11/5 – Saturday
Morning

Ren
How do you feel?

Haru
A bit like I want to curl up in bed for a few weeks.

Ren
Oof
Yeah, I can relate
Did you call in sick?
I could bring you some food after school
Curry, sabi's ramen, whatevr you'd like

Haru
You're the sweetest, Ren. (✿◠‿◠)
I thought about staying home, but I decided not to.
The weekend is tomorrow, anyhow.
And I need to check on my plants!(︶^︶)

Ren
Pretty sweet of you too
I bet they're happy about that

Haru
(❤️´艸`❤️)

Ren
Haha
One of us could always check up on them next time?
Like if you needed to take Monday off

Haru
Oh!
Yes, maybe.
I think it feels important for me to take care of them myself today.
Maybe, to prove to myself I won't hurt them.

Ren
Got it

Haru
Does that sound too callous?

Ren
I don't think so
If it were me, I'd probably feel the same way
To feel in control and stuff?

Haru
Ah, yes.
Exactly that. >︿<

Ren
I just don't want you to isolate or burn yourself out

Haru
I won't.
I swear to you, I won't.

Ren
I mean
It's okay if you do a bit
It happens, you're dealing with a lot
But still
We're all here for you and we love you
Mona keeps asking how you are
And only speaking for myself I want to help as much as I can

Haru
(┬┬﹏┬┬)
Thank you Ren.
I love you.

Ren
Love you too Haru
Like a lot
A lot a lot

Haru
(´▽`ʃ ƪ)


Ren was halfway down the steps of Shujin's front entrance when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He scooted to the side, out of the way of the steady tide of done-for-the-day students rambling loudly to their friends, and checked it.

Haru
I hope this isn't a bother at all, but would you happen to be available after school?
I know it's already after school, but I kept forgetting to ask.
And talking myself out of asking.
Please don't go out of your way though, I don't want you to inconvenience yourself for my sake.

Ren
Haru, it's okay
Permission to be a little bit pushy?

Haru
Oh. Granted, always.

Ren
Curry or sabi's ramen for dinner then?

Haru
Oh.
Curry, please.

Ren
I'm out near the entrance, we can walk together whenever you're ready
I'll make dinner for you, me, Sojiro and Taba, and you can stay as long or short as you want
And I'll gladly walk you back to your place again afterwards
Is that cool?

Haru
That's very cool.
Thank you Ren.

Ren
❤️

Haru
❤️


11/6 – Sunday
Evening
Shinjuku

Nothing on the docket. Ren had left his schedule open in case the Thieves were ready for another meeting, but Haru was still recovering and Akechi was busy keeping up appearances as a detective. So after a restless day of homework and helping Sojiro out with the afternoon rush, Ren had wandered his way all the way over to his favorite fortune teller.

"You're late, little fella," Chihaya said, before he had even finished sitting down across from her. She was shuffling her cards, just an idle thing, over and over.

Ren raised an eyebrow as he settled into his chair, tucking a small plastic bag of books between his feet. "I was window shopping. Also, I don't remember agreeing to come and see you in the first place. How can I be late?"

Chihaya calmly, smoothly, slipped a card out of the deck mid-shuffle, and turned it towards him. A blank card. She smirked. "Got the message this morning you'd be stopping by."

Ah. Another Fool, scrubbed away. Hm. The Fool. Ren's cauterized Arcana, right? "I guess I missed the memo," he mumbled, reaching up to twist a lock of hair between thumb and pointer. "Did fate tell you anything else I should know?"

"Little bit," she said, slipping the card back into the deck, continuing her shuffle. "You're needing some reassurance, something like that. Got your knickers in a twist about stepping off the straight and narrow." The woman chuckled. "That sound about right?"

With anyone else, that sort of implication might have thrown Ren for a serious loop. But he didn't expect Chihaya to know about Sugimura. She'd hit the nail on the head without a hint of detail. Almost a preemptive room-reading. It didn't feel like she knew what specifically was on his mind. "Just about, yeah. I made a hard choice, and I'm worried about it coming back to hurt the people I care about."

