No one's POV
It's the next day and Nhazul slowly started to open his eyes, but could only see out of one of them.
Nhazul: Where...? Where am I...?
Takemi: Oh, it seems your up.
Nhazul weakly looked over and saw Takemi, who had just finished changing his bandages.
Takemi: Your speech pattern is back to normal. That's good. It looks like what ever drugs that were in your system are out.
Nhazul: Drugs...?
Nhazul then remembered what had happened to him.
Nhazul: Oh...
Takemi: Try not to think about it to much.
Nhazul: ...
Suddenly, Sojiro had walked up the stairs and saw that Nhazul was up.
Sojiro: Oh thank goodness, you're up.
Nhazul: Yeah...I feel like shit though...
Sojiro: You look like it too. You scared the hell out of us yesterday.
Nhazul weakly looked at Sojiro.
Nhazul: Where are the others?
Sojiro: There fine. Akira is at school and Futaba is at home. He had said the others were all supposed to be coming over after words. I still think you should hold off. You're still in pretty rough shape.
Takemi: I would say the same thing, but knowing him, it'll be going on deaf ears.
Takemi then started pack up her supplies.
Takemi: The swelling in your eye will go down eventually. And make sure to change your bandages every few hours. Also, I I'll be back in a few days to check on the stitches in your head.
Nhazul: Right...
Takemi then left and Sojiro looked over at Nhazul.
Sojiro: Be sure to take your time. Those injuries were-
Nhazul: Thanks for being worried, but I'll be okay...
Sojiro nodded and then went downstairs and Nhazul weakly stood up and took out some of his clothes and images of the beating he took flashed in his mind.
(Flashback)
(Present)
Nhazul thinking about yesterday made his head throb in pain and he hadn't noticed that his hand was shaking.
Nhazul: ...
(Timeskip)
Currently, Sojiro was working behind the counter and a few minutes, Sae had walked into Leblanc.
Sae: I'm sorry I'm late. I had to finish a few things at work. Where are they?
Sojiro: They haven't gotten here yet. There be here soon.
After about an hour, everyone started flooding into Leblanc together and they say Sojiro behind the counter and Sae sitting at it.
Haru: You're... Mako's sister, correct?
Sae: Makoto told me everything...
Sae then looked over at Futaba and had a sadden look.
Sae: Futaba, I'm sorry that I caused you so much trouble this past summer...
Futaba: Eh, it's ancient history now.
Sae couldn't help but blink in surprise at the easy forgiveness, the sweet if cheeky smile that broke Futaba's neutral expression. In a way, Sae wasn't sure she deserved it, but decided the better part of valor would be to accept it as is and smiled back. But what could have been a light-hearted moment was broken, however, by Ryuji, who through his anger and disgust made it clear that even if she was forgiven, there was someone he wouldn't forgive.
Ryuji: But man, that goddamn detective!
Everyone then had the same reaction thinking about Akechi and what he had done and then Futaba had spoken up.
Futaba: So, uh...Where's Nhazul..?
Ryuji: Yeah, where's our boy?
Akira: Has he been up at all?
Sojiro: Yeah, he's been up for awhile now. I'll go get him.
Sojiro then walked up stairs and saw Nhazul had gotten dressed in his gray jeans, and a blue t shirt that made all of his bandages under it easily visible , and his signature blue headphones and he was holding his head.
Sojiro: You okay, kid?
Nhazul: Yeah...just a headache...
Sojiro: Maybe we should hold off on this, until you're in better shape.
Nhazul: I'm fine..really...Are the others here?
Sojiro: Yup. They're all waiting for you.
Nhazul: Right...
Nhazul weakly stood up and Sojiro went help him but he held his hand.
Nhazul: I'm fine...
After getting up, Nhazul then walked downstairs with Sojiro to the others.
Sojiro: Look who's here.
Everyone looked back and everyone other then Akira and Sae looked completely shocked to see all the bandages on his body and his head and face and they all rushed passed Sae with saying Nhazul's name and Sae finally turned to look at him, herself and withheld a grimace.
Sae's thoughts: He looks better than when I dropped him off, the clean clothes helps. But he's no where near a hundred percent yet. He really shouldn't even be out of bed...
