Disclaimer: We don't own The World Ends With You.
This fan fiction contains 100% Original Characters but contains absolutely no Mary Sues or their male equivalents (be that Marty, Gary or what have you)!
While you're at it; you should listen to the game's soundtrack while you read this (Calling works great, all of the songs do to be honest). You can find the soundtrack on Youtube if you can't find the copy you no doubt bought legaly. Enjoy!

Vision returned to me, slowly but surely. I hadn't expected the semi-blinding light, not to mention it was daylight outside, so my eyes were having trouble adjusting.

I lay on my side, staring into a crowd; had it all been a dream?

'The Reaper's Game' – put up your most treasured possession as collateral, survive 7 days to come back to life or be erased - It sounded so damn fake. It must have been a dream; there had been a cold going around, I probably got sick and fainted here. Details from my meeting with "the conductor" were already fading; just like a dream.

What I needed was something to eat; I guess I'd head to sunshine, it wasn't too far…I was at the West Exit Bus Terminal - wasn't I?

A bus revved its engine; somewhere, not too far from me. I was at the West Exit Bus Terminal.

Nearby a girl let out a muffled yet clearly high pitched laugh – "Oh man, now that's comedy!" – She was probably talking about me - lying on the floor like this?

I sat up, smirking; I guess it would look kinda funny; some kid wearing pretty much all Red sprawled out on the sidewalk. I stood up, ignoring the fact that I didn't feel tired. I stretched out and forced out a good long yawn.

"Yeah, some Sunshine sounds real good about now." I said wistfully before walking calmly in the fast food chains direction.

I didn't get very far before my phone vibrated and beeped in my pocket, probably someone asking where I was; explaining this would be fun.

It wasn't from anyone I knew.

"Set your frequency to 104.
Duration = 3600 seconds.
Those off key will be retuned."

Frequency, 104, 3600 seconds, off key…? Was this some kind of Viral marketing campaign infecting Shibuya?

"Ah" I shrugged, still walking "I'll Google it later"

Ok, Sunshine was in sight, right by Hachiko as always. Bounce in, bounce out; head home and make sure everything is alright.

My plan wasn't to last though, a piercing scream called out for my attention.

I ran towards the sound, turning around and seeing some guy, still screaming, getting hauled into nothingness was not a way I wanted to start my day.

I stood, stunned, and barely managed the slightest thought process. Was that 'the noise'? Had that guy just been erased? Was it going to 'erase' me?

Then my attention was called to my right; there was a wolf – no joke- a wolf smack bang in the centre of Shibuya. It growled at me, before launching itself towards me, bearing its large white fangs and slobbering just a little.

I closed my eyes. This was a dream. It was definitely a dream. It couldn't be real. No fucking way was this real!

Real or not, the wolf didn't reach me. It had been hit by someone else, I think. Either way the thing was now looking at whoever had picked a fight with it. She was sort of tall, with half blue and half green hair – not too out there for Shibuya, was she part of my dream too? Her jeans were yellow and of the "Hip Snake" label; or so the legs of said garments claimed. Wait, can you read in dreams?

"Go," she said with a gentle and calm voice "Form a pact with someone; it isn't safe alone. A pact will let you fight the noise."

"There should be some players like you, confused, still in the scramble." She pointed in the direction of the Scramble Crossing; I looked at her; a thousand questions spinning in my head. I didn't get to ask any questions, however, as my arm was jumped onto by a small green frog.

The frog didn't stay long, and it jumped from my arm, ripping the cloth of my jumper and causing the slightest jet of blood to fire out of my body.

"Ahh!" I hissed, grasping my arm "…What the hell?!"

The frog leapt in for a second attack, before being smashed into the ground by what I can only describe as a flaming yo-yo.

"Yo!" the 'wielder' of the 'weapon' beamed at me "Listen to her; go form yourself a pact; we've got seven days to go! Let's not go messin' up on day one now or you'll never get your entry fee back!"

She scooped me from the ground and gave me a push in the general area of the Scramble.

Form a pact? 7 Days? Noise? Entry fee?

Oh God… it wasn't a dream… this game was real!