Chihaya nodded solemnly. "Don't," she said. So quick and blunt he briefly thought he'd misheard her. "You say you made the choice, but that's not the message I got. You followed, and now you're second guessing if you should double back." She frowned, shrugged. "Maybe following was a hard thing, but you didn't make the big call, right?"

Uh. Okay, now he was starting to get a little nervous. "Yeah. Sure, yeah. I'm...I guess I'm trying to figure out if I need to step up more. As a friend, and stuff." Ren hesitated. " Am I on the right path? Is this going to hurt people?"

"Not mutually exclusive," Chihaya chuckled. "Like I said, don't worry your little head, little fella." She leaned back in her seat, reclining without breaking her shuffle. "Normal not to wanna hurt, but some stuff's gonna sting no matter how you cut them." A little, honest smile. "You love your people, wanna keep them safe. Just don't forget that trust's a two-way street. Big hearts have a lotta room for hurt too; you get me?"

Ren took that all in. Loss aversion. Trusting the Thieves. Carrying too much on his own. Okay. It wasn't new ground, but...a well-needed reminder was in order. "I get you. Thanks."

"I think you did the right thing," Morgana whispered from his bag, almost a grumble. Ren adjusted the bag, humming a little affirmation.

"Sounds like your buddy there agrees with me," Chihaya said, smirking. A tension radiated up through Ren's spine, and the woman guffawed. "Don't worry, don't worry. None of my business why you're always smuggling a kitty around." She grinned with her teeth. "Now, I wouldn't say no to getting to meet your friend, but pushers can't be beggars, huh?"

Not a conventional turn of phrase, but Ren caught her drift enough. "I mean, if he's alright with it?" He carefully shifted the bag onto his lap, opening the top enough to Morgana to push his head out.

"Tell me what you know, card woman," the cat said, his voice a half note away from a growl.

Chihaya leaned forward to get a better view of Morgana, smiling so wide her eyes wrinkled at the edges. "Well, howdy there, you fluffy little...boy? Girl?"

"Boy," Ren said. "I think. Close enough."

"He's a real cutie, yes he is," Chihaya cooed before Morgana could speak again. She reached over the table to tickle under his chin. While Morgana squirmed slightly at the contact, his vocal protests were notably undercut by a distinct purr. "That's right, you are adorable."

"I guess...she can't hear...me...talk..." Morgana mumbled, his eyes drifting towards half-lidded bliss.

"Alright," Chihaya said, leaning back in her seat. Freed from her affection, Morgana slipped back into Ren's bag with the approximate smoothness of jello through a sieve, flopping down with enough force to jar the bag. "Anything else, then?"

Ren blinked at her. "Shouldn't...you be telling me? I mean, you did the reading, so–"

She cut him off with a little laugh. "Reading said that you'd be dropping by to ask for advice. Done. You asked, I gave." Hm. She wasn't shooing him off. Was she waiting for something?

Ren slowly returned his bag to his shoulder, brow furrowed. Beyond the feeling she was expecting something further from him, there was something off about this. Something...he reached up to twist a lock of hair between two fingers. "You do tarot readings every morning?"

"Yeah?" A raised eyebrow, a smirk. "Course I do. Gotta know where fate thinks I ought to be."

Appropriately zen for her. "And fate told you that you had to show up today to give me advice?"

Chihaya nodded, though her smile seemed a little more forced.

"Specifically, fate told you to do your normal job, so that you could tell me to keep on doing the same thing I'm already doing?" Even if Ren bought that he had that much importance, why was that specifically vital enough to null out a card?

"That's right, little fella," she said. A little too calm. "That's what it told me."

Ren scanned her expression for any sign she might be bullshitting him, but she seemed self-assured. Frustrated, maybe, but not forcing the issue. Instincts didn't say she was lying. Meaning... "So, either fate is fucking with you, or there's some other reason for me being here that it didn't tell you."

Chihaya snorted. That little devil-may-care smile was back again. "Anyone ever told you you're a damn good meddler?"

