A little on the short side, this one. But it feels better to cut the chapter off here so :P

Thank you so much, Noob-Lube TM-san for the comment! I'm glad I caught your fancy :D

Chapter 10

They hit the roadblock at the tail end of their infiltration.

And it was a hectic one, as well – Morgana tripping the security, the Treasure Demons, and the way the damn paintings hurt his goddamn eyes. But all in all, they made quite the progress, only to find a locked door with no way to open it from that side, no matter how many places they investigate. In the end, they have to leave with only half the Palace finished, in order to plan their next move.

The next move being; they have to open that door in the real world in front of Madarame, from what Morgana had said – second floor, a door with an elaborate lock, one that might have a connection to the other side. And it still baffles him how the Metaverse and the real world connects so intricately, yet also with so little way of explaining it.

The problem is, someone has to distract Madarame (and Kitagawa, by extension), and when the other two's eyes land on Ann, he just knows what they are planning. "Wait, you guys – won't you at least ask Ann for her opinion first?"

"Huh? What?" She says innocently, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Ren sighs, rubbing his forehead and rephrasing all their conversation into one curt sentence. "They – we mean that there's no other way besides you telling him you'll be his model. Not unless we want to be kicked out and sued, that is."

"Oh," Ann says simply, which surprises him more than it probably should. Ryuji seems as taken aback as he is, his brows arching upward as he crosses his arms. Seeing this, Ann rolls her eyes, "If you think I'm okay with this, I'm totally not. But since Ren's the one saying it's necessary, then I'll do it."

"Why don't you ever have this kinda faith in me!?" Ryuji protests, leaning forward and scrutinizing her hard enough for Ren to flinch. He feels Morgana's whiskers brushing his cheek, but decides to ignore it when Ryuji turns to him. "Dude! Why do Ann trust you this much and not me?"

"I was going to ask her the same thing," Ren states simply, gesturing towards the only girl of the group with a confused look of his own. Arsène stirs, but offer nothing else except for a hum that reflects his own curiosity, so he arranges the words carefully before asking. "You know him longer than you do me. You just don't make sense sometimes, Ann."

"Says the one who makes the least sense out of all of us," she sticks her tongue out almost playfully, but her expression sobers up quickly when she pulls back. "Jokes aside… I just feel like you're thinking through it all for our sake. So if you say it's necessary, that'd only mean you've thought it through, and you found no way out, right?"

Ren decides to remain quiet for a moment, his eyes watching her – she doesn't seem to be lying when she said that. In fact, she seems as genuine as she always has been – something he fails to see the first few times after knowing her, partly due to his first impression of her – or maybe even more so. So he relaxes back and smiles slightly. "…Thank you."

"No problem," she says, dragging her hand down over her face before ruffling her hair. "Argh! Now that I've promised you, I've really gotta do it!"

"Don't worry, Lady Ann, I'll succeed no matter what!" Morgana huffs, puffing his chest proudly, his paws kneading hard into Ren's shoulder. He turns to see Morgana winking at him. "For you, I'll do anything! I'll not stop until the lock comes off, not even if my claws break!"

"I'd appreciate it if you don't go that far," Ren hums, fingers rubbing at his chin as he starts to consider an alternative should the first plan fail. When none comes up, he sighs. "…But I suppose you might have to, since I can't think of an alternative at the moment. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, man," Ryuji reaches up a hand to pat his shoulder, only to pull it back when he flinches again (why does his body always do this? What is wrong with him?) and shies away from the other boy's fingertips. Ryuji coughs, ridding them of the awkwardness, before clapping his hands together. "Let's do this thing tomorrow, then!"

"Tomorrow!?" Ann half-shrieks, loud enough to make Ren look around out of reflex, to see if they're overheard or not. "Why does it have to be tomorrow!? That's too soon!"

"The sooner the better, innit?" Ryuji only says, grinning half-mischievously.

Ren sighs as they continue to bicker, his failure to find a way out for Ann nagging at the back of his head, only for his attention to be drawn towards Morgana, who turns his head to him and nudges his forehead with his own nose. When Ren just gives the not-cat a wide-eye look, Morgana grins. "Don't worry about it, Ren. You know they're not the type to do things they don't agree to, don't you?"

