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subasekabang · 4 years

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Past Nova - Chapter 03

Title: Past Nova - Chapter 03

Rating: T

Word Count: 12,665 [Ch 03: 4990]

Pairings/Characters: Neku Sakuraba. Beat. Shiki Misaki. Rhyme. Sota Honjo. Nao. Joshua Kiryu. Sota/Nao.

Warnings: Past Character Death mentions.

Summary: Neku and his new friends find that they’ve been brought back to life, time wound back as if the three weeks had never happened. It’s something that they don’t have time to adjust to though, as Neku realises that Sota and Nao are still alive, with no guarantee that the two won’t end up back in the UG. Even without a timer on his hand, time is ticking down - but Neku isn’t going to let Sota and Nao disappear without a fight. Not again.

Partner: @licobleps & HB Kit

Author’s Note: Here is the last chapter I made for Bang! Unfortunately, I, once again, have overestimated my time management skills and have not made it to the end of what I had planned to do for this Bang, sadly. However I’m proud of what I did manage to finish so far and hope you enjoy! I’ll definitely aim to write more super soon~

“If a star fell, what would it look like?”

The questions kept on coming from Nao and Sota didn’t mind.

“Maybe it would look like you, Nao.”

She was always brightening things in his life.

“Like me? No way! They’ve got to be, like, a lot more sparkly!” She put her hands on her hips. “And I don’t, like, really wear sparkles.”

“You think?”

Despite not having anything physical on her that ‘sparkled’, he could see that her eyes were glittering.

“Not sure. But I think I had a dream about a star that fell once.” The memory seemed to come by suddenly, almost like a shooting star itself. “It fell out of the sky and landed in the clouds. I tried to pick it up but then I woke up in my room. Then I realised the start was in my room. So I didn’t actually wake up. It was another dream!”

Sota paid attention to every single word.

Whatever dreams lay behind her those eyes, he wanted to be a part of them.

Chapter 03 - Casper Star

I don’t understand why you’re like this. Why can’t you be more like your sister?

When Beat woke up, light was streaming into the room and he could hear an alarm blaring by his bedside.

It was a good thing that Rhyme reminded him to put on an alarm because he would have slept through it. That would have sucked since they had things to get to do today. He jumped out of bed, grabbed some clothes off the floor, sniffed it - smells okay - and then changed into them. His room was messier than usual. He would probably get shouted at later but he didn’t really give a damn.

He was halfway out of his room when he stopped and looked back. He almost left his skateboard behind. He felt like he should have that with him today.

Rhyme was sitting at the dining table, all dressed up and ready to go.

“Les’ go.”

After yesterday, he couldn’t leave the others waiting for him.

xxxxx

“Yeah, c’mon. What’s going on that you had the balls to come back here, huh ‘Beat’? Or should I still be calling you - ‘Mad Boar’?”

Beat didn’t have anything to say to Yamazaki. He was here for the other two - he guessed now that their names were Sota and Nao. He hadn’t known that those were their other names before this. That wasn’t completely true, they probably mentioned it before but he had forgotten.

You couldn’t forget Yamazaki, though. No one was allowed to forget that name.

“I’m here to talk to Jo-san and Hoshi. Ain’t want nothin’ to do with you.”

“Some big talk from such a little punk.”

Beat was pretty tall himself, for his age but Yamazaki was not only taller but he was also stacked. He could tell, especially with Yamazaki getting right up in his face.

“Aniki, he’s, like, just a kid.” Hoshi tried to pull him back. He shook her off but he did step back.

“Ain’t much fun to square up with Mad Boar when he’s got a bunch of twigs with him.” Yamazaki flashed his brown eyes towards the others. “Don’t let me catch you around this ‘side of the park again. If I see you again, you’d better be here to join us or - ” he pointed his thumb downwards “ - be prepared to be buried here.” He brushed back his wild mess of blond hair, so light it was almost white. “Alright, Jo. Hoshi. Enjoy your little chit-chat with these brats.”

As the man started to walk down the steps, the others followed him, without a single instruction. That’s just the way things worked around here.

“Beat, what the hell was that about?”

He looked at Neku and he seemed angry.

“What?”

Then he realised that Shiki was practically hiding behind Neku. Rhyme, too, had moved closer the older two, grabbing onto Shiki’s wrist.

