Hi again! Now for the start of part 2! Why call it part 2? Because we're shifting to Fret's POV now! A bit sudden I know, but it'll all make sense in time.

Shorter chapter this time, but that's because quite a bit is going on here.

Thank you as always for oddvector being there as I write/edit, and Darkblaw too! You guys are the best! And also very patient, even if googledoc decides to crash multiple times in a row.

Scale 7: No Turning Back

Another day, huh? Fret sure wished he could stop suddenly waking up in a random part of Shibuya, even if syncing for battles was kinda fun. But it'd sure be nice to go home and be alive again and stuff. Even if that meant more homework...Wait, was he gonna need to catch up on homework? Well, he couldn't exactly claim being dead for a week as a valid excuse, even though it totally should have been.

Oh, Rindo was up too. Maybe. He had a thousand-yard stare and didn't seem to even register Fret's presence. Fret wondered if maybe he himself had looked like that too just a few moments ago.

Minamimoto meanwhile was nowhere in sight, as usual. Just like 75% of the day really. Minamimoto could probably give Fret an exact percentage like the giga-geek he was. Granted, he was a chad giga-geek, but Fret's point still stood. Though now Fret was curious. Maybe he would ask.

Oh, Rindo was looking at him! And, uh...what was with that soft grin? It made Fret's heart pound a little more than it should have. But Rindo didn't need to know that! "Whatcha smiling about, Rindude?"

Rindo didn't say anything. He just closed his eyes and...crouched down? Why?

"Rindude?" Man, why was Rindo acting so weird? The day had barely even—

Then Minamimoto teleported outta nowhere next to Rindo, glowering at him like he had deliberately written a math problem wrong.

Kweh?

And then Rindo glared back!

What the hell?

"Zeptogram." Minamimoto's tone was sharp as a blade. "How many iterations?"

"Don't worry." Rindo's voice sounded so calm. "The time travel doesn't matter anymore."

Huh?

Funnily enough, this made Minamimoto sneer. "Right answer. Those iterations that pin produces only lead to subtracted timelines that are reduced to utter garbage." Whoa, since when could Minamimoto look so repulsed? "So's your 4-2-1."

"I know," said Rindo.

Well Fret sure didn't know, and he sure wished someone would actually tell him—Whoa, that was a lotta Noise symbols! All hurtling toward Rindo.

"Look out!" Fret exclaimed. "I don't think we can handle that much Noise at once!"

"It'll be fine." Rindo didn't even open his eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"Whaddaya mean it doesn't matter?" Fret almost shouted. What was Rindo thinking? "I don't wanna be Noise chow!"

"Is this what you want, Zeptogram No. 2?" Minamimoto looked straight at Rindo.

"Yeah." Not a drop of hesitation.

Minamimoto's lip curled into a snarl. "Hmph. Not my problem. Get yourself factored." He turned toward Fret. "Zeptogram No. 1, let's go."

"What? And leave Rindo?"

"Zeptogram No. 2's dangerous to you now that he's in the 4-2-1 loop," said Minamimoto. "And he's fully intending to let it crunch him. But you don't have to be part of that equation."

Fret's mind stopped at 'crunched'. He knew what crunched meant. And for Rindo to intentionally let himself get crunched must mean…

Shit, had Fret missed something? The Game had been shitty and stressful on all of them, but he thought Rindo had been doing good, or at least okay. What had happened? What was happening?

Rindo was quiet at first. "If you don't want to be a part of this, then...then you can go, if you want."

"W-What are you saying, Rindo? I'm not letting you be Noise chow either!"

Minamimoto directed his voice towards Fret as if Rindo couldn't understand a word he said; he was watching Rindo like his Rindude was some feral animal. "4-2-1 is a formula of forced integration multiplied by a strange attractor of emotions produced by the unprecedented growth of the harmonic eigenvector. All your quettajoules of potential will zero out to nothing," he said with a disgusted harshness. "Is that what you want, Zeptogram No. 1?"

"If it'll keep Rindo from dying, then yeah!" Fret took his usual fighting pose next to Rindo. "S-So let's do this, buddy!" Noise first, then they needed to talk—to really talk.

Minamimoto scrutinized him for a moment, disappointment written in his scowl. "I don't have time for uninspiring integers."

