tw: gore
Sora woke up groggy, Flood having worked its way into the space between his wingblades, snuggled pressed to his back. The warmth was welcome on his aching muscles, despite being tinged with a bit of nervousness, a byproduct of being entangled with Vanitas's fears.
Sora blinked again. Vanitas's rabbit Unversed was staring him back, an inch from his face. If Sora recalled correctly… that rabbit was his sadness.
Two shapes, wrapped in thin summer comforters were sitting upright and leaning next to each other against the wall with the window. Sora could make out bulges in the back that were folded wings, but that didn't help; it described everyone crammed in the room, save Gabriel, who didn't have a sharp iron-wrought point at the joint of her feathery wings.
Sora saw Komaeda on their back, wings sprawled flat, in a tank top and sweatpants, comforter kicked clean off sometime in the night, and Riku curled up in a fetal position to her left, in his new pale blue tee. His infinity timer, unwrapped, glowed a hazy neon red in the darkness.
Sora opened his own hand to look at his. It still blinked double infinity, and burned a little when he pressed a nail on the lettering.
"Hey…" he heard quietly. "I just… thanks."
Vanitas? Thanking Tomo?
"Riku wanted to help, so…"
"So nothing.Youdidn't have to. You chose to," Vanitas snapped quietly. "Don't make me raise my voice. I haven't unleashed a rage based Unversed yet and I'm pretty sure we can't fit anyone else in here if we tried."
"Why…?" Tomo asked.
"Because I was ripped from someone else too." Vanitas said quietly. "And seeing you give up… "
"I'm just a burden," Tomo admitted with a quiet laugh.
"The fuck you on about?" Vanitas asked, voice raised a little. Riku groaned, blinking open an eye. "That's not even close to it, you… j-j-"
"Jackass. You can say it to my face, you know."
Vanitas sighed. "No. It's a bad habit, it's not meant to- Tomo, I'm not trying to insult you. I'm not the only one who's fucked up a bit in the head. You're just not getting the help you need… because… because you're nice. I don't do nice. I don't know howto do nice, other than some shitty old memories of when I was whole."
"At least your memories are really yours…" Tomo hissed.
"I am really going to kick myself for this…" Vanitas muttered, before grabbing Tomo on the shoulders. "Where is Riku. Right now."
Tomo stuttered. "A. A few feet away."
"So whose shoulders am I holding?"
Riku rubbed the crust out of his eyes and sat up. "Tomo. Do you remember what I said last night? Your issues aren't less important. But Vanitas needed our help first. I can't help everyone at the same time. And now… he's trying to help you."
Tomo stared at his twin, frowning in the darkness.
"If there's anyone who can emphasize with you, it's the guy who literally materializes his emotions," Riku said with a sweep of his hand.
"Flood, here," Vanitas demanded. The creature obeyed, and Vanitas scooped it up, locking his hands under its forearms, holding it up for Tomo.
"It's literally all I have, Tomo. Empathy."
"You don't let anyone but Sora touch it," Tomo said nervously.
"Because when Ventus was stuck in him, I was too, until Xehanort pulled me out of time and shoved me in a replica body. Same as you. I was infuriated, being trapped in Sora for a decade. Do you have any idea how big of an idiot he was as a kid? I saved him from drowning. Thrice."
"That was you?" Sora asked, rolling a shoulder. "The town thought mermaids did it."
"Oh look, the peanut gallery," Vanitas groaned. "Yes. Me. You passed out and I swam your tiny-ass body to shore before you regained conciseness and shoved me back into the recesses of your heart along with my blonde idiot half. You're a fucking islander and you couldn't even swim."
"I was seven!"
"You were an idiot! You still are!"
Riku doubled over, laughing hysterically. "You're like an old married couple."
"Yeah well I was literally ball-and-chained to him for years."
"Is… that why you trust me?" Sora piped in, scooting over.
Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Basically." He lifted up Flood again for Tomo. "Look. Your old memories weren't yours. Or they were, in the same way that I have snippets of Ventus's memories. But the ones you make now are yours. So, make the most of it."
Tomo slowly reached out, and put his palm on Flood's forehead. Gently, he stroked the soft velveteen fur. Flood purred, and Vanitas simultaneously relaxed and tensed up under the indirect contact.
"Vanitas, can I hold it?"
Vanitas frowned, looking down at his Unversed. "I'll let it choose. And if it starts trying to wriggle free…"
"I'll let go."
Gently, Vanitas passed Flood to Tomo, who cradled it in his arms. Tomo held and pet the creature, but watched Vanitas's reaction instead of Flood's. At first, Vanitas looked a little pained, but bit his own lip and said nothing, flapping his wings a little in the same way a beached fish would flop around stressed.
"Are you sure, Vanitas?"
"If it's too much, I'll tell you or it'll squirm," he replied, through clenched teeth. "I can't scream at any stranger I accidentally brush against on the street."
"I… guess not," Tomo said, as Komaeda slowly groaned awake.
"Ugh, it's too hoooooot," they whined. "I hate Tokyo in August."
"How did you sleep through Tweedledee and Tweedledum here?" Riku asked, gesturing to Vanitas and Tomo.
"I live in a dorm room with five teenaged and twenty something guys, I can sleep through an earthquake at this point," Komaeda replied, looking bemused at Tomo handling Flood like it were a decorative egg.
