The Second Day

He opened his eyes and rolled his head to the side. His cheek scraped against concrete. He was lying on the footpath near the bus stop again.

Wait, what?

Ryoma sat up, then wavered briefly, having to blink several times to chase away the dizziness from waking up too quickly.

It was morning again?!

What had happened yesterday? The last thing he remembered was standing out the front of Seigaku with Tezuka…

Speaking of, Tezuka was sitting at the bus stop several metres away, staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Ryoma scowled. "You could have woken me sooner."

Tezuka looked away quickly, as though embarrassed to have been caught staring. "I only woke up a few minutes ago myself. And I did try."

Ryoma picked up his cap from the ground and dusted it off irritably. "What happened? We were in front of Seigaku…"

"I don't know either. But I believe it's the second day now. We should be getting a mission soon."

Almost on cue, both phones beeped. Tezuka's message alert was a single, low beep. For some reason, this annoyed Ryoma immensely – it was just so boring and typical. His so-called 'partner' must be the most straight-laced person on the planet.

'Erase The Golden Crow hiding amongst the yellow orbs. Time Limit: 5 hours.'

Ryoma stared at the phone. "The Golden Crow is one of those… Noise things, you think?" Come to think of, none of the people walking past the day before seemed to notice those weird 'Noise' – just him. What were they, anyway?

"Probably," Tezuka agreed. "I suppose now we have to go looking for yellow orbs." They both winced simultaneously as a sharp pain lanced through their arms. Ryoma unclenched his fist, and sure enough, the timer had returned.

"Hey… what happens when the timer runs out?"

"You'll be erased," Tezuka replied, slipping the phone back into his pocket. "You should have been paying attention."

"Attention to what?" Ryoma grumbled.

"You don't remember them telling you?" Tezuka asked.

"Telling me what?! I don't understand anything that's going on here," Ryoma snapped.

Tezuka was quiet at that, and appeared pensive. Then Ryoma's stomach grumbled, breaking the silence.

"You're hungry?"

Embarrassed, Ryoma turned away. "Not really."

"…I suppose we have time. We should eat. I saw a restaurant with an emblem yesterday. Let's go there." Tezuka started in the direction of the shopping district.

Ryoma could see some Noise in the distance, so reluctantly kept pace. "An emblem?"

"So that the store owners can see us. I don't understand how it works, but I think it tunes our frequencies so that people in the RG can see us."

"RG?"

"Real Ground. We're in the UG, or Under Ground, right now. That's why no one else can see us, even though we can see them. The Noise are somewhere between the RG and the UG, so no one in the RG can see them either. Think of it like an astral plane."

It was a bit of an abstract concept to wrap his mind around, but Ryoma was willing to believe almost anything when weird frog creatures made people disappear and menacing timers appeared on his hand.

Still… "No one can see us?" That was why he'd been ignored the day before, he guessed. It didn't really make him feel any better about it.

"Only the Reapers and other Players. Here we are." Tezuka had brought them to what looked like a ramen store. There was a red skull and crossbones painted next to the door. The design vaguely resembled the black and white design on one of his pins.

"Are you sure we can afford the time?" Ryoma was hungry, sure, but all that talk of Noise and erasure sounded ominous. He wasn't sure if he wanted to risk not completing the mission.

"It should be fine. I have a pretty good idea where it might be," Tezuka assured him. They took a seat in one of the booths, and a server took their order. "Is there anything else you need to know?"

Ryoma frowned. "What's this stuff about seven days?"

"That's how long the Reaper's game is. If you complete the missions and avoid erasure for seven days, you win the game."

Ryoma was mildly impressed with how his so-called partner could tell him all these crazy outlandish things with a completely straight face. He had more questions – like who exactly the Reapers were, for example - but didn't want to appear completely clueless, so focused on his ramen as it arrived instead.

So… he was stuck in some weird game in a place called the UG where dangerous monsters known as Noise would try and kill him unless he partnered up with another player so that he could use pins with psychic powers to fight them off. It was rather headache inducing, but he thought he had the gist of it.

Although… "What's the deal with the pins?"

"That black and white one with the skull is your Player pin. You can use it to scan the area for Noise. It tends to pick up people's thoughts as well," Tezuka explained.

That was… rather impressive for a cheap bit of plastic and metal. Ryoma found himself suddenly glad that he hadn't tossed them in the bin the day before. "You can read people's minds with it?"

