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“Good luck, everyone!”
As the screen went blank, and the video-call Minako had pestered him into arranging with her ended at last, Ken Amada felt a sense of relief wash over him.
That was probably because she’d spent the last minute of the call before hanging up teasing him and Makoto (who still had a luminous blush on her face).
“I like her.”
Ren’s proclamation was both expected, and still filled him with dread.
“She is certainly a very lively woman.” Yusuke mused. “I wonder if she would permit me to create an image of her, possibly with her daughter and husband, at some point…”
“She’s AWESOME!” Futaba grinned.
“Hey, Ken? What does Minako actually do?”
Ryuji’s question caught him off guard.
“Ryuji, weren’t you listening? She works for the Shadow Operatives. She hunts down Shadows… well, I assume she does when Mitsuru-sama isn’t being blackmailed.” Haru replied.
“Well, duh. I heard that, yeah.” Ryuji frowned. “But that’s not all she does, right? The way I got it, when there isn’t something like Mementos, Tartarus, or the TV World showing up, Shadows don’t really bug people that much. So she’s gotta have a lot of time when she’s not fighting Shadows. Right? What’s she do then, Ken?”
There was a thoughtful silence, as everyone looked at Ryuji in surprise. Then, after they had a few seconds to process the fairly insightful question, everyone looked at Ken.
“Well? What’s she do?” Ryuji prompted.
When Ken didn’t reply, for some reason, the rest of the Phantom Thieves started wondering aloud.
“I would assume she does some form of police or detective work. Similar to Naoto-san. After all, Shadows are mostly unknown to the world at large - Mitsuru must have someone looking out for the sorts of things that would indicate Shadows are involved.” Makoto mused aloud.
“Actually, I think she’s got a lot of other people for that. At least, that’s the impression I got from mom and when I looked into their databases - I couldn’t see all the names, but they had a lot of personnel profiles, I think.” Futaba spoke up, shaking her head. "I think she's got about a dozen full-time workers looking into that sort of thing, but I think besides us? The Investigation Team and SEES are the only people who work for the Shadow Operatives that have Personas. There's no way she'd let her top fighter spend most of her time on detective work when there are people who can do it better, right?"
“I’d say Mitsuru probably lets her have the time off… but I don’t think that Mitsuru-san sounds like the sort of person who’d let anyone who works for her slack. Especially if she’s working for her full-time.” Ann’s train of thought, however, began to go down an unexpected road when she looked at Ken again, and his actions caught her off guard.
“Ken, why - are you blushing?”
In lieu of a response, Ken took his phone, and started scrolling through it. The rest of the Phantom Thieves watched in slight confusion as he did it.
Two seconds after another blush lit up his face, he turned the phone around, and their questions were answered.
As Ken walked by the gym that Mitsuru had set up for the Kirijo Group, he ran into someone coming out.
“Hey, Ken!”
Well, she ran into him, more accurately. Ken was already going past the front door when he heard her voice greeting him cheerfully from behind.
“Minako-san.” Ken turned around quickly. “How are - YAAAGH!”
“WAGH!” Makoto yelped, feeling her face flush crimson all over again.
“Oh my…” Haru’s eyes went wide.
“Top ten, easy!” Futaba grinned.
“How is she not a model?!” Ann demanded.
“I simply must ask her to pose for me!” Yusuke burst out, before frowning. “But… I suppose that asking her and her husband if that is proper would be a good idea first…”
“HOLY SHIT!” Ryuji’s sentiment was fully echoed by everyone in the room.
Ren said nothing, but felt a sense of inferiority overpower him for a second - and mild attraction that came out in a brief wolf-whistle.
“Wow…” For a single second, Morgana’s admiration for Lady Ann was actually overshadowed.
Which was totally understandable, because the picture of Minako Sanada-Arisato he was showing them was an image of her - posing - in her gym clothes.
And…
...To say Minako was completely shredded would be a huge understatement.
The six-pack clearly visible was one that put anything Ryuji, Ren, Ken, Haru, or Makoto had to utter shame. The muscles on her flexing left arm were something that people usually saw in magazines or tv shows. And her legs… well, besides the fact that she looked like she could crack bones just by flexing, the fact that she was doing this all in shorts and a bra that was almost visible through a fairly thin gym t-shirt did nothing to help the raging teenage hormones in the room.
And neither did the “LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?” caption at the bottom of the picture.
“Er… yeah.” Ken’s blush was clear, as was the reason for it. “Minako-san… she’s the go-to person for serious Shadow situations besides Aigis or Yu if he’s nearby. She’s pretty much our trump card, and she knows it. So besides practicing with her Personas… she exercises. A lot. And… she really loves showing off every so often.”
Akihiko-san in particular really enjoyed that particular fact.
Judging by the looks on their faces, so did Ryuji (and Ren, although he had been very quick to cover up his almost-instinctual wolf-whistle). And… pretty much all of the male Thieves, actually, judging by how Morgana was trying to get a better look at the picture.
“Man, dude… no wonder you weren’t looking into the chicks at school that much.”
Ryuji’s statement earned a raised eyebrow from Ken.
“What do you mean by that?” Makoto asked, frowning.
Ryuji - for once - chose his words carefully. “Er, no offense -” for this, he turned to the female Thieves “And I know this is gonna sound bad, but you guys?” He gestured to the picture again. “But you have to admit, for people who are into athletes, you’re… kind of all second place, now.”
It was telling about what they’d seen that as much as they frowned at Ryuji for the semi-intentional dissing, none of the female Thieves actually disagreed.