Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this necessary information dump… especially for the one who always had so much potential locked away.

~保護者~

"Hidden Potential"

~保護者~

Shadow took a seat in a random chair and idly watched as Tails disappeared into the depths of his underground lab in search of the equipment he needed. Seeing that he was still standing, he huffed slightly and said, "There are chairs. He will not object to you using one."

Toru waved this off. "I'd prefer to stand for now, and I saw the chairs." He smirked faintly, chuckling.

Before Shadow could do more than faintly roll his eyes, Tails returned with a specialized computer in his arms. It was one he'd built based very closely on the sort of device Gerald would have used to access and program Shadow's various implants and whatnot, and he needed it for his current task. As he set about setting it up on the table Shadow was beside he said, "My name is Tails, by the way. Sorry I didn't mention that before. I know that can be seen as rude for your people, but I promise I didn't mean it that way."

The chameleon shrugged. "I'm not bothered by it, but thanks for the thought." Toru smiled gently to the fox. "I'm Soul, or Toru as some know me." Shadow's ears perked at the second name that was given and he silently committed it to memory.

Tails smiled back briefly and went back to focusing on the wires. "Got it." Soon, he was turning his computer on and opening up connections and files, none of which evoked any sort of outward reaction from Shadow. "Hey, unless Shadow has any objections, I'd be open to answering any questions you might have as we do this." He looked questioningly at Shadow, who merely raised an eyebrow. His lack of comment was permission enough.

"My first question, then, is how this all works. Surely you can't just put those components into something and it work?"

"Well, in his case, it helps that all of these were put into him when he was still growing," Tails answered carefully. "Some, like various chips in his brain, were implanted before he was even 'born', so his brain can't function without them anymore. So, things like that definitely help these components function. But, that's admittedly one of the simplest explanations I could give."

"Do you think I'm dumb or ignorant?" Toru asked, blinking once. A faint light in his eyes would tell that he was intending this to be a joke, but he definitely wanted to see the reaction.

As he was looking away, Tails failed to see this and he cringed. "No, not at all," he was quick to assure. "But I know that sometimes I get too in depth with explanations and I didn't want to seem like I was talking nonsense."

Toru gave a wide smile at him. "Don't worry about it, Tails. I'm messing with you. I'm glad you made it simple, in any case."

The fox heaved a sigh of relief. "Chameleon humor is scary, for the record," he said as his fingers began rapidly typing on the keyboard.

The chameleon shrugged. "I'm tame, by chameleon standards. There are far worse."

"No shit," Shadow muttered, looking away.

Tails hummed softly under his breath before saying, "Okay, I'm gonna start activating the first function, Shadow. Can you see the descriptions for what they are, or is your access barred?"

"I never had access to any of the files," Shadow answered shortly, "or anything else he directly controlled."

"I can explain, then, if you want to know before I give you access."

"Fine."

With a nod, Tails said, "Okay. So, I'm actually going to back track a bit and go over what you already have and make sure everything's functioning properly. Alright?" Shadow waved him on, so Tails continued. "Right, so this file documents how you had special surgeries and experiments done on you when you were about two. Specifically, they were on your lungs and heart and make it so that you can survive in environments where most can't without protective gear. Has all of that been functioning normally, to your knowledge? I can't really test that right now, much less here."

"It has," Shadow answered.

"Glad to hear it. Next up: 'Subject can withstand severe blood loss due to work done on the heart, forever altering how much blood needs to be flowing through the subject's body at any given time for the subject to remain alive. A newly installed chip in the heart keeps it beating slower than normal while perfectly sustaining the subject, and blood can be redirected from damaged areas if need be.'" Tails glanced at Shadow. "Unless I'm mistaken, these functions are all working perfectly fine. I've not noticed anything that would indicate otherwise, and we saw you redirect blood flow after that fight with Tein left you so badly damaged."

"Things are functioning properly," Shadow confirmed simply.

Toru raised an eyebrow. "Tein?"

"Erm… an evil Immortal," Tails said. "He's dead now."

The chameleon nodded. "Gotcha."

Tails returned his attention to Shadow. "Moving on… the chips in your brain. We haven't checked on them too in depth since that attack, so, I want to make sure they're working properly as well."

"Fine," Shadow replied again.

"Right. First one, responsible for the almost impossibly computer-like understanding of guns and explosives that you have, how to use them, build them, repair them, and so on. Functioning normally I would assume, but I have to ask."

"Yes."

"I can attest to that," Toru said, smirking. Shadow glanced at him. "Shot that demon several times, in fact."

