Ren and Yu paced back and forth, thinking. Their respective teams waited quietly.
"These two are really similar," Ann whispered to Rise as she leaned over.
"I didn't notice it before," Orihime said quietly, careful not to disturb them.
Yukiko smiled. "They're like brothers. It's cute, isn't it?"
"Well, Ren was pretty much raised by us." Chie giggled.
Shiho, who was listening quietly, suddenly added, "He told me about how you guys adopted him... Does it have to do with..."
"Oh, you know about that, huh?" Yosuke said, downcast.
"We didn't let him say much. He was panicked," Ryuji said through gritted teeth.
Naoto sighed heavily. "How much?"
She slumped in her seat. She still felt guilty for not being able to help him more.
"Not much," Ann whispered.
"Let me guess. That lovable idiot downplayed it with 'I only got punished when I deserved it,' or 'Maybe it wasn't so bad.'" Rise sneered. "I hate his parents."
The Thieves were silent. They had more questions, but they decided to wait until Ren was ready.
---
Yu and Ren returned to the group.
"We have to stop and see Elizabeth again before we get down to it. But Ren and I decided on mixing up the teams and swapping the leaders as needed," Yu stated.
"Basically, I'm gonna have him teach me to be a leader." Ren shrugged. "So he's the boss first."
"I feel like you're being lazy..." Ryuji said in exasperation.
"Which one, Ren?" Shiho said with a sickly sweet smile.
Ann had the same disturbing smile. It screamed, Don't lie to us!
"70:30," Ren answered smoothly and confidently.
Until he saw Orihime's face.
She looked ready to cry.
"...60:40."
Orihime gave a bright smile, wiping away the forming tears in her eyes, and gave Shiho and Ann each a high five.
Everyone couldn't help but chuckle.
"Can we spar or something? I want to get a grasp of everyone's fighting style before we get to fighting Shadows."
Rukia still didn't quite understand what a Shadow was, but she shelved it for now. They had already been there for at least an hour. She cleared her throat and said,
"I would like that as well. During our spar, I won't release my blade. I don't know what would happen in this dimension..."
"Release your blade, huh?" Ren asked with a raised brow.
"Maybe it's a Shinigami rule not to tell or something. Sounds like a power-up or limit break. Take it at face value," Ryuji said. "I just wanna get fighting," he added as he knocked his fists together.
"Let's go see Elizabeth," Ren said in defeat. "I'm seriously at my limit."
The teams knew he was being theatrical and dramatic, but they fully understood his frustration.
Too much new info!
Yu patted him on the shoulder.
"We will be killing Shadows soon. The stress will melt away."
Ren gave a face-splitting grin, his mask briefly flashing on his face.
Rukia blinked. She suddenly saw Ren in a completely different outfit.
"Why are we still in our school uniforms, by the way? We have our weapons, and we can summon our Personas," Ann asked curiously.
Rukia was confused. Was this related to what she had just seen? Did the others notice too?
"We'll have to ask Elizabeth," Yu said.
"500 yen says she won't tell us."
"Do you need to borrow 500 yen?"
---
The teams lined up.
Investigation Team on one side, Thieves on the other. Rukia decided to stand on the Thieves' side.
"Nooooo, I wanted Shorty!" Rise whined.
"I'm just making it fair. You guys are strong." Rukia said with narrowed eyes. "I want to spar with you."
"I'm a noncombatant!" Rise said as quickly as she could.
Rukia couldn't help but chuckle.
"You guys are fun," she whispered before Yu began to organize the sparring matches.
---