Wednesday 25th May
As it turned out, he didn't have to 'wait and see' for long at all.
He'd been busy-he could no longer expect to get by in Shido's Palace on his usual talent alone, and he needed to plan for minor injuries at the very least. As a result he'd picked up even more shifts, and had used his extra money to obtain what was probably about three first-aid kits worth of healing supplies.
Wakaba had been keeping a close eye on him, and he could sense her increasing nervousness as they got closer and closer to the date of their next heist.
But surprisingly, the first unusual development of that week was not to do with Shido. It was during lunch, when Yusuke sat down next to him. This in itself was now somewhat unusual. Yusuke had been somewhat avoiding him since he'd joined with the interlopers—probably not intentionally, he just seemed… distracted. Which made sense, what with his discovery of the Metaverse and pursuit of Madarame's Shadow.
"Haruto," he said, sparking off conversation, which was, again, unusual for him. "Could I impose on your time for a short while?"
"Sure," said Haruto, putting down his lunchbox. "What's up?"
"It's just… I know I haven't mentioned this to you, but I've met a few people from Shujin Academy, and… I suppose we've become friends."
Yusuke's eyes were flickering about nervously, as though he wasn't sure how Haruto would take this news.
"Well, that's great," said Haruto, smiling at him. Of course, in reality he couldn't care less about Yusuke's new, foolish group of friends, but there was no need to let him know the depths of that resentment just yet. "I'm glad you've met more people you get along with."
"Ah, yes," said Yusuke, smiling nervously. "Well, I mentioned you to them, as another one of my friends, and now it seems they very much want to meet you. You don't have to, of course, I would never want to pressure you, and to be honest I feel very embarrassed about the whole thing, but… if you did want to…"
Was this really happening? Was he seriously being invited to meet the Metaverse interlopers purely by chance? Was he really being given this kind of opportunity?
…Maybe the universe didn't hate him.
"I would be happy to, Yusuke," he said.
Yusuke smiled. "I'm glad of that. I was worried… but nevermind. Would you like to join me after school?"
"Of course," said Haruto. "Where were you planning to meet them?"
"In Shibuya, by the overpass."
It made sense—Shibuya was about half-way between Shujin and Kosei, after all.
"I'll walk with you there."
"Thank you," said Yusuke, still smiling.
It was nice that he could smile now, without the creeping menace of Madarame looming over him. He hadn't had his public breakdown yet, but… it would be soon, of that there was no doubt.
And now he would get to meet the perpetrators in-person. How exciting.
***
It seemed that everyone else had gathered together before he and Yusuke arrived at the Shibuya overpass. Hmm. Perhaps Kosei was a little further away than he'd thought. Or Shujin was a bit closer. Either way, it was definitely them.
They looked almost alarmingly normal in their school clothes—despite the fact almost all of them seemed to be breaking the dress code.
The blonde girl he'd noticed first in the group appeared to be wearing a hoodie under her uniform, along with bright red leggings that, as he'd suspected, made her stand out about a mile away. The blonde boy was a little more subtle, having replaced the usual school jumper with a rather flashy T-shirt, meanwhile Akechi Goro, apparently attempting to be the model student (which wasn't too surprising, he was a celebrity, after all) appeared to be the only one dressed in his proper school uniform. What a gaggle of misfits.
"Ah, we appear to have arrived late, my apologies," said Yusuke, jogging over to the group.
Haruto hurried along next to him, and had been about to introduce himself, until—
A cat stuck its head out of Akechi's bag, shook itself, then said, in a deeply annoyed tone, "I'll say you are! Where have you been? Did you get lost on the way here?"
Haruto couldn't stop himself from staring at it. That was a cat. An actual real cat. But it… talked? It definitely talked, right? He wasn't just… completely losing it?
"Is something wrong?" asked Akechi, suddenly glaring at him quite menacingly.
Uh… Probably he should be the one to be asking that, all things considered but… he needed to think on his feet. The others didn't seem aware the cat could talk, so…
"You have… a cat… in your bag…" Haruto managed to stutter—and in fairness to him it wasn't like most people made a habit of carrying their cats around in bags all day anyway.
"Is that a problem?" asked Akechi, still glaring at him.
Meanwhile, the blond boy had edged around him and appeared to be making a strong effort to try and shove the cat back in, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like, 'Shut up, Mona, he can't understand you!'
Wait, Mona? Like, the Metaverse Mona? Oh. How utterly stupid of him. Of course the cat-creature would appear as a cat in the real world. Dear God, what an embarrassing mistake. Maybe the creature deserved to be released if Haruto couldn't even spot a magic cat when he saw one.
Akechi sighed exasperatedly as Mona finally gave up the fight and sunk back into his bag, disappearing from view and allowing himself to be zipped away again. That poor thing must put up with a lot if Akechi really did drag it around all day…
"So this is your friend, Kitagawa-kun?" asked Akechi, looking like he wanted nothing less than to introduce Haruto as the topic of conversation, but was doing so anyway out of a forced habit.
Well, it was nice to know the animosity Haruto felt towards him was reciprocated… albeit, probably for the wrong reasons.
