Wednesday's Necrosis I
Wednesday, 12:00, JP's Nagoya Branch Temporary Men's Changing Room, 0.434801
Hibiki was standing in the center of the debris. All the familiar landmarks that he could name had been reduced to the heap of junk piling meters high just beneath his feet. Surrounding him were disfigured bodies, some of whom were once his close friends, others whom he could name, and still some others whom he had just seen moments ago.
What had him done? Why were all the others dead? He wondered. Had him done something wrong?
The more he thought about this, the more he was convinced that he was the culprit. He couldn't save other's lives. He let them die. He should have been among them, but he left them behind.
His knees collapsed onto the ground, his aimless gaze wandering on the corpses around him. He knew he was the one to blame for all the deaths. He cheated them. He didn't have the right to be standing here.
Wait. The more he looked at the people he once knew, the more he found them unfamiliar. The physique, the clothing, the face, he recognized all of them, but they looked… nuanced. They weren't real to him.
Could they be merely impostors? Such thoughts flashed within his mind.
That must be it. The people lain down before me were merely impostors, and their deaths trivial. All the people he knew must be hiding somewhere, playing a prank on him. He caused none of their deaths.
He couldn't be the guilty one. All he had done was correct.
He stood up, pushing aside the bodies blocking his way, and moved on with a relieved smile.
Hibiki sprang up from his bed. He was inside his bedroom in the JP's Nagoya Branch. The room was dark, and he could not even see his fingers. He looked at his sunflower-shaped phosphorescent watch, which was a gift from Daichi at his eleventh birthday. It said "5:23a.m."
"What kind of a dream was it…"
Wednesday, 12:00, JP's Nagoya Branch Temporary Men's Changing Room, 0.432010
"Just why did you come yesterday, you stupid, suicidal airhead?" The voice of Neku echoed in the miniscule changing room. Only Neku and Joshua were sitting in the benches.
"Someone's ungrateful for my health-risking rescue. Why just can't you be a little bit more compassionate?"
"You fainted yesterday, and you don't think it's problematic?"
"We've just had our health checks, and there's no report that I am in a poor state." Joshua gave an inconspicuous smile. He wasn't feigning it: after yet another night of healing and – much to his surprise – Neku's overnight tending of his wounds, he could feel his power returning to him.
When he awoke in his bed again this morning, the first thing he could see was a fatigued Neku preparing a stew at the stove nearby. Neku's sleeveless vest was soaked in sweat, and the dark circle was apparent near his sockets. No doubt, he was taking care of him this whole night without anyone's help.
"You finally wake up, Josh." Neku was smiling.
"Are you… tending me the whole time without resting?" Joshua was still in the grogginess of sleep.
"Just… I'm not as ungrateful as you." He turned back, his cheek tinted in a mild red. "And I should apologize for what I did yesterday. Anyway, eat it while it's still hot." Neku handed him a bowl of congee. The faint aroma of rice was already tingling his olfactory receptors.
"Is this… you cooked this for me?" Joshua was fairly surprised.
"I'm not cooking this for you, you stupid ex-composer! It's… it's just that there happened to have the right sets of ingredients in the JP's, and the workers here did not have some food like this… J-just see if this's fine for you…"
Joshua took the first slip of it and immediately realized Neku could cook. As simple as the dish was, with only a bowl of plain rice mixed with a sparse list of ingredients, he could feel the taste stimulating his taste buds without irritating his stomach. The soy sauce was in just the right amount to bring out the favor of the dried scallop without concealing it, and the favored seaweed, together with the chopped spring onion, brought an extra fragrant to the dish.
"Mmm… I'm in paradise. You also cook at home, right?"
"That's… that's right." Unbeknownst to Joshua – or already known by him through his overt stalking – Neku lived alone. He needed to cook for himself.
"Anyway, compliment to the chef – that is, you."
"So to speak, Eri's made some crumpets. You want some?" Reaching the shelf to the left to the stove, Neku took out a dish, unwound the plastic warp put on it, and revealed the delicacy inside.
