"Happy New Year!" The city screams, throwing streamers as fireworks crackle overhead. People dance in the street, hugging strangers, cheering, throwing snow at each other and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

I frown at them. They're screaming "Happy New Year" and it's only 10:30PM. I've certainly had happier new years, even when I had no friends. But now, here I am, cold, hungry and alone. What a good way to finish off one of the hardest but best years of my short life. I think a round of applause is in order.

New Year is something, all right. It's a fresh start without going anywhere, I suppose, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. People, mostly Shiki and Rhyme, have tried to explain it to me in the past, and I understand it, but I just don't think its such a big deal.

I've been standing here for a while and I'm starting to get a little cold. During the winter months I usually wear my hoodie right-way-around, so I can pull it over my head and retain some body heat, but for some reason I didn't do that today. Can't for the life of me think why, though. And since I no longer wear my headphones in public my ears are starting to get really cold. I wish I had a beanie or something. Why the hell am I wearing shorts? I'm friggin' freezing!

Bored and wondering why I am still here, I decide to pass some time by people spotting.

To my left stands a group of kids a bit younger than me, all waving streamers and popping those annoying little popper things. They're all rugged up and holding hot hamburgers from the nearby burger joint, Sunshine Station. The smell wafers over to me and my stomach growls. I will it to stop, mentally promising to go get it a double cheeseburger when I get the chance.

To my direct right, barely three feet away, stands the famous statue of Hachiko, covered in a layer of snow. I smile fondly at the statue as I reach up and brush the snow off his head, forgetting I'm wearing a sleevless hoodie and no gloves.

I push my burning hand deep into my pocket as I think of my friends, wishing they were here. But Shiki's been in Hiroshima since Christmas, visiting family, and Rhyme and Beat are at a party with their parents, and aren't allowed to leave. I was going to gate crash, but then I figured it wouldn't be a good idea when I met Beat's super-strict dad. No wonder Beat hates him.

My own parents are at some flash "eighteen year olds and over only" restaurant on the other side of Tokyo, leaving me home alone with nothing but a stack of dirty dishes to keep me company. So I figured I should just go for a walk instead of being bored at home and hating the fact that I'm still fifteen. My parents are actually pretty cool with me wandering about, so long as I don't go far from Shibuya, and only during daylight hours. I figured that tonight would be okay, because everyone's out and about on New Years Eve and my parents probably won't be home until tomorrow morning. What they don't know can't hurt them, right?

A popper explodes right next to me, snapping me out of my daydream and back into reality. Argh, those brats are getting closer. I should probably leave before I get so frostbitten I can't move. But where can I go? Shiki, Beat and Rhyme are my only friends, and they're all unavailable. It's either freezing to death out here or going home and staring at the TV, which is my last resort.

A couple, maybe a little older than me, wander past, hand in hand, talking loudly. I try not to listen in, but they sound like they want to be heard. She's clinging to his arm in admiration as he's rambling something about CAT.

Ah, that's right! CAT. I can go see Mr. Hanekoma, assuming he's still open.

My numb feet break into a brisk stroll in the direction of the scramble as I mentally kick myself for standing out in the cold for hours when I could have been sitting in the Wildkat, warm and entertained. I haven't been there for a couple of weeks, actually, so this'd be a great time to drop by and say hi.

The time rushes past, and before I know it I'm on Cat Street, making a beeline for the Wildkat. It seems hard to believe that I've been walking for twenty minutes. Hachiko and Cat Street are on opposite sides of Shibuya, after all. Maybe it's because I'm so damn cold and numb I haven't noticed the time passing.

As I approach, I spot the lights of the Wildkat, casting a welcoming glow across the almost deserted street. Making sure I have some coins in my pocket, I quicken my pace, eager to be in company and out of the cold. Cup of Joe, here I come.

A bell rings loudly as I open the door, and before I can take one step in a black-haired man appears from a doorway behind the counter, smiling at me.

"Phones! Been a while!" Hanekoma calls out, shutting the door behind him "Your face is blue. Can't you rug up properly for once?" He sighs at me as I approach the counter.

"Lay off. How have you been?" I ask, clearing my throat. A heater sits in the corner, and I change my mind and make for that instead, standing squarely in front of it. Mm, that is really nice.

