Archive of Our Own

There are dirty dishes in the sink.

Zenkichi had passed them a few times when making a cup of coffee, and again after a refill. He’s been working on a case after work hours; several documents spread out on the dining room table.

The dishes should get done, Zenkichi thinks to himself, and the thought nearly gets pushed to the back of his mind once again until Akane walks into the kitchen.

She reaches into the cupboard for a glass and fills it halfway with water.

“Akane?” He says, thumbing through the stack of witness contact information. “Could you do the dishes while you’re in here?”

There is a slight pause, enough that he looks up at his daughter. She has a sour look on her face, and is clearly trying to decide how to answer.

“…Yeah. Okay,” She says finally.

Zenkichi frowns, looking back down at his papers. It’s normal that kids don’t like doing chores, right? Why had she been so… grouchy? No, wrong word.

He tries reading the phone number from a business card, but his mind chews away at a different problem.

Resigned. The word hits him as soon as he picks up his pen, and he drops it just as quick. Zenkichi remembers the past years with his daughter. She was not one to roll over like that. They’d had their share of arguments.

“Did I do something wrong?” Zenkichi asks, the documents in front of him now meaningless.

Akane pauses, her hand on the faucet knob. She looks torn.

“No, nothing,” She says.

“If there’s something you need to talk about…” Zenkichi says, leaving an opening for her to follow through.

“I just. Um. I did the dishes the past few nights,” Akane says, wringing her hands. “And I was hoping you could do them tonight, cause I was working on something in my room.”

Her eyes are locked onto the stacks of papers on the table.

Zenkichi stands up from the table and walks over.

“Sounds fair to me.”

Zenkichi picks up a sponge and turns the faucet so warm water streams out.

“If you’re busy I can-” Akane tries to say, but Zenkichi smiles.

“I’m trying to do better, Akane. And if that means doing my share of chores, I think that’s the least I can do.”

It feels like a win when he sees her smile, bounding back to her room.

The right side of the sink fills with hot water, and Zenkichi piles the dishes in. He lathers soap in the sponge, scrubs, rinses. Ah, he’d forgotten to grab a towel.

He can hear music at low volume in Akane’s room when he passes by.

Life was still not easy. There had been this period after the Phantom Thieves business, after he’d talked to his daughter, where he felt like he could do anything. Logically, he knew it was because of the strong first steps he’d taken in repairing his relationship with Akane.

Opening up, strengthening his resolve to bring those to justice, and finally getting Owada in jail had bolstered his confidence. Valjean had certainly helped too. But after parting with the thieves, after settling back down with his daughter alone…

He tried so hard not to fall back to routine. He wanted to prove he could do better. Being a single dad felt more difficult than fighting a literal God.

But he could do the dishes.

He feels worn out afterwards. Had he always been this tired, just forcing himself to work anyways? He can hear the occasional noise from his daughter’s room still, and parts from his mess on the table to knock on her door.

The music stops when he does so.

“You doing okay in there?” He asks.

She doesn’t have to let him in. She might even be stuck in her own routine of ignoring him.

He tries not to show his relief when she does open her door.

“What have you been up to?” He tries to say nonchalant.

“Drawing,” Akane says, going back to her desk.

A one-word answer. Zenkichi tries again.

“Drawing what?”

Akane doesn’t quite blush, but she won’t look her dad in the face either.

“The Phantom Thieves,” she says a little too quick.

And Zenkichi tries very hard not to smile.

“Lemme guess… Joker?” He’s going for teasing, but Akane does not rise to his bait.

“Actually,” she reaches for a stack of papers. “I drew the new members.”

That is enough for Zenkichi to pause.

“New members?”

“Yup. Apparently, some people on the Phan site have been working on trying to digitally enhance the few pictures we have of the Phantom Thieves. And when they did that, everyone realized there’s two new members!”

A drop of sweat goes down Zenkichi’s back.

“How enhanced are we talkin’ here?”

Akane plows on, oblivious to her dad’s nerves.

“Not enough to see their faces, but now we can see their cool costumes! And the colors too! Everyone’s fanart always put them in black clothes cause they’re always hidden in the shadows. But the cat girl wears red, see!”

Akane pulls a single page from her stack, handing it to her dad.

Zenkichi adjusts his glasses.

It is a hand drawn picture of all the Phantom Thieves in a line, doing their poses. Joker in the middle, of course. It’s really not bad. He hadn’t realized his daughter was such an artist.