Sae looked at Sojiro and could tell he was thinking the same thing. but kept out of the way so Nhazul's friends could get ahold of him. That was when Sae realized the cat hadn't gone forward, and she looked back at the chair she'd pulled out for it. Its eyes were scanning over Nhazul intently, and Sae suspected by the sparks of anger she could actually identify that it was cataloguing every injury it could see on him. Unsheathed claws were buried in the chair's upholstery, and Sae felt no pity for who would end up under those tiny instruments of torture.
Ryuji: H-Hey, you big bastard!
Ann: How've you been?
Nhazul: I mean... I died...
Akira just chuckled.
Akira: I guess you've recovered enough to be a smart ass again.
Haru: Thank goodness.
Makoto: It truly is a relief to see your face...
Ryuji: I bet that moron Akechi don't even know we tricked him yet!
Sojiro was clearly confused, reminding Sae that she really hadn't explained anything to him before leaving.
Sojiro: Still how'd you pull this off? Nhazul is considered dead, isn't he?
Makoto glanced between Nhazul, Akira and Sae in surprise, voicing it and making Sae feel a little worse.
Makato: You weren't told anything, Boss? But I thought my sister brought him here...
Sojiro: Yeah. She drove over, dumped him off, him off, we got him patched up and then left. It was right after they announced he had 'died' too. Almost gave me a heart attack...
Sae: Well, given how severe his injuries were, it was best to get him treated before hand...
Ryuji: Hey, shouldn't we tell them what really happened?
Makoto: We wanted to make our enemy believe a high ranking member of the Phantom Thieves was dead. What we did was make that enemy kill his fake in the Meta verse.
Sojiro looked obviously confused.
Sojiro: H-Hold on a sec! Enemy? Fake? What're you talking about?
Yusuke: The true culprit behind all these incidents set us up. Our goal here was to determine their identity.
Sojiro: True culprit? I see...So you guys were going against someone else.
Sae: It was Goro Akechi. You knew beforehand that he was the traitor, didn't you?
Nhazul: ...
Akira: Yeah. We did.
Ann: Akechi himself gave us the chance to strike back. He made one fatal mistake.
Sae: Couldn't you have just said from the beginning that Akechi was the real culprit?
Makoto: That wasn't something we could simply bring up. We couldn't have you suspect Akechi. Besides, neither you nor the other investigation would have believed something like that, would you?
Sae: True... Akechi was credited with the arrest of the Phantom Thieves. Not even I would think he was the culprit...In other words, you left him alone on purpose...That was a bold move.
Sojiro: God, I can't keep up with any of this stuff...so what mistake did Akechi make? What did he do.
Ann: He slipped up in regards to Morgana's voice
Sojiro: You mean our cat...?
Ann: Yep. Morgana can talk.
Sojiro just looked dumbfounded.
Sojiro: Sorry, was that supposed to be a joke?
Haru: Oh! Our apologies. That's completely true.
Morgana: You surprised?
Sae: Does that mean...he said something just now as well?
Ann: But you don't understand him, do you? That's how it was for all of us at first too.
Futaba: When you're in the Meta verse, Mona talks like a normal person. Once you hear that and your brain realizes he can actually talk, you start to understand him in reality. It's a change in cognition! Most likely anyway.
With that, the following recount of when Nhazul, Akira, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana first actually met Akechi made more sense, especially once the group described how Akechi essentially blackmailed them into letting him join them at the school festival. Their observation skills, along with the knowledge that Futaba was skilled enough to wiretap a smartphone without suspicion. Futaba then played the recording of the damning phone conversation they'd acquired because of the wiretap was even more chilling.
Sojiro: Is this for real...?
Sae: I knew he was acting strangely...but to think he was this far gone...
Haru: He's no ace detective. Akechi is the perpetrator behind the mental shutdown crimes.
Makoto: On top of that, there's someone else commanding Akechi.
Sojiro: I see.
Akira: We baited Akechi into Sae's Palace, making him dispose of Nhazul's fake but think he killed him. The original plan was to have me be the bait, but Nhazul was extremely adamant on doing it.
Sae: Can you all elaborate on that in more detail? While both you and Nhazul told me the story, I'm still not sure I understand. What exactly happened in my cognitive world in context with your plan?
Haru: We're sorry for using you without your permission. Your Palace had all the conditions we needed...
