Echoes
Originally part of The Air in My Lungs, because I had been exploring the idea of Daisuke communicating with the world through his voice, b-but the scene was so disjoint from the other that I decided to separate it into this short story. uwu
(Also as of this story I’ve stopped appending “side story” onto the fics, because they’re really not side stories. J-just fics that happen to take place at some point in time in the same universe as Blind Sighted.)
Though this chapter got expanded from the original idea... it borrows from Chapter 6: Skyscraper’s Notice in the canon manga, s-so it’s actually probably more of a sequel to Blind Sighted than the others so far. (Though there are still a few stories between Chapters 2-6 that I may write s-someday? Eventually.)
This probably takes place before Colorless. So Satoshi and Daisuke aren’t exactly friends yet!
Others in this series: Blind Sighted | Colorless | A Sense of Touch | The Air in My Lungs
~~~~~
Echoes: A DNAngel Blind AU Story
~~~~~
“Let’s walk home together.”
Daisuke paused at the sound of his classmate’s voice, his shoulders stiffening ever so slightly. It--it’s Hiwatari-kun! He thought nervously, though he smiled nonetheless and replied, “It’s, um--I would like to, but...”
“Harada or Saehara normally walk with you, don’t they? But it seems lately Harada has been preoccupied, and Saeahara is busy today... you don’t mind if I walk with you, right?” Satoshi asked in his stoic voice, though there was something strained about it.
“Oh, uh... alright. Okay.” Daisuke nodded, tapping his stick on the ground habitually as he made his way down the street, away from the school’s main gates.
Daisuke listened to his unlikely companion’s quiet footsteps beside him, thinking it odd that Satoshi was even talking to him--the boy really didn’t associate himself with others.
So... why...? Does he have something to say to me? He actually asked if he could walk home with me... Daisuke thought, keeping his face carefully schooled except for slightly furrowed eyebrows, and despite his heart thumping loudly in his chest. Could it be that he... he must want to arrest me and escort me to the police station!?
Before Daisuke’s panic could escalate, Saotshi’s soft whisper reached his ears.
“...Yesterday...”
Daisuke jumped in surprise, his eyebrows raising as he turned his head toward his classmate, yelping more loudly than was necessary, “Ah! Y--yes?”
“I made a bet with someone,” Satoshi continued, unperturbed by Daisuke’s panicky nature, and Daisuke nearly froze at those words. He could feel Satoshi’s gaze flicker to him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing in a way that Daisuke knew meant someone was looking at him in a not-as-friendly-as-he’d-like way. Satoshi was silent for a moment, before he elaborated, “A bet with Dark.”
“Is... is that so.”
Daisuke, of course, recalled the moment in the back of his mind easily, echoes of memories whispering themselves to the forefront.
“I need to have a chat with you, high commander.”
Daisuke had just pulled off their latest heist, but Dark had requested complete control after it was securely in their hands. With Daisuke being the one to do most of the work, he knew Dark didn’t get much time to manifest, so though he was confused, he had gladly let Dark take over.
“Let’s make a bet.”
“...A bet?”
“If I can steal Euphyllia’s Nightscape next week, then... you can’t do a thing to ‘him’.”
Satoshi had been suspicious, it was obvious in his voice at the time. Daisuke had fretted nervously in the back of his shared mind--what had Dark been planning? The phantom thief had often kept his thoughts to himself, and Daisuke had no idea where he was going with that risk. He could sense the feelings coming off Dark in waves, though--despite how cocky his voice was, he didn’t actually have the confidence to back it up--just the acting skills.
“Even though you’re not the thief?”
The skepticism in Satoshi’s coldly spoken phrase sent shivers down Daisuke’s spine, if only because of the fact that Satoshi knew it was Daisuke who pulled off most of the heists. Daisuke didn’t know how exactly the boy had known, but he figured it had something to do with what he had said the first night--“What peculiar eyes you have.”
He still didn’t know what Satoshi had meant by that.
“I will be.”
“...Fine. Then what if... you don’t steal it?”
The resignation and exasperation was evident, if only because Satoshi had known Dark wouldn’t give him a choice but to accept the bet, but Daisuke had detected a hint of amusement and curiosity. He had been wondering how Dark planned to follow through with his bet, too.
“...Then he said that if I won, I could do as I pleased,” Satoshi’s voice brought Daisuke back to the present time, and he blinked his silver-white eyes slowly.
“Re--really...” Daisuke cleared his throat, attempting to appear as though he had been listening the whole time, “H... he said that to you? Y-you must be joking!” He laughed nervously--he could still feel Satoshi’s cold, dark gaze directly on him.
