"Oh come on kid! You gotta be tough, like me! Now...let's do this again without all that pathetic crying like a newborn."
The ten year old was silent as the belt came down, snapping against his flesh again and again. He shivered and closed his eyes tight, repeating a mantra to himself as the stinging leather continued to make hamburger out of his flesh...
Neku woke up in a cold sweat. The first thing he noticed was there was a commotion downstairs. Second thing he noticed was the smell of Mister H.'s famouse chocolate chip pancakes.
As he walked down the stairs, the voice of Shibuya's Composer became clearer. The orange phone was to his ear and a scowl was on his face as he barked sharply in French, the elegant language rolling off his tongue flawlessly. He pressed a button and began speaking German, then English, before going back to French.
"Composer Conference Call!" Mister H. called cheerily from the kitchen "Seems like your Uncle has quite the reputation. The other Composers decided to dedicate this conference to imform Josh of his exploits and give some suggestions."
"Why does he look so pissed off if they're helping him out?"
Sanae snickered "Josh has never really gotten along with the others, except Paris, New York, and Venice. As greatfull as he is for their help, he'd rather not interact with them. Especially since most of them voted for his erasure the meeting after the Long Game."
Neku snorted "Seems everyone wants him dead after that."
"Josh broke a lot of rules, Phones. It pissed a lot of people off, especially his fellow Composers. He was going to destroy his district. That's the number one cardinal sin right there."
"I am not killing Neku!" Josh suddenly shouted, "That is not an option, Gustav!"
"Oh, and then there's that." Hanekoma said, "For the past hour, several Composers suggested he kill you to drive your uncle away. Since you're the main target."
"Assholes..."
"They mean well."
Neku suddenly shuddered, rubbing his arms as if he felt a chill.
He was thrown against the wall, the man responsible leering down at him, piercing blue eyes laughing as he reached down and backhanded the 5 year old across the face repeatedly until the young boy finally relented and cried.
"Mister H." he started, "I don't want that asshole back in my life. I'm serious."
"How serious?"
"I'd rather go through another week of the Game, than have him cross my threshold, serious."
"That's...pretty serious." Sanae said a bit surprised and slightly worried. "Phones—"
"Neku." Joshua cut in suddenly "Anoku Sakuraba has entered Shibuya."