Not-Beat scrambled up quickly, fear making him jumpy. "O-oh, um, sorry."
"If you're sorry, then hurry and get out. I need this place," She said easily, turning to face the center of the plaza. "I need someone else to come to my rescue, not you."
He stared blankly at her. Hold on, she had to be talking about Riku, right? Did she know about him somehow? "But the dream eaters might come after you," he said. And because he was facing her, he didn't see the way his body began to fade out, as another faded in. White tank changed for purple, and black stocking cap switched out for orange spikey hair and headphones. "It's safer to be with someone."
"Exactly," she said, and turned to him. "That's why I'm-" She screamed suddenly and reeled back. "Who- who are you?! You're not Neku! Or Beat!"
"Huh?" He flinched back. "What are you-" and then he heard his voice sounded different, and noticed his arms had gotten super skinny all of a sudden. He looked down at himself in shock, turning over his hands fearfully. 'Wait, I'm Neku now?'
Looked like this was one of those dreams. But in this case, someone was actually reacting to the change.
"Don't come near me!" Shiki demanded fearfully, clutching her black cat close as she turned and ran across the plaza. "Stay away!"
Not-Neku winced, the words cutting him for more reason than one. No, no, this wasn't the same, this wasn't a bad thing, this was just a misunderstanding, it, it-!
She screamed, but this time in terror as a group of dream eaters appeared in front of her. Not-Neku froze, fear preventing him from rushing to her rescue. But when one of the dream eaters struck her and she fell to the ground, he realized he didn't have a choice.
"D- it!"
He would just run like h- and disappear after. He dashed to the pole beside the group and grabbed a hold. He swung around in a rush of energy and light, before releasing and sailing through the fray. He knocked back the dream eaters on top of her, and another that had been approaching. Wanting to knock back as many as possible, he jumped onto the corner of the restaurant to spring back, knocking back a couple more. The nice thing about both flow motion and reality shift was that even though his normal attacks were embarrassingly weak, he could still manage to get some good strikes. The speed boost helped pop the weakened ones out of existence, but necessity forced him into a brawl, and he knocked back a few more with punches or kicks to try to get them away from Shiki.
But unfortunately, there was an inevitable attack for her, and he had to bring up his arms to defend the both of them. And as he feared, the hit hurt like hell.
"AUGH!"
Good news was that this time it just pushed him back instead of knocking him on the ground. Bad news was that this time it was closer to his wrist. 'F-!' He brought his right arm close to his body, already feeling his hand losing function. The pain infuriated him, and in an explosion of rage and darkness, he stomped hard on the blue panda's stomach, sending the dream eater out of existence.
'S-,' he stepped back. 'Of course rage shows up as darkness in here. No, no no no no no, I don't want to be made out to be the bad guy in this!'
The realization was enough to abate his rage as fear kicked in. But the dream eaters were still here, and he still had to fight. So he jabbed with his uninjured hand, kicked hard, and swung around the pole when near. Now that there weren't so many, he was able to actually think about his next moves, more or less. At one point he grabbed a meow wow's head and kneed it in the face, and another time he hit with his elbow too for good measure. A brawl was hardly graceful, or efficient, but it still got the job done, and managed to protect Shiki.
Until more dream eaters arrived.
"D- IT!" He screamed, and black clouds formed from his body, curling and flaring with his screams. "Just back off already!"
"Hang on!"
And Not-Neku's heart plunged. Riku.
He came in a blaze of light, zipping down the rail and leaping off the edge with his keyblade. Not-Neku stepped back and held his arms up defensively, but Riku arced through the air and came down hard on the dream eaters, sending a shock wave through the cobblestone that knocked them back. He jumped into his battle stance in front of them, protecting both Shiki and not-Neku.
"Can you get her to safety?" He asked.
Buzzing with both uncertainty, and anxiety, he looked to Shiki questioningly. She had managed to get herself onto her arms, the break in dream eater attacks giving her time to get up. She looked to him fearfully, already leaning away from him. Not-Neku looked down at his wrist, realizing that even if she hadn't been afraid of him, he still wouldn't be able to help her. And a strong, powerful wave of shame engulfed him as he realized his shortcomings were going to be revealed in the worst way possible.
"I'm sorry," he choked. "I-I can't." He said, before he ran for alley by the restaurant.
"Hey, don't just-!" Riku clicked his tongue in frustration as he faced the nightmares again. "Great."
Not-Neku leaped up the crates, and ran for the doorway to the second district, pushing it with his shoulder. He finally slowed to a walk, depression kicking in as he was coming to terms with what was happening. It was like all his worst fears coming at him at once. This dream would turn into a nightmare very soon, and he was pretty sure it would break the thin wall keeping his sanity together.
"Well now," came a masculine, but high voice. Not-Neku snapped to the right to see a teen boy sitting cross-legged on the rooftops, resting his chin casually on the back of his hand. "Aren't you an interesting character." He cracked with a grin.
Not-Neku glared, fear making him prepare himself for battle. Joshua.
And there it was: his nightmare.