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! =3

Week 2, day 2:

Chapter 38: Poison From A Rose:

Joshua was surprised when he saw the owner of the voice.

It was a short slender teenage girl who had valentino braided brown hair with black highlights in them. Her flat lined lips were covered with black lipstick and her slightly longer than normal nails had black nail polish on them as well. He noticed above her pale fuchsia eyes were black eye shadow that brought her eyes out more. Also, on the middle of her cheeks were black broken heart tattoos.

Her style of clothing was somewhat like Punk Lolita. She was wearing a black cutsew with short puffy sleeves and she wore a glittery pastel orange tie that whipped back and forth by the wind. Instead of pants she sported a black skirt with orange ruched hems and to keep them up she had a white belt that had chains attached to it, which had a glinting silver double-crossed buckle. He saw she had high pale orange nylons on that had spider web patterns sprawled all over them, and he wondered if there was spider on them as well yet he felt it was unlikely. Her black oxfords with platform tapped and Joshua saw they were held together by 2 straps that had silver double-crossed oval buckles, which he found to be strange for a reason he couldn't quite place. Short fingerless see-through gloves covered her dainty hands that had a spider web pattern, they were fastened by a black leather strap that had frilly white and pale green laces at the end of them. Finally atop of her head tilted a bit sideways was a ebony mini top hat that had a pale green bow with a silver jewel crested in the middle of it.

He felt a little weird and maybe dizzy from seeing all that detail in her attire, but his attention drifted to what she held, a parasol that she was using to protect herself from the completely hidden sun.

The parasol had a flamboyant orange handle that was curved like a crooked tooth, which at the point of it he assumed was a fake chrysanthemum that had 4 chains attached to the bottom of it like they were drooping leaves. Its black canopy was pale green, purple, and pale pink speckled and had a pattern of medium sized pale orange broken hearts with spider web patterns dappled over them that looped around the canopy. Joshua again saw she had chains along with her attire; they were silver dangling ones that looked like they were braided into the parasol's rims that rattled and swung as she moved the parasol.

For one thing about this girl, he wondered why she had so many chains on her clothes and accessory, and another would be why she would be protecting herself from the sun with her parasol when her skin clearly was dying to be kissed by it by how peculiarly very pale it was.

Joshua could only watch and keep his questions for later as the girl stopped walking towards them, keeping a few feet between them and her as she eyed them with no interest. When some clouds moved out of the way to let the sun shine through briefly, her lips pursed slightly and she shifted her parasol to accommodate the amount of light.

It seemed that the silence now they all shared broke as her voice flowed again, "The light can be a blessing, yet it is a blight."

"Huh?" Joshua frowned at her as he heard Mayu hide behind him.

"A blight," she huffed now, clearly annoyed at his cluelessness. "When you try to admire it, you are only rewarded by the blares it sends off at you. Clearly, it thinks its so beautiful that it wants no one to see it. Moreover, beauty has its barbs."

The ashen blond couldn't figure out why she telling them this, but clearly her disdain of the sun wasn't hard to understand.

By the time the sun was covered again, she shifted her parasol back to where she formerly held it. "So," she began uncaringly, "Yoshiya Kiryu, I presume?" she batted her eyelashes at the rest of them briefly. "And them, your confrères?"

Right away Joshua stiffened immediately; he narrowed his eyes at her as he asked warily, "That's correct. But how do you know that?" He paused for a split second before it dawned on him, he gasped and pointed at her, "You! You're one of them, aren't you?"

"Ver-ry smart." she smirked as her voice to Joshua sounded almost sickingly seductive. "But alas, I can't expect nothing from a Kiryu. It seems like their breed has died fully out now, considering your presence in this… game."

His opinion on this girl sank, initially she seemed uninterested and normal, but now she was simply unnerving to him.

Izo stepped forward a bit before Joshua saw his famous scowl set on this girl. "So, why not divulge us who you are." he growled aloofly.

The Gothic Punkish dressed girl twirled her parasol between her hands before she set it to rest on her shoulders and angled it backwards slightly. Her smirk went dead immediately as she watched them with no interest. "Hmph, I will be seeing you all, sadly, all week, so it would be impolite not to tell you." her pale fuchsia eyes dulled a bit as she spoke, "Leiko Kurokiku, Gamemaster of the Reaper's Game."

