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If you asked Goro Akechi what the ideal way to spend his afternoon would be, there were many answers that he could give. Enjoying a music performance at Jazz Jin would be one of them. Winning against Kurusu at billiards would be another. On particularly stressful days, tearing Shadows apart in Mementos was always sure to be an effective mood booster and the best way to somehow get rid of all the frustration he had managed to accumulate throughout the week.
Having to explain to an incredibly annoyed-looking security guard at the local mall that no, he and his friend weren't thieves and no, there was absolutely no need to call the cops on them — well, it certainly wasn't on that list.
It started with Sakomoto sending him a text earlier that day, asking Goro to go running with him after their classes ended. Then — Or, no, scratch that. It actually started several months earlier, with the appearance of the mysterious Phantom Thieves that soon became all that every news outlet ever wanted to talk about. Before he crossed paths with them, Goro had always done an excellent job at getting himself out of difficult situations and appearing to others as a well-mannered, perfect student and a respectable member of the society. It was really because of them that his life had been becoming far more chaotic and filled with unnecessary trouble, so it was only a matter of time before something like this happened — ever since that day on which the story of a PE teacher from Shujin suddenly confessing to his crimes made its way onto the national news.
At first, the story didn't stand out much to Goro. He did not realize right away that the rumored Phantom Thieves who had apparently "stolen the evil heart" of Suguru Kamoshida must have been fellow Metaverse users. It was only after the case of Madarame that he begun to take active interest in their activities and the more information he managed to find out concerning the case, the more Goro was starting to realize that he might just have an explanation for what was happening to the criminals targeted by the group.
He wished he could say that he discovered the identities of the Phantom Thieves all on his own. Narrowed down the list of possible candidates and found the truth when nobody else could. Caught them with nothing to help him but his own wit — but unfortunately, that wasn't quite true.
In fact, the way he ended up discovering the true identities of Phantom Thieves turned out to be… rather underwhelming. In the end, it happened as a result of sheer luck and the group's carelessness.
Goro met Akira Kurusu in June by complete coincidence. They happened to be in the same place at the same time and Kurusu was impressively good at darts, so Goro felt the need to prove he was even better. Somehow, against his own better judgment, he ended up becoming friends with him and then it wasn't all that hard to figure out that Kurusu's friend group being made up solely of people who were in one way or another connected to the Phantom Thieves' activities wasn't merely an odd coincidence. Especially since the merry bunch of fools was shockingly awful at keeping it secret.
He and Sakomoto didn't get along in the slightest at first. It might have had something to do with Sakamoto insulting his hair within the first ten seconds of their very first meeting, it might have had something to do with the fact that Goro initially found him reckless and irritating, it very likely have had something to do with the fact that Sakamoto was bitter about it being his own slip-up that confirmed to Goro that his new acquaintances were in fact the Phantom Thieves and it most definitely had something to do with the fact that after the Phantom Thieves oh-so-generously offered Goro a spot among them upon learning that he was a fellow Metaverse user, he dismissed it, saying he had no interest in participating in their little brainwashing hobby under the guise of righteousness. Sakamoto didn't take that one well.
Of course, it wasn't as if Goro minded if the Phantom Thieves continued doing whatever the hell they wanted in the Metaverse, nor did he believe himself to be in any position to judge, let alone them claim moral high-ground. Society was full of trash that could rot for all that Goro cared and throughout the few years during which he had known about the existence of that strange, parallel world full of Shadows, he'd been using it to his own advantage as well. Gathering information, mostly. You could learn wonderful amount of things from the reflections of people's thoughts and desires and if you happened upon somebody's Palace, it was like a goldmine of blackmail material and a thorough instruction on just how to deal with a person in reality. It had been plenty helpful in moving up the social ladder, finding opportunities to improve his and his mother's lives and lifting them up from poverty. And if he discovered that his powers could also be used to take revenge on those who wronged him and his only family by driving them crazy for brief periods of time — or giving them "psychotic breakdowns", as the media had coined them — well, let's just say Goro was very familiar with the appeal of getting payback.
