Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Three Years Ago...

Of all the things Joshua wasn't looking forward to, this talk topped the list. But, he thought as he walked towards the statue of Hachiko, there was no getting around it. The trio were waiting there, Shiki - looking like herself once again, of course, short brown hair and glasses - and Beat, and Rhyme.

And no Neku.

Shiki held up Mr. Mew defensively. "You!" she said.

But Joshua wasn't in the mood for them distrusting him. "Yes, me. Meaning what I’m here for is pretty important. Do you want to know what happened to Neku or not?"

"What, did you hurt him again?" Rhyme asked.

"No," he said. He’d just lost him, which was worse. He considered defending himself further for a moment, but… what did it matter, really. "... What's the last thing you all remember, before you woke up in your beds this morning and Neku wasn't responding?"

"Weird question," Beat said. But he started thinking, and the others did, too. "I guess... there was these black shadow things, right? Only they didn't look like Noise, yo. But... Me an' Rhyme was tryin' to fight 'em, anyway."

"Yeah. Same here," Shiki said.

So they didn't remember Traverse Town. That wasn't surprising, given Shiki's reaction. "Those were the Heartless. You wouldn't have been able to fight them as you are - even I can't do much against them. We don't have the right kind of power." He took a breath. "The four of you - you three and Neku - almost lost your hearts to the darkness. Only I wouldn't let that happen, so I took you somewhere you could rebuild them. Another world."

"What do you mean, another world?" Rhyme asked.

"Just that. Where we live is just one world among many, connected by the light of hearts in an endless ocean of stars," he said. "I put Shibuya itself into a deep sleep and took you all somewhere you'd be safe. I used your dreams and your memories of the Game, and let your hearts rebuild themselves. I was taking you all back when... when I lost Neku."

"You lost him?!" Shiki asked.

"I know. I couldn't just... carry your hearts back, the way I could take them there. It's harder doing that with completed hearts than a bunch of fragments. I watched over them as closely as I could, but I couldn't watch over them all equally. Neku's was the strongest. I thought it'd be safest to let him have the most independence, but..." he looked away from them.  "He got away, somehow. I tried looking for Neku in the sea between worlds - I looked everywhere - but... his heart is- gone." He looked away from them.

"Then look harder, yo!" Beat said. "He's gotta be somewhere!"

"I tried! I really did. I delayed reawakening this world as long as I possibly could, but... there's nothing," Joshua said. He was going to get in so much trouble for all of this, and none of it mattered, because Neku was gone. Everything else was tiny compared to that. "I can't even find traces of it. Not in this world, not between… I even looked in the worlds nearby, in case he fell into one of those. He didn’t. He’s not anywhere." 

Beat sighed. "There's gotta be somethin' you can do," he said, but he sounded more defeated than angry, now.

"If I could come up with anything - anything - I would do it," he said. Let them believe it or not. They could hate him, for all he cared. They had good enough reasons to before he lost their best friend. "Anyway. You had to know. But I'll leave you three alone, now." He turned around and started walking.

"Wait," Shiki said. "If you're leaving to be sad somewhere, you should be sad with us."

Joshua stopped in his tracks.

"You were his partner too, weren't you?" Rhyme asked.

"He hated me most of our week together," Joshua said, not turning to look. "The only reason he put up with me is because Shiki's safety was riding on it."

"Still. At the end, he trusted you, because you changed your mind," Shiki said. He turned now. She was hugging Mr. Mew tightly, and she was clearly holding back tears, but she wasn’t crying yet. 

"An' you were the one who brought us all back to life," Beat said. He was frowning, but not angrily. "Even Rhyme an' me." Rhyme nodded.

"It's what Neku would want," Shiki added. "He never stopped waiting for you." She offered out her hand, and it was so much like what they’d all done in Traverse Town. He hesitated… just long enough for Beat to pull him closer, and Rhyme to grab his other arm. 

Joshua didn't have any defense for that, really. He let them add all three of their hands together.  "It is," he said.

–

It's been three days since Sora woke up in Quadratum, and he's still getting used to... well, everything. Every world's different, but he didn't spend enough time in San Fransokyo to get used to buildings this tall, or architecture like this.

Strelitzia's been helping him get used to it, since she's been here for years at this point. So Sora's been trying to help her out in return, coming up with things he can do for her even in a world this unfamiliar. Today they’re going grocery shopping. They've split up to find what they need, so he's kind of primed to look for orange hair in the crowds, even when it's clearly not Strelitzia. Actually, those spikes look familiar.

“Neku?!” Sora asks. The boy with the spiky orange hair turns, and it really is him. He’s a lot taller, and the outfit’s new, and he's ditched his headphones, but Sora beams.

“Sora?” Neku asks. Then he looks confused. “Wait… How do I know your name?”

“You don’t remember?” Sora asks.

“I mean, I wouldn’t. I’ve never met you before,” Neku says. “Still… you do seem really familiar.”

“Maybe it’s just ‘cause you’re new here? My head was kind of hazy when I woke up,” Sora says. It's mostly cleared up now... mostly, but he still can't do a lot of his old magic. Strelitzia isn't sure how much of it works in this world.

“No, I’ve been here for… a while,” Neku says, frowning, “and my memory’s fine.”

Sora considers. Then it hits him. “Oh, yeah! When we met, Joshua said it was a dream. Or, something like that. I didn’t totally get it all.”

“You know Joshua?” Neku asks, his voice going higher and even a little louder.

“Yeah. I met him at the same time I met you. Oh, and Rhyme and Shiki, too.” He crosses his arms, thinking. “I think Rhyme’s partner was in Riku’s version of Traverse Town, though.”

“Beat. His name’s Beat.” Neku smiles, but it looks sad. “I haven’t seen any of them in ages. They aren’t in this world.”

“Huh?”

"I come from a place called Shibuya. It's a lot like this city," Neku says. "But one day, a bunch of black monsters with golden eyes showed up."

"The Heartless?!" Sora says. It makes sense, he guesses - Joshua had said something had happened to them all - but still. Did they really have to attack Neku’s world? He crosses his arms, but Neku doesn’t seem bothered by it.

"Is that what they're called? I saw one in this world a few days ago, but it was a lot bigger. Anyway... Me and my friends tried to fight back, you know? We've dealt with monsters before. But... somehow, it didn't work. The next thing I really remember, I woke up in the street alone here," Neku says. "I tried to find Shiki and Beat and Rhyme - I even looked for Joshua - but the closest thing I could find was Shiki's stuffed animal, Mr. Mew. He's the mascot for some brand here, but... there's no Shiki." He sighs.

"You must really miss them," Sora says. Strelitzia says she's been without her friends for years. He's not sure about Neku yet, but if he's been here long enough to have a growth spurt...

"Like you wouldn't believe," Neku says. "I've tried getting used to it. Can't expand your horizons without being open to where you are, right? But... I miss them. I miss my home."

"I'll get you back," Sora says, even before he thinks about it.

"What?"

"You might not remember it, but you're my friend," Sora says. "And that means if I can help, I'll do it. Besides, I want to get home, too." He's not sure how, but he'll figure something out. Strelitzia might be able to help - she's a Keyblade wielder, too, and she's been here for a while.

Neku looks at him for a moment, but then he smiles. It's a nice smile. "Then... Thanks, Sora."

Sora just grins. And then he remembers he has groceries to get. "I still need to go shopping," he says.

"So do I," Neku says. But he sticks close to Sora while he goes down the list. When he meets back up with Strelitzia, Neku's still there.

"Hello, Sora," she says. "Did you make a new friend?"

"More like I ran into an old friend," Sora says. "This is Neku."

"Neku Sakuraba," he says. Right. Sora forgot his name was so long.

"Strelitzia," she says. "It's a pleasure. If you know Sora, then I take it..."

"I'm not from this city," Neku says. "I'm from a place called Shibuya, but... it's a different Shibuya."

"Really?" That seems to pique Streltizia’s interest. "Let's finish buying these groceries, and then we can talk."

--

Neku doesn't know what to think of the two of them. He thinks he's seen Strelitzia around before, in the too-thin crowds. He definitely hasn't seen Sora... So why does he know his name?

Joshua would know. It's probably Joshua's fault, honestly. But Neku can't find Joshua, even after he tried breaking into the city sewers a couple times. Since there's no sign of the others, except maybe Mr. Mew, he's pretty sure Joshua isn't around.

Strelitzia brings them all back to her apartment. Neku doesn't have anything that can't wait, anyway.

"So... Where are you two from?" Neku asks.

"A place called Daybreak Town, for me," Strelitzia says.

"And I'm from the Destiny Islands," Sora says.

Neither place sounds familiar to Neku. But if he's learned anything since he woke up here in Quadratum, the world's a lot bigger than he used to think. "So we're all from different places."

"But you're from a world where you could meet Sora," Strelitzia says. "That means your world is more like the Destiny Islands than it is here."

"... I guess?" Neku says. "I've only ever lived in my Shibuya, until I came here." He doesn't get what she's talking about with worlds, but Sora seems to.

"We met in Traverse Town, only it was a dream," Sora says to Strelitzia. That’s not the first time Sora’s said something like that, but it still doesn’t make sense. "Do you know about Traverse Town?"

"No, but... My world was about to change when I left it," Strelitzia says. "I've been here for a long time."

"Right," Sora says.

"My home's a lot like this place," Neku says. "but all the details are different."

"I wonder... maybe this world and your Shibuya are connected," Strelitzia says.

"Do you think... if they're connected, maybe we can use one to get to the other?" Sora asks. "I know this is supposed to be an afterworld or something, but..."

"Maybe. If the worlds are connected across a universe, then... maybe we could use Neku's connection to his Shibuya to go there." Strelitzia smiles. Then she looks at Neku, who’s trying not to interrupt even though he really wants to. “Would you like to try now?”

“Yes! I mean - if that’s okay with you,” Neku says. “If you have plans for your day-”

“Nothing important,” Strelitzia says. “Besides… I’m interested in leaving this world, too. Alright. To start, we should go somewhere where the connection's strongest."

"How about 104? That's the same in my world," Neku says.

"Sounds good to me," Sora says. And so they leave.

When they get there, there's a group of those gold-eyed monsters. Sora and Strelitzia don't seem bothered by it, though. They both make a gesture, and giant keys appear in their hands. At least... Neku thinks they're keys.

"What the -" Neku asks.

"Don't worry. If you can't fight them, we will," Sora says. He charges into the group, hitting them with his key. Strelitzia points hers at them, and a ball of fire bursts out of the tip. They can use Psychs? (But Neku's pins don't work here in Quadratum. He tried, the other day.)

He stays back, as Strelitzia freezes another few in ice crystals, letting Sora hit them without getting hit himself. He leaps into the air, taking another creature with him and almost... juggling it in midair with his key.

"Watch out!" Strelitzia exclaims, pointing her key right next to Neku. He turns just in time to see one of the creatures, but before she can use whatever she's using, fire bursts from Neku's hands. That was close, he thinks, as a bolt of lightning zaps it and it vanishes.

