Disclaimer': I do not own anything. not the setting, not the characters.
Right now Ren was busy talking with Ryuji on the phone.
"No, we don't rip off idiculoud poses. We use our own ridiculous poses instead!" Ren tried telling him. But Ren wasn't looking where he was going and knocked into a group of girls around his age.
The bagss were then knocked into the streets, which were then run over by a car. Then it had it's remaining contents blow into the wind.
Right now they were all glaring at him as if he was some kind of insect that needed to be stepped on.
"Yeah, I've got to go." Ren told Ryuji.
"How about I treat you all to dinner." Ren suggested to them, calmly.
"W-what!? Really!?" the little girl wearing an eye patch said to him.
"Come onm. I know the right place." Ren said, leading them to a restaraunt.
"Hmmm! Meat, meat, meat!" Homura sang while happily eating the beef yakiniku that Ren bought for them. She looked like someone who was meeting her lover again after years of separation
"Well I better leave her be.." Ren thought while looking at her.
Homura was a tanned skin girl, with long black hair tied up in a ponytail. Though the thing that people might notice about her was her chest, which was pretty huge. Though all of them, except for one, could be said the same thing about. it.
"Are you sure this is alright, Amamiya-san?" Yomi asked him. She had blonde hair, and a regal look to her despite wearing a green tracksuit. There was obviously foreign blood in her, but Ren decided against saying something about it after knowing how much grief Ann got over it.
"Sure. I got my paychecks this week, and I was the one who ruined your dinner, so this is the least I can do for all of you." Ren said to them, lying about where he's actually gotten this money from.
"Plus the look you all gave me pretty much said you were going to kill me for it." Ren added without any shame or embarrassment over the matter. There was no point in aging tough because any other else would've done the same thing in his spot.
"Oh? We couldn't have looked that scary could we?" Haruka asked him. They all mostly had huge breasts, but hers were definitely the biggest amongst them, barely fitting into her clothes. She reminded Ren of Takemi in a strange way though he's not certain why. Maybe it was her teasing attitude, maybe it was the way she crossed her legs. Who knows.
"Oh? We couldn't have looked that scary could we?" Haruka asked him. They all mostly had huge breasts, but hers were definitely the biggest amongst them, barely fitting into her clothes. She reminded Ren of Takemi in a strange way though he's not certain why. Maybe it was her teasing nature.
"It wasn't fear per se, it's more like knowing that standing in front of a lion with five pounds of raw meat is dangerous." Ren told her.
"Oh? We're all certainly harmless." Haruka tried telling him, but,
"You say that, but I'm pretty certain that Homura could and would kick my ass." Ren told her.
"Hmm." Homura said after eating another piece of beef.
"There's just something about her that says, 'do not piss me off or I will beat the everloving crap out of you'." Ren explained to her.
This caused Homura to blush in embarrassment at him.
"I'm going to go take a piss." Homura said while leaving the table.
"Real polite and mannered one there." Morgana muttered after seeing the sight for himself while looking through an opening in the zipper.
Mirai however heard the meow coming from his bag, immediately closing the distance between her and Ren. She was apparently a first year in high school despite looking like a middle schooler at best, and for some reason had an eye patch over her left eye. Is she in that phase?
"Is there a kitty in that bag? Is there? Is there? Is there?" Mirai asked him excitedly with her eyes glowing up. Ren wanted to say no, but the glowing look in her one visible eye was far too hopeful for him to break.
"Yeah. Meet Morgana." Ren told her. Showing the black cat in his bag. Who only looked at him in confusion.
"But be careful, he's not allowed in here." Ren warned her. He's learned how to successfully sneak him in restaurants after many times, but this girl looks like she's terrible at sneaking around.
"C-can I feed him meat?" Mirai asked nervously.
"Sure." Ren agreed, "Morgana likes having the attention on him, don't you buddy?"
"Hey, I can't help it if the limelight loves good looking guys." Morgana told him, but to Mirai it was only meowing.
"Here kitty. Here's your meat." She said holding a piece of meat out for him with her
"Really?" Morgana said to her before sighing and eating the meat.
"But it is good!" Morgana said after eating it.
