THE REAPER'S GAME

Day One: Reaper's Game

The sound of people walking around was the first thing that Neku heard, even through his headphones. Slowly, he dragged his eyes open to find people walking past him, completely ignoring him as though he weren't there, even though he was lying in the middle of the street. Grunting, he pushed himself to his feet and examined his surroundings. He recognized the area where he stood as the Scramble Crossing, adequately named for the number of people that crossed in such a manner, but had no idea as to how he got there. The MP3 player around his neck wasn't turned on; he hadn't been knocked out. He strained his mind, but for the life of him, he couldn't come up with a thing. It was as though someone had simply siphoned the memory from him.

Neku was about to reach out and ask someone if they had seen anything when he felt something in his right hand. Opening it, he noticed a large pin on it, designed with a unique skull-and-crossbones design that he recognized from somewhere; probably from several of the punks that hung out around the back alleys. Curiously, he tossed the pin in the air and caught it. It was a bit heavier than it looked.

The moment the pin landed in Neku's hand, there was a brief moment of complete silence and stillness. It quickly ceased, however, when the pin pulsed with a foreign power, sending a shockwave through his fingers, down his arms and coursing through his entire body before an explosion of sound went into his mind. His entire body jolting from the shock, Neku grabbed his headphones and pressed them against his ears to stop an oncoming flood of voices, but the action only seemed to make the voices even louder.

Aw, damn it! I knew I should have picked that up.

That guy's beyond help.

Don't gripe at me! Tell the clerk.

Da-yum! Hun's got guns! And buns!

Did Prince post a new blog today?

This is not what I call 'quick!'

He is so lying. I know he did it.

Neku cried out in shock and dropped the pin that he was holding. It fell to the ground, and the voices stopped, leaving him with the relatively silent sounds of the city bustling about. "Whoa!" He exclaimed. "What the...there were voices in my head!" Gasping for breath as the initial shock wore off, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. What just happened...? I don't remember having this pin before...

At that moment, the pedestrian light began to flash on red. Neku sighed and began making his way to the sidewalk when his phone beeped, signaling that a text message had been received. He blinked before pulling out the device. No one knows my number except for the school and my parents, he mused. Who's trying to contact me?

As he pulled out the phone, he read the message:

Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure.

-The Reapers

"…oh, cute," Neku grumbled sarcastically. "Spam." Rolling his eyes, he clicked the delete button and began to put the phone back in his pocket when he did a double-take.

The message was still there.

With a groan, Neku hit the delete button again, but the message remained. "Geez! What is this, junk mail from hell?" Again and again, he tried to delete the message, but it did not leave his screen. Neku was about to lose his temper when his hand throbbed suddenly, as though someone had stabbed it. He nearly dropped his phone as he grabbed his wrist, crying out in shock. When he looked down at his hand, however, he noticed something very out of place.

There, on his palm, was a timer that read 59:49. It continued to count down at a steady rate, and then it hit Neku: the text message was no prank, and this clock on his hand was the timer. When he looked up to see if anyone was staring, he found that no one was in the street, and the pedestrian light had turned red. A van was coming down the street, speeding toward him. He shielded himself for the blow, but Neku found that the car went through him as though it weren't there…or, perhaps, Neku was the one that wasn't there. At the same time, he cast a stray glance to the 104 tower nearby and found that the screen, which probably was supposed to display advertisements, was pitch-black, containing only large red letters that spelled out a foreboding phrase: You have 7 days.

A static whirr arose from around Neku, and he quickly found himself surrounded by what was probably best described as floating graffiti. The art, however, quickly disfigured into a very strange species of frog. For a moment, Neku was only mildly alarmed, but when one of the creatures leapt at him and tackled him to the ground, he made a quick decision to flee the area as quickly as possible. Struggling, he managed to shove off one of the frogs that had been trying to suffocate him by pressing its foot on his throat, and as he stood he kicked another one that had clamped onto his leg. Once he was free, Neku took off down the street without looking back, only hoping that the monstrous amphibians were far enough behind that he wouldn't be killed in mid-stride.

"Well, here we go again…"

A woman clad in a gloved sweater, white corset and a pair of black shorts stared at the wandering crowds below. Rolling her eyes, she pulled on a pair of knee-high black leather boots and flexed her black, skeletal wings. Work had begun once again, and she was ready to get started. It wasn't to say that she enjoyed being a harrier – she looked more forward to a promotion than anything – but she still did what her job required her to. The promotion wasn't going to come to her, after all. "Knock it off, Kariya," she said, brushing a few strands of magenta hair out of her face. "We haven't had work in like, ages."

A similarly winged man in a black-and-white parka chuckled behind her, smirking oddly as the wind played with his pinned-up hair. "That's what I mean, Uzuki. It's like the Monday after vacation."

