The World Ends With You

CAT's Mural

Fourth Tag Color: Black

Head pounding and eyes painfully heavy from crying so hard, Rhyme slowly lifted her head. She was sprawled out on her stomach in the middle of Scramble Crossing, or so she assumed because she couldn't see any buildings in her immediate area. As far as she could see through the muffling, silent darkness was the asphalt of streets. No sidewalks close enough, no crumbling walls to buildings, no people…

Sitting up and rubbing her aching eyes, the young girl sighed. Glancing to her left, she saw Neku curled up beside her, still peacefully asleep. When Rhyme took a closer look, she saw that he was tightly holding his right fist shut, his fingers trembling with the force. Of course. They were still in the same exact situation, but during the past day it had become ten times worse. Rhyme sighed again, a more hopeless sound than the one before.

Would today's mission also feature another fun twist to a sick misinterpretation of a boss fight? Maybe this time, Rhyme will come across a monster that will physically hold her hostage and use her as a body shield against Neku's Pin attacks! Wouldn't that be an absolute blast! Rhyme shook her head and scratched a burning itch on the back of her neck, underneath her blonde hair. It was probably better to stop imagining just how much worse this particular Game could become.

"Hey, Neku. It's another grand day here in the Game. Time to rise and shine!" Rhyme said as she shook the older boy awake. She couldn't stop the bitterness from dripping into her voice. Usually she was the girl who always had a smile, no matter how dark the times got, but at this thought Rhyme couldn't suppress the rather shadowy chuckle at the irony of the situation.

Neku sat up and gave Rhyme a kind of nervous look because of the random laugh from the girl. Catching his eye, Rhyme leaned back on her hands and gazed up at the endless darkness above thoughtfully, imagining it as the soft blue sky of her Shibuya, and said, "You know… I wonder who shot me."

An absolute silence followed this statement, and Rhyme glanced at Neku, allegation in her dusty blues. She wasn't sure where the thought had come from, the thought that maybe it was Neku who had killed her, but sometime from the moment she had awoke a few minutes ago to now it had seeded in the back of her mind. Neku read that blame in her eyes as clear as day.

"I was shot, too," Neku said rather flatly, watching Rhyme as she stared at him and scratched the back of her neck. "I-I mean, to get into this Game, too, just like before. I… I don't know who did it," he added after a moment. That dark look didn't leave Rhyme's eyes, but she replied, "Well, maybe we'll find out who killed us if we win this game…" If. Rhyme had said if they win.

Neku's expression fell. It seemed that the situation was getting to the young girl, stressing her so hard that she was losing hope and forgetting the most important rule for survival: trust your partner. Without another word Rhyme got to her feet, dusting off some of the grime from her pants from sleeping in this Shibuya's filthy streets. Slowly, hesitating, Neku stood as well.

"I guess we should wander around until we come across something that isn't black and falling apart, or attacks us," Rhyme said, and began walking in no particular direction. Neku quietly followed, hands shoved in his pockets, but his fingers clutching on to the few Pins he had. He didn't want to tell Rhyme that he had only woken up that day with three Pins total, and none of them healing Pins. Maybe Rhyme had one. It was worth asking…

"Hey Rhyme, what Pins do you have on you?" Neku ventured asking while they walked. Rhyme stared at him over her shoulder for a moment, as if studying him before choosing how she would answer. Then she turned away, looking down as she pulled her Pins out of her hoodie pocket.

This was the first time Rhyme had taken stock of what Pins she had exactly. Looking down, she found that she had three total: Peace Full, a pin branded by Tigre Punks and used for curing; her black and white skull embossed Player Pin; and another strange Pin she had never come across before. It had a gleaming black surface that glinted without any light source. Rhyme wondered if the Pin was blocked by some kind of unmet condition.

Shoving the three Pins back into her pocket, she said, "I have a curing Pin and my Player Pin." Neku felt a little relief flood his system at that; Rhyme could heal him if he got hurt. Though, when again she glared at him from over her shoulder, he had a flash of slight doubt that just would not leave him.