Tails smiled. "Actually, the second chip plays a big role in that ability as well. It ensures his aim is always perfect, the exception being in extreme cases only - such as when his vision manages to become blurred due to serious injury, illness, or so on. Even in those situations, it should always be close to perfect." He looked at Shadow again. "Shadow, did every bullet hit where you intended?"

"Yes."

"Was the image produced on your eyes blurred at all, or was everything as it should be?"

"Everything was fine."

With a nod, Tails turned to Toru. "A question for you now, since you were there. He's meant to be able to aim and fire in an instant once he chooses to do so. Did you observe any delays between these two actions, or was the transition between 'aim' and 'shoot' seamless and instant?"

Toru shrugged. "To the best of my knowledge on seamless shooting of guns, yeah. Pretty instant."

"Got it." Tails typed some more before stopping. "Okay, third chip. This one allows you to connect to all manner of computers and other forms of tech, and we know that's functioning." He gestured meaningfully to the computer with a small grin, and Shadow huffed in slight amusement.

"The next one?" Shadow prompted, as he had no idea which chips Tails was reading about in which order and therefore was helpless to guess.

"Right, the fourth one. It messes with the pain signals your brain would otherwise naturally send out when you're injured, the one exception being in the case of very large and/or serious wounds." He looked Shadow over. "...No wounds of such kind, so I'm guessing you didn't feel anything."

"No."

"Were you hit at all, though?"

"Yes."

Tails again turned to Toru. "Did you happen to see that?"

The chameleon nodded. "He was thrown into the air by a punch from that demon. Landed in a tree as he came down."

"Okay. He didn't feel anything consciously, but were there any signs of subconscious pain you could see?"

"Didn't seem fazed at all by it. He went straight to shooting her."

"That's good," Tails murmured. He scrolled down within the file and sighed. "Shadow, do you remember the side effect that goes along with this one?"

Shadow frowned. "Yes."

The fox nodded, then looked at Toru. "This might seem out of the blue, but… are you planning on travelling with Shadow a lot? If you are, I want you to be aware of this just in case."

"I suppose so," Toru shrugged. "I enjoy being around him enough." Shadow's right ear flicked and he looked at Toru silently.

Tails seemingly missed what Toru had just said or, else, he ignored it for the moment. "Okay. So this is something Gerald (the guy who 'made' him) classified as a 'weakness', one he never found out how to fix before he died. Basically, for some reason, while Shadow's sense of pain is normally close to nonexistent, cold water registers to him as severe pain. Suddenly being touched by it, splashed, or whatever else acts like a sort of 'shock' to his entire system. It makes him freeze up, his thoughts typically blank out, and he's left vulnerable and unresponsive for up to twenty or thirty seconds." He looked sympathetically at his friend, who just crossed his arms. "He'll always snap back out of it on his own and be fine, though. Most of the time he won't even realize that he blanked out. It can be dangerous for him in combat situations, though."

Toru nodded slowly. "Overloads him with pain, essentially, then? That's what it sounds like."

"That's basically it, yeah," Tails agreed.

"Got it. I'll keep it in mind."

"Especially when we're in your homelands," Tails cautioned. "He usually makes a point to not stick around during your guys' many storms, or at least shelter in Espio's house, but it's possible that staying away isn't an option right now. And the house… well. You know."

"I'll figure something out should that come to be an issue," Toru answered.

"Thanks," Tails smiled. He returned his attention to the screen. "Moving on… the fifth chip, Shadow, is what makes you have such a hard time experiencing fear. Judging by earlier," Shadow scowled slightly and looked away, earning a sympathetic glance, "it's either doing its job and your emotions really peaked earlier, or their effect on you is lessening. Either way. I can't honestly say it's a bad thing. Experiencing fear is healthy for a variety of reasons, after all."

Shadow's scowl deepened a little, but all he said was, "The next one."

Shrugging, Tails did as he was indirectly asked and continued. "The sixth one is what allows your mind to handle scanning things and gathering high levels of data and knowledge within a matter of seconds, then from there allowing you to instantly understand what was uncovered. I assume that everything's been fine in that department, since you've been utilizing this ability a fair bit lately."

"It is functioning fine," Shadow nodded.

"Alright. Last one, which gives you robotic reflexes. Any dip in performance there, or no?"

"No."

"Great." Tails started opening different files, but then paused and leaned past the computer to look at Shadow again. "Oh, hey, your hand. Is it doing alright?"

