Chapter 2: The New Blood
Kana was persistent on guiding Penerope to the Shibuya River despite the fact she very well knew what it was. Unfortunately, this looming feeling of fear and a desperate desire to 'escape' from whatever was happening came over Penerope. She was able to keep a straight face on despite the fact her brain and whole body were in panic mode.
Her Reaper guide could sense Penerope's internal feelings. It was a tempest of emotion and thought that she could read. Kana let out a childish giggle. "Wow. You need to chill out. The Composer isn't that bad to be around. He's been wanting to see you."
Penerope scoffed at the idea. "Oh please. The Composer is my least favorite character in The World Ends With You. Saying his god-forsaken name would send chills down my spine."
Kana seemed unapproving of Penerope's dismay and guided her to the Shibuya River. The dank environment wasn't the only thing that brought a chill down Penerope's back as they drew ever closer to the hell known as the Dead God's Pad as well as the Room of Reckoning and all in-between.
However, there were few reapers about. In fact, Kana was the only one who she had seen so far.
It was a little chilling.
Out of nervousness, Penerope decided to start another conversation with her 'guide'. "So… um… where is everyone? I know Joshua brought Neku and the others back into the RG, but did he bring any of the Reapers back? Or…"
"He did bring a few of them back. Only a few, though. Only those who were 'worth it' in his mind."
"What, like Def Mӓrch? Or Uzuki and Kariya (then again, I don't think they died)? What about some of the Reaper Officers who went down? I thought that once you're erased, you can't come back."
Kana didn't answer her. It troubled Penerope a little, as it likely meant nobody was there.
"…There are exceptions to that rule from what I know. Only one of the officers was brought back. Those other two Reapers you mentioned have been here a while, and I don't know who the last group you're talking about is, but they might've been. The only Reaper I know directly is Coco Atarashi."
Penerope went silent, not aware of who that was. Kana paused and stared at Penerope bewildered. That character wasn't recognizable to the girl. "Don't ya know who Coco is!? She's the guide! How do you not know who she is?!"
"I've never heard of her. Is she from a different version or something?"
Kana face palmed and shook her head in disbelief. Her deep blue eyes pierced through Penerope's brown ones. "Have you lived under a rock your entire life or something, kid? How do you not know who Coco is?"
"I've only played TWEWY on the DS, if that helps. I didn't bother with the Solo Remix or the Live Remix." In that brief moment, Penerope forgot that in this world, The World Ends With You was reality and not a game. Kana didn't know what Penerope was talking about now.
Kana was tempted to smack Penerope for her ignorance but decided against it.
As the two of them continued walking, Penerope continued her Q&A. "Who's the Conductor now? Is it still Kitaniji?"
"Kitaniji? I dunno who that is, but they aren't the Conductor. There's only a handful of Reapers right now." Kana continued to explain. It seemed that Kana was just as oblivious as she was when it came to the Reapers.
"Ok. Is there another game going on?"
Kana shook her head. "Nope. Having a game is difficult when there's so few Reapers and one officer."
"Who's the Officer now?"
Kana shrugged at the question. "Dunno. I heard they were promoted to being the Conductor, but it might be a rumor. I know two of the reapers that have been here a while have been considered to be bumped up to Officers."
Penerope continued to flood Kana with questions. It didn't bother her as much, though she wasn't able to answer very many. Next thing Penerope knew, they were already at the Dead God's Pad. Kana stopped the questions as she popped open the door and let Penerope in.
Many of Penerope's questions were answered. She only saw four Reapers in the room, which seemed like a lot in her opinion.
Uzuki and Kariya were there, which was fortunate (Penerope secretly liked their dynamic). Then there was an unknown beige-haired girl in what could be the pinkest and candiest outfit known to man. The last one Penerope saw was Sho Minamimoto. He looked visibly annoyed (by something) and was staring at the wall. He looked like he was recovering from something, as his left arm was in a cast and he was a little bruised in places.
Penerope had a feeling that she knew why Sho wasn't looking good in the slightest. Kana came back into the room as Penerope was awkwardly sizing everyone up. None of the Reapers paid much attention to her.
Kana heeded no attention to them either. She proceeded to continue guiding Penerope to the Room of Reckoning. The only one who acknowledged Penerope was Sho as she was getting to the door. Penerope and he locked eye contact until Kana shoved the girl through the door and ruined the moment.
Penerope was confused by what she had just seen and she stared at Kana. "…Was Sho the Officer brought back from the dead?"
"Mr. Minamimoto? No. He's been alive a while, but I dunno if he was brought back from the dead or not."
"…Who was the Officer then?"
"Ms. Konishi. I dunno if she's the Conductor or not though."
Penerope narrowed her eyes at Joshua's decision. "Why the actual $%# would he decide to revive HER from the dead!? And how was she brought back?"