Uzuki rolled her eyes. "What, you want a permanent vacation? Day one has the most players, and that means the most points to rack up. Do you even plan on making up for all that slack next month?"

"Maybe," Kariya replied. "I guess one week won't kill me. But while we're at it…how 'bout a game?"

"Game?" Uzuki echoed, doubt in her voice.

Kariya grinned. "Yeah, so it doesn't feel so much like work. Come on, you'll love it, I promise."

Uzuki chuckled. "I'm in, I guess. What're we going to do?"

"Reaper Sport number three," Kariya replied, pulling out a stick of bean paste. "Player hunt. Let's see who bags the most today."

"That's no fun!" Uzuki exclaimed. "I'm totally going to crush you!"

Kariya feigned a wound. "Oooh, harsh! I'm actually going to have to try, aren't I? Well, you know the drill. Loser buys the winner a hot bowl of ramen."

Uzuki stood, fumbling in her pocket for something. "Get your yen ready, Kariya. You're going down."

Neku could barely catch his breath. He had made it to a statue of a dog not far from the scramble crossing, but the frogs were still in pursuit. Frantic, he cried out for help, but no one even turned their heads to him. He swore; he knew he wanted to be left alone, but this hadn't been what he had in mind. As the frogs closed in on him and he found himself cornered, he began to wish for the first time that someone would pay attention to him, that perhaps someone would help him, but no one seemed to. They went on chatting, walking down the street, laughing at someone's jokes, talking on their cell phone. They didn't seem to notice Neku, they didn't seem to notice the frogs, they didn't seem to notice a thing. They were ignoring him. It was what he always wanted, and now he'd give anything to get rid of it…

"Found one!"

For some reason, the voice seemed to stand out among the crowd. Neku spun around to see a girl standing behind him, clad in what could only be designer clothing: short green shorts, a small red tank top, knee-high leather boots and a rather large beret. She had her arms out by her sides as though ready to lash out. "You!" She cried. "Forge a pact with me!"

Neku glanced back at the frogs. "I've got my hands full right no-"

"If we make a pact, we can fight the noise!" the girl interrupted.

"Who cares about a bit of noise?" Neku grumbled back, but he was quickly silenced when he noticed more of the floating graffiti symbols fly in toward other people in the immediate vicinity. The said individuals cried out in terror and began to run, only to have the symbols shift into wolves and take them down, causing them to vanish. Neku's eyes widened considerably. "Wha…they just vanished! What's going on?!"

"Those noise will erase us if we don't make a pact!" the girl cried. "Now hurry!"

Neku swallowed hard. I don't know what erasing means, but I have a feeling it's not good. He was about to speak when one of the wolves began to stalk near him. He backed near the girl. "All right! All right! I accept!"

Without waiting for another word, the girl grabbed Neku's hand, almost cueing the burst of light that came forward as a consequence. Something seemed to burst to life within him, but Neku couldn't quite make out what it was. It was a warm, comforting feeling, but at the same time terrifyingly powerful. It was completely foreign, and he had never felt it before…and yet somehow he knew it, as though it was more familiar to him than his own skin. There was another flash of light behind his eyes, and when he regained his vision, he found the girl still gripping his hand. What seemed to have been five minutes was only a split second.

Neku began to protest when the girl shoved a pin at him. "Here! Use this!"

Neku shook his head. "But the funny lights-"

"Less talk! More fight!"

Deciding to ask questions later, Neku stared at the pin only momentarily before another of the monsters attacked him. Crying out in shock, he threw his arm in front of him, trying to push the monster away. Instead, a trail of flame lit up the ground, spreading from where he was standing and slamming into the frog, causing it to vanish in an explosion of static, both visually and audibly. The flames died away, leaving not even a scorch mark on the cement where they had risen from. Neku stumbled backward in shock and gazed about wildly. No more frogs were to be seen, thankfully, but people still hadn't done so much as glanced his way…aside from the girl.

The said girl seemed amazed as well, though not quite as much as Neku had been. "Whoa, you could use it! You must be really good with psyches." She grinned, shoving a strand of hair out of her face. "I guess I picked the right partner, huh?"

"Psyches?" Neku echoed. "That's what you call that fire?"

"Yeah," the girl replied. "And now that we've got a pact, the noise won't come after us. In other words, we're safe and sound."

Neku blinked. "Noise?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "The monsters we just fought. Duh."

Monsters? Neku thought, skeptical. Yeah, sure. And psyches? Is that what this pin is for?

"Anyway," the girl continued, "My name's Shiki Misaki. You can call me Shiki. We've got a long week ahead of us, so stay sharp!"

"Week?" Neku echoed. "Week of what?"

Shiki sighed. "The Reaper's Game! It's seven days long, isn't it? Don't you remember anything from the opening ceremony? They explained everything there."