He and Sophie are on the end, decked out in their crazy attire.

He’s been staring too long without saying anything.

“What’s, uh, what’s she wearing?” Zenkichi flounders for a moment, pointing at Sophie, trying to pretend he had not been staring at his own fanart with fondness.

“She’s one of the new Thieves! I think she has one of those masks that light up! I just can’t figure out how her hair works-”

Akane goes off from there, pulling out more than one page of art, pointing at little details. Zenkichi is trying to listen, but he keeps looking at the mini him in the group shot. Heh, she even made his shoes pointy.

“Can I hang this on the fridge?”

Akane stares at her dad, confused.

“I mean you clearly put a lot of time into this. I really like it!” He does like it, but he thinks the kids in the group chat would like it even better.

“If you want,” Akane says. “But I don’t think it’s all that good.”

“What?” And Zenkichi is actually taken aback. “Not good? This looks incredible!”

To further his point, he marches out of her room to the kitchen, though he makes himself look like a fool when he can’t find any tape in the drawers.

“I think we still have those old fridge magnets,” Akane points to a drawer.

The drawer indeed has magnets. Zenkichi grabs one that looks like an apple and plonks it on the fridge door, standing back to admire it with his daughter. She tenses like she wants to say something, but doesn’t. He decides to speak instead.

“It’s getting late, have you showered and brushed your teeth yet?”

“No, I’ll do that now.”

Zenkichi nods, watching her go. Only when she closes the bathroom door does he pull out his phone and snap a picture, sending it to the Thieves group chat.

Futaba: YOOO??? GRAMPS MAKING FANART OF US LETS GO!!!

Makoto: It’s obviously Akane’s…

Yusuke: How wonderful! She did an excellent job with our poise. Graceful, yet mysterious…

Ryuji: Oh, now youve done it

Haru: I agree! She even put the feather in my hat. Her attention to detail is admirable.

Zenkichi watches the chat blow up for another minute before he realizes Yusuke has been typing for a very long time. He chuckles and puts his phone back into his pocket. He’ll hold off on catching up with the kids for the time being. Especially if Yusuke was going to write a novel from one piece of art.

Zenkichi tries to take off work more.

He feels weird about it. He loves spending time with Akane. There is no question about that.

But a few months have passed since he’s fought in the metaverse, and he can feel Valjean getting something akin to stir crazy.

He tries to double his effort on both ends. He ties loose ends on old cases. He takes Akane out to dinner just for the heck of it. He arrests some pervert that had been harassing young women, and helps the victims pursue restraining orders. He helps Akane with her homework.

He is trying. He needs to step up. He can’t let his life go back to the way it was.

He wants to ask the group chat for advice, but any text he writes up is quickly deleted. It felt weird, being the oldest and asking for help from kids. Even if they did have more experience with Personas, he should be able to figure shit out on his own.

He takes Akane to the marketplace, walking along the sidewalk. They talk. He tries very hard to be a good listener.

He tries to be in the present as well. When Akane stares at an ice cream stand, he leads her over and asks her what flavor she wants. When she stops at a shop window, he waits patiently until she’s done looking, sometimes asking if she wants to go in.

He’s terrified that he’s forcing it too much. That she will look right through him and tell him he’s trying too hard to be a good dad.

She doesn’t. She eats her ice cream and points out a cute purse in the shape of a dog.

They pause at a crosswalk and she hits the button, taking his hand while they wait.

He shouldn’t be sweating that much, but he is. In fact, Akane pulls her hand away.

“Gross, dad!” She says. “Your hand is sweaty!”

“Sorry!” He says, trying to laugh, but the way she’d ripped her hand from his keeps replaying in his mind.

He wipes his hands furiously on his pants, and she gives him an odd look.

The crosswalk buzzes and she starts forward instead of saying anything.

There is momentary relief. He wasn’t sure what she was going to say, or even what he could say to her.

Valjean is screaming at him.

Panic seizes in his chest, his head twisting to where Valjean was sensing danger from.

A car is moving entirely too fast towards the crosswalk. Towards Akane. He can hear brakes squealing.

Zenkichi throws himself forward, hand outstretched for his daughter. He wasn’t there when Aoi was hit, and yet he can picture the scenario in his mind with perfect detail. He can’t let it happen to the only thing left in his life.

