TWEWY: A Fall Into Honor:

This story is about how Joshua became the Composer. The story is from Joshua's point of view, and others if the story needs to. This is a prequel of the game The World Ends With You. TWEWY is made by Square Enix. And I own the OCs. This is a FAN FICTION and not the real prequel. Enjoy.

Sorry for the long wait, here's the chapter everyone!

Week 1, day 6:

Chapter 27: Something Special:

When the light vanished, they had entered the battle area for the fight. Rei and Joshua found themselves back to back, and surrounded by four Noise.

Two were slender blue Minks that had dark blue tattooed wings and red eyes. The other Noise was a red kangaroo with a cream streak running from its chin to the tip of its tail that had bunched magenta tattooed legs and black eyes with only a speck of white on them.

Lastly, as if caught off guard by the encounter, a rosy Pig Noise scrambled to the back of the ranks and tried to make an escape.

Rei let out a sigh, shaking her head as she remarked, "Boy… These bunch of Noise are unlike the ones we normally fight." Raising her clipboard she narrowed her eyes as she cried, "The essence of the fight relies on us!"

Instantly she sprang at the red kangaroo that Joshua would call the Jungle Boomer. She swatted her clipboard at its face just before it punted at her with its hind legs. She fell onto her back before she did a quick roll to spring up and advance to the Jungle Boomer. "Take a hike to erasure! Aleck, give me a hand here!"

Joshua, however, had a different target in mind. Although it was beyond him why a Noise would try to escape a battle, he did know that he didn't want to deal with any left-overs that came back to bite him. Dashing through the enemy lines, he cornered the Pig Samba and erased it in a flash.

'Poor piggy didn't go home,' thought Joshua with a sigh before a Pin appeared floating and twirling down before him, he snatched it with one eloquent swing and opened up his hand to see a new Pin.

This one was dappled pink and dappled russet with its emblem being a crimson rose. The dainty design felt girly and it was already making him sick. 'Did it HAVE to be a cutesy Pin?'

Just as he was taking in his latest acquisition, the two Mink Noise ambushed him. Unprepared for the sudden assault, he took the attacks of them both slashing him at least three times hard. He stumbled a bit backwards just before they went again.

After the third time that they used their twin attacks, he was backed up to a wall gasping in pain. It felt like a knife was being used to slash at him and he could feel each sharp sting. As if encouraged by his cries, the Noise eagerly went on.

'Oh boy… Is this how Ayumu felt when he was being attacked like this?' His brows scrunched and he sighed, 'Wait… Can Ayumu feel pain?'

He was starting to get fed up with the constant attacks, so he used his energy to flow into his veins to his Thrash Splash Pin; he wanted to show them that he wasn't the only one today to get thrashed.

When the Psych activated, water pressed against him and swirled around his body as he smirked. He skated on the aqueous flow as he rammed into the Noise, sending them reeling. Bringing his current around, he began another relentless chain of attacks; refusing to give the Minks any chance of recovery.

He went on until he winced, his right shoulder felt like it was on fire even though water surrounded his body.

One of the Death Thrash Minks had squirmed out of his range and performed what looked like a somersault as wedge-shaped bullets sprayed from its writhing form. One of the projectiles hit the shoulder that Joshua thought was fully healed. The burning scream of his pulverized muscles told otherwise.

All the water vanished as he fell to his knees, clasping his right shoulder as he bit his lip, refusing to let out any yelps or gasps of pain.

'Why?!' The simple question in his mind was focusing on how Izo hadn't said anything after treating the wound in the first place. Why didn't Izo tell him to go easy or something? Or, more importantly, protect his shoulder from harm?

Just as one of the Death Thrash Mink Noise were ready to use Joshua's injury to its advantage, Rei jumped onto it and proceeded to wrap its belly or front part of it's body with her red velvet jacket as through it was a rope. She shouted in triumph, as if she were as surprised as Joshua was that it actually worked. "Gotcha mink… or serpent… Never mind!"

Her face screwed up in confusion when she had said that but rolled her eyes clinging onto her jacket and the Mink Noise for dear life just as it began to spin rapidly.