Ren smiled back. "Something like that, yeah."

"Well, you're right on the money." She returned to her shuffle as she spoke, shifting the cards around each other with practiced movements. "Now, I know fate to be a whole lot of things, but a liar ain't one of them."

The clink of a metal spoon against a ceramic cup. "Lying by omission is still lying."

"Sure, sure," Chihaya said. "But not like I expect a deck of cards to shove the secrets of the universe into my head when I ask how my day is gonna be."

Hm. Something about that caught on the inside of Ren's skull. "You asked how your day was going to be, and it told you all about my anxiety?"

"Roundabout, sure," Chihaya said. She flipped the deck around, card faces up, fanning it out slightly in her hand. "What does my day hold?" She flicked the blank Fool, Ace of Swords and Two of Pentacles out onto the table. "What's the kid got to be so freaked out about?" Flick flick flick. Empress. Death. Judgment.

Ren sucked in a breath, and let it out as slowly as he could manage to. "Got it," he said. "Then, uh...why don't you just ask it again if there's anything else you need to do?"

Chihaya silently scooped up the cards and shuffled them all together. Shuffle. Shuffle. Shuffle. Then she flicked three cards off the top, letting them spill haphazardly onto the table.

Blank Fool. Justice. Death.

"Should..." Ren began, his voice abruptly failing him. He cleared his throat. "Should I be worried that it keeps putting me and Death in the same reading?" He found his right hand closing around his left wrist, and eased it away.

"Maybe," Chihaya said, with a shrug. "Not in the way you're probably thinking, though." She shifted the deck to one hand so she could reach over and tap Death with a pinky. "Upright or Reversed, Death just means there's a change coming, or that you're dealing with one. Upright, it's a reassurance that change is good. Reversed, it's a warning about digging your heels in."

Ren tilted his head. "What's it mean if it's diagonal?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Hm." Tapping the card again with her pinky, as if expecting it to answer. "Good question." Pause. "No clue."

"Great," Ren sighed. Hm. He stared down at the ramshackle spread. Something...missing. What was missing? They'd asked...what Chihaya needed to do. A change. A Fool. Justice...equity. Evenness. "Try one more card?"

Chihaya raised an eyebrow. For a long second, he waited for her protest, for her to laugh. Instead, she silently flicked another card off the top.

Wheel of Fortune. Completely horizontal.

Puzzle pieces falling into place. "Could I see the deck?"

No protest. Not even a question. Chihaya reached out without a word, and dropped the cards into his hands. She leaned back, gaze dancing between the cards on the table and in Ren's grasp.

He carefully picked the quartet off the table and slid them into the deck. How did she shuffle it again? Ren played back her deft movements in his head, splitting the deck into thirds with one hand, rearranging chunks of cards at a time. Okay, maybe not that. Ren brought the cards against his stomach, riffle shuffling them, making sure they wouldn't slip out. Careful. Careful.

"Enough?" he asked Chihaya, and she nodded. Okay. Deck back onto the table. Breath in, breath out. And the next part was...Ren placed his palm on the deck and spread the cards in a fan across the table. It was messy, full of holes, but he'd at least kept from boxing the deck accidentally. "Uh, I, please pick a card."

Chihaya's eyes traced the entire fan. She reached over, still silent, and placed a finger on a single card, pulling it out, still face-down on the table.

Ren pulled the rest of the cards back into a deck, an effort which took two half-effective attempts. "What you're...uh, I mean, this card is a domino. What you're dealing with is a complicated issue, and we...shall explore it, one piece at a time."

A little twitch of a smile, and a nod to continue.

And he turned the card over.

The Wheel of Fortune. Facing Ren, so...Reversed.

"Bad luck," Chihaya said. Her voice was solemn. Eyes...almost glazed over. "I'm cursed. A cage of my own making."

Ren stared down at the card. Fortune Reversed. A golden sword atop a spiked wheel, the blade pointing down. Its tip towards the belly of a devil-horned creature, while a serpent writhes above. "I don't think it's a cage. You're just not fighting anymore."

