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Racing the Clock

Thursday—June 18, 2021

Ren swallowed the thickness in his throat and took a deep breath in, smoothing out the cuffs of his school blazer and blowing sharply out of his nose. He ran a hand through his hair and looked back at Morgana, who was sitting on his bed.

"You look great, Joker," Morgana said and flicked his tail with pleasure. "Very professional."

While he appreciated the effort, it did little to assuage his anxiety; Ren grabbed his bag, allowing Morgana to hop into it, and headed out his room, refusing to spend another moment staring at his reflection in the window. He marched down the hallway, eyes glued to his phone and he checked the list he made himself to ensure he forgot nothing. He ventured into the living room and frowned when the thunder cracked, rattling the room.

Yusuke was talking animatedly to someone on the phone, staring at the window as the rain slammed against the glass as if trying to penetrate the invisible barrier. Ren immediately looked over his shoulder for Morgana and exchanged curious glances with him.

"Please," Yusuke had said and turned red as he smiled at whatever that person said over the phone. "I shall be thinking about you worldwide."

His smile broke as it switched to a look of despair; he did not yet seem aware he was in the company of others.

"I can hardly take another goodbye," he had said and sniffled, covering his eyes with his hands. "Don't—"

Yusuke slammed a palm against the glass, the bang echoing loudly over the thunder. He pocketed his phone and rested his forehead on the wall, head hung. Ren bit his lip awkwardly, feeling like he intruded on something very private. Without knowing how to announce his presence, all he could do was shuffle his feet and cough, hoping it was enough.

"Ren?" Yusuke said, turning around quickly and widening his eyes. He put a hand on his chest and chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "I was not aware you were standing there."

Ren hummed, unsure if he should ask who was on the other end of the line or not. However, his curiosity won out. "Who were you talking to just now?"

Yusuke closed his eyes briefly and grabbed his book bag, slinging it over his shoulder. "No one. I will see you at school. I need to run an errand first."

With that, the artist departed without another word. Standing there agape, Ren just watched his friend's retreating back. He knitted his eyebrows before he turned to Morgana, who popped his head out of the bag and flattened his ears.

"That couldn't have gone worse," the feline said.

"I thought it went…." he trailed off, unable to finish. He knew it went terribly as he just admitted to eavesdropping on a very private conversation and made it worse by prying openly. "Who do you think it was? It could not have been family…."

"True," Morgana said as his whiskers twitched, nostrils flaring. "We're not alone. We better not bring it up if we don't want to upset him more."

Ren nodded and stopped when he could hear Ryuji trampling down the stairs, making noise loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood, whining bitterly about their day being wasted. While he couldn't agree more, Ren could not bring himself to join in Ryuji's mourning, mind far away.

"Come on," Ren said after another few minutes of listening to his friend's diatribe. He grabbed the blonde by the wrist and headed for the door, giving him a bit of a shove. "Akechi?"

Goro, who had joined them moments earlier, grabbed the keys and pulled up the directions on his phone, rattling them off as if they were going to memorize it. The three of them headed out and all stared at Goro's phone screen with narrowed eyes.

"Twenty minute walk or six minute station ride," Ryuji said and snorted. "Let's just take the subway. I don't wanna walk in the rain."

"At this time, it would take longer to wait than to walk," Goro pointed out logically as he checked the time on his wristwatch. "We would have a better time if we took the streets."

"Damn it," Ryuji groaned and put his hands in his face. "This day's gettin' worse and it's not even 08:00 in the morning!"

"Relax," Goro huffed and set off at his usual, hasty pace.

Ren matched his pace with practiced ease, having spent so much time walking with him that he had gotten used to the speed. Ryuji, however, began complaining about that, too, despite being the former track star.

The rain came down harder; Ren shook out his hair, cursing the fact he forgot an umbrella. He had stopped taking off his glasses, giving up on keeping the lenses as water-free as possible. His expression turned pinched as he tried shaking the water out of his ear, grunting in displeasure.

"Here," Goro muttered suddenly and handed his own umbrella that he was holding for Ryuji. "You two can share."

Ren took it with a grateful nod and held it out for the three of them. "We can fit."

The party of three finally ventured to the front steps of the very high school they were going to attend. It was much smaller than Shujin Academy, but it was far taller than the measly three floors he had to deal with before. Ren's eyebrows furrowed as he looked up, counting at least six floors.

