Chapter Text
At the young age of fourteen years old, Ren paced around the textile shop while his mother looked at various articles of clothing, accessories, and clothes. Each time she grabbed one, she paused for a few moments as she looked at it before moving on to other items.
Ren knew this behavior quite well from both of his parents, when they talked to each other in their heads or showed each other what they were currently looking at. He’d been told that this was because his parents were soulmates.
Every person was born with half of a soul, and the other half was born with someone else. It could be the same day, the same year, or it could even be as long as a decade apart, but eventually both halves of the soul would be born.
Meeting one’s other half would grant them the ability to start communicating with them like this, as far as Ren understood. He wasn’t quite sure how all of it worked, just that meeting one’s other half was a requirement.
Something struck his interest, however.
“Uhm, excuse me.” his mother asked the black-haired owner of the shop. She then held up a navy blue jacket that was just about the right size for Ren. “Do you have one of these in gray somewhere?”
The man didn’t even respond, not that he had time to. His mother wasn’t speaking very loud, but the instant that she asked the question, a blue haired woman came out of the back room holding precisely the color of jacket she’d asked for.
“Would this one work, ma’am?” the man answered politely, not even looking as the woman brought the jacket up to Ren’s mother.
That was rather quick. Too fast even for telepathic communication. It always took a few moments for Dad to respond to Mom’s telepathic requests, yet this was instant. Almost as if the woman and man had rehearsed it. But how could one rehearse any given question a customer may ask so perfectly?
Yet as he observed these soulmates(?), it became clearer and clearer
“Oh this is perfect!” his mother replied. “How much is it?”
“That’ll be about 10,000 yen.” the blond man replied, his soulmate nodding her head beside him.
Ren observed closely as his mother handed the man the yen, then he handed it to the blue-haired woman without either of the two even looking. Then the woman took the money to the back.
“Alright, time to go, Ren!” his mother called out to him.
Ren followed her out of the shop, looking back for a few seconds before turning back toward his mother.
“So you noticed, hm?” his mother asked.
“Noticed what?” Ren asked, tilting his head questioningly. “That the owners are soulmates?”
“Yes, but not just that.” his mother smiled a little somberly as she stopped walking. “Sometimes I wish I had such a close bond with your father, but beyond feeling his emotions from time to time, that is the extent of what we can share.”
“What do you mean?” Ren probed.
“It’s just a rumor but,” his mother paused for a few seconds. “I’ve heard people say that those two managed to merge their soul together.”
“Merge?” Ren was still confused. “Mom, what do you mean?”
She sighed. “I am not sure of the exact steps but, if you and your soulmate were to forge a close enough bond with one another, you could merge each half of the soul together. It’s rather rare, rare enough that it’s considered a myth in some places. However, I genuinely believe that those two managed to do it. You noticed how in sync they are, right?”
Ren nodded his head.
“It’s such a wonderful thing, I just hope that someday your father and I may have the same bond.” she took a look at her watch. “Ah, listen to me talk so much when we ought to get home. Come now, Ren.”
Ren nodded his head and the two continued on their walk home. All the while, Ren thought about the owners of that textile shop. He wondered if he would ever meet his soulmate, and if he could ever form a similar bond.
***
In a residential house in Kichijoji, Sumire and her sister Kasumi were in Kasumi’s bedroom watching the latest episode of a show they loved.
The show was about a group of five magical girls who all shared a piece of a soul, and uniting together allowed them to transform into powerful heroines who could defeat all manner of evil. It was called ‘Stargirls’.
Although Sumire preferred shows about princesses and big castles, she still enjoyed this show. Embarrassing as it was to admit, sometimes Sumire would silently pretend to be a heroine when she was by herself. Although her sister Kasumi insisted on role-playing as heroines a lot when they were younger, which felt less embarrassing to Sumire than if she were to get caught role-playing on her own.
“Hey, Sumi?” Kasumi suddenly asked, snapping Sumire out of her thoughts.
