I awoke under the Station Underpass, leaned up against the wall. I stood up, and noticed that Ulrich was sitting up against the wall, passed out as well. I decided to try and wake him up, so I pulled off my headphones, turned the volume full blast, and started playing one of my favorite, loud tracks. Almost immediately, he jumped forward.
"What the? Neku!" He shouted as I turned off the music and lowered the volume, putting the headphones back on.
"What? Today's Day 2. We start our different missions today." I said to him, leading him to the exit, when I spotted another Support Reaper. I walked up to him and asked him "Okay, what's the Objective?"
"Destroy the Noise in the surrounding area." He said to me. I looked at Ulrich, who still had the eye thing in his eye, and saw how he was confused.
"Dude. We need to Scan for the Noise. But the main thing is that I need you to fight. If you can't fight, then you're going to make this entire thing worse. Do you have any Pins?" I asked him. He shrugged, then put his hands in his pockets, which made him immediately pull them back out, revealing his one Player Pin and a Pin with a blue and red katana sword imprinted on it.
"Woah! It looks like my Swords were put on here." He said, clutching it in his hand.
"It won't work unless we're on their plane." I said to him, making him look at me, that Eye of X.A.N.A. still in his eye, in place of the pupil.
"How come you know all this?" He asked me.
"I've been in the Game before..." I told him, pulling out my Player Pin.
"Oh. So, how do we scan?" He asked me.
"Like this." I said, flipping the Pin in the air, then catching it, activating its Psyche. The room enveloped in a blue tint, coming from my Pin, and I could see the yellowish-orange Noise Symbols. I selected them, and was thrust into the Noise plane.
As soon as we got there, I saw us surrounded by Jellyfish Noise. I looked to Ulrich, who looked back, the two swords in hand, and nodded to me. I nodded back, then charged at them, trying to stop them from multiplying. I used my hack and slash Pins up first, then my Energy Round Pins, trying to wipe them all out. I kept an eye on Ulrich, who was making easy work of the Noise, stabbing each of them in the main body section, causing them to explode into code with every one. After I set off my Ice Risers Pin, the Noise were all gone, which transported us back to the UG. I looked at the Support Reaper, who said that the wall was clear, and gave me another five thousand yen Pin.
"Alright. So, what's the-" Ulrich started to say, when our phones rang.
"The Mission!" I said, pulling my phone out and looking at it.
"All Twerps obtain the salt of the sea and turn it over to the man who loves bean paste. You have 120 minutes, but that's Overkill.
-The Reapers"
I instantly felt pain, as the Timer appeared on both of our hands.
"Ow. Why do they constantly make our hands hurt?" Ulrich asked, rubbing his without looking at it.
"You wonder how we're supposed to keep track of the time? They burn it into your hand." I said, raising my hand, showing the now blinking Timer, counting down.
"Oh. So what is this Mission about, anyway?" He asked me.
"Well, we need to find this 'Salt of the Sea', and then give it to some dude...I don't know how we'll be able to figure this one out..." I said to him.
"Well, maybe this 'Salt of the Sea' is a kind of food." He said as we were walking out of the Underpass.
"Yeah, maybe...Wait! Shio Ramen!" I said, starting to dash towards the place in question.
"What?" Ulrich asked me.
"Shio Ramen, it's made with Sea Salt!" I said, just before I ran headfirst into a wall.
"Neku! Are you okay?" Ulrich said, pulling me up off the ground.
"Yeah, just help me find the Support Reaper!" I said, looking for another guy in a red hood.
"Wait, don't those guys give us our missions?" Ulrich asked me.
"No, those are the Harrier Reapers. Support Reapers hold up the Walls." I said, spotting one. I ran to it, and immediately ordered it to tell me what the objective was.
"Eliminate this area's Pig Noise." He said. Ulrich looked at me, as if the guy was insane, so I had to explain.
"Pig Noise are a special type of Noise that don't attack and always drop items." I told him, bringing out my Player Pin again. Ulrich did the same, and caught his at the same time, allowing us both to look for the Pig Noise Symbol.
"Hey, that's different from the other Noise!" Ulrich said, pointing to a green noise symbol.
"That's it!" I said, running to the glowing symbol and hitting it, transporting Ulrich and I back into the area for Noise.
"Why the heck is that thing so fast?" Ulrich asked me as soon as we lost the challenge to the Pig Noise the second time.
"That's what they do, they run fast and they move fast...We need to activate the Fusion to kill it..." I said to him, bringing out the Harmonizer Pin again.
"Oh man, I don't want to summon more Kankrelats..." Ulrich said.
"Kankrelats? What the hell are they?" I asked him.
"They're those things we summoned before, and I don't like them a lot. They're always sneaky..." He said.
"Oh. Well, maybe you'll get something different for the second Fusion level..." I said to him, flipping the Pin and catching it.
"Second level?" He asked me.
"Yeah. The Harmonizer Pin has three levels of Fusion. The Kankrelats must have been the first level." I explained.
"Oh. Well, let's go!" Ulrich said, pulling out his Player Pin. After we rescanned and went to the Noise dimension, I could tell that the Pin was already close to the second level. "Alright, let's activate it!" He said with glee.