Fret's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well, I don't have time for people who just ditch their buddies like old clothes. I'm gonna be here for my Rindude! No friend of mine's crunching himself on my watch!"

"Garbage." With a grunt, like looking at Fret made him sick, Minamimoto vanished.

Fret felt the usual weird warping pull to the Noise plane, the usual sensation of becoming more than himself through the sync, and the usual—

Oh holy shit what even were these intense feelings rushing in from Rindo? Giddiness, sorrow, fear, need...love? Holy shit, love? It was all so much at once that Fret could barely tell what his own feelings were. Like his Soul was struggling not to cave in under the crushing pressure of Rindo's.

But Fret's Soul might have been crumpling anyway. A hot stinging and shuddering all over his Soul. Pangs of panic deep within his chest. Something squeezing and trying to burrow into his heart. Rindo...Rindo, please…

A soft halo of warmth surrounded him…Was Rindo holding him?

Then Fret's chest started to feel so warm. That pressure, while not easing, started to feel more like an embrace. Giddiness, sorrow, fear, need...love? These...These were Fret's feelings too? And...being terrified of losing someone, being alone...Yeah, yeah, he knew that feeling all too well...All the time...Rindo, don't go, please...More of this warmth, please...

Then that spiral of heat spun right into Fret's heart, and Fret almost shrieked in delight. Fret felt so warm and happy and safe that he could fall to the ground and lie curled up laughing forever. But he wouldn't hit the pavement because Rindo was right here, holding Fret tight.

And Fret should...Oh wait, he was already hugging Rindo back. Fret's galaxy brain knew what Fret wanted even before he did. All this time, trying to hide his feelings about...Well, a lot of things, but now...Now, with Rindo, he could be..."Love you. Love you so much."

"Love you too," said Rindo, and that wonderful feeling nestled in Fret's chest only grew hotter.

Then Rindo's right arm dropped to his side, the energy blade manifesting around his hand. Wait, what was he—

—And Rindo slashed a nearby frog clean in two.

Oh yeah. The Noise. The Noise were still a thing.

Aw man, that meant that they needed to stop hugging, huh?

They indeed had to move apart, reluctantly, both of them glaring at the intruders. But Rindo took Fret's hand, their fingers entwining, and y'know what? Fret would settle for this for now.

Since they were both floating slightly, Fret's bullet blasts sent them spinning. Rindo in turn automatically slashed anything stupid enough to get close. This was fun! They were like a Beyblade or Beybadge or whatever of doom! Holy shit, Rindo just cut a grizzly in half with one slice! Man, Rindo was so freaking strong!

But eventually their pin charges ran out, and they were left drifting around in dizziness. Had...Had they gotten them all? Oh wait, there were some frogs a little ways away. But it looked like all the really aggressive Noise had either gotten shot or cut apart in the chaos. The air almost crackled with the leftover static.

Whew, Fret was tired after all that, even more so than usual. Before Fret could even see straight he felt Rindo pull him back to his chest again, and Fret happily hugged back. Rindo was so nice and toasty.

The stupid frogs could wait. They weren't much of a threat anyway.

Fret leaned into the sync a little more, concentrating on Rindo's emotions more than his own and letting those foreign feelings soak into him. This sync felt so wonderful. None of that typical worry and hesitation that Fret normally sensed from Rindo. Maybe it was a little selfish to siphon away good feelings for himself, but...

Then Rindo leaned into the connection, hard, and oh man Fret was not ready for that. Fret's giggles turned into laughter as even more hot joy flooded his Soul, while what little uneasiness he had got absorbed away. He...He could stay like this forever...

Though the frog Noise...Wait, were the Noise avoiding them? Why?

Holy shit, Rindo just grew wings! Massive skeletal black wings, made of...tattoos? Like the Noise were? Fret stared at them in wonder.

Something...slithered? Rindo's arms and legs were changing? Changing to tattoos...Like the Noise. His eyes were changing too, the whites darkening as a yellow light shone deep in his irises.

Mesmerizing. He loved Rindo so much.

Something shifted in the sync. Now, instead of a blissful loop of Soul energy, everything was going to Rindo. Fret knew he should probably be more worried than he was, but it was still strangely comforting? And there was this...almost doubling effect? Like he was in two places at once?

