BOOM BOOM I LOVE PRETTY GIRLS

suo's doing this whole thing properly. which means in addition to leaving warning notices and having a flashy costume he also has equipment. like don't get me wrong. suo's an athletic guy. but he also owns several grappling hooks.

sakura though? sakura has no equipment. just himself. he parkours up to the roof a museum. no safety rope? no problem.

(the more Suo comes to like Sakura the more he worries when he JUMPS OFF ANOTHER ROOF.)

listen. endo's criminal operation is in it's infancy here. sakura comes to visit his place and he's reading 'how to sell stolen art on the black market 101'. they have no resources except for endo's inexplicable endless charisma. they're making it work.

he learned how to hack security systems in like. two days. he's putting his talents to good use.

(Endo serving as Sakura's man in the mic while Takiishi is just chilling in the background watching TV and eating an entire box of donuts. this is an incredibly funny visual to me.)

kiryu, comes sports day knowing full well sakura's true identity: i think we should have sakura-chan run the obstacle course.

sakura: HUH!?

suo, who also knows sakura's true identity: i second that!

sakura: WHA- HEY.

clearly Suo is rocking some kind of dragon inspired ensemble with a chinese flair in his phantom thief persona. very elaborate. you know someone sketched out initial designs for this thing. vs Sakura who is just out here in all black street clothes and tinted goggles to hide his eyes.

kotoha: you can call me kotoha-senpai, sakura.

sakura: nope. not doing that.

nirei: i will!

sakura's mom leaving him a special series of paintings that she made for him in his will, but his father disregarded that and sold them anyways. I think those are probably his main goal and naturally they're also the hardest to get.

very funny if like. red chanpuru knows that said series of paintings were sold without the owner's permission BUT they don't know that the person who they should belong to is Sakura. because he enrolled at school using his mom's maiden name. they don't link the guy living in a shabby apartment to the heir of an international conglomerate.

(not that his old man would ever regard him as his heir.)

shizuka having a memento of her dead mother that actually turns out to be a priceless heirloom that she gets swindled out of. sakura watching as this nice girl who is tsubaki's friend try to downplay how devastated she is and getting pissed as hell.

(but also... what does that make him, exactly?)

nothing is funnier to me than the idea of Nirei deducing Suo's identity and confronting him about it. Suo doesn't see it coming at all. thankfully Nirei is just really impressed. a modern day chivalrous thief! what can he do to help?

suo, of course, lives for the drama so he plays it up as much as possible. the mysterious immortal divine being. that's him. and like... most people who are actually involved in the business of trying to catch him know it's all bullshit. nirei logs all the rumors, because that's good practice but like. he doesn't believe any of it.

of course the dragon thief's not immortal. it's probably a title that's passed down. that's why there's gaps in activity.

but you know who does believe it?

sakura. sakura believes it.

suo does not realize this at first. it's only after sakura blurts out something about him being 'actually an 80 year grandpa' that he realizes that sakura believes the rumors. which is just. well. that's too funny. what do you expect him to do? not go along with this?

(nirei, after he puts connects the dots just giving suo a serious side eye. suo-san please. stop lying to sakura-san.

suo: eh? i don't know what you mean, nire-kun. i haven't told a single lie.

Hiiragi from Natsume's Book of Friends

"I think her design is neat. I like how her mask has a lasting crack in it from when it was damaged in the debut episode. (sorry I can't elaborate any further than that. unfortunately I got the 'cannot explain why I like the things I like' autism)."

(takiishi does one (1) heist and is done with it, lmao)

nirei as a budding intrepid reporter who became sakura's best friend after he helped scare off his bullies. sakura did not sign up for this. he catches wind of the story of the showdown between two different groups of thieves and it catches his interest right away. sakura also did not ask for that.

(shows up at a heist and nirei is there. HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE.)

umemiya as student council president... he ran on a platform of changing school regulation from being oppressively strict. endo also ran for student council president purely so he could just give takiishi whatever he wanted and lost to umemiya and was just like. alright i'm out. drops out of high school.

(takiishi gets bored after like, two days without endo and also drops out. even in a 'normal' setting they're still dropouts lmao.)

sakura still lives in his shitty apartment by himself but previously lived in the annex's at his father's mansion. very convenient when he needs to be out at weird times of the night. his neighbors never ask questions. this fucking. shitty apartment and if you open the closet there's priceless art inside. temporary location until endo can set up a sale. the only stuff sakura has any interest in keeping are his mom's paintings.

