A/N: This is the final chapter for this fic! The sequel is already up and called Line. Check it out! :D
This wasn't the first time someone tried to breach SHIELD's firewalls. Hell, from what Agent Fujikawa had heard, Tony Stark's AI made it a hobby to constantly hack into their main servers in the US for the past few months (which meant that Stark has been privy to their information for years if they just found out about it). No, the issue was that their Japanese headquarters have never been on anyone's radar unless SHIELD wanted them to be. They were one of the smaller branches, with their own rules and forms of training which made them different, but equally competent employees. The drawback of being on the relative back-burner of the World Security Council (and Fujikawa couldn't fathom how that was possible, what with Japan's GDP slowly but steadily eating USA's for dinner, not to mention their shared history in World War II) was that Japan was one of the late recipients of SHIELD's funding, which meant a lot of their tech was homegrown fresh from - well... Fujikawa Industries.
And that meant that their infrastructure was not nearly as robust as their US counterparts, despite essentially being US intelligence themselves no matter what propaganda the WSC fed them. So although they were open to more cyber-attacks, it didn't mean that these things actually happened. You see, the best defense their HQ has was pretending to not exist more-so than other countries. Their collaboration with the US embassies' highest ranks in Japan (who also, coincidentally were the Japanese government's top officials) ensured that any and all actions were on behalf of the government.
So, all in all, Agent Fujikawa believed that it was quite a solid alibi for anyone who came sniffing.
Except... except this attack was not only unprecedented, but somehow both successful and incredibly messy. Judging by what IT had to say about it, it was hasty and not at all subtle, almost as if the perpetrator had no idea what they were stepping into. They made an equally shabby retreat with a DOS malware as a parting gift that would prevent them from accessing anything with an internet connection for a long time. That is not to say that SHIELD managed to find out who it was, however based on the emails exchanged with SHIELD US, rumours about new hacker communities attempting to infiltrate them were rising. Still, the worst part about the situation was that their uninvited guest had to access their local files and may now know that BEAST was not a public sector job.
Agent Fujikawa ran a hand through his hair in the confines of his office, trying not to look as frazzled as he felt. This was bad, really really bad if Fury came to learn of their... minor oversight. Project BEAST was already on a precipice, with barely enough evidence to acknowledge its true impact on whatever their director has planned, but this event might shut their research down for good, and he was not going to see all of their hard work go down the drain just because Fury was not interested in Karakura's physics-defying anamolies.
They needed to make contact fast, and Fujikawa knew that Asano Keigo will be of no use for this.
Time to cut him loose.
Kisuke picked up on the third ring, "This is Urahara's shop, the store for your soul! How may-"
"Kisuke, oh thank god. I need help and I'm coming over."
"Is this... Keigo? Ichigo doesn't come here anymore,"
"I know. I... oh god I fucked up. I fucked up so bad. I am coming over so keep the basement open? Thanks."
Keigo reached the shop exactly fifteen minutes later, panting and jittery and fervently rapping his knuckles on the door until it slid open. Kisuke stepped out in his usual striped glory and Keigo has never been more relieved to see him.
"Asano Keigo! To what do I owe uh-" he side-stepped, confused, as Keigo pushed his way in and to the house part of the store. Keigo went to the room he recalled was Abarai Renji's for a time and began shucking off his clothes to change into new ones. Keigo hasn't been in contact with SHIELD for well over a week now, but he didn't want to risk saying anything just because he was awful at frisking bugs out of himself. He then went back to where he believed was the entrance Kisuke's underground training area and impatiently waited for it to open up. Kisuke followed him slowly.
"Um, what do you think you're doing?" he asked not rudely, because no one's better at rolling with the punches than a powerful, disgraced shinigami, but Keigo think's he about to jump out of his skin if the door to the basement isn't open yesterday.
"I'll explain but we need to go under. Pretty please."
Kisuke relented, leading them to the vast field below the shop. Nothing had really changed since Keigo's last time here, when him and his friends had to hide until the whole Aizen fiasco died down. They settled by one of the giants rocks so that Keigo was sidled to a corner between two of them to give him a view of most of the room. He began biting his cuticles, lost at where to start. Keigo only hoped that Kisuke didn't kick him out and feed him to SHIELD himself.
