Chapter Text
Goro walked calmly down towards the interrogation room, a smirk on his face as he approached the door. He had finally done it. The leader of the Phantom Thieves had been captured, and was seconds away from being removed from the game. Ren had proved himself quite the worthy opponent, someone who had captivated his interest and attention in a way that almost nobody else had in a long time. He was honestly one of the very few people in this fucked up world that he actually gave a damn about, although he would never admit it.
But that wouldn’t stop him from removing Ren from the game. Not when he was so close to carrying out his plan, to toppling Masayoshi Shido just when he was about to reach the pinnacle of his glory. The piece of human filth would pay for everything he had done to him and his mother, and compared to that goal of fulfilling his revenge, nothing else mattered. Not even one of his only friends.
Akechi approached the interrogation room door, where the security guard was waiting. “May I ask that you accompany me?” he asked, in his well-crafted and polite Detective Prince voice. “Going in unarmed to interrogate a murderer makes me feel uncomfortable.”
The security guard nodded and opened the door to let them both in. The moment he had closed the door behind them, Akechi grabbed the guard’s gun out of his pocket and shot him in the chest, his corpse falling to the floor before he could say another word.
“Nice shot,” a voice commented. The only other person in the room.
Akechi turned to face the owner of his voice. Ren was sitting at the table, looking at him with mild amusement in his eyes. He looked bruised and battered, but was surprisingly calm and collected for someone who had just seen someone get murdered in front of his eyes. “I knew you were coming, Goro. And I know what you’re here to do.”
“Really, now?” Akechi replied coolly. “So you already know that you’re seconds away from meeting the Reaper?”
“Of course I knew,” Ren answered with a smirk. “We knew that you were a traitor from the very beginning. And we even had a plan to save me from your assassination attempt.” He looked around the room, raising his arms with a shrug. “Though clearly that part didn’t work out,” he commented nonchalantly.
Akechi’s eyes narrowed. Something was wrong, something he was missing. Ren seemed entirely too composed and jovial for someone who was about to die. “I suppose I owe you some thanks,” Akechi replied with a sneer, masking his uncertainty. “You and your little friends were vital to our plan. And now it will be completed.”
“I suppose we were,” Ren replied, not breaking his composure for a second. “But when you say “our” plan, do you really mean “our” plan…or “my” plan?”
Goro’s eyes widened ever so slightly. The question…it implied that he knew that he had his own agenda from Masayoshi Shido and his conspiracy. But there was no way Ren could possibly know about that. How could he? He had never once revealed anything about Shido to Ren…and there was absolutely no reason for the leader of the Phantom Thieves to be aware of anything other than the bare essentials about his existence.
“I know what you’re here to do,” Ren continued, “but before you get on with it…why don’t you sit down and we can have one last chat? Just for old time’s sake?”
Akechi allowed a sneer to appear on his face. “So you can try and convince me to spare your life?” he replied smugly. “It’s not going to work.”
“I beg to disagree, but either way, I might as well try,” Ren replied. “As you so clearly showed me just now, you’re armed with a lethal weapon. If you get bored of our conversation, or if you so much as think that I will try to fight back, then you can shoot me at any time. The cameras are off, so it’s not like they’re going to see anything. You’re in complete control of the situation, so what’s the harm in having a little talk?”
Akechi carefully considered Ren’s words. He didn’t have an unlimited amount of time; Shido would be expecting confirmation of Ren’s death soon. But everything Ren said was true; he could kill the teen at any point and be done with it. He was the one with the gun, after all.
…so why didn’t it feel like he was the one in control?
“I suppose I can entertain a dead man’s last request,” Akechi conceded, sitting down at the table where Sae had earlier. “But I would suggest you make it worth my time if you want to prolong your life by what few seconds I’m willing to grant you. And if you make even the slightest of sudden moves towards me,” he pointed his gun at Ren’s head. “You’re dead.”
