Chapter 1: Fallen In

An insatiable urge had been going through Penerope Shiro's mind through the past two weeks she had set down "The World Ends With You". She had been off school for the summer season for about a week now, and though gaming hadn't been her primary focus since after finals, this was a strange feeling. She felt like the game was calling her. It left her unnerved and somewhat stressed as well as anxious. She didn't understand why she felt this way, but she just did.

So, once this urge became unbearable, she decided to finally play the goddamned game. She was going to complete the "Another Day" mission and complete it, in hopes that this temptation would be cured. Last she checked, she hadn't charged her DS Lite in a while, so she had her 3DS on backup. Her grandmother was out shopping, so she had her phone in her pocket in case she needed to call her. Her grandma's handmade M'sieur Lapin plush was also in Penerope's arms as she was loading up the game. Her lucky ten-pointed star pendant was also around her neck in hopes something didn't go horribly wrong while she was playing.

She could go through her DS Lite's startup screen just fine. Then, she loaded up "The World Ends With You" like normal.

And from there, it went downhill.

For one thing, absolutely nothing about the startup screen was right. The top screen was black, and it was the same for the bottom screen. Penerope raised an eyebrow at this and sighed. "Did the game decide to crash before I could load it? Come ON. I just want to get 'Another Day' over with!" She groaned to herself, impatiently tapping the screen with her stylus.

She was nervous about her DS Lite deciding to die on her before she started the game. She didn't want to go and look for her DS's charger at a time like this if it died. Her 3DS's charger was hooked into her wall socket already and she had it by her side, so using it as backup was the best option.

There was still nothing, and Penerope's eyes darted back and forth from the screen to the light indicating the battery power a few times. Nothing. Just an empty black void remained in front of her. Penerope shook her DS and let out a sigh of exasperation.

She set the handheld console on her bed and closed the door before going back to the game. She decided that she was going to go and turn her DS Lite off in hopes of reloading her game.

Before she could touch the power switch, she heard a familiar voice come out of her DS. "My, my. You're an impatient one, aren't you? Did you expect to load up the game as normal and get to finishing a bonus mission?"

Penerope looked at her door and wondered if her Gramma Yuri had returned home before hesitantly responding to the voice. She put most of her attention on the door because she was ready to turn off the game at any moment. "Yes. That is how the game is supposed to function, after all. That is the last bit I need to do, and then, I would've completed my copy of 'The World Ends With You' after weeks of suspense."

"Really? I'd hate to break it to you, but at this point, there's nothing left for you to do. You're finished with the 'game'. All that's waiting for you is disappointment."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

Penerope, who was only focusing 25% of her attention towards the game at the moment, continued to explain her reasoning. "Don't play me for a fool. There is a bonus mission at the end of this game. It's called 'Another Day' and it unfortunately puts most of its attention onto the god-forsaken Tin Pin minigame. I prefer fighting the ultimate boss over dealing with that. I haven't completed my copy of this game yet because I was never able to get to it."

"That's because this 'bonus' you're looking for doesn't exist." The mysterious voice continued to insist.

"It does exist, buddy. Stop treating me like an idiot and let me play the rest of the game already."

"I remember that universe well. Still, in this world, it doesn't exist. That would require going back in time during the third week. However, the third week of the game was weeks ago. There's also the fact this 'game' of yours is set in the main universe. I don't know what you're implying, but you've completed all you can."

"I don't know what you keep trying to preach to me, buddy, but listen: I. Am. Not. Done. With. The. Game. Seven words explain why I will continue to insist on this topic. You can't trick me, and I refuse to stand down until I get to play the 'Another Day' mission."

Penerope continued to stare intently at the door. "Or… well, until my DS Lite dies. Or until my Gramma comes home. She said she was going to make some Minestrone when she gets home. Either that, or some Miso Ramen."

The voice seemed to grumble upon hearing 'minestrone'. "Well. That's… pleasant. Still, that isn't the problem. The clock is soon to stop ticking, Penerope."

