Chapter Text
The night was cold. Quite rare in this time of the year, so Shuriken wasted no time in getting ready for his nightly patrols.
He dug through the tiny hole in his closet and pulled out his equipment. He changed his clothes into his usual basic and lightweight outfit. He had found them in the back of his closet when he was cleaning his room once, and has used them ever since whenever he’s taking on the Silver Shadow persona. The clothes were a solid colour and he ripped off the logos to make them as unrecognisable as possible.
As for his tattooed arm, he used to wear a long sleeve jacket, but he quickly found that it got hot real fast when chasing down criminals. So now, he just wraps it up with some bandages he got from the dollar store nearby. A lot more breathable, and personally, he thinks it makes him look cooler too.
Sometimes he also ties a loose scarf around his neck. He doesn’t wear it as much nowadays since the weather’s becoming warmer, but since tonight's a bit colder than usual, he decides to wear it.
With his mask on and weapons ready, the Silver Shadow grapples out the window and follows his usual route through the rooftops of Crossroads. So far, he hasn’t found anything, which isn’t actually too surprising, as he’s found that recently, with him around, the crime rates have been gradually decreasing. Of course though, just when he thought it was too good to be true, he finds an-
Wait.
Bicoloured horns, tubes around his arms, he knows this inphernal. His name is like, Coil or something.
Ah yes, the infamous Crystal Criminal that he had heard so much of from news from Playground, and from Slingshot and his friends. Hah. Slingshot has friends. What a funny thought.
He also remembers seeing Coil when he used to walk into Slingshot’s cafe just to taunt him. Haha. It was always funny seeing him get all worked up.
Back to the situation at hand, Coil seems to be fighting off a bunch of Biotechs or whatever they’re called. Shuriken kind of wants to just leave him alone and let him deal with it himself. He’s heard of what Coil can do, he’s definitely capable of handling the situation himself, and they’re not actually near a residential zone, so part of him just wants to be able to go home early and actually get some rest.
…No, he can’t let himself do that. Even though Coil is strong, he could tell his pacing was slowing down, and in the worst case, the Biotechs would overpower him. Also, Biotechs could hurt any wandering people, and anyway, if he did let himself off this hook this one time, he’d do it a thousand times more. So with a bit of a sigh, he readied his shurikens and descended into the dark of the alley.
Using the shadows as a cover (as well as the robots tunnelling their vision onto Coil), he threw a few, catching them off guard and getting them to recalculate the situation. In that time, Coil threw in a well placed punch, probably one he’d done over and over again, as the robot collapsed upon contact and lay unmoving and silent. As the other few recovered from the fast action, Shuriken took the chance to leap off from the ledge he’d been perched on, landing on and effectively destroying one of the Biotechs.
With the two of them, the rest didn’t stand a chance. They quickly dealt with them, with only a few minor scraps by the end. (At least, for Shuriken) Shuriken had even roughly found out the robots’ weak spot: this weird place in between the neck and shoulder, when the Biotech is positioned correctly, that spot was unprotected and would cause internal damage to the robots. As the last ones fell, the Silver Shadow watched silently as Coil started harvesting the crystals from the husks.
“Thanks. Who are you?” He asks, turning around with crystals in his hands and dozens more in his pockets.
“How did these get here?” Shuriken asks, ignoring the question and deliberately making his voice a bit deeper than normal, partly to make it harder for people to find out his identity and partly to seem more intimidating.
“Oh. Yeah, about that, it’s uh a pretty long story but basically I got tracked down by the Biografts and they tried to kill me. Just another day I guess,” Coil jokes.
“If you’re going to be a criminal, you must stay more vigilant of your surroundings,” Shuriken says.
“Hey, look, it was one time, I was tired, cut me some slack alright?” Coil reasons, though he still had that laidback expression on his face.
Under the street lights, the Silver Shadow could see that the other inphernal had quite a lot of cuts and bruises. Some seem to be from fights long ago, while others appear to be from the fight with the… Biografts, not Biotechs.
“You’re hurt. You should get treated soon.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess.” Coil seemed shocked at the other’s concern. “Look, thanks for the help man, but I’m gonna get going now,” he said as he turned away. Shuriken’s gaze lingered however, watching as he hesitated.
“Still, who are you though?” He says after a bit of a pause.
“I protect the people of Crossroads. That is all I do and that is all you need to know,” Shuriken responds without missing a beat.
“Ok. Mysterious. I’m Coil, uh, if you wanted to know.”
“You are not from Crossroads are you?”
“No, I’m from Playground. I just came back from Blackrock though, that’s how the Biografts followed me here,” he chuckles. Pauses. “You and me… I think we’re alike… Whatever, I’ll see ya ‘round then.” He doesn’t wait for a response before heading home, and the Silver Shadow does not offer one.
Well, that was fun.
The rest of the night goes on smoothly. He ends up stopping a poorly organised robbery from some 24/7 convenience store, but that’s about it. The moment Shuriken climbs through the window, he immediately takes off his mask, rips off the bandages covering his arm tattoo, and flops dramatically into bed. Grateful that he has the day off tomorrow, he falls asleep quickly. Shuriken sleeps a dreamless sleep.
—
“Shuriiiiii! Shurikennnn!” His roommate’s voice is the first thing to greet him the next morning.
“Mmmmwhat..?” He asks, still half conscious, burying his face in the covers.
“I’m going out today, and Vine Staff said you should come along too,” Slingshot says, tapping his foot impatiently.
“…Where are you going?”
“Just a little get together with the Playgrounders.”
“Why do I need to go?” Shuriken whines, still refusing to open his eyes.
“Vine Staff said so. She said you need to get some friends.” (In his half asleep state, Shuriken can faintly hear his sister yelling “That’s not what I said!”) “Come on! Wake up, it’s already 11!”
“Ughhh fine… When are we going?”
“2 PM.”
“What!? Why’d you wake me up now?” The shorter exclaims, shooting up.
“For fun,” Slingshot responds smugly.
“Bruhh, you suck,” the other says, chucking a pillow at him. Nonetheless, Slingshot succeeded in waking him up, and as he left the room, Shuriken finally got out of bed.
Brushing his teeth, having a quick snack, he felt he had nothing to do now. He still felt rather groggy, so he put on some random music and laid down in bed, staring at the ceiling.
He’s come so far. Thinking about it, he can feel a tiny bit of pride swelling up. From sneaking out of Darkage at night, to eventually escaping from the clan, then to coping with the melancholy that Crossroads brought, it’s all made him into who he is today.
He still feels weird though. If everyone’s life was a movie, while everyone else’s was smooth and followed a consistent storyline, his movie would be just an amalgamation of various scenes put together roughly, not really tying together. He feels lost.
Becoming a vigilante has helped him a lot with this “quest” of his to become something greater than just another statistic, but he still feels as if he’s missing something. It’s like a constant aching in his chest that just never eases up. Like a hole in his heart.
He feels tired. Not just the tiredness of missing sleep, this feeling is heavy, it rests in his bones and plagues him like a shadow. It makes him feel apathetic and meaningless. As if fighting for worth was a losing game.
“Shuri! Lunch is ready!” He hears his sister’s voice cutting through the onslaught of thoughts.
“Coming!” He responds. He doesn’t tell anyone else about this struggle of his. He says it’s because he doesn’t want to worry his siblings, but he knows the truth: He’s scared.
He’s scared of speaking his issues out loud, because then they will become real and not just something in his head. And if he does tell someone, what if they judge him? See him as weak? What if his siblings want nothing to do with an ill inphernal? What if they leave him all alone? He can’t bear that, the thought alone terrifies him.
Shuriken was always a coward. He will always be one.