Ren awoke the next morning feeling significantly lighter.
"It's really amazing to not be completely in the dark."
Morgana woke up with a yawn and interrupted, "Really riding that high, huh?"
"Don't ruin this for me, Morgana."
"I'm not."
"You are."
Morgana stretched across the blanket. "I'm just saying. You got like five answers and suddenly you're acting like you solved reality."
"I learned what Hollows are, what ghosts are, what Rukia is, what happens to souls after death—"
"Some souls."
"—and there's apparently an entire organization whose job it is to understand this shit for me."
Morgana stared at him. Ren smiled.
It was beautiful. Someone else's problem.
Well, not completely. There was still the fact that they were apparently emitting enough spiritual pressure to attract Hollows, but someone else knew what spiritual pressure was.
Progress!
Ren sat up, and then something from the Velvet Room floated back into his thoughts.
Flauros.
Wait.
Flauros.
He knew that name.
"Goddammit."
"What?"
"Flauros is from the Ars Goetia."
Morgana blinked. "The what?"
"Demonology."
"Oh."
Ren stared at the ceiling. "I know I haven't exactly been God's biggest fan lately, but I feel like the excessive demon symbolism in my life is getting a little pointed."
Morgana stared at him. "You summon Arsène."
"Not a demon."
'Thank you, mon ami.'
"You've summoned Jack Frost."
"Fairy."
"Incubus."
Ren paused. "Okay."
"Succubus."
"I get it."
"You literally rip masks off your face while surrounded by blue fire."
"Victim blaming."
Morgana started laughing.
Ren got out of bed. At least God hadn't struck him with lightning yet.
Probably a good sign.
Maybe.
---
School was boring.
Gloriously boring.
Ren spent most of the day doing schoolwork, reading, and occasionally checking his surroundings because apparently being happy didn't cure paranoia.
Shocking.
Still, no Hollows, no ghosts, no mysterious butterflies, no weird spiritual bullshit. Just school.
Then the final bell rang, and Rukia immediately packed her things and headed for the door.
Ren watched her.
Notebook. Bag. Stand. Walk faster. No eye contact.
Ah.
Coward.
"Orihime."
"Hm?"
"Rukia is escaping."
Rukia stopped and slowly turned. "Amamiya."
Orihime gasped. "Oh no you don't!"
"Wait—"
The Orihime missile launched.
"GYAH!"
Rukia stumbled forward as Orihime latched onto her from behind. "We're hanging out!"
"I have somewhere to be!"
"You've been avoiding us!"
"I have not!"
"You skipped lunch yesterday!"
"I WAS BUSY!"
Ren put his bag over his shoulder. "Very suspicious."
Rukia glared at him. "I hate you."
"No you don't."
"Joker, knock it off," Shiho giggled.
Ryuji was openly laughing. "Bro, you can't just use Orihime as a weapon."
Ren looked at the Soul Reaper currently failing to escape Orihime. "I have evidence to the contrary."
Ann covered her mouth.
Rukia pointed at him. "Why are you like this?!"
"You followed him around for days," Ann said.
"That was my job!"
"You still created this."
Rukia looked betrayed.
---
Yusuke was already at Leblanc by the time they arrived. He sat at the counter with his sketchbook open and a cup of coffee beside him.
Sojiro noticed Ren looking. "He paid."
Ren looked at Yusuke.
Yusuke looked back. "I have money."
"I know."
"Your expression suggested otherwise."
"I was more surprised you willingly bought coffee."
Yusuke glanced down at it. "I am attempting to understand the appeal."
Sojiro's eyes narrowed.
Ren decided not to get involved.
Yusuke then noticed Rukia and stood. "I don't believe we've met."
"Rukia Kuchiki."
"Yusuke Kitagawa."
They bowed.
Ryuji leaned toward Ann. "They're gonna out-polite each other."
Ann elbowed him.
Ren looked at Sojiro. "We're heading upstairs."
Sojiro glanced over the group, then Yusuke, then Ren. "Keep it down."
"Of course."
Sojiro looked directly at Ryuji.
"We'll try."
"Why's everyone looking at me?!"
---
Ren's room was getting too small.
That was probably a good problem to have.
Probably.
Everyone found somewhere to sit, and Rukia somehow ended up directly in the middle of the room.
Completely coincidentally.
Ren sat across from her. "So, Rukia Kuchiki, how do you plead?"
Rukia stared. "Why am I suddenly on trial?"
"Because I'm irritated."
"Joker," Shiho warned, although she was smiling.
"He's got a point," Morgana said.
Rukia looked toward him.
"Meow."
Then at Ren. "...What?"
"Morgana agrees."
