They see me hayridin'

[yosukecantstop]

Who: yosukecantstop and sirenspull-logs!
When: Friday night
Where: the 'haunted' hayrides
Summary: Yosuke tells spooky stories...badly. Everyone has some lulz and a good time. Friends of the old Yosuke, new CR, people who just want to laugh at him...everyone's welcome. Except for part II...but don't worry about part II, that'll be underachieves's problem.
Warnings: Nothing in part one!

Comments

[yosukecantstop]

Yosuke didn't recognize the voice on the other end of the line, but the voice seemed to know him. He stopped, and glanced nervously around for landmarks. He was also looking for himself, but...would that other him really give up so easily? It seemed that way. He was nowhere in sight. "I don't know. Uh. Uh. There's-" his eyes finally landed on a sign that was partially legible. "There's a bakery."

He panted lightly, trying to catch his breath. Maybe he'd over-reacted. Maybe these guys could be easily outrun, the way that ghosts in foreign films were always so slow. That was it! He was in America now. The ghosts were different-no wait, what was he thinking?

Whatever it was, a sharp, stabbing pain in his shoulder blade ended that line of thought. Yosuke screamed, half in pain and half in panic. He'd never been stabbed before. Oh, shit. He didn't want to look back and see what had caught up to him, but he turned anyway, instinctively. His own hair tickled his nose. The blade was still in him. Oh, hell, the other him had knives too.

Yosuke moaned quietly again and twisted away, wrenching his shoulder free. White spots of hot pain flashed in his eyes-it was just like in an anime, did that really happen?! He pocketed the NV again and grabbed his shoulder instead, stumbling and then catching his balance again and sprinting away for all he was worth. Towards what he wasn't sure, but better to think of it as towards something than away from that thing.

[underachieves]

Bakery? What the hell kind of clue was that? Shikamaru opened his mouth to yell as much to Yosuke, but the other cut him off with a scream. Okay, so much for that. Yosuke would probably have been on his way home, so close but just not close enough. Bakeries within a reasonable distance of the Tower Apartments: 7. Seven bakeries to check out, less than a minute to do it in.

The only choice was to go higher. Shikamaru jumped and turned to run up the side of the next building over, scaling the wall until he was high enough to get a good view of the streets below.

There.

Shikamaru grabbed one of the vials from his pocket and sucked down a mouthful of V. Three seconds later, he was on the street. Fast as a blur, he reached out to hook an arm around Yosuke and drag him to safety.

[yosukecantstop]

Yosuke had tripped up and rolled partway down a small embankment a few moments before, then scrambled back up to the road surface. He was running on adrenaline, so when a strange, dark shadow swooped down and tugged on him he fought back.

The younger boy yelped, and struggled, and threw out a mule-kick and a couple of punches. "You're me! You're me, whatever! I accept you!" It was a long shot, sure, but it had worked the last time he'd attacked himself.

He grasped his bleeding shoulder again with a pained whine and limped as quickly as he could in the opposite direction that the thing was trying to pull him in. "SOUJI! SOUJI OVER HERE! JIRAIYA! GARU! Garugarugarugaru..."

The words Yosuke was shouting at the top of his lungs probably sounded like jibberish to most people, but at least one of them probably meant something to his unfortunate rescuer.

[underachieves]

"I'm not - your Shadow - you idiot..!" It was difficult enough to move quickly with another person in tow, and made a dozen times more difficult when that person was repeatedly hitting him in the face. It meant he couldn't even get a second to capture Yosuke with Kage Mane.

However, he did have enhanced strength thanks to the V he'd just ingested. Rather than attempt to argue, he simply scooped Yosuke up in his arms like a damsel and jumped for the nearest roof.

[yosukecantstop]

Yosuke yelped again and reached toward the ground uselessly. Holy shit the thing was kidnapping him or something. Uh. Teennapping him. Whatever, he was being stolen by-huh. When the thing scooped him up like a bride -jeez that was embarrassing, he was leaving that part out when he told Souji about this-he finally got a hazy, mostly-shaded look at it. It looked human-shaped, just like the rest of them. It made some aggravated sound at him that didn't even register, and then it ran up the side of a building. Like a lizard or a spider or a snake. It was definitely not human. Yosuke gasped.

