Work Text:
To say that this was something she would have preferred to not walk into was putting it mildly.
Naoto had peered through the windows of class 2-2 before walking inside, seeing only her friends present and no one else. As she pulled the door open at the front of the classroom and stepped inside, the first thing that jumped at her was the thick tension in the air.
Kanji hulked before Rise, his shoulders pulled up, his back rounded, hunching. His head was turned to the side and Naoto felt she could nearly make out his profile.
Opposite him Rise leaned against her desk, her lower back resting on her desk. And she was fuming.
"...don't get what your damn problem is! So he's an asshole. That means nothing at all when it comes to you, Kanji-kun!"
His reply was chocked with barely contained anger. "Whatever. You wouldn't get it, Risette."
Naoto flinched. Rise's relaunched career and her spotty availability for shared outings had been a sore point for both of her friends. Kanji did not deal will with change and his social net was a precious thing in his eyes. He was jealous, she knew, jealous of Rise's showbiz self. Jealous of every new album and TV appearance, jealous of her chauffeur when she was being picked up right after school for a training session, recording, voice-over, or practice of some form or another.
If she was honest, his jealousy caused her inexplicable unease as well. Ever since their return from the south and the case she would not have solved as comfortably as she did with his help, she felt protective of her time with him. Sharing him with any other friend, even Rise or their senpai, put her in a very strange mood.
She was ripped from her musing when Rise positively exploded.
"I said, what the hell do you mean by that, Kanji?"
"You know damned well!"
"Clearly not, I must be a bit ditzy again!"
Looking over her shoulder towards the hallway, Naoto winced and closed the door shut. This was not something that needed to go viral if filmed by some of their peers and uploaded. She turned back and saw her friends glowering at one another.
"Well, how would the great Risette have any problems at all that the lowly masses have to endure? All you need to do is make some lame pose-"
"HEY!"
"- and wink and smile and all is forgiven! The normal world isn't like that, idol-"
"Stop it, Kanji!"
"- so some of us have to deal with shit you'll never again have to worry about! How about you worry about your singing or something and. Leave. Me. Alone?!"
As he turned to head to the back of class, Rise shouted after him. "Fine, be an ass, Kanji, but I will tell Naoto! She can help you an-" He whirled around and pointed at Rise. "Shut up! You'll not do a damn-!" And that is when he saw Naoto, looking to the floor, her cap firmly being tucked down. "Oh, perfect. Perfect! Screw it, I'm off."
The junior Shirogane lifted her head, saw him grab his bag and storm towards the door. "Kanji-kun!" He didn't even hesitate as she called out his name. A bang of the door in its hinges and he was gone.
She turned her head and saw Rise, her hands cupped over her face, back to the doors, shivering.
One crisis at a time. This is just another case...
She hurried to the door, shut it, then ran over to her friend, held her by one hand and her shoulder and let her slowly side into her chair. Going down on her haunches beside her, she waited out the storm. Rise did her best to never show anything but her bubbly self, but sometimes even an idol cries.
She wiped her face carefully, wiped at her eyes and scrabbled for her small make-up kit in her desk. The detective had learned that this is a very private and vulnerable moment to her friend, so she simply stared blankly at the desk and waited.
It opened and closed again, and a freshly styled Rise looked at her friend though lightly red eyes.
Naoto frowned at the desk, then looked back at her friend. "I am sorry, Rise. You had pointed out to me that you noticed a shift in his interactions with you, but I had not taken you seriously enough." The detective took off her cap and reached up to put a hand on her friends shoulder. "What caused his outburst today?"
"He asked me about something really stupid and then just blew up!"
"Tell me anything you can remember. Every detail may help."
Her friend pressed her lips together and her eyes unfocussed, trying to remember the last few minutes. "So I guess it started when he asked me if I was being bullied much. And I told him a bit about how I was bullied before Risette became a star. After that, he kept pressing for more stuff, so I kept telling him more, but he kept getting angrier."
"What 'stuff' did he ask?"
"Like, if I ever saw any of my old bullies. Can't say I have seen many, but now and again I see someone come up to me and they apologize for being mean. Mind, they generally do because they want an autograph or something. I try to not let it bother me too much." A small smile played over her lips. "That kind of stuff causes wrinkles, you know?"
Naoto gave her a tiny smile. "I would not know about that."
"But, yeah, that was pretty much it. He just grew so angry suddenly and, I don't know, then he started to just yell at me and calling me names."
"Calling you Risette is hardly name-calling. It is your nome de guere, as it were."
"My what?"
"Your alias as an actor and artist."
"Ah. Yes, but the way he said it wasn't nice."
