III. The Dead God's Pad

Neku had regained his vision after being blinded by the bright light. Before him lies a pool table. Schools of fish swam under his feet. He could hear someone shaking liquid, possibly mixing some drinks at the minibar.

"Welcome to the Dead God's Pad, Neku," Joshua suddenly said, surprising the still confused Neku. He was sitting on the bar stool, waiting for his drink.

"Hey there, Phones! You wanna have a drink?" a voice called out from behind the minibar. It was Mr. Hanekoma, who poured liquor into an elegant glass. Joshua took the glass and sipped.

"A nice mix, Mr. H, but next time make it a little bit more sour, please," Josh commented. "Oh yeah, Neku, have a seat."

Neku quickly sat two stools away from Joshua.

"I'll have something alcohol-free, Mr. H. I'm still underage," Neku answered Mr. H's previous question. He was not surprised by Mr. H being in the Dead God's Pad, but he certainly was shocked at the fact that his favorite artist and coffee brewer also knows how to mix liquors.

"Alright then, I'll brew you my special blend. You owe me for this, Phones!" joked Mr. H. He then proceeded to prepare his special blend.

"So, whaddya want to talk about, Josh?" asked Neku. His tone showed that he was disgruntled. "This better be worth my time."

Josh calmly finished his drink, and answered Neku. "Well, I have some news for you. You remember this guy? We fought him together." He takes a picture from his pocket and showed it to Neku. The picture was that of a young man, possibly still in his twentys -- no, maybe he's just three years older than Neku. He wore a red bandanna, covered with a black cap. He wore some kind of black trenchcoat and part of his pants were ripped on the knees. If he didn't have any of his weird tattoos, he would've made a few schoolgirls squee at his presence.

"This is... Pi-Face, right?" Neku asked. Pi-Face was a nickname he made up for the man in the picture, Sho Minamimoto. He was a math genius, and his love for the subject earned him the nickname. He was a powerful enemy, for he almost killed Neku with a self-sacrificing attack, had he not been saved by Joshua. After being transformed into Soul, his Taboo Noise refinery sigil brought him back to life, with even more power. He was ready to face the Composer of Shibuya and succeed his position. However, his efforts were in vain, for The Composer quickly disposed of him. "I thought you killed him off, Josh," said Neku.

"Yeah. At least, that's what I think," Josh said with a troubled face.

"Whaddya mean by that?" Neku asked. Joshua never looked so troubled. Even if Sho had posed a threat to him, his Composer powers would finish him off before he can touch him.

"Well," Josh sighed, "you know that parallel universes exist, right? There is one like our universe out there, but slightly different."

Neku continued to listen to his old partner. He was curious about what he meant by 'slightly different'.

"You see, he was never killed there. Instead, he became the new Composer," Josh continued.

"But, how can he kill you there? Your powers there must be similar to yours here, right?"

"Unfortunately, no, my dear Neku. He surpassed me. At least, the 'me' existing in that universe," Josh answered.

"The problem is, he can go here if he wishes to. He can easily rule this Shibuya and bring some... problems."

"So, you want me to help you get rid of him," Neku quickly concluded.

"My, you're pretty sharp, Neku! I knew that I chose..."

Neku quickly cut Josh's compliment short. "Then my answer is NO. I'm tired of fighting. I just wanna be with my friends."

"Oh, come now, Neku. Can't you do a favor for an old friend?" asked Josh.

Neku went silent for a while. He didn't want to fight anymore, but if he didn't help Joshua, his other friends would be harmed. He was conflicted.

"Ugh... Fine, I'll help. But you can't give me orders, and I can't go with you. I have a summer holiday too, you know."

"That will do, Neku. I'll give you special privileges, so you can go back and forth between the UG and the RG. I'll call you when I need you, mmkay?"

It appeared that Josh was quite satisfied.

"Fine." Neku's answer was short and simple. He quickly turned to Mr. H. "Hey, Mr. H! is my coffee done?"

"Here you go, Phones!" replied Mr. H. He gave Neku a mug of his specially brewed and bleded coffee. It smelled as good as it always have been. Neku grabbed the mug and drank it quickly.

"You know, Phones," Mr. H suddenly said, "seeing you drink your coffee like that reminds me of an old buddy I met in a parallel dimension. He works as an attorney at law, and he's also a coffee expert, like me."

"He sounds like a video game character," Neku replied.

"Oh, almost forgot. Take these, Phones!" Mr. H threw some pins at Neku. Thankfully, he had set his mug down, so Neku caught the pins with ease. The pins were blank when Neku caught them, but an image started to appear on one of the pins. It became a red pin, with an orange flame in the middle.

It was the same pin that Shiki gave him on his first day playing the Game.

"Give the others to your friends," Mr. H said, "they'll return everyone's psychs. You guys will need them a lot."

"Alright. Thanks, Mr. H."

"Neku," called Josh, "you said that you won't go with me to prevent Sho's invasion, right? Well, I decided to just wait for him to come here and face him here."

"Why would you do that?" Neku asked.

"Things could go very different there. I could be attacked by Taboo Noises as soon as I set foot there. So, I'll just let him come here," explained Josh. "I'll just text you when I need your help. When you want to go to the UG, you'll just have to say 'vibe change, UG', and vice versa."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. So can I go back now?" complained Neku.

"Yes, yes. But before you leave, I'd like to warn you," Josh said. "As you know, Sho would come here to invade Shibuya. He needs to unleash a large amount of Imagination to go here."

Imagination: a mysterious force that lets both ordinary humans and Reapers do magnificent things. To humans, a person with a vast amount of Imagination would use art and other creative outlets to unleash their powers, and influence others in the process. Reapers use their Imagination to summon Noises and protect themselves. Beings with high Imagination, namely, The Composer and The Producer, may also travel to other parallel universes if they so wish.

"However, he has been tainted by the Taboo Noise. This makes travel to a specific universe make wormholes in other universes," continued Joshua. "So, you can expect to come across a few strange things this summer, like people from video games."

"Video games? They're just our work of fiction, right?" asked Neku.

"To us, yes. But they actually exist, from the point that the developers designed the characters and their world. So, keep an eye out for them, OK?"

"Alright. So, I'll leave you guys now," Neku hastily ended the conversation.

He stood up and prepared to return to the RG. "Vibe change, RG."

A dark blue aura covered Neku, and as soon as it disappeared, Neku had returned to his room.
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"He seemed pretty reluctant there, Boss," said Mr. H. It had been a minute since Neku left the Dead God's Pad.

"Yeah, but he'll help me for sure."