"But... how?" he asks. His Psychs weren't working before. Still, as Sora slams his key down to the ground and the shockwave sends more of the creatures into the air, Neku raises his hands and releases more fire.

As the final shadow monsters vanish, both of their keys vanish into thin air the same way they appeared. "More Heartless?" Sora asks.

"Strange. I've lived here for years and never saw them before the last few days," Strelitzia says. "Something must be calling them in."

"Huh," Sora says. "Are you alright, Neku?"

"I'm fine," he says. "Just... confused."

"You said you'd dealt with monsters before?" Sora says.

"Yeah, but... they were different. They looked like animals, only parts of their bodies were made of tattoos. They were called Noise, and you fought them with pins that worked... well, like I just used them," he says. "But my pins weren't working the last time I tried to fight those things."

"These are Heartless. They're what happens when a heart falls to the darkness," Strelitzia says. "They look for more hearts to consume."

"They can even take over the hearts of worlds," Sora says.

"That sounds... bad," Neku says. And way over his head. But Joshua probably knows.

"It is," Sora says. Then he crosses his arms, thinking. "I wonder where these Heartless came from."

"They only started appearing after you woke up," Strelitzia says. "Maybe you called them here, somehow?"

"Maybe. They are drawn to Keyblades..." he says. "But they'd need to come from somewhere. Maybe there's a world connected to Quadratum where they got in?"

"You thought Shibuya might be connected to Quadratum, right?" Neku asks. "We know there were Heartless there when I got here."

"That's true. Maybe the Keyblades are calling to them, and they're crossing between the connection," Strelitzia says.

"So..." Neku says.

"So..." Sora says. "Usually I have a Gummi Ship to travel, but... Let's see what happens!"

Neku can't cover his surprise. "You're just going to try something out?"

"I don't have any better ideas, so... yeah!" Sora says. That reminds him of Beat so much Neku has to smile. "Let's see... Take my hand, and focus on home," he says. "Think about the stuff that's different." Neku does. His thoughts go straight to his friends, of course, but - they spent all their time wandering the city together, after the Game. When he remembers them, he also remembers the skate park Beat took him to that doesn't exist anymore in Quadratum. Mr. Doi's ramen. The names of places that are just a bit different from how he remembers. The mural, which has been painted over in this Udagawa.

Sora's pulled out his giant key again, and it's pointing a beam of light up into the sky, where there's... a giant cartoon keyhole? Somehow, that's not the weirdest thing about his day.

"I think this is going to work," Sora says, grinning. "Come on, let's go!"

"What? How?" Neku asks. Sora just grins wider and offers his other hand to Strelitzia. She takes it.

"You'll see!" Sora says. Then he starts running. Neku's fast, but he has to struggle to keep up. Especially once Sora starts running up the side of 104, which shouldn't be possible... but as Neku runs, he feels stable, and Strelitzia doesn't seem concerned. They keep running until they should be hitting the roof, when Sora leaps into the air towards the keyhole. Neku holds tight to Sora's hand as he does.

And then, in a whoosh, they're gone.

Chapter Text

Strelitzia loses grip on Sora's hand just as the connection between the two worlds starts to resolve into something tangible. She lands on the roof of a tall building, almost surrounded by Shadows. But even she can take care of Shadows.

There's a pile of trash behind her, which lets her cut off the rest of the Shadows by standing in front of it. That helps, a little. Her magic doesn't exactly work in ways that make it easy to take out huge hordes of Heartless, but she makes do. After a few of them go down, she hears someone snickering from above her.

"Not a zeptogram at all, are you?" She looks as a man jumps from atop the trash pile to land next to her. He's dressed all in black, with a hood almost covering his face and a coat long enough to end just above his boots. "You might actually be worth my time."

"Sorry, is that... your pile of garbage?" she asks.

"Not a zeptogram, but... I suppose it's still too much for an attogram like you to appreciate art." He glares at the crowd of Shadows with one hand curled over the other's fist. "These, though... They aren't even yoctograms. So why couldn't I subtract them earlier?"

"Only a Keyblade can release a Heartless's heart," she says. "Only... Neku was able to do something against them. Maybe your magic only works with someone else?"

He throws a ball of energy at one of the Heartless, and gives a satisfied smirk as it vanishes. "I work alone, unknown variable. If you can keep up, then crunch these things!"

Strelitzia isn't sure what she's gotten herself into, but he seems to know how to handle himself in battle as he throws himself into the fray and kicks another Shadow out of existence. She adds her magic, and finds her spells work better here than they did in Quadratum. Fire becomes Fira, Blizzara becomes Blizzaga. It's been so long since she even had to cast them, though...

"Attogram! Keep up!" But, right. She can't let herself get caught in her thoughts. She isn't as acrobatic as Sora, but she can keep throwing thunderbolts and balls of ice while the stranger cleans up the Shadows with his attacks.

He unleashes some sort of spell that sends out geysers of lava. That seems to take out the rest of the Heartless.

"Thanks for your help," she says. "Ah... may I ask your name?"

"... Call me Minamimoto," he says. "For an attogram, you know your way around a fight."

"Not really. Shadows aren't too bad," she says. "My name's Strelitzia. My friends must have landed somewhere else. Do you think you could -"

He's already started walking. "You're not going anywhere without going down first," he says. "So come on, attogram."

Well, he might be... brusque... but he seems helpful enough, Strelitzia decides.

--

Heartless. Just what Shibuya needed, Sanae Hanekoma thinks. It's been three years since the last time they had to deal with Heartless, and in a lot of ways, the city still hasn't recovered. Not when it lost one of its most promising hearts. And now they're back. Sanae can’t say it’s surprising, when the brightest minds of the city and the city itself are still in mourning, but it’s awful timing. There's only two ways to deal with Heartless: Either a Keyblade wielder shows up to get rid of them, or the Composer - ruler of the local afterlife, and to some extent the ward itself - puts their ward into a deep enough sleep the Heartless leave. But no Keyblade wielder's ever come to Tokyo in all Sanae's years here, and right now, the person who could be putting the ward to sleep isn't.

"Joshua," Sanae says. "You can't put off this problem."

"That's not what I'm doing," Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu, Composer of Shibuya, says. "I told you. I have a job to do first."

"I'm pretty sure this takes priority," he says. "What could be more important than protecting Shibuya from a Heartless invasion? You know what happened last time."

Josh goes cold, and the temperature of the room drops a degree with him. "How could I forget?" he asks. "But I'm not letting it end like last time. Before I put Shibuya back to sleep, I want to know the others are all safe.”

Sanae looks at him. He’s better off than he was before Neku’s Game, at least… but losing Neku himself was a blow, and none of their little group can even pretend they’ve recovered from it, three years later. Josh looks exhausted in a way he’d never have allowed Sanae to see, before. Losing the others… “Fair enough,” he says finally. “Here, I’ll put a pot on.” Coffee won't exactly change the situation, but it's something to do.

That eases some of the tension in Josh's eyes. “And charge me for it?”

“Hey, they’re your friends.” The smile Josh gives him looks halfway sincere.

Before he can get it started, though, the room floods with light. When it clears a bit, he can just make out two figures now in the cafe with them.

“Well. Just what the doctor ordered,” Joshua says, and that sounds sincere. The light continues to fade. “Sora! And…” If Sanae were thinking, he’d already have been looking at J’s face. It must be priceless. But there’s no way he can look anywhere else right now. Sanae missed the kid, too. “… Neku. Is that really you?”

“Joshua." His voice is softer than Sanae remembered. Gentler, somehow - and it was getting pretty gentle after the Game. His shoulders relax. "I'm home, then."

He could be from an alternate universe. A Neku, but not their Neku. It would explain the energy that's coming off both of them in waves. Sanae's about to say something to that effect, but Neku is looking around. "Where's Strelitzia?" he asks.

The brown-haired kid - Sora, apparently - crosses his arms. "I felt her lose grip right as we were arriving here," he says. "So... I hope she's somewhere around here."

"I do sense someone with similar energy to Sora near Pork City," Josh says. "But that's not important right now. How did you get here?"

"Well, I woke up in this place called Quadratum," Sora says, "which Strelitzia said was kind of like an afterworld - we'll have to find her and introduce you guys - and then I ran into Neku - only he didn't remember me - and we used his connection to Shibuya to open a Gate here!"

That explains absolutely nothing, Sanae thinks.

"If you know Sora, do you know why I seem to know him without remembering?" Neku asks J.

"We met him at the same time," J says. "In a dream, which is probably why you don't remember it. Just before you got lost." Meaning, it's their universe's Neku. Sanae lets himself relax. Evidently, so does Josh, who was already looking at him like a star had suddenly winked back into existence again. "... It's really you."

Neku smiles, and he has about the same look in his eye. "Yeah. It really is."

"I thought - I really thought you were gone," Josh says. Before they spend all day staring at each other, though, he shudders. "Right. The Heartless. Sora, if you recognize Neku, that means you remember me too, right?" Sora nods. "Then can I ask for another favor?"

"Of course!" Sora says.

"Get our friends back here. I'll help you find them if you can bring them."

"That's all? No problem!" he says. "I'll even take care of your Heartless for you."

"I'll help," Neku says. "Whatever I was doing with you in Quadratum, it seemed to be working."

"Not happening," Josh says. "You just got back. You're not going back out into this mess."

"If Shiki and Beat and the others are out in this mess? Yeah, I am," he says. "I think I can help Sora. That means I can help them." He focuses on whatever he was doing in this Quadratum place so hard that Sanae can pick it up without really trying, and Sanae's got to admit, it sure looks like Neku's doing the impossible. Only the dead should be able to use Psychs, not the formerly-dead, and Psychs don't work on Heartless. If they did, they'd have a lot fewer problems.

J sighs. "You're going to try to sneak out even if I say no, aren't you."

"Obviously," Neku says. "The last time I remember seeing these things before today, I ended up in Quadratum for three years." The name he uses... doesn't ring a bell to Sanae. Where was he?

"Then... stay close to Sora. And Sora, you look out for him."

"Of course I will!" Sora says. "You can count on me."

J smiles. "I will be. Alright, Beat and his friends are closer to you than Shiki, Rhyme, and Eri are, but it's still a bit of a walk. Neku, you can lead him to Udagawa, right?"

Neku laughs. "Like you even have to ask?"

"Well, you have been gone a while," Josh says.

"Wait 'til you hear where we've been," Neku says. But he walks out, holding the door for Sora.

"You know, I've heard stories about Keyblade wielders," Sanae says after the two of them have left.

"Oh, they're all true," Josh replies. "I saw that one make magical balloons that worked as mines."

Sanae decides not to dwell on that image. "And you just let him loose on the city."

"The city full of Heartless we can't do anything about? Absolutely. I don't want a repeat of last time." He smiles. "Besides, Sora's a friend. We can trust him."

"It took you nine months after last time to call any of them friends, on top of all that time before the Heartless attacked, and you're trusting some Keyblade wielder you met in - what, a dream?"

