ShadOP messenger: CHAT LOG
---
[Joker] So.
[Joker] We have the route.
[Skull] FINALLY
[Panther] We literally got it yesterday.
[Skull] YEAH AND NOW WE CAN FINALLY KICK HIS ASS
[Dove] After we rest.
[Skull] :(
[Hime] Please rest, Ryuji!
[Skull] betrayal
[ART] I agree with Suzui.
[Skull] DOUBLE BETRAYAL
[Joker] Dove is right.
[Joker] We were all exhausted when we left.
[Joker] We send the Calling Card once everybody is rested enough to go straight through the Palace and steal the Treasure.
[Panther] Tomorrow?
[Dove] Maybe.
[Hime] I feel okay!
[ART] My body is somewhat sore, but nothing concerning.
[Skull] I'm good.
[Joker] You said "ground good" when we left the Palace.
[Skull] I WAS TIRED
[Panther] You laid there for five minutes.
[Skull] GRASS IS COMFORTABLE
[Dove] He has a point.
[Panther] SHIHO
[Joker] We'll check tomorrow morning.
[Joker] If anyone is still worn out, we wait another day.
[Skull] booooo
[Joker] You can boo me after you stop limping.
...
[Skull] fuck
[Hime] Your leg hurts again?!
[Skull] LITTLE BIT
[Hime] RYUJI!!!
[Skull] WHY DID I SAY ANYTHING
[Joker] Because lying to the healer is a good way to get beaten by the healer.
[Hime] I wouldn't beat him!
[Dove] I'll do it.
[Panther] Same.
[Skull] terrible team
[ART] I find them rather considerate.
[Skull] YOU'VE BEEN HERE LIKE FOUR DAYS
[ART] And?
...
[Joker] Anyway.
[Joker] Rest today.
[Joker] We decide on the Calling Card tomorrow.
[ART] Understood.
[Panther] 👍
[Dove] Works for me.
[Hime] Okay!
[Skull] fine
[Skull] but if we're good tomorrow we're doing it
[Joker] Yes.
[Skull] LETS GOOOOOOOOO
[Panther] You were waiting for him to say yes, weren't you?
[Skull] maybe
---
Ren switched chats.
The Investigation Team didn't need every detail. They didn't need a running commentary on how many bathrooms he'd searched, how many times Morgana had fallen off something while trying to look cool, or the fact that Yusuke had somehow made Ryuji explaining JoJo into something resembling an academic lecture.
They did deserve to know when the Thieves were about to make their move.
[Joker] Madarame update.
[Joker] We secured the route to the Treasure.
[Joker] Everyone is exhausted, so we're resting first.
[Joker] Once the team is recovered, we're sending the Calling Card and finishing this.
A reply appeared surprisingly quickly.
[King Sis-con] Good.
[King Sis-con] Don't rush because you're excited to finish.
Ren stared at the username.
He had done that.
Still funny.
[Joker] I know.
[Navi] RENNNYYYYYY BE CAREFUL!!!
[Navi] AND KICK HIS ASS
[King Sis-con] Rise.
[Navi] RESPONSIBLY KICK HIS ASS
Ren smiled and closed the chat.
Good enough.
---
The next morning, Ren sat at Leblanc's counter with curry in front of him and coffee close enough to smell without actually drinking yet.
Morgana was eating beside him.
Or inhaling.
Ren still hadn't decided.
"So," Morgana said between bites, "I've been thinking about the Calling Card."
Ren immediately became suspicious.
"Why do you sound like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like you're about to suggest something."
Morgana glared. "I'm allowed to have ideas."
"Never said you weren't."
"You implied it!"
"So what's the idea?"
Morgana swallowed and sat upright.
"Rukia."
Ren paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth.
"...What about her?"
"She's invisible."
Ren lowered the spoon.
Morgana continued, clearly pleased with himself. "Well, not all the time. But when she's doing the Soul Reaper thing, normal people can't see her. That's basically perfect for planting a Calling Card."
Ren stared at him.
Morgana stared back.
That was annoyingly clever.
