It was supposed to just be the normal routine: enter the palace, secure a route to the treasure, defeat the palace owner's shadow form, steal the treasure, escape. That's all it damn well should've been, but it wasn't. There should've been nothing that scarred them emotionally to the point where they broke, any of them, at all, but there was. And to be honest, it terrified them.

Though, sure, there were things that happened after it that scared them all.

Morgana was scared by how he'd wake up in the middle of every night screaming the way he did then.

Ryuji was scared by how he just simply lacked the motivation to even get out of bed some days, let alone train on others.

Ann was scared by how he just wouldn't eat regardless of how many of his favourite foods she'd buy him.

Yusuke was scared by the way that his eyes just seemed to lose all their life, and how he just seemed to stare into space, lacking passion towards anything.

Makoto was scared by the way his face would occasionally flash back and forth between a blank slate and the one that had scarred their memories that day.

Futaba was scared by the fact that she knew the only time he smiled now was when he was looking at the photos of them together on his phone.

Haru was scared by the way she'd often turn to see him staring longingly at the fenced off edges of the roof when they were gardening.

Hell, even Sojiro was scared by how he could taste the god damn pain and resentment in the coffee he brewed.

But nothing had ever terrified the members of the Phantom Thieves more than that moment.

They had just received the item they needed from 'The Cleaner', or rather, his shadow form that had materialized from Shido's cognition, that was it, they had the last item they needed to gain access to the treasure, they could finally take a breather, that's what they thought at least. They were just about to leave that damned boiler room when suddenly Akechi just...dropped down out of no where. They didn't notice how happy Akira was to see him, they didn't notice how desperately he tried to reason with Akechi, nor did they notice how hurt he looked with every venomous word that came out of Akechi's god damn mouth. But they did notice when he held back during battle. They did notice how he tried his best not to hurt Akechi, how he continued to desperately reason with him.

That should have been the warning point.

They noticed everything after that. The way that he became defensive upon the appearance of Shido's shadow cognition of Akechi, the way he tensed when the shadow pointed the gun at the real Akechi's head and how he stepped forward when the shadow said someone could take his place. They noticed how calm he looked when the real Akechi held up his gun, aiming at Akira's head, and the way that calm face immediately fell to painful realization right before Akechi pulled the trigger. The way his eyes widened as the bullet just barely skimmed his cheek and collided with the emergency lockdown button on the wall just a few feet behind them, how he weakly raised his arm as the gate came down from the ceiling and sealed them off.

They remember the way the colour in his face drained as the gunshots went off, and how he stood motionless for 10 seconds, just staring wide eyed at the gate in front of them.

And they remember how he lost his composure, the way he suddenly charged and rammed his body against the steel gate so hard that if they weren't in the metaverse he would've broken his arm, they remember how he slammed his fists against the gate, the way he screamed and cried Akechi's name and so many vulgar phrases and threats until his voice went hoarse. They remember how they couldn't even move a muscle to do anything, all they could do was watch.

Nothing had ever terrified the members of the Phantom Thieves more than that moment.

Because in that moment...they lost their leader.

A/N

Yeah, I know I should be working on Hostess How To, but like, this was just smth I had to get out, you know? Plus I had written this before I even started Hostess How To and I felt like posting it here (reason why it took me so long to was cause I had already posted it on my tumblr and I don't really want anyone who's seen it there to come here and find out I'm writing smut lmao). Anyhow, some explanation for this: I absolutely loved Akechi. I LOVED HIM. It's because of that that I absolutely hated how they handled his death, I mean, come on, here's this absolutely amazing character who has so much goddamn potential and they just...eurgh. Like, at least give me a chance to save him or SOMETHING! It could've been completely possible! Just a little extra work and some additional coding! You get the choice to be nice to this poor, broken boy who only ever wanted acceptance and validation, he just wanted people to see and care about him, and you get the choice to do that for him, even in his final moments! They could've made it so that if you remained nice to him you could've at least had the chance to save him, and I mean, yeah, it was always fated for you and Akechi to be enemies, 'one can't exist with the other' and all that bullshit, but isn't that exactly what this game's about? Rebellion? Breaking away from your ill fortuned fate? Going against the will of the gods themselves? But that's only part of what bothered me about this scene, it's also the fact that, again, you get the choice to be nice to him, to try to reason with him, to give him another shot, you get the choice to remain his friend until the end, and yet...nothing. After he dies, nothing. Joker just shrugs it off and is like "Oh well, that happened, let's go." and they leave. And even after no one, no one, bothers to ask Joker if he's okay, I would've at least been slightly happy if there was something in there that like...causes your dialogue options in those moments to actually matter, but no. They don't. And no one cares. So in this angsty ass fanfiction I fixed that one small bit, the part that pissed me off the most.