"What do you mean Morgana agrees?"
"He said Ren has a point," Yusuke explained.
Rukia turned toward him. "You understand the cat?"
"I AM NOT A CAT!"
Morgana hissed.
Yusuke nodded. "He does not appreciate that description."
Rukia looked around the room. Everyone else was acting like this was normal.
It was normal.
That probably made it worse.
"How?"
"Metaverse cognition," Ren answered.
"What is the Metaverse?"
"Later."
"AMAMIYA!"
Ren smiled.
Yusuke took it upon himself to quietly translate for Rukia whenever Morgana actually said something she needed to understand. Otherwise, they let her suffer.
"You followed me," Rukia accused.
"You followed me first."
"I was investigating."
"For days."
"I needed information."
"You hid on rooftops."
"You kept sensing me!"
"You used some kind of supernatural bullshit to hide yourself and listen to us."
Rukia flinched.
Ren pointed at her. "Checkmate."
"That isn't checkmate!"
"It feels like checkmate."
"That's not how chess works!"
Ann sighed. "Ren."
"Fine."
He leaned back.
Rukia crossed her arms. "Thank you."
"For now."
"Amamiya."
Ryuji waved his hand. "Can we just get to the ghost stuff? We still gotta figure out what we're doing about Madarame's Palace."
Silence.
Ryuji froze.
Ann slowly looked at him. Shiho closed her eyes. Morgana lowered his head. Ren stared. Yusuke looked between them.
"...What?"
Rukia leaned forward. "Palace?"
Ryuji's expression went blank. "Oh."
"What Palace?"
"Uh."
He looked around for help.
None arrived.
"Like... an art palace?"
Ann stared at him. "An art palace."
"Yeah."
"Ryuji."
"IT MADE SENSE IN MY HEAD!"
"It's metaphorical," Shiho tried.
Rukia looked at her. "A metaphorical Palace."
"Yes."
"Related to Madarame."
"...Yes."
Yusuke nodded. "It manifests as an art museum because Madarame perceives the people around him as works belonging to his personal collection."
Everyone turned toward him.
Yusuke paused. "What?"
Morgana put his face in his paws. "We are terrible thieves."
Yusuke quietly translated.
Rukia looked at Ren.
Ren sighed. "Fine. Extremely reductive explanation."
"I'm listening."
"There's another world made out of cognition. People with extremely distorted desires can create giant metaphorical dungeons there based on how they see reality. We go inside, fight cognitive monsters, bully their subconscious, steal a metaphor, and then they have a moral breakdown in reality."
Rukia stared at him. "That explained almost nothing."
"It explained the important parts."
"No, it didn't!" Morgana snapped. "You skipped Shadows, Personas, Treasures, the collective unconscious—basically all of it!"
"Extremely reductive."
"That was metaphysical vandalism!"
Yusuke translated.
Rukia frowned. "Persona."
Ren looked at her. "What?"
"That's what you call that thing?"
Ren blinked. "Arsène?"
"The red-and-black... demon-looking thing."
'How insulting.'
"You heard me call out Persona."
"I heard a word!" Rukia threw her hands up. "That does not mean I know what the word means!"
"...Fair."
"You shouted it and then a giant creature appeared behind you! I assumed the two were related!"
"Also fair."
"I still have no idea what it is."
"That's actually complicated."
Rukia pointed at him. "Do not say later."
Ren closed his mouth.
Rukia narrowed her eyes. "You were going to."
"Maybe."
She groaned.
"Anyway," Ren said. "Hollows."
The room settled.
Rukia sighed. "Fine. But I am correcting your explanation eventually."
"No promises."
"First, ghosts. A Human has a physical body and a soul. When the body dies, the soul can remain in the World of the Living."
"Like Kasumi."
"Yes."
Ren paused. Something had been bothering him since yesterday.
"You said she needed a Konsō."
Rukia looked at him.
"Soul Burial," Ren added.
Her expression softened. "I already performed it."
Ren stopped. "When?"
"After you left."
"Oh."
That explained why she had disappeared.
Ren had spent enough time lately discovering that someone vanished for extremely bad reasons.
It was nice to finally get a good one.
"She's okay?"
"She passed on safely."
Ren relaxed. "...Thank you."
Rukia blinked, then smiled. "It was my duty."
"Still."
"You're welcome."
Orihime smiled. Shiho looked relieved.
Ryuji raised his hand. "So what did you actually do?"
Rukia nodded. "A normal Human soul that remains after death is called a Plus."
"Plus?"
"Yes."
Ryuji frowned. "So evil ghosts are Minus?"
"No."
"Why call them Plus then?"
"I don't know. I didn't create the terminology."
