The purple eyes widened in surprise, before a shaky hand reached out to touch her face, testing to see if she was real. But he should know by her Music that she was indeed there, in front of him.

"Haineko..." His soft, unbelieving voice croaked weakly, "Is it really? Yes, it must be. Most of my illusions of you don't call me that. Only the real you did that infuriating habit."

"You bastard...you prissy bastard, you know you liked it!" Haineko smirked.

Josh snorted but in his eyes there was the ultimate joy.

"Hardly. I despise it as much as my proxy despises being called Nekky. I simply tolerate it coming from you and you alone. Of course I would imagine you told him of this, and I shall hear no end to it from him."

Haineko smiled like the Cheshire cat "You do remember me well. He has the explicit order to torment you with your nickname excessively, courtesy of your parole officer."

The Composer's mood soured considerably. He sighed heavily and turned his head away from her gentle touch.

"So you only stand before me now, to maybe drag me away to a fate worse than death. One screw-up, and I'll be forced to ascend, or be erased, and Shibuya...my Shibuya...goes with me. They already tortured me. Now they want my city to suffer as well."

Haineko frowned, crossin her arms.

"Why do you always have to be such an idiot, Yoshiya?!"

"Beg pardon?"

She smacked him over the head hard, making him yelp and hold his aching skull.

"You're such a damn drama queen sometimes, I swear! Is it really so hard to behave yourself for a change, Yoshi? I'm not dragging you to your doom quite yet you know. I did manage to convince Seraph to allow a 'three strikes' policy, so really, asshole, you dig your own grave if I'm forced to haul your prissy ass upstairs! Honestly—"

She was forced into silence as Joshua suddenly tackled her to the ground, his spindly limbs wrapping her in a tight wrestling hold, a genuine, heart-felt cackle erupting from his throat as the two proceeded to engage in a friendly brawl.

"Damn cheeky dame...I missed you!"

TWEWYTWEWYTWEWYTWEWY

Neku snorted as he heard the exchange coming from downstairs.

"I really hope Rhyme doesn't walk in right now." The teen mumbled to the figure that had teleported into his room just then, "I also hope we don't find him turned to static when we go back down."

The Producer frowned, "You still don't trust her? Come on, Phones!"

"She's a Higher Being tasked with spying on him. If Joshua screws up even a little bit, that's it for Shibuya! Those Higher Bastards will do everything they can to make sure he screws up, and SHE is one of them!"

Hanekoma sighed.

"Though I'm not going to say it would be beneath Them to use a betrayal like that, especially one like this that would completely break Josh, something tells me Haineko wouldn't be on board with bond she has with Josh is just too deep. You should know better than anyone the power of a pact between partners. Josh had a LOT of partners during his eight games."

"He slaughtered or sacrificed almost all of them. Apollo showed me." Nekuy spat bitterly.

"Yes." Hanekoma admitted, jotting down a small rune to focus the teen's Vibe, "Yes he did. But the pact he formed with Haineko was special. Unique. He was aiming for another Player, when suddenly he was pacted from behind."

"Yeah, so?" the teen stated, cocking his head "How's that special?"

"Because she pacted with him. Josh didn't make the descision, so he rectified the situation by pacting right back!"

Blue eyes went wide "A double pact?! Is that even legal?!"

The Producer laughed "At the time, yeah it was. Josh made sure to outlaw it as soon as he became Composer though, deeming it too devastating to both parties if it was severed by an erasure."

Neku frowned in pity, "Double the pact, double the bond. So Josh was actually really close to her, and she was taken from him."

"Bingo Phones. It left him utterly devastated. He even considered letting the GM erase him, until his cunning and drive kicked in. He slaughtered Makoto for what he'd done to his Partner. But not one hour later...and he was stripped of the ability to express or understand deep affections. Oh, he remembered her fondly thanks to the double pact being so strong, but there was always a layer of fondness he could never reach in those memories, at least until a week ago. But Haineko? She remembered everything and was aching to see her Partner again. It's what kept her together as a Noise, and I believe what had prompted her to ascend. You see, Phones, that girl has been watching J for decades. Why would she let anyone else do the job now?"

"Oh" the Proxy folded his arms "I don't know...maybe to avoid participating in a betrayal that could literally break her former partner now that he has a full Soul?!"

"She's an Angel now." Hanekoma said with a sigh "We have even more rules to follow than Composers. A task is a task. She'd love to ignore her orders, Phones, believe me, but she can't. It would put J in an even worse position, not to mention cause her erasure as well. She's hoping J will behave himself so she doesn't have to take him upstairs. She'll help him out."

He clapped his hands. "Now, speaking of helping out, I'm supposed to be coaching you on entering the UG without help from Josh's gun. Stand on the rune I just made, and let's get started!"