Sanctuary
It's strange.
Every day I notice it more and more.
The wind – it seems to follow me.
Or am I pulling it along?
I don't know which it is.
The wind is always silent when it is with me.
They say silence is golden.
With the wind, I don't see gold.
I see black.
Chapter Five - Skill
He had come to terms with having lunch with the Bito siblings. A meal a day was the only time he would really see them. That was what he thought, so he hadn't expected Beat to come into his classroom at the end of the day, with Rhyme by his side, demanding that Neku sit with his sister on the train ride back to central Shibuya.
Neku was in the middle of packing away his notebooks into his briefcase. He spared Beat a quick glance as he searched his desk for his maths textbook. "Why's that?"
"I've got soccer tryouts today and I'm gonna catch the later train. The thing is that Rhyme's gotta get home on this train…"
Rhyme gave him an adamant look at his words. "I want to watch the tryouts, Beat. I can cheer you on."
"No ways. Mum an' Dad would flip if ya ain't back on time."
"That goes the same way for you," she argued.
At this Beat frowned the same way he had yesterday. "They don't care what happens to me 'nymore, unless they get to shout at me 'cause of it."
"That's not true," Rhyme insisted.
So that was it. Beat had some kind of issues with his parents, while Rhyme didn't seem to be having the same problems. Neku himself hadn't had parents long enough for any sort of rifts to come between them, but he could definitely relate to adults disapproving of him. "Hey Rhyme, I'll bring you back home."
The younger blond was startled that Neku was actually addressing her. Beat took this chance to dash away before Rhyme could come up with any more reasons why he should let her stay and watch him. "There he goes."
Neku finished packing his briefcase and held it over his shoulder, walking past Rhyme. He only stopped to turn at the doorway. "Are you still coming?"
Rhyme sighed. "Yes, I'm coming."
From the way she hung her head as they made their way to Ebisu Station, it was apparent that she wasn't all too happy with the situation Beat had left her in.
Not my problem…He was accompanying her back home as requested, and then he could have a relaxing afternoon free of – wait, where did she go?
He had taken his eyes off her for only a moment and she was off, running back towards the school. He didn't really want to follow her all the way back; but dammit, he was not going to risk getting a 'pounding' from Beat the next day, so he sprinted after her. For a tiny girl, she sure has a lot of stamina, Neku thought, as they arrived at the back of the school grounds where the soccer pitch was located.
Rhyme was standing at the edge of the small slope that led down the pitch, waving at Beat who gave her a confused look and then shooting Neku a glare. The teen just shrugged because, really, he did actually try to take her back. That was something considerable since he didn't do favours for anyone. He checked his watch and, of course, he had missed the train back to Shibuya. He'd have to wait with Beat and Rhyme for the next one. His eyes flickered up to where Rhyme was standing. Might as well watch the tryouts…
Neku walked up so that he was standing next to Rhyme, looking down at around fifteen or so teens that had shown up for the try-outs it seemed that soccer was a pretty popular sport here. Beat was standing amongst a group of people who were huddled together to the left side of the pitch, while on the right side were the actual members of the soccer team – eight boys varying in size and looks, kicking a ball lazily around. What really caught his attention, though, was the coach. The guy looked like a giant and had some weird looking dreadlocks. He did not quite look just right with shorts and a red sports shirt.
"I am Coach Higashizawa, and you all will refer to me as such. As you all know," he said, starting his introduction speech, "Ebisu High has been famed for having one of Tokyo's finest soccer teams." Really? First I've heard of it… "Unfortunately, last year's tournament left us with a bitter taste in our mouth and we got knocked out in the first round." That's lame. "However, I'm confident that we will be able to cook up the perfect combination of players this year. A lot of the team were third years and they've left, so we've only got eight members in our current team. Throughout today's tryout, you will be tested and I will choose another eight new players to join the team."
The moment he announced the number of places, the atmosphere between the boys standing in the huddle intensified, as they all regarded each other as rivals.
"Since there are twenty two of you, including the members of the team here today, it makes it easier for us, as we can play a full game – eleven versus eleven," said the coach, counting off the players. "The best way to show off your skills is through a real game."
The coach then proceeded to split the group in half, with each side having four of the actual members of the club in their team. Beat was in the team wearing blue bibs over their white sports shirts. He gave Rhyme and Neku a quick wave, having forgotten to still be angry at Neku, and ran off to the pitch as the coach blew the whistle for the game to start.
