2025-07-03: An Easy Target
- Log: An Easy Target
- Cast: Makoto Niijima, Ren Amamiya
- Where: Shujin Academy, Tokyo
- OOC Date: July 3, 2025
- IC Date: Mon Jun 04 2012
- Summary: Makoto calls Ren to the Student Council room to encourage him to squeal on himself and his friends. Ren is having none of it.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
In other schools, the role of student council president might be the result of popularity, effective campaigning or effectiveness at the role. Not so at Shujin Academy. Sure, there are elections, but the fact that the student council president is Makoto Niijima- who has a reputation for being a robotic teacher's pet at best- implies a fair amount of outside influence in the result.
It doesn't help that reputation that the student council also seems to fill the role of disciplinary committee at Shujin. Between that and their total uselessness in the Kamoshida scandal, Shujin's student council's reputation appears to be at an all time low with the students. Less well known is the sword of Damocles that Principal Kobayakawa is hanging over President Niijima's head.
Nonetheless, Makoto has taken control of the Student Council room for the afternoon, after asking another member to make a PA announcement before most students have left, hoping to catch one of the few members of the 'Go Home club'. Even as she waits, a workbook is laid out on the table with a university exam study guide next to it, and an old, well loved black spotted white pencil case arranged neatly above them. She may only have a few minutes to study before her intended target arrives, but she had best make use of it while she waits, as the PA announcement goes out.
"Ren Amamiya, please report to the Student Council room."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
In other schools, the student council elections are surely done differently. But Ren Amamiya's never cared about that before, and he especially doesn't care about it now that he's known to the majority of the student body solely as a convicted juvenile criminal.
On the plus side, that means he was willing to not pay any mind to the Student Council and its involvement or lack thereof with Kamoshida's misdeeds. Water under the bridge. It's not like it affected him, anyway. His other friends are free to have their own, less charitable feelings about it...
...except the president has decided to make him her problem. (More like she was strongarmed into it. But Ren doesn't know that.)
Ren, too, is a member of the Go Home Club. It's not like anyone would want him anyway, and he has other things to do. Like get to Triple Seven for his shift before the rain gets too much worse. He is in fact on his way out when--
'Ren Amamiya, please report to the Student Council room.'
Ren, who is at the foyer leading out of the school, makes a face as he looks up at the ceiling.
They had to call right now, didn't they?
It's morbid curiosity, ultimately, that prompts him to answer the summons. About five minutes later, the door to the Student Council room creaks open, and Ren Amamiya is there, dark gaze intense as he looks in at Makoto, unsmiling and unspeaking.
He doesn't enter fully--not yet. He simply stares at her from the doorway until she tells him what she wants.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
Five minutes, seven seconds. It's almost like Makoto was keeping track. She was certainly keeping an ear out, standing as she hears the footsteps stop outside the door, placing her pencil above her notebook as she does so. It means she's fully at her feet when Amamiya opens the door.
After having followed him around for... well. Too long at this point, this is the first time she's directly spoken to him. Maybe she looks different when she's not hiding behind an upside down magazine. Still, as intense as the transfer student's gaze may be, Makoto meets it without faltering. Though that may be just because she's in her element this time.
"Amamiya-kun. Please, take a seat," Makoto says, gesturing across the desk from her. For all the politeness it's wrapped it, it is a demand rather than a request, and just as Ren isn't stepping in or saying anything, neither is Makoto starting this conversation with the door still open. Are they already at a test of wills...?
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Well. At least she said 'please.' Ren has no illusion that it's anything but the demand it is, though. He stares at her for another five silent seconds; then, he shuffles inside, shuts the door behind him, and takes the seat opposite her at the table. Makoto's spying would let her know by now that normally he slouches. He slumps in his classroom seat, he carries his schoolbag on one shoulder.
Here, he sits with his hands clasping his knees, stiff and wary. His posture is not... perfect, not by any means, but it's sharper than usual--more attentive. Like he's aware he's been called here to get interrogated.
After all, for all that Ren has politely pretended not to notice her, Makoto is a terrible tail.
He still meets her eyes without faltering. He still has not said a word.
