Chapter 124
Refinery
"The Reapers have weird timing for our sleep cycles," Sora remarked after waking up on the morning of the fifth day. He and Neku were in a new location this time, though he vaguely recognized some of the buildings.
"It's better than when Konishi just knocked me and Beat out to bump us back a day just when we were getting somewhere," Neku replied as he did stretches. "Looks like we're at Shibu-Q Heads today."
"Wait, I know this place," Sora mumbled. He turned around and stared down the path he had gone five days ago.
Their phones beeped and Neku pulled his out. "Mission alert," he said.
"This way," Sora said, beckoning for Neku to follow him as he ran up the street.
"Wait! We have a mission," Neku protested.
"It's not far." Sora kept running. Neku sighed and followed him. He wondered if the next district would be blocked off if it were not related to the mission, but they did not run into a barrier. After a minute of running, they entered a back alley, which both Sora and Neku recognized. They slowed their pace as they walked around the alley, taking in the scenery.
"This is the place," Sora said. "This… This is where I died."
Neku nodded. "Udagawa Back Street. It used to be my favorite spot in the city. Away from the crowds, back when I avoided them. And up there is CAT's biggest mural. Now this place just gives me chills." He walked up to the CAT mural and tapped his foot on the ground. "I was standing right here when I died."
Sora positioned himself at the bottom of the stairs. "I think I was standing right here when I died." He glanced around, looking for anything that would indicate what had happened, but there was nothing to be found. "No body, no tape marking where I was found, not even a blood spatter. It's as if nothing even happened."
"You know that the tape outline only happens on TV, right?" Neku remarked.
"Either way, what happened to my body?" Sora asked.
"I can explain." The teens turned to the source of the voice, which was a slightly high-pitched lilt. They saw a slender boy standing twenty feet away from Sora. He had neck-length pale blond hair and grey eyes. He wore a light blue short-sleeved button-down shirt, black slacks, and white shoes with black soles and laces. Sora and Neku immediately recognized him. Sora glared at the stranger, identifying him as the boy who was watching him in Molco and who he followed afterward. "Oh. My apologies. My name is J一"
Faster than the teen, named Yoshiya Kiryu and generally called Joshua, could process, Sora's half-gloved fist appeared right in front of him, and he suddenly felt an explosive pain in his face and his back, at the same time that he heard a noise that sounded like brick and concrete being smashed apart. When his vision cleared and he coughed on the dust that billowed around him, he noticed that Sora was now thirty feet away from him, rubbing his knuckles and fiddling with the joint of his thumb. Groaning from the pain, he pushed himself out of the wall crater and took a few steps forward, brushing the dust off of his shirt. "I suppose I deserved that," he admitted, his voice sounding off-pitch due to a broken nose. He took his phone out and pressed a few buttons. A flash of light enveloped him and he was suddenly good as new, the dust on his person gone, his nose repaired, and his hair in pristine condition.
Neku ran to join them, hopping up and sliding down the center railing on his feet before landing next to Sora. "Sora, this is Joshua. Joshua, I presume you're already familiar with Sora," he greeted.
Joshua waved. "Hello, Neku. It is good to see you." He turned back to Sora. "I suppose I have quite a bit of explaining to do." He cleared his throat. "Last week, I felt a dark aura, and I theorized that it was the same twisted power that gave rise to the Taboo Noise last year. When I realized that they were attacking the Realground as well as the Underground, I knew that Reapers and Players would not be enough to stop the threat to Shibuya."
"So now you want to save Shibuya?" Sora remarked.
Joshua snickered. "I'll admit, I still have my doubts. When I look down on the people, I still see their rage, their hate, their misery, envy, fear, and self-deprecation. I have trouble hearing a beautiful symphony from the crowds, only a cacophony of selfish wants."
"But Joshua, there's more to the world than just the darkness. There's so much light," Sora argued. "There's joy, love, friendship, courage, empathy, compassion…" He suddenly felt bad for him. Joshua's focus on the negative was nothing like Maleficent's wickedness; rather, his misanthropy reminded him of Xemnas, who had appeared to believe that having a heart only meant pain and anger (although he now questioned how much of that attitude was genuine).
"You're probably right," Joshua replied. "Maybe I'm the noise. But when I look down on Shibuya and see its overwhelming ills, I remember Neku and his friends, and what he's shown me, and I try to see things from his point of view. Now, I figure that if people like Neku can appreciate Shibuya, then they might have a better idea than I do. So, yeah. I'm on the 'Save Shibuya' team this time around." There was a pause as he attempted to get back on track. "Now, where was I?"
"You were saying that Players and Reapers wouldn't be enough to stop the Grim Heaper," Neku answered helpfully.
Joshua frowned. "I knew I should have made sure he was down for the count," he mused. He waved it off, choosing to remain focused on the conversation. "I searched out, trying to find something that could turn the tide, and that's when I realized you and your friends were a few hours' flight away. To ensure you arrived, I altered your trajectory, used my limited reach beyond Shibuya to tilt your ship into the right direction. I thought the power you and your friends possessed would be what we needed to fight the threat on both fronts."
"Funny you should mention that," Sora remarked. He held his hand out as if to summon his Keyblade, but nothing happened. "I don't have access to my Keyblade or my magic like this."
Joshua shrugged, conceding the point. "I did consider the possibility that that would happen, though I certainly would have preferred that you kept them. Nevertheless, I thought it was necessary that you be here to connect your friends in the Realground to the situation in the Underground."
"And that's why you wanted me in the Reapers' Game?" Neku guessed.
Joshua nodded. "I told Neku about the danger, but since I wasn't entirely sure of the nature, I left out the details of my suspicions. I convinced him to let Mr. Hanekoma use his backdoor technique to let him manifest in the UG, and it seems he did the same thing with Shiki and Eri. I also told him that I was going to bring you in and to make a Pact with you."
Sora blinked in shock and turned to Neku. "You knew about it?" he asked.
Neku sighed. "He just said he was going to recruit you, but I was afraid that 'this' was what he meant," he admitted. "I actually thoughtーand hopedーthat he was just going to ask for your help and let you into the UG the same way I came." He turned to Joshua. "Why didn't you just do that, anyway?"