Sae: Conditions?
The following descriptions of the functions of a Palace and its parallels to reality, and how the group took advantage of that were mind-boggling. It also hurt and warmed Sae's heart to know she was the main reason Makoto had become involved with the Phantom Thieves at all. But, primarily, Sae found herself equally awed and uneasy that this one group of teens had the skills, the courage, and the trust to pull such a plan off successfully, as was proven with Nhazul safely sitting among them.
Yusuke: Akechi disposed of the fake in the Palace, and left thinking he had been victorious. It must have been truly hilarious for our second in command who sat idly in the real world's interrogation room. It's a shame I didn't have the opportunity to see that for myself.
Nhazul: No..No...I'm pretty sure I was passed out at that point...
Sae: So that's why you pointed out your phone... I only kept it because of what you told me. Normally I would've handed it off to the Evidence Department. All I could do was try to handle all the messages that started coming to me on his phone...
Sae made a minor realization.
Sae: Huh. So in other words, I've been to the Metaverse, albeit for a brief moment.
Yusuke: In our experience, there is little danger when someone enters their own Palace.
A quick explanation of the phone's importance of not only getting Akechi into the Palace, but herself in and out so quickly without running into Akechi again left Sae reeling a bit. That the teens, and especially Nhazul , had willing gone through with and succeeded in the plan was stunning, and prompted her next question.
Sae: Still, I'm surprised you could convince me in such a short time. Were you confident you could do it?
Nhazul: For the most part, yeah...
Makoto: Nhazul has an extremely good poker face and can easily convince people of things. If Ryuji hadn't called back then during our talk about the Phantom Thieves, I would have crossed them off as candidates.
Ryuji: Please don't bring that up...
Sae: I'm very much aware of that skill now. Either way, I can't believe you went for such a risky idea...
Makato: If we could just tell you the true culprit's plan, I knew you'd realize the bigger picture...Realize that Nhazul was telling the truth and there was a greater evil to purse.
Yusuke: As a result, we emerged victorious.
Sae: Then the reason you kept this a secret from me was so you could catch the true culprit, correct?
Makoto: Yes. Plus at the time, you had lost control of yourself...
Sae: This is stunning... All I can do is laugh...
Sojiro: I've kinda figured out that you guys made Akechi kill a fake... But what did you do about the body?
Sae: The police never even checked it. They had a coroner working to ensure Nhazul's death was reported as a suicide. That coroner didn't take one look at the scene, and just passed along a falsified death certificate.
Sojiro: The bad guys have that much influence?
Makoto: Murder in a police station would be reckless otherwise, We also knew of a possible conspirator.
Sae: Thanks to Futaba's messages and the guard's demeanor, I eventually came to understand... And since the higher-ups in the police knew nothing of this, they were thrown into disarray, As a result, Nhazul's suicide during imprisonment was reported on the news, clearly just as Akechi planned.
Akira: And with the confusion, Nhazul was able to escape with Sae's help.
Sae: I made sure nobody would check the morgue for his body, and thanks to that, nobody knows he survived.
Everyone then had furious looking faces when Makoto spoke up.
Makoto: Thinking back to the interrogation though... I can't believe what they did to Nhazul...
Nhazul just thought back to his beating was again and then he looked at the others.
Nhazul: I guess you guys hacked into the cameras even when I asked not to...
Akira: We had to know what was happening in there.
Makoto: The callous use of violence and even drugs is utterly abnormal. If he had lost consciousness and hadn't been able to tell Sis about the phone, he would've died...
Sae: We talked for about two and a half hours. And during that time, the gash on the back of his head was bleeding the entire time. Plus with the effects of being overdosed with those drugs...he should past out as soon as I walked into the room. But he stayed conscious through it all. My guess out of sheer will power and determination.
If Sae thought these teens had managed to chill her before, it was nothing compared to now. With Makoto slightly in front of her, Sae couldn't see her expression, but the tight fists and steel-straight spine spoke volumes. Haru and Ann were glaring at the floor, eyes practically on fire with their anger as they gripped the edges of seat and counter respectively. Futaba was rapidly tapping at her computer that she'd pulled out sometime during the explanation, and there was a near homicidal gleam in her eyes as she pressed her lips thin and clenched her jaw closed. Ryuji and Akira were practically vibrating, Their entire demeanor livid with fists in pockets The cat, Morgana, once again had his claws out, but now his eyes were narrowed to deadly slits and his ears were folded back, tail trashing in that universal cat-sign of annoyance. But somehow Yusuke looked the most frightening, still as rock and expression blank.
