Hybrid/New Feelings

]+By Chronic Guardian+[

Chapter 13O:Redeemer

-Yesterday-

Even with the arcade meeting out of the way, Neku still felt like he had a two ton elephant standing on his chest. And considering some of his Noise encounters in the Game, he liked to think he knew what that felt like.

Worse still, he could see clouds rolling in from the bay when he stepped outside. Beat had left him with the rest of the sigil illustrations and Mr. Omura had turned over the reports after he pulled aside the Kiryu kid for a quick one-on-one. And yet, even if Neku had the resources available to act on the plan, he still probably wouldn't be able to put together a sigil before the rain came and messed it up. In other words, the most he could do at this point was just sit back and find a comfortable place to worry, for all the good that would do.

Or, at least, that was the most he could do regarding the Game. There was still a few other things in his crazy, mixed up, post-Game life that could stand to be resolved.

Sunshine Shibukyu was just winding down from its lunch rush when he arrived. One of the girls at the counter recognized him and waved him over to her station. "You're not on until tomorrow, pretty sure," she said. "But if you've got an order—"

"No, thanks," he cut in, laying a hand on the counter. "Look, is Mr. Mihael still around?"

"Mr…?" She trailed off and gave him a tilted frown.

Neku waited a moment before he rolled his eyes and relented. "You know..." he muttered, "Mr. 'Jelo?"
"Oh! Yeah, him. He's… I mean, did you hear already?"

"That they fired him?" Even with a whole day to process the news, the words still sunk in his gut like lead.

The cashier shrugged. "I mean, technically he's being let go? But it all ends up the same, I guess. I think he's talking the change over with his replacement now. Did you need to ask him something?"

Neku weighed the possibility of demanding an audience now so he could get on with the rest of his day worrying about how hard tomorrow would screw over the Players. Honestly, butting in now would probably end up worse for him than Mr. Mihael, considering he would have to come back and deal with the fallout afterwords and the newly unemployed manager was only a few conversations away from relative amnesty.

Still, it wouldn't look good for either of them if Neku provoked the foreigner's already loose grasp on professionalism in front of the new manager.

"...I can wait," he said, idly scratching at the back of his head as he turned to scan the dining room seating situation. "Just… maybe let him know I'm here when he gets the chance?"

"Mmm! Will do!"
Once again committed for the foreseeable future, Neku nodded back and found his way to a booth before unloading his study materials. He found the sigil illustrations tucked in next to his textbooks and took a moment to leaf through the stack. What had Mr. H. really intended for these? Even here at the end of the week, it felt like they'd only scratched the surface of a much larger plan. Sure, the mysterious barista hadn't really left anything in the way of concrete instructions, but the guy had always kind of left a few pieces out of the puzzle for someone else to line up.

Squinting at one that looked kind of like a flower, Neku dug into his bag again and got out the reports he'd just picked up from Mr. Omura. Just before the meeting started, they'd been talking about a sigil that could put stuff back together in its original state. Obviously there were limitations to it, as Mr. H. had only been able bring Rhyme back as a pin after she got Erased, so maybe part of it had to do with getting all the pieces in the right place or something.

Assuming that were the case, though, maybe it was possible to make a full recovery if all the proper measures were already in place at the time of Erasure. Or maybe it was more logical to set up a trap to catch all the pieces somewhere else? Pork City was supposed to be some sort of anomaly where the City's stray thoughts kind of converged, right? If that were true, was that what Mr. H. was pointing to?

A new possibility hit him like a fist to the stomach, making him lurch forward. Documents splayed across the table, and he had to dive even further to keep them from spilling over the far edge. Still, it wasn't enough to shake the thought.

What if the current Game was impossible? What if the big lesson was that the Players were screwed without Mr. H. watching over them, and the best they could do in the meantime was just loop the process until he came back? What if Neku's one job had been to keep everyone safe until that happened and he'd just failed miserably?

Dragging the pages back to himself as he corrected his posture, Neku sighed and shook his head. At one point, he hadn't wanted anything to do with the world because he didn't think it had anything worthwhile to offer him. Now, looking at it vice-versa turned out to be even more paralyzing. But, if he wanted to keep his promise to Mr. H…

"Alrighty!" the thought was summarily interrupted by Mr. Mihael coming around from Neku's blindside and plopping himself down on the opposite bench seat. Grinning from ear to ear, he pushed a salmon shirt and cherry slacks across the table: a standard Sunshine Uniform. Neku couldn't help a frown once his initial jolt of shock wore off. For a guy who'd just lost his job, the ex-manager seemed to be in awfully high spirits. "So, you're no longer a trainee," the man announced. "Welcome to the real deal, Sakuraba! And just in time to see me off, eh?"

Neku blinked and tried to reorganize his thoughts. Why had he decided a visit was a good idea again? Mostly, it just kind of seemed like it was the right thing to do. Not like he could really offer any advice or meaningful support.

And yet he was here.

Maybe the stress was getting to him...

"Ah yes, bowled over by my incredible charm and charisma," Mr. Mihael muttered sagely, stroking his chin. "I knew I'd crack you eventually!"

Neku gave the man a bland look.

"So incredible, it's left you in a trance like stupor! Truly, mine is a rare and powerful—hey, what's this?"
Mr. Mihael picked up one of sigil illustrations scattered over the tabletop and flipped it around a few times, as if trying to discern which side was 'up'. On the back, Neku now realized there was a label: Gathering Basket.

"Huh," Mr. Mihael glanced back to Neku before studying the sigil again. "More CAT designs? Now that's a crazy random happenstance! What kind of lucky insider are you, anyway?"

"That's—" Neku started then abruptly cut himself off as yet another possibility dawned on him. He flipped over the page with the flower sigil to read its title: Natural Reformer.

It was kind of a long shot, but if it worked...

Mr. Mihael raised his eyebrows. "...Yes?"

"...kind of a long story," Neku breathed. "Um… Mr. Mihael?"

"Mr. 'Jelo-Cup, thank you, but yeah?"

"A few days back, you talked about throwing it all away and lighting up the side of the mall with an art project."

The blond foreigner's face stretched in an expectant grin. "Why yes, I do recall saying something of the sort. And look! They even did the first part for me already. Close one door and another opens, as they say. So I guess that just leaves—"

"Sorry to spring this on you, but…" Neku offered over the page with the flower and tried on a hopeful half-smile, "would you mind switching locations?"

For a moment, Mr. Mihael just sat frozen, illustrations in his hands and a joke just on the tip of his open lips. He huffed a silent laugh and his round, western eyes seemed to get even wider.

It belatedly occurred to Neku that maybe dropping chance-of-a-lifetime news on an enthusiast like Mr. Mihael might actually cause a heart attack at this age. Heck, he'd practically had one himself when Joshua let CAT's true identity slip back during the Game.

"H-hey, Mr. Mihael?" Crap. Maybe he should call an ambulance?

His phone was halfway out of his pocket when the man gathered himself enough put down the papers and run both hands through his hair before offering one across the table.

"Where were you thinking, Sakuraba?"

Neku took the hand and popped an eyebrow. "Top of Pork City. How soon could you start?"

"Ah, vector to the heavens," Mr. Mihael put on the broadest grin Neku had seen in his lifetime and gave the hand a hearty shake. "See you on the morning news, then! Oh, and Neku?"

"Yeah?"

"Big fan of your work. But don't be so shy! I think people would still like you, even if they saw who you really are. You're still number one in my book, at least! Just didn't expect you to be so young."

"Uh… yeah." He scratched at the back of his head and forced the corners of his mouth up. What the heck? Had Mr. Mihael known this whole time, then? Was he one of the Ex-Players Hanekoma had been talking about? Why had he kept it a secret up until now?

It took until Mr. Mihael was out the door for Neku to realize what the man was really insinuating. And then he really did freak out.

After all, how else was he supposed to take being mistaken for CAT?

-o-0-o-

Beat didn't sleep that night. He kept thinking about the girl with the headphones and how she was going to disappear. It wasn't what he wanted to think about. He wanted to think about Rhyme getting her dreams back and how nice it'd be to not have that constant reminder in his face. After all the crap they'd gone through, he just wanted things to go back to normal so he could forget about them.

But still, he could only think of the girl with the headphones.

Finally, some time around dawn, he got tired of staring at the ceiling waiting for things to go dark and got up. He could hear his parents in the living room watching the weather report. The weather woman was saying something about showers and clear skies but he didn't catch if it was for today or tomorrow. Considering he was still in hot water over the whole skipping third period thing yesterday, he wasn't all that eager to go out and get yelled at again just yet.

At least they thought the whole thing was his fault. Rhyme's school had called in her absence too, but they still knew it was because he'd told her to. If their parents got it into their heads to make this her fault, he would've definitely lost it. Rhyme didn't deserve that. She didn't need to pay for his lousy mistakes.

Hissing through his teeth, Beat grabbed his hair and glared at the wall. Why did he always end up hurting her? Why was he so bad at just being a good older brother? It seemed like every damn thing he tried just ended up making things worse.

Shaking his head, he planted his hands on the floor and settled himself into a push-ups position. He could never really think the problems out, so he'd learned to just tire them out instead. Do the same thing enough times and it all faded into a blur until some punk decided to bring it up again.

He was somewhere in the sixties when his door slid open and his father gave him a disapproving glare.

Beat kept going.

"Daisukenojo," his father said, slow and cold. It always started that way these days. It always seemed like they'd finally gotten tired of saying the same old things over and over again, but it wouldn't take long before this turned into another shouting match.

Beat kept going.

"Congratulations, you get to sleep in another thirty minutes," his father went on. "Go straight to school after that. It's going to rain today, but it should clear up by the time they let you out. Don't get it into your head to leave before then."

"Yeah, thanks," Beat grunted. His arms were starting to ache, but he wouldn't allow himself to stop just yet. If he stopped, he'd have to focus on his father. "So is Rhyme just gonna be late, or—?"

"I'm dropping her off. Worry about yourself."

Beat clenched his teeth and kept going.

"You understand, Daisukenojo?"

"Hell no," he muttered under his breath as his nose tapped the floor again. He couldn't just worry about himself now, he still needed to tell Rhyme the plan to go and get her dreams back. 'Phones had probably worked something out. If they ignored the plan now, then all this was gonna be for nothing.

"What was that, young man?"
Beat felt his face twisting as he pumped his way across the eighty mark. If he just kept going—

"Daisukenojo!" his father said, raising his voice to a warning shot and taking a step forward into the room. "You know why we're doing this! Why are you determined to ruin your sister's life along with yours? Is this some kind of game to you? Do you like seeing her sink to your level?"

"I… ain't..." he chuffed out in between presses. "Tryin'..."

"Yes, I can see that."

Beat doubled his pace even though his arms were already on fire. "I—ain't—tryin'—"he pushed on, enunciating each word like a punch to the face, "—ta—mess—her—up! Tryin'a—fix—eeAAAGH!"

On the last push up, his arms finally wobbled and gave out. He pitched forward, collapsing face first on the floor, and panted, just one shy of a hundred.

"So you're trying to fix it by making Rhyme skip school with you?" his father said after a moment. Beat didn't look up to see the frown of absolute disgust. He'd memorized it well enough. "You're trying to make yourself feel better by making her like you. Daisukenojo, you don't see what you're doing. You don't understand—"
"I get it," Beat ground out. He should've gone running. Even if he collapsed on the street, at least he wouldn't be stuck here getting chewed out.

"No, I don't think you do. You either clearly don't understand what you're doing to your sister. Either that, or you don't love her. And we've been extremely generous in assuming it isn't the latter. So what I'm saying—"

"I heard you… the first time..." Beat groaned, rolling over onto his back. The whole world tasted like salt and sweat, and it hurt to breathe. He squeezed his eyes shut and focused on the pain. Honestly, he was just kind of hoping he'd blackout and be done with it.

"Oh, you heard? What did I say?"

"You say… I'm bad for Rhyme… and I don't get that… but..." he swallowed and tried to wipe some of sweat off his face with his arm. It would be so easy to just stop there, to give up and let his father think he was right. After walking away from so many conversations, what was one more?

A memory flickered back, something during the Game. He thought of the underpass near Miyashita where he'd died, the place where he'd killed Rhyme the first time, and his stomach wrenched itself in a double knot. He couldn't keep running from stuff like this. He couldn't keep ignoring his mistakes.

"But tha's the thing…" he pushed on, eyes closed and crusting over as sweat dried. "I… I know I… screwed up. I'm jus'..."

"'Just' what?"

Beat sucked in a breath and dug deep for the next words. He tried to think of why he was doing this, but his mind stayed stuck on the tunnel. He remembered revisiting the place with Neku on their last week and just feeling trapped with every problem he'd ever made for Rhyme. Whoever was on the Reaper patrol that decided where Players started really had a warped sense of humor if they thought that was funny.

Finding the memorial their parents had just been rubbing salt in the wound at that point. It wasn't enough to know he'd lost Rhyme for himself, they had to remind him she had other people who loved her too, that he'd let them all down.

"...I jus' wanna give her everything I got," Beat choked out at last. "I know… I know I ain't got a shot left in the barrel. You don't gotta waste your time on me. But just because I missed it don't mean you gotta plan her whole damn future for her. We… we don't get to decide… for her—"

He swallowed wrong and curled up in a hacking fit. He probably looked pretty pathetic about now. Part of him just wanted to quit and stay home from school altogether at this point. If he wasn't walking Rhyme then why even go?

"We tried going hands off," his father said, his voice dropping to a deadly quiet. "That's what we did with you. Now I'm sorry we weren't more vigilant."

"Yeah, sorry 'cuz I'm a loser," Beat mumbled. They didn't need to say it, he was doing just fine remembering on his own.

His father went silent and for a moment it seemed like there was nothing left to say. Probably one more muttered line about how he was wasting his life, or how he was being a bad influence, how he didn't really understand how difficult he was making life for everyone. But after that he'd be free.

"Daisukenojo..." his father sighed, "I'm sorry you have to pay for my mistakes. But please… don't make your sister pay for them too."

Beat froze as his mind went to the underpass again. He'd played the thought over in his head so many times since he saw it, just to remind himself how much he didn't want to mess things up for Rhyme now that they had a second chance. Except, something funny stood out about the memory this time. He still remembered the flowers their parents had brought, he still remembered the awful feeling in his gut like his body was just melting from shame.

But this time he also remembered that they'd left a drink offering for the memorial, and that there had been two cans: One for Rhyme, and one for…

He wanted to yell, to scream, to get to his feet and punch a wall or storm out of the house. None of it happened, he just stayed curled up on the floor like a big dumb baby with nothing to say.

"...Please focus," his father finished quietly. "I'll see you after school."

Beat waited until he heard the door close before finally dragging himself up to a sitting position. This was his own fault, he'd made the call yesterday and now he was paying for it. But that didn't mean he was done.

Fumbling his phone out of yesterday's pants, he started putting together a text to ask 'Phones where they'd put the sigil that was supposed to put Rhyme back to normal. Maybe he couldn't walk her there himself, but he could at least tell her the whole story and give her the choice.

She deserved that much.

-o-0-o-

Neku woke up to the sight of storm clouds outside his window. Part of him thought it was ironic that the week had taken this long to get with the program and provide a fitting dramatic backdrop to the recent events of his life. With the week all but over, now just seemed a little late for the sentiment.

Now there was nothing left to do but wait.

In a way, it wasn't as bad as it had been the last few days. He didn't feel anxious now, didn't have that gnawing doubt in his stomach eating through the walls with every possible way he could be spending his time better or more effectively. It was more empty than anything else, like a break in the otherwise pounding beat of life. And in the silence, he hadn't figured out yet if he was heading into the drop or the track was just over.

After a few minutes of staring out the window and just drinking in the calm, he took a slow breath and moved over to his desk to see what he could do about school work before his shift started. Sure, the Players were out of his hands, but that didn't excuse the rest of his life he'd been putting on semi-hold. It still felt weird thinking this was what he'd really be doing from now on instead of meddling with the Reapers' Game, even from the outside, but better to face it now than later. If he really buckled down, he could probably make a decent dent in the backlog today.

He was just getting settled in when his phone beeped with a new text notification. Neku paused, one hand still on the text book he'd been about to open. It would've been easier just to ignore it and move on. It was his own cellphone rather than the one Mr. H. had left, so it wasn't like he would be letting one of the Players down. With all that had happened in the week so far, would it really be that bad to just call a recovery hiatus and go full silent for a couple of days?

Then again, if he did do something like that and cut himself off from the world, wouldn't that just be one step back towards exactly where he'd started?

Sighing, he reached for the phone and opened it. As it turned out, there were two notifications: one for a text and the other for a voicemail. Neku felt a bland expression sink in as he imagined Beat impatiently going through whatever methods were available to throw some kind of half-baked not-quite-question his direction. Of course, he'd take that over Eri telling him she'd successfully interrogated his number out of Shiki, and he'd take that over Shigemi Konno again trying to reach out to him through less-than-ethically-obtained contact information.

In other words, Neku really would have preferred the Players at this point. He liked it when people talked with purpose. That was something he could actually say he enjoyed about the Game: it made everyone drop the bull crap and get to the damn point.

Bracing himself to deal with no such purpose, he opened the text first.

Yo, fones, it read, immediately narrowing the potential senders to exactly one person. Were you put dat picure thing yesterday? Culd u tell Rhyme?

He felt his face screw up as he lowered the phone. All things considered, Neku was probably just lucky it wasn't handwritten. His head was already swimming with questions without him having to second guess whether he was seeing the letters right or not.

