A/N: Previous stories:
Six Mistakes
Starting Spark
Beautiful Blossom

...but you can still read this one without reading those. Enjoy!

Beat stuffed a hotdog in his mouth, taking a breather next to his little sister. The two often came to Miyashita Park, and he'd already impressed her with a number of skateboard tricks inspired by his time in the Game. Usually, they'd have headed home by now, but Rhyme wanted to stay longer for some reason.

The young girl sat with a smile on her face, swinging her legs under the bench as she stared at her phone. Beat knew that look—she was up to something.

"So what, did'ya take lotsa pictures or somethin'?" he asked after a minute, nodding to the phone.

"A few," Rhyme replied, though she didn't give any further information. After her phone dinged, she spun around with a wide grin and, much to Beat's surprise, waved.

Beat turned to see who she was waving to only to find their friends headed their way. They even brought Joshua, who Eri dragged over in an excited rush. "Hey, sorry for the wait!" She pushed the Composer forward, placing her hands on his shoulders as she peeked around him. "We had to pick Mr. Stubborn up."

They all really here? Even Priss? Beat thought as he stared, watching the conversation unfold before him.

"'Picking up' and 'abducting' are two very different things, dear," the Composer drawled in his usual tone.

"But I won the game," Eri argued as Neku and Shiki caught up.

"That's another debatable topic."

"How is that debatable? The game even said I won!"

"You didn't exactly play fair and square," Joshua pointed out, confident he'd win their little debate.

"Like you're one to talk," Neku huffed. "What the hell even happened?"

"Eri took advantage of my poor, fragile soul," Joshua whined before his grin took a turn to sadistic. "Won't you heal it, Neku? You don't even need a pin. A hug will do."

"Forget I asked."

Though baffled by their conversation, Beat let it slide to satisfy another question. "So uh, whatchu all doin' here anyway?"

"I invited them," Rhyme revealed. "I told Shiki that I was watching you do tricks, and she wanted to see. We then invited Neku and Eri, and Eri said Josh should come, too."

"So you all came to see me?" Beat scratched his head, putting two and two together. "Wait, izzat why you wanted me to keep goin', Rhyme?"

"Yep," she replied in a cheerful sing-song.

"Aight, I can dig!" He shoved the last bite of his snack in his mouth and jumped up, still munching on it as he declared, "I'll show 'em my best moves, yo!"

"Wait, Beat!" Rhyme grabbed his shirt to stop him. Anyone else wouldn't have been able to, but for his kid sister, he halted and listened. "You should give it a moment. You know what they say—if you exercise too soon after eating, you'll give yourself a stomach ache."

"Aww, man!" He plopped back down, his shoulders sinking. "That's weak, yo. Why our bodies gotta be like 'dat? In the UG, seemed like eatin' a meal only made us fight better, an' we didn't even get hungry, yo!"

Eri tilted her head in confusion. "If you didn't get hungry, why'd you even eat?"

"I jus' said—it made us tight! We could soar through them Noise on a full stomach!"

"So you'd rather your body act like it's dead than alive?" Neku combatted.

"I'm jus' sayin' it's messed up, man! We should be stronger like this. It's what we fought for, ain't it?"

"I could always make you a Reaper again," Joshua offered, chuckling. "I'm a little short at the moment, so I'm sure I could put you to great use in the next Game."

"Bwaaaaahhh!" Beat waved his arms around. "I take it back, yo! I already have mo' than 'nuff work to do with school, and I ain't into that whole erasing Players thing anyway!"

Shiki frowned, while Eri only grew more confused. "You really became a Reaper, Beat?" the former asked.

"Yeah. I had to to protect Rhyme, yo," Beat answered. "But they didn't play fair, so I left 'em."

"Shiki told me the Reapers were the bad guys, though," Eri spoke up. "That they try to kill the Players or something?"

"It's called 'erasing'—we were already dead." Neku pinched a spike of his hair as he clarified. This seemed far too backwards, yet somehow made perfect sense. "It's their job, and how they keep living in the afterlife or something stupid like that. Some of them aren't so bad, I guess."

"And Josh can make someone into one like that?"

"Oh? Do I have another volunteer?" the Composer asked with a sly grin.

Eri scratched her cheek. "I don't think the job description's the right fit for me."

With a sigh, Joshua shrugged and complained, "You're all no fun."

"But what do you mean by 'short'? How does it all work exactly?"

"When a garden's full of flowers, the strong ones steal the sun and weed out the weak," Joshua explained, though he only lost Beat with his words. "If there aren't enough strong ones to do that, though, proper seeds won't be planted for the next season."