Ren raised a finger. "Menos?"
Rukia's head snapped toward him. "How do you know about Menos?"
"I don't."
"Then why did you say it?!"
"It's Spanish."
Ryuji pointed at Ren. "So there IS a Minus."
"No!"
"But you just said—"
"Menos are Hollows!"
Ryuji slowly nodded. "Minus ghosts."
"THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID!"
Ann started laughing. Shiho was trying not to. Yusuke looked genuinely interested.
Ren decided this was educational.
Rukia did not.
"Menos are extremely dangerous and not relevant right now."
"So they're relevant later."
"No!"
"Good to know."
Rukia rubbed her face.
She was learning.
Poorly.
"A Plus has what is called a Chain of Fate," Rukia continued. "While you're alive, it connects your soul to your body. Death severs that connection, but part of the chain remains attached to the soul."
Ren immediately pictured Kasumi. "The thing coming out of her chest."
"Yes."
"And hers was disappearing."
"Corroding."
Rukia's voice became more serious. "If the chain fully corrodes, the soul becomes a Hollow."
The room quieted.
Yusuke frowned. "So the Hollows they encountered were once ordinary souls."
"Yes. When the transformation finishes, the soul loses its heart. That's where the hole comes from."
Morgana's ears lowered. "The chest hole."
Yusuke quietly translated.
Rukia nodded. "Yes."
"And the mask?" Ann asked.
"Part of what the soul becomes."
Yusuke looked uncomfortable. "So they aren't simply monsters."
"They're dangerous," Rukia said. "Very dangerous."
"But they were people."
"...Yes."
Yusuke went quiet.
Ryuji leaned forward. "Why do they eat souls?"
"Hunger."
"That's it?"
"They're trying to fill what they lost. They can retain pieces of who they were, too. Memories. Emotions. Attachments."
"People they loved?" Orihime asked.
Rukia looked at her. "Yes."
Orihime's smile faded. "Then why would they hurt them?"
"Because attachment can become hunger." Rukia hesitated. "Sometimes the people a Hollow cared about most are the first people it seeks."
Orihime looked down.
Ren remembered what she had told them.
Ichigo.
Monster ghosts.
Not now.
Ann moved a little closer to her.
Shiho changed the subject. "So what do Soul Reapers actually do?"
"Our main job is maintaining the cycle of souls."
Ryuji opened his mouth.
Rukia pointed at him. "No."
"But I didn't even say anything!"
"You were going to."
"...Fair."
"When a Plus remains here, we perform Konsō and send it to Soul Society."
"The afterlife?" Ann asked.
"One part of it."
Ren raised his hand.
"No," Rukia said immediately.
He lowered it. "You're learning."
"I hate you."
"No you don't."
Morgana laughed.
Rukia looked at him. "I don't know what he said, but that sounded smug."
"It was," everyone answered.
Morgana looked offended.
"Moving on!" Rukia snapped. "When Hollows appear, Soul Reapers purify them."
Morgana tilted his head. "Not kill?"
Yusuke translated that one.
"Not normally. A Zanpakutō cleanses what the soul became as a Hollow and allows it to return to the cycle."
Yusuke relaxed slightly. "So killing the monster saves the soul."
"Essentially."
Morgana looked at Ren. "That's what Zorro did."
Ren nodded. "Yeah."
Yusuke began translating, but Rukia's expression had already changed.
"I know."
Ren looked at her. "What?"
"I know that whatever your weird power is can purify Hollows."
The room went quiet.
Morgana's ears lifted.
Ren narrowed his eyes. "How?"
Rukia hesitated for only a second before sighing. "I saw you."
Ren stared. "You saw us?"
"You and Morgana."
Morgana sat up straighter.
"When?"
"Not long ago. There was a Hollow. The two of you fought it."
Ren stared at her.
Rukia stared back.
"You were following us."
"I was investigating!"
"There it is."
"Do not start this again!"
"You watched us fight a Hollow and didn't say anything?"
"I was trying to understand what you were!"
Morgana said something offended enough that even Rukia could probably understand the tone.
Yusuke translated anyway. "He would like to know why everyone keeps secretly watching him fight monsters."
Rukia looked at Morgana. "...That is actually a fair question."
"Thank you!"
She heard an angry meow.
Yusuke decided that one probably didn't require translation.
Ren leaned forward. "So you saw Zorro."
"Yes."
"And Arsène."
"I've seen whatever the red-and-black thing is."
"Arsène."
"Fine. Arsène."
'She learns.'
Ren ignored him.
Rukia frowned. "You called the power Persona. I know that much. But I have no idea what a Persona actually is, why you can summon one, why the cat can summon one—"
"I am not a cat."
