A/N: Nothing to say with this chapter, except things won't be exactly perfect since my memory is bad. Or, it was changed for the plot.

Ugh… where am I?

His head aching, Neku peeled open his eyes. His vision doubled before sliding into focus. Neku inhaled deeply, waiting for the feeling of daggers being driven into his skull to fade. Once it subsided to a more manageable level, he actually looked around.

He was lying on the ground. Red flag number one. The surface beneath him appeared to be a crossing. Red flag number two. People didn't seem to notice his presence. Red flag number… wait, what the hell?

Panic clawed at Neku's heart as he scrambled to his feet, pressing a hand to his temple as the headache returned as a repercussion of his actions. Sure, he preferred to be left alone, but he'd been passed out in the middle of the street. It was like he didn't exist to these people, that he was nothing more than a ghost.

Suddenly, he became aware of a small weight in the palm of his hand. Glancing down, he uncurled his fingers to reveal… a pin. Nothing extraordinary, just a black pin decorated with a white skull. Weird.

About a second later, Neku found himself reconsidering the thought that the pin wasn't anything special. Sentences he did not understand the origin of floated into his head. I wonder if Eiji Oji has posted anything new… checking his blog everyday is what I live for.

"Am I hearing people's thoughts?" Neku realized. "What the hell is this pin?" Assuming it had something to do with the pin, of course. For all he knew, he was just going crazy. Come to think of it, that seemed more likely.

"Wait… where am I?" That was probably the more important question. "How did I get here?" His memory was a blank- nothing except his name, Neku Sakuraba. That wasn't particularly helpful. The thought occurred to him that maybe he shouldn't freak out verbally, but people were ignoring him anyway. What did he have to lose? His personal pride and dignity, but… wait, why was he thinking about this? It wasn't important right now!

Beep!

"Huh? Whose phone? Mine?" Neku reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and flipping it open so that he could read the text message he had been sent.

"Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. -The Reapers."

"Oh, that's cute," Neku snorted, his disbelief written across his face. "See ya, spam. Deleted." He pressed the key that would rid him of the message. It didn't budge. "Huh? Still there…"

Suddenly, a white hot pain flared to life in his palm, his phone falling from his hand and hitting to the ground- luckily, the screen didn't crack. "Ouch!" Grimacing, he glanced down at his hand to see the reason. Much to his shock, the numbers 60:00 were branded on his skin in red, slowly ticking down.

His thoughts were pulled from his current predicament by the appearance of- wait, were those frogs crawling from the walls?

Neku blinked once, then twice, just to check he wasn't hallucinating. Nope, the frogs were still there, and now they were- attacking people?

He found himself unable to do much other than stare as the victims of the vicious, demonic frogs vanished into thin air, not leaving a trace behind. What was going on?

"Ow!" he yelled as one of the frogs suddenly latched onto his arm. Since when did the aquatic creatures have razor-sharp fangs? "D-down, froggie." Neku began trying to dislodge the persistent frog and okay, these demon spawn were really painful.

Finally, he pushed the frog off his arm and onto the floor. However, more of the frogs were starting to swarm him. If he stayed here, he would be done for.

Spotting an opening in the frogs, Neku ran for his life, regardless of the direction. He kept running until his muscles were screaming from fatigue. Gasping for breath, he glanced around. He appeared to be in front of a statue of some dog.

"Should be… safe... here…" he panted. He was proven wrong a second later as the mysterious frogs swarmed him again, their unnatural fangs sinking into his flesh. "Get off!" he yelled in pain, not really expecting the frogs to obey. They didn't.

"Found one!" A distinctly feminine voice reached his ears, followed by the owner of the voice popping into his field of vision. Neku couldn't exactly spare her much attention, however, given the fact that he was currently being mutilated by demon frogs. "You! Forge a pact with me!" Yeah, she had to be talking to him. There was no one else.

"Uh… I've k-kinda- ugh- got my hands full?" he pointed out, voice twisted with pain.. It was true too, because frog bites hurt like hell. Who would have guessed?

"Don't be stupid! If we forge a pact, we can beat the Noise!" Seriously, was this girl crazy? Blind? Maybe both?

"Who c-cares about a little noise?" he yelped in pain, teeth gritted, and yeah, he was as good as dead. The frogs were still all over him- how he was still standing was a mystery. At this point, the girl had ran over to his side, trying to assist him in pulling off the frogs, even though she was accomplishing as much as he was (read: nothing).

"Do you wanna be erased? Hurry up, there's no- ow- there's no time!" One of the frogs, obviously unhappy with her attempts to help him, latched onto the girl's arm, and she recoiled. Well, he was going to die anyway, so why not conform to the girl's wishes? It would shut her up, at the very least.