Ren nodded. “Fair enough,” he easily agreed. “We don’t have a lot of time to waste, so I’m going to start by saying this.” He looked Goro straight in the eyes. “Your plan to destroy Masayoshi Shido isn’t going to work, Goro.”
This time, Akechi couldn’t stop himself from showing his surprise openly. “What the fuck?” he gaped.
“I know all about you, Goro,” Ren continued, his tone oddly…sympathetic? Understanding? The reason why became abundantly clear a few seconds later “I know that Masayoshi Shido is your father, if we can even call that pathetic excuse for a sperm donor a father. I know that he abandoned your mother and left her in such a messed up state that she committed suicide, and that you were tossed around from shitty foster home to shitty foster home because of that. I know how much you despise Shido because of how fucked up your life was because of him. And I know that you want to take that piece of shit down more than anything else in your entire life.”
“How…how do you…” Akechi spluttered. His mind was racing back in time, replaying every conversation he had ever had with Ren. He was absolutely certain that he had never once mentioned Shido to him, and he almost certainly hadn’t given away the fact that Shido was his father to anyone in the Phantom Thieves, let alone Ren. There was absolutely no way Ren should know even a fraction of this knowledge. And yet, here he was, spilling out his entire life story to him as though he weren’t already painfully familiar with those details.
“I know all of this…and I understand,” Ren smiled gently. “I really do. I understand why you want revenge on Shido, why you want justice for what that fucker did to you and your mother. I understand why you want to take him down, and I completely agree with you that Shido needs to be toppled from power.” The leader of the Phantom Thieves’ face turned into a frown. “It’s how you’re trying to go about it that I have major issues with. And no, it’s not because of all the psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns that you’ve caused, although that certainly doesn’t help. The biggest issue I have with your plan is that it’s doomed to fail.”
“And what makes you so confident about that?” Akechi sneered. But it was a mask to hide the uncertainty growing within him. Everything Ren had said up to this point, he had nailed completely on the head without ever telling him. Could he had done extensive research on Akechi in the days during Sae’s Palace heist and up to his capture? He could’ve…but his detective instinct was telling him that this wasn’t the answer.
“Because Shido knows who you are,” the answer was simple, and all the more striking for its simplicity. “Think about it, Akechi. Put yourself in Shido’s mindset for a second, as disgusting as the idea is. You’re plotting to place yourself as the leader of all Japan, and suddenly this seemingly random individual shows up on your doorstep, claiming to have access to a cognitive world that you were researching and all the supernatural powers that you needed to make sure that you would reach the height of power by trampling anybody who got in your way. And you’d never once question this seeming miracle dropping on your doorstep and giving you the answers to all of your problems?” Ren shook his head. “Shido is many things. A monster in human flesh. The scum of the earth. The embodiment of everything that is wrong with humanity. But he isn’t stupid. I bet you the first thing he did the moment after you introduced yourself to him was to look up all the information he could about you, Goro. He knows who you are, and why you’re really serving him. And he’ll get rid of you the moment you no longer have any use to him.”
“Shido wouldn’t get rid of me,” Goro retorted. He normally wouldn’t have revealed even this to Ren, but the teen wouldn’t be walking out of the room anywhere, so there was no reason to deny it. “I’m too valuable to him. I’m his most effective asset.”
“And that’s precisely why he would find out everything he could about you…and why he would get rid of you the moment he doesn’t need you,” Ren cut him off firmly. “You’re the most valuable tool he has…and that also makes you the most dangerous threat to him. Even if he didn’t know about you, and I’d bet my life on the fact that he does, this alone would be enough reason for him to destroy you before you ever got the chance to destroy him first.”
Akechi opened his mouth to speak, but Ren wasn’t done. “After all, he’s done it or will do it to everyone who has ever served under him eventually.” He raised one finger. “Kunikazu Okumura. By far one of Masayoshi Shido’s most important financial backers, and a critical member of the conspiracy. But the very second that Okumura started getting ideas that wasn’t perfectly in line with what Shido wanted, he had Haru’s father disposed of, despite all of the money and funding that Okumura was giving him.” He raised a second finger. “Principal Kobayakawa. A man who proved completely useless in discovering who we were, and was killed for his incompetence and cowardice.”