Why did Rhyme need to know and why wasn't she asking on her own? And why was this picture—by which Beat probably meant 'sigil', but Neku wasn't one hundred percent sure—so important? If Mr. Mihael had somehow messed it up it wasn't like Neku would be able to tell them how to fix it.

But then, hadn't Rhyme said something earlier in the week about the sigil on the front of that cafe by the Scramble?

Neku glared back down at the phone and massaged his temple his his free hand. So then maybe Rhyme had an innate sense about sigils that he didn't. It was a long shot with stupidly bad odds and way too late in the game for him to even start debating whether or not it constituted fair notice. But if him not passing on the information meant the difference between life and death for the Players then the choice was obvious.

Not convenient, sure. Maybe not even efficient or likely to succeed. But at the end of the day, it was still a shot.

Slipping back to his contacts, he selected Rhyme and relayed where he'd directed Mr. Mihael to place the sigil. It was kind of late in the morning to check in now, and she probably wouldn't even be able to get to it until after school anyway, but he'd be at work by then and it was better to clear his side of the information log as quickly as possible.

Speaking of which, checking out that voicemail would probably be the responsible thing to do just in case Beat said something there that hadn't made it into the text. Unlikely, given this was Beat, but still remotely possible.

Oh, the lies he told himself to eat more minutes…

The calm he'd felt earlier that morning was giving way to a mob of butterflies throwing a stomach knot convention without any regard for zoning permits or operation hours. Doing his best to ignore them, he dialed up voicemail, punched in his password, and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Hey, Neku..." The jumbled tension inside him focused to a razor wire as he recognized Shiki's voice instead of Beat's. "I… I know you're busy. And we've really been through a lot lately. Looking back, it's kind of crazy just thinking that we even met, or stayed friends after the Game. But… I-I'm not even sure if you do voicemail. I mean, I kind of forgot my password when I came back, so if you're like me then I should probably just try calling back to catch you later. BUT, if you get this and you find the time..."

She trailed off with a huff, and Neku felt his chest seize. Maybe he just wasn't familiar with her normal voice yet, but something felt off. Usually, that wouldn't bother him; he'd see the hesitation more as an inconvenience than anything else. But with Shiki?

"I… was wondering, if…" The tension was killing him. Yeah, he could tell she was being careful with her words, and he could respect that. But couldn't she have been careful and picked the right words before she started calling him?

"Today," she finally said, before quickly backtracking. "I mean, Saturday? That's… yeah, that's today. So Saturday, if we could meet up and do something with Eri? It's okay if—"

She paused again, abruptly this time. For a second, Neku wondered if maybe the recording had run out before she came back full force.

"Neku, it would really mean a lot to me if—"

Beeeep.

The wire in his chest went limp. He knew what she was asking. He also knew he'd be working until late, and the only way for them to meet up would be her visiting him on the job, and if someone like Eri got wind of him working at a place like Sunshine then God only knew what kind of contagious fuel that would give her for the local rumor mill. Even if he didn't have to deal with it personally, he could already imagine what kind of flak Shiki would get once people started associating her with him, especially since Eri seemed full bore on that shipping train.

Not to mention if she couldn't get into voicemail then she'd missed his little confession the other night. So as far as she was concerned, he still hadn't clarified how much she meant to him now.

After that conclusion, his mind came to a full and complete stop. He knew there was a decision to be made, but nothing came. The air felt thick, heavy, as if the midday muggy humidity had somehow moved its operating schedule up to dawn. He tried to compose a text message, but nothing came.

Eventually, he gave up and looked out the window again. Maybe it would be better to try and walk it off. After a week of melting his brain with cram sessions and plotting for the Players, he could probably stand some fresh air. Or at least he'd be getting out of the house. Usually it felt comfortably familiar but something today seemed off, stifling even.

What even… He sighed and shook his head. It sounded like the kind of thing his mom might say.

Pulling on a jacket and grabbing an umbrella, he took one last look around to tell his present parent he'd be heading out, then settled with leaving a note when he couldn't find her. He'd say she was crazy to step out for grocery shopping with the weather as it was, but she'd never really been bothered by that sort of thing in the past so he couldn't rule it out as a possibility. Wherever she was, she could always call him if she felt like intervening for once.

As he stepped out, the wind started to pick up and the first few drops of rain started drizzling down. Sighing to himself, Neku opened his umbrella and blocked out the stormy sky. He didn't really know where he was headed, but wherever it was, he'd prefer to arrive relatively dry.

Something told him it was going to be a long day, and he had enough to worry about without a cold.

-o-0-o-

Rhyme yawned and rested her head against the car window as her father drove her to school. Her UG vision hadn't shut off in the evening and she'd spent the night listening to Noise scrabbling across the rooftop and through walls. The whole skipping school for a mysterious meeting thing hadn't helped the general atmosphere at home, so the extra negativity had attracted a whole swarm of them. Miraculously, no one ended up possessed, but that didn't make her any less sleep deprived now.

"Be a good girl and wait for me when you're finished," her father was saying, "If your brother asks you to meet him somewhere, don't go."

"Mmhmm," she mumbled through a threadbare smile. From what she could tell, the meeting with the Players yesterday had been the end of their tenure as stand-in Mr. Hanekomas. It shouldn't be too hard now to just go back to business as usual. Sure, she'd have to put in a little effort to make up for the missed day, but the most trouble she had with school these days was staying motivated.

Even knowing what was missing and why, she still hadn't quite figured out how to fill the hole in her life left by her missing entry fee. Whenever she tried to think about the future all she saw was a giant blank slate without any chalk. It was all just one big nothing and the more she tried to fill it the deeper its emptiness became.

She jerked back to full consciousness as they arrived at school. The sky overhead looked just about ready to burst as her father shooed her off with some final words of encouragement and warning, a little more stern than their usual interactions. She understood why, of course. He thought she was turning into another Beat and that terrified him. As a self-made doctor who came from nothing, their father saw idleness as a disease to be treated and discipline as its natural antidote.

Still, it hurt to hear him talk like that.

She was just inside the student's entryway when her phone beeped with a text notification. Pausing in the middle of switching her shoes, she rubbed at her eyes and took a moment to check the messages.

There were a few, as it turned out. One from Neku and a whole slew from Beat. Rhyme stared for a moment, processing the possibilities of what this could be about, and slowly came to the conclusion that it couldn't wait.

The sigil is on top of Pork City, Neku's read. Good luck.

Rhyme grimaced. Well that left all sorts of blank points to fill in. Maybe Beat's would add something? She pressed on.

Beat's texts were fragmented and misspelled, but she knew what to expect from her brother and how to decipher it. What she hadn't been expecting was something like a confession. She felt something heavy start to ache in her throat as she read through his thoughts. Get your dreams, he said. The headphones girl from the ramen shop would be fighting the Reaper Killer today on a sigil that took apart complex Soul. Somehow it hadn't clicked yesterday that something like that would tear out foreign elements, but if the hunch was right then it would mean freeing Rhyme's lost Entry Fee from its accidental host. So Beat had gone ahead and arranged with Neku to make a collection point were they could pick it up: Pork City.

The problem was, if the girl had really picked up the lost Entry Fee, then who could say what else she'd picked up along the way? What was she? There was something immediately familiar about her that Rhyme hadn't really questioned until now. Was it just her Soul resonating with a stolen fragment, or was the girl herself an amalgamation of lost Soul crystallized into a person? What if taking apart the foreign elements meant taking her apart?

Rhyme felt her head spinning as she searched her memory for some recognizable platitude to repackage the situation into digestible terms. What was there to do? If they'd already killed the girl to get her dreams back, did that make it wrong to follow through and collect? If she ignored the sacrifice, would that make her any less guilty? Sure, maybe this meant she at least wouldn't have to deal with Noise keeping her up at night, but that wouldn't change the price paid.

She slumped against the wall of shoe cubbies and cradled the phone as she reached the last message in Beat's chain: You don hav to. Is jus the best I culd do.

Her eyes began to water and she squeezed them shut. She knew it was dumb to cry at something like this that was already in motion, that tears wouldn't challenge fears, and morals were dead without action. But she couldn't help it. She was tired and ragged and running on fumes. Trying to play shoulder angel to her brother's antics had taken its toll, and her emotional reserves had finally run dry.

Beat knew what he was setting up and he still went through with it. She kind of doubted he realized the exact consequences at the time, but she knew he would still accept them if it meant getting her dreams back. It was an awful thing to do, but she knew he'd done it with the purest of intentions. And as much as she hated the plan itself, she couldn't actually hate him for it.

Rubbing her eyes dry, she pulled herself back together enough to force a rational thought. There was still a chance the Players hadn't engaged the Reaper Killer yet. If she could get in touch with Neku, then maybe they could warn the girl. Maybe—

The gambit stopped in its tracks as her phone gave an apologetic jingle and flashed a zero battery icon before powering down. Apparently she'd forgotten to charge it with all the recent craziness.

Her mouth twisted and she almost started crying again. What was she supposed to do? What could she do when she was stuck at school without a working phone? She could always ask to borrow someone else's, but she didn't remember Neku's number off the top of her head, and it would be a miracle if the school faculty hadn't confiscated Beat's phone right on arrival. If she had another pair of parents, she might try calling in sick, but as things stood her father would just counter-diagnose and send her right back. So who could she rely on?

"Hey, bro!" She belatedly registered a soft fist hitting her shoulder as Shuto Dan leaned down into her field of vision and grinned. "What's got you so bummed? You look like my best bro Yammer after he lost his ultra-rare, limited edition Tin Pin Cait Sith! You got the rival blues?"

Rhyme threw on a smile and tried her best to maintain eye contact with Shooter's hyper-laser intensity. "It's… kind of complicated," she said haltingly. "Just watching the day unfold, really."

Putting it kind of mildly, sure, but it wasn't inaccurate.

"Unfold?" Shooter balked as if she'd just suggested he give up Tin Pin. "C'mon, bro! That ain't the winner's path to ultimate victory! You gotta take that day and totally visualize yourself smashing it! You just sit there on the board and life's gonna slam you over the edge! Bro, that's why you look down. If you ain't slammin' you ain't jammin'! Feel me, bro?"
Rhyme stared puffy-eyed for a moment as she processed and distilled his words into recognizable meaning.

"...Carpe diem?" she belatedly offered.

"Ooh, English! Nice!" He raised a fist and beamed back. "Faito for raito, Bito! Got that off this super cool show I watch. Totally slammin' right? Anyway, I gotta run. Rivals to smash and homework to blast. May our souls slam again some time!"

Rhyme watched him go and slowly nodded to herself. She couldn't just sit around and wait for the future to find her. If she wanted to change things, she would have to go and actually do something about it. She didn't know exactly what she was aiming for or exactly how she would get to it, but she would find a way.

Pushing up to her feet, she looked back to the front entrance and started formulating a plan. First things first, she would need to get off school grounds without being noticed. Beat would know how to do that, and if he could figure it out then so could she. Even if it manifested differently, it was the same bullheaded tenacity running in her veins. Maybe she didn't have a future to aim for, but she still had a family to look to.

At the end of the day she was still a Bito.

Taking a deep breath, Rhyme nodded to herself and headed out.

-o-0-o-

After yesterday's little lunchtime stunt, Shiki had picked up her class's cleaning duties for the next week. Unsurprisingly, this didn't really do much to get her out of her recent rise into rumordom.

She took her time getting to school, partly to avoid the crowds and partly because she was holding out on a reply from Neku. She hoped he would say yes, of course. She wasn't really sure what she'd tell Eri if she got a no. If it came down to it like that, she wondered if she'd ultimately have to choose between the two of them.

When she thought about it like that, she almost didn't want an answer. So when the text notification finally did come in, she told herself she would wait to check it with Eri. She knew it wouldn't actually change the answer, so in the end she was just being kind of dumb and cowardly. But considering she was looking at possibly sacrificing one of her bedrock relationships, she felt entitled to a little abstract anxiety

Maybe that was why her arrival timing ended up being a little bit off.

She'd meant to arrive just as school was starting so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone, but she ended up with a few minutes to spare. With the only other real option left being to either get it over with or wait just off school grounds like a creeper, she took the lesser of two evils and made a bee line for her classroom. With any luck, the more talkative girls would still be too busy hanging out in the courtyard to bother her.

Unfortunately, the imminent chance of rain kind of had a dramatic impact on the courtyard's popularity.

She should have seen that one coming, honestly, but it didn't make things any less awkward as the collective conversations of the room came to a dead stop. Eri, sitting in her usual seat ahead of Shiki's, didn't look up from her sketch book. Biting her lip and ducking her head, Shiki tried to treat the stares like raindrops and just force her way through.

When she'd made it as far as her desk, Eri sighed and straightened up to send an annoyed glance around the classroom. "Well?" she huffed expectantly.

Almost immediately, a new blanket of half-hearted background conversation sprung up.

Shiki tried not to grimace as she sat down. Great, so this really was about her. Maybe that was the real downside to being friends with a high-profile girl like Eri: anything became newsworthy when it was attached to the class icon.

"Sorry," Eri sighed, turning around to lean on the back of her seat. "I thought they'd be over it by now. That's what I get for bringing up Neku, I guess."

The mention of the boy's name sent an excited ripple through the surrounding conversations. Shiki could only imagine how they'd react if they ever found out how she'd actually formed the relationship.

"I mean…" Eri gave a tilted look and went on. "It's not like we're fighting over it or anything, right?"

"...Right," Shiki stretched on a neutral look and tried not to sound too hesitant. Yesterday's talk was still haunting her, and while Eri wasn't trying to passive aggressively smooth things over, it still felt kind of wrong to let bygones be total bygones on something like this. "So then what's this all about?"

"This?" Eri waved to their surrounding classmates, many of whom quickly dropped surreptitious stares and went back to pretending like they had something better to do. "This is what happens when I tell someone besides you that I'm worried about something. Don't worry," she flashed a wry smile. "I think I learned my lesson: inner circle only next time. I guess I just… I dunno, you seemed distant. Not like you're angry or anything, just, like, different. Like something just changed out of nowhere and I didn't know how to talk to you anymore. You know?"

Shiki slowly nodded. She hadn't really put words to it herself, but she'd kind of known this moment would arrive at the back of her mind. It was the moment Eri realized how far they'd drifted apart. After poking and turning it over on and off for about a year, it was kind of surreal to see it coming to light now so she could finally get a good look at it.

All things considered, she didn't like it much better in articulate form.

"Yeah, its..." Eri bit her lip and bobbed head, as if the idea needed to be shaken before served. "I guess that's why I'm so curious about Neku. And, I mean, yeah, you can tell me it's none of my business if you want, but… this affects us. You get that, right?"

Shiki managed to croak a "yes" before again falling into silence. She understood that something was shifting in their friendship, she really did, but so far the best she'd been able to do was just ignore it. She had overcame her envy back during the game, so she'd kind of just assumed things would smooth over from there on out. What else could the world want from her?

Across from her, Eri's face softened a little and she leaned forward on her chair's backrest so she could drop to a confidential hush. "Look," she murmured. "I'm not trying to make this harder than it has to be. You're changing, and that's really cool! You… you're growing. And I think that's why Neku's so important to you: because he's someone who's growing too, so he understands you a little better than me right now. But, if if I'm really being honest? It kind of scares me.

"N-not to sound melodramatic or anything!" she added hastily when she glanced back to see Shiki's expression. "I just… when people change, they can become totally new and amazing things, right? But…" she slowed down to swallow a grimace, then put two fingers together and looked down. "Sometimes part of getting there means… well, it means losing some of the old pieces. You know? It's like when I'm designing and I want to keep all the accessories on something, but then you streamline it in production because you know it's not gonna work otherwise.

"And I really appreciate that about you, Shiki! I appreciate that you know how to pick and choose and make it work. But—and I know this sounds stupid—I just… I'm scared that I'm gonna end up as one of those things that gets scrapped in the final design. Do you get what I mean? Like… I see you changing into someone better and it makes me so happy for you, but then I stop and wonder if the better you…" she glanced back up and sighed, "well, doesn't like me."

"...What?" Shiki blinked and jerked back, sending a new murmur of intrigue through their pretending-to-be-invisible classroom audience. "Eri, of course I like you! We're best friends. I couldn't imagine—"

She stopped short as the words caught in her throat. Were they still best friends? Sure, they weren't spending as much time together over the last week, but that was kind of par for the course when Eri couldn't know about the Game. Things would go right back to normal tomorrow, wouldn't they?

It was about then that Shiki realized the contradiction: During her Game, she'd seen just how much of her normal life was wasted on trying to keep up with Eri. Normal for her had been trying to be someone she wasn't and then giving up on life when she couldn't. The great lie of her previous existence was that she could be essentially the same popular girl as the one everyone else already loved. If that was normal, did she really want to go back to that?

But if she wasn't doing things the same as ever, how could she be sure anything else would stay the same?

Eri gave a rueful smile and rested her chin on her folded hands. "Like I said, it sounds stupid. Maybe I'm paranoid, I dunno… Sorry I—"

Shiki gripped her desk and leaned forward as her voice dropped to a determined drone. "Eri," she said quietly. "Don't say things like that."

"—Huh?! L-like what?"

"You're not just an accessory," Shiki went on. "We're friends, alright? I mean it. And that's not something I can just cut out of the design. Look, about today, even if—"

Riiing! The school bell drowned out the rest of her statement and their homeroom teacher swept in to start taking roll.

