Chapter Text
Madarame turned out to be a whole different beast from Kamoshida. At least Kamoshida was someone who the four of them had a direct reason to fight back against, harassing them at school and threatening to expel Ryuji and Akira- not to mention outing Akira to the whole student body and teachers alike. But Madarame? Madarame was so far from their radar when they officially founded the Phantom Thieves of Heart that Akira wasn’t quite sure what to make of him at first. Of course, he wasn’t someone they considered until they learned what he was doing to his students to begin with. But an artist? That’s not quite what Akira imagined as a potential target. But then she learned what was going on with Yusuke.
Yusuke was a bright kid. And he deserved better than to be taken advantage of by his teacher for the rest of his life. Frankly, Akira was done with letting people like that take advantage of innocents. Not after what that asshole back home did to her. Once they all learned the truth of what was going on with Madarame, it was immediately unanimous. The Phantom Thieves had their next target. Even if Madarame didn’t deserve it, they had to get Yusuke out of that situation.
Although, before then, it took a little while for Akira to see Kitagawa Yusuke as anything but an enigma.
Frankly, when you introduce yourself to a group by approaching one of its’ members and asking to paint them nude, you kind of sign yourself up for that. However it didn’t take long for Akira to find that behind Yusuke’s eccentric behavior and starving artist mindset was a very thoughtful, kindhearted young man. And once he awoke to Goemon, and became a member of the Phantom Thieves, well, there was no doubt in her mind that they would be friends.
Still, sharing experiences like that doesn’t immediately clue you in on each other as people, and Akira is nothing if not a curious woman. And between Madarame’s Palace and school, she hasn’t had a lot of time to really talk with him. So it’s rather serendipitous that just as she’s contemplating trying to spend some more time with him, she gets a text.
Kitagawa Yusuke
Yusuke: Do you have some time tomorrow after school?
Yusuke: I would like to speak to you, now that we’re awaiting Madarame’s change of heart.
Akira: Yeah im available
Akira: But ill have you know if you want me to pose nude for you I charge 100000 yen per hour
Akira puts down the plate she was drying and taps out a quick reply, wondering what he has to talk to her about.
Yusuke: Wonderful. I will figure out a place to meet, and let you know before school ends tomorrow.
Yusuke: I do not expect you to pose nude for me tomorrow. Though it would be wonderful if you did for me one day, I do not believe I can currently pay your rate.
Akira: How about inokashira park? Youll probably like the sights
Akira: And i was joking about the rates
Yusuke: Ah, I see. Well, Inokashira Park sounds like a good enough place. I shall see you there tomorrow.
Akira: See you then, yusuke
Akira locks her phone and slides it back into her pocket, right as Sojiro places a plate of curry in front of her. “Who was that?” He asks, leaning against the side of the bar.
“A new friend.” Akira responds before taking a bite of her curry. Delicious as always.
“Hmm.” Sojiro strokes his chin. “Well, good that you’re making friends, at least. Just be careful who you’re getting involved with. It’s not anyone like that Sakamoto kid, is it? Don’t forget, you’re on parole.”
Akira shakes her head. “He’s an artist, goes to Kosei. A little weird, but harmless.” Harmless. Ha. Like any one of them could truly be called that. “More coffee training tonight?” Akira asks, seeking a change in subject.
Sojiro nods, his lip quirking up almost imperceptibly. “Yeah, sure. Just don’t take too long with your curry. I gotta get home at a reasonable hour after all.”
“Of course, Boss.” Akira responds, scarfing down the rest of her dinner.
Akira, true to her word, heads right to meet with Yusuke at Inokashira Park as soon as the final class of the day ends. She finds Yusuke sitting on a bench, looking out at the pond, looking out at the people and the cherry blossoms. “Doing some people watching?” Akira asks, in lieu of an introduction.
Yusuke looks back at her, almost with a start. “Ah, Akira. I did not realize you were here. My apologies.” He gestures over to the bench, silently inviting her to sit down next to him.
Akira takes a seat, crossing her legs and looking out at the pond with Yusuke. “It’s alright. I tend to sneak up on most people.” She responded with a shrug. Perhaps all that time in the metaverse was having more influence on her than she thought… Ah well, not something to worry about right now.
Yusuke nods, turning his gaze back towards the pond. Akira notices that he’s holding a brush in his right hand, fiddling with the soft bristles pensively. His eyes don’t follow any one object, but seem to be taking in the entirety of the pond in front of him, and yet none of it at the same time. Something was weighing on his mind, obviously. “You wanted to talk about something, didn’t you?” Akira prompts, cocking her head slightly. She watches his lip curl slightly at the question, not quite in distaste, but… something else. “You don’t have to say it, whatever it is, if you don’t want to.”