"So..." the shinigami began, "I suspect this is not about your blooming love-life with Kuneida Ryo I've been hearing about."
That startled a laugh out of him; he had completely forgot about that tidbit. "Nope, much worse. God, so much worse."
"What's wrong with Ryo? She's a pretty girl, not as pretty as Ms. Inoue-" he had that weird perverted twinkle in his eye that told Keigo that he's only joking, mostly to keep up the facade of being nothing more than a shop owner. Keigo hated to be the one to put a damper on that.
"It isn't about my love-life, which doesn't exist actually. And that's because I fucked up. You can't tell anyone, not even Ichigo. And especially not the Soul Society or I'm dead."
The glint disappeared just as Keigo said it, and Kisuke frowned, immediately suspicious and on guard. When he didn't say anything, Keigo gulped through the giant lump in his throat and willed his hyperventilating heart to settle.
"Right. Um... fast and dirty version: SHIELD wants to open a portal to Hueco Mundo." he blurted and braced himself for a reaction.
The suspicion on Urahara's face immediately drained to a blank stare that, frankly terrified the teenager more because now Keigo had no idea what he was thinking. The shinigami didn't say anything, only stared and it took all of Keigo's willpower to not keep rambling. The stifling silence continued for who knows how long before Urahra brought his cane to his lap.
Then, in the most casual voice ever, he asked, "And how do you know this?"
He was inevitably going to question him about this, Keigo knew that and no matter how much he had dreaded this conversation, desperation and the clinging need of someone having his back for once led him to confess his ultimate fuck up. Keigo had geared himself to come clean before he made the phone call, so he didn't know why he was taken aback when Kisuke asked him anyway.
Still, Keigo gathered as much courage as his tiny, fragile body and said, "Because I told them how." Then, because Keigo actually felt bad he added, "...Sorry?"
Urahara was angry, Keigo knew the instant he fessed up. Not because Keigo was especially good at reading people - no matter what he thought when training, he still had a shit-ton to learn and thinking that he was even mildly badass was just an act of arrogance - but because the next words out of Kisuke's mouth were a whispered "Shibari, Benihime," which turned out to be his swo-zanpaktou releasing some form of a deep red net wrapping itself all over Keigo's body - just an inch away from his skin, which told him a lot about what would happen if he touched it - in the form of some creepy bondage ribbon.
He was pale with fear of what was to come, mentally beating himself up for thinking he'd be rewarded after coming clean about how he put an entire civilization of non-humans in danger. Fucking shit, Keigo, he thought, you entitled piece of trash. Keigo was now confined between a literal rock and a hard place, cornered like prey and trapped in a web of spirit energy that would most likely burn his flesh if he breathed hard enough.
"I'll be honest," Kisuke began in that casual tone of his that usually preceded damage that couldn't be repaired, "I didn't expect them to come for you, out of everyone. Ms. Arisawa maybe, even your friend, Mizuiro. But never you. Perhaps-" at this he chuckled, dark and dangerous, "-perhaps that's why I thought they gave up. My mistake, obviously. And now I have to go and clean your mess."
The shinigami crouched down and looked at Keigo in the eye, making him uncomfortable. His self-esteem had taken enough blows these past months to fully absorb Kisuke's words, but Keigo still felt guilt rise at the back of his throat threatening to choke him. And Keigo didn't want to know what Urahara meant by 'cleaning his mess', despite knowing that shinigami didn't hurt human- no. Wait. He didn't know that. Soul reapers have never killed humans, as far as he remembered, but there were other ways to hurt them. They had hurt him and his friends, left scars that nobody but they could see. Keigo wouldn't want that to happen to anyone else, even if his mistrust in SHIELD only grew, no one deserves to be treated the way they were.
With a deep sigh, Keigo closed his eyes and wondered whether he could just disappear for one second if he wished hard enough.
"What were you thinking?" Keigo's eyes blinked open to see Kisuke looking at him less like he wanted to throttle him, maybe like he was both curious and doubtful. "Why did you tell them about us? You know the repercussions of the living knowing about us would be dire. It would put your friends in danger, so why?"
