It had been a while since he'd just found the emptiest stretch of road he could and moved. Faster. Faster. If he could just go faster…

Lights flashed by, a mesmerizing blur of human desperation amid the quiet. His helmet had been specially designed to block out the sounds of the wind. It couldn't do it completely, he still had to hear the traffic, but it certainly left things silent enough for him to think.

"Raidou."

Count on Narumi-san to break the quiet thrall.

"What?"

"Daisuke's found a case."

Daisuke. Go figure. Just the person he didn't want to see right now.

"How bad?"

"He didn't send details, but something is definitely causing things to move around. Something about evidence being tampered with."

"Narumi-san."

"What?"

"You're a terrible liar."

"Sorry. Just meet him in Ueno Park, okay?"

Raidou sighed. "Why are you pushing this?"

"You turned off, didn't you? I'm sure you don't want to talk to him right now, but you probably need to. Besides, I think he really does have some cases he wants to talk about."

"I'm not his assistant anymore."

"You're still his nephew."

His nephew, huh? He always thought of Daisuke as uncle, but it always felt off to shift that around. Really, he was Daisuke's son.

"Raidou?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to be honest with him."

"Just with myself?"

"I'd appreciate that. You worry me when you're like this."

"I know."

"What happened in there?"

Raidou thought for a moment. The world felt so much slower now that he had dropped speeds, everything exactly where it belonged.

"Nightmares. Chaos. Truth? I don't really know. I found…" He took a deep breath. "I found something I had discarded. Lost? Narumi-san?"

"What?"

"Raidou or Akira? Who's better?"

"What? Don't ask something like that."

"Why?" He knew why though. Narumi-san had cried the day he left and, as he understood from Vincent, had confronted his grandfather after he'd left. She'd been beside herself with rage and grief. Except for the sight of those tears the day he'd left, he'd never seen any of it.

"It doesn't matter. You're the person I grew up with and the person I now run an agency with. Nothing will ever change that."

She hadn't seen his Shadow and, if he were honest with himself, he'd like to keep it that way.

"Thanks, big sis."

"Shut up."

He couldn't quite bring himself to smile, but he could feel his frown lift just a little.

If slowing to speed limit had felt sluggish, actually hopping off the bike when he arrived at Ueno Park felt like the world had stopped. For a moment he just stood there, wondering if it really had. Seeing someone walking towards him broke that illusion.

"Guess you hadn't gotten very far," Daisuke greeted with a smile and a wave. His basic, and rather cheap, suit had gotten disheveled along with his hair, but even casual the man's steady steps and easily scanning eyes betrayed a level of competence.

Raidou shrugged. With Daisuke he could choose to use words or not. The man knew how to read him, and just about anyone else.

The plains clothes detective lifted a convenience store bag. "Onigiri?"

With a nod, Raidou wandered over to the nearest bench. It was late enough that the park was empty of all but a few couples.

Daisuke tossed him a rice ball. "Eat up. I got four of the things and," he added, "none of them are sweet."

"Thanks."

"No problem. I'll just eat some ice cream." With a grin, Daisuke pulled out a chocolate ice cream cone. Sure enough, the moment Raidou identified the flavor he started munching on his onigiri.

"I thought the onigiri would be more filling."

Raidou nodded as he chewed. He hadn't realized how hungry he was, but now that he was eating it occurred to him that he hadn't in quite a while.

"Feeling better?"

"A bit."

"Amazing how much food helps a kid."

Raidou grabbed the next rice ball right out of Daisuke's lap. "Narumi-san said you might have some cases?"

"Yeah. I had her look over them, but there were a few she wasn't sure about. Any demons with a penchant for stealing ice cream?"

"Things are really boring right now, aren't they?"

"Hey, this is one of those jobs where you pray for the dull days. I'm helping some newbies out while I've got the time. The owner of a local ice cream parlor has definitely been getting a large amount stolen lately. You'd think if a human could break in they'd steal cash."

"Demons do like ice cream. You should contact the Yatagarasu and ask them to send a newbie devil summoner."

"I can do that?"

"We are an organization."

"I guess, but it never occurred to me."

Raidou shook his head, and grabbed the third onigiri.

"You really shouldn't eat so fast."

"Long day."

"I gathered. Care to tell me about it?"

Raidou leaned back. "Just long."

"Raidou, you make us all worry when you hide things."

"I'm not...hiding. I don't know how to answer."

"You can always start with the facts."

"The facts?" Raidou shook his head, not in negative, but in a desperate attempt to clear it. "Daisuke, what do you think of me, as I am now?"

"What do I think of you?"

"Hmm. Would, heh, would you have been happier if I had never become Raidou?"

"What? Who can say? You're who you are."

"And you're dodging the question. You answer doesn't need to be absolute, just a sense, that's fine, but I want to know. When I was hurt you called out for Akira, not for Raidou. When I became Raidou, I threw Akira away. Only Gouto ever gets to call me that."

"Like names matter. I never thought you changed all that much. Just what you'd expect of a fifteen year old kid with a ton of responsibility. Names had nothing to do with it."

"But I-"

"Not hearing it. You're you. A name has nothing to do with it and, honestly, while you had changed by the time you came back, you've always been you. That's why I called out to Akira, because you're still who you were. We're all who we were, and who we are."

"Who we were and who we are?"

"Everyone changes, and I think everyone changes both ways. I definitely have a shorter temper now that I've got people I need to lead. Maybe that's for the worse, but it happened because I can't afford to wait when there are lives on the line. It's not so different for you. Sure, your priority is to do your job as Raidou. We all give something up for what we feel is important. Honoring your grandfather and the faith he put in you, that's important."

"I'm just a shell of someone else's dreams."

"I think a lot kids feel that way. You've just held onto it too long. Besides, there's nothing wrong with trying to keep your old man happy. I can honestly say I'm proud of who you and what you do. Aren't you?"

"Proud?"

"Yeah. Come on, Raidou. Your job is dangerous, sure, but amazing. You're practically a superhero. You protect Japan and no one knows its you but those you work with and trust. You save lives. You save the country. No one can claim to work on the scale you do, not on a daily basis."

"I guess… I am proud of what I do. I'm just not sure I'm proud of who I am."

"Well, you'll just have to become someone you can be proud of. If you're proud of what you do, that shouldn't be too hard, and know that I've got your back. We all do."

"Someone I can be proud of?"

"Do you even know what that someone would look like?"

Raidou closed his eyes. Yeah. He kind of did. It would look like a slightly less crazy version of Akira.

"Me," he whispered. Now to figure out how to become that person without committing high treason.

Author's Note: Not quite how I had intended, but I needed to get writing. I intend to focus more on the Shadow as well, but that's what was giving me issues so I started here.

This is largely to let my readers know that I still have this story very, very, obsessively much on the brain and that I'm finally putting it to words on a page once again. It will probably be a bit before my next update, while I get through the rough patch that stopped me in the first place, but I hope to have things flying by the end of that.

There's a lot of stories in this story.

Please review too. I especially want to know what people think of Raidou. What are his major flaws? Quirks? Good traits? Would you be friends with this guy? Why or why not? There are some things I'm going to have to get across, but I think a lot of it can wait until Akira is dealt with. Hope you guys enjoy.