Chihaya opened her mouth. Then she closed it. A hand up over her mouth, her other arm tucked across her stomach. "Continue," she said, muffled by her palm.

Okay. Ren plucked a card off the top of the deck, then paused. The next question... "Why aren't you fighting?"

Nine of Swords. He'd seen this one before.

"Fear. You're afraid of failure, of pain that might..." Ren frowned. "You're running from something." Picking up the next card. "What are you running from?"

Magician. A cradled fire, wide-open eyes. Above, the infinite sky.

"You saw something? Or...you read something." Prometheus stealing the flame. "Something you weren't ready to see." Next card. "What did you see?"

The Tower. Lightning. Figures falling. Disaster.

Next card. "You tried to stop it, didn't you?"

The Hanged Man, Reversed. Rings of thorns, and a spiked collar, a stiff posture, arms bound across the chest. Silenced.

Next card. "Why didn't they listen?"

Emperor. A figure of a man, imposing, with a crown and scepter.

Next card. "What happened to him?"

Blank Fool.

Ren blinked. Okay. Interpreting by picture didn't exactly work on a blank card. Uh...no, wait. "Nothing happened," he said. Disaster. Nothing happened. "He survived. He survived because you told him, and he didn't save anyone else."

"It wasn't a natural disaster." Chihaya was still covering her mouth, but Ren could hear her clearly enough. "It was a financial one." A flicker of rare anger in those ordinarily calm eyes. "People lost their homes, their jobs, their savings." She reached over and plucked the Emperor off the table, staring at the card. "I told him to warn his clients, and instead he bet against them, against the market. It crashed, he made millions, and millions of people suffered."

The silence stretched between them. "So," Ren said. "Do I have the gift, or something?"

Chihaya snorted, and put the Emperor back onto the table, lowering her hand from her face. "You've got something. That reading was two steps away from horse apples...but you've got something." She scooped the nine cards off the table, and reached over to pluck the deck from Ren's hand. "You weren't reading the cards. You were just reading me. It's–"

A card slipped from the deck, and fell to the table.

The Three of Swords. Perfectly Upright, facing Ren.

Another bout of silence.

"Different set of skills," Chihaya finally said, quietly.

Pause. A hum of thought. And Chihaya turned the deck over, flipping through it and then pulling out a card, extending it to Ren. The blank Fool. "Here."

Ren reached over, gaze still flicking towards the Three on the table, and took the card. "Another reading?"

"Not yet." She scooped up the Three, and in one smooth motion, slid it back into the deck. "Keep it. Not forever, just for a while, I'll be expecting it back soon enough. You'll know when."

"Instincts?" He regarded the card as he waited for her answer. Plain white cardboard on the front. A pale blue-grey design on the back, with a white and black mask in the foreground. It reminded him just a little of a Shadow's mask, except divided right down the middle.

"Reckon them, yeah." And Chihaya slid the deck back into a paper sleeve, then into her pocket. "You did good work tonight, Ren. Just...keep a level head, yeah? Crazy world out there."

A little twitch of a smirk, and Ren slipped the blank Fool into his pocket, right next to his wallet. Less than an inch from the Aeon card Marie had given him. "Don't I know it."


11/7 – Monday
After School
Cafe Leblanc
Fool Card: Blank

"Shido's diplomacy has failed," Akechi said. Four words, and the room fell silent. He was physically closer to the Thieves than he had been the last few meetings, now leaning up against the edge of the small couch-side table; yet, his posture was no less tense, no less reserved. Arms crossed over his chest, gaze down and slipping towards corners, towards where one might expect to see an exit. "Apparently his prodding in pursuit of the threat we invented for him to chase has become a hindrance to his political escapades. And it seems he's insisting on punishing me for his incompetence."

Makoto frowned, adjusting her chair. "Are you in danger?"

Akechi scoffed. "Not presently. Though, you may all be now." A murmur of unease. "Without any leads, and now that his political bridges are beginning to catch, Shido has ordered me to make good on my claims to him." The fabric of his gloves strained. "I am to deliver one of the Thieves into custody within the next two weeks; and if that fails, I am to kill one of them."