Keigo shrugged, the answer had sat in his stomach for so long, he only felt relieved when he said it aloud, "Because I wanted to help."
"Help who? Yourself? If you wanted to help, Keigo, you should have come to us." Maybe Kisuke was trying to genuinely understand where he was coming from, but in that moment all Keigo could hear was condescension and pity. And knowing him... it probably was.
In that moment Keigo didn't know if he hated SHIELD more or Shinigami.
Both, his mind supplied, you can always hate both.
Keigo straightened his shoulders, not caring if they grazed the net, his face set in stone. He was going to fix this, whether Kisuke helped or not. And really, he didn't care if he hit below the belt, Keigo tended to be vicious when he was angry, he didn't know where it came from, but he recalled his dad having a similar temperament. "I came to you, once. Many months ago, and you told me that you will deal with it. Well, guess what genius? SHIELD still got to me because you and your Soul Society aren't as competent as you think you are," he punctuated his words, watching the shinigami's face lose its considerate demeanor and settle for a tiny frown. Good. "I went to them because they didn't fuck with my mind and take away my memories without my consent, just because it suited their agenda. Because they promised to protect the city without having to use teenagers as scapegoats and collateral damage, only to abandon them when they were of no use.
"You think you know more? Just because you've lived- or- died longer? Because you're centuries older than us? News Flash! Our mortality actually makes us decent people instead of cynical, arrogant abusers like you. You don't get to shit on my mistakes when your people have lost lives for theirs. So maybe, for once, instead of trying to erase your problems away by brainwashing a trigger-happy organisation of spies, you should let me go and deal with them if you don't wanna help, like a mature fucking adult."
Keigo was panting by the time he was done, the red in his vision slowly fading despite his anger still simmering under the surface. He knew that if Urahara even tried to twist his words Keigo would physically fight the bonds holding him and reach for his goddamn neck. A tiny voice at the back of his head reminded him that he should probably reserve some anger for SHIELD, that a lot of his rage was misplaced because this was the second time he had been shunned by someone who he thought he could trust. Keigo reminded that voice that he had enough fury for both of them and then for himself so it can kindly fuck off.
"You're angry," said Kisuke, leaning back and looking contemplative.
Keigo scoffed, "No shit."
"You don't trust us," he added.
"Were you even listening?"
"You don't trust them either."
"No, but frankly, they will still be more useful to me at this point."
"What do you plan to do?"
"I was thinking you'd have the answer, but clearly, I overestimated your abilities. Now untie me so that I can fix this mess," Keigo snapped.
The bonds vanished in an instant and Keigo exhaled heavily, rubbing his arms and standing up. He cleaned the dust off his pants as Urahara waited patiently. "I can help you. If you tell me everything you told them."
"That's fair. Got a computer 'round here?"
Kisuke sighed, "I'll bring it down."
In less than five minutes, Keigo has the files from SHIELD on display to the shinigami, explaining what all of the redacted documents meant based on what he knew of the organization. "The only things I told them about were the existence of Shinigami and Hollows. I never told them about my friends, or any other species. They were more interested in inter-dimensional travel. I'm guessing something happened before that involving realms and portals and they want to travel to Hueco Mundo using the- uh. Einstein bridge or something... basically wormholes."
"And they're sure they can get to Hueco Mundo?"
"No clue. But they know more than they did before, and since they already have the PAP - uh... positron acoustic phaser, which is basically a hollow zapping machine - I think they might have some knowledge on the frequency they function on? SHIELD hasn't... contacted me in over a week, I had told them I was busy 'dating', but they didn't even bother checking in on me like they tend to do. I think they're ghosting me."
Kisuke rubbed his chin in thought and Keigo turned back to the files, eyes flicking towards anything he might have missed before. In all honesty, he just wanted to huddle in a corner and forget any of this happening, feeling horrifyingly tempted to ask Urahara to take away his memories but Keigo preferred having his agency intact.
"There's a chance they have enough information to actually deploy their studies and make contact, and have concluded that you're no longer of use."
Keigo nodded in assent even though inside he wanted to groan and scream and throw a tantrum because of course he was expendable. Was it so hard to get some goddamn respect around here?