“Yeah?” Sumire replied.
“How cool do you think it’d be if instead of just one soulmate, you had six others, and like cool powers and stuff?” she asked, pointing to the screen.
Sumire rolled her eyes. This question again?
“Same answer as always, Kasumi,” Sumire began to answer. “I feel like it’d just be scary to be put in all those situations you know? That and...” she put her hand to her heart. “I don’t know. Something about the idea of just this one person out there being just right for you, I think I would prefer that than if I only had one piece of seven. It just makes it feel more special.”
Kasumi smiled. “I can see that. But, like, c’mon.” she pointed to the screen once more. “Cool laser powers. Kinda hard to pass up, don’t you think?”
Kasumi then proceeded to point finger guns at Sumire and make laser noises with her mouth as an example.
Sumire giggled. “Well if you ever get any please don’t aim them at me!” she played along.
“No promises!”
“Girls!”
Suddenly both sisters turned towards their door as they heard their mother calling for them.
“Uncle Shiro’s here!” their mother continued.
“Ah! We should go greet him!” Kasumi, ever energetic, suddenly paused the show, jumped off of her bed and ran out the door.
Sumire, by contrast, simply stood up from the edge of the bed and walked out the door.
Their uncle, Shiro, visited every now and then when he had free time from his work as a detective. Kasumi and Sumire loved it whenever he visited since he was rather goofy and had great stories of cases he worked as a detective.
Not that Sumire had any interest pursuing that line of work herself, but it was still fun to hear about nonetheless.
“Uncle Shiro!” Sumire and Kasumi both shouted as they greeted him, each running up to hug him.
Shiro wrapped his arms around them in return with a smile on his face. “Your daughters are the same as ever I see, Akane.” he told her with a laugh.
“They’re certainly a handful.” Akane replied with a smile. “But they’ve been doing well in gymnastics. We have some talented girls on our hands.”
If Sumire could describe Uncle Shiro’s appearance, he looked exactly like what one would expect of a detective. Short black hair, dark eyes, and he always wore a suit. He was their mother’s brother. He was fairly successful in his line of work, but he had yet to meet his soulmate.
Sumire hoped in secret that she would not end up the same way. Romantic or not, she was very curious who her soulmate would be. Admittedly, a part of this came from the show she was watching earlier with Kasumi.
The feeling of being complete was very appealing to her. After all, each person only contained half a soul. Until one meets their soulmate, that’s all they have.
Twins have a marginally higher chance of sharing a soul. That, however, was not the case for Sumire and Kasumi. Whoever their soulmates were, they have yet to find out.
“Got any cool detective stories for us?” Kasumi asked.
“Hmmm, maybe!” Shiro replied with a smirk. “You’ll just have to wait and see until dinner.”
“Okay!” Kasumi cheerfully replied before releasing her grip on him, Sumire doing the same.
“Quiet as usual, Sumire?” Shiro asked with a smile on his face.
“Well, I didn’t want to interrupt Kasumi,” Sumire replied with a small smile of her own. “besides, she basically said what I was thinking anyway.”
Sumire was mostly content to let Kasumi take the lead with talking in most situations. Despite their difference in demeanor, they still had similar interests. Uncle Shiro had a fun way of telling stories too, so Sumire always loved hearing them.
Dinner would be soon enough, and they’d be able to hear one of Uncle Shiro’s famous detective tales.
***
“-And when we found the culprit, the police told me he tried to bribe them with the money that he stole!” Shiro finished, taking a sip of tea with a humorous smile on his face.
“Wow, really?” Kasumi asked with a smirk. “He really thought that would work?”
“You’d be surprised.” Shiro replied. “A lot of police have been caught taking bribes. In this case, however, not only were the police who caught him honorable people, but it was a petty robbery. Even a corrupt officer wouldn’t have taken a deal that small.” he shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Desperate criminals make the most irrational of decisions when they get caught. They probably felt they had no other option, but then they shouldn’t have committed crimes in the first place.
