Hybrid/New Feelings

]+By Chronic Guardian+[

Chapter 12O:Resolver

Neku got up at five, but it wasn't until five forty-five that he actually got around to doing anything. After getting dressed and ready for the day, he checked his phone for a response from Shiki, found a missed message from Beat asking about the Ramen Don meeting with Minamimoto, and settled in at his desk to stare at the latest batch of missed homework without actually processing what he was looking for.

The cram sessions from the past few days were starting to melt together, and even coffee had begun to lose its effect. With an extra three weeks of incomplete homework threatening to form an origami tidal wave hanging over him, the fight back up to normalcy seemed more and more impossible. But if he could just hold on for the next two days, at least he might make a difference for the Players.

Even if I can't help myself, I can at least help them, huh? He gave the thought a worn out, half-hearted smile. It was that kind of dumb heroics he'd come to hate over the past two years. Why did anybody sacrifice like that? What made people lose themselves so much that the only thing they were good for anymore ended up making everyone else lose them too?

He leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at the ceiling as his mind wandered back to simpler times. Why had Kazemaru made friends with him three years back? Why would a kid who had the whole world to win suddenly give up just to hang out with the class outcast? Why would he trust someone like that? Why the hell would he agree to meet in Udagawa when he knew—

Neku blinked and stopped himself. Thinking about the accident wouldn't help. It was like he'd told Amber: the only thing to do now was move on.

But what if it's the same as it was back then? he asked himself. What if Mr. H. is trusting me when he shouldn't? What if I'm just making the same mistake, only this time it's the Players that pay for it?

Why does someone always have to pay?

Under normal circumstances, this would probably be the part where he told himself he was getting way too pretentiously existential and just drop the subject. He'd allowed himself to forget the particulars over time, but he'd plodded through the thought process thoroughly enough in the past to know it was a dead end.

You looked like someone worth reaching out to. Simple as that.

Neku closed his eyes as he let his friend's words sink in. Would Kazemaru still think it was worth it if he'd known it would end up killing him? Probably. The guy kind of had a style all his own, that's what people liked about him. He never tried to be someone else or make other people be like him. Whatever that left between him and others, he was willing to pay the difference.

But… that also made him kind of distant. Not 'distant' like 'disinterested', just… Neku could still feel the gap between them, and now he knew he'd never be able to bridge it. Right after the accident, it was one of his biggest regrets. He knew Kazemaru liked other things, he knew they could have just spent the day at the arcade instead, and he especially knew it was because he'd chosen the graffiti in Udagawa that Kazemaru had run the route that ended up killing him.

And, to be honest, Neku kind of hated Kazemaru for it. He hated that the guy had to go out of his way to make their friendship work. Looking back, that was probably when everything really slipped for him. He'd begun looking at every connection as a potential danger and slowly cut himself off from anyone he couldn't immediately connect with. After all, trying to force it would just be a burden to them both, right?

Rubbing his eyes and leaning back forward onto his desk, Neku forced himself to pick up his pencil and remember things were different now. Sure, he still wasn't Mr. Popular like Kazemaru, but he'd at least tried to reach out again. The thing was, he couldn't tell yet if that was because he thought it wouldn't hurt this time around, or because he didn't care if it did.

The slight whisper of his door opening sent him into a bolt-upright sit as he jerked to attention. By the time he was facing his room's entrance, his father was already in, dressed in his suit with briefcase in hand. They locked eyes and for a moment Neku had to wonder if this encounter was happening on purpose or if his father had simply mistaken which door he was supposed to take to leave the house.

When the stalemate stretched past the ten second mark, Neku closed his notebooks settled in to give his father his full attention. Taking a deep breath, he decided to make the first move.

"...Yeah?"

"Just… thought I'd drop in before heading out," his father said, waving his free hand a little without actually drawing any illustrative shapes in the air. "Yesterday was an adventure, wasn't it?"

"Okay," Neku raised a hand and gave an incredulous look. "Hold up, since when are we doing this whole check up thing?"

"Oh, you know," his father bobbed his head to either side and shrugged. "Wrote it into your work contract as a special allowance. Told you my company had pull, didn't I?"

"…No, seriously."

"Alright, alright, you got me. It's... more of a personal thing. See," he put down his briefcase and crossed his arms, "call it parental paranoia, but… well, we've been worried about you—your mother and I. So we agreed once you got settled in, I would stop in for lunch just to see how you were doing—"

"I mean, you could've asked." Seriously, what was with this all the sudden? Even if they really did care, didn't they trust him to tell the truth?

"I could've," his father agreed, smiling more like it was a joke than a serious suggestion. "But that's not the same. We just..."

Neku sighed. He hated this beating around the bush, like the whole conversation was just a verbal chess match stalling for the right moment. "...Just what?" he asked. Why couldn't they ever just come out and say what they meant? Why did they always have to be so damn cautious around him? It wasn't like this was his first day of school or something. He was fifteen friggin' years old, and a Reaper's Game survivor on top of that. Why did they have to worry about him so much?

Waiting another moment, his father finally took a breath and nodded. "We weren't sure if this would work," he said, before quickly adding, "we hoped it would, and we're happy with the results. You did a fine job keeping your composure with that tourist. It's just... hard, I guess."

"What, work? I mean, I was kind of expecting that."

His father's smile came back warm. "That too," he nodded, "but I'm thinking more selfishly than that. See, Neku, someday when you become a parent—well, before then, really, but especially then—you'll realize that sometimes the hardest thing you'll do for the people you love is letting them work through their own mistakes. Sure, you do your best to support them and be there when they need you, but people don't grow when you never let them do things for themselves.

"And, to be honest, that's kind of scary. When the people you want to love and protect the most need you to not hold their hand, you have to watch and trust and stop yourself from giving all the answers you think will solve everything."

"Yeah, but what if the answers do solve everything?" Neku cut in. Seriously, if his parents already knew the right way to do things, why keep it to themselves? Was it just a dumb game they played because they thought it helped him? Or were they just telling themselves it helped because they seriously hadn't figured out how to clearly communicate with their own child?

