Author's note: Yeah, this took a while coming. I also edited the first chapter, deleted some of the material and copypasted it here where it feels more in context. I am that bone lazy.
One day, she found herself peering at his face, and she realised that somehow, without any conscious memorisation, she knew every detail of his face. When he noticed her looking, he said, "Whatchu starin' at?" and she was somehow startled that she knew exactly how his shoulders would hunch, how his eyes would shine with something tender even though he was meant to be scowling.
The first time it happened, she thought, "I should have known this before."
And somehow, she feels repulsed.
Neku, Day 7
In this world, people live and people die, and more people die than they live.
In this world, only a precious few are offered a second chance. Rhyme knows that she does not deserve to be among the number. (She doesn't have a dream, after all.) But Neku does. Neku does, and so do Shiki and Beat.
The final day of the Reaper Game has begun.
There's something odd about the mission mail.
Rhyme is not looking forward to confronting the Game Master – it's the last day, and Joshua hasn't been seen since Day 4. Rhyme has spent the days looking frantically, but the whole time she has felt weighted down by the knowledge of what she does not know. But she grits her teeth and gets to her feet anyway.
They walk, all the way through the bustling crowds.
Somewhere, on the way to Pork City, Rhyme holds onto Neku's arm and whispers, "We have to stick close." Neku stiffens – he is not used to being touched – but it's not the end of the world.
Yet.
The climax is upon them before they know it. That is what happens to people who walk without a dream.
It plays out the way a final boss battle should, with all the appropriate drama and adrenaline. Rhyme doesn't bother thinking about it. The fight against Minamimoto is exhausting but there is something satisfying about the end of it that makes Rhyme savour the moment. She wonders why she never had a dream.
Then Minamimoto is gone, and that's no longer the important thing.
Rhyme knows there is something wrong when Minamimoto begins reciting pi to goodness-knows-how-many decimal places. She feels a slippery, sickening sensation in her stomach, the keen knowledge that something terrible is soon to happen. She knows this feeling, because she felt it only seconds before Beat was erased. It was the feeling she experienced as she watched it all happen.
There is no longer any time for indecision.
Her dreams. Her aspirations. Maybe there is nothing but static when she thinks in the long-term, but there is Beat. Beat is enough.
Dreams evolve. They change, they become known to their owner. Past regrets well up inside her to form what becomes her future desire. She thinks of Neku and of Tin Pin, of Joshua and her days in WildKat. Since dying, she has learned what it means to be alive.
Without hesitation, she pushes Neku out of the way as Minamimoto's flare comes their way.
If that's how dreams come alight, in the sudden burst of insight that comes with experience, that's also how they die.
There are, after all, some payments that not even the Reapers can collect.
Dimly, she can hear Neku yelling her name, but her mind is dull to it. They never found Joshua, but if there is going to be anyone who can continue on, it will be Neku. She is certain of it.
The week is over.
Void.
But it's not the end of the world either, strangely enough.
It's not anything at all.
She feels more pathos than she should, though.
In Shibuya, the Reaper Games start anew, and a white-haired boy makes his presence known at the Statue of Hachiko.
The price for his involvement is every other player.
Neku stiffens at the sight of his murderer and has to repeat some of Rhyme's sayings to himself ("Beggars can't be choosers!") before he can even stretch out his hand.
rhyme, have you ever wondered what you paid to enter the reaper games
where's the fun in losing something if you never know you lost it
Rhyme has played her part and now it is done. The Composer knows this, maybe he played all the cards out himself as a whimsical exercise in what could have been.
The Composer – Rhyme cannot see him but she knows that he is somewhere in the void – is watching, waiting. He is like a child anticipating his turn in a game. He is vaguely curious and amused by her, she knows.
Rhyme feels the ridiculousness in the situation and in the words that echo around the emptiness.
rhyme rhyme rhyme do you know what you lost
She doesn't know.
She thinks it's her dreams.
you are a clever girl shiver but what was the dream
She doesn't know.
But he knows somehow. He is the Composer.
He tells it to her, so easily, and she is so dying with curiosity, she hangs on to every word.
many many dreams you could do anything you set your mind to
It becomes clearer. She remembers. SHE REMEMBERS.
You wanted to be the best sister possible to your big brother Beat.
She has her dream back, but she never earned it.
And just as simply, the Composer takes it away from her again.