“Sorry,” he said immediately. “I didn’t wanna come here in the first place. But when you guys said to split up, I panicked, yo. I couldn’t let you guys jus’ come here on your own.” He messed up, again. “When I realised we were lookin’ for Jo-san and Hoshi, I just…I knew where they were gonna be an’ I knew Yamazaki was goin’ to be here an’ I didn’t want him seeing you first.”

“Okay? So if we were going to be running in with some shady people, you could’ve at least warned us,” Neku argued.

“Shady? Who’s is this kid, Beat?” Jo-san’s guard was up.

“No, I didn’t mean you Sota, I just meant - ”

“And how come you know my name? Pretty rude for a kid, aren’t you? How come you were looking for me?” Jo-san wanted answers but Neku wasn’t talking back.

“They’re my friends and sister, Jo-san,” Beat cut in. “They uh…” Guess he had to lie. “I told ‘em about you and they wanted to meet you.”

“Oh, are you, like, Beat Junior then? You’re totally adorbs.” Hoshi was probably the only person they met in those last few minutes that wasn’t intimidating.

Rhyme dropped her hold on Shiki’s wrist and extended her hand out. “I’m Rhyme.”

“Oh em gee, Beat and Rhyme? You two’ve got a twin look going on, aw!”

“Yeah, so it’s more like Skulls Junior.”

“That’s, like, totes precious!” She smiled broadly. “You can call me Nao. Or Nao Nao, for short.”

Leave it to Rhyme to get someone to like her within a few words.

“Hmph. Well if Nao likes you, then you guys can call me Sota.” That seemed to take the edge off Jo-san slightly. “So whaddya want? We got somewhere to be so we can’t hang around. And I know you didn’t bring them to where Yamazaki was at if it ain’t important.”

“Yeah we - gotta.” His mind was drawing a blank of what excuse they were supposed to use to pry info for Sunday out of him. “We gotta talk. I jus’ gotta talk to you, aight?”

“…Alright, man. But me an’ Nao seriously gotta go somewhere. I’ve got time tomorrow, so I’ll text you later.”

They left real quick after that.

“Beat.” Neku took Shiki by the arm. “I’m walking Shiki home for now. We’ll talk about this tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, man. I get it. I’ll see you guys.”

Xxxxx

Beat felt guilty, thinking about how spooked Shiki was. He asked if Rhyme had been scared too but she said it was fine. He still felt bad, though. That was the last kind of situation that he wanted Rhyme to see him in. He was just glad as hell that he never had accepted one of those white bands from Yamazaki…

He felt guiltier when they met up at their spot by Hachiko again and Shiki’s first words were all to try and make him feel better. “Sorry for worrying you guys. I think I just freaked out a bit, ‘cause…you know I can’t exactly use Mr. Mew in a fight in the RG. And those guys definitely wanted to pick a fight.”

“Who were they?” Neku asked the question, directed at Beat.

“They’re…” He glanced at Rhyme. She didn’t know about them yet.

“The Shirotora,” Rhyme filled in the words that Beat didn’t want to say. “They’re a gang.”

“Those are The Shirotora?” Shiki covered her mouth. “Oh god, you’re right! They were all wearing those white bands around their arms.”

“Never heard of ‘em,” said Neku.

“No offence but you’re not exactly up to date on a lot of things, Neku,” said Shiki, “but the White Tigers are getting pretty infamous around Shibuya. Especially ‘cause of who their leader is rumoured to be. I mean, not rumoured, anymore, I guess since we met him yesterday.”

“Yeah, Yamazaki’s their leader.” Beat was still trying to avoid eye contact with Rhyme, already feeling worse about the whole situation, since she already knew who the gang was.

“It’s the talk of the town because he’s rumoured to be Tora Ana Yamazaki’s brother.” The way Shiki said it, it seemed like it was supposed to cause some kinda reaction.

“…And who’s that supposed to be?”

“Neku, come on. She’s only the designer for Tigre Punks!” She put her hands up in the air. “She’s one of my role models!” Shiki cleared her throat. “Anyway, rumour has it that they’re siblings because - well, Shirotora - White Tigers - Tigre Punks. And also, statements from people who managed have run-ins with the leader have said there’s a resemblance. It’s a bit of a publicity crisis for her, ‘cause people like the ‘punk’ look but they don’t want to support any real gangs, of course. I mean, I didn’t think they were actually related but if they’re both Yamazaki….they’ve gotta be, right?”