Wrists chained, vision blurry, focus drifting. Sharp pangs of dull pain. War in his bloodstream.

Ren screwed his eyes shut until the nausea faded, until the secondhand memory no longer itched at the front of his mind. He focused on the noise of the room, on Kasumi's whispers of reassurance, on Morgana's yowling concern, on Yusuke and Makoto's back and forth muttering.

"Focus," he said. Firm, clear – and this time, not just to himself. The room quieted again. He opened his eyes to find all on him. "Two weeks? So, the 21st?"

Akechi nodded. "I've already convinced him to delay that deadline, it's unlikely he'll agree to do so again."

"And after his Palace falls, is there going to be anyone holding you to that agreement?"

"Anyone..." Akechi's furrowed brow raised. Ren could see the gears turning behind his eyes. "I see."

"Uh," Ryuji said, raising his hand. "I don't?"

"No one," Akechi said, his focus seemingly solely on Ren. "His allies, those that I've overheard, do not share his paranoia towards Metaversal threats outside of those that Shido invokes, be them changes of heart or mental shutdowns. If... when he is removed from the equation, any of their ire would be directed towards me, when they are not panicking to save face."

"Got it," Ren said, before turning his attention towards the rest of the Thieves. "The way I see it, we've got three options we can't take, and three we maybe can." Counting them off on his fingers as he talked. "First option is just killing one of the Thieves, which we're obviously not doing. Second is handing one of us over to Shido; again, not doing. We could hand over someone who isn't a Thief, pretending they are, but...that still means someone gets hurt, maybe killed."

"Cool, so we're not doing those," Ann said, grimacing a little. "Is one of your other options...killing someone who isn't a Thief then?"

Ren paused. "I...hadn't considered that, actually. But I guess, I'd assume that's not an option we can reasonably pick."

"I'd need to convince him that whoever it was knew something about his phantom threat," Akechi added. "You'd most likely be throwing an ally or peer under the bus, someone he already knows to be affiliated with you."

"So, big no to that," Ann said.

"First option we can take," Ren said, pulling focus back towards him. "Is to hit Shido's Palace within those two weeks. No Shido, no agreement, no need to risk anyone."

Yusuke let out a long breath. "If we intend to get assistance from Miss Niijima, we'd need to spring our plan for her immediately afterwards. And then pray, most likely."

"I doubt we can effectively infiltrate his Palace within that time period," Akechi said. "Perhaps we can, but..." He shook his head. "Shido's Palace is enormous, and its security is balanced on a hair trigger. I've seen one of his own cognitions trip a Palace-wide lockdown before. Twice. "

"That's not...a sustainable level of paranoia," Morgana mumbled.

"Yes, I'm sure he'd be worried about grey hair if he had any left," Akechi snapped back. "My point is: even with my guidance, it would still take us close to a week just in active infiltration days, not including recuperation time and your own personal schedules. It's entirely possible, but even if Shido's Shadow himself is a pushover, that leaves little to no time for Miss Niijima to come around."

"Maybe we can get the SRU in on it too," Ryuji said. "More people, more progress."

Akechi's eye twitched. "And how much time do you wish to spend figuring out if we can even get them into the Palace, let alone coordinating a unit of that size? Or do you wish for me to just hand over the reins of that infiltration entirely to them, and defer to their judgment on Shido's fate?"

Ren let out a sharp breath. "Akechi. No one is asking you for that, and we're not going to. We're not going back on a promise like that." Akechi did not answer, nor make eye contact. "Okay. So, tabling that option for now, doesn't seem the most possible. Second option is for all of us to go into hiding." A flicker of dread through the assembled Thieves. "Which is...I mean, I know it's a lot. And we'd still be risking the people we can't bring with us. We could come back out of hiding when Shido's taken care of, but...yeah. It would keep us and our families and friends safe, at least. And we could keep on infiltrating at our own pace."

"Upside, no school," Ryuji said. "Downside, stuck underground in a box for a month."