"He's 'some Keyblade wielder' who brought back Neku. And I already owed him and his friend Riku before that at least once over. Now I'm asking him to save us again." There's the cynical smirk Sanae was expecting. "Friends don't worry about massive unpayable debts between friends. Friends help out because they're friends. Especially when the favor one friend is asking helps their other friends. It's all even." His tone's... well, no, Joshua would be less condescending towards a nursery school class.

"I stopped recognizing the word 'friend' about three in."

He drops the tone, thank the Higher Planes. "All right, how about this: Shibuya's dependent on a terrifyingly-powerful weapon of myth capable of reshaping all the worlds and bestowing incredible magic on its bearer. Would you really rather have one that doesn't already like me?"

--

Minamimoto leads Strelitzia - even if he says he's not leading her - into an elevator, which takes them back to the bottom floor of a department store and out into the city. No one seems to pay them any mind, but Strelitzia supposes the Heartless are more concerning than two strangers in a big city. They run into more Heartless, too, of course - Shadows and Soldiers, mostly, with a few floating magical Heartless mixed in. Strelitzia can still handle those. Definitely with help.

Neku was right - his Shibuya is similar to Quadratum. As they approach a massive crosswalk, Strelitzia feels déjà vu. At least no giant Heartless spring into being at this one.

"Eri, be careful!"

Strelitzia looks to the side, where someone about her age with long pink hair and trendy clothes is running from a Soldier. Strelitzia raises her Keyblade without thinking, and sends a bolt of lightning at the Soldier. There are more Heartless crawling after it, though - Strelitzia is getting ready to fight when a stuffed cat bursts into the air and punches two of the Heartless out of existence. Actually, doesn't she recognize that cat? Right! It was a mascot in Quadratum.

"Mr. Mew?!" Pink Hair exclaims. Right, that was its name. "Shiki -"

"I don't know how I'm doing it, either!" the voice who warned to be careful says.

"Here - let me try something!" says a third voice, and a line of green energy darts take out three more Heartless. "Whoa." Strelitzia looks over towards the voices, and sees two more people about their age. Mr. Mew jumps back to the arms of one, who's wearing a long green cardigan and glasses. The other's a blonde in a red and black baseball cap and jacket, looking around the area.

"Are you alright?" Strelitzia asks Pink Hair.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did... you do something?"

"I took care of the first Heartless," she says. "I don't know what made everything else happen."

"Joshua would know, right?" The one holding Mr. Mew asks.

"Probably," says the one in the baseball cap. "We should get to WildKat. He's probably there."

"Heh," Minamimoto says. Strelitzia turns back to him, after he'd been so quiet. "With Shibuya in this state? No way you zeptograms can make it to Cat Street on your own."

"Is that an offer to help?" Baseball Cap asks cheerfully.

"... I was kind of looking for my friends," Strelitzia admits. She should be fine on her own, but with this many Heartless around...

"Well, then, you should definitely stick with us!" Pink Hair says. "Our friend Joshua can find anyone, as long as they're in Shibuya!"

"Eri!" Glasses says. "That's true, but..."

"She - sorry, is it she?" Strelitzia nods. "Cool. She, she, they for Rhyme here - Anyway, she has the power to fight off those monsters! You said the first time your special psychic underworld powers didn't do anything. Joshua will want to know about her," the girl - Eri, apparently - says.

Strelitzia looks over at Minamimoto, who smirks. "I have business at Cat Street," he says.

"So... see? He'll come with us!" Eri says. "I promise, if Joshua doesn't know where your friends are, he'll help you find them."

Strelitzia doesn't know what to make of this girl. But... "Alright," she says. "I suppose I don't know where my friends are right now."

"Yay! I'm Eri, this is Shiki and Rhyme!" Eri says.

"Strelitzia."

"Minamimoto."

They start walking towards Cat Street, Eri talking cheerfully like nothing is wrong, Minamimoto ignoring the others entirely unless it's time to fight. Shiki looks glum, though.

"Is... everything alright?" Strelitzia asks during a lull.

"Just... thinking. The last time monsters like this showed up... I lost someone important to me." She clutches Mr. Mew tightly.

Eri goes quiet. "Shiki..."

"I'm okay. But seeing them here... I'm worried," Shiki says.

Rhyme frowns too. "He was all of our friend, but... he and Shiki were super-close. He and my brother were the same way."

"I'm sorry," Strelitzia says. "I... actually, I have a brother, too. But I haven't seen him in years. I don't know if he's still alive." Lauriam was a Dandelion, too... but according to Sora, so much time has passed since the worlds were all one that it's passed into legend. If he died, he should have come to Quadratum, right? But... Strelitzia still doesn't know how going to Quadratum even works.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Shiki says.

"Do you wanna talk about him?" Rhyme asks.

Before Strelitzia can reply, she spots a cluster of Heartless. "Later, maybe."

Minamimoto seems relieved for the talking to have stopped. Or maybe he's always this enthusiastic to leap into battle.

--

It's been a bad day for Beat. Not the worst, maybe, but - close. Damn close. First he left his phone at home, which is a stupid thing to worry about when the city's full of shadow monsters, but it matters. Rhyme might have texted, or Priss. Then he tripped and fell on his way to hanging out with his friends, which is when he realized he didn't have his phone with him. Then his hangout with his friends got crashed by a bunch of monsters. The same shadow monsters that took Neku away from them. (Okay, so it was Priss who lost him, but he wouldn't have gotten lost if the monsters hadn't come.) Beat's been trying to get them all someplace safe, of course, but where's "safe" when the whole city's crawling with monsters?

Still. Anywhere would be safer than here. Because at the moment, they're all staring down the biggest one of these monsters any of them have ever seen. And Beat's seen some pretty big Noise in his time. It looks a bit like a werewolf, a bit like a Reaper, with those wings, and mostly like a problem. There's some sort of weird symbol on its chest, and it's got patterns on its arms and legs that look like Noise symbols, but they're solid. There’s no point fighting it - didn’t work last time. And even if he wanted to, his ankle - the one he tripped on - isn’t up for ramming it with his skateboard. It gave out just as they were trying to run, and he's spent the last two minutes trying to convince his friends to go on without him. He's not losing anyone else to these things. Not happening. (And him... well, Priss is probably watching things right now. He'll be alright.) He might not be able to fight it, but… maybe he can hold it off for long enough.

“Uh uh," Beat says, trying to grab the monster by its claws. "You ain’t goin’ nowhere."

"Beat!" That's Rindo, the leader of their little group, who should be running for his life right now. All of them should. If Beat can't run with them, the least he can do is try and keep it busy while they get the hell out of there.

"Get goin’, Rindo!" Beat says. Big mistake, since he should be focused on the monster. One of its claws breaks free and swipes him, and it takes all Beat has to keep his grip on the other. “I’m tellin’ you, you’re gettin’ them over my dead body!” Which... might be soon, if Priss doesn't do something. Beat got knocked to the ground by that last swipe. Still, he trusts Priss. Maybe more than he should, sometimes, but he was Neku's, too.

"I heard him! He's there!"

"Right! With me!"

The first voice is so familiar Beat thinks it can't be, just for a moment. Then there's two people charging straight into the monster - above his head, even! - with one of them pulling some kind of giant key on it and the other one shooting fire. Beat can't get up, but he scoots back while the two of them fight it. One of them - the one with the key wearing black and red - is practically flying, with how much time they spend in the air. Beat's kind of jealous. The other one's staying on the ground...

And it can't be. It really can't. Priss was so sure, and he wouldn't lie about something this important... would he?

But as Brown Hair slams their key down onto the monster's back, and it disappears leaving a giant heart, the other person walks towards Beat, reaching out his hand.

He's wearing yellow wristbands. Somehow, even though plenty of people wear them, that's what gets Beat.

"Beat?" Neku asks.

Beat can feel the tears welling up, but he's too confused to fight it, or even be embarrassed by it. "You - I thought you was dead, man! Priss said you was gone!"

"Joshua was wrong. It happens, sometimes," Neku says.

Beat gives a little huff that's almost a laugh, if he wasn't already crying. "More'n sometimes." He takes Neku's hand and finally stands up. Neku's taller now. Beat's still got him beat, but it's a lot closer.

"I can't believe he didn't tell you. He sent me and Sora to get you," Neku says.

"Well... even if he was gonna..." Beat says. "I kinda left my phone at home, yo."

"Beat."

"I didn't know there was gonna be a buncha monsters today!" he says.

Neku laughs, but there's tears in his eyes, too. "I can't believe it. You're still you."

"What's that mean?" Beat asks.

"It means I was worried about you all for three years - where you were, and how you'd be changing - but... I still know you." Neku smiles. And actually starts crying.

Beat reaches over for his shoulder. "Hey. 'S okay."

"I know. I know." But Neku's still crying. Then again, Beat still feels like crying. They stand there for a moment, Beat still bracing Neku, which helps him not fall back down. But eventually Neku sniffles and rubs at his eyes, and he looks like he's going to be okay.

There’s a cough from the side. "Um... who are you?" Rindo asks.

Neku looks at the four of them, which reminds Beat they still haven't run away. "Friends of yours?" he asks.

"Yeah, we tight," Beat says. "Long story." Real long. They'd kind of gotten forced together due to some Game shit, but even after, they decided to stick together.

Neku smiles. "I'm Neku Sakuraba. And this is Sora." He gestures to Brown Hair.

"Hey! You must be Rhyme's partner, right?" Sora asks Beat.

This day's just got a lot better, but way more confusing. "Rhyme's my little sib," he says. "The name's Beat, yo."

"Cool." Sora looks out at the others. "And these must be the friends Joshua was talking about."

"Wait, you mean Beat's weird smug friend who teases us all the time?" Fret asks. He'd know, since half the time Priss is teasing him and Beat about having the same vibe. Fret's more stylish, though. Beat's cool just wearing whatever Shiki makes for him.

"I keep tellin' you, Priss can do some weird - stuff," Beat says. He's trying not to swear in front of the kids. (Okay, so Rindo and Fret are three years younger than him, Kitty Girl's only two years, and Pinny's a year older than him. Still.)

"Like send in a rescue party at the exact right time?" Kitty Girl - Shoka - asks. She's the newest member of the group, and the most like Beat in a way - she's an ex-Reaper, who helped run the Game that rules the Shibuya afterlife, and Beat used to be one, too. Only, she was actually good at the job, right until her heart wasn't in it anymore. Still, he's been helping out where he can while she gets used to the "ex" part. (And steering her clear of Priss, since he's her ex-boss. She doesn’t need to know Beat knows the Composer, and Priss would be a pain in the ass about it.)

"Perhaps," Pinny - Nagi - says. She's so smart that half the time Beat can't follow. Probably more than half, even. But she's cool, even if she has a backpack full of pins featuring some character who looks just like this guy Beat sort of knows... and got beat up by. And then the guy got crushed by a vending machine. And then he came back. (Beat's life is weird, sometimes.)

"We kind of arrived at the right time to be a rescue party," Neku says. "Now, come on. Josh wants us all back at WildKat."