"Tell me later," Eri said, putting out a calming hand before turning around in her seat to face forward.

"But—!"

Her friend turned back again for one last smile over her shoulder. "It's okay, Shiki. I trust you."

"Huh—?" Shiki blinked but managed a nod, then fell silent when the teacher gave them a stern look.

There was so much more to be said on the subject, and she knew she couldn't just let it go without a fight. But for now, it was nice to know that some things didn't have to change. Or at least, even if the world did change, that didn't mean the old parts had to die.

She smiled and started getting out her books. So long as they held together, it would turn out alright.

-o-0-o-

After slipping out onto the street from a side entrance, the first thing Rhyme realized about her predicament was her increased visibility as a lone, school-aged child on the street during school hours. With the rain thinning out crowds, she'd be an easy target for truancy patrols unless she made a few creative navigational decisions or found some sort of escort.

Thankfully, Udagawa wasn't too far, and the officers she did see were too interested in staying dry to really hang around and inspect every hiding spot. In that sense, the journey wasn't difficult so much as time consuming. After clambering up and over the school wall, she slipped behind dumpsters and crouched through alleyways, stopping every so often to check her surroundings and make sure she hadn't been noticed yet. SAll things considered, she probably looked more suspicious taking things this way, but so long as it kept her from getting caught it wouldn't matter.

Or at least, that's what she thought at first.

About three alleyways into the route, she started to feel as if she were being watched. She'd ditched her umbrella back at the school for the sake of stealth, but it wasn't impossible for someone to spot her regardless of the sacrifice. She flattened herself against the closest wall, trying to ignore the runoff pooling around her shoes as she hurriedly looked both ways in search of her unwanted shadow.

Nothing.

Rhyme took a deep breath and pressed on. Maybe the sleep deprivation was just messing with her. The important thing was stopping the sigil before it could erase the girl with the headphones: Amber Hanekoma. Even if she had stolen Rhymes dreams and kept her up all night by tying her to the UG, bringing her back to the RG would still mean solving the problem, wouldn't it? Sure, Rhyme wouldn't get her dreams back, but if it meant someone else lived…

She shook her head; something still felt off about the solution. But why? Wasn't it better to stop the sacrifice and just live with the loss? Wasn't it better if nobody else had to get hurt? Why would it be wrong to stop something like—?

Rhyme jerked to a halt just short of exiting the alleyway. Some light on the wall ahead of her had begun to ripple and shimmer. A second later and she could make out thick shadowy limbs moving across the building. Red slits blinked into existence and swiveled around to regard her with a cold curiosity. Slowly, almost casually, the living darkness detached itself from the wall and landed on all fours, taking on the shape of an enormous horned monitor lizard covered in spines like volcanic shards.

The air grew suddenly thin. Rhyme tried to force breath into her lungs, but her chest only tightened with a sharp squeeze and she ended up leaning on the alley wall just to stay upright. Even though it was her first meeting with this particular Noise, she already knew exactly what it was.

This was the Reaper Killer.

Flaring its nostrils to catch a scent, the Noise lizard crawled across the street until it was only a few feet from Rhyme, all the while watching her with its unblinking, pupilless red eyes. The air went from crisp to freezing and Rhyme felt her legs crumpling like a marionette with its strings cut. Could Noise kill people in the Real Ground? She couldn't remember anything off the top of her head that suggested it as a common occurrence, but in the current moment she didn't think statistical evidence would do much to stop the monster from making an exception.

Run. Rhyme told herself, clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering. Just run. It can't hurt you if you run.

Still, her feet felt like she'd filled her shoes with rocks. It was all she could do just to keep her knees from collapsing. And still the Reaper Killer came closer. She could see her reflection in its eyes, and that was all the evidence she needed that this thing could and would devour her where she stood if she didn't do something fast.

Then, just as the beast was about to reach out for her with a clawed hand, it stopped. Its head twitched violently to either side and its spine arched. Hissing, it fell back into spasms, thrashing at something even Rhyme's UG vision couldn't see.

Realizing this was her chance, Rhyme's body finally responded and she bolted her way across the street, not even checking for car traffic along the way. She dove into the next alley and scrabbled her way back to a run in no time. She had to get away. She had to stop the sigil from—

Her heart stopped and fell so deep in her stomach that she buckled over and had to catch herself on her knees. No. If she sabotaged the sigil, the Players wouldn't stand a chance. Maybe even asking Amber to sit the round out would be too big of a risk. If they were going to take on that monster, they would need everything at their disposal.

...So then what was Rhyme supposed to do about Amber?

Squeezing her eyes shut as she caught her breath, Rhyme panted her way back to relative calm and rethought the scenario. If she couldn't stop things at this stage, then maybe she could still make a difference further down the pipeline. Maybe if she made it to Pork City, she could do something to make the sigil bring Amber back instead of putting the pieces back where they belonged.

It was a terrible plan filled with very big ifs, but it was something. Beat would've been proud.

Straightening up a little, Rhyme tucked her hands under her arms and shivered. She realized now that she'd lost her raincoat in escaping from the Reaper Killer, but she wasn't about to go back and risk an encounter. Still, she needed to get all the way across Shibuya, and she needed to do it as fast as possible. Skulking in alleyways wouldn't cut it for that. She needed a grown up who knew what was going on, and a tangible solution to keeping her somewhat dry.

Changing her course for Shibu-Q Heads, Rhyme started thinking up the fastest way to explain things to Mr. Omura. With any luck, he'd at least be able to solve one of those things.

-o-0-o-

Beat barely made it through his first class before his phone started going off.

Normally, he wouldn't have a problem blowing off the bogus lesson for the day and just answering the call, but today felt different. After the talk with his father that morning, he felt a kind of stony determination to at least try and do the right thing. If he was going to be a part of Rhyme's life, he couldn't always be dragging her down. Sure, it wasn't his fault she still cared about him, but that didn't mean he had to just keep being a dumbass and make things even worse for her.

Eventually, as the ringing grew louder and Beat fumbled to silence it in his pocket, the teacher just gave up and paused the lesson. "Answer it or turn it off, Bito," she commanded. "We'll wait."

Flushing red, he finally brought the phone out and opened it to at least see who was tripping him up now. He froze when he saw the caller ID.

It was his father.

"Uh…" He looked back at his teacher and grimaced. "Family emurgently?"

She sighed and waved him out into the hallway. Beat took the dismissal like a blessing from heaven and made his exit with godspeed.

Finally in relative privacy, he hit the green receiving button and pressed himself up against a locker. "Hey," he said curtly, trying his best to not sound totally disrespectful. "Kinda at school."

"Well, that makes one of my children, at least," his father growled back, slightly distorted. "You wouldn't happen to know where your sister is, would you?"

"Where...?" Crap. Beat felt his breath catch. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but part of him had kind of been hoping Rhyme would come up with some genius excuse to get herself out of school without raising any alarms in the process. Was this just one of those goody two-shoes things where she couldn't lie to the teachers so she'd just run off without telling them?

"R-Rhyme's not at school?" he managed to stammer out after a moment.

His father gave an irritated sigh. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you sound genuinely surprised."

"She ain't wid' me, if tha's watchu sayin'!"

"So, you're saying you had nothing to do with this?" his father pressed. "Nothing at all?"

Beat winced. There was something sharp and unforgiving in his father's tone. Something kind of like desperation.

"H-hey, I jus—"

"Daisukenojo," his father cut back in. "If you're feeding me a story, if you're just running as fast and hard as you can from a mess you made… Well, normally I'd tell you you're an idiot who can do better. But this time it's about your sister. And, heaven help me, if you think you can mess with her future just because she trusts you—"

"This ain't about her helping me," Beat ground out, fighting to keep from yelling. "Rhyme lost something, I jus' told her where to find it. I thought…"

He choked on unexpected tears and clenched his fist harder around the phone. Dammit, what had he been thinking? That everything would turn out okay if he just threw it over to Rhyme? That she'd somehow figure out a perfect solution if she just had all the right puzzle pieces?
Yes, he realized, that was exactly what he'd been thinking. He hadn't been able to figure out the hard stuff, so he just left it to his little sister and called it good. Because why the hell not, right? Why not let her just face the UG alone?

Some big brother he'd turned out to be…

"Look," he started again, "I… I don't know where Rhyme is. But I swear! I swear to you, tell me go and I'll find her. I'll bring her back. I'll get her to school. I don't care. But you tell me to sit this one out and I'mma—"

"Go."

"B-bwagh?! Hey! I wasn't fini—"

"I said go," his father repeated. "Prove you aren't full of crap. Call me when you find her. You hear me, Daisukenojo?"

"Hold it, are you sayin'...?"

"Yes," his father sighed. "I'm trusting you. Don't screw it up."

"Wait, for real?"

"Yes, Daisukenojo, for real."

He grinned despite the tears still drying on his face and pushed off the wall. He could still hear it raining like crazy outside, but that wouldn't stop him. Something inside had just clicked back into place, and it was burning harder than any stupid raindrops could ever hope to fight. For what felt like the first time that week, he remembered what it meant to not feel like total crap.

"Alright! Leave it to me!"

He ended the call and glanced back to the classroom, then down the hallway towards the front entrance.

Maybe it was a little early to tell, maybe he was totally wrong like usual, maybe it would just be one more failure to add to the pile. But somehow, someway, he had a feeling today might not be so awful after all.

Now, for the not screwing it up part...

-o-0-o-

"I need you to take me to Pork City."

Mr. Omura gave the request a measured nod and crossed his arms. "Are you sure you don't mean the laundromat?"

After another series of increasingly more reckless dashes through the rain, Rhyme had finally ended up at Real Life Solutions with her uniform jacket entirely soaked and her shoes squishing with every step. She hesitated at the entrance just long enough to wring out her clothes a little and at least make an attempt at not looking like a vagrant flushed out by the rain. Thankfully, her favorite skull sweater was mostly dry but, judging by Mr. Omura's reaction, she still looked pretty bad.

"Maybe later," she pressed. "There's a sigil we put at the top of Pork City that I need to check out. Y'know," she pointed to her eyes and tried to smile, "UG vision?"

"Ah, so that's what this is about. Well, in that case, we'll tell Sato he's got half an hour to get you there and back again."

"Sato?" Rhyme tried not to let her expression falter. "W-what about y-y-yaaachoo!"

"Bless you," Mr. Omura said in frank condolence, turning to lead the way to the second floor departments. "Sato's got a different UG vibe than me. Sure, he's a little clumsy—he's played the Game twice, already, but he won both times. Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert, but it seems to me that the UG makes way for someone like that. If you want a straight shot to Pork City on a day like this with a mission like that, I'll bet he's your man."

"Wait, but… UG vibe? I'm sorry, aren't we were working in the RG?"

"Well, sure, but the two still interact. Having someone like Sato around will keep the Noise off your back. Besides," he turned and knowingly tapped the side of his nose, "something tells me the two of you would get along."

"Ah, right..." Rhyme slumped a little and looked around at the displays as they made it to the second floor and ducked into a Tin Pin themed corner. Usually, she wouldn't mind meeting someone new and doing things a little differently—new meat begot new appetites, after all. But in the here and now, after a long week and a longer night…

"Sato," Mr. Omura called out. "We need you to run a delivery across town."

"In this weather?" a new voice called back from behind an action figure display. A large man in the store uniform emerged and gave them a frown. "Are you sure it's…?"
He trailed off as he caught sight of Rhyme, then turned back to Mr. Omura and raised his eyebrows. "Player?" he asked, pointing.

"Ex-Player," Rhyme clasped her hands behind her back. "But… trying to help the current ones."

For a moment, they just stared at eachother. Rhyme could see a mix of pity and fear flash through his eyes before settling on determination.

"I understand," he said quietly. "I'll take her."

-o-0-o-

"Okay, look," 'Phones' voice came over the phone with fuzzy irritation. "When I told her about the sigil I didn't think she'd cut school for it. We added a gathering function specifically so everything would hold in place. How was I supposed to know she'd act like a total delinq—er…"

"Yo, Rhyme ain't no delinqer, a'ight?" Beat growled craning his head as he scanned the streets for his sister. "'Sides, ain'tchu cuttin' school too?"
"Independent studies, Beat, I make my own hours. I'm just saying it doesn't make sense for Rhyme to do something like that, especially if you didn't ask her to."

"I mean, I told her she didn't have to," Beat corrected. It was close enough, but 'Phones might see some kind of difference. "I was jus' sayin' if she wanted to get her dreams back then this was prolly—"

"Okay, hold up. Dreams? Beat what's going on? Do you think the Reapers' will just give us back stuff we lost if we try hard enough? This isn't our Game. I know it sucks, but whatever we didn't get back is probably just going to stay lost."

"Yeah… maybe." A car passed by and Beat bit back a curse as it sprayed water across the sidewalk.

"Unless you know something I don't," 'Phones went on. "In which case now would be a really good time to stop me shooting in the dark."

"I don't want you shootin' no one, man," Beat muttered. "I jus'…. Dammit." He cursed as he stepped in a puddle and water flooded his shoe.

"Beat?"

"Okay, look," he hissed, doing his best to shake the water out before hobbling on. "You know that girl with the cat like Shiki?"

"The…? Oh, you mean Amber."

"Right, 'Amber'. Well, me and Rhyme was doin' some thinkin'."

"...Yeah?"

"An' we thought maybe…" Beat trailed off and did another scan of the area, partly in case Rhyme had shown up while he wasn't looking but more to distract himself.

'Phones sighed. "Beat, I need you to tell me the whole story."

"I know, man! I know. I jus…" He almost reached up to scratch the back of his head before realizing his non-phone hand was hold his umbrella. Quickly tipping it back into place and spitting out the raindrops that had made it through in the brief lapse, he continued. "When we talked to the Real Life Summation guy he said that maybe Rhyme can see the UG because parta her's still there."

"Okay, so that would be her Entry Fee," Phones concluded. "But how does that tie back to a current Player?"

"I'm gettin' there, don't get your panties in a twist! See, when we chilled with blondie and her partner at Dr. Ramen's, she also had the picture Eri took at the start of the week."

"Wait, what?"

"I know, right? Except hers had that prick you partnered with for week two."

"Joshua!?"

"Yo, calm down, 'Phones!" Beat ordered. "I'mma need you to think logistimatically."

"Beat, Joshua's—"

"Right, prick's the Composer. I gots it, yo! Tha's not the important part!"

"Okay, fine. So setting aside for the moment that she had a picture that showed both RG and UG, what's your point?"

"My point is that blondie's some kind of magic Soul magnet thing suckin' up stuff that ain't hers. So maybe—!"

"Crap," Neku breathed, finally picking up the pieces. "Yeah, okay. I get you now. So you think Amber is keeping Rhyme's Entry Fee from fully dissolving by holding it herself, which explains why Rhyme has UG vision for part of the day."

"Yeah, and—!"

"Which means if Amber joins the mission to stop the Reaper Killer, the sigil in Udagawa might take out that part of her."

"'Zactly! So—"

"Beat?"

"Yo quit interruptin', 'Phones! It's gettin' repugnant!"

"Beat, listen!" Neku insisted. "What if Rhyme's dreams aren't the only part of Amber that's borrowed? What if the sigil takes out more of her than just that? Did you think about any of that before you set this up?"

"'Course I did! Tha's why I had you set up that other signal!"

"Yeah, assuming it works like that," 'Phones shot back.

Even in the cold rain, Beat felt his face heating up. Clenching his teeth together, he forced himself to keep moving further into Shibuya. Sure, he didn't know exactly where 'Phones had put the thing that put people back together, but it was better than standing still right now. "It's the best I could do, a'ight?" he mumbled into the phone. "I mean, Blondie's already gonna fight the Reaper Killer anyway, right? Might as well make it worth it."

"Fight the Reaper Killer...Huh..." Neku echoed. "...Beat, are you sure Rhyme went for the end point?"

"Uh, I mean, she went somewhere, right? Where else would she go, man?"
"Well..." Neku took a deep distorted breath and plodded on in a flat tone. "If Rhyme knew what was going on, do you think she'd just go along with it, or do you think she might try to do something about it?"

"Look, 'Phones, you know I ain't any good at riddles. If you wanna say somethin'—"

"Fine, fine, we'll put it like this: Do you think Rhyme might have headed to Udagawa so she could stop the sigil from deconstructing Amber?"

Beat stopped moving. Now that Neku mentioned it, that did sound like something Rhyme would do. And as much as Beat wanted to believe the Players could probably take on the Reaper Killer without the sigil, Rhyme would definitely not be getting her dreams back that way.

"...Crap."

"Okay. Okay, don't panic. We don't know that she's done anything yet. If we hurry, we might be able to keep it that way."
"Yo, you mean you're okay widdit if Blondie goes poof?"

"Of course not! But that sigil's probably their only chance of taking down that Noise. Unless we keep it intact, Amber won't be the only one in major trouble."

"Huh." Well, not quite what Beat had been thinking, but it still worked.

"So, are we doing this?"

Beat grunted. "Pffft, you have to ask?"

"Alright, then I'll see you there."

"Yeah," he took a deep breath of the soggy air and pressed on. "See you then."

-o-0-o-

Five minutes later and Rhyme and Sato were back on the street. Sato brought an umbrella with a bright, cartoon themed pattern and offered Rhyme his coat. Even though it was several sizes too big for her, she still accepted and slipped the covering over her shoulders, wrapping herself in it like a blanket.