“Either way, the case isn’t quite over yet.” Shiro placed his cup of tea back on the table. “He had a team, but the interrogators should be able to find out who he was working with soon enough.”
“That’s good,” Kasumi responded. “I’m sure you’ll catch the bad guys soon!”
“I’m sure we will too.” Shiro smirked in amusement at Kasumi’s enthusiasm.
Sumire felt no different than Kasumi had. Like many young kids, Sumire and Kasumi were raised believing that the police were effectively superheroes. Not so different from the magical girls in ‘Stargirls’.
Some detectives who worked together were even soulmates! The ability of telepathy really helped in Uncle Shiro’s line of work. Of course, he himself had never met his soulmate so he didn’t get to take advantage of it personally. He was more than willing to follow orders though.
Soon afterwards, their uncle left to catch one of the last trains to where he lived. He couldn’t afford an apartment in Kichijoji’s residential district so he lived in a relatively cheaper apartment in a different part of Musashino.
Before going to bed, Sumire once again wondered just who her soulmate could be.
***
Shiro Iwasaki was known as a great detective and a lover of his family. No matter what happened, what he went through, he would never let harm come to those he loved. That’s why he became a detective: to unroot the evils of society before they could ever affect his family.
That was, of course, what a younger and more naive Shiro had thought. Keeping crime at bay was not a one man job, and even with all hands on deck Japan still suffered from immense crime just beneath the surface. Petty criminals were easy enough to deal with, the real problems came with those who held real power in society. Political power.
Shiro wanted to unroot it all someday, but it wasn’t that easy. These evils were well concealed, and practically impossible to prosecute even if someone did get caught.
Still though. As long as it didn’t affect his own family, he could let it go. Those were his thoughts in his recent visit to his sister’s home. They seemed happy as ever, and for that he was glad. He wanted to keep it that way.
He’ll be patient for now.
“Hey Iwasaki-san, we got a confession.” one of his coworkers told him. “They’ve already sent the police to catch the crooks. Our job is practically done, but they still need us for interrogations. You up for it?”
“Of course.” Shiro smiled at him. “It’d be my pleasure.”
Although they had plenty of evidence on the crooks already and would undoubtedly find more on site, giving the suspects an opportunity to confess not only makes their job easier, but offers a lighter sentence to criminals who know they’ve been caught. The less wasted time the better, this’d be a cinch.
Or so Shiro thought. At that very moment he collapsed onto his knee.
“Iwasaki-san? Iwasaki! Are you okay?”
“I-I feel… weird.”
He felt intense strain in his chest, like his heart was being ripped directly out of his chest. He didn’t understand what was happening just yet, he felt healthy as could be just a moment ago! So what’s happening?
Wait, could this be the mental shutdowns he was told about? But he...
Shiro’s world went dark.
***
Shiro slowly opened his eyes to see the hospital ceiling above him, he wasn’t entirely sure what happened. Last he remembered they were preparing to raid the residences of the culprits.
Did he collapse? He didn’t know how, he felt fine just before. He’d even slept pretty well the night before, despite his habit of overworking himself.
Yet now he felt like a breeze would knock him over if he tried to stand up. He felt like his entire body was aching, and there was a deep sense of wrongness inside of him. What happened to him?
Soon after he awoke, a doctor entered the room.
“Ah, I see you’ve woken up, Iwasaki-san.” the doctor greeted him.
“Wh-What happened to me?” Shiro had to ask. Surely the doctor would know, right?
The doctor sighed. He didn’t answer as he turned on the television to a news station, and Shiro watched.
“During the police investigation of the house of one of the suspects in a string of recent robberies, the culprit had fled and stolen a car and sped through the streets of Tokyo. He ran over several citizens in his scene. Most citizens survived without injury, but the life of one Yuzuki Tano was taken as he fled. She was killed instantly as the car hit her. Luckily, not long after, the police managed to catch the suspect and he’s now in the process of being interrogated by-”
The doctor turned the television off.
