HEY SINCE YOU ASKED 💬 + Akechi FOR REN, POST-P5
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Ren lay upon his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The setting sun shone softly through the window of his attic abode, eyes watching the dust dancing through the sunbeams. Fleeting and Impossible to catch, he raises his hand anyway.
Of course, the movement simply scatters them through the air.
He knew that from the start.
". . . Goro Akechi. . . to think, this whole time you and I were both locked up." -- he clenches his fist as a flash of anger takes hold - rememebering the face of the man who put him where he is now. "..and it was the same damn bastard that held the keys."
He lets his arm fall to his side, letting out a resigned sigh. This night was his last night here before moving back with his parents. He was moving away from his new family, his friends, his life as a phantom thief. Moving on.
Moving on. They would still all be friends, obviously - so why does it sting? Why does this pain continue in his chest?
He's just moving on. It's not hard. It shouldn't be hard. They'll still all be. . .
'No. Not all of us.'
Some part of him wished - despite knowing how backwards it is - that it was the real him in that interrogation room. To see Akechi; to hear what he would happily say, knowing it would never escape his lips afterwards. To see him alive as the last thing, and never go through the pain of losing him.
Maybe some real part of him DID die in that interrogation room. Something he would never get back.
it was unfair. There were so few people that Ren could fully trust with who he was - so few that they were all so important to him. And yet one of them never even revealed that fact until it was too late.
"To think he was so close by...yet so far away the entire time. Now that's unfair..." Ren's voice is quiet as he talks to no one - absolutely no one - as the only person he wants to talk to right now is no longer here.
But if he was...what would he say?
"It's stupid, isn't it? You said you hated me. From the way you worded it, you made me out like the ultimate inversion of yourself. That I was the scum of the world that held everything you craved in my hands."
"...then, I must have stolen it all, right? Like a real Phantom Thief, right? So maybe I did. Maybe I have everything you've ever wanted, and I don't deserve a single ounce of it. It's all rightfully yours - so come and take it. Come on! Goro Akechi - If i'm so despicable, then come out and take what you want! Take it!! Come and get it for yourself!" He yells fruitlessly into the empty room - a room now almost empty of any of his own belongings.
(There's nothing here TO take.)
Ren falls quiet, acutely aware that if anyone was listening ,they would think him insane. Even so, he continues on, letting his idle thoughts spill over - airing his grievances to the world. Lest they build up inside him like a rust that grinds against his every thought.
"...I've still got your glove, dumbass. Isn't your hand cold without it?"
..and so it went on. One man's ramblings of words unsaid. At times, he laughed at how stupid it all was. At times, he raged at how unfair it all was. He shouted and demanded that the one lost to him come back and pay for what he did.
Until finally...he fell silent. His energy exhausted, the siren song of sleep finally overcame him. In the silence, another voice speaks...
"Maybe this'll give you some sense of closure on this. Sorry. After all the work you put in for me, I'm still not strong enough to face you on this head-on." Futaba slips something under Ren's door, before tiptoeing back down the stairs, whispering aloud to herself. "I really wish I could say 'I care about him too.' or 'I wish he was still alive too.' "
"...But I can't. I hope you can forgive me for that."
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laying silent on the floor, peeking out under the door in Ren's room....A mock-up calling card. One that calls for an end, one that - just like a real one -- manifests and realises the truth and solidifies 'the way things are' .
Maybe with this, Joker can but put to rest along side Crow. And Ren can continue to live on without Goro Akechi. The heart of Ren Amamiya has already been taken - and the one who stole it is no longer with us; and won't becoming back.
