Coup D'Etat

Ch. 7 Part One

Joshua glanced wordlessly around the capacious Room of Reckoning, frowning at the tainted music that beat out through the walls. He closed the door upon entering and warded it, not wanting to make it easier for their 'little friend' to follow. He wanted the man to put up a struggle, to tire out, before he got to Shibuya's Composer and Conductor. Regardless, the silver-haired Composer glanced around the room, frowning at the fading graffiti on the walls. His eyes fell to the ground at once, not saying a word. The sound of Shibuya was distorted and choppy in this room, making it hard to concentrate on the beauty and purity of the city. This was all just a huge mess.

The room hadn't gotten any cozier from the last time Neku had visited. Though he didn't have agoraphobia, this place made a small part of him want to curl up into a little ball and shake. His footfalls rang hollow, sounding far too loud against the silence and he could hear the echo of his own breathing. He really didn't like this place. There were too many terrible memories, hanging from the walls like ghosts. "Kind of gloomy isn't it?" he mused aloud, just for the sake of saying something to drive away the quiet that was rattling his bones.

"Hm...that it is," Joshua agreed with a nod and walked down the middle of the grey room, violet eyes glued to the nearing throne. He said nothing more to his Conductor for the time being. Carefully, he stalked up to the throne and stretched out his right arm. Pale, sinewy fingers glided over the chilly arm-rest, wincing at the lack of heat. It was always cold...always a mirror image of its ruler.

Neku shifted, feeling uncomfortable to be in Joshua's presence for the first time in a while. He couldn't be blamed, the last time he and the Composer were in this room... "I never got a chance to ask, but," Neku spoke up, "what exactly is this place?"

Joshua paused, fingers flattening against the cold stone. "This is the heart of Shibuya," he explained, voice void of any real emotion or tone. "It's the center of this part of Tokyo and where the Composer calls home. Most of all the Music that is made is created here."

"It's... so empty." Neku closed his eyes and reached out with his senses and shuddered at what he could feel. What Music remained in the room had been heavily damaged but the bare traces that he could still make out cried out in sadness and isolation. "Tell me that this isn't how it always is."

"No, it's not," Joshua reasoned. "It's just...taken a beating lately with everything that has occurred," the Composer explained tonelessly and resumed running his thin fingers over the throne.

Neku ached to ask about the events that took place during his last day in the Game but was wary about how to broach the topic. "... you said this was your home. Where the hell do you sleep?"

"There's a door leading to a hallway in the far corner," Joshua explained, his left hand rising to point at the corner nestled in the back of the room on the right. "It leads to a few rooms. Most of the previous Composers chose to continue with their RG lives and live with the ones they left...but considering I don't have such connections, this is my home."

"When we first met... you told me that 'Joshua' was what your parents called you. What happened to them?" Neku unconsciously chewed his lower lip, worried that the question had been too personal.

"They died awhile ago," Joshua explained with another indifferent shrug. "I stayed with Sanae for a few months but decided I was intruding and instead chose here."

With a start, Neku realized that the Music he had heard left behind in the walls was an echo of the Composer's melancholy. "Josh... Do you ever get lonely?"

Joshua quirked a brow and kept his gaze steady on the familiar throne. "I suppose," he mused, voice concealing the honesty in that statement.

The Conductor felt his throat constrict as he stared at his Composer's form, a silhouette in the dim lighting and was again astounded by how human he was. Despite all of his infuriating smugness and superiority, Neku's heart went out to him. He let out a small cough to hide his uneasiness. "You need to redecorate," he complained. "After this, we should go buy some... furniture."

"Furniture? I have furniture in the other rooms," Joshua stated slowly, cryptically. "Megumi rarely came in here. Mostly the room prior is used..."

Neku huffed, crossing his arms. "You'll still need to fix this place up, if you're ever going to spend any amount of time in this place. I mean, how can you even stand looking at this? It's just depressing."

Joshua sighed and rolled his eyes. "What? You plan on spending time in here too?" He turned back around to face Neku, eyes staring at the Conductor with disbelief.