"Uh… alright. I accept."

A beam of blue light engulfed him, as well as the girl. His eyes widened, but before he had time to properly react, the light had dissipated. A tingling sensation filled his body. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

"Now we can fight the Noise!" the girl announced, obviously pleased. "Here, take this pin!" She shoved a red pin, decorated with orange flames, into his hands. Neku managed to not lose his balance from the force behind the push, the frogs having been thrown off him when they forged the "pact" or whatever.

"What do I do with-" His question was cut off as one of the frogs caught up to him, bouncing towards him, fangs bared. He threw his hands in front of his face, eyes slipping shut, desperately thinking please don't kill me, please don't kill me…

The sizzle of fire caught his attention, eyes snapping open. The frog had been hit with a faceful of flames mid-leap. It fell to the ground, twitched a couple of times, then broke into a bunch of light particles, vanishing from sight.

Did the pin do that? Neku wondered to himself. Suddenly, four frogs came into view. Well, time to test that theory! The fire pin grasped tightly in his hand, he focused his attention on on his new enemies. The pin felt warm against his palm, an odd sort of comfort. Burn the frogs, he commanded in his head.

Immediately, tongues of flame sprang up from the ground, licking at the unfortunate frogs. They became very, very still, trapped within the inferno. Neku's eyes widened. This… this pin can control fire!

Once the new frogs had followed in the footsteps of their predecessor, he allowed the flames to cease, warily glancing around. Seeing no more enemies, he allowed himself to relax, attaching the pin to the collar of his shirt. It would be useful if he ever had to fight any more frogs.

"Wow! You can use the pin!" Neku whirled around, once again tense, but it was just the girl from earlier. "You must be some kind of psych genius! Guess I found the right partner, huh?" She laughed, smiling.

"A… psych? Is that what you call those flames?" A psych, he repeated in his head. It seemed like such an odd name.

"Yup! The Noise won't stand a chance." Noise… Neku remembered her mentioning them earlier, but what exactly were they?

"What are Noise?"

"They're those monsters we just fought. Duh," she replied, as though it were obvious. Maybe it was, but not in Neku's opinion. "Anyway, where are my manners? My name's Shiki Misaki. Call me Shiki. What's yours?" She held out her hand, but it awkwardly fell back to her side when Neku didn't take it.

Wait. Forget her- where am I? How did I get here? Neku suddenly realized. He glanced around. The sign says Shibuya Station… why am I in Shibuya? Where is Shibuya, for that matter?

"Come on, tell me your name," the girl- Shiki- insisted. Neku ignored her.

I woke up at the crossing… I just need to retrace my steps. He started to walk back to the crossing. He ignored the girl's exclamation of shock. Maybe she'd get the message he didn't want to talk.

Alas, when he arrived at the crossing, she was still there. "Why are you following me?" he yelped.

"Why are you making yourself so hard to follow?" she asked, her expression betraying her confusion. "We're partners. We forged a pact. Partners stick together!"

"Screw you," Neku snorted. "I go where I want." I don't need some stalker dictating my life. Or a weird spam text, for that matter.

"Go where?" the girl asked, an annoyed look flickering across her expression. "There's nowhere to go. We're trapped in here!"

He rolled his eyes. Even if the girl hadn't lost all her marbles (which he seriously doubted), there was definitely a hole in the bag. Nowhere to go? There were plenty of places to go, at least as far as he could see. Oh, and trapped? Where did she get that from?

Deciding not to satisfy the girl by responding, he simply walked off. He didn't particularly care where he went; it was all the same to him. Unfortunately, his valiant endeavour to do what he wanted was cut short as he ran into an invisible barrier. "The hell-?"

"See?" Stalker was back. "Like I said- we're trapped here. All we can do is complete the mission. Besides, if we don't complete the mission, we'll be erased."

Neku remembered the ominous text, as well as the countdown on his palm, which was still ticking away the seconds. Could it really be true? Then again, she's been right about everything else so far. "Don't get me involved with this," he responded, mostly to see how she would react, although if he could get out of whatever weird mess he was in, that was an added bonus.

"You're already involved in this!" she snapped, before a questioning look crossed her face. "Don't you have a countdown on your hand? I do…"

"Yeah. So what's it mean?" He would like an explanation for that, at least.

"Well, it's the time for the mission… if it runs out, you'll be erased…" She seemed unsure, Neku noticed. "Anyway… what's your name? You never introduced yourself."

He sighed. "It's Neku. Neku Sakuraba."

