This one took a long time. Sorry guys I know almost three weeks is a long time to wait, but I wanted this to come out just right. I'm not sure I got it to feel exactly how I wanted it too, but I think you guys will enjoy this chapter none the less. Part 5 will be coming out much sooner!

Chapter Text

Naoto leaned against her hotel room’s wall as she adjusted the phone against her ear. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around the coffee cup sitting on the nearby nightstand. She allowed herself a quick sip as she patiently waited for a reply.

A quite sigh passed through the other side of the phone and Naoto smirked to herself. She hadn’t meant to treat the young thief as an opponent, but she was having too much fun.

“Detective. It seems I was careless in assuming that you would drop this as I asked during our last conversation.” His voice was as calm and cool as before, but Naoto could sense something else slipping into his words.

“Well Akira I –“

“Joker.”

“Ah yes of course. Joker, I do apologize, but you were asking me some very interesting questions. What did you expect to happen?” Naoto let the satisfaction wash over her as she waited for his response. Their last conversation Joker had controlled the flow of things, but now she had him on the back foot.

“Clearly, I have made a mistake detective, however if you have called simply to gloat about your impressive ability to re-dial a number and use the internet, I’m afraid I will have to end this delightful conversation early.” Naoto unintentionally laughed and had to cover her mouth with her free hand. Just like that he had taken control back; Akira Kurusu was quite the sparring partner. Naoto wasn’t about to let him back her into a corner however.

“Now Mr. Kurusu I think you know I wouldn’t call you unless I had something important to talk about.” She was expecting some sort of disapproval from her casual use of his last name, to her surprise however, he simply laughed.

“You are rather confidant that I am this Akira Kurusu, but what proof do you have detective?” She had been prepared for this question, but the amount of confidence in his voice still threw her off balance. He really did remind her of Yu.

“The phone you are currently speaking on belongs to Mr. Kurusu. When we last spoke you were in Kyoto, but according to your current GPS location you are now in Tokyo. Where Mr. Kurusu’s family lives and where he went to school for a year respectively.” She was ready for the next obvious question, but she was personally hoping that Akira would simply admit that he was who she believed him to be. Not to say that this wasn’t fun, but Naoto really didn’t have any desire to use her trump card.

“I see. I could have stolen his phone and there are thousands of people that live in Kyoto and Tokyo, perhaps I’m simply a thief who travels from place to place. Besides the information of Akira Kurusu is available to the public, anyone, including myself, could find that knowledge.” The argument was weak at best, however he was correct on one point at least. She technically couldn’t prove that it was him.

Naoto’s research on Akira Kurusu had given her a pretty good idea about who the young man was. A video had been posted by the phantom thieves a few months prior showing all the members of their group, even if they were all hidden behind shadows. Yet despite their number being known, Akira was they only one to turn himself in. So, either he had a sudden surge of guilt or he chose to turn himself in for the sake of the others. If he was as much like Yu as she thought he was, the reason he did it was obvious. Which made her decision to use her trump card that much more painful.

“I suppose you are correct. I can’t prove that you are indeed Akira Kurusu, but there are others close to him that I can speak to. I suppose if I really wish to find Mr. Kurusu I can always start with…” She hesitated for a moment. She knew that if she was correct about Akira’s feelings towards the other thieves then this next move may drive him further away and there was a good chance he would never forgive her. Hell, maybe she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself. She sighed and resigned herself before continuing. “I can always start with Ann Takamaki, Ryuji Sakamoto, Yusuke Kitagawa, Futaba-“

“Enough!” His voice was commanding, but surprisingly quite. Naoto didn’t have to see the young man to know he was currently seething. She could feel her stomach drop out from under her. She heard him sigh and another long pause passed between them. “Fine Detective. My name is Akira Kurusu and you are correct that I was once a phantom thief. The others you have just named however, have nothing to do with my time as a phantom thief nor do they have anything to do with this current conversation.” She had him on the back foot once more, but she didn’t feel happy about it. If someone had called her up and essentially threatened her friends… well she would probably have handled it much worse than Mr. Kurusu had.

