The following is a The World Ends With You fanfiction. It has spoilers about the entire game, the secret reports and the secret ending. ENJOY xD Oh, and there's mild swearing, but it's TWEWY, you know? xD
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Neku slowly approached the transparent café doors, remembering just how long it'd been since he'd last seen Hanekoma. Since he's been on Cat Street at all, actually.
It'd been about a month since Neku had been grated his life back, a reward for making it through the composer's stupid life or death game. Neku had thought things would be normal now, or at least… not dangerous anymore.
Because things would never be normal. Not now… Not after going through three weeks of hell, learning to trust people, only to have that trust broken, and making friends only to almost lose them in the face of death.
"Damn you, Joshua…" Neku muttered under his breath, clenching his fist as he thought back on it all. Sure, Joshua's damned game had gained him friends, taught him so much, but still. Joshua lied to him on multiple occasions, and killed him on top of that. Twice.
Neku wished he could just forget all that and only have memories of all the good the game had done for him. He wished he could forget about Joshua, and Beat's betrayal, and the fact that in the end, if things had gone according to the Composer's plan, Shibuya would be gone- erased, along with him and his friends, and it would have been all his fault.
But he couldn't forget. Not with what was happening to him now. He was still seeing the game. At first it didn't happen very often, just an occasional glimpse of a player or maybe some noise every so often. A small enough occurrence that Neku could pass it off as his imagination, still slightly paranoid after being in the game for too long.
But it was happening far too often for it to simply be some strange side effect of paranoia. Pretty soon he was recognizing the players he saw, and hearing them, too. When he was busy with Shiki or Beat he'd usually ignore them. It was hard, sometimes, but he had to. It was obvious that his friends weren't seeing the same things, and he couldn't bring himself to even mention the game again, let alone tell them he was still seeing it.
When he was alone, though, he's take the liberty of following a pair of players for a while, learning about the day's mission. He'd be careful to remain unnoticed by them however, not wanting them to waste their precious time on him or to stir any trouble.
It was getting to be too much for him, though. Neku couldn't stand it. He was getting glares from the wall reapers, as if they were warning him not to interfere with anything. The occasional sight of a player's erasure was unbearable, too. Neku wished he could do something, anything to help them, but he knew it was already too late.
There were other things, too. Neku was starting to sense things. Sometimes as he'd be walking through the streets he'd suddenly feel… a strange sort of warmth. It was as if he could sense each person's own unique aura, see the light they gave off, and heard each's individual melody.
At first he thought it was just one of the side effects from finishing the game, along with his enhanced skills in art and music. He made the mistake of asking Beat about it once, who told him he was crazy and kept mocking him for hallucinating.
Neku shook his head, raising a shaky hand to the café door. He needed to know what was going on, and Hanekoma was just the man who would know. Other than Joshua, of course, but even if Neku knew where he was; he wouldn't vent his problems to him. Not in a million years.
Neku hesitated again, just as he was about to touch the door handle. What was Hanekoma even going to do about this? And… if he could help him stop seeing the game, would he stop seeing those lights, too? Stop feeling each warm little glimmer that weaved together to form the very fabric of the city he loved?
No. He had to do this. He had to at least figure out what all this meant: why he was still seeing things and why the others weren't. Neku had a small hunch about it, buried in the back of his mind, but he quickly pushed that thought away.
Neku sighed, taking a deep breath as he turned the handle and pushed against the glass, stepping into the WildKat Café. The place was empty as usual, as Hanekoma rarely had a customer that wasn't involved in the game in some way or another, and that wasn't exactly a very wide category of people.
Hanekoma, who had been sitting at the counter reading a magazine, looked up as Neku entered, setting down the cup of coffee he'd been drinking. "Oh hey, Phones! How's it been?" The man called cheerily, and Neku couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see him again.
His smile quickly faded, however, remembering his woes. "I have some things I need to ask you…"
Hanekoma grunted, as if he wasn't surprised. "Sounds serious." He set down his magazine, patting the other side of the counter. "Have a seat and tell me about it. I'll get you a cuppa' joe."