"Neku, huh?" She laughed. "Cute name." At that point, the girl glanced at her palm, and her eyes widened. "There's only twenty minutes left! We have to hurry to Ten-Four!"

"Ten-Four?"

"You know, 104?" The girl seemed impatient- Neku supposed it was justified, if she was telling the truth about the timer. "Come on, there's no time!"

He hesitated, but decided to follow her. In the worst case scenario, he'd pretty much be relying on her for survival. The best case scenario was that she'd be able to answer his questions, and he wouldn't have to associate with her further- although he got the sense that was wishful thinking.

However, they were soon stopped by a wall much like the one Neku had encountered earlier. "Looks like it's a no-go," he stated flatly. The girl looked anxious.

"But this is the way to Ten-Four," she responded. "How are we meant to complete the mission now?"

Neku shrugged, glancing around. His eyes were drawn to a figure in red standing nearby. Other people's gazes seem to slide right over him, much like they did with the girl and himself.

"Hey, Neku, it's open!" Neku turned around to see his partner standing on the opposite side of the wall that had been there previously.

"Why'd it open?" he asked cautiously.

"No idea," she replied, a small shrug in her shoulders. "A lucky break, I guess." She proceeded onwards. Neku followed her, but looked over her shoulder. Something about that guy in red… Neku looked to the spot where he had been standing, only to find him gone. Huh? Where did he go?

After a short trek, they arrived at a large, tall building. "This is the 104 building…" the girl informed him thoughtfully.

Neku checked his palm, finding it free of the analog-styled numbers that had been there previously. "Timer's gone."

"Does that mean we completed the mission?" his resident stalker wondered. The look Neku gave her could not have more plainly conveyed the message of 'are-you-for-real?'

The imminent argument was prevented by the arrival of a laughing female voice- the source was nowhere to be seen. "Pfft, big deal! Only an idiot would get erased on day one."

The girl tensed up, Neku taking up a defensive pose. "Who's there?" he demanded, looking around for the owner of the voice, although he saw nothing.

"Oh no… a Reaper?" his 'partner' whispered in horror. The word struck at a memory from earlier. A Reaper… the text from earlier was from the Reapers.

"Anyway, I'd hate to do this to you, Neku, but a Reaper needs her points," the mysterious voice continued.

At that point, more monsters- Noise, he remembered the girl calling them- flooded the area. They were mostly frogs (he vaguely noticed they seemed scrawnier than the ones from earlier), but there was one wolf among them, looking as malnourished as the frogs. It seemed odd to Neku- almost as though these Noise were weaker than the normal variety. The pinkette shifted into her own stance, while Neku began to draw on the power of the pyrokinesis pin, turning around to better face his new adversaries.

The wolf Noise led the charge, the frogs hopping behind it in droves. Neku stretched his hand out towards his enemies, warmth flooding through his fingertips. A moment later, the front of the horde was caught in the unnatural inferno, several frogs near the center simply disappearing with none of the grandeur its predecessors had, the wolf letting loose a long howl as the flames licked its fur, patches of it singed black.

His confidence bolstered, he dodged to the right as one of the remaining frogs leaped at his face. It didn't take long for the offending frog and its kin to be incinerated, only leaving behind the injured wolf. It kept its front left leg tucked into its chest as it staggered towards him. At the same time, a ball of glowing green light settled around him, invigorating him. Neku narrowed his eyes at the Noise, calling forth a final burst of flame, empowered by his strength boost.. The wolf howled in pain once more, tossing its head back and revealing dirty yellow fangs as its form faded away.

"That fight was easier than I thought it was going to be," Stalker commented, tucking the black plushie thing she had been carrying back under her arm. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her participating in the fight, even though her words implied otherwise. Her expression, previously a thoughtful frown, then brightened. "Well, it doesn't matter. We survived day one! Only six more days to go."

"Six more days?" Neku asked suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, the Reaper's Game is seven days long, right?" the girl explained. "Since we completed today's mission, we're done for now."

Until tomorrow… Neku thought, assuming what she said to be true. He really had no reason to doubt her- she'd been telling the truth up until this point, after all.

"You know, now that I think about it, that Reaper seemed to know you," she mused, crossing one arm while her other hand tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Why?"

"I don't know," he replied harshly. "I've never met her before. She's probably just trying to play mind games." From what little he knew of the Reapers, it seemed likely- trick them into believing lies, so that they wouldn't trust each other. Not that he actually trusted the girl, but his point remained.

She still seemed unsure, but appeared to settle for that explanation, presumably because she sensed he wasn't going to share any more information on the subject. "Well, even so, it's a little weird."

Neku didn't answer. He could tell this would be a long week.