Uncle Toshiki's House

"Sir..."

Sera stood in the half-jammed open doorway, holding in his arms an unconscious Haruka, loosely hanging onto Sera's neck. Their was a venomous sting in his jaw and a lack of oxygen in his lungs, as Sera had to make a split to the household, sprinting with everything he had from Kizoku to the other side of Hoshiko and then some.

"I see. You are?"

"Good question."

Haruka's uncle, Toshiki Tatsurai, was currently standing nearly jaw-dropped at his young boy covered in tattered up flesh and blood. It would almost be easy to enough to assume he had been killed on impact from most people's perspective. A Haruka-shaped imprint was left on the side of the building he smashed into. However, Sera was just barely keen enough, and still wore a strong enough bond with the body to recognize it was still in functioning capacity. He had no time left, and the hospital was going to be in a panic fixing up everybody else.

It was getting late already, but this was truly his only real option left. Bring him to The Surgeon.

The Surgeon, was Toshiki Tatsurai's niece, and Haruka's distant cousin. She was apparently one hell of a doctor, or at least, aspiring to be. She took care of patients that can't afford to go to hospitals or get real medical treatment, and she doesn't charge even a bit. She only promise that you keep her business secret and out of the public eye... would be some nasty health laws otherwise.

"She's in the back, just finished with a patient about twenty minutes ago. She should be ready for him... jeez, at least call if you're going to bring dripping flesh and blood OFF of my flesh and blood relative." Toshiki scratched his head, waving them into the back room, down a flight of stairs. Sera was extra careful not to bonk Haruka's head on anything-

Bonk. Bonk. Bonk.

"S-Sorry Haruka."

As they reached the bottom, they were met with a... teenage girl? No, a familiar one at that. She wore a mischievous grin, and a light brown hoodie. She waved them over to the operating table which was a big longer than a normal one. She had a... lot of equipment down here. For torture maybe? Who knows.

"So, you're The Surgeon?"

"Haiii, but hey, you seem cute. So does he, if he wasn't dea- O M G It's Haruka! No way! Wait, why are you bringing an almost dead Haruka to me, I saved him once, saving him again is not my job you know? Wait... Sera? Oh my double GG why are you here? Don't tell me you did something stupid with my cousin again..."

Sera nodded.

"I did something stupid with your cousin again."

"I should kill you."

"Try me."

She shrugged, picking up the poor boy and laid him flat on the operating table, equipping herself with a pair of sharpened and disinfected scissors and lots of pointy tools. Sera turned around. Seeing insides was not a fun thing, no sirree.

______________________________________________________________________________________

After about an hour long conversation with Toshiki about his development of card control and the reason for him playing Vanguard... and even playing a game or two, he found the girl emerge from the downstairs torture chamber/emergency room.

"So, how is he, doc?"

"Sera, don't you know how to use names? Say it with me! M I Z U M I?"

"M i z u m i."

"Good boy, want a treat?"

"I'll kill you."

"Try?"

Sera laughed at her remark. Witty one, she was. Even if she had a poor mouth and even worse timing. But she waved Sera down to take a look. What he saw was... a brand new Haruka, mostly. No blood, body seamlessly stitched up and knitted perfectly to leave no marks. Aside from the original scarring on his body, he seemed to never have been injured. This lead to many questions....

"So, why does he look spotless?"

"Because you act like I actually did anything with these tools."

"I'm... going to pretend you aren't some messed up wizard. How long does he have til wake-up?"

"Not too long. Any minute now, probably. I'm getting a coffee, you want one?"

"You like coffee?"

"P l e a s e. Anyone in this family who knows what coffee is might as well be addicted to it. So?"

"Sure. Royal brew please."

She laughed.

"Welcome to the family. One Royal brew, on its way."

Yukino traversed Hoshiko with a group of soldiers for backup in search of Haruka. Within the rural neighborhood, they had been knocking on doors for a bit of time until they tracked down the residence of this "Uncle Toshiki". The war commander was tired, rubbing her temples as emphasis on how much of a headache she has. She softly tapped her knuckles against the door. She honestly wanted to just bang on it and retrieve her boyfriend, but can't be rude.

"More brats... Guh..."

Toshiki stood up from his leather recliner and tosssing his newspaper aside.

"Don't worry, I got it."

"If you say so Mizu."

Mizumi hopped over to the door, downing a mug of coffee and twirling her hair before throwing the door open and staring.

Puzzled.

"Hi hii, how can I help thee?"

Mizumi heightened her voice a bit. She realized that this must be the Yukino that Sera mentioned before leaving back to Umano. She was here for Haruka then.

That wasn't happening.

