Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 10

Week 2

Day 2: SHE's the GM?!

Three days ago…

Pietro watched as Mira and Ray-Ray brought a struggling Digit into view. She was bound by tattoo-chains, and her hair was rather mussed, but aside from that, she was fine. The wounds she had gotten from Mira earlier when the brother-sister team was chasing her were now healed. Patiently smiling as Digit turned a glare that would kill onto him, Pietro stood up from his chair, saying, "Leave us." to Mira and Ray-Ray, the former of which looking to her brother, who nodded, and walked out of the room, his sister following nervously.

The chains disappearing, Digit started cussing at Pietro, who said, "Now, now, just calm down and we'll talk this out like smart adults, hm?"

Digit said, "F*** you." She did stop cussing rapidly though.

Dropping the smile, Pietro went into business mode. "I'll make you an offer. Be ze GM for zis veek and I'll let any and all indiscretions you've made against us null and void. Zat is a reasonable price, no?" he said, clasping his hands behind his back.

Digit just repeated the first two words that made a coherent sentence she said to Pietro.

Sighing, Pietro said, "Very vell, if zat is how you vish to play it." He quickly whipped his right hand forward, loosing Noise on Digit. After she reappeared, her appearance was normal, but she was panting slightly. "Ah, so you know not to use ranged attacks on ze red Frogs. Good. What of zis?" Pietro whipped his left hand forward, unleashing more Noise on Digit. She stayed in the Noise zone for several seconds this time, much shorter then the first wave of Noise. When Digit reappeared this time, she didn't even look tired.

"Is that all, or are you just toying with me?" she said, putting her hands on her hips, and tapping her foot.

Pietro sighed, and said, "Alright zhen, Minamimoto-san, I'll ask again. Will you or will you not join ze Reapers in zis one Game?"

Narrowing her eyes, Digit said, "What'd you just say?" losing all semblance of playfulness.

Pietro merely stayed indifferent. "I said 'Minamimoto-san'. Is zat not your name? Or is Minamimoto Sho's profile wrong in saying his little sister likes going by Digit?"

Eyes widening, taking a step back in surprise, she said, "Y-y-you have Nii-san's profile?!"

Pietro finally smiled for the first time in ten minutes. "Yes, ve haff your brother's profile, if you vish to read it. I do know that, in it, he wrote his own little notes." "However, you shall not see it until you agree, little girl." Pietro thought, clasping his hands behind his back again.

Digit looked like she was considering it, shook her head a few times, nodded her head a few times, and ultimately came to her decision. "When do I send out my first mission?"

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Day 2 proper

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Getting off his back and sitting up, like a vampire half rising from his coffin, Christoph thought, "Please say I was dreaming dear Kami-sama, please say I was dreaming!!" And he turned his head.

Rachael was snoring away three feet away from him.

Bolting to make it ten feet, Christoph made sure he had a good vantage point to make sure she didn't do anything that would end up hurting his chances to win this Game and going back to living, and maybe rag Max for having a girlfriend.

Christoph blinked as he thought that word. "Girlfriend" was just so……familiar to him, but he just couldn't place it. Why? Was something wrong with his head? Was there something that he should know but didn't?

Stopping that train of thought as he was getting a headache, Christoph sat down and crossed his legs, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. Christoph didn't have a girlfriend, nor had he had anyone he wanted to be his girlfriend. "As if anyone would be the girlfriend of a bassist." he thought, shaking his head some and thinking back to the ending of yesterday.

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Christoph raised an eyebrow as he looked at his hand for the third time. It must have been wrong or something, since he knew that two hours and forty-five minutes couldn't have gone by in three seconds. The mission might have been given earlier though, and it may have been going on for a while. Best explanation he could come up with.

Rachael, on the other hand, was freaking out and kept sputtering things he couldn't make it. He had tried talking to her, but she just gave him a glare, and then went back to sputtering. Finally, he had had enough of her sputtering, and, glare or not, he was going to tell her just what was going on.

It took up ten of their last fifteen minutes to get the explanation of the Reaper's Game out of the way, by which time Noise had noticed them again, and Christoph brought his guitar back out, since he highly doubted that Rachael had been listening to him and was just gonna run away.

