On Wednesday, Kuneida Ryo came over carrying a laptop and a stern expression that immediately flickered to worry when she saw Keigo's haggard form.
The Good Drugs for his shoulder had just been reduced to Mediocre Drugs that day and it dawned on Keigo in an excruciating realization that he may have overestimated his body's abilities to take a hit from three stories above. Not only had his dominant shoulder been driven to hell and back, but his entire right side was busted and bruised like nothing he had ever experienced before. Keigo clearly regretted having taken his body for granted; basic movement hurt like a fucker, and the heating around the house being turned off for maintenance did not help in the slightest.
Keigo grunted in greeting, slowly moving aside to let Ryo in and closed the door with what felt like too much effort for his fragile bones.
"What happened, Keigo?" Ryo asked as they settled into the living room. Keigo painfully wrapped himself in the rumpled blanket he was previously covered in with a whine and curled against the armrest. The damned shoulder was visibly throbbing now, shit.
"Got too cocky," he mumbled, "I think I assumed I was invincible or something. Past Keigo is a dick."
Ryo got up from her seat and sat down next to him, hand hovering awkwardly above his shoulder. Keigo pitifully lifted his head and moved it under her palm, "Please pet me, I need comfort."
Ryo winced and retracted her hand, "I really don't want to."
After five seconds of Keigo realising that his puppy-dog pout was all but useless, he huffed and motioned for her to turn on her laptop. She gave him a deadpan stare instead.
"The last time you asked me for a favor, I had to buy a new laptop. I think I deserve an explanation first."
Ryo wasn't wrong per say, but he needed the only device not connected to his possibly hijacked network to be open and working for it. Then again, he could always use a pen and paper, which was certainly less likely to be hacked. But Keigo doubted his left hand would be any good at writing when his dominant one had a pretty ineligible chicken scratch. Instead, Keigo reached for the remote on the coffee table and turned on the television to a volume loud enough to be distracting.
He then asked Ryo to grab him a notepad and pen hanging from the refrigerator. Ryo, bless her heart, didn't question him apart from the narrowing of her eyes and did as she was told.
Keigo's left hand trembled as he wrote in the worst handwriting ever: probs bugged
Ryo has always been too clever for her own good, so she instantly connected the dots. Her eyes widened no more than a fraction before she grabbed the pen and furiously scribbled: my laptop remains closed. are there cameras?
Keigo sighed, that was fair.
not sure, doubt it tho
why am I here?
i jumped off a building & dislocated my shoulder
"What?!" Ryo's exclaimed, eyes snapping to his, "Why?"
ppl following me, he wrote back. She was probably regretting not petting his hair now huh. Damn right.
Ryo hastily wrote, the ones we... talked about?
Really? Talked about? That was her definition of almost destabilizing Japan HQ of SHIELD? Skill aside, Keigo thought Ryo would make a horrible spy.
Then again, judging by the increasing pounding in his shoulder, so would he.
(And SHIELD wanted to hire him. Christ.)
no. others. cant leave house, need ur help.
He could see Ryo become rigid at the idea of being involved. Hell, Keigo himself felt bad for dragging her into this, fully knowing that she had decided to stay away from the Supernatural drama for a reason, despite knowing a decent amount of it. It wasn't like he wanted to involve her... just that- while Kisuke and SHIELD told him they would help, Keigo needed a backdoor exit in case things went south. To the world, Kuneida Ryo was Keigo's kind-of-sort-of girlfriend, which - although surprising to most, didn't phase anyone because of course the muggles of the group would date each other. To them, Keigo was still the somewhat-annoying, loud comic-relief (which honestly, worked in his favour for fucking once. And now he had a reputation for being funny; always an ego boost, that), and Ryo was the quiet, analytical nerd who just happened to be compatible with him. Urahara may suspect her to have a hand in this business, but as far as Keigo knew, Ryo was more than capable of taking care of herself; had been doing so before he butted into her life.
Still, stressing her out left a bad taste in his mouth, so Keigo made sure that she knew she could back off whenever she wanted.
Expect for today, when she would inevitably be followed home by someone or the other.
Keigo conveyed as much and saw a mixture of fear and anger cross her face. She was rightfully pissed, and he was going to grovel the second his temporary house ban was lifted and try his best to explain everything to her without giving SHIELD or Urahara away. For now though, Keigo could only give her a sheepish look tinged with exhaustion.
"You're using your injuries as a bargaining chip aren't you?" Ryo stated after looking at his sorry form for a whole minute straight.