... Hikari already didn't like the sight of another woman here if her boyfriend was here. "Ah, hello..." The exhausted soldier greeted civilly. "Is Haruka Nakahara here? I need to see him..." She inquired, a bit of desperate pleading in her tone, expressing concern. More than was probably necessary. Instead of making a good first impression, she just wanted to be sure her beloved was safe, alive, and in good condition.

Mizumi smiled, looking behind her, then back to the woman at the door.

"I see. Haruka, is it? I'm sorry he isn't available, miss."

She was talking through her smile. It was roughly a mix of sardonic attitude and trying to be polite when basically saying 'go away you can't see your boyfriend.' Mizumi would be furious if the roles were switched, but she didn't really have a choice at the moment.

"Please! Let me-"

A soldier reached out and gripped his commander's shoulder. Raising her voice and letting out more cries of desperation weren't going to help. The woman had initially stepped forward when shouting, but now took a step back to regain her composure after a moment.

"Is... is he okay? Can't I just see him?" Hikari asked, trying to ignore the half-mocking tone in Mizumi's voice, still oozing a bit of panic.

"He's..."

She stopped smiling. Her face turned to an icy, stone expression. Not angry, but a mixture of depressed and annoyed.

"He's conscious. Breathing. That's the best I can give you right now."

She half closed the door, before opening it due to remembering a point she wanted to make.

"The deal was he could stay in the world if he didn't get into any more trouble. Do me a favor? Assuming he makes it out of this house again... Take care of him. He was under the care of his comrades and with nobody to fall back on, Sera had to bring him here of all places."

Now she was irritated.

"You think I like seeing my own kind show up on my doorstep nearly in two pieces?"

Hikari and the squad of grunts gave a sigh of relief, all more than happy to know he's alive and awake. A shaky smile appeared on the woman's face, thankful to Soul Saver and every other God and Guardian Dragon for this fact. Before she could say more, Mizumi starting talking again after nearly closing the door. Her tone of voice quickly went to annoyed at a question. Why would she enjoy the sight of her kind nearly split in two? The queen herself was ready to tear the Reapers apart knowing Haruka was in a bad condition as it is.

"... Wait, deal for him to stay in this world?" The Chosen Sword stopped, finding herself confused with that notion. Haruka and Sera were from another timeline, yet she recalled no such deal being made. It... could've just been metaphoric for something else entirely, but Hikari was paranoid. "... I'm going to take care of him, of course. I don't want anything happening to him, and this is already far more than what should've happened."

"Right. By the way, I'm Mizumi Shiina. Your little boy toy's cousin. Pray for him and all that jazz."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and shut the door to the house the second she heard a sound from the basement.

"Haruka... Don't cry... You'll be good as new in no time..."

She whispered this to herself, as she leaned against the now shut front door. She gulped, hoping she was right.

"Mizumi... Shiina. Okay, let's go guys."

Yukino turned around, clearly not welcome to see her boyfriend. When the door closed, she clutched her eyes shut for a moment, silently praying to whatever God was up there to not wait for this nightmare to end before healing Haruka.

The squad and their commander moved out.

Hoshiko was in a panic due to an attack, but amidst all the chaos, Satoshi Kurosaki walked calmly through the neighborhood. Crisis had been enough of a part of his life that learning to meditate had mattered more than anything, for his own sake. It offered peace of mind through these debacles, no matter how intense they got.

Coming to about where Mizumi mentioned in the text, Satoshi left a knock on the door. He didn't necessarily have to see Haruka at all to get answers about what was going on.

Knocks.

Toshiki blinked, looking over at Mizumi who was sitting upstairs for once, in the kitchen and watching the news. She was watching through the eyes of a helicopter flying overhead at the area. It was her job to observe Sera to see if he was applicable as a protector for Haruka in the meantime. Also to make sure he doesn't die. She only left one message instilled in him.

Don't die, come back when its over.

That was it.

She stepped out of her seat and opened the door. It was, exactly who she was expecting after reading that last quick message sent earlier.

"Hi there, good to see you. How ya been? Nice night, right? Why are you here when you know you can't see him? And yes I read your message but...-"

She only peeked her head and shoulder out of the door, but left it mostly closed, leaving most of the house out of view from the outside. She looked out over Satoshi's shoulder, making sure nobody was watching the conversation going on.

"What did you come here for?"

She ended on a rather sour note. Not rude or anything, but even her patience was failing when the only connection she was allotted to the outside world may or may not be getting tentacle wrecked as they speak.

Satoshi shrugged. "To watch things unfold, for one. And for another..." He placed a light hand on her shoulder. "Maybe get some answers. I'd like to get to know someone a bit better I danced with so intimately, y'know?"

