5 Things Shoutarou Tried To Run From and Failed
5. Name
Shoutarou was convinced that Philip has some weird ability see into his head and see what he was thinking and feeling. That or Shoutarou was that transparent, but the former made Shoutarou feel better.
“Your book is missing the first half of your life,” Philip said to him one day over breakfast.
Shoutarou stared at him in shock. He didn’t think Philip would do a lookup (as they were calling it these days) on him. Then again this was Philip and Shoutarou really shouldn’t be surprised about it. Philip looked up everything he could.
“That’s… because I didn’t always go by the name Hidari Shoutarou,” he said quietly. He looked away from his partner and focused on the eggs on his plate. It wasn’t as if he was trying to hide his past from Philip but it was nothing he wanted to talk about.
It was the wrong thing to say to Philip because Shoutarou can see the manic look of an interesting puzzle in Philip’s eyes. Then as soon as it appeared, it vanished. Shoutarou stared at his partner.
“I see…” Philip said slowly. Then he resumed eating.
It seemed that after a few months of living with Shoutarou, Philip was finally starting to learn social signals. The dark hair man realized that his partner didn’t want to talk about it and somehow managed to stomp down the urge to ask. A small smile appeared on Shoutarou’s face. He was grateful for that. Without any doubt, he would tell Philip if he asked but for now it was nice to keep it hidden away. He made a note to treat Philip to some cake later on.
“Delivery for Ikenami Shoutarou?”
Shoutarou took the large box from the delivery man. “Ah that’s me,” he said, tipping the man. He placed the box on the table, instantly recognizing the return address. Why would Ryuunosuke and his parents be sending him a package? Oh yes… his birthday was coming up wasn’t it?
He cut open the box to see a gift wrapped up inside, along with a box for his mother’s cookies. He had a weakness for his mother’s cookies. They were always so wonderful. Definitely one of the many things he missed from home. “Oi, Philip, do you want some cookies?” Shoutarou turned around, box in hand only to find Philip in the tattletale pose of him accessing the Gaia Library. So much for restraint.
At least he wouldn’t have to explain it to Philip.
4. Mojikara
This was bad. Very bad. They had run straight into trouble. It had been one of the few days that they decided to chance taking Philip outside. It seemed luck was not on their side today and shortly after they had stepped outside from a bakery, they had run straight into a group of Masquerade Dopants.
Shoutarou grabbed Philip’s hand and made a run for it. They could transform into W but that would leave Philip’s body unconscious and one more thing to protect. For now it was much better to run.
“Damn, they don’t just give up,” Shoutarou panted. The Masquerade Dopants were just as hard as losing Kuroko (only the Kuroko were much sneakier and discreet about it). Philip stood next to him, hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.
“There they are!”
Shoutarou groaned. This was getting ridiculous. Time for drastic measures. He pulled out a brush from his inner vest pocket.
“Shoutarou?” Philip asked. Why was Shoutarou holding a brush in the air? This was not the time for calligraphy.
“It’ll be okay,” Shoutarou reassured. He made a few broad strokes in the air. To Philip’s amazement, a kanji appeared. “Ha!” Shoutarou flipped the kanji around.
Instantly smoke filled the area, stopping the movements of the Masquerade Dopants. In the confusion, Shoutarou grabbed Philip and ran. Several minutes later they were back home and safe away from the organization.
“What was that?” Philip asked. There was the curious manic gaze in his eyes again. Shoutarou could almost laugh. Only Philip who had just spent the last twenty minutes running away from organization that want to kidnap him would think about research right now.
“Mojikara,” Shoutarou said. There’s no need to explain anymore. Philip will look it up. Shoutarou was just grateful that he had listened to Ryuunosuke’s advice.
It saved their lives today.
3. Samurai Family
It seemed no matter how hard he tried, there were elements from his samurai family that kept leaking into his life. Samurai or not, Shoutarou was fully prepared to blame Terui Ryuu for it.
“You are impossible Ryuu-niisan!”
Shoutarou’s eyes widened in shock and he quickly shut his mouth. Terui stared back at him, the argument they were having instantly stopped. Akiko who had been between them, trying to break up the fight looked at Shoutarou as well.
“Eh?!” She exclaimed. When did Shoutarou start calling Ryuu-kun niisan?
Shoutarou’s lips pressed together in a firm line. Without another word, he brushed past the superintendent and walked out the door. Sitting the red chair, Philip watched as his partner disappeared. “Ah,” he said in a knowing tone of voice.
“Philip?” Akiko questioned. “What was that about?”
Philip didn’t say anything at first. It really wasn’t his place to say, but Akiko was not going to let it go. Or worse, she will ask Shoutarou when he came back and that wasn’t going to do anything to improve his partner’s mood. “Shoutarou has a brother named Ryuunosuke. I believe Terui reminds Shoutarou of him.”
“Eh?!”
---
“Stupid Terui,” Shoutarou muttered under his breath. He cleansed each utensil with even clean strokes. He hadn’t meant to refer to Terui as Ryuu-niisan, but it slipped out before he could stop it. While Terui and his brother were nothing alike, they both had this one trait they shared. Both were stubbornly relentless. Ryuunosuke was more harmless and more about the seriousness of his samurai training while Terui was more about his revenge. Arguing with Terui reminded Shoutarou so much of his brother that the accusation flew out of his mouth.
