Morgana had returned sometime after Kawakami left and curled up in his usual spot beside Ren.
Ren woke up the next morning, saw him sleeping there, and immediately began poking him in the side.
Morgana woke with a start and twisted around to face him.
"Ah?! What are you doing?!"
"Morgana, because of you, I had to listen to Kawakami lecture me about responsible pet ownership."
Morgana gasped.
"I'm not a cat or your pet!"
Ren placed one hand over Morgana's head and began shaking him gently.
"That excuse doesn't work on normal people!"
"Ahhh! Let go!"
Morgana yowled and batted at Ren's wrist while Ren continued bullying him.
Sojiro's voice carried up the stairs.
"Stop bullying the cat!"
Ren clicked his tongue and released Morgana. He scratched behind one of his ears before getting out of bed.
Morgana leaned into his hand anyway.
"Mean!" he hissed.
"You're the one who jumped out the window."
Ren left Morgana to consider that and headed downstairs into the café.
---
On the way to school, Ren did his best to ignore Morgana's vows of vengeance.
It had taken Morgana a while to calm down. When Ren returned upstairs after breakfast, he found him rolling across the bed and purring happily into the blankets.
Needless to say, Morgana had not appreciated being caught.
Once he finished venting, Morgana finally changed the subject.
"Do you have any idea who could moderate the site?"
"I'm not sure yet. I have a few ideas, but we'll have to discuss them with the team."
Morgana nodded.
"I also need to talk to Fuuka. She built the site, and she's still handling the technical side. I don't want to give anyone access without asking her."
Morgana hummed for a moment before suggesting the exact person Ren had been considering.
"What about Futaba? She's good with computers, and she already knows enough about what we're doing."
"I was thinking the same thing, but she doesn't have all the details. I crushed the bugs in my room after we talked, and Fuuka locked her out of our phones. She should only know what I chose to tell her."
Morgana went quiet for a moment before speaking again.
"I think she knew more before you told her anything. She asked about cognitive psience, remember?"
Ren thought back to their conversation.
He had asked Futaba what she knew about cognitive science and Jungian psychology. Futaba had been the one to say cognitive psience and spell out P.S.I.
Ren didn't think she was involved with Palaces or the mental shutdowns. She had seemed confused and frightened when he explained his theory about distorted cognition.
That didn't change the fact that she had recognized something.
"Doesn't psi refer to psychic or supernatural phenomena?"
Morgana's eyes widened before narrowing in thought.
"You're right. We have some research to do."
They agreed to start at the school library after classes. It probably wouldn't have much about cognitive psience, but they could search the internet if the books gave them nothing.
Maruki had also said cognitive science was his specialty, although Ren would rather exhaust the library first.
---
Ren yawned during class while Kawakami wrote on the board. She was in a brighter mood than usual, and it showed. Her smiles weren't as forced today.
'I really feel bad for not calling her sooner.'
'You've been busy, mon ami. You cannot be in two places at once,' Arsène reminded him gently.
'I wish I could teach you fae magic! You could make a clone!' Pixie added happily.
Byakko snorted at the suggestion.
'Nonsense. He should learn the Law of Metal.'
'The Law of Fire,' Phoenix corrected.
The two immediately began arguing over which one Ren should learn first.
Ren sighed and tried to ignore the chatter.
'Hee-ho! Here we go again!' Jack Frost laughed.
Ren couldn't help but agree. He could already feel a hee-ho headache coming on.
---
After classes, Ren and Morgana went to the library as planned.
By the time Ren began gathering books, his Personas had admitted that none of them could actually teach him their magic while he was human.
The entire argument had been unnecessary.
Ren was thoroughly annoyed. Apparently, he had been making faces during the argument because everyone else in the library kept giving him suspicious glances.
'Why were you insisting on teaching me things I can't even learn as a human?!'
'Class was boring, hee-ho!' Jack Frost added.
Ren felt a presence approach from behind him and froze. The chatter in his mind went silent as he turned around.
Morgana popped his head out to see why Ren had frozen, only to immediately hide again.
"Who is that? What does she want with you?" Morgana whispered from inside the bag.
Ren calmed himself before politely asking, "Hello, can I help you?"
