Lulu notices that Kou is starting to settle in as a shin, and teases him about his new bond to Shirogane.
Kou didn’t realize he was humming until Lulu leaned over the back of the couch, positively smirking. "You’re looking more like yourself lately, Chibi. Did something good happen?"
After Homurabi is defeated, Kou and Shirogane have to reach some understanding of what they are to each other.
The shadow world could be kind of boring, Kou had decided. At least now that there weren’t any crazy kings around stirring it up. And he certainly didn’t wish Homurabi back, but with only two people around to talk to, and neither of them Akira, he was definitely feeling out of sorts.
Fortunately there was a solution.
To win the battle, Kou needs a king’s power to back his. There’s really only one king available… Picks up post-35.
Kou hauled himself up from the bed, wincing a little. "You’re a real bastard, you know that?"
"A fine way to talk to someone who just finished healing the wounds your own idiocy bought you," Shirogane observed, pulling his gloves back on.
Kou thinks he’s figured out who the next king of shadow is. Now they have to convince Akira to let him go.
"All right, you said you found something," Lulu said, settling on Kou’s best chair. "So what is it?"
Kou blew out a stream of smoke. "Think it’s the king you want. You’ll never believe who it is, though." He certainly hadn’t.
After Shirogane returns to see to his own world, Akira comes to visit and get him to unwind a little. Lulu has a talk with Kou, in the meantime, about finding more shin.
"Mm." Kou hadn’t looked away yet. "So you’re not worried he’ll be pissed off if you just show up unexpectedly?"
"Probably will be," Akira allowed. "So what?"
Kou choked on a swallow.
"Sometimes he needs something he doesn’t want to admit to." Akira shrugged. "So I should know how to go."
Kou laughed through his last few coughs. "Yeah, you’re you all right." He leaned back, mouth quirked. "And totally in love too, aren’t you?"
Akira jerked upright. "I am not!"
In the final confrontation with Homurabi, Ryuuko returns. Afterwards, Akira finds that he remembers and understands a few more things. One of them is why Shirogane has refused to make any more shin than him.
Whenever Akira had changed in the past he’d been too occupied with, most usually, almost dying to notice before he was suddenly waking up again. This time was different. This time, Akira could feel it happening, like walking down a see-saw and reaching the fulcrum, the tipping point, when uphill suddenly became downhill and the world turned over.
Shirogane has a plan to buy them all time and reinforce the boundary between worlds, provided Ryuuko agrees, and provided Shirogane can bring himself to carry it out.
Shirogane settled his hat back on, speaking from under the brim of it. "You and I are the direct kings. Weakened or not. If we take an action together that resonates through our realms, that may reaffirm the balance for long enough."
Kou is concerned over what Akira has gotten himself into. Akira isn’t.
"Hey." Kou shook his shoulder gently. "I get it. It’s only natural." He sighed. "I just worry about you with him."
After another experience of Akira’s shin-ness interfering with Ryuuko’s power, Akira wants to know exactly what’s going on. And then he has to think about who, exactly, he is.
Akira paused in the middle of pulling his shirt off. "You know," he said to the wall, "I still don’t remember much of that time two years back, when I met Kou-nii. Or the other time you say I did that scythe thing." He hesitated for a moment. "Does that mean… when I’m Ryuuko I’m not me?"
Shirogane was quiet for longer than he liked.
Before it all starts, Kou is a bit of a brat. Ryuuko scolds him. After it’s all over, Kou is still uncertain of his place. Ryuuko reassures him.
"KOU!"
Kou dashed down the hall, laughing, and dodged around a startled Ryuuko-sama to hide behind him.
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