Shimazaki didn't have senses to spare.

A lot of people thought that he saw with his powers in the same way sighted people did. That he knew how to read the words on boxes, that he could see the stars and clouds in the sky, that he could tell one book from another without touching it…and if he had a hundred yen coin for every time someone asked him 'give me the blue/red/white/yellow/green/aquamarine thing he would have been right enough to buy the isle of dogs he'd been hearing so much about….heh…hearing….

He couldn't afford to lose his sense of hearing.

"Fuck!" shouted Shimazaki as he held his left ear. That had been too close…way too fucking close! All he could hear was a ringing, that was it. On the right he heard shouting, and then a loud crack. He felt someone running away…they ran away to his left. He couldn't focus enough to sense him. If he really focused he could have seen every muscle in that guy's body as he ran…though just knowing where he was going would have been good.

Because this shit right here was not ok.

He held his ear with his hands. He needed to hear. He had no idea how he could possibly hear with his powers…and they weren't the best work around. He couldn't even really 'see' with his powers, not in the way that sighted people meant. He knew the shape of things, how far away they were, he could track their moving parts…but beyond that he was lost. He needed his sense of hearing. He needed to be able to hear if someone, like a normal assassin, was coming. He needed to be able to hear if someone, like Suzuki's dumbass of a girlfriend, was screaming for help because she needed to take a two in the morning walk down a deserted road. He needed to be able…hell, he needed to be able to hear if someone had texted him or if it was time to get up or if the timer went off…he needed to hear! He needed…he could still hear.

Out of his left side.

He couldn't move. He had to test it. So he did. He kept his barrier up and tested it again…nothing. Just the ringing…fuck! Everything sounded better in stereo! Mono was crap, first of all, and second of all mono was crap! You never got any of the subtle nuance with mono and-and good luck finding mono versions of anything good…and you couldn't even listen to anything past Abbey Road since it hadn't even been recorded in mono…well there were versions…

Fuck this shit!

"Goddamn it! Mother fucking-" said Shimazaki. He didn't trust himself to teleport away right now. He couldn't even tell where he was…he could if he focused…but it was like there was this big 'nothing' on his left side and-and he didn't like it! He couldn't tell…anything could have been there, anything at all. Someone or something could have been right there waiting to-

-or they could have been in front of him.

"Shut up!" said Shiori as she held him in place with her powers. Her so called 'good Samaritan'. She had seen this guy before, but never this close up. He reeked of yakuza…she hated the yakuza. A bunch of aging dinosaurs who refused to go extinct. Their stranglehold on the underworld had been waning for decades but they just refused to let go. They were the go to for so many talented espers…including this one.

She had never felt an aura like his before.

"What?" asked Shimazaki as he tried his hearing again. Nothing. Just the ringing…..and it wasn't stopping. It was like the first concert he had ever been to, when he'd gotten right up to the front row like a moron. He had thought that it would never end…but it did, it had taken a few hours but it had. This was different. Worse…of course it was worse. Someone had pressed a gun right up next to his ear and pulled the trigger!

He had to get the fuck out of here….he had to remember where 'here' was!

"Shut up! I mean…be quiet and tell me who you work for." Said Shiori

"Which is it?" asked Shimazaki

"Don't play games with me." said Shiori

"I'm not playing games with you, lady, I'm trying to figure out what in the hell you want me to do. Do you want me to tell you who I work for or do you want me to shut my fucking mouth? And talk loud, as loud as you can, I think I just went deaf in one ear." Said Shimazaki

"Shut up…I mean, tell me what family you work for! Right now!" said Shiori, tightening her telekinetic hold on the man…the one who was still just shaking his head and spinning around a lot…with his eyes closed? He got more in the light…they were definitely closed….but that wasn't a weakness. She could feel his aura.

It touched everything.

"The Suzuki family, but before that the Kobayashi-Gumi." Said Shimazaki. He pushed her aura off of his. She took a step back…good. She needed to take a step back, and then another, and then as many as it took for her to get the hell out of here. Someone was bound to have called the cops. There wasn't anyone here stupid enough to think that it had been fireworks. He needed to get the hell out of here…he needed to stop freaking out so he could get the hell out of here.

He needed to focus.

"Suzuki, you mean Touichirou and didn't he purge the Kobayashi-Gumi from…Tokyo…" said Shiori. She knew who this was. She knew this man by reputation, of course, not personally. She didn't want to know this man personally…who in the hell wanted to know Shimazaki Ryou personally? The stories she had heard, even back in her days with Jodo and those morons. He was, supposedly, a ruthless assassin…but she could deal with ruthless assassins.

It was the mess with Touichirou's daughter that disgusted her to the core of her being.