His father paused and let his eyes drift towards the window with a far off look as morning light began peeking through gaps in the skyline. "Neku," he said, quiet but still firm. "If I find any of those, I'll let you know. The truth is, though, the best answer I have? Life is messy. And even when I give you answers, I need you to test them and think them through for yourself. This world begins with you, but it ends somewhere none of us can reach on our own. I'd love to give you a perfect life without any of this pain or confusion, and we've tried to raise you right, but, well…"

He looked down at Neku and blinked, as if suddenly becoming aware of himself. His mouth opened, then closed again. Whatever clear vision he'd had for ending the sentiment had vanished like a waking dream with the rising sun.

Neku almost told him to keep going anyway when his phone rang.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," his father said, seizing the opportunity to retreat. He turned and grabbed his briefcase on the way out. "Thank you for listening. Work hard!"

The door closed and Neku was left dumbstruck to the increasingly insistent repeating bars of his ringtone. What… what had just happened?

By the sixth cycle, when it became apparent the caller wasn't going to give up, he finally shook the shock enough to answer.

"H-hello?"

"Dontchu 'h-h-h-hello' me, 'Phones!" Beat's voice blared back with a decidedly unflattering (and hopefully inaccurate) echo of the greeting. Neku winced and held the phone away from his ear. "We ain't gots time for that wussy crap! You still got that phone Coffee Man left, right?"

"I mean... yeah." Sure, he wasn't using it to answer the current call, but it was still sitting right there at the top of the desk. If Beat really wanted to confirm, he could've just called that one, couldn't he? "Why?"

"Well, you gotta get the Players together, 'cuz I been workin' up a plan!"

"You have a plan," Neku repeated in a deadpan. Not to say he hadn't learned to appreciate Beat's stronger points during their week together—the guy was a hard worker with a heart of gold when it came down to it—but trusting him with a plan kind of felt like trusting Ryou with the front counter guest relations.

"Yeah, tha's what I said!" Beat shot back. "So lemme lay it out for ya like this—"

"Beat," Neku cut in before the other boy could launch into some harebrained scheme of marching right into the Room of Reckoning and fighting the Composer himself. "We're kind of short on time here, so I'm gonna need you to get right to the point: How does this plan help the Players?"

"Uh, it prolly lands 'em a butt-ton of points? Unless the Reapers gots their point system totally screwed in backwards."

Neku sighed and leaned forward to cradle his forehead with his free hand. "Okay, fine," he relented. Even if it was only to get Beat to shut up, that would at least be better than having to put up with it for the rest of the day. "Shoot. What do you have in mind?"
"How's takin' out the Reaper Killer sound?"
Neku paused. "We aren't already doing that?" Wasn't that the whole point of recruiting Minamimoto and that Getotsu guy? Hell, Getotsu was probably missing out on his own 'butt-ton' of points by crafting the sigil instead of doing missions. Hopefully the Reapers gave him some kind of pay back for the lost time, but that was assuming the thing actually worked.

"Psh! Naw, man, tha's the Grim Heaper's deal, an' he prolly ain't gettin' any points offa it."

"The Player helping him might," Neku pointed out. "Besides, we can't risk putting the other Players in danger when the end of the week is—"

"Yo, man, you got it twisted! Way I see it, we gotta risk puttin' the Players on critical mode if they gonna have a shot at makin' it back. Donchu remember the stuff they pulled at the end of that first week wid Shiki? Those Reapers ain't givin' nobody a second chance 'less they geddout there and win some friggin' points!"

"Points don't help when you get erased."

"C'mon man! You gonna leave it up to whoever got Ironface's job to show mercy? You know how limp that is?"

Neku pressed his lips together, holding back his gut reaction as he reevaluated the situation. Something wasn't adding up. Why was Beat suddenly so gung-ho about this? Was he just trying to slip in some sort of suggestion somewhere so he could feel like he was helping? Not like he can volunteer to hold boxes and push buttons this time around, Neku added in his head.

"Okay, know what? Whatever," Beat growled. "But donchu—bwaaagh! H-hey! What? Naw, it's cool, a'ight? Class project stuff. I—"

The other boy's voice abruptly cut off as he moved away from the receiver to address whoever had walked in on him. Neku, for his part, took the opportunity to take a deep breath and lean back in his chair. Seriously, who'd crapped in Beat's breakfast? The guy hadn't ever really been Mr. Manners, but he'd at least kind of mellowed out once they started working together to get Rhyme back. Maybe he was just loosing his cool now that the pressure was off?
No, Neku frowned to himself. That doesn't make sense. Sure, he delivered when it came down to it, but he never really held anything back either. If the Reaper Killer has him worked up, maybe it's because it got another one of the pacts yesterday.

But if that was the case, why not lead with that?
Before Neku could come up with any further excuses, the phone he wasn't using beeped from the top of his desk, signaling a new text message. Glancing down at his stalled out current call just to make sure Beat hadn't made it back yet, he reached up and opened it. After all, even if he couldn't get any school done like this, he could still at least keep up with the Players.

The message was forwarded from Getotsu: a copy of the mission mail. Neku scanned the contents, then immediately set the phone down before he had the chance to drop it in shock.

The coincidence was too perfect. On almost any other occasion, Neku would have written it off as a joke. But coming from a Player?

"Yo, 'Phones?" Beat's voice cut through the haze. "Sorry, had to get the 'rents off my back. You still there?"

"I'm here," Neku confirmed between shaky breaths. "I… I just got the mission."

"Yeah? What'd we get? Somthin' crazy?"

Neku stretched his mouth into a determined line and glanced out the window at the morning cityscape, golden sun reflecting off of windows and dancing across rooftops. Somewhere out there, Joshua was probably laughing.

"You were right," he said, fighting against a tightening in his chest to get the words out. "We're gonna face the Reaper Killer."

"Wait, for real?! Yo, you ain't just riffin', right?"

"Yep," Neku nodded. He couldn't even bring himself to feel angry with Beat for getting his stupid way after all. "It's real."

Still, the mail said they had two days. How long would it take Getotsu to finish up with the sigil? Maybe that would be enough to take out the thing on its own. Not likely, though, so they should probably start thinking up a backup plan now while they still had time.

"Well… y'know, it's not like they dead jus' yet," Beat said, scaling back his surprise to a more reasonable tone. "I mean, that 'Phones girl with Priss Kid back at the ramen joint seemed pretty strong. Maybe ask 'em to handle it?"

