Jack Frost ch 2
I walked as far away as I could from Poppo Time, I needed some time for myself to calm down really think about some things. As I walked through the streets of New Domino, the thoughts of what happened kept haunting me, even when I tried not to think about it to calm down. I was so focused on what happened that I ignored the cold wind that stung my face. But right there, anything felt better than the guilt from what I did. Even the occasional splash of mud on me from cars speeding by didn't faze me. The city at night was so cold and quiet that I almost felt as though I were trapped in a box.
After a while of walking I walked into New Domino Plaza. Normally the place was crowded with people, trees shining against the sun and the large fountain in the middle spouting crystal clear water. None of those elements were there when I arrived, almost as if my mood was reflecting in the world around me. It seemed so cold and empty but I needed a place where I knew I could be alone so I walked into it. All four benches surrounding the fountain were unoccupied so I just at upon the closest one to me. Normally I'd be watching the fountain but it was turned off which made this place's atmosphere of isolation stronger.
I looked around the park for any other source of life and all I could see was a single black cat resting on the fountain. I barely noticed it walking in; it must have been camouflaged into the shadows caused by the park lights considering its dark fur. I see cats every time I go there so it didn't strike me as unusual nor did I pay much attention to it. I needed to focus on myself anyways. I looked down at the ground, back arched and head tilted. I didn't care about anything else around me; I just sat there, letting the snow build on my back.
"...What the hell did I just do?" I said while sighing. As I just sat there, snowflakes began to pile up on some areas of me. I didn't care in the slightest though.
"So much for having barely anything, you have nothing at all now Jack." I covered my face with my hands and just groaned. I removed one hand from my face and scooped up a ball of snow
"What would Mikage think of you after that? She has her limits too, the present is pointless now!" I threw the ball of snow on the ground, the cat looked up surprised and I just ignored it though.
"You brought this up though Jack. You weren't taking care of yourself, taking action...Oh who am I kidding? I'd probably fuck it all up anyways." I told myself, beginning to grow angrier than sad.
"Crow was right; I was pathetic and needed to steal Yusei's card and D-wheel. I was a coward and left him there. I never appreciated anyone properly and only cared about myself. I really have never grown up from when I was a kid, lashing out in anger at people like that is something I child would do." I watched the cat look at me as if it were listening to everything I said. I knew it wasn't and just pretended like I had company. I began to look back on the ground again though.
"I've caused so much trouble and pain for everyone... I almost stranded my best friend in a poverty stricken city, rejecting any help that people tried to do for me... Perhaps things would be better off if I had never been born at all." I said flat out, a bit of a whine showing near the end. My arms began to shake and it was not because of the cold, not even close. My eyes closed as I put my hands over my face once more.
"Do you honestly think that will solve everything?" A female voice said. I tilted my head back up and looked around for the source of the voice. I couldn't see anyone.
"Who said that?" I asked, continuing to look around.
"I'm right in front of you." I followed the voice's direction but all I could see was that black cat.
"Once again, do you really think that will solve everything?" I saw the cat say. My eyes sprung as open as they could. A cat was talking to me, what do I even say to that? Hell, how do I even speak to it?
"Ummm...Hello there..." I said to it. The cat did a motion similar to a laugh; in fact I think I even heard it laugh.
"It's alright I don't blame you. Don't know what to say when a cat talks to you. Anyways, my name is Scooby, you must be Jack Atlas?" I stepped back a bit, now I was getting really weird out by the thing.
"How do you know my name?!" Scooby crawled closer towards me, jumping off of the fountain.
"Simple Jack, I'm your guardian angel." She told me in a nonchalant tone. I looked at it with a mix of shock and confusion.
"You're an angel?"
"Yeah, if I said it if I was human than you would have thought I was crazy. A cat though, you can't question anything now can you?" I nodded my head a bit.
"Anyways, back on topic. Do you really think wishing you were never born would solve everything?" I look at the cat a bit more seriously and nodded.
"While I guess I can grant that wish...but Jack it's a phenomenally bad idea." I look at her with confusion prevalent on my face and sat normally again, putting my feet back on the ground.
