Chapter Text
Chapter Four: Re:Start
Scramble Crossing: 10:02 am
Rindo opened his eyes with a gasp. He looked around, taking in the sights and sounds around him. Morning… he thought. Before…
“We’re screwed,” his mouth said before he could truly stop himself.
Fret’s usual upbeat demeanor was subdued somewhat, no doubt because of the events of the day before. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that…”
Rindo wrenched control away from autopilot as he reacclimated himself to his slightly younger self. “No, we really are screwed!” he asserted before Nagi could affirm his words just as she had done during his first run of this morning.
Fret looked like he wanted to say something, but he paused and eyed his friend cautiously. “You already played today, haven’t you?” he surmised.
Rindo nodded.
“And things went terribly wrong, as per usual,” Nagi said, dejected.
Rindo clenched his fists. Things had gone off the rails quicker than usual and he had used his one Replay for the day. Before he could explain further, the mission came through their phones again, highlighting what was about to happen to the boy.
“His name’s Sora,” Rindo said once the mission report ended. “And…” He paused for a moment. Last time, he’d said he wanted to recruit the other, but was that still the right course? He’d watched Sora die, and almost immediately the new Players turned on the rest of his team. Do we do it again…? he wondered, looking down at the red pin in his hand. Or was Sora really worth saving?
He wrapped his fingers around the red pin and held it tightly in his grip. So tight he almost feared he’d break it.
“And what?” Nagi urged, bringing him back to the present.
Let the others decide.
“And things went pear-shaped pretty quickly,” Rindo continued. “There’s some new Players this round. I’ve never seen them before, but they got to Sora before we could.”
Fret crossed his arms. “Did we really go after him for the points?” He frowned, accurately deducing that it didn’t sound like something they’d do.
“We decided to try and recruit him,” Rindo said.
“Sounds more like us.”
“Are we going to do that again?” Nagi asked.
Rindo took a step back. He didn’t ask to be the leader of their group. He didn’t have it in him to make the choices that needed to be made. And every time he tried to make a decision, something bad happened. It was like the universe itself was telling him that he shouldn’t even bother.
“We should,” Fret said, saving Rindo from speaking up.
“But the points would be easy today,” Nagi argued. “Rindo knows where he is.”
Valid…
“So, you want us to eliminate someone for points? Is that all someone is worth to you?”
Also valid…
“They aren’t just some arbitrary numbers on a scoreboard,” Nagi pushed. “This is life and death!”
I don’t want to be the one who dies, Rindo thought while the other two continued to go back and forth. But Sora… He had been trusting, and kind, and had believed Rindo at face value.
“We’re not killing him!” Fret snapped. “And that’s final.”
Nagi narrowed her eyes at him, and a weight seemed to lift from Rindo’s shoulders. Now it was Fret’s idea, and he could wipe his hands clean of it. “Fret’s right,” he said. “It’ll be easy now that we know where to look for him. “He’ll be at Spain Hill around 4:00. If we just spend the day waiting for him there, it’ll be fine.” He flashed an uncomfortable grin.
“Fine,” Nagi said, but she didn’t look like she agreed.
Probably because it was Fret’s idea, he realized, remembering how she didn’t put up as much of a fight when they had this conversation earlier. “Alright. I’ll see you guys at four,” he said.
“Hey, losers!” Shoka’s voice called.
Hachiko Statue: 10:15 am
Riku’s mind was still reeling as he sat cradling his head in his hands. His stomach rumbled and he pulled out his phone to see that the battery hadn’t yet been depleted. But he didn’t have a charger for it in this world. “What’s going on?” he whispered, checking the date and time on the phone. It was that morning. Yozora would walk up to him in an hour or so and start explaining things about the Reaper’s Game.
“This can’t be happening.” He’d met a handful of time travelers in his fights. Heck, he’d even time traveled before, but this didn’t seem like the same kind.
And then there was that vision of Sora lying lifeless on the ground. “Vision, or was I connected to him?” He placed his hand over his heart and reached for Sora, but he couldn’t feel anything. That wouldn’t surprise him as much if he hadn’t felt Sora’s heart already.
“Hello, friend.”
Riku gasped and looked up to see the blond man once again, watching him.
“You!” Riku snapped, scrambling to his feet. “You said I’d find my friend here!”
“Did you not?” the blond asked, meeting Riku’s anger and confusion with still water in his eyes.
“Where is Sora?” Riku demanded. The image of Sora lying lifeless on the ground flashed in his head again. He almost felt like he could feel the stickiness of the blood pooling around his friend’s body. “You said you’d bring him to me!”
“Did I not?”
Riku’s hand twitched and he longed to call the Keyblade to his hand, but it wouldn’t respond. He was just as powerless here as he’d been all those years ago on their island. “What the hell is going on here?”