The point was, he knew what he was doing was self-serving. He had long since given up on the dreams of becoming a hero. Besides, there was no stake for him in what the Phantom Thieves were doing and they were, miraculously enough, doing just fine on their own. Goro was content working solo as always, only hearing about the Phantom Thieves' adventures, now and then getting into a philosophical argument over them with Kurusu and taking great joy in watching how quickly Sakamoto got riled up whenever Goro pointed out any flaws in their actions or made arguments for the people that were against them.
Things began to change a little over a month ago, towards the end of the summer, when Goro learned just which politician landed Kurusu on probation and who was the ultimate target that the group was hoping take down before the election in December.
Hearing the name "Masayoshi Shido" certainly changed Goro's mind on how involved he was willing to get with the Phantom Thieves very quickly.
He had been in Shido's Palace before. He'd seen enough to know, with absolute certainty, that the Phantom Thieves were still nowhere near the level where they would be able to take on the monument to Shido's pride that was the man's Palace. He also knew that this was his chance at… something. What that something was, he wasn't entirely sure. Did he want the Phantom Thieves to change Shido's heart? To force a tear-filled apology out of what pathetic form would be left of that man after all was done? Did he want something else out of it? A shot at vengeance? A chance to destroy the man's Shadow before the Thieves had an opportunity to steal it away? Did he simply want answers? He hadn't had a chance to truly, seriously consider those questions before, not when he believed his only way to get back at Shido would be in the real world where he could never come in direct contact with the man, not when doing so could put his mother in danger again. But now that he knew the others were planning to sneak into the depths of that monster's psyche and confront him, Goro also knew that he had to be part of that.
And once he shared his story with the Phantom Thieves, they took it upon themselves to include him and to make him feel like part of the group. Each one of them did. Suddenly Takamaki was texting him news and updates from her photo shoots and send him cafe recommendations, asking him to go check them out together, Sakura was getting into heated debates with him over Featherman. Kitagawa was deeply interested in his opinions on arts. Sakamoto began inviting him to train together.
He enjoyed training with Sakamoto more than he would willingly admit. They weren't each other's first choice of company and he certainly wouldn't have expected them to be able to find common ground. But… the runs they went on together were nice. Running was nice. It helped take his mind off things in a different way than exploring Mementos did. It didn't leave much room for unnecessary chatter or annoying small talk. There was another thing too, that he only now discovered, that training with somebody else alongside him was not at all the same as training alone. It was an unexpectedly pleasant change from his usual routine. He didn't quite understand it but there was a small sense of comfort he found in having another's company and somehow, just like that, he supposed a certain sense of camaraderie had formed between them.
So today was one of those days Sakamoto asked him to go running together. Which was fine and not unusual. What was unusual, however, but still fine, was that Sakamoto wanted to go to the mall afterwards.
"Come on, dude, how come we never go eat something together after running? They have pretty decent stuff at the mall! And there's somethin' I gotta do, too."
"And my presence is necessary for that something?" Goro asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes!"
"I highly doubt that. Either way, I can't stay out too long today, as you're aware." The Phantom Thieves' next strategic meeting was supposed to happen this evening, at Goro's home. Not his idea, thank you very much, but when his mother heard that he was planning to meet with a friend group, she nearly cried from happiness and insisted that Goro invites them to their little apartment and introduces them all to her. "I can't let my mother prepare everything for my guests by herself."
"But it's about that!" Sakamoto insisted. "It won't take long — promise."
That made Goro pause.
"What do you mean, it's about that?" he asked.
"It's — Well… Look, dude, uh, I know that it must be pretty rough for your mom, with… everything," he started, looking away for a moment as he talked. "I grew up with a single mom too, you know? And, uh… I know what it's like to have a good-for-nothing dad, too. So since she agreed to have us all over, I figured it'd be nice to get her something. Wouldn't feel right to just barge in without some sort of gift. My mom always said it's good manners to bring one. But, uh, I'm like… really not good at picking out gifts or knowing what to get people," the boy admitted. "So I need your help for that."
