CHAPTER 6

The higher angle sat on her throne room having a conference with two of her captains and the few assistance that she summoned, "ever since Shibuyas composer descended, the nature of the city has been changing," said the captain who stood before her.

"Could it be because Shibuyas composer is absent?"

"Nonsense," She heard as they chatted amongst themselves. She leaned back on her chair thinking about the change happening to Shibuya. It occurred to her that it wasn't happening in any other zones, so why this? Sensing that the room became quiet, she looked at the concerned faces of the angels. One of them stood up and spoke, "… what should we do?"

She shut her eyes tight for a moment letting the silence take over. It was hard to make a plan, especially with a threat they're not so familiar with. The higher angel made no move or eye contact with either of them. Tora, who is once again, right by her side, sat there bored and rolling his eyes at the situation while his fingers tapped on his knee.

She stood from her seat and looked at the angel who stood, "Akiyoshi, whoever is trying to run this city, changing its vibe and affecting the people, must have quite the skill to do it. I have an important mission for you."

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"…"

"…"

"… YES!" Hanekoma shouted and chimed with joy from the booth, raising his hands up high in the air as if he just won a tournament. Joshua, on the other side of the booth, crossed his arms and pouted, "First Neku and now Sanae?" he mumbled quietly to himself, reeking the day that tin pin slammer was ever made. If it was anything he hated the most, it was losing at a simple game made for fifth graders. Hanekoma grabbed his winning pin and let it dance on his fingers, "looks like the deal is sealed,"

"I demand another try,"

"Nope, sorry kid. It was one game only that was the other deal, remember?"

"This isn't fair," Joshua grumbled

"It totally is! Com'on J, you've been sittin' around here doing nothing for the past two days. Besides, all I'm asking you is to do a little grocery shopping for me,"

"A little? Need I remind you the list of …'stuff' you gave me?" Joshua blurted out while taking a neatly folded piece of paper out from his pocket and unfolded as he held it out, revealing a rather long list, "front, and back."

"What can I say?" said Hanekoma, "I'm starting to run out of valuable mixes and ingredients."

He just wants to give me something to do, the young teen thought, knowing full well that he already has most, if not all, of the things listed. He sighed, putting the paper back in his pocket without folding it and letting half of the crumpled piece of thing hang beside his pants. As he was about to head out, Hanekoma called from behind, telling him to make sure he didn't forget the coffee beans.

He walked past the scramble, and having other things in mind besides doing his producers chores, he headed for the 104 building just up ahead.

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Rhyme and her other friends were enjoying their lunch break under a tree that provided them with shade. They talked and laughed until the bell rang, signaling that lunch is over. The other girls already have packed their lunch, waited for her to finish packing. Rhyme, unlike her other friends, had to clean up more than what she would have if she didn't pack lunch for herself, she packed enough for her group of friends to share, she was just getting into cooking and most of the stuff in the bento box were samples of her latest creations. "Raimu, do you need any help?" asked one of the girls. Rhyme looked up to her friend and smiled, "no thanks I can do it. You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up,"

"Okay, better catch us before we reach the stairs," her friend said and Rhyme nodded knowing that they'd wait for her anyways. Soon, she finds herself all alone. Placing her bento boxes in her bento bag, she tied it and made her way towards the building. On the far left to the entrance was a large metal garbage bin with a few garbage cans to the side of it. As she was about to enter the building, she heard a big bang on the other side of the bin and what sounded like someone groaning in pain.

Curious, she cautiously walked towards there, holding her bag tightly. She took a peek and gasped, recognizing the tall familiar orangey haired reaper.

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"Just put this here, and… all done!" said Sanae successfully changing the filter for his coffee maker. He grabbed the hand towel next to it and wiped the side clean, for about the hundredth time this day. The coffee maker is Hanekomas prized possession, it was old, but still working. As he cleaned the top of it, he rests his head on it, closed his eyes, and cooed knowing that he was all alone, in his very own café. Or was he?

Teleporting himself in the kitchen, Akiyoshi stood behind the fallen angel, confused at him for silenty talking to a 'thing.' He cleared his throat and spoke, "Mr. Sanae Hanekoma."

Spooked, the fallen angel jumped, his feet lifting slightly. He then turned to face the intruder, quickly collecting his thoughts and recognizing an old friend of his, "A-Akiyoshi," he stuttered. Realizing that he was still hanging on to his beloved machine, he let go of it and tried to look professional as he possibly could, "w-what brings you here at this hour?" seriously, you couldn't have chosen a better time?