"Shit," Ryuji breathed as he looked up, wincing as a raindrop went right into his eye.

"Let's not stand here," Goro replied and winced as he shook the wet bangs from his eyes. He wrung out his tie the best he could.

The boys began to make their way towards the building; Ryuji shook out the umbrella, ready to put it away when there was a sharp exclamation somewhere to their left.

"Watch it!"

Ryuji jumped and whipped around to see two strangers staring at them with matching scowls.

"I was standing still," the blonde said and bristled. "You walked into me."

"Just look behind you next time," the silver-haired teen said and it took Ren a moment to realize he was speaking Japanese.

"Hang on," the bespectacled boy said as his eyes narrowed on the two. "You're Japanese."

"Astute observation," the silver-haired teen replied sarcastically with a snort. "Narukami Yu."

Ryuji grunted and turned to the shortest one, frowning. "You mute or something?"

"Arisato Minato," the kid muttered and looked up, eyes surveying Goro, who squared his shoulders. "Detective Prince, right?"

"Akechi is fine, thank you," Goro said coolly and gestured to the building. "And while I am enjoying this exchange, it is still raining and I prefer to finish it inside if it were all the same to you."

The brunette stepped away from the group and was the first to walk inside the school's lobby, which blasted them with air conditioning. Ren followed close behind and immediately shivered at the sudden temperature difference.

"Damn," he cursed and wrapped his arms around himself as the shivering got worse.

"It's effin' freezing in here," Ryuji gasped, having removed his blazer to keep it as dry as he could. He tried warming himself up in it, but to no avail. "They're blastin' the crap outta the AC!"

Ren's teeth chattered as he pulled his sleeves over his hands, which hardly did anything if it did anything at all. He did his best to clean his glasses then looked around with trepidation. Ryuji had long abandoned the loops of his suspenders, which gave him the freedom to wring out his shirt better, but the moment he had done so, the Dean of Students emerged from an office hidden out of view, noticing that there were three students standing in the lobby for a while now.

"Can I help you?" the Dean asked, her blue eyes narrowed a bit suspiciously.

"Transfer students," Goro replied evenly, having the best social manners of the three of them. "We were told orientation was today."

"Ah, yes," the Dean said as she seemed to recognize the speaker. She pointed to a door to their left. "Follow the signs to the gymnasium. Mr. Akechi, right? From Japan? I recognize you from the news."

"Yes," Goro said, although he left it at that, having no desire to talk about his work right now. He dipped his head graciously to the Dean and departed, moving swiftly and silently.

Ren and Ryuji followed close behind, finally running into Yusuke, who was sitting outside a pair of double doors. The artist brightened at the sight of familiar faces and immediately rushed over to them.

"I am glad I found you," he said and pointed to the doors. "The orientation will begin soon. I believe that is where we will be spending our next four hours."

"Great," Ryuji huffed, now in a very irritable mood. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and pushed the doors open a bit unceremoniously, using his feet to prop it open for his friends. "Let's get this over with."

Ren chuckled softly at his friend's adamant reluctance to enjoy this and patted him on the arm as a gesture of comfort. It did not take long for the four of them to find Sumire and Ann in the bleachers, sitting a ways away from the crowd of other students. No one was really talking to one another, but it was interesting to see the variety. The greeting was short; Ren sat between Sumire and Ryuji while Ann sat below him, resting her back against his legs.

"Are you okay?" Ren asked her softly, plucking some of her hair off his knees.

She tipped her head back so she could look at him and even though her face was practically upside down, Ren could tell there was something amiss. He opened his mouth to ask, but she shook her head and looked away as the principal of this school stepped up to the podium.

"Welcome to Centralview Academy," he said as he gave the crowd a friendly wave. "We brought a little piece of the world from all corners into this gymnasium today. Centralview Academy are proud partners with Scope Studies, which connects this country to many others."

Ren kept staring at the top of Ann's head, willing for her to turn around and tell him what's bothering her. It seemed like everyone was determined to keep secrets from him. First it was Yusuke, then it was her….

Truthfully, he was hardly paying attention to anything being said and from the looks of it, he was not the only one. Ryuji had his chin in his hand, which was propped up on an elbow that was resting on his knee; the blonde was already trying to sleep during the entire thing.

"We have students from neighbors, Canada and Mexico; from our allies of Europe, we have France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Romania, and Denmark. From the east, we have students from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, China, South Korea, and Japan. These countries…."

