Persona 5: Midnight Heist

Chapter 3

[Ren]

"Arriving at Yongen-Jaya," calls the subway announcer with overly-dramatic pauses in between words. Not long after the train stops, the doors open, and out steps Ren Amamiya, the kid with the most intense year any student can have. You might have had a crazy year, but you definitely didn't get sued by a politician; transfer to a new school; discover an alternate dimension; awaken to an outlandish new power; take down a lustful PE teacher, expose a plagiaristic art teacher...

...and fixed reality from a madman scientist. And after all that, his life is pretty much back to normal.

As he walks into the backstreets, he reminisces over the last year in Shibuya. After all, he's returning to his hometown very soon. He can't believe it's been almost a whole year since he awakened to his Persona. That felt like yesterday and 10 years ago at the same time.

I'm going to miss this place. Ren thought to himself as he observes the buildings he spent so long in during the last year. The medical centre. The movie theatre. The batting cages. The bathhouse. What fun he had in these places while Morgana watched or travelled around.

As he turns right, he approaches his second home. Leblanc. Ren didn't have anything better to do in the afternoon, so he returns home for one of the last times.

"I'm back, Boss." He tells his second father as he walks through the door. Despite expecting a minimal response, he receives even less, as Sojiro is seen on the phone with a focused look on his face. Not wanting to disrupt him, heads upstairs to drop off his bag. As he looks around his bedroom, Ren notices the folded boxes on his shelf and realises how much he had to pack away.

"Don't leave it till the last minute," Morgana tells Ren as he finally pops out of the bag.

"Yeah, sure, I will," was Ren's response. He was most likely to leave most of his possessions and gifts at the store. He'll see them again when he returns for the summer break anyways. Leaving Morgana and the bag in his room, he walks down the stairs, noticing how empty the store is, with Sojiro and Ren being the only ones there.

As he steps down, Boss drops the phone, hanging up from the call.

"You OK?" Ren asks, concerned for his caretaker as he sits on the cafè stool to listen. Sojiro, trying to find a way to summarise the conversation he had, takes his time.

"...So, interesting thing. You know how you had to head back to your hometown at the end of the week?" Ren nods slowly, not fully sure of where the conversation will go, but with a faint idea. "Well... there's been something with the police department there. So... you're staying for another month-and-a-half, or so." There's a long pause before any other words are said, with Ren breaking the silence with an appropriate response.

"Good one, Sojiro." With a smirk quickly forming.

"That's not a joke," Sojiro quickly replied with an annoyed tone, but impossible to get mad based on how outrageous the claim is. However, unless it's immediately debunked, Boss doesn't continue with a joke.

"Are you serious?" Is shouted by Ren, with Sojiro now the one to smirk as he nods.

Ren is stunned. "Believe it or not, I was getting sentimental just a few minutes ago...and...I was literally just thinking about packing my stuff." However, he wasn't upset. Spending another month with the friends he's grown so close with over the last year should be sentimental.

I should tell them. He considers as he picks up his phone. "Did they say why?" He asks Boss while texting his friends.

"In fact," Responds Boss. "They said that someone committed arson to the police department there."