ChapterThree:

TheGame

I tossed and turned in my bed as I couldn't get myself to sleep. "I truly hate this feeling" I thought to myself as the summer heat over took me, causing me to sweat bullets. I soon felt my eyes feel quite heavy and I drifted into my long awaited slumber.

There I was, in the same playground where I always was ever since I was a wee-tot. The swing sets were empty as usual, and so was the rest of the playground. The only people that were there was me and my shadow…at least that's what I thought.

I was alone, sitting on the swings with only the tips of my feet just barely touching the ground. "Well hello there" I heard a voice come from right next to me. I looked to my right and I saw a boy with dark brown hair and golden eyes. "You're one of them, are you not?" I asked the boy as I looked down at the dirt below me. I looked up without moving my head and saw the boy's reaction; he didn't know what I was talking about.

"Are you one of those people the normal people can not see or hear? Are you someone who is non-existent? Are you not really there? Are you…dead?" I asked as my pigtails had covered my eyes.

The boy shook his head; he knew what I was talking about. "You can see and hear me. I used to exist. I am here. I am dead," Said the boy as he answered all my questions.

I jumped off my swing and I looked straight at the dead boy. "What is your name" I asked the boy, looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Maxwell, but everyone else calls me Max" He said as he looked back at me with no glance of fear whatsoever. "Everyone else," I questioned as I crossed my arms and arched my eyebrow.

The boy shook his head as if he remembered a horrible memory, I dropped the subject.

I stepped forward a bit closer to Max and attempted to put my hand on his shoulder, but since he wasn't really there my hand just faded through his body. I opened my mouth to say something but before I could say anything everything faded to black.

Beep!

I jumped out of my bed in shock from hearing my alarm clock go off. "Morning already, huh," I said getting up from off the floor. I looked around my room to see the work of my procrastination. The room was as plain as it was two days ago, plain.

I walked out of my bedroom and stepped into the kitchen to see Sammuel eating a taco. "Isn't it a little early to be eating tacos?" He gave me a death glare and continued to eat the taco. "It's two o'clock in the afternoon if you hadn't noticed" He said as he threw the taco wrapper in the garbage.

I shrugged my shoulders and walked towards the door.

"Where the hell do think you're going" Asked Sammuel who was right behind me. I didn't turn to answer him. "To explore Shibuya, of course"

Sammuel wasn't impressed. "You've been exploring Shibuya for two days now. You should know the damn place by now" I could tell Sammuel was losing his patience. I still didn't turn around to face Sammuel, but then again I didn't have to because I know he was giving me a serious look. I ignored what Sammuel started to rant about and I walked out of the house.

Today I knew where I was going, I was heading towards 104. I was at the scramble and heard something.

"What the…?" A boy with brown/orangish hair was surrounded by toad things.

I saw no one helping the boy; in fact everyone was walking right past him. Or should I say through him. I knew this boy was one of them.

The boy was running away from the frogs and towards Hachiko. The boy was near the statue of Hachiko and was now cornered by the frogs. The boy looked toast until a girl with brown/pink hair came up to him.

"Make a pact with me" She said to the boy

"What?" He questioned her

"The only way to fight them is as a team so please make a pact with me!" She pleaded.

The boy then just nodded his head in agreement. They both shook hands and a blue and white aura surrounded them for a brief moment.

"Here use this," Yelled the girl as she threw a pin with flames on it to the boy. The boy caught it in his hand and looked at it for a brief moment.

The boy and girl were both in perfect sync as they fought the frogs. The boy was using fire to fight back the frogs and the girl was using hand to hand combat it also looked like a little black figure was helping her. The fight ended in just a matter of minutes, but I can tell you this, it was one of the most epic battles I've ever seen.

The boy was now breathing heavily after the fight with the frogs, obviously not used to fighting in that…style. The girl seemed much more tuckered out but now I saw what the black figure that was helping her fight up close. It was a black cat…it was stuffed but it was alive in its own way. Then it clicked to me…the girl from yesterday, Shiki had a stuffed animal just like that but she also told me that she made the stuffed cat so that can only mean one thing…that girl was…Shiki.