"Only two Players?" Neku suppressed a growl and clenched his free hand over his knee. Technically, it was probably doable, but that didn't mean they had to risk it. "They stand more of a chance working together. If we can coordinate a strategy meeting or something, maybe we can work something out."

"Uh, yeah? Dude, tha's what I said we should do! Jus' lemme know where an' we'll meet up during lunch!"

We? Neku almost opened his mouth to correct the assumption before quickly reconsidering and closing it again. His gut instincts said Beat in a strategy meeting would be about as helpful as a butter knife in a ramen shop, but something about shutting him down felt, well, wrong. His father's earlier words about different answers came to mind just before a more familiar motto.

Trust your Partner.

Sure, they weren't in the Game anymore, but wouldn't ignoring it now just be sliding back into the same old habits? If he waited until things got hard to open up to someone else, wouldn't that just mean wasting potential perspectives?

"Can you really make it for lunch?" Neku asked. "I mean, get to some place with a sigil and then back to school again." Maybe it wasn't actually logically feasible. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on Beat's part. Maybe all Neku had to do was make the offer and cross it off his list.

On the other hand, maybe hoping for a logical response out of Beat was just asking too much.

"Yo, in a week we ain't gonna remember anyway? I'm all in! I'll jus' grab Shiki an' we'll cut fourth period. Where we meetin'?"

Wait, cutting class? And not just his own, but Shiki's too? Forget an abrupt record scratch, Beat was sending the conversation straight into a screeching ten car pile up.

"Um, actually… could we maybe not cut class?"

"Look, 'Phones, I geddit, you actually care about this brains crap. Maybe Shiki does too, I dunno. But seriously? Ain't some things more important than that? Ain'tchu gots no primordities?"

"Priorities," Neku said softly. "But… yeah." It hurt to say it, but..."You're right. I can't… I can't just think about myself here. I can't just give up on the Players when it gets hard. But..."

"'But' nothin'! 'Phones, we gotta—"

"Beat, listen!" He cut back in. "If it were something less than this—something that didn't involve saving other people's existences—I wouldn't be okay crossing this line. You get that, right?"

"...Yeah," Beat said after a moment of silence. "I gots it."

"Okay, good. Just… we have to have those boundaries. We have to know where we're gonna stop. Because if we break the rules twenty-four-seven just because we can, the rules aren't gonna be the only thing that ends up broken."

"Yo, but we breakin' 'em for a good cause!"

Neku took a moment to close his eyes and take a deep inhale. Why did it wind up being his job to try and talk sense into Beat? Why couldn't the guy just listen to his parents and call it good? At least they were probably offering advice.

"Let's just get through the day," he muttered back. "I'll alert the Players and meet you at the Stride arcade in the north end of Shibuya." At least that way, it wouldn't be too far between all their schools. Even if the rest of them decided to come early, Neku wasn't about to make them get back late, too.

"A'ight, man! You're on! But, uh… like, why the arcade?"
Neku felt his eye beginning to twitch. If Beat was going to go and question every decision, then why the hell wasn't he offering up any suggestions of his own? "Do you want to try having a conversation with everyone around a restaurant table?" Neku asked with strained patience. That kind of thinking certainly hadn't held water for their Ramen Don meetup.

"Eh… Depends on who's payin'."

"...We're taking the arcade," Neku asserted. "See you there."

"Yeah, see—!"

He hung up before the other boy could finish. Lowering the phone from his ear, he massaged his forehead and worked down a grimace. It was easy to stick to friendships when your only choice was that or erasure, but once they got beyond that? Once your life didn't literally depend on trusting flawed human beings? Sure, nobody was perfect, but there was a difference between humanly fallible and plain irresponsible.

Well, whatever. Neku sighed and looked out the window again. Mr. H. had entrusted the task to all of them, so obviously he saw something in Beat. Maybe there really was something to the guy's single minded approach that cut through all the other stuff in life.

But only this once.

He was halfway through composing a mass mail to the Players when again his door opened.

"Ah, good morning," his mother's unhurried voice sounded behind him. "That your friend you're texting?"
Neku paused to glare at the phone screen. "You know, knocking is a thing."

"Well, you're not in the middle of getting dressed or anything, so it's not like I caught you at a bad time," she returned with that casual obliviousness that just bulldozed through whatever nuance he saw to the situation. "Your friend is here, by the way. Why not save the minutes and just talk in person?"

"Because—wait, who are we talking about?"

"A brunette girl, says she's your friend?" his mother said. "She's waiting for you at the front door, says you've got somewhere to be. You've got the day off, right? Why not walk her to school? After all, it's not polite to make a girl walk alone when she goes out of her way."
Neku leaned back in his chair. Why was Shiki showing up in person when she could just text him? If it was really that urgent, it seemed kind of stupid to ignore the most expedient means of communication.

Well, whatever. He could talk to her about the meet up in person and save Beat the trouble, at least.

Neku's mother cleared her throat. "And by not polite," she went on pointedly, "I mean—"

"Right, sorry," Neku threw one of his text books into a book bag for later and made for the door, passing his mom without making eye contact. Why did she care all the sudden if he paid attention to friends or not?

Probably because she's reading into it, he mused. He'd have to arrange for a proper meeting later to start things off on a better foot that didn't involve any of the dumb phantom shipping he'd been dealing with down at work. Thankfully, Shiki wasn't like that. Shiki wasn't—

Neku froze as the front door came into view and he saw the brunette his mother was talking about, the brunette that was most certainly not Shiki.

"Hey, Sakuraba," Shigemi Konno said quietly, stretching her mouth out in a painfully awkward smile. "Got a minute?"

-o-0-o-

This time, when Shiki arrived to school early, Eri was waiting for her in the courtyard playing on her phone. Not just Eri, either, some of the other girls in their class were also hanging around in little groups nearby. Normally, Shiki would've allowed that the possibility for a coincidence, but considering their conversation died the moment she approached, it seemed kind of silly to assume they weren't paying attention.

If she had to call it from her gut, it looked like a confrontation.