He scratched at the back of his neck awkwardly, looking a little embarrassed admitting that. Goro… wasn't sure what to say all of a sudden, an unidentifiable feeling residing in his chest as he stared at Sakamoto.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? I didn't say anything weird, did I?"
Goro slowly shook his head and cleared his throat.
"Very well," he said. "I'll come along."
So off to the mall they went.
At first, Sakamoto wanted to buy perfume. Apparently Takamaki had told him about a new line being released that she was modeling for. That idea, however, quickly got ruled out when Goro educated him on the average prices of good perfume. Instead, they ended up at one of those stores full of all sorts of accessories, trying to pick out a nice-looking pair of sunglasses, as Goro remembered his mother had recently lost hers and the ones on sale here were certainly more affordable with Sakamoto's budget. They managed to find a pair that he thought she would like and everything would have been fine if that was the end of it.
Alas, it wasn't.
Sakamoto decided to try on a pair too, one he looked entirely ridiculous in, mind you, and Goro told him as much. If he had listened and taken it off right then instead of goofing around, they still wouldn't have gotten in trouble.
But then, halfway through telling Goro that he just knew nothing about what was and wasn't "cool", Sakamoto froze, his eyes stopping on something he saw a distance away, outside the store. Goro turned around, following his gaze, and saw a man he didn't recognize, in the middle of attempting to pickpocket an elderly lady who seemed busy and distracted, talking to somebody on the phone.
"It's that freakin' asshole!" Sakamoto hissed out, his voice full of anger.
Goro raised an eyebrow. "You know him?"
"I sure know of him," Sakamoto said, scowling. "That's the jerk we're supposed to go after during the next trip to Mementos. Looks like it's time for early intervention though." Then, before Goro could get a word in, Sakamoto yelled: "Hey! Douchebag!" and bolted out of the shop, running towards the aforementioned douchebag, the sunglasses from the store still on. Goro watched in disbelief and exasperation as the pickpocket obviously realized someone had caught him in the act and broke into a sprint — and then Sakamoto chased after him.
The sensors at the entrance to the store blared in alarm as Sakamoto ran passed them with the unpaid for pair of glasses and one of the employees called out after him angrily once she realized that the boy took off without paying. Sakamoto didn't seem to hear, however, and the anger on the staff member's face deepened — and then her gaze landed on Goro and recognition flashed in her eyes, as she must have realized he was the one accompanying the accidental shoplifter.
"Shit," Goro cursed under his breath.
For a lack of better options, he ran after Sakamoto.
For once in his life, Goro felt grateful for how loud the other tended to be, as it made keeping track of him infinitely easier while Goro navigated the mall and did his best to avoid running straight into people in his attempt to catch up to his… friend.
It didn't take him long to find Sakamoto, but it still took long enough for the situation to worsen significantly. Goro arrived at the scene to the sight of Sakamoto sitting in the mall's fountain, drenched, the sunglasses falling off his face, pieces of what seemed to be a flower vase in the water beside him as he argued with a security guard, the culprit he was chasing nowhere in sight.
There is still time to turn around and leave, a voice in his mind that sounded a lot like Loki said.
You wanted be part of the team, you can't only look out for yourself anymore, another (far more annoying) voice argued.
Goro sighed and took a step forward. As soon as Sakamoto caught sight of him, a look of relief appeared on his face. As if he believed Goro's presence would help smooth things over easily. Goro wished he could believe that as confidently as him.
"Here, that guy was with me! He saw it too, he can vouch for me!" Sakamoto said, gesturing towards him.
The security guard turned to look at him and Goro put on his best polite smile, forcing himself to push all the irritation aside as he prepared to start making excuses: "My apologies for the mess my friend has caused. I can explain."
*
In the end, he doubted the security guard actually believed them. He most likely let them go out of simple annoyance at having to listen to Goro's lengthy explanations, but not without first making sure that they would get banned from the mall for the following months. Not the worst punishment they could have gotten, but that didn't sour Goro's mood any less.
