Sunday 22nd May
It had taken them much too long to finally reach the Treasure. Haruto had been in that Palace almost every single day, waiting for them to show up, but their schedule for dealing with it seemed to be almost entirely random. Just another reason that whenever Akechi Goro's miserable face appeared on TV Haruto now found himself glaring at it with ill-disguised loathing. Already a celebrity and now he had the arrogance to try and brainwash people too? The nerve.
It didn't help that Haruto's continuous monitoring of the Palace meant that he had been forced to pick up near continuous evening-shifts, which made him even more tired and cranky than usual. Usually he tried to avoid working (or indeed, doing anything) after spending time in the Metaverse, but he was falling behind on rent, and he knew Sojiro well enough to guess he wouldn't give Haruto any respite unless he came up with a very good explanation. And somehow he didn't think 'making sure my best friend's new, stupid friends don't accidentally kill his abusive father-figure' was going to cut it.
But today seemed to be the day.
Or at least, Haruto very much assumed it was the day.
The day before, on Saturday, they'd come in and finally cracked the route to the Treasure. They'd quickly departed, and Haruto had managed to catch the cat-creature muttering something about a 'calling card' as it left, but he had no clue as to what that might be. To steal a Treasure, the Palace Ruler (the real one, mind you, not their conceited Shadow) had to be made aware of both its existence and the fact it might be stolen—but none of the interlopers appeared to possess the power to manipulate Shadows in the fashion he could, so Haruto was at a loss as to what they were going to do. After all, unless they were planning to tell Madarame about the Metaverse in-person, there was really nothing they could do.
So he was waiting. Again.
He felt he'd been waiting so long now he could probably make a sport out of it. Nothing seemed to be obviously wrong, it had to be said—usually by now the Palace security level would have been raised and lowered several times, thanks to their amateur blundering. But nothing was happening. Yet.
Then, almost as if some malevolent god had been listening in on his thoughts, something did happen.
And honestly, it happened so quickly Haruto wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that one of them had told Madarame about the Metaverse.
One second Palace security was milling about, happy as Larry, content in the fact their Ruler appeared to be safe from all threats, the next… the next, things went sort of insane. Like someone had blown up the lower floor and announced their intentions to put Madarame's head on a pike outside the ruins of the museum or something. Guards started manifesting everywhere-half the secret passages Haruto had been using to get around closed off simultaneously, and the echoing boom of Madarame's voice bellowed from somewhere above—
"It's those damn brats's doing, isn't it? Well it means nothing… They'll only be able to do as they please until this exhibit is over…"
Huh. It didn't seem like they'd told him, but… he was definitely aware they were coming for the Treasure. How strange.
But more important than that—they definitely weren't in here—which was just as well for them, because even Haruto would have trouble trying to get out under this level of security.
Or, he would have, if he didn't have his little trick up his sleeve.
A few seconds later he was back out on the street near where Madarame lived, already beginning to feel the dreaded Metaverse-energy-drain sink into his limbs as he leant against a wall. What a pain.
Well, he'd discovered one thing, at least—that whatever it was they did to cause the Treasure to manifest, they did it outside the Metaverse, and that it raised the Palace security level horrifically. Which he supposed probably made sense—it was just that whenever he did it he tended to be too close to the Treasure already to really notice. And he could get out wherever he wanted without the hassle of trying to return to the entry point of the Palace. That helped too. These interlopers must be strong runners if they managed to get all the way back to the start of the Palace without it collapsing on them as they exited.
…Then again, it was the Metaverse. It wasn't like they'd actually die from a stray piece of rubble in there.
Again the word 'reckless' sprang to mind. Oh, why did Yusuke have to get involved with such a bunch of fools? Haruto could have handled this perfectly well himself, without these hopeless beginners interfering but… there was nothing to be done now. He just had to handle it. Somehow.
One thing was for certain though—the interlopers would have to move quickly if they wanted to take advantage of Madarame's confusion—which meant they had to be going in on Monday.
So it was tomorrow.
The day Madarame's Palace would finally collapse for good.
***
Monday 23rd May
Wakaba was waiting for him in the café that morning.
"Hi," said Haruto, dodging around the counter to sweep his lunch out of the fridge. "It's unusual to see you here this early."
Sojiro was notably absent, in fact. Maybe he'd asked her to help him set up?
"How's your foot?" she asked, ignoring his preamble.
"On the mend. I've been taking my medicine."
"Can you run on it yet?"
There was a sharp edge to her tone as she said it, as though she was already well aware of him testing that boundary to its limit. Well. She always had been the smart one.
"Almost," he said, deciding to hedge it. She'd know the truth either way. And besides, he didn't want to hint too much with Futaba's bugs still dotted around.
"Will you be up for the project I asked you to work on?" she asked, obviously aware they were being monitored too.
"I will," he said. "By the end of the week."
Every Friday after school—when he wasn't injured. That was the arrangement.
"Good. You should hurry along—you'll miss your train."
"I will."
Another thing he needed to plan for. But for now, he needed to make sure Madarame was dealt with. Then he could see to Shido.