His grip finds Akane’s arm, and he yanks her back towards the sidewalk. The world is not moving in slow motion, but he can almost see each second pass with agonizing terror.

When Akane is pulled back far enough from the car’s trajectory, he tries to steady the erratic thudding of his heart.

There is a very small ledge where the sidewalk turns into the crosswalk. Zenkichi is hyper aware of this, because his foot caught on it, sending him stumbling towards the asphalt, directly in front of the car.

He’d been too reckless trying to reach Akane in time. In fact, he was still holding on to her.

There is nothing he can do for himself, so he propels Akane towards the sidewalk.

His thoughts are overlapping. He is reasonably scared for the pain he knows is coming. He is still terrified for his daughter’s life. Realization crashes upon him that Akane might watch another parent die in a car accident.

Guilt is the last thing Zenkichi feels before the car makes contact. The driver had tried to swerve out of the way, but Zenkichi still feels metal scrape the side of his stomach, knocking the wind from him.

He hears Akane scream, and tumbles across the pavement, his glasses flying from his face,

His hair clings to his forehead, sweat and blood and dirt on his face. He is not unconscious, and the pain ringing through his body will not make him give in.

Hearing his daughter scream was a good motivator. For one second, he lives in a reality where the car had somehow hit her too, but as Zenkichi pushes himself to his feet, he sees her.

Akane, tears streaming down her face, running towards him. Unharmed.

“No! No! Please! Not you too!” She sobs, falling to her knees.

She grabs his hand, squeezing with both her fists as if willing him to live with every fiber of her being.

His shirt is torn right above his hip, a nasty scrape leaking blood. His face was also cut on his forehead where his head had hit the street.

The bruises will be bad.

He can’t find the breath to calm his daughter.

He tries again to suck in air, but his ribs sting. And there’s now a crowd forming.

“Give him some space!” A man yells from the sidewalk, and if Zenkichi weren’t still reeling from shock he would have gotten up to knock the guy on his ass. Who the hell yells at a little girl like that?

“’m fine!” Zenkichi tries to say, but it comes out a wheeze.

His daughter is getting blurry in front of him, and he’s not sure if it’s because he hit his head or the tears in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry!” Zenkichi says suddenly, pulling Akane close to his chest.

It hurts, especially when she clings tight to him, her arm brushing his injury.

“I’m sorry! Akane, I’m so sorry!” He is trying to say more.

She will hate him for this. For finally stepping up and then almost getting himself killed. He knows it was to keep her safe, but he still screwed up. He’s practically torn open the scar he’d just spent so much effort trying to heal.

She is saying something to him. Trying to calm him. That was another thing; he should be holding himself together better than this. He needed to reassure her, not the other way around. Here he was, falling apart in the middle of the road.

The ambulance arrives. The reckless driver had stayed, guilt clear on his face. Valjean rumbles with fury, and it’s just another thing Zenkichi has to worry about. Yes, he was furious someone had been not only speeding, but intending to run a red light. But this was not a hit and run case. The man was being cooperative, and that only made the wolf in him angrier, unable to hunt what was already caught.

The medics try to help him to the van. Valjean speaks up.

We are fine on our own!

Zenkichi grits his teeth.

Akane is worried. I’m going to the hospital like a normal human being. Complain all you want, I need to make sure she knows I’m okay.

That is enough to silence his mind. Akane sits in the back of the ambulance, her expression blank. Still in shock.

The hospital is not pleasant. The doctors tell him he is very lucky. He nods along, half listening to them.

When they give him and Akane privacy, he is scared to look at his own daughter.

He forces himself to, meeting her eyes.

“…I’m sorry-” he tries again, but she starts crying again.

“Why do you keep apologizing?”

“I messed up. I was selfish. I didn’t mean to get hit; I was trying to keep you safe. I refused to live in a world where anything like that happened to you,” he finds his voice now, breaking at the seams. “I swear to you, I wasn’t trying to- to make you relive…”

Aoi. He can’t say her name for some reason.

“I’m trying to do better,” his voice wavers. “I thought I was making progress, but this feels like the final nail in the coffin.”

“You aren’t going to give up, are you?”

“Never,” Zenkichi tries to sit up, wincing from pain. “I will never stop trying to be the father you need.”

They stare at each other. Akane is trying to figure out if he’s being genuine.