Hanekoma nods once. "Things have been going well, both here and in the UG. Joshua sucked a new Conductor from his thumb, and she's been doing well." He mentioned Joshua's name casually, and for the first time I didn't flinch or freeze up. He's been giving me news on the UG for a couple of months now, maybe trying to make me get used to the fact that Joshua is the Composer. And while I'm still pissed about being shot twice by him, I am getting used to it.

"The new Conductor is a girl?" I ask, a little surprised. So did not see that coming.

Hanekoma laughs at me. "Don't be so sexist, Phones. She's doing a great job." He begins to fiddle with a coffee machine in the corner, probably making me a cup of some random concoction. I reach into my pocket, making double sure I have enough yen.

"Don't stress, this one's on me." He calls over his shoulder. I feel even more surprised, but wary of him. Last time he offered me a cup 'on him' I ended up paying for it anyway.

Finally warmed up, I move for the counter and sit up on one of the high chairs as Hanekoma pushes a large mug in my general direction. I pick it up and take a cautious sip, ready for anything. Ah, hot chocolate. Much better than that cappuccino crap he's tried to poison me with in the past.

"That's good." I quip as I set the mug down, my finger absently tapping the counter in time to the radio, which sat on the bench next to the coffee machine, behind the counter. Hey, I know this song. I have it on my MP3.

"You good now, Phones?" Hanekoma asks "I need to take care of some stuff in the back."

I nod "Sure." So long as that heater's nearby, I can handle being alone.

He nods and smiles before disappearing through the doorway he came out of when I arrived. I slowly sip my hot chocolate, nodding stupidly along to the radio as I tune out completely.

Before long, the doorbell rings loudly as the door is flung open and someone runs in.

"Sanae! Get out here!"

Surprised at this rude newcomer, I twist my torso to look over my shoulder, and regardless of the warmth, freeze.

A boy, roughly my age, with short curly hair and violet eyes, stands in the doorway, glaring with absolute fury, almost frothing at the mouth. He's covered heat-to-foot in snow and some kind of gray powder, and his hair is a shocking shade of pink underneath it all.

Joshua.

A door behind the counter opens, and a roar of laugher sounds as Mr. Hanekoma's head appears behind it. He steps out and, completely ignoring me, learns against the counter, clutching his stomach as he gasps for air. I can see why he's laughing, because Joshua looks really stupid, but seriously, isn't that a bit overboard?

Joshua, also completely ignoring me, takes a few steps forward and points at Hanekoma, as if he's just about to scream "Objection!" Instead of yelling at him, the man starts to float in midair, still laughing.

What the --!?

Just as quickly, he crashes into the ground before being lifted again, this time being smashed into the back wall. Energy crackles around Joshua, making his short curly hair stand almost on end and his eyes glow an unnatural purple.

Knocking my hot chocolate over as I jump up, I back up into the corner. What the hell is this kid's problem!?

Finally, Hanekoma falls to the floor and Joshua stops glowing. The energy must have blown most of the powder away and I catch a good look at his hair. Holy crap, its hot pink! No wonder he was pissed. I'd be pissed, too.

Hanekoma's seemingly unconscious body on the floor lets out a chuckle and begins to climb to his feet. If I wasn't freaked out before I am now; no way in hell could anybody tolerate that kind of punishment and not have a broken bone or several. This guy must be a tank!

"What the hell did you do to my hair, Sanae?" Joshua shrieks at him, hands balled into fists as if he's ready to start throwing punches. Hanekoma just laughs and straightens his collar.

"Oh, J, look. You've scared Phones." He gestures in my general direction, just as I become aware of the expression that must be on my face. I quickly straighten up as Joshua's gaze flickers over me. He looks back to Hanekoma with his best I'll get you later face before turning his attention to me.

"Hello again, Neku. Been well?" He strolls over, brushing a pink strand of hair out of his face.

"… The hell happened to your hair?" I ask, eyeballing it. This night has been seriously weird.

Joshua's hand falls to his side as he frowns are me. "Hanekoma decided it would be funny if he spiked my shampoo and gave me a new hair colour."

I nod. I would so laugh if I hadn't just seen him throw Hanekoma across the room.

"And the powder?"

"I suspect it was a mix of flour and soot, but I'm not certain." The trademark smirk firmly in place, he sits in the chair I was sitting in before. "Coffee, Sanae. And some donuts, if you have any." Joshua snaps.

