(pretty hard chapter to write, with so many things going on in this. But I am expecting to write more complicated things like this in future chapters. Hopefully they won't be that bad. : 3)

CHAPTER 5

Whoa, slow down, Neku thought as he slumped on his chair, feeling like the world was spinning. He tried to think of how this could all be possible, sure CAT never showed himself in public, he knew that the artist's information is pretty scarce so it was no wonder most people don't know much about him, except that he's a famous graffiti artist, But for him to have a son?

Hanekoma lifted his eyebrow, secretly scanning Neku's thoughts. He snickered while setting his coffee down, "Legally, yes. He is my 'son.' But biologically speaking? No." Neku blinked then he breathed out feeling relieved. Neku sat up and spoke to Sanae, now thinking about Joshua's biological parents, "but what about his real parents? What happen to them?" he glanced at the ground for a while, remembering how much he missed his mother and father during the games and he didn't even realize it until he returned home, "… doesn't he miss them?"

Hanekoma twirled his mug slowly, being gentle of how he moved it. His smile he was always wearing had transformed into a neutral looking expression. After taking his time to answer, Hanekoma finally spoke up, sighing as he did, "to answer your second question… there was an… accident, a month after Joshua and I met," as the memory flew around in his mind, Hanekoma giggled slightly as he remembered the day they came face to face, the day that the young eight year old snuck into his café during the coldest winter that Shibuya's ever had. Neku was silent, moving his head down slightly so that the top of his hair covered his eyes. Hanekoma continued, "it had been days since I talked to the kid, and when he finally strolled back in the café… the poor kid looked miserable, let's just put it that way. Of course overtime he grew out of it, but ya know. No matter how old he is, no matter how he tries to cover it up, he's still just a child, missing his mother and father. Teasing and bullying didn't help mend it either, he doesn't see it, but it made him worse."

This brought Neku back to the first week he entered the game, thinking about what Shiki had told him, that everyone needs a good listener. He thought that maybe if he could get Joshua to open up to him, then maybe he could help him… Shiki, what have you done to me, he thought, thinking that he's a total psycho to listen to his murderers sob story.

"So… he was bullied back then."

Hanekoma began to chuckle. Neku glanced at him in an odd way. Hanekoma shook his head, smiling again, "Joshua bullied? The last time I checked, he was the one picking fights, but for a good reason. If he saw someone getting hurt, he'd jump right in to defend them and start some sort of a brawl,"

"Sheesh, sounds like Beat,"

"I know right?" Hanekoma laughed, "eventually he grew up and calmed down… but, it was like no matter what he did, he's always going to be teased about 'Seeing the dead,' even the victims started to hop on that wagon. Eventually, he got tired of it all and stopped his recklessness. All he wanted to do was to be alone, away from everyone. All he saw in his world was himself."

Ssssssssssssssssssss

The hooded man got himself ready for another attack of his blade. Uzuki, who had her eyes closed all this time, slowly opened them, finding herself in Kariya's arms. She had never been this close to him before and being wrapped in his arms made her feel safe, "K-Kariya," she whispered as she blushed, "you need to give me that pin, now," said Kariya glancing at her.

Before they knew it, the hooded man had teleported himself closer to them, drawing his blade up. Kariya pushed Uzuki away, letting the blade pass between them. The man swiftly swung the other way, holding out his blade. The tip of it sliced Kariyas vest and the skin on his chest. He grunted while quickly balancing himself in the air. He held a hand on his chest and looked down at it, seeing fresh blood dripping.

"Kariya!" Uzuki called. She glared back at the man and pointed her gun at him; "you're going to pay for that!" she fired using the same attack she did before, shooting him multiple times. When the bullets made close contact, Uzuki became surprised, seeing as they slowly dissolved into his body, each and every one of them. Uzuki stopped firing, staring at him with a confused expression at the site before her, "what's going on?" she whispered.

As the hooded man absorbed the last of the bullets, Kariya breathed in deep and began making a ball of energy. Thinking this would be the right time to attack, the ball of energy charged towards him, hoping it would do some damage. The man turned his head and grinned, having the same thing happen to Uzuki's bullets, "your attacks will have nothing on me, you low rank imbeciles."

"Shit," hissed Kariya, the other forming another ball of energy.

"It looks to me like you want to die first," the hooded man laughed and swiftly flew towards him. Uzuki flew towards the two, holding out her gun and trying to aim for him. Kariya threw the energy ball towards him again, only to be sliced in half by his dark blade. When he got closer, he swung the blade sideways. Kariya dodged just in time and called out to Uzuki who began firing. The man turned and slashed sideways sending a sharp wave of air, halting the bullets and sending them helplessly falling. The wave made an impact, slamming her painfully on the stomach and sending her tumbling backwards. It was like being hit with a baseball bat, hard enough to pull the air out of your body for a while. Seeing her tumbling down and hitting the ground hard, Kariya flew towards her until he felt the same vibe right by his side. As soon as he turned, the man slammed the flat side of his blade on his back, knocking him forward and landing harshly beside Uzuki, the painful impact paralyzed him fully.

"It's so sad that it has to end this way for you two," said the man faking his sad voice, "hmm… I guess, it'll be best to, 'erase' you now than later."

