.”
“Aw man. Oh wait, you’re the ladies from the train, of course you wouldn’t know, my bad.”
“Shiomi’s amazing commodities does offer a consultation service however.” Kotone leaned forward, arching her fingers, hopeful grin on her face. “Trust me, I’m really good at helping people talk through whatever problems they may be having, tell them Aigis.”
“It’s true.” The blonde nodded. “The links she forms with people socially are second-to-none.”
“Nah I’m good, thanks.”
“You girls are tough nuts to crack.” Kotone huffed. “How about you Miss- fancy some modelling work?”
“Oho? Me? Modelling? Tell me more.”
“Eiko…”
“What? Oh, right right.” Eiko shrugged to the older women. “Sorry, as awesome as a nudist model sounds, we’ve got too much shit going on.”
Kotone’s shoulders fell.
“Dang. Well your friend has my number if you change your mind. Shiomi’s amazing commodities will be in Inaba for at least another week.”
“Assuming they don’t run us out of town…”
“Oh you need to relax Aigis, that’s only happened one time, we can’t let it rule over us forever.”
The nudists exchanged a very nervous look, which didn’t go unnoticed by the older woman.
“Oh it was nothing. Just a silly little mistake anyone could have made, and we learned our lesson! From now on if we get any electronics in our stock, I have Aigis check them thoroughly before we sell them, so there’s VERY little chance of combustion.”
“I… I see…”
Eiko decided to just ignore the awkward atmosphere and move along.
“If you want a nudist model, you should just ask Risette when she gets back to town.”
Kotone’s brow raised.
“They’re even getting idols naked now?”
“Yeah, she was the first to sign up after the program was no longer restricted to schools.”
“What?!” She leapt forward, grabbing Eiko by the shoulders- the younger girl letting out a shocked yelp as she did so. “It’s not a school thing anymore?”
“Y-yeah.” Eiko felt more than a little intimidated with this woman staring into her eyes so intensely. “They announced it yesterday actually, anyone can sign up.”
She took a few cautionary steps back as soon as she was released, gently rubbing her shoulders while Kotone stood back upright, bringing her hands together.
“Aigis!”
“Yes?”
“Help me pack away the merchandise; we need to return to the inn for an emergency research and planning session.”
Aigis saluted.
“Yes Sir Kotone-Ma’am-Sir!”
The two rushed back to their improvised stand, rapidly stuffing the assorted goods back into their over-sized suitcases, before sprinting down the street and past the bewildered nudists, now left alone on the quiet roadside.
“So uh… how about that address?”
Makoto stared down the path the women just ran down a while longer, before sighing, and turning back to Eiko.
“Yes, I think we’ve gotten everything we can out of this area.”
“Although…” Eiko gestured towards a nearby café with her thumb. “How about we get some tea to relax first? No offense Nudie Prez, but you look like you really need it.”
“I guess that’s not a bad idea, after… all that.”
Next stop was the Amamiya household; Makoto had no idea what to expect, but she knew going in with as cool and calm a head as possible was a necessity.
Notes:
Bit of a busy chapter, but a new world is opening up in the Nudist Queen saga
Chapter 101: Family and Friends
Summary:
It's time to finally meet them
Notes:
This chapter was meant to come out like two weeks ago, but life happened.
Better late than never, and a good thing I never actually reveal my schedule plans xD
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I guess this is the place Nudie Prez.”
“Seems that way, the name plate says ‘Amamiya’.”
“Huh… it’s nicer than I was expecting.”
“What were you expecting exactly?”
“I ‘unno… It’s not as big as my place, but a house like this is probably still pretty pricy.”
“I imagine things are cheaper out here than they are in Tokyo.”
“True.”
“…”
“…”
“I wonder if that window leads to his old room.”
“Prolly.”
“I admit I’d be curious to see what it’s like. The attic he’s currently… I mean the attic he was staying in was pretty homely; a little dusty here and there but he made an effort to keep it clean, a fair amount of décor. But I don’t think we’ll get a look today, nor should we, it wouldn’t be right without him present.”
“I guess it would be kinda invasive…”
“…”
“…Nudie Prez?”
“Mm?”
“I’m nervous too, but I’m not sure we should keep stalling.”
“…”
“If the neighbours look outside and see a pair of naked chicks just staring at the house they might start making assumptions.”
“True.” Makoto swallowed, she had no idea what kind of experience waited for her behind that door. Ren distinctly avoided talking about his parents as much as possible, and now she had to come face to face with them- having absolutely nothing to go off of beyond once having a single mundane text message read out to her.
“Heh, I guess it’s only natural to feel nervous meeting your boyfriend’s parents, you being naked might complicate it, but it’s not as if you have to ask them for their blessing to marry him yet, so it’ll all be good.”
“Quit it Eiko-san, you’re just making me even more nervous.”
“S-sorry Nudie Prez, I was just trying to lighten the mood, but I guess it didn’t land, huh?”
“It’s fine. Let’s just get this over with.” She forced herself to reach up and press the doorbell, before whispering. “And remember, no mentioning my relationship with Ren. Now is not the time to reveal that kind of thing, this is going to be volatile enough as it is.”
“Gotcha.”
Both girls jolted upright and stood at attention as they heard the door unlock. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as it swung open, and a small, middle-aged woman came into view.
“GOODNESS!” She covered her mouth in shock. “What on Earth happened to you two? Why are you both—”
Makoto saw fit to quickly interject before she got too carried away with her wrong assumption.
“Sorry to bother you Ma’am, my name is Makoto Niijima, this is Eiko Takao with me. Don’t worry about our um… state of dress, it’s simply a lifestyle choice of ours, and not related to our reason for visiting.”
“A lifestyle where young women go naked? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Eiko tried to smile politely.
“It’s been on news for a while now, it’s become a trend in Tokyo.”
“First I’m hearing of it. I’ve heard rumors they were wild off in the city, this is rather a shock though.”
“I assure you it’s nothing untoward. I apologize if we make you uncomfortable at all, but I ask that you please forgive us and tolerate it for today.” Makoto stepped back slightly to give herself room for a deep, formal bow, Eiko quickly following suit.
“Hmm…” The woman rested her palm on her cheek. “I suppose that’s okay, I just hope you two are being careful.”
“Don’t worry Ma’am, I assure you we take all necessary precautions.”
“Who is it?” A distinctly male voice was heard calling out from deeper in the house.
“It’s a pair of young ladies Dear, trying to promote some lifestyle package.”
“N-no, we’re—”
Makoto was cut off when the man joined them at the door, understandably flinching at the sight of the nudists- something they had gotten used to at this stage. He was visibly uncomfortable, trying to avoid looking at them.
“We’re not interested in whatever you’re selling.”
“We’re not selling anything!” Eiko said.
“I assure you our nudity is wholly unrelated to our visit. You two are Mr. and Mrs. Amamiya, correct? We’re here to talk about your son, Ren.”
The woman covered her mouth in shock again.
“Oh dear, what’s he done this time?”
“He hasn’t done anything, well, kinda? He um…” Eiko was beginning to flounder, so Makoto stepped in.
“I happen to be the student council president at Shujin High, the school your son has been attending over the past year. I’m here conducting research on the initial incident that led to his probation, and I was hoping I could ask you some questions?”
The parents remained silent a while, the wife looking to her husband for guidance, while he stood in contemplation, still refusing to look directly at the nudists, instead keeping them in his peripheral. Eventually, he broke the silence with a heavy sigh.
“I’m Tsuyoshi Amamiya, this is my wife Youko, and yes- we are Ren Amamiya’s parents.” He stepped aside, gently guiding his wife with him. “Please, come inside, we don’t want the neighbours starting rumors.”
“Understandable.” Eiko nervously laughed as she stepped inside, taking a moment to wipe off her feet with wet wipes from her bag. “I don’t wanna drag dirt into the house, right? Heh…”
The nudists entered the home while Tsuyoshi closed the door behind them. Finding themselves in the living room they took in their surroundings; it was just as nice looking inside as it was out. Cream walls, a painting of some mountains hanging on the wall, a couple plants, nothing really remarkable, but certainly neat and tidy, ‘respectable’ was the word coming to the forefront of their minds. Makoto was starting to think she should have brought some kind of gift on the way here so she didn’t seem rude.
“Would either of you girls like some tea?” Youko smiled at them, seeming to get over the shock of their nudity surprisingly quickly.
“Oh, please don’t feel the need to trouble yourself.”
“Oh it’s no trouble. Me and Tsuyoshi-chan were just about to have some ourselves. I won’t be long.”
She shuffled off to the kitchen cheerfully enough. Tsuyoshi didn’t say anything, he sat down cross-legged at the table in the centre of the room, and gestured to the girls to take their places at the opposite end. Makoto gently bowed, and the two knelt down besides one-another.
“Thank you for seeing us, Amamiya-san.”
He exhaled, he still didn’t seem comfortable with the two of them, but managed to at least sometimes make eye contact at least. Makoto couldn’t help but sympathize with him; she could tell he was trying to be polite, but clearly just wasn’t used to the nudity.
“So, how do you know my son?”
A perfectly reasonable question, yet Makoto already felt like she was being called out, having to be very careful with her words to avoid setting off this bomb she was sitting on.
“We’re just friends.” Makoto never enjoyed saying that, but revealing their relationship would only complicate things when their focused needed to be elsewhere. She was sure Ren would understand if he was here. “As I said I’m the current student council president, and Ren has been incredibly supportive and helpful throughout the year.”
“He’s helped me out too!” Eiko was eager to add. “He and Nudie Pre—ah, sorry; he and Makoto here have been helping me out, really helping me get my life on track and… stuff.”
“Hmm.” Tsuyoshi was stone faced and difficult to read, at least now that the awkwardness was slowly beginning to fade. “I’m sure you’re aware of why he moved to Tokyo in the first place?”
Makoto nodded.
“It was part of his probation. After he was charged with assault.”
“Unfortunately so.” He shook his head. “He went and got himself in a fight.”
“We’re also aware that the charges were false.”
He raised an eyebrow, curious- with a slight hint of accusation.
“And how did you become aware of this? Is that what he told you?”
This man certainly carried a presence, but Makoto wouldn’t be so easily intimidated.
“Not only that, the true culprit- Masayoshi Shido- has been undergoing questioning under prosecutor Sae Niijima, my sister, and confessed to assaulting a woman that night, then threatening her to shift the blame to Ren. Ren was simply trying to defend that woman.”
“That so?”
Eiko tilted her head in confusion.
“I mean, did you not know that already? I figured he would have told you.”
“Oh he did.”
“And what, you didn’t believe him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“So what then? Why did—”
“Eiko-san.”
Eiko found herself leaning forward with both hands on the table, she looked back to see Makoto remaining calm and collected.
“S-sorry.” She sat back down, then mumbled to herself. “I’m not very good at this…”
“I apologize Amamiya-san, please continue.”
“Mm.” Tsuyoshi folded his arms and stared up at the ceiling. “He did tell me his side of the story of course, and if I’m honest- I was torn on whether to believe him.”
“…I see…”
“I’d like to believe what you’re saying, and I won’t deny the possibility outright, but the police report was very detailed and compelling. And… though this brings me great shame to say- he’s always been a troubled boy.”
Makoto’s brow dropped.
“Troubled?”
“The boy always had difficulty endearing himself to his peers, forming connections with them. We attempted to push him to form more of a connection with his community, but our attempts were sadly unsuccessful.”
“Trouble forming connections?” Makoto’s brow furrowed. “To be plain with you Sir, I—”
“GOODNESS!”
The nudists both jumped at the sudden cry from the doorway, they turned to see Youko holding a tray with three mugs of green tea, tea that was threatening to spill as she shook, staring at the girls with a horrified look on her face.
“Dear, why are these naked girls in our home?! Did you bring them here?”
“Huh?” Makoto was confused. “Amamiya-san, are you okay?”
Tsuyoshi calmly raised his hand to gently silence Makoto, remaining collected as he addressed his wife.
“It’s okay Youko, these are just girls from Ren’s school.”
“But why are they naked?”
“It’s just a lifestyle thing they’re doing in Tokyo.”
“Goodness…” Youko seemed calmer, but no less bewildered than before.
“Come and sit down Youko.”
“Hm? Okay then.” She- still not fully comfortable- made her way over to them and lowered the tea tray down onto the table before kneeling down beside her husband. “Oh- you say you’re friends with Ren-kun?”
“U-um… yes, that’s correct.”
“Ah, I see!” She turned towards the stairs. “REN-KUN! YOU HAVE GUESTS! DON’T BE RUDE!”
“No Youko—” Tsuyoshi put his arm around his wife. “Ren went to stay in Tokyo, remember?”
“Hm?” She tilted her head, before realization struck. “Oh yes that’s right! Gosh, how silly of me.” She smiled at the girls apologetically. “I’m sorry, girls.”
Tsuyoshi side-eyed the nudists.
“Take the tea.”
It was an order, a very gentle one, but an order nonetheless. Both girls obediently took a mug each; the man’s expectant gaze both suggesting they take a sip, which they reluctantly did so.
“Ahh…” Makoto exhaled; in spite of everything else, the tea really did help calm her nerves. “This is lovely. Thank you Ma’am.”
Youko nodded, happily enough, before looking down at the one remaining mug.
“Oh dear, there’s not enough for you.”
He gently shook his head.
“It’s fine Youko, I had one just before these girls arrived, remember?”
She stared blankly for a while.
“Oh, right…”
“Enjoy your tea Youko.”
“Mm, yes Dear.”
He turned back to address the nudists.
“I’m sorry about that. Please continue.”
“R…right.” Makoto cleared her throat, trying to shake off what just happened. “I was just saying it’s strange to hear about Ren having ‘difficulty forming connections’; since he came to Tokyo it seems like that’s all he’s done.”
“For real.” Eiko nodded. “I thought I was the social type, but Ren’s been forming connections all over the city, always helping people out. People seem to love ‘im.”
“Interesting…” Tsuyoshi pondered. “Then perhaps this might work out after all.”
“Sir?”
“Then again, perhaps not…”
“Amamiya-san—”
“The goal with him moving to Tokyo was to ‘set him straight’, so to speak. The assault incident came as a shock, but in hindsight- given his difficulties I’ve come to realize an incident would occur sooner or later.”
Makoto’s gaze narrowed.
“What do you mean by that?”
He refolded his arms.
“If one cannot fit into a community, then it is inevitable that friction will be created. Eventually that friction creates sparks, and eventually sparks may cause a fire. Frankly whether he was innocent that night is largely irrelevant. His choice to get involved sparked a flame that burnt the few bridges he had with his peers, which aren’t so easily repaired.”
“So you simply had him sent away to Tokyo of all places?”
“Carrying out his probation here would be ill-advised. The effects of the friction he caused were already still in effect, it wouldn’t take much for another flame to start.”
“Ren-kun got into trouble…” Youko sighed. “We’d hope the scare would give him the motivation he needed to behave and get involved.” She smiled hopefully at the nudists. “Is he contributing over in the big city?”
Makoto paused a moment, before nodding decisively.
“Yes. Few people give more to those around them than Ren-kun.”
“That’s reassuring.” Youko began to stand up. “Would either of you girls like some tea?”
“U-um…” Makoto gently gestured towards the mugs on the table in front of them. “We already have some?”
“Oh?” She sat back down. “My, how handy.”
Tsuyoshi continued as if nothing had happened.
“You say he’s been contributing, and once again I’d like to believe you. But if that’s the case, why is he currently in juvie right now?”
“Ren-kun’s in Juvie?” Youko’s eyes went wide.
“It happened over Christmas, remember?”
She stared at her husband blankly.
“Just over two months ago.”
She kept staring a while.
“O-oh right! Of course!” The look on her face made it clear she didn’t remember at all, perhaps even now. She turned towards the girls. “Sorry about that. Would either of you girls like some tea?”
“We… we already ha—”
“I think that’s a good idea Dear.” Tsuyoshi interrupted them. “It’s only proper hospitality to treat guests to tea.”
“That’s just what I was thinking. I’ll fetch it right away.” She brought her hands together happily, politely bowing to the girls before excusing herself.
“Yo, Nudie Prez.” Eiko leaned over and whispered. “Do you think she’s… y’know? Got some ‘early onset’ thing?”
“Eiko!” Makoto hissed back. “You can’t just say that.”
“You’re right, she certainly can’t.” Tsuyoshi’s stern and forceful voice froze both girls solid, who were both feeling rather foolish expecting their whispering to go unnoticed. “I’m willing to discuss Ren with you because of your apparent position of authority at the school you both attended, but anything else regarding our family is none of your business, is that clear?”
“Y-yes Sir. Sorry Sir.” Eiko shrunk in on herself.
He turned his glare back on Makoto, who only faltered slightly under his gaze. For a man who could barely look at them when they first arrived, he had quickly gained the confidence to establish an air of authority. Still, she held her ground firmly.
“I understand he violated his probation, under multiple charges, they even used the word ‘thievery’ multiple times. Meaning that his trouble-making tendencies have only gotten worse, shamefully.”
“Those are false accusations, Sir. Once again because of Masayoshi Shido, trying to get him to take the fall for the sake of getting away with his own crimes.”
Eiko was impressed Makoto was able to remain so collected and calm at a time like this, at least until she looked down and saw her tightly digging her nails into her wrist. She was struggling to hold back her emotions. Eiko resolved to follow her example.
“So he can’t help but get involved?” Tsuyoshi shook his head. “So he’s learned nothing?”
“With respect, what would you have him do? Simply stand by while injustice is done?”
“That’s a fancy way of saying ‘get involved in other people’s business’. I had hoped that probation- even if it wouldn’t teach him to endear himself to society- would at least teach him the value of keeping his head down. It’s not just himself he brings shame and scorn upon when he rushes forward without thinking.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Still, I will not give up on him so easily. Juvie is regrettable, but if that’s what it takes for him to learn his lesson, then so be it. We can work on restoring our family’s name once he’s served his sentence.”
“But you…” Makoto trailed off. “I see… I can see we’re not going to get what we were hoping for here.”
“Makoto…” Eiko watched as Makoto stood up, securing her bag over her shoulder, and scrambled to follow suit.
Makoto stared down at the head of the Amamiya household.
“We are currently heading a campaign to prove your son’s innocence; we’ve already gathered a great deal of public support- thanks to his great ability to ‘endear himself to the community’. I promise you, I won’t rest until he’s free, and when that day comes, I believe it’ll be worth us having words once more.”
He stared up at her silently, his authoritative expression not faltering. He rose from his seat.
“I’ll show you two the door.”
With an oppressive, uncomfortable silence hanging over them the three made their way to the front door, and the nudists stepped outside.
Makoto turned around and bowed.
“Thank you for having us, we look forward to bringing you the good news.”
He didn’t say anything, and simply closed the door.
“Fucking prick.”
“Nudie Prez…”
Makoto took a breath.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t be saying things like that. It’s just… how can we be leaving here with nothing? I really thought this would be the once place we’d get support.”
“Yeah… They were really just…” Eiko shook her head. “Still, we at least got to speak to that cop, and we should be hearing back from them today. That was our most important lead anyway.”
Makoto smiled at her weakly.
“True. There’s still hope.”
“Right!” Eiko pulled out her phone. “Speaking of which…”
“Hm?”
Eiko grabbed Makoto’s wrist, and began pulling her along.
“C’mon Nudie Prez, we better get going.”
“Where?”
“Trust me on this one…”
~ ~ ~
Eiko was really committed to not telling Makoto what was happening until they arrived, despite the rather long walk to their destination.
They arrived at a separate residential street, in front of an unfamiliar house. Eiko had rung the doorbell, and a few anxious moments later the door swung open.
“Aha! You’re here.”
Makoto recognized this woman, particularly due to their matching dress sense.
“Y-you must be Reset, right?”
“Risette, Nudie Prez.”
“Sorry…”
She chuckled.
“Don’t worry, you can just call me ‘Rise’, we’re nudist-comrades-in-arms now. I recognise you both from all the pictures, you must be ‘Buchilover98’?”
“It’s embarrassing when you call me that out loud.” Eiko fiddle with her sidetail. “Just call me Eiko.”
“Nice to finally meet you Eiko-chan! And I’m guessing ‘Nudie Prez’ is the famous Makoto Niijima?”
Makoto blushed slightly, it felt weird for a successful idol to be calling her famous; it was easy to forget just how widespread her once-upon-a-time “private” parts had gotten. Despite the mild tingle that thought gave her, she made sure to stay focused in the here and now.
“Yes, I am Makoto Niijima, the first Shujin Nudist.”
“AH- she said the line!” Rise laughed. “For an amateur you were pretty good in front of the camera, at least until they got invasive like that.”
“Eheh…” Makoto blushed.
“Still, it’s chilly out, get inside, everyone’s here already.”
“Everyone?” Makoto stepped inside, taken aback by the veritable sea of exposed skin in the rather crowded home.
“’Sup Makoto-chan!” Mieko was the first to greet her, but certainly not the last. Not only were Eiko’s friends here, but even the Kosei nudists were inexplicably gathered here.
“Uh, hey?” Makoto turned to Eiko. “Do you know what’s going on here?”
She grinned back at her.
“I arranged it yesterday while we were on the train ride over here. Figured that A) we could maybe use some help, and B) it’s a great chance to celebrate bringing the famous Risette into the fold!” She suddenly pouted a little. “I wanted all the nudists here, but Miss Kawakami is busy getting Miss Chouno and the rest of the teachers to do their part in campaigning to free Renjamin, and that Futaba girl still won’t return my calls.”
“She’s no doubt very busy…” Makoto didn’t mention how much Futaba would probably hate being trapped in a room with a bunch of extroverts far away from her computer. “Still, getting everyone here on such short notice, especially with everything going on.”
Hifumi had gotten out of her seat to join the girls near the entrance.
“Me and Kitagawa-san have been trying to drum up support in Kosei, but things haven’t been going well on that front. No one knows who he is of course, and we’re actually not the most popular among our peers; I’m still ‘disgraced’, as it were, and…” She quickly glanced back at the four nudist artists lining the couch. “…People don’t really talk to Kitagawa-san… Actually, the artists in general aren’t the most approachable bunch.”
“I know what you mean.” Makoto guiltily whispered back.
“When Eiko invited us here, we figured we had a better chance of helping here in Inaba rather than continuing to struggle for the tiny scraps of support we might get from Kosei.”
“You’re probably right.” Eiko grinned over at Yusuke and the Kosei crew. “Thanks for comin’ out all this way! We owe you guys.”
“You owe me nothing Takao-san.” Yusuke gently waved his hand. “I am here to do my part in saving a much beloved friend and comrade. Knowing I was able to contribute- however little- to our eventual success is all the reward I could ever need.”
“Ehh…” Kameko sighed. “I mean I’m not gonna sit here and pretend the rest of us have this all-important emotional connection to this boy we’ve met like- three or four times…”
“But we have no intention of standing by and allowing injustice to reign unchecked.” Norio folded his arms, nodding proudly, sagely, and- to be honest- a little pretentiously. “On my pride- and the pride of Kosei- I promise you: you have our support.”
“Damn it Miyake-san!” Kameko leapt from her seat to yell at her fellow artist. “I was about to say that! You let me say the selfish-sounding part and just swoop in to steal the supportive line to make yourself look good? You prick!”
“N-now now, there’s no need to fight, we’re all here for the same thing.” Hifumi tried to soothe the pair, taking no pleasure from the crew’s perfect demonstration of their ‘lack of approachability’.
“Speaking of which…” Aya spoke up, being sat cross-legged by the table in the centre of the room. “What exactly are we all gonna do while we’re here? Just wander around town using the power of titties to get signatures?”
“That’ll be part of it.” Eiko answered. “But it’s mostly about trying to get information. This town’s not huge but sure at least a few people knew Ren well enough to give us something, or maybe someone saw the event but never came forward since they were scared of Shido? Anything like that really.”
“On that note…” Rise lent in. “Chie-chan told me to tell you two that she thinks she and Dojima-san are onto something.”
Makoto tilted her head.
“Dojima-san?”
“A police detective from round here, and one of my in-laws.” Rise couldn’t help but giggle and sway her hips as she tacked on that little detail. “But yeah, they said they’d talk to you later about it. Chie’ll be round here in a bit, she’ll probably tell you more then.”
A hopeful smile spread across Makoto’s face.
“That sounds great! Do you know when she said she’ll get here?”
“Not sure, could be an hour, could be three?” Rise smirked. “In the meantime, I was thinking we could use this time to all get to know eachother?”
“Hm?”
“I mean that is the other reason all the nudists are gathered here after all. My hubby bought us a bunch of snacks and drinks so we can make it into a party!”
Makoto’s brow furrowed, uncertain.
“I mean that’s nice and all, and I don’t want to be rude, but I was thinking about maybe using the downtime to question some more people.”
“C’mon Nudie Prez.” Eiko took ahold of Makoto’s shoulders. “We’ve been interviewing people literally all day.”
“But—”
“I’m not using that as an excuse to get lazy, but let’s be real- aside from the home address we’ve gotten literally nothing worthwhile from anyone we questioned. I think spending an hour or so waiting for the cop chick to get back with something actually helpful is better than just hoping we get lucky catching a witness on their way back home from staying late at the office or whatever.”
“I suppose…” Makoto deflated slightly. “It is later on in the day than I thought.”
“Don’t worry Makoto-san!” Hifumi pumped her fists. “With or without new intel, we’ll be giving it our all all day tomorrow!”
“You girls should have some more pull when I’m with you anyway.” Rise rested her hands proudly on her hips. “Believe it or not, I have some experience with investigations like these.”
Makoto politely bowed to the idol.
“Very well, I’ll be counting on your support Miss Reset.”
“Risette, Nudie Prez.”
“Sorry, Miss Risette.”
“No ‘Miss’.”
“Hm?”
“Mrs…?”
“…Mrs. Risette?”
“Narukami.”
“Ah. I’m so sorry. I’ll be counting on your support Mrs. Narukami.”
“Just ‘Rise’s fine.”
“Then why did you—nevermind. Thank you Rise-san.”
“You’re good, Miss ‘Nudie Prez’.”
Rise chuckled as she made her way over to the fridge. She opened it up and bent over to get a good view at the haul inside- a wholly unnecessary action- let alone making such an effort to stick her butt out quite that much as she did so. Both Eiko and Makoto took it as an indicator of some natural exhibitionistic tendencies… a good trait to have as a nudist.
“Don’t worry, all the drinks are non-alcoholic.” She grabbed a bottle and put it on the counter. “Except that one, that’s just for me and the other adults.”
Makoto’s expression turned rather worried.
“You’re going to be drinking?”
“I’m not gonna get drunk if that’s what you’re worried about.” Rise paused, before smiling at the girl, raising her hand with her thumb and forefinger almost touching. “Only a little, itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bit tipsy.”
Eiko snorted.
“Smash-cut to her laying on the floor, drooling, blind-drunk.”
Rise rolled her eyes.
“You have such a cynical mind, have a little faith in me, yeah?”
~ ~ ~
The investigation to uncover potential corruption within Inaba’s police department had taken up most of Detective Dojima’s night, getting back long after his daughter had fallen asleep, and leaving again the moment after he saw her off to school for the day. It was paying off though, or at least they were getting close, finally having some names related to the false arrest incident nearly a year ago.
He had sent officer Chie Satonaka away a few hours ago to both deliver the news to their Tokyo visitors, and more importantly- get the contact details of Sae Niijima to pass the intel along to her for the Shido case.
He had only left the office to use the bathroom, but on the way back he noticed a familiar face in the waiting room, two faces actually: Rise Narukami- formerly Kujikawa- was sat with her hands in her lap, and a very visible red mark on her left cheek; and next to her- looking very guilty- was…
“Detective Shirogane?”
Naoto Shirogane hadn’t noticed him until now, and leapt up to stand at attention.
“Detective Dojima-san!” She cleared her throat, trying to recompose herself. “S-Sir.”
Dojima’s eyes drifted to the bruised idol, then back to his fellow detective.
“Did something happen to you two?”
“W-well, um…”
“Sir.” One of Dojima’s colleges approached from the side, holding a folder. “I have the transcript ready.”
“Transcript?”
“Chie-san was there when it happened…” Naoto answered for him, not quite making eye contact. “Apparently her bodycam was on and recording at the time, I assume this gentleman is talking about the transcript from that footage?”
“Ugh…” Dojima groaned, rubbing his eyes. He already had enough on his plate without dealing with whatever this was, but he never was able to just ‘walk away’ from work. “Give it here, let’s make this quick.”
Naoto sat back down, mumbling another quiet apology, though whether it was to Dojima or the still-silent idol beside her was unclear.
“The relevant section starts about here, Sir.”
“Yeah yeah…”
~ ~ ~
[Officer Chie Satonaka re-enters the main living space of the Narukami household. Questioning of subjects Makoto Niijima and Eiko Takao has concluded.]
[Room’s current occupants: Rise Kujikawa (Victim, registered nudist, host), Yukiko Amagi, ten (10) registered nudists (2 male, 8 female, see appendices for details of individuals) aged 17-18.]
Transcribers note: Extra copy of this footage has been saved and logged as “long-term evidence”.
[A knock is heard at front door to the property. Rise Narukami halts her hosting duties and answers the door.]
Rise Narukami: “Nao-chan! I thought you weren’t free until tomorrow?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I’m not. I’m afraid this isn’t a social visit. I need to speak to Yu.”
Rise Narukami: “Ah ‘kay ‘kay, come in.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Thank you.”
[Rise Narukami steps aside and allows detective Naoto Shirogane to enter the household.]
Rise Narukami: “Gosh, it’s been a while Nao-chan, I know I’m one to talk but you really travel a lot, huh?”
Naoto Shirogane: “Please don’t call me ‘Nao-chan’, it’s way too… ‘cutesy’ for me.”
Rise Narukami: “Aww, but I think ‘cute’ suits you.”
Naoto Shirogane: “I suppose I should take that as a compliment?”
Rise Narukami: “You should. But fine- I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, I’ll stick to ‘Naoto-kun’.”
Naoto Shirogane: “I suppose I’m more used to that, from you at least. Speaking of ‘comfortable’, it certainly looks like you and… everyone else here are pretty ‘comfortable’…”
Rise Narukami: “Me and all those nudists from Tokyo are having a party!”
Naoto Shirogane: “I can see that…”
Rise Narukami: “You ever think of joining the program yourself?”
Naoto Shirogane: “Absolutely not.”
Rise Narukami: “Aww, but you’d look so gorgeous and cute. It’s a shame you don’t show off a little more sometimes, y’know?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I’ll pass. I’ve long since stopped hiding the fact that I’m a woman, but I don’t want to broadcast it to quite that degree either.”
Rise Narukami: “Fair enough, whatever makes you happiest. But if you do change your mind then give me a call, yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “That won’t happen. But don’t worry, I’ll try to remain professional around your… lifestyle choice.”
Rise Narukami: “Aww, you look so cute, getting flustered by all the naked people.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Whatever. At least Chie-san and Yukiko-san are still clothed.”
Yukiko Amagi: “Y… y-y’know, hehe… once you get used to it, having all the nekkid people around is pretty uh… pretty sweet…”
Naoto Shirogane: “…Yukiko-san, are you drunk? Good god you’re serving alcohol here?!”
Chie Satonaka: “Don’t worry, only Rise and Yukiko have been drinking, the teenagers are only drinking soft drinks- I made sure to check.”
Naoto Shirogane: “I see… And you’re still sober yourself?”
Chie Satonaka: “’Fraid so. Someone’s gotta keep order in here, unfortunately it has to be me.”
Naoto Shirogane: “My condolences.”
Chie Satonaka: “Eh, I need to drive Yukiko-chan home later anyway, it’s no biggie.”
Yukiko Amagi: “Oh to hell with it, I’m suh-sick of being left out!”
[Yukiko Amagi grabs the hem of her shirt and begins lifting it off herself. Officer Chie Satonaka forcefully stops her and holds her wrists in place.]
Yukiko Amagi: “Aww c’mon Chie-chan, lemme do the thing!”
Chie Satonaka: “I’m doing this for your own good Yukiko. I’m trying to save you from doing something that you’ll regret.”
Yukiko Amagi: “I’m not gonna regret it, c’mon you strip too! The nudists know how to have fun!”
Chie Satonaka: “Seriously, you’ll remember this while hungover tomorrow morning and feel like dying from humiliation, I’m trying to save you from that!”
Yukiko Amagi: “Oh poo, you’re no fun…”
[Yukiko Amagi relents. Officer Chie Satonaka releases her arms, but remains in close proximity.]
Naoto Shirogane: “…Anyway- I shouldn’t stay too long. I just need to speak to Yu.”
Rise Narukami: “Sure.”
Naoto Shirogane: “…”
Rise Narukami: “…Well?”
Naoto Shirogane: “Well what?”
Rise Narukami: “You wanted to speak?”
Naoto Shirogane: “Oh? Oh. I see. I wanted to speak to Yu.”
Rise Narukami: “To me?”
Naoto Shirogane: “No.”
Kameko No: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “What?”
Kameko No: “You wanted something?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I don’t understand?”
Rise Narukami: “Oh sorry. Naoto-kun, this is one of my new nudist friends, Kameko No.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Oh now I get it. Sorry No-san. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Naoto Shirogane, private detective.”
Rise Narukami: “Naoto-kun lives for the moments when she can walk into a room and say that.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Please stop trying to embarrass me.”
Rise Narukami: “Anyway that’s Kameko. Over there is Mai Toda, Norio Miyake, Ai Toranosuke…”
Naoto Shirogane: “I don’t want to be rude, but I really don’t have time to meet everyone here. I just need to speak to Yu.”
Rise Narukami: “Me?”
Naoto Shirogane: “No.”
Kameko No: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “No.”
Kameko No: “…Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “…Please excuse me, you’re not the one I’m here for.”
Kameko No: “I see…?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I’m here to speak to Yu Narukami.”
Rise Narukami: “Yeah, she’s here to speak to me.”
Naoto Shirogane: “I’m here to speak to Yu Narukami.”
Rise Narukami: “…Yeah? Me: Narukami.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Oh my…”
Mai Toda: “Oh she’s here for me?”
Naoto Shirogane: “No.”
Kameko No: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I’m JUST here for Yu.”
Kameko No: “Why? What did I do?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I mean- I’m here for Narukami.”
Rise Narukami: “Yeah, she’s just here for me.”
Naoto Shirogane: “YU Narukami.”
Rise Narukami: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “Good lord… Yu Narukami-san.”
Rise Narukami: “Come on Naoto-kun, we’ve known eachother too long to be so formal, you can drop the ‘-san’.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Give me strength…”
Rise Narukami: “I don’t mind if you drop honorifics altogether, we’re friends after all.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Are we?”
Rise Narukami: “Of course we are.”
Naoto Shirogane: “Because this conversation is giving me second thoughts about you and I.”
Ai Toranosuke: “About her and me?”
Naoto Shirogane: “No.”
Kameko No: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I didn’t… ugh…”
Rise Narukami: “Wait, is this about the alcohol after all?”
Naoto Shirogane: “NO!”
Kameko No: “Ye—”
Naoto Shirogane: “SHUT UP!”
Rise Narukami: “Oh wait, god- listen to us, I’m being so dumb right now. I get it.”
Ai Toranosuke: “Sure, here you go Rise-chan.”
Rise Narukami: “Thanks Ai-chan. See Naoto-kun, I’m going to put the alcohol away so there’s no chance of the teenagers drinking it.
Naoto Shirogane: “Ugh….”
Rise Narukami: “So anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?”
Naoto Shirogane: “…”
Rise Narukami: “…Naoto-kun?”
Naoto Shirogane: “Rise?”
Rise Narukami: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I want to speak to YU. NARUKAMI.”
Rise Narukami: “…I mean I’m right here so…?”
Naoto Shirogane: “I WANT TO SPEAK TO YU NARUKAMI!”
Rise Narukami: “You want to speak to—”
Naoto Shirogane: “NOW!!”
Rise Narukami: “I thought you were Nao?”
Naoto Shirogane: “ NO!!”
Kameko No: “Yeah?”
Naoto Shirogane: “JESUS CHRIST!”
Rise Narukami: “I don’t think he’s here right now.”
Naoto Shirogane: [screaming]
[Detective Naoto Shirogane swings at Rise Narukami, striking her upon her left cheek.]
[Rise Narukami falls to the ground. Guests present react with shock and recoil into stunned silence. Detective Naoto Shirogane seems to come to her senses, and reacts with even greater shock at what she had just done.]
[Footsteps can be heard coming down the stairs.]
Yu Narukami: “Did someone call for me?”
Chie Satonaka: [Heavy sigh.]
Chie Satonaka: “No…”
Kameko No: “Yeah?”
Chie Satonaka: “I’m sorry, but could you please explain what just happened to Yu?”
Kameko No: “Sure, you don’t have to tell me twice.”
~ ~ ~
Dojima looked up from the transcript, his face the very definition of ‘done’.
“I’m not gonna press charges or anything.” Rise smiled weakly. “It was all just a silly mix up, I understand now.”
Somehow that just made Naoto feel more guilty.
“Still, it wasn’t right for me to take a swing at you. It’s not like me. Just, things have been really stressful lately… not that that’s any sort of excuse.”
“I’m not gonna hold or a grudge or anything. You didn’t have to drive us all the way here Naoto-kun.”
Dojima stared up at the ceiling, shoving the transcript into his colleague’s chest, before sighing and looking down at the two woman.
“Rise, Naoto.”
“Hm?”
“Go home.”
“Sounds good to me. C’mon Naoto-kun.”
“But I—”
“She doesn’t want to press charges, and I’ve got more important things to focus on right now.”
“But surely I should get charged with assault, or something?”
“Consider this being let off on a warning for a first offence. Now go home.”
Dojima walked off without another word, entering his office and closing the door behind him, ignoring Naoto as she weakly protested, before she slumped in her seat.
Rise stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
“C’mon, I can’t drive home myself, I’ve been drinking.”
“You’re really not mad at me?”
“Eh we’ll get over it. I get why you were mad, it’s something we’ll all be talking about and having a laugh together in like- a week or two, tops.”
“I certainly hope not…”
“You pack a mean swing though, ‘specially for a girl even smaller than me; have you been working out?”
“Please stop…”
“Sorry. Oh but…”
“Yeah?”
“Why didn’t you just say something like ‘I want to speak to your husband’?”
“There’s a good reason for that.”
“Oh really?”
“Hm. Yes.”
“And that is…?”
“I literally didn’t think of it.”
“Fair enough.”
Notes:
I've been sitting on that routine for over a year, waiting to get to this part in the story.
And don't worry, I was caught off guard by the mother thing too, didn't expect things to go that way, but ideas sometimes just come to me and that's how it played out. (My writing is all about mood whiplash, and it ain't even deliberate)
Chapter 102: A victim no more
Summary:
A chance to change things
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Ann, you don’t need to hold onto me the whole way.”
“I’m just making sure you’re safe Shiho. I can’t help but worry.”
“The doctor said light exercise will only help my recovery, and being trapped indoors is maddening after a while. A nice walk is just what I need.”
“I guess, just… don’t be afraid to lean on me if you need it.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not being entirely selfless when you say that?”
Shiho snickered at Ann as she grumbled, pouting away from her with her cheeks glowing red. It was still morning hours, late enough to avoid the morning rush so they could enjoy some outdoor air a while and maybe pick themselves up some lunch before it got too crowded.
They approached the main shopping district, looking for just such a meal. While Ann’s first choice would be something sweet and sugary (which- if she could get away with it- would be her choice for most meals), Shiho was craving steak skewers- which were a local specialty. Protein was especially important for an athlete such as herself, even if she still had a lot of rehab to go through before she was safe returning to the volleyball court, she didn’t want to use that as an excuse to start slacking in her diet.
Of course, Shiho’s desires won out, Ann couldn’t say ‘no’ to her even if she wanted to. While the full force of the lunchbreak crowds weren’t out just yet, there were still a fair number of people on the streets. Though as they passed the local Junes branch they noticed the crowds being notably thicker than one would expect this time of day, almost worryingly so. Shiho had found people were friendly around here, or at least most people kept to themselves and let her keep to herself; she generally felt safe around here, especially with Ann by her side, but the crowd was still making her a little uncomfortable.
“Should we go somewhere else, d’ya think?” Ann asked, Shiho’s discomfort not going unnoticed.
“Maybe… Though I wonder what these crowds are gathered here for; maybe there’s an event going on?” Shiho’s curiosity was outstripping her nerves. “Let’s take a quick look first.”
“Okay…” Ann tightened her grip on Shiho’s hand (much to the latter’s amusement) and they tried to keep out of everyone’s way and try to see if they could spot what was causing everyone to loiter around this area so much. Ann was the first to spot the cause- or rather causes- and sighed. “Ah, I should have known.”
“Hm? Ann what did you see? I—OH!”
Shiho’s eyes went wide, and her hand slammed over her own mouth. The relatively quiet town of Inaba was significantly less quiet now with about a dozen nudists in their late teens running around talking to everyone and anyone who would give them the time of day. As if happens, people were willing to give a lot of their time to hang around in the same area as the nudists- for entirely innocent reasons, I’m sure. While Tokyo certainly hadn’t gotten bored with the nudists, here in Inaba they were still very noteworthy, and a real showstopper to everyone lucky enough to stumble across them.
Shiho had only encountered nudists once before- during her brief return to Shujin- and while she recognized the bodies faces of a few of them here, most of them were new to her, and all of them were a shock; she hadn’t built up the resistance to the sheer volume of skin on display that her companion had.
The pair noticed most of them were carrying clipboards. The core strategy seemed to be grabbing the public’s attention with nudity, then pester them for signatures- no doubt to get Ren’s case re-examined. They were certainly succeeding with the “attention” part of the plan, though it was hard to tell at a glance how they were doing for signatures.
One of them noticed the pair, and began confidently striding towards them. Ann recognized her as Mai Toda; not by name of course, they had only briefly met during the Kosei culture festival, but Mai had a couple of very memorable and recognisable features, features which had caught Shiho’s undivided attention, her eyes tracking their every minute movement as she approached.
“You two! Can you rest comfortably knowing our world is plagued by injustice?”
“Come again? Oh, right.” Ann smiled. “This is for the petition for Ren, duh.”
“Ah… So you’re familiar with the pervert we’re trying to save?” Mai’s analytical (and maybe a little intimidating) eyes scanned Ann up and down. “Ah, you were part of their party during the culture festival. I suppose I need not explain anything to you, you’re already familiar with what we’re trying to achieve?”
“I thought so, can’t think of any other reason for all the nudists to show up here. I guess we may as well both sign our names anyway. But uh… ‘pervert’?”
Mai tutted.
“That man keeps staring with all manner of impure thoughts behind his eyes.”
Ann didn’t say anything aloud of course, but she both believed that was true, and thought that she couldn’t really blame him…
“Though even so, the great Niijima-sama insists she owes much to his support, so perhaps there is value hidden behind that perversion.”
Ann awkwardly forced a laugh.
“Regardless, any opportunity to undo injustice should be taken. And to be fair to him his lustful nature is no worse than any other man’s. I still much prefer interacting with women, they have much more innocence and purity behind their gazes.”
Ann turned to Shiho- whose gaze had never once actually met Mai’s face. There was a lot going on behind Shiho’s eyes, but ‘innocence’ and ‘purity’ were not included anywhere in that. After a nudge, she finally broke out of her daze.
“H-huh? What? O-oh, sorry, what are we collecting signatures for again?” Shiho asked as she watched Ann sign her name.
“Oh yeah, I meant to tell you about this. My friend Ren is in prison under false charges.”
“Ren… Ah, I remember him, he was there with us when I came back to Shujin that one day.”
“That’s him. He’s helped us all so much over the past year, so it’s our turn to help him.”
“I see…” Shiho held her chin in thought (even if her eyes remained decidedly fleshbound). “Prison, huh? Sounds really serious.”
“I promise I’ll catch you up when we get back to your place Shiho-chan.”
Shiho smiled warmly at her companion.
“I’d appreciate that, thank you, but I may as well sign my name now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Mm.” She nodded. “I don’t know him that well, or what’s going on exactly, but if this is something you believe in then that’s more than enough for me.”
“Excellent.” Mai took back her clipboard once both girls has signed it. “Know that our efforts will be one more cut into the flesh of the oppressive beast that wishes to suppress our freedom, individually, and power!”
“Mm, yes. That’s that thing you were talking about for you…” Shiho’s eyes were flicking from one naked body to the next. “So you’re more of those nudists?”
“Indeed.” Mai folded her arms, pushing up her breasts to make them even more prominent (a gesture Shiho was silently very grateful for). “The body is a work of art! To be forced to hide ourselves away purely to appease the prudish and controlling is nothing short of oppression! I joined the program alongside my fellow artists to escape such confinement.”
“It’s a program?”
“Did I not mention that part?” Ann tilted her head. “Huh. Yeah it’s this thing where you register yourself on this list and you just go around naked all the time.”
“I didn’t realize it was so… official.” Shiho stared wide-eyed. “That’s pretty crazy.”
“You’re not wrong there…” Ann let out a tired laugh. As she scanned the nudists wandering around, she noticed a conspicuous absence. “I would have thought Makoto would be with you all.”
“Not right now. Niijima-sama has a much more specific task for today…”
~ ~ ~
A gentle knock on the door, on the second floor of a discreet apartment building, in a quiet spot of the already quiet town. Makoto waited silently a while, listening for any movement at all from within. She was no expert on architecture, but the building seemed fairly well-maintained at a glance, even if it also seemed slightly cheap, so perhaps hoping for a creaky floor to make things easy for her was a bit much. She looked at the peephole, and she felt like she could sense an eye on her from within, but her instinct for that sort of thing had actually become less reliable since becoming a nudist, since she was used to having so many eyes on her literally all the time.
While the resident seemed relatively security conscious, what ended up giving them away was the muttering of “What on earth…” from just behind the door. Everyone in this town reacting to the nudist with shock was starting to get a little old, but on this occasion at least Makoto was grateful for it.
“This is the residence of Masa Nagai, correct?” She smiled politely at the unseen figure from behind the peephole, bowing her head just a tad. “My name is Makoto Niijima. Could I please speak with Nagai-san?”
She heard a faint sigh, before the door was unlocked, and the woman peered at her through the narrow opening. She eyed the nudist up and down.
“Is this some kind of dare?”
Makoto shook her head.
“No, please don’t worry about that, I’m from Tokyo and nudism is gaining a lot of popularity there.”
“Huh… I think I remember hearing about that on the news…”
“I apologise if I make you uncomfortable at all.”
“No, it’s fine. You have nothing I haven’t seen before, just… be careful, alright?”
“I will, thank you for your concern. You’re Masa Nagai, aren’t you?”
The woman watched her hesitantly, scrutinizing her eyes.
“Yes, what do you want?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I wish to discuss the incident you were involved in last year.”
Nagai grew tense.
“Incident?”
After a brief glance left and right to make sure no one else was listening in, Makoto answered in a lowered voice.
“When Shido threatened you to testify against a local boy in this town.”
The door was swiftly slammed in her face. Makoto stepped forwards, leaning against the door.
“Please Nagai-san.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do Miss…” She answered from within. “…But for your own safety you best drop it. You don’t know what kind of forces you’re meddling with.”
“But—”
“I don’t even work for him anymore, I was lucky to get out at all, I’m not about to risk myself and you for anything.”
“Masayoshi Shido is in custody.”
Silence returned a while, before the door was unlocked once more. Masa Nagai peering out from a gap even narrower than before.
“Explain.”
Makoto took a calming breath.
“I am the younger sister of Sae Niijima, the prosecutor in charge of his case. He publicly confessed to being behind the mental shutdown epidemic. You may have seen it mentioned on the news.”
“I’ve not really kept up with such news… It’s certainly not been mentioned on any of the shows I’ve been watching, though I haven’t been watching that much TV to begin with…”
Makoto sighed.
“He has connections in broadcasting who are complicit in his crimes, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re trying to suppress that story as much as possible, but their control is limited and it’s gaining more notoriety.”
“…Supposing what you say is true, what does this have to do with me? Yes I… used to work under him, and I do remember that night… doubt I’ll ever be able to forget it.” Her grip on the door tightened subtly, but enough for Makoto to notice. “But I’m low enough in his priorities that I was able to discreetly resign without him noticing. I just want to put all of that behind me and move on, start over. I’ve no interest in being dragged back into his reach- you can’t underestimate the power he has.”
“Believe me, we’re not.” Makoto smiled confidently. “I’m fully aware of the- frankly absurd- power he had. But I’m certain when I say his fall is already underway and inevitable. He- and his loyalists- are going to face justice.”
“Hmm… what do you need me for then?”
“I’d like you to testify, to tell the truth of what happened that night, it’s one more crime he has to answer for.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, and she stared accusingly into Makoto’s.
“I know when someone is hiding something from me, I know the signs, I was surrounded by them constantly in my old workplace.”
Makoto was rather taken aback, she wasn’t expecting this woman to be so observant, or maybe she was just more transparent than she realized.
“Everything I’ve said has been true, but I’ll admit, I have my own reason for needing your help.”
Nagai didn’t respond, just waited for Makoto to continue.
“The boy you testified against, his name is Ren Amamiya.”
“That was his name…”
“As a result of the charges he was sent to Tokyo on his probation. He and I… knew eachother.”
Nagai raised an eyebrow which Makoto tried to ignore.
“I can personally vouch for his impeccable behaviour during this period, and I’m far from the only witness. But due to his role in exposing Shido’s crimes, it was decided that he had violated said probation, and is currently in prison. With your testimony, I want to be able to overturn the original charges and have him set free.”
“I see…” The woman’s expression softened, and she finally opened the door fully to properly stand before Makoto. “I guess it is my fault he’s being punished to begin with…”
“Oh no, I don’t blame you at all Nagai-san. You were forced to falsely testify against him.”
She let out a weary sigh.
“Damn it… Crushing others to get ahead is an unavoidable part of the world of business and politics, we’ve all had to do away with our sense of guilt for such things to varying degrees… But I suppose it was never meant to be quite like that. That boy did try to save me… even if he wasn’t successful.”
“Shido… did he…?”
“Yes.”
“I’m… I’m so sorry.”
Nagai shook her head.
“You had nothing to do with it. If you’re telling the truth, then I can’t just leave it be if there really is a chance to set things right.”
“Thank yo—”
“That is IF you’re telling the truth.” She folded her arms. “If it’s all true, then I’m on board, but you must understand, if Shido finds me again- and realizes I’m plotting against him there’s no telling what will happen. I can hardly risk everything just on the word of a total stranger.”
Makoto sighed, smiling sympathetically.
“You’re absolutely right, no one can blame you for being cautious. I fully understand if my word isn’t enough, I’m hoping hearing the same from the police force will be more reassuring.”
Makoto turned around, Nagai followed her line of sight across the street, flinching at the sight of a female police officer- Chie Satonaka- casually waving at them with a smile on her face.
“You little…”
“Please don’t misunderstand.” Makoto bowed. “We’re all on the same side here, united against Shido and his loyalists. I simply asked if I could be the first to come forwards and speak to you. I figured you’d be less nervous around me than a woman in uniform.”
“No kidding.” She tutted at the girl, still feeling that she had somehow been tricked, but ultimately sighed in defeat. “I guess I can’t really run away now, huh?”
“I promise you there’s nothing to fear. They’ll be able to give you the full picture, then you’ll be put into contact with my sister for her case against Shido. We won’t force you to put yourself in danger, but you’ll realize that we really do have a chance to take him down with their help. Even the officers that were there that night have been identified and are being questioned as we speak.”
“What’s going to happen to them?”
“That very much depends on exactly how complicit they really were, I’m not sure.” Makoto sheepishly shrugged. “To be honest it’s not really my business. You had me right before- what I’m really after is setting Ren free.”
The woman weakly smiled at her, a look of resignation on her face.
“Fine, I guess a visit to the station can’t hurt… at least that’s what I’ll tell myself.”
“I can’t blame you for still being fearful, at least until you see that Shido’s power over the police force is well and truly in the past tense now.”
“I hope for both our sakes that you’re right.”
“I am.”
~ ~ ~
“Gosh, this Ren-kun really has been making quite the stir.”
“No kidding Shiho.” Ann laughed. “I’d say it’s a shame you weren’t around to get to know him better through the year, but it’s probably for the best. I can’t bear the thought of you getting involved with this whole Shido nightmare.”
“I guess that’s one silver lining of me coming here.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant, it’s just uh…”
Shiho giggled at Ann’s floundering.
“It’s okay, I know what you meant. Still, thank you for catching me up with everything.”
“Sure.” Ann had of course left out everything relating to the Metaverse and other supernatural elements to Shido and Ren’s case, she didn’t think it was worth shattering Shiho’s worldview quite that much; but felt it was only fair to keep her up to date apart from that exception.
“I kind of wish I could help more than just signing my name on the petition, but I suppose that’s more a job for Niijima-san…”
“Yeah…” Ann sighed. “We’re just drumming up public support really, they’re the ones doing the real work. We just have to hope our part gets them the attention they need.”
“I’ll have faith in them so long as you do.”
“Mm, I do.”
“Then it’ll probably be fine.”
Shiho’s warm smile went a long way towards making Ann feel much better. Something about this girl made Ann’s defences crumble away to nothing so much easier, but at the same time bringing her right back up with no effort whatsoever. She only wished she could visit more often…
“Oh, Ann?”
“Yeah?”
“I know it might be a bit… off to suddenly switch subjects like this, but all those nudists…” Shiho tilted her head, her mouth hanging agape slightly. “Are they even real?”
Ann laughed.
“It’s actually kind of a relief to see you react like a normal person.”
Shiho pouted.
“Everyone’s gotten so used to them in Tokyo, I sometimes think that I’m the only one to remember how crazy it all is.”
“No kidding…”
“N-not that I think it’s bad or anything! I’ll admit I’ve really grown to respect them, and I’m happy for them. It’s just weird to think that you really wouldn’t have to go far back at all for public nudity to be this HUGE scandal people definitely wouldn’t accept.”
“And yet here they are, just casually flaunting everything they have for everyone to see. It’s wild. Having THAT much confidence in your body? Letting people see them? I can’t imagine how they feel.”
“I’m with you there…” Ann leaned back, humming to herself while staring at the ceiling. “Y’know Shiho, there was actually this one time at Destiny Land where—Shiho?!”
Shiho’s shirt was now in her hands, and she used to partially hide her face as she peeked over at her friend.
“Please don’t shout.”
“S-sorry. But what are you doing?”
“Well I wanted an idea of how they must feel, I’m just a bit curious, is all…” She dropped her shirt onto her bed, standing up, but pausing as she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her skirt. “Y-you don’t mind, do you?”
“I uh…um…” Ann forced herself to stop stuttering (eventually) and responded. “I-it’s not that I mind, I’m just… are you really doing this Shiho?”
Much of Shiho’s own nerves began to fade away the more Ann floundered; it was as if the more flustered she became, the more confident and cocky Shiho found herself becoming.
“You’re reacting as if I was stripping off in public like them, I’m just getting naked in my own room- that’s fairly normal, isn’t it?”
“I… I guess?”
Shiho slid her skirt down her legs, dropping it on top of her shirt. She smirked at Ann as she began fiddling with her bra clasp.
“I don’t mind if it’s you looking…”
Ann was of two minds, it was like on her shoulders sat an angel and a—oh who are we kidding, the angel is nowhere to be seen because the devil won handily at the very first moment. She silently- but very eagerly- watched Shiho as she undressed.
She had caught glimpses in changing rooms and such, and even shared an onsen with her on a couple occasions, but that seemed so long ago at this point, and there was a much different context when being sat in her room with her. She thought she had become completely desensitized to female nudity after spending so much time around Makoto and co, but all that seemed to have vanished now that it was Shiho disrobing.
Her underwear joined the rest of her clothes, and she sat back down atop her bedsheets. Her hands resting either side of her, her legs together in a ladylike position, though leaving her bush notably in view, and she looked to Ann with a smug, confident smirk that would have been wholly convincing were her cheeks not glowing bright red.
“How do I look?”
“Hot… What? No- I mean- good. Not good but… no no- yes good! Very good, but not like, weird good just… um…”
Yes, that was exactly the amount of floundering Shiho was hoping for. Her smirk evolved into a wide grin.
“I think I’ll stay like this for the evening, if that’s okay.”
“Th-the whole evening?”
“Hmm…” She stood up. “Maybe the morning too, at least until my parents wake up.” Letting herself sway from side to side, she made her way over to the table in the centre of the room, kneeling down at Ann’s side, and smiling at her as she made sure to lean in just a little too close, taking immense pleasure in the nervous squeak Ann let slip as she did so. “So, what else have you been up to lately, hm?”
“I uh…”
“Anything on your mind? I’d love to hear it all~”
Notes:
As far as I'm aware, the woman Ren tried to save doesn't have a known canonical name, so "Masa Nagai" is as good a name as any.
Chapter 103: A much delayed victory
Summary:
The battle has ended
Notes:
Sorry for the delay, life kept life-ing at me.
I'd like to say the next chapter won't be so delayed, but I also thought that last time, so I can't afford to make any promises.By the way, the title isn't a reference to the fact the chapter was delayed, that's just a coincidence I noticed as I went to upload this
Chapter Text
“Nudie Prez!” Eiko called out, immediately she felt a little embarrassed about calling out to her friend so loudly moments after walking through the front door of Inaba's police station. This wasn’t really the place to be so casual, though realistically her fashion sense would have brought all these weird looks one way or the other- for what little comfort that brought.
Her arrival was well timed; Makoto had stepped back out into the main foyer mere moments prior, bowing to Detective Dojima- sympathizing with him a little as he tried not to look at her too much as he saw her off, eager to use ‘returning to work’ as an excuse to escape the awkwardness. She turned towards her friend who had just called to her.
“Eiko? You’re here already?”
“Figured I waited long enough, turns out I was more right than I realized.” Eiko made sure to speak with her ‘inside voice’. “I was gonna ask how it went, but I reckon I could take a pretty good guess from the look on your face.”
Makoto’s smile was one of quiet pride, serving as a thin veil for immense relief.
“Nagai-san, the woman Ren tried to defend, spoke with my sister over the phone, and she’s agreed to travel to Tokyo to re-testify against Shido, and more importantly- in favor of Ren’s innocence. She’ll be travelling separately from us though, more incognito, and with a plain-clothes police escort for her safety, just in case.”
“Makes sense… so… that’s a win, right?”
Makoto nodded, maintaining a calm exterior, though it didn’t take that close a look to see the excitement brewing below the surface.
“Yes, the single biggest hurdle in proving Ren’s innocence is now in our favor. How did things go with the petition?”
Eiko smugly flicked her side-tail.
“Thanks to the efforts of the nudist community, I’m confident we’ve pretty much milked this whole town dry.”
“Please don’t word it like that…”
“My B. It’s not like the whole town was on board, lots of people here were still distrustful of Ren. Honestly, we had more luck with the people who didn’t know him; I think more than a few people weren’t paying attention and just wanted to look good for all the naked ladies… or naked dudes in Kitagawa-kun and Miyake-kun’s cases.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised.” Makoto sighed, but the smile didn’t leave her face. “Still, the petition is actually the least important part of the whole movement; all we can really hope to get from it is attention. The attention will all be for nothing if we don’t make use of it.”
Eiko huffed.
“So at the end of the day it still all comes down to people with power being the ones who can actually do something?”
Makoto’s confidence wasn’t shaken.
“Information is power, as are allies. We’ve gained plenty of both with this trip, now I know my Sis has what she needs to do her part, and I have total faith in her.”
Eiko nodded.
“If you believe in her then so do I.” She pumped her fists, grinning. “Plus that’s just proof that you and I have chosen the right paths in life. If people need allies in positions of authority to actually DO shit, then us going into police and politics respectively means we can be those allies in the future.”
“Now you’re getting it. Regardless, it seems like we’re done here, we best pick up our things, find Ann, and head back to Tokyo.”
“Man… it’s kinda lame we didn’t actually get to enjoy Inaba that much.”
“I told you this wasn’t a pleasure trip.” Makoto smiled. “Next time will be, and we’ll have Ren by our side.”
“By your side you mean, I feel I better let you two lovebirds enjoy the vacation by yourself… unless you want me to bring Fumi-chan for some more swingin’ action.”
“Keep your voice down!” Makoto hissed, desperately hoping no one heard her. “This is not the place to broadcast that kind of thing!”
“My B, Nudie Prez… You didn’t say ‘no’ though~”
“You two can come here separately from us, but nevermind that, let’s go home.”
“’Kay.”
Makoto walked right past her friend, towards the exit, only to be stopped by an officer rushing inside just as she was about to reach the door. He was escorting a woman who- rather worryingly- seemed to be wearing nothing but a large blanket wrapped around her; though one look at her made it clear it wasn’t her state of dress that had her in such a bad mood.
“You see!” She said to the officer as she pointed to the nudists. “You’re not giving them any grief about it, why the hell am I the problem?”
The officer definitely seemed more frustrated than sympathetic.
“As we’ve explained Ma’am, they’re registered nudists.”
“So am I! I filled out the form online and everything!” She looked at the nudists again, her expression suddenly brightening. “Hey, I know you two!”
Makoto furrowed her brow, staring in thought for a moment before remembering:
“We met the day before yesterday, didn’t we? Shiomi-san, was it?”
“So I made an impression after all? Kick-ass. Speaking of impressions…” Kotone stood proudly, with her hands on her hips, the heavy blanket just barely hanging onto her shoulders but doing nothing to hide her naked lower half. “…I’ve become the newest nudist!”
“Correct.” Her companion- Aigis- had gone unnoticed thus far, seemingly appearing out of nowhere (turns out having a naked woman dragged inside while loudly complaining is distracting, go figure). “Kotone-san is so new that her registration hasn’t even been completed yet.”
“Not you too Aigis…” Kotone’s shoulders dropped. “I filled out the whole form and submitted it. I didn’t even use a fake name or social security number this time!”
“Now that the program is no longer bound to specific schools, there’s a need to run background checks on those who register, since there’s no telling who will try to sign up and for what reasons. The process is expected to take about a week… probably a bit longer considering who we are…”
“And you’re just telling me this now?!”
“This information was in the contract.”
“You mean you actually read the terms and conditions? You’re not even the one signing up.” Kotone shrugged, the officer next to her being ready to catch the blanket as it threatens to fall from her once more. “Man, this is such bullshit… We can escape from clothes, but not from bureaucracy.”
“Ma’am, we didn’t bring you in so you could chat with your friends.” The officer was getting visibly impatient, not to mention he was having a very hard time knowing where to look. While he did a decent job of sounding frustrated (because he was) and authoritative, there was a barely-noticeable doubt in his tone, perhaps realizing that having a couple nudists present did somewhat undermine arresting this woman for public indecency.
“We should avoid making any more of a fuss.” Aigis looked apologetic enough for both women, or at least Kotone hoped it was enough- she still felt it was too unfair to be all that remorseful. “Please, let’s just cooperate.”
“Fiine…” Kotone whined. “Still think this is bullshit, but I’ll just take the ‘L’ on this one.” She looked to Makoto. “That’s what kids say nowadays, right?”
“I… I wouldn’t know.” Makoto shrugged, making a mental note to ask Ren about it once he was free again.
“Nevermind, I’ll figure it out later.” She continued speaking even as she was dragged away- Aigis sheepishly following behind her. “The modelling offer is still good by the way! Having ‘The First Nudist’ alongside me is gonna be amazing marketing, trust me!”
And she disappeared deeper into the station, leaving the nudists standing awkwardly by themselves in the lobby. After a few moments of silence pass, Makoto turns towards the station doors.
“So we’re just gonna ignore that and move on?” Eiko watched as her friend left the building without a word, before shrugging and following her. “Guess so…”
~ ~ ~
Several days later, Makoto was sat at the counter of Leblanc café, accompanied by all the others who had- not too long ago- called themselves Phantom Thieves.
Well, with a few exceptions- Morgana was still unaccounted for, no one was sure whether Akechi ever counted but he was absent for obvious reasons, and of course their leader- Ren; though that wouldn’t be the case much longer.
Today was the day.
“I’ll admit I don’t know the first thing about how this all works legally…” Sumire began. “…But I’m amazed he’s getting released so quickly.”
Makoto looked especially proud.
“Finding the woman Shido assaulted and convincing her to testify is what swung things in our favor so decisively, but all the public support no doubt helped put the pressure on them to hurry the whole process up and get it over with as quickly as possible.”
“Everyone’s still raving about the big Shido case, getting to piggyback off of that helped us push to the front of the line.” Futaba snickered, squatting atop the stool next to Makoto’s.
“We have Sis to thank for that; and Ren too- Sis tells me how helpful he’s been in building a solid case. Oh, I nearly forgot about you too, Sumire-chan.”
“Hm?”
“You did great, finding Akechi-kun’s journal. I’ve not read it myself obviously, but Sis says the information is that was almost good enough that had she had access to it beforehand, Ren might never have needed to turn himself in in the first place; though obviously there was no way of us knowing that beforehand, so you did good.”
“Eheh… I didn’t really do anything.” Sumire restlessly rubbed the back of her head, averting her eyes.
“Credit where it’s due, Akechi-kun was really thorough when recording details. Despite everything, part of me feels like it’s a shame we can’t thank him directly.”
“Y-yeah… a shame, that…” Sumire cleared her throat, quickly forcing a smile. “Do we have an ETA on when Senpai is getting back?”
“The old man went to pick him up a while back…” Ryuji kept restlessly pacing back and forth. “Doesn’t take that long to get there ‘n’ back, right?”
“Relax Ryuji-kun, it’s normal to be held up a little by traffic or the like.”
“Haru’s right. Besides, why the hell are you nervous now of all times?” Ann watched him incredulously. “You were like, the only one of us holding it together when he was being interrogated, that was way more nerve-wracking than this.”
“That’s cuz we had this huge, awesome plan we spent- like- a month puttin’ together. Here we jus’ gotta sit around an’ wait.”
“Actually, I get what you mean.” Makoto took a tentative sip of her bottled water. “I can’t help but be a little anxious too. I hope juvie wasn’t too harsh on him…”
Despite everyone playing it cool to varying degrees of success, their shared anxiety was equally exposed as they all jumped the moment they heard the door opening. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the bell jingled, and natural light began to shine into the café. From the light he emerged, slowly (no doubt thinking the light was making him look cool and trying to milk the image for all it was worth), Ren stepped into the café. He looked at each of his friends in sequence, finally settling on his gorgeous girlfriend, and smiling.
“Hey guys.”
“Dude!” Ryuji- being the closest- was the first to rush to his side, wrapping an arm around his neck; it was a little painful being pulled in like that, but Ren had no issue taking it in the friendly spirit that was obviously intended.
Of course, the others weren’t far behind in crowding around him, eager to welcome him back.
“C’mon guys, I’ve only been gone like- less than two weeks.”
“Quit tryin’ to pretend you’re not just as excited as we all are.” Ann playfully shoved him. “We’ve all been worried sick.”
“Well, I’m not gonna pretend that I’m not happy to be back…” Ren let just a little bit of the bashfulness he was feeling show through.
He noticed his girlfriend staring at him.
“Uh… h-hey Makoto…”
She walked towards him silently, the others parted to get out of her way. Her eyes were locked onto his; he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little nervous as she stood in front of him, staring up at him sternly.
“Um… sorry for disappearing without telling you” Ren shrunk a little under her gaze. “But in my defence, it wasn’t me-me, it was the other timeline me who did it.”
A few moments of prolonged silence dragged themselves by, before Makoto wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly against her, not caring that everyone was looking.
“I’m so glad you’re back.” She spoke as she buried her face into his shoulder.
It took a second to shake himself out of his daze, but he just as eagerly returned the embrace.
“Me too… Heh, y’know for a second I really thought you were about to hit me.”
“Of course I’m not going to hit you, don’t be ridiculous.” Her grip on him tightened. “I’m just so relieved that you’re finally safe.”
“Mm.” Ren kept his face straight, but the way he clutched her showed without a doubt that Makoto wasn’t the only one carrying such fears.
“You two are adorable.” Haru couldn’t help but giggle.
Okay so the line about ‘not caring that everyone was looking’ wasn’t entirely true; moreso Makoto’s relief outweighed her self-consciousness for a moment. That moment had now passed, and she was very aware of the amusement the others were feeling witnessing this PDA. Still, she was reluctant to break their hug, especially when it was clear how much comfort Ren was getting from it.
Perhaps mercifully, neither of them had to be the one to bring it to an end.
“No fair!” Futaba tried to force them apart. “You’re his girlfriend, you get to hug him literally any time you like, let the rest of us have a go!”
While she lacked the strength to break them up, Futaba’s efforts were still appreciated, for they gave Makoto an excuse to move on from this slightly embarrassing moment. And the younger girl was right- Makoto had every intention to make up for lost time with Ren later, she could afford to have a raincheck for snuggling and such.
Once Ren was free, Futaba wasted no time in essentially forcing herself into his arms, burying her face into his ribs and humming contentedly. Ren felt a tad nervous hugging another nudist girl, he subtly made eye contact with Makoto- as if to ask her permission. She couldn’t help but chuckle at this, and smiled in such a way that said ‘it was okay’ while also containing a hint of ‘you really worry too much sometimes'.
Happy to have been given the ‘go-ahead’, Ren returned Futaba’s embrace; resting one arm around her shoulder blades, the other gently petting her head.
“Thank you everyone, I’m really lucky to have you all as friends.”
“Nyeheheh~” Futaba grinned smugly at the others. “He means me, mostly.”
“I mean all of you.” Ren sighed. “But mostly Makoto, actually.”
Futaba gasped.
“You’re friendzoning her, all of a sudden?!”
“What? No. Huh?”
Makoto firmly (frighteningly firmly) took a hold of Futaba’s shoulder and pulled her away from him.
“I know you’re excited Futaba-chan, but that’s no excuse to misbehave.”
“But I haven’t even done anything yet.”
“’Yet’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nuffin’…”
Ren watched amused as Futaba pouted, though his attention was quickly drawn to the mass of flesh tone to his left, the thieves’ other other nudist stood before him, arms spread open.
“May I?”
Ren stared at Yusuke silently a while, his eyes flicking downwards for about half a second. He shrugged.
“’lright.” He heartily accepted Yusuke’s ‘Welcome back’ hug, though didn’t hold him quite as close as Makoto or Futaba. “Anyone else?”
“I’ll pass man, no offence.”
“None taken, Ryuji, man.”
Sumire was admittedly tempted, and almost asked if she could get a hug, but considering their recent conversation the last time they were together in this cafe- decided that perhaps she had better play it safe.
“This is wonderful!” Haru brought her hands together thoroughly. “We’re finally all back together. It feels like it’s been so, so long since we could last breathe a sigh of relief.”
“Well… not all back together…” Ann’s reminder brought a somber atmosphere back into the café, she asked Ren: “I don’t suppose you know where Morgana ended up?”
His expression dropped.
“You mean he’s not with you guys?”
Makoto shook her head.
“He’s been absent since we defeated Dr. Maruki. If he’s not with you, then…”
“Y-you don’t think that was another change undone when we won, do you?” A clear tinge of fear found it’s way into Haru’s voice.
“It’s starting to look like that’s the case…” Makoto hung her head sombrely.
“Goddammit…” Ryuji was about to slam his fist down on the countertop, but stopped himself. “Why does there always some bullshit like this, man?”
“Is an unconditional victory truly so unattainable?” Yusuke’s arms hung limply at his sides.
“But he… he doesn’t deserve this. WE don’t deserve this!” Ann shook her head.
“Still, he knew what he was fighting for- our happiness- and we owe it to him to make the most of it.” Morgana nodded sagely.
“He’s right, if he were here he’d… wait…” Futaba’s eyes narrowed. “I’m getting déjà vu…”
“YOU DUMB BITCH CAT!” Ryuji yelled at the faux feline sitting atop the stool at the far end of the counter. “Where the hell were you this whole time?”
“I was upstairs.” Morgana gestured towards the staircase with his head. “I figured that’s where we’d all meet up, but by the time I got back you had all left, so I figured I’d wait.”
“This joke is bad and you should feel bad!” Futaba wasted no time in angrily pinching and pulling Morgana’s cheeks. “Do you have any idea how much you scared us?”
“ARGH!” Morgana put up a half-hearted resistance to her assault. “I’ve been in Leblanc the whole time, didn’t you hear me through your bugs or whatever?”
“I’ve been busy with other stuff! Like helping Ren! Why didn’t you join us?”
“What was I supposed to do to help? I’m just a cat.”
“Oh, so you’re a cat when it’s convenient, huh?”
“Alright, alright you two.” Makoto broke up the ‘fight’. “It doesn’t matter now, we’re all together now, and like Haru said- we can breathe a sigh of relief. Let’s not spoil it with silly fights.”
“Actually…” Ann raised her hand. “Not to get everyone worried again, but how do we know we won’t have Shido loyalists still stalking us or something? It’s not like the case is completely closed yet.”
“I don’t think we have to worry about that.” Ren answered confidently. “Shido is already guaranteed to be convicted, it’s just a matter of tracking down all of his associates that need to be charged too. Now that I’ve given everything I know to Sae, there’s no real incentive to come after us. It wouldn’t benefit them any, and would actually just make things worse for themselves.” He smiled at Makoto. “Your sister is pretty good at this. They’re all going to have their hands full dealing with her prosecution, none of them are stupid enough to waste precious time going after a bunch of kids who- in the eyes of the law at least- are such an insignificant part of the whole Shido case.”
“True, but it doesn’t help to be cautious.” Makoto pondered. “For example if one of us actually does commit a crime, they could try and use it to discredit your testimony, even if that wouldn’t actually be very effective.”
“We’ll be fine then.” Futaba waved her hand dismissively. “I always make SUPER sure I only commit crimes I know I can get away with.”
A quick (but fierce) patented Niijima glare scared Futaba a good few feet backwards; she may have retreated even further had the wall not gotten in her way.
“I was only joking… mostly…”
Ren laughed.
“I’ve missed this…”
“Hm?”
“Nevermind.”
Ann leaned forward excitedly.
“We should definitely go out and eat somewhere, maybe the Hilton Hotel again?”
“You just wanna stuff your face with cake again.”
“Shut up Ryuji! It’s a celebration, you’re supposed to stuff your face.”
“If Ryuji-kun wants to stuff his face with cake I don’t mind obliging him.”
“What? No thanks Haru, I’m not really into sweets like Ann is. Thanks for offerin’ though.”
“No, that’s not… Nevermind…”
“I’ve really missed all this.” Ren stepped forward. “I hope it’s not too boring for everyone, but if we’re talking celebration meals, I’d actually prefer to make some curry for everyone.”
“I like that idea.” Makoto smiled. “A familiar and comforting meal is exactly what we all need.”
“Ooo!” Sumire pumped her fists, before quickly catching herself, getting embarrassed over getting excited so quickly. “Ahem, I just wanted to say yes- that has my vote. Your curry was delicious last time.”
“Last time?” Yusuke tilted his head quizzically. “Have you eaten here before?”
“Yeah, she did.” Futaba nodded. “Right before Ren hit her with the ‘I love Emilia’ line.”
Sumire cringed.
“Please don’t bring that up in front of everyone… Actually wait- how on Earth do you know about that?”
“I did mention she has bugs here.” Said Morgana.
“Wait you mean real listening devices? Those kinds of bugs? I just thought that was some kind of inside joke I didn’t get.”
“Sounds juicy either way, does Makoto know?”
“Yes, I was there Ann. But please, let’s just drop this, that was meant to be private. Futaba, after dinner we’re going to have words.”
“Uh-oh…”
“Do I have to be there?”
“No Ren, you’re okay, you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Um…”
“You’re good too Sumire-chan, don’t worry.”
Sumire let out a muted sigh of relief, before trying to act natural again.
“Good.”
“It really is good to be back.”
Chapter 104: Valentine's day
Summary:
Does this chapter need a summary? It's all in the title.
Notes:
Took like 2-3 weeks to do the last chapter, took one day to do this one.
Yeah I'm not really known for consistency, am I?
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Another big advantage to freeing Ren so soon- they made it just in time for Valentine’s day. A fact Makoto only realized after getting home post-celebration.
This would be Makoto’s first ever Valentine’s where she had someone to give romantic chocolate to. Usually she just bought some chocolate for her sister, and for her father many years ago.
She literally only had the morning to prepare for the occasion, she cursed herself for not preparing ahead of time- surely that’s what a typical girlfriend would do, right?
Although she had only received confirmation of Ren’s freedom early yesterday, so there was no way of being sure he’d even be around for the holiday; so perhaps trying to plan something would have been premature. She decided to cut herself a little slack this time, she’d have to think of something more special for next year.
It was too short-notice to make any chocolate herself, especially with no experience, on this occasion she would just have to settle for buying some chocolate from the store on the way to Leblanc. Part of her worried it’d look uncharacteristically lazy of her, but she pushed such thoughts out of her mind, Ren wasn’t the kind of person to think so poorly of her, especially over something so minor.
He would- however- be the type to tease her for loitering around nervously outside Leblanc like a bashful schoolgirl, fretting over giving chocolate to her first love (which- admittedly- was a factual description of her). She steeled herself, and confidently strode through the café entrance. She noticed Sojiro behind the counter, to be expected. She nodded politely towards him, before turning her attention to her apron-clad beloved, who stepped out ready to greet her- trying to not look too excited at her showing up.
Sojiro looked between the two teenagers, before chuckling.
“You should have told me if you had plans.” He pretended to check his watch. “I guess I’ve got a few things to be getting on with, I can leave the place in your care for a while, Kid.”
“Thanks Boss.”
“Thank you Boss.”
Ren and Makoto spoke in unison, not taking their eyes off the other. Sojiro grabbed his hat and coat, left without another word… actually that’s a lie- he briefly stopped next to Ren, putting a hand on his shoulder, and whispering.
“You’ve got protection, right?”
“Boss?!” Ren recoiled, fighting back a blush. He briefly glanced over at a confused and curious Makoto, before whispering back: “Of course I do, plus she’s always on the pill, so we’ll be fine.”
“Good man.” Sojiro nodded. “Just keep it upstairs and leave the window open when you’re done, I don’t want the smell putting off customers later.”
“R-right…”
Okay, now he left without saying another word, leaving the lovers by themselves. Ren put his ‘Cool’ face back on, and gestured towards one of the booths. He wasn’t the only one trying to play it cool, Makoto didn’t have any sort of script in her head for how she was supposed to play this out, but she took the seat he offered, and smiled at him as he sat opposite her.
“So…” Makoto hoped that would be an effective conversation starter, but things didn’t work out so smoothly for her. She felt frustrated with herself; sure this was a first for them, but she had hoped they were past the ‘awkward silence’ stage in their relationship by this point. She had to say something. “I-it’s Valentine’s day today!” Better than nothing, I suppose.
“Yeah, me and Boss were talking about it before you arrived, we only realized like- a few minutes ago.”
“I guess we’ve all had a lot going on lately, it’s easy to lose track of time.”
“No kidding, feels like forever since we’ve been able to worry about ‘normal’ things. Closest I can think of was maybe between Christmas and New year’s.”
Makoto laughed.
“It says something that the upcoming entrance exams- which could end up being career defining for me- feel like a welcome relief compared to everything we’ve been through.”
“You gonna be alright with those? N-not that I doubt your abilities or anything, you’re the smartest person I know, but you’ve been dealing with more than anyone else.”
“I’ll be fine Ren, thank you for worrying about me though.” Feeling this was as good a time as any, she reached into her bag and pulled out the box of chocolates, and caringly pushed them across the table. “They’re only store-bought, but I thought you’d appreciate it regardless.”
Ren picked up the box, staring at it in wonder- as if having a hard time believing they were even real.
“Woah… I’ve never gotten anything like this before.”
“Really?”
“I mean, I’ve obviously had chocolate before, but never for Valentine’s.”
“Hmm…” Makoto couldn’t help but smirk a little. “You always seem so confident, I don’t think you’re lying or anything, but part of me has a hard time believing that”.
“Ha… If you think I’m that naturally charming then I must be doing a good job. But nah, unless you want to count the occasional time in grade or middle school where you’d sometimes get a girl giving chocolate to the whole class- I really haven’t.” He stared fondly at the box in his hand. “It’s never been for just me before. I mean I was kinda expecting it from you this year, but actually having it happen for real, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
A warm feeling spread through Makoto’s body, more than enough to counter the already-fading effects of winter.
“Knowing I’ve made you happy makes me happy too.”
“Now there’s a feeling I can relate to.”
“I’m glad you feel the same way.” Makoto stood up from her seat, she circled around the table, gently gesturing to Ren to shuffle along so she could sit next to him, and rest a hand on his thigh. “It’s reassuring to know we’re both naturally driven to support eachother, that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted from a relationship.”
“Makoto…”
“But I want you to understand that we should share our hardships too. I love you Ren, but we’re supposed to be equals, so I don’t want you doing anything stupid like turning yourself in again.”
“Aw come on Mako, I already told you that was the other timeline’s me that did it.”
“Because it’s what you would have done.”
“I mean… yeah, but…”
She took a gentle hold of his head in both her hands.
“We’ve talked about this before, you’d turn yourself in because you want to protect us, you’re way too willing to be a martyr.”
“I mean, what should I have done? Turn us all in? Rat you out? You’re aiming to become a police officer, I can deal with having a record- even if it is for something as shaky as ‘phantom thief’, but your career could be ruined by something like that.”
“You do have a point.” She brought her hands into her lap. “But that’s not what I meant. I’m not saying we should have both been turned in. I spoke to Sis, apparently you didn’t even tell me what you were planning to do before you did it. You felt the need to protect me from the truth.”
“I… I did?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not so hard-headed that I’m going to get mad at you for something you technically didn’t do yourself. I’m not mad, but I’m sure I would have been”. She smiled up at him softly. “I’ll just tell you outright, I want you to drop that mindset. One thing you never need to protect me from- is the truth. Maybe I couldn’t have gone with you, but I could have helped you from the outside. In fact, I think I and the others have proven that now- don’t you agree?”
“That’s true. I hate to admit it, but I was pretty scared in there, I’d wonder how long it’d be until I ever got to see you again…” He laughed. “Had I known I’d only be in there for less than two weeks I wouldn’t have worried so much.”
“Now you know. You may have led us all this time, but we’re all very capable individuals in our own right.”
“Especially you, Queen.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, now isn’t the time for flattery anyway. The point is- next time either of us are in trouble, we’ll tackle it together. No more secrets between us, okay?”
Ren took a breath, before nodding.
“Deal. Though I’ll still try not to burden you too much.”
“You’re never going to burden me. We’re a couple now, any burdens are ours from now on, not just ‘mine’ or ‘yours’.”
He hesitated once more, but nodded in understanding. He decided to change the subject.
“Not to put pressure on you, but is there anything special you wanted to do for today? It’s our first Valentine’s after all.”
“Hmm…” A smirk spread across Makoto’s face, only slightly undercut by her blush. Filled with equal parts anxiety and anticipation, she gathered up her courage, and shuffled herself closer to him, then navigated herself atop his lap, leaning her torso against his, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I don’t know whether it counts as ‘special’, but I think we’re long overdo for a certain kind of celebration, don’t you think?”
Even before Ren responded, Makoto knew he was on board, the feeling of something poking her bottom gave it away. Regardless, Ren, tried to act cool.
“I’m hardly gonna say ‘no’ to an offer like that, now am I?”
“I didn’t think you would.”
Staring into eachother’s eyes, he began running his hand up the front of her body, taking great pleasure in feeling her firm abs, before sliding his way up to her breast, gently kneading it, feeling proud of the little, stifled grunt she let out as he gave her nipple a pinch.
“I’ll admit, this is something I’ve really been missing too.”
“Oh really now?” She smirked. “Well you’re in luck, because today- that chocolate is only going to be the second-sweetest thing you taste~”
She held her sultry smirk for a good five or six seconds, before her face began glowing red and she buried it into his shoulder.
“God, how do you always manage to keep a straight face when you use lines like that? You make it look so easy…”
Ren snickered.
“I guess we found one area where we’re not equals.”
“Smart-ass.” Keeping her face hidden, she shifted her position slightly, to give herself room to slide her hand down, firmly rubbing his crotch through his apron until she could take a solid grip on her prize. “I’ve… missed this a little too.”
“Oho?”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
“I wasn’t gonna, but I think we should take this upstairs, we don’t know when Boss might come back.”
“Mhmm.”
She got up, making sure to walk ahead of him so he could appreciate the extra effort she was putting into the movement of her hips, which he was all to eager to closely follow, even taking the opportunity for some cheeky groping along the way, which she was more than happy to receive.
“Oh shit, hang on.” Ren stepped away.
“Hm?”
Ren had grabbed his phone, and took a few moments to remove the battery.
“Don’t want to give the voyeur more fuel.”
“Good point. Now get upstairs, you’ve got a month-and-a-half’s worth of fucking to get through.”
“Hoo boy…”
~ ~ ~
“For you, Ryuji-kun.”
“Wait, for real?”
“Mmhmm.” Haru nodded, a sweet- yet smug- smile on her face. “It is ‘for real’.”
“Is this like… Valentine’s chocolate? Like Valentine’s Valentine’s?”
“What else would it be?”
“But like, is this like… y’know?”
It was a bit of a struggle, but Haru managed to keep herself from laughing.
“No Ryuji, I don’t know, please enlighten me as to what you mean.”
“I mean like… is this…” Ryuji couldn’t bring himself to maintain eye contact, he was quickly becoming far too flustered, and could only let out a barely audible mumble in his pitiful attempts to play it cool as he looked at anything and everything except the girl in front of him. “…like, romantic or whatever?”
“Hmm…” Haru brought a finger to her cheek in mock-contemplation. “Would you prefer it to be?”
“Uh… this feels like some kinda trick question… Is there a right answer?”
“You tell me.”
“Ahh, I… Umm…”
Haru turned away, pretending to be upset.
“You don’t have to accept it if you don’t want to.”
Her performance was rather hammy, it’s doubtful anyone would really fall for it… well, anyone except…
“No no no! I’ll take it! I mean… I like it… I mean…”
Haru laughed, deciding to finally have a little mercy on the boy before he fell apart completely.
“You’re funny Ryuji-kun.”
“Buh?”
“You talk big about wanting ladies and such, but you have absolutely no idea what to do when you have one right in front of you. It’s cute…”
“I… man ‘eff off…”
“You want me to go?”
“N-no! I didn’t mean—”
“I’m only teasing.” She giggled. “This is great fun.”
Ryuji grumbled. She was right that he had no real experience in these kinds of things, and had no idea how to process all this all of a sudden, but he could at least tell he was being made fun of.
“I just wanted to thank you, you’ve really helped me out a lot this past year.”
Ryuji rubbed the back of his head.
“I mean, I guess, but it was the others who came up with all the cool plans and whatever, and apparently Makoto was the one who scared off Sugi-whatever in the end.”
“True, I owe a great debt to her, Ren-kun, and everyone on the team. But that very much includes you too. You may not realize it, but you really do make me feel stronger.”
“I… I do?”
“Indeed. For example when Ren was being interrogated, I admit I was utterly terrified, fearing what awful things could happen to us if things didn’t go according to plan, if something had happened to Ren…”
“We had that shit all figured out though. Ren’s the leader for a reason, we knew he could convince Makoto’s Sis. Plus we had Makoto, Mona, and Futaba putting together this big master plan, they’re all really smart…”
“See, there it is again. That unrelenting positivity and confidence. It’s hard not to agree with you when you’re so passionate.”
“I mean… I guess. I just thought it was obvious.”
“Maybe it was.” She chuckled. “Though I’m surprised to hear you call Mona-chan ‘smart’. I don’t disagree- of course- but hearing it from you is a rarity for sure.”
“I mean… he is. Just please don’t tell him I said that- he’ll never let it go if you do.”
“My lips are sealed.” She brought her finger to her lips playfully, before gazing wistfully up at the sky. “Also… Ryuji-kun, do you remember the time we went to Hawaii?”
“Hawaii? Yeah, what about it?”
“I remember being pretty upset at Sumire-san, well, ‘Kasumi-san’ at that point.”
“’Cuz she was straight? Or whatever?”
“Yeah…” Her expression dropped slightly. “I sound really petty when you put it like that…”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine, it’s not an unfair assessment. I had a lot on my mind at the time, fearing the day where I’d ‘inevitably’ have to give myself to Sugimura.”
“That shit’s still disgusting, man.”
“You’re not wrong there; and yet I thought it unavoidable, which you yelled at me over.”
Fear quickly spread across Ryuji’s face.
“Sorry, I-I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Don’t apologize Ryuji-kun, I’m praising you. And you’ll be pleased to know I kept my promise from back then.”
“Promise?”
“Mm, I told Sugimura to ‘fuck off’.” She pumped her fist. “Then head-butted him right in the nose! That felt downright euphoric!”
“Awesome!” Ryuji cheered, accompanying it with his own celebratory fist-pump. “Man, I’d have loved to see that.”
“I’ll let you know if any other opportunities for some legal violence arise.”
“Uh… y-yeah…” The look on her face- it had just taught Ryuji what the word ‘scaroused’ meant.
“But the point is you gave me the confidence I needed, and you still do. Even talking to you today has made me feel more confident. I can’t imagine the ‘me’ from a year ago being brave enough to just give someone Valentine’s chocolate, not to mention enjoy teasing them a little.”
“…You’re welcome?”
“Nor could I imagine myself having the confidence to do this…” She took a step towards him, enjoying how he flinched a little as she smiled up at him. “Ryuji-kun, now that things look like they’re going to calm down a while, I’d like for us to become closer.”
“C-closer?”
“I’d like for us to hang out more, talk more, maybe go out to a few places together?”
“O-oh.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh? You sound a little disappointed by the offer?”
“I-it’s not that…”
“Oh I get it, you thought I was talking about something else when I said ‘get closer’, didn’t you?”
“Urk!”
“Busted.” She rolled her eyes, letting out a content sigh. “That really was a beautiful beach…”
“Haru?”
She reestablished eye contact.
“I think enough time has passed since then, I can ask you again—” She stepped even closer, her breasts pressing gently against his torso, his face swiftly turning bright red. “Ryuji-kun, would you like to have sex with me?”
He stared back at her, utterly bewildered.
“Buh?”
“I’m not using you this time, Sugimura is well and truly out of the picture, I’ve no fear of my virginity being taken by an unwanted source. My body and my sexuality are mine to do with as I please. So- with all that in mind- I’m asking again…” She shifted one foot forward, between his. “…would you like to have sex with me?”
Ryuji opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He swallowed, his throat had never felt this dry before, he couldn’t remember the last time he was rendered speechless like this. Yet Haru patiently waited for an answer, unflinching. He swallowed again, took a deep breath, and just barely managed to squeak out an answer:
“Y-yeah, alright.”
She smiled, wrapping her arms around him, holding him tightly. It took a while to get over the shock, but he eventually managed to return the embrace, slowly getting over the fear and apprehension of laying his hands on her.
“Now~” She sang, coyly. “Why don’t we go back to my place?”
“A-are you sure about this?”
She laughed directly into his chest.
“You ask some silly questions sometimes…” She broke the embrace, turning and beginning to walk away, gesturing over her shoulder for him to follow. “Come on now. Don’t keep me waiting.”
“R-right!” Trying to will enough blood to return to his brain to manage the taxing task of putting one foot in front of the other, he rushed after her, joining her at her side with his heart feeling like it was trying to force its way out through his ribcage.
“Don’t worry Ryuji-kun.” She gently touched his back as he walked. “I understand you’re nervous and inexperienced, I know a lot of training will be necessary, but I’m sure you’ll do just fine with the right focus.”
While excitement was the dominant emotion at the moment, he still didn’t appreciate being openly teased like this. He mumbled under his breath. “It’s not like you’ve ever done it either…”
“Did you say something?”
“N-nothing! I didn’t say anything.”
“Lots of training is necessary, indeed.”
~ ~ ~
Sumire took a sip of her coffee, sat alone in the corner of an anonymous café at the edge of Tokyo, she scanned the room around her, empty aside from herself and the aging proprietor behind the counter. She was surprised a place like this has managed to stay in business when no one was even around. Then again, it was Valentine’s day, and the atmosphere didn’t scream ‘date spot’, so just judging by what she was seeing today was perhaps unfair, they’d probably have a few older couples in the evening.
That didn’t really matter though, she came here today with a very specific purpose.
“I suppose Senpai is with Niijima-senpai round about now.” She thought aloud, taking another sip of her coffee; a somewhat bittersweet smile on her face. “I should probably wait until tomorrow before I give them my chocolate. It’s important to show gratitude, but I don’t want to intrude on their time together.”
Her musings were cut off when the front door to the café opened. She turned to face the new patron, and smiled, she was beginning to fear she was sat here for nothing. She watched closely as the hooded figure, with his hands deep within his own pockets, strolled over to her and sat opposite her.
“Hello Akechi-kun.”
“Don’t use that name in public, you never know who could be listening.”
“I refuse to call you ‘Kurusu-kun’, it doesn’t suit you.”
“There’s no point in getting a fake name if no one uses it.” He groaned. “It’s a shame Amamiya-san didn’t have you on his team back when we were enemies, you’d have blown his ‘fake death’ cover on day one and made things really easy for me.”
“Yeah yeah.” Sumire rolled her eyes “I won’t use that name in public if it’s such a big deal for you. Maybe… I’ll just go with Goro-kun, that’s generic enough, right?”
“Hmph, I suppose we can get away with that, so long as the thieves don’t hear. But I’m surprised.” He snidely grinned at her. “I had you down as the type to get all bashful and pathetic about using first names, you seem like the cliché type.”
“I did think that a little, but I knew you’d make fun of me if I made a fuss. I had you down as the type to not even think about silly cliches like that.”
“Fair.” Akechi lent back in his seat, his arms folded. “Alright then, what did you call me out here for?”
Sumire stood up, reaching into her bag, and holding out an ornately wrapped box across the table, a polite smile on her face. Akechi stared at the box, then at her in utter disbelief.
“Chocolate?”
“Yup.”
“Valentine’s Chocolate?”
“Of a sort, yes.”
“That’s the reason you called me out of hiding?”
“Yes.”
“You’re retarded.”
“That’s not what you’re supposed to say when a girl gives you chocolate.”
“Most girls have the basic mental faculties to not give chocolate to a dead man.”
Sumire sighed, unceremoniously dropping the chocolate onto the counter then falling back into her seat in a huff.
“I just wanted to say thank you for all you’ve done.”
“You already thanked me, more than once.”
“Well it’s nice to do it again… at least I thought it’d be.”
Akechi’s head fell back onto the back of his seat, and he stared up at the ceiling.
“Look, it’s a nice enough gesture, I’m just saying you put BOTH of us at risk when you do something like this. Really, it’s best if you forget I exist entirely, get on with your life while I start a new one.”
“Isn’t that kind of sad though? Despite everything you were instrumental in saving me and the world, yet you have to just have to go off all alone? Never to be seen or heard from again?”
He mock shrugged.
“Doesn’t seem sad to me. I committed a lot of crimes to get where I was, and I get to walk away without even having to do any jail time. I feel pretty damn lucky.”
“But still, being alone is sad. You really seem like the type who needs a friend or two.”
“I’m used to it.”
“You shouldn’t be used to it.” She leaned forward. “You’ve gone your whole life without ever having a real friend, am I right?”
“Don’t just openly pity me like that.”
“I am right. And it’s no wonder, you’re a real asshole.”
“…I give you points for honesty at least.” Akechi pondered for a moment, before a look of true disgust spread across his face. “Oh god, am I really triggering a ‘I can fix him’ instinct in you? Have I really sunk that low?”
She shook her head.
“I couldn’t even fix myself, I’m not so foolish to think I could ‘fix’ a real jerk like you.”
“I’m getting mixed messages from this lecture.”
“Well… you know how it is.”
“No, I really don’t.”
“It’s…” Sumire’s brow furrowed. “I just thought we get along really well, is all.”
“…By what possible metric?”
“We always have a good time when we talk to eachother.”
“’Good time’ is subjective.”
“It is.” She smiled. “And I think you- subjectively- agree.”
“Tch.” He tutted. “I’ll admit I’d rather talk with you than any of the real thieves.”
“Coming from you, that’s a real compliment.” She laughed- annoying him slightly. “The chocolate is just from me, but the others are grateful for what you did too. Even Niijima-senpai said it was a shame she couldn’t thank you directly.”
“I very much doubt she’d actually put that desire into action if she were here right now.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” She shrugged. “But all I really wanted to say today- with the chocolate- is that I’d like for the two of us to keep being friends.”
“…You’re serious?”
“Mm.” She fiddled with her coffee mug. “I’ll admit, it’s more for me than it is for you.”
He raised a curious eyebrow at her.
“Oh?”
“The thieves, they’re all so friendly and accepting… but they’re also really tightly knit as a group.” She smiled weakly. “When I’m around them, I kind of feel like the outsider. A welcome-enough outsider, but I’m not really part of their whole dynamic. Strangely enough, I feel more comfortable around you.”
“I see…”
“Plus I’ve really grown to appreciate your honesty. With Dr Maruki- and to a lesser extent my family- I’ve always been looked at as just something to protect. You talk to me like a real person, on even-footing, even if you’re a little… no, you’re very rough about it- but that’s just a part of who you are.”
“I’m not really doing it to be ‘nice’. I’ve put up a façade for most of my life, building this fake persona for the sake of my ambitions. But I’m so sick of it, I’ve gotten so sick of all the bullshit I’ve been steeped in for so long. Now that I’m finally free I just don’t want to deal putting up bullshit facades for the sake of those around me ever again.”
“Then you and I are very alike.”
“Gross.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Sumire laughed.
Akechi groaned, throwing up his hand in frustrated surrender.
“Whatever, I suppose you at least had the good sense to pick a discreet location none of them frequent.”
“Of course, give me some credit.”
“I guess now that we’re here we can at least eat something, so long as you’re paying- it’s not as if I have an income right now.”
“I’ve got a healthy amount of allowance to burn.”
“Good, I’m ordering whatever’s the most expensive then.”
“See- this is why no one likes you.”
“Regretting our ‘friendship’ yet?”
“No… at least not yet.”
“Heh.”
“Hmm…”
“Mm…”
“…”
“Yoshizawa-san?”
“Hm?”
He sighed.
“Thank you for the chocolate.”
She smiled.
“You’re welcome. I made it myself.”
“Oh…”
“What do you mean ‘oh’?”
“I’d rather have something made by a professional.”
“Drop dead.”
“Already have.”
~ ~ ~
Makoto couldn’t stay the night unfortunately, but needless to say the couple made the most of their time together on Valentine’s before Sojiro returned in the evening. She gave her boyfriend a kiss goodbye, promising to see him tomorrow, before limping out the café and towards the station.
Ren spent most of the next day helping Sojiro in the café. In the mid-afternoon he was left to run the café by himself while Sojiro ran some non-specific errands; it was a quiet enough day that he could handle it, just a few regulars visiting earlier, and now he was left by himself, just absentmindedly cleaning dishes when he heard the distinctive bell of the entrance.
“Welcome.” He spun around, putting on his best ‘customer service’ face. “Oh, Niijima-san?”
He wasn’t expecting Sae to show up today, but was sure to politely bow to greet her all the same.
“I figured you’d still be busy.”
“Even I need a short break now and again.”
“Fair.” Ren dried his hands before reaching for some beans on the shelf. “Can I get you anything?”
“Actually, I won’t be stopping that long.”
“Oh?”
“I actually just had a couple things I wanted to run by you.”
Ren, with a twinge of anxiety, circled around the counter to meet her.
“Nothing’s gone wrong with me being released, has it?”
“Hm? Oh no, nothing like that, don’t worry.”
Over the course of two interrogations, Ren had seen a lot of Sae recently, and seen her run almost the full gamut of the emotional spectrum as he told his story; taken her through the anxious lows and the triumphant highs as they got closer and closer to the truth. But this might have been the first time he’d seen such a genuine friendly- even ‘affectionate’ smile from her.
“Firstly, I just wanted to thank you for all your help. There’s no way we’d be able to take down Shido without your help, both with me and with the rest of the Phantom Thieves.”
“Don’t worry about it, besides- you’re integral to all of it too, now even moreso than us.”
“I suppose.” Sae hummed thoughtfully to herself, before looking back at the boy with a determined look on her face. “Rest assured I plan to see my part through to the end, it’s about time you had your faith in adults restored.”
“I believe in you, and so does Makoto. She’s always speaking so highly of you.”
“Yes…” Sae looked a little guilty. “I’m going to do everything I can to make myself worthy of her admiration, both for the remainder of this case, and for my future career as a defence lawyer. I am her older sister after all, I’m supposed to be a role model, it’s about time I acted like it.”
“Well you’re already succeeding in her eyes, but you don’t have to take my word for it, she’d tell you herself if you asked.”
“Mm.” Sae began rifling through her purse, until she found… “Here, it’s just a little courtesy chocolate, to say thanks for everything.”
“Oh?” Ren’s brow raised as he gratefully took the box. “Didn’t have you as the chocolate-giving type.”
“Usually I’m not. I sometimes give obligatory chocolate to certain co-workers if I’m working with them on a project or need to stay on their good sides, but it’s not really a holiday I partake in. But it’s nice to have exceptions now and again, even if it is a little late. You’re a confident young man, I’m sure you had someone give you some more special chocolate yesterday anyway.”
“Mmm…” Ren averted his eyes nervously. “Y-yeah, chocolate is pretty great…”
Sae let out an uncharacteristic snigger.
“I guess even you can get bashful sometimes, I’ll leave that alone then. Makoto actually gave me some chocolate last night, which was surprising, I would have thought she’d be too busy to even remember the holiday. She must have gotten it really last minute, she seemed so exhausted by the time she got home.”
Ren laughed nervously.
“Well you know her; she’s always working so hard.”
“You’re not wrong there.” She sighed. “I really should praise her for it… I’m still trying to remember how to be a proper ‘big sister’.”
“I’m repeating myself, but she already thinks you’re great.”
“Mm… I’m very lucky to have a sister like her.” She shook her head. “Still, nevermind, this is a conversation I should have with her, not you. No offence.”
“None taken.” He smiled at her. “Is that all you came to tell me?”
“Mm, yes, that’s it really. I best be heading back.” She began turning away, before stopping herself. “Oh no, sorry- there was one more thing.”
“Oh?” Ren watched her curiously as she approached him, standing less than a pace away. “Uh… you good?”
She smiled sweetly at him, resting her right hand atop his shoulder.
“Amamiya-kun…”
“Uh… yeah?”
Her hand gently gripped his shoulder, before sliding smoothly over to his neck, grabbing a firm hold, lifting him up into the air, and crashing him down onto one of the booth tables with full-force.
“Do you mind explaining to me what the FUCK this is?!”
“H-huh?!” Ren cried out in pain, struggling to force any sound out of his crushed throat. “Wh-what are you tal—”
In her other hand, she held her phone. On her phone a video was playing, a video of a scene he very much recognised. In the auditorium of Shujin High, on the night of the culture festival- more specifically the ‘Student sharing special’. He and Makoto were on stage, in front of a crowd of their fellow students- one of which had evidently captured this exact footage on their phone. Makoto was on her knees, Ren was behind her, holding her arms back and thrusting himself into her over and over again, her breasts wildly bouncing in a circular motion in time with the thrusts. The stunned silence of the crowd meant the only audible sounds were Makoto’s needy moaning, and the distinctive sound of flesh clapping against flesh; which now echoed throughout the otherwise silent café.
“Oh THAT!”
“Yes.” Sae lifted him up off the table… but only a few inches, before slamming him right back down again. “That.”
Sae’s grip on his throat tightened as the sound of Makoto crying out Ren’s name in the midst of her explosive, squirting orgasm emanated from the phone.
