A Small Victory

"…That'll do for now."

Matsugane Erina looked over Shugo's bandaged arm one more time, before putting away her kit in her backpack.

By that time, the wall clock in the entrance hall of the Rakuen Community Center read 6:40 PM. Shugo waited with Erina and the Akizuki siblings for the past half an hour or so, while Officer Kadena Saaya called some of her colleagues over to apprehend Shugo's would-be murderer. During that time, Erina had helpfully offered to help Shugo with the stab wound he suffered at the hands of someone who, as it turned out, had been a childhood acquaintance of theirs. And while they waited, the nurse bandaged his wounded arm with the medkit she always kept in her back in case of emergency.

Finally, once the miscreant had been taken into custody, the group then got inside Officer Kadena Saaya's Honda Civic for their trip to the RCPD, with Shugo assuming the front passenger seat.

"I've disinfected the wound and bandaged you up, so that's one less thing for you to worry about," Erina informed him from the backseat right behind him. "Those bandages need to be replaced if they get wet or dirty, or after 24 hours, whichever of those comes first."

The nurse took a moment to let her words sink in, before she added:

"I hope you're not left-handed, because your left arm won't be much use for a while."

Unfortunately for Shugo, the spirit had been right: both about the tanto's blade having been coated with silver, and about how silver could disrupt the bond between them and prevent her from healing him the way she normally did. It hurt to flex or even wiggle his fingers, and the severed muscle fibers made it all but impossible for him to clench his hand into a fist. In effect, the injury rendered his left arm all but useless below the elbow.

"Regrettably, my ability to aid in your recovery is severely restricted until I can purge all traces of that silver," said Shugo's spectral partner, her tone containing a subtle but unmistakable tinge of regret. "All I can do for now is dull the worst of the pain, and even then, not completely."

'In other words, I'll literally be fighting with my left hand tied behind my back,' he summarized exasperatedly as the lady officer started the car and they began the drive to the RCPD. 'For how long?'

The spirit hesitated. "I cannot say for sure. When I fought alongside your predecessor all those centuries ago, the one responsible for his demise dealt him a blow that would have proved instantly fatal to any mortal man. Sure enough, my previous contractor proved no more impervious to the silver bullet that buried itself in his forehead."

'Isn't there any way for me to heal faster?'

"Maybe," she replied a second time. Once again, the subtle hint of hesitation in her tone wasn't lost on Shugo. "Just as the silver disrupts the bond between us, I should theoretically be able to overcome that disruption by binding our souls more closely to one another. However…"

'There's a catch,' he finished for her. 'Isn't there? Otherwise, you'd have done it already.'

"As you correctly surmised, proceeding with that course of action would not be without lasting repercussions," explained the spirit, thereby confirming her contractor's guess in the process. "While I would not rule it out altogether, we would be wiser to treat it as a final, exceptional recourse, for when an immediate threat to your life exists and all other viable alternatives have been exhausted."

They drove on. The Community Center was a moderate distance from the Furukawa residence, while the RCPD was at the edge of town directly opposite both. Saaya kept her eyes on the road for the first half of the drive up, until they arrived at a small bakery roughly 10-15 minutes from Shugo's house which he often walked past on the way to school. Once there, she briefly stopped the car and looked at him.

"You can get off here if you like," the policewoman offered. "You're welcome to join us at the RCPD, of course, but given your injury…"

"Nah, Officer," Shugo smiled weakly, even as his mangled arm continued to throb with pain. "Chief Ryoma needs to know what happened."

Saaya took his word for it with a nod, at which point she resumed the drive back to headquarters. Once there, the group walked past Reception up the staircase like they did so many times before, during which he shot a grateful smile to the couple – both of them – who were holding hands to his left. Erina had treated his wound, after all, just as it was because his friend Ayato had seen fit to invite his girlfriend the nurse that she happened to be there in the first place. And from the way the couple smiled back at him, they clearly recognized the look he gave them for the expression of appreciation that it was.

Before long, they reached the chief's office, where the longtime lawman himself emerged from the door and greeted them with a look of clear concern on his face.

"Thanks for taking care of them, Saaya," Ryoma acknowledged his subordinate with a tired smile, before taking a moment's glance at Shugo's bandaged forearm and locking eyes with him. "What happened there, Shugo?"

"Evening, Chief," Shugo acknowledged the older man with a nod, as he raised his injured hand in greeting. "May we come in?"

Ryoma stepped aside so the five of them could come in, while gesturing for them to take their seats on the couch in front of the coffee table. And as they did so, Detective Ashihara Riku emerged from the chief's quarters in the back.

"I'm glad to see you're all in one piece, all things considered," Ryoma began as he sat down behind his desk. "What happened after I left, Shugo?"

"This?" the teen asked, once again raising his bandaged arm so the rest of them could see. "The short version, you could say it's both a battle scar, and a small victory at the same time."

He looked on as everyone else in the room gaped at him in disbelief, as though he'd grown a second head.

"Shugo, are you sure you're alright?" Saaya asked, worry written all over her face. "Maybe you should've gone home instead-"

The rest of the lady cop's words died in her mouth when the teen looked directly at her and smiled. "Let me explain, Officer."

He then paused in the middle of his explanation, before he shifted his gaze from the policewoman to make eye contact with Erina, and finally, Ayaka.

"Thanks again for patching me up back there, Erina. I'm about to let you ladies in on a secret, so if it's not too much to ask, I'd be really grateful if you were to do me another favour by keeping this to yourselves."

