I haven't played The World ends With You for a little bit so I'm a tad rusty on personality. I'm working on it. Enjoy this chapter~

Disclaimer: See Prologue 'cause I'm too lazy to type it up again. Oh, but I do own Rena and the plot~


People surrounded her everywhere she looked. Of course, she was in the center of Shibuya. Ren stopped abruptly as a vague wolf-like figure stared her down from the center of the street. It wasn't like a defined outline of the creature; rather, it was more like she was looking at it through a frosted window. Its shape was fuzzy, like it didn't quite exist in the world. Cars phased right through it, and she seemed to be the only one who noticed it. For a moment, she thought that perhaps the lack of reality was playing tricks on her. Perhaps her world of music was colliding with Shibuya and only she knew.

How peculiar… she thought, taking a step towards the strange being. She felt entranced by the lone figure. An invisible force compelled her to take another step towards it; she did. Step by step, she soon found herself standing on the edge of the road, her heels inches away from the sidewalk. Cars raced in front of her, the after winds blowing her hair to the side. To her, however, only the creature existed. It was just her and it. Shibuya had long melted away in her mind. Ren lifted a foot to take one final step towards the living mystery. A sudden shift in music ripped her back into reality. Her eyes suddenly narrowed as her gut instinct told her to turn back and run as far away from the thing as possible. She followed it. Her foot rested on the ground for only a millisecond after she had placed it before she had pivoted, turned tail, and ran. She forced her way through the large crowd, not bothering with apologies that would be forgotten by the next hour.

"Watch where you're going!"

"What's with the rush?"

"Kids are so impatient these days!" various insults were spat at her; she ignored them. Her headphones had fallen off her head and bounced around her next as she sprinted down the sidewalk, her tennis shoes slapping against the ground. Ren glanced back to see if the wolf was following her, but she couldn't see anything more than a bunch of angry people. She suddenly rammed into someone full force, sending both of them reeling towards the ground. She instinctively held her arms protectively over her head to avoid it being hurt. She winced as she felt her arm scrape the ground. Ren rolled onto her side, mentally checking each limb for pain. Nothing too bad, she assumed.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, glancing back at the person she had bowled over. She didn't have a chance to clearly see who she had run over for her eyes had shifted to the charging wolf before anything else. She scrambled to her feet and continued running. "Sorry!" she called back again. Ren was panting heavily way before the crowd finally thinned out. It had taken her a little over seven minutes to move from a populated area to a next to deserted area of Shibuya. Ren turned down an alleyway and raced up stairs, two at a time. Sure, the place lead to a dead end, but it was a large dead end which would give her time to see what exactly she was against. Before her mind had registered what had happened, she tasted blood. One of her many chains had snagged on a bent pipe, effectively stopping her dead in her tracks. She attempted to pull her leg free but failed horribly. With wide amber eyes, she saw the wolf slowly advancing on her, its outline more defined than before. Her adrenaline was pumping. It had been a long time since she had been this afraid. She sat up and scooted to the side so that the fence served as a temporary shield. Ren's breathing was uneven. She yanked fruitlessly at the entangled chains.

"Duck!" Usually, Ren didn't follow instructions, however, this wasn't exactly a normal circumstance. Leaving her mass of knotted chains forgotten, she threw herself against the cold asphalt. A large cement block flew over her head, sending the wolf barreling past her. Ren looked back to see a boy with silver hair sprinting towards her, an orange cell phone in hand.

"What in the world was that?!" Ren yelled incredulously. The boy in question didn't look like someone who could pick up a cement block. Even if he could, pick it up, she doubted that he would be able to throw something that heavy that far.

"Don't move," he commanded, lifting his cell.

"No pictures," she growled, beginning to work on untangling her chains again.

"I can help you easily," he pressured, sounding very indifferent.

"Taking a picture of me is not going to help me," she retorted, pulling at any chain she could get a solid grasp on.

Note to self: take chains off pants. She mentally smacked herself.

"Let me handle it or you're going to lose more than just one of your chains," he pressed a combination of numbers, each movement exaggerated by a flick of his wrist.

"The heck are yo-" she cut her sentence short when a second cement block materialized above the mass of chains. Ren pulled her leg back towards her body as close as the knotted metal would allow her. It fell, shattering the restraints somehow. She crab-walked backwards away from the mysterious boy as quickly as she could. "What the hell was that?!" she screeched, taking deep gulps of air.

"You saw the wolf, didn't you?" he suddenly asked.

"Don't chance the subject. You didn't answer my question!" she huffed, using anger to mask her fear.

"You didn't answer mine," he replied calmly. He was right.

"Fine. I saw it, big whoop," she shook her head like it was no big deal. He appeared to think for a moment, closing his violet colored eyes. "It's nothing worth pondering," she added, standing up straight and brushing off pieces of gravel from her pants. He reached for something in his pocket. "It's your turn to answer me. What the heck was with that cement block?" she queried, replaying the phenomenal scene in her head. Something small was tossed at her. Ren juggled it momentarily before getting a good grip on it. A pin. "What's this?" she stared incredulously at the odd boy. First he was making cement blocks appear and then he was suddenly giving her a pin. And Shibuya thought she was weird.