"Uh..." trying not to stare at the other girls, she gave Eri a questioning frown. "I-is everything okay?" It felt like they'd left on good terms yesterday. If it weren't for the silence, she would've just assumed they were picking up where they left off. Had… had something happened?

"Oh~!" Eri looked up from her phone and smiled, waving off the other students. "Sorry, ignore the gossip hawks. We can go somewhere else if you want."

Shiki blinked. "Gossip hawks? Eri, what's going on?"

"Just a bunch of nosy overachievers," her friend assured her, giving one of the other girls a shrewd look. "I can clear things up afterwords, if you want."

"Afterwords?" Why not now?

"After we talk somewhere else," Eri explained, saying the last part with pointed emphasis to the crowd. "Something I forgot to ask last night, that's all. You know about going somewhere with a certain someone?"

Shiki stared back blankly. "Certain someone?" she repeated quietly. Had she forgotten about something they'd promised to do together? She couldn't really think of any certain someones in her life beyond Eri and—

"Wait, Neku?!"

A quick murmur broke out among the gathered girls as they hugged into tighter circles, checking phones and swapping observations. Apparently that was it: they'd all gathered here because Shiki, Eri's shrinking violet of a friend whose social presence rivaled that of a rock, had met a boy.

Shiki's spine went yardstick-straight as her cheeks lit up. She hugged her book bag to her chest like armor. "Eri! I-I thought I told you it wasn't like that!"

"And I didn't say it was like that," Eri answered in a soothing voice. "I just said we're hanging out with a friend who happens to be a guy, and that's why I'm going to be busy on Saturday."

"Wait," blinking back her surprise, Shiki tried to review her mental schedule for the week. "We are?" She couldn't remember talking about anything like that, and she kind of doubted Neku would have initiated any discussion with Eri without her as a go between.

"Yeah, Neku said we could hang out later in the week, right? And I figure he probably isn't gonna spring something on you today, so that leaves—"

"What about Monday?" Shiki asked sharply, setting her mouth in a stubborn frown.

The words came out without any actual thought—she couldn't even articulate why she felt so defensive all of the sudden—but she stood by them, wide eyed and clenched hands. Something about the whole thing just felt like it would end up hurting Neku, and that wasn't something she was going to allow.

Eri's smile melted at the corners as her confidence slowly changed to cautious probing. "...What about Monday?"

"We hung out then, didn't we? Technically, he already did what he said he would."

"Well… That was kind of just a coincidence, though," Eri pointed out, a little confusion clouding her tone as she tried to sort out what she'd said wrong. Shiki felt her gut twist in sympathy, but still held her ground. "Besides he didn't really talk much that time, and I thought the point was… well, you know..."

A stifled giggle came from somewhere in the onlooking crowd. Shiki felt her cheeks getting even hotter and forced herself to take a deep, shaky breath to fight the squeezing in her lungs.

"Eri," she said in a voice huskier than she would've liked, "Neku needs space. He's… kind of going through a lot right now. Couldn't we do this some other time?"

"I mean… we could," Eri allowed, but more in the sense that it was possible than preferable. "But why not tomorrow? What if you asked him out to a late lunch after school? I think—"

"Yo, Shiki!" Beat's masculine rumble cut through the suffocating cloud of social expectations, giving Shiki a clear shot out. "Hey you…" the burly blond stopped elbowing his way through the crowd long enough to realize it was all arranged around Shiki and Eri. "Uh… yo, what's goin' down here?"

The courtyard fell into a moment of stunned silence before Eri gave Shiki a sidelong glance and cleared her throat to explain. "Just… catching up before school," she said casually. "You need to grab Shiki, right?"

And there it was. Right at the end of that last sentence, Shiki could sense just a hint of resigned jealousy.

That's what this was all about.

"Eri..." Shiki breathed. "I… I'm sorry—"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Eri put on a smile Shiki could tell was forced and waved the apology off. "We'll just… we'll do something another time. Could you check and see if Neku has anything open next week?"

Shiki felt the automatic agreement catch in her throat. She wanted so badly to just say yes and let her friend know this was all going to work out, that things would be just they way they were again, but part of her knew it would just be another strain on Neku.

But we'll be done with the week then, she reasoned to herself, he could handle it then, probably.

"I'll—"

"Yo, Shiki, we gotta talk," Beat cut in. "Kinda gots somethin' to do with that big thing. Y'know, the, uh—"

"Right," Eri exhaled before he could stumble on a subtle way to talk about saving the Players. "Well, see you later then. Let me know about Neku, alright?"

The gathered crowds dissolved in a murmur of whines, whispers, and assorted noises of intrigue. Eri was out of the scene and indoors before Shiki could work up the guts to try again. She probably should have felt lucky that the other girls weren't interested in what Beat had to say, but the convenience wasn't doing much for the pit in her stomach.

"Alright," she said slowly, keeping her eyes on the door her friend had disappeared through, "what's going on, Beat?"

Beat pointed after Eri and looked for a moment like he was going to ask what he'd just ruined, but when the words came out they were straight back to business.

"We gots a lunch date with 'Phones an' the Players," he reported. "Reapers' is callin' in the big one early, so we gotta get ordinized and make a game plan or somethin'."

"We?" she asked, with perhaps just a little more edge than the situation warranted. "Why can't you two figure it out? I mean, it's not like I did much of the planning during my Game; Neku was a lot better than me once he actually started trying! Why can't—!?"

Shiki clamped her mouth shut and tried to squeeze the aggression out of her fists instead. If she kept going like this, she would probably say something she'd regret later. Sure, for all intents and purposes Beat was still proposing something completely idiotic and non-helpful at a time when she should really be trying to clear things up with her friend. But getting mad about it now wouldn't—

"Uh…" Beat rubbed at the back of his head and frowned. "Why can't we what?"

"...Nothing," Shiki ground out. "It's fine."

"Okay, great! I'll grab you after third period and we'll split. See ya then!"

Still glaring at the doors as Beat bounded ahead of her towards class, it took her a minute to remember where third period fell in the day.

"Wait, but that's—!"

But it was too late, Beat was already inside and the first bell was ringing. Even if she fought him later, it would only make a scene and then neither of them would be able to go. So that only left one real option: Apparently, she was skipping fourth period to pretend like she could contribute to Neku's master plan.