"She has sent me to come for you. It is urgent, you are to ascend with me immediately to the higher plain, she wishes to speak with you,"

"Huh? What could she possibly want?" Hanekoma murmered quietly to himself. He agreed and together they vanished into thin air.

Once at the higher realm, Hanekoma and Akiyoshi walked through the large hallway with walls made out of white marble, actually, that's the only thing the whole place is made out of besides the cloudy ground they walked on. The hallway led to a large golden door, the conference room where the higher angel is waiting. Her eyes shot open as she heard the door open, and as expected, it was one of her angels and the barista himself. A large oval shaped table is what separated the two from each other, and of course, the room itself is large, larger than the dead gods pad. Hanekoma glanced at Akiyoshi, who nodded at him, a sign of encouragement. Sanae took a deep breath, and nervously walked forward, "please, take a seat," said the higher angel, gesturing over to the empty chair beside her.

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Kariya awoke with the slightest bit of motion came and went as he felt himself being moved along. His eyes opened slightly, finding the ground under him moving slowly. He blinked a few times before realizing that he's being dragged to who knows where. He turned his head and saw her, the girl from the reaper game. His arm was swung over her shoulders, while her other hand was trying to support his upper body, "… you're pretty strong," he said weakly. Rhyme stopped, turning to him, "oh! You're awake!"

Kariya struggled to get on his feet but failed miserably. Rhyme tightened her grip, "don't try to move as much, you're badly hurt,"

"heh, thanks for reminding me,"

"I couldn't leave you at my school, someone would be sure to find you," Rhyme started to keep moving. Kariya looked around, finding himself in a maze of alleyways, "where are you taking me then?"

"Well I don't know where else to take you except the WildKat, I'm sure Mr. H can treat those wounds of yours,"

"I see… why are you helping me?"

Rhyme stopped again, puzzled by his question. Kariya smirked and chuckled at her, he knew that she knew what Uzuki and himself accidently did to her in the UG, he remembered clearly summoning that noise to erase his brother when it had been her who had been erased, "you could have just left me for dead, it would have settled the score, ya know." No movement, no sound from either one of them. He knew that she would, but what Kariya didn't know, was that his question to her, is the simplest she could ever answer. And so, she tightened her grip again and began dragging Kariya to her destination, "forgive and forget, that's what I always say. Besides, settling scores doesn't have to deal with ones death, life is too important to waste so please don't give up the fight just yet."

As Kariya was about to speak, felt a small jolt of pain on his chest, causing him to cough, "hang on, just a little while longer," said Rhyme, trying to encourage him. He shook his head and replied, "You've got to let me off here. It's dangerous to be around me,"

"Huh? No offence, but you can hardly hurt a fly right now,"

"It's not me, there's someone else trying to track me down. He won't stop until he gets what he wants. If you bring me to the café, crazy coffee man's going to be in danger too."

"w-what does he want with you?" she asked but received no reply from the reaper. She glanced down at him, seeing that he is completely knocked out, whoever he is must have did this to him, she thought now trying to pick up the pace.

Two hours have passed and Sanae returned home, standing still in the middle of the room. They discussed the situation happening in Shibuya, Akiyoshi would be leading a small group to patrol the city while Sanae's duty is to keep an eye on his composer, she deemed that anything can be a threat to him, but the thing that daunted him the most was what happened in the UG while the two were gone, "two reapers missing… four completely erased… but who were they?" he wondered, gathering that information from the higher angel. He stood there and thought for awhile until he heard the bell dingle from the top of the entrance. He snapped out of his thoughts and turned around to greet his first customer for the day, even though the sign clearly said 'closed,' "welcome to Kat Ca"

"M-Mr. H?"

Hearing the small voice, Hanekoma paused, shocked at the sight, "lil Skulls?"

"Please Mr. H," said Rhyme, "you have to help him, he's badly hurt."

Hanekoma ran to the other side of Kariya and looped his arm around his shoulders, "come on, let's take him this way," he said, leading them back to the counter, past the kitchen, and towards the back room where he kept his tools and many broken and fixed gadgets. They set the reaper on the table resting him on his back. Rhyme, exhausted, slumped down on a chair and massaged her shoulder while Hanekoma examined Kariya's wounds, "what happened to him?" he asked.

"I don't know what happened. I found him next to the garbage at my school,"

"And you dragged him all the way here? By yourself?"

"I didn't know who to turn too," Rhyme suddenly felt guilty, she wondered if she came in at a bad time, "I-I didn't want to call or take him to the hospital, the only person I thought who could help him is you, nothing else registered at that time."