*********************************************************************************************

I don't know what struck me as weirder: the giant frog in the middle of Scramble Crossing or the guy that the frog was chasing. The guy was desperately yelling for someone to help him and out of the huge crowd nearby no one even batted an eye lid. It was as if they couldn't see him.
Out of all the people on the Scramble not one seemed to notice this kid desperately shouting for help. His desperate shouting stopped. I looked around to see if I could see him again but he was gone. I don't know where he'd run off to or if Kermit was in hot pursuit but they were both gone. Oh well they were somebody else's problem now.

With great difficultly I lifted myself up from the concrete ground and shakily got to my feet. Give me a break; I'd only been dead for about a minute. To my surprise I realised there were a lot more people, some looked confused and even scared, that had obviously died too. Why did some of them look confused? 'The Conductor' had explained everything we needed to know. Having died, we were to take part in 'The Reaper's Game' – we were to put up our most precious possession, it didn't even have to be a physical object, as an entrance fee.

We were then faced with a challenge 'Survive seven days' after which we would be given the chance to return to life or replay the game for another week. Either that or we would face erasure. During this week we would be forced to pair up with another 'player' in order to fight the 'Noise' – a manifestation of negative emotions or something, I didn't really listen to that part. Shit, it only just dawned on me what that frog thing was.

"God I should have helped him..." I said aloud.

Had he been erased? Probably. Could I have helped him? Probably not. I would have had to form a pact with him without knowing a thing about him. Even so guilt-ridden thoughts ran through my mind. That guy would have had friends, a family, a whole life ahead of him and what had I done? I had stood by and watched while a monster by any other name had more than likely done him in. Fortunately for me my phone beeped to snap me out of my sulking – as did several phones nearby.

"You get mail when you're dead?" I wondered.

Oh yeah. The 'Mission Mail' thing the Conductor had told me about. Everyday a new mission would be issued to players by the Game Master apparently.

"So what's today's mission?" I asked my phone as I gently slid it open.

"Set your frequency to 104.
Duration = 3600 seconds.
Those off key will be retuned."

It gently replied via black and white text. What the…Oh, I get it. Frequ…Ouch! A sharp pain in my hand derailed my train of thought. A large 60:00 had appeared…I quickly noticed it was ticking down…so that was the 'duration'? Sixty minutes to complete the mission.

Several nearby yelps alerted me to other players. They also had some reactions to the Mail: not the same as mine but whatever, they obviously weren't as smart as me.

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" I heard one girl exclaim. Wrong.

"Oh crap!" some vulgar guy with a bald head replied "This tough on Day One? We're in trouble now!" Also wrong.

"This way!" yelled a girl in a short pink dress to a girl in black at her side. She was gesturing to her destination with a baseball bat clutched in one hand. The two took off towards Hachiko emitting slight giggles on their way. They were also wrong. Of course mob mentality ruled and about ten other people high-tailed it after them: cries of 'They know what to do!' and the like were abundant. I just watched in amazement. All twelve of them were running the wrong way without a second thought.

'Sheep…' I muttered as I quickly scanned the Scramble. I still needed to form a pact with someone in case any Noise came looking for lunch. Unfortunately I seemed to be completely screwed since no one replied to my shouts looking for a partner. That kid with the frog seemed a pretty attractive option right about now. Then again he must have been about twelve; I didn't want to rely on some kid to keep me alive for a week.

'Does anyone still need a partner!?' I yelled out as loud as I could. I figured it was safe to shout about such things because only other players would hear me; judging from their earlier response to the frog incident the large majority of people in Shibuya weren't playing the game. That and their phones hadn't gotten Mission Mail. Sadly no one replied to my shout. Everyone was gone.

Shit. Was I too late to form a pact? I couldn't have been. There had to be an even number of players otherwise this whole thing just wouldn't have been fair. Let's see. There were the two girls and their incorrect mission solution; the ten sheep who followed them. That was twelve. Then there was me: 15. And the kid with the frog chasing after him – 16. Shit.

There had been an even number of people but…one had been erased. And it was all my fault. The fear I'd felt lurking at the back of my mind, a direct result of my entrance fee no doubt, exploded and drowned out every other sense I had. This was it! I was a goner; there was definitely no way I could live to complete the mission! Judging by the reactions of the other players none of them could solve the mission in a million years let alone an hour. So thanks to me they were all going to be erased for failing the mission. Great.

