#tbh i can easily see ren ending up like adachi in an au where he never meets the phantom thieves

[artekai]

Honestly Adachi as a counselor would work really well because I think Ren would probably be the only student he tolerates with his cheeky attitude and fuck society point of view. It'd be like that meme

"What's going on?"

"Teenage rebellion."

"Fuck yeah, stick it to the adults"

Asdsfdgfhgjh yeah lol pretty much

And, now that you mention it, that makes this AU a lot better...! I’ve always been interested in the idea of Ren and Adachi interacting because I feel like they have more in common than people realize, and I think it would be very fun to see their dynamic.

I don’t know how much of an unpopular opinion this is, but I actually feel like Adachi and Ren would be better narrative foils than Adachi and Yu. Sure, I know Yu was brought up in a similar way to Adachi and that it’s implied that he could’ve ended up like him if he hadn’t met the Investigation Team, but I can’t really see it the way I can with Ren.

First, Ren getting sent to Tokyo because he was wrongly charged for assault is the direct opposite of Adachi getting sent to Inaba because he made a mistake at work. Second, Ren was fully ready to kill Kamoshida even before he found out he was harassing the girls. And, obviously, killing Kamoshida isn’t comparable to killing an innocent woman because she rejected you, but what I mean is that he was willing to kill someone, which is pretty heavy especially for a teenager. And third, have you seen him in the Yaldabaoth deal ending? That’s something I could easily see Adachi doing if he were in Ren’s place.

Heck, if you look at their mannerisms, they even stand the same way, kinda hunched, with their hands in their pockets, and I’m pretty sure that Adachi ditching his glasses when he grew up is symbolic of... something.

Of course, it depends a lot on how you play Ren, but if you base his personality on his more jokey and even insensitive dialogue choices, he could make a great parallel to Adachi. And Maruki is already meant to be a foil to Ren, to be an example of what he could become if he took his ideals too far, so replacing him with Adachi could provide a different perspective on the same topic. Like yeah, society sucks but that doesn’t give you the right to be selfish and hurt other people. Or something of the sort.

Anyways, I didn’t mean to go off like that. I just think their dynamic would be really interesting, and I love the idea of Adachi hating everyone in Shujin except for Ren. That’s exactly what would happen lol