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Shiki huffed to herself as she marched through the town, practically fuming. Of all the insensitive things—no, no... she should calm down. Even if she was angry... she shouldn’t let her feelings control her. So what if Neku had said something completely out of left field and—
She sighed and stopped walking, squeezing her fists into balls. Ugh! Why did he have to be like that?! It’s like really he didn’t listen to what he was saying sometimes! That, or he really didn’t care. Probably both.
Shiki leaned against the wall and slowly slid down it so she was sitting on the ground. Hugging Mr. Mew to herself, she buried her face into him and squeezed her eyes shut.
“You’re acting like people actually care about what you look like!”
Well, who needed him! Shiki opened her eyes to glare at some of the seams on the back of Mr. Mew’s head. Even though she’d redone them since coming here, they still looked just as sloppy to her as when she’d first put him together. She really... should just make a new one.
One that looked better.
Looking up at the sky, her eyes scanned the many stars twinkling up there. Which one of them was Shibuya? Was Shibuya even up there? If Joshua was really to be believed then... no matter how hard she looked, she’d never find it.
Shiki tore her gaze away from the sky.
Across from her, the bright sign of the hotel shone. It was as lit up as always... She was currently resting against the Gizmo Shop in the Second District. Thankfully, the forecast for the day was clear and there were very few Nightmares to be found.
Turning Mr. Mew around in her lap, she hugged the stuffed cat close. Now that she was really looking around, she noticed a distinct lack of barrels in the area. Usually, the Second District had a few here and there (along with the boxes), but they were all gone.
Shiki pushed herself to her feet and began walking forward, getting on her tip toes to try looking above the upper part of the district. Nothing over there either.
However, before she could start heading to the Third District to check, she heard a loud explosion above her! Looking up at the shop, she saw a bright light fading and a large, black blur coming straight at her!
She couldn’t get out of the way in time to dodge, but she managed to make out that it was a person-shaped blur. She screwed her eyes shut on instinct and braced for impact.
“Oof!”
“Rgh!!”
Shiki reached out to push whatever was pinning her down off of her, only to have her hands hit something that felt almost like glass. She opened her eyes to see cat-shaped, yellow eyes glaring down at her.
He grunted and pushed himself up, exposing a few rips and tears in the jacket he was wearing. Behind him, glossy, black wings fanned out. They were the skeletal, iron wrought gate-like wings with very sharp edges that belonged to all Reapers. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could Shiki was already blurting something out.
“Hey, you’re that Reaper guy from the Flick Rush Cup!”
“The prime numeric,” he grumbled, looking irritatedly up at the Gizmo Shop. Shiki picked herself up and began to dust off her pants after she had tucked Mr. Mew under her arm. As long as she didn’t look at the ripped jacket, she’d be fine.
“So...um, you exploded?” Shiki asked cautiously, eyeing the pointed black wings. “I mean... what were you doing up there?”
“Tch, trying to create a work of art in this garbage can of a world.” The words are like poison leaving his lips and the look he shot upwards could be little else than loathing. “‘Course, it helps when some of the fractions that make it up don’t freaking explode!”
“...Art?” Shiki asked, not sure how much she should really be talking to this guy without her partner around. She was pretty much helpless without him, after all... Of course, that was when her mind flashed back to what he’d said to her.
Humph!
Looking back, she noticed that the other was just flying away back up to the top of the Gizmo Shop. What was he doing up there? What kind of art exploded like that?! She just had to see.
And it wasn’t because the back of his jacket was totally coming apart either! She had absolutely no interest in that!
Shiki ran over to the ladder that was on the side of the shop. She opened the bag at her waist and tucked Mr. Mew in before began climbing it, carefully poking her head up to look about the roof. The Reaper was standing in front of a large pile of broken wood pieces. Some of them could easily be identified as parts of boxes and barrels while other parts were little more than piles of splinters.
The Reaper’s—Shiki had just realized that she no idea what his name was—hands were on his hips and he was eying the pile intently. “Hm. This calculates quicker. Ha! Turns out this fits my vision even better!”
Shiki ducked down in case he were to look over at her, trying hard not to giggle. One of her hands released the ladder to cover her mouth. He...was talking to himself. Like, actually full on having a conversation with himself about what was going on. Shiki had never seen anyone actually do that in real life!