Kana shrugged, responding to Penerope's thought. She didn't know Joshua's exact reasoning, so she gave a theory. "Well, he needed to bring back at least ONE responsible officer."
"She wanted to overthrow Kitaniji to become the Conductor!"
"I still have no idea who that is…." Penerope sighed at Kana's ignorance.
The pair continued to move on to the Room of Reckoning. At this point, Penerope had many questions that she needed answered.
She especially needed to wake up soon if she didn't want to miss Akira's concert. He'd flip if she skipped it on purpose.
XxXxX
(Room of Reckoning)
Penerope regret being dragged into the Room of Reckoning as soon as she stepped in. At one moment in the hall, Penerope hesitated on going into the room upon reaching the door, except Kana pushed her in there anyway without a second glance. Penerope nervously walked up the steps, seeing a tall white throne with pillars around it. Black dragons decorated the pillars and went up into the dark sky of the room. On the dark grey floor, black pathlike patterns led to the throne and the pillars.
It was a different feeling to be in the room in this dream instead of seeing it on a screen. It looked like nobody was here, so Penerope thought it would be fine to leave. Nobody was there, after all.
Sheepishly, Penerope turned to the door and began to head toward it. However, Kana was kind enough to not let her leave.
"Nuh uh, girl. You can't just leave! Your stalling and persistence has caused us to make the Composer wait for an hour when we should've been here a while ago. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Composer's patient but come on."
Penerope laughed nervously. "But he's not here. Shouldn't we wait for him to come back?"
"…No. He's definitely here." Kana stated, looking up and around. It seemed like the girl could sense his looming presence, which Penerope disliked.
Another voice chimed into the mix. "Why, Penelope dear. It was quite rude of you to keep me waiting." All of the chills were sent down Penerope's spine as soon as she heard Joshua's voice. Especially how it echoed throughout the room and basically surrounded her.
Kana proceeded to whisper in Penerope's ear. "I told ya so. Go to the center of the room and apologize." Hesitantly, Penerope obeyed the order even though it was far from being satisfactory. There was also the fact that it still didn't look like Joshua was there despite that she had just heard him speak.
When she edged closer, there was a white flash and it nearly scared the life out of Penerope when she saw Joshua. In a very brief moment, Penerope could've sworn she had seen Joshua in his Composer form.
However, with a grin, he was in his RG form. He silently dismissed Kana, who bowed and took the door behind her. Penerope looked back nervously, panic starting to ease into her mind. Kana never gave her goddamn phone back after she stole it from her!
"How has your stay been so far, Penelope? This place hasn't been as expected, hmm?"
Penerope, who was disliking the fact Joshua was still referring to her as the name her friends called her, decided to not utter a word. When she heard his voice in her head (as it was likely her brain speaking), he always called her "Penerope" not "Penelope". Sure, she input her name as 'Penelope' in some games, with TWEWY being one of those games, but he couldn't have been reading off her player name.
The idea of 'her stay' in TWEWY seemed weird though. This was a dream… Well, that's what Penerope continued trying to convince herself. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "What are you blabbing about? This is a video-game induced dream. Though…"
Penerope looked around, avoiding eye contact. "This is probably the weirdest dream I've ever had. It's strangely hyper realistic but then again, the Mario Party DS dream was like that too."
"…Dream? Well, you're quite good at convincing yourself of the complete opposite in specific situations. I'd hate to disappoint you, but this is the reality I live in and the one you're in now."
At this point, the girl was fed up with this nonsense. All the questions she had right now didn't concern her. "Ok. Prove this is real. Try and make me feel so much pain that it would make me wake up."
Joshua didn't get why Penerope was demanding to feel pain, but he decided to grant her wish for the hell of it. He frowned, trying to recall something. "Penelope, mind answering a quick question for me?"
"…Huh? What, is this a question that if I get wrong, I'll be struck by a Jesus Beam?"
Joshua shook his head. "No. I was wondering if you remembered your rank in this 'game'."
Penerope couldn't look at her copy of TWEWY that she had in her DS Lite. She had to rely on Akira's-copy-that-was-technically-hers-now. "I tried to 100% this game somehow, so I tried to play it as perfectly as possible and fulfill all the requirements." Penerope frowned and looked away. "I haven't gotten the highest rank yet though. I know it doesn't end at Angel."
The Composer paused, giving Penerope this confused yet curious stare. He looked pleasantly surprised (it wasn't out of sarcasm for once). "…What do you even do on your free time? It seems like you throw it at video games like you have nothing better to do with your life."
Penerope flipped her hair as she continued to load up the game, ignoring Joshua's comments. "Well, as you've said, everybody makes sacrifices. You'd be amazed how much progress and grinding I can get done when I'm on a break."
"How you're able to keep living despite that is beyond me."
"Says the ruler of the dead." Penerope grumbled under her breath as she checked her ranking.
