Chapter Text
“Can you just leave me alone already?” Shin mutters, he looks over to Phantom, who’s next to him. Nagumo apparently wanted them to ‘get to know each other better’ and now Phantom's joining Shin on his patrols.
“They wanted me to go with you, it’s not like I had a choice,” Phantom replies, staring at Shin for longer than he would’ve liked. “If it makes you feel any better I’m enjoying myself,”
“I think that makes me feel worse,” Shin mutters, resting his head on his hand. This is horrible, he hates this, and Lu and Heisuke aren’t even here to accompany him this time around. “Whatever, come on, let’s just finish this patrol already,”
“Lead the way,”
Shin tries not to roll his eyes as he walks, he doesn’t like this guy. Leave it to Nagumo to think up some of the most stupid ideas ever. It’s late out and he can’t handle any bullshit that Phantom may or may not throw his way. He shoves his hands in his pockets to combat the chill passing through the air. He better not get sick, he still has to go to class and he’d rather not go with a sniffle.
“What’s that?” Phantom asks, he knocks shoulders with Shin, snapping him awake. Shin looks over to him, confused, as Phantom just gestures over to an area with his chin.
Shin looks over and sees a few people crowding around in a circle, it doesn’t really warrant checking. No one’s shouting or anything. They don’t have to check it, it can be a lot of things, teenagers, group gatherings, friends, acquaintances. “Just some people, we don’t have to check it,”
“I feel like I’ve seen that guy before though,” Phantom mutters pointing over to a silhouette. Shin curses under his breath and nods, okay, sure, he can play ball.
“Which one?”
“Deer head, you see it?” Phantom presses closer to him, Shin can feel his shoulder hitting his back. “Right over there?” he points with his finger and Shin follows it. He sees the silhouette now.
“Have you worked with him before?” Shin asks, keeping his eye on the deer head.
“Yeah, I think so, I mean people don’t usually walk around with deer heads,” Phantom mutters. Well, he has a point there. “His name is Kashima, he walks for Slur, he’s practically obsessed with him, it’s actually a little creepy,”
“Obsessed?” Shin mutters, to no one really. He stares at the silhouette, he wasn’t really expecting to do too much on this patrol with him. He’s a little shocked to say the least. They could attack, but that doesn’t seem like the best idea. He’s with a group, a rather large one at that. New recruits? He looks over to Phantom, who’s waiting on his order. “Okay… you know him best, right? What do you think?”
“What would you usually do?”
Shin winces at the thought, what would he do? Well he would usually go in head first without thinking and that has only worked so many times. The amount of times Sakamoto has forced him to stop and take a break must break some sort of record. “What I would do is irrelevant,”
“Really? Cause if we disagree you’re probably gonna do something stupid anyways,” Phantom quips, it may be crazy but Shin hears a smile behind it.
“Dude– just tell me what to do,”
“So that’s what you’re into?”
“Fucking–” Shin elbows him in the side, hard. He deserves it. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Shin grumbles, glaring at him. “You worked with them, what do you think?”
Phantom sighs. “I think we should confront him, he talks a lot so maybe he’ll reveal something even if we just fight him,”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he’s kinda weird,”
Without saying anything Phantom acts first rushing towards them and going invisible, Shin hisses underneath his breath. Hopefully by reading Kashima’s mind he can find something, something useful.
The first thing that happens is someone is slammed into the ground, they don’t look particularly interesting and Phantom doesn’t look too freaked, so Shin tries not to worry too much. Shin goes for Kashima, managing to slam him into a wall while Phantom seemingly takes care of the other guys. He can’t tell if that’s a good sign or a bad sign. He’s already regretting going in just straight up fighting, he usually tries to talk things out first. Phantom however doesn’t seem to give a shit, fitting. He’d get along well with Lu now that Shin thinks about it.
