#also I subtly fix Atlus’ writing of the post explosion scene

[uselesslesbiab]

Can you make some headcanons about Ryuji going partially deaf/blind after the explosion in Shido's Palace?

Ooh I’ve never really had people request headcanons like this before but I really like this idea. If people want I’ll definitely do more requests in the future!

DISCLAIMER I AM NOT BLIND OR DEAF SO THESE MAY NOT BE ACCURATE BUT I USED MY BEST FRIEND WHO IS PARTIALLY DEAF AS A REFERENCE THANKS @rosesandoleander UR SO FUCKIN SEXY MWAH I LOVE YOU

The rest of the Phantom Thieves were relieved beyond words to see Ryuji walk up to them unscathed after the explosion

Ann definitely gave him a good punch in the arm for the comment about her crying face, but that was the extent of it. She hugged him afterwards and they fell back into their usual banter

They only thing that wasn’t usual was the ringing in Ryuji’s ears

He’d seen action movies where an explosion or something happens and the characters hear some ringing in their ears for a few moments so he didn’t really think anything of it

The only problem was, the ringing never really stopped

It subsided later on sure, but even the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, there was still that constant ringing

He tried to ignore it the best he could but one day after class Ren pulled out one of his earbuds and offered it to Ryuji to listen to some new song his favorite band had released

“Dude turn it up I can barely hear it!”

He knew something was wrong when Ren stopped walking in the middle of the hallway and stared

“Ryuji...it’s already at max volume” Fuck

It was pretty rough coming to terms with the fact that he’ll probably never get his full hearing back, but the bright side was that he wasn’t fully deaf

Thanks to Japan’s healthcare system hearing aids weren’t super expensive but they were still up there in price. Haru heard him casually mention that him and his mother were going to have to save up for them and immediately dragged him back to the hearing clinic and paid for them right then and there.

Of course his hearing aids can only help so much. His right ear was the worst, so you can often find him standing so whoever he’s talking to is on his left side.

He’s a big fan of turning off his hearing aids whenever teachers are yelling at him. It’s not like they can do anything about it.

Given how the metaverse enhances their abilities so much he doesn’t need his hearing aids all that much when he’s there, but it doesn’t fix his hearing completely.

He’s scared that he’ll lose his hearing completely as he gets older, so he does his best to learn sign language while he can.

Spoiler alert sign language is really fucking difficult

He studies with Ren and Makoto as much as possible and the rest of the Phantom Thieves promised to learn alongside him so they’d all be in it together.