Joshua shook his head. "It isn't that simple. The backdoor only works for someone who's already been on the other side and back again. We're lucky Mr. H even had that at his disposal," he explained. "It was really close with Eri, and it only worked because she was wounded by a Taboo Noise and was at death's door. So, you see, the only way to bring you in, Sora, was to kill you."
"An apology would be nice, considering you murdered me for an errand," Sora said coldly. "And you ripped Kairi out of existence, too."
Joshua waved his hand as if to brush it off. "I assure you, your life will be restored after this is over. Which is also why I removed your body from the scene. I didn't want any nasty police reports to shock and demoralize your friends when this was never going to be a permanent status. As for your friend, Kairi, her disappearance was only due to the Game's rule regarding the Entry Fee. She will be returned when you are restored as well."
Sora sighed, reluctant to accept that everything was just as Joshua said, but he found no reason to argue further. He could only go along with him. Also, despite his feelings about Joshua and his actions, he did want to help Neku and everyone in Shibuya, and he believed that Joshua's stated motives were genuine. "So, what am I supposed to do?" he asked.
Joshua snickered mischievously, which did not improve Sora's personal opinion of him. "Well, you and your friends seem to have figured out one part of it. Your magic and your Keyblades' light can destroy the Taboo Noise in the Realground. The other part is why I chose you specifically. I believe that your own strong heart will have the power to turn the tide against the power that Minamimoto has gathered." He put his hand to his chin as he contemplated certain details. "But first, of course, we'll need to strip him of his power base and prevent further lives from being taken. To do that, we need to locate the Taboo Refinery Sigil and destroy it. Atukaze and Takagi instructed the Reapers to do their search, but we could use your eyes, too."
Sora crossed his arms. "Okay. Do you have a plan?" he asked.
"Well, first, I think you have a mission to complete," Joshua advised.
Sora and Neku checked their phones and read the text message. "Expunge the negativity at Tipsy Tose Hall. You have 120 minutes. Fail and face Erasure. -The Reapers," Sora read. He checked the timer on his hand. "Sixteen minutes down. Where's Tipsy Tose Hall?"
"It's not far. I'll show you," Neku answered. He began to lead Sora along the way.
Joshua smiled as he watched them go. "Good luck, Neku, Sora."
Neku turned to look back at him, but Joshua was gone. He turned back and ran to his destination, with Sora following close behind.
"Um, I'm not too sure about this anymore," Naminé said nervously.
"Just relax. You'll do great," Rhyme assured her, helping her to remain balanced on Beat's skateboard.
When the group had met up first thing in the morning, Beat and Rhyme had decided to do something fun with their new friends. When Naminé had expressed a curiosity regarding Beat's skateboard, he offered to teach her how to ride it. Rhyme lent her helmet and kneepads to the newbie and the siblings proceeded to show her the ropes. But when it came time for her to try it out herself, she became nervous and fearful. Fortunately, Beat, Rhyme, Riku, Mickey, Aqua, Donald, and Goofy were quick to show their support.
"Don't worry. If you want to stop, just put your foot down," Riku told her. "If that doesn't work, then I'll catch you."
Naminé smiled, glad that her friends had her back. She took a deep breath, then pushed off. Standing with both feet on the board as it rolled down the street, she realized that she enjoyed it. She turned to see that Riku and Goofy were walking alongside her, ready to help her if she faltered. Feeling confident, she gave herself another push, skating down the street faster. She let out a laugh as she went, but she soon put her foot down and stopped herself as she saw someone in her path, too engrossed in texting to notice her. The teen finally looked up and noticed her when her foot bumped against the skateboard, and she promptly apologized and went on her way.
Riku and Goofy, followed by Beat, Rhyme, Aqua, Mickey, and Donald, caught up with her. "What'd you think?" Beat asked.
Naminé laughed. "That was fun!" she replied.
Beat let out a whoop. "Alright! Now, how about I show you how to turn on this and weave around."
Before he could take his skateboard back to demonstrate, however, the group heard a set of screams from further down the street. All of the nearby pedestrians turned to see what the commotion was, and they then turned and ran in the opposite direction. Beat grabbed Rhyme's hand so that she would not get swept up in the mob, and Riku did the same with Naminé. As people fled, they began to make out the source of the disturbance, which of course was a rhinoceros Taboo Noise.
Mickey jumped above the crowd, and Goofy vaulted Donald into the air, and they fired their spells at the monster. After grumbling for a moment about not being able to fight the Noise, Beat started to help guide the civilians to safety in an orderly manner, along with Rhyme and Goofy.
When there was nobody between them and the Noise, Riku let go of Naminé and told her to take cover while he summoned his Keyblade and charged at the creature. He slashed at its head, but his Keyblade bounced off as if it had hit the armor of a Large Body. In response, the rhino jabbed its horn at him. He shifted and barely avoided being impaled, and the horn went under his armpit. However, this was enough for the monster, who swung its horn up, carrying Riku and tossing him into the air. Aqua jumped up and caught him. When they landed, he clutched his shoulder, groaning in pain, so she cast Cure on him. Unfortunately, the rhino seemed ready to attack again. It lowered its head to point its horn directly at them and pawed the ground.
Naminé gasped and instinctively reached her hand out as the rhino began to charge. "No!" she yelled. Just then, a circle of yellow light appeared below the Noise, and a series of glowing yellow chains shot up and wrapped around its legs, body, and neck. The chains grew tighter until the rhino was completely immobilized. Everyone stared in utter shock at the bound creature. Naminé felt a surge of energy flow through her, and she realized that the magic was her own doing.
Remembering that such spells did not last for a long time, she snapped out of her trance. "Can someone do something before the spell wears off?" she asked.
Riku blinked. "Oh, right. Thanks." Picking his Keyblade back up, he ran around behind the rhino and began to slash at it. Aqua, Mickey, and Donald soon joined him in fighting the monster until it dissolved into television static. When it was Erased, the chains faded away, as they no longer had something to bind.
The party regrouped around Naminé, who was still staring at her hand in wonder. "Way to go, Naminé," Riku commended. "I didn't know you could do that."
"Y-Yeah. Neither did I," Naminé replied.
"I recognize that spell," Aqua said. "I've even used it a few times. It's called 'Bind'. Though, I don't remember there being any chains."