“Forgive me Mr. Kurusu, I should not have brought others into this. I simply needed to-“

“What you needed was to push me into giving you what you wanted and you decided that using others was the best way to do it.” His voiced was coated in venom and she felt a hot flash of shame wash over her. It had been too long since she had taken on a truly interesting case and she had become impatient. If the others had been around to see her… if Yu had seen what she had just done…

“You are right. That was an overly cruel thing for me to do. I have become impatient in recent years and I have no excuse for what I just did.” She pressed her finger against her temple as she waited for his response.

“I… well I’m going to be honest with you detective, I wasn’t expecting such a sincere apology. Though I suppose you could just be saying what I want to hear, but I’ve known enough rotten people to know when someone is lying.” She heard the soft creak of springs on the other end of the phone. He most likely had just sat down on a bed. “Fine, what do you want. As you stated previously, you have a reason for contacting me.”

“Indeed. You mentioned a very interesting topic last we spoke, several in fact. I would like to know what you will do with that information.” She slid down to the floor and crossed her legs as she continued to lay against the wall.

“I see, well in that case you may put your fears to rest. I am simply trying to help my friend.”

“You must forgive me for not taking you at your word.”

“So, what? I can’t prove anything, what was the point of this call detective?” Finally, they had arrived at the topic at hand.

“Well Mr. Kurusu I have a solution. One that will be helpful to not only me, but you as well.”

“Do tell detective. You have clearly shown that you are only looking out for me.” Another pang of guilt gripped her chest, but she shoved it off. She couldn’t allow herself to be swayed, not when she had come so far. As much as the young man reminded her of Yu, he was still a criminal, or at least he used to be. She still needed to know what he was up too. The last thing this world needed was another Adachi.

“If my hypothesis is correct, you will be traveling to Inaba soon and it just so happens that I will also be in Inaba within the next few days. I think it would benefit us both if we met and swapped notes.” A brief laugh slipped through the phone.

“Swap notes? Detective please just be honest with me. You simply wish to keep your eyes on me. You may know a few things, but I already have enough people following-“ He suddenly stopped mid-sentence as he seemed to catch himself. Naoto’s hand slid up to her chin. Now that was interesting. He was being followed? “How would meeting you help me?” His tone was calm, but he sounded tired.

“Like you Mr. Kurusu, I happen to know several others who have experience… showing their true selves.” The lack of reaction surprised her.

“Ah I see, you wouldn’t happen to be speaking of Yukiko Amagi or perhaps Kanji Tatsumi? No maybe you are referring to the idol Rise Kujikawa?” She almost dropped her phone. She had underestimated him. She had assumed he had called her because of her connection to the cases, but he had also noticed the pattern of the previous kidnapping victims. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to think of how to respond. “I have a hunch there are others as well, but unfortunately their names were omitted from the papers.”

“Very clever Mr. Kurusu, yes I was indeed speaking of them and you are correct in your assumption. There are a few others and I am sure that we can all share our story if you are willing to share yours.” She wanted to be angry with him, but he had simply retaliated to her previous threat. She certainly deserved it, but if he tried to press that particular button again, the young student would find that Naoto Shirogane was a very dangerous opponent.

“Fine.” His sudden agreement shook her almost as much as his previous deductions.

“Just like that? We have had a less than agreeable conversation until now, so what has suddenly changed your mind?”

“Simple. I need to go to Inaba. I wasn’t lying about having someone who needs my help and no matter what you do, you can’t stop me from helping them.” His words had a sense of finality to them and she imagined that if she were to be standing in front of him, she would be feeling an immense amount of pressure. “However, our lives would be much easier if I didn’t have you following me around and watching every single move I made, and as much as I hate to admit it, you may actually have some information that I need. So yes, I will meet up with you.” Naoto smiled. He was certainly clever, but he wasn’t as dangerous as he was attempting to make her believe. After all, he said ‘our lives would be much easier’. They may not be getting along very well at the moment, but he was still subconsciously trying to help.

“Good. Now I don’t know your exact plans, but I have already arranged for several rooms to be prepared for you and your friends at the Amagi Inn. They will be prepared by Monday next week, so please be ready to leave by then. I will contact you again once you arrive at the inn.”

“Oh? That is awfully generous of you detective, but what makes you think that we will be in Inaba next week? Perhaps we won’t be ready by then.”

