This is a very…different piece for me. While I usually like to write about more cheerful people, most notably Sora from Kingdom Hearts, this one is far different. Neku Sakuraba from The World Ends With You starts off wanting nothing to do with other people, and believes that they only dragged him down. Over the course of three weeks, however, he's forced to cooperate with others in order to survive, and it ultimately changes him.

Bleh...I've NEVER written a piece like this. The summary is probably inaccurate. Hope you people enjoy it.

Music

By FlikFreak

The Reaper's Game had been over for roughly a week, but it always left its mark on those that won. Neku was no exception.

He had been through three games in a row, and it hadn't been easy for him. He had woken up in the scramble crossing without any memory whatsoever, got the world's weirdest text message that refused to be deleted, had a timer burned into his hand daily, was forced to cooperate with other people – something that he never did before, and hadn't planned on doing – found out that in whatever alternate reality he got dumped into allowed him to use psychic powers he never knew he had, figured out he was dead and this was a twisted game set up in an even more twisted underworld to see if you were worthy enough to come back to life, went through said game three times, was betrayed by someone he had just befriended, watched as said traitor tried to kill him and later re-befriended him and tried to hijack the game, dealt with the most egotistical snot-nosed brat that could have possibly existed, found out that the said brat was in charge of the game, and most of all he went through all of it before even being able to drive legally.

Those three weeks changed him, but some things remained the same. He still visited the graffiti wall in Udagawa, for one, and he still admired CAT's work. Some things, however, remained very different that wouldn't normally happen if you had just gone through a personal change rather than fighting for your life. You never joked about reading people's thoughts, you never text messaged each other, you never wrote on your hand (not even when you were out of paper), you never got between Beat and Rhyme, and you never mentioned the word "composer," whether you meant it to be about music or not.

Coming home had been hard for Neku. After three weeks of having gone missing, he had walked up to his apartment door and knocked quietly. Upon seeing him his mother had wept and his father had, as predicted, become angry with him for "running off," but they were overjoyed that he had finally come home.

The game had left its mark on Neku with more than just him accepting people. He looked at Shibuya in a much different way now. He had learned to trust others, and he had experienced having that trust broken, mended, shattered, and mended again. The town that he had labeled as small, suffocating and empty wasn't any of those things. And, ironically, it made him think.

Player Pins, one of the main components of the game, had allowed Neku to read other people's thoughts. He learned, however, that he wasn't meant to know what others were thinking. In the game, he had been forced to let people clash with himself – something he had ignored and avoided all his life.

He avoided the Scramble Crossing when he could, especially at the beginning of the first week of being alive after the Game. He knew that there were probably people waking up and finding something missing from themselves, then having their phones ring with a text message from the reapers, and they'd promptly have to run from a horde of vicious monsters known as noise. Not everyone would make it. Neku almost didn't.

He knew that as he walked down the street, someone was probably right next to him, fighting for their lives in the UG, the parallel Shibuya where they could see him, but he couldn't see them. And they could probably read his thoughts. They probably knew that he knew about the game. It didn't bother him.

Every so often, he'd see a pair of people head into a store and do some shopping, be it for food or anything else. They'd vanish immediately upon exiting, and not the type of vanishing by just getting lost in the crowd. They simply disappeared into thin air. He knew what they were going back to, and when he had a chance he always did his best to cheer them up, even a little: a warm smile, a random compliment, sometimes a favor. "That looks really nice on you." "You look great in red, just thought you should know." "Put it on my tab. Don't worry about repaying me." It wouldn't help them win, but it would make it easier for them to bear. It made it easier on Neku, too, though he couldn't put a finger on why.

There was an outing that was scheduled that Saturday. Neku would meet the others at Hachiko and they'd head off to the Ramen Don for lunch, then hang out and do whatever. He passed by Cadoi and absently recalled the day he had headed home.

Joshua had pulled a cruel trick and dumped him into the scramble again, but upon screaming angrily Neku had gotten a few stares. Normally he'd hate it, but he couldn't be happier since he knew he was alive again. He had gathered himself again and began heading home, having no idea what he'd say. Hey, mom. I know I've been missing for almost a month, but I thought you should know that I've been dumped into the underworld and fought a bunch of monsters with my pals. Along the way I saved a few people's jobs and reputations, too. I even averted the apocalypse. Aren't you proud of your little boy?

Yeah, that'd go over well.

Neku had eventually decided to just say nothing. After all, if his parents knew what he had been through, they'd probably smother him. They were happy enough that he had come back, and that he had finally spoken to them more openly rather than just trudging up to his room and grumbling about how he hated people. His parents had been shocked, but pleasantly so.

"Yo! Phones!"

Grinning at the nickname that Beat had given him, Neku waved to his friends and jogged over. Of course Beat and Rhyme were the first to arrive at the meeting place. As much of a delinquent Beat seemed to be at times, he was surprisingly punctual…probably due to his little sister Rhyme more than anything.

A few minutes and one noogie later, Shiki arrived. Neku remembered how she had been during the game. Her entry fee had been her appearance, so the only way he'd know who she was would be the stuffed animal in her arms named Mr. Mew. She had insisted it was a cat, but he always thought it was a pig. Swine or feline, that's how he knew her; and the girl that approached them now was carrying him. The group gave a small cheer and welcomed her once again.

With everyone now there, Neku knew that there was only one thing left to do. He was hesitant – after all, they were his namesake – but slowly he reached upward, smiling and closing his eyes. He clamped his hands onto the headphones he always wore and gently lifted them.

One would normally call what he heard noise, but Neku didn't. The sound of the cars on the street, of people chatting away about the latest trends, where they wanted to eat, their new job, even that slight breeze that came by. It wasn't just noise to Neku.

Not anymore.