Hai, this is what I spent the whole week working on in place of chapter 9 of my story. Initially I didn't mean for it to be so long, but I kept telling myself it's too short, so it kinda ended up becoming 2++k words...
Credits:
-ToaKarou, who beta-ed this despite it's horrible state. Thank you for fixing it up so it made more sense than it would have otherwise.
-Hey!Say!JUMP, which was what I was listening to most of the time writing this (seriously, just repeating Too Shy over and over...)
-Action Zero, which I was listening to while crapping the whole last part out.
-Friend A, who gave me the title of this story (you'll never see this, though)-- we were just having a class discussion and she came up with this phrase...
-ToaKarou for putting up with me all this while. ARIGATOU!
Disclaimer: I do not own W, or Kamen Rider, I just love it.
"Because all we need is Love" -Friend A-
All we need is Love
"Hidari Shoutarou... Let's see how you will deal with this... Pity Raito will be involved too..."
Shroud raised her arms in an I-have-spoken-so-it-shall-be manner.
She was going to give that Hidari Shoutarou something he'll never manage, let alone forget, for opposing her.
Narumi agency
Shoutarou woke up to a giant metal structure, and the first thing that came to his mind was, "Since when did I sleep in the garage?"
He got up, and walked to the door that lead to the main office of the agency, the thought that his legs felt a bit weird crossing his mind briefly.
"Ah, Philip. Morning!" Akiko greeted Philip overly cheerfully, and looked at Shoutarou expectantly.
"What?" his voice came out less loud than he expected, and looked around in confusion.
"I just said 'good morning' to you!" Akiko pouted, and went back to preparing breakfast.
"Hey, Shoutarou..."
That sounded like... himself... Shoutarou turned to the voice slowly.
There he was, lying in the bed in the black vest and red tie Shoutarou wore to sleep last night. The fedora hat lay forgotten between his legs, clearly having fallen from his face when he jerked awake.
There he was - Shoutarou. Except, Shoutarou was here, looking at the other Shoutarou.
There could be only one explanation for this.
"Philip..."
What on earth was going on?
Shoutarou thought hard, and vaguely heard Philip shouting, "No!" when he stumbled into a pure white scene.
"Now what is this?"
"Shoutarou, listen carefully. Do not say anything, do not touch anything. Do not move. I'll explain."
Gulping, Shoutarou froze.
"I believe you're now in the Planetary Bookshelf. But because this is your first visit there, there will be an initiation."
Shoutarou pressed his lips together in irritation. This was going to be one long day.
A dark figure appeared in the saturation of light, growing as it drew closer.
A voice echoed around Shoutarou, who looked down and realized that he was in his own body again (thankfully).
"Hidari Shoutarou, we finally meet. How did you like my little treat?" The voice said, as the figure came close enough for Shoutarou to see her black garb and a sun hat, with her face bound by white bandages and a pair of sunglasses for eyes.
"You are...? Wait, what happened? You did this, didn't you? Switch us back!"
"Why do you always get in our way? Mine, and Raito's way. You are a hindrance to Raito."
"Who are you? And who's Raito?"
"We'll just see how long you can continue to undermine my calculations, Hidari Shoutarou. If you don't find a solution to this problem, get out of Raito's sight."
With that, she disintegrated into green numbers, which seeped into the imaginary ceiling and floor of the infinite whiteness.
"Um... Now what, Philip?" Shoutarou called out to his partner.
"Philip? Why are you calling out your own name? And what are you researching on so early in the morning? Shoutarou, did you make him do this?" Akiko's voice replied.
Shoutarou was about to tell Akiko off for always putting the blame on him, when Philip cut in, "Me? I did nothing!"
"Uh… I err… came across something very umm… intriguing. You go ahead with breakfast first, Akik… Aki-chan," Shoutarou nearly gagged saying it. Not bad, for a first time…
Akiko went back into the kitchen, eyeing the two detectives suspiciously but later decided she was too hungry to care about anything else.
