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@detectiveprinced: HELLO?!? I was hanging out with friends last night at the Penguin sniper and IN WALKS GORO FUCKING AKECHI?!? (4 images attached, in them Akechi is playing pool and darts with a dark haired boy. The last image is of the two of them at the door talking with one another as they leave)
@detectiveprinced replying to @detectiveprinced: hit tweet, follow me for more
@twlightprince replying to @detectiveprinced: omg moot remember me when ur famous
@hourly_akechi replying to @detectiveprinced: NEW AKECHI PHOTOS?!?!
@tsubasawatanabe replying to @hourly_akechi: who’s the other guy though? I’ve never seen him before
@hourly_akechi replying to @tsubasawatanabe: not sure, I’ve never seen him around Akechi before, maybe they just met there and played some games together?
@detectiveprinced replying to @hourly_akechi and @tsubasawatanabe: actually they came in together, I think they might be friends but idk. They played together for like three hours and then left
@sukoreiko replying to @detectiveprinced and two others: Come to think of it I’ve never seen Akechi hanging out with anyone his age before
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@lilliesforgoro replying to @detectiveprinced: OOMF DID YOU GET A PICTURE WITH HIM?!? OR TALK TO HIM?!?
@detectiveprinced replying to @lilliesforgoro: no 😭😭😭 I was too scared. Him and his friend were so focused on their game too and then after they were done they had this like really intense conversation and I felt too awkward to go up…
@lilliesforgoro replying to @detectiveprinced: intense? Like were they arguing???
@detectiveprinced replying to @lilliesforgoro: Akdhbajajdb no- sorry maybe I should have phrased it differently. They were just talking, Akechi even laughed a few times but they were like super focused on one another I didn’t see them look away from each other once!!
@miyazakishiro quoting a tweet by @detectiveprinced: Twitter user discovers the concept of an irl conversation:
@detectiveprinced replying to a tweet by @miyazakishiro: dude I have conversations with my friends all the time but I don’t stand staring unblinking into their eyes when we talk 💀
@twilightprince replying to @detectiveprinced and @miyazakishiro: AYO?!?? 👀
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@lesbiansforakechi quoting a tweet by @detectiveprinced: staring unblinkingly into each other's eyes?!? Not to be that person but 🏳️🌈🤨??
@teenagedetectves replying to a tweet by @lesbiansforakechi: dude not everything has to be shipped. Just because Akechi was seen in the presence of someone else his age doesn’t mean we should jump to conclusions.
@lesbiansforakechi replying to @teenagedetectves: yeah yeah 🙄 obviously I know that it was more a joke because the way op phrased the tweet def sounded gay af
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@akechisgirl: does anyone know who the mystery boy is??? #akechigoro #mysteryboy
@rainbowkechi replying to @akechisgirl: oomf I don’t think we’d have a mystery boy hashtag if someone knew who he was 😭💀
@akechigirl replying to @rainbowkechi: never hurts to ask 😭😭
@Takeoblossoms replying to @akechisgirl and @rainbowkechi: why do you want to know so bad? Jealous people have genuine relationships with your fav that interfere with your parasocial ones?
@rainbowkechi replying to @Takeoblossoms: dude chill, it’s not that deep
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@crimeboyyy: the duality of man (attached is a screenshot of two tweets next to each other. The first is by user @begaydocrime with a zoomed in picture of the dark haired boy seen with Akechi captioned ‘he’s so hot wtf’ the second is a tweet by user @heartsforakechi with the same image captioned ‘he looks plain af what does Akechi see in him’)
@floralokino replying to @crimeboyyy: yikes this was kinda fun at first but now people are starting to get really weird, I’ve already seen a dozen neg tweets about mystery boy.
@crimeboyyy replying to @floralokino: literally tho??? Like it’s so forced too. Mystery boy IS hot af, people are just projecting their own jealousy they’ll never be friends with Akechi.
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@gorocult: friendly reminder guys, mystery boy is probably a minor or at at least still a teenager. Be careful about commenting on his appearance. Negative OR positive. Some of y’all are getting too comfortable thirsting over strangers on this app…
@cherrypetals replying to @gorocult: bro forgot that the people calling him hot are also probably minors
@gorocult replying to @cherrypetals: THAT STILL ISNT AN EXCUSE??? Just because you’re a minor doesn’t give you free reign to sexualize other minors. I feel like I’m going crazy on this app 💀
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@akechiluvrs: I’ve been seeing those pictures of Akechi and his friend all over my tl and am I the only one who thinks it’s kinda creepy? Like he’s trying to hang out with his friend and people are taking pictures without his consent?!