Joshua was amazed; this was the first time Rei took off her jacket. She looked delicate without it on.

As it went on spinning with Rei riding it, his partner-for-the-day managed to get some rein over it so she began making it move in different random directions while trying to gain full control.

It reminded him of what he heard about bull riding.

The Noise kept thrashing and jerking as it tried to get Rei off, but the lanky lady stayed on fortunately.

So Joshua escaped to leave Rei in the Noise riding by crawling away while accidentally letting out numerous gasps of pain. By the time he was a few feet away he let himself go limp when the other Mink Noise shot another bullet at his shoulder and hand.

He cried out and instantly let go of his shoulder. He held back tears as the pain began mounting. The shoulder now was starting to fade again.

"Argh!" He tried to crawl forward but froze when he winced. "All this torment is killing me!"

The Mink Noise was just too far away, and he couldn't focus enough to use any of his Psyches properly. Rei couldn't help him; she had her hands full with the other one. What could he do?

Suddenly in his vision, he saw the Pin from before, the one the Pig Noise had left behind. He realized he dropped it when the Death Thrash Noise began fighting him.

Curiously, he wanted to know what it would do before he was erased or even done this fight. He reached for it with his left hand, missed it once, but scooped it up on the second try. As he pulled his hand back he felt through instinct that the Noise was about to attack him.

He rolled to the side just as the Noise scarred the empty space he was a minute ago.

'I guess being psychic helps.' He smirked before he tried to get up but failed. 'Darn it!'

His fingers that were gingerly holding the new Pin went firm, before he did anything a crimson light overtook his vision.

Looking up he saw a crimson radiance above that engulfed him; he winced and looked away as he saw that his shoulder seemed to be burning and melting. Was the Pin a dud somehow? That would be a cruel joke. Not that the UG didn't seem to be fond of playing those on him.

Suddenly, the pain disappeared altogether and a warm balminess engulfed his aching joints. He eased open his eyes. Was he… dead? Like, erased-lost-the-game dead?

Rei suddenly romped by, still attempting to ride the Death Thrash Mink.

"C'mon, Aleck! I could use some help here!"

Okay, so maybe he was still just in-the-game dead. But what about…?

He gaped as he got up and shifted his arm underhand then overhand. He breathed in astonishment, "M-My shoulder is cured! I can't even feel a single sting in it."

As his lavender eyes glinted, he equipped his Pin as he ducked. The Mink Noise flew over his head and crashed into a wall.

When he stopped crouching down, he charged at it just as he activated his Thrash Splash Pin's Psych. By the time water pressed against him once again, he was skating on the water swiftly and met the Noise mid-air with a head-on ram.

It let out a shriek, but Joshua thrashed at it until it exploded into light particles that drifted away.

"A bother now solved," he remarked brightly as he held his head high. "All thanks to the Rosetta Restore Pin."

Just as he said that he glanced at his new acquisition, the Rosetta Restore Pin.

"I should be back at the shop!" cried Ken Doi in dismay. He ran away in a panic as Rei and Joshua watched. "Someone could have stolen something!"

Rei beamed brightly as she held her red velvet jacket draped in her arms. "Ah ha! He's back to being happy! Awesome!"

Now that she wasn't riding a Noise, Joshua noticed she had a black tank top on, baring her thin, tuned arms. Her black satchel seemed to almost blend into the clothing, almost as if it was invisible. He always wondered what she wore under her trademark jacket; a mystery solved.

"Now that's done…" Joshua grabbed his chin gingerly as he mused, "We need to figure out what to do for the mission-"

Rei interrupted him as she pivoted to face him. "Oh ho… I believe we're doing the mission already, Aleck." He stared at her in disbelief as she slowly slipped her jacket back on. "If I recall… the mission says: 'To Rei Shuuito and Yoshiya Kiryu'-"

"I know that part already, Rei," grumbled Joshua as he narrowed his eyes.

"I wanted to repeat it. So shush!" His partner-for-the-day gave him a glare and stuck out her tongue. "Geez, so rude to a lady." As the words seemed to sink into him, Rei went on after rolling her eyes, "'To Rei Shuuito and Yoshiya Kiryu, recover the noodles' brilliance.'"