"Maybe," he replied and achingly sat up, wincing at the loss of feeling on his left side. This was getting real old, real fast. "Help me to my room?" he tried for the puppy look again, and this time Ryo gave out a defeated sigh and helped him up, television still on and forgotten.
They entered his bedroom, Keigo beelined to his desk and rummaged through its contents before pulling out an envelope he readied the day before, when morphine still flooded his body to dull the pain enough for him to write. It was a more censored version of events, somewhat unlike the one he sent to Urahara, and some - well, instructions would be an overstatement - but some checklist items that she could do if she felt ballsy enough to make a loose contingency plan.
Past Keigo may be a dick, but at least he thought ahead of time.
"This is for you," he said as he handed the envelope over to her. "Careful with it, and once you're done reading-"
"Yeah," Ryo saved him the effort of saying it, apparently having watched just as many action films as himself. She was going to probably toast marshmallows over the flames of his letter tonight out of pure spite. Lord knows she's earned it.
A yawn tearing out of his mouth had Ryo shake her head, drag him back to the couch and dote on him like she promised she wouldn't. Keigo did not deserve her friendship, especially after today. Still, not looking at a gift-horse in the mouth, Keigo took the tablet and warm water from her hands and downed it. They stayed in the cold living room for a couple of hours, watching variety television with the occasional comment before Ryo bade him goodbye.
"If anything worse than this happens," she began, packing up her stuff, "I'm telling Tatsuki. And she will tell Ichigo, who-"
"God, please no. Anything but that!" Keigo groaned. First Mizuiro, now this, Christ. Just because Ichigo used to be an all powerful being didn't mean he would know how to solve this outside of punching his way through. Keigo could confirm, from experience, that spy organizations were a bit more nuanced than that.
"Then you better keep your head above water Asano. This is strike two," Ryo warned him in that sweet way she tended to. Not out of anger, but out of concern.
Concern for Keigo, apparently.
Keigo figured if his classmate was under surveillance by guys with big guns, he'd be worried too.
"Will you be at school tomorrow?" she asked. Keigo had skipped after Monday, feeling rather loopy with his medication.
"Yeah, maybe," he croaked in reply. He was beginning to feel antsy, but has been keeping it under wraps for the sake of his healing shoulder.
She left after that, closing the door securely so that he didn't have to. Keigo felt paranoid enough to check on the locks anyway.
Walking back to the sofa felt lonely, then. Having Ryo over made Keigo forget how devoid of honest human interaction he was since... since Christmas, really. She was the only one who he felt saw him instead of the funny guy, a potential agent, or the underdog or whatever Urahara believed he was. She knew his motivations, despite not understanding them, and helped him without having any particular agenda apart from partial curiosity at best.
And now she was gone and Keigo was alone again. Stuck between deciding to join SHIELD or not, between placing his trust in Urahara and hoping to God he didn't end up like Ichigo, stuck with not having his parents or his sister around, whom he missed right now. A lot.
Shit, he missed Mizuho so much.
Keigo felt like Mizuho would know what to do. She'd probably tell him to get out of his funk and deal with it "like a man" and Keigo wouldn't have the heart to tell her that dealing like a man is what got him into this mess in the first place. Instead, they would make plans together, a stark resemblance to when they were kids and would pretend to play buddy cops fighting crime. Mizuho would be the lead, of course, and Keigo the side-kick, which he would only sometimes complain about. They made a good team back then, before she found a new group of friends and he found Kojima.
And now here he was, feeling kinda friendless, with a bum shoulder and what definitely was a fever, trying to remember the whole point of this adventure. Trying to imagine himself as something other than a pawn to further someone else's agenda. God, is this what Ichigo felt like all the time? No wonder the guy was so angry, Keigo owed him a soda or something. Granted, Ichigo hasn't been the most approachable towards other people - people like Keigo especially, who tended to... well. Wear their hearts on their sleeves, but if the guy ever felt as alone as Keigo did now, he did not entirely blame him for keeping everyone at arm's distance.
Ichigo would never be able to trust anyone.
Keigo hoped he didn't follow his footsteps.
Huffing in annoyance at his maudlin state, Keigo decided that another nap was due, hoping he'd get out of his funk after that. He laid down carefully, trying not to jostle his shoulder much and wrapped himself in the blanket before slowly falling into a dreamless sleep.
Keigo woke up to a cat sitting on his chest.
It was usually counterintuitive to seek help from Japanese intelligence on matters like these, seeing as SHIELD was resourceful enough for both of them, so Yoshiro was quite reluctant to reach out at the best of times, despite having clear need to do so.
Asano Keigo, as usual, changed that perception rather quickly.
