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Akira didn’t exactly know what to make of the so-called Detective Prince. It wasn’t like he’d really seen him in anything before meeting the guy - just a few minutes here and there on the TV in Leblanc, between grinding beans and mopping the floor. And it wasn’t like those were particularly revealing - Akira hadn’t spent so long in court and with lawyers to not recognise pre-prepared scripts when he heard them.
Akechi smiled on TV like he was biting down on his tongue and laughed like he was one bad workday away from a meltdown and signing off for 3 months on stress leave. And it really only got more obvious when you talked to him face-to-face, as Akira had discovered when Akechi unexpectedly invited him along to pool, and then out for cake and coffee.
Why the Velvet Room wanted (or maybe needed) him to spend time with Akechi, Akira wasn’t sure. He just knew that when he met him, he heard that girl’s voice in his head, and when he summoned Personae like Archangel, focusing on Akechi made them manifest more powerfully.
Hey, and who was he to protest the destiny ordained to him by a magical blue jail cell and a creepy old man? They said to spend time with the weird doctor, the ex-yakuza, the failed politician, the teen idol on the edge of a breakdown? Well, Akira would do it - it wasn’t like he was very good at figuring out his own social life, after all.
Of all the things he expected for this pre-ordained friendship, however, a 3AM text to join Akechi at the Shimagawa Aquarium was not among them.
“Doesn’t look like he’s here yet,” Morgana said, sticking his head out of Akira’s bag as they approached the outside of the Shinagawa Aquarium. The slope up to the entrance was filled with people, as was the surrounding park. It was busy in a way that still shocked him, several months into living in Tokyo. His hometown really was out in sticks by comparison.
“Expect he might have gotten mobbed by fans again,” Akira said idly, although he wondered if ‘fans’ was a strong word. Those gawkers at the cafe seemed less interested in Akechi as anything more specific than someone famous enough to be worth the bragging rights. Just mussing his hair up and putting a spare pair of glasses on him was enough to dissuade them.
“Oh, wait, there he is!” Morgana said, leaning out of the bag and gesturing to where Akechi was standing waiting by a model penguin. Wearing a sweatervest over a long-sleeve shirt in the sticky Tokyo summer, dorky customised briefcase in hand. Akira pushed up his glasses to hide the smirk - the great Detective Prince clearly never took a real day off.
“Alright, I’ll let you guys get on with it,” said Morgana, hopping out of the bag. “I’m going to walk around the park a little.”
“Sure you don’t want to join us?” he asked, tilting his head. “A skilled thief like you should have no problem pilfering a few fish for a snack.”
Morgana rolled his eyes - as much as he was able to with his cute little kitty face.
“Well obviously I could,” he said haughtily, flicking his tail. “But a gentleman thief doesn’t use his skills for snacks .”
“Of course,” said Akira seriously, nodding. “I’ll keep my hands in my pockets too.”
Morgana snorted.
“Be sure you do! I didn’t train you to be a petty burglar,” he said. “I’ll see you in a few hours, make sure you try to get something useful from the pretty boy, okay?”
Akira waved as Morgana trotted off, tail in the air and earning some coos and stares from a nearby group of girls. Akira turned his attention back to the boy standing with rigidly perfect posture beside the penguin statue. As funny as it would be to linger a little longer and watch him wait, he didn’t actually want to be a jerk.
“Ah,” Akechi said as he approached. “There you are. It’s certainly busy today, isn’t it?”
“Are you worried about getting spotted again?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and wiggling his fingers in the universal signal of ‘I’m gonna getchu’. “Need another makeover?”
Akechi laughed - an impressively fake noise if Akira had ever heard one.
“That won’t be necessary, look around,” he said, tilting his head at the surrounding crowd. Couples walking hand in hand, groups of children shouting and screaming, mothers trying to shepherd whole families around. “Everyone is much too preoccupied. Whether it’s with their children, their potential lovers, even their own base needs…when people are so consumed with their own lives like this, everything else is rather secondary. Humans are remarkably self-centered, at their core.”
Bit intense for the situation, but sure.
“Good to know,” Akira said, and gestured up towards the entrance. “Lead the way.”
Akira followed him inside, moving at a snail’s pace in the crowds, as Akechi chattered blandly about how pleasant it was to have a day off amidst his busy schedule.
Inside, the smiling attendant asked for their ticket. Akira carefully glanced over Akechi’s shoulder as he flashed his phone, and raised his eyebrows. Just as he suspected.