There was a list of questions in his mind that not only included those sorts of things, but also why exactly Haruka was here. Something didn't quite add up at the moment.

Her voice got caught in her breath. She wasn't sure to push him off or let him in. At first, it was obvious; kick the guy out of here. It's not like she could do much for him in the end really...

Then, she caved. Watching the destruction unfold with somebody else might make things less depressing. That was her only argument, but she had a rule to place and should it not be followed, he was back out of the house and probably never coming back in.

"There are two sets of stairs at the end of this hallway. If you go downstairs, you will never be allowed in this house again. You can guess why. Besides that."

She opened the door the rest of the way sighing a breath of angst.

"Come on in. Take a seat in the living room, uh- Toshiki, we have a visitor! Its for me, he'll be watching the news with us."

"Right. He has an hour."

Mizumi nodded already knowing why there was such a small visiting window.

"Alright, start talking while I go make coffee."

She approached the kitchen, which was just across the hallway from the living room so it wasn't difficult to really speak much. Toshiki returned to his newspaper, blatantly ignoring the surrounding areas.

Satoshi had a seat and sighed. "It's not like I have to go downstairs to practically be there, y'know..." He rested his arms on the table and his chin on the tops of his hands.

Toshiki...that was a name he recognized. Haruka's uncle. So Mizumi was his cousin. Alright. Taking care of him also made sense, then, since they were cousins. But for him to be down those stairs...

"So what's the deal with not leaving your number with me, huh? How am I supposed to ask you over for dinner?"

This question was half an attempt at a sly joke, half serious.

"O-Oh, haha, that..." 

Mizumi came back out with a tray and three mugs of coffee, one for each of them. He grabbed her mug and sat in a recliner next to the sofa he seated Satoshi on.


"Long story short, I was in a rush to get back here. Reports of..."

He stopped, blinking. Of course she was already spilling private business. Well. The boy is keen enough, no use hiding any sort of information that could even be in fact useful to him.

That gun worries her though.

"Heh... Reports of attacks of the Reapers."

Mizumi sipped her mug, placing it one the coffee table and crossing her legs, as well as folding her hands and neatly placing them in her lap. She took an elongated deep breath.

"Ever since Sera found us, the household... Well, first he was looking for answers about what we knew about little Haruka... Sweet thing. My cousin, y'know? He.... isn't from here. Neither is Sera. They crossed through the Rift to get here. Apparently, upon appearing here, they got memory wiped, or little Haru did. And now he's been living his life normally. NOW, back to Sera here...


Oh right. Why I didn't give you my number. Danger. Mostly just didn't want you too involved but uh, I have this feeling you can handle yourself."

She raised her eyebrows, trying to instill confidence in him, should there not already be an abundance of it beforehand.

Sip.

"So, Sera. Humanity. He just wants to be a real boy! No, seriously, he-"

Speak of the devil. The door creaked open, and shut as a boy shaking with... rage? Yes. Rage. Angst. Seething, flagrant rage, appeared in the living room. The black rings never left his ankles, nor did the red glow from his hands. Only now did they begin to lighten up and dissipate.


"We lost, as expected..."


"Ah, Sera! You CAN follow orders. Welcome back alive-"

"Shut the fu-"

"Don't. Finish. That. Sentence."

Toshiki was peeking over his paper at Sera, with an angry eyebrow raised. Sera was in an oblivious fury. He didn't even notice Satoshi sitting there at first. 

"I'm going to check on him..."

She nodded with a small amount of fear in her eyes.

With a turn to Satoshi, Mizumi scribbled something on a notepad on the table, tore the sheet off and folded it half. She handed it to Satoshi, with his mug.

"My number. I-It's not that you can't be here but... You should go-"

As she was standing up, she got a small... glance out the window. Everything. Gone.

Hoshiko was erased from existence. Mizumi blinked... Terrified.

It was like everything had ended in an instant. Mizumi was trying to explain something to him, something about Haruka. Something about how he was from...a different timeline? She mentioned "the Rift," a place Satoshi hadn't heard about for a long time, since the times of Hana and Neu. It was entirely possible this was all related, but even then...

Somebody named Sera came in, having returned from Hoshiko. Apparently he was helping take care of Haruka as well, and seemed like he had a bit of an attitude...which reminded him of a point in time where Haruka acted in such a way. He felt like he was getting really close to putting two and two together. He also kept the fact that the black rings of Link Joker were around his body at the time in the back of his mind for future discussion.

Then Hoshiko stopped existing. Or, most of it did. Their residence remained in existence. But it was still something to marvel about. It wasn't just destroyed. It just...wasn't a place anymore.

