Four Childhood Memories Shoutarou Passed Onto Philip and The One He Kept For Himself
4. Playing Tennis
Living with Philip was like learning to live all over again. There were so many things that seemed brand new to him. Add Philip’s ability to look up everything and there was never a dull day around the agency.
It had started with a missing pet case. Nothing too serious and Shoutarou was done by noon. The problem started when Shoutarou had brought back the puppy with him. To keep the small pet amused, Shoutarou had an old tennis ball that he tossed around for the puppy to fetch. Said tennis ball it was started Philip’s manic research obsession.
Shoutarou turned his back on his new partner for just a moment to hand the client their puppy back and the next thing he knew the walls of his office were covered in black ink. The history of tennis, several methods and techniques, diagrams of tennis rackets and the rules of the game were now printed on the green walls.
“Philip!” Shoutarou exclaimed. “What are you doing?!” He made a note to himself to install some whiteboards in the garage. There was no way Shoutarou was going to continuously scrub the walls to get rid of the ink every time Philip got lost in research. At least the whiteboards would be erasable.
Luckily Philip stopped this time to answer Shoutarou. “It’s amazing. This sport, tennis, it’s very interesting.” He returned his attention back to the wall and continued to write, quietly reciting information back to himself.
Shoutarou winced. Tennis. He used to play with Ryuunosuke all the time when they were children. They were no good at it and spent most of the time making up the rules as they went along.
“Ryuu-niisan!”
“Shou-chan, try again. You can hit the ball!”
“I can’t!”
“You can! Just try!”
“Alright…”
-Whack!-
“You did it Shoutarou!”
A small smile appeared on Shoutarou’s face as he fondly remembered those times. Ryuunosuke never let him give up. With that memory in mind, Shoutarou grabbed Philip by the hand and began to drag him out of the office.
“Shoutarou?” Philip questioned. “Where are we going?”
“If you’re going to research tennis, then you should at least try tennis yourself. Reading and doing are two separate things after all,” Shoutarou said. There was no room for question in his tone voice.
“But!”
“No buts!” If Shoutarou could do it, Philip could too.
It was time to take a leaf out of Ryuunosuke’s book and be relentlessly stubborn about it.
3. Being Sick
It really shouldn’t surprise him that Philip got sick. Whenever he went off on one of his manic obsession research, he would more than often forget to eat and sleep. Shoutarou told himself that he had to be more vigilant in making sure that Philip took care of himself. They can’t exactly be W if one of them was sick.
Philip lay on Shoutarou’s bed with an ice pack on his forehead, currently fast asleep. His temperature had skyrocketed to a hundred and four degrees. Philip had collapsed on him during lunch; his face flushed red and damp like a wet towel.
Shoutarou sat next to his unconscious partner. Now what was he suppose to do? He never had to take care of a sick person before.
When he was a kid, he was the one who always got sick. He remembered his mother making zosui for him, her cool hand on his warm forehead, and being tucked in. Ryuunosuke would insist on reading him a story and carefully snuck in cookies for Shoutarou that he shouldn’t be eating while he was sick. Even his father would soften on days like this.
Hmm…
Shoutarou stood up. Sparing a glance back at Philip, he grabbed his hat and left the office. He had to make a quick run to the store.
---
Philip groaned and sat up. He felt hot and sticky. His head pounded like someone took a hammer and repeated slammed it into his head. However, something also smelled really good.
“Here.”
Philip looked up to see Shoutarou standing next to the bed. In his hands was a tray with a bowl of hot food. “Zosui,” Shoutarou said, placing the tray on Philip’s lap. “Mother use to make it for me when I got sick.” Then he produced a bottle of medicine. “You should also take some medicine. It’ll help bring your fever down.”
Philip dully nodded in agreement. He was too tired to argue. Soon, he had finished the soup and took the medicine. He lay back down on the bed. Shoutarou placed a new wet towel on his forehead.
“Get some rest, partner,” Shoutarou said. He opened up one of Sokichi’s detective books and read aloud to himself.
Philip smiled. It was nice to have someone take care of you while you were sick.
2. Pose
It was the first time they had transformed together to defeat a Dopant. The weeks of training and syncing with each other had paid off. While they hadn’t expected to run into a Dopant, the fact they could transform without a problem was a huge accomplishment in Shoutarou’s book.
“Shoutarou,” Philip chimed. “Why did you pose when we transform?”
“Err… well… um…” Shoutarou muttered to himself.
“Shoutarou the first thing you have to learn for being a Shinkenger is how to properly pose!”
Eight year old Shoutarou looked up at his big brother and nodded firmly. “Yes!” he said full of enthusiasm. Then he stopped, tilted his head and asked, “Why?”
Ryuunosuke pumped his fist into the air. “Because it must be a cool pose, one that honors you, your family and tono!”
“It, uh, honors the boss?” Shoutarou lamely answered. When he was kid he use to practice poses so often that when it came to transforming into W, Shoutarou automatically posed.
“Ahhhhh? Posing honors people? How intriguing.”
Shoutarou felt Philip’s concentration slip. At the same time the Dopant came charging at them. Shoutarou managed to roll W’s body to the side. “Damnit, Philip! We’re fighting! Focus!”
“But Shoutarou!”
“Lookup poses later!”
1. Crossdressing
Right… so Terui had shot down the idea of Akiko being Wakana-hime for their plan to capture the Liar Dopant, which… meant one of them had to be Wakana because there was no way Terui could pull it off. Since Philip can’t act the fool part, that left Shoutarou with that part and Philip with the role of Wakana-hime.
Shoutarou wasn’t sure if he should be insulted or relieved or worried. He settled on all three.
“Hold still Philip,” Shoutarou said. He brushed the curly black wig on Philip’s head, making sure the layers of hair would help obscure Philip’s face. Picking up the pink hairband from the table, Shoutarou placed it into the wig. It would go nicely with the rest of the outfit, especially with the fake nails.
“You’re surprisingly good at this, Hidari,” Terui commented. He was already dressed in his disguise.
“In Kabuki men play both the male and female roles,” Philip commented with a knowing smile.
“Hm?” Terui questioned. “What does that to do with this?”
Shoutarou’s cheeks tinted red. “Oh hush,” he muttered to Philip as he applied lipgloss to Philip’s lips. It’s become slightly horrifying the amount of times Shoutarou had to use his onnagata skills since Philip had come into his life. It was far too easy to dress Philip up as a girl. It did make for an excellent disguise. No, there wasn’t a closet in the garage full of female clothing either.
“Ryuu-niisan! Why I have to learn the onnagata?”
“Because you make a cute girl, Shou-chan.”
“Do not!”
“But you do! Beside even if you don’t like it, it’s always good to learn. Never know when if it’s going to come in handy one day.”
Stupid knowing Ryuu-niisan.
And The One He Kept To Himself
Shoutarou twirled the ring around his pinky, lost in thought. It had been a quiet afternoon. There were no cases and Philip was holed up in the garage again. This time he was researching strawberry shortcake.
Pulling the silver ring off his finger, Shoutarou held it up in the air. The sunlight bounced off the reflective metal.
“What are these Shou-chan?”
“Rings niisan! One for me and one for you!”
“So shiny! You’re the best little brother in the world. I’ll wear mines every day.”
Shoutarou placed the ring back on his finger. It seemed that he would not be getting any work done this afternoon. He opened the drawer in his desk and pulled out a photo. Softly to himself he said:
“Happy Birthday Ryuu-niisan.”