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Shiomi sighed, laying on her bed as she remembered what she had seen that day. Kanji’s phone, lit up, with a picture of some girl, saying ‘are we still on for tonight?’
She tried not to throw up. The butterflies in her stomach rose up like a volcano – no, more like her indigestion from the salty potato chips she kept shoving down her throat. God, anything to take her mind off whatever Kanji could be doing, meeting up with another girl at night…
She went into the bathroom– better to be safe than let the chips resurface on her sheets.
God, she looked so pale. Should she call him? Should she tell him the gig was up? But then at that point he might just dump her altogether… damn. How was she gonna sleep tonight? Just the thought of it made her even more tired.
—
Kanji stood in the elevator, listening to this stupid, stupid tropical-sounding music as he took the lift up to Rise’s private apartment. Damn, he knew she would’ve been loaded from all the TV appearances she took, but to think she had a penthouse?
Ping!
Just as he was about to step out into the condo, he heard the sound of his notification ringing.
[You have 1 missed call from Shiomi.]
Wait, sh*t. How did he miss it? Maybe it was the nerves. He hated meeting Rise so secretly like this. Made him feel like he was cheating or something. He opened up his messaging app.
[Sorry Shi, I’m busy right n]
“You’re late.”
The voice of his partner grabbed his attention. “Yeah, just gimme a sec, I’m–”
Rise grabbed the phone. “Hey, stop that. You’re with me now. Shouldn’t I be getting your attention?”
“Hey, cut it out. S’ important.”
“Nope! I’ve got your attention now. Why would I give it up?”
“Fine, whatever. So? What’s the plan?” Kanji stepped into the apartment and hung his jacket over the couch.
Rise took a seat on the coffee table, draping herself over it like a cat. Why the hell was she acting so off tonight? “Target’s the secret son of some politician. Currently on a date. Mission got moved forward.”
“All business today, huh.”
“What do you mean?” She scowled. “I’m just not in a good mood, okay?”
“Fine, fine. I won’t push it.”
—---
Akechi sat across from the table from Ren, a small smile on his face. His boyfriend was on one of his long tangents again, this time complaining about some phone AI thing that recently installed itself. Akechi had asked if he should get his colleagues to look into it, but Ren had said it was fine and that he didn’t see any reason to try and delete it. Apparently it gave good advice, even if it was a little blunt at times. Ren said to just think of it– her– as a better version of Siri.
Akechi stood up, turning away from Ren. “Just going to the–”
WHAM.
Akechi spun round again to see Ren suddenly sprawled out on the ground, eyes closed and unmoving.
“What the?”
A man…no, wait, person? A person in a frilly dress with incredibly large muscles and a menacing expression stood over Ren’s unconscious body.
“Call me Steel Heart Chairman. Steelie for short.” He…they…? Smirked.
—
“Nothin’ personal. Not here for him anyway.”
Kanji watched as the guy looked around him, confused as to why no one was moving. He charged forward as the guy put his hand into his pocket. Better to get this over with before the fight could draw itself out. Thank God this dress was easy to move in.
BANG!
Suddenly Kanji felt his chair fly out of his hands. Wha…?
He looked up right into the barrel of a gun.
“Jesus Christ, you’re packin’?!”
“A good detective has to prepared,” The guy said, sounding almost scarily calm. Fuck. He had that look in his eyes. The kind that only people who knew how to fight would have.
“DUCK!”
The voice of his partner distracted Kanji’s opponent long enough for him to get out of the firing line. A bullet whistled past his ear. He heard the detective slump to the floor.
Kanji rushed over to Rise. “Ri, what the fuck?! Where did you get a gun?!”
Rise dropped it, seemingly shocked with herself. “So it works in this world, too…”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her down. “Rise! You have been all kinds of weird ever since yesterday! What the hell happened after the cleanup?”
“I… I don’t know,” she said. “I just…went back to the SMT, and then my powers changed into this.”
Kanji blinked. It kinda made sense. They barely knew anything about the Shin Megami Tensekai. It wouldn’t be too crazy if their powers suddenly changed. The magical dog that led them both into this insane secret life barely explained anything. Just gave them targets to take out and magical powers to do so. And the time-stopping thing.
—-
[Hey, what’s up?] Kanji’s reply came at 11:15pm.
God, it was so late. She couldn’t sleep at all, so she just went to the 777 down the street. The new mascot character, Velvet, stared back at her as she ate her cheap soft-serve. She needed to stop snacking, or else she’d feel horrible in the morning. Her stomach already hated her enough as it was. Who did Kanji think he was, anyway? She called him over an hour ago, multiple times.
