[[L: You really need to work on one thing at a time.
Holly: Who says?
L: I do.
Holly: I bought you cake.
L: CAKE! *omnomnom*
Holly: Yeah, anyway. Yes, this fic is OC-centric. It takes place during Neku's second week, so expect to see Neku and Joshua and such a bit later on. Have fun! Oh, and: I'm keeping the missions from the original, but I'm making up names for days…just because I like writing those. xD
L: I WANT MORE CAKE!]]
Bang.
The sound seemed oddly low to his ears, as though heard from a great distance. You'd assume that a gunshot would be rather loud, but no. It echoed, as though the world revolved around that one sound, as though everyone in the world could hear it, as though it was the only thing there was to hear. The world around him came only in red and black- it seemed the only think still in color was the dark red hair that hung over his eyes. It only made sense. He'd expected everything to have disappeared much more quickly than it did. Time passed slowly- it dripped more than it passed, he thought- as he felt himself falling backwards. He fell as though through water, though it was truthfully more like falling through blood. He saw the blood, brighter than his hair, in the black and red world. It dripped like the time, slower than he could imagine, washing over him, staining everything. He felt the cold metal in his right hand, and held onto it as tightly as he could, though he doubted it mattered. His head hit cold porcelain, eventually. The warmth of the blood was replaced quickly with overwhelming coldness, of the porcelain, and of his body, a frightening cold that crept up his body, until his eyes, finally, stopped seeing red, and started to see only black...
And that's when he woke up.
It was a dream, he thought. He was highly disappointed. He'd been planning for this moment for so very, very long. He'd made peace with himself- with what little of himself was left to make peace with, anyway- and pulled the trigger. He'd thought it was finally over. But now he was going to have to live through another day.
It was at about this point that he realized he was waking up in the middle of the street.
What the hell? He jumped up with unusual grace, and as he did so heard the 'clank' of something falling to the ground- that being unusual in itself, as it seemed to him that the crowd should drown out such things. He reached back down and picked up the two things. The first was a pin, black with a white, skull-type pattern on it. He figured someone else had dropped it, but it was interesting enough and he didn't see any reason to find its owner, so he pinned it to the collar of the school uniform he was wearing and reached for the other item.
What...no. That's impossible. That's...
The other item was the pistol, the exact one that he'd clung to as he breathed his last breaths, in that dream he'd had. It had the same design etched into the barrel, the same dark-red stained handle. It was his gun, he was sure of that.
What he wasn't so sure of was whether or not he'd been dreaming.
But he was awake. And in the middle of Scramble Crossing in Shibuya, it seemed like. He wasn't too familiar with Shibuya- fashion wasn't his thing- but he'd been here a few times, and knew that much. He also knew that he should be being bumped aside by the hundreds of people that were rushing past him, past each other, going wherever the hell they were going. But they weren't bumping into him. They hadn't touched him. Not once.
He realized after a moment that that was because they were walking through him.
So it wasn't a dream. I'm dead. I'm a ghost…but why am I in Shibuya, of all things?
It was then that his phone vibrated, a sensation so surprising that he very nearly fell back on the ground. He regained his composure after a moment, took the phone out of his pocket, and flipped it open.
Game I: x=30+74 t=60 min. Incompletes will be destroyed.
He stared at his phone for a minute, at the text message in his hand. What the hell is this…? X=104. Easy enough. But…so what? Why do I need the number 104? Why am I getting a text message when I'm dead?
He wasn't getting any answers by blankly staring at his phone, so, shaking the hair out of his eyes, he took a step forward, sticking his gun in the holster on his belt as he did so. And suddenly, a stabbing pain in his hand made him stop.
He fell to his knees, gasping. He clutched his hand, the source of his pain, and quickly located the source of the pain. A timer, etched on the back of his head, counting down from sixty minutes. 59:36…59:35…
So it was serious. But what…
"Hey, you! With the red hair! Wait a second!"
He wheeled around. This was the first time he'd been addressed since he had awoken, and it was by a girl who was currently hurtling towards him at a high speed.
"You can see me! Thank god someone else can. Come on, come on, make a pact with me!"
The girl reminded him of a female version of himself, physically. School girl uniform, long red hair, pale skin. It was her attitude that was entirely unlike him.
"A pact…?"
"Yeah, yeah, I just saw these other two kids, this guy with orange hair and this other one with white hair, they did something called 'making a pact', and it let them fight off those creatures…"
"Creatures?"
"You haven't seen them yet? They called them Noise. They're like…birds and wolves and bears and things…but they have tattoos, and the other people can't see them."
Someone's gone a little insane, I think.
"So can we make a pact?"
"…Yeah, sure, whatev-"
He didn't even have time to finish his sentence before a white light engulfed the pair. He felt his feet rise, the ground leaving him behind, as the rushing light swallowed him whole. He looked beside him and saw the girl, hovering similarly, her eyes closed. He just blinked. This has to be a hallucination or something. No other explanation.
They hit the ground, and everything was back to normal. Or, at least, as normal as it was going to get in the situation they were in.
"Oh! I haven't even introduced myself." The girl bowed, actually bowed. She seemed incredibly flustered, for some reason. "I'm Kohaku. Kohaku Mayumi. It's nice to meet you." She bowed again. He just looked at her, almost condescendingly, before walking forward yet again.
