The World Ends With You

CAT's Mural

Seventh Tag Color: Grey

Rhyme's dusty blue eyes flew open. Above her was the sight of the incredibly tall tree canopy, and just beyond, a few patches of twilight touched sky. Sitting up, she rubbed an eye while thinking to herself. Mentally she tallied up the number of days she had been with Neku, trapped in their new hell, but every single time she came up with the same impossible number, making their final day only day six. If it was supposed to be just like the Reaper's Games, then it should be day seven. Was she missing something somewhere?

Looking around, she found Neku already awake. He was leaning against a tree, watching her quietly. The look in his eyes seemed heavy somehow. "Hey, Neku… How many days have we been in this Game? I keep going over it, and every time I end up with this being day six…" Rhyme asked. As soon as the question was uttered, Neku averted his gaze. His behavior spoke to Rhyme more than his words.

"I… I don't really know, honestly. Does it matter? I mean, we should be more concerned with what's ahead of us today…" Even though Rhyme knew it was a purposeful diversion, Neku still had a very good point. What exactly awaited them?

Getting to her feet, Rhyme idly brushed her dirty pants, not even thinking about the subconscious motion and how pointless it was. What exactly was going to happen when they met the Game Master, she wondered. Her eyes narrowed a little, and she imagined using a few choice Pins of hers to forever silence whatever it was that 'God' wanted to say to them. It would never be worth it to her in the end, and she would feel better taking her justified rage out on the big boss of it all when they finally battled the Game Master.

Before she could let her vivid fantasy go on much longer, she was startled away from her thoughts when her eyes caught the sight of shining white against black velvet fur. "Mr. Hanekoma!" Neku said with some surprise. The sight of the tall, scarred panther was the last thing they expected to see so early in the day. He gave a wave and a small flick of his long tail, but a somber, grim expression soon followed.

Standing before the two, the panther's green eyes carefully studied them both, in turn as well as a team. After a few, intense moments, he finally spoke, and asked, "Are you two ready? I'm going to personally escort you to the location for the final battle." Neku quickly nodded, but Rhyme said and did nothing. Mr. Hanekoma waited patiently, watching Rhyme until she finally let out an annoyed breath and waved her hand for him to go on. With a small nod, he clapped his paws together, enveloping the group in lush emerald light.

The brightness quickly became overbearing, Rhyme and Neku alike closing and shielding their eyes away from the force. When the last of that weird tingling sensation left Rhyme's stomach and toes, she opened her eyes to behold a rather puzzling sight. Were they still in the HG?

At first glance, it looked as if they had landed in the sunny, complete Shibuya right by CAT's mural. The buildings were intact, and the paint of the graffiti in near prime condition, just as Neku and Rhyme remembered it. However, the entire scene flickered out for a moment, like a dying monitor. Underneath, the buildings and sky retained their geometrical shape, but everything was made of the same strange solid black material with brightly glowing purple numbers and letters.

Rhyme had a bizarre thought of a rather popular movie trilogy from America, recalling the phrase, 'the One'. She kept this image to herself as around everything brightened back into the familiar Shibuya. "Mr. Hanekoma, what.." Neku started to ask, but he was promptly silenced by a meaningful glance of the panther's green eyes.

"She'll be here soon," he said, flicking his tail. The three waited in silence for almost ten minutes before Mr. Hanekoma crossed his arms and let out an irritated growl. "Figures, something important. She's always late!" he grumbled, tapping a black paw against the concrete and making a bit of it flash out like a ripple. Neku and Rhyme held their silence, not willing to look at each other. However, they both turned their gaze when something started to materialize before them.

As they watched, billions of tiny lines of purple code flickered into perspective, clustering together as soon as they appeared. Rapidly they formed into a humanistic shape, and with a burst of purple light, there she stood. Somehow, Rhyme didn't feel surprised at her normal, everyday appearance, but there was a very strange sensation of familiarity she would never be able to explain.

