grand theft auto

[runandseek]

[The journals around the castle try to transcribe this particular noise: the sound of a car smashing into an innocent hallway wall. It settles on an odd scrawl of jagging lines that should let the hearing impaired know that something very loud and unpleasant has happened

Comments

ACTION - LET'S DO THIS BABY

[foolreversed]

[Now that his headache from all the pirate stuff was finally gone, Adachi was back to wandering around the castle like he usually did when he had nothing to do (which was all the time). He hadn't seen the crash, but he definitely heard it and had bounded around the corner to see the source of the incident like an excited onlooker.

He stops once he gets there, staring at the wrecked car (well, that was something you didn't see here everyday) and the man who had yet to realize he was there. A man who Adachi should've recognized but didn't.

All he got to hear was the last sentence and he can't help himself from replying with a sheepish grin]

That'd be the carpenters, sir...

[Adachi you poor dumb fuck.]

ACTION

[runandseek]

[Dojima freezes. His back is still to Adachi, but the memory of that voice is not among the things Paradisa has robbed from him. He'd just begun to accept the bitter reality-- just begun to put to rest the feelings of betrayal and confusion the empty passenger seat in his car gave him.]

[Dojima turns towards his former partner after a too-long pause, not sure if he'd be happy or not to have incurred a head injury severe enough to cause him to hallucinate so lucidly.]

Adachi?

[Adachi might not remember Dojima. But it's very, very clear that Dojima remembers Adachi.]

[foolreversed]

[Adachi just stares back in confusion, his previous dopey smile gone completely. That... wasn't what he was expecting. At all.]

Uh... yes? [there's something really strange about this, and there's an odd nagging feeling in the back of his head that won't leave him alone.

He tilts his head]

Do I know you?

[runandseek]

[Wrong answer. Dojima's expression twists from one of cautious confusion to outright anger. Even if Adachi had his memories of Dojima, he wouldn't recognize this expression. By the time they'd carried Adachi's defeated body into the hospital, cradled so generously in the stretcher Dojima insisted they send out for him, Dojima had mostly roped his more volatile feelings in. Adachi had looked so goddamn pathetic that any urge to slap him fucking silly what the hell did you do you were my partner I thought I knew you I let you eat dinner with my daughter in my home for god's sake gave way instantly to simple deep disappointed pity.]

[No such luck for Adachi this time. Dojima grabs him. Not just the stupid crookied tie god DAMN of course he wouldn't have learned to tie it properly in prison, but that half-wrinkled shirt he just had to thank god was at least washed and clean if not properly ironed every day. Dojima hasn't touched a bit of skin on Adachi's body but he grips the handful of shirt and tie he's managed to grasp and shakes it,

[foolreversed]

[To say Adachi was caught off guard by the sudden turn of events would be an understatement. The 28 year old's eyes go completely wide as he's grabbed and shook by the shirt and for several seconds that feel like a fucking lifetime he's at a complete and utter loss of words. Well. Aside from WHO THE FUCK IS THIS GUY AND WHY IS HE SO PISSED OFF!?

He's honestly not sure what to do. This man who for all he knows is a complete and utter stranger is pissed off and shaking the daylights out of him for some reason and he literally has no idea who this is. That final detail alone somehow makes the situation even more terrifying than it already is.

Eventually though, he does manage to speak up]

H-Hey!! Calm down, what's the big idea!?

[runandseek]

[Dojima has a mean right hook-- a fact that not even Dojima particularly knew until just now. He's actually never hit a man in his life. Taken down a few hooligans, thrown a few punches in training, but never outright decked someone right in the face. So shaking a man by the front of his shirt before flattening him to the ground after one smart remark too many like a schoolyard bully was actually not quite on Dojima's list of life experiences. He shakes his hand out with a hiss but the adrenaline will ensure he doesn't feel the pain in his knuckles until later.]

[With the swing goes the anger. There's guilt there instead. He wasn't a hot-headed rookie anymore. He had no action movie hero fantasies about police brutality.]

[He bites back an apology. He shouldn't have done it, but Adachi deserved it. Instead he tries to salvage the makeshift interrogation:]

Is this your idea of a joke?

[foolreversed]

[HOLY SHIT!?!?!

He can't catch a break. He just can't catch a fucking break.

After crying out and slamming into the ground, Adachi immediately holds his face and begins moaning and borderline-whimpering in pain. What. The. Fuck.

He tries to sit up and for a moment just sits still staring at the ground, trying to deal with the pain and looking like a sorry piece of shit. (OH GODDAMNIT IS HIS NOSE BLEEDING? IT'S BLEEDING. GREAT.) But at Dojima's words he looks back up and snarls, obviously at the end of his rope now too. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU CAR CRASHING STRANGER!!!]

I don't know, is it!? [he finally snaps back like a hissing cat] Geez, what the hell's your problem!? Just because you crashed your car into the castle walls doesn't mean you get to deck people in the face for no reason! Just who the heck are you, anyway!?

[God, if it's another person he fought with during that stupid Pirates and Navy thing last week or someone he met while piss drunk during the end of that string of events, he swears...]

