Katorasu, the only hero in Station Square, quietly awaited at the top of some stairs. He wasn’t dressed in the getup that he wore the night before, instead now dressed in a casual, yet unique-looking, outfit that consisted of a v-neck shirt, jeans, and sneakers; his quills were also down instead of in a ponytail. The hedgehog leaned against the wall closest to him, mainly propping himself by his shoulder, as he seemed to be listening intently for something.
His ear flickered as the sound of a small bell chimed from beyond the bottom of the stairs. A few seconds after the small bell had rung, Katorasu began to quickly move down the stairs; his movement was fast and light, making very little noise with each step of the staircase. At the very bottom, he poked his head out, slightly from behind a door frame, to make sure there was no one in the next room that he didn’t want to see him. Thankfully, the last customer of the day had just left the shop.
For the past two months, the black hedgehog had been living in an apartment right above a small tailor shop. It was a nice setup for Kato, much better than him camping out in the nearby forest. More convenient too for the sake of being in the city 24/7.
Currently, the hedgehog’s eyes tracked the movements of the border collie whom he shared the building with, they were just now flipping their open sign to closed.
“I told you not to damage your clothes.” The owner of the shop said aloud, to the hedgehog no less, as they then turned around.
Surprisingly, despite how feminine looking and small that this canine was, they were male. He wore more formal attire, suit and boots, and a tie and all that, compared to that of the black hedgehog. His hair was curly and soft-looking, in fact overall he looked like a very soft being. Which didn’t fit with the hard and annoyed stare he was giving Katorasu.
“‘Damage’? What do you mean damage?” He said, trying to play off the fact that there was totally a knife-sized cut in the shirt of his hero outfit.
“Then what, in the world, is this?” The border collie asked, walking over to and behind the counter of the tailor shop. From there he pulled out the shirt that Katorasu knew was ripped, he pointed exactly where the tiny tear was at as he held the shirt up for the hedgehog.
“How can you even tell it’s ripped? I mean it’s… it’s mostly black soooo…” Kato rubbed the back of his neck, he wasn’t all that great at playing coy.
“You do realize I’m a dog, right? And that we have a better sense of smell than other species? I can clearly smell your blood on this thing.” He waved the shirt a bit, his expression showed how irritated and disappointed he was with Katorasu.
Kato’s citrine eyes darted to the right a bit, as he tried to figure out a way to get past the verbal beating that was on its way. “Okay, well- How can it be my blood when I don’t even have a mark on me?” He said, rather smugly.
“Do you think I’m an idiot? I know you can regenerate, otherwise, you’d take your whole weird vigilantism thing much more seriously.” He rolled his eyes.
“Jamie,” Kato began, “I’m pretty agile so that’s why I’m so chill with being a *hero*.” He proudly stated.
“So why did you get hit this time?” Jamie, the tailor shop owner, asked, knowing he had just caught the hedgehog in his lie.
“Uhhhh… because I kind of wanted to use that to intimidate someone… I mean, it did work though! … kinda.” He sheepishly responded, laughing it off in an awkward manner afterward.
Jamie, now pinching his brow, asked, “So, knowing that I specifically said not to damage the outfit I specifically tailored for you, you went and willingly got stabbed to try and scare someone?”
“... well when you put it like that.” Kato seemed to shrink down a bit.
In an exasperated sigh, showing how done the canine was with the hedgehog, at least for today, he shook his head and said, “I’m letting you off. Only this *one* time though, any more stupid decisions and you can just sew the holes yourself.”
“I’m still allowed to live upstairs though, right?” Katorasu asked, hoping that he wasn’t going to get evicted by the smaller male.
“Of course, you’re paying extra for the rent anyway,” Jamie said, as he went into the back to go ahead and begin his work on sewing the cut that the shirt had suffered.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t remind me.” Katorasu chuckled, following Jamie as the natural light outside started to die down.
With Kato standing next to Jamie’s sewing table, the British canine sat down and pulled out the necessary materials from a drawer to the left of him. Making sure the article of clothing was well lit, he started with threading the proper piece of fabric through the needle and began to work on the knife-sized cut that afflicted the shirt. There was a bit of silence afterward, as the black hedgehog watched the formally dressed border collie work.
Eventually, though, Kato decided to break the silence, “So what made you wanna open up a tailor shop?”
The canine didn’t answer straight away, as he was finishing up the sewing process and was focusing more on that, “Because I enjoy it? It’s a hobby that I loved so much I wanted to turn it into a profession.” He finally answered as he inspected the repair he had just performed.
“That’s an answer, I guess.” Katorasu shrugged, as he looked down at the shirt Jamie had just patched up. It looked like it had never been cut in the first place.
“What about you?” Jamie, rather vaguely, asked.
“Uh, what?” The hedgehog looked down at the canine, still sitting, as he tilted his head a little.
“Heroism or, as they call it, “vigilantism” has been outlawed by the government and suppressed by G.U.N. It’s been that way for twenty years. I’m asking why are you going out there for problems the police can easily handle? When they’re already viewing you as worse than the criminals you apprehend for them. In short, I’m asking you: why fight a non-existent battle?” Jamie asked, turning to look up at the hedgehog. Their eyes locking contact together as a result.