“O-Okay? But what does that have to do with me?” Shiro asked, though he had a sinking feeling as he heard the name of the girl who was killed. It sounded so familiar, but he couldn’t place where he’d heard it before.
“From what we learned from your coworkers when you were brought in, the time of your collapse near perfectly matches up with the time of Tano-san’s death.” The doctor explained. “It’s our belief she was your soulmate, and now you’re suffering from ‘Soul Split’. Your lack of physical injuries and previous records of perfect health make this all the more likely to be the case. We’ll, of course, examine you just to be certain, but that’s our theory for now.”
“I see…” Shiro sat up in his bed, struggling to do so.
Soul Split was the name of the trauma one’s soul goes through when their soulmate dies. It has a very high fatality rate, but it impacts people who have actually met their soulmates more than those who have not. Presuming the doctor’s theory to be correct, that would make Shiro almost lucky to never have met his soulmate.
Or that’s how he would have felt, if he didn’t feel so tired and empty. Much of the exhaustion he knew would go with time, but the sinking feeling in his chest would never be repaired until the day he died.
“Those tests can be done later, of course. For now you have some visitors. Are you willing to see them?” The doctor asked.
“Yes, I am.” Shiro answered, though his voice lacked any enthusiasm.
The doctor left the room and soon after his sister entered with her two daughters in tow.
“Uncle Shiro! Are you okay???” Kasumi practically screamed at him as she ran up to look at him.
“I’m fine, I just collapsed is all.” he told her. He didn’t want them to worry, Soul Split was a rough condition, even they would know that. “I guess I overworked myself, huh?”
“Shiro, you need to take better care of yourself.” Akane scolded him. “We all care deeply about you.”
Shiro laughed a bit. “I know, I know. I’ll take better care of myself.”
The doctor looked like he wanted to say something, but Shiro cast him a pleading glance. He couldn’t let his family be too worried about him. The doctor understood and held his tongue.
Shiro was an adult, after all, and he was fully in control of who was allowed to know his medical condition. The doctor couldn’t go against his wishes.
Shiro wasn’t planning to keep it from them forever of course, just for now while he was in the hospital. They could know later.
The girls talked with him and scolded him for a long while after that before they left. Shiro was honestly a little happy about how concerned they were for him, but he was glad they didn’t press him too much about it.
“You have another visitor, Iwasaki-san.” The doctor informed him. “He says he’s not family, but a coworker.”
“That’s fine, I’ll be willing to see him.” Shiro replied.
He wondered who it was. Although he was on good terms with many of his coworkers, he wouldn’t exactly say they’re friends. Though it would definitely be easier to confide in someone besides his family.
“Good evening, Iwasaki-san.”
Oh. Shiro took back everything he just thought. This was easily worse than confiding in his family.
He turned his head to the door to see Akechi standing there.
“Good evening.” Shiro replied, not an ounce of warmth in his voice.
“Are you doing alright? Our boss is very concerned about you, you know.”
Doubtful. Shido uses and abuses anyone and everyone he can. The more power they have, the better. Shiro himself was merely a detective, but Shido still kept a close eye on him.
“It’s fine, I merely collapsed from exhaustion. I’ll be back in working condition by tomorrow.” Shiro lied.
“Very well then.” Akechi replied. “Make sure to get plenty of rest. It would be unfortunate for us if you couldn’t do your work.”
With that, Akechi left the room. Shiro couldn’t hate the kid, he felt that Akechi himself was being used just as much as Shiro was. But if his collapse reached Shido’s ears, perhaps more attention was on Shiro than he had previously thought.
He rested his head back on his pillow.
Dammit all!
He just had to play his part and his family would be safe. That was the deal. He can’t let this Soul Split get to him. If it reaches Shido’s ears, he’ll be deemed useless and both his life and his family’s will be forfeit. All his work would have been for nothing.
Gritting his teeth, Shiro closed his eyes. All he can do for now is act like everything’s okay.