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Adachi’s dreams have been restless for a while. The fog permeated both his waking and dreaming worlds. But while the real world fog was desolate, empty, peaceful really, the dreaming one hid something in it. Something was watching Adachi’s every move as he went through the empty streets of his dreams, similar yet unfamiliar, twisting in impossible directions and stretching out. Something is there, hidden in sickly green of the thick fog that long since turned into noxious clouds resting on top of rolling hills and riverbanks, smothering buildings.
Someone is following him, Adachi swears he hears footsteps falling behind him, a careful smothered cough, a sliver of laughter. He’s dreaming, of course he is. Waking Inaba is as silent as a grave. There’s no one left. It’s finally perfect for him, but the dreams are disquieting.
He thinks he notices a clearing further away. A patch of clear skies. He almost runs to it, as fast as he can with fog filling his lungs. It’s a small, almost linear tear in the veil of the fog, but when he looks closer, it starts growing larger, splitting like a wound. And soon enough it’s not really a wound anymore. It’s a singular eye. Gigantic and glowing yellow, looking right at Adachi. Watching him. Evaluating him. Mocking him.
Adachi wakes up with a gasp. The fog has long seeped inside of every building, but compared to the suffocation of his paranoid dreams, it feels like freshest of air to him. He’s had time to get used to it and now he’s pretty sure the fog even fills his veins.
There’s a sound, breaking the deathly stillness of his dwellings and Adachi’s head swivels in the direction of it. Glowing yellow is the first thing he sees.
«What are you doing here, brat?», he snaps, annoyed that his peace is disturbed. Yu Narukami is sitting at the feet of his bad, smoothing out wrinkles in his bedding. He looks different somehow, angles of his face sharper, unmistakably older. Hair no longer in that stupid bowlcut, always almost covering his eyes. His bright glowing yellow eyes. The same as his dream. Adachi suppresses a shudder. This is his world. How dare Yu show his face.
“I missed you, Tohru”, Yu’s voice is distorted and warbling around the edges, but it’s sing-song sweet around his name. “You didn’t call for so long… Am I not your accomplice anymore?”, he looks disappointed. Judging him, just like the eye of his dreams.
“Don’t call me that, brat”, is all Adachi can manage, feeling his throat constrict around the sound, not able to produce the necessary amount of venom to put into his words.
Yu leans a bit closer, glowing eyes like a cat focused on his prey. “But I can call you whatever I want, Tohru. You’re mine after all”, he smiles too wide for comfort, a tiniest glint of teeth like a threat.
“You’re not him”, the realization hits Adachi like a punch to the gut. Of course that can’t be Yu. He hasn’t seen Yu in years. The brat is probably lost to the fog as the rest of them. Gone. Good riddance, if you ask Adachi.
His visitor smiles in earnest, his voice curling and fraying like the fog itself. “I am a shadow. A true self.”
A shadow of the person he wants to see less than anything in the world. Great.
There are shadows roaming the fog. Indistinct dark shapes, ebbing and flowing like the tide. As Adachi walks the streets, he only notices silhouettes, as shadows part and get out of his way whenever he goes. They aren’t malicious, like they were to the Investigation Team apparently, they’re not welcoming, like they were to Adachi when he first came into the TV world. They’re afraid, recognizing his true power. Apparently every shadow except for that damned brat. He never knew what was good for him.
“What are you doing here?”, Adachi asks, not really wanting to hear the answer. Why would this happen. Why now. It’s been such a long time.
As if hearing his thoughts, Shadow Yu replies. “It’s been so long, Tohru. I am lonely.”
“Why me though?”, for the first time in years, Adachi regrets that he stopped sleeping with his revolver under the pillow. There are no more threats in this world powerful enough to crush him, he thought. And even if there were, he wouldn’t mind. It’s all been kind of pointless for a while now. But the look on Yu’s face makes him uneasy, a creeping dread spreading through his body.
Shadow Yu chuckles, multi-voiced and wrong, “We were meant to be together. We were chosen. We are the only ones left. Of course I would come for you”. It’s tone is almost cooing, like trying to deal with a fussy child. It’s patronizing. It’s terrifying. It’s words are clear, but they sound incomprehensible to Adachi, the meaning behind the sound lost.
“What the hell do you mean?”, Adachi demands, feeling goosebumps rise over his flesh, hoping the Shadow won’t notice.
“Did you think you’re the only one spared? I was marked too, you know. I think Namatame would have been okay too had he not died in prison”, the Shadow is too close for comfort, leaning into Adachi’s space farther and farther with every word until it’s almost splayed out across Adachi’s lap still under the blanket, propping himself up by its arms.
Even through the thick fabric, it’s touch seems smoldering, it’s body weight tangible like a real person. The Shadow continues. “Yu was waiting for you, you know. Checking his phone constantly. Watching the world slowly swallowed by fog. But you never called. And now it’s no use.”
Adachi’s veins run cold despite the heated weight pressed into him. “Was?”
Shadow Yu nods, it’s eyes catching Adachi’s and there’s a familiar earnestness that shines within the yellow irises. An earnestness Adachi has learned was a lie a long, long time ago.
“Was. He’s coming to see you now. I figured I’d warn you. I missed you very much, Tohru”, his voice sticks like char to Adachi’s skin. Adachi knows better than anyone. Shadows always speak the truth. Always express true desires of the individual they mimic. Whatever has happened to the brat in the years he didn’t bother to check up on him?
Tohru used to think it was a fluke. It was dumb luck, maybe. Kid was too stupid for his own good, like usual. But the glimpse of Yu’s features, entirely empty when he raised his face after clicking the lighter, sealing Adachi’s fate, that look on his face haunted Adachi for years. A slip of the mask, a glance into the void, hungrier than his own, drawing him in for what felt like an eternity, but really was no longer than a second.
“It would have been so wonderful. You, getting to know the real me. Our bond growing stronger and stronger until we’re inseparable, like we were truly meant to be”, the Shadow is moving, and now it’s entirely in Adachi’s lap, too hot fingers dancing across Adachi’s cheeks. It’s not an unpleasant sensation, but Adachi hasn’t been touched gently in so long, he feels he’d rather get struck.
“Now I won’t give you a choice anymore. I’m done waiting for someone to see me for what I am”, Shadow Yu’s fingers are feather-light, careful, dancing over Adachi’s face. It’s not real, Adachi finally decides. It can’t be real. He’s hallucinating. He’s still dreaming, perhaps. He shuts his eyes in the face of the shadow, unwilling to face the golden glow anymore.
Something warm and soft presses into his lips, though, and Adachi’s eyes fly open. The Shadow… is kissing him? Wrapping his long arms around Adachi’s neck, pressing closer to him, kissing him firm, possessive, demanding, and Adachi yields under the pressure, sighing into the kiss, opening his mouth to Yu, who immediately plunges his tongue inside. It’s wrong. It’s so wrong. Adachi doesn’t want this, but it’s been so long.
The pressure fades and the Shadow is staring directly into Adachi’s eyes, clearly finding the mixture of fear and longing amusing.
“You’ll have the real deal soon enough, Tohru”, it whispers, it’s breath across Adachi’s lips. “Be seeing you”.
It smirks, and when Tohru blinks, the weight in his lap vanishes as if it was never there. The only things left are lingering warmth, a touch of wetness across his lips and a promise that puts fear into the deepest recesses of Adachi’s soul.