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After taking the Noise out, Christoph woke up in…a place called Cadoi City. "Cadoi? What kind of name is Cadoi?" he said aloud, not expecting the grunt that came from Rachael. "So you're finally awake then?"

"Shaddap headbanger." she said crossly.

Rolling his eyes, Christoph took his phone out of his pocket, checking to see if he had gotten any mission mail yet. So far, none, except all the ones from last week were gone. Weird. Oh well.

Rachael took his taking his phone out to mean something. "Looking for some leftover texts from your girlfriend?" she said mockingly, taking one iPod headphone out to hear she was right.

"Nope, checking for mission mail." he said rather nonchalantly.

Rachael didn't believe him, and looked over his shoulder, seeing that he was indeed looking at leftover texts, but there was only one and, no matter how much he pressed, the little bar that indicated that Christoph's scrolling worked, it wouldn't go down, just stayed over the text labeled "Mission 1".

Sighing, Christoph flipped his phone down, feeling dejected as he stood up, almost knocking Rachael over, as he hadn't heard her walk over. "Watch where you're going, headbanger!!" she yelled at him, but Christoph just walked away, waiting for the mission and searching for Max.

Speaking of Max…

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Max yawned at he got up, scratching his back as he tried to stand, which just resulted in him falling back onto his rear. Chris, already awake, didn't think he could handle the boy's "headbangerism" very much, but Max actually seemed quite the opposite of what he looked like when he was on stage.

Getting to his feet again, Max looked around the area they were in and saw that they were in the Miyashita Park Underpass. Max tried scanning, but only found the usual stuff. Thought blurbs that seemed to jump from head to head, the occasional nonthinker, some Noise, but that was it, no Players, except Chris.

A familiar ringtone issued from Max's and Chris' phones. The guitarist and critic brought their phones out, Chris having the nameless phone that seemingly all the Players got when they entered the Game, but Max had his brick phone.

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All over Shibuya, Players began opening their phones and seeing the mission text for today.

"Defeat the boss at 0 + 5. t = 350 min. Incompletes will be destroyed."

Players felt a burning sensation in their hands as already ticking timers appeared on them.

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Max shook his hand to get the burning out, but Chris…well, he definitely wasn't shaking his hand only.

"Would you please SHUT UP?!" Max yelled at Chris after a minute of listening to his screaming.

Chris responded that he had just been burned, probably third degree, when he noticed that his hand wasn't burning anymore. "…what the f***?" Chris said, looking at his right hand. The numbers appeared like so: 5:48:22 in tattoos.

Max just began walking to the south exit of Miyashita Park Underpass, towards Towa Records, and Cadoi City. It took Max a couple seconds to remember what streets lead where, by which time he was halfway through Towa Records.

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Christoph, who was walking to the same backstreet, was getting through Molco at the time Max entered Cadoi City. Rachael was stomping behind him, not liking being led, however, Christoph knew where Udagawa was, and she didn't, so she agreed to be led around while she learned Shibuya's workings.

She also didn't like hearing Christoph sing. However, while he had an accent, he did keep in tune and time with the songs that perpetuated Shibuya's air, singing in Japanese, so it was tolerable, at least. Rachael kept her iPod going as she followed him, not wanting to listen to the seemingly unintelligible babble that was the Japanese language.

Christoph had a good time as he walked into Spain Hill. "Spain Hill… odd name for a Japanese street. Hm, wonder what might be going on at home… Well, only one way to know, and that's winning this Game. Maybe I'll find a girlfriend when I get back." he thought, humming one of the country songs he liked. If Christoph were in front of his bandmates, he'd never even DARE hum a country song, let alone try a country tempo. Come on, what kinda metal players does country? "Well, any metal player that isn't me."

And then he got a shock on his chest. Letting out a grunt, Christoph stopped humming and saw that there was a… BLACK jellyfish in front of him. "……Double-U Tea F, mate." he said with his best Australian accent. Rachael noticed the jellyfish too, and said, "What the heck is that thing?!"

"No clue, but it doesn't look friendly." Christoph said rhetorically, bringing his bass in front of him and giving it a quick strum. The jellyfish evaded the small sound blast he had launched at it, and then, Christoph and Rachael were engulfed in a red and green light, respectively. The two of them entered the Noise Zone.

