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Chapter 6: Accomplices

Summary:

The Fool's Journey truly begins.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It’s like flicking a light switch. There’s no sense of time passing, one moment she’s in the castle, the next she’s blinking blearily at the ceiling of a room that smells like antiseptic. She goes to rub her temples, but finds a wad of bandages in the way. Ren groans.

Shit. How am I going to explain this?

“You’re awake!” A familiar voice shouts, causing Ren to startle.

Morgana scrambles up on to the bed with a noticeable lack of grace. His head has been wrapped in bandages, pinning one of his ears down, the other poking out at a slightly uncomfortable angle. He kind of looks like a Russian grandma. One of his paws is wrapped in a pink cast and the very end of his tail has a ball of bandages on it.

“Listen up! The official story is you found some jerks tormenting a cat and stepped in,” Morgana tells her quickly. “You got them to back off but got messed up in the process. Ann and Ryuji stumbled across you and brought you home. I’m the cat. Well, not… it’s a role. You get what I mean.”

The second Morgan finishes explaining the door opens, then in steps a woman in a lab-coat, a choker and black platform heels. She looks like she belongs in a tattoo parlor rather than a doctor’s office.  In other words she’s exactly Ren’s type and unfairly pretty to boot. Ren can admit that her heart may have skipped a beat.

“I see that you’re awake. How are you feeling?” the woman asks.

“What’s you favorite band?” Ren blurts.

Smooth, Ren, real smooth.

“Psychedelic Porn Crumpets,” the woman replies while flipping through her clipboard. “Though I’ve been listening to Viagra Boys lately.”

Fuck, she’s so cool, Ren thinks before letting her head slump back on to the pillow.

“Seems like the painkiller is working at least,” the woman mumbles to herself before sitting down in an office chair across from the bed and crossing her legs. “I’m Doctor Tae Takemi and this is my clinic. Do you know how you got here?”

“Assume it had something to do with those assholes that were messing up the little guy here,” Ren lies while limply gesturing to Morgana. “He gonna be ok?”

“I’m fine,” Morgana replies. “You got the worst of it.”

“He’s fine,” Takemi unknowingly echoes. “But you should really be worrying about yourself.”

Ren nearly replies ‘I’m alright,’ on reflex, but manages to stop herself because if that were true she clearly wouldn’t be here. Instead she just nods.

Takemi runs her through a few tests, including that stethoscope breathing thing every doctor does, which Ren tries very hard to act normal during.

“What’s the verdict?” Ren asks once it’s all over.

“A minor concussion, a couple of bad bruises and small lacerations, and that cut on your forearm which was the worst of it. That one needed stitches.”

“Huh,” Ren says while eying the length of bandage afixed to her arm.

“Something wrong?” Takemi asks.

“Thought they got me worse than that,” Ren admits with a bit of chagrin.

“Ryuji and Ann healed us as best they could before taking us out of the Metaverse,” Morgana explains.

“I think your cat is trying to tell you that what you’ve got is bad enough as is,” Takemi scolds with narrowed eyes. “Anyway, your guardian’s waiting out front and you’re fine to go home so long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

Ren is more than happy to get out of here before she embarrasses herself further in front of the hot punk-rock doctor. She stands with only a bit of unsteadiness and gently scoops up Morgana before shuffling after Takemi.

She’s a bit surprised to see Sojiro as the only person in the lobby.

“Where’s Blond and Blonder?”

“If you’re talking about your friends, I sent them home,” Sojiro answers gruffly. “They were dead on their feet.”

“I can imagine,” Morgana mumbles. “Those were some pretty intense awakenings.”

The rest of the process goes smoothly. They fill out some forms and end up assigning Takemi as Ren’s new general practitioner in the process. It turns out she’s overdue for a physical, so Ren walks out with a follow up appointment next week, which she tries not to feel nervous about.

They ask what happened of course, and Ren expands on Ann and Ryuji’s excuse to spin a story about coming across a trio of rich looking teens filming themselves tormenting a cat. Ren intervened, one of them was carrying a pocket knife to torture the cat with, they scuffled, Ren got cut badly across the forearm, the teens panicked and ran after beating her badly enough to make sure she couldn’t follow.

Lying isn’t that hard. It’s a skill any kid with controlling parents picks up on over time. You just need to come up with a believable alternative to reality, one close enough that you can pretend to exist in it for a little while. It’s like acting, but easier, because the person you’re playing is yourself.

“You should go to the police,” Takemi tells her.

“No point.”

“How?”

“They were wearing face masks, but even if the cops track them down it’s my word against theirs. A girl on probation against a three kids with enough money to feel comfortable recording themselves torturing animals. Who do you think is going to come out on top in that story?”

Takemi scowls but doesn't bring it up again.

“Alright kid,” Sojiro says with a sigh. “Let’s get you home.”