"Then I've got to make sure I'm not the liability here," he replied instead. There will be time for crying, later in his room with a stuffed animal from his childhood, "What are the odds that SHIELD will get through?"
"It can range from anywhere between reasonably high to absolutely zero. If I was in their place, your data would be more than enough for me to create a stable portal not just to our realms, but any other as well. To be fair my technology is far more advanced so..."
"And... what will happen if they get there? Make contact?" asked Keigo, "Will they survive?"
"First of all, we're assuming they want to go to Hueco Mundo, but they're equally likely to go to the Seireitei, with everything you've given them. Secondly, they depend on the frequency of the hollows, meaning that not all of them can see it, and aren't as spiritually aware as you or your friends. They also underestimate how many hollows might be there, and they don't know anything of the rest of the Menos, only the small fry that occasionally penetrate Karakura, so I'll give them 10 seconds before they're toast.
"Lastly... human bodies physically cannot survive the atmospheres of our worlds, they need only the souls to pass through, and I doubt they know how to do that. Either way, it's a suicide mission." Kisuke concluded, hands deliberately tapping on his cane.
Well, shit.
This was bad.
"And all of this assuming they are able to stabilize a portal. Which, if done wrong could cause a singularity that will absorb everything in its way, obviously." Urahara added because he was a asshole and now Keigo was genuinely frightened.
The teenager blew a raspberry and rocked back and forth, wondering how he lost control of everything so fast. Then he remembered that he wasn't big shit and never had anything together in the first place.
Okay.
Problem-solving first.
Crying into a pillow later.
"Okay, okay. I'm gonna convince them to stop this... and if you have a plan, now's the time to say it." Kisuke opened his mouth, "If you don't have a plan without memory-wiping, then save it."
"I am capable of reason, Keigo."
"Yeah? Let's hear it then."
Fujikawa's plan to dismiss Asano Keigo was simply to disappear on him, hide SHIELD the way they did before they had approached him. The teenager would eventually give up if all of their offices and the gym were suddenly occupied by a call center and table-tennis classes. They all did. If it came to it, Fujikawa fully planned to use the especially concentrated dose of Ambien to cloud his memories - it was one they had used on plenty of targets to know that the long-term effects were minimal, courtesy of R&D.
His priority was to find the culprit of the breach and reinforce their firewalls, followed by starting the simulations for BEAST and signing R&D off for using the particle accelerator. They still had months before they could even stabilize the bridge - still a drastic improvement from the initial years, due to a certain Dr. Selvig's notes - but in the mean time the agent needed to recontact Urahara Kisuke for a more lucrative deal than before. Although the kid had been a decent substitute for the shop-owner, SHIELD needed an expert's opinion and Urahara fit the bill. In retrospect, it wasn't hard to conclude that the man might be a shinigami, just like Asano had described.
He was working to the bone for the past week, drawing contracts and negotiating with DC-HQ, so he didn't block his number from his informant, but only redirected them to a voicemail that logged his messages in case the boy provided something that could be of use to them.
He was suddenly sent an alert from said log that was labelled as an SOS from Asano Keigo. The call was from his mobile phone that sent a distress signal that he had told the kid to use only once and only in an emergency.
Fujikawa sighed and rubbed his temples. The kid might be throwing a tantrum for all he knew, having been ignored for days. He liked attention, a lot, much to the agent's chagrin.
Still, he pulled up the location and saw that Asano was in his home. Except there were two anomalies in frequencies around him, circling the apartment and slowly getting closer to the boy.
Shit.
The kid couldn't go one day without getting attacked.
Fujikawa quickly grabbed his gun, the phaser and dressed himself in a vest before calling two other agents to meet him at the hangar. The jet they used was not the fastest one, championed by the newest line of quinjets by both Fujikawa Industries and SI, but it was the smallest one with the first generation of cloaking technology that wouldn't draw too much attention. Their last encounter with the hollow in the jet left too many unanswered questions that the government had no choice but to begrudgingly deal with, followed by a lengthy and detailed report on Invisible Intelligence Operations and the consequences against them on the agent's desk the next morning.
