Here's another chapter. I realized a few days ago that it would have been perfect to put this up last week, on 3/14. Such a huge wasted opportunity considering who's in this chapter, but oh well. In the meantime, I hope everyone is doing alright, with the whole pandemic situation that's going on lately. As for me, I'm hanging in there. I'll be doing my last semester of college from home, so I'll have that to manage.
Take care everyone. And be sure to leave a review letting me know what you think of this chapter, or everything else that's happened in this story.
Chapter 123
Player Hunt
"Ugh. Yesterday was nuts," Uzuki complained. "You know where I can get some aspirin?"
"Here." Kariya tossed her a bottle.
"Huh. I never took you for someone to have some on hand." Uzuki popped an aspirin and swallowed it with a sip from a water bottle.
Kariya shrugged. "I've been packing these since Konishi became an Officer."
Uzuki sighed as she remembered the calculating woman. "I know what you mean. I'm so glad that witch is gone."
"So, what's giving you a headache?" Kariya asked.
"That Yoko Imaga. She went and rubbed the number of Players she Erased yesterday in my face. Ugh. It's not like it's a contest or anything."
"Um, isn't Reaper Game Number One 'Player Hunt'? Meaning it is a contest?"
"Yeah, but we weren't playing it!"
"But didn't you use to do the exact same thing in your first year?"
Uzuki sighed. "I see your point. I guess I'm just gonna have to put up with it."
"The Spring Chicken does have some zest. I'll give her that."
"I thought I was 'Spring Chicken'," Uzuki pouted.
"Sorry, Uzuki, but you aged out at three years," Kariya replied.
"Aw… Ahem, uh, whatever," she amended, trying to make it seem as though it did not bother her. While the nickname had started to annoy her after the first few months, she had recently started to warm up to it as she and Kariya grew closer. "So, what were you saying about Yoko?"
"She's only been a Reaper for a few months, but she's setting Noise traps and Erasing Players like she's been at it for years. And she's pretty confident to so casually compete with you."
"I think she picked up on some of the general Reaper tactics while she was still a Player. I caught her following Takagi around a few times."
Kariya nodded. "I saw that too. Can't say he was a bad pick to shadow; it's almost unheard of for a Support Reaper to get promoted to Officer without having to spend a few months or years as a Harrier. Might be because the top brass was trying to fill the office after the Composer's Game, but I'd say he deserved that bump."
"Oh, and have you seen the way Yoko was looking at Takagi during the briefing when Takagi was made GM?" Uzuki let out a giggle. "I think she's got a crush!"
Kariya chuckled. "It took you this long to notice?" he asked mockingly. "You should've一"
"Ahem!" The throat-clearing of a deep voice interrupted them. Jumping to attention, the two Reapers fearfully whirled around to face a towering figure. The man was tall, standing nearly six-and-a-half feet in height, and built like a truck. He appeared to be forty years of age, although the fact that Reapers tended to stay at the same physical age for long stretches of time left his true age as a mystery. His black hair was slicked back, and his chiseled features sported a short moustache and beard. He wore a white button-down shirt, a black suit jacket with gold buttons, black slacks, black dress shoes, and a red tie. His red eyes stared right through the Harriers, his thick eyebrows furrowed in disappointment. His posture showed that he was completely calm, but his aura was enough to intimidate them.
"M-Mister Atukaze!" Uzuki gasped. "We were just…" However, she could not think of a suitable excuse to explain away her gossiping.
"I respect that you find comfort in one another's presence, and that you are at ease with your position. However, I ask that you mind the manner in which you carry yourself," the Harriers' superior advised. Hiroto Atukaze was the Conductor of the Reapers, directing and giving orders to the subordinate Reapers, from Officers down to Support rank, and expressing the will of the Composer, Shibuya's true overseer. He had served in the position for nearly a full year, having been chosen to fill the role following the Erasure of the previous Conductor, Megumi Kitaniji.
"Y-Yes, sir. Our apologies," Kariya stammered. He quickly gave Atukaze a bow, which Uzuki replicated.
"This may be called a 'Game', but it is no place for lackadaisical tomfoolery. It is a life or erasure contest where all is at risk of destruction, especially in these times. I will tolerate none of your childish antics," Atukaze warned. Uzuki and Kariya nodded quickly. Satisfied, Atukaze turned to leave. Halfway across the room, he stopped and turned back to the Harriers. "Oh, and be sure to respect Nobuo's privacy." With that, he left.
"O-Of course, sir," Kariya replied, too scared to correct him on Yoko's preferred name. Several seconds after Atukaze had gone, he turned back to Uzuki. "He has a point. Things are getting serious."
Uzuki shivered. "Are you talking about the attacks?" she asked.
Kariya nodded. "I'm almost certain they're Taboo."
"WHAT?!" Uzuki gasped. "Who would create them? They nearly slaughtered us all last year!"
Kariya shook his head. "I don't know, but we need to be extra careful. If those things are back, Shibuya's in real danger."
"Takagi said we should sit tight while the Officer runs their investigation, but I don't feel comfortable vegging out while all this is going on."
"Well, I know a way to make you feel better."
Uzuki raised an eyebrow, then realized what he had planned and smirked. "Sounds like fun."
When he woke up, Sora saw that he was in front of a store identified with a sign that read "AMX" in blue letters next to an encircled image of a running twin eighth-notes figure. He turned to see Neku standing up a few feet away. "Another music store?" he guessed.
Neku nodded. "Yep."
"Still haven't found anything to help us track down the Taboo Noise," Sora lamented.
Neku shook his head. "Nope. We really don't have enough information to figure anything out.
Sora slumped in dismay. "If only we weren't all alone in this world trying to find what we're looking for," he whined, aware that aside from Mr. Hanekoma, they had no one to really turn to and get clues from.
"Look out!" they heard Mickey shout. At the same time, they heard heavy footsteps and the crunch of bent steel. They turned to see what was going on and jumped in shock. Mickey and Aqua were running in their direction, Keyblades drawn. Civilians were also fleeing, screaming in terror. As the crowd passed, Sora and Neku saw the reason for the panic. A Taboo Noise, which resembled a rhinoceros with a massive tattoo horn and two long spikes over the shoulder blades, was charging at them. Aqua turned around and cast Fira at the Trance Rhino, but it seemed to have no effect.
"The ARE in the RG!" Sora exclaimed, realizing to his horror that Shiki and Eri were right. "And… Are they immune to our一their magic too?"
Neku shook his head. "Can't say. They're invulnerable from the front," he explained.
"Phew. At least we know how to deal with that," Sora said, relieved. Watching the fight, he wondered if his friends would figure that out. "You think I can use the 'meme' thing to tell them to attack from behind?"
Neku nodded. "That should work."
Sora nodded. He took his phone out, opened the app, typed in "Try the back", pointed the phone's camera at Mickey, and hit "Send". Mickey blinked as the thought became imprinted into his mind. He did a backflip over the rhino and attacked its rear. This time, the Noise noticeably flinched. Sora breathed a sigh of relief, only to tense back up as the fiend whirled around and tried to gore the mouse with its horn. However, this left it open to Aqua, who cast Blizzaga at it. She closed in and dealt a series of attacks, then finished it off with a spiral of magic energy exploding up around her. The Noise disintegrated into a haze of television static.