"Not yet. It needs to get a bit more power before we hit the second level!" I shouted to him.
"Then I'll get it!" Ulrich said, running to the Pig Noise, and making a few quick slashes at it. I felt the Pin vibrate, and saw the image on it shift from the Eye of X.A.N.A. to the symbol for the Reapers behind two clearish blue lines, making an "X" over it. I slammed down on the Pin, just as the Pig was about to leave the area.
"Let's wrap this up!" Ulrich said.
"Them first!" I said in reply. The ground shifted around us, and two large things with blocks as their main body appeared from nowhere, and a giant floating Jellyfish with long, clear tentacles coming from it, and we were holding on it's main body. It's tentacles wrapped around the Pig, and three neared it's head, and then were outlined in red. We heard a draining sound for a few seconds, and then the Pig Noise exploded into Soul, leaving behind a green Pig Noise Prize Pin, and we got transported back to the real world.
"Alright!" Ulrich shouted as I held out the Pin the Pig Noise gave us, and my eyes widened when I saw it. "What's wrong?"Ulrich asked me. I lowered the pin, to show the winged squirrel tattoo design on it.
"This is the Rhyme Noise Pin...Rhyme is my friend..." I said to him.
"Woah! How did that happen?" He asked me.
"I'll explain when we're not on the clock!" I said, running back to the Support Reaper, and moving once the wall was down. We managed to get to the Ramen Don quickly, where I got the needed ramen to go.
"Okay, we've got the ramen, now what?" Ulrich asked me.
"We find the guy with a knack for Bean Paste..." I said to him, looking around.
"Hey...I've got an Idea..." Ulrich said, putting his hand over the eye that was normal.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him.
"I can tell the difference between Players and humans with this eye!" He exclaimed, looking all around the street.
"Seriously? That's great! This will finish up the mission fast!" I said to him.
"Yeah-! Neku! There's someone over there that's not a Player or a human!" He said, pointing to the guy.
"Then it has to be a Reaper, most likely the one we're looking for!" I said. I led us in the direction of where he pointed, and stopped at the end of the street, recognizing who he picked out.
"Lollipop?" I said to him, using Beat's name for him. He looked at me, and removed his trademark lollipop from his mouth.
"Hey, 'Phones!" Koki Kariya replied, smiling while doing so.
"Um...Neku, Who's this guy?" Ulrich asked me.
"Oh, this is Koki Kariya. He's a Harrier Reaper." I explained.
"WHAT? But you said these guys were the big bads!" He asked.
"Kariya and I have a past. I didn't kill him when he was being possessed." I explained.
"That of which I am grateful." He said, holding out his hand to Ulrich, who lightly shook it, not trusting him.
"Don't worry, Kariya's not one for racking up points like Uzuki. Speaking of her, where is she? She normally is near you." I asked Kariya.
"Oh, you guys'll see her in a couple of days. She finally got her promotion. I got one too,and I'm loving my new job. Anyway, how far along are you guys on Today's Mission?" He asked us.
"Well, we got the Ramen, but we don't know who the guy is. All we know is that he likes bean paste..." Ulrich explained.
"Bean paste you say? Why, that happens to be one of my favorites...Can I see the Ramen, please?" Kariya asked us. I shrugged to Ulrich, who held it out to him. "Thank you." Kariya said, before he began to devour the Ramen.
"HEY! THAT'S FOR THE MISSION!" Ulrich exclaimed. I turned to the wall and hit it with the fist that had the timer, but I looked to the inside after. I noticed the lack of a glow, so I opened it up to see the Timer disappear.
"You? We had to bring you the Ramen?" I asked Kariya.
"Bingo, Neku...give that boy a prize..." Kariya replied.
"What? I'm not understanding..." Ulrich said before I held out my hand to show that the Timer was gone. "So...we completed the mission?" He asked me.
"Yes, Ulrich. We gave the Shio Ramen to Kariya. That was the mission." I explained.
"Ulrich? You wouldn't happen to have a last name of Stern, would you?" Kariya asked.
"Yeah...why?" Ulrich asked him.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, I'm gonna bounce. See you at Day 7, Neku." Kariya said, leaving us to our thoughts.
"Another one of your friends, Neku?" Ulrich asked me.
"Yep." I said to him.
"Dude, how many Reaper friends do you have?" He asked me.
"A couple." I said to him.
"So, what's so special about that Pin we got earlier?" He asked me. I pulled the Pin in question out, and looked at it in my hand.
"When I first played the Game, I lost a friend on Day 4. Her name was Rhyme. A friend of mine managed to trap her remaining Soul in a Pin, which was able to summon her Noise in battle..." I explained to him. I turned so that my back was to him, so that he wouldn't see the tears that were starting to leak from my eyes. "When I finished my last Game...Joshua brought her back...and we all had fun together...but now, seeing this Pin still exist...I'm worried if this Pin means that my Entry fee...was my friends..." I stopped for a bit, choking back tears, then continued. "I can't go for another three weeks without them...But with my luck, I'm going to be stuck doing that..." I heard footsteps from behind me, and Ulrich's hand on my shoulder.
