damned_institute | Nightshift 49: Homeworld

[[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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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?"

Nightshift 49: Homeworld - Shibuya

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