Ren looked up into Sae’s burning, merciless eyes.
“I’d like to speak to a lawyer…”
Notes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XFUA3lDvSI
(You knew it had to happen eventually)
Chapter 105: Some much delayed consequences
Summary:
Ren can't "silly little guy" his way out of this one...
Chapter Text
PPSST True Final Boss round: Sae Niijima
“Morgana, you are NOT helping!”
Makoto found herself at home, stood between her sister and her boyfriend- the two people she loved more than anyone else in the world; her arm spread out in front of the latter to shield him from the former.
Her elder sister Sae had apparently met up with Ren in Leblanc café, delicately slammed him into a table a couple times, dragged him into the back of her car (thankfully in the back seat, not the trunk), and drove him back to the Niijima apartment for a third interrogation, this time with Shujin’s first nudist also present- who had her own questions to answer.
If one were to look with an untrained eye, they might make the mistake of thinking the eldest Niijima seemed surprisingly calm, but both Ren and Makoto could see the intense flames of righteous fury behind those distinctive red eyes. Ren had seen many variants of the patented ‘Niijima glare’, but never one quite this intense. Sae had never used it for something this personal before.
Morgana watched from the inside of Ren’s bag, wondering if this would be the true end to his charge’s extraordinary tale. The great threats to the world had been bested, but choices made earlier in the journey had finally caught up with them. This must be what the bad ending looks like.
“It’s not as bad as it looks Niijima-san…”
“Amamiya-kun, you fucked my little sister, on a brightly lit stage, in front of all her peers, armed with cameras, the footage quickly making it’s rounds on every video and porn site on the web, showing the entire world exactly what her O-face looks like in 4K…”
“Well, anything sounds bad when you say it that attitude…”
“Ren be quiet, let me handle this…” Makoto tried to force a disarming smile- it wasn’t very effective. “Come on Sis, it’s not as if he forced me into it or anything, in fact it was me who initially prompted it.”
“That’s simply not possible. I don’t believe for a second that my little sister is some depraved exhibitionist.”
“You don’t?”
“Ren!”
“No I mean- not as an insult. I’m not saying you’re ‘depraved’ Makoto, but I would have thought ‘exhibitionist’ was a fair description.”
“I mean I’m not saying I’m not… but it’s a little embarrassing to just hear you say it out loud like that.”
“Sorry.”
Sae shook her head, refusing to believe what she was hearing.
“Absolutely impossible. I don’t know exactly what kind of Phantom Thief or Metaverse trickery you used to corrupt her and force her to say these things, but believe me I will get you to confess everything.”
“He didn’t do anything like that!”
If Sae glared any harder at the boy he may well have turned to ash right there on the spot- completely ruining the seat cushion.
“You’re a truly sick man Amamiya-san. You may have taken down many a depraved bastard, but that doesn’t discount you from being one yourself. Why would you target Makoto of all people for your twisted games? She’s a child- little more than a baby.”
“Sis, I’m turning nineteen in just over two months…”
“Exactly, basically an infant.”
Ren raised his hand defensively.
“I mean, she’s older than I am, I prefer it that way anyway.”
“Oh I see.” She glared down her nose at him in disgust. “So that’s the fetish driving your choice? You’re the type who desires illicit relationships with older women?”
“Of course not Sis. One year barely qualifies as an age gap. Our ages have absolutely nothing to do with our relationship.”
Ren nodded confidently.
“Absolutely.”
“And he doesn’t have any strange fetishes for women of certain ages.”
Ren hesitated a moment, before giving a smaller nod.
“Y-yeah, it’s nothing like that…”
“Your r-relationship?” Sae stammered in disbelief. “Am I to believe you two are in a relationship?”
Makoto nervously scratched her cheek with her index finger.
“We really were planning on telling you, honest…”
Sae took a slow, deep breath inwards; time seemed to stand still for a while, enough time for the couple to feel the immensely oppressive atmosphere in the apartment continue to crush them, before the prosecutor exhaled just as slowly.
“How long?”
“How long?”
“How long have you been involved with this boy?”
“Uhh…” Makoto looked to Ren for a moment. “We knew eachother since the later part of May, but we officially became a… um… became a c-couple in July.”
“Seven months…” Sae’s brow furrowed. “How did I not know about this?”
“I’m really sorry Sis. We’ve been keeping it secret. It’s not that we didn’t trust you, but there’s just been so much going on this past year, we planned on hiding it until after everything had calmed down- which it finally has now.”
“So putting on a live sex show at your school counts as ‘keeping it secret’?”
“Ehheh… that was a mistake, I’ll admit that.”
Ren sheepishly shrugged.
“We got carried away in the moment, teenagers are supposed to get a little carried away sometimes, it’s normal to go wild once or twice.”
“Public sex is as far from ‘normal’ as you can possibly get.”
“We went just a little bit more overboard than most… If it’s any consolation we used protection!”
“Yes, I saw you toss the used condom onto the ground while you left Makoto twitching in a puddle of her own vaginal fluid.”
“See- even when getting carried away we can still be responsible.”
“Ren does raise a good point… sort of… he really is the responsible type, perhaps even moreso than myself on occasion.”
“A responsible man wouldn’t throw a young woman’s reputation into the toilet so callously.”
“It really hasn’t affected my reputation as much as you might think Sis.”
“She’s right.” Ren nodded. “Everyone in our friend group and at school has a ton of respect for her. That goes doubly for me- there’s no one on earth I respect more.”
“Ren…” Makoto smiled warmly. “There was a bit of teasing, sure, but it was mostly good natured, and nothing I couldn’t handle.”
Sae’s expression did NOT soften, not even a little bit.
“Judging by how you’re describing it, I can tell you haven’t read what people say about it online. You’re blissfully ignorant of how depraved and insulting people are being towards you after that.”
Makoto actually had read the comments online. She would be lying if she said the insulting comments didn’t upset and hurt her, but the ‘depraved’ comments inspired some very different feelings in her; a feeling of slightly embarrassed pride, and another feeling- best alleviated with a showerhead or by making good use of her beloved boyfriend’s peerless ‘proficiency’. However, she wisely decided not to tell Sae about this, she doubted it’s effectiveness as a counterpoint anyway…
“I can handle it, Sis. This is not going to get in the way of me succeeding, nor will I let people disrespect me for it.”
“And if someone does try to disrespect her, they’ll have to answer to me too.” Ren stood up from his seat, standing tall and proud in front of Sae, hoping that his aura of fearlessness would distract her from his violently shaking knees. “I’ll fully admit that what we did during the culture festival was a mistake, and I do wish I put a stop to it sooner, but I will not shy away from the consequences. Whatever happens, I plan to take full responsibility. I love her.”
Sae’s glare intensified.
“You’re really going to claim you—”
She had stormed over to him, before Makoto cut into her path- sandwiching herself between the two of them. She was proud of Ren for standing his ground even in the face of the ever-terrifying Sae Niijima, but she did also kind of wish he’d step back a little bit so her body wasn’t being squeezed between the two of them. Still, protecting him was worth enduring a little awkwardness.
“I love him too. We’re both fully committed to eachother.”
“You… Makoto, you’ve only been dating seven months, that’s way too soon to say such things.”
“I mean…” Makoto’s expression sank almost imperceptibly. “It’s been a very busy seven months, eight or nine if you include the time before we were ‘officially’ a couple. We’ve been through a lot together, and our relationship not only endured- but became stronger and stronger with every obstacle.” She smiled reassuringly at her sister. “I promise you, our relationship is not even the slightest bit superficial.”
Sae kept her eyes locked with Makoto’s for a while, searching- desperately searching- for any hint of doubt or insincerity; but even with all her experience, she couldn’t see anything but honesty in her sister’s face.
She took a step back.
“This can’t be right…”
Ren put his arm gently around Makoto’s shoulders.
“Sae, I swear to you, I love Makoto and care about her future just as much as you do. I want nothing but the best for her, so I plan to do everything I can to make sure she gets the very best.” He smiled warmly at her. “She inspires me every day. I owe a lot of gratitude to a lot of people whom I’ve met this past year, but none moreso than Makoto. I would not have been able to make it through everything that’d happened without her.”
“Ren…”
“So please know, when I say ‘I love her’, I’m not using those words lightly. I’m fully prepared to spend the rest of my life with her.”
Makoto’s face went bright red, one would be forgiven for thinking they could see steam radiating off of her. She saw that Sae was staring at the two of them in utter disbelief, or rather- staring at her, silently asking for confirmation of what Ren said. Ignoring the blush spreading all the way down to her chest, she gathered her resolve- if Ren could be brave than so could she.
“I feel exactly the same way. Ren and I both support eachother as equals. He’s been supporting me ever since I was first entered into the program, even back when I was considered an enemy of the Phantom Thieves; without him I would have just fallen apart under all the pressure, not to mention I wouldn’t have rediscovered my dream to become a police commissioner, and most importantly of all- I couldn’t have saved you.”
“Makoto…” Sae sat down, letting out a heavy sigh. “You’re really serious, aren’t you?”
Ren bowed formally towards her.
“While I won’t ask permission to date your sister- as I believe she is the only one who can decide if I’m worthy of her or not, but I promise you: you won’t regret letting me pursue a relationship with her; I swear on my honor as a Phantom Thief, and as a man- I will always do right by her.”
Sae slid back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling.
“Makoto’s first boyfriend…”
“Sis, I’m not a child anymore.”
“No… no I guess you’re not…” She leant over forwards, holding her head in her hands, defeated. “I’m… I’m sorry Makoto.”
Makoto knelt down next to her sister, resting a reassuring hand on her knee.
“You have nothing to apologize for Sis. I understand how much of a shock this must be for you, and we wish we could have revealed our relationship to you in a healthier way, but I really appreciate how worried you are for my sake, it’s proof that you care about me, which makes me happier than you can imagine”
“Of course I care about you Makoto, I hate the fact that I’ve made you doubt that even the tiniest bit. But I do need to apologize, I didn’t realize it until recently that you’re not my baby sister anymore, you’re much closer to a full-grown woman than I ever thought possible.”
“I’ve done a lot of growing up over the past year, but don’t worry- I’ve got a good head on my shoulders now, partly thanks to Ren’s support, but also because of how hard you’ve worked to raise me while juggling everything else.”
“Now I know you’re giving me false praise.”
“Not at all.” Makoto shook her head. “I’ll admit you made mistakes, but that’s just part of being human. Point is you never stopped trying, you’ve always been fighting so hard for my sake, it’s made me want to do everything I can to make sure you don’t regret keeping me around.”
“I’ve never regretted it.” A smile of resignation, but also of genuine affection, spread across Sae’s face as she looked into Makoto’s hopeful eyes. She reached up to gently caress the younger Niijima’s head. “I love you Makoto.”
“I love you too Sis… Heh, it’s a bit embarrassing saying that with Ren watching.”
“How do you think I feel?” Sae laughed, fighting back a blush spreading across her cheeks.
Ren decided to stay silent, happy to hang back and let the sisters have their moment together. Sae stood back up.
“Amamiya-kun.”
“Y-yes Ma’am?”
“From what I know of you, you do seem to be a very earnest young man, you’ve done me, Makoto, and the world a lot of good and asked for nothing in return.”
Ren shrugged.
“I mean I get great friends in return, that’s a pretty sweet reward in my eyes.”
“Hmm… Interesting, I think I like that.” She let out a content sigh, before sharpening her gaze once more. “Know that I reserve the right to reevaluate my opinion of you later, but… for now, at least- I’ll give you my approval for a relationship with my sister. Be good to her, the approval can and will be rescinded if I feel justified in doing so.”
Ren bowed again.
“Thank you Sae-san, you won’t regret this, I promise.”
Sae nodded.
“Good.”
Ren breathed an immense sigh of relief.
“I’m really lucky guy, to have such a wonderful girlfriend, and for her to have such a caring sister.”
“Mm.”
He rubbed the back of his head.
“I’d like to stay longer, but I’m supposed to be running the café, I barely had time to lock up before we lef—” He froze when he felt Sae’s hand gripping his shoulder once more.
“Now explain the public sex incident at your school festival.”
Ren stared back at her in silence for several long, pregnant moments. He gazed upwards wistfully, a serene smile on his face.
“Makoto and I have always had eachother’s backs. Though we both entered this relationship lacking in experience, we’re both dedicated to helping eachother learn at a pace that is comfortable for the both of us. Whatever challenges await us- whether they be from within our relationship or from the world around us- we’ll each stand by the other and work through them with the power of open and honest communication.”
“That’s nice. Explain the festival sex incident.”
Silence.
“While the team may have called me the leader, in truth both me and Makoto filled that role. We’ve all fought through some truly harrowing battles, but so long as we had eachother, we were able to lead everyone through without any losses. We each balance the other out to create the perfect leader as a duo.”
“Understood. Festival incident.”
“…”
“…”
Ren tried to make a break for it, but was harshly yanked back by his shoulder- even managing to be lifted off the ground for a moment.
“COME ON! We already resolved this, didn’t we?”
“No, you changed the subject to the fact that the two of you were dating, and we resolved that. That doesn’t explain why you fucked her in front of all her peers and made her the unwilling star of a movie even most underground AV studios would blush at.”
“I told you, it’s just something that happens in relationships.”
“No it isn’t.”
“How do you know?”
Sae’s grip tightened, were Ren not wearing his jacket- it’s likely her fingers would have drawn blood. He didn’t dare look back at her; seemed like he accidentally hit a sensitive spot…
“Sis, please.” Makoto grabbed her hand, holding it with both of hers. “Look, there’s really nothing to tell. Ren was trialling the nudist program that day, I was called up on stage as part of a student event. They asked me some awkward questions related to the thieves, and Ren leapt up on stage to distract everyone…”
Sae looked back at her in disbelief (though she didn’t loosen her grip on Ren, lest he try to run away again).
“So he had sex with you… as a distraction?”
“N-no… he um… he just did this big p-public confession of l-love routine to take everyone’s mind off of the questions.” Makoto averted her eyes, once again fighting a blush and losing. “He brought me into his arms, but he was still naked, and so was I- obviously- and everyone was looking so I… w-wanted to go a little further.”
“Go further? But… why?”
“B-because…” Makoto hung her head so low it looked as if she was trying to bury her face in her own chest. “I… I um… I get t-turned on when people look at me like that…”
“Like…”
“In a… a sexual way…”
“You mean…” Sae finally released Ren, though he still didn’t think it was a good idea to try and run. “You really are an exhibitionist?”
Makoto kept her eyes firmly on her feet, and silently nodded.
“Oh… I see…” Sae vacantly scratched her head, staring off into the middle distance. “I suppose I shouldn’t be as surprised by that as I am, but…”
“I’m sorry Sis…”
“No, no. It’s not something to apologize for.” Sae shook her head, her eyes still wide in shock. “It just wasn’t something I expected of you. I guess part of growing up means developing sexual urges, and with those come fetishes, though this is much more extreme than I would expect…” Her arms were hanging limply by her sides. “I guess you really aren’t a child anymore.”
“I’m sorry, I know I made a mistake broadcasting it like that. I don’t want to hurt your reputation.”
“Don’t worry about that. I want whatever will make you happiest… but just… stay safe- that’s even more important. If anyone tries to make it a problem towards me I’ll deal with them myself, it’s fine.”
“Can you really… really accept me like this?”
“I… of course I can Makoto. This won’t change the fact that I love you… I just… need some time to process this information.”
“Uh…” Makoto watched as Sae slowly plodded past her, her eyes glazed over, staring up into nothing as she made her way down the hall and towards her room. She turned back to Ren. “I think that means we’re okay?”
“It seems like it.” Ren rubbed his sore shoulder. “Is she gonna be okay though?”
“I think so.” Makoto laughed nervously. “I suppose it would be a bit shocking to learn her sister is… well… a bit of a freak.”
“I wouldn’t call you a freak.”
“There are only so many words you can use to describe a woman who asks her boyfriend to have sex with her on stage.”
Ren decided he was better off leaving that alone.
“Would you feel like I was ditching you if I head back now?”
“Are you scared of her having a sudden change of heart?”
“Yes.”
“Fair. I mean I think she’ll be fine now, but I think it’s fair to be worried.” She smiled. “I can handle it from here.”
“Thanks Mako. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Ren gently kissed her before leaving the apartment, gently closing the front door behind him, and sprinting for the elevator as fast as his legs would carry him.
PPSST True Final Boss round results: VICTORY
“Shut up Morgana…”
~ ~ ~
It was only once Ren stepped off of the train in Shibuya- and wasn’t suddenly attacked from behind by a prosecutor- that he breathed a sigh of relief.
“I feel like I’m going to be sick from all this shaking…”
“Sorry Morgana.”
“I understand, even I was scared for you in there.”
“Still, I’ll buy us some tuna before we head back, I think surviving that deserves a celebration anyway.”
“I won’t argue with that!”
Ren made his way out of the subway and into the square; even in a congested city like this, he felt more grateful than ever to enjoy the simple pleasure of breathing in the crisp, outdoor air. Gratitude born from being free from prison of course, not his survival today- he was happy to just try and forget that even happened.
As he walked through the square, Morgana noticed someone wandering not too far away from them.
“Huh, Ryuji’s here?”
“Oh, what a coincidence. You don’t mind if I invite him along?”
“Ehh…”
“Don’t be like that Morgana.”
“I didn’t say anything. I’m fine with him coming.”
“Cool.” Ren waved and called out to his friend. “Yo, Ryuji!”
Strangely, the boy didn’t respond, it seemed as if he didn’t notice them at all.
“Weird…”
Ryuji stumbled forwards with uneven steps, accidentally brushing his shoulder against the wall. He stared at his hand a while, then raised it up- letting his fingertips trail down the window of the convenience store (seriously disturbing the woman working behind the counter at the time, who tried to pretend not to notice him).
Ren and Morgana exchanged a look, then approached.
“Uh… Ryuji man? You good?”
Still no response, even when standing right next to him. Ren tapped him a couple times on the shoulder.
“Ryuji?”
“Whuh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh uh…” Ryuji shook his head- as if trying to wake himself up. “Nuffin’s wrong, I’m good.”
“You sure? You seemed pretty out of it.”
“I’m just a bit…” He trailed off.
“A bit… what?”
“I uh… spent the night with Haru?”
“Oh? …OH?” Ren’s eyes went wide. “You mean you two…?”
“Yeah.” Ryuji gently nodded, still seeming as if he was in a daze. “We uh… made sex?” He scratched his head.
“Oh nice, was it good?”
“Uh… yeah, it was good… really good, like… wow…”
Ren laughed.
“Sweet man. So you two are a couple now?”
“I think so?”
“You think so?”
“Yeah… We um…”
Ren waited for Ryuji to finish, but when it became clear that he wasn’t going to he just shrugged.
“Well that’s good to hear. I hope you two will be happy together, I’ll be rooting for you both, make sure to be good to her- okay?”
“I think so…”
“You…?” Ren sighed.
“What a bonehead.”
Ryuji ignored Morgana’s quip, maybe he didn’t even hear it at all, too busy staring into space with his mouth agape.
“Well… me and Morgana were gonna get some sushi together, you wanna come? I’m paying.”
“Sushi? N-nah… I’ve had enough fish for a while.”
“What?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Well… We’ll see you later Ryuji, I guess?”
“Uh-huh…”
Ren- with a small amount of concern still lingering- stepped aside so Ryuji could aimlessly wander past him. He watched the boy for a while, before deciding to turn around and walk away without another word.
Chapter 106: Perfect attendants award
Summary:
An afternoon outing is just what we need
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Ren returning to school was an… odd experience. From the world’s perspective he had been absent since before Christmas, but for him, the thieves, and Eiko he had been attending as normal up until the beginning of February. He played it casual, acting as if he never disappeared at all- it’s not as if people really paid attention to him since the rumors died down anyway.
At least that was the expectation; he had more fame here than he realized, partially due to the lingering appeal of his (unearned) ‘bad boy’ reputation, but mostly as ‘that guy who the nudists are always hanging around’ (presumably having sex with the most famous nudist in full public view also contributed to his notoriety, if I had to guess…)
A few students were curious enough to approach him for questioning between classes:
“What was the ‘family emergency’ you got called away for?”
“Are the rumors about you going to prison true?”
“Was it a family member in prison?”
“Did you know that some students started a conspiracy theory that you’re a Phantom Thief?”
“How the fuck did you get Risette to give you a shout-out?”
“Is public sex something you’re only willing to do for the student council president or…?”
Needless to say, he didn’t want to say anything to put himself or the other thieves in jeopardy, but it was unlikely he’d even have the chance to answer any of these questions considering how rapidly they were being thrown his way.
“Bing bong bong bing.” A familiar voice echoed from above, calling through the school’s (non-existent) PA system. “Would second-year transfer student and trickster- Ren Amamiya- please report to the nurse’s office at his earliest convenience. That’s Ren Amamiya to the nurse’s office as soon as possible please. Thank you. Bong bong bing bong.”
Ren sighed, he was pretty sure Makoto had already told Lavenza not to summon them like this; the magic voice was more than a little confusing and distressing to the rest of the student body. But on this occasion at least he was grateful for it, it gave him a very convenient opportunity to escape from this interrogation (something he had had enough of for an entire lifetime).
“Well, you heard the lady, question time is over- we’ll resume this in… hopefully never. Later.”
And with that, he slung his Mona-bag over his shoulder, and forced his way through the disappointed crowd. He made a mental note to check with Makoto later to make sure they didn’t move on to try and grill her instead; he could take it- and he knew she could too- but the idea of people bothering her irked him so much more than people bothering him directly.
“I wouldn’t worry too much Joker.” Morgana poked his head out of the bag. “Knowing what Shujin students are like, they’re just excited because of the idol shout-out, they’ll get bored pretty quickly as soon as the next piece of gossip springs up. You and Queen won’t have to tolerate this for long.”
“You’re probably right. It’s not so bad once you know how to deal with it.” He wouldn’t admit it, but a small part of him did enjoy the attention, he made another mental note to act extra smug while next hanging around Makoto for the sake of their onlookers.
Though he could think about that later; bringing his mind back into the present, he wondered why Lavenza would be calling him here of all places. With Maruki’s grip on the world well and truly shattered (and the connection between the real world and metaverse weakened) she no longer had any purpose remaining here ‘undercover’; he assumed that would have been undone along with everything else after their victory, but evidently not.
Still, the only way to know for sure was to ask her directly. He passed through the door to the nurse’s office, finding Lavenza sat atop one of the high stools, in her regular blue dress rather than her store bought nurse ‘uniform’, absentmindedly swinging her legs in the open air in front of her.
“Ah, you’re here my trickster. Prompt as always.” She smiled at him warmly.
“The timing was pretty convenient, that’s all.” He shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d still be here.”
Her air of whimsy faded pretty quickly, her expression becoming more somber.
“I’m afraid I won’t be here for much longer. Your battle is over, and my role- too- is nearing its end.”
“O-oh…” Ren took the seat closest to her. “That’s um… I didn’t really think of it like that.”
“Our role is to guide tricksters like yourself through their journey, fostering their growth and leading them to freedom from the forces who would seek to suppress humanity’s potential.” She sat upright, her smile returning. “You have fulfilled your role splendidly; I would dare to even call it ‘perfect’. Words cannot express how proud I am to have you be my trickster.”
“Geez…” Ren bashfully ruffled his hair. “I’m not used to this kind of praise.”
“I think that’s a shame. You’ve become a wonderful young man.” She hopped down from her seat, then standing on her tip-toes to enthusiastically pet his head. “Well done.”
The gesture filled Ren with a level of inner-warmth that would- frankly- be embarrassing to admit to; he made no effort to resist, secretly wanting this to last as long as possible. Still, Lavenza did eventually pull away again; he tried not to look too disappointed.
“That said, while this will be my last day as this school’s nurse, the doors to the Velvet room will persist a while longer, so the time to say ‘goodbye’ and for you to leave the nest is not here yet.”
Morgana hopped out of the bag and onto the table.
“Don’t worry, he’ll still have me to keep an eye on him. I’ll make sure he never steps too far out of line.”
Ren let out a good-natured scoff.
“I guess there are certain things I’ll never escape from.”
“Nyeheh~”
Lavenza gently scratched Morgana’s ears, which the notcat was more than happy to lean into. It was a matter of pride for him that he never audibly purred- only cats do that- but on this occasion he just couldn’t help himself. Thankfully even if Ren was the type to tease him about it- he was in too warm a mood to do so.
“My Trickster, I actually called you today not to give news of my imminent departure, but to ask a favor of you.”
“Oh?” Ren sat upright. “Of course, anything you need.”
She tilted her head.
“Would it be at all possible for you to keep your schedule free afterschool tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? Yeah, sure, I can do that. What’s up though?”
“Nothing is ‘up’, per say, I was just thinking about how the time I have left to explore this world is limited. When I was split into two, you indulged my two halves in much the same way; I merely wish for a repeat.”
Ren grew tense.
“With you or the twins?”
“With me, as myself.”
“Oh thank god…” He let go of the breath he was holding. Before clearing his throat and hastily regaining his composure. “Sure, sounds like fun, I’ll take you wherever. Besides, it’ll be nice to have some time together doing something that doesn’t involve the world ending or some shit.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Lavenza seemed to shine with joy as she happily brought her hands together, literally shine- Ren was a little worried about other students peeking in and seeing her casually leaking magic here in the real world, but thankfully she seemed to calm down and recompose herself fairly quickly. “Then we shall meet outside the gate to the Velvet room as soon as you are done with your daily school duties; I trust you remember where it is?”
“Mm, just outside the model gun store. I’ll let Makoto know I’ll be busy that day.”
“Excellent. In the meantime, I must report to the faculty office and hand in my resignation; Master would be disappointed in me if I didn’t respect proper procedure. I must admit, I’m going to miss this role a little. I never knew the healing power that patting heads and handing out lollipops could have in this world, it’s truly fascinating.”
“I think they’re gonna miss you more…”
~ ~ ~
Ren decided to leave Morgana in Futaba’s care the next day (well, it was the other way around- who are we kidding?) while he travelled out to Shibuya. He had no specific plans of where to take Lavenza; back when he was babysitting the twins they’d request something specific beforehand, almost invariably be disappointed, and dole out some unjustified justice on him. They did at least enjoy Sojiro and his curry, ‘Boss’ was just that much more of a people person it seemed. Ren wasn’t sure if he wanted kids yet, but at least he knew that no child of his would ever be as much of a problem as those two girls.
Despite being the same in a very technical sense, the twins and Lavenza were like night and day; he had much more faith in having a pleasant time with the much more mature and kind-hearted- but still diminutive- blue lady.
He turned into the alleyway, even now that the metaverse and nav were gone, the distinctive blue barred doorway to the velvet room seemed to be stubbornly persisting, which was nice. However, Ren immediately noticed the distinct lack of Lavenza waiting outside for him like she usually did.
‘Is she waiting inside?’ He thought to himself. ‘Maybe with the connection fading she doesn’t want to burn her time outside too quickly? It’d make sense, but then again, I have absolutely no idea if it works like that…’
He decided to have a very brief look around before entering, it could have been as simple as Lavenza stepping away for a moment to look at something, maybe becoming curious about the model gun store? He glanced around the corner to the store and saw nothing.
‘Worth checking, I guess, but she’s not the type to hide. I’ll just head inside to pick her up.’
As he turned back around, he nearly collided with a woman standing between him and the door.
“W-woah! Sorry, I should have looked where I was…
He trailed off mid-sentence, the woman didn’t react to him nearly walking right into her, instead seeming absolutely fascinated by him. She leant forwards- with a complete disregard to his personal space- humming to herself as she scanned him from head to toe with the upmost scrutiny.
“He doesn’t look all too remarkable…”
“Huh?” Ren was very much split between being utterly baffled by her sudden approach, and being taken aback by her being clad in naught but an odd hat. Makoto had told him that the nudist programs restriction to Shujin and Kosei had been lifted in his absence, so he could only assume this was just a stranger who had leapt upon the opportunity? It actually felt a little weird for there to be a nudist he didn’t know, but that had honestly been something of a contrivance up until now anyway.
“You know as well as I that looks can be deceiving, Sister.” And she wasn’t alone it seemed. An equally nude man seemed to emerge from Ren’s blind spot, and began analysing him with the just the same level of intrigue (and lack of allowance for breathing room).
They had a strange way of speaking, just seeming ever so slightly ‘off’ in a way he couldn’t quite pin down. Ren began to think they may be foreigners on vacation in Tokyo, who also apparently signed onto the program? He wondered if foreigners were even allowed to sign up like that- especially so quickly; but then again- given how loose and poorly defined the actual law behind the nudist program has always been- he couldn’t rule it out. It might explain how forward they were being with their curiosity, he didn’t want to get into a ‘here in Japan we respect personal space’ lecture, so he just decided to be patient with them and endure. And of course none of this explained the sibling’s apparent shared fondness of unusual hats.
“There’s no need to crowd around the boy, his worth will become clear soon.”
Okay now Ren was getting a little worried, with this other nude woman watching him with narrow eyes and openly musing about his ‘worth’. Ren considered himself an open-minded guy, but he had the distinct feeling whatever ‘tests’ this strange family had in mind would be uncomfortable for him- at best, outright life threatening at worst.
As he started making plans for escape, he paused. This third person didn’t follow the hat trend, but she wore a fairly reserved headband- and much more importantly, all their headwear was the same familiar shade of blue; paired with their silver hair and yellow eyes, a possibility arose in his mind…
“Wait a second, you three wouldn’t happen to be with…”
“Goodness grief…” Lavenza came to the rescue, gently pushing away the siblings to give Ren some much needed space. “Honestly, I step away for merely a moment and you seek to intimidate him?”
“That was not my intention.” The man brought a hand to his chest as he bowed. “My humblest apologies.”
Lavenza sighed.
“I’m sorry my trickster, were my siblings bothering you?”
“Siblings?”
“Mm. Allow me to introduce them: Elizabeth…”
“It is quite the pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Theodore…”
“As you are Lavenza’s guest, you may call me ‘Theo’, if it pleases you.”
“And Margaret.”
“Lavenza has told us much about you.” Margaret smirked. “Since her halves were reunited, she has done nothing but brag about you.”
Lavenza quickly turned away before Ren could see her blush, a blush that seemed to extend to Ren himself.
“Uh… nice to meet you all? I’m Ren Amamiya.” He looked down at Lavenza. “Okay so- a couple things- first you didn’t tell me you were bringing along your family.”
“I mentioned my outing today with them, and they wished to join me. It’s not often we get to explore the human world- you see.” Her brow dropped. “Should I not have? I do not wish to cause you inconvenience.”
“Nah it’s fine, I don’t mind or anything, it’s just a surprise. But uh… second thing- why are you all naked?”
Lavenza proudly huffed, grinning as she puffed out her bare chest.
“That was my suggestion, we all found this new trend greatly fascinating and wished to partake!”
“Uhh…”
“Indeed.” Margaret nodded. “Humans are all of a similar power level, and cannot display said power the same way other beings can, so they use all manner of garments and accessories to exert their status to others.”
“But now they have turned the act of forsaking all such indicators of status into a status symbol all its own. Oho~” Elizabeth bounced in place excitedly. “How truly devious indeed…”
“I see…” Ren noticed a few people from the main street already noticing the new collection of unusual nudists gathered around him. People were giving him strange looks- which he was normally used to- but they were a bit more pronounced than usual; he assumed this was at least partly due to the fact that out of all of them- Lavenza was the one sticking closest to him. “Look I get you guys want to fit in, see what it's like and whatever, but unless you’re actually registered, walking around nude is still considered a crime.”
“Worry not.” Lavenza held up a piece of paper she pulled from somewhere, and handed it to Ren.
He read aloud.
“This hereby certifies that Lavenza Amamiya and her siblings are undertaking a trial run of the nudist program, and thus do not require arresting…”
Lavenza nodded, glowing with pride.
“I had Master write us another note, I made sure he included a surname this time. Using yours seemed most appropriate.”
“Oh geez…”
“Could I trouble you to hold onto that? I’m afraid I’m currently lacking in pockets.”
“Then where did you—nevermind.” Ren groaned as he shoved the note in his blazer pocket. “We’ll just play it cool and hope no one asks…”
“Very well.” Theodore clenched his fist in determination. “Playing ‘it cool’ is the way to proceed without incident, as avatars of power that should fall well within our capabilities. What are the rules?”
“Rules?”
“How does one play ‘it cool’?”
Ren could tell this was going to be a long afternoon.
“So where did you want to go first Lavenza?”
“My siblings and I discussed, and our curiosity is piqued by the underground marketplace.”
“…The mall?”
“They call it a ‘mall’, do they?” Margaret was full of suspicion. “One can only wonder what manners of nefarious practices would be taking place when they’ve hidden their operations beneath the earth’s surface.”
“It’s not as shady as you might be thinking… Whatever, the square is right here, we can get in through the subway entrance there.”
“They’re hiding in plain sight?” Elizabeth’s eyes went wide. “A daring strategy!”
“Y-yeah, follow me, don’t get lost in the crowd.”
“Ah, good point my Trickster.” Lavenza nodded, a serious look on her face. “This is a capital city; the overwhelming crowds were strong enough to even determine the shape of Mementos after all. We best protect against it. Everyone hold hands!”
“I guess that’s not a terrible id—huh?” Before he could even finish his sentence, he felt the attendant take a firm hold of his hand and begin pulling him along behind her. It wasn’t painful at all, but her strength defying her small build meant he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to.
“I shall hold yours; it is only right.”
“Hmm… actually are you sure this is necessary?”
“Safety is paramount, you can no longer rely on your powers as a persona user here, but fear not, I shall keep you safe as we brave these crowds; you need not worry so long as you hold onto me.”
“Ehh…” The weird, disapproving looks, yeah they were at their worst. It’s not as if Ren didn’t understand why; being with a girl looking like Lavenza, completely nude, pulling him along by the hand… He used his free hand to cover some of his face as he walked, for what little damage control/ comfort that would offer.
He briefly looked back at the others. Margaret was standing between the two other siblings, holding one of their hands each, while they reached across her front to keep their other hands connected. They shuffled together as a unit, with expressions of determination (Margaret), giddy enjoyment (Elizabeth), and a certain mixture of both (Theodore).
Ren wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable candid pictures of today’s outing appearing on social media…
~ ~ ~
“We really are standing out.”
“Of course Brother, that is a necessity when partaking in such a program.” Elizabeth raised her finger into the air- in a gesture necessary for any good instructor or educator, probably… “We are making our visages all the more notable by reducing them to their purest form, drawing attention is only natural.”
“I suppose humanity has indeed forgotten their own shape, for them to be fascinated so. Although?”
“Something the matter?”
Theodore’s brow furrowed.
“I must admit, it really is quite an unusual feeling, for everything to be… hanging to freely; it makes me rather nervous.”
“There is no need to worry, Brother. For those in the program, the proud display of one’s genitals is considered a move of great power.”
“Ah, so much like Suzaku would proudly flaunt it’s illustrious feathers?”
“I was thinking just the same thing!” Elizabeth stopped right in the middle of the subway hallway at the bottom of the first flight of stairs. She widened her stance as much as she was able, and used her hands to push her hips forward, straining her back slightly. “Behold!”
“Ah, I see!” Theodore copied her posture. “Like this?”
“Indeed! We are truly ‘strutting our stuff’. Do you not agree, Sister?”
“Hmph.” Margaret scoffed, a smug smirk on her face. She stepped to the side- near the wall- and lifted one of her legs high into the air, holding it aloft with her hand for a standing split. “Amateurs. This is clearly the superior stance; it allows the populace a much clearer view.” Said ‘populace’ was very appreciative of her efforts as they walked past, at least those not too flustered to just pretend not to look.
“Gosh! You’re right!”
“That’s our eldest sister for you.”
Lavenza gasped, before turning to Ren, both of her fists pumped in determination.
“My trickster, I require your assistance to surpass her; please- hold me up by my thighs!”
“I’m not doing that.” Ren was still trying not to look in the direction of people with cameras, keeping his face out of view as much as possible. “We best keep moving, we’re holding up foot traffic.”
“Understood.” Lavenza nodded. “Come along everyone, we must make haste!”
Ren led the group to the stairs, descending into the subway proper, where the entrance to the underground mall was but a stone’s throw away.
“Hold!” Margaret called out from above. “These stairs, they’re moving?”
“You mean the escalator?”
“Breathing life into the very stairs themselves; is this how the mall’s location has been kept secure despite the entrance being so public?”
“I mean there are some normal stairs right next to them if you prefer? They’re not a trap or anything…”
“But can you be certain of that?”
“Fear not.” Theodore stepped forward. “I have conquered just such a contraption before; one could regard me as an expert on the subject. You need merely follow my lead.”
He stepped confidently onto the escalator, holding his arms aloft with pride as he slowly descended, before stepping off, spinning around, and shooting his elder sister an overwhelmingly smug look.
Still visibly uncomfortable, Margaret gathered her resolve and hopped onto the top step. She nearly fell over in a panic from the sensation of the cold metal ground moving under her bare feet. She clung to both handrails with shaking hands, her face strained and knees wobbling as she sunk deeper into the subway, before leaping off at the bottom and hiding behind Ren, peeking over his shoulder.
“What an evil machine…”
“Y-you’ll get used to it… probably.”
Lavenza had just used the regular, unmoving stairway without any fuss, so Ren turned his attention to the final attendant. With giddy abandon, she was rushing down the ‘up’ escalator- not really getting anywhere- with pure joy and excitement on her face. The velvet room attendants had done a lot of unusual things since arriving, but this wasn’t one of them; Ren could relate to Elizabeth’s desires 100% in this moment, and secretly wished he could join her.
On the other hand though, quite a few commuters wanted to use the up escalator for it’s intended purpose, and were being forced to wait for Elizabeth’s little game to end. Coming back to that first hand though- they didn’t seem too bothered waiting, given that her fruitless ‘descent’ had the side effect of her breasts shaking rapidly up and down, which was a show worth sticking around for.
Ren still wondered how long he should let this go on for, when Elizabeth misjudged her next step, slipping. Panic gripped Ren and the rest of the audience as she tumbled forwards towards the ground. He reached out to try and catch her, but wasn’t quick enough; she tumbled down and slammed down into the ground- face first- with an impact that shattered multiple floor tiles, sending a small shockwave through the subway terminal, the lights momentarily flickering.
“What was that noise?”
“Was that an earthquake?”
“Worry about that later! Call an ambulance!”
Before people could start dialling, Elizabeth sat up, falling back onto her bottom with an annoyed look on her face.
“Drat. I failed the challenge.”
Ren looked around at the crowd, muttering to eachother in confusion; eyes shifting between Elizabeth, eachother, and the huge dent in the floor. Ren rushed to her side, grabbing her wrist.
“N-nevermind that, the stores will close if we don’t hurry up!” They wouldn’t, they had plenty of time, but moving on before people start asking awkward questions (or charging Elizabeth with vandalism) seemed like a prudent course of action. Thankfully, the attendants were happy enough to go along with it without a fuss.
~ ~ ~
“So you guys looking to buy anything in particular?” Ren asked.
“Hmm…” Lavenza pondered as she scanned the storefronts around her, or rather- tried to. “Oh dear, the crowds are much too thick; I can scarcely catch more than a glimpse of any of the mercantile establishments.”
“Yeah, it can be like that sometimes.”
“Ah.” Lavenza smiled up at him. “I have an idea.”
And moments later, she was sat atop Ren’s shoulders, bringing her hand to her brow like a sailor trying to spot distant land. Meanwhile Ren tried to ignore the feeling of her thighs either side of his head, and kept his head down trying not to think about people looking.
‘It’s okay man, if you ignore them, they can’t hurt you…’
“Your hair is rather ticklish, Trickster.”
“You’re not helping!”
“Ah.” Lavenza spotted a target. “Jewellery. Humans have long understood the significance of wearing such minerals. That’ll make a perfect souvenir for today.”
Ren- with great relief- let her back down to ground level.
“You sure you have the cash for that?”
“We prepared a budget ahead of time.” Elizabeth answered for her. She pulled out her purse- somehow- and jingled it. “After much consideration, I decided that nine million, seven hundred and fifty-six thousand, four hundred and twenty-three yen would be a sufficient budget for a day’s outing such as this.”
“Oh dear, I only brought six million, eight hundred and ninety-nine thousand, one hundred and two yen…” Theodore looked to Ren, deeply concerned. “Do you think that’ll be sufficient?”
Ren blinked a couple times.
“What you lookin’ to get?”
“I must admit I am most fascinated by those Jack Frost dolls over yonder.”
“…They’re six hundred yen each.”
“Hmm… so I’ll be able to afford just eleven thousand, four hundred and ninety-eight of them?” He mumbled under his breath a while, before nodding, satisfied. “Yes, that should be enough.”
Ren looked to the shelf.
“I think they have six of them for sale.”
“O-oh…” Theodores shoulders sagged pitifully.
Ren let out a tired sigh.
“I’ll ask if they have any more in storage for you.”
“Ah! Would you? Thank you so much! Lavenza was right, you truly are a remarkable guest, I would even go so far as to say you’re the second most remarkable guest the velvet room has ever hosted. No one will ever quite top her.”
Ren noticed Elizabeth decisively nodding just behind him. He considered asking the obvious question, but decided it probably wasn’t worth it, at least not when he noticed Lavenza in the jewellery store, diamond encrusted brooch in one hand, glowing mass of energy in the other, preparing to smash them together.
“Megidol—”
“HOLD UP!”
Ren rushed over just in time, wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her up off the ground. She dropped the brooch onto the floor, but otherwise didn’t seem too distressed suddenly finding herself being carried under his arm, her limbs hanging limply downwards.
“Sorry, sorry.” Ren apologized to the store employee and the few well-to-do customers as he carried her outside.
She turned her head as best as she could to look at him.
“Did something happen?”
“What the hell were you doing?” He hissed down at her.
“I just noticed that not a single one of these items contained even the slightest hint of mana, I just wished to add some with a spell or two before I purchased.”
“Huh?”
“They contained no mana?” Margaret suddenly started to emanate a rather worrying aura. “What other purpose do jewels even have if not to hold the magic power to boost the wearer’s abilities?”
“I mean… they did do that in the metaverse I guess…”
“Is that what they told you?” She shook her head. “So even a Trickster can fall victim to the placebo effect?”
“Isn’t that literally what cognition is?” Ren suddenly felt a great weight on his back, he found himself unwillingly giving a piggyback ride to… “Theo?”
“I have good news! You need no longer trouble yourself asking about the dolls, I already did so myself! They had another six in the back, so I was able to walk away with twelve in total!”
“Good for you. Wh-where are they?”
“I put them in my bag, of course.”
“Wh… what bag?” Ren asked, not sure he even wanted the answer. “Actually- more importantly- what does this have to do with you jumping on my back?”
“I was just feeling so grateful to you. I initially had my hopes dashed for acquiring eleven thousand, four hundred and ninety-eight, but upon purchase I noticed that diminishing returns for my joy kicked in as early as nine purchases in; my initial hopes would have been so wasteful.”
“No kidding…”
“And I noticed my sister riding atop your shoulders a few moments ago, I figured it’d be a great way to show my appreciation, but alas I am too large to fit on your shoulders, so I thought your back would suffice. Did I overstep?”
“That’s an understatement…”
The aura emanating from Magaret intensified, and seemed to coalesce around her left hand as she stepped towards the jewellery store. Still struggling with the weight of two velvet attendants, Ren reached forwards to grab the third by the wrist.
“Woah there, what are you doing?”
“This mall truly is ‘underground’ if they are selling such useless, fraudulent goods at such exorbitant prices- to a valued guest no less. I would be remiss if I didn’t have words with them.”
“No no, there’s no need for that.” Ren smiled at her nervously. “Just uh… leave it to me- I’ll handle it later, don’t want to spoil your visit, right? Let’s just head somewhere else for now, okay?”
Margaret’s brow furrowed in frustration, but Ren could at least tell she was considering backing down. Meanwhile Elizabeth had just barely lost interest in evaluating the hockey sticks in the sports centre window for their viability as weapons, and returned to see Ren restraining three unique attendants in three unique ways.
“Is this some sort of game? Is this ‘it cool’?”
Ren looked at her with a desperate look.
“Elizabeth, help?”
“Help? Oh, you wish for my contribution too?”
“Huh?”
“Hmm… if Theodore already has your back, then all that’s left for me is…”
“No no no, don’t you—”
Elizabeth leapt up towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his waist (Theodore letting out a pained wheeze as her feet slapped his sides) and she giggled joyfully holding onto the boy’s front as he stumbled back, a face twisted in shock and embarrassment.
“Such a queer game, but an enjoyable one to be sure!”
“Get off…” Ren’s voice (and everything else) was strained.
“Would you mind if I tried being the one holding everyone else next?”
“Please…” He groaned. “Let’s just go…”
“Very well.” Lavenza nodded. “There are still things I’m curious about.”
“I can never show my face in public again…”
~ ~ ~
Ren breathed a sigh of relief once they had left the underground mall, and entered the arcade on the main street. It was still a little crowded in here, but not to the extent of the mall.
“A whole gallery of challenges for us to overcome?” Lavenza marvelled at all the brightly lit and colorful machines. “We may need to split the workload between us to finish in time.”
“You don’t need to play them all.” Ren waved his hand. “They’re all just for fun, we can play whichever one seems most interesting to you.”
“We have free reign here?” Elizabeth’s grin grew wide. “In that case, the choice is obvious!”
She rushed off, Ren’s anxiety levels rose once more, but settled down again when he noticed she was just interested in the DDR machine.
“Our previous competition may not have settled who has the most remarkable guest, but we can at least compete with our own dancing skills here.”
“Previous competition?” Ren looked to Lavenza, who just sighed.
“It’s okay, I know you’re not able to remember.”
“Hm?”
Lavenza brought her hands together with renewed optimism.
“It would appear the machine will accommodate two challengers at once. I’d very much like it if you would join me upon the stage.”
Ren saw that the current two players had just finished their run. He smiled at Lavenza, and nodded.
“It’s showtime.”
The pair took their positions on the dancepads. The other attendants sat back to enjoy the show, as did most of the arcade’s occupants. As Ren picked a song for them, they were already becoming the centre of attention in anticipation of their performance (we’ll be charitable and assume ‘naked girl about to dance’ had very little to do with it).
“You have to press the arrows that match the symbols rising up, press them right as they overlap with the outlines, okay?”
“So it is a test of precision and speed? Understood.”
The machine leapt to life with an explosion of light and sound. It took Lavenza a moment to understand the mechanics, but quickly got into the groove alongside her ‘Trickster’. The two performers giving their bodies over to the music, letting their instincts drive their passionate and energetic movements.
It was times like this where all the stress and anxiety Ren was experiencing would seem to fade away into nothingness, like shadows being snuffed out by the light of a roaring flame. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and soon the whole arcade was cheering, clapping along to the beat. Elizabeth and Theodore mimicked the dancers’ movements, Margaret studied the screen with overwhelming intensity- committing every single arrow to memory.
Ren looked over to Lavenza; it was wonderful to see her full of such joy, not to mention showing a level of high-energy he normally wouldn’t associate with her. She even took the time to glance back, cheering him on while maintaining her own performance.
She was having the time of her life; despite all the stress Ren had dealt with today, that alone made it all worth it.
With the final notes closing in, Ren spun in place, making sure to end with a flourish, throwing his arm into the air in triumph.
“Player 1 loses. D-rank.”
Ren held his pose for a few seconds more, before dejectedly stepping off of the machine.
“Yeah, I’ve never been very good at these things.”
“It’s okay, don’t fret.” Lavenza rushed over to comfort him. “I know you’re much better at this in the Metaverse.”
“Thanks, I think?”
“Me next!” Elizabeth jumped up in excitement, rushing forward to take Ren’s spot. “Time for everyone to witness the Velvet room’s master of dance!”
Margaret took player 2’s spot without a word, radiating a silent confidence that threatened to crush all who would dare approach.
Ren decided to just ‘shake off’ his defeat, and happily sit back to watch the next performance, stood between Theodore and Lavenza. He looked down at the latter, who smiled warmly back up at him. He let out a content sigh, petting her atop the head, before they both returned their attention to the game.
~ ~ ~
With the fun at the arcade concluded- and the initials “L I Z” firmly at the top of the leaderboard- Ren escorted the Velvet siblings back to the Velvet room’s entrance.
“Thank you very much for indulging us today my Trickster. I have learned much today, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.”
“I’m glad.” Ren nodded. “I doubt I’m ever going to forget about today, not without a lot of therapy anyway.” He laughed.
Margaret approached.
“Allow me to thank you as well, I’ve been watching you closely, and I’m beginning to see glimpses of why Lavenza thinks so highly of you.”
“Um, cool? Thanks.” Ren laughed. “I’m glad you three had fun too, it was nice meeting you.”
“The feeling is mutual. It’s certainly possible that you’re the second most remarkable guest we’ve ever had. No one will ever quite top him.”
“Come on now Margaret.” Lavenza folded her arms, looking up to her sister incredulously. “The past three guests have all been remarkable, there’s no need for petty competition over who is the ‘most remarkable guest’.”
“Hm. Perhaps you’re right.”
Lavenza waited for Margaret to step away and join the other two siblings by the door, before pulling Ren down and whispering to him.
“It’s you, you’re the most remarkable guest, obviously; but don’t tell them, they won’t understand.”
Ren sighed.
“My lips are sealed.”
“Thank you.” She planted a kiss on his cheek. “Don’t worry, this isn’t the last time we’ll meet before the Velvet room disappears. I will stay in touch until the time comes.”
A bittersweet feeling made itself known in his gut, but he nodded.
“I’ll see you later then.”
“Mm, see you later.” Lavenza waved as she and her siblings re-entered the velvet room, closing the door behind them. The doorway shimmered slightly, but still stubbornly persisted.
Exhaling, Ren slid his hands in his pockets and headed towards the station.
~ ~ ~
Makoto’s studies were brought to an abrupt halt when her phone suddenly rang. She pushed her laptop away and picked her phone up off the desk, smiling when she saw the name on the screen. She answered the call.
“Hey Ren.”
“Hey Makoto. I’m not interrupting your exam studies, am I?”
Makoto paused for a moment.
“I can recover, don’t worry.”
“I won’t keep you long. Just two quick things…”
“Oh?”
“First off, I love you.”
She was a bit caught off guard.
“That’s um… I love you too, but is that really worth calling for?”
“I think it is, don’t you?”
“…Yeah…” She smiled. “Yeah, it is.”
“Secondly, y’know how I took Lavenza out today?”
“Yes, you mentioned that.”
“Well just because I want you to hear it from me, rather than discover it yourself and misunderstand…”
“Huh?”
“If you see pictures of me online with a bunch of silver-haired people climbing all over me in the mall, that’s just Lavenza’s siblings, nothing weird is going on there, I promise. Well, I guess it is ‘weird’, just not the bad kind of weird, y’know?”
Makoto paused; she held her phone against her head using her shoulder so she could type on her laptop. After a few moments image searching she found it.
“Snrk.”
“W-was that a snort? Makoto are you laughing at me?”
“No!”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…Yes.”
“Man…”
“You’ll be a good father someday.”
“C-come again?”
“Wow- would you look at the time! I better get back to studying. Entrance exams are coming up, gotta go- love you- bye!”
“Mak—”
She hung up, grateful that no one was here to see her blush. She gently let down her phone beside her. She stared wistfully down at her notes, then looked back up at the image once more, laughing.
“The look on his face…”
Notes:
Makoto considered posting the image to the group chat, but decided against it- partially since she actually didn't want to embarrass Ren like that, but mostly because Futaba already did it for her
Also no one questioned the new temporary "nudists" since Ren was with them, it's like "Oh it's THAT guy again? Of course he has more nudist friends all of a sudden..."
Chapter 107: Study session (the real kind)
Summary:
Exams are coming up pretty quick...
Chapter Text
“Yo, Nudie Prez, I’m not interrupting a shlicking session, am I?”
“Hm?” Makoto looked up from her numerous notebooks, spread out across her desk. Since Ren’s release, she had switched almost all of her free time and focus over to studying for her entrance exams. Her life the past few months had been one long unbroken sequence of extremely urgent events demanding so much of her time or attention- often literally being life or death scenarios.
While it was of course a relief to be free of such things, she couldn’t let herself relax too much. She had done everything she could to stay on top of her studies even with the constant distractions, but she had undeniably fallen behind of where she felt she should be. Getting into Tokyo U was not quite ‘life or death’, but it was only about one notch down on the ladder of importance, being an absolutely crucial step in her life’s goal of becoming a police commissioner. With the powers of the Metaverse now lost for her, a police career was her best option for continuing to make an impact on the world and protect the innocent from all the Tsukasa’s, Kaneshiro’s, and even Shido’s of the world.
It was a long, long path ahead of her; a great many challenges to overcome and things that could go wrong, but the first major hurdle was passing these entrance exams. Sae, Ren, all of her friends around her believed in her ability to succeed, though that also came with a lot more pressure. Thankfully- as she had proven a great many times over the course of this past year- she functioned well under pressure (a vital skill for an officer to have); she knew she needed to prepare as much as possible with the short time she had left, and that’s exactly what she was doing.
With her as the only member of the student council that hadn’t been MIA since early April, the student council office offered a very reliable private area for her to study to her heart’s content (as well as conduct some discreet liaisons with her beloved boyfriend, though she had to put those temptations on hold for a little while, she very much doubted the finer points of ‘getting dicked’ would come up in the upcoming exams).
Though today’s session had been interrupted by a guest. Makoto made eye contact with Aya- poking her head in through the door.
“Nakazawa-san? Can I help you?” She did think to ask what ‘shlicking’ was, but decided against it- judging by Aya’s tone it didn’t sound like a real question anyway.
Aya closed the door behind her, taking a seat not far down from Makoto, dropping her bag down beside her, pulling out some books and a pencil case.
“You don’t mind if I study in here too, do ya?”
“Oh?” Makoto’s brow raised. “Of course, by all means.”
“Cheers Nudie Prez.”
Aya laid out a number of textbooks; while she pushed the one on advanced mathematics off to the side (happy to put it off until later), Makoto couldn’t help but notice a book of law included in there.
“Are you looking to take a law course as well?”
“Yeah, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk about too.” Aya leaned back in her chair, smirking- seeming just a tad too happy to take the excuse to put off studying that little bit longer. “We were all talking about the future and shit, and Eiko happened to mention you’re looking to become a sexy nudist cop?”
“I don’t know about the sexy part—”
“You liar.” Aya sniggered.
Makoto sighed.
“—But yes, I’m aiming to become a police officer.”
“She even said you were aiming to be police commissioner? I guess being the first Tokyo nudist wasn’t ambitious enough for ya?”
“I don’t want ‘being naked’ to be my legacy.”
“Kinda late for that. Besides, naked ladies like us are awesome, I think it’s a pretty sweet legacy.”
“Well, I don’t want it to be my only legacy.”
“I getcha.”
“I certainly won’t let my nudism hold me back from that goal. At this stage I’m fully committed to both.”
Aya absentmindedly started swinging back in her chair as she grinned at her fellow nudist.
“Hell, if anything getting naked is just gonna boost your chances. Everyone’s gonna be talking about all your successes- just to have an excuse to pay more attention to you.”
“I suppose that’s not incorrect.” Makoto’s brow furrowed. “Not sure how I feel about that. It’s hard to reconcile my desire to be seen physically with my desire for people to see past just my body.”
“I think people are better at doing both at the same time than you might think.”
“Mm.” Makoto smiled. “Yes, that’s become very clear over the past year. I’ve met so many people who can see me for me, even if they’re not subtle about ogling.”
“Heh.” Aya leant back a little further, flinching in panic when she nearly lost her balance, launching herself forwards trying to recover, and wincing slightly when her breast was slammed into the edge of the table. Before Makoto could even open her mouth to ask if she was okay, she was back to acting natural as if nothing happened, making a show of stretching skywards to keep up the veneer of relaxation. “Everyone loves the combo of sexy AF and hyper-competent. The only think we’ll really have to be careful of is the kind of troublemaker who’ll use our exposure as an excuse to… well… make trouble. Though I guess that’s what the self-defence training is for.”
Makoto tilted her head curiously at the other girl.
“’We’?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, you’re not gonna be the only nudist chick on the force.”
“You’re aiming for a police career too Aya-san?”
“Hell yeah.” Aya brushed her dirty-blonde hair back to better grin at her triumphantly, only for it to fall back over her face again moments later. “I ain’t aiming for anything as crazy as the commissioner position, but it’s still something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
“Huh. I’ll be honest Aya-san, I really didn’t take you for the type.”
“Why not? Is it the tan? It’s the tan, isn’t it?”
“What? No, I didn’t say anything about your tan.”
“That counts as profiling, you know?”
“I didn’t say anything like that!”
“Heh.” Aya was enjoying seeing her worked up like this.
As soon as Makoto realized she was being made fun of, she sighed, shaking her head.
“I just meant you always give this impression of being so laid back and carefree, and it just clashed with my mental image of an officer a little, that’s all.”
“Really now?” Aya leant back again- being much more cautious of her chair’s balance this time. “What is your mental image of an officer?”
Makoto thought a while, before fondly smiling.
“For me, the gold standard for a police officer will always be my father. Hardworking, conscientious, unflinching, no nonsense. He was fully dedicated to pursuing justice right to the very end.”
“Until the end…” Aya leant forward again, resting her forearms on the table. “He sounds like he was pretty great.”
Makoto nodded.
“He was. Very much so.”
“That’s more or less what I want to strive for too, except maybe the ‘no nonsense’ part, I want at least a little nonsense now and again, keeps things much more fun, y’know?”
“…Yeah… Yeah I agree.” Makoto thought back to all her exploits with the Phantom Thieves; they had achieved so much, and overcome unimaginable hardship and opposition; there were many terms one could use to describe the team and their dynamic, and ‘no nonsense’ definitely wasn’t one of them. Their ragtag nature had been the cause for much stress and anxiety over the course of her PT career, and she would never dream of changing a thing about it. “We’ll just keep ‘no nonsense’ as another tool on our belt for when we really need it.”
“I’m okay with that.” Aya fiddled with one of her pens. “Your Dad sounds a lot like mine. When I did see him at work he’d always seem so serious, and hard working; it’s hard not to admire it…” She lightly blushed as she spoke of him, clearly not used to being so open about these kinds of feelings. “Then again, he’s always such a goof when he’s at off duty, spoiling me and making jokes ‘n’ shit, so maybe the whole ‘serious and hard working’ thing was just him trying to show off and look cool for me?”
Makoto laughed.
“Nothing wrong with a show off, so long as he’s reliable when it counts. And so long as you’re sure not to feed his ego too much.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience Mako-chan.”
“Oh yes…” She looked to the clock, then back at their notebooks- more notably- the fact that Aya’s hadn’t even been opened yet. “I’ve really appreciated this talk, but we best focus on studying. The exams are really close now.”
Aya sighed.
“Yeah, can’t put it off forever. Still, it’s really cool to have a friend walking down the same path as me, y’know? With any luck we’ll be joining the force at the same time.”
“Maybe so.”
“I guess we’ll see a lot of eachother over the next few years- not in that way though… although~”
Makoto stared back at her, unimpressed.
“Relax Nudie Prez I’m just messing with you. I’m straight anyways… mostly.”
“’Mostly’?”
“Mostly.”
“Fair enough, I guess.” Makoto returned her attention to her notes. “Since we’re going to be facing the same subjects, let me know if there’s anything you need help with; helping teach you benefits me too.”
“Hey, I’m smarter than I look, I bet I could teach you a thing or two.”
“Maybe so.”
The girls finally got their heads down and started taking their studying session seriously, and would have been able to continue doing so longer than just five minutes if it wasn’t for another knock at the door.
“It’s open.” Makoto called out as she finished writing the sentence she was on. She looked up to see a pair of black twintails inserting themselves into the room. “Hello Mieko-san, you need something?”
Only the girl’s head seemed to poke through the partially open door, affixing her eyes on Aya.
“I’m only looking for that one.”
“Yo.”
“You’re studying?”
“Don’t act that surprised Mieko-chan, I have my responsible moments too.”
Mieko tutted.
“Bitch you told us to wait for you- we were about to head home. I figured you were just going to the bathroom or something.”
“I mean yeah, I wanted you to wait. I was only gonna study for a few hours.”
“You cheeky little…” Now she leant more of her body inside to properly scowl at her friend. “We’re not just gonna sit around doing nothing for hours.”
Makoto smiled.
“You know you could join us?”
“Ack!”
“You’ve got entrance exams coming up too after all, the more you study the better.”
“Ehh…” Mieko let out a long, drawn-out whine.
Aya snickered at her.
“C’mon, you know she’s right.”
“I do, that’s why I’m whining…”
“Quit being a little baby and sit down.”
“Ugh… fiine.” Mieko entered the room proper. “I’mma text Eiko and Ai. If I have to suffer then so do they.”
“That’s a great idea.” Makoto could scarcely stop herself bouncing in excitement, she’d never had a proper group study session before, except with the Phantom Thieves of course- but there it wouldn’t be long before everyone inevitably got distracted by something else, and she’d either focus entirely on tutoring her kouhais, or just end up studying by herself. Actually studying together with girls in her own year- all for the same exams- was a new experience, and a prospect she found rather exciting.
A sense of excitement that was decidedly not shared by the other girls, instead approaching this whole exercise with a sense of reluctant surrender.
“I’ll bring the tables out so that we have more room to work.”
~ ~ ~
“Hmm…”
“What’s the grumbling about Mako-chan?”
“I didn’t mean to grumble Ai-san. I was just texting my friend Haru asking if she wanted to join in the fun.”
“The ‘fun’, she says.” Eiko mumbled. “What’d she say?”
“That she appreciates the offer, but she’s the type who studies better alone. Which is fair, I think we’d be quite distracting.”
Ai’s gazes flicked from one pair of bare breasts to the next.
“Gee I wonder why…”
“I doubt that’s it. She’s around me all the time, I’m sure she’s used to naked flesh being on display around her. Unless we’re moving around a lot it wouldn’t distract her that easy.”
Mieko just barely managed to lift her face off of her notebook, clearly struggling with fatigue.
“Makoto you don’t seem to get that not everyone can get as ‘in the zone’ for this kinda thing as you. Normal people’s brains are constantly looking for anything to distract ourselves with; we’re fighting for our motherfuckin’ lives out here.”
“I guess I can understand that.” Makoto put her phone back into her bag. “So long as her method is what works best for her, it’s fine. I’m glad this is working for us though.”
“Mm.” Aya nodded. “I definitely wouldn’t call this fun- I think that’s just Makoto’s Stockholm syndrome talking…”
“It is fun…”
“…But I’m feelin’ pretty good about it. I get distracted way too easily by my phone when I’m trying to study by myself.”
“Preach…” Eiko exhaled. “I have to turn mine off and stuff it in a drawer to have any hope of focusing on my actual work. I hope you appreciate the sacrifices I’m making Nudie Prez. Praise me!”
Makoto smiled.
“I’m proud of your hard work Eiko. You’ve really turned things around since when I first met you. But don’t go getting complacent right before the finish line, you’re not done yet.”
“Man… Why do you have to ruin it with that last part?” Eiko groaned.
Aya snickered at her friend- only making her groan even more.
“You really do give me hope Eiko-chan.”
“For real?”
“Yeah, if you can succeed then anyone can.”
“Bitch.”
“But for real though, having friends here, all struggling through it together, sharing our strengths and all that shit? I never thought I’d say this, but it’s giving me this feeling of satisfaction.”
“You mean we’re struggling through it together while Nudie Prez uses her strength to carry us through the whole process.”
“It’s not just her Eiko-chan.”
“It might as well be. She’s so much smarter than the rest of us by a stupid-huge margin; there’s nothing we can teach her- it’s all the other way around. A younger me would have just tried to bribe her into doing it all for me.”
“I can’t take the exam for you Eiko.” Makoto chuckled. “And while I am proud of maintaining my top spot for exam results- that’s only for the overall scores. There are specific subjects where I’m consistently beaten. For example, Mieko-chan has consistently either bested or tied my score for math tests, and in English.”
“I mean that’s not really worth bragging about…” Mieko huffed. “Math is easy.”
Eiko’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s the kind of thing you say if you wanna get slapped.”
“It is though! Math is just following instructions; it’s all just basic logic you can follow step by step by applying the same processes over and over again. Anyone can do it.”
Makoto folded her arms, looking to Mieko with equal parts thoughtfulness and pride.
“Being skilled with mathematics is a necessity if you want to pursue a career in engineering after all. It’s a good sign you’re taking your dream seriously.”
Mieko finally sat upright, almost seeming offended.
“Of course I am. It’s why I put so much effort into learning English. Most of the really good motorsports are done overseas; I’m not gonna get very far if I can’t talk to anyone there.”
“How about that?” Aya leant back in her seat. “Here I was worried you weren’t thinking about it beyond ‘vroom vroom car go fast after I hit it with spanner’.”
“Of course I know there’s more to it than that.”
“And the hot guy driving the vroom vroom car.”
Mieko nodded shamelessly.
“That’s the important part, but there’s a lot of work needed to get there.”
“S-so long as you understand that.” Makoto sighed. “Point is there are fields where you guys are ahead of me, probably a lot more than you might think.”
Ai slumped in her seat.
“I hope so. I’d like this to be a ‘grass is always greener’ situation, but it’s kinda hard to believe any of us could be smarter than the turbo nerd on any academic subject, maybe ‘street smarts’ but that isn’t gonna be in the exam.”
“I don’t much appreciate being called a ‘turbo nerd’…”
“It’s a compliment.”
“Doesn’t sound like one.”
“That’s because this is the only time it’s been used as one.”
“I can believe that.”
Ai laughed.
“Still, maybe I shouldn’t worry so much. I’ve got it much easier than the rest of you. What are you all going for? A coupl’a cops, an engineer, a friggin’ politician? I’m happy sticking to the easy mode that is the beautycare industry.”
“That’s what you’re aiming for?”
“At the moment at least, Makoto-chan. It’s something I enjoy; making myself and others look pretty just… makes me happy, y’know?”
“In that case I think it’s a wonderful goal.” Makoto began pondering. “A business course will probably help whichever route you go; chemistry would also be important.”
“Chemistry? I’m not gonna be making the products myself… actually… maybe?”
Eiko leaned forwards.
“If you go the vajazzle or ‘body make up’ routes for nudists you might need to do that.”
“Vajazzle?”
“It means making your snatch look pretty, Nudie Prez.”
“Huh…”
Ai stared at the ceiling in contemplation.
“I guess even if I don’t make anything myself, it’ll look good to have… Fuck though, that means I’m going to have to become a chemistry nerd; I’ve become everything I’ve ever hated…”
“That happened the moment we decided to spend all our free time having a study party together.”
“Study party…” Makoto almost seemed to start glowing with joy. “I like that, that’s a fun term. We’re going to have a whole bunch of ‘study parties’ in the lead up to the exams.”
“I bet Nudie Prez has been dreaming of this her whole life.”
“I’ll even smuggle in some snacks for us next time.”
“Ooo, how rebellious of you Nudie Prez.”
“Don’t make fun of me…”
~ ~ ~
“So when did you even join up?”
“It very shortly after your ‘family emergency’ started Amamiya-kun.”
“Ha, so I just barely missed it?”
“You missed out man.” Ryuji laughed, before his expression quickly turned much less jovial. “I could barely appreciate it myself with everything going on back then. By the time everything calmed down again it just felt normal.”
Kawakami raised an eyebrow.
“’Appreciate it’, huh?”
“I-I didn’t mean it in a creepy way or nuffin’…”
Kawakami scoffed, trying not to smile.
“It’s fine, I’m not stupid, obviously I knew when I joined the program my life was gonna have a lot of male students lusting over me, I can deal with it.”
Ryuji rubbed his head, mumbling under his breath.
“Pretty sure they were doing that even before you got naked…”
“What was that, Sakamoto?”
“Nuffin’, didn’t say anything…”
Kawakami just rolled her eyes at him, though she’d be lying if this wasn’t at least a little confidence boost for her.
“Still, it’s good to have you back with us Amamiya-kun.”
“That’s in part thanks to you.” Ren smiled bashfully. “I was told about how hard you worked to convince the faculty to support my case.” He bowed to her. “Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”
“Hmph…” Kawakami was having a really hard time not smiling. “I’m glad you appreciate it; I don’t think I’ve ever had a student who gave be even half as much trouble as you.”
“Heh… my bad.”
“No, it’s fine. Fighting to get the school on your side is the least I can do after everything you’ve done to help me. No matter how hard things get, please never forget how many lives you’ve changed for the better with your actions.”
“I’ll do my best not to.” He put on a cheesy grin. “I promise not to cause you any more headaches as your student from now on.”
“I should hope not, the school year’s nearly over.”
Ryuji sighed.
“That’s right, he’s heading back next month, isn’t he…”
The mood around Kawakami’s desk rapidly dropped, as if a dark cloud hanging over them all had just been acknowledged.
Ren saw fit to swiftly change the subject.
“So are you adapting to the nudist program alright? No one’s giving you trouble or anything?”
“Nah, well… you get the occasional vulgar comment, and some guy occasionally tries to hit on me at one of the convenience stores near me whenever I visit, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“You sure? We don’t mind helping if he’s causing a problem.”
“Yeah.” Ryuji’s expression turned fierce. “If someone’s harassing ya, we’ll talk to ‘im!”
“Relax.” Kawakami waved her hand dismissively. “It’s just an employee fruitlessly asking me out. Poor guy seems more nervous around me than anything else.”
Ryuji grumbled.
“Well… still- lemme know if it does start lookin’ like it’ll get bad.”
“Ha, sure.”
Ren hummed aloud.
“Thinking about it, we’ve got a ton of nudists here at Shujin- more than anywhere else when you include you and Miss Chouno. But all the nudist students are third years, and will be graduating soon.”
“Man…” Ryuji pouted, which the other two couldn’t help but laugh at.
“Though Futaba says she’s been talking to Sojiro about returning to school next year. She’ll probably end up joining Shujin as a second-year.”
“She’s smart enough for it I guess.” Ryuji pondered. “Wait, wouldn’t that mean she’ll be by herself? I mean, me an’ Ann will both be here to keep an eye on her, but she’ll be the only nudist. Sure she can handle that?”
Ren’s brow furrowed.
“That’s a good point, it might be a bit overwhelming for her. Sorry to ask, Miss Kawakami, but when she does come here, could I ask you to look after her, y’know- as a fellow nudist?”
She smiled.
“I don’t mind, I’ll appeal to Miss Chouno about it too. Between us teachers and having some supportive senpais in her corner, we can make sure she isn’t bullied at all.”
“Thank you, I owe you big time- even more than before.”
“It’s fine, I’m your teacher, supporting you is my job.” She folded her arms, nodding authoritatively. “Oh, also it’s not like she’ll be the only student nudist left, there is that one boy.”
“Hm?” Ren and Ryuji exchanged a confused look. “Boy?”
“Hm?”
“A nudist boy? I thought all the nudists here were the girls in third year- and Sumire for a little while but she quit ages ago.”
Kawakami looked at Ren, rather confused, before the realization hit her.
“Oh right, of course, it happened while you were absent from school, but I thought one of your friends would have told you.”
Ren turned to Ryuji- but the blonde just shrugged back at him.
“I dunno what she’s talking about man.”
“Are you two serious?” Kawakami leant back with an incredulous expression. “He’s literally in the same class as Amamiya-kun.”
She pointed past the pair, to the boy packing away his things, who had somehow completely escaped their notice until now (perhaps the naked teacher was more effective at drawing attention than even she realized). They rushed over to the boy, startling him
“Yo Mishima? The hell?”
“S-Sakamoto-kun? Amamiya-kun? Are you okay? What happened?”
“You dude! You happened.” Ryuji looked down at his bare body in shock. “When did this happen?”
“Not that long ago, like… new year’s, I think?”
“Ah…” Ren rubbed his chin. “I guess that’d explain why we don’t remember it? Maybe?”
“What?”
“N-nevermind. Still, I’m surprised Mishima, I didn’t expect this from you. Sorry for not noticing sooner.”
Mishima sheepishly shrugged.
“I would have texted you about it, but… y’know, with you being in prison and all, it makes sense why none of you guys had the time to check up with me, so it’s cool. You had much more important things to focus on.”
“R-right…” Ren did feel a little guilty that even in the Maruki timeline he never thought to check in with Mishima even once, actually he never thought of him at all during that period… It’s not that he was that forgettable or anything, it’s just that…
“A-anyway, how are you feeling about it Mishima? Adapting okay?”
He laughed nervously.
“I’ll be the first to admit the cold hasn’t been doing me any favors, but overall I’m feeling pretty good about it.”
“That’s good.”
“Oh, do you mind if we walk and talk?” Mishima zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ve got an appointment to keep.”
“Sure man.”
Ryuji and Ren quickly said goodbye to Kawakami as she was focusing on her own work, and walked either side of Mishima as they made their way towards the school exit.
“Any particular reason you joined now? If you were worried about the cold you could have put it off a little while.”
“W-well you know how it is.” He cleared his throat. “It’s truly backwards and abhorrent that we’re all expected to be ashamed of something as natural as the human body. It’s only right that I do my part in shedding this enforced confinement, and fighting for what should be a basic human right to expression.”
Ren and Ryuji exchanged a glance, before turning back to Mishima.
“Dude that doesn’t really sound right coming from you.”
Ren reluctantly nodded.
“Yeah it came across a little forced.”
“I-I really mean it though! It’s really something I believe in, strongly, y’know?”
“…”
“…”
“O-okay, can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.”
Mishima blushed a little, avoiding eye contact.
“It got suggested to me, while I was on a… a d-date…”
The boys’ eyes went wide.
“For real?”
“Y-yeah…” Mishima seemed to fidget even as they were walking. “I’m seeing someone, and she said I should join the program.”
Ren suddenly seemed rather worried.
“They didn’t pressure you into it or anything, did they?”
“N-no! It wasn’t like that. They just suggested it and I said yes.”
“You sure?”
“Sure, I’m sure.”
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”
“Who is it?” Ryuji asked. “Anyone we know?”
“I doubt you’ll know her. She… she goes to a different school.”
The boys stopped in place, Mishima continuing for a few more steps out the front of the school before turning around.
“What?”
“Dude…”
“Seriously, what?”
Both Ren and Ryuji rested sympathetic hands on his shoulders.
“It’s okay man, you don’t have to lie to impress us.”
“I’m not lying Amamiya-kun!”
“Has someone been making fun of you? Don’t worry, just tell us who they are and we’ll sort them out for you.”
“It’s nothing like that Sakamoto-kun! I’m being entirely serious!”
Ren forced a smile.
“Tell you what, I’ll set you up with someone. I didn’t realize how lonely it must be for you with us distracted all the time. I promise you; I’ll find someone who can form a lasting relationship with you, count on it.”
Ryuji nodded.
“Yeah man, we’ve got your back.”
“I’m not making her up! She just goes to a different school!”
“I promise you Mishima-kun, we respect you for who you are. Don’t buy into this idea that you’re less valid for being single, whoever put that idea in your head is just some toxic asshole.”
“I not—ARGH!”
“Mishima!” A distinctively commanding female voice caused all three boys to flinch- along with a good number of other students who were lingering out the front of the school.
“Ah, Mai!” Mishima ran down the steps to join her. “Sorry I’m late, I had something to do in class.”
“Hm, I guess that’s fine, I'm not in a rush yet.” The naked girl narrowed her eyes at Ren. “Ah, the pervert is free. Good.”
Ren laughed nervously as he walked down the steps.
“Good to see you again Toda-san. Makoto told me how much you and the other nudists campaigned to get signatures for me.”
“Well we weren’t just going to sit by and let injustice stand.” She noticed Ryuji staring at her slack jawed. “What’s wrong with him?”
“I was just telling them about you Mai-san.” Mishima said.
“Oh?”
“J-just that we were like… y’know… a couple.”
“Mm.” She nodded simply. “We’re currently dating.”
“FOR REAL?!”
Mai tutted.
“So loud…”
“Don’t worry, he’s always like that.” Ren apologized for Ryuji’s outburst. “How long have you been dating- if you don’t mind me asking?”
Mai turned her nose up.
“We met during the winter break. He came across me during one of my performance art pieces in Inokashira park.”
“I spotted her standing naked in the lake, so I rushed to pull her out.”
Her brow furrowed.
“At first I thought him a mere philistine, deliberately ruining my performance. I thought him a fool when he asked me ‘are you alright?’ to which I replied: ‘Yes, of course’, to which he replied: ‘You’re obviously not okay!’” Her face suddenly lit up, full of excitement as she leaned in uncomfortably close to Ren, her fists pumped. “He got it! He got the point of the piece! I was symbolising how we are all expected to hold our heads down and feign contentedness even when our circumstances are naught but discomfort and suffering- illustrated by me sitting in the lake in mid-winter.”
“Uhh, y-yeah, that’d do it…”
“As soon as I was dry- and the ambulance had been sent away- I dragged him to the nearest café to discuss the finer points of art with him.”
“Yup.” Mishima nodded. “And I definitely understood everything you said back then…”
“Since then, we’ve been meeting up more and more, he’s been assisting me in my pursuits since then. Today we were planning on returning to the park; I will perform Tai chi while he throws dirt and grass at me.”
“I see…” Ren scratched his head. “But… why?”
“Tch… A pervert and a philistine…”
“…Sorry.”
She sighed.
“It’s fine. So long as you continue to support Niijima-sama I will make allowances for such shortcomings.”
“’preciate it.”
She looked skywards.
“We’re losing daylight. Come on Mishima, let’s go.”
“R-right! I’ll see you guys later!” He called back as he was pulled away by the wrist.
“See ya Mishima!”
He turned back to Mai as she enthusiastically pulled him along.
“Thank you for letting me be a part of this, Mai-san.”
“No, thank you. I’ve been needing an assistant to bring these ideas to life; Kameko and Miyake are often too busy with their own projects.”
“I’m happy to help… just, if people see me throwing the stuff at you, you will explain to them that you asked me to do it, right?”
“…”
“Right?”
Ren turned to Ryuji.
“We should talk to Mishima more often.”
“Y-yeah…”
Chapter 108: The other Niijima
Summary:
The Niijimas could use some stress relief
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Makoto Niijima, she had joined Shujin academy’s student council in 2014- during her first year, quickly becoming it’s most hard-working and productive member, earning her the respect of… no one really; maybe the authority figures she was blindly loyal to, but even then she was seen as more of a convenient tool to most of them- much like the rest of the council.
Her dedication endured throughout her second year, undeterred by the ever-growing distance between her and her peers, as well as other members of the student council becoming more complacent and contributing less, before eventually not showing up at all, leaving just her and the president.
Only during her third year, after the previous president had graduated, did she rise to the position of student council president. Even to this day she couldn’t be entirely sure what it was that drove her to win the election- did the student body respect her dedication after all? (even if she’d still derisively be called a ‘robot’ from time to time) Was it because of her proven track record, working as part of the student council from mere months after her enrolment? Was it the fact that she simply had more passion for the role than the others who campaigned- her being the only one to take it seriously? Or were the results rigged by the faculty after all- the teachers simply wanting someone as ‘by the book’ as possible to handle the authority granted by such a position?
She wasn’t sure, and realized that perhaps she was being cynical with her suspicions. It didn’t matter anymore. She got the position and more than proved that she deserved it; even those that strongly disliked her admitted she was the perfect woman for the role.
While other members existed in the council, their contributions ended with signing their names on the list titled “Members of the student council”; Makoto legitimately could not recall their names or faces, she just handled everything herself, and did so without complaint.
Of course, her third year changed her life in many ways: She found herself in this new position of authority- however limited. But far more important than that- she found some new friends and allies, she found a cause worth fighting for, she found love, she found a life goal to work towards, she found a rather extreme new ‘dress code’, and through all of those combined- she found herself (thrice, actually).
Her last year of high school, and her time as ‘student council president’ would be something she would never forget as long as she lived; the impact it had on her could not be understated. All the hard work she had put in, all the stress she had to contend with, all of it was worth it- more worth it than she could have ever imagined.
This time was rapidly approaching its end, soon she would graduate, then shortly afterwards she’d take her college entrance exams and enter Tokyo U, gaining all the qualifications she needed to start climbing the ranks in the police force, and continue the legacy of both her father- and everything she had learned fighting alongside the thieves and her beloved.
Though, as the saying goes: “It’s not over ‘til it’s over.” As much as she wished she could put everything aside and focus on her studies, she still had duties to perform, which including handling student queries and complaints. The crowd of students outside of her office having one particular grievance in mind…
“Bring back Lavenza-sensei!”
A medium-sized- but very passionate- group of students had banded together to protest the departure of the incredibly popular new nurse that had joined the school faculty a little over a month ago. And they really did look ready to protest; a few of them had even gone as far as making picket signs, reading things like “We love Lavenza-chan”, “Best nurse- stolen from us”, “No headpats, no life” and “Free the lolibaba” (Makoto added ‘lolibaba’ to the list of terms she needed to ask Ren about later).
“Please, everyone calm down.” Makoto raised her hand to silence everyone- she had plenty of experience remaining calm under pressure and projecting an aura of authority. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I- or the faculty- can do. Lavenza-san was only appointed here temporarily, and you were made aware of this at the start. She wasn’t fired or removed by anyone, she left of her own free will.”
“But she disappeared so suddenly!” One student stepped forward. “There wasn’t even a ‘going away’ party, we could have convinced her to extend her stay. You’ve got to get back in contact with her and bring her back for next year!”
Makoto sighed inwardly, she had no idea what these people actually expected her to do; school hiring practices weren’t- and never have been- the jurisdiction of the student council. She’s surprised it took her this long to realize, but it was quickly becoming clear that the general student populace had no idea what it was that student councils actually did.
Still, she understood that trying to explain it to them when they’re this riled up was probably a losing proposition, there was a much easier method of defusing this situation, something she usually considered a forbidden technique, but was preferable to letting a riot break out right at the end of her term: ‘Passing the buck’.
“While I can pass on concerns related to existing staff, for hiring queries you’ll need to appeal to the acting principal directly.”
“Dammit… Alright everyone, we need to take this to the very top! Follow me to the faculty office! For Lavenza-sensei!”
Various cheers and chants of determination echoed through the hallways as Makoto watched the crowd disappear down the stairs, ready to thrust their completely pointless efforts into someone else’s face for a while. Makoto let out a weary sigh, her shoulders sagging in relief as soon as the students were out of sight.
“You’ve got it pretty rough Mako-chan.”
Makoto looked up to see Haru smiling at her sympathetically.
“Nah, it’s not so bad.” Makoto stretched outwards, rolling her shoulders. “Compared to what we usually have to deal with, everything’s been pretty easy to handle.”
“I can tell you’re still stressed though.”
“I can’t deny that… But the same goes for you.”
“Hm…”
“The past year has been one stressful situation after another, and now that we’re finally out the other side, we’ve got exams staring us down. I’m about ready to go into hibernation while I wait for my results…”
Haru suddenly turned smug, and rather devious- judging by her knowing smirk.
“I was thinking you might be feeling like that. I’m sure even someone as dedicated as you can appreciate the validity of one day off?”
Makoto’s brow raised curiously.
“Do you have something planned?”
Haru chuckled to herself as she reached into her sweater pocket, pulling out a neatly folded piece of paper, leaning forwards as she handed it over. Makoto unfolded and read it curiously.
“Oh?” Her brow raised. “Hot springs and spa? This is what you’re thinking?”
“Sounds like just what you need, don’t you think?”
Makoto bit her lower lip, very much enjoying the images of the luxurious establishment.
“I’ll admit, I’m tempted.”
“Hoo, I bet.”
“But I’m not really sure if I should…”
“Oh come on Mako-chan.”
“I know I’m being boring, but I really have so much studying to catch up on, I can’t afford to distract myself.” She shrugged. “This is more something I’d do after the exam, to celebrate, y’know?”
“Hmm…” Haru pouted, bringing her hand to her chin. “You really aren’t interested?”
“It’s not that I’m not interested, like I said- it’s very tempting. I just shouldn’t be treating myself before the work is even done.”
“The exams aren’t that close, we still have over a month to prepare.”
“I suppose… But I can’t afford to slack, especially without a letter of recommendation.”
Haru sighed, her hands dropping to her sides.
“I figured you’d make an argument like this.” Her devious smirk returned. “Which is why I knew it’d be different if you weren’t treating yourself, but instead a friend was treating you.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’ve already booked an overnight stay for you.”
“R-really?”
“Mm-hm. This Saturday. You’ll arrive around 2pm, experience complete pampering and relaxation, and leave rejuvenated around 10am the next day.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You don’t have to, it’s already done.”
“Done?”
Haru swayed triumphantly.
“All booked and paid for. I even warned them about your nudism- so they’re not taken so off guard on the day and in case they need to make any adjustments for it.”
“Wow, really? This is really generous of you, but…”
Haru pouted.
“You’re not going to let my money go to waste now, are you?”
“I…” Makoto sighed, a small, defeated smile appearing on her face. “I guess you’ve got me, huh?”
“It was even easier than I thought it’d be. But you have to admit, this’ll be good for you. After your night of luxury, you’ll be able to come back to your studies with renewed vigor, and do even better than before.”
“I suppose you’re right. I can afford one day off; it’ll do us both a lot of good.”
“Oh? No, I won’t be joining you.”
“Huh?” Makoto’s expression dropped. “I thought that was the point? That you were inviting me along to visit this place with you.”
Haru shook her head.
“No need, I’ve actually already been.”
“Really?”
“I’ve been pretty stressed too, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
“I can…”
“So I thought about how long it’s been since I’ve treated myself to something like this- or rather- the fact that I’ve never done so.” Her smile turned bittersweet. “Father used to be in charge of our finances, now it’s all my money. I thought I could get away with a little indulgence.”
“Absolutely.” Makoto nodded. “You deserve it, we couldn’t have gotten as far as we did without you.”
“Same goes for you- much moreso than me. With everything we’ve been through, I think we’ve earned a little reward, don’t you? I’ve had my turn, now’s yours.”
“Well if it’s really just for me, I should be paying. How much was it? I’ll give you—"
“None of that. Just accept the gift and enjoy it, okay?”
“Well, so long as you’re absolutely sure.”
“I am.”
Makoto looked back down at the flyer, reluctantly feeling herself get excited.
“Yeah… a hot spring is just what I need…” A realization suddenly hit; her head shot up as she took a sharp intake of breath. “Sis!”
Haru tilted her head.
“Hm?”
“Me and Sis were talking about visiting a hot spring together once everything calmed down. I’ll have to invite her too!”
“Oh, that’d be lovely.” Haru brought her hands together happily.
“I’ll book another room for her.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just call them an upgrade yours to a two-person stay. It’ll be cheaper and easier that way anyway.”
“Thank you so much Haru. I owe you big time.”
“It’s fine, I’m happy too.” Haru bounced in place jovially. “I’ve never been able to surprise a friend with a gift like this before, it’s great fun!”
Makoto made a mental note to return the favor one day, to make sure Haru experiences both sides of the joy of having close friends.
~ ~ ~
“Thank you for coming with me Sis.”
“Why are you thanking me? You’re the one who invited me along, I didn’t do anything.”
“Well really we should both be thanking Haru-chan. I understand that she can afford things like this, but it’s still really generous of her.”
“Okumura-san, huh?” Sae smiled. “I’ll be sure to thank her properly the next time I see her.”
“I’m glad you were able to take the day off for this though.”
“Honestly the timing was really convenient. The case isn’t closed of course, but it’s approaching the stage where less and less of my direct input is needed. It’s been so long since I’ve had an opportunity to take a day off, and even longer since I actually taken such an opportunity. Part of me is worried I’ll somehow make a fool of myself.”
“I wouldn’t worry Sis, we just need to relax.”
As the sisters passed through the glass doors to the lobby, they admired the picturesque lobby around them. Makoto couldn’t help but feel a little bad about how pricy it looked, whereas Sae was struggling to think of the last time she came somewhere like this for something other than a business trip, it had to be when she was still a teenager- back when their father was around to treat them to such things.
They approached the front desk, Makoto grabbing the attention of the woman behind the counter.
“Excuse me, we have a reservation for an overnight stay under the name ‘Niijima’?”
“Ah, yes, we’ve been expecting you.”
The receptionist stood to properly bow. Sae expected they would get strange looks- given her younger sister’s striking ‘outfit’, yet strangely she felt like she was the one prompting a flicker of confusion in the staff’s eye. Her many years of being a prosecutor had trained her to notice even tiny hints like that, though it also meant she didn’t know how to switch it off. She silently reprimanded herself, she was supposed to be here to relax for once in her life, ‘work mode’ could hold its horses until tomorrow.
“We’ve already prepared a room for you, though our currently available masseuses are booked for another hour and a half. Might I recommend you enjoy our onsen in the meantime? We will come and collect you as soon as a masseuse becomes available.”
“That sounds good to me. The hot springs are the main reason we’re here after all, right Sis?”
“Mm.” Sae’s smiles, however small, were immensely healing to Makoto.
“I’ll escort you to the open-air baths.” Another member of staff approached them, bowing before turning to lead them down the hall. “Please, follow me.”
With a certain childlike sense of glee bubbling up in her, Makoto took her sister’s hand into her own, and enthusiastically pulled her along as she followed their escort to the start of some much-needed bliss for the pair.
~ ~ ~
The chill afternoon air brushing against Sae’s nude body wasn’t unpleasant, so much as it was just bracing, and very unfamiliar. Outdoor nudity may be ordinary for the younger Niijima, but the same could not be said for the elder. It wasn’t that she disliked outdoor baths- on the contrary- but it had become increasingly rare for her to even use the indoor one she had at home, showers were just so much more time efficient. The time she spent wholly undressed each day- not including the shower itself- probably didn’t total to more than a minute or two.
Of course, enduring the chill became more than worth it after she dipped her toes into the water, letting her body sink in until she was wholly enveloped up to her neck, the soothing warmth seeping through her entire body. She felt as if years of stress were already beginning to fall off of her body in great chunks. She closed her eyes and leant the back of her head against the edge of the pool- having tied up her hair to keep it out of the water- and let out a deeply contented hum.
A short while passed like this. Sae felt a pair of eyes on her, she turned her head to see her sister; a lasting gaze and smile on her face.
“Makoto? What are you staring at me for?”
Makoto shook her head.
“You just look so happy.”
“Huh?”
“It makes me happy too… Ha, sorry, I guess maybe that’s a strange thing to say.”
“N-no, it makes sense to me.” Sae sat upright. “The feeling is mutual. I’m already enjoying myself.”
“Good. I can’t imagine the amount of time and effort the Shido case must be taking from you. You’ve been working harder than any of us.”
“I’m not sure about that, that’s quite subjective.” Sae stared at the clouds listlessly a while. “I’d never do something like this alone…”
“Hmm…”
Sae’s brow furrowed, she opened her mouth to say something, but remained silent. She gently shook her head, and tried again.
“Makoto?”
“Yes Sis?”
“I…” She was struggling to form the right words in her mind, as unshakably confident as she could be in the courtroom, it was times like this where she suddenly felt completely lost and inexperienced. “I’ve been trying to think of a way to build up to this- but I can’t quite make it work. So I’m just going to say it outright.” She faced Makoto directly. “I appreciate you, truly.”
“Oh?” Makoto’s eyes went wide.
“Y-yes, so um… yeah. There you go.” She turned away, rather embarrassed, and mumbled to herself. “Have I always been this bad with words?”
Makoto chuckled.
“It’s fine, you got the message across loud and clear, that’s what really matters. Thank you Sis, I’m really thrilled to hear you say it out loud.”
Sae exhaled.
“I really wish something as simple as that wasn’t so noteworthy to you…”
Makoto reached out to try and soothe her, but was cut off when a pair of women entered the bathing area behind them. Judging by their clothes, they were members of staff.
“Excuse me, would you happen to be the Niijima party?”
Sae peered over her shoulder at them.
“Mm, that’s correct.”
They bowed.
“We’re ready to give you your full body massages whenever you’re ready.”
“Would you like to start now, or would you prefer to soak a while longer?”
“Hmm… What do you think, Makoto?”
“I’m happy to have it now, they said they were busy today so the quicker we have our turn the quicker the next customers can have theirs.”
“Ever the conscientious girl.” Sae smiled. “Sure, we can always return to the baths later.”
The sisters- somewhat reluctantly- stood up and stepped out of the water. It was at this moment they noticed the women hadn’t entered from the changing area as they had, but instead out of another sliding paper door adjacent to it. The still-open doorway revealing a room with two massage tables already prepared for them.
The masseuses gestured for the Niijimas to take their places atop the tables, which they did so, laying on their fronts. Sae found it a little odd that there was no issue with them still being wet from the bath, but then again- with this room being directly connected to the bathing area perhaps that was just expected in this establishment. Another oddity was a lack of a towel, Sae expected them to drape one over her hips or something, but again that was probably just part of the process? It’s not as if she could remember doing this before; perhaps the towel thing was just something that’s always in the movies?
She didn’t have much time to worry about it anyway, her masseuse had already started firmly rubbing her shoulders. Her strong, experienced thumbs kneading her flesh of her back made worrying about much of anything seem like a pointless effort.
“Is the pressure okay, Ma’am?”
“It’s quite fine, thank you.” Sae lifted her head just a little to reply. “Actually, it could even stand to be just a little bit harder.”
“Understood.”
Sae certainly wasn’t surprised she had plenty of tension built up over the years, but she found it remarkable how she never realized just how much until it was actively being rubbed out of her; part of her pictured her body as 90% tension and stress, and that she’d be left as little more than a floppy, rubbery husk once they got rid of it all.
“Hm?” Makoto turned her head to face her sister. “Did you just laugh at something?”
“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”
“If you say so…”
The pleasure and relief only became greater once they moved onto her neck. Much of Sae’s work involved working on her laptop or hunching over a mountain of paperwork, and while she always tried to be mindful of her posture, there was only so much one could do to prevent strain when working like that for a long period of time, much less day after day after day like that.
Makoto was enjoying herself just as much as- if not more than- her sister. It hadn’t actually been all that long since she was fighting hordes of mythical beings with hand-to-hand combat and a bike. She may not face the same hours of work as Sae but the pure physical exertion didn’t compare, even when one factored in the effects of the Metaverse on her performance.
After their shoulders and necks were done, the massage moved onto their feet. Makoto’s soles had become significantly tougher over her many months of walking around constantly barefoot outside of the Metaverse, at least until winter necessitated wrapping them up in warm boots, and even that was no longer necessary as spring slowly but surely approached. It had actually become one of her favorite parts of going nudist, all the wonderful and varied tactile sensations she never would have been able to experience and appreciate before.
But their overuse did inevitably come with strain and tension. Having practiced hands targeting just the right muscles put all the other ‘tactile’ experiences to shame. Ren had attempted to give her foot massages before (he was very insistent on trying) and they didn’t really do much for her at the time- since his amateur efforts made it clear he had no idea what he was actually supposed to doing; but if this was how good they would feel when done properly- with the soothing pressure on the arches of her soles and the gentle clicking of her toes as they were individually pulled- then maybe she would consider indulging his not-entirely-selfless desire to learn in the future.
Sae’s nervousness did momentarily return as they worked their way up her leg, worrying just how high up her inner thighs they were planning on venturing, but relief came again when they stopped right on the borderline of “acceptability”, so she could relax and enjoy the touch again as they started on the other leg.
The only other time they came within a hair’s breadth of sexual harassment was when they were working on her torso, more specifically her sides. The edges of her breasts didn’t go completely untouched, but at this stage she was beyond caring. The whole process felt fantastic from start to finish, and were a part of her life she didn’t know she needed until now. She was already looking forward to her next excuse to come here; she feared she may become addicted.
Eventually though, the sisters’ shared bliss had to come to an end. They both sat back upright, their muscles soothed, and their skin now dry aside from a slight sheen from the massage lotion.
“That was amazing, Haru has good taste.” Makoto nodded to her masseuse. “Thank you, my body feels so light.”
“We’re pleased that you’re satisfied. We need to make preparations for the next clients in a few minutes. But first we can either escort you to your room or to the in-house restaurant?”
“Restaurant?”
“The flier Haru gave me mentioned that they serve sushi here.” Makoto smiled at her older sister.
“Ah, now that you mention it I remember seeing something like that on the way in.” She turned to her masseuse. “It’s that place just down the hall and to the left, correct?”
“Correct.”
“In that case we can make our own way there, give you more time to prepare for the next clients.”
“Very considerate of you Ma’am.”
“You go on ahead Makoto; you obviously don’t need to head back to the changing room first.”
“Good thinking.” The younger Niijima hopped off of the table, an uncharacteristic spring in her step. “I’ll secure some seats for us.”
“Thank you.”
Makoto left out the door that led straight into the hallway, not noticing Sae have a brief moment of panic when she remembered her own nudity- or rather- the possibility of someone happening to walk by in this moment and see her through the opening door. Thankfully, she got lucky, and the door was closed again before any wandering guests could catch a glimpse of the naked prosecutor.
Breathing a muted sigh of relief, she left back out the door she came in, into the bathing area, to quickly circle round to the changing room just next door.
“I’ll give her nudism one thing, it’s definitely a time saver.” She mused aloud. “Still doesn’t make it close to worth it in my opinion, but seeing her happy about it does make it worth it. Even if she gets that kind of plea…” She shook her head, she didn’t want to think about that part. That goes firmly in a folder of her mind labelled ‘Denial’.
She reached up to the basket she had left her clothes in.
“Hm? Oh, wrong one.”
She reached up to the basket next to it.
“Wrong again?” She sighed. “I think perhaps I’ve relaxed too much.”
She grabbed the next next basket.”
“…”
The next next next basket.
“…?”
The next next next next basket.
“…!”
Twenty-seven baskets later…
“Something is seriously wrong here…”
It was at this stage that Sae was really missing a towel. Despite being perfectly comfortable just a minute ago, she was quickly becoming very aware of her nudity, to the point where it threatened to override the blissfully relaxed feeling she had gained from the massage.
Now covering her private parts with her hands, she sighed, and sheepishly returned through the bathing area to the massage room, sliding the door open just enough to poke her head through, feeling relief seeing that the next customer wasn’t here yet, but one masseuse still was.
“Excuse me?”
“Hm? Can I help you Ma’am?
“Yes, I left my clothes in the changing room, but they seem to be missing, I’m worried someone may have stolen them.”
“Oh!” She smiled, in such a genuinely friendly way that filled Sae with no small amount of anxiety. “There’s no need to be concerned Ma’am, if you left them in the baskets they would have been collected for our laundry service.”
“Laundry service? What kind of establishment is this?”
“As part of our premium service, we handwash your garments during your stay; so when you leave they’re just as clean and pampered as you.”
“I’ve literally never heard of anything like that being done anywhere. By anyone. Ever.”
“It’s no good getting yourself clean if you immediately have to put dirty clothes right afterwards.”
“Still, that’s… What are the customers supposed to wear in the meantime?”
“We provide only the finest yukatas for our clients to wear during their stay.”
“So there’s at least some sense to it…” Saw mumbled under her breath. “Where are these yukatas kept?”
“Customers are given their personal yukata upon arrival.”
“On arrival.” She thought back, but she was certain, they didn’t give her or Makoto a yukata- or any other kind of covering. “Wait…” A certain possibility- a very worrying one at that- suddenly entered Sae’s mind.
Before she could open her mouth to ask the question, the masseuse confirmed it.
“I hope this isn’t too ‘out of turn’, saying this, but can I just say how much I admire nudists like you two. It must take so much confidence to live like you do.”
“W-wait, hold on…”
“Part of me wanted to sign up, but it’s way too much for me, I’d never have the courage.”
“There’s been a mistake, I—”
“At first I thought it was strange, you coming here in a suit, but I suppose that must just be a requirement for work, huh?”
Sae flinched when she saw the door to the hall slide open, a man and a woman walking in, presumably a couple, wearing the aforementioned yukatas; both raising an eyebrow at the nude woman peeking in at them, not feeling the need to tell her how perfectly silhouetted her form was behind the paper door.
“I… uh…”
“I’m sorry Ma’am.” The masseuse bowed. “I’d love to talk more about your lifestyle, but I have to return to my work.”
Sae just stood there flabbergasted as the door was closed in her face, leaving her alone with her thoughts… and literally nothing else.
She took a breath, now was not the time to freak out… probably. She had been in situations like this plenty of times before, and always managed to find a way to push through to victory. Well, ‘situations like this’ as in having her back to the wall, not so much ‘being naked in a public establishment where she’s very likely to be seen by clothed civilians, with presumably no access to any substantial covering until the next morning’, that was 100% new to her.
The chill from the cool air brushing against her smooth, freshly cleaned and lotioned skin was significantly more uncomfortable than it had been before she first sampled the onsen. Her first instinct was to just stay here, getting back into the baths- the one place where her nudity was wholly appropriate and expected- to maintain a false sense of ‘normalcy’ and just pretend nothing was wrong. They hadn’t actually spent much time soaking today, so wanting to get back in was completely believable and justified, right?
The issues with that plan were two-fold; firstly she would eventually have to get out, she wouldn’t be solving the problem, merely delaying it, unless she really committed and stayed here until tomorrow morning when her suit would be returned to her. Secondly, and more importantly, Makoto had already been sent ahead, and was waiting for her at the sushi bar; she would probably eventually come back to check on her, but there was no telling how long it’d be before then; knowing her she’d be reluctant to give up the spot she reserved lest it be stolen in her absence and they missed out on sushi entirely.
Sae stepped back into the changing rooms, and eyed the door leading into the hallway. She remembered the entrance to the sushi bar only being very short walk away, a couple doors down the hall at most. If she was lucky there wouldn’t be anyone loitering outside, she could quickly tip toe over to the doorway, poke her head around, and just grab her sister’s attention before anyone even noticed her. What could go wrong?
Sae was a woman who got as far as she did in life knowing how to meticulously plan and prepare for every eventuality- even if she had to use less-than-kosher methods to make sure things went her way in the past. Having to just rush forward with no plan beyond ‘Hope for the best’ was literally the exact opposite to her usual approach to success, but she wasn’t seeing any obvious alternatives, and the longer she delayed the higher the chance of a sudden surge of people appearing from nowhere to see her short-lived streak.
She opened the door just barely enough to peek through, confirming there was no one waiting outside to ambush her. There was no one in the hallway, but there were the undeniable sounds of life hustling and bustling from the restaurant and who knows where else, meaning that Sae was very aware that her solitude could come to a sudden, unpleasant end at any moment.
Still, best move before that moment comes. She stepped outside, keeping one hand firmly over her breasts as she held the door open, and keeping her legs as close together as possible to make sure her well-maintained bush (the proof that silver really was her natural hair color) was the only thing passersby would catch a glimpse of (which she would admit- was unlikely, she cursed the Niijima thigh-gap for the first time in her life).
She spotted a small rack of fliers; she considered grabbing a pair of them for some more reliable coverage. A very sensible plan… on the surface. She remembered that she was like this because she was mistaken for a nudist like Makoto, who was happily walking around without making any effort to hide any part of herself (she was the one who enjoyed this after all), so while certainly noteworthy and attention-grabbing, nudists like her being fairly common knowledge by now meant it didn’t immediately leap out as ‘wrong’ or ‘shameful’, at least not in a way anyone would comment on or cause a fuss over.
However, if they saw a naked woman desperately trying to hide herself with informational pamphlets, that would immediately give away the shame and embarrassment she was feeling, and the ‘wrongness’ people associated with bare-ass naked women running around would leap back to life and be focused directly on her.
