Authors Note:
I do not own TWEWY.
This takes place in a parallel dimension, several years before the main storyline. The three main schools in Shibuya, The main high school and the two private schools (St Michael's and St Ursula's) are in competition. They compete over quizzes, sports, grades... even teachers. This is the story of the new students in each school, in the main storyline they are known as the Players and the Reapers...
"Who's that?"
"Who's he, yo?"
"He's very late..." The voices muttered as the small kid sat down at his desk. His orange hair was soaking wet, as was his shirt. His blue headphones had water running down, and it was a wonder they weren't broken.
"Sorry I'm late..." He muttered, pulling a pencil case out of his soaking bag.
"Ah, you must be Neku Sakuraba, right?" The man stood behind the teacher's desk grinned, before writing something down on a piece of paper. "Well, I'm Mr. Hanekoma, call me that or Mr. H, whatever. I don't really mind." He looked over his sunglasses. "Why are you so late?"
"It was raining." Neku replied quietly. The rest of the class talked amongst themselves, but Neku just stared at the floor.
"Anyway, where was I... alright guys, partner up with the person next to you to work on exercise... well, one." Hanekoma said loudly over the talking, and immediately there was a scuffle of movement as people did just that. The girl who sat next to Neku tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hi. I'm Shiki Misaki, nice to meet you!" She smiled, her pink hair falling neatly from the purplish hat she wore on her head. Out of her bag poked a small stuffed black cat.
"I don't care. Leave me alone." Neku muttered.
"But...Mr. Hanekoma said we needed to work together!" Shiki looked like she was scared to get in trouble.
"I don't care. I can do this by myself..." Neku looked at the work, and immediately regretted his words. Hanekoma walked over to the two and leant on Neku's desk.
"Come on guys, you need to work together to do this..."
"I. Don't. Care." Neku said angrily, already sick of repeating himself.
"Come on, do you want to do this work by yourself? And you've already missed how to do it, so I suggest you listen to Shiki..." Hanekoma said before he walked off to stop another pair arguing.
"Hey Shiki, you can work with us, yo!" The kid sat next to Shiki turned round grinning. He wore a black hat with a skull on. "Rhymes a real genus at this!"
"I think you mean genius, Beat." The girl working with him must have been at least two or three years younger, but was obviously a lot smarter than her partner.
"I do? Hey, you're right! I do, yo!" Beat grinned before turning to Shiki. "I told you she was a real genius!"
"I'm going to work with Neku. He needs help, right?" Shiki smiled, before turning back to Neku.
A few minutes later, everyone had finished the exercise and Hanekoma had sent them out for lunch.
"Ah, you four... wait a sec, will you?" He sipped a cup of coffee as he spoke. "Well, because of the competition between the schools here in Shibuya, the private schools have suggested sending a group of students from each school to try and sort out some kind of peace treaty. You four are going."
"Oh... that's good. Peace is good between students." Rhyme smiled sweetly, still holding onto Beat's hand.
"Whatever Rhyme's down with, I am too, yo." Beat grinned.
"Sure! It should be fun!" Shiki smiled as well.
"I don't want to." Neku said, staring at the floor.
"Well it's tough, you have no choice." Hanekoma grinned. "You're meeting them tomorrow, so be ready, okay? And, even though they are smart, some of them are a bit... well, odd." Hanekoma finished off his coffee, and ushered them out of the room. Neku scowled all the way.
The next day, Hanekoma dragged them to the hall of St Michael's. It was a large, impressive building, looked old and expensive on the outside, and futuristic and just as expensive on the inside. The school was right next to St Ursula's, which is why the schools had such a great partnership.
"Ha, it's their school and they're not even here yet!" Hanekoma laughed. There were two tables set out in the hall, with four chairs behind each one. They both had a large red button on them, and it reminded Neku of a quiz show.
"Heh, it's meant to be a peace meeting and they make it a quiz..." Hanekoma laughed again, confirming Neku's suspicions.
"Wait, this involves smarts, yo?" Beat asked.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be okay!" Rhyme smiled. She was getting a piggyback from Beat, and every so often giggled happily.
"Yeah! We'll try our best!" Shiki smiled, clutching the black cat. Neku looked at it for a second.
"...Why do you carry that pig around?" He asked.
"He's not a pig, he's a cat! Mr. Mew the cat!" Shiki stated, taking Neku's comment as offence.
"...Mr. Mew? How old is she, three?" Neku thought to himself. He took a seat behind one of the tables with the others.
A few minutes later, the private school students arrived. Well, three of them. They wore the brown blazer and blue tie of the private schools, all dressed impeccably. They talked amongst themselves whilst they waited for the fourth one to arrive. About 10 minutes later, the fourth student walked through the doors. Compared to the others, he wasn't dressed as neatly, his tie was loose, his shirt wasn't done up to the top button and he had his blazer tied around his waist.
"Tick tock, Minamimoto. You're 9 minutes and 42 seconds late." The only girl sat at their table said calmly, adjusting her glasses.
"Tick tock yourself, Konishi. I didn't even want to be here..." He fell into the last seat, much to the annoyance of the girl sat next to him.
"Now that we're all here, how about we introduce ourselves, right? You all know me..." Hanekoma interrupted an argument between Neku and Shiki.
"My name's Raimu Bito, but everyone calls me Rhyme."