"So… reaching back for the Players," Sato sighed as they passed down towards Tipsy Tose Hall. His voice was kind of strained, but Rhyme could hear him injecting a little bit of warmth to buoy them against the downpour. "It's not something we're usually supposed to do."

"Because the Producer handles that, right?" Rhyme answered, drawing back on the information they'd gone over at yesterday's meeting. She'd kind of suspected ex-Players just didn't want anything to do with the Game once they finished, but it also made sense that there was an active ban against it.

"Well, sort of."

"You mean you don't think he does a good job?"
"Huh? Oh, no! Heheheh." Sato gave a sheepish chuckle and looked away. "I meant more like… we're not supposed to do it because it's not good for us. Like, once we finish the Game, we're supposed to move on."

Rhyme almost nodded, but then settled for a tilted look as she realized her lost Entry Fee was sort of sabotaging that expected route in more ways than one. Even without Amber Hanekoma tangled up in the mess, how was she supposed to move on when she had no idea what she was moving on to?

"Counter intuitive, isn't it?" Sato sighed. "We spend a whole week learning to look beyond ourselves and then they tell us to ignore others going through the exact same thing."

"Yeah… that is kind of weird," she agreed, frowning down at her feet as she puzzled the paradox out in her head. "I mean, I get that the Reapers probably wouldn't be very happy if the old Players kept making it harder to Erase people," she allowed after a moment, "but… if they don't want us to care, then what are they trying to do?"

"Well, see, that's the thing: Caring and intervening aren't always the same thing."

Rhyme gave her escort a sidelong questioning look. "Oh?"

It wasn't an entirely new concept to her. She knew that her parents intervened with her brother because they cared, but that didn't mean it an effective strategy, especially when Beat chaffed under the expectation of results.

Of course, she couldn't really prove that her way was any better, but she'd like to think it at least didn't push him further away.

"Er… that's not quite the best way to put it, is it? Here, let me use a personal example," Sato offered, holding out his free hand to present the idea. "I… I went through the Game twice."

"Ah, right. Mr. Omura said something about that." Rhyme tried to sound casual as she sized up his hesitation. Beat had also been through twice too, hadn't he? And Neku even played a third time.

Of course, those had been consecutive weeks. Maybe Sato was embarrassed over having to go to the UG on two seperate occassions...

"A-anyway," he pressed on, doing his best to rub his hands together without letting go of the umbrella in the process, "the second time around, I had this Partner who… well, she ended up staying in the UG. I cared about her—I mean, that's kind of natural for Partners, right? When you depend on someone that much? And I could tell she was going through a lot of stuff that hurt to deal with. But, when it came down to it, I came back to life and she stayed. I know she could've played again—probably would have made it, too—but she chose to stay in the UG," he paused to swallow a sour expression, then finished: "As a Reaper."

He stopped and for a minute the only sound was the rapid patter of raindrops speckling the pavement. Rhyme kept her mouth closed and her eyes straight ahead. It sounded like the same path Beat took at the end of the first week. Except, as far as they knew, Sato's partner hadn't had a change of heart later on. She'd just decided to stay and Erase Players.

Rhyme shivered. What kind of person did that?

"Sometimes, I wonder if I was supposed to do more about it," Sato went on. "You know, how much was my fault and how much was just her. But that's kind of what I mean: it was her decision to make. And I get the feeling that even if I'd somehow cared harder, she still would've stayed. It's they say: you can lead a horse to water..."

"...But you can't make him drink," Rhyme murmured with a nod. How many times had she heard that directed towards Beat? "Hmm… I think I get it. Just..."

She stopped and wrung her mouth either way, then sighed when she still came up dry. Maybe it was the association with her brother, but something about the thought was sticking in her throat, as if going any further would mean admitting he'd never change.

"What does that mean for us now?" Sato guessed.

After taking a second to mull it over, she hummed agreement. "Mmhmm."

"Good question, actually. I guess the best way to put it is something like… we're banned from direct contact so we don't try to solve problems meant to make other people grow."

Rhyme sucked in and shot her escort a furtive glance. "A-are you sure?" she asked. "I mean… if we're just supposed to leave everyone alone, how are they supposed to—"

"Ah, that's not quite the same, though," Sato interrupted. Then, "er… sorry, go ahead, you weren't finished."

"No, that's pretty much it," she slumped forward as the words again escaped her. "It just sounds weird to me, I guess. I mean, aren't Partners supposed to change eachother?"

"Well..." Sato pressed his mouth into a line and tilted the umbrella just far enough back that he could glance at a street sign. "They are and they aren't," he said at last. "Basically, you need to have two people lifting instead of one juggernaut dragging the team to the finish line. Which… I think might've been what I did wrong with my last Partner. See, since I'd been through the Game before, I thought I'd make things easier for her, but, well… we saw how that turned out, didn't we?"

Rhyme squinted up at Sato as the rain changed direction and snuck a few drops under the umbrella's shield. His eyes were ahead, but she could see a pinch of worry tugging at the corners. In the brief corner of sky she saw, she could just see the Ten-Four building coming into view. "I'm still not sure if I get it," she said slowly. "That doesn't sound like you tried to change her, it sounds more like you made it so she didn't have to change at all."

Sato smiled and shook his head. "Well, that's how it ended up, yes... I told her how I did things and showed her how to grow, but I didn't let the Game force her to actually do any of it. I thought that telling her would be enough, that if she just followed what I said, we'd be okay.

"I just figured since I'd finished the Game before I knew what I was talking about. And, I mean, sure enough, we made it to the end of the week. The thing was, she hadn't changed inside, she'd just followed a different set of instructions. So I got to go back and she..."

"She stayed in the UG," Rhyme finished. She could taste the bitterness of bile rising at the back of her throat. Was that really how it worked? Something seemed off about the whole setup, like it lacked consistency with reality. If people had to change to come back to life, how had Beat made it back? Had he really changed? She hoped so, but part of her kept going back to the nagging fear that it was all a mistake that had somehow slipped through the cracks, like her entry fee.

Seeing as she hadn't actually won the Game herself, she also wondered what it said about her.

"...What if that's just who she was?" she asked, burying her arms in her sleeves and hugging them to her stomach. Even if she was dry now, she still felt a chill running through her stomach.

"You mean, what if it was impossible for her to change?" Sato asked. "Well… I'm not sure if she'd end up in the Game if that were the case. See, according to those reports you gave Omura, the Reapers don't process just anyone when they're setting up for a week. The point of the Game is to make people—whoa!"

Sato pulled her close and jerked to a halt as a ripple passed through the crowd ahead of them. Someone was forcing their way through, causing umbrellas to tip and tempers to rise. Whoever it was, they at least got by quickly, allowing the disruption to settle into little more than miffed grumbles a few seconds later.

"Sorry about that," Sato apologized, releasing her once the excitement was over. "I guess someone has somewhere to be. Anyway, the point of the Game is—Did you hear that?"

Rhyme tilted her head and tried to figure out if she could hear anything over the pounding rain and their fellow shuffling pedestrians. "No, sorry," she said after a strained moment, sniffling in a bit of mucus threatening to ooze out of her nose. "What did it sound like?"

"Like someone falling down. I wonder if that busy body making all the fuss earlier just cashed in their karma balance…" Sato made a face and waved his free hand to clear the air. "Anyway, as I was saying about the Game, I think the whole point is to change people. So if somebody can't change, then what's the point in letting them play?"

"Even an unexamined life is valued by its owner," Rhyme said quietly. "I think anyone would want to play the Game, even if they failed the requirements."

Was that how she'd gotten in? Sure, she hadn't thought she was perfect before entering, but what were they expecting when they took her dreams? How was she supposed to change when she didn't have anything she was trying to change into?

Had she been doomed to lose from the start?

"Ah! Right, well… that does make sense for the Players," Sato admitted, "and I'm sure the Harriers don't mind an easy mark. It just… it seems like there's more to it than just shuffling people around and throwing monsters at 'em. Otherwise, why not just send all the surviving Players back to life at the end of the week? There has to be some standard they're judging by. So I figure, if Players are allowed into the Game based on their ability to change, wouldn't it makes sense that how they use that ability affects the outcome?"

"Hmm..." Rhyme frowned and looked back to the street. From what Beat said, she'd kind of gotten back on a loophole arrangement, but that didn't actually change the outcome, did it? Considering the sentimental sterility of the Game in general, it was hard to imagine the people overseeing it would send her back out of pity.

So there had to still be something worth sending back then, right?

"I guess you're right," she allowed at last. Maybe if she were better rested she would have tried to pursue the idea further, but as things stood she was content to walk to Pork City and nurse a developing headache in relative peace. Once they rounded Ten-Four, they'd have a straight shot through Dogenzaka. And while Rhyme was sure it would still be raining when she arrived on the roof, she savored the thought of traveling indoors for at least one part of the journey.

Setting her eyes on the street ahead, she scanned for where the mall met the Scramble so she could count the steps there. The Noise hadn't been so bad after she started out from Shibu-Q Heads, so other than the rain it actually wasn't that bad of a day.

Halfway through the process, she noticed a some poor umbrella-less soul dragging themself out of the street with a bad limp.

Apparently, Mr. Sato saw it too.

"Hey," he called out, "you alright, Miss?"

The person straightened up a little to glance over their shoulder and Rhyme felt her insides seize up as she caught a glimpse of pink hair.

Look before you leap to conclusions, she chided herself. You're in Shibuya, plenty of people have dyed hair. Birds of a feather flock together. One little coincidence doesn't mean it's the Reaper from the Game.

Or, rather, if it were one little coincidence, that line of thought might have been more reassuring. Seeing as this particular pink-haired woman was wearing the exact same outlandish clothes and had the exact same build as the Harrier Reaper who had cut her own Game short, Rhyme found it hard to believe she was looking at a doppleganger. Not unless someone else was crazy enough to wear hotpants and white knee-highs on a day like this.

Still, Sato kept moving. Faster, even. Rhyme did her best to bite down on her doubts and follow. Reaper though the woman was, she still looked pretty miserable. Maybe she'd been the one who fell earlier? It would explain the awkward hobble she was using to enact her escape in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait!" Sato cried. "Yashiro, wait!"
Rhyme choked and nearly lost pace. Yashiro? So he knew the Reaper, then? No, maybe he was confusing her with someone else. Maybe—

But she chose to stay in the UG as a Reaper.

"No way..."

Ahead of them, the pink haired Harrier ducked into a cafe as a few stray Noise nipped down in her wake as if to sniff the trail. Sato finally slowed to a stop and let out a long exhale. "That was her," he said, leaning forward as he caught his breath. "That… that was my Partner."

Rhyme wavered a moment before settling with putting a hand on his arm. Given the subject, she couldn't really say much without complicating things. Sato had to understand what Reaperhood entailed, but he still seemed to care for his Partner enough to defend her.

Of course, Rhyme probably would have done the same for Beat, so she couldn't criticize him too much.

Logically, it made sense: all Reapers had to have been Players at one point, so that meant they'd also had Partners who at least cared enough to finish a Game with them. At some point in their existence, they'd been more than sadistic killing machines. They'd been actual humans with at least some kind of connection tying them to others. And although life as a Reaper seemed to discourage those things, she couldn't be absolutely sure it entirely erased them.

Still, if there was a time and a place for debating Reaper ethics and emotional value, she couldn't help but feel it came after their Pork City appointment. She could still see Noise flitting around the cafe entrance, searching for their lost negative lure like cartoon birds chasing off a dizzy spell. Until they settled that—

She froze as the Noise flickered and faded.

"Uh, M-Mr. Sato?"

"Heheh," he huffed a sad chuckle. "Sorry, Bito. I… I guess this makes me a hypocrite, saying we shouldn't reach back for Players and then chasing after her like that. Sometimes our worst arguments are between our own hearts and heads, huh?"

"I-it's okay," she soothed, forcing herself to look at him instead of the road ahead of them. "To err is… well, human."

Sato sighed and nodded. "Wise words, Bito," he said quietly. "I… guess we should be going then."

"As long as you're ready."

He looked down at her in an indiscernible squint and for a moment she wavered between apologizing or affirming the statement. Before she could decide, he put on a smile and nodded again. "I should be," he said, starting to move forward again. "Maybe I never really will be, but I think it's about time that I should be."

Rhyme kept her hand on his arm and silently processed the admission, wondering if the same could be said about her.

Even so, they were moving forward. If nothing else, she could appreciate that.

-o-0-o-

By the time Neku arrived in Udagawa, the rain was pouring and the wind had kicked up from a slight annoyance to a hide-in-the-shadow-of-the-next-building problem. Closing his umbrella to keep it from getting blown away, he took cover just shy of the Cyco Records store and tried to figure out what he was supposed to do if Rhyme had somehow fought her way to the heart of the torrent.

Unfortunately, it was kind of hard to concentrate when the wind was literally upending trashcans.

Neku braced himself with the umbrella and almost leaned out to get a look at the general state of things when a hand landed on his shoulder and he jerked back the other direction.

"Yo! Easy, 'Phones!" Beat, waterlogged and slick with well hydrated determination, gave Neku's shoulder an emphatic shake before letting go. "I'm on your side, remember?"

Neku stared back, recalculating for a moment on whether or not he could use Beat's mass as a windshield, before quickly deciding against the idea. If the burly blond ended up getting bowled over, not standing behind him would turn into an immediately pressing matter.

"Right… sorry." Turning back to the path leading towards the mural, Neku decided to start considering their other options, seeing as a frontal assault wouldn't be going anywhere quick.

"Hey, don't worry 'bout it," Beat said graciously, coming closer to lean over Neku and make his own assessment of the situation down the street. "You hit like a pansy, anyway, so it's all good."

Neku grimaced and did his best to slide out of the way so they didn't end up playing human twister. The weather was doing more than enough of that, at the moment. "Are we sure Rhyme's in there?" he asked, leaning forward just enough to catch a glimpse of the empty path ahead before the windstream whipped his bangs in his eyes and forced a retreat.

It was hopeless. Unless the wind died down, they wouldn't even be able to get out without risking a nasty fall.

Finally coming to the same conclusion, Beat ducked back into cover and scrubbed his face with the back of his forearm. "Yo, 'Phones?" he wheezed through his teeth. "How are we supposed ta geddin there with this wack rainstorm playin' crazy?"

Neku bit his lip and looked to the other side of the building. If they could find something heavy enough to use as an anchor, they might be able to make some headway at least. Unfortunately, other than the trash cans now spreading their contents across the street, the closest available materials were mostly soggy cardboard boxes.

Maybe if they just found a more conveniently wasteful building to camp outside, they would actually have something to work with.

"Well, maybe—"

And then, as if a patron deity had finally gotten back from coffee break to realize how ridiculous this was getting and pull the plug on their weather department, the wind cut out and the rain dropped to a moderate shower.

Neku squinted up at the sky, not entirely convinced it wasn't a feint by a certain super-naturally gifted someone with a knack for screwing with people.

"A'ight!" Beat crowed, showing no such cynical reservations. "That works! C'mon, 'Phones! Time to bounce!"

"Wait, Beat! What if—!"

But the other boy had already bolted like a dog let off its leash. Heaving a frustrated sigh under his breath and reopening his umbrella, Neku followed after.

Of course, he didn't have any evidence that it was actually Joshua—for all he knew, the Composer was actually taking his job seriously now that he'd gotten the socially sadistic urges out of his system—but the drastic shift did place it squarely in the realm of supernatural intervention.

Such as (as a definitely nonspecific example that had nothing to do with Neku blanking on the plan they'd been bending over backwards to enact) a battle with an extremely powerful Noise on a reality bending sigil set to take place today in this very place.

Crap.

Rushing after his friend without really knowing what to look for, Neku glanced around the path leading up to the mural. Maybe it was just a byproduct of the Players' fighting, but if the wind was a result of Rhyme messing with the sigil from the RG then the odds were good she was still in the area. Sharp as the girl was, Neku didn't think she'd be able to figure out a time delay for her little sabotage, much less an immediate use for it.

But then, assuming she had just ruined the Players' best—not to mention, maybe only—chance at taking down the Reaper Killer, what was he supposed to say? His immediate instinct was to dismiss the whole thing as inconceivable. Innocent, optimistic, harmless little Rhyme leaving people to their doom on the off chance that it might mean not directly killing one of them? He had to be out of his mind to even entertain the idea!

Still… Beat thought it was possible. And while Beat didn't know much most of the time, he did know his sister.

How did it all get so messed up? Neku stared at the smirking cat on the mural and wondered what Mr. H. would say when he got back. Well… you tried, boss. I guess that counts for something? Even in his imagination, the eternally sunny barista was having trouble finding the bright side to the situation…

Running a hand through his hair, he forced himself to keep scanning in hopes of finding some sort of sign the plan hadn't just gone down the drain. The fact that all of the direct evidence was hiding in an alternate invisible plane of existence didn't help much, but if something in the UG could throw trash cans then it seemed fair to expect some kind of correlating crossover to tell how the battle had ended. Maybe Erasing the Noise would get rid of the suffocatingly gloomy aura haunting the area.

...In which case the Noise was obviously still at large and the Players had failed.

Neku shook his head. Had Minamimoto betrayed them and just made a normal non-reversed version of the Taboo Noise sigil? That certainly seemed likely, seeing as the math addict put his personal crusade against the Composer first and everything else as garbage. Trusting him had been a mistake. But what else could they have done? Even if Neku had somehow procured the necessary materials for the project, he still didn't know any of the nuance behind how the sigils actually worked. Even the Player they'd sent to help Minamimoto seemed kind of tentative on the subject.

