Sanctuary
I sit down.
They circle me for a while, slowly, before continuing their frantic pace.
I take a deep breath.
They slow again.
I dive.
They are suspended.
I breath out.
They disperse.
Chapter Ten - Conscious
"So, who exactly makes your bento?" asked Neku. Joshua, who joined them for their lunchtime on the rooftop, had beef in his bento today. Beef. What kind of Japanese high-school student puts beef in their bento?
"One of our cooks," said Joshua, as if there was nothing at all special about his statement. Oh right – the rich kind.
"Not that you need it. People are givin' you free lunch." Beat was openly eyeing the stack of bento boxes that girls (and one or two boys?) gave Joshua. Each was neatly wrapped in a handkerchief, showing that Joshua had not tried to eat any of them.
"I'm not all that hungry," he smiled smugly at Beat's goggling. "You can have them if you want."
With that said, Beat tore open the handkerchiefs and dug into the food, having already finished his. Rhyme giggled at her brother's actions. She recovered enough from yesterday's ordeal enough to be able to come to school.
However…Rhyme had visible specks of black sand particles floating around her. She hadn't mentioned anything about them, but surely she would have noticed. If she could see them, that was. Still, Neku didn't think it was his place to tell her about them.
"Your Soul is just leaking out that energy, Rhyme. Could you perhaps calm yourself down?" Or Joshua could just say it. That worked too.
"Is that what these things are? My Soul?" She waved a hand around the dust, and the particles dispersed, before going back to the same positions they were whizzing around at. "Is that the reason people have been keeping some distance from me today. I asked them what was wrong but they just said 'nothing' and moved away. It didn't look like they could see…this."
"Soul energy," Joshua stressed. "Normal people with more stable Souls are naturally repelled by more unstable ones. I think it's a natural reaction their own Soul does to prevent themselves from becoming unstable too."
"Aight! The hell are you all talking about? What is this about a Soul? Am I missin' something?"
And here's the winning question. Neku expected Beat to ask it. After seeing his sister shout out in agony like that yesterday, he was bound to. Neku talked to Shiki about the whole incident after he reached home and…
"Beat. Rhyme," he said seriously. "I need to tell you a few things, to clear things up. Joshua already knows all of this – in fact, he probably knows more than I do – but I feel you two should know too." If they were really friends now, then he should be willing to trust them with a few secrets. Hiding things lead to people getting hurt.
Feeling apprehensive, Neku started to explain everything. Even to his own ears, it sounded like he was crazy. At least with Joshua he already knew part of it, but with Beat and Rhyme…
At the end of it, Beat was clutching his head, so much so that his beanie was displacing his hair even more than it usually did. "Lemme get this straight. You've been talkin' to some dead chick called Shiki for 'bout three weeks now."
"Yes."
"And Priss over here can sprout wings and fly, making Priss an Angel. Except when he does that he ain't Priss no more and he's kinda like Priss V-Two. So Priss V-Two was the one who saved you an' Shiki from the other guy, who also has superpowers but ain't like Priss V- Two. An' superpower guy is a thing called a Spirit and Shiki is also a Spirit."
"Yes…"
"It's all 'cause his 'Soul', has gone out of whack. An' Priss can see whacked up Souls and he's tellin' us that Rhyme's got a whacked up Soul too."
"That's right."
"Aight. I gots it." He let go of his hat and then his head snapped up. "So Rhyme can fly now?"
Ugh, why exactly was he worried again? This was Beat. Of course Beat would believe him, because he was, well, Beat. From Beat's instant belief, Neku somehow felt reassured that Rhyme was at least thinking about his words a bit more.
"It makes sense," she said slowly. "There's no other way to explain what's been…going on with me. I do have a question, though."
"What is it?" Neku asked, hoping he could be helpful, since Rhyme must be feeling slightly overwhelmed from all this usual information.
"Can I actually fly?" They're siblings, alright.
