Archive of Our Own ^beta

The next morning found all of the teens (and not-cat) gathered in the living room while Shiho's parents were cluttering around in the kitchen, giving them some much-needed privacy. Akira even seemed to have found some of his equilibrium back, lounging on the sofa as if he owned it, tired eyes sharp once more.

Ren was glad.

Shiho, tired from a short night of sleep, frowned. "If you're not up for school I won't hold it against you, Ren."

Ren sighed. He knew, but. "I'm going. I'll be fine." A pause. "Akira, what about you?"

"I only have to work half a shift, so I don't have to leave until one in the afternoon. And I'll be back by six." Akira said, thoughtful. "So stop worrying so much; even if I still can't believe that yesterday happened -- it feels like a fever dream, and it's even stranger that it's our birthday today."

Ren huffed, amused. "I can believe that. I missed my birthday last year because the Phantom Thieves had to deal with Medjed's deadline and then completely forgot about it until, like, two weeks later."

"You could've told us," Morgana hissed, and Shiho grinned while petting his head. All of the Thieves had given him the same flak, but Ren still flushed every time they brought it up, Akira looking at the cat with a vaguely lost expression.

"To be fair, I had some other things going on--"

Shiho's expression split into a devilish smirk that was all. "You mean, and I'm quoting Ann here, 'falling into a relationship'. Quite literally, if I might add." She added, for Akira's benefit, and Ren despaired when even Arsene radiated amusement at the direction their banter had taken.

They aren't exactly wrong, now, are they, mon chou?

"'Quite literally falling?' Do I want to know…?"

Ren blinked. "Let's say that I don't recommend scaling a pyramid surrounded by enemies without a grappling hook."

(Akira gave up. He was not going to ask for an elaboration, because his sanity was kind of fraying at its edges, thank you very much.)

"Soo…" Shiho begun, after a minute or two of them listening to silverware rattle in the kitchen. "Ren and I go to school, Akira and Morgana stay here, and we figure out what the two of you will do in the evening?"

"Sounds good to me."

The school day ended up being a bore, dragging along horribly slowly, Ren silently wondering what to do, now that he's never going to set a foot back into his former home -- partially by choice and partially by the knowledge that if he were to try, it might end badly, after yesterday -- and the silent question of what now?

He hadn't gotten an answer by the time they'd made it back to Shiho's, Arsene only able to offer condolences and well-wishes and affection. Akira and Morgana had been holding a very amusing discussion on paper when they'd entered the kitchen -- that is, Morgana had a pen in his mouth, and lines that were supposed to be words were scribbled all over the paper, Akira looking somehow both exasperated with the penmanship and pale at the cause of it.

Somehow, despite everything else, it wasn't as bad as Ren had imagined it, Akira knowing some part of what happened over the last year. Ren still wasn't ready to explain everything, because it was Ren's and didn't concern Akira as it had Shiho (and Mishima to a lesser extent), but maybe someday he would. For now, Akira would have to live with the knowledge that the Metaverse was a thing Ren frequented, and that Morgana could talk and had human-level intelligence.

"...Suzui-san told me that we're allowed to stay for as long as we need," Akira said as soon as Ren's approached them. His voice was small. Ren hummed as he set his bag down, Shiho doing the same in silence.

"Suzui-san's great. She makes awesome American-style cookies, too."

"Yeah, there's a plate in the fridge. An' some dinner she and her husband made. They said to consider it a birthday present." Akira looked both guilty and almost affronted, not that Ren could fault him for it; he wasn't the fondest of other people doing favors for him either, because it felt like he would end up indebted to them by returning them. He knew that Shiho's parents didn't expect anything back and did it out of the goodness of their hearts, but still--

Thou art quite the hypocrite sometimes, Mr. Busybody of Tokyo.

Shush, Arsene. The point still stands.

There is no stand for the point to occupy, the persona quipped, but keep telling that to thyself.

The three of them ate, Ren expertly ignoring Arsene, Shiho keeping up a pleasant flow of conversation, and then they were in the living room again with each a cookie in hand, Ren's pigeon of a persona shooing them out while he (and a grumbling Zorro) cleaned the dishes and table. Akira stared after them, wary and full of disbelief, before he refocused on his cookie. "So," he said, and promptly shut up.

"So," Akira started again, glancing at Ren. "You'll probably go back to Tokyo as soon as possible."

Ren sighed. "Yeah. I had planned on staying the full school year with Shiho --" She nodded, understanding, "-- but I don't want to stay in Inaba for longer than necessary. It's not doing me any good."

"Our parents aren't, you mean…" Akira muttered, before straightening. "When will you leave?"