They slowly shuffle back to Leblanc together, Sojiro doing so because of his age, Ren because of her injuries. They spend the walk in silence, and the beratement she’s expecting doesn’t come, even when the doors of Leblanc shut behind them.

“You know my number?” Sojiro asks.

Ren grunts in affirmation.

“Call me if you need help.”

Ren grunts again. “You gonna tell my probation officer about this?”

“Does getting into a fight to protect a cat violate the terms of your probation?”  Sojiro asks while shuffling behind the bar and pulling out a log book. It’s not the one he’s supposed to use to keep a record about Ren’s behavior, he doesn’t keep that one in the shop. Ren knows because she’s looked.

“Not sure. Nobody ever showed me the actual papers.”

“I haven’t managed to get a hold of them either,” Sojiro admits with a scowl. “All I’ve managed to get out of the guy are some guidelines and some of them don’t even make sense.” Sojiro continues writing something for a bit before sighing and looking up. “Who the hell did you piss off, kid?”

“Somebody more important than me, apparently,” Ren replies with ill concealed bitterness.

Sojiro gives her a long look then turns away, mumbling to himself as he sets the cafe in order to open tomorrow morning. For lack of anything better to do, Ren sits at the bar and watches him.

Neither Ren nor Sojiro bring up the cat still cradled in her arms.

 

In the dark of the night, Ren stares at the attic ceiling. Maybe its because of the time she spent passed out, but she can’t seem to fall asleep.

She tried to chat a bit with Morgana earlier, but the not-cat was unusually forceful in telling her to be quiet and sleep. She pulled out her phone to scroll through the news mindlessly for a bit, but Morgana physically batted it out of her hands the moment the screen turned on.

Now the cat on the window sill has dropped into sleep, but Ren is still awake, alone with only her thoughts for company. Usually that’s not so bad. But tonight her mind keeps coming back to the same question over and over again, like water circling a drain.

‘This is just how I am,’ she had told Ann. But is that really true?

Ren’s spent the past few months desperately struggling not to give up on the human race, because if it’s all beyond saving, what’s the point in anything? At that point she may as well give up and become another run of the mill, every-day nihilist, shuffling back and forth in her routines and living without leaving behind so much as a ripple.

But in the rush of finally being able to do something, maybe she forgot why she was struggling so desperately in the first place. After all, you don’t need hope if you have power. If she’s strong enough to change the world by herself, she doesn’t need the rest of humanity to be redeemable enough to make things better on their own.

Ren sighs.

This didn’t start when she got her Persona. She’s been slipping into cynicism for a long time. She’s fought hard to keep her head above water even as everyone she knew turned on her. Viciousness and scorn became her armor.

A quiet part of her knew that she was changing for the worse, but a louder part of her insisted that she didn’t have a choice. It was the nameless man who did this to her, it was he who reduced her to this. Every barb she slung, every hateful thought boiling in her skull, it was all because of him. Suffering begets suffering. The evil inside her did not originate from her, it is an infection, an intrusion by the rotten world around her. Ren can’t possibly be held accountable for it. She’s blameless.

The lying woman probably convinced herself of something similar, didn’t she?

In the quiet of the attic, with Morgana sleeping soundlessly on the window sill, Ren can admit that she doesn’t like the person she is right now.

It’s strange. The moment she tore that mask off her face, Ren felt like everything suddenly made sense. Like she had found her true self and her true purpose, and that all she had to do was keep pushing forward.

Awakening is but a single moment of defiance, Moriarty quietly muses. A glimpse of what might be. The first shot rather than the victory cry. The world still wears away at us every day, just as it always has, so we must fight back just as doggedly, in each and every moment.

You must not let this world shape you. You must retain yourself, even as time and monotony and weariness grind ceaselessly at your resolve. This too is another battlefield upon which your war must be waged. It is perhaps the most important one of all.

Ren’s fingers curl into fists. Moriarty is right, she knows that. She just has to keep reminding herself. This dark and poisonous sludge pooling in her heart, this cloud of bitterness and resentment swirling in her brain… it’s not defiance. It’s surrender. Ren can’t change the world if she succumbs to its evil in the process.

But that begs the question, of course. If not this, who is she supposed to be?

Moriarty doesn’t have an answer for her, not that she expected him to. It’s the question of a lifetime, after all.

 

On Monday morning Ren opens Leblanc’s door and finds two blonds waiting outside for her, Ryuji hunched over with his hands in his pockets, Ann standing with her hands on her hips. Both of them have defiance in their eyes.

“We’re going with you,” Ann says forcefully.

Ren studies the two of them wordlessly. She may be an asshole, but she’s not stupid. The two of them proved themselves yesterday. No one has ever spelled it for her, but Ren knows with undeniable certainty that not just anyone can obtain a Persona. It takes a certain mindset. Ann and Ryuji have their own convictions, their own rebellions, and they’re willing to risk their lives for it. Ren can respect that.

