"I think the Phantom Thieves deserve to be hailed as heroes." A primly dressed woman said in the TV screen. Below her was the label 'Kitamura Yoko'.

The suited man on her left scoffed loudly but made no other noises. A name appeared underneath him, 'Ito Daiki: representative for the Hero Public Safety Commission'.

On Kitamura's right was another suited man named Fukuzawa Hiroto. "Can you explain why, Kitamura-san?" He asked politely.

"Simple. They were the ones who saved Tokyo—"

"—You don't know that." Ito interrupted rudely. "There's no proof that they were the ones who did it. It's more likely that they were the ones who committed this heinous crime judging from their past actions!"

"You heard their voices all throughout the city, Ito-san," Kitamura said, obviously trying to keep her cool. "You said so yourself. You were there at the time. We all were. You heard how they spoke to that god—"

"—Hah—!"

"—and you saw those two demons they summoned in order to take it down! They were the ones who saved Tokyo while the heroes couldn't!"

Ito looked personally insulted and snapped back, ignoring Fukuzawa's attempts to appease the both of them. "The Pro Heroes were doing their best to save the city! The Phantom Thieves were the ones who created that mess! It was just a part of their ploy to garner supporters!"

"And where's your proof of that?" Kitamura shot.

"Well it's a lot more believable than a god coming down to take control of the city." Ito sneered. "The very idea of gods existing is ludicrous!"

She smiled wryly. "Funny, I thought you claimed to be a follower of Shintoism."

Ito flushed a furious red, having been caught in a lie on live television. He stole a quick glance at the camera before turning back to her, glaring.

"There is no other way that that thing could be anything but a god," Kitamura continued, becoming serious once more. "What it did wasn't through the use of a Quirk. There is no Quirk that powerful, that destructive, that versatile... It was the work of a god. Yaldabaoth to be specific, the god of control."

"It was not a god," Ito seethed. "It was just some sort of illusion formed by the Phantom Thieves—"

"—Then how do you explain the 2% of the population that faded away and had yet to return?" Fukuzawa cut in, finally joining in on the conversation. "Tokyo had a population of roughly 14 million people and 2% of that is now gone. That's 280,000 people who just disappeared into thin air. No human can do that."

"Not to mention Yaldabaoth managed to temporarily remove everyone's Quirks. Even the mutants ones." Kitamura added. "How is that an illusion? As impressive as the Phantom Thieves are, I don't think even they are able to do all that with whatever Quirks they have. What we can give them credit for is for the defeat of the god of control. Because of them, we were saved from Yaldabaoth."

Fukuzawa nodded in agreement. "I think the same thing as well. So far, the Phantom Thieves haven't done anything morally wrong. While they have broken a few laws and their methods are somewhat questionable, we can't deny the fact that all of their targets are criminals. Criminals that our own police officers and Pro Heroes failed to catch."

"We even have eyewitnesses stating that the heroes behaved poorly during the attack," Kitamura stated. "Some Pros fled, most panicked, one even claimed that a Pro Hero threw her out of her own vehicle and tried to steal it for himself only to realize that the car was no longer working. No heroes tried to fix the situation."

"Because they didn't have any Quirks!" Ito defended.

"And that makes them useless all of a sudden?" Kitamura frowned. "While I understand losing a Quirk is hard to deal with, they should've done their jobs as heroes. Even if they couldn't fight back, they could've at least tried to pacify the crowds. What these Pros were caught doing reflected poorly on the hero society as a whole."

"So what?" Ito snarked, flustered. "Are you saying you want to disband the Pro Heroes Association so—so the Phantom Thieves could take over? Give them a reward maybe? Or kick All Might out and put them in first place instead—is that what you're suggesting?!"

"Calm down, Ito-san." Fukuzawa said soothingly. "Kitamura-san isn't saying that at all. She just wants to prove a point: that the Phantom Thieves were the heroes yesterday."

"It was nothing but an outrageous plot to—"

"—and that's the end of this morning's segment! After the commercial break, we'll be introducing our next topic: Are the Phantom Thieves gods or humans?" A voice chimed.

"Oh my," Rei said as she and Shiina watched the news channel in her room. "You and your friends really managed to shake society."

"Yep," Shiina grinned. "I almost feel bad for the heroes. Almost."

Rei grabbed the remote and switched to another channel. This one was a lot funnier than the last.

"The Phantom Thieves must be some sort of gods too! How else could they use their Quirks while everyone else couldn't?!" A fanatic looking man exclaimed.

Rei switched again.

"The Phantom Thieves are like, so much better than the Pros!" A middle-school girl beamed. "I wish I could met them in person!"

Shiina sighed aloud. "They went from loving us, to hating us, to forgetting we ever existed, and now they love us again. Society's pretty damn fickle."

"Language." Rei chided gently.

"Sorry..." She smiled sheepishly.

They both turned their attention to the television when the words 'Hero Killer' came up.

"Three more Heroes were found dead this morning in Hosu City. This time, their bodies were displayed publicly for all to see. The Hero Killer even left a message on the sidewalk using the victims' blood. It reads 'Only Phantom Thieves may be spared from this purge'. This makes the Hero Killer's body count rise to thirteen since the Phantom Thieves supposedly saved Japan from annihilation. Authorities speculate that the Hero Killer is purposely keeping his purge in Tokyo, where it is known that the Pros stationed there acted appallingly during the chaos."

"He's here..." Rei whispered, staring expressionlessly at the screen.

"Yeah..." Shiina murmured, wearing the same face. I hope he meets dear old 'dad'. Despite her dark thoughts, she plastered on a comforting smile for her mother's sake. "He'll be taken down before he even gets too close to us, so don't worry, mom."

Rei set the remote down once she reached a showing of some live concert. "Now that things are calmer for you, what will you and your friends be doing now?"

Shiina grinned excitedly at the mention of her well-deserved break. "Weeelll," she stretched out. "All schools in Tokyo are closed for the time being, and UA is even exempting those who live in Tokyo to recover from what happened yesterday. So my friends and I were thinking about having a nice little sleepover at Akira's place."

"...Isn't his place the attic?" Rei asked unsurely.

"It's a pretty spacious attic," Shiina shrugged. "It'll be us Phantom Thieves, Sho-chan, Kenny, and Mishima."

"Sounds like fun," Rei smiled.

"Yeah but tomorrow Yusuke and I gotta go to work. Can you believe we still have to work after this whole mess?" She pouted.

"A lot of people are forced to go back to work regardless of what happened," the older woman said. "It's not ideal, but money is money. Are you all packed up for your sleepover?" She wisely changed the subject.

Shiina perked up. "Sho-chan and I are gonna go shopping for sleeping bags later."

Rei glanced at the clock and frowned slightly. "Perhaps you should go now. The nurses will be coming to make their rounds soon."