A frown. "You're taking this much better than I'd anticipated, I have to admit."

"Please -- ever since I've followed you into the TV I knew that you'd leave at the next possibility. I'm not an idiot."

Well.

He wasn't wrong, Ren thought, sourly.

(Shiho glanced between them, noticing that their usual bite was missing from their banter -- the almost sharp-bitter tang that colored their previous discussions -- and she smiled a small smile to herself before butting in, seeing as it was not going anywhere.)

"How about the start of summer vacation? That gives you roughly a month to sort and plan everything, and it would let you finish up with school to a point."

Ren, after a moment's pause, nodded. It was a sound plan, and it made sense to switch back into Shujin at the start of the winter term instead of a few weeks before vacation started, considering he didn't need even more rumors to his name. Ann, Ryuji and Futaba keep reminding him that 'the delinquent exchange student from last year' had become an urban legend, much to his chagrin. He hadn't even done anything to warrant still being called a delinquent! (Kawakami and the mysterious student wo used to sit behind Ren would beg to differ, well aware of the tinkering he would do underneath his desk.)

That was when Arsene and Zorro entered the room with coffee, the personas handing everyone a cup (except Morgana, who got a plate with milk), and then Zorro dematerialized with a huff, leaving Arsene behind to settle down next to Ren with his own hot drink, sipping at it contently. "That is as sound a plan as any."

It really was. He'd planned on going to Tokyo over the summer period anyways, so he'd already asked Sojiro if he could stay at Leblanc again --

Wait.

"And what about you?" Ren asked Akira, suddenly reminded that right, both of us are in the same boat for once.

He frowned. "I dunno. Tokyo is yours, anyways. What good would it do if I get involved in everything?"

Well. He could get himself an apartment or something, and Ren was certain that if he'd asked, the Investigation Team would keep an eye on Akira--

"Take Akira with you," Shiho said, the voice of reason as always. "Over summer. Then he can see if he likes Tokyo or not and decide from there. If nothing else, you can look at the universities there."

Akira hummed, actually considering the offer. "You'd tag along, I guess? To visit your- to visit Takamaki."

She raised a brow in amusement and put a hand on Ren's thigh to forestall his immediate defense of her. "I can't; I'm visiting my grandparents in Osaka for the whole month because grandpa turns eighty and he's throwing a party."

"It is a month; if thou dost not like it, thou can always find something else." Arsene added, Morgana meowing his agreement.

Ren and Akira stared at each other for a beat.

"...fine." Both said, at once, one annoyed and the other uncertain.

The next week went down as follows: a day later, the Investigation Team had gotten wind of what happened courtesy of Shiho and Morgana and their sensible plan of expanding Ren's safety net, and a day after that, Ren and Akira had decided to get the rest of their stuff before their parents decided that throwing it out would be the smart solution.

Hilariously enough, no-one let them go at it alone, and thus their parents opened the door the third day after their children had stormed off to a whole bunch of people glaring at them from the garden, Kanji first and foremost. As if to accentuate it, it was raining softly. They had frowned, displeased, and were about to retort something, when Ren very plainly whipped out the letter Sae had written him and shut them up for good. It was quite the empowering and validating experience. Mostly everyone who thought highly of themselves had heard of Niijima, after all, the woman who had been in hot pursuit of the Phantom Thieves and then turned around to publicly support them, winning the case against Shido.

Between the whole lot of them, they managed to gather together everything in roughly three hours, Yukiko loaning them the inn's loading van despite protests from Ren. Not really wanting to infringe upon the Suzui's hospitality any more than needed, Ren rented out a room at the inn as storage space for the next few weeks from his rather considerable funds.

("How much money are we talking about, anyways?" Akira had scoffed. Ren, amused, had hummed. "The equivalent of roughly thirty-thousand euros in a safe in Switzerland."

At Akira's disbelief, he'd added: "Phantom thieving is a lucrative business.")

Most of what had been in Ren's room, he could go without -- except for all of the mementos from the others that he'd brought from Tokyo, his computer, and some of the books.

Speaking of books; Ren opened one of the duplicates of his Arsène Lupin novels -- to the amusement of one Yosuke, Kanji and Shiho, who'd accompanied him, the others with Akira -- and came face-to-page with a bunch of pressed flowers. He blinked. "Oh, right. I'd completely forgotten about them."

Shiho made an inquiring noise and Ren turned to them, one of the pressed flowers held gently between his fingers. "There'd been a magician at juvie hall who gave these to me before disappearing; apparently he'd been doing it every year for half a decade already without being caught. Some believe him to be KID."

