Life Will Change

Chapter 26: Robbing the Museum

Begin!

~Normal POV

5/20 - Friday

Knowing they had a new member of the Phantom Thieves was a comfort to Akira. Their heists would go much more smoothly with Yusuke around. His ice magic would prove invaluable and he was so skilled with his katana you'd have thought he studied the blade his whole life, instead of painting. And last night, via the groupchat, they brought Yusuke up to speed on their special rules for being a Phantom Thief. But finishing their trek through Madarame's Palace would have to wait until after school today.

It was lunchtime when Akira was approached by a very excited Ann. "Akira, there you are, come with me!" She commanded, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him along with her. He nearly tripped from her doing so; that would have been embarrassing. He tried to ignore how nice her hand felt in his...

"Ann, slow down, what's wrong?"

"Our exam grades were posted today! You gotta see it!"

Akira smiled. "I'm sure you did just fine-"

"It's not my grades you should see!"

She dragged him along to the school entrance where their grades had been posted on the bulletin board. Ryuji and a few other students were standing around it. Ryuji looked particularly annoyed.

"There you are! You see this shit?! What the hell, dude?!" The blond boy asked, instantly.

"What's the problem?" Akira asked, wholly confused.

Ann let go of his hand, and pointed to the top of the list. "Check it out!" She said, grinning.

Akira looked where she was pointing. His eyes widened: his name was at the top, right alongside Makoto Niijima. He was top of the class. He now understood why Ryuji was a little offended. His grades were close to the bottom; while Ann's were in the middle.

"Congratulations!" Ann said, excitedly.

"You traitor, how come you didn't help me study?!" Ryuji asked.

"He helped me study!" Ann bragged.

Ryuji looked between the two before saying, "Of course he did..."

Akira tried to keep his face impassive, but his neck got very hot. During their exam week, Ann had begged him via texts to study with him in the evenings out at the Shibuya diner and he had complied. He didn't mean it to be favoritism of any kind. She had asked and Ryuji didn't. There was nothing more to it than that... The fact that Akira had a crush on her was irrelevant in this matter. Ann seemed to ignore the remark.

"I wonder if Niijima-senpai has seen this yet," Ryuji said, changing the subject. "I'll bet this will knock her attitude down a few notches."

Makoto Niijima has been, for lack of a better word, a nuisance lately. Having been tasked with finding the Phantom Thieves for Principal Kobayakawa, she's taken to following Akira around the school, hoping to catch him doing anything suspicious. Not only that, he swore he saw her the other day in Shibuya when he stopped at the bookstore on his way home. (Though it could have been a coincidence.) As much as Akira wanted to remain civil with her, this spying on him was wearing on his patience.

"Oh, there she is!" Ann said, quickly pulling Akira and Ryuji away from the board to watch from a distance.

Makoto was walking with Seiji as she read off something from a few papers in her hands. "And the next council meeting is on Tuesday, make sure you remind everyone."

"I gotcha." Seiji replied, "Hey, can we stop for a sec, I gotta check my grades."

"Sure, go ahead." Makoto said, dismissively, not looking up from her paper.