With everyone now awake- Gabriel must have already gotten out of the room- Sora turned back to look around.
The rabbit was gone.
"Good, I was just coming to wake you," Joshua said, opening the door to Gabriel's room but seeing everyone awake. "A little bird told me Sora passed on some powers to a certain someone who had them taken."
Sora suddenly felt extremely guilty.
"Didn't know you could do that. Good job. Get dressed, all of you, regular clothes. Sora, I'll help so you don't accidentally phase off your wing brace when you put on a shirt."
Komaeda quietly excused themselves, as the other four groaned and stretched. Joshua danced around everyone, and found the neatly stacked pile of Sora's new clothing. Sora groggily pointed at the shirt he wanted, and Joshua held the wing brace in place as Sora pulled it overhead. The straps still clattered to the ground as he phased his wings for a moment to get the shirt on and in place.
"Well, I needed to see if it healed properly anyway," Joshua muttered.
Carefully, he touched Sora's back and checked. "I'm still keeping you grounded but Gabriel set it correctly. Fly only as a last resort."
Sora nodded, having bit his lip while Joshua had pressed on the formerly torn muscle. It wasn't screaming pain, but it was still extremely tender to the touch.
Emergencies only, Sora reminded himself, as Joshua rolled up the brace and left the room to let them change in peace.
"Seven in the morning?" Sora groaned. "If I knew we were up as early as we were I woulda gone back to bed."
"Stop whining," Gabriel chided, as she stood over a stovetop, directing breakfast.
And directing was a very good word for it. Various pans were telekinetically being flipped and seasoned, plates floating around her as she loaded each one with pancakes and eggs, flinging it to a table crammed with eight sets of silverware.
"You're not stepping out of here looking like that are you?" she added, as Riku ducked a carafe of coffee Uriel floated to the center of the table.
"I'm letting them choose," Joshua replied. Sora relaxed a little, thankful the annoyed side eye wasn't directed at his choice in clothing, a track jacket Neku had picked out for him in blue-purple and black, with basketball shorts.
"You're plenty old to be picking your own clothes," Vanitas said with a smirk. "Unless this is some kind of magic curse thing."
"She's not talking about what I'm wearing, or well she is, but… she's talking about my face. I can't just walk into Shinjuku like this. I guess you missed the first night here. We angels are only gendered for convenience. I don't have any attachment to what I look like save the fact that I've been using this face for about a decade."
"My last assignment was in Sweden, fifty years ago," Gabriel piped. "You think I looked like Futaba Sakura there? Or here for that matter? I was Sakura from Fire Emblem before I changed it up."
"Our cosplayer nerd here changes her appearance whenever there's a new game out she likes," Uriel explained, rolling her eyes. "You always pick the girls, though. Always."
"Well excuse me for liking being cute," Gabriel said, flipping three pancakes and tossing them on another plate.
"And yet you'll never wear a dress."
"Hate 'em."
"Or do your nails."
"Waste of time."
"Makeup?"
"Hard pass."
"Then why be a girl?"
"Because I wanna, that's why," Gabriel pouted. "Do I need a reason?"
"Ladies," Joshua said, annoyed. "We need to eat and go."
"Well excuseme for not being any good at time magic," Gabriel huffed. "Unless you wanna take over, these pancakes are only going to cook as fast as physics lets them."
"Josh will just burn them to spite us," Uriel commented. "Switch."
"I will not!" he huffed, as Uriel suddenly started to do things at an impossibly high speed, completely filling the table with fully cooked food in under a minute.
"Showoff," Gabriel muttered, as she plopped down on a cushion at the low table.
"If it's any consolation, your reality bending magic is unmatched," Uriel offered, as she slid in an open space between Vanitas and Komaeda.
"Yeah, yeah," Gabriel muttered, shoving a forkful of chocolate chip pancake in her mouth.
"You… want us to pick what you look like?" Tomo finally spoke up, asking incredulously as he reached for a pitcher of juice.
"I never really liked picking a new face. Someone's always done it for me, so at this point, I've given up trying. If I try to make one without a reference to look off of…"
"It looks bad," Uriel and Gabriel said in unison.
"Terrible," Gabriel added.
"Horrible," Uriel agreed.
"Gang up on me, why don't you?" Joshua snapped good-naturedly. "Ugh. The only thing worse than being egged like this is knowing that they're not exaggerating."
"It's like, when you try to make a new look for yourself, you go into a character editor, hit the random button, and just be that. Yuck," Gabriel added in mock disgust. "It never works."
"Then I dunno, make yourself look like Kairi or something," Vanitas goaded.
Sora turned crimson. "Please don't."
"No, see, now I wanna see this more," Gabriel laughed.
"I'm not going to be that big of a jerk, Gabe," Joshua commented, pouring himself a cup of black coffee.
"Then Naminé," Vanitas suggested. Riku and Tomo turned tomato colored.
"Aqua, then, while we're at it," Riku countered, glaring at Vanitas.
"See, that doesn't work. I have absolutely zero interest in her."
Joshua pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated. "Just pick someone. I need to not look like me, or a celebrity. Someone who's not going to look odd walking around Tokyo. And yes, you'll need to hide your hair colors again today."
Sora groaned. "Can I have sunglasses instead of contacts at least? Those things itched."