Neku sighed, but he let curiosity lead his next question anyway. "Do you even have any Reapers left? A lot of them got erased at the very end there, including..." Neku glanced at Shiki—he still hadn't told her the fate of 777.

"Of course," came the Composer's reply. "I decide who lives, who stays dead, and who gets dispersed in the end. I was at a bit of a loss after Megumi's unfortunate failure, but I suppose rewarding those who didn't try to betray me with an extended afterlife isn't so bad this time."

Neku blinked. Did Joshua really save more than just the four of them? Beat, however, spoke up before he could ask. "So which ones are back and which ones are gone, yo?"

"You haven't even noticed that yet? I'm sure your ex-coworkers would be quite saddened, Daisukeno—"

"Bwaaaaahh!" Beat reeled back, trying to cut the Composer off. "Don't call me that, yo!" Laughter filled the air around the table, and the blond's mind searched for a distraction. "Whatever, man! I ain't part a' that anymore anyway!" He stood again, thrusting his thumb towards his chest in a proud huff. "So you ready to see my tricks or what?"

Cheers rose around him, and Beat collected his skateboard. He hopped on it and circled around them with numerous jumps and flips, letting his imagination run free as he found new challenges to rise up to in the park. A crowd soon gathered, and some even left money for the cool skateboarding star. He finished to a bunch of claps, and even Joshua admitted that he was impressed—that Beat didn't fall off, anyway.

As the sun set, they all parted on a good note, and most of them headed home. "Man, I'm beat!" Beat grumbled to his little sister once they were alone again.

"You did really well today, though," Rhyme told him. "All your practice has really paid off." She held up the tips her brother had made and added, "Literally."

"I didn't think folks would jus' leave money like that," Beat admitted, rubbing his head.

"So what do you want to do with it?"

The elder's grin widened, and he rustled his little sister's hat. "How 'bout I treat you to some ramen?"

Rhyme smiled and agreed. It seemed like so long since the two had gone to Ramen Don and treated themselves to a bowl—and perhaps it had been, as they hadn't enjoyed it since returning to life.

With that decided, the siblings strode to the familiar shop, though their trip was far from quiet. "I guess we both went through some physical changes during the Game," Rhyme said, her eyes flickering to a pair of people arguing. "Are you okay? After everything that happened and becoming a Reaper and all..."

"'Course I am," Beat replied, confused. "Why wouldn't I be? I ain't a Reaper no mo', yo. And anyway, I'd do the whole thing over again to protect you."

"So... You haven't seen anything odd?"

Beat stared at his little sister, tilting his head. "Odd? Don't think so, yo. What sorta odd?"

Rhyme shook her head, and a smile met her face. "It's probably nothing. Look—we're here."

The lights were still on when they arrived, and they hurried in. They soon learned, though, that they weren't the only ones with the idea for ramen. A number of people sat at the bar, joking and bickering among themselves. From a girl his age with long black hair to a woman with flared blonde hair to a young man with slicked back brown hair to—

"Hey, Beat!" one of the two on the end called out. Beat knew those pink and orange heads all too well: the two Reapers he and Neku had seen many times throughout their dead adventure. "It's been a while, huh?"

"Lollipop and Pinkie?!" Beat exclaimed, reeling back. "Whatchu doin' here?!"

"What'dya mean? We always come here," the orange haired one known as Kariya replied. His pink haired partner Uzuki sat in a mood next to him, a static air passing between her and the other three patrons. "I see you got your sister back."

"Yeah, man! And I ain't ever letting stuff like that happen to her again," Beat vowed.

His sister, however, peered up at him with curious eyes. "Are you friends with them now, Beat?"

"Friends?" Beat scratched his head, thinking. "I dunno 'bout that, yo, but they ain't bad people."

Rhyme seemed to take that as permission to make friends. She stepped forward and greeted. "We didn't really talk before since we were on opposite sides, but I'm Raimu Bito. Everyone calls me Rhyme, though."

"Name's Koki Kariya, and this is Uzuki Yashiro," Kariya introduced for the two of them, patting his partner on the head.

"I could've introduced myself, you know," Uzuki complained with a sigh. Her gaze then fell on Rhyme, and she asked, "Why does it even matter to you, anyway? You do know we're the ones who erased you, don't you?"

Rhyme simply smiled and said, "If Beat says you're not bad, then you're not bad." She then turned to the other three, happy and innocent. "What about the rest of you?"

"Er, Rhyme, I dunno these three," Beat tried to intervene, but she'd already caught their attention.