Yusuke’s eyes widen slightly, as if he hadn’t noticed his own reaction. “Ah… No, it’s not that I don’t want to say it, it’s simply… a difficult topic. I wanted to thank you for your help in dealing with Sens- with Madarame.” He confesses, only slightly glancing in her direction. His focus still seems to be on the pond.
“You’ve already thanked us for that.” Akira notes.
Yusuke shakes his head. “Well, yes, but that’s not quite what I meant. I appreciate you all helping me with his shadow, and the Palace, and the change of heart… But today, I wanted to thank you for your help in giving me the courage to go through with it all. To stand up to him. To… change my own heart, I suppose.” He lets out an exhale. “A part of me still doesn’t want to believe this is true. That perhaps I will wake up tomorrow and Madarame will be my sensei again, and that all this talk of plagiarism and stealing never happened. And yet, at the same time…”
Akira finishes the thought for him. “It’s liberating, in a way. To be free of his influence.”
“Yes.” Yusuke says the word as though the weight of the sky had been lifted from his back, and Akira thinks that perhaps, in a way, it has. To be freed from something holding you down is one thing, but to do it yourself is truly liberating in a way that nothing else quite can be. Akira is almost envious. But she can’t bring herself to resent Yusuke, or Ann, or Ryuji, or anyone for finding that freedom for themselves.
“Don’t discount your own actions, either, Yusuke.” Akira notes. “We may have nudged you, but you freed yourself. I couldn’t take off that mask for you even if I tried.”
Yusuke makes a thoughtful hum. “All the same, I thank you. It’s as though I can see the world’s beauty unfettered for the first time. Through my own eyes, rather than through the lens he made for me. There is… much I wish to see now. To paint. To capture on my canvas what I see, in the hopes that I may give to the rest of the world what you gave to me.”
“We didn’t give that to you, though, Yusuke. You took it for yourself.” Akira insists. “We all did.” Except for me, Akira doesn't say. Her freedom is still locked away, sealed behind a door whose key is supposedly rehabilitation. Sometimes she wonders what it means to be a Phantom Thief who steals the hearts of others, but whose own heart is still locked away. Whose freedom is kept from her by the burden that’s been placed on her shoulders. “I’m glad to have helped you, Yusuke, but that beauty is something that you made for yourself. It’s yours. We have no claim to it. If we tried, we’d be no better than Madarame. And whatever you make with it will be amazing.” She pushes down her thoughts, then adds with a laugh. “Just maybe stop asking to draw women naked. Kinda gives the wrong impression.”
Yusuke raises an eyebrow in confusion. “What impression would that be?”
Akira snorts, raising an eyebrow of her own. “You really don’t realize?”
“Well, I- No, not really.”
Akira devolves into a fit of laughter. “It makes you look creepy, Yusuke. Most guys just wanna see girls naked cause they think it's hot.”
“What?” Yusuke chokes, rising to his feet. “I would never! I simply find the human form beautiful, in all ways! I can’t say I’ve ever even thought about a woman in that manner at all.”
Wait, what?
“Wait, what?”
Yusuke pauses, looking down at Akira. “Did I say something strange?”
“You don’t see women that way? As in, attractive?” Akira asks.
“Well, no.” Yusuke sits back down, the energy fading from his body. “Not really. Or men, I suppose. At least, I haven’t seen anyone I would consider attractive before…” Akira blinked. Did… Did Yusuke just come out as asexual to her without even realizing it? Yusuke’s face quickly turned inward, towards thoughtfulness, as he placed a hand on his chin in contemplation. “Is that… odd? I hadn’t really thought about this before.”
Okay, well, this is an entirely different conversation than Akira thought she would be having today.
“I don’t think it’s odd.” Akira quickly clarifies when Yusuke turns to look back at her. “So you aren’t attracted to people sexually. So what? You’re still you, Yusuke.” Yusuke’s frown doesn’t quite fade, though, and no, perhaps that wasn’t the right angle to take in comforting him. How others see Yusuke isn’t quite something that he would be concerned about, but maybe… “If anything, it ensures that your art cuts to the true beauty of people. You aren’t caught up in physical attraction, and can see what really makes someone beautiful.”
