There just simply aren't words for how you feel right now. Everything is slotting into place. Finally, finally, a plan that's been years in the making and almost derailed in a few shorts months will be back on track.

Just some cleanup to take care of first. Sae-san shows you a phone, and you can hardly be bothered to look at it, or her. She served her purpose, manifesting that gaudy casino of a Palace, letting you set your trap for the leader of the Phantom Thieves. What does he care for that phone? He's on the cusp of victory.

One of your father's men guards the door, another policeman in his pocket. Good. He doesn't think twice when you ask him to accompany you. The little sting of saying that you're uncomfortable being alone with a murderer doesn't last, because you know it won't survive this room. You lock eyes with Ren Amamiya, beaten, bloody, bruised, and there's a weird surge of emotion that you can't identify, and lock it deep down inside. The other boy looks worse than you'd ever seen him before, and yet his eyes are still clear and defiant as ever. He doesn't look surprised to see you.

The guard watches Ren, and you watch the guard. It's easy to reach into your jacket pocket, pull out the silencer, and with your other hand in a fluid motion, snatch the pistol from the guard's holster, afix the silencer, and shoot him. Just one shot from this range, and he collapses with a groan. You keep the gun on him for a deliberate few seconds, but he doesn't stir.

You point the gun at Ren. It feels exactly how good you'd imagined it would. You've left enough bodies in your wake that what the hell is one more? You were never friends. You'd thrown your glove in his face and demanded a duel, and this is your victory. Letting him live would destroy everything, and so, you don't regret it. You can feel the grin twisting through the pleasant mask you wear, spreading across your face in an ugly manifestation of your true self.

"Case closed. This is how your "justice" ends."

You squeeze the trigger, and for a moment, Ren looks shocked that you actually did it. Delicious surprise erases defiance as blood starts to trickle down his face. He collapses to the table with a wet, meaty thud. Not like a Shadow at all. Shadows dissolve into nothing, yet this corpse remains, bleeding out on the tablet in a wet splatter between eyes permanently frozen in shock.

And then you feel nothing. The satisfaction fades, and anything else you might feel is shunted away, buried and sublimated and compartmentalized into nothing. Just one more victim along your bloody path of vengeance. You remove the silencer, tuck it back into your pocket, and take the hand of the only boy who had ever wanted to spend time with you just to see you, and wrap his limp fingers around the grip of the pistol. How sad, you'll say later on television. The leader of the Phantom Thieves committed suicide in his cell.

Your father will be delighted to hear the news, praise you for your quick work taking care of the last threat to his election as Prime Minister. You're so close now. The higher they rise, the harder they fall, and oh, how sweet it will be to give him his victory with one hand, and with the other, snatch it away before he can grasp it.

You walk out the door and pull out your phone. Time to report in.