Invasion of the Koujaku Kind

Koujaku grinned to himself as he followed his target. He'd been trailing Noiz for the better part of half an hour. The best part? Noiz knew he was following him. Noiz initially had attempted to ignore him altogether, but leave it to his Allmates to betray him.

"Noiz! Noiz!" They cried, wriggling on the boy's belt. "Beni is nearby!"

"Beni! Beni!"

"Where? Beni, where?"

"Over there! Over there!"

"Noiz! Let's meet Beni! NOIZ!"

Koujaku actually laughed out loud when he saw the boy glance back over his shoulder very slowly. Their eyes had met for a fraction of a second before he'd turned around and began frantically weaving through the crowds. He himself was in no hurry though; if Noiz got too far ahead, Beni could keep track of him, both by signal and by air. Noiz wouldn't turn off the cubes; they were all hoping that Ren's signal would come back online.

Finally though, Noiz's luck ran out. In his desperation to get away from his stalker, he'd made a turn down a festive dead-end. The street was lined with food vendors and shops but it was clear that there was only one way in and one way out, the end of the street gated off by Platinum Jail security. The boy clenched his hands into fists, jerking to a stop. Koujaku stopped just a few feet behind him, his smile growing that much wider. This was probably the most fun he'd had all week.

However, he admittedly wasn't expecting it when Noiz whipped around to throw a haymaker his way. If it weren't for the skills he'd honed in Rib, the kid likely would've knocked him out. As it was, he deftly caught it, gripping the hand and showing teeth.

"Yo! Well that wasn't very nice!"

Noiz's green eyes darkened to the color of jade. "Why the hell are you following me? It's creepy for old men to follow boys around."

Koujaku shrugged, casually glancing around at all the brightly lit stores and the neon lighting within the Green Playground. "I already did a sweep of the Flame Willow district. Nothing special's happening there but there's supposed to be a concert here soon. Truthfully, I had no idea you'd be here but since you are, it should make it easier to cover more ground together."

His cheeky grin became a thoughtful expression as he added, "Besides…I saw that Clear had gone with Mink so I assume they have the other districts covered."

Noiz grunted, then ripped his hand back. Unable to think of anything to counter Koujaku's rationalization, he turned around and headed further down the street, the red kimono still visible in his peripheral vision.

"I heard about the concert too," he informed without turning around. "Seems like it'll be held within the next hour at an outside stage. If we're going to attack Platinum Tower, that would be our best bet, just like back with the commemoration event last year."

Koujaku nodded, having already thought the same thing. "Until then, we have time to kill. Why not do some sight-seeing in the mean time?" He honestly didn't care to hang out with Noiz but he knew his presence got on the boy's nerves so it was worth it.

Taking the lead, Noiz immediately swerved for a vendor. As he purchased half a dozen takoyaki dumplings, he didn't miss the irony that this was unfolding exactly like the last time he'd been there with Aoba.

He actually found that he missed him. He couldn't ever remember having that kind of one on one attention from anyone else, not even his own parents.

Koujaku followed along, one elbow resting halfway in his sleeve. He quirked an eyebrow at Noiz's purchase but realized he might've bitten off more than he could chew when the teen only said "Here," before shoving the foam plate of food into his arms. Before he could get out more than an "Oi!", the kid had turned around and was going to another seller.

This continued until Koujaku's arms were laden with food, the stack threatening to topple over. "You can't seriously be planning to eat all of this," he said, his voice muffled. "Nobody's that hungry."

"Kids in third-world countries," Noiz countered, undaunted by Koujaku's struggling. He reached somewhere within the pile and dug out a foil-wrapped grilled corn cob and took a bite, inhaling loudly to cool the food and to avoid the hot steam on his sensitive tongue. "Help yourself to something."

Tch, that's the least you could offer for making me carry all of this! Keeping that to himself, as it was likely his karma for following the boy to begin with, he began the arduous task of sorting the food. He was able to condense the stack down to just a few containers and put those into a plastic bag in one hand, keeping a couple of takoyaki on toothpicks in his other hand.

