Ren was still confused.
Not about whether Orihime had kissed him.
That part was unfortunately difficult to misinterpret.
She had leaned up.
Kissed his cheek.
Turned completely red.
Then fled into her apartment before Ren's brain finished loading.
Pretty clear sequence of events.
Why she'd kissed him was the problem.
Well.
No.
That was also fairly obvious.
The actual problem was what Ren was supposed to do about it.
He sat on his bed with his back against the wall, staring at nothing while Morgana cleaned one paw beside him.
'Perhaps you should consult Narukami,' Arsène suggested.
'No.'
'He possesses considerably more experience with romantic bonds.'
'Absolutely not.'
'He may offer useful—'
'I would rather fight another god.'
Arsène laughed.
Morgana stopped cleaning his paw.
"What?"
Ren rubbed his face.
"Arsène suggested I talk to Yu."
Morgana considered it.
"About Lady Orihime?"
"Yes."
Another pause.
"Yeah. Don't do that."
Ren looked at him.
"You think so too?"
"He'd make that face."
"Exactly!"
That calm, understanding, irritatingly experienced face.
Then he'd say something reasonable.
Probably while cooking.
Ren would hate it.
"I need air."
Morgana hopped off the bed. "I'll come."
Neither mentioned Ren touching his cheek again while he grabbed his jacket.
Morgana's tail did twitch.
Ren chose mercy.
---
The walk did not clear Ren's mind.
It gave his body something to do while his mind continued running in circles, which was close enough.
He and Morgana wandered through Yongen-Jaya without a destination until they passed Urahara's shop and saw Rukia step through the door in black robes.
Ren stopped.
Rukia stopped.
Morgana poked his head farther out of Ren's bag.
Urahara appeared behind her with his fan raised.
"My, my. What a fortunate coincidence."
"No," Ren said.
Urahara blinked. "I haven't proposed anything."
"Your face did."
Rukia looked between them. "Why are you walking around this late?"
"Metaphysical crisis."
"Which one?"
Ren frowned.
Fair question.
"Personal one. What are you doing?"
Rukia rested a hand against her sword. "Patrol."
Morgana immediately climbed onto Ren's shoulder.
"We should go."
Rukia heard an excited meow.
"What did he say?"
"He wants to come."
"No."
Morgana's fur puffed.
"I'm fine!"
More angry meowing.
Ren translated, "He says he is a powerful warrior and you should stop treating him like an injured house cat."
"That was not exactly what I said."
"Close enough."
Rukia looked at Morgana for a moment.
"No unnecessary fighting."
Morgana nodded seriously.
"And both of you follow my instructions."
Ren opened his mouth.
"Without arguing."
He closed it.
Urahara's eyes curved above the fan. "This should be educational."
Three glares landed on him.
He waved cheerfully as they left.
---
Hunting Hollows involved a surprising amount of walking.
Rukia checked the strange phone Soul Reapers used every few minutes while Ren and Morgana followed her across half of Yongen-Jaya.
Nothing attacked them.
Nobody screamed.
The evening remained disappointingly normal.
Rukia finally looked back at Ren.
"You have been unusually quiet."
"Thinking."
"Dangerous."
Morgana meowed in agreement.
"Fuck both of you."
Rukia put the device away. "Then explain the Metaverse properly."
Ren blinked.
"I already did."
"You said you enter a giant metaphorical dungeon, fight cognitive monsters, steal another metaphor and force someone's subconscious to have a moral breakdown."
"That remains accurate."
Morgana made an offended noise.
"He says it was metaphysical vandalism."
"I agree with the cat."
"I am not a cat!"
Rukia ignored the meowing.
Ren sighed.
"Fine. The Metaverse is a cognitive world formed from the collective unconscious. Human thoughts shape it. If someone's desires become distorted enough, they can form a Palace based on how they see reality."
"And the ruler is their Shadow."
