Work Text:
In the end, it shouldn't have been so hard to pin down Ren Amamiya. He wasn't in hiding; he didn't shy away from being out in public; he wasn't keeping a low profile in his university. Not only that, but Haru and Makoto had willingly joined the Shadow Operatives, and they were still in contact with him. Giving Mitsuru Kirijo an opportunity to speak with him should not have been difficult.
Yet somehow, it proved to be nearly impossible.
Despite Haru and Makoto's best intentions, Ren seemed to possess the uncanny ability to shut down conversations about the Shadow Operatives before they even started. Haru tried to ask him over tea and meetings in cafes, using gentle diplomacy and easy segues, but Ren would always find a way to redirect the course of conversation before Haru could even utter the word "Shadow" at him.
Makoto, meanwhile, preferred a more direct route, but every time she tried to bring them up, Ren would distract her with a question, or a story, or bring up something that would cause her to be unable to interject.
Kirijo jokingly said it was due to some strange reality warping side effect of being a Wildcard that made Haru and Makoto's attempts end in abject failure each time.
If that were true, Goro postulated, then that meant Goro himself should have also possessed some sort of reality warping power as well. After all, he was still a Wildcard. But even without reality warping powers, Goro believed he had the best chance of cornering Ren to arrange a meeting—Goro was once the detective that almost brought down the Phantom Thieves.
And even though Goro was no longer a detective—and depending on who you asked, never was a real detective—he still possessed a detective's keen mind and intuition. More importantly, he also had the experience of pursuing Ren in the past, as well as the knowledge of who Ren was and how he worked.
In the end, Goro and Ren had come to understand each other in a way that no one else could. They were two sides of the same coin. Thief and detective. Thesis and antithesis. Hunter and prey.
A perfect match.
There was no one better in the world to capture Ren Amamiya than Goro Akechi.
It was long past time for a new game to start anyway.
— — —
September, 2020
The start of a new semester right after an exciting summer was always a drag. Doubly so in his third year of university, because all of Ren's classes had amped up in difficulty and investment time. The single class he took primarily for fun ended up being one of the most intense, and by the time Ren's classes finished for the week on Friday, he was ready to pass out and sleep through all of Saturday.
Though early in the month, a chill in the breeze was already signalling the start of fall. Ren yawned, shivered a bit from the chill, then zipped up his hoodie and took three steps to the right so he could wait in the sun as the crosswalk light changed to red. The early afternoon sun was lower than he was used to after three months of summer, but it felt wonderful on his back. Even Morgana stuck his body out from Ren's bag, front paws holding on to Ren's shoulders as he soaked in the warmth and sunlight with his black fur.
Ren resisted the urge to yawn again as the warm sun intensified his urge to nap. Instead, he looked across the street, scanning the people waiting there in between the gaps of traffic. There was a young office woman urgently speaking into a cell phone next to a lamp post, a bored looking teenager who was probably on his way to an after school job, a man with sunglasses nodding along enthusiastically to whatever he was listening to on his headphones, Goro Akechi, a middle aged woman—
Wait.
Goro Akechi.
Goro was staring at Ren from across the street. Ren felt his eyes widen and mouth drop open as they locked gazes. Goro gave him a smirk once they did, then his face was hidden behind a delivery truck that drove between them. For a heart-stopping moment, Ren feared that Goro would vanish when the truck finished passing, proving himself to be nothing more than a delusion conjured by Ren's tired mind.
But when the obstruction passed, Goro was still there. Still smirking. His hair was shorter. He looked older. Less tired. Different. Alive.
"Hey," Ren heard Morgana say over the white noise of his thoughts, "is that—?"
The crosswalk light turned green. Ren ran.
Morgana sunk his kitty claws into Ren's shoulder for balance, shouting at him to calm down, but Ren ignored both the pain and the noise. Goro was still on the other side of the street, standing still even as other people began to cross. Then, right as Ren was halfway across, Goro turned and started to run. Ren watched his back as Goro retreated into an alleyway. Dread bubbled up in his stomach, tar-like and caustic.
Ren knew, somehow, that if he lost Goro here, there would not be another chance.
Ren picked up the pace, pushing himself as hard as he could. He shoved past the crowds of people on the sidewalk as he rushed into the alleyway, not bothering to mutter an apology even as people called him out. The alley was narrow, and Goro suddenly took a sharp left, running into a passageway that Ren hadn't noticed before. Ren followed, lungs on fire, but he didn't stop or slow down for anything.
