Chapter Text
“I can’t believe I have to work with you on this!” Shin shouts, looking over to Lu. She’s in her hero outfit, crossing her arms and sticking her tongue out at him, rambling about how it’s not her fault for drinking on the job but rather Shin’s for not noticing her drinking on the job and not making up for it.
“It’s in the name! Drunken Fist!” Lu emphasizes, forming a fist and slapping it into her hand for exaggeration. She’s acting like this is the first time this has happened as well. Bullshit!
“Guys,” Heisuke replies, weakly.
“Well maybe you should sober up! We can’t drink on the job! It’s in the rules– after you became a hero,” Shin hisses.
“Well that's not my fault!”
“Yeah it is! Before you everyone had enough intelligence to know not to drink on the job,” Shin snaps back at her, maybe they shouldn’t be arguing in a dark shady alleyway in the middle of the night, but what does he know it doesn’t matter they’ve already lost the guy.
“Oh so now I’m the dumb one?” Lu rolls her eyes, crossing her arms and looking away from him. “I’m not talking to you anymore!”
“What the– are you kidding me?!”
“Guys,” Heisuke tries, more forcefully this time.
“LALALALALAAAA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Lu shouts, plugging her ears. Shin’s face twists in anger, he can’t believe this, Lu is such an only child.
“You’re such a child– I’m asking for a partner transfer after this!” Shin shouts.
“You better not!” Lu shouts back, with the same amount of fire.
“GUYS!” Heisuke shouts.
They both snap towards him. “WHAT?!”
“We can still follow them!” Heisuke chimes in, pointing to the ground and the trail of blood. Piisuke chirps in agreement next to him.
Shin and Lu both stare at the ground, there was a trail of blood… huh, convenient. Shin’s mouth curves into a grin as he sprints after the trail without another word. He hears Lu shout after him along with the clatter of footsteps stumbling after him.
Heisuke doesn’t know what’s going on, clearly he doesn’t understand the urgency of Shin getting there first and rubbing it in Lu’s face, too bad so sad.
“Sh– Clairvoyant wait up!” Lu shouts, nice save on his name. They’re not meant to use their names while doing hero work, something Lu still needs practice with apparently. Anyways, Shin gets there first. Suck it Lu.
He tackles the villain to the ground, he can hear the shock in the villains' thoughts and soon enough he gets thrown off and a fist to the stomach. Shin ends up knocking him out with a punch to the face, and just as Lu arrives, lucky. He spins around and smiles at her triumphantly.
“I got there first!” Shin shouts. “I’m better!”
“What?!” Lu looks at the villain on the ground and groans, before something catches her eye and she grabs the chip that fell out of the villain’s hands. “Hah! I win! I got the chip!”
Shin looks at the body and then Lu’s hands… wait– “What?!”
“Hah! I’m gonna get praised by Saka– Boss man and you’re not!”
“Don’t say his name! You’re in your hero stuff!” Shin shouts, slamming his hand over Lu’s mouth she hisses and licks his hand, he pulls away and wipes it on her shoulder to her alarm.
“Dude– why would you do that?!” Lu hisses. “And I didn’t say his name!”
“You licked my hand– and close enough!” Shin explains, extending his arm away from himself. “Ugh– I need to wash this thing,”
“I’m gonna–” Shin sees the punch before Lu throws it, and manages to dodge it before she can manage to hit his face, but he sees the force behind it and instantly gets offended. Why does hell does everyone wanna knock his teeth out?!
“You were gonna hit me that hard?!”
“Oh shut up! You dodged it!”
Shin glares at her, he hates this. He’s gonna request a partner transfer, he’s really gonna do it this time. This idiot can work with someone else. He sighs, taking a few bleeding seconds to calm himself down, breathing in… and out. He looks over to Lu, crossing his arms and looking at the chip in her hand.
“Whatever, come on, we need to take it back–”
He doesn’t manage to finish his sentence as before either of them can do anything Shin gets pulled back, his head hit and slammed into a wall. Lu’s eyes widen for a brief moment stepping forward to help him but she gets promptly thrown to the ground and the chip flies out of her hand and stops midair. Heisuke shoots at what Shin assumes is something but he can’t tell, he can’t read any thoughts, he can’t sense any sort of violence or emotion and–
Oh, it’s that bastard.
