The Sum of Our Parts / Rising Star
Shotaro Hidari stood at the front gate of the Sonozaki mansion. He took a deep breath, smoothed his hair back, and adjusted the lapels of his suit jacket. God, this thing itched.
There was something about this place that freaked Shotaro out. It wasn't even the bourgeois fanciness, though that certainly didn't help when he'd spent the bulk of his high school years doing without. There was just some kind of... vibe that emanated from the mansion.
He gulped. His hand shook as he reached toward the buzzer.
The intercom turned on before he could even press the button. "Shotaro?" came a bright, chipper voice.
He relaxed slightly. "H-hey there. I made it."
"Good." He could practically hear the beaming smile on the other side of the intercom. "My father has been eager to meet you ever since we started dating. And now that Saeko has agreed to hire you..."
Yeah. Shotaro figured it was inevitable. "So can I come in, or what?"
"Of course," said Raito. "I'll be waiting in the lobby."
The gate opened up. The April breeze ruffled Shotaro's hair, soothing him somewhat.
A good wind blew through Fuuto.
Akiko threw open the window by the desk in the back of the office to let the fresh spring air in.
Fuuto's wind really was nice. Akiko wasn't sure she agreed with the propaganda about it being better than any other city's, but it was, admittedly, refreshing.
She plopped down into the chair behind the desk and gazed upon the office. She'd gotten pretty comfortable here. Being a detective and a superhero—or one half of each, anyway—felt surprisingly natural. In the past three and a half months Akiko and Wakana had fought several Dopants and broken their Gaia Memories, but at Wakana's estimation there could be hundreds more in Fuuto.
Akiko had never heard about any of this back in Osaka. Why hadn't it been on the news?
At least they'd both gotten used to the city. They knew Fuuto like the back of their hands by now, although thanks to the Gaia Library Wakana had an advantage Akiko lacked.
Akiko still didn't understand the Gaia Library, but she was glad it gave Wakana something to do.
Maybe a little too many somethings. Wakana had gone through more hobbies and interests in the past five months than Akiko could count. It was always nice to have hobbies, but Wakana could get a little... intense.
The door to the garage, where Wakana's bedroom had been set up, opened. The amnesiac girl stepped through and headed toward the bathroom, pulling off her clothes and dropping them on the floor behind herself as she went.
Case in point.
Akiko shrieked. She got up and rushed after Wakana, gathering up her clothes. A headband here, a shirt there. She gingerly pinched Wakana's bra between her fingers. "What do you think you're doing?!"
Wakana didn't pause. She shimmied out of her ruffly skirt as she spoke a sentence in English: "April showers bring May flowers. Have you ever heard that, Akiko?"
"Eh?" Akiko grabbed the skirt before it could hit the floor.
"Shigatsu no shawaazu wa gogatsu no hana wo motarasu," she clarified. "If showering in April increases the chances of flowers blooming in May—"
Wait. No. "Doesn't shower mean two different things? I think it can mean rain, too." Akiko had actually paid decent attention in high school English class. English, after all, was the language of business.
Wakana tilted her head.
"Jeez, it means when it rains in April flowers bloom in May! You're so—"
The office door opened. Akiko shrieked and shoved Wakana through the bathroom door, tossed her clothes in after her, and pushed the door shut just as a man stepped into the office. "W-Welcome to the Narumi Detective Agency! How can I help you?"
"I've heard this office handles... unusual cases," the man said. "Is that true?"
The Narumi Detective Agency had had a reputation even before Akiko's takeover. This had brought some... interesting cases to her doorstep from the very get-go. But she had to make sure of the client's meaning. "What do you mean by 'unusual'?"
The man sighed. He sank into one of the chairs by the door. "I'm being harassed by a Gaia Memory user. I'm at my wit's end! I don't know where else to turn."
"Well, you've come to the right place!" Akiko rushed to the desk to grab the agency's ledger book, then took a seat across from the client. She glowered slightly when she heard the shower start running through the bathroom door. "We can definitely help. Why don't you tell me all about it, Mr...?"
"Enokida. Satoru Enokida."
Satoru Enokida was a small-business owner. Recently his store had been vandalized—first by egging and toilet paper, then by graffiti, then he'd found windows broken and merchandise stolen. His customers had been threatened by a Dopant as they entered the store. He'd even been followed on his way home.
"It started when I began negotiations to purchase land for expansion of my business," he explained. "All of a sudden I started getting threatening notes, and then... it escalated to this."
Akiko frowned. "Do you have any idea who the culprit could be?"
He shook his head. "But I've heard that you're acquainted with that... that masked hero who's been fighting these monsters recently. If that person could act as my bodyguard..."
Akiko winced. "Ah, that would definitely cut into our—into Double's time. It might be pricey..."
"I'll pay whatever fee you request," Enokida said quickly. "Whatever you think is fair."
"Well, when you put it that way..." Akiko smiled. "I think we can work something out."
8:30 AM: Satoru Enokida left his apartment to head to work.
His business was a small jewelry store. It was rather isolated at 9 AM, when he unlocked the doors and flipped the Closed sign to Open. That wasn't strange; not a lot of people would be out shopping for jewelry at this time of day.
Although Akiko had to wonder if there would have been customers if it weren't for that Dopant.
She sat outside a little cafe across the street from Hyoushoku Jewelry, sipping a latte and peering through the lenses of one of the bulky plastic Memory Gadgets she'd found in the office. This one was a weird little bat-shaped gizmo called Bat Shot, according to the manual Wakana had located in the Gaia Library. But just like with the SkullGarry—now called the RevolGarry, apparently (what was wrong with DoubleGarry? Akiko liked DoubleGarry)—Wakana had been unable to access any information on the maker of the Bat Shot and the other gadgets they'd found.
