damned_institute | Nightshift 49: Homeworld

Entry tags:

neku,
sora

Nightshift 49: Homeworld - Shibuya

[[From here]]

One second he was in the hallway, the next he was tumbling through a door and looking up at the skyscrapers of Shibuya. Shibuya! If there was one place he'd recognize in an instant, it was Scramble Crossing. The massive crosswalk, 104 towering high in the distance, and buildings sprouting up all around them. Of course, there was also one other thing that was truly, most heinously screwed up.

It was totally empty! Shibuya, the most crowded, noisy city he could think of, and there wasn't a single person, save him and Sora on the street. It was like the zombie apocalypse or something! The streets should've been crawling with people even in the middle of the night! But it was like the place just died. Or possibly just everyone in it. By way of noise, at least one thing was familiar, but- how was he back in his old clothes? His pins, his accessories, brand-name JotM shirt and shorts, everything was back, just like it'd been in the UG. Even though it'd been less than a week since he'd been home, being without his mp3 player and favorite playlist was driving him crazy by itself. But now the familiar beat of his favorite J-pop artists was happily pulsing through his headphones. Probably his only consolation in all this.

"What is this?!" he managed, getting to his feet and oddly enough being able to hear the crunch of asphalt under his shoes. It was just... really freaking creepy. Where the hell was everyone?

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While Sora had never actually been to the second floor file room, he'd more or less known what to expect: a dusty, cramped room with the smell of old paper. When he was instead greeted by a city with huge skyscrapers, the boy was understandably bowled over. The first thing that popped into his head was that they'd somehow ended up in The World That Never Was (had someone transported them?!), but the lack of rain and a more studied look around assured him that that wasn't the case.

This was still pretty nuts, though. For over a month, his life had been restricted to the institute and Doyleton. To suddenly walk through a door and end up in a place like this...

Had they really made it to another world? The Nobodies could move around through worlds that seamlessly, but other than some slight dizziness, Sora hadn't felt anything strange. He did find it worrying that there was no one around who could tell them what was happening or even where they were, though.

Neku was similarly taken aback from the whole thing, and when Sora turned to face the other boy, his eyes widened at the sight of his new clothing. "Whoa, where did those come from?" he loudly questioned.

As for Neku's question, Sora had no good answers for him. He shook his head. "In all the time I spent at Landel's, nothing like this has ever happened. Do you think someone could have gotten past Mr. Landel and warped us out?" That guy Hanatarou had been talking about, maybe? It was a pretty crazy thought, but if that was true, Sora didn't know if it was the best thing. Kairi and Riku might still be back there, and they'd have no way of knowing where he'd gone.

This was unreal. It was home, but at the same time, not at all. Shibuya wasn't about the buildings or the statues and lights, it was about the people, most of all. As hard a lesson as it'd been to learn, he knew that fact for sure after his time in the UG.

"It's my world," he told Sora, glancing down once again at the old familiar clothing as the familiar beat of one of his favorite songs played through his headphones. "Shibuya. This is... it's what I usually wore back home and I could never forget the Crossing here, but it's not right. Shibuya isn't empty like this, it's just- It's full of people, no matter what time of day it is, there's always kids running around or ko-gals, lolitas, punks, whatever, it's never this empty! It's like we're the only ones here!"

Those people, they had to go somewhere! Was this because of Landel though? Or was it because Joshua hadn't been around here to look out for the city? There was no way to even tell if they were in the RG or the UG, alive or dead. Just the unnerving calm of the empty city.

"Home or not, something is seriously screwed up here."

This was Neku's world? Sora's mouth dropped open as he spun in a quick circle to try and take it all in. All he could see from where they were standing, anyway. After hearing about this place during his talks with Neku, it was pretty amazing to actually be here now. Hadn't he told Neku that it would have been nice to visit this place and see what it was like? Sora hadn't known if that would ever even be possible, but apparently it was!

He turned back to Neku when the other boy started to explain that the emptiness of the place wasn't normal. Sora had gotten that feeling -- why have all these tall buildings if there weren't people to occupy them?

It looked like Neku was getting pretty upset, but Sora couldn't blame him for that. If he'd ended up back at his home and it'd been completely empty, he would have been pretty freaked out, too.

"Maybe we should take a look around, then?" he suggested. Sora a had a bad feeling about this, but he didn't want to show it. That would only make Neku feel worse. "We might be able to find some kind of clue for why no one's around." Was it possible they were all hiding in their homes for some reason? That thought was ominous, but it was better than everyone just being gone.