Tokyo HQ was still learning, but the emergency presented to him by a fifteen year old child suggested they needed to learn faster.
The agent did not spend any time thinking the state Asano Keigo would be in by the time they got there - ETA being 6 minutes, he requested backup immediately to maintain a perimeter of the attack - as he strapped himself in and they took off. He did not let the small (not that small) chill of panic overcome him at the thought of a teenager (their teenage- no, stop) being ravaged by two hollows in his own home. Fujikawa knew better than that, he'd been doing this job for years now, and he's been always prepared for the possibility of collateral in a high-stress situation.
He just didn't expect the collateral to be that kid.
It was an oversight that the agent would later berate himself for, as it was completely expected given the fact that the boy was not only their only source of information on spiritual monsters but also a magnet attracting them to the city. There should have been precautions, a spirit dampner perhaps, something SHIELD started working on a fortnight ago that was later pushed to the back-burner when Coulson called and promptly led everything to shit. Either way, the agent could not fathom why the idea of the kid getting hurt left him shaken and panicked.
He had always considered him a nuisance, a valuable pool of resources - yes - but a nuisance nonetheless. He had ensured the rest of SHIELD treated him that way too, a preventive measure to stop him from poking his nose where it didn't belong all while keeping him safe from what they dealt with on a daily basis. It didn't make sense for Keigo to get under his skin and have him multi-task between firing instructions to the two agents, keeping an eye on the targets and keeping his heart from bursting from his chest at the thought of the kid lying under a pile of rubble.
Fujikawa wasn't compromised, so he couldn't understand why he was acting like he was.
Maybe because this was a child they were dealing with. Children were always a touchy subject for agents.
Maybe the kid got under his skin after all.
He has met a lot of Asano Keigos in his life, yet, at the same time, he's never quite met someone like Asano Keigo.
Compartmentalizing his thoughts as fast as he could, Agent Fujikawa entered the perimeter around Keigo's apartment and found no evidence of Hollows or the destruction that usually followed them. Frowning, he asked one of the agents to re-scan the area and turn on infrared. The two dots of anomalies remained, matching Hollow patterns but not... doing anything except circling the building. Odd. The kid had mentioned that not everyone could see them, but they didn't have to, the phaser and scanner took care of that, all they needed was to reverse the polarity of a frequency akin to IR to produce a general shape, which was enough for termination.
These could be Hollows they had not encountered before, or something else unidentified from Hueco Mundo, although the lack of hostility made him pause. As far as they new, Hueco Mundo was completely hostile territory, Asano Keigo made sure everyone knew that nothing good came out from there. Which was all well and good, seeing as SHIELD wasn't planning to touch that realm any time soon.
"Sir, scans show normal behaviour among the residents of the building," an agent supplied. Fujikawa leaned across the screen and saw no distressing behaviour as well. All the red dots seemed to be doing routinely mundane things. No sign of a ringing emergency alarm. No stampedes. Nothing. His gaze tracked the Asanos' flat and found it empty save for two figures. One of them was undoubtedly Keigo, the agent could make out that posture from a mile away, lying on possibly a couch. The second...
"Preparing for landing," the agent supplied and Fujikawa got his weapons ready, shoulders tense and eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.
The jet landed by the closest secluded corner and remained cloaked as the agents quickly got off. They jogged to Asano's apartment complex as quietly as possible and slowly made their way to his floor. Outside other doors, Fujikawa could clearly hear chatter from this kid's neighbours, seemingly normal and ever-present. There was no noise coming from Keigo's apartment though; it was eerily quiet, almost as if there was no one there. The blinds remained shut, and apart from the heat signatures, there was no indication that anyone was home.
What the hell was going on here?
Fujikawa's eyes remained trained on the second heat signature. It was a figure with no particular shape, just an obscure... blob over the kid. Was possession possible among hollows? Fujikawa was feeling especially trigger happy, so even though he wanted Keigo to be safe, he simply needed one excuse to blast off whatever was hurting the kid.
On his command, one of the agents carefully unlocked the door with a device and pushed it open.
They had a direct line of sigh on Keigo, who was lying on the couch with his eyes closed, seemingly unconscious.
Shit.
