Wild Cards [AkiraxAkechi P5]

Chapter Nineteen

Akira found himself daydreaming about Goro all throughout the day, just thinking about everything he loved about the detective. He barely paid attention to his friends when they all showed up that evening for the sleepover.

'I wonder what I should get him for Valentines day...' Akira thought to himself, 'flowers seem kinda cliche... maybe jewelry? No, that might be too expensive... maybe he likes plush toys...? Yeah... I could get him something soft to cuddle when he misses me!'

   Akira blushed and a lovesick smile spread across his face. Morgana poked Akira's cheek with his paw.

"Hey? Hey! What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing," Akira said, dreamily.

"You haven't been listening to anything, have you?" Makoto sighed.

"Mmm not a whole lot,"

Akira sat up from his bed and stretched his arms, the smile never leaving his face.

"Anyway..." Makoto rolled her eyes, "should we do this now?"

"Maybe we should wait a bit, I—I mean look he's in a good mood..." Ryuji said.

"What is it?" Akira asked.

Nobody said anything. Ann got up from her mat and sat beside Akira, taking his hand.

"Aki? Listen... I know you're not gonna be happy to hear this but... we did some digging on that surgeon and..."

   Akira's smile was slowly dropping.

   "We know about your twin brother..."

   Akira didn't say anything and just stared ahead. Makoto was quick to speak.

   "We know this is probably really personal to you, and we're sorry we did this behind your back, but we just wanted to figure out what was—"

   "What did you find out...?" Akira interrupted her. "Tell me what you know..."

   "The page I found said that he died in the middle of the night from a heart attack the day before his surgery." Futaba said from the couch. "Haru even called the surgeon lady to confirm it. She said she found him dead when she went to check on him the following morning."

   "Do you all actually believe that shit? Because I fucking don't..."

   "Don't panic, breathe..." Ann put a hand on Akira's shoulder as he began to shake.

   "Ren's been sick since we were kids but... b-but I know he could've survived the night! I know he could've...!"

Akira put a hand over his face as tears started to fall. Ann hugged him and Morgana nuzzled against his side.

"We believe you." Ryuji said.

"Futaba said Ms. Usagi had a lot of patients that died from surgery or even went missing. There's definitely something strange going on," Yusuke said.

   "Soooo, with a little of my hacking magic," Futaba grinned widely before showing everyone her laptop screen with the familiar app, "I found out how to get back inside Palaces!"

    Akira's eyes went wide. What the actual fuck?

   "What...? How did you even...?"

   "Weeeelll, when you took that lil nap earlier I did a lil scanning of your brainwaves and recorded them, and I found a frequency of your dream and I worked with that to locate the exact moment you slipped into REM sleep and pinpoint the Metaverse entry so I could build us devices that can force us into that same REM sleep even when we're still in stage—"