“Ah, I’m sorry sir, you’ll need to go to the ticket counter and pick up a paper ticket,” she said, still smiling.
“Oh?” he said, smiling equally as blandly. “Is this not sufficient?”
“I’m afraid we need paper tickets, sir,” she repeated, with the exact same expression. Akira got the sudden but intense mental image of two stags locking antlers.
“Well, I suppose there’s nothing to be done. Thank you for all your help,” said Akechi, and then turned to Akira. “Pardon me, I’ll sort this. If you don’t mind waiting a moment…”
“I can keep you company in the queue,” said Akira, stretching his neck.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. Take a moment to familiarise yourself with the area,” said Akechi, smile growing a little thin at the edges. “I see there are a few maps of the layout. I’m sure you’re skilled at interpreting such things.”
Considering how often Akira found himself backtracking and frustrating Morgana in Palaces, he doubted it, but he was always willing to give something a go. Plucking a pamphlet from a stand nearby, he thumbed through it as Akechi joined the queue (sandwiched right between two groups of particularly noisy children, Akira noted with some glee)
After a few moments (Akechi desperately attemping to retain composure in a slow-moving queue where children kept bumping into him), Akechi got to the front, chatted to the cashier, and returned, paper ticket clutched in hand.
“My apologies for that delay. Did you find anything interesting out in the meantime?” he said.
Akira pocketed the map.
“A few things. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, though,” he said. Akechi laughed.
“I suppose then you won’t let me look at the map?”
“Nope.”
“Hahaha, my. You are interesting,” he said, as he often did. “Well, in that case, you can be in charge of navigation once inside. Though my expectations are rather high now.”
“Can I have my ticket?” he said.
Akechi paused.
“Oh, I’ll keep hold of them for you, don’t you worry about that,” he replied breezily, as they finally got their tickets checked and passed into the aquarium.
Further into the aquarium, the lights had been dimmed, making the colour from the tank reflecting off the ceiling and floor, drawing attention to the fish floating eerily by on either side. It would be peaceful, if it wasn’t also accompanied by a million other people all going the same way.
A group of children rushed past screeching, one smacking into Akechi from behind almost knocking his briefcase out of his hand. Akechi’s eye visibly twitched.
“Cute kids,” Akira said, just to be annoying.
To his credit, Akechi recovered remarkably quickly.
“Haha, I was about to comment as much It’s sweet they can be so excited about such things,” he said. “I certainly don’t recall having the opportunity to come to these sorts of things often as a child.”
“Only discovered your love of fish later in life?” he asked.
“Not exactly. The option simply wasn’t available to me…although there may have been one or two times, when I was very small,” he said and turned to look at the tank, where a school of anchovy were swarming in huge, undulating loops. His expression turned pensive for a moment, and then the bland smile snapped back in place over it. “Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve come to a place like this. Sorry for dragging you along.”
“It’s a nice place,” he replied.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, appraising Akira. “This place suits you, huh? I wasn’t sure if you were the type.”
Akira was about to ask what type that was (especially considering the number of couples milling about), when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Oh? I thought I recognised those glasses! Look who it is!”
Akira tensed a little as he saw Ohya approach, bulky camera around her neck and sunglasses slid up into her hair.
It wasn’t that he disliked Ohya. She was interesting, Lala’s place was a lot of fun, and he sympathised with how much her job and her boss had screwed her over. It was just…well…the whole thing of pretending to be her boyfriend was…
Well, at the time, it seemed easier to go with than to not. Especially with the Devil arcana hanging over him, needing sustenance like all the rest. Yet he couldn’t stop restlessly wondering if her boss did call the police - was that something he needed, the police knocking on Sojiro’s door, asking questions about inappropriate relationships , maybe even mentioning recent events at Shujin with the volleyball coach?
He didn’t know. But going with it had seemed like it would work better , his own feelings on the matter be damned.
Thankfully, Ohya’s attention slid off him quickly, bouncing across to Akechi.
“And we’ve even got the second Detective Prince here, too - wait, what?” she said, her eyes going wide.
“Keep it quiet, please…” Akira interrupted, a bit more meekly than he’d like.
“Oh, sorry…” she said, “but that’s not important! Why are you with Akechi-kun?”
Akira could practically see the maths running through her head - the second Detective Prince, wandering through a popular date spot with the skinny boy she knew from the gay bar in Shinjuku. Ohya was sharp - far sharper than most gave her credit for - but there were some conclusions that you didn’t need to be an investigative reporter or an ace detective to reach. Even if they weren’t exactly right (or, for that matter, exactly wrong ) conclusions.