The nurse nodded back at him, albeit with a frown. "Sure, don't mention it. But what d'you mean, 'a battle scar and a small victory'?

"Erina's not wrong, you know," Ayaka added as though to remind him, not that he needed it. "Haru stabbed you right through the arm, and it'll take you months to recover-"

It was Ayato who answered this.

"Shugo's got supernatural powers," he began, resulting in his girlfriend shooting him the same look of incredulity she'd given his friend a few moments ago. "He somehow knows who's innocent and who's guilty. It's how he knew to spare me on that last job with Haru. More importantly, he can't be killed or harmed by normal means-"

"-Under normal circumstances, anyway," Shugo added. "As it turns out, silver bullets and silver-coated blades don't agree with me."

He then raised his bandaged arm for emphasis. "And as you all can see, my powers are out of commission for a while."

Shugo's eyes went from each of them in turn in the long silence that followed those words. Ayaka and Erina stared at him, their mouths hanging open in identical looks of shock. Ayato's expression was relatively more subdued, but the way his eyes widened spoke volumes nonetheless. Meanwhile, all three law enforcers were more inscrutable in their countenance, even if only barely in Saaya's case.

"…I see," Ryoma finally broke the silence to acknowledge the teen's explanation. "And the part about what happened earlier being 'a small victory'?"

Shugo nodded in deference to the chief. "If silver can do this to me, it's safe to assume the same goes for the other guy who just recently showed up. There's still the matter of actually finding him and figuring out who he is, of course, but at least we'll know how to take him down if and when he shows up again."

Ryoma considered everything that had been shared with them so far. On one hand, the injury the teen had suffered at the hands of Harusaki Ayumu certainly wasn't ideal, and it did confirm his vulnerability to silver. But as Shugo himself had said, it was fair to assume that the same weakness applied to the maniac who'd recently made himself known when he made his way past several armed police officers to execute a man in the Interrogation Room located in the basement of RCPD headquarters, in effect quite literally committing cold-blooded murder under their noses.

And as Shugo himself had said, the strong implication that the psychopath they had on the loose wasn't completely unstoppable was at least somewhat comforting.

'If that's the case, having Riku run that errand yesterday was a good call.

'"Any ideas, Shugo?" Ryoma finally prompted. "Only if you're willing to share, of course. We know you're taking a big risk confiding in us as it is."

"Just two, Chief," the teen immediately replied. "For starters, you may want to consider arming your guys with silver bullets."

Shugo's proposal elicited a slight chuckle not only from the chief, but from his aide who was seated on the couch right across the young man.

"It's in the works," Riku suddenly said, after having been silent for the entire meeting up until that point. "Supernatural healing powers or not, he won't like what's in store for him."

This time, it was Shugo's turn to laugh. "Good to know. One less thing for us to worry about, I guess."

"Indeed," agreed the chief. "And the second?"

The upstart avenger hesitated.

"This one's more of a personal favour on my part, but I've got a request to make…"

------

For the second time in less than a week, he was back at the RCPD.

'Look at me,' he thought to himself with a smirk that was hidden by his face mask. 'I may as well give them my resume and be done with it.'

And for the second time in less than a week, he was there to clean up someone else's mess.

'Not that I can blame him, of course…'

The man made his way down the same hallway leading to the interrogation room with even greater ease. It probably helped that there was hardly anyone on duty to hinder him this time around, which was unsurprising for a Sunday evening. From what he knew of the RCPD, they only required a skeleton crew to report for duty on Sundays and holidays. It was only during emergencies that more personnel would be called in, and even then, that required clearance from no less than the chief himself.

'Oh. It's those two again?'

He stopped dead for a few moments upon sensing two familiar presences just beyond the final corner.

'…What to do…'

The man considered his options. The police already knew of him; he'd found out as much just a few minutes ago, after all, when he entered the department and saw how one of the bulletin boards had a surveillance photo of him posted. Tossing a flashbang around the corner would be easy enough. And if he was lucky, his use of a different approach could even have the added benefit of throwing the RCPD off his trail.

'Then again…'

On the other hand, the man also knew perfectly well that a flashbang going off would bring everyone else to that little corner of the police station in no time. The police might already know of him, but that didn't necessarily mean they needed to know he was there at that exact moment, too. And while he couldn't erase all their memories on a whim, he could at least delay their discovery of his intrusion into their headquarters.

'No getting around it, I guess.'

Just like before, he stepped out.

"NIGHTY-NIGHT, GUYS."

And just like before, it was a simple matter to knock out the armed guards, get hold of the key to the interrogation room, and then open it.

"Hello, Haru."

Harusaki Ayumu gaped at the unexpected arrival who greeted him with the most casual of airs, almost as though they were meeting at a local coffee shop and not a police interrogation room that had been converted into a makeshift holding cell.

"Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know my name?"

The newcomer responded with a scolding cluck as he wagged a pointer finger admonishingly.

"Dude, you already lost that tanto I gave you. You don't need to be rude on top of it."

The youth's mouth fell open. "Wait, what?"

Haru's shock gave way to annoyance as the man chuckled at him for several moments, before shrugging apathetically as his laughter faded.

"Well, if you're gonna be like that…"

Haru flinched as the man laid a hand on the top of his head.

"…MAYBE SPENDING A NIGHT OR TWO IN HERE WOULD DO YOU SOME GOOD."

With that, the man finally made his exit, not even looking back as Haru fell over, clutched his head in agony, and began to scream.