Joshua flinched as he widened his lavender eyes in shock. "W-What!? You?"

"Don't take me lightly," She narrowed her eyes at them and pursed her lips. "I have the power of what all you Players… scamper about for. Your life, your Entry Fees, and your time here… is all according to my missions… Make one wrong choice, and there you go… erasure…" her voice was poisoned in a threat, yet Joshua strangely felt like she was trying to flirt with them as well. He shuddered at that horrible thought.

"Why are you here?" asked Ayumu suddenly, his head slightly in her direction. "You are the Gamemaster, am I right? That means you should be somewhere else. Away from us, watching us, not walking nearby us." he blinked before he went on, "I mean, shouldn't you be not associating with us then? We are Players, you just give us missions then we fight in the end. So doesn't the Gamemaster give missions through texts? Why come here in person then, Leiko Kurokiku?"

Her eyes flickered to him; she gave a huff of annoyance. "I do not believe the notion to deliver information through texts. Back when I was alive, phones were merely on streets and only heavy and square enough to only be on tables, and we sent simple letters. Therefore," she stepped daintily forward before she stopped almost 10 steps from them. "I will not present missions by that absurd way, so I will visit each and every one of you to give it out." She tilted her head a bit before she spoke sweetly, "But why do you care, Ayumu Ki, you poor, poor boy? A blind, emotionless one. You must be tired of being treated unfairly, having your powers stripped from you… rendering you powerless. Oh, what agony…"

As she started walking towards the younger half-brother, Joshua right away ran over and got in front of Ayumu. He scowled at the GM as she halted and faced him; he saw how she looked disinterested in his action and closed her eyes. "Kindly move, Yoshiya."

"Why?" coldly asked Joshua. "What if I don't?"

He didn't know what she was going to do, but he had a bad feeling creep over him that it wasn't something he favored. And if she were going to do something to Ayumu, Joshua wouldn't dare let her near him.

Leiko was silent for a few seconds before she reopened her eyes and closed her parasol. As the chains dangled and rattled she pointed it at his chest, she then pressed her parasol lightly on it.

Joshua didn't know why but he let his eyes close as he felt a sense of tranquility and warmth develop in his heart, he inhaled slowly as he felt himself relaxing as it flooded his mind. All he could think of was nice thoughts, anything but horrible to ruin the moment. He felt like nothing could take away his happiness right now.

"Now, kindly move."

The ashen blond nodded before he replied with a smile, "Gladly." he opened his eyes to admire her beauty before he turned and walked a good distance away from her. He wanted to make sure she had enough room to do whatever she wanted to do and not interrupt anything, which would be rude and disrespectful to her.

Again he closed his eyes, letting out a content sigh.

"A..ck…"

He ignored the voice, feeling it was bothersome. For a second Joshua felt a bit of a headache come before it disappeared, every feeling he had melted into a thick, blissful fog.

"A..ck… Do..t… yo… s.e… wh.t… sh.'… do… t… t.e… Bl.n… B..at...?"

"I don't care," Joshua said as he let out a sigh and opened his eyes briefly to look at the blurry figure in front of him. "Go away."

"Wh.t… No… A..ck… wh.t… i… wr..g… w..h… yo…"

It felt like something brushed against his shoulder slightly.

"Stop that." Joshua flicked his hand at it before sighing, wanting to melt into the warmth and enjoy it.

The moment he closed his eyes was when Joshua felt pain strike his cheek, he crashed to the ground letting out a yelp as he felt like a hammer was slammed into his skull and his heart was torn apart ruthlessly. For a while he lay there before the peace and warmth he felt depleted from him, allowing the fog that his mind was filled with fade away.

Joshua grimaced as his cheek stung and throbbed, not liking the pain he felt. In fact, he could give whatever that had given it to him credits from how intense it was.

"Ow…" he moaned as he grimaced once again.

He was aware of his surroundings now, noticing that his face was planted on the hard, dirty ground… again... Joshua felt ready to throw up literally now, disliking the fact that once again he was receiving germs and might now never be able to cleanse his memory of this ever in his whole life.