I'm found out, he half muses. But when those blue eyes reflect nothing but sincerity, and with Arsène's voice rumbling lowly within him, he could only trust what the other had said – trust is a part of these so-called bonds too, isn't it? – before nodding once. "…If you say so. I'll trust your word for it."

"You'd better," The not-cat grins, tail wagging slowly back and forth. "Because I'd never lie to you about something this important, right?"

"Right," he says, even if his trust is only half-baked at best. "Because you'd never."

(It's a change Ren only sees after that first panic attack after Kamoshida's Palace, after the Magician and the Lovers have been established, he thinks. He never trusts anyone, never tries to reach out and never let anyone else in after the first time such attempts failed and resulted in nothing but pain and misery. But after knowing them, after Arsène starts to gain his power, after he changes hearts and finds himself often in company of those who truly see him as their friend, he only realizes now that towards them – and only towards them, for now – would he allow his feelings half-bared, and allow himself to trust them for what they say.

And because he realizes that he could now trust someone, he feels as if he could grow more into something he's never meant to be, into something he's always been denied to dream.

Somewhere in the world, a butterfly flaps its wings.)

May 19th, 2016 [Thurs]

"It's you."

The voice is cold and hostile, much like how Ann was back when they first met. He feels chills running down his spine in an instant, a sense of dread filling the pit of his stomach and bubbling up his throat. But this time, it is much easier to force the fear back down as he turns towards the source of the sound, his eyes meeting Kitagawa's own. "…Kitagawa."

"What are you plotting?" The boy half-snarls, his voice dripping with venom Ren is all too familiar with – the venom of someone being cornered with nowhere to go, both physically and mentally – with his eyes hard and cold as ice. "What's with this sudden change in attitude? Takamaki-san suddenly contacting me is a boon, of course, but I don't believe that it's out of her graciousness alone."

"Sharp one, aren't you?" Ren says, a playful smirk – one that belongs to Joker and not Ren – tugging at his lips. Whatever Kitagawa sees startles him enough for the boy to back away from Ren slightly. He simply shrugs, his mind recalling the way Kitagawa reluctantly yet adamantly defended his master, his father figure, his mentor. It's different from what Ren had done (what had he done, though? Cowering in fear?), but in principle, they're both the same – afraid of the change they've always waited for, one that never came in time to their aids. "I don't know, though. Ann didn't tell me anything."

"Liar," he calls Ren out easily, his hand reaching for his phone – something that sets Ren's heart on its path to a panic attack. "That's it. I'm reporting you to the police, and getting you to stop looking—"

"At the truth?" Ren shoots back, with enough weight and haughtiness in his voice for Kitagawa to stop in his track. He ignores the way his heart races under his shirt, hitting his ribs painfully with every beat, as he pats Morgana's through his bag for the not-cat to stay put. "Kitagawa, listen – you and I, we're much the same."

"We're not the same!" The man snaps, but his voice cracks at the end, as if the multilayered defense and ignorance he's been building up is crumbling. "You're nothing but a scandal who want to smear Madarame-sensei's name with your lies! I am his pupil, who respect him as he is, who see him as he truly—"

"Are you really?" Ren eggs him on, fully aware of the way panic starts to race up his fingertips. He's never confronted someone's anger this firmly before, not even with Ann – maybe in the Metaverse, but never in the real world, where his actions have severe consequences – but he knows he has to. He might have never trusted his instinct, but this once, with someone who'd been forced to bow against the so-called father like he had (like he still is), he wants to do it. To help with all that he is, with all that he's got. "Are you really seeing the truth?"

"Of course I am! Do not mock me—"

"—No, I was wrong," he says, his eyes searching inside those dark depths, reaching deeper into places he doesn't want to look at, matching the rumors with his own memories. And it all becomes that much clearer when he notices a spark in his eyes that Kitagawa knows— "You know about all of it. Yet you refuse to accept it as the truth."

