2026-01-07: What Drives Him
- Log: 2026-01-07 What Drives Him
- Cast: Ren Amamiya, Yusuke Kitagawa
- Where: Cafe Leblanc (attic), Yongen-Jaya, Tokyo
- OOC Date: January 07, 2026
- IC Date: September 06, 2012
- Summary: Yusuke pays Ren a visit in their attic home to check in on how they're feeling after their recent burst of anger. They talk about various things, including the one in the black mask.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
It's been two weeks since The Phantoms and Phoenix clashed in Eiji Kamiya's Palace, the result of a months-long misunderstanding reaching its climax. Ren--Joker--had taken the idea that Akechi had manipulated Phoenix into hating and fighting them with quite a bit of uncharacteristically open anger.
Since then, they've calmed down and even worked things through with Akechi. They've spent more time with their new girlfriend after her return from her summer trip, and even their guardian has returned from wherever the hell he went off to. Things are a lot less stressful for Ren now.
But that doesn't mean they shouldn't talk through their feelings at all. In fact, things being calmer now only means it's that much more important to sort through them when they're not quite so bad off.
Fox had told Joker at the time they should talk. Things happened; the talk did not. Ren has more or less forgotten about it, and that's not a bad thing in their mind. Yusuke may think differently, however.
Today, it's after school on Thursday. Ren doesn't really like homework or studying either, but improving one's study habits has to be an earnest, ongoing thing, so they're giving it a go. At present, they're staring at their history textbook while twirling a pen between their fingers without looking, a sheet of homework to their right. The names and dates haven't quite blurred together, but it's getting close.
They'd rather be doing a crossword puzzle right now...
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
The bell at the door of Leblance announces many comings and goings, very few of them relevant to the dusty attic of the cafe that Ren calls home. However, there is something to note this time - the exchange of the Boss's older, gruffer baritone with a more elegant and familiar voice. Shortly after that, there's the sound of feet coming up a couple of the stairs to the attic, followed by Yusuke tapping his knuckles against one of the posts holding up the stair railing.
"May I join you, Ren-san?"
Once welcomed, Yusuke ascends the remaining steps. He's still in the Gekkoukan uniform - he must have come to Yongen-Jaya as soon as school got out - with his portfolio bag slung over his shoulder. His keen artist's eyes glance to the sheet and book on Ren's desk. "History homework?" He politely refrains from observing how blank the worksheet is.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Studying in Leblanc means having to tune out when customers come in and leave, because if Ren paid attention to that, they'd never get any homework done. This is true upstairs /or/ downstairs, because the floor/ceiling is paper-thin and you can hear e v e r y t h i n g.
Consequently, when Yusuke arrives, they don't even look up. In fact, they're... staring off into space...
Yup. They've zoned out. When Yusuke knocks on the post, they blink and look up, startled, and then smile.
"Come on up," they call, and turn their desk chair to greet him.
Their smile turns into a greeting when Yusuke glances at their very blank worksheet. (It... has their name written on it, at least?) "Yeah... I'm having trouble concentrating," they admit, rubbing the back of their neck as they glance over at it. "It's still pretty hot..."
This is true. The heat doesn't have nothing to do with their lack of concentration. But it's not really the primary cause, either.
For now, though, Ren sets their pen down and drapes their hands over their thighs. "So what's up?" they ask as they look back up at Yusuke.
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"Yes..." Yusuke agrees, "the heat seems particularly stifling, lately."
He looks around to choose a place to sit, opting for one of the other chairs in the attic, and sets his portfolio bag down to lean against it before he takes a seat. "Is Morgana out on the prowl?" Their co-conspirator cat is very rarely not found by Ren's side, after all.
"To be honest," he begins, as Ren asks what's up, "I was... still concerned about what we experienced in our most recent operation. You mentioned you'd worked things out with Akechi, but..."