"Hmm. What a noisy little guy." Hikage said after looking at the cat. She reminded Ren of a snake waiting to catch its prey. With her emotionless eyes it's like Ren was looking at someone who's never had her own feelings once in her life.
"So what were you guys planning on having for dinner." Ren asked them.
"We were going to have beansprouts curry," Homura said to him, returning from the bathroom."But meat is definitely better!"
"Really? I'm capable of making a good pot of curry myself." Ren told them, but not quite understanding what beansprouts curry was. "I could've just made you some."
"Don't worry about it." Mirai said as she was petting Morgana.
"It's just refreshing to have something else other than beansprouts for once." Hikage told him.
"How often do you have bean sprouts?" Ren had to ask them. It couldn't be that bad.
"Everyday." Hikage told him. Wait, what? Was she serious? Everyday?
"Everyday?" Ren asked them again.
"Everyday." She said in confirmation."
"That's what we're able to consistently afford." Yomi told him with a smile. "There's no reason not to get them!"
"You don't have anything else to eat? It can't be healthy eating only one thing everyday?" Ren pointed out to her.
"Oh! There's hornet larvae boiled in soy sauce!" Yomi told him happily, while the others could only look disgusted and resigned at it and resigned towards it. Like they've had no choice but to eat it.
Ren and Morgana were shocked by this. How have they lasted this long?
'They were definitely worse off than Yusuke.' Ren thought to himself. Eating larvae? How could people live like this!?
"...I kind of feel like I should give you all some money out of a pure sense of morality." Ren said to them, bringing out his wallet. This action surprised them completely, not expecting it.
"Y-you don't have to!" Homura told him. "B-but if you want to then-"
"There's no need." Yomi told him, interrupting Homura. "We certainly couldn't pay you back anyway."
"This is no loan. This is a donation, I don't want you to pay me back." Ren told them, trying to get as much of his earnesty across as possible. Ren then handed the money to Homura, but Yomi gave it back to him immediately. Ren tried to give them the money again, but Yomi immediately gave it back again. "Thanks, but dinner was already enough. We ought to just leave it here."
"Just take it." Ren told her, trying to hand her the money.
"No, we don't need it." Yomi said, a smile forming on her face that said she won't back down on this, pushing the money back into his hands. The others looked like they wanted to say something, but Ren could tell that they didn't want to risk it for some reason. An expression that he's grown familiar with.
Both sides refused to back down on this matter. They were probably going to keep at this for a while..Until Ren had a bright idea that he's probably going to regret soon enough. Ren then took a deep breath and looked meaningfully into her eyes before lightly grabbing her shoulder and leaning slightly forward and telling her,
"Yomi…I love you." Ren told her, surprising not just her, but her friends as well. This tactic usually works when dealing with women. Giving them a surprise love confession to distract them was definitely one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it works so that's why Ren's still using it.
"W-what!?" Yomi said out of surprise at this sudden declaration, with her face easily reaching maximum blush. Once again, checkmate. Ren then handed her the money and ran away while she was distracted.
"W-wait!" Yomi called out. "Get back here!"
"Suzune-sensei certainly couldn't have prepared us for someone like him." Haruka mentioned offhandedly.
"I didn't think we'd need training like that either." Homura said in agreement.
"Well that went well." Ren told Morgana as they left the restaurant. Ren was walking calmly back home.
"She's probably going to chase you down and try to give you back your money." Morgana told him. Ren didn't think she'd go that far. After all no one can possibly be that against having money given to them.
"Get back here!" Ren heard Yomi yell from behind him. Ren turned and saw Yomi running at high speeds after him.
"Crap. You were right." Ren said as he started to run away from her. Yomi was quickly gaining on him. Ren then decided to use the other if the oldest trick in the book.
"Is that a flying bean sprout!?" Ren shouted after looking behind Yomi with a surprised expression on his face, making the illusion perfect.
This immediately caught Yomi's attention, distracting her from Ren. A flying beansprouts? Just as was told in the myths!?
"Where!?" Ren managed to escape her by booking it while she was looking for it. Two of the oldest tricks worked this time. But who could tell when Ren would finally meet the day that they would fail.
"Whew, that made for a good workout." Ren said exhaustedly. How could someone who eats only beansprouts be that fast?
"Let's hope she won't break in to give you that money back."