Your thoughts, Moriarty?

They have demonstrated potential as useful assets. More importantly, they seem to share your cause. To be a proper Mastermind, one must have collaborators.

Ren mulls it over a moment longer as she studies their determined expressions, but the decision has already been made.

“You’re still a pair of reckless idiots,” Ren tells them bluntly. “If we do this, we do this my way. You can argue and talk back all you want, but if I tell you to do something in the moment I expect you to do it. Anything else and we’re done. Got that?”

Ren looks each of them in the eyes hard, but neither back down.

“Alright,” she pronounces. “Let’s go.”

Whatever seriousness the two hold disappears instantly as Ann pumps a fist and Ryuji whoops in excitement.

“Eff yeah!”

“Yes!”

Ryuji holds a hand up high and Ann slaps her palm against it forcefully. Time freezes for a moment, and the twin’s voices invade her head once more.

 

I am thou, thou art I.

Thou has acquired a new vow. It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Lovers and Chariot Personas I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom, and new power.

 

Time unfreezes, and Ren discretely scowls and shakes her head in a vain attempt to wipe away the twin’s influence. Ryuji and Ann don’t notice, too busy being public embarrassments together.

Suddenly Ryuji turns to her and holds his hand up again. Ren gives him the flattest look she can, but Ryuji’s shit-eating grin doesn’t waver in the slightest.

“C’mon, man! You’re not the kind of girl to leave a guy hanging, are you?”

Ren turns around and walks away without a word. For some reason the two seem to find this hilarious, and they fall into step behind her with poorly suppressed laughter.

“So what’s the plan?” Ryuji asks with excitement. “We’re going after that fake Kamoshida, right?”

“That thing is his Shadow. We’re going to take down both him and his real-world counterpart at once,” Ren tells him. “Morgana, you mind explaining?”

Morgana pops his head out of Ren’s bag, facing backwards so he can look Ann and Ryuji in the eye.

“We’re going to steal his heart!” The not-cat exclaims cheerfully.

Morgana quickly gives them the rundown while Ren navigates them towards the train station. With Morgana and the blonds occupied, Ren has time to consider these new bonds.

The Lovers and The Chariot…

The former stands for choices, having the strength to move forward and sacrifice other opportunities in doing so. The latter stands for the drive and ability to achieve victory, assertion over one’s surroundings and self.

How do you know all that?

Instinct.

By the time they pass into the station proper, the two are fully caught up.

“So he’ll just confess everything?” Ann sums up. “He won’t be evil anymore?”

“That’s only if we succeed,” Ren reminds them. She’ll need to bring up the chance they’ll kill him in the process, but that’s not a conversation for public venues, even with the bustling of the crowd swallowing their words.

“I think we can do it,” Ryuji says. “We’ve already seen his strongest soldiers, right? Those big demon knight guys. We can already take those guys down.”

“That’s assuming he’s not holding anything back,” Ren says, but privately she doesn’t find it very likely. She certainly wouldn’t, not in that situation.

Morgana ducks his head back into her bag as they scan their passes and approach the train.

“So are we going in today?” Ann asks with an undercurrent of anticipation.

“Yes, but we’re not going to be playing around in there,” Ren says. “You two are strong, but it takes more than that. We’ll get you up to speed first, make sure we can work together well. When I decide you’re ready, then we can get serious.”

Ann and Ryuji both deflate a bit, but they don’t complain.

They seem surprisingly willing to follow my lead.

Reckless though your actions might be, you have proven yourself to them and won a modicum of respect in the process, Moriarty lectures steadily. Cultivate that respect into loyalty, and in time they will become as indispensable as your hands and feet.

The train doors close behind them, and Morgana pokes his head back out from her bag. “Prepare yourself newbies!” he says cheerfully, “We’re not going to go easy on you!”

“Bring it, cat!” Ryuji says with a grin.

I am not a cat!” Morgana screeches loud enough to draw gazes from their fellow passengers. Ann panics and lunges to shove his head back in Ren’s bag, only causing Morgana to protest more emphatically.

They have a long way to go, Ren thinks with a mental sigh.

All in due time, Moriarty replies carelessly. The Mastermind wins by seeing beyond the ken of the common herd, always playing the long game, always searching for opportunities to expand their reach and deepen their influence. This cabal of Thieves has only just begun, but in time? It may become something capable of shaking the world.

Notes:

Today’s theme is Nobody Likes The Opening Band by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

Thus ends the first half of arc one. I may or may not take a break from uploads next week but when I do come back we’ll be back with Akira and Shiho. Look forward to it.

Comments and criticism are appreciated, whether negative or positive.