He pauses, searching for the right phrase. "... I just wanted to check in."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"Yeah. There's a big sale on fish at the supermarket nearby and he went to scope out if they've got any good tuna," Ren replies, smiling slightly. "I'm supposed to join him once I'm done here."
...So Morgana's going to be waiting a while. Got it. Maybe he can mooch some snacks from some kitty-loving customers.
There aren't a ton of chairs in the attic, but there's certainly enough for Yusuke to have a seat and put his portfolio bag down on. There's a couch right there against the wall, even. Ren is himself still in his school uniform--the summer version, of course; it won't change over to winter until October.
Ren's smile fades in favor of slightly widened eyes when Yusuke admits what he's here for. They... weren't actually expecting that. They rub the back of their neck, touched. "...Thanks."
They're not happy to have worried Yusuke, but they are happy to know he's been thinking about them. It's nice to know you matter.
"I'm fine, really," Ren reassures him. Normally they might leave it at that, but Yusuke's concern prompts them to continue, "I was mad back then, but that's because I misunderstood what Tsubasa told us. I thought..." They look away briefly. "...either he believed we're" I'm "the kind of people who'd make someone set the building they're in on fire, or he was deliberately spreading lies about us, and either way..."
Either way, it hurt. It hurt so much they were furious about it. They think that, but don't say it. After a moment, they shake their head and look back at Yusuke. "But yeah. We talked it over; he explained his side of things; Tsubasa corroborated; so now it's fine."
...As fine as it gets with the detective out to arrest you, anyway. Or who claims he's out to arrest you. Ren isn't so sure of that anymore, and there's hope in that.
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"... A sale?" For food... Yusuke considers. "I will have to investigate on my own on my way home."
Sorry, Morgana, there's going to be competition for that tuna.
Yusuke listens quietly as Ren explains their feelings, looking up at the ceiling in thought.
"Neither of those possibilities are reassuring, no," he agrees. "I was angry at the thought of it, too."
But he's not had the... experience of directly interacting with Akechi without the masks in play, not like their leader has, so that anger was very different to Ren's.
"It's really all fine?" There is still a little caution in how he ventures that question, as if he's uncertain how to do an interaction like this. ... After all, the Phantom Thieves are his first friends.
"That Palace was... particularly challenging, as well."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"It's only a little bit further down the street. They've got signs and food out front--you can't miss it," Ren advises Yusuke.
Noooo! Morgana's tuna...!!
It is true that, of all of them, Ren's had the most experience dealing directly with Akechi. Despite that, they still don't really know how to define their relationship. Maybe they could've snuck closer to being friends, except Akechi introduced them as an 'acquaintance' to Muhen over at Jazz Jin just yesterday...
When Yusuke presses, though, Ren pauses. "What do you mean?" they ask. At the mention of the Palace, they sober, thinking they understand what he's getting at. "Yeah... But Ichika and Tsubasa suffered way worse than the rest of us. They managed to make it through, so I can't complain."
Their expression shifts with a concern of their own. "Speaking of which... have you had a chance to talk to Tsubasa yet, Yusuke?" They'd told Yusuke to expect Tsubasa to approach him about his experiences with Madarame's Palace, but... well, Ren doesn't know if or when the team's newest member might do that.
"No big deal if not. Tsubasa needs to make the first move," they add. "But I want to make sure you're okay, too."
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
Ren asks what Yusuke means by pressing further, and he pauses to arrange his thoughts. "I just want to be sure there isn't anything else - and if there's something else bothering you, I want you to know that you can confide in me."
He offers a wry smile. "I can't promise to have any answers about the mysteries of human emotion, but..."
He nods, when the conversation moves properly to their last mission. "They did pull through, but there was still... a lot, even beyond what they suffered. Kamiya's ideas about 'being a man' were things that I found reprehensible."
He shakes his head. "No, Seki-san hasn't made contact yet. With school back on they might have trouble making the commute without Kawase-san's van, and if they're together..." He shrugs. "It would not feel right to me to be the one to reach out, but perhaps if there was another reason to invite them around."