She finally answered his question, raising up her finger. "Angel. I have 6999 ESP'er points in this copy."
Joshua was speechless. It wasn't speechlessness out of surprise, but more like speechlessness out of disappointment for Penerope's skill at timewasting. He figured that showing Penerope this wasn't a dream wouldn't be as simple as he thought.
He also couldn't just make her an Angel based on that rank. That wasn't how this system worked. The closest thing he could do was make her a Reaper. Or a Reaper Officer at that.
If he wanted to, he could make her the Conductor, but at the moment, Joshua already had a Conductor. Killing his current Conductor would be pointless just for this.
Normally, the process of making someone a Reaper wasn't all that painful. In fact, one moment, they didn't have wings, the next, they did. However, Penerope wasn't from this world.
"Well, to prove it to you, I'll just do this!"
Joshua proceeded to snap his fingers. The next moment, Penerope felt this searing, ripping feeling in her back. It felt like something was pushing out of her back or trying to rip it apart. It seemed big too and felt like a sword plunging through her chest. The difference was that it was painful throughout instead of being painful one moment and then losing blood as soon as the sword was taken out.
Once whatever was now in her back began to push out, Penerope let out an ear-piercing wail. Joshua was starting to think he might've overdone it (as making a Reaper was as simple as mentioned), but then again, she asked for it. This wasn't the worst thing he had ever done.
Penerope blacked out once her thin, black skeletal wings appeared. The pain was too much to bear.
Still, it did indicate one thing that she was unaware of.
This wasn't a dream in the slightest.
XxXxX
(Reality)
She had never skipped out on a concert as long as they were friends. This was one of his most important concerts he had ever played piano for, yet Penerope had decided to skip it. The last bit of communication he had received from her was at around 4:30 PM, when Penerope mentioned something about sleep-texting. She usually arrived 30 minutes before the concert started to hang out with her friends.
It was 9:30 now. The concert, which had started at 5:00 PM and was four hours long, had ended 30 minutes ago, and Penerope didn't even show her goddamn face. Yuri, her grandmother did, but Penerope was selfish enough as to not.
The bottom line was that Akira Yamada was pissed. He had been trying to call Penerope and text her, but she hadn't picked up. Despite that Akira was upset, Penerope and Akira's other three friends in their friend group were not. Mayu was worried something bad had happened to Penerope (like she had been kidnapped while during a long game session); Rin had a similar feeling and was wanting to look for her (and kick the culprit's ass for it); and Makoto was simply convinced that someone had murdered Penerope before she had come to the concert.
All of them were aware of her plans for the day, being to finish 'Another Day' on her first The World Ends With You copy. Still, completing that chapter wouldn't take that long. It didn't the first time around, and since Penerope was wary of that copy, she'd probably try to finish it in record time.
It never took her this long to complete anything, especially if it was a short part of a game. Rin was done waiting for her friend, standing up and stamping her foot on the ground. There was an afterparty going on in the lobby of the concert hall, while the four fifteen-year-olds were still around the stage area.
She flipped her blonde hair and shouted, "Aight. We either gon' look for Pen, or we gettin' a bowl of ramen. The concert felt like forever!" Rin was starting to get dead set on the idea of making a four-man search party to find their friend. Mayu wasn't too keen on the idea, tugging nervously on her dark brown hair.
"Um… that might not be a good idea. It's late, and Penelope might be asleep or playing a long session of a game she hasn't completed yet. Or… someone kidnapped her."
Akira was still angrily trying to text Penerope but wasn't getting any responses. He glared at the end of the stage hall from where he was standing. "I'm ready to throw my phone across the room if she doesn't answer!"
"Akira, will you chill? When was the last time she texted ya?" Makoto asked, hoping to ease Akira.
It didn't work. "4:30. She stopped answering as soon as it occurred to her she was sleep-texting somehow. It's been 5 hours and I'm getting worried and angry."
That alarmed the other three. Mayu tried her best to smile and asked. "Well… did she say what her dream was about?"
"I was guessing it was about TWEWY since it was the game she was playing at the time. Remember when she had that one Mario Party DS dream when she played it after studying for the finals?"
Akira's phone buzzed, and he paused, stopping what he was saying. He checked the text, only to look puzzled. Rin, Mayu and Makoto were worried noting how he was troubled. They swarmed around him and tried to look at the text, only for Akira to push them away. He didn't understand the text.
"Yo man, what's the deal? Why won'tcha let us look!?" She asked, trying to shove her way in.
"I don't get what she means." Akira explained upon fully processing it.
Mayu tugged on her hair again. "Um… may I read it aloud? If it's ok with you, Akira."
Akira nonchalantly handed her his phone. "Go at it. Try and decipher it."
Mayu didn't appreciate the sarcasm, but she cleared her throat. "Ok… Ahem. Akira, this isn't a dream. I was wrong. I'm trapped in here."