"But imagine," Yosuke grinned, "if it really was from KID! Joker and KID, Tokyo's most prolific Phantom Thieves in the last decade, going against each other--"

"It was probably an officer who started it," Kanji reasoned. "And it became a tradition."

Which were exactly Ren's thoughts, ignoring the small nagging at the back of his mind.

(As it would turn out, Yosuke was 100% correct in his assessment, as Ren would find out five days and one long internet search later: the pressed flowers, translated into European flower language, spelled out something like Thank you for keeping Tokyo safe for me!  Stay strong and be brave in the face of adversity; I refuse to believe that you're anything but innocent.

Arsene had helped immensely with the flow of the translation, and Ren? Ren had to… sit on it, for a good twenty minutes, uncomprehending. And then he'd checked the web for mentions of Kaitou KID returning to Japan and found various apparent sightings of the famous thief, though no official heist had been issued as of yet.

And then Shiho had entered the room, and proceeded to lose her mind for an added twenty or so minutes.

Ren's life was batshit insane.

And also, he somehow had to send a bouquet back as a thank you.)

Still, that would not happen for some time now, and Ren was currently loading the last of his possessions into the van and watching it drive off to the Amagi Inn.

He, Akira, Shiho, Morgana and Yosuke and Chie had stayed behind.

"You could ask Dojima for an investigation, y'know?" Chie said, loudly, a frown marring her face.

Ren shrugged, watching his paren-- watching the Amamiyas watching them from the edge of their property, a scowl on their faces. They heard. They didn't dare move closer, though, Arsene's reflection visible and reflecting in the forming puddles and on any mirroring surface around them. Zorro, too, flickered in and out of them, as angry as Morgana was with bristling fur and exposed claws.

He could, sure. But honestly? Ren was so done with the topic. "If they try to interfere in my life, yeah, or if they're foolish enough to ignore the court order. It's a waste of money and resources otherwise." He turned to Akira, who nodded, subtly, and then back to Chie. "But thank you."

She hummed.

"We have your back, yeah?" Yosuke added, honest and severe all at once.

And that was that.

Next on Ren's list was dropping by the Velvet Room in the morning and talking to Lavenza, who hummed in understanding, somewhat distracted. "Excuse me," she'd said to him when he was about to leave. "I am happy for you, Trickster, I truly am -- there is simply something that has my attention right now."

Ren and Arsene had hummed. "I understand, Lavenza. Until next week."

She had nodded, gracing him with one of her small smiles, and Ren had left the Velvet Room, ready to tackle his next obstacle: the school. He'd talked with his homeroom teacher and she accompanied Ren to the principal's office at the end of the lesson, and the principal had truly seemed sad to see Ren go and not commented on the almost mysterious and sudden transfer.

He'd called Kawakami-sensei as well, still saved in his contacts as Becky, and she'd responded almost immediately.

"Amamiya-kun?"

Ren smirked. "Hello, Kawakami-sensei. Congratulations!"

She sputtered, and Ren left her floundering for a second longer before he'd grown serious. "How difficult would it be to put me back into the school registry for the winter term?"

A pause. "You want to transfer back to Shujin?" She didn't let him answer, a sigh following the question, as well as the shuffling of paper. "After the summer vacation, then? It should be doable, I guess -- I'd have to talk to the new principal…"

Kawakami made a resigned noise. "Of course," she started, slowly, "all of that would probably be no problem if your transfer back was already in the system and we simply forgot to approve it, what with the new staff and all..."

Ren raised a brow, catching on. "You want me to ask Futaba if she can help you?"

Another resigned sigh. "Yes; I figure that it would be the easiest and most efficient approach. I'm guessing that you want to be back in the same class as Takamaki-chan and Sakamoto-kun?"

"Yeah, if it'd be possible. And Kawakami-sensei? Thanks."

"Only you, Amamiya-kun, only you."

He sent a text to Futaba after, asking for her cooperation and secrecy -- Ren wanted to surprise the others with the news -- and Futaba answered him with a thumbs-up emoji.

(Akira quit his job at the gas station. When asked why, he'd shrugged, not wishing to admit that over the last few days, Inaba's former splendor was starting to loose its glory, and that regardless of if he'd stay in Tokyo or not, he didn't feel like returning. If he did, he would probably only fall back into bad habits that he was trying to seriously break, starting with officially apologizing to Kanji for how Akira had acted around him, and how he'd taken care of the biker gang after raising through the ranks.

He'd found himself talking to Hanamura-kun and even Satonaka-san over the days, and had an enlightening talk with little Nanako Dojima, who'd sought him out.

Well, not so little anymore, but she was still a few years younger than him, so there was that.

"I heard from the others," she'd told him apologetically. "And I know how it feels, to be the odd one out."