As she ducked inside and headed to her own classroom, she tried to comfort herself with the thought that at least Neku wanted her to be there.

-o-0-o-

On the way to school (Neku's mom shut him out of the house the moment he went to demand an explanation from his lovestruck coworker, so apparently the walk was happening), Shigemi did her best to explain how and why she'd shown up on his doorstep.

Apparently she'd gotten his address information off of the payroll files, which was only somewhat unnerving and possibly legally prosecutable. Unfortunately for him, she'd conveniently overlooked his phone number and thus decided if she had to give him the news it would be in person.

Mr. Mihael was being let go.

"I don't get all of it," she admitted, tapping two fingers together and keeping her eyes on her shoes. "But I think part of it has to do with an inspection review the higher ups did yesterday. They had a secret shopper in our store who got a bad burger, and when you… er, we remade it, it still wasn't up to standard. That, plus some complaints about mismanagement and… well, here we are."

Neku didn't know what to say. Even with his eccentricities, Mr. Mihael just seemed kind of untouchable in his eyes. Like, sure, Neku could see some people finding the guy annoying because he'd been one of those people not too long ago, but firing him?

"It's Ryou's fault," Neku muttered into his collar. Without work or school to get into uniform for, he'd dressed in familiar street clothes for the day. "If he hadn't run off in the middle of shift—"

"Ah, right, about that…" Shigemi's finger tapping turned into a tangled mess of wrap-arounds. "Umm… what would you do if it turned out I might've… maybe kinda had something to do with that?"
Neku glanced up to give her a sharp look. He wasn't really sure what he'd been expecting out of the conversation, but it wasn't a confession. "Okay, timeout," he said, ignoring how his voice dipped into a growl. "First: How? Second: Why? Ryou's just a grouch in general; why make it worse?"

"Well," Shigemi took a deep breath, rocked back and forth a little as if waiting for an invisible countdown, then launched into her tale with full speed: "He ate your pie, so I kind of sent a text to his girlfriend about how my baking is better than hers, because she's also a huge bully who kind of stomped my dreams when I was a first year, and she thought I meant I was stealing Ryou, which totally isn't what I was going for, but since she's a paranoid psycho she didn't believe me or Ryou, so she kind of dumped him over text so he had to run and clear stuff up face to face."

Over the course of the run-on sentence from hell, Shigemi curled further and forward as her face slowly approached a deep shade of plum. Finally finishing, she sucked in and arched back up to a proper posture, throwing Neku a furtive glance as if he were judging her story based on her punctuation.

Lucky for her, he wasn't.

"Hmph," he grunted and looked away.

"Uh… Sakuraba? Are you… are you mad?"

"Not at you," he sighed. "Just… I hate seeing things like this, where some guy has to pay for someone else's stupid decisions. I hate how the world works like that."

"Yeah..." Shigemi nodded and let out a long breath.

He could sense there was more to it, but he didn't want to push her too far. Heck, he hadn't even asked to be part of this conversation. If Shigemi hadn't decided for whatever reason that he needed to be in the know now, he probably would've just found out during his shift tomorrow.

...So why did he need to know?

"Say, Shigemi?"

"Y-yeah?" she sounded startled, but he also caught a hint of anticipation in her voice. Hopefully she wasn't expecting anything too deep.

"Why did you come to tell me?" he asked. "I mean, if the company really wanted me to know—"

"Oh, they don't care," she cut in, adding in a fake laugh for good measure. "Yeah, we're just drones to them, lucky to get a corporate memo. Most of the time they just whisper around to district managers and we kind of play it by ear. I mean, if you're a long time partner then it's kind of different, but for most of the shuffle-ins who use Sunshine as a stepping stone they just don't see the point."

"Okay," he nodded and let the statement stand a moment before reiterating his original point. "So then why are you telling me?"

"Oh! I uh… Well, I guess it's kind of just..." Shigemi pursed her lips and rolled her hands, as if the explanation were a soggy rope of laundry she was spooling out of thin air. "...I mean, I know you don't like me, but… you get it, right? You know how much this means for both of us? None of my friends at school have jobs, and a lot of the other Sunshine people just kind of ignore me outside of work 'cause I'm a shift lead. You're… different. You seem like you'll at least listen. And now that you are listening it's just so…"

Her voice stalled out again and she ended up bending forward and rapidly scrubbing the top of her head. "Uuuungh… this is so surreal. I've imagined talking to you Sakuraba. Back when you'd come in? You were just so cool, so intentional about everything! You wouldn't ever really smile, but I could tell you cared about things. You weren't trying to be someone else, you were just you."

Coming back up for air, she looked back at him and he saw tears starting to drip from her eyes. Sniffling in an unglamorous bit of mucus hanging at the tip of her nose, she pushed on. "And I… I'm… I can't say things to you. Like, the words are broken or something. You get me? I mean, probably not. It doesn't make sense. But I just… I just..."

Neku stared back and tried to keep his breathing steady as he walked further and further along with this very clearly emotionally unstable teenage girl. Was this why he hated people? Because they pulled him into things that weren't his problem and expected him to know what to say? Because they thought he could magically understand somehow even when they didn't get it themselves?

Shigemi gave him a meaningful glance, but didn't actually say anything after that. By the time they made it to her school, she'd regained most of her composure and put on a neutral—if notably pale—face that seemed more dead than anything else. When they reached the entrance, she quietly thanked him and headed in without looking back.

Watching her go, Neku couldn't help but wonder what the Reapers' Game would do for her. That focused drive and purpose she'd talked about was more the product of necessity than a conscious formation. He'd become what he was because he needed to be that way to survive, and as happy as he was to be living a new life, something felt terribly wrong about wishing that on someone else.

Still, she just looked so miserable…

No, he told himself, shaking off the thought. I'm not doing this Josh's way. Not that he was considering killing her himself, of course, but even wishing something like that would happen felt roughly equivalent. There had to be something easier than the Reapers' Game, something that didn't involve so much senseless death and destruction.

Sure, the Game was supposed to pick out the worthy and send them back to life, but even then it seemed kind of broken. During his second week with Joshua, there was another Pact running around that seemed like they actually had their act together, and they ended up Erased by Taboo Noise.