"Hee hee. No, you shouldn't be able to," Joshua answered for Neku. "I don't recall the moments when I have wings and it's apparently because my conscious is separate from the pretend-me and he isn't human. My Soul is just that unstable. Yours seems to be only in the mild stage, so you're getting a bit of out of the ordinary control. Your Soul is mostly human but it's morphing into one similar to mine. Mine allows me some control of wind and yours does too. Curiously enough, yours is more akin to sand. Black sand, even."
And there was Joshua being long-winded again. No pun intended.
"This sand is leaking out." He's not done, great. "When my Soul first became unstable, I didn't know what was happening, of course. I did get a few notes from fake-me to get tips on how to suppress the energy leaking out from me."
"Then yous gonna teach Rhyme how to stop her Soul from spilling, right?" Beat questioned, pointing his chopsticks at Joshua; he had returned to eating Joshua's bento and was now halfway through them all.
"Teach her?" Joshua giggled. "I'm not one for giving lessons."
"Why not?" voiced out Neku. "You love hearing the sound of your own voice and teaching Rhyme would actually give you a good reason."
Joshua cupped his chin with his hand. "Hmm, the person who you want me to teach doesn't seem to be saying anything about the matter."
Rhyme smiled. "Thanks for worrying, Beat, Neku, but I think I want to give it a go of trying to control it myself. Joshua did it by himself."
"I'm afraid you've not been paying attention. I did get a bit of assistance because the other Joshua did assist me," he corrected her.
"He's still technically you, though."
"That fake is not me." Joshua's tone was harsh as he said that and Rhyme shrunk back. This caused Beat to glare at Joshua, who sighed. "If she doesn't want my help than that's her problem." Make up your mind, do you want to teach her or not?
Feeling the need to change the subject, Neku spoke up, "I don't know if this would work or not, but Shiki wants to talk to you all." She told him last evening that she wanted to speak to them. He asked her how exactly she planned on doing that and the answer was simple – use his loudspeaker.
Unplugging his headphones from his phone, he took it out from his pocket. Since he couldn't call her he would just have to wait until she decided to call –
"And now I'm ready to dive in the danger zone. I know for sure because this is the way I am." There it was.
He clicked the answer button and then chose the loudspeaker option. "Shiki, you there?"
"Yes, can you hear me?" Her voice rang out clearly and the others looked at his phone, intrigued.
"That don't sound like a dead person," Beat commented, finally finished with all the food.
"Why Beat, that's because dead people don't usually speak," said Joshua with a smirk.
Beat threw one of the bento boxes at Joshua, which he narrowly dodged. "Y'know what I mean! Ghosts are meant sound more scary and she doesn't."
"I'll take that as a compliment," she said happily. "Neku's just told you all about me but I'll re-introduce myself. I'm Shiki, I don't know my last name but it's nice to meet you!"
"My full name's stupid – call me Beat."
"I'm Raimu Bito but just Rhyme is fine. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Yoshiya Kiryu, at your service. Or Joshua, if you insist."
"And you know who I am," said Neku lastly, feeling pleased that she managed to get through on loudspeaker.
"I'm sure you're delighted to be talking to us," said Joshua. "It must have been a pain having only Neku to talk to for about three weeks."
"Oh, well it wasn't bad. Neku makes good company once you get to know him. Although you're right, he can be a bit of a pain sometimes."
"Look who's talking, Stalker." Oh yes, he went there.
"Not again," said Shiki exasperatedly. "For the last time, I'm not stalking you."
"Hmm…Neku has a point though; your behaviour does seem a bit akin to one of a stalker. Hee hee."
"Joshua, not you too!"
"Hey, stop hatin' on Shiki. She's dead, yo."
"Thanks Beat, you're absolutely right. You have to respect the dead."
"Shiki, if you don't mind me asking, how did you die?" Rhyme's question cut through the small talk and the line went silent for a while.
Ah, Neku could understand the feeling Shiki was getting at the moment – she was feeling troubled. The same question must have been plaguing her mind as well… "I forgot to mention, but her amnesia includes her not remembering how she died."
