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Mishima had been doing pretty well recently. School let out with him comfortably in the top forty in the finals. Which means his allowance was a little nicer than it normally was, which gave him the free time and money necessary to make his Phantom Thief documentary like he wanted. Plus only after some light chastising from Ren about the way he was gathering information, the first two parts were released without a hitch.
Well, mostly without a hitch, the first part needed more persuading to get certain testimonies from people that were publicly saved by the Phantom Thieves, since there was no available evidence that he'd do it right. But once that was done? Smooth sailing.
Beyond that awkward miscommunication with the Shogi player, of course. Luckily the slap only left a mark for the day and they still parted on mostly professional terms. Oh, and the former yakuza who nearly ripped his head off after a unthoughtful comment about his son. And also accidentally saying something really rude to the journalist about- well.
Mostly smooth sailing.
But hey! Those first two were even doing really well! Plenty of views, a bunch of positive feedback, a few trolls as you expect on any internet video, but so few it's easy to moderate. It even broke free of Japan and went global to an extent, if the analytics were to be trusted. Turns out the americans also really like the Thieves. He's even been lucky enough to have received several kind donations from anonymous individuals to help fund him doing this project.
He had his suspicions of who they were, but considering those were based on whoever was working with the Phantoms as their hacker it made him keep quiet about it. They'd cracked his phansite and upgraded the security to a stupid degree and so when asked from an anonymous message sent at 2 am said, 'you should mind your business to make sure we don't have to **** with you', so it made sense to not look a gift horse in the mouth exactly. So those donations were exactly why he found himself currently waiting on a train to arrive so he could take a trip out of his way to Akihabara. Today was the day he'd finally have enough points at Alice's Apron to get the special menu!
Of course, he'd feel bad about using this money to fund his meal trip if that's all he was doing, so he'd reached out to one of the confidants within the Phantom Thieves, Shinya Oda. Interesting story, that one. The King himself needed help from the Thieves with something, and while he was unwilling to go into too much detail, having a local legend essentially acting as a guest star was sure to boost his series even further.
Turns out when you make a successful documentary, a lot of the research gets done itself when interested parties contact you instead of making you dig around to find information that could be construed as spying to your phantom thief friend, which is bad.
Oops, train's here and waiting. Probably should have thought about doing the final check before getting on but oh well. Let's see, laptop in bag, full charge, check. Phone with sample of censored audio to cover their identity, check. Mic to record further info, check. All that's left now is...
Thoughts all grind to a halt when his eyes, searching for a seat, lands instead on them.
A pair of girls, roughly his age, and they are the prettiest girls he's ever seen. A taller girl with raven black hair in a style he thinks is called a wolfcut reaching down to her back, as she wore what could charitably be called a sexy cop cosplay. Dark lipstick staining the middle of a sucker stick. Legs crossed with a presence that screams she's dangerous, knows it, and loves it. She fiddles with her phone as Mishima struggles to form coherent thoughts at the sight of her.
Next to her, a girl wearing a Shujin uniform (?) with short blonde hair in a pixie cut, sitting with her legs spread, modesty only protected by the long skirt she wore. Every bit of her practically screamed delinquent. She also has her eyes glued to her phone as she scrolls through some social media with her brow knitted together in frustration at whatever she saw there.
The train car continues down the line, as though the entire world didn't just change in front of him staring at these girls. Ren probably would have something to say about staring at girls and how that makes them uncomfortable but right now it really isn't an option.
Doing his best to get his own thoughts back on track he takes a moment to consider the only available clue to these beautiful girls. The Shujin uniform.
There's only two blondes at Shujin and this certainly isn't Ann, could there be a new transfer student moving in this next school year? If so, how did she get her uniform so early, and why wear it in the summer? If he could summon the strength to take a step forward he might be able to see what year they're in for an additional clue but he's having a hard enough time just standing still.
He really should have listened and gone to the optometrist to get his eyes checked, maybe if he had glasses or contacts he'd be able to see from here.
Though the raven-haired girl must have felt someone's eyes on her weak as they are, because she snapped her head to look up at the others in the train car before locking eyes with Mishima. Both stared each other down, her unwilling to break eye contact, him unable to even as he feels the blush rolling up his neck and burning his face as he struggles to think of anything to do, anything he could say.
Say nothing and you lose your chance to talk to her, say something and risk being known, would she even care about anyone like him? Considering his luck not likely. The painful seconds of indecision on his part pass before a smirk slowly crosses her lips, a face like every femme fatale he's ever seen all coalsced into a single, dangerous woman on the subway train. All this build up and Mishima had no idea what was going to happen.
But then the moment was broken when the Shujin-dressed student barks out a laugh before showing her phone to her friend, who's own sonorous laugh worms its way into poor Mishima's brain and stays there, echoing from one side to the other, threatening to never leave.
He always did have a weakness for deep voiced women and lord her voice was down there. Deep and husky.
With her laugh distracting him so, he didn't even notice the train pulling into the next station until both girls grabbed their bags and went to leave. As he watched them go, Raven with heels, Blonde with sneakers, the juxtaposition enough to keep from staring at their backsides too long, his eyes trail back up to the one who saw him and gave him a wink, leaving his face burning even hotter.
He was left in a daze for who knows how long before an announcement rang through the train car informing him he has now reached Akihabara. Trying and failing to shake Raven's laugh from his head, he steps out into the busy station.
