Ren Amamiya likes to think of himself as a good person. In the grand scheme of things, having the title of 'thief' means little; it's just an indirect way to weed out shady operations before they have the chance to grow worse, just by stealing a few documents here or feeding pieces of intel to law enforcement there. It's a chance to do something with his life, considering his criminal record makes it difficult to do much else anyway.

With a job like his, Ren's seen his fair share of awful things: drug trafficking rings doubling in yakuza relations on the side, low-staffed nightclubs forcing young girls into their ranks, even cannibal groups hiding within the dregs of society… it’s a lot. Case in point: Ren's most recent heist, which had him steal away a siren—Goro Akechi, the researchers had called him, which is an awfully human name to call a monster—in hopes he can eventually relocate him to some place marginally better than a tank that makes him look like a damn zoo animal, or Ren's bathtub.

The bathtub that, for the last few weeks, has housed a creature Ren knows would skin him alive in a heartbeat; he knows the pretty looks and words are just for show, yeah, but damn if they aren’t convincing. He didn’t know sirens could be so human.

Perhaps, Ren thinks as he looks at Goro watching him brush his teeth, that’s why he hasn’t gotten rid of him yet. “If you keep staring at me like that, I’ll get shy,” Ren teases the moment he can speak again.