Author's Note: Thank you guys who reviewed SO much! First of all… I don't own TWEWY. Second of all…

Valorous Roland: You deserve a special mention. ^^ You were the first person who reviewed ever, so you get brownie points. Thank you for all the kind words.

BlazikenGirl100: Oohhh thank you millions. That's very encouraging to me. I'm very glad that this isn't turning out predictable and such. I hope to surprise you guys. Honestly I think the reason I'm managing this is because I haven't read a ton of Joshua-related fanfics and I really want to go into serious detail. I apologize beforehand if it becomes "typical". You have no idea how many things I had to look up about Conductors and Composers and Reapers etc before I became confident to carry on with this one. XD Honestly I haven't played through the whole game. I've played through it on New Game+ and my brother had to beat all the hard stuff for me—I'm fail at gameplay. But I did manage to find all of the hidden bosses for them.. woops… sorry… rambled there. O.o

Waffo eater: Thank you! And I know, me too. ^^ 'Origin' stories are always interesting.

Theme 7: Meddling

Joshua really enjoys the look of surprise on a Player or Reaper's face when he looks straight at them. It amuses him in a way. There were moments when he accidentally couldn't tell the difference between someone in the UG and someone in the RG. He got better at this, though. All he had to do was concentrate very hard on the person and he could… hear something. He couldn't explain it, but it sounded more muffled to him when the person was in the RG.

He told this to Mr. Hanekoma one day.

Sanae looked thoughtfully at Josh. "I think what you're sensing is called Soul."

"And what might that be?" Josh asks.

Sanae's not exactly sure how to answer that one. He shrugs. "Guess you could call it the energy a person has within themselves."

Josh leaves the Wilkat Café and Sanae is worried. Because no kid in the RG is ever supposed to be able to sense that. Yes, the Conductor and the Composer… and the Producer, naturally, he thinks, but definitely not someone in the Realground.

Joshua didn't notice the worried look in Mr. H's eye for once. Actually he's more interested in meddling around in the Game (which, technically, he tells himself, isn't really allowed). But he's in the RG, so it's not like he can do much anyways. But he does come up with an idea. He comes up with it when he sees a Reaper walk into the Ramon Don.

The smell's disgusting but he knows that the ramen there is delicious. He catches sight of the Reaper again inside the shop—it's a girl in a red hoodie. Oh my. He sits right next to them on a stool and orders his favourite ramen (he has the strangest urge to say "Mmm I'm in paradise") and wonders what he's going to do now. He really wants to do something that would throw the Reaper off guard, but what to say…

"You been in Shibuya long?" Joshua says after a second. The Reaper tenses for a second and looks over at him. Apparently Hoodie Girl's not used to talking to people, he notes.

"…Long enough," she says. He comes up with the perfect question.

"Okay then," he says. "How long have you been in your current position?" Hoodie Girl looks confused.

"Position?"

Joshua smirks. "As a Reaper, of course." The Reaper's eyes widen, then narrow.

"Who are you?" she asks. Joshua giggles.

"Doesn't matter."

Hoodie Girl loosens up and gives a sigh.

"No, it doesn't," she says. "I'm likely to get erased soon anyways…"

This is the last thing Joshua wanted to hear. He doesn't like that word "erase". He stands up.

"I've got to go," he says. "Just focus on what you have to do. And if you get erased, so what?"

And with that he leaves. He feels like slapping himself. He just said something that wasn't Joshua-like at all. Of course, somehow Mr. H found out about Josh's little encounter with the Reaper and he's scolded for it.

"Bad idea, boss," Mr. Hanekoma says. "Don't interfere with the Game, especially when you're not in it."

Joshua shrugs, noting inwardly that Mr. H just called him "boss" again. "Technically I wasn't interfering." Sanae sighs. Really. Joshua is so hard to handle.

"You have power to do things in the Game right now," he says. "You can influence Players and Reapers. That's interfering."

"…"

Sanae has never seen someone look so dejected.

"You don't really want to be part of the Game, do you?" he says. Joshua doesn't answer out loud.

I want to be the one running it, Mr. H.

Please rate and review! :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it wasn't the best. Actually... if you could in your reviews, tell me which chapter has been your fav so far.