Beware of Shark

By FlikFreak

Rhyme didn't remember much from the Reaper's Game. One moment she had been racing desperately down the street in front of Towa Records, the next she was waking up in her own bed, all moments in-between a vague and distorted blur. She awoke to find her brother hovering over her with an uncharacteristic expression of worry on his face and something round clutched tightly in his hand. Rhyme had attempted to ask Beat about what was that he had been holding and why he was so distraught over her, but he never gave a clear answer, and she eventually left it alone after deciding not to trouble him so soon after the Game had ended. After all, they had won, and that was the important part.

It took roughly a week for everyone to adjust to life again. Beat was giving stray glares to his shadow every now and then and Shiki became very protective of Mr. Mew. Neku, whom had probably changed the most out of them, jumped a bit whenever he heard anything resembling static, though that initial worry faded after a while just like everyone else's. Rhyme had found that she had a strange, unexplained affinity to squirrels, but other than that and her sudden lack of ambition and dreams, she wasn't aware of anything else that had changed.

The group met at Hachiko on the Sunday after the Reaper's Game had ended. Neku still had his headphones, although he took to keeping them around his neck rather than on his ears all the time now. Shiki tended to blend in with the crowd, so she toted around Mr. Mew to stand out. After everyone had met up and eaten a quick lunch at the nearby Sunshine, they decided to visit the local aquarium for the day.

It turns out, the aquarium wasn't exactly a splendid idea.

For some odd reason Neku took to watching the jellyfish very closely for long periods of time, and it took several tries to convince him that no, they would not split in two. The penguins weren't up for doing much of anything interesting that day, so the group ended up spending all of five seconds looking at them. It was only when they reached the larger exhibits that anything interesting happened.

Something clicked in Rhyme's mind the moment she saw one of the great white sharks. For a few long seconds she had felt entirely paralyzed as a strong flow of panic and terror entered her mind, accompanied by flashes of a memory she wasn't sure she actually had. Towa records. A vaguely familiar symbol on the ground, directly below her brother. A mad dash down the street to shove him out of the way, her vision and hearing drawing a blank just moments after. A sound strongly akin to a car screeching to a halt, but it never stopped in time…

Rhyme tore down the hall and hid in the girl's restroom, barely hearing the protests of her two friends and brother behind her. She locked herself in one of the two handicapped stalls and sat in the back corner, wedging herself between the toilet and the wall. She hugged her knees and buried her head behind them, desperately trying to find something else to think about, but she couldn't. The images of that scene she did – but didn't – remember kept flashing in her mind.

Eventually, Rhyme was jolted mildly from its sudden traumatized state when she heard several voices outside the bathroom, followed by the door bursting open and several heavy footfalls.

"Rhyme! Yo, Rhyme, where are you?!"

"Beat! You can't go in there!"

"Why not?! Rhyme's-"

"Because that's the women's restroom!"

"So?!"

"Er, Beat…you do realize that…"

After a quick, indiscernible explanation possibly dealing with the fact that Beat was, in fact, not allowed in the women's restroom even if his dear sibling was recovering from shock, there was a short silence and Rhyme heard her brother leave. In his place were several much lighter (and slower) footsteps, accompanied by a familiar and kind voice. "Rhyme? Are you in here?"

Rhyme sat up a little bit, shaking slightly. "Shiki?"

"Are you okay Rhyme?"

"I'm fine," Rhyme replied, before hastily adding, "Second one from the wall, across from the sinks."

There was a bit of shuffling and Rhyme finally saw her friend squeeze under the door of the stall, Mr. Mew still in her arms. "Rhyme, you gave us a big shock. Is something wrong?"

Rhyme shook her head. "I dunno. I saw the shark in that tank and I sort of panicked."

"It's not going to come out of the tank, Rhyme," Shiki assured her, kneeling down to eye level and speaking as though Rhyme was a small child. "We promise."

"I know," Rhyme replied. "I just…I just don't like sharks, I guess."

Shiki blinked. "Oh. Well, I've never seen anyone with a reaction like tha…" The seamstress's voice trailed off and some realization came to her expression – a realization that Rhyme couldn't make out. After a wary moment of silence, Shiki smiled. "Rhyme, do you still have your pendant?"

Nodding, Rhyme sat upright and held it out proudly. "Yeah. Beat got it for me."

"Do you remember anything after day four?"