She considered that her best move would be to walk tall and proud; letting her breasts sway freely to their heart’s content, and flaunt the lips she doesn’t kiss with without regard to the many eyes she would draw doing so. It was only shameful if she let it be, after all. She uncovered herself, letting her arms fall to her sides. She took a deep breath, looking down at herself. It was odd, this was such a natural sight, yet she never really took the time to look at it; it was so rare to her. She tried to remain calm about it, to convince herself that her nipples- hardened from the cool, late winter air- sticking out so prominently was completely normal and natural, but the sound of not-too distant conversation brought her hands back to covering herself, fast enough to create an audible slapping sound against her flesh.
“How on earth does Makoto do this?” Sae was just in the hallway of an inner city artificial hot spring, to think her younger sister was able to endure this on the subway, at school, or the immense crowds of a place like Shibuya Square staggered her. The very thought of attempting to do the same was nearly unfathomable.
Still, her hands were one thing, using the fliers for cover would make her embarrassment too obvious, they’d be proof of her giving into her fear. She considered maybe just grabbing one and holding it up over her face to at least keep her identity hidden as she walked, but very quickly discarded the idea, embarrassed that she would even think of such a childish attempt at ‘stealth’.
She couldn’t falter too long, in this situation time spent thinking was time spent taking an unnecessary risk.
She approached the doorway, peeking around- keeping the body hidden. She saw her sister’s back; she was sat mercifully close to the door, hopefully enough that Sae’s whispering would reach her.
“Makoto.”
No luck.
“Makoto- behind you.”
“Ma’am?”
The voice from her side caused her to nearly jump out of her skin. She let out a shocked yelp, and without even looking to see just who had spotted her, quickly rushed forward into the restaurant to join her sister.
Makoto heard her voice.
“Oh Sis, I’ve already reserved some of the types you really like, see…” She trailed off when she turned around to see her elder sister, red faced, completely bare aside from two fliers haphazardly held against her body as she rushed in to sit down next to her, scooting her seat forwards to maximize the little cover the countertop gave her. “Sis, what happened? Are you okay?”
Sae did always have a very good poker face, even now it would have been completely convincing had it not been colored an almost-glowing red.
“It turns out, as part of their services they wash your clothes and give them back to you the next morning.”
“Really? That doesn’t sound normal.”
“I’ve no idea if it is or not.”
“But why didn’t they give you anything to cover up with?”
“They seem to think I’m a nudist, like you.”
“Huh? Why would they assume…” A guilty look appeared on Makoto’s face. “Oh…”
“What?”
“I think I understand what’s happened. When Haru initially booked this, it was intended for just me, and she had told them ahead of time about my nudism just to avoid any shock on their part on the day.”
“…Right?”
“I told her I wanted to bring you along, so she changed the booking to include the both of us. I think they assumed that because the booking was for a nudist, that would apply to both of us.” Makoto brought her hands together. “I’m so sorry Sis, this is all my fault.”
“N-no, I don’t blame you, it’s f-fine.” Sae picked up a piece of sushi. “I’ll just play it casually; everyone left their phones in the reception so I don’t have to worry about photographic evidence causing legal trouble, at worst it’ll be word of mouth, and ‘Niijima-san was nude at a hot spring’ would hardly be a scandal, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I suppose. Are you sure you’ll be okay though?”
Sae glanced across the room- past Makoto- at the other patrons not so subtly glancing at her. The trio of highschool girls, the pair of grizzled businessmen, the family of four; all either staring or trying not to stare at the nudist Niijima combo package on display before them and whispering amongst themselves.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sae said in a voice significantly higher pitched than her usual timbre.
Makoto glared back at their audience, being much more seasoned in dealing with voyeurs, it scared most of them into at least pretending to mind their own business.
“Let’s swap places, you can sit next to the wall, that way it’ll be mostly just me they’re looking at.”
“R-right…”
Sae placed the fliers on the counter beside her. She only needed one hand to eat her sushi, her other she could fairly comfortably hold over her chest in a way that would hopefully seem nonchalant, at least keeping her nipples hidden from view. Her bottom half would remain hidden below the countertop, kind of… the stools didn’t have backs so her butt was left visible to anyone entering from the door she came in. She wasn’t usually the type to slouch, but on this occasion she would do so just to treat her fellow patrons with that much less ass-cleavage. Meanwhile Makoto did the exact opposite, she held her bare chest out forward and proud, while sticking out her bottom more than natural or necessary; she would much rather have people look at her than Sae, she wanted to do what she could to minimize her sister’s discomfort.
Sae wanted to ask how she was able to do this so easily, but she supposed it just came down to a difference in mindset. The eldest Niijima wasn’t lacking in confidence when it came to her looks, but she wouldn’t consider herself an exhibitionist- at least not in any fetishistic sense of the word; the idea that her ‘baby sister’ was… she just couldn’t understand it, and she felt maybe she was better off not knowing.
Their meal- which was admittedly delicious- continued in awkward silence. Well, ‘silent’ apart from the chatter from other patrons, which the sisters did their best to tune out; though there was only so much they could do to ignore the mumblings about “the naked hotties over there”, and the various shocked gasps every time someone new would walk in- which seemed to be happening frustratingly often.
“Why is it suddenly getting busy now?” Sae mumbled bitterly.
Makoto laughed awkwardly.
“I guess it’s just the time of day when everyone’s getting off of work.” She glanced upwards. “Or rather, they got off a while ago. I heard people talking about being delayed at Shibuya station- apparently due to them finishing up the repairs after that sudden earthquake a couple days ago.”
“Mrrmm…”
“Oh, sorry Sis, I guess that wasn’t a genuine question.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m just in a bad mood.”
“I understand.”
~ ~ ~
After their meal the sisters made a beeline for their room for the night. Sae kept covering herself with her hands, though made sure to at least stand up straight throughout the walk. As embarrassing as it was to have her private parts exposed, she couldn’t let herself exude an aura of weakness with her posture, or her expression. They spent the rest of the evening simply relaxing with eachother, enjoying the private tub and the view of the night sky together from their room. If nothing else, Sae still made an effort to appreciate the time they spent together, that was the whole point of the outing after all.
She woke up the next morning, sitting up to see Makoto still sound asleep in the futon next to hers. Looking at the clock, she saw that they still had a good while before they would need to leave; she’d let her little sister slumber a little longer.
Getting up, she flinched slightly looking down at her body. She had gotten so comfortable- thanks to their solitary sister time the previous evening- that she had almost forgotten about her state of dress. She noticed a note that had been passed through the door- presumably while they were asleep- notifying her that her clothes were clean and ready for collection.
“Tch…” She tutted. “Of course they couldn’t have just brought them directly here, that’d be too easy.” She would be more than happy to enjoy another hot spring trip with Makoto, but she would make certain it wasn’t here again. She sighed. “I guess it’s because they think as a nudist- I’m only collecting them on the way out, not wearing them…”
She turned back to Makoto, still sound asleep, looking so peaceful. Sae wanted to wake her up, ask her to go collect the clothes and bring them back to their room, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Partially because she really didn’t want to disturb Makoto’s sleep, but mostly because Sae just felt kind of pathetic; she was supposed to be the older sister, and yet she’d have to poke young Makoto awake and beg her to go out for her, and why? Because she was too shy? Too bashful?
“I’m better than that.” Sae thought aloud. “They say it’s just near the entrance, that’s not far. It’s still early in the morning, there’s hardly going to be anyone around anyway. I’ll survive.”
Despite her words, her nerves still assailed her as she approached the door. She lingered a few moments, hoping Makoto would suddenly awaken and offer to go without her needing to ask, but she had no such luck.
‘Quit being such a baby and just go already.’ Sae made sure to keep her thoughts inside her head this time, minimizing the chance of her drawing attention to herself as she stepped outside into the hallway.
Keeping her hands firmly clasped over herself, she marched forward with determination in her stride. The hallway was still silent save for the gentle patter of her feet against the wooden floor. She never realized just how much flesh likes to jiggle and move around when she was moving without anything to hold everything tightly in place. Her breasts were obviously the worst offenders in this regard, but at least she was used to them moving, it was her butt, thighs, and the rest of her muscles that were making her feel so exposed; she wondered if they always moved like this, and she was just more aware of it now.
The inevitable happened as she turned her first corner, someone else was up early. A salaryman by the looks of it, couldn’t have been much older than she was. It didn’t take him long to notice her, and immediately proceed to stare at her dumbfounded. She tried not to react; she kept looking straight ahead, moving forward as if nothing was amiss, trying to will away her blush as she pushed forwards and he stepped aside to let her pass.
It was only after turning the next corner and escaping his ogling, that she realized she didn’t know exactly where she was supposed to pick up her outfit from. Was she expected to go straight to the laundry room- wherever that might be? Surely not? She’d just have to ask the first member of staff she came across… wherever they may be.
‘They were all over the place last night, surely someone has to be on the morning shift?’
She looked down one hallway after another, and saw no staff to help her (though annoyingly, she did run into that same family of four from last night, trying not to pay attention to them as the parents scolded their children for ‘pointing too much’).
Well, actually that wasn’t strictly true, she did see one available member of staff almost immediately, but she desperately hoped she could opt for someone else. But unless she wanted to risk running into yet more people to spot her, or heaven forbid- wait for another rush of customers to either wake up or enter the establishment- she would have to face them: she’d have to speak to the receptionist.
‘I hate this place’.
She- with no small amount of haste, and her hands held even tighter against herself- rushed to the front desk.
“Excuse me?”
“Hm? Oh, you must be Niijima-san. Are you and your sister ready to leave?”
“N-not quite yet.” Sae looked back over her shoulder. Not only was she not alone in the lobby, the glass entrance meant she was visible from street level; it’d only be a matter of time before someone from outside spotted her, and she may need to worry about photographic evidence after all. She couldn’t afford to waste even a moment.
“I hope your stay here has left you refreshed and soothed.”
‘It certainly has not.’
“We hope you’ll consider visiting again in the future!”
‘Not a chance.’
“Is there anything we can do for—”
“Where are my clothes?”
“Clothes?”
“The ones I came in with. I was told they were being washed last night and are ready for me to collect.”
“Hm? Oh yes, yes! How silly of me, I was told you came in with a uniform.”
“Not quite a uniform, but sure.”
“Coming straight from work, huh? Everyone here always says the experience is that much more blissful after a hard day’s—”
“GIVE ME MY DAMN CLOTHES ALREADY!”
“R-right! S-sorry Ma’am!” The woman behind the count leapt out of her seat, fear clear on her face. “They’re just in the back here, I’ll grab them for you.”
“Sure, take your time…” Sae grumbled sarcastically, not daring to look back to see if people could see her from outside. She could definitely feel eyes on her, but so long as she didn’t actually look, she could happily live in denial. Her outburst certainly drew the attention of the people in the lobby at least.
After what felt like several weeks, the receptionist came back outside, holding a neatly folded pile of clothes, her lacy purple underwear annoyingly stacked on top as if Sae wasn’t embarrassed enough yet.
“Here you go Ma’am, I’m sure you’ll notice the floral sce—”
Sae snatched them out of the woman’s hands, and stormed off without a word, holding the clothes against the front of her body, ignoring everyone around her as she rushed off to her room. As she made her way down the hall, she inhaled through her nose.
“Hm, Lavender? Nice.”
~ ~ ~
“Hey Mako-chan!”
“Haru-chan? Hi there.”
“So, did you enjoy yourself?”
“Hm?”
“At the hot spring, of course.”
“Ah… uh… y-yeah, I enjoyed myself.”
“Hm? You sound strange.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Hm. How about Sae-san? I hope she was able to relax.”
“Y-yeah, we had a great time in the bath… Um… Haru-chan?”
“What is it?”
“If you happen to run into Sis during the next few days, could you… make sure she doesn’t see you?”
“Doesn’t see me?”
“I-it’s fine, it’s totally fine. I told her it was my fault. And she’s not going to do anything- obviously, she’s not like that. But just in case, you best… give her a little space, just for a few days, y’know?”
“Um…”
“S-so anyway, we best get to class, huh? I’ll see you later!”
“But—”
“Later!”
“And she’s gone… Hmm… I thought it was a really nice place…”
Notes:
I don't think Sae's going nudist guys :P
(still she's a pretty lady, I was inevitably going to find an excuse to get her naked anyways xD)
Chapter 109: The more experienced couple
Summary:
Advice is sought, and one chapter of this nudist's life comes to an end.
Notes:
This could probably have been comfortably split into two smaller, separate chapters.
But it wasn't.
So here you go.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Oh? Fancy meeting you here Ryuji-kun!”
“You’re sayin’ that as if it’s a surprise Haru; it’d be weird if we didn’t see eachother at school.”
“I meant specifically here, outside the student council office. Do you have business with Mako-chan too?”
“I was actually lookin’ for Ren, I uh… needed to ask ‘im something. He wasn’t in his class so I figured maybe he’d be with his girlfriend.”
“That makes sense, those two do seem to always be attached at the hip… sometimes in more ways than one.”
“H-Haru?”
“Oh don’t pretend you didn’t understand that one.”
“It’s not that I didn’t understand it, it’s just…”
“Anyway, I was planning to meet up with you later, but it can wait until we’ve both had a word with the… the o-other couple.”
“A-are you blushin’ right now?”
Haru opened the door to the student council room without another word, letting herself in ahead of her recent boyfriend. She found Makoto diligently studying at her desk- as she seemed to be nearly every day recently; understandably so of course. Haru had also intensified her studying schedule after Ren had been freed and she no longer had an excuse to be distracted; she just didn’t go for the ‘every waking moment’ approach that Makoto did. Haru was a diligent student, but not quite that diligent.
The one thing missing from the scene was Ren; Makoto seemed to be all by her lonesome. She seemed even more focused than usual; pushing the end of her pen into her cheek, brow furrowed, intense eyes locked onto her notebooks on the desk in front of her. It appeared that she hadn’t even noticed the pair entering the room.
“Mako-chan?”
Makoto let out a shocked yelp, dropping her pen as she nearly leapt out of her seat in surprise.
“Oh?” Haru recoiled a little herself from the sudden shock. “Sorry Mako-chan, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Makoto scrambled to pick her pen back up, and shuffled her chair a couple inches closer to the desk as she regained her composure. She took a quick, calming breath, before smiling back at Haru politely, acting as if nothing happened.
“Hello there Haru-chan, Ryuji-kun, are you both doing okay? I was just studying… obviously.”
“We can see that.” Haru giggled. “Pretty intensely- by the looks of things- even your face is bright red.”
“Is it?” Makoto touched her face, letting out a barely audible embarrassed whine as she felt the warmth in her cheeks. “Yeah, it’s… intense.” She cleared her throat. “Did you two need anything?”
“I was actually hoping I could consult with you about something. Although as for Ryuji-kun…”
“Hm? Oh right.” Ryuji- as always- tried not to stare at Makoto too much, and he- as always- failed. “I was actually lookin’ for Ren, I thought he’d be in here, but I guess not?”
“Oh yes, Ren.” Makoto tapped her pen against her notebook a few times. “He’ll probably be here soon; is it urgent?”
“Not really, I just wanted to ask him summin’, y’know?”
“I see.”
“I don’t mind waitin’.” Ryuji shrugged. “You can ask your thing first if you want, Haru.”
“Oh… now? With you here?”
Ryuji tilted his head, bemused.
“Should I not be here? Is it private?”
“Well…”
“Girl stuff?”
“Uh… y-yes actually! You know how it is.”
“I don’t actually, but I can just wait outside his classroom. D’ya mind telling him I’m there if he shows up Makoto?”
“Uhh…” Makoto seemed nervous, biting down on her lower lip, internally debating a course of action. “I’ll pro—HE; he’ll probably come really soon. I don’t think you’ll need to go anywhere.”
“Huh? I mean, if you say so…”
Makoto looked over her shoulder, out the window to the only moderately cloudy sky.
“It’s crazy that this is actually going to be our last day together at Shujin…”
Haru’s brow raised, then fell again.
“Gosh… you’re right. It snuck up on us so quickly.”
“For real?” Ryuji scratched his head. “Shit, closing ceremony’s tomorrow. How’d I forget?”
Haru let out a weak chuckle.
“It’s a good thing we reminded you; it would have been funny if you turned up tomorrow expecting classes as usual.”
Ryuji groaned, hanging his head.
“I wouldn’t put it past myself…”
Makoto continued staring outside.
“My last day as student council president…”
“And our last day all together as schoolmates.” Haru sighed, walking over to the window and sighing wistfully. “It’s funny that Ryuji mentioned how it shouldn’t be a surprise- us running into eachother at school- considering it’s the last chance for us to do so.”
“Right…” Ryuji’s sighed.
Haru smiled weakly.
“Well, second to last. We still have to come in tomorrow for graduation; this is just the last actual schoolday.”
“True…” Ryuji joined her in wistfully staring down at the courtyard from the window.
The moment she was certain they were both focused on the outdoors, Makoto shifted her chair back- making sure to be both swift AND silent as she did so- mouthing ‘Now’ multiple times as Ren hurriedly emerged from underneath her desk. Keeping himself as low down as possible, he crouch-walked over to the door. Keeping a close eye on both Ryuji and Haru, he reached for the door, and began to open it.
“Hm?” Ryuji turned around. “Yo man, you’re here!”
“Yeah.” Ren closed the door again. “I just got here. How y’all doing?”
“Welcome Ren!” Makoto said, just a little bit too enthusiastically to be wholly convincing, but she would just have to hope no one asked any questions. “We were all just talking about graduation tomorrow.”
“Really?” Ren’s acting wasn’t much better to be honest. “We’ll all have to do something special together to celebrate.”
“Yeah man.” Ryuji grinned. “Any ideas?”
“I mean the tried and true method of celebration is us all going out to a nice restaurant or something, though I can’t really think about food now, I’ve just eaten.”
Makoto glared at her boyfriend.
“We’ll think of something, I’m sure.” Haru nodded. “I might be able to throw something together even with the short notice.”
“We don’t want to always impose on you Haru-chan.”
“It’s fine Mako-chan, I really don’t mind. But I suppose we can discuss ideas in the group chat later this evening.”
“I suppose. You wanted to consult with me about something?”
“If you two are doing that…” Ryuji began. “I can talk with Renren somewhere else?”
Ren shrugged.
“Sounds good to me. I’ll talk to you later Mako, and hopefully finish what I started.”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded, her blush returning. “I’ll look forward to it.”
Ryuji was a tad confused, but he wasn’t going to worry about it. He waved back as he followed Ren out of the room.
“Later Haru!”
“Don’t disappear too quickly once you’re done Ryuji-kun. I’ll come find you once I’m finished here.” Haru watched him leave.
Makoto put down her pen and closed her notebook, putting it aside.
“So what did you need help with Haru-chan?”
Haru remained silent a while; she slowly slinked over to the door, holding her ear close to it to listen to Ren and Ryuji walking down the hall and out of earshot.
“…Haru?”
She locked the door.
“Mako-chan…”
“E-everything okay Haru?”
A few more awkward moments of silence hung over the pair. Haru started to sway from side to side a while, before she practically surged over to Makoto’s desk, startling the president as she leant over with distressed, needy eyes.
“How am I supposed to be a ‘girlfriend’?”
“…Huh?”
~ ~ ~
“You wanna know how to be a ‘boyfriend’?”
“Dude you’re like- the expert, or whatever. You not only got Makoto to fall for you, but you’ve only gotten closer and closer as time went on.”
“I’d say it’s more like I fell for her. Every single day I’m amazed at how lucky I am to be with her.”
“Woah… But like, she’s super smart and everyone thinks she’s hot as hell. She could have had literally any guy she wanted if she put her mind to it, and she chooses to stay with you.”
“I know man… Like I said- I’m forever amazed at how lucky I am.”
“It can’t just be luck man; you’re definitely doing something right; whatever it is- I want to make sure I do it too.”
“Are you worried she’ll leave you for another guy?”
“Ehh… not really, but kinda? Like don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Haru’s the type to do that, it’s me I’m worried about.”
“You?”
“Like… am I even good enough for someone like her?”
~ ~ ~
“I can understand that feeling, worrying if I’m doing a good enough job of being a proper ‘girlfriend’. I’ll admit even now I still don’t know what a ‘proper girlfriend’ is, but Ren is always reassuring me that I’m doing perfectly as-is.”
“That does sound like him, he’s always so supportive, with everyone really.”
“That he is. With how kind, hardworking, and understanding he always is, I’m confident he could have won the heart of literally any girl he wanted, and yet he chose me. Every day I’m left wondering just how I could have been so lucky.”
“He’s certainly quite the catch- had the past year played out a little differently I’m sure even I would have formed a crush on him.”
“Ha… I guess I wouldn’t really blame you.”
“But don’t let yourself forget how much of a catch you are Mako-chan. Admittedly being perpetually nude and sexy helps your cause, but even putting that aside you’re pretty amazing and desirable.”
“You’re trying to make me blush… But that’s exactly the kind of joke Ren would make too.”
“It was only half a joke, it’s still all true.”
“Again, just like Ren would say… Thank you Haru.”
“I think it shows that no matter what doubts you might have about yourself, Ren certainly thinks you’re being the ‘proper girlfriend’ you need to be, and he’s the one you’re trying to impress so I’d say his opinion goes a long way.”
“That’s certainly one way of putting it. Yeah, he thinks I’m good enough- he makes that abundantly clear- so I’ll just choose to believe him. Although, I think you’ve just given me the advice you wanted me to give you; You want to know how to be a ‘proper girlfriend’ to Ryuji? Well I’d wager that Ryuji is just perfectly happy with you as you are; perhaps- like me- you don’t need to make the mistake of trying to act like a certain ideal, and instead just trust in yourself.”
~ ~ ~
“’Trust in myself’? You’re really going to for that cliché shit?”
“I know Ryuji, but it definitely falls into ‘trite but true’.”
“Into what now?”
“’Trite’ basically means ‘cliché’. Just a slightly fancier term.”
“Right…”
“I’m assuming I don’t also have to explain ‘but’ and ‘true’, right?”
“Don’t be a dick, man.”
“But you get it, sometimes the cliché is actually right. You said she asked you to be her boyfriend, right? Clearly she thinks your ‘worthy’, or whatever.”
“I guess that makes sense… Haru did say she wants us to become closer and hang out more… Right before she asked me to have sex with her.”
“I bet that took you off guard.”
“No kidding… Of course I said yes, I couldn’t believe my luck, a small part of me thought she was just teasing me, but if she was then she was REALLY committed to the bit.”
“What was it like, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“The sex? It…”
~ ~ ~
“I hope you didn’t overdo it Haru…”
“Overdo it?”
“I’m not gonna judge or anything, don’t worry. I’ve even been researching a few things like that to try with Ren- if he’s okay with it, of course.”
“…Just to make sure we’re thinking about the same thing…”
“I mean all the stuff with… whips, chains, y’know, all the bells and whistles…”
“What would bells and whistles have to do with it?”
“I don’t know, that’s what my research is for. I’m just worried you might take things a bit too quickly with Ryuji. He seems… more bark than bite- if that makes sense.”
“Mako-chan…”
“S-so long as it’s all safe, sane, and consensual it’s fine.”
“Mako-chan, he and I have had sex, but we didn’t do anything S&M related.”
“Really?”
“Why are you surprised by that? No toys or ‘equipment’ or anything. It… it was my first time too, you know? I wanted it to be… tender.”
“Haru… I’m sorry Haru, I didn’t realize how rude I was being just now.”
“It’s fine, given some of the things I’ve said during the time you’ve known me, I can imagine why you thought that way.”
“That’s no excuse. I shouldn’t reduce you to just some… some kinks. I’m really am sorry.”
“I accept your apology Mako-chan. And when I do eventually… escalate things in the bedroom with Ryuji-kun, it’ll be after proper communication and planning, there’s no need to worry.”
“I won’t worry then.”
“First time was perfectly vanilla, save for maybe some smothering with flesh here and there.”
“…Ren likes that kind of thing too…”
~ ~ ~
“Dude, sex is even better than everyone says it is. Haru was so… warm and soft, but had such strong muscles underneath. Dude, I didn’t even think I liked girls with muscles.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? I love the kind of girl who can kick my ass.”
“For real?”
“Well, I’m not a masochist; I’d still prefer it if she didn’t kick my ass, that wouldn’t be fun at all, but it’s hot knowing she can, y’know?”
“…Ren if you said that to me like, a week ago I’d think you were really weird.”
“But now you get it, don’t you?”
“…Y… Y-yeah, I do…”
“Did she have a good time too?”
“I think so. I got her to cum, I think.”
“You think?”
“…Ren, be real with me; real-er than you’ve ever been before…”
“S-sure?”
“…When a girl squirts, is it just pee?”
“I’ll be honest, I’ve heard conflicting reports on that, and you know what? This is a case where I’d rather live in ignorance…”
“Dude, I get it. A lot of it got on my face… I think I might have swallowed some.”
“Yeah, it’s hot as hell when it happens…”
“…Don’t want to ruin that hotness by knowing too much?”
“Bingo.”
“Right… I think I’m okay with not knowing either.”
“But still, if you made Haru squirt then you must be doing a good job. I doubt you need my advice when it comes to sex at least. Just make sure to make use of your hands and mouth if you’re scared of cumming too quickly.”
“That did nearly become a problem, I was really worried about embarrassing myself.”
“Even if that does happen, you’ll be fine. Don’t despair if your dick is out of commission for a bit; remember- lesbians don’t have dicks at all and they pleasure eachother just fine.”
“So what you’re saying is: I need to watch more lesbian porn for research on how to be better at sex?”
“…Yes, actually.”
“I’m okay with this plan.”
“Though let’s be real, I feel like Haru’s going to be in charge in the bedroom most of the time.”
“Did you say summin’?”
“Nothing at all, just mumbling to myself.”
“Whatever man. Anyway it wasn’t really the sex I was worried about; it’s the other stuff I’m stressin’ out over.”
“Like what?”
“Exactly!”
“…What?”
“If we’re a couple now, what the hell are we even supposed to do?”
~ ~ ~
“That’s a very good question…”
“…”
“…”
“Does it have an answer Mako-chan?”
“Um… You just spend time with each other, I guess?”
“That part’s obvious.”
“I know, but it really is the most important part. You spend time close to eachother, you talk, and everything else just kinda… comes naturally from there.”
“Alright, I’ll rephrase my question; what’s the best way for us to spend time together?”
“The best way?”
“As a couple. The right environment and circumstances. I want my relationship with Ryuji to have a strong start. I don’t want this to feel like an awkward fling he’ll get bored of, or for it to just feel like we’re ‘friends who have sex’.”
“I see. Huh… the right circumstances to spend time together… To be honest, I’m not sure me and Ren are the best role models on that front. We spent so much time dealing with Phantom Thief business and threats that we never really had time for regular, ‘mundane’ dates.”
“That’s true, especially when you consider the time he spent ‘dead’. Even now your focus is on your studies, as mine probably should be too.”
“It’s perfectly fine to take breaks; you don’t want to burn yourself out.”
“True, now if only you could apply that advice to yourself Mako-chan.”
“I suppose I should, huh? I suppose going over the same information over and over again is going to have diminishing returns anyway; I’ll definitely make time for just me and Ren, and soon.”
“When you do, share your secrets with me.”
“I really don’t think there are any secrets. Just think of anything that sounds fun, then invite him along to it.”
“But what if he doesn’t enjoy it? What if he comes just to be nice and thinks I’m boring?”
“Then you find out by just talking to him. If the date is a bust, then you simply try something else. So long as you’re communicating all the while, you’ll find what’s right for the both of you, and get to know eachother better along the way- which is the whole goal, isn’t it?”
“Is it… is it really that simple?”
“I think so. Every success me and Ren have had- as friends, as a couple, as fellow thieves- we’ve had because of the power of trust and communication. So long as you have that, it’ll work out some way or another.”
“Hm.”
“But, I get the feeling I didn’t need to tell you any of this, did I?”
“…No, it’s all pretty obvious. I suppose the truth is that I was just nervous, and hoping there’d be some quick trick or secret to make it all easier…”
~ ~ ~
“…but maybe all I really needed was the confidence boost?”
“Seems that way to me Ryuji. C’mon, being all nervous and lacking confidence doesn’t suit either of you.”
“I guess you’re right. I’ll just ask her out somewhere and see how it goes, or whatever. I’ll just have to figure out what kinds of things girls like through trail and error.”
“Trial and error, Ryuji. And it’s not about what ‘girls’ like, it’s about what Haru likes.”
“R-right!”
“Haru and you, of course. If you’re looking for a place to start, you could take her to that ramen place you showed me?”
“Really? I would have thought she’d want something… fancier?”
“You and I both know Haru well enough to know she’s not that type, she’s definitely open minded, and will enjoy any place so long as you’re there with her.”
“You think?”
“I do. Plus, that ramen is the best I’ve ever had- comparable to Sojiro’s curry. Eating that will put her in a really good mood, she probably wouldn’t even notice how nervous you are.”
“I hope she doesn’t…”
“Even if she does notice, she’s probably going to find it cute; she’ll probably be extra affectionate to help you relax.”
“That sounds a little embarrassing, man…”
“Would you dislike it though?”
“…No comment.”
“Heh.”
~ ~ ~
“Are you sure Ryuji-kun will like that as a first date?”
“Well I actually don’t know his tastes all that well to be honest, but the first ‘date’ me and Ren had was in the arcade, so I think there’s a good chance of it working for you too.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to an arcade before… It might be fun, especially with Ryuji-kun there to guide me.”
“Exactly. If nothing else, exploring a new activity together will be a fun way to get just a little closer.”
“I’ll take that suggestion of yours, and ask him out today!”
“I’d wish you good luck, but I don’t think you’ll need it.”
“Thank you very much for assuaging my worries, Mako-chan. I know it should feel normal by now- but having friends I can lean on and talk to when I’m full of doubt… it’s a wonderful thing.”
“It really is, I know exactly what you mean. Don’t worry, even after today- after Shujin- I’ll always be there if you need someone to reach out to.”
“Mmhm! Same right back at you! But don’t word it as if this is some kind of soft goodbye, you and I will be alongside eachother in college.”
“True, even if we’ll be taking different courses, but we’ll never be too far apart… I only wish I could say the same for Ren-kun…”
“Mako-chan… A year without Ren-kun around is going to be tough, but that day isn’t here yet, we’ve got over a month and a half before he returns home, let’s make the most of it, okay?”
“Right…”
“And I know you two too well, there’s no way a bit of distance is going to put any sort of damper on your relationship.”
“Yeah, I’m prepared to continue things long-distance if need be.”
“I know he is too.”
“…Thank you Haru, you’ve made me feel a lot better too.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Pii pii pii
“Is that your phone, Mako-chan?”
“Hm… Oh, it’s just Ren saying that he’s done talking with Ryuji-kun, and he’s coming back here to meet me.”
“Oh, that’s handy timing.”
“And he told me to tell you that Ryuji’s gonna be waiting for you at the school entrance.”
“I better not keep him waiting then. I’ll talk to you later, Mako-chan.”
“Later Haru-chan. Text me to let me know how the arcade date went.”
“I’ll be sure to.”
~ ~ ~
The next day…
Shujin’s closing ceremony came slightly too early in the year for the picturesque glory of blooming cherry blossoms one would hope for on the day of graduation, but that was okay, the school didn’t have the ornamental grounds to properly facilitate such a backdrop anyway.
“This honestly feels surreal.” Haru mused aloud as she descended the steps outside the school, alongside fellow graduate Makoto, both of them carrying the cylindrical containers housing their graduation certificates. “I have so many memories attached to Shujin…” She giggled. “And absolutely all of them are truly awful.”
Makoto sighed.
“That’s understandable.”
“Of course, all of them except the fact that all of you were here.” Haru smiled at the gathered thieves, ready to greet the two at the bottom of the stairs. “My whole, undesirable, lacklustre school career; it’s all been made worth it thanks to the people I’ve met.”
“I know what you mean, and agree wholeheartedly.” Makoto took a deep breath as she stared back up at the school building. “When I first came here, I didn’t really think about the value of Shujin versus any other highschool; it was just another step in the vague path the adults in my life had laid out for me. But now it’s become involved in such a huge portion of the important events in my life. It was the first place my hard work had earned me any authority- however limited it turned out to be, it’s the place where I discovered my true self, and chose a new path for my life to follow under my own power. It’s where I met my first true friends, met my boyfriend. God, it’s even where I shed my clothes for the last time- which I’ll admit- I might have been able to predict most of the other stuff, but the younger me never would have seen that last one coming.”
Ren laughed.
“I imagine she wouldn’t believe it even if she did.”
“That or she’d do everything in her power to escape it.”
“This is probably a dumb question, but…”
“No Ann, I don’t regret it, and I don’t plan to change now that I’m leaving.”
“Didn’t think so.” Ann exhaled, a weak smile on her face. “I can’t deny it, it’s a good look on you.”
“Thanks Ann-chan.”
“It’s reached the point where I have a hard time imagining you any other way.”
“No kidding.” Makoto looked down at her body, watching her breasts rise and fall as she took a deep breath of the crisp, outdoor air. “Funny how that marked the start of everything changing for me.”
Sumire brought her hands together.
“You should all take a commemorative photo!”
“That’s a great idea, we should.” Haru looked around. “Who’ll take it for us?”
“I was thinking I would.”
“You, Sumi-chan?”
“I mean…” Sumire shrugged as she pulled out her phone. “You’re all… y’know- the team- I don’t really need to be in it myself.”
“Hmm… I do understand your reasoning…” Haru took a gentle hold of her former kouhai’s phone, meeting little resistance as she slid it out of the younger girl’s hand. “But proper team member or not, you’re still my friend, and I want you preserved in the memory of my graduation.”
“A-are you sure Haru-senpai?”
“I’m not your senpai anymore. We’re just regular friends, and I want all my friends in this picture.”
“I-I see.” Sumire pretended to adjust her glasses as an excuse to try and hide her blushing face. “I suppose I can’t argue with that logic.”
“Mm.” Haru nodded, before calling out to a nearby student. “Excuse me Mister? Yes you, the boy staring at Mako-chan’s nipples.”
“I-I wasn’t staring!”
“Don’t worry, everyone stares, I can’t blame you.” She giggled. “Do you mind taking our picture together?”
“Uh… sure…” He boy had Sumire’s phone handed to him, holding it up at everyone gathering together. “C-can I send myself a copy?”
Makoto sighed, she admired his confidence in just coming out and asking like that, but…
“You have my permission to take a candid photo of me when you think I’m not looking, like you did a minute ago.”
“I-I—”
“Don’t worry, everyone does it, I’m very much used to it.”
“That’s enough teasing the poor guy.” Sumire tried not to laugh as she positioned herself on Haru’s left, with Ryuji standing tall and grinning behind them.
With the two graduates front and centre, the thieves all huddled together, getting ready for their impromptu cameraman. Makoto felt the warmth of Ren’s arm wrapping around her shoulder, she looked up at her boyfriend and the notcat resting his front paws on his shoulder; she faced forwards, standing upright and proud, holding her certificate up in front of, and smiled the warmest, most genuine smile of her life as she heard the shutter.
“Did it come out okay?” Yusuke rushed over to see the phone, eager to judge the composition and lighting of the commemorative photo (though being wise enough not to be too critical, at least not out loud, this wasn’t the time for that).
“Looks good to me. Make sure to share it in the group chat Sumire-san.”
“Will do Makoto-senpai, oh wait, sorry. Makoto-san.”
“I’ll try to get it blown up and printed off for us both as soon as I can Mako-chan.”
“Thanks Haru-chan, but don’t feel you need to rush.”
“So…” Ryuji leaned forwards excitedly. “We should go celebrate now, right? I was talkin’ to Haru yesterday about it, and we thought we should go to the Hilton buffet again!”
“Ooo! I second that!” Ann’s arm shot up into the air.”
“I’ve heard of that, is it any good?”
“It’s pretty awesome Futaba-san.” Ren nodded. “We went there to celebrate after taking down Kamoshida; it’ll be good to go there again. You’ll love it too Mako.”
“If you say it’s good then I’m all in favor.” Makoto’s attention was caught by something not too far past the rest of the group. “I’m sorry, but do you mind waiting a little bit? There’s something I need to do first.”
“Oh?” Ren followed her line of sight. “Ah, of course, that’s important. It’s cool, we’ll wait.”
“Thank you. I’ll try not to be too long.”
Makoto smiled apologetically to everyone, before rushing ahead. The sound of her bare feet gently slapping against the cool pavement preceding the sound of her calling out to her targets.
“Eiko-san!”
“Yo there she is! ‘Sup Nudie Prez! Look!” Eiko held her graduation certificate aloft, pointing to it with her free hand. “I didn’t get held back!”
“I should hope not.” Makoto laughed. “You’ve all certainly been working hard enough.”
Mieko sighed.
“And we’re gonna haveta keep working hard with those entrance exams still looming over us…”
“Don’t worry Mieko-san, I’ll make sure to schedule plenty of study parties for us all even if we can’t use the school itself anymore.” Makoto pumped her fists. “They’ll be the best study sessions you ever had!”
“Oh joy…”
“I’m sure we’ll all make it through somehow.” Ai nodded. “Even if we’re all taking different courses, we’ll make sure all five of us make into Tokyo U.”
Eiko bounced in place excitedly.
“The best posse of sexy nudist chicks sticking together for another few years? Hell-to-the-yeah!”
Aya glanced over at Makoto’s other friend group.
“We’re not holding you guys up or anything, are we?”
“Nn.” Makoto shook her head. “I thought that since we’ve all graduated together, we should have a group picture too, don’t you think?”
“I like your thinking Nudie Prez!”
“I’m not sure that nickname really works anymore Eiko-san. I’m not student council president anymore.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re still ‘Nudie’, and you’re still ‘Prez’… Maybe… ‘president’ of the original Shujin nudists?”
“That’s a bit cringeworthy to be honest.”
“Go to hell Mieko!”
Makoto let out a wistful, content sigh.
“It’s fine, I’ll admit it, you’ve basically forced me to start liking that nickname anyway.”
“Hehehe~” Eiko grinned, before waving over to Ren. “Yo, TheReninSpenthatfallsmainlyonthePlen!”
“That might be the worst nickname yet…”
“We need you to take our picture together!”
Ren shrugged, pulling out his own phone and approaching.
“Sure, sounds good. I’ll send it to all of you afterwards.”
“Take a few, and we’ll pick the best one.” Ai grinned, making an effort to gather everyone close together.
For some reason having her boyfriend be the one to take the photo made Makoto feel a little bashful; she always liked people looking at her, but she especially liked it when it was him.
A few shutter sounds later and Eiko suddenly perked up.
“Oo, I have an idea.”
She pulled Aya aside, just far away enough from the rest of the group that they couldn’t hear her whispering. Whatever she was whispering about, Aya certainly seemed to find it funny, and immediately nodded in agreement before they returned to the rest of the group.
“We have an idea for an even better picture!”
The two girls stood either side of a confused (and slightly nervous) Makoto. They both crouched down, and grunted as they hoisted the bewildered former president onto their shoulders, panicking as she nearly lost her balance and dropped her certificate.
“Wh-what the hell are you two doing?”
Eiko grinned.
“We’re celebrating the graduation of Shujin’s first nudist circle, and you’re the first Shujin nudist, Nudie Prez. So obviously you have to be the centre!”
“But is it really necessary to lift me up in the air like this?”
“A Queen needs her throne, right? And Ren’s face is busy taking our picture.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“It’ll be fun.” Aya shrugged (at least with her free shoulder, lifting the shoulder Makoto was resting on would be a tad too taxing). “Is that enough of a reason?”
Makoto sighed.
“Fine, Ren hurry up and take a few pictures.”
“If you say so.” Ren lined up the shot, snapping a few photos of the nudist girls carrying their lifestyle’s trendsetter. He noted that while Makoto’s smile still seemed genuine, she was notably more exasperated and embarrassed now.
As he prepared to take the final shot, phase two of Eiko and Aya’s masterplan was initiated. With only some minor difficulty, each girl took a strong hold of one of Makoto’s thighs; the first nudist letting out a panicked yelp from the sudden sensation of her falling backwards, before she found herself once again being held firmly airborne. Only this time- rather than sitting atop their friends’ shoulders like a throne- she instead found herself reclining backwards, the lower half of her body thrust forwards, and her legs spread as wide open as they’d go. Her vulva was now front and centre in the group’s composition. Ren’s face was frozen in shock; a shock that evidently didn’t spread to his hands, as evidenced by the distinctive sound of the camera shutter.
Only after the third shutter sound did Ren come to his senses.
“Oh shit, sorry Mako, I wasn’t expecting them to do that. I’ll delete those ones.”
“Nah those have to be the best ones!” Aya sniggered as she and Eiko let the flustered girl get back on her own two feet. “We gotta keep those!”
“I mean…” Ren stared down at the photo a little more than was strictly necessary. “Mako, just say the word and I’ll delete them.”
“Hmph…” A red-faced Makoto huffed, avoiding eye contact. “Am I… Am I making a weird face in them?”
“A weird face?” Ren checked the image again. “I mean you look surprised, but I wouldn’t call it ‘weird’.”
Makoto walked over to check the photo herself.
“God, you can see right inside…”
“It’s not quite as wholesome as the other pics, huh?”
“It’s fine. It’s nothing the whole world hasn’t seen a million times before.” Makoto huffed.
“I guess that’s true.”
Eiko leaned forward coyly.
“So you’d be cool with me posting it?”
Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Just don’t caption it with anything embarrassing.”
“Oh don’t act as if showing off like that doesn’t turn you on.”
Makoto glared at her friend.
“Keep your voice down, people are already looking. I don’t want people thinking I’m some kind of pervert.”
“I think they already know.”
“What was that?”
“N-nothing Ma’am.”
“I think we’ve embarrassed you enough.” Mieko snickered. “You can go celebrate with your other friends Makoto-chan.”
“We should celebrate later too though.” Aya added. “Ideally separate from your ‘study parties’.”
“Mm, I’d like that.” Makoto waved them of, before turning back to her boyfriend. “Shall we go then?”
“Let’s.”
“Niijima-senpai!”
Another voice stopped them before they had taken so much as a single step. Makoto flinched slightly at the group of thirty-odd students suddenly gathering around her, admittedly feeling a little intimidated by the sudden numbers approaching her (though taking some comfort in Ren protectively holding his arm in front of her).
“C-can I help you?”
One girl stepped forward, seeming to fancy herself their leader. She took a deep breath, before bowing deeply, her arms raised up behind her in a mock swallow dive.
“We wanted to thank you!”
“Huh?” Makoto watched as the other students joined in the collective bow. She exchanged a confused look with Ren, before facing the surreal sight in front of her. “I’m not sure I get it…”
The ‘leader’ was the first to stand back upright, pumping her fists excitedly as she eagerly leant towards the nudist.
“We’re Shujin’s ‘Makoto fanclub’! We’ve been following the career of the ‘First Shujin Nudist’, and wanted to thank you for all the service you’ve given us over the last year.”
“Service?” Makoto tilted her head, before suddenly perking up with a bright smile on her face. “You mean my efforts as student council president were appreciated after all?”
“What?”
“All this time…” Makoto wiped away a tear. “…I was so worried everyone in the school just saw me as a pain or some kind of ‘robot’, but there really were people who appreciated my hard work after all. This makes me so happy to hear.”
“Uhh… we actually just meant the ‘service’ from you getting nak—”
“See Mako!” Ren quickly cut the girl off. “People really do respect you.”
“I mean, yeah we do, but it’s more—” The girl was cut off by a fierce glare from the transfer student. “Y-yeah. Wh-what he said.”
“Thank you for saying that to me.” Makoto was so giddy she could scarcely stop herself from jumping up and down. “That’s made this wonderful day all the brighter for me.”
“Can we get a picture?” One boy in the crowd perked up.
“Ha.” Ren let out a good-natured scoff. “Another group that wants a commemorative photo with you. This keeps up and we’ll never get to go to the Hilton buffet.”
“It’ll have to just be the one, okay?” Makoto asked the group, receiving a few sounds of eager affirmation in response.
Once again Ren was the designated photographer, nervously taking the expensive-looking DSLR camera from the newspaper club girl (whose name was still unknown by most everyone) as she and the rest of the fanclub all started to gather around the famous nudist.
With at least thirty students crowding around her, Makoto did feel a tad nervous. She had no problems with public speaking, but being down on ground level with everyone was a different experience to speaking down from a stage or such; regardless of the size, an ‘audience’ can be reduced to a singular entity in her mind, it was one of the rationalizations she learned early on to overcome stage fright.
Though to be honest it wasn’t really anything like ‘stage fright’ making her nervous, she just wasn’t sure about how she should act. Part of her thought she should try some kind of pose, but everything that came to mind was either too lewd or would give the impression of ‘trying too hard’; she instead opted to simply stand up straight, give a shy smile, and raise a subdued peace sign.
The ‘pose’ brought a memory back to the surface; the day she was first asked to herald the nudist program, when she first stepped out of the principal’s office completely nude, trying in vain to cover herself with her bag. She ran into three girls outside of class- girls she now knows as Ai, Aya, and Mieko- they also wanted pictures of her, and this was the exact pose she gave them that day too.
The first time she exposed her naked body to her peers, and the moment she first started to realize maybe her body wasn’t just something to be ashamed of and ridiculed. She wondered how differently she would have considered her nudism had those three not been as kind and supportive as they were that day. But standing here now, in the centre of a crowd that admired her, who saw her body as something to celebrate and be excited by- while still acknowledging the person that body belongs to as a person; maybe people were just generally much nicer than she had given them credit for in the past.
Once everyone had stopped fighting over who got to stand closest to the nudist, she lifted her head to face Ren as he coordinated everyone’s attention to the camera.
“Everyone ready?”
Feeling the warmth of the crowd around her counteracting the late-winter air against her skin, Makoto took a deep breath, and smiled for one last graduation picture.
Notes:
Don't worry, Makoto was only a *little* wet for the last couple pictures. People will only notice if they look *really* close at the images (which- of course- they will)
Chapter 110: Proof of success
Summary:
Taking just a moment to celebrate a step forward
Chapter Text
Even back during the time where she blindly coasted through life, paying little-to-no mind to her academic performance or thinking of her future beyond whatever her family would provide her; even then Eiko never really doubted that she’d graduate high school. And yet, somehow that certificate filled her with a swelling sense of pride, so much so that she went so far as to frame it and put it up on her shelf.
Standing back and looking at it, she was already a little embarrassed being so proud of what was a rather ordinary and ‘expected’ achievement, but to her it was a sign that getting into college wasn’t just wishful thinking. She had proof that she could succeed under her own power, now all that remained was to reapply that to the upcoming entrance exams.
“I hope that you understand this was the easy part.” The voice that had become familiar to Eiko, or rather- the presence that that awoken inside her last month. Technically her own voice, but with a tone that suggested a much higher calibre than she would typically associate with herself. She hadn’t really had time to get fully used to it, but it was slowly starting to become a more comfortable and familiar presence, rather than an unusual shock any time she would open her proverbial mouth.
“Of course I get that, Godiva. But I also took care of it easily. So logically, if I work hard I’ll be able to do the hard part too, right? That’s just basic math.”
“That’s certainly one way of putting it.”
“I’ve been full of doubt for so long. I’ve never really been the smart type, the achieving type, more… eh… kinda a bimbo?”
“Do you believe that to be a fair label?”
“Maybe for the old me… maybe. But right now, that graduation certificate might as well have the words ‘Not a bimbo’ written on it.” Eiko’s eyes shifted to the frame right next to her certificate, housing the photo of her and the other Shujin nudist graduates Ren took for them (the first- much more innocent one- rather than the more explicit photos they took of Makoto with her legs spread, that was happily fulfilling its role as her pinned tweet for the next couple weeks rather than being put on display in her room). “Though it’s not like I did it alone; would have been screwed without Nudie Prez and the others.”
“Strength begets strength. Confidence begets confidence. Passion begets passion. Just as their light betters you, you must be sure to keep your own light burning as brightly as possible to inspire others as they have done for you.”
“Preach bitch.” Eiko sat down on the edge of her bed, her arms proudly crossed, and a smug grin on her face. “I’m gonna work even harder now, it’d be embarrassing if I got this far but didn’t get to join them all at Tokyo U.”
“Makoto-sama has another gathering planned for your crew tomorrow, I’m sure you plan to make the most of it? So all five of you are fully prepared?”
“Obviously.” Eiko nodded. “So that’s tomorrow, then?”
“Correct.”
“Then today is a day off. I’m ready to try hard, but not to the point of overworking myself, that’d be dumb.”
“…I suppose that’s logical enough. You cannot shine if you burn out.”
“See, you get it.” Eiko leapt to her feet. “I’mma go see Fumi-chan today. Right now!”
“A lady shouldn’t keep her lady waiting.”
“Mm-hm.” Eiko paused for a moment. “I should also probably stop talking to myself, Eisen is home and I don’t want him thinking I’m weird.”
With her plan of action decided, Eiko slung a small bag over her shoulder carrying her phone and other essentials, and left her room with a spring in her step. Her many months of being a ‘professional’ exhibitionist (if one were to count her Onlyfans account as a true ‘profession’), she had been sure to develop a number of good habits for keeping more eyes on herself as she moved around, this included being sure to descend stairs in such a way that induced maximum bouncing; movement was what gave titties their lasting appeal after all- this is what she vehemently believed.
Though there was technically no purpose to acting so ‘showy’ when in her own home, at this point it things like maximizing ‘jiggle value’ and maintaining a wide stance had just become completely natural to her, something she does without even thinking.
Though rushing down the stairs like this did create some noise, which was pretty distracting for the house’s other occupant (if- y’know- the perpetually naked family member wasn’t already off-putting enough for them).
“Judging by all the childish stomping, I’m guessing you’re in a good mood?”
“I wasn’t stomping Bro, don’t exaggerate.” Eiko pouted. “But you’re right about me being in a good mood, why wouldn’t I be after graduating?”
“And here I thought you actually liked school.”
“I liked the people there; they still exist so it’s not like I’ve lost anything except a bunch of schoolwork I needed to do.”
Eisen- the eldest of the two Takao children- let out a weary sigh.
“Yeah, that’s about what I expected to hear.”
“Hmm…” Eiko’s brow furrowed as she shifted her weight from one hip to another. “Though I guess not really, since the work at college is supposed to be even tougher, but hey- at least it’s more focused to the important shit I actually need and care about.”
“Hm, so you’re really serious about going?”
“I mean, yeah? I’ve been sayin’ it enough times, haven’t I?”
“That much is undeniable. I just hope you understand that graduating high school was the easy part, you…”
“Yeah yeah yeah yeah, we can skip this part; I’ve already had this conversation today.”
Eisen raised a confused eyebrow.
“With whom?”
“N-nevermind that. Point is I’m gonna be ready for what comes next. I’m gonna smash through it, no problem.”
He pondered a moment, before shrugging.
“Let’s hope so. Though don’t overextend yourself, regardless of what happens Dad says he’ll be able to find some kind of position for you in the company that you’ll do fine in. No matter what you’ll definitely be fine.”
Eiko remained silent for a few moments, her arm which had been rubbing the back of her head in a gesture of mock-nonchalance just a second ago now hanging limply at her side. She took a slow, silent breath in and out of her nose.
“You still don’t think I can do it, do you?”
Eisen looked back down at his laptop, his hands hovering over the keyboard as if he was simply going to return to work, though his hesitant expression made it clear he was considering his next words carefully.
“I will admit, I’m still harbouring some doubts.”
“Oh…” Eiko hung her head slightly, glancing down towards the floor. Though it didn’t take long for her despondency to shift to frustration. “Hey, don’t just go assuming that I’m dumb! Just because I’ve never got all that engineering crap doesn’t mean I’m totally airheaded and useless!”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Eisen shook his head. “Like I hope you succeed- of course I do- and your hard work lately has been pretty surprising so I’m not saying you can’t do it. All I meant was that if you do fail, you still have something safe to fall back on. You’ll be fine regardless so just… you don’t need to drive yourself to madness with stress or anything like that.” He took his eyes off of her and back to his own project. “That’s all I meant by it.”
Eiko huffed.
“I see… sorry.” She rested her hands indignantly on her hips. “There’s not gonna be any need for that though. You’ve still got another year before you get that diploma, you better get ready to see me wandering those halls for that last year, and when I do I expect you to apologize for doubting me.”
“Sure, if that helps motivate you then I’ll play along.”
Eiko resecured her grip on her bag, taking one and a half strides towards the entranceway before pausing to turn back to her brother one last time.
“You really don’t need to worry at all. I’m making sure to take my exam prep extremely seriously, more seriously than anything I’ve ever done before. I’m not gonna let any time go to waste.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So where are you off to now?”
“I’m off to fuck my girlfriend.”
“…I see.” Eisen returned to his work- for real this time. “Have fun?”
“I plan to.”
~ ~ ~
“And so once again you fall down at my feet, completely at my mercy following your pitiful attempts at resistance. Tell me, are you deliberately losing because you want to be in this position?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Oho? My mistake then; for a moment I thought you were just so entranced by the glorious majesty of the Golden Dragon Queen that you were deliberately launching one failed skirmish after another at me just for another chance to behold the peerless spectacle of the true ruler of this world in the act of crushing those foolish enough to stand against her.”
“Hmph, you’re certainly full of yourself Hi—Y-your Majesty.”
The infamous ‘Golden Dragon Queen’ let out an amused, but sinister chuckle, as she sauntered across her throne room to the woman on her hands and knees before her, battered and thoroughly defeated.
“Now…” The queen lifted her right foot, hooking her big toe beneath her victim’s chin, lifting their head so she could look them directly in the eyes. “…What should I do with my lovely prize?”
“Me? A prize?”
“A lovely prize indeed, the heroine of the clan of Takao at my whim and mercy. How perfectly suited to a peerless conqueror such as myself.”
Takao gazed up at her in awe a while, before her eyes began to drift downwards. She took note of the queen’s stance, balancing precariously on one leg, clearly struggling to maintain this position despite the overly smug and confident expression on her face. Takao scoffed.
“Oh?” The dragon queen’s eyes narrowed. “Do you find something amusing about your predicament?”
“I’m just wondering how long Her Majesty can maintain this position, and how long she intends to give me such a perfect view of her… surprisingly cute-looking pussy.”
“Hmph.” The queen lowered her foot, though not before flicking her ‘prize’s head away, causing her to fall back onto her posterior. “So enraptured by it, are you? Very well.” She stepped forward, resting her hands on her hips as she thrust them forward, leaving her womanhood mere inches away from the woman’s face. “Well? Do you need further instruction? Perhaps you should put that mouth of yours to some real use.”
Takao’s mocking contempt quickly shifted to enraptured desire. A thin, well-groomed patch of black hair sat atop the queen’ vulva like a dark crown sat atop the monarch herself; the hair looking just as smooth and silky as the hair on her head. It served as a wonderful appetizer for the main meal. Plump, round labia appeared to hold tightly shut the entrance to- no doubt- all manner of beauty and joy contained within. Yet even as the proverbial gates to paradise held fast, a near-invisible strand of the queen’s own juices had managed to seep out, tantalizingly hanging and glistening in the light.
The Golden Dragon Queen looked forward to her defeated opponent surrendering to her desires, reaching out for the first delicate flicks of her tongue against her entrance, before pushing further and further in. She was less prepared to feel hands tightly gripping both buttocks and forcefully pulling her in, causing her to stumble slightly before feeling a tongue force its way inside her, accompanied by a nose rubbing against the hood concealing her clitoris.
“G-goodness, you have some—A-ah—some nerve!”
Takao would have responded, but that would have required her to briefly pause her ravenous oral assault, so that wasn’t going to happen.
“I-I suppose I can appreciate your—oh god—your d-devotion to your queen!”
She scrambled to regain her composure, or as much of it as she could with a tongue buried deep inside her, thrashing around like an enraged bull in an undersized cage. She was hardly going to object to such fervor, but she wanted to regain some more control. She gripped the young woman’s hair, and pulled her inwards while bucking her own hips- roughly grinding herself against her prize’s face.
Her breathing became heavier, she began to forget to maintain her proud, ‘royal’ stance, and started hunching over, widening her legs in hopes of getting that tongue even just a tiny bit deeper. When it became clear that she couldn’t pull her victim’s head in any harder than they were already doing so themselves, the Dragon Queen instead moved her hands to her own breasts, alternating between roughly kneading them and firmly pulling on her rock-hard brown nipples that were proudly poking out into the open air.
“Good god, I cannot deny your skill. You’re so overwhelmingly eager; perhaps I was right- maybe you really are losing on purpose to get into this position?”
Takao groaned into her pussy, from it’s tone it sounded like an objection, but it clearly wasn’t worthwhile denying herself the taste of glorious ‘royal’ pussy for even a moment to refute the claim properly.
“Yes… yes…” The seldom-heard moans of the Golden Dragon Queen began to fill the room. Her grip on her nipples tightened, her hips began to buck, her toes curled against the floor. “I’m getting close. Don’t stop, just a little more. I’m… I’m gonna—”
“Hifumi-chan, I brought you two some snacks!”
The sound of the door handle to Hifumi’s room beginning to turn sent a wave of primal fear through both girls’ bodies. Eiko released Hifumi from her clutches, but alas the girl was not prepared for it, and stumbled backwards; her mother entering the room with tray in hand just in time to see her fall down right onto her butt- immediately clutching her knees together and holding her hands in her lap- forcing a smile up at her parent.
“M-Mother?! Y-you really must knock before entering.”
“Oh?” Mitsuyo Togo looked down at her daughter, concerned. “I didn’t mean to make you jump like that. Are you alright? That fall didn’t hurt did it? Your face is all red and strained.”
“I-it’s quite alright.” Hifumi’s face was the reddest it had ever been, for more than one reason. It was partially due to the embarrassment of nearly being caught in the act of receiving oral sex and falling onto her behind, but it was mostly because the impact from falling had managed to push her over the edge, and even as she was forcing her ‘innocent’ smile she was actively cumming. It took every last scrap of willpower she had to keep her hands in her lap and not play with herself to ride out the orgasm, though she wasn’t quite able to stop herself involuntarily grinding against the carpet.
“Are you sure? You didn’t hurt yourself or anything, did you?”
To call Hifumi’s face ‘strained’ would be an understatement, she only hoped her mother wouldn’t notice or think anything of her slight twitching.
“W-we were just in a middle of a shogi match when you walked in, that’s all.”
Mitsuyo looked at Eiko- hurriedly wiping her mouth with her arm- then at the shogi board.
“Looks like it’s already ended in a checkmate.”
“Well we um… had to play out the ending…”
Mitsuyo sighed, knowing questioning her daughter’s strange roleplays was probably a waste of time. She instead just laid down her tray atop the kotatsu.
“I just brought some sandwiches up for you two, I figured you could both use some extra brain fuel.”
“Oh neat, thanks Togo-san.” Eiko politely bowed from a seated position, doing a much better job of acting casual than her girlfriend currently coming down from her ‘mind-blowing orgasm’. “That’s real cool of you.”
“Oh don’t mention it. Anyway, I’ll let you both get back to it. Hifumi-chan’s skills and spirits always seem to be raised after a few matches with you Takao-san.”
“Aw shucks Miss…” Eiko sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, actively trying to seem as sweet as possible to Mitsuyo as if she wasn’t just buried nose-deep in her daughter’s cunt mere moments ago.
The mother stood back up right and left the room; pausing a brief moment for her brow to furrow, to sniff the air, before shaking her head and closing the door behind her.
Mere moments after the door clicked shut did Hifumi’s legs snap wide open, and she began furiously rubbing herself with her hand. She continued for about six or seven seconds before giving up, slumping over and pouting.
“Drat… It’s already passed…”
“Talk about crappy timing, huh?”
“Unfortunately my room doesn’t have a lock. I really do wish she would just knock at least…”
“My parents can be the same way, I get it…” Eiko shuffled over to the kotatsu, hungrily eying the sandwiches. “Still, your mom seems pretty nice actually.”
Hifumi joined her, figuring that if fully enjoying her climax was off the table, she’d at least properly enjoy the relaxing warmth under her kotatsu.
“I suppose that’s not wrong, ever since her change of heart there’s been nothing to complain about- besides a flagrant disregard for privacy, of course.”
Eiko took a bite of one of the sandwiches, but put it back on her plate right away, deciding she’d be better off waiting until she could taste anything other than her girlfriend’s pussy.
Speaking of which…
“Koko? What are you doing?” Hifumi watched Eiko lay down and slither beneath the kotatsu’s blanket. Moments later she once again felt a tongue probing her still-sensitive entrance. “AIIE! R-really now?”
“No reason we can’t try again, y’know?” Came Eiko’s voice from beneath the table, everything except her legs now hidden from sight. “I’m gonna makes sure you actually get to finish properly this time!”
“W-well…” Hifumi felt her girlfriend pushing her thighs apart- she made no effort to resist. “I suppose I won’t object, though I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to get back into character…”
Eiko didn’t respond- she had her mouth full. Hifumi shuffled her lower body a little further into the warm slice of heaven beneath the table, slowly letting herself get back into the mood. Her hand trailed up her torso, smoothly caressing her front as it made its way up to her slightly sore—
“Sorry.” Mitsuyo walked back in. “I forgot to bring up the drinks, I left them on the side when I… Takao-san, what are you doing under there?”
After a brief pause, Eiko sheepishly crawled backwards and out into the open.
“S-sorry Togo-san. I was just uh… looking for my glasses.”
“I didn’t realize you had glasses.”
“I don’t. Hey- that’s probably why I can’t find them, huh?”
“I… what?”
“Th-thank you for the drinks, Mother, and the sandwiches. That’s very thoughtful of you.”
“Oh it’s fine, don’t worry about it. I was making them for an event at work anyway, making extras didn’t take much more effort.” She left the room again, nodding to them both as she left. “Have fun you two.”
A pregnant silence hung over the room after the door clicked shut once more. A disheartened Hifumi began grumpily resetting the shogi board.
“We’ll have time for another game after we eat…”
“S-sure, Fumi-chan…”
~ ~ ~
Turns out especially intense games of shogi can work up quite a sweat (please, let us all do the courtesy of pretending the board game was the reason the girls were sweaty). Deciding that she didn’t want to send her girlfriend home a muggy mess, Hifumi offered her use of their house’s shower; even offering to come in with her to show her how it works (remember guys- courtesy).
The bathroom door- unlike Hifumi’s room- came with a latch for much more secure privacy. Obviously there was no need for undressing, so both girls could immediately get in the sizable walk-in shower- sliding the glass door shut behind them- and enjoy the hot water flowing down them both.
“Ahh, that’s the good shit.” Eiko spread out her arms, letting her chest take the full brunt of the water’s flow, slowly spinning around to let her whole body enjoy the blissful warmth (having just come from the blissful- but also kind of muggy- warmth of the kotatsu).
“I’m glad you like it Koko-chan.” Hifumi giggled. “It was quite pricy but it was well worth it.”
“The showerhead looks like it’d be pretty powerful.” Eiko grinned. “So how often are you masturbating with it?”
“Koko!” Hifumi pouted, her wet hair clinging to her shoulders. “I mean… it’s not like I use it every time I take a shower…”
“Heheh.”
“Anyway, pass me the bodysoap, it’s just on that shelf next to you.”
“Hmm…”
This is the ‘audience interaction’ part of the story. You- dear reader- have two guesses as to what happens next as Eiko reaches for the soap. Will she—time’s up, but yes you were about to guess the right answer:
With her hands covered in liquid soap, it was only mere moments before she had grasped Hifumi’s breasts, working up a nice lather.
“You certainly don’t waste any time, Koko-chan…”
Eiko giggled as a nefarious grin spread across her face. Her soapy hands slithered down Hifumi’s front, making a beeline between her legs, to the area wet from more than just the shower. The younger girl let out a pleasured gasp as she felt fingers pressing into her.
“Oh my~” Eiko practically sang. “I never would have thought the Golden Dragon Queen would let out such a cute noise.”
“Hm? Koko? That wasn’t—aah!” She let out another small moan as a pair of fingers easily slid inside her.
“What was that, Your Majesty?”
“Hmph!” The ‘Golden Dragon Queen’ scoffed. “Don’t get too cocky now, I defeated you and your army. You’re MY prize, not the other way around.”
“I dunno, I’m feeling like a winner right now.”
Eiko pushed Hifumi forwards. The younger girl feeling her breasts flatten against the glass with a satisfying ‘plomp’ sound, while her girlfriend’s hands slid down between her cheeks, sliding over her anus and back between her plump lips.
“Skilled with your tongue and your hands? Seems I made the right choice in making you mine.”
Eiko pressed her wet body into Hifumi’s back, pinning her against the glass as her hard nipples dug into the girl’s back.
“You’re so goddamn gorgeous, y’know that?”
“H-huh?”
“Your body drives me wild.”
“O-oh… Really? Th-thank you.” Hifumi The Golden Dragon Queen quickly shook her head. “Well, naturally. It’s only right that the true ruler of this world possesses unparalleled beauty. Th-though you’re not bad yourself…”
“No wonder you’re so eager to show off.”
“I have nothing to hide.”
“I wonder if you know just how desirable you are, how much attention you command.”
“You mean, my men?” She thought to all the times during battle, where she would be held aloft on her throne, keeping her perpetually nude body in full view above the battlefield at all times. “They certainly find my form inspiring.”
“That’s for certain. Inspiring their will to win for your sake, but also inspiring no small amount of lust.”
“That’s… only natural I suppose.”
“I’d fight my heart out too if it meant a chance to behold your sexy body for even just a minute more.”
Hifumi’s face was getting hot, and she knew she couldn’t blame it on the shower.
I mean…
The Dragon Queen felt the warmth inside her growing. Her feelings towards standing bare before her armies began to shift ever so slightly. Being aware of the strong desire each of them must hold for their supreme ruler and commander, all focused on every inch of her exposed form, all desperately wishing they had the honor of beholding it up close… or perhaps even…
It felt like a new surge of electricity intensifying her already-euphoric feelings as she led her armies to victory.
Hifumi slapped a hand over her own mouth to prevent herself from squealing too loud as she felt a sudden and intense sensation from below, moments after being released from the wall. Eiko had bent her over forwards and held the showerhead in hand- turning it to a focused stream which she aimed at Hifumi’s intimates.
No wait wait wait… The Queen um… uhh… did a thing and um…
“MMMRRMM!” Hifumi moaned into her hand as she felt Eiko spread her labia open, intensifying the water’s effects even more.
So there was this ‘Golden Dragon Empire’, and like- she was supposed to be like… the uh… something? A-and there’s Shogi involved, probably…?
This had never happened before; Hifumi couldn’t believe it. For the first time for as long as she could remember- she wasn’t able to maintain her character, ‘Shogi mode’ was completely falling apart. The sensations she was experiencing were just too intense. She had of course masturbated this way before, but it never felt quite this good when she did it by herself.
All that existed for her right now was herself, the showerhead, and her beloved girlfriend focused entirely on bringing her as much physical pleasure as possible.
With the water still firing out, Eiko’s free hand tweaking and pulling her nipple, and Eiko’s mouth chewing on her ear, it wasn’t long before climax hit- and it hit hard. Hifumi squirted against the glass, with almost as much pressure as the shower itself. Her fluids near-seamlessly mixed with the water, flowing down the drain, and she fell to her knees, weak, and panting.
Eiko switched off the shower, crouched down next to her girlfriend, and wrapped both arms around her in a close embrace. Their wet hair sticking together as she leant her head on Hifumi’s shoulders.
“So~” She smiled. “How’d I do? Did you like the angle I went for? It felt good, right?”
Hifumi weakly lifted her head, turning towards Eiko, before immediately pouncing her, brining her into a deep, passionate kiss as she lay on top of her.
Hifumi relented for just a moment, to pull away for breath, gazing lovingly down at her girlfriend on her back with her loose hair splayed out. Eiko, meanwhile, looked up at her girlfriend, her hair hanging down around her- enforcing tunnel vision to her flushed face, full of overwhelming lust and affection.
Eiko smiled.
“I’ll take that as a yes?”
Hifumi resumed the kiss with full fervor.
~ ~ ~
Unfortunately, staying the night wasn’t an option, and after their hair had dried Eiko had to head home.
After seeing her off, Hifumi retired back to her room for the evening.
She reached up to gently touch her own lips, her mind still on their intense shower make-out session, and indeed the intensity that preceded it.
She looked at the reflection of her body in her full-length mirror, taking in every detail of herself from head to toe; running one hand up her side, letting her left breast be pushed up, and enjoying the subtle jiggle as it fell back into place.
Satisfied, she turned back around, her eyes being drawn back to her shogi board, and her army laid out ready to begin a battle that was cancelled in favor of the girls’ shower.
She stared at her pieces a while, before turning away bashfully.
“Y-you all don’t need to stare quite that intensely, y’know…” Her cheeks grew warm. “N-not that I mind too much…”
Chapter 111: The exhibitionist shut-in
Summary:
What makes an exhibitionist?
Chapter Text
A familiar tapping sound echoed through Futaba’s dimly lit room, she pulled her headphone away from her ear for just a moment.
“Hm? Oh yeah.”
She spun her chair around and dismounted, briefly stumbling as her feet threatened to give way beneath her, but managing to happily recover.
“I’ve been sitting down too long…”
She shuffled along to her window, pulling aside the curtains, wincing at the natural light suddenly assaulting her, and slid the window open to allow Morgana- the source of the tapping sound- inside.
“Thanks Futaba-san”
“Ren and Makoto getting super romantic again?”
“You could say that…”
Futaba sat back down, quickly clicking something on her computer; for a few moments the distinctive sounds of flesh slapping against flesh could be heard in her headset.
“I see.” She closed her spying program, she didn’t feel like listening in, it’d be far too awkward especially with Morgana around. Or rather, she minimized it- she might change her mind on the recording later.
“You don’t mind me hanging out here, do you?”
“Nah, you’re good Mona.” Futaba restlessly spun around in her chair. “I wasn’t doing anything anyway.”
“I figured as much.”
Her spinning abruptly stopped.
“Huh?”
“Hm? Something wrong Futaba?”
“Why’d you say you ‘figured’?”
“Uhh…”
Futaba pouted.
“I do do stuff, y’know?”
“Do you?”
“Of course I do! You’re making it sound like I’m just sitting around all day.”
“I didn’t mean it like that at all. I just uh…” Morgana shifted in place. “I thought it was a pretty safe bet you were free, seeing as we’re all pretty relaxed now that everything has calmed down, you don’t have college exams to worry about like Queen, and… y’know…?”
“I know what?”
“Y’know… You’re not the type to go outside, so I just figured you’d be chilling in here and hopefully wouldn’t mind me hanging out, that’s all.”
Futaba huffed, crossing her legs and leaning forwards.
“I do too go outside, I’ve evolved from my shut-in form to an all-out exhibitionist! I went outside all those times we had to go to palaces.” She leant back a little, a subtle drop of her shoulders betraying a minor loss of confidence. “I guess that all counts as ‘work’ though, so maybe it doesn’t count.”
“W-we can count it if you like?”
“Nah we don’t need to cheat like that, there are plenty of real examples of going out for fun, like uh…” Futaba tried to snap her fingers while she was thinking- like she had seen people do in the movies, but couldn’t quite manage to produce any actual sound. “AH! The culture festivals! Plural! Both at Shujin and Kosei, even most extroverts only go to one a year.”
“See there you go; you went out with everyone and had a great time. Mostly anyway- there was the whole business with Akechi-kun but besides that you were totally fine with everyone there to look after you.”
“Look after me?”
“I don’t mean that in bad way. Sorry, I’m saying all the wrong things today.”
“Hmph! Going out with friends is a normal thing; I don’t need them as babysitters!”
“I never said you did!” Morgana shook his head. “Look, I really didn’t mean to imply anything or offend you; I was just happy to come here and hang out.”
Futaba didn’t seem to be listening, she was too deep in thought.
“Let’s see… Phantom Thief stuff, the culture festivals… Oh yeah- the beach! Wait no, that was with everyone escorting me too… This is hard…”
“There’s nothing wrong with preferring the indoors.”
“There has to be another time I went outside, surely? I don’t wanna count walking to Leblanc since that’s like a minute away…”
“It does count as a public café though.”
“I guess? AH! There is one other: on New Year’s I went out to the shrine with… with Mom…”
“Futaba-chan…”
She slumped back in her chair.
“Man, I really don’t go outside, do I?”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that, so long as you’re happy.”
“I do prefer being inside, that’s for sure. Though it does mean I’m falling behind all the other nudists.”
Morgana tilted his head.
“Falling behind?”
“Our exhibitionism fame stat!”
“It’s a stat now?”
“Of course!” Futaba grinned. “Makoto-san has the highest of course, appearing on TV nude- with pussy close-ups and everything. That extrovert- Eiko I think- is always grinding her Onlyfans.”
“What kind of game has an ‘exhibitionism stat’?”
“Well—”
“Actually no, don’t answer that.”
Futaba turned back to her computer.
“Look, if you type in ‘Makoto Niijima’ you get over a million results, same with ‘Eiko Takao’.” She made a show of stroking her chin has she ‘analysed’ the wealth of candid nude footage on her screen- which Morgana averted his eyes from. “Probably tons of people fapping to this shit. I’m never gonna catch up to them, but I’ve been a nudist for over half a year now, so I’m sure I’ve earned my fare share of fans too.”
“That’s not—”
Futaba Sakura typed in her own name, excitement clear on her face as he pressed enter… and holding that expression for a very slow, silent ten seconds or so.
“Eh?”
Morgana felt like it was a mistake to ask this question, but:
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not here?”
“Really?”
“LITERALLY HOW?!” She leant towards her monitor, clutching the edge of her desk. “Even if it’s just the trips to palaces surely I must have been creep-shotted by someone?”
“Actually yeah, that is weird… If nothing else you should definitely be in some of them involving Queen.”
The girl clicked back to the ‘OG Nudist’s’ images, scanning them rapidly, motivated by a mixture of frustration as desperation.
“There I am! I’m in this one. And that one! And another! You can see everything too! So why aren’t they under my name?”
“Do they even know your name?”
Her brow raised.
“That’s a good point. I don’t go to school yet so no one knows who I am.” She slouched back, crossing her arms as she stared at the ceiling in contemplation. “Shit, how the hell am I supposed to build up fame without having an identity? I probably already do have fans, but without knowing who I am they can’t organize into a proper fanclub.”
Morgana trotted over to her and hopped up onto her desk beside her.
“No offence, but I really didn’t think you were the type to want fame.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want people talking to me or looking at my face too much. But how can I honestly call myself a proper exhibitionist if I’m not exposing myself?”
The notcat sighed.
“I’m not sure I should be encouraging this, but if showing yourself off naked is the whole goal, can’t you just post a couple selfies online or something?”
“I can’t do that! Most of my accounts are under ‘Alibaba’; I can’t risk putting any real photos out.” She gestured to her bare chest. “Someone might recognise my smoking sexy body, realize Alibaba isn’t a Russian ex-secret agent after all, then I get doxxed, and people start sending hundreds of pizzas and IEDs to the house and it’ll be a disaster!”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Believe me, ‘Alibaba’ has made a LOT of enemies.”
“…I believe you.” Morgana made a mental note to have a talk with Ren later, start coming up with plans to keep this girl both out of prison, and out of the warpath of any potential hitmen; they may have to resort to extreme measures, such as threatening to give her a ‘no-electronics’ grounding. “Don’t you have any normal accounts? One just for you rather than extra-legal vigilante hacking?”
“What, like using my real name? Are you insane? Noone except for old media celebrities and literal sociopaths use their real name online. I don’t want my online life overstepping into the world of offline.”
“Well then what do you want to do?”
“Hmm…”
“Honestly you’re better off just not worrying about this whole—”
Futaba leapt out of her chair, cutting off Morgana and thrusting her arms into the air in a ‘ta-daa’ pose as if she just did something impressive.
“F-Futaba?”
“I’m overthinking this. I already have the cheat power, I just have to use it.”
“Cheat power?”
She shot him a toothy grin, proudly resting her fists on her hips.
“I’m a registered nudist! I can just go streaking. Most exhibitionists could only dream of having the power I have.” She pumped her fists. “Streaking through the streets of Tokyo in broad daylight? That’s post-game levels of exhibitionism. Who cares if they don’t have a name to put it to, everyone’s gonna love the cute, orange-haired nudist strutting her stuff.”
“I’m not sure if—”
“People will be selling doujins parodying the scenario on dlsite within the week, I’m sure of it.”
“I mean, girls walking around Tokyo naked is kinda old news at this point.”
“Nah, people online never get sick of naked girls, especially exhibitionists. People have been waiting for some naked action from me for ages now.”
Before Morgana could respond, Futaba started marching towards her bedroom door, eagerly swinging her arms as she left the room. He rushed after her, knowing he couldn’t trust her on her own.
‘Oh god, what exactly is she planning?’ He thought to himself as he followed behind her. ‘She’s not planning to do anything extreme, is she? Surely not; she can be excitable sometimes but she’s not the type to do anything stupid. Sure she started masturbating the first time she stepped outside naked, but it’s been so long since then, she wouldn’t do that again just because this is an exhibitionist thing?’
Futaba didn’t slow down as she reached the bottom of the stairs, skipping down the hall. Morgana sighed.
‘I’m worrying too much. Technically all travel with her has counted as ‘streaking’; in practice all this’d be is a light urban jog, and honestly the fresh air and exercise will do her some good.’
His faith in the girl to avoid being reckless during this little ‘expedition’ began to crumble after she burst out the front door into the road, not even bothering to close the door behind her. He could charitably assume she was leaving it open for him, though that’d beg the question as to how she expected him to close it; paws were very limiting.
Seeing her waste no time in turning and disappearing around the corner, he ran out and after her, his mind starting to dip into panic mode.
‘Oh god she really is in a reckless mood, isn’t she? I’m not going to be able to protect her if she does something extreme and someone tries to take advantage of the situation. Should I go tell Joker and Queen? They’d be able to handle her for sure but what if I lose track of her in the meantime?’
Morgana was really lamenting his lack of a phone, not that he’d be able to use it with a body like this. He turned the corner to see Futaba running down the side street with an uncharacteristic level of vigor.
She really wasn’t the type to get outside often, and when she did she was always just thinking of either the task ahead or her fellow thieves around her; the rest of the world was firmly in the background of her mind. Only now- and during her first ever naked outing- was she truly letting herself appreciate the reality of the situation she was in.
Being completely bare-ass naked outdoors, in the heart of the city she lived in, her soles of her feet slap against the cool ground, the little bust and booty she had jiggling with each impact, the knowledge that literally anyone could see everything she had, the cool air brushing against every inch of her skin. It was all so truly… kinda tiring, really, and chilly.
That which could charitably be described as a sprint died down to a half-hearted jog, then that in turn died down to a standstill.
“Futaba?” Morgana had caught up with her. “What’s wrong?”
“Ehh…” She rubbed her upper arms. “It’s kinda cold out, don’t you think?”
“Huh? I mean, yeah kinda. It’s not spring yet.”
“See look.” She poked both of her nipples. “I thought they were erect because this was really hot, but no, I’m just cold.” She huffed. “Yeah, I’m not feeling it, it’s cold and running takes too much effort; I need some green blossoms before I do that. I’m going back to my room.”
Two distinct feelings made themselves clear in Morgana’s mind. On the one paw he was relieved that there was no chance of Futaba getting carried away with a public masturbation session after all, at least not today and on his watch. On the other paw… this was really goddamn lame for her to just give up barely ten paces away from her house.
Barely more than a minute later and the two were once again sat in Futaba’s room, the girl swaying back and forth in her chair while gripping her toes. Morgana decided to just make himself comfortable on the bed.
“I’d much prefer to relax today anyway.”
“Hmm…”
Futaba hummed to herself with a vague, directionless tune. She was visibly unsatisfied. While going outside by herself (or with only a faux feline escort) was certainly possible, it was obviously too much work for the young lady. Still, an exhibitionist who does not ‘exhibit’ is hardly fit to be called as such.
“Man, just being naked at home, what kind of nudist am I?”
“I mean that’s what normal nudists do.” Morgana responded without lifting his head off of the sheets. “The program’s version of nudism is the weird one, when you think about it.”
“You mean the fun one. Gotta be some way I can utilize it without having to exercise in the cold like some kind of weirdo.”
Morgana decided that one wasn’t worth responding to.
“AH!” Another failed attempt at snapping her fingers. “Duh. I’ll build up a ton of exhibitionism exp once I’m at Shujin. ‘Naked at school’ is literally the best fetish, everyone knows that.”
“Is that so?”
“I’ve not seen how Makoto handles it outside of listening in when she’s with Ren, and through the candid footage, but I’ve done plenty of research into the subject.”
“Research?”
Futaba nodded authoritatively.
“The reality is of course a little different to the theory. Usually it only lasts a week or so, but here its permanent. I’ll have to be ready for the ‘reasonable requests’…”
“The what?”
“Can’t say I love the idea of using the men’s bathrooms, but I have always wanted to try using a urinal at least once.”
“Futaba what on earth are you talking about?”
“I guess I could hide a bullet vibrator so long as it’s wireless, but there’s always the risk of it falling out whenever I have to spread myself open…”
“Whoa whoa whoa.” Morgana shot upright. “I think you’ve gotten some bad intel, Futaba-chan.”
“You mean you don’t think it’ll fall out? I dunno, I can get pretty wet.”
“Not that!” Morgana groaned, if he was capable of blushing he would be right now; even through his kitty-face his discomfort was clear. “The program doesn’t have anything like that, where are you getting these ideas?”
“For real?”
“You’ll just be going through school as normal, except naked.” His shoulders slumped. “It’s much easier than you’re probably imagining. Despite everything, you’re really smart so I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it. You have been to school before.”
“I mean, I remember what middle school was like.” She rested her chin on her knees, suddenly seeming rather forlorn. “The work was all pretty easy, but dealing with the other kids was… less easy.”
“Futaba-chan… I wouldn’t worry about that.” Morgana smiled reassuringly. “In just the time we’ve known you, you’ve grown so much stronger than you used to be.”
“You think so?”
“Of course, I think you’ll be fine. Plus, even though Queen won’t be there anymore, Ryuji and Lady Ann will be there to help you out if you ever need any help. They’re both reliable when it counts, you can count on them.”
“Both?” Futaba smirked coyly. “Did you just say something nice about Ryuji-kun?”
“W-well…” Morgana averted his eyes. “He’s still a bonehead, with a lot of problems- A LOT of problems. But… I can’t deny he really cares about his friends, and will always try to do the right thing. If he ever thought you were in danger he’d rush off to try and save you without hesitating. In that way, he really is reliable.”
The room was silent for a while, at least until Morgana worked up the courage to look back at Futaba, who had a devious look on her face as she looked at her phone.
“Wh-what are you doing Futaba-chan?”
“I’m just texting Ryuji-kun to let him know that you respect him deep down.”
“DON’T YOU DARE!” Morgana leapt across the room, climbing over Futaba to desperately try and swipe away her phone as she held it above her head. “Don’t say a damn thing to him!”
“Aw c’mon Mona-chan! He’ll be happy to hear—OW! Don’t kitty-punch me!”
“I’m not punching you- kitty style or otherwise!”
“Your paws are getting all over me!” With Morgana desperately jumping around all over her, she still managed to keep her focus on keeping her phone out of his reach. “Quit touching my titties! Oh- are you trying to knead them to help boost milk production? I heard that’s a thing.”
“Don’t make fun of me Oracle!” Using his back paws to springboard himself off of the girl’s chest, he made one last leap to grab the phone, only to miss and tumble to the ground… only for her to fumble her own grip and let the phone clatter down right next to him.
Before she could recover it, Morgana managed to grip the sides of the phone with his front paws. He grinned up at her victorious, only for his expression to drop as he looked down. The phone was just sitting at the homescreen. He glared back up bitterly.
“You liar.”
“Nyehehe~”
He sighed, and returned to the bed, grumbling under his breath.
“Whatever, point is you’ll be fine at school, so long as you don’t do anything weird.”
“Define ‘weird’.”
“Tch. FINE, I’ll say it outright: Don’t masturbate”
“Aww. Lame.”
“Leave that shit at home.”
“Fine MOOOOM.” Futaba picked her phone back up, dropping it unceremoniously on top of her desk. “Hmm… I could do with some practice.”
Morgana raised a worried brow.
“F-for masturbating?”
“No, I’ve practiced that plenty.”
“O-of course…”
“I mean for high school.” She grabbed her phone again, and started dialling. Morgana watched curiously as the phone was ringing.
After a few moments of near-silence, someone answers.
“Hello? Futaba-san?” Yusuke’s voice emanated from the speakerphone.
“Hey Inari. Take me to Kosei.”
“A beg your pardon?”
“Kosei’s open right now right?”
“I mean, the semester is over, but the building is technically open for certain club and course activities.”
“Cool. Take me there then. I wanna trial run before I go to school for real.”
“Wouldn’t it be wiser to visit Shujin in that case?”
“I know they’re closed, besides- Ren and Makoto are too busy screwing to take me.”
“…I see…”
Futaba pouted- not that Yusuke could see her do so.
“Why are you so reluctant, do you not want to take me?”
“I’m kind of in the middle of a project, and I’m not sure staff at the school would look too kindly on me bringing in strangers who have no official business there.”
“So are you saying ‘no’?”
“I’m not sure; I fear I may have to…”
“We can get some dinner afterwards.”
“What does—”
“I’ll pay.”
“I’ll be waiting out the front gate.”
“Poggers. See you there.”
~ ~ ~
“So what did you actually want to do now that you’re here Futaba-san?”
“I ‘unno.” She shrugged, still gently shuffling in place- it hadn’t gotten any warmer out after all. “I just need more practice being in places like this, like when we went to the culture festivals except with things more normal.”
“Hmm…” Despite not fully understanding her, Yusuke decided to just not worry about it too hard; if wandering around Kosei would make her happy then that was good enough for him. “I suppose I’ll simply show you around.”
“Are there still peeps here?”
“Peeps?”
“NPCs.”
“…”
“People.”
“…”
“Oh come on- that one was normal!”
“There are still a fair number of people on the premises. Many students taking part in extracurricular activities, and the school also hosts a number of adult-learning courses.”
“So plenty of people to show off to? Good.” She grinned devilishly, folding her arms smugly underneath her breasts- making an attempt to lift them up with her forearms, but unfortunately lacked the mass required for the full effect, it was working well in her head though. “I may not have the most experience ‘in the field’, but I’ve done plenty of image training for it.” Watching and reading exhibitionist fetish porn counted as ‘image training’, right?
Futaba took a moment to look Yusuke up and down, well… mostly ‘down’.
“You enjoy showing off too, right?”
Yusuke looked down at his body.
“It’s the main reason I joined the program. The human body is the greatest work of art out there, to be able to share my own humble instance of it is a great honor.”
“Humble…” Futaba shamelessly eyed his dick, ‘humble’ wasn’t the word she’d use to describe it. “How do you handle getting hard?”
“E-excuse me?”
“Don’t pretend it doesn’t happen! Of course with everyone looking it’s gonna get huge so you’re like ‘AAH!’ then everyone’s like ‘Woah!’ and the girls are like ‘Ho?’ and you’re like ‘MMNNG?’ and then it’s all like ‘Hoo boy’, y’know?”
“Uh…”
“I’m speaking plain Japanese. Ugh.” She sighed. “Forget it.”
“Kitagawa-kun!” Some unfamiliar female voices called out to them, a small group of girls around their age- presumably Kosei students- approached Yusuke, making little-to-no effort to hide their wandering gazes.
“Hm?” Yusuke smiled politely at them. “Can I help you?”
One girl was pushed forwards by her giggling friends.
“W-well, we were just wondering if you’d finally join us for some… karaoke.”
It’s rare for ‘karaoke’ to sound like a euphemism, but this was one of those times, not that Yusuke caught on.
“I’m afraid not, I’m preoccupied today.”
“Man, you always say that. We wanted to talk to you about…” Her eyes lingered decidedly downwards on his person. “…e-expression, and stuff.”
Yusuke’s expression remained mostly cordial, but his furrowing brow betrayed a degree of impatience.
“I’m going to have to refuse.”
The girls collectively sighed, the one at the front noticed Futaba.
“Who’s she?”
Yusuke followed her gaze, looking down at Futaba- currently trying to hide behind him, pressing her face into his torso, hoping her hair hiding her face would somehow make her invisible; working on the patented ‘If I can’t see them, they can’t see me’ principle.
“Is she your girlfriend?”
Futaba seemed to suddenly tense up, though if Yusuke noticed he didn’t show it.
“Not at present, no.”
She let out a sound halfway between an embarrassed whine and a shocked exclamation.
The girls seemed frustrated, but not wanting to push their luck, they decided to begrudgingly move on.
“Maybe next time, Kitagawa-kun.” One said before muttering to her friends, asking if they should try going after Norio instead.
Yusuke looked back down at Futaba.
“Did them approaching us bother you?”
“Of course it did!” She pulled away from him, her face red, trying her darndest to look angry rather than embarrassed. “They talked to us!”
He tilted his head in confusion.
“I thought you wanted to show off?”
“I do! But the audience in exhibitionism scenarios are supposed to just stay as part of the background. Being all shocked and taking pictures or whatever. Not actually approaching- that’s getting too close to crossing over into another fetish entirely!”
“Wh-what fetish?” Yusuke asked, not sure he even wanted an answer. Mercifully she didn’t give him one.
“No!” Futaba shook her head, putting on a fierce expression and pumping her fists. “Getting used to people being real and actually being around them IRL is the whole point! It’s what I’m here to get used to!”
“I suppose that makes some sense…”
“Next person who approaches, I’m going to face them head on! Come at me bro!”
“Hm?” Another female voice. “Wait, I know you.”
“Eep!” Futaba quickly jumped behind Yusuke again, briefly poking her head out to see the face of her potential attacker. She relaxed slightly when she saw her. “Hey, it’s the Booby lady.”
Yusuke bowed.
“Afternoon Toda-san, are you leaving already?”
Mai Toda nodded, but kept her eyes on the younger girl.
“I was invited to enjoy a meal with Yuuki-kun.” She leaned forward until she was eye level with Futaba- who just about mustered the courage to maintain eye contact. “You painted me at the culture festival.”
“Mm.” Futaba nodded, her brief stint with ‘eye-contact’ already coming to an end.
“Hm.” Mai smirked. “I rather enjoyed your work; I’m not sure what prompted you to paint my breasts as planetary bodies, but they came out surprisingly well.”
Futaba looked at her incredulously.
“You genuinely don’t know why I did that? It’s not that hard to figure out.”
Mai let out a good natured scoff.
“Well aren’t you crass?”
The younger girl paused, before looking up to her escort.
“Inari, what does ‘crass’ mean?”
“Lacking sensitivity for others.”
She glared at Mai in silence a while, before nodding.
“Fair.”
“Are you perhaps here to assist in one of Kitagawa-kun’s pieces? A model? More body painting perhaps?”
Futaba cautiously let go of Yusuke, stepping out to face the older girl directly.
“I wasn’t planning to, that does sound fun though.”
The boy stared skywards in thought.
“I was simply going to escort her as she explored the premises, but I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to such a proposition.”
A coy smirk appeared on Mai’s face.
“Since you painted me, I’ve been wanting to return the favor.”
“Ooo. Kinky art? My favorite.”
‘Her anxiety seems to come and go at a moment’s notice.’ Yusuke thought.
“Oh, what about your meal though Toda-san?”
“Yuuki-kun won’t mind waiting.” Mai pulled her phone out of her bag, about to call him before noticing him approaching the school’s gate. “Speak of the devil.” She beckoned to him. “Yuuki-kun, come hither.”
“’Come hither’?” Futaba raised a curious eyebrow.
“Sorry I’m late Mai-chan. Oh, Amamiya-kun’s friends? You guys are here too?”
Yusuke bowed his head.
“It’s been a while since we last met, Mishima-san.”
“Pfft.”
“Hm?” Mishima turned to Futaba. “What’s funny?”
“Mishima…”
“Hm?”
“You’re a Mishima, right?”
“Uh, that is my name, yes?”
“Could you teach me how to Korean backdash?”
“What?”
“I wanna see you do an electric too!”
“I don’t… oh…” He let out a heavy sigh. “Nevermind, I get it. Never heard that one before…”
“Nyeheh…”
Mai addressed her boyfriend.
“I’m not quite ready to eat out yet, an opportunity has arisen.” Her eyes locked on the suddenly nervous Futaba. “I must turn her into a work of art.”
“Oh…” Mishima seemed to deflate just a tad. “I guess that’s fine, there’s no huge rush.”
Futaba snickered.
“He’s eager to eat her out.”
“Take her to eat out! N-not that other thing!” Not that the flustered Mishima would say ‘no’ to that other thing.
“You should come with me Yuuki-kun, you will assist me.” Mai firmly grabbed his wrist in one hand and Futaba’s in the other, dragging the two nudists towards the school with an immutable feeling of purpose.
~ ~ ~
Having finished helping Makoto “relax” with a break from studying, and assisting her as she limped to the train heading home, Ren had ample time to make it to Kosei High. He had received a text earlier in the day informing him of Futaba’s research excursion there, and he was asked to escort her back home later on in the day.
‘Later on’ had arrived, and he arrived at the school gates. He was vaguely familiar with the layout from his visit during their culture festival, at least well enough to find the art department and collect Futaba. While part of him saw the girl as the younger sister he never had, right now he felt more like a parent picking her up from a friend’s house; though he’d keep this feeling to himself, Futaba probably wouldn’t find it especially flattering.
He had no idea whether visitors like him were even welcome, but he decided he’d just walk in like he owned the place and just hope no one stopped him; easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, after all.
Thankfully said plan went off without a hitch; due to the people visiting for adult learning classes no one questioned him walking in in plain clothes. He passed by one of the classes mid-session, and being the curious type- he decided to slyly peek inside to see what was going on.
It was some sort of calligraphy class by the looks of it, everyone down on their knees painting on rolled out scrolls. Ren couldn’t honestly say he found it very interesting; he had attempted- or rather- was forced to attempt calligraphy in the past at the behest of his parents, having to perform to their high (and in his opinion, unfair) standards, meaning he didn’t have the best of associations with the hobby, but he wasn’t so biased he couldn’t admire the art form.
The one thing that did stand out to him was the teacher, he recognised her; it was very rare for him to come across a naked woman he didn’t recognise.
He decided not to bother her and move on, but it turned out he wasn’t as sly or stealthy as he had initially thought.
“Ah, the jailbird is free.” Kameko chuckled to herself, a few students raising their head to see who she was referring to.
“Ahh…” Ren considered pretending not to hear her, but thought better of it. He sheepishly entered the classroom, rubbing the back of his head and ignoring the strangers looking at him. “Good evening, No-san.”
“Good to see our efforts were not in vain.”
“Yeah, Makoto told me about how the nudists got together to help with freeing me.” He bowed to the girl. “Thank you, it feels good to have a strong support network.”
“Eh.” Kameko shrugged. “I’m not gonna claim I was especially motivated for you in particular Amamiya-san, you’re but a relative stranger after all.”
“Still, anyone who stands up to injustice in whatever way has my respect.”
“Pleased to hear it.”
Ren looked over the class, the students varied from being around their own age to those in or even past their forties. Not that usual for such a class, but certainly more than one would typically entrust to a highschooler like Kameko.
“Didn’t realize you were a teacher.”
“Assistant, technically. It’s a career I intend to pursue, so I’ve been helping in classes such as these.” As she spoke she walked down the side of the class, looking down and judging their work. Despite her age, size, and state of undress, she certainly carried herself with the confidence and authority befitting a teacher. “Though the actual teacher is absent today, so it’s just me.”
“I see…” Ren felt awkward following behind her when he very clearly didn’t belong (and judging by a few of the dirty looks he received, he wasn’t an especially wanted presence), but he had always been good at appearing outwardly calm, and had no problem pretending this visit was entirely intentional. “I see you’ve been teaching them well.” He hoped that sounded good, maybe it’d make him seem a little more professional.
“This class is definitely one of the better ones I’ve been involved with.” Kameko stopped by one student in particular, a man in his early twenties. She leaned over forward, carefully scrutinizing his work. It was easy to miss- but she gave a subtle smile. “Excellent, your lines are much cleaner than before, keep up the hard work.”
“Thank you Miss.” The man looked up, his eyes going wide once he looked past his teacher to her guest. His face brightened up in an instant. “Oh, hello again Doctor!”
Ren laughed nervously, seemed Kameko wasn’t the only person here he recognised.
“H-hey there Sugimura… How’s your head?” He asked, staring at the bandages wrapped tightly around Sugimura’s forehead.
“Better!” He said cheerfully. “The people at the hospital say I’ll be able to stop wearing the bandages soon, though I’ll still have minor… um… damage to the… um…” The silence dragged on for an uncomfortable period of time, before he smiled again. “Hello Doctor! I started doing calligraphy like you suggested. It’s very calming, but also fun.”
“Good for you man.” Ren looked away to avoid Kameko’s questioning gaze. “A-anyway I better get going.”
Sugimura waved with noticeably low energy.
“Say hello the policeman and fireman ladies for me.”
“Will do…” Ren turned to Kameko. “Anyway I’m here to pick someone up No-san, I better get going.”
“Mm.” She nodded. “Of course, I didn’t intend to hold you up. I’m just glad you’re free now.”
“Same here. I owe you all one.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
With a few sheepish nods to the other students he was bothering, Ren left the room. The art room Futaba was waiting in was only next door.
“Heya!” Futaba enthusiastically waved to him as he entered.
“Hey Futaba.” He looked down at her body. “You’ve been busy…”
“Nyeheheh~” She stood proud with her hands on her hips, eager to show of the design painted on her front. Mai’s approach was an interesting one, she had painted Futaba to create the illusion that her skin was a shell that had literally been cracked open, her insides resembling a geode with glistening crystalline formations glowing in a multitude of colors that seemed to sparkle under the overhead lights, yet still being arranged in a way that resembled a realistic human bone structure and even a few of her organs- most notably her heart which appeared to burst out into the open with a distinctive red glow. It was this strange mix of captivating and disturbing; the slight feeling of discomfort from the frighteningly effective illusion of depth she created was a very deliberate effect on the artist’s part.
“Woah…”
“’Woah’ is right! I don’t know what you’d even call this fetish but I dig it. I look sick AF!”
“I doubt it was a fetish thing.” Ren laughed nervously. “You’ll probably get a few weird looks on the way back, probably scare the shit out of Sojiro.”
“Nah I’m sure he’ll love it too.”
“Here’s hoping, it’s not as if it’s a tattoo so I doubt he’ll lecture me too much.” Ren noticed one more detail. “You uh… shaved?”
“Yup!” Futaba proudly slapped her now hairless vulva- a tad too harshly judging by her slight wince. “It was getting in the way of the painting so Mai-san helped me shave it.”
“Fair enough.”
Futaba shrugged.
“It’ll grow back eventually. But for real- this painting is hella swag. Mai-san friggin’ killed it!”
“Can’t deny that much. Where is Mai-san anyway?”
“She left after she finished, she’s gonna have Mishima eat her out or something.”
“…I know that’s wrong, but it also might be right…”
“You get it.”
Ren turned to Yusuke, who had been sat to the side working on something in his sketchbook.
“Thanks for indulging her, man.”
“It’s no trouble, this turned out to be much more worthwhile than I originally thought it’d be.”
Futaba not-so-subtly shuffled over to peek at Yusuke’s work.
“You were drawing me?”
“Hm? Yes, of course.”
“Drawing me while I’m being painted? That’s kinda weird, isn’t it? The body paint is the main ‘piece’ or whatever; doesn’t it make more sense to just take a photo of it now that it’s done? You’ve not even got the painting in your drawing, it’s just me sitting there while Mai-san paints me.”
“There was something captivating about you, I simply wanted to try and capture it.”
“S-say what?” Futaba’s cheeks turned pink.
“That mixture of nervousness and excitement, wilful vulnerability and eagerness both, entrusting yourself to Toda-san in something wholly new and exciting to you. It was wonderful to see.”
“O-oh…” She turned away so he could see her face. “That’s hella gay.”
“What?”
Ren sighed.
“I better get you back home, c’mon Futaba.”
“Mm.” She hastily nodded and rushed ahead of Ren out the door.
“Excuse me, Ren?”
“Thanks again Yusuke, you know as well as I she can be a handful, but it’s always good to see her come out of her shell like this.”
“I agree, but there is just one point of concern I wish to bring to your attention.”
“Oh?”
Yusuke averted his eyes, somewhat shamefully.
“I was promised a meal.”
Ren laughed.
“Sounds about right. C’mon, I’ll buy dinner for all three of us on the way back.”
“A true hero…”
“Yeah yeah…”
Chapter 112: White Day
Summary:
Time to return the favor(s)
Chapter Text
One would be hard pressed to find someone more dedicated to their studies than Makoto Niijima; they existed- surely- some legendary scholars or scientists with sage-like patience driving them to learn every intimate detail of their chosen subjects to the point of obtaining enlightenment; but for the purposes of just taking some exams, Makoto was pretty damn near the top of the list.
That said, even her dedication had their limits; there were only so many times she could cover and recover the same information over and over again in the month or so leading up to her entrance exams. While such dedication and ceaseless repetition would pay off come the time she actually sits down and puts pencil to paper, she had to finally face the facts she’s been trying so hard to deny all this time: studying laws, regulations, trawling through hefty legal texts and history? It was all really fucking boring.
Having such knowledge would be a necessity if she was to have any hope of achieving her police commissioner dreams. She wasn’t under the delusion that she could singlehandedly eliminate corruption and injustice from Japan, but she would do everything within her power to push things closer to that goal. Having a chunk of that studying be ‘boring’ wasn’t even worth being called a ‘hurdle’ for her, she’d happily take on triple or even quadruple this if she had to (and considering how complex law could often be, it’s very likely that she’ll have to do even more than that come her college career).
But what the boredom of having to throw herself at the same information over and over again meant in practical terms was that she had a harder and harder time not getting distracted. Her “fun” study parties with Eiko and co. would have a harder and harder time staying on topic, instead devolving into them enjoying snacks together and just ‘hanging out’ like normal teenage girls, which was something of a new experience for Makoto; she would hang out with the thieves plenty, but having dedicated ‘girl time’ was something she never got to experience growing up. She liked it far more than she thought she would (though she made sure they never heard her actually calling it ‘girl time’, they’d probably tease her for it).
Studying with Haru often went smoother, her fellow thief having more self-discipline than the other third years, but even then, the pair had developed a habit of going off topic in recent sessions. One of the topics they talked about was also the reason Makoto couldn’t focus right now: Today was Monday 13th March 2017, i.e. the day before White day, and this would mark the first time that holiday meant anything at all to the former student.
Valentine’s day for Ren and Makoto was very last minute, but still damn near perfect in her mind; he was happy to receive chocolate from her, they became closer through heartfelt conversation, then fucked each other’s brains out for the rest of the day until she reluctantly returned home. Knowing that she was likely in for a repeat tomorrow made it hard to focus on legal theory.
Some may disagree- but dick tended to be more fun than law.
Granted, they had a few other similar ‘breaks’ over the past couple weeks, but it wasn’t something Makoto would get sick of so easily. Though she was starting to worry Sae would start wondering why she was often limping when she got home; perhaps the bigger issue was the fact that the last couple sessions she had forgotten to clean up the abundance of fluids very visibly trailing down her inner thighs on her commute home post “study session”, she tended to be in too blissful a mood to notice until after she walked through her front door.
With her imagination coming to life with anticipation driven fantasies of intimacy with the boy she loved, she knew any further attempts at studying tonight were pointless. She’d instead opt for a long shower- hoping the showerhead could tame her desires at least enough for her to calm down and get a good night’s sleep, ready for whatever Ren had planned for them tomorrow.
