"I'm not sure if this was a screw-up or exactly what you wanted. Either way, can we both agree this nonsense in the RG is getting out of hand?"
"'Out of hand'? For you, perhaps. But it certainly makes things interesting, doesn't it?"
"…and yet for all this talk of 'interesting,' you've still got nothing."
"Need I remind you of our common goal? I don't think antagonising me is in your best interest."
"I don't think "observing" is in yours."
Day 4 (A-Side)
Part 19: The Fate of All Fools
Nagi exited the lecture hall with the rest of the 200-strong class and waited for that feeling of paranoia to strike her again. Gingerly making her way down the stone steps leading into the building proper, she began to relax when nothing out of the ordinary struck her. Though the crisis had seemingly, for the moment, been averted, she could not help but keep her shoulders tense and her fists half-clenched. That sickening sense of being watched had done some pretty irreversible damage. Nagi had ample time before the meeting with Shiki later on – time that would be best spent studying, an act that had escaped her over the past couple of days. The library wasn't too far away – an hour spent in there would an hour spent fixing the time sunk into meaningless distractions the past week. She grimaced at what she had just thought. Meaningless. What part of these past few days had been 'meaningless' exactly? She remembered Fret's eyes as tears flowed out of them, a blistering, bloodshot red crowned at their centre with quivering blue iris that could not focus on the spinning world around them. She almost felt the now-healing wounds on her palm begin to reopen, a gushing lake of crimson spewing onto the floor and threatening to drown her. She heard the voices of her companions split the static haze of her mind and pull from the depths repressed, dark emotion that she now had to contend with lest it too drown her in its fathomless depths. This last week had more meaning in it than she would have freely admitted to herself, but perhaps not to another. She began to feel Fret's absence acutely, how he always seemed to drift close to her side these past few days, caught in her orbit. Without him there, things felt off, not quite right, a step away from Eden. She let those thoughts stew as she continued onwards.
No matter how many times she beheld it, the architecture of the TMU library always struck her – in the sunlight of the waning summer it was an almost pearlescent white, the brutal, blocky facade nestling at its centre a great cylinder that stretched skyward, breaking free of the harsh cuboid prison it looked to be contained in. In it were etched three Latin words – veritas vos liberabit. 'The truth with set you free'. And it well and truly could, she remarked to herself, thinking of those she had known that had lied to themselves, herself amongst their number, set free by uncomfortable, sorry truths. Ascertaining them was not the hard part, but what came after. The phrase never talked about what happened after the freedom. She entered the building and took a good while soaking in the atmosphere – she always loved being in places like this. Quiet, yet lively. She observed the daily lives of other students as she went about scaling the great central structure. Most attentively tapped away on keyboards, routinely stopping to check their phones or take a swig of whatever drink had their fancy that day. A few were resting, their heads probably fighting a thick fog of boredom, confusion or both. One exchange student was really putting some elbow grease into cleaning a spillage they'd created near the folklore section. At one point two students joined Nagi on her ascent and their conversation caused her ears to perk up.
"That's too fucking stupid to be true." The first student said, his voice betraying an air of superiority.
"Blame my dad, he's the one telling it." The other responded, exasperated.
"Still stupid." He said, bluntly. There was almost anger in his voice now.
"Well sor–ry Mr. Med-student. Dunno why I even thought you'd be interested in the first place."
"Nah, I'm interested, but what I'm saying is that the doctor your dad's working under should probably be fired." Cold resignation in his voice, he and his partner continued upwards as Nagi stopped on the current floor. She could probably do with preparing herself for next week's lectures – or lecture, depending on how meaty the content was. Nagi sighed. She certainly enjoyed what she studied, but sometimes the busywork around it was a bit much. Regardless, she was ready to knuckle down until she could hop on the next train to Shibuya.
_12:31_
Nagi: Lady Misaki, I am
en route to Shibuya.
Shiki: Cool :) Just thought
Id let u know that Eri will
be joining us now
Nagi: Ah, the mysterious
Lady Eri I have heard
so much about.
Shiki: haha she's not
all mysterious and stuff
still shes looking forward
to meeting you ^^
Nagi: I pray this meeting
shall make up for the
last one I was absent for.
Shiki: That wasnt your
fault, u guys had just
come out of the UG :(
She's excited to meet
u, though! We'll be
outside the station also
Nagi: Then I am glad to
be so warmly expected.
Nagi thought about closing her eyes and taking a brief nap to offset the lack of sleep she had last night, but whenever she blinked images from that dream kept invading her mind, moreso than the images from any prior nightmare. Lord Daisuke's muted grief, her own inability to find words through sobs and cutting, stern gaze of Hanekoma. More thoughts to add to the pile of those she could not make leave her mind. Trying in vain to shake the memory of Fret's then-dead eyes peering back at her from a photograph, she decided that her time awake would be best allotted completing her remaining dailies on EleStra.
Nagi stepped out onto the platform proper and felt immediately at ease. She was worried that Shibuya would greet her only with that feeling of dread that choked her mind as it did yesterday, but pleasantly all that could be felt was a cool breeze flowing through the station and the whirling sounds of the people of the city moving at a million miles an hour. Shiki, she knew, would undoubtedly be waiting at Hachiko – the location she (and Neku, Beat and Rhyme for that matter) meant whenever they mentioned being "at" or "near" the station. She had once asked Beat why they did that, but was only met with a "'S about the Game, but… long story, yo," in return. One day she'd hear that tale, she told herself.
