Work Text:
24 July, 7:07am
Naruhodou’s Legal Consultancy
Ryuunosuke wakes up like he does every other day.
He slaps himself awake before Iris has a chance to (and she packed a punch), bids hello to both his daruma doll and his shrimps, tidies up Susato’s desk, decides that he used too much effort to clean his own desk, and finally heads down to the suite for breakfast.
Not for the first time, he’s greeted with Sherlock Holmes hanging his head down and Iris furiously clacking at the typewriter.
“Mister Naruhodou,” Holmes rumbles, looking and sounding an entire thunderstorm with his hair in disarray and voice lowered. “Have you forgotten who I am already?”
Ryuunosuke stays silent. He’s seen this before. Some variation of it, anyway.
“I could never forget who you are, dear fellow! With that bird’s nest of hair and shifting eyes, the only thing missing is that set of handcuffs from that fateful day! I do think it's a shame still that Detective Hosonaga didn’t allow me to keep it as a memento…”
Ryuunosuke continues eating, waiting for him to get to the point.
“You see, my current client approached me with a case so boring it makes my head spin. And they did it without even knowing who I was! Sending the great detective out on such tasks...and now even our hungry little Iris has forgotten who I am.”
“I know who you are, Holmesie!” Iris chirps, her typing not slacking in the least. “You’re someone who can find Wagahai for me!” So that’s what this is about.
“My dear Iris, you also seemed to have forgotten this one right here! Observe the chattering way he chews at his food...much like a mouse! Does this not look like the sort of creature who would attract cats better than any nip?”
“...You’re forgetting who I am, too, Mister Holmes. A human.”
In the back of his mind, though, he admits to this rather strong suggestion’s merit. It’s not like he’s been shut up every second of every day. Someone has to make sure the shrimps are fed, after all. (Iris had offered, but Ryuunosuke politely declined: he knew her all-too-generous heart would devise a way for the shrimps to make their way to Wagahai’s clutches.)
But from how it seems, Iris has a deadline and it would be much easier to do the task himself rather than start the dance of shifting the buck back to Holmes. “Well, you seem busy,” Ryuunosuke acquiesces more to Iris than to Holmes, “so I don’t mind giving it a try. But I have no first idea on how to look for a cat here in the vast city of London.”
“You could always just stand really still out there like a suit of armor, Runo! You have the sword for it! Although…” Rather than slowing, Iris’s typing actually seems to intensify at the thought, her spoken words coming out just as fast. “Would that work if you’re wearing black? Could we say that your uniform is like your armor? Or should I make one?”
“Er.” He’s usually the one asking questions, not the other way around. “I should probably get started on finding Wagahai…” A glance to the side shows Holmes doing a fist pump, and Ryuunosuke just rolls his eyes as he heads out.
“Just you wait, Runo, I’ll blend a whole new outfit for you!” Iris calls after him, toeing the line between cheerful and menacing as usual.
“Don’t get lost out there, Mister Naruhodou! You have the rather troublesome tendency of finding more than what you set out for!”
He hates it when Holmes is right. It’s much more fun to prove him wrong.
Same Day
Megundal Park
It’s times like these, though, that he realizes how far away from home he actually is. 221B Baker Street was his home in London, of course, but even that seems distant without Susato and her calm wit by his side, either.
How does one even begin to look for a cat? Wagahai is cute, but so are countless other cats, and many flock to this lavish park. The only things he could boast were his memory and power of observation, though a certain individual would attest otherwise.
His hand instinctively reaches for the sword by his side.
...what would Asougi do?
He would probably chide Ryuunosuke on how stuck he felt considering the answer was right there. Or he could be bluffing, and if Ryuunosuke asked him what the answer could possibly be, Asougi would grit his teeth and tell him to figure it out himself.
Despite everything, Ryuunosuke can’t help but smile at the thought, gritting his own teeth when he remembers why Asougi isn’t also here with him.
He’d be damned if he let go of Asougi’s memory now, though. If Ryuunosuke said the blatantly wrong thing, he would have that stony expression instead and put his hand on his—
Sword…?