Speaking of plans, she made a mental note to make preparations in case there are more back entrance activities. There were many romantic possibilities tomorrow, but they all ended the same way.
That wasn’t a complaint, it was a hope.
~ ~ ~
“Uhh…” Ryuji’s brow furrowed as he intensely scrutinized the countless pastel colored boxes of chocolate laid out on the wall before him. “Dammit, they all look the same…”
Ryuji was used to feeling out of place, but that feeling was far more intense than usual here. He had searched online for the “fanciest chocolate store in Tokyo”, he needed White day chocolate to repay Haru for Valentine’s, and knowing how rich she was he knew he couldn’t just get lazy and pick the first box he saw at the supermarket. This store’s name was in French, so he figured that must mean it’s really fancy. At least… he assumed it was French, all European languages looked the same to him.
He was happy enough to just ignore everyone giving him dirty or patronizing looks while he browsed the selection available, now wasn’t the time for resenting the people disapproving of his existence, the decision paralysis he was facing was far more important.
Though, said paralysis meant he may have to ask for some kind of help choosing. He had absolutely no idea what the difference between all the different boxes were- let alone what separated the good ones from the bad.
“Hmm…” He looked over to the counter, more specifically the young woman behind it. For some reason having to ask a girl was more embarrassing, he couldn’t shake the fear that she’d be snickering at him behind his back for being so clueless, so inexperienced. “Dammit, it’s not like I’m getting anywhere by myself.” He sighed. “Let’s just get this shit over with.”
Finally deciding to just step forward and endure whatever temporary embarrassment may come his way, he began to move towards the counter, but was cut off when he nearly collided into someone who was heading the same way.
“Woah! S-sorry.” He was about to bow is head apologetically, before pausing- his eyes going wide.
“You’re good my dude, don’t worry.” The nudist woman he didn’t recognise seemed plenty happy to simply laugh it off, before quickly returning her attention to the staff.
Ryuji would like to claim he was completely used to naked women by this point, partially due to all the time he spends around Makoto and Futaba, but also because it’s a nice, subtle humblebrag for him to be able to say; but it was only mostly true, a certain level of awe upon witnessing a naked lady was hardwired into human DNA after all.
“Yo!” The woman leant across the countertop, slightly startling the worker, and inadvertently giving Ryuji a clear view of the moon (which he at least pretended not to stare at). “I have a special order and was told I could pick it up here? It should be under the name ‘Kotone Shiomi’?”
The girl behind the counter was visibly having a hard time not ogling either, but managed to maintain her composure.
“Y-yes, let me go in the back and fetch it for you.”
“’Kay.” Kotone playfully waved to the girl as she disappeared into the back room, getting people flustered upon seeing her was her favorite part of this whole nudism thing. She glanced over her shoulder to see the blonde boy she nearly ran into a minute ago. “Need help with something?”
He tried to ignore her mischievous grin as she made a deliberate effort to stick her bottom out even further, her thighs perfectly framing her plump labia as she did so.
“Uhh…” He desperately tried to act casual, looking around for something to shift the focus to. He meekly pointed to the shelves. “Chocolate.” That’d have to do.
She tried not to laugh, she failed.
“Yes, well done. I can tell you’re a smart one.”
Ryuji didn’t like being made fun of, but he found it hard to focus on being offended when she turned around to face him, leaning on the counter and unnecessary arching her back.
“Getting chocolate for a cutie girlfriend?”
“Y-yeah, how’d you know?”
“Whaddya mean ‘how did I know’? It’s the day before white day, everyone’s buying payback chocolate.” Kotone glanced upwards in thought. “’Payback chocolate’ ain’t the right term, makes it sounds like the chocolate is some kind of revenge plot… that might be a decent idea for a prank gift of some kind actually, I’ll have to bring up the idea to Aigis…”
Ryuji looked back and forth between the now-daydreaming woman and the wall of confectionary.
“Uhh… do you know anything about chocolate?”
“Hm?” She tilted her head.
“I mean, I heard you said you had a special order. I figured that means you must want something special about it? So maybe you’d know something about what makes that kind of chocolate special, or summin’…”
She eyed him thoughtfully for a moment, before shrugging.
“Not especially. My girlfriend doesn’t eat… ch-chocolate I mean. I just have a supplier for a solution that Aigis uses for her ‘upgrade’ which…” She trailed off, before shaking her head. “Actually- you don’t need to know that part.”
“Huh?”
“But if you need help…” Finally standing upright, she arched her fingers deviously. “Shiomi’s amazing commodities does offer a consultation service for whatever issues might ail you; first time customers get a discount!”
Ryuji’s head slumped forwards.
“I gotta pay just for advice on what kinda chocolate to pick?”
Kotone’s brow furrowed.
“Ehhh…” She sighed. “Actually yeah, if that’s literally all it is it’s kinda hard to justify charging.” She glanced back at the door to the backroom for a moment, the staff still hadn’t returned. “Eh whatever, got another minute or so to kill anyway.”
“Thanks.”
She strolled over to the boy.
“So what are we working with? She allergic to anything?”
“Nah, don’t think so. It’s just that she’s rich.”
“Ah, I see. I have a pretty rich friend myself, so I know how you feel.”
“She has enough money to just straight up buy everything in the store if she wanted.”
“What’s your budget?”
“Less than that.”
“Understandable.” Kotone smiled. “Though y’know, that could work to your advantage.”
“For real?”
“Like you’re not going to be able to afford anything fancier than the stuff she’s probably used to, so instead you could go for the angle of letting her taste ‘commoner food’ as a fun experiment?”
“Uhh…”
“Sell it as a learning experience! It’s actually best to do it with fast food. Do you have Wild Duck Burger here in Tokyo?”
“I’m not sure, we usually go to Big Bang Burger but—”
“Ah they’re pretty good too. Did she like it? No- more importantly- did she use a knife and fork?”
“No…?”
“Did she at least hold up her pinky as she ate?”
“What? No, she’s actually pretty normal about it. Are rich people supposed to do that stuff?”
“Ehh?” Kotone seems disappointed. “Man, but that’s the fun of your friend being rich- or girlfriend in this case. Eh, whatever.” She shrugged. “If her tastes are normal then honestly you’ll probably be fine with anything.”
“Man, that’s no help!”
“What are you expecting from me exactly? There’s no deep secrets behind Valentine’s or White day chocolate. Nobody loves it because of the tasty treat- that’s just a bonus- what makes it special is the fact that the person you like cares about you enough to give them in the first place.”
“I… I guess that makes sense?”
“She’ll probably be happy with literally whatever you give her. Take a random box that leaps out at you, hand her it, tell her how happy she makes you, and spend time with her.” She tutted under her breath. “Man, maybe I should have charged for consultation after all…”
“It can’t be that easy?”
“It is though. Did you give a crap about the type of chocolate she gave you?”
“N… not really.”
“Exactly, you were just happy she gave you it. Girls are just the same way- trust me on that one.” She playfully shook her breasts from side to side. “I’m not sure if you’re sharp enough to tell, but I happen to be one myself.”
“I-I noticed…”
“You don’t need to overdo it and treat her like a full-on princess.” She paused, a twinge of doubt on her face. “Actually, without knowing her I can’t say for certain. I know that I’ve never appreciated being looked at like a princess.”
“Huh…”
“Though that said, I’ve really warmed up to being a ‘cutie girlfriend’ over the years, heh.”
“…What?”
She shook her head and waved her hand dismissively.
“Sorry, inside joke, don’t worry about it.”
“Shiomi-san?” The saleswoman had finally returned, dumping a canister of thick, white liquid (white chocolate cream, but it did also look a bit like…) on the countertop. “Sorry for the wait, Ma’am.”
“Aha!” Kotone clapped. “Sweet, I can only hope she’s looking forward to this as much as I am!”
“So I should just…?” Ryuji half-heartedly raised his hand.
“Hm? Oh yeah yeah. Trust your instincts, be yourself, don’t overthink it, it’s the thought that counts, etc. etc.” She scooped up the canister in her arms as she talked, looking down at its contents with great anticipation radiating off of her, walking straight past Ryuji as she spoke to him. “Show your love and it’ll work out, simple as that. Rootin’ for ya buddy!”
And so she disappeared outside, teetering slightly as she tried to rush around the corner with the heavy liquid sloshing around in the canister.
“Don’t overthink it?” Ryuji turned back to the wall of chocolate-y goodness. “I can do that.”
He grabbed a lilac box- it was her color so it must have been the right choice… probably, why not? All the chocolate here had to be good, unless this specific box was poisoned or something.
“Will that be all, Sir?” The cashier asked, corporate-mandated smile on her face.
“Uh…” Ryuji pointed down to the box. “This one isn’t poisoned, is it?”
“…” She stared at him. “I don’t believe so, Sir. Just… hold onto the receipt to return it if you’re worried? There’s a satisfaction guarantee for that sort of thing.”
“Th-thanks…”
~ ~ ~
Aquariums had long been a staple of cliché anime date locations, but y’know what? Sometimes the clichés know what they’re talking about, this place had a wonderful atmosphere, perfect for a romantic date, as both Ren and Makoto were now realizing.
The main reason was this soothing blue ambient lighting washing over them, particularly the way it highlighted the curves of Makoto’s body. A beautiful thing in most contexts, but especially so when framed against the glass stretching up to the ceiling, silhouetting her slender form. From Ren’s perspective she almost looked like part of the exhibit, completing it, taking it from ‘pretty’ to almost transcendent levels of beauty.
He couldn’t help but imagine her swimming inside like some kind of mermaid, picturing a silver tail swishing below her as she looked out at him, with tender eyes full of love.
“Merkoto…”
“Hm?” Makoto heard him chuckle behind her. “Did you say something?”
He shook his head.
“No, I was just captivated.”
She smiled.
“I know what you mean. There is something magical about this.”
The image of a Makoto mermaid was a bit of a silly one- he would have to admit, but now that it entered his mind he couldn’t help but cling to it. She could certainly swim as well as one- he knew this from their beach trips both in Hawaii and here in Japan; turns out adding water to the occasion just makes hot girls hotter, who would have thought?
He was an okay swimmer, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with her- human or mermaid- but he could certainly join her for an extended ‘casual dip’, enjoying the feeling of her wet skin against him. While the logistics of an underwater kiss were a concern, he couldn’t deny the aesthetic appeal.
His brow furrowed in thought. There was an obvious elephant in the room with such a scenario, how would they have sex? The classic problem that many a romantic dreamer (if he does say so himself) has faced. The top half was ‘beautiful lady’, with everything where it should be. There were hands, and a mouth- and honestly- if all he cared about was his own pleasure that’d be plenty to work with, but he would want it to be good for her too, which is where things got difficult.
His very limited knowledge on piscine reproductive habits told him that female fish typically excreted eggs which the males would come along and fertilize later; and as anyone would tell you- if you ever use the verb “excreted” in any situation, you know any and all romance has been completely lost from said situation. Whatever fish vagina stand-in existed would probably also exist on the mermaid tail, but he doubted there was much that could be done with that for pleasure’s sake (and his doubts as to whether he’d even want to were even stronger).
Although, the problem could be circumvented entirely by just having the fish part begin mid-thigh- rather than the waist. That would leave the human- and MUCH more appealing- vagina intact, and almost every other erogenous zone for that matter. This was a much more workable fantasy now with just that little change.
…
Though with his imagination being as overactive as it is, he’d wonder how that’d actually affect mermaid reproduction. They definitely couldn’t give birth the human way like that, maybe fertilization would occur ‘the human way’ but she’d still lay eggs with whatever organ lower down? Only they’d be fertilized internally, that’s workable, right? Or maybe reproduction would work 100% like it does with normal fish, and the human pussy is just for fun; that would come with the bonus of no risk of unwanted pregnancy, which benefits all parties, and their brood of mermaid children would only come about if he went out of his way to cum on the eggs.
“Is something on your mind Ren?”
“Wh-what?”
Makoto tilted her head, looking slightly concerned.
“You’ve been spacing out for the last few minutes, it looks like you’re thinking pretty hard about something.”
“I uh…” Ren smiled sheepishly. “I was just thinking about how beautiful you looked against the water-y backdrop.”
“O-oh?”
That technically wasn’t a lie, it was where this ridiculous tangent about the logistics of mermaid sexual relations began. He was internally reprimanding himself for getting so lost in his head when he was supposed to be focusing on his romantic date with the woman he loves, but it’s surprisingly easy to have a completely out-of-pocket train of thought that he felt compelled to commit to and see through to the end.
The male brain ladies and gentlemen; this kind of “outside the box” thinking is what leads to true innovation and genius… sometimes. The VAST majority of the time it’s stupid shit like this instead.
“Though, honestly you look beautiful no matter where you are.”
“C’mon Ren…” She averted her eyes, blushing. “We’re in public.”
“I’ll always love the fact that THIS is the part that embarrasses you.”
“Well it’s just… you took me off guard, is all.” Makoto cleared her throat, straightening herself up to regain her composure. “And I guess I’m just in a good mood. I’m glad you brought me here; to be honest you didn’t call for a while so I started to get worried that you might have forgotten what today is.”
Ren laughed, playfully shrugging. Truth is he nearly did forget until Sojiro happened to remind him, this was the first year where White day meant literally anything to him after all.
Makoto turned back to the glass, watching the fish leisurely wander around the confines of their enclosure.
“I’ve not been to an aquarium since my father brought me to one back in grade school. It’s just so peaceful.”
“It really is.”
Ren took a step closer, wrapping his arm around her waist and gently pulling her closer, a gesture she happily reciprocated, resting her head against his chest, taking great comfort in the sound of his heartbeat.
“I’d go so far as to call it ‘cozy’.”
“Mmm.” Makoto purred, though- her blush persisted. “We best not forget that we’re in public, don’t want to get carried away.”
“You’re warning me not to get carried away?”
“Oh shush… although…” She ran her hand up the side of his torso. “Even though I’m loving it here, I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to moving somewhere more… intimate?”
Oddly, that prompted Ren to check his phone.
“Oh damn, that’s a good point, we’re nearly late.”
She looked up at him, confused.
“Late?”
He broke the embrace (which was a shame) and took a firm hold of her hand (which made up for it).
“C’mon, I’ve got something else lined up.”
“Something else?”
“Trust me, you’re gonna love this…”
~ ~ ~
She did love it. The beautiful restaurant that seemed way pricier than anything she was used to, the delicious meal that clearly displayed the expertise that went into it, the curtains rising to reveal a positively stunning view of the evening Tokyo cityscape that took her breath away, and the boy who had pulled out a bouquet of roses while she wasn’t looking appearing even more handsome than usual.
“I’m beginning to feel a little upstaged…”
Ren laughed.
“Hey, you freed me from prison for Valentine’s, that means you still win out over this date.”
“Still, how on earth did you pull all of this off? This feels like something that’d only happen on TV.”
“Well, what can I say?” He shrugged in his usual cocky manner. “Having connections gets you far in life.”
She let out a good-natured scoff.
“Well I feel pretty safe saying you’ve earned those connections. It’s going to be hard not to brag to the others about how wonderful today has been.”
“No no, that’s fine, I don’t mind you bragging about it.”
“I know you don’t.” She laughed, cradling the bouquet in her arms. She used to think it was pretty cheesy when she saw female characters in movies and such have their hearts sent all aflutter over a boy giving them flowers, but now she finally understood how wonderful it could actually be. “Though I still have a hard time believing you can be as charming as you are.”
“Only for someone as charming as you, Makoto.”
“There you go again.”
She gently rested the flowers down on the table, before getting up out of her seat, approaching Ren, grabbing his collar, and pulling him in for a decidedly immodest kiss. The couple had had a degree of sidewards glances and whispers coming from the other patrons around them since their arrival, largely owing to the girl being “underdressed” for such an upscale establishment, but their sudden ‘Hollywood makeout’ session made certain they were the subject of discussion for everyone present. The restaurant’s typical clientele weren’t the type to snap pictures of the nudist on their smartphones every few seconds like the most of Tokyo, but a few did discreetly take a few to share later, who wouldn’t?
Eventually the kiss had to come to an end though, Makoto gently pulled away, leaving Ren stunned in his seat. She ignored those staring at them- all that mattered right now was her and her beloved- and sat down. No, not in the chair she just got out of, the meal was over and now she could finally- and shamelessly- take her preferred seat: Ren’s lap.
“M-Mako?”
“Thank you for today, Ren. I had a great time.”
“O-oh, y-yeah, you’re welcome.”
She leaned into him.
“I know I might be overstepping, asking for more after all this, but do you think you could do me a favor?”
He smirked, trying not to let his anticipation show too blatantly on his face.
“Anything for you Queen.”
She leaned against him, her chest pressing into his.
“What I need you to do is take me back to your room, put on your ‘Joker’ outfit…”
“The one we used for the calling card?”
“Yes, that one. Then I want you to fuck me until I can’t walk, mmkay?”
“Hmm…” Ren pondered a moment, before nodding. “Yeah, I can manage that.”
~ ~ ~
In a dark, non-descript alley, in a quiet corner of Tokyo. The boy once known as Goro Akechi peers outwards into the open, while making sure to stay hidden in the shadows, lest any uninvited acquaintances happened to stroll by at this precise moment.
Thankfully, the lack of any major businesses in the area meant traffic was sparce, no one was around except for him and…
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
He rubbed his eyes, but no- they were working correctly. Sighing, he signalled over to the figure- Sumire Yoshizawa- standing outside the front of the unfinished stadium that had so recently been the stage for the pair’s final foray into the metaverse. The girl swiftly glided across the road to join the boy out of sight.
“I’m here, like you asked.”
“…”
“Wh-what? Is something wrong?”
Akechi sneered.
“Sumire-san?”
“Hm?”
“Explain the outfit.”
Sumire looked down at herself, more specifically at the heavy trenchcoat she had wrapped herself in, pulling a hand out of her pocket long enough to adjust her sunglasses.
“You said to dress inconspicuously.”
“You failed.”
“Oh come on.” She slumped over. The collar hid the lower half of her face, but her distinctive red hair still spilled out over it. “Noone would think I’d be walking around like this.”
“Because they give you too much credit, clearly.”
She huffed.
“Well while we’re being jerks, why did you ask me to meet you here of all places? Coming back to the site of Dr. Maruki’s palace? Really?”
Akechi shrugged.
“I mean, it’s pretty much tradition for us to cross paths here at this point, don’t you think?”
“You’re always going on about the risk of running into the thieves, and yet you choose here? And you call me stupid.”
“You are stupid. Look at yourself. Why is that thing so oversized anyway?”
Sumire’s face slowly turned red.
“It’s my father’s… I’m hoping he doesn’t notice it gone before I get back.” She glared at Akechi. “Nevermind that though. Did we come here just to hurl insults at each other?”
“No.” Akechi reached into the pocket of his normal-sized coat, and pulled out a modest box of chocolates. “Here.”
“Really? White day chocolate? From you?”
“Tch. I don’t like owing debts.”
“Maybe you are a tsundere after all.”
“Maybe I should just throw these in your face as hard as I can, that’ll make this much more fun.”
She giggled.
“You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?”
“I… Tch…”
She gently took the box from his hands.
“Thank you Akechi-kun. This was very thoughtful of you.”
“You’ll be pleased to hear that these ones were made by a professional.”
“Is that so?” She smirked. “I’m more than okay with that, though I’m curious as to what chocolate made by you would be like.”
“It’s not a skill I’ve ever had a use for, thus not something I’ve attempted- nor do I care to do so.”
“That’s a shame, I think you’d be good at it.”
“It’s just a matter of research and following instructions, so I imagine any idiot who could read could do it. Even you managed.” He turned away. “They weren’t bad either, your chocolates I mean.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Sumire brought her hands together. “Maybe I could teach you?”
“Don’t get cocky.” He began to walk away.
“Hm? You’re leaving already?”
“The debt is repaid, now I’m leaving.”
“Hm…” Sumire started walking after him silently.
This didn’t escape his notice, only once they came to the opening at the other end of the alley did he bother stopping and looking back at her.
“Why are you following me?”
“I need to head back too, this is the way to the station after all, so we may as well walk together.”
He sighed.
“In that case you can go ahead of me, I’ve got things to consider anyway.”
“Okay.”
She didn’t move.
“…”
“…”
“Sumire-san?”
“I’m not in any rush either, I can hang around a while.”
“…”
“…”
“Fuck off already.”
“Nah.”
“What’s gotten into you today?”
She smiled at him.
“When you called me to come here, I got the idea to test something.”
“Test what exactly?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Are you trying to piss me off?”
“Yes.”
“…I appreciate the honesty.”
“I knew you would.” She giggled. “But seriously, you’re not as scary as you like to pretend you are, that’s part of what I was testing.”
“Is that so?”
“I know you’re not the type to go all out for a proper outing for the holiday, but seeing as you went so far as to give me chocolate, I’d like to spend a little more time around you today. If you feel you have to spend it standing around, brooding, pretending to be this cool loner then so be it- I’ll put up with it.”
“…” Akechi let out a long, weary groan. He wasn’t sure exactly why (or rather- he didn’t want to particularly think about ‘why’) but he had this strange feeling of ‘defeat’ hanging over him. “I suppose we can get some coffee together. Though I reserve the right to storm off and leave you with the bill if you keep irritating me.”
“Good enough for me. Do you have a place in mind?”
“No, but I’m sure we’ll find one if we walk around a little…”
~ ~ ~
Sae Niijima heard a knock at the door. She got up out of her seat, leaving her laptop on the kitchen table. It was very late in the evening, and it wouldn’t be unusual for her to be working this late under normal circumstances, but today was a rare day where she could actually enjoy an early night if she so desired.
Truth is, she did desire that- very much so. An early night is something that only gets more appealing after you reach true adulthood, and she already felt like she had done enough ‘adulting’ for a whole lifetime already.
Yet today sleep eluded her, or rather- she didn’t have the courage to face it. She knew exactly what day it was today, and exactly what this day probably entailed. She decided to spend the whole day working overtime from home, just so she didn’t have to think about the inevitable.
She felt a strong feeling of dread as she approached the door, and the dread only intensified when she heard the chatter from outside.
“Seriously Ren, this isn’t funny put me down!”
“It’ll be fine, besides, I don’t want you to strain yourself”
“I can manage walking inside by myself, just quickly before Sis—”
—opens the door, seeing Makoto in a princess carry in the arms of her boyfriend- Ren Amamiya. The younger Niijima covered her blushing face, part of her hoping she could just ignore this whole situation, maybe even pretend she wasn’t here.
“Makoto?”
“Oh hey Sae!” Ren said, a bit too cheerfully to be natural.
“A-Amamiya-san, why are you carrying my sister like that?”
“Ah well, y’see… um…” He gave an unsure smile. “She had a bit of trouble walking back by herself.”
He stepped into the entranceway, basically forcing Makoto (who was still covering her face, mortified) into Sae’s arms- then very quickly backing up, just out of reach of any potential kicks, just in case.
“She’s a bit… s-sore, y’know?”
Sae glared at him.
“S-Sis…” Makoto spoke. “Your fingers are digging into my shoulder, it hurts…”
Ren smacked his lips.
“Anyhoo, I gotta help Sojiro at the café nice and early tomorrow, so I’mma head off and leave you two to it. Sorry to bother you so late, g’bye!”
And with that he pulled the door closed behind him, and his footfalls could be hurt rapidly fading away down the hall. Sae stood motionless a while, before sighing. She carried Makoto over to the couch and gently laid her down.
Makoto herself didn’t have the guts to say anything. Sae made the mistake of sniffing the air, making ‘the inevitable’ from earlier in her little sister’s day all the more undeniable.
The elder sister grabbed her coat, prompting the younger to sit upright.
“Are you heading out somewhere Sis?”
“Just to the convenience store. I’m going to pick up some sake.”
“Sake? Since when do you drink Sis?”
“Since about…” Sae checked an imaginary watch. “…twenty minutes from now. I’m thinking about starting.”
“Please don’t…”
Chapter 113: Effin' exams 2- Electric Bugaboo
Summary:
Entrance exams, and a meeting
Notes:
"Actually it's Bogaboo that learns an electric skill naturally, not Bugaboo. 0/10, inaccurate title."
Chapter Text
“Anyone else getting that ‘lining up to be executed’ feeling or is it just me?”
“No Mieko-san, somehow I know exactly what you mean…”
“You’re the absolute LAST person I want to hear that from Makoto-chan…”
“I mean… of course I can’t help being nervous, this is the exam we’ve all been studying for. These entrance exams are infamous for being difficult, none of us have the support of a letter of recommendation to fall back on, if we fail then we’ll have to wait a full year before trying again…”
“No offence Nudie Prez, but your motivational speech ability seems pretty dogshit right now…”
“I admit I’ve done better in that regard in the past…”
“You’ll do fine Mako.” Ren stepped forward, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Have you forgotten who you are? If ‘Makoto Niijima’ can’t pass the exam then no one can.”
“I guess the rest of us are just ‘maybe’s, huh?” Ai fiddled with her hair, half out of nervousness and half out of frustration.
“Hey I believe in the rest of you girls too, don’t worry. I just believe in Makoto the most.”
“I guess that’s fair, even putting your obvious bias aside.” Ai sighed. “Out of all of us, Makoto is the certainty, there’s almost no chance of her failing.
“You can’t say shit like that!” Mieko barked. “You’re setting such an obvious flag!”
“Flag?” Makoto asked.
“Being all like ‘oh this thing can’t possibly happen’ means it’s gonna happen now! That’s how these things work.”
Aya held her chin in thought.
“But would us hanging a lampshade on it cancel out the flag? Now that we’ve pointed out the set up would have a certain result it now can’t actually have that result, y’know?”
“Ren, what are these two on about?”
“I’m not sure…”
Mieko grabbed her twintails, visibly stressing out.
“But would lampshading the lampshade cancel out the cancelling out of the failure flag and set it again? Or is this a success flag? Is my lampshading now affecting it? Which part am I even lampshading at this point? Dammit, this is so confusing!”
“Would you stop going on about flags or whatever. Focus on the here and now.” Makoto sighed. “This is already stressful enough for all of us, we don’t need to go psyching ourselves out on top of that.”
“Nudie Prez is right.” Aya smirked confidently. “All that time spent diligently studying will pay off, we just need to go in, be chill, and things will turn out alright.” She made a show of flicking her bangs, resting her hands on her hips, self-assured- which combined with her relaxed expression at least somewhat distracted from her violently shaking knees.
“How long is the exam gonna be?” Ren asked Makoto.
She looked at her phone
“Taking into account the time before it starts, we’ll be coming out in about three hours or so.”
“I see, I’ll be sure to be here waiting for you when that happens.” He leant forward and planted a kiss on her forehead, hoping that getting her just a little bit flustered would help take the edge off of the exam anxiety for her (though he enjoyed it either way). “Afterwards I’ll treat you to a late lunch or something.”
Eiko perked up.
“Ren-and-Stimpy’s buying us dinner afterwards? Kick ass!”
“A-actually I just mean—”
“Hell, I won’t turn down a free meal.” Aya laughed. “Summin’ to look forward to.”
“I…” Ren sighed, a somewhat defeated smile spreading across his face. “Y’know what? Yeah, sure. I’ll treat all of you.”
“We’ll try not to wound your wallet too much.” Ai’s eyes narrowed at her friends. “Right?”
“Ai-chan doesn’t trust any of us at all…”
“That’s not true Eiko-chan. I trust Makoto-chan plenty.”
“Alright alright.” Makoto stepped into the centre of the group. “That’s a very generous offer Ren, and we’ll look forward to it, but we should probably head inside now.”
“I guess.” Mieko slouched over, her arms limply hanging down. “The longer I stay out here the more freaked out I’m gonna get. Best just hurry up, head in, and… I dunno- cry and piss myself probably.”
“Please don’t. They’ll probably kick you out if you do that.”
The girls started making their way towards the entrance, leaving Ren standing by his lonesome. Makoto turned around to smile at him.
“We’ll see you later, Ren.”
Ren nodded reassuringly.
“I believe in you Makoto. You’ve got this.”
“Thank you.” She faced forwards again, took a deep breath to gather her resolve, and prepared herself to face the most important exam of her life.
~ ~ ~
“A congratulatory gift?”
“Yeah, my girlfriend is taking the Tokyo U entrance exam, as we speak actually. I was going to take her out to eat afterwards so she could relax, but her friends kinda invited themselves along too. I’m cool with that, but I still want something more… one to one too, y’know- romantic? Special even.”
“Well you came to the right place, Shiomi’s amazing commodities trades in all sort of exotics.”
“Only legal exotics though, you’ll have to shop elsewhere for extra-legal enjoyment.”
“Y-yeah, what she said.”
Aigis nodded to herself, feeling proud that she could be helpful. Kotone quickly turned back to her customer, leaning forwards and smirking up at him.
“So what kinda thing are you looking for? Is she a gemstone kinda girl? The whole ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ thing might be a cliché but there’s still some truth to it; that’ll definitely take her off guard if you’re going for something romantic.”
Ren laughed.
“Probably a bit too romantic, I’ll save that for when I propose to her, as much as I’d like to do that now, it’d probably cause problems.”
“I’ll dial it back a bit then, a ruby?”
“Nah, forget the gemstones. I don’t think they’d upset her or anything, but she’s not the type for jewellery or liking things just because they’re expensive.”
“More modest tastes, huh? That’s good for you, less so for me.” Kotone pondered a while. “I think we still have a ‘Giga Luck band’ in stock, if you just want to increase her chances of passing it can’t hurt to go the direct route.”
“Would something like that even work? We’re not really into the superstitious stuff… m-mostly anyway…” Ren’s life had become too weird over the past year to rule out any possibility entirely, no matter how outlandish.
“Hmm…” Kotone’s smile turned devious. “Maybe you could take things a more… intimate route. Something to dress up in to feel sexy perhaps? Few things boost a lady’s confidence more than feeling desirable. We’ve got some battle panties in a variety of colors you might be interested in.”
Aigis tilted her head.
“I thought they were called ‘high-leg armor’?”
“I’m not sure, I’m pretty sure they’ve been called both, it might be a brand name thing. Regardless they’re a long-time favorite, whaddya think?” She nudged Ren with her elbow. “It’d also double as a present for yourself, eh? Eh?”
Ren chuckled as he admired the skimpy outfit Aigis was holding up for him.
“I admit, I do kinda wanna see her in that. But she’s a nudist, she wouldn’t wear it.”
“A nudist?” Kotone’s brow raised. “Lucky you.” At least now she understood why all the flirty gestures she kept making during this sales pitch- such as keeping a wide stance, ‘absentmindedly’ brushing her hand over her own breast, and bending over a lot- wasn’t flustering him as much as it would her usual customer base after she went nudist; he was simply too used to nudity, and built up a resistance to the feminine wiles she was all too happy to shamelessly exploit.
“So yeah, clothing and jewellery would both make for pretty redundant gifts.”
Kotone bit her lower lip.
“That does limit us a bit… Aigis, what else did we bring with us?”
“We brought a few of the naginatas we don’t use anymore.” Both ladies looked over to Ren, but their hopes were quickly dashed when he shook his head- looking almost apologetic while doing so. “I think we also have miscellaneous electronics? I can go check really quickly.”
“Thank you Aigis, you do that while I handle things here.”
Aigis saluted, before quickly running off down the street, presumably back to the girls’ hotel.
Ren raised an eyebrow as he watched her disappear around the corner.
“Was that a Naruto run?”
“It makes her go faster.”
“D…does it?”
“Yeah, totally. Because of aerodynamics, probably.” Kotone brought her hands together, smiling at him over her arched fingers. She knew that keeping customers waiting was usually death for an independent saleswoman like herself, so turning on her ‘bewitching’ charm, building a rapport, and- most importantly- keeping him occupied while she waited on her partner’s return was a skill she had spent much time refining. “Tell me more about this lucky nude cutie girlfriend of yours, how long has she been nudist?”
“Just under a year now.” Ren bashfully fiddled with his hair. “This is probably pretty bad of me to say, but I’ve nearly forgotten what she looks like with clothes on.”
“I’ve always been a believer in the creed of: ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it’ I admit it’s been pretty fun to take that to it’s logical extreme. I’ve certainly ‘got it’!” She confidently smacked her own behind to punctuate the point.
“I certainly can’t deny that…” Ren averted his gaze, trying to avoid her own devious eyes. Nothing about what was happening or what he was seeing was calling his loyalty to Makoto into question, but it’s not like his fetish slight preference for ‘older women’ had gone away entirely.
“Heh.” Kotone didn’t say it aloud of course, but she was happy she finally managed to get him flustered, she loved the confidence boost it was give whenever she could get someone to turn red or discretely cross their legs around her. “So what- a year? That’s gotta be back when the news of the program was just starting to come out. She must have been one of the first, right?”
“THE first.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Fuck off! You’re dating Makoto Niijima? The first nudist?”
“You know her?”
“Friggin’ everyone’s heard of her, the media was talking about her for months, the first girl to just go permanude in the country, out in public and everything, starting this whole crazy trend. Of course people have heard of her.”
“I guess that makes sense. She doesn’t really pay too much attention to that kind of thing, we’ve been too busy to.”
“Man, she has so much potential for fame and exposure that she’s really not tapping into, ‘exposure’ being the operative word. I actually did meet her in person once, in Inaba. She mentioned wanting to get into Tokyo U, so I guess that’s what’s happening right now, huh?”
“You were in Inaba too?” Ren laughed. “Seems everyone she meets ends up getting naked.”
Kotone coyly shrugged.
“Hey I would have gone nudist years ago if I was allowed to, soon as she mentioned that it wasn’t tied to Shujin anymore I rushed to sign up later that day.”
“Glad she could… help fulfil a dream? I guess? I noticed your um… the other lady?”
“My girlfriend and business partner, Aigis.”
“Yeah her, I noticed she’s not going for the program alongside you.”
She sighed.
“Yeah’s it’s kind of a shame. She’s naked in private plenty, but her taking her clothes off publicly would get… problematic.”
“That’s fair, it’s pretty nerve wracking, and not something most people would enjoy.”
“Y-yeah… we’ll go with that.” She cleared her throat, it was time to get back on topic- or rather- onto the next stage of the plan she formed thirteen and a half seconds ago: “I don’t suppose Niijima-san has mentioned anything about my modelling gig for her?”
“Modelling? I don’t think so.”
“Like I said, she has potential for fame and exposure that lies untapped. While having a naked cutie like myself heading Shiomi’s amazing commodities has certainly helped boost notoriety, having the famous ‘First Shujin nudist’ could give us all that more than ten times over!”
“I guess?”
“She didn’t hate the idea when I brought it up to her, but she was too busy worrying about exams and whatever…”
“The ‘whatever’ in that case was pretty important, to be fair…”
“But that won’t be an issue much longer, right? Do you think you could maybe talk to her about it? Try and convince her to reconsider my offer?”
Ren seemed apprehensive.
“I don’t know if I want to push her into that.”
“Yyyeah- that’s a lie, I can tell.” Kotone’s expression turned devious. “You’re probably the type to gets off to the idea of the idea of her naked body being spread far and wide.”
“…I mean…”
“Ha! Nailed it. It’s only natural when you’re dating a permanent nudist and exhibitionist extraordinaire. I mean don’t get me wrong, I don’t intend to just pay her in exposure—” she laughed at her own joke. “—I’ll pay her a pretty penny for her work. But the idea of an official marketing campaign spreading her sexy image across the country and beyond is pretty hot, right?”
“…”
“It excites me, that’s for sure; that’s why I’ll be doing it too.”
“…I guess I could at least bring it up to her.”
“Score!”
Kotone pumped her fist victoriously, just in time for her partner to notice as she was returning, carrying a wooden box in her arms, nearly twice the size of her own body- Ren was worried about it toppling over and crushing her, but the blonde didn’t seem to have any trouble running at full speed with it, before gently placing it down on the ground.
“Was victory achieved Kotone-san?”
Kotone wrapped an arm around her lover’s waist, pulling her in close. It was subtle, but a pink glow quickly spread across the smaller woman’s cheeks, eyes darting down for just a split second to the nudist’s breasts pressing against her torso.
“Turns out there might be hope for our ‘First shujin nudist’ collaboration campaign after all.”
“I-is that so?”
Kotone lowered her voice.
“Dude over there is dating her, sounds like things are going really well between them too, I think I can get him on board and he’ll egg her on.”
“How devious, as they say.”
“I prefer ‘ingenious’.” She planted a quick kiss on her partner’s cheek before twirling back around to the boy. “You and I should exchange numbers, we can discuss this idea at length.”
“Exchange numbers?”
“You should probably be careful Kotone-san.” Aigis suddenly seemed rather worried. “The boy is a highschooler.”
“Hm?” Kotone tilted her head. “Why’s that relevant? We’re just gonna be discussing business opportunities, it’s nothing nefarious.”
“I’m just saying it’s something we should be careful not to broadcast, we don’t want people starting rumors again…”
“Ugh…” Her face contorted in frustration and disgust. “That shit again?”
“Um…” Ren cautiously raised his hand. “Dare I ask what ‘that shit’ is exactly?”
“Kotone-san has had some false accusations thrown her way in the past, in relation to relations with herself and younger males.”
“Aigis! He doesn’t need to know that!” She turned back to see Ren looking at her with reasonable concern on his face. She let out a long groan. “Look, it was a long time ago, and nothing even happened in the end, people just misinterpreted some shit, and I’m sick of hearing about it.”
“So… should I be concerned or…?”
She sighed, leaning against the wall.
“I guess Aigis is right, I don’t want people stirring up drama again. FIIINE! I’ll clear it up.” Her chipper demeanour had quickly vanished, she had barely started talking and Ren could already tell she had been through this conversation topic too many times in the past. “Okay, so back when I was in highschool, I knew this boy who was just under six years younger than me. We were pretty close.”
“And people thought you were too close?”
“I’m pretty sure he was crushing on me, because y’know…” She flicked her hair. “…he’s only human, after all. But the poor kid had some real self-esteem issues, thought that everyone saw him as ‘just a kid’. So I thought that if he had the girl he liked respond positively to him, encouraged him and his interests, treated him like a real cool guy and close friend- that’d give him a much needed confidence boost and make him feel much more secure, y’know?”
“I guess that’s fair.”
“Maybe I overdid the showing off for his sake, but there have been people accusing me of some real heinous shit. I guess it was kinda flirty at times? But that’s just kinda how I am, y’know? They act like I was planning to fuck him or something. Do you know how it feels to have people call you a predator? It fucking sucks man.”
Ren exhaled, nodding.
“Trust me, I know exactly what it’s like to have those sorts of rumors floating around about you.”
“Jeez, you have a backstory, don’t ya?” Kotone laughed, but her frustration was still clear in her voice.
“You just try to do something nice, and it leads to people turning on you.”
“Oh god, you really do get it.”
Ren’s brow furrowed.
“And that misconception manages to overshadow everything else you try and do.”
Kotone restlessly scratched her scalp.
“Noone wants to analyse any deeper than their initial kneejerk assumption…”
“Always whispering behind your back…”
“You just try to perform a nicety for the friends you care about, the friends you literally died for, and they just can’t understand the truth.”
“Right, you do… wait what?”
“What?”
“’Literally died’?”
“It’s fine, I got better.”
“…What?”
Kotone huffed, before shaking her head.
“I should stop, I know better than to be bitter.” She waved her hand over her face quickly, instantly switching back to her beaming smile. “Point is nothing nefarious happened between me and that boy, we were just friends- still are, and I think I was able to make him feel more confident in the long run anyway. He’s doing great, he graduated high school just recently actually! So I don’t regret anything.”
“That’s good to hear.”
She held her nose in the air proudly.
“In the end, the only crime I’m guilty of is loving too much.”
“And tax evasion.”
“And as Aigis helpfully reminds us- a little bit of tax evasion.”
“And underage drinking.”
“I only had a tiny sip with Mutatsu-san one time; it’s not like I got drunk.”
“Possession of stolen goods.”
“Hey- I didn’t know they were stolen when I bought them.”
“Intent to sell stolen goods.”
“Again, I didn’t know…”
“Public indecency.”
“That one was unfair, I didn’t know they had to do a background check for the program.”
“No, the other time.”
“Oh, that one. I was told I had to wear black for the funeral, it’s not my fault that the slingkini was the only black outfit I owned at the time; what was I supposed to do? Wear my old uniform? I only slipped out a couple times.”
“Kidnapping.”
“That’s bullshit. Ms. Miyahara chose not to press charges.”
“Physical assault.”
“Those girls were being mean to Saori-chan, they had it coming.”
“Lying to authorities.”
“It wasn’t a lie… The girls technically did fall down to the ground, my fist’s involvement wasn’t a detail they asked for.”
“Insult.”
“It’s dumb that that’s even considered a crime in this country.”
“Arson.”
“No, that’s just a ‘selling defective goods’ charge, we refunded everyone and paid for the damages… We still haven’t fully recovered financially…”
“Public intoxication.”
“…Fair, but I was an adult at that point.”
“Vandalism.”
“I tripped and knocked over a few TVs, then ran away because I couldn’t pay for them. It could happen to anyone.”
“Selling images of someone without their consent.”
“That girl was willing to pay a lot for Mitsuru-san’s bikini pics…”
“Voyeurism.”
“It’s not like I set up the dorm’s security system, I just watched some of the footage…”
“Contempt of—”
“Okay Aigis, I think he gets the idea, you can stop now.” Kotone smiled nervously at Ren, who kept his expression as neutral as possible. The way the light shone off his glasses did make her slightly nervous (the feeling was mutual). “Don’t worry about it, most of those charges never stuck anyway.”
“Having Kirijo connections goes a long way.” Aigis helpfully added.
“R-right…” Ren was starting to have second thoughts about recommending modelling to his girlfriend.
“I don’t think I got your name, actually.”
He hesitated, but only for a moment or two.
“Ren. Ren Amamiya.”
“Kotone Shiomi. And this is Aigis.”
“Aigis…?”
“…what?”
“Aigis what?”
“Her name is Aigis.”
“But doesn’t she—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Kotone waved dismissively, before pulling her phone out of her bag. “Anyway, we should exchange numbers. I’d love to talk to you and Niijima-san more in the future.”
Against his better judgement, Ren shrugged and pulled out his own phone. This would hardly be the first oddball he would have associated himself with.
“Sure. It’ll be 100% her decision at the end of the day, but I guess there’s no harm in talking about it.”
“That’s the spirit. Here’s to productive and mutually beneficial collaboration.” Kotone shot him a wide grin.
A feeling suddenly struck Ren, a familiar one, but one he thought he had left wholly in the past. The world around them seemed to turn inexplicably dark; the sun was still out in the clear sky, but it’s light didn’t reach them. It was as if the rest of the world suddenly came to a halt, time itself standing still.
I am thou… and I am thou…
Thou hast established a new bond…
Thou shalt be blessed when creating
Personas of the World Arcana…
Everything suddenly flashed back to normal, Ren clutched his aching head.
“The world? Wait, wasn’t that different to the usual? The voice was definitely different…”
“Huh?” Kotone’s eyes went wide. “What did you say? Did you hear that too?”
“N-no, it was nothing.” He laughed it off. “I just space out someti… what, what do you mean ‘too’?”
“I asking if you…”
Again, the process suddenly repeated. The world became dark and still…
I am thou… Thou art I…
Thou hast acquired a new vow…
It shall become the wings of rebellion
That breaketh thy chains of captivity.
With the birth of the Universe Persona
I have obtained the wings of blessing that
shall lead to freedom and new power…
And once again, light, warmth, and motion returned to the world around them. A very concerned Aigis looked back-and-forth between Ren and Kotone, both holding their foreheads, before looking up at each other, staring into each other’s eyes with utter shock, bewilderment, and wonder.
“You too?”
“You too?”
~ ~ ~
The Tokyo University entrance exams had quite the reputation for being difficult, and as every would-be student in this hall was now realizing- that reputation was well earned. While specific subjects being tested varied slightly depending on the courses the applicants were planning to take, but even the consistent Japanese and mathematic problems were designed to weed out all but the best of the best.
A few had already given into despair, accepting the inevitability of failure like people helplessly watching the steady approach of a flaming meteor; but the majority kept pushing ahead, determined to give it their very best until the bitter end.
One such student intensely glared down at his papers, tightly gripping his pencil in his hand, trying to make the answers burst forth by sheer force of will. He had studied diligently for months in advance, coming prepared with his lucky mechanical pencil and eraser combo, along with the spare set of stationary laid out neatly between his main set, and the other spare set in case his spare needs a spare.
He faced quite the hurdle. Even with just under three hours to complete his work, he knew he couldn’t afford to dawdle; focus was key. Though focus became quite difficult; for one all the kanji and hiragana on his paper was starting to blend together into one big mess he struggled to make sense of, the seat he was in was becoming inexplicably more uncomfortable with every passing moment, with him constantly adjusting his position, feeling more and more restless.
Oh, also the naked girl directly in front of him, she made it hard to focus. The back of her chair did nothing to cover her wide posterior, leaving on clear and open display right in front of him for the whole duration of the exam. It felt like it was in his peripheral no matter how hard he tried to focus on the papers on his own desk. The slight glimpse of her anus every time she leant forward seemed to yank his gaze back upwards against his will.
To her left and right, two other nudists. The one on the left restlessly pulling on her sidetail with her free hand as she wrote, clearly doing everything she could to keep her anxiety under control. On the right a naked brunette doing breathing exercises as her hand kept moving, at least making the effort to do so as silently as she was able.
To his left, a tanned girl with a calm expression on her face that did little to offset her rocking back and forth in her seat, her bare foot bouncing up and down on the ground, creating a nearly inaudible slapping sound that he couldn’t stop noticing now that he was aware of it. To his right the girl with twintails wiping her eyes with her forearm before soldiering onwards, doing everything she could to push through this exam. Also she seemed to be fidgeting a lot, crossing her legs to keep them tightly closed; if he didn’t know any better he’d think she was trying to stop herself from wetting herself right there in the seat. He shook his head, that was a silly thought, and not one he needed in this head while trying to remember equations.
While a few of his college fantasies involved being surrounded by cute girls in a state of undress, this wasn’t quite what he was picturing. Reality was often disappointing. Though, at least it served as something of a silver lining in the event that he did fail. He shook his head; now was no time for such a defeatist mindset. He was going to pass, or at least give this everything he had so he could walk away today without any regrets.
…
Though in the spirit of “no regrets”, taking a little time to admire the naked bodies around him wasn’t an opportunity he was going to let pass him by. If nothing else a minute or two of staring at the exposed bodies presented to him would help give him a mental reset to power through the rest of this exam with his full energy and focus.
At least, that was a more than serviceable excuse.
Chapter 114: Post-exam clarity
Summary:
Winding down
Chapter Text
Brr Brr…
“…Come on…”
Brr Brr…
“…Pick up..”
Brr Br—click
“Ah! Hey Mitsuru-chan, how are you doing?”
“We can’t keep doing this Shiomi-san…”
“Eh?”
“You can’t keep calling every time you need bailing out. I have a lot of pull but there are limits, it’s getting harder and harder to keep people from asking questions.”
“Nah, you’ve got it all wrong—”
“I’m not saying I’ll simply leave you out to dry, but I’m going to have to ask you to be much more careful going forward, lest the authorities stop cooperating with us entirely.”
“No, seriously, it’s nothing like that this time…”
“You’ll always be an important friend and ally to me, but I can’t prioritize you over the organization.”
“I’m not in trouble this time Mitsuru-chan. It’s actually good news! I have an update for you.”
“An update? What do you mean?”
“Y’know… on the assignment.”
The line went silent for a while.
“One moment.”
Kotone listened to the gentle shuffling on the other end of the line, gently rocking back and forth on her hotel bed until Mitsuru’s voice came through once more.
“Okay, I’ve moved somewhere more private; we don’t have to worry about eavesdroppers, at least on my end.”
“This is a nice enough hotel, the walls seem pretty thick, not that it’ll matter.”
“I’ll trust your judgement. But nevermind that, I didn’t think you were interested in Shadow Operatives business.”
“I’m not. Well, not enough to join officially or anything. But you know me, I’m always happy to do a favor for a good friend, y’know?”
“…Yes, I know full well just how much you’re willing to give for the sake of others. Forgive me for doubting you.”
“Oh, don’t be silly.”
“It’s just that when I didn’t hear anything back from our Inaba contact, I… well, I assumed you simply forgot to pass the message on.”
“No, I did pass the message on, and she was going to talk to the guy directly to try and convince him- since she’s a friend of his an’ all- but I found out later that she never got the chance; something to do with getting mad and slapping his wife.”
“She did what now?”
“Yeah, at this party for nudists, I wasn’t there to witness it personally, but yeah they seem to be getting along now, but clearly the request was completely forgotten about.”
“I see…”
Kotone shrugged to herself.
“Maybe I’ll try to talk to him directly next time I’m in Inaba. But nevermind that, I’m in Tokyo right now.”
“Ah, following up on the incident from Christmas eve? That is where the signals seemed to be at their strongest. Not that we have the records to prove it anymore…”
“Yeah, it’s really weird how it just seemed to fix itself that same day before we had a chance to do anything.”
“And no one seems to even remember outside of known persona users, even all the recordings simply vanished.”
“Not to mention all the weirdness throughout January…”
“It’s still hard to even classify what happened then…” Mitsuru let out a long sigh. “We’ve really been lacking intel lately…”
“Well you’ll be pleased to hear the ‘good news’ I’ve stumbled across.” Kotone leant back against her pillows, feeling smug. “I’ve discovered another persona user we didn’t know about.”
“Is that so?”
“What’s more, he’s not the regular kind; he’s like me.”
“You mean he can use multiple personas?”
“Yup, in addition to some other stuff that… well… only he and I would get.”
Mitsuru hummed in thought.
“Someone else who can use multiple personas; I truly thought you were one of a kind in that regard.”
Kotone playfully shrugged- not that her friend could see it.
“I’m one of a kind in plenty of other ways, I can give up this one.”
“What’s your read on him?”
“So far he seems like a good enough kid. I very much doubt he was involved in causing the Christmas Eve incident, but I’d bet money he was at least part of what solved it.”
“It’s not like we have any other leads… How far has your questioning gone so far?”
“Nowhere, I didn’t even mention it, but we did exchange contact info.”
“I see… Well you have always been good at getting people to open up. I’ll trust your discretion, but I’d still like you to forward me his name and address at least.”
Kotone exhaled.
“Not that I don’t trust you, but I’m not gonna push him towards recruitment, even I’m not joining; gotta let him live his own life, y’know?”
“Of course, there’s no need for any coercion, but even having another emergency reserve member could make a huge difference in a time of crisis.”
“…Lemme talk to him first, then I’ll give you my decision.”
“Very well, thank you.”
Kotone chuckled.
“Then again, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t have an issue with the Shadow Ops thing, I know it might seem that way with me taking Aigis away and all.”
“Aigis’s decision to follow you was entirely her own, and besides…” Mitsuru paused a moment, letting out a barely audible scoff. “…Her replacement is doing just fine; she’s been adapting really well.”
“Sweet. Welp, that’s all I have to report so far, I guess maybe look forward to some real intel later?”
“Indeed. Keep me posted. I’ll—”
“Mitsuru-chan?”
“Hm? Is there something else?”
“Just…” Kotone pivoted on her behind, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “We need to have a reunion sometime.”
“A reunion?”
“SEES might be long gone, but it’s hard not to miss everyone, y’know? It’s been years since we were all together in the same room.”
“You’re not wrong, but this is rather sudden.”
“Hmm…” Kotone gazed listlessly down at the carpet. “Meeting someone like me… it’s got me feeling nostalgic, I guess…”
“…I’m sure I could track most of the group down and bring up the idea to them.”
“You rock Mitsuru-chan.”
“I make no promises of when such a reunion could take place though, a lot of schedules need to line up.”
“It’s cool, there’s no rush or anything.” She looked down at her own bare body, smirking. “I’ve got one hell of a surprise for everyone when we do meet up though.”
“Ho?”
“I’m sure everyone’s gonna love it, whether they admit it or not is another story.”
“…Should I be concerned?”
“Just look forward to it. Oh- and say ‘Hi’ to Yukari-chan for me.”
“W-will do.”
And with that Kotone hung up, letting herself fall backwards, staring up at the ceiling.
“It really has been too long…” She restlessly- and mirthlessly- swung her feet as they hung off the edge of the bed. “It’s quiet…”
She lay motionless a while- a few minutes perhaps? Keeping track of time was never her strong suit, especially during lulls like this. Silence and stillness weren’t her friend, friends- by definition- alleve loneliness.
The click of the hotel room door being unlocked perked her ears. She lifted her feet upwards into the air, before throwing them back down- using the momentum to launch herself upright, arms spread out in a gymnast’s stance. She wasted no time spinning around, running around the bed, and pulling Aigis towards her moments after she entered the room.
“Kotone-san?” Aigis had barely registered what was happening as she found her face being buried against her lover’s collar. “Is everything alright?”
“Mm.” Kotone hummed. “Just happy to see you.”
“I was only gone ten minutes and seventeen seconds…”
“So? Do you need to be gone for a certain length of time for me to be happy to have you with me?”
“Well, no, I suppose not.” Aigis returned the embrace. “This is just… surprisingly clingy- even for you.”
“Is that a complaint?”
“Certainly not.”
“Didn’t think so.”
~ ~ ~
“Are you sure this is okay Ren?” Makoto whispered. “I don’t mind splitting the bill.”
“It’s fine Mako. I’ve still got a lot left over from all that Mementos grinding. There’s not much else I’d ever use it for anyway. And besides…” Ren chuckled as he looked across the table at the other girls. “…They look like they could really use the pick-me-up.”
Across the table, on the couple’s left, Eiko sat with the side of her face pressed against the table, staring off into the middle distance. She briefly lifted her head to meet Ren’s gaze, inadvertently lifting a coaster with her- stuck to her cheek- before letting herself go limp once more.
Sat next to her was the only-slightly-less-catatonic Aya, having the clarity of mind to stare at the menu in her hands but being visibly incapable of making sense of any of it.
“Too many words… Too many kanji today… I’ve hit my limit… That one looks like the back of a kitty…Heh…”
At the other end sat Ai, rocking backwards and forwards in her seat, quietly muttering to herself under her breath.
“Megido. Megidola. Megidolaon. Megido. Megidola. Megidolaon. Megido. Megidola. Megidolaon…”
Ren leaned over the table to see Mieko’s lifeless body splayed out across the girls’ laps.
“The fall is nigh. Rejoice, for death will come to liberate us all… Rejoice…”
Ren sat back down and turned to Makoto.
“Yeah, they’re not holding up as well as you.”
Makoto sighed.
“I taught the girls how to keep all their stress and anxiety under control in such an important exam, but I guess now that it’s over and they can relax again- it’s all catching up to them.” She watched the girls across from her, listening to the chorus of moaning and groaning emanating from them. “They’re being a tad dramatic about it though.”
“How can we not be?!” Mieko shot upright, accidentally headbutting the underside of Ai’s breast as she did so (knocking the brunette out of her daze to try and rub it better while glaring at her accidental assailant). “I get that you’re the super nerd of the group, but how can you be so chill after that?”
“No kidding.” Eiko finally sat up (though she still brought the coaster with her, it taking a few moments to fall off her cheek and clatter down to the floor). “That was WAY tougher than anything we ever had to do in highschool.”
“Having to wait to hear the results…” Mieko tightly gripped the ends of her twintails. “I don’t know if my heart can take it.”
Ren couldn’t help but laugh, which visibly annoyed the girls.
“Hey, don’t feel too bad; Makoto’s got one of the strongest hearts out there, she’s proven that to me more times than I can count.”
Makoto was about to say that that’s not quite the same thing, but she quickly began to doubt herself. Between all that time discovering and rediscovering what constitutes her ‘true self’, and time spent refining that connection to Agnes and her predecessors, maybe that had some tangible effect on her emotional strength in the real world too?
Or more likely, Mieko got it right the first time- she was a super nerd and simply much more experienced in taking exams seriously than her fellow nudists.
“How do you all feel it went?”
Eiko leant back in her seat, huffing as she considered Makoto’s question.
“Actually, I feel like I didn’t do that badly. None of the problems felt like hard walls for me…” Confidence quickly started to fade from her face and posture. “But what if I’m just gaslighting myself into thinking that? What if the reason I thought it went smoothly is because I actually didn’t get it at all and wrote a bunch of gibberish?” She slammed the tabletop with her palms, leaning towards Makoto with desperation in her eyes. “How can I be certain that I didn’t go crazy and just write ‘penis’ a thousand times over while thinking I was actually giving clever answers.”
“I somehow doubt stress got to you quite that much…”
“Yeah, but we can’t be sure until we get the results!”
“I’m sure all five of you did great.” Ren smiled reassuringly. “Makoto has had nothing but positive things to say about all your study parties together.”
“Could you not call them ‘study parties’?” Ai whined. “They sound so dorky when you put them like that. Any normal person would say ‘study session’ or something.”
“Ah, well…” Neither Ren nor Makoto wanted to admit that the term ‘study session’ meant something quite different between the two of them. He instead just held out another menu for the girls. “Point is, I’m sure your hard work will pay off, stressing out at this stage won’t help. Order whatever you like, it’s on me, you deserve it.”
Aya swiped the menu out of his hands, discarding the identical one she was already holding, hoping the new one would somehow be less exhausting for her totally spent mind to read.
“Don’t have to tell me twice. I’ll have two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra—”
“Lemme rephrase that: you can order any ONE meal option you like, it’s on me.”
“Damn, alright.” Aya began to reinspect the menu. “I swear, after this I’m not reading anything else ever… until tomorrow I guess.”
Makoto picked up Aya’s discarded menu.
“…The number 9 does look pretty good actually…”
Ai tried to lean over to read the menu herself, but was hampered by—
“Mieko, why are you spread across our laps in the first place? You’re in the way.”
Strictly speaking- now that she was sat upright she was only in Aya and Eiko’s laps, her butt falling into the crevice between Ai and Aya’s thighs.
“I wanted to lie down after the exam, and I thought it looked comfy; I was correct.”
“Well we’re not gonna be able to eat like this. Sit down on the seat like a functional human being.”
“Hmm…” Mieko let herself slide back, leaning her back against Ai’s torso, humming as she enjoyed the soft warmth of her friend’s body. “Food ain’t here yet, we can chill like this a little longer, don’tcha think?”
Ai summarily shoved the smaller girl off of her, causing her to roll off the improvised bed made of her fellow nudists’ laps and onto the floor under the table with a thud. Ren swiftly peered underneath at the girl- now splayed out prone by everyone’s feet.
“Woah, you okay down there Ohara-san?”
She grumbled a little, more out of frustration than any actual pain. She got to her hands and knees, shuffling to the couple’s side of the table, clambering up to the seat between Ren and the wall (the couple shuffling along the bench to accommodate her).
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Mieko grumpily grabbed her own menu.
“After all the stress of the exam today, nothing can hurt me, so long as I don’t have to think.”
Makoto gave a tired smile.
“True, we’re all through the worst of it. We gave our all, and can breathe a sigh of relief.”
“I’ll breathe a bigger sigh of extra relief when we get the results.” Mieko groaned. “But I’ll just try and chill for now. I got through it all with no bladder issues and only minimal tears, I can be proud of that.”
Ren shuffled just a tiny but further away from the girl, his brow furrowing with concern.
“You don’t have to answer this but… this ain’t the first time you mentioned peeing in relation to—”
“Anxiety makes me feel like I need to go, even when I don’t.”
“I see.” Ren wasn’t the immature type- well, not quite that immature to be too put of by this kind of subject- but he was starting to think ‘just before a meal’ perhaps wasn’t the best time to bring up toilet problems- at least judging by the looks Makoto and the other nudists were giving him- or not giving him, keeping their eyes decidedly averted. “Glad you were all able to avoid disaster at least.”
~ ~ ~
The evening was still young, and the party of former Shujin nudists (and their tag-along Ren) decided they could all use another activity to unwind together after their meal.
Ren had no objections hanging out with everyone- on the contrary- he felt really happy that they were all so willing to casually include him even now that he was no longer the only one paying for whatever activity they had next in mind. Though he was eager to get back into a situation where it’d be just him and Makoto. Partially so they could enjoy a little more romance (which was tough when there were four other girls with them who would be all too eager to tease them for any PDAs), but mostly because he still needed to tell Makoto about his encounter earlier that day.
Finding two persona users that had been wholly unknown to them was already huge news, something Makoto and the rest of the PTs needed to know about. However the issue was hugely complicated by one of them being a ‘wildcard’ like him.
The rest of the team were dimly aware that Ren was a special case when it came to persona users, but beyond visiting the Velvet Room a single time and being overwhelmed with information courtesy of Lavenza- they didn’t have any idea what that actually meant, it had always been the one thing Ren had to shoulder alone- until now.
His discussion with Kotone today hadn’t gone far beyond confirming their nature as ‘wild cards’, their shared knowledge of the Velvet Room, and the strange voices they’d hear whenever they started getting closer to someone. He had yet to even reveal that he was one of the infamous Phantom Thieves.
He had at least learned that Kotone’s companion- Aigis- was also a persona user, albeit the ‘regular’ kind rather than a wildcard like them, and knew nothing on the subject beyond what Kotone had told her in the past.
Contact information had been exchanged, and both parties knew further discussion was a necessity, but Ren wouldn’t feel right if he left Makoto out of that; it was already going to be difficult enough to explain the reveal without giving her a chance to get the wrong idea about secret meet-ups with strange women. He’d have to explain once it was just the two of them.
Though that time hadn’t come yet.
“It’s a shame Floofgirl couldn’t join us for the meal.” Eiko mused aloud.
“Haru-san said she had something she wanted to do right after the exam ended.” Makoto sighed. “I’ll have to catch up with her later.”
Ai raised an eyebrow.
“How did you instantly know who she was referring to?”
“MAAAN!” Eiko jumped up and down in place. “My body can’t decide whether I’ve run out of energy or I’ve got too much of it.”
“I know what you mean.” Aya rubbed her forehead restlessly. “I’m mentally exhausted but sitting in place for so long is such a drag…”
“I suppose burning some energy isn’t a bad idea.” Makoto smiled. “I could take the time to teach you all some Aikido.”
“Nah, too much thinking. Also I’m not in the mood to have my ass kicked.”
“Maybe just a workout at the gym then?”
“Too strenuous.” Mieko slouched over as she walked. “I wanna do something but not something hard…”
Ren pondered.
“I know a really good darts and billards club, those might be good if you’re looking for something lower energy?”
“Ugh, darts…”
“Something wrong with darts Eiko-san?”
“Yeah, that means more math.” She suddenly perked up. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to try the batting cages, how ‘bout the rest of ya?”
Makoto grew a tad tense.
“M-maybe another time, that’s a bit um… far away…”
Ai paused, the rest of the group continuing for a few steps before turning back to her. She shrugged.
“Karaoke?”
The girls exchanged a few looks amongst eachother, before shrugging in sequence.
“I guess that works.” Eiko grinned. “Singing your heart out is stress relieving after all.”
Makoto was a little apprehensive.
“I can’t say being asked to sing for an audience is something I’d think of to reduce my stress, but last time was fun at least.” She turned to her boyfriend. “Are you okay with that Ren?”
“I promise we won’t try to peer pressure you into stripping this time.” Ai snickered.
“Actually that sounds kinda fun.” Aya joined the nefarious giggling session. “It could be like a hen party and we hire Renren as the stripper.”
“A hen party for who?”
“That’s not the question Eiko-chan, isn’t it weird to hire a stripper for a group of nudist ladies?”
“We’re not making Ren strip for us.” Makoto would be lying if she said the idea wasn’t at least a little appealing, but she had to put her foot down to keep the others in line.
“I don’t mind coming along, but I’ll have to disappoint you on the stripping front.” Ren laughed. “The usually have cameras in the rooms anyway, I don’t have legal immunity like the rest of you.”
It had been a while since he had been invited to a nudist-filled karaoke party, in fact the Shujin-Kosei meet up had been Ren’s one and only foray into the world of karaoke. Singing for a group of friends (well, mostly acquaintances with a few friends mixed in) hadn’t been nearly as nerve-wracking as he once imagined it would be, and was actually a genuinely enjoyable experience- even putting aside the high volume of female nudity surrounding him.
Seeing Makoto sing was undoubtably the highlight of that evening; the sweat flying off her body as she poured her heart into that song she heard in her favorite movie series was a mental image that would probably never leave him.
In fact, the whole purpose today was for the girls to let go of their exam stress, so he’d be more than happy to just let himself fade into the background, maybe even cheer them on as they had their fun.
~ ~ ~
“YOU CANNOT KILL ME!
I AM OMEGA!
YOU CANNOT KILL ME!
I AM SUBHUMAN!”
Ren had underestimated the level of ‘fun’ the girls had in mind. Rather, it was the level of stress and restlessness that had to be quelled. Gone were the relatively mainstream pop and light rock songs the girls chose last time, they instead prioritized whatever gave them the most opportunities to scream and thrash around.
It really made him dread his own entrance exams next year.
The idea of cheering felt unnecessary, and honestly he was just a little scared of interrupting at all, instead choosing to politely sit still while Mieko screamed her heat out, furiously headbanging all the while; though he did recoil a little each time one of her twintails would inadvertently smack him in the face (threatening to displace his glasses).
This didn’t escape Makoto’s notice- who leant over him to shoo Mieko a few inches away, before addressing him.
“Are you okay, Ren?”
“WHAT?”
“ARE YOU OKAY, REN?”
“WHAT?”
“I’M ASKING IF YOU’RE—” Makoto wasn’t quite on board with this level of energy and volume of today’s outing either, but seeing as this song was coming to an end and they’d be given at least a brief moment’s lull to talk she decided to simply wait. As the tune ended, the room brightened up again, and Mieko’s shiny, sweaty body fell back into her seat, and she tried talking to her boyfriend again. “I’m just asking if you’re alright.”
“I’ll be fine once my ears stop ringing.”
Makoto sighed.
“Though honestly, if her hair was hitting you in the face like that, you could have just asked me to shuffle along- there’s plenty of room, I don’t mind.”
“Ah, well…” Ren wasn’t about to admit he kinda enjoyed it, in a weird way. “I didn’t want to bother you just for that.”
She sighed.
“Honestly now…”
“Mieko-chan?” Ai poked her friend. “She fell asleep?”
“Sure she’s not dead?”
“Yeah I’m pretty sure.” Ai poked the girl’s face a few times for good measure (and fun).
“Should we draw something on her?”
Makoto glared at Aya.
“No pranks.”
“Nah nah, we weren’t going to do anythin’ mean.” Aya tried her darndest to keep a straight face. “I was gonna do something real artistic, y’know?”
Ren laughed.
“Does your ‘artistic’ idea involve genitalia? That’s usually how these kind of situations go.”
“Do you mean involving me drawing genitals or involving her genitals?”
“Either way it sounds borderline illegal…”
Makoto sighed.
“I think if we’re reaching the point where people are falling asleep, we should probably call it a day.”
“I guess.” Eiko yawned as she stretched towards the ceiling. “Finally ready to put today behind me, and try to ignore all the anxiety until we get our results.”
Eiko was taken off-guard when she felt a hand suddenly resting atop her head.
“Nudie prez?”
Makoto smiled warmly.
“You’ve done really well today, all of you.” She extended her proud look to all of her fellow nudists. “Regardless of what happens from this point onwards, you should all be proud of yourselves. I know just how much hard work you’ve all put in leading up to this, and I’m confident it’ll pay off for all of us.”
“Mm! Right!” Eiko leapt to her feet. “Not long from now, the five of us will be entering Tokyo U together as students!”
“Do you think… um…”
Aya tilted her head.
“Makoto-chan?”
“N-nevermind…”
“No no, go ahead.”
“It’s just…” Makoto awkwardly shuffled in place. “I was gonna suggest something, but now I think it might be a little cringeworthy.”
“Oh now we HAVE to hear it!” Aya and the other nudists leaned forward in anticipation, causing Makoto to blush profusely.
She whined.
“I just thought it might be fun- on the day we get accepted- to all step onto the university grounds together, at the same time, like we’re all taking that first step together, or something.”
Ai smiled.
“That’s not cringeworthy, I like the idea.”
“Mm-mm!” Eiko nodded. “That’ll be a big triumphant moment for all of us. All the Shujin Nudists taking the first step together into the rest of our lives! Heheh, I guess it is a little cheesy, but I’m down for it.”
“Same here.” Aya patted Makoto on the shoulder. “Even if it does end up being awkward it’ll be worth a laugh.”
“Mmm…” The sleeping Mieko seemed on board as well, at least that’s what everyone was happy to assume.
Ren couldn’t help but chuckle at the palpable relief on Makoto’s face, now that her suggestion went over so well. He still had to discuss the whole ‘Wildcard’ thing with her, but he could focus on getting the rest of the nudists home first. He gently lifted Mieko off of the seat and into his arms, ready to carry her to the station.
“Need help carrying her, Ren?”
“Nah, she’s pretty small. Plus I’m stronger and hunkier than I look, you know that Mako.”
“Don’t get cocky now.” Makoto chuckled.
Chapter 115: The other wildcard
Summary:
I met thou, thou met I
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“This is a pretty sweet bar, not gonna lie.”
“Why would a highschooler know about a place like this anyway?”
“He said he works here part time Aigis, it’s pretty common for highschoolers to work all kinds of side jobs.”
“I think that’s just oddballs like you, Kotone-san.”
“They’re a great way to meet people, and build character, y’know? I bet I’d become even more charming if I worked here.”
“If you say so… I think you’ve already got plenty of charm.”
“Flirt.” Kotone laughed, admiring the décor of the booth the couple were relaxing in. “Gives me similar vibes to the upper level at Club Escapade actually… The lady behind the counter reminds me a little bit of Mutatsu-san actually.”
“That sounds like a very mean thing to say.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be… She seems like more of a people person than him anyways.” She leant out of the booth to wave to the proprietor. “Lala-chan! Two Ramos Gin Fizzes please!”
“Are you sure we can afford that?”
“Ren-san said he’d treat us, it’s fine.”
“Kotone-san, we can’t make a highschooler pay for alcohol.”
“A-ah… that’s a good point actually… um…”
Aigis sighed, before leaning over her girlfriend to call out.
“Make that just one Ramos Gin Fizz and one water please.”
Lala let out a good natured scoff, nodded, and began preparing the ladies drinks.
“Thanks Aigis babe.”
“It’s not as if I’d benefit from the alcohol anyway.”
“Still might taste nice though, I’ll let you have a few sips of mine.”
Aigis nodded, keeping a neutral expression on her face but secretly feeling quite happy. Mere moments after the couple received their drinks, the other expected couple had finally arrived, hastily stepping inside- Ren being eager to get his nudist girlfriend safe in here and away from the numerous drunkards and talent scouts skulking about the red-light district, eying her like a deposit of gold ore.
Needless to say, Makoto was also pleased to get away from such folks, but that feeling was largely dwarfed by the delightful mixture of nostalgia and embarrassment this place brought her. This was the spot where her relationship was made official, where she and Ren became ‘study partners’. She hadn’t been back here since that day, but the ever-accommodating Lala immediately recognized her, shooting her a knowing smirk (that’s where the ‘embarrassment’ part of the equation came in). Makoto politely bowed her head in greeting, before turning her attention to the woman awaiting them in the booth.
“Is that them?” She discreetly whispered to her boyfriend.
“Yeah, that’s them.”
It took her a moment, but she recognized the woman with auburn hair from her streetside salesman routine in Inaba (that and her arrest not long after for being a bit too eager adopting the whole nudism thing).
“Heya Miss ‘First Shujin nudist’!” Kotone leant over the table to eagerly (and rather forcefully) shake her fellow nudist’s hand. “I trust you remember me?”
Ren let Makoto sit down first- just across from Aigis- before taking a seat himself.
“Yes, I remember.” Makoto exhaled. “Last time I saw you was during your arrest.”
“That wasn’t an arrest… technically. I was just brought in for questioning, that’s all.” Kotone waved dismissively. “The program kicked in in just a couple days anyway so they realized charging me would be silly. I even decided to be magnanimous and offer to pay a fine anyway.”
“Kotone-san, if you do that without being asked it counts as a bribe.”
“I don’t think that’s true Aigis, nor am I going to check. They didn’t take it anyway so no harm done, right?”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a worried glance, but ultimately decided to shrug it off. Aigis decided to get right onto business.
“Are you certain this is a safe place for our discussion?” She gestured to the bar without taking her eyes off of Ren. “There are few out there who would understand the subjects we intend to discuss even if they were to overhear, but caution in these matters is always prudent.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ren smiled. “The bar is usually pretty quiet this time of day, noone’s here aside from us… actually- just to be sure—” He leant out of the booth and called out. “Lala-chan, Ohya’s not hiding anywhere is she?”
“You’re fine Darling.” Lala responded from somewhere unseen behind the bar. “She’s actually working today… for once.”
“Cool, thanks.” He turned back to his table. “Nosy reporter friend, don’t worry about it, she would listen in if she could.”
“No worries. I can relate to having a bunch of miscellaneous contacts like that.” Kotone laughed.
Makoto leant forward.
“Is what Ren told me true?”
“Well that depends what he told you.”
“That the two of you are…?”
“Dating?” Kotone pulled Aigis towards her lover close, pressing their cheeks together while throwing up a piece sign (which Aigis bashfully mimicked). “Damn right! Have been for years now. We’d probably be married by now if it were legal.”
“Kotone-san…” Aigis whined, turning away to try and hide her blush.
“N-no, that’s not what I meant. I mean, good for you and all but…”
“It’s fine Niijima-san, I know what you meant.” Kotone chuckled. “Yes, Aigis and I are persona users.”
Makoto turned to her boyfriend.
“So there really are others besides us.”
“It surprised me too.” Ren pondered a moment. “I guess Akechi and Maruki got theirs too despite having nothing to do with us, so it makes sense that they could be others out there. Not that we can actually show it off anymore, without the metaverse.”
“I got just the thing for that!” Kotone started rifling through her purse, until she pulled out an object and slid it across the table; a worryingly gun-shaped object. “I want you to point this at your head and pull the trigger, and I’ll watch what happens.”
Ren and Makoto stared down at the gun with utterly horrified looks on their faces, an extended silence passes, they look to eachother, then across the table to the woman with a huge, beaming smile on her face, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“C…C-come again?”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind you using mine.”
“That’s not the issue here…”
“Look, I’ll show you. You just—”
Makoto leapt across the table to grab Kotone’s wrist as she went to point the barrel at her temple, nearly knocking over everyone’s drinks in the process.
“Have you gone insane?!”
“Huh? Oh!” Kotone’s expression became one of understanding. “I see what you mean, I can’t do this- it’s not the right time of day for this kind of thing.”
“It’s not right for ANY time of day!” Makoto was starting to get an idea of why Ren warned her to be slightly wary meeting this woman (though this wasn’t the reason Ren was envisioning). “Why are you carrying something like that around to begin with?”
“To summon my persona, obviously.” Kotone stared at the other nudist like she was the crazy one. “Do you really not know what an evoker is?”
“An evoker?”
“Perhaps they’re the other kind.” Aigis tilted her head thoughtfully, before giving them a reassuring smile. “You may remain calm. Despite its appearance an evoker is not a firearm, merely a device for calling forth one’s persona.”
Makoto calmed down a little, releasing Kotone’s arm (who wisely, decided to put the evoker away to avoid making anyone more uncomfortable than they already were).
“You use a device to summon a persona?”
Aigis nodded.
“Correct.”
Makoto’s brow raised.
“Wait, are you saying you can summon them in the real world with those?”
“Only under special circumstances. Though said circumstances have been unavailable to us for quite some time.”
Kotone shrugged, surprisingly bashfully.
“I still carry it around though, just in case. It’s comforting if nothing else.”
“Still, using your powers outside the metaverse at all completely goes against everything we understand about personas…”
“’Outside the metaverse’ huh?” Kotone made a show of stroking her chin. “Now it’s getting interesting. You’re saying the metaverse is a place you can actually go to?”
“Are you saying you haven’t been to the metaverse? And yet you’re aware of it?”
“People in the Shadow Operatives are researching cognitive psience all the time. And I speak with the lady in charge pretty often.”
“Shadow Operatives?” Ren was visibly intrigued, ‘Shadow Operatives’ was exactly the kind of name he’d come up with when he was in middle school, and he hadn’t entirely grown out of that phase yet, so he was eager to hear more.
Kotone- having also not entirely outgrown her own middle schooler syndrome- was almost as eager to talk about it.
“An organization formed through a collaboration between the police and Kirijo group. They’re there for whenever shenanigans with shadows and personas kick up a ruckus- so to speak.”
Makoto’s brow raised.
“The police have a division specifically for dealing with shadows and the like?”
“Well, technically they work with the police, they aren’t police themselves. Plus they’re technically a secret, not something your average officer would know about.”
“I see…” Makoto’s gaze sharpened. “Then where the hell have they been the past year?”
“They didn’t know anything was going on, I suppose.” Aigis answered simply. “We don’t have the means to directly observe this ‘Metaverse’, let alone travel to it, we simply know of its existence.”
“I…” Makoto sighed. “I suppose that’s fair.”
“Not to mention they’ve been focused so hard on the hackers’ attacks.”
“Oh?”
“Kotone-san.” Aigis gently shoved her partner, concerned. “That’s exactly the kind of thing we’re not supposed to discuss so publicly.”
“It’ll be fine.” Kotone waved her off. “I trust this guy.”
“You met him yesterday.”
“It’s hard to explain, just something he and I know, y’know?” Kotone smirked. “I trust ‘Mr. World’ over here.”
“’Mr. World’, huh?” Ren laughed. “I guess that makes you ‘Miss Universe’?”
“Heheh, not a bad title, I’ll take it.”
Makoto looked to Aigis- hoping for some kind of explanation, but found the blonde looking just as clueless as her.
“Tell me…” Kotone leaned over the table to Ren, not-so-discreetly pointing to his girlfriend. “Which is she?”
“High Priestess.”
“Oho? Yeah she does look the type now that you mention it- dress code aside.” She gestured to her own girlfriend. “Aeon.”
“Oh? I didn’t get one of those.”
“For real? Guess I’m extra special then.”
Again, Makoto looked for answers and instead found a sense of confused comradery in Aigis’s eyes.
“But yeah, my friend Mitsuru-chan runs the whole place and she’s been talking about how hackers have been a huge problem lately.” Kotone continued. “Someone on the inside let this group called ‘Medjed’ in and they stole a metric crapton of metaverse research about a year and a half ago.”
Ren turned to Makoto.
“I guess that explains why Shido’s men knew as much as they did.”
“Shido huh. Aigis make a note of that.”
“Mm.” She nodded.
“Though even recently there’s been this hacker calling themselves ‘Alibaba’ trying to break in for months, they’ve not managed it though.”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a nervous look, but remained silent.
“And there’s that one dude trying to install this really shady program on the organization’s servers, what the hell did he say his name was?”
“I think it was Stephen.”
“I think you’re right Aigis.” Kotone shrugged. “Noone’s stupid enough to open a program like that without knowing anything about it though, so that’ll probably be fine. Mitsuru-chan said she’s isolated and firewalled the program, and they’re not gonna do anything with it until they’re 100% sure what it’s supposed to do.”
“Right…”
“Although…” Kotone’s expression suddenly turned serious. “They did at least notice some really weird readings on Christmas Eve, coming from Tokyo. And yet all record of these readings up and disappeared mere hours later.” She leant forward, eyeing her fellow wildcard over her arched fingers. “I don’t suppose you’d happen to know anything about that ‘Mr. World’?”
“Oh yeah, no biggie. That was just the day I used the power of friendship to shoot God in the face in order to save Christmas.”
“Huh, neat.”
Ren’s disappointment was palpable, and face rather pitiable- Kotone had a hard time not laughing at him.
“That’s… I expected more of a reaction…”
Kotone playfully shrugged
“You did say it was ‘no biggie’.”
“I mean, yeah, but that was just me humblebragging. I wanted you to be at least a little impressed.”
“Ren you’re not supposed to just admit to something like that.”
“’First Shujin nudist’-san is correct.” Aigis shook her head. “It does feel rather pathetic to confess such a thing out loud.”
“Man…” Ren sank back in his seat. “How am I coming out of that looking lame?”
Kotone got her poorly suppressed snickering under control.
“But nah, for real it sounds like you sorted out whatever it was. Good for you, man.”
Her thumbs up made him feel a little better (but only a little).
“I understand how literal the ‘power of friendship’ can be, and how awesome you have to be to actually utilize it. It was what gave me the opportunity to seal away Death with a suicide attack.”
“Suicide attack?” Makoto’s brow furrowed.
“Yeah, I get the irony of beating Death with suicide, that’s not lost on me.”
“N-no… I mean- yeah- that too, but you just… look remarkably healthy for someone who performed a suicide attack.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that.”
“Are you being figurative, or…?”
“Please do not downplay Kotone-san’s sacrifice.” Aigis interjected. “It was a truly harrowing moment for us all.” She looked downwards at her own lap. “I remember us all gathered together on the rooftop, I remember holding her lifeless body in my arms…” She suddenly looked back up, leaning forward excitedly, eyes wide. “But then—”
CRASH!
“Woah!”
Kotone and the others flinched at the sudden noise coming from further in the bar. A moment of silence passed before they heard Lala-chan’s voice.
“Sorry about that!” She called out from the backroom. “I dropped a bottle, nothing to panic over.”
“Need any help back there?” Ren called back.
“I’m fine Honey, you lot can carry on.”
Aigis breathed a sigh of relief, before turning back to the rest of the party.
“I admit, that gave me a fright.” She paused a while. “What were we talking about?”
“Um…” Kotone folded her arms, pondering. “Ah! We were talking about going to the metaverse.”
“I’m pretty sure we were asking something el—”
Kotone cut Makoto off.
“So how’d you do it? You go in using the TV, right? But how’d you get it to work?”
“Um… no? We use the nav app on our phones.”
“There’s an app for that?”
“There was. It’s gone now.”
“Where does the TV come in?”
“There is no TV.”
“Huh…” Kotone scratched her scalp. “Coulda sworn the research mentioned TVs… Was our contact lying or do you just have a wholly different method to her?”
“Mitsuru-san has never gotten the TV method to work herself, so…”
“You say the app's gone now though?”
Ren shrugged apologetically.
“Yeah, sorry. And to be honest with you I’m not especially eager to seek it out again. The whole journey was a huge, very important part of my life, but I’m kinda glad it’s behind us, y’know?”
“No kidding…” Makoto sighed.
“I understand 100%.” Kotone smiled sympathetically. “I’ve definitely known some who got their whole sense of purpose from powers like that, but I could just never jive with that. The constant anxiety, looming threats you had no way to be sure you were ready for, knowing even a single mistake could cost your life or the lives of your friends…”
“Kotone-san…”
She shook her head, swiftly putting her smile back on.
“Yeah maybe it’s better we never have to deal with anything persona related ever again- if we’d be so lucky. I’m glad Mitsuru-san is taking all these measures to prepare for potential threats like that, but I’m more than happy sticking to the joys of the real world- that’s where all the fun people are! They don’t need me as a member.”
“Oh?” Makoto raised an eyebrow. “The way you were talking really made it sound like you two were involved; how do you know so much about issues the organisation has been dealing with otherwise?”
“I’m not a member in any official capacity, but you know how it is- if a friend needs my support, I can’t just not give it, can I? Doesn’t matter what they need support with.”
“Mm.” Ren nodded, understanding exactly what she meant.
“I mean obviously if something did pop up, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick Vel Vel Muruga back up and bust some heads.”
Aigis somehow seemed even more proud than her partner.
“Shiomi’s amazing commodities stocks plenty of ‘whoop-ass’ in canned form and offers them for very affordable prices.”
“Well put Aigis.”
“Was it, though?”
“I feel like they’re tempting fate, Makoto…”
“You worry too much.” Kotone clapped once, commanding the groups attention. “Anyway, that’s enough Shadow Operative nonsense…”
“We barely got any details at all though…”
“I’m more interested in YOU! Mr. World!” Kotone pointed authoritatively, her fingertip inches away from Ren’s nose. “We know that you and I are no ordinary persona users!”
Ren scoffed.
“Can any persona user be called ‘ordinary’?”
“Heh, fair point. But we’re extra-not-ordinary!”
“Isn’t there a word for that?”
“I don’t think so Aigis, don’t worry about it.”
“I guess you’re not wrong.” Ren nodded. “I share many things with me friends, most things really, but one thing I’m glad they didn’t have to suffer through was all the… fun in the Velvet room. God that was a nightmare sometimes…”
“Really?” I thought it was kinda chill. Though the shaking gave me a headache sometimes…”
“Shaking?”
Makoto leaned over to whisper to her boyfriend.
“Is she referring to something sexual?”
“I heard that!” Kotone sighed. “Why does your mind go to sex just from the word ‘shaking’?”
“Parts of you do a lot of shaking during sexual acts.” Aigis added a little too casually. “It’s always made me a little jealous…”
“My bad Aigis, I think? Anyway I was just referring to the shaking from the whole room being an elevator and all. Sometimes I’d be stuck there a long time fusing the right persona and it wore on me after a while.”
“It was an elevator for you?” Ren’s brow furrowed. “I think Igor mentioned something about the room taking different shapes depending on the ‘guest’ before, I guess he wasn’t kidding. It was a prison for me.”
“Like, literally? Oof, that doesn’t sound comfortable.”
“It wasn’t. Though that was more due to the twins being so unnecessarily rough… Oh, the twins were the little ones in blue ostensibly helping out. Did yours hit you too?”
“Nah mine were much nicer by the sounds of it, a brother-sister doofus combo package deluxe with fries, but very fun overall.”
“Lucky you.” Ren groaned. “The one silver lining to those two is now I feel really confident about having kids; there’s no way in hell any child of ours is going to be as much of a problem child as the twins.”
“O-ours?!”
“Oho?” Kotone tried to hold back her laughter (to moderate success). “Makoto-san’s going so red. Have you considered the nickname ‘Tomato Niijima’, Ren-kun?”
“I mean… not out loud at least.”
“I suppose the both of you having children would be an inevitability, wouldn’t it?” Aigis asked in an inquiring tone. “I imagine you’re trying for them fairly often, judging by the ferocity we witnessed from you two in that culture festival footage online.”
“CAN WE PLEASE CHANGE THE SUBJECT?” Makoto loudly whined.
Ren couldn’t help but chuckle at her expense (plus it helped distract from the embarrassment he felt suddenly remembering the women he was talking to had seen him in the act too), before turning back to Kotone.
“But yeah, while the twins were a nightmare, once they fused together into their true self, they become an adult who is as nice a person as you could hope for, so it worked out in the end.”
“Fusing? Like the same way you fuse personas or are we talking a ‘Goten and Trunks’ situation?”
“More like Piccolo and Kami…”
“Pico-what now?”
Ren’s brow shot up.
“You haven’t seen Dragon Ball Makoto?”
“No, I’ve heard of it, but…”
“We’ll have to fix that later on, it’s required reading.”
“Required reading for what?”
“Just life in general.”
“Right…” Makoto’s brow furrowed. “I’m getting déjà vu for some reason…”
Ren continued.
“…But yeah to bring them back together I had to do the same persona fusion process with the guillotines and everything.”
“With the fucking WHAT?”
“Y-Y’know…? You had to use the execution equipment to fuse stuff together?” A slightly worrying silence passed. “Did you not have those?”
“No, I just got Igor to do the fusions and whatever, that’s kinda why he’s there. Why is your Velvet room a freak dungeon?”
“Execution equipment, chains and bonds, the presence of minors…” Aigis leaned over and (rather loudly) whispered to her partner. “I’m beginning to suspect that this boy is potentially dangerous…”
“It’s not like I designed any of it myself!” Ren fell back in his seat, rubbing the bridge of his nose. The feeling of his girlfriend’s hand sympathetically resting on his knees made him feel at least a little better.
“I guess the velvet room doesn’t always make sense, it’s not worth worrying about details like that.” Kotone was at least 90% sure of what she was saying. “Besides, I can understand what it’s like, being haunted by magical children… Mine was better behaved though…”
Aigis shrugged.
“I’ve never been, so I’ll defer to Kotone-san’s judgement.” She still eyed Ren with a hard to read expression though.
“I’ve only been once.” Makoto added. “And I can confirm it’s a very unusual place. That equipment was worrying, but I don’t believe it’s reflective of Ren or his desires… at least not in the way you might be imagining.”
“You were able to take someone with you then?” Kotone asked Ren. “Noone else could even see the door, let alone go through it with me.”
“It’s a bit more complicated, they got pulled in by the fake Igor- but we all got out and beat him ‘cuz we’re cool like that. That’s what happened on Christmas eve, by the way- us kicking some false god’s ass pretending to be Igor’s ass, or something.”
“That so?” Kotone’s eyes briefly flicked over to the door leading through to the backroom where the bar’s owner was- presumably still cleaning up the mess she made with the broken bottle. She didn’t seem to be listening in, but… “I’ll have to pester you for the full story another time, maybe?”
“You don’t want it now?”
Kotone’s smile fell.
“I’m sure there are people’s privacy other than just your own that you’d want to protect, right Mr. Phantom Thief?”
Ren visibly grew tense for a moment, which didn’t escape the woman’s notice.
“Hit the nail on the head, huh?”
“I mean I know it’s probably fine to tell you if you’re like me anyway, but—”
“What, you didn’t think I’d know beforehand? I mean it’s pretty obvious. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the metaverse could tell that the Phantom Thieves’ methods were utilizing it in some way, which almost certainly means personas, which means they were probably being led by an extra-special persona user, like ‘thou’ or ‘I’.” She chuckled. “I obviously didn’t know for sure until now, but it was a pretty safe bet.”
Ren looked to Makoto.
“I’m sorry, I’m really not as good at keeping secrets as I thought I was.”
“It’s fine.” Makoto sighed. “It’s not your fault… on this occasion at least.”
“Heh…”
“But yeah, if you’re really a thief, then it’s probably best I don’t make you spill the details here. If someone overhears all the shit about magic and other worlds they probably won’t take us seriously, but- and correct me if I’m wrong- there are still gonna be people who have you and your friends on their shit list, so you don’t want to take any risk of them overhearing.”
“Yes, imagine someone discovering your secret because one of your members doesn’t know how to keep their voice down.” Makoto coyly smiled.
“To be fair to Ryuji, I’ve still given it away far more often than he has.” Ren bashfully scratched the back of his head.
“So instead…” Kotone leaned forward, grinning deviously at the nudist. “…I wanna know more about you.”
“Me?”
“How’d a sexy naked lady get involved with someone like Mr. World?”
“’Mr. World’? Oh right right, Ren.” Makoto exhaled wistfully. “I’m not sure if I believe in things like ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’, but looking back, it feels like we were meant to meet.” She averted her eyes from the rest of the group, partially to better reminisce but mostly to bashfully avoid eye contact with everyone. “I was a very different person before I met Ren; just blindly walking down the path the adults had laid out for me, never questioning them, always doing what I was told. My classmates often called me a ‘robot’, and honestly- in a way they were kinda right.”
A sharp intake of breath from Aigis, immediately preceding the launching of almost her entire torso across the tabletop towards Makoto, the nudist recoiling into the wall- her boyfriend’s arm held over her to protect her.
“You are mechanical?”
“Wh-what?”
“No way…” Aigis’s wide eyes glided up and down Makoto’s bare form. “Your body, it’s so stunning, so… alive!”
“Um… th-thanks? I think?”
“Aigis…” Kotone weakly reached out to her partner, but was ignored.
Aigis continued to stare slack jawed, her belly resting on the table, until she reached out and took a surprisingly firm hold of Makoto’s left breast, before having her own hand slapped away.
“Do you mind?! Where do you think you’re touching?”
“It doesn’t feel like silicone at all, how have they managed that?” Aigis returned to a seated position, but continued to lean forward, fascinated. “Even the breathing is realistic, I even felt a pulse, such attention to detail…”
“Wait, did you think I meant…” Ren laughed, before lifting the arm that had been (ineffectually) protecting Makoto and using it to stroke her hair. “Yup, that’s right, she’s my cutie robot girlfriend.”
“What are you talking about Re—” Makoto was cut off when she felt him poke her nose.
“Beep boop.”
His teasing session came to an abrupt end when Aigis’s fist slammed down, the impact causing their empty glasses to shake.
“That is offensive and discriminatory!”
“Uh…”
“I’m disappointed in you Amamiya-san, I would expect better from her boyfriend. How dare you belittle her for her physical form? Do you have any idea of the difficulties she’s had to face because of such circumstances?”
“W-woah woah, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything bad; wait, what are we talking about exactly?”
“I’m hardly the one you need to be apologizing to.”
“Uh…” Ren turned to Makoto. “Um, sorry?”
“I-it’s fine Ren, I’m not upset or anything… maybe a little embarrassed though…”
Aigis pumped her fists, giving Makoto a look of solidarity.
“There is nothing to be embarrassed about. Noone has any right to belittle you for the nature of your body.”
“Ren never belittles me… well actually he kinda does, but only in a gentle, teasing way. He’s nothing but supportive to me when it counts, so please don’t jump to any conclusions over him saying… beep boop? Was that the… offending phrase?”
“Hm.” Aigis nodded. “Very well, I’ll take your word for it.” She suddenly launched forward again, causing the other couple to raise their guard again. “But please Makoto-san, you must tell me who constructed you, the craftsmanship is far beyond anything the Kirijo group can muster. You are truly indistinguishable from flesh and blood.”
“Wait, I’m not—”
“Is it like the Terminator movies? Is there an endoskeleton underneath?”
Kotone gently pulled her girlfriend back by the shoulder, before whispering in her ear.
“…”
“Oh?”
“…”
“Oh.”
“…”
“Oh…”
Aigis sank back in her seat, coldly staring down at her lap with an empty look on her face, making for quite the pitiable sight.
“Um…” Ren looked to Kotone for guidance or an explanation, but she just gently shook her head at him- which didn’t help him understand the situation any better. “Uh- look Aigis, I’m very sorry about what I said.”
“No, it’s me who needs to apologize for misunderstanding…” She didn’t bother looking up at him as she said this.
“A-anyway…” Kotone decided to swiftly move things along. “You met your boyfriend and started to turn things around, was this before or after you went nudist?”
“Um, well technically we knew eachother somewhat beforehand, but we didn’t start getting close until after I got naked.”
“Oh?” Kotone raised a curious (and slightly accusatory) eyebrow at the boy. “Well I guess that makes sense. Naked ladies tend to naturally draw interested guys.”
“It’s not like that.” Ren raised his hands defensively. “I uh… only ever make eye contact with girls, so I barely even noticed her ‘dress sense’ changing.”
“You’re not even trying to make that sound convincing.”
“I guess there is some truth to it.” Makoto stepped in. “He was worried about me after I went nudist, so he would- with my permission- stick around me to ward off troublemakers and the like.”
“Ha, it’s like a pervy take on a knight protecting a princess trope. I kinda wish more stories would do that kinda thing.”
“She’s more of a Queen than a princess.”
“Shut up Ren.” Makoto shook her head. “But I was following him a little even before that. I got involved with the whole ‘PT’ thing since I was initially pushed to find and expose them by the principal at the time.”
“If there’s one thing you’ve got a lot of experience in, it’s exposure.” Kotone snickered.
“I suppose I can appreciate the irony there… But around about then is when I started questioning the competency and trustworthiness of the authority figures around me, so I gave Ren and the others a chance to prove their justice- which they did, very very well I might add. I awoke to my persona with them, and since then I’ve been a member.”
“And my second in command.” Ren’s tone almost made it sound like it was something for him to be proud of. “And we’ve been inseparable since them.”
“Mm…” Makoto’s cheeks began to glow red again. “I suppose I’ve grown rather fond of having him around.”
“Plus I’m guessing being naked is always hotter when you’ve got a clothed person next to you as contrast.”
Makoto blushed harder thanks to Kotone’s comment.
“I mean you don’t have to point it out like that…”
“Maybe when you accept my modelling offer, I’ll see if I can hire some extras to stand around you clothed to make your nudity stand out even more? That could be fun, the more attention the better, right?”
“Don’t just assume I’m going to say yes to that.”
“There’s real potential for exhibitionism-based marketing, I’m just saying.”
“We’ll save that discussion for another time…”
“Actually yeah that’s probably enough for a first proper meeting.” Kotone grinned at Ren. “I still have a lot of questions for you, I do wanna hear the full story of your persona career, and I may as well share mine too, but you can’t rush these things.”
“I getcha.” Ren nodded. “There’s a lot to get through so I don’t mind splitting this up over eight or nine more discussions.”
Kotone laughed, way harder than either Makoto or the now-recovered Aigis thought necessary or appropriate. She sheepishly shrugged at the two women staring at her, confused.
“Don’t worry about it, inside joke for ‘Tricksters’.”
“Right…”
“Speaking of which…”
Both Kotone and Ren seemed to stare off into the middle distance for a few seconds, as if suddenly oblivious to the world around them.
“Um… Ren?”
Makoto was about to reach out to him, but he and Kotone quickly returned to normal, and he gave a reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“That was ‘rank two’ for you too, right, Mr. World?”
“Yes yes ‘Miss Universe’. Heh, it’s honestly kinda weird being able to have someone else understand this, y’know?”
“I know right?!”
Both continued to laugh at their little inside joke, Makoto couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit left out; she shuffled a little closer to him, letting her hip touch his, just because- y’know?
“Kinda sucks that I was the only one drinking though…”
“Kotone, they’re still minors.”
“I know I know, I wasn’t saying they should drink. Just let me bitch a little, Aigis.”
“If you insist…” Aigis rose from her seat, and politely bowed to the couple. “Thank you for taking the time to speak with us this evening. We shall look forward to our next meeting.”
“You don’t need to be so formal Aigis.” Kotone stroked her lover’s back. “This isn’t a business meeting. Be casual.”
“Casual?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Understood.” She turned back to the couple, before snapping her fingers and giving her hips a sassy sway to punctuate her “Later bitches.” She then looked back to Kotone for approval.
“Perfect! Just like we practiced!”
“Mm.” Aigis gave a small smile.
“Um, later.” Ren waved, still a little taken aback. “And I really am sorry for upsetting you Aigis-san.”
“It’s okay, I understand.” Aigis sighed.
Kotone left the money for her drink on the countertop, before she hooked her arm with her lover’s and waved to the other couple as they made their way outside, Aigis mumbling along the way.
“I neither ‘beep’ nor ‘boop’…”
“It’s okay babe, he didn’t mean anything by it.”
And so they disappeared out into the streets of Shinjuku, leaving Ren and Makoto alone in the bar.
“Makoto.”
“Yeah?”
“Be honest with me, do I ever go too far with my teasing?”
Makoto exhaled, leaning against her boyfriend’s shoulder.
“It’s fine, I’ve gotten used to it.”
“Hm…”
“But I will let you know if you do cross a line, okay?”
“Thank you Mako…”
“They’re an odd couple, aren’t they? Though I suppose you can say the same for us.”
“I guess ‘normal’ people don’t end up as persona users, huh?”
“I’d actually like to ask about theirs. Their personas I mean.”
“I wanna ask about Aigis’s headphones or whatever, they looked cool. I bet Futaba would like a pair.”
“Nice to know you’ve got your priorities straight.”
“Is that sarcasm, Makoto?”
“…I’m not wholly sure, myself.”
Notes:
Okay so there's probably a little confusion, I'll answer some of the questions you no doubt have right now:
Because Kotone is alive now, The Answer never happened, which means no Metis (sorry). P4A didn't happen either (though certain elements from it might come up, one has already been hinted at in a previous chapter). As of writing this I've not played P4D yet, but I'm assuming it doesn't fuck with canon *too* much so I'll go ahead and say that's probably still canon here.
I'm a believer in not giving spoilers for my own story, but I can share these here as trying to shoehorn in exposition into dialogue wouldn't feel at all natural in this case, so this is fine to share.
Chapter 116: The other exam
Summary:
Technically not a filler chapter but it kinda is at the same time
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
A certain feeling of dread had been brewing in Makoto ever since their victory over Maruki’s false reality; thankfully not one on par with the recurring dread that came with each of the thieves’ deadly deadlines they had faced numerous times over the last year. They weren’t at risk of losing their lives, or the lives of those close to them- the circumstances weren’t even close to that dire- but that was balanced out by the fact that there was nothing she nor the rest of the thieves could do to avert their looming fate:
Ren would have to leave them all behind, and return to his family in Inaba.
It would be a fair estimate to say that literally no one was happy about this, least of all Ren himself, who had made his contempt for the family and hometown that had all too easily discarded him after his false arrest clear. He would much rather stay in Tokyo with his true, fire-forged friends, and the nudist girl he considered his soulmate, but it seemed like fate wouldn’t be so kind.
Makoto was sure to remind him that this move wouldn’t mark any sort of ‘end’ for them or their relationship, they would simply have to endure being a long-distance couple for a while, and they both felt confident that they had proven the enduring nature of their relationship even in the relatively short time they have known eachother. Neither of them were worried, but that didn’t make the distance soon to be between them any more palatable, Makoto found this much clear.
Though the past few months had been full of fierce crunching in time for her college entrance exams (which she was still awaiting the results for), she had a side project brewing which she hoped to see results from ASAP, she wanted to obtain her own driver’s license.
While this would be something she’d need for the future anyway, she felt a need to rush. She was fondly hoping she could at least be the one to drive Ren back home, partly so they and the thieves could enjoy a road trip of sorts together to celebrate the year which served as a major turning point in all their lives, but mostly just to extend their time together just that little bit more.
Of course, she had managed to convince her fellow graduates to apply with her, Haru seemed especially eager, though motivation levels from the nudists seemed… mixed.
“Do you hate us, Nudie Prez?”
“Hate you? No, of course not.”
“Then why are you putting us through MORE exams?” Eiko whined. “We’ve still not recovered from the entrance exams. I can only endure so much trauma…”
“Quit being such a whiner.” Mieko rolled her eyes. “Compared to that the written tests here are stupid easy.”
“Easy for you to say that! You’re the only one here who actually knows anything about cars.”
“Which is why I helped you study.” Mieko folded her arms, actively trying to look as haughtily confident as possible. “Time to see if literally anything I told you stuck. The only potentially hard part is the practical.”
Ai raised her hand.
“Is it normal to do the written exam and the practical on the same day?”
“We’re getting fast tracked!” Haru smiled brightly. “Okumura foods has many connections to other organizations through business deals and such, including to a manager or two here. I had Takakura-san call in a favor for all of us.”
Eiko’s eyebrow raised.
“Does that mean we can like- pass no matter what?”
“Yo, that sounds pretty sweet.” Aya smirked
Eiko flinched slightly under Makoto’s fierce, disciplinary glare.
“I-I’m just asking, y’know? I’m not saying we should cheat.”
“I am!”
“Enough you two.” Makoto sighed. “All Haru’s deal means for us is that IF we do well, we can get through this whole process a lot faster than normal.”
“Correct.” Haru nodded. “They haven’t explicitly been instructed to help or not help us pass, nor have they been explicitly told whether or not their livelihoods are at stake.”
“Wait, so—”
“Let’s not keep them waiting!” Haru excitedly rushed ahead, leaving the now slightly wary nudists to hurriedly follow after her into the building.
~ ~ ~
The written portion of the exam passed mostly without incident (which is to say all screaming remained firmly ‘internal’), and all the girls passed the test that really did feel refreshingly straightforward compared to the horrors of Tokyo U’s exams.
The real challenge of today was the practical tests, to be conducted today by the inexperienced- but eager- Jun Mizuno. She had only secured the role for herself around six months ago, having to work janitorial jobs to keep herself afloat as she studied for all the qualifications she needed. But it was worth it in the end; the woman finding far more fulfilment in doing her part to make sure the roads of Japan were filled with properly knowledgeable, and conscientious drivers (the pay might have also been a factor).
