The painting was beautiful. Despite not being finished, it was fascinating.
The team was stunned. It was... unsettlingly accurate.
The two figures were, without a doubt, Ann and Shiho.
However, Ann was wearing a long, flowing black dress and using what appeared to be bladed fans.
Shiho was taking a stance with a European longsword, wearing white ceremonial armor with gold trim and small runes drawn in pencil across it.
They were facing toward some kind of unfinished portal.
There were also multiple areas of the painting that had no paint at all, strangely in the shape of people.
The background was Shibuya. Except it was upside down, situated at the top of the painting, with its tall buildings pointing toward the bottom of the page.
The bottom of the page was also unfinished, but the base layer of paint was a deep red.
Yusuke showed the page in embarrassment.
"It's nowhere close to being done, but I am quite proud of it. I'm still learning figure drawing..." he mumbled.
"Yusuke, this is amazing," Ren breathed out.
"Do you understand?" Yusuke asked gently.
"I understand that I don't understand."
"Will you ever understand?"
"Does that make your reality less real?"
"Thank you," Yusuke said as he locked eyes with Ren.
---
The team split up. They were upset that they didn't get any information on Madarame, but seeing that painting was worth it.
"Ren, why did you talk all weird to him?" Morgana asked as they were approaching Leblanc.
"Symbolism is the voice and thought of an artist. I told him what I believed I saw."
"But you didn't describe anything. You just said a word salad." Morgana frowned.
Ren simply smiled and looked at him, his eyes flashing slightly. They were still gold, but not even Yusuke seemed to notice. He couldn't find his glasses, so he assumed they were in Leblanc.
"What are you grinning about now?!" Morgana snapped, annoyed.
"Come on, Mona. What thief doesn't have an eye for the fine arts?" he teased.
---
RING!
"Hey, kid. I know I asked you if you were okay with meeting my daughter, but she panicked a little and said she wasn't ready before I could even tell her," Sojiro awkwardly revealed.
"Just giving up on the bugs, huh?" Ren wryly smiled. "Take your time, Miss Sakura. I'm here for a year, after all."
BZZT.
[Alibaba]
Thanks, Ren.
---
Ren gave a smile while Sojiro was stunned. Most people would be annoyed. He had even come back earlier than usual!
Blinking, Sojiro seemingly decided something.
"Since you're here, kid, I'll teach you some more coffee tricks." He smiled.
"I thought I did pretty good?"
"You did pretty good for a newbie."
"Rude."
BZZT.
[Alibaba]
Don't listen to him. He was impressed.
---
Ren just continued to smile.
Even if only for a year, this was his current home.
He didn't notice that his lips were shaking a bit.
But the smile wasn't strained anyway.
---