@goroboyzz replying to @akechiluvrs: omg thank you!! Finally someone sees sense, it feels like such an invasion of privacy, and now everyone’s trying to find out who the other guy is. It’s so parasocial…
@akechiluvrs replying to @goroboyzz: THEYRE WHAT AJBS???? That’s so weird
@mitatadao replying to @goroboyzz and @akechiluvrs: yeah :/ just look at the trending tab right now. I feel so bad for Akechi-kun and his friend…
Trends for you
WHO IS HE (1.2K posts)
#akechigoro (6.4K posts)
#mysteryboy (1.1K posts)
Penguin Sniper (2.6K posts)
FIND HIM (2K posts)
@akechiluvrs: @mitatadao dude you weren’t kidding… sucks that people can’t be normal. This is probably why we’ve never seen him in public with any of his friends before
@mitatadao replying to @akechiluvrs: yeah… hope Akechi-kun’s friend is handling all this ok. I can only imagine how scary having an internet manhunt out for you is :((
———-
Akira was still riding the high from the fun he had the night before with Akechi when he woke up the next morning. He knew he was supposed to be careful around the other boy, but he found that within fifteen minutes of hanging out with him he was genuinely enjoying himself and getting caught up in their pool game. There was something that just drew him to Akechi and something even more invigorating about competing with him.
Morgana yawned grumpily from his spot on the bed, “thank god you’re awake, you phone has been buzzing for half and hour. I was this close to just waking you up myself,” his cat complained haughtily, ears pressed down against the side of his head to block out noise.
Akira blinked, fumbling for his phone which he had left to charge beside his bed last night. Sure enough, there were a dozen missed messages and calls from Ann, as well as a couple from Ryuji as well. He blinked owlishly, wondering what could have happened while he was asleep to make his friends so desperate to contact him. Before he had a chance to open any of the messages, another call from Ann lit up the screen. Akira took a moment to properly sit up and get his bearings about him before pressing accept.
“Akira!” Ann practically gasped the moment he picked up the call, “Have you seen what’s been trending on Twitter today?”
“Twitter?” He asked blankly, “that social media app? What about it?”
Ann paused on the other side of the line, “wait you don’t have Twitter?”
“Uh, no?” Akira yawned, confused where this conversation was going, “I don’t have any social media accounts. It’s not like I had anything to post back in my hometown,” he shrugged.
“What?” Ann seemed aghast for a moment, “That’s- you know what, we’ll touch on it later. You’re trending on Twitter right now!”
“What does that mean?” He groaned as he stood up and stretched, “I don’t even have an account, how can I be ‘trending’ or whatever?”
“You’re killing me here Akira,” Ann bemoaned, “how are you a teenager without any knowledge of pop culture or social media.”
“Never really bothered with it back home and I guess I just haven’t thought about it since coming to Tokyo,” he replied.
“Ok, uh, are you home right now? I’m like fifteen minutes from Leblanc I’ll just show you,” Ann asked, her voice rising in excitement.
Akira rubbed the last of the sleep from his eyes and confirmed to Ann he would be there when she arrived. He didn’t quite get what all the excitement was about, but it was Sunday and he didn’t have any other obligations planned for the day until the evening when he would help Yoshida with his speeches in station square.
Twenty minutes later, he was sitting downstairs in a booth, Ann right beside him with her phone in her hand. They had some coffee and curry in front of them, courtesy of Sojiro, who had grumbled about kids eating up all his food for free, yet smiled at Ann’s excited praises to his cooking when he thought neither of them were looking.
“Ok, so, I was up super early this morning for a shoot and I was just scrolling through twitter on the train, like I usually do,” Ann explained in excitement as she scrolled through her twitter timeline in demonstration, “When I saw a tweet with a picture of you. I thought I was seeing things at first, but it’s definitely you- and Akechi,” she added the last part with a raised eyebrow as she pulled up a tweet. Akira stared at the screen, seeing a picture of himself staring back at him. He didn’t remember anyone taking pictures of him and Akechi the night before, granted his attention hadn’t strayed much at all from Akechi throughout their meet-up.
He didn’t know what to say at first, “Uh, it’s not what you think,” he blurted out, wincing when he realized that was about the most suspicious response he could have given. He didn’t want his friends to feel betrayed about the fact he was hanging out with Akechi despite his negative comments about the phantom thieves. He had been planning to mention his meet-up with the detective to them next time they hung out, truly, just his luck pictures of him and Akechi would leak before he got the chance. Now it looked like he was sneaking behind his friends back.
“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t care,” Ann interrupted his silent musings, “I won’t lie and say I have a totally positive opinion of Akechi, but I don’t have a negative one of him either. Call me neutral, if you like hanging out with him, that’s for you to decide, not me or any of our other friends,” she smiled at him, shooting him a wink at the last part.
He cleared his throat, feeling strangely embarrassed by how easily Ann had read him, “So, someone took pictures of us when we hung out? What’s all this about me trending?”
Ann giggled, pressing a different button on her screen to pull up the trending tab on the app. All of which were clearly in reference to the pictures taken of him and Akechi, “Your new friend happens to be a rather popular celebrity. That comes with public scrutiny. His fans have pictures of you two together and now his entire fanbase seems determined to find out more about you.”