“Those two had plans to turn against Shido, and made those plans painfully obvious,” Akechi shot back. “I wasn’t as foolish as they were.”
“But that’s not the only reason Shido has had you kill his subordinates,” Ren replied slyly, lifting up a third finger. “The SIU director. Someone who, unlike the other two, never intended to betray Shido. Someone who’s falsified evidence and hid evidence of Shido and the Conspiracy’s corruption for years. Someone who Shido ordered you to kill the moment you finished putting a bullet through my head simply for knowing too much, for being a direct link between Shido and us, didn’t he?”
This time, Goro had no response to Ren’s words. There was absolutely nothing to suggest that he was even aware of the SIU director’s existence, let alone how corrupt and how deep he was in Shido’s pockets was…and yet his rival knew exactly what Shido’s plans were for the SIU director and why.
“The SIU director wasn’t the first person you killed for simply knowing too much about Shido, and he won’t be the last, isn’t he?” Ren questioned, a knowing smile on his face. “I bet that he’s planned to have every single person who’s ever ordered a psychotic breakdown or mental shutdown killed. Ooe, that one noble whose name I never bothered to learn, the TV station president, the IT company president who’s been twisting our public image…I bet they all ordered mental shutdowns or psychotic breakdowns at one point or another, and I bet Shido’s ordered you to kill them all the moment he becomes Prime Minister and they no longer become useful to him, hasn’t he?”
Goro spluttered incoherently, no words coming out of his mouth. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Ren hadn’t just hit the mark on the head with Shido’s motives…he had specifically named 4 of the 5 nobles who held the letters of recommendation that were the key to entering the heart of Shido’s Palace, where the shadow of the man himself resided. How? HOW DID HE KNOW ALL OF THIS?
“Shido will gladly throw anyone and everyone who’s ever worked for him under the bus if it means he can cling to power,” Ren continued, either oblivious to or ignoring Akechi’s mental breakdown. “Why would you be any different? Think about every time you talked with Shido, every time the man’s praised you for your work. Did it ever feel like he was genuinely praising you and complimenting you for your work? Or did it feel like he was just spouting a bunch of bullshit? Think carefully, Goro.”
Goro didn’t need to think carefully, because he already knew the answer. He knew that every time the man praised him for a mission, he could tell that Shido didn’t actually give a shit about him. Every word that came out of his mouth oozed fakeness, and he was only concerned about whether an obstacle to his rise to power was removed or whether another stepping stone to that rise appeared before him. At the time, he had dismissed it simply as part of the man’s character…but Ren’s words were suddenly putting Shido’s words in a different, even darker light.
“Shido won’t get rid of me…” Akechi repeated, but the words were emptier and more hesitant than they had been before, and both of them knew it.
“I’d be willing to bet my life on the exact opposite,” Ren countered. “And I think I even know how he’ll get rid of you. I bet that in his Palace, because obviously a man as fucked up as he is has a Palace, he’ll have some kind of countermeasure to stop you if you try to get close to his shadow. A cognitive version of you that’s nothing but a cold-blooded killer, or some random bullshit like that. And if you try to kill him in real life, he’s going to have his Yakuza goons shoot you dead before you ever get the chance.”
“You don’t know any of that,” Akechi sneered. “You could be completely wrong.”
“I could be,” Ren replied, though the words were spoken with the tone who was absolutely, unflinchingly confident in his words and beliefs, “but is it really worth taking that risk?”
Akechi didn’t have an answer, instead processing every word Ren had said carefully in his mind. He had thought his plan was foolproof, but Ren had thoroughly exposed several potential failure points that he had previously overlooked. And he had done so with reasoning and evidence that was not only logical and sensical, but completely true. Evidence that there was no way someone like Ren should have ever been aware of to begin with. Suddenly, his plan to destroy Masayoshi Shido was looking a lot less ironclad and a lot less fragile than it had been before he had walked into the interrogation room.