Maybe this was the punishment for using someone he knew had it out for Joshua. Maybe it had all been just another stupid Game so the Composer could jump out at the last minute and declare how Neku proven his inferiority by falling for such an obvious trap.

Maybe he was just trying to think up an excuse so he didn't have to face how he'd failed Mr. H.

Lowering his umbrella, he closed his eyes and breathed in as the lighter rain seeped through his hair and ran down his face. It was getting late. He'd have to head back home and get ready for work soon. The world would go on, just the way it always had. One big, apathetic, lumbering mass that absorbed the loss in faceless statistics. This is why I didn't reach out to others, Neku realized, because sooner or later, you realize just how little your bond means in the grand scheme of reality.

He was about to call it quits and be on his way when Beat reappeared at the far end of the alley, waving a raincoat over his head like a flag. Stopping himself more out of courtesy than conviction, Neku waited stonefaced for the blond to close the distance.

Maybe it was the rain, but Beat looked paler than usual.

"Yo, 'Ph-Phones?" He looked at Neku with a quiet, almost fearful desperation as he offered the raincoat across. "What the hell is this supposed to mean?"
"That somebody lost a raincoat?" Neku sighed. Given the apparent result of the battle, he was having a hard enough time fighting depression without his friend's antics. The sooner they were apart, the sooner he could move on with his life.

"Dude, this is Rhyme's raincoat!" Beat hissed. "You think she'd just throw it off in a storm like this? She was always sayin' stuff like 'if you ain't got health then you ain't got jack'!"

Neku gave the paraphrase a consolation grimace. "So you're saying..."

"I'm sayin' she wouldn't do this, yo! This…" his face twisted and he clenched the garment to his chest. "This is my fault. I said I'd take care of her. I promised I wouldn't let it happen again. I wasn't gonna screw up anymore because I knew no matter how much I tried to push her away, I'd just end up hurting her anyway! I didn't—"

His voice choked off in a sob and Neku slowly realized what he was implying. If Rhyme was straddling the UG and RG, then what was there stopping a Noise as powerful as the Reaper Killer from leaving the raincoat as the only evidence to its latest meal?

"Beat..." Crap. Neku had never been particularly gifted at emotional support. Hell, he could barely keep himself afloat. What were other people expecting? At the end of the week, he'd almost felt like he knew, and for a little while after he'd gotten back it seemed like he'd be alright. But then, after this week… was he any different now than he was at start of the Game?

Sure I am, he assured himself with morose humor. Now I care about how much I suck, even if I still can't change it.

Well, what a wonderful world that had turned out to be… Maybe Shades' plan for mass assimilation hadn't been so bad after all. At least that way pretentious jerks like him weren't ruining lives out of sheer ineptitude. What had he thought he'd accomplish by taking on the world like this?

"...I'm sorry," he said at last. Sure, maybe there wasn't much he could have done, but he'd still been responsible in his own way. If he'd actually paid any attention to his friends that week, maybe they wouldn't be standing with an empty raincoat wondering why they hadn't been there when it mattered. Maybe—

Neku blinked as peace welled up and washed over him…

….Then curled over and coughed when he swallowed wrong.

"H-hey! 'Phones! Don'tchu—"

"I'm fine," he wheezed, wincing as he finished clearing his windpipe. "I… I'm fine."

More than fine, actually. Even in the middle of the rain, he felt… well, it couldn't be physically warm, but the best he could describe it was like a clean line cutting through an amateur tag. He felt focused, orderly, right. It was as if he'd been breathing through a sheet this whole time and was only now tasting fresh air. He closed his eyes and breathed deep.

"Yo, you feel that?"

Opening his eyes, Neku nodded and braced his hands on his knees while he caught his balance. "I feel…" he frowned at the ground and licked his lips before settling on a word for it. "Lighter."

Beat, still holding his sister's discarded raincoat, gave a strangled, sad laugh. "I don't geddit, man," he said, "I mess up the one thing I have left and now I'm feelin' like I ain't got nothin' to worry about. What kinda sick joke is that?"

Neku pushed back up to full posture and took a moment to process the feeling himself. Was he just going crazy? Was this what it felt like to totally detach from reality and fall into full on denial?

No, he'd been pushed to his limit before when he lost Kazemaru, and this definitely wasn't the same. Then he'd felt like he wanted to hide from the world, now he felt ready to embrace it.

"Who says it's a joke?" he asked, even letting himself smile a little. "Maybe this is because they actually won against the Reaper Killer. I mean, you remember the boost people got when we took out the Noise possessing them, right? Maybe it's the same thing here."

"A'ight, hold up," Beat said, putting both hands forward to stop the explanation from going any further. "You sayin' we gots the warm fuzzies cuz the Players took down the super boss without our power up? That'd be like you takin' on Priss after he froze me an' Shiki!"

Neku shrugged. "I mean… that did happen." Even if Joshua seemed intent on erasing it…

"Duh! Watchu think I'm talkin' about? Thing is, you lost."

"Wait, what?!" Okay, so apparently Josh hadn't put down the same memory constraints on Beat as he had on Shiki. Had he just been expecting Beat to forget all on his own? That seemed like an awfully sloppy strategy for a mastermind who'd played them all like puppets for the better part of a month.

Beat rubbed at the back of his head and grimaced. "I said you—"

"No, I know what you said," Neku cut in. "I just… did—did you remember that this whole time or is it just coming back to you now?"

"Uh…" Beat took a moment to sort through the question before nodding. "The second one."

"So you're saying that part was missing before?" Whole as he felt, Neku still had a distinct sinking sensation in his stomach. It wasn't entirely the same, but it did sound an awful lot like his own experience with a certain brand of UG-related amnesia.

"I mean… I guess? Can we maybe worry about findin' Rhyme first?"

"Well, she's not here," Neku reasoned, lifting his umbrella and studying the street. He couldn't see any sign of the reversi sigil, but, by the same token, he also didn't see marks meant to disrupt it from the RG. "Even with her UG vision, she might not've been able to affect the sigil without existing in the same plane."

"Yeah, so?"

"So it's possible she just headed for the Pork City to see if she could do something there."

Beat balked. "Pork city!? Crap, dude! That's like on the other side of town!"

"Well then I guess I shouldn't hold you back," Neku concluded. He stepped to the side and made a mock bow. "Get that beat going, man."

"Wait, you ain't comin'?"

"I've got work," the orange-haired boy replied with a tight smile. "Besides, you've got this."

Hesitation flickered across Beat's face, and for a second Neku thought the other boy would fight him on it. But then his mouth pressed into a determined frown and he held up a clenched fist. "You're right," he said. "This is my fight, yo! Ain't nothin' stoppin' me this time!"

Reaching out, Neku pushed through the lingering social inhibition and punched his friend in the shoulder. It felt weird, intentionally touching someone else like that, but Beat took it in stride. A moment later and Neku was alone in the thinning rain.

Slowly, the smile melted off his face into a neutral expression.

Maybe he was jumping at false parallels, but the sudden resurgence of memory sounded too familiar to ignore. After all, if Amber had somehow picked up one lost Entry Fee, who was to say she hadn't picked up another?

Neku hadn't really thought about it over the past two weeks, but Joshua had taken something before their duel to decide the fate of Shibuya, and official or not, Neku had lost. But why would it have to do with Beat and Shiki's memories? What did he value so much that exclusively isolated that moment as opposed to their memories of him in general?

Eventually, Neku shook his head and started for home. Work really would be starting soon, and even if there was something more to do for the Game, it was out of his hands now. Whatever came next, he would find a way to face it with the people who stood and fell with him.

Whatever happened, he could trust them.

Reaching into his pocket, he brought out his phone and composed a text to Shiki. His heartbeat kicked up a little, but his fingers stayed steady and he made it through without too much hesitation. Sure, there would be consequences, but he could deal with that. After all, trust was part of what it meant to be connected to someone else.

A moment later and he hit send.

See you at Sunshine, it read. Bring Eri.

-o-0-o-

Rhyme and Sato arrived at Pork City and strode inside with purpose. Her UG vision had given out completely on their way through Dogenzaka, but she still felt a few loose threads lingering in her chest, so it was possible they still stood a chance. Some of the staff gave polite nods, but nobody tried to stop them as they boarded an elevator.

Quietly retiring the tourist explanation she'd prepared for any curious speed bumps, Rhyme slumped against the wall and watched her companion navigate the control panel to get them roof access.

"That should do it," Sato said, nodding as the doors closed and the elevator started moving. "Now, once we get to the top, what do you think—?"

Ding!

The robust shopkeeper froze as the doors opened again to a hallway. After a moment's hesitation, he leaned out to scan for incoming passengers, then leaned back in and looked between his elbow and the control buttons.

"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly. "Must've hit it by accident. We should probably be on our way in a minute. Anyway, as I was saying—"

"Heeeyo!" A man with what looked to be bat wing tattoos under his eyes and rabbit ears sprouting from his spiked blue hair, slid around into the elevator and beamed at them. "What's rollin' home-slice-honey-bunnies?" he asked, offering a fistbump to Sato, who stared at the gesture like it was a loaded gun. "You guys got a minute to hear a homie out?"

Rhyme forced herself to stop gawking and form some kind of reply to this inadvertent inconvenience. "Well, actually—"

"Radtacular! Cuz, and I gotta get real with you here..." As the doors closed behind him, his smile melted into a serious stare. "Composer asked for a closed set, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure that means no surprise guests."

"Wait, Composer?" Sato exchanged a baffled glance with Rhyme. "Why is the Composer is here?"

"Oh, quit playin'," Bunny Ears scoffed. "Don'tcha think you've messed with the UG enough for one week? We got our own DJ lineup, thanks, so once we get your reception straightened out it'd be smooth if you could just bounce on outta here. You got that? Or did ya need a continued broadcast after these messages? Because today's sponsor just so happens to be my fists!"

"A-actually, we're here for something else," Rhyme stammered out, still processing the bunny-man. "Let's not get the cart ahead of the horse, okay?" All signs pointed to Reaper, but that didn't stop her from hoping he was just plain insane. They were currently already out of their depth without throwing the Composer into the mix.

"Uh-uh," Bunny Ears wagged a finger at them. "I don't think so. Think you're slick? Well you're dealin' with Tokai 'Eye-of-the-Sky' Michi! And I just so happen to know you're workin' with one of my smunderlings: Sho Minamimoto!"

Sato made a face. "Smunderling?"

"Yeah! 'Smelly' plus 'underling'! Trademark: me!"

Rhyme tried not to think about how they were getting lectured on made up words while their window for reworking the sigil quietly slipped away.

"Okay, but what if we're here to stop Minamimoto?" she asked, trying to find a viable hole in the Reaper's internal logic. "Would you let us up then? After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?"

Not that she'd actually planned on doing anything with the math addict, but considering his self-absorbed attitude, it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to end up foiling whatever he was up to.

Either way, Michi wasn't buying it. "Oh, come on!" He whined. "Minamimath Maker goes and conspires with you for a week, then shows up here, and you expect me to tune in to that load of horseradish? No way, Jose! You brought a pair of FM transceivers to this AM spectrum, and I'm about to eff' 'em hard!"

Rhyme gave the Reaper a hard stare. So maybe talking wouldn't work. Well, that was alright, she happened to know somebody who didn't respond well to talking either. If she couldn't persuade this Reaper in her own language, maybe she could do so in her brother's.

Glancing up at Sato, she quickly evaluated his fitness for a fight and came to the conclusion that they could probably win by sheer mass advantage assuming they all stayed unarmed.

Which meant stopping Michi from going for his revolver would be their top priority.

"So," Bunny Ears went on, throwing a fist into his open palm. "Either you get going now or you stay and I 'convince' you. Personally, I suggest you take that first option and tune out for the day. Because here on my channel, we really get rou—oof!"

He doubled over as Rhyme buried her fist in his stomach. Sato gasped, but still followed up with an overhead blow when Michi started to rise again. Then the Reaper promptly went from doubled over to flat out sprawled.

Climbing onto the man's back, Rhyme pinned one of his arms to his spine with her knees and started work on securing the other limb. He managed to squirm out of her reach until Sato joined in and stepped on his wrist. Then he yelped, but otherwise stopped resisting.

"Sorry about this, sir," the larger man apologized, bowing as he again reached for the elevator controls. "But we've got some promises to keep."

Rhyme could feel Michi shaking under her as the elevator groaned to life and the lift system engaged. She almost thought he was crying until what should have been the hum of the motor turned into a grinding scream. The floor beneath them lurched, then remained still.

Then Rhyme realized why the Reaper was shaking. He wasn't upset, he was laughing.

"You really thought it was gonna be that buttery easy?" He wheezed out, face still mostly pressed into the elevator's carpet. "C'mon, chicklette! You're dealing with a professional here! Gotta get on my wavelength if you wanna steal my groove. Ya dig?"

Rhyme frowned and sifted through his words. He couldn't have sabotaged the elevator itself, otherwise there would be no point in confronting them. But that didn't mean he wasn't somehow involved in the current malfunction. Could it be he was using his UG influence to jam the mechanism?

She thought back to the reports she'd read earlier and mentally leafed through the subjects. Had Mr. H. mentioned anything about cross-planar interference? Now that she thought about it, he had mentioned wavelengths in relation to how one manifested in a certain plane.

Did that mean she'd have to be in the UG to undo Michi's curse?

"Gotta say," Bunny Ears went on, "I was kinda expecting a tamer reaction. Usually the threat card works, y'know? But rules are rules, and I ain't getting iced over an elevator ride. Of course, you could always try the stairs, but unless you're an ace lockpick that won't help you much getting topside. So what do ya say? Truce?"

Rhyme looked at the back of his blue hair and thought about it. If she was being honest, it was a tempting offer. What would really change if she just stopped now and went back to school? Or, if she somehow made it to the rooftop, how would she change events that were likely already in motion? And, even then, would she really regret the difference if she was going to forget about this week anyway?

And yet, in the midst of cosmic apathy, there was still the chance that she might make a difference, that she could do something now that would affect someone's future. Maybe she wouldn't get her dreams back, but that didn't mean she had to stop caring. Whether she would remember it or not, she couldn't ignore that chance.

"I'm sorry," she said, reaching down inside her for the loose thread connecting her to the UG. Feeling the slightest tickle rising in her chest, she grabbed hold of it and tugged as hard as she could.

The elevator's rolling moan cracked and gave way to a frantic hum as the lift reengaged and started making up for lost time. Rhyme fell forward and felt the air rush out of her lungs as her chest pressed against Michi's back.

The Reaper, for his part, let out a low wail of protest and tried to kick his legs like an overgrown toddler throwing a tantrum.

"Don't do it! Don't go!" he pleaded, completely forgetting the tough guy act he'd been putting on earlier. "Pretty please? I got these orders from the Composer! We're seriously not supposed to interfere! You wanna be responsible for messing up the UG? Huh? Do ya?!"

Sato looked to Rhyme, but didn't move to stop the elevator. Apparently, he trusted her priorities over a Reaper's. Soon, Michi's protests dissolved into incoherent blubbering anyway and the doors slid back to reveal the rooftop.

Rhyme winced as wind and rain filled their compartment. Squinting against the torrent, she could just make out two figures ahead of them, one standing and one kneeling with soaked curtains of hair obscuring his face, before Sato opened up his umbrella like a shield. Hugging her to his side, he stumped out into the storm, leaving Michi behind.

"Hey, fractal!" A sharp growl cut through the wind. Leaning around the umbrella, Rhyme could now make out enough details to recognize the standing figure as Minamimoto. "Trying to simplify here! You mind?"

Rhyme ignored him and started scanning the roof, hoping she'd be able to recognize the sigil without her UG vision. She didn't have to look far before she found long, colorful streaks of a foreign script she didn't recognize.

So what do I do now? she asked herself. How do I change it so it puts Amber back the way she was instead of me?

"Yo, fractal!" Minamimoto tried again. "FOIL! First, inner, outer, last! And you're gonna have to wait for last, because I'm all tied up changing the world!"

"Oh, 'changing the world'?" A new voice asked, this one smooth and silky like the boy who had spoken up at yesterday's meeting. Amber's partner, if she was remembering right. It probably wasn't him, considering he was supposed to be over in Udagawa fighting the Reaper Killer, but it did sound remarkably similar, if a bit strained. "That should be interesting. How many personal monuments do you have planned for the occasion?"

"Got anything yet?" Sato asked, leaning down close so he didn't have to join the shouting match.

"I see the sigil," Rhyme answered curtly. "Not really sure what to do about it, though. You think we could ask Minamimoto once he's done?"

"Okay, seriously!" Minamimoto stalked over and tore away their umbrella, sending it spinning over the edge. Thankfully, the rain had died down a little by then, but Rhyme still winced at the newly-unfiltered barrage. "I'm trying to—you!" He stepped back in shock as he caught sight of Rhyme and stared at her with wild, wide eyes.

Rhyme frowned and pointed to herself, just to make sure she wasn't jumping to conclusions. "Me?"

"Ah, the Bito girl," the smooth voice joined in again. This time Rhyme could see him though, kneeling on the rooftop and drenched through with rain. In addition to sounding a lot like Amber's partner, he looked a lot like him too.

Or rather, he probably would look like him if he weren't currently covered in bruises. What she had first thought was hair covering his left eye was actually a nasty dark lump swelling over. His partially exposed chest didn't look any better.