“I never meant to imply I was giving up. I just feel like I keep making things worse,” Zenkichi explains.

He finally looks down. His hands are bruised, sitting in his lap.

“When we made that cake last week,” Akane starts, pulling Zenkichi’s attention back to her. “I said I wanted a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. And you bought chocolate cake mix and vanilla frosting.”

Akane wipes her eyes with a tissue.

“Then you realized you messed up, and you took me to the store with you to get exactly what I wanted. You never would have done that two years ago.”

“It was the least I could do…”

“You learned to cook more. You’ve been making more meals for us. When I mentioned not liking peppers, you sat me down and-” Akane laughs, her eyes somewhere else. “You made a whole list of foods I love, like and hate. You had this look on your face, like you were studying for a test.”

“Akane-”

“You let me braid your hair! Even though it’s not even that long, and you had to sit there for so long while I watched videos to learn different braids! You didn’t complain! You didn’t even grab that folder on the table, even though I know you were working on something really important!”

“Please,” Zenkichi begs. “Please don’t paint me as this great dad. I’m doing the bare minimum. You deserve so much more.”

Akane stands, getting closer to the bed. She looks desperate.

“Dad,” she gasps, fresh tears spilling out. “I love you. I always have, I just- I was so angry.”

“And you had every right to be,” Zenkichi puts his hands on her shoulders. The pain in his hands flare up, but he doesn’t budge. “Akane, I’m glad you feel like I’m doing better. But I still have a long way to go if I want to be the dad you need.”

“I think you’re doing a great job.”

She sits back down at least, but as the silence between them grows, it all feels unresolved.

Zenkichi is released from the hospital the same day he gets news of his “vacation”. He’s been benched for a week. This should be good news, but Valjean is sour in his mind, and Akane has been distant since their talk.

He tries to keep up with chores. Akane gives him frequent, worried looks. He will not let the burden of housework fall on her shoulders again.

He cooks. He cleans. Then he has nothing to do, until Akane comes out of her room and asks him if he would like to draw with her.

Her art supplies get moved to the dining room table, and Zenkichi stares holes into the blank page in front of him, unsure what to draw.

He actually has experience in drawing, though it feels weird to draw something from his own imagination when he usually had to do police sketches.

He looks up at Akane, who is focused heavily on her own picture.

Akane sits still enough for him to make a decent portrait. When he finds himself finished, he panics. Will Akane take offense to this? He usually had to draw criminals, and his picture of her didn’t really have a pose. Had he really made a police sketch of his own daughter? He grabs the eraser to undo his mistake.

“Is that me?”

Akane is looking at his picture with surprise.

“Yes.”

“…Can I add something to it?”

It was not what Zenkichi was expecting, but he finds himself nodding. She takes the paper and uncaps a pen.

He sits there, awkwardly waiting for her to finish. He doesn’t watch; he’s sure whatever she’s doing is probably a surprise.

Unless she’s scribbling out his drawing. Unless she’s writing him a note, chewing him out for drawing her like some criminal.

She loves you, Valjean reminds him.

Akane places the picture back down in front of him, and it’s so much worse than he thought.

She used her pen to give her portrait a small, black mask.

Akane smiles at him, warm, unaware.

“Now it looks like I’m a Phantom Thief!”

The shape of the mask does not even resemble the one Akane’s shadow had been wearing. But it’s enough to make Zenkichi sick.

He still has nightmares, holding her, watching her vanish into thin air.

He wants to throw up.

“Looks great,” he says instead.

He dreams that Akane gets hit by the car, and he watches her bleed to death, unable to do anything.

It is four in the morning. Akane is asleep in bed. Zenkichi checked on her five times. She was in bed. No blood. Her limbs were not twisted in wrong directions, or-

He checks on her again.

He lays back down. He’s been aggravating his ribs, moving around so much.

He grabs his glasses and his phone. There hadn’t been a single word from work. There is nothing for him to catch up on yet. He contemplates sending a message to the group chat. Not like anyone would be awake anyways.

His screen flashes red and blue for a second, and Zenkichi drops the phone onto his face, his nose taking the brunt of it.

“Zenkichi?” A voice calls out. Is that?

“Sophia?”

He sits up, steadies the phone in his hands. Indeed, the red he’d seen was her hair. She takes up the whole screen, studying him.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be awake so early!” She chirps.