“Tantei? Why are you here?”
Makura questioned why he was sitting on the floor of the office. Without warning, Shoutarou had burst into the office with a box, laid out a sheet, and began to clean tea utensils. Jinno recognizing what Shoutarou was doing dragged Makura over to the sheet and made him have a seat.
Jinno quickly bopped Makura on the head with his hand massager. “Quiet you idiot!” he instructed with a low voice. “Shoutarou is making tea!”
“He can do that?” Makura asked. He had never seen Shoutarou do something like this before. The detective was unusually quiet and serious as he continued onward the motion of the tea ceremony.
Just then the door opened, revealing Philip, Akiko and Terui in the doorway. “E--!” Philip covered Akiko’s mouth before she could disrupt the nearly quiet atmosphere.
“Shoutarou does tea ceremonies when he’s upset,” Philip quietly explained. “For now just go with it.” He swiftly crossed the police office and took a seat next to Jinno. Akiko and Terui shared a glance before they took a seat next to Makura.
Shoutarou didn’t even bat an eyelash at the presence of his partner. He simply added nine more scoops of macha green tea powder to the tea bowl. Then he ladled hot water into the bowl and began to whisk. Once he was done, he presented the bowl to Philip and bowed. Philip returned the gesture before he took the tea bowl. He examined the bowl then rotated it before taking a sip. Philip wiped the rim of the bowl and then presented Jinno who repeated the same actions. The bowl continued down the line ending with Akiko who returned the bowl back to Shoutarou.
She then shared at look with Terui and Makura who were thinking the same thing. Shoutarou made excellent tea. Jinno and Philip having both gone through this before smiled privately to themselves. Shoutarou’s coffee skills were lacking but his tea making was excellent.
Shoutarou on the other hand felt an immense calm fill him. There was something soothing about tea ceremonies that he always loved. Granted he was breaking tradition slightly, modifying the location and with how his guests noisily reacted, but the atmosphere was now nice and tranquil. It was strange to think that he use to hate sitting still for tea ceremony lessons as a child. He will have to talk to Terui later and once again try to smack some sense into the thick superintendent’s head. But for now, he will enjoy the peaceful aura of the room.
The tea ceremony was perhaps the only part of his samurai legacy that he willing embraced.
2. Stage
When they hatched up the plan to deal with the Liar Dopant, Shoutarou found himself once again on a stage. Only this time he isn’t really miserable about it. He looked like a complete fool wearing sparkle gold and pink colors and makeup. The stuff vulture on his head kept flopping over and Akiko can’t look at him with a straight face.
And yet, this is the happiest Shoutarou has been in a long time.
Unlike Fuuuuuutic Idol, this is even more similar to Kabuki. If Shoutarou tried hard enough, the ridiculous outfit he’s wearing isn’t that much different from the elaborate costumes of Kabuki. He isn’t even performing in front a large crowd that normally caused his stomach to flip and twist into knots. Instead he was only performing in front of Philip (and well the Liar Dopant as well but he doesn’t count in Shoutarou’s book) who knew of Shoutarou’s past and previous training. In many ways it reminded him of practicing in front of Ryuunosuke.
So he took to the stage once more, prancing about and performing to his fullest ability. The lights were bright and the hall was quiet. All Shoutarou needed was Philip’s knowing smile to give it his all. It wasn’t kabuki, but he could pretend that the hall was full with fans, that his costume was bright and colorful instead of this silly outfit and that phantom ghost of his brother performing next to him.
The stage was wonderful and grand thing.
1. Sword
Shoutarou’s day had been a mixed roller coaster of emotions. Anger, frustration, sorrow, -I can’t transform into W. I’m useless… again- wet, hurt, relief, warmth, -Nobody’s Perfect- a sense of renewal, “If that turns out to be a weakness, then I will accept it. Let’s go… partner.”
Philip was far too nice and Shoutarou didn’t deserve to be his partner. However Philip wanted Shoutarou as a partner and that meant the entire world to him. With all his might, Shoutarou will follow after Philip. He vowed to never let his will crumble again.
Transforming with Xtreme Memory is odd but nice. Shoutarou long had gotten use to Philip’s presence in his mind but it always felt somewhat incomplete. Now it felt more fitted, more complete like two halves finally clicking together. He doesn’t understand a thing about W’s new form but Philip does and Shoutarou trusted Philip with his life.
‘Ne, Shoutarou,’ Philip causally joked in their now shared mind. ‘W finally got a sword.’
‘Eh?!’ Philip mentally showed him the image. Shoutarou can’t stop the grin on his face. He never thought he would be so happy to see a sword.
“PrismBicker!” they chorused together. The sword and shield appeared from within them.
‘Teach me well, Shoutarou,’ Philip teased in their mind. While not a katana, the sword felt right in Philip’s -both- their hands. It’s heavier than a shinai but the weight was easy to get use to.
‘Ah! Leave it to me!’ Shoutarou confidently replied. With the other forms of W it had taken weeks to get use to each weapon. But a sword Shoutarou knew like the back of his hand. The sword became an extension of their arm, stance was firm and grip was just right.
‘Saa let’s end this aibou.’
“Prism Maximum Drive!”
‘Yes!’