Part 164: 11/21: Delicious Pancakes

Part 154: 11/21: Delicious Pancakes



Anon: AKECHI IS BAE!!!
Anon: kid had it coming, lol
Anon: he went down easy
Anon: he got what was coming



I didn’t expect him to commit suicide…
He’s a murderer. He deserved to die.
We can finally breathe easy now.
He killed himself huh? I guess we’ll never know his motivation.

Anon: The truth’s lost to the void
Anon: Akechi got the last laugh!
Anon: We’ll finally have peace
Anon: A worthy end for a villain



It feels like my consciousness is about to fade away...



Don’t fall asleep until we reach our destination. ...Are you listening?

I see we’re just skipping how Sae managed to extricate Maaku from the police station, okay.

Could this be the effect of the drug wearing off? The memories I thought were gone are starting to come back…

Music: Disquiet




You weren’t paying attention? Well, I guess I can see how you’d be lost in thought right now. Anyway, we need to talk about how to get out of this situation.
Futaba’s monitoring of Akechi’s phone has confirmed it… He did indeed have an ulterior motive.
It’s on a completely different level than just that.
Not only was he trying to frame us, but he was the true culprit behind the mental shutdowns… His offer to assist us was simply a plot to frame the Phantom Thieves… and kill Maaku-kun. If we go into Sis’ Palace as he suggests, we’ll likely be met by a large ambush of police forces.
To think he would be this far gone… I know now what it means to feel a chill down my spine. Furthermore, he wishes to bring a police squad from reality into the Palace…
If the eight of us can enter at once, it’s not inconceivable to think a larger group is possible. He may even be able to bring in vehicles or other special pieces of equipment.
So this really was just a setup to shift the blame onto us…
He made us go after Okumura, then once we triggered the change of heart, he killed him…



The whole time he was workin’ with Makoto’s sister, he was really just some homicidal maniac! C’mon, we gotta take that bastard Akechi down! Isn’t that recording we got enough proof to do it!?
No, Akechi is merely a tool. His orders come from elsewhere… The grand mastermind behind this all. An unimaginable fiend capable of arranging the murder of a suspect of a police station…
Unless we find out who that is, we will continue being targeted even if we defeat Akechi…
But… what means do we have of learning his identity?
We’ll have to make Akechi say it… though once we do, that mastermind will likely eliminate us.
I think that will be the case eventually regardless of whether or not we learn his identity. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because we’re an easy target to blame for his crimes. If he realizes that’s no longer possible and abandons that plan, he may opt to kill us immediately.
Dammit… So we don’t got a choice but to go with that bastard’s suggestion…
But if we go into the Palace as told, Maaku will get arrested and then murdered by Akechi…
Palace… The Palace…
...Actually, there’s something I’d like to say regarding--




Wh-What’s this all of a sudden!?
There’s a way… A way to get past Akechi And get the mastermind to lay off of us, all while learning his identity.
Really…!?
You gotta be kidding me…!
If he wants to kill Maaku, why not let him?

Hey!

That is, inside the Palace…
Yes. We could have him kill the cognitive Maaku-kun, all while believing he killed the real one.

Oh.

Yeah, that’s it!
It seems that’s our only option. Listen close, everyone. I have a plan for how we can carry this operation out…



However, the police intend on continuing this investigation until the case is fully solved.



Waiting upstairs. Go tell them to come on down. I’m gonna fetch him.



Makoto told me everything.



Eh, it’s ancient history now.

“You only tried to revoke my adoptive father’s custody at a point when he was the only person alive who cared for me in any way, including myself! Water under the bridge!”

But man, that goddamn detective!



Music: Break it Down




Hey, you big bastard!
How’ve you been?



You’re not floating...
It truly is a relief to see your face.



Still, how’d you pull this off? Isn’t this guy considered dead?
You weren’t told anything? I heard my sister brought him here though…
Yeah. She came over in a taxi, dumped him off, and told me to keep him safe. It was right after they announced he had “died” too. Almost gave me a heart attack.
I didn’t have time to explain…
Hey, shouldn’t we tell Boss what really happened?

Music: Suspicion




What we did was make that enemy kill his fake in the Metaverse.



Enemy? Fake…? What’re you talking about…?

Poor Sojiro has no goddamn clue what’s going on.

The true culprit behind all these incidents set us up. Our goal here was to determine their identity.
True culprit…? I see… So you guys were going up against someone else.
It was Goro Akechi.



You knew beforehand that he was the traitor, didn’t you?



Akechi himself gave us the chance to strike back. He made one fatal mistake.
Couldn’t you have just said from the beginning that Akechi was the real culprit?

I didn’t fucking remember.