That's why I can't just stand on the sidelines and hope. I've gotta be more like Mr. H. and actually do something. Because If I don't…

So what was he supposed to do then, actually reach back to Shigemi Konno?

Neku grimaced and turned to go. He still had a whole morning to work on school before the meeting at the arcade. Shigemi could at least wait until after that. Maybe he couldn't solve all her problems, but he could at least listen.

That was what Shiki would do, right?

-o-0-o-

The end of third period rolled around and Shiki did slipped out of class on claims of a restroom break. She met Beat in the stairwell and he led her on an unnervingly practiced route out from there that got them to the student entrance so they could switch shoes and slip onto the streets without anyone noticing.

As her first time playing hooky, Shiki felt about ready to hyperventilate.

Beat took her hand and led her down the city streets as early lunch breaks began and enough of a crowd formed to give them cover from police officers trying to catch truants. After more back alley dashes than she'd experienced in the rest of her life combined, they arrived at the Stride arcade in Tipsy Tose Hall.

They found Neku waiting just inside, leaning up against a wall with his nose in a text book. Stride had only just opened for the day, and with school still in session most of the current clientele were either tourists or adults. Standing there in school uniforms, she and Beat kind of stood out, but the arcade staff apparently took no notice. If anybody was cutting school to give them business, they weren't about to turn it down.

"So what's the plan, man?" Beat asked, greeting Neku with a playful punch in the arm.

The orange-haired boy lowered his book to give a reproving frown. "Why are you asking me?"

"Maybe cause you da plans guy?" Beat shrugged. "Ain't my thing, anyway. Yo, Shiki, you gots anything?"

Shiki blinked. "Oh! Uh, sorry… Was I supposed to have something?" Beat sure could've mentioned that earlier if that was the case. As far as she knew, she was just here playing moral support. "I mean, I have the maps with me if you need 'em. Do you know if Rhyme found anything in the reports about what they're for?"

"Naw, Rhyme an' me passed those off to one of dem Real Life Salutation guys. I think she said somethin' 'bout the maps trackin' UG guts with a family residence or whatever, but we ain't dealin' with that crap no more."

"'Family residence'?" Neku made a face and tucked his book away. Apparently Shiki wasn't the only one who thought that sounded funny. "You're sure that's what she said?"

"I dunno, man, I'm jus' sayin' what sounds peculiar."

"You mean familiar?" Shiki offered. That would make a little more sense. After all, if he were just saying what sounded the weirdest instead of what sounded similar—"Wait, familiar?" she nearly face palmed as the pieces clicked into place. "Was it a Familiarity Resonance Rhyme mentioned?"

"Uh… yeah, maybe?"

Shiki smiled and reached into her bag for the map with names on it. "So a map that tracks people based on how well we know them?"

"I wouldn't put it past Mr. H." Neku sighed as she unfolded the object. "But honestly…"

He stopped to study the tangle of streets and names, frowning as he reached out and traced a route with his finger.

"Something's wrong," he said at last.

"Oh! You mean because we're listed twice?" Shiki asked, thinking back to yesterday's phenomenon. "Yeah, kind of weird, right?"

"Huh? No, I only see us once. What I meant was..." he slowed to a stop and squinted at the map again.

"Uh… 'Phones?"

"Maybe it's residual," Neku muttered, mostly to himself.

Still, even if her old Partner was stuck in his own head, that didn't mean Shiki would just give up on him. "You mean maybe it shows where we've been along with where we are?" she suggested. It would explain why they could show up twice, anyway.

"No, it's not that," he waved the idea off. "Otherwise you'd be leaving trails to show all the places you've been that day. Besides, this," he pointed to a blank spot on the map, "would definitely be older than a day."

Slowly, Shiki looked at the empty space under her Partner's finger, then turned back to give him a questioning look. "...What 'this'?"

"This name," he said, as if that explained anything. "Sota Honjo. He was a Player during my second week who… well, he didn't..." Something like pain flickered across his face and Shiki could tell he didn't want to actually say the words.

"We get it," she assured him, putting a hand on his arm. "You don't have to force it."
Neku still grimaced, but shook his head and moved on. "Anyway," he continued. "It would've happened right around here, right where I'm pointing, but not here exactly. So that makes for a couple of problems."

"Yo, maybe Coffee Man just figured it was close enough?"

"It's a magic map," Neku replied flatly. "Besides, we're all exactly where we should be. But the real question is: why is he showing up at all?"

"Well, that's an interesting question!" a new voice said, coming up behind them. Shiki squeaked and spun around to find a brown haired man in the familiar green long-sleeve and beige apron uniform of the Shibuy-Q Heads staff. After so many years shopping their for materials, it was kind of weird seeing the ensemble out of context "Ah, sorry about that, Miss," he put on an apologetic smile and raised his hands in defense, showing the stack of notes he'd brought along. "I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Tatsuya Omura, Ex-Player, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"One of the Real Life Solutions crew," Neku identified, keeping his hands in his pockets and his head held high. Apparently, he saw the guy as more equal than senior. Either that, or Neku had forgotten a respectful bow was usually appropriate for something like this. "Glad you could make it."

"Happy to be of service," Mr. Omura returned. "It's been a while since I've been able to talk to an ex-Player I didn't work or play with. Even longer since one showed up with a problem like yours. Mind if I see that map?"

"Uh, sure!" Shiki handed over the artifact without resistance. If they had an expert on the scene, she was more than happy to step aside. "Go for it!"

"Thanks, Miss," Mr. Omura took the map and spread it out for a quick inspection before nodding to himself and addressing everyone again. "I think I may have found your solution."

"Really?" Neku gave a skeptical look that he probably didn't mean. In Shiki's experience, he was always a little rough with his expressions.

"Well, it's like the reports said," Mr. Omura explained. "It's a map tracking familiar Soul resonances. And usually, because Soul is a complex configuration of traits and Imagination used to express distinct individuals, you'd think that the map would only track those Soul configurations in the form you know them. The thing is..." he stopped to smile secretively as he looked back at the map again. "With some of the mechanics going on in the UG, especially with Noise and Erasure, it's possible for familiar Soul to be separated from its familiar host."

Neku nodded. "So, in other words..."