“I invited him out,” said Akechi quickly, his tone turning oddly sharp. “We’re fairly close, after all. You are…huh…”
The little note of confusion was one of the bitchiest and funniest things Akira had ever heard. He’d feel sorry for Ohya, if he wasn’t sure she couldn’t care less what a stressed-out high school idol had to imply about her.
“Oh, uh…don’t mind me, I’m just a reporter,” she said, nodding her head towards Akira. “He helps me with my articles sometimes.”
A gleam entered her eyes that Akira didn’t exactly like.
“But who would have guessed you were friends with the famous teen detective?” she said hungrily. “And unlike you, he’s pretty hardline anti-Phantom-Thieves. Mind if I ask a couple questions about you two?”
He very much did mind, but…
Well, the Velvet Room was hungry and the Metaverse was dangerous. Keeping Ohya happy kept him and his friends alive in there.
“If you like.”
Akechi fixed her with a stare that would turn any lesser woman to stone on the spot. Ohya, to her credit, remained unfazed.
“Oh, you’re down? I was just kidding,” she said, glancing between them. “I’m no model journalist, but I’m not dumb enough to pry into a high schooler’s private life.”
Well. Iif that was her conclusion, it might put her off the fake boyfriend thing. Could be a nice bonus of the day.
“I thought this report would be boring, but I got a nice surprise out of it,” she continued, grinning.”Well, see you next time I need info.”
With a wave, she wandered back off, camera in hand. Akira wondered what fluff piece her boss had set her on - it really was insulting to put someone as talented as Ohya on writing about a new fish or something.
“You have some friends in the media, I see,” said Akechi, the second she was out of earshot. “And if I heard right, you two have some sort of professional agreement?”
“How about these fish, huh?” Akira said, with an exaggerated turn of his head.
“Ha, you’re just making it seem more suspicious!” Akechi replied. “I’m sorry if I’m prying. You really are interesting.”
“Eh, not really,” he replied, shrugging and slotting his hands into his pockets. “So are you going to let me take you further into this place or what?. Ohya-san probably isn’t going to follow us and take photographs.”
“That isn’t what I’d call reassuring,” he said.
“Would you like a number on it? I’d say 60 to 70 percent chance she won’t,” he said, grinning at Akechi’s obvious discomfort. Akechi’s mouth twitched, although Akira couldn’t say whether that was almost a genuine laugh or if he wanted to reach out and throttle him. Akira found he was equally good at getting both reactions out of people.
“Well, alright then. Where are you taking us next?” he asked. “The penguins perhaps? Or maybe you’d like to see the sea lions.”
Akira stretched his neck from side to side, rolling his shoulders.
“Just leave it to me. I’ll make sure you won’t miss anything.”
“Well, well, such confidence! Lead the way, Kurusu-kun.”
***
They made their way through the exhibits - the aquarium really only had one route through, unless you wanted to back up on yourself. Besides, the crowds meant that it was easiest to simply go with the flow. Something Akira considered himself an expert at.
Akechi, not so much. Every time someone pressed too close to him or stepped on the back of his shoe or talking loudly in his ear, it was like Akira saw another little crack in the armour form. It was really taking everything the guy had not to lose it. Akira was very curious about what that looked like - there was definitely something squirming beneath the perfect prince cover, but he hadn’t been able to catch a long enough glimpse to figure out what that was.
It was bizarre Akechi couldn’t stop telling Akira how very interesting and intriguing he was. If he was honest with himself, Akira was a pretty boring guy out of the Metaverse. Everything interesting about him had been a coincidence at best and an outright disaster at worst. Other than that, he just kind of cracked jokes and coasted by on whatever was easiest.
It was especially bizarre when Akechi was far more interesting than his snoozeville TV appearances would lead you to believe.
They passed through a tunnel into the next section of the aquarium - it was a circular hallway through a huge tank, with fish swimming above and around them in all directions, the blue light low and shimmering across the black floor. The effect was pretty striking, Akira had to admit - he could imagine a Palace looking like this. An underwater Palace could make for a pretty fun infiltration - not to mention a big departure from Futaba’s dry, sandy desert Palace.
(Not that was he was complaining. How many teenagers could say they’d raided an ancient pyramid, after all?)