"I'm Daisuken- Oh forget it, just call me Beat, yo."
"I'm Shiki Misaki, nice to meet you."
"Neku Sakuraba." Neku kept his gaze towards the floor as everyone stared at him. He had a headache, and didn't even want to be here in the first place.
"I'm Yoshiya Kiryu, but my parents call me Joshua." The smallest kid on the other table giggled, one hand playing with his silvery-white hair.
"Sho Minamimoto, remember it." The one who had come in late said, pulling his black hat down further.
"I'm Mitsuki Konishi." The girl next to Minamimoto said, adjusting her glasses again.
"My name is Megumi Kitaniji." The fourth one said. He had fairly long black hair, and wore dark sunglasses and a pair of red headphones around his neck.
"Wait, Megumi? Isn't that a girl's name, yo?" Beat asked. Rhyme nudged him.
"Beat, that's not a nice question to ask!" She whispered.
"Ah... it's not specifically a girl's name..." Kitaniji trailed off.
"It's more common to be a zetta girls name though, isn't it Megs?" Minamimoto asked, grinning.
"Quiet, Minamimoto! What if you make him think of memories from his old school about him being teased because of his girly name?" Konishi snapped.
"Konishi. Salt. Wounds. Stop." Kitaniji flinched at the mention of the name. Minamimoto just grinned.
"Anyway, now that introductions are over, how about we get on with this thing?" Hanekoma butted in before the conversation advanced. "Right, it's obviously a quiz... Press the button to answer, team with the most points at the end wins." Hanekoma pulled a sheet of paper out of an envelope. "Right...First question. What is the cubed root of 125?" Hanekoma had barely finished the question when Minamimoto pressed the buzzer.
"5." He said, grinning.
"You're right Sho. As to be expected of you, of course." Hanekoma laughed. "Alright, next question..."
Half an hour later, the scores were 19 – 6 to the private schools. Neku hadn't answered a question, and every time Beat had tried they got it wrong. It was between Shiki and Rhyme they had got the six points.
"Alright, this final round's going to be topic specific. And the topic is... Art." Hanekoma read off the paper. Neku looked up from staring at the table.
"Art? ...If there's a question about CAT in there..." Neku thought to himself.
"You shouldn't let Minamimoto answer any of these. We wouldn't want to lose." Konishi smirked.
"You need taste to be able to appreciate art, and obviously you tasteless tetrahedrons don't have any." Minamimoto scowled.
"Alright you two, calm down." Hanekoma grinned. "First question: Which famous artist's motto is 'Enjoy the moment more'?" Neku slammed his fist down on the buzzer, surprising almost everyone in the room.
"CAT." He answered.
"You're right, Phones!" Hanekoma grinned.
"Woah, you hear that, yo? If all the questions are like this..." Beat started.
"We might actually win!" Shiki smiled.
At the end of this round, the scores were equal at 27 – 27.
"Tie breaker question time, guys." Hanekoma pulled another piece of paper out of yet another envelope, and looked at it. "What is the name of a person who writes music?" He asked.
"Sorry, guys... I don't know this." Rhyme said sadly. Shiki shook her head and admitted she didn't either.
A buzzer sounded. Joshua held his hand over the button.
"The Composer." He said, and then giggled again. Hanekoma nodded.
"Right. The winners are the private schools."
When the four got back to their own school, they were all upset. Rhyme was almost convinced it was her fault, and started crying, with Beat and Shiki trying to comfort her.
"Come on guys, it's the participation that counts right? You all answered at least one question, and you almost won. Don't get so upset." Hanekoma smiled. Rhyme stopped crying and looked up, smiling again.
"How can we not be upset? We lost didn't we?" Neku said, clenching his fists.
"You enjoyed it, didn't you? Answering the question, and getting it right?" Hanekoma grinned at him. "And you all worked well together. To be honest, you were the real winners there. Those four may be smart, but most of the time they're arguing with each other. Particularly Sho and Mitsuki."
"Yeah! We the real winners, yo!" Beat repeated, punching the air.
"You're right, Beat!" Rhyme smiled sweetly again, the tears from a moment ago already disappearing.
"And to celebrate you're win, I have cake!" Hanekoma produced a small cake from inside a box.
"Where'd you get that from, Mr. Hanekoma?" Shiki asked.
"Smuggled it out from St Michaels. Don't tell them." Hanekoma grinned again. He handed them all a slice of the cake.
"Enjoy the moment, guys." Hanekoma said midway through his piece. Neku looked at him, blinking.
"What, did I say something weird?" Hanekoma looked back at him.
"No... But that's one of CAT's mottos." Neku replied. He knew he was right.
"Huh... Oh yeah, so it is! Well don't for picking up on that, Phones!" Hanekoma laughed and finished off his cake. Neku did the same, before realising something.
"Wait, Mr.H... Are you... CAT?"
"Nope." Hanekoma grinned, before leaving the room. From outside, he yelled to them. "Hey, don't forget to leave when you've finished. Wouldn't want you getting locked in there."
Neku glanced at the piece of paper Hanekoma was writing on when he first came into this class. It was full of drawings, from skulls to swirls of fire. But most noticeable was the cat in the corner, and some words written across it. Neku smiled as he looked at it.
'Enjoy the moment with all your might, whether it's gloomy, whether it's bright!'