Then again, Reapers kind of seemed to be different from regular people...
“Nobody likes a snoop, radian. Did you come to see art to the power of infinity?”
Shiki froze. Looking up, she saw the Reaper standing right in front of her and looking down at her. Thankfully, Shiki managed to suppress the urge to jump away—which would have probably ended with her getting hurt since she was on a ladder.
“U-um,” Shiki stuttered, eyes wide as she moved to hold onto the ladder tighter. “Yes?”
She didn’t miss the wide grin breaking out over the other’s face. “Heheheh! Looks like even a stupid zero like you knows true beauty when they see it!”
He turned and walked back over to his pile. Shiki let out a breath and peeked her head up over again, seeing him beginning to arrange the pile. How come he wasn’t attacking her? Not that she wanted him to, but she couldn’t help but be intrigued.
Not that she was going to ask, though! She didn’t want to give him any ideas!
“Hey, radian! Get more boxes to add to this amazing equation!”
“What?!” Shiki blurted, face screwing up with confusion.
“You heard me, didn’t you?” He glanced back at her from the pile.
Shiki bit her lip, considering her options. It could still be some kind of trap—you really couldn’t trust a Reaper! All this was probably just some kind of act so that he could take her off guard! But, if she didn’t do what he wanted, he might erase her! Besides...this could be some kinda Wall Reaper mission that they needed. Maybe he’d give her a nice pin for Neku!
Neku...humph.
“I heard you, I’ll go get them right now!” Shiki blurted enthusiastically. She turned to climb down the ladder quickly and hurried over to the Third District to retrieve the supplies he’d requested.
Ah...there they were. Shiki summoned her main Dream Eater, an adorable green bunny, to her side. “All right! We have to bring some of those boxes to the Reaper!” Her Dream Eater nodded to her and then turned to face the boxes. Using it’s ears instead of hands, it picked one of the boxes up and followed her back to the Second District.
When they were standing in front of the Gizmo Shop, Shiki cupped her hands in front of her face. “Going up!” She announced as her Dream Eater literally threw the box into the air. There was a quick flash of black as the Reaper caught the box in the air and flew it back towards where his pile was.
The delivery of the boxes and barrels went back and forth like this until there were none left in the Third District.
“Is that enough?” Shiki called up to him, hoping that it might be.
“Hahaha! Not even close, radian! I’ll need a decillion more before my new magnum opus is completed!”
Shiki paused at that and crossed her arms. “You want me to bring you every box in Traverse Town?!”
“Some Of Her Children Are Having Trouble Over Algebra. You gotta problem with that, radian?”
Shiki gulped and shook her head. “No! It just might take a while!”
It...really wasn’t like she had anything better to do though. Besides, she rarely got to have her Dream Eaters out aside from playing Flick Rush! Although, maybe she’d need to bring out her other friend...
In a flash of light, her Yoggy Ram appeared next to her and dipped down, allowing her to mount it. Shiki smiled widely and picked up her Me Me Bunny as well, hopping on.
And, thus, the three of them managed to gather the rest of the barrels in record timing. They were able to mow down any Nightmare before them in their quest to get the boxes and non-explosive barrels back to the Reaper.
Of course, they lost a few in the struggle to defend themselves, but the Reaper really didn’t need to know about it. Hopefully, he never would know. He probably would never think to ask.
“All right, that’s all the—” Shiki paused mid-sentence as she noticed that between her travels, the pile had grown large enough that she was able to see it towering over the Gizmo Shop! Holy crap, was he sitting on top of it?! “Omigosh, be careful! Don’t fall!”
The Reaper laughed—again—and shouted down at her. “This masterpiece is made from my precise calculations, I’ll never fall! Take a look.”
Shiki sighed and turned to look at her Dream Eaters. “Thanks for the help, you guys. I couldn’t have done it without you. Stay down here for me, all right?”
They growled in discontentment, but heeded her wish as she began to climb the ladder again. When she reached the top, she looked up at the Reaper. “Hey, I never got your name.”
He glanced down at her and then hopped down, grinning widely and shoving his hands into his pockets. “Sho Minamimoto. Memorize the name.”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Minamimoto,” Shiki said, looking past him to observe the large pile of wood she’d helped him make. It looked like there were a few...pieces of garbage here and there that looked suspiciously like the drink containers that they threw away. Had he been going through their trash for this stuff?