“Nice to see you Clairvoyant,” Kashima replies, his voice is dangerously smooth. Shin doesn’t trust it in the slightest and he’s right to as the minute he lets his guard drop for a millisecond Kashima manages to hit him and get Shin off of him, rolling up his sleeves and revealing stitches all along his body. Kashma then glides his fingers along the skin, pulling up the stitches, starting slowly before ripping the majority out all together. Long metal blades and weapons gleam underneath and Shin instantly moves back. He should’ve read the guy's mind– but it felt so blank! He huffs and reaches for the gun in his belt, pointing it at him. He doesn’t usually use it.
“I wasn’t expecting to see this one today, nor Phantom, what a hassle I should warn the young master” Kashima’s thoughts read.
Shin grins, about to ask Kashima a question when suddenly he hears a whirring from one of the machines. That’s usually not a good sign, shit. He looks at the trajectory at the shot only to find Phantom, as he slowly turns uninvisible. That’s definitely not good. Shin hisses shooting the machine making the noise, but nothing happens, Kashima keeps his arm pointed towards Phantom.
“Phantom, move!” Shin shouts, rushing forward and grabbing Kashima arm, aiming it towards a wall at the last second. The rubble falls down and Shin gets tossed back by Kashima, another shot pointed towards him along with a long internal monologue about how Kashima’s fulfilling ‘the young master's wishes’. This is why he doesn’t read minds 24/7 anymore.
“Clairvoyant! Are you alright?” Phantom asks, rushing over and picking him up. Shin nods and looks over to Kashima the rubble has fallen now and while there’s still dust he can pick up on where the guy is.
“Come on, let’s keep going,” Shin commands. Phantom nods.
“Alright– real quick though, you don’t have to hold back on that guy, he’s basically all machine now, no one knows what it’d take to kill him,” He explains. “He’s like some freak accident or something,” Phantom mutters, Shin hears the disgust in his voice. He recognizes it with ease, but he can’t place it. It’s probably from working together for a bit.
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Shin hisses, pointing his gun at Kashima, ready to charge and shoot.
“Well it’s not like it would’ve made a difference anyways,”
It takes all of Shin’s willpower not to point the gun in Phantom’s face to either tell him to say that again, or take it back. He’d decide after pulling the trigger.
“Well thanks for the optimism idiot,” Shin hisses, he pulls the trigger, the gun aimed at Kashima, watching as the other blocks it with machinery, as expected. They need to get him down, ask him a question or two, either about any remaining locations of the bombs that Phantom might’ve missed or where they’re hiding out. Kashima fires a blast towards them, and they both manage to evade with Phantom turning invisible and presumably rushing towards Kashima.
At least Shin hopes that he’s rushing him and not running away, not that he’d blame the guy. His hopes are confirmed as Kashima is kicked back into a wall. It’s a good thing he doesn’t need to use his future sight for this fight after all, it always gives him a horrible migraine pretty much every other time after usage. Shin abandons shooting the gun anymore, if Phantom’s right and he’s mostly machinery then a measly bullet won’t do much. Instead he rushes forward kicking Kashima’s center and hitting the temple of his head with the butt of his gun.
For a second he’s off guard and Phantom takes that as an opportunity to cut off Kashima’s arm with a knife, Shin opens his mouth to say something but is promptly shut after glancing at Kashima’s body.
He really is all metal.
“Where are you guys settled?” Phantom asks, Shin looks over to him slightly still reeling from his discovery about Kashima’s body. He needs to read his mind… right–
“You’re playing dirty, the mind reader on your side? All I have to do is think it, right?” Kashima scoffs, he’s right. Shin sees a building, a dirty warehouse filled with a few people and supplies, it looks like a bunch of others but Shin knows which one this is, can tell it apart from the others thanks to Kashima.
“Eh, you would do the same thing,” Phantom reasons, messing around with the knife in his hand.
Kashima scoffs and looks at the two of them. “Now that’s unfair, I would never play dirty,” he sighs, shaking his head, letting it drop down as his deer mask slides off revealing the stitches on his lips. Kashima slowly opens his mouth, skin tearing against the stitches as they soon fall on the ground with a soft squish, mixed with blood and bits of flesh that didn’t fall right off. “I’m betrayed Phantom, after all we’ve done for you, you betray us?”