Duh. Mr. H's place. Where Priss spends half the time he's not at work, and probably half the time when he is working, since Mr. H works with him. (Beat's never figured out what exactly Mr. H does, since his coffee shop's always empty, but he's not a Reaper and he sure as hell isn't a Player, and he works with Priss.) That's way safer than just wandering around the city.

"And don't worry about the Heartless," Sora says. "We'll take care of it."

"Oh, yeah!" Beat says. "How'd you do that fire thing, yo? Our Psychs was useless."

"We still don't know," Neku says. "Not even Joshua seemed familiar with it. But... It seems like you can use Psychs when a Keyblade's around?"

Huh. Well, Beat isn't going to look a gift horse in its mane, or whatever Rhyme would say about this. It means they can all help fight their way back.

And compared to having Neku back, it's not that important, anyway.

--

Shiki helps fight their way to WildKat. It's weird fighting with a group of people, especially two people she doesn't particularly know. (Minamimoto looks familiar, but she can't quite place him.)

It's weird fighting without Neku. During the Game, she and he'd been partners - tied together with a Pact that let them feel what the other was doing. Every other time she can remember fighting, he'd been there. Even that last time with the shadow monsters... But Neku's not here anymore, and Eri can't fight at all - she's never been in the Game. Shiki needs to keep her safe. She's not losing anyone else to monsters. So she uses Mr. Mew to fight for her, and Rhyme uses their pins, and Strelitzia uses her magic key, and Minamimoto uses whatever he has at his disposal. At one point he crushes one of the monsters in his hands.

“So,” Shiki says when they have a lull in the fighting near Tower Records. “Would you like to talk about your brother?” Minamimoto makes a dismissive “tch” sound.

“His name… is Lauriam, I suppose. As far as I know, he’s alive,” Strelitzia says. “He’s kind. Strong - a lot stronger than I am - but he was always encouraging me to keep trying to get better at things myself. He wouldn’t let me give up. He has good taste in fashion.”

Shiki smiles. “I can always respect that,” she says. “Eri and me are fashion designers.” 

“That’s amazing,” Strelitzia says. “Lauriam… he and I shared a role, fighting off darkness. But I’m not very good at it, except for magic.”

“You seem to be doing fine to me,” Shiki says. 

“These are pretty small Heartless. They get a lot bigger,” Strelitzia says. Shiki doesn’t want to think about how much bigger. “What about your friend?”

“Well, we got off to a pretty rough start,” Shiki says. “But… when he opened up, when he let himself care? He knew just how to help me when I don’t think anyone else could.”

“He sounds like a really good friend,” Strelitzia says. 

“He was.” They’re near WildKat now. “Here we are,” Shiki says. The door is closed, but the sign says they're open, and she can see Josh and Mr. H inside. They walk in.

"Well. I wasn't expecting Minamimoto here today," Josh says.

"We have business," he says.

"Not while there's Heartless around, we don't," Joshua says. "Or do you really want to be so busy fighting we get attacked by one of them?"

Minamimoto smirks. “Nothing about that equation scares me."

Joshua’s about to respond, but Mr. H speaks up. "I'm stepping in. Nothing happens while the Heartless are loose on the city," Mr. H says. "I don't want to find out what happens if one of them gets involved in a succession fight."

"Hmph," Minamimoto says, crossing his arms and sulking into his hood.

Talking about succession fights reminds Shiki where she recognizes Minamimoto from. "You were that guy crushed under the vending machine!" she says.

"And?" Minamimoto says flatly.

"Um... what?" Strelitzia asks.

"It's a long story," Josh says. "And before we get into it, Shiki -"

The door opens again, and Beat and his friends come in.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Minami!" Fret says. "I didn't know you knew Beat's friend's - whatever-he-is!"

"He could be a customer," Shoka says.

"Yeah, but no one knows about this place except a couple Reapers," Rindo says. As Nagi walks in, someone with brown hair and blue eyes follows, and Strelitzia smiles, and then...

"Oh," Shiki says. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

He looks over at Josh. "You didn't tell her, either?"

"I was about to! What was I supposed to do, text the others about you?" Josh says.

"Um, yeah?" he says.

"While they were out in the middle of a Heartless attack?" Josh turns to Shiki. "It's not a dream. I was wrong," he says, and that's probably the first time he's ever smiled while he said it. It might be the first time he ever admitted it.

"Hey, Shiki," he says. "I'm... sorry it took so long for me to find my way back here."

"Your- your jacket," she says. He looks confused. "I made one just like it a year ago, and when I realized it'd look perfect on you - when I realized it was you I was thinking of modeling it - I cried for almost an hour. So... It has to be a dream." Because the real Neku never even saw that jacket, and it wouldn't have fit him, anyway.

"This?" he asks, gesturing to the jacket. It's even got a Gatto Nero label on the sleeve. That's their brand. "There's... somehow, in Quadratum, Mr. Mew was the mascot of a clothing brand even though the creator was some random person. I looked it up. It was the only trace of any of you I could find, so... I bought a lot of clothes there."

"Shiki," Josh says, "do you really think I'm such a jerk I'd let you have a dream like this and not tell you it was one?" That... no. Joshua can be a jerk, but he doesn't mess around about Neku. "He's real. I promise."

For some reason, that just makes Shiki cry harder. She's happy, really she is, but...

"Yeah. That was us, too," Beat says, patting her on the shoulder. "'S gonna be alright."

Then Neku reaches to pat her on her other shoulder, and she pulls them both into a hug.

"Come on," Rhyme says after a moment.

"I don't want to inter-" Joshua starts.

"Yes you do," Mr. H says. "Go on. Get in the hug."

Beat and Shiki break for long enough to let Rhyme in, and then Beat raises his other arm for Joshua... and probably grabs him so he can't back out. They stay like that until Shiki feels like she won't get overwhelmed just looking at Neku.

"I'm glad you're both safe, Sora," Strelitzia says softly while they're hugging.

Shiki can’t quite make out the stranger’s reply, but… Sora, huh.

Shiki breaks away, and wipes the last tears from her eyes. Beat and Neku do the same. Josh isn't crying, but it takes a lot to get him to break down, and he's the last one to let go once the hug starts breaking up.

Then he clears his throat and tries to pretend everything's normal. "You must be Sora and Neku's new friend. Strelitzia, right?" he asks her.

"Yes. And you must be their friend Joshua?" she asks.

They make a round of introductions, except for Minamimoto who's pacing off to the side, but when Shiki gets to hers, Sora looks surprised.

"Shiki was... borrowing a friend's appearance, when you met her," Josh says. "It's a long story, but because I was using their memories of the Reaper's Game to rebuild them, she looked like her best friend Eri instead."

"Hi! I'm the best friend," Eri adds, giving a little wave. Sora smiles and waves back.

"What is the Reaper's Game, anyway?" Sora asks. "I mean, I know they were playing in Traverse Town, but I still don't get it."

"Think of it as... a second chance," Josh says. "When people die in this world, they get a chance to Play in the Reaper's Game, and if they win, they can come back to life. Everyone in this room except you and Strelitzia got involved with the Reaper's Game one way or another, and all of us won."

"So... you're all alive again?" Sora asks.

Josh smirks. So does Minamimoto, who stops his pacing. Mr. H just gives a sigh and shakes his head, but Shoka gives a little snicker. "Not quite. A few of us decided to stay involved in the Game instead. I run it, and Mr. H helps. Minamimoto over there keeps trying to take my job."

"Wait. You're the Composer?!" Shoka asks.

"What, you never wondered why Beat never introduced us?" he asks, still smirking.

"Josh, play nice," Shiki says. Shoka'd been seriously starstruck the first time they met, since Shiki and Eri designed... well, most of her wardrobe, but especially their signature Mr. Mew hoodie, complete with cat ears and tail, which is Shoka's favorite piece of clothing ever. "Shoka's here to help."

"I mean, I’m just with these guys," she says. "I didn't know we could help until this Sora guy showed up."

"It's come as a surprise to everyone," Mr. H says. "Then again, this is the first time we've had a Keyblade wielder in Tokyo in centuries, and now we've got two of them."

"I thought this was Shibuya?" Sora says.

"It is. Shibuya's a part of Tokyo," Joshua says. "Think of it as a world within a world." Sora nods like he understands that. "So. The three of you were in some sort of... 'afterworld', huh?"

"I got there after being struck down," Strelitzia says. She's pretty, with that long light orange hair and that dainty white dress. "I just... woke up afterwards, and there I was."

"I don't really remember what I was doing before I got there, but... the same thing happened to me," Neku says. "How'd you get there, Sora?"

Sora gives a sheepish smile. "You guys might want to grab seats. It's kind of a long story."

"We have time," Joshua says, walking over to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee. Mr. H looks at him. “Yes, there are Heartless invading the city, but by this point just about everyone’s off the streets, and Heartless aren’t good at getting through locked doors. It’s not going to get worse. People still remember last time.”

"Okay. So, when we met, Riku and I were taking our Mark of Mastery exams to find the power of waking," Sora says. "Only when we started it, we got pulled into a trap by Xehanort."

"Who's Xehanort?" Strelitzia asks.

"Someone who was trying to create Kingdom Hearts," Sora says. "Bad guy. We’d been fighting him for a while. My friend Riku and I were sent to get the power of waking to find three Keyblade wielders who'd been lost for ten years because of him. That's when I met you guys! Um, the ones I didn't just meet today."

"Your hearts had almost fallen to darkness, so I was using a sleeping version of Traverse Town to rebuild them," Joshua says, looking up from his coffee. "Which... most of you know, but I never got the chance to explain it to Neku in a way that he'd remember."

"What's Traverse Town?" Neku asks.

"Another world. One that harbors people who have nowhere else to go,” Joshua says. Neku still looks confused. “Don't worry about it. The important thing is that you were dreaming... and that on our way back home, I lost you in the ocean of stars between worlds." He takes a long drink of his coffee before pouring himself another cup. Shiki's pretty sure he's hiding his expression.

"Like I said, Xehanort took control of our exam. He was trying to take control of me, too," Sora says, "only when he tried, Riku went into my heart to become a Dream Eater."

Josh brightens up and snaps his fingers. "That's why there were two versions of Traverse Town! Sora was in the sleeping world, and then Riku was in Sora's dream!"

"Yeah!" Sora says. Like that makes sense, Shiki thinks. Then he explains his most recent journey - finding the King's missing friends, Aqua and Ven, and then traveling to the Keyblade Graveyard to try and stop Xehanort's plan. "Only, the first time around, it didn't go so well."

"What do you mean, 'the first time around?'" Mr. H asks warily.

“Well… first we lost, because of a really big swarm of Heartless. Everyone’s hearts got scattered to other worlds, and they were going to be lost forever. So I went to all of them and saved them first, and then I kind of… went back in time,” Sora says. Rindo goes really stiff at that, and his eyes go wide. (Beat still hasn't really explained how he made his new friends yet.) 

Sora keeps explaining, but the explanation just sounds worse and worse. She’s pretty sure he died and went back in time. And then went back in time again to save his friend from being killed. She focuses more on the looks on everyone’s faces - Mr. H is looking pretty rattled.

“And then I woke up in Strelitzia's apartment," Sora says.