Blinking, Shadow silently lifted his hand (the very same one Tails had worked on the day Sonic had been revived) and showed he could easily move it without any grinding of metal, stiffness, and so on. All the bones, ligaments, and so on had been replaced many years ago by Tails himself with robotic parts as the only means of repairing the appendage from an unprecedented attack that had done otherwise irreversible damage. As things were currently, everything was functioning as it should have been.

Pleased with this, Tails nodded. "And you can still feel just fine with it as well?" Shadow returned the nod. "Good. Glad to hear it."

"Your hand is entirely metal?" Toru asked, blinking once.

Crimson eyes glanced his way. "Unfortunately," was the bland response.

Toru nodded slowly. "Pretty badass, if you ask me."

This evoked a small laugh from Tails. "That's one way of looking at it." Shadow glanced at Tails with a disapproving frown over the laughter, then just huffed. Toru smiled, shrugging. Tails moved on. "Right, anyway… time to start turning things on now. You ready, Shadow? We can take it slow if you need. We'll be taking our time a bit, regardless, but-"

Shadow cut him off, but not meanly. "I would prefer it be done as quickly as possible."

"I understand that," Tails assured. His eyes roved the screen. "Okay… so let's start with really basic functions. Heat sensors and trackers, facial and voice recognition software - only effective on faces and voices you've encountered before -, that sort of thing." As he spoke, his fingers never stopped typing. "Everything okay so far?"

As he adjusted to everything that was happening, Shadow blinked multiple times and even frowned vaguely to himself. "...Yes."

Tails moved on as quickly as he dared so as not to delay things too much. "The next one is a function that allows you to analyze, memorize, and get data about DNA from blood samples. Such data being things like what species the DNA is from, if known, and exactly which individual of that species it came from. Again, if known. This data can be gathered by scans at times, but also through you making physical contact - even just lightly touching a finger to - the blood in question."

That all sounded familiar. In fact, Shadow was pretty sure he'd done that before more than a few times. Tails activating the ability again seemed to dredge up distant memories that furthered his suspicions. "...Alright."

"Sounds interesting. Enables you to figure out the identity of someone you were fighting if you have access to any of their blood for some reason, among other situations," Toru commented easily. "Useful against those who try to keep their identity hidden."

"Very," Tails agreed. He typed a little and soon was saying, "Next up is a biofluid recognition software. It works the same as the previous function, essentially, but this one is only effective when you're dealing with the biofluids that work to keep androids and certain cyborgs alive." He paused, then added, "Pretty sure this only works with the biofluids present in Gerald's lifetime, so we'll definitely have to upgrade this later on since there are a higher number of biofluid types these days."

"There are more like him?" Toru dared to ask, frowning faintly.

"There did not used to be," Shadow answered after a long moment. "The rest that Gerald created could not… survive without the aid of then highly advanced equipment. They died off. In more recent centuries, others have taken up the work of creating life in these manners, and they were more successful. Though, their creations were seldom built with combat in mind."

"Generally, people built these androids and cyborgs for the sake of having servants and the like," Tails sighed. "I'm not surprised word never reached the Highlands and other remote areas, but within the modernized parts of Mobius there was a whole revolution carried out to earn these people their rights and freedoms. It was a huge to-do, but one that ended well ultimately." He smiled in Shadow's direction. "Actually, he was the one that led those people to their freedom. I don't think I've ever seen you get so passionate about something, Shadow, before or since."

Shadow looked away and was silent for a long moment. Eventually, he murmured a very simple explanation for his actions back then. "...It mattered. That was all."

"If you got involved, I'm sure it mattered a lot," Toru said, smiling.

When Shadow didn't respond, Tails thought it best to carry on. "Okay, so the last recognition system I'm seeing so far is fluid recognition. It's basically the same as the two before and you carry out the function in the same manner, but this one only pertains to the fluids involved in keeping certain kinds of robots and machinery functioning. We'll need to update this later on as well, but like with the biofluid one it's not imperative right now." As he spoke, he activated the system in question and Shadow merely nodded.

Once that was done, Tails said, "This one's an upgrade to your current scanners. It's specifically an environmental scanner that lets you check on the health of plants and animals in an area, determine how safe or not an area and its inhabitants are, if there are any hazardous materials nearby or in the air, and so on. These scans are carried out instantaneously, like a normal scan, and understanding the data should be just as fast." Just like before, he talked while actively turning the system on. Shadow made no immediate comment and didn't even bother to nod this time.