Penerope perked up at her name being said. She finally looked at the screen again, clutching her 3DS and her phone. She noticed the battery on her DS Lite was green still, but she knew it was going to go red at any moment. "Yep. My DS is about to…" She paused upon pondering the situation and this strange conversation. This had to be strange monologue in her head that she was conceiving in her tempest of thoughts.

However, this voice seemed to be coming directly out of her DS Lite's speakers, and she just realized it. Instead of finding anything to be remotely wrong, Penerope assumed that she was tired and making things up out of her near-subconscious mind due to a lack of focus.

What got her though, was that this strange 'subconscious' voice knew her name? "Wait, wait, wait. Waiiit. What. How do you know my name? Is this my mind telling me to turn the game off and find my DS charger before continuing? Is the battery the clock?" As if on cue, the battery light on her DS changed to red and she gasped.

She started tugging on her hair for a moment. "Ok, so obviously, the game has crashed and it's in a state of limbo. I'm going to need to reboot it before I can get to the mission."

"How many times do I have to tell you? There is nothing left. You completed the game as far as you can complete it."

"Look, whoever-you-are. Obviously, this is my mind trying to convince me to not play the game, and you're probably a voice in my head telling me to go read a book or something. I'm not finished with the game yet!"

The voice sighed. "Wow, you're stubborn."

"This isn't stubbornness. This is determination, and I told you that I'm not going to stop trying to get to the bonus mission you're hiding from me. However, my DS is about to die soon, and I need to reset the game."

"What is about to die?"

"My DS, stupid! The battery is red and I must turn it off and switch the game into my 3DS. Plus, the game also doesn't seem to be working. How about we just end this and stop arguing over the concept of me wanting to complete the game."

"You still continue to insist that this is a game?"

"Yes. I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen in the game's programming. I'm just going to stop this conversation and turn my DS off if you don't mind."

There was silence for a moment as Penerope finally ended this argument that only seemed to be going in circles. However, there was one problem when Penerope tried to turn her DS off. Despite sliding the switch back, her DS didn't turn off. It was almost like something was preventing her from turning it off, which was all the more frustrating.

Still, she didn't know why it wouldn't turn off. She kept trying and trying, but nothing worked in her favor. She heard eerie giggling coming out from the speakers of her DS, though Penerope was convinced that she was asleep and was in a nightmare. Or, she was in a dark, twisted daydream. That worked too.

"Time's up, Penerope dear. I'm afraid you can't get out of what's coming next."

Penerope rolled her eyes. "Yeah, the 'Another Day' mission. What, did you fix the game from within or something? That's what I've been waiting for. Can I play the game now and get out of this weird daydream?" she asked impatiently.

She didn't get a response this time. Instead, the screen remained black. Very suddenly, without and kind of formal introduction whatsoever, the screen changed to glowing an eerie white color. At first, Penerope, out of stubbornness, assumed that this meant the game was finally deciding to work.

Except it didn't, because it flashed black again. Penerope assumed that it was the near-dead battery doing this. She clutched her 3DS as well as M'sieur Lapin. The screen suddenly flashed white once again, and for no reason at all, Penerope felt her head get heavy.

She ended up blacking out with no clue as to what was happening to her.

XxXxX

(?)

Noise. In the darkness, she could hear noise all around her. The ground felt smooth with a hint of roughness and rockiness, like that of asphalt. The ground was warm, and she felt like the sun's beams were shining down upon her. The warm embrace around her from the ground felt comfortable, yet annoying at the same time. However, in her left hand, she could feel rough but protective fabric, and in another arm, she could feel softness. Groggily, Penerope uncomfortably got her face off the ground. M'sieur Lapin was in her arms, and her 3DS in its case was by her side. Her cell phone was still in her pocket and her lucky pendant was still around her neck.

The only glaring problem that Penerope could see that she was in the middle of the street in the busiest part of the Shibuya district. She didn't recognize anything to be wrong as she, her friends, and her grandmother all lived in this place. Something felt off, however. It was mostly how the buildings looked and that something just didn't feel right. Standing up and grabbing her 3DS in its case, Penerope rubbed her eyes and noticed there was a crowd surrounding her. The people seemed panicked and rather worried about Penerope's condition, but she simply shook it off.