"Maybe the chains are just her thing," Donald guessed. "I've seen the aura of some spells form into shapes depending on the caster's heart, and some weapon attacks create shapes with their own auras."
Beat scratched the back of his neck and glanced upward, expressing his confusion. "Uh, look, man. I don't get what any of that means," he admitted.
"I think it's like how certain Pins work for different people," Rhyme explained. "Like how my Psych worked by charging forward and knocking everything down and yours worked like you were playing Poker."
Beat smiled and nodded. "Oh. I get it… I think."
"Anyway, we should probably get back to looking for that Taboo Refinery Sigil," Mickey suggested. "If it's spewing out Noise on this plane, we might be able to see it."
"How should we go about doing that?" Goofy asked.
"We can ask around. We can show people Naminé's drawing and see if anyone has seen it," Aqua said.
"Good idea," Naminé commended. Riku took the paper out of his pocket and began to unfold it.
"Well, let's get searching," Riku said.
Sora and Neku scanned the area of Tipsy Tose Hall, a district lined with stores that sold toys and games, as well as an arcade, and saw that it was filled with Noise. "Well, this is definitely the site of the mission," Sora noted.
Neku nodded. "Yeah. But why would they assign it?" he wondered. "Usually, the missions relate to something that's happening in the RG. Like the power outage at A-East, both times. And one time, Shiki and I had to help two girls settle a misunderstanding and fix their friendship so we could stop the Negative Noise. These are all Chump Noise, and it doesn't look like anything special is going on here."
Sora shrugged. "Let's just clear the mission and figure it out as we go."
They began fighting through the Noise. They noticed that there were other Players fighting the Noise along with them. After every few fights, a few Taboo Noise sigils appeared out of nowhere, forcing them to destroy them before they got too far. They also saw that the Noise count was increasing among the Chump variants over time. Searching around for the cause, they saw one figure with a small spark over their chest, rather than a glowing figure whose mind could be read. They deactivated the scan and recognized the figure as Yoko Imaga. Deducing that she was conjuring more Noise to try to weaken and Erase some Players, Sora decided to stop her and used Psychokinesis to open the door of a car that was next to her, slamming it into her and knocking her down. Neku then tipped a trash bin over, spilling trash all over her.
Livid, Yoko climbed out of the mess and flew over to them. "What's your problem?!" she shouted.
Neku crossed his arms and stared at her in a way that visibly noted her hypocrisy. "We just don't want to put up with any more trouble than we have to. What about you? Aren't you Reapers supposed to be looking for the Refinery Sigil?" he retorted.
Yoko scoffed. "I am looking. Takagi thinks it's somewhere in this area. I was tasked with measuring the Noise flow rate around here." She smirked. "This is just my way of going about it."
"You're targeting teenagers! How are you treating that like it's a joke?" Sora asked, aghast.
Yoko shrugged. "It's my job as a Reaper. Might as well have fun doing it," she replied in a blasé tone.
"But you chose to be a Reaper," Neku countered. "You could have come back to life like my friends and I did. Why'd you choose an existence like this?"
Yoko's expression turned sober, and she let out a sigh. "There wasn't really much to welcome me back to the land of the living. Folks had their issues. It wasn't even limited to not accepting me as I was, gender identity and all. They just weren't the best there were. When I saw them during my week in the Game, they either hadn't noticed or hardly cared that I was even gone. Then my Game Partner could hardly look at me like I was a person."
"Gender identi…? Oh," Sora mumbled, realizing what Neku had already guessed about the Reaper.
"I figured I'd like it better with the Reapers," Yoko continued. She groaned. "Whatever. I need to get back to my post. You guys, do your mission and whatever you can to stop the Taboo Noise. Takagi said you two were off-limits anyway." With that, she flapped her wings and propelled herself back to where she had been standing, albeit a bit further back so that she did not stand among the trash.
Neku turned to face Sora. "We should get back to what we were doing, too," he said.
Sora nodded. He tilted his head to the side when something caught his eye, and he squinted to make out two figures on a bench outside of a store called Stride. "Hey, there's Shiki and Eri," he said, pointing in their direction.
Neku turned to see them. "I wonder how Eri's holding up since yesterday," he mused.
"Let's go talk to them," Sora suggested. Neku nodded in agreement, and they walked over to the girls. Eri still appeared to be down on herself, and it appeared that Shiki had been trying to comfort her but was unsure what to say now. "Hey. You doing alright?" Sora asked.
Eri sighed. "I just don't know what to do," she lamented. "I'm too scared to fight those monsters, and I'm scared that I'm only going to get someone killed because I'm too much of a coward to help out."
"Hey, you're not a coward," Sora assured her. "I can definitely understand being afraid of the Taboo Noise. Heck, Neku's faced them and worse before, but when we first saw them the other day, he was terrified. And, really, I was scared, too. I've seen a lot of different monsters, but there was something new and creepy about the Noise. And the Taboo Noise? Those red eyes are something else."
"Sora!" Neku whined, embarrassed that Sora had mentioned how scared he was.
Sora blinked and glanced at Neku, realizing his misstep. He chuckled nervously. "Uh, sorry." Shiki giggled.
"You don't seem afraid when you face them," Eri said.
Sora shrugged. "I've gotten used to fighting monsters like that. Almost to the point where it's just another part of my routine. Wow. That really sounds like it sucks now that I say it out loud. Anyway, well, people face their fears differently. It's not always as easy as I make it look."
"Then how should I face my fears?" Eri asked. "How can I stand up to those things and stop holding Shiki back?"
Sora thought about how to respond for a moment and then shrugged. "That's going to have to be up to you," he replied. He gave her a reassuring smile and put his hand over his heart. "But I believe in you. You might not see it yet, but you're strong. You're as strong as you'll need to be. You just need to find something to draw out that strength."
Eri sniffed. "Okay. I'll do my best. Thanks," she said.
"Not bad," Neku commended. "But I think we could do with something to lift her spirits."
Sora nodded. "You have a point."
Shiki looked around until she glanced into the window of Stride, where she saw two preteens playing a tabletop game. She smiled and turned back to her friends. "I have an idea," she said. She gestured to the boys in the store.