Naoto nodded and pursed her lips, looking down. "You know he misses you when you are not here..." Admitting to it did not make the feeling of jealousy any better. At all.
"Aw, you think so?" Rise sniffed, but a small smile lit her face.
"I know so. His manners become... hostile much swifter."
"Oh, so pretty much like when you're off on a case then."
"Beg pardon?" Naoto's head snapped to her friend and her eyes widened.
"Oh Naoto-kun," Rise giggled, "do you seriously think he likes it when you go away for a week or two? He pines so much it's not even funny, and if I mention you to him-"
"...just mention, mhm?"
"-mention your name," her friend pushed on with that smirk of hers, "then he gets that weird look in his face and sulks."
This should not make me feel pleased. It should not. It should not cause me to feel anything at all. "Yes, well." She tucked her cap back on and tried to hide her reaction. "But then why would he react in such an aggressive manner to us while we are here and talking to him?"
"Really," the idol said slowly, "I think all of this started about a week ago. You had just come back from your weekend away and he was in a generally good mood. Then we had P.E. in the afternoon and when he came back, he was being weird. Remember how he snapped at you on the way home together?"
Naoto stared at her hands, trying to remember. "I do, faintly."
"Seriously, he seemed to be out for a brawl or something."
The older girl snapped her head up. "What? Rise, you cannot be serious!"
"Dead serious, Naoto! He knows how to deal with things if he can hit someone. He doesn't know how to deal with stuff in any other way."
Naoto raised a hand to refute, then stopped herself and rested her fingertips on her mouth. "You know... you may not be wrong in that assessment." She nibbled the inside of her cheek for a moment before continuing, "I'll investigate my options. Kanji-kun is my partner on the Investigation Team, I cannot let his performance slip."
"Oooh, is he your partner now?" Rise gave her a huge, cheeky grin.
A cobalt-coloured eyebrow rose. "Yes, and he has been for a solid year now. I cannot perform my combo attack without him. We are a team."
The idol sighed. "Sometimes you are just no fun. So, this is the case of the errant partner then?"
The detective nodded. Just another new case.
###
"What's the matter, Tatsumi? Pick up the pace!"
Naoto leaned on the handrail bordering the race track from the spectators seating. She had never changed the forged medical records that excused her from Physical Education, and Grampa said so long as she concerned herself with her fitness in private, he would not bring the matter up with her again.
This allowed her to act as teacher's assistant most of the time which in turn came down to help cleaning up equipment and similar. Most students had quickly stopped complaining, once they realized she was taking work off of their shoulders which they didn't want anyhow.
Right now she watched Kanji trotting past her, glowering. The feeling of barely contained violence was all around him. She thought she could catch the dense feeling of dangerous power in a jar like a firefly if she were to try.
But that would change.
Class was dismissed by their teacher and Naoto walked in a quick, direct line towards him, cutting him off from walking past her to change. "Kanji-kun, I hate to impose on you, but I would like your assistance in a small matter after class. If you would, could you meet me at the school building? I'll just need to take care of matters here."
While she spoke, his glower melted and he looked over his shoulder as she finished. "I ain't hangin' round waiting for ya for an hour," he grumbled, turning back to the field, "but I can help ya get done faster, kay?"
She nodded. "Quite acceptable, I thank you."
They cleaned away their equipment together and as he slipped into the men's changing room, Naoto put a hand to his forearm. "Just get your things. I think it would be preferable if we stayed in our gym uniforms for the matter I will need to address. If you are all right with that?"
Blinking, he shrugged. "Ah. Sure, yeah, if that's what's, uh, preferred or whatever. Just hope yer not gonna make me go somewhere with a lot of people. I'm kinda sweaty and gross."
"That's alright, Kanji-kun. I promise you are presentable to the general public. Thank you for being willing to take the time to assist me."
###
They left the school grounds in silence, walking at an easy pace, almost as if taking time for a stroll. Naoto worried that his mood could darken at any topic of conversation, still not having found out what his actual upset was. As such, she held on to the easy silence around them, going over her plans in her head once more.
After walking through town in silence, Kanji cleared his throat. "So, uh, Naoto?"
"Yes, Kanji-kun?"
He glanced around. "Where'ya takin me? This isn't towards the shoppin' district, Junes or y-ya own place."
She pursed her lips. He would find out sooner or later and maybe the straight truth would settle this much better. "We're going to the local police station."
He stopped as if he had stepped on a glue trap; freezing mid-motion. "We… what?"