Right away he sat up, spitting out dirt and some unknown liquid he was afraid to find out what it was. He noticed how he felt groggy, ready to flop down anytime now from exhaustion without a choice. So he shivered from the thought he would contact more germs if he did.

"Hey, Aleck!"

Joshua turned to see the dark blue haired teen glaring daggers at him with his arms folded, utterly baffled as to why Izo seemed pretty livid towards him. Instantly he frowned at Izo as he replied uneasily, "Yes…?"

Izo was silent briefly before he roughly tugged Joshua to his feet and punched him.

The ashen haired teen managed to stay on his feet after stumbling a bit, but that achievement went dead as he now felt a strike of anger towards Izo now. "Why are you attacking me!?"

"Feh." Izo didn't even look at him; he was gingerly rubbing his cheek. Joshua had no clue why he was doing that, it didn't seem like Izo was trying to get dirt off it or was massaging it for no apparent real reason. But then he suddenly noticed how red Izo's cheek was, in fact, Joshua noticed a few wisps of purple sneak past Izo's thumb. He even briefly rubbed his head with even a bitter expession melting into his glare.

Joshua could only stare dumbfoundly at Izo before looking at his hands suspecting filth had stuck to them to distract himself from Izo's temper. But Joshua could only freeze when he discovered a few... no maybe many strands of familiar blue hair between his fingers.

'What…? No…' Joshua shook his head as he began to quiver; he flicked off the hair as quickly as he could feeling sick to his stomach. 'Why…? What… what happened!?'

When Joshua finally met Izo's maroon eyes again, the dark blue haired teen finally growled frigidly, "Now, you comprehend?"

"B-But why!?" cried Joshua hysterically. "Wh-What happened? Did I? Did I seriously pull out your hair!? Punch you!? I- I don't rememb-"

"Never, do that, again!" snarled Izo as he now struck his bangs to the side indignantly, not seeming to care the moment when his vision was partly blocked once more. He winced slightly from his hair's movement, growling and shaking in anger. Joshua expected Izo to punch him until he was erased for good, however the teen abruptly turned his back to Joshua with a huff instead.

Joshua was about to say something to Izo when he saw the GM in front of Ayumu. He vividly remembered now he was trying to keep her away from Ayumu before, but then…

He widened his lavender eyes.

The Gamemaster was scratching, no... clawing into Ayumu's face, preferably the bridge of his nose.

"HEY!" he roared half in horror and half in rage. "What are you doing!?" He bolted past Izo who was muttering under his breath, looking pretty livid still.

Leiko continued to carve into Ayumu's nose unfazed by his outburst. But when Joshua grabbed her shoulders to rip her away from her cruel actions on his half-brother, he managed to get her at least three steps away before she sighed and elbowed him in the gut.

"Ahh!" yelped Joshua as he released her, immediately grabbing his side as hot tears formed slightly at the side of his eyes. He wasn't given a chance to recover because Leiko swatted her parasol at him then thrusting it forward and opening it rapidly to release a surge of shadowy energy at him.

He was unable to dodge and was hurled into the air, he felt like all the air in his lungs were kicked out as searing pain spiked through his body. He screamed the moment he crashed into the ground, he had landed on his arm and was sure he broke it. The strange energy trapped him as soon as it contacted his body like a net; it was somehow squirming and warping back and forth as tints of purple fizzed across the energy.

Joshua couldn't even stop as a shrill screech tore from his throat as his body received pain unlike anything he had experienced. He thrashed as it intensified the moment he struggled against it, he felt like he being burned alive. No… it felt more like he was dunked into a bottomless pit of lava, it felt like his whole body was crushed, it felt like he was struck by the harshest lightning strike inflicted!

His mind even couldn't take it! Already all his thoughts were wiped out, the only thing he registered was pain! Pain that ate away at his sanity, pain that ate away at his body, pain that was destroying him inside and out, and pain that would never numb!

Soon he lost sense of everything…

Lavender eyes briefly fluttered.

Joshua's vision swam as blurs swirled in front of him. His ears rang and it felt like he was lying on nothing. For one thing, he was glad he felt numb, not in pain.