"She walks into Madarame's place, leaves the card somewhere he'll definitely see it and walks back out," Morgana continued. "No cameras catching one of us. No witnesses. No fingerprints if she doesn't touch anything directly. Nothing connecting it to Shujin."
Ren frowned.
"She's a Soul Reaper."
"Yes?"
"You remember the part where Soul Society sounded suspiciously like a military government?"
Morgana's ears shifted.
"...Yeah."
"She has superiors. Rules. Assignments. Whatever passes for jurisdiction among dead people with swords."
"That's one way to describe it."
"If she gets caught directly assisting us with a Change of Heart operation, I don't know what that means for her."
Morgana stopped eating.
Ren tapped the spoon against the side of his bowl.
"And I don't particularly want to find out by getting Kuchiki in trouble with an organization that apparently governs a significant portion of the afterlife."
"Fair."
"Especially when we barely know anything about them."
Morgana nodded slowly.
"But it would solve the Calling Card problem."
"Yeah."
Ren hated that part.
It would solve the problem almost perfectly.
Invisible courier.
No digital trail.
No normal surveillance.
No civilian witnesses.
Convenient.
Way too convenient.
"I'll think about it."
"That's all I'm saying."
Ren took another bite.
His phone buzzed.
He glanced down.
Private message.
[Hime]
Ren?
[Joker]
Morning.
[Hime]
Good morning!
There was a pause.
Then—
[Hime]
Would it be okay if we scheduled our hangout for after you steal Madarame's Treasure?
Ren blinked.
Their hangout.
Right.
Yesterday she'd turned the approximate color of a tomato and fled before actually telling him when she wanted to meet.
He smiled.
[Joker]
Absolutely.
[Joker]
I'd actually like that.
Three dots appeared.
Vanished.
Appeared again.
Vanished.
[Hime]
Okay!!
[Hime]
I'll tell you the details later!
[Joker]
Looking forward to it.
No response.
Ren waited a second.
Then another.
Nothing.
He could almost picture her staring at the phone in horror.
For some reason that made him smile wider.
He closed the screen.
Morgana was staring at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're staring."
"I'm eating."
"While staring."
Morgana narrowed his eyes.
Ren calmly took another bite of curry.
Morgana's eyes widened.
"Was that Hime?"
"No idea what you're talking about."
"Oh my god."
"Mona."
"You're smiling!"
"I smile."
"Not like that!"
Ren drank his coffee.
Conversation over.
---
Orihime was whispering to Rukia when Ren found them that morning.
Not that whispering was unusual.
Orihime wasn't exactly subtle when she was trying to be subtle.
She tended to compensate by looking around every few seconds, which mostly made it extremely obvious that whatever she was talking about was supposed to be private.
Rukia, at least, looked normal.
Mostly.
The two were standing near the quieter side of the school grounds before classes started, tucked away from most of the students passing toward the entrance.
Orihime leaned closer.
"So we found the important thing," she whispered.
Rukia nodded seriously.
"And you intend to retrieve this... important thing soon."
"Yes."
"You still refuse to explain exactly what it is."
"I don't think I should say it here."
"Fair."
"And then the bad person should become less bad."
Rukia stared.
Orihime smiled.
"That's the simple version."
"I gathered that."
Ren approached from behind them, listening to maybe half the conversation.
He stopped several feet away.
Something felt strange.
Not bad.
Just—
Different.
His Third Eye flickered.
There.
Ren looked around.
Nothing visible.
Nothing physical.
But there was definitely something surrounding Orihime and Rukia.
A shape.
A dome, almost.
Not light.
Not exactly energy the way Personas felt.
Something spiritual.
Contained.
He stepped closer.
Rukia's head turned.
Ren raised a hand.
"Morning."
"Morning!" Orihime greeted.
Rukia nodded. "Amamiya."
Ren stopped just outside the strange edge.
Then stepped through it.
The sensation was subtle.
Like passing through a layer of static that didn't actually touch his skin.
He glanced behind himself.
Then back at Rukia.
"Huh."
Rukia frowned.
"What?"
"There's some kind of dome around you."
Silence.
Rukia's eyes widened.
