ShadOP Messenger
[ART]
Madarame called me this morning.
The chat stopped.
For approximately three seconds.
[Skull]
WHAT
[Panther]
Is everything okay?!
[Hime]
YUSUKE?!
[Dove]
What did he want?
[Joker]
Are you safe?
[ART]
I am currently sitting in my dormitory eating breakfast.
[Skull]
THAT DOESNT ANSWER THE QUESTION
[ART]
I believe it rather directly answers Joker's.
Ren stared at the screen.
Okay.
Yusuke was still Yusuke.
Good sign.
Probably.
[Joker]
What did Madarame say?
The typing indicator appeared, disappeared, then appeared again. That alone caught Ren's attention. Yusuke usually wrote messages the same way he spoke: calmly, deliberately and with absolutely no regard for whether everyone else wanted the answer sometime this century.
[ART]
Very little.
[ART]
He asked where I was staying.
[ART]
I told him I had moved into the Kosei dormitory.
[ART]
He did not ask me to return.
That loosened something in Ren's chest he hadn't noticed tightening.
Apparently everyone else felt the same way.
[Panther]
Good.
[Dove]
Very good.
[Skull]
yeah fuck going back there
[Hime]
How did he sound?
Another pause.
[ART]
Tired.
[ART]
I believe perhaps frightened as well.
[ART]
He said that he had much to think about and that he wished to be alone for some time.
[ART]
Then he apologized for disturbing me and ended the call.
Nobody immediately answered that one.
Ren leaned back against the booth in Leblanc and stared at his phone while Sojiro worked behind the counter. Madarame had apologized for disturbing Yusuke.
That wasn't exactly a confession.
It wasn't restitution.
It wasn't even close to enough.
But considering the man they'd fought yesterday thought Yusuke's entire existence belonged to him because he'd provided food and a roof while stealing everything else?
Yeah.
That was different.
[Dove]
Did he mention feeling sick?
[ART]
No.
[Panther]
Anything about his face?
[ART]
No.
[Skull]
white goo?
[Panther]
RYUJI
[Skull]
WHAT
[Skull]
ITS IMPORTANT THIS TIME
[Joker]
Unfortunately he's right.
[Skull]
THANK YOU
[Joker]
Don't celebrate.
[Skull]
fuck you
[ART]
He mentioned nothing resembling what occurred yesterday.
[ART]
His voice sounded physically normal.
[Hime]
That's good!
[Panther]
Really good.
[Dove]
So whatever happened to his Shadow didn't carry over?
Ren's thumb hovered over the screen.
Maybe.
That was the tempting answer.
The mask shattered. Madarame's Shadow went back to normal. Palace collapsed. Actual Madarame woke up without apparently vomiting bone-white nightmare fuel all over his house.
Problem solved!
Except Ren had literally spent yesterday morning complaining because he'd thought the Hollow problem was handled.
Reality had lost the privilege of receiving optimistic assumptions.
[Joker]
No obvious aftermath.
[Joker]
That's all we know.
[King Sis-con]
Agreed.
Ren's eye twitched.
Yu had been invited to ShadOP for approximately no time at all and had already mastered appearing at the exact moment Ren didn't want him.
[Skull]
how the fuck are you always here
[King Sis-con]
Phone notifications.
[Skull]
oh
[Panther]
Ryuji...
[Skull]
look i forgot hes just a guy sometimes
[Joker]
Thank you.
[King Sis-con]
I'm choosing to take that as a compliment.
[Joker]
It wasn't.
[ART]
Returning to the matter at hand.
Ren smiled.
Yusuke was learning.
[Dove]
We should still have someone check him.
[Hime]
Rukia?
[Joker]
From a distance.
That distinction mattered. Madarame was apparently thinking, and more importantly, Yusuke had only just gotten physical distance from the man. Nobody needed a Soul Reaper walking up to his former guardian and asking whether he'd experienced any recent spontaneous Hollowification.
That would be difficult to explain.
Probably.
[Panther]
Yeah. No confronting him.
[Skull]
just ghost doctor stalking
[Joker]
Do not call it that when we ask her.
[Skull]
coward
[Hime]
I can ask Rukia!
[ART]
I would prefer she not approach him yet.
[Joker]
She won't.
[Joker]
Just see if anything looks spiritually wrong from far enough away that he doesn't know she's there.
[ART]
Thank you.
[Panther]
You okay, Yusuke?
There was another pause.
Not as long this time.