"Wait! You haven't told me your name!"
"Do I need to?"
Kohaku didn't say anything, but she looked upset. She bit her lip and walked forward with him.
"Now, we're going to have to keep our eyes out for Noise, okay? So what did you think of the mission mail?"
"Mission mail…?"
"Oh, yeah, that's what the text you got is called. That's what we're supposed to do next. Do you know what we're supposed to do? I can't do the math…"
Oh, wow, how stupid is this girl?
"It equals 104. I don't know how that helps, but that's what it equals."
"Oh!" She perked up immediately. "We must have to go to 104! That's right north of here. Here, it's this way…"
She grabbed his wrist and began to pull in the direction of 104. He stopped cold and stared at her, and after a moment it seemed to occur to her that she was essentially holding his hand. She blushed, dropped his wrist, and instead gestured forward.
"Come on, come on, let's go!"
He sighed and walked. It's not like he had anything else to do, really. Not in a world where no one could see him. They walked, slowly (the timer still indicated that they had 45 minutes left, so neither was in a hurry) when suddenly they were accosted by a couple of wolves with tattoos.
His mind considered this with incredible rationality, wondering exactly what he was supposed to do now and how to fight the wolves, rather than wondering how the hell a couple of tattooed wolves had appeared in the middle of Scramble Crossing. What he definitely wasn't expecting was for Kohaku to pull out a pin, of all things. Even more surprising was when she waved the pin…and the nearest wolf burst into flames.
"Come on! Fight! You've got some fighting pins, right?"
"You mean this?" He pulled his lapel up, gesturing to the skull pin that he'd stuck there.
"No, not that, that's a Player pin. You don't have anything else?"
"No…"
But that wasn't quite true. He didn't have any magical, fire shooting pins, that was sure. But it's not like he needed them. He had a much better weapon hanging from his belt.
He pulled out his pistol with a flourish and, with a bang much louder than the one in his dream, or his memory, sank a bullet into the nearest wolf's forehead. The combination between that and the fire from Kohaku's pin was apparently enough to kill it, as it sank to the ground and seemed to disappear into static, like its reception had gone out, or something. They made quick work of the remaining wolves, with fire and a somehow never-ending rain of bullets, as the gun never seemed to run out.
"That wasn't too hard. Why do you have a gun on you, Yosomono-kun*?"
Her tone was playful, but he found her irritating regardless.
"Shouldn't we be getting the 104?"
"Oh! Yeah, we should, you're right. I should just be thankful you have one…" She giggled and continued walking, him right behind her.
It wasn't long before they reached 104, and their attention was immediately caught by something that even he, who didn't frequent Shibuya, knew was unusual.
"What the hell is that pile of crap?"
The pile of garbage was ridiculous, as was the man perched on top of it. He had hair the color of ash, tan skin, and yellow eyes, and was dressed in all black with a red bandanna. He was holding a megaphone. And he appeared to be mocking them.
"You are so zetta slow. And I thought those yoctograms before you were pathetic."
"Wha?"
He rolled his eyes. This girl obviously never took math.
"He's making fun of us, Kohaku."
"Oh!" She looked irritated, as though on cue. "What gives you the right to make fun of us, mister?"
The man stood up, laughing, and bowed. Not a polite bow, like Kohaku's, but one dripping in irony. "I am Sho Minamimoto. The Game Master. Remember the name."
"Game Master…?"
"Ugh…" Sho rolled his eyes, just as the boy had done previously. "You fractals are garbage. CRUNCH! I'll add you to the heap."
"What the hell are you talking about, Math Man?"
Sho's eyes narrowed, and suddenly, he was on the ground, standing at the bottom of the trash pile, looking ready to kill.
"You two are deviations. Unnecessary integers in my equation."
His glare disappeared, suddenly and unexpectedly replaced with a grin as he yelled into his megaphone.
"Attention all radicals! (It's x 2) DIE."
That's when the bear appeared. Giant, with tattoos instead of arms (how was that even possible?), tattoos covering its body. Suddenly, Sho was gone. All that was left was the bear.
Kohaku broke out her flame pin, and he took the pistol from his hip. He was surprised at how easy the fight turned out to be. Some more shooting, some more burning, and the bear was dead, fading into static like the wolves. Despite the relative ease of the battle, Kohaku was breathing hard.
"He…underestimated us, Yosomono-kun."
He looked at her.
"I guess so. He seemed awful sure of himself. What's a Game Master, anyway?"
"I…don't know exactly."
He sighed, looking up at the building in front of him, and then back at the junk pile where Sho had been up until the bear appeared.
"…My name is Masaru Kiyoshi."
She perked up suddenly, as though hearing his name was the most exciting moment in the world. She smiled and very nearly leapt up in happiness. What is up with this girl?
"Well, at the very least, we get to live another day. Right, Masaru-kun?"
He looked back at her.
"Define live."
*Yosomono-kun: Yosomono means stranger. Since Kohaku didn't know Masaru's name at this point, he's jokingly calling him "stranger".
Holly: Yes, that was reallllly long. Let's just say I was inspired.
L: Now you should just buy me more cake.
Holly: Read and review or I'll withhold L's cake!
L: WHAT?