"Oh," said Rhyme quietly, "sorry I asked."
"It's fine! It's fine! No biggie," Shiki said quickly. "I'm sure I'll find out eventually. Oh, that reminds me. Sorry for the trouble, Joshua. Neku has to stick around you just in case the other Joshua pops up."
"Hey, don't go apologising on my behalf when you want to," said Neku. "Besides, this guy is the one sticking to me."
Joshua dramatically placed the back of his hand against his forehead. "Oh, but if you all are in desperate need of my presence, who am I to refuse?"
"Get over yourself, Priss."
"My, my, don't be shy. Just admit that even the opportunity to talk to me is a chance you can't afford to lose out on."
…
Joshua dropped his hand and looked around at the lack of retorts and the changed expressions of Neku, Beat and Rhyme. "Is something the matter?"
Shiki started humming and then sang, "shopping at Kiryu -"
"- pick and choose."
"With prices like these-"
"- you can't afford to lose!" Rhyme finished off, causing the four of them to start laughing simultaneously.
"Ha! You s-said it! You're an actual Kiryu an' you said it!" Beat fell onto his back and knocked down the stack of finished bento boxes.
Neku tried to cover his mouth but it didn't do much. "Heh."
"How very amusing," said Joshua, clearly not amused. "I hope you're not making fun of Kiryu."
"No, it's just – haha - it feels so different when you know an actual Kiryu is saying it," Shiki giggled. "I actually like the tune. It's catchy."
"Why thank you. I composed it."
"Wha-? Seriously?" Beat goggled at Joshua. "You can do that?"
"Of course I can," said Joshua smugly. "It was something I came up with when I was five."
"That's pretty cool," Rhyme said. "Do you mean you wrote it on sheet music, and everything?"
"No, I came up with it at home on my toy xylophone," said Joshua. "I suppose Father heard it one day and decided to use it for the slogan's tune."
While Rhyme and Beat looked impressed, Neku rolled his eyes. The tune was just a few simple notes, nothing special. It was undeniably catchy but he suspected any five year old must make up a random tune at some point. He remembered having something of his own that he used to hum all the time.
Shiki spoke up again, "Do you play any musical instruments Joshua?" He did seem like the type to.
"Instruments? Hmm." He packed up his bento and stood up. "Father says playing instruments is a waste of time. Shall we go? It's almost time for class."
He headed towards the stairs. Rhyme helped Beat carry his load of empty boxes and they struggled down the steps. Neku connected his phone to his headphones again.
"Joshua sounded different when he mentioned his father." Shiki was right. He almost missed it, but his tone did seem to falter when he mentioned his dad.
"Yeah. I'll talk to you later. Bye." He hung up and ran back to his classroom before the school bell could ring.
xxxxx
After the train ride back into Shibuya, Neku decided to go to Miyashita Park before heading home. He didn't need to go there anymore since he found Joshua, but it became a habit to him. Besides that, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was an ideal day for another one of his walks.
"You don't remember much about your parents either, do you Neku?" Shiki called him again just as he had arrived at the park.
"No," said Neku. "They passed away when I was about four. It was a car crash."
"Right…I'm sorry." Her line went silent for a moment.
"Don't start treating me like I'm some kind of tragedy. Like I said, I don't remember them so I can't miss them."
"That's true."
"So, have you remembered anything about your own parents? If you have them, that is."
"I actually remembered a bit more about them after you had lunch today."
"Hm."
"I think I live with both my parents. I can vaguely remember us going to watch a movie together – all three of us. And the movie was really good. Well, I can't actually remember what the movie was about but it was a good one. I guess I could say that I have an average type of family."
He was about to respond to her when something caught his eye. He thought he saw someone walk pass. Someone with a black hoodie and black wings.
Shiki seemed to have noticed too. "Neku!"