The effect was someone spoiled by the sheer quantity of people. One child in particular was running up and down the tunnel, shrieking and hammering their tiny fists on the glass - scattering the smaller fish and sending some of the bigger fish into aggressive puffing themselves up and ramming at the glass. Their mother stood with her arm in her husband’s, chatting away to a group of other women (all with various children tugging at them), seemingly oblivious.
The child was pressing their whole face against the glass, making a grotesque face and slamming their palms against it. An aquarium staff member made their way towards them, and they shrieked with laughter and dashed off, almost knocking the poor staff member to the ground.
As they went, they smacked Akechi’s briefcase out of his hand.
“Oh dear,” he said, smiling as he stooped to pick up the case (getting knocked a few more times). “Some parents do raise their children with little manners, don’t they?”
“Parents should have to take classes,” Akira replied absently. Even he had to admit, this kid was impressively irritating. Then again, it was kind of worth the noise to watch Akechi wrestle with himself about it.
The child streaked past again and then slammed face-first into the floor.
It was a very quick movement. Anyone who hadn’t spent the past few months doing what Akira had been doing, having their reactions and senses honed by honest-to-goodness anti-heroics, wouldn’t have noticed.
But Akira saw Akechi stick his foot out as the child went past again.
“Oh dear!” Akechi said in the most sickeningly sweet voice Akira had ever heard. “Are you quite alright, little one?”
The child lifted their head up, looking bewildered. The mother, finally having noticed that their beloved child had been terrorising the fish and the staff, rushed over.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, her face flushing as she tugged the child to their feet. She looked up at Akechi and then her face lit up. “Wait…you’re that detective boy, from television, aren’t you?”
It was only then that the child started to wail.
“A bit much excitement for this one today, I suspect, poor thing,” Akechi cooed, completely ignoring the woman’s question. “Perhaps some fresh air and a rest would be restorative.”
Akira stared, torn between being amused, appalled, and…well…something else that was a bit more difficult to put into words.
Maybe that was the secret of Akechi Goro. He wasn’t just your standard teen idol on the edge of burnout - the guy was nuts.
Which, well, Akira couldn’t help but find… interesting.
“Oh - well, um, yes, I suppose that’s a good idea,” she said, too flustered between her screaming child and Akechi’s charm offensive to even figure out she was being transparently manipulated. “Come along, now.”
With some fussing, the woman shepherded her wailing child back down the tunnel, back towards the entrance of the aquarium, her husband lagging behind. Akechi watched them go, a dark look in his eyes.
“Something on your mind?” Akira asked, slouching back with his hands in his pockets. Akechi hummed, still watching the little family go.
“Oh, nothing. Just thinking of what happens to children raised so…indulgently,” he said, folding his arms. “It’s all well and good when they’re so small, but children like that become adults who make impactful decisions in the world. Ignore them like those parents do, and they’ll be selfish, dangerous adults.”
Akira raised his eyebrows.
“So you’d be a strict dad, huh?”
Akechi laughed sharply - it sounded almost more genuine than his other laughs so far. Akira liked it.
“I can hardly imagine myself in that role,” he said. “I suppose I don’t know much about good parenting - I didn’t grew up with particularly strong examples of it.”
“Me neither,” he said.
(Although he didn’t go around tripping children, but hey. Pretty boys had to get their stress out somehow.)
Akechi regarded him curiously.
“I surmised as much. You don’t even seem to live with your parents, after all.”
“Been looking me up, detective?” He replied, grinning.
“Oh, hardly. Just a handy deduction,” Akechi said quickly. To Akira’s disappointment, his expression smoothed back over into that blank TV-star smile. Shame - the peek behind the curtain had been fun.
Although, maybe there were a couple of ways to see that again.
“So, shall we move on?”
Akira grinned, remembering something he saw on the map.
“Yeah, actually…I’ve got something specific I want to do next.”
***
“Handling animals is one of the most common vectors of transmission for disease, you know.”
“Good job we’re with professionals, then,” Akira said, casually.
Ahead of them was a low tank filled with tiny fish, the top of the tank open, and a queue of visitors ahead of it. The visitors in front had their hands in the water, and the little fish swarmed around their fingers, nibbling away at the skin.
Judging by the expression Akechi was making, Akira guessed this wasn’t a beauty treatment he regularly booked into.
A smiling staff member more-or-less appeared beside them, with a speed that Akira could only envy outside of the Metaverse.
“Hi, will you boys participate in the personal experience today?”
“Definitely,” Akira said immediately, cutting off Akechi entirely.
“Wonderful, that will be 100 yen each!”
