2026-03-02: Good Job
- Log: 2026-03-02 Good Job
- Cast: Ren Amamiya, Kurou Ryouhara
- Where: Back Alleys - Leblanc Cafe
- OOC Date: March 02, 2026
- IC Date: October 03, 2012
- Summary: Kurou takes up the offer Ren made to him before they knew his true nature and comes by Leblanc to try out the coffee. Ren, in the bed they made themself, takes this opportunity to learn more about him.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Leblanc is a relaxed, cozy place to get a hot cup of coffee and/or plate of curry. A custom welcome mat and a streetside chalkboard invite regulars and the random passerby in for a delicious meal--though let's be real, the vast majority of Leblanc's clientele are regulars. For some reason, the owner doesn't do much advertising.
Right now, it's fairly dead. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner, Ren Amamiya watches over an empty cafe while Sojiro has stepped out for something or another. Sojiro doesn't share and Ren doesn't ask. Since it is empty, they've taken this opportunity to clean up. They can't do anything too intensive like wash the bathroom--they tend to wait for the weekend for that anyway--but they can and do wipe down the booth tables, the seats, the counter, and right now, the shelves under the counter.
This means some of the things that were on those shelves are on the counter right now. One of them is a crossword puzzle that someone half-filled in. Two different someones, actually, if the change in handwriting for some of the words is any indication, one blocky, one elegant. The words "Proof of Justice" are handwritten in the elegant handwriting near the top.
The shop is open; the sign on the door says so. But being in the middle of wiping down shelves with cleaner and a cloth, Ren, in their apron over their jacketless uniform, isn't paying attention to whomever might walk through the door. That's what the doorbell is for.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
In truth, Kurou had not meant to come to Leblanc today. His own business brought him through Yongen-Jaya, and then he paused, seeing that sign on the street and remembered his conversation for Amamiya-san. They mentioned working at a coffee shop with that name, didn't they?
Under the fading light of day, Kurou pushes into Leblanc. He has his school bag over his shoulder, and is dressed in his winter uniform, though his grey hoodie is warn over it. It's something he tugs down from his head as he enters, now that the lowering sun isn't trying to cast its glare into his eyes.
Briefly, he scans the area, taking in the atmosphere. But the most striking thing is the smell. Coffee and curry mixed together into an aroma that Kurou wonders is the real appeal of idling such a place beyond one's order.
Kurou's eyes gain a bit of a spark as he spots Ren working. Had they not been here, Kurou was considering he would have to come back another time. To him, it would not have been right to try the coffee that was not 'their' coffee for the first visit.
"Amamiya-san," he greets. But then he pauses, glancing around the otherwise empty establishment.
He does not... remember picking the lock to get in here...
"... Is it too late for a cup of coffee...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
The smell is exquisite. Living in the attic here has caused Ren to permanently share that smell, too. It clings to their clothes, including their uniform, all through the day. One would need to get particularly close to him to notice that, though.
"Welcome," Ren calls when they hear the bell over the door clang to indicate a potential customer's presence. They don't look over at first--they're still in the middle of cleaning those shelves--but when they hear Kurou's quiet voice, they startle and glance at him, eyes wide behind their thick, non-prescription glasses.
"Ryouhara-kun," Ren utters. A beat. Then they relax. Right. They invited Kurou to come by to try the coffee sometime. "It isn't. It's just" dead "slow today."
They look back at the shelves. "The menu's over the counter. Feel free to look it over. I'll wrap up with this in just a minute."
On top of the menu, the restaurant TV's also on, set to a news channel. The volume's down low, though, so it's easy to talk over it.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
"Then perhaps today is lucky," Kurou muses on having arrived at a slow hour. "But I apologize if the suddenness is unwelcome. I happened to be nearby today."
And that is the truth of it. Kurou has no other reason to be at Leblanc except to try the coffee, and to hear Ren speak of the art of crafting it, if they're of the inclination to speak about it now. But that can always come later, too. To taste it... this seems an important first step to understanding it.
... That Ren may be someone Kurou already faced in combat and leads the Phantom Thieves is not even so much as an inkling in Kurou's thoughts.
"Please do not hurry on my account," he says as he turns his attention to the menu above. The less hurried Ren is, the more time he has to ponder this.
The TV gets a glance of attention, but only to acknowledge it. His focus right now is spent staring at the coffee menu with all the gravity of studying for final exams.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
There's a lot of different coffee offerings. Prices are listed next to cups, and of course, the back wall is full of bean jars. There's plenty of options for Kurou to try--including something that's simply marked as the "house blend."