"I'm going to help you, c'mon," he grabbed her wrist lightly before walking casually towards where the wolf had been sent reeling.

"Hold on, what?!" she ripped her arm away from his light hold, clutching the pin tightly in her hand.

"We're going to fight," he answered nonchalantly.

"Fight? A wolf?! You're insane. I don't care what kind of trick you pulled off back there, I'm not going head to head against a wolf. There's just no way," she shook her head in disbelief.

"I'm helping you; you should be thankful," the strange boy continued forward, holding up his phone like a possible weapon.

"Right," she replied sarcastically before turning around to head back to the center of Shibuya. She smacked right into an invisible wall that had suddenly appeared. "What the-" she placed her hand against the force field, causing it to pulsate from where her hand touched it. "What's this?" she turned back around to face the boy. He stood behind her smirking slightly.

"Smile," his phone flashed, forcing her to cover her eyes. She looked back up to find that her surroundings had warped. Numbers flashed all around her, reminding her of what the inner workings of a computer looked like on the screen. She pivoted trying to see anything other than black and green. No dice.

"Hello?" she asked, scanning the area for the boy who had randomly vanished. She stared open-mouthed at the wolf that had completely materialized. It was crouched low into an offensive stance. Its fur was an odd greenish-blue color. Its tail was like nothing she had ever seen before, sporting a dark green tip that slowly transitioned into neon green and eventually yellow. Ren swallowed hard. She took a step backwards, feeling her back press up against a barrier. She chanced a second to see if she still had that pin the boy had given her. It had a flame drawn on it.

There's gotta be some reason why he gave it to be before he said we were going to fight… or… I was going to fight. Whatever, there's gotta be some use to this… right? With renewed determination Ren smirked at the wolf before holding the pin tightly. I've got it! Ren brought her arm behind her head and with all the strength she could muster… she threw it. The small piece of plastic on metal bounced harmlessly about two feet away from the wolf. Both living creatures stared at it with bated breath. Time seemed to stand still. The wolf lunged.

Realizing that throwing the pin wouldn't do a thing, she jumped to her left, barely avoiding the wolf's razor sharp claws. "Okay, yeah, new plan," she panted, ducking down as the wolf jumped over her, its claws grazing the back of her jacket. Keeping an eye on her opponent, she carefully made her way back to the pin and grabbed it once she had an open chance. Ren held the pin up towards the wolf as if daring it to attack again. Maybe this creates some kind of wall of fire or something? It leapt at her again and she was forced to dodge again.

"Agh…" she murmured, glancing at a gash the wolf had managed to create. "This pin is doing nothing," she growled.

But I feel like I have to keep it… it'll fall out of my pocket it I put it there… So, to solve her problem, she quickly clipped it to her sleeve in an attempt to free up both of her hands.

"Okay, another new plan," she huffed, wishing this wolf would just leave her alone. She focused on its location, making sure to simply outlast it. It jumped again and Ren calculated where it would land as best as she could. There! She stared at the spot where it landed. Fire suddenly erupted from the point she had gazed at. Her eyes widened as the flam extinguished. The wolf, though obviously wounded, didn't look like a normal wolf would've looked like if it had been burned. Its fur was still completely intact. It jumped at her once more. Ren threw her arms up in front of her face. When there was no impact, she chanced looking back up. The wolf was gone. The swirling numbers that had created a barrier around her had vanished.

She was back in Shibuya. In front of her, on the ground, was a second pin. She bent down and picked it up. The pin was completely red with writing in the center.

"You suck at fighting," a voice taunted.

"Well excuse me for not knowing what the hell I was supposed to do!" she yelled, turning around to face the strange boy. "Just who are you?!" she huffed, completely annoyed with the arrogant male.

"Yoshiya Kiryu, but my parents just call me Joshua," he shrugged.

"Joshua," she repeated. "What the hell was that thing?"

"It's rude to ask someone else's name and not give your own," Joshua stated.

"I'm Rena, but I go by Ren, now tell me what was that thing I just fought?"

"I see you finally learned how to use the pin," he observed, pointing out the pin she had clipped to her sweatshirt sleeve.

"You're not answering my question again," she glared at him. This time, he hadn't asked any question so he couldn't retort with 'you haven't answered mine' again.

"If you wanna learn, you'll have to let me help you," he smirked lightly.

"That doesn't even make any sense," she responded.

"You want to know more, don't you?"

"Not really. I just wanna go back to my life," with that, Rena began to exit the scene.

"It's too late for that,"

"What do you mean?"

"Follow me, and I'll tell you," Ren took the bait.

"Fine,"


I prolly messed up on Joshua's attitude a bit, but I tried as best as I could. I'ma gonna work on it a ton more. Have any suggestions? I'd love to hear 'em!