"What do you mean?"

Nanako had snorted. "Our siblings are persona users -- they'd been through hell and back and only told us because we found out, and it changes things. My situation is somewhat different from yours -- Yu's much older than I am, for one, while you and Ren-kun are the same age -- but I know how hard it is, to sit on the sidelines and not being able to help. To think am I not good enough for a persona? Not strong enough? So if you ever want to talk about it..."

They'd exchanged numbers, Akira a little shell-shocked, and then Mariko called him a few days later, contrite-sounding and also a little bit proud. I'm so glad that you finally got away from your parents, 'Kira, she'd said, they were the worst. And then she'd asked him if he was interested in getting back together, because, as it turned out -- as Akira had known, deep down -- she hadn't broken up with him because of him, but because of his parents and their eagle-eyed stare at everything that Mariko had done, and Akira didn't know they had paid so much attention to his former girlfriend.

The Akira of a month ago would've said yes, and the Akira of two weeks ago probably as well, but now?

Akira had loved Mariko, maybe in the same way that Arsene loves Ren or that Shiho-chan loves Takamaki, but Akira wasn't certain that Mariko loved him like that, because --

in the end, she hadn't loved him enough to put up with his parents, and maybe that was childish of Akira, but Arsene always stuck by Ren's side, and Shiho-chan's girlfriend entered into a contract with a persona for her, and--

"No, Mariko; I don't think it would do us any good."

He could hear her watery laugh over the phone, could picture her smile, and thought about how she'd supported him over the years. "Thank you," he said, a farewell. Mariko echoed him.)

("Thank you, Shiho," Ren said, on his last Saturday in Inaba. He, Morgana and Akira would leave on Monday, and Shiho would stay. But it was okay.

She smiled at him, proud and happy. "Always, Ren -- you don't have to thank me for this."

He quirked a smile as well, his fingers carding through Arsene's wings, a soothing action if Shiho's ever seen one; Ren was surprisingly tactile. "And a thank you to your parents as well. They're good people."

They really were, taking in the twins without prodding the issue too much. Shiho was glad to have them, especially when compared to the likes of Ryuji's father or Ann's parents. Or Ren's, obviously.

"Just you wait, Amamiya-kun. By the same time next year I'll be back in Tokyo, and then you'll see me at every Phantom Thief meeting because I won't be leaving Ann's side! You'll never get rid of me!"

"It will do us good," Arsene intoned, sounding like putty underneath Ren's ministrations, "to have thee participate in the meetings. It will keep the Lovers and Chariot from running off into danger."

"Hear, hear," Ren added. "Phantom Thief Scholar, keeping everyone grounded in reality."

Shiho blinked. "Scholar? Is that supposed to be my codename?"

He shrugged, kind of bashful. "I thought it fit; you're the holder of the Art arcana, which stands for a new life after a big change, and a scholar is someone who is passionate and confident and enthusiastic about their given field of study, which describes the arcana well. If. Well, if you like it, of course."

She smiled. "Yeah, I do."

She would miss them, of course, but she had the Investigation Team and the Thieves' Den to pass the time, and a whole future to explore. Scholar, huh. I like it.)

It was Monday the 24th, and the Inaba train station was unusually crowded; the Investigation Team and Nanako Dojima, Shiho and her parents. Ren, Akira and Morgana. The persona, unseen but felt all the same.

Someone who looked vaguely like Margaret, even, with an unreadable expression at the far back, cast in shadows.

It was the start of summer vacation, and the end of Inaba.

"An' don't forget to call if you run into any trouble!" Yosuke said, something all-too-knowing in his eyes. "And maybe say hi to Yu for us, if you're already in Tokyo; he's looking forward to meet you."

"And tell big bro to visit soon!"

Ren smiled at them and nodded, and promised Shiho that he would text her as soon as they'd arrived in Tokyo. She would be leaving for Osaka in two days.

Their stuff was already shipped, and so the only thing to do was board the train to the good-byes and well-wishes from everyone else, a warm and fuzzy feeling spreading through Ren that wasn't all Arsene, and he glanced over to Akira, who looked nervous but determined.

The train left the station as Ren's reflection stared back at him with golden eyes and a delighted smile.

His phone chimed.

Ren quirked his lips, amused as always that Yusuke constantly managed to use all of his money on art supplies or similar, despite their rather large monthly set-up that they had going thanks to Makoto, Haru and Futaba.

Everything would be fine from now on.

Morgana was sleeping in the seat next to him, Akira listening to music with his eyes closed, shoulders free of any kind of tension.

Arsene hummed in agreement and spread through Ren, thick and cloying and warm and content like a cat. Yes. Everything shall be well.