That wasn’t something we could simply bring up. We couldn’t have you suspect Akechi. Besides, neither you nor the other investigators would have believed something like that, would you?
...True. Akechi was credited with the arrest of the Phantom Thieves. Not even I would think he was the culprit… In other words, you left him alone on purpose… That was a bold move.
God, I can’t keep up with any of this stuff…

Sojiro is basically my dad whenever we watch Westworld together. And also me.



He slipped up in regards to Morgana’s voice.



Yes. Morgana can talk.



Sorry, was that supposed to be a joke?

I love that Sojiro just thinks we’re fucking with him.

Oh! Our apologies. That’s completely true.
You surprised?
Does that mean… he said something just now as well?
But you don’t understand him, do you? That’s how it was for all of us at first too.
When you’re in the Metaverse, Mona talks like a normal person. Once you hear that and your brain realizes he can actually talk, you start to understand him in reality.

Wait, what? She should be able to hear him! She’s been to a Palace, and Akechi had never heard Morgana before in the Metaverse! Which is it, game?

...It’s a change in cognition! Most likely!
Thanks to Akechi’s lame acting, we figured out something was up.

Look who’s talking here.



But we already saw him drop a mega hint about it waaay earlier.





Bahahahahahahah, oh this game’s really pretty dumb but I kind of love it.

...That meant Akechi’d already been in the Metaverse by then!
And since he was lying to us about that, we assumed he had a hidden motive behind contacting us.
It seemed odd upon further thought. His reaction to my pancake comment was an honest one, after all.

I seriously cannot believe the major inciting event of the third act of this game revolves around an innocuous comment about pancakes.



That said, we weren’t so naive to overlook something like that.
That’s why we asked Futaba-chan to wiretap his phone.




Even that ace detective could never have imagined a program being installed so quickly. Futaba’s quirky nature proved to be a great help.



After a few days of listening this confirmed a his betrayal.



That would be the only way to arrest them, given their methods. I’ll deal with them after that. Let me see… We could say he stole the guard’s gun and committed suicide during his imprisonment… How about that? Public security questioning will occur on the first day… and with that room, my task will be simple.



Yes, the guard will be one of ours. We’ll have to eliminate him after to destroy the evidence though…




And thus, the dangerous criminal responsible for the mass mental shutdowns shall end his own life. When he does, you will become a great hero who saved Japan from evil. As will I, of course.



He’s no ace detective… Akechi is the perpetrator behind the mental shutdown crimes.
On top of that, there’s someone else commanding Akechi… Someone with great authority… so great that they can order an assassination in a police station. That’s why we had to make a move before they did.

The other Phantom Thieves nod.

I see…



Can you elaborate on that in more detail? What exactly happened in my cognitive world?
We’re sorry for using you without your permission. Your Palace had all the conditions we needed….



First, we required a place inside the cognitive world that was the same as in reality.





That’s why nobody but the person who uses the Nav even realizes they’re in the Metaverse.
Back with Kamoshida, we came in from the station without even noticin’…



You totally can’t tell the difference if there ain’t any distortions around.
We had already investigated Niijima-san’s Palace when Makoto brought this suggestion to us.

...Ha! Putting the Palace off for weeks was all part of my master plan to give us more time to figure out this other master plan! ...No, not really.



To be honest, I didn’t quite understand it, but I went along with it.



Yeah, it’s good we have her heading up our operations.
Makoto is normally so calm as well… but once her mind is set, she gets oddly impulsive.
I did have a bit of a rivalry forming with Akechi… But I just couldn’t contain myself anymore once you became a target, Sis. The reason I joined the Phantom Thieves was to heal your heart, after all.
My own achievements were all that mattered to me… I was desperate. I wasn’t myself at all. I’m sorry I couldn’t see that.
That goes for the both of us.
We heard from Mako-chan that you were going to do the interrogation, Niijima-san.
And regarding its location… I take it you used the data from my laptop?
I’m sorry.
*chuckle* Go on.



I really like these little doodles that show up for this scene.

First, our clothes didn’t change when we were down in the interrogation room.



Once we heard that from Makoto, we secretly went to check it out without Akechi knowing.
There was also one more thing we absolutely needed to make this work…



Since he had yet to be caught though, there obviously wouldn’t be anyone in that room.



They looked no different from actual living people.
After that, we just had to work our way into the Palace like usual while keepin’ Akechi in the dark.



However, it was then that we were met with a terrifying, unexpected police ambush. As a result, even though we managed to grab the Treasure, we couldn’t get it out of the Metaverse…

Music: Disquiet



We had prepared an empty briefcase beforehand and merely acted like we were taking the Treasure. This was because we knew the police would be coming for us.
We made sure before the operation that the police would be waiting to ambush us. And just as expected, he totally took the bait.



And I had been interrogating him with no knowledge of this. But, how did you lure Akechi into this… cognitive world’s interrogation room?
All I needed were the coordinates. Hehehehehe…




Asking her about it now would drag the conversation on too long… I should talk to her later.