While Sora spun around looking mystified by the big shiny buildings, Neku was scratching his head and trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Shibuya was a ghost town. It shouldn't be possible!

Once he'd had a moment or two to let the shock settle in, he dealt with it the same way he'd dealt with being dead, waking up in the UG, and competing in the Reaper's Game. That was to say, he tried his damnedest to completely ignore just how mind-bogglingly impossible it all was and concentrate on actually doing something about it.

"Yeah," he nodded, glancing down once more at the pins that dotted his shirt-front. Seven in all. Peace Full, Yoshimitsu, Final Pyre, Sexy D, Lolita Bat, Ice Risers, and oddly enough, his Player pin too. Not a bad set, at least it gave him some variety and should get them through if anything nasty decided to show up. If they still worked at least.

"I'm gonna see if I can scan the area," he said after a moment, putting his hands near his headphones and doing what he could to tune out the music and tune in on anything that might give them a hint. Focus, come on. Seemed to be working, but he couldn't pick up on anything but Noise.

"Shi-" he cut himself and the scan off. "The Noise are still around. Listen, I don't know what the hell is going on, but we've gotta form a pact, ok? Otherwise, something comes our way and we'll get our asses erased faster than you can blink. You accept?"

When Neku talked about doing some sort of scan and then closed his eyes and lifted his hands up to the sides of his head, Sora knew better than to cut in and ask what he meant by that. He didn't know what, exactly, the other boy was doing, but since it seemed important he wasn't going to question it until later.

He blinked at Neku when he suddenly opened his eyes and started talking about noise. Sora's first thought was to say that he hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary, but then he remembered that the Noise were Neku's version of the Heartless. It looked like this was the price he had to pay for getting to see where Neku came from. Sora was willing and ready to fight, though.

Or he would have been, but then Neku started talking about erasing and some kind of pact. He stared at the boy again, trying to keep up when he was still pretty shaky on how everything worked. Fighting the Heartless definitely wasn't this complicated.

"A pact?" he asked in response. "Okay, sure, whatever we've gotta do! What do I do, though?" He had no idea about how this worked, but hopefully Neku could explain quickly, before they were ambushed.

The moment Sora agreed, Neku could feel the strange sensation of a pact forming. It was hard to describe, like something out of those old kids shows; lights, motion, and in the end, it actually worked. He'd half-expected his Psychs to fail just as much as they had in the asylum, but it was just like before. Did that mean he was actually home?

Even if all the players had been taken away for that final week, it didn't account for a completely empty Shibuya. So what did they have to do now? Had they switched places? Was this some kind of head trip?

"Remember what I told you about the Noise? And how fighting them in the UG is like tuning into a radio station?" he asked, jerking his head slightly so that Sora knew to follow. First mission was always 104, so it made sense to start there, right? "Noise is weird because it's on two frequencies. You have to erase it on both or you'll never get rid of it."

In truth it was a lot more confusing and he honestly wasn't sure entirely how it worked, only that it was in fact effective in killing off the Noise. How they still managed to communicate and perform simultaneous attacks in what was essentially different realities though... that was a little too complicated.

"When they attack, it'll separate us, but you'll still be able to feel me, you get it? That's the pact. Just remember that whatever you're fighting, I'm fighting too."

Of course it was that instant that one of the damn invisible walls appeared in front of the route to 104. Neku ended up flat on his backside, rubbing his nose as the wall shimmered for a moment, then vanished again. And not a Reaper in sight. Which meant the way was blocked. Great.

Sora hadn't imagined that just saying he would do it would cause a reaction like that, but he faced the lights head-on. Even though he still wasn't quite sure what he'd just agreed to, he didn't think Neku would mislead him about anything like this. If a pact was what was needed for them to fight and win, then he was more than ready for whatever it entailed.

All the talk about frequencies still had him scratching his head, but Neku eventually broke it down in a way that was easy enough to understand. They would be fighting on different levels somehow, but they'd still be connected, right? Sora could grasp something like that, and so he nodded in agreement. He wasn't sure if his Keyblade would work very well against the creatures, but he'd do his best.

"Got it!" he confirmed verbally. "I'll just go at them with all I have, and we should be okay." Neku knew what he was doing, at least, so Sora was just going to try and feel it out and follow the other boy's lead. He'd been tossed into confusing situations before and he'd always come through somehow, so he wasn't going to worry too much.

