Work Text:
Ren’s last day with his friends was spent talking and laughing, taking photos and wandering down the winding streets of his hometown with his friends, showing them the very few sights it had to offer.
Makoto, by his side, was making a list whenever they paused in their meandering journey, because they were also brainstorming. Ren had wanted to come back to his family, he wanted to give his parents one more chance and be with his younger sister for one last year before going to Tokyo for college, but he didn’t have any illusions that coming back to the hometown that had turned its back on him would be easy. And his friends knew he did best when he was given a chance to keep busy. So they were making a scavenger hunt out of Inaba, or something like one. In between bright chatter and laughter and Ann and Ryuji playfully jostling each other around, people would call out things they’d spotted and found curious, or ideas they had for activities, and Makoto would put it on the list.
The absolute first suggestion, the most obvious one, had been for Ren to pick up a part-time job. Beneath that bullet point were at least ten possible jobs they’d either seen advertised or thought might be open, though Ren wasn’t to apply to any today when he had friends to hang out with instead (and had been firmly told that he should limit himself to just one, no more juggling half a dozen jobs). Makoto had starred the ones he was most interested in and crossed off the one or two he’d shot down. He’d looked at Haru with disbelief when she’d suggested looking into the clubs at school, knowing full well what sort of reputation he’d have there, but she’d gently pointed out that his record was now clear and he should at least give it a chance. He’d always enjoyed helping her garden, and he’d been intrigued by the girl keeping Shujin’s newspaper club alive, hadn’t he? A smaller club with open-minded members might give him a warmer welcome than he expected. With that kind of reasoning and Haru’s cheerful smile, he found himself growing more open the idea. Yasogami High did have a small newspaper club his first year, he was pretty sure, and if it was still around and would have him, it might be interesting to put the tips he’d picked up from Ichiko Ohya to good use. It’d be a handy excuse to be poking his nose into things.
A lot of the list counted as ‘poking his nose into things’, little mysteries that the group thought might be interesting to look into. People around town who’d always had curious rumors around them, seedier parts of town–places and people he’d only known through speculative gossip and been warned away from before his arrest, and now realized probably had a worse reputation than was deserved. Probably. (Makoto had made a note that Morgana and Ren were supposed to keep each other from getting into too much trouble, which made him smile wryly that she did, absolutely, expect them to get into some trouble.) Having his friends around helped him look at Inaba with fresh eyes, and he wanted to get to know all of it. It might be smaller than Tokyo, but there were undoubtedly people here who, like he once had, had unfairly lost their place in society. He wanted to help them.
“You want to meddle,” Makoto murmured as she wrote down one of the more innocuous activities. (Ryuji had spotted a trail that Ren hadn't been down since he was little but might be good for running, so he was now tasked to check it out before the athlete visited during Golden Week.)
“Meddling counts as keeping busy,” Ren answered cheekily, and didn’t miss the small tug at the corner of her lips.
There were certain things that stayed off the list completely, being too suspect to put down on paper. Futaba snuck food to Morgana in the Junes food court while giving him hushed instructions. After that black car had tried to tail them in Tokyo, Futaba was now worrying about two of their members being in a different town on their own, especially when Ren had had the highest visibility of the Phantom Thieves. So she was going to ship them a few bugs and equipment to relay their signals back to her, packaged and hidden inside an innocuous container of coffee beans from Leblanc (“don’t tell dad I’m desecrating the coffee”). Ren had orders to plant some near the entry points of his residence so she could monitor for intruders. Morgana was being told to target more interesting places.
Makoto had been reduced to pinching the straw of her soda and looking aggrieved as she caught wind of Futaba’s plans, though she didn’t actually argue. It was Yusuke who brought up objections, quiet over stirs of his tea. “A cat inside a police station would be regarded as highly suspicious.”
“Only if I get spotted! I’m better than that,” Morgana countered from below the table. “Besides, it’d be worse if this guy tried it.”
Ren gave a small hum of agreement to that. He was good at sneaking too, but Morgana was better, could sneak into smaller places to conceal the bugs better. And Morgana wouldn’t be slapped with trespassing if caught.
“We know they’re not above fabricating crimes, so we need to keep tabs on the local police,” Futaba said in an undertone. “Queenie, I’m just going to have a program listening for keywords, I’m not going through all their dirty laundry.”
“That’s not what,” Makoto stopped herself, sighing. “I’m not saying no. I just hate that it seems necessary.”
“Well,” Ren said. “Maybe it won’t be for long. If I can find adults like Sae.”
Makoto gave an amused hum. “'Respectable adults to entrust the future to’? Am I adding that to the list of things to find?”
“We’re trying to keep him busy, Mako, not make him scramble all year,” Ryuji called from opposite on the table, getting a snort from Ann and a light swat to the back of his head.
The list, sans incriminating activities, went tucked into a brand new planner that night after his friends had left. A job, potentially a club, and people to make new deals and new bonds with, places to explore.
His first day without his friends might be a little lonely, but it certainly wasn’t going to be boring. He’d keep busy.