"Let me get this straight," Mr. H says. "You ended up in this 'afterworld' place after breaking the rules of reality so hard you were told you'd vanish from it entirely."

"I mean... Yeah?" Sora says. "I wasn't going to let Kairi stay gone."

"And you weren't - I don't know, scared what would happen to you?" Rindo asks.

"Not really," Sora says.

Shiki can't tell, but she's pretty sure Joshua's hiding a smile behind his coffee cup. He's the only one.

Chapter Text

At some point, Neku notes, Mr. H realized that Joshua's drank half a pot of coffee on his own while they were listening to Sora's story. He makes Josh pour coffee for the rest of them. It tastes just like Neku remembers, and the nostalgia's enough to make up for the fact that 'like he remembers' is kind of mediocre given the price. He's not paying today.

"So, if we all met Sora earlier, why don't we remember him?" Rhyme asks.

"It's normal to forget dreams when you wake up. Those memories aren't very firm to begin with," Joshua says. "Neku recognized Sora, so we know they're there somewhere, but bringing them back up will be tricky. Dream memories are tough, even for me."

"What if we use Fret and Nagi's powers?" Rindo asks. He's a blond in a long black trenchcoat with black-and-white patterned panels as accents, and Neku feels warm just looking at him because it's the middle of summer. "You know, have Nagi dive deep into their minds, and then have Fret remind them?"

"As we did for Shibuya itself?" Nagi asks. She has long dark hair with green ribbons tied into it and big round glasses, and she's wearing a white T-shirt dress with "My fave is precious" written on it and an ita bag backpack full of pins that look like Minamimoto. Neku wonders how Beat met her, but he figured it was probably a Game thing even before Joshua said they'd been involved.

"That... that should actually work," Joshua says. "While you're there... These four used creatures called Dream Eaters to help. If you can remind them of them, too, maybe we can call on them. It'd give Sora and Strelitzia a hand. There's way too many Heartless right now."

"Ooh, yeah, I can do that!" Fret says. He's got brown hair with blond highlights in an undercut, and he's dressed a lot more fashionably than Nagi and more seasonably than Rindo, with his red plaid pants and open black vest over a white tank top. "Except... What even is a Dream Eater?"

"Think... if a balloon were a cat and a dog at the same time," Joshua says. "Or a big yellow panda with a superhero cape."

"Those descriptions are confusing me," Sora says. He sighs. "Too bad I can't just summon all my friends again and remind you that way."

"These things take time," Strelitzia says gently. "I think... I had a friend once that watched over my dreams. It sounds the same... But I don't believe they’re still around, now."

Joshua smiles. "I've got it! They're a bit like Mr. Mew. They don't look similar, but they feel like him."

Fret nods. "I can work with that!"

Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme all stand clustered together, as Fret grabs Nagi’s shoulder.

"So... what exactly are they doing?" Neku asks.

"You know. Game stuff," Beat says. "Pinny an' Fret have some special late-night powers or whatever that let 'em get into people's heads to help out."

"The term is 'latent' powers, but indeed, we do," Nagi says. "Now then… Pardon the intrusion!"

Neku feels... something, at least, as Nagi apparently dives into his brain. It's not unpleasant, just a little weird.

"Now, think!" Fret says, and an image of Sora and Mr. Mew slowly appears in his mind. And then it all comes back to him.

That hurts a little, the same way regaining his memories always hurts a little. But he's used to it by now enough to get over it quickly. How he met Sora floods back into his head. He wants to cringe about being tricked by that person in the black coat - Xehanort, he guesses? - but Sora didn’t hold a grudge then, and he hasn’t been holding one now. That’s just Sora, he supposes.

"Well. I didn't think it would be that fast," Joshua comments while Neku’s still rubbing his head.

He looks up, and sees that WildKat’s crowd of people has been joined by a handful of Dream Eaters. Standing right in front of him are the musical note-tailed cat who helped him when he couldn't find Shiki, and a little reptile - almost a snake, if snakes had stubby little feet that looked like his old sneakers - with a little sweatband around its tail, a hoodie top, and headphones over a spike behind its head that's the same bright orange as Neku's hair.

"Hey! Lookit you," Beat says, grinning at the little snake. "You got a Mini-Phones, Phones."

Neku smiles, patting an elephant on a skateboard with Reaper wings and a hat that looks just like Beat's old one. "Yeah? So do you."

"Ain't nothin' mini 'bout that guy, yo!" They both laugh - all of them laugh - and this reunion feels right.

Strelitzia smiles, too. "They really are just like my Chirithy," she says. "And... more than that. They feel so, so familiar."

Joshua and Mr. H both look at each other. "Where did you come from before that 'Quadratum' place?" Mr. H asks quietly.

"I'm not sure 'where' is the right question," Joshua says, under his breath. But it doesn't matter, because the elephant wearing Beat's hat thwaps Strelitzia with his trunk playfully, and she doesn't catch either question. Neku decides he'll ask them later.

"I know they're supposed to help us fight those Heartless," Shiki says, patting Neku's cat, "but they're so cute! Are they really that powerful?"

"They have... the right kind of power to fight Heartless," Joshua says. But two of the fluffy orange bats are trying to land on his shoulders. "I'm not your dreamer," he tells them.

"I think that one was mine," Rhyme says, gesturing, "but I'm not sure who the other belonged to."

"Maybe it's Riku's?" Sora guesses.

Joshua looks at the bat again, and pats it on its fluffy head. "Hm. Maybe."

"Right, he did have a bat, didn't he?" Shiki asks. "So... are the rest of these guys all yours and his, Sora?" A small, extremely round sheep butts itself gently against her side. Shiki smiles and pets it, too.

"... Probably?" Sora says. "I don't know all of them, so some of them must have been Riku's."

"We did summon a lot more of them than we had," Neku says. Minamimoto's trying to fend the rest of them off, since for some reason they’re flocking towards him with happy expressions. Eri takes the occasion to start petting the ones closest to her, and Rindo's sat down to let some kind of flying sea dragon rest in his lap. "I'm glad you finally made it to Shibuya, Sora."

"Yeah!" Sora says. "I'm glad you guys remember. And this way I could help you get home."

"And you probably got yourself a lot closer to your home," Strelitzia says. "Quadratum is... when I say it's an 'afterworld,' I mean a world that exists on the other side of reality. The only people that come to it from our world are people who have, for one reason or another, been erased from it entirely. I was struck down by a being of darkness. Sora was erased from it as punishment for his time travel. And Neku..."

"Got stranded in the ocean of stars," Joshua says. "That must be rare enough that he fell into another reality altogether."

"I did have a dream while I was in Quadratum, about a guy who was a character in a video game I saw in another world," Sora says. "The other side of reality, huh?"

"A world of fiction," Strelitzia says. "... I recognized you, Sora, because there are stories about your adventures in Quadratum. But they're just that - stories. Up until you, there had never been any Heartless in Quadratum."

"... Huh," Sora says, like that's gone over his head. Honestly, it kind of goes over Neku's.

"I didn't see anything about Sora there," Neku says. "Maybe I just wasn't looking?"

"I only recognized it as our world because I was looking for things about it," Strelitzia says.

Minamimoto snickers. "No wonder you look familiar, attogram. You didn't mention you were from Quadratum."

"You know about it?" Josh asks, and he immediately stiffens up.

"Where do you think I went, before that pink Reaper brought me back?" he asks. "I was erased for too long not to have been somewhere."

Josh frowns, which is rare enough, but his eyes actually look fierce, and the room's suddenly colder. “You’ve never mentioned it.”

“Since when did it matter?”

“You can’t think of a reason why I’d want to know what happens to people who vanish from our reality?” Josh asks. “Really?”

Minamimoto snickers. “We aren’t friends,” he says.

“You’re right,” Joshua says. He’s started glowing a bit. “And since we aren’t friends, I think I will take up your challenge.”

Neku, Shiki, and Beat exchange glances long enough to decide, as one, to start shooing everyone else away from the fight about to happen. Especially the new kids.

"Not in here, you aren't," Mr. H says, "and the Heartless are trying to batter open the window, so I don't think outside is a better choice." Neku turns to look, and yeah, there's a group of Heartless ramming against the front window. It's loud enough in here he missed it. The good news is they're all those small fries with the little whiplike ears and the claws, so he doubts they actually will break it down.

"Tch," Joshua says. "We don't need much space, and it won't be long. Outside. Now."

"Fine by me," Minamimoto says. Joshua storms outside and as Neku watches, he telekinetically bowls over the Heartless with what looks like an asteroid, shoving them out of the way. Well, mostly - a couple are clearly stuck on the asteroid. Minamimoto follows, and after a quick lunge for Joshua's throat, Joshua promptly swings the asteroid in an arc around him so it hits Minamimoto. Then he hits him again. And again. Neku winces and looks away at that.

"... He'll be fine, yo," Beat says to the new kids, probably trying to get them to look away, too. "Saw Priss 'n him fight before, an' he always comes back."

"You've seen them fight?" Neku asks.

"Couple'a times."

"Us, too," Eri says. Shiki nods.

"Of course, usually they stop before anyone gets erased," Rhyme says.

After another minute or so, Joshua storms back in alone.

"Remind me not to piss you off," Neku says.

"Oh, he'll be fine. That Reaper'll have him back by the end of the month," Joshua says, waving his hand dismissively.

The new kids look horrified. Even Sora and Strelitzia look more than a little weirded out.

"He ain't jokin', yo," Beat says. "Pixie Chick's scraped him off the pavement before."

"She has, and this is part of the job," Mr. H says. "The Composer has to field fights from wannabe Composers. The Composer is more than capable of winning those fights. Wannabe Composers should know better than to take a challenge immediately after saying things that clearly piss the standing Composer off, but hey, what do I know?" He shrugs at that. "Minamimoto's never been the most... socially-minded. I don't think he expected it'd ruffle your feathers that much, J."

"Did you know?" Joshua asks.

"Not a clue. The other side of reality is news to me as much as it is to you," he says. "He doesn't really talk to me these days."

That seems to... well, raise the temperature in the room, at least, and cut the glowing after a moment. But it looks like the newbies are still horrified.

"Maybe we should figure out a plan to deal with the Heartless?" Neku says.

"Um... Yeah," Sora says. "What we need to do is to get rid of all the Heartless, and then stop more from coming in by finding the keyhole to the world and sealing it. I guess we could do that first, but it pretty much never appears before the Heartless are dealt with, since they’d be looking for it."

"The... Keyhole of the world?" Neku asks. "Like the thing we came in through?"

"No, that was a Gate."

"Wait, you came in here through a Gate without any kind of shielding?" Mr. H asks.

"... Should I have?" Sora asks.

"... Let me make a few calls," Mr. H says, before he goes off into the back.

"It was unbelievably risky, and we're extremely lucky it paid off," Josh says. "Before you leave, we'll need to figure out a safer way for you to travel. Unless Riku brings one with him."

"Riku... wasn't in Quadratum with me, though?" Sora says.

"I'm sure he's coming this way," Rhyme says.