"Good luck Beat!" she encouraged, cupping her hands around her mouth.
"Happy-go-lucky, yo, here I am, I'm not a yuppie or puppy, yeah, hear me roar…" Crap. Stalker had never called him when he wasn't at home. Rhyme was too occupied with watching the game to notice that his phone was ringing, so he answered the call.
"You're early today," he said. All of the times she had called him previously had been much later in the evening.
"Yeah…I just couldn't wait until any later," she admitted. "I'm sorry about yesterday."
"…what happened yesterday?" He slowly edged away from where Rhyme was standing, so that he was out of her ear-shot; he didn't want her overhearing him talking to someone.
"You know…I was telling you that you needed to make friends and then you got all snappy with me."
"Right, that's what we were talking about yesterday. It's good to hear you apologising, because whether I have friends or not is really none of your business."
"Y-you jerk! You should be apologising too!"
"I don't see why."
"Think about it! I was just trying to be helpful, you know? I'm a lonely girl stuck in the middle of nowhere, stuck in isolation with no one to talk to save you, and when I finally do get to call you, all you have to say is something that kept me awake all night," she said in a rush of words. "I just know that having friends is really important. So I must have friends, or I wouldn't think that was true. But then you pointed out that I couldn't remember them and that just makes me feel really…well, sad."
She's really trying to play the sympathy card…Unfortunately for her that wasn't going to work with him. "Whatever. You're just trying to ignore the fact that what I said was completely possible. Maybe you think it's so important because you want friends but don't actually have any."
"I do have friends," she insisted with a 'hmph'.
"Yeah, yeah, you can tell me all about them when you remember them," said Neku, making it clear how much he doubted that she had any. Really, she's so noisy that she probably scared everyone away.
"Fine, I will!" Another 'hmph'.
"…You really will, won't you?" I don't actually want her to… "I take it back. You can believe that you have friends as long as you keep it to yourself and stop preaching to me."
"Oh, fine. Can we please talk about something else?" Huh, she made it sound as if he was the one who wanted to talk to her.
"You can talk to me about something else but I can't guarantee that I'm going to be listening to you," he replied. He took the momentary pause she held as an opportunity to bring his attention to the game that was going on.
Beat didn't look like he was doing too well. He was one of the biggest players on the field, even when you took into consideration the third years that were on the field as well, but he wasn't exactly too co-ordinated with his dribbling. A person also wearing a blue bib had passed the ball to him and he managed to stop it, but when he tried to kick it while running, he was too slow and a person from the other team managed to steal the ball from him.
"Oh, tough luck Beat! You can do it next time," Stalker's voice called out after a while, seeming to have recovered from the last part of their conversation.
Great, she's watching the game through my mind. Thanks for asking permission. "He can't hear you. You do realise that, don't you?"
"I know," she said. "Unheard support works just as well. In fact, since I'm a spirit or something, it should technically work better." He wondered what sort of reasoning she was using…
"Well, it's not going to help him in any way, since luck isn't his problem."
"Oh? And I suppose you know what's going on with him."
"Yes, actually, I do."
"Well?"
Neku's eyes followed Beat's figure as he tried to tackle the person on the other side with the ball. "First off, his footwork is terrible. His feet are all over the place." It did look like Beat was not far from tripping over himself. "He's not using his right side to try to tackle, so when he tried to do that slide, of course he'd completely miss."
"…"
"…"
"Oh! I was nodding, but you can't see me…so um," Stalker tried to brush off her mistake, "what else is he doing wrong?"
"He knows that his footwork is off."
"He does?" She sounded surprised.
"Yes, and that leads to the second thing that he's doing wrong. He lacks confidence."
The boy somehow managed to gain possession of the ball again, only to lose it seconds later.
"See that? He was looking down at his feet while he was dribbling. He knows that he can't keep up with his technique, and he's trying to make it better, but he's only making it worse since he's leaving himself open to tackles. The other players can tell that he's not going to see them coming, so despite his size, they won't be afraid to go for him."
Stalker never failed to puzzle him, because the next thing she did was giggle.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing…it's just…that you don't talk a lot, but you sounded really into that commentary of yours."
"Hm."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I was just a little surprised," she said hurriedly. "It's kind of impressive how you could catch all that."
"Flattery isn't going to get you on my good side."
"I wasn't trying to flatter you. I was just thinking that you kind of remind me of myself."
That caught him off guard. He couldn't see how in any way he and Stalker could be similar. "I don't get you."