Sobbing gradually grew louder, and he realized it was Mayu. As much as he wanted to comfort her and stop her from crying, he couldn't. His body felt like it was no longer in control, all of him felt like jelly.

For a while he was like that until he could finally say something, even if it wasn't complete, "Ma…yu…"

The sobbing stopped abruptly, but it was softer a second later. "Joshua…?"

"I… c-can't m-move…" he choked, finding it frustrating it felt like his mouth had foam reeling in it and hampering him from speaking.

"Feh, it wasn't unforeseen." Joshua wanted to scowl from Izo's account but his face felt fixed in place. "You virtually annihilated my tympanums from your screeches when you received that incursion."

There was a brief pause before he heard Ayumu, "Try your Pin, Josh, the one that heals."

Joshua thanked Ayumu silently, seeing that would be the best option. His Rosetta Restore Pin could relieve him from exhaustion and wounds, which he found to be useful. He felt as though Ayumu would keep them on track throughout the week due to the bluntness he had from feeling no emotions. But Joshua had no idea if that was a good quality or a bad one from Ayumu's circumstances.

He tried to focus energy to go to his Pin like he always has done, but shockingly the normal sensation was absent. It was as though it was missing or being repressed, and he found that thought to be quite disheartening frankly.

"I… d-don't think I can," said Joshua lamely.

"Bravura! You can dwindle away then."

'I'm fading!?' Joshua panicked immediately. 'I can't do anything! And I'll be erased for it!? Crap!'

"Feh, and you're the only one that is proficient to heal us," added Izo coldly that Joshua noted was almost in an accusing tone.

"Well, it's not my fault!" protested Joshua crossly, he hated that Izo was making this situation even more atrocious for him than it already was.

Suddenly he was aware of something tapping at random spots on his arm and chest, it continued until something pulled at what he assumed to be one of his Pins. "Just because we don't have Pins, I don't think means we can't use them. One of us should try to use Josh's Pin and heal him, it's our best option."

Joshua was now certain Ayumu appointed himself to keeping them on track for the week.

Again the Pin was tugged.

"Feh, that's his ice Pin, Blind Brat!"

"Oh, I see…"

The Pin was let go and a second later someone took off supposedly his Rosetta Restore.

For a few seconds Joshua heard nothing, he was sure it wasn't working.

"Tsk, nonentity for me." After a moment later Izo added in a inquisitive tone, "Eh? Nonetheless I feel something moreover…"

"And that would be?" asked Joshua feeling curious himself.

A few seconds later Joshua felt what he assumed was his Breezifreeze Pin pulled on again before Izo replied, "Hmm… I feel fairly at simplicity with your ice Pin."

"Is that you who you're talking about, or your personal freezer?" asked Joshua dryly with a few giggles.

"Shut... up…"

The air grew chillier.

It was a while until Mayu said she couldn't was when Joshua knew he was doomed. But just as despair was brewing in his heart, he felt a hand on his chest and a warm balminess spread through his body like a rivulet of water. Yet, Joshua was disappointed that this was as much as this person could muster to heal him.

"Uh… a bit more… please?" said Joshua a bit irritated. "I'm sort of… fading."

Yet the tiny stream stayed the same and Joshua sighed.

It took a long time until Joshua could actually move his arm. The movement he could make was stiff, but he could at least move something other than his mouth.

"Could you do this faster?" cried Joshua feeling frustrated at how slow this was taking, he could very much be erasing faster than being healed inadequately. "We don't have all day!"

A wheeze was heard as it wafted at his face, the healing stream faltered a bit before it stabilized slightly. A moment later Ayumu coughed, "I'm… trying… Josh…"

'Ayumu!?' Joshua felt immediately the guilt from being cross to his younger brother. It occurred to him then that Ayumu could actually use Pins, in which he was surprised. But he was confused as of why Ayumu wasn't able to use his Pin to its utmost; it was a very strong healing Pin yet the reason escaped him.

"Hey Sanae?"

"What is it, Josh?"

"You said before that there are certain limitations that allow people to use Pins, right?"

"Yep."

"What are they? Everyone gets Pins to fight in the game, so why can't they use them fully?"

