Chapter 11
Iori Junpei wasn't what you'd call a musical know-it-all, but he did like music. He listened to his fair share of radio, he had an iPod, and (on a whim) he'd even downloaded some music onto his PSP. He wasn't into the audio scene like some people (like Hamuko's brother, if the kid's ever-present, well-worn blue headphones were any indicator), but he definitely listened to more music than some.
However, at the moment, the blue-capped teen didn't really like any traditional tunes or melodies. The only music to his ears right now was-
Smash!
-the sounds of bottles being wiped clean out of existence.
The boy wiped the sweat off his brow as broken glass fell around him, filling the nearby air with the stink of alcohol. For once, however, Junpei was willing to live with it if he could just get more of these wastes of space out of this universe. The normally enthusiastic boy's metal bat touched the ground as he prepped for another swing, and he reached into the nearby trash bag for another round of therapeutic destruction. As his hand wrapped around another (mostly) empty bottle, he straightened and looked up.
The night seemed to swallow up the empty baseball field he was in, despite the waning moon, partly covered by imposingly dark clouds, lighting up some of it in a glowing white. Already, many broken glass shards, colored everything from brown to green to clear, littered the field, the only remnants of the boy's activities for the past hour. One of his hands loosely clutched a bottle of some lime-flavored, "lite" poison, while the other still held his brown-stained bat, dripping small bits of disgusting liquid onto the baseball diamond.
He lifted and pointed his bat at some nondescript point on the horizon, muttering a quiet "Home run!" to himself when his hand was fully extended. With a flick of his wrist, up went the bottle, spinning around as the boy brought his hands together and back for another swing. Down came the bottle, slowing its twirls as it approached the perfect hit box for a swing, then-
Smash!
If it hadn't been made out of glass, it probably would've sailed out of orbit, Junpei thought with a small smile. The smile quickly disappeared as he once again noticed a sickly sweet stench in the air, and he reached his hand into the bag with another sigh.
His hand hit the bottom of the bag, sans bottle, and he groaned a little. Ugghh, now he really had no excuse for not going home. He wiped his bat on the ground and rubbed some dirt on it (while also inwardly apologizing to the baseball diamond for sullying its soil), then hefted it onto his shoulder.
He hefted too hard, and it hit the back of his head with a dull whump. The baseball player let out a pained moan. Ohhh, man, that'll leave a mark.
Lamenting his fate to permanently have fewer brain cells than most of the population, he readjusted the bat to not give himself any more cranial damage as he grabbed the trash bag he'd brought from home. The boy passed over the pitcher's mound and second base on his way out, his trash bag bouncing on his legs behind him as he walked down the hill to the cracked asphalt street below. Flickering streetlamps stood far above him as he traveled on, going through an oft-ignored side of Iwatodai, home to a small baseball team, various gangs… and, sadly, the boy's house.
To be fair, it wasn't exactly a part of Iwatodai. It lay just outside it, close enough to be considered part of the community by the public, but far enough that it was outside the direct authority and control of the Kirijo Group. And as much as Junpei would like to blame them for this section of town's dilapidated state, it simply wasn't something that they were responsible to control. The baseball player wasn't one for blaming others for problems out of their hands.
After all, "problems out of his hands" was basically what Junpei's home life was.
Light plips began to gently resound from all around the road. But shortly afterwards, the sky opened up and loosed its long-overdue payload on the nearly empty streets. Junpei popped his collar to hide from the downpour, however ineffective the action was, and he quickly moved to find some shelter.
Soon enough, as if the universe itself answered his call, he passed by a familiar convenience store. Grinning a little, he quickly moved to it and opened the door, with the bell loosely tied to it jingling as he entered the store.
"Ah, Junpei-kun!" the store's owner greeted with a smile as the boy shook his dripping clothes by the door. "How're you doin'? Gonna have the usual?"
"Hangin' in there!" the boy responded with a wide smile (Although, perhaps a little strained). "And yeah, of course! You mind ringin' it up for me?"