“And let’s say that, against all odds, despite all the evidence to the contrary, you actually succeed in your goal,” Ren continued calmly. “Let’s say that you have Shido at gunpoint, and that there’s nothing stopping you from putting a bullet in his head. Do you really think that a man like Shido, a man who’s so monstrously arrogant that he considers the Japanese government as nothing but his own personal luxury ship, would get on his knees and beg for mercy? Does that REALLY sound like the type of person that Shido is? You know that bastard better than anyone, Goro. How do you think Shido would really act?”
Once again, Akechi said nothing, but this time it was because he was thinking through that very scenario in his head. Seeing himself in Shido’s office, holding a gun at his father’s head, the man helpless to stop the death that was coming. He had fantasized about this moment for years, dreamed about seeing the man grovel and beg for mercy before him.
But that wasn’t what he saw now. All he could see now was Shido’s contemptuous sneer as he held the gun to his face. “Go ahead,” his glorified sperm donor taunted. “Put a bullet in me like the animal you are. I made you what you are. You are nothing without me. Just another pathetic orphan with no purpose and no reason for existence apart from what I gave you. And once I’m gone, you won’t even have that.”
“Arrrggghhhh…!” Akechi shook his head in fury as he forced the image out of his mind. It would have been so much simpler if he’d just shot Ren while he had the chance. But he had given his rival the opportunity to talk, and in doing so cast the seeds of doubt into his heart about everything he had done up to this point.
And the scary part was…it was working. Because he knew Ren, and knew that the boy wouldn’t be challenging him like this as a last, desperate attempt to preserve his own life. He could tell that Ren genuinely believed everything he was saying, stating his arguments like he knew them to be fact.
…And the more times he dropped hints at knowing things which were completely impossible for him to know to begin with, the more he was beginning to wonder if Ren somehow did.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” Akechi spat. The gun was still in his hand, although it was laying uselessly on the table, forgotten by both of them. “You clearly knew that I was planning to betray you from the very start. You could have fooled me and let me think you were dead. And instead you’re risking your very life to tell me that everything I knew was a lie. Why bother warning me, when I’m clearly your enemy and clearly trying to kill you?”
Ren smiled again, and he could see the sincerity and gentleness in his words. “Because I care about you, Goro,” he answered earnestly. “Because even after everything, I still consider you a friend. I know how much you’ve suffered at the hands of shitty adults just like the rest of us.”
Akechi scowled. “Spare me your pity, Amamiya,” he snapped. “Nothing pisses me off more than being pitied.”
Ren shook his head. “It isn’t pity, though, not really,” he replied. “I see in you the type of person that I could’ve become if I didn’t have anyone to depend on. You have no idea how bitter I was feeling towards the world because of a criminal record I didn’t deserve, but Ryuji was the first person to show me kindness almost the second I met him, and as the other Phantom Thieves joined our group it was easier and easier for me to get rid of those dark thoughts. But you? You had absolutely nobody to turn to. And the first person who DID take you seriously was a narcissistic sociopath who only sees other people as tools and stepping stones to power. But imagine if you’d been adopted by someone like Sojiro after your mother’s death. I’m sure you would’ve turned out a lot better than you did in real life. And the opposite is true for me. If I didn’t have anybody else to turn to when I first entered Shujin…” his face darkened, “…I would have murdered Kamoshida’s shadow instead of changing his heart, and things would have spiraled out of control from there.”
He shook his head. “The point is, Goro, I understand you better than most people could. You could have been like me, and I could have been like you, if things had been flipped around between us two.”
Akechi could feel the sincerity in Ren’s voice, and it was bizarrely both aggravating and comforting at the same time. Aggravating that he had gotten the short end of the stick compared to Ren, his jealousy fueled with the reminder that Ren had had everything go right for him compared to himself. Goro could feel the envy and bitterness clawing in his heart, but it was surprisingly held at bay. Because he knew that Ren wasn’t boasting of his superior life circumstances compared to himself, only expressing sympathy for someone who he should’ve hated first and foremost as an enemy and a traitor.