"Why?" The cat jumped onto the bench and looked at me with judging eyes.
"Jack...life is one of the most important gifts one could have. As cliché as that sounds, it's true. But, here you are, wanting to throw it all away." I rubbed my temples and looked back at her in realization. The cat looked at me somewhat worriedly.
"Wait you say you can grant my wish?" I asked her, actually really astounded.
"Yes but Jack it's a terrible..." I look at her somewhat annoyed. She didn't understand my dilemma. Plus I wanted proof she could actually do what she claims.
"Do it..." I said bluntly. The cat looked at me confused and somewhat horrified.
"Jack please...don't make me do this...Why on Earth would you..." The cat said worriedly before I turned to her with anger in my expression. It was almost similar to what happened at the party.
"Just do it. It will be better for everyone and nothing you can do is going to change my thoughts!" I yelled at her. The cat looked at me bitterly before looking on the ground in what appeared to be...disappointment. She sighed and her claws poked out.
"Jack...you damned fool...very well..." The cat's eyes started to glow which made me crawl back a bit before suddenly a bright flash of light covered the whole world around me and I couldn't see anything. What was she doing? Where the Hell was I going? I couldn't see a damn thing, I was completely blind.
After a while the bright light faded and I could finally see what she had done with that light. However I noticed something very quickly after looking around a bit.
Everything looked the same.
I looked at myself and I still looked the same. Same clothes, same body, everything looked the same!
"What the Hell? Nothing has changed!" I replied with a bitter tone. The cat just rolled its eyes at me.
"You picked up a magazine earlier, correct?" I nodded.
"Take a look at it." The cat replied bluntly. I took the magazine out of my coat pocket; I had almost completely forgotten I picked it up earlier. I unfolded it and looked at the cover.
It was completely different.
Instead of Yusei on the front of the sports magazine, instead it was some completely different person who I didn't even recognize. I checked the date and it was the same date from when I picked it up. I just looked at it amazed, even flipping through the magazine to make sure I was not just imagining things. Not a single mention of Yusei inside. I looked back at Scooby with shock who just looked at me with that look that says "I tried to tell you."
"But wait a minute where is Yusei on this? Surely me never being born would…Scooby…" Scooby looked up at me curiously and I turned around looking somewhat frantic.
"What happened to my friends?" The cat turned around and pounced onto the ground, landing perfectly on its paws.
"Follow me and I'll show you." Scooby turned around and started to walk out of the park. I followed her, not having much of a choice since I had no idea about this world around me. As I walked forward with her, I kept looking around for any other changes, however I could see none. I assumed that everything was just fine.
"Wonderful, one of your friends is right in front of us." Scooby said in a cynical tone. I looked forward in an instant and saw someone with noticeably long hair and a hoodie on her head crouching near the street. I turned to Scooby confused.
"Hey, who is this?" I asked the cat, no response. The hooded person looked upwards and I saw it's face in the light.
My eyes widened with shock and I covered my mouth gasping.
The features on the person's face made it clear it was a young woman, though with all the dirt, bruises and god knows what else on her face she looked much older. Even more startling were her broken glasses. They were very large and looked very powerful but however looked cracked almost to the point of shattering. The glasses were all too familiar, I only knew one person with those glasses.
"Carly?" I said to the woman. No response.
"Carly Nagisa?" I said once again. No response.
"She can't hear you or see you." Scooby told me. I turned to her shocked. She looked at me with those judging eyes once again.
"You can't hear or see something that never existed now can you? Hell, she doesn't even see me." She explained.
"Why can't she see you?"
"I'm taking you around and showing you what happened. If someone saw me explaining everything, things would get ugly." I tried to listen but was so shocked by Carly I ignored her. I crouched on the ground and examined her. She looked completely famished, filthy and all around horrible.
"How did she get like this? Normally she is full of energy!" I asked, confused about the person in front of me.
"Well you know how she wanted to be a reporter right?" Scooby asked me.
"yeah, of course, she always talked about it." Scooby sighed.
