ic inbox [ota]

[pancakeboy]

[Text him! Or do whatever, I'm not the police, and neither is he, thank God. Just specify if you want the more-fun-but-less-stable pre-11/20 guy or the grumpy third semester/postcanon guy. Pancake only for VRDR guys please, he's not third semester yet]

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[fogbornphantom]

...Restless without specific goals to aspire to?

[He can understand that, at least, and his voice certainly comes across with gentle sympathy.]

[pancakeboy]

Not exactly. [In other words, yes, totally. He keeps walking.]

It's just that, recently, things became so busy. I used to dream of having time to stop, and now it seems I have nothing but that. You must have experienced something similar after your murders were solved?

[fogbornphantom]

...Yes and no.

[Heh. He shakes his head, chuckling at the memory.]

I had a few months of an "ordinary" life after Yu left, but then Golden Week came, and suddenly the Midnight Channel was back and, suddenly, we were all roped into a ridiculous fighting tournament, robots were real, and Persona users from three years ago had come to Inaba. The very next night, red fog fell over Inaba, resulting in a second fighting tournament, the grand debut of Sho Minazuki, Adachi's sudden freedom, more Shadow Operatives arriving, and us just barely thwarting the apocalypse.

[He lets that sink in. He had mentioned it before...]

Mundanity seemed to return for a few more months until Rise-san asked us to perform with her at the Love Meets Bonds festival, which eventually led to our team getting dragged into another cognitive world called the Midnight Stage. That is where we ended up having to dance our way to victory.

[He had mentioned that before, vaguely.]

[pancakeboy]

[They have talked about it, but he didn't get the impression it was all back-to-back—as, indeed, Crow has described.]

And which god was behind that one? [The dancing. Like, seriously.]

[fogbornphantom]

Mikuratana-no-Kami.

[And boy, isn't that a mouthful?]

She was the manifestation of humanity's desire for bonds without pain, and she made herself a sort of parasitic host in the heart of Kanami Mashita.

[Yes, that Kanami.]

Using a video that would appear on the LMB website at midnight, she would grasp the Shadows of those who witnessed the video and craved easy bonds and drag them into the Midnight Stage, where the Shadows would be effectively brainwashed into accepting her idea of a true bond. It was her goal to do the same to the other idols in Kanamin Kitchen, to make them be the versions of themselves everyone else wanted to be instead of their true selves.

[pancakeboy]

Bonds again. [It's muttered, but not too crossly—this particular story accords with a lot of what he instinctively understands; he glances away with a sour grin.] Mikuratana-no-kami, though. That tells you a lot.

[That the bonds are false, for a start. Shallow, temporary, not real; fool's gold.]

Are there any idols you don't know? Should I take you to the MBC studios for a tour?

[fogbornphantom]

Just Rise-san and the Kanamin Kitchen girls. Kanami-san actually became quite close with Nanako-chan while we were stuck in the Midnight Stage.

[Which was a story in and of itself. So much happened over those days... To think he'd have such a lively time.]

Idol work simply wasn't my ideal career path. Neither was police work. I've been working toward private investigation as my ultimate end goal.

[pancakeboy]

[End goals, he thinks. Imagine the luxury. Imagine how effervescently Crow would insist he can have them just for the asking, for the wanting. Stars raining from his eyes, probably, and rainbows all around them.]

You mean you aren't a private investigator now? That's a surprise. [He's one himself, technically, and he knows Crow also counts himself as a detective—though with more right than Akechi himself does, no doubt.]

[fogbornphantom]

I am one, though I work under Naoto Shirogane as more of a partner. It's not that I don't pride myself in my work, and I'll gladly work alongside Naoto-san for as long as they'll permit me, but my name hasn't become known yet. I've yet to make my "debut," if that makes sense.

[He continues walking along. Perhaps the motorcycles will ease Magpie's clearly conflicted feelings in time.]

[pancakeboy]

[They reach the subway, stepping through the doors toward the ticket gate for Ueno.]

Is fame a necessary part of detective work? Or is it more of a hindrance?

[Never mind that his own relationship with fame is excessively complicated.]

[fogbornphantom]

Seeing how much pressure fame has put on my friends, it certainly isn't necessary. It's more that I haven't established a name for myself outside of being Naoto-san's partner, and even then, to the public I'm shrouded in mystery.

[Ah, at least they're getting closer now. He'll follow Magpie through the gate.]

But I digress. The point of this exercise was to loosen up, not fret over my personal baggage. We can worry about the rest after we acquire those bikes...