"Well, aren't you a cutie?" the blonde woman greeted, her voice jovial. "The name's Noa Watanabe, and I'm going to be the next Conductor!"

"Ha, in your dreams," the young man said next. "I'm Haruto Fujimoto, and if the Composer's a lovely lady, I'm sure she'll choose me to be her Conductor."

The last one sighed, brushing her black hair back behind her as she kept her gaze trained on the wall. "You two are both getting ahead of yourselves. It's the Composer's choice who she or he wants to pick." Flicking her eyes towards the siblings, she then introduced herself, "I'm Kasumi Himura, the third Conductor candidate."

"Conductor whatzidate?" Beat attempted to repeat, trying to make sense of these new three. "So... you Reapers or what?"

"Yep," Haruto replied, leaning back in his chair as the siblings took their own seats in the stall. The owner of the store served them ramen, but he let the group have their discussion. "All except one of the Officers were erased by the end of the last Game, including the Conductor. And the only Officer that survived has gone rogue. Rumor is he tried to fight the Composer and lost."

"Yeah, so the UG's going to be seeing a whole lot of change," Noa agreed. "Pretty much all us surviving Harriers are trying to move up to either Officer or Conductor, and all the Support Reapers are trying to move up to Harrier."

"Sounds like it's pretty rough," Rhyme said.

Beat frowned, running their words over in his head a few times. "So basically you guys wanna work close an' personal wid Jo—ow!" The boy flinched as his sister kicked his leg. When he turned to her, she put a finger over her lips.

That's right. No one knew who the Composer was—no one except their small group of friends.

"Ugh, I can't take it anymore!" Uzuki yelled out as she slammed the table and stood. "We all sent in applications—when are we going to get our promotions?!"

"Easy there, Uzuki," Kariya said. "We agreed to take things one step at a time to make things better here, right?"

"I know, I know! That's why this promotion's important." She sighed, then explained to the siblings, "I wanted to try for Conductor, too, but Kariya and I agreed that we'd make any moves together. So as much as I want to fly on up, a promise is a promise."

"I think you two'd make good Officers," Rhyme said with a smile. "You both really seem to know how Players think well, so I'm sure if you stick together, you'll do something good."

"We sure messin' wid Game business is good?" Beat complained before shoveling more ramen in his mouth. "The whole thing's crazy, yo."

"The Game is a chance," Kasumi spoke up, pushing her bowl away as she spun around in her seat. "You, for instance. Records say you died in a car accident." She drew her fingers along the table as she spoke, her eyes lowering to the invisible designs she made. "Most people—probably even you back then—think that when you die, that's it. You lost your chance. But because of the Game, you didn't." She started back at the pair, serious. "You and every other Player had the chance to write your own story and change your destiny. The Game and the Composer gave you that chance. Remember that well."

Beat simply stared, unsure of how to reply. Luckily, his sister spoke up for them both. "We will, and we're grateful we got to come back, no matter what the cost.

The boy frowned, but he didn't argue. Instead, he asked the three candidates, "So, whatchu gonna do if you become Conductor? You won't be all weird an' slimy like Shades, will you?"

"I suppose that depends on the Composer," Noa answered. "I'm not sure what happened to Mr. Kitaniji, but I'm sure he died proudly to protect the Composer. That's part of the Conductor's job, after all."

"Ehh, I definitely wouldn't be like that uptight guy. I say bring some fun to our side—happy Reapers fight harder and erase more Players," Haruto input.

Kasumi frowned, considering. "I think no matter what, I'd be true to myself—maybe even call her out if I believe her plans are crazy. But, I wouldn't betray her. I'd listen and work with her to make Shibuya an even brighter place, for both humans and Reapers." She then tilted her head and added, "Or him, should the Composer be male."

"Am I the only one here who wants a male Composer?" Noa whined.

"Yep."

"Yes."

"You two—it's not like someone could just date the Composer anyway, so why does gender even matter?"

"Hey, you never know. Maybe the Composer will want to date," Haruto joked.

"I wouldn't want to date the Composer," Kasumi argued. "I simply want a girl because they're more pleasing to look at."

Beat and Rhyme couldn't help but laugh at their plight, while Kariya shrugged and Uzuki melted down in her own jealousy.

Three candidates, though. The siblings wondered which Joshua would pick, but they whispered to each other that neither had any clue—not when it came to what that guy would do. Neither minded hearing about the politics this way, though, when they were no longer a part of them. And, Beat had to admit—he was glad to see Kariya and Uzuki doing well and trying to make things better.