"Yeah, man. He was lookin' for you the whole time we was in that other town, yo!" Beat says. "No way he ain't lookin' for you now."

"He said if your hearts are connected, you'd reach each other," Shiki says.

Sora smiles. "That sounds like Riku, alright."

"For now, let's not worry about how we're leaving this world," Strelitzia says. "The Heartless are more important."

Joshua smiles. "Right. Well, your first step's probably right outside this shop - they're swarming the place. It’s not every Heartless in the city, but it is a lot. Why don't we send our Dream Eater friends out to help?"

"... Are we sure they'll all fit through the door?" Neku asks. There is a literal elephant, and the panda is pretty big.

"We'll make it work," Josh says.

--

Neku and the others somehow manage to get all the Dream Eaters out of the coffee shop, with Sora and Strelitzia taking care of the couple of Heartless that try to get in while the Dream Eaters get out. Then Sora and Strelitzia come out.

Joshua was right, there are a lot of Heartless. Not another Demon Tide, at least, but they're swarming the street.

Which means Sora doesn't really have time to think, just fight. Good thing he's probably done this enough times to do it in his sleep. Strelitzia backs him up with her magic, which is kind of like Donald, but... it's not quite the same.

The Dream Eaters help, too, of course. That part’s familiar. Sora doesn’t know all of them, but he teams up with the bat they think was Riku’s. A lot of Heartless fall asleep, leaving Sora free to take them out. Strelitzia has help from the elephant, who attacks like Sora while she uses her magic. The handful of other Dream Eaters crowd the Heartless into smaller areas so they’re easier for Strelitzia’s magic and Sora’s shockwaves to hit.

“How are there so many Heartless here?” Strelitzia asks. It seems like for every few they defeat, more pop up. 

“Dunno,” Sora says, throwing another Soldier into the air. “Maybe it’s ‘cause the city’s so big, it attracted a lot of them?” He jumps up and swings his Keyblade down, hitting another two Shadows.

“Maybe,” Strelitzia says, freezing a Red Nocturne and a bunch of Shadows. “And Joshua did say there were a lot of them coming here. I wonder what’s drawing them?”

“Besides us?” Sora asks.

“Daybreak Town was full of Keyblade wielders,” she says, taking a breath and healing them both. “I’ve never seen quite this many Heartless at once, though.” 

“Huh,” Sora says. “And thanks!” He throws his Keyblade out to hit a few from behind as it comes back to him. Sora has seen this many at once - back in Hollow Bastion when the Organization attacked, there were more of them. But it’s… definitely the most he’s fought in a long while. 

The Organization had been controlling the Heartless, then. Did someone set them loose on Shibuya? Or is it something else that’s drawing them in here?

But he doesn’t have enough time to keep thinking through that. They’re finally starting to make a dent in the crowd. He dodges under a punch from a Large Body and angles himself around to hit it. As he looks, he can see inside where the others are cheering them on. That’s sweet of them. He smiles before turning back around to get the next few Soldiers.

Strelitzia uses what looks like a Magnet spell to help the Dream Eaters crowding the Heartless together, and then her elephant friend rams into the cluster of Heartless. 

“Let’s try something,” Sora says, standing next to her. “Together!” he says, raising his Keyblade.

“Right!” she agrees, raising hers. Beams shoot into the air from each blade, and when they aim them back at the crowd, it takes out a lot of the remaining Heartless.

But the rest of them are Shadows clustering together. “Take cover!” Sora shouts, running back inside. Strelitzia follows, still holding her Keyblade. But before he can warn them to get back, the Heartless come slamming in through the window. Everyone else scatters away from them, but the force sends most of them to the floor. Sora and Strelitzia brace themselves, and Joshua seems okay.

“This…” Strelitzia says.

“This is bad,” Sora says. 

Joshua takes one look at it and steps forward. “I really hoped I wouldn’t have to try something like this,” he says. “But if Psychs can work on Heartless with a Keyblade around…” He positions himself between Sora and Strelitzia, puts his hands forward, and a bright white laser shoots from them. The Heartless swarm charge at it, but Joshua’s laser starts wiping them out. 

Just not enough. He’s losing ground. “Joshua!” Neku shouts.

“J! Think for a second!” Mr. Hanekoma adds, trying to get up.

“I’m not - letting anything -” Joshua says, teeth gritted, “happen again!” He pushes through even more of the Shadows, and the force knocks Sora and Strelitzia to the ground behind him. It looks like it knocks everyone down, Joshua included. It took out most of the Heartless… but most aren’t all, and the remaining ones go straight for him. He must be pretty weak after that, because he isn’t able to put up a fight.

And then he disappears, with an unusually big heart appearing in the air. Sora can almost see… a keyhole in the center? But before he can do anything, the heart vanishes through a portal. 

“Josh!” the others shout. 

Sora throws his Keyblade at the remaining Heartless, and then gets up with Strelitzia. Mr. Hanekoma looks… well, worse than he looked before. He looks at Neku and Sora, and then at the rest. "That is... incredibly bad," he says. "Pretty much the worst case scenario to end all worst case scenarios."

Sora doesn't get it. "Because he's kinda omni-something?"

"More than that. That whole thing you were talking about, with the keyhole and the heart of the world?" Neku says. "I think… Joshua kind of is that, for Shibuya. I don't want to find out what happens when you turn one into a Heartless." Maybe that’s why they were all being drawn to WildKat.

"It's worse than that, Phones." Neku turns back towards him. "When a heart falls to darkness, it makes two entities. A Heartless, and a Nobody. The Heartless usually just want to eat other hearts... but a Nobody's a being without a heart. The weak ones obey orders, but the strong ones are smart, and they're ruthless. Pretty much the people they were at their worst."

Shiki and Beat both cringe, and Neku practically goes pale. "Shit," he says.

"They're only like that to start! They can make their own hearts," Sora says.

"Yeah, but we don't have time for J to regrow one. When he's at his worst..." Mr. Hanekoma trails off.

"He tried to destroy the city once," Neku says. "That's... kind of how we met. It's a long story."

“He what?!” Sora asks. 

“Like he said. Long story, don’t have time to get into it, but we know what he’s like at his worst, and I don’t want to know what powers a Composer’s Nobody has,” Mr. Hanekoma says. “This is why we’re supposed to keep living people at a distance. Only I can’t even say I regret it, because he’s been so much better off with you all.”

“There has to be some way to get him back,” Shiki says. “He’s our friend.”

“There is,” Sora says. “If we beat both his Heartless and his Nobody, that’ll free his heart back up to be complete again.”

“I can sense he’s still in Shibuya,” Mr. Hanekoma says. “Both parts of him, I mean. We’ll just have to hope he comes back quick once we’re done… and figure out what’s more dangerous, a giant Heartless or a Composer’s Nobody.”

“Why?” Rindo asks. “We have two Keyblades, don’t we?”

The others turn to look at him. “We do…” Strelitzia says, “but I’m not very good at fighting on my own.”

“You won’t have to. We’ll go with you,” Neku says. “If Nobodies can regrow hearts… maybe we can get to Joshua’s. The way I did last time.”

“Last time you got shot, Phones.” Sora’s really going to have to hear the full story at some point. But Mr. Hanekoma looks at all their faces. “You’re going to do this, aren’t you,” he says. 

“Totally,” Shiki says.

“Hell yeah,” Beat says.

“He got hurt protecting us,” Rhyme says. 

“We will, too,” Rindo says. The others all stand up. “We can’t help with the Nobody, but our Psychs worked on the way back here. We can help take the Heartless.” 

“We’re not letting Shibuya be destroyed,” Shoka says. 

“Right! We worked too hard for that,” Fret says. 

“What is a Heartless, compared to what we faced already?” Nagi asks. 

Sora and Strelitzia turn to each other, and both smile. “I think we’ve got a plan, then,” Sora says. 

Mr. Hanekoma looks at them all and shakes his head. “This is a terrible plan, and if any of you fall, I’m the one explaining it to J,” he says, “but… it’s probably the best we’re coming up with. You want to risk your lives, I’ll tell you where to go. But first…” he walks back behind the counter and pulls out a large box full of potions and ethers. “You’re gonna need these.” 

Chapter Text

Joshua’s Heartless is causing a mess at 104, so Rindo and the others lead the way for Sora. They know the way better than he does. The streets are mostly free of Heartless, at least, and the handful they do see go down fast. They must have all been clustering because of Joshua. If he’s really the heart of Shibuya, then that means they’re going to be fighting one big Heartless. 

Sora wonders how that even works, having the keyhole of a world in someone’s heart. “So, did you know about Joshua?” Rindo asks as they run along.

“I mean… I knew he had wings,” Sora says, “and I knew he knew way too much about how everything worked. Most people don’t even know that other worlds exist!”

“Yeah, uh… we didn’t, until today,” Rindo says. 

That… was probably part Sora’s fault. “Uh… Whoops?” he says, forcing a smile.

“We won’t tell if you don’t!” Fret says. 

“No one’s going to ask us,” Shoka says. “Of course, if we don’t stop the Composer’s Heartless, they might not be asking anyone.” 

They speed up at that. When they get to 104, it’s being attacked by a giant Heartless. It looks like most giant Heartless look - big, scary, and with a giant heart-shaped hole in their waist and tendrils around their head. Huge claws. Small wings. Only, these wings look different from usual - they’re long and black and thin, like spokes coming out of a wheel or an iron fence. They look a lot like the ones that elephant had, and that Heartless Beat was trying to hold off. 

Well, if it looks like most giant Heartless, it can probably be beat like most giant Heartless, too. 

“What do you think, guys? Top of 104?” Rindo asks. 

“Oh, sure, let’s run onto the top of the building that’s under attack,” Shoka says. A massive claw comes swiping down at them. “... Okay, fair enough,” she says, as they all dodge backwards. 

Sora starts running up the side of the building again, but the others beat him to the top - Shoka takes them all to a spot up a staircase on the side, and then suddenly they’re on top. 

“You didn’t have to walk, y’know!” Shoka calls. 

“Yeah, but this way -” Sora leaps into the air and hurls his Keyblade at the Heartless “- I can get in the air a lot faster!”

“I see. Your aerial momentum comes from those acrobatics,” Nagi says. 

“Neku showed me!” Sora says, landing on the Heartless’s shoulder. He gets a few hits in on its face while Rindo throws some kind of psychic cards at its claw, and Shoka holds up a giant stone cat head and launches it at the Heartless. 

Then it shakes Sora off, and he has to springboard off the top of the ‘0’ in 104 to get back up and attack its claw again… Maybe he should use more magic? 

The first one that comes to mind is that Balloon spell he used a lot in the dreaming worlds. When he tries to cast it, a single small balloon appears, which he lobs at the Heartless. It bursts in its face. That’s not what he meant to cast, but… he’ll take it. Ice works a bit better… He wonders if he could cover his Keyblade in ice and throw it at the Heartless? 

On the ground (well, rooftop,) Nagi’s throwing something that looks kind of like golden coins at the Heartless while Fret jumps up and kicks it. That’s really bothering it, actually. As the Heartless tries to swing its other claw at them, Sora tries out his freeze-the-Keyblade attack, knocking it away from them.