"Was that one of the monsters you ran into last night?" Aqua asked.
Mickey nodded. "Yeah. It's a good thing our Keyblades and magic work well enough against them, instead of just the Light Puck that Sora and the others said they use."
"I guess our magic follows different rules to what works here," Aqua surmised.
"Like how our magic hurt the cursed pirates," Sora mused, "but only when they were exposed under the moonlight." That might also explain why I don't have my Keyblade or magic in the UG, he thought.
"The what?" Neku asked.
"Uh, something I ran into a while back," Sora handwaved. "On another world. Don't worry about it." He no longer bothered with the complicated cover-up now that the cat was out of the bag.
"Uh, okay. Anyway, I guess it is a good thing that their weapons work for them," Neku noted. "Otherwise, no one would be able to fight the Noise in the RG."
"But if they are running around in the RG, then we need to check up on the others. Naminé doesn't have a Keyblade, or magic."
Neku's eyes widened as he registered the implication. "Neither do Beat and Rhyme."
Hearing the sound of screams in the distance, they ran to find the source. As they could pass through civilians, they caught up far quicker than Mickey and Aqua could. Arriving in front of the Shibu Department Store, they saw Donald and Goofy running away from a "Wall of Grizzly" Taboo Noise. Goofy threw his shield at the fiend, but it seemed to have no effect as the bear continued to lurch toward them. Donald cast magic, which seemed to slow it down, but it was too resilient and was gaining too fast.
"Donald has magic, but neither of them have Keyblades!" Sora realized. "We've got to do something!"
"What can we do?" Neku asked skeptically. "We can't just go into the RG."
An idea clicked in Sora's mind. "What if we bring it to us? We can scan and draw it in."
"You think that will work?"
"They're usually not visible on our plane, right? And we go into another one to fight anyway. It's worth a try."
"Okay. Give it a shot."
Sora scanned the area, then reached out toward the grizzly. Sure enough, black and grey energy strands connected from the Noise to him. As the energy grew denser, there was a flash of light and he found himself in an unpopulated zone, face-to-face with the Wall of Grizzly.
Sweet! It worked. He checked his pins to recall what was in his arsenal. He had: Pyrokinesis; Psychokinesis; Big Bang (armed with the Nexus Ray power); Lightning Moon (which would create an electric charge revolving around him); Storm Warning (which let him call down a bolt of lightning); Masamune (which let him slash through the air and blast through what was in front of him); Cure Drink (which conjured a soda that restored his health like a Potion); and Icy Stare (which could freeze an enemy). He smiled, ready to bring the monster down.
He called down three bolts of lightning to strike the Noise, then conjured flames around it. The bear swung its arm, striking a garbage bin and sending it flying toward Sora. Sora did a dodge roll, letting it fly over him. He spun around with his arms outstretched and created a circle of electricity, then threw himself at the bear, letting the electricity burn the monster, then jumped away as it attempted to retaliate. Feeling the Light Puck charge him up, he dashed toward the Noise again and dealt a horizontal karate chop at it, visibly charging up the air that his hand passed through and cutting into the bear's stomach. He delivered a string of karate chops until he finished with an explosive blow, sending the bear tumbling back. With that finisher, the Light Puck disappeared to the other zone.
Neku possessed a similar, but slightly different arsenal. With the Light Puck in his possession, he shot bolts of energy at the bear until the pin ran out of juice, used the First Gear pin to teleport out of the way of its attack and behind it, raised an icicle spike to impale it from below, summoned three bolts of lightning to strike it, and then slashed at it with the Masamune Pin's Psych, Shockwave. With a final explosive force bursting from the last slash, the Light Puck went back to Sora as the bear worked to push itself to its feet. The fight continued until the Taboo Noise was no more, and both Players were back in the UG.
Donald and Goofy breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the bear dissolve, unaware of Sora and Neku's presence. One pedestrian showed pictures that he had taken of the monster to his friend. Everyone else looked back and forth, trying to make sense of what they had just seen.
"This is bad," Neku said. "If these things can't be hurt normally, people are going to die."
"Will anyone else know what that was?" Sora asked.
Neku shook his head. "Some of them might have been in the Game, and would probably think it was a Noise. But no one in the RG would know what a Taboo Noise was. All of the Players were Erased by those things in my second week except for me and Joshua. And there weren't any other Players in my third week. So, I guess only Beat and Rhyme would recognize them."
"What about Joshua?" This question gave Neku pause. "Would he be in Shibuya?"
"Yeah. But he wouldn't be part of the crowd. He probably knows what's going on, though."
Sora decided not to give any indication that Neku may have said more than he wanted to, and wondered what he meant.
Whatever he was thinking, Neku shook it from his mind. "You know, it's strange that we haven't gotten a mission yet," he remarked.
Sora checked his hand, which had not been given a timer. "You're right. I wonder why that is."
As if on cue, their phones beeped. They took them out and checked the new message. It read: "No mission today. Busy on our end. Watch your backs. -The Reapers."
"Well, I guess we have the day to ourselves," Sora said.
Neku crossed his arms. "They must be working on the Taboo problem," he guessed.
"We should meet up with the others. We need to catch up on what's going on," Sora suggested.
Neku nodded. "Then Imprint away."
Sora opened the app. Taking a moment to formulate the message, he typed in "Gather the others; meet friends at 104." Just to be safe, he imprinted the "meme" into the minds of both Donald and Goofy.
"Hey, we should get everyone and meet at 104," they both said. Realizing that they had the exact same thought and not knowing why, they laughed, then went off to find their friends.
Sora smiled, proud of himself. "Okay. I guess we should start heading over too."
"What's going on, man?!" Beat yelled. Naminé winced at the volume, so Rhyme helpfully plugged her ears with her fingers. Mr. Hanekoma waved his hand over his office door, creating a sound-proofing spell that ensured that his employees and customers did not hear the calm, peaceful discussion that was taking place in that room. "Those Taboo are supposed to be gone!"
"They were supposed to be," Hanekoma agreed. "But someone must have gained access to the Taboo Arts, and learned to create the Refinery Sigils on their own."
"How could someone do that?" Riku asked.
"How did Pi Face do it in the first place?" Beat shouted.
"'Pi Face'?" Riku repeated, wondering what he could possibly mean by that.
"Sho Minamimoto. The rogue Reaper from last year," Rhyme explained.
"Oh." Riku recalled that Neku mentioned that the man had been big on math puns.
Hanekoma sighed, a hint of shame in his expression as well as uncertainty; he seemed to be debating how and whether to answer. A few seconds later, he chose to respond. "I taught him."
"WHAT?!" Beat and Rhyme shouted together. Naminé clamped her hands over her ears. Rhyme immediately apologized, then resumed her shocked expression.
"Let me explain," Hanekoma pleaded. "The Composer wanted to destroy Shibuya. The Conductor opposed that, and to convince him to spare the city, he tried to turn everyone into mindless drones. The way I saw it, there were only two options to save Shibuya, one easier but more reprehensible, the other riskier but better. The second option was to change the Composer's mind about Shibuya, by saving the heart of his proxy. But if that failed, then either way, Shibuya was toast. Both the Composer and the Conductor would have to be stopped. I was prohibited from direct intervention, and I was already on thin ice. So I needed a proxy of my own. I picked Minamimoto, who was already a wild card who didn't play well with others, and I taught him to conjure the Taboo. His goal was to have them destroy the Reapers in his way and get to the Conductor and Composer, whom he would then destroy, then take over. I didn't like it, but if things didn't work out with Phones, I had to let that happen."
