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It’s just because he’s a robot, Shinnosuke thinks at first. The emotionlessness, the confusion at human customs.
But the more he works with Chase and fights Roidmudes, the more he realizes it’s a Chase thing, not a Roidmude thing.
Shinnosuke has worked hard, harder than he probably has to or should, to appear the way he does, even before he’d been old enough to go online and figure out what exactly was different for him. Which is fine! It’s made some things easier, like achieving his life long dream of being a police officer like his father.
Still, knowing that it might be the same issue plaguing Chase… changes things.
Some. Maybe.
You know, he’s probably overthinking this.
It’s the incident with 051 that more or less confirms it for Shinnosuke. In part because, afterwards, he does finally remember to ask Mr. Belt what he did to Chase to give them a Roidmude on their side.
“Chase was programmed with a justice protocol,” Mr. Belt explains.
…Well, that makes as much as sense as anything else involved.
So Shinnosuke thanks Mr. Belt and goes off to talk to Chase.
(He realizes later that he probably should have asked more questions.
Unfortunately, he remembers too late to ask them.)
“Shinnosuke?”
“Hello, Chase,” Shinnosuke says. “I was looking for you.”
“Why?”
“I was just thinking,” Shinnosuke says, with a shrug. “You aren’t like the other Roidmudes, are you?”
“You mean that I fight with you?” Chase asks. Shinnosuke shakes his head, looking away and leaning on the rails of the roof. It’s a good place to come and breathe, but not as good as a car.
It just feels safer when he’s in, say, a car. Eyes on the road, familiarity.
“Shinnosuke?”
Shinnosuke blinks. Right.
“Right,” he says. “I mean no, actually. Mr. Belt changed you, so you could be Proto-Drive, right?”
“That is right,” Chase says. “I chose to keep it when I worked with the Roidmudes.”
Shinnosuke nods.
“Right,” he says. “And I know you’ve been having problems with emotions lately, so I guess I just wanted to tell you that it’s… normal?”
Chase meets his gaze for several beats too long.
“Do you know what Autism is, Chase?” Shinnosuke asks, continuing on.
“…Autism?”
“A human… mental thing,” Shinnosuke waves his hand in the air. Man, he’s bad at explaining this. “It’s not… well, it’s not normal, but it’s not bad either.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Chase asks.
“Because I think you have it,” Shinnosuke replies. “Like Mr. Belt said, you aren’t exactly the same as the other Roidmudes, right?”
“No, I am not.”
“Well, some signs of having Autism are difficulty reading and projecting emotions, and social cues,” Shinnosuke says. “I mean, I’m better at it than some, but that’s besides the point.”
“You have Autism?”
“Yes,” Shinnosuke replies. “I’m not officially diagnosed either, but… Like I said. It’s not exactly normal, but it isn’t bad.”
“I see,” Chase says. “Thank you, Shinnosuke.”
Shinnosuke smiles.
“Of course,” he says. “You’re my friend, and I wanted you to know you aren’t alone.”
Chase nods, and he leaves without another word.
“Hey, why are you asking me about… romance?” Shinnosuke asks, a while after that strange conversation with the other Rider. (Which why… why had he not stopped drinking while talking?)
“You told me our brains were similar, I wished to compare,” Chase says. Shinnosuke blinks.
…Oh. Right.
“Well, I don’t love Kiriko,” he says again, a bit more calmly. He thought he had, and he might still, but at this point it would just be… too complicated. “But good luck with that.”
“Very well,” Chase says. “Thank you for answering so thoroughly.”
Shinnosuke cringes, remembering.
“…Yeah,” he says. “No problem.”
(At least he helped Chase, if nothing else.)