The girl appeared to be hardly older than Neku with soft chocolate eyes and long, brilliant brunette curls that shone red under the sun's touch. She wore slender glasses, a simple hoodie with a few symbolic patches, and a pair of snug fitting dark denim jeans. From the corner of her mouth hung a smoldering hand-rolled jay, which emanated a familiar relaxing scent that stunned Rhyme and Neku alike. And from her back extended a pair of beautiful wings; the feathers raven black and transcending into that same beautiful glowing purple near the tips of the wings.

She seemed… oddly majestic. Majestic, and sad.

"Well, Neku and Rhyme," Mr. Hanekoma started as he flicked his tail, "I'd like for you to meet Rae, the current Game Master."

The two nodded at her, still a little speechless. "Hey, what's up?" she replied, her voice laid back. Although she was tranquil, there was no doubt that she held a lot of staggering power within, dormant for the time being. It made Rhyme feel a little weak in the knees. From the way Neku nervously shifted a few Pins in his hands, Rhyme could tell that he was feeling the tension as well. How were they supposed to defeat this Game Master? Up until now, Rhyme had wanted to destroy whoever 'God' was, but now she thought otherwise in face of the real thing.

For a long time, she studied them from behind her glasses, her brown eyes full of intelligence, lips exhaling a puff of smoke every once in a while. It seemed she was measuring their power and potential; Rhyme could feel something gently tickling the edges of her aura and knew that it was from this girl. After a silence that felt like an eternity, she shook her head and said, "You two won't actually be battling with me, so don't worry about that. Right now, my power is way too vast for even both of you to handle, and it just wouldn't be a fair match." The bit of silence that passed after this was heavy.

Neku quickly broke it, "So… who exactly are we fighting today for the final battle?" Rhyme knew the answer the moment she saw Rae's eyes soften in sympathy, because she had won a similar battle millennia ago. It seemed that Neku also understood without words, and gave Rhyme a nervous glance without meeting her gaze.

Before anything else could be said or done, Rhyme had to know who killed her. Who had shot Shi… "Can you tell me who shot me? I think that, in light of everything, I at least deserve that much." Rae seemed to be considering whether or not she should answer Rhyme, but she didn't get the chance. The answer came from a very surprising source when the person standing beside her spoke.

"Rhyme, I'm sorry," Neku began. Her blue eyes widened, her gaze fixated on the boy she had been battling with to try to ensure their survival in this Hell. "This really is day seven. On day one, there was only one objective and it was given to me: enter the Game or be erased. I… I had no choice, we both would have been wiped from existence, so I… shot us both."

Her mind raced. "You didn't hurt her?" Rhyme needed to know. Neku managed to give her a small and sincere smile, the only thing in the past week that managed to sooth some of the aching pain in her heart.

"No, I didn't. I didn't hurt Shiki." The relief that flooded through Rhyme's body made her feel weak and she sank to the flickering concrete ground. Tears openly escaped her eyes, and she was softly gasping for air. Shiki wasn't dead, she was still alive! Rhyme could see her again…

Her wet blue eyes rose to meet Neku's own gaze, and the boy knew in that instant that their partnership was officially over. The girl was filled with determination; determination to win and see Shiki again. Slowly Rhyme rose, never taking her eyes off of Neku. Mr. Hanekoma and Rae both spread their wings and flew to the roof of a nearby building, sensing that the final battle was about to begin.

"You know it's nothing personal, right Neku?" Rhyme said as she inched a hand towards her black planet Pins.

Neku nodded while similarly reaching for his crimson sword Psyche, "Same to you, Rhyme. You will always be my friend."

Rhyme smiled in agreement, and let out a fierce battle cry as she ripped free a Pin and let loose its dark power. Black lightning lunged for Neku's heart but missed the target when he vanished. Instantly she initiated Black Saturn, her dark aura strengthening itself and stretching out into a barrier. She smiled when she felt a thump against her aura, Neku unable to teleport close enough to Rhyme and effectively running into her shield.