"In other words, I think it's possible this map can give you a 'false reading', so to speak, if the Soul of someone you know has somehow found a new carrier so long as it's largely intact. So, for example, right down here on the map, I see the name of my old friend Yuu Kiryu, even though I know he's in his office up in Shinjuku right now. BUT, that same friend has a son we suspect is in the Game, a son who, probably because of his entry fee, we only remember because of his connection to Yuu. So what I'm seeing isn't Actually Yuu, but an echo of his Soul configuration. See?"

"Uh..." Beat's face screwed up with their collective confusion. "Yo, I don't geddit…"

Shiki was about to second the opinion and suggest they just move on when Neku stepped up to the plate. "So what your saying is: that might not actually be the guy I think it is," he summarized, apparently having kept pace with the intellectual acrobatics. "It might just be an echo or something."

"I mean, it's not impossible for Erased Soul to reform into a similar configuration," Mr. Omura offered, hugging his notes to his chest. "Just that it would need a little more help. The reports your friend Rhyme gave me talked about it as a use for sigil coding."

"Which would make sense with the first second coming of the Grim Heaper, right. But if the Soul's been separated from it's original owner, I wonder…"

"Is there a way to bring it back together?" Omura guessed. "Well, it's funny you should say that. See in the section on Component Soul—"

"ALRIGHTY!" the front doors of the arcade swung inward and practically burst off their hinges to allow a diminutive redhead enough room to saunter in with full swagger. It took Shiki a second to recognize the boy as the same one from the Ramen shop on Wednesday. "Let's blow throw this thing so we can go an' get those firework's-a-burnin'!"

"I guess I'll tell you later," Mr. Omura finished with an apologetic smile. "Guess it's time to talk about your plan with the reversi sigil, then. I'll let you do the honors, Sakuraba."

"Me? H-hey, wait!"

Despite herself, Shiki smiled. Something told her Neku wasn't a big fan of public speaking. As more Players trickled in and Beat left them to meet Rhyme at the entrance, she moved close enough to tap him on the shoulder and lean in so he'd hear her over the rising noise.

"You got this," she said. "Just imagine your talking… whatever it was you were talking with Mr. Omura."

Neku nodded and moved a little further into the arcade to find a Tin Pin table to lean on.

And to Shiki, there was kind of something nice about that. At the end of the day, Neku was still just another human like her. Sure, she'd think it was a lot less nice if he ended up puking all over the table, but for now she thought it was a good reminder as to why she was there.

Because even if she didn't understand all of what was going on, she understood Neku well enough. And as much as he liked to ignore it, he needed someone like that.

-o-0-o-

The meeting went off pretty smooth, except for an interruption by Sho Minami-Math-Face. Personally, Beat spent most of it trying not to look at the girl with the headphones. The girl who had Rhyme's dreams inside her.

And there she was, just standing next to Rhyme now like she wasn't a dirty thief playing friends with her victim

Beat hadn't said it back when they were talking about the map and Shiki talked about seeing double, but that didn't mean he hadn't been thinking about it. Hell, it pretty much confirmed that the kid was carrying around a bunch of stolen Soul. Maybe there was even more in her than just what she'd taken from Rhyme.

Still, he couldn't just jump to conclusions, that would just lose Rhyme's dreams again, probably for good this time. If the reversi sigil thing was taking apart things that were made up of a bunch of different parts, then maybe just showing up for the battle would make the 'phones girl lose the stuff she took from other people. And if that was how things worked, he'd have to make sure the stuff that belonged to Rhyme got back to her.

So as the meeting finished up, Beat made sure to grab Neku before they all split ways. If anybody could figure out this UG sigil crap, original 'Phones could.

"I mean, they ain't all for Tabooty stuff," Beat said, showing Neku the other sigil illustrations he'd gotten from Shiki when he traded the maps. "Maybe there's somethin' in there that we could use to put the Players back together if they got Erased?"

"Not likely," 'Phones mumbled over his dumb collar that made his head look like a friggin' sundae bowl. "Otherwise Mr. H. would be using it already. Plus, it'd probably be against the rules."

"Okay, fine maybe not Erased," Beat allowed. "But what about if the take-apart sigil does somethin' to 'em by accident? Shouldn't there be a sigil in there for something like that?"

"I mean..." Neku grabbed his shoulder and looked to the side. "I guess Mr. Omura sort of mentioned something like that right before the Players started showing up."

"Yeah? And?"
"...Y'know, you're an awful lot more interested than you were earlier. Usually you just kind of skip over this kind of stuff."

"'Cause this is important, yo!" Beat insisted. "If we doin' this right, we ain't doin' it halfway! So that means coverin' the bases, right?"

"I mean… I guess," the orange-haired boy sighed. "But we probably won't be able to ask Getotsu and Minamimoto to do another one with the time we've got left."

"Yo, you givin' up, 'Phones?"

"No, just—"

"You wanna risk someone endin' up like Rhyme?"
Neku looked back up, a little bit of surprise in his eyes, and Beat knew he'd hit his mark.

"...I'll find a way," Neku said quietly. "It won't turn out like that again."

Beat opened his mouth to say thanks, but nothing came. There was a pit in his stomach and his throat was clenching tight. His mouth twitched, but he forced it into a grin and slapped Neku approvingly on the back. This was going to work.

No matter how many times he repeated that in his head, though, the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.

One Day Until Salvation

Author's Note:

Is it unnecessary to have this much drama flopping all over the place right before the end of the story? Well, believe it or not, there was originally gonna be more! It was originally going to be Ryou that shows up and asks for help instead of Shigemi!

Then CG realized Ryou is a conceited jerk and it would take a lot of intensive work to make that even semi-believable.

Anyway, limits to my ability aside, we're almost there! We're almost to the end of the last arc! Just one more day! Are you hyped? I'm hyped! The curse of the [ongoing] tag is nearly broken! If you have any requests for extras, now is the time to ask. And even if I miss something in the Player's Arc Finale, there's still a little something after that. Is that Spoilers to say so? I feel like I might've mentioned the structure to this story somewhere far back in the annals of author's notes. If not, I apologize for playing one of my few surprise cards early.