“It’s not really betrayal, you’re taking it too personally,” Phantom reasons, he stops messing around with the knife, instead turning his attention towards Kashima who slowly opens his mouth. Shin thinks he’s gonna say something, another snarky remark but something feels off and when he taps into his mind Shin sees what’s happening.
Mouth cannon, he has a mouth canon, how does he have a mouth canon?! Shin looks over to Phantom rushing to move them out of the way, however Phantom moves first, shoving Shin out of the blast as the laser sends the wall behind them crumbling. Shin falls flat on his ass and looks over to the building, are there people there? He can’t hear any screams or thoughts, it’s empty, good. He looks over to Phantom, who’s clutching his side.
“Phantom! Are you alright?” Shin shouts, grabbing his shoulders, Phantom doesn’t talk, instead he nods slowly. He doesn’t seem alright, he’s swaying.
Shin moves his hands over to the Phantom’s hand on his side. He slowly pulls it off, looking up to where Kashima was only to find air. A quick search looking for his thoughts tells him that the deer man is already long gone by now. So instead he focuses on Phantom, looking at the wound. It doesn’t look good.
Blood is slowly seeping out of it and Shin can’t tell how deep it is, the clothing around it is all messed up and his suit is torn up as well, so that means that he can’t turn invisible. He’s probably not gonna be too happy about that later. Shin doesn’t know much about machines and invisibility, but he assumes that it was a bitch to make, knowing Natsuki and how much he complains about making just about anything. He turns his attention back to the situation, he needs to get him somewhere. Hospitals aren’t the best solutions, they don’t really do well if you’re trying to keep your identity secret from those around you.
Granny Miya’s it is.
Shin loops Phantom’s arm around his shoulders, helping him up. “Come on, we gotta get you to Granny Miya’s,” he mutters lowly. “She’ll fix you up,” he explains, Phantom nods.
“Whatever you say– just keep the mask on,” his voice doesn’t sound too good.
Shin laughs, well maybe calling it a laugh is being generous, just a huff of air. “Of course, can’t be revealing your secret identity now, can we?”
“Hell no,” there’s amusement in his voice, good, it can’t be that bad then. Right?
The trek is long but when they get there it’s thankfully open, and thankfully Granny Miya is used to working long hours, that and random heroes knocking on her door. She opens it within a few minutes and lets them in, however not without a long sigh.
“What happened this time?” She sighs, blowing smoke out from her nose. Shin wonders who’s worse, Lu’s drinking or Granny Miya’s smoking. Lu would probably still be worse, at least Granny Miya’s a doctor and can probably help herself if she smokes too much, Lu on the other hand can barely handle a hangover.
“Got shot by some sorta mouth cannon,” Shin explains.
“Does the mask need to stay on?” she asks, leading Shin over to a bed to flop Phantom onto.
“If you can,”
“You heroes and your identity,” – Granny Miya sighs, placing her pipe on a desk and going over to Phantom – “It’s gonna get you lot killed one day, I swear,”
Shin laughs nervously, she means well and she’s not exactly wrong. “I guess so, but there’s not much we can do about that. Plus Phantom’s not really a hero I guess,” Shin explains, it doesn’t do much, Granny Miya only looks more unimpressed. She sighs, her shoulders sag as she shoos him out of the room.
“Move, I can’t work with you here, guarding him like a sad puppy,” she demands.
“I’m not a–”
“Move,”
Shin grits his teeth, and walks out of the room. He doesn’t want to stay inside the building so instead he goes outside and sits outside the building. He must’ve fallen asleep at one point because Granny Miya had to wake him up with a poke.
“Come on, your friend’s in a better condition now,” she says, walking back inside. Shin gets up and follows her into the shop. He’s greeted with Phantom sitting up on the bed, much to Granny Miya’s disappointment as Shin feels it practically come off her in waves.
“You should lay back down, your wounds haven’t properly healed yet,” She criticizes, Phantom mutters something before looking at Shin, not too interested in listening to Granny Miya.
“How’re you feeling?” Shin asks, walking over towards him. “You didn’t look too good a few seconds ago,”
“Criticing a dying man’s looks, what a low blow,” Phantom mutters, looking around the place he seems to be taking it all in. “And one that just saved your life too,” he adds.