And then, just as I was getting ready to die for the second time that day, a loud determined voice tore through the Scramble. He was desperately yelling something I couldn't quite make out. And then I heard that wonderful word; the word that snapped me out of my sulking session and allowed me to suppress the fear I was feeling all over my body.

"Anyone not made a pact?!" he yelled.

Thank God; someone else to make a pact with. There was no way I could let this kid get erased by Noise before I formed a pact with him.

Gathering all of my composure and forcing my almost shaking legs to move I began to walk towards him. He was a little bit younger looking than I would have liked but something about his roughed up exterior and blazing red…motif somehow inspired confidence despite his age. Well, that and he was the last box on the shelf.

"Anyone!?" he yelled, obviously terrified to his core.

I decided it would be best to calm him down first before I explained the mission to him. That and someone had to take the wheel and it would be better if it was someone I could trust: Me.

*********************************************************************************************

I was wheezing by the time I reached Scramble Crossing. Apparently running and dodging all that noise had taken its toll. I might even be too late to make a pact thing; the Scramble looked pretty deserted, apart from the crowds around me. Why hadn't they yelled at the noise? And not to mention - my mind was still in pieces. What had they taken as my fee? Maybe I didn't know it was gone!

"No!" I scolded aloud "Get one of these pact things first!"

"Hey!" I called "Anyone not made a pact?!"

Nothing; not a thing. No one even offered a 'No' in reply.

"ANYONE!?" I tried again; fear growing by the second.

"A pact?" asked a calming voice from the side "Please tell me if I heard you correctly.D Did you say you still haven't formed a pact? Don't you know that's the first thing you should do?" He raised a blond eyebrow at me and looked me up and down. "Or have you just woken up?"

He was young looking guy; probably my age…actually he looked a little older. He must have been older 'cause he was wearing a suit (which was probably as expensive as it looked – that would be very expensive), expensive shoes and a fancy watch. No kid could afford that.

"Yeah." I said, breath returning to me, "…You?"

"Me?" he asked, almost as if I was accusing him of something

"Formed a pact yet?" I asked him; trying not to sound too desperate.

"As a matter of fact…" he began, turning away from me and gazing at the oblivious crowd and folding his arms tight "No. No, I haven't."

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask why he hadn't – but I wanted to avoid pissing him off, which looked to be an easy job. He could have been my very last chance to make a pact.

His eyes were drawn to the area behind me; I spun round to get a look at whatever monster was there - a frog, well, four frogs.

The weird thing was that he didn't seem scared at all; in fact he might have been angry but I didn't really have time to judge his emotional state.

My arm stung at the cut I received earlier; a reminder that this really was my last chance.

"Form a pact with me, please! Make a pact with me and we'll win this thing! I promise!" I offered the guy my hand for a handshake; thinking that this was probably how pact making worked.

He blinked at me, winced maybe, before nodding his head towards me. He probably wasn't looking to pick up a 16 year old kid for this job; but it didn't take too long before my handshake was returned.

"I guess you'll have to do." he sighed "Just don't mess things up, ok?"

"No problem!" I said with a slight smirk, returning his nod.

Then the light show began.

It was a little startling, I'll admit. You don't usually see jets of light streaming in all directions; even more unusual are jets of light streaming in all directions after you just essentially bound your soul to a complete stranger, and then there were the four killer noise… frog things.

So this pact would let us fight the noise – but how? – By punching and kicking, that sort of thing? Where the hell was my flaming yo-yo?

"Hey!" I yelled at my new partner, who's name was still unknown to me "How do we fight these things?"

The guy across from me sighed before looking my way; where had he been looking anyway? 104? We hardly had time to shop; we were dead!

"Firstly." he said slowly; maybe he hadn't noticed the frogs. "Firstly, we have to erase this noise; we could run, but I don't want them to follow us; it could be trouble."

He raised an eyebrow while eyeing my hoodie and the pins attached to it. One was from Tigre Punk and one from Mus Rattus. Why Tigre Punk? It was my favourite brand in Shibuya, so naturally I wanted to show my support. Why Mus Rattus? Long story.