Hanekoma makes for the coffee machine. "Sure, Boss, that'll be-"

"-On you, of you value your life. And get Neku another cup of whatever he was having before, too." Joshua shoots an icy glare in the direction of the coffee machine as I shakily sit in the chair next to him.

The only thing making noise was the coffee machine, and after a minute or two Hanekoma pushes a plate of donuts and two cups towards us and disappears behind the door again, leaving me alone with Joshua. I look over at him, but he's staring at the wall. Maybe he's lost in thought? He's twirling that strand of hair like he always used to when he was thinking. Maybe he's forgotten its hot pink?

After a couple of minutes I turn to Josh "Why?"

Joshua looks over at me, a single eyebrow quirked.

"Why what?"

"Why didn't you destroy Shibuya?"

Joshua giggles as he reaches for a donut. They smell pretty good, and I want one too, but I'm not sure if Joshua meant to share them with me. And I do not want to piss him off after what I just witnessed.

"I suppose I have you to thank for that, my dear proxy." He munches on the donut absently "I noticed just how much you'd changed during your time in the Game." He pauses to take a sip of his drink "But it wasn't just you, it was all of your friends. You'd all learned how to be better people in the space of a few short weeks, which I thought was impossible."

"So?"

"So I decided that Shibuya wasn't a lost cause, after all, and that I didn't need to destroy it and rebuild it to make it better." He swallows the last of his donut and reaches for another. Instead of bringing it to his mouth, like I expected, he offers it to me.

"Donut?" He smirks.

Warily, I take the donut and bite it. Oh wow, that does taste good.

"So why did you shoot me again?" I say through my mouth of donut.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, silly, it's bad manners." Joshua giggles. Huh, maybe that pink hair does suit him. "I needed to kill you to reincarnate you, if that makes any sense."

No, it doesn't make any sense. It would only make sense to someone equally as whacked as -- wait, does that mean he shot my friends, too?

"And before you ask, no, I didn't shoot your friends. I snapped their necks." He says casually, sipping his coffee. We might as well have been talking about the weather.

"What! Why'd you do that?" I ask, feeling my cheeks burn with anger. Why the hell does this guy have to kill everyone he meets? I swear Josh has a God complex or something.

"Because when you're playing the Game you're not really dead. It takes a while to explain, but you're in a sort of coma when you play. And I can't reincarnate you if you're not dead, so I had to kill you."

It sounds so logical when he puts it like that.

But still.

Not cool.

"It hurt, when you shot me."

"I'll bet it did. I was aiming for your head, so you'd die instantly, but I couldn't bring myself to ruin that pretty face." He smirks at me "So I aimed for your heart instead." He sips his coffee again, before adding "It got the job done."

I don't know about Joshua, but someone talking to me calmly about how they killed me is not my idea of a good conversation.

"I didn't mean physically, though it did hurt like a bitch. I mean figuratively." I comment as I take another bite out of my forgotten donut.

Josh looks at me, amused. "What do you mean by that?"

"You were the only person I've ever been able to relate to." I say, pausing to skull half of my lukewarm chocolate in one go "I couldn't shoot you, because… well, you were my friend. And I couldn't believe you could do that to me, either."

A giggle sounds "What, so I'm not your friend anymore?"

I shrug "The whole shooting me twice without one apology kind of gets to me."

Joshua nods once and downs the rest of his coffee. "And I won't apologize to you, either, because I did nothing wrong. You have to admit it made your life better in the long run, didn't it?"

I've given all of this thought before, and that's why I know he's right, and I agree. Being shot twice did help me a lot, and it saved Shibuya. But still, gunshot wounds hurt a lot, and these ones didn't just hurt my body.

"So, what exactly did Mr. Hanekoma do to your hair?" Dare I ask. I think I'm smirking. Oh, ha ha. I am so dead.

Joshua doesn't seem to mind me mocking him as much as he minded Hanekoma laughing at him. "Mr. H decided a little New Year's prank was in order, and he knows that I like to have a shower at 11PM every night. It seems he snuck into my bathroom, spiked my shampoo and covered my only towel in some sort of gray powder. Oh, and he stole my clothes too, but that wasn't really much of an issue for me." He shrugs.

I gasp at him. "So you did a... a... a nudie run?" Damn, that sounded better in my head.