Today she had been given a very important assignment. She didn’t understand exactly why her boss had given it the label “Very important”, as far as she could tell it was just six graduates using some financial clout to ‘push to the front of the line’, so to speak. When she questioned him about it, he simply told her:
“This should all go smoothly; Okumura-san and her companions will pass without issue.”
If she didn’t know better she would have thought he worded that more like an order than a reassurance, but she dismissed the idea- she must have just heard him wrong, or something…
She would simply face today like she would any other, and do her job properly- she hadn’t yet reached the inevitable “Phone-it-in” stage of her career yet, she was saving that for at least her thirties- when she had been with the company long enough to get away with it (plus, she worked hard to get here and all that stuff about fulfilment- I guess…)
With her all-important clipboard in hand, she stepped out of the building to meet with the group which she naturally presumed was a bunch of rich kids, ready to put them to the test, blissfully unaware of the test she was about to face.
She stood frozen, as the first applicant confidently approached her. The girl had well-kept brunette hair, and a pair of very striking and distinctive red eyes; these were both features Jun would have noticed had her eyes not instantly locked onto everything but- but particularly the rhythmic bouncing and swaying of modestly sized but decidedly immodestly displayed bare breasts.
It's important to note, that janitor closets were not the only closets Miss Mizuno had in-depth experience with.
The nudist politely bowed to her, causing her breasts to tantalizingly hang down from her torso; winter was almost entirely past them by this point, but the chill air still kept the exposed nipples visibly hardened as they were prominently pointing directly towards the earth beneath their feet.
Jun Mizuno stood frozen and wide eyed; she had of course heard of the nudist craze over the past year through the grapevine, and even seen a fair bit of the footage of the disproportionately female public nudity through social media (completely by accident of course, she’d never seek it out deliberately- don’t be ridiculous, and even if she did it’d be purely for the sake of intellectual curiosity about alternative lifestyles- it was important to be openminded; the wealth of supple skin on display had no appeal to her at all, trust me). This was the first time seeing one of them in person; seeing the basic ‘decency’ and modesty she and her peers had drilled into them over a lifetime be so blatantly defied before her was- frankly- an overwhelming sensation.
The nudist tilted her head and said something to her, but she wasn’t able to hear it clearly. Jun would assume it wasn’t “My breasts are cold, do you mind warming them with your hands?” which was what the lizard part of her brain was wishing for, she would have to check instead.
“A-ahh…” Her throat was too dry, she cleared it before trying again. “Excuse me, could you repeat what you said?”
“I was just asking if I should begin now?”
“Um…” Jun shook her head, she had to get serious, she had a job to do and couldn’t get distracted by something as extremely sexy natural as the human body being on display. She looked down at her clipboard. “You’re Makoto Niijima-san, correct?”
Makoto nodded politely.
“Correct.”
“Mm.” Jun stepped aside, looking towards the exam vehicle so she wouldn’t get too distracted by Makoto’s body (trying to ignore the reflection of said body in the car’s side windows). “You may begin whenever you are ready.”
“Understood.”
As the examiner, Jun was not here to give any sort of direction to the examinees, merely to observe. The exam worked on a points deduction system, Makoto and her fellow nudists would start with a score of 100, and lose points for any infractions throughout the exam process. If they finished with enough points- they’d pass.
Makoto- being the diligent woman she had always proven herself to be- had done plenty of research on the practical examination process, such as reading guides online and watching videos of similar tests. It was fairly commonplace for applicants to take multiple attempts to pass- the grading process was harsh after all- but she had never been the type to go into any sort test of her academic abilities half-heartedly; she wanted to pass on her first attempt, making sure she was ready for her roadtrip with Ren ASAP.
Thus, she knew what mistakes to avoid- such as forgetting to properly examine the vehicle before entering it. She held her chin thoughtfully as she bent over to more closely inspect the car; wholly unnecessary gestures, but she needed to somehow illustrate her inspection process to Miss Mizuno, who was watching her every movement closely.
Very closely indeed.
Jun stared intently, almost unblinking, as the young woman in front of her made a show of bending over forwards towards the car, perhaps unwittingly thrusting her behind directly towards the examiner, her pink bits forming an upside-down exclamation mark which drew the eye (Makoto’s exhibitionist tendencies had reached the point where she would do stuff like this without even consciously realizing it anymore).
Eventually Jun was able to tear her eyes away, shaking her head in hopes that it’d somehow help her regain her composure. She looked down at her paper, noting that she had unconsciously scribbled ¡ on her paper- which she was quick to scratch out.
The hurried movement in her peripheral vision did draw Makoto’s attention for a moment, but she wasn’t about to let herself be distracted so easily. Sae had let her practice this whole process with her own car (parked, of course), the elder Niijima having vivid memories of her own driving exam, and knew just what they tended to look for.
At least, what the examiners would be looking for if their student wasn’t a distracting nudist. Jun climbed into the passenger seat, knowing she needed to watch closely as Makoto secured herself in the passenger seat. This wasn’t her first rodeo, so she knew she had to watch closely as Makoto continued her own inspection and preparations for driving, primarily watching the movements of her hands, and NOT the way the seatbeat fit nice and snugly between her breasts. This actually wasn’t the first time such a thing had been a prominent distraction in one of Jun’s exams, it wasn’t uncommon with the bustier applicants, though those all at least had one or two layers hiding the coveted boobies from view, limiting the distraction potential of the sweater puppies; these puppies were notably sweaterless and begging for a petting.
“Shit.”
“Hm?” Makoto looked to the examiner. “Is something the matter?”
“Nn.” Jun shook her head. “Please continue.” She was silently cursing herself, she hadn’t noticed a single infraction yet, but had no idea how much of that could be accredited to Makoto’s actual performance vs her sex appeal.
If Jun wanted to maintain any semblance of professional pride she would have to start doing her job properly; this was a “Very important” assignment after all, she couldn’t afford to half-ass it, much less over something as trivial as another woman’s body, she couldn’t figure out why such a thing would distract her to begin with (it’s a real mystery… much like why she could never bring herself to fully relax whenever visiting the public onsens, a headscratcher for sure…)
At least once the car started moving, she could focus on the actual driving techniques, and maybe- just maybe- force herself to stop thinking about tits for a few seconds.
Examinees drove a present path throughout the grounds, which they would study and memorize beforehand, child’s play for someone like Makoto. She would take her time proceeding, driving as smoothly and drama-free as possible- now was not the time to rush or get over-eager. She never liked the derisive ‘robot’ label, but right now she had to deliberately channel that side of herself, driving as mechanically and frankly- as boring as possible to keep point deductions to an absolute minimum.
Though even she couldn’t perform perfectly, this was her first time driving without Sae holding her hand through the whole process after all, and there were a few bumps in the road during the exam- literally. Makoto was still getting used to being aware of the size of the machine she was in, and cut a few corners a little too close. She stayed cool though, even if the grading was harsh she could get away with a small handful of minor mistakes.
To her credit, Jun did properly mark down these mistakes, though one might suspect she was being a tad conservative with how many points she was taking away, but she was distracted by the other obvious effect of driving over bumps; an effect that was even more pronounced as Makoto drove over the rough terrain portion of the course, all the vibrations seeming to coalesce directly into the nudist’s breasts, violently flying up and down and back and forth in a display that seemed to overwhelm and overshadow everything else in the examiner’s world- let alone her vision.
With all this struggle, one might think that Jun’s brain was filled with nothing but images of soft- and pleasingly mobile- breasts, but uh… um…
…
“Am I doing okay so far?”
“Hm- huh?”
Makoto spoke again- making sure to keep her eyes on the road while doing so.
“It’s just you haven’t said much, I’m really hoping those bumps back there didn’t impact my score too much.”
“O-oh, well I did have to deduct some points for that.”
“I understand; I know what I did wrong though, so it won’t happen again.”
“G-good.” Thankfully staring down at the (woefully empty) sheet on her clipboard gave her a perfect excuse to not look at the nudist and fail to maintain eye contact.
The rest of the exam proceeded smoothly, or at least smoothly as the rest up to this point; Makoto hoped the examiner didn’t notice that was late turning on her blinkers before the next turn (she didn’t notice, in case you’re wondering, she did notice that a tiny bit of the examinee’s clitoris was exposed to the open air though- that was a fun discovery even if it didn’t impact her score any).
Eventually their trials came to an end, and both women exited the vehicle.
“So how’d I do?”
Jun cleared her throat.
“I’ll need some time to review your performance and tally up your score, and indeed to test the other applicants. If you’d be so kind as to wait inside the building until that point.”
Makoto didn’t quite understand why the examiner had her eyes closed while saying all this, but she decided against questioning it. She bowed once more, and started walking towards the closest entrance.
Jun breathed a sigh on relief, opening her eyes again once the gentle patter of Makoto’s feet faded an appropriate distance away. Her notes were still notably lacking, even for someone of her experience level. While it pained her to take such a half-assed approach, she figured she would probably have to make some stuff up so it didn’t look like she got lazy; she definitely wouldn’t fail Makoto, but she couldn’t just pretend she did nothing wrong just because she was so sexy exposed under-dressed.
Finally having that test of willpower and patience behind her- being so distracted by such a display that she definitely wasn’t at all into in any impure or unprofessional manner- she took a deep breath, trying to mentally reset herself, she still had five more exams to carry out before she could rest.
“Yo Nudie Prez! You done?”
“Yes Eiko-san, I’m done. Are you up next?”
“I think it’s me actually.”
“No Ai-chan, it’s Aya, right?”
“You sure Mieko? Maybe we should just go ask. Excuse me Miss?”
Jun’s blood ran cold (and other parts hot) when she saw not only Makoto- but four other naked 18 year olds approaching her.
“Yo exam lady, d’ya know who’s next?”
“Uhh…”
Eiko’s brow furrowed.
“You okay Miss?”
“A-ah…” Jun brought the clipboard up over her face, pretending that she needed to be really close to read it, though she couldn’t help but peek over the top just a little. “I’m supposed to see a ‘Takao-san’ next?”
“Sweet!” Eiko bounced up and down excitedly (boy did she bounce). “I’m actually feeling pretty good, I reckon I got this after all.”
“Don’t get too excited Eiko-san.” Makoto chuckled.
“Makoto-chan’s right, gotta stay cool. Try and channel her boring supernerd energy and you’ll do fine.”
“I’m standing right here, Mieko-san…”
Today was going to be a long day for the inexperienced- but eager- Jun Mizuno.
~ ~ ~
“Sounds like you’re up next Haru-chan.”
“Finally!” Haru leapt up from her seat in the waiting room. “I was getting restless, waiting so long.”
Makoto smiled sympathetically.
“I guess someone had to go last. It shouldn’t take too long, and hopefully we’ll hear about our results soon after.”
Haru playfully mock-saluted.
“I won’t let the group down.”
She giggled to herself, and cheerfully made her way outside, where she found the examiner- Jun Mizuno- leaning against the car door, staring listlessly down at the ground in front of her. Haru noticed the bags that had formed under her wide, unblinking eyes.
“I’m sorry Miss.” Haru began. “I guess we’re overworking you, having all our tests back-to-back like this, huh?”
Jun looked up at the girl with the floofy hair, and almost-palpable relief spread across her face to see the girl fully clothed. She took a moment to stand up straight and compose herself.
“It’s fine, this isn’t the first time I’ve done this, I can handle this no problem.”
“I bet you’re ready to take a rest though. I promise I’ll get my test over with quickly, and you should get home and take a nice bath- you’ve earned it.”
“Eheheh…” Jun gave a weak smile, before putting her ‘professional’ face back on. “You may begin whenever you are ready Miss…?”
“Okumura, but you can call me Haru.”
“Okumura?” Jun could have sworn her boss mentioned that name earlier on today, but it was difficult for her to remember when all her thoughts were decidedly flesh toned (there was some pink in there too). Oh well, it probably didn’t matter, she just had to try and put the other examinees out of her mind as best she could for now, and focus on doing her job right.
One thorough examination of the vehicle later, and the two women were sat inside the car, ready to begin. Without having all those strange feelings (that definitely weren’t attraction or arousal, not at all) rushing around, Jun decided she could probably get away with letting herself relax just a little. This ‘Okumura’ girl seemed like the sensible type, this would probably go nice and smoothly compared to the rest of the day.
“Am I allowed to put on music?”
“Hm? No, sorry Okumura-san, this car doesn’t have a CD player- not that you’d be allowed to use it even if it did.”
“Oh, that’s a shame, but I understand” Haru put her CD case back in her purse (Jun couldn’t quite tell for sure since she only caught a glimpse of it, but it looked like a Eurobeat collection).
“You wouldn’t want the distraction anyway, trust me.”
“Hmm…” Haru’s brow furrowed in deep thought, and she mumbled under her breath. “If I’m remembering right, the exam works on a ‘points deduction’ system, so every time make a mistake, I lose points.” She nodded to herself. “So the longer I take, the more time they have to point out infractions. Therefore, the faster I go- the better!”
She huffed, self-assured, and moved her foot towards the pedal…
~ ~ ~
Meanwhile, the nudists were all gathered together in the waiting room overlooking the course, sat together discussing their performances while they waited for Haru to complete her test.
“How’d you think it went Nudie Prez?”
“I did cut one of the turns too close, and was a bit slow with my blinkers, but honestly I think I did pretty well overall. I don’t want to speak too soon, but I’ll be disappointed if I didn’t pass.”
Aya laughed.
“If even you don’t notice anything wrong, then I’m sure you did fine. Hell, even I’m feeling pretty confident.”
“Mm.” Mieko nodded. “It’s all pretty easy, just do everything by the book and they’ll pass you. Even if it’s nothing like real driving.”
“Yeah I can’t imagine we’d ever have to make such a song and dance about ‘examining the vehicle’ when we drive for real.”
“It makes sense here Ai-san. To us- it’s an unfamiliar vehicle, so we have to make sure there are no obvious faults or damage before we get in. If we had our own cars we’d naturally be more familiar with them and wouldn’t need to check them any time.”
“Still felt a bit silly, but I guess it’s fine.” Eiko leant back in her seat, staring at the ceiling. “It was a little nervewrackng, having that examiner lady watching me so closely. Who knows what kinds of things are going on in a head like that. I bet they train ‘em to laser in on even the tiniest little mistakes.”
“That or she was just perving on us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous Aya-chan. She’s a professional, not a horndog like you.”
“I guess there’s less there to distract her when it was your turn Mieko-chan.”
“Bitch.”
A brief lull in the conversation, brought about by a sudden metallic clang ripping through the room from outside the window. Just as the girls were flinching from the sudden jolt, a shadow seemed to fly across the room, bathing them all in relative darkness for just a split second, disappearing before they could turn their heads towards the window.
“Did something just fly past the—”
Another crashing sound, this time the nudists wasted no time rushing towards the windows to peer outside, trying to spot the origin point of the noise. To their left- nothing, but to their right they noticed a car- the one they all used for the exam, perfectly slotted into the space used to teach parallel parking. Well- I say ‘perfect’, it was perfect once the vehicle stopped teetering on its righthand wheels and fell back firmly onto solid ground with another metallic thud.
“Wait, were we supposed to park there as part of the test?”
“That’s not the thing you should be paying attention to Mieko!”
The passenger door was thrown open, and the examiner crawled out on her hands and knees, panting for breath. On the other side of the car, the driver’s door opened and Haru hopped out, gently closed the door behind her, and circled around to meet the examiner again.
“How’d I do?”
Jun looked up at the girl’s blissful smile, taking some strange feeling of comfort in the sight, backlit by the early evening sun, before passing out, face-down against the tarmac.
~ ~ ~
“Is the examiner lady gonna be okay?” Eiko asked.
“I’m told there’s nothing to worry about.” The manager smiled, at least attempting to be reassuring. “She’s already undergone a preliminary examination, and they’ve found no injuries, apparently she just passed out from stress.”
“Poor girl really was overworked.” Haru sighed, blissfully ignorant of the rest of the group staring at her in disbelief (and a small amount of fear).
“She’s being taken to hospital just as a precaution though, best to play it safe.” He looked down at the- slightly scuffed- clipboard in his hand. “Now as for your results…” His brow furrowed as he turned towards the nudists. “She was pretty light on the notes this time, I suppose you all must have done really well if she really had so few criticisms.”
“Kick ass!” Eiko cheered, quickly deflating when she noticed the worried mood hadn’t left the other girls so easily. “I mean uh… that’s good, I guess.”
“Now, as for Okumura-san…”
Haru’s pure, hopeful smile… it was almost concerning.
“Well um…” The manager turned to his secretary, then to the nudists, only receiving unsure and nervous looks much like his own. “Well, it seems Mizuno-san wrote even less for you, no critiques at all…”
“Ho?” Haru almost seemed to be glowing with joy. “My speed strategy paid off.”
“Haru, that’s…” Makoto trailed off.
“Well um…” The manager sighed, and shrugged. “Congratulations, you all pass!”
“Sir, are you sur—”
He waved his hand to silence his secretary.
“Once the license fees goe through, we’ll be able to print off your licenses and you’ll be full-fledged drivers, excellent work!”
“Yay!” Haru brought her hands together happily, turning towards the other girls. “Hm? I thought you’d all be more excited.”
The nudists nervously shuffled around, not being able to hold eye contact with the floofiest girl in the room.
“Come on Mako-chan, you’ll get to drive Ren home now, that’s something to be happy about.”
“S-so long as I’m the one to drive, I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
“Hm?”
“N-nevermind, Haru-chan…”
~ ~ ~
Jun Mizuno would be staying the night in the closest hospital after her stress-induced collapse (and slightly unorthodox parking incident).
She laid back in the hospital bed, staring listlessly up at the ceiling in silence. Silence that persisted until she heard two pairs of feet rushing down the hallway, towards her room, before bursting through the door.
“Jun-chan!”
“M-Mom? Dad?”
Mr. and Mrs Mizuno rushed to their daughter’s side, clearly frazzled with concern.
“We heard you were in an accident!”
“I told you we couldn’t trust that place! All those reckless, inexperienced drivers, someone was bound to get hurt eventually- but you didn’t listen!”
“Now’s not the time to argue!” Mr. Mizuno looked down at his daughter. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
“Dad…” Jun’s face began to contort, tears filling her eyes. “I’m…”
“Crippled? Oh god, please don’t tell me you’ve broken something.” Mrs. Mizuno clutched the side of her head in distress. “Dammit I knew this would happen! What did you break?”
“I’m… I’m…”
“You’re…?”
Jun hid her face behind her hands.
“I’m gay!”
…
“Eh?”
Notes:
Jun's parents took the news quite well
Chapter 117: Home
Summary:
A new chapter begins...
Chapter Text
We join Makoto Niijima, in the early hours of the afternoon, sat at her desk with her laptop open in front of her. Having so recently obtained her license, she was wasting no time in searching for an appropriate vehicle for the road trip back to Ren’s hometown.
With purchasing a vehicle outright definitely out of her budget- not to mention a vehicle large enough to comfortably fit all of the thieves- she was instead opting to simply rent something appropriate. She browsed through the numerous listings online, with a council of Buchimaru plushies sat beside her- just on the off chance they had any input to give during the whole process; sadly none of them had any motor experience, nor were they given an allowance, so they weren’t too helpful, but they were appreciated company nonetheless.
Finding the right balance of affordability and luxury was challenging; she wanted the journey back to be an enjoyable one- the last great send off to the wildest year of their lives- but they were all still teenagers with limited funds, and could no longer just dip into Mementos, fight a few weak shadows, and pilfer whatever yen they happened to be inexplicably carrying (Makoto did often worry about the long term effects of the team effectively magic-ing new money into existence and injecting it into the economy, but it was probably fine- and even if it wasn’t it wasn’t like anyone was going to trace it back to them anyway).
Speaking of Mementos funds, this would be much easier if she could simply dip into the leftover cash from their adventures- they hardly used any of the obscene amount of medicine they had purchased after all- but Ren was still in charge of (and in possession of) said cash, and Makoto wanted to keep this all secret from him, it was meant to be a surprise after all.
She sighed, she’d have to ask the others for help chipping in if they wanted anything more spacious than the Monavan, they didn’t have much time left at all. Not five seconds after she had this thought, her phone started ringing, making her jump slightly (embarrassing her in front of the Buchi council).
She picked up her phone- seeing Ann’s profile picture on the screen- and answered.
“Hell—”
“Did you know?!”
“Huh? Know what?”
“Ren’s leaving!”
“I mean, yeah- he’s heading back to Inaba soo—”
“No, I mean right now! He’s leaving today!”
“What?!” Makoto leapt out of her chair- sending it flying back. “He was supposed to leave Monday, it’s only Saturday.”
“I know, but he suddenly said there’s been a change in plans, I literally just got off the phone with Futaba, he’s at Leblanc packing his things right now.”
“What the hell? I’m on my way right now! Call everyone and tell them to do the same!”
“Way ahead of you!”
Makoto hung up, swiftly grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and sprinted out of the Niijima apartment at top speed. Her mind was racing, all sorts of possibilities entering her mind, some much more worrying than others; she needed answers, and much more importantly- she needed to make sure she didn’t miss the chance to see him again.
~ ~ ~
Makoto burst through Leblanc’s door, her bare body covered in a sheen of sweat that caused her to shine under the overhead lights. She scanned the occupants: the rest of the thieves (who had all been collectively startled by her entrance), Sojiro standing behind the counter, and of course her target- Ren.
“Oh good, you made it Mako.” He said with a surprisingly serene smile on his face.
“Ren!” She rushed past her friends and over to him. “You’re heading back today?”
He averted his eyes apologetically.
“I’m going home today, yeah…”
Makoto had travelled all this way hoping that she had somehow just misheard or misunderstood Ann’s call, but hearing it from the man himself meant she could no longer deny it, and the reality came crashing down on her.
“But… it’s so sudden…”
“It’s last minute for me too.” Ren had a look of guilt on his face. “Maybe I should resisted more for the extra time… but hey- it’s only two days early?” He offered weakly.
“This is such bullshit man.” Ryuji grumbled. “You were already leavin’ anyway, why’re they suddenly forcin’ ya to come back early?”
Ren shrugged.
“Hell if I know what my parents are ever thinking.”
“But to deny you these last two days…” Yusuke’s brow furrowed. “It feels so petty, it’d almost be more tolerable if it was a full week or so.”
“Told ya you should have delayed this, Kid.” Sojiro said without looking at anyone.
Ren rubbed the back of his head.
“Maybe I uh… No, it’s too late now.”
“Ren…”
“Mako…” He looked down to his girlfriend, looking deflated and forlorn. “I’m sorry Mako… But hey- it’s not like this is a genuine ‘goodbye’, we’re all gonna stay in contact.”
Makoto let out a long, defeated sigh.
“I wanted to drive you back.”
“Huh?”
“I got my license, and I was looking up van rentals when I got the call about you leaving. I wanted us to have this great roadtrip together, as a send off to the past year, it was gonna be this big thing… And now what? You just have to take the train back by yourself? That’s so… lonely…”
“I had no idea you were planning something like that.” Ren smile was small, but undeniably warm. “I guess it’s too short notice to do that right now, but we definitely have to do that at some point.”
Futaba leaned forward.
“’At some point’?”
“Yeah, of course. We don’t need to act like this is some kind of ending, I’m just going home, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to do stuff together.”
“Hmm…” Haru hummed to herself in thought, before snapping her fingers happily in realisation. “Summer break is only a few months away, that’ll give us ample opportunity for an even bigger and better roadtrip, right?”
“I like your thinking Haru.” Ren turned back to Makoto. “How’s that sound, Mako? We can really make it much more of an event, stop at a whole bunch of places rather than just driving straight to Inaba.”
Disappointment was still clear on Makoto’s face, but the idea definitely sounded appealing to her. She gave her boyfriend a bittersweet smile.
“I suppose I’ll just have to look forward to that instead.”
“We’ll still have the group chat to talk whenever, right?” Ann offered.
Futaba sat up.
“Me and Queen will be sure to send you plenty of nudes and stuff while you’re away!”
“Excuse me?” Sojiro glared at Futaba (though not as hard as he glared at Ren- as if he was the guilty one).
“Nah it’s nothing weird.” Futaba waved dismissively. “It’s just gonna be weird for him going back to somewhere normal after being surrounded by sexy nudists for so long.”
“Ugh…” Sojiro grumbled. “Kid, later on you and I are going to talk about what kind of influence you have on my daughter.”
“Why am I getting blamed for this?” Ren retreated a couple steps away from his caretaker, just in case. “Don’t send me anything weird Futaba… Makoto can do what she likes though.”
Makoto rolled her eyes, trying her best to look annoyed to distract from her blush, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the room all the while.
Morgana hopped up onto the stool beside Ren.
“Of course, I’ll be going with him.”
“You’re leaving too Mona-chan?”
“That’s right Noir. I’ve been his partner since before we even formed the Phantom Thieves, splitting us up just wouldn’t be right. Besides, someone has got to keep an eye on this deviant.”
Ren glared at the notcat.
“I’m not a deviant.”
“Doubt.”
“Shut up Futaba.”
“No no.” Ann shook her head. “She’s got a point.”
Haru nodded.
“We all still remember the culture festival incident.”
Ryuji scratched his scalp.
“Shit like that’s impossible to forget.”
“M-moving on…” Makoto decided to swiftly move the conversation forward. “How long do we have left?”
“Left?”
“Until you have to leave?”
“I mean… today?”
“I know that, but…”
Ren adjusted his glasses slightly.
“I guess it’s not super strict exactly when I leave, but I’m all packed and ready.”
Makoto stared down at the ground, an action that was mimicked by the rest of her fellow thieves, sans Ren and Morgana.
“I see…”
Yusuke lifted his head, but didn’t meet anyone’s eyes.
“Do we drag it out as long as we can to make the most of the time left? Or would that make the eventually parting all the harder on us all?”
“I don’t wanna just send him away, but what do we even have time for?” Ann asked.
Ren exhaled in what was a rather poor attempt at a laugh.
“You guys keep acting like I’m going away forever.” He gently gestured to Morgana to hop inside his bag, before picking it up and slinging it over his shoulder. “We’ll chat almost as much as before- thanks to the group chat, plus Tokyo and Inaba are only a train ride away; it’s not like travelling overseas or anything.”
“You’re just trying to make us feel better.” Futaba grumbled.
“Of course I am! You really don’t need to feel down at all.” Ren walked over to the door, before turning to face the rest of the group. “I can promise you with absolute certainty, you’ll see and hear from me plenty going forward.”
Makoto took a deep breath, and gave a brave smile.
“You promised, you know we’re all going to hold you to that, myself especially.”
Ren laughed.
“I know better than to piss you off.”
“And what- exactly- is that supposed to mean?” Makoto folded her arms in mock indignation, though she didn’t hold it for long, quickly dropping it and instead approaching her beloved, holding him tightly against herself; the embarrassment of such a shameless PDA being dwarfed by the desire to try and stretch this last moment into infinity. “I’ll be waiting for you, okay?”
Ren wholeheartedly returned the embrace.
“You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that Mako.” He took a moment to look over to Sojiro. “Thanks for everything, Boss.”
Sojiro just scoffed.
“Yeah yeah, hope this goes down well for ya…”
Makoto thought that was an odd thing for him to say, but didn’t have much time to think about it as she suddenly felt herself being pulled away by the hips.
“Quit hogging him!” Futaba was quick to take the Queen’s place, squeezing Ren as tightly as she was able. “This ain’t just a 2-player thing, we’ll all be waiting for you.”
“I know I know…” Ren gently petted the girl’s head, he smiled at each of the thieves in sequence. “I’ll try not to keep you guys waiting too long, I promise you I’ll let you know as soon as I’m home, alright?”
“We’ll look forward to hearing from you.” Haru chuckled.
“We can look after everythin’ while you’re gone.” Ryuji grinned.
“Lady Ann, d’you mind keeping an eye on that bonehead to make sure he doesn’t burn everything down while Joker and I aren’t around?”
“Heh, I’ll do my best Morgana.”
“Man ‘eff off…”
After one more round of laughter echoing around the room, Ren untangled himself from a very reluctant Futaba, gave Makoto one last reassuring look, and began to turn towards the café’s exit.
“I’ll see you guys later.”
And just like that, he disappeared out the door, leaving the rest of the former Phantom Thieves to fall into their respective seats dejectedly.
“So… that’s it?” Ann huffed. “Just like that- he’s gone?”
“We shouldn’t think of it as him being gone, he’s just gonna be… away for a while.” It was clear from Makoto’s tone that she was trying to convince herself in addition to her friends.
“It’s only for a year… We can only hope the next year passes more swiftly than the last.”
“No kidding Yusuke, it felt like a whole lifetime going by.” Haru sighed wistfully, before suddenly perking up. “We should start planning for the summer roadtrip soon, right? That’ll be our next big event together, and it’s not that far away, right?”
“I guess?” Futaba sulked. “I think I’ll need a little bit for this all to sink in first…”
“I know what you mean. It’s gonna be hard gettin’ used to life without—”
Ryuji’s sentence was cut off by the bell of Leblanc’s front door, in walked Ren Amamiya, Mona-bag over his shoulder. He looked up at the group, as if just noticing them in this moment.
“Oh, hey guys.”
“Ren?”
He gently dropped his bag on a free seat, his faux-feline companion hopping out and stretching his front legs, an action Ren mimicked- somewhat- as he stretched his arms towards the ceiling, letting out a groan as he did so.
“Man, I’m pretty hungry. Yo Boss, d’ya mind if I make some curry?”
Sojiro laughed, gesturing to the fridge with his thumb.
“You know where everything is, Kid.”
“Thanks man. You guys hungry too? I can make some for everyone.”
“Ren…” Makoto narrowed her eyes, confused. “What are you doing?”
“Hm? Oh! Right right, my promise.” Ren stood up straight, cleared his throat, and gazed upon his beloved friends and allies with the warmest smile possible on his face. “Guys… I’m home.”
“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE REN!” Futaba leapt out of her seat and started (ineffectually) pounding his chest with her fists. “You’re even worse than Mona-chan!”
“Eh?”
“FOR REAL?!” Ryuji stared at him, dumbfounded. “You’re not going home today after all?”
Ren shrugged.
“I’m not going back to Inaba at all. I’m staying here. Gonna be finishing my senior year at Shujin.”
“You’re…” Ann slapped the table with both hands. “Then what the hell was all this?! You’re telling me you got everyone to rush over here today in a panic just for a big fake-out?!”
Ren’s smile was decidedly more nervous and shaky than before.
“I’ve been in talks with Miss Kawakami since I got out of prison, arranging for my transfer to Shujin. I only just this morning got confirmation that it all went through, and I wanted to share the news right away… In hindsight maybe I should have waited until the day I was supposed to leave…”
“I told you this was a bad idea, Kid…”
“I know Boss, I know…”
“You were in on this Sakura-san?!”
“Sorry Niijima-san, he asked me to play along. Part of raising kids is letting them make mistakes and facing the consequences. Sometimes it’s the only way for them to learn.”
“Eheheh… Good to hear you’re taking your role as my guardian seriously, huh…” Ren nervously rubbed the back of his head.
Futaba stomped her bare foot, enraged.
“Goddammit, making us all sad an’ stuff! Makoto, help me beat him up!”
“I’m not going to hit him, Futaba, don’t be ridiculous.”
Ren exhaled in relief.
“Even if it is mildly tempting to do so right now.”
Ren inhaled in un-relief.
“BLAH! Fine, I’ll do it myself!”
“Futaba- I’m—”
She wrapped her arms around Ren once more, though her grip was much harsher than before.
“HEAVENLY!”
She took a wide stance, squatting down slightly as she tried with all her might to lift him off of the ground.
“POTEMKIN!”
She tightened every muscle in her body, straining herself as she leant backwards, teeth clenched as her eyes met the ceiling, putting both ounces of her strength into throwing Ren’s body over her head.
“BUSTAAAAAAAH!!”
Her body gave in, and she fell flat on her back, chest heaving as she struggled to regain the breath she had spent. Meanwhile Ren was still stood exactly where he was before, feeling rather awkward and embarrassed for the both of them.
“So um…” Ren brought his hands together. “How ‘bout that curry? Celebration for another year together? Sound good?”
Ann let out a long, weary groan as she got out of her seat.
“Actually I’m gonna eat at home tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow Ren.”
And with that she left the café, followed by the rest of the thieves, all echoing similar sentiments (Ryuji and Haru taking the time to pick Futaba up off the ground on their way out). Makoto paused besides Ren, shaking her head.
“Honestly…”
And followed everyone out, leaving the café empty aside from Sojiro, Morgana, Ren himself, and…
“So is the offer for a free hot meal genuine?”
Ren sighed.
“Sure Yusuke, I’ll start making it now.”
“Appreciated.”
The door violently burst open once more, this time revealing a frazzled and heavily panting Sumire, her glasses haphazardly hanging on her face.
“I heard Senpai is leaving early?! Did I miss—S-Senpai? What are… are you cooking something?”
Ren rubbed his forehead, embarrassed.
“Sit down, I’ll catch you up.”
“Huh? Um… okay.”
~ ~ ~
“I hate to say it Ren-kun, but I’d be pretty annoyed in their position too.”
“I understand Hifumi-san, I was having second thoughts as to whether it was a good idea as early as when Makoto walked in, but y’know- sunk costs and all that. Maybe it all would have gone down better if I waited until Monday, but I just got too excited.”
“I guess it’s not good to be too eager after all.” Hifumi chuckled. “But I wouldn’t worry too much, Makoto-san doesn’t seem like the type to be lastingly mad about something silly like this. I imagine she and the rest of them will be really happy about the news in the long run.”
“Hey, here’s hoping, huh?”
“But what does that mean for you family back in Inaba?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, I texted them to let them know what’s happening.”
“…And what did they say?”
“Dunno, haven’t checked yet.”
“Oh…”
Ren waved dismissively.
“It’s already decided, it doesn’t really matter what they think of it.”
“I see…” Hifumi’s brow furrowed. “Don’t get me wrong, but isn’t that just a little… sad?”
“I don’t feel sad, I’m very happy about staying here with everyone.”
“That’s not really what I meant…” She sighed. “Nevermind…”
“We’re all gonna be busy studying for entrance exams and such during out third year, but that should be easy compared to the shit we’ve been dealing with the past year. I’m sure we’ll all get plenty of chances to hang out and stuff.”
“Mm.” Hifumi nodded. “I’ll look forward to it. Perhaps a double date or two with you, Makoto, me and Eiko is in order?”
“I won’t say no to that, though honestly it’s kind of strange for you to be the one to suggest that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing really.”
“Hmph…”
Ren paused a moment, not quite making eye contact.
“Just to be clear, is the double date literal or a euphemism for… y’know…”
Hifumi turned away, blushing slightly.
“Why do you have to go and make things awkward?”
“My bad.” Ren already felt slightly awkward being in Hifumi’s room like this, perhaps discussions of a repeat of the two couples’ ‘union’ was best saved for when they were all present.
“I’ll have to keep up yours and Eiko’s training too.”
“Oh?”
“Mm… Sh-shogi, I mean.”
“Oh. I mean yeah- of course, I knew that.” Ren looked around the room. “Speaking of which, I don’t see a board anywhere.”
“Oh? I just put it away.”
“Heh.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, that’s a completely normal thing to do, but for some reason it’s weird to imagine you without a board in tow at all times.”
“Shogi may be my passion, but I’m not that one-dimensional.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that.”
“Besides…” Hifumi subtly shrank in on herself, blushing pink and conspicuously rubbing her thighs together. “They all kept staring too much…”
“What?”
“N-Nothing…”
~ ~ ~
“Sis, I’m home.”
“Everything okay Makoto? You left in quite a rush earlier.”
Makoto groaned as she sat down at the dining room table, opposite her sister Sae.
“It turned out to be nothing to worry about, just Ren being dumb.” She suddenly perked back up, excitedly leaning across the table. “But there’s good news! Ren’s going to be staying in Shujin for his third year, which means we’ll stay with us here in Tokyo.”
“Oh… goodie.”
“You don’t seem too enthusiastic, Sis.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the both of you but… please don’t let it create another opportunity for something like the culture festival incident.”
Makoto raised her hands defensively, shaking her head.
“We’re not going to let anything like that happen again, that was just a stupid one off.” She fully intended to keep that promise, but knew that there was a definite possibility that she’d end up breaking it one way or another.
“I’ll defend you no matter what happens… I won’t necessarily promise the same for him.”
“I hear you loud and clear.” Makoto laughed nervously, before letting out a muted sigh. “Although, it’s not purely a good thing…”
“Hm?”
“Ren staying, I mean. Like, obviously it’s the scenario I prefer, but…”
“But what?” Sae watched her younger sister with equal parts confusion and genuine concern.
“This is awkward to talk about, especially behind his back like this, but…”
“I promise to keep it secret if that’s what you’re worried about. Ha, believe me- I’m quite good at that much.”
“I know, I wasn’t worried about that. It’s just…” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t like how he’s not even going to try and reconcile with his parents.”
“Oh?”
“I spoke to them while visiting Inaba. I can understand Ren’s resentment towards them for not defending him when he was accused of assault, and they did seem rather stubborn- especially his father- but it wasn’t as if they didn’t care about him at all- even I could tell that.” Makoto stared down at the table, at her hands fiddling with eachother restlessly. “They gave the impression of wanting what’s best for him and just showing tough love, but just having the wrong and very old-fashioned idea of ‘what’s best’, y’know?”
“Hmm…” Sae nodded. “I’ve definitely encountered types like that in my line of work, and having dealt with how stubborn old-fashioned people can be, I can hardly blame him for not wanting to deal with them at all.”
“But it’s his own family…” Makoto’s hands tightened into fists. “Isn’t that… cold?”
Sae wasn’t used to seeing her little sister like this, nor was she used to actually playing the role of the supportive older sister for said younger sibling to turn to in times like this of confusion and need. Still, she knew that had to change, she resolved to be as understanding and supportive as possible to help Makoto come to a conclusion on this.
“I see what you mean, it’s definitely very different to the situations I’ve been in. Plus, I’m probably not the right person to decide whether something is ‘cold’ or not.”
“You’re too hard on yourself Sis. I’m just… afraid for him.”
“Afraid? How so?”
Makoto’s body grew tense.
“Like, what if he doesn’t get another chance to repair this relationship? What if he regrets passing up this opportunity later, years down the line? What if he wants his family back when it’s too late?”
Sae exhaled.
“I think I understand now. You already understand what it’s like to lose a family- we both do.”
“Mm…” Makoto nodded. “No matter how much either of us want it, we’ll never get another chance to enjoy our relationship with our parents. Anything we wished we had said, we’ll never be able to say.”
Sae remained silent.
“I don’t want Ren to ever feel that way, he doesn’t deserve that.”
“Mm.” Sae stared wistfully across the room at nothing in particular. “I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. Though you have to be aware, circumstances are very different for Amamiya-kun. We had a very positive relationship with our parents, we never had the relationship strain he has.”
“That’s all the more reason for him to try and reach out!” Makoto leaned forward. “He has so much more to regret than us!” She caught herself coming across as far more aggressive than she had intended, she hastily apologized and sat back down in her seat.
“That’s a fair point. As much pain as our own losses have caused us, there is at least the small comfort of our relationships being positive ones.” She paused a while, gazing at the ceiling. “Makoto…”
“Yes Sis?”
“I miss them.”
“…Me too. I miss father every day…”
“Hm.” Sae let out a small, mirthless laugh. “I guess it’s good you’re spared missing your mother too.”
“S-sorry…”
“Don’t apologize, I was being genuine.” Sae smiled. “Still, our family’s troubles are our own, and theirs are their own. It’s not really right for us to interfere, but I suppose you couldn’t just stand by while someone you care about does something stupid, can you?”
“Sis…”
“If you’re this concerned, then obviously you need to confront him directly about it, don’t you? I don’t think you should force anything, but you shouldn’t bottle up your feelings and just say nothing.”
“R-right!” Makoto nodded, her confidence restored. “I guess I knew that already, but it really helps hearing it from you Sis. Thank you.”
Sae shrugged.
“I mean it was obvious. Like you said- you already knew.”
“Seriously though, thank you for hearing me out.”
“It was the least I could do.” Sae was acting humble, but deep down she was very happy with herself, proud that she could feel like the ‘older sister’ for the first time since she could remember. It was a really good feeling. “If he’s staying here in Tokyo, you have plenty of time to convince him to at least extend an olive branch or something to that effect.”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded as she rose from her seat. “I’ll at least get him to consider it, I’ll save it for later though, I’m still annoyed with him today.”
“What for?”
Makoto laughed.
“I’ll tell you while I make us some dinner.”
Getting her little sister to make her meals, there goes that warm ‘older sister’ feeling…
“Dinner sounds great. But seriously what did he do? Do I need to punish him?”
“Relax, he doesn’t need punishment, he already knows what he did. It wasn’t that bad really, just very silly- which is very like him to be honest…”
Then again, there was a little bit of a similar ‘older sister’ feeling, listening to Makoto talk passionately about silly troubles with her first love; Sae still wasn’t fully on board with their relationship, but listening to the younger Niijima effectively gush like this? It wasn’t unpleasant, she could get used to it (though she swore to herself in this moment to never admit to getting used to it).
Chapter 118: Health and fitness
Summary:
Gotta prepare the gremlin for school
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Do we have to do this?”
“Sojiro says so, so yeah. Sorry Futaba.”
“So friggin’ pointless though… I’m 100% healthy. Full HP, SP, no status effects; totally battle ready.”
“Somehow I doubt Sojiro will accept that claim- or even know what it means.”
“You’re right, he didn’t…”
Futaba was visibly tense, sat besides Ren in the waiting area of the Yongen-Jaya clinic. With the girl finally returning to her school career in a scant few days, her adoptive father thought it’d be a good idea for her to undergo a health check-up before returning to the real world- and hopefully leaving her ‘shut-in’ life behind her for good.
“C’moooon Ren, you know I don’t need this! It’s been months since my last coma!”
“It’s sentences like that that make me realize Sojiro really has a point, doing this.” Ren side-eyed her. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you’re fine an’ all, but it can’t hurt being safe when some strenuous exercise makes you pass out for two whole weeks.”
“’Some strenuous exercise’ is one hell of an understatement. I climbed at least two or three flights of stairs- with no handrails by the way- before transforming and fighting a huge friggin’ boss fight. Of course I need rest after something like that.”
“Two weeks is a long time though, not to mention the fact that you collapsed outside your house, and Boss says this isn’t even the first time you’ve had one of those comas.”
Futaba kicked her feet in the open air in frustration.
“I’ve been totally fine since then though! I go outside sometimes, I ran around a ton- only sometimes assisted by Metaverse magic- I’m movin’ and shmoovin’ all over the place no problem.”
“Exactly, which is why I’m sure this whole thing will be quick and painless.”
She grabbed his sleeve with both hands, shoving him backwards and forwards (something he made no effort to resist, just groaning in time with her shoves- mostly to amuse himself).
“But it’s not gonna be quick! Or painless! This is a trap, something horrible is waiting for me, I’m sure of it.”
Ren turned to give her an incredulous look.
“What’s gotten into you? This doesn’t feel like you, being nervous about having to see a doctor; did you develop a fear of hospitals overnight or something?”
“It’s not so much hospitals, or doctors. It’s this clinic, and this doctor.”
“Takemi-san? What do you mean? She’s great. It’s her medicine that’s helped us out so many times in the past, not to mention tending to me after… y’know.”
“I’ll give that to her, she was a literal lifesaver then, and she’s pretty good as a merchant…”
“So what’s the issue?”
She resumed shoving him repeatedly.
“Don’t play dumb ‘Mr. Guinea pig’! I’ve listened in on the weird experiments she performs!”
“A-ah…” Ren looked off at the side at the empty reception area. “That.”
“I’ve never seen them of course, but I hear them. She gives you this weird drug, then you’re all like ‘BARGHESRHSEFASHF’ and pass out.”
“D-do I sound like that?”
Futaba hunched her shoulders, making all sorts of wiggly-finger gestures towards the boy.
“Then all kinds of creepy, weird, and probably illegal R-18 shit starts happening for a few hours before you wake up again.”
“Okay what? The first part was true, but nothing R-18 happens at all, you’re making that part up.” Ren paused a moment. “At least, I don’t think so… You didn’t… no, what am I even thinking- no, obviously not. She’s just recording results, y’know- the effects of the medicine.”
“She’s just telling you that.”
“Have you actually heard anything like that while being your little voyeur self?”
Futaba’s shoulders sank slightly.
“Well, n-no, but she’s probably just being real quiet about it. But if I go in there, I swear- she’s gonna pull out some restraints and a big vibrator, then tie me down and ‘test my endurance’, seeing how many consecutive orgasms I can handle before losing my mind- I’m sure of it.”
Ren let out an exasperated sigh.
“Are you just recounting the porn you watched last night?”
“Firstly- I didn’t watch that one yesterday. Secondly- that’s got nothing to do with this; this is just how this kind of thing goes down. A smoking hot nudist girl like me walking in there, it’s like walking right into the bandits’ hideout.”
“We need to give you a vacation from the internet for a while, normal people don’t think like this Futaba.”
“This Takemi definitely isn’t a normal doctor.”
Ren let out another- much louder and more weary- sigh, before lifting his hand to pet her head. The way she flinched slightly and the way her eyes shot wide open as he did so reminded him of a cat, which made him smile.
“Trust me Futaba-san, I trust Takemi-san, she’s just going to give you a totally normal check-up, and this’ll be over in no time. And even if she did want to try something- I’ll be here the whole time to protect you.”
“I thought you were just here to stop me from running off.”
“That too, I can do both.”
“Nyeehh…”
He patted her head a couple more times.
“Good kitty.”
She swatted him away.
“Quit patronizing me!”
“Alright, alright. I’ll stop.”
“Ugh… I guess if you’re here then it should be fine? But if anything happens I’m ratting you out to Sojiro and he’ll insta-game over you IRL.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
Finally the pair heard the long-awaited call from within the examination room. Futaba was still tempted to run then and there, but spurred on by the supportive and watchful eyes of her companion- she reluctantly followed him inside.
“Hello again Amamiya-san.” Takemi spun around in her chair to face the pair, enjoying how both of them suddenly struggled to maintain eye contact. “It’s been a while.”
“Uh, y-yeah. I guess I haven’t been around since I got out of prison.” Ren pushed up his glasses restlessly. “You look a bit different; did you change your hair?”
“Funny.” Takemi leant back in her chair, letting her labcoat fall open- revealing it to be the only item of clothing she was wearing, well- aside from her usual choker and platform heels. “Go ahead, ask.”
“If you insist: You join the program or is this just a kink? Probably both, knowing you.”
The doctor made a show of scribbling something down in a notebook.
“Well you just volunteered yourself for some more clinical trials, you’re welcome.” She smirked, enjoying how hard he was trying not to look nervous at the idea. “But yes, I joined about a week ago. I think it suits me, don’t you?”
She unnecessarily uncrossed and recrossed her legs for the pair. Neither Ren nor Futaba had seen Basic Instinct- not being huge buffs on American movies- but they now both felt they no longer needed to see it anyway, this was a upgrade no matter how you looked at it.
“I’d say this was a surprise, but that would be a lie.”
“I guess I’ll be charitable and take that as a compliment. But you didn’t come here just to stand around, did you?” She leant forward, peering at the girl sneaking peeks at her while trying to hide behind her not-quite-brother. “It’s good to see you conscious this time, Sakura-san.”
Futaba narrowed her eyes at the good doctor.
“I knew she was a pervert.”
If Tae was offended, she hid it well, merely scoffing at the girl.
“That, coming from another girl more than happy to show off her bare snatch in public.”
Futaba leant out a little further.
“I’ll have you know I only shaved it for a bodypainting session, the hair will grow back eventually.” She took a quick peek downwards. “I wonder when I should start dying the stubble… Hmm… this might be more of a problem than I thought.”
Tae chuckled, and gestured towards the bed.
“Take a seat Sakura-san, we can begin shortly.”
With no small amount of hesitation, Futaba let Ren guide her over to the bed, where she took a seat as he pulled up a free chair beside her.
“I’m watching you, Dr. Pervert.”
“Futaba quit annoying her, I’ve done plenty of that already.”
“It’s fine Amamiya-san, I like her. I guess I have a soft spot for the type with a mouth that’s inevitably going to get them into trouble. I wonder why~”
“It’s a real mystery.” Ren shrugged.
“Ren if you keep flirting I’m gonna tell Makoto.”
“I’m not flirting.” He leant a bit closer to Futaba in the (vain) hope that Tae wouldn’t hear. “The best way to deal with the ‘teasing’ or slightly ‘trollish’ type is to match their energy, y’know? It’s easiest just to play their game.”
“If you say so.” Futaba made no such efforts to be quiet. “A lot of the nudists we know are secret perverts.”
“Especially you.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘especially’.” Futaba played innocent. “I guess I’ll let you say ’including’ though.” She glared at Takemi again. “But she’s wearing her flasher coat and ‘fuck me’ heels, she’s wearing her perversion on her sleeve.”
Takemi laughed, leaning back and uncrossing her legs once again.
“The lab coat is my uniform, who’s going to respect a doctor without a coat like this?”
Ren’s eyes drifted downwards- further than Tae’s decidedly unsubtle exposure intended.
“It is kinda weird that you’re still wearing shoes though. I mean, I guess it kinda would make sense if that was what all the nudists did, but everyone seems committed to going barefoot all the time too.”
“Tch.” The doctor tutted. “Look, I know you were always staring at my toes way more than in necessary or healthy, but I thought you at least had the self-awareness not to call direction attention to that fact.”
Futaba nodded.
“Yup, he’s a freak.”
“That’s not it.” Ren really hoped he wasn’t blushing at all. “I’m just curious as to why Takemi-san is bucking the trend?”
Tae was silent, displaying some uncharacteristic hesitation, before mumbling after her breath.
“Mmieedtheheels…”
“What?”
“Tch. I need the heels.”
A lightbulb went off in Futaba’s head, a devious smile spreading across her face as she leapt off the bed and pointed directly at the doctor’s nose.
“Take ‘em off!”
“What?” Tae reeled back slightly.
“Futaba, what are you even doing?”
The girl shot her trademark gremlin grin back at Ren.
“Maybe she’s a little less scary than I thought! I wanna test something.” She turned back to the doctor. “Take ‘em off!”
“No.”
“Do it!”
“You’re here for an examination, we should get back to—”
“DO IT!”
“Amamiya-san, control your sister- or whatever the hell she is to you.”
Ren shrugged.
“I dunno, she can be a handful, it might be easier just to play along with her for a moment.”
“Are you serious?”
Futaba grumbled.
“Don’t talk about me as if I’m not even here…”
“Trust me Takemi-san, she’ll calm down after this.” Ren decided to let this play out, he wasn’t 100% sure what Futaba was getting at, but he was admittedly curious.
“Oh for the love of…” Takemi undid the straps on her heels, frustration clear as she kicked them off and stood up, staring into Futaba’s eyes- the women’s faces mere inches apart.
“…” Futaba quickly lost confidence. “Dammit, she’s still taller than me. I was hoping I look down at her and feel better that way…”
Tae tutted.
“Then again we’re really close in height.” Futaba lifted her arm to compare their heights. “There’s like- what? An inch difference, maybe? Those heels are OP! Even tiny ladies like us can look real ‘Mommy’ with things like those! No wonder you’re so reluctant to take them off.” Futaba didn’t know what the word ‘tact’ even meant.
Tae groaned, especially when Ren stood up next to her- unsubtly eager to compare his own height to hers- this being the first time she’s not had the extra inches given by her fancy heels. Her image was completely different to him like this. He found it rather novel suddenly being full head and shoulders above her, and he wasn’t sure what that said about him- he decided not to think about it.
The doctor was quick to put her heels back on and take her seat.
“Amamiya-san, thank you for volunteering for yet another clinical trial.”
“Why? What’d I do?”
Tae ignored him.
“Sakura-san, sit back down on the bed and we can get started already.”
“Mmkay.” Futaba’s confidence quickly faded again at Takemi’s annoyed tone. “Is the choker snappable, by the way?” Well, mostly faded.
Takemi’s deathglare quickly erased any lingering confidence, scaring the younger woman into merciful silence. She took a moment to regain her composure, and soon had her professional face back on.
“So, can we get on with the reason you came here in the first place?”
Futaba obediently nodded.
“Good.” Tae smiled. She span around in her chair, pulling open a drawer and pulling out some equipment before holding them up for the pair to see: four sets of colorful handcuffs dangling from her left hand, a large Hitachi vibrator in her right. “Amamiya-san, could you help me restrain her so we can begin the endurance test?”
“I KNEW IT!!” Futaba screamed as she leapt up and ran out the door and into the streets of Yongen-Jaya.
Takemi burst out laughing as she watched the girl flee. Ren meanwhile facepalmed.
“Takemi-san, what the hell?”
“I could hear you two talking while waiting outside. I figured it’d be fun to see her reaction to having her fears confirmed like that; turns out I was right.”
“I guess that makes sense, at least for you. Dammit, it’s going to take forever for me to coax her back in here.” Ren sighed. “But I was more wondering why you just happen to have those things just… on hand?”
Tae shrugged.
“You know how it is.”
“No, I don’t. And I think I don’t want to know.”
“Liar.”
~ ~ ~
“See, that really wasn’t so bad after all, was it Futaba?”
“I still think she’s dangerous. There may not have been any orgasm endurance training this time, but eventually she’ll try it, it’s inevitable.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I better start training so I’m ready for it.”
“Yeah whatever, you do that, sounds fun.”
After the much-delayed physical examination confirming that Futaba was perfectly healthy (albeit a tad unfit, just a tad), Ren escorted her back to Leblanc, promising a classic Leblanc curry lunch as a reward for her ‘ordeal’. While she still greatly preferred Sojiro’s version of the curry, Futaba had to admit Ren had been improving over the course of his culinary training, so this lunch was still worth looking forward to.
The pair entered the café, quickly spotting the guest waiting for them at the counter.
“Ah. Hello Senpai!”
“Hey Sumire-san.” Ren nodded to her. “Sorry to keep you waiting, this one’s doctor visit took a little longer than I thought it would.”
“There you go talking like I’m not even here again.” Futaba grumbled. “Why am I suddenly ‘This one’?”
“Eheh…” Sumire laughed nervously. “It’s good to see you too Futaba-san.”
“’Sup.” Futaba took a seat next to Sumire, startling her slightly when she slapped the countertop with both hands. “Ren. Food.”
“Yeah yeah.” Ren laughed as he put on his apron, washing his hands ready to begin cooking. “I’m guessing you wouldn’t turn down another free meal, Sumire-san?”
“From you? I certainly wouldn’t. But be sure you two don’t overdo it before we start, okay? You don’t want to make yourselves sick.”
“Start?” Futaba’s brow raised. “What are we starting?”
“Senpai asked me to help you train.”
“Train?” Futaba grew tense. “What kinda training?”
“Getting fit of course, just some exercise.”
Futaba halfway launched herself over the countertop.
“The hell?! Did I do something to upset you Ren? What gives?”
“Don’t overreact.” Ren waved her off without turning away from his food prep. “Now that our PT days are behind us, we have to put effort into staying fit in the real world. You have to admit, some exercise would do you some good.”
“Do I have to though?”
Ren smirked at her over his shoulder.
“Either us two help train you, or Makoto does.”
“Urk…” Futaba sat back down, defeated. “Alright, I’ll train with you two.”
Sumire patted Futaba’s bare back reassuringly.
“You don’t need to worry, I’m not going to push you to your limits and force you to be an athlete or anything, it’s just some light workouts.”
“Ehhh…”
“Senpai strongly emphasized how I should take it easy on you, so today’ll just be us figuring out where you’re at, and we can start building an appropriate training regimen for you from there.”
“Right…” Futaba felt both slightly relieved and slightly patronized.
“Also…” Sumire smiled brightly. “He told me about how you’re coming to Shujin this year, as a second-year. So there’s a very good chance you and I will be classmates!”
“Huh…” Futaba gazed up at the ceiling, before returning a smile to the other girl. “That might be neat.”
“I’m glad you think so.” Sumire brought her hands together happily. “I think this’ll be a nice opportunity for us to maybe bond a little before we start school again, y’know?”
“True. We worked together in Maruki’s palace, but that was always as part of a big group. Not to mention how there’s not really time to chill out and socialize in the big ‘final boss’ dungeon.”
“I understand- I think…” Sumire pondered for a moment, before giggling to herself. “It’ll be nice to have friends my own age for once.”
“Nyeheh. Literally everyone has been ‘Senpai’ to you so far.”
“…Thinking about it, you’re not wrong.” Sumire’s cheeks turned slightly pink.
“I guess I’m older than you too though, only by a few months, but still.”
“Hard to believe…”
Futaba’s eyes narrowed.
“What was that, Ren?”
“Nothing, nothing. Just mumbling to myself.”
“Hmph.” Futaba turned back to Sumire. “You can call me ‘Sakura-senpai’ if you really want to.”
“No no, that would feel a little silly. Sakura-san is fine.”
“Damn…”
“Or Futaba-san? Would that be too forward? Am I being too forward in general? I’m sorry for just assuming you’d be okay with me hanging around you in school and such.”
“Why are you apologizing? I like the idea. I’ve never gone to high school before; I’d be crazy to go into such a high-level dungeon without any party members.”
“That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose.” Sumire nodded. “Plus, between Amamiya-san, Sakamoto-san, and Takamaki-san we’ve got plenty of reliable senpais to back us up too. We’ll be fine.”
“Some of those are definitely more reliable than others.” Futaba snickered. “Replacing Makoto as the school’s central ‘smoking hot naked girl’ is gonna be tough though.”
Sumire’s brow furrowed in concern.
“No kidding…”
“We’re all gonna make sure nothing happens.” Ren said reassuringly. “You get any trouble at all, you come to one of us. Plus a couple of the teachers are nudists as well, you’ll definitely have support.”
“That’s a relief to hear.” Sumire smiled, turning to Futaba to see her deep in thought. “F-Futaba-san? Are you worried about it? Well I suppose that’s only natural, but I’ll do everything I can to help you out too!”
Futaba seemed to ignore her, too busy stroking her chin in contemplation.
“Gotta think about how I’m gonna play this. Gotta minimize how much they expect me to talk to them; do I invite more extra tasks or less to do that? Maybe act all cool and distant? Or play up the dojikko angle and get everyone’s sympathy? Hmm… So many options.”
Sumire looked to Ren, confused, hoping for some kind of guidance, but just received a slightly dismissive shrug in return.
“Don’t worry about her, we’ll make sure she’s fine, right?”
“Mm. I’ll do my best Senpai.”
~ ~ ~
After their delicious curry meal, the trio had gathered together in an empty playground a few minutes’ walk away from the café. It was a serviceable spot for their training session, being somewhere they wouldn’t get in anyone’s way, and be able to enjoy the bracing early-spring air around them. Plus the presence of equipment such as the climbing frame, and the pull-up bars which Futaba was currently eying with dread.
“Cool, guess I’m going to be embarrassing myself today.”
“It’s okay Futaba-san, we’ll give them a try later.” Sumire said as she reached up to tie her hair up in a ponytail. “You might want to do your hair up too; it’ll keep getting in your eyes as we work up a sweat otherwise.”
“I guess, but I don’t have any hair ties.”
“Figured as much.” Ren reached into his pocket. “I brought one for you, here, hold still.”
Futaba stood as still as she was able, bashfully avoiding Sumire’s attempt at eye contact as she let Ren tie her hair up. After he stepped away she reached up to fiddle with her newfound ponytail, feeling strangely embarrassed at having her nape so brazenly exposed to the open air.
“How does it look?”
Ren smiled.
“I think it’s a workable look.”
“Myeh. You suck at giving complements.”
“I save the best ones for Makoto.”
“Of course you do. Friggin’ simp.”
Ren took the insult in stride, instead focusing on loosening his body. Futaba didn’t really understand what ‘loosening her body’ even meant, but she did her best to mimic his movements anyway, just trusting that he knew what he was doing.
“Heh.”
“Hm? What is it Futaba-san?”
“Look at us, a trio of glasses characters gathering together to try an’ get fit. It’s funny for some reason.”
Sumire tilted her head.
“Is it?”
“Maybe it’s more me and Ren, we’ve got that stereotypical nerd look down, ‘cept we also look hot AF.”
Ren didn’t mind the surprise compliment.
“Though I guess Sumire-san actually looks pretty preppy with her hair up, though maybe that’s because she’s a genuine fitness goddess, and I’m just feeling her crazy aura.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Sumire laughed. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t also enjoy the compliment. “How much do you two need your glasses? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“I’m more or less okay without them.” Ren shrugged. “Futaba is… less okay.”
“Mm.” Futaba nodded, a look of resignation on her face. “I’m basically blind, and I hate contacts so I can never go for the true ‘all-natural’ nudist look.”
“I see.” Sumire smiled sympathetically. “I’m not sure my eyes are bad enough for me to be called ‘blind’; I can get by, but everything is pretty blurry without them.”
“I’m guessing you were wearing contact lenses for most of the year?” Ren asked.
“Mhm. Back when I was trying to keep up ‘the look’, y’know.” Sumire had a small amount of shame in her voice as she said this. “Nowadays I opt for my glasses, they’re more comfortable; feels more natural.”
“Mood. Shit touching your eyes just feels weird.” Futaba winced at the thought.
Sumire lifted her hand to remove her glasses, but hesitated, quickly changing her mind.
“Ordinarily I’d take them off for my workouts- I don’t need to see that well to perform, in fact not seeing helps me focus on my body. But for now I’ll leave them on, I need to keep a close eye on your form, and correct you as we go. We’re not going to do anything too extreme as to risk having them fall off; if you have good form while jogging they should stay put anyway.”
“We’re gonna be running? Ugghhh…”
“Not yet!” Sumire called out authoritatively. “Warm-up stretches first. Senpai, I’ve already taught you what to do so you can start at your own pace, I’ll be focusing on guiding Futaba-san. Understood?”
Ren playfully saluted.
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Futaba-san, follow my lead. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart, and we’ll start stretching.”
“I’ll try, beyond that- no promises.”
To her credit, Futaba did make a genuine effort to mimic all of Sumire’s movements as she warmed up, correcting herself as best she could whenever her form was off or she tried to rush through the routine too quickly. As she was bending over forwards to try and touch her toes, she snickered to herself.
“Y’know, if this was an anime, right now the camera angle would be a close up shot of me from behind while I was bending over, showin’ off the goods.”
“I doubt they’d be able to get away with that Futaba.” Ren laughed.
“True; dumb censorship laws. They need to let them show pussy in ecchi anime already.”
“Preach.”
“S-Senpai?”
“I-I mean—Reach for your toes Futaba, stay focused.”
“Fiine…” Futaba tried with all her might to reach downwards, but it was all in vain. “This is impossible!”
“You can do it Futaba-san!”
“No I can’t Sumire- you’re crazy! Legs are longer than arms- everyone knows that! This makes no sense from an anatomical perspective!” Futaba simply wasn’t built with this level of flexibility, and no matter how many strained faces she made, it wouldn’t let her force her torso down any further.
“There’s no need to force it Futaba-san.” Sumire came to the girl’s side. “It won’t do you any good to hurt yourself.”
“So I can give up? Cool, I’ll do that now.” Futaba groaned as she stood upright.
Sumire sighed.
“Let’s try some strides, loosening your legs is just as- if not more- important than your arms.”
Futaba had an easier time with the leg-focused exercises; while she never needed to make use of any upper body strength during her numerous metaverse excursions, all the running around she did with the team had at least some benefit carrying over into the real world. She actually found herself having fun as she moved around, stretching out her legs; it reminded her of PE classes back in grade school. The long-dormant memories being surprisingly pleasant as they came back to her.
“Nyeheheh. I might not be so hopeless after all!”
“That’s the spirit! Sort of.”
“Then again, it’s kinda sus that the part I’m good at is spreading my legs wide open. Guess I really am a natural at this exhibitionism thing.”
Neither Ren nor Sumire knew what to say to that; they both knew they were better off just ignoring it.
“Gonna be some crazy camera angles for that part.” Futaba paused to scan the environment. “Do we have any voyeurs yet?”
“Probably.” Sumire said, her tone uncharacteristically dry. “You learn to ignore people staring after a while.”
“Heh.” Futaba grinned. “Guess you still remember your trial period, working out naked in public and all.”
“I was actually more talking about all the times I’ve performed in little leotards- not that I dislike wearing them, but you do get looks sometimes.” Sumire laughed nervously. “Though you’re right, it’s much more true when you’re naked; though nudity does allow the absolute maximum freedom of movement, that’s one point I have to concede on.”
“Nudists win again!” Futaba cheered, though her enthusiasm lessened when she looked around again. “Though I really don’t see anyone around; either we really are alone or the perverts are staying hidden.”
“Let’s hope for the former.” Ren said.
Though part of Futaba was secretly hoping for the latter.
A few more stretches later, and the part Futaba was dreading had finally arrived (well, one of the parts she was dreading)- the pull-up bar. Ren had to go ahead and have the first go; his performance was distinctly fine, not great, but it still set the proverbial bar way too high for a girl who hasn’t done a pull up since she was about seven, and even then, that was with the teacher helping her. Things did not bode well.
“Lift me up Ren.” Still, Futaba decided to face this challenge head-on. Worst case scenario- her arms detach, then she falls and dies a horrible, explosive death- but even she had to admit that was unlikely. Ren would be there to catch her before she exploded, probably, he was reliable like that.
Ren grabbed a hold of her torso and lifted her up so she could hold onto the highest bar. To her shock and delight, her arms remained firmly in her sockets, though that wasn’t to say she was having an easy time.
“ARGH!” She winced through clenched teeth (she was being a little overdramatic to be honest…) “I’m too thicc for this! I can’t hold on!”
“Don’t give up yet Futaba-san!”
“Wyeeeh…” She whined. She could hold on a good while longer, but the idea of actually lifting herself up seemed like such a distant dream, unless… “Ah!” Another lightbulb went off. “Ren! I need you to do something.”
“Eh?”
…
A few moments later Ren found himself on his hands and knees, Futaba’s feet on his back, making it much easier for her to keep a hold of the bar. He wasn’t sure this kind of support was really that helpful- in fact it felt a little counterproductive- but he always had a hard time saying ‘no’. He kept his eyes on the ground beneath him, not wanting to risk seeing how Sumire might have been looking at him.
Having her living safety platform didn’t make actually lifting herself up any easier, however. Futaba’s noodle arms were still noodly. Still, if upper body strength would fail her again, she’d instead opt for lower body.
Shaking as she struggled to maintain her balance, she bent her knees ready to launch herself, hoping to be able to hold herself up from there. She jumped proudly into the air—and immediately came crashing back down again. She at least maintained her grip on the bar, so she didn’t injure herself any, just gave her springboard a shock, him wheezing as she landed back on his back.
“M-maybe we should try this again another time?” Sumire offered. “I’m getting a much better idea of what level you’re at, Futaba-san.”
“That feels like an insult, but sure, I’m not gonna do this, at least not today.” Futaba finally let go of the bar and hopped back to the ground, accidentally stepping on Ren’s fingers as she did so. “Oh shit, sorry, sorry. You okay?”
Ren sighed, rubbing his hand as he got back to his feet.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
“L-let’s move onto a nice, gentle jog around the block.” Sumire rested a reassuring hand on Futaba’s shoulder. “Something easy just to work on cardio.”
“Running is supposed to be easy? Outdoors people are crazy.”
“We’ll go at a comfortable pace. Remember, posture is important, make sure to keep your back straight as you go.”
Futaba’s brow raised.
“Oh, I get it- that way you allow for maximum booby-bouncage as we go! That’ll max my exhibitionism stat gain for sure! Good thinking Sumire-san.”
Sumire stared at her.
“Um… Yeah, sure, if you like, I guess?”
“C’mon Ren, my streaking’s gonna leave you in the dust!”
“Futaba-san! Pace yourself!” Sumire called out to the girl running down the street with nary a care in the world. She let out a long sigh, before turning back to Ren. “She’s quite something, huh?”
“No kidding.” Ren smiled. “Sometimes she’s so anxious and nervous that I’m constantly worrying about her, but when she gets comfortable she seems to gain overflowing confidence and energy, beyond even someone like Makoto; which makes my worry about her in a different way.”
“I can see what you mean.” Sumire laughed. “Are you sure your fingers are okay?”
“Yeah, she’s pretty lightweight, and I’m tougher than I look.”
“That’s a relief.” She took a deep breath to re-centre herself. “We’d better go after her, we don’t want to lose her.”
“Not to be offensive to her, but I doubt we need to worry about her outrunning us.”
“That does sound a bit rude, but I don’t disbelieve you.”
Notes:
Will Futaba ever be able to escape from the "comically feeble" jokes I enjoy doing with her? Only time will tell.
Chapter 119: New beginnings
Summary:
One step into the next stage, and also some thoughts spared for what's being left behind
Chapter Text
“I’ll give you one thing Amamiya-kun, you know how to make a half-decent cup of coffee.”
“Only ‘half’ decent? You look like you’re enjoying it more than that Sae-san.”
“I’m already praising you, don’t push your luck.”
“Alright, alright.”
Makoto wasn’t sure whether to find the slight tension between her sister and boyfriend worrying or soothing. Sae was still slightly wary of him after all, but if they’re comfortable enough to tease each other slightly then that could only be a good sign.
Makoto decided not to worry for now, she’d simply enjoy this rare opportunity for the three of them to spend time together, leisurely enjoying some coffee in Leblanc.
“Are you sure we’re not taking you away from work too much Sis?”
Sae smiled.
“It’d be strange if I didn’t have some free time now, it finally happened.”
“Oh?”
“Shido is finally- officially- in a cell.”
“Oh!” Makoto’s brow raised. “You mean you did it? The case is finally closed?”
“Well, technically not. Shido had a lot of collaborators, and bringing justice to each and every one of them is an ongoing process, it’ll probably take years; but with Shido himself in protective custody as an asset, it should only be a matter of time.”
Ren laughed.
“I guess protective custody makes sense; I’d imagine at this stage there are probably tons of assassins sent after him to silence him.”
Sae nodded.
“The man is now the best source of intel the SIU has ever had. I doubt there’s a single corrupt official or organized criminal unit in all of Tokyo that is sleeping well at night knowing Shido is willing and eager to rat each and every one of them out.” She looked at Ren and Makoto with an expression of pride. “You might not have gotten the same immediate satisfaction of a press conference apology followed by the public immediately turning on them the same way you had with the other changes of heart, but know that the long term effects of you taking down Shido are way more impactful than perhaps every other target combined.”
“No kidding.” Makoto gazed upwards in thought. “Corruption in general is going to take such a huge nosedive over the next few years.”
“Mm. Never doubt the impact you’ve had. You’ve changed the world for the better- or at the very least Japan.”
“C’mon Sae-san, you’re making me blush.”
“You’re not blushing Ren.”
“Well maybe she should praise me a little more then?”
Sae scoffed, turning to her younger sister.
“I see what you mean about ‘not inflating his ego too much’.”
Ren just laughed, before giving Sae a genuine smile.
“Still, you should definitely be proud of your part too; all our work would have been pointless without you here to prosecute him.”
“Mm mm.” Makoto nodded. “You’re pretty amazing Sis.”
Sae was a bit less used to receiving such genuine praise.
“Um… th-thank you, Makoto.” She brushed her hair aside, hoping to will away her slight blush while she did so- eager to move the conversation along. “Anyway, my involvement in the case is no longer strictly necessary, I’m merely staying on in an advisory role from here on out- essentially just back up as the rest of the SIU continues the investigation. Which leads me onto the second piece of good news.”
“Oh?”
Sae took her time sipping her coffee, letting out a long exhale as she rested it back down atop the counter, turning her whole body to face her younger sister.
“I quit.”
“You… what?”
“The SIU. I’m going to become a defence lawyer. Of course, Amamiya-kun already knew this.”
Makoto turned to her boyfriend, wide-eyed.
“You did?”
He shrugged.
“She mentioned it to me on the day she released me, I didn’t know she hadn’t told you yet.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“It certainly is a surprise, Sis.” Makoto leant forward. “And I’m not sure it’s a good idea. You’ve fought through so much to get to where you are, fought harder than I can even imagine to succeed in an organization all too happy to exploit you at every turn. You’d be throwing all of that away.”
“Mm.” Sae nodded simply, a calm look on her face. “I’d be starting over fresh.”
“But…”
“It’s fine Makoto, this is what’s best.” The elder Niijima sighed. “It’s no secret how my methods for achieving victory weren’t always the most… kosher.”
Makoto’s shoulders sank slightly.
“That’s true, but I had faith in you to move past such methods.”
“Which is part of what I’m doing now.”
“Hmmm…” Ren pondered aloud. “To be honest doing everything she can to prosecute the defendants, that’s kinda what prosecutors are supposed to do, y’know? I’m sure many of them would resent you for it, but you were just doing your job.”
Sae exhaled.
“I appreciate the attempt to defend me, and in a way you’re not wrong about me just doing my job to the best of my ability. I really got into the mindset that I had to ‘win’ by any means necessary; but this role was turning me into someone I don’t want to be. After seeing you, Makoto, and the rest of the thieves fighting so hard, it made me think about my justice.”
“Sis’s justice…”
“I-I know Makoto, it sounds pretty cheesy to say something like ‘my justice’ out loud.”
“No.” Makoto shook her head. “I don’t think it’s cheesy at all. It makes me really happy to hear you say that.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. I know your sense of justice is what pushed you towards becoming a prosecutor in the first place. Over the past year or so I started to worry you had forgotten about it, but I always had faith in you- seeing that faith be vindicated now makes me more proud than you can believe.”
Ren was really enjoying watching Sae turn bashful under this praise from her little sister; Makoto wasn’t the only potential ‘tomato’ in the family it seemed.
“C’mon Makoto, you’re overdoing it…”
“I don’t think I am, Sis.”
“W-well, regardless I realize now that I’ve gotten far too focused on the whole ‘punishing evildoers’ side of justice…”
“’Punishing evildoers’.” Ren snickered under his breath. “Niijimas are the best.”
“Did you say something, Amamiya-kun?”
“N-nothing, Sae-san, please carry on.”
“Hmm. Anyway, watching you all fight so hard to protect those helpless and downtrodden from those above them, it inspired me. It’s no secret how the Japanese legal system is heavily biased in favor of prosecution, such a system producing people like… well… like me, is only natural. I can’t go back and undo what I’ve done in the past, but I can do my part to fighting back against such a system for the sake of those who can’t fight on their own. That’s the form I want my justice to take from now on.”
Makoto slowly stood up from her seat, walked over to her sister, and embraced her.
“M-Makoto?”
“Heh.” The younger Niijima let go again, and took a step back. “Sis, I know you’re not always the best at communication at times like these, so I’ll be straightforward.” She took a breath. “Sis, I really look up to you and admire you.”
“Oh… I see…” Sae swallowed, before nodding and forcing herself to reestablish eye contact. “The feeling is mutual.”
“Hearing that makes me happy too, Sis.”
“Good.” Sae faced forward again, hastily drinking the rest of her coffee. “So, Amamiya-kun, today would have been the day you headed home, wouldn’t it?” Her attempt to change the subject was clumsy, but the couple decided to have mercy on her.
“Yup.” Ren grinned. “But I’m not going anywhere today. I can put my feet up, so to speak. At least until school starts up again tomorrow.”
“Be careful Ren.” Makoto smiled coyly. “Third year is the toughest out of all of them.”
“Ordinarily I think you’d be right Mako, but I’m lucky enough to not have to juggle my academic career with metaverse bullshit anymore, I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure you will be, I have faith in you.”
“You won’t be disappointed.”
Sae felt uncomfortable watching the two so blatantly flirt right in front of her like this, mercifully it was cut short by the sound of Makoto’s phone ringing.
“Oh, excuse me.” Makoto stood up from her seat and answered the call. “Hello, Makoto Niijima speaking… yes… is that so… I see… thank you for informing me… no, thank you… excellent…” She hung up, and stood silently for a while.
“Mako?” Ren tilted his head slightly, trying to remain casual but growing slightly tense. “Everything good?”
Makoto faced her boyfriend and sister, with a reserved smile.
“I just got accepted into Tokyo U.”
Ren’s eyes went wide.
“That was them just now?”
“Mhm.”
“Amazing!”
Makoto scoffed.
“C’mon Ren, you’re the one who was always saying this was a sure thing.”
“True, I guess.” Ren laughed. “Still, it’s awesome to finally have confirmation.”
“I knew you could do it Makoto.” Sae smiled warmly. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you both.” Makoto bowed to the pair. “Please excuse me for a moment.”
Sae and Ren both watched her as she calmly walked towards the back of the café; at first they thought she was going to the bathroom, but she walked right past it and up the stairs.
“I expected her to be more excited.” Sae thought aloud.
“I’m sure she is, but you know her, she’s usually pretty reserved about showing it- unless she’s watching an action movie or something.”
Sae chuckled.
“You’re not wrong.” She looked back over to the stairs. “What’s up there, anyway?”
“Oh, that’s my room.”
Time seemed to pause for just a moment.
“It’s your room?”
“Uh, yeah? I assumed you already knew, but I guess we never actually explicitly told you.”
“She went up to your room?”
Ren took just a tiny step back.
“What’s the issue? I’d get this reaction if I was up there with her, but I’m here with you.”
“She feels comfortable just casually waltzing in and out of your room?”
“A-ah… It’s not what you’re thinking Sae-san, all the thieves go in and out of there all the time.”
Sae’s eyes went wide.
“You do that kind of thing as a group?!”
“What? No! Sae-san, I promise that you’re really off base right now.”
Sae hastily stood up from her seat, rushing to follow Makoto upstairs, and make sure she’s not… actually she had no idea what she was expecting- or rather- fearing her baby sister might be doing in this boy’s room, but it gave her a feeling she didn’t like. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn’t Makoto jumping up and down with absolute glee on her face, doing a little dance, and very quietly singing some kind of victory song the older sister recognised from her- until now- long dormant memories of seeing the Buchimaru-kun animated series on TV all those years ago; which was what Makoto was actually doing, at least until she noticed her sister in the room.
The younger sister froze in place, staring at the elder with wide eyes full of fear and mortification.
“Uhh…” She glanced towards the desk, rushing forward to grab her phone off of it, and shaking it in the air for Sae to see. “I-I just came up here to find my phone! That’s all I was doing. Anyway I found it now so I better head downstairs again, ahahahahaha…”
She rushed passed the bewildered Sae, continuing her forced laughter all the while (also confusing Ren downstairs). Sae groaned, feeling foolish, and followed her sister downstairs.
Ren was wise enough to not ask questions.
“Guess you’ll be starting college around about the same time I start Shujin again, huh?”
“Mm. It’s a shame we won’t be able to see eachother during school hours anymore though.”
“At least until next year.”
“That’s if you can get in too.” Sae added as she sat back down.
“Hey I’m pretty smart myself, y’know?” Ren cockily ran his fingers through his hair. “Makoto may be the smartest and strongest girl ever, but I’m not gonna let her get that far ahead of me.”
“You really do heap on the praise way too much Ren.” Makoto took a sip from her coffee. “But I have faith in you.”
“Don’t disappoint her, Amamiya-kun.”
“Careful Sae-san, the way you say that makes it sound like a threat.”
“…”
“…S-Sae-san?”
“Honestly, you two.” Makoto shook her head. “I wonder how the other girls did.”
“Knowing Eiko-san, we’ll know the second she gets the ca—” Makoto’s phone ringing again. “Speak of the devil.”
Makoto brought her phone to her ear and—
“NUDIE PREZ!”
Makoto winced slightly at Eiko’s cry, even Ren and Sae were rather taken aback by the volume.
“Judging by the shouting, I’m guessing it’s good news, Eiko-san?”
“Damn straight, bitch!”
Sae looked to Ren, confused and slightly concerned. He sighed, and smiled back at her.
“’Bitch’ can be an affectionate term between friends, too.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“If you say so…”
“So Nudie Prez…” Eiko continued. “I was thinking we’d do the thing today!”
“The thing?”
“That thing you talked about at karaoke. The Shujin nudists all taking their first step onto the university grounds together!”
Makoto’s cheeks turned slightly pink.
“We’re really going to go through with that?”
“Of course. It’s really cute, dorky- but in a cute way. It’ll feel really good!”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to do that on the day we start?”
“It’ll be busy then, and people will be looking at us.”
“So now you’re embarrassed by the idea?”
“Just come over already! I’m gonna let the others know. See you soon!”
And with that, Eiko hung up. Makoto huffed to herself.
“Guess I’m gonna head to Tokyo U right now.”
Sae pulled out her own phone.
“I’ll call you a cab, save you having to take the train today.” Even after all this time, Sae was still a little apprehensive about sending her sister into Tokyo’s public transport system completely naked.
“I don’t mind paying you back for that Sae-san.”
Sae’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re going too?”
“Sis…”
“I didn’t say that was a problem.” Sae sighed.
Sae still seemed a little apprehensive, but Ren decided to take it all in stride.
“Boss should be back soon, once he’s here and can take over the café again, we’ll head out.” He grinned. “I promise I’ll behave myself Sae-san.”
Makoto held her forehead.
“You two…”
~ ~ ~
Leaving Sae to no doubt vent her worries about her little sister’s relationship to Sojiro, our favorite couple made their way through Yongen-jaya’s backstreets to reach the main road, where they could meet with the taxi Sae called for them.
As they arrived at the roadside they found said taxi already waiting for them. As it often did- the expanse of skin Makoto had become all too happy to show off drew the eye quite effectively, the driver quickly noticing them, and leaning over to greet his passengers.
“Heh, I was wondering how long it’d be until we ran into eachother again.”
The couple briefly froze in surprise, Makoto being the first to break the shocked silence.
“Dr. Maruki?”
He laughed.
“Just ‘Maruki’ is fine; I don’t think the title of ‘Doctor’ suits me anymore.”
“What are you doing here man?” Ren asked. “Where the hell have you been?”
Maruki just gestured to the back seats with his thumb.
“You’re heading to Tokyo U, right? We can talk on the way.”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a glance, before the former opened the back door for the latter, following her in afterwards.
“Seriously Dr. Maruki, what are you doing here? Is this a set-up? You being the one to drive us?”
“No, no.” Maruki shook his head. “Just got lucky, maybe it’s fate- but I figured what with this job taking me all around Tokyo it was only a matter of time until we ran into eachother again.”
“We have a lot to ask you Doctor.” Makoto said as she put on her seatbelt.
“If you like I could take the scenic route, give us a little more time to catch up. Don’t worry, Sae-san already paid, and I won’t charge extra.”
“Appreciate it.” Ren scoffed. “Quite the career shift you’ve gone for.”
Maruki sighed wistfully as he turned his attention back to the road.
“Well you know… It lets me talk to people.”
“So why don’t you use some of those talking abilities of yours to explain why we haven’t seen you since your palace?”
Maruki remained silent for a few moments, though it was clear his hesitation wasn’t born of any apprehension, but rather- it was just a matter of letting the words come to him in their own time.
“After our ‘clash’- I guess you could call it- I really needed some time to think about everything. I returned to the real world with the rest of you, but I swiftly excused myself while no one was looking.” He sheepishly shrugged without looking back at the pair. “Sorry about that.”
“So we just didn’t notice?” Makoto sighed. “I suppose we were all so just so relieved to finally be safe again that we let our guard down a little too much.”
Maruki continued.
“You all said a lot of things to me that really gave me food for thought- especially Sumire-san and Akechi-san. How are those two doing by the way?”
Ren’s shoulders sank slightly.
“Well Sumire-san is doing better than ever; her improvements don’t seem to be a fluke at all. But Akechi-kun… I guess he knew the sacrifice he was making…”
The doctor’s expression sank slightly.
“I see, I thought that’d be the case, but I guess I was hoping I’d be wrong, y’know?”
Makoto’s brow furrowed.
“Hmm… While I haven’t forgiven him, I would have much preferred he faced justice with dignity rather than unceremoniously lose his life like that, mere moments after victory.”
“Like I said, he knew the sacrifice he was making.” Ren spoke frankly. "No use sitting around worrying about what could have been.”
“That’s true.” Maruki sighed. “We can’t let the past rule over us, that’s one point you all made very clear to me.” He let out a bittersweet chuckle. “It’s silly, isn’t it? All this time I’ve been extolling the virtues of ‘running away’ from what causes you pain, yet that desire to ‘run away’ was born because I never had what it took to simply let go of my pain, of my regret.”
Ren gave him an understanding look via the rearview mirror.
“I mean it’s a hell of a thing to let go of; none of us are gonna be too harsh on you for it.”
“I appreciate that, Amamiya-san. Though the fact is my convictions where ultimately born from an attempt to absolve myself of my past mistakes. Helping others was just a means to an end; so it’s no wonder you guys won in the end.”
“You make it sound like it was easy, trust me- it wasn’t.”
Maruki laughed with the couple.
“I can only apologize.” He restlessly shifted his hands on the wheel. “After leaving the palace, I needed time to think about everything. I spent the next week or so alone at home, just letting it all sink in.”
“You could have called us for support if you needed it…” Makoto stopped to ponder a moment. “Then again, we were all busy trying to get Ren out of prison at the time, so I’m not sure exactly how much time we could have dedicated to you.”
“I appreciate the thought regardless, Niijima-san.”
“I’m glad.” She nodded. “The offer is still ongoing, by the way.”
“Thank you Niijima-san.” Maruki took advantage of a brief lull in the slow-moving traffic to smile back at her. “But I don’t think I’ll be needing it anytime soon. Maybe it’s because of my change of heart, but I was soon able to realize how little point there was in dwelling over what happened to Rumi. She’s still living in blissful ignorance, even now; could I have done better? Stayed by her throughout it all and helped her move on from her trauma in a more healthy way? I think so, and I’d be lying if I said I don’t still regret it. But it’s too late to go back now, and honestly- I’ve reached a strange sort of peace with that.”
“Really?”
“You saw the path obsessing over regret brought me. Running away from something I refused to let go of, it’s as foolish as it gets.”
Ren smiled.
“So you finally stopped running, and instead just walked away?”
“Ha… That’s not a bad way of putting it.” Maruki adjusted his glasses. “It’s a black mark on my record for sure, but that’s no reason to let it define the rest of my life. That’s why I decided to simply start over.”
“Thus the new career path?”
“Mhm.” Maruki looked out at the window at the passing city, and all the people going about their own business. “I don’t think I’m quite suited to being a counsellor- at least not now- and I don’t want anything more to do with cognitive psience. But I feel like this job suits me just great; being a taxi driver takes me all over Tokyo, I get to meet new and interesting people every day. It feels nice talking to them about whatever might be going on in their lives, and if I can offer a little piece of amateur advice here and there- or just be a way for them to externalize their thoughts for a while? All the better.”
Makoto hummed to herself.
“I have to admit, it suits you. I’ll admit, I felt better after the first time we talked- this is a nice way for you to still potentially do a lot of good in people’s lives.”
Maruki shrugged somewhat bashfully.
“Well who knows if it actually does any good, most customers don’t want to talk, and instead just listen to me prattle on about nothing important; a few have- quite firmly- told me to shut the hell up.”
Ren laughed.
“Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.” He smirked. “Good to see you’re doing well though; that’s one less thing we need to worry about, huh?”
“Sorry for taking so long to get back in contact. How about you two? Makoto’s going to her new university now, right?”
As much as she tried to hide it, Makoto looked incredibly proud of herself right now.
“I just got the call accepting me earlier today, I’m meeting up with my friends there now. It’s one step closer to my dream of becoming a police commissioner, and I’m going to share it with my fellow nudists.”
“I see, congratulations! I have faith that you can go all the way with your dream.”
“Same. If Queen can’t do it, no one can.”
“I’m not sure about that Ren…” she always found this kind of praise embarrassing, though she’d be lying if she said she wanted it to stop.
“What about you Amamiya-kun? Noone has fought more passionately for this world than you have, I’m sure you’re making the most of it.”
“Damn straight.” He folded his arms haughtily. “In fact you might see me a lot more over the next year; I managed to arrange things so that I’m gonna do my third year in Shujin.”
“Is that so?” The doctor’s brow raised.
“Indeed, it’s very good news.” Makoto sharply side-eyed Ren. “Even if the way you delivered that news was very poorly thought through.”
“I already said I was sorry, Mako…”
Maruki- sensing the slight tension- decided that he was better off not asking.
“I guess spending more time alongside your friends is a great thing no matter how you look at it. How’s your family taking it?”
“I dunno, doesn’t really matter.”
Ren shrugged, pretending to nonchalantly look at something out the side window, but it was obvious to everyone present that the mood had suddenly shifted, the atmosphere within the vehicle rapidly grew heavier.
"Y-you have told them, right?”
“Yeah obviously. I just haven’t read their reply.”
“Y…you told them via text?”
“It’s quicker than calling them, y’know?”
“Stop it Ren.”
“Mako?”
Makoto took a slow breath through her nose, before locking eye contact with her boyfriend with a fierce glare.
“Drop this awful act.”
Ren hesitated a moment.
“What act?”
“You’re acting extremely cold and uncaring, like you don’t care about their feelings and are only thinking of what you want. That’s not who you are, you’re not capable of that.”
“I’m not—”
“Don’t you DARE lie to me, Ren.”
Ren sank back in his seat, he briefly glanced at the rearview mirror again, part of him hoping for some kind of rescue from Maruki, but the former doctor was keeping his attention firmly on the road ahead of him- still obviously listening, but wisely making a temporary withdrawal from the conversation.
“I mean… it is true that I’m choosing what’ll make me happy over whatever they might want.”
Makoto sighed.
“That’s not a bad thing necessarily. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you’re staying- it’s what I want too, and I know for certain the rest of the team and everyone whose hearts you’ve touched over the past year would agree. I’m not even criticizing you standing against your parents, but are you really just going to do it like this? Just informing them in the most detached way possible and cutting off contact?”
Ren’s eye’s fell downwards, staring unfocused at the space between him and his beloved.
“I mean… This is probably the best way to do it.”
“How can you say that?”
“Anything else is just gonna be more painful for everyone involved.”
“Amamiya-kun.” Maruki decided to interject. “I know I’m the last person who should be making this criticism, but are you really just going to run away from your problems?”
“I mean… it’s more I’m just avoiding a problem- y’know?”
Makoto stared at him, her frustration slowly shifting to disbelief.
“You really just see your family as a problem?”
“I…”
“I understand your resentment towards them. They should have defended you back then. They should have believed in you. I understand being angry, but you didn’t even hold this much of a grudge against Shido. Why is this the one thing where you’re so firmly holding onto a grudge?”
Ren leant back in his seat, letting out a long sigh.
“It’s not that…”
“What is it then?”
“They didn’t believe in me, they took the words of the corrupt cops over mine, and they sent me away to another town to ‘learn a lesson’ or whatever without a second thought. But honestly, it’s not any of that that bothers me. Not the fact that they so easily accepted my ‘guilt’.” He turned his head back to her. “It’s the fact that they don’t care if I’m guilty or not. Whether I stepped in to protect that woman, or if I just assaulted a man completely unprovoked; it doesn’t make a difference to them. My real crime in their eyes was getting involved.”
“Getting involved?”
“Nothing is more important than the family’s honor, keeping our heads down and being functional and productive members of society. ‘Meddling’ in other peoples’ business brings shame on the Amamiya name. They’re old-fashioned like that.”
Makoto’s shoulders sank.
“No kidding…”
“The ‘correct’ response to seeing a woman being assaulted is to just walk on by.”
“Ren…”
He tutted.
“I guess I should be fair to them; they’d probably want me to call the police at least- then just leave. I guess calling the police first might have been a good idea- at least on paper, in reality it would have been those same two corrupt cops and it would have come down to that woman’s word against Shido’s- and of course Shido would have won over. I had to step in and do something, but in my parents’ eyes I should have prioritized my own- or rather their- honor over her wellbeing.”
Makoto’s brow furrowed, even if it didn’t show on his face she could still clearly feel Ren’s frustration, and no small amount of disgust.
“Old-fashioned is right. People should reach out and help each other, that’s so much more important than something as nebulous and vague as ‘honor’.”
Ren leaned forward.
“Right?! That’s the most obvious shit in the world, and yet they just don’t get it. I don’t see any reason to deal with people like that.”
Makoto let out a humorless laugh.
“See, there you go putting on an act again.” She smiled at him. “You expect me to believe that you're capable of seeing someone misguided by such 'distorted desires’ and not wanting to change their hearts?”
“I mean…” Ren turned away, looking out the window again. “We can’t do that anymore anyway, the Metaverse is gone.”
“That’s not what I meant. The metaverse is far from the only way of reaching people’s hearts. You know that better than anyone.”
“I mean…”
Makoto leant over and rested a hand on her lover’s thigh.
“I understand you must be scared, they’re your family after all. But it’s not like you to run away from things that are scary.”
“This is different though. With everything else we’ve done, people I care about were in danger, this only affects me, and I simply don’t feel the desire to try and change them at all.”
Makoto’s expression fell.
“I really wish you cared about yourself as much as you cared about us…”
“It’s fine.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“…Sorry.”
Makoto returned to her own seat, a few quiet moments passed, before she suddenly made a show of sitting upright, and facing forward.
“Y’know, when I went to Inaba, I didn’t get to see much of the town, given how busy I was investigating.”
Ren tilted his head, confused.
“What?”
She coyly smiled as she side-eyed him.
“I’d like to go back again, and actually get to enjoy what the town has to offer.”
“…I mean there’s not much there, to be honest…”
“Hmm… I don’t know, I feel there’s a lot I didn’t see.”
“Makoto, you’re not—”
“I am. I’m thinking you should show me around sometime.” She turned to grin at him. “Do you think you could do that for me? Maybe in one of the small breaks we have before summer?”
“You…” Ren slumped back in his seat, defeated. “Lemme guess, you want to stop by my family home while we’re there?”
“That’s a lovely idea, Ren!”
“Ugh…” He weakly smiled back at her. “I think you’ll be disappointed, but fine, we can give that a try.”
“Thank you, Ren. I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah…”
The taxi fell into a comfortable silence for a while, Maruki feeling quite privileged to have witnessed this private moment in the couple’s young love lives, and also slightly embarrassed that they seemed more mature than he felt himself.
After a few minutes Ren broke the silence once more.
“Makoto?”
“Yes Ren?”
He swallowed.
“Thank you for caring about me so much.”
“Hm.” She leant over to caress his knee again. “You’re more than welcome. It’s just a shame that I have to do the caring for the both of us, isn’t it?”
Ren just grumbled in response, embarrassed, prompting subdued laughter from both his fellow passenger and the driver.
~ ~ ~
“Here we are!”
“Thank you so much Dr. Maruki.” Makoto said as she and Ren climbed out of the taxi.
“I already said, ‘Doctor’ doesn’t suit me anymore.” Maruki chuckled. “But I can’t escape it that easily, huh?”
“Eheheh…”
“I guess I’ll see you two around! If I don’t see her first, tell Sumire-san I said ‘Hi’!”
And with that Maruki tipped his hat to the couple, before driving off to find his next job. Ren and Makoto now stood only a stone’s throw away from Tokyo U’s entrance, close enough for the inevitable:
“HEY NUDIE PREZ!” Eiko wildly waved her arms to grab their attention- as if the four nudist girls hanging out together weren’t already attention grabbing enough. “What kept you so long?”
“I think we made pretty good time actually, given how short notice this was.” Makoto replied as she approached the girls.
“Eiko-chan’s just impatient.” Ai laughed. “She’s been acting like an excited little girl since we got here. She was even jumping up and down at one point.”
“I think she just did that because she likes jiggling her titties around.”
Eiko shrugged.
“I won’t deny enjoying doing that Aya-chan, but also- screw you.” She grinned at Makoto, pumping her fists. “You ready for this?”
“You act like this is a big event, we’re just lining up to take a step together.”
“It IS a big event!” Eiko pouted. “Who would have ever thought Eiko the bimbo would be entering Tokyo U alongside the supernerd genius Makoto Niijima? Not to mention the other bimbos who also made it.”
“Well excuse you.” Mieko sneered.
Eiko spun around, holding out her phone.
“Renforeartthouromeo! Film us while we do it!”
Forgiving the ever-worsening nicknames, Ren happily took the girl’s phone, and went ahead of them so he could capture all five nudists in shot at once.
“Y’all ready?”
“Mm!” Eiko nodded as she- quite forcefully- helped the girls line up besides eachother, forming a daisy chain. She held Ai’s hand in her left, and Makoto’s in her right. “We’re ready! Start recording!”
Makoto couldn’t help but laugh.
“This is still embarrassing, but seeing you so into it makes me happy Eiko-chan.”
“Hey, this was your idea, Nudie Prez!”
“But you’re really taking charge of it now.” Ai snickered, also blushing from slight embarrassment. “Let’s be quick, people are giving us weird looks.”
“That’s just because we’re naked. Same old, same old.”
“No more talking!” Eiko commanded. “Ready? 3. 2. 1!”
In unison, all the girls put their right foot forward (except Makoto, who wasn’t around for the briefing before she and Ren arrived, thus putting her left foot in instead, hoping that didn’t somehow spoil the ‘choreography’). While all the girls sans Eiko still felt self-conscious to varying degrees, there was no denying the warm feeling they all got with this gesture, symbolically and literally taking their first steps into a brand new chapter of their lives, putting all the trials and tribulations they all faced the prior year behind them, knowing they can rely on each other’s support for whatever new trials await them.
…
…
…
“Now what?”
“Is that it?” Makoto looked to Eiko beside her. “Is that all we had planned?”
All the girls remained frozen in tableau, mid-step for a few moments longer.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Seriously Eiko?”
“Well what the hell else are we supposed to do? Classes don’t actually start today, so we can’t actually go inside inside. We’re just stepping onto the grounds and it’s all neat and symbolic and shit.”
“But we seriously travelled all the way out here to take one step, then what? Go home again?" Mieko sighed. “I’ve changed my mind; this was a lame idea.”
“Don’t be such a downer Mieko! You’re upsetting Nudie Prez!”
“No no, she’s right.” Makoto hung her head to avoid the looks from passers-by. “I was right, this was kind of cringeworthy.”
“You girls all suck!”
“Um, should I stop recording?”
“Quiet Ren! C’mon girls, maybe if we do it again?”
“You want to put us through that a second time?!”
“Don’t say it like that- it was fun, right?”
Ai freed her hands from the daisy chain (having to physically shake Eiko off of her).
“This would have worked better if we had just waited for our first day here… then again there would have been more people around then so maybe not…”
“You lame-ass bitch!”
Ren thought it prudent to intervene, ideally on the ‘sooner’ rather than ‘later’ end of the spectrum.
“H-hey, girls, how about we just go get something to eat together, maybe? Make today more of an event, y’know?”
Makoto huffed.
“I guess we might as well, it’ll feel silly heading back right now without doing anything. Besides, celebrating with a meal makes much more sense than this whole ‘first step thing’.”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it too Nudie Prez.” Eiko groaned. “But fine, I still think that was worthwhile, but I’m feelin’ pretty hungry.”
“Is Ren-san paying again?”
“No Aya-chan.” Makoto said firmly. “We’ll all pay our own way this time.”
“Damn- I mean- that’s fair, I’ll accept that.”
“Aya’s not even trying to make that sound convincing.”
“Heh.”
Chapter 120: Back to school special- Futaba edition
Summary:
The school year begins again
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“You ready for this Futaba?”
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” Futaba pumped her fists. “I’ve been image training all week.”
“’Image training’ huh?”
“I’ve imagined every possible scenario, and I’m emotionally and physically prepared for every single one of them.”
“Physically? School really isn’t that draining physically… mostly. Dare I ask what kind of preparations you made?”
“Y’know, endurance, flexibility, birth control…”
“Yeah I’m gonna bet you’re imagining something really off base again.”
“Nah, I’m super serious this time. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at all, but I’ve thought of everything and done everything I can to make myself ready for my grand return to school. I’m gonna nail this.”
As Futaba kept psyching herself up alongside her escort Ren at the side of the road, the other students ready to start their new year at Shujin would pass them by, making more than a few aside glances not only the infamous criminal transfer student turned ‘nudist whisperer’ (which was not a nickname he was privy to, but it saw a fair amount of use by the student body regardless), but at the mostly unfamiliar nudist girl alongside him.
The obvious lack of uniform made it hard to tell if she was a fellow Shujin student at first glance, but at least one girl thought it appropriate to make an effort to be polite (and maybe get in early getting close to the wonderful rarity of a cute naked girl- y’know how it is).
“Good morning.” The girl lightly bowed.
“YII!”
Futaba squeaked, swiftly burying her face into the back of Ren’s blazer, clinging to him tightly. The girl seemed confused, she looked up at Ren, her eyes silently asking what she did wrong; he just mouthed a “Don’t worry about it” and she reluctantly moved on.
Ren rested his hand atop Futaba’s head, gently rubbing her scalp.
“Well that’s me convinced, you really are prepared for anything.”
“Don’t be sarcastic” Her flustered face burst back into view as she glared up at him. “I didn’t think people would actually talk to me!”
“Seriously? What was all that about imagining ‘every possible scenario’?”
“Ehhh… Conversations with people weren’t a possibility that entered my head, I was just thinking of other stuff…”
“’Other stuff’? I doubt I even want to know.” Ren groaned. “I know I’m maybe not the best person to tell you this, but maybe you need to try to get more in tune with how a normal person’s mind works.”
“Quit looking down on me! I-I’ll figure it out! Just you watch!”
And with that Futaba defiantly shoved Ren away (well, he stayed in place while she pushed herself away- this is Futaba we’re talking about- her workouts with Sumire weren’t going to show results that fast), and she marched towards the school entrance looking as fierce as she could possibly manage.
“I might end up having a harder time in my third year than Makoto after all.” Ren rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, no more metaverse to worry about, but looking after her will probably be even tougher…”
Morgana poked his head out of Ren’s bag.
“I’d say you’re exaggerating, but honestly it could go either way…”
Despite his complaints, Ren had a smile on his face as he watched her march forwards, seemingly ignorant of the weird looks she was getting while doing so. As he was about to follow her, he was stopped in his tracks by a familiar voice from behind.
“Ah, caught you at the last second, thank goodness.”
He turned around, finding Lavenza looking rather frazzled, her blue dress slightly stained by sweat.
“Lavenza? What are you doing here? Have you been running?”
She smiled somewhat sheepishly.
“The closest connection to the Velvet Room was over in Shibuya, it was quite the trek over here, especially with the limited time remaining.”
“You ran the whole way? Man, I should have taught you how to use the train, that would have made things much… s-say what? Limited time?”
Lavenza’s smile turned bittersweet.
“We both knew this was coming My Trickster; what with mementos gone, the connection between velvet room and reality has also been fading.”
“Yeah but—right now? This feels so abrupt.”
“Nn; the timing was very deliberate.” She briefly stepped past him to peer at the school. “And I don’t think I could have timed it better. My time left to interact with this world directly has been limited, so I’ve been saving it for the moment where I can watch you move on to the next chapter in your life”
“…I see…”
“Leaving the nest, as it were.”
“I guess that makes sense, way to take me off guard though…”
“I can only apologize.”
“You don’t need to apologize; your logic is sound.” Ren shrugged, though it was clear to anyone looking how false his smile was.
Lavenza exhaled. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an object.
“First and foremost, a parting gift- of sorts.”
She took ahold of his hand and placed the object in his palm.
“…A key?”
She nodded.
“Ordinarily, guests to the Velvet Room are given a key to come and go as they please, but your introduction was anything but ordinary.”
“Heh, ‘Better late than never’, huh?”