Shiina checked the time on her phone and let out a disappointed sigh. She was right. Standing up, she grabbed her things and gave her mom a 'see you later' hug before going over to open the window.

"Oh, and, um, Shiina?"

"Hmm?"

"Maybe you can visit me during the actual visitation hours?" Rei suggested.

"Good idea, but uh... will the doctors let me?" Shiina asked nervously. Only family members were allowed to visit her after all.

"My doctor knows who you are." Rei said softly.

Her eyes nearly bugged out. "Wait, what do you mean by that? 'Know me' as in he knows that I exist or that he knows that—"

"—you're my daughter," Rei finished for her. She nodded in confirmation. "Yes, he knows. As does my nurse. I talk about you a lot so naturally they would know."

Shiina's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She never once humored the thought of her mother telling other people about her. She always thought that maybe her name would just be mentioned in passing and that would be it. Hearing that her mom actually spoke about her a lot warmed her heart.

But then she realized something:

"Wait, you're saying I could've just came in here like a normal person?"

Rei chuckled at the question and nodded her head. "Yes. During visitation hours only of course."

"Wow," she blinked. "Now I feel stupid."

"Shiina."

"How is that a bad word?!"

After promising to visit her mother during the normal visitation hours, she sneaked out through the window and set out for Walmart to meet up with Shouto.

"What do people even do in sleepovers?" He asked as they looked through the store for sleeping bags.

"The usual things like... watching movies, eating junk food, maybe even do a makeover or two. Whenever I slept over at Ryuji's we'd just play video games the whole night—oh but there was this one time where he let me paint his nails as long as there was no glitter." She grinned brightly at the beautiful memory. "We also played around in the pool a lot, but there's no pool near Leblanc. There's a bathhouse though!"

"A bathhouse?" Shouto's face scrunched up in displeasure.

She waved a hand, "Yeah, but it's separated by gender so don't worry. Besides, I don't think we're gonna go there anyways."

He didn't dare to get his hopes up. He was positive that those demon spawns—the male members of the Phantom Thieves and maybe even Ken and Mishima—would whip up some crazy scheme to see his sister naked. The only one he somewhat trusted was Morgana but he was... gone now.

They finally reached the camping aisle where they saw an assortment of sleeping bags. There were so many that the twins didn't know which to pick.

"You know, maybe we should've asked Aizawa sensei for a recommendation," Shiina mused, looking around before letting out a small gasp. "Never mind, I just found a pink one! It's mine!"

"Shiina that says it's for ages 10 and up." Shouto pointed out.

"So what? I'm ten and up!"

"It's too small for you. It's for children."

"But this is the only pink one around!" She complained. 

"This one has flowers." Shouto said, quickly pulling out a decently sized sleeping bag out of nowhere.

"Ooh, that one's prettier." She agreed, completely ignoring the pink one for the more superior sleeping bag.

"So how did your visit with mom go?" He asked, eyes surveying the products. "By the way, you can always just visit her legally."

"Yes, I know that now. You could've told me before I tried to sneak in," she rolled her eyes, pushing his shoulder when she saw the amused look on his face. "And we mostly talked about what happened yesterday and the retirement plan."

"Retirement plan?" He echoed, giving her a weird look.

"Yeah, the sleepover."

"Not much of a retirement plan," he said dryly.

She just shrugged in reply.

"So that's it then? No more Metaverse? No more Palaces or Mementos?" He asked with a twinge of hope.

"Yep," she said, smiling in relief. "The Phantom Thieves are officially no more. We're all gonna try and live normal lives and give ourselves a long needed vacation."

He nodded approvingly. "Good. You guys deserve a break after all of this." The amount of times he had seen his sister's haggard state was more than what he liked, so he was genuinely glad that she and her friends wouldn't have to suffer so much anymore.

"We also watched the news reports and talk shows about us," she added. "Did you know some people are saying that the Phantom Thieves are gods?"

"It's outrageous," he agreed. "But think about it in their viewpoint. Everyone's Quirks were gone, but you guys were still able to fight back with your powers. They don't know that you're actually a group of Quirkless teenagers... Though I think that their theory of you guys being 'gods' is more believable than the whole Persona explanation... To be honest, all of that is still confusing for me..."

She patted his shoulder. "You'll get it some day nii-chan."

He made a face, about to say that it would never make sense to him when her excited gasp cut him off. She scurried off to the end of the row and snatched a rolled up sleeping bag and thrust it at his face.

"Look Sho-chan, it's red and white just like you!" She exclaimed.

"...That's because the Canadian flag is on it." He deadpanned.

"It's perfect for you."

"I'm not getting that one," he said, walking passed her. He grabbed a sleeping bag and expected it. "I'll just get this one."

"It's ugly but if that's what you wish..."

They walked over to the counters to pay for their sleeping bags. On the way there, Shiina caught a glimpse of an indoor s'mores maker and Shouto had to physically drag her away before she could be tempted any further. After paying for their things, they exited the store and began walking their way towards Leblanc.

The little hairs on the back of her neck suddenly rose up, alerting her of a nearby predator. It was the same sort of danger she would sense whenever a Shadow was prowling around... but that couldn't be it, right? There were no Shadows in the real world, so it must be something else...

She craned her neck and tried to look for whoever was watching her, but all she could see were sullen looking faces. Nobody was paying her or her brother any mind.

It's probably just nothing, she thought, dismissing it.

"I should really buy a car one day," She sighed, enviously staring at the cars driving by them.

"You need to be eighteen." He pointed out to her.

"So what? I can pass off as eighteen, can't I?" She asked.

"I wished you didn't," he lamented.

She ignored that. "Plus, I already know how to drive thanks to all the times I've driven the Morgana-mobile," mentioning his name hurt, but she didn't show it. "What kinda car do you think I should get? A Maserati? I like the little trident symbol they have. A Bugatti would be nice too... Oh, oh, oh! A Rolls Royce would be super cool! Endeavor doesn't have that! Hah! Imagine his ugly face when I roll up to get you while driving a Rolls Royce!"

While she was ranting about the many luxury cars she wanted to own one day, Shouto spied a familiar animal nabbing a nice looking fish from a food stand.

"Shiina," Shouto spoke. "About Morgana... Did he really disappear?"

She stopped talking about cars and immediately became sullen. "Yeah, we watched him fade away with the rest of Mementos..."

"And you're sure he can't come back...?"

"Nope," she answered.

"Yuck!" Morgana exclaimed, and Shouto's eyes widened when he realized he could still understand him. "This fish isn't fresh at all! Your sign lies!"

Shiina sighed miserably. "Sometimes I can still hear his voice..."

"You should be fired for selling this trash!" Morgana scolded.

Shiina blinked awkwardly. "Huh... For some reason his voice sounds really real to me..."

Shouto pointed at the food stand and finally said, "Morgana's right there."

She turned around only to gawk. "Morgana?!"