He grits his teeth and watches as Heisuke gets thrown to the ground instantly and his gun smashed to pieces. Then a figure appears in a jacket, wearing an electronic mask. “That was easier than I thought,”
‘Phantom’ (what everyone’s calling him now) tosses the chip in the air and catches it looking at the three of them. “I’ve been following you guys for so long now, thanks for doing my job for me, but I should get going,”
He pauses and looks at Shin, he thinks that the guy is smiling but he can’t tell. “See ya around Clairvoyant,”
Shin makes a move to get up but by the time he stands on his own two feet Phantom’s already gone.
Shit.
Lu stumbles up not long after and Heisuke’s the last one to get up looking at his gun and groaning. “This is my third one this week, how does this keep happening?” he whines.
Shin looks at Heisuke in slight pity, he kneels down to help Heisuke clean up the pieces and Lu does the same. “It’s okay Heisuke, we can always get someone to make you a new one again… besides! I think we still have some points for our last few captures,” Lu tries, cheering him up.
“Really? That’s great yo!”
“Yeah! We can even ask Boss man for another one!”
Shin sighs as they pick up the pieces, they need to get back to base and report what the fuck just happened.
At least Lu’s getting better with the names… sorta.
Nagumo’s there when they arrive, of course he is, who else would it be? No one else is stupid enough to stay at base until 3am. He’s also laughing his ass off, at them. Seriously fuck this guy, Shin hopes he dies.
“I can’t believe that happened again? This Phantom character is really messing with you guys, huh?” Nagumo teases, lips curling into an irritating smile that makes both Shin and Lu want to punch the guy. Beat him to a pulp– the whole shabang.
“Why don’t you do something about it?!” Shin hisses, walking past him, they just need to finish signing out and filling out paperwork that's it–
“Well you see, The Order takes on bigger fish than mercenaries like him, besides, we can’t technically do anything about it if he’s not hurting civilians or participating in anything that would do so,” Nagumo explains. “But you already know that,”
“So he can just beat on us?!” Lu shouts looking at him.
“Well not to nit pick but you are trained heroes, if he’s beating you up like you’re saying maybe you should go back into training,” Nagumo grins, toying with his weapon now, that Frakensteined piece of shit.
“But he’s interfering in our work, yo!” Heisuke replies. “Look what he did to my gun!” He shows Nagumo the bits and pieces.
Nagumo hums at the sight. “Ah, oh well, just arrest him though, it’s really not that hard. Besides– Sakamoto has plenty more for you I’m sure, I also think you guys have enough points to get more so you’re fine,” he shrugs it off with ease.
Shin grabs a pen, clicking it fast as he stares at the papers that they still need to fill out. Basic patrol stuff, shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, but Nagumo’s hell bent on making their life miserable right now.
“Ah, careful you might break the pen,” Nagumo replies with false concern.
Shin snaps over to him. “I hope you die,” he replies blandly.
“Aww! Thank you! I’ve never heard such kind words in my entire life!” Nagumo giggles.
Lu retracts from him, leaning over to Shin to whisper. “Why isn’t he in an insane asylum?”
“Because no one wants to take care of him,”
“You guys are rude!” Nagumo exclaims. “Ah but, I suppose I should leave you to your work, I’ve got a few new leads on Slur and what he’s doing that I need to check out, I’ll be back to check on you later!”
“Die!” Lu shouts after him, looking at her own papers, Shin sighs and clicks his pen as he begins to get to work, scribbling down his answers and marking a few questions. He hates this, not to mention he still has some film homework later on… fuck his life.
Once done he puts the paper down a chute and Lu and Heisuke do the same as they get out of their hero costume and begin walking over to their respective places. Shin plans on going to his dorm with Heisuke instead of Sakamoto’s tonight. Lu on the other hand goes to her place (not a dorm cause her family's wealth made her rich… lucky).
Heisuke unlocks the door and Shin flops down onto his bed with a groan. He turns around and stares at the ceiling.
“Can’t believe I have to edit the next half of the film,” he groans.
Heisuke frowns at him. “Sorry man, if it makes you feel any better I have some animal stuff I have to catch up on, I’m like… a few weeks late,”
Shin side eyes him. “Dude… do you need to take a break to do that stuff?”