If this is her element, then he won't expose his weaknesses for even a second.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
It's a far cry from the relatively relaxed Ren she's seen the past week or so from across the way. Even in places like Shinjuku's Red Light district, he's seemed comparatively at ease. In here, though, well...
Makoto hasn't actually been able to sit in on an interrogation, but she's studying for a law degree. She's heard stories, from her father, rarely from Sae. The way Ren reacts already sets up that this is going to be a hostile interrogation.
She cannot deny an unheard truth about her sneaking skills, but let's be honest: she absolutely knows this, in heart. There's a reason why she hasn't been hard to ditch.
So, given that Ren won't talk, Makoto sits opposite him, back straight, hands placed on her lap, not interlocked. A very practiced posture indeed.
"I'll jump straight to the point, Amamiya-kun." Makoto says, at this point assuming Ren won't start the conversation. "There have been rumours surrounding you as a transfer student, and up until now the Student Council has had no reason to pursue them. However, some things have been brought to my attention that I am required to investigate."
She frowns inwardly. This shouldn't even be her job... but her recommendation for University is on the line. She's already weighing her sister down... If she lost that she'd never be able to catch up to her.
She already knows Ren is stubborn, and not likely to break to intimidation. After all... even Kamoshida didn't intimidate him.
Unlike someone else in this room.
"If there's anything you want to clear up before we start, it could save us both some time."
She remembers the things her father taught her. Given room to speak, a criminal will easily implicate themselves. Keep things open ended and vague. Give them enough rope to hang themselves.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Makoto is right to assume Ren won't be opening the conversation. Don't talk to the cops: that's something he learned very quickly after his arrest. They don't care if you're innocent or guilty. They just want to pin something on you to pad their numbers. He assumes Makoto is the same way. She doesn't care about what he's done or if he's done anything. She just wants to pin something on him. Why? Why not? He's an easy target, isn't he?
So her spiel about the rumors about him don't get even a crack in his stony mien. If she were on the level, she wouldn't have been stalking him for the past however long. In another circumstance, he might have even laughed at her transparent effort to get a confession out of him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he states.
Makoto might have her father's teachings, but Ren has his actual lived experience.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
That's... about what she expected, to be honest. It's not like Amamiya has any reason to trust her, given the way he's been treated by faculty. Makoto's as much an authority as anyone else to most of the student body, and she doesn't do much to contradict that image.
But if the Phantom Thieves are associated with Shujin, then the obvious link is Amamiya and his friends. Three students targeted by Kamoshida... at least one of whom was close with Suzui-san.
"I see. Being the subject of rumours doesn't automatically mean you hear them, I suppose." Honestly... Makoto has little idea of her reputation among the students beyond 'bad'. She always studies on her own, at the library or in the student council room and even the rest of the student council leave her alone outside of student council duties.
When they're there at all.
Makoto shakes her head. "Discounting any falsehoods spread by Kamoshida-sensei," a distaste reachers her voice as she says the name, even though she tries to keep herself sounding as neutral and professional as possible, "you're not part of any clubs, and there have been reports of you going to... unsavory locations in uniform." It's weak, Makoto knows it, but she can't just straight up accuse him, can she? Not yet. Play your cards close to your chest. Makoto has the excuse of living in Shinjuku, sometimes going through the red light district is unavoidable given how much of the area it takes up, especially in a hurry. "How you spend your time is up to you, but attending a club or extracurricular studies is expected of Shujin students. In addition, you're representing the school when you wear the uniform. The Student Council is required to take any such complaints from the public seriously."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Interesting how she calls them 'falsehoods.' It doesn't sound quite natural either. Makoto's doing her best to keep herself neutral, so Ren can't know for sure, but it sounds like she didn't like what Kamoshida was doing. Not that it kept her from taking any action. But... how much action was she actually able to take? Ren doesn't know that.
Of course, he does know that she's going after him when she didn't (as far as he knows) go after Kamoshida, so the slack he's willing to cut her only goes so far.
He toys with the idea of calling her out on her stalking. He opts not to. If he acknowledges she knows he's been to Shinjuku (and not in uniform, something he's betting she said on purpose to try to bait him), then that opens the door for her to actually do something. After all, she could just say she was only in Shinjuku because she was investigating him for possible wrongdoing? What a saint. Honestly, listening to her going on about clubs, you'd almost think she was concerned about his wellbeing.