'Did she really need to repeat that?' He didn't voice his thoughts because he knew they didn't have much time.

After regaining his composure he mindfully asked as his eyes gleamed, "Care to explain the hypothesis, partner?"

Rei blinked as a smirk grew on her face. She had her clipboard out again as she rested her chin on her pen. "Alrighty…" She flashed him a cheesy grin when she explained, "You said before that it could mean it had to do with someone's mind, right…?"

Joshua did a curt nod, "Yes."

Before she could go on something hit him. 'Wait!' he raised his hand to warn Rei to give him time to think, 'the mission has two possible conclusions. Either it's mind's matter or noodles. Now that we were caught up in the Ramen Don owner's false hope… I believe it could mean both.'

"Rei," he said suddenly as she stopped fussing over the fact he cut her off seconds before. He closed his eyes as he enlightened her in a matter of fact tone, "The mission must involve that ramen shop-"

Rei slapped him.

Joshua swore his cheeks were going to get erased by the end of this day.

"That's for interrupting me!" screamed Rei angrily as she narrowed her eyes and frowned. After a few moments she dryly smiled. "Eh? That's what I was gonna tell you. So-" she glanced at her timer than gave him a determined look. "We better get going or we'll fail this mission! It'll take a miracle, and we need to make it happen! Hop to it!"

Joshua sighed 'The question is… how?'

He blinked at her as he mused, "Seeing that you are in control, lead."

The ash grey haired lady hung her head. "I got no clue what to do. Sorry."

Joshua rolled his eyes in irritation; he crossed his arms as he sneered, "Really? And who was it again who was just telling me to 'hop to it!'?"

"Shut up, Twity!" retorted Rei as she tapped on her clipboard crossly. "It's not my fault… The mission is too vague, argh! My mind is dying here!"

'We're stumped. And that timer isn't going to be getting any longer…' There had to be something that they had to achieve, and it had to do with Ken Doi.

He paused for a moment to think. 'If the mission is about noodles and the mind… Does that mean we have to do something to trigger a noodle revolution or something?' his mind seemed to be working overtime today and he hated that he hadn't had time for a proper mental cool-down in a while now. 'How does noodles, Ken Doi, and recovering brilliance connect?'

'Wait-' He widened his lavender eyes.

Suddenly he remembered that Ken Doi was thinking about failing in owning a ramen shop. He was so downcast that it was affecting his ability to explore the food he loved.

With a snap of his fingers he exclaimed, "We need to help Ken Doi!"

Rei gave him a dumb expression as he began to pace. "Ramen means the noodles, and recovering brilliance may mean Ken Doi needs something to get customers so he can be confident in owning Ramen Don!" His brain felt like it exploded, but in a good way.

"Gah! Oh my gosh! It's a miracle! You my friend got an epiphany!" piped Rei happily as she gave him a hug that he swore would make any chiropractor envious. "Glory to us!"

Joshua screamed in agony, "Let go! You're hurting me."

Rei froze and obeyed. She looked embarrassed for a moment before she declared, "Lets do recon and scan people! We'll know what they want, whether they like it, or not. Because we have a Pin that has bloody mind reading powers!" After a pause she barked, "Hustle, Aleck! 5 minutes is when we regroup and figure out what to do!"

Joshua had a baffled frown as he nodded feeling uncertain. "Ok…"

He hoped this would work.

In five minutes they regrouped.

His partner-for-the-day had a serious expression as he spoke. "From what I got, everyone seems bored… They want something new-"

Rei cut him off and spoke rapidly, "And they need something new! Geez, everyone wants ramen yet they're bored of it. Madness! Everyone is crazy!" after inhaling deeply she sighed sadly "I can't believe it… No one wants ramen because most of the thoughts they had were 'I want to eat it, yet I don't see anything special about that place… I want comforting, but in an exciting sort of way!'… Idiots..."

Suddenly she strode away a bit before she choked, "Ramen is special if you believe it is… This really breaks my soul and heart to hear this… Everyone is dumb if they don't have the heart to at least try it."

