Piece by Piece by Piece [Kamen Rider OOO, mindshare!verse]
Shingo/Ankh mindshare universe. Set during eps 19-20. 1525 Words.
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Piece by Piece by Piece
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There's a marked difference between people who know Ankh simply as Ankh, like Chiyoko (and maybe Ankh does treat her with a tiny bit more patience than anyone else out of some warped sense of appreciation for that fact, even though it's nothing she's done herself), people who know Ankh is possessing Shingo's body, whether as a statement of fact like Gotou and Satonaka, or with an emotional pull to it like Eiji or Hina-
But then there are those who truly assume Ankh is Izumi Shingo. Just dressed a little flashier, hair restyled.
Those people have an effect, apparently. Those people stir something in Ankh.
Which in turn stirs up Shingo.
When Yamagane, the escaped convict, looks at Ankh, he seems to see straight through him to Shingo's mind behind Ankh's eyes. And Shingo looks back without the slightest trace of fear.
It's the only experience Ankh has ever had of Shingo's steely personality first-hand, beyond Shingo's memories of his time as a police detective, and those tend to lean towards modesty in the recalling.
How memories can be warped by human want and need, Ankh is beginning to understand. Desire is more complex than even the Greeeds have been led to believe. And they are the ones who subsist on it.
He believes I wronged him, putting him in jail, Shingo says with an unnerving calm. He wants to right the supposed wrongs against him.
"It seems his desire is revenge," Ankh says for Eiji's benefit. And doesn't bother to explain how he knows it.
When Okumura Yasuni starts hanging off of him, Ankh's first instinct is to throw him off. It doesn't work, because Yasu tries again. And this time there's too much Shingo in Ankh's mind.
I'd never forget the face of my benefactor!"
Benefactor? He's overreacting.
"He may be a bit gaudier-"
Gaudy? Shingo finds that far too amusing. He would, Ankh thinks to himself sourly. Izumi Shingo with his plain clothes and boring hair.
But the sensation of warmth, and a kind of amused pity, filter from Shingo to Ankh, and then Ankh can't even summon up the feeblist of shoves to get Yasu away.
...Until he mistakes the sensation for Kazari's presence. When he realises his error, that the creeping feeling is actually coming from inside of him, Ankh loses it.
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The memory of the day Shingo saved Yasu's life is having no effect on him.
He's using everyone as bait, just as Eiji suspects.
"We don't know whom the yummy will target of the three of us. It's easier for you to protect us if we're all together."
He's just saying the words Eiji wants to hear, even if Eiji doesn't believe them.
It's not like Izumi Shingo and his prevailing need to protect people is getting to Ankh.
It's not like he throws Eiji off the roof and into the water to 'protect' him.
Ankh definitely could've killed him, just like Hina said.
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It's easier to bury Shingo temporarily once Ankh has his core.
Just looking at it is mesmerizing. A piece of himself. He already feels a little more complete, without even taking it inside himself. Shingo is dimmed within him, pushed aside in order for Ankh to revel in his own achievement.
Hina is nothing more than a fly he can't be bothered to swat. She bleats at him and he answers distractedly.
The core is a world of opportunities. How much more of himself can he regenerate now?
Perhaps his distraction is what allows Hina to swoop in and take it.
That piece of him.
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Perhaps he really has been able to push Shingo aside, no matter how momentarily. Whatever the actual reason, there's no murmurs within Ankh when he tangles Hina up in the chains and strings her above the water. She tries to hurt him with her words, but Ankh is having none of it.
"I'm sure Oniichan is saddened by this!"
If Izumi Shingo isn't around to voice his opinion on the matter, who cares?
Breaking away from the detective's body is proof that Ankh is getting desperate though. His medal, it's there, right there, so close. It's not a case of want, he needs it.
Hina, the petty human, she doesn't understand that.
If she understood anything at all she'd never dare mess with a Greeed, someone of Ankh's power, who could-
-who can't even get the damn medal out of her hand. Thankfully there are no witnesses. Even Shingo, once Ankh separates from him, is not conscious to be able to see this last desperate attempt to snatch it out of her hand as she sleeps.
"Damn it!" Ankh hisses as he gives up, and a quiet but insistent, Ankh, what did you do to Hina? speaks to him.
It figures the one thing that might provoke Shingo to rise up again would be concern for his sister in a moment when he had no idea what was happening.
"Nothing!" He says, and gestures. "She's fine, isn't she?"
That wouldn't be my immediate assumption, Shingo replies tartly. But apparently she's just as stubborn as you, and stronger too.
And full of those ridiculous human morals; she must have learnt them from her annoying older brother. It's because of that logic that Ankh knows he can at least trust Hina to hold on to the medal properly. Even if it's only to keep it away from him.
It's the same morals that make her forget what's obvious to Ankh.
"You think Eiji will fight with you after what you did to him?"
"He'll come... to defeat the yummy."
Her concern for Eiji makes her forget the bigger picture.
Her concern for Ankh... That's unexpected.
After all, his arm is entirely his. It's not like she's upset because he damaged her brother's body whilst inhabiting it, not this time.