Neku knew that Eri was a fanatic in desserts – she always loved to share some of her home-made products with her friends. She said she wanted to see others enjoy her food, to see how she could bring joy to them. What everyone who had tasted her products, however, would know that while some of them were undeniably delectable, others were often significantly off, overly experimental, or worse, outright inedible.
Fortunately, the crumpet belonged to the first category. The cake was garnished in a golden yellow. Honey flowed out of the pores dotting the entire surface like lava erupting from a volcano. They were just out of oven, and one could hear the sizzling sound of butter melting on its surface, further encapsulating the cake in a translucent layer.
"Sure." Joshua took the plate from Neku.
"Well, you're quite lucky to try one of her more normal products – her crazy idea of adding mint to it turned out to be not bad. The other time when she added durian to her wagashi-" Neku halted when he heard the sound of porcelain shattering onto the ground.
Joshua had dropped the plate. He looked paralyzed, as if out of shock.
"It-it's nothing. I just hadn't recovered completely. My arms are still aching. Forget it. Your delicacy alone is enough to satiate my appetite, Neku." Feigning indifference, Joshua tried to hide his fear when he saw the pores on the crumpet. He couldn't explain his fear – he had alternating imaginations like a swarm of ants crawling out of their nest, holes trying to suck everything in, or other legion of worms devouring the crumpet. He felt frozen in the wave of horror, and any appetite he had recovered was lost. Trypophobia, he explained to himself.
What puzzled him, however, was that this was only a minor nuisance all the time – he could bring himself to finish the cluster of scales on the drawings Neku gave him on Monday in Church of the Light yesterday, and no such terrifying thoughts occurred to him. Why this trypophobia was suddenly triggered? He reckoned whether this was the effect of degeneracy. He couldn't bring himself to recall when he started to have this phobia, but he knew this was going to be a dark memory, and one that was gradually being induced back to his mind due to degeneracy. The holocaust – nope, he couldn't bring himself to think about that.
He must think about something else, if not to rectify his illogical fear. The drawing - he had finished it yesterday before departing to Nagoya. He took it out of his pocket. The artwork was nothing like what he remembered. The two dragons were already colored and adorned so vividly that they almost seemed to be alive.
The black dragon was mysterious and treacherous. Its eyelids drooped, only exposing part of its amethyst eyes and concealing the sinister light inside. Its long mouth was slightly open as if it was grinning. Along its onyx serpent-like body with dark scales all over it, sharp claws were hidden underneath, and they were waiting to strike the moment the dragon spot its unfortunate prey. On the other hand, the white dragon was pure and fierce. Its wide sapphire eyes were glaring and fearless. Its mouth was wide open, unmasking its acute teeth. Beige claws were stretched outward all along its ivory trunk as though to intimidate its enemies. The two dragons were chasing each other in a circle, but unlike the plain power each showed, they blended together harmoniously to form a complete picture.
"That's…" Neku didn't know what to say when he saw how the Composer not only perfectly brought out his ideas, but also added a touch of charm he had never thought of.
"Brilliant, right? That's why I chose you as my cute little proxy, after all." Joshua smirked.
"W-what? I'm not cute, damn it!"
"Your face is priceless, dear. Anyway, don't you think that arts like this can really express one's inner thoughts?"
"Yes, but I am still trying to reach this stage."
"Indeed." Joshua nodded, but his smile disappeared. Then why you agree with Yamato's social Darwinism? In such a society, things like this will be deemed unnecessary and abandoned like trash. Don't you think that'll prove to be cataclysmic to humankind?"
"That's…" Neku was suddenly speechless. "I have to say that I'm not exactly sure… How the heck do you expect me to know which kind of a crapsack world we should be looking for?!"
Joshua sighed. "Do you remember the Yamanote Lockdown?" It was the lockdown seven years ago when the government sealed the Yamanote circle to prevent the demon outbreak within from spreading out. The Shomonkai distributed devices known as COMPs, which, like Nicaea, could be used to summon demons, to the public for self-defense, but demons tamers, together with the demons, began to wreak havoc within the circle. It turned out, however, that the scenario was merely manipulated by the Shomomkai so that their demon Belberith could win the Throne of Bel, the holder of which would obtain the power to control all demons. Fortunately, a boy named Kazuya was able to defeat Belberith and won the Throne of Bel. Then, together with the song of Haru, a singer whose voice had the power to summon demons, he banished all demons in the human world. That's the story for the RG at least.