Daisuke heard the long stride of the other’s quick footsteps before he felt the presence in front of him, and he stopped in place when the thud of a hand hitting concrete sounded right ahead of his ear.
“H-Hiwatari-kun?”
“Who do you think it was?”
“Eh?”
“Who do you think he was talking about?” Satoshi elaborated, his voice far closer than Daisuke was comfortable with--and he was normally one who didn’t mind close proximity to anyone. It made his heart beat faster and adrenaline threatened to pump through his veins because he wanted to flee or fight--the fear of being caught was very real, especially when Daisuke was sure that Satoshi had, somehow, found out his secret. That he was Dark.
But even so, he had no proof--and Daisuke was determined to keep it that way, so he played dumb, as usual.
“I don’t know.”
The gaze he could feel on him intensified, and curious suspicion colored the blue-haired boy’s tone. “Really...”
Approaching footsteps brought relief, even more so when it was accompanied by a very familiar trill. “Daisuke-chan~!”
“Mom!” He gasped, turning his head toward her--and thankfully, the rise of the hairs on his neck left him, which meant Satoshi had looked away too.
“Oh, you’re with a friend? Invite him to the house!” Emiko chirped cheerfully. It was always nice when Daisuke made new friends--not too many people knew how to handle his blindness, after all.
But then she met the boy’s gaze, and she froze.
Daisuke’s shoulders tensed when he heard her near inaudible gasp, and suddenly she was next to him, grabbing him by the arm to lead him away.
“Huh? Um, Mom--”
“...Let’s go home, Daisuke.” She said sternly, suspicion lacing the undertone of her voice, dragging him gently away as she used to do when he was younger. He tried to protest, turning his head slightly to listen for Satoshi’s reaction, but she didn’t let him, cutting him off. “If we stay out too late, your grandfather will get worried.” She said flippantly--obviously, this was only an excuse.
“Oh, um--okay. Uh, bye, Hiwatari-kun!” Daisuke called over his shoulder--he heard Satoshi only grunt softly in response, but no footsteps indicating that he was moving anywhere in particular. Once they had gone several minutes without speaking, Emiko finally let go of his arm. Daisuke titled his head up to his mother. “You’re acting really strange... why did you suddenly....”
“Daisuke, be more careful around that boy, alright?”
The serious tone in his mother’s usually bright and cheerful voice was somewhat disconcerting, and very confusing. Daisuke tried to ask her what she meant, but she wouldn’t provide any answers, so he dropped the subject with a sigh.
He understood Dark’s mistrust of Satoshi--the boy was the police commander, and faced Dark every time they went on a heist, and his presence was a constant threat to their freedom. But Daisuke had never told his mother about Satoshi, and Dark had never mentioned it as far as he knew, so what did Emiko see in Satoshi that made her so cautious? What did she know?
He tried to ask Dark, but the thief didn’t reply either.
~~~
“Okay, Dark--are you sure about this?”
“Heck yeah--I’ll win that bet, Dai. I’m not the great Phantom Thief Dark for nothing!” The purple-haired thief grinned to himself, “So, give me those pointers you said you had! I’m going to pull off this heist by myself, I swear it!”
“If you say so...” Daisuke hummed in amusement, “Well, I guess the first thing would be figuring out your way around the house. If you can’t figure that out, then it would be pretty hard to figure out the gallery--there are more narrow hallways here, and the gallery is mostly open space.”
Dark crossed his arms. “Alright, and how would I figure out my way around the house without just memorizing the layout?”
“Listen.” Daisuke replied, “How much space do you hear in the room?”
“How much space do I hear?” Dark asked incredulously, “It’s not something you can--”
“Listen.” Daisuke commanded again, more firmly, interrupting the thief when his voice spilled from their lips instead of Dark’s.
Dark frowned, but he nodded, staring into the black void of Daisuke’s normal eyesight and focusing on his ears, straining it in the silence.
“Sound is made of vibrations traveling through the air. The air around us is constantly moving, shifting with every breath--and when it shifts, there’s sound... you just have to listen for it.” Daisuke whispered in his mind, careful not to break his other’s concentration. “Pay attention to how far away the shifts are--it will tell you how big the room is.”
Dark spent a good hour standing in the middle of the room, trying to form the shape of it in his mind without calling up the physical image of how he already knew it to be.
“When you think you know, walk to the door--if you crash into something, you misjudged the distance.”
