Chapter one point five

A/N: I'm sorry, I just watched 2 and a half hours of Ouran, so I might write something strange.

Sora busted through the doors-and his keyblade disappeared.

"Huh?"

Neku followed him out. "Sora!"

Sora shook his hand. "The keyblade won't come back."

Neku shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I think I know why."

They walked to scramble crossing.

Sora looked around confused. "That's weird…it feels like they're everywhere, but I don't see them."

Neku nodded, he heard footsteps-Shiki had caught up to them.

"Neku! Sora!" She stopped, out of breath.

Sora walked up to her. "Shiki?"

She stood upright. "I know where I've seen a Heartless before!"

"What?!"

She glanced around, then pointed at the shibuya 109 building. "Oh! Look! It's there!"

The image on the building's screen changed to a Heartless. The words "Darkly cute" flashed under it.

"It's a new line that popped up like two days ago! The gimme hearts!"

"Gimme hearts?" Neku repeated.

"Yes!" Shiki exclaimed. "They only just started but I think they have plushies- and oh look!" A woman passed them, the bag on her back looked like a heartless.

"Ah! She's got one on her back!" Sora pointed at her.

"Yup." Jiminy appeared on her shoulder. "It's a shadow type, no doubt about it."

Neku glanced around and saw similar products. "Hm. Let's see if Hanekoma knows anything.."

They returned to the café.

Hanekoma pulled it up on a laptop behind the counter.

"Here it is. Looks legit." They looked at the 'Gimme hearts' website.

Joshua blinked at the emblem. " Two days old? And this much buzz?" He pulled out his cell phone. "I'll have my people check on it. That's far too fast for something I'm not influencing."

He texted a few people, and then closed his phone.

"Hm, This might take awhile. Sora, what're you going to do in the mean time?"

"Uh.." Sora scratched his head.

"Neku, he can stay with you, can't he?" Hanekoma closed the laptop. It was getting late.

Neku held up his hands. 'Have the kid who dropped out the sky-talks to bugs, does party tricks, and wants to fight plushies stay with me?' "Uh...I don't think I have the room.."

Josh cocked his head to the side. "But Neku, you've got a spare bedroom in your house-wouldn't that be fine?"

'I HATE YOU JOSHUA.' "…….I guess." 'Why can't he stay in the back of the store?!'

Sora sensed his tension. ", you don't have room in the back of the store?"

'My nap room?' "My office? Well, there's a bed in there, but wouldn't you feel better at Neku's house? Or we could set you up in a hotel?" Hanekoma eyed him, questioningly.

"No, I've already caused to much trouble, staying in the back would be fine."

Neku stared at him. '…….'

He could feel his friends watching him, and Hanekoma too.

"..There's no reason for you to stay here…There's no one else at my house anyway."

Sora looked confused. "Oh…okay."

Joshua stared at Neku.

'I have a feeling this will be a little hard for you, Neku. Your world, our world-'

'Has gotten a whole lot bigger.'

Sho Minamimoto walked through the streets of shibuya. 'The city is mega crowded today.' He watched a woman with a gimme hearts bag walk by. 'What's with that thing?' Suddenly, it began clawing at her head….

"Whoa! Zetta creepy!"

Josh returned to the café. Sora and Neku had arrived early.

Joshua looked around. "Where's Sanae?"

Neku gestured towards the back door. "Napping."

"Well, I have some news for you." Josh held up his phone for Sora and Neku to see. " Look at this."

"A heartless? What's that thing it's riding on?"

Neku pointed at it. "This is Noise."

"Noise?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. Noise are monsters that live in the UG."

"What's the UG?"

"Well…"Neku looked at Joshua for an answer, who just shook his head.

"Why don't you take him there Neku? Things will make more sense to him there."

"….." Neku dug into his pocket. "Hm...I don't really have any pins. You confiscated them, remember?"

Joshua smiled. "Oh? You still have the two basic ones right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"You can pick some up while you're there. Besides, Neku-you're alive now."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

He turned to Sora. "Okay, let's go. I'll fill you in on the way."

Neku led Sora by the bus station, then headed to the underpass.

"Okay, in this world, when you die, you're offered a second chance." They came to a entrance of barbed wire. "It called: the reaper's game. The reapers are just that-people who can send you to your grave. Anyway, the game is pretty simple-stay alive for seven days and do what the reapers say. Many people play at a time, so you don't always have to follow the rules, just as long as someone completes the task everyone gets carried along. When you play the game, you team up with someone else. My first partner was Shiki." He paused. "When you accept the invitation to play, the reapers make you pay something, and might give you something else. But not money. And that's where things get dangerous, 'cause they don't like to play fair." He stared at the gate. "My first price was my memories. I wound up playing again, and my second price was the other players." He frowned. "I played again, and that time, it was to get Shiki back. Every time I thought it was over, I was sucked back in and eventually wound up at the source-Joshua. He pretended to be my partner, but he was actually the composer the one pulling the strings behind the city and the reapers. When I found out why, and the time came I had to fight him but…I didn't, and I had to start again. I heard later on that it was 'cause I had a shot at becoming composer or something but whatever." He held out his hand, Sora took it reluctantly and they walked in….

There was a brilliant flash. Everything went white. Sora could only hear voices.

"Oh, it's you again."

"Megumi."

"Have you come to play with us?"

"I've got something way more important to do-Let's go Sora."

Sora opened his eyes. They were at scramble crossing. "Huh? What happened? Hey! why are we here again?!"

"This is the scramble in the UG." Neku stated. "It looks exactly the same, but it's like another layer of the world." He poked a person going by. "No one can see or hear you, unless they've played the game before. You can only going into certain stores with reaper tags out front and you can't access transportation."

"Whoa." Sora looked around. "Creepy."

"Oh." Neku took something out of his pocket. "Here."

Sora examined it. "A pin?"

"Yeah, it's a player pin. You need one to play the game."

"And aside from all that are-those." A large grey wolf was charging at them. "Sora! Partner up with me." They linked hands again as it was inches away. Neku disappeared. A horrible noise filled Sora's ears as he stared at the creature before him. "Neku!"

"I'm right here Sora."

"But I don't see-"

"In battle, you can't see your partner. It's fine." Neku squeezed the pin, and released a ball of fire at the predator.

The noise dissolved, and Sora appeared next to him.

"That was weird.." Sora was holding the keyblade again. "I can use the keyblade here, but it doesn't seem to work on noise."

"Hn." Neku looked up. "!" A heavy set heartless bounded before them. "That thing's huge!"

"Finally, something I can swing at!" Sora jumped up at lightening speed and hit it on its side. The heartless jiggled and swung at him with its hand. Sora ducked and shouted; "Firaga!"

Nothing happened. "?" The heartless swung again , pushing him back. "That's weird…" Sora hit it in the stomach. "Blizzaraga! Thundaga! Not even cure?"

Neku squeezed his pin again. 'It's not working…' "You're on your own Sora! Pins don't work!"

Sora was busy shouting words Neku deemed nonsensical. "What the hell are you saying?!"

Sora looked back at him, "My magic doesn't work!"

Neku raised an eyebrow. 'Magic? He's really beginning to scare me…'

Sora lunged forth again, and with this strike made the heartless explode into particles.

There was no break for them, however. Several more noise and Heartless appeared. After several more battles, Neku waved a hand in defeat. "Alright. Let's escape. At least we know they're here now, right?"

End of chapter 1.5-feel the jive