Meet Me Somewhere { OPEN }

[Shiki Misaki]

[Koki Kariya]

How long had he been here now? It was hard to say. The usual time of night and day did not seem to apply to this world the Reaper had learned was called Traverse Town. Always a night sky and warm lights from buildings showed all around. As if the place was frozen forever in the calm night time scene. The people that lived here didn’t seem bothered by this at all. They had their own schedules, closing and opening shops or abandoning the streets at certain points. Since no one seemed to care for clocks, the people’s activity became the new clock for Koki. When he first arrived, he had simply looked for the familiar and his partner Uzuki, but had found nothing. Disappointed, he tried searching for information and finding a way out of this place, but the people here were only helpful in telling him about the place he was in now and nothing else. They knew nothing about the wall that had brought him here nor did they seem like they even knew there was indeed other places outside of their own space. It was odd thinking that that this place he was in was a completely different world instead of a country, but the more time Koki spent in the place the more the idea sunk in.

Already, he had discovered some things that simply did not make sense to the Reaper. First off, while people didn’t know anything about outside worlds they seemed to accept the idea that he was from somewhere else, saying many folk in town told them that. On top of this, on his quest to find a way out, he found this strange shop with these cute little bear things that could fly…what did they call themselves again? Moogles, ya? Anyway, these moogles, strange as they were, did know about outside worlds and told him a guy name Cid could help him leave the place. They said the guy built something called gummi ships that could travel between worlds. Okay….so this transporter that sound more like a something to eat than something that could help him out could get him out of this world that was made up of folk from different places and yet no one except the moogles knew about outside worlds? Take a breath and try and untangle that huge contradiction. And get this. That dude, Cid, he was currently missing so his plan of leaving was scrapped unless another random wall popped up or something….and quite frankly, he rather not deal with that.

Even if he could leave, where would he start looking for Uzuki anyway? According to those helpful fuzz balls, there were not just one or two worlds, but many, many worlds meaning finding one or even a handful of people would be a lot harder than this particular Reaper would’ve liked. Already, his head was beginning to pound with a dull ache at the idea of all the searching he’d have to do. What a pain in the butt.

Speaking of pain, pain brought up a whole different ball of what the hell. Koki had died and been dead for a long time. He had been dead long enough to become a pretty powerful Reaper, despite his choice to remain at a low rank and never really bothering to tap into any hidden potential he had. He had been comfortable in the second Shibuya, the place where the dead lived and if he did want to go back upstairs for a bit, he could thanks to his Reaper rank, but he could always go back home if he wanted to. When you have that little luxury and were used to the idea of being dead things such as pain, hunger and exhaustion to a degree did not bother you. It wasn’t a priority. Yes, he ate occasionally and rested a bit when he needed to. He could feel pain, but it was extremely dull compared to what those alive had to deal with. In a nutshell, he was use to not worrying about all the nagging the body did while you alive, but in this place? Forget it.

Not only did he have to relearn, in a way, to take care of his now living body, he also had to learn to work again. After all, his currency did not match the currency here and without money…no food. It was annoying, but he did what he had to do to survive. It wasn’t that hard and the work was simple, so he couldn’t complain on that end. True pain, on the other hand….that was something he could do without. It amazed him how easily pain could find those that were living. Everything from stomping a toe to getting a cut was all in the mix. On top of this, he found that if he did try to fly for an extended period of time, the activity would exhaust him, forcing him to rest. Now that was something he was not use to at all. In Shibuya, he could fly whenever he wanted no problem, so finding he could not do the same in this new place was a disappointing, but a good thing to know. Now he knew that it would be best to save flight until absolutely necessary or forced into fight. On the note of flight, he still didn’t understand why his wings were still there. If he went anywhere above the other Shibuya, his wings vanished so he could not use his powers, but here? He was alive and still had his wings and probably his powers too. So why leave him alive, but with his powers and wings in tact?

It didn’t make sense and trying to figure it out was only making him more confused. Deciding to put all questions on hold until he either got out of this place or found someone who could actually answer them, Koki had settled into the routine of the town and while it was definitely a new shift from what he was used to, he found the place likeable and kind of relaxing, so he did not mind being stuck too much.

With not much to do, it was not unusual to find the calm Reaper enjoying the simple life of the place provided that thoughts did not bother him. Today was one of those days, he could actually relax. He didn’t have any work today, and the unexpected rain had slowed the folks of the town down forcing most inside; however, the shops were still open and full of life; however, Koki didn’t want to be around the talkative people today. He had order a small lunch and ate inside before talking his tea outside to the covered sitting area full of empty tables now that rain had come in. Not minding the weather, Koki had chosen a table close to the edge of the cover. He was sitting slightly leaned forward his head resting on his hands as he watched the rain fall, enjoy the music the drops of water made as they hit the different materials in the area. He was actually zoned out and on the edge of taking a nice nap when his sleepy eyes caught something.

It was a girl dressed in a fashionable way, holding what appeared to be a black stuff cat. At a glance, she was nothing special, but to someone like Koki the sight was enough to bring him out of his slight daze. He sat up as she started to walk pass her eyes locked on the path before her. He could let her go by, but the Reaper was curious as to why she was here at all. Was she lost too? On top of this, why was she back as the Shiki he saw in the other Shibuya? Did Neku and his friend fail in their mission to get out of Shibuya? Maybe she was stuck in the same odd situation he was in. Alive, but yet still retaining whatever Shibuya had given her. Hmmm…Questions, questions, questions. Only one to way to find out answers right? But first steps had to be made. He wasn’t exactly sure how she’d take to him. After all Reapers and Players were not exactly friends.

In any case, he waited until she was exactly parallel with him to make himself known.

“Well hello there, Shiki,” he said loud enough to be heard over the rain. He wore a friendly smile on his face as he watched her reaction to him careful, gauging just how much trouble this little encounter would cause him. Maybe…just maybe this would turn out good instead of sour. Besides it be nice to have another that he somewhat knew become an ally instead of foe. Perhaps together they could figure out this mess.