And his resolve to shoot Ren was weakening by the second. Especially if Shido knew who he was, as Ren claimed, and his entire plan was all for nothing to begin with.
“I understand why you want revenge on Shido,” Ren continued, steering the conversation back towards their original topic. “I understand why you want justice for you and your mother. But killing him isn’t the way to go about it. Changing his heart would be a far better solution.”
Akechi sneered. “Of course you would think that,” he retorted. “Of course you and your little group of oh-so-virtuous heroes would opt to give even your greatest enemy the merciful option.”
To his surprise, Ren laughed out loud. And it wasn’t a kind, good-humored laugh either, but much colder and more mocking than he would have ever expected from someone like Ren. “Mercy?” he repeated. “You think our changes of heart are mercy? No, no, no, Goro. That’s something you never really understood. We did these changes of heart in the name of justice, but not out of the kindness of our heart except for Futaba and maybe Sae. Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro, Okumura…those fuckers deserved to have their distorted desires ripped out from them. They deserved to face the guilt of their crimes. We forced them to face what they’ve done, and except for Okumura, forced them to suffer a lifetime of shame and punishment both from their own consciences and the weight of the law for the rest of their lives. You know Ann, right?”
“Believe me, Amamiya, I’ve gotten to know your little group quite well over the past few weeks,” Akechi drawled. “She seemed pleasant enough, I suppose.”
“Her best friend got assaulted by Kamoshida…in that way,” Ren revealed, causing Akechi’s eyes to widen and then harden in disgust. “When we had Kamoshida’s shadow at our mercy, Ann nearly burned him to a crisp. The only reason why she didn’t was because she thought death would be too merciful…and that he deserved to suffer for the rest of his life for what he did to Shiho.” He smirked. “I bet you weren’t expecting that now, were you?”
Goro’s eyes widened as he imagined Takamaki being that vindictive. Apparently, he’d significantly misjudged the blonde model, if what Ren was saying was true.
“Kamoshida was broken when we stole his heart,” the leader of the Phantom Thieves explained. “He confessed all of his sins to the entirety of the school with his own mouth, weeping and blubbering all the while, and he almost killed himself before Ann yelled at him that suicide would be cowardice and running away from what he did to Shiho. Now imagine what a change of heart would do to Masayoshi Shido,” a vindictive smirk appeared on Ren’s lips. “A man who’s sexually assaulted multiple women like Kamoshida did, but with countless more crimes and sins under his belt than Kamoshida ever had. Someone who’s personally had both his enemies and his allies murdered just because he didn’t have any use for them, and indirectly caused thousands of more deaths with the psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns. Someone petty enough to ruin countless lives for no good reason, just because he can. Can you imagine how crushing the weight of that many sins would fall upon Shido, once he finally gets a conscience for the first time in God knows how long? Can you imagine just how thoroughly the guilt would break him?”
Akechi stared at Ren, suddenly seeing his rival in a whole new light for the first time. All this time, he had imagined Ren as this perfect, goody two-shoes hero, someone who had everything that he wished he could have. Someone who’d rather show mercy to scum of the earth who deserved nothing but death instead of giving them the punishment they’d deserve. But once again, it seemed as though he had dramatically misjudged Ren and perhaps even the rest of the Phantom Thieves. He’d be the first to admit that they protected the innocent far more than he ever had or would, but it seemed as though they were far more similar when it came to punishing the guilty than he had first believed. But while he had given death as the punishment, they had chosen to give life instead. A life spent wallowing in guilt and regret, being despised by all who saw criminals like Kamoshida and Madarame for who they truly were.
