he's adapting better than i thought but he's also poor now. he's really rich back home! but he's only a 2 here! i think the hotel thinks it's funny. so now i have to teach him how to be poor hahahahahaha
[smiling a bit wistfully at his phone as his thoughts drift towards his teammates-- the ones that are here, and the ones still back home. thinking about them always makes him miss home even more]
sheesh. where do i start?
[GENUINELY WHERE DOES HE START???]
. . . i guess you could say we're a team of misfits united by the same goals. we all came together to fight against the people who had hurt us. . . to find justice for the wrongs we had experienced. and along the way, we just. . . decided we wanted to help others, too. to give them the courage to change the world.
[that sounds like such a big, lofty goal. things hadn't started that way; not with their selfish motives and the way they targeted individuals who had directly hurt them. but. . . changing the world is exactly what they had done, isn't it?]
someone once called us "picaresque." i think that's a pretty good description.
individually. . . like i said, they're all different people with different backgrounds.
ryuji used to run track, though he had to quit because of an injury. we're in the same year at school, though he's in a different class. he's my charge commander, though his real strongest suit is his heart. he cares so deeply about the people in his life and is one of the bravest guys i know. he's my absolute best friend.
ann is a model, and she and i share the same homeroom teacher. she's the magic powerhouse of my team, but her kindness knows no limits. seriously, there isn't a mean bone in her body. but if you hurt the people she cares about, she'll kick your ass into next tuesday. seriously, she's pretty scary when she's mad.
morgana is my pet cat, though he'd be pretty pissed if i called him that. he just takes the form of a cat in the real world; in reality, he's a product of the cognitive world. he symbolizes the pure concentrated power of humanity's hope. he knows more about the metaverse than any of us do, so we turn to him when we have questions. he's also my team's healer.
yusuke is an art student at a prestigious academy in tokyo. he's a bit. . . eccentric. if you've met him, you know what i mean. but he has an eye for true beauty; i've never met an artist as talented as him. he just has this way of effortlessly bringing out every single detail of the subjects he paints. he's the strongest member of my team. hits like a goddamned truck.
makoto used to be shujin's student council president, but she graduated earlier this year and attends university now. she's the smartest girl i know, and the reason many of us managed to pass our exams. she keeps us focused and is really good at strategizing. and honestly? i'd consider her my second-in-command. she may be the academic type but she's the farthest thing from stuffy. her first persona was a motorcycle because she is cool as HECK.
futaba is. . . well. my little sister. she's no longer a shut-in, but she tends to be pretty shy around others when she first meets them. it's something she's working on; her growth has been pretty exponential. she's our navigator on the field, and also uses her hacking skills to gather intelligence for our missions. if i were to describe her personality in one word, it would be. . . gremlin.
haru is the daughter of the late ceo of big bang burger. she's sweet and kind, and loves gardening and cultivating. she attends university with makoto and has dreams of opening her own cafe with home-produced products. she seems pretty gentle at first. . . but actually? i'm pretty sure she's the most bloodthirsty member of our team. she's utterly terrifying with an axe and a grenade launcher.
[WOW. . . HE TALKED FOR SO LONG. . . AND HE ISN'T EVEN FINISHED YET. but he at least pauses to give Minato time to absorb that giant wall of text]
[ Whoa. That's a lot to read on the tiny watch screens, but Minato pores over every word. Akira's clearly put a lot of care into each of his teammates' descriptions.
Incidentally, he's filing away all that info on Ryuji and Ann. Yusuke's and Haru's details will pop back to the forefront of his mind once he's run into them...
Having such intense descriptions for each of them must mean: ]
[ He's pretty sure he already knows how Kotone must have felt about SEES, but Akira's relationship with his teammates probably resembles more of Yu's? Food for thought. ]
I know Ryuji and Ann are here.
You probably wish they were safe at home. But it's still nice to see them again isn't it?
[ Not just two of Akira's old companions, but four?
...he hopes none of SEES starts turning up here (his own, of course. He knows Mitsuru's made her way here). Otherwise, he'll have a lot of explaining to do... ]
It's nice to see friends again, even if the circumstances aren't ideal.
[a lot of explaining to do. . . not Akira very purposefully avoiding talking about his sex life with Haru and Ann for that reason!!]
[Ryuji and Yusuke are part of said sex life now so, u know]
mmm. . . there are a few more i haven't talked about yet, too
[his team is HUGE]
sumire. . . i don't know if she'd officially want to consider herself a phantom thief, but that's okay. she still worked with us for a time, and that's enough for me. she's an award-winning gymnast who taught me a lot about flexibility and moving through space. i wouldn't be nearly as limber as i am without her instruction.
sophia is an artificial intelligence program who lived on my phone for a period of time. her history is complicated, so i won't get into it. and at the end of our adventures with her, she went off to live with her creator, so she isn't with me anymore. as artificial intelligence, she had an interest in learning about the human heart. i think it'd be accurate to say that she left us an actual human, and not just a computer program.
zenkichi is a crotchety old cop who works in public security. his poor choice in careers aside, he's actually a pretty decent guy. it's fun to pick on him. he gets sooooo mad, it's great. he has a daughter of his own, so i guess those fatherly instincts really took over when he was fighting alongside the rest of my team. i don't trust cops as a rule, but. . . i'd trust him. not as a cop, but as a phantom thief.
. . . for a while, we also had the help of a pretty famous detective. he DEFINITELY isn't a part of the team, but he was our. . . collaborator, for a time. if that makes sense.
[. . .]
[and that's it!! that's all Akechi gets, because that is a scar that has yet to fully heal over]
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