"But it did work out," Rhyme noted. "Neku changed his mind, the guy with the sunglasses lost, and Shibuya's still here."
"And Pi Face got crunched, yo," Beat added. "So how come this is happening? You didn't teach no one else, did you?"
Hanekoma shook his head vehemently. "Of course not," he insisted. "Believe me, this was a shock to me, too. And I don't know how they managed to breach the Taboo Noise into the RG."
Riku cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Mr. Hanekoma, from what I understand, you're a lot more powerful and knowledgeable than you look. You seem practically omniscient. Do you know who is behind this?" he asked.
Hanekoma sighed. This sigh carried a mix of uncertainty and regret. "I have my thoughts, but I can't be sure. Unfortunately, while I've been trying to track him, he's been using Taboo techniques to conceal his aura. I can get a general idea of where he is, but I can't confirm who he is," he admitted.
"Whoever he is, he seems to know who's looking," Riku deduced. "So he would have to know who you are."
"Unfortunately, that's all I've got for you. I passed everything I know to the Composer, so he has the Reapers on the hunt and doing whatever they can to look into it."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Beat asked, still irritated.
Hanekoma shrugged. "Be careful. Keep your eyes peeled. And stick together, especially since, out of the four of you, Riku here's the only one who can actually hurt the Taboo."
After a brief moment, Riku shrugged. "I guess that's all we can do right now," he said. He calmly finished his coffee and tossed it into the recycling bin, then stood up from his chair. "Let's get going."
Naminé and Rhyme nodded in agreement. The four teens turned to leave. Hanekoma removed the sound-proofing spell.
"Hey, Naminé," Hanekoma called out as the teens were almost all out of his office. Naminé stopped and turned around, wondering what he wanted.
"Yes, Mr. Hanekoma?" The barista beckoned her to come closer. She complied.
"I don't really know much about you, so this is just a hunch, but…" He opened a folder on his desk and picked up a card. It was plastic and had a glossy image on the front, like a trading card. However, its shape was different from the traditional rectangle: on the top edge, three triangles extended outward, so that they gave off the image of a crown. Naminé studied the card curiously. The image on the front depicted an artboard and a pencil that was in the process of drawing a Reaper symbol, in front of a net of chains that criss-crossed in the background. "I think this will be of help."
Naminé flipped the card around between her fingers. "What is this?" she asked.
"Something tells me you're someone who can make your own rules. A look into the grinds showed me a room transforming around you and phantoms of people appearing at your whim."
Naminé gasped, shocked as she wondered how he would know about that. "B-But… That was only in Castle Oblivion," she argued. "I had some tie to that place. I don't think I can do it anywhere else."
Hanekoma nodded. "True. Whatever that place's rules, it let you into the control booth. That's what I'm going for with this. Play this, and you'll be able to sync your powers with a frequency that will have clout. The city will be your canvas, and this your pen. But you'll need to use it responsibly," he advised. "Rules are being bent here. I have a feeling that to save Shibuya, we're gonna have to bend a few more. Can I trust you to do what you'll need to?"
Naminé was taken aback. This man was asking her to use her powers in a big way. She had always been afraid of her abilities, believing that she could only do harm with them. Sure, she had managed to put Sora's memories into place, but that was only after she had ripped them apart in the first place, and the process had taken far longer because she was extra delicate with them, not wanting to make a catastrophic error with a small mistake. She had no idea if there was even a "right" way to use them. What did Mr. Hanekoma expect her to do? Was she supposed to destroy something, or someone? Or did he believe that her powers could be used to help people? Could she really…?
"I… I'll do my best," she said. She was not sure of herself, but she did not want to let him down. "Thank you." She took another look at the card and realized that she had nowhere to put it. She regarded it with mild embarrassment as she imagined she would have to hold it all day.
Hanekoma chuckled as he noticed her plight. "You can just dismiss it like your friend does his Keyblade," he suggested. "Pass it off to that pocket dimension that their magic gives them access to."
"Oh. I was wondering how everyone did that," Naminé mused. Deciding to give it a try, she focused her gaze on the card. She imagined letting it go off to a safe place, and the card vanished in a flash of light.
"There you go, kiddo. Well, good luck. And don't worry. When the time comes, I'm sure you'll know what to do with it," Hanekoma assured her.
Naminé nodded and gave him a bow. "Thank you." She left the office and rejoined Riku, Beat and Rhyme.
Sora and Neku, now joined by Shiki and Eri, ran into Scramble Crossing, but stopped dead in their tracks when they saw a small pack of Taboo Noise wolves surrounding two figures, Uzuki and Kariya. Sora tensed and prepared to move in to help them, but he stopped himself as he noticed the Noise disappear one by one. With each frame, the Reapers became more agitated and a bit more tired, but in the span of a few moments, which probably meant a few minutes of fighting in their zones, the Noise were all destroyed. The four Players ran to catch up to them.
"Are you okay?" Sora asked, concerned.
"We're fine," Uzuki answered curtly. "We didn't need your help."
"I can see that," Sora retorted snidely. "Say, how's your jaw?" Uzuki glared at him and balled a fist. Eri's eyes widened. Shiki stifled a giggle as she put together what had happened.
"Don't mind her," Kariya said. "Thanks for checking up on us."
"Hey, can you tell us why the Taboo Noise are back?" Neku asked.
"Hmph. Why should we?" Uzuki shot back.
"So we can help you and the other Reapers put a stop to them," Sora answered.
"They're just as much a threat to you as they are to us," Shiki entreated.
The Reapers looked past Sora and Neku and noticed the girls. Uzuki groaned as she recognized one of them. "Really? You're in this again, too? What is this? Recycling week?" Uzuki complained, her gaze focused on Eri.
Eri gulped nervously. "Um, I don't think we've met before," she said defensively.
Shiki took a step forward. "You're looking for me," she said defiantly, drawing the temperamental Reaper's attention away from her friend.
Uzuki scoffed. "New face this time, huh?"
"Never mind that," Kariya interrupted. "I'm afraid we're not at liberty to tell you anything, even if we wanted to."
"Aw, come on!" Sora pouted. "Why not?"
"If the Conductor or the Game Master say so, then we'll talk. Until then, our lips are sealed." Kariya made a popping noise with his lollipop and his lips to emphasize the point. "Now, we've got to get going. See you around. Oh, and, uh, be careful, will you?"
"Uh, yeah," Neku replied. Kariya nodded respectfully. Uzuki scowled. The two Reapers walked off, Uzuki grumbling complaints.
When they were gone, Shiki and Eri turned back around and started laughing. "Oh my gosh! You punched her?" Shiki chortled.
Sora flicked his thumb across his lip proudly. "Kinda," he said teasingly. He heard a growl from a distance away, and his smile faded. "We should probably go inside and wait for the others."
"Good plan," Eri agreed nervously.
Less than an hour later, Riku, Naminé, Mickey, Aqua, Donald, Goofy, Beat, and Rhyme joined them in 104, and they quickly apprised each other on what they found. Most of them had already come to the same conclusions: that the Taboo Noise were wreaking havoc in the Underground and the Realground and attacking indiscriminately, but they could still be hurt with a Keyblade and magic. However, they were no closer to understanding what brought the Taboo Noise into existence or how they breached into the Realground.