“Scuse me!” Ryuunosuke called out on impulse, not even expecting a response.
The hooded man stops, the sword hilt sitting proudly at his side.
Well. He certainly did not plan this far. Not even one to bluff much to begin with, he’s certainly paying for it now. “Have you,” The man in black had faced him fully, giving him even more pause. “...seen a cat around here?”
Not the best conversation starter, but still better than “Hello, I may be projecting my dead best friend on you, but you kind of really remind me of him once I get a better look at you. The cat isn’t a lie, though.”
Knowing his track record, though, his face probably displayed all his thoughts on its own. Hard to control when there’s something so uncanny about the way the man stands, like trees he would climb in his youth. Sturdy and unyielding. Just like...
If only Ryuunosuke could grab the man and shake him until that white mask fell off. He’s already dug himself in with his spade of a mouth, so he has to plow on. “It’s a calico cat. Answers to the name Wagahai?”
The man only answers him with silence. Even a denial would have stung less.
“Right, well…sorry to bother you, sir.”
The kicker is he hasn’t stopped looking at Ryuunosuke, either, even as he takes his next step.
And what seems like his last, because he almost falls immediately after.
Ryuunosuke barely manages to grab hold of the man’s hand (when had his legs carried him there?) while noting the familiar yowl in the background.
“Are you okay?” Of course he wouldn’t get an answer. “...oh, Wagahai!” The cat meows in acknowledgment.
The man really is familiar, his back to Ryuunosuke’s chest notwithstanding. His overactive imagination begins to make him think from the way their swords are aligned, and from how the winds blow, it feels like the spring breeze has returned in Karuma’s step. In Kaz—
Wagahai clambers onto his head and meows, yanking them both out of a reverie.
“Sorry!” Ryuunosuke scurries away, the swords clashing once more in his haste. “I hope I didn’t surprise you too much...but I don’t think it could be worse than tripping over a cat, right?”
The masked man reaches out as if to grab him for his hubris, making Ryuunosuke squeeze his eyes shut for whatever punishment approaches. But he simply gives a parting pat to Ryuunosuke’s head before he’s gone as suddenly as he had appeared. Just as a wayward wind would flow.
It couldn’t have only been his imagination, could it? Ryuunosuke returns with Wagahai eventually, knowing neither of them were the reason for the scent of the sea that followed them.
23 October, 3:03pm
The Great Exhibition Grounds, Experimentation Stage
He’s not suspended from work this time, thankfully. But he is currently suspended in disbelief.
It feels like much too long since he’s been on a case. Much as if this case decided to be even more convoluted than usual to make up for the absence. Something incredible lurked in the shadows, and he was about to take the leap right into it.
Ryuunosuke already felt as if he stood on the edge of a fall when he’d seen that familiar black cape in Lord van Zieks’ office. The sword hilt by his side had not been visible, but he could very well imagine the cape billowing in the wind just from how the figure sat so steadfastly in seiza.
The incredible machine in front of him long forgotten, he’s caught up looking at the man who had suddenly appeared with Lord van Zieks. That cutting figure now faces him dead-on.
Ryuunosuke could be a machine of his own, from the way he seems to have two modes: overthink or don’t think at all. It’s the former that leads him to doubt and sense for contradictions but the latter that has him putting his heart into someone else. And now his heart feels as if it’s about to leap out of its chest right after stopping for a whole minute.
Perhaps when they met over Wagahai, he didn’t want to face the outcome had his intuition been wrong or even right, but this time is different. With the Masked Disciple turned away as if he were a mere stranger now, all he wants is to face him again.
Susato feels it as soon as Ryuunosuke does, quick to act as ever. “Kazuma-sama!”
He’s seen this before: a back that seems immovable until it turns around with a smile formed from “partner!” when one says the magic word.