They kept on walking, turning this direction and then that direction whenever they came across a wall, trying to stay on the street as much as possible to keep from getting lost in the endless alleyways. It felt like they had walked for an eternity, the never changing darkness all around messing with their grasp of time, before something started to appear in front of them.

Just as the day before, a soft white glow began to grow and take shape into the pair of angel wings, hovering just out of reach of the two Players. Neku and Rhyme shared a silent look, both agreeing without words that these wings would lead them somewhere to get things rolling again. Once they looked again at the wings of light, they were giving their routine stretch – and then took off. Rhyme and Neku both broke out into a run, following the light that led them through the darkness.

Rhyme's mind raced through many thoughts while her body raced through the streets of an empty and heartless Shibuya. Her heart was beating fast as the doubts and fears poured into her head, What if this monster blocks my psych, too? What if it blocks Neku's AND mine? How will we win? It was suffice to assume that these wings would be leading the Players into their boss fight for the day's mission, because it seemed to be the only thing that they could do in this particular Shibuya. Fight horrors no one could dream of, and survive.

But what about Neku? This thought had quietly slipped itself into the mainstream of Rhyme's mind, and her eyes flicked over to Neku for a moment. He shot me and brought me here, I bet. This is all his doing, somehow. That's why there's no one else here… But what does he want? I have to figure out how to win this Game… And get back to Shiki. Rubbing at her eyes while they ran, she fought off the overwhelming need to cry. If Neku had shot her, why did he do it? What reason could anyone have to bring her into another Game, more maddening than the first? There was just no way to tell.

And what of her entry fee? At this thought Rhyme stumbled and nearly fell, but managed to keep her feet. She still didn't know what her entry fee had been for this Game. Maybe this Game is different. Since the rules are so harsh, maybe this Game didn't have an entry fee she thought. It was the only thought she allowed herself to have, because she would not be able to function at all if she thought differently. Though, she couldn't help the small prick of fear stabbing at her heart.

The more they ran, the more Rhyme began to realize that she could hear their foot falls echoing all around them and the ground was sloping downwards. Just when had they gone underground? Suddenly the wings came to a halt, quivering in the air. Neku and Rhyme stopped as well, both panting and leaning on bent knees, Rhyme scratching the back of her neck again. "Where do you think we are?" Neku asked, walking until his hands met against a wall.

The wings vanished as Neku pulled out a Pin and lit the familiar flame. He studied the bits of graffiti he could still see on the decaying walls and said after a moment, "Miyashita Park Underpass…" Rhyme shivered. The scene of her first death with Beat…

"This is one twisted game you're runnin' here, ya know?" Rhyme said suddenly, arms wrapping around herself as she stepped closer to Neku, staring at his back. "Wha-" Neku started to say as he turned, but before he could even get the chance to look at Rhyme, she struck him with a swinging sucker punch right into his jaw. The surprise of the attack helped to fuel the ferocity of it as well as its force, and Neku was sent reeling against the wall.

He had stumbled a bit to his right, and when he hit the wall, he realized that he had moved to one of the open holes leading to the street underpass when the back of his knees were the only things that made contact. Crying out, his fireball Pin was sent clattering into the darkness and his flame extinguished as he fell backwards. Hitting the gravelly, pothole riddled road, he skidded and hit his head on a rather large piece of the concrete. Rhyme leapt up onto the short wall, crouching on it and staring at Neku while the boy tried to get his bearings.

"What are you doing!?" Neku cried out, clutching his bleeding head. When he felt the full force of the impact, he became dizzy and couldn't get up. All he could do was watch Rhyme, who was squatting on the wall and staring down at him with insane blue eyes, scratching at the back of her neck like she had gone crazy…

Before Neku could completely grasp the situation, Rhyme launched herself from the wall. Landing on top of him, she began to sob while wrapping her hands around his throat, her nails digging into his skin and making him bleed. "I'm sorry, Neku," she whispered between the tears. Neku clutched at Rhyme's hands for a moment, gasping for his breath, but somehow managed to keep his eyes locked on to Rhyme's face. Something changed in her eyes, in her expression, and she gave a wickedly dark grin.