[ART]
I do not know.
Fair.
[ART]
But I believe I am better than I expected to be.
[ART]
I am relieved that he did not ask me to return.
Ann answered first.
[Panther]
Then don't.
[Dove]
Seconded.
[Skull]
thirded
[Hime]
Fourthed!
[Joker]
That's not—
Ren stopped.
Actually, no.
He wasn't helping.
[Joker]
Fifthed.
[ART]
I don't believe that is a word.
[Joker]
Neither is fourthed.
[Hime]
It is now!
[Skull]
democracy
[Panther]
That's not what democracy means.
[Skull]
team vote says it does
Ren snorted and put his phone down.
No Hollow aftermath that they could see.
Madarame hadn't demanded Yusuke come home.
Nobody was bleeding.
Nobody was vomiting supernatural substances.
It was almost peaceful.
Ren immediately distrusted it.
---
Lunch was quieter.
Deliberately.
Ren had escaped the usual group meal for once and found an empty section near the stairwell where he could sit against the wall, eat the lunch he'd thrown together that morning and enjoy approximately fifteen minutes in which nobody asked him about Hollows, Palaces, Shunpo, Madarame, Tarot cards, girlfriends he did not have, or whether Kingdom Hearts constituted a valid model of cognitive metaphysics.
It was nice.
He took another bite.
His phone buzzed.
Of course.
Ren checked it anyway.
[Hime]
Ren?
He swallowed.
[Joker]
Hime?
The response came almost instantly.
[Hime]
Are you free today after school?
Ren stopped chewing.
Oh.
Right.
Orihime had asked him to hang out after the heist.
Apparently after the heist meant immediately after the heist.
Reasonable.
[Joker]
Yeah.
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared.
Disappeared again.
Ren stared.
Interesting.
Finally—
[Hime]
Really?!
[Joker]
No, I enjoy lying specifically about my afternoon schedule.
There was a pause.
[Hime]
:(
Ren stared at the face.
Fuck.
[Joker]
Joking.
[Hime]
:D
Much better.
[Joker]
I'm free.
[Joker]
What did you want to do?
The typing indicator returned.
For a long time.
Ren finished half his lunch.
Still typing.
Stopped.
Started.
Stopped.
Ren frowned.
[Joker]
Hime?
[Hime]
I'm thinking!!!
[Joker]
Take your time.
[Hime]
Okay!
Another twenty seconds.
[Hime]
Actually can I choose?
Ren blinked.
[Joker]
You asked me.
[Joker]
Of course you can choose.
Three dots.
Gone.
Back.
[Hime]
Anything?
[Joker]
Within reason.
[Hime]
What does that mean?!
[Joker]
No cults.
[Hime]
I wasn't going to take you to a cult!!
[Joker]
Excellent. We're already narrowing it down.
[Hime]
REN!
Ren laughed hard enough that a student passing the stairwell glanced inside.
He waved apologetically.
Then looked back at his phone.
[Hime]
Okay.
[Hime]
I'll decide!
[Joker]
Sounds good.
[Joker]
Meet outside after school?
[Hime]
Yes!!!
[Hime]
I'll be there!
[Hime]
:D
Ren stared at the smiley for a moment before locking his phone.
That seemed normal.
Probably.
Arsène chuckled somewhere in the back of his head.
Ren took another bite.
'Don't.'
The chuckling continued.
'I said don't.'
Nothing.
Smug bastard.
---
Orihime was waiting outside Shujin when Ren stepped through the gates.
Waiting was perhaps the wrong word.
Bouncing.
She was bouncing.
Not literally jumping up and down, but close enough that the distinction felt academic. She kept shifting her weight from one foot to the other, hands clasped around the strap of her bag while her eyes moved between the school entrance, the street, the station direction and back again. The second she spotted him, her entire face lit up so quickly Ren almost looked behind himself to make sure someone more exciting hadn't appeared.
"Ren!"
Nope.
Definitely him.
"Hey, Hime."
She hurried over, slowed down approximately three steps before reaching him, then became suddenly and painfully aware of her own limbs. Her hands went behind her back, then one came forward to adjust her bag before both clasped in front of her instead.
Ren watched this process.
Orihime smiled.
Ren smiled back.
She smiled harder.
Her face gradually turned pink.
Okay.
Something was happening here.
He could probably figure it out.
Eventually.
Maybe.
"So," Ren said, saving both of them. "Where are we going?"
"Right!"