"Secondly, many people use a single pin for psych based combat.

That being said, there are apparently a multitude of players who use multiple pins in combat with noise. Some can only use a certain type of pin – fire, water, earth, that sort of thing – while some can only use pins of a certain type – pins which shoot bullets, for one. I'm not sure how this is determined, but many pins are given out at the start of the game. You should try them out; or use one of the pins attached to your clothes, they might just work for you.

Anyway, no time like the present to get started, you can try it out on this noise."

He paused while he looked at me inquisitively "Got it?"

"Something about noise, badges, using badges to kill noise, got it." I said while I grinned at him.

Like ELS had saw; I had a Tigre Punk pin, named Velocity Attack and one named Blast Warning from Mus Rattus, I unpinned the Rattus-pin and faced the frogs. ELS did the same; I guess we were gonna split the frogs or something; it was a partnership after all.

Mr Expensive-Looking-Stranger (ELS, for short) seemed to know what he was doing though; he would probably be able to answer a good few of my questions after this was over.

For now though, the frogs looked through with waiting.

"Here we go!" I said, half warning myself.

One of them leaped to my side, unusually fast for a frog, and attempted to bite me, I think. I dodged back, eyes never leaving my amphibious assailant. The frogs had split off into a group of two, probably instinct… or dividing up their 'meal'.

The frog leapt again, I dodged a second time, landing on my feet, right into the path of the second frog. It landed on my chest, possibly grinning at my stupidity before it dug in a claw. I let out a yell, punching it away from me with a bare fist. I held the fresh scratch through my shirt, it didn't feel so bad, but man it stung.

The frog, on the other hand, had no intention of being stopped by a basic punch, and immediately both frogs made a leap for me. I punched one away as it ducked, barely, out of the others path, managing to get about a metre in a safe direction.

"Hey!" yelled my partner "Use your pins you idiot, otherwise they wont stop!"

Oh. Right. The pin in my hand. I just had to…make it kill two frog monsters. Easy.

I pointed it in the direction of the closer of the two frogs; if something did happen I wanted a hit, not a miss.

"Here goes…" I said, looking in the frog in the eyes "Take this!"

Nothing happened. Talk about embarrassing.

"Focus!" ELS shouted over "Focus on WHERE you want it to hit, not WHAT!"

Oh, of course. Why hadn't I thought of that - where, not what. It was all so clear now.

The frogs edged closer, I dodged again.

"Here goes…" I said again as I looked at the ground beneath the frog, feeling a tad more foolish than last time "Take this!"

The hand the pin was in heating up; the pin in question felt like the epicentre of the heat. My gaze, however, was glued to the frog I had once pegged as a severe threat. It was on fire, and I mean it was covered in the stuff, hopping away was doing it no good, as long as my eyes were focused near the frog it seemed that the fire would follow. A few seconds passed and the frog burst, or something.

I was stunned; I did that?! The second frog seemed to get the message, and had taken my amazement as an opening, leaping at me once more, aiming for the face it seemed. I jumped back, creating enough distance for the frog to land on the ground at my feet, looking up at me.

I locked eyes with it, the fire following my vision. The frog was slapped back a few feet from the force of the fire.

The fire chased, the frog inhaled, blowing out bubbles of water, which seemed to douse the flames. Uh oh. I aimed again, the fire twisting along the ground, before going out seemingly of its own accord.

My back was to a wall. I wouldn't be able to dodge in time if the frog leapt again, which it did. It happened in slow motion. I breathed my final few breaths, the frog croaked, then jumped at my face and then my partner appeared, in just enough time to slam the beast full force into the wall beside me – without using his hands either, causing it to do that bursting thing the other one did.

What remained in its place was a small pin like the ones I had attached to me, ELS pocketed it and sighed, "Markets closed."

"Come on" he said, walking in the direction of 104 "we don't have much time left"

"Much time left for what?!" I yelled, running slightly to keep up – he was already a good distance away "Wait up; I've got some questions to ask!"

He stopped. "Questions? Like what?"

"Well… why did my fire stop like that? What was that pin you picked up? What happened to those frogs?" I said "and why 104?"

"Hmm" said ELS "I'll explain when we finish the mission. Anything else? Anything that isn't about the game?"

