Purification


Stage 2 - The Game

"A… game?" Joshua questioned incredulously.

"A game," the demon fox confirmed. "That's what you do, isn't it? You play games and decide the fates of the souls who dare to play them if they lose."

Though Joshua was a bit ticked at having the Reaper's Game described as nothing more than a source of entertainment for him, it wouldn't be wise to mess with a youkai that could just as easily bite his head off. Besides, this could actually work in his favor. He never lost a game. Ever.

"What kind of game?"

The fox still grinned icily as one of its tails lashed out at the air like a whip, several strands of silver hair shooting from its tail - and then a pure silver katana drilled itself into the ground just inches away from Joshua's foot.

"Simple; it's merely a small game of skill," said the Kyuubi as its shape began to grow smaller, until it was roughly the same height as Joshua, its body almost humanoid as it stood on its hindlegs, before a dark kimono materialized on its body and a white kitsune mask, adorned by red and black wavy lines, appeared on its face as it seemed to turn fully humanoid, except for the ears and tails. One of its tails moved over and it used one arm to pull loose a blade that had nine hooks attached to it, making it look even more dangerous than the blade already was. "He who immobilizes the other first, wins. If you win, I'll leave and you'll never see me again. But if I win, I'll do as I promised and devour you!"

Joshua knew he had no real choice if he wanted Shibuya to stay safe, so he wordlessly took the katana in his hands. It was a little heavy, but he had expected that; there was no way the Kyuubi was going to make this easy on him. He knew better than to complain though, and simply brought up the blade.

"Fine. Let's play then."

"Hehe… Game start!"


The Kyuubi was good, that much was clear; it handled that blade with ease as though it weighed next to nothing, and Joshua would not be surprised if it didn't. The fox would lash out with well-aimed swings that could easily slice off his head if the youkai had been trying. Joshua himself wasn't as proficient with a blade, but he knew enough to be able to block the fox's attacks and keep the blade in his hands. However, the sheer ferocity of the Kyuubi's assault didn't provide him with much opportunity to attack in return.

And suddenly he was forced to jump back when one of the daiyoukai's tails came out of nowhere. Joshua lashed out at the powerful limb, making the fox pull its tail away.

"Foul play. Using your tails is against the rules."

However, Kyuubi merely smirked.

"Is it now? Did I ever say what was allowed and what wasn't? This is a game of skill, Composer! If you want to win, then come at me with all you've got!"

And then four of the fox's tails were coming at him from all angles, and Joshua did the first thing that came to mind. He brought up one hand and launched a beam of silvery-white energy to deflect the tails as they rushed for him. And then he had to backpedal to avoid a lash that would've sliced right through his skin. Instead, now it only ripped through his shirt, which was a minor problem.

'He's right… He never did say what's allowed in this game and what isn't. All he said is that it's a game of skill…' As that thought registered with Joshua, though, a small smirk played on his face. 'Well, fine. If that's how you want to play, then that's how we'll play.'


Joshua might've been several centuries younger than the Kyuubi, but there was no way he was going to go down without a fight. Once the Kyuubi had revealed that using skills other than those with a blade weren't prohibited, Joshua was pulling out everything he had and was actually standing on equal footing with the powerful youkai. But he knew that that wouldn't be enough to deal with the demon, meaning he had to finish this quick.

Using another burst of energy to deflect the tails, Joshua rushed in and managed to grab the daiyoukai by the neck with his free hand and force him down to the ground with a yowl.

"Got you!" Joshua roared out, rearing back his arm with the blade to stab forward-

"A-agh… J-Josh…u…a…"

Joshua froze when he realized that what he was pinning down wasn't a nine-tailed fox, but an all too familiar boy (young man by now) with red, spiky hair and deep blue eyes that were starting to glaze over from lack of oxygen, dressed in the usual dark purple clothes of J&M as the man's hands clawed at his arm.

"Can't… breathe…"

"Ne-Neku…? Shit!" Joshua hissed, quickly jumping back and releasing the boy's neck to allow him to breathe.

As the redhead pushed up on the ground, nursing his neck and gasping and choking for breath, Joshua looked to his right hand, in which he had been holding he katana up until a moment ago, but now he was holding only air. One look around the room also confirmed that the Kyuubi he had just been fighting was nowhere to be found.

"What the hell, Josh?" Neku exclaimed suddenly, making Joshua look over to the boy in surprise. "You drag me all the way over here just to kill me again? What's your problem?"

'Wait… what…?' Joshua couldn't recall bringing Neku to the Room of Reckoning at all. He just remembered the Kyuubi trying to kill him. Or was that…?

"…Sorry," Joshua said sincerely (he really hadn't been planning to kill Neku again, after all) as he held out his hand to the redhead.

Neku looked up to Joshua with fiery blue eyes that could've killed a lesser man, but reached out with his left hand anyway to grab hold of Joshua's hand and allow the silverette to pull him up. Once back on his feet, he dusted off for a moment, as Joshua looked around the room one more time.

'…He's not here…' Joshua frowned. 'Did I just…?'

"…Josh? …Oy! Joshua!"

The Composer jumped in surprise at the shout and turned around to face Neku. "Oh, sorry. Yes?"

"What the heck's up with you?" Neku asked with a deep frown (which wasn't that strange for Neku). "What're you looking at?"

After a moment of contemplation, Joshua merely smirked and said whilst giggling: "Oh, nothing serious, dear," ignoring Neku's "Don't call me that!" as he continued, "just thought there was a little fox around trying to mess with my head."