He supposed that at least, out of the two of them, he wasn't the one who had to march back through the streets with water dripping from his clothes. Even if he did also receive stares from the passersby by association.
"Man, I'm pissed," Sakamoto grumbled.
"Really? I couldn't tell."
The boy scowled at him. "Don't be a dick, dude," he grumbled. "It's just… it ain't my fault the guy ran off! I was going to pay for the glasses later! What was I supposed to do? Let him steal from an innocent grandma!? You know he only steals from the elderly!? For fun!? What a scumbag."
There were multiple things Goro wanted to say to him. He wanted to point out that they might have succeeded at stopping the pickpocket, had Sakamoto not alerted him of his presence. He wanted to emphasize that they never would have gotten in trouble, had Sakamoto simply stopped to think for five seconds and put the glasses away before running out of the store. He wanted to ask him if it truly had been worth it, chasing after that man after already scaring him off, without looking where he was going or just what he was knocking over?
I rarely see him this upset, Goro thought. He looks like a kicked puppy that was left outside in the rain.
Instead of any of those things, he let out a heavy sigh and said: "Well, you did successfully stop him from stealing from the old lady, didn't you?"
Sakamoto paused in his step for a moment, a surprised look showing on his face.
"That's — Huh. I… I guess I did? Yeah!" he nodded to himself and a hint of a grin replaced his scowl. "Man, I guess I did save the day after all…? "
Goro only hummed in response. Doesn't take a lot to make him happy again, he thought to himself. Must be nice.
By the time they made it to the flat in which Goro and his mother lived in their little apartment, they were already late. Goro grimaced as the voices of their friends reached his ears when he searched his pockets for the key, even though he had already figured they would be the last ones to arrive, with everything that happened.
At least Sakamoto dried up a little from walking in the sun. He'd still need a new change of clothes, but he wasn't going to get fountain water all over the apartment's floor.
"We're here," Goro called out as they stepped inside. "A certain someone decided to get in trouble with the mall security and I had to intervene."
"I didn't decide to get in trouble!" Sakamoto protested. "They were the ones who chose to be assholes!"
"Why are you wet?" Takamaki asked.
She was draped over the armchair in the living room, looking between them in apparent confusion. The others were there as well, just like Goro assumed. Sakura was sitting on the couch with her knees brought close to her chest, tapping away at her phone. Nijima was next to her, a deeply tired look having appeared on her face the second she saw them, along with their newest member, Okumura. Kitagawa was… Goro wasn't certain what Kitagawa was doing. He seemed to be posing, lying on the floor, his limbs creating an odd shape. Goro heard him speaking quite passionately while he was opening the door, so perhaps they interrupted him in the middle of discussing some sculpture he was trying to imitate. Goro wasn't going to ask. Kurusu wasn't in the living room with the others, but he could hear him talking to his mother in the kitchen, likely helping out — for that, Goro felt a bit of gratitude.
"Forgive us for putting off this oh-so-fascinating storytime, but first things first," Goro said, then glanced at Sakamoto. "Come on, you need something dry to wear before you sit on any of the furniture here."
"Huh? You're gonna let me wear your clothes?"
"Unless you prefer I let you catch pneumonia? I suppose it could be arranged, if you insist."
Sakamoto grumbled something under his breath that didn't sound very happy, but still followed after Goro without complaints and it was only then that it truly occured to him… This was going to be the first time somebody other than his mother was going to come inside his room.
The thought almost made Goro stop — almost, because it didn't, but… It… felt strange, admittedly, to have such a realization. He had never been the social type. He was liked by people, yes, at least once he got a bit older and learnt how to say all the right things, how to look the right way, what others wanted and expected from him. But as he learnt to put on a performance, he also learnt not to let anyone too close, lest they take a look past it all and see things Goro would rather not show to anyone.
Not until the Phantom Thieves, at least. He wasn't sure what to think about that.
"Huh," Sakamoto said when he saw the inside of his room. "That's kinda what I thought your room would look like."
