"Joshua?"

"Yes, Neku dear?"

"Has anyone ever...tried to dethrone you? I mean besides the Grim Heaper and Mister H."

Joshua paused in his devouring of shio ramen, chopsticks poised in the air thoughtfully. "You mean an uprising, or an actual one-on-one challenge?"

"Um...both, I guess." Neku shrugged, dipping into his own lunch.

The Composer thought for a moment "Hmmm..." he sucked broth out of a chopstick "Well, I try to keep my reapers happy enough so they don't start revolutions behind my back...so I haven't had to deal with any uprisings. As for one-on-one battles...not counting Sho's shameful excuse for an assassination attempt...I've had roughly three serious Players who tried to become Composer."

"You erased them."

"Hardly." Joshua flipped his hair indignantly "Really, Neku, you paint me so grimly. No, my dear, dear proxy, I didn't erase them. Such bold attempts shouldn't be punished. No, I rewarded them."

Neku's chopsticks stopped halfway to his mouth. "Rewarded them. For trying to kill you?! The hell kind of reward would you give someone for attempted assassination?!"

"Mmm." Joshua smirked and coughed softly before answering blatently

"I gave them life. Returned them to the RG. They not only won their games, but they had dared to attempt what I had done to ascend myself. I not only returned them, I gave each one a new passion in life. We're enjoying some fruits of one young man's passion right this very minute, in fact."

Neku nearly dropped his curry. "Ken Doi...challenged you for the position?!"

Joshua giggled "He sure did. And man, he gave me quite a nice little skirmish too. I quite enjoyed that fight. I was in my true form at the time, so before you ask, that was why he didn't recognize me during our week as partners. "

Neku was stunned silent for a full ten minutes, digesting both his curry and the information he'd been given. He noticed Joshua getting drowsy and caught the ramen bowl before it spilled its hot contents all over the now-dozing Composer.

Neku turned to Hanekoma,

"All this time, I figured Josh was just a heartless prick who did everything he could to stay on top. I felt there was always something ruthless and dangerous about him, and there is, but...it's like...I don't know how to describe it. I can't picture him sparing a Player who came into his pad for the sole purpose of taking his job. Pi-face tried, and got a vending machine dropped on him."

"Ah" Sanae said gently "But Sho went about it the wrong way, and he nearly ruined Josh's chances of winning the Long Game. The three players who challenged him for his position did so respectfully, and within their rights to do so. Josh in turn respected their challenges and fought them fairly. When they inevitably lost, he rewarded them for their tenacity."

The barista narrowed his eyes slightly, his tone turning into one of warning, of caution,

"Don't ignore those feelings though, kid. Josh is ruthless. He is dangerous. Remember how he beat you in chess the other day, Phones. He went for your king like a man possessed, taking out your pieces like a wolf picking off sheep. He can be carefree, he can definitely be giddy and playful...but underneath, he's a cunning dragon ready to devour everything in his path."

Neku nodded, then asked softly, "Why? Don't tell me he's always been this way."

Hanekoma looked at the window, his voice regretful and sullen as he hung his head.

"Not my place to give you a detailed answer, Phones. All I can answer is...no, he wasn't always that way."

Nine year old Yoshiya Kiryu looked up at the barista with bright, curious, awestruck purple orbs, a wide smile plastered on his young face.

"You see them too?"

"That's right kiddo. I see em too. You're not crazy, not one bit."

The man had to smile at the expression of pure joy that threatened to split the poor boy's face in half.

"Can we be friends?"

Hanekoma laughed heartily, giving the ashen wonder a hot chocolate, and watched his eyes sparkle with untainted gratitude, a toothy grin once again lighting up his face.

Sanae looked sadly out the window. He missed that side of Shibuya's composer terribly. It threatened to resurface now and again, but always, the dragon reared his head and snapped it up, swallowing it whole, forcing it to leave as quickly as it came.

"But...maybe you can bring him back." He whispered to the redhead's back.