"Mr. Hanekoma said that the culprit is using something called 'Taboo techniques' to conceal his location," Riku said. "Do you know anything about that, Neku?"
"Well, last year, Minamimoto used a symbol to create the Taboo Noise," Neku recalled. "He had another one set up to resurrect him as a Taboo-Reaper hybrid."
"Mr. H said that he taught Mister Pi-Face how to create the Taboo," Rhyme noted.
Beat nodded. "Yeah. And when Phones and I took pictures of the past, we saw Coffee Man fixing up one of those symbols," he added.
Sora, Riku, Naminé, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Aqua did a double take, bewildered by Beat's statement. "Excuse me, but… 'pictures of the past'?" Mickey repeated, wanting further details.
"Mr. H upgraded our phones so we can pick a time in the past and take a picture of what was there at that instant," Neku explained. "I think yours can do it too, Sora."
Sora grinned as he considered the possibilities. "I've got to give that a try."
"Okay, but bear in mind that you can only take three of those pictures per day."
"Does that mean you have a picture of the Taboo sigil?" Naminé asked.
Neku nodded. "Yeah. I should still have it in here." He searched his phone's gallery and brought up a photo of Mr. Hanekoma drawing on a black and grey sigil made of Noise symbols and other different letters. He showed it to the others.
Naminé looked around at everyone. "Does anyone have a pen and paper?" she asked. "I think the one Kairi had disappeared with her."
"I'll ask one of the clerks," Eri said. She went off to do just that. While she was gone, Naminé examined the photograph closely, trying to capture the image in her memory, and doing her best to guess what the symbols that were obscured by Mr. Hanekoma looked like.
"What's on your mind?" Riku asked.
"I want to draw that sigil so we can all have a visual aid for what we're looking for," Naminé answered. "We can use it to search for the sigil."
"Great idea, Naminé," Sora commended. "If we want to stop the Taboo Noise for good, we'll need to find and destroy the Sigil."
"There's a small problem with that," Neku argued. "How do we destroy it?"
There was a thoughtful pause before Sora simply shrugged. "I guess we'll figure it out when we get to that."
"I have a feeling that Mr. H and the Reapers have a better idea of what to do than we do, and they're on our side with this," Rhyme assured everyone.
Eri returned with a sheet of paper on a clipboard and a pen. "Here you go."
Naminé took them from her hands. "Thank you." She took another look at Neku's phone and began sketching.
Riku gave her a thumbs up, then turned back to the others. "While she's doing that, what should we do?" he asked.
"Well, we don't have a mission today, so nothing's time-dependent. And to be real, I don't want to run around the city like this without any real leads to go on," Neku said.
"But I think some of us should patrol, at least in the RG," Mickey suggested. "The Noise are still running around and nobody can fight against them. Gosh, it's even worse than the Heartless situation."
Aqua nodded in agreement. "I'll go with you," she said.
"Us too," Donald and Goofy added in unison.
"Okay, then. What should the rest of us do for the next few hours?" Riku asked.
Shiki perked up. "Ooh! We could go shopping!" Riku and Neku shot her confused and skeptical looks. "Come on! We've spent the last few days just doing missions, fighting Noise, and talking about fighting Noise."
"The Noise thing is pretty important to be dealing with," Riku remarked.
"Just a few hours. We can browse, try on new clothes, just hang out as friends."
Sora, Riku, Neku, and Beat looked at each other, considering the idea, before nodding in Shiki's direction. "Okay. Why not?" Riku agreed.
"Sounds like fun," Sora said.
"Great!" Shiki popped a foot into the air and pumped her fist up.
"Well, we'll see you later. Have fun," Aqua said. She, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy waved as they left the store.
Shortly after, Naminé finished her drawing. Most of the image was an accurate recreation, though she simply drew squiggling lines to fill the section that had been obscured in the photo. The others applauded her for her work. Shiki and Eri then dragged her to join them on their shopping adventure. They had her try on new clothes, and Eri convinced her to pose like a runway model, much to Riku and Beat's amusement. At first, Naminé was embarrassed at having to do it, but she quickly came to enjoy it, posing with more confidence with each outfit. In the meantime, Sora and Riku checked out some clothes for themselves, with Shiki and Eri voicing their opinions on how they looked on them. They noticed a woman wearing a large fur coat arguing with one of the employees, but elected to ignore her outburst.
When they were done, they paid for the clothes that they wanted to buy. Sora and Riku talked Naminé into buying some for herself, despite the fact that she expected to fuse back with Kairi at the end of the week. Sora, Neku, Shiki, Eri, Beat, and Rhyme took pictures of Naminé's sketch for reference as the Players elected to set out and search for the sigil. Riku, Naminé, Beat, and Rhyme chose to conduct their own search, also with the intent of tracking down any Taboo Noise in the RG so that Riku could destroy them, after Riku sends his, Sora's and Naminé's clothes up into the Gummi Ship at a Safe Point. They agree to meet back up along with Mickey, Aqua, Donald, and Goofy at the same place.
"Really? The clothes you wear affects the strength of your Psychs?" Sora asked after Neku and Shiki explained yet another of the Reapers' Game's rules.
Neku nodded. "I guess it ties in with the whole 'brands' thing. Your threads can affect the strength of your attacks, the flow of passing the Light Puck, and the rate at which your strength grows," he clarified.
"And skirts and dresses have a greater effect?" Sora asked in disbelief.
"Sure looks that way," Shiki replied.
"Apparently," Neku added sheepishly.
Sora shrugged. "I just can't imagine that crossdressing would be conducive to saving the world," he remarked.
"I didn't make the rules," Neku said defensively.
"What if it's just not your thing?"
"Then just do you. You seem to do fine with your magic clothes."
Sora nodded, accepting the point. "And you do fine with that high-collar," he returned.
Suddenly, Shiki gasped in apparent horror. Sora shot his gaze around, expecting a Taboo Noise attack, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He turned to Shiki, wondering what had startled her. He saw that she was staring at Neku's pants, and was reaching into her pocket to pull out a sewing needle and thread.
"Neku! Your button's coming undone!" she announced.
Sora looked down and noticed that she was correct: the button on one of his pockets was hanging loose by a thread. "So it is. What does it matter?" he asked, not sure why it was such a big deal. However, Neku sighed in resignation.
"It matters!" Shiki shouted, shooting a glare at Sora, which took him by surprise. She turned her serious gaze back to Neku.
Neku sighed. "Yeah, yeah. I know. Pants. Off. Now." He turned to face Sora and Eri. "Would you mind…?" Sora and Eri obligingly turned around, Sora trying to hide his embarrassment and Eri trying to stifle her giggles. Hoping that there were no other Players or Reapers in the area, Neku removed his shorts and handed them to Shiki.
Less than a minute had passed before Shiki had declared "Done!" After giving Neku a few extra seconds to put his pants back on, Sora and Eri turned around to find that the button had been sewn back up. "Good as new!" She turned to address Sora, realizing that he was unfamiliar with that quirk of hers. "Sorry about that. Loose buttons drive me nuts. You probably think I'm a weirdo, huh?"