"I have to trust my partner, the key to my survival; though it's kind of sick, because really he's my rival," Rhyme sang shrilly. Neku's heart stopped beating for a moment, but when it pumped again, he had found the solution. Pulling a hand away from grabbing at Rhyme's wrists, Neku reached up and stroked the back of her neck where the girl had been scratching throughout the day. There he felt several rather huge and gross bumps that were starting to fester, like some kind of bug bite. He felt around the immediate area, but couldn't find any sort of bug nearby. It had to be on the girl though; she had been bitten more than once during the day.

While trying to hold on to consciousness, Neku began to feel around Rhyme's body with both hands. The girl seemed oblivious to his groping; she was so fixated on her hands and the sensation of holding someone's life in them that she didn't care. His search became more desperate. She was beginning to cry and black spots were cutting through his vision. They couldn't lose this way, not like this…

His fingers brushed against something large and squishy that did not feel like any part of Rhyme's anatomy inside of her hoodie's hood. With zero time for hesitation, he grabbed at the pulsating mass and ripped it away from Rhyme's hoodie. Throwing it away, he mustered the strength to kick Rhyme off of him. Free of her weight and her crushing hands, he gasped for air and struggled up to his feet. He faced the direction that he had thrown the insect creature, squinting in the darkness and looking for it.

He didn't need to search for long before he saw it. There, kicking feebly in the air while trapped on its back like a turtle, the insect thing lay. It looked like a mass jumble of a random assortment of insects slapped into a ball of clay, many assorted and useless wings buzzing here and there, a few stingers jutting out from different limbs. Cradling his throat in one hand, Neku held up a Pin in the other. Slowly energy and light began to train in and focus on the Pin in his hand, and after the attack had charged, it emitted a powerfully bright blue beam of energy. The Pin was good for one use only with the exchange of unsurpassed power, but Neku felt like he could never be able to kill that damned thing dead enough for what it did to Rhyme.

Left panting in the Miyashita Park Underpass, the darkness billowing away from Neku like he was some new force of light, the boy stared around in the bit of daylight that managed to pierce the Underpass darkness. He turned to check on Rhyme, and turned just in time to hear the chime of a familiar, sad bell. His eyes widened, his sight filling with purple light, and a cry dying on his lips. Once the brightness faded, Rhyme stood over Neku's dead body, breathing heavily. The last bit of poison from the insect thing was still disintegrating against the force of her body's immunity system, so she had not come back in control in time to stop herself from blasting Neku.

Crying into her hands while she sank to her knees beside Neku's body, Rhyme sobbed and cried as if she had never cried in her life before. She had doubted him and suspected him, then she had killed him. Now she was really going to lose the Game, and she would never see Shiki again. She would never see Neku again for that matter.

"It looks like you've put yourself in a fine predicament, hmm?" a voice cooed from the darkness. Rhyme glanced up, looking around the Underpass for the source of the voice. It didn't take long for her eyes to freeze on a familiar pair of wings… and an unfamiliar face.

"Who…?" Her voice was weak, barely audible. There, leaning against the familiar wall that marked the first death of a young girl, was a Higher Being, white wings lazily stretching from his back. He gave a tip of his head. "Hello to you, Rhyme. I don't think we've ever had the pleasure to meet face to face. My name is Joshua." His grin widened when he saw that his name struck a chord of familiarity within Rhyme. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. Neku had explained who exactly Joshua had been in relation to the first Game. The one who had killed Neku.

"You… You were the one who shot me and Neku, huh!? Don't bother lyin' to me, yo!" In her rage, a bit of her older brother's slang snuck into her words. The Higher Being put his hands up defensively.

"Whoah, where have I heard that familiar tune from? Look, you probably won't believe me, but I really didn't shoot anyone this time around! Actually, I'm not even running this Game. How can I explain this so you will understand…? Oh!