"Come on. She can't be that crazy." Ren told him, but was doubting his own words himself.
"I have no other option." Yomi said to herself. "I have to find him and break into his house." Ren was completely wrong. She was that crazy
But before she could move out to track him down and return his money, someone pulled her back.
"I think that's going far enough, Yomi-chan." Haruka said from behind her, holding onto her..
"What are we supposed to do with 50,000 yen!?" Yomi asked her, breaking out of her grasp.
"Well we can increase our food budget for this month?" Haruka suggested to her, placing her hand to her chin, trying to think of an suggestion way to make her calm down. "Or maybe donate it in service of the slums where you grew up."
"I just can't accept money that I didn't work for!" Yomi told them. Hi o3
"But you can accept dinner?" Hikage pointed out the weirdness in her logic to her.
"You always accept food when offered!" Yomi told her. They all simply sighed at this point.
"Well we could always make it up to him?" Haruka suggested in a seductive tone.
"Yeah, we could." Yomi said, surprising everyone else, including Haruka herself. Was she really willing to go that far?
"We could work off whatever we got from him. We could clean his house, grow his beansprouts, water his beansprouts,massage his cat, do anything." Yomi muttered, terrifying her friends a bit.
"I don't think he has beansprouts Yomi-nee" Mirai nervously told her. suggested
"Then we can plant them for him!" Yomi told them. She was slowly losing all sense of rational thinking at this point.
"Yomi, I think you need to calm down a bit." Homura said to her, worrying about her friend a bit.
"I'M PERFECTLY CALM!" She yelled at her.
"Okay, Hikage, grab her." Homura told her before grabbing the left side of Yomi's arm while Hikage grabbed the right, trying to hold her down.
"I need to work for it!" she yelled as she was dragged off, making a scene.
"A group call?" Ren said after reading a text from Ryuji. This wasn't something they've really done before.
Ren then went to his computer and entered the group code online to see that his friends were already talking.
"Ren, you're late." Yusuke told him bluntly.
"Yeah, you're usually the most punctual when it comes to things." Makoto said in agreement.
"Me and Morgana just got back from dinner." Ren told them.
"Really? Usually you just cook for yourself." Ryuji said to him.
"He was treating five girls to dinner." Morgana told him casually.
"Ah, Renren, you sly guy." Ryuji saidto him with a grin on his face. "We're any of them cute?"
"All of them." Ren told him.
"Really? Man you're lucky!" Ryuji told him.
There was then a deathly silence from the girls.
"That's great for you, huh?" Makoto's voice said, laced with killing intent.
"I hope you enjoy their company." Haru said with an obviously strained smile on her face.
"So happy for you." Ann said with her obvious fake acting.
"I can monitor your calls for you. I'm sure it'll be helpful." Futaba told him. "And maybe put a tracker on your phone it as well in case you go missing for some reason."
"We both know you're already doing that." Ren told her bluntly.
"How about we meet up sometime soon senpai? I'm sure you have interesting stories to tell." Sumire said to him.
"Callm down." Ren told them. Why did they always act like this whenever Ren mentions a cute girl? No. he knew why. He's more interested in why they all show such poor skills at hiding it. Couldn't one if them just confess at this point?
"I ruined the ingredient that they bought for dinner." Ren told them. "So I bought it for them."
"Really? That's so like you senpai." Sumire said changing her demeanor from earlier.
"What were they planning on eating?" Yusuke asked him, curious about it.
"Apparently bean sprout curry." Ren told them.
"Hmm. Sounds like a bold and interesting meal." Yusuke told him. "I for one, would love to try it."
"Also gave them some money so that they'd survive the next month."
"Really? They couldn't have been that bad." Makoto said, not knowing how wrong she was.
"They are worse off than Yusuke." Ren told them.
"What?"
"I never really imagined that I'd hear something like that." Ann said to him.
"They apparently eaten hornet larvae boiled in soy sauce more than once." Ren told them.
"...What?" Ryuji asked him.
"Yeah, that seems completely reasonable." Futaba said to him.
"I probably would've given them more." Haru told him.
"Even j have my limits at what I would eat for survival."Yusuke told Ren.
"
They spent the time enjoying talking to each other, before they all decided to go to bed.
