Cyberformed Inbox; $freebird

[birdsandblades]

This is Kagerou. Shadowmaru, you know where to find me.

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[patokiichi]

Your chip was inserted into an experimental submarine to make it automated. We discovered it and Shadowmaru made his way inside. When he discovered that's where you were, he-

[A click of his voxcoder]

He was angry. We all were. But he was furious. He wanted to stay with you. [Its said quietly. Gently.] He was going to go down with the submarine entirely when it began to fail because he didn't want you to be alone.

[A moment of quiet]

You talked him out of it.

[birdsandblades]

[ He talked him out of it. That sounds like him. It does. He wouldn't want Shadowmaru to go down with him, not when his little brother could live, not when his little brother could keep on existing.

(He thinks of that alternate's memories, still lurking in this frame from when Brainstorm had fractured things. Yes, he would do anything and everything for his brother, no matter how long he was avoided.)

But something is wrong. Something is wrong, because if a chip went down with a submarine, how is it here too?

He is a detective too. He was coded to be a ninja and to be a police officer, even if he has rejected one of two. He's good at trying to understand.

There are both hands over his chest, now. They killed his body, and his body is scarred. Front, and back; he's seen it, in the reflections of the observatory window. Run through, as if by Shadowmaru's-

Taken.

Taken... ]

I-

[ There is such a sharp, shuddery vent that it is more than audible to Deckerd. ]

Apologies. I have to go.

[ And Kagerou hangs up, all at once. He is dead. Kagerou is dead.

Kagerou is dead and he believes it's more than Deckerd thinks. ]