"That's – that's preposterous!" The boy says, his voice rising up just enough for nearby eyes to fall on them. Ren tries not to pay the passersby much heed (it is hard to ignore the whispers and the voices) as he focuses his attention on the boy, whose defense is showing cracks, along with his boiling anger that fills Ren's gut with nothing but dread. "I don't—"

"I know it's hard," Ren murmurs, softening his voice, ignoring Arsène's wingbeats. When Kitagawa glances up at him, eyes full of confusion, he manages out a small smile. "He's your father figure. Of course it's hard to oppose someone who has all control over you. But listen – you are stronger than I was, than I am, than I ever will be—"

"—What are you getting at…?"

He fists his hands tightly as he manages out before the anxiety creeps past his vocal cords. He needs to say this, to the boy that's facing the same darkness that he was – that he is. "What I'm trying to say," he mumbles out, mildly aware of Morgana's head poking through the zippers. "Is that I have never been able to defy my own father. But you can. We're going to give you the opportunity – so please, don't run away now. We'll be right behind you."

"What do you mean…?"

"Sorry," Ren says with a short laugh as he grasps the front of his shirt, the train screeching to a halt behind him. He walks away, dodging Kitagawa's hand, and bows his head slightly. "Just… I know you don't have any reason to, but when the time comes, please don't run. You can free yourself from the chains that are holding you down."

He then escapes into the train, biting back his panic and setting off for the school with his heart beating painfully in his throat.

(As soon as he arrives, he makes a beeline towards the roof, the panic settling in fully. Morgana, as always, offers him his furs and his paws and his tiny tongue for him to feel and hold, for him to ground himself down just enough for everything to make sense again.

Today, he's done the impossible; trying to talk about things he's never been able to utter to the others before, mentioning the darkness that lurks just under his feet to a stranger who doesn't trust him in the least, just for a chance to save him from the atrocities that are going to befall him.

Morgana only smiles, but doesn't ask him anything, murmuring the words "I'm proud of you, Ren," into his ears as he lets his heartbeat slows until he's normal again.

Somewhere in the world, a butterfly flaps its wings.)

Now all they have to do is wait for the other side to finish their mission.

"Are you nervous, dude?" Skull asks as they wait by the locked door, the evidence of their fights to rid themselves of pursuers still fresh on the walls and the floor. Ren only looks up from where he is, crouched down with his arms resting on his knees, to see Skull rolling his shoulders before looking pointedly at the locked gate. "I mean, me too, I guess. Dunno if they'll pull this off or not."

"In the event that they don't, I think I have an alternative," Ren says with a small frown. He has not discussed this with Morgana yesterday, but should the worst come to pass, then all he has to do is to sneak in and unlock the door himself – something he's done often in the past, for practice, or so his father had said thousands of times before – and risking persecution in the process. "I could go in there and unlock the door myself. I'll be sued, of course, but—"

"Then hell no!" Skull argues in an instant, drawing Ren's gaze upwards. He's met with deep brown that burn with a sense of fear within them. "I know you mean well and all, Joker, but we ain't letting you risk your ass for us, 'kay? We're all in this together!"

We're all in this together, huh…

In the end, he closes his eyes and smiles, allowing himself to bathe in the words and the trust and the care that they're giving him without holding back, something he's rarely experienced before… and something that makes him crave for more. "…Alright, if you say so."

"Good you understand, man," skull grins before turning his eyes back. "Anyways, you think they'll pull this off? Panther might've said she trusted your judgement, but man, she looked nervous as all hell before we split up."

"Anyone would, doing something they have to but don't want to like that," Ren says simply. "To speak the truth, it sounds almost impossible, but… you and her and Morgana have put your trusts in me before, so it's my turn to trust in all of you, too."

"…Oka—" Skull begins, only for the ground to rumble like an earthquake has hit, and Ren looks towards the gate as they start to creak open, pulled and pushed by an invisible force. Skull sees this, too, as he utters a, "Holy cow, they did it!" Right beside him.

Indeed, they did. "Now that they've done it, let's go then, shall we?"

"Hell yeah! Let's fucking gooooo!"