"I'm sure I have a few pairs lying around," Uriel offered.
Komaeda flipped absently through their phone. "I just asked one of my roommates if you can borrow their face for the day. He said yeah." They faced their phone forward, and Joshua frowned in concentration.
"As good as any. Someone Coco doesn't know, wouldn't have any way of knowing, right?"
"He died seven months ago after he got shoved off a roof. His body was so messed up they didn't run it in the papers or news."
"Oh, this is Yasu, right? That was just before all hell broke loose. I should go and introduce myself. Tell him I said thanks, and I'll apologize in person later."
Joshua closed his eyes, and his features began to rearrange, his hair darkening, and a little stubble grew. He winced as he pulled his wings in, and in an explosive poof of feathers that disappeared after a moment of floating in the air, his wings re-materialized as the metal-looking kind Reapers had.
"Good enough?" Joshua asked. "I'm not going to mess with my voice unless I have to. I like it."
"Yeah, that's cause I picked it out for you," Uriel said, rolling her eyes. "Your old one sounded like one of those old men playing shogi over in Yoyogi."
"Well excuse me for liking strategy games," Joshua countered, running his fingers though his now-longer hair, before passing the phone back to Komaeda, who snorted behind a hand.
"Hearing your voice come from his mouth is really disorienting," they admitted.
"That's it? I just transformed in front of you and not a single bit of surprise?"
"I've turned into a vampire, a mermaid, and a lion," Sora said, shrugging. "I honestly didn't realize that was a big deal."
"Ouch," Gabriel said, downing a mug of eighty percent sweetened milk to twenty percent coffee. "Pwned."
"You literally re-set your jaw in front of me last night," Komaeda added. "And every time Neku slugs you."
"You're all bark and no bite," Vanitas added, more for his own reassurance than anything else, as Flood wormed its way up to try and steal a pancake. "Sit, Flood, and I'll cut it," he hissed, bopping it lightly on the head with the back of his hand.
Joshua sighed.
"Tough crowd."
"I'm bushed." Demyx practically rolled off the back of his chocobo, before hitching it to the feeding station to rest and recover. Goofy followed, dismounted, then offered a hand to Prompto, who'd swapped with Donald for the ride back.
"I got it," Prompto said, with a wave of his hand. "Go drag your friend out of the backseat. Gladio's probably too afraid to wake him up and end up with a sparkler in the face."
"Fair," Demyx said, stretching. He walked the fifty feet down the hill to the car park, and hefted the snoring mage up over a shoulder. It felt a little like when he delivered Vexen's replica for Ienzo, a unconscious mage who really just needed a god-damned hug.
"Tomorrow, you're telling us exactly what in the nine hells you did," Ignis hissed low as he locked the car. "I won't hand over the proof of bounty until you do."
Demyx groaned. "Really? You're filthy rich. And you're sitting here hoarding our one chance at cash over us. I get you don't fully trust us. But that's just low."
"Information then. I'll tell you about Shibuya."
Demyx frowned. "I hate you. I actually. Honestly. Hate. You. Have it your way."
"Sleep well, and don't let the demons bite."
"Here, that sounds more like a threat," Demyx muttered, joining Goofy to go crash at the hotel, dirty, sweaty, and exhausted.
"This is way too damn early," Neku whined, yawning. "You know what time I had to be up to be here on time?"
"Well, it's a Tuesday at 7:45 AM, so not only were you up, you were on an express train to Shibuya during rush hour. I don't envy you," Rhyme said, shuddering a little as she sipped her green tea frappe at the café.
Now that Sora knew what to look for, he spotted the seven pins on Rhyme's knit hat, none of them recognizable save the black and white pin all Players were given. She also had a faint glimmer around spots behind her back. Sora mentally traced the disturbance.
Rhyme had Reaper wings, but they were camouflaged somehow.
"We're still waitin' on Shiki, yo. And Josh."
"Just Shiki," Neku said, rolling his eyes to give Joshua serious side eye.
"Oh, come on, it's not that obvious," Joshua said.
Beat almost fell out of his chair. "Maybe for Neku, yo. I ain't as smart."
Flood chittered loudly and jumped up on Vanitas's head.
"Oh, come on, now even Van's Noise is makin' fun a'me."
Joshua paled. "You seeit?"
"You don't?"
"Of course I do…" Joshua hissed.
"Our running theory is because it's something Vanitas could do while alive, now that he's visible, it is too," Riku offered sipping a coffee and scanning the sea of people outside the station for Shiki. "They were able to see my magic yesterday too, when I used a spell from home rather than a pin-based one."
Joshua downed his drink in a hard gulp. "I guess people here really willignore anything."
"Just tell them it's an experimental robot companion if someone does ask?" Neku offered as Tomo waved Shiki over.
"I'm not sure which is worse," Isa grumbled, taming stock of the bright, thick blue fur covering his new body. "I'll take too many layers of clothes to none at all."
Naminé giggled, as she started to figure out how to use he new row of spindly insect legs to propel herself forward. "No thanks. That corset was a death trap."
Vexen just shuddered. "Naminé, that skittering on the pavement is making me very, very uncomfortable."
"You don't like bugs?" she asked, wiggling her new fingers, just two thick digits plus a thumb, in mottled gold.