“Nope! I’m good, yo!”
“You sure?”
Heisuke nods so Shin leaves it to him, he doesn’t bother reading Heisuke’s mind to come up with an answer, he can feel the sureness radiating from him already. He groans, turning in his bed, stuffing his face in his pillow. He hates this, but he also loves it. He opens his phone instead of going to bed.
He looks over to Heisuke who’s already asleep, damn, didn’t even change. Shin crawls out of his bed and walks over to their bathroom, throwing on some more sleep appropriate attire before scrolling through his phone. He looks at Sakamoto’s contact and sighs, he should probably tell him that he’s okay. He sends him a message, telling Sakamoto that they’re back from the job. He doesn’t expect a response back.
He crawls into bed and scrolls through his contacts once more before falling asleep shortly after.
Waking up isn’t the best feeling in the world, all of his bruises and injuries from last night decide to rear their ugly head, and he can see a few purple blobs forming on his side. Putting on proper clothes Shin goes to his class for the day, apparently his other one got canceled because his teacher got a hangover or something (it’s what he’s heard from a few other students but the teacher claimed it was cause he was sick) and tries not to fall asleep during his only class of the day. He doesn’t know how much sleep he got last night but he doesn’t really want to find out.
When he’s going over to the library to study a bit he’s interrupted by someone tapping his shoulder.
“Hey,”
He turns around to see the culprit of the voice.
Natsuki.
“Hey, what’s up?” Shin asks, he continues walking and Natsuki follows him without another word, scrolling through his phone.
“Nothing much, but you didn’t respond to my text yesterday,” Natsuki replies, showing Shin his phone. Shin squints at the message.
“Are you free tomorrow?” it reads.
Shin’s eyes widen, especially as he sees the Read underneath the text. Shit. Must’ve forgot to respond before he went on patrol last night, he looks up at Natsuki. He presses his lips together tightly, opening his mouth to say something, but then shuts it.
“S– sorry, I was doing… stuff forgot to respond,”
“It was literally a yes or no question,” Natsuki deadpans, staring at him. Shin feels his face flush a little, he’d tell anyone it was from embarrassment but that’s a lie.
“Yeah– sorry… I wasn’t trying to ghost you man, I promise,” Shin replies, trying to resolve the situation. He really wasn’t, he doesn’t even remember reading the message but it’s not like it’s uncommon for him to accidentally click on something and then click off later on.
For a moment neither of them speak, they stop walking as well.
Natsuki lets a laugh escape his throat, he covers his mouth with his fist and the corners of his eyes scrunch up in amusement. “Holy shit– it’s not that big of a deal, I’m just fucking with you man,”
“Wait, so does that mean the text is fake?”
“Nah it’s real, but you were so panicked for a moment– holy shit,” Natsuki tries and fails to hold in a laugh. “Okay– are you free right now?”
Shin looks at the library. “I was gonna study–”
“Cool, come on,” Natsuki grabs his hand and begins dragging him. Shin’s eyes widen as he lets himself be dragged by Natsuki. What’s going on? He tries getting mad at him but it falls short and Natsuki notices it, so they keep going until they reach the lab.
Natsuki spins him around and sits Shin down in a chair. “Alright, stay,” he says, pointing a finger at him.
“What? I’m not a dog, man!”
Natsuki looks at him for a moment, and then away, clearly unconvinced. “Sure,” – he grabs a few electrodes and squints at Shin for a moment – “Anyways I need you to take off your shirt,”
That gets his attention in ways he doesn’t want to admit. “What? No!”
“Well I need to put these on,” Natsuki states, holding a few electrodes in his hand. “And they won’t get a good reading if you have clothes on,”
“So you’re telling me to strip?”
“When you put it like that…” Natsuki thinks about it for a moment before shrugging it off. “Whatever, come on, I need to like record a bunch of stuff for a project I’m doing,”
“Why can’t you just search it up?”
“Because in person tests are more ‘accurate’, and the professor bitches whenever we just search it up,”
“How would he know when you search it up?” Shin asks, but Natsuki turns around so Shin takes off his shirt and it’s only then does he remember the bruises on his side, but Natsuki’s already turning around and–
Shit.