Orihime looked around.
"Dome?"
Ren gestured vaguely around them.
"Yeah. Spiritual, I think. It feels different inside."
Rukia stared at him.
Her expression went from surprise to disbelief.
Then concern.
"You can feel this?"
"Apparently."
"Since when?!"
Ren shrugged.
"About ten seconds ago."
"That's not what I meant!"
"I know."
Rukia looked around quickly, then focused on Ren again.
"You shouldn't be able to sense a Kidō barrier that easily."
Ren's eyes sharpened.
"Kidō."
Rukia froze.
Damn.
She'd said too much.
Ren smiled.
"New word."
"Forget it."
"No."
"Amamiya."
"Kidō."
"Stop repeating it!"
Orihime giggled.
Rukia sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"It's a category of Soul Reaper techniques."
Ren immediately leaned closer.
"What kind?"
"Several kinds."
"Useful."
"That isn't an explanation."
"It was an observation."
Rukia glared.
Ren smiled.
She gave up.
"This one is a barrier. Nothing particularly impressive."
Ren looked around again.
"I can't see it."
"You're not supposed to."
"But I can feel it."
"Which is the problem."
Ren ignored that.
"What does it do?"
Rukia hesitated, apparently trying to figure out how much she could explain without opening another six hours of questions.
Finally she gestured toward the students walking nearby.
"It encourages mundane humans to disregard anything unusual happening within it."
Ren blinked.
"So..."
Rukia sighed.
"The simplest way to explain it is that it tells their minds, 'There is nothing strange happening here.'"
Ren stared at her.
Then at the barrier.
Then at the students.
One boy walked past only a few meters away without glancing at the three of them.
Ren's expression changed.
Rukia noticed immediately.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"You don't need to."
"Teach me."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because you are human!"
"So?"
"Kidō is a Soul Reaper art!"
Ren crossed his arms.
"Racist."
Rukia's jaw dropped.
"THAT IS NOT—"
Orihime covered her mouth.
Ren's smile widened.
Rukia lowered her voice before the barrier had to work harder than necessary.
"I don't even know whether a living human can use Kidō properly! Your spiritual structure isn't the same as mine."
"I have spiritual whatever."
"Reiatsu."
"That."
"You only learned that word recently!"
"And now I'm using it correctly."
"Debatable."
Ren looked around the barrier again.
This was incredibly useful.
Private conversations.
Concealment.
Getting people to overlook supernatural nonsense.
Probably dozens of other applications he hadn't thought of yet.
And apparently Soul Reapers could just learn this.
Unfair.
"Can I at least try?"
"No."
"One lesson."
"No."
"Half a lesson."
"How would you have half a lesson?!"
"Stop midway."
Rukia looked like she regretted every decision that had brought her to Tokyo.
Orihime finally started laughing.
Ren sighed dramatically.
"This is bullshit."
"You're human!"
"Exactly. Unfair."
"You have those bizarre masks!"
"Personas."
"Whatever!"
"They don't make people ignore me while I discuss supernatural crimes in public."
Rukia pointed at him.
"That sentence is exactly why I'm not teaching you!"
Ren considered that.
"...Fair."
Rukia relaxed slightly.
Then Ren smiled.
"I'll ask Yoruichi."
Rukia went pale.
"Don't you dare."
"Why?"
"AMAMIYA."
Orihime laughed harder.
Ren adjusted his glasses and started toward the school entrance.
"Think about it."
"I already have!"
"Think harder."
Rukia stared after him.
Orihime smiled apologetically.
"He gets excited when he learns something new."
"I've noticed."
Ren stopped.
There was one more thing.
He looked back toward the two girls, then toward the invisible barrier he could somehow still feel faintly pressing against his senses.
Useful.
Very useful.
Morgana's idea came back to him.
Invisible Soul Reaper.
Calling Card.
Ren narrowed his eyes slightly.
Maybe.
But first—
He looked at Rukia.
"We should talk after school."
Her expression immediately became suspicious.
"About what?"
Ren smiled.
"Crime."
Rukia closed her eyes.
"...Of course."
---