He thinks for a moment. "We do both wield swords in the Metaverse..."
"As for me - you intimated it would be a discussion about Madarame's Palace?" He nods. "I am... still sorting through my feelings about that whole thing, but I am not opposed to discussing it with Seki-san - if you think it would help."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren smiles back. "Does anyone?" they joke. "Thanks, though, Yusuke. I'll remember that."
Shadow Kamiya did express some vile ideas of what it means to be a man. That isn't what got to Joker, however much contempt they felt for him. No, that was... Ren's eyes lid.
The Shadow Patriarch, talking about how he would never abandon his son.
Even if it was just because Kamiya was falling in line with the Patriarch's idea of a male successor, it had hit home in a bad way--especially after their recent conflict with their father.
"..."
But Yusuke makes good points about Tsubasa. Ren nods once. "Yeah. Don't worry about it too much. I'm worried about them, but they have to make the choice to reach out themself." They crook a nervous smile at the sword comparison. Fox's sword and Phoenix's sword are worlds apart in what they're like, but if the two can find common ground there...
"Right," they say of Madarame's Palace. "Tsubasa's got... issues with their family. You already knew that, though--we talked about it when we studied here before finals. Hearing them out, I thought... their situation might be a little similar to yours. Enough that maybe it'd be a good idea for the two of you to talk it out."
Ren pauses. "...You said before that you were glad your eyes were opened to the truth, even f you didn't want to see it before. It's something like that," they conclude delicately.
They want Tsubasa to be able to explain their situation on their own terms, but they also don't want Yusuke to go into that conversation blind. Hopefully that'll be enough for both of them.
For a second, they hesitate; then they look away. "...Truthfully, I've been having some troubles with my family too. Do you... remember when we were in Kobayakawa's Palace, and he said that organization that's been funding him told him to accept my enrollment?" They look up at him, sober. "I tried to ask my parents about it, and they both blew me off." They lean over, elbows on their knees, hands folded under their chin. "It's typical for them, but... it makes me uneasy, thinking of the implications."
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
Yusuke nods. "It was... an ordeal, but it was the truth. The Palace did not just show us Madarame at his worst - it also showed us who he really was, and what drove him to that twisted course of action - why he was what he was. You're hoping that perhaps Seki-san can find that in investigating their father, to bring them some clarity."
He sighs. "Is it strange that I find myself pitying him?" Madarame, he means.
And then Ren explains about their excursion into Kobayakawa's Palace, and Yusuke sucks in a shaarp breath. "I see." He stands up, moving his chair to the side of Ren's desk so he can sit closer to his friend. "And you're worried that they're involved, and what that means for our future, because it's becoming increasingly clear that this conspiracy runs even deeper than we expected."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren nods once. Yusuke got it in one. The problem, of course, being that Tsubasa doesn't want to investigate their father--is so frog-boiled by him that they're terrified of the idea of even confirming he has a Shadow, let alone a Palace. Hopefully talking to Yusuke will help them move past that.
"Pitying who? Madarame?" they wonder, sitting up straight. "Maybe not, but... why do you say that?"
Yusuke has a sharp reaction to their explanation. Ren watches as he moves closer. They look down, then nod again. "Right. Tsubasa told us their dad's a member of the New World Order. What if they're not the only one? And why did they want to put me in the same school where a Palace Holder was? They couldn't possibly know I'd awaken to a Persona... could they?"
Not just awaken to a Persona, but awaken and get the MetaNav app from Igor, enabling them to come and go out of Palaces with the correct information. Was that part just a coincidence? But if so, then what did they want out of them instead?
It's impossible to know. That's why it bothers them--enough to, perhaps, make them more of an emotional time bomb when Akechi's supposed manipulations came to light.