In other words, a mix of coffee beans crafted by the owner of the cafe. Sojiro's not here at the moment, but Ren's gotten quite good at brewing thanks to his tutelage.
"Nah. You're fine," Ren tells him. In this context, anyway. But the current context is surely the only one Ren Amamiya would know about anyway, right?
Kurou encourages them not to hurry. "Let me know when you make up your mind, then," Ren replies, and resumes cleaning.
Or starts to, anyway. They pause when they look down the counter at the things they moved there so they could clean in the first place. There's enough clean space now to put them back out of the way. They pause to do precisely that.
Their hand stops over the crossword puzzle. Then they pick it up carefully and turn to review it. They smile slightly, then fold it up and tuck it into one of their apron pockets.
Then they return to their task. Kurou told them not to hurry on his account, but they'd rather wrap this up quickly anyway.
The TV starts airing some kind of talk show...
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
In this current context, Kurou is just a boy coming for coffee after school... or is he always Kurou Ryouhara, devoted servant of the Ryouhara clan? Ren is no stranger to masks, and it it would not be strange for Kurou himself to have his own line between he is from day to night.
Yet it is very much a battle that Kurou finds himself in as he looks at that coffee menu. And all those beans. So many beans. He considers how many varieties of tea leaves there are, and how nuanced that can get. Is this equally nuanced territory? House blend... yes. To let the 'house' blend... This seems ideal for someone who knows little of it, and wants to taste what it is Ren creates. Slowly, he nods to himself.
With a glance toward Ren, he sees the crossword puzzle smiled at and taken away. His head dares a curious tilt to one side. Kurou's mind is made, but shouldn't he let Ren finish up, all the same, or at least enjoy whatever private moment that was...?
Something about 'justice'...
"... Then... once you have rested a moment from your task, I will have the house blend," Kurou finally says. He takes his seat at the bar, bag kept close at his side, and gaze wandering to the talk show that begins to air.
Hm. To share one's thoughts for broadcast to so many... Kurou would prefer never to do something like that.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren is a private person. They see Kurou notice them and tilt his head, but they say nothing about whatever that was all about.
Rest assured that this crossword puzzle is traveling from the shelf where it had laid forgotten up to Ren's room upstairs.
"Good choice. The house blend's popular, and for good reason," Ren remarks. Plus, because it's popular, it's the one they have the most experience preparing. Whatever problem Kurou has with the Phantom Thieves--whatever problem they know have with him--Ren can take pride in their skills as a barista. There's still a lot they have to learn, but their efforts so far have received praise. They fully intend to keep up the quality that garnered that in the first place.
Soon enough, they finish cleaning and switch modes to fixing the aforementioned coffee. The fragrant scent of fresh-ground beans fills the air, and soon one of the cafe carafes will percolate with steaming hot brew. Ren pours into a ceramic cup, then serves it with a quiet 'tup' to where Kurou sits at the counter.
As he does so, the talk show introduces their next guest. Ren settles back a step to watch as Goro Akechi walks out on the screen, smiling and waving to the studio audience, before joining the hosts at their respective seats.
They wonder what he's going to talk about today...
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
Kurou understands a desire to not elaborate. He reads the silence as does not press, politely using the TV to keep his gaze held away from it. It is good, though, when there are quiet things that bring small smiles like that...
"I know little of coffee," he says. "So I will trust the house on this matter."
Where Kurou politely kept his attention from Ren's crossword, he has far more attention for the way Ren selects and grinds beans. Though much of the process is not one he can observe keenly from behind the counter, or understand each step of.
"Thank you," he murmurs as he is served. Kurou draws the cup close to himself gently. He lets his hands rest on the side, taking in the warmth, and closes his eyes with a deep breath to let the scent waft in. His demeanor relaxes, and he breathes out with a slight but not imperceptible shudder as the tension is permitted to bleed out of him.
"... Hm. This alone is already worth your asking price."
Kurou retreats to this quiet world for a moment, but his eyes open when the Detective Prince speaks on TV. Ah, so that is who would want to broadcast so many words to so many people...
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Kurou must really love tea--maybe hot drinks in general. He knows little of coffee, but he takes that cup into his hands and breathes in its scent so lovingly, with such care and even tenderness. Ren watches him out of the corner of their eye, even as they watch the TV, and they can see the tension leave his body.
It's a truly bizarre contrast to the way he was in battle. Unfortunately for everyone, those kinds of contrasts and contradictions are exactly the type of thing that draws Ren in.