Eri smiled. "That sounds like fun."
"What is it?" Sora asked.
Neku smirked. "Tin Pin Slammer. It's a really popular game," he explained. "Come on. I'll show you."
The four teens entered the store and approached the table where the boys were playing. Sora saw a shelf labeled "Tin Pin Slammer". Above it was a television screen that played a commercial for the game. It showed four pins, not unlike the ones that the Players wore, smashing against each other, with cartoonish visual effects exaggerating each hit, and performing such tricks as jumping up to smash the other pins, growing spikes to counter the aerial strikes, and conjuring hammers to spin around and hit each other. At the end of the fifteen second commercial, when three of the pins had fallen into a bottomless pit, a flashing logo for the game appeared.
The actual game appeared to be somewhat less dramatic. The boys attached their pins to top-like parts and loaded them onto rocket-shaped mechanisms that they had mounted on their hands. They shot the tops onto the table, which had been set up with obstacles and barriers like an arena and maneuvered around so that there were holes opened up. The tops knocked against each other. When one of them began to falter, one of the boys pressed a button on his gauntlet, and the top gained a momentary speed burst and so was able to keep going. The match continued until the top that had been launched from the red gauntlet knocked the other top into one of the holes and onto the floor.
"Woo! Tin Pin Slammer!" the victor cheered. He was an energetic eleven-year-old with almond-brown eyes and spiky brown hair. He wore a plain white t-shirt, a sleeveless orange jacket with purple trim and a raised collar, blue jeans, a very loosely-worn brown belt, fingerless gloves that each had a rectangle taken out of the back, and a red bandanna that was wrapped around his forehead with its free ends trailing behind. There was a band-aid on his left cheek. He wore his red Tin Pin launcher on his right wrist. "That was a good game, Yammer!"
"Heh," the other boy, Yammer, chuckled, mildly disappointed at his loss but behaving like a good sport to his best friend nonetheless. "Right back at you, Shooter." Yammer had brown eyes and shaggy brown hair. He wore a cream-colored t-shirt, a yellow fishing vest, green cargo pants, and blue gloves that mirrored Shooter's black pair. He wore his blue Tin Pin launcher on his left wrist.
Shooter glanced past Yammer and saw Neku, Shiki, Eri, and Sora enter the store. "Attention! New challengers approaching!" he shouted, cupping his hand over his mouth as he pretended that he was speaking into a microphone. He and Yammer waved to the teens as they approached. "Yo! Neku! Good to see ya!" he greeted in his normal, unmuffled tone of voice (as in shouting at the top of his lungs).
Shiki and Eri winced and plugged their ears. Sora, who was used to much louder noises, was not bothered but still found it jarring. Neku seemed completely unaffected. He leaned over for an aside with Shiki. "This is why I wear headphones," he remarked.
"Hey. You here to play some Tin Pin?" Yammer asked.
Shiki nodded. "Yep. Ready to slam!"
"Hey, I don't think we've met," Shooter said, noticing Sora. "I'm Shuto Dan, but you can call me Shooter!"
"I'm Itaru Yokoyamada, but most everyone calls me Yammer," Yammer greeted.
"I'm Sora. So, I take it you really like this game," Sora surmised, making small talk.
"You know it! But you better watch out if you want to challenge me. I'm known as the slickest Slammurai (dun dun DAAAH!) in town!" Shooter boasted.
"Wow. Sounds like you're pretty good. Hey, do you think you could teach me how to play?" Sora asked.
"Yeah! I'd love to! A friend of Neku's is a friend of mine, you know?" He took a deep breath, leaving Neku to wonder if that was the first one he actually took since the conversation began. "Okay, bro: Tin Pin's a battle between souls!"
"Souls?" Sora parroted, confused.
Neku sighed. "Here we go," he mumbled, remembering his abstract and unclear explanation from their first meeting.
"Yeah, bro! It's like your fiery passion slams into the other guy's, like WHAM!"
There was an awkward pause as Sora tried to process all of the information that he could gather from the explanation (which was just about nothing). "Huh?"
"What? You still need help?" Shooter asked in disbelief.
"Alright if I take it from here, Shooter?" Yammer stepped up and loaded his top into his gauntlet. He cleared his throat. "The point of the game is to launch your spinner onto the table and try to knock your opponent's spinner off. You also clip your pins onto the spinners, for that extra unique flair. If the spinner starts to slow down and looks like it's about to come to a stop, you press this buttonー" he thumbed at a button on the gauntlet "ーand the spinner will get a quick boost and keep going, or you can do it to add a little power to your clash and hit the other spinner harder. In most games and tournaments, you're allowed four spinners and pins, and it's game over when all of your spinners fall off of the arena. In tournaments, you're allowed three quick saves: by which I mean, you can dip your hand in just as your spinner is falling off the table and help it back on to keep going. You can only do it three times, so you'd better make it count."
Sora nodded, making sense of that explanation. "Oh. I think I get it now."
Yammer smiled. "I'll let you go against me for the first match."
"And I'll let you borrow my spinners," Shooter added. He picked up one of his tops and removed his pin from it. "But you'll have to use your own pins. You gotta fight with your own soul. You hear me, bro?"
Sora grinned. "No problem." Taking the empty spinners to the table, he unclipped four of his own pins and attached them to the spinners. Shooter took his launcher off of his hand and handed it to Sora, who put it on. Following Yammer's example, he loaded one of the spinners onto the launcher and pointed it toward the table. Making note of the toy's weight and studying the obstacles that had been set up around the arena, he adjusted the angle at which he held his arm. Yammer noticed this and became nervous. Realizing this, Sora moved his wrist around some more, making it look as though he had an unsteady hand, in an attempt to make Yammer feel better. He considered that he probably should not overachieve the first time around.
"You can do it, Sora!" Shiki cheered.
"Okay, Slammers…" Shooter began, cupping his hand over his mouth again. "Slam on!"