Being attacked and chased at home base wasn't out of the ordinary for agents like them, but dragging a civilian made it a Priority 0 situation on the safety front of their alliance. Keigo was a Japanese citizen after all, and ideally should have had no contact with SHIELD whatsoever.
Clearly that did not work out as expected.
Fighting the urge to massage his temples, the agent waited patiently to be called into the Director's office. Five minutes later, he was escorted there by a woman.
"Agent Fujikawa," the Director of PSIA greeted him with a handshake. Yoshiro nodded in return, "It's been a while since your last visit, I heard. How can we be of service?" Straight to the point, good. Yoshiro liked this new director.
"I would like information on any foreign intelligence crossing the borders over the past month," he replied bluntly. Time was of essence if he wanted to catch the perps.
The director paused from shuffling his papers - a motion to appear busy, most likely - and looked up curiously. "That's a bold demand to make, Agent."
Not as easily pleased as his predecessor then. Fujikawa observed the small frown and suspicious gaze with interest. He had to negotiate.
"We have gained intel on suspicious activity targeting both of us on the deep web," he said, not wanting to alarm the director by mentioning the breaches, "Not the easiest to track, of course, but all signs point to the PSIA, and by association, SHIELD. I have my agents sending you the files as we speak. I was also wondering-" he leaned forward, noting the spark of curiosity the director's eyes. He had his full attention, "Does the phrase Black Sky mean anything to you?"
The agent caught the moment the director's eyes widened and his posture turned stiff. There were whispers about the phrase, travelling through CIA grapevine that SHIELD managed to get hold of. No particular information had been disclosed, and a branch of SHIELD was working on decoding the words, although it was given secondary priority. Still, this intel was transferred to Japan HQ for a reason - perhaps the answer lay somewhere in the country itself.
The director of PSIA didn't need to know that though, he just needed incentive to give Yoshiro what he wanted.
The man corrected himself and smoothed his expression, "I'm afraid it doesn't ring a bell, no." Lies.
"Very well, just curious is all. Chatter picks up all kinds of things... Have you received our files yet?" Fujikawa asked just as the director's computer chirped a notification. He opened it to find the relevant data designed by SHIELD for this purpose specifically.
Agent Fujikawa waited for a total of two minutes before the director finished skimming through the folder and cleared his throat.
"I can contact Border Security and the Ministry of Defense if you'd like-" the director relented after another minute of consideration, "However, while I appreciate you taking the red-tape route, if it is an emergency, I'd suspect SHIELD to not waste any time with bureaucracy."
"We're trying not to step on too many toes, best as we can. After all, your trust and confidence is of utmost importance to us," Fujikawa replied. That was only partially correct, much like this entire conversation saturated with half-truths. In reality, Yoshiro may not have informed DC headquarters of the incident from this Sunday just yet, and ordered the rest of his branch to also lay low - stating the issue to be insignificant in the face of what they were developing. His subordinates mostly agreed, somewhat uneasily, and Yoshiro knew he would slowly lose their confidence if his reasons kept sounding so half-baked.
Asano Keigo joining them would certainly take a load off his back. The boy was going to give him grey hairs at this point.
Seeing as how precarious the research in Japan HQ was, Fujikawa did not want to raise any alarms in DC, in case they decided to withdraw their portion of the funding and dissolve his branch. He could only ask his uncle for so many favours before Fujikawa Industries withdrew too.
"Very well, you will have what you need by tomorrow," the director concluded and got up, extending his hand once again, "Thank you for coming to us, and for sharing what you have. We appreciate it,"
Agent Fujikawa mimicked the courtesy with a pleasant enough smile, and left the office.
Keigo's assailants, it turned out, were Chinese intelligence. Yoshiro could admit that he did not see that coming; he probably should have.
True to his word, the PSIA head transferred a list of all diplomats and governmental bodies entering and leaving Japan for the past month and a half the very next working day, and by that evening, Cyber had cross-referenced the profiles with Keigo's surprisingly detailed description to conclude that they were dealing with the MSS.
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. MSS was infamous for their espionage, keeping tabs on almost every important intelligence organization in the world. But he would have expected their agents to be slightly more discreet in their affairs. They were competent enough to discover someone as invisible as SHIELD, so it came as a bit of a surprise when they let their only connection to SHIELD go.
The whole ordeal, after all, went south for them. Granted, they managed to hide from all places that held cameras - a feat in itself, since Tokyo never held back on their surveillance, but ultimately, it wasn't enough in terms of anonymity.
Then again, like SHIELD, they too may have underestimated a fifteen year old boy.
Fujikawa reminded himself that times were changing, and that soul reapers and monsters and heaven and hell existed. How shocking can a slippery teenager be?