Sora followed after Neku, figuring that he knew where he was going. He'd been just a half-step or so behind the other boy, and therefore got a front-row seat to Neku walking right into a wall. "Oh no!" he exclaimed with a frown. There hadn't been a wall there two seconds ago -- how annoying!

"You okay?" he asked as he extended his hand down to Neku. Clearly they couldn't go that way, unless Neku knew of some way of breaking through the wall. Sora knew that boundaries like this could be stubborn, though, so maybe they'd have to try another route.

If the pact was working, it had to be Shibuya, right? Everything indicated it was exactly as it should be. Even the air tasted the same. Everything was right, except for the complete lack of people around them. Neku rubbed his nose, pride damaged more than his face. He took a hand up and shrugged off the worry.

"It's nothing. Didn't expect the place to be walled off. Means they don't want us down this way. We'll have to try a different route," he explained. If not 104, the next most likely spot had to be Hachiko. He pounded his fist one more time against the invisible wall, watching it shimmer to life for a moment as he cursed it under his breath.

"This way," he said over his shoulder, running toward the west end of the Crossing. He was smart enough to keep an arm out in front, just in case he ran into another wall, but this time there was nothing. Well, nothing would be a lie. There was a Mosh Grizzly and a couple of Death Metal Minks blocking the way this time. Those he could handle. And at the very least, it meant they were on the right track.

"Get ready to bring it!" he called to Sora, feeling the familiar disorientation as he tuned into the Noise's frequency. Or they tuned into his. However the hell it worked. At least this time he was prepared. Hopefully Sora was as good as he said.

[ooc: Noise List (http://twewy.wikia.com/wiki/Noise_List) - #15 and #21]

When Neku punched at the wall for a second, Sora couldn't help knocking his foot against it lightly to also test the boundary. It sounded like there was no way through, though, and so the Keyblade Master only nodded and followed after the other boy. At least there were other options for places they could go, since otherwise they would have been stuck in this one area with no way out. That could still be the case, if all the other paths also had impenetrable walls, but Sora wasn't going to worry about something like that until it was for sure.

Noticing the way Neku was feeling out for a wall, Sora just continued to hope that nothing would pop up, except... it felt like there was something around here. Some sort of danger. Sora couldn't really explain where the feeling came from, but the next thing he knew, Neku was yelling at him to get ready and then he was on his own.

The monsters -- the Noise -- appeared in front of him. They were definitely different from the Heartless, as his Keyblade would have reacted to the real thing, and he also didn't notice the Heartless symbol anywhere. (Some Heartless didn't have it, but those were pretty rare.) More than that, the Heartless had a certain look to them that these didn't have.

Not that he had the time to stand around and think about it. Focusing on his link to Neku (he could feel it squarely in the center of his chest), Sora raced toward the Noise. His Keyblade wasn't responding, which meant he was going to have to do this the same way he had back at Landel's. The big beast-looking monster swiped at him, and Sora only barely dodged before he found his weapon in his hands.

Gripping it tightly, he swung at the Noise and hoped that it would at least do some damage. And... hopefully Neku was doing his part, too!

It was hard to tell if Sora was getting the hang of it or not, but the pact would be enough to let him know if they guy was getting creamed at least. With a decent pin selection, it wouldn't be hard to take guys of this level out either. He tuned into Final Pyre, a wall of flame rising up from nothing to scorch his enemies. It was enough to hold them back for a few seconds, but it also did plenty to rile them up. He dashed quickly to avoid the Mink's tail, but the Mosh Grizzly wasn't far behind and his claws were a hell of a lot sharper. They weren't pulling any punches sending one out on the first day!

"Hang in there!" he shouted to Sora as he readied a barrage of Ice Risers, pillars of jagged ice that ripped up from the ground and into his opponents. It wasn't enough to destroy them all, but the weaker of the two Minks disappeared into a scattering of static that faded completely in less than a second. Well, that was one down at least.

It looked like his Keyblade had done something, but Sora didn't have much time to think about it, since the bear could move faster than he'd anticipated, and he suddenly had sharp claws rending into his shoulder. Holding back a cry, he moved back, fell into a dodge roll, and then came up behind the thing. With large monsters like this, it was usually best to attack them from behind. He remembered that from dealing with the Large Bodies.

As he was in the middle of swinging his Keyblade at the thing's back, he suddenly heard Neku's voice, and it distracted him for just a second. He hadn't realized they could talk over the link.