"I know." He picked up his speed, trailing the man; he was headed towards the skate park area. At this time of day it was surprisingly deserted. There was no one skating on the ramps or even sitting at the benches available.
Wait, there's one other guy here. It was a person with a red hoodie this time. His hoodie was unzipped, revealing a black undershirt, and he was wearing a black cap under the red hood. He would look like a typical person if he didn't have black wings too.
"BJ, is this the kid you were talking about?"
"Yeah, he's got a Pact," he said, turning around to also face Neku.
"So you just want me to stand watch here in case that glowy dude shows up."
"That's all, Tenho."
"Alright then. Only 'cause Boss said I should." Tenho slipped his hands in his pocket.
"Here I go again!" BJ proclaimed, before rushing towards Neku, palm open.
Neku was ready this time. He managed to sidestep him and got into a defensive position. "Hey, you. What are you trying to do to me?
"Trying to sever your Pact, of course," he charged again but Neku dodged.
"What's a Pact?"
"The contract between the living and Spirits, obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't be here," said BJ. Still trying to make contact with Neku, he tried to get behind him but Neku anticipated it and managed to run the opposite direction.
"We have a contract?" said Shiki in his ear.
The other Spirit looked bored. "BJ, stop joking around and get the job done. Boss hates time-wasters."
"I'm trying. This brat is just a bit too fast."
"Then use your wings, stupid!"
"Oh, right!" BJ extended his wings and used them to propel himself towards Neku at a speed that Neku could not avoid.
"Stay away from him!" Shiki yelled. A quick flash of light and then Shiki was visible, standing in front of Neku with her arms crossed in front of her face.
"What is this thing? A cat?" BJ was being blocked by what looked like a black cat plushie. It punched his chest and he was sent spiralling back. "Argh!"
"BJ!" Tenho ran over to his companion and tried to kick away the cat, but it was too nimble for him, and he missed by several inches. The cat then scratched at him and both he and BJ stepped away. "You didn't say anything about overpowered plushies!"
"How was I supposed to know?"
Neku himself was watching the cat apprehensively. Where did it come from? He realised then, that Shiki had one of her arms stretched towards the cat as if she was controlling it. She is controlling it. It was following the movements of her hands and it was still when her arm was still.
"H-hey, that girl doesn't look too happy with us."
"That's because I'm not. Leave us alone." Her tone was dead serious and so was her expression. Neku had never heard her sound like that before.
"BJ, I think that maybe we should call it a day. We could try again some other time?"
"Y-yeah, we can't be away from Boss for too long anyway."
The two gave Shiki one more frightened glance before flying away.
"They're gone…" Neku said, stepping beside Shiki. "You okay?"
"Yeah…I'm fine," she said. Just as she said that, the cat plush also disappeared from view. "Where did Mr. Mew go?"
"That thing was Mr. Mew? So you make killer dolls…"
"Don't call him a 'killer doll'. It was normal when I first made it. I guess after it died it became a bit more…different…like me."
"If you say so."
She adjusted her body so that she was facing him and Neku noticed that her feet were not quite touching the ground.
"You don't have to actually touch anything. It's like the laws of physics don't apply to you," he stated. "Could you sit in mid-air?"
"Give me a sec." Shiki then stepped back into a sitting position, as if she was actually sitting on a chair. Except there was nothing there but air but it looked pretty bizarre. "This is weird."
"It is." Too weird. "Maybe you should only 'sit' when there are chairs around."
"Er, yeah. This is creeping me out a bit too." She then got back up to her feet, and looked a bit less out of place.
"…"
"It's kind of sad how I can only be seen when those guys are attacking me."
"Yeah." It did bother him too. If Shiki was a Spirit like they were, it was strange how they seemed to be visible all the time. Not only visible, but apparently they were away from whoever they had a Pact with. In any case, the person that had a Pact with them probably knew more about everything than Neku. They called the person 'Boss' and took orders from them. What kind of person must their boss be if he could order them around? Sure he had arguments with Shiki but if he didn't like something he couldn't just make her do things, and he wouldn't dream of doing that.