"I did not realize you were interested enough in my room to spend your time imagining what it looks like," Goro said.
"Wha — That's not what I said, man! Just… if I did imagine it, that's probably what I would've thought. It has the vibe, ya know? Very Akechi."
"Hmm." Goro looked around his room. He didn't think there was anything about it in particular that stood out or reflected much of his personality. There wasn't much in his room in the first place. He couldn't afford many luxuries and the money he earned, he preferred saving for the future or using it to help his mother out. Not that there wasn't anything he ever got just for himself. He had a small collection of books, stacked neatly next to each other on a shelf. But that was possibly the most personal thing present in his room. The furniture was simple and, admittedly, somewhat bleak-looking. He didn't have anything he didn't need. He kept it clean but not unnaturally so. It was nothing like Kurusu's attic which, although less than ideal for someone to live in, was brimming with life and personality. "I can't say I see what exactly here is giving you any sort of 'vibe'."
"See, that's what I'm talkin' about. You definitely seem like you'd be all like Tis' but a room, whatever might be the point of childishly decorating it so? or purposefully keep it bland because you're so damn weird sometimes about people wanting to get to know you."
"That is — I do not speak like that."
"I dunno, it's what you sound like to me. All fancy and crap."
Goro gave him a thin, insincere smile. "Well, I guess it's only natural it would seem that way when I'm always surrounded by a bunch of fools."
"Well, the point is, we need to get you some posters, dude."
"Posters?" Goro repeated, incredulous.
"Yeah!" Sakamoto nodded enthusiastically. "These walls are so white it's blinding. You need to hang stuff up on them! Idols you like, movies you're into… hey, you like Featherman, right? How about that?"
Goro turned away from Sakamoto and walked to his closet to search for the dry clothes to lend him. "I'll make sure to give your suggestions due consideration," he told him.
"Doesn't sound like you will…"
It was true his tone came off rather sarcastic — as intended — but a part of Goro was thinking about what Sakamoto said. Decorating his room simply wasn't something that ever occurred to him he should do and it still did seem unnecessary and a little bit childish, but… some voice inside of him thought that Featherman poster wouldn't be bad.
Not that he had time to think about this now.
"Here," he said, handing Sakamoto the clothes. "Go get changed in the bathroom. It's the door right to the left outside my room."
"Tha— Dude, what is that?"
"Clothes."
"Yeah but… can't you give me something normal to wear?"
"I just did," Goro smiled sweetly, the way he did while dealing with particularly annoying customers during his part-time job. "No need to thank me."
After leaving Sakamoto to get dressed, he returned to the living room. He stopped for a moment before joining the others and simply took in the scene before him.
His mother and Kurusu were there as well now. Kurusu was in the middle of placing the snacks on the table, meanwhile his mother was talking to the girls, a bright smile on her face. She looked happy. Relaxed. Whatever they were talking about, she seemed to be enjoying the conversation, too.
She noticed him a few seconds later.
"Goro! There you are!"
"I'm back, Mom. Hello."
People always told him he looked just like her. Goro disagreed. They might have had the same brown hair and the same reddish eyes, but in his opinion, they still looked completely different. Especially when she smiled. Her face was much kinder. Gentler. Even now, when she was frowning at him as she crossed the room and walked up to him.
"Your message didn't tell me much. What happened? Should I be worried? And where's your other friend? Didn't you say you were with him?" She fired the questions one after the other.
The Phantom Thieves' curious gazes were all turned towards him as well.
"It's… a bit of a long story. We ran into unexpected trouble. It's all sorted out now. It wasn't — "
"Yeah, we are banned from the mall now though," Sakamoto's voice interrupted him mid-sentence.
Multiple people reacted to his appearance at the same time, all of them speaking over each other.
"Banned from the mall…? What did you do?" Nijima asked.
"My, Ryuji, you look so neat!" Okumura said with a light laugh.
"What are you wearing?" Takamaki exclaimed.
"Ah! I see you're broadening your fashion horizons! Have you discovered an artistic spirit inside you, Ryuji?" Yusuke asked.