"I do not," he admitted. "My only saving grace is that I am not one." Vexen was a rail thin, tall beast with six arms and short fur in gold and orange bands. Naminé was reminded vaguely of a creamsicle candy cane when she looked at him.
"I'm still trying to figure out how to sort this out, mentally," Vexen admitted. "I move one arm, and I end up moving two or five."
"Well, we're wasting time standing here. We need to get to the factory and meet up with Lea's group," Isa demanded.
"Easy for you, mister two-arms-two-legs."
"I have horns!" Isa offered.
"I have hooooorns!" Vexen mocked. "Horns are just fingernails that got lost on their way out of the body. You don't get to complain. If I had my Organization jacket in this form, I'd use one as a coat hook."
"Says the walking actual coat rack," Isa replied, grinning with far too many teeth.
"Plan of attack?" Shiki asked. "And sorry. They were doing track work so I ended up having to walk."
"You don't want to be on a train during rush hour anyway," Neku shuddered.
"Yeah, and we're not flying, we have four people weak on their wings and one of them already tore a muscle yesterday," Joshua added. "It's about an hour walk from here, so long as everyone's okay with that. I need to check something in Yoyogi anyway and we basically have to pass it."
"Can we stop in Asakusa before we head home?" Rhyme asked.
Vanitas noticed that she'd clasped her hands almost in a begging motion as she did. Reapers, and the Conductor, needed permission to leave their districts.
"Did you need something?" Joshua asked. "I can get it for you. It's the least I can do for dragging you all out."
"Time with my friends? All of them?" Rhyme asked.
"Oh, yeah. Of course," Joshua replied, nodding. "I'll make sure we have some time to do something else when we're done. You only have a few days left of break, don't you?"
Neku nodded. "What are you going to do once we're all back in school?"
"We're going to kick Coco out of Shinjuku before then."
"But… I have orientation on Friday. It's Tuesday."
"And?" Joshua replied. "We have a hostage crisis and four extremely powerful people already breaking UG rules by existing. Let's make use of what we have."
"We have like…" Shiki said, counting on her fingers, "sixty hours."
"And we'll have fifty-nine when we get to Shinjuku," Joshua said simply.
"Then let's use em, yo!" Beat roared, standing to his feet.
Demyx rose to his feet. It was past noon, by the small electric wall clock shoved in the corner of their bedroom. He went to turn on the tap, finding the handle loose. He'd complain later, but for now, he magicked himself some water to douse his face and at least make himself marginally presentable.
"Was going to tell you the sink is busted," Donald said. "Could I ask for some too? I'm out of mana and I can't absorb from the atmosphere. There's no ambient magic here."
"Huh? I've had no problem recharging?" Demyx asked with an uptick.
"No ambient light. There's plenty of darkness," Donald clarified, with a grumble.
"You could leech, if you needed," Demyx asked, holding out an arm. "I can barely keep it in here anyway. I hate venting it out."
"You sure?"
"You're doing me a favor."
"You just want to be lazy," Donald said with a huff, but he took the offered hand and drew.
"Ack, Donald! You just drained me dry!"
"You said you didn't have a problem recharging," Donald replied with a smirk.
"The hell are you, some sort of magic pit? Hang on, I'll pull in some more." Demyx took a sharp inhale, until the edges of his vision glowed with a purple haze. "Take what you need, just don't bleed me-" Demyx started, offering his hand out again. In moments, every store he'd just acquired vanished. "-dry. Seriously. How much mana do you hoard?"
"I cast from my stamina when I run out. A trick I learned watching some heartless around the castle when I was a kid. I never told the others, figured they wouldn't let me be a court mage if they found out. I think King Mickey knows, but he's never said anything."
Three more times, Demyx absorbed the ambient magic, and two more times, Donald took it from him in an instant.
"Had enough yet?" Demyx asked, rolling his eyes. "Cause now I'm starving."
"I'm not full, but it's enough," Donald replied, summoning a little fire to his hand. It was purple-black, instead of the usual reddish-gold.
"Just… I know I filtered it for you, but its still darkness based. Be careful with it."
Donald nodded, bouncing the tiny fireball off his knuckles, one of his gold bangles clanking with the movement. "I know what I'm doing, Demyx," he snipped, before softening a little. "Thank you for the concern, though. I look at you, and for a moment I see an older Sora."
"You got kids, too?"
"If Sora counts, yes. Unlike Goofy, I have a wife, but we can't have children. I have my nephews, but they travel with my uncle most of the time. Sora's the kid I never had. I'm a bit hard on him, but…"
"You worry. I get it. Back in the Org, it was something similar. Ienzo got turned when he was what… five? Six? Nobody really knows how old he is. Somewhere between fourteen and nineteen, and that's about all we've got. He was like a little brother to me, a bit, but he was basically Vexen's kid."
"We should probably get some food," Donald said, acknowledging Demyx in his own way. "I'm sure Goofy and Prince Noctis and his retinue are waiting."
"Not one person," Joshua muttered, as he watched people pass them by.
"One person what?" Tomo asked, confused.
"Nobody's looking at Vanitas."