“Just Sho, you zero,” He muttered and began walking around the heap to examine it further. Had he really climbed up without checking it out completely?!
“I’m Shiki, Shiki Misaki,” She introduced, still eyeing his coat now that he was turned around. “And...um... this is just something that’s been bugging me, but...um...”
Sho glanced back at her and raised an eyebrow. “Spit it out, digit.”
“Your coat is kinda...well, it’s falling apart and it’s really been bugging me!” She blurted, curling her fingers into fists. “You see, I’m kinda a seamstress and I make all my clothes so I really can’t stand seeing anything in poor condition. It’s, like, the worst. So, I mean, I was just thinking that maybe I could fix up your coat for you?”
Sho raised and eyebrow and turned around fully, crossing his arms.
Shiki raised her hands in front of her defensively. “N-not that it’d cost you or anything! I would never charge for something like this. We don’t even have yen here so there’d be no point, haha!”
However, before Shiki could say more, Sho was taking off his coat and tossing it to her.
Shiki caught the article of clothing and looked up at the Reaper with somewhat wide eyes. “Ah--thank you!”
“It’s not for you, digit, it’s been bugging me too,” he growled, turning away and beginning to scale his garbage pile. “You’ve got t minus twenty-five minutes to fix it, though!”
Shiki’s eyes went even wider as she quickly pulled her trusty sewing needle and black thread from her bag. Spreading the coat out on the ground, she began the hefty task of mending it. Even if she didn’t have a sewing machine, twenty-five minutes would be nothing!
After most of the obvious work was done, she carefully pulled the coat into her lap and began doing a more thorough examination. The collar was good, there was little she could do about the sleeves... ah! One of the pockets had a hole in it! That would be an easy enough fix too.
Biting her lip, Shiki got back to work fixing that up as well.
Once that was done, Shiki gave the coat another once over before she was satisfied. Standing up, she held up the article of clothing. “It’s done!”
“Well, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” replied the Reaper as he jumped down again and took the coat. He looked it over with a critical eye before flashing her a wide grin. “Heheh! Not bad, digit.”
In a flash, he was wearing it once more.
“Well, you know, appearance is important. You don’t want to give up a sloppy impression of yourself,” Shiki replied, opening her pouch again and getting Mr. Mew back out.
“Pfft, who gives a digit what people think. Worrying about what other people think is garbage! CRUNCH! I’ll add it to the heap!”
“But how can you just think that way?” Shiki blurted, hugging Mr. Mew tighter to herself. “I mean...”
She slumped. There really was no understanding people who thought that way. Shiki had tried to stop caring. Honestly, she had. But she just couldn’t. Not when she kept thinking about what other people might think of her!
“Easy, who gives a digit about what people think,” Sho replied and sat atop his heap with crossed arms. “Especially when you’re dead. Exactly zero percent of the population here care about what you look like! Only the independent variables in your life matter, anyway.”
“O-oh...right, sorry...” Shiki replied, looking up at him. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She’d just been thinking of herself again!
“Apologies are garbage too, digit.” Sho said lazily, leaning back more and crossing one leg over the other lazily. “I’m not here to be the solution to your multiple complex equations, go talk to someone else.”
Shiki looked up at him sharply. “Fine,” she mumbled, turning around to walk back over to the ladder and began climbing down. What did that even mean? Only the independent variables mattered?
When she got to the bottom, she turned and began to walk back over to the First District with her Dream Eaters following close behind. Thankfully, she’d already cleared out all of the other Nightmares so she was able to get to the café without incident.
Sitting down at one of the tables, she crossed her arms on the table and rested her head on one.
Independent variables were variables that didn’t get changed by outside forces, right? Only the people that weren’t changed by outside forces mattered in her life?
“You’re acting like people actually care about what you look like!”
Shiki’s eyes widened as she sat up quickly. Neku...he hadn’t...
Neku didn’t care what she looked because she was still herself...! That was what he’d been trying to tell her, wasn’t it?! And--and she’d just gotten mad at him for it. She reached up to cover her mouth slightly.
No matter what she looked like on the outside, she was still Shiki Misaki on the inside.
Getting up quickly, she turned to her Dream Eaters. “C’mon, guys, it’s time to find Neku!”
They were going to have to have a talk...and this one wasn’t going to end in an argument.