Ann pushed her phone into his hands after pressing the hashtag ‘mysteryboy’, “Go ahead and see for yourself.”
He scrolled, seeing dozens upon dozens of tweets all trying to figure out who he was and what his relationship or connection to Akechi was. He stared at the screen dumbfounded before turning back to Ann, “Why do these people care so much? Surely I’m not that interesting.”
Ann took a sip of her coffee to hide an amused smile before replying, “You obviously have never experienced an internet fanbase before. Especially one of an irl person, they’ll eat up any and all possible new information about their fav that they can. And for Goro Akechi, the untouchable detective prince who has never been seen with any friends his age before, to suddenly be photographed with an unknown boy is just the type of stuff his fanbase would eat up.”
He still found the whole thing kind of absurd, though he wasn’t very bothered by it himself. He was used to scrutiny from those around him, he didn’t care much if people gossiped about him online. What he did worry about was if this would negatively affect Akechi, or he would be embarrassed by the whole affair. When he voiced as much to Ann she snorted into her drink, coughing to clear her lungs before replying, “You are whipped,” she smirked at him, “you only met him a week ago, after he indirectly insulted you no less, and he’s already consuming your thoughts!”
“Well I do think he would be an interesting friend?” Akira replied, trying to figure out what seemed to have Ann so amused. His reply was only met with another snicker as his friend patted his shoulder, “that’s for you to figure out on yourself.”
Her response only served to confuse him more, but she barreled on before he could answer, “We need to set up an account for you,” she suddenly declared.
“A twitter account? What use would I have for that,” he cocked his head in confusion, “I don’t have any time to manage one with everything else going on right now.”
“Truly? Not even a little bit of time in your day for our fearless leader to browse the internet like a normal teenager?” she teased him.
He shrugged, “Between running our teenage vigilante group, hanging out with all my friends, studying, and working part-time jobs I really have zero free time.”
Ann’s eyes widened in surprise, her question had been said in jest, clearly she hadn’t realized how little he was kidding about his lack of free time, “Not even on the train?”
“I usually read on the train if I have enough space to,” he admitted sheepishly. Ann shook her head, “You really are chronically offline, what the hell.”
“Chronically what?” Akira blanched.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ann waved off, attention returned to her own phone, “We might as well set up an account for you anyway. If you do come across any free time it never hurts to have the option. Besides, then we can follow each other on my private account! It will be fun!” Ann seemed so excited, and Akira really didn’t see the harm in it, so he let her guide him through the process of making an account.
Ann picked his username for him and helped him make the account private. When he was done, he had a private account called @jokerofhearts which he thought was a little on the nose, but Ann seemed greatly amused by. She had him follow her private account, apparently whose username was recently changed to @pantherofhearts in honor of their creation of the phantom thieves, “Isn’t it cute? We have matching usernames now. Ryuji will be so mad,” she laughed, “the user ‘skullofhearts’ was taken so he just settled on @captainskull,” she grinned.
They spent the next hour setting up his account that he wasn’t likely to use much. He and Ann took a picture together with their coffee that he made his profile picture. And then they messaged Ryuji and Yusuke so he could follow their accounts as well. Ann was right in predicting Ryuji would be annoyed they had matching usernames without him and he tried to rope Yusuke into matching with him. Though their friend was not agreeable to changing his user from @tormentedfox to @captainfox.
“Oh! You should follow Shiho as well!” Ann exclaimed gleefully, “I’ll send her a text so she knows who you are and accepts you! Her account is @Shihosthoughts!”
“Uh, are you sure she’ll want me to follow her, Ann?” he questioned, “We don’t know each other that well.”
“Don’t worry! This could be the perfect chance for you to get to know her better too. Ever since she woke up and started her physical therapy she’s had a lot of downtime just spent sitting in her hospital room, so she spends a lot of time online. Plus I’ve told her all about you guys and shes eager to meet my new friends!” Ann explained bashfully, “Truthfully, um, she knows we’re the phantom thieves. I’m sorry! I just couldn’t keep it from her!” she blurted out, looking guilty, like she expected him to be mad at her.
Akira placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “It’s fine, I know how important Suzui is to you. As long as your trust her to keep our secret there's no problem.”
Ann nodded quickly, “She will, don’t worry! I- After Kamoshida was taken down, I couldn’t help but want Shiho to know it was me who did it. That I got revenge for her and made him face what he did,” she admitted quietly, a somber expression coming over her face.
Akira smiled softly at her, “I understand, you don’t have to explain yourself,” he told her softly, “I’m glad Suzui knows you fought for her, and yourself.”
Ann gave him a watery smile in return and wiped a few tears that had started to bead in the corner of her eyes, “Thanks Akira, sorry to bring down the mood so much,” she sniffled the last of her sadness away to compose herself, “Why don’t we got meet up with Ryuji, and Yusuke too! They’re both complaining in the group chat we’re hanging out without them- or more like Ryuji is complaining,” she smiled slightly in amusement, “We have all day to kill as well.”