Flood was nested up on Vanitas's head, his back legs on the teen's shoulders, chittering happily and enjoying the view of the city from his perch. "Good, because I don't feel completely self-conscious enough already." He turned the collar on his skull jacket up a notch, flexing the fingers on his right hand through his bandage, grateful they didn't try and shove him in a wig. Flood weighing him down was enough. He pushed his sunglasses up his nose and pulled the Unversed off his head. "Sora, you carry him. When I put him on the ground he just scrambles up me again."
Sora tried to pull Flood off, but he whined and dug his forelegs into Vanitas's ears.
"The hell? Stop it, Flood… oh shit. Sora, let go."
"The border between Harajuku and Shinjuku," Joshua said. This is the end of the Shibuya district. I have to bless you all or you can't leave."
"It's… like there's a red fog," Sora said, looking at the miasma towering all the way into the sky. He tapped the air, and his hand hit an invisible hexagonal barrier like the one he and Riku had erected for the game the day before.
"That's what the reapers all said yesterday when I came to hand out supplies," Neku said. "It just looks like another part of the city to me though."
"Same, yo. That fog's only in the UG."
"I don't think I can see a foot or two inside it," Riku said, concerned. "And this wasn't here on Sunday when Komaeda's brother found me."
"A foot?"
"Roughly a third of a meter," Joshua supplied, tapping the border wall gently before sticking his hand through it. "I can't even see my hand once it's through. Coco's been using this haze to periodically screw with everyone. Uriel's the only one immune, but she also can't touch Coco."
Joshua shoved his head inside. "It's going to take way too much effort to dispel just around me, and I don't have the power to lift it over the whole city. Maybe a few blocks, max." He pulled back. "I'd bet money that imp made some kind of deal with a devil, and she has to know we're here. She doesn't put this up indefinitely."
"D-d-demons are real?" Beat asked shocked.
"You're joking right?" Joshua deadpanned, crossing his arms. "Anyway, real actual demons are… socially speaking, a bit backwards, but they're not downright vile. Most of their aggression is of the self-preservation variety. We leave the Fair Folk alone, they do the same for us."
"Fairies are real?" Beat asked, even more exaggerated. Joshua just facepalmed. "Next you're going to tell me leprechauns exist," Beat added.
Joshua inhaled and raised a finger, before sighing and lowering it. "Another time," he muttered. "So, give us the short version, Neku, Beat. You two go in here the most."
"Coco doesn't issue missions. She just leaves the dead to figure out everything. She toys with people, and sics noise on them, and puts up the fog when she really likes screwing with everyone. And unless you're willing to be her personal servant, she's kicked the Reapers from their homes. Most are sleeping on the streets. There were rumors that she's planning to take away everyone's phones, but she hasn't done it yet. She'll randomly run the emergency alert system whenever she feels like it, so between the red haze making it impossible for the Reapers to see, the distrust, the random Noise attacks that go after players and reapers alike, and the regular blaring out of people's phones, there's no safe place or time for peaceful sleep."
Vanitas glowered behind his sunglasses. "That's literal, actual, torture. Does anyone know why she's even doing this?"
"That's the worst part of all of this," Komaeda said, running fingers along the barrier, crackling with energy. "She thinks it's fun."
"This is literal, actual torture." Demyx stared down Noctis and his retainers, opposite himself, Doanld and Goofy at one of the pub's long outdoor tables. They'd already started eating, and Demyx's food hadn't come from the kitchen yet.
"Quit being a baby," Donald chided.
"What he said," Prompto agreed, nicking a fry off Noctis's plate.
"You have food."
"You have a portable army," Ignis replied.
"So I wasn't just dreaming that," Prompto said, mouth full. "Glad that's sorted."
"How?" Ignis asked.
"I can call certain… monsters… for lack of a better term, to come help in battle. If I just call a few of them, I have complete control. An army like that, and I can sort of just direct them."
"You're inhuman," Gladio said, poking at his chili.
Demyx nodded and smiled softly. "Yeah. Haven't been human for a long, long time."
"I meant that more in the powers sense, not literally. But… you're really not?"
Demyx shrugged. "I'm basically one of the creatures I summoned, I just happen to have a brain."
"Most of the time," Donald muttered, loudly enough for the table to hear.
Prompto, very quietly, shrunk in his chair.
"Look, I know you four don't need it," Joshua said, addressing Neku, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme. "But I'm just going to cover our collective asses." Joshua licked the back of his palm and smeared his saliva on Shiki's forehead.
"Ew."
"You want every protection I can give, or not?"
"Still, gross."
"That is entirely fair."
Neku winced. "I already got immunity thanks to what happened last February."
"I'm not taking chances," Joshua chided, and smeared his forehead, too.
"If I get zits or a cold sore, I'm blaming you, yo," Beat whined, next in the line.
"You know cold sores are herpes, right?" Neku asked grinning.
"Ew, double ew," Beat complained as Joshua moved on to his sister, the real reason he'd blessed the other three.
"And with this, I grant you safe passage," he said, doing the same for her. "Until I relinquish it again or time should run its course."
When Joshua removed his hand to move on to Komaeda, Rhyme had a red timer etched on her forehead.
Six hours, and counting down.
"So, why is your home getting bombed?"
"It's a… very long story," Ignis said with a shrug as Demyx inhaled his macaroni and cheese. "The summary is a war, though it seems as much a front for our enemy to try out some new bioweapons."
"The demons?"
"And possibly also the smaller creatures we were ambushed by last night."