Sora shook his head. "What's wrong with it? Besides, you're amazing at sewing," he complimented.
Shiki smiled. "Thanks. It's kinda my passion." She held Mr. Mew up for Sora to see. "I made him myself. See?"
"That's really good," Sora said, studying the threadwork.
"I'm going to be a seamstress." Shiki threw her arm over Eri's shoulders. "Right up with the next big fashion designer."
"Awesome. What about you, Neku? You have any big plans for your future?"
Neku shrugged. "I haven't totally figured it out yet."
Sora nodded and shrugged as well. "Yeah. I'm still trying to figure things out for the long run," he replied.
"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Shiki assured him.
"Yeah." Sora smiled, but it faded as he recalled that at that moment, he was dead, and in a situation where a simple error could lead to him being Erased completely. If something went wrong on any of the missions, he would never see that future. He would never get to make those plans. He also knew that Kairi would never get to have a future either, if he were Erased, all because he cared for her.
He shook his head. He could not bother to think about that. If he and the others did the missions right and stopped the Taboo Noise threat, he and Kairi would be back in the living world. They would continue their quest, and they would succeed and make it back home, and they would have the time to plan their future.
"You okay, Sora?" Shiki asked, pulling Sora out of his thoughts.
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Thanks," he replied.
Upon hearing a hiss and a set of heavy footsteps, they all tensed up and turned to the source of the sound, and saw two Eurobeat Boomers (the kangaroo Taboo), a Death Metal Mink, and a Trance Rhino. Sora, Neku and Shiki took on battle stances, but Eri quaked in her boots.
"Let's do this!" Shiki cheered confidently.
However, Eri was not encouraged. The sight of the monsters, particularly the fiery glare of the rhino and the dark glint on its horn, terrified the girl. "I-I'm sorry," she said, her voice cracking. "I c-can't do this!" She turned around and ran.
"Eri!" Shiki called back as she watched her friend flee. She turned back to Sora and Neku and apologized before running after Eri.
"Don't worry," Neku said. "We can take these."
Indeed, they managed to defeat the Taboo Noise in two rounds of fighting. They looked around for Shiki and Eri, but it appeared as though they were still hiding.
"Pfft. Girl can't even hold her nerves against a few Noise?" Sora and Neku turned to the owner of the voice. Yoko Imaga approached them, a cocky smirk on her face.
"Well, you can't blame her," Sora countered. "They're in this mess because of one of those things."
Neku glared at her. "Hey! You're the Reaper from the first day!" he accused.
Yoko waved her hand dismissively. "Well, yeah. I do have a job to do, anyway," she remarked. "I'm Yoko Imaga, and I'll be your Reaper rival this afternoon."
"Yoko?" Neku parroted, confused by the gender that such a name is usually associated with.
"That's what I called myself," Yoko said.
Neku breathed an "Oh" as he figured it out, though Sora was oblivious, not even realizing that there was anything to question about her name or her gender.
"So, you're going to throw more Noise at us?" Sora guessed.
Yoko shrugged. "Well, since there isn't a mission today, and we Reapers have been assigned to other tasks, I'm not really permitted to try to Erase you," she admitted. "But seeing you strutting yourselves and jumping into Taboo fights, it got me curious. So, I thought I'd jump in and see what you're made of. Get ready!"
"Whatー" Before Neku could respond, Yoko initiated a fight. He and Sora were in separate zones, but they both saw the Reaper standing across from them.
"Think fast!" Yoko taunted. She held her hand out and a bolt of electricity shot toward her opponents. They dodged out of the way and retaliated with attacks of their own: Neku with lightning and Sora with Pyrokinesis. After weathering the first few seconds of damage, Yoko jumped out of the way. Neku threw himself at her and lashed out. She struck back with an electrically-charged backhand, knocking him back. Sora stared, perplexed, as he saw the exact same move, even though he was several feet away. Shrugging, he used Psychokinesis to throw a garbage can at Yoko, knocking her down. Neku was confused as he saw the Reaper suddenly stumble and fall to the ground, but he took the moment to push himself back up and call up an icicle from below Yoko, which she barely rolled out of the way of.
"What are you doing?" Neku asked. "We should be focusing on dealing with the Taboo Noise!" He conjured another icicle, but Yoko avoided it and shot a bolt of electricity at him, which he avoided.
"We're all keeping an eye out for that," Yoko replied. "But I can't just sit back and miss out on all the fun."
Sora heard the same thing and saw the bolt of electricity sail a few feet to his left. "What are you talking about?" Yoko glanced over to him for a second and groaned. She shot a bolt of electricity at him, but he rolled away and conjured flames around her, forcing her to jump away and pat the fire out on her jeans. This gave Neku another opening to lash out at her.
"Well, if you keep wasting your energy fighting Players when you should be surviving, you're the one who's going to get Erased," Neku retorted.
"Shut up!" Yoko spat. She blasted Neku back with a bolt of electricity before she felt Sora knock her back with a set of slashes.
"I didn't say anything," Sora said, wondering why Yoko was shooting the breeze, in a figurative and literal sense, without his input in the conversation.
Yoko cursed. "I think I did something wrong in splitting myself between zones," she muttered. "Takagi said I shouldn't instigate anything without practicing first. Guess I shoulda listened."
Sora and Neku were left confused for a few more seconds before they figured out what was going on: Yoko had divided her body between the two zones, but she had not been able to divide her consciousness. Ergo, she was using the same attacks, saying the same things, and reacting to the same damage in both zones. They knew exactly how they would win the fight: they would attack her and divide her attention; she could only focus on one of them at a time, they reasoned, and one set of attacks from either Player would stun or distract or stun her and leave her open to the other's attacks.
Sora cast a circle of electricity and rushed toward Yoko, zapping her as he charged and punching her across the street, interrupting her attempt to blast Neku. Neku shot bolts of energy as she went down, the effects of which Sora only saw in the form of Yoko spasming on the asphalt. Yoko stood up and shot electricity in two directions, aiming at both Players, but they both dodged, with Neku retaliating with some Pyrokinesis and Sora firing back with a Nexus Ray. Sora saw Yoko jolt due to what he assumed to be several Shockwave strikes from Neku. Rather than attack the vulnerable Reaper, he ran around her until he stopped several feet behind her. When she was sent flying from Neku's finisher, Sora delivered his own attacks with the same Psych. The finisher sent Yoko tumbling across the street. The Reaper groaned in pain. She snapped her fingers, and the three of them were returned to the UG plane.
Yoko pushed herself to her feet and brushed herself off. "Huh. I can see why the other Reapers talk about you with such high respect, Neku Sakuraba. And you, Sora, you really are something else," she complimented.
Sora threw his hand out to the side defiantly. "I've been doing this for a long time, and I've fought far worse than you!" he declared.
Yoko chuckled. "Really? Then why are you here?" she taunted.
Sora opened his mouth to make a sharp retort, but he was unable to do so.
Yoko smirked. "Thought so." She sighed. "Well, that's all I've got for today. See you around." The Reaper flapped her wings and flew off.
Neku scowled up at the Reaper in annoyance before he turned his attention to Sora, who had deflated from her remark. "You okay?" he asked.
Sora shook his head. "How did it even happen?" he mumbled.