"Ren," Morgana hissed, "what are you doing? This is really suspicious! Even if he's the real Akechi and not some look-alike, this is probably a trap!" His claws sank in a little deeper into Ren's shoulder as Ren leapt over a scattered pile of cardboard boxes. "Are you stupid?!"
He was. There was no innocent reason for Goro to be leading him down a twisting series of alleyways in the backstreets of Shibuya. There was no easy way to explain how there were fewer and fewer people around the longer Ren ran after Goro. There was almost nothing good about the whole situation save the fact that Goro was there. Ahead of Ren. Just slightly out of reach.
Goro veered sharply to the right. Ren slid a little trying to turn to keep up.
"Good grief," Morgana muttered, then he shimmied back into Ren's bag. "You better know what you're getting us into!"
Ren had no idea. He didn't really care.
He continued running after Goro. The main streets of Shibuya were a fair distance away, yet the tall shadows of the buildings there still covered the quiet side streets. The sunlight slanted through whatever crevices in the skyline it could, and each time they passed through the light, Ren felt as if they became a little bit more removed from reality. The shadows of skyscrapers taunted him with reminders of the bustling city he was supposed to be in. The dead silence of abandoned storefronts whispered to him that he was in a place he did not belong.
Finally, after crossing an empty street that probably saw no traffic other than lost delivery trucks, Ren found Goro at a dead end alleyway. The alleyway had been unused for so long that it didn't even smell of garbage. A few empty boxes of produce shook in the breeze; dried husks filled with the memories of what once had been a living market space.
Ren had no idea where they were. It didn't matter.
His lungs burned with both chill and exhaustion. Goro barely looked better, slightly slumped over and breathing heavily. But he was there. Alive. Looking right into Ren's eyes with a guarded expression.
"Goro," Ren gasped between deep breaths.
Goro let out a short, insincere laugh. "Ren. Long time no see."
In the years that passed since they had last seen each other—when they all mutually agreed to end the false dream and return to reality regardless of the consequences—Ren had come up with a near infinite number of scenarios for if he and Goro were ever to meet again. They ranged from punching him to hugging him; from yelling at him to quietly talking with him; from fighting him to kissing him, and nearly everything in between.
But actually having Goro in front of him, both of them trying to catch their breaths after a prolonged chase in what felt like the only completely abandoned section in Shibuya, was not something Ren had ever imagined. He was lost. He had no idea what he wanted to say, never mind how to say it.
Morgana, however, did not have such obstacles. He popped out of Ren's bag, staring at Goro. "Akechi. What are you up to?"
Goro let out another mirthless laugh. "Morgana, you wouldn't be so kind as to leave us alone for a while, would you?"
Morgana's fur fluffed up. "Are you serious? You show up after all this time, and you expect me to just leave you alone with Ren?"
Goro shrugged. "It was worth asking."
"I don't believe you!" Morgana yelled. Then his ears flattened. "We thought... After you didn't show up again, after we didn't hear anything about you for so long..."
"I thought you were gone," Ren managed to choke out.
Goro straightened and looked away. "You really think I'm that weak," he said quietly. "You thought I died in Shido's palace, then you thought I died when Maruki's twisted world collapsed." He let out a bitter chuckle. "You really think so little of me."
"What else was I supposed to think?!" Ren shouted, balling his hands into fists. He took a sharp breath in, still not having recovered from the chase. "If you were alive, why didn't you let us know? I— We were worried about you!"
"That's precisely why I didn't contact you; I needed neither your pity nor your concern."
Ren took a step forward, heedless of whatever traps Goro may have laid. "So you just let me think you were dead instead?"
"You're the one who thought I was dead," Goro snapped, still not looking at Ren. "It's not my fault you jumped to the wrong conclusion."
Ren was going to scream. Ren did scream. "What else was I supposed to think?!"
"You were supposed to think," Goro yelled back, finally looking at him again, "that our promise meant something to me! I told you that we'd have our rematch one day. I swore it to you; I gave you physical proof of how much I meant it. I wouldn't break a promise like that by dying, and it sickens me to know that you think I would." He breathed in deeply. When he spoke again, his voice was calm but laced with barely restrained tension. "Or did you forget?"