Oh, this would drag on the conversation for too long. That’s the only thing that’s too much for right now. The rest of this conversation is just impeccably paced, I totally get it.



It must have been truly hilarious for our leader who sat idly in the real world’s interrogation room.



So that’s why you gave me your phone… I only took it because of what you told me.
It’s a shame I didn’t have the opportunity to see that for myself.



All I could do was try to handle all the messages that started coming to me on his phone. Huh… So in other words, I’ve been to the Metaverse, albeit for a brief moment.
In our experience, there is little danger when someone enters their own Palace for so short a time.
That’s the other reason we had him give it to you. We needed you to listen to Alibaba, deceive the guard, and ultimately aid in his escape. By having you head back to the interrogation room, we could return you to the real world as well.
I mean, I had to think of some way to keep you from running into Akechi mid-assassination.
...Astounding.



Gross.

I’m so glad Maaku was able to persuade you during the interrogation. Even though we knew about Akechi’s plan, we were pretty worried about that part.
True.



Without Sis on our side, Futaba’s plan and subsequent breakout would have never been possible. That persuasion was easily our greatest gamble. We couldn’t consult Sis beforehand. It was absolutely the make-or-break moment of the entire plan.
Still, I’m surprised you could convince me in such a short time. Were you confident you could do it?



Then it truly was a do or die situation? That’s crazy. Either way, I can’t believe you went for such a risky idea…
If we could just tell you the true culprit’s plan, I knew you’d realize the bigger picture… Realize that Maaku-kun was telling the truth, and that there was a greater evil to pursue.
As a result, we emerged victorious.
Then the reason you kept this a secret from me was so you could catch the true culprit, correct?
Yes. Plus, you had lost control of yourself at the time…
This is stunning… All I can really do is laugh.
I’ve kinda figured out that you guys made Akechi kill a fake… But what did you do about the body?
The police never even checked it.



They had a coroner working to ensure Maaku-kun’s death was reported as a suicide. That coroner didn’t take one look at the scene, and just passed along a falsified death certificate.

First off, how the hell do you know this? Second, I absolutely, unironically love that the plot fucking hinges on the massive political conspiracy being both too lazy and too stupid to A: actually make sure there’s a corpse for its chosen patsy and B: keep watch over the restaurant that serves as both my home and base of operations. It’s honestly pretty great that these morons are so blinded by greed and ego that they fail basic procedures to keep their evil asses from getting revealed and overthrown.

...The bad guys have that much influence?
Murder in a police station would be reckless otherwise. We also knew of a possible conspirator.
Thanks to Futaba-chan’s messages and the guard’s demeanor, I eventually came to understand… And since the higher-ups at the police knew nothing of this, they were thrown into disarray. As a result, Maaku-kun’s suicide during imprisonment was reported on the news, just as Akechi planned.
And with that confusion, he was able to escape with Niijima-san’s help.
I made sure nobody would check the morgue for his body, and thanks to that, nobody knows he survived.

How did you do that?

Thinking back to the interrogation though… I can’t believe what they did to Maaku-kun. The callous use of violence and even drugs is utterly abnormal. If he had lost consciousness and hadn’t been able to tell Sis about the phone, he would’ve died… I’m… truly glad you made it back safe, Maaku-kun.

Don’t get forward with me, Macopto. I have my sights set on Haru.



Music: Alleycat



We made sure to live normal lives while he was being interrogated to avoid drawing any suspicion.

Oh, so that’s why you were all “surprised” when you heard the news despite that making no sense.

Even with that, I couldn’t help but worry for him in my heart…
Well, I knew right away that our plan worked out.
I wanted to believe… but considering what we were up against…
Ryuji’s a bit on the dense and carefree side.



I had to be patient and avoid this place until things settled down. I finally feel relieved…

They haven’t exactly “settled down” yet. It’s been like a day.

We knew he was alive, but… It was difficult to not worry until we could confirm it in person.
Now that I think about it, my interrogation was just a formality for the head commander. What a joke letting me interrogate someone who was meant to die. They just wanted to avoid backlash… Very well. From here forward, I will do my utmost to assist you. ...You saved me, after all.
That’s reassuring to hear.
I’ll do whatever I can to help too. Just let me know. Let’s take a break for now though. This old brain is pooped. Oh, and feel free to use the first floor when you guys want to get together to talk. You’ll need a hideout where you can be safe. Just say the word and I’ll close shop early.
Are you sure?
This guy can’t leave. Plus, you won’t make much progress if people can hear you from downstairs. It’s not like this place is the liveliest joint in town. It won’t be a huge loss for me.

How on earth does Leblanc make money?



Heheh.

And that’s all for this installment. But that doesn’t mean we’re done with this conversation. Join us next time for Even! More! Talkiiiiiiing!