The blond remained calm in the presence of Riku’s shouts. He was drawing attention to himself, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was finding Sora. “What do you want me to do, friend?”
“I’m not your friend!” Riku shouted back. “I’m looking for someone and you seem to know a hell of a lot more than you’re letting on.”
The blond finally smiled. It wasn’t a smarmy grin. It was almost one of amusement.
“I saw him lying dead on the pavement!” Riku continued.
The smile faded. “You did?” He put his hand to his chin in thought and his tone suddenly became more serious. “Curious… that shouldn’t be possible.”
“Then you do know what’s going on?” Riku pushed.
“Yes.” All casualness was gone from the other’s voice, leaving a sense of urgency that even Riku wasn’t expecting. “First, introductions. I am Mikagi Hazuki. Come with me.” He motioned Riku to follow and then he moved through the crowds away from the dog statue. Riku looked back at where he’d been sitting. Yozora was coming soon enough, and he needed the other man in order to figure out about the game. But this Hazuki character seemed to know a lot more.
“Fine…” he grumbled and followed Hazuki through the crowd. The blond didn’t stop until they were in a quieter alleyway and Hazuki leaned against the wall behind him, looking down at the ground pensively. “I want to know everything,” Riku said.
“I cannot tell you everything,” Hazuki said. “But I can tell you something. The fact that you were able to see your friend’s corpse is surprising enough, but you remember an event that has yet to happen.” He looked up and met Riku’s eyes. “Where are you from? Who sent you?” There was an air of anger and protectiveness in his voice. His dull eyes searched over Riku as if he were looking for something.
Riku crossed his arms. “I’ll give you all the answers you want when you tell me where I can find Sora.”
Hazuki smirked. “Your friend is dead,” he said simply.
Riku clenched his fists. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” Hazuki assured him. “However, death and erasure are two very different things. As we speak, a Game is being played in the Underground for the right to return to life.” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “But… you already knew that, correct?”
Riku nodded.
“Sora is currently playing in the Underground.” He rested his foot against the wall behind him and closed his eyes.
“Then I want to go there.”
“I answered a question of yours. Now you must answer one of mine.”
“No one sent me,” Riku snapped.
Hazuki smirked without opening his eyes. “Then where did you come from?”
“How do I get to the Underground?” Riku asked without answering the question. Hazuki clearly wanted information from him and that was the only way he was going to get information out of the other. Tit for Tat.
“You die,” Hazuki answered without pause.
“Yozora said there’s a way to get there without dying.”
“Where did you come from?” Hazuki repeated.
Riku smiled ruefully at the other. Two guys trying to get information out of the other. Riku knew he was at a disadvantage. The man before him wasn’t some ordinary human being. He could feel it. There was power in his stance. Riku’s existence in this world spooked the other, but not enough to be a threat.
“I’m not from here,” Riku said, trying to be as vague as he could.
Hazuki opened his eyes slightly to peer at the other. “You aren’t playing the Game correctly,” he said. “I didn’t ask you where you aren’t from.”
“Right.” He looked up at the sky. How was he even supposed to explain it? How much did Hazuki know about different worlds and realms? Yozora seemed to have some sort of knowledge of life outside of this reality, but whatever it was, it appeared to be rudimentary. “I’m from someplace outside of this reality known as Destiny Islands.” That was specific, but also incredibly vague to someone who didn’t know of the existence of other worlds.
“Outside of this reality?” Hazuki repeated.
Riku shook his head. “My turn. How do I get to the Underground?”
Hazuki pushed off the wall and stood up straight. “If you don’t want to die, then that’s out of my jurisdiction. Living Players are strictly forbidden. Usually…” he added under his breath with a side glance in the direction they had come. He continued talking without looking back at Riku. “You need to talk to the management for this Ward.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that I can’t help you get to the Underground. The person you need to talk to is currently not taking a lot of notice of what’s going on in his district.” He started walking, leading Riku back towards the dog statue. He followed reluctantly.
“You’re just answering my questions now?”
“Our Game’s over,” Hazuki said tightly. “Because you can’t answer my questions.”
“I just did!”
He shook his head. “No… I need to know why you can remember fragments of a time that hasn’t happened yet. You are not even a Player. It shouldn’t be possible even if you were, yet here we are. And I doubt you can answer that question.”
Riku was at a loss for words, but Hazuki was right. He didn’t know why he could remember something that hadn’t happened yet. “Does that mean Sora is going to die?” he asked.
“The future is yet to be written.”
Riku wanted to ask more questions, but his vision went blurry again and the ringing returned to his ears as he approached Hazuki and the statue. He shut his eyes and covered his ears against the ringing. When he opened them again, he was back with his back against the statue. “Wait… What?” He looked around, but Hazuki was gone.
In his place, Yozora was walking towards him, waving. “Lost?” he asked.