(is stealing the other stuff camouflage for his real target? maybe.)

suo and the red chanpuru who would be a group of thieves deliberately targeting shady art dealers. they've got the whole classic 'steal what's been stolen' deal going on. they're here to return things to their proper owners and expose the crimes of those they steal from. suo puts on a flashy show while rakta and bacchus do the behind the scenes work of digging into their shady business.

obviously. they inevitably directly come up against sakura.

and like. does sakura care? as long as his dad gets screwed over he's fine- hey wait, that's one of his mom's paintings. you can't have that. something something his mom didn't die in childbirth but also still died a few years later due to complications from it so like... he has vague memories of her. enough to form an attachment. he remembers being in her studio with her.

(she never really wanted to sell her paintings, but her husband strongarmed talked her into it, but there were also a number of paintings that she gave away for free... he wasn't happy about that.)

except. i lied. sakura does care. bc he has a competitive streak. who the fuck does this guy think he is anyways? who leaves warning notices? is he stupid??? could sakura just target the art before the date of the warning notices? i mean sure but that wouldn't be fair. does sakura know the fucking 'phantom thief' or whatever who keeps targeting the same shit he does is his classmate hayato suo? absolutely not.

I think suo knows who sakura is.

I don't think think he knows at first who he is- I think at first he's just following a lead. I think the first time they encounter each other, Sakura drops something that connects to the school he attends. so Suo being Suo, he naturally decides to follow up on this lead and transfer to the school in question.

sakura, of course, has no reason to connect the new transfer student to the weirdo who got in his way the other day. why would he? nirei being nirei works up his courage to talk to the transfer student and offers to show him around campus... and ropes sakura into it? hey. wait. nirei i didn't sign up for this. nirei-

(nirei will not take no for an answer)

suo, being the observant guy he is, pieces things together. frankly he'd expected the thief to be a teacher because a (short) adult would have made more sense (even if that's a bit hypocritical of him- but like, he has support behind the scenes helping with all the planning). he's a little surprised it's another student. who also seems to be living in a rundown apartment...? clearly he's not doing anything with the money he's getting.

(sakura has no interest in the money. like. endo still holds on to a good chunk of it for him anyways, but that's not the point.)

at first his only goal was to find this other thief and use them as a foothold to steal back the things they've stolen... but honestly? now he's intrigued. what's your deal, sakura-kun.

he tells bacchus and rakta he has not established the thief's identity yet. he's working on it, though! you know perhaps that clue was just something left behind by a guest to the museum after all... ah, he has no interest in transferring schools again though! he quite likes it here!

(and he's right, of course)

of course. he doesn't use his real name. he's not stupid.

endo cheerfully suggests 'noir' and sakura is just kind of. sure i guess? and just sort of runs with it. for the longest time this and footage from video cameras are the most any news outlet has to go on about him. naturally he covers up his most distinctive features- his hair & eyes. it annoys him a lot less having to do it in this context, lol. his whole existence is a huge question mark.

...and then, after he starts his beef with THAT FUCKING GUY. only then does he go. you know what. fuck it. i'm going to send out warning notices too. if he thinks he can get the better of me he's got another thing coming. to which endo is just. okay. yay. :) i'm afraid. world class enabler.

extremely funny scenario in which sakura actually willingly gets himself caught up in some of nirei's hijinks to figure out the true identity of THAT FUCKING GUY in hopes of getting one over on him but just. ends up nearly blowing his own secret. sakura. sakura please.

(also. the idea of tsugeura independently deciding he's going to capture one or both of the thieves because it seems like it would be good training is very funny. he drags kiryu into it. kiryu does not want to be here. he has login bonuses he needs to get tsuge-chan. kiryu does not get to say no.

(takiishi does one (1) heist and is done with it, lmao)

nirei as a budding intrepid reporter who became sakura's best friend after he helped scare off his bullies. sakura did not sign up for this. he catches wind of the story of the showdown between two different groups of thieves and it catches his interest right away. sakura also did not ask for that.

(shows up at a heist and nirei is there. HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE.)

umemiya as student council president... he ran on a platform of changing school regulation from being oppressively strict. endo also ran for student council president purely so he could just give takiishi whatever he wanted and lost to umemiya and was just like. alright i'm out. drops out of high school.

(takiishi gets bored after like, two days without endo and also drops out. even in a 'normal' setting they're still dropouts lmao.)

sakura still lives in his shitty apartment by himself but previously lived in the annex's at his father's mansion. very convenient when he needs to be out at weird times of the night. his neighbors never ask questions. this fucking. shitty apartment and if you open the closet there's priceless art inside. temporary location until endo can set up a sale. the only stuff sakura has any interest in keeping are his mom's paintings.

