Tracked down [Rhyme]

[Neku Sakuraba]

Neku felt like ripping his hair out. He'd hunted around EVERYWHERE he could get to, and nothing! Nothing but one junk heap he came across while searching. That keyed him in that some of the Reapers (Or, at least, Pi-Face) had been dumped here, too. And that probably meant his friends were here, too. It was just... irritating. Neku gave a growl of annoyance, crossing his arms and hitting the wall behind him loud enough to draw an odd look from another person on his side of the street. Beat, Rhyme, Shiki... Where were they? Could they have been...? No, not a chance. He just hadn't found them yet. The building he was leaning against looked like a restaurant of some kind, and he looked over at the door just a second after a familiar shortie with a black beanie and a pink sweater exited. He stared for a second in surprise; wow, just a second not paying attention and he'd almost missed her! Her back was to him, so she probably hadn't noticed him, either.

"Rhyme! ... That is you, isn't it?!"Neku called out, pushing himself off the wall and hurrying to catch up, waving his arm to get her attention.

[Raimu Bito]

"Thank you, waiter." she said, anding him the bill with her ever polite smile. The meal had been odd; she'd never seen anything like it in the RG. Was she in the UG, possibly? No, of course not. She hadn't died, right? Just thinking about it made her head ache with pulses, as they matched her rising heartbeat. These happened often, and she wasn't sure why. Maybe she'd sit down for a while, seeing as gravity started to push as a rock on her head.

A Noise, then white. Pure nothing. Like a dream. Then...here. Strange people, strange places. Too new. Too painful. She went through all the motions of getting out of the plain restaurant, and was focusing in a labyrinth inside her head. Yet, she kept walking, eventually finding the way out of pain. That was her way of making it stop. Her smile grew a bit wider at her accomplishment, and came out of her shell, turning towards a more suburban area of the town called Baron. She'd have to find room there , or again she would be on the ground, defenseless for another night, without her brother for warmth, or anyone to trust. It was a strange area, and Rhyme wasn't outgoing as her brother. And without him or anyone she knew, she was just a cuddly little girl with no home, and no one cared. Not one person. That was when Neku pulled her out of her worrying.

"Rhyme!....That is you, isn't it?!" she turned around, only to find salvation in the spiky redhead know as Neku. She immediately ran towards the boy, her happiness turning into energy to run. She nearly pile-drived into him, but she skidded to a halt, her shoes touching his. She was nearly bouncing; he was something from her past. Her told herself to not hug him, since doing so might scare him.
"Neku...I am...so..glad to see you!" her voice was without a breath, and frantic in a joyous way

[Neku Sakuraba]

"Me, too... I've been looking all over for someone from Shibuya," Neku said, giving a rare smile. He was plenty nicer, sure, but he still hadn't quite come out of the 'Show little emotion' impulse. Old habits die hard, or so they say. He hugged the shorter friend out of the shared joy of finding a familiar face in these strange places, not really noticing he did it until he let her go a couple of seconds later. But hey, he was happy to find her (Anyone, really); part of him was tempted to think he would have hugged Beat if he'd been there, as odd as that would have been. His next order of business was looking Rhyme up and down to make sure she wasn't hurt, and she wasn't; a little dusty, but not hurt. That was good.

"It's great to see you, Rhyme. Are you all right? Not hurt or anything?" He asked, looking a little concerned. She'd looked kind of distressed when she left the bakery; maybe something was wrong beyond the missing others of their little group.

[Raimu Bito]

Rhyme's headache came back as soon as it had left, only leaving Rhyme a moment of peace to collect her thoughts. That smile..she'd never actually remembered seeing him smile like that before. Or really, she didn't remember him ever smiling. It made her want to smile as well, and so she did, doing her signature smile: eyes closed, mouth not open. People said it made her look like a child, but she didn't care. It was her smile, and hers alone--

What was this? It took Rhyme a few seconds to realize he was hugging her, and she took another few seconds. He was lonely, wasn't he? Just like she was before she met him here. There was no Beat, at least, not that she knew. Slowly wrapping her arms around him in return, she smiled and put her head on his chest. It seemed to stop the rapid pulsing in her head, if only for a moment. As he let go, she did as well, giving him a minute to make sure she was alright as she did the same to him.
"Yes, I'm fine...please tell me you are as well?" She was worried for the redhead; he'd probably been here a bit longer than she had, she'd only been here for a day or two now. She didn't have enough money for a hotel, and rarely enough for food. Once she found everyone, she would most likely get a job, if possible for her to do so. It hadn't been so in Shibuya, seeing as she was a minor. Here, everything was alien; why wouldn't it be possible? She'd thought about asking at the restaurant for a job, but they saw her as a lonely, homeless child and nothing more. She needed a place to stay.