Neku blinked in disbelief. Um…excuse me? Reapers? Opening ceremony? Who is this kid? Shouldn't she be in one of those crazy houses or something? More importantly, where exactly am I?

"So, what's your name?" the girl continued, apparently not noticing the fact that Neku no longer seemed interested in whatever she had to say, useful or not.

That sign says Shibuya Station, Neku thought. So I'm in Shibuya. Maybe if I just retraced my steps… Without another word, Neku took off running for the scramble crossing, hoping to lose the girl that was talking to him. She cried out in shock, but Neku hoped that meant she'd be turned off and leave him alone. He came to a halt in the scramble and paused to catch his breath. In a sea of people like that, he could have easily lost the girl.

"But how am I supposed to get someone to tell me why I'm here?" Neku grumbled. After a short moment of thought, he eventually decided to do it his least favorite way and simply ask someone. Sighing and refocusing his efforts, he reached out to tap someone on the shoulder.

And his hand went straight through them.

"The hell?!"

In his surprise, Neku stumbled backward. Not only had that person not even noticed him, but it was like he wasn't even there…physically. As Neku stared at his hand, he heard an annoyingly familiar voice call out to him, though not with his name, and he turned around to see the girl from Hachiko. He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you following me?"

"Why are you making yourself so hard to follow?" The girl retorted, miffed. She heaved a small stuffed animal in her arm and pouted.

Neku groaned. "Quit stalking me," he demanded.

"I'm not stalking you!" The girl insisted. "We made a pact, didn't we? If we don't stick together, you won't survive the game! Don't you want to win?"

"Play games on your own time," Neku shot back, turning around and beginning to walk away, "And don't drag me into this. I've got way more important stuff to do, like getting you to stop following m-OW!"

The boy was stopped in his tracks as he slammed into thin air, nearly breaking his nose as a flash of white light seemed to shove him down onto the pavement. To add insult to the injury, Neku had gained a nose bleed as a souvenir from the odd encounter with the invisible wall of sorts, and had stumbled through a few people in the process. "What the…"

"You're already a part of this," the girl lamented, as though it was her problem that Neku was in the fix he was in. "You're a player, just like me, in the Reaper's Game. You do have a Player Pin, don't you? You know, the one that lets you scan people to hear their thoughts?"

So that's what that thing is, Neku thought, disgruntled. I hate admitting this, even in my head, but this girl is right. In complete contradiction to his thoughts, however, he crossed his arms and glared at the designer-clad girl as though she was the cause of all his problems…or at least the problems that he had encountered today. "So what?" he grumbled. "This pin could be just an imitation. What other proof can you pull out of your-"

"The timer on your hand," The girl said quickly.

Had this stranger not been correct, Neku probably would have scoffed at her quick reaction to avoid the explicit end to his sentence. His eyes widened considerably and he looked back down at his hand, which was still counting down. "Wha…"

"See?" The girl said, for some reason not acting like it was any reassurance to him. "You're part of the Reaper's Game, too, just like me."

You act like it's a bad thing, Neku thought, sighing. You're part of this too, aren't you? What kind of sicko would sign up for this mess?

The girl glanced at her own timer and shouted loudly. "We don't have time for this! We only have twenty minutes and the clock is still ticking; we've gatta get to Ten-four!"

Neku stared blankly at her. Does she ever shut up? "Ten four? What are you, a policeman?"

"You got the mail, right? Reach Ten-four or face erasure."

The junk mail, Neku thought. I thought it was just some prank. She's got to be kidding…but she's still got a point. The pin, those voices, the timer…I might as well roll along with this until I figure out what the hell is going on. She's going to follow me anyway. He sighed. "Fine. You win. Lead the way."

"Good," the girl replied, almost as though praising an obedient puppy. The friendly tone in her voice nearly made Neku sick. "Now, for the last time. What's your name?"

Sighing, Neku pulled his headphones onto his ears. "It's Neku. Neku Sakuraba."

The girl smiled. "Neku, huh? Cute name."

Shut the hell up.

"Okay, Neku. Let's head to ten-four and we'll pass today's mission."

Way too easy, Neku grumbled, but he walked along anyway for the sake of keeping the girl quiet. What kind of mission would send me to a place and be done with it? Stalker over there said that since we made a pact or whatever, those monsters won't attack us. Why would it be so dangerous to go to a freaking…

And that was where his thoughts stopped. He wracked his brain to finish the sentence, but couldn't come up with a thing. What's wrong with me? Why don't I know what ten-four is? I know I'm in Shibuya…wasn't I raised here? Why can't I remember?

Another obstacle arose to snap Neku out of his thoughts: another invisible wall. He stumbled back once more, but this time he thankfully didn't have to stumble through a person or two to regain his balance. "Geez! What's with this place?"

