Ren sent Yu a message saying he was stopping by. He walked alongside the road, and he swore he kept seeing flickers of movement at the edge of his eyesight.
Up toward the roofs.
He figured it was just faulty city electrical wiring and decided to ignore it as he walked up to Yu's door.
"Look who decided to drop by," Yu said with his normal stoic face.
"I told you I would," Ren replied as he was led in.
"Yu has been acting like he's a scripted character for the past two hours, and it's creepy," Yukiko spoke up from the living room couch. "Hi, Ren! Naoto will be in town soon!"
"Are you prepared for the meeting? Yes? Or no?" Yu said flatly.
"Stop messing around, man. This is pretty important. I have some information from Igor about the Shadows we've been running into," Ren said gravely.
Yu blinked and nearly instantly switched to his dependable mode.
"Tell me about it."
---
Meanwhile, Yoruichi and Urahara were watching Ren walk into Yu's apartment from a distance.
"That's the guy who saw me when I was watching over the two boys the other day. He feels strong," Yoruichi said. "The little Kuchiki brat got assigned here. How strange. At least we won't need to clean up the Hollows as much."
Urahara pulled out his fan and tapped his chin with it, his eyes narrowing as he focused his spiritual energy toward them to see clearer.
He soon could see Ren and Yu talking. Their expressions were quite serious. And when he began to focus his perception more to eavesdrop, Ren suddenly spun on the spot and looked around.
"Yoruichi. You said you showed him and one of the girls some Hakuda kata today, right?"
Yoruichi looked confused. "Huh? Yeah. And I taught them how to enter a meditative state."
Pointing his fan toward Ren, he said, "Then why does that kid's soul already have spirit meridians started?"
"What?!"
---
"Ren?" Yu said. "You feel something?"
Ren furrowed his brow in thought and said, "I felt like we were being watched. But we aren't near a window."
Rise, who had been in the shower while Yu and Yukiko listened to Ren repeating what Igor said about Hollows and how to identify them, suddenly said,
"Fuuka protects our digital privacy. Everything here is registered under an alias, and I sweep the room with a scan from Kanzeon a couple times a day... If we're being watched, we're screwed."
Ren simply chuckled.
"Guess I was imagining it."
"Did Igor tell you anything else?"
Ren paused for a moment.
"He said to trust my Social Links."
Yu nodded immediately. "If he says that, it is important to do so. But remember not to trust them without the full picture. Some things can't be stopped once they've been started for too long. Remember that you have—"
"To take responsibility for my own actions, yeah." Ren rolled his eyes.
"So we need to figure out some way to carry weapons without getting caught to fight these Hollows or whatever they are. Our Personas are too weak still. I don't think I have enough mental energy to spam spells."
"...We had our own methods, but things were a lot less strict back then. I'll see if we have anything legal for self-defense," Yu said.
"I suppose it's good I'm learning a martial art from one of my Social Links, I guess," Ren said, seemingly realizing that, again, fate had dipped its fingers into his life.
But strangely, he wasn't too bothered.
He chose to do it. It was great that it would help him defend himself and others in the immediate future.
Ren paused for a moment before saying, "Do you think it would be a bad idea to get the whole team to learn?"
Yu thought momentarily. "Probably not. But if you end up sending out a big calling card anytime soon, the police might think it's strange that you're all training in martial arts while being among the people Kamoshida bothered the most. He was the first calling card, and we kind of overdid it."
"Yeah, we did, didn't we..." Ren awkwardly laughed.
"We told you!" the girls called out to them.
---
Ren was walking home. He was carrying his Evoker in his jacket's inner pocket. Morgana had awoken and was watching carefully.
"Looks like we might be in the clear, Joker," he whispered to Ren.
"That's definitely a flag," Ren grumbled.
"Huh?"
ROARRRRRRRRR!
The ground shook as Ren heard crashing and growling from a distance. He could vaguely hear the voice of a young woman calling out. He broke into a sprint toward the source, putting his hand on his Evoker.
As he rounded the corner, he saw a massive monster with a hole in its chest and a bone-white mask. It looked rather nondescript. Way weaker than what Ren was expecting.
"A Hollow!" he said as he pulled his Evoker from his jacket and began to approach.
Morgana hopped out and looked around for anyone.
"Ren, I think we're good!" Morgana called out.
Ren ran out and aimed the Evoker at his head, standing in front of the Hollow before pulling the trigger.
"PERSONA!"
A beam of blue light shot through one of Ren's temples and out of the other. There was a sound of glass shattering, and Ren's domino mask flickered briefly on his face.
"ARSÈNE! EIHA!" Ren called in excitement, his grin nearly splitting his face.
Arsène rose behind him and pointed his claw-like hand forward, condensing a black-and-red ball of energy before shooting it through the Hollow's mask. He followed up with a blow to its body before backing up.
Morgana hopped off the ground onto Ren's shoulder and launched himself into the air.
As he came down, the sound of shattering glass rang out again as a blue beam of light shot through Morgana's neck.
Zorro appeared behind Morgana and began to thrust his rapier downward as Morgana fell.
Slice.
The Hollow split in half and disintegrated.
Ren and Morgana looked around again, ultimately not finding anyone.
'I really hope that girl I heard wasn't involved in this,' he thought as they left. 'Morgana didn't say anything, though.'
On a nearby roof, a petite young woman with short black hair was being held off the ground by Yoruichi.
"Kuchiki, calm down."
"But! But! He! They! The cat!"
"Relax. We know about him. He doesn't hunt them. He doesn't even know what they are. We're still observing them. Come with me."
The two vanished.
---