Emerging into the city proper, she scanned the area around the statue for Shiki and Eri, quickly zeroing in on them. Shiki was dressed like, well, Shiki – but Eri caught Nagi's attention. She donned a brown cap that seemed an exact replica of one she'd seen in Gatto Nero – wait, not replica, perhaps this was the original. Complimenting that were boots of the same shade, stretching up to her knees and after Nagi's own heart. She similarly wore stockings, though these were of the more plain variety, a dark black, with their tops concealed by a pair of green – turquoise? – shorts that went down to her knees. Above that was a striking blue corduroy jacket, unbuttoned at the cuffs, allowing her one of her hands easy access to her pockets. Nagi noticed it was fidgeting with something in her shorts, the other hand occupied with a cross-shaped necklace that was briefly spent swinging above the countenance of Mr. Mew, his face printed in a graffiti-ish style on the white shirt she was wearing. Both she and Shiki looked tired and, more worryingly, troubled. Shiki caught sight of her and waved frantically, but no joy spread across her face. Rather, the wave seemed a signal, an usherance to come forward, and do it quickly. Nagi obliged, quickening her pace to meet the two. Upon closer inspection, their eyes had a frantic sort of energy to them – extremely lively and alert, not like the bags underneath them. From the quick flitting of her eyes every which way, Nagi could tell that between the two Shiki was more weighed down by whatever was going on.
"Lady Misaki? Is something the matter, perchance?" Nagi asked, a tiny bit out of breath.
"Nagi, has Rindo or Neku or anyone called you in the last… twenty minutes? Or… or at least around that time." Shiki sounded urgent, her words clearly stumbling over themselves to get out.
"Not that I can think of." Nagi responded, trying to keep a level head and ignoring the rising tension felt in her gut.
"God…" Shiki pinched the bridge of her nose, getting an 'it's alright, it's okay,' from her friend next to her. "Okay, okay right. So you… no, you don't know, do you?" Nagi could tell Shiki was drunk on a mixture of confusion, fear, exhaustion and other equally caustic emotions.
"Know what?" Nagi asked, the tension rising, causing an odd pressure to build up to her lungs. Shiki paused for a moment, looking to Eri, who nodded back in affirmation.
"Fret's been hospitalised." Those were the first words Shiki had said without any hesitancy, as if she'd been holding them back a lifetime. The tension in Nagi's body slowly dissipated into cold, all-consuming horror, wrapping its way around her muscles and grounding her to the spot. It was a feeling unlike any other, sheer terror mixed with a hammer-blow of concern and urgency, tied together by a cat's cradle of abject confusion.
"He– Tos– Fret's been… what…?" Nagi almost felt out of breath.
"Neku told me that if no-one had told you to break the news and…" Nagi could tell Shiki probably felt like she was talking to a wall. Nagi's eyes were probably glassy, the roaring of emotions in her head drowning out any outside noise. Eri spoke up.
"We're going to head there now to see your friend, okay? You can come with. And, um, I think everyone else is going to be there too." She, unlike Shiki, could manage to offer a soothing tone of voice, slightly anchoring Nagi to the present.
"Y-Yes. Beg pardon, I… what condition is he in?" The sentences Nagi's mind tried to construct were stodgy and awkward, as it outpaced itself with worry, far too unconcerned with itself to aim for coherency.
"I think… I think Neku said he was probably going to be fine, but he's unconscious." Shiki seemed to be waning between periods of stumbling confusion and stability, the latter only giving way to the other when her guard was broken. Eri had already hailed a taxi a ways down the road to Shibuya Hikarie and Nagi felt her shaking, leaden legs stumble along to it. The tension in her chest caused her to shudder and spasm, spooling up panic in her body if she thought too hard on what was happening. She had not been in a situation like this before and even if Fret had not been too seriously injured, the idea of any injury at all befalling him shook Nagi deeply. She tried to think on what would likely happen when she arrived – she'd enter, panicking and begging that he was okay, and he'd be sat there, living it up, surrounded by his friends and laughing off their worries, assuring them he'd been fine all along and that they never needed to fret; the Fretster always pulled through. Later, when no-one was watching, he'd weep and never speak of it again.
Eri opened the door to the taxi and allowed Shiki and Nagi entry first, before instructing the driver to take them to Hiroo Hospital. The taxi pulled out and onto the packed roads of Shibuya, a vessel ready to navigate the urban labyrinth. Nagi did not want the journey to be conducted in silence, but she found herself unable to do much but just stare out the window. Shiki asked if she was okay, which got a non-committal nod in response, before she returned to staring out at the sky. It was a beautiful day, the sky reflected in the glass of an uncountable amount of skyscrapers, the dazzling sun baking the streets beneath one's feet and causing everything in Shibuya to cast a deep, well-defined shadow. Nagi wondered about days like these. Days that seemed perfectly tranquil, belying the chaos beneath the surface. There were times she thought back to how damn hot it was on the day Ayano died. Or how there was a pleasant breeze in the air when their excursion into Kanon's mind failed to save her from erasure. On how many peaceful days did people wrest with the worst moments of their lives? The sun showed no mercy. And the shadows only cut deeper.