Morgana whirled around too. "Huh? Oh! Shiina, you're—"

"—We thought you were dead you sneaky little furball!" Shiina growled, thundering over to him.

"Stop screaming at the cat or people are going to think you're crazy," Shouto hissed in her ear.

Registering that, Shiina scooped the cat into her arms and gave him a half-hearted glare. "Care to explain yourself, young man?" She scolded once they were out of earshot.

"My other world self disappeared, but I came back a few hours later in this form. I don't exactly know why, but I think it's because you guys kept me in your minds and approved of me belonging in the team." He explained. "So it's really thanks to you all that I'm back, but... I'm stuck in this form now. Which means no more using my Persona."

"You can't...?!"

Morgana shook his head. "Nope. When my other form went away, so did my ability to summon Mercurius. Trust me, I've tried. I can only summon Mercurius if I switch to my other form and rip my mask off, but I can't anymore so... I'm stuck like this. It's fine I guess, since we no longer have to deal with Shadows and Palaces anyways."

"Why can I still understand you?" Shouto asked, confused.

"Well you were able to hear me speak while we were in the Tokyo-slash-Mementos, so now that your brain's registered the fact that I can speak, you can now understand me in the real world." Morgana stated.

"So it's another cognition thing..." He muttered under his breath.

"Yes, but that's not important right now," Morgana looked up at Shiina. "Have you heard what people have been saying regarding the Phantom Thieves?"

"Yeah, people think we're gods." She snorted.

"Not just that," he shook his head. "But it looks like we've garnered the attention of the famous Hero Killer, Stain. Apparently he thinks that we're the only ones in the world who are worthy enough to be called 'heroes'. I'm worried about what he's doing..." He trailed off.

"Oh no," Shiina shook her head furiously. "No, no, no. Don't give me that look."

"What look?" He asked innocently.

"The 'we gotta stop this' look. Nope. The Hero Killer is none of our business. We are retired now, Morgana. We're all gonna give ourselves some time to relax. No worrying about Shadows, no worrying about the Hero Killer, no worrying about anything." She stressed.

"Okay, fine." He relented. "What are you guys doing anyways?"

"We're currently about to cross off step one of our retirement plan." She beamed.

"It's really not much of a retirement plan." Shouto mumbled from beside her.

She promptly ignored him. "We're all gonna have a sleepover at Akira's place. It's the gang, plus Sho-chan, Mishima, and Kenny. You're invited too now that you're no longer dead."

"Will there be fish?" He asked hopefully.

"Who knows," she shrugged. "But I'll give Akira the memo."

"Then count me in!"

— ❤ —

"I can't believe you didn't bother to tell us you were alive!" Ryuji shouted in outrage.

Morgana rolled his eyes as he settled comfortably on Akira's bed. "What did you want me to do? Send you guys a text through my nonexistent cellphone?"

"He's got a point," Makoto stated.

"Exactly, now stop with the angry act we all know you missed him." Shiina smirked.

"Yeah, stop being so Tsun Tsun." Futaba snickered.

"I missed you so much~" Akira fake cried, throwing himself onto the bed where Morgana unfortunately was. His yowl of pain was muffled as he was buried underneath the human's body.

"Get off!" Morgana hissed, crawling desperately to get away. "God, I think you gained some weight while I was gone."

Akira straightened up, insulted. "You were gone for barely a day!"

"He eats a lot when he's sad," Ann said, shaking her head.

"Yeah more than Ann eats on a regular basis." Ryuji joked.

She smacked him. "Shut up, you!"

"Akira cried after you left." Akechi chimed before a pillow was thrown at his face.

"It's true," Shouto added bluntly. "His eyes were red and there was snot running down his nose."

"It wasn't a very flattering picture." Yusuke said, making a face.

"Aw leave him alone guys, he thought his cat died." Ken sympathized.

"I am not a cat!" Morgana growled.

"Right, right, of course you're not." The brunette raised his hands.

"I think it was very sweet of our brave leader to cry at the end," Haru smiled.

"Technically he's not your guys' leader anymore," Mishima piped up. "As much as I hate to say this, the Phantom Thieves have officially broken up."

"Geesh, Mishima, you make it sound like we were some band." Ryuji snorted.

"How's the Goodbye Page going, Mishima-kun?" Haru suddenly inquired.

Upon learning that the Phantom Thieves were permanently closed for business, Mishima decided that making a 'Goodbye' page on the Phantom Aficionado website was appropriate. It would definitely disappoint all of their fans, but it was the only way to tell them that they wouldn't be able to take up their requests anymore. Plus, the group really really deserved a very long break after all the shit they went through.

"It's the same as usual," he sighed. "You guys wanna help out? I think you guys should be the ones to write this anyways."

"Whaddya got so far?" Shiina asked, taking a peek at his laptop. "Dear Phantom Fans, we offer our dearest... condolences...?! Dude, it sounds like you're sending some bland FaceBook post about someone who just died..."

"They faded away more like," Ken corrected, an uncomfortable expression on his face. "Does that really mean they died though...?"

The group fell silent.

"They did," Akira said quietly. Everyone turned to him. "I had one last meeting with Igor in the Velvet Room and he confirmed it. The people who faded away... they're never coming back."

"Over 280,000 people died..." Makoto said shakily.

"Because... we failed to save them in time." Haru breathed out.

"Oh... oh my god..." Shiina choked, feeling sick all of a sudden.

"Don't blame yourselves over this," Ken said sternly, giving them all a firm look. "None of you could have prevented this from happening, but you did stop it from getting worse. Imagine the greater damage Yaldabaoth could've caused if you failed to stop him. It's because of you guys that Tokyo was saved and Japan too since Yaldabaoth would've spread his control even farther."

Shouto nodded in agreement. "You can't save everyone. You guys did your best to save the rest of the population and you succeeded."

"They're right," Mishima added. "If it hadn't been for you guys..." He trailed off. "Well, I don't think we'd be here right now."

"...May I?" Yusuke asked softly, motioning towards the laptop. "I'd... like to write my piece."

"Me too..."

"I as well..."

"I'll go after..."

Soon enough, the Phantom Thieves worked together to write their farewells. It took them over an hour since they wanted the whole thing to be perfect and sincere. By dinner time, they were able to write a heartfelt goodbye page of a decent length.

Dear dedicated fans,

We, the Phantom Thieves, are writing this to all our old and new fans to say our goodbyes. As of today, the Phantom Thieves are officially disbanded.

The reason for our disbandment is simple. We spent two years of our lives fighting certain monsters, and we decided it was time we gave ourselves a long and well-needed break, especially after our major fight against Yaldabaoth. While we enjoyed our time serving justice to those who evaded it, we also enjoyed what our lives were like before we started this journey.