"Well you kind of saved her career Jack. Her stories about you got her the career she wanted and you were there to keep her from being fired. However, without you, she couldn't get any stories published and ended up like this." I looked at the cat shocked and then turned to Carly. I caused all of this? Just me? Looking at the girl, she almost looked as if she were going to starve. Tears were beginning to fall from her eyes and dripping down her face. I sat on my knees and tried to wipe them away, but my hand phased through her. I looked back towards Scooby.
"What doesn't exist can't touch now can it?" The cat replied in a snarky tone. I looked at Carly horrified, more than before. I tried to wipe away her tears again but my hand just kept passing through her face. I wanted to comfort her during her moment of weakness.
However, then I noticed someone bumping into her, knocking the glasses off her face and into the mud on the streets. The poor woman picked up the remains of the glasses which shattered on impact with the mud and groaned. I instantly got angry and stood up, looking towards the left were the person who bumped into Carly went.
"Hey watch were the hell you're go..." I yelled towards the figure despite the fact the perpetrator couldn't hear me. However then I noticed something about the figure.
Blue, short hair and a small body...Mikage.
I instantly started running towards her. When I caught up to her I started examining her. She seemed to have everything she had when I made the wish. Her body, hair even her clothes were the same as back when things were normal. She had a pissed off expression on her face which was somewhat unusual for Mikage but it wasn't that bad, I had seen her with a stern face before.
"I see you've found Mikage?" Scooby said, catching up to me. I looked down towards her.
"She seems fine, I don't see anything wrong with her." I told the cat as we slowly followed Mikage.
"Just watch." Scooby told me. The petite woman turned to a large apartment building and standing at the door seemed to be a beggar asking for change.
"Spare change mam? The man asked with sickness prevalent in his voice. Mikage to my complete shock and even horror, pushed the man out of the way.
"You're in my way." Mikage coldly said, going into the apartment complex. I just stood there dumbfounded.
"What the hell...?" I asked in disbelief.
"Without you around, Mikage became more or less Godwin's servant and made it so she can't leave otherwise she is the one who gets in trouble . And yes Jack without you, Godwin's plan has not set into motion, he's still around!" Scooby yelled at me. I ran after the woman, trying to catch up to her. My body phased through the doors, I needed to find out more. I ran up stairs and through doors to follow her and possibly find out.
After a while of following her she stopped at an apartment and entered inside. I phased through the door looking around her apartment. It seemed just fine looking at it inside. Decent furniture, seemed warm, everything seemed ok. I noticed Mikage looking into a large mirror in the middle of the room...staring into more like it actually. Scooby phased through the door as well.
"It's not just the servant part you prevented Jack..." Mikage started to take her blazer off which surprised me I will admit. However when she took off her shirt...I saw something I was not ready for. Bruises were all over her body...dark ones, light ones and even a few cuts were among the scars on her body. I gasped with my hand covering my mouth from the shock.
"You prevented him from controlling her and abusing her, physically..." Tears began to form from her eyes, streaming down her face.
"And emotionally..."
I walked over to her and stood behind her. I can tell Mikage was trying to hold back her tears, I know she was a strong woman and wanted to hold them back. I wish I could talk to her to possibly cheer her up...but I couldn't. I tried to wrap my arms around her in some vain hope to comfort her. They just phased through though I tried to get them in a position so it would look like they were wrapped around her. I remember sometimes Mikage did that to me to cheer me up on rough days, back then I didn't appreciate them. But right there, I wanted to do the same for her so desperately. I wanted my warm arms to comfort her and talk to her, try to give her any form of hope. However, I could do nothing and Mikage just passed through my arms going into what appeared to be her bedroom. I didn't follow her though, instead I just stood there, staring at the ground. I looked up at the same mirror only to see nothing. I sighed and turned back to Scooby who was standing near the front door.
"Scooby...what happened to the rest of my friends?"
Please review and let me know what to improve on. Special thanks to Scooby82101 for checking this over and for letting me use her OC, Scooby for this story. Thank you so much!