Beat could only shrug. “I dunno, really.” He really didn’t.

“So, how do you know Yamazaki?”

It was gonna come out anyway.

He knew Neku didn’t want to force him to say anything. If he really didn’t want to say anything he knew he didn’t have to. But he had put them in danger by bringing them there, even right after he had promised to himself to make sure Rhyme was kept safe after the Game.

“I met Jo-san and Hoshi first. Phones, I told ya that I didn’t really get along with my parents, right? Well, after a while, since I didn’t care anymore…I just got into a bad mood. A lot. But I ain’t someone who just wants to punch someone when I’m angry. Some punks, though, they don’t like the way I look. Say I’m lookin’ at them funny. So they start fights.”

“And you fought, back?”

“Yeah, man? I wasn’t gonna just let ‘em treat me like a punchin’ bag. I had a big repitation after that.” By the way Neku was looking at him, he said pronounced something wrong, again but he continued, “So more of ‘em started coming and I just kept fighting. I dunno when but later I kept hearing people call me the ‘Mad Boar’.”

He hadn’t heard that nickname for a while. The bruises he got from fighting had all healed up by the time he entered the Game, but while talking about it, he could feel the phantom sting of pain on his knuckles.

“An’ one day I was fightin’ and there were like…ten of ‘em, I swear. I was losin’. But I guess Jo-san thought that wasn’t fair and he stepped in and helped me out. He doesn’t look like it but he’s really strong. Hoshi was there too, she helped to patch me up a bit.”

“We haven’t really actually hung out much but I have their number in ‘case I got in trouble again. And Jo-san and Hoshi would always show up. I didn’t know that they were with The Shiratora. Until Jo-san told me Yamazaki wanted to meet me. And turns out he wanted me to join them, as ‘payment’ for takin’ up Jo-san and Hoshi’s time. I said no, ‘course. I might get in fights my I ain’t bein’ a part of no gang.” He wanted to make this absolutely clear to all of them. “Yamazaki ain’t happy when people say no, so I’ve been tryna’ stay clear of ‘em.”

He finished there and took a breath, waiting to hear their reactions.

“Well, Beat.” Neku crossed his arms. “I’m surprisingly unsurprised.”

“Huh?”

“It just sounds…very like you.”

“Huh?”

“As in, I always thought you were a wannabe delinquent. But you’re a softie at heart so I knew you couldn’t be a real one.”

“Bwaaaah!?” A softie?! “I’m no softie - wait, is that a good thing? I ain’t no delinquent, either!”

“Ah, I get it.” Shiki snapped her fingers. “I bet the other times you got into fights would be something like…if there were older kids ganging on younger kids or something.”

“How’d you know that?”

“Or if someone was trying to steal someone’s wallet.”

“HUH? Were you guys watching me?”

The hell? How did they know all of that?

Then he heard a giggle.

“Yup! That’s my big brother.” Rhyme addressed him sternly, “but you really shouldn’t fight. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Rhyme didn’t look disappointed in him. Neither did his friends.

He didn’t know the words to describe how relieved he was.

“Hey, Beat, sorry for being really touchy with you yesterday and just now,” Neku said. “I just…I just don’t like the thought of any of you guys in danger. Especially when we’re on a mission to save people.”

Yeah, he got that.

“It’s cool, Phones.”

There was a buzz in his pocket. He flipped open his phone. Jo-san was going to be here in ten minutes. Beat told the others what the message was and they agreed on their plan of action. Hoshi was the friendlier one on first meeting, so they would try to make better friends with her first. Heck, she already liked Rhyme so this was going to be a piece of cake.

“Sup, guys.”

Ten minutes later, it was just Sota on his own.

“Why you all starin’ at me like that?”

“Where’s Nao?” Neku asked.

That seemed to be the wrong question because Jo-san pushed his shades higher up on his head. “I ain’t always with her, you know.”

“That’s a problem,” Neku muttered this and Beat was the only one who could hear it.

“Oh, so what’s Nao up to, then?” Shiki tried, putting on a cheerful voice.

“Somethin’. What’s with all the questions about Nao? You guys need somethin’ from her?”

Uh oh, this could be bad, Jo-san got really touchy about Hoshi.

“I thought she was really nice, yesterday,” said Rhyme. “Beat wanted us all to go skateboarding and I’m sad that she didn’t show up. The more the merrier, ya know?”