"Well" I started "If we're in this together we should at least try and by friends, so…What's your name?"

He looked taken aback, possibly appalled to be friends with someone of my appearance (that's "rough" – not "poor"), but taken aback or not, he answered.

"My name is Suttoku Kurasha, but I guess you can call me Stock."

"Great!" I smiled at him "The names Tadashi Bushi, pleased to meet you, Stock."

************************************************************************************************************

My younger partner seemed to have the right amount of spirit about him but I was beginning to fear he lacked, rather severely, in the attention span side of life. Well I might be wrong about that, he hadn't spoken about anything non-game related since I'd met him, but then again if he had been paying attention he would know all this from his chat with the composer. Sadly for me, and him I suppose, Tadashi was far too wound up in the confusion of it all – sucks to be him. Of all the people in Shibuya I had to wind up with the dumbest.

"So why are we heading to 104 anyway?" he repeated. He probably chose to believe that I hadn't heard the first two times. Eventually ignoring him and calmly walking to the department store became too much to bear and I caved in.

"Okay, if I tell you will you stop dragging your heels and move?" I asked.

"Sure." he replied, grin firmly in place…at least I imagine it was – it was in front of him at this point and had no intention of slowing down to pass the time of day. Speaking of the time…crap!

"No time! Move your ass!" I yelled back to him. Forgetting the fact that I might be seen by other players I forced my legs to move as fast as I possibly could. I could practically hear the timer on my palm ticking down. How could we have lost track of time so badly? We'd spent the best part of the hour doing nothing but fighting a few frogs!

"Wait up!" Tadashi yelled after me. I was so far in front that I only vaguely heard him. "Hey slow down!" He shouted again; a desperate, almost scared tone in his young voice.

I probably should have waited for him or at least shouted back an explanation but something was driving me on, willing me to continue. The prospect of slowing down was something that made me feel sick to think about; but it wasn't a feeling of fear or anything like that, not really. The real thing driving me on was, in actual fact, my utter surprise at how quick and agile I suddenly found myself. I hadn't even noticed it until that point; after two years of intensive hospital treatment I was able to run like I used to! My lungs were on fire! My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my teeth! And my hair was blowing in the wind; I had hair! God, I couldn't stop smiling when I realised that I had hair again! What a weird site it must have been for that guy in the red hooded shirt, not Tadashi, to see a player hurtling towards the mission goal with seconds to go, 45 seconds to be exact, with a huge smile on their face. It was wiped of my face when I ran smile-first into a force field or something.

"Ow!" I yelped. I felt myself being forced back, away from whatever was in front of me. I assumed it was something to do with the mission; maybe it was to keep the noise out. I didn't even realise I was rubbing my cheek vigorously. That thing had stung my face. "What the hell is this thing?" I asked the guy with the hooded shirt. Before he could answer another idiot with a hooded shirt ran straight into my back sending me flying forward and forcing my face into another not-so-romantic kiss with the invisible-wall. Only this time I wasn't sent flying back because the Crimson-Crusader was lying firmly against my back forcing me forward thus counteracting the repelling wall. How undignified.

"Pact confirmed. Wall Cleared" said the guy next to us.

Wait what? Wall cleared? No wait!

It was too late, I felt my legs buckle from under me and, for the second time today, my face was introduced to the hard, dirty ground of Shibuya. How undignified. But no, it didn't end there because before I could get up myself I felt myself being lifted from the ground by my shirt collar. I assumed it was my oh-so-helpful partner who was evidently trying to erase me himself, and I was right. Half gasping for air, half gurgling like an idiot I regained my composure. How completely and utterly undignified.

"You had a nasty fall there." he said.

Idiot, you're the one who practically sat on me!

"I guess I did." I muttered dusting myself off. I noticed, amongst a few slight scrapes, that the timer had disappeared from my hand. "I guess we cleared the mission."

"We did?" asked Tadashi. His face bore a look of utter confusion. Oh my…don't tell me he didn't…but he…

"Do you even know what the mission was?" I asked him as politely as I could.

"Well…" he paused to think. I mean, judging by his wrinkled forehead he was putting in some serious effort. "It was obviously to get rid of that wall, right?" he concluded. I suppose it would have been a reasonable conclusion; that is if it hadn't been the wrong one.

