I forgot to put this in last chapter:
Disclaimer: I do not own The World Ends With You, or any of its characters.
Call of Childhood
Chapter 2: Hallucinating
It wasn't like he couldn't remember his past. He hadn't suffered any memory loss. But he felt detached. Like he was remembering someone else. He wouldn't…no, he couldn't be Yoshiya. He wouldn't be the one who murdered Marcus Kiryu.
White and blue had been Marcus's favorite colors. He refused to wear any other color.
Marcus had once told him that he thought his hair looked better messy. All his hair gel was trashed.
Marcus had always loved board games and loved to collect action figures. His toy chest found its way to Yoshiya's room.
Marcus had grown with his mother's accent, and had always had trouble pronouncing Japanese names. He had given Yoshiya a nickname he could pronounce. He stopped answering to anything else. "Don't call me that," he would say. "My name is Joshua." His voice lost Yoshiya's sharp edge. He spoke quietly, almost in a monotone. He rarely made eye contact anymore, and he always kept his hands busy.
--x--
Perhaps the concussion had damaged him a little. He had never been spiritual; he never believed in ghosts or messages from the beyond. He didn't even grasp the concept of death until the age of seven. When he was young, he thought he could see the afterlife, not that he called it that then. He would see people in pairs, fighting strange animals with tattoos for limbs, even though no one else seemed to be able to. He never found that fact odd, at least until they told his parents. The psychiatric treatment was immensely unhelpful. Eventually he just said it wasn't real and ended it. It was difficult in the beginning, ignoring a life-and-death struggled going on right in front of his nose, but he just kept telling himself it wasn't real, and eventually, he stopped seeing it.
A week after his escape from the hospital, they were there. Two huge kangaroos with bright purple fur, their legs forms by glowing green tattoos. "Come on, come on!" A man with black hair dashed past, firing bursts of energy from one hand. One of the kangaroos was struck head on and stumbled back, bursting into television static. A second, much smaller figure swept past, striking the second kangaroo with a hockey stick. They skidded to a stop, and Joshua noticed that they were wearing rollerblades. Pain ripped through Joshua's chest. "No…" he whispered. The boy stopped, looking over at him. His eyes widened.
"Nii-…san…?" he whispered, green eyes wide with shock.
"Marcus, move!" The man flashed past, pushing Marcus aside, seconds before the kangaroo noise crashed down. Marcus stumbled, falling to the ground. The man fired a burst of energy, the kangaroo exploding into static. He pulled Marcus up, looking at where Joshua was standing. "You know him, huh?"
"Big brother…" Marcus whispered, looking pained.
"He can't see us, Marc." The man sighed. "Come on. We still have to finish the mission." With a mournful glance at Joshua, Marcus skated off.
The next thing Joshua remembered was lying on his bed, tears staining his pillow. He couldn't remember walking home at all.
Joshua wandered the streets every day that week. He looked for Marcus desperately. People must've thought he was mentally unstable, wandering the streets with dead eyes, looking at empty air. He couldn't recall how many days he wandered the streets, but he found Marcus again. He was too late. Marcus was still with the stranger, battling again. It was against a giant dragon, made almost entirely of orange tattoos, with its wings the only solid things on it. It reared back, emitting a huge jet of tattoo flames. Marcus skated out of the way, slashing at the dragon with his hockey stick. His partner wasn't so lucky.
The man's brown eyes widened in a sort of detached surprise as he fell. His body broke apart into static, gone before he hit the ground. Marcus stood over the spot where he fell, tears in his eyes.
"Marcus?" Joshua whispered, stepping forward. Marcus looked up quickly, eyes wide.
"Nii-san…You can see me…?" he whispered. Joshua nodded wordlessly, and Marcus dashed forward, trying to hug him. Joshua gasped quietly as his brother passed harmlessly through him.
"What happened to him?" Joshua asked quietly, looking at where the man had fallen.
"H-he got Erased." Marcus said sadly. "I…I guess I only have three minutes now…"
"Three minutes to do what?" Joshua asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.
"Players can't survive without a partner." Marcus sighed. "I'll be…I'll be Erased too…"
"No!" Joshua cried, but his voice was strangely flat. He couldn't feel any desperation. He couldn't feel anything for his brother. Marcus looked up at him, a few tears escaping.
"I…I broke you, didn't I, nii-san?" he asked in a whisper. "That's what they meant when they explained my entry fee." He was flickering in and out, becoming translucent. "You won't miss me, I guess…" he murmured. "I…my entry fee…was your love for me…" Joshua's heart skipped a beat. "Goodbye nii-san." Marcus said, smiling sadly. "Even if you can't love me anymore…I know you're supposed to. That's all that matters." His body broke apart into television static. Marcus was gone.
The world stood deathly still. Joshua fell to the ground, all of his body numb. His brother was gone. He wasn't dead…he would never come back now. And he would never be able to care. Tears dripped to the asphalt beneath him, the apathy in his heart more painful than any other emotion he could imagine. He tried to whisper Marcus's name, to say goodbye, but no sound would come.
His memory was hazy after that. He felt strong hands picking him up, someone pulling him onto their back like a child. He heard an unfamiliar voice whisper, but it was hard to make out any familiar words. It sounded something like "Such a shame for an Imagination like this to just vanish." Joshua didn't understand what it meant, and he didn't bother trying. His thoughts spun in dead end circles, all focused on Marcus. Whenever the name appeared in his mind, he felt that alien apathy claw at him, trying to force his mind away.
Eventually, the stranger set him down on a bench of some kind, walking away. The smell of coffee filled the air here. Joshua had never liked coffee, but Marcus had always wanted to try. Joshua winced as the next wave of apathy hit him. "Come up kid. You need to eat somethin'." A strong hand pulled him into a sitting position. He was sitting at a table in a dark café. Someone had set down a mug of hot chocolate in front of him. Joshua looked up at the man standing beside him. He was tall, with black hair and friendly black eyes that glittered over the rim of a pair of small black sunglasses. He was somewhat young, in his late thirties at the most, wearing a sort of suited vest and black slacks.
"Who are you?" Joshua asked, his voice dull.
"Name's Sanae Hanekoma," the man said, smiling slightly. He pushed the chocolate closer. "It's not poisoned. It'll make you feel a lot better." Joshua placed one hand on the mug, ignoring the burning sensation. He took a slow, cautious sip. A warm feeling washed over him immediately. He looked up at the man- Sanae.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked quietly. Sanae smiled.
"I'm sort of a Guardian of Shibuya. I help out folks who have lost their bearings. You're…special." He hesitated a moment. "There's a light about you that most people don't recognize."
"A…light…" Joshua repeated quietly, sipping his hot chocolate.
"You're special Joshua." Sanae said, growing serious. "You can see things most people can't. You're immensely powerful. You could be great." Joshua sighed.
"How?" he asked, his voice shaking. "I'm broken. You…you know, don't you? You saw M…him…" he couldn't say his name.
Sanae nodded. "Yeah…I saw," he sighed. "But that doesn't mean you're broken. If anything, that only makes you more powerful." Joshua bit his lip. "Tell you what." Sanae sighed. "Go home, get some rest. Come back here tomorrow. We've got some things to discuss." Joshua stood reluctantly.
"I…th-thank you…" he murmured. He walked out, feeling Sanae's eyes on him, even after he was well away from the shop.
Reviews loved, again. Maybe one or two chapters left.