Neku to On and Back Again
( or the one where Neku Sakuraba saves the spirit of Shibuya )
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"... Give up on yourself, and you give up on the world."
– Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu
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Once upon a time, there came to exist a spirit born from the energies of the Earth, a spirit in the form of a youth with silver-gray hair and striking violet eyes. The heavens did not quite know what to make of this new being. Amongst themselves they decided to send in an emissary: a young angel who had only recently gotten his wings. "Who are you? For what reason were you created?"
"I am a child of Earth, as you are of the Heavens. I exist for the same reason that you exist. I cannot claim to know the will of my creator."
The youth was wily, that much the angel could see. He would receive no straight-forward answer from this creation. "That much is true, I can tell. What do you exist for? Why here? Why now?"
Laughter was all that the angel received in response. A stream of giggles hidden behind a pale hand. "I exist for the wind and the trees. For the birds who make their nests in them and fish who live in the streams. Most of all I exist for the humans who make their new homes here. For the future that they will make. For the grand city that will one day be."
"A spirit of a city that does not yet exist?"
"Think of me their hopes and dreams. Their longings of home, their wishes for the future. And you? To this city that not yet is, who are you to be?"
The angel thought for a while before finally finding a response to give to the being. "I would like to be its guardian, to protect it from those who mean it ill and guide it in a path that would lead to fortune."
( So it was said, so did it become. The humans dream and grew, creating the place we now know to be Shibuya. A place looked after both its patron spirit and the guardian angel sent there from the heavens. )
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When Neku came to from his 'nap' that he was not aware he had been taking, it was too the sounds of a busy city and a purple-gray haired guy shaking his head over him. He squinted a bit to make sure he wasn't seeing things, purple-gray wasn't exactly a common shade of hair color after all. "Hmm, that won't do. Really I had expected much more of you." Neku wanted little more than to snap something suitably snarky in response, however he had a bad migraine that caused pain shooting behind his head every few seconds or so. His body also felt as if it was run over by a truck.
"A little help here would be nice," he griped as he slowly sat up, body aching in the process. The guy, he appeared to be no older than fifteen, just hmm'd and stroked his chin as if in thought. Some help he was. "Ugh, did anyone get the license plate of the truck that ran me over?"
"There was no truck, you may have just fallen off of one of the numerous tall buildings in the area is all." Neku stared at the guy, half in shock and half daring him to be just kidding. Fallen off of a building? "Really, you don't expect me to do everything do you now? Get up then, we don't have all day." The guy snapped his fingers upwards and Neku felt himself being yanked into a standing position by an invisible force. He let out a strained shout of pain when legs that were not ready to hold up the mass of a healthy teenage boy were forced to do this that. "Something for the pain as well I suppose. No doubt you'll be complaining about that next." There was a strange glow surrounding him and Neku found the pain in his body slowing melting away.
"What- who are you? How were you able to do that?" The guy was no normal teenager for certain, if the hair hadn't clued him in on it, the weird voodoo that had just been done on him outright confirmed it. All he got was a smirk and a slight head tilt in response. "How did you know I fell off a building? Were you there? Did you see me or- you bastard! You pushed me off didn't-"
"While I'd love to stay and chat, you really must be going Neku. After all, the fall did kill you." Neku stopped his tirade and blinked a bit. Dead? Also, he hadn't mentioned his name had he? "Oh, do stop looking so surprised. I know everything." The guy paused a bit and looked down at the phone he slipped out of his pocket.. "I don't have much time, so I'll make this quick. Do this one little favor for me and I'll revive you. Yes, I do have the power to do that before you ask." He snapped the phone shut and stared at Neku with unwavering eyes. "Go find Mr. H and offer to help him with his latest project. He owns a small cafe on cat street, you might have heard of it before, it's rather popular or so I'm told. You have a week starting … now."
Neku wanted nothing more than to stand there and ask more questions of the guy, but he found himself nodding and moving forward away from the teenager instead. The bastard must have put another voodoo spell on him or something. He growled and raced off in the direction of cat street, hoping that Mr. H knew of exactly what was going on here. A voice whispered in his head as he ran off, "I do wish you luck on your mission, Neku. The fate of the Shibuya you know rests on it after all."
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End prologue.