For what was only three seconds was a painfully long eternity for the strange black hedgehog, his expression showed he was in quick deep thought. He couldn’t answer truthfully, at least not 100%. “Well, to be honest, I’ve got nothing better to do with my life. I mean, I’ve got all these crazy powers that I know you’ve never gotten to see in action: I can turn into mist without being harmed, even by a bullet; I’m able to make myself go faster and hit harder at the cost of it hurting like hell after; I can pop up in one place and at another if I really focused; and, like you said earlier, I can just regenerate if I do get hurt pretty bad. It’s not all that crazy though, don’t expect me to come back from a headshot or an explosion,” the hedgehog laughed, briefly, “to tie it all up though, I guess what you see is what you get with me. Just a guy with crazy powers that just wants to put them to use.” He smiled brightly.
“Isn’t that from Sonic’s autobiography?” Jamie asked with a very small chuckle left his throat.
”What? No, that was all me.” Kato shook his head, rather confused at the question.
“From ‘Past The Sound Barrier’? That’s one of the quotes from that book that has been getting referenced a lot: ‘What you see is what you get, just a guy that loves adventure’? You changed that last part, but yours is less… inspiring?” Jamie raised his shoulders, not sure what to call Kato’s version of it.
“Well, whatever. I mean who even reads autobiographies anymore?” He retorted.
“Well, when it’s written by someone who was a controversial figure back in the day, who wouldn’t read it?” Jamie responded, making a good point with that rhetorical question, “Either way, your shirt is done. Is it safe to assume you’re going back out there again tonight?”
“Yeah, why? You worried about me or something?” The black hedgehog teased.
“I’m worried about my handiwork being destroyed because of another stupid decision from you,” Jamie responded, annoyed with having to answer that question.
“At least you care for something.” He snickered, before taking the shirt off of Jamie’s work desk, “I’m gonna go freshen up before I go out for tonight; tie my quills, clean my ears, brush my teeth and all that. Gotta look good in case someone takes a snap or a video of me!”
“You are so vain.” Jamie responded as Kato was already walking back up the stairs to his apartment, “Goodnight, don’t do anything stupid!” The British male reminded him from the door of the shop as he closed up for the night.
“You got it, Jamie!” The hedgehog yelled a little so the border collie could hear him.
A little more than halfway up the stairs, the smile that was on the hedgehog’s face started to fade away. There was still some semblance of a happy expression though, although he looked rather somber now. It hurt him a bit inside, knowing that he couldn’t, or rather wouldn’t, tell the only person in his life the real reason why he goes out at night to fight crime. It hurt him even more that he wasn’t even doing all that much in the grand scheme of things. So far he had only stopped late-night robberies, only saving the shop owners’ money and wares. There was even rarely any mugging, but even then there was no real harm to be dealt. There was so much potential for him, he felt, but nothing was going on in the city that would require a vigilante like himself. Reaching the top of the stairs and the entrance to his apartment, he began to hear distorted voices in the back of his mind.
Closing his eyes, he slowly took in a deep breath and exhaled. All things went quiet in his mind afterward. The voices would be back, he knew that for a fact, just like they always would do. Holding his newly fixed shirt, he opened the door, twisting its knob with his free hand. It wasn’t all that much to look at, only having the bare necessities: such as a kitchen, a small living area with a tv, a decent window view, a tightly cramped bathroom, and a bed tucked away in the corner next to a large cabinet that only had a hanging separate spare outfit for the black hedgehog’s nightly outings. Setting the shirt down on his small cushioned chair, he took off the current shirt he had on as he walked over to his window. Katorasu had a small plant sitting on the windowsill, next to a water bottle; he wasn’t entirely sure if he was taking good care of it but the fact that it hadn’t died yet seemed to suggest he was doing something right at least. He gave the small potted fauna friend a quick drink of the bottled water, before setting the container down and going over to his bathroom.
While it was a bit of a cramped space, at least the light wasn’t a dirty brown that constantly flickered like in the apartments you see in film or on tv. The ebony and emerald hedgehog was now in the process of brushing his teeth, being incredibly thorough to get every possible spot on those pearly whites of his. Filling the cup that he used to rinse his mouth, he quickly poured it into his maw and began to swish the relatively clean fluid around in his mouth, spending a good minute or so on it. He leaned forward to spit into the sink, standing straight up afterward.
While the area around him had not changed at all, the reflection in the mirror did. Beyond the mirrored Kato was a raging flame that engulfed a city long ago, his reflection bore the same tired expression as the original Kato, though the reflection had a splatter of crimson across his face. He could hear the flames roaring as if he was on the other side of this twisted reflection. The whispers had come back again, this time louder and layered over each other. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath once again, the hallucinations stopped.
Kato shook his head, out of defiance, and narrowed his brow towards the reflection of himself who copied him perfectly. “Never again,” he said to himself, as he opened the cupboard to pull out a hair tie from a jar; fashioning his long quills into a ponytail, he looked back into the mirror, “Never again,” as he then left the bathroom for the start of another night.