"I never forgot," Ren said through gritted teeth. "There wasn't a single day when I didn't think about it or you."
They fell silent, staring at each other as they stood with shaking limbs. The tension was barely being held back. Ren couldn't bring himself to say anything else, and he knew that Goro felt the same.
Once again, it was Morgana that broke the silence. "Akechi, what do you want? Why did you bring us here?"
Goro closed his eyes. Ren watched him take several deep breaths, shuddering each time on the exhale, until some of the tension in his limbs dissipated. "I brought you here," he said, voice calm, "to have a conversation."
"Good," Ren said, struggling to bring the emotions boiling over in his heart down to a simmer. "I have a lot I want to say to you."
Goro opened his eyes and chuckled, meeting Ren's gaze. The afternoon sun had sunk even further, and the amber sunlight hit Goro in a way that made his eyes blood red. They were beautiful—he was beautiful—but that beauty existed alongside no small amount of menace.
There was still the possibility that this was all a trap.
"I'm not the one," Goro said slowly, a smug grin blossoming on his face as he spoke, "that you're going to be talking to."
Ren realized it was a trap at the same moment he heard a vehicle pull up behind him. He turned sharply and found a long stretch limousine occupying the street, cutting off the only easy avenue out of the alleyway. The limousine was still slowing down, and Ren looked around in desperation, seeking another means of escape.
"I knew it," Morgana hissed. "Akechi! You'd really do this to him?"
Ren turned back to Goro, who was approaching him with even, methodical steps. "Ren," Goro said, and his name had no right to sound so sweet on Goro's tongue while this was happening, "do you trust me?"
Ren didn't know.
"Of course not," Morgana spoke for him. "Damn it, I can't believe this!"
Goro drew closer, forcing Ren back with each step. He was getting backed up against the limousine, which had come to a full stop. Ren didn't turn around; he couldn't take his eyes off Goro. Someone from inside the limousine had opened the door. Goro was close enough to touch.
The sun was setting. The light was warm. Goro smiled at him, and it took Ren a moment to realize that it was completely sincere. Goro put his hands on Ren's shoulder. Morgana hissed at him, but the hands remained.
"Akechi!" Ren heard a familiar voice say, but he found himself too frozen by Goro's touch to place who it was. "Ren, are you—"
Goro wiped the smile off his face. "He's all yours," he said blankly, then shoved Ren backwards with all his might.
"Akechi!" Ren heard the voice say again, but this time there was a definite note of anger behind it. He fell backwards, into the limousine, and was caught by a pair of arms and what felt like two metal bars.
"Ren," he heard the familiar voice say in panic, "are you all right?"
Ren blinked and stared. "M-Makoto?!"
Makoto looked out past the limousine door, where Goro was shoving Ren's legs all the way inside the limousine with his foot. "Akechi, this isn't how we planned to do this!"
Goro ignored her. Once he made sure that all of Ren was inside the limousine along with the bag holding Morgana, he grabbed the door. "I'll be waiting outside," he said flatly. "Let me know when you're done."
With that, he slammed the limousine door shut.
"Akechi!" Makoto shouted again, then she groaned as she helped Ren sit up and take a seat next to her. "Ren, I am so sorry," she said.
"You're sorry?!" Morgana screeched before wiggling out of Ren's bag. "What the heck are you doing, plotting with Akechi?!"
A woman's voice Ren had never heard before suddenly spoke up. "Did...that cat just talk?"
It was then that Ren finally took notice of the other two occupants of the limousine.
The one who spoke was a gorgeous woman with long, wavy red hair that fell past her waist. She had an aura of austere elegance about her, even with the startled look she was giving Morgana.
The other occupant was a robot. One with a remarkably human face, but the metal body was undeniable, even under the long trench coat. The robot was looking at Morgana, who was sitting on the floor of the limousine.
"Um, meow?" Morgana tried. "N-nya?"
Makoto covered her face with her hands and grumbled. "Morgana, it isn't going to work." She uncovered her face and looked solemnly at Ren. "Let me introduce you. Ren, this is Mitsuru Kirijo and Aigis. They're Persona users. Akechi and I, along with Haru, have been working with them for some time. I— I'm sorry, we didn't mean to keep this a secret, but..."
"Nijima, allow me," Mitsuru Kirijo said. She gave Ren an appraising look, then smiled. "Tell me, Joker. Have you ever heard of the Shadow Operatives?"