(is stealing the other stuff camouflage for his real target? maybe.)

suo and the red chanpuru who would be a group of thieves deliberately targeting shady art dealers. they've got the whole classic 'steal what's been stolen' deal going on. they're here to return things to their proper owners and expose the crimes of those they steal from. suo puts on a flashy show while rakta and bacchus do the behind the scenes work of digging into their shady business.

obviously. they inevitably directly come up against sakura.

and like. does sakura care? as long as his dad gets screwed over he's fine- hey wait, that's one of his mom's paintings. you can't have that. something something his mom didn't die in childbirth but also still died a few years later due to complications from it so like... he has vague memories of her. enough to form an attachment. he remembers being in her studio with her.

(she never really wanted to sell her paintings, but her husband strongarmed talked her into it, but there were also a number of paintings that she gave away for free... he wasn't happy about that.)

except. i lied. sakura does care. bc he has a competitive streak. who the fuck does this guy think he is anyways? who leaves warning notices? is he stupid??? could sakura just target the art before the date of the warning notices? i mean sure but that wouldn't be fair. does sakura know the fucking 'phantom thief' or whatever who keeps targeting the same shit he does is his classmate hayato suo? absolutely not.

I think suo knows who sakura is.

I don't think think he knows at first who he is- I think at first he's just following a lead. I think the first time they encounter each other, Sakura drops something that connects to the school he attends. so Suo being Suo, he naturally decides to follow up on this lead and transfer to the school in question.

sakura, of course, has no reason to connect the new transfer student to the weirdo who got in his way the other day. why would he? nirei being nirei works up his courage to talk to the transfer student and offers to show him around campus... and ropes sakura into it? hey. wait. nirei i didn't sign up for this. nirei-

(nirei will not take no for an answer)

suo, being the observant guy he is, pieces things together. frankly he'd expected the thief to be a teacher because a (short) adult would have made more sense (even if that's a bit hypocritical of him- but like, he has support behind the scenes helping with all the planning). he's a little surprised it's another student. who also seems to be living in a rundown apartment...? clearly he's not doing anything with the money he's getting.

(sakura has no interest in the money. like. endo still holds on to a good chunk of it for him anyways, but that's not the point.)

at first his only goal was to find this other thief and use them as a foothold to steal back the things they've stolen... but honestly? now he's intrigued. what's your deal, sakura-kun.

he tells bacchus and rakta he has not established the thief's identity yet. he's working on it, though! you know perhaps that clue was just something left behind by a guest to the museum after all... ah, he has no interest in transferring schools again though! he quite likes it here!

(takiishi does one (1) heist and is done with it, lmao)

nirei as a budding intrepid reporter who became sakura's best friend after he helped scare off his bullies. sakura did not sign up for this. he catches wind of the story of the showdown between two different groups of thieves and it catches his interest right away. sakura also did not ask for that.

(shows up at a heist and nirei is there. HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE.)

umemiya as student council president... he ran on a platform of changing school regulation from being oppressively strict. endo also ran for student council president purely so he could just give takiishi whatever he wanted and lost to umemiya and was just like. alright i'm out. drops out of high school.

(takiishi gets bored after like, two days without endo and also drops out. even in a 'normal' setting they're still dropouts lmao.)

sakura still lives in his shitty apartment by himself but previously lived in the annex's at his father's mansion. very convenient when he needs to be out at weird times of the night. his neighbors never ask questions. this fucking. shitty apartment and if you open the closet there's priceless art inside. temporary location until endo can set up a sale. the only stuff sakura has any interest in keeping are his mom's paintings.

(is stealing the other stuff camouflage for his real target? maybe.)

suo and the red chanpuru who would be a group of thieves deliberately targeting shady art dealers. they've got the whole classic 'steal what's been stolen' deal going on. they're here to return things to their proper owners and expose the crimes of those they steal from. suo puts on a flashy show while rakta and bacchus do the behind the scenes work of digging into their shady business.

obviously. they inevitably directly come up against sakura.

and like. does sakura care? as long as his dad gets screwed over he's fine- hey wait, that's one of his mom's paintings. you can't have that. something something his mom didn't die in childbirth but also still died a few years later due to complications from it so like... he has vague memories of her. enough to form an attachment. he remembers being in her studio with her.

(she never really wanted to sell her paintings, but her husband strongarmed talked her into it, but there were also a number of paintings that she gave away for free... he wasn't happy about that.)

except. i lied. sakura does care. bc he has a competitive streak. who the fuck does this guy think he is anyways? who leaves warning notices? is he stupid??? could sakura just target the art before the date of the warning notices? i mean sure but that wouldn't be fair. does sakura know the fucking 'phantom thief' or whatever who keeps targeting the same shit he does is his classmate hayato suo? absolutely not.