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"Ultimately, once all his delusions were excised, and we had defeated him... Madarame's Shadow was, well... Pathetic." Yusuke frowns. "I realised that this man who I had idolised was so much smaller than I thought he had been, and yet there's a part of me that still cares about what becomes of him."
That makes sense; Madarame has been the only father - the only parent, even - that Yusuke's known for the majority of his life.
"Is there even a way to test somebody for the ability to awaken a Persona?" he wonders, as Ren raises the possibility that he was placed at Shujin under the expectation that he would awaken to Arsene's power (The Kirijo Group, of course, has exactly that capability, but neither of them know that). "I don't see how they could have known. Perhaps there was another reason you were placed there, that not even your parents are aware of?" He shrugs. "I don't know if that makes it better."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
It makes sense. Most people care about their parents. Even Tsubasa, whose father has physically beaten them, respects their father--out of fear or out of love, Ren won't speculate. It makes sense that, for all Yusuke can't forgive Madarame, they also can't forget him, either.
"True," they say aloud. "I guess it's easier to feel pity once you're no longer under his power. I'm sure it wasn't all bad either, or else you wouldn't have been so loyal to him for so long."
Though even as they say the words, Ren wonders if that's really true. They shake their head. "...Well, his heart's been changed now. He's got the chance to turn his life around. Once he pays his debt to society, that is."
Yusuke makes (as far as Ren knows) another good point: how could someone possibly know who would awaken to a Persona before it happened? "Maybe," they concede of another reason even their parents don't know. "It makes it... a little better, I suppose." They stare out the window. "At least in that case, they didn't actively sell me out."
They huff out a little breath, then look back at their friend. "There's one person who might know." A beat. "The one in the black mask. If I can find him..."
Possibly concerning, that use of I.
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"We." Yusuke says immediately. "Someone like that - powerful enough to move around Palaces without anyone realising he's there until he wants to be known? Do not pursue him without support, Ren."
The switch to yobisute stands out given how sternly Yusuke cleaves to the rules governing honorifics, but he doesn't seem to have noticed. "The Metaverse is already dangerous enough to contend with alone, for all that our Phantom Thief tricks help us escape danger. What if you chase him somewhere that we understand the rules of even less?"
He shakes his head. "... I understand that you probably want to take the burden of confronting him onto yourself - he is terrifyingly dangerous - but that's all the more reason we should face him as a team."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren blinks when Yusuke interrupts to correct them without hesitation. They do notice the drop to yobisute, but just as important is the lecture whose heart is concern for their well-being. Their gaze softens.
"You're right. As the leader, I shouldn't set a bad example," they... well, it's sort of a joke. It's not the only reason why they'd try to confront the Black Mask alone, but it's true they don't want their friends to get hurt either. Their smile fades. "...I just don't know if he even would give an answer, even if we all came at him at once. Part of me thinks, if I can get him alone... maybe I can negotiate with him. I managed to get away from him alive before."
They rub the back of their head. "But you're absolutely right about him being dangerous. He could've killed me before--he almost did." Their frown deepens as the conversation brings back old thoughts. "...Maybe part of me also wants to know why he walked away instead."
Maybe if they're alone, they can get a hint the Black Mask wouldn't drop in mixed company.
"I don't know how to find him, anyway," they conclude. "But we could bring it up to the team. Maybe someone would have a good idea for how to lure him out." They smile faintly, ironically. "Maybe someone'll tell me I'm crazy for even considering it, with or without the team."
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"As it happens, I do think it's a mad idea," Yusuke says flatly, before smiling back at Ren. "But given that he attacked Kaneshiro's Shadow, he's likely responsible for Mental Shutdowns - and that means we're bound to confront him eventually."
"... Still, I understand your reasons for wanting to confront him alone. I doubt, though, that he'd answer you - he seems to act according to his own whims as he pleases." He let them go from Kobayakawa's Palace, too, after all.