And holy shit they were flying now! Man, they were really high up already. Fret clung to Rindo even more tightly. Not out of fear…Okay, maybe a little out of fear. But also because Fret wanted to…pull Rindo even closer? Even though they were already chest to chest?

Once Fret got over the initial panic of being so far off the ground—Rindo probably helped drain that away—Fret admired the view. So many lights and so little sound, except for the wind whooshing past his ears. Shibuya was so pretty, and Rindo was so wonderful, and this was everything Fret ever wanted.

But...If this kept going...Would there be anything left of Fret afterward? Already parts of his chest prickled with numbness. He trembled as some of that lovely warmth started to get sapped away too. But something else deep in his chest grew painfully hot, so hot that his racing heart threatened to go supernova.

Fret heard himself whine. His chest hurt as his heart throbbed and burned. Yeah, his chest really hurt, actually. But he almost wanted to keep going? Really wanted to keep going, even.

But...But if Fret let Rindo do...whatever he was doing, until Fret was...gone, would that count as…

"Rindo...Rindo, help me..."

And there it was, that sharp anxiety Fret was used to feeling from Rindo, only now it was quickly spiraling into terror. This new fear didn't make Fret feel any better, but at least it meant that Rindo...

What was that weird red light shining from Rindo's jacket pocket? The Reaper pin? Wait, hadn't Minamimoto said one of Rindo's pins had something to do with time travel? And that it would make everything worse somehow? And Rindo was trying to do it again?

No, he had to protect Rindo! So he snagged the shining pin from Rindo's pocket and threw it somewhere down below.

Rindo squawked, sounding almost...pained?

The drain on Fret's Soul ebbed, though it didn't entirely stop. But it was enough of a break for Fret to release the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. What kind of sync connection was this? What was any of this? But...But did he really want these feelings to stop...?

Fret got jostled out of his thoughts as Rindo's wing-flaps grew unsteady.

Rindo gave off worried warbles as they zigzagged downwards.

"Rindo, w-what's wrong?" Fret sensed traces of panic, but he was pretty sure Rindo was feeling more than traces of it.

And for good reason! They were really high up! If Rindo fell now...did dead people take fall damage? Fret didn't want to find out the hard way, and clearly neither did Rindo, who was fighting to stay aloft. Maybe if they could make it to the roof of 104...Yeah, that seemed to be what Rindo was trying to do, but they were already sinking lower.

Okay, Fret had an idea, but maybe this was a bad idea. But the only other option was falling, which was definitely bad, so...With a little concentration Fret leaned into the sync to share more of his energy with Rindo. A sudden spike in dizziness and heat told him that this was, in fact, probably stupid.

But it seemed to work! Rindo gained just enough height for them to reach, and then crash on, the rooftop. Ow, it did not feel good to get landed on by Rindo. But whatever, they were alive! Or...something like it, anyway. "Y-You good, buddy?"

No answer from Rindo. His body remained a dead weight on Fret.

"R-Rindo?" Fret slowly wriggled free, before crouching down and looking Rindo over. Out cold, though their connection was still active. Both sets of wings, though wilted on the pavement, seemed fine otherwise. His other tattoos, though, were seeping back into his skin. What did that mean?

Oh shit, his bird wings were shriveling back into his back too! Fret needed to find a Reaper or something, but he wasn't even sure he could stand right now, with how his head kept swimming. And Fret didn't want to leave Rindo alone either.

"Nyeheh!"

Fret's head jerked up, which only made his dizziness worse. But he could see just well enough to confirm that it was Kubo, strutting over like he had just won the jackpot. Where had he come from?

"You poor lil mongrel." Somehow Kubo sounded even more snide than usual. "Now what'd you do that for? Tossing yer friend's precious Player pin?" His voice dropped, though his smile stayed just as smug. "And now you've screwed the pooch on his code big time."

Fret felt the color drain away from his face. "W-What does that mean? What code?"

"His Player code, whaddaya think? Ya know, the thing that lets 'im piddle around in the UG. Scan, pick up points, all that good stuff. He can kiss his powers' asses buh-bye, nevermore, thanks to yer little stunt." Kubo eyed Rindo's limp wings. "Nyeheh! Looks like he went Reaper, eh? Good for 'im. He would've gotten the boot straight out of the UG if not for that. Must've been one helluva nasty corruption if it messed up the code to his Inner Noise too."