The truth was, Neku didn't quite believe that he was willing to either. "I am going to be working here, after all," Neku answered with a sigh. "That other place outside looks like some kind of bar. It doesn't even have proper a desk and there's fish swimming around on the ground."

"Megumi designed it, can't you tell?" Joshua hummed and took a seat on the throne, thick eyelashes falling down to cover his eyes in a blanket of darkness for the time being. With his eyes closed, he looked utterly vulnerable.

The new Conductor fidgeted at the mention of the man he had as good as erased. "... not to speak ill of my predecessor, but... what the heck was Shades thinking?" He observed the tired figure ruler of Shibuya and felt rather like he was intruding upon a private moment.

"I'm not entirely sure. He never let me into his thoughts...I suppose that's why Shibuya was as cold as it was those years," the silveret hummed to himself, eyes shut in total concentration. "I know you're wanting to ask so go ahead. Ask me what you will."

"You guys weren't... friends?" Neku took the invitation without hesitating. He hoped Joshua's answers would be less cryptic this time.

"Distant friends, if you will," Joshua explained, shrugging his shoulders as he rested back against the throne. "He preferred work--I didn't bother him. I only contacted him when necessary. He ran the game smoothly."

"Where... where is he now?" Neku asked, partly because he was still not over his guilt at his hand in defeating the man who had only wanted to protect Shibuya... and partly to delay asking the one he wanted to the most.

"...He was erased, as the rules stated when he received his timer," Joshua murmured distantly.

"When Rhyme was erased... she come back as Noise," Neku recounted hesitantly, "is... is that what happened to him?"

Joshua was silent for a moment. "I'd like to think that," he admitted, shifting uncomfortably on the throne. "I'd like to think that he's in Noise form out there, or that he somehow received reincarnation..."

"Yeah," the Conductor echoed. He attempted to ignore the dull atmosphere that had fallen over them. "For the record, I am not going to bet with you. On anything."

"Mm...I was against the bet originally," the Composer admitted and shrugged. "Megumi made me reconsider my position...I was going to erase Shibuya for good, but you convinced me otherwise."

There. That was what Neku had wanted answered more than anything. "I... I was so sure that it was the end. That you were going to erase everything; the streets, the buildings, my friends... everything. But you changed your mind... because of me? How? What did I do?" He lowered his gaze to the floor and saw himself reflected there, looking back at him bitterly.

Joshua inhaled deeply, eyes shutting. "You showed me there was another side of Shibuya, one I had been ignoring. I was concentrating on its flaws...its impurities. You showed me friendship. I admit, that sounds horribly cliché and sappy. I chose you because you reminded me of myself...I was mistaken. You're far bigger of a person than I ever was. Shibuya knows that and chose you as its Conductor. And you see, I chose you as well, not just because the city needed you. There's a fine line between wanting something and needing it. I don't just need you, I want you."

Neku fell silent at the answer, contemplative; he had been sure that Joshua would have dodged the question as he tended to whenever Neku tried to get serious. He felt a heady rush of relief and happiness that the friendship that he had so treasured hadn't been a lie. Then he quirked an eyebrow when he registered the last sentence. "Wait... what do you mean by 'you want me'?"

Joshua shifted his gaze off Neku, eyes slipping shut once more. "It's nothing," he murmured, hands strumming against the armrest.

And the Composer was back to being vague. This only made Neku more curious. "You can't just say something like that and not explain. What did you mean?"

Joshua silently growled under his breath. "What I meant was..." He trailed off, partly because he couldn't say the rest and partly because he heard faint noises outside the door. Quickly, the Composer got to his feet, eyes flashing open, as he concentrated on said door. At once, his body began to glow faintly.

Neku cursed himself at lowering his guard and spun around to face the doorway, planting his feet firmly onto the floor's glassy surface. He had almost forgotten that they were about to face the worst threat to the City's existence that they had ever seen. "He's here..."

"Gee, I hadn't figured that out," Joshua stated sarcastically as he felt each and every spell on the door being broken. The Composer tensed, feeling the fabric of Shibuya fraying...the strands coming undone. The only thing that kept it together now was his Conductor. As he stood there, he prayed that his Producer would feel the sudden decline and keep the others safe.