"Yes, I'm Namikaze Haruto," said Haruto, projecting his best polite smile. "But you can just call me Haruto. Yusuke's given me to understand he's recently become a friend of yours, is that right?"
"Sure is," said the blond boy, beaming at him. "I'm Sakamoto Ryuji—but just call me Ryuji."
"And I'm Ann," said the blonde girl. "Nice to meet you, Haruto!"
Hmm, both of them seemed far peppier than Akechi—he could see them being friends quite easily, and it would make sense for one of them to approach Yusuke if he was feeling down. A picture was beginning to form in Haruto's mind of what might have happened to bring the two groups together…
"Nice to meet you too," he said, before turning back to Akechi. "And you are?"
He already knew who Akechi was, of course, but that didn't mean Haruto didn't expect to be introduced regardless.
"Akechi Goro," said Akechi, tonelessly. "A pleasure, I'm sure."
They lapsed into silence—Akechi's initial aggression about Mona seemed to have made things quite awkward, and Haruto was aware that Yusuke could sense it too, going by his fidgeting.
"So," he said, deciding to break the silence. "Is there a story behind the cat or are you just very attached to it?"
Ryuji snorted at that, and Akechi aimed a glare at the side of his head. They hadn't seemed to get along particularly well in the Palace either… what an odd group of people.
"It's nothing special," said Akechi, shifting the bag that held Mona on his shoulder. "He just… likes to be with me, that's all."
He scowled at the floor as he said it, as though Haruto was forcing him to admit to something he was ashamed of. Of course, with the cat being sentient, it was possible it actually had bullied Akechi into carrying it around, in which case he was right to be embarrassed. Still. Haruto wasn't supposed to know that.
"Well, it's nice that you care about his well being, Akechi-san. Does he have a name?"
"He's called Morgana," said Ann, before Akechi could say anything. "Or Mona for short!"
"What a nice name," said Haruto, smiling.
"We didn't choose it," grumbled Akechi.
Oof. Well, let it not be said that Haruto didn't know when he wasn't wanted. Still, it was a shame that the leader of their group had taken such a dislike to him. What a pain.
"Well, it was certainly nice meeting you all," he said, endeavouring to remain polite. "Thank you for introducing me, Yusuke."
"Oh," said Yusuke, looking a little surprised at being introduced into the conversation. "You're welcome, Haruto."
"Were you guys planning on going anywhere?" he asked, turning back to the group. "It's just that I have a late shift tonight so I need to have dinner pretty soon, or I won't eat at all."
"Nothing you should trouble yourself with," said Akechi, with a sharp edge to his voice. "If you have places to be, please don't let us stop you, Namikaze-kun."
Huh. What a jackass. Perhaps Akechi sensed Haruto's annoyance behind the facade… or perhaps he was just rude—either way, it was obvious he wouldn't be able to find out anything more about them than he already knew by sticking around.
"Apologies if I've wasted your time," he said, with a gracious smile. "I'll get going then. Yusuke, I assume you'll want to join them?"
"No," said Yusuke, and to Haruto's surprise he seemed to be staring in a highly peeved manner at Akechi. "I'll join you for dinner, if that's alright."
"Fine by me," said Haruto, with a shrug. He turned back to the group, to find that both Ann and Ryuji seemed somewhat annoyed with Akechi too. Interesting. It seemed the group might be more on the rocks than he'd thought. "I'll catch you around sometime."
"Yes, of course," said Ann, smiling a bit desperately. "See you around, Haruto!"
"See you!" Ryuji called back.
Akechi remained silent as he and Yusuke walked away.
They walked in silence for about five minutes before Yusuke sighed deeply and turned to him.
"I'm sorry about that, Haruto. I had no idea he'd be so stand-offish—I had hoped it was only a childish whim, but…"
"It's fine," said Haruto. "You don't have to apologize for him. Your other friends seemed quite nice."
"Ann and Ryuji, yes," said Yusuke, quietly. "Akechi himself normally isn't so bad, but… I suppose he can be quite inappropriately rude, at times."
Yes, Haruto had noticed that in the Metaverse too. He was their leader, but that fact didn't seem to have gone down easy within the group. A difficult personality to rally around, it seemed.
"I don't care what he thinks of me," said Haruto. "After all, I already have a good friend, don't I?"
Yusuke laughed quietly, turning his head away. "You're too kind, but thank you. I have… missed seeing you, these past few days."
"You were busy," said Haruto. "I understand."
Besides, he himself was going to be very busy in the upcoming days…
"Well, not so much anymore," said Yusuke. "My project is complete, so I promise I'll no longer ignore you—to the best of my ability."
Haruto laughed. "Ah, that sounds like you, Yusuke. So then, where do you want to go for dinner?"
"Oh, you'd really take me?" asked Yusuke, looking at him with wide eyes. "I only used it as an excuse to escape conversation."
"It's fine," said Haruto, shrugging. "I've been working a lot these last few weeks. I have some money left over so… why not?"
"Thank you, Haruto," said Yusuke, beaming at him. "In fact there is a place I've always wanted to go…"