“Gee, I think that’s obvious.” Dark said dryly, pausing as he picked up on how his voice flowed through the air, how it seemed to change and shift as it hit any obstacles in its way. How Daisuke’s chair obscured the sound, and how his soft bed absorbed it.
He took a step forward.
~~~
“Geez, how do you do this all the time?” Dark shook his head, having finally made it to the kitchen after a slightly disastrous trip down the stairs and a too-long trek to the garage and back. “Listening for the shape of the room while standing still is hard--how do you do it while on the run?”
“Fourteen years of practice.” Daisuke could practically be heard shrugging, “That’s tomorrow’s lesson by the way.” He paused, “Do you really think you can do all of this in a week?”
“I’ve got to try, Daisuke.” Dark shrugged. “Besides, the thief thing is my gig. I’ve done it for four hundred years--a little blindness isn’t going to stop me from continuing to do it.” He added determinedly. “If fact, I just know it’ll make me better at what I do if I can do this!”
Daisuke smiled inwardly. “Huh. Well, after dinner, you can watch me do it, then we can practice some more.”
“Good plan. I’m starving!” Dark grinned, waving his hand as he tried to find the table, “Oii, Emiko! What’s cookin’?”
“Hey, why do you get to eat!?”
~~~
“In a noisy room, it’s actually easier to figure out the shape of the layout and where the obstacles are. If you can sense where the sounds are bouncing off or absorbing, then it’s easy to dodge or maneuver your way around.”
Daisuke was currently speaking out loud as he made his way through the house--Emiko was singing to herself as she did some chores; With was mewling as he hopped along at the redhead’s ankles; and the TV was blaring from where his grandfather was watching it in the living room, though Daisuke could tell the old man was more interested in watching them, judging from the stifled chuckles of amusement.
“So when you’re on the move, all that commotion in the museums usually helps?” Dark asked curiously.
“That, and the marble floors and walls. They echo a lot--you know how we can normally walk silently?” Dark made a sound of affirmation, and Daisuke continued, “Do you ever notice how much noise I make during a heist?”
The ancient thief paused to think about that, then realized that yes, every time they went to the museum, Daisuke’s footsteps had been audible--not obscenely loud enough as to alert the police of their presence, but just loud enough to make small clicks. Apparently this was deliberate.
“It’s much harder in outdoor spaces, because the sounds travel into the air, there, but I don’t think you’ll have to worry too much about being outdoors during a heist.” Daisuke continued, making his way through the living room, distinctly aware of Daiki watching him from the couch. With hopped over to join him, purring when he was pet. “Once you learn how to judge distances based on the length of sounds, then it’s pretty easy to maneuver anywhere without an aid.”
“I always did wonder how you managed the heists without your stick.” Dark commented.
“I’ve never really needed the stick--not since I was twelve.” Daisuke shrugged, “It’s mostly for show. And sometimes for outdoor areas, like when we went on that field trip to the mountains. Definitely needed it there.”
“Right then, think I can give it a shot now?” Dark asked, and Daisuke laughed, complying and switching places with him with a single thought of the girl he liked.
“Okay then,” Dark straightened up, “what route should I go this time?”
“You should try the obstacle course some time.” Daiki snickered.
“Daisuke says I’m not ready for that--pah! Screw you Daisuke, I’ll be able to do it by the end of the week, I’ll bet you that!” Dark protested indignantly to his head mate. Daiki and With both laughed, and Dark ignored them with a huff.
“Right. Alright then, try to get up to the balcony in mom’s room.” Daisuke instructed. “Also, if you have trouble, try talking out loud.”
“Talking out loud?” Dark wondered, beginning to make his way forward depending on his ears alone.
“Yeah--like I said, the more sound there is, the easier it is to detect the space around you. Even without echoes, it helps.”
“I kind of got that--I understood about that much on the first day,” Dark murmured. “It’s... really weird, though? I mean, I haven’t been able to do those kinds of things before, and I’ve been blindfolded in the past.”
“Well... it is my body. Maybe you’re instinctively using some of my skills?” Daisuke suggested. “Or it’s a muscle memory thing.”
“Probably,” Dark shrugged, rather comforted by the conversation as he continued trying to make his way through the house, “You know, it’s... kind of like echolocation.”
“Of course. I did develop the technique based on it.”
Dark’s eyes widened in surprise. “No way. You’re kidding.”
“I make up for my deficiencies in ways you can’t even emulate, Dark.” Daisuke laughed, “I studied up on how sound works and how other blind or nearly-blind creatures get around in an attempt to understand myself better. What can I say? I was ten and curious.”