Shin groans, rolling his eyes. “You didn’t ‘save my life’ asshole,”
“Yeah, just saved you from getting your side blown open, what a fun time, am I right?” Phantom remarks, Shin hears a smile. It’s weird, he’s never seen him smile before.
“I would’ve lived, unlike you I tend to be a lot stronger than that,”
Granny Miya laughs in the background, and Shin prays that Phantom doesn’t catch it, but he does. Phantom looks over to her, seemingly wanting answers. Shin tries to spin around to tell her not to talk but she beats him to the punch.
“Like that time you overused your abilities and I had to stop you from using them for a week?” Granny Miya questions, she’s amused by the whole situation, Shin on the other hand is not. “Or that time you went and broke practically every bone in your body and your mentor came here asking me to patch you up while you were already in a full body cast,”
Phantom snorts, looking at Shin. “So that explains your week long absence that one time, I missed you, you know,” he teases, making his voice into something of a concerned lover. Phantom rests his head on his hand, staring at Shin.
“Shut up! God– I shoulda let you bleed out, it would’ve saved me dealing with you later,” Shin snaps.
“How cruel, shoulda let you just get hit instead then,” Phantom mutters in response. Shin opens his mouth to bite back but Granny Miya hits his leg with her cane.
“Alright that’s enough, quit arguing you two, you,” – she points to Phantom – “need to rest up, and you” – she points to Shin – “need to finish your job and go home, I’m not getting another worried call from your mentor, he’s quite the ruckus to handle when he’s worried,” she complains.
Shin nods, there’s no point in arguing with Granny Miya, she’s mostly right anyways. Not to mention that Phantom does need to rest. He looks better though, that’s all that matters. He sighs and looks at Phantom. “Well then, I’ll see you tomorrow then, get well, invisible freak,”
“Yeah see you too idiot esper,”
Shin stifles a laugh as he walks out of the building and finishes the rest of his patrol. It doesn’t take long, and not to mention that they now have the location of the base so they’re bound to finish this soon enough as long as they act fast. Slur doesn’t really seem like the type to run when things get hard so that’s another thing. He can give the information to Nagumo and The Order, actually now that he thinks about it it’s best to text him now.
Nagumo
Shin
Theres a warehouse on ****** **** ******* that you might wanna check out
Nagumo
Got it!! Thank you :DDD
I’ll send shishiba on it right away :)
Shin winces, hopefully Nagumo won’t tell the guy that Shin said to do that.
Natsuki hates doing all of this hero stuff, he knew that he’d get hurt but this is a lot. It’s hardly worth it but he supposes that he’ll do it anyway. He’s stuck repairing his invisible suit in his lab for the who knows how many -th time. It’s such a pain to put together again and again, but at least he can add some more modifications and such.
He probably shouldn’t be up this in daylight doing it but it’s better than waiting for the last second in his opinion. Connect a few bits and bobs here and there, adjust the sensors and mirroring functions and pray that it doesn’t glitch out for the fifth time this week. He sighs, messing with a bit of the fabric, he should really learn how to sew and knit better if he’s gonna be doing shit like this more often. He also needs to repair this by tonight much to his dismay, but it’ll be fun to rub in Clairvoyant’s face later.
RING RING RING
He looks up from his project and his gaze slides over to his phone. Someone’s calling him, who’s calling him? He picks up the phone and looks at the contact, it’s Shin. Of course, he’s like the only person who doesn’t just send him a text and call it good for the day. He rolls his eyes as he picks up.
“You’re the only person I know who doesn’t just text me and shit, y’know?”
“You’ll leave me on read if I do, and we both know that,” Shin replies on the other line, teasing. “Anyways, wanna hang out?”
Natsuki sighs and looks down at his project, he can’t really hang out if he wants to get this shit done. “I don’t really have the time man,”
“Why not?”
Natsuki looks at the jumble of a mess the invisible suit currently is. “I have work and shit, don’t you? I mean– you’ve been complaining about that film for a while now, why not get started on that?”