He didn't realize how hungry he was until he took a bite. Tae's breakfast had actually long-since worn off and in the flurry of everything that'd happened today, he'd forgotten to eat lunch. He savored the taste of the octopus, red ginger and green onions, not having had this particular snack since last year's summer festival.

An amicable camaraderie was formed for the time being. Koujaku was so engrossed in the moment that he had no time to react when Noiz leaned directly in front of him to pluck the remaining dumpling from the toothpick using his mouth. For a moment, their eyes connected, time frozen with Noiz's face hovering less than an inch from Koujaku's hand. Koujaku could feel him breathing on him, acutely registered the warm puffs of air on his fingers.

With a panicked gasp from both of them, each pulled away, losing the battle against the tide of crimson that smeared their faces. Koujaku tried to speak first, muttering, "The hell was that about…"

"Shut up," Noiz hissed back, but it wasn't in any language Koujaku understood. He'd probably slipped back into German in his embarrassment.

He fought to control his own fluttering heartbeats, searching desperately for something else to focus on. Up head, a large clock face floated on an invisible screen, showing the time as a quarter past the hour. The concert would be starting very soon. With an immense effort, he turned back to Noiz to tell him this but the teen had stopped in his tracks and was examining something. Koujaku looked in the same direction and saw that a store was advertising a display for…some kind of tentacle monster.

Koujaku would never understand his country's obsession with tentacles. As it was, Noiz was heading toward the store and so he followed, still trying to forget what had just happened.

Inside, Noiz picked up one of the boxes for the tentacle creature, turning it over to examine the back of the packaging. At this close distance, Koujaku could see that actually…those tentacles were part of a blob that, judging by the backend, looked as if it were supposed to be attached to something (or someone). He also noticed that the thing had eyes affixed to the ends of the two tentacles and a very large, human mouth. Braving an even closer look, he picked up the box to read the character's name as simply "Migi", clearly belonging to a manga or anime.

He put the box down and shuddered at the fleshy abomination, but Noiz however took one of the boxes to the front and paid for it. As they walked out, Koujaku snickered at his purchase. "Never pegged you for an otaku," he said, much more comfortable with trading verbal jabs instead of whatever that was before.

Surprisingly though, Noiz actually flushed at the comment. "It's a limited edition collector's item. We just so happened to get lucky to be one of the first one's there before the rest of Platinum Jail realized the sale." He said this with his face turned to the side, obstinately refusing to look at him. "And besides, picking up a few pieces of anime merchandise doesn't automatically make you an otaku. This is your country; you should know that better than me."

Feeling the welcoming heat of a retort, Koujaku was just about to answer back when he was cut off by an explosion in the sky, followed closely by another one. Two bursts of color bloomed above them, one of them white, the other blue. As they began to fade, another followed on their heels, a vibrant pink that upon detonation, also released shimmering silver sparkles. The third barrage unleashed a red and green combination, which were bigger than any of the previous flashes. The arms of the bursts overlapped and embraced one another, lingering seemingly longer than any of their predecessors. Almost reluctantly, the two faded with another shower of colors to take their place.

The image was superimposed onto his retinas, something he knew he would never forget. Without moving his body, he imperceptibly turned his head where his eyes instantly met Noiz's. They'd both seen it and the significance wasn't lost on either of them.

"We should…get to the concert," Noiz murmured, ducking his head to allow his fringe to hide his face.

"Yeah…"

Dumping the last of the food, they made one more brief stop at a courier station, forwarding Noiz's figurine to another station closer to his apartment to be picked up later. From there, the two followed the growing crowds as they were drawn in by the opening notes of music.

Giant lights shone down on the evening's headliner, some J-rock group that Koujaku had heard of but had dismissed as a dime a dozen these days. Speaking of rock, he saw the word was in their title. He glanced over to see if Noiz was getting into it, but the boy was looking around, as though checking for something. Right, they were supposed to be finding a way into Platinum Tower. But that was a district over, in the Blue Midnight Coast. They would soon need to start making their way over to there and—

"Koujaku!" Someone shouted to his left, searing through his thoughts. "Koujaku-san!"