This means we will no longer be hunting villains down nor will we be taking down anymore requests. We are now entrusting the policemen and heroes to do their jobs. Many of you will be disappointed, but we feel like we've been stealing their thunder for too long. Understandably, some of you might too anxious to step forward or just plain scared or unsure. We know all too well how that feels.

Each of us were shackled down by society. We allowed ourselves to stand down and obey our oppressors but we decided to fight back and broke free from our chains. We liberated ourselves one by one and took down the ones who wronged us. We learned that we would only suffer further if we didn't take action. So stay strong. Stand up for yourselves. Because if you refuse to take a stand than nothing will be done.

And lastly, we deeply apologize to those who have suffered a loss during our final battle against Yaldabaoth. There are no excuses for our failure to prevent them from fading away and there are no words to describe how sorry we are.

Good luck and farewell to you all.

Sincerely,

The Phantom Thieves.

"And... done." Makoto finished typing up the last line.

Mishima took the laptop from her. "You're sure? No grammar or spelling mistakes or anything?"

"I already checked," she confirmed.

He nodded in response and began clicking away. "Alright... I'll be posting it at the welcome page so people can see it right away. And... done. It's posted. Oh wow, there's already a lot of activity on it now."

"I didn't think they'd come flooding in that fast," Shiina muttered under her breath.

"Whoa, a bunch of people are commenting too!" Ryuji exclaimed, eyes glued to his phone.

Shiina was about to lean in closer to him to see his screen when Shouto suddenly shoved his own phone at her face. "Look," he said before giving the older blonde a side-glare.

"I'm amazed," Akechi commented, looking at his screen too. "I didn't expect them to be so supportive of our decision."

Shiina was scrolling through the comments section, a bright smile on her face as she began to read some of them aloud. "'We're very grateful for everything you've done for us', 'you guys deserve a retirement!'—oh and we got someone demanding for a face reveal."

"That's never gonna happen," Akira quipped.

A low rumble suddenly sounded in the air and naturally, all heads gravitated towards Yusuke who tenderly placed a hand over his stomach.

"Ah, it appears it's time for dinner. Shall we bring out the food?" He said elegantly as ever, as if his stomach didn't just growl loud enough for the whole city to hear.

"Sure," Ann replied. "Anything to get our minds off of this."

There was no way the Thieves would ever get over what Yaldabaoth had done, that much was obvious to Ken, Shouto, and Mishima as they glanced at one another.

'Dinner' consisted of a whole bunch of junk food that Ken and Makoto didn't approve of, some pancakes from Akechi, and Shouto brought literal soba noodles and ordered Akira to prepare him his favorite meal.

In the middle of their meals, Ryuji came up with the brilliant idea to play Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

"Okay there's thirteen of us... And only eight can play... So who's going first?" Akira asked.

Shiina immediately snatched two controllers, tossing one to Shouto while keeping the other for herself. Ryuji did the same, as did a grinning Mishima and Ann.

"Goro, you're playing," Akira said, handing him a controller. "Anyone el—"

"—Me!" Futaba exclaimed, raising her hand. She was promptly given the last controller.

Makoto surveyed the players warily. "Of all the people... it had to be the loudest ones of the bunch..." She sighed deeply. "I can already imagine the noise complaints we'll be getting soon."

Akira picked a stage—the Big Battlefield—and randomly picked a song that would play. He finally got to everyone's favorite part before the battle: picking the characters. Akira, being the first player, got to pick first.

He chose Kirby.

"Of course you chose Kirby," Futaba muttered bitterly.

"I'm gonna be Princess Peach!" Shiina smiled widely.

"You're always Princess Peach," Ryuji rolled his eyes before picking Pikachu.

"Hypocrite! You're always Pikachu!" She shot. "What about you, Sho-nii, what are you going to pick?"

"...I like this one." Shouto decided on Yoshi.

"Thought for sure he was gonna get a cool character like Chrom," Futaba muttered to Mishima, who nodded in agreement.

"I'm gonna be Zero Suit Samus." Ann said, picking a blonde character that was somewhat similar to herself.

"Shulk." Mishima stated simply before it was finally Akechi's turn.

He stared blankly at the colorful screen. "I've never played this before."

"You have never lived before." Mishima shook his head.

"That's true too." Akechi said.

"You should be Little Mac," Ryuji suggested helpfully.

Shiina smacked his shoulder before shaking her head at Akechi. "Don't pick him, he's the worst character."

"How about Robin?" He asked.

"He's pretty low-tier..." Mishima trailed off.

Akechi only smiled. "I'll make him better." He said, before picking him.

"My turn!" Futaba grinned. "I'm gonna be Inkling. We sorta look alike anyways."

"Yeah, she's kinda like a rabid Futaba," Ryuji joked.

"A rabid Futaba that's gonna kick your Pikachu's ass." She glared.

"We'll see about that! Akira, start the battle!"

The teams were made. On one side was Akira, Shiina, Ryuji, and Shouto. On the other was Akechi, Ann, Mishima, and Futaba.

"GO!" Futaba yelled out as the battle began. The characters started fighting while Shiina rapidly muttered instructions to Shouto while Mishima did the same for Akechi.

Five minutes into the fight, Ryuji was the first to be taken down by inexperienced Shouto of all people.

"NOOOOO!" He screamed as Pikachu fell off the stage, his health gone. "Damn you, Shouto!"

Shouto smirked before going after Akechi next.

"Oh no you don't," the older boy muttered, making Robin jump up to a higher platform to avoid getting hit by Yoshi.

The next to go down was Ann, who Shiina took out while Princess Peach sustained some damage. Futaba and Akira were currently undergoing a fierce screaming match (with Makoto and Ken wincing in the background) and Akechi was still trying to escape from Shouto's grasps.

"Why are you so hellbent on trying to kill me...?!" Akechi let out a frustrated growl.

"Because you suck." Shouto answered bluntly.

"Daaaamn, Sho-chan," Shiina grinned wildly as he accidentally killed Mishima while aiming for Akechi. "That's two kills for you! You're on a roll!"

"I can't believe I lost to a newbie..." Mishima sighed. Ryuji clapped him on the back, knowing how he felt.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Futaba I swear to god if you kill me, I'm gonna kill you!" Shiina cursed up a storm, trying to get Princess Peach away from Inkling.

Futaba cackled maniacally, her fingers mashing the buttons to create the Killer Wail move.

"DODGE, DODGE, DODGE!" Akira and Ryuji screamed into poor Shiina's ears.

"I'm trying, oh my god, oh my god—NOOOOOOOO! Fuck you, Futaba!" Shiina wailed as her character was finally defeated. "Akira, Shouto, you two are our only hope—" Akira was just killed off by Futaba too. "Never mind. Sho-chan, you better win this!"

Shouto was the embodiment of focus. Eyes narrowed and finger swiftly moving across the controller, he finally succeeded in killing Akechi.