Christoph played a quick solo on his bass, attacking the now three jellyfish in front of him, and not taking heed of the black RHINO in back. He noticed it after he was sent flying. Getting up, Christoph brought his hand forward, palm up, and brought his fingers in as if squeezing something. Ice spikes formed in the air, going through the black Noise, but not doing any visible damage. "What the…?!" Christoph said, not believing what was in front of him. Normally that killed all the Noise he saw, except those birds, but, the black Noise seemed utterly UNFAZED. Then Christoph felt a warm…something envelop him, as if something had just passed onto him from somewhere. Thinking this might help him, Christoph attacked the rhino with an ice spike from behind, and saw the rhino vanish. This made Christoph not notice two things. One, that the jellyfish attacked him, and two, the warm feeling left him; although it felt stronger for the brief moment it was on him.

Rachael was using her own psych to control sound, and felt the warm feeling envelop her for the…fifth time? that fight. Rachael blasted one of her songs from her iPod, and used the soundwaves to attack the jellyfish Noise in front of her. They both recoiled under the attack, much more violently now then the last time she had done it, and felt the warm feeling go away. She then got attacked from behind, and let out a pained scream. She heard Christoph's disembodied voice say, "You alright over there?" To which she replied "Shut up." and she began attacking the Noise again.

Forty-five seconds later, Christoph and Rachael reappeared on Spain Hill, both panting hard. "Jikushyo, what the Makai was that?!" Christoph cursed in Japanese, while Rachael just stood, hands on her knees, panting.

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Max walked through the entrance of Center St. towards AMX. It was odd, because Center St. was more on a diagonal then center, so why it was named so, Max had no idea. "Eh, I'm not the one that came up with the names for this place anyway, why should I know?" Max thought, looking at his hand.

5:33:48

Sighing, he put his hand back in his pocket, and turned around. Chris was panting from the walk. "Can't we go a bit slower?" he asked, sweat pouring down his face.

"You wouldn't be sweating so much if you took that dang hoodie off, dude." Max said for the umpteenth time. "Do you not feel this heat?" It was rather humid at the moment in Tokyo's shopping center. If you weren't dressed appropriately, expect heat strokes, which is what happened to Chris. Max gave an angry groan as he picked up an arm and draped it around his shoulder. It slowed him down a bit.

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Christoph leaned against the wall of Tipsy Tose Hall, just a few feet away from Shibu-Q Heads, but he wasn't leaning because he was tired. Rachael was the tired one, leaning against the same wall, panting.

Christoph said to Rachael, "You wouldn't be so tired if yo—"

"SHUT UP!!!" the punk girl yelled. Most of Shibuya heard her. "I do NOT want to hear anything out of YOUR mouth, headbanger!!!"

Christoph growled. "That's it, I am tired of this nonsense." he thought, and then Christoph spoke. "Alright you, listen up, because I am not saying this again." He got off the wall as he spoke, "One, stop with the yelling, it is annoying, I am getting more irritated by the second, and you screaming your lungs off doesn't help me come back to life at all. Two, yes, everyone that you can touch outside of shops IS DEAD, INCLUDING YOU AND ME. We will be dead until, A: We get erased by Noise, or B: we win this Game, and we have to kill the GM in the process of winning. Three, if you keep wasting my time with pointless rants about how you're not dead and just having a nightmare, or how I and my band are the worst ever, or anything else I consider crap, YOU will find yourself erased by my ice." To punctuate the point, Christoph summoned three spikes of ice aimed at Rachael's face, but were only inches away from it, and he hadn't even raised his voice the entire time. "Now, I suggest you get to walking and help me kill some Noise in Udagawa." Christoph dismissed the ice, and Rachael glared at him, but felt a needle poking her chest. "And for the last time, Udagawa is the only place we can get to, so we end our search there. Now start walking."

Christoph set off at a brisk pace, the ice needle disappearing from Rachael's chest. The girl stomped after Christoph, seething.

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Whew! Halloween's come and gone, Thanksgiving is on the way, and a new chapter is FINALLY up! Can't say I'm proud of making you all wait this long. Oh! Can't forget that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 is coming out in nine days! What do you say to that, Lyon?

Screw that, I have Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Eat it, Shinku.