Neku flinched as he could keenly hear Shibuya wailing as it struggled to hold itself together. Gritting his teeth, he held on through the terrible tremors and prepared to face unimaginable horrors. "This guy's a monster."

"I agree," Joshua mused and fell silent when he watched the doors fly open, a dark blue light drifting in along with the figure of a teenage boy. He tensed further and protectively brought up a dim shield around his Conductor.

"Good to see you and your Conductor survived this long," the dark-haired male stated as he entered the room and met the gaze of the pair.

"You asshole," Neku growled. Then he asked the default question that one demands from a villain. "Why the fuck are you doing all this?"

"Because, this city needs some reforming...needs a bit more fear and chaos. A person's true colors don't show until death is right there--this whole city is fake. So easily brainwashed...why not put it to good use?" the male laughed as he gave a tug absently to his jacket sleeve, smirking boldly at the pair.

"Can't you think of a better, not-cliché reason to overthrow a ruler?" Joshua questioned sarcastically, eyebrows furrowing. "The entire 'create an empire' thing is really getting old," the Composer all but growled as he glowed brighter from anger.

"So basically," Neku summed up, sneering, "You're just another pathetic coward who gets the warm fuzzies when you fuck things up."

The man growled, losing his composure at the insults. "I didn't expect you'd have the capacity to understand my reasoning." He tossed his hair back with an irritated scowl. "Well, enough talk. I'll be taking that throne!" To punctuate his words, he flicked a wrist and what appeared to be at least a thousand Rogues rose from the shadows that pooled at his feet.

Joshua's eyes narrowed at the chattering of the dark Noise, their music so wretched and horrid. He raised his Conductor's shield before unleashing a flash of blinding light, dispelling the approaching noise that had stepped too close to the pair. Being Composer did have its perks when it came to power.

"That's not going to do anything, you know," the man chuckled as another group of Noise took the place of the erased ones, the earlier ones progressing closer still.

"Why don't you fight like a real ruler would. Alone and without your minions?" Joshua quipped, voice dark and dangerous. He just hoped it didn't perturb his own Conductor too much.

Neku felt a small chill run down his back at the Composer's tone but was too busy with covering their backs to pay it any mind. He had pulled out his Black Planet set and vaporized a mutated corehog before it could turn them into Swiss cheese. "We're not even making a dent..." he told Joshua in a harsh shout.

The one Neku had affectionately nicknamed Psycho grinned, baring a perfect set of white teeth. "Do you know why a King has an army? It's so that he wouldn't have to dirty himself with riffraff. And besides," he added, brushing a piece of invisible lint from his long coat, "where's the fun in giving you better odds? It's not particularly smart."

Joshua rolled his eyes. "So you admit that you're just a weak bastard who can't do anything without someone else," the Composer drawled and shot another wave of light at the enemy, eyebrows knitting together in frustration.

"You amuse me, Composer," the man chuckled as his hand glowed a faint red, an orb of fire appearing in it. "I bet you'd grovel at my feet if I had your pretty little Conductor by the throat."

Neku's eyes widened as the massive attack hurtled towards them. Without thinking he leapt in front of Joshua, throwing a barrier of water between his body and the fireball and braced himself as the attack hit, the flames pushing him backwards as steam erupted around him, inevitably blocking his vision. Suddenly, the heat vanished and Neku let out a pained cry as a clawed hand shot out from the mist and imbedded itself into his abdomen.

Joshua's eyes grew dark and rather venomous when he realized something had harmed his Conductor. His body glowed brighter than before as he stepped to the side of Neku, arms stretching out. Without warning, hot light filled the expansive room, the Composer pissed off more than earlier thought plausible.

The man tossed his head back and gave an exhilarated laugh, despite Joshua's obvious display of power. "Your expression is exquisite, my dear Composer," he taunted. He casually, slid his fingers out from the Neku's body, evoking a strangled scream and splattering the floor with blood. A split-second later, he vanished from his position and reappeared across the room, behind his army.

