A young man wakes up in this hallway of concrete that stretches far into the darkness on either side. His clothes are tattered, worn out, and unwashed, as if they should be several shades lighter. He sits up in a daze, checking his surroundings. To his left, he can only see darkness. To his right, he can only see darkness. He grunts and places a hand on his temple and winces in pain. "My head is fucking pounding... Where the hell am I?" The young man notices something shocking about his arm holding his head. The bones of his fingers, the bones of his wrist, and the bones of his forearm are very pronounced. "I must have pretty big bones if I can see them this well." He takes a closer look. "Wait... That's not it... I'm all skin and bones! What the hell!? How did I get like this!?" His skin is tightly wrapping his bones and muscles. Not quite to the point of near-death starvation, but more akin to barely affording to eat. He then feels a sharp pain from his stomach. "Holy shit... I feel like I haven't eaten in a week... Have I done anything to be like this? I don't remember..." The young man tries looking back on his memories. In this dark, damp enclosure where the exit is unknown, this young man realizes something.

He doesn't know who he is.

"What the fuck!? What the FUCK? HEY! IS ANYONE THERE? WHERE THE FUCK AM I? WHO THE FUCK AM I?" The young man attempts to stand, but fumbles like someone trying to get their legs to support them after being inactive for a year. Him trying to get up is balancing 130 lbs on two wooden sticks. He keels over from the pain erupting from his gut. "Can I at least get something to eat..." The young man begs. The hunger causes him to feel faint. He reaches into his back pocket, searching for a wallet or some form of ID. In his pocket, he can feel a small, leather block. Pulling it out, he notices the design on the wallet. All black with red markings. Unfamiliar. He looks on the other side of the wallet. In big, English letters, he reads in very poor pronunciation, "RIVU... FURI... DAI... HARUDO... Well, that sucked... I guess English isn't my native language... That rules out being American or British..." He opens up the wallet to find a card with odd symbols. There is a picture, but he seems to be covering it with his thumb. "Gankona... Senshi? This looks like... Japanese? I can read it fluently, so I guess I'm Japanese... What's this picture look like?" He moves his thumb aside to reveal a picture of a young man who looks a few years older than what the ID says with medium-length, spikey brown hair with slightly tanned skin. "Is this... me? I can't tell my skin color in this darkness..." He turns over a flap in the wallet to reveal more information. A small, flat object falls off of a chain and dangles off the end of the wallet. It seems to be a small picture in a metal case of a grown man with brown hair and woman with long, pink hair smiling at each other. Upon closer inspection, there are two toddlers at the bottom of the picture who resemble their adult counterparts to a "T". "This must be a family portrait..." The metal case holding the picture turns around to the back to show an engraving of an infinity symbol. The young man begins to hear a voice, deep from within his memory.

"Much like infinity, you must never stop, my son. Infinity is an unstoppable force that has no choice but to keep going. Gan, become an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. You have unlimited possibilities layed out before you. Live with the wind at your back, and when the time comes, die with meaning! Go out with a bang!"

The headache begins pounding harder. The young man begins to think about breaking his own arm to try shifting his pain from one source to another. The wallet drops to the ground. He keels over in pain, both hands grasping at his head. Flashes of memory begin barraging his thoughts. He begins shouting, "LIFE... DEATH... ALONE... POOR... HOMELESS... JOB... HOME... POOR... HUNGER... WEAKNESS..." The headache subsides. "Death... Game... Fight..." He finally manages to get back on his feet, albeit weakly. He pauses and gains enough balance to stand up straight. "Life... Kina! Where's Kina!?" The young man who remembers himself as Gan looks behind him. He sees a young woman about his age with long, pink hair. She also looks malnourished, but more well-fed than Gan. "Kina! Kina! Wake up! We're alive!" The young woman stirs awake.

"We're... Alive...? Yay... We did it, Gan..." Kina says weakly. She looks like she's about to pass out. The simultaneous rumbling from each of their stomachs brings out a chuckle from Kina. "Heh... Even though we won... We're close to dying again... And we have no money to buy food, much less rent for the apartment, now that we're back..." Kina says softly, slowly gaining her energy back.

