INBOX

[maskreant]

Hey, this is Akira Kurusu and I'm not available right now. Leave a message and I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

GOSSIP

SCHEME

P.THIEVES

Comments

[ladytakamaki]

[ CONGRATULATIONS akira you moron ]

Ha-ha. Very funny.
Where are you?

1/2

[maskreant]

at home? in my room. on my bed.

what else do you want to know?

[maskreant]

are you all right...? there are still monsters wandering around and this team stuff is

really intense.

[ He's worried about her and Futaba, but he doesn't want to annoy them with his mother henning. ]

[ladytakamaki]

I wanted to know if you were also doing one of these group assignments.

Guess you answered that question for me already, huh?

And I'm okay. Just really tired and sore from all this fighting...

[maskreant]

yeah. i guess we're some of the lucky ones that still exist in "reality" for now.

you did some fighting, too? i'm glad to hear you're all right. we battled some monsters ourselves and i can't say that i was prepared for that kind of level of fighting.

[ The convention monsters felt like easy mode in comparison. ]

[ladytakamaki]

Whatever that means... But...that means the others are alive, at least?

I feel you! I've never had to actually fight anything before! To be fair a lot of it is just me shooting out these weird blast thingies,
but you know what I mean. My muscles are super sore...

[maskreant]

i hope so... some of my friends are missing. so are yours, right? we'll rescue them. all of them.

[ He doesn't want to name them because it'll only make it even harder to stomach. So far, he has been doing his best to carry on just holding onto the hope they can bring them back. ]

yeah, i get you, but... it feels like we've done this before? i actually had a memory during the con that we used to fight monsters or something.

what i would do for some of my other self's strength and stamina right now.
















maybe we should start exercising.

[ladytakamaki]

Yeah... I've been worried sick, and now that we know this is all to help bring them back? I'm gonna work extra hard! You should too, okay?

Really? Was it a Phantom Thieves memory, then? Maybe I'll get one too, with all this fighting...

I told Mary this, but I'm looking into taking self-defense classes. You should totally join me! Not only will we get fit but we'll learn how to protect ourselves, too.

[maskreant]

of course i will. there's no room for slacking.

i think so, but i don't really understand it. we were in some weird place? either way, it helped me with fighting a bit, kind of like i recovered some muscle memory as silly as that sounds.

sure. that sounds like a plan. i'm already training with Cleo in terms of normal exercise, but some self-defense classes can't hurt on top of that.

by the way, did you receive anything from Retrospec recently?

[ladytakamaki]

Dang... Now I kinda wish I got a memory like that to help me out. I believe you, though. I'll let you know if anything comes up on my end.

Oh, you know Cleo? She's really cool! I didn't know you two were getting so fit already!

Nope! Nothing. Why?

[ LITTLE DOES SHE KNOW IN A FEW DAYS... ]

[maskreant]

sounds good.

she is, though i think she can maybe use some lessons in leisure. using your free time just for studying sounds like a hard life.

i was just curious since Hanamura got fish last month.

also, would you be interested in meeting other people in the Phantom Thieves?

[ mostly because he's not sure how she personally feels about them... Does she like them? Does she just want to live her life as is? It's kind of hard to go back now that they're wrangled into these teams. ]

[ladytakamaki]

Wait, okay, hold up: there are other Phantom Thieves here? Is that what you're saying?

[ ann's not...completely against meeting them, she's just surprised. what are the odds that other people besides akira would be a part of their hallucinomemories--ones that ann hasn't had yet but she's fully expecting them to show up eventually. ]

[maskreant]

i only know one person and they're on the stranger side, but i don't know if they know?

so i'm a little reluctant to ask them since these memories trigger at inopportune moments sometimes. what if they like their life right now?

[ The true dilemma... ]

[ladytakamaki]

Oh. I get what you mean.

Maybe we should just...wait to see if the memory will come to them on their own right now. Maybe they'll approach one of us first about it? Who is it?

[maskreant]

that was what i was thinking. also, sorry for springing it up on you at the beginning since you didn't have much of a choice. i should have thought that through the first time, but... yeah.

[ He doesn't mind being alone even when the memories become unsettling, but he promised her he would tell her. He won't lie that having someone to talk to about the milder stuff is nice. ]

Futaba Isshiki. know her?

[ladytakamaki]

No, it's totally fine! I wasn't mad or anything. I mean, honestly? You can tell me anything.
We're friends, aren't we?

[ she's never really...had a friend she could go to for anything and everything. other than kurt, but as an actor he'd be really busy and ann never wanted to bother him.

this is sort of her testing the waters with akira, to see if they're on that level. if anything she feels like the hallucinomemories have brought them closer together. ]

Her?? I've spoken to her once on the network. She's the gamer, right?

[maskreant]

yeah, we're friends... thank you.

[ But he's still hesitant. Some of these memories seem too intense, way over the top, so he'll wait a little longer before he tells her. He needs to be able to digest it first.

Despite that, he's really grateful and he's not sure if it can be conveyed in text. Retrospec has given them so much trouble, but brought them even more. ]

yeah, she is. i'm a little surprised, actually.

[ladytakamaki]

No problem. Don't worry about whether or not it's gonna change my life or anything, especially when I'm getting memories of my own.

[ those are life-changing enough as they are. though...it's probably a good move for akira to wait right now. ann's going to be hit with some unpleasant memories soon, so... ]

Seriously, that's super unexpected! Have you talked to her before?

[maskreant]

all right. i'll make sure to tell you later, maybe when all of this is over.

[ Because more stress isn't needed. When he got that one memory, he had trouble sleeping. ]

actually, we're longtime friends? online friends, but still friends.

[ladytakamaki]

Whoa what?! You never told me you had online friends! How did you guys meet?

[maskreant]

[ WAIT.

wait a minute

first: ]

do you not have online friends, Ann...?

[ladytakamaki]

No...not really...

[ akira she never had many friends to begin with, ]

Why? Is that bad?

[maskreant]

i wouldn't say it's bad. i just thought it was kind of normal.

well, at least for me it is. i didn't have a lot of friends and i used to move around a lot, so i made some online.

[ He doesn't mind admitting that he has like. No friends. Little friends? A very small amount of friends. ]

we played an MMO together and that's how it started.

[ladytakamaki]

I see. I guess...I just never found a reason to talk to anyone online? Outside of updating my Instagram and stuff.
That's pretty cool, though. Have you met any of them in person, including Futaba?

[ oh, akira.... at least he has friends now. at least both of them do. ]

[maskreant]

we should add each other, then we can be online friends, too.

[ he has you, fam. ]

i've met Futaba before Retrospec... the rest of them aren't part of it, so they don't really notice any differences. it's really unsettling, but i shouldn't be surprised.