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"Everything will go back to the way it was meant to be. There are no exceptions."
You try to accept it. You do. But when you wake up on Christmas morning, you are in Leblanc, and Akechi is in an interrogation room. Maruki gave him his freedom, not his life.
It should be a relief. It isn't. For all of Akechi's many (so very many) crimes, your heart is the only jail you ever wanted him in. But when Sae gets you a visit, when you apologize, his laugh could cut through bone.
"Don't flatter yourself, Joker. I'm not doing this for you."
-You're not?
-Stop being an idiot.
-I don't understand.
"I sacrificed everything—everything—to be the one to drag my father down. Then you changed his heart. All I have left is to tell the world everything we did together and force him to acknowledge me as his son in court. I'll be damned before I let you take that from me, too."
He has confessed to crimes enough to lock him up forever, yet you are the one who feels guilt. He seems to enjoy that. The bulletproof glass of the visiting area is another door slammed shut between you, but this time, you know he's still alive.
You can reach him.
You must.
He refuses any help from Sae. He refuses any help from you. As far as the Phantom Thieves are concerned, this is the appropriate outcome.
"He's alive," they tell you. "Just because he was hurt doesn't mean he shouldn't face consequences. That's why we changed hearts, isn't it?"
You think about changing Akechi's heart, forcing him to see how stupid he's being. You're stronger than him, after all. You always were. But the Meta-Nav and the Velvet Room are gone. The Phantom Thieves are over. The only place you remain Joker is in your dreams.
So you sleep.
You dream of the Metaverse, again and again, and every night you push the dream further. You push until you find the boundaries, and then you tear through them. When you do, you find yourself in the Velvet Room, but it isn't a jail. Akechi is a prisoner. Now, you are something else.
You find yourself in a courtroom. Reasonable enough. You've been on trial for most of the past year, with varying degrees of literalness. But Igor's seat at the judge's bench is empty, and Lavenza looks alarmed. "You should not be here. Things are how they were meant to be."
-Are you sure?
-Bullshit.
-I don't care.
You summon Satanael in all his enormity, and she has no choice but to retreat. That's fine. She wasn't helpful, anyway. On a whim, you seat yourself on the judge's bench. It feels wrong. But not very.
You have your way into the Metaverse now, and you use it whenever you can. You skip school. You lie to Sojiro. You leave your friends' texts unread. They weren't helpful, anyway, none of them. You'll have to do this yourself.
Akechi always did. And you're stronger.
You find the prosecutor's shadow. The judge's. The warden's. One by one, you win them to your side. You've always been personable, persuasive, and this is no different. It's persuasion, nothing more. You find Ohya's—she can help. Yoshida's. Others.
You persuade them all.
You win Akechi's release, but he doesn't come to Leblanc. Doesn't contact you at all. You send him text after text with no reply, text your friends for the first time in two months. No one responds to you. But on February 3rd, they all come through your courtroom door.
You're confused. None of them should be in here. You rise from your judge's bench to greet them and see that their faces are all grim.
"You know what we're here for, Joker," Akechi says. "This isn't you."
You don't understand.
And then...you do.
You explain yourself—the actions you've taken, your triumphs, your reasons. You've always been personable, persuasive, and these are your friends. They ought to support you. You can't understand why they don't.
You'll just have to persuade them.
The battle should be easy. You've always been stronger. But Akechi fights like you've never seen him fight before, and the rest—your friends, your teammates—hold nothing back. Neither do you. You can't even hate them for hurting you. In a strange way, you feel proud.
You lose.
"It was risky, coming in without a calling card," Akechi says coldly. "But I thought the date would do. If ever you would fear losing everything, it's today, calling card or not."
He has beaten you at your strongest. That's what he wanted. He should look happier.
-Do you hate me?
-You're making a huge mistake.
-This isn't how things were meant to be.
You see Akechi's face soften, just for a moment. Then he laughs, and his laugh is hard. "No," he agrees. "No, it isn't."
The courtroom is crumbling around you, but you can't persuade yourself to move. Your heart hasn't changed. Your heart has broken.
Everything hurts.
You don't remember him lifting you, or the form his Velvet Room takes when he carries you through the door. You remember none of the past few months at all. But when you wake up on February 4, you are in prison, and Akechi is dead.
Just as things were always meant to be.