"—or why either of those things can interact with Hollows at all."
Morgana frowned. "But we can."
"Yes!" Rukia threw her hands up. "That's the problem!"
Everyone blinked.
Rukia exhaled. "A normal weapon cannot purify a Hollow. Whatever that weird power you use is, it should not be able to do what a Zanpakutō does."
Ren tilted his head. "But it did."
"I KNOW!"
He smiled.
Rukia's eye twitched. "Why are you smiling?"
"Because that's only one mystery."
"...What?"
"I know what Hollows are now. I know what happens when you kill one properly. I know who normally does it. Only the weird crossover between our powers is unexplained."
Ren leaned back. "This is fantastic."
Rukia stared at him. "You are deeply strange."
"Thank you."
"Not praise."
"Still counts."
Ryuji tilted his head. "So you guys basically make sure souls go where they're supposed to."
"Yes."
"And fight the ones that go crazy."
"That's an oversimplification, but yes."
"And make sure there's the right number of souls in both worlds."
"Yes."
Ryuji nodded. "Soul janitors."
"No."
"Afterlife maintenance."
"No."
"Government soul police," Ren supplied.
Rukia turned on him. "You made that joke yesterday!"
"It's still accurate."
"It was never accurate!"
"It feels accurate."
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT ACCURATE!"
Shiho was laughing again.
Rukia took several seconds to recover before getting serious. "The balance part matters. If souls stop moving through the cycle correctly, the worlds become unstable."
Ren's smile faded.
Something connected.
"You said you're here because of the mental shutdowns."
Rukia looked at him. "Yes."
Ryuji frowned. "Wait, Soul Society knows about those?"
"We know something is wrong. I was sent here to investigate what the shutdowns are doing to the victims' souls."
Nobody interrupted this time.
"When someone dies normally, their soul remains. Violent death, illness, an accident—it doesn't matter. The body dies. The soul separates."
Orihime went very still.
Rukia noticed.
"The shutdowns don't work like that."
Ren leaned forward. "What happens?"
"The spirit collapses."
Silence.
Ryuji frowned. "Like... metaphorically?"
"No."
That was worse.
Rukia continued, "When some victims die after suffering a severe mental shutdown, there is no Plus."
"No ghost," Ren said.
"No."
"No Chain."
"No."
Morgana's tail stopped moving. "What happens to the soul?"
Yusuke repeated the question for Rukia.
"We don't know."
Ren frowned. "Destroyed?"
"I didn't say that."
Good answer.
"What do you know?"
"There's Reiatsu left behind. Traces of spiritual energy."
"But no soul."
"No soul we can find."
"Not in Soul Society?"
"No."
"A Hollow?"
"No."
"Anywhere?"
Rukia shook her head. "We don't know."
Ren's brain immediately started moving.
Mental shutdowns. Shadows. Palaces. Souls. Kill the Shadow, damage the person.
Could cognition—
No.
Stop.
He caught himself before the thought tree could explode.
Rukia was already investigating it. There were apparently other people investigating it too.
People who actually knew what a soul was beyond Jungian theory and a Tarot deck.
Huh.
That was new.
He didn't hate it.
Yusuke lowered his eyes. "Then perhaps Madarame should wait."
Ren immediately looked at him. "No."
Yusuke looked up. "If these shutdowns are destroying souls—"
"We don't know that they're destroying them."
"Even so—"
"Rukia is investigating it."
Rukia nodded. "There are others involved."
Ren gestured toward her. "There."
Then toward everyone else.
"We don't understand souls."
Morgana raised a paw.
Ren looked at him.
"We barely understand souls."
Morgana lowered his paw.
"But we understand Palaces."
Rukia raised an eyebrow. "Based on your explanation, I'm not convinced."
"You've known what a Palace is for half an hour."
"And somehow I already know your explanation was terrible."
"Efficient."
"Terrible."
"Efficiently terrible?"
Rukia considered it. "I will accept that."
Progress.
Ren turned back toward Yusuke. "We're already involved with Madarame."
Shiho nodded. "We aren't leaving this unfinished."
"Definitely not," Ann added.
Ryuji grinned. "Dude's still getting his heart stolen."
Orihime raised her fist. "Yup!"
"A Phantom Thief finishes the job," Morgana said.
Yusuke looked around at them. His expression tightened for a moment before softening again.
"...Very well."
Ren leaned back.
Kasumi was safe. Rukia was investigating the shutdowns. Madarame was still waiting.
There were other questions.
There would always be other questions.
That was apparently just his life now.
Fine.
He didn't have to answer all of them today.
One direction at a time.
"Madarame first."
Nobody argued.
---