Neku let out a gasp as he slid to the floor, trying to stem the blood flow with one hand and clumsily reactivating the healing barrier with the other. "I'm ok," he bit out to reassure the Composer.

Joshua fumbled to toss any healing energy he could possibly muster up at that moment to his Conductor. He growled under his breath once more and allowed beams of ethereal light to shoot down from the high ceilings, spades and spears raining down upon the army with no reservations.

The Noise were quickly decimated, no match at all for the Composer's fury. However, the grin on their enemy's face never faded. He clapped sarcastically. "Oh, bravo," he praised, "but that was simply an appetizer."

Neku's wound was thankfully not too deep and it soon scabbed over with the combination of their healing powers. He stood back up shakily, breathing hard. "Shit... what's this guy planning now?"

"I don't know," Joshua admitted with a shake of his head, voice still laced with dark intentions and anger. "You shouldn't be fighting Neku. Shibuya can't afford to lose its Conductor," he whispered harshly under his breath as he kept his gaze trained to the enemy, preparing himself for whatever was to come.

"And it can afford to lose its Composer?" Neku shot back. "Hell no. I'm not going to abandon you. And it's not like I can just politely ask him to let me pass the exit."

Joshua sighed fretfully. "You're so stubborn," he groaned and raised the barrier around them further, not wanting his Conductor to suffer yet another blow.

"You two are so sweet," the psychopath cooed, leering at the pair. "It almost makes me want to rethink blasting you to oblivion." His shadows snaked across the floor, encircling Neku and Joshua. Their surfaces bubbled and numerous pale, wraithlike torsos rose from their depths, their limbs grasping and flailing and etched across each of their sunken faces was a parody of a grin. "Since I'm so generous, I decided to bring a few gifts. I think you should remember them, little Conductor. You got to play with them about a day ago," he directed this at Neku's horrified and disgusted expression.

"This is absurd," Joshua growled, surveying the enemies with a pointed stare. He needed to figure out a weak point and fast before they decided to lash out and break down the barrier the two had constructed. It was almost sad that two men of such power had to use a barrier to keep themselves from imminent death. If it wasn't such a deadly situation, Joshua would have laughed.

"If you weren't such a power-hungry lunatic, I may have considered handing over my position and ascending," the Composer tsked, shooting out daggers of ice from the barrier towards the wiggling shadowy figures.

"Why don't you save yourself the trouble and do it anyway?" the man suggested in an oily voice and clicked his tongue. "Time is ticking, my dear. You should have about two hours. I have eternity."

Neku shifted his body closer to Joshua's until their backs were touching; facing away from what had once been people. He hoped that this way, the Composer would be able to reduce the space the barrier had to over. "We have to think of something, fast."

"We need to focus our attacks on him," Joshua whispered in a berated voice, eyes narrowing at the contorted bodies of the shadows lurching in front of him. "Fight him, I'll protect you and keep these hideous things from breaking through." After his words, he shot out another array of ice and scorching light.

Neku shook his head at the plan, grabbing onto Joshua's arm. "Wait... I don't want to have to hurt those guys. They're just innocent people caught up in this mess. Like those Reapers who had the red skull pins. They're still human; just... twisted by that Music." His eyes suddenly lit up. "Maybe we can try fixing them! Then we can get that Psycho-freak."

Joshua groaned. "Neku..." His hesitation said what words couldn't about his character. He wasn't like his Conductors...he didn't like fixing things. Either it was correct or it faced erasure. With another groan, the Composer wearily nodded and focused instead on the corrupted, earsplitting music from the ghostly figures, trying his best to listen and keep the barrier supported all at once.

Neku shut his eyes, trusting that Joshua would be able to shield them both. He was thankful that the barrier had also prevented the madman to hear their conversation. He blocked out the burning from his wounds and his exhaustion reached out to the grotesquely damaged Music. Spreading his senses out, he drew the screeching to him, despite the pain he felt just by coming into contact with it. He could feel his own Music shriek in protest and threaten to corrode. Gasping, he clutched at his head, but refused to give up.

