Yu pulled the door open with a sigh, glad for the mild December weather and the comforting silence of the quiet town, so unlike last year.
He'd expected the Dojima household to be empty at this time after school; Nanako's piano lessons and increasing social calendar took her more and more out of the house. Uncle...well, he was trying, but old habits did die hard. He'd be home in time for dinner, but without a new partner, he did have his fair share of work.
So when his foot hit another set of shoes, already left haphazardly in the front hall, next to a Junes bag, it wasn't hard to guess who was the owner of the pair; his uncle was a man of habit, and Yu suspected the older man's closet was full of the exact same pair of dress shoes, bought in bulk.
Still… it was unusually early for the detective to be home. Had something happened?
Only one way to find out.
The teen didn't have far to go to find the man in question. Dojima was seated at his usual space on the couch, his elbows on his thighs as he sat, hunched over. He was playing with something in his hands. Dull gray eyes stared at the blank screen of the TV. If he had heard his nephew come home, he didn't acknowledge it.
"...Uncle?"
As he drew closer, Yu realized what was in his uncle's hands. A thick, metal bar, like those found at construction sites, that had to be a foot or so in length. Or, at least, it had at some point; Yu watched in terrified fascination as Dojima, with his bare hands, bent it into a knot, like the steel was nothing more than a length of rope.
"I haven't craved a cigarette, not since we came back." The bar groaned as Dojima twisted it onto itself. "I've had more energy in that time than I've had in years." The ends were curved into a bow shape, as if the detective was tying a shoelace. "I got frustrated at work and cracked a goddamn cement pillar in half." The knot of steel fell from his grasp, and he buried his face in his hands. "What the hell is happening to me?"
Yu didn't have an answer.
He didn't even know where to get one, for that matter.
"I'm sorry, Uncle."
For a moment, Dojima wanted to blame him. He wasn't the one suddenly scared if he wasn't careful and didn't keep himself in check, that someone would get hurt. His nephew had been the lucky one, who fell into the TV and came out unscathed.
But part of facing yourself, facing your inner thoughts and demons, was being honest with all of yourself. He leaned back into the couch, scratching his head with a sigh. "Don't say you're sorry. It's not your fault; I should have believed you when you told me the first time. And unless one of those personas you've got in that library of yours can incite a prison riot to have Adachi pull me in there, I don't think that's your doing, either." Dojima shot his nephew a wiry grin, who returned it with a relieved one of his own. "Adachi, on the other hand…"
The grin became a dark smirk. "Well, if he's as tough as you say he is, I'm going to have a lot of fun kicking his ass."
"Are you sure you want to fight? If the TV world is really affecting you in ways we don't know how fix, if might be dangerous for you to join us…."
Dojima's snort of dismissal cut his nephew off. "One, Adachi is my responsibility. If I wasn't visiting him in the jail that day, he'd have never been able to get back in there to begin with. Two… I want answers. You're right, I don't know what's going on with me. But if that 'TV world' really did a number on me, I'm not going to find answers out here, am I?"
Yu sighed. He knew before even suggesting it that he'd lose this battle. "I wonder if I got my obstinate nature from your side of the family."
His uncle laughed at that. "Damned straight. Now maybe you might to begin to understand the hell you and your merry band of 'investigators' put me through last year."
"That's cold, uncle-" Anything else the teen was going to say was lost with the sound of the door opening, then shutting with a slam.
"I'm home! Big Bro, I…" Nanako slowed as she noted her father on the couch and the worried look on her cousin's face. "Are you two fighting again?"
One of these days, I'm going to have to explain that most adult conversations isn't 'fighting'. Really, where was she learning these things from? "No, no, princess, we're just talking. I promise." She scooted next to him, grabbing her father in a tight hug. He slid his own arm gently around her, as if she was made of glass.
Then again, if his newfound strength held, she might as well have been. After all that he almost lost last year, he was damned sure no one was going to ever hurt her again.