"A cognitive version of them," Ren confirmed. "Not their dead soul. Not a ghost. But it's connected closely enough that changing the Shadow changes the person in reality."
Rukia frowned. "Which is why destroying one can cause a mental shutdown."
"Probably," Morgana said.
Rukia looked at him.
Ren translated. "Morgana says probably. We know there's a connection. We don't understand the mechanism."
"At least you're admitting that now."
"I've always admitted when I don't know things."
Rukia stared at him.
"Eventually," Ren corrected.
They turned onto a quieter street.
"And Personas?" Rukia asked.
Morgana answered first. Ren translated while adding his own explanation whenever Morgana became too offended by Rukia's questions to remain coherent.
A Persona wasn't a separate dead spirit.
It was part of the user's psyche given form.
A mask used to face hardship without being false.
A Shadow accepted and controlled instead of rejected.
For most people, that meant one Persona.
Ren was a Wild Card, so apparently his soul operated like public transportation.
Many passengers.
Questionable safety standards.
Frequent delays.
"That is not how the Wild Card works!" Morgana snapped.
Rukia heard a furious series of meows.
"Do I want that translated?"
"No."
She sighed. "The comparison is still obvious."
Ren glanced toward her sword.
"Zanpakutō."
Rukia nodded. "A Shinigami imprints their soul upon an Asauchi. The blade develops a name, a spirit and abilities reflecting its wielder. We communicate within an inner world."
Arsène shifted inside Ren.
'How familiar.'
"Arsène agrees."
Rukia's eyes narrowed. "He can hear us now?"
"Always."
'Such resentment.'
"And now he's offended."
"You have several beings inside your soul commenting on your life."
"Yes."
"Constantly."
"Yes."
Rukia looked toward Morgana.
"Is he always like this?"
Morgana nodded.
Traitor.
The scream hit them before Ren could defend himself.
Rukia's head snapped toward an alley.
"Hollow."
She vanished.
Ren stared at the empty space.
"She keeps fucking doing that."
Morgana jumped from his shoulder. "Move!"
They ran.
---
The Hollow had cornered a Plus behind a closed restaurant.
It looked like somebody had given a centipede human arms, then added a white mask because the result wasn't unpleasant enough.
Rukia cut through two limbs before Ren and Morgana reached the alley.
Four more replaced them.
"Observe!" she called.
"Still hate that instruction!"
The Hollow lunged.
Rukia stepped aside, but one arm split away from the others and reached for the terrified soul behind her.
"Now!"
Ren and Morgana pulled their Evokers.
Two clicks.
Blue light.
Glass shattered.
"PERSONA!"
Arsène and Zorro appeared together.
Rukia's attention flicked toward them for half a second.
This time she was close enough to feel it properly.
Ren's Reiatsu split around Arsène without actually leaving him.
Morgana and Zorro did the same.
Two souls.
Four presences.
"Eiha!"
"Garu!"
Curse struck the Hollow's mask while wind folded its limbs backward.
Rukia moved through the opening.
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."
Her blade turned white.
Cold spread across the alley floor and froze the Hollow in place.
Ren's Third Eye caught something moving between Rukia and the sword.
Her power entered the blade.
Something answered.
Then Rukia cut through the cracked mask.
The Hollow dissolved into light.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Morgana looked between Sode no Shirayuki and the place where the Hollow had vanished.
"That felt like a Persona."
Rukia heard a thoughtful meow.
Ren translated.
She looked at Arsène and Zorro as they disappeared into blue flame.
"Not the same," she said. "But similar. Your Personas carry your Reiatsu while remaining distinct enough to answer you."
"Your sword did the same thing," Ren said.
Rukia looked down at Sode no Shirayuki.
Then back at him.
"Zorro isn't just a weapon either," Morgana said. "He's part of me, but he isn't mindless. When I reach for him, he reaches back."
Ren translated.
Rukia's hand tightened slightly around her Zanpakutō.