“Indeed, that was just the phrase I was thinking of.”
“Though it is a shame I won’t get to actually use it. I guess at least this way if the twins decide to lock me up again, I have the means to let myself out.”
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll make sure those two behave.” Lavenza chuckled. “So long as I remain as one, that is.”
“Here’s hoping you can keep that up.”
“I’m sure I’ll manage.” She huffed, before taking a long while to look Ren up and down a few times. “It’s amazing how much you’ve grown.”
“Huh?”
“I still carry all of my memories from when I was ‘Caroline’ and ‘Justine’, I remember how uncertain you used to be, so shaken and full of bitter resentment to the world around you.”
Ren turned and stared off at nothing in particular, he tried to ignore the feeling of Morgana staring up at him from below.
“I wouldn’t say that, really…”
“You hid it well, but the nature of your heart is no secret to me.” Lavenza almost seemed to be glowing with a prideful aura. “So quickly you were able to find new purpose, new resolve; you became to amazingly powerful, and helped others do the same. You found new faith in people and never let go, I suppose it’s just your impeccable nature.”
“See, now you’re just buttering me up.” Ren scratched his scalp restlessly. “It was a lot less noble in practice than you’re making it sound. Lots of shit happened and I just did what I had to do.”
“I wonder how many would have had the resolve to do what you had to do. While some may have rejected the world, you now hold the very arcana of the world. I only hope you’re as proud of yourself as I am of you.”
“C’mon Lavenza, you’re embarrassing me.”
“Nonsense.” Lavenza pouted, Ren wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen her pout before, it was an odd sight. “With you being such a remarkable guest, it’d be wrong of me not to praise you.”
“I mean… it’s not as if I don’t like it but… Morgana is listening…”
“Nyehehe~” Morgana emerged from his bag again. “It’s nice of you to say all this Lady Lavenza, poor little boy could use some extra encouragement now and again.”
“Keep talking Mona and I’ll make you stay in Futaba’s bag all day instead.”
“You don’t think she’ll get tired carrying me around?”
“She’s not that weak.”
“Wait, would it actually be punishment for me or just because you want me to keep an eye on her?”
“Yes.”
“Ahem.” Lavenza said aloud. “Morgana-san, can I trust you to watch over my Trickster a while longer?”
“Mm! Of course Lady Lavenza, I’ll do my best to keep him in line.”
Ren rolled his eyes.
“Thank you Morgana-san. Oh, how I wish we could stay here talking forever…” Lavenza looked down at her hand, her brow furrowing as she clasped and unclasped her fist. “Alas…”
“L-Lavenza?”
Ren watched as the diminutive lady took a few small steps forward, before lightly tugging on the boy’s sleeve. Knowing the drill at this point (but still bashfully hoping no one looked into the alley in this moment), Ren obediently crouched down so she could peck him on the cheek, before stepping away and smiling.
“I trust you won’t lose the strength that brought you this far, actually no- I’m sure you won't.”
Ren thought it only appropriate to lightly bow to her.
“I’ll do my best.”
“In that case there is nothing to fear. I keep watching over you. Know that I am truly proud of you, please don’t forget that.” She gestured in the direction of the school with her head. “I can’t keep you any longer, go on ahead now. Oh- and one last request…”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t look back.”
Ren swallowed, and hesitantly nodded.
“That’s how we’re doing this, huh? Right, I won’t. Thank you- for everything.”
Lavenza didn’t say anything more, instead just smiling and waving him off. Ren walked in the direction of Shujin’s entrance, only briefly pausing- fighting the urge to take one last look at his ‘attendant’- but he kept his word and continued on heedless, turning the corner to the stairs.
“Where the hell did you disappear to?” Futaba rushed over to him. “Don’t tell me you were spacing out again?”
Ren sighed.
“When you ran off you really gave the impression of wanting to prove you could handle this yourself.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not stupid enough to ditch my party members before entering the dungeon. Even if you don’t actively do anything I still need those extra press turns!”
“Of course.” Ren laughed. “Y’know we’re gonna have to leave you in a minute anyway, we’re in different years.”
“Urk! I forgot about the forced party split…”
Ren looked down at his bag.
“Maybe it’d be a good idea for you to go with her after all Morgana.”
“You’re probably right… Open up that bag Futaba-san.”
Morgana made the awkward climb from one bag to the other, having a whole new set of school supplies and lunch to cover with his fur.
“Oof- that’s Ren feeding you Mona-chan?”
“Hey, I’m doing you a favor here!”
“We’ve all got orientation before anything else.”
Futaba’s eyes went wide.
“In the auditorium?”
“Well, the gym hall, but yeah- I guess.”
“Alright… I’m emotionally prepared.”
“Eh?”
“Make sure they get my good side at least.”
“Your what?” Ren sighed. “Nevermind, just relax.”
“That may be impossible.”
~ ~ ~
Unfortunately, orientation wasn’t something Morgana could attend, and thus Futaba was left to face this trial alone.
She stood in formation with her fellow 2nd year students, a lone speck of peachy flesh in a sea of black fabric.
‘Yo’ she thought to herself- not even pretending to pay attention to the acting principal’s speech. ‘This is definitely the part that’d end up being the cover art for the doujin, right?’
She peeked to her left and right; she wanted to check how many people were staring at her- but that would carry the risk of making accidental eye contact, that’d be too much, so she decided to just assume everyone’s eyes were lustfully locked onto her bare form.
‘Gotta stand up straight! Chest and booty out! Are my feet too far apart? They usually have to hide the pussy, but I’m exempt to those laws so should I capitalize and emphasize it? Ehh, better not, the stubble is growing back but not enough for me to start dying it, I probably wanna downplay it at this stage.’
The speech was still ongoing, probably something to do with school spirit and trying to pretend the controversies from last year just didn’t happen- no one really cares, let’s be honest. Futaba knew all of this was just foreplay anyway, she was mentally preparing herself for the next stage…
Ren’s phone was the only one she had bugged, so her solid knowledge of what Makoto had to face in school day to day came from the time she spent alongside her boyfriend. This wasn’t especially useful information, since no one is going to try anything with the hot nudist girl when her intimidating boyfriend was right there next to her; not that Futaba found Ren intimidating herself, but she knew from listening in on him for so long that the other students thought he was scary- she didn’t get it at all but the data doesn’t lie.
As for when Makoto was alone, defenceless, and horny- Futaba had no direct information to prepare herself with. She wasn’t worried- not about lack knowledge at least- she had done no small amount of reading on the subject of nudity at school; nothing on the R-18 side of Pixiv had escaped her comprehensive research, not even the completely irrelevant stuff (it’s good to be thorough). She felt confident calling herself an expert on high school.
She brought her hand up to her face, nervously biting on the end of her thumb.
‘Any minute now they’ll be calling me up on stage, only question is whether I’m supposed to give a speech before or after the masturbation show? The show is going to be bad enough without having to speak to everyone! I don’t have anything prepared, and I doubt I could get it out even if I did.”
She shuffled nervously, her toes curling against the cold floor.
‘I have no choice, I’ll have to jump straight ahead to the masturbation and hopefully everyone else will do the talking for me. It needs to be a really big orgasm though, enough for me to collapse on my back and then we fade to white and it’s all good.’
Her eyes went wide with fear as a certain possibility entered her mind.
‘But what if we don’t fade to white? What if that’s only the first couple pages worth? What if after I’m all spent they bring out the bindings and toys? That’s exactly when it all ramps up, right?”
Needless to say, the way Futaba was wiggling her hips was especially distracting to the mass of students behind her, as was the patter sound as she rapidly hopped from one foot to the other.
‘Keep it together Futaba! This is exactly what I’ve been training for. I’ve built up enough endurance for it, rehearsed plenty with my Featherman dolls in place of the audience- I know exactly how to look out into the audience just right without actually making eye contact. It took a ton of attempts to perfect announcing that I’m cumming- I only got caught by Sojiro twice, totally worth it still.’
Her nervous fidgeting didn’t slow.
‘Oh but do I cover myself as I go up? I have to, right? That pose is a cornerstone to ENF, I even calculated the best angle to slouch at. But what if I’m playing up the vulnerability too much? I already know there’ll be tons of groping my butt and pinching my nipples and stuff today, but I don’t want them to overdo it… well maybe I—N-no! Gotta save that for the sequel. Maybe I really lean into seeming vulnerable and actually get a little sympathy instead? People like clumsy girls. Maybe as I’m heading up I can trip over? Gotta make sure to do it in a way where my butt is facing the crowd to maximize its effectiveness, then I just—’
“Yo Futaba.”
“AIIE!” She yelped, turning around to find that not only had Ren approached her, but that most of the other students were filing out of the hall already. “Huh? What’s happening?”
“The speech ended like two minutes ago, we’re heading back out now.”
Futaba gasped.
“They’re setting up the stage outdoors instead? I gotta do it where people can see from the street?!”
“…What?”
“This is even more advanced than I thought…”
Ren sighed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I can tell it’s dumb. C’mon, I’ll walk you to your class at least.”
“My class?” Futaba rushed after Ren- who had already started walking. “That can’t be right? How are they gonna fit the camera crew in there?”
“What camera crew?”
“Ahh, I getcha, wink wink.”
“…”
“We’re saving that for later, I get it.”
Ren wasn’t being entirely honest when he said he didn’t know what she was talking about, he’s known her long enough to have a decent idea about what’s going through her head, not to mention the thick fluid visibly hanging down from between her legs like a strand of drool was a pretty big hint as to the nature of her misconception.
“Um, Futaba you might wanna…”
“Hm?”
“Y’know, wipe yourself down.”
She looked down at her chest, noticing nothing but a pair of pointy nipples.
“What are you talking about? I already had a shower this morning. I told you I was prepared!”
“That’s not—”
“Man you really don’t think much of me, do you? You’re a real jerk sometimes Joker. I’ll go to class myself… once I pick up the Monabag again.”
“Futaba you—”
“Later!”
And she eagerly trotted off, thick strand of girljuice tantalizingly swinging like a pendulum as she went (which did NOT go unnoticed by her peers), leaving Ren by his lonesome.
He would have followed after her to make sure the message about her visible wetness got to her, but speaking of wetness- he noticed a puddle left where she had been standing before- mainly because the newspaper club girl (now in her third year like him) slipping on it and skidding across the floor drew attention to the ‘spillage’. He had to go help her up, and just hope his ‘not quite sister’ would be fine without him.
“These first few days are gonna be a headache…”
~ ~ ~
Futaba rushed over to the boards listing all the students and their respective classes to try and figure out where she was even going (the ‘strand’ had finally fallen to the floor during her run- in case you were wondering).
She scanned the list and found herself pretty quickly, she was class 2-A, nice and easy to remember, alongside…
“That’s great Futaba-chan! We get to be in the same class together.”
“Poggers! I was worried I’d be stuck doing this alone Sumire-chan.”
“Having you around will make things easier.” Sumire chuckled nervously. “’Nudists sticking together’, and all that.”
Futaba wondered if putting the two nudist girls together in the same class was deliberate on the faculty’s part, especially considering that Sumire had only rejoined the program literally yesterday afternoon.
“Man…” Futaba eyed Sumire’s bare form up and down, without anything resembling ‘tact’. “I’m pretty smokin’ hot myself, but being compared to you isn’t gonna work out well for me…”
“Well it’s not really a fair comparison, I’ve been doing gymnastics for quite a while.” Sumire looked down at herself. “I’m proud of my body. I guess that’s part of why I rejoined.”
“Hmm… Yeah I saw online that you used to be in the program, up until right before I met Ren and the others.”
“Mm.” Sumire nodded, leaning against the wall, gazing up at the ceiling wistfully. “Back then I was still ‘Kasumi’, and I only joined the program for the shallowest reason possible: just trying to copy Makoto-senpai. Wearing one mask on top of another, neither of which really fit me.” She grinned, confidence quickly returning to her. “But once I was able to drop the masks and become myself again, I started experimenting in all sorts of ways to find out who I really am and what makes me happy. Part of that included dabbling in nudism again.”
“Come to think of it, Makoto did say you were naked when you were demonstrating your routine to her before we fought Dr. Maruki.”
“I’ve been doing all my practicing with Coach Hiraguchi nude for a while now, and I stopped wearing clothes at home not long after that.” She bashfully fiddled with a few strands of her hair. “I figured coming back to school was an excellent excuse to make my nudist debut official- or redebut I guess…”
“Based and nude-pilled. That’s hella ballin’.”
Sumire would assume those words just boiled down to ‘good’.
“I’m sure a couple of hotties like us are gonna get a ton of attention.”
“I suppose that’s inevitable.” Sumire exhaled. “But I don’t think that bothers me as much as it used to. Being… lusted over isn’t something I necessarily desire, but crafting my body is something I’ve worked so hard to do, y’know- maybe I can afford to be a little prideful about it; that kind of showing off I think I could actually enjoy. And if it pisses anyone off, screw ‘em, I’m happy with it so that’s enough.”
“I mean I agree but…” Futaba tilted her head. “Feels weird hearing you curse.”
“O-oh… sorry.” Sumire turned away. “Maybe he’s rubbing off on me…”
“Hm?”
“Nevermind.” Sumire pumped her fist. “I’m sure we’ll be able to support eachother plenty this year! Maybe even the next too. We’ll be seeing plenty of eachother.”
“I already am.”
“Y-you don’t have to stare quite that closely.”
“I mean you’re a nudist now, gotta get used to it.”
“I suppose there’s truth to that.” Sumire cleared her throat, and pulled her phone out of her bag. “And if ever I’m not around and you need me, you can just give me a call.”
“Sure! That’s a real cool phone btw…”
“’Btw’?”
Futaba’s hand reached out towards Sumire’s phone…
“I’ve been wanting to get this model—ACK!”
…and was stopped when her fellow nudist harshly grabbed her wrist, holding it in place, but still maintaining a friendly- almost serene- smile on her face while doing so.
“You can look with your eyes, Futaba-chan, there’s no need to touch.”
“Ow… But I…”
“Oh incidentally- I’m familiar with how to find bugs in phones, both in the form of software and physical hardware; a friend taught me how to spot them.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sumire released the other girl’s wrist, letting Futaba try to rub away the marks left by the gymnast’s surprisingly fierce grip.
“Oh it’s just something I thought I’d mention, apropos of nothing. Technology is quite interesting, it can even be used to listen to people through their phones; fascinating, huh?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Oh, nothing. I don’t know why I brought it up at all.” Sumire put her phone away. “Anyway we better get moving, we don’t want to be late to our first class.”
“I wasn’t gonna do anything with your phone if that’s what you were worried about.”
“I wasn't worried at all; I trust you Futaba-chan.”
“Well good, I do have a sense of honor, y’know…”
“Glad to hear it, anyway let’s go! We’ve got more eyes on us than most so we should set a good example.”
“’Kay…” Futaba watched Sumire as she started walking down the hall without her. “Tch, maybe next time…”
~ ~ ~
“Ah, hello there Senpai. I didn’t expect to find you up on the roof.”
“Hm?” Ren- who had been listlessly staring up at the sky lying back on one of the discarded chairs- turned to see Sumire and Futaba emerging from inside the stairwell. “’’Sup? How are you new nude school debuts going?”
“I think we’ve been doing well so far.” Sumire smiled. “Of course there’s a fair amount of fuss since we’re both newly nude here- well, that doesn’t fully apply to me, but you get it. Though honestly since everyone is used to having nudists at this school it’s been fairly manageable.”
“That’s good to hear. I guess it’d only be the new first years who aren’t used to all the nudity on display. Let me or Ryuji know if anyone does cause trouble though, we’ll set them straight.”
“That hopefully won’t be necessary. But what about you Senpai?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“You seem… less chipper than usual…”
Ren sighed.
“Well you know how it is… Usually I’d be pretty much glued to Makoto all day in school, but she’s off at college right now.”
“Right…”
“Normally I’d be able to find Haru up here but it’s the same story with her, and then there’s…” he went silent a while, before letting out another sigh. “Feeling a lot of absences today…”
“Senpai…”
Ren sat upright, a smile of resignation spreading across his face.
“Still, never mind, ‘ey?” He looked over at the other girl, leaning against the fence with a trouble expression. “You good Futaba? You haven’t said a word.”
“…”
“School’s not overwhelming you, is it?”
“…It’s underwhelming.”
“Huh?”
“Bleh…” Futaba hunched over. “I haven’t gotten a single ‘reasonable request’ all day. Noone has so much as groped by butt, my nipples remain totally un-pinched!”
“I should hope not.” Ren rubbed his forehead. “Makoto did actually have to deal with that from time to time. Early on there was this one boy who tried to get grabby; she delicately flipped his ass over and slammed him into the ground, that put a real damper in the sails of any would-be harasser in the school, though even with that there was the occasional unwanted touch here and there, but we dealt with those quickly too.”
“I’m glad I missed out on that kind of thing.” Sumire shook her head.
“Yeah, Makoto and the others went through the rather harsh transitional period for the sake of the nudists of the future. I’m glad to see people aren’t trying anything now, here’s hoping that continues.”
Futaba slouched.
“So they’re not gonna do pervy stuff to us at all?”
Ren raised a concerned eyebrow.
“You don’t want them to, do you?”
“Ew- no! Obviously not! Definitely not! No way! That’s awful! I don’t want any perverts near me! Never ever! Maybe a little. Absolutely not! They need to keep their hands away!”
“Then what are you complaining about?”
“It’s just that school is nothing like I thought it’d be. Like yeah- I knew my research materials always skipped over the actual schoolwork and whatever, I was prepared for that, I thought I’d be cumming like ten times a day, five at least.”
Ren and Sumire exchanged a look.
“I mean… you could excuse yourself to the bathroom for a while if you can’t wait until you get home?”
“Nah, that’s not really that fun. I’ll just wait for the show.”
“The show?”
Futaba turned to Sumire.
“When is that, by the way?”
“When is what?”
“Y’know. I know you probably never did it yourself but Makoto definitely had to, and you must have been aware of it.”
“…Um…”
“Where she’s made to masturbate in front of all the cameras and stuff?”
“…” Sumire stared blankly while gently scratching her scalp. “I mean going by what Makoto did, your best bet for something like that is the culture festival, but that’s not for a long while…”
Ren pretended to look at something else.
“Wait…” Futaba’s eyes went wide. “So it’s not something the school sets up for you?”
“What? Obviously not, that’s how you get sued.”
“N-not even for sex-ed?”
“I mean I was never in Makoto-senpai’s classes, but I doubt it. Sex-ed usually doesn’t call for live models, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t demonstrate m…masturbation.”
“No way…”
“Where would the cameras even come in that anyway?”
“Futaba…” Ren approached his not-quite-sister from behind and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I hate to shatter your innocence- not that that’s the right word for it- but those doujins and fetish site stories… aren’t accurate depictions of high school life.”
It was good that Ren was standing right next to her, it meant he could catch her before her head hit the ground as all the strength suddenly left her legs.
“Futaba!”
“No masturbation shows?”
“N-no, not really.”
“No sex toys?”
“Not in school at least.”
“No internal shots?”
“How would that even work?”
“Senpai!”
“What Sumire? I’m just trying to make sense of what she’s saying.”
Futaba kept hanging limp in Ren’s arms- it was kind of annoying.
“No orgasm quotas?”
“What the fuck? No.”
“No vibrating dildos on the seats?”
“Obviously not.”
“No school-wide bukkake session?”
“Jesus Christ Futaba- what the fuck are you reading?”
She narrowed her eyes at Ren.
“Don’t forget I know your search history, don’t throw rocks in glass houses.”
“Wh-what is she referring to Senpai?”
“Sh-she’s just talking rubbish, don’t worry about it, Sumire.”
“He’s—” Futaba was cut off when Ren’s hand slapped atop her mouth.
“Total rubbish, but I get the message.”
Futaba grunted, finally standing up under her own strength again as Ren released her.
“What the hell do you do in school then?”
“Um…” Sumire pondered a moment, before shrugging. “Learn, I guess? Study? Take exams and stuff?”
“Wait, so nudists just have to live normal school lives?”
“Is that bad?”
“BLEGH!” Futaba sneered. “Do the other students at least take tons of pictures of us to jack off to?”
“Oh yeah- we actually do have that one!” Ren was immediately embarrassed by how cheerful that sounded coming out of his mouth, he was just happy to finally throw Futaba a bone- so to speak.
“I guess exhibitionism is the only stat I can grind here… unless…”
“No.”
“I didn’t even say anything Ren!”
“I’m not going to deal with the fallout with Sojiro over you doing something stupid. Behave yourself.”
“Fascist.” Futaba huffed. “Ehh… I guess it’s better to do it from home- that way I can remain anonymous anyway.”
“What—actually no, I genuinely don’t want to know.”
A tired-looking Morgana poked his head out of Futaba’s bag.
“Joker, I’ve changed my mind, I’m gonna keep hanging out in your bag after all.”
“You’ve got it rough Senpai.”
Notes:
Being so *cultured* comes at a cost
Chapter 121: College girls, or university, same thing probably
Summary:
The nudist quintet (and Haru) make their debut at Tokyo U
Chapter Text
“So are we absolutely sure we don’t want to try the whole ‘taking our first step together’ thing one more time?”
“For the last time Eiko-chan, we’re never putting ourselves through that embarrassment again, it was a terrible idea from the start.”
“Hmph! That’s rich coming from you Ai-chan; I remember you were the one to say it wasn’t cringeworthy back when Nudie Prez brought it up.”
“I regret ever suggesting it…”
“You bitches are all lame.”
“Even if we did do it again now, it wouldn’t count as our ‘first step’ anymore. You can’t have multiple attempts at a first.”
“Now’s not the time to be a math nerd Mieko-chan!”
“At least this part is worth a laugh…”
Everyone’s favorite glorious gaggle of greatly gifted graduate girl nudists had gathered outside Tokyo U; the time for their long awaited debut in further education had arrived. And while this did mean Makoto’s academic career would be disappointingly Ren-free for the next year, she still had way more friends by her side than she had every had in her life before- at least prior to meeting the Phantom Thieves.
Of course, a new venue for her education also meant a whole new venue for her decidedly exhibitionistic lifestyle, complete with a whole new audience, notably larger than before (no euphemism intended, I assure you), and much less accustomed to having a beautiful naked woman casually walking among them- much less five of them.
Speaking of which, while Makoto was already appreciating the countless new eyes on her (even if she made an effort to not show this fact), she didn’t want to be too distracted by such things- she was here for the sake of her dream career after all- so having her trusted nudist comrades here to help divide up the attention was something she appreciated… Well, maybe a little distraction wouldn’t hurt between classes…
Of course, nudists weren’t the only friends joining her on this new stage of her life.
“Now come on you lot, this isn’t the time for bickering.” Haru’s sweet, disarming smile was quite the effective tool. “Isn’t that right, Mako-chan?”
“Mm. It is. We’re all here for something much more important. We’re here…”
Makoto turned to Eiko, silently prompting her to finish the sentence. It unfortunately took a couple moments for the girl to realize this was the case, but only a second or so of floundering later she caught on and nodded.
“…To get the qualifications necessary to achieve our dreams!”
“…To finally get plowed by a new hot boyfriend or two!”
Eiko’s brow furrowed, she wasn’t expecting a chorus backing her up, much less one that’s completely off-base.
“What’d you say Mieko-chan?”
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re gonna take our courses and whatever seriously- HOWEVER—!" Mieko suddenly pointed to Makoto, Haru, and Eiko, rapidly alternating between the three. “You three have no idea what it’s like!”
Makoto nervously followed the course of the tip of Mieko’s finger.
“What what’s like?”
Mieko melodramatically huffed, folding her arms.
“Spending our whole high school career single!”
“She’s right.” Aya rubbed her head. “It just doesn’t make any sense. Bunch of smoking hot ladies- who spend every moment bare ass naked- and we don’t have guys throwing themselves at our feet constantly? What gives, man?”
Makoto laughed nervously.
“I’m not sure I can really say anything useful on that front, I’m the wrong person to ask for advice on picking up guys, so I can only offer my condolences…”
“Says the chick with the dedicated boyfriend and literal fanclub.” Mieko’s dour state quickly vanished in favor of a renewed confidence. “But it’s alright, I totally understand why we’ve been single until now.”
“Really now?” Ai smirked incredulously.
“Phwa~” Mieko flicked one of her twintails. “Clearly we overestimated all those innocent little high school boys back in Shujin. They certainly weren’t shy about admiring the beauty before them, but were just way too nervous to actually approach and make a move on any of us. Sigh, I pity the poor little darlings…”
Eiko tilted her head, rather bemused.
“I mean, that’s probably right, but why are you suddenly talking like… how do I even begin describing it? You just said the word ‘sigh’ out loud, for starters.”
“Haaaa~” Mieko let out an exaggerated sigh while dropping a hip for good measure. “It really is a shame just how fettered one can be by youth, but now that we’re entering the world of further education- full of adults, true men- there will finally be those who possess the courage to take that leap of faith, and fight amongst themselves to win the favor of the gorgeous nudist women who now walk among them.” With her hands proudly on her hips, the girl was positively glowing with confidence. “I am Mieko Ohara, very pretty eighteen-and-eleven-twelfths years old nudist woman and object of desire for all the distinguished and intellectual gentleman of Japan’s finest academy~”
A certain force presided over the scene for a significant amount of time after her speech had ended, a force felt throughout the universe by all, perhaps even older and more powerful than the power of cognition itself, with the power to completely distort the flow of time-space itself to those that fall within its grasp. I speak of course of the ‘awkward silence’.
Aya was the one to finally break the silence, with a scoff.
“Mieko-chan’s lost in another one of her ‘goddess’ delusion phases, I guess.”
Ai tilted her head.
“Who the hell says ‘eleven-twelfths’?”
Makoto lightly scratched her scalp, not entirely sure what to make of all this.
“I mean legally we all still qualify as minors until we’re twenty anyway, so it’s not as if anything has really changed in the short time since graduation…”
“Eh, let her have her moment.” Eiko chuckled. “Girl’s livin’ her best life. Plus she does have a point- it’s probably pretty nerve-wracking to actually approach one of the ladies that everyone is constantly staring at; everyone is so mild mannered.”
“…I prefer it that way.”
“Of course we prefer that Nudie Prez, we’ve got our luvvy partners and don’t need anyone tryin’ to butt in; but for the poor hot single nudists in your area, they’ve gonna be super lonely and frustrated; I really feel for them.”
Ai glared at her friend.
“Your ‘pity’ would be more convincing if you weren’t snickering under your breath, Eiko-chan.”
“I’m not laughing- I promise, I’m happy for you all.”
“Uh-huh…”
“Y’know.” Makoto- somewhat reticently- raised her hand. “We do have actual classes to get to… it’s the real reason we’re all here, in case you’ve all forgotten.”
Mieko snapped her fingers (for some reason).
“Quite an astute observation, Makoto-dono.”
“Dono?”
“After all it’s not just our beautiful natural forms that will enchant our newfound, mature peers- but our great intellects as well.”
“U-um…”
“We’ve earned our places here, so we must continue to exhibit our stunning minds in addition to our stunning bodies to make ourselves all the more desirable. Come now, let us waste no more time, and show all these dapper men what their lives have been missing.”
And with that, Mieko proudly strutted through the university grounds to the front door with her finest gait, making sure to emphasize the sway of her hips and the (somewhat unnecessary) rotation of her upper torso as she went; shooting more than a few provocative smiles at anyone who would look her way (which was most people, in fairness).
“I admire the confidence at least.”
“It’s fine Nudie Prez.” Aya smiled. “She’ll come off of her high by the end of the day, but she’ll still be feelin’ pretty good. We’ll all be getting laid by the end of the week, I’m sure.”
“R-right…” Makoto gave her own weak smile back. “I uh… wish you all nothing but the best of luck?”
“By the way Makoto-chan.” Ai leaned into Makoto’s field of vision. “We know how awkward you are trying to interact with people…”
“Wh-what’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just letting you know- if you get some pushy jerk making unwanted advances on you—”
“Don’t worry about that, I can handle them. I’ll be sure to—”
“Send them our way.”
“Hm? No, I appreciate the offer for support, but I can handle my own fights just fine.”
“Nah, you don’t get it. I mean tell them they can make advances on us instead.”
“H-huh?”
“Dammit Makoto! We need all the help we can get! Don’t hold out on us!”
“OKAY okay… I’ll let them know you’re interested.”
“’preciate it.”
~ ~ ~
The Tokyo University entrance exams had quite the reputation for being difficult, and nothing drove this point home more than the immense relief felt by every new student that had walked into the academy on this day. The anxiety gripping them all from the moment their put their pencils down for the final time to the moment they finally heard their results, being swiftly replaced by the wholly new anxiety of wondering if they just dreamed or imagined their success. Only once they were physically standing within the walls of Tokyo U could they be completely certain, and breathe the biggest sigh of relief of their lives.
One such student had struggled immensely with his exams, due in no small part to the five-sided distraction inadvertently set up by the former Shujin nudists, constantly in his peripheral vision while he was trying to focus on the papers in front of him.
Through unprecedented willpower and a small amount of luck, he was able to just about pass and enter the college of his dreams. While he had plenty of college fantasies that involved being surrounded by cute girls in a state of undress, the immense stress of those entrance exams had now been unconsciously linked with the image of naked girls in his mind, rather putting a damper on his lewd dreams.
Perhaps that was for the best though; despite having fantasies of getting close and intimate with naked college girls, he could have done that at any no-name university, he really did apply here because he had ambitions of a great career ahead of him. Having the mild trauma of the nudist-filled entrance exams helped him get such childish goals out of his system.
Why, at this point he’d be perfectly okay if he never saw another naked girl for the rest of his college caree—
“ARGH!”
“Hm?” Barely two seconds after sitting down in the lecture hall, Makoto was shocked by the sudden outburst from the student immediately behind her. She turned around to see the boy staring at her, eyes wide with shock. “Are you okay?”
“Y-you again…” He muttered to himself in disbelief.
“Excuse me? Do we know eachother?”
Aya was aiming for the same policing career as Makoto, and as such they would be taking many of the same classes. So naturally she was sat right next to her, and was equally startled by the boy suddenly yelping behind them.
“What gives man? You sit on a tack or summin’?”
“This isn’t grade school Aya-chan, no one here would pull a prank that childish, surely?”
“Oh don’t pretend you know anything about pranks Nudie Prez, you’ve never so much as thrown a paper airplane. I know you too well.”
“Y-you don’t know me that well. I’ve made a paper airplane before…”
“Never in school though, you’re too well behaved. You’d never dare let one fly.”
“It was in school I’ll have you know… first grade arts and crafts, but still…”
“You’re a treasure, Makoto.”
“Don’t make fun of me! Besides, being well-behaved and taking school seriously aren’t things to be ashamed of.”
“…A national treasure.”
“Tch…” Makoto looked back to the boy, who had nearly been forgotten, but was still just as motionless in shock as before. “Seriously, are you okay?”
To call him entirely motionless wouldn’t be accurate, given how his eyes were darting from one body part to the next, contrasting Makoto’s salmon pink nipples on her fair skin vs the darker brownish-pink nipples on the bronze-tanned Aya, all four prominently standing to attention despite the comfortable temperature of the room.
“Of all the classes, they had to be in this one…”
“Hm?” Aya raised an eyebrow. “What are you mumbling about?”
“Oh!” Makoto smiled sympathetically. “Did you just realize that you’re in the wrong class? It’s okay, nerves can get the better of us like that, but there’s still a few minutes left, if you’re quick you can make it to where you’re supposed to be in time, I’m sure!”
Oh how he wished he was in the wrong class. While he wasn’t aiming for a career in the police force, he was still here to study law first and foremost.
He was getting flashbacks to the entrance exam, the greatest test of resolve in his relatively young life, and now he would have to face it day after day until he obtained his degree.
His fists slammed down onto his desk, causing both women to flinch, and prompting more than a few funny looks from the other students (who all quickly returned to preparing themselves for class/ ogling the nudists themselves).
“Is there no end to the trials I must face?”
“What’s with this guy?” Aya grumbled.
He slammed the desk again with his palms, leaping out of his seat.
“No, I came this far, I cannot let something like this get in my way. If I ever want to become a successful lawyer, I need an unbreakable, unflinching will; one that cannot be bent by even the most enticing wiles.”
“…?”
He sat back down, his eyes were screwed shut, but otherwise he had the most fierce expression of his life upon his face.
“No matter what you throw at me…” His eyes burst open, and his glare was powerful enough to bore hole right through the girls’ bodies. “…I WILL ENDURE!”
“…” Makoto stared blankly back at him a while, before silently facing forwards again.
“Uhh… Makoto-chan?”
“Just ignore him Aya-san, I’m sure he’ll get it out of his system eventually.”
“…Yeah probably. Can’t blame him for wanting a look I guess…” Aya pondered for a moment, before sprouting a mischievous smirk. “#ShujinNudist is what you wanna search if you wanna see the really good angles in your free time.”
“Please don’t encourage him, Aya-san…” Makoto mumbled without looking up from her notebook.
The boy grew yet more tense (despite already looking tense enough to explode any moment).
“Outside of classes too? I doubt I could—” He shook his head. “No, maybe exposure therapy is just want I need to conquer this trial.”
“We nudists give a very different meaning to the term ‘exposure therapy’.”
Makoto wasn’t sure exactly what this ‘trial’ was exactly, but she knew that if she took her work anywhere near as seriously as this boy was taking said trial, then her success was all but guaranteed.
~ ~ ~
Ogle, verb- to stare in a lecherous manner. While almost any attractive person was familiar with such an action, whether through their own intent or just an unfortunate reality of being physically perceptible to those with wandering eyes. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone more intimately familiar with such a verb than the ‘First Shujin Nudist’ herself, Makoto Niijima.
If you had asked her a year ago, the mere thought of such an experience would fill her with a primal feeling of revulsion. Although, her ever growing wealth of experience in showing off her private parts to strangers, she had only learnt to enjoy the feeling of being so openly desired by those around her. An undeniable indicator that the meek, submissive, ‘good girl’ she used to be was well and truly gone (granted there was that one ‘certain someone’ she didn’t mind being submissive to in certain, intimate situations, and the name ‘good girl’ from him wouldn’t make her unhappy- especially if it was whispered in her ear- but that’s beside the point).
Of course, in her early days- where she was the only nudist- the ogling was at its peak. Every student in school would either openly and shamelessly gawk, as if trying to burn the image of her slim yet toned body into their retinas; or they’d do the bare minimum to pretend they weren’t at all interested, either when she was looking at them or when fearing judgement from their peers (especially when said peers were supposed to be their actual girlfriends).
That never went away obviously, attractive naked women aren’t something you get bored of, doesn’t matter if you’ve seen boobs literally tens of thousands of times before, you’re always going to be happy to see another pair. But by the time Makoto really learned to appreciate the eyes on her in Shujin, her body being on display eventually became ‘the norm’.
Everyone looked forward to seeing it each school day, but it was an ‘expected’ experience, which did put a slight damper on the experience.
Which is why she had that extra bit of swagger in her stride as she made her way to her next class. Nudists like her were common knowledge by now, and she wasn’t the only one at Tokyo U, but this was still a new environment full of a wholly new crowds to behold the rhythmic bouncing of her well-shaped breasts, the deliberate sway of her behind, and even the faint hints of her arousal from her shifting labia.
This early stage, where her nudity can feel ‘new’ again, she would be sure to make the most of it this time around. This time there was no shame threatening to weigh her down into submission, no need to deny the side of her that was aroused by all the eyes on her, no overwhelming haze numbing her to the crowds. She could enjoy this exhibitionist’s fantasy come to live with the benefit of full consciousness, awareness, and openness to her own pleasures.
The feeling of the cool floor beneath the soles of her feet were a constant reminder of her exposed state, she couldn’t forget how much she was showing off even if she wanted to (which she didn’t, in case you’re wondering). She scanned the faces of her fellow students as she passed them, wanting to see exactly how they were reacting to her (something she was nowhere near brave enough to try the last time she made a “nude debut”); some smiled at her, others gawked in shock, but her favorites were the ones who got scared the moment her eyes met theirs, and bashfully turned away- too embarrassed to face her directly. It had been a while since her nudity had made her feel this powerful, not even the faces of the few who spitefully sneered at her in disgust could upset her right now; their harsh judgements just rolled right off of her.
Speaking of feelings provoked by her nudity, a familiar stirring was building up in her loins, one that posed an equally familiar threat to the impressions her new peers had on her.
There was still time to kill before her next class- thus the reason she had been taking an unnecessarily long ‘scenic route’ through the university, prolonging her own exposure. But even if there wasn’t time she’d have to make time, lest she take things too far; she quickly dived into the closest bathroom, not even checking if anyone else was in the room before she ducked into the stall closest to the door.
While one hand was still closing and locking the door, the other was already deeply buried into her needy pussy. She thought she was past the stage of her life where she need to escape somewhere private to relieve her arousal before it got the better of her somewhere more public, but she couldn’t say that this upset her any- that’d be a barefaced lie at this stage. Part of her wanted to drop the pretence and just shamelessly masturbate in the hallway (this part of her was- of course- named Agnes), but sanity prevailed, and she opted for the relative privacy of the toilet stall.
When she used to do this back in Shujin, she’d sit down and lift her feet up so there was no chance of someone spotting her beneath the door, but she didn’t bother this time, she was just too focused on release to care. A longer session- one more focused on prolonging and extending her pleasure as much as possible- would have to wait until she got home (or better yet- to Ren), for now she just needed to clear the horny haze from her mind by bringing herself to climax as fast as possible.
Once the door was securely locked, her other hand went to grab her own breast with enough force to create an audible slapping sound, and she furiously kneaded it while her other breast violently shook as a result of her weakening knees threatening to buckle as orgasm rapidly approached.
She bit down on her lips to try and silence herself, but only achieved limited success as her moans couldn’t be contained so easily; so long as she wasn’t loud enough to be heard outside the bathroom, it should be okay.
It didn’t take long for her to reach her peak, and for her to forcefully squirt downwards, between her bare feet, her juices pooling between her toes as she curled them against the cool floor. The hand that was grabbing her breast had to abandon its post so she could lean against the wall, preventing herself from collapsing as she choked down a cry of ecstasy.
She continued to rub her folds to extend her orgasm as long as possible, but once the bliss had finally faded she let herself sit down to catch her breath. She smiled, taking a moment to enjoy her own afterglow.
“As great as that was…” She began to muse aloud. “…It’s probably best that I get this out of my system sooner rather than later.”
With her knees still shaky, she forced herself to stand up again.
“I’m still here to take my education seriously, after all. I better head out before I’m late.” She reached up to slap her cheeks to try and fully wake up from his blissful state, but stopped herself just short, noticing her hands still covered in girlcum. “I remembered this time, good.” It was embarrassing how she felt a little proud about that, but it wasn’t going to bother her.
She opened the stall and stepped outwards, leaving her bag where it was until after she washed her hands. Midway through the process however, she happened to turn her head to the left, noticing a girl about her age, staring at her wide-eyed, red faced, and in complete shock.
“A-ah…” Makoto gave her own wide-eyed stare in return, to the girl who had been standing there since about eight seconds before Makoto had entered the room, and not moved a muscle since.
For a short while the room was silent, save for the sound of the running faucet.
“G-good morning…” Makoto forced a smile at the other girl, her own face now glowing just as red as her new ‘friend’, before quickly rinsing off her hands, drying them with a paper towel, grabbing her bag, and powerwalking back out into the hallway.
Best sooner rather than later, indeed.
~ ~ ~
The boy who had been unwittingly surrounded by nudists during his entrance exams, and now sat behind a pair during his law classes, was both blessing and cursing his life choices today.
While it was near impossible to be truly upset by having naked ladies around, he really wished it didn’t have to be somewhere where he desperately needed to focus for the sake of his future career. Knowing he had multiple years of fighting the temptation to admire the vast display of skin in front of him in favor of actually furthering his studies filled him with no small amount of dread, and doubt in his willpower.
He had already proudly proclaimed that he will endure this trial, but he feared whether he’d be able to live up to these words, especially now that he’d been made aware of the ‘#ShujinNudist’ hashtag giving him easy access to even more views of the ladies in question; too easy. ‘Temptation’ seemed to be becoming a theme in his further education.
Still, there was some respite: in addition to studying law, he had also registered for business management classes. Some of the info there would be useful if he ever wanted to run his own firm, but it was mainly there for the sake of his back-up plan to take over the family business should his siblings not be up to the task. And more pressingly, it would be a break from the female nudists for a while (he never expected he’d want a break from such a thing before, but life can bring you to unexpected places sometimes.
He secured himself a seat, preparing his school supplies and a fresh notebook ready for the lecture.
In the seat immediately to his left sat a young woman- mercifully fully clothed. He wasn’t sure why exactly, but looking at her brought the word ‘floof’ to his mind. She was certainly cute, and very pretty, but he was confident she wouldn’t be too distracting, judging by the reserved and dignified way she carried herself.
She noticed him look at her, and politely smiled back at him. Feeling embarrassed at being caught unintentionally staring, he reciprocated with his own apologetic smile, before turning his focus forward again.
“Oh, hey Okumura-san.”
He jumped at the voice from his right.
“Hello again, Toranosuke-san.” Haru nodded to her nudist acquaintance.
Nudist. That’s when he realized, there never was any hope of escape, and he was a fool for thinking otherwise. Yet another naked woman, one with long, wavy, flowing brunette hair that seemed to shine and shimmer as she took her seat beside him, quickly preparing her own writing materials.
“I-if you two know eachother- I don’t mind switching seats?” The boy offered, not looking at Ai or Haru directly as he spoke.
“Nah, you’re good.” Ai shrugged. “We’re not gonna be talking during class or anything.”
“Indeed.” Haru nodded. “While I do hope to get to know you and the others better, that can wait until after class.”
“O-oh… Okay.”
And the last hope for escape was dashed. Defeated, the boy turned his focus back down to his empty notebook, desperately trying to keep it there. Desperately trying not to look at the curvy form so close to his right-hand side. He swore he could feel her body heat from here, maybe it was just his imagination.
She loosened her shoulders, stretching upwards, showing off her clean-shaven armpits, arching her back, and thrusting her substantial chest out forwards, letting out a light, but breathy moan as she did so.
She brought her pen to her lips- her full, glossy lips- absentmindedly pressing the lid against them in thought.
‘Am I in hell?’ The boy thought to himself.
Ai went to write something.
“Tch… typical.” She leant forward slightly, so she could see past the boy her floofy acquaintance. “Hey Okumura-san, do you have a spare pen I could borrow? Mine just ran out.”
“Oh, sure. No problem.”
Haru had a few spares handy, so she held one out for the nudist, but was spared the exertion of having to stand up, as Ai was more than happy to do so herself and lean over to grab it.
The passage of time seemed to slow to a crawl as she did so, paying no mind to how her breasts would hang down mere inches from the boy’s face, giving him an unexpectedly intimate view of the exact, enticing texture of her nipples in addition to their color. He could only hope the content of the lecture would stick in his mind as much as this new mental image, but he had his doubts.
“Thanks Okumura.”
“It’s no problem, and please- call me Haru.”
“Hm.” Ai smirked as she sat back down, still completely ignoring the boy. “Haru-san it is.”
‘Life is unfair’.
Chapter 122: New roles
Summary:
Two new avenues open up
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Having Ren staying in Tokyo for the foreseeable future had a rather unexpected benefit for one Sojiro Sakura: essentially free labor from his former charge Ren Amamiya.
Granted it wasn’t truly free labor, the payment was room and board, but it was as good as free in the café owner’s mind- especially for the sake of someone he had developed so much respect for over the course of the last year, and who had essentially become a much-needed older sibling for his only daughter.
But the true benefit wasn’t the cheap labor itself, it was the fact that it freed him to do other things, most notably bonding with Futaba. Said bonding sessions usually consisted of him taking her out shopping for some new game, computer part, or anime figurine. Not that he could ever hope to comprehend any of these things, but seeing how unabashedly happy she was made it all worthwhile despite his cluelessness. Plus, it was good to see her not only be willing to go outside, but be excited at the prospect; he still had a hard time believing it.
Today he was out on just such an excursion, taking Futaba out to Akihabara to buy some upgrade for her home set up, and gushing about all the amazing things she could do with such a boost to her computer’s processing power, while he would blindly nod along so long as she kept smiling.
This meant Ren was currently in charge of Leblanc, a Leblanc currently devoid of customers, save for one. Being in the relatively private café alone with her boyfriend meant Makoto could take her number one favorite seat without fear of judgement: Ren’s lap, where she made herself very comfortable, and made him both happy and nervous in equal measure. Though the situation he was fearing- her feeling a certain poke from below- wasn’t something that would displease her.
With her beau’s body warming her outside, and his coffee warming her inside, Makoto felt completely content right now.
“I could get used to this kind of treatment.”
“Hoo, I bet.” Ren smirked. “Maybe once we move in together this can become our default state of being.”
“M-move in t-together?” Makoto was glad he couldn’t see her bright red face, but in reality he didn’t need to see it to know it was there, he was too experienced with her for her to hide such things. “D-don’t you think you’re getting ahead of yourself?”
“Heh.” Ren gently caressed her head, being careful not to shift her headband any. “Well the offer is there whenever you’re ready.”
“I don’t understand how you can say things like that so shamelessly.”
“Here I was thinking you were the master of shamelessness.”
“We have very different kinds of ‘shamelessness’.”
Makoto pouted and grumbled, it was exactly this- her getting flustered so easily- that gave Ren the confidence to speak like this.
“Though I was talking to Sis not long ago about the possibility of me getting my own place, living independently.”
“Oho?”
“She’s helping me look for an affordable apartment, still within Tokyo of course. When that happens I wouldn’t be opposed to you visiting at least.”
“Ohoho?”
“And I want somewhere with an easy commute to college, so when you graduate it might not be a bad idea to commute from there too, just for the sake of convenience.”
“Ohohoho?”
“Ren, stop doing that laugh, it’s creepy.”
“Well you’ve given me something to look forward to. I’ll be sure to save up so I can contribute to the rent. Though apartments here in Tokyo are probably pretty pricey, I doubt we could afford more than one bedroom before you join the force. However will we manage like that?”
“How indeed.” Though she was still blushing, a coy smile spread across Makoto’s face. “It would be nice to not have to tiptoe around Sis or Boss at all.”
“Now I’m REALLY looking forward to it.”
“Oh hush. I’ve narrowed it down to a few choices; I can’t be too picky, but I’d like a living space with a large window if I can get away with it.”
Whether the window would be there for the sake of giving Makoto a great view of the city or to give the city a great view of her wasn’t something Ren could be certain of, but either way he was on board with the idea.
“So how’s the college life treating you? Got in trouble for dating a high schooler yet?”
“Shut up Ren.” Makoto rolled her eyes. “But to answer your question, it’s going well. We’ve covered little more than the introductions to our various courses, and I’ve managed to not embarrass myself too much so far.”
“Not too much, you say?”
“N-nevermind. How about you? I assume you’re keeping out of trouble back in Shujin?”
“Well I am.”
“What you mean you are?”
“Futaba.”
“Oh dear, I should have guessed…” Makoto leant back into Ren’s chest, sliding down low enough so that she could look up at him. “She’s not struggling too much, is she? The crowds aren’t a problem?”
Ren sighed.
“Ehh, if anything the crowds aren’t enough of a problem.”
“Huh?”
“Her ‘research materials’ paint a rather distorted view of what school is like, especially for a lady without her clothes.”
“Oh? Oh.” Makoto wished she could say she didn’t know anything about having too hot and steamy of a mind than what’s appropriate for a school setting, but…
“It’ll be fine though, we’re all gonna keep an eye on her just to be safe.”
“That’s good. She’s a smart girl, I’m sure she’ll get it out of her system soon and manage just fine.”
“Yeah, I’m not too worried, all things considered.”
“I’d offer to help if I were still attending, but obviously that’s not an option.”
Ren chuckled, giving Makoto’s thigh an affectionate squeeze.
“I guess it sorta-kinda evens out, you had to deal with being student council president during your third year, I have to deal with keeping that girl on a leash.”
Makoto knew what he meant, but given their literal use of a leash in the past, her mind went to places she had no intention of going today.
“I still have that thing at home somewhere…”
“Hm? Did you say something Makoto?”
She cleared her throat as she recomposed herself.
“N-no, I was just thinking how it’s good that you don’t have to worry about Phantom Thief business on top of everything else during your third year. It’s all so demanding already.”
“That’s true.” Ren leant back in thought. “You had to deal with two duties on top of the usual third year stuff, while I only have to deal with one.”
“It’s not a competition, Ren.”
“I know, I’m just saying.”
The couple fell into a comfortable silence for a while, though Ren continued to silently ponder, feeling an idea beginning to brew within his mind. Makoto however was more concern with what she wasn’t feeling, i.e. Ren’s arms. She put her coffee mug down on the table, took ahold of his arms, and wrapped them around herself, silently urging him to squeeze her- which he was more than happy to oblige.
“You sure you don’t want a refill of your coffee Mako?”
“Maybe in a bit.” She relaxed in his arms. “Let’s stay like this a little longer, Boss won’t be back for a while after all.”
“Heh, I like your thinking.”
~ ~ ~
Sumire’s training sessions would usually take place shortly after school ended; they were a great way to work off the mental exhaustion of her education by physically exhausting herself with gymnastics.
Today had been quite the productive session; Coach Hiraguchi’s harsh-but-fair critiques and teaching methods were very effective, especially now that Sumire was well and truly out of her delusion-induced-slump, facing the world and her craft as her true self. Nothing felt better than praise that she felt she had truly earned.
With her hair still slightly wet from her post-training shower, Sumire waved goodbye to her trusted coach, and stepped outside to begin her walk home- one last physical exertion for the day before her much-deserved rest.
Though almost immediately after stepping out into the street, she got this strange feeling: the unsettling sensation of being watched.
Granted, she was a nudist again, so people looking at her was to be expected, just something that’s included in the package. She’d be lying if she said she was fully used to it, but she had no intention of letting herself be bothered by such things; she worked hard to get the body she has, so if people wanted to look then she should only take it as a compliment- or at least she thought that was the best way to think about it.
Though this was a different feeling, she didn’t feel like her body was being watched, but that she was being watched- which was a subtle but important distinction. She scanned her environment, but didn’t see anything unusual; plenty of people were walking around, and plenty of them were checking her out, but none of them looked particularly strange or worrying. She decided to just move on, she wouldn’t put it out of her mind entirely or let her guard down, but she’d be sure not to show any sign of vulnerability.
The walk home wasn’t especially long, and she consciously stuck to populated areas where it was safe. Only a fool would travel down alleyways and such alone- clothes or otherwise. She simply put one foot in front of the other, her tough soles unbothered by the hard ground as she accelerated to just above a regular walking pace, though not so fast as to draw unnecessary attention.
Unfortunately, even as she turned one corner after another, that feeling still persisted. She checked over her shoulder again, seeing nothing. There were still plenty of people around, so worst case scenario she could easily call for help, so she didn’t panic, but that unease was really starting to set in.
Deciding her best bet was to just keep moving as normal, she—
“Sumire Yoshizawa, is it?”
Sumire flinched, spinning around once more to find another woman addressing her, in particular a fellow nudist.
“Woah, didn’t mean to make you jump.” The woman laughed nervously. “Sorry.”
“Um… it’s fine?”
The woman flashed a disarming smile, but that swiftly gave way to a much more serious, analytical look.
“But you are ‘Sumire Yoshizawa’, right?”
“…Who’s asking?”
“C’mon, don’t look at me like that. I promise I’m trustworthy.”
“You’d have to admit Kotone, you seem pretty shady addressing her out of nowhere like that.” A third voice causing her to jump again, spinning around to see a blonde girl- who completed a pincer movement around the nudist gymnast.
“You’re just as bad Aigis, you snuck up on her too.”
“Can I go now?” Sumire asked, frustration (and a small amount of fear) clear in her tone.
“Wait, hold up. Let’s try this again…” Kotone grinned at the girl, resting her hands on her hips as she did so. “I’m Kotone Shiomi, this is my partner Aigis. We’re here on business, looking for Sumire Yoshizawa.”
“Business?”
“Of a sort. Technically it’s more like a favor for a friend’s business, but that’s neither here nor there.”
Sumire was still apprehensive.
“I’m not interested in any ‘modelling’ offer you have.”
“Ah, no no, you’ve got the wrong idea.” Kotone shook her head. “It is an offer, but not for any kind of modelling.”
“Being vague doesn’t help matters…” Aigis’s shoulders drooped.
Sumire- having none of this- decided to just step around Aigis and continue walking, quickening her pace further in hopes that these shady women would just give up.
Kotone quickly spoke up.
“This concerns you as a persona user.”
Sumire froze in place, apprehensively peering back over her shoulder at the pair.
“…I have no idea what a ‘persona user’ is.”
“Come on now, don’t play dumb.” Kotone raised an eyebrow in mock scepticism. “You’re a persona user, since earlier in the year, right?”
Aigis seemed to glance upwards for a moment, as if reading something unseen.
“’Ella’. Specializing in ‘light’ / ‘bless’ skills and physical attacks.”
Sumire grew tense, these women knew way too much.
“Who are you and where are you getting this information?”
“It’s much more innocent than you’re thinking, I promise. I just have really good sources… or rather, my friend does.”
Sumire’s eyes shifted over to Aigis, but Kotone shook her head.
“No, not Aigis, another friend. One who believes you’d be a great asset.”
“Asset?”
“Have you heard of the Shadow Operatives?”
“…No?”
Aigis side-eyed her partner.
“Why bother asking that when the answer could only be ‘no’? The whole thing is secret.”
“That’s the fun. It’s cool to ask ‘do you know the secret thing’, right? Doesn’t it speak to your inner middle schooler?”
“I didn’t go to middle school.”
Sumire still wasn’t sure what to think, but she decided to hear them out (while keeping an escape route in mind, just in case).
“What are these ‘Shadow Operatives’?”
“I’ll cut straight to the cool part- they’re basically secret police who quell shadow-related threats. I’m sure you know what shadows are?”
“…Unfortunately so.” Sumire didn’t see the point in lying at this stage.
“Sounding cool so far?”
“…”
“Man I was told you were the agreeable type, I thought this’d be easy, but you don’t trust me at all.”
“A friend told me I should adopt a more cautious- less trusting- mindset.”
“That’s some questionable advice, but I kinda get it.” Kotone leaned forward. “I know you don’t consider yourself a Phantom Thief, but you worked with them right? That experience goes a long way, it’d really help if you would come talk with us.”
Sumire’s eyes went wide, which only seemed to make Kotone proud.
“Surprised I know? Like I said- my friend’s sources are REALLY good. O-oh! But don’t worry, it wasn’t one of the thieves that told me, just in case you thought this was some betrayal or something. I promise, we’re the good guys in this situation.”
Sumire’s eyes narrowed.
“If you already know the thieves then you should ask them to join.”
“I’ve spoken with their leader over instant messaging plenty, but he doesn’t seem interested. I don’t blame him, I never joined either.”
“You’re recruiting me when you’re not a member yourself?”
“I said, didn’t I? This is just a favor to a friend’s business.” Kotone huffed to herself. “Man, I’m always making a big stink about not being ‘officially’ associated with the Shadow Operatives, but it seems all I do lately is run around doing errands for them.”
“You never did know how to refuse a request from a friend.” Aigis shook her head. “The real reason we don’t join up ourselves is that it’s a handy loophole.”
“A loophole?” Sumire tilted her head.
Kotone gave a playful shrug.
“I’m not an employee or anything, thus I have no obligation to ever follow any order from anyone in the Kirijo group, no matter what. I’m free as a bird, but I’ll still do anything Mitsuru-san wants me to.”
Aigis’s brow furrowed.
“It’s good to have someone on the outside, just in case any shadows from the past rise back up within the group. We’re a contingency plan.”
“Which I think makes us even cooler, don’t you think?” Kotone’s brow raised. “Oh, but don’t get the wrong idea- I still think other persona users joining them is a good thing. I won’t force anyone of course, the Phantom Thieves seem content to keep to their own group, but you don’t consider yourself part of their ranks, right?”
Sumire’s eyes fell slightly. It was true, despite being their close friend forged in the fires of the Maruki incident, the girl had difficulty considering herself a true member, more just a temporary ally- at least in regards to Metaverse related business. Though having this told to her was odd for more reasons than just facing her own insecurities; she hadn’t even confided with the thieves themselves about this, she was struggling to think of how this ‘Kotone’- or her ‘sources’- could possibly know something like that.
She had this awful feeling that whatever this was- it wouldn’t go away if she just walked away right here and now.
“Geez, that’s certainly a grim expression.” Kotone raised her hands reassuringly. “I know how this might seem, but I really promise you- it’s nothing bad. And you’re allowed to just say no and we’ll leave you be, but I really think you should hear us out.”
“…” Sumire stopped and considered a moment. “So this… ‘Shadow Operatives’ group- or whatever- wants to make use of my abilities as a persona user?”
“Basically, yeah. More, they just want as many competent persona users in reserve as possible, y’know? Most of the time you just get paid to be on call, you don’t have to actually do anything… man…”
Aigis suddenly seemed rather worried.
“You’re not thinking about joining after all, are you Kotone?”
“N-nah Aigis, I don’t need the extra cash that badly.”
“So I get paid just to be available in case some crisis does happen to pop up?” Sumire’s guard visibly dropped, if only the tiniest bit.
“See now you’re getting it! Starting to sound like a sweet deal after all, right?”
“Hmm…”
“You’re still apprehensive, I can tell. How about you come in tomorrow? Mitsuru-san will give you the detailed run down, and if you’re not feeling it, you can just leave.”
“You’d let me leave even if I knew the secret?”
“Of course. You already know about personas and stuff, and that’s the only bit worth keeping secret, so there’s no harm even if you did run out and blab.”
“And let’s be honest, it’s not as if anyone would believe you anyway.” Aigis’s smile was inappropriately sweet and polite for the words coming out of her mouth.
Sumire still had her suspicions, but she had to admit she was curious- if nothing else.
“I fully reserve the right to back out at any time…”
“So that’s a ‘yes’ then? To hearing us out?”
“I’m also going to tell people to expect a call from me within an hour of leaving the house, and to assume I’ve been kidnapped if they don’t hear from me.”
“Wow this friend of yours gave you some good ‘cautious and less trusting mindset’ advice after all.” A good-natured chuckle escaped Kotone’s lips. “Sounds good. Me and Aigis will keep you safe, we’ll stake the honor of the ‘Shiomi’s amazing commodities’ name on it.”
“What honor?”
“Don’t be so cynical Aigis.”
~ ~ ~
“Are you sure Amamiya-kun?”
“Don’t worry Kawakami-san, I can handle it.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re just putting up a smug front? This isn’t a casual commitment you can quit halfway through."
"When have I ever been the type to quit something before finishing? C’mon, I’d be a great student council president.”
Kawakami pinched the bridge of her nose, she couldn’t say this was what she was expecting when Ren rushed up to her right after the end of homeroom this morning. It wasn’t as if she thought he’d make a bad president as such, and Shujin did always have trouble finding passionate applicants for the position; but somehow- she just got the impression that the boy’s intentions weren’t wholly pure.
“Can I ask what exactly prompted this?”
Ren coyly shrugged.
“I just thought back to how hard Makoto would work for the council last year, and I got inspired.”
“Is that right?”
“Plus I used to help her out all the time in the student council office.”
‘Help rearrange her insides, maybe’. Kawakami thought to herself, having heard the former president’s panting and moaning from inside the office on more than one occasion- each time the teacher decided to just leave them to it and come back later.
“It’s not like I’m asking you to get me appointed on the spot or anything, I just wanna run.”
Kawakami sighed.
“I suppose I can help you with the paperwork for that much at least.”
“Thanks teach. I won’t let you down.”
“…Haah… No I suppose you never have before, barring being late on your first day, of course.”
“That’s ancient history now.” Ren folded his arms, looking characteristically cocky. “Anyway I’m sure she’ll be pleasantly surprised when I bring her news of my success.”
“Of course you’re already assuming you’ll be elected…” Kawakami admired the self-confidence, but felt conflicted about whether she should encourage it or not. “I can only assume ‘she’ is our ‘first nudist’ Niijima-san?”
“You know it. Everyone’s inspiration, or at least for all the nudists like you.”
Ren gestured to Kawakami’s exposed and shapely body, prompting a rather amused look from the teacher.
“At least put some effort into pretending you’re not openly ogling me, unless you want Niijima-san to learn just how much your eye wanders.”
Ren paused a moment, his glasses obscuring the brief nervous twitch in his eyes.
“See you think that’s a threat, but she understands better than most how easily naked women draw the eye. I know she wouldn’t get mad at me.”
“I see.”
“…B-but don’t tell her if you don’t have to, I’d rather not chance it…”
Kawakami snorted.
“You’re quite the headache sometimes, Amamiya-kun.”
“My bad.”
“The previous president’s boyfriend becoming the next one, huh…” Kawakami’s brow furrowed in thought for a while, before a realization hit. “Wait, are you really just doing this to impress her or something?”
“I mean…” Ren swayed where he stood in an effort to try and seem nonchalant, it wasn’t working. “I guess you could kinda say that, sorta-kinda? Sorta-kinda-maybe?”
“…”
“C’mon, don’t look at me like that Teach. I’m still gonna take it seriously. If she can do it, so can I.”
“Is this a competitive thing now?”
“I’m not trying to compete with her, per say. But I don’t wanna fall behind, y’know? Her third year was harder than mine was going to be; I don’t wanna seem like I’m just cruising through on easy mode compared to her.”
“Amamiya-kun, that, right there- that’s called being competitive.”
“Oh you and your damn character analysis.” Ren huffed dismissively. “There’s no need for you to worry about that kind of thing.”
“Not sure I appreciate the patronizing undertone there, but fine- if you’re sure you want to do this, then I’ll help out where I can.”
“Kick-ass.”
“If you’ve got other possible members in mind, I recommend bringing them on board sooner rather than later.”
Ren paused for a moment.
“Oh yeah… The council is supposed to have more than one member, huh? Forgot about that.”
“Good grief…” the teacher groaned. “That’s why it’s called a student council. Last year was a special case…”
“I’ll need people dedicated, hardworking, and intelligent. I guess Mishima might make a good vice president, he’s proven his admin skills already. Making Futaba the treasurer or something would also give me another way to keep an eye on her, plus I’m sure she’ll appreciate the status.”
Kawakami smiled.
“Maybe you could find a way to bring Sakamoto-kun and Takamaki-san on board too?”
“Hmm… I’m sure I could think of a way for them to contribute… Like um… uhh…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…Come on, there has to be something they’d be good at in terms of student council business?”
“Yes, I’m sure there’s something…”
“Some kind of skill that’d be helpful…”
“Like, um…”
“…How about, uh… no, that wouldn’t work…”
“…Maybe they could um…”
“…Hmm…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
~ ~ ~
Sumire found herself sat beside Kotone and Aigis on the way to their supposed ‘meeting place’.
Or rather, it’d be more accurate to say they managed to get seats on the way there.
“Y’know the way you made this sound- working with a secret organization or whatever- that we’d be riding there in an expensive black car or something, not just taking the train…”
Kotone pouted, visibly embarrassed.
“I don’t have a car, black or otherwise.”
“Both of us have a license, but not a vehicle to call our own.” Aigis nodded. “I only took six attempts to pass my test, and narrowly avoided any injuries for all parties involved.”
“G-good to know…” Sumire’s shoulders slumped as she mumbled to herself. “What am I even doing here?”
The gymnast’s slightly uncomfortable journey continued until they arrived at what seemed like a rather ordinary and mundane office building, but it only appeared that way because that’s exactly what it was. At least, most of the building was your standard office complex, but just beneath it lay a safehouse, apparently belonging to the Kirijo group.
Aigis knew the door code off by heart, and opened it to allow the others to pass through. Looking at her situation objectively, Sumire was starting to feel rather sheepish- following these relative strangers into what was essentially a hidden basement, completely naked apart from a pair of glasses. Part of her considered just cutting her losses and running right here and now, but given all they seemed to know about personas and herself, she felt she had to know what was going on and pressed on. Precautions had been taken; her parents knew the exact address she would be at today- though she had told them it was related to an upcoming performance, telling the truth would only complicate things. Another- more immediate- precaution was the taser she carried in her bag, which she kept her left hand on just in case.
As the door close behind her, she noticed a large table in the centre of the well-lit room, and currently rocking back on a chair sat—
“Oh wow, you actually came?”
“Goro-san?”
“Hm?” Kotone’s brow raised. “You already know Akechi-kun? Wait, what am I talking about? Of course you’d know him, he’s the one who recommended you in the first place.”
“What?” Sumire turned to Akechi, shocked. “You did what?!”
Akechi let his chair fall back on four legs, very casually leaning on the edge of the table with his arms.
“They asked me if I know any other persona users, and I definitely wasn’t going to recommend the Phantom Thieves, was I? I’d still rather they didn’t find out about me.”
Sumire relaxed enough to let go of the taser in her bag (the one that had been a recent gift from the boy in front of her, given shortly after he found out she was rejoining the nudist program), but she still kept her guard up.
“Am I to assume you’ve joined the so called ‘Shadow operatives’?”
“Mm.” Akechi nodded. “They found me, gave me an offer, and I figured I’d take it. I’d been wondering about what I’d do for money in the long term, and I doubt I’ll get a better offer than this.”
So many questions were swirling in Sumire’s mind that she wasn’t sure she’d even remember to ask them all.
“Okay, okay. First of all: you’re supposed to be in hiding, how did they find you? Let alone find out you’re a persona user?”
“That’d be because of me.”
On the far end of the table, in front of an open laptop, sat a surprisingly gentle looking woman with distinctive blue hair tied into a single braid. She smiled politely as she waved to the new girl. It seemed like she was about to continue, but an overeager Kotone leant in first.
“Fuuka’s pretty amazing, she can even use her persona powers in the real world, so she can tell persona users apart from regular people just by looking.”
“There’s a real limit on what I can do, but I can manage that kind of thing at least.” Fuuka fiddled with her braid bashfully, before bowing in her chair. “But yes, I’m Fuuka Yamagishi, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Mm. Nice to meet you. Sumire Yoshizawa.” She returned the bow, almost out of reflex.
“And yes, I can tell you’re the real deal too. A persona user. A strong one at that.” Fuuka eyed Sumire intently, though it didn’t take long for her eyes to drift downwards, and as if suddenly realizing the girl was naked, she quickly became flustered and turned away. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”
Kotone laughed.
“Fuuka-chan’s still not used to nudists.”
Fuuka huffed.
“I remember you gave me the shock of my life when you first showed up like that Kotone-san.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“’Surprise’ is an understatement…”
“Can’t wait to see everyone else’s reactions.”
“I don’t think anyone in SEES is prepared for such a surprise, even from you…”
Persona usage without any kind of visible summoning, in the real world no less? Yet another question Sumire added to her mental list; but first: “Goro-san, you told them about me?”
“Yes.” Akechi answered quickly and without a hint of shame.
“Wait- that thing about feeling like an outsider to the Phantom Thieves.” She stomped her foot and glowered at him. “I told you that in confidence! And you’re just blurting it out to these random women?!”
“Yes.” Still no shame in his game.
“You… you… DICK!”
“Heh.”
“Now now.” Fuuka gestured gently with her hands to try and keep things calm. “It wasn’t meant to be any sort of personal invasion, it was only relevant since apparently we can’t get the real thieves to join us, at least not yet.”
Sumire grumbled.
Fuuka bowed again, this time standing up to do so.
“Please, allow me to apologize on his behalf- we’re the ones who asked for such information after all. I didn’t mean to cause any offence.”
Sumire relented.
“It’s fine, I guess. It’s not that big a deal. Weird that you’re apologizing for him though.”
“Is it?” Fuuka tilted her head, bemused. “Akechi-kun seems like a perfectly friendly and polite young man to me.”
“Then you clearly haven’t known him long…”
The other women were rather taken off guard by the surprisingly rude comment, but Akechi himself just found it funny, snickering under his breath.
“Maybe inviting you wasn’t such a terrible idea after all.”
Sumire turned to him.
“I’m still surprised by that; you really want me around to take this job with you?”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far. Like I said, they just asked if I knew any other persona users and you came to mind.”
“Mm.” Aigis nodded. “He gave you quite the glowing recommendation. He described you as ‘surprisingly competent’.”
Sumire’s expression dropped.
“That’s backhanded enough of a compliment for me to believe he’s the one who said it.”
“I’ll admit, it’s rather nice- feeling understood.” Akechi didn’t seem to mind being the only one in the room having a laugh. “But yes, you did seem like the only appropriate recommendation. Even if I wasn’t hiding from the Thieves I doubt any of them would be okay with whatever ‘black ops’ jobs the so-called ‘shadow ops’ would give to someone like me. I reckon with the right prompting, a girl like you could keep her morals loose enough to help out.”
“Well excuse you, Goro-kun…”
“Please don’t give her the wrong idea Akechi-kun.” Fuuka gently pleaded. “Mitsuru-san wouldn’t have us do anything truly ‘immoral’.”
“And even if someone tried to make her do something like that…” Kotone smugly gestured to herself and Aigis. “…That’s when we’d step in.”
“I see…” Sumire chewed the edge of her lip in thought. “I’m guessing this ‘Mitsuru-san’ is the person in charge?”
“Mhmm.” Fuuka nodded. “She’ll be talking to you directly via conference call soon, to explain what the role we’re offering would consist of. That is, if you’re still interested.”
“You can still chicken out if you want, no one will judge you for it.”
Sumire side-eyed the boy.
“Weirdly, I believe you when you say you won’t judge- but I still don’t like what you had to word it as ‘chickening out’.” She sat down in the chair next to Akechi. “Alright, I take the call.”
Fuuka’s brow raised.
“Oh? Thank you. After all that I was worried you just leave before we got a chance to talk.”
Sumire was still visibly on guard, but to a much lesser degree than when she had first entered the room. She put her bag down beside her chair, and sat up straight with her hands in her lap.
“If Akechi-kun thinks joining you is a good idea, then that means it’s at least worth hearing you out.”
“Oh?” Akechi smirked at the girl, who turned to face him with a neutral expression.
“Despite everything, I trust your judgement.”
“Ha… you honor me with your trust.”
Fuuka pumped her fists, determination clear on her face.
“I’ll do my part to make sure that trust isn’t misplaced! I’ll get in contact with Mitsuru-san so she can explain everything.”
“Wait Fuuka!”
“Hm? Is something the matter Kotone?”
“Could you do me a favor?”
“Oh?”
“Could you make sure I’m the first one she sees on cam besides you?”
“Huh?”
“I wanna see how she reacts to my nudism, the surprise will lose its edge if she sees another nudist lady first, y’know?”
Fuuka sighed.
“Fine, just stand there and come into the shot when I prompt you to do so.”
“Hehehe~ Can’t wait to see the look on her face!”
“I’ll be sure to record it for you to watch again later.”
“You’re a champ, Fuuka-chan.”
Notes:
The word of the day is "Side story" (wait a minute, that's two words...)
Chapter 123: Birthday Queen
Summary:
Does this chapter need a description? The title says it all.
Notes:
Pretend I got this out last week when it was still her birthday.
Or when you next re-read this series, try to time things so that you get here on the 23rd of April
Chapter Text
Ever since House Niijima has lost its patriarch, birthdays were a tradition that had unfortunately faded more and more into the background of the sisters’ lives, to the point of being nearly forgotten.
While both sisters had lost much of the celebratory side of themselves after their losing their father, Sae especially had no time or energy for such things, what with suddenly having the responsibility of raising her sister thrust upon her, having to do anything and everything she possibly could to excel in a cutthroat career, surrounded by people who wanted to constantly exploit her at every turn. She wasn’t much of a festive spirit to begin with, but that life had worn down what little of that side of herself remained, and had left her in a very dark place emotionally that she had only recently escaped from- primarily thanks to the kindness shown by her little sister, and the appeals from the leader of the Phantom Thieves.
For those years, Makoto’s birthday had always passed with no more than a gift card and a curt “This is for your birthday” from the elder Niijima, sometimes not even in person- when she had too much work to make it home that night, she’d just leave an impersonal written note behind on the dining room table.
She didn’t consider it at the time- being too hyper-focused on her career- but now that the Niijima sisters’ relationship was healing, it only made Sae reflect all the more on how cold she had been in the past; she knew the merciless environment she was stuck in had changed how she behaved, but only now was she consciously realizing that she inadvertently brought that ‘cold, ruthless prosecutor’ mindset home with her.
Thankfully, Makoto wasn’t the type to pointlessly hold grudges. She loved her older sister; she could see that Sae was making a genuine effort to improve, and wasn’t going to ruin that by being pointlessly vindictive. The present and future were what mattered, the past could stay where it belongs.
Still, Sae wanted to work a little harder- even if only for her own satisfaction. Makoto’s 19th birthday was rapidly approaching, and she really wanted it to actually feel like a birthday for once.
Sae opened her phone contacts, and started dialling.
Brr brr.
Click.
“Yo, Sae-san?” Ren Amamiya’s voice came through. “Weird for you to call, everything good?”
“Yes don’t worry, it’s not bad news, I just…”
Sae trailed off a moment, which didn’t assuage Ren’s anxiety any.
“Is something wrong?”
Sae was trying to find the perfect words to delicately broach the issue, but when frustration at herself grew, she decided to cut her losses and just be straightforward.
“Do you have any plans for the 23rd?”
“The 23rd? You mean Makoto’s birthday?”
“Yes.”
“And you mean… plans with her, right?”
Sae’s lip began to curl, but she caught herself. She still needed to work on the whole ‘protecting her baby sister from predatory boys’ reflex she had; she knew Ren was a good man when it came down to it… then again, given the libido the couple had clearly displayed (which was definitely, 100% the boy’s fault and nothing to do with the younger Niijima’s own weaker than expected self-control), maybe holding onto a little paranoia wasn’t a terrible idea.
“I wanted to know if you two already had anything planned.”
“A-ah… well, um…” Ren and Makoto did have a certain activity in mind, but- out of self-preservation- Ren knew not to share it over the phone. “N-nothing all that special, probably just go eat something nice and hang out with everybody.” Technically not untrue, but it was fair to say that wasn’t the whole story.
“I see…”
“Why? Did you have plans of your own?”
“Well…”
“Because I’m sure Makoto would be happy to adjust to accommodate! We can hang out with the gang any time. We don’t wanna intrude on you two spending more time together. You’ve got my support.”
“It’s appreciated, Amamiya-kun.” Sae pondered wistfully for a moment; in all those years of the sisters drifting apart, Makoto never seemed to have any stories of having friends to ‘hang out’ with, or at least she wasn’t sharing such stories- not until Ren and the other thieves entered her life. Knowing that her younger sister now had a healthy social life gave her a strong sense of comfort, and maybe the slightest twinge of jealousy. “No, she should spend her birthday with all her friends, but…”
“…But what?”
“Do you think you could do it at our place?”
“Wh-what?”
“Have everyone gather here- at our apartment- to celebrate.”
“O-oh, that’s what you meant, of course.” Ren’s mind had briefly flicked to his original ‘solo plans’ for Makoto, which was not something he felt safe doing in front of her sister. “Yeah, I’m sure I could easily arrange for everyone to come over that day. Hell, I’m sure I could even convince Boss to let me bring over some ingredients to cook for everyone. You’ve had my coffee, but I’ve yet to impress you with my take on the famous Leblanc curry!”
“Hm…” Sae would be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted by the offer of such a meal, but this wasn’t the time to be too reliant on others. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll make all the necessary arrangements for catering and such.”
“Oh, you sure? I’m happy to help.”
“I’ll manage just fine by myself; I have the free time- for once- so it shouldn’t be difficult.”
“If you say so. But don’t worry about messaging me if there is anything I could do.”
“Hm. If I didn’t know any better I’d suspect you were trying to get on my good side, Amamiya-kun.”
“Is it working?”
“…Too early to call.”
“Dang.” Ren laughed.
“Actually, could you give me an estimate on how many attendees we’ll have?”
“Hmm… Depends on whether you count Morgana, whether Sumire can make it, how many of Eiko’s friend’s show up…”
“Sounds like it might get a bit crowded, but I’m sure we’ll manage. Get back to me once you have confirmation of who’s coming. I’ll get started preparing the parts I know I’ll need regardless.”
“I won’t let you down Sae- Ma’am Sir!” The was a pause on the line. “By the way- you can’t see it right now but I’m saluting.”
“…”
“Just in case there was any doubt, y’know?”
“And I’m looking rather tired of such nonsense, just in case there was any doubt about that, you know?”
“Figures.” Ren snickered. “Well, if you don’t get back to me before then, I’ll see you on Makoto’s birthday.”
“Mm. Good.” Sae hung up, before letting her arm hang limply by her side, her brow furrowed as she began her intense brainstorming session. “How are birthday parties supposed to go again?”
~ ~ ~
Makoto stood on the precipice of the Niijima apartment, in the doorway, with both the former thieves and the former ‘Shujin nudists’ standing behind her, all equally aghast at the sight before them.
The dim apartment was lit only by the faint sunlight bleeding through the closed curtains, and the multi-colored lights beaming out of the two rotating disco balls plugged into extension cords on opposite sides of the main living area: one down by the dining table, the other below the TV. The colorful lights shimmering off of the tinsel and ribbons strung up from the ceiling, particularly the tin banner reading “Happy 19th, Makoto!” hanging from the wall by clear tape, as well as the numerous balloons dotted around the room, and the still visible helium tank used to fill them.
The one last light source was the two pastel-colored candles, shaped like a ‘1’ and ‘9’ respectively, firmly planted into a store-bought cake in the shape of a panda’s face, unfortunately not Buchi’s- his merch hadn’t been on sale for a while now, but he still made his appearance in the form of the various Buchi dolls plucked from Makoto’s room and sat on the shelves and countertop, each one adorned with a uniquely colored paper cone hat.
Makoto’s eyes silently lingered on the cake for a moment, before shifting up to her sister holding it, and the blue paper cone hat with a confetti pattern atop her head. The sisters’ eyes made contact, Sae’s face remained stoic as the party blower situated between her lips loudly rolled outwards, filling the otherwise-silent room with its distinctive ‘BLAAARP’.
The problem that Sae had struggled with (and that the couple had realized the moment they stepped inside) was that it had been a long time since Sae had been at any sort of birthday celebration, probably over ten years. The closest she got was some stuffy work-do for some high-ranking official which she would be obligated to endure. As for a birthday of someone she actually cared about, the last one she had been to was probably Makoto’s when she was six or seven, maybe even eight, she couldn’t recall with any degree of certainty, but it’s all she had to go off of. She did remember a few key details: the balloons, the streamers, the diverse selection of finger foods in colorful plastic bowls on the table, even the music CD in her laptop’s disc driver- which she had forgotten to press play on, being in too much of a hurry to grab the cake when she heard Makoto and her friends coming down the hall.
“W-wow Sis… This is all quite… um…”
If Makoto’s struggle to get her words out didn’t tip her off, the amused looks from her nudist friends made it clear to Sae that she had made an error in her judgement. Her defeated exhale wasn’t enough to get the party blower to ‘blarp’ again, but it did at least cause the paper to flitter slightly.
“Holy crap.” Ren turned to Makoto. “Sae made such a huge effort.”
“Hm?”
“I was expecting her to just handle food and stuff, but she’s gone wild with the décor, this must have taken her hours to set up.”
Sae’s shoulders only sank further down.
“It’s okay Amamiya-kun, you don’t need to try and defend me.” She grumbled while keeping the party blower in her mouth, though it did droop a little.
“I’m not kidding, I’m genuinely impressed.”
“Mm.” Makoto couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sorry I took so long to say something Sis, I wasn’t upset, just taken aback. Ren’s right, you’ve gone above and beyond here.” She smiled warmly. “Thinking of the effort you put in for my sake, makes me happier than I thought possible.”
Sae looked up again, disbelief clear in her eyes.
“Really?”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded. “Really. Thank you for all this Sis.”
A few of the others behind her mumbled to eachother.
“And here I was worried this’d end up being kinda boring.”
“I’m getting nostalgia looking at all this.”
“Lil’ awkward but I can dig it.”
“I remember Mom doing this kinda thing for me back in the day.”
“The cute panda cake is perfect for Mako-chan!”
Sae felt her cheeks growing warm; even as she was setting up the room she had a sense of doubt hanging over her, but the ‘childish’ nature of the party she had arranged only truly hit her when the attendees all stepped inside. But now that she was getting all this unexpected positive feedback, she had no idea how she was actually supposed to respond to any of it.
Not that she had long to think about it, being snapped out of her thoughts by the distinctive snapping of a camera phone- pointed directly at her.
“Futaba-chan!” Makoto hissed at the girl holding her phone up. “What are you doing?”
“C’mon Makoto, your Sis looks awesome wearing one of those cringe party hats, it’s that ‘gap moe’ appeal, y’know?”
“I agree.” Haru brought her hands together. “I don’t know what ‘gap moe’ is, but Niijima-san does look adorable like that, especially holding that cake. Do you mind sending the picture to me Futaba-chan?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll post it in the group chat.”
“Post it in the nudist group chat too.” Eiko’s excited request did startle Futaba slightly, but the younger girl managed to hold her ground- she at least had more experience with this Eiko than she did most extroverts.
Sae’s grip on the plate in her hands tightened, to the point where it threatened to damage it (which would cause the cake to fall to the floor, which would be terrible). She stormed over to the kitchen countertop, spitting out the blower and harshly setting the plate down, the noise causing most attendees to jump, before cementing their fear with a fierce glare.
She pointed to a small table near the entrance.
“There are hats for everyone there, you are all obligated to wear one throughout the proceedings.”
“You—”
“OBLIGATED!”
“B-better do what she says Futaba.” Ren was the first to (rather hastily) get a pointy party hat for himself. “She’s not being subtle about the fact that it’s an order, not a request.”
One by one the attendees equipped their party hats with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Haru and Yusuke in particular seemed legitimately excited to wear them, Morgana wasn’t happy about having one thrust upon him (especially since his head was too small for the elastic to be of any use), while Aya and Futaba both took some extra hats to wear over their breasts as particularly pointy cups (though only the latter was able to do so successfully, the former snapping the elastic as she tried to stretch it over herself).
“Yo Ann.” Futaba physically poked and prodded her friend with her new pointy paper ‘breasts’. “Check it out, I’m Hecate.”
The Shujin nudists didn’t get the inside joke, but it was an amusing sight regardless, even if Ann herself seemed rather annoyed (to be honest- that just made it funnier in their eyes). Aya tried again with a spare hat, this time trying for a paper penis, but one more snapping sound and an annoyed glare from the Niijima household matriarch (for wasting so many hats) later and she finally decided to give up and wear one normally.
Makoto was very happy to wear a hat of her own, but it seemed Sae had different plans for her; or rather- she had a plan, but she quickly regretted it once she saw the initial lukewarm reception to her choice of party décor. The silver crown with ‘Birthday Queen’ written across the brow was a mistake, one she fully intended to hide and/ or destroy before anyone noticed it.
Bad news, someone noticed it.
Worse news, it was the worst person who could have noticed: Ren, and his eyes lit up brighter than she had ever seen before. He was NOT going to let an opportunity like this one pass. With breakneck speed, he swiped the crown from its hiding place, and practically surged across the room to his beloved, swiping the headband off of her baffled head and replacing it with the crown.
“Ren, what the—”
“Hold still Mako.” Ren pulled out his phone to snap a photo of his girlfriend looking extra cute, partially because of the tacky birthday crown, but mostly because of her face being a delightful combination of ‘embarrassed’ and ‘bewildered’ from his rapid movement. “Okay there we go. Sae, I owe you one.”
“Ugh…” Sae facepalmed. “I’m sorry Makoto, I’ve made multiple errors in judgement today…”
“It’s fine Sis.” The still-blushing beauty approached her elder sister, pulling her into a loving embrace. “I meant what I said, it’s the effort that makes me happy.”
“O-oh…” Sae returned the embrace, albeit with great reluctance- there were people who could see them of course. “I-I’m glad you like it. But…”
Another camera snapping sound to cut her off, this time from Ren’s phone, wanting to preserve the moment of the sisters’ embrace.
“Amamiya-kun, are you trying to embarrass me on purpose?”
“No… not on purpose anyway…”
Sae grumbled, but Makoto just laughed.
“Don’t worry about it Sis, a little embarrassment isn’t a bad thing.”
Sae appreciated the attempt at reassurance of course, but she wasn’t sure how comforting a line like that was when coming from a public nudist…
~ ~ ~
It was a good thing Sae erred on the side of caution while packing the snack table, the crowd of ravenous teenagers she had allowed into her home were tearing through the food supply like a pack of wolves. She was almost regretting turning down Ren’s offer to cook curry for everyone.
Ann eagerly took control of the ‘sweets and cakes’ side of the table, and while she didn’t prevent others approaching for a few treats of their own, she maintained the aura of a dog protecting its food bowl as it chowed down.
“You’ll get fat…” Ryuji oh-so-delicately commented as he walked behind her.
Ann would have retorted had her mouth not been full of cream cake; the boy’s snark may have annoyed her, but not enough for her to abandon her indulgence. While she was looking forward to the actual birthday cake, its panda design showed that it was clearly made to prioritize aesthetic over pure flavor, and thus these other cakes were going to be the highlight of the party for her.
“The delinquent-looking guy raises a good point.” Ai sidled up alongside Ann, knowing she needed to get in early if she wanted any of the really good confectionary before it was all gone. “How can you pig out on all that delicious cake without worrying about your figure? I’m jealous…”
“MMAIMMNT’PGGNNOUT’!” Ann took a moment to chew and swallow her current mouthful before trying that again. “I’m not ‘pigging out’, Toranosuke-san! You’re supposed to indulge yourself at birthday parties, it’s only once a year.”
“It’s not your birthday though, you have way more than one friend.”
“Makoto’s is only once a year. The next birthday- Ryuji’s- isn’t until July, I can work all these calories off in time for that.” She paused a moment. “At least, I think Ryuji’s is next, I don’t actually know when Ren’s is…”
“I think Makoto-chan said you’re a model, right? I bet you know all sorts of modelling industry secrets to staying so slim.”
“You’re not as far off as you think, actually…”
“Mind sharing some of your secrets? It’s even harder for me, it’s not like I hide behind baggy clothes or anything.”
“Hmm…” Ann smirked. “Well I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“…”
“…That was a joke.”
“Right.” Ai took a forkful of chocolate cake into her mouth, brushing off any errant crumbs that fell on her breasts as she chewed. “Speaking of which, what kinda modelling stuff do you do?”
“Nothing that huge- at least so far. Fashion shoots, mostly for magazines and stuff.”
“You do make-up?”
“You mean modelling it? Sure, sometimes.”
“Cool, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ann raised a curious eyebrow.
“Keep it in mind for what?”
Ai replied between mouthfuls.
“I wanna get into actually making cosmetics one day. You’re hot- so I figure keeping you in mind as an option for marketing would be a good idea. It’d be easier to control how it all looks if I don’t have to model it myself.”
“Hm, sure- sounds fun. I guess I could even give you a friend’s discount for my time or something.”
“Heh, cheers love. I’ll get Makoto-chan to contact you soon as I nail down my first body-make-up designs.”
“Sure, that sounds—wait. Body-make-up?”
“Mm. Other artists have already got the face nailed down, that’ll be much harder to compete with.”
“…Just to clarify, this is make-up specifically for nudists?”
“I know you’re not one, but you’re capable of getting naked still.”
“THE HELL I AM! I’m not having my nudes in any magazine.”
Ai sighed.
“I doubt I could get into magazines right away, I’d just have to pay for some ads online or something.”
“That’s even worse! I’m out.”
“Aw come on Takamaki-san. Everyone else is already naked.”
“No, most normal people are keeping their clothes on. You nudists are cool ‘n all, but you’re still the weird ones.”
“Laaame…”
Ann grumbled.
“I’d be willing to compromise to a bikini shoot, you can still show off most of whatever design you have in mind that way, can’t you?”
“Ehh, but incorporating the breasts into the design is important; the patterns have to be ones that still look good while bouncing all over the place. Not to mention the art of the vajazzle.”
“Ask one of the other nudists to help with those parts.”
“I guess I’ll have to…” Ai pondered a while. “Then again, no reason to restrict my target market to just nudists; I’m come up with some stylish designs to work with swimsuits too, and call you to model those.”
“…I make no promises.”
~ ~ ~
“Sorry I’m late!” Sumire panted as she entered the Niijima apartment, present in hand. “Happy Birthday Makoto-senp…”
The girl trailed off as she laid eyes on the birthday girl, or- as the literal crown atop her head was labelling her- ‘Birthday Queen’.
“Thanks for coming Sumire-chan.” Makoto rushed over to greet the party’s newest attendee. "I’m sorry we only told you about the party on such short notice, I hope we didn’t mess with your schedule too much.”
“N-no, it’s fine.” Sumire just couldn’t get over the crown, not to mention the décor in general in the apartment. It just didn’t gel with the unshakable aura of maturity she associated with Makoto (then again, it’s not as if this is the most shocking thing she’s ever seen from her ‘senpai’, not even close, she’d get over it soon). “I just had an errand to run with a friend, I came here as soon as we wrapped that up.”
“Well thank you very much for making time for this.” Makoto smiled apologetically. “I don’t want to drag you away from your other friends too much. Though, maybe you could introduce us sometime?”
Sumire laughed nervously, averting her eyes.
“I doubt he’d be on board with that idea…” She mumbled under her breath.
“Hm?”
“I was just saying um… I hope I didn’t miss much!”
“Don’t worry, there isn’t a specific schedule or anything- at least not to my knowledge- we’re all just hanging out and enjoying ourselves.”
“You enjoy… this kind of party?” Sumire was eying the crown again, and the disco lamps, and the balloons and…
“Mm.” Makoto nodded. “It’s been so long since I did something like this, and I’ve never had nearly this many people over at once before. I’m having a great time!”
Sumire may have let out a barely audible sigh, but her smile was fully genuine.
“That’s great to hear, Makoto-senpai.”
“Thank you.” Makoto looked down at the delicately wrapped present under Sumire’s arm, looking distinctively long and thin. “That’s rather large. I hope you didn’t spend too much on me.”
“Don’t worry about it Senpai.” Sumire handed over the box. “I’m not hurting for cash.”
Makoto began to excitedly unwrap the present, trying not to let too much of her childish sense of glee and anticipation show through. After tearing away the paper she opened the cardboard box, looking inside to find—
“A-ah!” Fear suddenly gripped her.
Sumire’s grin was wide and proud- innocently ignorant of Makoto’s frozen terror.
“It’s the nicest baseball bat I could find! I got it in memory of our times together at the batting cages. You helped me out so much back then.”
“A-ah, y-yeah… I remember…” Makoto unconsciously crossed her legs, trying to hold her thighs together. “H-how nice to have a reminder of… that time…”
“I’m really relieved to hear you say that. I don’t know how into baseball you actually are, so I was worried you wouldn’t care for it. But I’m glad you like it Makoto-senpai.”
“M-mmm…” Makoto forced a smile. “How can I not like it? Knowing the thought and sentiment you put into this choice."
Sumire let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you Senpai.”
“I’ll be very careful with it… Very careful indeed…”
“Hm?”
~ ~ ~
“You’re not getting too lonely over here, are you Yusuke-kun?”
“Hm? No no Haru-san, I didn’t mean to seem like I was separating myself from the rest of the group. I’ve just been getting so absorbed in this sketch.”
“Of course.” Haru giggled. “I should have expected as much.”
She peered over his shoulder to inspect his work so far.
“Futaba-chan?”
“Mm.” Yusuke nodded. “Everyone looks wonderful- enjoying themselves today, but Futaba in particular has been commanding my attention.”
“Oh my…” Haru’s brow raised, though a slight, knowing smirk appeared on her face.
“I just find it fascinating how energetic she becomes once she gets over her nervousness of being somewhere so crowded and social.”
The pair looked across the room, over at Futaba sat on the couch- apparently questioning Sae sat next to her, eyes wide with eager curiosity.
The prosecutor turned defence lawyer rubbed her forehead with fatigue clear in her eyes, seeming exhausted by the questioning.
“No Sakura-san, ‘I’m literally neurodivergent and a minor’ would not hold up as a defence in court…”
“You’re right.” Haru contemplated aloud. “She doesn’t seem to have problems with conversation at all once she gets comfortable with someone.”
“Indeed. It’s as if her anxiety is purely binary, all or nothing. The contrast really is fascinating."
They looked back to Futaba and Sae’s energetic conversation, even if the energy was only coming from one side, Sae somehow looking more tired by the moment.
“No Sakura-san, ‘Be gay, do crimes’ is not a valid defence either…”
“I find myself enchanted.” Yusuke resumed his sketch.
“’Enchanted’, you say.” Haru’s smirk grew wider. She more closely examined the Futaba portrait, even in her unfinished pencil sketch state, she looked animated; the energy and enthusiasm was flying off of the page, even moreso than the actual girl in reality. “I hope you don’t mind showing me that drawing once it’s finished.”
“Mm.” Yusuke nodded without looking up. “I’d be happy to.”
“Be sure to show Futaba-chan too, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.”
“I can only hope so.”
“Me too~”
~ ~ ~
“Y’know what this party is making me wanna do?”
“Hm?” Eiko briefly paused her cookie-munching session to turn to her friend. “What, Aya-chan?”
“I wanna play one of those games.”
“’Those games’?”
“Y’know, like ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’ or summin’ like that.”
“For real?”
“Yeah, this whole style of party is a wave of nostalgia, so I kinda wish we could go all the way with it.”
“Heh.” Eiko laughed. “I could pretend to be above that kinda thing, but if we had that set up I’d definitely have a go.”
“It’d be funny to get Nudie Prez’s sister to do it too.”
“Okay that would be really funny. Now I really wish we had the game here.”
“Hmmm…” Aya swung back and forth on the dining room chair she was perched on. “We could improvise.”
“How?”
Aya leant forward to address the girl just past Eiko.
“Yo, Mieko.”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“You hear what we’re talking about?”
“Summin’ about pin the tail on the donkey?”
“Right. Well, I’ve got a vibrator in my bag, I was thinkin’ you could bend over the table, spread yourself open, and we’d use you as the donkey.”
“…You can fuck right off, Aya-chan.”
“No no, it’ll be good.” Aya did a poor job of controlling her snickering. “We can just use some dish towels as blindfolds.”
“You can’t get everyone to stick sex toys in me as a party game.”
“It would be kinda funny though…”
“Don’t you join in too, Eiko-chan.”
“Hmm…” Aya pouted. “Actually, thinking about it, you’re right, it wouldn’t work.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Even if we all couldn’t see, we’d still be able to feel exactly where your holes were, it’d be too easy.”
“I’m gonna go over there, you stay here and keep being a dumb bitch, Aya-chan.”
“Love you too, Mieko.”
~ ~ ~
Sae downed a large glass of water; there was a myriad of choices for soft drinks she prepared for everyone, but the elder Niijima was always very mindful of her sugar intake (as was the younger, as a matter of fact, even if she did allow herself the adventure of some pink lemonade today- it was her birthday after all).
While it was a relief that everyone seemed to be having a good time, being completely surrounded by energetic teenagers was wearing on her more than she thought it would.
“Dammit… I’m not even thirty yet, this is way too soon for me to be feeling old…”
“Sis?”
Sae shot upright, trying to seem as presentable as possible for her younger sister- who had just snuck up on her.
“Makoto.” Sae cleared her throat. “I trust you’ve been enjoying yourself?”
Makoto chuckled.
“Of course I have, Sis. You don’t need to worry. This is the best birthday I’ve had in a long time.”
“I see.” Sae glanced aside at nothing in particular, flicking from one party goer to the next with no real pattern. “That’s good.”
“It is good.” Makoto leant against the counter, right next to her sister. “I really means so much to me that you did all this for me.”
Sae shrugged, still avoiding eye contact.
“It wasn’t much really, I just provided a setting for you to and your friends to enjoy yourselves. The food is just whatever I could find at the store.”
Makoto let out a good-natured scoff.
“Why do all the supportive people in my life insist on downplaying the wonderful things they do?”
“I don’t think I’m downplaying anything, I really didn’t do anything special. Frankly I still think I could have done much better.”
Makoto seemed rather sad hearing her sister talk like this, but as she processed, a spark of hope began to flicker to life within her.
“I suppose if you really do feel that way, you can try to do things a little differently next year.”
“…” Sae looked to her little sister curiously.
“I’ll try to think of something special to do for your birthday too, when it comes around.”
“…Really?”
“Of course. It’s normal for families to celebrate each other’s birthdays.”
“True.” A faint smile emerged on Sae’s face. “I guess being more ‘normal’ isn’t a bad thing.”
“Not in this case, at least.” Makoto rested her hand atop Sae’s. “One last time Sis: thank you for today, I love you.”
“…” Sae quickly scanned the room, looking to see if any of the guests were close enough to listen in. “Mmm… iloveyoutoomakoto…” she mumbled, barely audible. Her brow was fiercely furrowed, frustrated with herself for feeling so embarrassed.
Makoto grinned.
“Anyway, I’m gonna talk with the others some more; we’ll talk more later.”
“Okay, enjoy yourself.” Sae thought a moment, before stopping her. “Makoto?”
“Mm?”
“Whatever you end up doing for my birthday, can I request one thing?”
“Oh?”
She pointed to the top of her head.
“Please don’t repeat my mistake and make us wear these awful hats.”
“Hmm…” Makoto turned away. “I’ll make no such promise.”
“Tch.” Sae watched her sister rejoin her friends around the snack table. “I guess even you can be a little brat sometimes…”
Chapter 124: Pet Queen
Summary:
A late birthday present for everyone's favorite Queen
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
While Makoto’s birthday party had been an unequivocal success (barring some minor embarrassment but that’s hardly even a downside), it had stretched rather far out into the evening. Being surrounded by friends gathered explicitly to celebrate you was a new experience for Makoto, one which she enjoyed more than she let on; the PTs and former Shujin nudists appreciated each other’s presence, even Sae seemed happy with the company (exhausting as the experience was).
Though with the event ending with the Niijima sisters waving their guests off some time after nightfall, it didn’t leave any time for Ren and Makoto to enjoy their original birthday plans together, which was probably for the best- the idea Makoto brought up wasn’t exactly ‘festive’.
The day after her birthday though? That was still free, or at least the evening was, which meant their plans were only delayed rather than cancelled.
With Sae being home more often, Makoto decided it’d be safer for the two of them to put their plan into action at Ren’s place, Sojiro being the easier of the two caretakers to tip toe around.
With her elder sister busy working on the prep work for opening her own private legal firm, Makoto was able to discreetly leave their apartment, her bag clutched tightly against her torso. As she rode the subway to Yongen Jaya she tried not to let her excitement show too clearly- either on her face or between her legs (though both were a losing battle, to be honest).
Today was a Monday, and late enough for most to have already completed the commute home, and people were still fatigued from whatever revelry they got up to over the weekend. All this meant there were relatively few people out tonight- at least by the standards of Tokyo. This was a good thing, as fun as Makoto’s plans were this was a rare case where she wanted to minimize the number of eyes on her.
She arrived to find Leblanc café already closed, as expected; also expected was Ren waiting inside for her, opening the door to let her in.
“All ready to go?”
Ren let out a good-natured scoff.
“Someone sounds eager.”
“Come on, don’t tease me…”
“I think it’s going to be pretty hard to get through tonight with no teasing.”
Makoto’s blushed profusely.
“Well… j-just try not to overdo it.”
“Don’t worry, I plan to be a good ‘owner’.”
It was already hitting Makoto how emotionally intense this ‘game’ might be, but it didn’t discourage her any.
“You didn’t answer my question: are you all ready to go?”
Ren nodded.
“Of course. Morgana’s over with Futaba, and he even said he’d try to keep her spying to a minimum.”
“I guess it’s not hard for him to figure out what we’re getting up to, I guess he really can be tactful when he wants to be. I should buy him some nice tuna or something later to say thanks.”
“I’m sure he’ll be happy about that.” Ren laughed, before giving his girlfriend a concerned look. “But how about you, are you sure you’re ready?”
Makoto took a deep breath, she set her bag down on the countertop, and began rifling through. She reached up to remove her headband, calmly replacing it with one near identical save for an added pair of cat ears, she secured the collar with ‘MAKO’ lovingly embroidered on the side around her neck, hooked on the matching blue leash, before finally holding out the handle to her beloved.
“I am now.”
The sight of his girlfriend like this, the hottest girl on Earth (as far as he was concerned, at least), completely stark naked save for a collar and ears, holding out her leash to him- her ‘master’ for the evening; it took immense willpower for him to not lunge towards her and ravage her right there on top of the countertop, but level heads prevailed- he knew there was an order to these things, and he had resolved to make sure Makoto gets to enjoy this fantasy as much as possible (not that he wouldn’t be having fun either, mind you).
Ren took the leash handle in his hand, and smiled.
“Let’s go for a walk, Mako.”
“Mm.” Makoto’s blush seemed to spread all the way down to the top of her chest, only intensifying even further when she was led out of Leblanc and into the alleyway. The cool Tokyo evening air seeming to envelop her whole body even more completely than it usually would, thanks to her senses seeming to be heightened ever since she secured the collar around her neck.
The intensity of her burning flush was matched only by the size of the excited smile on her face, joy and embarrassment assaulting her in equal measure. Public nudity was always exciting to her, but she had never experienced it quite like this before, now there was a real element of risk involved. Having a boy lead you around on a leash while naked isn’t exactly the most ‘empowering’ image one could conceive of, but man, it sure was one of the hottest. While word spreading of Makoto enjoying this kind of thing wouldn’t be life-ruining (the aftermath of the culture festival incident was proof of that), it was certain there’d be no shortage of teasing in her future if the right person saw her during this outing, but it was exactly that risk that made this as exciting as it was (well, that and handing herself over entirely to the boy she loved most).
Just as she was getting used to the- more intense than usual- sensation of the hard ground beneath the soles of her feet keeping her firmly grounded in the reality that she was wholly exposed in a public place, she felt Ren’s hand atop her head. She looked into his eyes as he gently caressed her hair, lightly scratching behind her ‘ears’.
“There’s a good girl.”
The most frustrating jolt of pleasure shot through Makoto’s body, hearing this. She had already decided she was going to fully embrace the submissive role tonight, but she really didn’t want to fold that easily; the girl currently wearing a leash and animal ears wanted to maintain some semblance of dignity.
Her squirming only encouraged Ren to pet her even more.
“Who’s a good girl?”
“I am~” One millisecond later Makoto snapped back to her senses, shaking her head and swiftly swatting away Ren’s hand, before clearing her throat. “Are we just going to stand here all night? Hurry up and get moving already, before someone sees us.”
Her attempt to seem mad only seemed to amuse him, it just seemed like pouting in his eyes- which wasn’t far off of reality. Makoto huffed, the angry act wasn’t worth the effort, she felt safe around her boyfriend, safe enough to risk seeming a little silly; in a way- it only made her happier.
But the risk of someone they know seeing them was a real one, the part about wanting to move on quickly was genuine.
“Sure Mako, let’s go.”
Ren walked ahead slightly, just enough to pull on the leash- albeit gently, he didn’t want to risk making this at all uncomfortable to her. The pull wasn’t the least bit forceful, but it still sent a powerful feeling of warmth tingling through her body, expressed with a slight shudder.
“Hm?” Ren looked back. “Are you okay Mako?”
“Mm…” Makoto nodded, averting her eyes. “Keep going.”
“Remember to just say if you want to st—”
“I know.” She said, her words coming out a little shaper than she intended. “I will, don’t worry. Just please, keep going.”