Sora and Yammer pressed the buttons that spun the tops and launched them onto the table. They watched the spinners roll around the table, knocking into each other and bouncing off of the blocks. Eventually, Sora's spinner knocked Yammer's spinner off of the table. Yammer congratulated Sora for the first point, and Sora offered some words of encouragement, noticing the boy's disappointment. Sora then reloaded his first top while Yammer loaded a new one. In the second round, Sora's spinner knocked Yammer's off. In the third round, Yammer's spinner knocked Sora's off. Sora congratulated him and Yammer smiled proudly. Sora noticed that he seemed a little too excited for a single round, and began to determine a lack of self-confidence. In the next round, Sora's spinner pushed Yammer's over the edge, but Yammer dove in for a save and pushed it back onto the table. When it began to slow down, Yammer pressed the button and gave the spinner a boost. After his spinner bounced off of a few of the blocks, Sora gave it a boost for a counterattack, knocking Yammer's spinner off.
"Okay. Final pin, Yammer," Shooter reminded his friend.
"I know. I know," Yammer replied. He and Sora launched their spinners, and ultimately, Sora's spinner overcame Yammer's, winning the match.
Shiki, Eri, and Shooter cheered, congratulating Sora, who pumped his fist in the air in triumph. Neku, meanwhile, simply clapped for him. Noticing that Yammer was forcing a sportsmanlike smile, Sora stepped around the table and shook his hand. "That was a good game," he said. "Thanks for teaching me."
Yammer chuckled. "No problem."
Sora turned to the others, a grin on his face. "Who's next?"
Sora, Neku, Shiki, and Eri bought their own spinners, each with a different mass and shape for unique stats, and spent the next half hour playing against each other, Shooter, and Yammer. They swapped opponents after each match, and they all had some wins and some losses (even Yammer won a match against Shiki). They ended the session with two three-on-three matches side-by-side with Sora, Neku and Eri clashing spinners and Shooter, Yammer, and Shiki in a mêlée à trois. Everyone had fun, and Eri and Yammer forgot about their own insecurities.
"Thanks!" Sora said. "This was really fun!"
"No problem, bro!" Shooter replied.
"Thank you," Eri said, having finally cheered up.
Neku checked the timer on his hand, which indicated that the party had twenty minutes left to complete the mission. "Hey, we should get going. See you around."
"See you!" Yammer replied cheerfully. As the teens stepped out of Stride, their pins reattached and their spinners packed in their pockets (Sora was glad that his magic clothes still had bottomless pockets even when he was no longer connected to his spells, while Eri held both her and Shiki's spinners in her pouch), the sixth-graders began another Tin Pin match.
"Okay. Let's finish this." Neku scanned the area and saw that there were still some of Noise in the area, including the Taboo variety. Much to his dismay, he realized that there were not as many Players in the area as there were before. He ceased the scan and turned to Shiki and Eri. "You up for this, Eri? Sora and I will take care of the Taboo so you don't have to face them."
Eri nodded. "Thank you," she said. She still did not think that she had the courage to challenge the Taboo Noise, but she was confident enough to take on the standard variety.
It was not long before they defeated the last of the Noise. They checked their timers and watched them disappear, indicating that the mission was complete.
"I wonder why they assigned this mission anyway," Shiki mused.
"Joshua was playing coy when he told us to do the mission instead of just telling us what we could do to help," Sora remarked.
Shiki gasped. "You saw Joshua?!" she asked.
Sora flicked his wrist, recalling the beginning of the encounter. "Yeah, we did." He and Neku recounted their meeting with the Composer. The girls laughed when Sora mentioned punching him, then gasped in shock when he explained that it was Joshua who killed him in the first place.
"So, you think there might have been a reason we had to do this?" Eri wondered.
"Probably. That Reaper, Yoko, said that he was told to monitor the Noise flow rate around here," Sora said.
"She," Neku corrected him.
"Huh? Oh, right. She said," Sora amended, realizing his mistake.
"She also said that the GM thought the Refinery Sigil was somewhere around here," Neku recalled.
Sora crossed his arms, deep in thought. He scanned the area and noticed that the Taboo Noise count was rising again. Exiting the scan, he turned back to his friends. "The Taboo Noise keep showing up," he reported.
Neku nodded. "I did notice that they kept appearing while we were fighting the rest of the Noise. It wasn't like this anywhere else."
Shiki gasped as she thought of something. "Where did you see the Taboo sigils?" she asked.
Sora scanned again and looked for the site of the greatest concentration of dark sigils. He quickly exited the scan before the Noise could approach him and pointed in the direction. "Over there."
At the same time, Eri noticed a group of people approaching the district from the southeast. She announced the arrival to her friends, and they turned to see Riku, Aqua, Naminé, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Beat, and Rhyme. Naminé and Donald appeared to be in the lead. Naminé stopped and held her hand up, as if testing the air, while Donald held one of his staves like a dowsing rod.
"What do you think they're doing?" Neku asked.
"Hey, that's the wand Donald used when we were tracking the Nobodies with the cursed gold," Sora mused.
"The who with the what now?" Shiki asked, bewildered by the statement.
"Don't worry about it," Sora waved the question off. "What I'm saying is that it looks like they're looking for something." He studied the staff closely as Donald waved it in different directions and saw a red glow pass along the shaft and head as it went in a certain direction.
"Do you feel anything, Naminé?" Riku asked.
The blonde nodded. "The negativity is stronger here. I think there are a lot of Taboo Noise here, but not in this plane. And I'm detecting something more concentrated over there." She began to walk in the direction of the cloud of Taboo sigils that Sora had detected, with the others following.
"There's one in this plane!" Aqua warned as a Grunge Wolf lunged at the party. Just as it was about to attack, Riku summoned his Keyblade and teleported between it and Naminé, slashing it across the face and sending it tumbling to the side. Aqua cast Thunder on it and blasted it with Wish Shot. Goofy blocked its next attack with his shield, but was knocked down. Mickey hit it with an upper slash, then blasted it with Blizzard when its stomach was exposed. It attempted to slash at him, but Beat picked Goofy's shield up and hit the wolf in the face with it. While it stunned it for a few seconds, it merely angered it. However, it was distracted from the others, allowing Riku and Aqua to stab it with their Keyblades, destroying it.
"Is everyone alright?" Riku asked. Beat and Rhyme helped Goofy to his feet and Beat returned the shield to him. Everyone nodded, letting him know that no one was harmed.