"It's just Futaba-chan and Shouto-kun now!" Haru gasped excitedly.

"Avenge us!" Ryuji cried out to Shouto.

"KILL HIM, FUTABA!" Akechi, Mishima and Ann shouted.

"YOU CAN DO IT, SHOUTO!" Shiina, Ryuji, and Akira shouted even louder.

Makoto groaned and covered her ears, hoping none of the neighbors would make a complaint about this.

Morgana was biting his paws anxiously, eyes darting to and fro. "Come on, Oracle, come on...!"

"These potato chips are scrumptious...!" Yusuke commented in the background, more invested in the food than the actual game that was going on.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," the teens chanted under their breaths.

"Sho-chan, you're dying!" Shiina squealed in terror.

"Dodge faster, dodge faster!" Ryuji hissed.

"You got him, Futaba!" Ann encouraged.

Futaba, who absolutely refused to lose to a newbie, used her best trump card against Shouto:

"Akira made out with Shiina during the fight against Yaldabaoth!"

The reaction was instantaneous. He turned away from the screen and faced her, wide-eyed.

"What?" He said.

Futaba won, but nobody was paying attention to that anymore.

Shouto looked towards Akira, who was inching back. "You did what?"

"Akechi kissed her while we were in Shido's Palace!" He blurted out.

Akechi sucked in a breath, turning as white as paper. He let out a nervous laugh as Shouto's glare was transferred over to him. "What? No I didn't, hahaha..."

"No, he did." Makoto told Shouto. "In fact, he kissed her twice."

"Niijima!" Akechi gave her a panicked look.

"Twice?" Shouto repeated, his glare turning harsher as the temperature of the room noticeably lowered.

"Now, Sho-chan..." Shiina began, feeling the pleading gazes of both of her friends. "You, um, have to, uh, understand the situation... Yaldabaoth cursed Akira to be horny and I just happened to be the first person he saw! A-and I don't even remember when Goro first kissed me 'cause that was before I die—uh, actually scratch that, and as for the second kiss, he was only doing it to be a little shit, right, Goro?"

"Right!" He answered far too quickly.

"So you both kissed her against her will." Shouto fumed.

Ryuji snorted. "Akira did a lil' more than that."

"Shut up!" Akira hissed.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Akechi shook his head furiously. "No, of course not, I—we just—"

"—I never should've trusted either of you for even a second!" Shouto spat. "I always knew you were the worst kind of perverts—"

"—Perverts?!"

"You're absolutely right," Morgana purred evilly. "I don't know about Crow, but you wouldn't believe the amount of times I'd wake up to Akira humping his pillow and moaning out your little sister's name."

Akira looked ready to die. "I do what?! No! I don't do that! Morgana, you're lying! He's lying, Shouto, I swear!"

"When we went to Akechi's place, I saw a bunch of pictures of Shiina tacked to the wall of his bedroom." Ann grinned mischievously.

Akechi gaped. "That is NOT true!"

The temperature grew colder.

"And the amount of times Akira would flirt with Shiina during missions," Ryuji fake groaned.

"It's unbecoming of a leader." Haru nodded in agreement.

"One time," Ken began. "When we had the Thieves over at my place, Akechi purposely spilled his drink all over the front of Shiina's shirt and offered to 'wipe up'."

"I never did that—!"

"—I remember that," Yusuke said with a smile on his face. "He and Akira had a fight over who got to wipe Shiina's shirt."

"We did not—"

Shouto's mind was buzzing from all the information he was learning. His poor little sister was surrounded by the biggest pair of perverts in the world! They were worse than Mineta! He couldn't allow them to corrupt her any further and so, he came to a decision.

He looked at the two accused, who were trying to hide themselves behind an exasperated Shiina—and of course they'd use her as a shield—and said something that brought their hearts to a halt.

"I can't allow either of you live anymore."

— ❤ —

Naturally, chaos ensued after those dark words of promise were uttered. Shouto immediately tried to freeze them to death, but they dodged the ice and tried to jump out the window. Shiina yanked them back down (accidentally pantsing them in the process, oopsies) and gave Shouto a firm lecture about killing her friends in front of her.

He then promised to attempt murder when she wasn't around. She rather he didn't murder them period, but she had to compromise much to Akira and Akechi's despair.

After things calmed down, Akira set up the next game while Futaba sneakily sent everyone else pictures of him and Akechi with their pants down.

The next stage turned out to be Peach's Castle.

"I guess I'll be Lucario," Makoto said, shrugging.

"It totally suits her," Ryuji muttered to Shiina, who was busy comforting a clingy and pouty Shouto (he really wanted to kill her friends).

"I've never played this before either," Ken admitted, scrolling through the characters. He stopped at Cloud Strife, appraising him. "He looks tough. Huge sword too. I'll pick him."

Shiina sighed dreamily. "Have you seen the remake for Final Fantasy 7? They made Cloud look even hotter than before."

Ryuji gawked at her. "Seriously? You're into fictional guys with weird-ass hair and not—" He stopped himself right than and there. "You know what? I'm gonna join in again. I need to redeem myself after being the first to die."

"I shall be Fox," Yusuke smiled pleasantly.

"Good choice." Akira nodded in approval.

"I'll be Palutena." Haru stated. "For some reason, I'm reminded of flowers when I look at her."

"Okay, we need three more—" Akira was cut off by Morgana who hopped onto the nearest controller.

"I'm playing too!" He chimed.

"Huh?" Haru blinked. "Can you really use the controller with your paws?"

"Of course I can!" He said defensively. "In fact, I'll have the highest kill count too!" He picked Chrom.

"If you say so," Shouto said, snatching the next controller. "I'm playing again." His character was Link this time.

"I'm going again too," Akechi said determinedly, narrowing his eyes at Shouto. He wanted revenge for the attempted murder. He changed his character to Greninja.

It was Ryuji, Shouto, Ken and Yusuke versus Makoto, Akechi, Haru, and Morgana.

The game started.

Haru let out an alarmed gasp as her character jumped around desperately. "Oh my, the floor moves?"

Shiina helped herself to the plate of nachos Akira made, eyes glued onto the screen. She gaped at what she was seeing. "Oh my god, Kenny, Mona's killing you!"

"Man, you're losin' to a dude who doesn't even have fingers!" Ryuji snickered.

"You should learn to never underestimate me!" Morgana smirked victoriously.

"I don't even know what's happening..." Ken said miserably, looking adorably lost. "Uh, who's on my team again?"

"The ones in red," Akechi grunted, focused on attacking Shouto when Fox came out of nowhere and defeated his character. By just jumping and landing on him of all things. His jaw dropped and he turned to the smug bluenette. "I was in the middle of something!"

Yusuke smiled with no regrets. "Sorry, but you're on the enemy team."

"Watch out Yusuke!" Akira warned, pointing at Lucario.