That wound he carries is his alone.
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It's Shingo's influence that makes Ankh react in the moment, hold Hina back from the fray.
...Except that surely he would never allow Shingo so much scope to affect him.
It's because she has his core medal, probably. He can't let her go running in with it; that's Kazari's yummy, what if he were to sense it and come swooping in? He'd steal it for sure.
It's certainly not out of some misguided concern for her safety, or anything like that. If she cares what happens to him that's her problem alone. Ankh feels no need to balance the scales.
The way she considers it, just holding it so casually in her hand in a way that makes Ankh grit his teeth because can't she see how important it is to him?, he just knows that after all, she's trying to think of a way to make use of it. He made the right decision.
It doesn't explain why he continues to shield her from the yummy's brood monsters, hands protectively tight on her shoulders. Izumi Shingo, blame him after all.
He's silent. Of course he's playing dumb. Silent when I need you, a loudmouth when I don't!
...Except that Ankh never really needs Shingo.
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Another of his cores. In human hands again - it's been in Kougami's hands, that filthy rat-bastard. Ankh's skin would crawl if only he knew how that worked.
And now Hina - this woman again! A constant thorn in his side. Offering him the one thing she's been refusing for the promise to help Eiji.
She's right, Ankh can't afford to watch Eiji be defeated. That doesn't make it any better, but it does give him a little leeway. How could he refuse? It's his core.
They're all his cores.
So Eiji has been relying on one of his Taka cores the entire time already; that was Ankh's decision. This is most decidely less his decision - this is being backed into a corner and manipulated by humans, although that's the wrong word to use because Ankh does not allow himself to be manipulated. Especially not by humans.
This is every part of himself being used by Eiji. This is violation.
Perhaps there's a small sense of pride - smugness, because he knows the power he is capable of, and now all the puny humans will too. But it makes him uneasy nonetheless.
It matters that Eiji doesn't screw this one up, not whilst using Ankh's cores .
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He takes them back roughly, grabbing at them with no grace at all. A fumbling hand, desperately greedy. Impossible to care.
It's not completion, it's nowhere near completion, but it's more. It's strength and togetherness and want.
-Until it's not again. When the single reformed wing shatters Ankh actually feels it physically. A thousand tiny stabbing pains, which a memory somewhere inside him likens to crashing through a pane of glass.
It sends an electric shock through him, all over.
Liquid stands up in his eyes. Tears, they're called. A bodily response to the extreme discomfort.
If this... disappointment... is the fault of the human body he is piggybacking there will be no mercy for Izumi Shingo.
Except... Ankh doesn't believe that at all.
And wisely when he walks away none of them say anything to him - without or within.
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Piece by Piece by Piece
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There's a marked difference between people who know Ankh simply as Ankh, like Chiyoko (and maybe Ankh does treat her with a tiny bit more patience than anyone else out of some warped sense of appreciation for that fact, even though it's nothing she's done herself), people who know Ankh is possessing Shingo's body, whether as a statement of fact like Gotou and Satonaka, or with an emotional pull to it like Eiji or Hina-
But then there are those who truly assume Ankh is Izumi Shingo. Just dressed a little flashier, hair restyled.
Those people have an effect, apparently. Those people stir something in Ankh.
Which in turn stirs up Shingo.
When Yamagane, the escaped convict, looks at Ankh, he seems to see straight through him to Shingo's mind behind Ankh's eyes. And Shingo looks back without the slightest trace of fear.
It's the only experience Ankh has ever had of Shingo's steely personality first-hand, beyond Shingo's memories of his time as a police detective, and those tend to lean towards modesty in the recalling.
How memories can be warped by human want and need, Ankh is beginning to understand. Desire is more complex than even the Greeeds have been led to believe. And they are the ones who subsist on it.
He believes I wronged him, putting him in jail, Shingo says with an unnerving calm. He wants to right the supposed wrongs against him.
"It seems his desire is revenge," Ankh says for Eiji's benefit. And doesn't bother to explain how he knows it.
When Okumura Yasuni starts hanging off of him, Ankh's first instinct is to throw him off. It doesn't work, because Yasu tries again. And this time there's too much Shingo in Ankh's mind.
I'd never forget the face of my benefactor!"
Benefactor? He's overreacting.
"He may be a bit gaudier-"
Gaudy? Shingo finds that far too amusing. He would, Ankh thinks to himself sourly. Izumi Shingo with his plain clothes and boring hair.
But the sensation of warmth, and a kind of amused pity, filter from Shingo to Ankh, and then Ankh can't even summon up the feeblist of shoves to get Yasu away.
...Until he mistakes the sensation for Kazari's presence. When he realises his error, that the creeping feeling is actually coming from inside of him, Ankh loses it.
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The memory of the day Shingo saved Yasu's life is having no effect on him.
He's using everyone as bait, just as Eiji suspects.
"We don't know whom the yummy will target of the three of us. It's easier for you to protect us if we're all together."
He's just saying the words Eiji wants to hear, even if Eiji doesn't believe them.
It's not like Izumi Shingo and his prevailing need to protect people is getting to Ankh.