They navigate their way through the corridors and Shadows that occupy the inner parts of this twisted museum, avoiding fights as much as they could and finding the consoles they have to find.

Once they manage to cut off the security measures and get away from pursuers, they gather at a courtyard of some sort, slightly out of breath. And when they start to walk back to the front of the gate, Ren hears someone – Panther, he should think – scream from above them.

"Watch it!" Ren says, pulling Skull back by the scruff of his neck.

As soon as he does, he sees two people – no Morgana in sight – falling through the red-black contorted space and right where Skull was just a second ago. Panther, in all her fiery red glory, is held in the arms of a man in white long-sleeved shirt, a man Ren recognizes as Kitagawa. Ren opens his mouth to ask them questions that start to collect at the tip of his tongue, only for Morgana's form to hit Kitagawa's head, making the boy double over and pushing him to the ground.

"Aaaagh… Owwwww!" Morgana mewls, rolling around, his tiny paw rubbing his lower back. Ren walks over and kneels before the not-cat, helping him up to his feet. "Ow… thanks, Joker – ow, that just hurts, damnit!"

"I thought I was gonna die," Panther moans, shaking her head, the dizziness clear in her eyes. Ren is about to offer her his assistance when she suddenly (and a bit violently) pushes Kitagawa away with enough force for the boy's back to hit the ground hard. "Will you let go already!?"

"That's just mean, Panther," Skull mumbles under his breath. And while he's not willing to admit it, he just finds himself (and Arsène, too) agreeing to his sentiment.

And when Kitagawa remains on the floor, clearly hitting something with the way he was pushed back, Ren winces into himself. "...He's still out."

"Oh shit! I didn't mean to push him so hard!" She says, getting up to her feet. Ren exchanges a look with Morgana, tilting his head to ask him what the hell happened? Only for the not-cat to shrug. "Are you okay, Kitagawa-kun? Wake up!"

And wake up he does after a single moment's worth of pause, his eyes fluttering open slowly. The boy pushes himself into a seating position, his eyes still slightly dazed and glazed over. Ren looks to the other three for some form of input, and when there are none, he gets up and walks over towards Kitagawa. "Hey, are you okay? Can you stand?"

"What – who are you all!?" The boy roars, guarded and afraid.

Ren sighs, pushing his mask up and over his eyes – briefly exposing himself for the world to see – and giving the other boy a small smile. "It's me. Amamiya Ren – but you wouldn't remember that, I suppose."

"You – oh," realization strikes the artist after a second of delay, and he looks around, his eyes recognizing each and every one of them… and also a bit alarmed at their… unusual attires. "What are all these clothes, and… what is this place?"

Ann looks at him, and when he nods, she replies, "We're inside Madarame's heart."

Confusion takes over the boy's form – and a little apprehension is forming under his eyes when his gaze lands on Ren – as he gets up to his feet. "Inside… Sensei's heart? What do you mean?"

"This, here," Ren says quietly, his voice calm and controlled, as he gestures his hand around the twisted world of cruel paintings and wicked delight. "Is the world as seen through Madarame's own eyes. He sees it like this, twisted and dark and cruel, just like his heart is."

"…This is rubbish!" Kitagawa snaps as he steps away from them. Ren could feel his own anger boiling in his chest, but not one aimed at the boy before him – it's the one originating from Arsène, one that demands the crooked and the wicked be damned in hellfire along with him – and he does everything he could to suppress it down. He needs to speak to Kitagawa with reason and not emotion, because if they're both furious, nothing will come out of their exchanges. "This horrendous world? This is—"

"Has it never crossed your mind before?" Ren says, the steam of smoke rising between the gaps of his teeth, Arsène pulling at his mask and demanding to be free. He refuses, biting back the urge to snarl, and continues to say with as much control as he could manage. "I know that you know. You always do. You know that something is wrong, but you are powerless to do anything because he has you in the palms of his hands, all along!"

"I…" The boy trails off, his eyes looking around the dark paintings that decorates the ethereal sky above them. Kitagawa then bites his lip as he finally lands his eyes back on Ren's, one that remain unguarded by his mask, one that has the purgatory of Arsène's hollowed smile burning within them. "…Who, no, what are you really?"