“Damn, what happened?” Natsuki asks, wiping off his skin with something cold and placing the nodes on him.
Shin’s a terrible liar, so he goes with something that’s not not a lie. “Heisuke and an airsoft tournament… Lu was there and is a sore loser,” he adds quickly after.
“She punched you?”
Shin nods.
“... damn,” he turns over to the monitor, tapping his foot on the ground and recording a few things. “Now that I think about it I probably should’ve had you lay down… whatever, anyways you’ve got a slow ass heartbeat man,” Natsuki huffs, taking the nodes off of him.
Shin puts his shirt back on and glares at him. “Yeah, I told you,”
“Nah but you’re at like– 60 nearing in the 50’s, that’s crazy,”
“Yeah, but I’m active,” Shin explains. “I can outrun you at least,”
“Well I’m in here all day so I’d hope you could,” Natsuki huffs, putting some stuff up before looking back at him. “Anyways wanna help me test a bunch of junk out?”
Shin wants to, really wants to, but then he remembers the library and studying and editing and just film and groans in disappointment. “I would love to but I’ve gotta study for my shit man,”
“That can wait,”
“Dude,” Shin stands up and Natsuki looks at him with slightly visible disappointment, well maybe it’s not that visible, but it’s visible enough to Shin because he’s gotten very good at reading Natsuki, courtesy of staring at him for prolonged periods of time and he is not a stalker thank you very much.
“Well I’ve got stuff coming up as well and this is harder than whatever film class you’re taking,”
“Maybe but my teacher is an asshole, he’s so stuck up dude, has us watching old black and white movies– no sound and asking us to explain ‘what’s better about them’,” Shin complains.
“Mine’s literally forcing me to strip people for information,”
“Why would you phrase it like that?”
“It’s the truth,”
Shin’s only slightly disgusted by Natsuki’s words of choice, sure he used the term first but Natsuki’s continuing the bit.. In all honesty it could be worse, but that doesn’t make what he said any better. He turns around, about to walk out the lab when Natsuki grabs his shoulder and spins him around again. His eyebrows are furrowed in determination and he looks stupidly serious.
“Help me test it out and I’ll buy you coffee,”
He shouldn’t accept, it shouldn’t be that easy for him to risk his grade (and sleep schedule… again) but it’s also Natsuki. The guy he’s liked ever since practically the start of fucking college despite having a shitty ass first meeting.
He sighs and looks at him, matching his seriousness. “Fine, but you’re also paying for food,”
“Deal,”
“I just don’t get why you would ever make something like that–... is that even legal?” Shin mutters while they’re waiting for their food and drinks. Shin got some more caffeine than usual (god knows he’s gonna need it later) and learned that apparently what he considers a lot of caffeine Natsuki considers it his daily average intake.
Interesting.
“I don’t know,” – “probably not” are the words Shin hears in his head – “But just in case, don’t tell the school,”
“You made a flamethrower,”
“We work with torches all of the time, it’s not like fire’s anything new,” Natsuki reasons, Shin sees the invisible drop of sweat run down the side of his head.
“It’s hotter than the torch! We literally tested that,” Shin hisses lowly, careful to abide Natuski’s whole ‘keep it a secret’ thing. “What do you even need that for?”
Natsuki shrugs. “Dunno, but it might be useful to have,” is what he eats from Natsuki’s mind, Shin doesn’t get it. Natsuki ends up saying nothing, only turning away from him.
If there’s one thing Shin’s learned from having the ability to read minds, it’s not worth it with Natsuki, he’s so vague in his own mind, half the time Shin doesn’t even think that the guy knows what he’s doing. Not like he can really blame him though. He sighs and looks away from Natsuki.
He tries restraining himself from reading Natsuki’s mind, or anyone’s mind in college at least, he’s learned that it’s not really worth it. He tends to either get flashed, or a bombardment of assignments that someone didn’t finish in time cause ‘it’s due next week, they have time’.
He also finds it a little weird to read the mind of the guy he likes, and he’s already discovered that Natsuki doesn’t like him, or at least doesn’t think about him as anything more than a friend. He tries to save himself the pain now.
“Natsuki Seba,” Someone calls out.
“I’ll go get it,” Natsuki replies, getting up from his chair. Shin watches him go before flopping his head down on the table and hiding his face in his hands.