"Yeah, I'm the last of my-what the fuck!?" asked Shimazaki as he was hit, once, across his barrier. He hadn't sensed her coming. He hadn't even heard her…she had stuck to his left side. Smart…maybe even a little too smart. She was holding onto him with her telekinesis again…he threw it off, again…

..and she got him…again.

"Where you go, I go." Said Shiori as she grabbed the man by the arm and dug her aura into his. She could break through a barrier, it was easy from this distance, but he was strong…both physically and metaphysically. It wasn't as though she'd never grappled with a man before, she knew that they were stronger, but it had been a few years.

She wasn't letting go.

"Get off!" said Shimazaki as he tried to pull her off…she was wily. He managed to get one hand free and then the other grabbed onto his jacket. He could teleport out of his clothes if he needed to, he hated doing that but if he had no choice…but he couldn't see home from here. He couldn't see anything from here. It was like there was this…this void in his perceptions. It was all in his head. Just because he couldn't hear out of his left ear…or did it all work like that? He didn't know, he'd never gone deaf before!

And he'd never fought someone he couldn't hurt before, either.

"Screw you!" said Shiori as she brought her lower body up, all of her weight, and tried to bring him down to the ground. Jodo had been a fan of, all the things, judo. Judo and a few other things he mixed together. Called it Jodo judo. She called it picking and choosing…but it did work. She may have weighed about sixty three kilos last she'd checked but that was enough to take someone, unprepared, to the ground.

The kick to the solar plexus hadn't helped either.

"Goddamn it! Are you always this nice to people who save your life?" asked Shimazaki as he finally got free. Trying to take him down had been a mistake. He could root himself to the ground if he needed to, hold himself there with telekinesis…it took a lot less effort than teleporting. Right now he needed to root himself…he needed to focus. He needed to tune out everything that wasn't important.

Including that lady shouting…way too loud for this late at night.

"I'll kill you! Touichirou's daughter…she's thirteen! I'll kill you! I'll-" said Shiori. She had made a mistake trying to take him down, he was stronger than he looked…and now she couldn't right herself. She felt an aura wash over hers and then…and then she found herself on the ground clutching a leather jacket.

Which was then ripped from her hands.

"Bye! Have fun talking to the cops!" said Shimazaki as he took his coat and teleported away. At least using his mind's eye still worked…mostly. He wound up teleporting into his bed, not onto it, and the displaced space did break it in half…fuck…but that was the least of his problems. He'd fucked up…not that he cared too much about his job…but he didn't really feel like getting another beatdown from Suzuki…also he was deaf in one ear.

That was the bigger problem.

The beatdown was at least temporary. Even without Fukuda's help he would probably heal in a few weeks. This…this may have never gotten better….but then again if he was hearing a ringing then he must not have been deaf, right? He must have been able to hear…he couldn't live with this ringing for the rest of his life. It was annoying…and he couldn't hear anything over it…

He covered his ear.

There it was. Just as loud as before…fuck! He was fucked! He was…he needed new words. He was saying fuck a lot…oh. Out loud, too…well fuck that. It wasn't like he was sharing this house with anyone. He was alone…all alone. It was too quiet…he didn't know if he was…could he hear out of the left? He covered it….how was he supposed to be able to tell if there wasn't any noise? No people talking, no fighting, no Shibata falling asleep in front of the TV, no Mukai getting into things, no Hatori taking his rage at the world out on his computer, no Serizawa crying in his sleep, no Toshi sitting on his bed…half of his bed…and telling him something like 'you're being ridiculous Ryou' or 'can you go mute too, while you're at it' or even 'it's two in the morning. Come to bed' and he could have said something like 'which half' and then they would have said something like-like-

He had no idea what Toshi would have said after that.

But he needed to know. He reached out in front of him. He knew that they weren't there. He knew that they weren't even going to be there for him again…he had lost them. Losing them was like losing a limb or…or a sense. Something he had come to depend on. It wasn't the way that Toshi labeled the kitchen for him or arranged his clothes by what went together or even the way they always made sure never to disturb his stuff too badly. It was all the feelings…all his fucking feelings. He felt like he was drowning and Toshi was his life preserver….

He reached for them. They weren't there.

They were in Tokyo. Far away…but in today's crazy future world distance meant nothing. He reached for his phone, stepping out from in the middle of what had been his bed. He had tossed his coat somewhere…he had lost the focus he needed to see through his mind's eyes. He couldn't see…he felt around. He could feel the halves of his bed, his dresser, his desk…everything else was a mess…he felt around the ground.

He got a splinter.

He had dropped his barrier so he could feel the world better. It still felt like there was this void…he sucked the splinter out. He got most of it…he thought that he did. The whole thing just hurt…he kept looking, this time a little more carefully. He had to stop freaking out…he didn't know if he could without Toshi. They always kept him together. Them and Mob.