"Well…I'm usually a quiet person. I'm not…I'm not really good at talking to new people."
Neku snorted and then almost laughed. "You? Quiet? Do you really expect me to believe that?"
"It's true though. Or at least, that's what came to my mind when you were talking. I think that was me remembering how I might have acted back when I was alive."
"That just contradicts the fact that you've done nothing but chatter endlessly to me for the past few days."
"I-I don't know. Maybe it's because you're the only person I can talk to. And since you can't talk to me for all that long I just feel like I have to say what I can before you hang up," she said. "The point is that I remembered that I don't usually talk a lot unless it's about something that I'm really passionate about and I thought that maybe it might be the same for you. I-I know I could be wrong, but, do you – or did you used to – like soccer?"
She…sounded really honest just then. When talking about being a quiet person she had, perhaps unconsciously from what Neku could tell, toned down her voice. Maybe dying was what had brought out a more talkative side to her, if he was to believe what she said.
Well, it can't hurt to tell her. "Yeah, for once you're actually right. I used to like to play soccer. I would sometimes sneak out of the house at night to play soccer on my own when I was younger. I didn't go far, just into the garden."
"Really? I can't imagine you as the 'sneaking out' type of person," she mused. "How old were you?"
"Around seven or eight."
"Did you ever get caught?"
"No, the aunt that I lived with was pretty laid back and I don't think she really noticed I was gone, sometimes even during the day."
"Oh," she giggled again. "Were you good at soccer?"
He shrugged, knowing that she could sense the gesture. "I was alright."
"That's good – oh wow! What just happened there?"
What Stalker was talking about was the move that Beat just pulled. He had been passed the ball again but this time he didn't try to dribble, instead kicking the ball as far away as he possibly could, and it was received by his team-mate, who was way up the pitch.
"…That was good."
"Huh?"
"That was a good pass." Neku nodded towards the ball that Beat's team-mate was now bringing up to the goal. "It's obvious that Beat actually has good kicking power. His aim isn't the best, but he can get the general direction and it looks like he can control the power he uses."
"What do you mean?"
"If he kicked it too far, then it would be off-side and it would go to the other team, but he kicked it just enough into an empty space so that his team-mate could run into the space to get it."
"Oh..." Stalker sounded like she at least half-understood what Neku had just said.
"Dammit." Neku's right arm was starting to ache, having held the phone up for so long. He switched hands and shook it off. "Talking to you is actually physically painful."
"Oh ha-ha. I would apologise but it's not like you would appreciate it." She sounded miffed again. "Why don't you connect your phone to your headphones? You wear them around everywhere anyway, don't you?"
"That's…actually not a bad idea." Neku unplugged his headphones from his mp3 and connected it to his phone, putting his phone into his pocket. "That's much better. I should've thought of that sooner."
"Glad that works for you." She now sounded clearer to him than she had before.
"…Thanks Stalker."
She let out an "Oh!" of surprise at being thanked by him. "You're welcome." She seemed to be so surprised by the acknowledgement of her helpfulness that she forgot to be insulted by being called 'Stalker' again.
Suddenly a shrill whistle pierced his ears, even with his headphones on. "Half-time!" The coach shouted.
Play stopped and the players ran back towards the coach, all searching his facial expression for signs that they were doing well. The coach, however, simply told them to have a ten-minute break for water before he resumed their game. Neku figured that he should probably head back over to where Rhyme and Beat were now.
"Well, I'm going back to the hopeless case and his sister. I'll talk to you tomorrow-"
"Wait! I can stay connected, can't I?" said Stalker. "If I don't talk when anyone else is talking to you, it'll be fine, won't it?"
He sighed. "Do what you like."
He walked right up to where the Bito siblings were, Rhyme handing Beat a bottle of water from the supply that the coach had. "You were doing great, Beat."
"Yeah? Thanks Rhyme." He didn't look all that happy, though.
Rhyme noticed Neku join them. "There you are, I was starting to wonder what happened. Who were you talking to? You were on the phone for at least thirty minutes."
Thirty minutes? He and Stalker can't have talked for that long. Oh, but we did stop talking to watch the game a few times…That would explain where the time went.
"No one, really." See, the good thing about not being a chatty person, was that if you gave people short answers, they would usually drop it, even if it was a lie.
"Who cares 'bout that? What did you think of my game?" Beat asked Neku eagerly.
"You sucked," said Neku, giving it to him straight.
"Way to be blunt," muttered Stalker.