“I finished like half of it, I’m taking a break, you should too, when did you start?” Shin asks, Natsuki can hear some clattering on the other end. He wonders what the current state of Shin’s room looks like, cause it sounds like Shin just knocked over half the shit on his desk.
“It’s none of your business, what’s going on on your end,” Natsuki questions. “Sounds like an earthquake,”
“Nothing– just knocked some stuff down… you could hear that?”
“Why do you think I asked?”
Neither of them say anything for a bit, the two of them just staying on the line. Natsuki’s about to hang up without another word when Shin speaks again.
“Wanna just stay on the line and talk then? You can talk while working, right?” he asks. Natsuki opens his mouth to say something. He can’t concentrate all too well while talking to others and his suit is really fucked up right now. He shuts his mouth, exhaling as he considers it, he and Shin haven’t hung out all too much recently, or maybe they have and Natsuki’s losing track of his sense of time.
“Yeah, sure, I can talk while working, but if you’re being too annoying then I’m gonna hang up on you, got it?”
“No problem! Also thanks, Heisuke’s just not here right now and it's weirdly quiet here man, I was actually gonna suggest just going over but you don’t sound like you’re in the best mood right now,” Shin explains, Natsuki hears more clattering on the other side.
“Dude, what the hell did you just knock down?”
“My water bottle, but don’t worry about it,”
Natsuki laughs, turning back to his project, his invisible suit. “How the hell are you still alive right now man?”
“I’m just alive, I’m great at this whole thing, don’t worry,”
Natsuki hums in acknowledgement as he continues messing with his project, connecting a few more synapses. He lets Shin’s voice drift into the background, he likes the background noise. He could just listen to music instead, but he thinks that this is good enough, besides there’s only so much damage he can do to his eardrums before even he gets tired of it. He messes with the fabric a bit more, every now and then responding to Shin’s long rambles with a single word or a well timed hum.
It’s simple, Shin’s a really simple person to be with. He never really thought the whole golden retriever stereotype could ever be true until he met Shin, and was promptly proven wrong. His brother likes Shin, and Natsuki doesn’t mind having him around. Shin seems like he’s practically made it his mission to befriend everyone without knowing it.
When he tunes back into the conversation he hears Shin talking about a new manga that he got into and how sad he is that he got into it seemingly too late as it’s ending soon. It’s not charismatic, it’s never fun to hear people go on and on about themselves, Natsuki isn’t all too interested in that type of thing. However Shin pauses every now and then and asks Natsuki about if he’s reading or watching anything. Then he lets Natsuki talk and then before Natsuki notices he’s talking about how he wants to get into a new anime but can’t seem to find any streaming service to watch it on.
“Yeah, that seems to be the main problem with certain anime, I don’t really wanna pay hundreds of yen for a subscription, y’know?” Shin adds on. “Like, especially with streaming stuff because anime is getting more popular and subscriptions go up– not cause of the rising popularity but because of how the economy works…” Shin trails off, ending his ramble with a grumble. A smile flickers onto Natsuki’s face as he nods along, he’s not almost done with the suit, but he’s close enough. He tries turning it on and while it’s not working as well as it could, it’s good enough (however some parts aren’t even turning on, he’ll have to work on that).
“Streaming services get more popular so they increase the prices, and look at numbers for what certain shows and movies get,” Natsuki continues onto Shin’s rant, he hears Shin hum along with movement on the other end. “They then use that to gauge stuff like whether or not they take certain things off of their platforms to make room and if it’s an anime then it gets harder to find it,”
“Or just like any show in general,” Shin adds, he seems to be walking somewhere now. Interesting.
“Mhm, I mean, we could always just pirate it,” Natsuki suggests with a grin.
He hears Shin cringing on the other line. “I mean– yeah but if you want stuff to get more and more seasons you have to watch it on the platform though,”
“But what if it’s finished?”
“Don’t get into a moral argument about pirating anime with me,” Shin mutters, Natsuki hears more background noise.
“Why not? You’re the film major, right? Wanna talk about AI instead?”
