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It was a warm summer day, and Sophia was looking forward to her first-ever long break from school. Given that she was a human now, no longer a program with unlimited instant access to the Internet, it had been much harder than it would have been before.
Still, Sophia didn’t regret taking the opportunity to become human in any way, shape or form… pun not intended - and today was one of the days where that decision would be proven a good one.
Ryuji, who always stopped by the junior high on his way home to pick her up, was listening to her on the train-ride home when he snapped his fingers in realization. “Oh, yeah! What’re we gonna do now that it’s summer break? I don’t think we’re doin’ another roadtrip, but we totally gotta do somethin’!”
“Hmmm… I dunno. What do people normally do during summer vacation?”
“Pretty much whatever they want!” Ryuji laughed and ruffled Sophia’s hair. Suddenly, he scratched the back of his head. “Oh, but us an’ the gang, we got something ta do on, uh… August 28th, I think. So we're gonna be busy then, ‘kay, Lil’ Red?”
Sophia was naturally a little confused, but she hadn’t challenged it at the time. She trusted Ryuji, more easily than breathing - even if she had spent more time in life trusting him than breathing.
The summer was going great! Sophia had swimming lessons at the beach, took some tech ‘classes’ from Futaba, and spent an abundance of quality time with her mom and the Phantom Thieves.
And then came the twenty-eighth of August.
Kuon had driven her and Sophia to the Sakamotos’ house bright and early, placed a blindfold over her daughter’s eyes, and guided her to the backyard. When Sophia was told to remove the blindfold, the first thing the ex-AI saw was the whole gang (even Zenkichi, albeit through Futaba’s phone) there. Everyone cheered, “Happy Birthday, Sophia!” in unison.
“… I don’t understand. What’s a birthday?”
“Duh!” Futaba chirped. A moment later, she paused. “Crap, did Ichinumbnuts forget to explain what a birthday is to her?!”
Before Kuon had the chance to express anything remotely resembling an apology, her resident favorite uncle spoke up. “Easy, ‘Taba.” Ryuji knelt down to the preteen’s level and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “It’s been one whole year since you officially joined the gang, Lil’ Red. Every year, on the day humans’re born, they celebrate living another year. That’s why we got you cake and presents - it’s your big day!”
Sophia closed her eyes. “Researching… researching…” After a few seconds, her face fell. “Oh, right. I can’t do that anymore…”
Futaba began to look and feel very guilty as Sophia’s eyes filled up with tears. “Bad surprise?” she mumbled.
Sophia smiled a little. “No, it’s a good surprise! Just a lot all at once.”
“No more surprises, then,” Akira promised. “One last question, though - relaxing time now and cake later, or cake now and relaxing time later?”
“Umm… can you explain birthdays more now? Over cake? I’m curious…”
Yusuke and Ann chose that moment to bring out the cake. Frankly, they’d done a terrible job with the icing. Elements of all the Jails (except for Kuon and EMMA, thankfully) were there, likely meant to invoke Sophia’s growth over the past year.
It was messy, and ugly, and stressful, and amazing, and delicious, and so very worth every bite.