But he was smiling at me so I decided to pull my punches. "Not quite, but close. The mission was, as I hope you remember, 'Set your frequency to 104. Duration = 3600 seconds. Those off key will be retuned,' right?" He nodded. "Well our frequency is obviously our location and 104 is here." I pointed to the ground below us where I'd been not moments prior. "3600 seconds is one hour and duration…well I'm sure you knew that one at least. But the last bit is sort of confusing I suppose; I was told if we failed missions that we would be erased but this is part…'retuned,' it's sort of…"

"Stupid?"

Well…he put it better than I could have, I suppose. "Yeah, it's stupid…"

"So what happens now?" he asked.

"I don't know…the Conductor never mentioned the time between missions. Maybe we'll get another mission in a few minutes…" I trailed off, there was some weird noise coming from nearby, and it wasn't that kind of Noise. "Hey, can you hear that?" His scarlet head was nodding to the beat of what I eventually identified as music. "I guess so…"

"It's got a good beat to it, don't you think?" he asked me. Finally, he asked a question that wasn't about the Reaper's Game! But now I had to answer it…

"I guess it's okay. Not really my style I suppose!" I found myself shouting to be heard over the music; its volume was steadily increasing.

"What!?" Tadashi yelled. Did he seriously not notice the extreme leap in volume?

"Let's crank this baby all the way up to eleven!" yelled someone nearby. His voice was deep and confident. I turned to see who it was and was met by an unexpected sight.

Directly opposite us there was a giant amp almost taller than myself with some lunatic standing on top of it. In the middle of a busy city no less. The lunatic in question was dressed top-to-tail in classic punk clothing. A t-shirt that looked like its pattern had ran when washed; a tight pair of trousers with chains and belts attached to every conceivable location and a black, unzipped, parka with a fur-lined hood. Oh and he also had, what appeared to be, a solid gold guitar clasped in his hands which, in tandem with the amplifier, he was causing enough noise to deafen everyone in the area. Of course that applied to players only because no one else was clasping their hands to their ears in a desperate attempt to shut the damn song out. Well, Tadashi wasn't – he was clapping and cheering. "He must be slow." I thought to myself.

Finally, after three and half excruciating minutes, the song finished with a booming crescendo.

"Sometimes I need someone to hold me tight! Explain to me what is justice, what is right!?" boomed out the confident voice – how he was amplifying his voice I don't know but he was. And rapidly silence once again descended on the Reaper's Shibuya. The lunatic jumped off of the amp and jogged over to us. "Sup?" he asked with a beaming smile.

"That was awesome!" yelled Tadashi. Whether he was speaking loud from deafness or from a lack of consideration for others who knows…I guess it could have been excitement, but really…

"Thanks, kid!" replied the unnamed wannabe-rock star. "What'd you think?" he asked turning to me.

"It was kind of loud, wouldn't you say?" I asked. Stock used Veiled Insult!

"Heh, that was kinda the point." But it failed!

"Well then I guess it was perfect." I kindly replied.

"Thanks, it means a lot when your fans say these things." he said as he compressed his guitar into thin air. I could see a golden pin in his hand with a guitar burned into it. "So are you guys the only two left or something?" he asked "First day, I tried to be easy going. Keep in touch with the old classics, you know?"

"Oh, I know what you mean!" Tadashi chimed in. I wondered if he knew who this guy was. "It's like when your favourite band plays their old stuff and no one seems to appreciate it but their true fans." he said with a sage nod. Oh dear, he clearly didn't know what this guy meant.

"Yeah man!" cheered the stranger who was more-than-likely-the-GM. "You two totally get it!" he was grinning like the cat that got the pigeon. What a freak.

"What's your name?" I asked, getting straight to the point. He grinned and pulled something smooth and black from his pocket. He aimed the object at my chest and began to wave it around like a man possessed. At first I thought was going to stab me before I realised he was, in all honesty, signing my shirt.

"The name's Oreguro Enko, but you can call me Allegro." he said placing the cap back on his marker. I looked down to see a generic black stain; he hadn't signed it at all! It was all for show!