Corruption? Crap, just how badly had Fret hurt Rindo?

"Well, them's the breaks! That's why you don't just toss those pins while youse still in the Game!" He wrung his hands in mocking pity. "Poor guy, tangled up in the UG like a bird on a wire, but without any powers to show for it."

Oh. Oh shit. "T-Then how do I fix it? D-Do I just hafta find the pin? Or get him a new one?" Right, Fret first bought those pins at 104. So if he could just get downstairs...

"Nope, it's gotta be that pin specifically, since it has his unique Player ID." Kubo sneered widely. How could anyone enjoy being a jackass this much? "So have fun finding that kid."

A single pin strewn somewhere near 104…Maybe they could still find it if they hurried. But Rindo was still out cold, and Fret did not want to leave an unconscious Rindo with this creep.

"C'mon buddy." Fret shook Rindo's shoulder, but there was no response. "Rindo, c'mon, we gotta find your pin. You can nap later." Still nothing. Fret closed his eyes and gave him another jolt of Soul, but all that did was make Fret feel even more light-headed.

"Nyeh! You think a little Soul snack's all he needs? Oh, he needs a lot more than just some puppy-dog eyes."

"Aren't you Reapers supposed to help run the Game or whatever?" growled Fret. "You go find the pin."

"Nyeh! Newsflash! He ain't a Player anymore, so he ain't my job, kiddo. None a' the Reapers can help much, either." His grin went from obnoxious to something almost sinister. "Besides, it's probably a moot point anyway. Youse two got something more important to worry about now."

"Something...?" Fret clutched his chest. His heart felt so hot, like it was trying to turn into a star. So dizzy...

"Yeah, who gets to eat who first!" Kubo's face looked almost demonic in Fret's wavy vision. "Did'ja think this'd stop him from singing?"

"Singing..?"

"Oh, it'll stop him from singing, all right. But if you whistle a little tune yerself, youse might just get a swansong, if ya catch my drift."

Fret didn't 'catch his drift'. Not at all.

"And with his code all screwed up, you just might stand a chance to make him your snack, kid. So maybe tossing that pin was the smart thing to do after all!" He thumbed over to Rindo's corpse-like body. "Reckon you got about the end of the week before this all hits a nice crescendo. Make the honeymoon a nice one, eh?"

Kubo's maniacal laughter warped in Fret's ears as everything started spinning.

"So I'll be rooting for ya, kid," said Kubo, right before Fret lost consciousness and slumped to the ground.

IIIIII

When Fret came to, he had no idea where he was. It almost looked like a hospital or doctor's office?

More importantly, where was Rindo? Fret shot up, even though it made his vision blur a little.

Oh, there was Rindo, in a hospital bed on the other side of the room. His wings were draped around him like a blanket as he typed on his phone. Cute. Though how was Fret supposed to hug him if he was all the way across the room? And how could he be so easily distracted with his phone when Fret was here?

Right next to Rindo was Kaie, typing and swiping away on his phone with a puzzled expression. Rindo's phone dinged, and he paused before typing again. Oh, were they talking? Without Fret?

Well Fret was about to change that. "My Riiiiiiiindude."

"Fret!" Rindo's wings flared out in excitement, whapping Kaie in the face and knocking off his hat. Heh. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"A little woozy, but otherwise good!" Fret answered, winking. "Also I love you."

Rindo chuckled. "Love you too."

Fret heard an irritated sigh to his left. "And so it begins."

Fret turned to see a guy with glasses and a weird glove sitting beside him. Who the hell was this? Or the lady with the iguana? Shoka was here too? Wait, was that Susukichi from the Ruinbringers? What was he doing here?

"Welcome to the Shinjuku family," said the lady with the iguana. "I am Ayano Kamachi. Pleased to meet you."

"Nice to meetcha too, ma'am!" Fret glanced over to the man next to her. "And you are…?"

"Hishima Sakazuki." No further explanation, despite the somewhat disapproving look that Ayano gave him.

"C'mon bro, ain't you impressed by these discs staying on the board?" Susukichi grinned as he flipped a Reversi disc like a coin.