He scanned the faces around them, but none looked familiar. While the crowds were too loud for everyone to hear, those in the area began to turn and look as well for the source. Koujaku focused more intently until—there! He could make out his unofficial second in command, Kou, fighting to get to him. In his wake, he also saw his usual friend, Hagima, following after.

Just before he reached his side, Kou tripped on something, flailing forward and snatching Koujaku's sleeve, threatening to pull both of them to the ground. With a disgruntled groan, Hagima grabbed the back of Kou's kimono, saving both from disappearing into the void below. Kou gave his sheepish thanks before turning back to their leader. "Koujaku-san! Things are bad, man! You've gotta come back, quickly!"

Considering everyone was still staring, Koujaku attempted to gesture for him to lower his voice, though considering the concert going on, he took a step closer so they wouldn't have to shout. "What are you taking about? And how did you even know I was here? I didn't tell anyone I was going to Platinum Jail."

"It was thanks to Beni," Hagima said, nodding to the red bird perched on Koujaku's shoulder. Beni proudly puffed out his chest. "Since they can send messages to anyone's Coil that's on your contact list, we sent one directly to him to ask where you were. You weren't picking up your own Coil so that was the next best shot."

In truth, Koujaku had all but forgotten that he was wearing his Coil. He looked at it now, pulling up his texting app and found that he had…50 missed messages?! Turning the screen for his members to see, he asked, "What the hell was so important that you had to send THAT many?"

"Hey, not all of those came from us two," Kou muttered, sounding insulted that he would ever be accused of disrespecting their leader like that. "You got the contact info of a lot of our members. It looks like they were trying to message you, too."

Pushing past his hurt though, he said, "Akushima's at it again. Arresting Dry Juice was just the beginning. Now, they've banned Rib legally and are arresting anyone with group tattoos on them or if they're in areas with team tagart. Bug Bomb's been arrested, but they were small fry anyways. Some of our members were captured but we're holding our own. It looks like Dry Juice still has some people on the outside too and I don't think he's touched Scratch yet, but they're not in the Old Residential area anyways, which is where he started. Either way, things are getting really ugly and—"

He cut his ramble short as he finally noticed Noiz standing by them. Considering their two teams had once traded blows, he wasn't going to forget that face anytime soon. Not that Noiz had a forgettable face. "What is he doing here?" Kou snarled, jabbing a finger in his direction.

Hagima noticed as well, bristled for a moment, and then relaxed. "No time for that, Kou. It's none of our business."

Koujaku respected both of them, but he'd long since noticed that Kou was too much like him, going from zero to sixty in a flash (the irony of this trait being combined with the closeness of their names wasn't lost on him either). However, it was why he was especially appreciative of Hagima's level-headed thinking and being both of their voices of reason, at least when he too wasn't letting his emotions get the better of him. "We're…working together on something…" he said shortly, averting his eyes. "You guys are going to have to handle Akushima on your own."

Noiz let a quiet, triumphant "Hmph," shifting his pose as though to say, now get lost!

"So, what, we're friends with Ruff Rabbit now?" Kou spat, sizing Noiz up and down. The other maintained a neutral, bored expression.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that…" Koujaku shrugged. "That was a year ago, it's old news."

The four of them fell silent, each side staring at the other until Hagima spoke up. "Are you two…I mean, if you are, that's cool, but, you know…just asking…"

The red and green fireworks. Both Noiz and Koujaku remembered at the same time and didn't dare to look at each other. "It's…not like that," Koujaku attempted to say.

"Hey, it's okay, like I said. I mean, me and Kou—" and here, he cut himself off. Kou's face flushed brightly before his eyes fell like rocks to his feet, pulling uncomfortably at his kimono sleeve.

"A-anyways," Hagima tried to recover. "If you're busy here then I guess there's nothing we can do. Not like you being there would really change anything. I'll find a new safe location for us to regroup and to figure out how we're going to fight this thing."

Recovering himself, Kou nodded determinedly. "Yeah, we're not gonna give up that easily. We'll message you once things are set up and after we've taken a head count of who escaped. Poor Dry Juice…there has to be fewer than twenty of them left by now."