Skull looks at Ren, and when he offers nothing but a slight frown, shrugs. "Eh… you could say that we're a group that changes the hearts of the rotten crooks."

"But, if everything you say is true, then the Sensei I know doesn't exist…" Kitagawa mumbles, sadness and the feeling of being lost prominent in the way his face contorts into a frown. It's the one expression that Ren knows all too well, and one he still isn't sure what he could do to help.

But he wants to do something, to ease the boy's burdens just a little more, so he decides to bite his tongue and spits out the inner thoughts he's held close to his heart longer than he should have done. "I think… he did."

"…Excuse me?"

"He did exist, at some point, the kind teacher you've always seen," Ren says, ignoring the eyes of the others as he pulls his mask off of his head, running his gloved fingers along its material with a small frown of his own. Arsène hums softly, urging him to continue. "You're no different from me. And I mean it in the most fundamental ways possible – your father figure and mine are not that different."

They actually are a little different, he thinks. His father has never been kind, has never praised him for a job well done. But he did feed him and educate him and put a roof over his head, so in the most twisted of ways, he is Ren's father still. But it doesn't change what he's done, what he's been put through, what kind of fear has been instilled into his bones with irons and glares and harsh snarls against his ears. The idea that he will never be enough, that he will always be no more than mere tools in the man's eyes, has already sunken its claws deep into his flesh, and Ren knows he'll never be able to defy his father.

But Kitagawa? At one point, Ren supposes, Madarame must've cared genuinely for the boy – and for his mother. But greed is one of those dark thoughts that blinds and binds someone to hell itself, making them think of things impossibly cruel and do things inherently twisted, damning them into the path of darkness should their hearts not be strong enough to resist the temptation. As a man without a heart of his own, Ren has no right to say that, of course… but he has seen all too many times what greed does to people.

He only offers the boy a smile as he looks around. "At some point, I think he really is the kind and caring father that you've always seen him as. But… things change, I suppose. People can change, for better or for worse. It just so happens that Madarame's gone down a path he never should have taken."

Kitagawa frowns, but the distrust in his eyes is replaced by something else Ren couldn't quite name. He then says slowly, a bit uncertain. "…I suppose so. But he's kept me safe for years. That gratitude won't go away so easily."

Ren raises a hand to stop Skull from saying anything more and shakes his head before he puts the mask back on, Arsène's anger reigning his veins and setting fire at the tips of his fingers once more. Ren then hums against the ringing in his ears. "It won't. It might never will. But I'll ask you this – do you remember what I told you this morning?"

Kitagawa seems lost, for a moment, before he nods reluctantly. "…I do."

"We're giving you the chance to set yourself free – and we'll be right behind you," Ren repeats himself, walking over and tapping the boy's chest with his knuckles softly, just enough to draw his eyes up. He now wears the mask of Joker, the Trickster – but this time, he allows Ren to join in, too. Because he knows just how hard it is, to defy the very person that holds everything over you. "So, if you want to be free of your chains… don't run away now. Take that leap and fly."

(He'll never be able to free himself, he knows this much. But here, when he looks into Kitagawa's eyes, to see the single flake of translucent snow falling into the serene sea, to see the flicker of light and the wings of rebellion that is starting to form from the words that Ren's wield, he thinks he'll be fine remaining as a cur forever.

After all, he has already managed to start what he had promised himself to do, weeks ago; that he will give others the wings that they need to fly, even if he couldn't do that on his own.

Somewhere in the world, a butterfly flaps its wings.)

With each and every step they take along the museum, he could see the way anger seems to flare up and cool down within Kitagawa's heart, rising and falling like the tides, but always at a ready to burst forward like an eruption.

But the boy is still unwilling to face the dark truth (or rather, unwilling to fight back just yet), enough that he chooses to remain silent and follow them towards the exit instead of saying anything more.

Unfortunately, the exit is blocked as soon as they reach it.