"We never officially met, did we?" the boy went on, ignoring the horrified look spreading across her face. "Not the most convenient circumstances, but better now than never. Enjoying the view of the city?"

Turning back to Minamimoto, Rhyme tried to stop her knees from shaking but eventually settled for leaning on Sato. "D-did you do this him?" she demanded, pointing to the battered boy.

It was a stupid question. In fact, it was a text book case of haste making waste, but she couldn't think up anything more intelligent in the face of such brutality. If nothing else, maybe it would awaken the man's conscience.

"Oh! Look who found 'x'!" Minamimoto crowed, arching his back as he threw his arms wide. Rhyme realized with a sinking feeling that he didn't see anything wrong with beating children and hugged closer to her escort. "Guess you're not a complete zero after all! Half credit for you!"

"Half credit?" Sato guffawed. "Wait, but didn't she just get it?"

"Partial answers get partial credit," the math addict declared, smirking back at them. "Q.E.D! Now factor yourself out of my victory equation, you trinomial tractor! I'm just a few steps short of a perfect solution, and my key variable just showed up!"

"Just showed—? Oh!" Rhyme threw up her hands and leaned back into Sato as she realized he was referring to her. "H-hold on! What are you—?"

"Your Imagination," the kneeling boy said calmly, as if they were discussing afternoon tea. "Sigil coding is an exact science, and whoever put this one together coded it to only react in the presence of a specific Soul configuration. As it turns out, you—"

"Oh, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally!" Minamimoto cut in, wheeling back around and walking back to the boy. He threw a flippant shrug, then kicked his victim in the ribs.

Rhyme recoiled and cradled her own stomach.

"Unpaired incompletes don't get a say," he seethed, kneeling down to take the boy by the chin. The boy, for his part, took the gesture with a controlled grace that somehow came off as unbeaten without seeming defiant. "And seeing as you're just a fraction short of slipping off the number line, I'd like you to keep your answers to yourself until called on. Got it, Hectopascal?"

"B-but he was answering my question!" Rhyme protested. "How am I supposed to help you if I don't know what I'm doing?"
Minamimoto paused, looked back over his shoulder, and slowly rose to his feet. "You want answers?" he asked. "Fine. It's a good day, I'm feeling generous. Why not! But no comments from the peanut gallery or we're switching back to simplified form, understand?!"

His voice rose over the course of the statement, eventually crescendoing into a maniacal shout at the end. Not wanting to push her luck with the psychopathic math lover, Rhyme shut her mouth tight and nodded. She wasn't agreeing to anything drastic, just an explanation. With any luck, maybe she'd sort out what these two had to do with the sigil and whether or not she actually wanted to activate it.

"So our story goes something like this," Minamimoto began again, clasping his hands behind his back. "The most brilliant man in the universe wants to get a job promotion befitting his zetta slick talents, but he needs a power level with an exponential curve to get said job. If the secret to exponential power is function 'integrate'—which is here defined as 't' multiplied by input 'x' plus variable 'm' to the 'x'th power—what is the most crucial factor in assuring zetta brilliant domination as soon as possible?"

"Uh..."

"The answer isn't 't'," the boy who wasn't Amber's partner said with a leading lilt.

Minamimoto scowled and gave another kick, which was enough to shut the boy up, before again smirking to himself. "Your answers are garbage," he said coldly. "Just like the rest of this world. And you know the funny part? I wouldn't have ever realized that if it weren't for your Game. You showed me what a collection of variables looks like when it's been factored down and scattered to the wind. You taught me that humans are just garbage with a face, just a random array of stuff, and guess what? Multiplying a bunch of random zeroes is still zero!

"So I'm done running calculations that all end the same. Crunch! Add 'em to the heap! Now I'm gonna calculate in real numbers and make some substantial solutions, no remainders necessary!"

When he finished, Minamimoto looked back down at the boy with a triumphant grin, apparently expecting a reaction. The boy didn't answer. Maybe he'd caught on that the man was just looking for excuses to kick him.

"I… don't think I get it," Rhyme said after a moment of uneasy silence. Even though that meant calling attention back to herself, she at least preferred it to watching senseless torture. "Why would you need me to activate the sigil if you're trying to get the power for yourself?"

"Hmph!" Minamimoto lifted the tip of his hat and matched eyes with her. "You want proofs? Soh-Cah-Toa! But we don't have time for any more Tangents, so how about we skip to solving the problem and save the solution breakdown for later? Trust me, I know what I'm getting into. Besides… you cooperate and I might just make it worth your while. Gotta balance the equation somehow."

"Heheh," the boy chuckled, earning him a sharp look from his captor, but not another kick. "Why not do what he says?" he suggested. "Go ahead, activate the sigil. Who knows? You might be surprised."

With the statement finished, Minamimoto almost made to kick the boy again before he realized they were suggesting the same thing and backed off.

Still, Rhyme held her ground. She could feel Sato's hand on her back, keeping her steady as the wind whipped her hair across her face. In all honesty, she probably looked just as half-drowned and pathetic as the boy across the rooftop, but she wasn't quite ready to give in yet.

After all, she hadn't come to Pork City for her own sake.

"If I activate the sigil," she asked slowly, "what happens to Amber?"

"Who cares?" Minamimoto shot back. "She's not here and she's not you! Do what feels right, kid! Screw the hierarchy, there are no absolutes! Just power and possibility! So why don't you show me the limit of 'u' while I go to infinity!"

"But—"

"Look, I've got a riddle for you," he interrupted, "If a mass of Soul energy is headed here from Udagawa at a relative speed of eighty-five hundred kilometers an hour and your decision making process has a relative speed of zero, what will your inertial deficit be in about two seconds?"

Rhyme flushed pink and clenched her hands to her sides. "Listen!" she commanded.

While Minamimoto didn't look particularly impressed, he did obey.

"You're missing the forest for the trees," she huffed. "You say that he made you this way, but we're also responsible for our own decisions. Even if you lost something, even if others want something from you, what you choose is still up to you! Maybe you're fine with treating people as pawns because they're just a collection of traits, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts! You'll end up cutting off your nose to spite your face if you keep thinking like that. You want me to decide? Then tell me what happens to Amber if I activate the sigil!"

"Do you want a simple answer?" the boy offered before Minamimoto could get a word in. "Or would you prefer the full picture?"

Rhyme hesitated for just a moment as she realized this situation was probably more complicated than she'd hoped. Of course, it had admittedly been naive innocence to believe that everyone pushing her to this decision was either willfully malicious or ignorant and the only thing needed to save the day was a good old fashioned dose of common decency served with a side of adages, but the realization caught her off guard all the same.

And yet, now that it hit her, she knew exactly what she had to do. Up to that point, she'd been facing life with the eyes of a child, with the belief that a pure enough hope and strong enough determination would overcome any injustice. She'd really believed there was a happy ending waiting for all of them if they just tried hard enough.

Now she saw it differently. Now she felt as if she were standing in front of a teeming wave, hoping her one body was enough to eat some of the impact before it hit the things she'd chosen to stand up for. She could have run and let the wave pass, but contrary to self-preserving logic, she would still follow her heart and face the consequences.

As silly as it sounded, she would face it like Beat would have.

"I-I'd like to know the full picture," she said, hugging herself as the cold seeped through her clothes. "I'd like to think I can know. B-But right now… Right now I guess I only need to know if there's still a chance to save her. If I know stepping on the sigil won't stop that, th-th-then I guess we can f-figure out the rest from there."

Even without the shivering stumbles, it was the stupidest, most illogical thing she could ever remember herself saying.

Still, it would have to work.

"Yes," the boy answered. "There's still a chance."

Rhyme took a shaky breath, then nodded. "Alright," she said, stepping away from Sato. "Then let's do this."

"Hmph, took you long enough!" Minamimoto growled, crossing his arms as she moved across the roof. "Now stop being so zetta slow and—!"

The world went silent. For a second, Rhyme thought it might just be Minamimoto, but then she realized she couldn't hear the rain anymore, either. Energy flowed through the roof, tickling at her toes and buzzing just beneath the soles of her shoes. Little wisps of light lifted off the colored pattern blooming around her, dancing through the air and weaving together like petals of an enormous flower.

The sigil was coming alive.

Before Rhyme could think twice about it, the petals had closed over her, blocking out the outside world and encasing her in a warm cocoon a little smaller than the elevator she'd rode up in. The only light now came from the wisps rising off the sigil itself, filling the chamber with rosy pinks and mystic violets.

She became aware of herself again as her chest squeezed and she realized she had stopped breathing. Stumbling backwards, she leaned against the cocoon walls and forced a few shallow catchup breaths as golden tendrils lifted around her legs, gently tugging her towards the roof. Unable to resist any longer, she sank to her knees.

Someone else seemed to be sitting at the other side of the chamber, but her vision had begun to blur over so she couldn't tell who exactly. The boy Minamimoto had been beating hadn't been close enough to be caught in the cocoon, but she couldn't really think of anyone else it could be. Trying to shake some of the dizziness from her head, she braced her hands on the rooftop and pushed up.

Making physical contact with the sigil sent a fresh wave of fuzzy energy running through her body, jolting her limbs in place. Almost immediately after, though, she felt herself acclimating to the condition, as if she'd only plunged her hands into cold water and needed a moment to find equilibrium again. The energy still pulsed under her palms with life and possibility, but it didn't overwhelm her after the first shock.

Instead, she felt her mind wandering between faces and memories, sifting through people and images like a stack of photographs from a long forgotten summer vacation. Except, they didn't all quite feel like memories. Somehow, even as she saw herself as she had been before the Game, she understood that she was looking at things that hadn't happened yet, at glimpses of the future she might create. She was looking at what would happen after she finished using the sigil.

So this is the Natural Reformer, she thought to herself, clenching her hands against it as if she could physically grasp the threads of fate and tear them out of the rooftop. Now that she was focusing, she could see Amber as one of the possibilities, but always kind of on the periphery. At the center, she saw a young man with browned skin and blonde hair who she didn't quite recognize.

She also saw herself.

She saw triumphs and troubles, breakthroughs and breakdowns, the brilliant thread of her previous inspiration cutting through boundaries and the captivating chains of her current state enforcing them. Her family united and her future rewritten, Beat getting along with their father and doors opening at er very touch. And yet, the only lines that held the other young man were on the side of her staying the way she was now.

For him to exist, she would have to sacrifice.

"Your dreams," a soft voice filled the chamber, resonating with a deep undertone. Rhyme felt it tickle through her ribs and settle in her stomach like a warm drink. "They're yours to take, should you wish it."

"But I…" her throat went dry halfway through the thought and she paused to swallow. "I don't have the right. It's not…"

Her mind struggled for the conclusion, pushing against her fatigue and reaching back for the familiar phrase she knew would sum it up perfectly. After a few moments' thought: "Might doesn't make right," she said. "Just because I can doesn't justify doing it."

The voice waited through the pause and came back gently when she finished. "You do have the right," it insisted, "but you also have an opportunity. You are perfectly justified in reclaiming what is yours, but that doesn't make it the only option. You are also allowed to forgo your rights and lay the foundations for good beyond yourself, should you choose it"

"Lay the… foundations?" Rhyme puzzled over the words. She probably wouldn't in any other instance, but the adrenaline rush she'd gotten from rushing the Reaper in the Elevator was wearing out and leaving her with a numbing headache. Was laying the foundations the same as actually making something happen? It didn't sound like it. It sounded like the words were specifically chosen to be more tentative.

"Possibilities aren't guarantees," the voice said simply. "If I told you your sacrifice would guarantee change, I would be lying for your comfort."

"...Oh." The word slipped out of her mouth as her chin sank towards her chest. Closing her eyes, she focused on the images coming off the sigil again. The warmth of her dreams reached back, inviting her to realize them. If she just took the chance for herself, she knew she could do it.

And yet…

Pin pricks of warmth hit the back of her hands as tears dripped from her face. "I'm sorry," she said. Beat couldn't hear the apology, of course, but he still deserved one for all he'd put himself through. She could only imagine what he'd say when he found out she wasted the shot.

"But…" she opened her eyes again and fixed the figure on the far end of the chamber with a determined expression as she went on, "My life is borrowed, too."

Finally reaching back into the sigil, she joined hands with everything she was and poured it into the young man from the vision.

-o-0-o-

Beat skidded inside Pork City and nearly slipped on the tile hanging a hard right into the elevators. Nobody stopped him, probably because they were still wondering what had just torn through the lobby, but whatever. He hit the roof access button and kept on hitting it all the way until the doors were closed.

It was only when the thing got going that he finally stepped back and glared at the ceiling, just in case that made it go any faster. His legs started shaking, but he braced a hand on the wall and kept on glaring. The peace he'd felt in Udagawa had worn down into hard determination and with all the cars he'd just dodged on his way over, he'd be damned if he didn't get to Rhyme now just because he'd fallen apart at the last minute.

"H-hey."

Beat jumped at the voice, realizing he wasn't alone in the elevator. Spinning around, he almost tripped on his own legs before he spotted the source: a blue-haired punk sitting in the corner with bunny ears coming off his head.

"You ain't tryin' to go topside, right?" the guy said, wincing over a gnarly bruise swelling up his cheek. "Naw, you wouldn't wanna go there. Nope. Nuh-uh. You must be tryin' to go somewhere else, right?"

"Uh..." Beat frowned and slowly lowered his arms as he realized the pitiful lump of human nonsense probably wouldn't hurt him. "Yeah, I ain't goin' topside," he said, not even bothering to ask where topside was. "Jus' headed for the roof."

Bunny Man stared back open-mouthed for a moment, then lolled his head to the side and sighed. "Yeah, okay, smart aleck," he mumbled. "You do that. I'm not the bossuv you, right? Not like anyone should listen to me. Man… you're lucky imprinting don't work in here. Otherwise I'd soooo be twisting your knobs about now."

Imprinting? Beat scratched at the back of his head and tried to sound casual. "Yo… you a Player?"

"Ha!" Bunny Man laughed. "Yeah, no. Try Grand-Emminent-Officer-Reaper and Totally-Killer-DJ. You're lucky I ain't paintin' the walls with your brains for that one, but killin' a guy in an elevator ain't my style. Too Bond."

"Huh," Beat looked the guy over again and decided whatever beating he'd gotten earlier must've gotten to his head. "Yeah, a'ight, Grand Mint DJ. Thanks."

Dude was lucky he was in a hurry, or he might've actually tried to figure out what the heck he was talking about. Something told Beat it was worthy of a beatdown, but he'd let it slide this once.

"H-hey! Blondie! You hearin' me, bro? I said—"

"You tryin'a stop me from gettin' to my sister?" Beat cut in abruptly.

"...Uh...I mean..."

"'Cuz if you tryin'a stop that," he looked forward again as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, "then you can shove it."

Leaving the punk behind before he could stammer out an answer, Beat stepped out into the rain and cased the scene.

At first he only saw Math Man and one of the guys from Real Life Solutions. 'Phones had said the sigil was at Pork City, right? Squinting against the wind, he shielded his eyes and scanned again.

"Whoa..."

…Had he just showed up to the wrong showdown?

"Hey, fractal, keep your distance!" Math Man shouted, finally taking notice of him. "We're running a complex derivative through an acute angle, so try not to mix up the mental math!"

"Whatever, Minamimoto!" Bunny Man yelled from the elevator. "You ain't even supposed to be up here! Composer said—"

Before the delirious Reaper could finish his nonsense, the doors closed.

"Composer's word is garbage," Math Man growled, turning back to the far end of the roof. Now that he was looking, Beat could see someone on their knees there, probably courtesy of Captain Crunchy. From what he could tell, though, at least it wasn't Rhyme. "Double Garbage now that I've got you factored down to prime form. Took a little adjustment, but what's an equation without the commutative property? Guess I'll have to thank whoever gave the secret away to that Hectopascal you Partnered with!"

"Yo, Math Freak!" Beat called out. "I dunno what the hell you talkin' about, but I'mma make this simple for ya: you gots two plus two seconds to tell me where my sister is!"

Wheeling in place, Math Man turned back to face Beat and slammed a fist into his opposite hand. "Your sister is—!"

But then he stopped and tilted his head to the side.

"...Not garbage," he finished slowly, as if he hadn't been expecting to say the words.

"Heh! Damn straight!" Beat shot back, raising a fist in challenge. "Rhyme is like, the best non-garbage person there is! And if I find out you did anything to mess her up, I swear I'm gonna wreck that fancy head a yours so hard you gonna make me look like a genius!"

Math Man threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally! This Fractal's got guts! Come back again and I might make you an Officer! But you might want to recalculate your power level before you try intersecting with a higher vector. Because once I'm done here, I'm—!"

"Finished."

Beat jerked forward into a defensive position as he tried to place the new voice. Was that the Real Life Solutions dude? No, he hadn't sounded that bad ass. Hell, he was even bending over forward now. Ditto went for whoever was at the far end of the roof. So then who—?

Beat then stopped wondering as the air above Math Man warped and twisted. Lines of light shot out like a tattoo carved in the air, then pulled together again to form a freakin' super hero with a biker vest and totally sick aviator shades. If he had to put words to it, it was kind of like watching an angel pile drive his way down out of heaven in a bolt of lightning.

And if this guy was a lightning bolt, then Math Man had just become the lightning rod.

"What the—?!" the Grim Heaper didn't even have time to curse before he was toppling face first into the roof.