“Many thanks!” Nagi says.

“Don’t mention it!” Sora says, running up its arm as he catches his Keyblade. 

Maybe if he can get its eyes down near the roof level, they can hit it with those powers of theirs? He tries to taunt it, and then jumps back to the rooftop. There it goes. “Hey Fret! Nagi! Use your stuff on it now!”

“Oh, yeah, I bet light’ll do a lot to a giant shadow-monster!” Fret says. “You ready, Boss?”

“Ready,” she says. They both charge at it before attacking. While they do, Sora runs to the other side of the rooftop, trying to distract it. Which means hitting it some more. 

Finally, the Heartless sinks to its knees. Sora lands one more strike, and then a keyhole appears in the air, surrounded by the silhouette of a heart. He lands on the rooftop and raises his Keyblade to meet it.

The Heartless disappears, and its heart vanishes. But for just a moment, Sora sees a flicker of silver light almost shaped like a person where the heart should be. 

“Seems like a good sign,” Sora says. 

“Yeah. We’ll take those,” Rindo says, dropping to one knee and panting. “But let’s not run the whole way back, agreed?” 

The others all relax, which looks really exhausted on them. “Agreed,” they say.

–

Josh’s Nobody is at the mural in Udagawa, because of course he’s there. Neku thinks it’s a good sign - or at least, better than if he went straight to the River. As long as he’s taunting Neku, he’s not destroying Shibuya yet. Neku and Beat run like they’re on autopilot, and Shiki and Rhyme aren’t much slower. They actually have to slow down a few times so they don’t lose Strelitzia. (Eri is staying with Mr. H, but told them they’d better bring Josh back safe.) 

“We go here a lot,” Shiki says during one of the slower periods. “Josh felt weird about it at first, but…”

“You still went there after everything, yo,” Beat says. “‘Sides. It’s way harder to leave flowers at Hachiko.” 

Neku can’t think of a response for that other than “I missed you, too.” 

“Yeah,” Rhyme says, “we know.” 

Then Strelitzia catches up, and after a moment they all speed up again. They get to Udagawa in record time.

The first thing Neku notices is his hair. It’s longer, messier - a lot more like Neku remembers it, and not the asymmetrical cut he’s wearing now. He’s taller, too - taller than Beat, even - and his eyes are a faded, foggy silver. He’s almost glowing.

His smirk, though, looks the same as ever. He plays with his hair and giggles. “Hello, Partner,” he says, looking directly at Neku. “I was hoping you’d come here.” 

Neku reminds himself, it’s not actually Josh. Not quite.

“Oh, but I think I’m close enough it won’t matter,” Josh’s Nobody says. Which means he can read minds just like the real Josh, and he’s doing it now. Neku should probably be careful what he thinks. “So. What exactly did you have planned? Some heroic attempt to stop me?” 

“Kinda, yeah,” Beat says.

“Don’t you all remember how that went last time?” He looks them all over, and now he seems to notice Strelitzia. They were hoping he wouldn’t. “Or did you really think having a Keyblade would help?” 

“It can’t hurt,” Neku says.

“Last I knew, Keyblades can’t do anything about bullets,” he says with the same smirk. “I don’t need you to finish what I should have done three years ago, Neku. But I thought a little reunion first would be fun.” 

That’s what Neku thought. And as long as this Joshua - not Joshua - whoever cares enough about Neku to hurt him, there’s a chance. 

“Really? Thinking that highly of yourself, huh?” the Nobody asks. “Why? Are you going to pull the trigger this time? That might actually be interesting.” 

“You can stop bullets,” Neku says.

The Nobody giggles again. “Good, you caught that. Here I was, thinking you might not have shot because you cared about me. What nonsense that would be.” 

He’s a Joshua without his emotions. Apparently, ‘revels in being annoying’ isn’t actually an emotion.

“More of a personality trait, really,” he says. “Some things you just can’t shake completely, even without a heart.”

“Don’t you want yours back?” Shiki asks.

“Why would I? I did everything I could to drown mine out when I had it,” he says. “This is so much better.”

“The real you doesn’t think that,” Rhyme says. 

“The ‘real’ me? I’m my own person,” he says. “Now then, are we going to talk forever? Or are you going to try and stop me?”

“We’re going to stop you,” Neku says. “We want our friend back.” 

He giggles. “Go ahead and try.” And then he tosses a gun in the air to Neku. That has to be awful trigger safety, assuming it’s loaded. “Oh, it’s loaded. You don’t need me to explain the rules this time, do you?”

“I remember them,” Neku says. It’s really only the one rule - just fire on ten.

He smirks again. “Good. One. Two. Three.” Neku stays calm and collected until the count hits five, when he throws the gun out to the side - far enough away it hopefully shouldn’t cause a problem - and ducks down and charges at him. The Nobody was expecting that from Beat, but not from Neku. As he rams into the Nobody and grabs his torso, he feels someone else grabbing hold of the Nobody from behind. Beat, of course. Shiki and Rhyme are at his sides, each grabbing an arm. Shiki wrestles the gun away from him, with help from Mr. Mew - apparently, they’re still close enough to a Keyblade for that to work. They’d hoped so. 

“What?” The Nobody asks. “This won’t work, you know. You can’t get rid of a Nobody by just ramming one.”

“Who says we’re tryin’ to get rid of you?” Beat asks. “We’re tryin’ to save you, yo!”

“Save me? From what?”

“Yourself, for a start,” Neku says. “This isn’t you anymore. I know it’s not!”

"You're our friend!" Shiki adds.

"We won't let you hurt the city," Rhyme says.

"And we sure as hell ain't lettin' you go back to how you was!" Beat says.

The Nobody starts to say something - and goes still, and slack in their arms. If there’s any part of the real Josh in there, it’s helping. And that means it’s their chance. "Do it now, Strelitzia!" Neku shouts. 

Neku can swear he sees the Keyhole open in the Nobody’s chest as he rises into the air, and as the shining beam from her Keyblade reaches it, he sees a shadowy form that looks kind of like Joshua flicker for just a second.

Then he falls back to the ground, looking like himself again. Well, how he looks now apparently. Neku's going to need more than a day to get used to that. But they all run over.

"Are you okay?" Shiki asks. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I just got beaten half to death three times in an hour. Two of them were simultaneous," he says, sitting up. All four of them offer him a hand up, and Joshua giggles despite the fact that he's still wincing. "... I appreciate it, by the way."

As he takes Beat’s hand, Rhyme says, “you’re welcome.” 

“We’re just glad you’re alright,” Neku says, standing close to where Josh is trying not to lean on Beat and failing. “Mr. H wasn’t sure how long it’d take your heart to fix itself.”

“It’s… different for the heart of a world,” Josh says, “and since I have part of one inside me…”

“Did you know you had one?” Strelitzia asks.

“I had… suspicions,” he says. “Mr. H is going to kill me for this.”

“Nah,” Beat says. “That’d mean takin’ your job. He can’t run an empty coffee shop if he’s busy bein’ Composer.” Josh laughs. Then he winces. 

“About… what I said…”

“Wasn’t you,” Beat says simply.

“Come on, Josh. Don’t you think we know you better than that?” Shiki asks, smiling.

“Mr. H said that was basically you at your worst,” Neku says. “Well, we’ve all seen that. Twice, now.” 

Joshua relaxes some, and lets himself lean between Beat and Neku a bit more. “Yeah,” he says. “You have.” 

Chapter Text

“Please. Please. Tell me you didn’t know how reckless that was,” Mr. H says. Speaking of people Neku should never piss off.

“I had no actual idea how reckless that was,” Josh says. “I wasn’t exactly thinking in the moment.”

“Yeah, I could tell.” He sighs, though, and pats Josh on the shoulder. “Good job protecting your friends from certain death. Do not do it again. Ever. Please.” 

“Wasn’t planning to,” he says, shrugging Mr. H off after a moment. “It seems like Sora and Strelitzia have our Heartless situation under control, anyway.” 

“We didn’t see any on our way back,” Strelitzia says. 

“Neither did we,” Rindo agrees.

 “Where are the Dream Eaters, anyway?” Sora asks.

“They can only stay in this world for a little while,” Josh says. “But I think we know the trick to summoning them.” He flicks his wrist, and that sea dragon that Rindo made friends with appears again.

“At least with a Keyblade around,” Neku says. “But I hope they stay. We might have stragglers.”

“Right. It’s almost time for us to go,” Sora says, frowning. 

“Not yet. I don’t have everything ready for you guys to leave just yet,” Mr. H says. “Certain crises interrupted.” Josh just smiles innocently at that. He must have picked it up from Rhyme. “And at this hour… you may as well stay overnight. I’ve got a few beds in the back you all can crash on, before we sort out Neku’s situation.”

“Right,” he says. “About my parents -”

“A lot of people disappeared after the Heartless attack,” Joshua says, looking away. “Enough that the people of this world couldn’t ignore it completely. Some of them have come back since, and I adjusted memories to match, but a lot of them haven’t. We just let them think you were one of those, since you basically were.” Oh. That makes sense, in an awful way. 

“We’ll sort that out for you tomorrow,” Mr. H says. “Tonight, you should relax. It’s not every day you come back from the other side of reality and save your world.” 

“Am I paying for food?” Josh asks mildly. 

“You got yourself turned into a Heartless and jeopardized all of Tokyo, J. What do you think?”

Josh sighs and shrugs. “Fine, but don’t make those donuts this time.” 

Rhyme hooks their phone up to a speaker they found in the back, along with some streamers, and starts playing music. It’s not a huge welcome home, but… it’s nice. Neku’s not one for big parties, anyway. Beat’s friends ask him questions about himself, and everyone asks him questions about where he’d been except for Sora and Strelitzia. Strelitzia answers a couple questions about Quadratum, too - Neku might have been there for three years, but she’s been there for even longer. 

“I wonder why the same amount of time has passed in both Quadratum and here,” Strelitzia says, “while the rest of the worlds are much faster.”

“Whatever time axis they’re on must be part of their connection,” Joshua says. “Whatever caused there to be two almost-identical cities out there, must have wanted them to operate on the same time scale.” 

“Who cares why, yo? If it weren’t, Neku wouldn’t match up with us,” Beat says. “Let’s just be glad it is.” 

Joshua giggles. “You’re probably right, Beat.” 

Mr. H makes dinner that’s actually pretty good. (Which suggests something about how much effort he puts into WildKat, but - it’s not like it’s even his second priority.) Shoka helps fill in about some of Shiki and Eri’s fashion adventures along with them, and Beat talks a little about how he and his friends met - enough that Neku will have some serious questions later - and Nagi introduces him to her favorite smartphone game. And then Rindo and Shoka introduce him to their favorite smartphone game. And then Fret gets in on it all, but way less enthusiastically than the other three. Shiki and Eri get the idea to measure Neku for new clothes, since it won’t do for him to be wearing counterfeit Gatto Nero. 

So when Shiki decides she has to make some alterations, upstairs, on her own, Neku’s relieved when Eri just says, “sure!”