"Hahaha!" A laughter rings through the halls of gold, and they turn to see Madarame – in a ridiculously extravagant outfit, gold and reflecting the very lack of light into bright, burning rays of gold – laughing at them, sneering like they are rats ready to be exterminated. And at first, Ren feels nothing for the man, only for anger to take control, hard and fast and absolute—

—And it takes everything that he has not to burst into Arsène's hellfire right then and there.

"Welcome to the museum of the master artist Madarame," The Shadow says, waving his hands around, showing them the glistening walls and the high halls that they're all too familiar with at this point. Ren snarls, but keeps himself in check as he half-listens to Skull mumbling something along the line of what the hell is with that bullshit clothing.

"…Sensei?" Kitagawa gasps, his hands trembling with disbelief, his eyes blown wide. "Is that you? That attire… what—"

"Disgusting," Panther spits, her voice ringing along with Arsène's own, reverberating inside his skull infinitely and fueling the fire of anger (and stifling the embers of panic that has been budding since the very first second they step foot back into the Palace) within his veins.

"This… this is all one big lie, isn't it?" Kitagawa gasps.

Madarame, with his ghostly-white face and blood-red lips, sneers at them as if he's the emperor perching atop a golden throne looking down at mere insects, and it makes Ren's blood boils with near-unbridled rage. "My usual ragged attire is nothing but an act. Besides, a famous person living in that shack? I have another home… under a mistress's name, of course."

Ren knows he's right, but that confirmation just makes things all that much clearer for the others. He thinks Skull is glancing his way, but he doesn't pay the other boy too much mind as he glares at the gold-clad Shadow as he hisses back, "Of course you'd do that. A scum like you who see those that revere you as their parent no more than tools would say something like that."

Shadow Madarame snorts. "Am I wrong, though? It's a fair trade – my words to the right ear could set them on the right path, after all."

"You never considered doing that to begin with," Ren spits.

He is about to say more, to lay bare his feelings and his disgusts, one that he never allows himself to feel on the other side, but stops when Kitagawa asks quietly. "…If the Sayuri was stolen, why was it in the storage room? And if you had the real one, why make copies? Please, tell me!"

Oh, dear boy, Arsène croons from his head, and pain flares across his fingertips like wildfire. He suppresses it back down as midnight wings spread out across the expanse of his heart, one that is void, one that is not his own. You already know that answer, yet you seek more confirmation… I wonder if his heart will be as strong as yours or not, Trickster.

The voice of the Prince of Thieves soon fades as Madarame's rises into his ears, forcing his eyes back up at the faux artist as he says with neither hesitation nor remorse. "Foolish child. You still don't see? The painting being stolen was just a false rumor I spread! It was all a perfectly calculated staging!"

"What do you… what do you mean?"

"Let me see… how does this sound?" Madarame grins, his lips angling up sharply like a knife. Ren feels both fear and anger mixing in the pit of his stomach, the latter far stronger than the former. And soon, all he could feel and hear is Arsène's laughter ringing through his bones like the tolls of the bells of war. "Ah! I found the real painting, but it can't go public… you can have it for a special price, though!"

Ren only pays half a mind as Madarame goes on and on and on about money, talking in the same way that he's always been taught – that human relations and friendships are there to be exploited and exchanged for favors and deals as one pleases. But he now knows that such isn't always the case. The Thieves, right here, are disproving the teaching that's always been embedded into him, that friendships can be more, it can be real and genuine.

And this man, using it for the sake of glory and fame, no matter how many lives he has to trample along the way, disgusts him.

(It disgusts Arsène more than Ren, Joker more than Ren, he thinks. This isn't the anger he would habor in the world that he was born in, but it's one that he could flaunt freely within the world where Joker and Arsène and the power of the so-called Wild Card has manifested. And here, fear has no place in his chest, only anger; one that is simple and pure, unadulterated, neither evil nor righteous.)

Ren is about to unleash his anger on Madarame – and risk killing him in the process, since his anger is far too unsuppressed for him to be in control – when he feels the frozen wind blowing around him, the frost biting into his fingertips and freezing the fire of rage cold in his veins. And when Ren looks at Kitagawa and his crumpled form, he could hear a voice that is neither his nor Arsène's own.