"Not at all," the man behind the counter replied, wheeling his chair over to the cash register and hitting a few buttons on it until the proper price appeared on the screen. Meanwhile, Junpei grabbed a neatly wrapped, triangular onigiri before slipping out his wallet and placing 500 yen on the counter.
"Keep the change," he said, his smile becoming slightly more natural as he handed over the bill.
The man chuckled. "You always do that, Junpei-kun," he replied, half to himself as the boy left the store with another jingling accompaniment.
Out of the storeowner's sight, Junpei finally dropped his smile. He stayed under the small overhang while the heavens emptied buckets, and let himself slowly fall to the ground with his back against the wall. There wasn't really any need for him to come to this place as often as he did: it wasn't actually near his house, and he didn't particularly like its food. But the convenience shop got so little business and was robbed too often for the boy to not try to help out the poor shopkeeper, even with something so simple as spare change from a rice ball.
The capped boy unwrapped his food, thought about it for a moment, and decided to gamble and take a bite out of it… before immediately wrinkling his nose after his taste test. Yup, that was why no one ate here. Yikes. At this point, why did he even try to eat it?
He started rewrapping it. His "old man" would probably eat it up just fine, he rationalized, unconsciously narrowing his eyes and crushing the rice ball a little as he repacked it. It'd be pretty damn surprising if the old codger had any taste buds left at all.
…And now, he finally got to the reason why he didn't wanna go home. Ever since Junpei was five, his dad had been a burden on everyone, including the boy himself. And it was all because of the damn booze, of course. Why did he start drinking? Why did he keep doing it? It didn't freakin' matter. All that mattered was that the geezer was tearing himself apart, and he was taking everyone down with him.
The capped teen looked down at the gutter by his feet, and noticed a dirty can of… something bobbing in the silty water rushing into the drain. Just look at that piece of trash. It even looks out of place in the gutter. Junpei snorted disdainfully at it, before picking it up with two fingers and holding it as far from his body as he could. He wasn't gonna leave it in the drain there, even if it was a can of…
…Soma?
Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck with his other hand, Junpei shifted to hold the can more normally. It had really looked like a beer can when he'd been thinking of alcohol…
Well, whatever. It didn't matter now. The Soma can was tossed into the nearby recycling bin with a light clang, almost silenced by the sound of the downpour beyond the overhang. Junpei looked outside again. It sure doesn't look like that rain's gonna be stoppin' anytime soon…
With that thought in mind, he took a few more seconds to get ready, packing all of his belongings away and securely (well, relatively securely) zipping up his pack. Taking a deep breath, he re-popped his collar and stepped out into the driving rain.
And then, the world turned black.
He blinked.
…Huh? It hadn't been that dark a second ago…
The black haired boy tried to move around, but only bonked his arms, legs, and head on something when he tried to shift them around. He could barely move any part of his body at all.
Junpei wasn't claustrophobic, but he wasn't afraid to say that he started freaking the hell out.
Moving more frantically, he started hitting nearly every surface of the box he was trapped in, even smacking his head enough times to give himself a headache.
It seemed like a few moments later, but he felt so much more tired. How long had he been trapped in the box for? He didn't even know. Just keep trying, he thought as he kept bashing his now-bruised limbs against the box's sides. I won't give up now…!
…Wait, when did he get those bruises?
The box's side popped off as he gave one final, huge push, and Junpei fell out with a startled yelp. He splashed down hard in a puddle, face first, and opened his mouth to groan… but something warm, salty, and decidedly not water filled his mouth.
He recoiled and spat out the ooze with a "GAH!" Looking down at the puddle, he checked to see just what the hell he'd swallowed, and saw… blood?
Blood!? The boy's breath turned strangled as he shot his head up and looked around.
The entire world was colored green… but it was a sickly, snotty green, not a clean, grassy green. Even more alarming was the sky. It was pouring blood, with the sticky gunk dripping down from streetlights and roofs and coalescing in pools, flowing into drains, and sticking fast to Junpei's stunned and increasingly terrified face.
