Minato Arisato ☽ 有里 湊 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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realpolitik2017-06-04 09:27 am
messianic) wrote in realpolitik2017-06-04 09:27 am
Minato Arisato | Akira Kurusu | 090
[He's exhausted.
It's been an intense couple of months, and it feels as though the situation will only get worse somehow--worse and worse, and Minato has no idea what to expect. Strega is still out there. The Dark Hour still exists. The Arcana Shadows are gone, but...at what cost?
What was Ikutsuki rambling about, before the end?
Junpei's exhausted and depressed, the entire dorm dark and quiet and respectful of his mourning, and Minato's still shaken too from how close it was--how close he came to losing yet another teammate, and friend.
So he hops on the train. Akira probably won't mind a visit, right...? They get along well enough, and he thinks Akira would probably understand if Minato just needs a day away from the oppressive atmosphere of how much everyone has lost over the past two months.
He pushes open the door to the cafe quietly, but... well, the silence is almost more stifling over here, and his brow furrows a bit, even as he glances at Sojiro behind the counter.
UM...]
Is Akira around...?
[Now would probably be a good time to get interrupted before Sojiro tells this punk he doesn't really know well that Akira's TOTALLY DEAD.
(Minato probably should've texted first.)]
It's been an intense couple of months, and it feels as though the situation will only get worse somehow--worse and worse, and Minato has no idea what to expect. Strega is still out there. The Dark Hour still exists. The Arcana Shadows are gone, but...at what cost?
What was Ikutsuki rambling about, before the end?
Junpei's exhausted and depressed, the entire dorm dark and quiet and respectful of his mourning, and Minato's still shaken too from how close it was--how close he came to losing yet another teammate, and friend.
So he hops on the train. Akira probably won't mind a visit, right...? They get along well enough, and he thinks Akira would probably understand if Minato just needs a day away from the oppressive atmosphere of how much everyone has lost over the past two months.
He pushes open the door to the cafe quietly, but... well, the silence is almost more stifling over here, and his brow furrows a bit, even as he glances at Sojiro behind the counter.
UM...]
Is Akira around...?
[Now would probably be a good time to get interrupted before Sojiro tells this punk he doesn't really know well that Akira's TOTALLY DEAD.
(Minato probably should've texted first.)]
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Is that really what we were going to talk about?
[BUT. ANYWAY]
. . . after one of our targets died and the public turned on us because they thought we were responsible, we started to question the sequence of events that led us to that point. The mission that boosted our popularity, the events that led us to target the man who was killed in the first place, our renown with the public in general. It all felt very. . . artificial.
There was one person who wasn't immediately calling for our heads on the news, too. A famous detective who consulted with the police and frequented talk shows-- Goro Akechi. He had spoken out against us on his talk shows before, so it was a bit odd for him to suddenly be on our side. Suspicious, we approached him.
And that's when we figured out he knew we were the Phantom Thieves. He. . . tried to tell us that he discovered it only one month prior on accident, but Morgana, Ryuji, Ann and I knew that was a lie.
[he stops there to catch his breath. it's a long story]
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Minato just listens quietly, though. It makes sense when Akira lays it out so plainly, but... he wonders how difficult it must have been at the time. To have the public turn against them so intensely, to have their target die like that when he knows they're always so careful with them--
(He wishes he would've been aware, and would've been able to help Akira, but...
It's fine. They have their promises, now.)]
... Because he messed up before.
[Wow. This is...well, he'd never say as much out loud and trivialize what Akira went through (and is going through), but...Akira's life always feels like one of those dramatic old phantom thief novels. Trapping the crafty detective in a web of his own lies... it totally does.
(It's kind of cool.)]
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Exactly.
[his leg is starting to feel a little better, but now some bruises on his abdomen are starting to hurt. he moves the ice pack under his shirt, resting it on top of his stomach underneath the article of clothing]
Morgana can talk, you know that much. But only those who have heard him talk in the Metaverse can hear him talk in the real world.
Back in June, Ryuji, Ann and I met Akechi at a television station during a class trip. Morgana was with us, and mentioned something about pancakes during one of our conversations.
Akechi overheard him, and commented on what he said to all of us. Which meant he was lying when he said he only discovered the Metaverse, our identities, and his own abilities as a Persona user only one month prior to when he first confronted us.
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[Minato processes that idly, even as he watches Akira's movements critically too. Those injuries... if he thinks about them too hard, they still make him furious.
He has to focus here.
Focus.]
I can't believe he got himself caught over pancakes.
[What a loser.]
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[you know, when Minato puts it that way, it's pretty hilarious. Akira can't help but smile]
Since we knew he was lying, we figured he had ulterior motives. So we had Futaba bug his phone, and that's when we overheard him talking about his plan.
[gives a small shrug]
He planned on accompanying us on a mission, betraying us to the police at the end of it, and then killing me in the interrogation room in a staged suicide.
Obviously, we couldn't let that happen. We had to outsmart him.
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(And if Koromaru hadn't been left behind at the dorm, perhaps Minato wouldn't.
It feels like there have been far too many close calls lately.)
He takes a deep breath, and then calmly breathes it out. Akira isn't okay--but he will be. That's what really matters.]
I see. And that's where the plan came from. To trick him into thinking that he'd gotten you.