"Glad to hear," they reply. "Sometime you should come back when the Boss is here. I'm just the," part-timer, Ren is about to say, but something in them makes them pivot last-second to, "apprentice." And either way: "He's the master."
They're willing to let him bask in this coffee, however long it takes him. However, since they are keeping an eye on him at the same time they watch TV, they note how Kurou's attention is also drawn to the TV once Akechi starts talking.
"You a fan?" they wonder, fairly certain he's not. Still, it's a topic they can get a lot of mileage out of, all considered. Using Akechi as a starting point will let them go all sorts of places.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
To be so explosively full of relentless violence on night, and to be quietly here embracing the new experience of coffee another... If there is any link, it is in the shared intensity that Kurou embraces each with. But how that expresses are two separate ends of the spectrum.
Kurou considers Ren's suggestion. "... I would like to," he says. "But I wanted to try yours first. To... understand what it means to you, to make it." Is this excessive importance to give a cup of coffee ordered at a cafe? Nonsense, importance is never excessive in Kurou's opinion.
He turns his attention from the TV to bring the cup of coffee closer, testing if he is ready to drink it at its temperature. Not quite yet. But the closeness of the steam is pleasant.
"No," he answers honestly.
Kurou doesn't even know the guy! But Goro Akechi is a detective -- a whelpling cop. Hopefully he is not also stalking Yoko...
(Katsuya wasn't stalking her...!!)
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
When Kurou explains that he wanted to understand the importance of coffee to Ren and so try their coffee first, something flickers in their dark eyes. It's hard to really like him, knowing what he helped do to Tsubasa, who it is he's working for. At the same time, it's hard to really dislike him, either.
It reminds Ren a little of... themself, actually. It's the sort of thing they'd say and do, too.
Maybe there's a reason the two of them immediately hit it off.
(Once Kurou put the umbrella down, anyway.)
The topic turns to Akechi. Ren laughs, abrupt yet genuine, at Kurou's extremely direct refusal of fan status. "Sorry," they say amiably. "I know the guy personally, and it's funny to imagine how he'd react to a response like that."
Though Akechi would superficially take it in stride, underneath, it'd probably rub him the wrong way, and he might get petty about it as a result. Do or say something annoying to jab back, even though it was just an honest statement.
Or maybe he'd genuinely take it in stride. As childish as he can be sometimes, sometimes he really can be mature and self-confident. Ren can never know for certain, and that's part of the... not allure. Draw, let's say.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
The other common link in Kurou's actions may be sincerity. There is no putting on airs as he drinks his coffee -- far from it. And nor did he seem to be obscuring anything about himself as he committed violence against the Phantom Thieves.
He simply is. And what he is feels a nascent kinship with Ren.
What about Joker? Well, Joker isn't here right now.
The laugh makes Kurou look up curiously, wondering if this was one of those questions you're not supposed to answer so directly. Even knowing Ren knows Akechi personally does not make Kurou try to walk that back. There is a difference in being a 'fan' and knowing someone personally, to his understanding.
"I see. But I imagine my own opinion ultimately means little to someone of such conviction."
Conviction enough to appear on TV, even! ... Maybe Akechi and Kurou should never meet. It would be a problem if Kurou failed to understand those jabs... or worse, didn't even care.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
That's also true. Akechi's lack of sincerity was what made Ren dislike him at first; what changed that for them was his sincerity gradually coming to the fore. The Phantoms are all unapologetically themselves, too. It's something Ren cherishes in them.
As Kurou drinks the brew, he'll find it's bitter and smooth, with a light hint of acidity. If he has a tongue for bitterness, it's quite delicious. Otherwise, it might be hard to swallow... Coffee can be a challenging drink. It's at least clear the care that's been put into making it, but he already saw that for himself.
There are certainly questions people aren't supposed to answer so directly, but Ren isn't bothered by that--quite the opposite. They really are amused by it. They put reins on that humor soon enough, though.
Would Akechi not care about Kurou's opinion, though? Ren shrugs. It's not quite what he was saying, but: "Maybe. Maybe not. He likes to debate. We've had a lot of arguments about the Phantom Thieves, for example." They study Kurou for a couple of seconds. "What do you think about them?"
It's a logical question. Goro Akechi is best-known at present for his open criticism of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and suspicion of the nature of their changes of hearts. Talking about him and his convictions would only naturally lead to that.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
Their laughter, ultimately, doesn't bother Kurou. As long as it came from a genuine humor, then it's a good thing to have, like the little smile.
