"Well," Shiki said as she mentally summoned a list of virtually every event that was going to occur today. After everything she and her friends had suffered through in the UG, she wanted their reunion to be absolutely perfect; so she had spent almost five hours last night creating a comprehensible spreadsheet in her mind that covered in detail everything from movie showtimes and concert ticket prices to where it would be the cheapest to go grab a bite to eat. Immediately, Shiki began connecting several events together and began forming a mental planner to insure that everyone got the most out of their day together.
"Let's see: At 1:30 the Shibuya Cinema will start selling discount tickets for people who buy in groups, if you guys don't mind a long walk, the Tin Pin Slammer store in Molco is letting people come in and play on their proffessional tables for free today, or, we could always just head over to the 104 building and see what's new."
"So, looks like we're going to the movies, playing Tin Pin, or going shopping," Rhyme said as she raised a finger on her right hand for each suggestion Shiki had made. "Let's put it to a vote."
All around the circle the UG survivors were standing in, hands were raised as Rhyme parroted the options to everyone. After a third round of hand raising and a bit of childish attempts to sway one and others opinons, a concensus was more or less reached.
"Ok," Rhyme said in a raised voice to insure that everyone heard the decision. "Despite the fact that Beat decided to change his vote four times-" Beat laughed nervously as everyone else shot him a glance."-It seems that we finally have a winner. Get your best pins ready, because we..."
The rest of Rhyme's verdict went unheard by Shiki, who suddenly bent over as a lance of pain suddenly piereced her midsection. All of a sudden, the redheaded girl began to feel her energy bleed right through the pores of her skin; it felt like she hadn't eaten in a week- no, a month. Tears began to well up in her eyes as her head desperately swung around; frantically trying to pinpoint the location of some type of food. Expectedly, her friends soon noticed her odd behavior, and all eyes were now on Shiki.
"Yo, Shiki! Man, you feelin' okay? You don't look so good all of a sudden-"
As the skater kid spoke, a gust of wind managed to carry the sent of french fries to Shiki's nose. Like a millitary-grade targeting computer, her eyes instantly moved over to the left side of the park; and, upon seeing the sign for the local Sunshine Burger chain, took off in a bee line dash for the door; knocking over a small group of unsespecting tourists in the process.
"Woah! Shiki, where you going?" Beat yelled in panic at the bespecled girl's decision to run a group of people over.
"Come on, we got to make sure she's okay!" Neku responded as he began to chase after her; with Beat and Rhyme quickly fallowing suit.
"We're sorry!" Rhyme gave a drive-by appology to the group of tourists who were still trying to collect themselves off the ground.
By the time that Rhyme had voiced an appology on her behalf, Shiki was already barging through the glass door of the shop; her momentum carrying her all the way to the front counter. Fortunately for her-or rather, the people around her, there was no one else in line at the time the starving redhead crashed into the order taker's station.
"Uh... W-welcome to Sunshine!" The young blond woman infront of Shiki said somewhat nervously; startled slightly by what she had just witnessed. "C-can I take you're order?"
"I'llhavefourdoubleburgerstwoordersoffrenchfriesandalargesoda!" Shiki spoke so quickly that her monstrously long order sounded like a single continous word.
"Uh..." An anime-style beat of sweat appeared on the back of the blond woman's head. "Sure! That'll be be 2,500 yen... i think..."
Shiki violently through the ammount required down infront of the nervous employee; anything to get something to eat. Thankfully, her order was prepared only a few minutes after she had placed it; which was good, considering that during the time it took to get to her, she had contemplated both stealing someone else's food and eating her own jacket. A minuture wall of food was placed infront of Shiki by the same woman that had took her order; who took a nervous step back when she saw how fast Shiki began shoveling food into her mouth. About the same time that the blond employee began a retreat to the safety of her work station, the other ex-Players arrived at the scene of the incident.
"She's over at both four," Neku reported to Beat and Rhyme. "It look's like she just needed a bite to eat."
"Yeah..."Ryme nodded slightly as they walked closer and closer to where she was sitting. "A really big bite..."
Sure enough, Rhyme was right. Sitting in front of Shiki were four two-tiered hamburgers, a sizable pile of fries, and a soda cup the size of a beer pint. Shiki was currently grabbing the shreeded potato chunks by the handful; craming one after another into her mouth and not even swallowing before grabbing more. After the pile of golden fries had been reduced to nothing more than a smearing of salt, Shiki grabbed the nearest burger and shoved half of it into her mouth at once; her teeth shearing the miniture tower of beef, cheese, letuce, and tomato clean into two identical pieces.
"Uh...Shiki..." Neku half mummbled in bewilderment as he tapped her on the shoulder. No response. "Shiki..." Another tap. No response.
"Oh dude! I totally know why She's eating so much!" Beat suddenly added in excitedly; raising his hands in the air as if to physically support his revelation.
"Why, Beat?" Rhyme asked. Still concerend for Shiki's wellbeing.
"It's the Colors!" Beat said as he pointed to the bright assortment of colors that decorated the interior of the resturaunt.
"...come again?" Neku replied after a moment of sheer mind numbiness.
"Okay: hear me out. Awhile back, I was watching tv with Rhyme. I don't remember most of it because it was some boring special on "Saicology"- but during the one part I picked up, This old guy was talking about how different colors effect how you feel; and bright colors apparently make you want to eat more!"
Rhyme and Neku just stood there. Completely dumbstruck by the "logic" behind Beat's reasoning.
"I... I don't think that's it..." Rhyme said finally after a few minutes of awkward silience had passed.
"What?" Beat seemed to collapse with the invalidation of his theory; taking a step back from Rhyme and Neku. "B-but, that scientist guy on tv said-"
"Beat, you shouldn't always believe what you see on tv," Neku said as he crossed his arms and thought for a moment. He had heard of that idea before as well; though he was pretty sure that the human subconcious was incapable of driving you to such alien acts. Trying to explain that to Beat however, might be a little time consuming.
"Huh. I guess you're right, Phones." Beat said as he composed himself again. "Well, if it's not that, what do you think the problem is?"
"Ugh," Shiki let out a moan as she slowly became aware of her surroundings. Neku wasn't sure, but he thought he noticed a fliker of color in Shiki's iris' for a moment; though he couldn't be sure, as her eyes looked perfectly normal a split-second later.
"'N-Neku?" Shiki turned her head to face her friends. "What happened?"
"Uh, well... We're not so sure. But it looks like you just had lunch."
Shiki tried to get up- but found herself hindered by a stiff pain in her midsection. Reaching down with her hands, she felt a small bump on her normally completely flat belly. Little by little, the bespecled girl began to remember the series of events that led up to this; needless to say, Shiki felt that the entire sequence had been highly embarrasing, and her cheeks quickly became flushed.
"Oh...wow...um, I really don't know what to say. I guess i must have forgotten to eat breakfast...or...something."
"Hey man, it's okay." Beat said in his usual upbeat voice. "We were just worried that something was wrong. If you were hungry, you could of just told us."
Shiki smiled nervously; relieved that her friends were perfectly fine with what had happened. Still though, she hadn't felt hungry on the way to the park; and she was pretty sure that she had had strawberry flavored poptarts for breakfast with a cup of skim milk and half an orange for breakfast. What had happened to her a few minutes ago?
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