But he knew that there wasn't a chance that Mob was going to pick up.

He called Toshi. He found his coat, found his phone, and immediately called them. There was no point in even trying with Mob. Even when they had been together, he assumed that she had left him, she had always been distant. Everything and everyone always came before him. He was better off…he was trying to remember their relationship as worse than it was. He was trying to get over her…which pretty much meant that they had broken up…but he could deal with that. The loss of Mob was nothing compared to the loss of his hearing…

Barely.

"Toshi!" said Shimazaki, the phone to his ear…his bad ear. Was that his dominant ear? Did people have dominant ears? Toshi would have known…and he'd ask them. He put his phone to the other side. He could deal with this…they said that people could get used to anything. Toshi had picked up…he put the phone to his good ear. It wasn't ringing anymore.

He could hear breathing.

"Toshi, you won't believe what happened. I went dea-" said Shimazaki

"Hi…Shimazaki…I mean, hi Ryou." Said Mob…Mob. He knew her voice anywhere. She was…he nearly dropped the phone. Had he called her? Had he…no, no, no. He had been clear. Call Toshi. This was a smart phone, it was smart enough to call the person that he told it to call…not that he was complaining.

Not much, anyway.

"Mob…hey. Long time no chat." Said Shimazaki. He may have been having a heart attack. All that coke and molly and fried food might have probably caught up with him. Maybe this was how it felt before you died…he could always ask Suzuki. Get that beatdown out of the way….and he knew that he was getting one. For nearly letting Suzuki's girlfriend die, for blowing his cover, and now for talking to Suzuki's daughter…someone who may not have wanted to talk to him.

It had been a VERY long time.

"I-I know. I've just…been busy, that's all. Really! I'm in charge of Tokyo HQ now and Tsuchiya keeps on trying to take Mukai away and…and Sho's birthday is coming up and then Christmas and then New Year's Eve and then there's Valentine's Day and Mukai's birthday and Dad's birthday and…and Golden Week and also…um…my birthday and at some point we're going to take over the world so…so it's been a lot." Said Mob. Shimazaki knew that she was a very busy person. She ranked above him and she had the workload to go with it…so maybe she wasn't just making excuses…or maybe he was overcorrecting. He had been trying to make their relationship seem worse in his head, before, but now he was trying to make it better…or maybe he was just trying to distract from the never ending ringing in his ear.

"Don't forget about White Day, Setsuban, Girl's Day, and the crying baby contest." Said Shimazaki

"There's a crying baby contest?" asked Mob

"Yeah, it's at this shrine thing me and Toshi went to once a long time ago. Two guys hold up babies and scare them. The one who cries the longest wins." Said Shimazaki

"That…that sounds terrible. Those poor little babies….I don't know why anyone would do something like that." Said Mob

"Eh, Toshi got a kick out of it." Said Shimazaki. Mob went quiet. For a minute he thought that he'd gone deaf in the other ear…which made no sense. Mob had probably just hung up on him. She was probably busy with something again…he didn't know if he was being bitter or realistic.

"They shouldn't have. I mean I know that they don't like babies but it's sad when they cry. I mean it's sad when anyone cries but it's especially sad when a baby cries." Said Mob

"It's worse when dogs cry. At least babies can kind of understand what's going on. Dogs crying is something else entirely." Said Shimazaki

"Oh. I've never heard a dog crying before, we just have hamsters and a cat…and fish, too, because Dad's girlfriend likes them and Sho likes her for some reason." Said Mob

"Sho's been drinking too much cheap beer again, or maybe smoking too much weed. He's not good drunk or high, and he probably killed off a few braincells, too. That woman is the biggest bitch that I've ever met in my life, and I've met some real bastards in my time." Said Shimazaki

"Shimazaki! I mean Ryou! I mean…I mean don't say things like that! That's not nice. I mean she can kind of be…that…btu you don't know her and I don't and…and we should be nice to one another. That's a rule I made and I can't break my own rule. Even Minegishi isn't that mean, mean enough to call people…that." Said Mob

"Where's Toshi at, anyway? This is their phone, right? Or is my phone fucking with me like some kind of bad future, robot takeover, kind of thing?" asked Shimazaki

"I think that might just be in the movies. Dad said that A.I. will never be the same as a person because it's perfection is too uncanny and it would destroy its self…and some other stuff that I forgot. Minegishi would probably know, they've been reading a lot of stuff like that lately about bad futures." Said Mob

"And Toshi is…?" asked Shimazaki. Truth be told he wanted to keep on talking to Mob, who couldn't have? But he had to get the hell off of this call. The more he talked to her now the more he would want to talk to her in the future. Mob was like coke. There was never enough of it and when you had it all you could think about was getting more. He needed to talk to Toshi. They were like weed. It was great to have and easier to find…and you could live without it. Shimazaki was not needy…normally. He was making an effort…but he'd gone deaf in one ear. He could be a little needy!