"That's Shibuya for you," replied Joshua as he looked at her frowning. "They can't find the needle in the haystack."

He heard a sniffle. 'Oh dear… She's crying.'

Slowly he approached her and halted half a feet away. '…Now what?' Was he supposed to give her a hug or something? Or would that be considered too forthright? Other than Ayumu, he had no idea how to make a friend feel better. Especially if it was a girl.

Summoning courage, he walked over.

He wavered after halting again behind her before he tapped her on the shoulder. "A-A-Are you okay?"

Rei said nothing for a moment before she sniffled, "Y-Yeah… It's just crushing my heart to see this happening to Dogenzaka." After a snivel she looked behind at him, smiling weakly, "Thanks…"

"For what?" asked Joshua as he raised an eyebrow.

"Izo normally sneers at me when I cry," replied Rei sadly as she turned around to face him fully and hugged him gently "he thinks that I'm feeble and meaningless, especially when I get all sentimental over anything. You're the first person who showed me support like this ever since I came to the UG. Thank you."

Instead of shirking from the hug like he normally would do, it felt nice so he stayed there to enjoy the feeling for once.

"Aleck…" she said suddenly as she drew back frowning, "You need to consider respecting your half bro more."

Joshua scowled as he scoffed "Stop bringing this up!"

"You have a kind heart," protested Rei as she put a hand on her hip, "Just now… I realized that you aren't the type of person to hold a grudge. I have a good feeling that you're struggling with hating Ayumu."

Joshua looked away as he spat, "Says who? There's no justifying what he did!" he hung his head as he growled "Let's concentrate on the mission, damn it."

"Forget the mission for now!" Rei retorted as she suddenly hit him with her clipboard. "If we don't talk about this right now, and if we fail the mission… How will this affect Ayumu? When he gets his entry fee back; his emotions, don'tcha think he'll be heartbroken?"

The scraggly haired teen's locks obscured his expression, "If we don't do the mission, we will fail."

"We'll do the mission, bud," retorted Rei as she shook her fist in his face. "And I'll smash sense into you with my clipboard no matter what, dammit!"

Joshua looked at her curled fist and rolled his eyes dismissively. "Do whatever you want."

At the end of his eye-rolling arc, he noticed his timer again. Only 18 minutes left, 'We need to hurry.'

He knew despite being in a sour mood, he wanted to survive erasure. Nothing more or less about it.

After taking in a deep breath, he mindfully spoke and smirked, "From what we investigated… Mr. Doi needs something that makes Ramen Don special."

Rei still looked annoyed even when she tipped her head to the side and had a thoughtful expression. "Hmm… Come to think of it…" she moved her head back and remarked, "There has to always be something unique that people would need to be excited about if they think of a place like a super-awesome trademark. I'm sure anyone wants to go somewhere like that!" With a smile she went on growing passionate as she exclaimed, "Since it's a ramen joint, it needs something that is the pride and joy of it. The centerpiece of Ramen Don!"

"The centerpiece of… Ramen Don?" echoed Joshua in confusion.

The lanky lady nodded excitedly as she raised her hand up that now had a pen. "That's it!" she patted on her chest two times before she piped, "I'm your ramen expert, and I know what the place needs!"

"And what, exactly, is that, Ramen Geek?"

Rei blinked, looking annoyed by her grimace made Joshua smirk. She sauntered away a bit before turning around to utter, "Ramen."

Before he could make any snarky comments about how painfully obvious that was, she went on, "It's a ramen joint. So it's perfect to have ramen no one's ever seen or tasted before." she raised her fist at him and declared in determination, "It's genius! C'mon, let's go see Mr. Doi. He needs something special to succeed in making Ramen Don fantastic!"

With that, Rei ran away, leaving Joshua alone.

A jingle from Joshua phone went off, signaling the arrival of a new Meme. When he checked it, the Meme was: 'Something special'.

With a shrug, he followed her.

By the time he got there, Rei was watching Ken Doi who was standing outside Ramen Don. Joshua noticed he looked like he was thinking hard about something, seeing that his eyebrows were scrunched together and he held his chin.

As he joined Rei he prompted, "We should really go in, Rei."