Fujikawa stalked towards the boy while the other agents swept through the rest of the house. He checked the kid's pulse; slow staccato in an irregular rhythm. He was alive. Fujikawa hung his head in relief. He was alive. He needed to call medical, call backup to recheck the perimeter and immediately extract Asano from this-
"I was wondering if you would even show up."
Never in the last decade has anyone gotten the better over the agent. Fujikawa turned immediately, gun and phaser raised and pointed towards none other than-
"Urahara Kisuke."
"The one and only," The man chuckled. He wore his usual garb, with a cane held protectively on the side that Fujikawa immediately deduced was his zanpaktou. Perhaps calling a couple of tanks may have been a good idea.
"You did this?" He asked instead, standing over the boy. The rest of the agents quickly joined him, all aiming their weapons at the shinigami.
Urahara shrugged. "He was acting suspicious," Fujikawa swallowed the urge to ask what kind of a man Urahara was, drugging a child, but thought better of it. He was here on behalf on SHIELD; they weren't the most clean-cut people either.
"A phone call would have sufficed," he replied.
"No, I like this better," The shinigami said, deliberately casual. "Learned a lot about you though, so I thought it would be nice to have a chat."
"You have me."
Urahara raised an eyebrow and briefly glanced at the agents around him. Agent Fujikawa wanted to preface by saying that he did not want to do this. He did not. He motioned the other agents to scram, and to take the boy with them. God knows what Urahara had done to him.
The shinigami walked around him and sprawled across the sofa. Fujikawa knew that every move he made was done with thought and purpose. It was a matter of knowing what the purpose was. "Let's talk then."
When Keigo woke up to a bright, white ceiling, he first thought he had died and gone to heaven. Then he realised that he probably wouldn't go to heaven. Then he realised that heaven was the Soul Society and did not look like this.
His next thought was that SHIELD figured him out and had placed him in some fucked-up torture chamber. That would explain the cotton in his brain and the feeling of a dead animal in his mouth. He looked around and concluded that he was in a hospital, but wasn't attached to anything so far, so whatever happened did not injure him.
He tried recollecting his previous memories, remembering Urahara's plan to get SHIELD off his back and wondered if it was a success.
The door opened to reveal Penta-Man in all his suit-and-tie glory and confirmed his suspicions.
"Mr Asano," he said in that bland way of his. "You've been out a while."
Keigo smoothed his expression into something more subtle than 'I-Know-What-You-Did-Four-Hours-Ago'. "W'happened?" He settled for confused.
"A hollow attack of some sort. Led to a bit of memory loss. But don't worry, it will come back to you soon. If not, SHIELD can fill you up on the details." The agent sat down on the chair next to him and opened the folder he had been holding. "In the mean time, I would like to talk to you about joining the SHIELD academy."
Wait.
What.
This was not a part of the deal. Urahara has specifically told him that he would ensure SHIELD never interfered with him again; that he would liase with them himself. What the fuck did those two talk about while he was out?
"Um,"
"It is currently situated in the United States, however, we are planning to branch out internationally to train people like yourselves to be able to work with jobs like ours." Penta-Man pulled out a couple of - are those brochures? SHIELD had brochures? - and forms. "We would like you to be among the first batch of candidates in Japan."
What the fuck.
"Um," Keigo repeated intelligently. There had to be a misunderstanding. Did Urahara know about this? Keigo was so gonna have words with that guy. "I- I don't understand. Why m-me? Why now?"
Penta-Man looked down, somewhat guiltily. Which. No, Keigo had to be imagining that. He wasn't nearly as good at reading people as he thought, so Keigo was just making shit up. Penta-man did not look guilty. He didn't look much like anything, most days.
"We had a breach, recently, in our systems." Keigo gulped, "A minor one, but it was enough to raise concerns about what we were doing as an organization. It was decided that we needed you - as you'd put it - step up our game and initiate contact with people to gain their trust. Create strong allies, and maintain the ones we have. We cannot do that without fresh faces. You seem like a viable candidate."
Bullshit. Keigo wanted to snap, but he kept his mouth shut and thought about it for a while.
