[[L: WRITE SOMETHING!
Holly: I can't...my brain...is so very dead...
L: You're going to disappoint your fans!
Holly: What fans?
L: Um.
Holly: You're not very helpful today.
L: That's because I don't actually care about your wellbeing.
Holly: Thanks a lot. With or without your help, I actually did write a new chapter, SO THERE.
L: Feh.
Holly: So yeah, here it is: Day 2 of Masaru's Game.]]
Masaru Kiyoshi opened his eyes.
The sky was above him. That was confusing. Normally, when you wake up, you expect a ceiling, the comfortable cracks in the paint, a blanket over you, warmth, peace. Not that Masaru expected peace, but a blanket would've been nice. Instead, there was sky.
His mind, in an attempt to make sense of his surroundings, scrolled through the memories of the previous day.
A gunshot.
Waking up.
The pin.
The text message.
The girl.
The girl...?
He sat up. The girl in question was lying beside him, peaceful, innocent, and, most importantly to Masaru, quiet in sleep. Her hair covered her face entirely. He regarded her for a moment before deciding he'd be better off figuring out his current situation before she woke up.
Actually, he figured, he'd be better off getting the hell out of here before she woke up. As holey as his memory was at that moment, he knew he would rather not be dealing with her. Why he remembered her before other, more important things confused him, but not unduly. He needed to figure out where he was before he started on less concrete matters.
Not that looking around helped him any. He remembered being in Shibuya, for whatever reason, but he wasn't in Scramble Crossing, and he wasn't in that 104 place he had seen the day before. The most obvious thing was the building rising above him, which loads of teenagers, mostly boys, seemed to be pouring into.
"Why are we in Molco...?"
He started, whirling around to find the source of the voice. It was the girl, of course, who was now sitting up, her hair still falling over her face. She shook it out of the way as she stood up, looking around with a quizzical expression that Masaru was starting to think was typical of her.
"Molco?"
"Yeah, that's where we are, duh. You're still sleepy, huh, Masa-kun?"
Masaru flinched, visibly. The nickname was far too familiar. She realized her mistake right away and blushed, scratching the back of her head.
"Eh...sorry, Masaru-san. I like nicknames, you know?"
"...Well. We should be-"
"Waiting for a text, right?"
"A text...?"
Then he remembered.
Those words were the spark that ignited his memory, of the mysterious text message, bearing a task for them. Of the strange creatures that he'd fought off using only his gun- he unconsciously patted his right hip and was relieved to find it was still there- and that she'd fought using pins, of all things. Of the man with the megaphone, sitting on a heap of garbage in the middle of the city, mocking them. And then, suddenly, everything went blank.
"...Do you remember how we got here?"
"No. We'd just defeated that bear, and then we were talking, and then I woke up here."
She cocked her head.
"Maybe we passed out?"
"From what? We were both completely unharmed, unless I'm mistaken about you."
"No, no, I was fine too. It was just a guess. You don't have to jump down my throat, Masaru-san."
He chewed on the inside of his cheek to quell his desire to say something rude. Since he was stuck with her, at least for now, he'd be better off not completely alienating her.
"...I didn't mean to jump down your throat, K-"
"Kohaku!"
She looked delighted. He looked very confused, if only for a moment.
"Kohaku...?"
"You remembered my name! You don't actually hate me after all, then..."
She seemed happy. He blinked a few times before responding.
"...Kohaku-san. Right."
Conveniently, at that moment, his cell phone vibrated. Kohaku's apparently went off at the same time, as she groped for the phone in the pocket of her jumper. Masaru easily got his first, sliding it out of his pocket and popping it open.
Acquire the /-3 AU pin. t = 300 min. Incompletes will be destroyed.
"What the heck does that mean?"
Masaru would have rolled his eyes at her, if he'd had any more of an idea of what this clue was about than she did.
"I'm...unsure. Au is the symbol for gold on the periodic table. I don't know about the three part, though. I suppose we'll just have to look for clues."
He stopped suddenly, gasping. The cell phone fell out of his hand, hitting the floor with a loud crash. He clutched his hand with the other, gritting his teeth against the pain. Kohaku's reaction was much louder- a piercing shriek, followed by a whimper. They both recovered after a moment. Naturally, the timers had appeared on each of their hands, counting down from the seemingly huge amount of time they had to start with. Masaru, embarrassed by his display, picked up his phone and turned around, beginning to walk. Kohaku, who was considerably less prone to shame, skipped- yes, skipped- right after him.
