Daisukenojo Bito, or Beat, as he preferred, didn't hide the fact that his parents, especially his father, didn't think too highly of him.
Neku didn't care.
Beat was his friend. They had gone through hell and high water together and survived. So it shouldn't have been suprising when the orange teen stood up for his friend.
What was suprising was when he got knocked hard into Beat's bedroom wall for it.
"Hey man, not cool aight?! Don' be takin' it out on Phones jus' cause he called you out on your crap, Pops!"
"You shuddup! Shut yer mouth, boy, less you want some too!"
"Naw Pop! Not this time, yo! I aint gonna be lettin' no one put the hurt on my friends. Phones did a lot fer me. I aint gonna stand by an' let your waisted ass tendersize him!"
"Oh yes you are...unless you want me to break a bottle over Raimu's head."
Neku tackled the man "The hell you're dragging Rhyme into this!"
Beat joined in "What Phones said, yo! No one's gonna touch Rhyme again!"
Neither of them noticed the knife until it was too late.
"Phones? Phones yer bleedin, man, like real bad!"
The boys had successfully knocked out the drunken head of the house, when Beat noticed...Neku hadn't gotten up.
The dagger stuck out of his side, right in between two ribs. Beat reached over to pull it out...
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Daisukenojo."
Beat whirled around to see Rhyme, and behind her...
"The hell you doin' here, Prissy Boy?! There ain't no way I'm letting you anywhere near Phones again, aight?!"
Rhyme rushed to her brother "No Beat! He's ok! He's here to help!"
"The young voice of reason is correct. But I don't have time to justify my appearance. My Proxy seems to be bleeding to death. I'd rather he not."
Beat glared at the advancing Composer. He'd had a very low opinion of the ash-blond since the Long Game, and it had only gotten worse after Neku told his friends the full story.
It had only been after Rhyme gasped that the lovable dufface noticed that Prissy and Phones had literally disappeared.
"BWAAA! What's goin' on Rhyme?! Where'd Priss take Neku?! Man, I shoulda decked Prissy Boy when I had the chance! He probably dragged Phones back into the Game, yo!"
"Beat, please calm down." Rhyme said calmly "He wouldn't do that, not to Neku!"
Her brother glared at her, "You jus' sayin' that cause you got infatutated with Prissy Boy. Wake up, Rhyme! Joshua's bad news! I betcha a cola he's jus' leadin' you on, like a marquet!"
"That's marionette, Beat. And no he's not! He's just...lonely. All by himself in that sewer...above everyone but below them at the same time...it's got to be lonely, even for the Composer."
"Man whatever, yo. Fact is, Phones was here before Priss showed up. Now he aint."
There was a groan from the other side of the bed.
The Bito siblings looked at each other then rushed over, and were both pleasantly surprised.
There was Neku, holding his orange-spiked head and looking disoriented, but uninjured. The knife wound had even disappeared.
While Beat rushed over and nearly crushed his best friend's ribs by giving him a giant bear hug, Rhyme went to the far window and looked greatfully at the figure lounging in a tree next to the house.
He giggled, flipping his hair.
"Sorry for the scare, Raimu, but unfortunately, I cannot use some psychs when I'm in the RG. I had to take Neku to the UG to use the healing pin. Neku should be fine, assuming he isn't suffocated by Daisukenojo's careless affections."
The girl smiled at him
"Thank you Joshua. You answered my call just in time. I owe you one."
He took her chin in one hand, lifting her head so she was staring into his amethyst eyes, that sparkled and danced with both power and a kindness few others got to see.
"You owe me nothing, Raimu Bito."
With a genuine smile, and a farewell wave, the Composer of Shibuya disappeared.