... Someone who likes to debate. That does explain showing up on a talk show.
"Oh," Kurou notes with some realization. "I am not very skilled with debates..."
This reaction is utterly devoid of any hints about his feelings of the Phantom Thieves for a few perhaps infuriating seconds. Luckily, Ren follows up with a more direct question.
Kurou takes another deep breath of the coffee smell before taking a sip of it. Intensely bitter. He was not expecting that. And yet... not unpleasant. There's an intriguing quality to it, like something at first not quite appealing, yet then deeply appealing that one must experience more of it.
How strange...
He lets the flavor rest on his tongue, to keep his senses alert, while he tries to put together the words for a subject that is one he considers with great care and gravity. It is, after all, still a matter of convictions.
"... Mm. I can understand his reservations, though... I think we come about them differently. I used to question if their methods signaled their own lack of conviction. Would they lose their resolve to change the world if there were no other option but to stain themselves in blood?"
Kurou lowers his cup back to the counter, his gaze still distant as he hunts for his words. He speaks in past tense, and, naturally, leaves out the catalyst for any change: a brutal battle between him and those who call themselves the Phantom Thieves of Heart.
"However... I've recently come to think that refusing to change the world with bloodied hands is a key part of their conviction. They mean to change the future, and they mean to do it holding fast to their principles."
His focus moves from empty space, and from the TV, to look back at Ren with that quiet sparkle in his eye.
"Whatever other reservations I have... I am happy that people like that exist."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Not that infuriating. At all, really; Ren is patient and a good listener. They can wait for whatever amount of time it takes for Kurou to consider his response, especially since he's also savoring his first sip of his cup.
The pleasant cadence of Akechi's voice on the TV doesn't hurt, either.
"That's okay. He's not here," Ren reassures him. The two of them could debate, but Ren is more interested in knowing what Kurou's stance is in the first place rather than arguing about it.
On the surface, the content of the first part of Kurou's response might be weird--even alarming. Ren doesn't react to it. They already know precisely why he's framing any issue he has (had?) with The Phantoms as a matter of their refusal to bloody their hands. Ren even thinks his question isn't nothing. There are situations where one might have no choice but to kill; Ren's not so naive as to be unaware of that fact. If they're ever forced to that point, though, it will literally have to be because there's absolutely no other option, and after they've exhausted trying any other way.
Back when they thought Panther was about to kill Shadow Kamoshida, they hesitated to stop her because--after the hell he put her and Shiho through, did they have a right to stop her? Ironically, it was her declaration after she didn't kill him, that she'd make him live with what he'd done, that helped crystallize their resolve. The Phantom Thieves don't kill. As long as Joker's the leader, that will be true. Kurou told them to change his heart or kill him; they fought to subdue him instead, and when that failed disastrously, they put everything into an escape instead. For all they'd been eaten alive by a giant skeleton, Ren stands by that decision.
However... their eyes widen a bit when Kurou expresses a positive regard for the Phantom Thieves, from their words to that light in his eyes. What?? That was not expected.
"...Yeah. I respect people who hold fast to their convictions. Even if we don't agree on them," they reply, because that's true regardless. "What kind of reservations do you have?"
Silently, they predict it'll be something about the nature of a change of heart. Among those who take issue with them, that seems to be the hot button.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
Kurou is relieved that this will not be a debate itself. It can be difficult for him to get his thoughts together at the best of times. Some of that is putting such weight on it. Ren is asking genuine questions, and Kurou is looking for the best ways to answer them.
Especially since the subject of the Phantom Thieves has many layers. Some feel contradicting, and ultimately, many of them feel pointless. What he thinks does not effect much of anything, for him or for them.
But they're not here, either. (Cough. Cough.)
After he speaks, he takes another long sip of coffee, and closes his eyes with this one to let the heat stick to his throat and soothe it after unknowingly revealing he rather liked a group of people he had just put through a violent... what, test? Is that what that was? Or are Kurou's feelings independent of Shiryuu's orders?
A path without blood is not one he chooses to walk, whatever his respect for it. But other reservations, Ren asks after, and Kurou looks into his coffee with another thoughtful pause.
"That is difficult to answer... There is the matter of the 'change of heart'..." Just as Ren predicts.
Unfortunately, he was not able to discover how it was done in their battle, either, though Joker did make a good effort in the mundane sense. The time he and Akabane-san spent together directly in the aftermath of thinking they'd both lost Shiryuu... are those dismal feelings something Kurou's absence might give someone? It's an unsettling idea...