Was it taking him back to a lair or a den or something to snack on later?Yosuke shuddered, and then made the mistake of glancing down. He panted quietly and looped his arms around the neck of his captor, probably a bit too tightly. It was dark, and he had no idea what had picked him up or where it was going with him, but it was planning to get there by rooftop apparently.

He closed his eyes and held his breath. Okay, this was giving him vertigo. But maybe if he threw up the thing would drop him. Didn't the self-defense instructor at school say so when they were all young? Do something unexpected. Do something loud. Do something disgusting. Vomiting met all of the criteria. So he didn't try to quell the sloshing in his stomach the way he usually would, he tried to cultivate it. There had been plenty of disgusting things lately that he could think of, and he was sort of woozy from the blood loss anyway, forget about the heights and the running up freaking buildings and the constant swaying motions. He let his throat bob a little, and prepared to run again when the monster dropped him.

[underachieves]

But the "monster" didn't drop him. Instead, as soon as they reached the roof, Shikamaru only paused to glance back over the side of the building. Whatever had attacked Yosuke didn't seem to be following them. Good news for both of them.

Of course the bad news was that Yosuke was disoriented and possibly in shock, and definitely bleeding profusely from a stab wound. Not likely to die (unless some more monsters happened upon them) but it was still a bad situation.

"Yosuke, listen to me: I'm not a Shadow. I'm not a monster. You called me with your NV. You remember that?"

[yosukecantstop]

Huh? It knew his name. And-oh, hell. NV. He had called someone, hadn't he? Someone that wasn't Souji. He shook his head and dropped his arms from this guy's neck. Was he alive? Oh, man. He'd totally kicked the crap out of him a minute ago, too.

Yosuke groaned, and tried to apologize, but his throat was still going. "Down." He squawked out shakily. He didn't want to puke on someone who had come to rescue him.

[underachieves]

"Tch..."

He knew that look, but he still wasn't about to just drop Yosuke (even if the overwhelming urge was there). Shikamaru took a few steps toward the center of the roof and carefully set Yosuke down there, safe away from the ledge. Then he took a few steps back to get well out of his way.

[yosukecantstop]

Yosuke dropped to his knees and then forward onto his palms. He was trembling all over with unused adrenaline that had nowhere to go except for through his system until it ran itself out. It felt a little like being hit by a lightning spell, which he was none too fond of seeing how it was his weakness.

The sloshing seemed to back off, with the fresh air and the stillness. Something still wasn't sitting quite right (probably the stupid adrenaline again) so he gave it another minute, but when nothing happened Yosuke started to get to his feet. "False alarm."

He only made it half way up before the queasy feeling stilled completely, and then his stomach contracted painfully. He hit all fours again and retched violently, but nothing came up. His stupid plan wouldn't have worked anyway, it seemed. Probably because he hadn't had anything to eat since dinner at Souji's two days before.

Yosuke groaned, this time pained by the fruitless heaving instead of scared. Besides some bitter tasting saliva, nothing came up. He flushed, and wiped his mouth, remembering his injury when he tasted blood on his hand. "Ow. Ugh. Sorry."

[underachieves]

Shikamaru watched all of this, impassive, from his place behind Yosuke. These were, of course, symptoms he recognized very well from his own experience, but it wasn't quite the time for lecturing Yosuke on that yet.

Instead, once Yosuke was finished dry-heaving, Shikamaru shuffled back over to him and crouched down to examine his wounds. "I can fix this right now," he uttered. "It'll make it easier for us to get back to the boarding house. Take off your shirt for a second?"

[yosukecantstop]

Yosuke's cheeks went pink again. It wasn't such a big deal if it was someone he knew, but to be half naked in front of a stranger was a little awkward. He really needed to start doing sit ups or something. That way he would have abs for people to look at instead of just ribs. But a healing sounded nice. His shoulder was still like a white hot poker of pain. The knife might as well still be in there, even though it wasn't.