(Aria of the Soul)
Ren started to hear a familiar melody. One that he's grown to miss.
When Ren opened his eyes, he was in a familiar cell, wearing a familiar ragged prison outfit. Ren looked around before noticing the two other people in the prison with him. Two that he's very familiar with and are standing outside hs cell right now0.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." Igor said in greeting towards him. Igor spoke with the same affable tone as always. Ren couldn't help but once again wished that it was actually Igor that one who greeted him the first time he entered this room.
"This place exists between mind and matter, dream and reality. It is a room that only those who have entered a contract can enter."
"It's been quite some time since we last spoke to each other." Igor told him."And It appears you've yet again become a prisoner of fate."
"Looks like it." Ren said, looking down at his outfit. "Can you tell me why?" Ren asked him while getting closer to the bars. Igor then looked directly at him and said to him,
"Something approaches you, trying to seal your fate, it's very being wishes to dominate not just you, but the entire world, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake. But when confronted by this possibility, your very heart roars out against it." Igor told him. "Do you have the resolution to challenge such a being?"
"Yes." Ren said without a moment's hesitation.
"Splendid." Igor told him. Igor then turned towards Lavenza, reintroducing her to him.
"And I'm sure you remember my current assistant, Lavenza." Igor told him.
"Greetings again, my Trickster." Lavenza said with a heartfelt smile on her face. "I hope to stand as an ally to you this time as well."
Then the Velvet Room started to fade out
Gessen Academy
In the ninja room, instructor Wang Pai was giving his students the current mission that they're about to undertake.
"Your mission is simple. For one week, you shall observe the behavior of the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, and report back if it gets suspicious.." Wang Pai told his students.
"Phantom….thieves of hearts?" Yumi asked in confusion. Yumi was the leader of her team of elites, with grey hair and a bust that's quite magnificent. However she had no idea what her teacher was talking about. Phantom Thieves actually still existed? "
"You, like, didn't know about them, Yumichi?" Shiki asked her leader. "They've been causing quite a ruckus in Tokyo." Shiki told her.. "They've apparently, like, stolen the hearts of criminals and made them confess to their crimesl."
"...Really?" Yumi asked her, surprised. She wasn't the only one either. Everyone else was too. "I've only ever heard about the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns and how frequent they were when it came to Ttokyo." Yozakura mentioned.
"Anyways, the Phantom Thieves are wanted criminals whose very power could change the face of the world if used by the wrong party." Wang Pai informed them.
"Why hasn't the council ordered anything be done about them before then?" Murakumo asked her teacher, not understanding why there were no missions about them to her knowledge. This seems like a major issue to both the country, and the world. I
Wang Pai merely sighed as an response to the question,
"They were too public with what they've been doing, thus making it hard for Shinobi to effectively do a mission on them." Wang Pai told her.
"Why?" Minori asked him. This was a question they were all curious about. Shinobi should be able to handle a mission like this better than the police can.
"Simple. We Shinobi belong to the shadows. We never let anyone know there was even a trace of our presence." Wang Pai told them. They all nodded, already understanding this.
"The Phantom Thieves were so broad in their actions that their sudden disappearance might've caused unease." Wang Pai explained to them. "There was also the risk that we'd end up getting our hearts changed, turning us into renegade Shinobi."
"...I see. If the ability to turn evil good is in their hands, then I suppose the opposite should be true." Yumi said in acknowledgement. They couldn't risk any more Good Shinobi falling into evil. That was unallowable.
"We unfortunately had to leave it in the hands of the police and hope it turned out for the best." Wang Pai said in conclusion.
"How do we know what his name is then?" Yumi asked him. If the police never caught him, and there were no Good Shinobi on this mission, then why do they know it? Then they heard something they've never expected. A.
"Simple. It's because he's turned himself in." Wang Pai told them, shocking them with such information.
"Why did he do that?" Minori asked, confused greatly by the idea. She wasn the only one. Everyone else looked lost about why the leader of a criminal group would turn themselves in.
"That part we do not know." Wang Pai told him. "We can't understand his motives for doing it, but let's be thankful that we're capable of at least monitoring him now." Wang Pai then brought out a picture and showed it to them. They then saw a picture of a young man in their age group. His black hair was frizzy, but they could all see that the boy was handsome despite the bruises on his face.