She closed the messaging app and opened up her private Twitter account. [Why are men like this] she tweeted, alongside a gif of a black-and-white edit of a crying anime girl. She changed her username to include the words [KANJI DNI] and put the phone back in her pocket, wiping a single tear from her eye. The ice cream made her mouth feel way too sweet, so she got a water bottle and went to the front. The poor guy working the desk looked just as depressed as her. Relatable. His name tag read ‘Kitagawa’ and had multiple badges next to it, saying ‘I’d rather be drawing right now’, ‘The hours aren’t worth minimum wage’ and ‘Blue hair and pronouns: he/him’. She paid and went outside, taking a sip as she started to record her voice message reply to Kanji’s text.
She didn’t notice the figure coming up behind her until it was too late.
—
Kanji dashed towards Shiomi’s dormitory. The yelp at the end of her voice message and the way it cut off so randomly had him freaked. Something was clearly off. Actually, something had been off all day. Even when they hung out earlier, after he got back from the toilet Shi had been quieter than usual. That and the multiple missed calls? And now the creepy voice message? God. He transformed the moment he heard it and teleported nearby.
That’s when he saw it. Shiomi struggling with a girl in a frilly outfit. Struggling with Rise. He threw his magical chair without thinking, smacking Shiomi’s assailant in the back of the head.
She dropped the gun and the both of them fell to the floor, panting. “What the hell?!” Shiomi gasped, crawling over the gun and throwing it into the river.
“Shi! Watch out! That’s a shadow!”
“What’s a shadow?!”
“Just trust me! Get as far away as you can!”
“Got it!” Shiomi got to her knees and ran towards Kanji as he ran towards whatever the hell was pretending to be Rise. The shadow stood up slowly, glaring at him with telltale yellow eyes. “You!” It said, no longer trying to hide its distorted voice. “Why are you ruining everything? I nearly had you to myself!”
“SHUT UP AND SHOW ME YOUR TRUE FORM!”
The monster warped and changed, eventually taking the form of a freakish cyborg that looked like it came from the imagination of a twelve-year-old. Rocket wings sprouted from its back, and it held the kind of ray gun you’d see in Power Rangers. Now he knew what he was really up against.
—--
Shiomi hated standing back like this. Getting protected by her boyfriend? What was this, a 2000s chick flick?
“LOOK OUT!”
A blast of laser-hot light shot through her shoulder. Pain burst across her singed flesh, summoning tears to her eyes. She couldn’t be this helpless, surely? Was she just gonna have to keep dodging and pray she didn’t die in the crossfire? What about Kanji? What about her friends?! If Kanji lost to this thing, who knows what it’d go after next? What if he died? She’d never understand what happened, or why he was dressed like that, or why he was fighting a ten foot demon with a fucking chair?!
That’s when she felt it. Power coursing through her. Her rage, fear, anxiety all taking form and lending her strength beyond her comprehension. She didn’t know why, didn’t know how, but it didn’t matter. Words surfaced in her head.
[Call my name. Koromaru.]
“KOROMARU!” She cried, screaming it to the heavens. A beam of golden light shot down from the night sky, enveloping her body. She felt her skin cool, felt the stinging fade. Watched her burnt skin heal before her eyes.
“I SUMMON YOU!”
She felt herself float into the air and watched as her outfit transformed of its own accord. She felt an urge to extend her hands. She obeyed. In them a hockey stick materialized just as she heard a bark come from nowhere, echoing through the dark streets. A powerful-looking shiba inu with red eyes appeared before her eyes and in its mouth was a dark hockey puck.
“You don’t need to ask me twice,” she said to herself with a smirk. Taking the hockey puck and putting it on the ground, she smacked it towards the shadow with all her might. It screeched loudly as the puck connected with it, sending it flying off into space. Without hesitation she ran over to Kanji, who stared at her slack-jawed.
“You…you…!”
“Well, that was crazy,” she laughed, despite none of this being funny. What could you even say to this? Suddenly she had magic powers? And a dog??? And Kanji had a magic fucking chair?? And a dress. Holy…he looked good in that dress.
“Shi, I… wait, is that Koromaru?!”
“You know this thing’s name?”
“That’s the freakin’ dog that got me and Rise into all this! Why’s it with you?! Wait, it’s listening to you?”
“Yeah. Is that bad?”
[End]