─ supermarket

@amamiya ren. There was a time in Akechi’s life when he found the very idea of shopping for produce to be overwhelming. He may have been a natural-born genius ( one of the many lies he built for himself, he studied hard in between classes and his detective prince engagements ), but the process of choosing the best produce out of the bunch mystified him. It may have been less daunting if there was someone to teach him-

Akechi shakes his head, willing the sentimental thoughts away. There is use to dwelling on the what ifs in his life. Many of his actions are irredeemable and if he allowed himself to reflect on them… he really did not want to even entertain it, afraid of what a conscience might do to him.

A small deep breath and he returns to browsing the various selections of vegetables before him, contemplating which new recipe he wants to try for the week. That is how he has been slowly improving on his cooking skills, by browsing the internet for recipes and trying to follow at least one per week. His earlier attempts were complete disasters that slowly turned into near-disasters as he learned to rely on his landlady for some guidance. She was more than happy to lend a helping hand, teaching Akechi the cooking basics that would make tackling any recipe easier.

These days he only turns to her for help when something is completely unfamiliar ( or when he wants to spend some time with her, but he would never admit that to anyone ).

Picking up a head of cabbage, Akechi looks over the leaves to look out for any damage or rot that would be unfortunate to find once he unpacks everything at home. Perhaps a nice salad that he can cut up and store away to have throughout the week would be a good idea. It’s always nice to have some greens ready to consume without the dread of having to pull out the cutting board and knife then having to clean it all up.

It’s when he sets the vegetable down that he feels a familiar presence; a chill shoots down his spine as an uneasiness overcomes his senses. no no no. it can’t be. he can’t be here, can he? this has to be his paranoia acting up, triggered by… vegetables. somehow.

for once in his life, akechi really hopes that it is just in his head. he can feel those eyes on him. they burn into his soul, just like they always have and makes him feel as if he has one to begin with.

against his better judgement, the young ex-detective turns his head towards the source. In that short millisecond, he hopes- prays that there will be nothing there.

As soon as he locks eyes with those familiar greys, the world seems to freeze in place. He can’t look away.

All that time he spent playing detective and chasing after a phantom thief, and yet now it feels as though their roles have been reversed.

He has been caught.

No, he can’t do this. Not yet, and maybe not ever. He feels frozen in place, so he wills himself to start taking a few steps back. For all he knows, he may not come after him. Perhaps, he really is only seeing a ghost of his past.

He doesn’t know how he looks right now, but if his face is showing how he feels, then he can only imagine that it would be similar to how a cat is once caught doing something they shouldn’t be.

@akechi goro. There’s nothing better to really absorb the events of saving the world twice than going back to your hometown where no one’s thought of you in nearly a year. The events in Tokyo were nothing short of insanity, a fever dream that none could even fathom. But it was real. A reality that he shared with others through the Phantom Thieves. But back home, no one bat an eye when he returned. Ren didn’t have much of anyone to speak to when he went back home.

Of course, he always had his messages, he had Morgana with him. If he wanted company, it was a phone call away. But there was something always missing. In an ironic way, he felt more alone than the first time he went to Tokyo. And maybe that had something to do with the glove that lingered in the bottom of his jacket pocket. But he keeps that shoved down deep.

Summer is when he decided that he’d move back to Tokyo for good. All he had to do was get accepted into a university. There was money still left in his savings from all the work done from mementos, so paying for tuition was no problem.

Two days after looking into colleges in Tokyo that he could afford, he got a message from Futaba, excitedly asking him about when he’d be moving back. She’d been snooping in on his search history, of course, since he wanted to wait until he actually got accepted before he told anyone the news.

He hadn’t even found an apartment to live in yet, if the university didn’t provide any room and board. He told Futaba as much. He’d been working part time after school and on the weekends every day to save up for one of those small rooms in the city. But Futaba immediately mentioned Sojiro and how he probably wouldn’t mind going to LeBlanc again.

Ren didn’t want to freeload off of Sojiro again. Being on probation was reason enough to be under his care, but now he was going to be in college. He couldn’t be a nuisance.