“I don’t think I have any change,” Akechi said.
“Oh, don’t worry,” he said, pulling out a pair of 100 yen coins and passing them to the staff member. “My treat.”
“Wonderful,” she said. “You will have 90 seconds with our garra rufa. You’ll see an instant improvement in the softness and clarity of your skin.”
“After 90 seconds? That’s a lofty claim,” Akechi muttered, too quietly for the woman to hear. Akira took a pair of little ticket stubs and thanked her - she herded them into the queue and darted off, looking for another customer to sucker in.
“Hm…garra rufa. I have heard there’s certain beauty benefits, but if I recall, many parts of the world actually have laws against these, ah…procedures,” Akechi said thoughtfully.
“Worried about them getting too much of a taste for human flesh?” He said innocently. Akechi’s expression darkened.
“Hm…I’m afraid nothing so exciting. Rather, it can spread disease. I’ve also heard some animal rights complaints about how the fish are handled,” he said. “Apparently these animals are starved until desperate enough to eat human skin.”
Akira frowned.
“That’s dark,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. “Don’t some people have problems with the dolphin shows too?”
“Oh, almost certainly. These animals are kept in exhibits far too small for them, receive harsh treatment as part of their training, show signs of stress so significant they can start harming themselves…” Akechi continued gloomily. “All just for human entertainment and company profits. Although I suppose that’s the case for a lot of things that cause misery.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have come, then,” he said, wondering whose heart would have to be changed to save Japan’s dolphins.
“Yes…well, many suggest it’s rather impossible to exist in our current society without hurting others,” Akechi said thoughtfully. “Capitalism is structured in a way that any indulgence inflicts unspeakable cruelty on those much smaller and less powerful than us. One cannot exist in modern society without causing suffering.”
Damn, and Akira just wanted to gross him out with skin-eating fish.
“So…it’s fine then, you think?” He said, feeling as though he had rapidly lost control of this conversation.
“Well. I’d say it’s rather too late to retreat,” Akechi replied, nodding at the tank now directly in front of them.
“Come along, sirs, right over here!”
They looked at each other, Akechi raising his eyebrows.
“It’s quite alright if you’d rather back out.”
“I don’t back out,” Akira replied and strode directly towards the incredibly unethical fish exhibit.
Akira knelt down by the tank. looking at Akechi. He didn’t back down, but he wasn’t about to do this stupid gross thing alone. The entire point was he wanted to see Akechi squirm.
Akechi looked at him for a long moment, clearly going for ‘fond amusement’, but it was paper-thin - whatever was fighting to be free, it wasn’t quite so pleasant. It was kind of funny, looking at Akechi’s fake expressions and seeing how much there was just writhing under the surface. It was like he could barely keep it all in.
“Are we doing this?” he asked.
Akechi sighed and rolled up his sleeve, buttoning it at the elbow.
“Well, it would be rude now you’ve paid. And I am curious if this really has any skin benefits…”
“Alright, one two…”
They slipped their hands into the cool water. Akira could instantly feel the tiny fish darting around his fingers and grimaced against it. Next to him, Akechi shuddered.
“Are you quite alright? It’s not for the squeamish,” said Akehchi, with all the faux-kindness he could summon.
Akira cracked his neck.
“I could do this all day.”
“Haha, well then…oh, I believe they’re starting to bite.”
They were. It was. Unpleasant. Not painful, just a strange tickling, one that Akira found it hard to not think about being tiny, possibly diseased, starving fish.
This was possibly a stupid thing to do to prove a point.
“It’s rather relaxing actually,” Akechi said.
Akira perked up and, without a word, passed another two 100 yen coins to the smiling woman behind the counter.
“Have another minute. On me.”
“Oh,” Akechi said, through gritted teeth. “How generous of you.”
The truth of the matter was, Akira had really stopped feeling the gross tickly fish sensation - at least unless he paid attention to it. His attention was entirely focused on watching Akechi react to it - the bland smile on his face contrasting with the stiff set of his shoulders. It was a small thing, pretty innocuous, but it seemed like Akechi didn’t even like that much physical contact. Made sense - he didn’t exactly seem like a hugger. Even Akira just mussing his hair quickly had seemed overwhelming to him.
It was probably mean, really. Ann woudl probably tell him to give the poor guy a break. But he couldn’t quite help it. He’d always liked pushing buttons. And Akechi made it very, very funny.
The timer buzzed for the end of their second 90 seconds.