“You’re right, she is really nice.” All of a sudden, Jo-san was all smiles. “Skulls Junior, you’ve got a great sense for people.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Let’s go then, where are we heading off to board anyway?”

“Back to Miyashita Park,” said Beat. “S’long we don’t go over to the other side, it’d be fine.”

“Cool, let’s go, then.”

xxxxx

Beat hung around Miyashita Park a lot. Yeah, he was more likely to get into fights around here but since there were fewer people around, there was a lot more space for Beat to just stretch his legs and skate. Neku had whispered frantically to Beat, asking how exactly were they supposed to get other skateboards. They stopped by the Cosmic Corner shop and Beat asked the Iwata brother if he had any spare boards they could borrow. His Partner seemed shocked that the shopkeeper would just lend them the boards so easily. Beat didn’t know what the big deal was, he’d been here tons of times since forever ago and he could always buy stuff just fine?

After that detour, they ended up in the park again.

There weren’t exactly any concrete bowls in the park but there were steps and railings that Beat liked to practice on. He warmed up with a few lengths before realising that Neku and Shiki were having some trouble with it. Shiki hadn’t exactly come prepared for the activity (‘no one told me we were going to be skateboarding!’) and Neku was dressed fine but was struggling.

Neku got two feet onto his borrowed board for about a second before he somehow managed to slip back, sending the board rolling away from him.

Beat ran over to grab the board and help him.

“Phones, you alright?” He pulled Neku up, with ease. He was a bit taken aback by how light Neku was. “What happened to your balance, man?” He was pretty sure Neku had been fine when they were doing Fusions in the UG.

“Thanks, I’m good.” Neku tugged the pointed spike of his hair. “And I don’t know. Guess I can’t move as well in the RG.” He started just…staring at Beat.

“Why you lookin’ at me like that, Phones?” It made Beat feel a bit jittery when Neku stared him down like that.

“I just figured, maybe you were stupidly strong as a Reaper because you’re already stupid strong anyway.” Neku tapped at Beat’s arm. “I mean look at this, your arm’s like twice the size of mine.”

“And me too! Is this all muscle from fighting?” Now Shiki started prodding at his arm. “Or do you work out?”

Beat could feel his face flare up from all the sudden attention. Usually, people only crowded around him when they were, y’know, ready for a beat-down. This was an entirely foreign situation to him. “Y-yeah, I’ve got weights at home.”

“Yo, Beat.” Jo-san, who had been doing a few up and downs of his own, had come back to them. “Your friends going to skate, or what?”

They both stopped man-handling Beat, which he breathed a sigh of relief to.

“Sota, I was actually wondering if you could give me a few pointers,” Neku said. “Beat’s not that great of a teacher.”

“Say wha -! “

Before he could protest further, Rhyme was shushing him. When did she get here? He swore she was also doing her own thing since she wasn’t a novice either.

“You want me to teach you, Phones?” Jo-san sounded a mixture of both surprised and flattered. “Sure, man. Come over here. And you too, Glasses.”

The three went off to a little distance away and Jo-san started showing them how to hop on and off their boards. It looked like asking him for help was the thing that finally made him relax around them. He did seem to have a thing for helping people.

Neku said that Jo-san helped him out too during their second week. That was when Beat was still trying to attack Neku, so that must have meant a lot to him. And now Jo-san didn’t recognise him. It was the same as with him and Rhyme.

If she wasn’t the person she was, Beat probably would have had a lot more trouble trying to get her to be his Partner, especially since she didn’t remember he was her brother. She was trusting like that.

He glanced back at Rhyme who was back at practising her small tricks.

She was always the one that was quick on the uptake. Neku had said that he wasn’t good at teaching as an excuse, but he really wasn’t. Rhyme learnt all these tricks by herself, just from simply watching Beat. Not only did she always work hard but she also had a natural talent for things that he didn’t.

‘I don’t understand why you’re like this. Why can’t you be more like your sister?’

He almost forgot that he dreamt that last night but it suddenly came back to him. His parents hadn’t exactly said it outright like that but it was close enough to what they meant.

No need to keep thinking about the dream.

Beat distracted himself by practising some of his more advanced tricks. It had been a while and he was a bit rusty. He had lied to Rhyme when he said that being a pro skater was his dream. But as he kept saying it, it didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. His moves were pretty good and he enjoyed it. It was something that let him move around and expend all the extra energy he had; a way better way to do it, too, then getting into fights.