"What the hell is this…?" he muttered, sitting down hard against his box, red goo gluing itself to his back as he sat. "What the hell is this…?!"
"Stay back…! I said stay back!" The damn hovering alien-thing still refused to listen, instead blithely twirling the book in its head as Junpei backed himself into the convenience store's corner, clutching his bloody baseball bat. "I'm warnin' ya…! I'm gonna come at with this bat, and it's not gonna be pretty by the time I'm done with y-"
Junpei suddenly clutched his head, and his bat's tip dropped to the ground with a dull clang. Wait… how did he get in here? That monster wasn't there a second ago, right?! Wasn't he sitting down outside…?!
The monster spun in glee.
Junpei yelled in terror as the flying book-jellyfish squealed, and another gust of wind swept him off his feet, cutting deep into his legs. His back hit the ground next to the broken windows hard, and he let out a pathetic whimper as his own blood started oozing out and mixed with the globs of drying blood on the street, even as the sky kept crying more out.
What's happening to me…?!
"-deuces!"
Another demon appeared, this one blond and humanoid, blocking the sharp cutting power of the former's wind-spell, but still causing Junpei's now-ripped school uniform to violently flutter as the wind broke around him from his guarded crouch. The new demon was less lucky, being ripped from its position and sent flying to the windows, smashing them with the telltale noise of shattering glass.
Fortunately, the beast-thing wasn't allowed to take advantage of the opening. Just as the new demon tore through the convenience store (And oh man, was the poor store owner gonna be pissed), an almost-familiar grey-haired boy charged the book-monster from the side. The monster turned just in time to shriek as the boxer's powerful fist crashed into it, with black ooze and a few pages from its book flying out as it careened to the ground and smacked against the curb with a crack!
The new arrival faced the capped teen with a smirk, while the jellyfish twitched and convulsed on the ground as more black liquid seeped out and mixed with the pools of red blood on the street. He gestured at the boy with one fist, still covered in dark muck from the monster's insides, while holding a smoking silver gun in the other. "What are you waiting for?" he nearly cried in his excitement. "Come on!"
The boy on the ground wiped his eyes (And since when was he crying?) and stood, grasping his bat tighter as he started to charge with a little bit of his own smirk creeping onto his face.
"Get back here, you sunnova bitch!"
"Hey, you alright?"
Junpei blinked up at the grey-haired boxer stupidly. "Huh?"
The other teen chuckled, semi-uncomfortably, and shifted his weight on his kneeling position next to the black haired boy. "I saw you lying down here, passed out, and I just wanted to make sure you were ok. It seems like you're doin' fine, though."
"Uh, yeah," Junpei said, sitting up from his previously prone position on the cement under the convenience store's overhang. "…Sorry," he said after a long moment of silence. "I just… feel like I'm forgetting something…"
That got the other's attention. "Really? What's the last thing you-"
"Oh my GOD!" Junpei yelled, cutting off the boxer's question as he leapt to his feet. "What the hell was I smoking?! I was stuck in that effin' box, and it was raining blood, and then there was that monster that was firing wind sword things at me, and then…"
He turned to the boxer, who was looking at him with his initial surprise turning into bemusement, and belatedly remembered the grey-haired boy as one of his Senpais from school. "And then… Akihiko-senpai… You…"
He's a Superhero. Of course Akihiko-senpai's a Superhero. Why didn't I see it before?
"Yeah?" Super-Senpai asked, total bemusement now covering his face as he tilted his head questioningly.
"Why don't you wear a cape?" Junpei blurted out.
Akihiko blinked and looked at the capped teen like he was from another planet. Which, given the situation, was actually pretty ironic.
"Er, sorry, nevermind," Junpei quickly amended, flapping his hand to indicate that they should move on as he sat next to the Senior. "You were sayin'?"
