Walking down the road, Yusuke was silent. They were close to his hou—Madarame's shack, and he had no idea where Ren was leading him. He was ready to ask when Ren suddenly said,
"I'm not really an artist myself. But when you make a piece of art, you are expressing your perception of an event, person, or idea. Yes?"
Yusuke paused and nodded. "If you want to be obtuse about it, yes."
Ren stopped walking, looked around, and tapped his bag. Morgana popped his head out and looked before hopping out and dashing away.
Yusuke was silent. He didn't know what Ren was getting at.
"Now, you can 'see' your inner world, right? For lack of a better term?"
Yusuke furrowed his brows. "I suppose. Where are you going with this?"
Ren paused for a moment and exhaled. "You'll see in a moment... Imagine this. Your inner world is a collection of thoughts and feelings you've had toward things you've seen and perceived. What if the sections you hide from others distorted?"
Yusuke looked confused, yet nodded along.
Ren looked at the sky for a moment as Morgana came back and sat at his side, looking right at Yusuke.
"It's hard to explain without delving into psychology. But art and psychology can correlate. Roughly." Ren looked at Yusuke and cleared his throat.
"Now, imagine if their inner world produced a work of 'art'." Ren couldn't help but sneer. "One that depicted the things they hid in artistic metaphor."
Yusuke understood roughly what he meant.
"You mean it is a creation that depicts their soul without their explicit consent?"
"Not quite, but you understand roughly what I mean. When you see it, you'll know."
Ren looked at Morgana and nodded.
Yusuke was getting uncomfortable seeing the abnormally intelligent cat. But that thought was cut short when Ren took out his phone.
[Beginning Navigation]
---
Ren held on to Yusuke as the young artist grasped his head, and the three entered the Metaverse.
Blinking his discomfort away, Yusuke looked up to see the museum.
"How garish."
"Tacky, huh?"
The two looked at each other and let out a laugh before Yusuke took on a more serious expression.
"Welcome to the Metaverse," Morgana suddenly said.
Yusuke spun around upon hearing the new voice, only to see Morgana in all his glory, standing there proudly.
"An anthropomorphic cat?"
"I am NOT a cat!"
"That's Morgana," Ren said with a chuckle.
"The cat in your bag, right?" Yusuke asked again while inspecting Morgana and framing him with his fingers. "You would be a good mascot character, Morgana..."
Morgana growled briefly before exhaling. "Whatever. Call me a cat, I guess. Anyways, this is the Metaverse. The world of the mind."
Yusuke paused and looked around. It looked like normal Shibuya. The only exception was the huge golden museum in the distance, with lines of guests extending toward the horizon. He opened and closed his mouth.
"The mind?" he asked gently, glancing at the building that took the place of the shithole he was living in.
"Ah."
Ren looked at the ground.
---
"They vanished!! Right when I was watching them! It wasn't a movement technique. The Reiatsu wasn't disturbed! They just vanished, and I couldn't sense them anymore!" Rukia snapped at Yoruichi.
"Calm down, short stuff," Yoruichi said as she rubbed Rukia's head roughly. "We don't know where they go, and Amamiya's senses keep getting sharper. I tried to hide around them when they vanished, but I must not have been close enough."
Rukia suddenly paused and glanced into the distance. Yongen-Jaya was quiet and peaceful. She was glad she chose this apartment and not the one in Shibuya, although she had found out that she would have been closer to Orihime, so that had bummed her out a little.
"I'm going to wait until they reappear," Rukia said as she flickered away.
Yoruichi's hand shot out, and she was suddenly holding Rukia by her robes.
"Don't struggle unless you wanna fall out of your clothes, short stuff. I got more to tell ya."
Rukia blushed hard and stopped moving.
---
Yusuke was sitting in his home quietly. He couldn't believe the secret that had been revealed today.
A world of the mind.
Although he had seen into his Sensei's "heart," for lack of a better term, he still held hope that the man could be redeemed. All humans had sins.
Ren had explained what a distorted desire was. He could tell that Ren was struggling to express it in a way that was easy to understand, but he grasped the basics. He would have to see more to fill in the blanks.
Ren had advised him to look into Tarot for some reason. He didn't know why, but he planned to take his advice. He didn't care for the fortune-telling aspect of it, so he had never really looked into it. But when Ren had briefly described the Fool's Journey, he had felt filled with enlightenment.
He wanted to paint.
But no.
Not yet.
"I have to see more."
---