Seeing as how Shadow was staying quiet, Tails continued. "Next up, memory storage system." His eyes quickly scanned the screen. "It says here that this is so powerful that so long as you don't willingly purge any memories you'll be fully capable of retaining them with perfect clarity forever." His ears soon lowered and he added more softly, "...And it being switched off long before you escaped from the ARK, by the looks of it, probably played a role in why you remember so little back then. With this, the experiments and various traumas and whatnot wouldn't have been able to make you forget so much."

A long moment passed, but eventually Shadow just offered a tiny shrug. "It does not matter. I see no point in agonizing over what was lost when I do not want it to begin with."

Somehow, Tails managed to perk up slightly. "You know, since it's coming from you… I think I can be made to agree with that." He switched it on without further ado. He typed some more. "Alright… so preconstruction of actions and movements is the next one.'

Shadow frowned and looked at him. "What?"

"Getting to that," Tails said patiently. He patiently explained, "It allows you to determine all potential paths through an area and see what paths would take longest or be safest and so on. It also lets you plan any and all movements and actions you're about to take, if you choose to, in order to achieve a certain goal. Such as, for example, planning exactly where to place each foot in order to run up the side of a building before ever setting foot on the wall. It may not sound like much, but being able to perceive time as standing still so that you can plan is insane."

Though briefly silent, Shadow noted that Tails was reading still and asked, "What else?"

"It'll also let you preconstruct entire fights, planning your movements and anticipating every possible reaction as well as any supercomputer with a body could," Tails grinned. He set about activating this function. "Of course, getting used to being able to do that will take time and training. It's noted in the files that you never got started on training with preconstruction before your escape." Shadow only gave a single slow nod.

"How deeply can it preconstruct? Surely since there's data he'd be lacking about how people fight and all, he wouldn't be able to fully predict the whole fight."

"That's where all the scanning abilities come in," Tails answered. "Fight for even a short while, and people like him, his brother, or his dad can learn a crazy amount about a person. It's not too different from your own people, actually. At least, by Espio's telling. So, things like that will help. I don't have any specific knowledge, though. Nothing else about this was really noted here."

"I'd be down to help with the training on that, in any case," Toru shrugged. The idea of that being one of Shadow's abilities deeply interested him.

Though Shadow said nothing, Tails was smiling still. "Somehow, I don't think he'd be opposed to that." He opened the next file. "Okay… so this one is called 'tagging'. It'll let you place a digital 'tag' on anyone or anything that you're tracking, allowing you to keep track of them with your eyes. Think of it like having a holographic arrow over a person's head that only you can see. And even when the person moves out of sight, that little arrow will still be there to let you know they are there."

That certainly had many potential uses. Shadow was already thinking of some ways he might like to utilize that feature in various combat situations while Tails activated it. "The next?" he found himself asking barely a second after Tails finished.

"Weak point scanners," Tails said. "In a nutshell, this lets you scan people, animals, structures, or whatever else for any and all weak points, which are then 'highlighted' faintly to show you where best to aim to maximize damage." He read a little more. "It also says that these scanners will give you constant feedback on the strength or structural integrity of any given weak point. So, if you're blasting away at some huge robot's ankle or something, it'll tell you how much more damage that ankle can take before it breaks. You do have to deliberately carry out these scans, but like with all the others it's linked to your thought processes, meaning a simple thought that you want to do that will be enough." He activated it without waiting for a reply, not that Shadow gave one this time.

"Interesting. The ability to locate a weak point is… crucial in many fights," Toru thought aloud.

"It is," Shadow agreed quietly.

Things fell silent, but Tails was soon talking again, anyway. "Looks like you have some self-sustaining components. That is, they allow you to sustain yourself, it's not the components… Anyway-" He read the screen quickly. "Anyway, it looks like this is the reason why you don't need to sleep and eat as much as normal people. Aside from… well, the influence of you-know-what." He tossed Shadow a sympathetic look, but Shadow didn't react to it. "This are active already, so I'll just leave them be. That fine with you?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Close to a full minute passed as Tails opened a new file and read it over, then his eyes swung around to Shadow again. "I can't say I'm surprised, but you managed to break through your programming?"

Blinking, Shadow looked over at him. "...What?"

"This software literally just acts to suppress the emotions you, like anyone else, were born with. Except, at some point, you forcibly broke out of that programming. Like, to the point where it can't be turned back on, even assuming I wanted to." Shadow just sort of stared. He had no recollection of this whatsoever.

Toru blinked. "So, something that should've been commanding him, essentially… he broke through that?"