This session, he managed to pull off four out of the ten attempts he made at a Casper flip, so he thought he pretty much had it dialled.

He went to check in on how the others were doing, thinking that it had been a while.

Neku and Shiki looked wiped, they were covered in sweat and he thought he spotted a skinned knee.

“Oh hey, Beat.” Neku was panting, only just about propping himself up on his elbows while the rest of him lay on the floor. Shiki had given up entirely with her whole body splayed out.

“No…more…”

“Bwahaha, you guys are a mess!” He was laughing but he was impressed that they stuck to it for that long. Jo-san was actually a pretty good skater too.

“Need…water…” Shiki looked up at Beat from the ground. “Did we bring any?”

“Nope, totally forgot.” He rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly.

“Don’t sweat, we’ll get some for you,” Jo-san assured them.

“We’re already sweating, that’s the whole problem,” Neku mumbled.

“Hey Junior, stay with these two. Me an’ your bro are gonna get some drinks.”

“Haha, sit tight Phones, we’ll be right back!”

Rhyme trotted past them as they headed out of the park. The vending machines were close to the park entrance. Unfortunately, they were broken so Beat and Jo-san had to travel a bit further out. They found more vending machines on the corner of a nearby street. He was about to put some coins in when Jo-san stopped him. “Hey let’s sit down for a bit.”

The corner they were on was at the top of a set of stairs, winding down to a path lined with panels on one side and walls on the other. He didn’t recognise this route. Shibuya was changing all the time and he swore that they were building new things everywhere. There were a bunch of colourful ads under the panels for the latest hot products and they probably changed often too. Jo-san ended up mid-way down before finally sitting on the steps. Beat remained standing.

“How come you brought your board with you?” Jo-san questioned.

“Oh, I dunno.” Despite nearly forgetting it this morning, Beat hadn’t even realised that he was holding it under his arm until it was pointed out just then. He shifted his stance so that his board was standing vertically against the ground, allowing him to lean a bit into it.

“Interesting friends you got there.” Jo-san settled into a more comfortable position. “Didn’t think ya had friends. I mean, other than me an’ Nao.”

“Didn’t really know if you were my friend, Jo-san.” Really, he didn’t know if Jo-san considered him a friend. “But I owe you and Hoshi a lot and I respected you guys.”

“That so?”

It really made him wonder how he never ran into them in the second week. Maybe he was too busy trying to save Rhyme and concentrating on just taking out Neku like Shades had asked for. But he didn’t know what he would have done if Shades had asked him to attack Jo-san and Hoshi. Maybe he would have done it. He felt terrible for even thinking that but he really might have. He could only think of saving Rhyme.

“Didn’t know you had a sister either. You never mentioned.” With that timing, Beat had a brief thought that maybe Jo-san could scan him. Nah, of course not.

“Yeah, when I met you Jo-san, I wasn’t really talkin’ to Rhyme much.” He averted his gaze from Jo-san to the reflective panels next to them.

“How come?”

“I mean, she didn’t do anything. I was jus’ angry at my folks and took it out on her. I know it’s stupid.”

“You got strict parents?” Jo-san asked.

“Yeah.”

“Same here. I kinda guessed that before, though. You kinda remind me of me.” Jo-san looked up. “When I was a kid I got into so many more fights than you if you can believe it. My parents hated it. But I only did it ‘cause I didn’t want to follow their ‘path’.”

Yeah, that sounded familiar.

“I’m working part-time jobs right now but three days a week I’m working doing the thing I love.”

“What’s that?” Beat asked, actually never having thought about what kind of work Sota would be doing.

“I want to be a barber. Ya know, do haircuts for a living. Bet you didn’t expect that, huh?”

“Forreal?”

“Hell yeah. Nothin’ better than seeing the smile on a customer’s face when I save ‘em from a bad hair day. My dream is to be the best barber out there.”

Huh. What had Neku said earlier? ‘I’m surprisingly not surprised.’ That sounded about right for this too.

“That’s cool, dude.” Beat grinned. “You’re like Rhyme. She’s got a dream too.”

“You don’t?”

“Nah, not really. That’s kinda why me and my parents fought. ‘Cause they want me to ‘focus’ and have a ‘goal’ but I just…don’t.” He looked down at his skateboard. “I mean, I like boarding but it’s not my ‘dream’. Maybe I’ll keep doin’ it ‘cause I’m good at it but it’s not somethin’ I have to do.”