“Not so loud!” Zenkichi whispers back. “Akane is asleep in the next room.”

“Sorry!” She says, much lower.

“What are you… my phone?” Zenkichi asks, exhausted.

“I have been active in the group chat,” she says with a smile. “And I have checked up on everyone there. I’m guessing you haven’t looked at it recently, since I was asking about you.”

“Yeah, I’ve been a bit busy,” he lies. He’d had plenty of time today to check what all the pings on his phone were about.

“How is Akane?”

“She’s great. Really great. Did you see that picture she drew of us?” Please, just switch the subject. He did not want to get into this.

“I did! I hope she doesn’t mind, but I saved the file to my photos. I wanted to be able to look at it again in the future.”

“I’m sure if Akane knew a Phantom Thief liked her art enough to save a copy, she’d be thrilled…”

“You are a Phantom Thief.”

“Y-Yeah?”

Sophia stares at him intensely.

“Did you not treasure her picture?”

“I- I hung it up on the fridge?”

“So I am not the first Phantom Thief to keep a copy.”

“I mean, it’s not like she knows that I’m-” Zenkichi scoffs, looking away. “I just meant it would mean more if her heroes liked the picture. That’s all.”

He glances back at Sophia. She’s looking at him like he’s dumb, which he doesn’t think she’s doing on purpose, but it doesn’t feel good either.

“Are you implying she doesn’t look up to you?”

Oh, he really did not want to get into this.

“Listen, we’re doing fine,” Zenkichi says, trying to shift subjects again. “She’s doing good in school, I’m- well, I haven’t been at work for a couple days but-”

“Were you fired?” Sophia asks, aghast.

“No. No! I got in an accident, so I have some time off-”

“An accident?”

Things are spiraling. Zenkichi clenches the phone tighter, trying to find the right words to use.

“I got hit- no, not hit. Side swiped? I’m fine. Akane’s fine,” Zenkichi rambles, trying to keep his voice low.

“A car?”

“…Yeah.” He feels small.

“Have you talked to anyone?”

He shakes his head.

“Would you like me to find a therapist in your area?”

“No.”

Sophia pauses.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

They sit silent for a second. Zenkichi rubs his eyes.

“Should I tell the others? They might be able to help,” Sophia asks, desperate to assist.

“They’ve got enough to worry about. They don’t need an old guy like me on their minds.”

She’s frowning at him again.

“I guess…” she’s not happy. “I’ll leave you alone then. Get some sleep, Wolf.”

“Yeah. I will. Don’t be a stranger, Sophia,” he says, even though he’d rather hang up on her and scream into his pillow.

When Zenkichi finally gets back to work, a present is waiting for him. A whole backlog of cases that someone needs to look into.

He throws himself in headfirst, and Valjean rejoices. There are people to talk to, names to find, places to go.

The end of the day comes quicker than he’d expected. He goes to his desk to grab his keys, and finds an actual, physical present sitting in his chair waiting for him.

It has a little bow and everything. There’s no name, just a little tag that says, “Welcome back” with a little message about him getting better from his accident. It doesn’t really feel like something he’d associate with anyone in the office, but maybe it was a group effort?

The gift itself is a thermos, warm to the touch. Not empty, there’s coffee in it. Decaf, according to the note on it.

Zenkichi tucks it under his arm, grabs his car keys and a few folders of things he wanted to work on some more.

Akane seems happy to see him home, and they work on dinner together. His curry is nowhere near as nice as Akira’s, but he’s been improving.

Akane asks him for help with math afterwards, and he spends some time explaining algebra before he pecks her on the cheek and sends her to shower.

Then, he spreads some documents out and reaches for the thermos. The coffee isn’t warm anymore, but he’s too lazy to reheat it.

It’s much stronger than he’d anticipated. He wonders briefly if Akira had somehow snuck into his work to get him a cup of coffee. It tasted not unlike the coffee the kid had made for him for the long RV drives. Rich and robust, slightly nutty, Not that he was a coffee expert, but he knew the flavor was better than a regular store brand.

The mystery of who got him the gift is not as important as the missing person’s case in front of him, so he puts it on the back burner and diverts his attention to the printouts on the table.

Akane finishes her shower, and goes to bed at a reasonable hour. Zenkichi tells himself he will too.

The paper looks a bit fuzzy. Zenkichi blinks hard, then rubs his eyes. It doesn't help like it should. His head lolls to the side when he checks his phone for the time. It’s not even that late..?