For the UG, it was even more convoluted, and also the occasion when he, a reaper then, defeated the Composer and took her role. It wasn't a time he wanted to reminisce, though.
"The … the what!? Do you mean the Yamanote Riot?"
"Ah, the Yamanote Riot, that's correct. Sorry for the mistake." The calamity brought forth by the angels, humans and demons alike was beyond repair. Joshua, together with other Composers within the region, followed the order of the Higher Dimension to use their imaginations to rewrite the whole event into one between left-wing rioters and soldiers instead of between angels and demons, lest the knowledge of the existence of mystic beings disrupt the natural balance of humankind. Nonetheless, they couldn't remove the scar imposed on the souls of victims – the Second Law of Thermodynamics forbade the complete restoration of the original order of souls – and the disastrous nature could not be wiped out.
"So to speak, I don't really know much about this – the government just kept its freaking mouth, and I was locking myself in my room the entire period. It's like a group of left-wing rioters… I remember they're something related to the Shomonkai, aren't they… wait?! Aren't you its heir?"
"You're right. That doesn't really matter, though – I was already a Reaper by then, and the Shomonkai was none of my concern." Joshua's eyes were inexplicably defocused.
Neku knew Joshua's indifference could not be blamed from how he was treated by the cult. "The Shomonka organize rebels against the government and other public facilities, but because they were largely centralized within the Yamanote circle, and all of them were followers of the cult who had received years of training - brainwashing, to be more exact - the government sealed off the entire circle to prevent their impacts from spreading out."
"The cult and the government began to fight against each other, and the whole Yamanote circle was engulfed in war fire. But then I heard rumors about the "Song of Hope," the song a singer called Haru used to pacify both sides in the end. Actually, I must say the whole situation was a bit illogical - like, can a mere singer really have the power to end such a riot? Are the Shomonkais really that strong to have the need to be sealed in the circle? They're just like… some awful crap written by a poor fanfic writer."
Joshua gave a small sigh. He was merely the executor of the fabrication. This whole plot was written by some other Angels, and he could unfortunately exert no influence on it. It's hard to rewrite the story without the entire demon context while still keeping the major elements. That said, he silently agreed with Neku that while the writer may be an angels, his levels of intellectual caliber, language skills, planning of plot, character development, etc., was not much higher than a retarded high school kid.
"Anyway, why're you raising this all a sudden?" Neku asked.
"I've seen the possible outcomes through the Akashic Record. If the ang-" Joshua cut himself off. He couldn't leak out the fact that the whole Riot was just a fabrication. "I mean, soldiers, did not back off, the Japanese government will only impose stricter order on citizens, and no exceptions outside that allowed. On the contrary, if the rioters had overthrown the order, the society would have been in chaos, and anarchy may happen at worst. Don't you find both of them inappropriate? Really, this outcome where both the government and the rioters compromised turned out to be the brightest one. I suppose it's because all humans here can have a chance to exert their imaginations to the world without any external imaginations. Even for the dead, they could either become reapers, be reincarnated, or enter a new cycle of samsara again."
"So you're trying to make a point against Yamato? Then, what kind of a world are you looking for?"
"…A world where people can all pursue their ideals to the fullest, without the interference from other bodies."
"A-Are you crazy? How can people's different ideals not clash with each other? And more importantly, how can you be sure that all ideals are good in nature?" Rolling his eyes, Neku raised his tone.
"Is that why you're doing all these to me?" He hiss-whispered. "All the troubles of saving me… are you just trying to get one more pawns for your own discretions? And trying to persuade me to join your maniac belief? You haven't changed at all…"
"I'd just say I already got too tired with all the social convention stuffs. I'm not sure how Polaris can achieve this, but he must have a specific way to do so. And, yes. I saved you ago partially wanting to have you as my proxy again. Just think whatever you like. I don't care."