She halted as well, turning to face him. "Yes. To be precise, we are headed to the officer's gym. I have free reign over the needed equipment there and by the time we arrive, most officers will either have ended their shift and subsequent training, or will have started their shift and no longer occupy the needed space. We will be undisturbed and I can do what I must without interruption."
"You-! Tch... Yer draggin' me to the cop shop? Are you for real?" But even with his protesting, he set himself back into motion and she turned to lead two steps ahead of him. She heard him kick at something behind her and a rock skipped past her feet. "I'm not exactly in the best of moods, ya shoulda asked someone else."
I know, and that's what we will investigate... "I am very sorry, Kanji-kun, but for this matter I need a man of considerable physical potential and vitae." The beat of silence following lets her know that was too much. With a smile she looks over her shoulder. "I need your muscle, Kanji-kun."
The light-hearted comment did not seem to have the desired effect. If anything, his face grew darker. "Glad ya didn't need someone fer their brains then..."
The comment stung, as it always did when he belittled his intellect. While he certainly will not be the valedictorian when they graduate, she had been working hard to prevent him from trailing behind everyone in class. And his emotional intelligence was something she ranked higher than many of their peers.
Silence settled in after this exchange, and remained their companion until they reached Inaba's main law enforcement buildings.
She stopped, looking him over. "Please slip your arms into the training jacket, Kanji-kun. While I have the official weight to enter the building however I please and with whomever I please, I would prefer to avoid any long-drawn discussions with the front desk."
She saw the muscles in his jaw work as he pinched his eyes shut, put down his bags and slipped into his training jacket.
They walked in, she giving the briefest of explanations to the officer at the front desk and directed Kanji to follow her closely. Parts of this building he knew all too well, but as she leads him deeper and past the locker rooms, he actually starts to hunch down a bit. "We are nearly there. Thank you again for joining me on such short notice."
"Anythin' for ya, Naoto, ya know that..."
"Yes. Well." The reflex to tuck down her cap kicked in.
Glad he could not see her flushed cheeks, she led him around a corner and through a barren hallway. As she pushed open the double doors, Kanji slowed down behind her and stopped, only a few steps into the gym.
Naoto let him get a feeling for the new room as she quietly placed down her cap, book bag, and gym tote. Turning to look over her shoulder, she watched her closest ally silently.
Kanji dropped his bags carelessly on a bench right beside the door and wandered around. "Ya know, I somehow had a dark basement in mind when ya said police gym. With posters on the walls of boxers, and a boxing ring and sandbags and mirrors and stuff..."
She smiled a little at his image as she looked around the functional, brightly lit room. "I hope this is not too much of a disappointment."
"Na, 's cool, man, very sleek. Very modern, ya know?" He wandered between exercise equipment and weights. "Lotsa upper-body stuff," he muttered.
"Yes, a lot of police work is done either on your feet or with your torso and arms. Having a good shoulder-arm ratio is essential for pursuits as well as restraints." She stopped, clearing her throat and looked away from him. There was too much her vivid imagination tried to add to this and this was not about her. "A-And running, well, that should be self-explanatory."
She turned to a shelf and picked up boxing gloves, hand wraps, some sports tape and some solid-grip gloves in a much smaller size. Tugging on the latter, she held the gloves up to Kanji. "I promised I would not keep you too long. Have you worn boxing gloves before?"
"Na, though ya'd think I shoulda. Ya just kinda slip 'em on?"
"No, that could lead to injury. Hold out your hand to me, please, I will prepare you."
She carefully wrapped his hand into the elastic cloth. The bands would secure his delicate tailor's hands, and in her plan this had been her greatest worry. Keeping the bones, joints and ligaments secure and ensuring each punch would distribute the shock of impact well was key to prevent injuries to the hand in boxing.
She noticed him watching her with mild surprise while she focused intently on her work. "Ya done this before."
"I do spot for officers at times, yes. Now and again what you need is some physical work to make your mental state relax. Even I cannot simply focus without exercise for prolonged periods of time."
He scoffed and she looked up at him. He frowned, but a smile played at the corners of his lips. "Can't see ya in boxing gear, myself." He opened his track jacket and threw it roughly towards the bench.
"Oh, I do not box. It is a sport prone to causing brain damage. I prefer running myself. Climbing, if I can." She held open the first glove to him. "Push your hand in deeply. Your fingertips should feel a small rod; try and curl your fingers around it."
Kanji pushed his hand into the glove, looking slightly unfocussed, until she saw realization light up in his eyes. "Ah, yeah, found it, hold on..." She saw the glove curl and tighten. "Yeah, got it."
"Good." She closed the velcro, then added a layer of tape to secure it firmly.