"A wall?" The girl asked. "That can't be right! This is the only way to Ten-four!"

"Do you ever shut up?" Neku growled. "I'm pretty sure no one would make this mission thing impossible unless he was some sort of sick bastard or something."

"But how are we supposed to get around it? We can't exactly break it, much less see it…"

Apparently insulting her doesn't make her shut her trap, Neku thought, looking around. He spotted a man standing stock-still in the middle of the crowd, wearing a red hoodie that covered his face quite effectively. When Neku looked closer, he spotted a pair of wings on his back. Not bird wings or bat wings, but some form of wing that seemed to have been carved out of metal…they were almost skeletal in fashion. He obviously has a twisted sense of fashion. Why do I get the feeling that he's watching me?

"Neku, the wall is down."

Snapping out of his daze, Neku turned back around to his stalker. "What?"

"The wall," she continued. "It's gone. I guess we got a lucky break or something. C'mon."

Sighing, Neku complied, casting one last glance behind him for the man in red. To his surprise, however, the stranger had vanished. What the…where'd he go? Weird…

"Neku! Come on!"

"Shut up!" Neku protested, but he followed her anyway to keep her quiet. The guy disappeared, and so did the wall…maybe he was the one keeping it up. Ugh, I can't believe I'm actually entertaining the thought of that.

For the umpteenth time, Neku's bubble of thought popped when a numbing sensation spread across his hand. Glancing down, he expected the timer to still be ticking, but instead found nothing. He grinned inwardly. Finally. Good old, boring flesh. Good to have normal skin back on my hand.

"The timer's gone," The girl said victoriously. "Mission accomplished!"

"Big deal."

Neku blinked, as he was about to say the same thing himself. He'd never been beaten to the punch before; he prided himself on his wit. He spun around, searching for the source of the voice, but found nothing. "What? Who's there?!"

"You heard me. Only an idiot would screw up on Day One."

"Sounds like a reaper," the girl said, backing up into Neku, whom didn't bother to retort this time. The word alone sounded intimidating enough to keep him quiet…for now.

"You two are going to get erased sooner or later, so help a girl out and earn her a few extra points, kay sweetie?"

Neku was about to accost the voice for acting sickeningly nice when a large, bear-like monster appeared in a flash of black and white, roaring angrily at them. I get the feeling this isn't the source of that voice, he thought. Don't think running is an option this time, either. "Hey, stalker!"

"I'm not a stalker!" the girl protested. "My name is Shiki!"

"Are you going to complain about what I call you or are you going to help me fight this thing?!" Neku shouted, though the raised voice wasn't technically necessary.

Shiki nodded and pulled out her stuffed animal. "Let's go, Neku!"

"Don't screw up," the boy shouted back, pulling his headphones tighter over his ears and taking a wide stance. He taunted the bear, eyes narrowing.

The bear lunged forward, but Neku leapt out of the way, letting lose a stream of flame on the ground and setting the bear on fire. From behind him, a stuffed pig plush flew through the air and slashed at the monster with a pair of claws it technically should not have possessed. The bear retaliated and sent a swipe at Neku, causing the boy to stagger backward, crying out in pain. For the briefest moment, the entire world around him flickered like a TV without a signal, and then it came back into view with a burst of light and color before adjusting. Blinking a few times to clear his head, Neku pushed himself to his feet to find the stuffed animal defending him. It didn't take him long to recognize it as the one that his stalker was carrying around.

This thing is way tougher than those stupid frogs, he thought. Rather than following common sense, Neku allowed adrenalin to guide his actions, and he continued guiding the flames around to engulf the bear that assaulted him and the girl following him. He was about to send another blaze headed for the bear when the stuffed animal beat him to the punch quite literally and sent it skidding backward, vanishing in an explosion of static just as the frogs before had.

The rush over, Neku found himself on his knees, gasping for breath. The fight had taken more out of him than he had realized, and as he staggered back to his feet, he found his partner in the same situation, though in true feminine fashion she hadn't even stood back up yet. "You okay, Neku?" She asked in between breaths.

"I'm still alive if that's what you're asking," Neku replied.

"That's good," the girl said, finally deciding to stand. "But you heard her…day one is nothing. We've got six more days to go. What if the missions get harder? I don't want to end up erased…"

"Erased," Neku repeated, almost too quietly to hear. Six more days dealing with stalker here, and I have to worry about those monsters and stupid missions, too? But what if those things kill me? What kind of twisted game is this? Why am I even here?

"Neku, what's wrong?"

He ignored her, and clutched his head. Why…why can't I remember?!

Well...there's day 1. Talk about Department of the Redundancy Department when it comes to the name. Anywho...I hope you liked it.