"Watchu say – aghh, never mind. You're right, I sucked." Beat crouched down now, his knees pointing outwards, his elbows resting on them while he put his head down on the hands he locked together. "We should just go home."
"No! Beat, you can't give up now," Rhyme said in alarm.
"But it's no use," he said dejectedly.
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Rhyme also knelt down on the ground and faced Beat.
He didn't say anything back to her.
"What would Mum and Dad say if you came back late, and didn't even finish the tryouts?" His head snapped back up as he stared at his sister. "Don't give them a reason to shout at you!"
He blinked at her words. Then he abruptly stood back up. "You're right!" He clenched his fists, holding them in front of him. "No way in hell am I gonna let them shout at me today. Just watch Rhyme, I'm going to smash 'em."
"That's my big brother," Rhyme said proudly.
They sure do change gears pretty quickly. It was as if Beat's optimism was turned off and on by a switch, which just so happened to be Rhyme most of the time. Neku didn't think that this certain quirk that Beat had would be one that helped him this time, though. Even though it was true that if he was optimistic, his confidence in himself would rise, Neku didn't think that his technical skills could make up for it.
"I wish there was something we could do," said Stalker, sounding very wistful. Apparently, she had sensed Neku's doubts.
Well, if Beat wanted to be in the soccer club then he had to do it by his own skill. That was just the way it worked. Neku walked idly down the slope, while looking at the other players; they all seemed to know each other, the members and the ones trying out, and they were looking at Beat every now and then and snickering.
"What a loser!"
"He should just give up already."
"Did you see the way he was running?"
Despite insulting Beat in his head himself, he somewhat disliked hearing it from others. It spurred him onto a decision.
"Hello there," the coach greeted him, when Neku had appeared beside him. "The spicy flavour of competition has brought you here to cheer on for your friends, hasn't it?"
"Something like that," he said, not bothering to correct the man by saying that he wasn't friends with anyone here. He tugged at the front spike of his hair. Am I really going to do this?
"Is there something you wanted to ask me?"
"More like suggest." Even as Neku explained the idea, he wondered what the hell had moved him to do it.
"I see…that might actually work. It will certainly add a surprising flavour to the next half of the game," Coach full-of-food-puns said pensively. "I'll switch him in. He does look like he has potential for that."
He quickly thanked the coach, giving him a polite bow before joining Rhyme up the slope again. The boys were called back down at the same time, and Rhyme gave her brother a quick hug. Grinning, Beat gave her thumbs up and turned to leave, when Neku let slip out, "good luck."
The other boy stared at him, looking unsure as to whether to believe what he just heard, but then ran down when he realised everyone except him had already lined up in front of the coach.
"You've all done very well in the first half, and it is very hard to pick between the different ingredients that have gathered today," Coach Higashiza said. "What makes for the best dish is not just the ingredients, but the way they blend together. He opened his arm in a wide gesture. "For a true taste test, I'd like you all to give your best in the next half, and also," he looked down at the list, "Daisukenojo Bito, was it?"
Beat let out a disgruntled grunt, seeming to bristle when the man said his first name. "That's me."
"I'm switching you and Terumi Miura as the goalkeeper for your team."
"Bwaah! I've never been a keeper before, yo." The group of boys started to murmur amongst themselves as Beat flailed about at the turn of situations. Terumi Miura himself, who was only slightly smaller in stature than Beat, looked appalled.
"Sir, I don't think you should be giving the goalkeeper position to a second-year. I've been waiting for this for a whole year," he protested. "Besides," his eyes shifted sideways to Beat, "he's not exactly…good at soccer."
Beat's expression turned angry at the obvious insult and even angrier when the others called out agreements with him.
"If something is bitter, perhaps it means that it is not right for the dish, or perhaps it is being used in the wrong way," said Higashizawa. "Keep in mind that these are tryouts, and I would like to see a display of all the skills of the potential members, but also re-assess our current members' abilities."
"In that case, why don't you switch out Ryogo for Beat instead. Then we'll see whether me or Beat is the better goalkeeper."
"Go for it," the boy called Ryogo shouted from the back. "I prefer being a forward, as usual."
The big-sized coach looked at them for a moment, before nodding. "That sounds reasonable. Bito, take off your bib and give it to Ryogo."
"But this is messed up, yo. I told you, I ain't ever played as a goalie before…" Still, Beat took it off and passed it to Ryogo, who exchanged a grin and fist-bump with Miura.