"Use Cross Slash! Use Cross Slash!" Futaba screeched at a confused Ken.

"H-how do I do that?!"

"Left stick right and press B!" She shrieked impatiently. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

"Okay, okay, okay!"

"You shouldn't be helping him!" Shouto frowned, backing away from Link. "Shiina, what do I do?"

"Put the left stick right and press B for the Boomerang attack!" She instructed hastily.

Both attacks hit, killing them instantly.

"Noooooooo!" Futaba and Shiina moaned in despair.

"Haha! My meter's full! Taste my wrath, assholes!" Ryuji grinned maniacally, his fingers pressing the buttons erratically as Pikachu unleashed Volt Tackle on the poor souls who were in his way. Makoto went down after that attack.

"Urgh!" She groaned in frustration.

Ken smiled when he realized his team had yet to suffer any losses. "Hah, we're winning—NO! Morgana, you killed me?!"

"I told you to never underestimate me!" Morgana grinned wickedly before going after Ryuji next.

"Oh hell no, you don't!" Ryuji snarled, nearly damaging the controller. "Pika pika mother fucker!"

Morgana let out a loud screech as Pikachu successfully demolished Chrom.

"Goodbye, Ryuji-kun!" Haru exclaimed, Palutena jumping in from behind him. With a few moves, Pikachu was down next.

It was just Shouto and Yusuke versus Haru now.

"Kill her, kill her, kill her!" Shiina shouted.

Palutena knocked Fox off the stage, who immediately tried to jump back but the floor had moved out of its way. He was gone now, and it was just Shouto and Haru.

"Avenge me," Yusuke said, looking wounded.

"I will." Shouto nodded seriously.

"You're almost there man," Ryuji muttered under his breath. "Her health is low! You can finish this!"

"One more move, just one more...!" Ken pleaded.

"Your meter is full!" Shiina gasped. "Hurry, Sho-chan, press B! Press B!"

Link released the Ancient Bow and Arrow move, taking Palutena down at last.

Half of the room rejoiced. Shiina was so proud that she yanked Shouto up to her feet and attempted to lift him into the air (keyword: attempted). Thankfully, Ryuji and joined in on the celebration and heaved the boy into the air.

"SHOUTO! SHOUTO! SHOUTO!" His team chanted.

"Hey how come nobody did this when I won?" Futaba crossed her arms.

"Because Sho-chan's a noob yet he wrecked each and every one of you!" Shiina cackled.

"Congrats man," Akira warily patted him on the shoulder. Thankfully the younger boy was too busy being surprised at his win to care about the contact. "I think this calls for a celebratory zaru soba, just for the winner."

Shouto lit up.

— ❤ —

3: 41 AM

"It's a miracle nobody came up to complain about the noise," Makoto sighed as she watched the chaos going on. It was nearly four and the morning and everyone was still awake. She thanked whatever DECENT deity that was watching over them that they didn't have any school today.

Hours of video-game playing was finally interrupted when Akechi, furious that Ryuji had shoved him and made his character die (again), had smacked the blonde with a pillow. That then enacted the Great Pillow War.

Shouto, though he had never engaged in a pillow fight before, turned out to be a formidable opponent. He was like a ninja, hopping around the place dodging pillow and counterattacking. It didn't help that he'd occasionally use his Quirk to make ice walls in order to protect himself.

"I'm just surprised nothing's broken yet." Ken said as Shiina gave poor Akira a particularly hard smack on the face with her pillow. It was so hard that the back of his head slammed against the wall.

"Time out! Time out!" Ann squealed, thoroughly winded from the battle. "Oh my god, you guys are monsters!"  That was addressed more towards Shiina, Shouto, Akechi, and Futaba.

"Thank you," Akechi smiled, feeling complimented.

"Now that that's over," Morgana drawled. "Shouldn't it be time we all go to bed?"

Akira tensed up for some reason.

"Don't be a pussy, Morgana," Ryuji rolled his eyes. "We're not planning on sleeping at all."

"Yeah!" Futaba supported enthusiastically.

"Oh really?" Ken rose a brow and turned to Shiina. "Don't you and Kitagawa-san have work to go to in a couple of hours?"

"But this sleep over is so fun." Yusuke frowned.

"We won't be late for it." Shiina assured the brunette.

"I'm more worried about your performance," he said. "You'll be too tired to work."

"No we won't," she waved him off.

"Should we go back to the game?" Akira asked now that he was sure Morgana wasn't going to force them all to sleep.

"How about we do something else?" Haru requested.

"You know," Futaba began, sending Akechi an evil look. "While I was doing research on you during the time I was suspicious, I found a lot of fan fiction about you."

Shiina choked on her laughter. "Pfffft—WHAT?! Oh my god, Futaba, you gotta write an Akechi x Pancake fanfic!"

"I'll make it a smut!" Futaba grinned widely.

Both girls cackled and Akechi sank in his seat.

"I should've just gone to prison," he muttered.

With wicked glee, Futaba plopped herself onto Akira's bed with her laptop already opened on her bed.

Akechi's eyes widened in horror. "Wait, you're not really going to—?! No!" He lunged up only to be tackled back down to the couch by Ryuji and Shiina on each side.

"Ohhhh no you don't," Ryuji smirked. "You're stayin' right here, man."

"Yeah, besides," Shiina grinned innocently. "It's a good pairing, don't you think?"

"You did foil your own diabolical plans because of your love of pancakes..." Makoto mused.

Akechi's horrified eyes turned to her. "You're not going to stop this?!"

Makoto ignored him and glanced over at Futaba. "If you want, I'll check the grammar and spelling." She offered.

"What's a fanfic? And what's a smut?" Shouto asked, causing everyone to whip their heads at him.

"I am confused as well." Yusuke admitted.

Akira opened his mouth. "It's—"

"—No, no, no, no, no, we aren't telling them anything." Makoto cut in.

"I'm titling this beauty 'Goro's Sexy Breakfast'. Any disagreements?" Futaba asked, completely focused on her fanfiction.

"It's perfect," Akira replied, grinning.

"So what, he's gonna screw a pancake?" Ann asked in confusion.

"Basically." Futaba nodded.

"But... where's he gonna...? Actually, I don't wanna know."

"Don't do this," Akechi pleaded with the younger girl, but she wasn't listening.

"'Oh Pancake-chan,'" Futaba mimicked Akechi's voice as she typed the words she was saying. "'I want to put my breakfast sausage in you!'"

"Please stop!" Akechi begged, trying to get away from Ryuji and Shiina's vice grips.

"I have no idea what's going on..." Shouto said slowly. "But he's suffering, so continue."

"Oooh, Yusuke-kun, you should make the cover art!" Haru suggested. "Then Futaba can take a picture of it and upload it as the book cover!"

Yusuke's eye slit up with joy. "That's a spectacular idea! Somebody give me pencil and paper. I'll sketch it out first!"