"I was asking what was the last thing you remember. But it looks like you've remembered everything, which means you're like us. Although…" the boxer gave the capped teen a closer look. "You said that you woke up in the coffin?"
"Yeah, but whaddya mean 'you're like u'- H-huh? Wait, coffin?! That's what that box was?!"
"That's really odd…" the boxer muttered, not even acknowledging Junpei's outburst. "Mitsuru's really gonna want to see you, now."
"Mitsuru… As in, Mitsuru-Senpai? The student council president Mitsuru-Senpai?"
"That's the one. She's also the one who runs your new dorm." The boxer winced, probably realizing that he might have been assuming a little too much, and backtracked. "Uh… I mean, if you want to move in. I mean, we could really use your help…" He ran a hand through his hair as a frustrated look swept over him. "Ugh, I'm so bad at this…"
"You want me to move in?" Junpei cut in again, hope swelling in his chest to an almost unbearable degree.
The grey haired boy nodded, a little gratitude flickering on his face for the easy out. "Yeah, pretty much. We have something we'd like your help with, and we'd like to have everyone working for us living in the same place."
"Say no more!" Junpei said with a massive, almost painfully wide grin. "I'm in, all the way!"
Akihiko blinked. "Just like that?"
"Just like that! I don't care if I'm shoveling crap, I'd love to move into you guys' dorm!"
Junpei's Senpai studied him for a second longer. Then he just shook his head with a smile. "Heh. Well, it's nice to see someone with enthusiasm. Alright, I'll see when we can move you into the dorm. It might take a few days, though."
"It's fine, I'll wait!"
"You want to move out that badly?" Akihiko asked bluntly.
At this point, even thinking about why he wanted to move out wasn't enough to ruin Junpei's high. Although his smile may have gotten slightly more artificial. "Honestly, Senpai? Hell yeah!"
Akihiko wasn't the most socially apt person at Gekkoukan, but apparently even he could tell when to drop a subject. "Good t' hear. But don't worry about toilet duty, we've got something much bigger planned."
"Yeah? What're we doing?"
Akihiko's smile, already dangerously close to predatory, turned downright feral. "Kicking ass. Those monsters are called shadows, and it's our duty to put them in their place."
And here Junpei was, thinking his day couldn't get any better.
"That's what we'd be doing? Being superheroes?" The black-haired boy unconsciously reached up to grip his hat in excitement.
"Heh. That's one way to put it." The boxer punched one fist into his other open hand. "I think of it like a police force, helping to guard the people. Helping to save people." Akihiko's face turned slightly downward as his smile weakened. "That's why we need more people like you, more people awake during The Dark Hour: to help prevent as many incidents as possible."
"…Uh, Dark Hour? Senpai, you sound cool and all, but I've got no clue what you're sayin'."
The grey-haired boy scratched the back of his head and sighed, a little embarrassment flickering onto his face. "Er… right. Again, Mitsuru's gonna explain it for you, so don't mind what I'm saying for now."
"Sounds good to me, Senpai!" Junpei said, still too far above cloud nine to worry about most of the details. Although… "Oh, do y' think she'll know about those weird memory gaps, too?"
"Hm… That's probably due to Dark Hour adjustment. She'll explain it better, but basically the side effects of initial exposure to the Hour are memory loss and disorientation. It looks like you got hit with all the memory loss but none of the disorientation."
"So, in a way, I've already got a leg up on the competition!"
"In a way, I guess. There are still some people who've fully adjusted to the Hour, so you've still got some catching up to do." He glanced sidelong at the boy. "Speaking of which… you should probably head home. It's a miracle you haven't already collapsed, I guess you've got some crazy stamina."
"Hehehe… well, what can I say?" The capped teen shifted his hat in embarrassment. "But what about you, Senpai? I can't imagine you come here that often, so if you need help gettin' back to Iwatodai proper…"
"Nah, I'll be fine. I come down here looking for an old friend all the time. He's actually the reason I came by here in the first place. You just worry about getting home yourself, alright? We'll be in touch."