Orihime straightened with the determination of someone answering a life-or-death question.
Then froze.
Ren waited.
Her confidence slowly deflated.
"...I had ideas."
"Past tense?"
"I still have them!"
"Okay."
"There are just a lot."
Ah.
Orihime opened her bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
Ren stared.
She unfolded it.
Then unfolded it again.
There was a list.
Of course there was.
"I looked up places!"
"You researched hanging out."
"Yes!"
Ren looked at the paper.
She immediately held it against her chest.
"No looking!"
"I didn't."
"You were going to!"
"I was reading upside down."
"That counts!"
Probably.
Orihime looked down at her list again, visibly gathering courage. "There's a movie theater, but then we wouldn't really get to talk, and I want to talk to you, so I crossed that one out. There was an aquarium, but it's farther away and I didn't know if you'd want to spend that long traveling, and there's a park but we walk around outside all the time anyway, and I thought maybe shopping but then I didn't know what we'd shop for, and then there was karaoke—"
Ren raised a hand.
Orihime stopped.
"Breathe."
She inhaled, then laughed, embarrassed. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize. I'm impressed."
"Really?"
"You made an itinerary."
Her eyes brightened.
Oh no.
Ren knew that look.
"Not permission to make a spreadsheet."
Orihime's mouth opened.
Closed.
"...I wasn't."
"You were thinking about it."
"Maybe."
Ren grinned. "So what did you actually want to do?"
That stopped her.
Not because she didn't have an answer.
Because apparently nobody had asked the question that way.
Orihime looked down at the paper, and Ren watched her eyes move over whatever carefully researched collection of normal teenage activities she'd assembled. Movie. Aquarium. Park. Karaoke. Shopping.
Then her shoulders loosened.
"A donut shop."
Ren blinked.
Orihime immediately started talking faster. "There's one in Shibuya that has a really big display and they make lots of different kinds, and I passed it when I was exploring after I transferred, and I really wanted to go inside but I thought it would be more fun with somebody else, and—"
Her voice dropped.
"I've always wanted to order one of every kind."
Ren stared.
Orihime went red.
"I know that's weird."
"No."
She looked up.
Ren smiled. "That's the first thing on your list you've sounded excited about."
Orihime blinked and glanced down at the paper.
Oh.
Apparently she hadn't noticed.
Ren had.
The aquarium had sounded sensible. The movie had sounded researched. Karaoke had sounded like something the internet told her teenagers were supposed to do together.
Donuts?
Her entire body had changed.
"One of every kind?" Ren asked.
Orihime cautiously nodded.
"That's a lot of donuts."
"We don't have to eat all of them!"
"Didn't say we did."
"We can split them!"
"Better."
"And take the rest home!"
"Responsible."
"And they have seasonal ones!"
"Important."
Her smile returned more with every answer, and Ren found himself watching it longer than he probably needed to.
Her eyes got brighter when she was excited.
He'd noticed that before.
Obviously he'd noticed. Ren noticed things. That was basically his entire personality at this point.
But there was noticing that somebody was attractive, and then there was—
Cute.
...
Dangerous thought.
Arsène shifted lazily somewhere behind his thoughts.
'At last.'
Ren kept smiling at Orihime while answering internally.
'At last what?'
'You noticed.'
'I notice everything.'
Arsène laughed.
Asshole.
'I knew she was pretty.'
'Naturally.'
'I don't like that tone.'
'Which tone, mon ami?'
The amused one.
The incredibly smug one.
The tone of a Persona who knew something Ren had apparently only just caught up to despite, technically speaking, being part of Ren's own fucking psyche.
Orihime was still talking about seasonal donuts, apparently unaware that Ren had developed an internal audience for his romantic crisis.
'She's my friend.'
Arsène's amusement deepened.
'Those concepts are not mutually exclusive.'
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly.
Fuck.
Because that was the actual problem.
He'd known Orihime was beautiful. Everyone with functioning eyes knew Orihime was beautiful. He'd liked being around her almost immediately, liked her strange tangents, liked how earnestly she cared about people, liked that she could be absurd enough to dip bread into things no bread had any business touching and then turn around and say something so sincere it hit him directly in the chest.
He liked making her laugh.
He liked when she looked at him like that.
And apparently, somewhere between friend and Hime, the part of his brain responsible for attraction had gotten significantly more involved than he'd realized.
'Oh.'
Arsène chuckled.
'Indeed.'
Another voice entered the conversation with all the subtlety of a brick through a window.