“I’m glad to have you back,” Shiki says, as soon as they’re upstairs. “But you need a rest, don’t you?” 

He relaxes. “Was it really that obvious?”

“You know me,” Shiki says, sitting down at a set of cushions in front of a window. “I have a good eye.”

“Eri said it enough times it finally sunk in?” Neku asks, sitting with her. Shiki giggles, and rests Mr. Mew between them.

“Something like that,” she says. “Josh and Beat’ll be up in a few minutes. Beat just needs to come up with an excuse for them.” 

“You’re not worried about me ditching my own party?” 

“Josh said Sora can keep everyone entertained,” she says. “Besides, you weren’t acting like the old Neku. Just like someone who’s had a really long day.” 

“Haven’t we all?” he asks, laughing. He leans in, and Shiki leans back. “I’ll go back down eventually. But I’ll take that break, first.” 

“Good.” 

They’re quiet for a minute, before Neku says, “are you really going to replace this jacket?”

“Are you really attached to it?” Shiki asks. “Because we still have the first prototype. The one I cried about, I mean.” 

He thinks about it for a moment, and says, “I’d rather have that one. But I think I’d like to keep something from Quadratum.” He did kind of just… leave with no notice. Not that he regrets that, but it’s probably going to raise some questions over there, him and Strelitzia vanishing. 

“Maybe the sweatbands?” Shiki says. “Please tell me you haven’t been wearing the same one for three years.” 

“It’d wear out,” he says. “And I didn’t have you around to replace the elastic.” But these sweatbands… that’s not a bad idea.

“Just promise me you won’t wear them all the time.” He laughs, and she does too. “... How was it, there?”

“Lonely, mostly,” he says. “It’s harder than you’d think to make friends when everything about the world you’re in is just… slightly askew from what you know. Sora makes it look easy.” 

“Sora’s not from a world that’s just like this, though, is he?” 

“Probably not.” Neku gives Mr. Mew a little pat on the head. “Quadratum… it wasn’t bad. It just… wasn’t home. No matter how hard I tried to get used to it, it was never going to be where I belonged.” 

“And now you’re back where you do belong,” Shiki says. 

“Yeah.” They settle back into silence for another minute.

“Sounds like we came up at just the right time,” Josh says. He sits down next to Neku on his other side. “And not just because having your friends and Sora all in the same room is an exhausting experience.”

“Hey. I like ‘em,” Beat says. “An’ even though we just met, I like Sora, too.”

“He’s easy to like,” Josh says. “Still, you can have too much of a good thing.”

“Hey guys,” Shiki says, picking up Mr. Mew. “You got loose?”

“We did,” Josh says.

“But, uh - Eri’s got a question for you, Shiki,” Beat says. 

“Oh -” Neku nods at her. “I’ll be right back.” She gets up and rushes downstairs. Beat follows after. 

“Was there actually a question?” Neku asks. 

“Probably. Eri’s good at coming up with those,” Josh says. “You know, all those stars out there are other worlds,” he adds, after a minute. 

“Yeah?” Neku looks out at them. “Which one’s the Destiny Islands?”

“Hm. I’m not that up to date on my astronomy, but I think… somewhere over there,” he says, pointing. 

“And Daybreak Town?” 

“That one, I wouldn’t know,” Josh says. “Strelitzia?”

“Yeah.” 

“I’m glad Sora has a friend to travel with, this time. Dream Eaters just aren’t the same.” Neku leans in again, and Josh doesn’t push him away. But he does turn in towards Neku. “Listen…”

“Yeah?”

“... I’m… sorry I lost your heart,” Josh says. Oh. Is that all.

“I forgive you,” Neku says. 

“You - really?” Josh asks, eyes going wide. “I got you marooned in another reality!”

“On accident,” Neku says, “or else you would’ve let me get eaten by a Heartless.”

“... I really thought I’d managed to do worse than that,” Josh says. “At least people recover from Heartless attacks. Eventually. Sometimes.” 

“But you didn’t, so I’m still around to forgive you, because it was an accident,” Neku says. “Seriously, though - you made us play the Reapers’ Game again?”

“Hey, I was just trying to reconstruct you all from dreams and memories. Is it my fault your memories of being dead translated to ‘this town needs imaginary Reapers’?”

“I mean… yes?” Neku says. “Mine, at least.” Josh makes a dismissive noise. “So… what, the imaginary Reapers came up with our missions?”

“I wasn’t trying to get you all erased after all the trouble I went to,” Joshua says. “Traverse Town kind of… shifted to what it needed to be, to hold you all. I came up with some of the missions when I saw it was helping, but Traverse Town came up with the Spellican one once it entered the world. That thing was way too powerful.”

“What?” Beat asks, walking up the stairs. 

“That Dream Eater Sora and Riku helped us deal with,” Josh says. “I’ll let you take care of him, Beat.” He gets up, and Beat sits down.

“Got any idea what he’s doing?” Neku asks. 

Beat laughs. “Never.” 

“Yeah, me neither,” Neku says. 

“Heard that,” Josh singsongs from the stairs. They both laugh.

“So, what, did you need a break, too?” Neku asks. 

“Just wanted to make sure you hadn’t fallen asleep on us, yo.” Beat throws his arm over Neku’s shoulder. 

“Nah, we’ve just been talking. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” Neku says, throwing his arm over Beat’s. “I’ll go back to the party in a bit.” 

“‘S cool. Sora an’ Fret’re keepin’ each other busy,” he says. “An’ Strelitzia was tellin’ Pinny an’ the others ‘bout the games in Quadratum.”

Neku relaxes. “Yeah, I’m still not totally used to smart phones. I uh… did take pictures a lot, though.”

“Yeah?”

“It was something to do. And sometimes I’d get home and draw the places I remembered, when they were different. I must’ve drawn the mural at Udagawa a dozen times,” Neku says. 

“What’s it like there?” Beat asks.

“Blank wall. They paint it over,” he says. Beat shudders. “And there’s no CAT to talk about, either. Mr. Mew was the only trace I found.” And Gatto Nero, it turns out, but he didn’t know it at the time.

“So you didn’t have nothing to talk about,” Beat says. 

“Apparently I’m a decent photographer,” Neku says. “But… it was tricky. I told Shiki earlier it was lonely, and it was, but… it’s not that there weren’t people to talk to. I just didn’t really make many connections there, because I had to keep track of everything that was different.” But that’s probably a good thing, since it means no one in Quadratum will really miss him after he vanished without a trace.

“Well, you’re home now,” Beat says. Leave it to him to cut right to the heart of things. “An’ we ain’t lettin’ you get lost again.”

“I’m not planning on trying,” Neku says. “Let’s just hope those Dream Eaters will let us summon them once Sora and Strelitzia leave.”

Beat’s quiet after that, and so’s Neku, before Beat says, “so, whatcha wanna do tomorrow?”

Neku hadn’t thought that far. “I think I want to sleep in. And then Josh and I have to figure out my parent situation, since I want them to know I’m not dead, at least.” It’ll be an adjustment, after three years on his own, but… “Any tips?” he asks.

“I crash here if I prep food for Mr. H. Bet he’d let you do it, too,” Beat says. “But I’m movin’ out as soon as we can find somewhere, yo.”  

Neku laughs, but… that doesn’t sound bad. “I’ll think about it.” Honestly, looking for a place with Beat doesn’t sound bad, either. Better than going back to living with his parents after three years on his own. He hasn’t gone to school in three years, either, since he was working in Quadratum. “Need a roommate?”

“If it’s you? Sure,” Beat says. “I can getcha used to the city again, no problem.” 

“That’s the one part I’m not worried about,” Neku says. “I’d be able to help pay, once I find a job here. And do housework. Cooking and stuff.”

“Yo, cooking’s one of the things I’m good at,” Beat says, laughing. “But… If you can keep the place clean, that’d help while you figure things out. ‘S gonna take more’n one day to do it.”

“Yeah, probably,” Neku says. But this time, he’s not figuring out a whole new life on his own. He just needs to remember that. “I think I’m ready to face my own party again.”

“Good,” Beat says, following him. They get back to see a group of Dream Eaters have been summoned again, and Sora’s offering them sweets.

Yeah, Neku thinks. There’s work to do tomorrow, but… things will be alright.

--

Sora wakes up and feels more awake than he has since… before the Graveyard, probably. Even sleeping for a week in Quadratum left him groggy. And last night was fun. He doesn’t get to just hang out with his friends very often. 

“So, where are you headed next?” Neku asks. Rindo and his friends went home last night, and so did Eri, but Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and Joshua all stayed with Neku, curled up in a big pile.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Strelitzia says. “We want to get Sora home, and I want to try and find out what happened to my brother, but… we’ll have to see where the road ahead takes us.” 

“We’ll get there,” Sora says. “It just might take a few stops along the way.” 

“I’m sure you’ll get where you need to go,” Joshua says. “What do the Keyblade masters say?”

“May your heart be your guiding key,” Sora says. 

“Right.” He smiles. “Safe travels, Sora. Strelitzia.”

“I hope you find out about your brother, Strelitzia,” Shiki says, “and Sora, don’t worry about Riku!” 

“Yeah!” Beat says. “We’ll take care’a him when he gets here.”

“Come back and visit if you get the chance,” Neku says. “And thanks for everything.”

“It was great to see you both!” Rhyme says. “Hold out hope, Strelitzia!”

“Thanks, guys,” Sora says. 

“It was wonderful meeting you all,” Strelitzia says.

Mr. Hanekoma comes out of the coffee shop - which is looking less beat up than it should already, even if the window needs replacing - holding black folded-up fabric under his arms. “Hope you don’t mind these,” he says, “but I couldn’t find a Gummi on short notice.” 

“Are those black coats?” Sora asks.

“Good. So you know about them,” Mr. Hanekoma says. “You’re both Keyblade wielders, so you should be able to use the lanes between to get to other worlds. You just need protection while you’re doing it.” He hands one of the coats to Strelitzia, and the other to Sora. 

“The lanes between?” Sora asks. 

“I know how to use them,” Strelitzia says, unzipping her coat to put it on. “I’ll show you.” Sora nods and, after a moment, puts his coat on, too. They’ll probably have a while to travel before they’re back home. It’s better to be safe. Besides, plenty of his friends have used them.

“Thanks for saving us, in case that one didn’t actually say it,” Mr. Hanekoma says, gesturing to Joshua. “We couldn’t have done it without the two of you.” 

Beat elbows Joshua in the side. “I owe you an unpayable debt,” he says finally. “Several, in fact.” Neku just smiles and rolls his eyes at that, and Shiki giggles, and Rhyme sighs.

But that sounds enough like a ‘thank you’ to Sora. “What are friends for?” he asks. “I’m just glad we got here in time to help.”

They walk a bit further away, just to have the space to open the portals they need, and Strelitzia shows him how to change a Keyblade’s form into a Glider and open the portal. And then they take off.

“See you, Shibuya,” Sora says, looking down for a moment. But just for a moment.

Somewhere out there, home’s waiting for them, too. He’s sure of it.