"To think I was under the care of this wretched man!" Kitagawa snarls out, the strange voice laughing softly with chills of winter burying deep into the ground, saturating the air with freckles of frost that could halt even Arsène's flame in its wake. Ren feels Arsène laughs, delighted, as the winter starts to take hold, and the name that is not familiar to him invading his mind, slipping in and then out of his thoughts like a ghost that walks between the planes—

I am the Outlaw of the Frozen Wastes. See for yourself, Trickster, that this one's heart is as strong as your own.

(He's wrong. Ren doesn't have one to begin with.)

"You thought I took you in out of the goodness in my heart? Bah!" Madarame says, voice sharp and cold and cruel. "Plucking talented, yet troubled artists allows me to find promising pupils and take their ideas. After all, it's much easier to steal the futures of children who can't fight back."

"I can't believe this…" Kitagawa murmurs. But something is there – a budding seed of rebellion that has been sowed into his heart, long ago.

"Livestock are killed for their hide and meat! This is no different, you fool!" Madarame says, as if troubled by even mere thoughts of trying to correct their ways of thinking, even if his own his skewed beyond repair. "But I tire of this little chat. It's time that I—"

"You are unforgivable."

Kitagawa's voice, this time, is sharp and determined, the edge cold like ice. And before he knows it, Ren finds himself grinning as the boy's shadow shifts and changes under his feet, the cold eyes of the Outlaw – one that has briefly graced Ren's own – now staring up at Kitagawa in full.

"It doesn't matter who you are, I won't forgive you!"

"So you repay me keeping you around for all these years with ingratitude? You damn brat!" The artist snarls, and for a brief moment when Ren is in control, the voice overlaps with his father's own, and with the man he has assaulted, and panic starts to bubble up, only for Arsène's laughter of unchained madness to drown them out completely. "Guards! Disposed of these thieves!"

"How amusing," Kitagawa laughs, insanity already making its way deep into his voice. But Ren knows this is just temporary. A revolusion is coming, and the winter's storm is following closely behind the wind of change. "It seems the truth is stranger than fiction, hm?"

"Kitagawa-kun?" Panther calls, only for her voice to be ignored as Kitagawa looks up.

"I wanted to believe it wasn't true. I had clouded my vision for so long—" At this, he turns to Ren, and the boy smiles at him. Without a trace of anger, without a sliver of regret. And this time, Ren smiles back, nodding his head and allowing Kitagawa to take reign of his own freedom. "—My eyes were truly blind… blind and unable – no, unwilling to see the true self behind this one horrible man!"

And when Kitagawa falls to his knees and howls in pain, Ren knows that another awakening is upon them.

Delightful! Arsène laughs as chill wind starts to swirl around them. Kitagawa snarls, fingers dragging across the floor and marking it with his own blood that blooms from his fingertips and ripped nails. Another one joins the fray, Trickster! Now come – you are angry, correct? Angry at this horrible beast that made the life of another a living hell? If so, are you ready to give him a proper punishment, even at the cost of your own sanity and soul, my dear boy?

"I am," Ren snarls as a mask forms over Kitagawa's face. And he steps back as the boy's bloodied hand reach up to it. "I've always been ready."

"Come, Goemon!"

The mask is ripped off, and the Outlaw presents himself, his geta slamming into the ground and calling forth the violent wind that freezes the guards in places.

"A breathtaking sight…" Kitagawa begins as ice curls around his form like a wreathe, cold but not biting. And when Ren looks up, Goemon is looking back at him, his eyes hardened and determined. "Imitations they may be, but together, they make a fine spectacle… Though the flowers of evil blossom, be it known… that abominations are fated to perish!"

Another gust rips through the fabric of the world, cooling the air impossibly colder. Ren feels Arsène at the ready at the tip of his tongue, the name boiling hot and maddening.

"The children who adored you as father. The prospects of your pupils… How many did you trample upon? How many dreams did you exchange for riches!?" The boy asks, his eyes flickering to Ren for but a moment before he returns his attention to the father before him. "No matter what it takes… I'll bring you to justice!"