“You have had over a week to research everything you need to know about Inaba. You arrived in Tokyo earlier today so it is easy to assume that you will speak to your friends soon, if you haven’t already. Based on our interactions I have concluded that you are a man of action. You would not rest on your laurels if there was something to be done. So, I can only conclude that you are already finalizing your plans to leave. I would assume that you would be leaving sooner, but I have given you extra time to get your affairs in order. You are only high school students after all.” She couldn’t hear anything from the other end of the phone, but she had the feeling that her conversation partner was slightly annoyed with her at this very moment.

“You are far more dangerous than you let on detective. Fine we will meet you in a week, oh and detective?” his voice hardened on the last words, “If you ever threaten anyone else I care about I promise you will find out just how dangerous I am.” She felt ice wrap around her heart as the words stabbed into her. Naoto had to take back her previous assessment of Joker. He was most likely as dangerous as he wanted her to believe.

“I wouldn’t dream of it Mr. Kurusu.” Naoto had been in enough interrogations to know how to keep her cool even when someone like Joker was threatening her.

“Well if this conversation is over then I will take my leave.” Naoto sighed and was slowly removing her phone from her ear when she heard his voice once more, “Oh! I know you have been listening in so if you can, sneak back over. Clearly we have a lot to talk about.”

“I… what are you-“

“Not you detective. Good night.” She could practically hear the smirk crawl across his face. He just couldn’t resist throwing her off one last time. Naoto pulled the phone away once more and ended the call.

That hadn’t gone as well as she had hoped. If anything, he most likely thought of her as an enemy now and would be approaching them as cautiously as possible. That had not been her intention when she picked up the phone earlier. She would have to think of a way to apologize to him.

Naoto shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of her thoughts. She may have done something she wasn’t proud of, but the Phantom Thieves were an unknown quantity. If they truly did possess Personas then they could be dangerous. She had to remain cautious even if they thought she was the enemy.

Deep down Naoto really wanted to trust them. No, to be more accurate she wanted to trust him. Their brief conversations had reminded her of Yu so much that it was almost like being around him again. It had reminded her of Inaba and her friends. Naoto smiled as she pulled up her contacts. It was late, but she knew most of them would be awake anyway. She quickly swept through the list picking out each name with precision.

Naoto paused before she passed her newest contact. The name ‘Joker’ seemed to stand out on her phone, even though she knew it was the same font and size as the rest. Naoto ran her fingers through her hair and she considered changing the name. She had, after all, confirmed his true identity, but she still hesitated for some reason. She decided to leave the name as it was for now. She had a feeling that Joker was a far more accurate name for her new ‘friend’.

As Naoto began to compose her message to her friends, her mind wandered back to Joker. She smiled as she thought of his parting words. He wanted to leave her with a lasting impression and his implication that someone else was listening in on their conversation, and that he knew the whole time, should be chilling. Instead she found herself laughing. The Phantom Thieves were certainly going to be an interesting group.

_ _ _

Akira sat alone in his room as he stared at his phone. The call had ended a short while ago, but his mind was still racing. He had been too excited about the prospect of a lead. His eagerness and impatience had put his friends in danger. He buried his face in his hand and softly rubbed his eyes. What had he done? Something soft slid across his cheek and he instinctively leaned into it.

As he moved his hand away from his face, his eyes fell upon the most relaxing sight he had ever seen. Futaba held his cheek in her right hand as she gently smiled at him. She moved slowly towards him and he let their lips connect. Her warmth was comforting and he felt his emotions slowly begin to come under his control again.

Their lips parted and he heard a pleased sigh escape from her lips. She removed her hand from his cheek and took a seat next to him on his bed. She leaned into him and placed her head on his shoulder.

“I shouldn’t have gotten you guys involved.” He felt the words leave him before he could stop himself.

“Don’t say that.” Futaba punched his ribs softly, “Remember the last time you tried to do something like this on your own? We spent the next several months trying to get you out of jail. No matter what you do, we will get involved, so stop trying to handle this on your own.” Akira smiled at the fiery red head and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “So that was Naoto Shirogane huh?” Akira sighed and nodded.