He props his phone up against the thermos. Maybe he could put on a song to wake him up? Something loud, heavy metal maybe.

Sophia stares back at him, and he wonders how long she’s been there.

“Wolf?” She looks concerned. “Are you okay?”

“Mm… yeah,” he says, not feeling all that fine. “Could you, uh… do something for me?”

“Of course!” She perks up. “How can I help?”

“I was hoping to finish something up here before I go to bed. Can you put on… a video or something to wake me up?”

She seems to think for a moment. Zenkichi blanks out again, because she has to say his name a few times to get him to come back.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t go to bed? You look tired.”

She’s no longer on screen, instead displaying a list of videos that might help keep Zenkichi awake. He’s not sure if playing a video titled, “Loud screams to keep you focused” will have the intended effect.

“Is someone at your door?”

The question doesn’t register for Zenkichi at first. What door? There was no door on the screen in front of him?

He’s barely aware of his surroundings, but he does seem to hear someone knocking on his door. No. Not knocking. It’s too loud.

He hears wood splinter. Someone just broke down his front door.

Hands rip him backwards out of his chair. He can’t fight back. His body won’t move. He is limp.

Whoever is behind him forces a gag in his mouth. He knows he should be fighting back. He shouldn’t let someone just tie his hands behind his back.

“Get the girl,” a man says, and it’s like a bucket of ice water on him.

He struggles. Tries to struggle. He hears her scream in the other room, and he begs for it to be a boost of adrenaline, for him to snap out of it and keep her safe. He’s begging Valjean, but nothing can be done.

“Keep quiet, brat!”

Akane sobs again, much quieter, and Zenkichi feels himself get picked up.

“Grab his phone. Get the cup too, boss doesn’t want any evidence left behind.”

There is a black car parked in front of his house. He gets shoved in the backseat, and for a single, horrible moment, he wonders if they will force his daughter into the trunk of the car, or if they have a second car to keep them separated.

Akane is pushed in next. She clings to him, and Zenkichi allows himself to breathe.

They are sandwiched between two men. The one directly next to Zenkichi pulls out a gun, and aims it under his jaw.

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

Akane is shaking. She’s looking at him, worry eating her features.

He can’t hold her hand, can’t speak. Being in the car feels like an eternity, but it’s worse when they finally park.

The gunman grabs Zenkichi, pulling him out on one side. The other man grabs Akane and pulls her out on the other side. It feels like the end.

They enter a building, where a man in a suit waits. Zenkichi tries to listen. His brain doesn’t want to cooperate.

He thinks he hears the name Owada, and he knows he hears the words Phantom Thieves.

A phone is thrust in front of Zenkichi’s face. His phone.

“Password. Now.”

The idiots still had him gagged. He pretends to say his password aloud, just a bunch of muffled noises come out.

They take the gag off.

“What do you need my phone for?” He slurs.

“Simple. We’re gonna dig through your contacts, find the identities of those heart changing freaks, and then we’re gonna kill them too.”

“So you're going to kill us.”

He knows this is a delicate situation, that his daughter’s life is on the line here. The drugs are making it hard for him to think straight. He needs to keep his mouth shut.

“We can’t let living evidence exist. You’ve seen how well that worked out for Owada,” the man says, glaring at Akane, and that really makes Zenkichi’s blood boil.

“These are your options. Either you give us the password right away, and we put you down quickly. Or we torture your daughter until you tell us what we need to know.”

The phone is right up in his face again. But instead of the locked screen staring at him, it’s Sophia. She points desperately to a word written above her head in neat text.

“M-Mementos?”

Everything goes sideways.

He recognizes the feeling instantly. They are hurtling towards the cognitive world. Zenkichi blinks, and there’s the man in front of him, looking around in shock. Zenkichi is in his Phantom Thief attire. Akane is huddled close to him, looking around frantic.

Sophie is there, and she springs into action.

She knocks the man over with her yo-yos, wrapping him up in one motion.

“W-What the hell?” The man shouts. He’s looking around for his hired gun, but no one else seemed to have come in with them.

Akane’s eyes bore into him. Zenkichi is too busy trying to fight his own body for control.

The door opens behind them.