"Why do we need to monitor him?"
"He's been cleared of all charges thanks to help from various different people."
"His name is Ren Amamiya."
p
"Shiki, what else can you tell us about them?" Yumi asked her friend. She seemed a bit more knowledgeable about this subject than she was, so there could be something important that there missing right now.
"Well their targets ranged from a gym teacher, to an artist, to a mob boss, an international terrorist group, and a huge corporate CEO, and a politician."
"Getting progressively higher with each target." Yumi muttered.
"Well there was this video about them doing a public calling card." She told her leader.
"Calling card?" Murakumo asked her, confused on the term.
"I remember hearing the term once before." Yumi mentioned. "It's where they let their targets know that they're stealing from them before they do it."
"Seems kind of counterproductive." Yozakura mentioned.
"Like, watch this video posted online." Shiki told them. "This was their last one." She said, bringing up the video online, showing them the video.
They called out someone who's apparently responsible for many crimes- Masayoshi Shido. They were all wearing costumes, and from what Yumi could see, only two at most would be described as looking like what she expected Phantom Thieves to look like.
"Ain't that right, Leader?"The thug like one said to their leader.
"Yes." The leader walked towards the camera, showing his masked face. "Before that happens we will take this country."
"How did we miss this?" Murakumo asked, confused on how they could have possibly missed something as big as this. They were Shinobi, they definitely should have known about this.
"I think it was around the time
"Their outfits were definitely weird strange though." Minori said, with a tilt of her head. "I didn't think normal thieves would dress up like that."
Questionable fashion choices from supposed thieves.
"Could it be….are they Shinobi?" Yumi questioned. The rest of her team looked at her.
"Their outfits are too extravagant for thieves and I can argue that they are strange in some areas." Murakumo brought up to the group. "The one with spikes on her shoulders for example."
"That would explain how they remained uncaptured for so long." Yozakura said in thought. "A skilled enough Shinobi should be easily able to outwit the police force."
"They've also most likely received training in stealth to be able to hide the actions behind putting up these calling cards of theirs."
"They must also be using some kind of secret ninja art to manipulate the minds of their victims. The Calling Cards that they use must be to fulfill a requirement of some kind." Yumi told them.
"If they were Good Shinobi though, wouldn't the council know about them and let them go?" Minori asked her sisters innocently. "And
This innocent statement from Minori made the gears in Yumi's head turn. Minori was right. The Good Shinobi council would probably know about them. An evil Shinobi wouldn't try doing things like this unless there was something in it for them. But what could they gain from doing things like this? They progressively sought bigger Targets, but for what reason? Why not start with bigger Targets from the get go? Unless they were trying to build support behind them. But why? That isn't a way a good Shinobi would think of doing it, unless-
"Yumi." Yozakura called out to her. Yumi then looked to see her teammate staring at her in
"Well I have this idea..." Yumi said to her friends.
.Yumi then told them her thoughts on the matter.
"So, I believe they are most likely Evil Shinobi trying to act as heroes." Yumi said as a glare appeared in her eyes. She wasn't the only one it happened for, as it also adorned the eyes of everyone else except Minori.
They then heard the sound of footsteps behind them, a rare sound in Gessen. They all then turned around to see who wanted to make their presence known.
"An interesting theory, but you'll need to test it first." Wang Pai said to them. "If you're wrong about this, at best, Gessen's status as a top tier school would be questioned, and at absolute worst you'd lose your right to call yourself a Shinobi."
"Yes. You're right Wang Pai-sensei." Yumi said, conceding the matter to him. They couldn't risk things on 'what ifs'."
"Do we send our students after him to test him?" Yozakura asked him. To that Wang Pai shook his head.
"No, then we'd risk sensitive information about Gessen falling into his hands, plus the fact that they could join his group and become an army for him."
The ability to change hearts certainly was troublesome to deal with. How do they fight a foe like this?
"To ascertain something about, usually you'll have to use something expendable." Wang Pai told them. "And if you're doing something with unknowns as huge as like this, you should leave it in the hands of someone more capable."
"I'll handle the test of this young man's righteousness myself." Wang Pai told them. investigation