"Those are called Heartless," Demyx interjected. "They're born of darkness, though they can come out in the day, too."
"Is that what you are, Demyx?" Ignis asked, hands steepled on the table as he observed the three of them.
"…sorta," Demyx replied, before diving back into his brunch. "It's also a long story."
"When someone's heart is ripped outta 'em, the heart with no body becomes one kinda demon, and the body left behind becomes another," Goofy explained. "Demyx is the body half."
"So… you're a zombie?" Noctis asked.
"Good way of putting it, yeah," Demyx said. "Heart ripped out, but I get some powers from the bargain."
Prompto slunk further in his space on the bench.
"Prompto, are you ill?" Ignis asked, noticing his composure.
"I… I'll be fine," Prompto said, with a shaky smile. "Just… didn't get enough sleep last night, I think."
"Make sure you go back to the hotel and take a nap if you are unwell," Ignis chided. "We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we still need to bring Noctis to Altissia."
"This is the literal worst stag party in existance," Gladio said, snorting.
"Stag… party?" Goofy asked, before realizing. "Noctis, you're gettin' married? Awful young, don't'cha think? This ain't some political marriage of convenience is it?"
Noctis frowned a little. "It is, but at least I do like her," he admitted.
"My son's about your age, can't imagine him hitchin' that young. You just be careful, now, you hear? And treat your princess well."
"Are you giving me… advice on women?" Nocits asked, just short of laughing.
Demyx wanted to add that he should see what Goofy really looked like, but bit his tongue. One friend turning out to be a demon was one thing, finding out the other two were a sentient dog and duck was probably going to make Noctis's head spin clean off.
"Can we… see my brother?" Komaeda asked, holding one of Neku's elbows. Joshua was on the other side, holding the other for guidance, but they could barely see each other through the fog.
"Kinda figured you'd want to, though, given how the two of you are going to tear my arms off, you can't see very much, can you?"
"I can't even see Master Joshua."
"Ow. That bad?"
"That bad," Sora said, holding one side of Shiki while Vanitas had her other elbow. "But I can hear you just fine."
"Good, don't yell," Joshua insisted. "We don't need all of Shinjuku thinking we're crazy. Talk like normal."
"WHAT I'M SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU," Vanitas shouted. Sora vaguely heard Joshua sigh.
Their living friends guided them down someplace, where Neku whistled a quick song.
"It's Neku Sakuraba, I've brought friends, onigiri, and water."
"Neku?" a woman's voice called out. "The fog's still here. None of us can see."
"Yeah, I know. I have Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme here, and some Reapers from Shibuya. I can see you all just fine. I'll come and tap you on the shoulder, okay?"
"Head's up, we're affected by it too," Komaeda said aloud. "I can't see more than an arms length away."
"Komaeda?" another voice asked.
"His twin," Komaeda explained. "Is he with you?"
"He's sleeping under the overpass," Shiki offered. "Okay, reapers, let go, and let us give out food and drinks and I'll bring him to you." Sora let go of Shiki, and shifted nervously on his feet, as he closed his eyes and just listened to his living friends work.
"Jack, I've got a konbu and a fried shrimp one for you, here. And a bottle of tea. There you go, you got it?"
"Yeah, thanks, Neku, you're an angel."
"No way, man. Give me like seven or eight decades first."
"Risa, two tuna mayo and a pumpkin milk," Shiki offered.
"Thank God."
Sora just listened quietly as food was distributed to seven grateful voices.
"We've got another bag here for the homeless people who are alive," Neku said. "I know they won't let us just give them stuff, so I'm leaving it with Nori."
"I'll make sure anyone who wants food can get it," a gruff, much older voice replied. "They know that we've suddenly got periods when we can't see, and we.. ahem… liberate things from the vending machines when we can for 'em, and get the cops to leave 'em alone."
"Do you guys need money?" Joshua asked.
"Who doesn't?"
"I have something from Master Joshua," Joshua said.
"Oh what, the angel running Shibuya? The heck he'd want with us?"
"Who do you think's been funding you guys?" Joshua asked the red haze. "Master Uriel and Master Joshua have. There's no way a bunch of high schoolers could afford to feed all the Reapers in Shinjuku."
"Tell that witch she can have her money, I just want Coco out," Risa's voice whined through the red fog.
"She's doing what she can, but her hands are tied and her wings are clipped," Joshua commented. "I've been trying to help too."
"You're Joshua aren't you?" the older voice stated. "Nobody around here talks like that."
"Might be," Joshua admitted.
"Buncha Reapers from outside gotta have their escort," Nori grumbled. "Just stop talking in third person and you're fine in my book. And I know it ain't Uriel's fault. But it does sting that she's not done shit."
"Eep!" Komaeda cried, far off, followed by a loud crack.
"You… ow, it's Neku, your twin's with me. That was my wrist you just snapped."
"Fuck!" Komaeda- Shinjuku's Komaeda- cried out. "Sorry Neku!"
"It's okay. Just get up and hold on to me. Josh, you wanna heal my arm?"
"If you come to me, I'm just as blind as the Reapers," Joshua grumbled.
"Ugh, hang on. Ko, you hit just as hard as your twin."
"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "With this fog…"
"Yeah. Don't worry about it," Neku said, navigating him back to his sibling. "This has to be torture."