“Well,” Akechi said. “That was -”
Akira passed over another few coins.
Akechi’s eye twitched.
“Sir,” said the poor staff member, “I think we should make this your last one”
“What a shame,” Akechi grumbled, and Akira tried not to let the delight show on his face at the mask dropping.
The second the timer went off, they were both ushered away so fast taht Akira couldn’t even see which of them ‘won’. Akechi took a handkerchief (not monogrammed, to Akira’s disappointment) from his pocket, and dried his hands, rolling his sleeve back down and buttoning it up nearly. Akira wiped his damp hand on his jeans.
“Shame we couldn’t tell who won,” Akira said.
“Hm…well, I rather think my hand stayed in just a second longer.”
“No way,” he said, trying not to laugh. “No way you can know that.
“I most certainly can,” he said, looking so annoyed that Akira was certain he was going to crack a rib trying not to laugh. “I’m nothing if not attentive to minor details. I am a detective after all.”
“Solving the mystery of the skin-eating fish,” Akira mused. Akechi’s mouth twitched.
They passed through the rest of the exhibits with ease - thankfully not running into Ohya again, but sadly not passing anything Akira could use to annoy him.
“Well,” Akechi said, checking his watch. “I suppose that should be all for the day. I really do have to be getting back.”
“Yeah,” Akira replied, biting back a weird, directionless stab of disappointment. It was then, looking at the ticket counter closing for the day, he remembered something.
“Can I have the ticket?” he asked.
“Huh?”
Nice - completely blindsided. Akira shrugged, refusing to show this was anything other than a casual whim.
“It would be a nice memento,” he said. Akechi stared at him, dumbfounded.
“We can go to the giftshop.”
“I’m adding it to my scrapbook,” Akira replied instantly.
“I - I’m afraid I must have misplaced them during our explorations. Perhaps it fell in the garra ruffa tank, hm?”
“I saw them in your back pocket.”
“Why are you looking at my back pocket?”
A weird silence fell over them.
After a moment, Akira managed to recover enough to continue, moving right past…that.
“Is there a reason you can’t show me?” he said, grinning. “Like maybe your name is on the tickets…even though you said someone else bought them.”
Akechi gaped at him - not completely unlike some of the fish they’d seen, actually.
“I got a glimpse of the ticket on your phone when we came in,” Akira continued, slamming the nail into the coffin.
Akechi stared at him for a second longer and then shook his head, half-laughing, removing both tickets from his pocket.
“I’m surprised - you noticed that much?”
“Well…I’m nothing if not attentive to minor details,” he said, raising both eyebrows. “Why the secrecy? Get stood up on a date here and still have the tickets?”
“No I just - well, I felt foolish saying that it was my idea. It seemed a bit more…dignified to suggest they were a gift and I was only looking to make use of them,” Akechi said, and then forced a laugh. “Well, it seems I underestimated you again. You really are interesting.”
Akira stuck his hand forward, grinning.
“My memento, please.”
“It doesn’t have my credit card details on it, you know,” he said, handing over the ticket.
“Damn, and here I thought I had a flawless criminal plan in mind.”
“Oh, I doubt you’re capable of that.”
Akira merely scoffed, sliding the ticket carefully into his wallet.
“Thank you for coming out today,” Akechi said, snapping straight back into his whole weird sweetiepie unintimidating boy shtick. “We should head home.”
He waved Akechi off, waiting by the plastic penguin outside for Moragana to come trotting up, looking very well-groomed and content from whatever he had spent the day doing.
“So, any useful intel?” he asked, hopping onto the penguin. Akira shrugged.
“Nah, not really,” he said.
If there was anything to say about Akechi…well, Akira hadn’t quite figured it out yet. And, for whatever reason, right now…
He just wanted to keep it to himself.
“Urgh, well…I mean if you had a nice day out that’s not a total waste,” Morgana replied, stretching with a yawn. “Open up your bag. We should go home.”
***
Morgana was sound asleep by his side when Akira’s phone went off, late into the summer night. Akira groggily plucked it up. Seeing Akechi’s name flash up on screen, he sat up a little to open it.
Today was pleasant.
The mother whose child tripped today found me on social media and sent me a message, apologising again.
I told them the child just seemed to trip over my friend’s foot.
I hope that’s alright. Much like your inability to remember who won at the garra ruffa, I just can’t seem to remember whose foot it was…
Well, good night!
In the dark, Akira read this frankly unhinged message to himself twice through, and grinned.
Oh, this guy was going to be so much fun