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CHAT LOG
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[Joker] added [ART]
[Skull]
Welcome. Looks like your inspiration is back.
[Dove]
Welcome!
[Panther]
How did you reply so fast?
[Skull]
Digital manga or whatever.
[Hime]
Secret group chat!!
[ART]
Thank you for having me. I saw the, Palace? Was it called? And I vaguely understand what's going on. Thanks, @Joker, for approaching it from an artistic standpoint.
[Joker]
Vague correlation is fun to try to explain. If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.
-[3 laugh reacts]-
[ART]
Would you mind if I came along to see more sometime? I want to understand this better. I believe that, underneath everything, Sensei is still redeemable. A man who could paint Sayuri and evoke such emotion from the viewers... Maybe trauma caused this "distortion"?
---
Ren read the messages with a gentle sigh.
"Looks like he's on the right path."
Morgana furrowed his brows. "What do you mean? You saw those lists of crimes. You know that man is the furthest thing from redeemable."
Ren paused for a moment.
"Do you love the group despite our flaws?"
Morgana was stunned.
In a rare moment of vulnerability, Ren whispered, "I do."
Morgana flattened his ears and replied, "Me too. I kind of get it."
"Madarame is his adopted father. It's much harder for him to accept, despite the suffering he has endured," Ren said quietly as he sat in his bed. "He probably believes that it 'wasn't too bad,' or that he's 'overreacting to normal things.'"
"But—"
Ren shook his head with a smile and rubbed Morgana's head.
"Love is a confusing thing. But when you love someone, you can't help but hope for the best."
"Hope..." Morgana muttered. "I see."
Morgana felt like he could feel Zorro smile. He also felt more settled in his body. It was like... his body was simply a vessel. The shape of his soul was what mattered. It was a blueprint for who the being known as Morgana was. Not in a physical sense, but—
"It's okay, Morgana. We all care about you too, despite the shit we give you."
Morgana didn't even notice he was shaking until Ren picked him up and gently hugged him.
---
The next day, Ren sent the group a message that they would be taking a day or two off. Yusuke let them know that Madarame would be gone for a minimum of a week and a half. That gave them time to work.
Yusuke didn't say anything, but Ren knew it was torture for him not to finish his current art piece.
'He knows it will be taken,' he thought.
'And that hurts him more,' Pixie said in a rare moment of somberness.
'Yeah. Plus, I feel like I'm proj—'
'It doesn't matter. Your experiences show you the pain he is in. Your reflection is something he understands. You were vague. But vague is what artists grasp,' Arsène advised.
'Why else would you connect with the Emperor so fast?' Byakko scoffed.
'Emperor, huh? A new Social Link?'
The Persona didn't respond, but Ren didn't mind. He planned to be friends with Yusuke regardless of his so-called Social Links.
'I still don't understand them.'
'Without yin, yang overflows. Without yang, yin cannot bring life,' Byakko said in a surprisingly gentle way.
What a strange Persona.
---
"I still need to explain Hollows to the group," Ren quietly groaned while absentmindedly staring at the board.
Kawakami was teaching, and she had been somewhat gentler with him. Not putting him on the spot like other teachers did, but allowing him to show his good points in academics and logical expression.
"Ren, why can you switch between weird metaphors, poetic talk, and logical thinking so fast?" Morgana asked with a frown. "Is that constant switch okay for you?"
Ren hummed for a moment. "I don't see why not. I'd rather switch between the two than get stuck in one mindset."
Morgana thought about those words for a moment before changing the topic. "We do need to fill them in about Hollows... but what attracts them?"
"I don't know," Ren said as he watched Orihime stand up and effortlessly answer the question.
'She's a cutie,' Pixie said.
'I thought you were an Ann fan?' Ren said in jest.
Pixie snorted. 'Of course I am! We share the same Arcana!'
Jack Frost let out a loud, squeaky laugh. He sounded like a toy with a pull string on its back that played recordings.
'Hee Ho Hee! Haha! You forgot that I am thou! Hee Ho Hee!'
Pixie started to laugh as Ren put his head down with a blush.
---
Rukia was looking at Ren out of the corner of her eye while listening to the class. Human academics were interesting. Although they hadn't made much headway on the matter of the soul, she truly found physics fascinating. She was also beginning to grow curious about psychology.
'The study of the mind,' she thought with furrowed brows. 'Why does it feel like he's obsessed with it?'
She looked at him again.
He was sitting blankly, lost in thought, occasionally petting and whispering to the cat he sat with. She was almost sure she heard the word "Hollow," which gave her pause. How did he know that name? He seemed ignorant of the spiritual world like all other humans. He had been surprised to see a ghost.
But it made sense that his spiritual perception was sharpening.
'That growth rate of Reiatsu is horrifying,' Rukia mentally shivered. 'Yoruichi said that at the rate it's growing, he could be a seated officer in Soul Society in less than one hundred years.'
'But how could she calculate that? Her last name, too. Is she an exile of that clan? If that's the case, then why—'
"Kuchiki-san, please look at the board and explain the equation," Kawakami asked upon seeing her scrunched face.
Kawakami didn't know what she was thinking about, but it looked distressing. So she decided to interrupt it.
Rukia blinked and stood up. "Apologies. I was lost in thought. Give me a moment."
"Take your time."
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