It’s stupid, so fucking stupid. He hates having crushes, especially when his schedule is already hell. It won’t go away though, he’s already tried ghosting but the endeavor lasted a total of two weeks before Natsuki almost kidnapped him out of frustration. When asked about his absence Shin used work as an excuse, that and finals (as it seemed to be the perfect ghosting period), but Natsuki didn’t take that and proceeded to experiment on him as some sort of apology.
“Shin!”
Shin snaps up, fuck why’s Lu here– oh she’s gonna see him with Natsuki. He opens his mouth to tell her to fuck off but Natsuki’s already back and she’s giving him a wide grin.
“They’re on a date!” He hears from her mind, loud as day.
He wrinkles his face and mouths “not a date” to her. She doesn’t care though and instead saunters up to them, placing her hand on the table acting like she just won a bet. It’s funny, because to Shin’s knowledge she didn’t win shit, and he’s the mind reader.
“Fancy seeing you two here,” She grins looking between them. “What’s the special occasion?”
“I played test subject and am just now getting my reward for it,” Shin mutters, taking his drink from Natsuki and sipping it. Who knows, maybe if he drinks it fast enough he’ll experience a heart attack at the good ‘ol age of 21 and get to ignore Lu’s incessant rambling and theories.
“Not my fault you can’t sit still,” Natsuki mutters.
“You pointed a gun at me,” Granted it’s not like it’s the first time that’s happened to Shin, but when it’s Natsuki it freaks him out.
“It was a taser,”
Lu tilts her head, confused. “Is it legal to make those?”
“Dunno, don’t tell,” Natsuki replies with ease, drinking his abomination of a drink. Seriously there’s so much sugar in that– what’s wrong with him?
“Cool! Anyways, Shin! I was about to text you but–” She falls to her knees, placing her arms and chin on the table with a smile. “Since you’re already here I’ll just tell you now! Apparently we’re working earlier tonight, Sakamoto’s going out with Aoi and Hana tonight so we also need to close,”
Shin suppresses a groan, instead looking at his drink to hide his subtle rage. So in other words they’re closing the shop early and doing hero shit early. He hates hero shit sometimes, sure it’s fun saving people but it also kinda sucks in terms of his (dying) sleep schedule.
“So we’re working late?”
“Yep! It suckssss, but at least Heisuke will be with us! Right?”
“I guess,”
Lu stands to her feet and turns around, her braid almost slapping Shin in the face, he moves out of the way just in time. “Anyways! I’ll see you at work Shin!” Lu chimes, walking away.
Once Lu’s out of eavesdropping range Shin turns to Natsuki with a deadpan expression. “Kill me now,”
“Nah, you gotta make money,” Natsuki replies, a teasing undertone to his voice.
“Fuck you,”
“You wish,”
Shin restrains banging his head on the counter while he waits for Heisuke to show up. Lu’s already here with him and helping him close but they still have to wait for Dragoon to show up and shit. The bell chimes while he’s looking away and Shin instantly sits up a little straighter looking at the door, hoping to see Heisuke but–
“Oh, what are you doing here?” Shin asks, instantly slouching again. He ignores the faint pounding in his heart.
“Nothing much, just getting something to eat,” Natsuki walks over to one of the aisles, taking out a few bars and handing them to Shin.
“All the way off campus?” Shin asks, he kinda doubts it.
“Uh, yeah, I was doing a job and it was a little far,” Natsuki complains.
Shin scans the bars and hands them to Natsuki. “That’ll be 1500 yen,” he mutters, sticking out his hand.
Natsuki hands him a few bills, leaning on the counter, making no move to leave. “Are you guys closing right now? Lu’s moping the floors and everything,” Natsuki asks. “I thought you guys were working late tonight,”
Shin’s eyes widen and he catches Lu’s glance, shit shit shit shit shit.
“Uh yeah– just restocking and stuff though– running out and getting stuff after closing the shop, y’know?” Shin says, a little too quickly. Natsuki raises an eyebrow but concedes the subject.
“Whatever you say,” a ding from Natsuki’s phone attracts his attention, he takes it out and makes a point to angle it away from Shin. “Anyways I gotta head back to the college,”
“What was that?”