"You look like blond Akechi," Kurusu pointed out.
"So why were you wet?" Sakura questioned.
"You look very nice, Sakamoto-kun," his mother commented with a smile.
He looked a bit stupid, in Goro's opinion. Not because his clothes looked stupid, of course, but because they were about the last thing that matched Ryuji Sakamoto's style and personality. The elegant clean dress pants, white button-up shirt and blue checkered woolen vest made him look like a whole different person. It looked wrong, honestly, although Sakamoto seemed to have gotten over his initial comprehension towards the outfit and chosen to embrace it instead. He grinned widely as he thanked his mother for the compliment and turned to the others with:
"You could totally mistake me for Akechi like this, right? Think I'll get more popular if I go to school like this?"
"You're still missing the hair," Sakura pointed out.
"And personality," Takamaki said.
Goro only rolled his eyes and moved to take a seat on the floor next to where Kitagawa elected to sit.
"The story isn't anywhere near as exciting as you may think it is," Goro said. "Sakamoto simply acted first, thought second."
"Hey! I was trying to do the right thing! If you think about it, it was pretty heroic!"
"Of course," Goro said with a slight eye roll.
"Didn't you say so too!?"
"Well, I certainly don't remember using the word heroic."
"Ugh, whatever, give us the deets!" Sakura interrupted.
Goro sighed.
"Well, we were at the mall. Sakamoto was trying on a pair of glasses. He spotted a pickpocket trying to steal from an older lady. He ran gave chase after the guy, still wearing the glasses, got pushed away by him when he almost caught up, fell into a fountain while knocking over w flower vase that broke and the pickpocket disappeared — so you can imagine it wasn't a very good look when the security guard found him like that."
Takamaki burst into laughter at that. Sakura snickered. Nijima just sighed and Okumura, to her credit, looked actually concerned. Kitagawa simply gave a thoughtful nod.
"Surprised you didn't manage to smooth things over," Kurusu said, looking at Goro.
"I tried my best," he said. "But there is only so much I can do in the face of Sakamoto's lack of forethought."
It occured to him after he said that, in a rather snarky tone — which wasn't anything unusual — that he was perhaps being too mean while his mother was still there and listening. It certainly wasn't the polite thing to say that a nice boy like Goro Akechi tried his best to be for her sake would say.
But when he glanced at her, her eyes were sparkling with amusement and there was warmth inside them as she watched the rest of the Thieves interact.
She met his gaze and her smile turned a little teasing then. "You know, Goro, you used to get in much worse trouble than that when you were younger. Cut Sakamoto-kun a little slack."
"Huh?" Sakamoto was the first to react. "Akechi was a troublemaker?" A wide grin spread across his face. "Tell us more!"
"Let's not," Goro said quickly.
"Please do," Kurusu joined in and a few of the others nodded, backstabbing him without hesitation.
His mother laughed.
"Well, there was that time Goro was completely convinced his teacher was wrong, despite him certainly not knowing better at the age of eight — "
"Sounds like Akechi," Nijima muttered and pretended not to notice the glare he gave her.
" — so he wrote a full complaint about her 'incompetence' and handed it to the principal. The teacher wasn't very happy with him, as you can all imagine."
"Dude," Ryuji said.
"It was a simple mistake. I was eight," Goro emphasized.
"You were always a little too stubborn, honey," his mother said. "Remember our old neighbors? You were so upset they kept playing music in their yard late — "
"Which I had every right to be."
"That you climbed over their fence once just to pour water on the speakers."
Takamaki burst into giggles.
"Oh my God," she said. "That's so petty, it makes perfect sense you'd do that."
"We had to pay them back for the speakers, which weren't cheap," his mother said.
"I suppose that was the price for their silence," Goro muttered.
"When Goro was eleven, he got into a debate about politics with our mailman and we would get propaganda in our mail for months after that."
"It clearly means he knew he couldn't convince me and was a sore loser."
