Fic: Robot

[ingenious_spark]

Title: Robot
Fandom: Persona 4
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Relationships: Shirogane Naoto/Tatsumi Kanji
Characters: Shirogane Naoto, Tatsumi Kanji
Word Count: 429
Summary: Naoto was not expecting "incursion of another realm into ours" as what was going to disrupt his date with Kanji in Shibuya.

Living in Tokyo has been good, these past few years. Naoto has managed to successfully get his tiny detective agency off the ground, and Kanji has a very popular internet storefront where he sells his plush dolls and other handicrafts, as well as part-timing in a tailor's shop. Their apartment is tiny, but they're happy. Naoto has been deeply considering proposing. Kanji's face when he does will doubtless be adorable. Even after all this time he gets flustered when Naoto does romantic things for him.

So it's both a surprise and not when, as Kanji and Naoto are browsing through Shibuya on their coordinated day off, the sky goes strange and it begins to rain red liquid too transparent and watery to really be blood. Massive bones, still with connective tissue seeming to drip off of them, appear, though most people seem perfectly oblivious to this. Naoto immediately checks his coat pocket, and swears softly as he withdraws a card.

Number 10, the Wheel of Fortune.

Kanji checks his own pocket and withdraws the Emperor. Yamato-Takeru stirs in the back of Naoto's mind for the first time in quite a while.

"Come on. We need to find the nexus. Do you think it's the Phantom Thieves?" Naoto asks tersely. Kanji shrugs.

"I mean, not sure what else it'd be. You don't have your gun though. I mean, I can just use whatever's lying around, but you need to rely on your spells." He sounds worried, and Naoto lays a reassuring hand on his arm.

"Don't worry about me," he murmurs, dragging him down for a quick kiss. A flash of strange, jerky movement has him drawing away, placing himself strategically behind Kanji. He's right, after all, he doesn't have his gun, or any other weapon, though he still carries his mildly obsessive collection of soul food and chewing souls, and one precious soma. His magic, while very powerful, has a heavy cost and he's always been anxious about magic exhaustion. Naoto falters when he sees what they're up against.

"That- that can't be," he says weakly. Kanji growls protectively, moving a little more firmly in front of him.

It's a robot. But an unsettlingly familiar one, with outsized ray guns and vaguely airplane-shaped wings. It's his Shadow, from the TV world. Lumbering up behind it then comes Kanji's Shadow, and it's his turn to falter. Naoto sets a reassuring hand on his shoulder, squeezing briefly, and he rallies.

"Let's show that bucket of bolts who's boss, Naoto," he growls, and Naoto nods.

"Definitely. Yamato-Takeru!"

"Rokuten Maou!"

"Megidolaon!"

"Primal Force!"