Not satisfied with a certifiably mind blowing entrance, the super biker went ahead and beat the stuffing out of Captain Crunchy for good measure.

Beat almost forgot the reason he was there.

Tearing himself away from the righteous carnage, he shook his head and rushed over to the RLS guy to see if he had any answers.

"Hey," he caught on to the man's shoulder and hooked around to face him, almost pulling the guy over in the process. Ignoring the possibility—especially since that wasn't what had happened—Beat pushed on. "You seen…?"

The question died in his throat as he realized his answer was already in the guy's arms.

Rhyme's eyes were closed and she'd curled up on herself like a stray cat dragged in from the gutter. She looked like hell, pale as concrete and covered in bruises. Muscling his way around the arms already holding her, Beat took up his sister and gripped her close to his chest.

His mind made one final contribution before coming to a complete stop and letting instinct take over: he'd failed. Rhyme wasn't okay. Whatever the hell Math Man had done to her, Beat hadn't been there to stop it.

"C'mon," he said in a hoarse whisper, rocking in place as he cradled his sister. "C'mon, don't die on me. A friend in need is a friend who ain't dead yet, right? You gotta hold on! You gotta..."

He couldn't finish. He could yell and scream and talk big all he wanted, but when it came down to it, she wasn't okay, and that was his fault.

He hugged her to his chest and cried as a distant memory of the first time he'd held her crept back into his head and the years seemed to wash away in the rain.

He remembered the startled look in her eyes as she flailed and wildly scanned around the room, her baby belly heaving with anxious half-breaths. He hadn't asked to hold her, but his father said it was something special so he did it anyway. In his three-year-old mind, he'd rather be back at home playing than holding whatever this lumpy pink whatever-it-was, and for a moment it seemed like she'd rather have it that way too.

But then her eyes settled on him.

Her face lit up in a toothless smile, and even though they'd just met, and she couldn't even hold her head up on her own yet, he knew what it meant, and he knew she really meant it.

In the present, he still held her. She didn't look at him or smile, but he could at least feel the stunted rise and fall of her ribcage. Hopefully, that meant there was still a chance to make something of it.

"Well, well, well..." a smug voice Beat kind of recognized broke the moment. "I guess we're done here then. Good Game, Minamimoto."
Minamimath Face, now held in a submission lock by the super biker, spat to the side and glared at the far end of the roof. "Ain't over 'til it's over, fractal," he muttered. "You haven't put me in simplified form, so the equation's still running!"

"Hmph."

Beat saw something moving in the direction Math Man was glaring and realized the guy who'd been kneeling had gotten up.

He also realized it was the prick who'd partnered with 'Phones back in the Game's second week.

"Well, I could humor you and see it through to the end," Prick said, carelessly flicking some hair out of his face. If Beat wasn't holding his half-dead sister fearing for her life, he would've laughed at how messed up the guy's mug was underneath. "But there's a teensy problem: we already played it that way last time, and it's just so boring winning the same way twice. So instead, why don't we calm down, call it even, and you get to walk away with your notebook intact for next time? Really, I'd hate to ruin a genius like yourself. With the way things are going, you might be my only ticket out of this job."

"Heh," Math Freak chuckled. "If you really want out so bad? I've got an escape vector with your name on it!"

"Mmm… let me guess: it intersects at point 'B-for-bullet'?" Prick stepped forward and pulled what might've been a smile if his cheek hadn't been swelling like a freakin' softball. "Tempting, but I'm afraid I'll have to pass. The rules of engagement here were to let Shibuya choose its partner, and seeing as it chose me—again—I can't quite hand the reins over just yet. Besides, I'm about to wrap up a little experiment, and I'm sure you'll find the results very interesting."

"Hmph! Your experiments are—!"

"Garbage?" Prick interrupted, beating Minamimoto to the punch. "Yes, exactly. See, for a long time the UG was geared towards a sort of 'waste disposal', if you will. The Game was engineered to refine worthy Soul and Imagination as well as properly dispose of the less-than-worthy prospects. Now, however… well, I'm thinking we might have a future in recycling."

"Hey!" Seeing that the conversation wasn't getting any less complicated anytime soon, Beat finally lost patience and decided the recycling mumbo jumbo could wait until after Rhyme was safe.

Prick turned to give him a look, eyebrows raised. "Yes?"

"You got your little victory and summoned your super angel," Beat said, working his way to a full stand while still cradling his sister. "Good for you. But don'tchu forget who gotchu there!"

"Wait, 'super angel'?" the guy holding Minamimoto grunted. "Hold up, dawg. Who summoned what now?"

Minamimoto laughed until super biker kneed him in the back.

"Look," the mystery man went on between clenched teeth. "I don't mind getting' a second chance to beat this bastard's lights out. But so long as we're asking questions, I got my own share."

"Ah, good for you!" Prick giggled, and Beat could swear the kid started glowing. "I like a curious mind. Unfortunately, it looks like I just got back on for running the city, so we'll have to make an appointment for later."

"Yo, I ain't waitin' for later," Beat growled. "You're fixin' Rhyme now, or I'mma—"

"Oh, well if that's all you want."

Prick snapped his fingers and Rhyme stirred. Beat nearly jumped out of his skin as warmth came back into her body and her eyelids fluttered to a squint.

"Bwagh! Yo, you think you coulda warned me before—!?"

The blond boy paused and blinked. Prick wasn't on the rooftop anymore. In fact, super biker and Math Face were gone too. Now it was just him, Rhyme, and the Real Life Solutions guy standing in the little bits of rain still falling from the clearing sky.

"...What the hell?"

"Maybe it's the planes realigning?" Mr. Realsies suggested, coming up beside him as he scanned the area. "If the kid really was the Composer, then it's possible the reversi sigil was inhibiting his ability to keep the UG and RG seperated. Here especially; Pork City's always been an anomaly."

"Wait, but then…" Beat trailed off and frowned up at the sun as it peeked through the scattering clouds.

The big shopkeeper sighed and clapped Beat on the shoulder. "You know… we probably won't remember any of this tomorrow."

"But I want answers, dammit!"

Sure, he probably wouldn't understand most of it, but that didn't stop him from feeling cheated.

"Well, you've got your sister, don't you?"

"I—" Beat stopped short and looked back down at Rhyme's face. Her eyes were closed again, but the color had returned to her cheeks and her breathing had gone back to normal. Had she gotten her dreams back? Had the sigil worked?

Had any of this really mattered in the long run?

"Beat..." she murmured, turning over and snuggling up against his chest.

"Y-yeah?"

Maybe she was just saying his name, but just hearing her voice was like every hug she'd ever given him times a million right now.

She took a slow breath as a smile spread across her face. "You… came."

"Uh… yeah!"

"...Thank you."

"...Yeah." He squeezed her close and fought the urge to cry. It wasn't much, but he'd been there. He'd come when it mattered. Even if neither of them remembered tomorrow, at least he was good for it now.

The big guy was right: he had his sister. And that was enough.

"So… I guess now we go home," the shopkeeper sighed, looking back to the elevator.

"Huh," Beat agreed quietly. "Back to the real world..."

Just a week ago, he would've thought it was stupid to feel so grateful for a normal life, for a world where he couldn't earn respect just by being good at smashing stuff. Now he was okay with it.

Now he had everything he needed held in his arms.

Looking back to the elevator, he nodded and started forward again.

"We gots this."

-o-0-o-

"Okay, so you're sure this isn't a prank?" Eri asked for the umpteenth time as they slipped through the after school crowds flooding Shibuya. With the storm headed into remission, everyone seemed set on filling a new found appreciation for sunlight. As a result, the streets were clogged all the way down to the Shibukyu Main Store with no sign of clearing in sight.

Honestly, if she hadn't been stuck on the text she'd just found at the end of her school day, Shiki might have found the foot traffic congestion a little obnoxious. Even with the rain passed, most of the adults still had dour, stony expressions as they shuffled past one another. It was like the mere thought that it had rained was making them more crabby than actually being caught in the stuff itself.

As things stood, however, Shiki was absolutely elated by Neku's request, if maybe just a tiny bit cautious that this wasn't what she thought it was.

"Neku doesn't have that kind of sense of humor," she assured her friend, although the words were maybe just a tiny bit for herself as well. "A prank would be too much trouble. If he didn't like you, he'd probably just say so."

Well… okay, or maybe just ignore her. She could see him doing that too. But considering Neku had specifically asked for Eri to come, all lights seemed green.

"Well… okay, fine," Eri sighed, absently scanning the crowds. Considering most people were still wearing raincoats, she probably wasn't getting much in the way of her usual inspiration, but the old habit still let Shiki know her friend was trying to diffuse pent up anxiety. "I guess it's just… well, he seems so antsy about staying on schedule most of the time, I didn't think he'd ask to do something right before work. I mean, he does work late today, right?"

Slipping a dry smile, Shiki took the other girl's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "He'll figure something out."

"So… he really is the responsible type, huh?" Eri sighed. "In that case, you'll really need to keep me around. I don't want you catching that mopey attitude, alright? I'm already worried about you getting too gloomy."

Shiki blushed. "Wha—? H-hey!"

"Okay, okay, fine," Eri went on as they finally got inside the main store. Ahead of them, the Sunshine Burger logo loomed with maybe just a little too much optimism. "I… I should be more serious, too. I know this matters a lot to you and it's not fair for me to be like this, it's just..."

"Just…?"

Tapping two fingers together, Eri looked to the side. "Well, we don't know Neku's actual job. Er… I mean, I guess what I'm more trying to say is…" she grimaced and Shiki took the cue to brace herself. "What if Neku doesn't actually… have a job?"

"Eri!"

"I could be wrong!" her friend said quickly. "I could so totally, definitely be wrong. But, I mean… maybe he's just using it as an excuse so he doesn't have to talk to me? Some guys can get super possessive. I mean, maybe not him—Probably not him. But on the other hand... just… y'know," her shoulders hunched in a shrug, "maybe?"

Shiki stopped and stared back for a moment, just shy of stepping into the actual store outlet. Neku really hadn't given any details other than bits and pieces of his schedule whenever those overlapped with her free time. He was certainly smart enough to make it seem convincing if he wanted to. All it would take is telling her and she'd believe him...

But then, he was also the boy who had seen her for what she really was and stood by her anyway. Even this week, when she called him early in the morning or sprang a hang out request the day of, he hadn't just shut her out. He'd had the chance to just say he was busy and hang up, but he didn't. And Neku really wasn't the type to be shy about asserting his opinion.

When he said he wanted to see her, he really meant it.

She shook her head and smiled. "Neku's not like that," she said firmly. "You'll see."

Eri huffed a sigh, and couldn't quite work down a cynical frown, but still nodded. "Alright, fine. You're right, I'll see. Guess we'll just… go right in, then?"

"Mmm!" Shiki hummed an affirmative and nodded back. Taking her friend's hand, she headed inside and—

"Welcome to Sunshine! I can take you over here."

Shiki felt Eri's hand clench hers hard . Both of them stared at the cashier, taking a minute to double check and make sure it really was who it seemed to be.

Eri swallowed. "Is that…?"

"Yep," Shiki replied, barely breaking a whisper as they awkwardly staggered forward, all the while keeping eyes on him.

Yes, it really was Neku. Underneath the blue visor and salmon shirt, Neku Sakuraba was manning a cash register at Sunshine Burger. Beside her, Eri let out a nervous giggle.

Neku cleared his throat and looked down at his ordering screen.

And then Shiki understood. As his face tinged a soft red, she saw the embarrassment and faltering defensiveness she'd seen during the Game when he really earnestly tried to let her in, even when he was so empty. He didn't want to be seen like this because he knew it wasn't much, and he wanted to be so much more.

And yet, he'd still invited her in.

A few shaky steps more and they were at the counter. She could feel eyes on them from other employees and patrons but she kept going.

"H-hey," she braced herself on the counter and waited for him to make eye contact again. Summoning all the courage she'd felt when they fought in the Game, she smiled and reached across to playfully push him in the shoulder. "Uniform looks good on you."

He looked back up with a deer-in-the-headlights expression that slowly softened into understanding. "...You think?"

"I mean… I'd probably make some adjustments," she admitted. "But that's.. I mean, I'm not sure if you're allowed to… uh..." she fidgeted with her fingers and shrank down into a sheepish smile. "I… guess what I'm trying to say is… it's good to see you, Neku."

He smiled back, and somehow she knew that out of her stream of word barf, he'd gotten the important parts.

Reaching back across the counter he offered a fist bump.

"Yeah," he said in a way that made her insides all warm and settled.

"It's good to see you, too."

0 Days Left

-Hybrid: Outsiders-

Chapter Closed

Author's Note:

So apparently it takes me about four times as much agony to push through a finale as it does a normal chapter. Good to know for future reference. Before this point, the release time table was so loosey goosey that I just figured it was due to life events coincidentally happening around the same time, but Nope: it's just really hard for me to write even a half-baked finale.

Speaking of life events, though, I'm now doubly an uncle! And the new niece is just the most adorable lump of baby to ever inherit the title of "Grand Gruntress". Little Sonora, if ever you read this, know that you were a shining light of inspiration and comfort during this chapter's production. A shower of blessings on your tiny head.

And speaking of thanks and blessings, this chapter (and this arc in general) would not be possible without all the wonderful readers who dared to stick with things this far. That's right, particular shout outs go to Aviantei, EeveeGen9988, Hyoxjnn, and Amulet Misty for being my Sauce Project morale heroes. Misty in particular for this chapter, as Beat and Rhyme's conflict borrows heavy inspiration from her work, with a special nod to "Rewind" in that last segment. Other special mentions to Solphage and CystalizedFerret for their support via review, let me just say that whatever time you poured into those words of encouragement filled me with such determination that I could probably fight an interdimensional nihilistic flower or something. and tokkiKana, thank you for joining the following during this arc, I hope it hasn't been too disappointing. Also, from the phantom zone, WinsTheReeder, I know you're reading this, and you're awesome. Keep on rockin' bro.

However, most of all, I would like to thank and dedicate this arc to She Who Loves Pineapples, a faithful reader, thoughtful reviewer, and all around excellent member of the TWEWY community. Keep spreadin' the love, kid.

But back to bits of self retrospect and such: Honestly, I really should have delved more into Beat and Rhyme's arcs before this chapter, so I do apologize for the rush in that quarter. While the Outsiders as whole focuses mainly on Neku, I still indulged in the bad habit of giving everyone something to do and I hope it didn't derail things too badly. The bigger tragedy is that I completely forgot to use Eiji Oji in any capacity, but whatever. You live and you learn.

Oh, and to whoever realized Sato was Uzuki's Game Partner before this point because the clues were laid all the way back in Chapter 5, good job! You get a cookie.

Just a few more pieces to pick up before the puzzle's complete, then. Thanks for the patience. As a certain displaced prince once said: "It's been a long time coming, just a little longer now."

See you on the other side

-CG 3/25/2019

Outsider's Arc Bonus

-Trivia-

-Tokai Michi did not come up with "Smunderling". It is actually the invention of the Brothers Chaps and their internet cartoon, Homestar Runner. His trademark is a lie.

-The Bito patriarch's medical occupation is a direct nod to (you guessed it) Sanctuary

-In the original plan many years ago, Neku was going to be the sole protagonist to this arc similar to how Amber is the sole protagonist of the Player's Arc. Then, around some time in the Reaper's Arc, CG realized he'd already given narrative roles to the other Ex-Players in the prelude so it was already too late to back out now and arcs reflecting the struggles ever-so-vaguely touched upon there were crafted for Beat and Shiki. It was only by the last chapter of this arc that CG grudgingly extended the same privilege to Rhyme, which is why she doesn't have a narrative role before this.

-Shigemi's Sunshine sidequest was one of the earliest plotlines conceived for Hybrid. However, Mihael and Ryou didn't enter the picture until the arc entered production.

-Ryou's name tag correction is an easter egg reference to alternate retconned spellings of his name in the EeveeVerse.

-While the Shuuito siblings were planned for an appearance and Mayu Akimori is briefly mentioned in the Reaper's Arc, Ryou is the first EeveeVerse character to make a full cameo in Hybrid.

-Hybrid's use of borrowed OCs in general is all part of CG's evil plot to unite the TWEWY fandom by propagating fanon. Unfortunately, since the conception of this plot, CG has come to terms with the fact that he is not in fact a wunderkind super writer who can write anyone's characters perfectly and thus scaled back on the initiative.

-Six of the seven chapters of the Outsiders' arc were produced over the course of about two months. This is the fastest production schedule Hybrid has ever seen.

-Many pieces of the Outsider's Arc were used to retroactively explain dumb writing decisions made in earlier chapters when CG was not as mindful about world crafting. This includes but is not limited to the consequences of having the original TWEWY gang show up at the arcade meeting on a school day.

-While writing this chapter in particular, CG realized realized that every finale chapter of Hybrid hinges on a rooftop confrontation.

-Earlier in development, CG went around telling people that Amber and Rueban used a level 3 fusion on the Reaper Killer. He then wrote out fusion quotes and found something he likes better for level three, so the Twister Remix has been retconned to a level 2. Such classiness, much wow.

-The RG/UG bleed on top of Pork City was originally going to be an RG only scene. The planar crossover was made as a nod to X Days -Marked-.

-Although Sota as the Reaper Killer was set fairly early on in this story's development, the logic behind Sota's mix up with Minamimoto's sigil and Soul coding is a vague reference to a Crow's Gamble one-shot where the two of them were "friends".