"Yes, how dreadful for you," Akechi grumbled.

After throwing a quick glare toward Akechi, Makoto turned to Ren. "What's the third option?"

Ren tried to smile, but his lips refused to move past a grimace. "We fake someone's death. One of us still has to go into hiding, but only one." Silence. A quick scan of expressions showed more contemplation than dread.

"So Akechi takes one of us into Memen-Mementos, and comes back without us?" Kasumi asked, glancing at her friend.

Akechi shook his head. "Shido thinks you're all idiots, but I doubt even an idiot would accept me back into the Thieves were I to do that." He adjusted his tie. "He feels a death in your ranks would destabilize you, shake your confidence. I am to abuse that instability to necessitate your further trust in me, weaseling out further information or persuading you into being Shido's puppets."

Ryuji leaned back in his chair, letting out a growl of a breath towards the ceiling. "Fuuuck, I cannot wait to kick the shit out of this guy."

"Right there with you," Futaba mumbled, pulling her knees to her chest. She shifted, resting her head on Kasumi's shoulder.

"I think it prudent to align this scheme with our faux change of Miss Niijima's heart," Akechi continued. "Shido remains under the impression that her Palace will be gone by the time we leave it. If a Thief were to remain behind, they could hide in a Safe Room for a few hours, wait for the rest of us to regroup at Leblanc and Shido's surveillance to follow us there, then exit the Palace at their leisure." Shido's surveillance. Right. They weren't just fooling the man from afar, they'd need to fool whatever tails he assigned to them. They'd need to keep up appearances.

"And that leaves the question...whose death do we fake?" Makoto asked, her hands in her lap, fingers interlocked, both heels rhythmically tapping against the floorboards.

All eyes found their way to Akechi. "Oh," he said, one eyebrow raised. "Am I to choose who I kill, then?"

Ann scoffed. "You know Shido better than us. So, who would he believe?"

"Hm." Akechi covered his mouth, brow furrowed. "Morgana is off the table, for obvious reasons. I similarly assume, Kasumi, that you would prefer not spending a month away from Sumire."

"Yes please," she said.

"Niijima, you are needed in your sister's proximity, to ensure her cognition changes as expected." A nod from Makoto. "A long absence would also throw a wrench in any of your academic plans. I believe that would disqualify Kitagawa, at least."

Yusuke let out a prideful huff. "I am more than willing to sacrifice an on-time graduation for the Thieves' sake."

Akechi returned a closed-lip smile. "And if your scholarship is canceled, your student housing is revoked and you are potentially expelled?"

"Ah," Yusuke said. "I am...less willing to sacrifice those things, yes."

"My grades are already kinda shit," Ryuji said. "If I'm failing the year anyway, maybe like..." He shrugged. "I mean, couldn't hurt, yeah?" And then immediately caught dual death-glares from Makoto and Ann, wilting back into himself. "Alright, yeah, okay, sorry! I'm not gonna bomb, and we're not gonna fake my death!" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Geez. Sorry."

Ren scooted closer to his boyfriend, nudging him with a shoulder.

"You've worked your ass off to pass so far this year," Ann grumbled, adjusting her ponytail. "Like hell you're just throwing that away."

Makoto offered something closer to a sympathetic smile. "Besides, you've got the rest of us to keep you on track. Remember how much better you did with help?"

Ryuji shrugged, hands in his pockets, but he did seem a little less tense. "Yeah. Fair."

Ren sent a nod to Akechi, and the detective continued. "Takamaki and Haru both live alone, if I recall." Haru. First name basis. Hm. "Either of you may well be able to simply stay home, as Shido would see little reason to surveil an empty...house..." He blinked. And his gaze crept towards Ren, and locked there. Why would he...oh. Oh .

Ann glanced between the two of them. "Sorry, what's going on?"

"Uh," Ren said, slowly. "Well, considering the fact that we're all currently...meeting in my bedroom...and we always meet either here or downstairs..." He watched implication dawn in eight pairs of eyes in real time.