She could hear questions and voices afloat in the crowd.

"Who is that girl?"

"How did she get in the middle of the street? It seems like she came out of nowhere."

"What's going on?"

Chatter, chatter and more chatter. Penerope felt almost intimidated by this crowd, but the longer she stood and proved to be ok, the crowd began blending in. The daily bustle of the Shibuya District continued. The first out of place thing that caught Penerope's attention was the sign displaying the trending brands.

At the moment, D+B seemed to be the trending brand. It was natural, as it had many stores and sold its products in places throughout the district. It didn't bother Penerope until she thought about one important detail.

D+B was a brand in TWEWY. Sheep Heavenly and Natural Puppy also showed up on the screen. Those were also brands in TWEWY.

Penerope cocked her head to the side and pondered on what was happening. Maybe that's what was wrong. Penerope felt yet another problem. She felt like two people were watching her. Someone seemed to be in her diameter in the front, while the other around the back.

In order to try and figure out what was going on, Penerope headed up to where the Shibuya 104 building would be located. She was starting to assume that this was some kind of dream, mainly as if Penerope did somehow end up in the world of TWEWY, that would be the only way.

These kinds of dreams were familiar to her. She remembered during finals season, she had a weird dream about Mario Party DS as she ended up playing to calm her nerves, but everything went horribly wrong and made her dreams and thoughts a swirling torrent of confusion. She kept losing minigames to Peach for some reason. She didn't understand why she was just losing to Peach, but she was.

This was a hyper-realistic dream though. Then again, dreams could give off the illusion of reality at times, so it didn't seem too strange.

The only problem is that Penerope still felt like she was being watched. She was pretty sure that you weren't supposed to feel that way in a dream.

Then again, going back to the idea that this whole fiasco was most likely a strange dream Penerope was having, feeling watched was understandable. The problem was that it felt like one presence, not two. It also felt like whoever was stalking watching her was probably behind her.

Sighing, Penerope looked back towards the crowd. The presence vanished, which was peculiar.

"Ok, so I'm probably just imagining things."

Penerope started to notice how the crowd was getting annoying at this point. She felt cramped and like she could run into someone and drop something at any moment.

She decided to go up into the area past Shibuya 104 that would take her to the district where that one Ramen shop was and where Lapin Angelique was. However, as soon as she turned around and started moving, she felt like someone was following her once again. It seemed like whoever was following her again decided to magically hide their presence before going back to stalking following her around.

As Penerope was finally about to figure out where she wanted to go in this dream, she paused when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She was ready to attack whoever came up behind her until a voice spoke. "Wow. You don't react to surprises well."

Penerope went silent and turned around. The person who decided to randomly follow her was a girl. Her wavy black hair was tied into a ponytail and her dark blue eyes had this mysterious yet mischievous glimmer in them. The problem was that something seemed to be off about this girl, but Penerope couldn't point a finger at it.

The first thing that came to mind was an obvious question. Instead of smiling at the girl, Penerope's brown eyes gave off a deadly glare. "And who the hell are you? Why have you been following me?"

"Oh, that's easy! To make sure you're the right person. The Composer wanted me to come get you as soon as you woke."

Hearing the term "Composer" and "come get you" were two things that had certain unwanted implications behind it. Stiffening up, Penerope stepped back, clutching M'sieur Lapin and her 3DS case. "So, you've come to kill me in public, eh? Come at me!"

The girl giggled at Penerope, much to her surprise. "Oh no, silly! I didn't come to kill you. If you're the right person, you should be able to pass into the UG just fine."

"…Huh? What are you talking about?"

The girl swayed from side to side a moment before taking Penerope's wrist. "Do you want me to show ya, girly?"

"I'd prefer if I could wake up from this dream, actually."

"Dream?" asked the girl. She didn't get what Penerope was blabbing about, and Penerope didn't understand why this girl didn't understand how this was a dream. Upon pondering on it, Penerope froze as soon as the girl broke out into what reminded the brunette of maniacal laughter.