It’s not the word that comes to Ryuunosuke now. His brain stutters and his throat clenches, leaving the rest to his body. He may not have the right to draw Karuma as he stands, but it calls for him to bring it out even if sheathed, in a voice that erupted from when his mind had been at its foggiest as well.
“If your head is so drowsy that you can’t even remember your best friend’s name…”
He’s already made this mistake before.
“Then I shall strike at you with my blade Karuma until your senses come back!”
He simply can’t let him disappear from him again.
They fall together this time, their respective swords clinking against each other in the journey down. Strange how a year ago, Ryuunosuke hardly wanted to be near any blades, let alone two at once. Right now, though, he would hardly be anywhere else.
“ Naruhodou… ” It’d been much too long, since he’d heard his name without honorifics. As if the very word is trying to cut through to his heart, and succeeding.
“Naruhodou, Naruhodou,” with each utterance, the arms around him tighten and push the swords now wedged between their chests closer, “I see you’ve been doing well. I have to say for how many times I’ve fallen, for it to be by your hand is more honorable than falling over a cat twice, at least. Is this your form of revenge for before? Your...Karuma?”
“No,” Ryuunosuke is breathless, either from his running jump or from the vice-grip around him. “Yours.”
The laugh that follows is equally as breathless. “You always managed to hit dead-on right when the battle seemed inevitably lost. Whether it was in archery, or court, or...” He wears the mask still, his voice hoarse with disuse, but there’s no mistaking it.
“Asougi. ” It’s hard to say whose arms are tighter around the other. “Asougi, Asougi, Asougi…”
He’s at the perfect spot to hear Asougi’s heartbeat, as booming as his laughter. Or that could be his own heart, making the blood rush to his head as his brain tries to catch up to reality.
That may be why he can’t help but dart his eyes around as ever without letting go. Susato has her hand on her mouth, the tears she’d held back all this time finally flowing freely. Lord van Zieks looks very much like a cat who swallowed a lemon (little difference than usual).
His eyes draw back to Asougi sooner than he’d like to admit. They have ever so much to catch up on, his mouth opens to say. He’s never been good at coming up with words on his own, preferring to recite tongue twisters. They didn’t require thinking, or laying himself so bare even while he’s mostly enveloped from the world by his dear friend.
“Asougi. ” He falters.
“I know. We’ll talk, I promise. But I have to settle matters first.” Asougi’s arms don’t budge a millimeter. “I have to...”
It’s always him who manages to be cool, even in times like this, is it? How very Asougi to seem one step ahead of him but always wait for Ryuuunosuke to catch up.
Not that he’ll allow himself to fall too behind, either. He’s been off sea for months now, but having Asougi here returns his bearings back to Ryuunosuke, enough to loosen his tongue in this still-unfamiliar land. “Keep me waiting too long and I might just headbutt you next.”
“Ahaha. Now that is something I’ll have to watch out for. I have utmost faith your spikes could rival Karuma.” A pause. “Thank you for keeping it safe, partner.”
“Of course.” It was Asougi’s soul, after all, calling out for him all this time. That should be the epitome of fear for him, honestly, for someone who hates blades and ghosts. But it’s with Karuma between him and his revived friend now that makes him feel safest.
It’s Karuma that had begun their journey to Britain, with Asougi’s resolve to cut through to the truth carved into it from one edge to the other. And it’s the hachimaki that brings them to the present, snaking around Karuma as if it was fate itself stringing them back together in crossing swords and paths once more.
“But really, to go that far? Don’t you think that was rather extreme?” He knows Asougi doesn’t actually mean that, laughter laden in his voice.
“...Are you sure you should be the one saying that? Looked in a mirror lately?” He has no qualms about answering questions with questions, cheeky as it might be.
Asougi detaches one hand from Ryuunosuke only to pinch his face for his wit, putting their foreheads together for good measure. “I’m looking at the you that’s mirrored my goals so well, I simply had to check if you were real after all these months.”
It may have been something Ryuunosuke wouldn’t usually have the gall to do, but when he bumps his forehead back into Asougi and their laughs intertwine together as one—
At least he knows he’s struck true.