Once Akiko's presence vanished from his radar, Shoutarou went back to figuring out his situation.
"Philip! How do you get out of this thing!"
"Wait, Shoutarou, I want to try something. Try saying 'begin search'," Philip ordered.
"Err…Begin Search?"
About a thousand bookshelves zoomed into place, and it was all Shoutarou could do to not scream and run. Where to? He didn't even know himself.
Philip was not helping as he immediately launched into his research, "The purpose of this search is to find the root of this problem, and the solution. Keyword: Mind swap."
"Shroud."
"Two-in-one Kamen Rider."
"Um... Phi- Shoutarou?" Damn, it felt weird calling his own name. "Will you please help me out here? There's a book here, so what now?"
"You pick it up and read, of course," Philip chose his words carefully, aware that Akiko was listening.
"Um... The cover says... Phenomenon."
Philip smiled, then instructed, "Ok, now you get out of the library."
"How? No, I think I feel better in here. With my own body," Shoutarou sat down.
Shoutarou's natural impatience must have gotten to Philip's mind, because the next thing he did was to shake his own body to get Shoutarou to open his eyes.
Shoutarou returned to the real world, and raised his right hand, sending the book he was holding to fly out of it.
"Ah!" Philip stumbled to catch the book, failing miserably as he sent his partner's body right into the floor.
"Philip! Be careful! I'm not used to your body..." Shoutarou flexed 'his' fingers and tested his arms and legs out properly for the first time. It was unbelievably...long. Or rather, lean.
Philip picked himself up, getting the book and dusting it off. Opening it, he read the contents and was just in deep thought when a sharp pain was felt in the back of his head.
"Kora, Shoutarou, what are you doing, bullying Philip?" Akiko was there, holding her slipper.
Shoutarou growled, starting to get up, and Akiko looked at him, surprised and scared. Seeing this, Philip turned Akiko around such that she wasn't facing Shoutarou.
"Who's bullying who?"
"Ok! What's wrong with the both of you? Shoutarou is acting like Philip, and Philip's acting like Shoutarou. What happened?" Akiko crossed her arms expectantly.
Shoutarou walking and acting like Philip was the weirdest sight Akiko had ever seen, the way that self-acclaimed 'hard-boiled' detective was speaking in long sentences and writing on the board like mad, not to mention Philip had taken the vest and fedora hat off, making him look even weirder.
"...so this is probably magic or something of its likes. Analyzing the roots of Shroud's powers, it is highly probable that it is technological manipulation of the human mind, tweaking the cells of our brains and causing this...switch. And the way to solve this problem is..." Philip glared at the book, as if there were something on it, and closed it, continuing hurriedly, "soul transfer."
Akiko and Shoutarou looked at Philip disbelievingly, probably because of that conspicuous pause.
"… I can't stand your clothes, Shoutarou. Sorry. I'm going to change." Philip then left with the book.
Out of habit, Shoutarou grabbed his fedora hat which had been neglected on the nearby table, and slumped into the sofa, putting the hat on his face as he leaned his head against the wall.
"Ah mou, if I didn't exist Philip probably wouldn't have to go through this. Why does Shroud have so much against me anyway? Why does she want to break us up so badly?" Shoutarou sighed into the hat, and slumped even more into the sofa.
"I'm so sorry for this, Philip, but," Akiko muttered an apology before smacking Shoutarou, and began lecturing him, "if you didn't exist Philip would still be in the Organization. His knowledge would probably be used for the wrong purposes, like creating more Gaia memories! If you didn't exist, there wouldn't be a W now! And Philip would not be the Philip he is now- free!"
Shoutarou considered bringing up the little fact that he killed his boss, but decided that turning Akiko against him was the last thing he would want at a time like this. He sighed again.
Akiko sat down beside him, "I wonder what type of Soul Transfer has to happen..."
In silence, they sat, not really doing anything.
...until Shoutarou's stomach rumbled.
"I guess I'll go make breakfast..." Akiko muttered, and went out, leaving Shoutarou in silence once again.