Not only that, but he soon learned about other survivors from this circle of Reapers. 777 had apparently been brought back to continue making Shibuya a bit brighter with his band, and his two bandmates worked hard to try to become Harriers with him. Even Coco, the one who'd told him the basic rules of the Game, was still around, though happy keeping her same job.

"What about the Officer that survived?" Rhyme eventually asked, looking at Haruto. "You said he's gone rogue. Should you guys be worried about it?"

"Whichever one of us becomes the Conductor will definitely have to worry," the second candidate replied. "That guy's probably still somewhere around Shibuya, plotting against the Composer."

"But if it's true he lost, he doesn't stand a chance against the Composer, right?" Noa reminded. "He just needs to be swept up like dirt."

The last candidate, however, shook her head. "No, we should assume the worst. If the Composer were ever to gain a weakness, we'd need to assume that Sho Minamimoto will be there to strike."

Beat ran the name over in his head, thinking. He didn't know the names of many Reapers, but he recognized that one somehow. Le's see, in my week as a Reaper... His thoughts trailed off as it occurred to him, and he jumped up. "Bwaaaahhh! That guy's alive?!" he exclaimed. "How, yo?! We saw him crushed under a car and one of 'dem drink machines!"

"If he wasn't erased, then he wasn't dead," Kasumi said, her eyes meeting his. "And his strength isn't to be underestimated."

Beat listened, wondering what he should do. He knew the Composer after all. Even if they weren't exactly friends, Beat couldn't let him be caught off guard by a guy like that. He and Rhyme exchanged nods, both thinking the same thing—that they'd warn Joshua before anything happened.

The group talked some more, moving to a less serious topic. Soon enough, they all got up to leave together, joking about silly things as they walked. Once outside, the Reapers bid farewell to the siblings, uncertain when they'd be back in the RG again. With no one except the two looking, they phased up to the UG—and that's when Beat saw it.

"Bwaaaahh!" he yelled, making all of them turn. He took a deep breath to gather his words, pointing at them. "I can see your wings?! Ain't we in the RG, though?!"

"Huh?" Uzuki looked at him. "You can see them?"

"More like, he can see us still?" Kariya pointed out. "We're in the UG—he's not."

"Well, he was a Reaper at one point, wasn't he?" Kasumi pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest. "His frequency changed the moment he got our wings."

"Freguenzy?" Beat attempted, though he only found himself more confused. "Er, I dunno whatchu mean, but this is whack, yo!"

Rhyme shook her head, holding her brother's head. "It's not whack."

His wide stare whipped down to his sister. "You can see 'em, too?!"

"No," she answered, "and nor can I hear what they're saying. But, I've been able to see Noise latching onto people since we returned." She tilted her head up at him with a smile. "It seems we've both changed since the Game."

Beat frowned, not so sure it was something to smile about. Still, he said, "So I can see Reapers an' you can see Noise? How's that not whack?"

"Well, you were a Reaper and I was a Noise," the little girl stated. "Besides, since we've both changed some, we can figure it out together, right? Maybe even use this somehow."

"You sure it's okay to be seein' stuff like that? 'Specially Noise," Beat argued. "I don't want no Noise latchin' onto you."

Rhyme shook her head, pulling her brother along. "They leave me alone. Now let's get going—we have a friend to text."

"Not sure 'friend's' the right word, but aight, I can—" Beat's words failed him as a black figure caught his attention in an alleyway opposite 104. When he looked, though, he saw nothing but a little pile of junk.

"Beat? What's wrong?" Instead of answering his sister, the boy spun around and hurried back to where they'd left the Reapers.

I got a bad feeling 'bout this, yo.

"Yo, wait up!" he called out just before they separated, and they once again stopped to look at him. To Kasumi, he asked, "What d'ya mean by 'dat rogue Reaper? When you said he might target the Composer's weakness."

"Isn't it obvious?" she replied with a frown. "The Composer may be too powerful to defeat, but what if she or he cared about someone? Be it human or Reaper, they would be in danger."

Someone? Beat thought, and his thoughts flickered back to Joshua hanging out with all of them earlier. Or—what if he targets all 'a us, yo? Would the priss even care or do somethin'?

"Beat!" Rhyme called out as she caught up with him. "You shouldn't just run off like that... Did something happen?"

Beat blinked before shaking his head. He pat hers over her hat and said, "Le's bounce. We can tell Neku and Shiki everything we learned 'bout the Reapers later."

And 'bout 'dat rogue, he decided as he led his sister through the cool night air, their destination set for home. No matter what, though, I swear I'll protect my friends from anything.