"It is…intriguing, yes," admitted Hishima. "Unusual to have Players participate in the serenade. Thus the only reason that I appeared."

Shoka had been quiet, glancing at Rindo and then finally Fret, before she piped up. "I found you, uh..." Her tone didn't have any vitriol or bite left. "...You two passed out on top of 104, after some guys nearby saw Rindo fly around with you." She hesitated. "You…Uh, you guys already know who I am, but uh…welcome to the Reapers." She squirmed in place like a kid trying to remember their lines during a school play. Fret would know: he had been that very kid on multiple occasions.

But more importantly, before Fret's mind went on a trainwreck of middle school tangents—

"Wait wait wait, hold on, 'Welcome to the Reapers'?" asked Fret. "What'd we do?" His eyes lingered, on Rindo's strange new appendages. "Is it the wing thing?"

Rindo noticed Fret looking, and flexed his wings a little. Showing off, maybe? "Yeah, it's very much the 'wing thing'. They're Reaper wings. All Reapers have them apparently."

"Really? Cool!" Fret paused, checking his shoulders. "Uh, but I don't have those? Like at all?"

"It is true that your wings are growing unusually slowly, even though you've begun singing," said Ayano. "Perhaps because you have a Pale Inner Noise. Those are notoriously shy."

"Kweh?" Fret had no clue what any of that meant.

"Aw, bro! No need to be shy, man!" Susukichi grinned at him. "You can let loose around your fam!" Suddenly a pair of black wings, similar to Rindo's, popped out of his back.

Whoa! What the hell? Was the big guy a Reaper? But he was also playing the Game too, right? How'd that work?

"C'mon, Li'l Tsu. You, too. Let's make the rookies comfy."

Fret hadn't even noticed the girl standing silently in his shadow. Then, without twitching a muscle, 'Lil Tsu' sprouted tattoo wings too! Jeez, did she always look like a statue?

Ayano frowned at him. "Not too loose. Please, we do not act so animalistic here. Put those away. You, as well, Tsugumi."

"Gwahah." Susukichi's wings slithered back into him. "Sorry 'bout that, Ayano. Got a little hyped about fresh discs shakin' up the board state." He nudged the girl, and she withdrew her wings a moment after.

"Thank you." Ayano turned towards Fret. "Don't worry, dear; your wings will grow in soon enough," she said. "You're already singing after all, Pale Noise or not."

"Kaie says that he's never seen someone with a Pale Noise sing before," Rindo added, holding his phone in front of his face. "People with Inner Pale Noise are rare, and most of those people…don't survive the Game, much less choose to become Reapers. And since it takes so long for a Pale Inner Noise to grow their wings, they usually get sung way before their wings come out. But you're definitely gonna sing before me. 'Cause I can't sing right now. At least not by myself, according to Kaie. Since my Inner Noise is all messed up right now, "

Messed up? Oh right, the corruption thing Kubo had talked about. "S-Sorry."

"It's…It's probably for the best anyway," said Rindo, looking down. "I…I want to make sure that you want to do this, Fret. T-That's how it should be."

"Gotcha…" Because some scared part of Fret hadn't wanted to go through with it, and that had spooked Rindo, and so Rindo had tried to do the time jump thing, and Fret had thrown away the pin trying to stop it…

"B-Besides," Rindo continued, "Kaie says that when you sing, whichever one of us sings the other, your code's going to fix mine. So...It'll get rid of the corruption. Uh. Probably. He isn't totally sure, especially with the lack of info on Pale Noise." He squinted at his phone. "What's the 'XD' supposed to mean?"

Fret loved Rindo.

And Rindo loved him, 100%, no doubt whatsoever. But even he wasn't telling Fret that it wasn't his fault. Because it was Fret's fault, 100%, no doubt whatsoever...

"So he wants to see how you'll evolve and collect data on—hey!" His flexing wings curved point-first towards Kaie. "My Fret's not an experiment."

Awwww, Rindo wanted to protect Fret! His Fret, huh? And yeah, Fret wasn't crazy about being a lab rat either.

"Rindo Kanade, you are members of our family now," Ayano said in a reassuring tone. "Kaie uses the hotel to collect data on all of us to make our experience more comfortable. Please excuse his excitement. Kaie will not meddle with the singing, only observe it and record the results for his archive."