Neku positioned himself so that he was facing Sora. "Sora, I don't think that what happened to you was just an awful fluke. I think you were put into the Reapers' Game intentionally," he said.
Sora looked up to meet Neku's eyes. "What do you mean?"
"When I was here the first time, it wasn't because I was an unlucky kid who died unexpectedly. I was chosen by the Composer to be his proxy in a month-long game against the Conductor. He killed me in a back street and put me into the Reapers' Game. He later became my Game Partner to keep tabs on me in my second week."
"Wait… Game Partner? You mean…?" Sora wondered.
Neku nodded. "Yeah. The Composer is Joshua," he confirmed.
Sora's eyes widened. "And you say he's your friend?" he asked in disbelief.
"It's complicated. He thought that Shibuya was corrupted by everyone's vices and had to be destroyed. The Conductor wanted to change his mind, and his idea to do that was to use 'O-Pins' to brainwash everyone. I stopped the Conductor's plan, but Joshua revealed that he was going to destroy Shibuya. I refused to let him, so he challenged me to a duel, where to win I would have to shoot and kill him. But in spite of everything, I couldn't bring myself to shoot him. He shot me and won the Game, but I guess he changed his mind, because he decided to spare Shibuya. He cleaned up the O-Pins and brought me, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme back to life."
"So you forgave him and consider him to be a friend?" Sora asked skeptically, horrified that someone would do such a thing.
Neku shrugged. "Not exactly. I can't really forgive him for what he did. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive him. But, believe it or not, I've learned to trust him," he clarified. "What he did, what he put me through, it was rough. But I came out better for it. And I think he did, too. So, yeah. I trust that he'll make the right call in the end."
Sora crossed his arms. "Uh, okay. So, what were you saying earlier about me being put in the Reapers' Game intentionally?"
"I think Joshua killed you to get you involved in this."
Sora stared at Neku in disbelief, having no idea how to respond. Neku could tell that he was not amused, and he could not blame him.
Sora elected to divert them from the uncomfortable conversation. "We need to get back to tracking the Taboo Noise," he said, his irritation at the revelation seeping into his biting tone.
Neku nodded. "Let's try scanning. Someone might have seen or heard something."
He and Sora did so. They listened to several thought fragments, skipping over the irrelevant trains of thought, before they both heard a thought that piqued their interest.
It sucks that someone stole Akio's Play Plus. I hear a bunch of other people were robbed up near Cadoi City today…
Sora and Neku swapped knowing glances. "You think these thieves might be the same ones from yesterday?" Neku asked.
"We'll see if they piled it all up," Sora replied.
"The question is, are they related to the Noise?" Neku added.
Sora shrugged. "Let's find out."
They ran up to Cadoi City and searched the area. It was not long before they found a pile of junk much like the one that Riku and Beat had mentioned the day before. A crowd had formed around it, but a few police officers were attempting to move them away so that they could take stock of the items.
"Now, let's find some Noise," Sora said. He and Neku scanned, and immediately saw a few Taboo Noise sigils, which closed in on them. In a few minutes, they defeated all of the Noise. When the fights were over, they took a minute to catch their breath.
"That was a lot of them," Neku noted. "I think it's safe to say there was a link between them and the junk."
"Yeah. You think whoever put it all here is still around?" Sora asked.
"What a zetta letdown! You canceled them out before the problem became interesting!" Sora and Neku looked around to find the person who spoke. Neku's eyes widened as he recognized the voice. He gasped when he looked up and saw a man standing on top of the junk pile, glaring down at them. The man was tall compared to Sora, a few inches taller than Neku, and had a light tan, messy ash brown hair, and light brown eyes. He wore ripped gray jeans, a short-sleeved black coat with a high collar and four brass buttons on either side of the chest, black boots, a red bandanna, and a black hat with a short visor. A belt was slung through loops on his coat, but he had not bothered to actually secure it, so both ends hung limp at his sides. His hands and forearms were tattooed completely with black flame art, and a tattoo was partially visible on what was exposed of his chest.
"You," Neku muttered in horror and disbelief.
The man, who appeared to be a couple of years older than the Players, jumped off of his sculpture. Sora and Neku jumped back to get out of his way as he landed where they had stood.
"I had this big showcase for you! But you had to factor out the equation!" the man ranted.
Sora was bewildered by the man's mannerisms. "Who is this whackjob?" he asked.
"Sho Minamimoto," Neku answered. "Reaper, former Game Master, and all-around pain-in-the-butt."
Sora blinked as the information sank in. "Oh. I thought you said he was dead."
Minamimoto laughed. "You can't cancel me out that easily!" He raised an eyebrow when he set his eyes on Neku and smirked. "Well, this is a familiar variable. I was wondering why my numbers were all being crunched. It's been a while."
"What are you doing here?" Neku asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm showing off my magnificent art and deriving power to subtract out the undesirable variables!" Minamimoto boasted.
Sora sighed. "In Japanese, please?"
"Ha! Well, aren't you so zetta slow? You may be an unforeseen variable, but you're still a factoring hectopascal!"
"Um…?"
"If you can't keep track, just ignore him," Neku advised.
"My art isn't to be ignored!" Minamimoto protested. "And I don't appreciate you binomials and your derivatives sabotaging it!" He gestured to the police officers who were in the process of dismantling the pile of junk to take stock of the stolen items. "And cutting down on the wrong side of the equation. Newsflash! Taboo Hectopascals!"
"So you are the one creating the Taboo Noise!" Sora accused, his and Neku's suspicions confirmed. He took on a battle-ready stance. "Neku, let's solve this problem right here and now."
"Good idea," Neku said, taking his own stance.
"You want to get crunched? Alright, then." Minamimoto pulled a megaphone out of nowhere and started shouting into it. "Attention, yoctograms! (It's x 2) die!" Sparks of black electricity crackled off of him and they were split into battle zones.
"Inverse Matrix!" the Reaper shouted, calling a pair of Grunge Wolves into existence. Not sure if Minamimoto was still a Taboo, but knowing that they would not be able to do real damage to the wolves without the Light Puck, Sora and Neku decided to directly engage Minamimoto, avoiding the wolves while waiting to worry about them when they had the Light Puck. Sora wrapped himself in a ring of electricity and threw himself at Minamimoto, but his opponent teleported away right before he could strike. "Zetta slow!" he taunted when he reappeared several feet away, next to a car. Sora used Psychokinesis to pull the car, hitting Minamimoto from behind and knocking him down. The Reaper quickly pushed himself back to his feet. "Factorial!" He extended his hand and fired a blast of energy. After flying a few feet, the blast exploded into eight bolts which flew around the area. Sora jumped over one of the wolves and rolled upon hitting the ground, letting one of the blasts hit the wolf, though another blast flew around and hit him.
As Neku was struggling to push a Grunge Wolf off of him, he felt the warmth of the Light Puck charge him up. He called down a bolt of lightning which struck the Noise in the back, stunning it enough for him to shove it off of him. Pushing himself to his feet, he torched the wolf with Pyrokinesis, then blasted the other one with energy bolts. He heard Minamimoto shout "Die, Radian!" and dashed out of the way, only receiving a glancing blow from the stream of energy blasts, and called down more lightning bolts to dispose of the first wolf. "So zetta slow!" Minamimoto shouted, suddenly teleporting behind Neku just as the wolf was Erased and punching him in the back. Neku was sent flying across the street, crashing painfully. Getting back up, he saw the other wolf lunging toward him. He waited for it to get close enough, then swiped at it with Shockwave power, carving right through it and destroying it with a finishing blow that transferred the Light Puck back to Sora.