"Ah… hahaha, didn't I say before that isn't necessary?"

"No…"

"Well, not everyone can use Pins. They may have been given them, but that doesn't mean they can. Some people are exceptions to this, Josh."

"Okay then, explain."

"A'ight. Pins are, let's say, fueled by the person themself. Depending on their Soul is what will determine how well they can use Pins or are incapable in using them in general."

"Their soul… huh?"

"That's right, Josh. Souls have different frequencies, thus they give different types and different amounts of power to be used for imagination."

"Imagination? Are you trying to say that you need to imagine something and it kills the Noise? Hmm… it seems like you're pulling my leg or a fairy tale out. I'm not a little kid anymore, Sanae."

"Hahaha! Nope! But that sounds great! Well, imagination is the driving force that powers your Pins. So the more imagination you have, the more powerful the Pins are. So I guess you could say that the more imaginative you are the more Pins you can have. Maybe not… guess… exactly, but there are some people with millions of Pins that could adapt to all of them and use them effortlessly against the Noise."

"Wow… I guess those people could be libraries then."

"Ha… you sure know how to crack me up, Josh."

"You're right, I'm talented... So, those who have little imagination cannot use Pins well then?"

"They most likely are the ones to be erased first, unless something turns up and allows them to bypass that cripple."

"Hmm… I guess Ayumu would fit there."

"Why's that?"

"He doesn't believe the Reaper's Game exists still. I'm tired of his 'soul game something idea doesn't exist' rant. The lengths and detail he gives sure has grown over the years if you ask me."

"Josh, Josh… I keep telling you it might not exist for him. You need to understand that Ayumu isn't pretending that it's not there, he can't see it like you can…"

"Well he could at least try to sense it."

"Have you forgotten? The Underground and the Realground are on two different planes, so Ayumu might only sense anything here from the Realground because that's the plane he is on. So if he was in the Underground he might sense things there. Get it?"

"Makes sense. But, Ayumu is too logical; he doesn't seem to be fun anymore. Personally I think all of his imagination died, and I have no clue why…"

The memory ebbed away as soon as it was finished.

'That's right! Ayumu's imagination might not be strong.' Joshua widened his eyes as he realized that, he didn't care if the others might be confused by his sudden expression change. 'So that must mean… Ayumu cannot use Pins very well to their utmost. Why didn't I realize this sooner?'

Joshua reached for Ayumu's sleeve and grasped it. "I didn't mean-"

"It's alright, Josh," said Ayumu hollowly.

"Thank goodness…" breathed Joshua feeling relieved, he asked a heartbeat later, "How are you holding up? Are you tired?"

"My brain feels ready to shut down," replied Ayumu. "Does that help?"

"No!" shouted Joshua in dismay. "You need to stop then, Ayumu!" He didn't want Ayumu to erase himself in order to heal him, Joshua would never forgive himself if Ayumu did that because he couldn't realize the danger he was in.

"But then you will fade. And Mayu and Izo can't use Pins. So…"

Joshua right away reached forward and found that his Pin was attached to Ayumu's shirt. He didn't want to waste time so he quickly unclipped the Pin, stopping the healing Psych of Rosetta Restore.

Instead of equipping the Pin, he clenched it hard despite the needle was impaling his poor palm. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his Pin with whatever energy he had gained from Ayumu's efforts.

After a few minutes he managed to finally activate Rosetta Restore's Psych and slowly and steadily healed himself.

It took quite a while, but he managed to heal himself completely.

Joshua stood up feeling a bit dizzy, but his mind felt sharper than ever and his strength returned. Even his energy that had been sapped from the use of Rosetta Restore was replenished shortly after he was finished with his task. So as soon as his dizziness ebbed away was when he finally equipped his Pin back to its rightful place it was before and smiled a little feeling relieved.

When Joshua looked around, he noticed that Izo was muttering to himself and caught only a part of it, "… like a feather, you fall, you are graceful, yet in the end, you no longer feel the days of flight, no matter how much you fight, you cannot respond to the breeze's call, thus you fall…" when Izo closed his eyes for a second and held onto his chin was the time Joshua felt that he had to stop listening. He knew how angry Izo was towards him already, and if the walking freezer caught Joshua then that would spell trouble in many ways.

