piercedyourheart | prismatica inbox

sure i do
everything okay?

It is.
At least, I think it is.
It's just a little complicated and I'm not sure where to start.

maybe at the beginning?
i know that's not really helpful but talking through all of it instead of the specific thing that's bothering can be useful
ive got all day to listen

Yes, I suppose you're right. There's a lot of information that one needs to understand.

Did you know that Goro Akechi killed my father?

[ there's bouncing dots for a minute or two as yukari tries to get her thoughts in order. this...is a lot to take in. ]

i didnt know it was him specifically
but with the way you responded to him when you first showed up in the group chat and how he kept saying he wanted to atone....
i knew hed done something that hurt you.

I should have expected you'd have been perceptive enough to put that together.

[Sasuga, Yukari-chan.]

I think I might need to go back even further though. How much do you know about the Phantom Thieves, and what-- and how-- we did? The Metaverse, and so on.

[ call her sherlock holmes cause this case is CRACKED ]

yep i know that much
everyone shared a lot of info when the chat got made
the phantom thieves jumped into peoples palaces to change their hearts right? and palaces are located in the metaverse?

Okay, good. That saves a little bit of text.
You understand correctly!

By stealing the treasure of a warped individual in their Palace, we could cause them to have a change of heart.
However, killing their cognitive self-- their Shadow-- would result in their real life mind shutting down, leading to death.

So it was always a little risky. We wanted to fight the Shadow and steal the treasure, but not kill them.
But someone who lacked morals could cause mental shutdowns in their enemies, a foolproof method of murder.

That's what Prime Minister Shido did.

wait
something like that went all the way up to the prime minister?! just so he could get people out of his way?
thats insane!!

Oh.

Yes, that would have been important information to share with you, wouldn't it... I'm sorry.
A man named Masayoshi Shido won election as Prime Minister due to causing havoc with his ability to cause mental shutdowns, and promising to restore order.

He was leading a conspiracy of those who knew about the Metaverse and cognitive selves. And he had in his employ an assassin who had the ability to enter the Metaverse.

It truly is as crazy as it sounds.

no dont apologize!!! its just hard to wrap my head around
and i thought we had it bad with the chairman

but okay. he knew about the metaverse and used it for his own gain. and there was an assassin
is that...is that how akechi killed your dad?

In short, yes.
It's not my place to tell you everything about Akechi's life, but he was being manipulated by Shido and served as his assassin.

My father was a wealthy businessman who had political ambitions. He wanted to be part of Shido's conspiracy.
I remembered him being a loving man, once. Not the power-hungry man he became, who abused his workers and who put everything second to his ambition.

So I... requested that he be the Phantom Thieves' next target. That they change his heart and return him to the father I remembered.
They did. I mean, we did. I was part of them at that point.
But there's a small window of time between a treasure being stolen and the Palace going away. During that time, a cognitive shadow is vulnerable.

After we'd changed his heart, Akechi killed his shadow. My father died several days later.

[ almost immediately: ]

holy shit.

[ then there's a much longer pause as yukari reads and re-reads haru's story. to come face to face with your father's killer after they'd died.... ]

its no wonder you were angry when you talked to him again.
i wouldve been...idek
god. that mustve been so hard.

[It makes Haru laugh, actually. A soft, muted giggle to herself at the reaction.

It's a heavy topic, but this is still Yukari after all.]

Yes.
I thought he died, back home. Honestly, he probably did. And here he was again, alive.

And all of my friends trusted him.
They all wanted him to atone and change and redeem himself.

But I couldn't stop seeing my father's killer whenever I saw him.

[ yukari thinks of what it'd be like to see the chairman here after all he'd done and barely suppresses a shiver. ]

who wouldnt? its almost like...
like walking into a burning building and everyone else thinking its fine
just totally surreal. i dont blame you for not wanting to give him that kind of chance. you shouldnt have to and you arent obligated to

You're right. And I didn't.

But Yukari, I wanted to.
I really, really wanted to.

If he just stayed evil, if he just stayed manipulated and hateful, then my father would still be dead and Akechi would have been our enemy.
But if he changed, if he *really* changed, if he worked to be better... it wouldn't bring my father back, but it'd make the world just that much better, wouldn't it?

I didn't want to get in the way of my friends trying to rehabilitate him. I didn't want to undermine his progress in reforming.

I just couldn't be around him.

And I didn't want my friends to have to choose him or me.

so you stepped back rather than potentially hurt anybody.

and im guessing you never told any of them about this
not that there seemed like a good chance to bring it up.... i know most of your team was on board with giving him a chance

but forgiveness is tricky. to even start getting to a place where you even consider it the other person has to want to make changes. and i didnt know him that well but he seemed...stuck?
he talked a lot about wanting to get better and change but it was this constant cycle of beating himself up in public and hoping that was enough to get people talking to him
thats not making a change or moving forward. and it sure doesnt seem like reforming.

idk. ugh. it was a big mess that you didnt deserve to be dragged into.

I didn't know how.
It would just have made all of them feel guilty.
I wanted to give him a chance too, I just couldn't be part of that.

But you're right, he did.
We talked about it, once. He thought I wanted to kill him.
Maybe I did.
But that wasn't the point.

And now he's gone and I don't know if I should be relieved or angry that all of that was for nothing.

feeling both relieved and angry at the same time is
thats a lot of energy and hurt on your end for months with nothing to show for it
and that sucks. but...maybe this could be a chance to talk everyone again. once youve had some space anyway

Yes, you're right.
But what if I tell them and then he comes back? I don't want them to shun him in favor of me, either.

Maybe I do.
Is that selfish?

no thats not selfish
theyre your friends. nothing wrong with wanting them to be on your side

even if akechi does come back i think its worth telling them
talkings hard. and it sucks, it really really sucks
just saying what youre feeling is scary

but once its all out in the open you can help each other
thats what a teams about right

yes youre right.
I know you're right. I can go over this time and time again and you're right.

I just don't want to get in the way of him actually making something of his life.
He never got the chance to, back home.

but then again, neither did my father.

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