"You…!" Neku sprang up and raised his knuckle, preparing to punch the Composer. "Do you think that growing up in a prison-like cult really justifies your crazy belief?!" Neku burst out in a moment of anger, but he immediately stopped upon spotting the sudden shock on Joshua's face. His almost malicious smirk faded, and his lilac eyes lost his concentration on Neku's face. Shomomkai was the catalyst for the whole Yamanote Lockdown, and even though the whole event was rewritten, they were still the main force behind the uprising of the left-wing rioters. "…That's…. I didn't mean to…"
But before he could say further, Joshua fabricated back his normal composure and said "Hehe. Are you genuinely thinking I got shocked over my childhood experience? You're just so naïve. I don't care the least. I repeat, I don't care-"
"Are you really thinking I will believe in your blatant lies, you stupid airhead?" Neku pulled up the collars of Joshua's white shirt. "I know how a disgustingly adamant, hypocritical, arrogant, self-centered, nihilistic and cynical dumbass you are. Therefore, how can I think you can really forget your childhood? You just made me feel guiltier!" He threw Joshua back to the bench.
"Ugh… maybe you're right. I can't really arouse my interest to any part of the society except to you, Neku, after growing up in such an environment. Likewise, I don't really refrain sacrificing the others if it can achieve my goal. But that's different from meritocracy – I still believe in the values of humans' ideals. How about you, then?"
"Ugh…" The room was filled with an awkward silence. "What are you thinking…? I can't understand at all, like always…"
"Then, don't." Joshua smiled. "Suspicion is always something you should have. Blindly trusting someone, even if he is your partner, is dangerous. I don't bring myself to completely trust you either – that's irrational. Isn't this also what you believe in?"
The words hit Neku's eardrums like the squeaking of chalk against a blackboard. How could he be telling blatantly to his partner he didn't trust him, and asked him not to either? The smile of Joshua, full of malice, was the same as the one back in the Game, when he raised his gun towards him, glaring down at his defenseless partner as though he was merely rubbish, and pressing the trigger while smiling at the same time. That's nonsense, something only a maniac like Joshua could do.
Suddenly, the door of the room was slammed open. "Hey, Phones! And Joshua right there!" It was Joe.
"Let me recall… are you the guy standing on the corridors several levels above the ground yesterday?" Joshua rested his chin on his clasped hand.
"Don't be so oblivious to the others! By the way, what are you doing here?" Joe's lips suddenly curled upwards sinisterly. He whispered to them, "You know, the girls are also going for the check, so… you know what to do? Shiki is a gorgeous girl, right?"
"…Y-you are thinking about this, you pervert?" Neku immediately blushed.
"Sorry, but I'll pass." Joshua shook his head.
"Ahh… You two are so much in sync! Phones is a virgin, right?" Joe nodded. "Moreover, since he seems to be in a romantic relationship with you, he can't commit infidelity like that – he just literally confessed his love yesterday!"
"Joe! This isn't something to joke about!" Neku sprang up and vigorously waved his hand.
Instead, Joshua frowned slightly. "Really? Tell me the details."
"Well, when he talked about you yesterday, he looked really, really concerned about your present state and your thoughts. What else can be a viable explanation? Anyway, I am off to the girls, and Phones, you know what to do!" He left the room and closed the door gently.
Now the room was silent again. Joshua was still sitting in the benches, and Neku standing in front of him. Their eyes were gazing at each other. Joshua looked up at Neku, his eyes adamant and his lips slightly curved in his normal way, but Neku's eyes were wavering.
When Neku had lost his count on time, Joshua stood up.
"Joshua? Are you-"
Joshua slapped the wall behind Neku with his right hand and leaned down at the boy. Neku, trapped between the wall and Joshua's body, could only stare at the wicked face of the Composer, who was only a few centimeters away. He could feel the temperature and dampness of his breath. The lips of Joshua were grinning, and Neku could felt they were almost kissing each other.
"What Joe just said… is this true? What's your feeling towards me?" Joshua whispered at Neku's ear.
"I…" Shocked by Joshua's sudden invasive behavior, Neku only stammered.