Joshua, determined to keep his Conductor safe at all costs, reached behind him and slipped his hand around Neku's free wrist, letting his Music trickle into the youth's head. Anything to calm Neku and give him something pleasant to work with so that he wouldn't go insane from the power in the room.

The Conductor let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as the familiar and soothing Music filled him. Twisting his wrist until he could return Joshua's grip, he plunged back into the rotten melody.

Growing impatient, their attacker raised his hand in the air, signaling his army. "Finish them." The ferocity of the attacks doubled.

'I won't let you die again in this room, Neku. I promise.' Joshua's gaze hardened further as he felt the attacks hitting the barrier, making his skin burn in response. He upped the energy more and went about assisting his Conductor in the broken melodies, barely able to detect that the songs were once human. It was similar to someone banging their hands down onto a piano with all the foot peddles pushed down.

Neku dived deeper and deeper into the disgusting song, barely managing not to drown. Slowly, he was able to differentiate where the psychopath's Music had merged with his victims. Painstakingly, he began the draining task of untangling the horrifying strands. The twisted Music responded to his efforts by wailing and twisting to evade his grasp. Frustrated, Neku reached and with power he didn't know he had, tore the melodies straight out from the shriveled bodies. The wretched Souls hung, suspended about them. Using the Music of Shibuya as a base, he wove a new pattern to replace old and with a burst of energy, forced them back into the possessed humans.

"Good job, Neku," Joshua whispered with exhaustion under his breath as he felt the volume of the uniquely grotesque music lower. He concentrated on a few victims himself, so used to Shibuya's true music that the task of constructing a new melody wasn't all that hard. His fingers tightened on Neku's wrist, watching as, one by one, the disgusting dark figures disappeared, the freed humans being sent back to the RG, unscathed, where they belonged.

"It... worked," Neku breathed, marveling at the now cleansed citizens of Shibuya vanished in a burst of while flames.

Their enemy on the other hand, was not nearly as pleased. An ugly scowl spread across his face as he watched his hard-earned slaves disappear. "You fools!" he shrieked, sending spears of solidified darkness at the weakened pair. "How dare you?!"

"You hurt my Conductor. You're on my erase-list," Joshua spat simply and shot up a few towers of light, hoping to weaken the darkness before it hit their damaged barrier. His body took on a brighter glow as he stared down the man harshly, far more serious than he had ever been before in his life.

The attacks were coming erratically as the madman was beside himself in his rage. "You... this is far from over!" Suddenly, chains shot out, wrapping themselves around his limbs. He howled in agony as they zapped his strength and immobilized him. Snarling viciously, he identified Neku, with a Love Me Tether in his grasp, as the culprit.

"Fuck you," the boy spat. "And get rid of Joshua's Timer!"

Joshua smirked over his shoulder at his partner, gratitude shimmering in his usually sarcastic eyes. "And to think I almost didn't pick you," he purred and turned back to face the enemy, sending beams of light directed at the man ensnarled in the chains.

The man howled in agony as the attack seared his flesh. He dropped, hanging limply, held up by the chains. "You... insects!"

Joshua smirked and let his wrist drop from Neku's arm, fingers skimming over the boy's palm briefly. "You deserve every ounce of pain that's coming your way," the Composer stated darkly.

Neku's heart thumped painfully in his chest. Was it... finally over? For one glorious moment he dared to hope.

"Hah..." The man let out a humorless laugh. "Don't celebrate just yet," he warned.

Joshua's gaze returned to its earlier intensity. "Are you up for his trump card?" the silveret asked under his breath, figuring that something worse was about to come flying their way. Absently, he rested his fingers against Neku's palm.

"Of course," Neku muttered with some disappointment. He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up.

Joshua giggled weakly under his breath as a set of massive white wings flew from his back the moment he stepped a foot away from Neku. They resembled regular Reaper wings, but were far larger and glowing white, nearly see-through.

A low whistle sounded quietly. Neku was impressed, if not a little envious. "Nice wings," he said, by way of explanation.