"Usually, though, negotiating means having something to offer the other party - and unlike the Shadows we hold up in Mementos, I doubt he would see the same value in 'not getting riddled with bullets'." If the Old Maid is only mildly inconvenienced by (admittedly imaginary) gunfire, Yusuke doubts the Black Mask will turn out to be any more mortal.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"Good thing I've got you guys to keep me in check, then," Ren replies, unfazed by that flat statement--because they know that smile will follow. Ironically, it's Yusuke's follow-up statement that sobers them up again. "...Yeah. He's not an enemy we can just hope to avoid."
They touch a hand to their chin. "That's what I thought at first too, about him following his whims. But if he was terrorizing the Principal's Shadow on orders from that group that was bossing him around--and if that group is the New World Order--then there's got to be a method to his madness. And if there is, then there must be a way to get him to... act rationally."
The next point gets a wry nod of the head. "Yeah. If anything, he'd probably just get a kick out of the attempt." They frown, reviewing what they know and what they suspect about him. "Right now, there's still just too much we don't know about him... Aside from the fact that he's watching Kobayakawa's Palace--and I don't want to chance that one again." They look up at Yusuke. "If we're not changing his heart, we should try to avoid messing with his Palace."
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"There will be no argument from me on that score - every change in perception we make to change how a Palace behaves is in service of gaining access to the Treasure. Since that Palace also turned out to be... lighter on the intel than we'd like, it's probably best to leave it be unless Kobayakawa starts causing problems like the other Rulers did." Which seems unlikely, to Yusuke.
"You have a point about the method - so it's just a matter of figuring out what drives him. Unfortunately, we don't exactly have clues about that," he points out. "So until we find out more... perhaps it's best to leave the idea of confronting him be, for now."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Kobayakawa's way too much of a coward to cause problems, that's for sure. "Here's hoping the lie we planted with Kobayakawa's Shadow bore fruit."
Ren nods slowly when Yusuke suggests they don't pursue the idea of a confrontation with the Black Mask. "Yeah... Yeah. Unless he happens to approach us on his own, and--" He shuts his eyes and shrugs. "What're the odds of that?"
Of course, if their suspicion about him is even partially correct...
But if they're right about that, then they've got significantly more of an edge on the Black Mask than any of them could've hoped. If they're wrong, then The Phantoms really don't have a way to draw him out anyway.
"Better to focus on the next mission anyway," they continue. "We're going after that Furudate guy next if we can get enough intel on him to get into his Palace." And assuming a Palace Holder doesn't sideline them out of nowhere, and what're the odds of that? "If the Black Mask really is working for the New World Order, and we keep going after big names in it, it's likely we'll run into him sooner or later."
<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.
"Well, at least one of the Phantom Thieves definitely doesn't go to Shujin," Yusuke jokes. "Three, now!"
Of course, Ichika and Tsubasa weren't part of the team at that point, but they get to be included anyway.
"If he does approach us on his own, that is probably a bad thing," he points out about Black Mask. "You're right - focusing on other Palaces makes the most sense."
He looks down at Ren's history homework. "Well... since I'm here, do you want help with this? I know several historical events have been immortalised on canvas - perhaps I might have come across some things."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren chuckles at Yusuke's joke. "And 'at least one' may as well be all of us," they joke back amiably. "Even more so with three."
The Shujin majority is in danger at this rate! ...And maybe that's a good thing.
It is a bad thing if the Black Mask approaches them first--regardless of who he is or isn't. Pushing things too hard for right now is a foolhardy idea. Sprinkling some breadcrumbs in front of a likely suspect will do. If it isn't him, it won't mean anything anyway.
They turn a regretful eye to their history homework. "Yes," they say without hesitation, moving to one side to make space for Yusuke. It's boring to study, but it's less boring with a partner--and if Yusuke's help comes in the form of his passion for art, it's bound to be way more fascinating that way.
Maybe Ren will unlock a fun method of studying for history next...?!