"Anyway I best head back…so like, congrats and stuff, I guess." he said - while he compressed the oversized amp he had with him into a pin as well.
"I better see you guys at tomorrow's show!" he shouted before taking off towards the Station.

Like I said: 'What a freak.'

"See, I liked him." Tadashi replied with a stretch.

What an idiot. It was probably common knowledge that players like us were not supposed to like the GM. Then again looking at him it was a wonder Tadashi knew who he was let alone who the GM was. "That was the GM." I replied as I walked towards 104. I was looking forward to a quick look around the Department Store for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately just after Tadashi burst out with an exaggerated, but at the same time somehow normal, 'What!?' my vision slipped into blackness.

It felt like Dying, again.

*********************************************************************************************************

"Eight players wiped out on the first day…" hummed Hiraku. "And by fellow players no less. They could put some of our reapers to shame…" He raised an eyebrow towards his present company as if asking for an opinion. He wasn't given one. "This action is indeed a side effect brought on by the collection of the attacking players respective entry fees." He continued "However as these two were able to prove in last week's game; they are more than capable of reaching day seven and may prove to be a problem to the other players. In the interest of fairness I fe-"

"Abureke Sachi and Haruka Mizuki…" The Composer said, cutting of Hiraku. "If they make it to the end of this week then they shall be erased for their conduct this day. Their actions have been deplorable and will not be tolerated."

"Understood."

"As for our GM…" Asked the Composer. The ruler of the Underground was currently captivated by a rather large fish in the aquarium on Dead God's Pad floor but was listening intently. "There is certainly something unusual about him, wouldn't you say so?" This time it was the Composer who raised an eyebrow, demanding an answer.

The Conductor replied with nervous laughter. "There is something…unique about all of our Game Masters. Perhaps their unique features are enough to ensure they make it to the top? Why I'm sure you will remember the young girl with a passion for traffic laws. My word, wasn't that was an unusual week…"

"I remember" the Composer smiled graciously. "But you contradicted yourself. Indeed she was an odd ball but as you pointed out 'that was an unusual week'. Just one week. Not two or even three."

"I see…" Hiraku smiled back, defeated. "Then what about that old fellow with the sweet-tooth? He ran the show with an iron fist."

"Indeed he did. But he met a rather sticky end if I remember rightly."

"Ouch…cut me some slack here, Seiko." grinned the Conductor. "In either case both GMs were fully capable of managing at least one game before their erasure. In the end is that not all that matters?"

"I suppose…" replied the Composer before focusing 100% on a bloated useless looking fish within the thick tank.

The Conductor also turned his attention to this single ineffective creature and smiled for, by achieving such a size, the poor creature had gone and made itself a target for any predators lurking in the tank.

- I am not what I am. -

Authors' Notes:

Vyce here; I will be writing half of this fan fiction; I am responsible for writing the majority of Stock's scenes and I hope you enjoyed them.
While The World Ends With You is a fantastic game I feel there are so many opportunities that were missed and so many concepts left unexplained in the canon. As a result this fan fiction will change some concepts slightly and will use fanon to explain things that the game left unexplained (How did Neku turn yen pins into actual yen for example?)
And a lot of other fan fiction just seems to put Neku and the gang back in the game. While I have no doubt that this could be pulled of; we've seen it all before. And neither of them would be the confused little kids they were the first time come to that. That is why this story contains no canon characters; the Composer at the end wasn't even Joshua. And it wasn't Stock's mother who lost her memory and sight after she was shot in a tragic magic trick accident and left to live in the Borginian countryside Shibuya Underground.

It also contains no super powered half-angels–half-daemon-half-Taboo Noise decked out in the latest gear from SparklyPoo Boutique. Oh no! Only quality characters will make an appearance in this story I assure you!
And that 'Allegro signing Stock's shirt' thing; I forgot Prince did the same kind of thing to Neku in Another Day; but this is a different thing – Allegro is imitating people like Prince, so it works.

Wraith; My brother in keyboards said pretty much all there was to say so far, so instead of a long winded note from me you can go read his again.
I write most of Tadashi's scenes. Yay.
I hope you liked it the first chapter.
I hope you stick with us until the end; or at least give us a shot!
I really hope to see all of you in day 2, people!