Koujaku felt bad for making them handle something so monumental but his priorities told him that Aoba came first. He trusted these two to get things done. But…he was still uncertain of exactly how he was to get to Aoba. That is, until an idea slinked its way in, taking hold of him like a parasite. "Hey…Kou, Hagima, I think I have a better idea. Listen up, instead you're going to…"

The four moved in closer to hear the details and when finished, each pulled away grinning, Noiz included. "That might actually work," he conceded.

"Hell yeah it'll work!" Kou shouted, pumping a fist in the air. "Way to go, Koujaku-san! We won't let you down! Let's do this!"

Both he and Hagima waved their goodbyes before taking their leave, eager to get started. At the same time, Noiz and Koujaku also left the concert behind, weaving through the now less-populated streets to a new destination. Noiz initially followed along silently but as they walked further and further, he finally asked, "Do you actually have a destination in mind or are you lost and too proud to admit it?"

Koujaku welcomed the sass. "Last year when my team snuck in here, they told me about the passageways that connected the districts. They mentioned one of them should be somewhere along here…" He scanned around the alleyways, looking for a door hidden to the untrained eye.

"Up two streets and make a left," Noiz sighed, as though astounded at his incompetence.

"How did you…?"

Noiz gave a self-satisfied grin. "It's my job to know these things."

Koujaku wanted to retort back with asking why then he didn't know anything about Platinum Tower but kept quiet. Following his directions, it indeed did bring them to a white door that was on the surface streets, next to the Green Playground exit. Oddly enough, nobody was around, likely even the staff had snuck off to visit the concert. Wanting to hurry before they were caught, he walked up to the door, noticing a keypad on the outside of it.

Without being told to, Noiz crouched down, pulling a kit from his pocket. He connected a cord from the bottom of the keypad into his Coil and pulled up several screens, his fingers quickly typing on the virtual keyboard. While the hack took less than a minute, it felt like eternity to Koujaku, who was nervous someone would come along and spot them.

"We're in," Noiz announced and with almost a single gesture, he'd closed the windows out, unplugged the cord, wrapped everything up and was slipping through the door. Koujaku gratefully followed him.

On the other side, he blinked to adjust his vision to the pristine blue and white. Once more, they were back in the Midnight Coast. He checked his Coil to ensure they were still on schedule, then headed in the direction of the distant Platinum Tower.

"Tori is here," Beni grunted, right as the Usagimodoki began to chant "Tori! Tori!"

He looked around, figuring he'd spot Mink's unmistakably tall form first but the flash of pink he saw came from directly above. Tori hovered over them, looking for a perch. Realizing he didn't have one, Koujaku held out his arm and the Allmate gratefully alighted upon it. Neither missed the cat-like hiss from Beni.

"Where's Mink?" Koujaku asked. While Mink had proved to not have as close of an attachment to his Allmate as he had to his own, or Aoba to Ren, something important must've happened for Tori to be sent to them on his own.

"Mink and Clear have been compromised," the cockatoo answered, confirming his fears. "An Alpha and Beta unit apprehended them in the Night Valley district. It would appear that someone named Sei would like to see them."

How would Sei even know Mink or Clear? Koujaku wondered. Showing he must've been thinking along the same line, Noiz asked, "Did they say anything about me or Koujaku?"

The bird shook his head. "No and neither Clear nor Mink mentioned either of you. It seemed they were to be taken to Platinum Tower. I figured it was best to update you two first so that a plan of action could be made."

Koujaku nodded, agreeing that was the right choice. "We actually already have something in the works. If all goes well, it should lead to us breaking in."

"Fine then," the Allmate responded shortly. "Please proceed." With a flurry of pink feathers, he took off, disappearing high into the night sky.

"Yeah, keep flyin'!" Beni added, long after Tori was out of earshot.

Noiz had pulled up a map now on his Coil, marking something on a grid. "We should probably stay low for the time being. If Sei somehow knows about Clear and Mink, it's a safe bet that he knows about us as well."

Koujaku nodded his agreement and together, they began to search around for a suitable place to hide until the time came to finally act. It wouldn't be much longer now…

Sei would rue the day he ever laid a finger on Aoba.