“Just a reminder for something, cya tomorrow,” Natsuki says, walking out without another word. Shin half throws up a hand before slowly letting it sink back down.
That could’ve gone better, Natsuki probably doesn’t think that they’re actually restocking, just take one look at the shelves and anyone could see that. They could be restocking the back though? Either way it is a little early for them to close. He bites the inside of his cheek, he hates lying.
Lu interrupts his thoughts with a laugh. “Restocking the shop!? That’s the best you could come up with?!”
Shin glares at her. “Not like you were doing any better!”
“I was letting you have your moment with your darling Natsuki,” Lu grins cheekily.
“Uh huh, sure you were, what would’ve you said then?”
Nothing.
Shin stands triumphant over her once again. “Hah, see? I win,”
“What?!” Hell no!”
“Hell yes! You didn’t have an answer!” Shin points over to her and in an instant she does the same back at him, eyes ablaze with childish anger.
“You didn’t give me any time to think!” Lu shouts.
“Like I had any time!” Shin shouts back at her.
“Yo guys–” Heisuke greets.
“NOT NOW HEISUKE!” Both of them shout, turning to Heisuke. Heisuke’s eyes go wide, looking between the two of them, nodding, and walking out with Piisuke.
Shin instantly frowns, shit– didn’t mean to do that. Lu does the same and they both exchange a glance as they continue closing up, right before stealing a few warm pork buns from the back and walking out, handing them to Heisuke.
“Sorry for shouting at you,” Shin apologizes.
“Sorry Heisuke,” Lu whines, crying on Heisuke and hugging him.
“No apology for me…” Piisuke chirps sadly. Shin’s eyes widen as he pats Piiesuke’s head.
“Sorry Piisuke,”
“Pii!!”
Shin laughs, well it’s good to know that he’s forgiven now. Lu laughs at Shin lightheartedly.
“Y’know sometimes I forget that you can do that,” she admits.
Heisuke nods. “Yeah, I’m jealous man,”
Piisuke chirps in agreement.
“Yeah, it’s like one of the only useful things about this ability,” Shin admits. “Everything just sounds like static most of the time,” he complains.
“I hate static,” Lu agrees.
They loiter at the front of the store for a few minutes while Heisuke eats. They have to go in early today and work late, that sucks. What’s this all about? Shin stares out into the distance with Lu being the one to break the silence between the three of them.
“Alright! Let’s head out!” she shouts pointing ahead.
The walk isn’t too bad, but Shin’s still grateful that he was smart enough to create a hero suit that wasn’t too complicated as Lu’s already complaining in her hero suit. He’s told her to get it changed thousands of times if it really bothers her but she refuses every single time, claiming that she'd rather deal with (and complain about) an uncomfortable suit than take it up with the managers and shit. He can’t blame her though, some of them are scary when pissed.
“What do you think they’re having us in for this time?” Lu groans, her hands behind her head casually as they walk in through one of the (many… very many) entrances.
“I don’t know, but Nagumo’s probably got us doing his jobs again and claiming that they’re ours,” Shin recalls bitterly. He hated that day, did work way above his paygrade and still got paid the same cause technically he worked the same hour that he usually did. What bullshit.
Lu’s face turns into a scowl. “I hate that guy, next time I see him I’m gonna hit him,”
“I broke two of my snipers that day,” Heisuke sighs in memory and Shin winces.
They’ve been summoned into one of the ‘private rooms’ according to Lu, so Shin lets her lead the way. Typically they should all get a text or email about a situation (especially a schedule change) but it seems Lu’s the only one who got it, so Shin’s guessing that Nagumo has them running something.
As they approach the room the three of them stand there, just waiting. None of them want to go in, it feels wrong. He glances over to Heisuke and Piisuke, he can feel their antsy. He tries reading the minds of the people in the room, fucking nothing. So either it’s empty or Nagumo’s in there, either way it’s practically a waste of time so Shin fights the urge to walk away. The feeling of dread doesn’t go away from him.
He’s the first one who decides to bite the bullet, sighing loudly and turning the knob, pushing the door open. He keeps his eyes glued to the floor as he walks in, only looking up to see Nagumo and–
“YOU!” Shin shouts instantly, he points to Phantom, sitting in the chair distinctly uncuffed.