"The newbies on the other team won't stand a chance, since right now I'm Ebisu's ace."
"We're still here, idiot," called one of his team members on the other team.
While the other boys started running back onto the pitch to get into position, Beat made his way slowly, looking very lost. Neku took note of the unsure way he was staring at the gloves that he had just put on. "Hey Beat," he called out. Beat looked up at Neku from the goal-post. "Just keep the ball out of the goal and you'll be fine."
He was encouraged by the words, getting into a defensive, ready stance in front of the goal.
"That was surprisingly nice of you, Neku." Stalker's voice resonated in his ears.
Neku travelled back to the spot where he had been standing, a distance from Rhyme, who regarded him in a confused manner, though not questioning his movement. "Well, don't get used to it. I only did it because watching Beat stumble around like an idiot was getting painful."
Coach Higashizawa blew the whistle and the game resumed. "I don't think that's it." There was a teasing edge to Stalker's voice. "I think you actually might want to help Beat get into the club."
"Shut it."
"It's good to know that you do have a heart. Hey, maybe you're actually starting to consider Beat as a friend."
"Not even close. Beat getting into the club is good for me because he'll be too busy to try and bother me. Now seriously, shut up – I'm watching the game. " That Ryogo-kid had taken the ball all the way up to the goal, and it was only about two minutes into the game. It appeared that his claim as Ebisu's ace was not completely unfounded, as he weaved his way past many of the newer players, and only being slightly slowed down by the rest of the current members.
"Get ready Bito!" He shouted, aiming a powerful kick at the corner of the goal, and Neku was sure the sheer power of it would have shaken anyone.
Beat was not just 'anyone', though, and with a faster reaction than anybody had seen coming, he dived sideways and punched the ball away.
"Tch. First time lucky," the ace huffed, glaring up at Beat.
The boy was unfazed and stared him down. The game resumed with a corner-kick, and Ryogo let out another shoot towards the goal, but this time Beat caught it. He stared down at the ball in his hands, in a sort of disbelief.
"Don't just stand there," Neku yelled. "Kick it forward."
Startled by his voice, Beat kicked the ball all the way up, where one of his teammates received it perfectly, changing the direction of the game.
"Whatever your reason for helping Beat, I think that it's still pretty great of you," Stalker commented, after a while. "He's doing so well now, and it's because of you."
The other goalkeeper, Miura, had by now let in three goals, while Beat hadn't let even a single one pass through. What made it better was that Ryogo had given him at least six shots in total and failing to even get something close in every attempt. While Beat's teammates had started to grow to work better with him, the other team's gameplay had started going down, as Ryogo became more and more frustrated, and had begun refusing to pass to his teammates. He dribbled the ball all the way to the far corner from Beat's goal.
"What are you doing?" a bibbed player cried. "You know you can't do chip shots."
"Shut up!" Ryogo hissed, blindly kicking the ball. He really couldn't do chip shots, because instead of curving like it was supposed to, it flew straight up in the air, past the goal even and heading towards –
"Rhyme!" Beat's face turned horrified as he realised that the ball was about to hit his sister.
The girl didn't move. Her eyes seemed to be stuck on the ball, and her body stuck in place. When she finally realised that she needed to move, it was too late and it was definitely going to hit her. She closed her eyes, bracing for the impact.
Only, the hit never came.
Neku had started running the moment the ball left the ground and made it just in time to jump forward, deflect the ball off his chest. The ball rolled down him and Neku balanced it on his right knee as he landed on his left leg, bouncing it to the right before sending it flying back towards Ryogo who only just managed to catch it.
"Watch where you're aiming," he said acidly, now standing halfway down the slope. "If that hit her she might have gotten a concussion." He spun around. "And next time, move."
The girl could only stutter a "yes," still too stunned to do much else.
She wasn't the only one. Everyone else on the pitch was gazing open-mouthed at Neku. Even the coach looked shocked.
"…" Neku shifted uncomfortably of the awed looks they were giving him. "She's fine so just keep playing."
No one moved for a while, until Neku shot a glare at the coach who promptly blew the whistle for the game to continue. Rhyme had excused herself, saying she needed to use the bathroom. It was clear that she was a little shaken up.
"Alright?" Stalker cried almost hysterically. "You're not just 'alright' at soccer. You're freakin' amazing."
"Stop making such a big deal out of it," Neku said, observing the glances that the players on the pitch stole from him when they thought he couldn't see them. "All I did was stop the ball."
