Sojiro cocks an eyebrow at her as she comes in. The Sunday crowd is gone now. "Out late?", he asks as he starts making a plate of curry.

"I was planning to just have a quick talk with Dr. Takemi, let her know what happened at Shujin, but things ended up going real long. Because I talked to her about the gym coach situation earlier, she instantly suspected I was involved somehow in his confession. I tried to keep things under wraps, but she saw right through me. She's sharp. So I ended up explaining everything, which took a while."

She runs a hand through her hair. "I'm beginning to suspect I'm not cut out for this 'keeping secrets' thing." 

"There are worse things for a kid on probation to be than bad at lying."

He pours her a coffee to sip while the food's cooking, and sets out a bowl of food for Morgana.

"Thanks Boss!"

"How was the date?"

That brings a smile to her face. "Wonderful. The movie was fun, the burgers were good, and we went to Inokashira park for a couple hours and just spent time together. It was everything I'd hoped for."

"Glad to hear it."

He stirs the curry some more, then looks over after a minute or two.

"How much interaction do you need with someone to do this change of heart thing, kid?"

"I'm not sure. Morgana keeps giving me new twists to these things. I'd for sure need access to the place where the distorted desires are centered, and I'd need to deliver a message to Futaba in reality at the end of the process. But aside from that, I don't know for certain."

"In rare cases, you might need the target to see you do something, like if there's a door they're absolutely certain can't be opened, and that door is represented in their Palace, you might need to open it where they can see you."

"Morgana says that there are rare cases where you might need the target to see you do something — like, if there's a door that they're certain can't be opened, and it's emotionally important to them, it might exist in their palace too and need to be opened in the real world in order to proceed."

Sojiro facepalms and sighs.

"I would not be surprised if that happened with Futaba. She isn't going to enjoy that."

As if on cue, his phone starts ringing. 

"Hello?"

"Yeah, it's probably required at a couple points."

"I know it's going to be hard, but can you really go on like this?"

She's really starting to suspect that Futaba can hear her conversations here.

"I still don't know the actual situation with Futaba. The more I know the more I'll probably be able to say."

"I need to tell her what happened, Futaba. I know it's going to be hard to hear, but—"

"Okay. I'm glad you can handle that. She'll probably need to tell her team, too—"

"Yes, you're right, you haven't agreed to anything yet, but Akira and her team need enough info to know if they're up for it before that anyway."

"Fine, yes, you can have pizza tonight."

Akira smiles despite herself. It sounds like Futaba's putting in the hard work here, emotionally.

Finally Sojiro smiles. "Okay. I'll see you later tonight."

He puts the phone down and sighs tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, kid. Wanna hear the story tonight, or when you get your friends over for a team meeting to decide whether you're up for trying this?"

She pauses to consider. Should she explain the complication...? Futaba clearly has Leblanc bugged somehow, so if they discuss here they'll inevitably end up sharing the details with her... But it's not like they have somewhere safer to go. Is it better to trust Futaba, or to try a less safe hideout...? 

... Probably the first. Futaba must have known already after she explained things to Boss. She could sink them: she's chosen not to.

"Probably we should discuss tomorrow all together, so everyone gets the story from you directly instead of relayed through me. There are a couple complications that will need to be sorted through with the team, but it's not like we've got a better place to meet than here."

He nods. "Okay. I'll make time tomorrow afternoon, when you get back from school. Not like I go anywhere else, usually."

And then he plates up the curry for her.

As soon as she takes the first bite of curry, Akira's stomach helpfully informs her that she's starving. 

She digs in with gusto.

He works on cleaning up.

Akira gets out her phone. 

Hey, all. A business matter for everyone's come up and plans are going to need to get rearranged a bit. Can you all come over to Leblanc tomorrow after school to discuss things?

A business matter for everyone, huh...? It must be real important if you're putting off Shiho... 

Um... Can we do the meeting in the evening, after the date? Or is it really urgent?

Akira facepalms. 

Yeah probably sorry I totally had a brain fart bc its serious. give me a sec to ask

"Uh, Boss — you were going to have to close early to talk, yeah? Can we do the meeting in the evening instead? That would be — better. I had a date scheduled for that afternoon already."

He cocks an eyebrow and smirks. "Another date already? Moving fast, kid. Yeah, we can do the evening."