It was a subject rarely touched on. Rhyme had no memories of what happened after that, but she knew that somehow she had come back alive with the rest of them, only without her entry fee. For some odd reason, she hadn't woken up until two weeks later, another mystery Beat refused to explain (or probably couldn't, knowing his level of literacy even in speech). The events in between she had experienced, she knew, but the memory of it was a mess that she couldn't untangle. There were a few vague images of certain parts of Shibuya, namely the park underpass near Cat Street, and even atop buildings. There was also a vague memory of a white place where Neku had been calling out to her, and a sewer near the station. Rhyme could never make sense of it. She shook her head. "No…there's a few bits and pieces, but none of it makes sense."

Shiki bit her lip. "Beat's really worried about you. Do you feel okay enough to come out now?"

Rhyme swallowed hard and nodded. Standing, she and Shiki exited the bathroom to see Neku and Beat waiting, the latter of the two looking about ready to smash his way into the shark exhibit.

"…time as a noise."

"I dunno," Beat replied. "She said she doesn't remember anything between, yo."

Neku shrugged. "Well, it's probably better that-"

"We're back!" Shiki said a bit loudly, cutting off what Neku would have said.

Beat spun around and immediately gave Rhyme what the group liked to call a 'Beat hug' (as the term 'bear hug' wasn't quite strong enough). "You okay, sis? I'm so sorry, yo! If that shark does anything to you, I swear I'll-"

"I'm fine, Beat," Rhyme interrupted calmly. "I just got scared, that's all."

Neku gave Rhyme one of those looks that clearly stated the fact that he doubted her, but he let it go and smiled. "C'mon. You wanna see the rest of the exhibit?"

Rhyme nodded. "Yeah."

Beat threw a triumphant fist into the air. "Aight! Let's get movin!"

Shiki yelped in surprised as the boy took off running. "Beat, this isn't a race!"

But he hardly heard her and kept running. Neku and Shiki took off after the boy, attempting to slow him down before he crashed into a display, a person, or a wall. Rhyme was about to follow when she noticed that Beat had dropped something in his haste. Picking it up, she examined it carefully. It was a pin, much like those promotional buttons or those ones that people used in Tin Pin Slammer. Printed on a white background was a black-and-gray rendition of what appeared to be a squirrel. For some odd reason, Rhyme recognized the picture in a similar way to how she recognized herself when she looked in a mirror.

Odd. Where had she seen it before?

"Yo, Rhyme! Move it or lose it!"

"Patience is a virtue, Beat!" Rhyme called, but she jogged over anyway.

The rest of the exhibit was largely uneventful compared to the shark escapade, but Rhyme was largely thankful for it. One of the last few places that they visited was a large dolphin tank. Rhyme happily pressed her hands against the glass and giggled when one of the playful creatures swam by. Beat was busy pointing out something irrelevant to Shiki and Neku when a stranger approached. A boy, roughly Neku's age, with platinum blonde hair, a pair of jeans and a simple button-up shirt. He hadn't really walked up or anything; Rhyme simply turned and saw him standing there. When she gave him a questioning look, he simply smiled. "I take it you like dolphins?" he said.

Rhyme nodded. "Yeah."

"How come?"

"I just do, I guess."

The boy glanced at the information panel nearby. "It says over there that some dolphins were seen protecting swimmers in the ocean from sharks once or twice."

Something about the way the boy spoke caused Rhyme to hesitate; he apparently seemed to know far more than someone his age should have. She also felt that this boy was familiar. Rather than to state her worry, however, she smiled. "Really?"

Nodding, the boy smirked. "A few divers off the coast of New Zealand were apparently saved from a shark by a pod of dolphins."

"It's hard to imagine them acting like that," Rhyme commented, tilting her head, "But it's still amazing. Those divers must've been so lucky to be saved like that. It's almost like a miracle."

The boy quirked an eyebrow and chuckled. "Maybe you should have been a dolphin instead."

Rhyme stared at him, confused. "Huh?"

"Nevermind," the boy replied. "Are dolphins your favorite animal?"

"I like them," Rhyme admitted, "But my favorite animal is a squirrel."

Lifting an eyebrow and rubbing his chin with one finger, the boy gave Rhyme an inquisitive look. "Oh?" he said. "Why is that?"

Rhyme shrugged. "I just like squirrels better."

The boy chuckled. "I see. Interesting."

"Yo, Rhyme! You wanna come see the turtles or what?"

"I'm coming!" Rhyme called to her big brother before turning back to where the boy was. "It was nice meeting you…um…"

"Yoshiya Kiryu," the boy replied, smiling and pushing a strand of hair out of his eyes. "It was nice meeting you as well, Raimu Bito." And with that, he walked calmly away, and Rhyme lost sight of him when someone passed in front of her.

It was only a few moments after their encounter that Rhyme realized that she'd never told the boy her name.