Joshua giggles as he bites into a donut "Oh, you would like that, wouldn't you? No, my personal quarters exist in the UG, so I just teleported to my wardrobe. However, to kill him I had to come to the RG, because that's where my favorite prankster is right now, and in doing so I found myself in my fifteen-year-old body, which is how you recognized me."

He turns to me, still smirking as he sips at his coffee. "That reminds me. What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you be out with your friends?"

Bastard. Of course he'd bring up the fact that I'm alone on a night like this. I had no doubt he would, but it still caught me off guard.

"Beat and Rhyme are with their parents, and Shiki's in Hiroshima." I say quickly, hoping something else might catch his attention so he'd leave me alone.

"How very kind of them." Joshua drawls, donut halfway to his mouth "Leaving you out of the festivities like this. I wish I had friends like yours."

I glare at him. Why does he think I need his approval to hang out with certain people? That self-centred prick. "You wish you had friends."

… And why doesn't he like my friends, anyway?

"Ooh, burn." He smirks carelessly at me "But still. They didn't celebrate Christmas with you, did they?"

"What's it to you?" I snap. In the months I haven't seen this kid, I forgot how annoying he could be.

Joshua giggles, flicking at a strand of hot pink hair. "It's nothing to me. I don't really care. I just enjoy seeing you fidget." He pokes my shoulder, hard. His long fingernail digs into my skin painfully, and I flinch. Something is off.

"Josh, your finger… its freezing." I rub my arm, where he poked me. Joshua's hand involuntarily closes into a fist, while his other wraps around his mug.

"It's a cold night, and neither of us is wearing jackets, you know." He shrugs, like it's not a big deal.

"But you're holding a coffee cup. And the heater's on full bore. You should be warm." I say, not really sure where I'm going with this. On a whim I stand up, grab Joshua by his freezing little wrist and drag him over to the heater.

"Of course my skin is cold, silly. I'm dead." He waves his hand absently. I flinch. What? I stare at him, a little dumbfounded. Aren't dead people supposed to lie down and not move and stuff?

Ignoring me completely, Joshua makes his way back over to the counter and snags his cup. After swallowing the rest of his coffee in one go, he grabs my cup and downs it too. He stuffs the last of his donut into his mouth and waves a finger at me, gesturing me to go over there. I walk over, eyebrow quirked. Has his brain got maggots in it or something?

"If I made you come with just a finger, imagine what I could do with my whole hand." Joshua smirks at me. I sigh, resisting the urge to punch him upside the head. "Now, I'm going to go kill Mr. H, and you can come help me, if you want, or you can go home." He shrugs "Your call."

I shake my head. I'm tired, I don't want to witness this pink-haired little brat throw a fully grown man across the room again, and I'm starting to get sick of his teasing games. "No, I'm just gonna go home and crash. Don't kill Mr. Hanekoma too much – a new line of street art is going to be released in a couple of weeks." I walk over to the door, waving my hand over my shoulder. "Night, Josh."

"Neku." I pause, hand on the doorknob. Turning slightly, I spot Joshua learning on the counter, smiling at me.

"Happy New Year."

I glance over at the wall clock, just as the second hand joins the little hand and the big hand over the 12. From deep within the city, bells chime, fireworks explode and people cheer. The New Year has arrived, large as life and twice as scary.

I look back over at Joshua, but he's gone. What the hell? Nobody could get through a closed doorway that quickly and silently. I frown as I feel anger rising in my chest. Did he have to just run away like that, without saying a proper goodbye?

Angrily, I march through the café and push the door open to reveal a large, dark corridor, going much further back than I thought the building went. And halfway down the corridor, I see the darkened figure of Joshua, hands in pockets, strolling along carelessly.

"Joshua." I call out. The sound bounces off the walls and floor loudly, almost as loud as my voice. Creepy.

Joshua turns slightly, looking genuinely surprised, like he doesn't expect anything of me. For a minute I just watch him, and the seconds seem to slow down as neither of us moves a muscle. I can't even feel myself breathing. Eventually, time comes to a gentle halt, and nothing seems to really matter any more.

Finally, he shrugs and turns away.

"You are my friend, even though you're a bitch." My voice rings loudly in my ears, after the long silence. Joshua pauses "And Happy New Year to you too." I smile at him.

Joshua nods and smiles back at me, before turning around and walking away.

And this time, I'm fine with that.