Work Text:
Ren Amamiya was lying in bed, thinking about the world. He hated it.
As he should’ve, since the world clearly hated him. Why else would it send him off to Tokyo with a criminal record haunting him forever, for the great evil of stopping a rapist? Why else would it give him parents who couldn’t care enough to send a text message? Why else would everybody he met instantly fear him and wait for him to do another great sin, do something else for which he could be banished from sight and forgotten forever? The world didn’t make any sense to Ren. When he was young, he thought it was just like the TV shows he watched and the video games he played: people loved the heroes, and the heroes won in the end. Instead, he grew up to find that everything was the opposite of what he expected. Out of the goodness still somehow left in his heart, he founded the Phantom Thieves, to be the hero that this rotten world so needed. But, of course, people hated the Phantom Thieves, too. They were dangerous, and scary, and not real justice. Real justice, as we all knew, was ruining somebody’s life because he tried to do the right thing.
But, of course, there were some things Ren still liked about the world. Food was nice. There were some people, like Ryuji and Ann and Yusuke, who actually seemed to have some kind of understanding of what “right” and “wrong” were, and they were fun to hang out with to boot. And then, for some reason, when thinking about all this, another person came into Ren’s mind. That being one Makoto Niijima.
Ren should’ve hated Makoto. That would have made all the sense in the world. She was a stuck-up, shut-in asshat who worshiped authority and, despite being at the top of the class, seemingly had absolutely no idea how the world worked. She blackmailed the Phantom Thieves for the inhumanity of changing a predator’s heart because she couldn’t work up the courage to do something about it herself. She should’ve been simply another obstacle in Ren’s mind. She should’ve been a symptom of this rotten world, another plague to be cured. And yet…
And yet, Ren couldn’t stop thinking about her. He could tell there was something more to that girl. Something like the girl that immediately called for medical help for Shiho. Something like the girl that was willing to give the Phantom Thieves a chance, even when to do so would jeopardize the future she was so intent on creating for herself. Ren couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something hiding underneath the shell of Makoto Niijima. Something raw, and angry, and - he shuddered at the thought - beautiful? Ren couldn’t help himself from keeping his eyes a second too long whenever they crossed paths in the hallway. He couldn’t stop himself from wondering who the real Makoto was when he saw her studying alone in the library, looking like the loneliest person on Planet Earth. He couldn’t keep himself from desperately wanting to know who Makoto was beneath the mask. If there was something redeemable in somebody as seemingly decadent, robotic, and subservient as her, maybe the world, too, could be saved. Maybe he could be saved.
Ren was falling in love with Makoto Niijima, and, no matter what he told himself while cursing this world, he wanted to fall in love with Makoto Niijima. And he wanted to fall in love with the world again, too.