[Neku Sakuraba]

"I'm great; I was starting to think I'd never find anyone," Neku said, his smile diminishing to a smirk. Not a day before, he wanted to give up searching and just forget about it; how lucky it was that he'd decided to stay in Baron another day. If he hadn't, who knew where Rhyme would have ended up being forced to stay? Probably an orphanage for cute hugable teens. But all the better; Rhyme probably had a lot more Yen than he'd had on him, and since he found that guy willing to exchange Yen for Gil, it wouldn't be hard to exchange the currencies.

"I've got a lot I want to tell you; I've been looking all over for you and the others. There's a lot of adventure to be had wherever we are; it's definitely not Shibuya. It's weird, though; all of my Psychs are still working like they were when I was in the UG except for the Player's pin.I rented a place at the hotel in town, if you want to come with me," Neku offered, giving a half-shrug. If it was anything like him, Rhyme had probably woken up in an alley or sidewalk somewhere and been lost since then, unless someone'd found her and decided to take her in.

[Raimu Bito]

Rhyme nodded as she listened, taking in every word. Though she'd been there longer than he had, she'd woke up with a jolt, in the middle of a busy street. No one had cared that she'd been there. What had happened while she was there, she wasn't sure. And she was left with herself, her money, and her Pins. Nothing else, and it scared her to be alone. She stayed near him, as if he was her guardian, and even though now they were the same age, he felt like he was, being so nice to her, the way she should have been much earlier.
"Thanks. You wouldn't mind me staying with you? " she asked. It would have been different if this was her brother, or even Shiki. But she didn't know Neku all that well, and her inner Beat was yelling at her for even thinking about staying with him. She ignored him, knowing that he was just an overprotective brother, even if it wasn't really him. "I can help pay for it." she told him.

[Neku Sakuraba]

"Of course you can, Rhyme; it's no problem," Neku replied. He wouldn't mind the help paying for the place, too. Though, to be fair, they would probably be heading on soon. They still needed to find Beat and Shiki, after all, and maybe even bump into some of the Reapers. He knew for a fact that Minamimoto had made it; no one else made monoliths of junk. Some of the others must have made it, too. He gave a gesture for Rhyme to follow, sticking his hands into his pocket and looking up at the sky.

"Yeah... It really is great to find someone else from Shibuya. It was starting to get real lonely being the only person from home. But now I'm not; I tracked you down, so there's only two more to find, right? Beat and Shiki are probably looking for us, too," Neku said as he walked along, hoping Rhyme was following and that he wasn't talking to thin air.

[Raimu Bito]

"Okay. Thank you!" she told him, giving him a quick bow before lifting her head up. He really hadn't changed since the last time she saw him; he still had that same hair, same look. His personality had changed a bit though. He used to be the boy that hated company, the one that wouldn't have ever done this in the past if his life depended on it. But now he was willing. That's how the Game had changed his life. Hers...well, she wasn't sure yet. It gave her headaches to think of it, so she preferred not to.

Rhyme nearly skipped along, following him. She strayed a bit behind him, looking around at the still new city. It was so different from her own, so ...odd. Why was she here? Where was Beat, Shiki..or dare she think of him, Joshua. She didn't want to hear they were dead; that would only hurt her more. And she wanted to find them, or see them or anything. Not knowing where they were made her feel weird on the inside, protective of this people. People pushed her; new people need to get out of their way or stay out all together. That's what Shibuya had in common with this place. Hurrying up to catch Neku, she nearly tripped, but used him for balance, if there was any. "Sorry, Neku."

[Neku Sakuraba]

Neku was a bit surprised when Rhyme ran into him, but he stayed steady and helped her keep her balance all the same. Surprise was no reason not to help a friend, after all. Or, at least, so he'd been told. They were already at the hotel (Or 'inn' as they called it here) in any case. It was a nice, homey place; felt real old-fashioned, and looked to have Western stylings, but it was nice. The bottom floor was a desk and a kitchen area for checking in, and the floors upstairs were progressively better looking than the last. Strangely, they were all priced the same, though; 100 Gil a night. So, Neku had gotten the one right below the top; the only people up above were the inn owners. There was a double-bed, a couch, and a nice little mini dining area for whatever food was brought there.

"All the rooms here were priced the same, so I got this one. Make yourself at home," Neku said, gesturing to the general area and flopping down on the plush couch. He sank in to the cushion a good three inches; it was soft, sure, but it was kind of like sitting on a bean bag. "So, how long have you been awake here? I woke up about a week ago; maybe two."