“How about you shoot yourself,”
“You’re so mature,”
“Uh huh, you like ramen right?” Shin asks, Natsuki stops working on his project, turning off the invisible suit and goes silent. That’s an odd question.
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s around six, you haven’t eaten yet, have you? Actually where are you so I can drop this stuff off?” Shin asks. It clicks for Natsuki, so that’s what the clattering and chattering on the other side was, Shin was moving to get dinner.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Natsuki replies, honestly he’s hungry but he’s not entirely sure that he wants Shin coming to the lab when he’s in the middle of remaking the fucking suit.
“It’s fine, where’re you at? I already ordered the stuff anyways so I need to drop it off now, besides I didn’t know that you started refusing free food now. You sure you’re feeling alright?” Shin teases. Natsuki scoffs, he doesn’t need to get all high and mighty about it now. It’s not like he even asked for the food in the first place or anything. It’s just Shin and his fucking hero-complex.
“Haha, you’re a real comedian…” Natsuki begins picking up his suit along with a few things to take it to his dorm. He’ll just stuff it in his closet, his roommate practically lives with his girlfriend at this point so it’s not like it’ll be that big of a deal if he has Shin go there. “Just go to my dorm, I’ll be there in a minute,”
“Oh, are you done with your project?”
“Nope, but I’ve been stuck in here for a while and I don’t want you to come here,” Natsuki mutters. “Just meet me at my dorm man,”
“Sure, I’ll be there in like 15 to 30 minutes,”
“Sweet, I need to clean up so I’ll see you then, alright?” Natsuki asks, he hears Shin hum in agreement and with that Natsuki hangs up.
Once finished with picking everything up Natsuki heads to his room and hides the bits and bobs in his dresser. He later lays on his bed, hearing a knock at the door a few minutes later. He moves to get up, opening the door and seeing Shin standing outside of it with two boxes of food.
“Hi! Let me in,” Shin instantly demands, pushing himself in. Natsuki mutters something underneath his breath. It’s just like Shin, pushing himself into his shit without asking, what a hassle.
“Oh, of course, make yourself at home,” Natsuki sarcastically chirps, nudging Shin with his elbow as he walks in. Shin makes some sorta comment about how he should be grateful and Natsuki rolls his eyes.
Shin plops himself down on Natsuki’s bed and pushes Natsuki’s ramen towards him, handing him a plastic fork. Looks like Shin’s eating here, he kinda suspected it, but it’s nice to know. He was hoping to work on his project but whatever.
“You’re invading my room?” Natsuki asks, sitting on his bed with Shin. Shin makes a small noise at the sudden shift in weight, but it’s Natsuki’s bed so he doesn’t know what Shin’s all upset about.
“I’m not invading your room, I’m just temporarily in it,”
“Sounds like you’re invading it,” Natsuki opines, opening up his food and taking a bite, it’s still hot. Must’ve took a while to make it and then Shin must’ve ran over here. That’s something that he would do.
“Not invading, I literally bought you food, that’s like my entrance fee or something,” Shin reasons. Natsuki holds back a laugh. Imagine someone breaking into another guy's house and justifying it with food, Shin would do that. Shin huffs next to him, did he notice his disbelief? Serves him right.
“Entrance fee my ass,” Natsuki snorts.
“I’m never buying you food ever again,” Shin mutters, chewing on his food.
“Really? Wow okay, I’m sorry oh great senpai,” Natsuki drawls, taking another bite of his food. Shin glares at him, elbowing him a little harder than usual. Natsuki doesn’t see the problem, he’s respecting Shin right? Shin should buy him food more often, he likes food.
“You fucking suck, you know that? You’re lucky that I tolerate you and buy you shit,” Shin mutters, taking out his phone and scrolling through youtube, Natsuki leans over to watch. Shin stiffens a little but doesn’t say anything. Should Natsuki have asked before leaning in? Probably, oh well.
Shin scrolls through his phone and Natsuki clicks on a video he finds interesting. Shin seems like he’s gonna snap at him for that but neither of them say anything as they huddle over the video eating their food.
Later on they turn on a movie and finish it before Shin has to leave.
Natsuki barely manages to fix the invisibility suit for the night.