Satoshi saw fear in Mizumi's eyes. Fear that made the girl who liked to keep talking and talking go silent. In response to that fear, he got up and decided to hug her. She could squirm out if she wanted, but as far as he was concerned, things kept changing, no matter what she was trying to protect. This same thing had happened to Yugure, and for all intents and purposes, she simply had to accept it.

"I know you don't want me to be in any sort of danger, but...you're asking the wrong guy. The people I spend most of my time with? Danger comes to us. If anything...I wanna do everything I can to keep you safe." A gentle nuzzle of her head with his chin led to a followup question.

"Details about Sera can wait. New question. What are the Reapers?"

She shuddered. Not because of the hug, but just at the catastrophe that struck the place and home she had lived in for quite some time as of recently. Mizumi just shook, placing her on her face. She accepted the embrace for a few moments as she calmed down. Breathing in and out. 

A question about... Reapers? Oh.


She tapped him on the arm, asking for a small release from the hug. Blinking, then, actually thinking clearly. 

"They... They're creatures. According to the youngin who just walked in, they're from some place called Brandt. Hell if I know what that is, but apparently they just. Delete. Obliterate. Like, make things cease to exist. The destruction of matter; breaking a law of existence. I'm gonna guess..."

She stared out the window, pulling her hoodie on tighter.

"That's what happened just now."

Satoshi let that sink in. Yugure had some crazy ramblings about some beings in a nightmare that did exactly that. Which meant, the past two times she had sent for help, she had been fighting the beings of her nightmares, dead on, in the real world.

Well...that's a bit awkward.

He gave Mizumi a little room, still keeping a hand on her shoulder. "And these Reapers...there's no known way to fight them? I've noticed there have been a lot of casualties." He was referring, of course, to the paper, which detailed the previous Reaper event as resulting in widespread insanity.

"Not... that we can find. According to Sera, there wasn't much of a victory to be had tonight... he was our secret weapon too. I sort of hoped that with-"

Again with the private business rambling.


"With access to somebody who can manipulate the power of Link Joker, where apparently the Reapers themselves come from, then maybe they could stand on equal ground. And yet, even he couldn't dent them..."

She shook her head, checking her phone for messages from the Sera about Haruka's condition. No such message. He must be telling Haruka about the daily news, like usual.

Man, Mizumi would not be a very good person to have on an elite squad protecting some sort of government official, the way she blabbed out secrets like this accidentally.

So it was true that it was Link Joker Sera was using. But to hear that the strength of the Invaders concentrated into one source...that even it couldn't fight the Reapers, did send a bit of a chill down Satoshi's spine. This was definitely going to be a hard thing to fight. Yet, even so...

He stared at his mark. Someone with the ability to manipulate the power of Link Joker couldn't do it...but maybe it was just that he couldn't do it alone.

"When I got freed from Nebula Lord a long time ago...there was this connection severed in me, and the power of Link Joker that I myself was able to control...became something completely different. And I don't know what the full extent of it is." He turned to Mizumi. "Do you think there's a possibility that, in some way, that Sera needed the extra energy to go that distance? Or...maybe not, I don't know."

He wanted to be useful, but he hadn't a clue to what extent he could help. If anything, it would take facing these beings head on, and from how things appeared to go...it didn't seem right.

"I, well..."

She rubbed her wrist, and rolled her eyes remembering the stubbornness of Sera and how he would react to most things. In this case, he would deny it but in reality maybe that is what he needed...


"I honestly couldn't tell you. Sera is strong, for sure. But you'd have to talk to him personally when he comes back up..."

Speaking of time.

"Thank you, by the way. For stopping by. It was nice to vent some things off I guess, y'know? Anyways. I'm heading to bed. You can stay here for a bit if you want, but best you make it home rather soon, lest the Reapers catch you."

She smiled, nodding over to the paper with her number in it.


"Call me if you need anything."

Satoshi took her number, then her hand for a moment. "Wait. I know you're busy taking care of Haruka, but..."

He gave a gentle smile. "Let's get dinner sometime. My treat. Maybe I'll have some way to help by then, too. Okay?" He let go after and waved as he went off.

Later, he'd probably get a chance to talk to Sera. The boy seemed pretty reasonable for wanting to stick up for Haruka, but aside from that...there were some choice words he had regarding his Reverse period, amongst other things. Now was not the time.

Right now, he had a hospital to visit.

"Dinner.... Sure."

She nodded, walking up the stairs. Uncle Toshiki gave a wave from over his paper, still seated in his own loveseat. He was a very lazy bastard; nearly opposite of Haruka in that regard. But he was a working man all the same.