The wolf had charged and sent Sora flying an instant before its own destruction. Feeling the power of the Light Puck, Sora reached out and caught onto the post of a street light, spinning around it and then letting go to throw himself back into the fray. He called down lightning bolts to strike Minamimoto, though he dodged the first one and teleported to avoid the second. Sora ran in to slash at him, but Minamimoto teleported out of the way. "You're out of your vector!" the Reaper taunted. Sora turned to strike him again, but Minamimoto kept warping out of his reach. Annoyed, he used Pyrokinesis to start a fire behind him, then moved in for another slash. Just as he predicted, Minamimoto warped back, only to appear in the middle of the flame. He yelped in pain as the fire roasted him.
"You're out of your vector, Pi-Face!" Sora spat. He then blasted the Taboo Reaper with a Nexus Ray.
The Light Puck then passed over to Neku. Minamimoto smirked when he noticed the power boost leave Sora. "Sine!" he yelled, blasting Sora with a powerful energy blast. "Cosine!" Sora jumped to avoid another blast, then spun in midair to dodge as the blast exploded into eight more bolts, some of which flew toward him. "Tangent!" Sora used Psychokinesis to pull a sewer cover to him and caught it, holding it in front of his chest to try and block the last blast that flew toward him. The blast hit the cover and exploded, denting the iron and sending Sora flying back into a wall.
He crashed, then dropped ten feet onto the sidewalk. In pain, he tried to push himself to his feet. "Ugh. I miss Reflect," he complained.
Neku cursed as Minamimoto kept teleporting out of the way of his attacks and either attacking him from behind or firing energy blasts at him. The Grim Heaper was definitely still a Taboo; Neku's attacks had little effect when he did not have the Light Puck, and he was far stronger than the other Reapers that he had faced. He remembered fighting Taboo Minamimoto the previous year. Despite their efforts, he and Beat had been soundly trounced by the mutated Reaper, and they were terrified at the prospect of having to fight him again. However, there seemed to be something different about his strength, as if it had a different vibe.
He decided to turn the tables on Minamimoto now that he had the Light Puck back. He fired bolts of energy at the Reaper, changing his aim when his enemy teleported away. When he heard "So zetta slow!" he used his own teleportation Psyche to vanish just as Minamimoto appeared behind him and struck out where he stood. Reappearing behind him, he lashed out with Shockwave, sending the Reaper reeling. However, Minamimoto regained his footing and raised his fist in the air, a manic grin on his face. "INFINITY!" he screamed. Neku gasped in shock and horror as blasts of energy shot out of the Reaper's fist in every direction, swirling around in search of something to destroy. The balls of energy shimmered with dark energy and purple electricity. He tried to dodge the attacks, but he was struck and knocked down by four blasts.
After rolling across the asphalt, he groaned weakly. I need a Cure Drink, he thought. But before he could use the Pin, Minamimoto materialized in front of him and kicked him in the gut.
"SOHCAHTOA," the Reaper said proudly, tipping his hat as he smirked down at his beaten opponent. After a moment of contemplation, he clicked his tongue and returned the three of them to the UG.
Sora and Neku struggled to stand up, only managing to get up on one knee. They reached for their Cure Drink pins and used them to conjure an orange soda can each. Flicking the tabs to open them, they drank the sodas and felt their strength return, their bruises heal, and the pain fade.
"He's… too strong…" Sora groaned.
Minamimoto cackled. "Well, that was a workout! Well, this is where our paths diverge."
"What?" Neku asked.
"I'll plug you into the final equation. But I'll give you a few more days to admire my art before I crunch you all," Minamimoto replied. "I hope you will enjoy my masterpiece!" He belted out another laugh, then leapt into the air, soaring over the skyline.
Sora and Neku stared after him, wondering how they would be able to defeat him in their next encounter. Neku spoke for the both of them. "We are so一"
"BWAAAAAAAAAH!" Beat yelled when he heard what had happened, reeling back on one foot and bracing himself against the force of the preceding statement, after the whole party had reconvened in 104. "How is that Pi Face still around? We saw him get crunched!"
"When Reapers are Erased, don't they fade away like Noise and other Players do?" Shiki asked, seeing a clear explanation for their mistake.
Beat blinked for several seconds as he considered her point. "Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right."
"How did none of the Reapers notice he wasn't Erased?" Riku wondered.
"Maybe he used the 'Taboo techniques' to conceal himself while the Reapers were cleaning up the mess from last year," Rhyme guessed.
"Well, if he's as strong as you're saying, he won't be easy to beat," Mickey said. "We'll need a plan."
"Let me know how it goes," Eri said sadly. "I think I should sit this out."
Everyone turned to face Eri, feeling concerned for her. "Eri, what's wrong?" Shiki asked.
"I can't do this. I'm… I'm a coward," Eri said, a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Eri…" Shiki wanted to say something to comfort her friend, but she did not know what to say.
"If you had someone else as your Partner, you could do so much. But I'm just dragging you down. I keep dragging you down."
"That's not true," Sora assured her. "You're not a burden."
"Eri, I don't一"
"I can't! I just… I'm sorry!" Eri turned and ran away, crying.
"Eri, wait!" Shiki called after her, but she kept running. She sighed in dismay, not sure what she should do.
Naminé, sympathizing with Eri's insecurity, stepped forward, wondering if there was anything she could do. "I'll go talk to her," she said.
Shiki shook her head. "No. I should," she argued.
"I think talking about it with you is what scares her," Naminé countered. "I think it might be better if someone whom she isn't as close with went."
Shiki nodded, realizing that she was probably right. Naminé went off to find Eri. Aqua approached Shiki, curious about the exchange that had just occurred. "What's going on?" the bluenette asked.
Shiki sighed. "When we stepped outside, we were attacked by Taboo Noise. Instead of standing and fighting like Sora and Neku did, Eri ran for a place to hide," she recounted. "I think she's terrified of the Taboo Noise, after one of them attacked us in the Realground and hurt her."
"I can understand that," Aqua said sincerely. "I'll go talk to her, too."
Naminé and Aqua found Eri sitting on a bench beside a rack of shirts, crying. Aqua grabbed a tissue and handed it to her. "What's wrong?" Naminé asked.
Eri sniffed. "I can't fight the Taboo monsters. I know I'm supposed to, but I just can't do it," she lamented. "We can't fight them without a Light Puck, right? If we get attacked by those things, I'm just going to get her killed. I'm weak. I'm a coward."
Aqua shook her head. "You're not a coward. There's nothing weak about being afraid, especially after what you've been through," she consoled her. "I spent months, though to everyone else it was twelve years, in a hostile environment where powerful monsters hunted and tried to kill me. I think I'm on the way to recovering, but I still see them bearing down on me when I close my eyes. And the first time I saw something that reminded me of my experience一and it was really harmless, too一I had a breakdown. Eri, you have every reason to be afraid. You shouldn't beat yourself up over it."
"But she's only in this because of me. All I ever do is hurt her."
"What do you mean?" Aqua asked.