-Speaking of the Pork City showdown, Joshua and Minamimoto were originally going to be a lot more monology to dump all the exposition necessary for reader comprehension. However, since none of the observing narrative characters have any time for such nonsense, the dialogue was eventually trimmed with most of the explanation being moved to the epilogue.

-Arc and Character Themes-

OP1 "Here's the News" by Brave Saint Saturn, from Antimeridian.

OP2 "Devastation and Reform" by Relient K, from Five Score and Seven Years Ago.

ED1 "Start Over" by Imagine Dragons, from Evolve.

ED2 "Waking Up" by OneRepublic, from Waking Up.

Epilogue "I Don't Need a Soul" by Relient K, from Forget and Not Slow Down.

Neku Sakuraba: "Eet" by Regina Spektor, from Far; "Forget and Not Slow Down" by Relient K, from Forget and Not Slow Down.

Shiki Misaki: "Folding Chair" by Regina Spektor, from Far; "Sanctuary ~Opening Version~" by Utada Hikari, from Kingdom Hearts II OST.

Daisukenojo Bito: "I'm Still Here" by John Rzeznik, from Treasure Planet; "Cannonball" by Five Iron Frenzy, from The End is Near.

Raimu Bito: "The Light Before We Land" by the Delgados, from Hate; "Stationary Cycle" by Theadore Shapiro, from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty [Original Motion Picture Score].

Eri: "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" as performed by Kristen Bell, Agatha Lee Monn, and Katie Lopez, from Frozen; "Megitsune" by BABYMETAL, from BABYMETAL.

Mihael Anjelo: "Allstar" by Smash Mouth, from Astro Lounge.

Shigemi Konno: "Langtree's Lament" by The Blasting Company, from Over the Garden Wall.

Real Life Solutions: "The Sun Also Rises" by Brave Saint Saturn, from The Light of Things Hoped For.

Sota Honjo: "The Distance" by Gregory Brown, as performed by Relient K from Is for Karaoke.

Sho Minamimoto: "You Can't Handle This" by Five Iron Frenzy, from Five Iron Frenzy, Vol. 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Ryou Taketera: "Old North Wind" by The Blasting Company, from Over the Garden Wall.

Sanae Hanekoma: "Cat" by Relient K, from Air for Free.

-Battle Quotes and Pin Sets-

-Kyasako Mininaka-

Entering Battle: Heeere's Kya!

Entering Battle: Alrighty, but no holding back!

Entering Battle (low HP): Uh, h-hey! Can't we be friends?

Attacking: Zoop!

Attacking: Burst!

Combo Finisher: So sweet~!

Combo Finisher: Back for seconds?

Surprise Attack: Kyaaaaaa!

Healing: Yum! Heal Pill!

Puck Pass: Double dipping!

5x Puck: Like, sooo stylish!

Knock-down: Waaah! No fair!

Partner Knock-down: So not cool...

SOS: Like, time out for a sec?

Partner SOS: Hold on, Aya-chan!

Victory: Yup~! All done.

SOS Victory: I think I'm gonna be sick...

Defeat: Nee-chan, I won't—

E-Rank: Heheh… uh, my bad?

S-Rank: Mmmhmm! Ready for more!

Slot 1: Licorice Whip

Slot 2: Fizz Fountain

Slot 3: Heal Pill

Slot 4: Taste teh Rainbow

Slot 5: Bubble Tape Burst

Slot 6: Death by Chocolate

-Ayane Tajima-

Entering Battle: This was a mistake.

Entering Battle: *sigh* Again?

Entering Battle (low HP): Oh, you haven't seen me angry yet...

Attacking: Come here.

Attacking: I'm not done yet!

Combo Finisher: Feel this pain!

Combo Finisher: Don't cry.

Surprise Attack: Back at you.

Healing: Breathe...

Puck Pass: I'm trying!

5x Puck: Time to end it!

Knock-down: Insufferable!

Partner Knock-down: Don't stop yet!

SOS: It hurts...

Partner SOS: Will you quit playing?

Victory: Hmph. I suppose that's right...

SOS Victory: I'm… still here.

Defeat: Is this… my punishment?

E-Rank: Well, no point in crying over it...

S-Rank: I feel… happy?

Slot 1: Touch of Death

Slot 2: Touch of Life

Slot 3: Socket Fork

Slot 4: Fire Finger

Slot 5: Last Rites

Slot 6: Lolita Chopper

-Kyasako and Ayane Fusion Quotes-

Level 1 (Starburst Tag)K:"You with me, Aya-chan?" A:"You have to ask?"

Level 2 (Field of Memory)A:"Feel this pain!" K:"I'm lettin' it go!"

Level 3 (Jawbreaker Crunch)A:"You won't break us." K:"We'll break you!"

-Getotsu Tezano-

Entering Battle: Ah, here we are again.

Entering Battle: Well, what goes up...

Entering Battle (low HP): Not… quite how I calculated it.

Attacking: Rush!

Attacking: Fly!

Combo Finisher: Down to earth!

Combo Finisher: Terminal vector!

Surprise Attack: Don't mind me!

Healing: Lift your heart...

Puck Pass: Return angle!

5x Puck: Breaking my limits!

Knock-down: Ungh! Miscalculated...

Partner Knock-down: On your feet, Pokoni!

SOS: Did I misjudge our strength?

Partner SOS: You'll pay for that.

Victory: Solution complete. Well done!

SOS Victory: We're still standing, aren't we?

Defeat: This… can't be right...

E-Rank: Hmmm… let me adjust the variables.

S-Rank: In my professional opinion? Brilliant.

Slot 1: Gravity Rush

Slot 2: Frantic

Slot 3: Velocity Tackle

Slot 4: Diamond Armor

Slot 5: Psychokinesis

Slot 6: Millstone Martyr

-Pokoni-

Entering Battle: A'ight, a'ight… I guess I can make time for ya!

Entering Battle: Oh, you messed with the wrong guys this time!

Entering Battle (low HP): Oookay. playtime's over!

Attacking: You're gonna go boom!

Attacking: Burn, sucka!

Combo Finisher: Light 'em up!

Combo Finisher: I'll show ya!

Surprise Attack: Bang! Gotcha!

Healing: Yeah, reloaded!

Puck Pass: Catch this, big guy!

5x Puck: FEAR ME!

Knock-down: H-hey! I let ya have that one!

Partner Knock-down: Oh, whatever!

SOS: This ain't over yet!

Partner SOS: Really? Reeeally?

Victory: Yeah! And stay dead!

SOS Victory: Heh! You see that? That was… ooooh, I'mma sit down….

Defeat: I don't… feel so good...

E-Rank: Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me!

S-Rank: Booya, buddy! Burnin' it up!

Slot 1: Burn Notice

Slot 2: Candle Service

Slot 3: Sauna Service

Slot 4: Burning Melon

Slot 5: Blast Warning

Slot 6: Cornered Rat

-Getotsu and Pokoni Fusion Quotes-

Level 1 (Poko-Warhead) P:"Over here, big guy!" G:"Delivery system activated!"

Level 2 (Poko's Inferno) P:"Ya think you're hot stuff?" G:"Then let's test that theory!"

Level 3 (Big Bang) G:"All of Creation..." P:"In one Big Bang!"

-Rueban Kiryu-

Slot 1: Angel's Arsenal

Slot 2: Luminescence

Slot 3: Archangel

Slot 4: Pearly-Pointy-Gates

Slot 5: Flare Star

Slot 6: Point Zero

-Amber Hanekoma-

Slot 1: Slick Shot

Slot 2: Groove Partner

Slot 3: Meteor Magnet

Slot 4: Eye-2-Eye

Slot 5: Force Rounds

Slot 6: Sand Track Trapper

-Amber and Rueban Fusion Quotes-

Level 1 (Heavenly Spirit – Spear It Mix) R:"Amber!" A:"Let 'em have it!

Level 2 (Twister – Salvation Mix) R:"Let's remix this twister." A:"With powers yet unknown!"

Level 3 (It's So Wonderful – Reborn Mix) R:"The world ends with us..." A:"And we're just getting started!"

Chapter 29 Bonus Course: THE SECRET LIFE OF CHARACTERS!(Yoshiya Kiryu)

Yoshiya is that little snot I love to hate but always have to respect anyway. Even if he's petty and grating, he's not careless and usually can be counted on to have some sort of back up plan, even if he's playing on the riskier side.

Regarding his Hybridverse backstory, Yoshiya's story was slated from From the Underground Up (Although, depending on whether or not that ever actually releases, this may be the most you hear of it. Sooo, yeah, apologies in advance). As a Kiryu family heir, he spent some time overseas in London where he first crossed over with the UG, left an entry fee to return to the RG, and then had UG vision like Rhyme for the rest of his living life, which he intentionally ended directly after the Tokyo firebombings in 1945.

Seeing the effect the Tokyo UG had on the RG as a bastion of deadly dogma, Yoshiya strategically planned his demise to take advantage of the high influx of souls into the UG and went on to fight in the Reaper's War. There he caught the notice of Reiko, "Goddess of the Tokyo UG" and won her blessing against the reigning Composer, Sendatsu Koukyuu, and three of his fellow generals, now immortalized in the Irregular Note pin descriptions. After taking control of the Plane, Yoshiya then began a reforming push towards Westernization that eventually saw his influence limited to Shibuya (although the Angels always swore it was because for population redistricting reasons). Despite heavy cynicism from many parties, Yoshiya's push to change eventually revolutionized his district and inspired restoration in a number of other surrounding grounds.

In the RG, however, Yoshiya was seen as betraying his family for Western ideals and thus was not buried as a Kiryu, but only under the name "Joshua".

In relation to other characters, I find Joshua's pedantic tendencies incredibly helpful because it let's him lay narrative breadcrumbs and play those word games that, while narratively popular, feel kind of nonsensical and forced coming out of other characters' mouths. He really wants people to understand what's going on, even if he's not willing to do all the work for them. And while that may come as a bit of a curse as I struggle to find the balance for just how much he's willing to let slip, it's also a blessing when you're silly like me and want to slip in complex world building mechanics. Because it's totally not like the readers already have enough to deal with without deciphering the otherwise opaque quirks of a fictitious world, right?

Recommended "Side-dishes" for this Character:

Surprising no one, I'm sure, I'm a big fan of all things Joshua from She Who Loves Pineapples, including A Necessary End and "Closure". However, I would be remiss if I did not tell you to go and check out Quis Custodiet, by R. Seldon, because it contains not only some of the best Joshua, but hands down just the best writing I've read in the TWEWY fandom. So good, in fact, that I had to stop reading after the first chapter until I finished my own story because otherwise I would probably fall into jealous depression. Seriously go do yourself a favor and give it a read. It is scary good.

Josh also features in one shots like "Composure", by Hyoxjnn, and plays a very interesting role in most things Amulet Misty. And if you're interested in an alternate take on Josh with more connections and emotional struggles, you can also find him starring in EeveeGen9988's A Fall into Honor, which I hear is undergoing chapter renovation for enhanced readability.

Also, just sayin', first season of Aviantei's Muse is out, and Joshua is definitely crucial there. Of course, you could wait for the last three chapters of Hybrid to come out first just so you know you're not being spoiled but... y'know. Just throwin' it out there.

+::Outsiders Epilogue::+

Hello, and thank you for calling your voicemail box

You have [1] new voicemail

To play this message, press—

Monday, September 24th, 4:30 PM

"Hello Neku.

I would ask why you're not picking up for me, but knowing you, you're probably taking the whole 'don't answer cellphones on company time' thing seriously. That's a shame; I'm already making an exception by calling you. Now I'll have to make another and expand the recording time. Might do a number on your memory card, but don't worry: A quick reformatting should put it all back to normal. Hehe, I hope you have all your important documents backed up somewhere...

Formalities aside, I just wanted to congratulate you on finishing the week and offer a bit of a suggestion on what to do next.

Yes, that's right, a week with the UG happened, and before you start pointing fingers: no, you weren't actually in the UG, and no, it wasn't entirely my fault this time. Sanae picked you without my input and, as I'm sure you're already realizing, the fact that you don't remember any of this is already proof that you succeeded in bringing some Players back to life so I had to go and rewrite a few timelines. Bravo, Neku. Nobody seems to derail my plans for the weekend quite like you do. I'm starting to think it's a shame I can't have you on my Officer staff, but your not the first attractive Player I've let go. Thanks for playing, all the same.

Also, a thank you might have been in order for arranging for that sigil on top of Pork City, but seeing as you're also to blame for the sigil Minamimoto brought to that incident, we'll just count that as a wash and call it even. Too bad. You really might've squeezed a favor out of me if you'd been just a teensy bit more careful.

For future reference, it generally isn't a good idea to just spread information like that willy-nilly. That reversi sigil could have completely dissembled my connection with Shibuya, and then you'd all be in for a world of trouble.

Lucky for you, the Natural Reformer really was a stroke of genius, even if you clearly had no idea what it was meant to do. Before you get too excited, I should note that the one you commissioned didn't actually end up getting used. Lucky for us, that Bito girl's talented enough to manifest revisions on the fly, or you'd still be waiting and I might even be done for.

As things stand, the Bito girl somehow managed to project an altered version by absorbing the coding and using her own Soul as a catalytic converter. Or, well, mostly her Soul. She did have a little help...

You see, Neku, I was running a certain… experiment this last week. And before you start feeling cheated for details, do keep in mind that I rarely share these things with anyone so you're already hearing more than most. Without Sanae around, though, I've got to talk to someone about it. So congratulations, here's my little secret:

It all started with our last Game. Not the three weeks running around Shibuya, I'm talking about our duel in the Room of Reckoning. See, I collected an Entry Fee for that duel, an Entry Fee you subsequently lost: your assurance of connection. So, in essence, I gathered up the ties between you and your friends and took away what I deemed to be the most crucial memories of your bond. After all, I wanted it to be a fair duel, and I couldn't have you fettered by thinking of others in a moment like that.

And yet, you still held your fire. Honestly, I'm appalled at how much you get away with sometimes, but I suppose that's just life.

Speaking more objectively, you answered my cynicism with faith and grace, and that got me thinking: would that kind of self-sacrificing optimist can actually survive in the Game? It was a fairly recent development on your part, of course, and you were headed right back to the RG afterwords. I needed a test subject untainted by the world and still vulnerable to its flaws. Someone so outwardly focused, it'd be a wonder if they managed not to lose themselves to the ever-looming maw of apathy plaguing our world. So you know what I did?

...Oh, don't give me that look. No, I didn't go recruiting. Not like that, anyway. Believe me, you were a special case.

Rather, I asked a certain someone to make me a special order so we could test my theories and offered the lost Entry Fees as raw material. After all, while Composers like me do have an impressive range of abilities and jurisdiction within our own realms, being able to create life doesn't actually fall within that range. We can gather the necessary ingredients, yes, but without a soul frame to bind them to it won't amount to much. And seeing as I wanted authentic results, I couldn't just go sending a puppet to run the gauntlet.

Now, before you go accusing me of treating you like dirt, keep in mind that I offered my own 'dirt' into the mix, so I'm not actually using you as my personal spice cabinet any more than I am myself.

Back to the point, though, the creation born from our combined Soul turned out to be a bit of a special case. Although her Imagination was technically a manifestation of us—which incidentally reminds me it's a shame I missed out on the chance to mix lineage with you, seeing as how adorable she turned out—her actual soul is what we in the higher planes call a Confluence or Hybrid. She's a special entity who manifests differently across many timelines not because her essence is created, but because certain events attract it. Our Soul components may have formed her a vessel, but her will only entered this timeline because our own had begun to mirror it.

I can only surmise this is the result of your actions during our duel.

Now, keep that part in mind and I'll try to make the rest of this brief. Remember how I said the Bito girl had help with converting the sigil? As it turns out, the Soul components she contributed to the Hybrid's Imagination didn't fully integrate until some functional difficulties later in the week essentially forced the Hybrid to restructure and repair itself.

Because of this, the Hybrid actually became anchored to Bito's imagination, so when your Udagawa sigil dispersed her Soul, her essence stayed with the Bito portion and came to Pork City while the other components either returned to their original owners or dissipated in the process. Thus, when Bito activated a sigil that was originally meant to remanifest the Hybrid, their Soul bonding not only allowed Bito to absorb and redirect the sigil's coding, it also allowed the Hybrid to contribute to a truly miraculous action: the resurrection of Sota Honjo.

And you remember Sota, don't you? You had a soft spot for him and his partner during our week. Well, as it turns out, his Soul make up was similar enough to Minamimoto's that he tangled himself up in a sigil Minamimoto meant for his own Taboo Noise resurrection and nicked a rare ability while he was at it. I imagine that's why an egotist like the Grim Heaper helped you in the first place: even if he'd forgotten the formula he'd used the first time, he realized dissolving the Reaper Killer might allow him to regain what he'd lost. Unfortunately, when he tried to trick Bito into using Sota's attached Soul as fuel for the Natural Reformer sigil so he could isolate the coding, he didn't count on her remanifesting Sota himself.

Unfortunately, that leaves us in a bit of a slump, which is part of why I'm calling you now. See, by helping Bito with the sigil, the Hybrid sacrificed most of the material still connecting her to this world. And… well, while normally I wouldn't mind letting someone go once they've lost my Game, it seemed only fair to tell you. After all, we called her into this world. Maybe that means there's a way we can still save her.

If you're interested, give me a call."

Salvation Granted

-Epilogue Closed-