"I got you," Morgana said, sliding the materials over to him.

"Make sure to draw Akechi and a pancake in there," Ken reminded, enjoying the tortured expression on Akechi's face.

"No, no, no!" Said boy moaned in misery.

"Give the pancake a pair sexy legs with the fishnet leggings!" Ryuji snickered.

"We should post it on the Phan Site." Mishima grinned.

Akechi's eyes bugged out. "You too?!"

"Would you like me to put a face on the pancake?" Yusuke inquired.

"Yep, and make it ahegao." Futaba replied.

He frowned. "Ahegao?"

"Just search it up."

He did. "Oh."

Two hours later 'Goro's Sexy Breakfast' was finally complete and with its own beautiful cover. As promised, it was published onto the Phan Site much to Akechi's dismay, but he was too sleepy to cry over it.

"Light's out everyone," Makoto whispered. Everyone was spread out through the room. Akira and Morgana got the bed, Futaba had the couch, and the rest of them slept in their sleeping bags on the floor.

Finally, at nearly six AM, everyone was asleep.

— ❤ —

Shiina woke up to someone shaking her.

"Shiina, you have to wake up!" Yusuke whispered, sounding almost panicked. "Wake up! We have to get to work!"

"Mmmh?"

"It's nearly twelve, we need to get there at 12:30!" He informed her and she bolted up.

"Oh shit," she breathed out, clumsily slipping out of her sleeping bag. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" She tripped over several bodies in order to get her bag, where a fresh set of clothes were waiting for her.

Without even caring about privacy, she and Yusuke stripped to their underwear (everyone else was still dead asleep at least) and hurriedly got dressed. In mid-change, Yusuke turned to her and was awed.

"You truly have such a marvelous body, Shiiina!" He breathed out.

"I know right?" She winked.

"Perhaps I can just take a picture for reference..." He reached out for his phone, only to blanch at the time. "Never mind that. We must hurry!"

She nodded in agreement and put on a shirt. She could not be late on her first day. Once she was fully dressed, she hastily scrawled down a note for the others to read once they were awake. Then, she and Yusuke scrambled down the stairs (nearly falling over one another in the process).

Rena's tired expression greeted them upon entering the store. "Good, you guys are here. Put on your aprons. Kiberi, get behind the counter with me, I'm gonna train you."

"Yes ma'am." Shiina said, joining her side.

"Sorry for making you work today," Rena mumbled quietly. "Didn't even bother asking if that was okay with you, but I can't exactly cancel. You didn't... lose anyone, did you?"

Shiina shook her head, and Rena visibly relaxed with relief.

"Do you know if Yusuke...?"

"He didn't," she answered truthfully. "How about you?"

"Luckily I'm the only one in my family who lives here. The rest of my family lives somewhere in the countryside. But, a couple of my friends... well, let's just say I haven't heard from them yet."

Shiina tried to swallow up the guilt she was feeling. "Oh..." She said weakly. "I'm sorry. I hope you hear from them soon."

Rena just nodded and proceeded on instructing her on what to do. She explained the ice cream flavors, the various waffle cones/bowls, and even showed her through the freezer if they ever ran out of supply. She then taught her how the register worked, which wasn't that hard. Once she had everything down, Rena finally allowed her to man the register.

Like Rena predicted, Shiina was quickly drawing in more men into the shop and soon enough, the male to female ratio was now even. They'd often flirt with her, ask for her number, or if they were too shy, just check her out from afar. It was no different than what the girls were doing with Yusuke, who was too busy decorating the cakes to pay them any attention.

However, while Shiina was scooping up ice cream—a Sweetie's Classic Sundae—she sensed that feeling again. Looking up, her eyes scanned the room for threats but like last time, she couldn't find any.

"Um, you okay?"

Blinking, she looked up to see a concerned face from behind the glass and plastered on a dazzling smile.

"Sorry, just got lost in my thoughts there, haha," she let out a ditzy laugh before finishing up with his order. She set the bowl down on the counter and slid it over to him. "Okay, that'll be 800 yen."

He thanked her and walked away. Next came up another group of teenage boys, but one of them had a familiar face.

Kaminari looked surprised to see her, but replaced his shocked look with a grin and gave  a small wave. She smiled back, but made no other indication that she knew him since one of his friends began ordering.

As she stepped to the side to prepare their orders, she overheard their whispered conversation.

"Do you think I can get her number?" A brown haired boy asked excitedly.

"Try, and then pass it to us." Another whispered back.

"There's no way she's gonna do it," a third boy shook his head.

"Nah, she looks easy." The brunette said knowingly. The last comment nearly made her crush the ice cream cone in her hand.

"Um," Kaminari finally spoke up. He sounded nervous and uncomfortable. "Maybe we should just leave her alone? I mean, Tokyo just suffered a huge loss so she might not be up for your antics Souta..."

"Don't worry, I'll 'comfort' her," Souta said with a lecherous smirk. The other two friends chuckled under her breaths.

Shiina glanced at them in the corner of her eye and saw Kaminari's lips pursed. "Can you lower your voices? She might hear us."

Too late for that, she thought with a roll of her eyes.

"Calm down, Denki," Souta frowned. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing..." He grumbled.

"Here are your orders," Shiina chirped, resisting the urge to reach out and claw their stupid throats out.

Kaminari gave her an anxious smile before thanking her. They paid for their things and stepped out of the line, but rather than leaving the shop, they spotted a free table and sat there.

"More perverts?" Yusuke asked knowingly as he walked passed her with a newly filled piping bag.

"Yep. And one of my classmates is with them," she sighed heavily. She was used to dealing with perverts but they could just be so tiring sometimes.

He gave her a surprised look. "Oh my... Was he bothering you?"

She shook her head. "Nah, he was a good boy. His friends were annoying but I don't think they'll be a problem."

How wrong she was. When their shifts were over for the day, she and Yusuke made their own sundaes and ate at the shop. Unfortunately, the only other free table was nearby Kaminari and his group of annoying friends. They looked like they had hit the jackpot when she sat down while Kaminari swallowed a lump down his throat.

"—wait, wait, wait, she's your classmate?" The brown haired boy—Souta—hissed loud enough for Shiina and Yusuke to hear.

Kaminari let out a stressed sigh. "Yeah, now can you guys just—"

"—Why didn't you tell us, dude?" The other friend asked.

"Yeah, introduce us to her!" The third said eagerly.

"Or at least give us her number," Souta grinned. "Come on, hand it over. I wanna give her a dick pic."

Kaminari turned red. "Wha—You can't—!" He breathed in deeply. "Can't we just leave her alone? Please? We didn't come here to pick up girls."

"I like him," Yusuke commented idly as he picked up his spoon. "That one's actually trying to defend your honor."

Shiina cracked a grin. "He's usually not so chivalrous in school, trust me. But he has his nice moments."

