May 15th, 20XX

Ren groggily woke up with something wrapped around his arm. Looking over from his stiff seat on the floor, he saw Kasumi tightly clenching his right arm, but otherwise sleeping peacefully. Lavenza had a placating hand on the redhead's chest, but was also blanked out.

He smiled, and let his head rest against the bed frame. An aching neck was a small price to pay to keep his friends happy.

But eventually, his phone went off. Groaning, he managed to pull it out of his pocket to see a text from Yusuke.

"My master's exhibit is beginning today. You wouldn't mind inviting Takamaki, would you?"

"Can I invite our other mutual friends?"

"I don't believe I know who you are referring to… But yes, that may be a good plan."

After leaving a note for Lavenza, a quick stop by the Velvet Room, and picking up Morgana, the Thieves assembled outside the exhibit. Minutes later, Ann ran up, waving. She said she had some trouble getting up, but she was actually excited to look around. Madarame was a famous artist, after all.

Operating keyword was 'was', as Ren didn't intend on letting him get away with what he'd done to Yusuke.

They'd looked around, at the vast variety of styles.

"You said this is your master's exhibit only, right? Why are there pieces by other artists?" Ren looked between a pair of modern and traditional japanese artworks.

"He has… A variety of styles." Yusuke answered with a careful tone in his voice.

"Oh, what's this?" Ann's exclamation brought their attention to her. She was looking at a nice piece in the corner.

"That's… One of my master's less impressive works. I suggest we move on."

After everyone else had left, Ren grabbed Yusuke's shoulder and steered him somewhere else to talk.

"What's the deal with his art?"

"..." Yusuke didn't look him in the eye.

"There's something up, and you know what it is. Tell me."

"..."

"We're diving into the depths of his soul, for god's sake, Yusuke! If he's doing something wrong, you need to tell us, so we don't get killed by something we didn't expect!" He said, in hushed whispers.

"My master… In exchange for his tutelage… He expects his students to… Assist him in recovering from his artist's block."

"And?"

"He will give me a prompt, every now and then."

"And then?"

"He exhibits the pieces under his own name- It's a great help, do not misunderstand! It's impossible for new artists to be recognized on their own-"

Ren sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's… Plagiarism, Yusuke. You should know that better than anyone."

I may have helped him come to terms with his ideals of death, but he still feels loyalty towards his master. Damn it all.

"..."

"We're going to go in sometime this week. Are we still good?"

"...Yes."

Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personae of the Emperor Arcana.

"Good stuff. I'll see you later."

"Oh! I'm sorry, but if it isn't too much trouble, could you ask Takamaki to contact me? I believe I can begin work with her soon."

"No prob, Yusuke. But… Don't do anything creepy, 'kay?"

"Agh! Perish the thought!"

Ren picked up a note that was left on his desk when he arrived back at Leblanc. Boss was strangely refusing to look at him, though he could swear the older man was laughing to himself.

'Ren,

Thank you for what you said. I'm sorry for being such a burden to you, but I think I understand what you meant. I'm going to help you, and pay you back for everything. There's a lot of things I can't say in a simple note, but thank you. I'm grateful for your and Lavenza's help.

-Kasumi'

Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personae of the Faith Arcana.

"You're one lucky punk, you know that?"

"Yep. I'm glad I have such great friends."

"..."

"What?"

May 16th, 20XX

Now, it was time for Lavenza to properly be introduced to the class. Makoto had sent him a text that she'd passed, and in fact, was in the top ten of the grade. Because of course she was.

Shujin's spirit had returned. Maybe it was the relief from midterms being posted over the weekend, or what he'd said the last week. He wasn't too confident in his own impact, but he could live with either.

And so, there was a sizable reaction when Lavenza introduced herself as, "Ren's attendant."

Looks like convincing her to say his name wasn't actually the best plan.

Everyone shot out of their seats, yelling. There were more than a few boys complaining about how many girls he had, whatever that meant, and some girls complaining about competition, which really, that's going a bit overboard, isn't it?

But… It was normal. Sure it was weird, and annoying, and a lot of other things, but… That's just high school. They were acting immaturely, but they should, shouldn't they?

And so, Ren just laughed along with it, as Kawakami sat back and crossed her arms, glaring while letting the chaos die down.

But, for his own good, going along with his better judgement, he left the room as soon as Lavenza started getting grilled by his classmate's.

Mishima was a step ahead though, apparently. He followed him nearly silently up to the rooftop, surprising Ren when he actually turned around.

"Agh! How long have you been there? Nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Eh, you'd live." Mishima made a shooing motion. The shorter boy had taken to wearing a black coat on top of his uniform, almost like-

"Oh my god! You really are Izaya!"

"It's about the impression, Amamiya." He had a feeling that if Mishima wore glasses, he'd be adjusting them for the proper gleam effect. "When people look at me, I want them to think, "Info-broker Extraordinair!" and not, "Oh, that guy," you know?"

"I…" He rubbed the back of his neck, cocking to one side, "Can't exactly fault that."

"Also, I had a few favors to call in with the fashion club, and they had the jacket laying around. They want you to model again for them sometime soon. I'd suggest bringing the blonde with you too, they've been interested in the rumors."

Ren blinked. "You… Sold me for a jacket?"

The other boy shrugged. "It's a very nice jacket."

Now, remember, a little threat of being-thrown-from-the-rooftop never hurt anyone. Probably. Ren could catch him if he slipped out of his grasp.

But, he did actually like having Mishima around, so he put the blue-haired boy down.