After a few minutes, Shoutarou shed himself of the parka, which was just too long for his liking, and placed his hat upon his head just to feel some familiar sensation while everything else was in chaos, closing his eyes.
I wish I could just go back to the bookshelf, where I'm at least myself.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in the Planetary bookshelf, with the shelves already in place this time.
"Ah mou, how does Philip control this thing?" Shoutarou picked a random book from the shelves, and read its cover, "Technique. Hmm, interesting. I wonder what type of technique is written here... Oh. Ah! Philip... No wonder you didn't tell us how to perform the soul transfer..."
Philip browsed through his huge wardrobe and picked a combination that would not embarrass Shoutarou (since he was in his body, after all), but wouldn't scratch like Shoutarou's usual shirt and trousers.
Something made of cotton would be nice...
"Philip-kun, I'm making breakfast, what do you want?"
He selected a black parka and a white shirt with brown stripes, and the darkest pants he could find, before answering Akiko, "Anything as long as there's coffee."
The boots were fine, he decided, and went ahead to change.
Akiko hated answers that involved the words "anything", "whatever", and anything with ambiguous words inside. It just meant that she had to decide herself.
"Ma, ikka. I'll just make takoyaki."
"PHILIP!"
Philip and Akiko came rushing in to the sight of Shoutarou, once again in the Planetary Bookshelf.
"HOW DO YOU GET OUT OF HERE!" they heard Shoutarou's voice shout.
"You just open your eyes..."
"Hah?"
With no idea when his eyes had been closed in the first place, Shoutarou managed to open them, and slowly approached Philip.
Batshot flew in and interrupted, with news of the Spirit Dopant they had been fighting the day before.
Which brings to the trio's attention another problem - W.
"Why don't we just all go? That way, it doesn't matter who faints!" Akiko ushered them all out.
Ryu was already at the quadrangle giving the Dopant a piece of his mind.
Philip and Shoutarou, not quite sure how to start the henshin sequence, just stood there, watching him.
At that, Ryu shouted, "HIDARI! Don't daydream there! Henshin quickly!" and then got smashed into the wall suddenly by nothing.
The Spirit Dopant could manipulate the bodies of humans with his mind, apparently.
"Philip, the memories can be found... You left them at home, didn't you?" Shoutarou noticed his vest which held the left-arm memories was not on.
Philip realized that too, along with the fact that Shoutarou didn't have the habit of storing his memories within sub-spacial pockets like himself.
"I could run back!" Akiko offered, but Shoutarou stopped her, "There's no time!"
Something appeared in front of Shoutarou and jumped into his hand. It dropped a black memory into his palm, and screeched at him.
"Fang!" Philip recognized his faithful memory.
Shoutarou tossed Philip the Joker memory by instinct, and Philip produced the W-driver out of thin air.
"FANG!"
"JOKER!"
"HENSHIN!"
Shoutarou plunged the Fang memory in, and watch it disintegrate.
The Fang memory appeared in Philip's driver, and he slot in the Joker memory before opening the W and flipping Fang's head down.
The armor of FangJoker formed on Philip, or rather Hidari Shoutarou's body, while Philip's body crumpled into Akiko's arms again.
"Ah it feels so good to be back," W's right eye blinked, while Philip pondered over something else.
FangJoker, paired with Shoutarou's body will have a higher performance capacity... This will be one interesting fight.
"Alright, let's go. Now, count up your sins."
W went ahead to tackle the Dopant, only to be stopped by some invisible force.
"You can't even touch me, how can you do anything to me..." the messed up voice of the human inside the Dopant taunted.
"ELECTRIC."
Lightning struck the Dopant, who lost control over W's body, giving the rider enough time to arm.
"SHOULDER FANG!"
"Since he can control us, we might as well use weapons which he can't."
Just as W swung the blade out, the Spirit Dopant seized control of the two riders. The blade doubled back to slash the half-transparent Dopant's back.
W, taking advantage of the Dopant's distracted attention to initiate a memory break, tipped Fang's tail twice.