Yusuke exhales, and his frown fades. “Yes, I suppose you have a point there. True beauty has never laid in appearance, to me, but in the heart.” The frown returns all too quickly, however, as he continues, “And yet, I never could see the true heart of Madarame, for all those years. It seems true beauty may yet elude me either way…”
Akira nudges him gently. “I don’t think having been manipulated by your guardian or being asexual is cause to think that you’re incapable of seeing beauty in people.”
Yusuke raises his eyebrows at her slightly. “Asexual? Is that the term for…”
“People who don’t experience sexual attraction. You aren’t alone, Yusuke.”
Yusuke is quiet for a moment. His eyes are cast downward, towards himself, rather than across the lake like they have been for most of their discussion, and Akira wonders, not for the first time since moving to Tokyo, if this might be why she’s here. Community isn’t a luxury she’s had in a long time. Perhaps what she needed was a chance to start new, to find people like her, and to build it from the ground up. If community isn’t something that was going to be given to her back home, then she would simply take it for herself somewhere else. Steal the hearts of her friends, so to speak. Maybe the life of a Phantom Thief of Heart really was her fate after all.
“May I ask you a question of my own?” Yusuke brings her back from her thoughts.
Akira nods. “Of course.”
“What is beauty to you?”
And oh, Akira should have seen this question coming. She almost snorts a little bit at how obvious a question this was to be asked, and yet she still didn’t see it coming. “Beauty to me, huh?”
Not the easiest question in the world to ask. Not that Yusuke has been any sort of judgemental about her queerness thus far, nor does Akira expect him to be especially now that he’s accidentally come out, and yet… There’s always that little bit of fear, at giving the truth of herself to someone else.
“Men or women are both equally hot to me.” She responds after a moment.
Yusuke nods. “I see. Perhaps you see more than I do, then.” He comments. His words are tinged with a hint of bitterness, but the way his hands grip his thighs, or the way he can’t meet her eyes, Akira knows it’s directed inward.
“No.”
“No?”
“No.” Akira repeats. “I don’t see any more, or any less, than you do. Seeing people differently doesn’t make one of us better at it, Yusuke. Would you think less of Ann for not seeing women like that? Or Ryuji less for not seeing men like that?” Her tone is chastising, but not harsh.
Yusuke winces slightly. “No, I suppose not.” He sighs, his shoulders dropping slightly. “And yet I feel no closer to realizing true beauty. If anything, I feel further away than I did before.”
Akira shrugs. “Maybe you don’t feel closer, but realizing how little you know is a kind of progress all on its own. All journeys have their ups and downs.”
Yusuke nods, but says nothing. For a little while they sit there in contemplation, Akira leaning back against the bench and Yusuke leaned over, his hands folded together in thought. After a while, Yusuke turns back and looks at Akira. “Would you be willing to help me? In finding true beauty.”
“We’re a team Yusuke. And friends. I’ll always be willing to help.” Akira agrees readily, before adding with a smirk, “Though I’ll remind you, I charge 1000000 yen per hour if you want to paint me naked.”
“1000000 yen? The price has gone up, then.” Yusuke frowns. “I definitely cannot afford that…”
Akira laughs, and then pulls herself back on her feet. “Joking, Yusuke. C’mon, let’s brainstorm some actual ideas.”
“Ah, right now?”
Akira nods. “No time like the present.”
Yusuke frowns. “And what if a nude painting really is true beauty? I think nudity really cuts to the truth of someone…”
“Then we can cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Yeah, the nudity thing was gonna have to be a work in progress.
Ghostly Criminals
Akira: Anyone available for a people watching trip this sunday?
Ann: I have a shoot in the morning, but I can join in the afternoon!
Ann: Where are we going?
Yusuke: I was thinking about Shibuya. There are many places to sit and watch that will help me with my art.
Ryuji: shit im down
Ryuji: theres a lotta good places to eat near central street we could check out too
Ann: People watching Ryuji!! Not food watching!!
Ryuji: yeah yeah
Ryuji: betcha cant people watch on an empty stomach
Akira: We can do both
Akira: Yusuke will probably be hungry anyway
Yusuke: I do often find myself in need of food…
Ann: Okay fine we can go eating too. But I want crepes! Or something sweet at least
Ryuji: fiiiiine
Ryuji: btw yusuke hows madarame seeming
Ann: Yeah, any updates on his change of heart?
Yusuke: Nothing new since last update. He’s still locking himself away most hours.
Yusuke: Hopefully things will change before the exhibition ends.
Akira: Itll work out
Akira: Anyway mona is yapping at me again time to go to bed
Ryuji: night sis
Ann: Goodnight Akira-chan!!!
Yusuke: Goodnight, Akira.
Akira: Gnight
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