"According to Kaie, being a Pale Noise should not significantly impact your singing, only make it proceed more slowly," Hishima added. "I believe Kaie estimated around three days."

Rindo's wings still looked tense, harpoon-like spikes poised like a scorpion's tail.

Ayano smiled kindly. "Tosai Furesawa will be your song, and your song alone."

Hearing his legal name always threw Fret off. Sure he always introduced himself with his legal name first, but he always followed it up with Fret because…Well, that was just what he preferred to be called. Not some uptight old-man name.

Rindo's wings relaxed back around his shoulders, though he still looked a little tense. "Good."

Cute. But 'his' song? "Uh, hey, not to be stupid...But what is singing?"

Fret never knew such a simple question would spawn so much explanation. Singing was a Reaper thing, key to Reaper evolution and culture, key to Soul evolution even, and it involved...

Oh. So that was what Rindo had been trying to do. Just...trying to absorb Fret's Soul. All of it. No wonder Fret felt like he was dying back there. Because he was.

Holy shit.

Fret loved Rindo, would die for Rindo, and getting sung would probably have been worth it to help Rindo evolve. No it definitely would have been worth it, instead of freaking throwing away the pin and messing up Rindo's code or whatever.

But holy shit Fret had almost died. Willingly.

Well, Kaie claimed that it wasn't death death. He claimed it was the two Souls merging and became a better, stronger Soul or whatever. And that would explain the weird doubling feeling Fret got when Rindo was draining him. His Soul being sucked up from one container to another. He still had a little of that double feeling when he looked at Rindo, actually, though it was so vague that it was little more than a ghostly sensation. A feeling that Fret should be over there. With Rindo. As Rindo.

But...But Fret also liked being Fret. The Fret that loved Rindo was still Fret. How was he supposed to hug and cuddle Rindo if they were literally the same person?

Kaie also said something about how they were technically in the warsong state, whatever the hell that meant, but because Rindo's code was all messed up it was barely draining Fret at all, or something. That was due to the corruption from the sudden Player Pin loss, and how Rindo's Noise wasn't stable enough to emerge on its own.

Fret was honestly too sleepy to really follow the exact explanation right now. How was he still tired even after passing out for several hours?

"But both of you appear to be exhausted, so why don't you go rest in your designated rooms?" said Ayano.

"Designated rooms?" asked Rindo. "So we're not staying here?"

"Not on the medical floor, of course not." Ayano seemed weirdly insulted by the idea, and her iguana squinted like it agreed with her. Or maybe it just saw a fly somewhere. "Akinosuke Hotel is made for comfort and security."

"Akinosuke Hotel?" asked Fret. "Never heard of it."

"Of course you haven't," said Shoka. "It's a place for Reapers to sing. It's not open to the RG. It's not even open to the Game."

"Oh." Well, that explained why Fret didn't know about it.

"My dears, now that Kaie's tests are done, I'll escort you to your room so you can get settled in," said Ayano.

"Oh, thanks," said Rindo, before looking back at Fret. "I feel better now, at least. You feeling up to it, Fret?"

"Yeah, let's see our new digs!" Fret answered with a big grin.

"Very well. Follow me."

Though he was still a little sleepy, Fret's legs worked perfectly fine. Though that didn't stop him from pressing up against Rindo's side anyway. Finally, he was in physical contact with Rindo again.

Rindo floated alongside him, looking down at his drifting feet with an uncertain look, wings carefully positioned to curl near Fret without whacking Fret in the face. It was somehow cute and funny and surreal all at once. Cufurreal? Cufurreal. Because he was cute-for-real. Man, Fret's galaxy brain was on a roll.

The decoration in the hallways was surprisingly clean, almost spartan. Wooden walls with the occasional fern or abstract painting. It didn't feel quite like a hospital, but it didn't quite feel like a fancy hotel either. More like an office building. An office building with really high ceilings for some reason. When they got to the elevator, Ayano instructed Rindo how to fold his wings flat against his back so he could actually fit through the elevator door. Calm, clear instructions, neither motherly nor impatient. Just instructions.

Synthwave music played in the elevator, which Fret hadn't expected. Holy crap, this place had 13 floors?

They went up from floor 2 to floor 4, because of course their room had to be on floor 'death'. This area had the same simple design of the previous hallways, only this time with drab red carpet. Room 49, huh? Painful death room. Great, even better...