Uzuki struggled to get up, but as soon as she did, she collapses back down, "that's just great, now what?" she said to herself. Kariya tried moving his hand towards his pocket, but with every inch he went, the pain grew stronger and stronger, "hey, take the pin from my pocket," he said to her weakly, "it'll get the both of us out of here,"

"There's no way I'm backing out. I'm going to win even if it kills me,"

"Uzuki, we can't-,"

She lifted her upper body and reached down his pocket, pulling out the pin he needed, then placed it in his hand along with the blank pin, "if you want to run away so badly then that's just fine with me. And take that crummy thing with you, it's useless anyways." She struggled again to stand and this time she did so successfully. She glared directly at the man who was about to get ready for another attack with his blade, "hmm? You still want to fight?"

"Damn right! I'm not finished with you yet!" her wings glowed slightly, signaling that she was recovering a little bit. She flew back up in the air and fired her blue bullets this time. The man dodged them but to his surprise, it was following him wherever he teleported too. Uzuki grinned and used her other attack, firing continually at him, and hoping that one of the blue bullets cut his defense. As if luck was upon her, the man did receive hits from the blue bullets. He raised his blade and used another wave to stop the attack, but to no avail. Uzuki aimed and shot her pink flower bullets, and with the help of the blue bullets, it seemed like a critical hit. Finally she's got him, the huge explosion in the air created a huge cloud of dust and bits of powder.

With the pain being less and less painful, Kariya is able to turn himself over on his back. His eyes widened, surprised yet shocked by the situation. He called out to her for the last time. Before she knew it, the blade had stabbed her right through the back.

Ssssssssssssssssssss

Hanekoma shot his eyes open and quickly stood up from his seat. Neku, who was thinking about what he last said to him, turned to him in confusion for the quick reaction, "Mr. H, are you alright?"

Hanekoma didn't answer back. He clenched his teeth tightly, his hands curling to a fist, there it is again, he thought, calming himself down. Neku was about to reach out a hand to him until suddenly the barrier became visible again, then dispersed, "I think we should talk another time, it's getting pretty late. Don't you have something planned with your parents tonight?" said Hanekoma with a kind smile. Neku, realizing how dark it's suddenly becoming, checked the time on his MP3 player with one push of the only button on there, "CRAP! We were all going to eat out at this new restaurant tonight," he said bolting towards the door. He stopped in his tracks, then turned around, "let's talk tomorrow?"

"Well… to be honest Phones, if you want more depth to all of your questions…" Hanekoma jerked his head towards Joshua. Neku sighed, knowing what he meant; he's never going to give me an answer you know.

"Heh, you'd probably be surprised, he will sooner or later… maybe never,"

I really wish you'd stop reading my mind, don't you dare become another Joshua Mr. H, he thought as he glared at the café owner. Hanekoma laughed while walking towards him, "alright kid, sorry." Neku chuckled and looked back at the teen resting, then ran out the door.

Neku ran as fast as he could, getting somewhere was pretty easy now that he doesn't have to keep dodging slow ass people on the streets. What Hanekoma told him before he left, stuck to his mind like a screw on a piece of plank, "… all he saw in his world… was himself," he whispered.

Hanekoma switched the sign of his café from Open to Closed, then ran his hand through his hair, "you could have at least said goodbye to him."

"… I suppose so. But I did greet him before I came back yesterday," Joshua finally spoke, being awake the whole time Neku and Sanae were talking. He made no move to get up or even open his eyes. Sanae walked up to the table and leaned on the edge of it, "so you met all of them yesterday?"

"Just Neku and that one girl… Shiki was it?" Joshua sat up and fixed his hair which perfectly aligned itself. He sighed and stared at the table, thinking about the other girl that was with them. Emotions started stirring just thinking about her, honestly, he wasn't sure how to react to that or why he's feeling the way he did, Maiya.

Momentarily scanning him, Hanekoma smirked at the young composer, amused by his attitude. Sanae cleared his throat and decided to get down to business, "hey, you felt that too didn't you?"

"Oh? Why yes, that was what I was going to talk to you about yesterday. Something strange is at play here in Shibuya,"

"It felt like it's gotten slightly worse today. What are you going to do about it? Surely this thing is going to be a threat to us sooner or later,"

"I understand that… what's the use?" said Joshua gleefully, laying back down. Sanae frowned at his response, "hold it, what?"

"What can I do? I'm a human now and my powers are limited in both strength and use. There's nothing I can possibly do to stop whatever's happening, at least until my three weeks are up."

"Come on J, you're not even going to try? If we can figure out how to eliminate the problem now, since it's not such a big threat yet, then we can save Shibuya from disaster,"

"Oh really? How do you know it'll become a disaster?"

Hanekoma stood there silent, thinking about what he was going to say. He got where Joshua was going with this, what if the threat is something simple? What if its growth is slow? What if, after three weeks, it's still a small problem that can be fixable?

"You see?" said Joshua, playing with a small string of his hair, "in a hopeless situation like this, it's better to just wait and watch."

Sanae ran his hand on the back of his neck, "… whatever you say."

Sssssssssssssssssssssss

Down at the Hachiko statue, Maiya stood there in front of it, looking at it with those sad eyes, Joshua… I've got to find him.