"Yeah, but we were standing about a good ten metres away. You ran all the way to Rhyme, jumped, and then kicked it back. I could feel the speed that the ball was going at." She sounded so excited. "And you knew exactly where the ball was going before he even touched the ball. I know, I felt it from you. You can't know that much without being good at soccer."
"…If that's what you think." Neku didn't think that it had been such an unusual feat.
It wasn't as if it was impossible to do.
"What? Are you crazy? Even if you run ahead, there's no way you can stop it in time -"
"Just watch me!"
"…I can't believe that worked. How the heck did you pull that one off?"
"Oh, Neku. There are two types of people in the world. Some people are lucky and some are just born skilled."
"So you were lucky."
"No, I meant that I'm skilled. Man, get it right."
Neku willed the memory to the back of his mind. Out of all the things to remember…
And besides…was it me, or did it slow down a bit just a second before I got to it...?
"Hey Neku, they're done with the game."
The game had indeed stopped, and the players were once again stood in front of Coach Higashizawa, who had his arms crossed. Neku stepped down closer toward them so that he was standing just a little bit apart from the rest of the players.
"Excellent performance from all of you," he said. "Unfortunately not all of you will be able to be in the team though." He cleared his throat. "I have decided on the new members."
"Already?" Most of them said in surprise.
"Yes, I think I have sampled the flavours of your ability enough to have made a judgement." He raised the clipboard he was holding to read off it, clearing his throat another time.
"The new members are, in no particular order: Shuto Dan, Aki Kazuma, Itaru Yokoyamada, Kaito Aonuma, Koushirou Ohba, Soichi Ishizawa, Daisukenojo Bito –"
"Hell yeah!" Beat fist-pumped the air and looked around wildly until he caught Neku's eye and grinned at him, he looked over to where Rhyme should have been standing, and his self-celebration dimmed slightly when he realised she wasn't there.
"Yes, yes, thank you, Bito," said the coach, chuckling at his enthusiasm. He regarded his clipboard again and everyone held their breath – there was only one place left.
"And last, but not least - the spicy tuna roll."
Neku felt sorry for the guy who the coach was referring to; the coach was naming the guy after food. That was, until he started to feel the familiar prickle of too many people looking at him at the same time. This included a look directed by the coach.
Wait.
He meant Neku?
A/N: Tadaa! This chapter was full of football. I would have named the chapter 'Soccer' but I don't actually like that word all that much…except when said the Japanese way – 'Sokaaaaa' xD I watch too much football anime. Which is weird because I don't actively watch real life football games except for the World Cup.
And I don't know where making Higashizawa the coach came from. But I could somehow make it work (or I hope I did). Funnily enough, writing his food related speech wasn't hard…(I blame Cilan, from Pokemon. I'm so used to his food speech that Higahizawa's food puns seem normal to me -shot-).
This chapter turned out longer than I expected, but oh well. Maybe I'll just give you guys a shorter chapter next time. Haha, I kid, I kid. I've already written the next chapter (as usual) and it's a decent length. I think you guys will like the next chapter especially, because –insert spoilers that will not be spoiled here -.
Pfft. I hate spoilers, so apart from the previews, I will say nothing. Have fun speculating :3
By the way, for anyone who cares, my trip to Berlin was really fun. It's colder there than here in the UK but it was sunnier there. I swear, it's supposed to be spring here, already, but this definitely doesn't feel like spring. It snowed yesterday. And now that I'm back here and I have to study more ;-;
Thanks to those who favourited/followed this story : neeeeeon, Orange Lilies and Red Roses and MasterIckolas Xaron.
And to my lovely, lovely reviewers: Shinra-ex-SOLDIER, B.A.G.- GOMEZ, Xerzo LotCN, Chronic Guardian and GRX3m0m.
Hope you enjoyed! Reviewers will get virtual hugs from me xD (That awkward moment where no one reviews 'cause they don't like my hugs -shot-).
- 5/4/2013
P.S. I'm starting to think that I'm missing out on seeing typos because I'm always editing this at a certain time of day…which is nearly 2AM in the morning. OTL
Chapter Six - Mew
This tasting session brought out a new array of flavours.
"The shop on your right…it feels really, really familiar to me."
I really believe you would be a great ingredient to add to the mix!
"B-but Neku! There's a cat!"
Although, you do seemed to be a bit tired at the moment.
"Let Rhyme go before I trash your face."
Perhaps we should talk more another day. What was your name, again?