The Ghosts of Me

1

Philip stared at Shotaro, hand cradling his left cheek from where the other had punched him. "I'll do this without your help!" He snarled, shoving the Gia memories down on the table. "And without your power." He hissed the last words before turning on his heel and stalking out of the door. Philip did not bother trying to stop him, merely staring down at the table, his eyes wide and his pupils were blown so that one could barely even see the chestnut brown of his eyes. He did not know what to think, it was as though his mind had frozen, lost and misdirected, unguided, and as if he was falling. Like Alice falling down that rabbit hole into wonderland. Philip thought to himself.

"Aren't you going to stop him?" Chief questioned, hitting his shoulders. He shook his head. It was useless. Shotaro had made his decision, and that included folly and possible death, but it was useless to try and question him. Barring that, he did not want to see Shotaro again...not until...not until he figured out why...He moved away from the Chief, book in one hand at his hip as he closed his eyes and lifted his right, entering the Library immediately. Skimming through the books, fingers trailing the shelves as he tried to push his emotions back far enough so that he could think of the good keywords. The only thing he could produce was 'hit' and 'partners' and there were so many different results for that.

Skimming the first several hundred responses he felt his heart grow heavier and heavier before he shook his head, abruptly stopping the lookup, dropping out of the library, and falling onto his knees, almost close to tears from the results that he had been searching for. I guess it is true. He thought, despair clinging from him. Despite the five years that we have been working together, perhaps he has always disliked me. I suspected as much but...I had hoped that...well, that I was wrong. It seems I was not, however. He had known that Shotaro blamed him for his Boss' death, because it was a client that had asked for the two to save him from the laboratory which had ended in a mission success, but also the Boss' death. Shotaro had never been overly kind or gentle with him, but he had never hit him before. He supposed he should have suspected it would happen soon enough. He just hoped that...that it would not happen again. He was not sure he could take the same sort of treatment over again.

"He needs your help, Philip!" The Chief screamed, he jolted, dragged into the Ghost mobile despite his protests. He was dropped into the center of the mobile. Groaning as the metal made a connection with his cheek. He was not used to falling and feeling the connection of the floor. Typically, he had lost consciousness in his body before it hit the ground. He felt a dull achy feeling all the time from the number of times he fell to the metallic floor, but that was in the aftermath. Feeling the metal hit his body, barely managing to brace himself before he fell, was an entirely different feeling. He turned abruptly, seeing the Chief looming over him waving.

"Hey! No. W-Wait!" He was not waited on, and despite his protests, which were ignored as ever, the mobile started up immediately, leaving him even more lost as the walls enclosed around him. His shoulders dropped down as a choking feeling took over his senses. He tried to shake it. They had seconds before they were upon the scene, and Philip had to act normal, or try to.

It was the last thing he felt before his body merged with Shoutarou's. The last question he had asked the other, before his consciousness faded, unanswered as all his questions tended to go.

Then he woke up once more in his body, groaning in pain as he flipped his body onto his side, arms coming to rest about his middle. He knew he would have bruises later, again. He tucked his head behind his arms, unable to stop the throbbing feeling as it crashed into his temples. He felt chilled, achy, and weak, with a good solid headache to add on top of it. It was awful. It seemed the equivalent to what he had heard about sickness, but it was not the time for that. He tried to pull himself up but could not help but fall back to the floor.