"Can't…" Rei mumbled as she frowned at him, she shook her head before she tapped her clipboard with her pen. "He'll be suspicious if he finds that we are in his shop when he didn't see us pass."

Joshua nodded and he mused "Quite right…" He smirked suddenly when he teased playfully, "And I don't think he will believe us if we said we could teleport."

Rei made a chuckle before she sighed, "How awful indeed!"

"How about we Imprint him then?" asked Joshua mindfully.

After Rei made a nod, Joshua went over and got out his Player's Pin. He used it and closed his eyes to reopen them to the blue abyss of Scanning.

Without hesitance, he read Ken Doi's mind. "The shop will go out of business. I need something to bring the customers in. But what?"

Quickly Joshua pulled out his orange cellphone and looked over the Memes he had collected earlier this day and when he was Scanning people: noodles, ramen, soup, meat, broth, toppings, kakuni, nori, salty, creamy, tangy, spicy, sweet, something special.

From all of them, he had to choose 'something special'.

After he chose it, he leapt back startled when Ken yelled, "Something special!"

Right away Joshua put his hand on his chest where his heart was. "That almost gave me a heart attack!" Did the Ramen Master HAVE to shout out exactly what he was thinking like a crazy person?

"Don't die on me," taunted Rei in a mischievous tone as she put a hand on her hip.

Joshua groaned in annoyance, "Spare me the trouble, Rei."

He snapped his attention to Ken as the man began to talk to himself in confusion, "Something special…?" he widened his eyes as he slammed a fist sideways into his palm. "That's it. I need something special to bring the customers in… But what?"

"Looks like we need another Imprint, Aleck," said Rei mischievously as she patted his head.

Joshua growled in frustration and slapped her hand away. "As long as you stop mocking me."

Again he Scanned Ken Doi and listened to his thoughts. "Something special… What can be special enough to bring in customers?"

This time Joshua chose to Imprint him using the Meme: 'ramen'.

"Ramen!"

Joshua nearly fainted that time, only stumbling back to be caught by Rei.

'Ok, ok… That Reaper from day 3 might be related to him. Let's just hope he doesn't start saying "zetta delicious!" or anything or our plans for his popularity are down the tube…' He just let Rei get him to his feet; saving face in light of their recent dispute was kind of moot at this point. Once he found his balance he wobbled a bit before he stood unswaying.

He groaned as he face-palmed himself. "Next time you do it Rei. I'll be erased for sure if he goes crazy like that again." He started to rub circles on his temples to try to ease the incoming headache he had gained from Ken Doi.

"You got different Memes than me," Rei replied simply as she watched Ken Doi unblinking. "So… Bites to be Yoshiya Kiryu, huh?" She laughed obnoxiously while Joshua face-palmed himself again and his headache grew intense.

'Argh!' his mental scream could destroy her ears if she could read his mind.

"Ramen…" said Ken as his grey brown eyes flashed behind his glasses, "Something special…"

Again he slammed his fist sideways into his palm as his glasses flashed in the light. "That's it! I need to make a special ramen that is different than my other ones! A truly sublime masterpiece only I can create!"

He ran into Ramen Don.

Joshua was surprised that he had so much energy, and he was also annoyed that he could barely process any thoughts due to his mounting headache.

As he held his forehead while grunting, Rei brightly grinned as she puffed out her chest and saluted towards Ramen Don. "Yes! Everything is going well… Bravo to Imprinting Memes!"

"Kudos…" faintly gasped Joshua as he leaned against the wall of the ramen shop. "I need aspirin!"

Rei stopped saluting and turned to look shrewdly at him "I'm not a doctor. Just suck it up, Aleck."

Joshua gasped as a pulse of pain shot through his head. "Ngh… Can't you go check out what's happening with Mr. Doi? Here. Ngh…" He handed her his phone. "Ngh. It has the Memes of what people love in ramen. Tell him. Ngh."

"Fine," said Rei, shrugging before she entered the shop.

After a few minutes she came back wearing a cheesy grin. "He's made the ramen. And wow… You should have tasted it."