"I'm not in school," Futaba said, hurriedly. "I'm not going to get expelled if I don't show up. You don't have to..." She trailed off, scrunching up her face.

"Shido is aware that you're capable of things no other Thief can do, Miss Sakura," Akechi said, quietly. He may have been speaking to Futaba, but his gaze did not leave Ren. "He would not think highly of any suggestion to rid himself of such an asset. But if the leader of the Thieves were to suddenly vanish under mysterious circumstances, you would necessarily need someone else to issue orders."

"You're going to pretend to kill Ren, and then replace him?" Ann's voice was cold.

A jolt of laughter slipped out of Akechi, making Ren jump. The detective raised a hand to his mouth, clearing his throat, an ounce of what might have been sheepishness through the steady veneer of control. "Emphasis on...pretend, Miss Takamaki," Akechi said, seeming to regain himself fully. "And he still needs to agree to it." He did not look away.

Ren looked away. He put his focus on the floor, the table, his own hands. "I'm on parole right now. If I go missing, I'd get arrested the second I show back up again."

"Shido is on a first name basis with your parole officer," Akechi said. "Your missing persons case would go cold before it even began. No one would be looking for you. And we'll have a well-connected prosecutor on our side, one who would likely be able to forge a few documents." A twitch of a smirk in the corner of Ren's gaze. "How would you feel about ending this year as a free man? Perhaps even with a few letters on your ID changed, for good measure."

Logic clicked into place. Ren's eyes widened. "We...fake my death," he said, slowly. His heart was starting to climb up into his throat. "And then get Sae to...put me in Sojiro's family registry or something?"

Futaba stared at Akechi. Then towards Ren. "Ren Amamiya goes missing," she said, in awe. "And Sojiro adopts some random guy who looks just like him."

"You might have to dye your hair, start wearing contacts," Akechi said. "And you wouldn't be able to return to Shujin." A little chuckle. "High prices to pay, I'm sure."

"Birth certificate would say male though," Ren said. "And it'd have my actual name. It would, right?"

"With ease ," Akechi replied, almost humming out the words. "And from personal experience, most high schools are plenty willing to accept a bright enough student fresh out of foster care. I'm guessing far more sympathetic to that than to a convicted felon."

A breath like a laugh slipped out of him. "No way. No fucking way." He ran a hand back through his hair. This was...insane. There had to be a catch. There had to be something. Too good to be true. No parole officer to answer to, no dreading a call from his parents, no showing up to a school that treated him like an outsider. Ren could stay with Sojiro, he could continue being a Thief, he could transfer schools.

He wouldn't ever have to go back.

Ren found his gaze on Ann. She was quiet. The room was quiet.

He swallowed. Cleared his throat. "It'll be harder to hang out with you guys if I'm in a different school?" he offered.

"Yusuke's in Kosei and he hasn't missed a meeting," she said. "And we plan out every infiltration in your bedroom." Unyielding. Convinced. "Honestly, fuck Shujin. You wouldn't be missing much."

"Might be too suspicious for me to stay here?" Ren said.

"Sojiro's got an empty room," Futaba added. "And we could all start meeting in his living room." Her hands were jittering in place. Excitement. Secondhand joy. "Me and Mona could puppy-dog eyes if he doesn't say yes right away."

Ren opened his mouth, waiting for another protest, another complication. But none came. He closed his mouth. Right hand found left wrist. "Someone better tell me right now it's a bad idea, cause I don't wanna get my hopes up if–" His voice broke, and further words failed him. "Anyone?"

No one.

"Ren," Haru said. He followed the sound of her voice. Her soft smile on the other side of Ryuji, who was grinning brighter than a sunrise. Both of them looked an instant from bursting into tears. "It's your call, it's always going to be your call. But from where I sit...I think it's a very good idea."

Breath in, breath out. Too good to be true. It had to be. It...he couldn't... "Yeah," he said. "Absolutely yes." A breathless grin found him. "Fuck Shujin. Let's fake my death."


Thanks and love to Jane, for whom I strive when I cannot strive for myself.