[Thread] A cheap shot.

[wrldendswithwho]

Characters: Joshua [OU] and Beat [OU], open to Neku
Where: Outside Building 2.
When: After this.
Summary: Beat and Josh go to pick up Shiki.

Comments

[feel_da_bito]

"Aight! Where is she?" Barreling into the scene, Beat looked around for any signs of Shiki. Well, uh. He saw Joshua standing there. Guess he'd been waiting for him. And Tabooty was on the ground, unconscious; Beat wondered if he could give the guy a kick or two for Shiki's sake. But no Shiki. He stopped in his tracks and gave the area another glance, trying to see if he'd missed something.

"Huh? Yo, what happened to Shiki?"

[wrldendswithwho]

Joshua turned to Beat quite calmly, not taken back by his raging entrance. He crossed his arms smugly and hmphed. "Took you long enough, Daisukenojo. She's off and poofed. No way it could have been Minamimoto's doing, because, well..." He glanced over at Sho's unconscious body, and then back up at Beat. "Yep. Do you suppose someone else might have gotten got to her first?" he suggested.

[feel_da_bito]

"Stop callin' me that!" Beat snapped, glaring at Joshua. "Yo, what's wrong with Beat?" Remembering the more than slightly important fact that Shiki was missing, he added, "But who woulda come and took Shiki?" "I guess someone coulda come 'fore we got here..."

A thought occured to him, and one he'd wished he hadn't gotten. "We don't got more Reapers here, do we?" Beat pointed at Minamimoto. "Tabooty's more than enough already!"

[wrldendswithwho]

He held his arms at his sides and frowned, ignoring the memo about Beat's name as he always does. "Perhaps it was one of her other friends. Minamimoto is the only Reaper in Econtra, to my knowledge. We're right outside Building Two..." he said, glancing up at the building, "So it's possible anyone could have come to her aid. But then again, it's also possible someone else could have taken the opportunity to capitalize on her injured state."

[feel_da_bito]

"...Crap! That better not be it, yo, else I'll..." Well, okay, Beat didn't know just what he'd do yet, but he'd think of something sooner or later if he had to. But that wasn't important now. "I dunno! We gotta find Shiki, man!" He started off in a random direction, not completely sure where he was going but figuring if they had no idea where she was then it didn't matter as long as they got somewhere.

[wrldendswithwho]

"The last thing we should be doing is getting riled up over this. Remember - the cuffs will prevent anything lethal if our potential offender is willing to go that low. Take our friend over there as an example." He shrugged in Minamimoto's general direction. "And besides, I'm sure everything is fine and dandy. Someone must have taken her to help, that's all. Want to check the room?"

[feel_da_bito]

Slowing to a stop and looking over at Joshua from where he stood, Beat shrugged. Maybe he was right, and at least they'd be checking somewhere--not just standing around. He started running back towards the building, not bothering to stop as he passed Joshua and went on in through the door. "Whatever, yo. Let's just get goin' already."

[wrldendswithwho]

Joshua didn't hesitate to follow him, though it was at his own steady pace. As he walked behind Beat, he spoke out to him in a casual tone. "Neku disappeared, you know. All his things have vanished from Loh-Dyo. That means he's been taken out of Econtra, or so I hear." Unless Neku deliberately moved to get away from him ... but he'd probably know about that.

[feel_da_bito]

Beat stumbled, nearly tripping over himself. "What? Phones is gone? Outta here? You--you gotta be kiddin'!" Sure, he'd heard of it a couple times, but Phones? He hadn't been here that long, probably not that much longer than a month or something. And he was gone already?

"We're not gonna get yoinked too, are we?" Beat glanced down at his hands, trying to watch for transparency or anything else like that had happened to him that last day of the Game.

[wrldendswithwho]

"To be honest with you... I don't know. Not to throw you into panic, but perhaps Shiki was plucked out along with Neku. If that's truly the case, then we can see a pattern going. Let's not jump to conclusions, however. If Shiki's belongings are still in the room, she must still be in Econtra." He sounded awfully calm about something like this.

[feel_da_bito]

"Aight, let's go!" Beat rushed towards the stairs, climbing them as quickly as he could. To hell with noise levels, he could deal with that stuff once he saw how Shiki was around here. That mattered more than trying to keep quiet when he was going to make noise anyway.

[wrldendswithwho]

Joshua ran after him, though still at his own, slower pace. When they arrived at Nyi-Eksi, he stepped up to the door of the apartment and rushed to reach the knob before Beat, for seemingly no real reason, and then moved his hand away immediately after. "Well, here we are. Open-sesame?"

[feel_da_bito]

"I don't see no seeds 'round here, yo," Beat muttered as he twisted the doorknob and hurried into Nyi-Eksi. He dashed off towards Shiki's room, bursting in to find...her stuff still there. Beat stopped and breathed a sigh of relief. She was still here in Econtra, at least.

Still had to figure out where she was, though. If she wasn't here and she wasn't not in Econtra, that had to mean she was somewhere else around here. Uh. Right?

[wrldendswithwho]

He walked into Nyi-Eksi after Beat, ignoring the blatant stupidity expressed concerning sesame seeds, and crossed his arms in Shiki's room when he noted her belongings still in their rightful place. "Well, this is a doozy. Any bright ideas?" He turned to Beat, and then corrected himself. "Any ideas at all?"

[feel_da_bito]

"Well, uh...jus' keep on lookin', I guess." Beat shrugged, missing Joshua's slight as he started thinking. "Shiki's gotta be somewhere if her stuff's still around. So if we keep lookin' around, we're probably gonna find her sooner or later. And 'less someone's got her kidnapped for some crazy reason, she's gonna come back here sometime, right?"

[wrldendswithwho]

"Right. Good deduction, Beat. I didn't know you had it in you. Here's the plan. You stay here and wait for Shiki to return, while I go search elsewhere in case she never does."