He let out a sigh before he noticed his Partner talking to Ayumu. He immediately stopped himself from letting himself known to be awake to watch them while feeling no hurry to actually interrupt them, he felt that Mayu needed a chance to talk to his half-brother since she hadn't had a chance to really interact with him so far.

"I'm not sure I'm okay, as I said." The petite blond was looking at the ground as Mayu blinked in a sad way. "I can't tell if I get hurt or not either."

"I-I-I s-see…" stuttered Mayu as she lowered her pretty eyes and Joshua noticed how much she was blushing, she seemed a bit embarrassed for some reason to Joshua. "I-It must b-be h-hard…"

Joshua couldn't see Ayumu's face as he spoke, "I don't mind. Seeing that I can't."

Mayu gave a reluctant tiny nod before she looked up and noticed Joshua, he saw her eyes flash with recognition before she murmured something to Ayumu then ran over to him.

As soon as Mayu halted, Joshua raised a hand up as though he intended to wave but didn't. "Hey."

Her eyes seemed to become watery like the sea as she quietly breathed, "J-Joshua… y-you're o-okay…"

Joshua gave a nod, but he felt more worried that Mayu was going to cry than anything else for the moment. He softened his expression a little before he put a hand on her narrow shoulder and murmured, "Yeah." half a heartbeat later he asked as he saw a bit of glistening tears form at the side of her eyes, "B-But are you, Mayu?"

Mayu sniffled a little before she flushed; she lowered her gaze for some odd reason. It took Joshua a moment to realize that she must have felt awkward for the gesture he made, despite the fact he has done it before for her. He slowly withdrew his hand feeling a bit awkward now, maybe as much as Mayu felt because he felt heat rise into his cheeks.

The almost completely normal silence they shared fatefully returned again.

'Ugh… why isn't there a time when this never happens?' thought Joshua as he stood there facing Mayu, he only wanted to make sure she was okay. When he saw that she was ready to cry, he couldn't have stopped himself from doing that comforting gesture. He didn't even think or hesitate in doing it, which he found to be odd and confused him. Yet, for a split second he felt that warmth again arise in his chest, almost blooming beautifully in that moment.

He faintly recalled a similar feeling when the GM just… poked him. Instead, this one felt more natural, deliberate, and modest, not forced, fake, and daunting. This tiny feeling… he had no clue what it was… but he felt that this feeling was almost like a flower.

For a second he reprimanded himself for describing whatever feeling it was as a flower, which he never really liked since he had a mild allergy to it. It's just, every time he came into contact with any flowers' pollen he would merely sneeze for a minute or more until he or it were far away from each other. It wasn't like it would kill him; he only had the symptoms of sneezing then getting a runny nose afterwards if he still was close to the flower. Overall, he adored any flower's exquisiteness, except he didn't like being close to them and sneezing too much sadly.

A sigh sounded. "Do you desire to stand together like that all day… or will you do my mission?"

Joshua and Mayu winced, Mayu immediately blushed deeper and Joshua's feeling was sapped out of him. He narrowed his eyes at the loss of that nice feeling and spun around angrily to the GM, Leiko.

"You…" growled Joshua bitterly as he glared at the GM.

The brown haired girl with black highlights didn't seem daunted by his tone; she simply shifted her parasol in accordance to the sunlight. "Well?"

"Do you think we want to!?" snapped Joshua as he stepped forward, his lavender eyes blazed as he spat, "No! We have no choice!"

Leiko blinked before she raised her chin up, her pale fuchsia eyes blank as she spoke, "I see… you have much to learn about controlling your impulses. They can lead you on to your end." her lips pursed. "That I can comply with, if need be."

Many questions spun and thrashed in Joshua's head, so many that he wanted to scream them all out at her until his throat went raw and perhaps faded. Yet, he reminded himself that she was dangerous, as evident by what she did to him. So he hardened his eyes and clenched his hands into fists before he managed to not throw himself at her.

"Good." She drew up her pasty hand with such grace and locked eyes with him, she never blinked nor turned her gaze away as she mused, "You seem settled enough to drink in my mission wholeheartedly now. I guess anyone can be tamed, even a Kiryu."