[Raimu Bito]

"Thank you." she said, taking her beanie and setting it on the dining area table. Checking her hair in a reflective mirror, she patted it down just enough so hairs didn't stick out. Looking out the window, she counted the buildings like stars, though none of them shot out of the city like stars did sometimes. If they did, who'd live in buildings? Not many people, she was sure. Were Beat or Shiki in any of these buildings? She almost hoped so, making it easier for her to find them. But at the same time, she hoped they were somewhere else; it allowed her to go different places instead of staying here all the time. They'd find a permanent home after all of them were found. All 4 of them, Joshua included if he wanted.

Finding herself comfortable sitting next to Neku, she made a thinking 'hmm' noise as she thought. "Three weeks, maybe? I'm not sure..." she trailed off as a massive headache filled her head with a pulsing beat, as if something inside her head wanted to get out. Shutting her eyes tightly, she grabbed a pillow and put it to her head, making the pulsing less. This one refused to retreat, and Rhyme felt horrible. Neku didn't need to see her like this, especially after she just told him she was fine. Oh, this was gonna be fun to explain.

[Neku Sakuraba]

Neku wasn't really sure WHAT to do. Rhyme had apparently contracted a headache from hell, and that was NOT good. The only thing he really knew to do was to rub that spot where your head and neck connected. It helped him when he had a headache, and though it would certainly be an odd topic of conversation, he hoped this would help out. Whatever caused the sudden headache was beyond him, but that could wait until after it had eased off. "It's okay, just relax..."

That was all he could think of to say. Relax? How exactly could you stop your brain from hammering against your skull the way it did when you had a headache. Yep, this was really going to be an interesting topic of conversation. From Neku's point of view, it probably looked like they were dating or something, which wasn't happening so far as he knew. Not to say it wasn't possible, in some far region of his mind he hadn't cared to access yet, but as of right now it wasn't so.

[Raimu Bito]

The headache wasn't just a headache, it was filled with fuzzy visions. Like screens on a television. She didn't know what they were, (they were supposedly gone memories) but all they did was hurt her. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Or she already was, she couldn't tell. But she knew this had to go away. Her vision wasn't straight, her mind and heart pounding at a rate that made everything painful.
"Rhymmeeee!"
Waking up as a...what was she? She was supossed to be dead. But she wasn't. She was a Noise.

Wait, what was that? In the seconds it took Rhyme to process the information, it was gone. The headache stopped, and she noticed she was breathing as if she ran a few miles, not as if she'd been sitting there. She turned to Neku, her eyes widened with fear. She blinked, realizing she'd just embarrassed herself in front of him, and turned away for a second. What do you say to someone when you do something like that? 'I'm fine' wasn't it, she was sure, and 'I'm sorry' didn't seem to fit, so she let the silence fill the room, and she even scooted farther away from Neku, afraid.

[Neku Sakuraba]

"It's okay, Rhyme. You're probably exhausted from living on the street for that long; if you want to get some rest, I'll be fine sleeping on the couch here," even if it WAS that fluffy. Plus, Rhyme was kind of special; if he DIDN'T take care of her, if something else didn't get him first, Beat would destroy him. He liked living. A lot. But it was more his own feeling to protect his friends than his fear of being beaten to a bloody pulp by Beat.

Neku shrugged off the situation and propped his feet up on the coffee table that was in the room, putting his headphones on his ears and turning them back on. "Just let me know if you want to talk about anything. Try to get some rest, all right?"

[Raimu Bito]

"I..." she started to object, but as her eyes drooped, she stopped and proceeded to move to the bed, taking off her shoes and sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at Neku. Before saying anything, she closed her mouth again, preferring not to say anything. She then proceeded to lay down, falling asleep without covers and her head barely resting on the pillow. It made her feel a bit better to be sleeping on a bed instead of a floor now.

When she awoke, she rubbed her eyes for a few seconds, then sat up straight. "Hello?"

[Neku Sakuraba]

After Rhyme had fallen to sleep, Neku had gone about doing a few low-key chores (Replacing the batteries in his music player, polishing the pins, etc.) and gone to bed himself, kicking back on the couch and going to sleep, his headphones sitting on the table next to him, arms behind his head. His expression was like his usual look; serious, but there was something less off-putting about the expression than usual. Probably because he was asleep.

It wasn't too heavy a sleep, though; he'd been dozing lightly in case Rhyme had needed something, so she didn't have to wrestle him out of sleep. He sat up and yawned a bit before replying. "I'm here; something wrong?"