"FANG: MAXIMUM DRIVE."
"FANG SLASHER!"
Using the shoulder blade to slash a giant 'W' in the direction of the Dopant, W then threw the blade out again to secure the Dopant, before sending the giant letter to the Dopant, effectively imprinting their insignia on the falling Dopant.
Philip extracted the memories and the W armor fell from Shoutarou's body.
Also reversing his transformation, Ryu frowned deeply at him.
"Hidari, what happened to your clothes? Did they disintegrate?"
Nearby, Shoutarou regained control of Philip's body and shouted across, "Don't misunderstand. I'll never dress like that."
"Philip? But you always do. Look, you two look like twins."
"He's Philip. I'm Shoutarou."
"What is this - some kind of joke? I'm not a 3-year old kid, got it? Hidari, get back home and change into something more like you. You look ridiculous. "
Philip's mouth twitched, "These clothes are made for comfort, and since I'm going to be stuck here for a while I might as well make myself comfortable."
Shoutarou put on his hat, which had fallen off when he collapsed, "Let's go home, Philip."
The three detectives left Ryu very confused.
Along the way, Akiko detoured to the market for groceries, briefly instructing Shoutarou about the breakfast they'd abandoned for the fight.
So the two-in-one detective went back home first.
"Hey, Philip. I was just thinking about how you said you'd be stuck there for a while. You know, in my body," Shoutarou began when they reached the agency. He immediately went in search of the aforementioned breakfast.
"Why?" Philip asked back from the coffee machine.
"Takoyaki! What kind of breakfast is this! Akiko!"
"Shoutarou..."
"What? Oh. Erm... I was just thinking, what if we don't have to be stuck like that for any longer? What if we could just solve it here and now? You did mention the soul transfer-"
"Forget it. It's impossible." Philip dismissed it before Shoutarou could finish. There was no way they could...
Closing the microwave with the takoyaki in it, Shoutarou set the timer to three minutes and turned to face Philip's back. "You know, it's not. We both do."
With the coffee-brewer set, there was no longer an excuse for Philip not to look Shoutarou in the eyes, so he turned around.
He turned around, to Shoutarou's unnaturally dark eyes.
Dark eyes filled with determination and a trace of something else, his face set in a serious manner.
The dark eyes that belonged to him, once.
Under Shoutarou's gaze Philip suddenly wanted to look away, but couldn't. Their eyes were locked, just like their minds and souls.
The words in the book appeared in before his mind's eyes, resonating in his ears.
Without knowing, Shoutarou gave up his vision to his mind's eyes, letting them lead him.
Philip could not get the words out of his mind, yet he knew perfectly that they were not really there.
Two souls became one, with the coming together of their body and soul.
They were barely aware of the contact, as sensation swept over both their consciousness.
Together, they stood in infinite whiteness.
"Shroud…" Shoutarou noticed the figure first.
Shroud's voice resonated around them, filling the emptiness with her even more empty voice.
"I never thought it would come to this. I was so sure that this was something impossible for someone of your stature to do."
"Hidari Shoutarou: you have my consent. Take care of each other from now on."
She disappeared into the horizon again, and the whiteness rippled, and split.
Philip opened his eyes, meeting Shoutarou's.
They were a familiar brown.
This was the soul transfer the book was talking about.
"BEEP—"
The sound alerted Shoutarou, who went around Philip to get to his earlier project – Akiko's abandoned takoyaki breakfast.
"Let's eat, Philip. Get the coffee."
Something grabbed him and he spun around from the force of it, and once again, his lips met another pair, soft, warm and familiar.
"Philip…" he mouthed against his partner's lips.
And he felt Philip's lips mouth back, "Thank you."
Ok i'm sorry the last part sounded kinda crappy. My beta couldn't do anything about it, coz it's not her style... THANK YOU TOA!
And just to clarify, Shroud believed the title, so as long as Shoutarou loved Philip, she's fine with leaving Philip with him.
Sa~ if you liked it, please review...
If you hated it, do review too, please!
Arigatou~