“Nn.” He nodded, taking a deep breath. Even if he wasn’t the one being exposed, this was still an embarrassing situation for him too, he couldn’t help but be slightly nervous, especially seeing as he had to be responsible for keeping an eye out for both their sakes.
Still, Makoto had been passionate (albeit bashful) about requesting such a game for the both of them, the idea having been brewing in the back of her mind for months as the pet play package sat unused in Makoto’s secret drawer. Only recently had she worked up the courage to try it out for real, this time out of the ‘safety’ of the metaverse, but also without having to worry about maintaining their ‘cover’ for the sake of ‘the mission’. Now it could just be for them, as a couple, and- just for tonight- ‘master and pet’.
~ ~ ~
Even taking detours through the paths less travelled, the walk to Inokashira park was a nerve-wracking one. This was no doubt the quietest the streets of Tokyo ever got, but it wasn’t as if they were completely empty; Makoto knew that at any moment someone could walk by and see her wilfully playing ‘pet’ for her beau (moreso for herself actually, but people are want to make assumptions), and unlike her regular nudism- which was just an accepted lifestyle choice at this point, there’d be no denying the lewd, fetish-y nature of what she was doing right now, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t worried about her getting a reputation as a lustful woman.
Well actually- thinking rationally- she probably already had a reputation for that, it’s not like she could ever hide her ‘excitement’ on her many commutes home from a ‘study session’. Makoto Niijima wasn’t the type to openly gush about her passions, but her pussy definitely was.
Every so often the inevitable would happen, and someone would walk past the couple, such as a salaryman returning home from working overtime, who would first double take at the naked girl before him, then triple take at the leash and collar around her neck; he’d gawk completely dumbfounded until they were out of sight. Then there was the time where another couple- presumably looking for a hotel for their own night of fun- stepped aside to let the leashed queen pass.
Makoto made no attempt to cover herself, in fact as she passed she made a point of thrusting her chest further outwards, drawing further focus to the energetic bouncing of her breasts. She made eye contact with the other girlfriend, who- despite her initial shock- shot ‘the petgirl’ a knowing smirk, Makoto was certain she even heard the lady snicker at her as soon as she was behind her, which was almost to be expected. The nudist didn’t look back at them, but she could definitely hear the woman loudly whispering to her presumed boyfriend, already gossiping about what she just saw (or perhaps brewing ideas sparked by the sight? Who can say?)
It felt embarrassing, there was no denying that, but Makoto would be lying if she said that feeling didn’t stir yet more warmth in her loins; granted- she would tell that lie, that’s not something even she’s ready to admit to, but she very much doubted Ren would believe her if she tried, so she said nothing.
Meanwhile, a mere pace or so in front of her, Ren continued to lead the way, with leash in hand. His hair and glasses kept his eyes obscured from any of the- mercifully few- onlookers who did pass by, and a thought lingered within his mind as he continued the march:
‘Do I look like the bad guy with this whole set-up?’
~ ~ ~
The nerves lessened just slightly when they reached their destination. Makoto had specifically requested a walk through the park, a romantic classic- for sure- but it was debatable just how much of the romance was lost while she was playing the role of a pet.
Speaking of which, she felt Ren’s hand atop her head once again, petting her significantly rougher than before, not as to be unpleasant- but rather to be a little patronizing.
“C’mon Ren…”
“Ah ah ah.” He smirked down at her. “You wanted to do this right, right? Gotta stay in character?”
“In character?”
His grin grew wider.
“What kind of kitty uses human speech?” It seems that at some point during the walk here, Ren had decided that if he’s playing the role of ‘bad guy’, he may as well do a good job of it.
“I mean… We know Morgana, so…”
Ren paused a moment.
“…T-true, but um…”
Makoto sighed.
“Fine fine, I did want to see just how fun a game this is, so I may as well try to take it seriously.” Despite the determination clear in her tone, the face of ‘Tomato Niijima’ betrayed a whole new flavor of embarrassment making its debut this evening. “Mm… Me…”
Ren was starting to worry he was pushing too hard; he trusted her to speak up if he crossed any sort of line, in keeping with their policy of open and honest communication with eachother, but still the worry persisted.
Or at least, it persisted until Makoto raised her hands in an attempt to mimic paws.
“M-Meow…”
Two thoughts now permeated through his mind:
‘Oh good god she’s the cutest thing ever’ and ‘Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, don’t laugh…’
“There’s a good kitty.” His hand gently slid down the side of her head, before stroking her chin. “So adorable.”
“Mm…Meow…” The sides of Makoto’s lips twitched, threatening to curve upwards to show the joy she was feeling, the joy that she desperate didn’t want to admit to (or rather- have her face admit to on her behalf), the embarrassment fighting with intense fervor to stop that grin from emerging any more than it had already done so. “Meow~”
She leant into her boyfriend’s ‘chin tickle’ technique, starting to understand why real cats enjoyed the gesture so much, humming (or perhaps purring) contentedly as he did so.
Ren quickly scanned their surroundings to see if anyone could see them (since Makoto was getting too into her role to remember to do so herself), and after confirming that they were safe for the time being, he let his free hand find its way to the small of her back.
“Meow?” Makoto jumped slightly at the sudden touch, but her shock only lasted a moment. Ren had barely started stroking her back before she reached down, grabbed his wrist, and repositioned it so he’d be copping her behind instead. “Mrraow~”
Ren- not one to complain about her slight ‘correction’- took a firm hold of Makoto’s buttock, roughly kneading it as she arched her back- trying to push her butt further into his palm.
His queen’s butt was nice and firm- a testament to her diligent work out routines- and the way it felt in his hand could (read: would) get real addictive, real fast. She actually didn’t have much in terms of fat on her behind, the reality was less “Makoto had a huge ass” and more “Makoto had really wide hips”; not that this was a minus in Ren’s eyes- not even close. As far as he was concerned it was 100% perfect, though maybe that’s just because it was attached to one whom he considered a 100% perfect girl.
With Makoto’s arousal growing with each passing moment, it didn’t take long for her to lean forward against her beloved’s body, going so far as to grind her drenched crotch against his leg- already staining his trousers.
“Ha, someone’s getting needy.”
“Mraow!”
“Well who am I to deny Nekoto Niijima her wishes?”
“Nyaow… don’t call me that…”
“Aw… But it’s really cute.”
“Just stick with ‘Mako’, please… I mean um… Meow meow.”
Ren smiled, before caressing her cheek.
“Sure Mako.” She was still overwhelmingly cute, though he couldn’t decide whether the fact that she kept grinding against him throughout all of that added to or lessened the cuteness factor.
That’s a lie, there was no question that it added to it.
“Still, we can’t get too carried away right in the middle of the path like this.”
“Maow…”
“Don’t pout Mako.” He booped her nose as he said this. “Someone has to stay responsible while you’re in heat like this.”
“…Miao meow…”
Ren chuckled- honestly rather surprised that he got away with that one. With a playful tug on her leash, he led her further into the park, searching for a relatively discreet bench or something where they could push things just a little further in relative safety.
With her skin beginning to shine with a thin layer of sweat emerging (and other ‘glistening' fluids on her inner thighs), Makoto followed diligently behind, enjoying the feel of the smooth dirt path and cool grass beneath her bare feet, and constantly fighting the urge to play with herself on the way. A couple times she would deliberately lag behind, just to feel him tug her forward again, each time sparking a distinct tingle between her legs.
After a few minutes of searching (or edging, in Makoto’s case), they finally came across a bench off of the beaten path, relatively obscured from the surrounding city, and found they weren’t the only ones having fun tonight.
The two froze at the sight, sat atop the bench was the nudist doctor- Tae Takemi. Hands and heel-clad feet restrained at opposing ends of the bench with four sets of colorful handcuffs, a bright red ball gag in her mouth, and legs spread as wide as they would go to show the Hitachi vibrating wand pressed against her vulva.
“T-Takemi?!”
It wasn’t until Ren’s outburst that the good doctor even noticed that she had an audience, she moaned hard into her gag as her wrists pulled against her restraints.
The couple watched on dumbfounded for a while longer, before Ren finally came to his senses, dropped Makoto’s leash and rushed forward.
“Who did this to you? Hold on, I’ll get you out of these—”
“PPSHH OHHWPHH!”
“What?”
Takemi’s left arm effortlessly slipped out of its restraint, and moved to undo her gag for a moment- droll dripping off of it and onto the doctor’s bare chest.
“I said ‘Piss off’!” She thrust her hips forward. “I’m so close, don’t you dare ruin this for me!”
Ren swiftly and obediently stepped back, arms raised defensively.
“Heard you loud and clear, don’t mind us.”
Takemi’s hand easily slid back into its ‘restraint’, and now without her ball gag in place, her moans were loud and unfettered. If there was anyone else in this park this time of night, then there was no doubt they could hear her and would quickly become aware as to what was going on.
Ren, thinking he now needed to prevent two women’s lustful ways from being too blatantly exposed (but perhaps not thinking as much as he maybe should about his methodology), slapped his hand over Takemi’s mouth, silencing her; though judging by the horny squeal and intensified bucking of the doctor’s hips, this only turned her on even more.
‘Wait a sec…’ With the shock slowly wearing off, Ren’s brain started allowing some more consideration for his actions. ‘Doesn’t this look REALLY bad for me if anyone was watching right now? Most of all…’
He turned back to his girlfriend.
“I’m sorry Makoto- I promise I’m not being weird, could you help me with her before… huh?”
He trailed off as he noticed her blank stare, or rather- noticed the absentminded look on Makoto’s face as her hand was buried between her legs, her fingers alternating between circling her clit and pumping in and out of her.
The fight not to become mesmerized by yet another erotic sight was rapidly becoming a tougher and tougher battle for Ren.
“M-Makoto?”
“H-huh?!” Makoto was suddenly jolted out of her daze; she followed her boyfriend’s line of site to her hand in/against her pussy, fingers working their magic. Even she wasn’t sure how long it had been there doing its thing, and the movement didn’t stop when she noticed either, it was as if the hand had a mind of its own at this point.
Even in her near-orgasmic state, Takemi found herself laughing at the sight of the two lovebirds so shaken, or she would have laughed if her ‘guinea pig’s hand wasn’t still covering her mouth.
Ren only pulled away when he felt the tip of her tongue against his palm, shocking him into retreating a step or two away.
“Do me a favor you two…” Takemi spoke between her needy, breathy moans. “…pull my nipples.”
Ren would be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted, but…
“I’m not sure I should—”
“Let’s do it Ren.” Makoto stumbled closer while still pleasuring herself. She couldn’t admit it aloud of course, but she could empathize with Takemi in this moment; if the positions were switched, she’d want her nipples pulled too.
With Makoto’s lust-drunk haze, and Ren throwing caution to the wind now that he had his girlfriend’s permission, the couple took a firm hold of a nipple each, and in perfect synchronisation gave them a firm tug.
“Ahh!” Tae gasped. “HARDER, DAMMIT!”
The couple obliged, harshly gripping the puffy nubs and yanking hard enough to lift the doctor’s upper torso off of the bench (though that might have just been due to the general orgasmic thrashing around, it was hard to tell). Climax hit, Ren re-covered Takemi’s mouth to try and stifle the literal scream of pleasure as much as possible while she bucked her hips wildly, a whole new serving of vaginal fluids squirted out over the boy’s already dirty trouser leg.
He took his hands off of her to let her ride out her orgasm, though he noted Makoto carrying on with her tugging the doctor with one hand, fingering herself with the other, and had to eventually step in to put a stop to the former (not the latter though, he was more than happy to let her carry on with that).
After much panting and moaning, Tae relaxed in her afterglow a while. She slid her hand out of the cuffs to start undoing the other three sets of restraints, groaning as she loosened her limbs and let her heels return to the floor.
As she reached down to turn off the vibrating wand, she saw her fellow nudist’s hand reach down to take a hold of the toy. The doctor looked into the student’s needy eyes and smirked.
“Does the famous ‘First Shujin nudist’ need a turn?”
Makoto bit her lower lip.
“M-meow…”
Tae snorted, before turning to Ren.
“Well? You just gonna stand there while your girlfriend is in need?”
Ren swallowed, he didn’t know how he actually ended up being the most nervous person here, but Takemi was right- if Makoto was horny enough that she was willing to ‘meow’ in front of someone other than him, then this truly was a desperate situation.
An amused Takemi scooted down to the edge of the bench, happy to sit back and watch as Makoto took her place.
“Do you want the restraints, Mako?” Ren asked while holding one of the pairs aloft.
Makoto shook her head.
“Miao…” She bashfully held out the wand for him. “Mew~”
Ren was really starting to admire her commitment to this ‘kitty speak’ bit. He took the toy from her hands and watched- in awe- as she lifted her feet up onto the bench with her, her legs forming the letter ‘M’, and she reached down to hold her labia open, giving him a close-up view of the heavenly pink caverns within.
Fighting his urge to plunge in face-first, he lifted the wand, switched it to the highest setting available- the audible ‘whirring’ filling all present with a palpable sense of anticipation. With her clitoris- exposed and standing at attention- as the proverbial bullseye, Ren pressed the head of the toy against his soulmate’s entrance.
Instantly Makoto threw her head back, biting hard into her lips as she fought a desperate (and honestly- rather hopeless) battle to hold back her moaning and groaning. With all the edging she did on the way here, an explosive climax was already rapidly approaching. Her torso arched and shook, her breasts- topped with nipples as hard as diamonds- jiggled like two flans placed atop her chest, the cat ears atop her head threatened to come loose.
Takemi continued to watch on- entertained, already stroking her own womanhood as she watched Ren reposition himself so that he could lock lips with his queen while keeping the vibrator pressed against her.
Before long the cries of climax vibrated from Makoto’s mouth to Ren’s, as she squirted hard onto the ground in front of her, her juices intermingling with Tae’s in the dirt.
After some more writhing in bliss, the vibrator was lifted away, and Makoto let herself relax again. Ren broke the kiss, and the two stared longingly into each other’s eyes.
Ren grinned.
“I’m guess I don’t need to ask ‘was it good for you’, do I?”
Makoto laughed.
“We need to get ourselves one of these things…”
Ren examined the vibrator, then eyed Makoto again.
“No objections here.”
A slow clap ripped both of them back to reality, the couple turning to see Tae’s smarmy grin as she ‘applauded’ their efforts. They had both forgotten they had an audience.
“I see you two know how to have fun after all.”
They both blushed, avoiding eye contact with her and each other.
Ren eventually forced a smile, lifting a pair of the colorful handcuffs as he tried to break the ice.
“I guess this at least explains why you had these things handy in your clinic?” He paused a while, considering. “Actually no, it really doesn’t explain anything…”
“What were you planning on doing if someone other than us came along?” Makoto sat up to question the doctor. “I get you could have freed yourself, but there’s no way you would have been able to do it quick enough to stop people from at least taking a picture or something?”
Tae scoffed.
“Oh please, don’t pretend you don’t get it already. You know how the risk makes the pleasure that much more intense, don’t you- Miss Kitty Cat?”
“…P-point taken…” Makoto fiddled with her cat ear headband.
Tae chuckled, before eyeing Ren thoughtfully a while, making the boy slightly nervous.
“S-something wrong, Takemi-sensei?”
“’Sensei’? When did you start getting formal?” She snickered. “I was just thinking, that’s two out of three orgasms now.”
Realization struck Makoto, though she soon mimicked the doctor’s devious smirk.
“You watch.” Her tone made it clear that this wasn’t an invitation to observe, so much as it was a warning to not get directly involved; Queen wasn’t about to share her boyfriend that easily. “Ren, sit down.”
“I mean, sure but- aren’t I supposed to be the one holding the lea—”
“Sit down.” She said, firmer this time.
Not being one to refuse the whims of his queen, Ren took a seat on the bench in Makoto’s place as she stood up, paying little mind to the puddle of girlcum he was now sitting in- staining the back of his pants just like the front of the legs (it’s okay, he knew from experience that all this washed out while dry cleaning just fine).
Once he was securely in his seat, Makoto handed her leash’s handle back to Ren- which he obediently took in his hand- before kneeling down in front of him, pushing his knees apart to open his legs.
“Oho?” Takemi raised an eyebrow, plenty intrigued by where the show was going. “I guess this is a nice excuse to see if all the weird concoctions I’ve been feeding my guinea pig have impacted his sexual performance any.”
“It’s pretty worrying when you describe them as ‘weird concoctions’…”
Makoto would have told them both to be quiet, but she knew pressing on with her plan was the far more effective way of shutting him up. She wasted no more time in undoing his zipper, and pulling ‘Little Arséne’ free, which was- to no one’s surprise- already rock hard and ready for her.
“Hold on tight.”
“Huh? Oh, the leash.”
Quickly clearing his throat to try and hide how nervous he was, he got back into his ‘role’, wrapping the leash around his hand a few times before yanking his ‘pet’ towards him, the side of her face slapping against his erection, the feeling of which pleased her greatly.
With her behind thrust out into the open air, she traced his member from base to head with the tip of her tongue, before taking said head into her mouth.
Ren had given her oral more times than she could count, but she had never returned the favor, and had honestly been curious to try. Results were immediately pleasing; while she couldn’t get much more than the tip in her mouth just yet, the struggle on his face to maintain composure while being overwhelmed by the sensation brought her immeasurable joy.
The stifled panting coming from her beloved, the feeling of the collar digging into the back of her neck, the amused Takemi gently stroking herself to the perverse scene of her- stark naked- sucking off her clothed boyfriend on a bench in a public park. She’d inevitably have to arrest people for less than this in the future; she could only resolve to be as lenient with them as possible.
Makoto never broke eye contact with her boyfriend as her lips slid up and down his cock, she widened her kneeling stance further and the fluids started flowing again, dripping down onto the dirt beneath her.
“Mako, I’m gonna—”
—cum rapidly filled her mouth, she nearly choked purely out of shock at the sensation, but kept her mouth on his dick as she swallowed what she could, and what she couldn’t instead dribbled down onto her chin. It tasted better than she thought it would, if giving oral really was this fun she could see why Ren wanted to do it for her sake so often.
“Oh god Makoto.” Ren leant back on the bench. “That was amazing…”
“Mmmm…”
“Ah…” The intense feeling didn’t fade, in fact… “Mako?”
Ren looked down, seeing his beautiful girlfriend’s lips still sliding up and down his dick.
“A-ah, Makoto, it’s really sensitive right—AH!”
The lustful haze had descended again, and Makoto was still diligently sucking, trying to get it even deeper inside her mouth. The intense feeling Ren was experiencing quickly became overwhelming.
“M-M-Mako… AAHH!” Ren squirmed, trying to wriggle free, but the overly eager Makoto held him firmly in place, sucking as hard as she could, ‘leaking’ profusely onto the ground all the while.
Ren dropped the leash, instead gripping hard onto the bench’s backrest with both hands, it now being his turn to hold back all the moaning.
Takemi was really tempted to just watch him squirm all night in the grip of his nudist ‘pet’ (who really did seem to be in heat), but she decided to have mercy and give Makoto a tap on the shoulder as a sign to relent (eventually, she did let him sweat it out for another ninety seconds or so).
“Hm?” Makoto came to her senses, letting the dick free with a ‘pop’. “Ah! S-sorry Ren, that didn’t hurt, did it?”
Ren- taking a while to regain his composure- wasn’t sure how to answer that; ‘painful’ wouldn’t be inaccurate, but it wasn’t unpleasant either. Instead, he simply reached out and petting her head once more.
“Who’s a good girl?”
Makoto shrunk in on herself, glancing aside at Takemi for the briefest of instances.
“D-don’t make me say it…”
“Ha…” Ren had mercy. He zipped his pants back up, forced himself to his feet on the shakiest of knees, helped Makoto back to her feet and gave her some tissue to wipe the cum off her chin with. “I don’t know about you Mako, but I’m about ready to call it a night.”
“Pfft.” Tae scoffed. “Typical man, he cums once and he’s already too sleepy to carry on.”
“Hey!” Makoto glared at the doctor. “Don’t slander him, he’s fully capable of going more than one round at a time! It’s only natural he’d need rest from time to time. He’ll be ready for at least three rounds of sex tomorrow, I’m certain!”
This particular instance of Makoto defending him wasn’t the most emasculating thing in the world for poor Ren, but it did still made him happy- though not as happy as Makoto’s flustered face when she realized what she had just said.
“N-nevermind.” Makoto turned away in a vain attempt to hide her red face. “It’s none of your business anyway… Ren, let’s head home.”
“Mm.” Ren nodded. “Right away, Mako. Oh, just one thing- Takemi-san?”
“Mm?”
“We never met tonight, agreed?”
Tae chuckled.
“Sure, that version of the facts works better for all our sakes.”
“Glad you can see reason.”
~ ~ ~
“I’m home Sis!”
“Oh, there you are. Where have you been, Makoto? It’s late.”
“I um, just ran out to run some errands, that’s all. Sorry I didn’t say anything.”
“No, it’s fine, you’re not a little girl anymore, you don’t need permission to go outside or anything.”
“Thank you, Sis.”
“It’s nothing to thank me fo… M… Makoto?”
“Mm?
“What is that?”
“What? What do you… oh… u-um…”
“I don’t want to ask, but…”
“Sis it’s not what you think.”
“Oh god Makoto, please, please tell me that’s not a collar you’re wearing.”
“U-um… n-no, NO! It’s a choker! Y-yup! A choker! It’s really trendy nowadays! Just because I’m a nudist doesn’t mean I can’t accessorize from time to time.”
“…”
“…T-trendy! Yaay…”
“It’s loose.”
“That’s just the style.”
“…It has ‘Mako’ written on it…”
“It’s custom made! Haru bought it for me!”
“…Makoto, you know I’m not stupid.”
“…I know… BUT! That’s also why I know that you know that this isn’t a conversation that benefits either of us…”
“…True.”
“Mm…”
“…”
“…”
“…I’m going to bed.”
“S-see you in the morning, Sis!”
Notes:
Been a while since we had a pure smut chapter.
It's hopefully not *too* obvious I like to overplay the volume of vaginal fluid produced whenever I write smut xD
Chapter 125: The other President
Summary:
The next student council make preperations
Notes:
IRL delays fucking suck, amirite?
Chapter Text
“Future student council president, Ren Amamiya, officially declaring this first official strategy meeting officially open… officially.” Ren cleared his throat. “Role call!”
“Future student council treasurer, Futaba Sakura, reporting Mr. President, Sir!”
“…”
“…”
“Maybe we should have waited, the role call only works if we’re all here, and Mishima is still unaccounted for.”
“Probably getting held up by his big tiddy non-goth GF.” Futaba snickered. “I know if I had the choice between this meeting and inhaling her boob sweat I’d be late too!”
“Sojiro ought to wash out your mouth out with soap.”
“Eh don’t pretend you’re bothered by me talking about that kinda stuff, only reason you don’t embrace the inner coomer as openly is because you’ve got access to hot nudussy whenever you want.”
“I feel like the term ‘nudussy’ is really redundant.”
“Fine, you’ve got access to a bootycall from a naked nudist with no clothes on whenever you like.”
“Whatever…” Ren stepped out from behind his podium (the Leblanc counter) and took a seat in the booth opposite Futaba. “What exactly does that have to do with ‘embracing the inner coomer’ or whatever?”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, you have plenty of time to do that with your GF, ‘Mr. Grower’.”
“I can still go back on my decision to let you join the student council with me.”
“I’m only kidding, relax.” Futaba only peeked at him over the brow of her laptop for the briefest of moments, quickly returning her attention to the stream of memes she was restlessly scrolling through, the actual planning document safely minimized until later notice. “It’s not as if we can do much until Mr. E.W.G.F. gets here.”
“We can still plan stuff before Mishima arrives. Hell, we kinda need all the time we can get.” Ren leant back in his seat, staring up at the café’s ceiling. “It’s not like I’ve ever run for a position like this before; I’ve never taken any interest in it in the past. I’m also gonna take a wild guess and say you’ve never done anything like this either?”
Futaba shook her head without looking up from her screen.
“I’ve started a couple flame wars in my life, but in terms of real-world political action? Zero, I mean unless you count Phantom Thief stuff obviously- which I think you should but it’s not really gonna be helpful here, huh?”
“’Fraid not.” Ren laughed. “Fighting mythical beings in cognitive worlds and winning a high school popularity contest require very different skillsets.”
“For real, for real. Still, I know I’m a key item in your election quest, in fact I might be the most important factor in the whole campaign!”
He raised a curious eyebrow at his ally, smirking at her.
“Not to question your confidence, but how’d you figure?”
She stood up, her fists either side of her waist and her bare chest proudly puffed out.
“I’m here to sex this bitch up!”
Ren sighed, hanging his head in palpable disappointment.
“Of course, should have known…”
“Don’t get all huffy and sarcastic! Sex appeal is very much a necessity; we’re trying to win over hordes of hormonal teenagers here.”
“That’s not un-true…”
“Makoto was the hottest babe in the whole school, right?”
“Agreed.” Ren answered without hesitation.
“That was a huge part of her popularity- even before she went perma-nude, probably what got her into her position of authority in the first place.”
“I… I very much doubt that was the reason…”
“Whatever, point is she’s not in Shujin anymore, so if we wanna have any chance of winning we gotta utilize the full potential of the new hottest girl in school!”
“Honestly, you’re not really wrong. While we don’t want to veer into the pornographic- in this case at least- utilizing ‘sexy lady’ appeal is a strategy that can work.”
“Exactly! Thankfully you already have the sexiest girl on your side!”
“True…”
“It’s a damn good thing you have me around.” Futaba stood so proudly it seemed like she was glowing. “I’m certain that I—”
“—Will have the best chance convincing Ann to cooperate.” Ren nodded. “She won’t be down for anything nudity related, but otherwise I’m sure she’ll be happy to help.”
Futaba slammed her laptop shut and glowered at her senpai.
“I’m quitting, I don’t wanna help you anymore.”
“W-wait…” He weakly reached out as she moved to pack her stuff away. “Were you supposed to be the ‘sexiest girl in school’ in that scenario?”
“DUH!”
“Oh… sorry, I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
“RUDE!”
“I’m sorry, again… If it’ll make you happy I’ll… use for you sex appeal, I guess?”
Leblanc’s bell jingled as the door suddenly opened and a slightly sweaty Mishima walked in, just in time to see his fellow nudist Futaba grumpily sit back down in her seat, and to see his fellow third year nearly jump out of his skin in fear.
“Woah, you okay Amamiya-san?”
“Y-yeah.” Ren took a moment to steady his breathing and calm down. “I thought that was Sojiro walking in for a sec, just as I was talking about using his daughter for…”
“Hm?”
“N-nevermind.” Ren stood up to properly greet his friend. “Glad you can make it, future student council vice president Yuuki Mishima.”
“That’s quite the mouthful” Mishima laughed awkwardly. “But yeah, glad to be here, sorry I’m late. I was helping Mai with something.”
“Motorboating?” Futaba asked, quickly being silently scolded by Ren.
“Hm? No, she’s not really interested in nautical stuff.”
“No, I meant—”
“Moving on.” Ren returned to his ‘podium’. “Now that we’re all here we can start planning in earnest for our election campaign. I know none of us have experience for this kind of thing, but I’m certain we’ll win the election in a landslide.”
“I like the confidence.” Mishima seemed rather excited. “Just what I’d expect from you guys; hell- you’re already calling us ‘future student council whatevers’, it’s like the whole campaign is nothing but a formality to you.”
Ren coyly shrugged, trying not to seem smug.
“We’ve never lost before I certainly don’t plan on starting now. I know for sure we have what it takes.” The other thing giving him confidence was the knowledge that fucking no one else in Shujin seemed to give a shit about the student council, so the competition would be somewhere between ‘weak’ and ‘non-existent’; part of him expected the faculty to just give them the job the moment they handed in their application, grateful to have anyone apply at all. “Though that doesn’t mean we should become complacent; it’ll probably be easy enough to appeal to the new first years, but it’s still possible some of my bad rep is lingering on with the older students, we’re gonna have to find a way to overcome that.”
“Actually I don’t think that’ll be a problem…” Mishima’s enthusiasm seemed to falter slightly. “…not in the way you’re thinking anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
Mishima was visibly struggling to find the right words.
“The whole… ‘criminal transfer student’ angle has really fallen off in the latter half of the year; no one really cares anymore.”
Futaba snickered.
“I guess it’s pretty boring compared to all the sexy naked exhibitionist ladies running around.”
Ren playfully shrugged.
“Hey man, I’m not gonna complain about sexy naked people overshadowing the baseless rumors about me, I certainly know which I’d rather talk about.”
“It’s true that people aren’t spreading those rumors anymore.” Mishima reluctantly continued. “But people love to talk about how much time you seem to spend around so many of the nudists; people notice that they all seem to know you.”
“To be fair- most of them know me through Makoto. It’s only natural I’d come to know a lot of them if I’m dating the girl who started the whole trend and is basically the programs mascot.”
An evil smirk spread across Futaba’s face.
“I’ll tell Makoto you called her a ‘mascot’.”
“Please don’t.”
Mishima decided he was better off ignoring this faux-sibling faux-squabble.
“Well you know how people like to talk and speculate. Students love to gossip about how you have a ‘harem’, or theorize that you’re some kind of pimp.”
“That’s gross.” Ren groaned. “People really do just say whatever stupid shit they want, huh? Like, I’m not gonna claim that I never look at the other nudists, but I’m staying loyal to Makoto, that’s always been the case, and always will be.”
“I mean… you should probably object to the ‘pimp’ allegations first, don’t you think?”
Futaba was ignored.
“Not to mention the whole… thing with you and Niijima-senpai at the culture festival…”
“Oh…” Ren hung his head in shame. “Right… that…”
“Nah that’s a good thing.” Futaba grinned. “Who isn’t gonna wanna support the dude who conquered the previous president and turned her into an awesome public sex mindbreak spectacle!”
“Th-there was nothing ‘mindbreak’ about it!”
“C’mon, she was left panting and drooling in a puddle of her own girlcum.”
Ren felt pretty guilty about that, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit proud of it too.
“That’s still not ‘mindbreak’, just a really good orgasm and it took her a moment to get her bearings again, totally different tags for that one.”
“Whatever. I still think we should capitalize on that angle.”
“Overruled.” While Ren didn’t want to disrespect Makoto like that, his biggest fear would be Sae’s reaction to such an advertisement campaign.
“Cringe…” Futaba sulked.
Mishima- who notably had his legs subtly crossed after going back down memory lane- cleared his throat.
“Let’s get things back on track. While all… that stuff is probably best ignored, we still need to figure out some kind of angle for our campaign.”
“Biggest and most important part is the poster!” Futaba’s sulking lasted all of five seconds before her enthusiasm seemed to burst back into being. “We need it to be really eye-catching and awesome. I propose a close-up shot of my milkers.”
“…And?”
“And what?”
“We can’t just have your tits be the whole poster.”
“Yeah we can. Why would we have anything else?”
“That’s…” Ren let out a heavy sigh. “I mean the sad part is that would probably work…”
“I would offer my snatch but the bush hasn’t full grown back yet so I’m not at my best.”
“We’re not doing that. Remember it’s me who’s trying to get elected; I kinda need to be involved somehow.”
“We’ll put you in a little bubble in the bottom right, with a little ‘Vote for Amamiya’ next to you. Oo- no- better: write that across my chest, but leave gaps to keep the nipples on show. That way everyone’s eyes are drawn to the important part.”
“The ‘important part’ being the text or your boobs?”
“Yes.”
“Walked right into that one… Whatever, we’re not doing that.”
“But—”
“Having you appear naked is fine and normal, but we can’t just go full ‘exploitation’ with this.”
“Not that the poster design isn’t important…” Mishima raised his hand. “But shouldn’t we focus on possible campaign promises first? They’re the most important part, right?”
“Eh, just write any old crap.” Futaba waved him off dismissively. “Campaign promises are the least important part of any election process. The people dumb enough to believe them always just up and forget who said what the moment the election is over, and the people who see through the bullshit are too jaded to care enough to try and hold anyone accountable for any of it. It’s just a popularity contest at the end of the day, driven by drama; like a live reality show. We just need attention from the public and favor from the establishment to succeed; the former we can get through raw sex appeal, the latter we can easily get with Makoto putting in a good word for us.”
Ren mumbled under his breath.
“I still can’t tell if bringing her on board was a really terrible idea or a really good one…”
Mishima rubbed his forehead, before pulling pen and paper out of his bag and unenthusiastically jotting down notes.
“I suppose I’ll just come up with a draft for the promises and run it by you later Amamiya-san.”
“Sure…” Ren stood back upright, trying to reestablish his ‘leader aura’. “As… inspiring as Futaba’s poster idea is, I think we can do better.”
“Everything else would be a downgrade from my idea. I’m just saying we should get straight to the good stuff and max it out.”
“Sometimes discretion is the better part of doing things right, or whatever that saying is. I promise your tits will be in the final poster.”
“Probably really small though…”
“I mean…”
“…You wanna finish that sentence?”
“I wasn’t gonna say anything.”
“You totally were. So that’s why you don’t like my idea? Not enough milk for you?”
“That has nothing to do with it.”
“If big is what you’re after, then I know Ann is gonna hard-wall us, but I bet we could talk Haru into it.”
“Can we please move on from the titty poster idea?”
“I’m mentally ‘nerd emoji react’-ing you so hard right now.”
“You wound me.” Ren groaned sarcastically. “Anyway, I’ve never designed a poster before outside of shitty school projects growing up, I wouldn’t know where to start… then again, I am gunning for student council president, maybe ‘shitty school project’ is the level of quality expected. I doubt the real thing is anywhere near as stylish as the stuff you see in anime.”
“Man it’s so lame we don’t have anything like that.” Futaba laughed. “It’d be great to have some cool bullshit set up where we could be like ‘My father runs the conglomerate that founded this school’ and basically control everything that way.”
“That would be fun, but that’s pretty unrealistic. Only ever happens in anime…”
“Lame.”
“As for the poster composition, do you think it’d be worth asking Yusuke for help?”
“Ehh… Inari’s art is awesome in its own way, but I dunno how good it’d be for a political ad. He’d go too ‘avant garde’ and we’d all end up as just a bunch of weird-ass shapes. None of the Shujin students would really get it, and more importantly- my boobs and Mishima’s dick wouldn't stand out at all.”
“W-wait—” Mishima paused his writing, worried. “I’m not gonna have to um… m-model for a close-up poster shot like Sakura-san, am I? Being nudist is one thing, but that’s a bit much…”
“Don’t worry, I’m veto-ing that idea too. But Futaba is probably right about Yusuke’s work being a bit high-brow for our needs. I’ve not seen much of Mai-san’s work, do you think she’d be any better Mishima?”
“All her work is wonderful, and I’m not just saying that because she and I are still a thing.”
Futaba muttered under her breath.
“He needed to throw in that little humblebrag at the end, didn’t he?”
“But I feel like we’d have a similar problem with her. Everything she does sends a strong message, plus she’s probably too ‘anti-establishment’ for the world of politics.”
“I could see that.”
“Ah this is stupid.” Futaba opened her laptop back up. “I’ll just throw together some stuff in photoshop, all we need is to take some pictures in some cool poses and I’ll do the rest. I’ve got a green screen in my room we can use, I’ll bring it over real quick.”
“You have a green screen?”
“I was thinking of becoming a streamer a while back, until I remembered that I’d have to actually speak to the chat and stuff, not to mention appear on camera.”
“You got as far as ordering the green screen before realizing that?!
“I was excited! Get off my back!”
Ren sighed, before smiling.
“Well it’s a good idea nonetheless- the green screen that is. I look forward to seeing what ideas you come up with.”
“Eheheh~ I bet you will.”
“Nothing too lewd or vulgar though.”
“Tch… When’d you become so prudish?”
“The moment Sojiro made it clear he’d have my head if I let you get your fem-coomer brain get you into trouble. You’re free to slut it up as whatever kinda e-girl exhibitionist extraordinaire when it’s not my watch you’re under.”
“I guess I’ll take it.”
~ ~ ~
“Yo for real? Renjamin is really following in your footsteps Nudie Prez?”
“That’s a… well I was about to say that’s a strange way to put it, but I think in this case you might be right Eiko.”
“Aww, that’s really cute, he wants to be just like his mommy.”
“I’m not his mom.”
“I know, that’s why I said ‘mommy’, it’s a different thing.”
“If you say so.”
“I don’t try and pretend he’s never called you ‘mommy’ before, I know you two too well at this point.”
“…No comment.”
“PFFT! ‘No comment’ she says.”
The uproar of Eiko’s joyous laughter made for quite the scene as the pair of college students leisurely strolled down the street after another hard day at Tokyo U, though Makoto’s pace quickened, hoping that somehow moving faster would make her flushed face less obvious to amused passers-by (spoiler: it didn’t, but it did make her bounce more, which said passers-by appreciated).
As Eiko’s laughter died down, making way for the general sounds of city life drowning out the nudists’ footfalls, she pondered for a while.
“A student council president that wears clothes, huh? That’s a pretty radical idea, I doubt it’ll ever catch on.”
“You’re a real joker, huh?”
“You know what they say: once you go nude, you never go… bude?”
“What was that joke even supposed to be?”
“It was funnier in my head.” Eiko shrugged.
“Besides, even if I spent most of the year as a nudist, I was elected with my clothes on like every other president ever; nudity is something that has always been wholly separate from student council duties.”
“I’m never gonna separate the two ideas in my head, I don’t think. You’re too influential Nudie Prez.”
“This isn’t exactly the type of influential I’m aiming for, but I suppose I’ll take the compliment.”
“I feel honored. Heh.”
Despite trying to act annoyed, Makoto couldn’t help but smile a little.
“I was actually heading back to Leblanc to see how they’re getting along planning their campaign. You can come with me if you like?”
“As if I’m gonna turn down the chance to see Ren-the-men struggle to fill your shoes- or lack thereof.”
“He’s more competent than you think.” The proud smirk on Makoto’s face did not go unnoticed. “He might end up doing a better job than me…” She paused a moment. “Whatever happens though- don’t tell him I said that.”
“You oughta be careful about handing out potential blackmail material like that so freely Nudie Prez.”
“Maybe you’re right…”
The nudists continued their trip to the beloved café, finding the least crowded subway car they could to minimize the number of bodies inevitably pressing into them from all sides, and while their journey was thankfully free of groping, they did still leave the station covered in sweat.
“It’s way too early in the year to be covered in sweat…” Eiko grumbled.
“Still beats the desert.”
“What?”
“N-nevermind.”
They rest of the walk to Yongen Jaya was nice and stress free, and they soon found themselves walking into the café, the familiar jingle of the bell marking their arrival.
Oddly, they found the main area of the café empty, though voices could be heard faintly emanating from upstairs.
Makoto sighed.
“Come on Ren, you can’t leave the café unattended during opening hours; you should know better.”
“You really do sound like his mommy.”
“Shut up.”
After locking the entrance to make sure no opportunistic burglars or the like followed in behind them, Makoto headed up to Ren’s room. The nudists watched the scene quietly, partially out of politeness- seeing the green screen set up and not wanting to interrupt their photo session- but mostly due to wondering why exactly Ren was wearing an improvised cape over his school uniform, and lifting the always nude Futaba over his head, hands placed on her lower stomach and chest (care being taken to minimize how much of her breasts he was physically touching), as she lay on her front, arms and legs spread eagle, and determined face glaring forward at something imagined. Meanwhile the surprisingly eager Mishima stumbled around, capturing the image from several angles on his phone.
Ren (seeming to be straining himself ever so slightly) noticed the nudists entering the room, and more importantly, their slightly worrying expressions.
“Uh, hey Mako, Eiko-san. What’s up?”
“’Sup Clothed Prez.” Eiko smirked. “Whatcha up to?”
“Good question.” Ren briefly looked up at the girl he was holding, quickly looking away again when he noticed himself spending slightly too long looking at her puffy nipples pointing downwards from her hanging breasts, inches away from his hands. “I guess I’m just trusting the creative process?”
“Izzat so…?”
“You’ll have to ask this one for details.” He gestured up to Futaba with his eyes. “She’s got some grand ‘vision’ for our campaign poster.”
“It’s gonna look great after editing, trust me.” Futaba suddenly pointed at Makoto (the force of that action putting her at risk of falling off, Ren quickly adjusting to keep her from slipping off his hands). “Makoto- we’re going to need you for this one too!”
“Me? Is Ren going to have to lift me up in the air too?” Her tone suggested apprehension, but the idea wasn’t an entirely unpleasant one.
“Nah. I’m thinking I’ll have your ghost/ spirit face up in the sky behind up us, looking up at the swooshy stars ‘n’ stuff in prayer or something.”
“Ghost? Am I supposed to be dead? What kind of campaign poster is this?”
“You don’t have to be dead, its ambiguous.”
Makoto sighed, before looking to her boyfriend.
“Are you sure about this Ren?”
“First I’m hearing of this idea, but trust me- it’s better than her original idea.”
“Oo- speaking of which.” Futaba wiggled excitedly again (though only a little, even she noticed now close she was to falling). “Makoto- would you be interested in modelling your honkers for the poster?”
“No, she wouldn’t.”
“Don’t answer for her Ren! She might like it.”
“You won’t, Mako, trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
“Tch…” Futaba tutted. “What about you, Extrovert? You want your boobs on posters?”
Eiko hard blinked.
“…Yeah, ‘lright.”
“Do that in your own time!” Ren was getting tired of scolding her. “We’re not using it for the campaign.”
“Dammit. Makoto, settle this debate: Boobs are the most eye-catching thing we could put on the poster, right?”
“…I mean if we’re only talking purely grabbing attention then yeah I suppose that’s right, but you have to consider the message you’re sen—”
“SEE! Even Makoto agrees!”
“I didn’t say that!”
“Actually with you we could do even better. My pube situation ain’t great at the moment, but your pussy is always crazy Hollywood smooth, we could get an amazing close-up of that instead and it’ll work even better!”
“I’d be more careful if I were you Futaba.” Ren spoke slowly and firmly. “I’m still holding you, so you can’t run away if you make her angry.”
“…Good point. Y-you’re not mad, are you Makoto?”
She wasn’t, she was split between finding the idea of her pussy being literally plastered across the halls of Shujin pretty hot, and wondering why Futaba said ‘Hollywood smooth’ when she was pretty sure Hollywood movies typically didn’t show vulvas at all.
Still, she remained silent, even if she wasn’t angry- Futaba wouldn’t learn any lesson if she thought she was off the hook; things like this were important to consider for the girl’s growth.
“Amamiya-san, I think you can safely put Sakura-san down now.” Mishima decided he had gotten enough shots of this particular pose, and that he should have a little mercy on Ren.
Ren tried to suppress his strained wince as he squatted down to comfortably let Futaba dismount, hiding his whimper in the manliest way he could manage.
Mishima continued.
“I don’t know about Sakura-san’s ‘ghost’ idea, but I think getting Niijima-san involved would be a great idea. It’s no secret how popular she was during the past year.”
Makoto turned away, blushing.
“I suppose I was, huh?” A smile crept along her face. “Having fans who appreciated my efforts show up on the last day really was an amazing experience.”
“Everyone knows you and Amamiya-san are an enduring item, so I figure… y’know… you two could…”
Futaba gasped.
“Woah! I never thought Kazuya-san would suggest something pervy, I thought that was my job. But recreating the culture festival scene would be awesome.”
“It’s ‘Yuuki’! Yuuki Mishima! And no, I wasn’t going to suggest anything like that! I just thought they could stand together, going for some ‘moving forward together’ theme, y’know?”
“Ah, okay.” Futaba lowered her voice. “I can just get footage of it online and use that instead."
"Futaba, pro tip, keeping these things in your own head is much more effective at stopping us from hearing you compared to just whispering.”
“C’mon Ren, you’re supposed to be more fun than this.”
Makoto’s biggest blush of the day spread across her cheeks.
“Y-you want a romantic poster of us, and it’ll be shared throughout the school?”
Eiko snickered.
“Of course that’s the idea that embarrasses her.”
Pii pii pii
“Hm?” Ren felt his phone go off. “One moment, it’s Boss calling.” He took a step away and answered the call. “Hello?”
“…”
“Yeah, she’s here.”
“…”
“Y-yeah, she is…”
“…”
“How’d you know?”
“…”
“Oh. She probably won’t be happy to hear that.”
“…”
“No, you’re absolutely right. I guess this is for the best.”
“…”
“Want me to send her over right now?”
“…”
“Okay will do, I’ll tell her now.”
“…”
“My condolences, and good luck. Being a Dad sounds rough, especially with a daughter like—”
“…”
“I-I wasn’t gonna insult her, I promise. Just… y’know?”
“…”
Ren breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad you understand.”
“…”
“Alright, see ya, good luck- again.” Ren hung up, and turned to Futaba. “Sojiro wants to talk to you.”
Futaba quickly turned apprehensive.
“Wh-why are you saying that in such a serious tone?”
“He wants to discuss your behaviour, the things you’re talking about and suggesting.”
“H-huh?! What c-could he mean by that?”
“Oh- also- he asked me to tell you: He figured out how the ‘listening spy thingamajigs’ worked, or at least how to listen in on them.”
Futaba was a fair-skinned girl at the best of times, but she was rapidly turning white as snow.
“oh…”
“I don’t think he liked the ‘Put my tits on a poster’ idea, among other things.”
“right…”
“He wants to have- and I quote: ‘a long, tedious talk’ with you.”
“i understand. i’ll see you tomorrow… hopefully… maybe… i dunno…”
And with that, Futaba pitifully plodded down the stairs and out of the café, Makoto, Eiko, and Mishima all bringing their hands together in respectful prayer for her well-being, while Ren stood tall and saluted her. They held these positions in silence until the last echo of the bell faded away, and for a few long moments after.
Makoto turned back to Mishima.
“I don’t want anything too intimate, but I wouldn’t mind posing with Ren if it’d help his campaign.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep things tasteful.”
Makoto smiled.
“Be sure that you do.”
~ ~ ~
Ren took a moment to gather his composure; he stood outside the Shujin principal’s office, application in hand. It was vital that he walked in the room with peak confidence, yet at the same time not overconfident to the point of bluster, all for the sake of making the perfect first impression.
Part of him had always suspected elections like these were rigged anyway- he hoped he was wrong, but it didn’t hurt to be safe, so getting on the faculty’s good side would only help him down the line.
Thankfully, quiet confidence was a specialty of his, he strolled in, walked up to the acting principal, and held out the application form across the desk with a self-assured smirk on his face.
“I’m here to officially announce my candidacy for student counc—”
“You’re hired.”
“I… huh?”
“Year after year we get fewer and fewer applicants, Shujin’s student body is disgraceful when it comes to taking on responsibility. It ended up being the same students year after year, Niijima-san being the last to go aside from some half-hearted first years who threw in the towel once they noticed that Niijima was taking it seriously.”
“Right…”
“Frankly I was worried we’d get no one applying this year, we’re grateful to have anyone at all.”
“You don’t say…”
The principal gave a non-committal shrug.
“You’re that transfer student, the kid of that strange nurse who left not far back, you’ve not caused too much trouble during your time here, and Kawakami seems to like you. So to hell with it, you have the job. If anyone complains we’ll do the song and dance of an election cycle, but I doubt that’ll happen. Students don’t take notice of anything outside of whatever ‘drama’ they’re latching onto this month.”
“…”
“…You still here? You’ve got work to do ‘Mr. President’, I want a full report of everyone you’ll be bringing into the council. Hand it in whenever you get the time, no one actually checks these things.”
Ren hard blinked.
“’Kay.” And he left the room. “I guess we won? That’s good, I think…”
Ren never knew victory could be so unsatisfying…
“Bleh…”
Chapter 126: Homecoming, but without the home
Summary:
That little loose end Ren's been too happy to forget about
Chapter Text
And so, the former Phantom Thieves of Hearts settled comfortably into their new norm. Makoto Niijima diligently worked through her criminal justice classes each day at university, and while she did miss being able to spend the breaks with her boyfriend like in her Shujin Academy days, she loved getting to spend more time with her fellow nudists and Haru- the lattermost greatly appreciating the opportunity for the ‘girl time’, something that had been notably absent from her life up until recently (being constantly surrounded by nubile nudity was also an nice bonus).
While the work itself was decidedly tougher than anything their high school days, everything was much more focused on subjects they actually cared about, ones that directly related to all their dream careers; no more tedious quizzes on ancient Japanese history or mathematical quandaries involving triangles- except Mieko of course, her engineering studies did involve quite a bit of math, though it tended to be more complex than triangles (even squares were considered child’s play at this point, which really shows that we’re in the big leagues now).
Meanwhile Ren was leading the new Shujin student council, learning just how boring the reality of such a position was. Although, compared to the life-threatening stakes he and his friends constantly faced throughout the previous year, some minor boredom was something that could be easily tolerated- perhaps even appreciated. If nothing else it gave him the student council’s office, which could happily serve as a relatively private hangout spot for him and his friends; where he could help Futaba adapt to school life, and help tutor Ann and Ryuji in preparation for their own entrance exams next year (they needed all the help they could get, and Ren was more than happy to channel his inner Makoto to give them a fighting chance).
Thankfully, it didn’t take too long before both Ren and Makoto got some free days with enough overlap to complete a certain task that had been looming in the background of their lives ever since the new academic year started; one Makoto at least knew was necessary, but both were greatly dreading:
Ren returning to Inaba.
Not permanently, thankfully. No matter how things panned out they’d be returning to Tokyo to resume their new lives as a couple in just a matter of days. No, this was just a visit for the both of them, to wrap up some unfinished business.
Still, despite his efforts to hide it, Ren’s apprehension was clear as crystal on the train ride over. Makoto took notice of the look in his eyes in the reflection of the train window as he stared at the countryside flying by; she rested her hand on top of his, almost causing him to jump.
“You gonna be okay, Ren?”
“Hm?” He turned to look at her concerned face, staring up at him. “Yeah, totally, obviously, why wouldn’t I be?”
“It’s only natural to be nervous.”
“I mean…” He sighed. “Yeah, I guess. I’m…”
“…Yeah? Go on.”
Ren was silent for a while, before shaking his head.
“I’m sorry to say this Mako, but I feel I need to go on record saying this is pointless.”
“I very strongly disagree with that, and I feel that deep down you feel the same way.”
Ren shrugged.
“I know you want this to end with them forgiving me, our relationship being healed, and them sending me back to Tokyo with a smile, but I just don’t see things working out that way.”
Makoto lightly scoffed.
“Believe me, I’m not that naïvely optimistic. Obviously them admitting their fault and seeing you for the wonderful man you are is the ideal outcome, but I’m not betting on everything going so smoothly.”
“There’s one thing you and I have in common.” Ren laughed.
“But that’s not the goal of this whole excursion anyway.”
“Hm?”
“Frankly, I’m not thinking about your family at all. Right now, my only concern is you.” She gave her boyfriend a serious look. “So long as this is a success for you- whatever that ends up meaning- I’ll be satisfied.”
“A success for me, huh?”
“So long as we head back to Tokyo with no regrets, it’ll be a happy ending.”
“I’m not worried about that.”
Makoto slowly nodded.
“I’ll take that to be a good thing.”
“…”
~ ~ ~
“It’s much nicer here in the spring compared to winter.”
“Oh yeah, you came here while I was in prison, right?”
“Me, Eiko, and Ann came here as part of our investigation and signature gathering efforts. Speaking of Ann, she should already be here, right?”
“She’s in town at least. She wanted to spend the break with Shiho, and she left a day earlier than me because I needed to wait for you- our breaks didn’t overlap that smoothly after all.”
Makoto chuckled.
“You make it sound like I was holding you up.”
“Nah, if anything I wish I could put this off even more.”
“I like it when you’re honest.”
“We’ll have to drop in and check on those two when we get a chance. I’m dying to see if they’ve made their relationship official yet and have just been keeping it secret from us all.”
Makoto gently shook her head.
“If so, then they’re even worse at keeping it secret than we were.”
“Hey, we kept it secret from Sae for a long time, she was the main mark for our secret-keeping.”
“Not sure how I feel about calling her a ‘mark’, but I guess you’re right.” She pondered a while. “Who do you think the ‘mark’ is for them? The person Ann is keeping her relationship a secret from?”
Both Ren and Makoto contemplated a while, scratching their chins in thought, before turning towards each other, looking into each other’s eyes, and nodding in unison.
“Ann.”
“Ann’s the mark.”
They both laughed, the moment of levity feeling like an enormous weight being lifted off their shoulders after the hours of dread and anxiety building up on the journey over, even if only for a short while.
Ren sunsetted his laughter with a long sigh.
“I kinda wanna check in on them right now…”
“…”
Another- much heavier- sigh escaped his lips.
“I guess we better head to the family house first.” He gave his girlfriend a weak smile. “I know I was just talking about wanting to put it off, but it’s really the kind of situation where it’s better to just rip off the band-aid, huh?”
“Mm.” Makoto nodded, before taking a firm hold of his hand. “I’ll be with you every step of the way, okay? Whatever happens, we’ll tackle this together, right?”
He paused a moment, before squeezing her hand back.
“Together. Thank you Mako.”
“Let’s go.”
~ ~ ~
The sound of the doorbell seemed almost deafening, and not because of the volume; something about it made both Ren and Makoto feel like their hearts dropped right down into their stomachs and the world around them become rather hazy. Still, their resolve didn’t waver, and even if it had- pressing that doorbell meant it was far too late to turn back; there was no option left but to face the music.
Makoto squeezed Ren’s hand again, trying to help keep him grounded. After he returned the gesture, he gently pulled his hand free, letting it hang by his side in the most casual way he could manage.
Part of Makoto wanted to grab his hand again, but she realized it was probably better to let him face this on his own terms; he’s choosing to prioritize presenting himself as independent in his decisions rather than risking having it look like he was only doing this because of her wishes. She wondered if she was perhaps overthinking it, but she could worry about that later; whether through direct action or simply being here as emotional support, she resolved to support him unconditionally throughout this endeavour.
Soon the inevitable happened, the front door clicked, and seemed to open in slow motion, and just beyond the threshold, Tsuyoshi Amamiya was revealed.
Judging by his eyes, he certainly expected Makoto Niijima to be present, but was still understandably thrown off by her appearance slightly, though he did a good job of hiding this fact.
Or rather, he would have, had he not felt the need to say:
“So she’s with you?”
Ren just glared at him.
“Is that a problem?”
Tsuyoshi glared back.
“…No. Not at all.”
Makoto bowed respectfully, deciding that she should at least try to be polite.
“Good afternoon, Amamiya-san.” She suppressed the nervous sensations in her gut, stood upright, and established firm eye contact with the man. “I believe I proposed that we should have words once more; I am here to make good on that promise.”
“So you are.” Tsuyoshi carried the same aura of authority that he did the last time Makoto visited, but otherwise he remained extremely difficult to read. He stepped aside to allow the couple inside. “It is best that we keep these discussions indoors. One can never forget the danger of prying eyes and ears.”
Ren tutted under his breath, but softened slightly when he felt Makoto’s hand subtly tap his back. He turned to face her, her smile was reassuring, but her eyes seemed almost tempering; it was the same look she gave him before an important battle in the metaverse, silently saying both “Don’t worry, I’m here for you” and “Keep it together, we’re counting on you”.
Makoto turned back to Tsuyoshi.
“Thank you.”
She and her boyfriend passed through the doorway; as they walked through to the hallway to the living room, she kept a close eye on Ren- his face, his body language, but even with all her experience with him she was having a hard time getting a solid read on him; he was more guarded than she had ever seen before. Tsuyoshi may have been a naturally intimidating man, but were she here on her own to talk to him she would be able to do so without fear, but he wasn’t the important one here in her mind- Ren was. She felt so much less confident in her ability to handle her boyfriend than his father in this moment.
She took a subtle breath to steady herself.
‘It’s my turn to be his pillar of strength’ she thought to herself. ‘No matter what happens, I must not show even the slightest hint of weakness. Not until he’s fully capable of moving forward without regret’.
They quickly reached the living room, Tsuyoshi knelt down at one side of the table, Ren opposite him, and Makoto just beside Ren- close enough that he could rest a hand on his knee just out of sight, should the need arise.
“So I’ve—”
“GOODNESS!”
Tsuyoshi’s opening was almost instantly cut off by a shocked outburst from his wife. The cry caused Makoto to almost jump, but both Tsuyoshi and Ren seemed unfazed.
The mother stood in the archway leading to the kitchen area,
“Why is there a—”
Tsuyoshi calmly raised his hand to his wife.
“There’s nothing to worry about Youko. This is the one I told you was coming today.”
“O-oh?”
“This young woman is one of those nudists from Tokyo, she visited us a couple months ago, remember?”
“Um… y-yes! Of course! Yes…”
Makoto turned slightly and bowed to her.
“I’m Makoto Niijima, it’s nice to meet you again Amamiya-san.”
“O-oh.” Youko- still seeming baffled- returned the bow. “Nice to meet you.”
“She’s Ren’s friend.”
“OH!” Youko suddenly seemed much more excited, looking right at her son. “You didn’t tell me you had a friend visiting today.”
“Um…” Ren restlessly fiddled with his hair. “I mean, I just got here myself Mom…”
“It’s so good that you finally have a friend who’s willing to visit…”
Ren visibly cringed.
“…I’ll put on some tea for all of you!”
Tsuyoshi nodded.
“That’d be lovely, Youko, please do, and take your time.”
And with that Youko disappeared back into the kitchen, Tsuyoshi folded his arms and faced the couple once more.
Makoto’s shoulders dropped slightly.
“I suppose it was too much to hope that she’d remember me.”
“Don’t take it personally.” Ren shrugged. “Mom’s always had… problems with memory and whatever.”
“Unfortunately so…” Tsuyoshi’s grip on his arm subtly tightened. “But that’s not what we’re here to discuss, not around someone outside of the family.”
“I definitely hold Mako closer than I do you.” Ren’s tone was sharp and bitter. “Anything that can be discussed with me can be discussed with her too, I trust her more than anything."
“Ren…”
Tsuyoshi didn’t flinch.
“Even if you feel that way, it’s not your decision to make. We’re keeping this discussion on track, my wife has suffered enough pain and humiliation for a lifetime, I won’t have you spreading it further based on some adolescent hormones.”
Makoto quickly leant in before Ren could snap back.
“Maybe he’s right Ren.”
“But he—”
“Let’s stick to what’s important for now, okay?”
“…Y-yeah… yeah, you’re right.” Ren nodded.
Tsuyoshi got back on track.
“So I’ve heard that you’ve decided to stay in Tokyo indefinitely?”
Ren continued to glare at his father.
“Yup, I have no intention of leaving my home.”
“So that’s the way you see it?”
“Obviously. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if we shortcutted all of this, I pack up my stuff from upstairs, and just leave right now.”
His father scoffed.
“So you’d abandon everything so easily?”
“Abandon? Last I remember I was forced out of here and shipped off to Tokyo without a say in the matter, if anything I’d say I’m the one who was abandoned.”
“What a selfish way of framing it. Need I remind you that it was a result of your own actions that your probation was made necessary?”
“My ‘action’ being trying to help someone in need, oh yeah- clearly I deserve only the very worst punishment for that, right?”
A weary groan escaped Tsuyoshi’s lips.
“Must I explain this again? It’s not the fact that you helped her, it’s your way of going about it.”
“This shit… ‘Never get involved’, ‘don’t think about the woman being assaulted, think about how you might embarrass us’, right?”
“You could have called for help, you had your phone, you were in a residential area. Instead you decided to rush in head-first like an unthinking fool, attacking the man without ever stopping to think of who he is or how it might look.”
“For the millionth fucking time- I did not attack him! I—” Ren was halfway leaning over the table when he felt Makoto’s hand on his thigh. He turned to see her staring daggers into his old man, but her palm rested gently on his leg, a very soft reminder to stay calm, losing his temper would not help his case any. He returned to a seated position before continuing. “I didn’t so much as throw a punch, he was so drunk he fell on his own ass.”
“Furthermore…” Makoto- narrow eyes still locked onto the father- interjected. “…I don’t see the relevance of ‘who the man was’. Regardless of his position or background, in that moment he was simply a man assaulting a woman, it’s only natural for one to step in on such an incident.”
“You misunderstand.” Tsuyoshi shook his head. “Need I remind you how it turned out? Because he rushed in without so much as calling for help, it was a simple matter for this man to shift the blame onto Ren, even giving him a way to get away from his crime scot-free.”
“But I—”
Ren was silenced by his father’s fierce glare.
“I take no pleasure in this, but here’s the reality check you clearly need: Even if you may have had the most noble intentions in the world, you rushed heedlessly into a situation with no one to back you up, no insurance, no help coming, and simply expected everything to work out because ‘you’re doing the right thing’?”
Makoto faltered slightly, she didn’t say it aloud, but she knew the danger of rushing heedlessly forward with no real plan beyond a desire to ‘do the right thing’, but still…
Ren leaned forwards.
“I mean—”
“Had you called for help first, not only would you have had a better chance of saving this woman, you would have had witnesses to collaborate your side of the story and thus would have been able to avoid the false charges entirely.”
“Help did arrive though! Just not for me or that woman. Those damn corrupt cops instantly took his side.”
“Thus proving my point. Because you rushed in alone in the dead of night, you reduced the situation to simply being your word against his; in those kinds of cases whoever has the most authority- wins. Even if this man had the power to silence his victim and the officers who arrived on the scene, there are limits to such abilities- no matter who he is or what position he’s in, especially in the age where everyone has a camera in their pocket. A single call for help, one person recording from their window, or a group of community members gathered could well have vindicated you on the day, and this man’s corrupt career could have been torn down within the week.”
“But… but that’s…”
“Instead you just handed him an alibi on a silver platter. The more he struggled with that woman the higher the chances of attention being drawn to them, and the incident being leaked. Tell me, these corrupt officers, what exactly did they do that was corrupt?”
Makoto quickly answered.
“Shido got them to keep silent about his involvement, and just accept his side of the story unquestioningly.”
“Indeed. But remember, what scene did they arrive to?”
“What do you mean?”
“They arrived to the man on the ground, injured, with our son standing over him. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t naturally assume the uninjured boy was the aggressor in their position?”
“But the woman—”
“Was threatened into silence by this ‘Shido’, this poor woman didn’t have the power to defend both herself and the boy. Now, imagine a scenario where Ren didn’t get involved, what scene would the police have arrived to then?”
“…” Ren remained silent.
“They would have arrived to Shido clearly assaulting a distressed woman, that would have been much harder to turn a blind eye to. Shido would have still threatened the woman to collaborate his side of the story, but the difference is the police would have actually seen the assault first hand. Would they have kowtowed to Shido’s demands then, I wonder? Maybe, maybe not. But between that scene and the one Ren created- I know which I’d put my money on.”
“I…”
“Your recklessness turned the question from ‘is this man assaulting this distressed woman guilty?’ to ‘who is the aggressor, the troubled boy or the respected authority figure?’”
“That’s not what… I…”
“As a direct result of your actions, you made the situation infinitely easier to handle and cover up for Shido. You put the poor victim in an even harder to handle position. You drew away all blame from the correct source onto yourself. You deprived this woman you wanted to help of her one hope of escape! You permanently ruined the already shaky reputation you held in the community. You burnt countless bridges. You let not only your name be dragged through the mud, but our family’s as well. Poor Youko already suffers so much discrimination because of her condition, so much gossiping behind her back, and it’s only intensified after your actions; now in everyone’s eyes she’s the mother of a problem child, a criminal. Your actions that night have accomplished NOTHING but make things worse for EVERYONE involved!”
Makoto’s fist slammed down on top of the table.
“Ren was innocent. It took us some time but we managed to prove that. Masa Nagai came forward and set the record straight in court! Ren was vindicated! Shido confessed all! Now he’s in prison and Ren is a free man.”
“And yet the cruel gossip persists.” Tsuyoshi’s weary eyes lingered on a coaster, lying only slightly disturbed as a result of Makoto’s outburst. “The concept of family honor is a cruel thing. Community respect is a cruel thing. People’s perception is a cruel thing. With those powerful impressions made, even when later proven wrong- beyond a shadow of a doubt- people cling to those emotional impressions until the bitter end. Moving on from them, discarding them? That’s subconsciously seen as admitting that they’re wrong, and people are so reluctant to ever do that.”
“That’s awful.”
“Agreed. The harsh truth is that these emotional impressions can never be undone, not through logic. Logic can not bring someone out of a position that logic didn’t bring them into. The only hope is to replace the bad emotional impressions with good emotional impressions. I had hoped Ren’s time in Tokyo would give him time to reflect on his mistakes, and he would return ready to start making some good impressions on the community, to slowly heal the damage he’s done.”
Makoto turned to check on her boyfriend, and the pain in her gut instantly intensified. The way he was hanging his head, staring down at his knees with empty eyes.
“Ren…” She looked back to the Amamiya patriarch. “No! I can’t agree with your assessment!”
“You can’t? Or you simply don’t want to?”
“I refuse to consider what Ren did that night as a ‘mistake’!”
“Again, only because you don’t want to.” Tsuyoshi sighed. “Do not think of me as heartless, of course I understand how you feel. In a situation where an innocent person is in distress, of course your heart will drive you to help them. But the heart does not always consider the ramifications of our actions, it only tells you what feels right, rather than what is right, that’s what your brain is for.”
“We—”
“Tell me Niijima-san. You object to me calling what Ren did a ‘mistake’? Do you have any counterargument to that? Anything beyond what ‘feels’ right? Any actual logical reason why the actions he took were ideal?”
“…” Makoto paused. “…In those situations one has to act quickly. We can sit here and discuss what the ‘ideal’ action would have been for hours, days, weeks even. Ren had seconds to make his decision. All of your proposed alternatives- frankly- are overly optimistic. They all rely on others doing the right thing rather than on Ren himself, it’s as if you wanted him to simply pass the buck to someone else in a crisis situation.”
“I believe that’s an unfair way of framing my view. None of my ideas involved Ren simply ‘walking on’ and hoping someone else took care of it; only securing support and/ or witnesses for the inevitable aftermath. But I’ll will admit one fair point you made- none of my ideas were ‘sure things’. There are obviously ways the facts could still have been distorted with other witnesses, ways this Shido could have turned things on a larger group of people. However the success rate would have been infinitely higher than Ren’s approach which he clearly put zero thought into. You are advocating doing what’s ‘right’ according to your hearts; not a ‘dishonorable’ stance to hold, but I want to emphasize the importance of doing what’s right according to the brain.”
“You’re talking so much shit…”
“Ren?”
“Sitting around feeling all ‘wise’ and thinking you know everything. Going on and on and on about how you would have done better if you were in my position.” Ren stood up, his eyes digging into his father with enormous vitriol. “What a shitty fucking community we live in if me just trying to help the person that was in front of me leads to me being ostracized, and rather than acknowledge how worthless the people who do that are, you think we should all just accept that, roll over and kowtow to their standards?”
“We’re not above the rest of society Ren.”
“Shut the fuck up! You whiny, wimpy little baby bitch!”
Makoto stood silently, unmoving. She was desperately trying to decide whether she should step in or not, whether it was better to intervene or let Ren say his piece unimpeded.
Actually, that’s a lie.
She was just frozen. In her mind, ‘Ren’ and ‘hateful’ were incompatible terms, the calmness and snark she associated with him was nowhere to be seen, right now she only saw hateful and bitter resentment, and as much as she hated to admit it- it scared her.
“I got sent to Tokyo, and from day one everyone treated me with utter contempt, everywhere I went people were whispering behind my back, treating me as ‘dangerous’, ‘unacceptable’, ‘unwanted’. But you know what I did?” He gestured towards Makoto. “I found love. I found the best friends in the world. I found the people who were willing rise above all the bullshit and we could actually interact with each other as people- real human beings- rather than be slaves to this stupid, toxic idea of ‘honor’. You even admit that it’s cruel, that it only makes life harder for Mom, and yet you just roll over and accept it!”
“…”
“People want to say stupid shit about us? Fucking let them! Why the hell am I supposed to bend over backwards to please those people? Maybe rather than spend so long worrying about what the worst people you know are saying about Mom, maybe focus on finding her the people who are actually willing to look past the gossip and accept her for who she is, huh? Or are you too much of a weakling to try?”
“Hmph…” Tsuyoshi shook his head. “Once again, you’re clinging to what ‘feels’ right, rather than considering the actual long-term effects. Humans are a social species; whether or not you like the social landscape we live in, learning to navigate it is necessary for survival.”
“I dunno- I’m doing just fine ‘surviving’ just focusing on the people I can reach, and be my true self around. You’re just scared, you always have been, and frankly- I don’t think I can help you.”
“You’re the one who needs help.”
“I did, just not from you.” Ren walked around the table and towards the stairs. “I’m going to pack up my stuff from my room, and take it with me back to Tokyo, I won’t be coming back again.”
“You would turn your back on your family, just like that?”
“…Yes.”
“Hmph… Then I’ve truly failed as a parent.”
“Yes, you have, though I imagine we have different ideas on what ‘failure’ means in this case.”
“Ren…” Makoto called out weakly to him as he made his way to the stairs.
Right before reaching them…
“Oh! We have a guest!” Youko exited the kitchen, coming into the living room holding a tray with five teacups full of her own personal brew. “I knew there was a reason I made so much. Ren, don’t be rude, help me host.”
“O-oh, um… Mom I’m actually… uh…”
“Ren is just going to grab something from his room.” Tsuyoshi spoke without looking up. “He said we can enjoy our tea without him until he gets back.”
“Uh… y-yeah, what he said.”
“Humph…” Youko huffed. “I still think you know better Ren, but very well, I don’t mind hosting by myself. You, have a seat Miss… um…”
“N-Niijima. Makoto Niijima.”
“Have a seat Niijima-san, it’s rude to stand during tea.”
“Of course, I’m sorry.” She gave Ren a slightly worried look, but he simply sighed, turned away, and disappeared up the stairs, leaving her to ‘enjoy’ an extremely awkward cup of tea with his mother, while the father remained bitterly silent.
~ ~ ~
There honestly wasn’t much Ren even wanted from his room at this point, some clothes, his consoles, maybe a nick-nack or two, all things very easily replacable and without much sentimental value at least. He took the suitcase he knew was in the closet, and decided to simply prioritize whatever was the most expensive in the limited packing space he had- he had no intentions of making a second visit to collect the rest.
He quietly picked up his deskside lamp, and lifted it high in the air, his hand trembling as he readied himself to throw it down to the ground, but lost enthusiasm, simply letting his hand go limp, and dropping it harmlessly onto the carpet.
“I was right, this was pointless…”
“Alas, is this all it takes to shatter your resolve?”
Ren spun around, seeing nothing but his old bedroom before him.
“What?”
“Have you been beaten down so thoroughly that the sound of your own heart has become unfamiliar to you?”
His room remained notably empty, and yet, he could feel that unmistakable presence close to him. Whether through lingering powers of his bond with the metaverse, or purely an apparition in his own mind, he felt as though he could see the figure standing right before him.
“Arséne?”
“Aha! So I have not been entirely forgotten!”
“Of course not, don’t be stupid.”
“HAHAHA! Very well, I won’t. But tell me, do you remember when first we met?”
“I could never forget… That was the moment everything changed.”
“And you remember what I asked of you?”
“…?”
Arséne seemed to stroke his chin in mock thought.
“I believe it’s only appropriate I ask thee once more: Was your previous decision a mistake then?”
Ren uncurled his fists, his eyes lingering downwards.
“…”
“Speak.”
“…Yes. It was a mistake.”
“Interesting…” Arséne chuckled. “Answer me a second question then. Do you regret thy decision?”
“…” Ren looked up to his persona. “No. Not at all.”
“Excellent.”
“Whether it was a mistake or not, whether I could have done better, whether it was successful or not, I did what I believed was right in that moment. Dwelling on alternate universes with overly scrutinous hindsight is pointless. I saw my mistake through to the end, until everything was resolved, and I’m all the richer because of it.”
“Good…”
Another voice, much MUCH deeper than Arséne’s echoed from behind him. Ren spun around, his room seemed to fade away into darkness around him, almost disappearing entirely to make way for the colossal figure that was now towering over them both. Satanael stared down at the boy, the weight of his gaze feeling like a literal bolder threatening to crush him where he stood.
“Thou hast found the lingering scrap of doubt that hast fettered thee so…”
Arséne hummed contentedly.
“Long has that night weighed down on you, long have the endless ‘what-if’s plagued your heart.”
“And thou’st hast denied the true form of rebellion.”
“You found the strength to fight your thine own justice…”
“The strength to shatter the chains that wouldst control the world.”
“And now- finally- the strength to accept whatever consequences lie ahead on your chosen path, unfettered by dreams of the hypothetical ‘best’ path that never was.”
“Unfettered by the past.”
Ren took a deep breath, and with Arséne behind him, stood upright, and stared back into Satanael’s eyes without fear.
“I don’t care whether it was a ‘mistake’ or not, I MADE it work in the end, the pain it brought me has only made me- and everyone around me- stronger.”
The two personas began to faintly glow.
“I am thou…”
“…thou art I.”
And the faint glow quickly grew to the point of becoming blinding, suffocating even. Ren shielded his eyes until it subsided. When he eventually opened his eyes once more, a new figure stood before him, only slightly larger than Arséne, clad in a red suit and hat, with his wide, metallic wingspan filling his peripheral vision.
“I am Raoul. How delightful! You’ve awakened my true form! Very well, walk your chosen path without fear of mistake!”
And with that, the new persona faded away, and Ren’s room seemed to come back into existence around him. With this new presence in his heart, Ren exhaled, picked up his suitcase, and started packing.
~ ~ ~
“We’re leaving, Mako.”
“Huh?” Makoto put down her tea as Ren came down the stairs, two large suitcases in hand. She instinctively rushed over to help him carry one. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, we’re leaving.”
“R-right…”
Without so much as a glance in his father’s direction, Ren began hastily walking towards the door.
“Are you heading out Ren?”
Ren faltered, suddenly stopping in place.
“Y-yeah Mom, I’m leaving.”
“But you haven’t even had tea yet, your friend came over and everything.”
Ren didn’t look back at her.
“N-no, you don’t get it, I’m leaving.”
“Oh?” Youko tilted her head. “Will your friend be coming back for dinner?”
“No, I mean leaving leaving… It’s um…”
“Ren already discussed it with me earlier Youko.” Tsuyoshi wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulder, his eyes notably closed while doing so. “Niijima-san has to leave, and Ren needs to go with her.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“Yes. So it’s only right that you say goodbye now.”
“Mm.” She nodded, before turning to her son- who was still facing away from her. “Make sure you get her home safe, and don’t stay out too late!”
Ren remained still a while, keeping his eyes out of Makoto’s sight.
“I won’t Mom. See ya.”
And he left, in a hurry. Makoto looked back and forth between him and his parents a few times, almost panicking. She hastily bowed to them, before rushing after her boyfriend, out the door and into the street, nearly forgetting to close the door behind her.
“Ren!”
“We probably still have time to go check on Ann and Shiho today.”
“Ren hold on a second…”
“And we can stay at the Amagi inn before heading back in the morning.”
“Ren please…”
“Though you did want me to show you around, I guess we can stay an extra day to do that, there’s some alright places worth seeing.”
“Seriously Ren, wait a second.” Makoto rushed ahead of him, looking up to him with pleading eyes. “Are you really sure about this?”
Ren sighed.
“I’m not going back in there again Mako.”
“I’m not going to make you go back in, don’t worry.”
“I’m sorry this didn’t turn out how you wanted it to, reconciliation was just never going to happen.”
“That’s not the point.” She shook her head. “Obviously that would have been the ideal outcome, the one I was sort of hoping for, but that wasn’t the reason I insisted on you coming here.”
“Why then?”
“Ren, please take a moment to consider- if you walk out on them now, you may never get a second chance to talk to them. It could be soon, it could be years down the line, but there might be a time when you realize you had something you wished you had said to them, and you’ll never get another chance.”
“I…”
“That feeling of regret… I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy, let alone someone I love.” She gazed into his eyes. “I’m not saying you need to forgive them, or get them to forgive you, I’m completely on your side in this. The point of this all is that you’re able to come home with me with no regrets. That’s what I think is important.”
“…”
“So please, answer me honestly- Can you walk away right now, carrying no regrets?”
“…” Ren remained silent a long while, painfully long, in the deafening silence of the seemingly empty neighbourhood. “I know where Shiho’s place is, Ann told me ahead of time, let’s go pay a visit.”
And he walked past Makoto, down the street. She watched him get smaller and smaller as he slowly made his way down the road.
Makoto’s grip on the suitcase tightened, and she silently followed behind him.
Chapter 127: It's so Shihover
Summary:
Let's see how those girls are doing...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“…And I’ll be honest, I found him kind of creepy at first, but when I started thinking of him as just a big kid, everything started making sense I and really started ‘getting’ it.”
“Is that so?”
“I don’t think you’ve ever seen him Ann, actually thinking about it- we never really go out anywhere when you come to visit, so you’ve never actually been to Junes. It’s admittedly nothing special compared to the stores and such back in Tokyo, but here’s it’s like the central hub for the community. There’s so much more heart than the Junes branches back home.”
“Th-that’s pretty cool Shiho! I-I’m glad you’re having fun getting out there with… people an’… stuff…”
“Well to be honest I’ve been slow to ‘reintegrate’ myself with society, so to speak. I have been trying to get outside more, but the first few times I visited Junes I’d just be eating by myself in the corner of the food court, but then one day that strange bear mascot person thought I looked lonely so he came over and started talking to me.” Shiho laughed. “I’ll be honest it was really embarrassing having this children’s mascot or whatever at my table, trying to cheer me up. I can only imagine how it looked from the outside, especially when he gave me that little plushie version of himself…”
“So that’s the weird bear thing I saw on the shelf in your room earlier?”
“That’s the one… I still have no idea what he meant by ‘real Teddie fur’, but it does feel soft at least. Though there was the times he tried hitting on me too…”
“Hitting on you?!”
“More just ‘flirting’ really. It was a bit uncomfortable at first- the manager quickly rushed over to admonish him. But honestly the discomfort was more due to my own… past experiences leading me to jump to conclusions; he was more rascalous than lecherous; like I said- when you think of him as a big kid it all starts to fit. Between him and the manager there, it’s become my favorite place to have lunch, at least when you’re not visiting. We should check it out later before you head home.”
“Mm… that sounds great Shiho…”
Ann wished she could say she was fully focused on the conversation at hand, but it was hard to do that while trying to desperately to look at anything but the girl sat next to her. There was no lack of interest or investment in the life of her dearest friend, but she didn’t trust herself to be able to maintain solid eye contact with the abundance of flesh on display in this quaint living room.
Of course, Shiho was hardly oblivious to Ann’s struggle, on the contrary- she was positively revelling in it. Nerves had been eating away at her while she had been waiting for her friend to arrive, aiming to surprise her by greeting her at the door completely starkers. The surprise had been very effective, very effective indeed; the blonde’s jaw nearly hitting the floor marking the exact instant when Shiho’s own nervousness completely vanished. Nothing made her feel more confident than the effect she was having on this girl.
In fact, it ignited a certain desire in her, like a shark tasting blood in the water.
“Are you okay Ann? You seem flushed.” She leant over, close enough that her chest was almost touching Ann. “Did I turn up the heating too high? Want me to open a window?”
“N-no! No I’m totally fine.” Ann leant back slightly, her shaky smile and twitchy eyes doing a poor job of hiding her true feelings. “I was just… thinking about the bear- or whatever.”
“Mmhmm.” Shiho scoffed. “Maybe I could put the air con on for you? I know the remote is somewhere around here.”
“Th-there’s no need to trouble yourself.”
“It’s no trouble at all. Ah! The remote is just past you.” Before Ann had any chance to even turn to see the remote sitting on the back of the sofa, Shiho got up to lean right over her to grab it herself. “Hmm…” She lightly groaned as she took her sweet time to take a hold of the remote, just so happening to be in a position where her breasts were hanging down right in front of Ann’s face, gently swaying back and forwards as Shiho kept adjusting her position, before eventually grabbing the remote. “It’s not too hot, is it? I’ll put it on a low setting for us.”
“’Too hot’ is debatable…”
“What?”
“What?”
Shiho tried her best not to laugh, she was mildly successful.
“I could get used to this…”
“What did you say?”
“Oh nothing, nothing~” Shiho turned away until she could get her smirk under control. “I was just mumbling to myself. Speaking of which- there was that book I was going to lend you, wasn’t there?”
“Which one was that.” Ann turned around, looking up at the bookshelf hanging just behind the sofa they were both sat on.
“The one about studying techniques I told you about. It’s been really helping me catch up with everyone else at Yasogami, and I figure you’ll need it more than ever what with your entrance exams coming up next year.”
“I… guess I can’t deny that I need the help… But you’re in the same boat, right? With exams I mean- don’t you need the book too?”
“I’ve already memorized all the useful techniques is has to offer, I think you should read it too. Let me grab it for you. It should be near the top.”
“I’ll get—” Ann was silenced when she felt Shiho’s hand on her shoulder, softly- yet firmly- preventing her from getting up herself.
Shiho then stood upright on the sofa. She stepped over Ann’s lap, her bare feet sinking into the seat cushions either side of the girl’s thighs. She brought her hand to her chin in faux-pondering, slowly scanning the spines of the various books lined up on the shelves before her.
Meanwhile, Ann was thrust into a new level of purgatory. She stared up in awe at the underside of Shiho’s breasts and she towered over her- backlight by the ceiling lamp. Not wanting to spend too long studying the outline of her nipples above her, she averted her eyes downwards.
That was a mistake.
Now she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the curly, black bush so tantalizingly close to her, looming even closer still as Shiho leant forwards to start flicking through the books on the shelves. The bush- and the wonderous treasure only partially concealed within- were now mere inches from Ann’s face. If she were so inclined she could have reached out and tasted it- and now that that thought had entered her mind, it became a matter of desperately wrestling against her base urges. Célestine may not have been quite as horny of a persona as Agnes, but she was still pushing the ideology of “Do it, now!” REALLY hard, and Ann wasn’t sure how long she could fight back against it.
Mercifully, Shiho was starting to worry she was going a little bit too far with this.
Actually that’s a lie- she didn’t think that at all, she was having a lot of fun- and never felt more confident in her life. But she still decided to have a little mercy, grabbing the book off of the shelf, the one she had instantly spotted before even standing up, and sitting back down next to her friend, making a rather hammy show of holding it out for her.
“Here you go. I hope this is as helpful to you as it was to me.”
“…Mm…” If Ann could see how bright red her own face was, she would have realized how pointless it was to try to ‘play it cool’, but try she did. “Th-thank you.”
“It’d be a shame if we didn’t get to go to college together, don’t you think?”
“Y-yeah…” Ann shyly smiled. “School has just never been the same without you there.”
Shiho blushed a little herself, even if it was nothing compared to Ann’s.
“I could say the same for you.”
Before any sort of awkward (or even suggestive) silence could set in, the sound of the doorbell echoed throughout the house, knocking Ann out of her mild trance. Her attention was immediately drawn to Shiho’s completely nude body (as if her addiction ever drifted away).
“Oh! That’s probably Ren and Makoto, they said they’d be round later today, I guess they’re a bit early.” She stood up. “I’ll keep them busy, you better go get dressed.”
“Hmm…” Shiho thought for a moment, before smirking. “No, it’s my house- I’ll get the door.”
“HUH?!” Ann recoiled, staring wide eyed as Shiho casually strolled over to the front door, making no effort to cover herself. “Are you seriously gonna…?”
Shiho briefly spun around to grin coyly at her friend, before grabbing ahold of the door handle and letting it swing open, revealing the eponymous couple as expected.
“S-Suzui-san?” Ren flinched at the sight slightly.
Admittedly, much of the confident high Shiho was feeling a moment ago vanished the instant the reality hit her, that it was no longer just Ann staring at her exposed body, one of them being a man- no less. She faltered slightly, but kept smiling.
“Nice to see you again Amamiya-san, I don’t think we’ve talked since I last visited Shujin, right?”
“Um… y-yeah…” Ren averted his eyes.
“Which means you must be Niijima-san.” Shiho turned to the famous nudist, bowing politely to her, trying not to stare at her nipples too hard. “It’s nice to finally put some breasts to the name—FACE! Put a face to the name. S-sorry…”
“It’s fine, no need to worry.” Makoto raised her hands to try and gently soothe the now-stammering girl.
Though said stammering came to a sudden stop, Shiho’s brow furrowing as if mentally struggling with something.
“I’m getting déjà vu… I feel like I’ve said that before but I can’t recall…”
Makoto remained silent.
“Oh it doesn’t matter. Please, come inside.” Shiho stepped aside to let the couple enter her home with suitcases in tow, secretly being grateful that she could now close the front door- the possibility of total strangers outside seeing her only just now entering her mind.
“Thank you for having us.” Ren removed his shoes and stepped inside proper, though he patiently waited to give Makoto long enough to wipe her feet clean- obviously having no shoes to remove. “Hey Ann.”
“H-Hey Ren, Makoto…” Ann was still in shock at Shiho so casually exposing herself. Even with all the girls she knew who were willing to expose themselves in far more extreme ways, seeing Shiho do it was still shocking to her. She cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure. “How’d it go with—?”
Makoto quickly gestured to silence her, subtly shaking her head, but not quite being able to make full eye contact while doing so. Regardless, Ann quickly understood, and didn’t say anything.
“Is it okay if I sit down for a while Suzui-san?”
“Of course you can Amamiya-san. Make yourself at home.”
Ren looked between the nude Shiho and the clothed Ann.
“We’re not like… interrupting anything, are we?”
“N-no!” It was finally Shiho’s turn to become flustered. “What makes you think that?”
Ren’s eyes flicked down to Shiho’s bush for the briefest instant.
“No reason.”
Shiho laughed nervously.
“I suppose I should address the elephant in the room.” She took a deep breath, and gestured down her body- as if just now revealing it. “I’ve taken to being naked at home, I find it rather comfortable. My parents don’t mind- though they’re out right now- and I figured neither you two nor Ann would be offended given… well- Niijima-san an’ all.”
“It would be rather silly for us to be offended.” Makoto gently laughed as she took a seat next to her boyfriend. “It is very comfortable. Am I to take this to mean you’ve joined the program?”
“Oh no no.” Shiho shook her head, though despite her quick denial she didn’t seem to be upset at all. “I’m still very much undecided on that, but being nude in one’s own home is fairly normal, isn’t it? I thought I’d just give it a go, and it turns out I like it, that’s really all there is to it.”
“That makes sense.” Makoto shrugged. “Not everyone is going to want to go as extreme as us, nor should they. It’s… an intense lifestyle.”
Ren raised an eyebrow.
“Though the use of the word ‘undecided’ suggests you don’t entirely hate the idea.”
Shiho coyly shrugged as she sat back down next to the red-faced blonde.
“Well, who knows?”
Ren let out a good-natured scoff, smiling at Makoto.
“Seems all the girls we know get naked sooner or later…”
“Don’t be silly Ren.” Makoto shook her head- pretending to disagree.
“Hmm…”
“D-don’t look at me Ren!”
“I wasn’t looking at you Ann! N-not like that anyway.”
“It’s always gonna be a ‘no’ from me.”
“And that’s fine, no one’s making that a problem.” Ren had his hands raised defensively.
“Although…” Shiho gazed upwards in thought. “You did tell me about that one time at Destiny Land…”
“That was a one off!”
Shiho smirked.
“Is that so~ Any other ‘one off’s you’d be interested in?”
Ann noticed both Ren and Makoto trying their hardest to avert their eyes and not look hopeful.
“If it’s just with friends, maybe. Heavy emphasis on the ‘maybe’.”
“You don’t need to do anything that makes you uncomfortable Ann-san.” Makoto reassured her.
Shiho smirked at the nudist.
“You sound like you’re saying that out of a sense of obligation, but secretly hoping that she takes no notice of it.”
“It’s not like that!”
“I think it might be.”
“Not you too Ren!”
While Makoto and Ann were both still annoyed and flustered, Ren and Shiho exchanged a look, clearly feeling a sense of comradery in teasing their respective girlfriends (even if the relationship wasn’t exactly official in the latter’s case yet).
Shiho’s eyes drifted to the suitcases the couple had in tow, which didn’t go unnoticed by Ren.
“Oh, this is just some stuff I picked up from… my old room, to take with me back to Tokyo.”
“Seems like you’ve packed quite a bit.”
Ren gave a non-committal shrug.
“I’m not gonna make a second trip.”
“You mean… I see…” The atmosphere in the room quickly grew heavy, Shiho’s fingers dug into the sofa cushions slightly as she realized she needed to move on from this topic as quickly as possible. “Does that mean you’re heading back to Tokyo today?”
“Hmm…” Ren leant back in his seat, remarkably casual. “It’s getting a bit late… The original plan was to head back with Ann.”
“I wasn’t planning on travelling back until tomorrow evening. Me and Shiho were planning on spending more time together until then.”
“Hoo, I bet.”
Ann’s ‘angry’ face would have been more convincing if she weren’t so flushed.
“I-It’s not like that! I mean, it maybe is, but not like, weird or anything like what you may or may not be thinking or not thinking or um…”
“Alright alright, wipe the rabid foam from your mouth.” Ren chuckled, taking even more joy in how both Makoto and even Shiho herself were trying not to laugh with him.
“You dick…” Ann pouted.
“I would offer to host you here…” Shiho began. “…but it’s not really my offer to make, plus we don’t have any spare rooms. Ann’s staying in mine.” She smirked. “She’s not too upset about it though.”
“Shiho…” Ann whined.
“I wouldn’t want to impose anyway.” Ren smiled. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
Makoto leant in.
“Me and Eiko were shown this really nice inn when we last visited, I’m sure we could just stay there for the night.”
“The Amagi inn?”
“You know it Ren?”
“Everyone used to go on and on about it all the time, it’s always been one of this towns biggest selling points… maybe the only selling point, actually.”
“Well someone sure got used to Tokyo extravagance pretty quickly.”
“Can you blame me, Ann? I may have only been there a year, but it was a pretty long year, a metric crapton of shit happened. It’s hard to even remember the ‘before times’ now.”
“I can imagine…”
Ren got up out of his seat, holding his hand out to help Makoto up out of hers; a gesture that while unnecessary, was accepted and appreciated nonetheless.
“Well we better head there now. You all right with that Mako?”
“Mm.” She nodded, picking up the suitcase beside her, before bowing to the girls still on the sofa. “Sorry for suddenly barging in like we did.”
“It’s nothing to apologize for, it was nice to see you again.” Shiho went silent for a moment, her brow furrowing in thought. “’Again’? When did…”
“Suzui-san?”
Shiho shook her head.
“Duh- we went to the same school, we must have met there at some point. Sorry, my brain’s being weird today, just ignore me.”
Ren exhaled, before smirking.
“We’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. Don’t overdo it Suzui-san.”
“Dare I ask what ‘it’ is?”
“That’s for you to answer, not me.”
“SHUT UP AND LEAVE ALREADY!” Ann shouted, once again glowing red in the face.
Shiho took no notice of her inevitable-future-girlfriend’s outburst and politely waved goodbye.
“You two have a good night. When I do eventually return to Tokyo we should all meet up again for sure.”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a pleasant look, and excused themselves.
~ ~ ~
“Ann still gets so worked up about her crush on Shiho being exposed. Does it make me a bad person to find it kind of amusing?”
“Nah, I think you’re good Mako. She keeps acting like it’s secret even though she already explicitly told me she was into Shiho.”
“I guess she just doesn’t want to confess to Shiho yet, though I suspect Shiho already knows better than even any of us.”
“I’d say that’s a safe bet. Though I really want to hurry them along.”
“I understand the temptation, but it’s best we let them go at their own pace… unless they explicitly ask for help.”
“Which you really hope they do, right?”
“…It would be fun…”
“It so would.” Ren looked up at the building they were approaching. “Ah, this is the Amagi inn alright, I remember it now.”
“Have you been before, Ren?”
“Only a couple times for the hot spring when I was little.” He shrugged. “Was ‘lright.”
Makoto watched him for a while, trying to read his expression, but not having much luck. She pondered a moment, before subtly taking a step closer to him.
“I’ll make sure ask them if there’s an option for us to enjoy the baths together.”
“Not that I dislike the idea—”
“I thought you wouldn’t.”
“—But the baths here are usually only open to one gender at a time.”
“Hm, that’s unfortunate. I suppose I’ll just have to ask them to make an exception.” Makoto desperately hoped the idea would get Ren excited enough for him to not notice the slight nervous crack in her voice, what with her still not used to being so flirty. Thankfully, he didn’t notice this time (or if he did, he had mercy and chose not to tease her about it).
They made their way inside, passing through the entranceway to find…
“O-oh… Good evening.”
“Mmm… E-evening… W-welcome to the Amagi Inn…”
Makoto discreetly leant over to whisper to her boyfriend.
“I know we’re LONG past the stage where we should be surprised by nudity- especially me- but it still manages to take me off guard whenever it’s someone new.”
“I know what you mean…” He whispered back.
They watched as the eponymous Amagi woman stood in front of them on the inn’s threshold, stark naked from head to toe, her hair tied back into a bun, her arms clamped tightly over her chest and between her legs. Despite the embarrassment obvious in her body language, she still knelt down to formally bow to her new guests, doing her absolute best to keep her private parts hidden throughout (though her nipples did notably slip out as she was moving her hands to the floor; Ren and Makoto both silently gave their thanks for this moment).
Yukiko looked up, noticing Makoto.
“Hey I know you. You’re that nudist Chie brought in a while back, one of them anyway.” She gracefully got to her feet, or at least as gracefully as she could while maintaining the ‘classic ENF pose’ with her arms; the ‘gracefulness’ being hurt just a little bit more by her not noticing that she failed to cover her left nipple and it was instead being propped up slightly by her wrist (again, Ren and Makoto silently thanked fate for this gift).
“Makoto Niijima.” The nudist bowed- her boyfriend quickly following suit. “It’s nice to meet you again Amagi-san.” She gestured to the woman’s body. “I see you’ve joined the program?”
“Y-Yes, apparently…”
“What do you mean ‘apparently’?”
“She’s means she’s an idiot…” Another woman had been sat off to the side, going unnoticed until she decided to speak up.
“Don’t be so mean, Chie!” Yukiko angrily stomped her bare foot against the wooden floor, the slap gently echoing throughout the mostly empty foyer.
“Officer Satonaka?” Makoto recognised the policewoman- though now she was out of uniform, but notably fully dressed in stark contrast to her partner. “What’s going on here?”
Chie let out a long, weary sigh.
“You wanna explain Yukiko? Or should I?”
Yukiko grumbled.
“I only had a few drinks…”
“Yukiko can’t hold her liquor, at all, like- at all at all.”
Yukiko’s shoulders slumped, she looked like she couldn’t decide whether to feel guilty or frustrated.
“Excuse me for trying to have a little fun on my day off…”
“Wait wait…” Makoto held the bridge of her nose. “Is this building up to telling us that Amagi-san signed up for the program whilst drunk?”
The now-red-faced woman turned away, very unsubtly trying to hide her face.
“Seriously?”
“She did it behind my back too” Chie added. “I later heard she tried to sign me up too, but obviously it didn’t work since I wasn’t present to sign- and her trying to forge my signature fell flat.”
“They don’t seriously take that kind of thing seriously, do they?” Ren asked. “I mean, an obviously blind-drunk woman signing up for something that lifechanging is obviously a bad idea no matter how you look at it. I just can’t see them allowing that.”
Yukiko nervously fidgeted.
“It’s not so much that I showed up in person to sign up; I did it online. I could barely write my signature with a mouse, let alone Chie-chan’s…”
“You did it online?”
“When you do it online they then run a background check on you to make sure you’re not some kind of dangerous criminal or serious pervert or whatever…”
It went unsaid, but both Ren and Makoto noted that being an exhibitionist who gets off to the exposure evidently didn’t count as a ‘serious pervert’ by the program’s standards, which was good.
“Of course that doesn’t start until the next day, so when they were checking on me I was sober again, and had just… well… forgotten I had signed up at all…”
Chie groaned.
“How’d you forget something like that? If I had known I would have gotten her to quit for sure, but it was all running in the background without us knowing because SOMEONE didn’t think to tell me about what she had done.”
Yukiko’s nervous fidgeting shifted more towards ‘grumpy pouting’.
“I told you, I forgot.” She huffed.
Chie sighed.
“Point is, the version of Yukiko they ended up observing was the cool, intelligent, pretty, and… mostly sensible sober version.”
Ren was able to keep a straight face, but part of him wanted to laugh.
“So they didn’t see any problem letting her into the program then?”
“It was quite the shock when they showed up at my door to let me know my application was successful. They were so happy and polite and smiling and positive… they really thought they were delivering the most wonderful news. They even expected me to happily strip down, right here on the doorstep.”
“And you went along with it?!” The policewoman’s disbelief was palpable, even without the strained crack in her voice as she exclaimed. “You should have told them right there and then that it was all a big, dumb mistake! In fact, we should go right now and get this whole thing sorted out.”
“I mean…” And ‘grumpy pouting’ reverted right back to ‘embarrassed fidgeting’. “Admitting my silly mistake would be really embarrassing…”
“And being naked in public wouldn’t?!”
“Rise-chan handles it just fine. I’ll look less weird if I hang out with her a bit more.”
“I don’t think ‘looking weird’ is the main problem here!” Chie paused a moment. “Actually, maybe it is... N-no office, Niijima-san.”
“It’s alright, I understand…” Makoto turned back to Yukiko. “They do let you leave the program if you want, so don’t feel bad if you did want to back out.”
“I’ll have a think about it…”
Ren raised a curious eyebrow.
“The fact that you’re not immediately running off in terror and actually weighing your options suggests you don’t hate the idea, am I right?”
Yukiko pondered a moment.
“I guess it’s less scary than I thought it’d be, probably because I’ve so quickly gotten used to Rise-chan being constantly naked around us lately, she’s exposed even when she goes on TV and such.”
“I remember us fighting real damn hard to prevent pretty much that exact situation from happening back then, now she’s just casually doing it on her own completely willingly…”
“Did you say something Satonaka-san?”
“N-nothing, Niijima-san. Just mumbling to myself.”
“I’ll see how I feel about it after a little while.” Yukiko’s eyes narrowed as she glared daggers into Ren. "I just need to get used to people like you constantly staring at me.”
“H-hey! I wasn’t staring! Okay yes, I totally was staring- but that’s not fair! Satonaka-san is staring at you even more than I am.”
“Hey, I’m her girlfriend! I’m allowed to stare as much as I like!”
“…”
“D-don’t look at me like that Yukiko-chan, I didn’t mean it like that, I meant um…”
“Alright, alright.” Makoto saw fit to intervene before it escalated any further (while being secretly grateful that no one called attention to her staring). “Well you’re still allowed to quit whenever you like Amagi-san, but if you do decide to stick with it, don’t be afraid to reach out to the rest of us nudists for support. Us nudists need to stick together, y’know?”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine regardless of which way you go. The world is a very different place than it was a year ago, nudists can really be accepted now.” Ren wrapped an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders. “Mostly thanks to this amazing woman’s efforts.”
“Ren, you’re embarrassing me… I really didn’t do anything special.”
“Who knew a nudist could be so modest?” Yukiko chuckled.
“Nudists are just cool in general- but especially her.” Ren smirked. “Clothing was just holding her back probably. Clothes are more for strippers.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous Ren.” Makoto rolled her eyes.
“Snrk!”
“Hm? Amagi-san?”
“Pfft!”
“Oh jeez…” Chie started rubbing her forehead, dreading what was to come.
“PPFFTT! HAHAHAHA!”
“Uh… you okay Amagi-san?”
“’Clothes are more for strippers’, heheh, because they’d end up naked too!”
“Um, yes. That was the joke.”
“I love it!” Yukiko couldn’t stop sniggering, even removing the hand covering her bush so she could appropriately slap her thigh in her giggly glee.
“Well, that’s her gone for the rest of the night.” Chie sighed. “Aren’t you two here to rent a room or something?”
“Oh right.” Makoto nodded. “We just want a bed for the night.”
Yukiko wasn’t able to stop her giggling long enough to give a verbal response, but she nodded and made her way over to the desk to sign the couple in.
“Also—” Makoto continued. “What’s the policy on mixed bathing here?”
Chie gave her a knowing, but rather tired look.
“It’s quiet enough tonight that you two could probably have it to yourselves in the male hours, just… do Yukiko-chan and the rest of the staff a favor and keep it in your non-existent pants until you get back to your rooms.”
A certain pink glow made itself known on Makoto’s otherwise-straight face.
“Will do.”
Notes:
In case you're wondering, the whole "serious pervert" thing in the background check is just there to make sure you're not going to use the freedoms granted by the program to sexually harass people, y'know how it is.
Chapter 128: We're so Inaback
Summary:
Let's spend some time enjoying Inaba
Notes:
Yes, I named the previous chapter what I did purely to set up this chapter's name.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Y’know Mako, I didn’t realize you were serious about wanting me to show you around Inaba.”
“Of course I was Ren, I really didn’t get a chance to really appreciate the town when I was here before.”
“I get that much, but I figured the reason for coming back here at all was to attempt… well, y’know… The whole family thing.”
Makoto exhaled, a small breath of resignation.
“That was the main reason, yes. But there’s also just… you.”
“Me?”
She turned to smile at him.
“Learning a little more about you. I want to learn more about your life prior to Tokyo, prior to the Phantom Thieves, prior to us.”
A scoff escaped Ren’s lips.
“It’s not exactly full of material for an exciting backstory. I doubt you’ll feel any more ‘enriched’ from anything you learn.”
Makoto shrugged.
“I think you’d be surprised, there’s things to appreciate in the mundane. For instance…” She took a moment to take in their surroundings. “I didn’t take you as the shrine-visiting type.”
“I’m really not.” He stood by her side, joining her in admiring the small temple of Tatsuhime shrine- having come here directly from the shopping district. “Back then it was just a quiet place to hang out when I wanted to be outside. It’s nothing special compared to the shrines in Tokyo… at least it wasn’t until they covered the whole thing in gold for some reason.”
“I was about to ask about that…” Makoto quizzically examined the glimmering golden temple and torii gate. “I don’t know if I should be saying this, but it’s a tad… gaudy, isn’t it?”
“It’s been that way for a few years. Apparently they got so much in donations that they decided to remodel the damn thing. Like- I get wanting to make it more sturdy or whatever, but I can’t imagine the long-term maintenance costs are doing the owner any favors.”
“It can’t be real gold, can it?”
“I’d hope not…” Ren turned and gestured towards some nearby trees. “I was just a kid catching bugs over there when they did it. Just showed up one day and bam, gold.”
Makoto’s brow raised incredulously.
“You? Bug catching?”
“What’s so funny about that?”
“I don’t know. I can picture you being able to do almost anything really, but for some reason I have a hard time imagining you running around with a net trying to catch bugs.”
“I wasn’t doing it like- last week or something. This is way back when I was a little kid; back before I grew a proper appreciation and understanding of how gross and terrifying bugs really are.”
Makoto wasn’t quite successful in stifling her laughter.
“So bugs are a weakness of yours, then?”
“Only to the same level as any other sensible human being. I keep the attic at Leblanc clean, but we still get weird bugs or spiders coming in now and again. Always a fierce encounter for me and Morgana to deal with…”
She was trying REALLY hard not to laugh.
“I can imagine that.”
“Guess that laughing means you’re okay with being the one who deals with bugs when we move in together?”
While the blush was unavoidable, she at least hoped the smile would only be interpreted as a leftover from her snickering.
“There you go again…” She cleared her throat, using it as a flimsy mask to regain her composure. “While we’re here we should probably leave a donation.”
“Yeah I guess; gotta help them keep that gold shiny.”
The couple approached the temple, dropped a healthy number of coins into the donation box, and took a moment to pray to whatever gods may have been hanging around, calling this shrine home.