As Mayu was reading, Penerope sent another text, so she continued reading (with Akira's permission, of course). "I wanted to complete 'Another Day'. That's all I wanted to do. However, this isn't the same world. I seriously can't complete the game because this IS the game and I'm stuck in its world."
Rin and Makoto weren't following it. Akira motioned for Mayu to respond. Awkwardly, she typed, "Hi, this is Mayu using Akira's phone. We were worried about you, Pen. What are you talking about though? How are you trapped? Do you need help?"
Penerope responded almost immediately, and Mayu read the text. "Mayu, I mean what I said. I've been trapped in 'The World Ends With You' by one of the characters! My game was another world and not entirely a game. I can't get out so easily."
Akira proceeded to take his phone back from Mayu and texted Penerope again. "Ok, this is Akira. Are you sure you're not kidding, and, how can you not get out? You missed the concert. Why didn't you respond either?!"
"Kana took my phone and didn't let me use it. I tried to reply, just to let ya know. I blacked out for a few hours once I got turned into a Reaper in the most painful way possible."
"Penelope, you're going to have to show evidence if I'm going to believe this."
There was a few long pauses between Penerope's last text and Akira's text that demanded for evidence. At first, Akira was triumphant, thinking that he managed to 'win' this battle until Penerope sent a photo over.
It was a photo that was rare of her to send, being a selfie. It was a known fact by Penerope's friends that she almost never took selfies because of their pointlessness. Akira didn't recognize the location Penerope was in, but he kinda recognized those wings. However, the memory was foggy.
Makoto recognized the location almost instantaneously. He grabbed at Akira's phone and snatched it from him without a word of permission and stared at it in shock. To see if this was reality, he rubbed his eyes. His jaw dropped as soon as it hit him. "Holy shiitake mushrooms."
Rin was upset that she was allowed to see virtually nothing of what was going on. "Wassup with the photo, Makoto? Why won'tcha let us look at it?!" Rin's complaining caused Makoto to raise up the phone. It took a bit for Rin to recognize the place, but Mayu understood.
"Huh? Is that the Dead God's Pad? How did Pen get in there?"
Akira raised an eyebrow. "The what?"
Makoto bopped Akira on the head and glared at him. "Look, you didn't play through the whole game or save your progress, so you're the only one left in the dark."
"Ok, but how do we know that place is real and that her wings are real? She could just as easily be cosplaying something."
Makoto frowned before proceeding to text Penerope again. "Hey, this is Makoto. Everyone is using Akira's phone this evening, except for Rin. Could ya verify that those are actual Reaper wings? Akira's not believing it."
"Of course he isn't." Penerope texted back. It took a few moments for her to verify, but yes, there actually were wings on her back.
Rin finally stole the phone (much to Akira's dismay. The last time she used his phone, she broke it and caused him to have to buy a new one). She was ready to (somehow) go over and kick whoever-did-this's-ass. "K, who did this? Where are they and where are you?!"
When Penerope texted back (knowing it was Rin), she replied, "Joshua; in the Room of Reckoning; and I'm in TWEWY's Shibuya. I don't know how I was dragged in here, but I wouldn't recommend going and trying to kick Joshua's ass."
"Look, I don't care if he has lasers. I have my fists!"
"Rin, don't. I'm already in a rough spot already, and I don't want you to make it worse."
"Still don't care."
"Rin, please stop being Beat. I'm pretty sure even Beat knows to not pick the wrong fights."
"Have you met the man yet?"
"No."
"K, then don't go preachin' because I'm gonna go kick that angel's ass!"
"How are you even going to get here though? You can't go trying to kick someone's ass if you don't know how to get to the place."
Rin nearly threw Akira's phone on the ground if he didn't take it from her as soon as possible. The blonde's face was flushed, and she stamped her foot down. "Goddammit! How are we gonna get there if we don't know how?!"
Mayu sighed, trying to calm the situation. She smiled at the others and spoke as they tried to figure out a game plan. "Ok, guys. Let's calm down before we dive headfirst into this or pop a blood vessel (Rin). Obviously, we can't help Penerope right away since this is more complicated than we thought."
"Whaddya mean we can't!?" Rin shouted, appearing visibly upset.
Mayu patted Rin on the head and looked at her seriously. She used a tone that was gentle, like the one she used when talking to her little sister Shinobu. Her deep brown eyes stared into Rin's chocolate brown ones. "We simply can't, Rin. Until both parties get more information, we're stuck."
Rin groaned out of frustration before pouting and crossing her arms. "Fiiiiine. Let's go get some ramen now. I'm starving!"
The quartet didn't have much to do at the moment. And they most certainly couldn't help their friend at a time like this.
For now, all they could really do was wait.
Especially as Penerope was just as lost as they were.
