Life Will Change

Chapter 80: The Ultimate Calling Card

Begin!

~Normal POV

12/3 - Saturday

Akira woke up this morning feeling sore all over. All that fighting and running around yesterday had taken a toll on him. Morgana seemed to be feeling it too. Their deadline was drawing near. Shido was all over the news all the time. The Phan-site had practically gone up in flames too. Mishima told him that he spent half his time nowadays just removing hate comments on it. Akira didn't care though. Once or twice they'd still get the odd request on it, but that was it. He had a feeling that most of the praise they received before was just people jumping onto the winning side at the time. Whatever they said now was meaningless.

The boy decided to make a trip to the bathhouse across the street to relax his aching muscles while everyone was still at school. Hopefully he'd even be able to go back to school once they changed Shido's heart; he'd rather not live the rest of his life as a ghost. And finishing his education was important, even if it wasn't pleasant. He needed to graduate to be able to go to college after all; especially if he wanted a future with Ann. He let Morgana hop into his bag as usual and went downstairs to find Sojiro already working. Futaba apparently wasn't here yet. And thankfully, there were no customers around, so he didn't have to hide his face.

"Oh, good you're up. Come over here, I want to give you something."

Akira raised a brow at him but obeyed. It wasn't that Sojiro had never given him anything before but it wasn't common. Usually, he only got a treat from the old man after he got high scores on his school exams and, well, this was unlikely to be the case since he hadn't been going to school lately.

Sojiro pulled out his wallet and grabbed a small bundle of cash from it, and handed it to him. "Happy birthday."

Akira stared at the present in shock. Was today the third? He didn't even check, he was so busy worrying about their mission and their deadline that he'd forgotten his own birthday... But Sojiro remembered? And cared enough to give him a present?

"It is your birthday, right? I saw it in your papers."

Morgana hopped up onto Akira's shoulder. "It's your birthday?! Why didn't you tell us?!"

Akira blushed. "I forgot about it..." He replied, sheepishly.

Sojiro chuckled. "Well, there's your reminder. Anyway, if you guys need the shop today just say so." He turned back to his work.

"Thank you, Boss..."

~...

Once school was over, everyone arrived at the hideout for their meeting. Evidently, Ann had "accidentally" let it slip to the rest of the team that it was his birthday, and he got a few more presents as a result. (Including a thump on the head from Futaba to scold him for not telling them.) But despite the occasion they had work to do. Shido getting his comeuppance would be the best damn present Akira could get for any occasion period. He would much rather be planning how to send this calling card than worrying about turning 17 today.

"But how are we gonna send it..." Ryuji asked.

"If we just send it to the Diet Building it'll get snuffed out by Shido's influence," Ann said, frowning.

"What if we try the Kaneshiro way again," Morgana suggested, "You know, dump them all over the district?"

Akira shook his head. "No, no, that will not work; it'll still get taken out before he can see it... This is our most important calling card ever. We need something... big. Something with a kick to it, something this son of a bitch will never forget and can't possibly avoid seeing..."