Joshua gritted his teeth.

She seemed to be waiting for a moment or two before she spoke, "M, CC, TR links to an obtuse triangle, free the corners' emotive restraints from the wicked clutter." she paused a second before she closed her eyes, "That, is your mission."

The ashen blond had to admit; her mission was quite well thought out and well done. She had to have been brainstorming it all of yesterday.

He waited for the timer to imprint into his palm as usual, yet he was confused by the lack of it.

"Oh, if you are waiting for the timer, it won't." She still held her hand up effortlessly as she pursed her lips. "Not, until you accept my mission."

"What?" Joshua gave her a confused look as she merely stood there, seemingly annoyed now by him.

"Accept my mission," she said nonchalantly, "or I'll erase you. Those who don't, always meet their end."

Joshua had no clue what she meant, but he wondered if she wanted someone to shake her hand. He glanced around at his group members for any suggestions but clearly they didn't seem to know either. With a sigh, he felt that he should figure this one out.

So he walked over to Leiko warily, not wanting her to poke or do anything to him that he felt wasn't something funny to laugh about. He saw that her eyes followed him until he stood in front of her just as she shifted her parasol again, she seemed to be waiting for him to do something yet he had no clue what.

"So, how do we accept your mission?" asked Joshua in a growl, crossing his arms.

Leiko was silent for a second before she huffed, "Spoon-feeding never helps." her blank eyes glinted briefly as she smirked. "But handshakes do. They sigify first meetings, best wishes, and impressions."

Joshua raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't follow why handshakes relate to-"

"They also mean sealing a deal, and judging who people are." She kept her smirk as she continued, "I do believe we need to… understand… each other a bit better, hmm? And to do that, I would like a handshake from you. A normal one at that, casual, not forced, almost like we just introduced each other a second ago for example."

He stared at her feeling alarms ringing inside his brain setting off as his gut roared in protest; she clearly was going to do a trick. However he couldn't understand why she wanted to shake his hand so badly. He knew handshakes for formal ways to greet each other, and he wondered why she didn't want one at the start. Despite that, Joshua didn't really see a problem with her request and dismissed it easily.

With a unsure nod he reached for her hand and took ahold of it. Immediately he felt her long nails dig into the back of his hand and palm when her hand locked with his, he winced a little but proceeded to shake hers.

But as soon as he finished his hand was pierced with searing pain, he yelped loudly as the pain wormed its way throughout his hand and festered like infection. Almost as if he was struck by lightning he leapt back yet ungracefully stumbled onto his back when Leiko firmly tightened her grip and held his hand in place with hers.

"Let go!" screamed Joshua madly as his other hand flew to save his captive hand.

Leiko looked frustrated yet still didn't loosen her grip. "Pain can be harsh, yet it tells you the truth… it hurts." she then let go just as Joshua was deciding upon biting his hand off to spare himself from the pain.

As soon as his hand was out of her grasp, he drew his hand close to his chest and hugged it to himself. He bit his lip as the pain began to ebb ever so slowly away and inhaled deeply. Joshua soon gave another inhale before he peered at his hand, only to find his heart almost broke through his chest.

His palm had the typical timer, yet it looked like a mesh of black cobweb was sprawled behind it and squirmed around like a spider it had absent.

"W-What…? Is this… how you intend to give us missions!?" screamed Joshua as he sent a glare to her.

She pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Direct application was used back when I was a Player, I intend to do things the way they used to be. Back when technology was a nursling that was new to the world, when it was doubted, and everyone saw it as a nuisance that brought everything, people down to the ground, no R.I.P needed. To remind everyone… that pain cannot be suppressed, it can only be felt."

Her fingers wiggled a bit, her nails glinting, as she held her palm face up. "Pain is pain, it cannot be forgotten. It lingers, it festers, and it lives. It lives like plants, animals, day, night, and our lives. Pain… is needed to remind us we aren't dead… we are merely prancing around in a nightmare that haunts us for eternity. And that eternity is…

"The endless… cycle… of the Reaper's Game."

To be continued…

Hope you enjoyed the chapter =3