I hadn't noticed until it was too late, that I had walked up towards the special children. I now had a closer look at the boy and who was supposedly Shiki. The boy had purple eyes and had headphones on his head which looked like part of his daily life to have them, he was wearing white shorts that came down to his knees, and a black and purple shirt with two yellow lines going down it. On the other hand, Shiki looked completely different from what she had looked like yesterday. Her hair was longer and wore a hat with it, her shirt stopped right at the bottom of her ribcage; she also had a mini skirt and a pouch and boots, but one thing stayed the same about her and that was good old Mr. Mew.

"Shiki," I asked the girl with the stuffed animal.

She looked at me and gasped. "Hikari," She questioned me. I nodded and she looked even more stunned. "H-how could you-"She tried to speak but she seemed too scared. "I see you?" I said completing her sentence for her. She nodded as she hid her eyes behind her hair."Let's just say I have a special talent" I said patting her head.

"So what were those things" I asked her, as I completely ignored the boy who was next to her. "Oh the monsters we just fought, they're called noise" She said as if she knew all about them before today. "And how did you fight?" I asked amazed on how she and the boy both survived the attack. "With pins of course," She said as she did a little pose of bubbliness. "Pins…Uh huh…I suppose that is logical" I said questioning if this was real life or not.

"And who is this boy?" I asked as I motioned my body towards the boy wearing purple. "Oh where are my manners?" She said as she turned to the boy. "What is your name?" The boy didn't answer but gave her a look that screamed `Oh Christ why am I here? ` She didn't give in to how rude he was. "Well my name us Shiki Misaki" She said as she gave a warm smile to the boy. The boy still didn't respond and Shiki wasn't going to let his attitude get to her. "Looks like we've got a long week ahead of us" She said with a peachy giggle. "A week, a week of what," The boy asked as he gave her a weird look. "The Reapers Game is a week long, isn't it?"Shiki asked as she kept her smile on her face.

"The Reapers Game?" I asked myself as I gave Shiki a look of confusion but she didn't notice. "So what's your name?" Shiki nudged the boy even more towards such a simple question. The boy still hadn't given an answer, he looked as if he was deep in thought, and then turned and walked away leaving Shiki speechless.

"Hold on!" Yelled Shiki as she chased after the boy and I followed Shiki.

Shiki followed the boy to the Scramble Crossing. "Why are you following me?" He asked as he stopped in his tracks. Shiki and the boy started to get into an argument but I wasn't really paying attention, I was only trying to figure out what the Reapers Game was. I heard Shiki started to rant about partners and sticking together and I also heard the boy saying on how much bull crap this seems.

"You're a Player just like me" Said Shiki as her façade smile had faded long ago.

"A what?" The Boy and I asked at the same time. "Listen, I'm not part of this damned game!" Said the boy as he got even more stubborn than before. Shiki was now mad, her cheeks were puffed up. "Oh yeah? Then why do you have a player pin?" She asked as she pointed to the boy's hand. "And don't you also have a timer on your hand" She said as she pointed to the other hand.

"What the hell?" Said the boy as he looked at both the "player pin" and timer on his hand. The timer on the boys hand said 20:05. "You see I told you, you are a part of the Reapers Game" She said as she gave a victorious smile. The boy was now speechless. "Oh no, we're running out of time! We only have twenty minutes" Said Shiki as she freaked out. "We have to get to Ten Four, and fast!"

"Ten Four?" Asked the boy as if he had never been there before.

"The mission said we've got to go Ten Four. Didn't you get the message on your phone?" Asked Shiki. I was now completely lost with this whole concept, but just for the shits and giggles I decide to follow them. The boy gave into Shiki's convincing. "Tell me your name" She had an expression that said she wouldn't move if he didn't tell her, and soon, "Neku Sakuraba" He said looking at her dully. "Cute name" She said with a peachy smile. The boy frowned and gave a look of annoyance. "Well let's get to 104!" Said Shiki as she already started to walk towards the location.