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[he leaves the ice pack on his stomach, but lifts his arm to cover his eyes. a tired sigh escapes his mouth]
The target Akechi manipulated us into going after was the prosecutor assigned to our case. Sae Niijima. . . Queen's sister. [he's probably heard Akira talk about Queen at some point, honestly] Her Palace was the courthouse, which manifested as a casino, located right next to the police station. While the courthouse was distorted, the police station wasn't.
So it was only a matter of manipulating Niijima's unconscious so a version of me would appear in the police interrogation room in the Metaverse. After that. . . we had to pull Akechi into the Metaverse, and let him kill the cognitive version of me instead of the real version.
It worked.
[but it was also an INCREDIBLY risky plan that was almost ruined by police brutality, so what the fuck Akira]
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Minato doesn't understand everything to do with the Metaverse, but he's been chatting with Akira long enough to know that what they did was incredibly risky--and that's aside from the police brutality. That on top of everything...
He grimaces.]
I understand why it had to be you, but...
[A firm shake of his head.]
That's too risky. You can risk yourself in the future like that again... at least--try not to.
[... What would Akira's team do without him, after all?]
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[AKIRA?? don't sound so casual about that!!]
As long as I keep my head down so our enemies don't realize I'm still alive, I think I'll be okay.
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[And you know it, you little shit!!]
I know if something like this came up again, you'd be willing to throw yourself into danger again.
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Yeah.
Probably.
[at least he's honest about it]
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[AKIRA...!!!]
I know that sometimes we have to take risks, but...
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[he says that confidently]
If I had to do something dangerous and risky, I trust them to do everything they need to do in order to keep me safe.
[that. may not be the answer Minato was looking for, but. . . it's the one Akira gives]
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Especially after going through such hardships, Minato thinks that maybe that's fine. Maybe it's fine for Akira to just have that faith.
(Still... he can only hope he's not too reckless like this again.)
So instead of arguing it, he just tilts his head in an acknowledging nod.]
...Alright then. I'll trust them to keep you safe too. [It's all he can do, when he's off fighting his own fight.]
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As payment for my honesty-- [that first part is teasing, but he sobers up pretty quickly because this is a kind of serious topic] -- do I get the full story of what happened with Ikutsuki-san?
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Minato quirks an eyebrow at that teasing comment, but...it's not like he can blame Akira for that. Fair's fair...though Minato's quiet for a moment, as if thinking of how to even tell the story in the first place.
Ultimately, he just shrugs a little, and tilts his head back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling.]
Ikutsuki... [...] There's a lot of history behind it, but... [A bit of a helpless shrug. He can't give Akira a rundown of the Kirijo Group and their experiments, and what part Ikutsuki played in it, and everything--both for time reasons and because it's not really his information to share. It's Mitsuru's, and he won't break that trust, not even for this.
He knows Akira will understand, anyway.]
I guess all that really matters is that... Ikutsuki believed that if we got rid of all of those Shadows, the ones he told us would get rid of the Dark Hour, it would...well, bring about the end of the world instead.
[He's fucking insane, man. Minato frowns a little, lips pursing. Admittedly... there's still something about it that strikes him as uncanny, as if there's something to the insane ravings of a mad man, but... he's not sure yet.
He won't know about all of that for a few more days.]His plan was to get us to defeat all of those Shadows, and then sacrifice us to some..."Fall".
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[oh]
[oh]
[whatever Akira was expecting this Ikutsuki's guys motive to be, that wasn't it. the end of the world is a lot more serious than some corrupt adult trying to steal the government so he can ruin the country, and the thief immediately finds himself sitting up a little straighter, gaze flickering from the ceiling to Minato]
Why-- what kind of person would consciously plan for the end of the world like that?
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... I don't know, honestly. He had us all fooled, but even to the end, I... I didn't really understand him.
He said he wanted...to be the King of the new world. That...humanity was a blight on it and needed to be gotten rid of.
[Minato sighs, shaking his head.]
He was crazy. I just don't really know how none of us saw it before.
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How can he be the king of a world that doesn't exist anymore?
[he also doesn't understand, so his fellow protag certainly isn't the only one]
What happened to him. . .? In the end.
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here's a hint:]
He's dead.
[At least Minato is less pained over this one than Chidori, though there's still a faint hint of sadness there anyway, especially because... well, the loss of life is bad enough, but--]
Mitsuru-senpai's father was able to shoot him before he could kill us, but...
[... He grimaces.]
Her father, too... [Dead. Everyone's dead, Akira, there's only death.]
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. . .
Why are you fussing over me, when you've suffered so many losses lately?
[he can handle a few bruises, Minato take care of yourself :(]
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You look terrible.
[Duh!!]
Of course I'm worried about you. The fact that things have been hard...doesn't change that they've been hard for you too.
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We keep going back and forth about this.
I suppose worrying about other people is just the kind of leaders we are.
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[It explains why they are the leaders, in a way. It just wouldn't work otherwise, would it?]
I think that's okay, though. [And, as sincerely as ever because Minato's Minato:] Thanks for worrying about me, Akira.
[He really does appreciate it, even though they keep playing concern ping-pong.]
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Thanks for worrying about me, too.
[a pause]
We never did play those video games.
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