Hello guys! Well, this is my second story here and it will be very different then the other one. That was something I was planning on writing a long time ago, before I even started writing "Tales of an Evil Mind" because I always felt the treatment of Ryuji was extremely unfair, but I never had the time to write more then 200-300 words, and when I returned to write more I was usually dissapointed. But finally I managed to get some new ideas, join them with the other ones, correct some errors and there is the first chapter! As for the second one, you will have to wait at least until the middle/ending of next week, due to some personal for now, I hope you will enjoy your read.

Ryuji did not know when the conversation suddenly started to heat up. They were just meant to discuss whom to choose for their another target, when,suddenly everyone seemingly turned against each other. Usually,they picked their next target unanimously, but now, after the defeat of Kaneshiro and meeting Futaba, now that they finally got the attention of the people,now that Okumura has been voted as the number 1 Target on the Phan-Site by most of their new fans, something happened that did not allow them to make a decision. Ryuji was all in for going to the Palace right away, but...

"This whole Phantom Thieves fad is unsettling..." Yusuke muttered.

Ryuji shook his head. Typical Yusuke.

"Yeah, the excitement levels don't feel right..." Ann nodded an the blonde boy looked at her with surprise "We might want to let things calm down a bit."

"You too, Ann!?" Ryuji realized his voice may be a bit too angry, but he always was quick to lose his temper. He tried to calm it down, but with limited success. "You just gonna go against what people want?"

"Huh?" The girl was surprised by his outburst "No, but..."

"For real?"

"Looks like we aren't gonna agree today, then." The red-haired girl, Futaba, chuckled nervously.

"Sheesh!" Morgana suddenly joined the conversation with condemning look on his face. "Some team you are! What's with all that hesistation? I can't stand this!"

Ryuji could not believe this - is this cat finally going to take his side for once?

"Even you, Ryuji! You just back down the minute someone disagrees with you!"

The blonde suddenly felt very cold. He turned his face towards Morgana and glared at him with anger.

"What!?"

"I guess all you've been talking about is using the Phantom Thieves name to pick up girls anyway."

Sakamoto desperately fought the urge to hit the cat.

"Being hyped over the popularity is fine, but getting conceited over it is unacceptable."

"Hey!" Ryuji was now surprised how defensive he sounded "Aren't you acting here for your own benefit too?"

"My appearance might have changed, but I still am an admirable human!" Morgana smiled with venom "At the very least, I am more admirable than some carnal blonde monkey!

"You little..."

Something suddenly snapped in Ryuji. His trail of thoughts was cut off. The boy looked up at his teammates. No one protested. No one stood up for him, No one jumped in his defense. The boy 's gaze slowly went through all of their faces. Some of them seemed surprised,some worried. Yet not even one of them said or did anything to help him after Morgana once again decided to attack him with insults. Not even Ren.

Ryuji looked at his best friend and suddenly felt a dry feeling in his mouth. He suddenly felt he was lacking oxygen.

"Blonde carnal monkey, huh?" The boy's voice was cracking "I guess I should not be surprised that's all I am to you guys."

"Ryuji, what are you-" Ann asked with surprise in her tone, but was not allowed to finish.

"Oh, stop it, Ann!" Ryuji turned his gaze towards her "You know very well what I am talking about."

"No, I don't! I..."

"All the time, whenever we're in a Palace, you guys are acting like you're that gang of badass superheroes from a movie, and I'm just that dumbass third wheel who somehow got a superpower, so now needs to be kept in line before he does anything stupid! You think I don't hear all those jokes behind my back? Or maybe I am just too stupid to get them, huh!?"

The boy gasped for breath.

"Whenever I do something wrong, I hear all sorts of stuff: I hear that I am pathetic, stupid, idiotic... and THAT GUY" Ryuji pointed at Morgana, who was unusually quiet "has been nothing but a fucking bully to me since the day we meet! But has someone cricitized him even once for all that bullcrap? NO! But yeah, we're all great friends, aren't we!?"

The black-haired boy stiffed as he noticed Ryuji's glare returning at him with the blonde's last few words. He knew exactly that last few sentences have been directed mostly at him.

"Ryuji..."

"NO! Don't Ryuji me right now, okay Ren? Even right now, whom're you focused on? Ryuji, the Carnal Blonde Monkey! You guys wanna say you're sorry? That it's completely not like that? Then why the hell hasn't any of you said a word to him!?" The blonde pointed at the cat, who still did not say anything, only looked at the boy with neutral expression.

Everyone in the room fell quiet, and looked at each other. Ren had his mouth wide open, Ann's gaze fell to the floor, Yusuke was continously scratching the back of his head, Makoto avoided visual contact with him, and Futaba looked like she was about to cry.

"Well." Morgana said suddenly "Is this all you had to say, or do we have to listen to more of your bragging?"

This time, everyone looked at the cat.

But noone said anything. Again.

"Yes, there's one more thing:" The blonde said in a disturbingly calm tone: "I think you guys will be happy to hear that you won't have to deal with stuff like what happened right now anymore. From now on, the Phantom Thieves are free to chase whomever they want without the third wheel holding them back."