"Oh, by the way." Mishima said, straightening out his pants and simultaneously reaching into his pockets. "I saw a post about 'The Phantom Thief' on the school's webpage. The anonymous student one, obviously. Which, if I may add, I have no connection to." He pulled out his phone. A silly little graphic of a flaming top hat. "I- Er, the owner, contracted a student from Kosei for the logo."

"...You outsourced our school's urban legend?" Ren was, once again, pushed into shock by the audacity of the boy.

"Oh, yeah. Kitaga- Well, I don't know who made it. Do you like it?" He asked.

Ren gave him a funny look. "Why are you asking me?"

There was a brief silence.

"...To protect both of our alibi's of plausible deniability, I'd say that neither of us should answer that question."

Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personae of the Moon Arcana.

"Sure, whatever you say, bud."

Mishima took his phrasing as an opportunity to make fun of him. "Country boy."

"Izaya."

"Hick."

"Wimp."

"Cousin fu-"

"Okay, that's going a bit too far, and that's an american stereotype of the countryside, get it right."

"Ah, yeah, forgot some people are actually okay with that kind of thing."

"It's weird, I know."

He went off to go find Lavenza. It could be a fun group activity, who knows?

He slid open the door to the classroom. Lavenza's corner desk was being crowded by boys and girls, asking her if she was single, and if 'attendant' meant more than just butler-

She ignored all of them for the moment and looked straight at him.

"Mishima sold me for a jacket, so I'm heading to the fashion club. Wanna come?" He offered.

She nodded, and stood up.

A fair amount of groaning echoed through the classroom. Not the zombie kind, just a vague one of disappointment.

It strangely made Ren happy to hear it.

Ann chose to jump up as well, and said something about a hair clip. Shiho, who was eating lunch with her, sighed, and followed her out the door too.

Watching three girls leave the room behind Ren, many of the boys in the classroom fell to their knees and emitted a warbling cry of agony.

This alerted Ryuji, who was chilling out in the hallway on hall monitor duty. He was in the student council, true, but the monitors could always use an extra hand and Makoto volunteered him for the job every now and then.

"You guys going somewhere?" He asked, as the group of four passed him.

"I'm heading to the fashion club. Mishima sold me for a jacket."

"Ah. Sounds like I should monitor that activity." He quickly pushed himself off the wall.

"You're just trying to get out of work, aren't you?"

"Eh, I'm not saying nothin' about that..."

Kasumi chose just then to walk up the stairs. "Oh, is everyone going somewhere?"

"...You know what, why not. Sure."

"...?"

"Yeah, just come along with us, it can't end too terribly."

"So, where did you get that hair clip, Lavenza?" Ann pestered as they walked towards the club room.

"I cannot recall. I've always had it with me." She tapped the shining blue butterfly in her hair.

"Do you have any extra? I keep telling Shiho she'd look great with it, but-" She trailed off as Ren slid the door to the fashion club open.

"Mishima told me to come by. I kinda owe him, I guess?"

"He said you would, thank you." The president greeted him, looking up from a sewing machine.

That cunning little bastard.

"Oh, you brought your friends? Fantastic. I'd hate to presume, but would any of you like to model as well?" He tried to look over them, though Ren was still unintentionally blocking the door.

Ren felt a wave of excitement flow off of Ann.

"Would you guys happen to have any Catwoman costumes laying around? Like, from Batman, not… You know, the otaku kind."

The vice president stepped in to answer, and the president was going into shock from meeting his idol. "I'll look, and if not, we can throw something together."

"How… How did we end up here?" Ren felt it was necessary to ask, after they put him in a purple pinstripe suit. Ann was wearing black leathers and advanced-looking goggles. Lavenza was wearing what looked like a clown's uniform and a belled jester's hat. They put Kasumi in a leafy green dress and styled her hair differently so that it curled slightly.

Shiho sighed, speaking up for once. "You tend to have a habit of getting into situations like this, don't you?" She was standing off to the side, as she honestly wasn't that comfortable with it, even if they insisted on letting her try it if she wanted.

Ryuji was standing next to her, sniggering and taking pictures when he thought Ren wasn't looking.

"Where do we get all the time for this stuff anyway? I know lunch doesn't last as long as it feels."

"Maybe you're just imagining it, dude."

AN:

I think I need to go on hiatus for this story.

I'm not sure if I'll return to it, but if I know for sure I won't, I'll throw all of the plot points out in a final chapter. It's not that I'm uninterested, persay, but I've dedicated myself to writing a million word epic, by the look of it. The slow pacing would eat at me and I would get nowhere. So, read Templar's Mask if you're here for the fight scenes and dumb tropes. Mid-Sinnoh Night's dream is totally unrelated, but by the sheer density of drills, is pretty cool. Don't read Phoenix though, I'm not proud of that one.

This isn't the end of my writing, don't worry. But is it the end of FES? After three consecutive authors gave up? Maybe.

Samjaz's Fairly English Story moved me more than any other piece of media I can think of. It's embarrassing, but it's true. I wanted to channel that into something else. But I don't think I can do that with this story. If I feel a spike of inspiration for this story, I'll return. I love writing, it's the most fun thing I can think of, but...

The way I structured FES, it's too strict. It wrapped up my brain into sheer logic, and not what I actually think is fun. The jokes seem soulless, the confidants are just meters on a screen, and the plot meanders so far off course it's a wonder anyone stuck around this far.

I won't rewrite it, I couldn't do that. If someone else wants to take up the torch, go ahead, I won't stop you. But make it a damn good story.

I hope, heh, you all can Forgive this selfish Sin of mine.