That is a different thought for a different time. For now, Kurou may not know how hearts change, but he is reasonably sure it involves supernatural means.
"People dislike having to acknowledge that their own minds are not sacrosanct. However, a Phantom Thief is not the only way someone may become a stranger to themselves overnight, and I hold no pity for the hearts they choose to take. But..."
"... There is an old piece of wisdom suggesting you should never bring a weapon into a fight unless you are prepared to have that weapon used against you. Some mistake this a moral assertion. That is not the case. It is a matter of awareness: any weapon you bring to a fight now exists in that fight. Should you be disarmed, or your technology discovered, it could be wielded against you... ... Or anyone else on the battlefield."
Kurou runs his finger thoughtfully against the rim of his coffee cup. He cannot say here that he is a fighter on that field from before the Phantom Thieves existed, and must consider what this could mean for him and his. The more he thinks, even as he's speaking, the more he realizes it may not matter.
"There is no undoing what has been done... I suppose that isn't really what bothers me."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Granted, maybe it will eventually turn into a debate or an argument. That isn't Ren's intent, though. They genuinely want to know what Kurou thinks--especially after all their admittedly limited real-world interactions so far. It's important, maybe even vital, for figuring out why Kurou attacked them and if, how, and when he'll do it again. As outwardly inexpressive as he is, he's clearly someone who feels deeply. ...again, much like Ren themself.
This is someone they could see themself befriending. This is also someone who participated in the horrific torture of an important friend of theirs.
Ren is hardly unfamiliar with that kind of conflict, given Akechi and the Black Mask, but it does mean they need to proceed with caution.
They nod once when Kurou acknowledges the change of heart as an issue. Yup, called it. However, they don't interrupt, and continue to let Kurou answer at his own pace. When he does... when he gets to that old piece of wisdom...
...they have to pause mentally. He... makes a very good point, actually. The concept is hardly unfamiliar to them--The Phantoms keep their methods secret for a reason--but they never quite considered what some other group might do with the power to change hearts if they ever found out how to do it. It was enough to them that they and their friends agreed not to spill to anyone outside the group.
So they think about it. What would happen if other people learned how to do a change of heart and started doing them too? ...It's hard to imagine someone using it for evil, admittedly--not that there isn't potential, but because it's the process of removing distortions from a person's heart. However, Ren and their friends speculated that a psychotic breakdown might well be a change of heart in a negative direction. In that case, there might well already be someone doing the same thing they're doing. There aren't any other calling cards, but if, say, the Black Mask is signaling to his victims some other way...
It is a chilling thought. And it's yet another reason to keep their methods under wraps at all costs. Ren tucks that thought away for now and focuses back on Kurou.
"Yeah? What is, then?" they prompt.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
There is another problem with this now loosened weapon that Kurou decides not to mention, since Kurou thinks Ren is only Ren, and they are not someone on this battlefield who should need to concern themself with it. But... someone may not have to know how it's done. They only have to learn how to wield a Phantom Thief.
Phoenix is learning that cruel lesson now.
But much as Kurou, as a shinobi, wishes he could learn the method, he acknowledges that the next best think is no one being able to. Though this does mean he remains unaware of how difficult a weapon it might be for the malicious to wield... if, indeed, it stays that way.
As far as the possibility goes, the cat, as they say, is out of the bag. (Whatever Morgana's physical location may actually be.)
No, what really bothers Kurou?
Ren's prompt feels distant, their words floating away. Kurou's eyes are unfocused as he lifts the cup again, but only gets halfway to himself. He is not looking at Ren, but directly through them into somewhere -- somewhen -- else.
"If I were a victim..." If. Kurou is better at secrets than he is at such a direct lie, "... of the unrepentant, and they began giving uncharacteristic apologies because of a 'stolen desire'... to then be taken in to be judged by laws that failed to protect me in the first place... I would be unsatisfied."
The coffee in his mug begins to ripple from the tremble in Kurou's arm. He does not even smell the coffee the next time he breathes in as the air goes through his teeth and painfully out again until that rippling surface slowly but surely goes still.
"... No. I would be furious."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
That's true, too. One part of Shiryuu's torture was telling Tsubasa to attack the NWO, or he'd kill them and/or their loved ones. Ren has heard about this; Tsubasa told the team all about it. They've made the rather naive assumption, though, that with Tsubasa rescued, there won't be a follow-up--either Shiryuu won't follow through on his end, or Tsubasa won't. At the very least, surely Tsubasa, known brash, violent hothead whose combat style is to immediately charge into battle and has a paranoia corkboard and is convinced they're being tailed, tracked, or otherwise--and isn't /wrong/ about that, necessarily--wouldn't go off half-cocked on their own about it.