"We have to move camp every night so Coco doesn't find us. Uriel obfuscates us as much as she can, but…"
"There's too many of you, and if you all stay together you're a target."
"Yeah."
"It's… frustrating," Joshua said quietly, as Neku grabbed Joshua's hands, placing them on his own, so Joshua could heal his fractured wrist.
"Why can't we just leave?" Risa whined.
Joshua sighed. "Because Uriel doesn't allow that alone. You need the Conductor to agree by weakening the border wall. I might be able to use my magic to force override it, but I'd be able to get three or four of you out a week, maximum. And there's over three hundred Reapers in the district."
"Of course," Nori groaned. "Your bureaucracy can't make it easy. Ever."
"How's your hand, Neku?" Joshua asked.
He was answered with a solid jab right on the nose.
"Ubh, an here I thowt I was off easy," Joshua whined, as he fixed his face. "You broke my nose."
"Past tense, Joshua- and thanks for the heal, can I have another?" Neku asked, putting his hand back in Joshua's as the Komaeda siblings wrapped each other in a hug, sobbing and shaking.
"We need to get as far away from Insomnia as we can, not just so Noctis can marry, but so he can be crowned king and return to legitimize his rule," Ignis explained, paying the check and handing over a wad of bills. "Your Gil, reward for the hunt. We'll sell off the rest of the viscera, as agreed last night."
"Thanks," Demyx said, taking the cash. "Wait, this is way more than what we were supposed to get."
"You need it more than us," Noctis said with a shrug. "We all agreed."
"Is there a catch?"
"No catch, but-" Gladio started, when three pieces of music played simultaneously.
Demyx, Donald, and Goofy all reached for their phones.
"K-kairi?!"
"Obfuscate!" Neku yelled, before a sinister howling laugh echoed through the fog.
"Hmmmmm?" the voice asked. "Trying to hide from lil' me? Why would you do that?"
The fog disappeared, as a small girl, no older than ten or twelve in appearance flapped down, dragging a white body bag wrapped up in chains. She was wearing a bright teal dress, striped socks, hot pink sneakers, and a short hot pink jacket with ears on the hood that reminded Sora vaguely of Kairi's.
The similarity between her and his friend stopped there, though. She landed, and dropped the bag with a think, dragging the bag with her.
It was wriggling.
"Hiiiiiii losers! Whatcha doing in my city?"
Joshua coughed, and spoke with a voice that sounded nothing like his own. "Master Joshua sent us here. He wanted to bargain for Riku to be transferred under him completely."
She looked between their foreheads. "Wow. And sending seven of you. That's bold."
"Seven?" Neku asked, counting heads, the eight Shinjuku reapers, Komaeda's brother included, either completely visible or long gone from the dirty underpass they were standing in. "But there's only six… reap… ers…" he said, slowly coming to a realization, closing his mouth quietly.
He sighed. "And I'm here as someone completely neutral."
"Neutral my big 'ol butt," Coco whined. "You haaaate me. I know you do." She disappeared from view and re-emerged an inch from Neku's face. "I can read your miiiind."
"Hands off."
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of hurting you, Neku. It's a waste of my energy since you've won that stupid baby game in Shibuya so many times. But you've brought friends I can hurt. Of course… you've made them twins."
She singsonged. "Which… one… is… mi~ineeeeee…" as she walked between them. "Not you, with the Noise on your shoulder, and you…" she said, pointing a finger between Sora's eyes, "too happy. I like my teenage hotties with a side order of emo."
She rattled the chain in her hand. "Makes a better battery."
"Who's in there?" Beat demanded.
"Nobody you care about, that's for sure. Picked up an otherworldly stray. He sucks up magic like you wouldn't believe, so I have a nice portable energy source."
Flood growled low at her.
"Tamed Noise? Ew, who is even that base?" She flicked an arrow of purple black energy from a single finger, shooting Flood right between the eyes. It disintegrated immediately, and Vanitas doubled over a little.
"Vanitas!" Sora yelled.
"It… just returned to me, I'm fine…" Vanitas replied in their own language from home.
Coco scowled, an odd sight on such a young girl's face. "No talking out of turn. Especially in some weird space language."
She kicked the bag in disgust, and the occupant coughed hoarsely.
"Thiiiiiink I broke another rib. Ah well, I'll just fix it and wait for something else to fall apart. Like this," she said, reaching for one of Joshua's wings. She hissed, as her palm burned under the touch.
"Fucking… loser… angel."
"I did tell you he gave us his blessing."
"Yeah well, his blessing'll only do so much to people he actually owns," Coco said, frowning. "It's not the chick," she added, glaring at Rhyme, "so it must be…"
Coco reached for Riku, right at the lacy part of his wing, and tyrned and twisted it, shredding it into bits between her fingers. Black ichor oozed from the wounds, and Riku screamed, doubling over in pain while Coco planted a sneaker on his back, sending him into the foul smelling puddles in the underpass.
She grinned, and opened her free palm, calling the ichor- Riku's reaper-wing blood- to her. It began to coalesce into a spear, which she raised giddily over Riku before anyone had a chance to react.
Time seemed to slow… and then rewind. And then stutter forwards again.
Riku screamed on repeat as his wing shred apart and reformed in a stuttering loop.
Coco dropped the ichor spear.