"Yeah," Tails confirmed. "Yeah, he did."

"Badass."

Upon hearing this, Shadow looked over at him. "You say that frequently," he observed with a slight frown, though not one of upset. He was more… confused, he supposed. Curious, even.

Toru shrugged. "I reserve it for the people that deserve it." With no comment to make on that, Shadow again fell silent.

Tails moved on. "Okay, so there are a few less intensive ones I'll be activating together. First there's memory imprinting, which allows you to imprint any or all of your memories onto any hard drive, computer, robot, or whatever if you so choose. Next are hacking and systems checks, which you already know about and have - these are just upgrades is all. There's also language conversion, which lets you instantly convert any language you see, hear, or otherwise encounter into a language you understand. Essentially, a flawless translator."

He activated these one by one before continuing. "Next up is reconstruction/simulation of events. With this, you can reconstruct events that took place in the past by taking in whatever data is leftover. So, say you were at a crime scene. You could use traces of DNA, footprints, bodies, broken doors, whatever was there and use that to visually reconstruct what happened within your mind and see the crime that took place."

"Do you know how far back it can go, or does it only do it for a select period of time?" Toru asked.

"It seems like so long as he has enough data to work with, he can more or less reconstruct anything," Tails answered. "Though, the longer ago an event was, the less likely it'll be that he can get a full picture or, say, know the identities of participants. But he'll still be able to gather a lot more than others, especially when he uses this in tandem with other abilities of his." Toru nodded, but didn't respond further.

Shadow again stayed silent, so Tails pressed on. "Okay, so earlier we introduced a weakness, so I'm happy to say that there's one system in here that appears to exist for the purpose of helping with a different weakness."

His attention sharpening, Shadow said, "Explain."

"I will." Tails turned to Toru. "Really quick, just so you understand, electricity to any degree is dangerous for him. A shock can do a lot of damage to a cyborg, especially one with so much metal coating their very bones and the like. It's dangerous to the point where an electric shock too severe can kill him."

"Tch," Toru frowned. "What are the chances of us running into an enemy with powers like that, aside from demons?"

"Not sure," Tails admitted. "We haven't so far, but that doesn't mean he's never in danger. I mean, for example, he can't even be around me when I'm building sometimes since the risk of electricity arcing from my work subjects to him and severely harming him is so great."

"Shouldn't run into it much within the highlands, at the least," Toru murmured. "That much I can assure."

"Good to hear. And even if something does happen somewhere, this should help." Tails turned his attention back to Shadow, who was listening intently. "This is literally just shock absorption. It really needs more detail on it about how it functions and whatnot, but the gist of it is that it'll help you be able to take minor shocks and even slightly serious ones without serious damage - assuming the shocks don't last too long. Oh, and it's active already, so we're good there." Shadow nodded once.

"Would there be a way to expand the capability of the absorption?" Toru asked, tilting his head.

"I'm not too sure without being able to gather more data," Tails replied, "but if it's possible I definitely will be improving this in the future."

"If you can, it sounds like that would be very important," Toru shrugged. "Though, I suppose we wouldn't have much time as of now."

Gerald actually did something good. Who would have thought. ...Well, except, he's the reason why Shadow's weak to this to begin with… so maybe not. "Not now, no. But I'll get on it as soon as I can," Tails promised. He moved on after that. "Next up is the system… oh, wait, this is already on. Duh." He laughed a little. "I was looking at the Black Blood circulation system, but obviously it's on already." Shadow huffed, maybe amused.

"Er, 'Black Blood'?" Toru asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, right." Tails smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. That's the… not at all creative name for the blood that circulates through the blood of his ancestors from one of his parent's species. Normally it's toxic to other living beings and even so-called 'halflings' will slowly die from it, but this helps him not suffer that fate." Good thing the blood was more diluted in Lia, or else we might have one day been forced to implement such a thing in her.

Shadow thought for a moment. "...There was something more to it," he recalled slowly.

"Yeah, actually," Tails confirmed. "See, this blood actually acts as a strange biological defense mechanism as well. For one thing, it can obviously kill any enemies who come into contact with it, resulting in their own blood becoming poisoned. But, more uniquely, it can harden the skin in any desired location, acting like natural armor that'd actually be pretty hard to penetrate for a lot of people."

Toru blinked a few times. "Wow. That's… interesting, to say the least."

"Mm-hm," Tails agreed. A bit of quiet fell over them, but it was brief. "Okay, so the next one's a scanner which lets you gather data such as individual and species temperaments, natural weaponry, and so on of animals, so-called 'monsters' like demons, and other beasts. So, that'll be useful."