After checking out the damage, Hanekoma walked towards the cabinet hanging on the wall. He opened it and pulled out jars of many sizes of medicine and healing herbs, "ahh, I see. Well don't worry about it kid, you took him to the right place, the doctors can heal his body, but not those wings of his," he said smiling at her while holding bandages and gauze, the wings of a reaper is very important too as it's attached to the body itself. Just like a tail of an animal, if the wings weren't fixed, the reaper would have trouble with his or her balance, and would lose a good percent of their powers to fend off noise. Rhyme relaxed, smiling back at the barista and watching him apply medicine to the infected areas, "oh yea! On the way here, before he passed out, he said that someone is trying to track him down." Sanae stopped for a moment then looked back at Rhyme as she continued, "he thinks that if he stays here, you'll be in danger too,"

"Did he say who was following him?"

"No," Rhyme stared at the ground while she moved her other hand to her shoulder. A flashback appeared in his mind, remembering what he saw on the top of the building that day; could it be those two that did this to lollipop? If so, who are they? He thought, turning his attention to the bruises and wounds. He noticed that a few of them were open, and so he went back to the cabinet and rummaged through some jars until he found what he was looking for, "Skulls Junior, do you think you could do me a favor and watch the register for me? I don't think you want to see me do this," he said walking back with a needle and string. With wide eyes, she gladly accepted and walked out, closing the door to the back room.

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Joshua had been lying on the edge of the 104 building since he left 'home' and staring at the beautiful blue sky. He had grown bored of watching the scenes below and had attempted to take a nice nap. Didn't work.

A small bird landed beside him, chirping and trying to pick some smaller gravel from the building. He turned and watched it, unaware of a small group forming at Hachiko. Beat is the first to arrive, walking around in a circle with his hands in his pockets; he paused to search for his friends, then continued walking around in a circle. Then Neku and Shiki arrived wearing their school uniforms, something that Neku despised a lot, he hated how uncomfortable it was. It's very relevant at the moment that the group is divided when it came to school. Shiki and Neku went to the same private school, while the Bito siblings went to a public school, "What took you guys so long?" said Beat feeling irritated. Shiki could only pout at his reaction, "Beat, you know our school is a long way from Hachiko than yours. Anyways, let's check on Rhyme now,"

"w-well phones should've been here hours ago," the Bito hissed, he didn't like to keep his little sister waiting, for her, every minute for him counts. He ran past them, going farther and farther. He turned to see his friends slowly making progress, "come on! Step it up!"

As soon as he turned, Beat abruptedly halted, causing him to loose his balance and fall backwards, at least it was better than to accidently run into her.

Joshuas eyes shot open and he quickly lifted himself from the ground, now looking at the crowd searching for someone whose melody captured his attention. Targeted.

Beat glanced up at her, feeling a bit speechless as she smiled at him and offered her hand, "I-I'm sorry, it seems like I'm always in someone's way nowadays," she said, Her lovely voice ringing in his ears and causing his heart to skip several beats. She tilted her head, wondering if helping was foreign to him, "Maiya!" she heard someone call and looked up to see her friend. Maiya waved back to the two who came rushing up, "Shiki! Neku!"

Neku ran behind Beat and helped the helpless guy up, "man you're heavy, come on! Pick yourself up!"

"Sorry about Beat, he's kinda unstoppable when he gets like that," Shiki said then began to introduce the two. The recovered Beat blushed slightly, rubbing the back of his head and avoiding Maiya's gaze. Maiya giggled and nodded to him, "it's nice to finally meet you Beat,"

"Yeah… you too," was all the tough guy could say. Shiki and Neku chuckled as well before turning to the long blonde haired girl, "so where are you headed? If you have nothing to do, you can come along with us to WildKat, you'd get to meet the final member of our little group," Shiki said cheerfully.

After climbing down all of those steps, running out and almost getting hit by a man on a bike, Joshua continued on letting her melody guide him through the sea of mindless people. He stopped as soon as they came into view, he stopped at a good distance and made sure to blend in with the crowd, making himself look invisible when he's really not. He watched Nekus rag-tag group (and Maiya) introduced her to the taller, tougher, somewhat challenged teen of the group; at least that's what Joshua thought. They started moving on and Joshua debated on whether or not to follow them. He watched as Maiya left him again, and along with Neku and friends. Conflicted inside, it was as if his mind was telling him to leave them be, his appearance (especially to Maiya) could only cause trouble for him in the long run, but he knew how much he missed her, but did she miss him at all? She had to have been, he noted how down she looked during their last encounter. Joshua took a deep breath, and although faded, he let her music pull him in again.