Joshua smirked and stepped beside his partner once more, wings stretching. "I'll teach you how to use yours later," the Composer murmured and set his gaze back on the struggling man whose eyes were now glowing an off red. Joshua's smug demeanor faltered once again.

The man's pale visage contorted as his jaw stretched so widely that his cheeks tore and his brown eyes rolled back in their sockets and sunk in, while leaked a steady trail of black fluid. The remaining skin on his face hardened into a dull red with the texture of bark. A hump grew beneath his coat before it was torn to shreds as countless bonelike ligaments branched out from his back. His fingers elongated and thickened, then split apart from each other, shredding his arm into hideous writhing appendages. Hysterical laughter bubbled from his throat as the rest of his body underwent a similar transformation. A Reaper's Noise form was usually an animal that they identified with the most. In this case, this man was...

"A monster," Neku whispered out in horrified fascination gawking at the thing that now took up almost the entire room. The words were a gross understatement. Quite literally.

Joshua's face expressed the sudden horror that was bestowed upon the pair. The Composer's jaw dropped a bit, eyes widening for a mere second before resuming their narrowed stance. Without a second thought, he continued channeling energy to the barrier around them, chewing on his bottom lip as he did such. He needed to find a weakness with this thing now. The people had been easy. This thing…it didn't even have Music.

"If you think that's hideous, you should see my Noise form, dear," Joshua stated mockingly under his breath, wings stretching as energy continued to drip from his fingertips, into the floor around them and the air. "Any plans of attack, Neku?"

"Are you kidding me?" Neku exclaimed, shrinking back, "I'm preoccupied enough with counting that thing's legs." The only semblance of a battle plan that he could muster up at the moment consisted of closing his eyes, screaming, and randomly hitting it with projectiles.

"If you're scared, all you have to do is say the word and I'll hold you," Joshua cooed, voice doing a decent job at containing his own fear and disgust. His eyes continued dancing over the scaly, blistering flesh, finding it more complex by the second. Random spikes and horns protruded from the raw and bleeding flesh, proving the 'Noise' to be more than just a foe.

"Neku..." Joshua stated uneasily as he ground his feet harder into the ground, holding his ground. His form dimmed a bit, struggling to formulate a plan in his usually spot-on mind. Anything great would suffice but...

"Having you hold me would be scarier," Neku continued their banter as it was the only thing that kept him from giving in to his instincts and screaming. He pulled out his Drake pin and aimed a tall burst of flames at a random part of the monster's body. "We have to start from somewhere!" he suggested.

Joshua growled some at the energy already pulsating from the monster's body. Every single limb seemed to be radiating death and an abundance of unreserved energy. It truly disturbed the Composer. "Wonder if shooting it would work," he stated dryly as he assisted his Conductor in shooting beams of light near the same section that Neku was attacking.

Neku continued his assault alongside his partner, using only ranged attacks to avoid having to touch the thing. With a sinking feeling, he noticed that their efforts seemed to do little beyond thoroughly antagonizing it. "Some of those Composer-powers might come in handy right about now," he choked out.

The thing screeched and shook uncontrollably. It lashed out from random directions with its horrific extremities, threatening to crush the two boys.

Joshua quickly sent up an arc of light towards the incoming limbs, nearly slicing them in half. The limbs pulled back for the time being, almost healing completely when they were close to their host once more. The Composer growled some, violet eyes shades darker than usual as he sent another array of arc-light at the Noise, hoping to do some damage. "I can't use my powers all the way while keeping this barrier up, Neku," Joshua grumbled under his breath to his partner, staying close beside the boy as his mind raced. He needed help. He had underestimated this guy and now he was going to have to pay. He and Neku couldn't do this by themselves...

"Hey boss, Kariya called earlier and said-- Wholy beans...Boss, what is that thing?"

Joshua snickered under his breath at the familiar voice a few yards behind him and his Conductor. "Why, it's just a little Noise, Sanae," he teased through gritted teeth as he heard more footsteps. His eyebrows furrowed in utter confusion. Had Sanae dragged more Angels with him or?...

"Neku! Are you all right?" Ah yes, that sickeningly sweet feminine voice.