It was that lady in the bandages, right? It had to be. If Akiko had guessed right, then she was the client who'd wanted Wakana away from Museum, which meant she'd also given Sokichi the Skull Memory. Which also meant she was good with Gaia Memories. Wakana's inability to look up Mummy Woman's true identity, the same way she couldn't look up the maker of the gadgets and RevolGarry, was just more corroborating evidence.
(This detective stuff was pretty easy.)
Akiko had been keeping watch for about an hour when a young man in a tailored suit headed into Enokida's shop. A customer, she assumed.
Until a display case went crashing through one of the front windows.
"The Dopant," she realized grimly. She abandoned her latte and grabbed the Double Driver. "Wakana, he's here!"
"Already? I was asleep..."
"Here's another adage for you: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise!"
"But I'm a woman."
As the Claydoll Memory appeared in Akiko's belt, she sighed. "It's English, okay? They think everyone's a man." She shoved the Memory down and stuck in Diamond before Wakana could respond.
Double leapt into action.
Enokida was cowering behind the counter of the store. There, threatening him, was a harlequin-like Dopant with black skin and neon purple lines running up and down its body. It seemed to be wearing a jester's hat, and on the back of each hand and on each ankle were printed the faces of dice, one per limb, each displaying a different number of dots.
"Hey, you!" Akiko called. "Back off!"
The Dopant turned away from Enokida and groaned. "Jeez... Don't get in my way here!"
Akiko placed her hand on her hip. "Back off and we won't have to. You've terrorized this man long enough!"
The Dopant made a sound of confusion. Before he could do anything, though, Double was on him, wailing with their fists. They knocked him into a display case, breaking the glass, and Enokida shouted.
"Oops— sorry!" Akiko called. "Let's take this outside!"
Double and the Dopant continued exchanging blows as they crashed through the other, yet-unbroken window. Akiko could hear a moan of dismay coming from Enokida. She realized that this was exactly why Double needed a secret identity. She couldn't afford to fix that!
Unfortunately, the Dopant was good with his punches, too. Double couldn't afford to stay on him like this. Wakana shot a blast of energy at him, giving them time to jump back and switch Memories.
CLAYDOLL! RIBBON!
"Ha ha!" Akiko laughed as she flung the ribbon-like whip at the Dopant. "Kneel! Call me queen! O ho ho ho ho!"
"What are you talking about?" Wakana demanded.
"Ugh!" The Dopant dodged a strike of the whip and rushed at Double with his head down. The die face on the back of his right hand appeared to spin. In an instant it went from showing a two to a six.
The punch that followed was more powerful than any the Dopant had landed thus far. Double went flying back, smashing against a tree.
The tree snapped in half. Double's armor broke away and faded, leaving Akiko sitting on the ground in a daze.
"Akiko? Akiko, are you okay?!"
She was too dizzy to move. There was no way she could protect herself against another punch like that.
The Dopant stood there. Strangely enough, he seemed to be wavering.
Before he could advance on the un-transformed Akiko, someone else leapt into the fray.
It was an armored figure with a shape very similar to Double's, but taller and more masculine. This armor was blue with golden eyes, black gloves, and line designs running up and down its body that made Akiko think of South American iconography.
And he was holding a long black sword with a hilt designed in a similar motif to those lines.
He pulled a Gaia Memory—translucent like Double's, not ribbed like the kind Dopants used—from his belt and stuck it into the hilt of the sword. NASCA! MAXIMUM DRIVE!
The armored person swung his sword at the Dopant. The Dopant flew back, just in time to avoid being hit by a burst of energy. A nearby tree was felled, yielding an explosion.
The Dopant shouted in what sounded like outrage. "L-like I was gonna attack a middle school girl! Give me a break!"
Akiko pushed herself to her feet and waved a slipper in the air. "What was that?!"
The Dopant didn't bother apologizing. He just turned and booked it.
The Nasca guy sighed what sounded like a world-weary sigh. He turned around. His belt, like Sokichi's, had only one Memory slot. "Are you all right, miss?"
"I, uh... Yeah, sure. Where'd you get that?"
The man, his voice suave in a jerkass shoujo manga love interest sort of way, chuckled. "Does that matter? What matters is, I just saved you. Should a child like you really be out trying to fight crime?"
Akiko went rigid. "Who are you calling a child?! I'll have you know I'm nineteen years old!"
The man's eyebrows lifted. "Hm... older than I thought."
"What was that? First that Dopant and now you?! Who do you think you are?!"
"I'm Nasca. And you would be?"
"Double," Akiko shot back. "Me and my partner together have probably taken out tons more Dopants than you."
"It's true that I only recently received my Lost Driver," he admitted. "But I'd say I'm far more suited to the job than you."
"And why's that?"
"That, right there." Nasca gestured. "That accent—you're from Osaka, if I'm not mistaken."
Akiko's face twisted into a frown. This had better be relevant...
"Meanwhile, I've lived in Fuuto my entire life. There's no one better-suited to protecting this city than me."
Akiko groaned. "Jeez... You're such a pompous blowhard. Look, I have a job to do."
"I wouldn't dream of keeping you from it." Nasca bowed with a flourish. "And I have a Dopant to track down. Adieu, my dear Double."
As Akiko stormed back toward Hyoushoku Jewelry, Wakana said with a sneer, "Who does he think he is?"
Finally they agreed on something, even if it was for different reasons. Akiko had a mystery to solve and Wakana had her countless sins to atone for; but either way, Fuuto was their city.
Not his.