"Wait, what are you getting at?" Ren said alarmed, feeling cold sweat on his forehead.

"I'm saying it's over, Ren" Ryuji looked at him coldly "At least for me. Good luck with taking down Okumura."

"WHAT!?"

"RYUJI, DON'T"

"LET'S ALL CALM DOWN!"

But the blonde boy ignored the voices of his "friends". He shook his head and turned towards the staircase. With hesistation, he turned around one last time.

"Looks like I just didn't belong here either."

The rest of teenagers stood dumbfounded, as their fellow Phantom Thief - now former Phantom Thief vanished downstairs.

"Ryuji!" Ann yelled after him, tears in her eyes.

Suddenly, Ren pushed past her and ran downstairs, desperately looking around. Sojiro noticed him and nodded his head.

"What happened? A fallout in the team?" he smiled sadly

"Where is he!?" Ren ignored the question.

"He just left." The old man nodded towards the door "Without saying goodbye."

The boy ran outside and opened the door. But Ryuji was nowhere in sight, and didn't return when Ren called his name. Defeated, the boy return to his teammates upstairs, all of whom looked worse than when they returned from the toughest missions in Mementos.

LINE BREAK

The next day, Ryuji did not come to school. He hasn't been seen in the gym, either. Ren and the rest of the group dedicated all their afternoon to search for the boy. Ann even went to his house, only to have the blonde's mother tell her that Ryuji did not come back home last night.

Ren returned home late, but Sojiro did not say anything. He just asked the boy to lock up the store again.

The boy went to bed without touching any food. He opened the group chat app and, with a shrinking feeling in his gut noticed that Ryuji's icon was no longer present along with the other ones. He quit the group chat and decided to open just Ryuji's contact. Choosing his words carefully, Ren decided to write a message.

Hey Ryuji.
I know you are probably still pissed off at us, and looking back I can understand why... we all can. But you can't just break contact with us

No, he thought. Ordering Ryuji what to do right now would only make the situation worse. He deleted the last sentence and instead typed:

But please, don't break contact with us. We all miss you. We spent the entire day looking for you and your mom told us you didn't return yesterday. Please, answer, we're worried.

After reconsidering, he sighed and wrote also:

It's okay if you don't want to be a PT anymore... we all just miss you as a friend. Morgana will apologize too. Please, just answer us.

Ren pressed the send button and immediately got a notification: This user blocked you from contacting them.

He looked at the screen of his phone and cursed. The boy threw the phone angrily at his bed. As soon as he sat down, he heard the sound indicating he had a new message. Not sure if he wanted to do this, he opened the message app.

MAKOTO: Ryuji has blocked me on IM :(

ANN: Not only you...

YUSUKE: Do you presume we should contact the police?

"Definitely don't." Morgana suddenly appeared by the boy "If you do, this might get the police on OUR track as the Phantom Thieves."

Ren looked at him, but wrote:

YOU: Maybe not yet.

ANN: Huh? But what if something happened?

MAKOTO: I think I know where Ren is coming from... it's about the Phantom Thieves, isn't it?

YOU: Yes.

ANN: Well...it IS a point, but... Ryuji is our friend, and your best friend, Ren... I am just worried that something bad might have happened, aren't you? He did not even return home!

YUSUKE: Speaking of friends... what about others who might know? Maybe he's just hiding at someones house? You know, he surely has friends other then us, right?

Ren bit his lip.

YOU: I don't think so.

YUSUKE: Oh.

An uncomfortable silence seemed to take over the group chat, as noone wrote anything for a long time. Ren decided to be the first one.

YOU: The day after tommorow, morning.

ANN: What do you mean?

YOU: If Ryuji doesn't speak to us and won't return home tommorow, we'll contact the authorities instantly.

YUSUKE: I understand... although, thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if his mother already did that.

"Oh, crap!" Morgana shouted. "We forgot about his mom!? Her only son is missing... who knows what she could have told the cops about the people he associates with!"

Ren looked at his phone, but no new messages have appeared for now. He put his head on the pillow and decided to go to sleep for now, although he doubted he would achieve that. Surprising, Morgana did not pressure him into this today. He heard the cat mumbling silently to himself.

"Stupid Ryuji." Morgana muttered "The last we need is cops on our tails."

Ren decided not to comment on the cat's behaviour.

"He'll be back as soon as he finds he has noone."

The boy felt a fire of anger raising inside his body.

"That Carnal Blonde Monkey was a joke after all..."

"Stop joking, then."

"Huh?" Morgana looked at him "You're not asleep?... Well,look, I know you're worried, but I think we forgot our goal: The most important thing right now will be to defeat Okumura's Shadow Self. Ryuji will be back before you know it. After all, he couldn't do anything without our help."

"Morgana... shut up."

"Huh?"

"Mona." Ren sat up and looked the cat square in the eyes "Shut the hell up or I swear you will be sleeping outside tonight."

The cat's eyes were glowing in the dark.

"OK. Sorry."

Ren sighed and laid back down. This definitely wasn't going to be a good night.