Neku grunted, feeling around for some spare yen in his pocket, knowing the man would charge him. "How much do I owe you? 520? 540?"
Hanekoma chuckled, pouring Neku a cup of his favorite house blend. "It's on the house. You seem pretty upset."
Neku sighed, having a seat and nodding in thanks when Hanekoma handed him the coffee.
"So what's up?" Hanekoma prompted.
"Well…" Neku hesitated, not really knowing where to start. "I-I'm seeing things…" Oh great, that makes me sound mental, Neku thought. "I-I mean… I'm still seeing the game."
"Well that's real rough, Phones…" Hanekoma replied. He was sympathetic enough, but Neku knew he wasn't surprised.
"I-I was wondering if you… maybe know why this is happening? Or if there's… any way to stop it?"
"Well…" Hanekoma shrugged. "First of all, what exactly are you seeing?"
"Everything… players, reapers, noise… I thought I was imagining it at first, but… it's definitely all there. I-I hear the players talking about their entry fees, their dreams and goals… a-and then I see them get erased… I-I can't take it…" Neku was seriously starting to lose it. "I already played the damn game! Three freaking times! I just want to put that all behind me! I want to move on!" Neku was shaking now, and he probably looked like he should be locked up in the Looney Barn or something. Sounded like it too.
Hanekoma sighed, looking at Neku with this really sympathetic look, and Neku knew he couldn't help him, no matter how much he wanted to. "Sorry Phones, but-
"I know…" Neku sighed. "You can't help… And… that's okay. I didn't really expect you could. I just… want to know…"
"Why?" Hanekoma offered, continuing after a nod from Neku. "Well… I think you already know that, too, Phones. At least a hunch, right?"
"Well… yeah…" Neku muttered, thinking about how badly he wanted to strangle Joshua for this.
Hanekoma sighed, taking another sip of coffee. "Is that all?"
"N-no…" Neku muttered. "I-I'm not just seeing things… I… I can feel things, too… I don't know exactly what it is, but… it's like I can feel each person's little individual light. It's almost like I can feel THEM, and I… I love it. It's just so amazing, so… so beautiful…" he trailed off, just thinking about it for a while.
"Hmm…" Hanekoma mused. "You'd better talk to J about this… I'm not too sure how much he wants you to know, and I'm not exactly obligated to tell you, Phones. Sorry."
Neku scowled. "You expect me to go crawling back to Joshua for answers? There's no way… I won't: never. And…" Neku added, suddenly feeling unsure of himself. "I couldn't if I wanted to anyways…"
Hanekoma chuckled. "And why do you say that?"
Neku glared at him for a moment, unsure of what he meant. I… he's gone, right? Back to his game? I mean… he's busy being all… composery, right? He… He wouldn't have time for me…" Neku didn't really know what came over him, then. Didn't know why he gave a damn if Joshua had time for him or not.
Something, either in Neku's expression or voice, made Hanekoma smile in amusement, and Neku felt his face redden in embarrassment. "Really, Phones, I thought you were smarter than that. You really think the Composer wouldn't leave a way for his special pick to contact him? He took a special liking to you, you know."
"Oh, so that's why he killed me." Neku muttered. "He likes me."
Hanekoma sighed. "You know it's complicated, Phones… Anyway, you still got some pins, right?"
Neku nodded. "Well, yeah. The psyches don't work, though." Where was Hanekoma getting with this?
"Did you ever look through them all though?"
Neku crossed his arms. "What are you getting at?"
"You have 'em with you, right? Take 'em out."
Neku rolled his eyes, annoyed at how obvious that had been to the coffee man, and fished the cluster of pins out of his pocket and tossed them on the counter.
Hanekoma quickly sorted through them. "Thought so." He muttered, grabbing a yellow pin pictured with a skull-shaped key and showing it to Neku.
"The… the key pin for…" Neku trailed off, remembering how he and Beat had used that very pin to get into the Shibuya River, the game practically falling apart behind them…
"But… why would he…" Neku didn't say anything more; just stared at the pin, not really sure if he wanted it or not.
"Go see him, Phones." Hanekoma said. "You know he's been waiting."