They silently wrapped his other hand and slipped into the other glove in the same fashion.
"Now then." She walked to one of the actual sand sacks hanging in a corner and beckoned him to follow. "I am gathering data on sparring. A witness to a crime said that before the assailant attacked, he had been sparring with boxing gear. I wish to observe how you fare during and after this session." She stepped behind the sack and secured it with a few tethers to prevent it from swinging too freely.
"Ya, sure. Whatd'ya need me ta do then?"
She smiled softly. "Just wail in on it, as they say."
"Tch. Got a talent for that."
Kanji squared up before the sandbag, gave her a sidelong look, and started to jab at it. She thought he must be feeling uneasy, as his overall mannerism and posture did not speak of the raw power she had seen him use within the midnight channel.
After a minute she stepped behind the bag to hold it. "Hit it like you would a Minotaur, Kanji-kun. You need to actually work up some energy for this. Please."
She leaned up against the bag, no longer seeing him. Crossing her arms one over the other in front and pushing herself against the bag, she started to feel the change. Perhaps it was her no longer watching him; perhaps it was her suggestion to work harder. Either way, the energy changed or she felt his hits land harder.
"Yes, good. Good, Kanji-kun. Keep this energy."
She waited for her friend to fall into a rhythm that was effortless for him, and the steady jolts she felt started to actually feel soothing. "Kanji-kun?"
"Mhm? Ya need it harder?"
"No, Kanji-kun, about another matter. You have been hostile at school. Snappish, I could say. You have also avoided spending time with ... all of us. Have either of us caused offence?"
He stopped and leaned around the bag. "What?"
"Please, continue the workout. Unless you are too winded to talk?"
"Wh-? No! Pfft, not from this." He ducked back around, the punches seemed somewhat milder. "I'm sorry if I was rough to ya-"
"I do not ask on my behalf, Kanji-kun, or that of any of our friends. I ask on yours. You are not doing well and I wish to know why."
"'s nothin'." The punches started to land harder, she felt his jabs now knocking her back a little.
"Clearly it is not nothing, to employ your love for the double negative. What happened?"
She felt the shift. His stance must have changed. "'m tellin' ya, 's okay, Naoto!" Harder and harder his hits landed opposite her.
"Well, if it is of such small consequence, surely you can enlighten me." She heard him growl, several hits landed hard enough to make her bounce off the other side of the sandbag. "Besides, this could be a release for your frustration. Talk as you box. Hit what ails you. Fight out the problem with me."
"Shit, Naoto," he snarled, his punches drawing back further, hitting harder. At one point her own feet shifted as she tried to keep her pressure against the sack. "What good does it do? That shit's long past."
She let him wear down a bit more, then lowered her voice, letting it carry past the slap-slap of leather hitting PVC. "Even the past can hurt us. Review it. Release it." Jab after jab landed, hard. Naoto shifted, planting her feet, pushing herself forward.
The punches started to land faster. "That god damned smug grin... I can still see the assholes fucking smug grin," he snarled still, every other word now punctuated with a punch. "And the worst of it all, the absolute absurd shit that all of this is? He didn't even fucking recognize me!"
Without context, his words held little meaning to her, but he was talking, and she was intent on drawing it all out. "Who did not?" Push-push-PUSH
"Tanakabe." He repeated the last name a few times, punching out each syllable. "Ta. Na. Ka. Be!" That last one set her feet skitting again.
"Who is he?"
"He is a fucking coward. A fucking, asshole, chicken-shit coward." He started to huff, clearly he now was in the flow of the subject and his workout.
"Did Tanakabe cause your emotional distress?"
"Yeah, yer can say that. Yer can say he caused a lot of it. Thanks to Takanabe, I became Tatsumi, The Delinquent, Kanji."
His fists were flying now and Naoto struggled to keep up. Her fet planted as best she could, she leaned forward to give him the counter he needed. "He caused you to... change?"
"Yeah, he sure did. After bein' bullied by him and his asshole friends for the better part of four years, I had it. Decked his sorry ass and punched him till the teachers dragged me off. 'course it was my fault. Bullying is cool, so long as you don't hit no one."
"You struck him?"
Several hard hits landed. "I had enough, Naoto. I told myself enough is enough and I will not take them being hurtful any longer. And when he had taken the-"
He faltered. The punches dropped off sharply and she heard him choke on a sob.
Now! Naoto dashed around the sandbag, caught Kanji by his shoulders and sank to her knees with him. She had expected tears, but none came. Only a flood of words broke free. "Ma had made it for me, see? 'round the time Dad... She'd made me the little dog with floppy ears and slipped it to me in my school bag when I had tests. Told me it'll whisper me the answers if I really, really needed 'em and couldn't think of them myself."