Clearly he couldn't say yes to this, he needed to be with his friends, for fuck's sake. That was the whole point of these past ridiculous months anyway. Not to mention, he was a pretty... bad candidate for spy school, if he was being completely honest. He screwed over far too many people in too little time to be considered 'viable'.
"I'm sorry but... I can't- uh. I can't join you. I can't leave my friends and everything I know just for this." Keigo said, and tried to act as remorseful as possible. It wasn't hard, he genuinely felt like shit for turning them down - what with wanting to feel like a badass all the time. But Keigo already knew that SHIELD just wanted one hand on the steering wheel if he joined them. He'd still be expendable, but he'd at least get bragging rights.
Penta-man was about to protest, or say something else entirely - Keigo wouldn't know with that guy, but he cut him off, "Listen... it's not- it's. Look. You... cut me off a while back right? Don't lie to me about it, I know you were ghosting me. And- and maybe that's 'cause you got what you wanted or whatever. And decided that I'm useless and I get that. You're spies, you're supposed to be aloof and shit. But there's nothing else I got to offer you man. I'm sorry."
Fujikawa nodded, looked down again. Keigo was beginning to wonder if it was some kind of tell. Like hell it was. Spy, remember? his mind reminded him.
"That's fair, Mr Asano. We still have to fulfill our end of the bargain though, and your training will be ready to resume whenever you feel well enough-"
"Hey, no. I'm... I'm not doing that anymore. It's. Um. It's fine, really. You don't need to-"
"Keigo," Keigo stopped blabbing, "We want you to get better at self-defense, and we want you to be at SHIELD. You will be an asset to our organization," Fujikawa had the gall to look almost earnest and that's when Keigo realised what the fuck was going on.
"I know what you're doing," Keigo interrupted.
"I'm sorry?"
"This is the most textbook spy-shit I've seen anyone at SHIELD do. Which clearly means it's stuff you're not supposed to do."
"I don't understand Mr Asano. Care to elaborate?" Fujikawa was blank again, but he had shown his hand already. Deliberately. Keigo had no clue what the fuck he was trying to achieve here.
"I don't know what happened during the time I was out," That wasn't a total lie. Techinically, Keigo didn't know 'cause he was unconscious, "But you suddenly giving a shit about me after a week of nothing? Calling me by my first fucking name? Get out. And take your shit with you." Keigo snapped. He needed to have words with Urahara for letting Penta-man pull this shit with him.
"Mr Asano-"
"Look, clearly this is a test of some sort for something I don't give a rat's ass about anymore. I'm done, okay? Unless it's the end of the world, you can handle running an organization without a teenager by your side."
"...Very well. Thank you for your co-operation so far. You will be compensated."
"I don't want your compensation," Keigo shot back. Then, "Think of it as a favour." He's seen The Godfather, he knew what was up.
This time when Fujikawa narrowed his eyes - and it was barely visible, mind you - Keigo believed that to be genuine. "You're currently at SHIELD medical, and free to go any time. One of our staff members will escort you out."
Keigo needed to call Kisuke once he got out. Immediately.
...He also needed to called Ryo to put up with him for a while longer.
"Did he pass?"
"I'd like to say with flying colours, but he has always been a little all over the place."
"That's fair, they always are, at first. When is he starting?"
"...He isn't."
"Excuse me?"
"He said he wanted out, and to count what he did for us as a favour."
"A favour."
"Yes."
"..."
"...Sir?"
"Are you telling me he played you, Agent?"
"I'm working on it."
"He's fifteen."
"Yes, sir."
"You said he isn't like Stark."
"He isn't. Not like that."
"Apparently in other ways then. You need to get him before someone else decides to. He's already on the radar."
"I will, Sir."
"Especially do it before he starts collecting. I can't imagine anything good coming out of that."
"Yes, Sir."
A/N: So... I'm an idiot. I posted the first chapter of the sequel of this story like, this morning and forgot that I hadnt uploaded the last chapter of this one. Apologies! Line is the sequel to this story and the series is called Agent 147. I'll make the changes accordingly. Also, the reason I forgot is because Im more active of . So please, if youre still interested in this story, go to that place first. I'm LeGrange there. Thank y'all for reading and see you at the sequel :)