tampered | Log, finished

Log, finished

When; January 3rd
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Kaku and Jyabura
Summary; Jyabura picks up the freshly arrived Kaku in an... alley
Log;

Jyabura had this very bad feeling all day long. But feeling weird on a full moon wouldn't be too surprising for a lycanthrope. Still, even the return of Lucci didn't make that feeling go away, so something very bothersome was just about to happen, dead sure.

Anyways, full moon called for it's usual bloodshed with the forest animals; he just left his apartment into the snow and was heading in direction of the forest, when some scent hit him like a truck. Some very familar scent. Some very unexpected scent. Not an obtrusive stink like Lucci's, more like a fine and decent scent, but damn... it had to be him.

Trying to stay calm he followed the clear line of the scent through the City. It was mixed up with sweat, blood and dust, but still so very definitely it was Kaku. It had to be. If not, he'd never trust his nose again. Ever. It directed him towards an alley. Yeah, that would be a typical place for arriving in the City. So very warm and welcoming, he thought with a smirk. Well...

"Hey, runt? Is that you over there?" he called into the alley. Considering the amount of freaks running around, he thought it would be better to keep a distance. "Kaku?"

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Kaku nearly jumped at the voice he heard. His heart pound in his chest; this couldn't be real. That voice... possibly the second most comforting voice his head could imagine right now. This couldn't be real; he was hallucinating. He had this headache after all...

Regardless, he press himself against the wall, slowly moving up on his haunches to peek over the lid. He could see the figure there at the alley entrance. This was a trick; a trap laid out in his mind... But there was something deep inside of him that wanted to just ignore that. Deep inside, he wanted to run to the man, cling to him. He wasn't a child anymore; he couldn't do that. He didn't have any idea in the slightest where he was, but there was one thing for certain. Someone was there, and they knew his name... and God, they sounded so much like Jyabura.

Kaku stood up, moving out from behind the trash, stepping into clear view. One way to tell if this was truly the man he knew... "Just when I thought nothing could smell worse than this garbage, you show up. Not have your monthly flea bath yet, Wolffy?"

Jyabura twitched. "WHAT?!" If there was any doubt about that guy being Kaku, it was gone now, for all eternity. He couldn't repress a huge happy grin (which always ended up kind of dirty and sneaky on his face), but luckily the darkness of the night could cover that up good enough. He felt like starting up a good fight with that brat, just like in the good old times. But a full moon wasn't really the best night to do so, not even with someone like Kaku.

He snarled playfully, though he wanted to sound it annoyed. "Says the spotty cow on stilts? Oh please!" He chuckled amused. Oh damn, was he happy to see him. All those curses, the whole thing going on with Robin and Naoto and Lucci and the huge amount of freaks in the City have turned him to be quite bitter. There was little left of the carefree and laid-back guy he used to be, but with Kaku around, better times where to come. He was sure about that. Damn fucking sure.

"Now stop hiding in that filth, though it suits you too good, I have to admit. Fight like a man, or rather, like a Giraffe, will ya?!" he added before not being able to hold back a laugh anymore.

"SHUT UP I LIKE GIRAFFES," Kaku shouted to the older man. His annoyed grimace turned all too quickly into a warm smile. "You won't be smiling when my back hoof kicks out those fangs of yours..."

The redheaded boy approach the man. He was overcome with joy, knowing he wasn't alone. His smile alone was too much emotion for a Cipher Pol agent to be expressing... But it seemed he wasn't in a place where Government rules were in place. He began to raise his arm, but put it back down. He raise it again, and brought it around Jyabura in a sort of friendly hug.

"Watch your tongue too, Wolffy, or Raffe is gonna have to shave you like a poodle."

Jyabura didn't have that much problems with hugging him back, he was always horribly bad in hiding emotions, be it the negative or positive ones. Weirdly enough, he ended up as an elite secret agent for the World Government. Well, he had other qualities.

"Really?" he asked him when letting him go of that little too forceful hug. "Well, you can always die trying!" He tapped Kaku's shoulder playfully and looked over him. "Christ, what happened to you anyways? Seems like you've been in a bad fight." He assumed that Kaku got into the City the same way he did that very long time ago. By being knocked out. Oh well. That happens, even to the elite.

"Oh, and welcome to the City, runt."

"I think a building fell on me," Kaku said, all too seriously to Jyabura. "... I have a headache." The red-haired agent sigh a bit, looking to his colleague.

"The City, you say? Where... are we, exactly? Like... How did we get here? I think the Tower of Justice fell on me. Or maybe I dreamt it, but I remember being crushed by something -- and I'm pretty sure it wasn't your fat ass. More importantly, how did you get here, and... Shhh... shh... wait... listen..." Kaku hiss, his whole body stiffening.

"...Do you hear it?" Kaku's large eyes widened further, "...The ticking... It's gone... WHAT WAS TICKING?" He shout, grabbing hold of the collar of Jyabura's shirt. "What was ticking?" he ask, more timidly.

Sweet Jesus, that guy needs a drink.

Jyabura was able to give him a completely indifferent look, but with a lot of ado. Some look of that 'Yeaaah, sure!'-kind. "Oh, the ticking? You'll only hear it when you're alone. It is only the countdown to the End of the World that is kinda driven by a really freaky carousel right over there."