'And Ann.'
Ren's thoughts stopped.
Byakko continued.
'And Shiho.'
Nope.
Absolutely not.
'We are not doing this right now.'
Arsène sounded delighted.
'An increasingly complicated court, my Trickster.'
'Shut up.'
'Three formidable maidens—'
'I said shut up.'
Byakko rumbled with obvious amusement.
'You are attracted to all three.'
'Conversation over.'
There were several problems Ren could handle at once.
This wasn't one of them.
Nope!
Romantic clusterfuck could wait its fucking turn behind Hollows, Palaces, mysterious black-masked assholes, Soul Reaper bullshit, school, probation and approximately seventeen other problems.
More importantly—
Orihime was standing in front of him.
Today was hers.
She had apparently spent an absurd amount of time researching places because she wanted to hang out with him, and she'd been nervous enough to create a literal list before finally admitting the thing she actually wanted was to eat an irresponsible quantity of donuts and look at crafts.
Ren could have his crisis later.
Current objective?
Make sure Hime had a good time.
Simple.
Manageable.
Probably.
Ren pointed toward the station. "Donuts it is."
Orihime stared at him.
"Really?"
"Really."
"You don't think it's childish?"
There was something underneath that question.
Small.
Familiar.
Ren remembered her saying things sometimes with a smile that sounded like she was waiting for someone to tell her she'd been silly for wanting them.
He shrugged. "I think I get donuts."
Orihime's expression softened.
"And," she said, suddenly more quietly, "there's a handicraft store nearby."
Ren looked at her.
She fidgeted with the folded list. "I used to like making things. Sewing and little crafts and stuff. I haven't really done much since coming here because everything has been..."
She made a vague gesture.
Ren nodded.
Yeah.
Everything.
"But I saw the store when I found the donut place, and I thought maybe we could look around afterward?" Her fingers tightened around the paper. "If you want."
There it was again.
The careful escape route.
If you want.
Ren smiled. "Sure."
Orihime's head snapped up. "Really?!"
"Why are you surprised every time I agree?"
"I don't know!"
She laughed, then covered her face with both hands for a second before peeking through her fingers.
Ren felt the dangerous thought returning.
Arsène shifted.
'Not a word.'
Silence.
For approximately half a second.
Then Ren felt his amusement.
Fuck off.
"So," Ren said, starting toward the station before his own psyche could bully him any further, "one of every donut and then crafts."
Orihime hurried beside him. "We don't have to get literally one of every—"
"Too late."
"What?"
"You committed."
Her eyes widened.
Ren continued walking. "We're ranking them."
"Ranking them?!"
"Obviously."
"By what?"
"Taste."
"Only taste?"
Ren glanced over.
Orihime had suddenly become very serious.
Oh.
This mattered.
"Texture," he amended.
She nodded.
"Presentation."
Another nod.
"Structural integrity."
Orihime's eyes lit up. "How well they hold fillings!"
"Exactly."
"And topping distribution!"
"Critical."
"What about how well they'd taste dipped in coffee?"
Ren stopped walking.
Orihime stopped beside him.
He stared.
She smiled innocently.
Ren remembered melon bread.
Coffee.
Curry.
Absolutely not.
"Hime."
"What?"
"No."
"But—"
"No."
"You haven't tried it!"
"Boss will sense the disturbance in the Force."
Orihime started laughing.
They continued toward the station, and whatever nervous energy had been tying her shoulders into knots gradually disappeared as she began explaining several extremely questionable theories about optimal donut fillings. Apparently sweet potato and butter deserved consideration. Red bean paste was obviously good. Cheese could work if the donut wasn't too sweet. Curry—
"No."
"You didn't let me finish!"
"I know where that sentence was going."
"You don't!"
"Curry donut."
Orihime went quiet.
Ren looked at her.
She looked away.
"...Maybe."
"Hime."
"It could be good!"
Ren laughed.
Orihime joined him, walking a little closer now.
The folded list disappeared back into her bag.
Good.
They didn't need it.
A donut shop because she'd always wanted to order one of everything.
A handicraft store because she missed making things.
Nothing impressive.
Nothing carefully selected because the internet said it constituted an appropriate outing between two teenagers.
Just Orihime.
Ren liked that significantly better.
And now that Arsène had so helpfully kicked the door down on a realization Ren had apparently been avoiding, he had another problem to deal with eventually.
Eventually.
Not today.
Today, Hime was smiling.
That was enough.
---