The room itself was actually kinda small. Two beds a few feet apart, a bathroom, a kitchen with no utensils. No windows. Very fluffy, cozy carpet. A TV embedded directly into the wall, covered by a protective but pliable casing. No other decorations on the walls, probably because they were padded. A lot of things were either padded, covered in that weird soft-but-sturdy casing like the TV was, or bolted down. Sometimes even all three.

Funny how all these safety precautions made Fret feel less safe.

And boy it did not help when Ayano showed them the closet, and the only thing in there was a body bag. A small body bag, implying that there wouldn't be much left of whoever got sung. Fret and Rindo stared at it, and then each other, uncomfortably.

"So…" Fret began. "There's...gonna be…remains after...?"

"Oh no, dear. Just a little afterlife humor," said Ayano with a surprisingly amused smile. "The body of the sung will dissolve into light and be absorbed by the victorious singer."

Victorious, huh...? That didn't exactly sound romantic...

"This bag is for carrying clothes and other belongings during your stay," she went on. "It is quite useful for picking out new clothes on the shopping floor, for example."

"O-Oh okay." Fret supposed that made sense. But man, did they really have to make it look like a freaking body bag?

Fret and Rindo sat down on one of the beds, which was also very soft, as they looked at the new app downloaded onto their phones. It must have been added by Kaie while they were sleeping. The Akinosuke Automated Application, or AAA, included a map of the building, room service options, schedules for events, that kind of thing. Wow, this place really had everything! A whole host of restaurants on one floor, a bunch of clothes stores from every single big brand on a different floor, pools and aquariums on another, a whole freaking park on yet another. Over half the building was dedicated to just replicating natural biomes.

"As you can see, my dears, Akinosuke Hotel has everything to cover your needs, so you will not need to leave," Ayano explained. "In fact, you will not be allowed to leave until your singing and subsequent evolution are complete. For the safety of others, as well as yourselves."

Oh. Well, Fret thought that was a little silly. Clearly he only wanted Rindo, and Rindo only wanted him. They wouldn't bother anyone else. But Fret supposed that other Players could get freaked out and attack them, thinking they were Noise, and maybe that was the point. Fret certainly would have freaked out if he saw two Reapers slowly turning Noise without context.

Rindo nodded. "Got it. Yeah, that's...probably for the best."

"Aside from staying inside, you are free to spend your time however you wish, though please return to your room when you feel your singing is about to hit its crescendo. If you have any other questions, just enter them into the app or ask one of the staff working here, or myself. My number should already be under the app. Consider yourself part of the family, my dears, and don't hesitate to call me if you need anything. I hope that your stay is as comfortable and painless as possible." She walked out and carefully closed the door behind her.

Fret and Rindo glanced at each other in the almost eerie silence of the room.

"So, uh, whatever we want, huh?" said Rindo. "There's a lot of stuff here, so, uh, what do you want to do first?"

"Hmm..." Fret's thoughtful hum morphed into a big yawn. "Honestly, I'm still kinda tired? So how about we test out the new beds and take a snooze first? Then we'll have actual energy to do stuff later!"

"Okay." Rindo flopped down on his side, pulling Fret down with him.

Fret landed with a small surprised yip, his heart racing a mile a minute as Rindo pulled them chest to chest.

"Love you," murmured Rindo, stretching out one of his wings and draping it over himself and Fret. "Good night."

Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man. And yet Fret felt himself snuggle up to Rindo so easily. Like it was the most natural thing for Fret to do ever. Like they had been together for years. Fret giggled. "Love you so much, buddy. G'night."

Yeah, who needed blankets and another bed anyway? The wings weren't soft and fluffy like the covers would have been, but they were plenty warm despite the spaces between each pinion.

Yes, this…this was how it was supposed to be. His heart said so.

Between the warmth from Rindo and the warmth inside Fret's own chest, Fret was soon out like a light.

Like a light...Being Rindo's song and becoming light, huh? That didn't sound so bad...Not dying, just mixing together forever, into one voice...right? Never leaving…That sounded almost…perfect…

And so the stage is set for the next few chapters. I had planned to keep this section relatively short, but then worldbuilding and character-building took over, heh.