"It came from that way," Donald said, pointing in the same direction that his staff was aimed. Naminé nodded in confirmation. They led the party to a gap between two buildings. The Players followed close behind, though they were not aware of their presence. The party slowly stepped into the gap, holding whatever weapons they had at the ready in case another Noise were to burst out. Sora and Neku were also prepared to fight any Noise that tried to ambush them and the girls. They walked through the alley until they came upon a large graffiti mural near the back of the buildings.
The mural almost perfectly resembled the sigil that Neku had photographed the year before. There were only two key differences. One difference was that a completely different sigil had been worked into the design, resembling the Reaper symbol over an X. The other difference was that it was glowing red and black, pulsating with power. Donald's staff hummed viciously in its proximity, and Naminé had a headache from standing near it. A trail of blood ran from one of her nostrils. Noticing this, Rhyme led her away from the sigil to recover and advised her to pinch her nose and lean her head forward. All the while, everyone else simply stared in awe and horror.
"Whoa, man…" Beat said, otherwise at a loss for words.
"I guess we found the source of the Taboo Noise," Riku surmised.
"Gosh, this thing's giving me chills just standing in front of it," Mickey said with a shiver.
"Hang on. What's that shape mixed up in there?" Aqua wondered.
"That looks like the symbol they put on shops so people in the UG can go in and interact with living people," Beat explained.
"Wak! So you mean it fuses the Realground and the Underground planes together?" Donald asked, beginning to understand what was going on.
Beat crossed his arms and thought hard, trying to understand the statement. "Uh, I guess so."
Neku sighed in mild annoyance. "I'm sorry. He's one of my best friends, but he can be pretty dumb," he said aloud.
"Honestly, I'm trying to keep track of everything, too," Sora admitted, coming to Beat's defense. "This world's rules are almost as complicated as everything else I've been dealing with."
Neku shrugged. "I'll give you that," he conceded.
Aqua put her hand to her chin, deep in thought. "If this sigil creates the Taboo Noise, and the symbol links the two planes together in a way that they are essentially one and the same, then this must be how the Noise have been able to appear both in the Underground and the Realground," she surmised.
"BWAAAAAAAAAH!" Beat yelled as it finally clicked for him. "That's how Pi Face is doing all this, yo!"
"We need to tell Sora and the others what we found," Naminé declared, unaware that their friends were already on-site.
And we'll pass it on to Joshua and the Reapers, Neku mused. He took a picture of the scene, setting the time so that it took a photo from ten minutes before, without the crowd that had gathered, and sent it along with a message of its location to Takagi.
"So, I guess we just leave it to the Reapers to somehow destroy it," Shiki said.
Sora nodded. "I guess so. I don't think there's anything we can do now."
"Do you think we can seal this?" Mickey asked, posing the question to his group.
"Great idea, Mickey. It's worth a try," Riku replied. He took a step back and pointed his Keyblade at the sigil. However, though the tip glowed as it tried to use its magic, nothing happened. He lowered his key and shook his head. "No luck."
"I figured that would've been too easy," Donald grumbled.
Riku shrugged. "Oh, well. I guess that's all we can do right now. Let's meet up with the others and see what we can do next."
Neku nodded. "Yeah. Let's meet up with them," he agreed.
While the exchange was going on, Eri had heard footsteps coming from behind them. Nervously, she turned around in hopes of seeing whoever was there. Without thinking, she began walking to the front of the buildings that flanked the alley. As she stepped out onto the sidewalk, she heard the sound of footsteps become clearer, and now heard a hint of a scraping sound.
Shiki turned around and gasped as she saw what Eri was doing. "Eri, wait!" she called, running after her.
"Be careful!" Sora and Neku warned when they turned around and saw Shiki and Eri heading out into the street.
When Shiki caught up to Eri, they turned and froze at the sight of a Trance Rhino, which immediately ran toward them. They screamed, alerting Sora and Neku to the danger. The boys ran as fast as they could in an attempt to help, but the Noise caught up to the girls, and black electricity wrapped around them as they froze in place, as if time had stopped within the field.
"This is bad! This is really bad!" Neku panicked, worried for the girls. "Eri's still terrified of them, and if she can't keep the Light Puck going…" He could not bear to finish the thought.
"They'll be fine," Sora assured him.
"What?" Neku asked. "How do you know?"
Sora shook his head and put his hand over his heart. "I don't know. I just believe in them."
Shiki found herself staring down a Taboo rhino, a pair of wolves, and four frogs. After contemplating what Eri would be feeling when faced against the Taboo Noise, she decided to focus on surviving. She dropped her Mr. Mew doll to the ground and let him attack one of the wolves while she dodged attacks from the rest of the Noise. She ran around and jumped over monsters and obstacles with gymnastic feats while Mr. Mew clawed at the monsters, not doing any damage but working to build power for the Light Puck. Seeing the rhino charging toward her, she opened the door of a car that was behind her and stepped out of the way, letting the rhino run its head through the doorway and stick its horn into the roof as it stopped and regained its bearings. While it struggled to free itself, she slapped a leaping frog aside and jumped over a wolf.
She felt the warmth of the Light Puck materialize and pass onto the other zone. Come on, Eri. You can do this, she prayed.
Eri spent the entire first minute of the "fight" running away and trying to hide from the Noise behind whatever objects she could find. A horrible scene played back in her mind the moment she saw the rhino. The dark visage was burned in her memory, the murderous glow of the red eyes burning into her soul. She could still hear her own scream from when she and Shiki had seen it and made a run for it. As they fled, she had stumbled against a car, then made the mistake of looking back at the monster as she recovered. The rhino had slashed its massive horn, shearing through the car's hood and engine and slicing her stomach. Shiki had pulled her back just in time, or it would have completely gored her or broken her in half. Shiki managed to stall it by knocking down a garbage can in front of it as it charged, causing it to trip over it, and Mr. Hanekoma appeared to guide them to safety while holding the monster back.