“Impressive.” Dark had to admit, nodding in approval.
“It took me two years to master something like this though--and I’ve been blind my whole life, so it was easier to adjust to it. You, on the other hand, depend too much on sight, so I don’t really expect you to get much more than the basics.”
“Oi--I’m the great phantom thief! Don’t underestimate me!”
“You’re about to run into a wall.”
“I am n--oof! Oww...”
“Haha. Told you.”
~~~
Satoshi quirked an eyebrow when he saw his redheaded classmate slide into his seat next to him. The boy had been awkward ever since the confrontation about the bet, but at least he was still amiable.
“Um, good morning, Hiwatari-kun.”
The young police commander was well aware that the blind boy was the real thief of the heists, but still... the cocky phantom thief he met during the nights in the museums was such a contrast to the kindhearted, clumsy blind boy who sat next to him now.
“...Good morning.”
No one would have suspected the blind Niwa of being a high-class wanted criminal. If the disability weren’t so genuine, Satoshi would have thought Daisuke was faking it to throw off any suspicion that he might have been one and the same with Dark.
But it wasn’t like that at all--and Satoshi peered into those eerie white eyes, searching, trying to figure out the truth behind the mysterious boy. Sweet, shy Daisuke Niwa was the overconfident, egotistical Dark. Sometimes it was hard to wrap his head around the idea that they were one person--the dissonance in their personalities was astounding, yet somehow... they were indeed two sides of the same coin.
Satoshi was after Dark--that was his entire life’s goal, to capture the cursed winged thief who stole the artworks created by the Hikari clan. To stop his sinful ways and break the curse on his own family before it was too late and he ran out of time.
But he was also sure that the one he chased every night wasn’t Dark. Because more often than not, he would be looking up at the black-winged angel and the eyes he saw never directly met his gaze. The angle was never right, the violet-red too lightless.
If those eyes had been white, that would have been all the proof he needed to arrest Daisuke--because no matter how unwilling a participant he was in the heists, he was still a major part of them. He wasn’t sure if it was Dark who spoke to him during the heists, or if Daisuke was just an exceptional actor, but he knew for sure that Dark wasn’t able to handle this generation’s defects alone. Daisuke was a criminal, and Satoshi had every right to arrest him.
Sometimes he wondered why he hadn’t yet.
“So, um...”
Satoshi sighed, glancing over at his classmate. “Yes, Niwa?”
“Nothing. Oh, um, thanks for the notes for this week, I wouldn’t have been able to study without them.” Daisuke fidgeted awkwardly.
“Don’t mention it.” Satoshi said nonchalantly, his eyebrows furrowing as he got a better look at the redhead. He stared silently as the boy looked sightlessly ahead, seemingly unaware of his intense gaze. “...What happened to your face?”
“Huh?” Daisuke blinked, turning his head toward the bespectacled boy. A nervous sweat started to roll from his forehead. “M-my face? Is there something wrong with it?”
“You have bruises on your nose and cheek...” Satoshi frowned.
“Oh! That...” Daisuke relaxed a bit, his shoulders drooping in embarrassment, “I, um, ran into a wall. It happens sometimes. I--I wasn’t paying attention, and it was an unfamiliar area, so...”
“...I see.”
Somehow Satoshi got the feeling that Daisuke was lying, because he was definitely more coordinated than that, despite his occasional clumsiness.
He wondered if Daisuke’s lies and his very nature as a thief was something he should have hated more--and why he didn’t. Because really, Daisuke was too different than what he imagined Dark’s tamer would be like--and he wasn’t prepared for that.
~~~
“Over here!” Dark’s voice teased the cops, and they ran like headless chickens in the opposite direction.
Once the guards were gone and Dark gave him the signal that it was clear, Daisuke in Dark’s form stepped out of the shadows, smiling at his achievement.
“Not bad, kid.” Dark whistled, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a partner who was as good at throwing their voice as you are.”
“It helps to know how sound moves through space.” Daisuke grinned cheekily, running for the private gallery room.
“Alright, we got in, but now it’s my turn.”
Daisuke nodded. “Good luck, Dark.” He didn’t stop running as the transformation completed, the red eyes becoming slightly darker with Dark’s control. “If you need my help...”
“Please, kid. I won’t need it.” Dark smirked, “I’ll win this bet on my own!”
He quick-changed into a disguise, slowing his pace as he got closer to the room he was targeting. His footsteps echoed against the high ceilings and marble columns, and his ears twitched as he made his way forward the way he had practiced all week.