I followed Shiki and Neku up the road, on the way to 104 until, "Oh crap! I can't get through" Said Neku as he grabbed his arm as if there was sharp pain there. "But this is the way to Ten Four" Said Shiki sadly.

"Pact confirmed" I heard from somewhere around me. "What the hell?" I asked myself as I looked around. "Look the wall is open!" Yelled Shiki happily. "This may be our lucky break!" She said to Neku and me. She continued to walk up the road to 104.

We were now in front of the 104 building and Shiki was more than happy and Neku as just his normal expression…unknown. Neku and Shiki looked down at their hands to see that the timers had vanished. "Mission complete!" Said Shiki happily.

"Ha! Big deal!" We heard a voice from a far.

Shiki looked scared and as did Neku, for it looked like he didn't know what was going on.

"Only morons would be erased on Day One" We heard the voice again.

"Who's there" I said and everyone around me that wasn't Neku and Shiki all looked at me funny. "Crap, I forgot the normal people can't see the dead" I whispered to myself, feeling stupid that I forgot such an obvious face.

"Oh no, A reaper!" Yelled Shiki.

"Reaper?" I asked myself.

"The two of you are going to get erased sooner or later" Said the voice of a reaper

More frogs then came out of nowhere thus forcing Shiki and Neku to fight them.

Neku and Shiki were against the frogs. Neku was kicking ass with his pin that shoots out fire. And Shiki and Mr. Mew were doing great with their double hits. I did seem to notice that when Neku gets hit, Shiki also seems to lost some strength and vice versa. Apparently both Neku and Shiki both share the same strength resistance or in other words, they share the same health points. I saw that Neku's pin had only a certain limit to how much fire it can bring out, thus leading a couple of moments for the pin to recharge. Neku was running around to make sure he won't get hurt as his pin recharged and Shiki was doing great as she fought alongside with Mr. Mew. Just when Neku and Shiki had cleared up the frog noise and new bigger and more horrifying noise came out to fight.

"Hey stalker" Neku yelled out, most likely referring to Shiki or me.

"I am NOT a stalker" Shiki yelled back.

"I could honestly care less! Just don't mess this up!" Yelled Neku as he didn't have any faith in his partner.

"I won't" Yelled Shiki as they began the fight with the noise.

This noise was huge. It was a werewolf and it didn't look soft and cuddly at all. Neku kept his distance and attack with long range attacks and Shiki stuck with her close combat, hand to hand fighting tactics with Mr. Mew. The werewolf showed no mercy as it used its claws to send Neku and Shiki flying back a couple of feet but that was okay, they got back up shortly after.

Neku and Shiki were now breathing heavily after defeating the werewolf noise. "And to think this is only day one" Said Shiki as she gasped for air. "I don't think we're going to last the next six days" Said Shiki, having no confidence in herself. "Don't worry you two, I'm sure tomorrow will be much better" I said as I tried to pat them both on the back but my hand faded through them.

I saw the time and saw it was time to get rolling. "I have to go now" I said to Neku and Shiki. "Will we see you tomorrow?" Asked Shiki hoping that the answer was yes. "Of course you will" I said giving her a bright smile. "Promise?" She asked with a childish pout on her face. I stuck out my pinky and she put her not existent pinky locking with mine. "Cross my heart, hope to die, eat a thousand needles if I lie. This is a promise I will make, let us make it real with a hand shake" Shiki and I said together as towards the hand we unlocked pinkies and did a hand shake.

I turned around and started to walk away from the two teenagers.

"Curious and curiouser, this seems quite interesting. I have to stick around to find out more about the Reaper Game" I thought to myself as I twiddled my thumbs while pondering the thought. "Oh well, that mystery is for tomorrow" I thought to myself as I walked towards my apartment, and to have a good scolding from Sammuel.