“She is far more interested in all of this than I thought she would be. She used to be in the news all the time, but over the past few years she’s slowed down. I thought that meant she was getting less interested in her work, but it was the opposite. She was simply looking for the most interesting things and I offered that up to her without thinking.”

“Well I mean you are a pretty emotional guy when your friends are involved.” Futaba nuzzled her head against his arm as she looked up at him. “You may appear calm all the time, but it’s actually pretty easy to rile you up.” Akira gave her a mischievous smirk and met her eyes.

“You would know all about that wouldn’t you?” He watched as her cheeks were suddenly dyed a light pink.

“Y-y-you’ve gained a few levels while you were gone boyfriend…” She bit her lips as he lowered his towards hers.

“Oh come now. I was sure you would be done by now.” Akira jumped and Futaba lurched forward causing her head to collide with Akira’s. The both separated and quickly began rubbing their foreheads as an all too cheery laugh filled the air.

Morgana shook as he leapt from the nearby window onto the bed with them. He jogged silently over to Futaba and leapt onto her lap.

“How long have you been there Morgana?” The cat lazily scratched the top of his head before responding.

“Long enough to know you had a rather interesting conversation with the detective again.” Akira frowned as he finally stopped rubbing his forehead.

“You could have come in you know… or at least let me know you were here.”

“And miss out on this wonderful moment? You wish.” The cat gave him a rather smug look and Akira briefly entertained the idea of shoving the cat in his bag for the evening.

“Well I suppose we should actually talk about the phone call…” Futaba gave Akira a guilty look and he had to admit he felt a bit guilty as well. His libido would have to wait. Far more pressing matters required his attention.

“I only heard half of the conversation so please fill me in on the rest.” Futaba absent mindedly reached down and began scratching behind Morgan’s ear. The motion seemed natural and they both seemed to enjoy the moment.

Akira smiled at the sight. Morgana certainly had a crush on Ann, but he was definitely closer with Futaba. The three of them had spent a countless number of days together just like this since Akira and Futaba had started dating. He felt a brief pang of sadness as he realized that if they were successful, and his friend became human, they would never have a moment like this again.

Akira took a short time to re-cap the conversation for Morgana, with Futaba adding in details here and there. Morgana nodded several times and stopped to ask a few questions, but he was far calmer about the situation than Akira had expected him to be. Perhaps he had rubbed off on the cat.

“I think it was a good idea to agree to meet her.” Futaba raised an eyebrow at the cat.

“Not like he had much choice. She could be working with the police and if he does anything suspicious they would most likely make things very difficult for him.” Morgana shook his head causing the tags on his collar to clink together several times.

“No, I don’t think she is working with the police. Especially since she is willing to talk about Personas. Even now no one else truly remembers what happened when the Metaverse bled into our world. It is highly unlikely that anyone without a Persona knows about or believes in the Metaverse.”

That was a pretty good point. Akira had tried to describe the Metaverse to a few people outside of the Phantom Thieves and most of them either couldn’t wrap their head around it or they accepted it might be real, but they were still skeptical.

“Well then why would she come after Akira like this? What, is she just bored?” Futaba threw her arms into the air clearly annoyed. Akira laughed as he watched his girlfriend cross her arms in a huff. She was cute when she got annoyed like this.

“I don’t think that was her intention. Or at least not entirely.” Akira said through his chuckles. “I think that it’s because she knows about Persona’s that she is so worried. If I’m right then she has seen the change that Persona users can bring about. So, it makes sense that she would be worried about us since a known criminal has that power.” A moment of silence passed between the three of them as Futaba fidgeted uncomfortably.

“I mean it makes sense but… well it doesn’t mean I have to like it. And she didn’t have to threaten you like that either!” He couldn’t disagree with her on that point. Though he wasn’t exactly proud of how he had basically done the same thing to the detective not minutes later.

“Well at this point I don’t think her motives matter much. We will meet up with her and her group and see what she has to say. If nothing we will get her off your back.” Morgan stretched as he spoke. He had a good point and it was late. Any more discussion of the matter could wait until they saw the rest of the thieves.

“You should get home Futaba. If Sojiro finds you out with me, at this hour, the detective will be the least of our worries.” Futaba pouted, but nodded at him. Akira smiled and let his lips gently brush against her forehead. “Come on, I’ll walk you to the door.”