Even he had to kill them himself.
Nanako's gaze shifted to the floor, then she slipped out Dojima's embrace to reach down. "Daddy, what's this?"
The young girl needed to use both hands to pick up the knotted metal bar that Dojima had dropped earlier.
Dojima winced, trying desperately to come up with a white lie that would explain...
His nephew came to the rescue. "It's an art project, Nanako-chan."
"Really? It's cute!"
His nephew was a little *too* good at this...
Despite all the energy he'd felt earlier, Dojima drifted off to sleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He rarely dreamed, but after a while of wonderful nothingness, his feet found a path in the darkness, and he noted a prick of light in the distance. As he walked, the gray light got larger and larger, and the path beneath his feet took a reddish hue, like clay tiles. Slowly, the gray became an enveloping mist, like the sickening months long fog from the year before. Something, deep in his mind, told him his was not a simple dream.
The figure in front of him confirmed it.
Dojima glared at the thing called his 'shadow', a growl in his throat. "I thought I was done dealing with you. What, am I not done 'accepting' you yet? Or do you just need a rematch?"
The shadow with his face smirked. "Dealing with the worst of yourself takes time, Ryotaro. You should know better than anyone. But, you've started accepting me, and that means no rematches. Not this time, at least."
The ever present fire in his core sparked his earlier fears. His eyes narrowed as his fist clenched. "Are you the one responsible for what's happening to me?"
"Oh, partially. But," the shadow held up a hand, "I was just a pawn in a much larger game. You should feel honored she chose you."
"Chosen for what? And who is this 'she' you keep blathering on about?"
"She who protects wishes." A dark blue strip of paper floated down through the fog, and Dojima caught it as it blew by. After a moment, he recognized it as the tanzaku he'd made during the Tanabata festival this year. A silly little thing, made at Nanako's insistence.
To protect this city and my family and to never let the events of last year happen again .
He frowned in confusion. What did this have to do with anything?
His shadow read his mind. "I thought I was just getting lucky, when she showed up, offering me the liqueur of vitality to get you up and fighting. But she knew you'd beat me. That our nephew would come in, and save the day. No, she just wanted to give it to you, to keep striving towards your wish. After all, you were starting to worry you'd have to give it up, weren't you?"
It was true. After Adachi's conviction, top brass treated him with kid gloves. He was being passed over for more and more assignments, no matter how he'd been the only one who'd believed that there had more to the case that just the Mitsuo kid, besides Shirogane. They'd made the right excuses, of course. 'You're not the young man you used to be, Dojima-san,' they'd said, 'And after your accident...we want to make sure you're well enough…' Get promoted to a powerless desk sergeant position, and he'd be out of their hair for good.
It'd had been a bitter, ugly truth in front of him. He might never have been back, pounding the pavement, where he needed to be. Unable to protect Inaba, and everyone he held dear.
"But apparently even goddesses can make mistakes. She didn't think you'd take to its power so well. Guess we're closer to Izanagi's bloodline than she knew." The shadow grinned. "Cleared out all the shit we've put in our body for the last 40 years. Can't keep up with the kids with smoker's lungs, can we? Turned back the clock a bit, too- your gray hairs are going to have to wait a while yet. And that POWER, whoo! It's gonna take more than a little car crash to stop us, now! Hell, the next time a car hits you, the car's gonna be the one going home on a stretcher!" The shadow crowed, enjoying his counterpart's discomfort.
The fire in Dojima's gut was raging stronger as his shadow spoke; his blood singing louder and louder, almost drowning his shadow's cackle out. He was starting to feel lightheaded.
"That stuff's going to forge you into a goddamn hero, if you're careful with it. She wanted to keep Inaba safe, and we're going to do that for her."
"Congratulations, Ryotaro. You just made the promotion to Inaba's own goddess-appointed protector."
"Hope you're up for it."
And then the darkness swallowed him whole again.