"Oh! Sorry! Minegishi is sleeping…it's almost three in the morning here. I just picked up their phone because it started vibrating and now I'm in the bathroom because Shibata's sleeping on the couch again, he and Tsuchiya are fighting a lot…it's not good…and Serizawa is sleeping so I don't want to wake him up. It's been kind of a big week for him. We have this new friend named Joseph and he said that we should-" said Mob

"I'm deaf on one side." said Shimazaki. He heard something break, a lot of something's break. Whatever hope Mob had, it seemed, of keeping quiet had gone out the window. He fully expected her to hang up now that everyone knew that she was talking to him…she cared who knew. He still didn't. He knew that it was weird, and it made people uncomfortable, but it wasn't like he wasn't into her. Sure, yeah, hate him if he had just been trying to sleep with her. He loved her, though, and love should have been worth a hell of a lot more than…than this.

Not that she loved him back. That mattered too.

"You're deaf now?! What happened?! Did you listen to music with your headphones on for too long? Because my Dad says that you can go deaf that way and-and if you're deaf then how can you hear me right now? What's happening-" said Mob

"It's only on one side. I was tailing your Dad's girlfriend on one of her two in the morning walks late at night down the secluded street and then, of course, someone tried to fuck with her and then to make a long story short some guy tried to shoot me at point blank, and missed by the way which is pathetic….I mean come on, I'm a better shot than that. I could have been a sniper if I had wanted to be. It's not like anyone could have prosecuted me, how the fuck do I fire a gun? I can't see shit…can't hear, either, now. out of one side. So…yeah. I was just calling to tell Toshi about these exciting new developments in my life." said Shimazaki. There was heavy breathing, now, from Mob…and muttering. He may have even caught the word 'bitch' passing her lips. If she had been near him he knew that he would have been able to hear her aura on both sides, not just the good one.

Mob was pissed off on his behalf…he liked it.

"Shimazaki, come home. Now. Fukuda can fix you and-and I don't care what my Dad says! His girlfriend is not more important than my friends and…and I'm allowed to reassign people and-and it's going to be so weird but-but you being able to hear is more important than everyone talking about what we…what I did!" said Mob. He could have kissed her. He wanted to kiss her….but that was how he'd gotten into this mess in the first place. He didn't care what everyone else thought, aside from Toshi, but she did and he cared about her.

He loved her.

"Mob, I love you." said Shimazaki. He said it…and waited. He didn't have to wait long. He hadn't been expecting her to say it back…but he had been hoping that she would have. If she had just said it then he would have been able to fix whatever had gone wrong….but there was nothing to fix.

Nothing that she wanted fixed, anyway.

"I've got to go now! I have to…to do things and…and people are waking up…goodbye!" said Mob before she hung up. Shimazaki sighed and put his phone in his pants pocket. Ok then. That was…loud and clear. She wasn't into him anymore. That was…a breakup. They happened. He had been into her, she hadn't been as into him as he was into her, and…and there was all that bullshit from Suzuki, and from everyone, and she was a pretty busy person. Busy with everyone but him and…and as much as he cared about her he cared about Toshi more.

He couldn't lose Toshi.

Toshi had been there for him for longer and they'd always made time for him whenever he needed them…that was the neediness talking. He didn't NEED them, he just missed them. He missed everything about them. The stiff, scratchiness of their hair…the softness of their skin…the gravelliness of their voice. Even the way they ever so slowly took up more and more of the bed each night until all he had was a thin sliver of mattress.

Better than two mattress halves.

He was moving, probably soon. He'd be back with Toshi soon, back to a real bed…or, more likely, the floor. They were still weirded out by the whole him and Mob thing…but they could work it out. He had to give Toshi a reason to stay with him. Him loving them wasn't enough. If Mob had taught him anything it was that love wasn't enough. Sometimes you loved someone and then you just wound up with a gaping hole in your chest where your heart should have been. Then you just had to live with it while it bled out and you got weaker and weaker until you died and your body was food for stray dogs, which was good since dogs were man's best friend and Toshi was…

He had no idea where he had been going with that.

Probably the ringing driving him insane. Or the years of drug use. Or all the blows to the head. Or maybe a little from each column. He would be done with this, soon. He'd be out of here and back with Toshi where he belonged. Back in a house full of people who thought that he was the scum of the earth…that wasn't new. Most people thought he was scum. He knew that he wasn't, that was what mattered. Toshi thought…he'd change Toshi's mind. They'd work it out, even if he had to keep on talking until he couldn't go on, they'd work it out.

He couldn't afford to lose them, too.