He asked two of his agents to locate them and set up a meeting for the next day. The sooner they dealt with them, the faster he could get back to R&D.
The meeting was held the day before Asano Keigo was to decide his fate with SHIELD. As much as Fujikawa pressuring him into joining them felt like lead in his stomach, Keigo's input on their primary research would be invaluable now that he magically happened to discover analytical thinking. Perhaps some facts about the Soul World would be brought to surface to give way for more breakthroughs. The portal simulation was currently unstable, still in the process of adapting to new frequencies - it was a long term project that Fujikawa had time to worry about later. Smaller inventions akin to the Phaser prototype would come in incredibly handy as a defense against future supernatural threats, irrespective of Urahara Kisuke's sudden intervention. And Keigo could not only help them understand that, but eventually be able to use it too.
Not to mention, if the MSS was ready to take him on, the boy needed as much protection he could get.
But that was neither here or there. It's not like Yoshiro cared for him or anything.
The agent met the two MSS reps at a busy cafe in Harajuku, wearing something that resembled business-casual attire. It had been a long time since he was undercover, being in charge of these operations and administrative tasks as of late, but his persona fit somewhat like second skin - and he looked like any other man in his early forties on a Thursday morning heading for brunch.
Upon meeting the two agents, Fujikawa felt like he would have been taken aback by how similar they were in real life to Asano's descriptions, but wasn't because it took more than that to startle him. Apart from clothing, almost every feature the kid noted was spot on. The woman who called herself Tagua Kimi was under another Chinese alias, he suspected, so he left the decryption of their personal information to Level 4s back on base. They would inform him immediately if they found anything substantial.
He greeted the duo - who looked vaguely uncomfortable for people so desperate for an appointment with him. Discussion was stilted, Yoshiro sounding mild mannered while the other two were relatively serious. Fujikawa assumed he would be too, if he was bested by a teenager in the middle of a street and subsequently found on the database within days. It made him wonder why they hadn't fled the country immediately.
The man didn't say much, suggesting that "Zheng Mia" was his superior officer and therefore did most of the talking.
They had come ready with a tablet that they hesitantly showed him - he inwardly questioned if that was their initial plan or if MSS intervened. More data was required for further assessments. Fujikawa remotely instructed Legal to get in contact with the MSS base in China in order to establish something more than two agents who were a few steps away from going rogue.
"SHIELD has been a shadow organization for decades now, so you understand why I am wary of your intel, seeing as you attacked on of our own less than a week ago," he said finally, looking at the tablet with interest. It had files on an incident from a small village in China more than 40 years ago. It would have been unassuming was it not for the fact that the whole village was wiped out with no suspects, weapon or motive. Too weird to be sober about it, Agent Hunter would say.
"Outlandish doesn't mean it's not true. After all, this isn't the first supernatural encounter you have witnessed have you?" Mia may have been referring to Karakura as a whole. But the tone of the voice had him narrow his eyes. No one was supposed to know about-
That happened years ago. If she knew...
Yoshiro might have to contact DC after all.
"What did you expect to find at SHIELD, then?"
"What any reconnaissance mission wants. Information, answers..." she trailed off knowingly.
"Doesn't change the fact that you acted hostile towards my agent. SHIELD has little to offer you, seeing as you don't have much to offer us either."
"Is that what he is?" she taunted again, leaning back against her chair.
Fujikawa did not dignify that with a response.
Mia changed the subject, "We do need your help. MSS may have an international reputation, but we do not leave our people hanging. We had detected unnatural behaviour in the Tokyo region that could have answers to solve this case. With similar events occurring globally, it is not out of possibility that whatever caused that massacre in that village won't happen again."
She was right, and knew more about this event that she was ready to share. But there was something in the atmosphere, something that could not be described using any scientific means - but he could see his people feeling it too. It felt like the end of a wave and the rise of a new one, the final tide hitting a rock before splintering it into pieces, shaping it into sand and stone. Things were changing, and not necessarily for the good.
"Besides," she added, "-we have reason to believe that these phenomena will only increase in frequency. We have your history to thank for that." It was said with a certain level of malice that Agent Fujikawa would find unnecessary if he wasn't aware of exactly how many countries were sacrificed to re-establish SSR's new era. Fujikawa understood the reasons behind those decisions, collateral damage was inevitable. But he could see why some didn't. China, apparently, was one of them.
"Very well," he replied after much deliberation. "We can have a meeting as soon as your superiors establish connection with us. Until then," he placed his card on the table, nodding at them both and walked out of the cafe.
A/N: Hope you liked this chapter! Remember, this story is more often updated on ao3 by the same name!