"Sh-Shiki?!" Neku all but shrieked, looking over his shoulder at the familiar voice. The brown-haired girl gave him a hesitant but encouraging smile while doing her best not to look at the giant creature that spanned almost the entire room. Then, she stepped forward, revealing her companions and evoking a new set of shocked curses from the redhead. "Beat? And ... what the... Rhyme too?!" Heart pounding, he stared, wide-eyed and disbelieving at his three friends, feeling as if he had just fell into a strange new dimension. "What... what are you doing here?"

"Well you see," Sanae stated slowly, putting up an invisible barrier around the three teenagers so that the enemy wouldn't decide to randomly lash out at them, "Kariya called me and told me that you two hot-shots were gonna try and do things yourself. Couldn't let that happen so...I planned on comin' here alone to help, but then Shiki came into Wildkat with the gang and started ramblin' about odd things happening in the RG. She asked if I knew anythin' about them...and well, here we are, Phones."

"Mm... lovely," Joshua cooed, snickering under his breath.

"Neku! We were so worried about you, with everything that's been going on. We went to your house, but your dad said that you just disappeared," Shiki held her stuffed cat closer, her face shinning with relief at seeing her friend still in one piece, albeit about to be crushed by a huge gigantic monster. She looked as though she would have run over and hugged him to death if the circumstances had allowed it.

"How touching," Joshua sighed under his breath, going back to shooting attacks at the monster while his Conductor 'caught up' with the others.

"I can't exactly interfere with the UG so...think you'll let them help, boss? Alive people in the UG are bound to be more powerful than regular Players," Sanae suggested.

"Oh...I suppose."

"Yo, Phones, ya hear dat?" Beat hollered over the monster's wailing. "We be coming to save your ass now!" Rhyme giggled, as upbeat as ever as she held onto her brother's hand.

"A problem shared, is a problem halved," she said solemnly. "Neku, next time you should come to us if you get into trouble."

Throughout all of this Neku, had stayed quiet, his eyes moist with gratitude. Though he was still worried for his friend's wellbeing, he couldn't describe how glad he was to see them. "Thank you," he whispered.

"I've never really fought all that much before... but if it'll help Neku, I'll try," Rhyme decided as she quickly pulled up her long orange sleeves. "I think I still have the pins from the game..." She reached into her pocket and took out a cluster of five that Shiki had instructed her to bring with them to Wildkat, just incase.

"Yo Phones, ya think creepy monster thing is ready fo' a beat down?" the older sibling asked as he punched his fist into his other palm, his own pins already attached to his hat.

Joshua rolled his eyes and continued attacking, albeit the urge to just let Neku's friends handle it.

Shiki placed a Psychokinesis pin onto her beloved doll and it became animated once again, jumping onto its feet and holding its hands in front of him like a boxer. "Go, Mr. Mew!" she called as the kitty leapt forward, scratching every part of the thing that it could reach.

Wiping away the moisture from his eyes, Neku became far more determined than before, his resolve hardening in the presence of his friends. He redoubled his efforts to bring down the enemy that had made all of them suffer so much. "Let's end this!" he addressed them all, his voice like steel.

Beat snarled under his breath and gripped onto his hat, allowing blades of energy to slice through the air followed by a few rounds of egg-shaped light. "Yo man, what is this thing?..."

"You don't really want to know," Joshua grumbled under his breath and went about shooting what could only be likened to tunnels of light at the Noise, temporarily lowering the barrier to achieve such.

The beast hissed in fury at the sudden increase of the attacks, and opened its mouth, letting loose devastating globs of corrosive fluid which rained down on the six of them, thankfully only partially melting the barriers.

Neku flinched back and looked to Joshua in concern. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm...fine," the silveret grumbled stubbornly and continued pushing his powers to the limit, waves of energy continuing to shoot down on the enemy.

The monster appeared to be gradually weakening which encouraged the teenagers to step up their attacks. A wild hope rose up in his chest, almost suffocating him. With Shiki, Beat and Rhyme stepping into the fray, Neku couldn't help but think their chances suddenly looked brighter.