"Will do, Senpai. I'll talk with ya soon!"
The two boys waved their goodbyes, with one of them being much more enthusiastic than the other, before turning and going their separate ways.
Junpei all but bounced his way home, slapping streetlamps for absolutely no reason other than to get rid of some of this energy. The rain had long ago lightened to a drizzle, the moon was out once again, and now that a certain teenager was moving out of his home to pursue a career as a part-time superhero... well, all seemed right in the world.
And much to the confusion of many students and teachers, Junpei's grin wouldn't be able to leave him for the rest of the week.
Wheress he gone now?
Shouldnt he be back by now?
Back. Bach? Bac. Baaaaak.
What a weird wrd.
Reaching for a bottle.
I slipppd?
Ha! I repainted the rug!
"Eehehe-hic-hahaha!"
…Should I call her?
Nah. I dun' wanna hear her now. She'd jsst tell me to stop drunkin.
Hm. Where's Jnpei?
"Juuuunpeeeeei… I made a whoopsy-daisy!"
"Juuuunpiiiiii… Juuu-"
Slam.
"Shut it, Dad! You're wakin' the neighbors!"
"Oo-ops! Thorry! Ah, sorry! Haha-hic-"
"What the hell's wrong with you?! Listen, you've gotta shape yourself up, 'cuz I'm-"
"Juuunpeeei, can you get me another-"
"Shut up, Dad! I'm moving out, OK? I won't be able to look after you, or get you another damn beer, or clean out the effing carpet again, or solve your damn problems again!"
Prblems? Thats not a good wrd.
…Problems…
"I'm moving on, Dad, alright? I'm moving forward."
Slam.
Moving on…
…Moving forwrd…
"…Good on ya, Kiddo. Glad one of us cn."
AN: I wish I knew why on earth this chapter was so hard for me to write… But, finally, here's an update! And not on a Wednesday to boot!
Also, really quick: For those who haven't seen my profile, I won't be able to reply to reviews or PMs for the next work week (July 7-11), and I'll only be able to reply sporadically from July 12-19. For more details, check out my profile.
Shout outs to: PoisonBanana, f22-raptor340, diaaan, Mazioslash, and Enigmatic Magus for following; f22-raptor340, Aya-Mikage2002, and cloudseth for faving; and emelian65, Yoshikunitsu, Doom Marine 54, Hoshiro Raider, Asahar4, Angevon, and Gu3st for reviewing!
[In response to Gu3st: Sorry, no myth corner here either! I'll be talking about that in a second. And thanks, I totally agree with you there: better late than bad, in this case. Thanks for reviewing!]
As Gu3st pointed out, there was no Myth corner in the last chapter… and there isn't one here either! Why? Well, I love myth corner, but I don't want to write about myth topics that haven't come up in the story yet, for organizational purposes and spoiler purposes (Bringing up a myth figure that's not in canon would point to me using it in the story… and I'd much rather surprise you with any new myth figures I add!).
But, of course, that leaves us with a very empty AN. I've been thinking on what to do to fill it up, and sometime during that process, I remembered that I have a lot of songs just sitting on YouTube playlists. We're talking about hundreds of songs, guys, all (kinda) organized and not doing any good to anyone except me.
So, I was thinking… if you guys would like it, I could start up a song of the week type-thing, with one song and a little blurb describing what I think of it in the AN. I'd be doing this on weeks/updates where there isn't a Myth Corner, to fill up space in the AN and to improve my writing. (And, let's be honest, to raise my overall word count too).
So, just like with myth corner: how'd you like it? Since it's just one song per week/update, I don't see it interfering with my update schedule, so you can just let me know whether or not you'd enjoy reading it without worrying about how it'll affect my update rate. I'll try to set up a poll about it, too.
Phew! On that note, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! If you've got the time, drop a review or send me a PM, and I'll get back to you when I can.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you soon!