One room left... if it’s that one, then I’m home free! Dark smirked. Really, it was a good thing Daisuke’s superior hearing had been able to pick up the conversation of the party in the main gallery--else they would have stolen a fake, and that wouldn’t do at all. So here they were, making their way to the one place they knew the police would have hidden the painting--deep within the gallery, the room with the most security.
He punched the code into the lock at the main door, listening to it slide open without a fuss. As he crossed into the laser-protected area, he stopped just before the hum of electricity and heat--and a voice mechanically demanded, “Name confirmation.”
He inwardly bragged to Daisuke that he could imitate voices as well as the redhead could even without the deep understanding of the science behind it, and he spoke clearly and powerfully in Satoshi’s voice, “Satoshi Hiwatari from the Azumano Police Station.”
The machine beeped twice almost angrily, grouching out, “Error. Name confirmation again please.”
Dark’s eyes narrowed. Error? How could that be?
“Dark, there’s another presence in the room--I can hear them breathing!” Daisuke said hastily, right before another voice spoke.
“There’s only one way into here... Dark.”
Dark froze in surprise. Satoshi was standing somewhere a few feet ahead of them, a slightly smug undertone in his voice. He apparently already thought he was triumphant.
“The same person cannot pass through the security twice. Though you didn’t have to pull a stunt like this to get in, you could have hacked the system.”
“I’ll take that as an invitation.” Dark smirked, still speaking in Satoshi’s voice, hoping to unnerve him. Without ceremony, he reached up to the security device and cracked the code, shutting the lasers off. “Congratulations for getting one step ahead of me.”
“Tch. Why don’t you come in then, Dark?” Satoshi asked knowingly, straightening up from where he was leaning against the wall.
“Geez, you’re no fun.” Dark snorted, reaching under his mask and pulling off the whole disguise in one fluid movement. The grinning face of the purple-haired thief greeted the young police commander as he declared, “Our bet starts now!”
Satoshi braced himself as sightless red eyes gazed at and beyond him, his eyes narrowing in anticipation.
~~~
Daisuke seemed particularly distracted, when he quite literally bumped into Satoshi at school the next day. Satoshi glanced at him nonchalantly, his gaze flickering behind the redhead for the briefest moments to catch sight of Risa Harada disappearing around the corner with her friend. It was no secret Daisuke had a crush on her--that must have been why he was distracted.
“S-sorry!” Daisuke stammered in embarrassment, drawing Satoshi’s attention back to him. He gasped when he heard a small grunt in response, instantly recognizing the voice. “Hiwatari-kun!”
Satoshi blinked slowly, a little surprised the boy recognized him from such a trivial, minute sound. He stared calculatingly at the redhead, especially when he flustered and seemed to remember something.
“Oh, yes! I forgot!” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a familiar handkerchief. “Here! Thank you for lending it to me, before.”
“Mm...” Satoshi took it, looking down at it contemplatively. He had given this to Daisuke when they first met, and the boy had been crying in lament of his terrible luck... Daisuke had remembered this? Honestly Satoshi had forgotten, it was just a small token, insignificant and replaceable.
He glanced up at the redhead, who was still blushing from his clumsiness and flustering, and muttered a quiet “thank you” as he turned away to leave.
“Ah...” Daisuke seemed perplexed by the boy’s closed-off nature--they had been getting along so well before... or at least, relatively speaking, it was better than when he was still thirteen. Even if it had been awkward because Daisuke was afraid of getting caught, he still found the other boy to be somewhat kind and very lonely, and had determined to get to know him better. But now it seemed that he didn’t want to talk to him, like they were strangers again.
Was it because of Dark’s bet?
“I won.” Dark had said the night before, a triumphant smirk on his face, “So you can’t touch him... and you can bet on this: it’ll be me, much much more often, now.”
Did Dark’s bet mean that Satoshi wouldn’t talk to him anymore?
Daisuke wouldn’t have that.
“H-Hiwatari-kun!” He called out, and he heard the boy stop. Taking it as a sign that the blue-haired boy was listening, he risked asking, “When it’s me, you won’t catch me, right?”
Satoshi was silent for a long time, contemplating the answer. Finally, he turned back around with a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips.
“...What are you talking about?”
The happy smile that lit up Daisuke’s face was probably worth turning around for, because Satoshi was sure that, even if they were two sides of the same coin... Daisuke and Dark were surely irreconcilable--only Daisuke could smile like that, as if Satoshi’s simple words had just made his day.
And really Satoshi couldn’t hate him for that, he thought as the echoes of Daisuke’s smile made its way into his own.