#sugihiga

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One of my favorite little things near the end of Judgment is Kaito sputtering over his wording and Higashi and Sugiura are just over it.

Sometimes they share a braincell and I love it.

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There are SO MANY chances RGG had with showing off how Higashi and Sugiura interact without anyone around, but they're always OFF-SCREEN and we never see any of it!

Sugiura and Higashi bring Kaito to some back-alley doctor (Emoto Medical Clinic, perhaps?) to get him patched up after being shot. There's no way they didn't talk a little. Sugiura would have still had the device to listen in on the Matsugane office, and it's clear he overheard what Higashi was doing in terms of going against Hamura's orders and getting beat up as a result of his defiance. It also explains how Sugiura knew where to find Yagami when he and Kaito got ambushed by Hamura.

After Saori agrees to a date with Kido at the batting center in Kamurocho, Yagami mentions that Higashi and Sugiura are going ahead to keep an eye on the place.

After Yagami and Sugiura get back from Shono's secret lab, Kaito leaves Higashi in charge of staying with Sugiura.

In Lost Judgment, after Sugiura and Yagami bring Mamiya over to Charles for questioning, Yagami leaves them to go meet up with Kuwana.

It's obvious that the two interact enough to get on friendly terms by the end of Judgment. Higashi gets uppity when Sugiura grabs the Charles phone and hands it to Yagami, and Sugiura briefly mentions that Higashi acts like he's hot shit. But after Matsugane dies, Sugiura lends his van to Kaito and Higashi to keep an eye on Kuroiwa. It could be that Kaito just can't drive and Higashi can, but it feels trusting for Sugiura to allow Higashi to drive his vehicle.

After Sugiura and Higashi stay together at Charles and that month passes awaiting Kuroiwa's trial, Higashi taking the time to stop in the middle of action to direct Sugiura to go with Yagami feels like he knows that it would mean a lot for Sugiura to help get Shono.

Even at the end of Lost Judgment, Sugiura comments on Higashi's boredom in Kamurocho. Which means at some point, the two caught up on what's been happening in however long it had been since they saw each other. Higashi probably told Sugiura that Charles was doing better, but it left him with too much time on his hands and nothing to do.

Don't get me wrong, the lack of screen-time together means that for me, as a writer, I can fill in the blanks with my own interpretation, but... man, I just would love to get an idea of how they are together alone. RGG has put them together in situations, but of course we don't get to be flies on the wall for any of them.

And yeah, it doesn't further the plot to see how they interact with each other, but I feel like them getting along by the end of Judgment was character development for the both of them. Especially when you consider that, really, they were in similar circumstances during Judgment and just doing their best to get by.

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We don't talk enough about the part near the end of Lost Judgment where Higashi is in danger of getting shot and Sugiura saves him by jumping from his safe spot, kicking the gun away from Soma, and risking getting stabbed by the man in retaliation.

Sugiura took a bullet at the end of Judgment, lives, and then stops Higashi from potentially having a worse fate because the gun is pointed directly at him. It's also not Higashi's first time at the bad end of a gun.

The power couple we deserve in the Judgment series. 😤

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The way Higashi looks at Sugiura like he's a piece of art. 😭

The bit of whimsy in how Higashi's foot is pointed at Sugiura. 😭😭😭

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I just want them to kiss softly in the light of the arcade machines.

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Sugiura is canonically the reason Higashi was dragged into the Mikoshiba case.

Yeah, Higashi saved Saori and Mari from RK when Saori was asking too many questions, and when she went to go call Yagami to share what she found out, Higashi gets suspicious and thinks it's odd for Yagami to leave Saori hanging. HOWEVER, I don't think Higashi would've gotten involved past that. He was just kinda looking out because even if he doesn't like him, Higashi still knows Yagami and knows he wouldn't leave people hanging.

But then later, when Yagami and Sugiura need to take Mamiya somewhere for questioning, CHARLES IT IS! When RK is introduced and Kaito mentions Higashi, Yagami brings up that he gives Higashi space because he knows that Higashi doesn't like when he tries being friendly. So if they needed to question a witness, I hardly think Yagami would choose to go to Charles knowing that Higashi doesn't really like him, and he has other places he could bring Mamiya. But you know who would choose Charles? Sugiura. Because they always questioned everyone at Charles the last time he worked with Higashi, and the two are friendly with each other, so he'd find Higashi's place safe to go. (As an aside, we KNOW Kuwana was at Yagami's office later so they couldn't go there, but it probably would've been Yagami's first place to question Mamiya but they didn't because plot reason).

Sugiura is even the one to give Higashi the low-down, even sweet-talk him a bit to let them in. I think Sugiura absolutely means it when he tells Higashi it's the safest place they know, and he calls Higashi a reliable friend. Yeah, they want a place to question Mamiya, but I don't think Sugiura would just give Higashi empty praise.

So yes, we got that sweet Higashi screen-time all because Sugiura knows Higashi's weak spots and knows what to say to get him on their side (also it helps that Kaito was in peril).

Bonus: Sugiura is like the only one who pays attention to whatever Higashi has to say.

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Because I'm me, I'm here to advertise the one time I was festive and wrote a SugiHiga fic for Halloween a couple years ago! It was fun, way different than what I normally write, but I really wanted to make something to celebrate Halloween.

It's not SPECIFICALLY a Halloween fic, but uh, there's ghost hunting! SPOOKY!

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