Naoto Shirogane is not a hugger. Indeed, if she could make it through a day of being overly exposed to physical contact, she was a very happy person indeed. As such, she found herself simply holding her team partner by his shoulder, trying to keep up with his narrative. "He took it from you? A plush toy, I assume?"
"Yeah... Ma made it an'..." Kanji's jaw worked and his reply was hollow as the abyss of his hurt. "He took it. Pissed on it."
She blinked. She had the extreme fortune and luxury of growing up being mostly educated by private tutors, away from other children. She could not believe she understood him correctly. "He...?"
"Pissed on it. Took it from me, got his friends to make me watch it. Pissed on it and then tried to flush it a few times. Then left it, saying it'll just have to stay for 'target practice'." At her blank expression he scoffed. "Ya know. Aim for it when ya-"
"Right, understood."
"Yeah. ...yeah."
She tried to catch any emotion on his face, but he was utterly blank. "Did it have a name?"
A nod. "Ryshi."
"I am sorry you lost Ryshi in that manner."
"Don't feel sorry for that. Feel-" He choked again, and now Naoto saw tears. Finally.
She moved closer and he curled up into her lap, silently weeping. She let him. She remembered that only a few short weeks ago, the tables were turned and he held her as she cried. Helplessly, she pat his shoulder, then moved to stoke his back. Her other arm curled under and around him and she slowly snuggled down against his shoulder, hugging him gently as he wept. She noticed her own tears at her friends hurt, but decided she could allow them here.
After a few minutes, she heard him mumble from below. "Feel sorry for a twelve-year-old kid that learned that the only way ta be taken seriously is to hurt others. Gods, Naoto, I am not sure I wouldn't have been a bit of a punk, but I sure as hell would have had less fightin'..."
Naoto felt her own tears drip off her chin. "I feel sorry for that boy. And I feel sorrow for the young man he is today. I am very sorry you needed to endure such." She held him quietly. "Do you want to use the sandbag to simulate beating him? Properly?" She choked on a small laugh. "Punch his faffy ass?"
A muffled, "Na," came from below her. He uncurled and held his gloved hands out to her. "Ya don't really need any data, do ya?"
She shook her head and helped him pull of the gloves. "Not in the sense I had claimed. But I did need more information on what caused your emotional strife."
"I'll tell ya." A bound hand lifted to her cheek and he turned her towards him. He slowly leaned in and pushed his forehead against hers. Both closed their eyes, each lightly pulling their arms around the shoulders of the other. It was something they had started doing back in Nahiro at his suggestion, and she welcomed the comfort it brought, as well as the memories.
Kanji took a shuddering breath and started to explain. "I ran into him the other day. He's not at Yaso High, so I've not seen him in a while. I saw some guy bein' rude to some woman an' her kid. At first I didn't even see who it was, just some asshole that needed to shut the hell up. Ran up to him, told him to quit it and show some gods-damned manners. He tried to be all butch then, asked if I wanted ta fight. I dropped my uniform shirt and told him to bring it. And he looked me over, seemed to actually see me properly then and backed away, saying he didn't want no trouble and that he and his friends needed to get moving. That was when one of them called him by his gods damned name. And I remembered. I remembered years of being bullied in elementary and middle school." He shifted and she felt him clench his fists on her back. "And I realized what a sorry little worm he really was."
She felt his emotion-brought shivers and pushed her head forward a bit, making him return the pressure. After a moment he relaxed again, as did she in turn.
After a shuddered sigh, he continued. "An'... an' I got... I felt so... so ashamed, Naoto. So fucking ashamed. If a wet towel like him was able to bully me for years before I socked him one and showed him he needs to stop... what kind of a wuss does that make me? And what kind of a wuss still worries about a damn stuffed animal his mom gave him to feel safe during school tests?"
"Not a wuss, Kanji-kun. But a very loving, sensitive boy would." She let one hand stroke his back slowly and felt his tension melt a small degree.
His arms shifted on her shoulders. "I spend years fucking up my reputation."
"No. You spend years building one. Not a very positive one, I agree. But you build yourself an image. Now you may build a new one or add to your old one." After a few moments of silence, she offered, "I wish we could go back in time and talk to that young man. Save Ryshi."
"Na. But if I could, I would have something to tell him."
"What is that?"
"That he'll be alright. That he can pierce his ears an' bleach his hair and do all kinds of shit. And it'll still be okay. Because someone will come who will tell him he still is worth saving." He pushed his brow forward, as did she. "And she will save him."