Lu picks up on him next, her scowl sharpening at seeing probably her least two favorite people in the same room together– actually screw the probably, Shin can feel the anger pulsating off of her. They’re her least favorite people, reasonably so.
“Hey he broke my gun the other day, yo!” Heisuke shouts, pointing at him.
Nagumo doesn’t register their reactions though, only smiles at all of them blankly, clapping his hands together. “Yay! Seems like you all know each other, in that case there’s no need for introductions I assume!”
Shin stares at Phantom in disgust, so that’s why he couldn’t sense anything in the room. He can’t read Phantom’s mind because of some sort of thing on him. Shin thought it was the hoodie but he was wrong when the guy bragged that it originally was, but since it was too ‘inconvenient’ for fighting he apparently moved it to something else.
“Why is he here?” Lu hisses. “Did you capture him or something?”
Phantom seems bored by their anger, leaning his head on his hand as his head is tilted faintly up towards the three of them.
“Yes and no! Honestly he wasn’t that hard to track down– I’m surprised that the three of you had any trouble with him at all,” Nagumo says in a ‘happy’ voice. Shin’s long learned to read his tone to realize by now that he’s just fucking with them.
“YOU MOTHER–”
“Now now Lu, it’s not nice to say stuff like that in front of a guest,” Nagumo interrupts, setting his hand on Phantom’s shoulder. Shin sees the guy stiffen as Nagumo’s touch, he feels bad for a split second, until he remembers the reasons for the bruises on his side and instantly takes triumph in the guy's slight discomfort. He’s a bad person, sue him.
He’s actually a little too satisfied that he almost almost misses Nagumo’s words. Guest? What does he mean, guest?
“Guest?” Shin repeats, his eyes flicker over to Phantom who’s enjoying the attention.
“Yep! Guest! And for you guys, a potential new work partner!” Nagumo cheers.
Kill him.
Kill him now.
“If this is a joke it’s not very funny,” Lu says through gritted teeth, Shin’s inclined to agree. He’s not working with Phantom of all people, hell no, he doesn’t even know who the guy is underneath his mask and he can’t read the guy’s thoughts. He doesn’t even know the fucking situation. Sure the hero department has been a little short on well… heroes lately but surely it’s not so bad that they have to work with a mercenary, right?
It’s not even really legal! They’re literally just people who do any sort of job for any price. He knows that some hero agencies use them, but they do so rarely and even then partners? That’s really not legal. This shouldn’t be legal!
They mostly work for villains anyways–
“It’s not a joke! What’s with the sour look on your guys’ faces? I thought you’d be ecstatic about this! You guys get to boss each other around and everything!” Nagumo feys innocence. “Anyways– we’ve hired him for the moment!”
“Why?” Shin hisses out, he points over to Phantom. “This practically isn’t even fucking legal!”
“Well it’s not like it’s the most illegal thing we’ve done here. Besides, he has information that you three lost, the chip, right? Not only that but since he’s worked for the enemy he has a bit of an idea of what they’re doing and making. Apparently he’s a pretty good mechanic! Ain’t that right Phanny!” Nagumo pats his back.
“Don’t call me that,” Phantom deadpans.
“Gotcha, Phanny!”
“God, I hate you,”
Heisuke looks at Phantom, then Shin and Lu. “I don’t know man… it’s kinda weird,”
Nagumo tilts his head. “How so? He won’t do anything to you guys y’know,”
“Even then, why not just take the information from him and go?” Shin questions. “I mean, it’d be way easier for all of us that way,”
“Because he refuses to give it to us!” Nagumo chirps. “It’s actually kinda annoying– but he said that if he could work with you guys he’d help us!”
Lu grimaces. “Ugh, why us?”
“I like pissing you guys off,” Phantom states. Shin hears a faint tone of amusement that he can’t quite place. “It’s fun,”
“So you’re throwing us under the bus?” Lu asks, eyebrows furrowing in frustration.
Nagumo nods. “Precisely! Work with him, do this fast and you’ll never have to think about this ever again! Got it?”
There’s no point in arguing, all three of them know that. However that doesn’t make it any better. Instead Shin sighs – looks over to Lu and Heisuke as they all exchange a silent period of mourning – and nods at Nagumo.
“Alright, whatever, let’s do this shit already. So what’s going on?”