He just realized that this was even more absurd then Kaku telling him that he was obviously smashed by the Tower of Justice. And his expression showed it. "I'm sure that sounds pretty fucking weird" he said while taking Kaku's hands and getting them off his collar. "I have no idea how or why I got here. After fighting that freaking pirate cook, I woke up here. More or less like you."

"So... What you're telling me, is you have no idea how we can get back to Enies?" Kaku asked. "We're in some place that neither of us are exactly sure where, there is some kind of clock counting down to spring DEATH upon us and there is a chance that we might not get back home?"

Kaku was silent, his hands still held by Jyabura. "...Well. This place really doesn't seem that much different from home," the boy grin. "Except we have a clock telling us when to die instead of Spandam. If that's not an improvement, I don't know what is."

He let off Kaku's hands and brought his jacket back in shape. "Not exactly" he said, but markedly serious all of a sudden. "Nobody knows where this City is exactly located. It's neither on the Grandline nor on any other place in our world. It must be some kind of really fucked up parallel universe or shit like that." He laid an arm around Kaku's shoulders, but more out of the urge to comfort himself rather than Kaku. "There are people from other worlds. I'm fucking serious! Such a bunch of fucked up weirdos, and some are beyond harmless."

That was the right catchword to start walking in direction of his apartment through the snow. "And there are actually ways to get back home. But you have to trade memories or feelings for that, so it's quite out of question. Plus, no matter how long you stay away, you'll always end up here again." he continued and looked up to the full moon for a moment. So, that was that bothersome feeling about? "While that doesn't sound too bad, the citizens get cursed from time to time. This is the actual plague of that City. Other than that, yeah. Except that I miss my garden, it's not too different from home".

Kaku lean into Jyabura, looking up at him as the two walk together.

He began to think about what Jyabura said, about trading memories and emotions in exchange for going back home for just a little while... It was tempting to return, even if there was nothing left of Enies. He could never sacrifice his memories though. His emotions were out of the question too, if he were stripped of those, he'd be nothing but a heartless shell of a man... Kind of like Lucci.

"So... People from other worlds? I've seen a lot of things in my twenty-three years, Jyabura, but this place is by far the weirdest..." he murmured. He was silent for a moment, caught in thought, before adding, "Is there anyone we know here?"

"Oh well. We're strong enough to keep ourselves out of trouble. Still, the people are not really the problem, it's about those fucking curses." They crossed the place where the carousel was located. It didn't look particularly weird, but it made you feel uncomfortable. That's why Jyabura didn't stop or even mentioned it with a word. Just getting away from it, that's it, getting closer to building 9.

"Um, yeah. Some." He sank in thoughts for a while. "First off that fucking cat" he spat out with hate, but that would be nothing new for Kaku. "He lives in the same building as me. I'd like to keep an eye on him." His expression was very much alike to that he'd make if he'd bitten into a lemon. God, that fucking cat and his annoying girlfriend and everything. Fucking City.

"Two or three of those Mugiwara pirates and that Crocodile guy from the Shichibukai. He'll most likely try to get in some kind of alliance with you. Just beat him up. We're not like Lucci, after all."

Kaku nodded. At least Lucci was here; as much as the man's very presence sent shivers through Kaku's entire body, there was a strange sort of comfort inside him. Lucci was the strongest. Kaku'd grown up in Lucci's shadow, watched him grow into the killer he was. As unsettling as that should be to the redheaded agent, it wasn't.

Kaku always regarded the other agents as if they were his family. Finding Jyabura and this warm reception he received from the man, it made him feel more at home here. Jyabura was his brother, and the older ones always look out for the younger. Kaku had always been the baby of Cipher Pol.

"So... What's with these curses you keep mumbling about?" he asked. "What kind of things happen when you're affected by these curses?"

That wasn't the real question Kaku wanted to ask. He wanted to ask Jyabura if he could stay with him for a little while. He felt beyond surreal at this time; he'd never felt as needy and helpless as he did right now. This wasn't him. He always adapted so easy to change... but this place was just plain terrifying. He wasn't watching where he was going, he relied completely on Jyabura. All Kaku could see as was black fabric of the older man's top.

"But yeah... Curses. Sound... bothersome."

"Mhhh, well..." he started to murmur, "it ranges from harmless to fatal. One day you can wake up and think you're a kid again, running around and stealing candy, or it makes you talk in weird accents or languages. That's all embarassing, but after 24 hours, you'll get over it and return to normal. And you'll know what you did." Building nine was in sight.

"And the other kind of curses... well, they seriously play around with your mind and make you do things you'll normally never do. Very bothersome. Like that day when I thought I was Lucci's father and he thought he was my son, and he was writing poems and cutting himself..." Well, he couldn't hide a very satysfied grin. But he wouldn't mention that other consequences that special curse had. Not yet. "You know, stuff like that. Or people can't lie all of a sudden or get blind. Pretty heavy."

He put his arm off Kaku's shoulder and opened the door to building nine. "I know it's all very confusing when you're new to the City, but you'll get used to it. And until you find yourself your own flat, you can stay with me. I'll find you a place between all the plants" he smirked.

Kaku nodded, internally relieved that he didn't need to ask to stay, and was rather invited. "Thank you, Jyabura," Kaku said, smiling at the man as he enter the building.

"I'll try not to eat all your plants," he said, with a playful smirk.

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Log, finished

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