No problem at all! Kasumi Yoshizawa will be dropped for you and Akira Kurusu will be reserved until October 13th!

Hello, Kasumi Yoshizawa and welcome back to Terra! You will be housed in Celestia Apartments C5, where you will find everything is the same as it was upon your leaving.

You will retain everything that you previously had.

Everything was upside down for the past two weeks or so. Ryuuji had never been much of an actor, but having to play along with the fake world around them was more unnerving than he thought. And Akechi did that sort of thing all the time...? He didn’t get it. There was something else he was more concerned with right now though and while he had no clue how to approach it, he wanted to try. 

Even if they had barely talked and he didn’t know Sumire at all, they had fought alongside each other in Maruki’s palace. Even if he couldn’t imagine how much she was struggling with, she was part of the team now, right...? She had Akira’s support, but he was sure it still got kind of lonely.

Which was the reason why the taller boy was now standing in front of her, where she had sat down in the dining hall to unleash the monstrosity that was inside her bento box. That thing was huge...!

he’s an idiot. akechi goro is an idiot who should sew his goddamn mouth shut.

sumire ambles around the topic, downright beaming as she brings it up. her nose crinkles and her eyes close, so proud of herself, like she’s just so smart for remembering, like it’s the funniest joke she’s ever told. akechi can only grimace in response, digging nails into his palms. sumire doesn’t know the half of what really happened, and it’s none of her goddamned business. even so, akechi has to admit that he deserves the ridicule. he was hot-headed and foolish as ever, let himself get too comfortable with his makeshift team. he said something he shouldn’t have, and he suffered the consequences. some people just never learn.

“ yoshizawa-san. with all due respect, what do you think you’re getting at? ”

it all happened too quickly for him to even recount: akira, lying unconscious on the ground. a bolt of lightning headed in his direction, waiting to deal the final blow. a moment of complete stillness. a voice not unlike his own but warped from strain, screaming at yoshizawa to use a healing spell. he can remember every second of it in excruciating detail, he certainly doesn’t need yoshizawa reminding him. he certainly doesn’t need her mockery, either.

truth be told, maybe this is for the best. maybe this is a mistake that he should have made a long time ago-- then again, there are so, so many unchecked desires still clinging to him like leeches, draining him lifeless. his rotting heart is all too full for a dead man walking. there was always way too much fire in his chest, actually, what was once burning him from the inside out now a stubborn, persistent ember in his ribcage. nobody can die like that, not really. nobody can truly rest with the weight of prophecies still unfulfilled weighing heavy in their very souls. if anything, akechi’s death only further fueled the flame that was eating away at him relentlessly: his regrets caught up to him faster than sleipnir, dragged him down like an anchor thrown deep into the ocean with a running start. he deserved to be defeated. it’s one of the few things in his life that he doesn’t regret. he fought tooth and nail all his life so he could have the satisfaction of leaving this world on his own terms, and it still doesn’t feel like dying, it still doesn’t feel like peace. so, maybe this will help. maybe this will help.

“ that’s a can of worms that you really don’t want to open. for your own sake, i suggest that you don’t think too much about it and leave it be. i don’t know what other answer you expected. ”

akechi was always a force of destruction, through and through. he couldn’t be taught how to preserve the things he has if he was given all of eternity to learn. he never cared much about his own safety, let alone the safety of anyone stupid enough to come near him. akechi still wants a lot of things he doesn’t deserve, too: no matter how tired he is, the flame doesn’t seem to give any signs of relenting-- at this pace, he’s afraid he might burn maruki’s palace to the ground. he would never do that to akira, though, not of his own volition. he wants to see akira do it himself.

all at once, he decides that this palace is messing with his head. yes, that must be it: whatever pried him right out of the claws of thanatos isn’t letting him think straight. it’s not an act of rescue, that’s for sure-- it feels like a coup d’état more than anything else. like the natural order of things has been thrown out of balance. it also feels just a bit too much like temptation: figures, since half of it looks like the fucking garden of eden.

