"Woah!" Clive yelped, neatly ducking behind the dog statue as the strange frog-like creature shot itself at him. "Dammit, why is this happening to me?!" No matter how much he ran, even back to the huge intersection, the frogs were always there.

"You!" a male voice shouted. It was surprisingly soft. A boy, probably around eighteen, grabbed Clive's wrist and pulled him out of the way of another attack. "Make a Pact with me, quickly!" Clive didn't have a lot of time to take the other boy in, but the one thing he remembered clearly was the boy's eyes. People didn't have black eyes. This boy did. "I don't have time for this... Do you want to die or not?!"

"Okay! Okay! I make a pact or whatever!" The boy also had hair tumbling over one eye. Was the other eye black? Or wasn't it? The world suddenly flashed white and the boy was nowhere, but Clive had power. He could feel it. He raised his hand and focused his thoughts on the large car and suddenly it flew right at the frog, which disappeared in a puff of black. "What the...?!"

The other boy reappeared, landing nimbly and examining a part of his arm cautiously. It looked as if he'd been burned in some kind of circle shape there. "I want an explanation!" Clive demanded. "Where the hell are we?!"

"Oh, great. Now I have to explain this all over again," the boy sighed, shaking his head. "Damn it. Let's start from the beginning. This is Shibuya. Shibuya has two layers – the realground or the RG and the underground, the UG. We're in the UG. We can't communicate with the people in the RG. We're here in the Game for another chance at life. We're here for seven days. Each day we're given in a mission and a time limit. We must clear the mission in the time, otherwise we will be erased... and then, only then, will we truly die. Just do what I tell you. Now then, those monsters are called 'Noise'. And how did you defeat them?"

Clive tilted his head to the side. "I threw a car with my mind."

"Psychokinesis," the boy nodded. "I wonder if you could do anything more useful... Here. These are some of the pins I gathered from my last Game. This is my second time in the running. I..." He sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair. "Damn it. Never mind. What's your name?"

"Uh, Clive... Clive Dove," Clive replied cautiously. "You?"

"Lucian Adelie. People tend to call me Luke... or the King," Lucian shrugged. "Call me whatever you want. I don't care anymore. Put those pins on, won't you? Then we can head to Ten-Four."

"Why are you in the Game twice? If you win, you should be able to live again... right?"

"Heheheh... hahahaha! I wish! I WISH! My partner made it... She won. She won and yet... they took her as my Entry Fee. Why did I even bother making any kind of attachment to her?!" Lucian looked away, up at the sky. "DAMN IT! WHY?!"

Clive stayed quiet and glanced over at the large 104 building. He began walking of his own accord, refusing to wait for Lucian, who seemed on the verge of having a breakdown. Lucian gathered his poor scattered wits and headed after Clive. Lucian's Game had been rough, but he had to compose himself... for her and for him.

Thankfully, the support Reaper had already taken down the wall so Clive didn't have to run into one. Lucian's timer disappeared as they entered the area around 104. "Mission clear," Lucian said quietly. "Watch out. The Reapers like to come and play with you around now."

"Oh look, it's Noise-boy!" came a familiar giggle.

"You never get tired of that name, do you, Uzuki?" Lucian sighed, shaking his head and placing a hand on his hip. "You could invent something a little more... original." Out of the shadows stepped a pink-haired lady with black wings. Clive was surprised by how seriously bright pink her hair was.

"Well, how about we show your partner what you really are?" she giggled. Lucian's eyes widened as she summoned forth a batch of Noise. "Go, Noise-boy! Show your partner what you are!" Clive looked at Lucian, a questioning look on his face. Lucian was hunched over and his body began to ripple.

"I'm... sorry, Clive," Lucian mumbled. "I'm not... a bad... guy." He began to levitate and there was a flash of light, and when Lucian landed, he was a Noise. A bipedal, humanoid Noise. He looked quite wolfish and doggish, then dashed at Uzuki's Noise.

Clive felt the power surge again, reaching out his hand and beginning to levitate, creating a large rune-like symbol in the centre of the field. The rune began to send out small firecrackers before bursting into an explosion. The Noise had no chance against Clive and Lucian's synced psyches.

"Well then!" Uzuki giggled. "What do you think of your new partner, kiddo?"

Lucian's body was rippling again, slowly returning to its human form. Clive didn't really know what to think. "That's your... power?"

"My psyche," Lucian amended softly. "Yeah. I can also shoot chains out, but they form beneath my skin so I usually get pretty hurt... I wear a lot of healing pins, if you hadn't noticed. Now then, Uzuki, why don't you scram?"

"Killjoy," Uzuki muttered. "But why don't you show him what else you can do?" She summoned forth another batch of Noise – and there were so many Noise. Clive was overwhelmed, but Lucian wasn't. Clive had to try and utilize each and every one of his pins – some he couldn't use – but Lucian was doing something strange.

"Grunge wolf!" Lucian yelled and energy began circulating around his open hand and created itself in a pin. Uzuki began to scream and whipped out her phone. "Death Metal Mink!" Another pin. He activated both their psychs simultaneously, summoning forth both the Noise. They fought for him in both Zones, and Clive was surprised when he couldn't deal damage to the Black Noise and even more surprised when they began helping him.

Finally, they erased all the Noise. "Uzuki, Uzuki..." Lucian sighed, looking up and brushing back his fringe. His covered eye was violet, a deep violet that held more wisdom than his years. "If I can summon Noise, then it makes sense I can summon Taboo Noise. It's not as if anyone noticed the marks I left here last time."

"What?" Uzuki stared at him. "Players can't do that!"

"So oblivious... I'm not an ordinary Player, as you can see. But I suppose you wouldn't know that, Uzuki, simple things did evade you," Lucian chortled. "Now then, Uzuki, let's see what you can do!" He held up the pin and a shouting voice stopped him.

"Hold it, kid!" An older man walked over and held out his hand. "Gimme those pins. Strictly against the rules to have Taboo Noise."

"Oh, Mr H. Fine then. Wasn't aware of that," Lucian said, lying with a smirk. He handed 'Mr H.' the Taboo Noise pins. "Clive, how are you doing with your pins?"

"Good," Clive responded, a bit taken aback by everything. Uzuki and Mr H quickly left, leaving the two to their own devices. "I can't use these, though." He removed a few pins from his shirtfront and gave them back to Lucian, who shoved them back into his jeans pocket.

"The last Game I was in was... very eventful," Lucian said. "I know most of the people involved in the Game, apart from the Composer, the Conductor and this Game's Game Master. It's a bit overwhelming, but..."

"Oh, don't worry!" Clive said kindly. "It must be hard to be back in the Game for the second time..."

"At least I know what I'm doing," Lucian shrugged. "And this time I'll win. I have to." He handed Clive a pin with an image of a Noise on it. "The Noise in there is... a friend of mine from the last game. I saved him and trapped him in a pin as a Noise. His name was... is. His name is Cheren."