It was the most horrifying experience of her life, and right now she was face-to-face with monsters with the same evil eyes, including a beast that looked just like the one that had nearly killed her. At that moment, she could not make a proper judgment call. All she could think to do was get out of there. However, the monsters made sure to block off every direction in which she tried to flee. Realizing that there was no ducking out, she decided that she would have to focus and fight back. However, constantly running away to avoid being gored did not help her relax. She turned her attention to the frogs, which were the least terrifying of the Taboo. She used Imagination Spark to shape a hammer, then swung it at the frogs. As soon as she felt the warmth of the Light Puck, she realized that her attacks were starting to do real damage to the frogs. Her confidence building, she swatted and smashed the frogs, successfully Erasing two. However, she saw the Trance Rhino rearing out of the corner of her eye and panicked, throwing the hammer at it. The hammer exploded into sparks when it made contact with the invulnerable horn. The Light Puck passed back to Shiki, and Eri resumed her fearful flight.
Shiki smiled as she watched two of the frogs fade away into television static, realizing that Eri was becoming courageous, at least enough to start fighting the weak ones. Baby steps, she thought. You got this, Eri.
She felt the warmth of the Light Puck, so she sent Mr. Mew to attack the wolves. Recalling the incident with the Trance Rhino in the RG, she considered having her toy attack the beast from behind while she distracted it, but she did not want to have to draw its attention while dodging the wolves, so she chose to deal with the canines while running from all of the Noise. Since the Noise were focused solely on her, and Mr. Mew acted autonomously for the most part in battle, the wolves were easily cut down. When the frogs jumped toward her, she slapped them into the path of Mr. Mew's claws, so that they were quickly destroyed as well. It was only after both wolves were slain that the Light Puck shifted back to Eri.
It's all you now, Eri! You can do it! As she finished that hopeful thought, she somersaulted to avoid the rhino's horn.
Eri simply gulped in fear as the Puck returned to her. She had felt that she had the strength to fight against the frogs, and hoped that she would get to at least build up the courage to fight one wolf, but her strength left her when she realized that she would be left to face the Trance Rhino directly. Rather than fight it, she ran to find a place to hide. She summoned a ball of sparks and threw it at the rhino, but its horn blocked the attack. She ran away, and the rhino began to stampede after her. Seeing that she was heading for a wall, she jumped aside at the last second and let it embed itself in the wall. She ran to hide behind a car while it thrashed about, trying to pull itself free, as she was too scared to think to take advantage of its vulnerability. She crouched and hid herself as much as she could, not wanting the monster to find her.
I'm sorry, Shiki. I can't do this, she thought in despair. She took her phone out and opened it, staring at the picture that she had saved as her background, a selfie that she and Shiki had taken together. To their dismay, a glare on the camera had caused Shiki's eyes to be obscured. Eri had wanted to delete it and try again, but Shiki said it was perfect. It was months before she considered that it might have had something to do with how Shiki felt inferior to her.
She would sometimes imagine different eyes filling the blank space, depending on how she was feeling at the time. During the month after Shiki's death, she would see sad eyes welled with tears, fueled by and reinforcing her shame and self-hatred for hurting her feelings so badly. When she looked at Shiki's face, she expected to see eyes that conveyed disappointment. However, she saw something different.
The eyes that filled the empty space seemed warm and assuring. When she saw the imaginary eyes, she saw the eyes of someone who trusted her, who had the utmost faith in her. She was confused, wondering why she was seeing this image. It was then that she heard a voice in her head. They'll be fine… I believe in them…
She recognized the voice as Sora's, although she did not recall ever hearing him say those sentences. However, it did cause her to remember what else he had told her. You're not a burden… You're not a coward… I believe in you. You might not see it yet, but you're strong. You're as strong as you need to be…
Lastly, she heard Shiki's voice. It's all you now, Eri! You can do this! She did not know where the voice had come from, how it had suddenly appeared in her head. Unless she had spoken out through her heart…
Eri's focus moved from Shiki's face in the photo to her own. Her winking expression was cheerful and full of confidence and energy. On the day that they had taken the picture, she felt as though, as long as she and Shiki were side-by-side, nothing could stand in their way. She realized that that was exactly what they were, even now. Even though they were in separate zones, they were still tied together, and the Light Puck was proof that they gave each other strength. She peeked out from behind the car at the rhino, which had almost pulled itself free. The monster still frightened her, but she willed herself to remain strong.
Shiki, Sora, Neku, Beat, Rhyme, Naminé, Aqua, they all believed in her. And Shiki was depending on her right then. She could not let any of them down.
She slowly stood up and stepped out of her hiding spot. Walking at a slow but unwavering pace, still feeling the warmth of the Light Puck give her energy, she approached the monster. Keeping in mind that the horn was invulnerable, she considered what she could use to fight the rhino. Her Psych could conjure up whatever she imagined; she could use any kind of weapon or tool to destroy anything that stood in her way. She finally realized that she really did have the power to overcome her demons.
Her thoughts of weapons and destruction gave her an idea. She pictured the desired shape in her mind, then waved her hand in a circle, creating the same shape out of sparks. Once the circle had fully materialized, she stopped moving her hand, then pulled it back, taking a few steps back so that the shape extruded into a long cylinder. She made a fist at the bottom of the cylinder at the halfway point, then lowered it to create a bar which she could wrap her hand around, and then stuck her index finger out to create the shape of a trigger and guard. Gripping the handle and trigger with one hand, holding the front end on the other hand, and resting the back end on her shoulder, she aimed her new spark-generated rocket launcher at the rhino, which had finally pulled itself free. As the construct was nearly weightless and would not have a fierce recoil, she was safe as she pulled the trigger, launching a fiery blast at the rhino's rear flank. The rocket exploded on contact with enough force to send it sliding away and make it lose its footing. Eri cheered in triumph, letting the rocket launcher dissolve.
After a moment, the rhino stood back up and turned to face her, its red eyes flaring with rage. Okay, I need to get behind it to do real damage, she thought. Let's see… how do I do that? I know! I need speed. What can I use for that? She looked down at her feet and smiled. She jumped into the air and willed a pair of spark-generated roller skates to appear on her feet. Once she had secured her balance, she decided to create a weapon to attack the rhino while she skated around it. She held her hands in front of her face, then moved them apart, her left hand faster than her right, then she gripped her right hand around the handle of the spark shortsword that she had created. She watched the rhino paw the ground and took a deep breath. It charged, but she swiftly maneuvered to the side, slicing its flank with her sword, then turned around and slashed at its rear end while it stopped itself.