"Sode no Shirayuki is the same," she admitted. "A blade treated as nothing more than a tool will never reveal its true power."
"So that's probably why Personas can purify Hollows," Ren said. "They don't only hit the monster. They can reach whatever is left of the person underneath it."
"Possibly," Rukia corrected. "We still have no proof."
"A hypothesis, then."
"A reasonable one."
Ren smiled.
That was practically praise.
Rukia saw the smile.
"Do not become smug."
Too late.
"Could I enter the Metaverse?"
Ren and Morgana froze.
"Technically?" Ren asked.
Morgana's tail twitched. "The MetaNav has pulled other people in through proximity."
Ren translated, then added, "But they were living humans. We don't know what it would do to a Shinigami."
"I could enter in my Gigai."
"Maybe."
"Then let me try."
"No."
Rukia's eye twitched.
"You didn't even consider it."
"I am considering it. The answer is currently no."
"Why?"
Ren looked toward her sword.
Then at the phone she used to receive orders from Soul Society.
"Because you'd have to report it."
Rukia went quiet.
Morgana sat beside Ren's foot.
"Right now we have one Shadow that almost formed a Hollow mask," Ren continued. "No residue in reality. Madarame's actual soul looked normal afterward. We don't have definite proof that whatever happened involves Soul Society at all."
"Which is why I want to investigate."
"And if you enter, you become the proof. A Soul Reaper personally confirms an entire cognitive world exists, that it affects living souls and that Persona users are operating inside it. What happens when that goes into your report?"
Rukia didn't answer immediately.
That was an answer.
"Your higher-ups come," Ren said.
"Possibly."
"Government word for yes."
"We are not—"
Rukia stopped.
Not the important part.
Ren shoved his hands into his pockets.
"I trust you, Kuchiki. I don't trust whoever reads your reports."
Her expression tightened.
"I have not reported everything I've learned about you."
"I know."
Rukia blinked. "You know?"
"You spent days deciding whether we were dangerous. If you'd told them everything immediately, somebody else would've shown up by now."
She looked away.
Confirmation.
"I can't ask you to keep hiding it forever," Ren said. "And I won't show you something that forces you to choose between us and your duty without thinking through what happens next."
Rukia studied him for several seconds.
"So what are you asking?"
"Let me think about it."
"How long?"
"I don't know."
She frowned.
"Honest answer."
That stopped her.
Then Rukia sighed and sheathed her sword.
"Very well. I can wait."
Ren relaxed slightly.
"But if the mental shutdowns worsen, or another Shadow begins turning into a Hollow, we revisit this immediately."
"Fair."
"And you tell me when you've decided."
"I will."
Rukia nodded.
"Then I trust you."
The world stopped.
Blue light spread across Ren's vision.
A Tarot card turned in the air.
The Moon.
I am thou. Thou art I.
Thou hast established a new bond. It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.
With the birth of the Moon Persona, thou hast obtained the blessing that leads to freedom and new power.
The card dissolved.
Time resumed.
Rukia was staring at him.
"What just happened?"
Ren blinked.
"Reality assigned you a Tarot card."
"Which one?"
"The Moon."
Rukia's face flattened.
"The Arcana associated with fear, illusion and uncertainty."
"It fits."
"Amamiya."
"Also intuition. Moving when you can't see the entire road. Trusting what you know without pretending it's proof."
Rukia paused.
"That is slightly better."
"You're welcome."
"Lady Orihime kissed him," Morgana announced.
Rukia heard a loud meow.
Rukia looked down at him. "What did he say?"
"Nothing."
Morgana meowed again.
Louder.
Rukia narrowed her eyes. "Your face is doing something."
Ren started walking.
"We should continue the patrol."
"Amamiya."
"Hollows to hunt."
Morgana chased after him, laughing.
Rukia followed.
Still asking what the cat had said.
Ren refused to translate.
He had enough problems tonight.
---