“Would it be cheesy to pray for us- and our lives together as a couple?”
“Hmm…” Makoto’s cheeks grew warm, but she met Ren’s eyes directly. “If so, then I guess that means I’m pretty cheesy too.”
Ren tried to play it off cool, but couldn’t hide his own flustered blush completely, which was enough for Makoto to discreetly pump her fist in celebration, feeling victorious.
“So…” Ren began, eager to move on. “Anywhere else you wanted to check out today?”
“You tell me. I don’t really know where the landmarks are.”
“I mean the Amagi Inn is the only really nice place, and we’re already staying there.”
“I meant more in regards to your own life, your old life I mean.”
Ren let out an exasperated huff.
“I’m trying to remember what I even did as a kid. From about early teens onwards I was just the ‘stay at home and play videogames’ type, so I’m not really sure what I could show you… in terms of Inaba- that is; there’s tons of games I need to educate you on now that I’m bringing my consoles back home.”
“’Educate’, huh…”
“You’ve been missing out. How are you going to understand my jokes if you haven’t played Metal Gear Solid- for example?”
“I guess I’ll try to look forward to it?”
“As you should.” Ren nodded, in a very ‘manner of fact’ manner. “Though that can wait until we get home. I guess for now…” He pondered a while, before a lightbulb went off in his head. “There is one place worth checking out.”
“Oh?”
“And it’s close by, let’s hea—ACK!”
“Ren?! Are you—WOAH!”
Both of them had only just begun their short journey back to the shopping district, before a fearsome foe emerged from the bushes nearby to obstruct their path. The couple had faced many a horrific foe before in their time together, but few compared to the monstrous Genji beetle; it’s sleek and shiny carapace doing little to overshadow it’s unnecessarily creepy buggy twitching as it blocked their only escape route.
“That’s way too big for my liking.”
“I wish I could say ‘That’s what she said’ but you’re right, bugs shouldn’t be that big! It’s nearly as big as my fist!”
“Do something about it, Ren!”
“Oh no- you can’t make me deal with it after laughing at me earlier! Bugs are your job now!”
“That only applies when we’re at home!”
“What kind of logic is that?!”
“Don’t hide behind me!”
“I’ll stop hiding behind you if you stop hiding behind me! Just kill it or something.”
“You’re the one with shoes, you kill it!”
Just then, a high-pitched yet forceful howl was heard from above them. The couple turned around to ascertain the source, only for three small shadows seeming to zip right past them. Spinning around again, the shadows revealed themselves to be a trio of foxes.
“Yip!”
Another fox was heard from atop the temple, scarred, looking much older and wizened than the trio on the ground, seeming to watch the whole scene- calm and analytical.
The trio of foxes surrounded the beetle, holding a battle-ready stance for all of three seconds, before all suddenly seeming confused. They each calmly sat down one after the other, calmly observing the beetle, then the visibly shaken couple, then the beetle again, then the couple once more.
While they couldn’t explain exactly why, both Ren and Makoto got the distinct impression of ‘disappointment’ from the foxes’ faces as they stared back at them.
The one closest to the beetle gave it a gentle nudge with its paw, prompting it to scuttle off back between the trees. Foxes couldn’t sigh, but it still felt like they did as they unenthusiastically plodded back past the couple towards the temple, their elder joining them down beside the collection box.
“I um…” Ren swallowed. “I think we were just rescued?”
“It seems that way.” Makoto quickly glanced at her boyfriend, somewhat relieved to see that he was being assaulted with embarrassment just as much as she was now that the adrenaline had passed. She felt awkward saying this to animals, but… “Um, thank you very much…”
Foxes can’t ‘tut’ either, by the way. They can however gesture towards the donation box with their heads in a decidedly unsubtle way.
“O-oh… I guess it wasn’t a free service…”
“What?” Ren’s shoulders dropped. “But we’ve already donated.”
The foxes repeated the gesture.
“Ugh, FINE! This is such a damn rip off.”
“Let’s not cause any more trouble. We’ll pay then just move onto whatever place you were talking about before.”
“Right…” With only a small amount of grumbling and a quick dirty look to the eldest fox, Ren dumped a few bank notes into the donation box before wrapping an arm around his beloved’s shoulders, leading her away from the shrine and back to the shopping district.
~ ~ ~
Tatsumi textiles was located right next door to the shrine, making it a short journey for the couple, just long enough for them to put the shame of the beetle and fox encounter behind them, happily deciding to just repress that memory until it vanished from their minds entirely.
While stores like this probably existed somewhere within the sprawling backstreets of Tokyo, Makoto had certainly never been to any of them before- even before her bold shift in lifestyle last year. While she had committed to a life almost completely devoid of fabric, she could still appreciate the wealth of high-quality textiles laid out across the very traditional looking storefront, many of them adorned with intricate patterns and designs. This clearly wasn’t much of a tourist spot, but rather a den of long-enduring passion and craftsmanship, with an atmosphere that quietly demanded reverence and respect.
Part of her worried her nudism would be seem as some kind of affront to the feeling of tradition here; either that or she’d just be seen as a customer who really needed some clothes made.
She shook her head, she knew she was being silly.
“Alright, this is another place I really wasn’t expecting from you Ren.”
Ren shrugged, for some reason he seemed rather embarrassed.
“Well, you know…”
“I don’t know.” She leant in to grin up at him. “But I’m eager to learn, if you feel like sharing.”
“I just got stuff made for me, from time to time. The owner was always pretty friendly too…”
“Hmm…” Makoto peered towards the back of the store; a sliding door sitting slightly ajar affording her a glimpse of what seemed like an everyday family home just beyond it. She felt like she could sense some movement from within, and naturally assumed the store owner must have stepped away from the storefront momentarily to attend to something else. She began to call out. “Excuse m—?”
The sudden sound of the entrance sliding open behind them- or rather- thrown open would be the more apt way of putting it, given the amount of force behind the action, enough to cause Makoto to jump.
Minor as it was, that jump was a level of fear Makoto regretted letting slip, as when she turned around, she saw a male figure, seeming to tower over both her and her boyfriend. She had the upmost confidence in her physical strength, but she still wouldn’t chance a combat encounter with a man like this unless she absolutely had to. She knew better than the judge by appearances, but if she was told that this guy was some kind of Yakuza muscle- she’d believe it.
The man’s eyes snapped to her, his spectacles doing little to hide his intense gaze and the furrowing of his scarred brow. He took a silent breath through his nose, and began to walk past the couple- Makoto subtly bracing herself as he passed, she swore she could feel the impact of his footsteps reverberating through her own soles.
He approached the step leading into the store proper, removed his shoes, and climbed up before kneeling down to face the couple, a serious look on his face.
“Whaddya want?”
‘Is he the owner?’ Makoto thought to herself, a particularly imaginative part of her brain considering the idea that this was a Yakuza owned business.
“Hey Kanji.”
“Hm?” The man looked at Ren, as if just noticing him. “Oh, it’s you Amamiya-san.” He suddenly smiled. “Sorry, didn’t recognise you for a sec, the glasses threw me off.”
It was clear that there was more than just glasses throwing him off, but no one felt the need to call attention to that.
Makoto turned to her boyfriend.
“You know eachother?”
“Lil’ bit.” Ren shrugged. “Like I said, I came here from time to time.”
“We’ve sold stuff to his family a few times.” The man apparently named ‘Kanji’ began to speak. “Town’s small enough for me to remember most repeat customers at least. Plus I’ve done a couple special orders for this kid. Speaking of which, how’d the cop outfit go down? Personally, I would have gone for something a bit cuter, but it still should have been pretty good.”
Ren bashfully scratched his head.
“I ended up chickening out of the crossdressing pageant in the end, didn’t have the guts back then.”
Kanji laughed.
“Can’t blame ya! Still, there’s no way you’d have ended up looking worse than I did back in the day. Maybe something like your cop outfit idea would have worked better for me? Not that I’m gonna try again.”
“I have multiple questions:” Makoto raised a finger. “What’s this cop outfit you guys keep mentioning?.”
“Oh that.” Ren blushed slightly. “I made sure to pack it in one of the suitcases, I’ll have to show it to you another time.”
“Right… Secondly: Kanji- was it? You make clothes?”
Kanji was visibly struggling with knowing where to look, seeming nearly as scared of eye contact as ogling her body outright, ultimately opting for just staring at a random spot on the wall.
“You’re just gonna skip right over askin’ about the crossdressing pageant?”
“I don’t feel like I need to ask about that.” She looked at Ren. “For some reason I just… believe it.”
“Not sure how I should take that…”
“It’s not meant to be an insult…” It wasn’t exactly a compliment either, but Makoto let that part remain unsaid.
“Anyway…” Kanji continued. “…Yeah, I make clothes and stuff. I normally don’t work with leather like with Amamiya’s order, but it was a fun challenge, I guess.”
“Leather…” Makoto mumbled to herself, certain feeling were bubbling up from deep within her.
“Mostly I work with the fabrics and whatever you see here.” He gestured around the store. “Still learnin’ though. I specialize in dolls ‘n’ stuff.”
Makoto followed his gaze to a shelf that she hadn’t noticed until now, full of various colorful stuffed animals, all positively adorable.
“You made those?”
Kanji seemed annoyed.
“That a problem?”
“No, of course not. I’m just really impressed.”
“Right… sorry…”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Forget it.” Eager to change the subject again- Kanji faced Ren. “Yo…”
“…What?”
“You left town, right? Last year?”
“…”
“Lotta people sayin’ a lotta things about it.”
“…I figured.”
“So, didya do it?”
“Hell no.”
“…” A small smile appeared on Kanji’s face as he nodded. “Cool, didn’t think so. You didn’t seem the type.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“You seemed a bit too wimpy for that kinda thing.”
“Ouch.”
Kanji laughed again, while Makoto stifled her own chuckle.
“He’s tougher than he looks, I think you’ll find.”
“That so?” Kanji tried establishing polite eye contact with the nudist again, but quickly buckled once more.
“Thankfully, the real perpetrator is in prison now.”
“That’s good to hear, means there’s no need for me to go straighten ‘em out myself.”
“Kanji-kun!” A voice of an old woman echoed from the back room. “You’re not threatening vigilantism again, are you?"
"Of course not Ma! I was only kidding! Jeez…”
The old woman peered through the gap in the door, examining both her son and the customers. Naturally, the naked teenage girl stood out the most.
“Is she a customer? Or do I have to deliver bad news to Naoto-san?”
“Don’t even joke about that, you old bag! I don’t even know ‘er; there’s nothin’ weird goin’ on.”
“I’m only teasing. Remember Kanji-kun, eye contact.”
“Leave me alone!”
Makoto thought it best to formally introduce herself with utmost haste. She bowed to the woman.
“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Makoto Niijima, I’m just here as a customer with my p-partner.”
The woman looked at Ren.
“Ah, the Amamiya boy. Good to see you back in town.”
“Um, thanks Tatsumi-san. But uh, I’m not staying long. I’m just here to buy a gift for my girlfriend.”
“Oh, now nice. But…” She eyed Makoto’s body. “We don’t exactly stock a lot for nudists. Tatsumi textiles tend to cater more towards… well… textiles.”
“Well I did make that one outfit…” Kanji gazed at the ceiling in recollection. “Got contacted online by that one girl saying she was nudist, but wanted a transparent kimono for New Year’s.”
“Really?”
“She shelled out a lot for it, which was good, since the material wasn’t cheap- had to get it specially ordered. Never did get a message back telling me how it turned out.” Kanji gently stroked his chin. “I remember it because new years is when everyone started being weirdly cheerful and friendly for a while… Eh, whatever. So you want one for her for something?” He asked while gesturing towards Makoto with his thumb.
“I wasn’t thinking that, but yeah that sounds awesome.” Ren grinned. “What do you think, Mako?”
“I… I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but if it really is expensive, I insist on paying half.”
“It’s not exactly a gift if you pay for it too.”
“I’m not going to be happy at you throwing your money away for my sake.”
“But… Fine, it wasn’t the original gift idea anyway. Kanji- you know Buchimaru-kun?”
Makoto’s ears perked up
“Uhh…” Kanji’s brow furrowed.
“Y’know, little cartoon panda dude.”
“Um… AH! That one kid’s show?”
Makoto grumbled under her breath.
“It’s not just for kids…”
“Yeah I remember it now.” Kanji nodded. “Thought that show was long dead, cool to see people remember it.
“Buchimaru can never die…” Makoto grumbled more, Ren had a hard time not snickering at her pouting.
“I need to rewatch it sometime…”
“YES! YOU DO!” A moment passed before Makoto realized she was being a tad bit too enthusiastic, probably leaning in too close to this man she just met- clearly flustering him. She backed off, mumbling an apology.
“S-s-so anyway…” Kanji took a moment to regain his composure. “I don’t have any plushies like that, but I could make you one over the next few days.”
“I’ll be back in Tokyo by then.” Ren huffed. “I guess I could give you an address and money for postage?”
“Works for me. I’ll make the cutest goddamn panda you’ve ever seen.”
Makoto wanted to protest this too, she always felt obligated to do so when offered gifts for nothing, and she already had several Buchi plushies to her name… however… she really wanted another one, so she remained quiet on this occasion.
Well, quiet except for…
“It wouldn’t feel right to walk out of this store with nothing though. I should buy a gift too. Any preference, Ren?”
“You don’t have to get me anything.”
“No no, you can’t play that card after getting me something. It’s only fair.” She smiled. “Plus, coming back to Inaba was my idea, only right I treat you, right?”
“I suppose so…” Ren eyed the shelf full of plushies, they were all cute and of high quality, but he'd be lying if he said any of them were calling out to him like it was destiny. “I guess um… I kinda like the look of that alligator, the pink one?”
“Lotta people like that guy.” Kanji nodded. “Kinda tough to make compared to like cats ‘n’ stuff, but fun too.”
“Guess I’ll go with that then.”
The Tatsumi Matriarch- who was still curiously watching the scene from her slit in the door way- spoke up.
“If you’re serious about the kimono request, we’ll need to take the young lady’s measurements.”
“Oh right, nearly forgot.” Kanji began to get up to grab his measuring tape, but paused when he took another look at Makoto’s bare body. “Uhm… Mom?”
“Yes?”
“D-do you mind measuring her for me?”
“Good grief. I know you can be a professional about this if you put your mind to it.”
“YOU DON’T GET IT, MA!”
Makoto laughed nervously, they might be here a while longer yet…
~ ~ ~
Later on that day, in the food court of Inaba’s Junes.
“Thank you for your patronage! We hope you enjoy your meal!” He kept up his professional, ‘customer service’ smile until the nudist and her boyfriend, finding a table to sit at in the mostly empty court- where he was certain they were out of earshot- before finally letting himself breathe. “Hoooly crap…” His said under his breath. “It’s totally different seeing her face to face.”
“Woah Yosuke! Is that a—”
“Shhh! Don’t just yell while you gawk at her Teddie! She’ll notice us!”
“Ooo, we’re spying all sneaky-like then?”
“We’re not spying anything-like! Just looking at a customer a bit, it’s totally normal and wholesome and above board.”
“Then why are we keeping it secret?”
“It’s not about keeping it secret. Even if she’s a nudist she’s not gonna want some creepy bear pointing and yelling at her like she’s some kinda freakshow.”
“There’s nothing creepy about Moi!”
“Hmm, yeah, gonna call this an ‘agree to disagree’ situation.”
“Harumph!”
“’Harumph’ yourself. Don’t you recognize who that is?”
“The guy or the pretty naked lady?”
“The girl- obviously! Makoto Niijma! Miss ‘First Shujin Nudist’ that gets talked about all the time online by that ‘Buchilover98’?”
“Oh wow! The one whose tag you have bookmarked?”
“Kinda embarrassing to have that pointed out, but yeah, her.”
“Another celebrity visiting our humble abode~”
“I told you Teddie, ‘abode’ means home. We don’t live at Junes, we just work here…”
“It’s still a cause for celebration!”
“No no no, don’t make a fuss. She’s clearly trying to just relax and have a meal with that guy- probably her boyfriend, the lucky bastard- we can’t go over there and just be a headache for her, we’re not kids anymore man.”
“I just thought a picture would be nice, like the one we got with Rise-chan!”
“Still surprised she agreed to that, even as a marketing campaign for the store… Then again, I’m surprised she’s going nudist at all, still doesn’t feel real, man. Hell, the whole ‘program’ thing doesn’t feel real.”
“I think it’s really awesome!”
“Ho yeah, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about it. I never would have dreamed I'd see hot girls just happily strutting around naked as if it was normal. I just don’t get how something like that even happens.”
“When one’s confidence and charm becomes too much to contain within flimsy clothing, it bursts free! Free for the world to see!”
“There’s more than just ‘confidence’ going on here, but whatever- that’s at least part of it so I guess we’ll go with that.”
Yosuke leant on the countertop with both hands, trying his darndest not to stare at the nudist across the way enjoying her burger and conversation.
"The guy with her doesn’t look as happy as I’d expect, having a nudist girlfriend and all…” He gazed up at the sky, pondering for a moment. “Then again it’s not like he just now got into a relationship with her, it’s probably just normal for him.”
“Are you jealous Yosuke-kun?”
“What? Am I supposed to deny that? Course I’m freakin’ jealous.”
“It’s the same with Sensei, isn’t it?”
“I mean…” Yosuke grumbled. “Don’t get it twisted, I’m happy for him- it couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy, I mean that.” He slumped over forwards, making for a rather pitiful sight. “But man- an idol wife? One who’s happy to go around naked all the time, no less? How can any man not be jealous of that?!”
Teddie gently patted his coworker on the back.
“You’ll find love someday too Yosuke-kun.”
“…”
“Sensei and I both love you already, so we already know it’s possible.”
“That’s not exactly the kind of love I’m looking for.” Yosuke stood back upright, letting out a weary sigh. “But thanks man, for real.”
“I was talking to Marie-chan about love just the other day…”
“You what?”
“She was on break from work at the studio, she’s starring in this shiny romance movie.”
“What’s ‘shiny’ supposed to mean there?”
“And me- being an expert on the hearts of maidens…”
Yosuke silently rolled his eyes.
“…I knew I had to uncover the connection between her heart and the power of love if she was going to excel in her role, so I asked her what she thought about ‘love’.”
“Really…?”
“No need to sound so incredulous, my dear boy Yosuke. I really did ask her.”
“Alright, I’ll go with it- what did she say?”
“She shared a poem she wrote.”
“Oh yeah? Do you remember it?”
“Nope.”
“You’re useless, man…”
“Something about Cinderella if she was a mermaid, also she got eaten by a grizzly bear… Then after she was done she got all flushed and was like ‘Stupididiotjerkbearshutup!' which I’m pretty sure is her way of expressing love.”
“…Y’know, if you were talking about anyone else I’d say you were full of crap, but for her- it’s not impossible that you’re right…” Yosuke’s eyes narrowed. “I just have one question?”
“Mmyes?”
“What the hell were you doing hanging out with her while she’s filming or whatever?!”
“I spotted her in working in Okina one time and started regularly going here to support her.”
“’Bother her’ more like.”
“Hmph! She likes it when I bear-ther her! She’s even started messaging me to let me know when she’ll be back in town. She says I help her think.”
“What the… how did… you’re not… huuhh…”
“I told you- this bear is an expert on the hearts of beautiful maidens.”
“Like hell you are!”
“I’m not lying!”
“I’m not saying you’re lying about going to see her, but you’re definitely leaving out some really important details, that much I’m sure of.”
“You’re just jealous.”
“Ugh, whatever.” Yosuke groaned. “Even you’re hanging out with idols, that’s somehow even wilder than the nudists… At least yours keeps her clothes on…”
“If you like, I could ask if she has any idol friends that are single?”
“Most idols are single, or at least pretend to be for the sake of marketing; Rise-san’s the one bucking the trend there.”
“Maybe those Kanamin Kitchen girls would interest you?”
“They were pretty cool… Wait no, this isn’t about idols! It’s not like one of my standards or anything. I mean, I wouldn’t say ‘no’ but… Argh!” Yosuke ruffled his hair in frustration. “We’re not talking about this anymore. Besides, you’re supposed to be on duty, what are you doing over here?”
“I came to hang out with you, Yosuke-kun.”
“At least save that until we get home! I’m starting to think I should just send you to stay with Marie if you’re getting along so well.”
“Ooo, that’d be a bear-last!”
“…On second thought, better not. It’s not fair to take my frustration out on her like that.”
“Wow, rude!”
Silence fell over the pair, the famous ‘First Shujin Nudist’ and her beau still being the only customers around on this quiet day, nearly finished with their meal. Neither the ursine mascot nor manager seemed to be in any real rush to return to actual work.
“Y’know…” Teddie began to coyly sway from side to side.
“What?”
“They’re letting anyone sign up in that program now…”
“No.”
“What do you mean, ‘no’?”
“You can’t register yourself.”
“I think I’d do it really well! Being like a newborn babe comes naturally to Moi~”
“It’s a hard ‘no’, you’re banned.”
“But—”
“You already embarrass us both plenty, I don’t even want to imagine how much worse it’d be if you were naked.”
“You don’t need to worry, I’d be on my best bear-havior!”
“Like I’m gonna believe that! Besides- you’re the store mascot, how’s that gonna work if you’re not wearing anything, like- oh I dunno- the damn bear suit?”
“I’ll just make it so that bear-me is also bear-naked!”
“That’s… not a mental image I’m happy about… We’re not doing that, there’s no way to make that wholesome…”
“But—”
“We kept things pretty innocent with the Rise-san promotion in spite of her being naked, but having a naked bear mascot running around playing with kids… we’d get the whole store shut down before the end of the week…”
“Aww…”
They noticed the couple had just finished their burgers, and more importantly- they noticed a familiar figure approaching the table.
Over at said table, Ren and Makoto’s attention was drawn to this figure, who gently bowed her head in greeting, first to the nudist.
“Am I to assume you’re Makoto Niijima?”
“Um… yes?”
She turned to the boy.
“Which means you must be Ren Amamiya?”
Ren eyed her suspiciously.
“Who’s asking?”
“Ah, good, you were nice and easy to find. There’s no need to be suspicious. Allow me to introduce myself.” She cleared her throat. “I’m Naoto Shirogane, private detective.”
The slight tip of her hat, subtle swing of her arm, and reserved cocking of her hip as she said this- even to an amateur observer it was clear that she felt very cool giving this introduction.
"I’m just here to give you a message Amamiya-san, and to ask you to come with me, if you’d be willing- of course.”
Ren and Makoto exchanged a slightly concerned look, and then eyed Naoto with suspicion.
Ren- even though he was feeling nervous- couldn’t help but smirk a little at the woman.
“I’m sure you can appreciate how the idea of just following a stranger to an unknown place for unknown reasons isn’t exactly an idea I’d be thrilled about.”
“Of course, it’s only natural to be cautious. If it was just me who wanted to speak with you I’d try to be more open and upfront, but I’m here on behalf of a… I guess ‘colleague’ isn’t strictly accurate. ‘Client’, perhaps?”
Ren rolled his eyes.
“Alright, I’ll play along; who is this ‘client’?”
“She told me the name ‘Miss Universe’ would explain everything you needed to know.”
Ren’s brow raised, before he let out a sigh.
“What’s she up to this time…?”
Notes:
Not even a maxxed out "Guts" stat is enough to overcome big gross beetles...
Chapter 129: Three wildcards to a deck
Summary:
The meeting everyone has been waiting for, that definitely has never been done by any other writer ever, I'm sure
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
And so, we join a gathering in the modest yet comfortable abode that was the Dojima residence. While it had served as the home to the eponymous police detective Ryotaro Dojima and his daughter for many years now, it wasn’t uncommon for it to double as a pseudo ‘holiday home’ of sorts for the famous idol Risette (aka Rise Narukami) and her husband whenever they needed a break from their demanding professional lives- and given the nature of the idol industry and Rise turning herself into something of a scandal magnet (the marriage somehow being the bigger scandal compared to the sudden nudism), breaks were needed often.
Today technically counted as one of those breaks, and with both Ryotaro and his daughter out for the day, they had the house to themselves for a while.
Or they would have- had it not been for the aforementioned gathering. Rise Narukami and her manager/husband- Yu- knelt down on one side of the table in front of the TV (currently turned off), while just opposite them sat another couple: the infamous (former) ‘First Shujin nudist’ and her boyfriend who was trying his absolute hardest right now to look serious and pretend he wasn’t staring at an idol’s surprisingly puffy nipples.
Makoto Niijima was familiar to both Rise and Yu, to the former because they had met before of course, and to the latter because… well… you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Japan who hadn’t seen all the media spread around the internet containing various scandalous angles of the nudist’s exposed form, and Yu hasn’t been living under a rock all this time…
Ren was new to them however, yes he was alongside Makoto in a lot of the aforementioned candid shots, and Rise had contributed to the campaign to free him from his unjust imprisonment, but this was their first time actually meeting the man himself, face-to-face.
And despite this being the home of a man who had grown to hold Yu and his wife close as family, hosting duties seem to have been forcefully taken over by the third couple, sat between the other two. The mastermind behind this gathering- Kotone Shiomi- leant forwards with both hands on the table, at least until she used them to mime launching herself upwards, spreading her arms with glee.
“TA-DAAA!”
Next to her, Aigis- who had been kneeling beside her politely waiting for her cue- set off a party popper, the confetti within limply flopping down onto the table surface, a few pieces landing in everyone’s drinks- ruining them.
“’Ta-daa’?” Ren’s statement couldn’t really be classified as a real question, but his tone still suggested it was supposed to be one.
Kotone sat back down, legs crossed in unladylike manner (pretending she was innocently unaware of the view that provided).
“I’ve been wanting to get the three of us in a room forever now.”
“Forever?”
“Well, since you and I started our link.” Kotone chuckled, seeming rather pleased with herself. “Now I’ve got ‘Mr. World’ in stereo.”
Yu’s eyes widened, both in surprise and from a wave of understanding washing over him.
“So you’re a wildcard too?”
Kotone grinned.
“Yu Narukami, meet Ren Amamiya, leader of the Phantom Thieves.”
“Don’t just blurt that out!” Makoto shook her head in disbelief. “It’s bad enough that you know, you can’t just go around telling everyone we meet.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You can trust him; he was the leader of the infamous ‘Investigation Team’ here in Inaba.”
Even in the very short time they had known him, it was clear from the way that he carried himself that Yu Narukami was the type to staunchly maintain a calm and controlled- but not at all harsh- demeanour when interacting with people, but he couldn’t hide the shocked look in his eyes as he was taken off guard by Kotone’s loose lips.
“How exactly did you know that, Shiomi-san?”
“Shirogane-san told me.”
“I see…”
“Hmm…” Rise- sat next to her husband- hummed to herself. “How can we be ‘infamous’? I don’t think anyone outside our group ever even mentioned the name ‘Investigation team’, or even knew there was a team name in the first place.”
Kotone waved her hand dismissively.
“A team’s gotta have a name, it’s cooler that way.”
“Was ‘Investigation team’ really the best you could come up with?”
“Ren!” Makoto elbowed her boyfriend. “Don’t be unnecessarily rude.”
“I mean, it’s so boiler plate, utilitarian.”
“I… guess?” Yu’s brow furrowed, unsure how to take that.
“I’ve give it to you that ‘Phantom Thieves of Hearts’ is a really damn cool name though.” Kotone nodded. “So maybe he does have room to brag there. More catchy than ‘Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad’.”
“That’s kind cool too.” Ren stroked his chin. “Kind of a mouthful though. Ours still wins.”
“At least SEES is kind of a cool anacronym.”
“Damn.” Ren huffed. “I can’t win with PToH.”
“That might work better if you made the ‘P’ silent.”
“Can’t we get back to what actually matters here?” Makoto raised her hand. “Namely the fact that A: Those weren’t your secrets to give out.”
Kotone stuck her tongue out and knocked on her scalp in an overly cutesy ‘silly me’ gesture.
“And B: There was a whole team of persona users here in Inaba?”
Yu sighed.
“I guess the secret’s out now, but if Shiomi-san trusts you, then I guess we do too?” He looked to his wife for her opinion; she just shrugged and nodded. “Yes, I led a team of my friends- all persona users- to solve an incident several years back.”
“I was a team leader too!” Kotone’s own arm shot up, before smirking. “Check it out, three team leaders all gathered together, alongside their sexy girlfriends.”
“Sexy…” Aigis quietly repeated, before swaying side to side with a muted aura of pride radiating off of her.
“And here I was, thinking we were unique.” Makoto rubbed her forehead. “Are there any more of these… wildcards’- you called them? More teams of persona users out there?”
“Outside our little ‘trilogy’ of teams? I’m not sure…” Kotone crossed her arms. “I think there are? But no one ever seems to talk about them…”
For reasons that no one could hope to understand or explain, the trio of wildcards all felt this strange twinge of guilt of the back of their minds, but they collectively decided to just not worry about it.
“Okay… so—” Makoto continued. “Is there any particular purpose to this gathering?”
“Hm?”
“Don’t take it the wrong way, I’m happy to meet the two of you.” Makoto nodded- somewhat apologetically- to Yu and his wife, before turning back to Kotone. “But to gather all of us together in one room, even going so far as to presumably hire that Detective Shirogane to bring us here, I’m wondering what your goal is, exactly?”
There was a modest bowl full of individually wrapped chewy sweets that Aigis had set up for them beforehand. Kotone took one, unwrapped it, and very casually tossed it into her mouth, taking her time chewing while keeping firm eye contact with Makoto all the while.
She eventually finished chewing, and began unwrapping another.
“It’s cool, innit?”
“’Cool’?”
Makoto had to wait a while for Kotone to stop chewing her second piece of candy.
“I mean, yeah?” She shrugged. “We all led a team to save the world with magic powers by fighting shadows and crazy people. Having all three of us here is like a cool crossover episode or something.”
Makoto tried to read her expression for whatever might have hid between the lines there, but no- no matter how hard she looked it really did seem that Kotone really was just that ‘on the nose’ about this meeting.
“I um… suppose that’s fine then.”
“Also!” Rise’s hand shot up (for some reason everyone here decided they needed to raise their hands to get everyone’s attention when they spoke) “I’m not a girlfriend anymore- I’m a wife. That’s important to remember now! VERY VERY important!”
Yu seemed split between being embarrassed, and being just as happy as Rise herself was.
“I guess we’re behind you on that front. We’ll catch up though.” Ren said this purely to get a reaction out of Makoto, and judging by how she turned away so no one could see her face- he was successful.
“Amamiya-san’s ‘smug’/ ‘teasing’ face is really annoying.” Aigis muttered, before side-eyeing Kotone. “Reminds me of someone.”
Kotone just hummed innocently.
Rise- meanwhile- couldn’t help but giggle at Makoto’s expense.
“You’re so cute when your boyfriend is bullying you.”
“H-he’s not bullying—” Makoto paused a moment. “Actually… maybe he kind of is. But don’t say it like that!”
Rise stifled another laugh.
“I mean it! He’s not a bad person at all, he’d never engage in real bullying. It’s just light teasing, and—”
“No no, I understand.” The idol was also an experienced actress, so she was able to get her snickering under control… mostly. “That wasn’t what I was laughing at. I just think it’s cute how quickly you got all heated trying to defend him.”
For some reason that remark also made Ren blush a little, though his own embarrassment was overshadowed from the joy of that familiar red color Makoto’s face was turning.
“I-I mean…” Makoto let out an indignant huff. “Of course I’m going to defend him when I think he’s being unfairly judged.”
“Aww. I guess you really do love him.”
“Wh-wh-what kind of question is that?”
“It wasn’t a question. Just a statement of obvious fact.”
An incredibly flustered Makoto was visibly unsure of how to respond to this kind of teasing. Over the course of her relationship she had slowly been getting used to the constant teasing from Ren, but for some reason having another woman- one in a committed CMNF relationship just like her, no less- teasing her for acting like a flustered schoolgirl in the throes of her first love (which was mostly true, but whatever) she was really having a hard time keeping her composure.
“Oh relax, I’m only messing with you.”
“Hmph.” Makoto grumpily pouted. “I already get more than enough of that from him.” She gestured to her boyfriend with her head.
“Ah I see.” Rise nodded, her narrow, calculating eyes paired well with her devious smirk. “See I’m the type who will happily leap upon any and every opportunity to sing my amazing husband’s praises until everyone’s sick of hearing it.”
“At least she’s self-aware.” Aigis quietly whispered to Kotone.
“The part I find interesting is how Yu barely reacted to that; he’s trying to project some low-key big dick ‘Yeah, I know I’m great’ energy and it’s kinda working…” She replied.
Rise continued, heedless (or perhaps just in blissful ignorance).
“But I’m starting to think you’re more the type to want to keep your boyfriend’s ego in check.”
“She’s got you there.” Ren laughed.
Rise’s analytical eyes flicked to the boy.
“And perhaps your efforts to keep him humble only serve to drive him to act even more cocky?”
“Man, she’s good.”
“Quiet, you.” Makoto fwapped Ren’s chest with the back of her hand. “And please don’t encourage him.”
“No no no, I’ll happily take the encouragement.” Ren leant forward on the table with a smarmy grin. “I’ll never turn down a chance to hear someone talk about how awesome I am.”
“Is that so?” Kotone lent on her palm, giving Ren a knowing look. “I know someone hamming up a mask when I see one.”
Aigis nodded in an uncharacteristically solemn matter, escaping the attention of most people present. Rise’s focus was still on Ren as she let out a good-natured scoff.
“If you say so. If Miss ‘First Shujin Nudist’ has chosen you as her future hubby, I guess you probably are kinda cool.”
“’Kinda’?”
“’Kind of’?”
Ren and Makoto replied in unison.
Rise leant against her husband (or rather, practically threw herself at him), wrapping her arms around his torso.
“Though there’s no way in hell you’re as cool as Yu. I really lucked out finding the best guy in the world.”
Aigis leant over to whisper to her girlfriend again.
“Okay now Yu looks at least a little embarrassed.”
“I guess even someone like him can get flustered when you have a smokin’ hot nudist idol simping over you while pressing her tits into your arm.”
“I afraid I don’t really understand.”
“Aigis, if you want me to try it on you later, you don’t have to feign ignorance. You could just ask.”
“But that’d be embarrassing…”
“Alright fine. I’ll give you titties and compliments later when we get back to our room.”
Aigis sat upright once more, nodding a single time.
“That would be acceptable.”
Yu wasn’t the only one feeling embarrassed, for one Ren was trying not to look too closely at the compression of Rise’s breasts as she hugged her husband. Makoto meanwhile… well she was looking at the same thing, but also she was rather taken aback at the utterly shameless display of affection, in front of guests- no less. It’s not as if she had never done such things with Ren, but she was always too self-conscious to even think of displaying such intimacy when other people could see her. Except the Shujin culture festival of course, but that was an anomaly- not to mention a VERY different type of affection.
It almost made her feel a little… inadequate. It wasn’t as much of a problem as it used to be- thanks to Ren’s constant reassurance- but that part of her that worried that she wasn’t the ‘ideal girlfriend’ was hard to silence entirely. She wondered if she should try to be more clingy from time to time, or would that be too much? Should she try it now, or would it be too obvious that she was copying the idol?
It ignited something inside her, that much was certain, and that something drove her to speak up.
“While I don’t doubt that your husband is a fine gentleman—”
“He’s the finest and gentleman-est there is.”
“Y-yes, of course. But over the past year the positive impact Ren has had on my life cannot be overstated. Even if he plays up his ego more than necessary, and he can go a little overboard with the teasing, I feel confident saying there is no finer man out there.” While she was a little embarrassed to be saying this, she couldn’t deny that singing Ren’s praises really made her feel good- proud, even. Maybe Rise was on to something after all. “And it’s not just my life he’s improved. I’ve lost count of the number of people he’s formed a positive bond with, improving all their lives even discounting persona-related business entirely.”
“Oh you want to play that card?” Rise chuckled haughtily. “Yu is the master at improving the lives of everyone he meets. He’s great with children, helping a boy he tutored come out of his shell, repairing the relationship of a stepmother with her child, not to mention how precious he is with sweet little Nanako.”
“Ren’s no slouch with children either, like um… uhh- AH! There was that kid at the arcade, the one who got bullied at school. He was able to help him out. And uh… does Futaba count?”
“Mako, she’s one year younger than us.” Ren’s shoulders slumped. “And the twins give me doubts about the whole ‘good with kids’ thing…”
“The twins?”
“N-nevermind…”
Makoto turned back to Rise.
“P-point is Ren always goes out of his way to improve the lives of those he meets!”
“Hmm, does he?” Rise pretended to check her nails, feigning disinterest. “I guess that’s alright. I’d probably be more impressed if I didn’t already have a husband who did the same thing all the time, both at school and at his multiple jobs.”
“Ren was able to juggle his altruism with his jobs at a busy convenience store in Shibuya, the beef bowl restaurant, the flower shop, a bar in Shinjuku, a model gun store, and his work as a politician’s assistant.”
“Ooo, wow.” Rise gave a slow, gentle clap. “That must have been tough. I wonder if he worked at any of them for more than two shifts each?”
Ren subtly turned away to avoid eye contact with anyone, feeling called out.
Rise gestured towards her husband.
“All my Yu ever had to was slave away as a day care worker, working at the local pub, cleaning up at a hospital where they save lives- save lives, okay? And of course the tutoring work I mentioned. Poor Yu got so many papercuts folding envelopes, while he was probably so mentally worn out doing all that translation work, and yet still had time to fold origami cranes for charity- since he’s just that selfless.”
Kotone’s favorite part of this little back and forth so far was watching how Yu was becoming visibly conflicted, worrying that his wife was starting to have perhaps a little bit too much fun riling up her fellow nudist.
Rise hugged his arm again, while keeping eye contact with Makoto.
“And on top of ALL of that, he manages to consistently be top of his class in tests, always getting the top score. He’s just so amazingly reliable.”
Makoto was stood up at this point, stepping out to glare down at Rise with her fists on her hips.
“I’ll have you know Ren consistently achieved top score in his year too, no matter what else was going on in our lives at the time. His academic knowledge is unmatched.”
“Oho?” Rise stood up too, standing inches away from Makoto. “I’m sure he’s plenty smart, but you can’t claim he’s ‘unmatched’ when Yu is sitting right there. Not to mention how he’s the most diligent hard worker in the world.”
Makoto took a small step forward, as if trying to intimidate her newfound ‘rival’.
“Ren has more charm in a single finger than most people have in their entire bodies.”
Rise- as if calling Makoto’s bluff- steps even closer. Now the two women’s breasts were pressing against the other’s, and yet neither of them broke eye contact.
“’Charm’ is just a matter of the power of ‘expression’, and Yu’s is downright enthralling. Not to mention how you can’t help but swoon when you see how courageous he is.”
“Oh please, no one has more guts than Ren. And yet despite this, deep down he’s the kindest man you’ll ever meet.”
“Yu is such an understanding man, it just makes your heart melt.”
“Well Ren has uh… unbeatable um… proficiency!”
Aigis leant over to Kotone yet again.
“What does ‘proficiency’ even mean here? Is it a sex thing?” She sat back up before her lover even had a chance to respond. “I think it’s a sex thing.”
Meanwhile Yu had finally decided this was going to far. He tapped Ren on the wrist.
“I think we should probably step in, this is going to get out of hand.”
Ren leant forward.
“Hey Mako, tell her about the time I shot god in the face to save Christmas!”
“Snrk!” Kotone tried (and failed) to stifle a snort. “Man, he really likes bringing that one up, huh?”
Aigis shook her head disapprovingly.
“I fear he’ll try to ride out that glory for the rest of his life.”
“Alright alright! That’s enough.” Yu brought his hand down on the table, just harshly enough for the sound to bring the nudists back to reality.
It was rare for Makoto’s competitive side to come out, especially like this, so only now that Yu put his proverbial foot down did she realize the position she was in. She looked down to see her breasts and Rise’s pressed together, blocking the view of how the rest of their torsos were literally millimetres away from each other. She looked back up, noticing Rise was having a similarly mortified realization, both their faces turning bright red, before they both sheepishly stepped back, and returned to their spots either side of the table.
“I um…”
“So yeah…”
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence hung over the group for a while, eventually broken when Kotone asked:
“So who wants me to send them the picture?”
Tomato Niijima turned to Kotone, a small amount of fear in her eyes.
“What picture?”
“The one with the titty smoosh.” She raised her phone to show the damning evidence. “I took it while you were arguing. I think it’s an awesome pic.”
“Ooo.” Aigis happily applauded. “Kotone is never one to let a good business opportunity pass her by. Good work. That one will be even more popular than Mitsuru-san’s swimsui—" She was cut off when her lover’s hand clapped over her mouth.
“Great, since clearly I don’t have enough embarrassing footage of me out there on the internet yet.” Makoto grumbled, not even being able to muster the motivation to object to the picture outright.
Kotone chuckled to herself, before putting her phone away in her bag.
“Y’know, when I brought the three wildcards together, I really thought we’d talk about persona and shadow related stuff.”
“That would be the most predictable route.” Aigis mused.
“Figures I’d turn the meeting into an opportunity to embarrass myself.” Rise pouted, making for a rather pitiful sight before looking up to her husband with her best puppy-dog eyes. “Sorry for getting carried away like that.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Yu smiled warmly, gently patting his girlfriend’s head- which she seemed to enjoy.
“I can’t believe I got carried away too. I’m usually more composed than that.”
“You’re good Mako.” Ren didn’t say it aloud, but he did find it funny that defending his honor was apparently what it took to bring out Makoto’s competitive side; he’d be lying if he said it didn’t make him feel kind of smug.
“Maybe I’ve been an idol too long…” Rise gaze drifted upwards in thought. “I’ve always had a habit of going a bit too hard on the whole ‘energetic praise’ thing.”
Yu hid it well, but underneath his unshakeable demeanour he too had the primal desire to have girls tell him that he’s cool, so he never had any complaints about his now-wife’s habits.
“It’s not the first time I’ve embarrassed people around me by overdoing it.” Rise let out a nervous, self-deprecating laugh. “I remember when I thought it’d be a great idea to try and boost little Nanako’s status at school, so I showed up in full ‘Risette the idol’ capacity to surprise her and show off to everyone at her school, but I get the feeling she was getting a little too overwhelmed by the attention…”
“I would have thought she’d handle it better after how great things went with her show with Kanami…” Yu’s brow furrowed.
“I guess it’s different when the ‘crowd’ is all your classmates.” Rise sighed. “It was probably a mistake on my part, and that was before I went nudist- if I tried again as I am now… well that might cause more problems… Last thing I want is to put distance between us.”
A brief moment passed before Yu visibly shivered.
Rise turned to him, equal parts confused and concerned.
“Yu? What was that?”
“N-nothing. Just thinking about the idea of Nanako finding us embarrassing led to me imagining her developing a rebellious phase.”
Rise pictured it, shivering herself.
“I don’t think I could handle that emotionally… She’ll be starting middle school next year, that does tend to be when that kind of phase happens.”
“We can only pray she has mercy on us.”
The other two couples exchanged some rather confused looks, though Kotone couldn’t help but snicker to herself.
“Heh, pair of damn siscons.”
“Hey!” Yu sat upright. “I’m not a… okay yeah, maybe, kinda…”
“You sure lost the will to argue quickly…”
“But not that kind of siscon. I’m perfectly wholesome.”
“This ‘Nanako’ is your sister then?” Ren asked.
“Yeah. Well technically not my sister, but yeah- basically my sister.”
“I get ya.” Ren smiled. “I know exactly what you mean. I have a not-sister sister of my own.”
“Ha.” Yu nodded. “I guess you do get it then. How about you Kotone-san? Do you have any sib—?”
Yu noticed the look on Kotone’s face, her empty sideways stare at nothing in particular, lacking any of her usual natural shine. Sensing that he was dangerously close to treading on a landmine, he quickly backpedalled and turned his focus back to Ren.
“A-anyway, I never had a sister- or any sibling- until I came to Inaba and met Nanako, there’s something real nice about it that’s hard to put into words, y’know?”
“Yup. Maybe it’s weird to say, but I’m enjoying it.”
“Having a little sister can be really sweet.”
“HA!” Ren scoffed. “There are a lot of words I’d use to describe Futaba, but ‘sweet’ isn’t one of them.”
“Huh?”
“Maybe something more like… ‘potential criminal’?” Ren turned to his left.
Kotone recoiled slightly under his gaze.
“What are you looking at me for?”
Rise was the next to speak.
“How about you Niijima-chan?”
“Me?”
“Nanako-chan is legally my sister too now, I get to share the joys of having an adorable little sister.”
“Siscons…” Aigis repeated under her breath.
“How about you?”
Makoto shook her head.
“I have a sister, but she’s the older one, so I can’t really relate unfortunately.” Her expression fell. “I can relate to the fear of a sibling becoming distant, though I don’t think what Sae went through could be called a ‘rebellious phase’.”
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be.” Makoto perked right back up again. “It’s all in the past, our relationship is stronger than ever now. In hindsight it was just a rough patch, that’s all, things said that they didn’t mean.”
“What family doesn’t go through that kind of thing?” Yu chuckled warmly.
“Mako kind shares Futaba with me. She makes a great big sister.” Ren stopped and pondered a while. “Actually, if you consider the whole team, maybe she’s more like the mom.”
He got a swift elbow in the ribs for his troubles, not that he seemed too remorseful, especially with the chuckles coming from the others gathered around the table, which he saw as signs of his victory.
“Speaking of parental figures, things are still pretty awkward with my new uncle.” Rise put her pouty face back on. “Like, Dojima-san’s clearly uncomfortable having me around naked, but he’s a pretty respectful guy where it counts, so he’s never mean or weird about it. But…”
Yu sighed.
“He’s still worried you’ll be a bad influence on Nanako.” He wouldn’t admit it- probably not even to himself- but part of Yu was also worried about that kind of thing.
“He’s worrying over nothing.” Rise flapped her arms in an exaggerated mini-tantrum. “I’m not going to make Nanako join the program or anything, she couldn’t even if she wanted to, it’s not legal.”
“How does that work, exactly?” Makoto held her chin in thought. “I joined… well… I was drafted back when the program was exclusive to Shujin. Kosei joined later, but now it’s not tied to schools at all. I’m not sure who can and can’t join now.”
“Oh, it’s actually really simple. It is actually still sorta kinda tied to schools, in that you have to at least be highschool age in order to register, since that’s the age the program was first introduced at. It wouldn’t make sense to suddenly exclude them, but they definitely don’t want to go below that, at least not outside of their own homes. Nanako is still far too young, and by the time she is old enough she’ll be capable of making her own decisions regardless of what we’re doing.”
“Though since it’s not specific schools doing it now, they also have background checks.” Kotone huffed. “Learned that one the hard way…”
Makoto remembered witnessing Kotone’s ‘arrest’, though she didn’t bring it up.
Aigis picked up where Kotone left off.
“They make sure you’re not some dangerous degenerate—”
“Just a normal exhibitionist-level-degenerate is fine though.”
“Yes, thank you Kotone. Also their investigation makes sure the applicant isn’t being pressured into signing up by outside forces. Apparently there have already been cases where people have been coerced by employers and such into joining. Such applications get rejected and sometimes there are even follow up investigations by the police if it’s a particularly worrying case.”
Ren and Makoto were finding this news very reassuring. They were relieved to find out that the program was being run much more sensibly than when it was merely the twisted project of that literal dickhead in a chariot once allied with Yaldabaoth. It still remained to be seen what kind of long-term future the program would have, but for now at least it seemed there was no cause for concern.
“I guess that’s good to hear.” Makoto nodded. “Though, there was one other thing I was wondering about, Reset-san.”
“I keep telling you Niijima-chan. It’s Risette.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
“And you can just call me Rise.”
“Right. I apologize.” She smiled weakly. “In that case, Rise-san, you can call me Makoto.”
“Hehe~” The idol grinned. “Alright, your question, Makoto-chan?”
“You’re an actress, right?”
“My idol work does involve plenty of acting roles, yes.”
Makoto’s eyes drifted down to Rise’s breasts, lingering perhaps a little longer than strictly necessary.
“Doesn’t your new ‘dress code’ really limit the roles you’ll get from now on?”
Rise let out an unladylike snort.
“Now that I’m part of the program, pretty much any tv show or movie is allowed to have full, uncensored nudity in it so long as it’s just me doing it- and/or any other registered nudists. I’m fully expecting them to shoehorn in all kinds of nudity whenever they get a chance now.”
“But what if the role requires you to be clothed? Even if not for the whole duration?”
“Then I’ll put on some clothes. Duh.”
“So you are allowed?”
“Obviously. What do you think the program even is?”
“…” Makoto blinked. “Huh?”
“…What do you mean ‘huh’?”
“Isn’t the nudity mandatory?”
“I mean it’s your new norm if you sign up- why would you even bother if you weren’t going to strip down? But it’s not like you’ll go to jail or something if you need to put on clothes for whatever reason.” While Rise was trying to be friendly, she couldn’t fully hide the look on her face, the ‘are you dumb?’ look.
“Wait wait.” Makoto sat upright, as if that’d help her think somehow. “When I was registered, I had to be fully naked all the time at school.”
“I guess that makes sense. Since ‘nude’ became your new ‘school uniform’.”
“And the principal said the program would continue even outside of school.”
“I mean yeah, you’re still immune to censorship and decency laws wherever you went, it’s just easier that way rather than making it only work on school grounds.”
“…”
“Why are you staring at me like that, Makoto-chan?”
“So… back then… I could have just gotten dressed the moment I left the school?”
“Uhh… yeah? How would anyone be able to enforce you not wearing clothes? That’d be some twisted Big Brother dystopia crap.”
Makoto stared blankly, eyes wide like saucers, unblinking.
“So I never really had to…” She hard blinked once. “Oh…” And she fell over backwards.
“MAKO!”
“Did she just faint?!”
“She didn’t hit her head, did she?”
“You mean just now, or back when—”
“Not the time for jokes Aigis! Make sure she didn’t hurt herself!”
While the others scrambled to make sure the first nudist hadn’t hurt herself as she lost consciousness, Kotone watched on- realizing that crowding around the girl wouldn’t help anything, but remaining ready in case she did need to leap into action.
“I think the meeting went okay.” She said under her breath, before pausing to stare into the middle distance for a few moments. “Cool, it counted as level 3 for the social link, nice.”
Notes:
She didn't hit her head, she'll be fine.
Chapter 130: The dawn of Summer
Summary:
Making plans for the summer break
Chapter Text
“Summer’s almost here Nudie Prez…”
“You don’t sound all that excited about it, Eiko-chan.”
“Myehh…” Eiko groaned as she lazily rolled her face side to side on the café table. “I thought I’d be looking forward to a break from college, and I still kinda am- I guess, but Fumi-chan is leaving town for a chunk of the break, something to do with a shogi tournament. That means my plans of us doing something fun together are out the window.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. But it can’t be that much of the break if it’s just a tournament.”
“The tournament itself is only a couple days, but she’s got family in the region too so she’ll be spending a bunch of time with them.” Eiko sat upright just so she could grumpily slam her arms on the table. “And I can’t even go travelling myself! Since we’ve got family visiting us over the break.”
“Where would you even go if you did have the freedom?”
“To support Fumi-chan at her tournament, obviously.”
“I guess so, though it’s not like you can just insert yourself into their family gathering.”
“I guess… Maybe… You went to Inaba a couple months back, you already said the stuff with Rentuple ballin’s parents didn’t go so well, but how was the town itself, fun?”
Makoto let out a long, weary exhale, before sipping her coffee.
“It’s hard to have any positive memories of the town thanks to the thing with the parents, or rather I can’t really think about going back when Ren would never want to revisit ever again.”
“I see…”
“A shame, since there were some pretty nice people there, we exchanged contact details.” She let out a small chuckle. “Ren even commissioned a transparent kimono for me while we were there, like the one Futaba-chan used. It arrived just a few days ago.”
“Gotta wear it to a festival or something then, there’s plenty of those over the summer break!”
“I definitely will, I won’t let such a gift go to waste.”
“You gotta give me the deets on who made it, I’m definitely going to get one for myself! Oh, and one for Fumi-chan.”
“Hifumi definitely looks like the kimono type more than any of us, I suppose we can’t let nudism get in the way of that.”
“Damn right!” Eiko’s usual exuberant energy seems to be swiftly returning as she pictured the sight of her girlfriend in the exposing kimono. “I’ll try and get it before the break ends, so when she does get back, we can enjoy a festival together in matching lewd kimonos.”
“I certainly hope Ren enjoys mine as much as it seems like you’ll enjoy Hifumi-chan’s. I don’t want him to feel like he wasted his money.”
“I don’t think there’s any risk of that.” Eiko drank some of her own coffee, letting out a long, satisfied exhale. “How about you, Nudie Prez?”
“Me? What about me?”
“Surely you’ve got something fun lined up for summer break, right?”
“Hmm…” Makoto pondered a while, tapping her coffee mug a few times with her index finger as she held it in her hands, before a lightbulb went off in her head. “Oh that’s right! Haru-chan suggested a road trip over the summer!”
“Oho? For real?”
“I remember we were discussing it back briefly when he thought Ren was leaving Tokyo, but we kind of ended up forgetting when it turned out he wasn’t going anywhere after all.”
“That sounds kinda cool, it’d be nice to actually use our driving licences for something. Man, now you’ve got me jealous…”
“It’ll probably be a PT exclusive thing, at least this time. I do like the idea of you, me, and the other Shujin nudists going on a trip of our own someday, even if it can’t be this summer.”
“Kickass. Hm?” Eiko’s attention was caught by the café door opening. “Speak of the sexy devils. YO GUYS!”
She called out and waved to her friends, drawing more than a few annoyed looks from the café’s other patrons, and eventually earning her a chop atop the skull courtesy of Ai Toranosuke as she took a seat next to the girl.
“Quit making a scene.”
“Ehehe~”
“Figured you guys would be here.” A strangely red-faced and frazzled-looking Mieko Ohara sidled up to their table and sat next to Makoto- who shuffled along to give her space. “Seems to be our favorite spot.”
“I’m surprised you don’t prefer to go to your boyfriend’s café, Makoto-chan.” Ai mused aloud.
“I prefer to come here for lunchbreaks rather than Leblanc. Leblanc is significantly further away from campus grounds, and it’s not like Ren is working during the day, he’s still busy at Shujin.”
Aya Nakazawa had been busy ordering at the counter after coming in, before finally joining the other nudists and sitting on Eiko and Ai’s side of the table.
“Prolly busy with all his new student council president work and stuff. He’s still probably going to do better than us when his entrance exams come along. Well, probably not better than super nerd Makoto.”
“Not sure I care for the title of ‘super nerd’. But don’t put yourselves down, you all passed along with me, remember?”
“Heh.” Aya smirked. “Damn right. Smart and hot.”
“…Though you’re still right, Ren will do better than you.”
“Y’know you didn’t have to agree with us there.”
“Better than lying.” Mieko mumbled while undoing and re-doing her twintails, trying to make herself more presentable.
“Okay, forgive me for asking Mieko-chan…” Makoto tilted her head as she looked to the girl beside her, looking strangely flushed despite her good mood. “Is there any particular reason you look um…”
“Don’t ask.” Ai cut in.
“No no, definitely do ask.” Aya cut in to Ai’s cut in, snickering to herself. “It’s funny.”
“Heh heh.” Mieko sat upright, hands proudly on her hips as she held her nose in the air. “I’ve been training.”
“Ah, I see.” Makoto nodded. “I’m glad to hear you’re still taking your fitness seriously.”
“Nah.” Aya shook her head. “Ask her what she’s training for, Nudie Prez.”
Makoto could already see Ai rubbing her forehead in exasperation, at least Eiko looked just as confused as she was.
“Um… So Mieko-chan, what are you training for?”
“Well, you know as well as I do that there are plenty of parties in and around the university after dark.”
“I’m literally the last person who would know that.”
“I figure they’ll be needing me pretty soon.”
“Needing you… for the party?”
Mieko nodded.
“You know how I’m the shortest girl in our nudist group, except Kameko but she’s still in Kosei.”
“What does your height have to do with anything?”
Mieko raised her index finger, in her mind it was a gesture that commanded attention and made her seem like a proper instructor (your milage may vary).
“It’s a well-known fact that short girls make the best size queens.”
Makoto recoiled slightly, hard blinking a good few times.
“That was not the direction I was expecting this conversation to go.”
“Do you need me to explain to you what ‘size queen’ means, Nudie Prez?”
“N-no, Eiko-chan. I actually do know know that one.”
“How?”
“Anyway. Mieko-chan- what the hell are you talking about?”
“’Short girl’ and ‘size queen’ is a based combo. It’s what everyone thinks of.”
“Where exactly are you getting that information?”
“If I can master taking bigger and bigger insertions- and more of them- I’m going to quickly become the most popular girl at Tokyo U.”
“She’s not completely wrong on that last point.” Aya laughed.
“You should really be focusing on your studies, first and foremost.”
“Don’t worry Makoto-chan.” Mieko slapped her on the shoulder a couple times. “I’m not gonna flunk my courses at all. But college life is stressful, I need to get dicked into oblivion every so often so that I don’t drive myself insane. You don’t realize how lucky you are to have a beau booty call any time you feel like it.”
Makoto wanted to object, but thinking about how much more relaxed she felt after a good ‘study session’ with Ren… she had to admit that maybe Mieko had a point.
“It’s definitely easier to work harder if you have a good way to get rid of all the accumulating stress, and sex is pretty good at doing that.” Ai half shrugged, a coy smirk on her face. “I know for sure I always do better studying after I’ve had a guy around.”
“HUH!” Mieko leapt out of her seat. “The hell?! You’ve been having guys over?”
“Well of course.” Ai leant back nonchalantly. “We’ve been here for months now, and being a nudist masks scoring guys even easier. It’d be weird if I couldn’t find at least one person by now.”
“No fair!” Mieko slammed the table repeatedly with both hands. “Why didn’t you tell us! You’ve got dick on the regular and you’re not willing to share the love! Selfish is what you are! Selfish!”
“C-calm down Mieko-chan.” Makoto tried to gently pull the smaller girl back into her seat, being very conscious of the scene she was making. “You can’t expect Ai-chan to share her boyfriend like that.”
“Eh?” Ai raised her brow. “Boyfriend?”
“I-is he not a boyfriend?”
“Nah, nothing like that.” She waved dismissively. “Just a… well…”
“Fuck buddy?” Eiko offered helpfully.
“Ehh…” Ai sneered. “It sounds slutty when you put it like that. I don’t think of it as just putting out easy sex for anyone who asks, I just feel like I desperately need to be bent over a table and fucked relentlessly every so often, y’know?”
“Doesn’t that just make it sound more slutty?”
“Well share the love!” Mieko slammed on the table once more. “I want to be the slutty one too now and again! I just wanna be the girl in the centre of a couple drunken university orgies with all my holes filled; is that so much to ask?”
“U-um…” The café server- a boy roughly around their age- had arrived with the coffee orders Aya had made for them upon entering, and was staring directly at the mid-tantrum Mieko.
The girls looked up to the red-faced boy (except Makoto, who was turned away and hiding her face with her hand). Mieko sat back down.
“Oh, hey man.” She gestured towards the tray of coffee mugs. “Yeah, just leave them on the table, you’re good.”
He placed down the mugs in a hurry- nearly spilling a couple- before suspiciously hobbling away.
Mieko seemed to relax as she took a few tentative sips of her drink.
“But yeah, I’m with Ai-chan, I’m not really looking for love at the moment, maybe just a short-term boyfriend or something. I got my real love life figured out already.”
Makoto thought ‘boyfriend’ and ‘love’ were synonymous, but perhaps not in this case. Maybe she had a lot to learn after all, but she was questioning exactly how much she wanted to learn.
“I feel like I’ll regret asking, but what do you mean when you say you’ve got your ‘love life figured out’?”
“It’s nothing weird.” Mieko shrugged. “You already know it’s my dream to be an engineer for a motorsports team. I’m going to have a passionate romance with the driver, obviously.”
“Obviously…” Makoto sighed.
“It’ll be about way more than just sex then… although it would be good to ride his cock while he’s driving a lap.”
“That sounds unbelievably dangerous…”
“Doesn’t that make it even hotter, though? ‘specially if he wins the tournament like that.”
“…No.”
“Especially especially if I’m still on it while he’s on the podium.”
“…Well…”
“Leave her be Nudie Prez.” Eiko laughed. “No point you trying to make sense of that girl’s mind.”
“Just let me dream, dammit!”
“Yeah yeah, Mieko-chan.”
Aya snickered.
“So anyways, what were you guys talking about before we did a deep dive into Mieko’s fetishes?”
Eiko grinned.
“Makoto’s gonna take us out on a road trip!”
“Yo, sweet!”
“No, no!” Makoto cut in in a hurry. “At least not any time soon, maybe in the future. I was more thinking about taking my boyfriend and our circle of friends on a road trip over the summer break.”
“Aw, cute. Sure you don’t want to just take your BF and have it be just the two of you?”
“…I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t tempting…”
“Heh.”
“But it’s been something we’ve had planned for a while now.” Makoto stared at the ceiling for a few moments. “I wonder if they even remember though… I’ll remind Haru before I head back to class.”
“Still sounds like a blast.” Ai sipped her coffee, letting out a hearty, satisfied sigh as she did so. “Wish I had something planned.”
“I tried to contact the nudists at Kosei to see if they had anything planned.” Aya slumped back in her seat. “No luck, at least not anything we could do with them. The weirdo artists are all just working on personal projects, except Mai-san.”
Makoto tilted her head curiously.
“Oh? Toda-san? If memory serves she’s still dating one of Ren’s friends, I think. Are they doing something together?”
“Sadly no, she’s going overseas without him for a while.”
“Poor dude.” Eiko’s chuckle wasn’t a mean spirited one, but it wasn’t exactly sympathetic either.
“Overseas?”
“That’s what she told me, Nudie Prez. What was it she said…?” Aya’s brow furrowed as she tried to recall. “She said something about ‘doing her duty’ and ‘bringing art and culture to an underdeveloped, undereducated, war-torn, third-world nation’.”
“Goodness.” Makoto’s eyes widened. “That’s… quite the goal. Where exactly is she heading?”
“The United States.”
“Ah okay, that makes sense.”
~ ~ ~
Pii pii pii
“Hm?” Sumire paused eating the oversized feast she called her lunch so she could pull her phone out of her bag. “Oh, it’s Makoto-senpai.”
“Ho?”
“That’s not very nice Futaba-chan, she has a name.”
“Didn’t take you as the type to make that kind of joke, Sumire-san.” Despite trying to look indignant, Futaba couldn’t quite hide her impressed smirk; though it didn’t last long before she resumed inhaling her packed Leblanc curry- bento edition (patent pending) that she always brought with her to Shujin.
“She’s talking about a road trip you guys have planned for the summer break?”
“Oh yeah.” Futaba mumbled through a mouthful of food. “She and Haru both messaged me about that a few minutes ago. I was wondering when we’d bring that up again.”
“You’ve been planning it a while then?”
“Kinda? We brought it up a while back but got distracted when we were getting mad at Ren. I was too focused on destroying him with my Heavenly Potemkin Buster.”
Sumire and Futaba had become good friends since starting their lives as second-year students together, helped by the fact that they could bond over being the only two nudists in their year group and sharing most of their classes. Sumire was close enough to Futaba to know it was best to just let these videogame references the latter loved to throw into casual conversation just pass by; it was seldom worth questioning them.
Instead the gymnast simply returned to reading the message from her former senpai.
“She’s… inviting me?”
“For real?” Futaba leant forward, big grin on her face only slightly spoiled by the two stray pieces of rice on her cheek. “Kick ass!”
Sumire seemed unsure.
“Is it really right to invite me? It’s supposed to be something for the PTs, right? I’m kind of the outsider in that regard.”
“Are you drunk? You were part of the team too when we beat the true final boss, of course we’re going to invite you too; duh. If Makoto and Haru didn’t, I would have.”
“R-really?”
“I repeat: Duh.” Futaba resumed her eager nomming of her bento. “Quit it with the ‘I’m not used to having real friends’ routine, it’s getting old.”
Sumire’s light warm pink cheeks punctuated a warm- and somewhat relieved- smile.
“Thanks, Futaba-chan.”
“Mleh.” Futaba shrugged. “So you’re coming, right?”
Yoshizawa’s blissful face swiftly vanished.
“I really wish I could, but I’m going to have to turn it down.”
Futaba nearly choked on her rice, her fellow glasses-girl-nudist fretting over her while she was having her surprised coughing fit, thankfully not taking too long to recover, and not spilling any more of her bento (though she did now have rice stuck to her torso).
“What the hell? That’s so cringe though. Why not?”
“I’m really sorry Futaba-chan. But I’m just really busy over the summer break, there are multiple important gymnastics events I can’t afford to not attend, plus a few other things I’m busy with.”
“Maaan…” Futaba slumped over in her seat. “I guess that’s fair, but it just seems lame.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Nah, it’s not your fault. We’ll just have to think of something fun later, I’m sure we’ll get plenty of chances.”
“Mm.” Sumire nodded. “I’ll do my best to be there for whatever future events you guys put together.”
“We’ll think of summin’.” Futaba reached over to her friend’s phone. “I’ll let them know that you won’t make—”
She wat cut off, and pulled her hand back after it was firmly slapped down, Sumire affixing her with a big smile that didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.
“I can do that myself, thank you.”
“You really don’t trust me with your phone, do you?”
“No. Should I?”
“…”
“I thought so.” Sumire sent back the disappointing reply to Makoto, before reluctantly putting her phone away.
A visibly disappointed Futaba (disappointed for two reasons) returned to her meal, still doing nothing to clean up the small portion of it on her cheek and between her breasts.
Having spent a good few months back in school now, she had built up a great deal of confidence in dealing with the other students, at least at a distance. They were just background characters- in her words- so she was more than happy to just ignore them all and pretend they didn’t even exist. This made dealing with the countless gawkers and voyeurs nudist girls like them constantly had around fairly trivial for her; just as long as any comments remained firmly behind her back.
While Sumire was also used to all the attention on her naked body- owing in large part to the constant attention on her clothed body that naturally comes from being a gymnast building up a tolerance to the scrutiny- she wasn’t quite as good at putting the other students out of her mind entirely like her friend.
Their comments were not lost on her ears, neither the ones aimed at her or Futaba. Mercifully they rarely went beyond the typical teenage lustful jokes and expressions of desire, with them nudging each other to try and approach- but never actually having the courage to do so. This didn’t bother Sumire at all, at least not enough to prompt anything more than the occasional eye roll. Makoto and the other early adopters had already gone through the rougher parts of the transition and helped nudists become a normal and expected part of the school environment, despite their continued rarity.
That said, she had noticed a trend beginning to form, at least in regards to the comments about Futaba. While the usual mixture of lust, admiration, or even derision in the whispers would pop up like with any other nudist, early on the rumor mill in regards to her tended to lean towards the especially salacious, prompted by the fact that the first few days her pussy was visibly leaking and aroused, many speculating that on the fantasies going through her head, and that she was one of the more perverted nudists Shujin had ever head (in their defence, they weren’t that far off in most of their speculations…)
Though that quickly faded- as most rumors in Shujin do- as Futaba’s delusions died down, and she reached a state approaching some degree of normalcy. As she began to forget about her audience, and more of her usual goofball self began to emerge in the public eye (thanks to all the time she spent with Sumire and her fellow former-PTs now in their third year); the voyeur’s commentary took on a… different form.
“Has she still not noticed the food on her chest?”
“Is it weird that I find it kind of cute?”
“Do you think she’d let me be her big brother?”
“The nudist whisperer already got there before you bro… but I get how you feel…”
“Maybe she’d let us feed her ourselves?”
“I hope she’d pout and glare at us while we did. Blushing but still enjoying the food.”
“Dude, yeah… Or at least we could wipe her mouth for her?”
Sumire never thought she’d miss the old lecherous comments, but here we are… She endeavoured to follow Futaba’s example and just put them out of her mind as best she could. She discreetly looked back at her phone, seeing Makoto’s disappointed but understanding reply to her turning down the invitation. She backed out of the thread, turning her attention to the other message chain from just an hour or so earlier, from the contact she had listed only as ‘C’, reminding her to meet up after school.
She sighed, and returned to her lunch.
~ ~ ~
And meet up they did.
Sumire sighed.
“Hello again Goro-san.”
Akechi didn’t bother looking up from his phone, only giving a non-committal raising of his hand to return her greeting.
Sumire scanned the room, the same hidden basement Kotone had brought her to a while back, where she was inducted into the Shadow Operatives.
Even now- months later- she wonders if she made the right decision agreeing to join. Noone she talked to struck her as untrustworthy; granted, Akechi himself gave ‘untrustworthy’ vibes more than anyone else here, but his judgement was the reason why she even decided to hear the recruitment pitch out to begin with.
“I hate coming here.” Sumire said as she took a seat opposite her ‘colleague’ Akechi. “Still feels way too shady for my liking.”
“Secret organisations are supposed to be shady.” Akechi smirked. “You and I are the ones casting the shade- so to speak.”
“You love all this ‘cloak and dagger’ stuff, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” He shook his head. “I’m just used to it, plus it beats working retail.”
“I guess you would get used to it, especially since you’re living here now.”
He mock shrugged.
“What can I say? The rent here is great.” He chuckled at his own joke. “Well, it’s not in this room obviously, but they’ve provided me with some clandestine living arrangements in exchange for my services.”
“How generous of them to take in a high school dropout like yourself.”
“You’re hilarious…”
A screen set up at the far end of the table sprang to life, lighting up with the image of a well-dressed woman sat at her desk.
“Akechi-kun, Yoshizawa-san, thank you both for coming. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”
Sumire shook her head.
“It’s okay Kirijo-san; I only just got here myself. I came right after school ended.”
“That’s good.” The woman, Mitsuru Kirijo, has a small- but distinct- smile on her face. “Trust me, I understand the struggles of balancing this kind of work with one’s school responsibilities, so I appreciate you making the effort to arrive as soon as you did.”
“Not that I don’t appreciate the paycheck for doing nothing…” Akechi finally put his phone away and sat up straight. “…I’m guessing the fact that you called us in means you finally have something for us to do?”
“I also appreciate you enduring your own less-than-ideal circumstances too, Akechi-kun.”
He shrugged.
“As a ‘dead man’, effectively in hiding, I can’t complain about the hand I’ve been dealt.”
Mitsuru nodded.
“You are right though, there is work to be done, and you two are the only ones I can really rely on. You’re the ones with unique knowledge related to this case.”
Sumire tilted her head slightly, quickly growing a little concerned.
“This case?”
“To cut a long story short, there have been numerous cases of the phenomena referred to as a ‘change of heart’ springing up all across Japan.”
Both Akechi and Sumire’s eyes went wide at the reveal, the two exchanging a glance- equal parts confused and worried.
The boy- now with a much more serious look on his face- leant forward.
“A change of heart?”
“Correct, multiple cases.”
“And recently? How recent are we talking?”
“As in ‘the last one happened three days ago’ recently.” Mitsuru brought her hands together atop her desk, letting out a slow exhale. “The police have been receiving numerous reports of the inexplicable phenomena causing people to act out of character. I spoke directly with Miyako Kaburagi-san, a commissioner in the public security bureau about several such cases.”
“Such as?” Sumire asked.
“The vice minister of finance suddenly confessed to document tampering during a Diet session Q&A. A trio of Sapporo central councilmen confessed to receiving bribes.”
“Those really do sound like genuine ‘change of heart’ cases…” Sumire’s brow furrowed in thought.
“Other cases include a well-known newscaster suddenly proposing to his co-anchor on live TV, being promptly rejected…”
Akechi couldn’t quite stifle a snort-laugh.
“…And most recently the Director-General of criminal affairs… suddenly stripped off all his clothing for no apparent reason and ran around HQ until officers could restrain and detain him.”
“So a streaker?” Akechi eyed his red-headed colleague. “There’s been a lot of those lately.”
Sumire decided to ignore his snide joke, instead facing the screen depicting their boss.
“Those first two sound more like what I’d expect, but the last two seem… weird.”
Mitsuru’s brow raised.
“You think so?”
“They’re really… petty?”
“Agreed. The targets, as well as the outcomes of the ‘changes of heart’ feel random. Given that they have little else to go on, the police naturally suspect the Phantom Thieves.”
“So that’s why you need us specifically.” Akechi folded his arms. “We’re the ones with direct knowledge of the Phantom Thieves and their work.”
“Precisely.”
“It wasn’t them!” Sumire stood up, slamming her hands down on the table.
“You’re sure of that, Yoshizawa-san?”
“Positive!” Sumire glared at the screen fiercely. “I know them well enough to know they’re not the type to use their powers just for cheap fun like that. I admit I was having doubts when I listened to the first couple of examples, but the others just feel like petty pranks, which has never been the kind of thing they’d do.”
“Sumire is right.” Akechi nodded without looking up. “Whatever else you could say about them- and believe me I could say a lot- they’re committed to their sense of justice to a fault. They wouldn’t target someone unless they really were convinced they were an actively dangerous criminal.” He smirked. “If you need solid proof that it wasn’t them rather than just character testimony, I can provide that too.”
“Go ahead.”
“You mentioned that trio of cases in Sapporo? There you go. I have personal experience with the Metaverse, and I know that to target someone, you need to be in actual physical proximity; at the bare minimum you need to be within the same city. I’ve not been observing the former thieves myself, but our dear friend Sumire has.”
“Mm.” She nodded eagerly. “Amamiya-senpai, Makoto-senpai, and Takamaki-senpai all went to Inaba a few months back, but apart from that they’ve not had time for that sort of travel.”
Akechi leant back in his seat, projecting quite the smug aura.
“I’m sure the Kirijo group has the resources to verify the travel records if there is any doubt remaining.”
“Hmm…” Mitsuru brought her hand to chin in contemplation. “So my suspicions were on the mark…”
“Wait, so you didn’t suspect the thieves?” Sumire asked.
“I couldn’t discount the possibility of course, I technically still can’t, they are the only ones who have proven themselves capable of such a feat; but it just felt too easy. It didn’t match what we know about them at all. I couldn’t agree with the police assessment in this case. But this does mean there are others out there capable of something similar, others with much looser moral standards at that, which is troubling…”
“Not to mention the fact that it shouldn’t be possible at all, given that the metaverse and navigation app are both gone…” Akechi seemed troubled for a few moments, before sighing. “Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time they came back after apparently vanishing.”
“Clearly further investigation is required. Yoshizawa-san.”
“H-huh?! Y-yes Mitsuru-san?”
“If memory serves, schools usually let out for summer break around this time of year, correct?”
“Um… yes, break starts very soon.”
“How free are you to travel during this period?”
“Travel?”
“I’m going to need the both of you to get to the bottom of this case, and there’s a limit to what you can do within the bounds of Tokyo.”
“Hmm…” Sumire gently chewed on her lower lip. “I do have a few gymnastics events I need to attend across the country, but those will only take up a few days. The main issue would be how would I explain things to my family.”
“Right, rhythmic gymnastics…” Mitsuru pondered a while, before smiling. “That shouldn’t be a problem, I can easily arrange for someone from the Kirijo group to provide a cover story for you. Your first stop would be in Tatsumi Port Island so…”
She signalled to someone off screen. The unseen figure could be heard speaking.
“There’s a small event coming up in the area in the near future. It’s pretty low key, but should serve as enough of an excuse for Yoshizawa-san to travel. We could even escort her to the other events on the way to make keeping up the act easier.”
“Mm. Thank you Labrys.” Mitsuru turned towards the camera again. “Did you catch that?”
Sumire seemed rather uncertain.
“If you’re all covering for me, my parents and coach shouldn’t worry too much… I still don’t feel good about lying to them though.”
“You’re in the wrong line of work if you can’t stand lying.” Akechi chuckled snidely. “There’s still time to back out.”
“No.” She shook her head, shooting a determined glare back at him. “I’d feel even worse about not helping, especially when Amamiya-san and the others are under suspicion for yet another crime they didn’t commit.”
“That’s more like it.” Akechi leant back again, satisfied.
“Don’t worry Yoshizawa-san.” A reassuring smile spread across Mitsuru’s face. “We don’t intend on letting the investigation negatively impact your civilian life, we only expect that kind of sacrifice in emergency situations, and we’re not at that stage.”
“Yet.”
“Don’t jinx us, Goro-san.”
Mitsuru continued.
“As I mentioned before, I’ll be asking you to travel to Tatsumi port island to meet up with Yamagishi-san; her abilities will no doubt be essential in getting to the bottom of this case- ideally before it gets out of hand.”
“Would we ever be so lucky?”
“Seriously Goro, shut up!”
“If you two are done arguing…” Irritation was clear in Mitsuru’s tone, but she kept her controlled and professional demeanour. “Fuuka-san will give you further instructions once you arrive. I’ll send someone to escort you to make the trip easier. As for the investigation itself, I’ve managed to track down Shiomi-san and Aigis; they’re currently active peddling wares in Osaka- is how I hear it.”
“Are they going to escort us?”
“No, we’ll send a lower level employee to handle that. It’ll be easier if those two just meet you when you arrive in Port island.”
“So we’ll be working with those two?” Akechi groaned. “Oh joy.”
“At least Fuuka-san is easy to work with, she’s always so nice when she comes here.”
“I suppose…” Akechi huffed. “It’s not as if I had anything else planned for the summer, it’ll do me some good to get out and get some exercise, if nothing else.”
“Didn’t take you as the health-conscious type, Goro-san.”
“I was a celebrity for a while. I don’t care for pretending to be someone I’m not anymore, but I’m still conscious of image, you know?”
“Thank you both for agreeing so readily.” Mitsuru bowed in her seat towards the screen. “I’ll be counting on you two.”
Notes:
Can't keep my plans under wraps any more, huh? Yeah we're getting a second party sub plot for the Strikers arc.
Chapter 131: She is NOT the fourth Queen
Summary:
Some shopping in preperation for the roadtrip, surely nothing could pop up to complicate such a task?
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Maaaan, it’s way too hot out…”
“C’mon Ryuji, we’ve literally only just got here and you’re already complaining.”
“’Eff off cat. Man, how are you not overheating in that bag?”
“…I mean yeah, it is pretty hot. I’m just not openly whining about it; I have a certain level of class, unlike someone.”
“The hell’s that supposed to mean?!”
“It’s nice to see you two getting along well as always.” Ren stretched his arms up towards the clear skies above Shibuya Square. “But I would like to get on with the shopping if you’re both done.”
“Yeah, fine…” Ryuji mumbled, still grumpy from the heat. “Yo, the van’s gotta have air-con or something, right?”
“That’s up to Queen and Noir.” Morgana answered, his front paws on Ren’s shoulder to raise himself up high- mostly to keep as much of his body out of that muggy bag as possible. “They’re the only ones who can actually drive, so it makes sense to leave vehicle rental to them.”
“I’m sure they’ll get one that’s plenty cool. I mean, it’s the twenty-first century, it’d probably be harder to find a campervan that didn’t have air conditioning.”
“I hope so man.” Much of the fatigue Ryuji was feeling quickly vanished in lieu of the building excitement and anticipation of the upcoming trip. “Man I’m looking forward to this. Bro I’ve been needing something like this trip, nuffin’s happening lately.”
Ren lightly shrugged.
“I mean I kinda like the calm. It’s nice to be in ‘peace time’ or whatever you wanna call it.”
“Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad all the dangerous PT stuff is done an’ all; but it’s been way too long since we’ve all done something together, y’know?”
“He has a point.” Morgana nodded. “We all see each other plenty, but all your school responsibilities really take up everyone’s time. Another ‘event’ we can all be involved in will do us all a lot of good, at least I think so.”
“Hell yeah.” Ren laughed. “It’s funny, I don’t think I’ve ever travelled for fun before.”
“For real, man?”
“I mean, I’ve only really travelled between Tokyo and Inaba, and those weren’t exactly trip for the fun of it… This’ll be a new experience for me, and one I get to share with all of you guys.”
“C’mon man, don’t start going all subliminal on us.” Ryuji punctuated his comment by shoving Ren’s shoulder, being considerate enough to target the one that Morgana wasn’t resting his paws on.
“I think you mean ‘sentimental’, Ryuji…”
“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”
Ren let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a laugh.
“Sure man.”
There was no ambiguity to Morgana’s disappointed sigh however.
“Let’s just get on with our share of the shopping. Where were we heading first?”
Ryuji pulled out his phone.
“I’ll ask EMMA again.”
“EMMA? Oh right.” Ren hadn’t had a chance to properly try using it yet, but he remembered learning about the ‘EMMA’ app just yesterday while discussing summer plans with the rest of the team. An ‘AI assistant’ app that seemed to have become really popular lately, widespread to the point of being near-universal, or at least that’s how it felt to Ren, feeling like he was the be the literal last person to learn about it. He wondered if he should have put more effort in listening into whatever the Shujin student body was talking about day to day, given that he was supposed to be the student council president, and all.
“Uh… Hey EMMA?”
Ryuji’s phone lit up with a distinctive ‘bloop’ sound.
“Hello, do you need something?”
“Yeah uhh… could you show us that store you told us about, or whatever?”
Bloop
“Displaying the optimal route to your destination.”
“Sweet! We got a map!”
“It worked out what you wanted even from a vague question like that?” Ren’s brow raised. “Alright, credit where it’s due, I was wondering what the advantage to the AI was beyond being a voice-activated google search, but I guess if it can remember older conversations like that then that’s something.”
“We still could have gotten there with a google if Ryuji remembered the name of the store.”
“Hey you didn’t remember either, Cat!”
“I-I did! I just didn’t get time to say it out loud.”
“Alright ladies, that’s enough. Let’s go.” Ren- after quickly checking EMMA’s map, began to lead the group towards their destination, thankfully located only a scant few corners away.
It wasn’t long however, before the group’s attention was drawn to some especially loud collective cheering and applause, coming from an area crowded even by the extreme standards one would expect from Shibuya.
“Is there an event going on today or something?” Ren wondered aloud.
Ryuji stood on his tip toes to try and peer over the crowd, to no avail, though a hanging banner managed to answer the question, and a huge grin spread across his face.
“Oh shit! I completely forgot about this!”
“What? Forgot about what?”
“The idol, man!”
“This might be a challenge for you man, but I’m gonna need you to be more specific.”
“There’s a new store opening up today, some fashion… place or summin’.”
“Didn’t take you as the fashionable type- no offence.” Ren smirked. “Not that your look doesn’t work or anything, but it might be fun for us to go shopping for some stylish new outfits together sometime. It’d be great to play dress up.”
Ryuji gave him an unsure look.
“Can’t tell if you’re being serious, man…”
“Nah for real, it’d be great. Two dudes, shopping for cute clothes, five feet apart because they’re not gay.”
Ryuji still looked confused, but he just shook his head.
“Anyway man, they’ve got that famous nudist idol doing the opening event. We could see her live if we go now!”
“Ah.” Ren nodded in understanding, following Ryuji who was already walking around to find a path through the crowd. “Kinda funny to have a nudist open a clothing store, but I guess it’s good work for her either way. I’ve met Risette personally though, if you’re a fan I could probably convince her to let you shake her hand or something?”
“Hm? Nah, man. Risette’s cool or whatever, but I meant the other one.”
“Other one?”
The two managed to break through the crowd far enough to see the stage set up in front of the new ‘Shibuya 705’, and standing upon it with microphone in hand was—
“ALICE!”
“It’s Alice Hiiragi!”
“We love you, Alice!”
The excitement in the crowd left no doubt about the idol’s popularity, and yet another reason for Ren to mentally chastise himself for being so ‘out of the loop’.
Alice made a show of flicking her light green hair, a rehearsed gesture taking care not to disturb her ribbon or any of the accessories sticking out of her buns, the ace of spades card and miniature teapot catching Ren’s attention.
With a wide smile she energetically waved out to her fans. Being as tall as he was, Ren had more success getting a good view of her by standing on his tip toes than his friend did. His eyes inevitably drifted down to confirm that yes- there really was another nudist idol rocking the lifestyle in their professional life; though given the wealth of accessories scattered over her body- ‘exposed’ was a better description of her body than ‘nude’ would be.
The large, colorful ribbons tied around her wrists, shoulders, ankles, neck, and waist all swayed with her each and every movement. Pastel colored card suits were painted over her body, a light blue spade above her left teardrop-shaped breast, a green club on her right hip, her little twirling motion treated him to the view of the lilac diamond upon the small of her back, but it was really the pink heart atop her shaven mound that draw the eye the most, its lowest point overlapping with her just barely visible clitoris.
“Alright, I dig the style.” Ren lightly scoffed. “Maybe a nudist opening a fashion store isn’t that bad an idea after all.”
“Hi folks! Thanks for coming!” Alice jumped in place, boobies and ribbons alike jiggling enticingly in response. “A shop that carries one of my very own brands is opening here today!”
“Ah okay, now it makes sense. She makes the clothes, but doesn’t wear them?”
Ryuji chuckled along with him.
“It’s pretty weird when you put it like that, but you’re right.”
“I guess unless she’s specifically talking accessories? Even nudists could buy and wear those.” Ren thought for a moment. “I think I remember Mako talking about her friend Ai who wanted to be a fashion designer that caters to nudists, seems like she already has competition.”
Alice continued with her routine:
“Have you ever dreamed you could be someone else? Even if just for a little while?” She pointed out to the crowd with her heart-topped cane. “Well, I know a place where that dream comes to life! A wonderland where you can become whatever you want to be! Now, I’ve got one question: does anyone wanna visit this wonderland with me?”
She brought her hand to her ear, theatrically gesturing ready to listen to the crowd’s prompted cheers, and cheer they did. Ren didn’t especially care for the overly fluffy sales angle she was going for, but he appreciated how naturally she seemed to lead the crowd.
“Aww, thank you! Then I have a surprise for you…” She threw her arms into the air. “I’m giving away a hundred invitation cards as a special present! They’re magical cards that will make you have an even better time in Wonderland!”
“Kind of an overly flower-y way of describing… what? Gift cards?” Ryuji ruffled his own hair. “Aw whatevs, it’s cute.”
“She’s an idol, it’s her job to be all cutesy about everything.” Ren shrugged.
Alice cheerfully gathered up the aforementioned ‘invitation cards’ and trotted down to start distributing them. With the crowd’s excitement, part of Ren feared they would mob the idol as soon as her bare foot touched the ground, and this previously pleasant scene would quickly turn into some horrific crime. But to his great relief, everyone seemed to behave themselves, even giving the girl space to comfortably move around while handing the cards out… or perhaps they were just too in awe of their apparent oshi skipping around completely exposed so close to them.
“Holy crap…” One fan stared at the card he was just handed completely slack-jawed. “Alice just touched my hand…”
Yeah, the ‘in awe’ explanation was seeming like the more likely explanation of the two. Ren felt just a little disappointed.
It didn’t take long for Alice to nearly run out of cards to give, with only a few left in her hands, next she trotted over to the boys and their ‘notcat’.
“Ooh, what a cute kitty!”
Morgana was emotionally split, part of him of course hated the cat allegations once again rearing their ugly head, but on the other hand- it was hard to be upset at an idol fawning over him.
She looked up to Ren, towering full head and shoulders above her.
“I’m guessing he’s your pet?”
“He’s not a pet; he’s a good friend.”
“Joker…” Morgana smiled at the boy, relieved.
Ren looked back at him.
“Hey, she was talking about Wonderland and stuff, you should do your best Cheshire impression for her.”
The smile was gone, the relief retracted.
“Aww, he looks grumpy now.” Alice reached up to gently scratch Morgana’s chin, which seemed to quickly cheer him back up. “Are you an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ fan as well?” She asked Ren.
“I mean, American Mcgee’s, mostly.”
“Hm?”
“N-nevermind…”
She kept petting Mona for a while, before she suddenly stopped, pulling back, seeming to remember what she was supposed to be doing. “Sorry about that, maybe that was a bit weird.” She nodded towards Ren, handing him an ‘invitation card’. “Love the specs by the way.”
“Huh? Oh, thanks.”
“Uh, hey Alice.” Ryuji lent forward. “I’m a fan!”
“That’s nice.”
And she turned away, giving away the last few cards to seemingly random fans.
“The hell?” Ryuji slumped over. “Why’d I get blown off like that?”
“Not to be a bad friend, Ryuji, but uh…” Ren flashed the card he just received. “…Get wrecked.”
“Dick.” Ryuji punched him in the arm. But it wasn’t long before both dropped their serious expressions and were laughing again. They headed back towards Shibuya square proper- away from the crowds.
“Let the white rabbit guide you to wonderland!” They heard Alice call out as they were leaving. “Have fun there, everyone!”
“Geez, what was with that crowd?” Morgana groaned.
“Still sucks that you were the only one who got a card man.” Ryuji grumbled. “You didn’t even know who she was.”
“You shouldn’t have been standing next to the alpha.”
Ryuji scoffed.
“Yeah, whatever man.” Ryuji waved him off. “Thinking you’re all that because some cute idol drifts your way. Haru’s way cuter anyway.”
Ren smiled.
“Now that’s a very boyfriend-like thing to say.”
“For real?”
“Yup, proud of ya dude. I’ll tell Haru you said that; she should know her BF thinks that highly of her.”
“Please don’t, that sounds really embarrassing…”
Ren and Morgana both laughed, much to Ryuji’s dismay.
“Anyway, how much is this gift card actually worth?”
“You’re really serious about shopping there?”
“Obviously. Makoto is rocking the no clothes lifestyle and she’s a badass for it, but I still like being able to dress up sometimes.” His enthusiasm seemed to drop as he examined the card. “’Alice Hiiragi’s Wonderland’… I’m not seeing any discounts on this thing.”
“Looks like it’s just an ad.” Morgana leant forward to read the card. “All that and she was just handing out boring old ads?”
“Sounds kinda lame…” Ryuji huffed.
“No wait! There’s some fine print here.” Morgana squinted. “’Here’s my EMMA keyword. Please become my friend.’”
“Oh yeah. I think Futaba mentioned something about being able to add friends on EMMA.” Ren’s brow furrowed as he recalled the conversation. “I guess we need a keyword like this to add someone as a friend?”
“You gonna add her?”
Ren stopped to consider for a moment, before shrugging.
“Through one set of circumstances or another, it feels like I always end up on at least speaking terms with every single person who joins this nudist program. Why start fighting my destiny now?” He started typing the keyword ‘Wonderland’ into the app. “I dig her style anyway.”
“I think ‘destiny’ is a bit too grandiose of a word to use for meeting nudists…”
“Yeah probably… There, I added her. I’ll share the keyword with Makoto later; she’ll probably want to know about the new nudist anyway. Maybe we can message Rise too to ask if she knows ab—”
~ ~ ~
“—out the other nudist idol. She was probably the direct inspiration for…” Ren trailed off, his eyes drifting towards the sky. “Did it just get dark?”
Ryuji followed his gaze upwards.
“Woah! It’s night all of a sudden? Did we just black out or—WOAH!” He recoiled as he looked back to his friend. “Your clothes!”
“Huh?” Ren looked down at himself, echo-ing Ryuji’s shock when he realized that his casual clothes had been replaced by an outfit that was very familiar to him, distressingly familiar. “My thief gear? You too Ryuji!”
Ryuji hurriedly inspecting his own iconic thief gear as it had suddenly appeared on his body.
“But… how did…? Are we in—”
“The metaverse.” Morgana’s voice emanated from below, the boys looking down to see the ‘not-a-cat’ back in his ‘not-a-mascot’ form. “Me looking like this confirms it beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
The surroundings mostly resembled the Shibuya square they were in just moments ago, except the summer sky they had been sweltering under had been replaced by a canopy of stars, and across the empty square they saw a tower, with ‘Shibuya 705’ in bright neon lights, and what looked like some sort of cage at it’s peak, housing a eery pink light within.
“Oh shit man, this has to be some kind of joke, right?”
“If it is, I’m not laughing.” Ren’s gestured with his head to something behind Ryuji. “And neither are they.”
The group turned to see another trio of young men, looking to be around their age, walking around in something of a daze.
“I recognise those guys from the event we were just at. They have to be cognitions, right?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense, but…” a sense of unease hung over Morgana. “…something about them seems off.”
Before the team could ponder these strange boys and the even stranger circumstances any further, the largest of the massive screens that hung over the square was suddenly illuminated, the image of a nude woman from the waist up appeared upon its surface. The boy’s eyes widened at the visage of—
“Alice?” Ryuji recoiled. “Wait, is this her palace? For real?!”
“There’s no doubt that’s her shadow, look at her eyes!”
“Wh… which ones?”
Alice’s shadow contrasted quite heavily from her real world self, such as her pastel green hair being replaced with hot pink, and her bow being replaced with a crown covered in tiny neon lights, but it was the giant fake eyeballs that took the place of her fake hair buns that really caught Ren’s attention.
“She looks like a glammed-up Dark Souls basilisk.” He’d be lying if he said he disliked the look though.
Alice leant back, giving the camera a coy look as she ran her gloved fingers over the heart-shaped leather harness that framed her otherwise bare breasts, before sliding her hand up to give her nipples a decidedly unsubtle tweak.
“Mmm~ Hello everyone~” She breathed out a sultry moan. “You all love me, right?”
The boys from earlier all hurriedly nodded and grunted out sounds that could generously be described as affirmations, seeming entranced by the idol to the point of drooling like hungry dogs.
“Oh yeah?” a nefarious grin spread across the shadow’s face. “Then you can give me all of your desires!”
The boys unrestrained lust quickly turned to panic as shadows seemed to emerge from every possible hiding place and behind every possible corner, these shadows being of the faceless variety rather than the ‘directly connected to an individual’ type like the woman who vanished from the screen just as suddenly as she appeared. These shadow’s bodies were humanoid in a loose sense, and wore uniforms approximating something between security guards and riot police.
“What the hell?” Ren was grateful that his knife and gun manifested along with his thief gear, quickly taking a battle-ready stance beside his allies. “Where did they all come from?”
“Dammit.” Morgana cursed under his breath. “I should have sensed them; it’s just been so long, and I’m used to having Futaba around…”
“Beat yourself up later, man!” Ryuji pointed to the boys. “We got more important things to worry about. Look!”
A group of the shadow cops grabbed ahold of the boys, their hands passing into their chests, pulling otherworldly pink gemstones out of them, before letting the bodies fall lifelessly to the ground.
“What the hell is that supposed to be?” Ren’s grip on his knife tightened.
“We’ll figure it out later, we’ve got to save ourselves first.” No matter which direction Morgana looked, he just saw more and more of these strange shadows emerge.
“Dude, what the hell are these numbers?” Ryuji readied his bat. “There’s hundreds of the bastards!”
“As if it matters!” Ren reached up to his mask, despite the long time since he last stood in the metaverse, or had to even think about combat, certain feelings were impossible for him to ever forget- this was one of them. “Raoul!”
The winged persona emerged from his mask in a roaring blue flame. Raoul took a moment to tilt his hat up, making a show of assessing the crowd of enemies, its fake cigarette doing nothing to hide his smug smile.
Ren called out:
“Maeigaon!”
A surge of swirling dark energy burst forward, sweeping across a large chunk of the crowd, reducing countless shadows to rapidly evaporating sludge.
“Don’t let their numbers intimidate you, we’ve dealt with far worse.”
“Heh.” Ryuji let out a good natured scoff. “I was telling the truth about being glad the dangerous stuff was over, but man I’ve really missed this cool side of you, man.”
“You’re saying I’m not normally cool?”
“Take this seriously, you two!”
“C’mon Mona, you know better than anyone that we do better when we’re having fun.”
“…Heh, I guess you’re right.”
The three leapt into action, effortlessly dispatching one group of shadows after another. Even with the thin layer of proverbial rust on the thieves’ skills, compared to the literal gods they had become used to facing, even with their immense numbers, these faceless shadows fell like blades of grass before a trio of sharpened scythes, and were about as threatening to them as real grass.
“Raoul!”
“William!”
“Diego!”
With their souped-up trio of personas, more and more shadows fell without much in the way of resistance, yet no matter how many they would take down, even more would spring up in their place. The crowds didn’t seem to be thinning.
“Not that I’m worried we’ll lose or anything…” Ren spoke in one of the brief moments where all three of them were close together. “…but I’d feel better if we had some sort of end goal in sight.”
“There’s no way to tell when the hordes will end.” Morgana kept firing shots from his slingshot while talking. “We should wait for a chance to pull back and reevaluate before we get too carried away.”
“You’re probably right. If an actual threat shows up while we’re distracted it could be a problem.” Ren reached for his mask once more. “Raoul! Give them a phantom show!”
Raoul manifested the image of a blue moon in the sky shining brightly, it’s light seeming to cause a sudden drowsiness in a large chunk of the crowd, a number of the shadow cops losing consciousness mid-run and falling flat on their face in collective slumber.
“There’s an alley over there, let’s move!”
The team rushed over between the buildings, the sleeping enemies creating enough of an obstacle for them to lose the immense crowds. They ran until they were certain they weren’t being followed anymore.
“Geez…” Ryuji leant against a nearby wall as he caught his breath. “Alright, what the hell is all of this? This has gotta be a palace, right? But how? I thought they were finished?”
“It’s not the first time we thought that.” Ren’s brow furrowed beneath his mask. “It’s safe to say Alice is the palace ruler though.”
“Dude, why the hell does she have a palace? And who the hell were those guys that the shadows pulled those… whatever’s out of?”
“There’s a lot we don’t know.” Morgana pondered. “I can smell a faith whiff of treasure though, so at least that much is consistent with what we know. But before anything else we should find a way out of here, going on alone with how little we know is too risky.”
“Agreed, we should—”
Abrupt, blinding light from multiple sides, inexplicable spotlights beaming down on the team.
“A trap?”
Before they could react, a large, heavy net fell on top of them, immobilizing them.
“Argh!” Ren and the others struggled. “I… I can’t move!”
“We went through all that and it’s a friggin’ net that stops us?!” Ryuji fought fruitlessly against the ropes. “I forgot how much I hated the rules of ‘cognition’, they’re such bullshit!”
Shadows seemed to emerge, encircling their confined pray.
Ren cursed under his breath.
“Shit…”
~ ~ ~
The boys soon found themselves cuffed and escorted to the tower they had seen earlier, marching down a gaudy red carpet hallway with their shadow captors.
“Keep marching, prisoners!”
“The hell does it look like we’re doing, assholes?!” Ryuji spat back. “You guys have no idea who you’re messin’ with!”
“Don’t provoke them, Skull.” Morgana marched alongside them, since no cuffs would fit his small body, the shadows had instead opted to simply tie a length of rope around him. “We need to go along for now, and bide our time.”
“Easy for you to say…”
Ryuji looked down to side-eye Morgana, but instead he found his eyes caught by Ren’s hands, gently trembling within the confines of the tight handcuffs. He looked up to his leader’s face, noting his very controlled inhales and exhales through his nose, his poker face showing only the slightest hints of cracks.
Immediately, Ryuji calmed down.
“You gonna be alright man?” He spoke in an uncharacteristically hushed tone. “You gotta hold it together.”
“Y-yeah… yeah.” Ren took one more deep breath, and nodded. “I’ll be fine. Handcuffs just… ever since…”
“I know man. But you’ve got this, alright?”
“…Yeah. I’ve got this.”
Ren felt himself be violently shoved forwards by an impatient shadow.
“Quit whispering!”
“The hell do you think you’re doing, huh?!” Ryuji rushed forward to shoulder tackle the offending shadow, and received a baton strike across the face for his troubles. “You piece of—”
“It’s fine, Skull.” Ren kept his disciplined breathing going. “Just keep walking for now.”
Ryuji seethed at the shadow once more for good measure, before returning to his friend’s side, Morgana staying close to them both.
Before long they had reached some sort of throne room, with every surface seeming to have some kind of tacky pink light, aside from the walls that opened up to display a series of unicorn statues. And in the centre of the room- to no one’s surprise- sat the shadow of Alice Hiiragi atop her throne.
The shadow was just as nude as her real world counterpart, only with the various ribbons being absent with black leather gloves in their place, the heart-shaped harness they saw on the screen in Shibuya pushing up her breasts, and what seemed like a daisy chain of marble-shaped lights twirling around each of her legs, seeming to pulse and flash in various shades of pink, yellow, and blue.
Though despite their best efforts, all three boys couldn’t help but stare directly at her crotch; harnesses around her upper thighs not only highlighting her labia, but being at least partially adhesive in such a way as to hold them open, keeping her pink inner folds on shameless, open display- even without Alice’s stance of keeping her legs spread wide open atop her throne making the sight even more explicit.
She closed her thighs only to lean forward in her seat.
“Who are these little guys?”
“Your Majesty.” One of the shadows stepped forwards. “We captured these thieves, but we couldn’t extract their desires. We instead brought them to you.”
Shadow Alice sneered.
“Couldn’t seize their desires? Explain yourselves.” Her interest in hearing an answer seemed to fade away the moment she finished the question, instead she started to closely analyse Ren. “Hmm.” She stood up, her hips swaying and her cane twirling as she approached him to take a closer look. “Ho~ You look pretty cool.”
Despite a moment of confusion, Ren managed to bottle up his nervousness and force a cocky smirk.
“Flattery will get you nowhere.”
Alice’s eyes drifted up and down his body.
“So, what’s your name?”
“Jo. Last name: Mama.”
“Hmph.” She struck him across the face with her cane, sending him crashing down to the floor.
“Joker!” Morgana instinctively called out.
“Joker? Hmm…” Alice’s bare foot came down harshly on the side of Ren’s head, forcing the other half of his face into the carpet. “Your name is ‘Joker’, then?”
“Joker Mama.”
She lifted her foot only to bring it down on his head once more.
“Talking back even in your position? You’re a cocky little fellow, aren’t you?”
“It’s a bad habit of mine.”
Morgana and Ryuji exchanged a concerned glance; they were plenty used to Ren’s innate cocky nature- but they both knew him long enough to know that that wasn’t all that was going on here. There wasn’t a doubt in their minds that Ren was forcing it, trying to bury the bondage-induced panicked side called ‘Ren’ with the unshakeable confidence of ‘Joker’.
To be fair to him, it seemed to work, as despite the beating, Ren was only feeling more confident, relaxed, and in control with each quip.
“Come now Joker.” Shadow Alice leant down with her smarmy grin. “You need to learn to give proper answers when your Queen asks a question.”
“Gonna have to break your heart babe. I already have a Queen.”
“Hmph.” Alice reared her leg back to kick Ren hard enough for him to roll over to his other side.
“Quit it asshole!” Ryuji barked at her. “I’m gonna shove that damn cane up your ass!”
“Oh would you shut your mouth?” She sneered at him, as if the mere sight of the boy was offensive to her. “Or are you looking for punishment too?”
Ryuji glowered at the girl, before his eyes flicked to his friend, already getting back up. He then formed a cocky smirk of his own.
“I’m gonna have to break your heart lady. I already have a… um… punishment… lady, or something…”
Morgana slumped within his bonds.
“What was that supposed to be, bonehead?”
Ren laughed, seeming no worse for wear- in fact he seemed more relaxed than ever after his friend’s outburst.
“Maybe leave the ‘charming rogue’ act to me, yeah?”
“Ugh.” Shadow Alice stormed back to her throne, sitting back down and unnecessarily splaying her legs wide open once more. “Whatever, I’m bored of this already. Toss them away. I don’t care for toys that don’t do what they’re told.”
The shadow guards dragged the boys to their feet, one taking the bound Morgana over his shoulder, and dragged them over to the corner of the room, towards a hole that could only be described as an oversized garbage chute.
Shadow Alice mockingly waved to them.
“Buh bye~”
And the trio were unceremoniously toss down into the darkness
Notes:
Another new nudist I've been looking forward to
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