[runandseek]

[He'd heard a lot of stories after Adachi's capture. Rookies who'd never exchanged more than a glance with Adachi were suddenly telling grand tales of what a sociopathic poker face he was at the water cooler. A stern look was enough to shut the gossips at work up. He wasn't so lucky about the media feeding frenzy on TV.]

[But Dojima knew-- or thought he knew. Adachi was not that good an actor. Dojima'd just never suspected him in the first place.]

[Adachi couldn't keep this up this long. Occam's razor. Either Adachi missed out on a lucrative acting career or he was... being honest.]

[...and what then? If Adachi was being honest? Didn't remember the late nights at the station? The long afternoons canvassing sleepy little Inaba? Dinners with what was left of his family? Adachi going from being his exasperatingly lazy but otherwise trustworthy partner to a fucking serial killer was one thing. Adachi not even remembering him was not a possibility Dojima'd ever considered. A sick, bitter feeling settles in the pit of his stomach. He's

[foolreversed]

[And that was when Adachi's face dropped like a ton of bricks.

Everything suddenly fit so perfectly into place.

He stares in shock for a long time, mouth agape, eyes wide, face dreadfully white. His mouth twists now and then as if trying to form words but he can't find the words at all.

Finally, one manages to come out in a single breath:] ...What?

[runandseek]

[The doubt's always there, nagging at him. Fool him once... but when the case gets tough, Dojima can't help but remember what his senpai said. Trust your intuition. He wants to believe this is a terrible joke. A bizarre prank someone's put together for him. Maybe a dream. But his aching knuckles and his tightening chest tell him it's not.]

[Uncomfortable with the emotions surfacing, he raises a hand to his mouth, hoping to hide the deepening grimace by running his fingers over his stubble. It does little to hide anything. If anything the gesture makes him easier to read.]

What is all this? [He half snaps finally, flicking a hand at his twice-wrecked car, the "castle" that's likely seen better days around them. But he's changing the subject. There's too many things he needs to explain, too many things he needs to ask. He shoots questions randomly, wanting to avoid giving answers himself.] Where are we?

[then his attention finally snaps completely away from Adachi for the first time since the idiot stumbled upon the scene, towards

[foolreversed]

[Adachi's hanging his head now, balancing it carefully in his hands and trying to shield himself flimsily (but from what?) with his knees. All this time... all this time since coming to Paradisa he'd been trying to figure this out. Figure out who the missing person in his memory was. The person the castle had stolen from him in exchange for this unasked for (but not exactly unappreciated) second chance. For four months now he'd been trying to figure this out. It'd driven him crazy some nights, unable to sleep and only wonder about what was missing.

Now his answer was here, right in front of him.

And all he wanted to do was run.

He gives his answers only half-heartedly] You're in Paradisa. It's a castle with a mind of its own that brings people here and grants them wishes in exchange for something it takes from you. Prized possessions, abilities, your voice, your sight, memories... It'll take anything it can so long as it's important to you and no, you can never get it back

[runandseek]

[He barely has time to register anything Adachi's saying. The "castle with a mind of its own" part was already enough but each successive bit of information spilling from Adachi's lips trumps the last.

"It'll take anything it can so long as it's important to you."

He's a detective. He puts two and two together fairly quickly. He just doesn't know what to do with the conclusion. It's based on the ridiculous premise that memories were somehow things that could be taken as if they were tangible possessions, but Adachi's delivery tells him this is something he should at least tentatively believe for the moment. And with that premise in place... what Adachi and him have both realized is that Adachi's price to enter Paradisa was Dojima.

Adachi has probably told Dojima more about himself in the last few seconds than he'd ever told Dojima in their entire year working together. Case closed. Sometimes you just don't want to know the goddamn answer, he realizes

[foolreversed]

[Adachi nods, then lets his head drop again before trying to wipe the blood off his face. At least that finally gives him a name, albeit only a family one: Dojima-san?] I see... She'll be glad you're here.

[he used to wonder about what he'd do if his "important person" showed up. Wondered about the questions he'd ask, wondered if he'd be better off not finding out what their relationship was like and staying in blissful ignorance. But a part of him was curious enough and kind of needed to know at least what this person was like.

But now... now that they've actually here, Adachi finds that all he wants to do is run and hide.

He manages to shakily rise to his feet and open his mouth to give some sort of excuse for leaving] I... [have something I need to get to and will be going now is what he wants to say, but all that comes out is that single pronoun

1/3

[runandseek]

[Suspect on the run, officer in pursuit. Dojima bolts after him with the prey instinct of a K9 Unit. And this time, Dojima doesn't have a chest full of cracked ribs stopping him. He wants to chase Adachi all the way to the rabbit hole, not sit in the dark after Nanako's bedtime story eyeing the television and telling himself he's better off not giving another thought to all that nonsense about Personas and Shadows--]

Adachi!

[runandseek]

[But before he takes more than three steps he stumbles over a book he hadn't noticed at all earlier. Nanako's voice comes pouring out of the jostled covers.]

Nanako!

[runandseek]

[He looks back to where Adachi ran off to-- gone. Remember what's important. He would never again leave Nanako alone to run after a guy who was running. It's been a while, though, since he's had to put up with this feeling-- like the suspect's just around the corner, and if he could just...]

[He swallows that bitter feeling rising in his throat. He has to be a father before he's a detective... before he's a partner.]