The next day, Ren got a call from Sojiro. The boss told him he would live back in his old room once he got accepted into university. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Even still, Ren felt bad, so he asked for a compromise. He wouldn’t live there for free: he had to help out in the cafe at least 5 times a week to make up for it. He could hear the sigh on the other end of the line as Sojiro begrudgingly agreed. He remembered him muttering something about ‘enjoying your college days,’ but Ren decided to ignore that.

Moving back to Yongen-Jaya was nice. He and Morgana were thrown a welcome back party upon return, and it was nice seeing all his friends again in person. But he quickly fell into routine once he started living there again. Wake up, go to school, work at LeBlanc, and maybe sometimes he’d get dragged to the mall by Ann or go training with Ryuji.

He barely had time to learn much about his new classmates. There were a few parties that he went to, out of obligation. An upperclassman once forced him into attending a mixer because it supposedly was ‘what a good kouhai would do.’ A girl clung to his arm all night, and he doesn’t remember her name. He remembered the shoulder-length brown hair she sported, but she was too thin, she didn’t have enough muscle.

Ren feels a stir in his stomach when he thinks of his rival. Or maybe it’s the alcohol coming back up.

Ren doesn’t remember throwing up his drink, or where he did it, but the faint taste of bile and the burn in the back of his throat was some sort of indication. He woke up the next morning with his head pounding and a heavy feeling on his chest that wasn’t Morgana (he slept on the couch that night, Mona would later tell him. Apparently, Ren reeked too badly of booze).

Sojiro gave Ren more days off than he’d liked. He wanted to keep working. He wanted to feel useful.

Ren would never admit this to himself, but being in Tokyo, surrounded by his friends and having a normal life feels… off. Like he’s not doing enough, like’s he’s not enough if he’s not trying to do something or make a difference. It’s why he keeps working, it’s why he can’t stop working. He should never stop.

Maybe that’s why Sojiro slapped a magazine catalogue of some supermarket in Yokohama one morning when Ren was in the middle of putting on his apron for the weekend shift. He looked at the catalogue curiously, tilting his head. Sojiro told him about some large sale happening with their meats. How the butcher at this particular market was one of the best in the country, and he needed it for the curry here. So his job was to go on a trip to Yokohama.

“Don’t rush,” Sojiro told him. “The meat is too delicate for that.”

Ren probably would have called Sojiro on his silly excuses, if his head wasn’t buzzing from exhaustion due to his daily routine. As Ren made his way out, he misses the way Sojiro sighs in relief and the look of concern on his expression as Ren stumbles out of the door.

The trip to Yokohama is enough for him to get a little bit of sleep, he even managed to get a seat on both trains. The rest, however, was short lived on all fronts. When he woke up at his stop, he was groggy and his eyelids felt practically glued together.

It was easy enough to navigate Yokohama, after his trip last summer with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, though it took a bit for Ren to locate the specific supermarket in his sleep-deprived stupor. Tucking his hands underneath his glasses, he rubbed his eyes with a groan before he made his way to the produce and meats.

Then, he saw it.

A mop of brown hair, no longer than shoulder length from the corner of his eye. He passed the figure and walked ten more paces before he could even process it. Ren froze dead in his tracks. He looked down at his hands, at the shopping basket he grasped. He felt dizzy all of a sudden. God, he should get more sleep. He’s hallucinating things now, obviously.

“Yeah, right…” he muttered to himself, shoving the feeling of hope down his throat as he swallowed the lump in his throat. There’s no way that was him. Probably just another person that Ren tried to project his rival’s image onto. There’s no possible way that it was him.

‘That wasn’t Akechi, Ren.’ He begged his brain to be more rational as a hand slipped into his pocket, fiddling with a worn piece of leather.

And yet he turned around despite all logic. Just in case, he told himself. Worse case, a dead man is still dead.

@amamiya ren. Recovering from death is no easy task. Akechi found a way without having to reach out to any of his previous contacts, but he could not tell you how. More so he does not want to have to recall. He had lost a great part of himself, and it seemed like all memories of his identity as the detective prince seem to have vanished— or at least deeply buried in the public’s conscience.