He doesn’t have to look to know it’s the rest of the team. He knows Sophie would have called them as quick as she could, knows that she was probably relaying his location through his phone while they were held at gunpoint in the car, knows that she probably has already informed the police, God, if he didn’t owe her enough already.

Akane’s reaction is wholesome. Her heroes are right in front of her very eyes, but Zenkichi can only look at the man tied by two oversized yo-yos.

“Cut the ropes,” Zenkichi rasps.

No one does.

“Joker,” he gets louder. “Cut my fucking hands free.”

“We don’t kill, Wolf.”

“He was going to kill my daughter.”

He sounds awful. His voice is broken, like he’d been screaming. Joker kneels down in front of him. Makoto and the others take Akane aside, cut her bindings away, but he can’t- he needs-

Joker puts his hands on Zenkichi’s shoulders.

“Breathe.”

And he does. And when he breathes out, he collapses forward, the brim of his stupid hat pressing against Joker’s shoulder.

“I’m supposed to keep her safe.”

“She is safe.”

On his right, the man is screaming curses at them all. Death threats. It’s quite pathetic.

“You’d better keep your mouth closed, asshole!” Skull shouts. “You’re in a room full of people that want to curb stomp your goddamn face in!”

Of course. Other people cared about Akane too. Not just him. He feels almost immediately the shared tension in the room. The anger. The worry.

The drugs are still keeping him down. Joker finally cuts his hands free, and he knows, if he really wanted to, he could touch his mask and Valjean could turn the man into red paste.

Instead, he turns towards his daughter and holds out his hands.

“Akane, I…” he starts, but she tackles him.

He hugs her hard. He hugs her because just ten minutes ago he couldn’t remember when he’d hugged her last, and he didn’t think he was going to ever hug her ever again.

“How long,” she cries. “Were you going to let me be stupid for?”

“H-Huh?”

“I drew pictures of you! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”

“I…” He’s laughing, but tears well in his eyes. “I don’t exactly feel very cool in this outfit.”

“I think the high collar and hat are very bold,” she laughs back. “But you’re very cool.”

It feels wrong to laugh. To talk about something like this when they very well could have died. He doesn’t want to ruin the moment though.

“The thermos…” he says, suddenly remembering he’s actually a police officer. “We need to take it in. Evidence… and there might be an accomplice in my office. I need the security footage. Whoever dropped the thermos off…”

Zenkichi falls backwards and passes out.

The thieves are in his home yet again, but this time Akane knows who they are, and is incredibly embarrassed about the whole thing.

She refuses to look anyone in the eyes, not even Akira, who found the whole thing very amusing.

Several days had passed since the incident. A grand total of seven people were arrested, and Zenkichi knows he won’t be able to rest until they all are convicted.

Sophia had accidentally let it slip about the car incident. He doesn’t really blame her; she seemed genuinely sorry that she’d said anything.

He doesn’t feel coddled by the kids, but they certainly aren’t treating him the same.

Akane has been happier with them visiting so much. Zenkichi feels the same way. He’d missed those damn kids.

Futaba’s been trying to convince him to set up security cameras in his house, or at least at his front and back doors. He doesn’t like the idea she’d be able to hack into them and take a peek at their lives, not that she would. Well, maybe she would…

Yusuke has been talking to Akane a lot about her drawings, which was absolutely mortifying for her at first, until she realized he was trying to give her exclusive details about their outfits. Then she started writing everything down and asking questions.

Akira cooks for everyone. The food is always good, and always welcome.

It feels like old times, even if ‘old times’ had only been a few months ago.

When the thieves file out of his house, promising to visit soon, Zenkichi places himself on his couch.

The front door had been fixed in only a day. Extra locks were installed too. It still doesn’t feel safe.

Akane plops herself on the seat next to him. He nearly jumps. He hadn’t even heard her walk up.

“Does the house feel safe to you?” He asks, and then immediately regrets asking.

“…I don’t know. Why?”

“I just worry.”

“Me too.”

A pause.

“Do you want to move?” Akane asks.

“I don’t think so. I’m just…”

“Recovering?”

“Yeah.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah sweetie?”

“Are you going to keep being a Phantom Thief?”

Now that’s a question.

“Yes,” he says, though he’s surprised at his own answer. He soldiers on. “I don’t think I’ll be needed in the fight anytime soon, but I’ll always be on standby. Dad duties come first.”

Akane nods.

“I’m very proud to call you my dad.”

And that knocks the wind out of him.