“I mean, you don’t have ‘ta have a dream, Beat.” Jo-san said. “You sound like you’re feeling down because you don’t have one. But it doesn’t matter. You can take it at your own pace. A dream isn’t everything.”

A dream isn’t everything.

He needed to be reminded that.

“Thanks, Jo-san. You’re a good friend.”

“No problem, man. And like I said, you can call me Sota.”

“Do you not like being called ‘Jo-san’?” It didn’t occur to Beat to ask. He had always just done it.

“I don’t hate it, and I don’t mind it from you but…it’s the name I use for The Shirotora. Nao also only uses Hoshi when we’re with Yamazaki and the others. So since we’re friends, I want you to call us by our real names.” His expression shifted from carefree to serious swiftly. “I’m glad you didn’t join us Beat. You already know this but Nao’s Yamazaki’s cousin. And I’m actually only with The Shirotora because I wouldn’t be able to date Nao if I wasn’t. There’s keepin’ family safe and then there’s bein’ crazy overprotective.”

Beat knew Sota wasn’t talking about him but he felt that it could apply to him. He was glad he snapped out of it and ended up helping Neku in the third week. He was sure Rhyme wouldn’t be proud of him if he continued as a Reaper.

“Then again, I dunno if I could talk. Being Yamazaki’s cousin means Nao can get in a lotta danger. An’ I’d do anything to keep Nao safe, even if I had to die to do it.”

His hand slipped at that, as he recalled jumping to save Rhyme from the car…jumping in front of Neku to save him from a brainwashed-Shiki. His skateboard clattered down a few steps and Sota only just about caught it.

Beat really hoped that trying to save Nao wasn’t the reason Sota and Nao died. That would be too similar to him…wouldn’t it?

Catching the skateboard had forced Sota off his feet. “Oh, that poster reminds me! I do have one more dream, actually. And that’s to marry Nao.” He grinned. “But enough about that, we’ve been talkin’ for a while. We were supposed to get drinks for your friends, right?”

He handed Beat his skateboard and announced he was heading back up to the vending machines first.

Beat took a look at the poster Sota was talking about. They had been standing near it the whole time but he had really clocked what was on it.

Oh, it was a poster of a plushie that Rhyme had mentioned wanting a while back.

He already got her the necklace but maybe he could get this for her next birthday.

“Is that supposed to be a cat or a dog? And it’s called a - how the hell are you supposed to read this - dori…dorimu…ita? Dream Eater?”

What a weird name for a toy.

xxxxx

Not only did Sota and Beat come back late but they apparently got the drinks Neku and Shiki wanted mixed up. They were too thirsty to complain too much about it, luckily for Beat. He was happy to have the cool soda wash down his throat himself, he was tired out already. They skipped out on lunch so he was hungry too. Hopefully, they could grab something on the way back.

“Sota’s on the phone,” Rhyme said, voice hushed. Oh yeah, he was. “I think he’s heading somewhere after work. The person told him to come without Nao.”

“She’s got good hearing,” Beat said when Neku and Shiki asked how she knew that.

“Should we try and follow him, tomorrow?” Neku asked. “I think we’ve made friends but if this has to do with those Shirotora people I think he’d want us to stay out of it.”

“If you and Beat do that, me and Rhyme could try talking to Nao.” Shiki suggested this between peeks at Sota’s ongoing phone call. “Sota gave me her number earlier when I mentioned that I’d like to ask her where she got her clothes from.”

“Okay, that sounds like a plan.”

Sota finished with his call and walked back over to the group. Beat tossed Sota his unopened can of Aquarius.

“Think we’re done for today, man,” Beat said. “These guys can’t skate no more.”

“Haha, that’s fine by me.”

Dragging the more tired members of their party along, they went back to Cosmic Corner to return their skateboards. Sota was going in a different direction to the rest of them so he said his goodbyes for the day then.

“Was fun hangin’ with you guys. We should do this again sometime.” He patted the top of Rhyme’s head, high-fived both Neku and Shiki and then held out a fist to Beat. “See you around.”

Beat bumped his own against Sota’s.

“Yeah, see you…Sota.”

As Sota got lost in the crowds, Beat turned to the others.

“Hey, we’re savin’ him. Him and Nao.”

They all nodded.

Beat may not have a dream but he had something else: the resolve to protect the ones that mattered.