"Let's do this, Kitagawa," Ren says, stepping forward and to the boy's side, his mask shattering and calling forth the polar opposite of the ice that the other commands. Arsène laughs and laughs, making Ren's lips split into a mad grin. "Let's show them what we are."

"Yes!" The boy echoes. "Let us show them, that our fates are our own to choose!"

The fight ends up in a mess, where fire and ice scatter about everywhere, leaving the parts of the room either frozen solid or charred to dust.

Unfortunately, they need to make their escape, Kitagawa's awakening too tiresome for him to move much – it is as if the fight that has transpired mere moments prior is naught but adrenaline and anger – and all the truth that has finally been accepted too heavy for his heart to handle.

"…Amamiya, right?" Kitagawa says after a moment of sitting down and catching his breath. When Ren hums in affirmative, the boy bows his head slightly. "…I apologize for what I said to you earlier today. I know now what you mean. Thank you for standing by me, and I'm sorry for every vile thing that I've said to you, today or any day prior."

"No hard feelings," Ren says with a small smile, the panic settling deep into the pit of his stomach already. He frowns – just like in Kamoshida's Palace, it seems as soon as he steps out of here, where Arsène is no longer as powerful, everything he's seen and heard in this place will come to bite him back tenfold. "I did it knowing full well you won't be receptive right away. It's hard to force your eyes towards the truth, no?"

Kitagawa chuckles, mirthless, as he shakes his head. "It still is not an excuse for what I've said to you. I must apologize again, Amamiya."

"Apology accepted," Ren says, the fire of anger cools into his core as he sits down beside Kitagawa, his eyes staring into nothing. "How long have you known about this?"

"…I am not quite sure, but it has been long enough; strange people come and go to the shack as often as day and night, and I've seen plagiarism as no more than everyday affairs," he says, his hands gripping his own arms as his eyes dart around and away from all of them. "Who would want to admit that the man they owed their life to was doing such terrible things?"

And so, Ren allows the boy to talk, to lay bare all of his feelings and his fears – something that is like a mirror's reflection of his own. It is as Ren's thought – his father and Madarame is only slightly different. At one point, Madarame might have been a kind and gentle man before, changed by greed and the allure of money and fame, enough for his heart to twist like it had. His father has never shown him this so-called parental love. There are no praises, only trainings. No gratitude, only obedience.

(Still, a father is a father. It is hard to defy someone so powerful, so controlling. Someone you owe the debt of life to. And someone who holds your life in the palms of his hands, Ren does not say)

After the boy finishes, Morgana chips in, "What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know…" Kitagawa says, shaking his head.

"We can't help the fact that Madarame's changed," Skull says solemnly. "But… we can change his heart. We'll make him pay for his crimes."

"That reminds me, you mentioned something about that change of heart earlier…"

"Have you heard the rumors? The ones about the Phantom Thieves that steal hearts?" Skull mentions, and while Ren thinks it is absurd to think that the rumor that originated within the walls of their own school would have already spread that far, he is proven wrong when recognition and awe spreads across Kitagawa's face.

"Don't tell me—"

They are interrupted, however, when Shadows start appearing one after another right where they are.

"We'll talk later!" Morgana yelps, his eyes looking around before landing on Ren. "We need to scram!"

"Let's go, people!" Ren commands.

(Once they escape, they gather at a nearby restaurant to discuss the details out. Ren reigns the panic in the best that he could – because, for now, they have to tell Kitagawa all that they know, informing him of what they are, what they're planning to do. While he is glad that Kitagawa is joining them, Ren is baffled. But the ice of determination in his eyes will not falter, so he doesn't object when the boy decides to join.

Kita – no, Yusuke then smiles at him, sad and knowing. Ren only shakes his head and smiles back as he puts his hand on his chest, feeling his heart drumming the beats of disaster upon each and every second that is passing in the world.

But… for now, he is content – that he has managed to save someone else, to give another the wings that they need to fly, to allow another to chase a freedom of their own.

Somewhere in the world, a butterfly flaps its wings.)