Neku stretched his arms with a loud, tired groan as he strode down the bedroom hallway, trademark headphones resting around his neck. He was exhausted and thirsty, so he was heading to the kitchen for a soda. A quick look at the clock in the hall revealed it to be 6:30 PM, so maybe he would stroll down to Ramen Don if he was feeling particularly hungry after a short rest.
As he made his way through the living room, he couldn't help but notice his friends, who were sitting on the leather couch to the side and staring at him awkwardly.
"What's up?" Neku asked.
Shiki and Beat exchanged nervous glances, and Shiki quickly said, "Nothing's up! Why, should something be up?"
"Yeah, man," Beat added, "we're just watchin' TV, y'know?"
Neku looked from Shiki's unusually nervous expression to the flat-screen television in the corner of the room, which was off.
"Uh, guys?" Neku asked.
"We were just gonna turn it on, yo!" Beat said, rather hurriedly. With that, he reached for the remote, and Neku shrugged as he continued his path towards the kitchen. He knew that his friends were acting suspiciously, but one of them was sure to fess up eventually if it was anything particularly serious. Neku figured he had no reason to worry.
However, he was concerned about the mystery rustling noise at his window earlier. He tried to tell himself it was just the wind, but something was nagging at the back of his mind that there was something else going on.
"Quick, climb in!" Spin whispered, loud enough for Chieftain to hear him, as he opened the window leading to Neku's bedroom, which just happened to be unlocked. The plan had suddenly jumped to the agent's mind, and he wasn't going to let it go. He knew this one was a winner!
Chieftain shot Spin an angry look. "Are you crazy?" he snapped. "Breaking and entering, Spin?"
"We gotta surprise 'im!" Spin said, his grin widening. "C'mon, let's go! He could be back any minute now!"
"Enough of this charade!" Chieftain grumbled, shaking his head. "This isn't even an official mission! You just got a tip from a scruffy Japanese man that there were plenty of trustworthy kids in Shibuya who enjoy music as much as you do, and you forced me to ride with you on the helicopter, WHICH, I might add, is agency property!"
Spin looked back at his superior and flashed him a thumbs-up. "Whatever, man! I'm goin' in, whether you're with me or not!"
"Well, I'm going back to the headquarters," Chieftain continued. "You can get your own ride home, rookie."
By that point, Spin wasn't listening, and was halfway through the window into Neku's bedroom.
"Hey, Neku, we're heading out for ice cream, alright?" Shiki called out. Beat was already heading out the door when Neku shouted back a quick " 'Kay, have fun!" before digging back into his ramen. He didn't feel like anything fancy, so he had just bought some insta-noodles and made them at home.
He was in the kitchen, having been too tired to balance a hot bowl of ramen all the way across the house to his bedroom. It was nice and peaceful, and especially quiet now that Shiki and Beat had stepped out for snacks of their own.
Neku was just snagging another chopstick-full when he heard a loud crash coming from his bedroom.
Clicking into battle mode instantly, he instinctively reached for his pocket, where he used to keep his most valuable pins, only to realize that he wasn't still in the Reapers' Game. With a sigh, he found a baseball bat in the living room and tiptoed down the hall.
Once Neku reached the door to his room, he slammed it open and shouted, "Bring it!"
The black-suited African American man laying sprawled face-down on the floor in front of the (open) window looked up at Neku and gave a sheepish grin. He quickly got to his feet and fumbled for his badge.
"Who the hell are you?" Neku shouted angrily. He wasn't the least bit afraid, thanks to all the battle instincts so fiercely drilled into his head from all those Noise battles.
Spin's guard was completely thrown. Neku had spoken Japanese, so of course the agent didn't understand it. The universal language of expressions got his message through loud and clear, though.
"I-I'm Agent S-Spin!" the intruder stammered, flashing Neku a nervous grin as well as his EBA badge. He didn't really know what he would accomplish by speaking English, but he had to try. "Elite Beat Agent BA-5!"
Neku lowered his bat and raised an eyebrow. "Elite Beat Agent?" he repeated cautiously. He cast a blue eye to the agent's golden badge; it was well-shined and pretty nice-looking, but he didn't recognize it.
"Y-Yeah!" Spin said, nodding quickly. "Do you...speak English?"
"Of course I do," Neku snapped, in English this time. Spin breathed a sigh of relief. Though Neku's accent was still clear, he seemed to speak the language of America pretty fluently. "What are you doing here?" Neku asked. He was still on high alert, but this Agent Spin seemed cooperative enough.
Spin took a deep breath to calm himself down. No turning back now. "I was watchin' you, kiddo!"
"You were the one at the window, weren't you?" Neku snapped.
Spin flinched back visibly. "Yeah, that was me." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Sorry 'bout that."
"You've got thirty seconds to convince me not to call the cops," Neku grumbled.
The agent took another deep breath, quicker this time, and pulled off his best reassuring smile (perfected from months of drills). "The Elite Beat Agents're all about inspiration. You need skills, you need moves, and most importantly, you need rhythm." He leaned his head in such a way that the sunlight from the window to his right cast a dramatic flare across the lenses.
"You got all three, kid, better than any newbie I've seen. We want you on our team!"
I don't own TWEWY or EBA.