Another thing that bothered him was the cat doll. Was it some kind of extension of Shiki, since it was able to connect attacks with the two Spirits?
"Erm, Neku shouldn't you get home now?"
"Why?"
"I mean, the last time I appeared, you barely made it home before you practically collapsed so –"
Shiki's suggestion came too late, because she got cut off. Neku was overcome with an unrelenting wave of drowsiness, and before he could do anything, he fell unconscious.
xxxxx
When his heavy eyes opened again, he was met with the sight of a white ceiling. Turning his head to his right, he saw that he was in a white room. There was a steady beeping noise; he was connected to a heart monitor. A hospital?
The door opened and a blond doctor walked in, clipboard in hand. "Mr. Sakuraba, was it? Please excuse us, but we looked at your identification card in your wallet. Glad to see you're awake."
Awake, yes, but his head was still aching. "How long have I been out?"
"Someone found you passed out at Miyashita Park and called the ambulance. You've only been here for about an hour."
"Oh…"
"We haven't found anything wrong with you, physically – in fact you seem to be very healthy. Have you been suffering from any form of stress, lately?"
Stress? Well, he could call it that. "I guess. School's been a bit tough on me," he invented.
"Not uncommon with boys your age." The doctor noted something down on his clipboard. "Only thing you can do is to rest yourself. We called your guardian using the number on your phone. He should arrive soon." As if on cue, there was a knock on the door to the room. "That must be him now."
The door opened and in walked Sanae Neku-must-be-dreaming Hanekoma. He couldn't hide his shock, especially since the heart monitor's beeping had a very obvious fluctuation.
"Mr. Hanekoma…" He was exactly like Neku had seen him on TV, trademark sunglasses, styled up black hair and all. Sanae Hanekoma – one of the top producers of CAT Records.
"Haha, bet you didn't think your uncle here was so famous. Pleased to finally meet you, kiddo." He rubbed the back of his head cheerfully. "Well, we already met before, but you were tiny and probably don't remember me from then."
Let it be known right now, that Neku was not entirely recovered yet, and should not be held wholly accounted for what he said next, "Can I get your autograph?"
Yes, he definitely hit his head too hard on the pavement.
A/N: Tadaa! Ahhh this chapter was hard to write. Or more like, I didn't know how I was going to end with exactly and how the next chapter was going to start so I got stuck. If it seems not as good as I usually write, then I apologise. Anyway, oh look it's Hanekoma. It's a good thing I wasn't trying to make him a surprise, because most of you guessed it was him anyway.
Since I last updated I've finished my exams. Yay! Maybe I'll be able to write more…hmm. For Part 1 of Sanctuary I updated every other Friday and for Part 2, I'm now updating every other Sunday (according to where I am) but if I have enough time I might start updating weekly. Who knows.
...woah we're already at chapter 10. We're -checks plans- about halfway through the fic.
Thanks for the follows/favourites: TwilaStryker, Reilie, Omega Zekrom, Vaust Mortifera, M BillaQ, RandomReader13, Blader 25, MySweetYaoi49, eolhcsullivan452
Thanks for the reviews: B.A.G-GOMEZ, Xerzo LotCN, Kaiser Spartan, Alex Penedo, Shinra-ex-SOLDIER, GRX3m0m, Foxxel, Reilie, eolhcsullivan452
Same number of follows/faves and reviews [nine each] :'D Pretty cool! Thanks for reading!
Content Notes:
Beef in Yoshiya's bento - It's very unusual to put beef in a packed lunch. Sushi or sashimi is the norm for any Japanese student.
Chapter Eleven - Song
We nearly got our asses handed by a freakin' cat toy.
"Sounds like someone's a big fan."
BJ, you're reporting this to Boss, not me.
"I don't really remember you from then. Sorry."
Oh. Phew. Boss is busy...we can wait until later.
"Okami!"
Why couldn't my afterlife be peaceful?