"Let me ask you once again: Do you like me?" This time, Joshua pressed his ips to Neku's. Neku could feel Joshua's tongue wandering on his lips before departing away. Surprisingly, either out of astonishment or genuine affection, Neku did not push Joshua away, bite back, shout, or otherwise reacted vehemently.
"W-what kind of a question are you asking? I don't love you for the tiniest bit, you stupid, pigheaded dumbass who is always going out of the way to irritate the others at the fullest! All the time you are acting so condescendingly as if all the others are wrong, and you are always toying with the others like we exist only for your pleasure! And how you recklessly tried to save me from Bifrons and Phecda earlier without thinking about your health… do you know how much the others care about you! I… goddamnit!"
"Don't." Joshua's tone lost the frothiness. "Love renders one vulnerable. Depend only on your power. You will be doomed if you decide to rely too much on others. Got it?"
Neku could hold it no longer; with a fierce force, he pushed Joshua away from him. "Just tell me what do you want? You're assaulting me a moment ago, and then you tell me not to go with you?! What are you planning to do?"
"Think in whatever way you want. Let me ask you once again: do you love me?"
Neku's cheeks were almost burning. He wanted to say "I hate you, from the bottom of my heart," but he couldn't bring himself to deny his feelings completely. He then thought if he should say "I care for you," but, again, this was too much to say. He once found Joshua to be like water: whenever you looked at it, you could only see your own reflection but not his image. He was transparent, but at the same time invisible. He wanted to trust him, but the doubt residing inside his heart kept telling him to be wary. However, he, once again, couldn't express his inner thoughts to Joshua. He gave no reply.
"That's way too over. I'll really break up with you, Daichi-" All a sudden, the door opened again. This time, they were two terrified Hibiki and Daichi, both staring right at them. It took less than a second before Neku realized what they were thinking – he was still sandwiched between the wall and Joshua, and they were staring at each other so intently that even he got embarrassed the moment he realized it.
"Daichi? And Hibiki too?" Neku swiftly unwound himself from Joshua and waved his hands. "No! This isn't like-"
"W-what the hell are you two doing? A-are you like… Waah" Daichi put his hands over his face to conceal the all too suggestive scene.
"I see…" Hibiki gave an understanding nod. "Or, would you like me to do the same to you, Daichi, as a repay for what you did to me just now…?"
"Stop! I came here only to give you a message!" Daichi backed off from his sullen friend.
"Ah, I almost forgot it. Fumi wants to see you." Hibiki turned around to the two boys. "She didn't tell us what for, but she sounded quite urgent."
Fumi's first impression on Neku was like an owl – silently observing everything around her, weaving her plan on her surrounding, and waiting for the correct chance to land her deadly strike on her prey targeted since long, long ago. Someone who looked disinterested, but could end up thinking more deeply than Joshua and even Yamato…
Catching the lack of response of his partner, Joshua gave Neku a provocative glance. "Scared?"
"W-what are you thinking that I will get scared over seeing such a trivial woman?! I'll go now!" Shoving away Joshua and heading towards the door, soon only his footsteps remained in the room.
"I may have a walk as well. Take a good time together, you two lovebirds~" Joshua followed.
"L-lovebirds?! What are you talking about? Hey!" Daichi's stir created no more replies.
Seeing the two gone, Hibiki suddenly lost his vigor. "Daichi…I had a dream last night about how I killed everyone… I was the sole survivor, and I… I didn't know what to do… It was just like… seven years ago…"
Daichi tapped on Hibiki's shoulder. "That's just a dream, right? The Hibiki I know won't kill anyone. You must be getting overstressed about what happened yesterday!"
Hibiki collapsed onto Daichi's embrace. "But… do you remember what Alcor and Yamato told me yesterday? They sounded like I was a dangerous villain not better than Yamato. Could the dream… could the dream be real?" His grip on Daichi tightened as though he could disappear any time, and he could feel his warm tears moistening his eyes. "I can feel a lust deep down my heart to kill… I am scared that someday I will really lose my humanity and become a monster… I am scared…"
Daichi embraced back tightly. "If that really happens, then, just like what I did seven years ago, I will stop you with my own hands! I will make sure you are still my Hibiki! That's a deal, right?"