Makoto: I'm...truly glad we got you back safe, Nhazul...
Makoto sounded near tears, and all Sae could do was place a hand on her back in comfort.
Nhazul: Thanks...
Sae: I nearly became one of your assailants as well....
Ann: It still freaked me out when I saw the suicide on the news though....
Yusuke: We knew he was alive, but...it was difficult to not worry until we could confirm it in person.
Sae: Now that I think about it, my interrogation was just a formality for the head commander. What a joke, letting me interrogate someone who was meant to die. They just wanted to avoid backlash...
With this, and everything else she had learned in mind, she made a decision and sent a smile at Nhazul.
Sae: Very well. From here forward, I will do my utmost to assist you. You saved me, after all.
(Timeskip)
After Sae agreed to help the others and Sojiro agreed to let them use Leblanc as their base, Sojiro made food for everyone and they decided to eat and take a break and afterwards, they resumed their conversation.
Sae: The real criminal is Goro Akech. But that's not all. Someone is pulling the strings behind him.
Makoto: And it's someone with enough influence to set up an assassination on someone in police custody.
Futaba: Here's the proof. It was right after Akechi joined us. On Nhazul and Akira's order, I pretended to want to see Akechi's phone, and used the chance to upload a bugging app.
Sae: I see. That's what you mentioned earlier.
Yusuke: Futaba's eccentric personality really came in handy then.
Futaba: That was an act!
Nhazul: No it wasn't...
Futaba: It was!
Makoto: Thanks to this phone call, we were able to learn Akechi's plot ahead of time.
Futaba then played the recording and and it was Akechi explaining his plan to a man named "Shido" and Sae looked completely shocked.
Sae: Shido...?
Sojiro: Don't tell me...
Makoto: Yes. The politician set to be voted in as Prime Minister during next month's election...Mayayoshi Shido, leader of the United Future Party, is the mastermind behind everything.
Sae and Shido both looked completely shocked.
(Timeskip)
After agreeing to take down Shido, everyone decided to head to the Diet Building the next day after school and given how they didn't want to draw too much attention to themselves, they decided to go there separately and Makoto had went to go pick up Nhazul since everyone agreed that Nhazul shouldn't be alone walking around.
Makoto: Boss, Is Nhazul upstairs?
Sojiro: Yeah, go on up.
Makoto: Nhazul? Are you ready to-
Makoto walked up and saw Nhazul on his knees and holding his chest, breathing extremely heavily and she then realized he was having a panic attack.
Makoto: Nhazul, hey-
Makoto went to put her hand on his shoulder, but Nhazul quickly backed away from Makoto.
Nhazul: NO! STAY AWAY!!!
When Makoto saw Nhazul move away from her in fear, she was completely shocked and she then looked down and saw that his hand was violently shaking.
Makoto: Nhazul....
Makoto then tried to reach her hand out to try and comfort him, but he back away more, still afraid.
Makoto: Oh, Nhazul...
It hurt Makoto to see someone who she thought to be pretty much fearless, someone who stood up to a member of the mafia at gun point to protect her, someone who took on the Reaper on his own to protect them, be left in such a state after surviving such an ordeal. And Makoto once again reached her hand towards Nhazul and he once again backed away, but she continued.
Makoto: It's okay, Nhazul...
As Makoto continued to reach towards him, Nhazul this time didn't move and Makoto touched his face and could see the fear in his eyes. Remembering watching the footage of him being beaten and drugged, Nhazul kept his cocky attitude the entire time, she knew deep down that Nhazul was completely terrified from the entire event and yesterday, he kept those feelings buried down to stay strong for the others, but anyone no matter who they are would be afraid and scared.
Makoto: It's okay, Nhazul...
Makoto then brought Nhazul into a hug and hugged him tightly.
Makoto: I won't hurt you...
Nhazul: ....
(Flashback)
(Present)
Nhazul didn't say anything as tears started streaming down his face and he started to hug Makoto and started crying.
Makato: It's okay...You're safe now...