"Hm? A Kitsune, you mean?" Neku asked with a raised eyebrow, fiddling with his bangs for a moment.

"Quite. But it seems I was mistaken. Oh well," Joshua said calmly as he started walking to his throne.

"…hey, Josh, aren't you forgetting something?" Neku asked suddenly.

"Hmm? Like what?" Joshua asked without looking back.

Big mistake…

Neku's presence was suddenly right behind him and the redhead murmured something into Joshua's ear that made the Composer freeze in his tracks;

"Kitsune are shape shifters."

Joshua immediately spun around, but it was already too late as four powerful tails wound around his arms and legs and easily lifted him up, keeping him suspended in midair before he had the chance to do anything.

"Got. You," Neku's voice said cheekily, but when Joshua looked at Neku's face, it looked little like the face of the Proxy he was used to.

Black eye shadow shrouded his eyes, making his eyes seem both darker and more slanted than they actually were, and the pupils had shifted into vertical slits. From his hair came two long, fur-lined ears, and his dark purple clothes had made place for a black and silver kimono. The exact same one the Kyuubi had been wearing earlier when he had seen it.

And from under that came nine powerful fox tails, four of which were currently busy with keeping Joshua up.

"…You bastard…" Joshua snarled out. 'He changed into Neku to confuse me and get an opening… dammit! How dare he!'

"Ooh, harsh. Very harsh, Joshua," said the Ninetails with Neku's voice, a small, cheeky smile playing along his lips. "Though in all honesty, after what you put methrough five years ago, I'm permitted to be a total bastard once every now and then, don't you agree?"

Joshua felt his blood freeze at those words. The implication of those words came to him easily, but he honestly didn't want to believe what his mind was telling him. "Wha… What are you talking about?"

The Kitsune sighed heavily. "Is it so hard to understand? But fine." He reached up and down the front of his kimono, before pulling out a thin, silver chin that seemed to glow with a mysterious light. "You remember this thing, right?"

Joshua's eyes were the size of saucers when what the daiyoukai produced was a single, glowing, silver feather connected to the silver chain he had first pulled out. Of course he remembered that feather… he had given it to… to…

"How… w-where did you?"

"You don't remember? You gave it to me. Remember?"

"I didn't give it to you! I gave it to the Neku of-"

"The other world, ne?"

Joshua's eyes widened when the Kyuubi finished what he was about to say, a cold, but pleased smirk playing along his face. "H-how did you…?"

"Ah, that, I'm afraid, is a private little secret. All you need to know… I played your little Game, I played your silly little 'boss rush', I played by your rules for over 5 years now. Over, and over, and over…" Tucking the feather back under the cloth, the Kitsune smirked cheekily. "Didn't I tell you when we last met? You'd see Shibuya was corrupted and when you would decide to destroy it, you'd seek me out."

When Joshua's mind had fully registered those words, he paled in horror. He tried to speak, but he couldn't get the words he wanted to out. After a few failed attempts, though, he finally managed to work his voice. "You were playing me from the start, weren't you?"

The Ninetails had "reincarnated" himself as a human, posing as an antisocial kid born and raised in Shibuya, while his power leaked out of him in the shape of Imagination. And that was exactly what had drawn Joshua to Neku to play his Game…

No wait…

That was what had drawn Joshua to the Ninetails…

Sakuraba Neku… had most likely never existed.

"Actually… no," the Kyuubi—Neku-said calmly, reaching out with one finger and using the overly long nail to tilt Joshua's face a little closer. "I couldn't have you finding me too early, after all, so I sealed my powers away. Silly me, though, I sealed my memory away as well." The Kitsune allowed a small smirk as he continued with: "Which might be why I was fighting so hard for a city I could've cared less about 2.000 years ago."

If Joshua could go any paler, he probably would've. He knew the Kyuubi had to have been at least over 900 years old to reach the Ninetails status, but he had not expected him to be thatold.

"Speaking of seals, though…" the redhead said suddenly, his smirk expanding into a grin. "I'm a little surprised you're not complaining about the one I put on you."

When Neku spoke those words and pointed to his right (Joshua's left), Joshua gasped and snapped his head to the left to stare at his left wrist. Even with the tail that still kept him up, he could see the black magatama-like markings that circled his wrist. It wasn't a seal he recognized, but he could guess what it was for. And, sure enough, when he tried to summon some of his energy into his limbs, he felt nothing. The energy refused to center on him, even if Joshua could still feel it running through his body.

"…you son of a…!"

"Ah-ah, let's refrain from using that particular line, shall we?" Neku quipped as he clicked Joshua's mouth shut with his thumb and forefinger. "We Kitsune take that insult rather personal, alright?"

Joshua had to resist the urge to snarl, as he strained his muscles to try and break the hold Neku had on him with his tails, but the Kyuubi's limbs would not let him go. And after a long futile struggle, Joshua came to a horrifying conclusion;

He had lost, and Neku had him right where he wanted him.


A/N: Some of you might be wondering; "Neku as a Kyuubi/Ninetails? Where'd you get that idea?" From the Fox Noises in TWEWY, actually. They sometimes change into Neku with a fox mask on, and I've always been wondering about that, which got me thinking, which eventually led to this story.

Anyway, things start to get darker next chapter, so if you don't want to see that, I suggest you cut off right now and find something lighter.