As per usual, I'd like to send out a few thank yous to the wonderful people who still here (for which read: you), but most specifically in the direction of She Who Loves Pineapples, Aviantei, and two somebodies who have no screen names but do have genes strikingly similar to my own. You know who you are.

We're almost to the promised end. Just a little longer.

Yours,

-CG

Chapter 23 Bonus Course: THE SECRET LIFE OF CHARACTERS!(Shigemi Konno)

Shigemi Konno is one of my favorite shopkeepers in TWEWY because her friendship uprank gives a solid narrative possibility. There's just something there that at least needs to be acknowledged! In that sense, she's kind of like BJ and Tenho, except maybe a little less defined.

That said, there's probably a lot of personality overlap between her and a few other characters in this story, like Kaori and Shiki. One of the few things we know about Shigemi is that she's shy, especially when it comes to romance, so I often made her easily flustered in her early work encounters with him before opting for a kind of passive approach until the precipitous confession on the day before this. After that barrier was broken, I felt like she had nothing left to lose. So, taking her in full social awkwardness, I thought I'd give her the boldness to make a last ditch effort to connect to her crush and based the interaction on a much more successful version of my own early highschool confession once-upon-a-time. I mean, lots of creative liberties taken, obviously, but that's still where I drew a lot of inspiration for her fidgety behavior and awkward dialogue. Y'know, full disclosure.

Recommended "Side Dishes" for this Character:

Shigemi shows up in fused form with Rika Toda (the other Sunshine employee) to make the Shigemi Toda of Deck 104, a Queen of Spades with a crush for Neku, King of the suit. She also makes a brief deckverse cameo at the start of the seventh shot in Twelve DRAWS of Christmas. Other than that? Haven't really seen much of this order-taking burger-miester. Sure wouldn't mind more, though~

Short Story: Regrets

Shigemi had her fair share of regrets in life.

There was that time she'd announced she wanted to grow up to be a pillow stuffer because then she'd get to have pillow fights whenever she wanted, or that time she'd drank bubble suds because she thought they'd make her fly.

Later in life, it was bigger things like taking a food service job instead of going to cram school so she could move out early, or skipping meetings with her school councilor because he had scary eyebrows that made it look like he was always angry.

And yet, for all her regrets, she couldn't tell yet if showing up on Neku Sakuraba's doorstep was one of them just yet.

On the one hand, it was totally awkward and she could tell he thought she was a dumb nuisance that just didn't know when to quit.

On the other, he'd actually talked to her back.

Now that she thought about it, even if this was the only time it happened, that was totally worth it.

After all, what was there to regret about Neku Sakuraba?

Chapter 28 Bonus Course: THE SECRET LIFE OF CHARACTERS!(Daisukenojo Bito)

You might say Beat is a character I'm definitely mischaracterizing for the sake of plot, but you'd only be half right. But if you followed that up by saying I don't naturally understand Beat's thought process on a fundamental level, then you'd be all the way right.

Beat is impulsive, and I don't really do impulsive. That's not to say I don't have moments of impulse in my own life or lapses in judgment and slips of the tongue, but Beat just surfs through life on impulse. He basically takes what's right in front of him and rolls with it. And that is not my kind of character to write. I like my characters nice and introspective, characters that surprise you with the depth of their private reflections even when they've been playing the fool for most of the story. And while Beat managed to do that emotionally for me in the original TWEWY, he definitely doesn't hit that same mark intellectually. So basically, he bucks all my comfort strategies as a writer while simultaneously making a really crumby vehicle for exposition because of how headlong-rush unobservant he is. Of all the parts of the Outsiders' Arc, Beat's sections were definitely the most difficult.

That said, I really do love Beat in his sincere love for Rhyme and pure intentions of justice that get Huck Finn'ed into mischief without a proper outside force acting as his overseeing conscience. He's really not a bad guy, he just makes that same mistake most of us make when we put personal agency over universal justice. And, really, in that sense, he becomes one of the more complex characters in TWEWY because he becomes that caricature of ourselves that we appreciate and learn from without feeling targeted. It's not that he's simple, just straightforward.

Recommended "Side Dishes" for this Character:

There's an Amulet Misty piece on Beat out there called Rewind. He's also heavily featured in No Rhyme, No Reason by Crow's Gamble to some fairly humorous effect. Beat usually shows up in a supporting role (which I like to think justifies my own difficulty with him because it implies other authors struggle as well) but whenever you can find a good Beat, you've found yourself a nugget of sensitive, righteous, pure gold.

...Unless he's here in Hybrid. In which case he's being misused to my own devious ends. Sorry Beat...

Short Story: Same Old Beat

The run back from the meeting was kind of a rush job. While Beat had been pretty careful taking Shiki through the back alleys on the way there, they didn't have the same time to budget on the way back. They would've if Shiki wasn't being to pissy about making it back before lunch period ended, but whatever, if she wanted to take a few risks just so she didn't get a bunch of demerits that would disappear at the end of the week anyway that was her call.

The thing was, taking those risks made them a little more noticeable.

"Hey!" a loud voice commanded over the crowd. "You there, halt! Runaways! Truants! Halt!"

"Is that a cop?" Shiki asked, her voice kind of rough from all the running they'd been doing.

"Yeah, whatchu think he is?" Beat grunted, keeping his eyes ahead on the crowd so he could keep cutting his way through. "Tha's why I wanted to be more careful."

"Wait, so now we're in trouble with the law!? Beat, you could've said something!"

"I did say somethin' yo," he muttered back. "I said we ain't gonna remember this week anyway so it don't matter when we get back."

Now that he thought about it, if he wasn't gonna remember this anyway, wouldn't that make this the perfect opportunity to really try his luck and see if the windbag chasing them had any kind of stones under his belt?

"Okay, but what if we do remember it?" Shiki pressed. "What'll your parents say?"
"'Rents already gots it out for me," he replied, now looking for a good place to make his stand. Man, it'd been a while since he'd gotten to enjoy a good old fashioned brawl... "Ain't changin' nothin'."

"Yeah? Well what about Rhyme?"
Beat grimaced and boosted into an all out sprint. Dammit… why'd she have to pull that card like that?

Considering how little time they'd actually spent together, it was kind of unfair that even with new possibilities she still knew how to get through to the same old Beat.