Joshua hadn't meant to visit Hachiko more than once. Just explain to them that Neku couldn't be revived yet because he didn't know what that reaper, Coco, was planning and that said ginger-haired boy wouldn't be playing the Reaper's Game this time around. That was it. Say that in his nonchalant, couldn't-care-less way he usually did around them, and then leave to return to his work as Shibuya's Composer.

Oh, how life seemed to hate him.

In the weeks after Shinjuku's inversion, said district's reapers were transferred to Shibuya. They were welcomed, of course; Shibuya and Shinjuku's undergrounds were close and both districts' reapers were on friendly terms. Plus, after the unfortunate erasure of most of Shibuya's reaper population due to Minamimoto's Taboo Noise, they could use the extra help. What Joshua noticed right away, however, was that one of the new reapers stood out.

Tanzo Kubo was his name, and he was anything but an average reaper.

An inversion only occurs when a Composer wishes to erase their district and their Conductor agrees to the point where it's a standoff between them. In such a case, an angel named the Executor is sent from the Higher Plane to infiltrate the reapers and initiate the full erasure of the district and everyone inside, with the UG's non-player population being evacuated and spared. At least, that's what Sane Hanekoma had explained to him in the days after it happened. Joshua suspects that he and Megumi Kitaniji agreeing to decide Shibuya's fate on a game between them is what saved them from having to resort to the same turn of events.

Then the Shinjuku reapers arrived and Kubo stood out like a sore thumb. He was the Executor, a higher being responsible for an entire district being wiped. And he was planning the same thing for Shibuya.

Joshua wasn't going to let that stand, of course, but there wasn't much he could do. He wasn't the one who called Kubo down from the Higher Plane, only the Composer who did could force him to return home or, in a worse-case scenario, erase him from existence. But the Composer of Shinjuku was nowhere to be found, and Joshua couldn't tell if he was avoiding him or just plain out of reach. The only thing he could do was challenge Kubo to a game.

The rules were simple: Joshua couldn't interfere with the UG, and Kubo would take his time with setting up his inversion. During this time, both would use proxies to carry out their goals of either saving or destroying Shibuya.

The only problem, was that Joshua didn't know how this inversion would occur. With his vibe tuned into the RG, his level of clairvoyance was lowered and he could barely see past next week. The most he had managed to glimpse before the rules were put into effect was that it wouldn't happen until three years from then, so he at least had time to prepare. There was no use in finding a proxy who probably wouldn't last more than a year in the Game, especially with the way the Shinjuku reapers got around the fact there was no Composer to revive players.

All of this free time in the RG meant he had very little to do. With Hanekoma spending more and more time in the Higher Plane and he himself unable to perform his regular duties, Joshua found himself returning to Hachiko to annoy a certain brunette and her blond friends.

It was their regular meet-up spot, not to mention the place where he found Shiki Misaki waiting for Neku to return, even though he assured her that wouldn't be any time soon. But like the loyal canine the statue's image was carved into, she waited patiently for her lost partner to return. It was touching, really, even if both of them knew Neku wouldn't return for who knows how long.

These awkward-to-irritating meetings eventually turned into something Joshua found himself looking forward to. If not to quell the constant boredom of having to traverse the RG more than he had since he was alive, then to at least do something he had wondered about since the long game he had forced Neku to play: what was it like to make friends?

Sure, there was Hanekoma, whom he had known even before he became Composer. Neku had said himself that he considered Joshua a friend, even after everything he put the teen through, and Joshua couldn't deny some form of fondness he had in return. But could he become friends with other people? If it had come from anyone besides himself, Joshua would have laughed at them and called them a fool.

Yet with each visit, he found himself wondering if Shiki at least considered him as something more than a constant reminder of Neku's absence. She seemed to be civil enough, and she even offered to grab them some food to eat on occasion. When he scanned her, he didn't sense any malice; only sadness mixed with a spark of hopefulness which persisted even after her dream of designing and selling clothes came true. She had even begun to call him "Josh" rather than Joshua or Yoshiya, and it was definitely a more pleasant nickname than what Beat called him.

Then came the day Joshua knew he wouldn't be able to come to Hachiko after. It was nearing the time he had seen the inversion, and he needed to put his own plans into motion.

He figured that his mask he usually held up when around others was failing him when Shiki pointed out he seemed on edge.

"Oh," he mulled, "I suppose I won't be able to enjoy our little meet ups after today."

"How come?" Shiki asked. "Is he…?"

"No, he won't be back for a little while, but the time he should be is quickly approaching."

"Oh… I see." She said, and at once he could almost see the disappointment radiating off of her like foul notes from an out of tuned instrument. Why did he feel bad about this?

It surprised him when she seemingly recovered from this state in a matter of seconds. "But he will come home soon, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay." She nodded, and looked at him. "I trust you. I trust that you'll bring him back when it's safe for him to return… because you're our friend."

Caught off guard again, he turned away. She trusted him just like Neku did, and she considered him a friend.

When they parted ways, Joshua couldn't explain how he felt even with all of the words in the world. He shook his head. He could figure out his own feelings when he had time. Right now, he had a proxy to find.

He scanned the crowds at 104, searching for a particular boy in orange, always holding onto his phone even when he wasn't using it. His time spent with Shiki and occasionally the Bito siblings at the Hachiko statue allowed him the chance to people watch in anticipation for this day. Rindo Kanade would be a suitable proxy; his imagination, though stifled through the boy's own shortcomings, was strong. The fact he spent the majority of his free time running around Shibuya also helped his chances of surviving the Reaper's Game. All he needed was to get him into the UG.

This proved easy as he found Rindo's friend who had plans to meet up with him. A simple imprint of the new Player Pin that had become popularized by the reapers to drag unsuspecting humans into the UG would allow him the chance. At once, the boy ran off to buy a pair, and then returned to 104 to meet with Rindo.

Tossing the pin at the light-haired boy, the pin dropped and rolled Joshua's way. He picked it up and handed it to Rindo who muttered a "thanks", not bothering to look at the Composer's face. Not that it would make any difference.

Joshua walked away, his work done. All he could do was wait for the right moment to retrieve Neku from whatever remained of Shinjuku and watch.

Truly, he might never understand why he kept coming back to Hachiko or why he felt a sense of joy at the memories of two former players considering him a friend. But he knew one thing was for sure: the next few weeks would be interesting.