He jumped back and away from the bear, but nodded to both himself and Neku, wherever he was. "I am!" he called out. "You too!" It was then that he witnessed one of the other monsters disappearing. Was that because of Neku? This whole thing was kind of weird, but Sora wasn't going to back down because of that.

Steering away from the bear for the moment, he raced up to the other monster and swung at its front, hoping that he'd have more luck with dodging it.

He couldn't see so much as feel it when Sora took a hit. That was the good and bad thing about a pact was they shared not just the blows they gave their enemies, but the ones they got as well. It wasn't so bad that they couldn't take out at least one more of the noise before he used Peace Full to heal them, but he'd best act fast.

Yoshimitsu was next and he dashed under the Mosh Grizzly's claws to deliver an upward slice with his telekinetic blade, following it up with a few blasts of Sexy D force rounds to push them back. He fired at the Mink next, but it looked like Sora had managed to erase it before the bullet ever hit. That was lucky at least, and left just the bear to take out before they finished.

He tossed up Peace Full, letting a wave of healing energy energy wash over them both.

"We got this!" he called out, giving himself a moment to recharge from the quick-paced telekinetic attacks. The pins needed a second to charge too anyway, but at least they were almost done.

It looked like the teal monsters went down much easier than the big bear-like one. That made sense, though. Most of the really tough Heartless were the huge ones that could fly around or teleport or whatever else. Dusks and Nobodies, on the other hand, were in a whole different league. First Heartless, then Dusks, now Noise? It seemed like Sora was running into new enemies all the time.

So, now there was just the bear to worry about. Sora spun himself around and eyed the thing, hoping that Neku could help him with this one. It was always good to fight with someone else, even if he couldn't actually see the other boy. Neku was still there in some sense, and that was enough to keep Sora energized and in the fight despite his aching arm.

Nodding to himself when he heard Neku's words, Sora raced for the last monster. Deciding to make things a little more interesting, he jerked his arm back and then pulled it forward, releasing his Keyblade to go flying straight for the beast's back.

He just hoped the Keyblade would return to him once it hit instead of disappearing on him. He wasn't sure he'd be able to summon it again in such a short period.

It was only a few more seconds before the pins could reboot and be used again, so he tried for a little psychokinesis this time. Luckily, there was still a car in the area. He kept back several feet in what was hopefully enough distance to keep out of reach of the Mosh Grizzly's claws before he concentrated on the vehicle, lifting it several feet into the air before swinging it at the bear, the sound of metal on grizzly quick to follow. While the things were pretty tough, not much could survive a head-on with a mini cooper and the bear fell backward, static and white noise vaporizing with him.

A workout, definitely, but hopefully Sora was chill after all that. It'd been a while since he'd last fought the Noise so he was a little rusty. As their frequencies re-tuned (or however it worked) he glanced around, spotting Sora easily since well, Shibuya was kind of a ghost town.

"Hey, you still with me? That was kind of a wicked run for a noob, but it looks like they didn't get you too bad."

The sight of his Keyblade hitting the monster was followed by a loud crashing noise. Sora had no idea what Neku had just done, but it must have been good, because the last Noise disappeared and suddenly everything was back to normal.

Glancing over to Neku, Sora smiled, glad to see the other boy again (and he looked like he was in decent shape, too). "Yeah, I'm all right," he assured him. "That bear thing got me on the shoulder, but I'll be okay." The bear's claws had torn through both his clothing and his skin, and he was definitely bleeding, but it wasn't like he hadn't been through worse.

Sora looked over his shoulder, down the way they'd been trying to go. Maybe they'd been interrupted, but he'd just be happy if they didn't run into another invisible wall. "Do you think we can get through now?" he asked as he turned back to Neku.

Neku winced a little when he saw Neku's wound. He'd hoped the pins would help him out, but maybe it'd been worse before. And unfortunately, most of the pins just didn't like to work unless they were in that weird battle-mode frequency.

"Yeah, I think we'll be cool for a little while. And hopefully no more invisi-walls," he frowned, "You ok? I think I might have something for that."

He rummaged through the inventory in his bag and came up with an old Hip Snake bandanna in blue. Seeing as it would be kind of hard for Sora to tie it on himself, Neku folded it a few times and took a couple steps forward.

"Hold still a sec. It should do somethin' for the bleeding at least. I'll use some healing pins straight off if we get in another fight, ok? I'd use 'em now except they don't usually work unless we're split like before. It's kind of complicated."