"I forgot how much that hurt. So, where to first, Masaru-san? The only clue we have is-"
And suddenly, she was on the floor. Luckily for Masaru, he had been looking where he was going, so he observed the odd, force field-like wall that spread out across the path in front of them. Kohaku, pouting, jumped back up, wiping the dirt from her knees.
"That's unfair!"
"That's the game, I guess."
"You would be right about that, kid."
Masaru started for the second time that day, though at least this time Kohaku joined him in surprise. The man that walked towards them wore a black hoodie with white markings, baggy green pants covered in chains that jangled as he walked, a leather choker with a skull on it, and a grin. His hair was platinum blonde and spiked to high heaven. Masaru's expression changed from one of surprise to one of suspicion. Kohaku, on the other hand, looked like she was about to faint.
"It's...it's..."
"777*, baby. You've heard of me?
The following shriek was even louder than the one that had followed the timer's appearance.
"OHMYGOD! IT'S 777! FROM DEF MARCH!"
Masaru rolled his eyes. 777, for his part, seemed pleased.
"Rock on. Hey, have you two seen any grey Noise recently?"
Masaru responded, in confusion. Kohaku was busy drooling.
"Noise?"
"You know, man. Noise. Grey ones. They're called Taboo Noise and they're bad news bears, pretty much. You really haven't seen any?"
"...No."
Kohaku, having snapped out of her reverie, blinked at 777 a few times before apparently finding her voice again.
"What're you doing out here, 777-sama?"
"So formal. Just call me 777."
Kohaku looked extremely close to swooning. Masaru looked like he wanted to get the hell out of there, ASAP.
"So, um...what're you doing here, 777?"
"Oh, looking for Minamimoto, at the moment. No biggie. I'm bored out of my skull, to be honest. I could just fight you two, but what would be the point? Nah, man, I should really be writing songs..."
Kohaku blinked.
"Fight us?"
"Well yeah, babe, that's what we do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should probably be heading back..."
He started walking away. Masaru, equal parts confused and irritated, called after him.
"Wait!"
"Yeah, man?"
"Do you have any idea what the clue is about?"
777 started laughing, loudly. Masaru bit his lip.
"Why would a Reaper help a Player? But, you know what, I'll help you out. Only for a fan, though." He winked at Kohaku, who was drooling again. "Try the Molco building. There should be a Tin Pin tournament going on. Try that."
He was still chuckling to himself as he faded from sight, hidden by the crowd. Kohaku stared after him for a while, until Masaru cleared his throat impatiently, which immediately snapped her out of it.
"Er...yeah. Well, now we know what to do, right, Masaru-san? I wonder what a Reaper is..."
"He's part of the game."
Kohaku stared at him, dumbfounded.
"It's the only thing that makes sense. Have you not noticed that no one else can see us? The only person who has so far has been the Math Man, and he's obviously part of the game, seeing as he sicced that bear on us before."
"But...it's 777..."
Kohaku looked almost heartbroken. Masaru rolled his eyes yet again and started walking towards Molco.
"Come on. 777 said that there's-"
"Masaru, look out!"
And suddenly, everything changed.
The world bent and span around him. He saw only static, like staring into a broken television. He felt himself dissolving, falling into static himself, hearing nothing, seeing nothing.
Is this...
But then his vision cleared, his hearing returned. The surroundings were confusing. It was like he was in Molco, but not. There was no big white building, no crowds. It was just a big, empty space- admittedly with three large wolves in front of him. Kohaku was standing next to him, an oddly fierce expression on her normally sweet face. She grasped a pin in her right hand.
"It's wolves, again...but these look different from the ones before."
Masaru was hardly listening. To him, it felt like he'd been denied death a second time. He considered for a moment whether to bother fighting. It would be so easy to let himself be taken, to fall into oblivion, like he'd wanted, for so long.
But he couldn't do that. Not to Kohaku. He didn't like her, particularly, but that didn't mean he was just going to let her die.
He pulled the pistol from its holster and let off three shots into the nearest wolf before he was conscious of moving. But unlike last time, the wolf didn't fall, didn't show any signs of weakness. It continued running, uninterrupted, towards the pair, its teeth bared, growling. Masaru's eyes widened.
"This..."
"Move, Masaru!"
He rolled to his side just in time, as the wolf went barreling harmlessly past him. The other two wolves weren't as fast, but they still moved at a speed that worried him. He leapt up, the pistol still in his hand, and let out a few more shots. The wolf seemed to be taking some damage, but not nearly as much as he would have liked. Kohaku was holding off a second wolf with fire, waving her pin in front of its face, trying desperately to keep it away from her. It wasn't working so well.