It's not like he throws Eiji off the roof and into the water to 'protect' him.
Ankh definitely could've killed him, just like Hina said.
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It's easier to bury Shingo temporarily once Ankh has his core.
Just looking at it is mesmerizing. A piece of himself. He already feels a little more complete, without even taking it inside himself. Shingo is dimmed within him, pushed aside in order for Ankh to revel in his own achievement.
Hina is nothing more than a fly he can't be bothered to swat. She bleats at him and he answers distractedly.
The core is a world of opportunities. How much more of himself can he regenerate now?
Perhaps his distraction is what allows Hina to swoop in and take it.
That piece of him.
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Perhaps he really has been able to push Shingo aside, no matter how momentarily. Whatever the actual reason, there's no murmurs within Ankh when he tangles Hina up in the chains and strings her above the water. She tries to hurt him with her words, but Ankh is having none of it.
"I'm sure Oniichan is saddened by this!"
If Izumi Shingo isn't around to voice his opinion on the matter, who cares?
Breaking away from the detective's body is proof that Ankh is getting desperate though. His medal, it's there, right there, so close. It's not a case of want, he needs it.
Hina, the petty human, she doesn't understand that.
If she understood anything at all she'd never dare mess with a Greeed, someone of Ankh's power, who could-
-who can't even get the damn medal out of her hand. Thankfully there are no witnesses. Even Shingo, once Ankh separates from him, is not conscious to be able to see this last desperate attempt to snatch it out of her hand as she sleeps.
"Damn it!" Ankh hisses as he gives up, and a quiet but insistent, Ankh, what did you do to Hina? speaks to him.
It figures the one thing that might provoke Shingo to rise up again would be concern for his sister in a moment when he had no idea what was happening.
"Nothing!" He says, and gestures. "She's fine, isn't she?"
That wouldn't be my immediate assumption, Shingo replies tartly. But apparently she's just as stubborn as you, and stronger too.
And full of those ridiculous human morals; she must have learnt them from her annoying older brother. It's because of that logic that Ankh knows he can at least trust Hina to hold on to the medal properly. Even if it's only to keep it away from him.
It's the same morals that make her forget what's obvious to Ankh.
"You think Eiji will fight with you after what you did to him?"
"He'll come... to defeat the yummy."
Her concern for Eiji makes her forget the bigger picture.
Her concern for Ankh... That's unexpected.
After all, his arm is entirely his. It's not like she's upset because he damaged her brother's body whilst inhabiting it, not this time.
That wound he carries is his alone.
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It's Shingo's influence that makes Ankh react in the moment, hold Hina back from the fray.
...Except that surely he would never allow Shingo so much scope to affect him.
It's because she has his core medal, probably. He can't let her go running in with it; that's Kazari's yummy, what if he were to sense it and come swooping in? He'd steal it for sure.
It's certainly not out of some misguided concern for her safety, or anything like that. If she cares what happens to him that's her problem alone. Ankh feels no need to balance the scales.
The way she considers it, just holding it so casually in her hand in a way that makes Ankh grit his teeth because can't she see how important it is to him?, he just knows that after all, she's trying to think of a way to make use of it. He made the right decision.
It doesn't explain why he continues to shield her from the yummy's brood monsters, hands protectively tight on her shoulders. Izumi Shingo, blame him after all.
He's silent. Of course he's playing dumb. Silent when I need you, a loudmouth when I don't!
...Except that Ankh never really needs Shingo.
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Another of his cores. In human hands again - it's been in Kougami's hands, that filthy rat-bastard. Ankh's skin would crawl if only he knew how that worked.
And now Hina - this woman again! A constant thorn in his side. Offering him the one thing she's been refusing for the promise to help Eiji.
She's right, Ankh can't afford to watch Eiji be defeated. That doesn't make it any better, but it does give him a little leeway. How could he refuse? It's his core.
They're all his cores.
So Eiji has been relying on one of his Taka cores the entire time already; that was Ankh's decision. This is most decidely less his decision - this is being backed into a corner and manipulated by humans, although that's the wrong word to use because Ankh does not allow himself to be manipulated. Especially not by humans.
This is every part of himself being used by Eiji. This is violation.
Perhaps there's a small sense of pride - smugness, because he knows the power he is capable of, and now all the puny humans will too. But it makes him uneasy nonetheless.
It matters that Eiji doesn't screw this one up, not whilst using Ankh's cores .
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He takes them back roughly, grabbing at them with no grace at all. A fumbling hand, desperately greedy. Impossible to care.
It's not completion, it's nowhere near completion, but it's more. It's strength and togetherness and want.
-Until it's not again. When the single reformed wing shatters Ankh actually feels it physically. A thousand tiny stabbing pains, which a memory somewhere inside him likens to crashing through a pane of glass.
It sends an electric shock through him, all over.
Liquid stands up in his eyes. Tears, they're called. A bodily response to the extreme discomfort.
If this... disappointment... is the fault of the human body he is piggybacking there will be no mercy for Izumi Shingo.
Except... Ankh doesn't believe that at all.
And wisely when he walks away none of them say anything to him - without or within.
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