The rhino suddenly spun and slapped her with the side of its horn, knocking her to the ground and causing the sword and skates to disperse. As she picked herself up, she saw the rhino move in to stab at her. Thinking quickly, she locked her fingers together and pulled them apart, forming the sparks into strands. She sidestepped the Noise's attack and lashed her length of sparks at its face like a whip. She hopped and created a trampoline under her feet, on which she bounced a few times. She lashed her whip under the horn, then jumped off of the trampoline to land on the rhino's back, catching the flying end of the whip in her free hand. She pulled up with all of her strength, pulling the horn up by a few degrees and causing the rhino obvious discomfort. It bucked and stampeded, trying to get rid of her, but with her new reinsーas well as a belt that she conjured to secure her in placeーshe stayed on. The rhino only succeeded in crashing into a car, which exploded under its chin due to stray sparks flying into the engine. With the monster stunned, Eri conjured a powerful hand drill and began boring into its back, causing it to trumpet in agony. It regained its bearings and spun around quickly, dislodging Eri, who had let her belt vanish so that she could use the drill, and dropping her to the ground.
Eri groaned as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She gasped as the rhino reared back to stomp, but she quickly scooted herself back and stood up, only being made to stumble from the shockwave when the rhino brought its weight down.
She felt that she still had the Light Puck, and saw that the rhino seemed weak, which meant she could finish the Taboo Noise off if she worked fast. The rhino charged toward her, but she raised a spark shield up to block it, and she laughed as it tripped over itself as the shield held up against the assault completely. Dropping the shield, she conjured a long dagger, ran up to the rhino's head, and sliced its throat with the spark weapon. The final damage had been dealt, and the rhino faded into oblivion. Eri smiled confidently as she watched the monster dissolve.
She pumped her fist into the air and popped her foot up. "That's an 'F' for 'Fabulous'!" she cheered, adopting the catchphrase of one of her favorite celebrities into her victory quote.
There was a flash of light, and Shiki and Eri were back in the UG. Sora and Neku watched the Trance Rhino and surrounding lightning disappear. The girls caught their breath and looked around. Realizing that they had won the fight, they hugged each other and squealed in delight.
"I… I did it!" Eri said, still amazed that she had overcome the Taboo Noise.
"I knew you could do it!" Shiki congratulated her friend.
Neku breathed a sigh of relief, while Sora laughed. "Way to go! How do you feel?" Sora asked.
Eri chuckled. "It's a rush," she replied. "You were right. I did have the strength inside me. Thank you."
Sora nodded. "No problem."
"I'm glad to see you're making out alright." The Players turned around to see Takagi approaching, carrying a paper bag filled with cups of ramen and cutlery. He set the bag down and held a cup out to the Players. "Ramen?" he offered.
Apparently, one of the perks of being a high-ranking Reaper was the use of Psychs and other special abilities outside of battle zones, as he demonstrated by preparing and cooking the Cup Noodles by hand. In a few minutes, everyone had started eating their ramen lunch.
"What did you mean by what you said earlier? Shouldn't you be gunning for our Erasure?" Neku asked.
Takagi shrugged. "It's not that simple. The way I see it, the Reapers' Game is for the benefit of the Players. It's your fight for a second chance, and you grow as people while doing so. It's the Reapers' job to challenge you and force you to grow. We see who can make it and who doesn't," he explained.
"I guess that makes sense," Sora said.
"Yeah. I can't imagine that so many people would sign up for a life of slaughtering people," Shiki mused.
"I think the 'Erase Players to survive' rule was put in to enforce the Reapers to challenge the Players to overcome their vices and grow. Otherwise, I guess they'd probably hold their hands through the missions," Takagi said. "Some of the Harriers take their jobs with a little too much vigor, like Uzuki and Yoko, but they're not all bad people. Heck, 777 barely even involved himself in hunting Players, doing the bare minimum to survive, and he spent a lot of weeks off, and even most of his time on, practicing with his band."
"When Beat was a Reaper, he never actually Erased anyone," Neku recalled. "The only ones he actually attacked were me and Joshua, but he always left instead of finishing us off."
Takagi nodded. "Not all Reapers like that part of the job. When I was a Support, I dreaded a promotion, because killing Players didn't sit right with me at all. Ultimately, I worked hard and dodged promotions until I was offered an Officer position. Now, I get to do the part of the job that I was passionate about. And it really feels good to oversee this, helping them find the strength to work together and grow."
"You don't have a problem with them seeing you as their enemy?" Sora asked.
Takagi snickered. "Every journey needs a road of trials and a final boss. My problem is, according to the Conductor, that I'm acting too friendly to the Players. Of course, I think he agrees with me; he just likes to keep things running like a well-oiled machine."
Neku shrugged. "I wouldn't know what an ideal GM was like. Other than you, I never met one who wasn't a nutcase or a sadist," he remarked.
Takagi laughed. "Yeah. Konishi was scary," he agreed. The conversation died down after that point, and the group continued eating their ramen. "Thanks for finding the Refinery Sigil," he finally said.
Shiki smiled. "No problem," she replied. "So, what are you going to do now?"
"I passed the word on to the Conductor, and he went to tell the Composer and the Producer. My guess is they're going to start working on Erasing that thing. That should stop more Taboo Noise from appearing and cut Minamimoto off from his power supply," Takagi explained. "As for the Reapers, based on the Plane-blender Sigil mixed into the Refinery symbols, we think that Minamimoto has a Reaper helping him. The Officers are starting an investigation to figure out who it is. In the meantime, we're going to put out an Emergency Call to get all hands, Support Reapers included, on deck."
"So, what should we do during that time?" Neku asked.
"Sit tight. We'll let you and the other Players know when we've figured everything out and come up with a plan of attack. It might be a good idea to hone your skills. Fight some Noise, and maybe buy some pins to get new Psychs. And be sure to map things out with your friends."
After a minute, everyone had finished their ramen. "Well, that's all the time I have for today," Takagi said, collecting the empty noodle cups. "Take care, and good luck." He gave the Players a bow, and they returned the gesture. A pair of Reaper wings sprouted from his back, and he shot into the air, flying off to meet with the Reapers and prepare for battle. In the meantime, Sora, Neku, Shiki, and Eri went off to do as he suggested.