He knew he couldn't possibly bring himself to stop his friend acquainted all the way till childhood, whom he had depended on so much. Could he really insist on what he know is right? He wasn't sure. What's more important now, though, was that Hibiki could smile again.
"Yes… thank you, Daichi…" Hibiki smiled. The smile was, unlike the polite smile he always showed on his surface, a genuine one that flowed from the core of his heart.
"You two perverts! Found you at last!" The door was shoved open, and Hibiki and Daichi could see an infuriated Airi, still in her bathing robes.
"C-can you listen to me?!" Daichi shuddered. "We're just passing through the door of the female changing room when it suddenly opened, and it's Joe who brought us there at the first place-"
"Stop all your crap! Anyone who dares to peek on the girls should die! Now! Oh wait… why did I just talk like a clichéd comedian in a stupid script?" Airi flustered. "Ugh, whatever! Even if you're only playing your scripts, don't think I'll forgive you!"
Wednesday, 13:00, Nagoya Port, 0.437288
Fumi was standing just behind the fences facing the raging ocean. It was raining, and the drizzle hit the ocean like lost children returning to their homes. Her silk cheongsam swayed along with the beat of the wind, but her body was erect, gazing through the grave scenery all the way till the unfathomable horizon.
Suddenly, she turned towards the bushes behind, her sight sharp as a hawk.
"Ah, so you two are here, too."
With the buzzing sound of the bushes, there emerged two persons, a man and a woman.
"You know we have been here the whole time, huh?" The man glanced down at Fumi with his amber eyes, twinkling in a mischievous light. His outlook was similarly enigmatic: his bright orange hair fraying out behind his head, his black vest with a skeletal drawing like in an X-ray picture, and his lollipop held between his index finger and middle finger on his right hand.
"Are we not allowed to listen to your stories, now that we are on the same ship?!" The woman stared, with her mauve eyes, right into Fumi's ones, standing upright while her pink, shoulder-length hair, together with her glaucous leather jacket, were vibrating in the midst of the wind,
"I suppose you two have already received his orders, Uzuki Yashiro and Koki Kariya?" Fumi concealed her smirk under her hand.
"Gaah…! Why should I even listen to your order, you stupid-" Uzuki ranted, her knuckles clasped against the woman standing in front of them.
"Hang on. I know this is crapsack, but there're no other options." Koki turned to his partner, silencing her mumbing with his sight.
"Ugh, fine… Promise me a bowl of ramen after this week."
"Speaking of ramen, do you two want to try my recent innovation, the Misovitan D broth? Its dense energy content, combined with the rich amount of over 1000 milligrams of miso, is supposed to refresh your body for the upcoming jobs. Just in case you don't know already, miso is an excellent source of dietary fibers, vitamin K, copper, and manganese –"
"What kind of exotic crap is this?!" Uzuki lost herself again. "And what do you mean by 'supposed to?' Are you treating us as your lab rats? That's… argh!"
"Not my favor, sorry." Koki gave a dismissive gesture. "Its name is enough to give me a dangerous feeling."
"Too bad. I'm looking for the right subject to complete the recipe, and you two make the perfect candidates with your reaper-level physique-"
"You said it! You just admit we are your guinea pigs, you monster! If it isn't out of the situation right now…!"
"I don't see the problem. It's pretty much a waste of efforts to feign a friendly relationship just to cover the underlying intent of mutual exploitation. My intent is benign, anyway."
Uzuki was about to shout again, but Koki stopped her. "I am curious whether you have any friends. If you are so unwilling to open up yourself like that, then you're going to miss the most important bits of life."
"Hmm… that's an interesting question. Maybe none, or maybe there's one." Fumi reflected on Makoto, the only person who would talk to her outside job duties in the whole JP's.
"Or… maybe there's another one in the past. That doesn't matter much anyway."
She could hear a rapid footstep. Someone was approaching.
"Oh, look. Seems I've got some visitors. Would you two like to give us some time alone?"
"Like I want to talk to you any longer. Koki, let's leave." The two reapers disappeared like shadows being dispelled in light.
Fumi then turned towards the visitor, now only steps behind. "I guess you have many, many questions, Neku Sakuraba."