Tezuka's lips twitched, and it was obvious he didn't like the idea of it. "Except for Reapers or other players. It's mostly useful for finding dormant Noise. The other pins can help you activate psychs, so long as you have a pact. You'll probably find you're better with some psychs than others." He fished around in his pocket for a minute, and placed a couple of pins on the table. "I tested them earlier. Here, these are the pins I can't use. Perhaps you'll have better luck with them. You should have some too."

Ryoma brought out his own stash. He still had the fiery looking one he'd killed the frogs with, and carefully returned that to his pocket, but had no idea what the rest would do. Ramen finished; he placed his chopsticks back on the table with a dull clack. "Hey, let's go test these."

"Now?"

"When else? We should find out what they do before we go take care of that Golden thing."

Tezuka couldn't argue with that, so they went and found some more frog Noise to practice on. Now that he had an idea of what was going on, they weren't so scary, and so he felt perfectly okay trying out the pins one after another.

There was a healing one that he was mediocre at, and another one that looked a bit like a star that he had no idea about. They both apparently had no trouble with the psychokinesis ones, but Ryoma found himself most adept with the fire one. There was one that sent out bolts of lightning that he could grow to like, as well as another that created whirlwinds. All in all, he was pretty satisfied with the results.

"You're quite good at psychs. I met another pair of players before you yesterday, and they could only manage psychokinesis," Tezuka observed.

"Che, you're not so bad yourself," Ryoma admitted sourly. Tezuka had a weird psych that would suck the Noise into black holes, as well as another one that seemed to drop little meteors on them. "If all they can do is psychokinesis, they're in for a rough time."

Tezuka didn't comment on that, but Ryoma took his silence as agreement. "Heh, guess I lucked out with my partner then." If he was going to be stuck with someone, at least it was someone useful. It could have been worse. It could have been some annoying girl with long hair who talked his ear off or something. "So where're these golden orbs, then?"

"This way." Tezuka led the way at a sedate pace through the streets. Ryoma followed several steps behind, watching curiously as people passed them without a glance. It was weird to think that none of these people could see them.

Experimentally, he clutched his Player pin. It felt like his senses were expanding, and snatches of sound buzzed in his ears.

"I'd better remember to tape that show tonight – after missing last week…"

"I shouldn't have worn these shoes, my feet are killing me. Maybe I should just buy new ones."

"If x equals y to the power of 2, and then a equals… argh, I'm never going to pass! I should just become an actor or something."

Surprisingly, it appeared that most people thought of terribly mundane things most of the time. Ryoma turned his attention forward. Huh, he wasn't getting anything from Tezuka. Because he was a player, he guessed. How boring.

"Stop that," Tezuka ordered, glancing back. "It's a needless invasion of people's privacy."

"Just checking for Noise," he replied sullenly, releasing the pin. It was sort of neat, but he didn't really want to know those sorts of details about strangers.

Tezuka made a sound that seemed disapproving in the back of his throat, then turned back around. "We're here."

Ryoma blinked, leaning to look around Tezuka's tall frame. "Street tennis courts?" There was a repetitive thwack of tennis balls against racquets as kids and teenagers rallied on the open courts in front of them. Yellow orbs… that was a bit too poetic for a tennis ball. "So… what now?"

"Scan for Noise."

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "So now it's okay to scan?" Tezuka sent him a reproachful glance, and grumbling, he obediently clutched the Player pin again. Honestly, useful or not, why did he have to pair up with such a stiff board?

They walked around the courts for a few minutes while Ryoma scanned. Eventually, he stopped in his tracks. "There's something weird about that one," he reported, pointing to a ball lying off in the grass. Tezuka picked it up, gripping the ball in a manner that looked as though he were familiar with it.

"The Noise must be inside." He squeezed the ball lightly. Ryoma squinted.

"It looked like it shifted a little. Maybe if you hit it really hard, it will come out?" he suggested.

Tezuka picked up a discarded racquet, threw the ball in the air, and slammed it with an impressive force that left Ryoma wide-eyed. With an ear-splitting screech, a golden bird-like Noise shot into the sky. The fight was on.

Or rather, the fight was short. With both of them armed with a much wider array of psychs, it didn't take that long to dispose of the Noise at all. As it blurred from existence, Ryoma glanced at his palm. "Timer's gone. That was easy." If all of the missions were this simple, the game would be a breeze.

"Hn. Let's not get careless." Tezuka was picking through the grass. "It dropped some pins," he reported, collecting several small metal discs off the grass. "They might be useful."

Ryoma was staring at his hand still. "Hey, you know… what do we get if we win the game?"

There was a long silence at that – so long, in fact, that Ryoma turned and looked for his partner.

Tezuka adjusted his glasses. When he spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically soft.

"…A second chance."

Second Day, End.