However, as soon as he had dared to hope, an eerie chuckling flooded the room. The area right beneath the creature's gaping mouth opened up, revealing a pale, pointed face encrusted with a pair of glowing eyes. "You pathetic little worms," it sneered. "Did you really think you could beat me if you all worked together?" Mouths opened on the rough surface of its grisly body and energy hovered above them, gathering into orbs, preparing to fire.

Joshua sensed the sudden increase of energy hovering up them. The heat was unbearable and he knew if the shards of fire and pure energy hit any of them, it'd all be over. With a rather disdainful sigh, the Composer allowed his body to levitate a few feet off the ground, wings expanding. His distant gaze dropped to his Conductor briefly.

"Keep them safe," the Composer whispered emotionlessly before sending a large pillar of light towards the orbs and Noise itself, his entire form glowing as brightly as it could. His eyes snapped shut as the overload of power threatened to tear his body apart, limb by limb. His mind began slipping out of consciousness as energy continued pouring out of him with no reserve, aimed directly at the beast.

"Joshua!" Neku cried out alarmed by the reckless display. Through their bond, he could feel that the Composer was at his limits, unable to use his full power with the psycho's curse still limiting his frequency. Summoning up all of his own strength, he wished desperately to be able to reach him on time. Distantly he heard someone gasp as pain exploded in his shoulder blades but he ignored it all, flying—how was he flying?—up to Joshua's burning figure and held on to him, siphoning some of the energy from his body before it could destroy the Composer's body. Using his own body as a conduit, he channeled the energy and directed at the monster, adding onto the impressive amount with his own. "Josh?" he demanded shakily, tightening his hold. "Can you hear me? Joshua!"

The amount of energy that the Composer had shoved onto his body took a toll on him even before Neku could channel some through his body. He was knocked unconscious, floating only because of the power shooting through his body. He felt weightless as his mind slowly slipped into a comatose, the blackness spinning around and around in his head until his thoughts took control of his weakening body.

.

His eyes weakly fluttered open in his mind, staring dimly at the white room that surrounded him. The pain that the energy was causing in his real body stung and he tried to ignore it, refusing to stop the attack. The Composer grumbled in his thoughts, his dream-body weak and refusing to let its owner sit up.

"I suppose this means I'm dead, huh?" he asked dryly, staring at the nonexistent floor with distaste. He couldn't hear what was going on the Room of Reckoning, but he supposed that was for the better.

"Not exactly," chided that dark and sinister, familiar voice.

Joshua groaned upon hearing it and looked weakly up through silver, sweat-covered bangs at the foggy image of the dark-haired male. "Coming to do away with me in my thoughts? How noble of you..."

The man chuckled and walked over, crouching down against the white ground. "Your attack was pretty powerful. Be glad that your Conductor is such a quick thinker," he chuckled darkly and smirked down at the Composer.

"Always has been," Joshua grumbled, still looking up at the man with hazy eyes. "How did you get into my thoughts?"

"Magic," sneered the man and pointedly tapped the Composer on the head mockingly. "Your timer is running out," he explained with another dark smirk.

"And Neku and his little friends are about to do away with you," Joshua murmured, absently looking down to his hand with a frown. Five minutes... "He'll take my spot once this timer runs out. He won't let you mess up the city he's grown to love."
"That's what you think," the dark-haired power-hungry man sniggered and winced a bit, obviously taking a hit in his Noise form back in the real-world. "Pretty noble of yourself using that attack to protect all your little friends."

"Why are you doing this? Surely you can answer me that," Joshua murmured, his body feel fatigued and exhausted.

"Shibuya needs reforming."

"I know that," Joshua seethed numbly. "I've been trying, idiot."

The man rolled his eyes and stood back up, dusting off his coat with another wince. "You know, I think your little minions might actually defeat me."

"You're such an idiot," Joshua muttered, rather irked. "Doing away with me will solve nothing. I hope you burn in hell." He lowered his head and nestled it in his pale, glowing arms, feeling energy continue to leave his already damaged body.

"We'll see."