Ren tuned the principal back out as he looked around at the faces of the transfer students; he was no longer the transfer student but one of a hundred. He was nothing more than a face in a crowd, which was something he could get used to again. Centralview Academy reminded him strongly of Tokyo's more prestigious schools with the amount of bragging the principal was doing.

"Sixteen awards last year. Our most recognized achievement is the student body…."

Ren looked down at Ann and Goro, who were the ones who appeared to be listening the most intently, which was no surprise. He sighed and decided to give it a go, doing his best to focus on what was being said. However, the longer he sat there, the harder it was to keep his eyes open. Ren began to drift off within the first hour, eyes closing as he rested his chin on his hand.

Ren jerked back to the present and looked over at Ryuji, who was jutting his chin to the exit.

"What?" the ravenette asked blankly.

"I gotta use the restroom," he said and shrugged a shoulder in boredom. "I don't wanna get lost by myself."

Ren knew Ryuji was lying straight through his teeth, but he could not resist the temptation. He patted Ann on the shoulder to let her know he was getting up. The blue-eyed girl grumbled in protest and moved over to Yusuke to lean on his legs. Ren and Ryuji slipped past their friends and headed down the bleacher stairs, hating the way it echoed loud enough to draw the attention of onlookers.

Ren followed Ryuji out of the gymnasium, finally feeling like he could breathe again once they were away from the crowd and the stuffy room.

"I hate that cheesy shit," Ryuji hissed, disgruntled. He led the way down the hall and came up on an empty hallway full of classrooms.

"Why did you apply?" Ren asked curiously, realizing it was a question he had never asked any of them before because it never occurred to him.

"It helps out my mom," Ryuji answered truthfully, never one to keep any secrets from him (Ren was grateful for that). He ran a hand through his short hair and slumped his shoulders. "The scholarship for track kinda went in the toilet after they figured out my grades so…."

Ren tilted his head and frowned. "What will happen to your scholarship then?"

"Nothin' yet," Ryuji said, unconcerned. "I gotta pull my grades up to at least C's and B's, so I ain't worried, but I'm just dreadin' the work."

Ren gave him a sympathetic look, about to add more words of comfort but stopped himself when he realized they were not alone. There were two others hovering around the alcove, whispering to each other. Ren grabbed Ryuji's arm and put a finger to his own lips to silence him.

Ryuji furrowed his brows, but his eyes finally landed on the two and he nodded, deciding it was not worth getting in trouble by being discovered by students who were probably scoping out the hallways for stragglers. They ventured down another corridor, taking two lefts before they finally stopped.

"Who gives two shits if we're caught? We ain't doing anything wrong," Ryuji said as he and Ren pressed themselves against the wall, looking around the corner. "If anything, this sneaking around makes us look more sketch."

Ren gave him a look and sighed. "We don't even know the way back to the gym."

"Nah, but I know the exit," Ryuji said with a grin. "Let's just bail, Ren-ren. We got nothin' coming for us today."

The Leader bit his lip, clearly against the idea.

"Man, we're gonna get in trouble for coming back in so late. It's just better if we leave."

Ren held his breath as he looked around then up at the clock. They were about halfway in the orientation and they were still at the gym. He then looked at Ryuji, who was grinning at him impishly. It brought back a strong sense of nostalgia, bringing him back to when he first met Ryuji.

"Reminds me of when we first met at Shujin," the blonde said softly as if reading his very thoughts. "You n' I ended up in a castle instead of a school."

Ren wore a warm smile as the memories came flooding back.

"Ended up ditchin' half of school your first day," Ryuji reminisced with a nudge of his elbow. "We were the outcasts….and for once, I didn't care."

Ren looked at him with a curious glance.

"Cause I had you, dumbass," Ryuji said playfully, giving him a harder nudge as he tapped his bad leg unconsciously. "Everythin' was going south for me, but shit...you were even worse off than me...made me grateful I had you back then because you were someone who wasn't brainwashed into thinkin' Kamoshida was all that. You knew that not all adults are saints."

"Yeah," Ren replied.

"It's why I knew I could rely on you," Ryuji said as he grasped Ren's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "So….thanks, man."

Ren pushed his glasses into place as a sly grin crept up onto his face. "Let's get out of here."

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about," Ryuji said.