_ _ _

Yu finished reading the message and sighed as he set his phone down on the nearby nightstand. Naoto had a tendency to get a little too excited when it came to mysterious cases and from the sounds of it, her eagerness may have angered this Akira Kurusu.

Chie’s hand gently caressed his chest as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He turned his head to see her smiling softly at him in the drops of moonlight drifting through the nearby window. The sight of her always seemed to calm him.

“What is bothering you my fiancé?” Chie put a strong emphasis on the last word as she pulled herself closer to him. Her body was warm against his skin and he had a hard time focusing as their eyes met.

“You are rather enjoying that new title. I don’t think you have called me by my name since I slipped that ring on your finger.” She gave him a rather mischievous grin.

“Oh, you know that isn’t true.” He felt his cheeks flush as remembered exactly how they had ended up in bed.

“You have a very fair point.” He brought his hand up and gently caressed the side of her face as he bent forward and pressed his lips against hers. She let out a pleased sigh and let him linger against her for a few moments. When they finally separated she laid her head against his chest.

“You never did say what was bothering you.” He ran his hand through her hair as he described the update he had just received from Naoto. “Wait so they are coming here in a week and she has most likely already pissed him off? We certainly have our work cut out for us.” She shook her head and sighed. “Naoto has been in plenty of interrogations, hell I’ve seen her in a few since I started working, she should know that intimidation doesn’t work nearly as well as cooperation.” She sighed as she reached up and softly slid her hand against his cheek.

She was right of course, Naoto did know better. She was massively intelligent and was generally a patient person. However, when her curiosity got the better of her she tended to be a bit too emotional.

“That is true, but this is the same woman who allowed herself to get kidnapped to try and solve a case.” Chie nodded in agreement.

“I suppose the only thing we can do is wait till we meet him with the others and hope things go well.” Yu pulled her tight against him and she let out another pleased sigh before a short yawn escaped her lips. “At least we get to see the others soon.” Chie softly breathed as she shifted her weight on him slightly.

“It’s been a long time since we have had the full group together. Not since Christmas I think…”

“I still can’t believe Naoto was the only one you told.” Chie giggled as she freed her left hand from between them and admired her ring. She was rather fond of the accessory and he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the sight of her wearing it.

“Well you and Yosuke are really close, and I couldn’t trust him to not slip up. Rise would have told everyone, the poor girl just gets so easily excited, and we still see Kanji on a regular basis. Can you imagine if he knew?” Chie’s body shook as she laughed, and she had to fight to breathe.

“He would have panicked the first time he saw us together!” She said through labored breathes.

“Yeah well I needed someone’s opinion on the ring and the only person I could trust to be quite was Naoto. Well, at least I thought I could. She almost blew the whole thing at dinner.” Chie snorted as Yu pressed his fingers to his forehead.

“You’re just lucky I wasn’t at the top of my game that night.”

“Please! It took you months to figure out I liked you.” Yu laughed as he watched Chie’s cheeks burn a bright pink and she buried her face into his chest.

“Well I just thought you were looking out for me you know! L-l-like a leader would! How was I supposed to know…” her voice was muffled as she squirmed against him. He kissed the top of her head and smiled.

“I like that about you though.” Chie pulled her head up and gave him a quizzical look. “You were so sure that I was interested in Yukiko that you were trying to give us every chance to be alone. It was cute. Though you completely missed how I would do everything I could to be alone with you instead.” Chie smiled and laid her head back down.

“I was just trying to make you happy. I didn’t realize it was because I liked you… well not until you helped me save that kid.” Yu ran his fingers through her hair before letting his arm wrap around her. She sighed and let out a loud yawn.

“Tired?” Yu asked as he fought back a yawn of his own. She nodded silently and squeezed her against his body. “It is late, maybe we should get some sleep.” He waited for a response, but after a few seconds he watched as her body shook and the low sound of her snoring echoed through the room.

Yu chuckled to himself before relaxing himself. He had always envied her ability to fall asleep like that.

His thoughts wondered to his friends and their upcoming meeting. He thought of breaking the news to everyone and the surprised looks on their faces. As Yu’s eyes closed he smiled and let his thoughts slowly play out in front of him. He hoped he would dream of Chie and the others.