How he's meant to conduct an interview after everything that transpired on that train is beyond him, maybe if it goes poorly enough he can just reschedule. Kids are known to have an abundance of patience, right? How much time does he have before they were supposed to start again? Maybe doing something really dull would help shake him from her grip she had on his mind.
Hours Later
Ren had spent the last few hours mulling over just how he'd roll with this, knowing for a fact that Mishima saw both him and Ryuji out and about in drag, and finally deciding he didn't really care about more rumors about him being spread around, but would try to convince The Moon to not out Ryuji. He only just became comfortable enough with their shared hobby to go out dressed as he is, having that ruined for him would really suck.
But then something strange happened.
Before he could send a message off to Mishima, the excitable computer whiz sent him a panicked message first.
Documentarian: Ren! Yourstill up to date on shujjin stuf right? Do you know about any new students that are blomde? Saw a girl on the train with a friend and they were so pretty dude
Wait, he didn't know it was us? Huh. Well if that's so, then... I guess step one is play dumb.
Mark Hamill, or perhaps Heath Ledger: Not that I'm aware of, what makes you think she was a Shujin student though?
Documentarian: she was wearing the unform! She also had a friend who had really long black hair who winked at me! I think I moght have a chance if I can find them
Well then, that solves that I guess.
The wink was meant to be conspiratorial, he hoped it would at least keep his mouth shut until they could talk about it. But he couldn't tell who they were? There's only two blondes in Shujin, and Taiga happened to look exactly like a girl Ryuji. Poor guy's gonna go looking for that girl for who knows how long.
Mark Hamill, or perhaps Heath Ledger: Okay but why would she wear the uniform if it's summer break? Maybe she was just playing dress up.
A little too close to the actual truth, but they were already playing with fire here and it's not like this gambit has ever backfired on him, so why not?
Documentarian: darn thats a good point, im stil gonna keep looking into them though, you have no idea how pretty they were
Mark Hamill, or perhaps Heath Ledger: Good luck.
Taking a moment to see if that's where the conversation ended, he watched as Mishima thought to type something out but then thought better of it and went offline. He then looked up Ryuji's number and gives him a call.
After a few rings Ryuji picks up with the response expected of him. "Dude I swear you're the only person under 40 who still calls people on the phone."
"Yeah yeah listen, next time we head out you're going to have to pick something other than the Shujin uniform for Taiga, it's fine the one time but it's summer."
No need to tell him about Mishima right? Would he want to know he's so pretty it gave their classmate a mission to discover more about who she was? Probably not, right? Navigating this stuff was always easier back in Inaba where he had like, three friends total.
Speaking of, he should call Nanako up later, see how she's been doing.
But before Ryuji could respond, there was a crash of something over the line and a very familiar voice in the background screaming. Most of what she was saying was getting lost before it got to Ren, but he had a pretty good idea what was happening.
Ryuji does his best to talk over the cacophony, "Yeah well, it's not like I'm gonna be able to anyways, Ann somehow found out I borrowed it and threw a fit."
Another bout of shouting that Ryuji does his best to ignore. Thank god she doesn't have access to a fire demon anymore, this could have escalated a lot more.
"Wait, you took it from her without asking first? Of course she'd hate that man."
"Well she wasn't supposed to be able to find out!"
"Ryuji."
"What?"
"Futaba."
"Oh."
How is it that Ryuji continues forgetting what all his friends are capable of? To help prove this point, both Ryuji and Ren's phone buzz, and despite both of them knowing who sent the message and both being reasonably able to figure out the content of the text, they take a break in their conversation to look at the text from Futaba. It contains a custom-made animated smirking emoji with a middle finger behind it growing bigger before it loops.
Right.
"Whatever man, I got another outfit coming in the mail with my 777 money, are you gonna go as Akari again?"
"Nah I've got another character I wanna try on. Talk to you later."
"Yeah, bye." As the click of the phone disconnects Ren is sure he heard the sound of a very strong slap ring out. Ann must have really disliked being ignored as she got her satisfaction.
Hanging up, Ren places his phone back down next to the bed Haru bought him back when he was still here under probation and took a moment to himself. He should probably give Ann a call and apologize for his part in this once she's had a minute to calm down. He really doesn't want her thinking he was complicit with that particular theft, especially considering their double date with Shiho and Haru was coming up, that could go wrong very quickly. Sure that means he'd be selling Ryuji out to take the heat off himself, but after that one shared trip to the batting cages ended with them running from Takato, he did owe Ren this at least.
What a nightmare that was.
This momentary planning session was interrupted by the childlike voice of his stalwart companion and sleep manager.
"I still can't believe you and Ryuji dress up like girls for fun." The disdain in his little kitty face was always so cute, Ren couldn't even be annoyed when he was acting so superior doing it.
"I still can't believe you don't wear any clothes at all."
As quick witted as the retort was, it seemed to make Morgana a little self-conscious as he looks down to his well-maintained nude form in silence. Feeling bad about it, Ren decides to try and make peace with an offer.
"You know there's a pet shop that sells little bow tie collars if you think that would help. You do already have the tuxedo for it."
Morgana never liked wearing collars, since he was his own person and wanted to keep a healthy distance between himself and actual cats, but a tie might be fine.
"Okay, but that'll have to be tomorrow, it's getting pretty late, let's call it a day and go to bed."
There's something so comforting about returning to a routine, even if thay routine is unnecessary and annoying.
"Well if we went to bed now, that means I won't be able to call Ann up and talk to her on speaker phone."
Quick to change his tune if it means talking to Ann, Morgana agrees to push back their bedtime until the sun is actually down.