"That's not true!" Gan interjects. "We still have all that money from playing the Game!" Gan opens his wallet to reveal a total of somewhere around 1,000,000 Yen. "Once you can stand, let's get some ramen!"

Ken Doi, an old man who runs a ramen place, was slightly taken aback when two skeletons came in and ate three bowls each and abruptly left after paying for their meals. As he was washing the bowls an hour later, a few familiar faces came walking in. "Irashai! Ah, Neku, Shiki. I haven't seen my regulars for a few weeks. Was worried something happened!" Ken Doi said. He finished drying off the sixth bowl and placed it down to be used later. "What'll it be?"

"I'll have a Mystic Ramen, please." Neku said, sitting down. Shiki sat down right after him.

"Make that two!" Shiki said. The noise from the kids in the back playing Tin Pin made it a little hard to hear.

"How come Beat and Rhyme aren't with you two today? Or is that how you'd prefer it?" Ken chuckled. Shiki looked down and occupied her hands by playing with Mr. Mew. Neku looked away and scratched the back of his neck. "And it's rare for you to not show up for this long, not even to visit. Did something happen?"

"Actually, yeah. We've been... Busy." Neku explained. Ken put down two sodas in front of them.

"There you go, the usual drinks. I get it, school and tests and all that. Just be sure not to overwork yourselves! It won't do you any good when you're tired. Always be sure to relax when you can." Ken said, getting back to preparing the ramen.

"Thanks, Ken. We're actually in the middle of something right now. We got hungry, and decided to stop and eat. We're already following your advice!" Shiki explains. She takes a small sip from her soda.

"I guess you are! Anything I can help with, just ask!" Ken said, pouring some noodles into a couple of bowls.

"As a matter of fact, there is. We're looking for a couple of people. They were supposed to be somewhere, but they didn't show up. We don't know how to reach them either, so we gotta look around ourselves." Neku says, taking a sip from his drink. Ken pours in the broth. The steam that the broth gives off only makes everything more appetizing. "Have you seen a guy about my height and age with built muscles and brown hair, as well as a pink-haired girl that's about the same age and a little shorter who actually looks pretty cu-... uh..." Neku stops and looks at Shiki. She looks away and scoffs at him.

"Cute. She looks cute, is what he was about to say." Shiki said, angrily. Neku looks away and takes another drink of his soda.

"Hm... I wouldn't use 'cute' to describe a young woman like that, considering my age, but I can say I've seen a couple people who kind offit that description." Ken places in all the other little bits that ramen needs. "But there were two people who came in an hour ago that looked similar. They looked like they hadn't eaten for days, though, and their clothes were extremely worn. They ate three bowls each, payed, and split, talking about apartment rent or something. They looked starving, so I wasn't gonna turn 'em down, even if they didn't have the money to pay for the ramen." Ken placed the finishing touches on the bowls.

"Hey, Neku... Kina said they didn't have much left... I've been thinking... Maybe they didn't exactly live the best lives... Think these two could be them?" Shiki whispered, being sure that Ken doesn't hear her.

"I hate to say it, but... I think so. It's the only thing we have to go on, so this is probably our best bet." Neku whispered back. Two bowls of ramen got placed in front of them, interrupting their conversation.

"Order up! Two bowls of Mystic, ready just for you!" Ken exclaims. "Thank you for your business!"

"That was fast!" Neku says, grabbing a pair of chopsticks. He starts devouring the ramen.

"Mystic is one of my most popular bowls! I basically gotta have everything pre-made. Anyway, chow down! This ramen's made for eatin'!" Ken exclaimed, getting back to cleaning dishes.

"Oh Ken, do you know any cheap apartments here in Shibuya?" Shiki asked, starting to tear into her own bowl of ramen.

For everyone following me and this story, I have no words. No words, except for, "I apologize." It has been over three years since I last even touched my FanFiction account. I love to write. It lets my creativity flow, so I don't know why I never got back into writing this story. So I'm not gonna sit here and type out excuses. I stopped writing this because I just didn't feel like it. For all I know, I may not get back into this ever again. So until I feel like writing again, comments and criticism welcome!