While the barrier held its position, she quickly went to work with a couple of her other Pins, trying to come up with something that she could use against Neku's sword. An idea came to mind. Calling on Black Uranus, she felt the ground beneath her feet rumble as it flickered violently from the vibrations; however she didn't concentrate as much power as she had when fighting Joshua. Stomping the ground with her right foot, a long and perfectly shaped piece of black ice shot out of the ground before her, where she snatched it out of the air with an almost experienced ease.

Now she held her own sword, made of unbreakable black ice that would never melt if she didn't want it to. It didn't even feel cold against her skin like she would have thought, although it was so cold there was a faint mist hugging close to it that trailed after her sword as she moved it. Around her the protective shield was starting to fade, but before it was gone she imbued her ice sword with a touch of Black Mars. Along the length of the blade side of the sword, black fire started to burn, feeding off of that strange mist the ice emanated.

"Alright, Neku! Let's do this, to the finish!" Rhyme screamed as her shield fell around her, exposing her to Neku's attacks. However, her aura sensed which direction he would come from, and black ice was easily able to deflect crimson light from cutting into her side. The two shared a smile while crossing blades.

"I'm surprised at how easily you pick up swordplay," Neku said.

"You'd be surprised how damn easily I pick up a lot of things," Rhyme replied, shifting her weight to offset his balance and giving herself a small opening. It was a tactic she had seen Neku use on Hanekoma, and it worked just as well for her. She left a blazing but light cut on Neku's arm, the boy disappearing to try to extinguish the black fire. While he was gone, Rhyme quickly shuffled through her Pins with her free hand, picking one out and holding it ready at her side.

A moment later and Neku appeared right in front of her, holding up his sword and bull-rushing her with a roar. She held up her own blade in one hand, using some of her aura to add support like an extra arm, and deflected his cleaving blow. While they struggled, she brought up her other hand right against his stomach, and blasted him point blank with a shot of dark energy. The force sent him flying away into a nearby wall, the entire building's image flickering and going out after impact to reveal that odd code. Not wasting any time, she aimed and fired two more black shots of power after him, but they only demolished the already damaged building. He had vanished.

Expelling Walk On, Walk Off behind another building out of Rhyme's sight, Neku took a moment to catch his breath and inspect his aching stomach while waiting for the reboot. She wasn't messing around at all, aiming to finish the fight. He had to be more careful, study her movements more, because that sneak attack had scared him. The building he leaned against shook as Rhyme hit it with lighting; she knew where he was hiding. Just in time, his Pin rebooted, and he vanished as the building disintegrated under the force of another black lightning bolt.

When Neku came out from behind the building, he shot his own lightning at Rhyme, the girl having to dive aside to dodge the deadly blast. She rolled and got back up on her feet a moment later, grimacing. Neku was gone again, but she felt a small pressure from behind her. Flipping around, she deflected a flash of red, and had to turn around again as Neku teleported right after the swing to deliver another. Her aura warned her of his movements, so as he vanished and reappeared around her in an intricate circle, she turned and met his blade stroke for stroke.

After several long moments, Rhyme became tired of this game and predicted the next spot Neku would appear. When she swung her blazing ice sword, it connected with flesh and she heard Neku gasp in pain. He teleported away from her, but that's when she realized the trap she had fallen into. All around her lay slowly growing balls of explosive energy, Neku planting them one by one as he teleported around her. She knew there wouldn't be enough time to run, so she threw up her shield as the first bomb exploded, igniting the rest. The explosions rolled and collided with one another in a perfect sphere around her, and her dusty blue eyes watched it all with a little wonderment. As they expended their immense energy against her black shield, it absorbed some and gave her a boost of power.

As the bombs exploded and vanished, Neku cursed to himself when he realized that she had used her shield. His left hand pressed against a gash in his side, a bit of blood oozing between his fingertips. It wasn't too deep, but it did hurt a lot, burned from the black fire that came with every cut of Rhyme's punishing sword. How was it he hadn't laid a single blow on her yet? He had to think of something else.