A sinister smile crept across Akechi’s face as he thought about Masayoshi Shido in this position. The man reduced to a broken shell of himself, inelegantly blubbering and weeping like Madarame had done as he confessed all of his crimes to the entirety of Japan with his own mouth. He imagined the man groveling for forgiveness and punishment, being locked away in a cell for the rest of his pathetic, miserable life. And he imagined himself visiting Shido in his cell, the man apologizing to him and begging him specifically for forgiveness…only for Akechi to spit that plea back in his face, and leave him to wallow in his own despair as the son he had once deceived and betrayed abandoned him in turn.
The more he thought about this fantasy…the more and more he liked it. Perhaps giving a change of heart really would be worse than the death he had planned to inflict upon him. And unlike his original plan, which was now far too risky to implement if Ren was correct…this new plan would be entirely possible with the Phantom Thieves. If they gave even the slightest shit about justice as they claimed, then they would be bound by their own sense of duty to change Masayoshi Shido’s heart once they realized just how corrupt and depraved the man was.
And if he decided to fall back on his original plan? If he decided that Masayoshi Shido deserved death after all? Well, it would certainly be much easier to reach the man’s Shadow in his Palace than to try to kill him in real life…especially if the Thieves did most of the work for him.
Still, he hadn’t gotten to where he was today by being careless or foolish. Ren was seemingly offering him everything he wanted on a platter…there was no way such an offer was too good to be true. He focused his attention back on Ren, eyes narrowed. “I’m risking a lot by choosing to spare you and work alongside you instead of killing you right here and now,” he growled. “Why are you so invested in helping me take down Shido? Will your little Phantom Thief friends agree to work alongside me when they already know I’m a traitor and a murderer, especially when I’ve killed two of their parents?” he challenged.
Ren chuckled. “You and I both know that the hallway is unguarded and that there’s nothing stopping you from coming in to shoot me…or rescuing me from this cell. There’s no cameras, no guards, nothing. I bet that Shido’s lackeys are so terrified of pissing him off that they won’t even bother to check the morgue to see if there’s a body.”
It really was unnerving just how much insight Ren had into the inner machinations of Shido’s political machine.
“As for the others…” he smirked and gestured around him. “You have me at your mercy. You hold my life in the palm of your hand, and can shoot me with that gun of yours at any time. The Phantom Thieves will have no choice but to work alongside you and agree to your terms if they want to keep me alive. And as for your last question…I’ll give you more details when we meet up with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, but I’ll say this now…”
Ren leaned in conspiratorially, and despite Akechi’s earlier threat he made no move to shoot or even point the gun in his direction. “You’re not the only person Masayoshi Shido has wronged.”
Akechi’s eyes widened at the implications, when suddenly the cell phone rang. “And that should be Futaba calling on the phone, right on time,” Ren leaned back, relaxed, an easygoing smirk on his face. “Remember, Goro. I’m your prisoner. Don’t forget to sell the act.”
Goro smirked as well. “You forget, Amamiya,” he answered, “acting is the one thing I do best.” He picked up the phone and held it up to his ear.
“I am Alibaba, a member of the Phantom Thieves,” Futaba’s voice rang out, no doubt thinking that she was talking to Sae. “I inquire as to your justice, Sae Nijima.”
“I cannot answer to Nijima’s justice, Sakura,” Akechi replied smoothly, taking a little too much pleasure in taking Futaba by surprise, “but I would be more than happy to discuss mine.”
“Wh-what? AKECHI?” Futaba exclaimed, shock and horror clear in her voice. “But…how…HOW? We…we…”
“…had a plan to try and fool me into executing a fake version of Ren, yes I know,” Akechi interrupted. “A rather ingenious plan, I must admit. But far from infallible, in the end.”
“…so what happens now?” Futaba asked quietly, despair creeping into her voice. Ren quietly felt horrible for the girl he had come to see as his little sister, but it needed to be done. “Is that it? Is Ren dead? Are you going to kill us next with your little police friends?”
“I will admit that that was my original plan,” Akechi answered. “But out of respect for the kinship and rivalry that I have with Ren, I allowed him to speak his last words. And he most certainly used that opportunity well, for he granted me a rather…different…perspective than my original intent. Enough for me to not only consider sparing his life, but also helping him to escape.”