"Let's not forget about when — "
"Actually," Goro cut in. "We are supposed to be working on that project and Sakamoto and I did arrive late, so we should really move to my room already."
"What? No!" Sakamoto protested. "I wanna hear more!"
"I'm sure there will be plenty of other opportunities," Goro said through his teeth. "But now, there are other priorities."
"Boo. I wanna hear more too," Takamaki said.
"You can't always get what you want in life, Takamaki."
"But — "
"No. Akechi is right," Nijima spoke up and Goro didn't expect he would feel this grateful towards her one day. "We have important matters to discuss. A-About the project, that is. We really should focus on that."
The others looked like they still wanted to complain, but it seemed in the end Nijima speaking up really did get them to listen. They stood up one by one, picking up the plates with snacks and followed after Sakamoto who was the first one to head to his room, knowing where it was.
Goro stayed behind for a moment and once the Phantom Thieves disappeared behind the door, he turned to his mother.
"Aww, there is still a lot of stories I would love to tell them," she said. "They seemed more than happy to find out more about you, Goro."
"More than happy to laugh at me, perhaps," he said.
"No need to get so pouty about it."
"I'm not — "
The door of his room opened again and Sakamoto walked out, a pair of sunglasses in his hand.
"I almost forgot!" he said, crossing the distance between them. "Luckily they didn't break when I fell into the fountain so we still managed to buy them," he said with a grin and looked at Akechi's mom. "Um… here! Akechi said you needed a new pair and since you were cool enough to have us over, we wanted to give you somethin'. As thanks."
His mother's eyes widened. She took the glasses with a bit of uncertainty. She clearly wasn't expecting the gesture. However, as she looked the gift over, her gaze softened.
"Thank you," she said, giving Sakamoto a smile. "They're lovely."
"No problem!" he grinned again, then turned towarda Goro. "You comin', man?"
"…In a moment."
"Alright."
He watched as Sakamoto walked back to the room. Then he looked at his mother again. She was still looking at the sunglasses, her eyes happy. Just like the entire time since he came back here today. It wasn't often that she received any presents from anyone who wasn't Goro. It wasn't often she got to have people over or really talk to many people that were willing to listen. It wasn't easy for her, with no contact from her family and the neighbors looking at her with either judgment or pity. It wasn't often she got to spend time around people without having to worry about those things. It was definitely a new experience for her to have somebody other than her son appreciate her.
Goro understood very well what she felt like.
"You have really nice friends, Goro," she said. "I'm glad. They seem like wonderful people."
If any of the Phantom Thieves could hear it, he probably would have felt inclined to deny that. He would have made some comment about how they were certainly wonderful at being nuisances or that nice wouldn't be his first choice of word to describe them — or even the second.
None of the Phantom Thieves were listening, however. They were laughing again, Goro could hear. Likely about something ridiculous one of them had said or done. They were a rather ridiculous bunch, after all. He felt the urge to roll his eyes when he heard a muffled For real!? coming from behind the door.
But… there was something else too. They were annoying, of course, and they made Goro's life more chaotic, messier and louder than he was used to. But as much as he wanted to roll his eyes, he felt the corners of his lips twitch up at the same time — betraying the other emotion present, which he couldn't really deny was a strange fondness that he for some godforsaken reason started to feel for the unfortunate bunch of fools. Even when he thought back to the events at the mall, some part of him almost felt a sense of admiration that Sakamoto reacted so quickly, that he was somebody for whom helping people was in his nature. And when he thought about joining the rest of them soon in a moment, there was unmistakable feeling of comfort accompanying that thought. Reassurance brought to him by the fact that he belonged there, that they were meeting up because the next time he went inside the Metaverse, he wouldn't be alone.
Perhaps their stupidity along with their sentimentality were rubbing off on him too. It was even more stunning that Goro found that even if they were, he honestly didn't mind as much as he would have expected himself to. Perhaps it was nice to have even something like this in common with those around you.
He let out a small sigh — both of exasperation and something else — as he gave in and smiled.
"…You're not wrong," he conceded, his voice quiet as he spoke. "They really are."