Together, Ren and Ryuji snaked their way through the empty hallways, checking around corners and keeping their heads out of the cameras' views. It was like the pair was back in Kamoshida's castle, sneaking around to avoid detection during their infiltration. With practiced ease of being a Phantom Thief, Ren and Ryuji made quick work of this building, remaining hidden and unidentifiable as they went straight for a side entrance; they kept their heads bowed, Ryuji even going as far as flipping off the cameras, and came bursting out of the school moments later.

They used their blazers to hide their faces until they were a good half-block away from the school's premises. Now sure there were no cameras that reached this radius, Ren and Ryuji threw off their blazers and burst out laughing.

"Hell yeah, man!" Ryuji cheered as he punched the air, exhilaration blowing his pupils wide with epinephrine. "That was a Joker and Skull team-up! Effin' easy after all we had to do."

Ryuji grabbed Ren's hand and brought him in for a tight embrace, body flush against his own. It took a moment or two, but Ren returned the gesture with equal warmth. He may not express it much if evr, but he was glad to have met Ryuji, despite the stress his friend gave him. Even after an entire year and a half of knowing him, the memories that filled his head felt more than that.

"Now that you've ditched school before it even started," came a new voice, one that Ren almost forgot was here. "What do you want to do with your newfound freedom and time?"

Ren adjusted his bag so Morgana could hop out of his bag; they took cover in an alleyway where the porches of the apartments provided cover from the rain. Morgana hopped up on the window ledge and shook his head at the two.

"When I see you two together, I can't smell anything good coming out of it," the feline said in fond exasperation. "But it reminds me of old times, too."

Ren and Ryuji exchanged looks.

"Felt like old times," the box-dye blonde said and grinned as he matched Ren's. "When it was just us, ya know?"

"I sure do," Morgana replied with a nod, drawing his tongue over a paw. "Doe-eyed and impressionable….you, Ryuji, looking even more clueless than Frizzy-Hair."

"Shuddup," Ryuji snorted. "You were just a talking' monster cat back then to me."

"Time flies," Ren said as he stuck his hands in his pockets, smiling a bit as he looked at the two. "So, Ryuji. What do you want to do?"

His friend just grinned wider.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Ren was internally grateful he was not spending his afternoon stuck in some overcrowded gymnasium, listening to a principal go on about how wonderful the school was or how successful he was as a principal. In fact, it really only brought up old memories of another egotistical teacher and even though he knew it was not logical or even rational, he could not help but feel suspicious. It was wrong to assume every boastful teacher had something dark to hide, but his experiences with teachers were not the best.

However, now was not the time to worry about it. Ren was sitting with Morgana and Ryuji eating a cheeseburger from McDonalds; every now and then, Ren would sneak in hamburger bits for Morgana, who would purr loud enough to be heard from passing people. While it was nothing extravagant, Ren found this time spent far more valuable. Perhaps it was his newfound perspective on time, but he treasured it more than anything. Now that his world was timeless, he began to count each minute.

"Sooooo good," Ryuji said through a mouthful of food, closing his eyes in bliss. "Dude, you have no idea how hungry I was."

"I can only assume," Ren said as he watched his friend scarf down half his sandwich within the first three minutes of sitting down. "But, I was hungry, too. We never ate breakfast."

"I know!" Ryuji said in despair, but shook himself out of that stupor. "Thank God for fast food, eh? America's got loads of places like on every block!"

Ren hummed in agreement, sneaking the last bit for Morgana before finishing up. His friend chugged the rest of his soda (always a carbonated drink) before they headed back out. Fortunately, the rain had ceased to a light drizzle and since their clothes were already wet, it did not bother them. They made their way back to their townhouse, sneaking into an empty place.

"Cheers," Ryuji said and pumped his fist in the air again. "Ya know, it's almost the weekend. Let's go see the nightlife of New York City….see if the hype's worth it."

Ren pushed his glasses into place. "I can't see why not."

"Great," Ryuji said with a grin then snapped his fingers. "By the way….Ann told me about your internship. You and Goro head in tomorrow for a bit?"

"For an hour or so," Ren said slowly, trying to remember when he ever told Ann, but coming up short. "We are just meeting our supervisors."

"Well….congrats, man."

Ren blinked and finally let a small smile form. "Thanks."

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

The rest of the Phantom Thieves came home to find Ryuji and Ren watching a movie.

After earning themselves an earful of grumbles and complaints for their lack of an invitation to ditch, the rest of them joined in for another movie.

Fun cameo of P4 and P3 protagonists!

Here was a short (filler maybe...) chapter. I hope you enjoyed!