he doesn’t like spending time with the others, not here. quite honestly, he can’t look them in the eye. every waking moment feels the same as one of those downright unbearable interviews he used to sit through for hours on end-- he feels watched, recorded. the intent of the surveillance feels much more sinister this time, though. whatever’s doing this, it knows him, it intended on torturing him from the moment it pulled him into this picture-perfect world. the burning in his chest piles up, white-hot and furious: he’ll never, never let anyone have power over him again. what maruki is doing is wrong, and no amount of mercy or second chances will ever change that.

maruki’s weapon is granting wishes. for the longest time, goro had thought he was immune to it: sure enough, that conviction was based solely on his own arrogance. even so, there’s one way to disarm the bastard: he’ll admit it, and he’ll do it proudly. he’ll scream it to the fucking heavens if he needs to: he doesn’t want to die. akechi goro never wanted to die. if maruki thinks he’s smart for finding that out, he has another thing coming.

it doesn’t matter. it won’t stop goro from doing what’s right. his own stupid, selfish needs will never come first to making sure akira doesn’t ruin his own life for good: akira has an actual life to live, a long and promising one that doesn’t have misery as its leitmotif for a change. a long and happy life, far away from goro. this is the last they’ll see of each other, and goro just has to fucking suck it up.

goro has six feet of dirt to look forward to. that’s just how things are.

“ it’s... personal. i hope you understand. ”

Hey, Cinderella, don’t you think it’s a little late to be out playing dress up? Not that there’s hardly any difference between day and night when everything’s cloaked in darkness like this, but she doesn’t look like she has any place out here. But she does seems like she might be at least be useful for a task like this at least, and Joshua should put her to use if she’s out here...what? That’s mean? It’s just the truth. He’s just keeping an eye out for on her. After all, he doesn’t need omniscience to know something doesn’t feel quite right: but whether or not she knows that is a mystery to him. Of course, Composer’s eyes don’t see anything different from anyone else— so perhaps it’s not a matter of what he sees, but who. Let’s leave it at that for now; he’s gotta have some entertainment value in this. 

🐏 》 Liaisons have suddenly become monumental in this predicament. In spite of the haphazard situation they’ve found themselves in, and seemingly without their powers ( from what she’s garnered through Ryuji ), it felt as if their only solution was to continue trudging through the madness. Having initially believed they were transported to an anomaly of a palace, the encounter of an unaffiliated student from their academy proved her suspicions wrong. Not only that, it was... extremely concerning.

        So much that she sprung into action to defend her underclassman from a prowling beast without Mi’Lady in tow, just to discover that all she could do was grab her wrist and make a run for the nearest shelter. It wasn’t the most heroic of actions, but it bought them some time. Still, it felt...

         ❝ ...I’m sorry. It appears that I’m not the most exceptional example of a ‘senpai’. ❞  

Ugh. Talk about a major pain in the ass. Throughout the past year, there’s never really been a dull moment, at least in his life. From exposing a high school teacher, to taking down the ones who had been behind the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns and so forth in his own world, there’s always been something going on on. And this time is no different. Not only has he found himself in a completely different world, something is definitely...off this time. As far as he knows, it should be right in the middle of the day. But for whatever reason, it’s pitch black outside, something unlike he’s ever seen, at least during what’s supposed to be daytime.

“Man, why me... Being in the metaverse and all, I thought I’d seen it all... But uh...yeah, this is pretty effed up.” he mutters to himself as he begins to drag his feet along, wondering aimlessly in the dark. He quickly pulls out his phone to at least give himself a little bit of light in this ridiculously dark nighttime scene. Being a Phantom Thief, he’s certainly seen worse, right...? Regardless, he’s determined to find out what the hell is going on.

Continuing along his aimless path, he nearly trips over his own feet, straightening himself before he ends up falling to the ground, or rather...falling on this person he apparently hasn’t registered the presence of until this very moment. Before even taking time to look up, he puts his hands in his pockets, trying to keep his cool.