Rhyme spun her sword in her hand, letting Neku gather his thoughts while she mused some things over herself. What exactly was it going to take to defeat Neku? Her former partner was having similar thoughts himself about her, wondering how she could be beaten in battle. Her powers were not to be underestimated. Fortunately, neither were his. He had his own fire, too.

From behind Rhyme, a small blue flame formed and quickly grew. She turned in surprise as a wall of wailing blue fire started to circle around her. Before it could shut her in completely, she dashed out through a guided opening – and was hit full force by a blast of blue lighting from Neku. She didn't even make a groan as she slumped to the ground, body convulsing slightly, but she knew that he was already on his way to deliver the final blow. She had to do something!

Somehow she willed her jelly-like body into motion, rolling over onto her back and dodging red crimson as it sank into the flickering ground where she had just been. Their eyes met in a brief moment of surprise, and then Neku freed his sword as Rhyme got to her feet. They faced each other off, slowly circling one another as Rhyme said, "So, Neku, how's this gonna end, yo? Who's gonna fall to who?" As she spoke, she ran her finger along the long edge of her black sword, feet planting into stance. Neku came to a stop as well, studying Rhyme.

"I don't know yet, Rhyme. I'll be sure to tell you once the fight's over, though," he replied, coming in for an attack. Their blades clashed together again and again, both fighters watching the motions of the opponent and executing a beautiful, deadly dance of the sword. From above, Mr. Hanekoma and Rae watched the two in silence, the old friends flashing back to a similar showdown that had decided the first ultimate winner. In the end, it had come down to Rae versus Mr. Hanekoma, and they had done their own sword dance much like the two Players before them were now.

Using a little sidestep tactic, Neku finally gave Rhyme her first cut, across her thigh. Blood soaked her pants and she bit her lower lip against the pain. She thanked him by giving him a cut below his right eye, and he got her on the side. It wasn't long before both were sporting several slowly bleeding wounds; Neku's came with a few burns. They were panting for air, eyes never once looking away from the other with several feet of distance between them.

This isn't just a brawl between friends Neku thought as he considered Rhyme's determined blue eyes. This is far more serious. She won't stop until she can't move any more… which is pretty much true for me as well. There's just too much on the line here, for both of us…

Yeah. This is a fight to the death.

He could tell from her expression and body language that she thought the exact same. So that was it, there was no holding back for anything. The black fire burning along Rhyme's sword grew as her eyes hardened. Neku readied himself, muscles tense and waiting. She took a step forward and swung, even though she was still beyond physical range. Some of the flames on her blade flicked off like drops of water, burning as they flew for Neku. He tried to deflect it, but some of it struck his body and immediately started to burn his clothes.

While furiously trying to put the dark fire out, he aimed a bolt of lightning at Rhyme and shot. She dodged it and shot some of her own, which landed. Neku groaned as he sank to his knees on the ground, sword Pin falling out of his twitching fingers. He watched as Rhyme came closer, sword held high above her head, and waited. Once she was near him, that sword came down in a curving arc aimed for his throat, but dark ice only sliced air. He had vanished at the last instant, teleporting behind Rhyme with a growing bomb already in hand. As she turned her head to look over her shoulder at him, she saw bright light, the bomb exploding between them and sending them both flying in opposite directions. Neku landed on the ground and skidded, but Rhyme hit CAT's mural with staggering brutality, the stone wall shifting a little from the impact.

Her body slumped down to the ground, a trail of blood streaking the famous painted cat as she went. Neku struggled to his feet, ignoring his painful and now useless left hand. Limping over to where Rhyme's broken body lay, he kicked away her ice sword and stood over her. She lay motionless. He wasn't sure if she were still alive or not, but the fight was over. He had won.

The victory was an empty one.

Looking up, he saw the two celestial beings approach him. Instead of waiting for one of them to start speaking, Neku turned away, sobbing a little. A hand gently came to rest on his shoulder, and he turned to meet a pair of warm chocolate eyes full of understanding. Gently he was guided to her soft chest, and Neku cried for all he was worth while in the embrace of the former Game Master, her fingers caressing his hair.

-End Day 7