It was a difficult time. Choosing to leave everything he has built up behind, to let go of the few meaningful relationships he had managed to create. He wanted to stay, maybe go and bid a last farewell to his rival. Allow themselves to have a proper goodbye, at least.

After much pondering, logic and reason won. So Akechi packed up everything he had (which was not very much) and set off to build a new life for himself elsewhere.

A quick check with his bank informed him that he still had all the money he had earned through working for Shido and his solo expeditions through mementos, so expenses were not a limiting factor. By some miracle, whatever greater being brought him back decided that he shouldn’t have to financially struggle. He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or pissed off that it took pity on him.

There were a few options for his escape.

He could have gone back to a life of crime, his knowledge could easily allow him to slip back into the familiar lifestyle. He had considered this option until a long forgotten memory returned while looking at an old memento— a promise made to his mother. All she wanted was for him to live a good and happy life. Always putting emphasis on his happiness. She especially encouraged him to finish his schooling, to make it further than she did.

Oh, the curse of a mother’s love.

Getting his life back on track was no easy feat, especially since Akechi decided to only move a city over. He doesn’t know why and convinces himself it’s so there is still a sense of familiarity while keeping within the anonymity the more populated cities provide.

Yokohama seemed like a reasonable enough choice.

It took a lot of work and stays in dodgy hotels, but Akechi managed to luckily run into a nice older woman one morning. She had needed help moving some inventory into her quaint little shop and the ex-detective happened to be doing some shopping. He offered his help and when the lady caught sight of what he was going to be having for dinner (instant noodles and some chips), she insisted that he come back for dinner. He did not intend to go back, but the thought of the nice woman preparing extra food only for him not to show up… it seemed he was not as heartless as he believed it was.

Dinner was an awkward (on his part) but comfortable affair. The young child in Akechi wanted to cry at the experience of eating a home cooked meal while on the run. She was—still is—a nosey woman, so his situation of looking for a new home came to light. With no hesitation, she had offered the place right above her shop.

That is where he has been staying for the past two years and the irony is not lost on Akechi at all. After everything he had been through with his rival, he ends up finding himself in a similar situation. He could say that it is a little better since he wasn’t just offered a dingy attic. It is a proper flat that the woman and her husband used to stay in. After his death, her daughter had insisted that she live with her family instead. She wouldn’t accept any form of payment for his stay, even though he insisted that he can easily afford it, and the compromise they came up with was Akechi helping out in her store.

He was thankful for having somewhere to stay but he found the situation to feel like some sick joke. Was there still a god laughing at his predicament and making him live through a similar experience as his rival?

Hilarious.

Two years have passed since that time and Akechi has fallen into a comfortable life—seemingly far far away from his old one. It has certainly gotten easier to sleep at night. However, the journey towards completing education has been put on hold. Deciding which universities to go to seems like such a mundane problem to have after the life he has experienced, but just getting started has been overwhelming.

He has time to figure it out. That is what he keeps telling himself.

Today is not the day to think about any of that. Today, Akechi Goro is living his life and taking steps towards taking care of himself.

The landlady has been making slow and steady progress of encouraging Akechi in learning his way through the kitchen. She has been kind enough to have shown him on how to pick produce and which condiments to keep in stock. It was embarrassing (heartwarming) to have her accompany him to the supermarket every time for his weekly grocery run the first few months. Now, Akechi could do his groceries all on his own and has even been promoted to picking up something for his landlady as well.

The fear of potentially burning down his kitchen and the store along with it has also greatly reduced and he has become much more confident in cooking his own meals. Nothing that would earn him a Michelin star, but more vegetables and less processed meats have been incorporated into his diet.

The supermarket is only a few blocks away from his flat, and besides the occasional rotations they do of the stock on the shelves, he is more than familiar with the establishment. He has become well acquainted with the owner and the staff. It has become another place where he does not feel like he has to keep watching his back. Time has passed and no one has found him. As far as he knows, no one is even looking for him. It has allowed him to be more relaxed these days, especially compared to his life before his death.

Standing in front of the fresh produce section, he ponders what he should stock up on for the week. What did he feel like eating? Are there any new recipes he might want to try?

Akechi is living his now ordinary life, unaware that the supermarket’s special sale of meats is about to derail his plans once again.