savetheearth | action --> video;

[ACTIONSPAM -- for Hospital]
[He all but jerks up out of sleep, unconsciousness, whatever it was, with a sharp gasp, and the only thing keeping him from sitting straight upright is the sudden stabbing pain in one shoulder, and the back of his head. There's a split second in which he's sure all those injuries are real and not some dream --]

[-- then there's the white wall of the hospital room. Breath. Pain. None of those would happen if he were dead, would they?]

[He settles slowly back down, eyes a little glazed and startled, fumbling around for a phone that isn't there. He has to call -- ]

[VIDEO START]
[And sometime after the initial shock wears off, and his phone is retrieved, a very disheveled looking man lying in a hospital bed, bandaged and pale, is holding the device up in one hand, like he's trying to see himself and record at the same time.]

[This is a terrible time for selfies, sir.]

I suppose that asking if anyone can hear me is a foolish question. However... I'll ask it anyway.

[He smirks a little.]

I'm so very intrigued to find out who it is I'll be speaking to in such covert means. A secret network? You have my attention.

Takenaka Yuji -- [He inclines his head, as best he can.] -- At your service.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think that's the theory. It was before my time, man, all I know is what other people told me there.

[All of the above says that, and Nick feels terrible telling him this. Not to mention that he hasn't come to terms with it himself. It's hard to explain what's going on when he doesn't really know.

He squeezes back, going for reassuring, but probably only succeeding at empathetic.]

Of course there's something. There has to be something, there always is. But it's not like our usual cases, man, it's not - we don't know who to trust. We can't tell anyone our suspicions, because they sound insane, and even though most of the station can't be in on this, there's no way they'd believe it.

Kotetsu - Sergeant Kaburagi - was the only cop who knew about the network for a while, and then it was just him and me. Then there was a rookie, and an undercover cop at another station, and - and now you. But we can't trust anyone else.

[Given Nick's trust issues - and the fact that Yuji was the closest person that Nick'd come to trusting in pretty much his whole life - it's strange to talk about trust now. But the network has changed that a little, if only by necessity.

Well. And because of Monroe.]

Before your time... so this has been happening... how long?

[Maybe this would be better to bear if the vision wasn't still dancing around in his head.]

[Or if he hadn't been shot. Or if he weren't a cop, if that hadn't been his entire life goal. Or if--]

[He feels his nails dig into his partner's hand, and forcibly stops himself from digging in too much.]

Us against the world. It never sounds as badass as it should.

[His head lowers, but his eyes flick up again, after a moment.]

Kaburagi. Isn't he old and decrepit.

April. I think. That's the longest I've heard.

[It's the cop thing that's the hardest. It's been Nick's life for so long, it's why he's still in denial about parts of it.

Nick doesn't mind the nails. He's had worse, and if Yuji needs something to hold onto right now, Nick can be it.]

Not the whole world. Just whatever may or may not be invading it.

[That gets an amused snort, and he's grateful for the mood lightening, even just a little.]

He's only like five years older than me, man. I wouldn't call that old.

April...

[Yeah, it really is the hardest part. This is supposed to be something important. Something indivisible. Sure, there are dirty cops, there's bad eggs in every profession... but this? This goes beyond it, somehow.]

[It seems almost like he's dozed off for a second, with his grip releasing the barest fraction. He answers eventually, a little dazed-sounding.]

Invading. So there are aliens.

[And why does that sound somehow familiar?]

When you're young and beautiful like me, five years is a lifetime. He's old.

[It's something they're all going to have to come to terms with, and it's not going to be easy for any of them.

Or at least, it isn't for Kotetsu and Nick, and Nick knows it won't be for Yuji, which is the majority of Nick's sample there.]

No. Well, maybe. I don't know, I think it was proven that whoever definitively said it was aliens was lying. It... might be something supernatural, something magical. It might be aliens, it might be demons. Hell if I know.

[Nick shakes his head, chuckling.]

So is this the part where I don't mention your actual age?

[He'd taken up this job because of personal reasons. Familial reasons. This shakes it all. He wishes, for a second, just to go back to sleep.]

Magical. You want me to believe this is... magical. Or demons. I'm Japanese, not Amish.

[Except his background has a long history of demons and weird superstitions but no dammit he has a point to make here.]

You don't know my actual age.

[It's all right, man, sometimes Nick wishes the same thing. Maybe he should've waited to tell him all of this until after he got out of the hospital, but then he figures that Yuji would've just been cranky he hadn't told him.]

Dude really, Amish, that's where you went? Besides, the Japanese have plenty of demons and superstitions, you should see one of the Japanese entries in the book I got. And - I don't want you to believe anything. I don't even know what I believe, I just know that shit is happening and all we can do is deal with it the best we can.

[He shakes his head.]

Of course I do. I'd be a pretty crappy detective if I didn't know my own partner's actual age.

[He would have been. He really would have been. It's probably for the best this way, even though he's cranky now...]

You're not allowed to lecture me about my own culture, just because I'm hospitalized.

... what book?

[He rolls his eyes -- dramatically.]

You have guesses. That's all.

[Of course he would. And Nick'd rather deal with crankiness now than actual anger later.]

All right, all right, comment withdrawn. And it's - I don't know, it's like a book profiling supernatural creatures.

[Very dramatic, man. Nick's suitably impressed.]

Uh-huh. You keep thinking that.

Good. Smart man. [He blinks a few times, as if to clear his vision.] And your book is in Japanese?

[Do you need him to translate.]

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