Beside them, they heard Souta say, "Ah fuck off, Denki, you're just wimping out. Imma go ask for her number." Ignoring Kaminari's whispered protests, the brown haired boy rose from his seat and confidently strode up to the other pair's table.

Yusuke and Shiina exchanged knowing looks.

She feigned a curious look when Souta approached them and flashed him a friendly smile.

"Something you need?" She asked sweetly. "In case you didn't realize, I'm on break so I don't have to deal with you anymore."

He looked taken aback by her sudden rudeness (she used a more politer tone while working), but shook it off. "Hi," he greeted her. "I'm Souta and—"

"—Yeah I know," she cut him off in a dull tone. "I heard. In fact, I heard everything. You have a loud mouth. You came here to ask for my number so let's hear it." She turned her whole body towards him and waited expectantly.

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water.

"Not so easy now, am I?" She smiled mockingly.

Yusuke gave him a sardonic smile. "Not very suave, are you? I pity the girl you target next. Leave now, please. And take your friends with you. You've finished eating a long time ago so what you're doing now is considered loitering."

Shiina waved him off. "Now shoo."

Red-faced and empty handed, Shouto walked back to his friends and muttered angrily at them. They all rose from their seats and quickly left, but not before Kaminari could give her an apologetic smile. She returned it with one of her own, since she felt bad for indirectly making him leave.

"Thanks for that," she said to Yusuke, who smiled at her.

"It was no problem. They were loitering anyways." He replied. "I'm sorry you had to deal with them though. Most of the female costumers are more well-behaved around me."

"Men are pigs," she shrugged. "Except for you, duh. You're a precious bean."

"I don't know what that means, but you called me 'precious' so I don't mind," he preened.

After that, they started doing stupid things like comparing ice cream flavors (in great detail of course) and talking about whatever else they wanted to add to their retirement plan when they finally decided to part ways. Yusuke left the shop first since Shiina needed to take a piss, and once she stepped out she spotted Kaminari standing around like a lost puppy.

"Oh, Kaminari!" She called out to him. When she reached him they both opened up their mouths and blurted out the same thing:

"Sorry!"

"Huh?" She blinked.

"Wait, what are you sorry for?" He asked incredulously.

"What are you?"

"I'm trying to apologize for having dickheaded friends," he answered. "And you?"

"I sorta kicked you out of the shop. So."

He shrugged it off. "The dude was right. We were loitering anyways."

"What are you doing here? I didn't know you lived in Tokyo," she commented as they began to walk around the mall.

"I don't, but Sero does. Mina, Kirishima, and I decided to come visit him since we were worried. You know 'cause of the... Yeah, uh, turns out he's okay."

"Oh that's good," she sighed in relief. She didn't know how she'd react if one of her classmates had faded away too. She didn't think she could handle the constant reminder of her failure.

"He had a few relatives disappear, but he didn't know them well enough. But he's a little shook though," he frowned. "He was out when that... that thing appeared. Couldn't find a way back home. What about you...?" He asked hesitantly.

"I was out too," it was the truth anyways. "It was pretty scary. Nobody I know has faded away at least."

"That's good," he smiled at that. "So what have you been doing lately?"

"Retiring."

"Sorry?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. "So how'd you go from checking in on Sero to hanging out with dickheads?"

"I used to live here, and I ran into some of my middle school friends. I didn't feel like leaving yet, so I decided to stay and hang out with them." He explained sheepishly. "Regretting it though. I haven't seen them in a while, but it's obvious they haven't changed a bit."

"I didn't expect you to come to my rescue," she admitted.

"I tried and failed," he corrected.

"You tried and that's good enough for me. To be honest, I pegged you as the type to hound girls for their phone numbers and all that. Like that Souta prick."

His face flushed. "I don't send dick pics if that's what you're implying. And I do sometimes act like a dickwad like them, it's just... well, they were targeting you so..."

She grinned. "Ah, so I'm special."

"N-no—"

"—No?"

"I mean—yes, but like, uhhh..."

She snickered at his flustered expression. "You know, for such a flirt, you're really not that smooth."

His face reddened. "Not everyone can be as cool as you!"

"That's true," she nodded in agreement.

They talked a bit more and they were exiting the mall now. They both needed to go to the subway anyways, so why not go together? On the way there, Shiina couldn't ignore the prickling feeling anymore. There was something—or somebody, but who was it? Every time she looked over her shoulder, she would see nothing.

"I never really thanked you," she began, struggling to ignore the feeling. "For what you did back there... Usually people try not to get on their friends bad side but you were clearly trying to help me out, so thank you for that."

He grinned shyly. "Ah, it's no biggie. It's the duty of the hero-in-training to save the damsel in distress right?"

"Dude, I'm a hero-in-training too." She deadpanned.

"R-right."

"Oh, but I hope you don't think this is gonna get you out of being my slave." She gave him a sly look. "You're all mine after the internships."

He grimaced. "Please don't make me do anything embarrassing... I don't wanna ruin my reputation."

She snorted. "What reputation?"

"Hey!"

She smiled innocently as they descended down the stairs of the underground subway.

"I'll see you at school," she said once his train arrived. He waved bye at her and the doors shut, the train zooming away. Rather than staying to wait for her train, she hurried out of the subway and ducked into the closest alleyway.

The stalker was annoying her.

She delved in deep, her senses heightening even more as she continued to be followed. She didn't know where they were exactly, but she just knew that they needed to be taken down.

She slowed down to a walk and pulled out her phone. She pretended to call someone and pressed the device against her ear, feigning her distracted state.

"Nii-chan?" She said to the phone. "Hey, I'm heading home now. Just taking the shortcut—No, no, don't worry about me, I'll be perfectly fine." As she rambled on to her 'brother', her eyes darted every which way until she finally spotted it. A moving shadow. Judging by how it was placed, the person was on the roof of the building to her right.

She moved her phone to her left hand and ran her right one through her hair as if wanting to comb it. She continued on speaking before she spun around abruptly, her uzi appearing in her hand.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

She fired three shots, knowing that the bullets weren't lethal but enough to hurt. She wildly looked at the roof and cursed.

"Dammit!" She cried out of aggravation.

The stalker was no longer there.

— author's note —

I know what u guys are gonna say. "But author! The people who disappeared returned! And they all forgot about what happened with Yaldabaoth!" Yes, I know that. I changed it on purpose for several reasons that I'm not gonna explain cuz I think you'll understand as the story goes on.

Kaminari was sweet here though, right? I decided to squeeze him in since the BNHA boys need more lovin from Shiina (since the Persona guys already got a lot of her). That, and Yusuke too.

The changing scene tho looool, the boys totally missed out. Only Yusuke got lucky.

AND WHO OR WHAT DO YOU THINK IS SHIINA'S STALKER???🕵️‍♂️

Happy guessing!