When Neku brought out the bandanna, Sora carefully used his now free hand to pull down the collar of his shirt as much as he could in order to reveal the shoulder wound. It looked worse than it was, or that was what he was trying to tell himself. There were three claw marks through his skin, but they were relatively shallow; on the other hand, shallow cuts tended to bleed a lot, and so his outfit was starting to look more like his Valor Form than anything else.

It was weird that healing spells couldn't be used unless they were in a battle, but Sora wasn't going to question it, since it wasn't as if it was something that Neku had control over. It was probably better if they didn't get into another fight, though, and so he was going to do his best to work through the pain.

He held as still as he could so that Neku could wrap up the wound. It being on his shoulder made it a little trickier to do, but just applying a bit of pressure would probably help.

"I'll be fine! And don't worry about the healing. I mean, it'd be nice, but you shouldn't go searching for another fight or anything." It did occur to Sora that this wound might not end up being taken care of by the institute, if they were stuck in this abandoned city. It was hard to know which option was better, really. If he'd been back at full power, that would have been one thing, but...

It looked kinda bad the closer he got to seeing it, but he was careful as he tied it on, keeping the knot toward the back so it wouldn't get in the way and making sure it fit snugly enough to hopefully stop the bleeding without completely cutting off circulation. Maybe playing nurse wasn't Neku's strongest point, but he could do a half-decent job if he put his mind to it.

"You did pretty good though, for your first time," he said, finishing the knot and taking a step back, "most people kind of suck and it's pretty weird, but you get used to it." The first time Shiki has talked him through a battle with the Noise, he'd been a complete screw up. It was just lucky they'd only been fighting frogs.

The statue of Hachi was in sight, so Neku nodded in its direction, "we should probably keep moving. See if we can find anyone."

While a Cure spell would have been preferred, Neku still did a decent job of wrapping up his arm. Sora held back a hiss of pain as the other boy tightened the knot; once it was done, he slowly pulled his arm down and let it hang at his side as carefully as possible. The less he moved it, the easier it would be to ignore the pain.

Sora got the feeling that Neku wouldn't have said he'd done well unless he meant it, and so he smiled in response. "Well, I guess I've done a lot of my own fighting... not like that, but sometimes you've just gotta go for it, right?" When put into it a situation where he either had to fight or let someone else get hurt, the choice was a simple one.

In any case, it looked like the area was clear of monsters for now, and so Sora headed for the statue that Neku had just pointed out. He wasn't sure how likely it was for them to find anyone, unless everyone had decided to hide... but from what?

"Was is that?" he asked as they approached the statue. It stood out, as if it was supposed to hold some sort of importance.

Looked like it hurt, but Sora was a pretty tough guy. They'd probably both had worse, but luckily a few minor scratches and bruises were all they had to worry about today. He nodded once and headed onward.

"That's Hachiko," he said, lacking a good portion of the explanation Shiki had given him on it. Before that, it was just another weird statue, but she seemed to know all the little details about Shibuya that he'd always just skimmed over. "It's for this dog that was super loyal. Even after its master died, it kept waiting at the train station for him years later. Or something like that. I don't know the story real well. People come touch it for good luck I think."

He shrugged, hoping Sora didn't ask him more than that or he'd have to start making stuff up. Neku gave the statue an appraising glance, but it was the same as always. No dingy spots even. But there was no sign of anyone else either. No Beat, no Rhyme, no Shiki, not even any annoying Reapers. And if they were supposed to meet up, this would be the place.

"This was like our meeting spot," he added, "so if there's not even anyone here, something's definitely up."

So they had erected this statue just to honor a loyal dog? While Neku wasn't giving him a very full idea of the story behind it, Sora still got enough of a gist to realize how it could be very touching. It had to be, if they'd decided to make the statue such a landmark. With a sad smile, the boy neared the statue and laid his hand on it. He wasn't sure if their current situation was an example of good luck or bad luck (it seemed somewhere in between), but he could always hope for the future, for seeing his home again.

"Maybe you can tell me more about it sometime?" he asked, turning back to Neku carefully, still doing what he could to make sure his shoulder wound wasn't aggravated. He knew now wasn't the time to hear more details, but it was something to be curious about, at the least. Sora could imagine the heart of the world being kept in a spot like this, even if he didn't see any keyholes. Sometimes they were hidden, so who knew?

Now was time to focus on what might be going on here, though. It seemed like the lack of people was starting to have a pretty bad implication, but Sora was doing his best to hold out hope that everyone was okay, wherever they were. "Right," he agreed with a nod. "So where should we go from here?"

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Nightshift 49: Homeworld - Shibuya

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