"For a long time, Shiki had wanted to be a fashion designer, coming up with clothes like I can," Eri explained, tugging on her shirt sleeve to indicate that the garments she wore were her own design. She then silently cursed herself, that it would seem as though she was showing off. "One day, she was pouting about how she couldn't come up with a good design. I tried to cheer her up, and I told her that she wasn't meant to be a fashion designer." Another tear rolled down her face as she remembered that fateful day. "I wanted to say that she was an amazing seamstress. I was trying to cheer her up and encourage her, but I only hurt her feelings. She ran away crying before I could explain what I meant. The next thing I hear, she'd died in a horrible accident."
"So you blamed yourself, because you said the wrong thing and hurt her feelings?" Naminé guessed. Eri nodded. "Is that why you're second-guessing whatever you say or do?" Eri looked up at her in surprise, wondering how she figured that out. "I'm not really used to this, but I've seen fourteen years of body language. I noticed you tense up when you showed us that you designed your own clothes, as if you were afraid we'd misinterpret what you were saying. You're afraid you'll say something wrong and hurt someone again."
Eri nodded. "A lot of the time, I keep my mouth shut until I know for sure that I'm going to say what I'm trying to say. But sometimes I slip up, and I think I might have said something the wrong way, and that I might have offended someone. I can't even bring myself to tell Shiki how I really feel."
Naminé put her hand on Eri's shoulder sympathetically. "I know your anxiety," she said. "For just about my whole life, I've been afraid that if I used my powers, I would only ever hurt people. Even when I used them to fix damage that I had done, I had to be careful that I didn't make things worse. Even then, events beyond my control ensured that there would still be tragedy. After all the pain I caused, I didn't think anyone would want me around." She glanced back over to Sora, Riku, and her other friends. "But I was wrong. Our friends still care about us, Eri. They wouldn't want us to let our fears shackle us."
Aqua nodded. "She's right. If you're always afraid of what you might say, you'll never be able to let your friends know how you feel." She remembered a similar event in which she misspoke and said something hurtful, when she accused Terra of putting himself too close to the darkness. Though she had doubted the claim that Terra had willingly stolen a heart, she had still been concerned that he would be in danger from his inner darkness. However, she had overstepped, let him realize that she had been sent by Master Eraqus to watch over him, and inadvertently made him believe that they did not trust him, driving him away. At the same time, she had nearly lost Ventus' faith as well. She wondered if things would have turned out differently if she had not accidentally pushed her friends away. She shook her head. The past is the past. She could not let it drag her down.
"You made a mistake. You should learn from it, rather than just let it weigh you down," she advised.
Eri sniffed, and turned to Aqua and Naminé, a soft smile forming on her face. "Thanks. I guess you're right."
Meanwhile, the main group had continued to discuss the Taboo Noise situation.
"Okay, so Pi Face is still around, but we can't beat him," Shiki recapped. "What should we do now?"
"Maybe we should let the Reapers know what we've found," Rhyme suggested.
"What?! No way we sharing excel with those guys!" Beat protested.
Riku crossed his arms and stared at Beat in bewilderment. Is this guy really that short on "excel"? he wondered. Most of the others were similarly confused by his malapropism, save for Goofy, who did not notice.
"But with Pi Face Erasing Players and Reapers alike, we're on the same side. 'The enemy of our enemy is our friend'," Rhyme argued.
"She's right," Sora agreed. He took his phone out as he had an idea. "Hey, we've been getting mission texts from the GM, right? You think we can text him back?"
Neku and Shiki's eyes widened as they realized that it was a very good idea. "Worth a try," Neku said.
Sora opened up the mission message and began typing: "Sho Minamimoto is behind the Taboo Noise attacks." He hit SEND and smiled when the message appeared to go through. "Hope that worked," he said.
"Now that we all know what we're up against, we can work together to come up with a strategy," Mickey declared.
"But before we try to fight him, we still need to find that Taboo Refinery Sigil, and figure out how he got them to breach into the RG," Shiki added.
"Good point. We should probably go back out and search for clues," Neku suggested.
"Okay. We'll see you when you get back," Riku said.
"Unless the Reapers knock you out before you do so. In which case, see you tomorrow," Donald added.
Sora nodded. "Okay."
When Sora and Neku stepped outside, night had already fallen. However, the streets were illuminated by streetlights, residence windows, traffic signals, and the 104 Jumbotron. They traveled west, looking around and scanning for anything out of place. After fighting a set of Taboo Noise in A-East, they stopped to decide where to search next. Their discussion came to a halt when they heard a voice coming from a nearby alley. "Hand over your money, and no one gets hurt." Turning to the source of the voice, they ran into the alley and saw a man pointing a gun at a terrified couple.
"Hey!" Sora shouted. He groaned, mentally cursing himself for forgetting that people in the Realground could not see or hear him. "Isn't there something we can do?"
"I don't know," Neku admitted. "I've never had to do something like this before."
Sora circled the mugger, noticing that he had his finger on the trigger, and his hand was twitching. The slightest surprise could cause him to shoot. He tried to think of a way to stop such an incident. Should he Imprint the man, put a thought into his head telling him to drop the weapon? No, that might confuse him and cause him to panic. Was there a way to keep the hammer from falling if he pulled the trigger?
Sora's eyes widened as he came up with an idea. He remembered how he threw the trash bin at the frog Noise on the first day, and he recalled Neku telling him about Reaper Creeper. He could try to hold the hammer in place, but it seemed like a delicate operation that could backfire if he did it wrong.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman pull her wallet out of her purse, but her shaking hand caused her to fumble and drop it. He realized that this would cause the mugger to shoot by mistake and knew he had to do something fast. Realizing that he did not have the time to be delicate, he instinctively shoved his hand straight through the gun just as the mugger flinched and pulled the trigger.
The gun clicked, but did not fire. The mugger and his would-be victims looked at the gun in confusion. The mugger wondered how it could have jammed, and as he turned it away from the couple to examine it, they took the time to turn and run. Sora and Neku let out a breath that they had not realized they were holding in. Sora's relief turned to anger and he roughly grabbed the gun and ripped it out of the mugger's hand, leaving the man surprised as the gun floated in midair in front of him. Before he could make a move for it, Sora swung it, striking him across the face with the butt of the pistol hard enough to knock him out instantly. The mugger fell to the ground with a thud while Sora held the cracked gun in his hand
Neku stepped up to Sora. "Not bad," he commended. However, Sora did not pay attention. He was entranced by the shape of the gun, particularly the front. Neku noticed Sora's focus on the weapon. "Uh, are you alright?" he asked.
"Y-yeah," Sora replied. "It's just that… I think I've seen this before." He had a flashback to his last living memory, as he spun around and saw, for a split second, a similar shape. Or, perhaps, it was the same shape. "Neku, I think this was the last thing I saw before I woke up in the Reapers' Game."
"I've seen a gun model like that too. Far too many times," Neku remarked.
The moment in the back alley played back in his mind over and over, and Sora quickly put together what must have happened, figuring out how he must have died. "Neku, I think I was shot."
Neku nodded, figuring as such. He took a closer examination of the gun. "Yep. That's definitely the same kind of gun that Joshua had," he muttered.
"The same kind he had when he shot you, you mean?" Sora surmised.
Neku nodded. "Exactly."
Sora dropped the gun next to the mugger in disgust, and he and Neku walked away.