Using his good arm, Yosuke pulled the sleeve loose from the injured side, then stopped when a fresh burst of stars hit him unexpectedly. He tipped to the side a little, and closed his eyes. No way was he going to pass out like a loser here. He could handle this. It was just a flesh wound.

When the stars died down to about 30% of his vision again and the buzzing in his head reached a less intense pitch he straightened up and tugged the shirt off quickly, so there wouldn't be any more delays. Hopefully this guy -it was box of Yosuke stuff guy, wasn't it? oh hell- would think the shivering was because of the chill in the air.

[underachieves]

Box-of-Yosuke-stuff-guy could recognize pain when he saw it, but a single thought of judgment never crossed his mind. He noticed Yosuke's different physique only passively, both because the kid looked underfed and because he looked so much younger than the Yosuke that Shikamaru remembered. Mostly, though, Shikamaru was concentrating on the matter at hand: those bloody gashes that needed treatment.

He reached into his pocket for another vial of V. Hesitant to make Yosuke drink the stuff (because he'd come to realize it was highly addictive), he instead tipped the vial to drip the red liquid into the wounds themselves. And the wounds responded instantly, the skin weaving itself back together to heal perfectly in just seconds.

[yosukecantstop]

Yosuke flinched when the liquid hit his skin, expecting the sting of a disinfectant. Instead, a pleasant, slightly tingly haze swept over him. He groaned quietly yet again, but this time in pleasure. Even the shivering slowed and then stopped with the warmth of the fluid as it seeped into the wound and began to mend it immediately. Like magic.

After the pain of the stab wound subsided and the damage reversed itself, Yosuke stared at the spot where the wound had been. "No way!" He crowed cheerfully. The faintness and nausea of a few moments ago were already forgotten, and so was the twisted ankle. Yosuke sprang up triumphantly to his feet and raised both arms over his head before he remembered to play it cool...and hastily put his shirt back on. "Are you a wizard or something?"

[underachieves]

Shikamaru tried to keep a straight face, but he couldn't help cracking a smile at that. "Not a wizard, idiot. It's just medicine. And I'm just a shinobi." It was a relief to see Yosuke recover so quickly, even if the wounds hadn't been that bad to begin with. Shikamaru had been a little worried that Yosuke would pass out due to fear alone.

He climbed to his feet too, tucking the vial away. "We shouldn't stick around here too long. We're still not safe from the monsters. Can you run fast, or should I carry you again... princess?"

[yosukecantstop]

"Hey, shut up. I didn't need it the first time!" Yosuke squared his shoulders, hoping to give him the illusion of a real frame instead of awkward, twiggy teenager body. It wasn't completely true anyway, he definitely couldn't have just run up the wall like that. Not even on his best day, with six cups of coffee. Not that coffee digested well for him anyway, but this guy didn't need to know that. He could probably digest anything if he could run up buildings that way. Wow. A shinobi...

Yosuke was unaware of the sparkle in his own eyes, and if he was lucky the cloak of darkness would keep his secret for him. But deep down he was just a little bit thrilled that he'd hit the wrong call button. Not only did he not rope his friend into unnecessary danger, he got to fight alongside a guy who was as close to a superhero as a human could possibly be!

"We can take the long way if you want. That guy just surprised me, but I think I could take him in a fair fight!"

Maybe, anyway. His other self had been older, toned and muscular...good at stabbing things. But Yosuke had his own set of spanners tucked quietly away. Those should do the trick.

[underachieves]

"You shouldn't bother fighting them," Shikamaru replied. "They respawn every night anyway. Always run if you have an opening." Despite saying all of that, Shikamaru reached into his jacket and pulled out two weapons: one, a kunai with an exploding tag hanging from it; the other, a loaded pistol.

He walked back to the edge of the roof, close to where a fire escape provided a path down for Yosuke. "Tell me if you change your mind about being carried. The boarding house is only a few blocks away, but, well..." It's you, after all. Though he left the last bit unspoken, it was in his slightly exasperated expression.

With that, Shikamaru jumped off the roof.