"We can't do this...We have to run!"
"We can't run, Masaru..."
Masaru looked at her, leaving himself vulnerable for a moment doing so. Her expression was pure desperation.
"Just trust me. We have to win this...we can. I know we can!"
Her words, somehow, flooded him with confidence. If she had hope, how could he give up on her so easily?
He fought like a berserker- a berserker with a gun, admittedly- letting bullets fly. The first wolf, the one who he'd attacked first, seemed close to defeat to him. In a move that was sure to bite him in the ass if it failed, he ran straight up to it and, staring at it straight in the eyes, shot it right between them. Luckily for him, it worked, and the wolf fell down and dissolved into static.
That still left the other two, though. Kohaku had apparently given up on the fire pin and now seemed to be electrocuting that second wolf. The third one was turning its attention on the now-unoccupied Masaru. Cursing, he picked up his gun and started shooting again, this time directly at the third wolf- Kohaku seemed to be doing fine with the second one, he reasoned. This reasoning turned out to be flawed, as he was too busy concentrating on the third wolf to see the second wolf pounce.
"Masaru!"
A flurry of hands, claws, bullets, blood. Masaru struggled with the huge wolf on top of him, as it clawed at his clothes, his skin. He kept his hand firmly on his gun, sinking bullet after bullet into the underbelly of the wolf. It seemed like an eternity before the wolf finally fell, disappearing into nothing, removing the massive weight from Masaru's chest. He took a deep breath, and another, but he couldn't stand up.
Kohaku, for her part, didn't take too long to dispatch the third wolf, as Masaru had severely weakened it. Masaru, though he still couldn't stand, managed to turn around far enough to aim a couple of shots at the last wolf. Kohaku finished it off with an electric shock and was at Masaru's side before the wolf even hit the ground.
"Masaru-san! Are you okay?"
"Yes...Ka...Ka..."
"Kohaku. My name's Kohaku. Oh, man, you're really bleeding, Masaru..."
The world dissolved, again. Masaru, who knew not to get his hopes up, just shut his eyes and waited for it to stop. It did, and he opened his eyes- he was in Molco again, and he was completely unharmed.
"What the hell was that?"
"Bravo, factorials!"
Oh, lord...
Of course, it was Minamimoto, standing by the Molco building, clapping slowly. Another of those junk heaps- such an obvious eyesore- stood tall nearby. Masaru, who had an eye for the irrelevant at times, noticed that the crowd surrounding the building was gone. The area seemed quite empty, in fact.
"What are you doing here, Math Man? We've got a tournament to enter."
"I don't think so, my irritating integers. It's already begun! Without you deviations ruining the equation."
Kohaku gasped.
"Masaru...we're too late? What are we supposed to do now?!"
Masaru just stared at the floor. What could he say? He couldn't be upset, not for himself, at least. Losing the game would be a guilt-free way to die. It wouldn't be his fault that Kohaku was lost along with him.
...But still, some small part of him didn't want to leave yet. And that part was relieved when he happened to notice his hand.
"The timer...it's gone?"
"Some other asymptote must have found the solution."
Minamimoto looked slightly irritated, but not extremely.
"Time for a little quiz. What is 000 squared?"
Masaru answered, grudgingly.
"It's zero."
"CORRECT! Just like you two hectopascals!"
He picked up the megaphone from his side and spoke through it, completely unnecessarily.
"Attention, you degenerate derivatives! You composites can't hope to divide the prime. QED. Class is dismissed!"
He turned his attention away from him, towards the door of Molco, where the competitors from the tournament were now pouring out. Kohaku looked at Masaru quizzically.
"Do you have any idea what he's talking about? Ever?"
"Don't worry about it. It's not important."
"I wonder. How are we still alive? I mean...The wolf almost killed you back there. And now you're fine. Plus, we didn't do this mission..."
Masaru looked at the sky. He wondered that himself. They should be dead. He should be dead. And yet, he was alive.
"...Someone up there must not like me very much."
*777- Pronounced "Triple Seven". If I hear anyone say his name as "Seven Seven Seven" ever again I will shoot them on sight.
Holly: OH GOD MY FINGERS HURT.
L: You are so impossibly lazy.
Holly: BUT THAT WAS SO LONG!
L: It kinda was, actually.
Holly: R&R or...I'll put laxatives in L's cake. :D
L: O_O;