Ah, the ideas one gets in one's head when one thinks the danger has already passed. Joker might well learn that cruel lesson too, in their time. It's not like Phoenix can un-learn the process of a change of heart, and Joker isn't willing to abandon a friend.
But Ren, by necessity, isn't thinking about that. They are instead taking in that distant look on Kurou's face as he gazes into a place, at a person, that isn't here. He explains what exactly his problem with a change of heart is. He expresses it, physically, as the coffee in his cup begins to tremble.
"..."
Akechi told them something very similar some time back, too.
"What would you want to happen to that person instead?" they wonder softly. They have a hunch they already know the answer.
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
The Phantom Thieves have entered onto a field of battle that's large, and complicated, and with many enemies. Perhaps this, too, was part of what Kurou meant to test beyond learning how commited they were to their choices.
He can hardly elaborate here and now. No, instead there's an anger that grips him and threatens to take him away to somewhere he cannot hear Ren asking further after him.
... But Ren does, and as the coffee stills, and the smell returns to Kurou's senses, and Ren's quiet voice reminds him he is in a safe and comfortable place, Kurou finally refocuses.
"That is a good question," Kurou says. He looks down. "It is... impractical and childish to wish that any regret is their own, and not forced by outside means. Yet I do wish that. And if they cannot know regret this way... that justice not be determined by those who have protected them before."
Kurou does not trust the law, clearly. And not a fan of the Detective Prince outright...
He sips at the coffee, then drinks, draining the rest of it now that the taste has acclimated.
"... In the end, I cannot deny that the Phantom Thieves are effective in preventing the victims from suffering further. Any possible doubt and uncertainty concerning that justice may be sufficient price to pay for that."
His blue painted nail taps at his empty cup. 'Unsatisfied', he had said, and so that thought remains.
"I apologize. I... did not mean to speak so much. And it is all pointless murmurings. It isn't as if my feelings on the matter will stop them. Nor would I want them to."
Kurou retrieves payment. No tip; this is Japan, where people are paid a living wage.
"Thank you, Amamiya-san, for the coffee."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
They have--Ren's becoming more and more aware of that as time goes on, even if they do mistakenly believe that Tsubasa's timer has been stopped. The Phantom Thieves know their own niche very well (or as well as they can with the limited experience they've got), but as to the greater supernatural world... until recently, they knew basically nothing. That's something they'll have to correct, though they're at least starting on that.
For now, Ren continues to watch and listen as Akechi's pleasant voice sounds in the background. Wherever Kurou went for a moment, he's back. He even acknowledges that it isn't reasonable to expect that the unrepentant might repent all on their own--though he makes another good point about how it's bullshit that, after the change of heart happens, the police swoop in to deal "Justice" when they weren't doing shit before. Ren sure understands that distrust of the police. Their eyes flick up at the ceiling as they toy with a lock of their bangs in thought. "Hm."
...There's not really anything the Phantom Thieves can do about that, though. That's outside the purview of their actions. They make their targets confess their crimes with their own mouths. Whatever happens after that is out of their hands.
But Kurou does acknowledge that on the other side of his anger, there is an understanding that the Phantoms' actions save the victims. Ren looks back down at him as they tuck their hand back into their pocket. They don't speak, however, until Kurou makes his apologies. Then they shake their head.
"No. Even if it wouldn't stop them, your feelings are still worth expressing. People can't find true Justice by only listening to those who agree with them." They process Kurou's payment; possibly even give him change. As befits a Phantom Thief.
"You're welcome." They pause a beat. It's a bad idea, even if it is standard customer service, but still... "Come again."
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
Kurou has his feelings, but he now knows the Phantom Thieves act with a solid conviction of their own. They do not, to his knowledge, work with the law. It is merely consequence.
... And it does feel frustratingly childish to dislike how things turn out when their methods, whatever they are, are so pragmatically effective. But Ren says the feelings are still worth expressing, and Kurou pauses to consider that with a slow, single nod.
He's trying, at least. It is an unpracticed thing. Despite the coffee, his throat feels a little sore after today...
The change Kurou receives may not be for his heart.
Or, maybe in some small ways, it was. Before Kurou exits the door, he pauses.
"I will. I may not like debates, but... next time, I would like to listen to your thoughts on the matter. Or any other."
Just as Ren had done, without trying to silence him.