"Hn," Shadow murmured.

Tails barely acknowledged the sound. "This one is… a big upgrade to your general scanners and the like. Looks like, with it, you'll be able to determine whether there are valuable - be they valuable for the sake of a task you're performing or monetarily - resources in the area, a person's likely blood-alcohol level, an individual's likely heritage, and so on. Plus it'll let you pull off feats like tracking samples of DNA or specific foot or fingerprints and the like when tracking someone."

Toru blinked a few times. "Well, you won't need most of that around chameleons, certainly," he joked lightly.

Shadow let out an indelicate snort. "The hell I won't," he lightly shot back. "How else am I meant to find your stab-happy asses when I need to?" Tails grinned and laughed a bit.

A small smirk found itself a place on the chameleon's face. "Good luck."

Stifling another laugh, Tails teased, "Alright, guys, no bickering in my workshop. We're almost done, anyway, so you can take it outside if you want to do it that badly."

With a huff, Shadow asked, "How many are left?"

"Just one," Tails answered him. "It's labelled as 'Overclock'. The details are sparse and stuff seems to be missing, but basically it says that it allows you to push yourself and all your abilities to perform well beyond their normal limits for a time, at risk of severely damaging things or yourself as a whole from excessive heat and more. You could, for example, increase your reaction time to as much a one-thousandth of a second or less so as to help increase your ability to move faster by some ungodly degree."

"How severe could the damage be?" Toru asked.

Ears now a bit low, Tails was forced to admit, "I have no idea. But… at the same time, his body does really well with heat due in part to his family's affinity for fire, so damage to any living tissue isn't as likely as it is for everything else. So it seems to me that this was fully intended for use but was never perfected." He pursed his lips. "...And I have no idea whether or not we should risk activating it." Shadow, for his part, stayed silent for the moment.

"He has to consciously make use of it, right?"

"Yeah, it's not automatic or anything."

"It… could be useful, and since he's got that affinity for fire, we do know he'd handle the heat well," Toru shrugged. "I see it as more of a pro than a con, having it on, but my opinion doesn't matter as much as Shadow's. His body and all."

At that point, Shadow let out a breath. "Just activate it. If I need it later and I do not have access to it, it could be a death sentence."

"...I guess you're right," Tails reluctantly agreed. He did what he needed to do, then sighed. "Just be careful, okay? Especially since you were never trained on how to utilize this, and it's not like you can work it out for yourself right now." Shadow merely nodded and stood while Tails disconnected from the hedgehog's systems and unplugged everything.

"So, that's actually everything?" Toru asked, curious.

"Everything that's not already active," Tails said. "Or, rather, wasn't."

"Damn," Toru murmured. "There's a lot."

"Definitely." As Tails spoke, Shadow started to head toward the stairs leading to the exit.

Toru moved after Shadow without hesitation while Tails finished cleaning up, crossing his arms lightly. "So, you're still full of surprises, eh?"

Shadow offered a vague shrug. "Not necessarily."

"I mean, some of that surprised me, so I'm betting that there's more to you that would continue to surprise me."

"...Perhaps."

Toru smiled. "Keep it up. I enjoy being caught off guard sometimes."

Shadow raised an eyebrow at him. "An unusual statement," he commented. But, as with earlier, he wasn't remotely upset. Away from the stairs but slowly following behind, Tails just smiled.

Toru shrugged. "I'm not like all of my people in many ways. You'd be hard strapped to find someone similar enough to me to make a proper comparison."

"So I have gathered," Shadow answered. Then he said, "Being different has… uses, in some ways."

"It is. Warrants some respect from some that I know. At times," Toru explained. "Sometimes it leaves others less… willing to agree. Oh well."

They stepped outside, and Shadow's response fell by the wayside when he realized he could sense someone in the woods a short distance away. His eyes glowed faintly as he conducted several scans, and he frowned. "...Someone is out there." He paused, then felt the need to clarify, "No one threatening, but they do not belong."

Tails caught up right about then and looked on in confusion. "Wait, someone's in the woods?" Shadow just nodded.

Toru immediately reached for his tachi, frowning. "Lead the way."

"Leave it sheathed," was all Shadow said as he began walking at a brisk pace into the trees. Shrugging slightly, Tails hurried after him with Toru not far behind.

~保護者~

5,780 words this time. Hope you all enjoyed, and many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for his help and support. Posted (at about _) 06-04-20.