Joshua inhaled air; as his less painful headache still pulsed pain into him. "Pass…" Even his stomach was beginning to veto the popular noodle soup after the recent psychological trauma.

"Ah c'mon…" she said in a playful voice as she held Joshua's orange cellphone out to him. Suddenly her eyes brimmed with light as she piped, "I've never tasted anything like it! You have no idea what flavor it had. It was like… tasting every taste in the world! I even cried!" She wiped a nonexistent tear from the side of her eye before donning a dreamy look as she stared into the distance "It was like heaven in a bowl…"

Joshua almost dropped his phone when he retrieved it from Rei. There was no way he could imagine that something could taste like Rei had defined, it made no sense. Particularly when the mere mention of ramen practically sent a jolt of pain through his head.

Suddenly Rei yanked on his arm that had his hand on his forehead.

He was caught by surprise and he could only yelp in panic, "What are you doing Rei?!"

"We need to spread the word!" replied Rei as she began to drag him along. Her cheery stance made him confused before she explained, "For everyone to come to Ramen Don, we need to give them a private memo of Ramen Don's centerpiece. So, you and I need to Imprint on the RG folks, Mystic Ramen."

A jingle signaled a new Meme: 'Mystic Ramen'.

"Mystic Ramen…?" echoed Joshua letting the words sink into his pained brain.

Rei stopped and let go of them, she made a wave as she piped, "I suggested the name, and Mr. Doi loved it."

At once Joshua probed, "Why did you choose Mystic Ramen?"

"Well…" She paused thoughtfully but Joshua still saw the ready-to-explode excitement in her eyes. "The first thing I thought was, 'This is mystical!'. Then bam! I suggested it to him."

'Must have been fun…' thought Joshua uninterested. 'Not to mention uninformative. How does something taste "mystical" anyway?'

Rei tapped her clipboard loudly to get his attention "Focus!" After sliding it in her hidden satchel she cheerfully exclaimed, "We'll split up and meet back here in…" she looked at her timer, "5 minutes. Seeing that we only have 10 minutes left. See ya Aleck!"

'Can't she ever call me Joshua!?' thought Joshua annoyed as he watched her fleeting figure, He sighed and shook his head. 'I need an aspirin.'

But he knew he had to do the mission first before attending to his own needs.

Quickly, he darted and began to Scan people, he even took the precaution of standing a few feet away as he Imprinted the RG citizens. Almost every single one of them screamed out 'Mystic Ramen.' in the same abrupt excitement that Mr. Doi had.

As he continued the Scan and Imprint spree, he made sure to be wary of the time. He watched every second ebb away like a carnivore ready to pounce at its prey. He started to get uneasy when it reached 8 minutes.

7 minutes…

6 minutes…

By now he finished as the last person who screamed out 'Mystic Ramen.' again, so he sprinted back to Ramen Don, despite his pounding headache and his poor endurance level.

He spotted his ashen-haired partner-for-the-day so he slowed down wheezing and nearly falling over. As he ambled to her side he saw that people were slowly making a line outside of Ramen Don. Luckily he wasn't in it. He saw nuisance in waiting in line with so many stupid people, especially the teenagers who called him a freak at school.

'I hope they feel horrible about my death,' thought Joshua as he joined Rei in watching the growing crowd and line. Suddenly something occurred to him that he never thought of, 'Does… Does anyone know that I'm even dead?'

Now that he thought of it, he was murdered in a dark, stray alley where no one could really find them right away. From day 2 when he visited WildKat Café, Sanae seemed to only find out Joshua and his half brother were dead because he saw that Joshua sported Pins on his white button down shirt.

When Rei bopped him on the head with her clipboard he snapped, "Stop doing that!"

"Sorry, but listen." Rei motioned to Ramen Don and Joshua sighed.

He concentrated on the shop just as he heard voices within it.

"This ramen is… Superb!"

"I can eat this all day."

"Can I get an extra boiled egg with it, Mr. Doi?"

"Are we able to bring it home? I need to share this with my wife and kids."

"More please!"

"Kudos mister."

Joshua noticed the two children, Beat and Rhyme, from before.

They stood together in the line with two adults as Rhyme spoke, "Mommy, how much longer?"