"Hey man, you don't have to worry. At the end of these Seven days, You'll have your friends back. I just hope that you won't mind being a Ghost around them." Ulrich said, looking me in the eyes with his normal and possessed one.
"Actually, at Day 7, you and I can be reincarnated..." I explained, shrugging his hand off me.
"Wait, what?" Ulrich asked me.
"Yeah. After the Game Master's been defeated, then the remaining Players have a chance to go back to their lives, enlightened by their experiences. Others can choose to become Reapers, and one day, ascend to the roles of Angels. For those that don't care, then they can choose to be erased..." I explained to him.
"So...they will return you...even if you fell into the Digital Sea?" He asked me.
"I'm pretty sure, yeah." I said to him.
"Awesome! Neku, we've got to win! I need to see Yu-!" Ulrich started to say before he slapped his hands reflexively over his mouth.
"Oh? And who would this lady be, Hm?" I asked him, messing with his head.
"What? N..No one!" He said, his cheeks turning a deep color of red that I only knew on one other person.
"Relax, Ulrich...I've got my own special lady waiting for me..." I said to him, patting him on his back. Ulrich stiffened, and so I asked him, "What's up?"
"T...that...voice..." He weakly said. At first I didn't know what he was talking about until I heard the conversation.
"I'm telling you, Odd, that outfit was Chinese, not Japanese! Stop confusing the two cultures!" Said a girl wearing a black jacket with a pink tank top underneath, and black pants and boots.
"Hey, All I'm saying is that it's weird for you to have it!" Said a guy with a purple hoodie, purple pants, platform shoes, and an incredible spike of a hairstyle.
"Odd...YUMI!" Ulrich shouted before running to the two people.
"Ulrich, wait!" I yelled to him, trying to stop him before he realized himself, but it was too late. The girl, Yumi I presume her name was, had enough of the guy named Odd and started walking away, and right through Ulrich.
"Yumi, wait up! We need to get those whatcha-macallit's for Jeremie!" Odd said, running after her and through Ulrich as well. All Ulrich did was stare at his two friends as they walked into the Ramen Don.
"I tried to warn you buddy...Once you're in the Game, real people can't see you, hear you, or help you. The only one you can trust is me." I said, but it was obvious he was sulking. I looked back at the Ramen Don, then remembered the Decal. I grabbed his arm, and started to pull him along.
"Woah! Neku! What are you doing?" He asked me.
"You wonder how we were seen in the Ramen Don since we're Players?" I responded.
"Kinda, yeah..." He said in reply.
"Well, shops with a special Decal allow Players to be seen and heard, and the Ramen Don just happens to have one. So, you can go talk to your friends!" I said, dragging him to the place.
"Y...you mean I can talk to..." He started stuttering.
"Yes, you can talk to your girlfriend. Now GO!" I said, giving him a helpful push into the restaurant, before walking in behind him.
I walked up to the booth that Odd and Yumi were in, after Ulrich begged me to, and cleared my throat loudly to gain their attention.
"Who are you?" Yumi asked me.
"My name is Neku, and you're Yumi." I replied.
"Woah, how'd you know her name?" Odd asked me.
"The same way I know yours, Odd. A friend told me." I said, opening my eyes and looking at them, the rest of my face obscured by my collar.
"Who would this 'Friend' be?" Yumi asked me. I turned my head to him, who wisely kept his possessed eye closed, and he was scratching the back of his neck. The others turned to him, and I heard Yumi gasp. "ULRICH!" She shouted, running to him and glomping on him, knocking the both of them out in the street.
"Oh man...Odd, can you tell her to come back in?" I asked him.
"Why?" He asked me.
"Ulrich? Where are you?" Yumi called out from the street.
"That's why. We can explain things better when he's in here." I said. After Odd pulled Yumi back inside and Ulrich walked back in, we all sat down in the booth.
"It's good to be able to sit down and talk to you guys." Ulrich said, his eye still closed.
"Ulrich, why are you here? We saw you get thrown into the Digital Sea...and why is your eye closed?" Yumi asked him. He looked at me, and I nodded, and he slowly revealed his ailment to them.
"What? Why is you know who's symbol in your eye?" Odd tried to whisper to him.
"Guys, Neku knows about X.A.N.A., so don't bother trying to hide it from him." Ulrich said, closing both of his eyes.
"You told? Why?" Yumi demanded from him.
"Because he's my Partner. He has to trust me." I said, starting to eat my bowl of simple Ramen.
"Partner? You mean-?" Odd started to ask before I slapped him on the back of the head.
"No, Neku and I are Players. Every Player has to have a Partner to survive." Ulrich said, before he started to explain the Reaper's Game.
"So, at the end of these Seven Days, you'll come home?" Yumi asked.
"Yeah. But from what Neku has said, it'll be a real challenge..." He replied. Yumi then hugged him, and held him tight to her.
"Then I'll wait. And then we can reunite, and fight on Lyoko again!" She replied. I smiled, knowing that I reunited and reassured friends.