But she doesn't, obviously. She only cares about the school's image.
Even if that might be something she's been pressured into.
"Duly noted," Ren deadpans. He could say something about how no one in this school is going to want the criminal transfer student to join their club, but that's not the point of this conversation, so he won't bother. Instead:
"Is that it?"
He tries to shut it down.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
At this point, Makoto had expected something more. Anything. A hint she could seize on. But Amamiya isn't having it, and Makoto is not exactly sure where to go with this. He's just stonewalling her.
And it looks like the appeal she tried really isn't working. Not that it was a particularly good one. As it stands, she has no reason to hold Amamiya back any longer if he just clams up like this.
One last shot, then.
"Almost. I only have one more thing, Amamiya-kun." She steels herself inwardly. This is going to be as close to direct confrontation as she can give right now.
"Do you have any opinion on the Phantom Thieves- or the rumours that they might be connected to Shujin Academy?" Makoto tries her best to school her expression, but the neutrality in her voice might be forced from an opposite direction. "Their intervention with Kamoshida came at a convenient time for you, after all, but as student council president I need to ensure they don't pose a threat to the students of Shujin."
...That last part, at least, seems genuine despite her robotic nature.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"..."
Of course, it's not unreasonable for a sharp woman like Makoto to suspect that Ren might have something to do with the Phantom Thieves. Ren himself is well aware that there was bad blood between him and Kamoshida, and he made early friends with Ryuji and Ann, two other people with bad history... not to mention Ann's connection with Shiho, who attempted suicide over what that scumbag did to her...
But that doesn't mean he's going to be honest with her about what he thinks of them. It's just another attempt to try to get him to trip up and say something incriminating.
...Even if he does get the impression that it's not entirely bullshit, either. A glimmer of sincerity there behind the good-girl exterior. But how much does she really live up to her name?
"Nope," he continues to stonewall.
Because even if it is sincere, he cannot afford to trust her. That's the long and short of it.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
Ren might take a little time to respond, but that in itself isn't an admission of anything. Especially when Ren manages to remain monosyllabic in his response.
And as a result, she has nothing to show for this, nothing she can give the principal. Nothing beyond a waste of time.
Just as useless as ever.
"Really? None at all?" Makoto frowns, but only stares at Ren before... giving a small sigh. "I see. That's probably sensible, given your position." Makoto shakes her head a little, but maintains your posture.
"Thank you for your time, Amamiya-kun. I'm sorry to have interrupted your day with this business. Please do your best to not cause any trouble for the school."
Any trouble. Not any 'further' trouble.
"Unless you have anything you want to raise with me or the student council, you may leave now."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
'None at all?' she asks, and that's also reasonable to doubt. But the point here isn't that either of them are saying what they really mean. The point is that Makoto is trying to get information out of Ren, and Ren isn't having it. He simply stares back at her until she folds.
He's a little surprised, actually. It's a surprisingly understanding response. He didn't think she'd let him go so easily. Not that he's complaining, but still.
Her lack of the word 'further' is not lost on him, either. But he doesn't trust that, either.
When she dismisses him, he stands up, scoots the chair into the table, and leaves. He does not say another word.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
She should have expected that too. Indeed by this point she kind of does.
It's only after Amamiya leaves that she allows herself to sag a bit, leaning on the table. There's no point following him today. If anything he'll be even more wary today. Just wait, for the moment. Let it be. Maybe it will blow over.
Maybe she'll be able to salvage this situation without finding anything. Maybe Principal Kobayakawa will acknowledge this as a fool's errand, or she'll find something to persuade him that there's no connection to the Phantom Thieves.
No. Of course he won't. If she doesn't, he'll just punish her.
Makoto puts her head in her hands. Give it a little time. Amamiya will slip up. Maybe she should approach Sakamoto or Takamaki in the meantime. At least give something that appears a progress.
"...why is this my job?" she mutters to herself, exhaustion filling her voice, with an edge of hopelessness to it.
She gives herself only a few minutes like this, before picking up her pencil again. The student council room needs to stay open to receive students. Just in case.
Kobayakawa said they would be accepting any information or calls for help from students, after all.