Penerope didn't get what was happening. However, this girl was starting to freak her out. So, the easiest option was to simply walk away from her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Once Penerope turned around, the girl pulled on the back of Penerope's shirt and caused her to gasp. When she was off-guard, the girl took Penerope's arm and powerfully tugged her back.

She made this idea of 'going into the UG without dying' seem easy, especially when Penerope turned back around to scold her. The brunette's brown eyes then saw what she found to be incredibly wrong with this girl…

…being the fact that she was a Reaper. A cheery grin was on her face as Penerope saw the smooth, skeletal-like wings on this strange girl's back now.

"Welcome to the UG, Miss Shiro!"

Penerope narrowed her eyes and proceeded to correct her with no emotion whatsoever. "Penerope. My name is Penerope. Don't refer to me by my last name."

The reaper huffed and crossed her arms. A pout was on her cherub-like face. "Oh, you're no fun," huffed the girl. She flipped her ponytail and smiled again. "ANYWAY, I'm Kanon Koizumi! As you can see, I'm a-"

"Harrier Reaper. You're a harrier Reaper."

Kanon proceeded to cough, uttering "Killjoy" in it and then continued. She perked up and swayed from side-to-side excitedly for a moment. "Yes, yes. You can call me Kana for short."

"I'm going to call you Kanon."

"Kana. Call me Kana."

"Kanon."

Kanon, or simply Kana, seemed annoyed that Penerope was refusing to call her by her preferred name. Rolling her eyes, she angrily tugged on Penerope's arm again. Penerope, in response, slapped Kana as she was getting sick and tired of this unnecessary physical contact. As if on cue, someone's phone started ringing.

It wasn't Penerope's phone. The ringtone was upbeat and faster than Penerope's 8-bit ringtone. Kana took her phone out of her skirt's pocket and motioned for Penerope to be quiet as she answered it. "Hello? This is Kana." She spoke.

Penerope was unsure who Kana was speaking with, but as she was currently trapped in an unfavorable situation, the first person she decided to communicate with in her dream was Akira.

She normally spoke with Akira as her gramma never had her phone on her if she was grocery shopping.

Though… Penerope never felt the urge to text anyone in a dream. Or call them. She never had her phone on her in a dream. Or the items she was holding when she suddenly fell asleep.

…Was this a dream?

Penerope stubbornly shook her head. This had to be a dream. Her brain seemed to be telling her otherwise, which was odd, but Penerope didn't care. She quickly texted "Hi" to Akira because she didn't know what to say, though she nearly typed "Help". Her gut was actually agreeing with her brain for once.

Kana seemed to be talking on the phone for a while. She felt her phone vibrate as she was about to put it in her pocket.

She sighed and checked it. Akira was answering back, which was odd for him.

She read over the text. She furrowed her eyebrows together when the text read, "Yeah, hi. Where the hell are you? You promised you'd come to the concert tonight." Well, that was aggressive. Then again, she did make a promise to him that she'd go to his concert. It was likely her brain sending her a reminder.

She texted him back, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. The concert isn't until 5:00, but I'll be there once I wake up." Penerope looked up from her texting to see Kana was still on the phone. This seemed to be a long call.

Her phone vibrated again. Penerope sighed and looked down at her phone again. The tone of the text bothered her. "When did you learn how to sleep-text Pen? You never text anyone in your sleep. Besides, if you are somehow sleep-texting me, how do you know what's going on?"

Penerope paused and was about to respond until her phone was suddenly taken from her. She was ready to grab it back until she saw Kana.

However, she froze. Kana spoke in a low voice. "How about we not focus on texting and focus on getting to the Shibuya River? He was certain that this would happen at some point."

Penerope didn't want to go to the Shibuya River, noting who was there, but it seemed she had no choice. This was the UG—the ground of the Reapers and the Composer, as well as the dead, or the Players.

One thing was for certain, however.

Something definitely wasn't right about what was going on. Penerope could feel it.