"What the.." she pouted. "Ugh. You're no fun anymore."
She rolled the chain up around her arm and flew off, leaving Riku to spasm wildly.
"Riku?" Neku asked, worried, unable to see the damage.
"She… ripped one of his wings to shreds," Sora whispered, kneeling, in horror as time cycled backwards and forwards in a loop of agony.
"I- I- I-'m okay…" Riku stuttered out, glitching.
"You're screaming," Sora said, watching as Riku stuttered upright.
"It- echo. I'm.. already… myself. Healed."
His words chipped in and out, out of order.
"Me. Let —- check something."
Riku stuttered back to a frozen face of him screaming, his wing shredded and Coco's ichor spear floating on nothing before snapping to Riku holding out his hand, palm out, showing his timer.
"Fee. Your fee. Xord. Time. He controls time."
"That's why we're outside the game," Sora whispered out. "That wild card is-"
Riku glitched backwards in time to replay his wing shredded, but this time, with his bandage off his hand.
The timer was -99:99:99
He stuttered again, earlier, his wing whole.
-99:98:16
He snapped back to a shredded wing, but no face of agony, glitching as he stepped.
"Time loop. —- have activated —-"
Vanitas gulped. "Komaeda, I know you wanted more time with your brother but we need to flee while that hell-girl lets us."
Komaeda nodded, and shapes shimmered into view. The eight Reapers materialized, in ratty, dirty clothes and with tired, bloodshot eyes. One had a splint on her wing and another was missing an arm entirely.
Joshua held out a thick envelope.
"While you can, get some food. I'm going to look into getting hotel rooms. It can't be that hard to house three hundred people, can it?"
"You'd do that?" the gruff old man asked. Nori. One of his eyes was pussed over and leaking the graffiti-like marks of Noise. He snatched the money from Joshua and shoved it in a pocket.
"If I knew it was this bad, I would have done it sooner."
"Coco will just retaliate harder," another voice said.
"I'm going to kill her myself," Joshua said sternly. "Just stay out of her way until then."
The eight nodded wearily.
"Let's go," Joshua demanded. "Before Coco gets an idea for a batter game."
"E-e-Yes," Riku stuttered, snapping between positions. Sora watched his hand to try and puzzle out how time affected him.
The lower the negative number, the further back it was pulling from, it seemed.
"You sure you're okay?" Tomo asked him.
"Okay. Not okay. But —- pain. Not in."
"Come on Yoda, lets get you home and I'll back out what's going on."
"Attacking Coco head on is suicide," Vanitas said, his shadow bubbling underneath him. Flood's head popped out, chirping happily, and jumped on the table.
They'd all crammed back in Joshua's apartment, poking at drinks and snacks and city maps. Riku continued to glitch at unpredictable intervals, and even outright disappeared for a few seconds at a time.
"End up. Shinjuku," he supplied, after his most recent episode.
If anyone tried to touch him, they'd just warp around him. He couldn't take things from others, but if they were set on an inanimate object, like the table, he could interact with them.
His cup of juice regularly glitched it's contents, full one moment, empty the next, then back to partially full of juice again.
No one had poured him anything.
"This is probably Luxord's power kicking in," Tomo suggested. "I only know of him from what the other Organization members mentioned. He was an incredibly powerful time mage, yet barely used his magic in any significant way."
Joshua held out his fingertips, and the card materialized just above his hand. "I can't return the fee, even if I want to. But… maybe being near the source might help."
Joshua laid the card on the table, and Riku reached for it.
He screamed bloody murder and flopped back, glitching wildly on the floor.
"Bad idea! Bad…" Joshua cried, freaking out.
And then Riku stilled, his wings whole again. He panted, and slowly opened his eyes and sat up.
The card vanished off the table.
"I'm going to say a full sentence in chronological order," Riku said slowly. "Can someone else talk?"
"Riku, how are you?"
"Not hearing everything all jumbled out of order, for starters."
"You're sounding normal again," Tomo said slowly. "I'm going to try touching you."
Tomo reached out and put a hand on Riku's shoulder.
Riku exhaled a sigh of relief.
"It worked," Neku said, surprised. "It actually worked."
Riku opened his palm.
-99:98:16
-99:98:15
-99:98:14
"It's.. not infinity any more," Riku said, showing his hand. "It's like a Player timer, but in reverse."
"What happens when it ticks up to zero?" Vanitas asked. "We were told when our timers went down to zero we'd be Erased."
"It wouldn't surprise me if the same rules applied," Riku said, quietly. "Neku and his friends might have a soft timer of two days to help… but I've got a hard timer of four to live. I think I would have been Erased back in Shinjuku if Luxord's spell on us didn't kick in."
The table went silent.
"You need to beat Coco's game," Rhyme said quietly. "Screw the rules, Coco's not playing by them anyway. Im giving you every power I have."
"You're the seventh Reaper?" Neku asked her, eyebrow raised.
She shook her head no. "I'm the Conductor. And in my city, everyone gets a second-"
Music began to blare.
Sora and Riku looked at each other, confused, before pulling their phones from their pockets.
"…Kairi?"
PART ONE: DOWN FROM INFINITY.
-END-
whelp, section one is over, and the gloves come off.
thanks for sticking with me, as we dive deeper into heartless, demons, more demons, and lots of magic
and coco. bleeping coco.