Away from Home // [Neku]

[Namine]

Namine had decided a few days ago that, finally, the time had come for her to leave Twilight Town. She had discovered by meeting Ventus that peoples memories had been harmed, and that they needed them back. Her powers could help them; if she could put their memories back, that would make things start going back to normal at least a little... right? In any case, Namine had decided to travel south from Twilight Town, in the direction of what she thought was the nearest city. She had ended up finding out that her Keyblades, when present, let her float a bit above the ground, and had used that fact to avoid getting her new shoes (She liked them) covered in purple swamp muck. Finally reaching the city, she was surprised to find it deserted.

"Hello...?" The blond Nobody called out, her soft voice echoing off the walls of the eerily silent city. There was a noise like a growl from deeper in the abandoned city that made Namine tremble just a bit. Abandoned cities like this almost always had monsters in them... she hoped they weren't the monsters that she had a feeling would be coming for her as soon as Organization XIII's remnants got organized. Despite her fear, Namine took a deep breath, willed Harmony and Discord away and began walking further into the city, hoping she could overcome her fear and, if need be, protect herself in a fight. She hoped there was someone here to actually help...

[neku]

Seriously? He was back here? Ever since...yeah, ever since Joshua got shot at because...he shot him...Neku just wished he didn't remember anything. He wanted his memories so back and the Calamity gave them to him. Then...he misread those memories and shot Joshua. Since then, maybe it was Neku's own will for suppressing the memories or, during the transfer of memories, the Calamity held back some of them...

Some of them were gone. She remembered everyone and all the big things - the Game, his friends, the betrayals...he remembered them all. But he couldn't help but think there was a missing memory somewhere where he couldn't find. What did Neku forget? Him meeting Joshua. He forgot that...intimate counter and thus, leaving Neku confused to why he kissed him.

He had forgot ever meeting Rhyme on the streets of Rabanstre. He forgot meeting Shiki in this place, though it felt like he had been here before. But...when arriving to this word, he remembered someone who resounded with him. Everyone else didn't matter; not even the Calamity. It was that defenseless little blonde girl...she seemed so scared.

She reminded him of Shiki and Rhyme put together. He couldn't tell if she could fight or not but it didn't matter - she held a certain fear in her and...defenseless about her. Kind of like a Damsel in Distress. If he were the old Neku, he would've walked by her without a second glance. But now? ...She could be a friend. She could be trusted.

She wasn't his partner but...he could trust her. At thinking about her, her little voice rang out, shocking Neku out of his mind. Could it be...? The girl! Was she by herself? Crap, not good! "Hey!" Neku responded, hoping he could hear her better. Neku took off to the direction of the voice. Turning a corner, she wasn't hard to spot; white on black was fairly noticeable.

"Hey! How come you're by yourself?"

[Namine]

Namine was surprised when a voice answered her, and a vaguely familiar one at that. She was a bit more surprised when the boy she had seen in that strange coliseum came around the corner and greeted her. Or, more aptly, asked her what she was doing all alone. When he approached, she flinched as she was hit by something-- memories?-- involving him, like she had felt when that woman turned into someone else to mock him. She had been feeling it a lot lately, especially in areas with lots of people. It gave her a headache to be in places like that for too long. Namine forced the thoughts out of her head and shuffled her feet in their new sneakers. "W-well... I thought I would try to find people who were missing their memories and... try to fix them..." She said carefully, trying to make it sound not as weird as it did in her head. It didn't quite work, however.

"I have the ability to manipulate memories... I think that I can use it to help people. I can't really fight well enough to help anyone that way..." Namine paused, shuffling her feet again and looking down at the ground nervously. This was her first time talking to someone she didn't know that was actually human. It made her nervous. "... but I still want to contribute something to fighting that evil woman. I'm Namine... I don't think we introduced ourselves when we met."

[neku]

Neku stopped and the girl seemed to remember him. Slightly startled, but at least she remembered. He was getting tired of people forgetting him. Who forgot him? He wasn't entirely sure. But she spoke about something like she had the ability to fix memories? She then spoke about how she can manipulate memories around? Well...he could already tell Namine wasn't a fighter.

But what was this strong sense of him wanting to protect her? "Memories, huh? I've had missing memories before...it let me to all kinds of stupid decisions." Like he almost killed Joshua. Why did it hurt to think that? Joshua meant nothing to him...right? "Apparently that chick did something with my memories...but most of them are back."

Neku knew there were still holes...an, in fact, the thread was not fully woven back; he was losing memories that he had made. By 'evil woman' Neku assumed she meant the Calamity. Yeah, she was evil. Then she introduced herself. Neku felt suddenly out of his comfort zone. "Oh yeah. The name's Neku. Neku Sakuraba." Namine, huh?

It was a fitting name for her.