A sandy brown haired woman smiled at her. "It'll be awhile sweetie, the ramen isn't running away." Her amber eyes glowed with warm.

The golden blond haired man who Joshua thought was the father gazed down with his blue grey eyes and rubbed Beat's beanie, "Thanks for telling us about this, son. I've been meaning to take us somewhere for a family outing; yet there hasn't been time, or place good enough."

Beat smiled, "Thanks dad! Good enoug' for ya?"

"Yes…" said Beat's father.

Joshua smiled sadly at them, their family looked happy together.

Slowly his smile altered into a frown.

Something hurt inside him and he didn't know what. It felt like needles were being pushed in, and kept going forward until they reached the other side. It was worse than his headache.

He put his hand where his heart was as something ice cold rolled down his cheek. Soon more came down and more. Then he hung his head when he shuddered as a sniffle came out. He was crying, he couldn't stop the tears as they kept flooding out.

A squeak of surprise came from beside him, "Aleck?"

His sniffles became sobs as he kept trying to stop his tears, the pain became more unpleasant by the second and he didn't know where it came from.

Why was he crying? Was it because of that family?

He shook his head, that wouldn't make sense.

Soon his sobs became wails as he succumbed to exhaustion. He fell to his knees feeling weak as he continued to break down. Rei was saying something, but he couldn't quite make it out.

So he closed his eyes tight and choked, "Make the pain stop!"

"What pain!?" screamed Rei in shock as she crouched low enough to see his bangs stuck to his face from the salty tears.

He trembled while screeching, "My heart! It hurts! Make it stop!"

For a moment he thought of Ayumu, the pain became more intense as he almost choked on his own tears. Why was this happening?!

Suddenly Rei hugged him. "I think I know what's wrong."

Just as Joshua looked up as tears ran off his chin, Rei closed her bright brown colored eyes. "You're sad aren't you?"

Straightaway he froze.

A image of seeing his dead parents' and auntie's bodies flashed through his vision making him cry harder. "I-I-I-"

He sobbed; "It's not sadness!" he threw up his head as he wailed, "It's- It's something different! I feel like- I have no one…"

Forsakened…

Forlorn…

Deserted…

All of the above, he just felt utterly alone.

It felt like he and Rei were there for hours, and he couldn't tell if they finished the mission or not. For a while he just cried, until his throat was raw and his tears came up dry.

So he just went silent in his desolation.

Once he felt he was done in crying, he pushed himself from Rei and croaked, "Is the mission done?" He looked at the ground and avoided Rei's gaze.

"Oh, didn't you see? It was gone the moment you were-" Rei shook her head before she smiled, "We finished the mission 10 seconds before it labeled us fresh meat."

'We… Survived day 6…' a weak smile appeared on his face as he sighed, "Thank heavens…"

Suddenly a jingle sounded.

It wasn't Rei's phone, since she didn't take it out.

And it wasn't his own, he had a different jingle set. Something less generic…

A sour grimace grew on his face as his mind finally clicked the pieces together. It was Ayumu's…

So he took it out, as he felt a bit empty inside again.

Not from despair, only loneliness…

For a few seconds he stared at the dull green and white cellphone before he slowly opened it. He was greeted by a new text message notification. He thought it was strange how Ayumu got a text message now. It must be the mission. Because of his… social ineptness, Ayumu never had friends to text to. Well… also because he couldn't use a cellphone.

Joshua went into the text messages and read the text as his eyes started to become bright again.

Then he paled immediately and dropped the cellphone.

His eyes dulled as his arms went limp and he fell to his knees.

Rei caught Ayumu's cellphone before it even was a inch from the ground, "What's the matter with you Aleck?! Geez…" when she read the text message she paled as white as a sheet as well, but managed not to drop the phone when she gasped, "Oh… my… god…"

The silence between them was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Joshua hyperventilated from reading the text message: Izo Shuuito. You are to surrender Ayumu Ki to me, the Game Master, at the Station Underpass in 10 minutes. Should you fail the time given to you… You will face immediate erasure along with the murderer, Ayumu Ki…

To be continued… Hope you enjoyed the chapter =3