“Wait, what?” Now Futaba sounded confused more than anything. “You sold Ren out. You were going to kill him. But now you’re going to help him escape? What the hell is going on?”
“I wish to make a new deal, Sakura,” Akechi explained coolly. “Agree, and I will help Ren escape, and I will deliver him to you alive and in…relatively one piece.” His voice grew colder. “Refuse, and I put a bullet in your leader’s head. And then the police and I will come after all of you, one at a time.”
“…what do you want?” Futaba asked dully. She hated that she had to bargain with Akechi, her mother’s murderer and the traitor to the thieves. But she knew she didn’t have a choice. Not when their plan to fool him had failed, and her surrogate brother’s life was at stake.
“I have two conditions,” Akechi declared. “The first, is that the Phantom Thieves’ next Palace target will be Masayoshi Shido. This is non-negotiable. You will help me navigate and fight through Shido’s Palace and help me get to the very depths where his Shadow resides.”
“Why do you…?” Futaba began.
“Done,” the leader of the Phantom Thieves interrupted her. “I agree with this.”
“Wait, Ren? Oh, thank God!” Futaba was nearly crying with relief. “You really are still alive!”
“I am a man of my word, Sakura,” Akechi replied. “So long as you agree to my terms, Ren is more valuable to me alive than he is dead.”
“I’ll explain why I agreed later, Futaba,” Ren promised. “Just trust me on this.”
“O…okay…” Futaba murmured, before raising her voice again. “And what’s your other condition, Akechi?” she asked as he finished collecting her thoughts.
“Simply this…” and now everyone could hear the psychotic smirk in his voice. “You will allow me to decide the fate of Masayoshi Shido, once we have finally brought his shadow low. And none of you will stop me from carrying out my justice.”
“…you’re going to kill him, aren’t you?” Futaba realized after several seconds of silence. “You’re going to inflict a mental shutdown on him just like you did with Haru’s dad, aren’t you?”
“I’m waiting…” Akechi hissed.
Ren took a deep breath and sighed. He looked and sounded every bit like the reluctant and pained leader who had to make a sadistic choice and decide between the lesser of two evils. It was a brilliant performance that would have fooled even Goro…if he hadn’t had a lengthy and detailed discussion a few moments ago that showed Ren in complete confidence and control.
“…fine, Akechi,” he “forced” himself to speak. “We don’t have a choice but to agree, Futaba. Otherwise…he’ll kill each and every one of us.”
“…I know, Ren,” Futaba sighed. “The others aren’t going to like it, but…we really don’t have a choice.”
“I knew you would make the right decision,” Akechi replied smugly. “And just as a warning: if I even think that you’re planning to betray me or go back on your arrangement, I’ll personally make sure that all of you are killed before the end of the day. And rest assured, that is a promise.”
“We know, Akechi,” Futaba ground out. “And we’re not stupid.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Goro replied, hanging up the phone as he turned back to Ren. “Now then…I suppose we have a jailbreak to initiate, don’t we?”
Ren grinned. “I couldn’t have said it better myself, Goro. Let’s get the hell out of this place.”
Akechi nodded, casting one last look at the interrogation room. There were pieces of injection needles strewn about the floor, giving him all the clues he needed to realize what had gone on. His lip curled in disgust. His rival deserved better than to be beaten and drugged so thoroughly his mental acuity and sanity had been at stake.
Which reminded him… “How were you able to keep your mental faculties intact?” he questioned. Those drugs should have messed with your mind. And they certainly would have kept you from having such an in-depth and extended conversation with myself.”
Ren grinned. “I had one of my Personas at the forefront of my mind the entire conversation. He has a little passive skill called Unshaken Will. Complete immunity to all mind-affecting status ailments.”
Despite everything, Goro couldn’t help but chuckle appreciatively at the move. “Well played, Amamiya,” he conceded. “Well played.”