'Hmm. This girl feels familiar.'
Ren squinted at her in thought before he finally remembered who she was.
Brown hair. Stern face. Straight posture. An aura of competence.
"Oh! Hello, President."
Ren corrected himself and bowed his head.
---
Makoto had thought Ren would be irritated by the interruption. Instead, he became guarded and greeted her politely.
She frowned for a moment. This wasn't the behavior of the delinquent she had heard about.
Makoto cleared her throat.
"Hello. My name is Makoto Niijima. It seems you already know me, though."
She bowed politely.
"I often spend time in the library. I noticed you seemed frustrated and wanted to offer my help."
Ren raised an eyebrow.
'This girl is either way too earnest or really bad at hiding an ulterior motive.'
Ren cleared his throat and looked her in the eye before answering.
"Thank you, President. My name is Ren Amamiya. I'm looking into symbolism in psychology, the theory of the collective unconscious, and cognitive science."
Makoto blinked.
She glanced at the table. Ren had gathered books on tarot, religious symbolism, parapsychology, and Jungian psychology.
Ren waited while she thought and ignored her surprise.
He was supposedly a delinquent and apparently a playboy now. Her reaction was fair. Especially with such niche subjects.
"I'm not sure how much the school library will have," Makoto said, tapping a finger against her chin.
"I didn't think there would be much. I guess I'll have to talk to Doctor Maruki."
Ren sighed at the thought.
Makoto's eyes sharpened for a moment.
'Hm? He doesn't seem to like the idea of talking to a therapist about psychology.'
She was still suspicious, but she relaxed again.
"I may not know much about the subject, but I can still help you look."
"Thank you."
Makoto took the seat across from him, and they began searching.
After a while, Makoto turned one of the books around.
"Psi is used in parapsychology as a general term for psychic phenomena."
"Anything about cognitive psience?"
"No."
Ren sighed.
"Where did you hear that term?" Makoto asked.
"In a conversation."
"With whom?"
Ren looked up from his book.
"That isn't relevant to the theory."
Makoto paused before nodding.
"You're right. I apologize."
Ren accepted the apology and returned to his book.
Makoto picked up one of the books on tarot.
"What does tarot have to do with cognitive science?"
"Nothing directly. I'm studying several things."
Makoto opened the book.
"The Fool's Journey?"
"The different Arcana can represent stages of a person's life. Jung also studied archetypes and how they appear in religion, mythology, and literature."
"Heroes, mothers, tricksters, death and rebirth."
"Exactly."
Makoto turned another page.
"Doesn't assigning someone an archetype simplify them too much?"
"People can express several archetypes. One of them can't explain everything about a person."
"So you don't use them as labels."
"No. They're useful for examining behavior, but people are still individuals."
Makoto nodded.
"What about the same figures appearing in different religions?"
"People in different cultures still experience fear, grief, love, families, conflict, and death. It makes sense that some of their stories would share patterns."
"The cultures still give those patterns different meanings."
"Of course."
They continued talking as they searched. Literature led back to mythology. Mythology led back to religion. Religion led back to psychology.
Whenever Makoto asked why Ren was interested in a topic, his answers became shorter.
Whenever she returned to the topic itself, he opened up again.
Eventually, one of the teachers announced that the library would be closing soon.
They had found plenty about cognitive science, Jung, archetypes, religion, and supposed psychic phenomena.
They found nothing about cognitive psience.
Ren packed the books away and lifted his bag.
"Thank you for helping, President."
"You're welcome, Amamiya."
They bowed politely before Ren left.
---
Makoto watched Ren leave with his cat after saying goodbye.
The cat had stayed hidden and quiet during their conversation, so she hadn't brought it up.
She had decided to let him get away with it so she could investigate him...
Which she didn't do.
'I was so interested in the topics that I forgot!'
She couldn't help it! The discussion she had with Ren about psychology, the collective unconscious, and how it related to religion and literature was fascinating!
'He did seem like he was hiding something, though...'
She remained at the library table in thought.
There had been a few times when Ren went to say something, but his eyebrow would twitch before he changed the subject.
Whenever she asked him about himself, he stopped talking.
She was very curious about this so-called delinquent.
---