The Veil is Torn: The Beginning A TWEWY Fanfiction by JCroe
Note: This fanfiction does contain romantic/sexually natured relationships between characters. It is important to note that this takes place after a three-year time skip after the events of The World Ends With You. Rhyme is no longer a child. She's around 16 now.
Chapter 1-Shibuya Sun
"Damn, it's so hot today," Neku said. He looked up from his outdoor seat at a small café in Dogenzaka, the sun beating down from straight overhead. He sipped his iced coffee; something Mr. Hanekoma had gotten him hooked on. He had a feeling of foreboding. He'd felt it for a few days now, as if something was on the brink of happening. He pulled out his phone. 12:00 sharp. "Shiki should be here any minute," he announced, despite being alone. He saw a flash of red streak into the alleyway leading to A-East. "Noise?" he thought, tensing, but he relaxed. This was the RG, and it had been three years since that time. There couldn't possibly be noise here.
"Hey, Neku!" a voice called out from the A-East alley. Neku looked up to see a girl wearing an ivory-colored Dragon Couture sleeveless shirt and a denim skirt, probably D+B. Her hair was short and black, and she was carrying a stuffed black cat. She walked over to Neku's table and sat down.
Neku smiled. "You made it," he said. "And you brought Piggy."
Shiki giggled. "You do that on purpose, don't you?"
"Noooo," Neku said sarcastically, "not at all."
"So, why'd you want to get together today?" Shiki asked, placing an order for iced tea as the waiter passed.
"Actually, I'd like to wait until the others get here."
"The others?"
"I invited Beat and Rhyme to come along. There's something I wanted to talk about."
"What, about the Game?"
"Maybe. I dunno. I thought I saw Noise a minute ago."
"Noise!" Shiki asked in a harsh whisper. "That isn't possible!" She looked worried.
"I saw it go into the A-East area."
The color completely drained from Shiki's face. "So you saw it too?"
"You saw the Noise?"
"I don't know what I saw, but it was a… a red flash, I guess. It… it could've been a dog or something," Shiki said as the waiter set her iced tea in front of her.
"Right," Neku said. The pair watched each other in silence. Out of nowhere, a hand came down and gripped Neku's shoulder firmly. Neku let out a little yelp. He turned around and saw Beat and Rhyme. "Jesus, Beat, you scared the crap outta me."
Beat laughed heartily. "You really jumpy today, ain'cha man?" he said. "Yo, check out these new threads I got." He spread his arms wide and showed off the black sleeveless parka with a skeletal pattern. "Lolly may be a lazy ass, but he's got some damn good taste in clothes."
"Sweet, man," Neku said, his smile back. "Looks good on you."
"Omigod, Rhyme," Shiki cried, her spirits returning to normal. "You look so cute in that!"
Rhyme giggled quietly, showing off her combination of Tigre Punks pink gauze shirt and skirt-bondage combo pants. "Yeah, I bought them separately 'cause I thought they might clash too much with each other, but they turned out really well together."
Beat and Rhyme each grabbed a chair and sat down. When the waiter came over to take their orders, Rhyme ordered pink lemonade and Beat ordered cola. "Damn, it's hot out, ain't it?" Beat said. "I know it's the middle a' summer, but still…"
Rhyme's phone buzzed in her pocket. "Sorry, text message." She pulled out her phone and looked at the message. She read for a moment, then closed the phone and sighed. "Jerk won't leave me alone," she mumbled.
"Who's that?" Shiki asked.
"Some weirdo named Shuto Dan," Rhyme said. "He asked me out two months ago. We went on one date, and the only thing on his mind was that dumb game, Tin-Pin. Now he thinks we're dating and he sends me texts every day. It's really annoying."
"Some people don't change a bit," Neku said with a smile.
"You know him?" Rhyme asked.
"Yeah, kinda. During the Game, I played Shooter in Tin-Pin a few times," Neku said. "You remember that, don't you, Beat?"
Beat strained his face in an effort to recall, but nothing came to him. "Sorry, Phones, I just don't remember."
"Seriously?" Neku groaned. His expression darkened. "Actually, that's what I wanted to talk about today." The waiter came and delivered Beat and Rhyme's drinks, which were quickly snatched up by their respective owners. "I've been having some weird experiences lately… the other day, I saw one of the Reapers."
"Not surprising," Rhyme said, sipping her lemonade. "Reapers can materialize in the RG, just minus the wings and the powers. That Harrier, Kariya, actually works at Tigre Punks in Molco."
"That's not what I mean. I thought I saw his wings."
Rhyme pondered for a moment. "Strange. I had a similar experience. As I was walking through the crowds near Molco, I thought I saw someone with a Player pin, but they just disappeared in the crowds."
"Are you sure it wasn't just a Red Skull? Maybe there are still a few of those floating around," Shiki suggested.
Rhyme shook her head. "No way. I saw white on black, definitely."
"Sure it wasn't inside Molco? 'Cause players're visible inside shops, right?" Beat asked, slurping his cola.
"I don't know… that could've been it, but I don't think so." Rhyme frowned.
"Sounds like you guys are hanging around Molco quite a bit," Neku said. "Any special reason?"
Beat's face lit up bright red, but he just continued to slurp his soda.
"Didn't you guys hear? Beat's girlfriend works at Tigre Punks there," Rhyme said as matter-of-factly as possible. Beat sprayed his soda, and then glared at Rhyme, his face glowing like a red light bulb. "What's her name, Beat? Majima?" Rhyme asked with a sly smile.
"Her name's Nana Majima. We go to some concerts together is all, aight?" Beat said sheepishly.
"Hey, I remember her," Shiki said. "Neku and I bought quite a bit from her during the Game. She looked kind of extreme, but she was really nice."
"Yeah, but back to what we've been seeing lately. I also visited Mr. Hanekoma the other day, but we only got to chat for a minute because he had to run off to do something for the Game, I guess. He looked pretty worried, too."
"But Mr. H is the Producer, ain't he? 'Course he'd be involved in the Game," Beat said, glad to change topics.
"That isn't my point. He was worried, and that got me worried. I've had this really terrible feeling of foreboding recently, like we're standing on the edge of a cliff, and there's someone who wants to push us standing right behind us… I don't know if that explains it very well."
"Hey, Neku," Shiki began. "Didn't you also say you thought you saw Noise earlier?"
Rhyme whipped around and stared at Shiki. "Did you just say Neku saw Noise? Earlier today?" She looked absolutely frightened.
"Yeah," Neku said gravely. "It looked like a streak of red flying into A-East. I don't know for sure that it was Noise, but that's the only thing I've ever seen that was that color and could move that fast."
"You sure it weren't just some dog or something?" Beat asked.
"I thought that might have been it too," Shiki said, "but I also saw it. It wasn't a dog. It wasn't touching the ground." The group was silent for a moment.
Suddenly, four phones went off. Everyone in the group jumped to grab their phones. They each opened their phones and discovered the same message.
The message read: "Big trouble. Concerns the Game. Meet at A-East Concert hall in 5 min. H."
It took a moment for the message to sink in. "Hanekoma?" Neku said.
"This sounds bad," Rhyme said.
"He wanna meet at A-East? Le's bounce, then!"
"Right. Hold on, let me pay," Neku said, standing and taking his wallet out of his pocket. The waiter came over to deliver the check. "Will 3000 cover it, Mick?"
"Uh, y-yeah."
Neku pulled out three 1000-yen bills and handed them to the waiter. "Keep the change, Mick," he said, running off to A-East with the group.