"Think of me as Uzuki or… Kariya," Joshua said. When confusion flashed over Rhyme's expression, Joshua ran his fingers through his hair and added, "Ah, you would know of them as Pinky or Lollipop. Your friends never really bothered to learn the real names of a few lowly Reapers. Yech, it sickens me to put myself on their level, but there you have it. However, on this particular plane of existence, my position is better known as Angel. Keep that in mind, eh?"

Rhyme crossed her arms and stared at him, though in her silence her mind was racing. What was it that she had been told when she had been introduced to WildKat's owner, Mr. Hanekoma, and told that he was also an important factor during the first Game? Different planes of existence living stacked atop one another, and Higher Beings having the ability to change their frequency – that is to say, to change their position from one plane of existence to another – at any time. It was starting to make sense a little, though Rhyme was not sure exactly how.

"You still seem to be a little confused," Joshua observed, and when he was met with only silence, he gave a dry chuckle. "Alright, think of this: The Reapers' Game takes place on a separate plane from that of your reality, and the two planes are called the Underground and Realground, or UG and RG respectively.

"Right now you are on a different plane, but when you died in the RG, instead of going to the UG, you were brought here to the HG by special order. Really you should be honored, it's rare for a game to take place in the HG," he said, stepping away from the wall and walking over to Rhyme.

She glared up at him, hate blazing fiercely in her eyes. "The HG, huh? And you're an Angel… So I suppose HG stands for Highground… Aha! It's some sick little clever twist, isn't it? You mean to say I've died and gone to heaven?" Rhyme said bitterly. Joshua shrugged as if it were meaningless.

"Well, what most people call 'heaven'. Really though, we're just tuned to a higher frequency than the RG and UG, and people like to think that going up is better than going down. Not many actually come here, however. This is a special part of the HG, used specifically for special circumstance Games." Rhyme was quiet at these words. Just what did he mean by special circumstance?

Giving his head a light slap as if he had just remembered something important, he said, "Ah, but enough about that! We need to take care of this situation here. You can't proceed through the Game without a Partner." Kneeling down beside Rhyme and Neku, he smiled at her when she pulled away in anger. "Let's see that black Pin of yours," he said.

"Why? What's it to you? You can't bring Neku back, we've lost," Rhyme growled. Joshua shook his head and held out his hand for the Pin. When he didn't answer and just waited for the Pin, Rhyme growled again, but pulled the gleaming Pin from her hoodie pocket. "Here," she mumbled while dropping it on his palm.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, making Rhyme want to gag. Holding the Pin in one hand, he said, "You see, this is a very special Pin that can only be found and used here in the HG. It gives the user one chance to revive the dead without the penalty of losing their entrance fee, but it can only be initialized by an Angel or above and is good only once in its lifetime. Think of it as an extra life." Gently he poked the Pin and it started to glow from his touch. The blue glow encompassed the entire Pin for a few moments, and when it faded it left behind a single white feather on the gleaming black.

Handing the Pin back to Rhyme, he stood up and gave a nod. "Well, that's all I can do for you today… Oh, I almost forgot something else! The rest of this Game will follow pretty much the same as before, with your Mission being a single fight. Tomorrow, however, you both will fight me in the Room of Reckoning. Neku knows where that is, but I'll lead you there myself. Be prepared, hmm?" Waving, he walked off and vanished into the shadows, leaving Rhyme alone by Neku's body, clutching on to the angel feather Pin.

She stared down at the feather. Joshua had said that they wouldn't lose their entry fees for this, but that meant that they did have entry fees. She still didn't know what she had paid to get into this damning Game. She was very afraid of losing it, whatever it was. Holding the pin to her breast in one hand while extending her other hand out over Neku's body, she shut her eyes and called the Pin's Psych.

Power flooded into her from the Pin, and soaked in some of the energy of her life. She felt it drain her, making her exhausted, but she let it go until she felt it move from her outstretched hand. It enveloped Neku, and a moment later Rhyme heard him cough. In her hand the Pin turned to ash.

Letting the ash go, Rhyme hugged Neku fiercely, not answering his questions and simply crying on him. "I'm sorry," she whispered, again and again, too hurt to want to think about anything else except Neku's second chance to finish this Game with her.

-End Day 3