POLL ON MY USER PAGE! CHECK IT OOUUUUTTTT!

Shameless plug aside, this chapter is short and a bit sloppy…but let me answer a few questions before we begin.

Who is the Game Master? He's from TWEWY, of course. You'll have to wait and see who he is.

Will Organization XIII show up? I can't say all of them will…but we will see at least one of their members. That's the plan, anyway.

Is Roxas going to show up? Yep.

What about Riku? Maybe. I haven't decided yet.

There ARE other players in the game this time, right? Yes, and they will all play an important role in the end.

Now on with the fic.

Summary: An accident sends Neku back into the Reaper's Game, but this time it's more than accomplishing missions or even survival. Neku knows these new creatures aren't noise, and a certain keyblade-wielding teen may hold the answers for him. (Kingdom Hearts Crossover)

Playing For Keeps

By FlikFreak

Chapter Eight: Mina and Makoto

"You said you had everything under control."

Minamimoto rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. What did you think I was doing?"

A man in a black cloak stood in a dark corner, his arms crossed in disappointment. "I did not show you how to control the heartless so that they could be disposed of by the keyblade master and that proxy. You know very well that I can wrest control from you if I so wish it. Remember our deal, Minamimoto."

"Get rid of the keyboy and his little yoctogram pal," The math addict grumbled. "Yeah. Got it."

"Of course," the man continued, "You could also use the heartless to get rid of the composer. Then you would be in charge of this little Reaper's Game."

Now, that was an idea Minamimoto liked. He had used the taboo noise to try it before, but they had failed against the heartless when he was testing them out again. This man…what was his name again?...showed him how to use the heartless at his command, which he immediately saw as an asset. He grinned at the memory of it. "Looks like I'll have to multiply their power, then. If those two digits are still around by day seven, they're sure to be iterated before they can so much as factor at their reward."

The cloaked man grinned. "Just what I wanted to hear," he said, vanishing in a swirl of darkness. "I'll check in with you later, Minamimoto. Don't disappoint me."

To say Sora was concerned was a bit of an understatement. Neku had given the area a scan and suddenly doubled over, his eyes wide, his fingers digging through his hair and clutching his skull. The player pin had fallen to the ground, and Sora hastily picked it up and gave it back to Neku the moment the boy came to. He froze, however, when he heard Neku speak again.

"Sora, I think I just scanned you."

The keyblade master did a double-take. "Wha…that can't be right! I have a player pin, how could you scan me?" He paused. "What exactly did you see?"

"Nothing I could really make heads or tails of," Neku replied, shaking his head a bit as Sora helped him back on his feet. "There was some kid that looked a lot like you…he was sitting on top of a clock tower, holding some sort of blue thing in the sun. Then it kind of shifted and I saw him in this really big white room, and he had your keyblade in his hand, and he was attacking some guy dressed in red. After that, the guy disappeared and the big pod in the middle of the room opened up, and you were in it."

Sora furrowed his eyebrows. He knew what Neku was referring to; Roxas had experienced those same things. Maybe it wasn't Sora he had scanned, but Roxas. But how? I have a player pin, he shouldn't be able to scan me.

"We should definitely ask Mr. H about this later," Neku said sternly. "For now, let's just focus on the mission."

"You guys are stuck, too?"

Neku and Sora turned around to see two people standing calmly behind them. Sora was about to ask for their identities when Neku spoke up first, to the girl. "I know you!" he said. "You're Mina and Makoto, right?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, that's us."

The boy with her sighed and looked away. "You get these missions at all? So far we haven't been clearing any of them. The other players seem to be doing a lot hotter than us."

"By getting them, you mean we understand them?" Neku asked. "We understand them just fine. So far we've just been on clean-up duty and they're finding new and inventive ways to say it."

"I don't know," Mina replied. "Those noise are really tough."

"You know these two?" Sora asked.

Neku nodded. "Sort of, yeah. I would have probably talked to them the first time I went through the game, but my memory was my entry fee, so I didn't recognize them."

"Your entry fee was your memory?" Makoto said. "Man, that had to be rough…"

"It was," Neku replied. "Sora's got all of his friends as his entry fee this time. Dunno how the composer pulled that off; usually it's just one person that's really important."

Sora winced. These people sure spoke openly about such things. Then again, it could have just been Neku that was like that. He backed away a step just to be safe. "It's not my fault that I value my friends," he said quietly.

"My entry fee was my reputation," Makoto replied, "And it serves me right. The only reason I want to win is so if I come back, maybe I can make things right with everyone. My friends, my boss at work, my parents…"

"You can," Sora said. "I'm sure you can."

"What about you, Mina?" Neku asked. "What was your entry fee?"

"Ai," Mina replied. "My best friend…she was with me when I…got sent here. But I didn't see her anywhere at Hachiko. I think she was my entry fee…"

"You'll get her back if you win," Neku said calmly. "I had my own friend as an entry fee in my second run through the game. She came back with me when I won."

"But now you're in the game again?" Mina asked. "What happened?"

"Car accident," Neku explained vaguely, grumbling. "It's not important. What matters is that we win. Sora thinks that we just have to wipe out some heartless."

"That's what those Noise are called?" Makoto asked. "I thought they were just beefed up Taboo noise."

"Keep a close eye out for them," Sora said, fists clenching. These people truly didn't know what they were getting into. "The heartless will do more than just erase you if you lose. I know what happens firsthand, and trust me: you don't want to go there."

Neku gave Sora an odd look, but apparently he agreed. "Keep an eye out for a guy obsessed with math, too. He's bad news."

"We will," Mina replied, smiling. "Good luck to you two!"

"Thanks," Sora said, waving as the two walked off.

Neku sighed. "Mina and Ai were best friends, and Makoto had a crush on Ai. Ai thought Mina was trying to butt in on their relationship once when all she was really doing was hooking them up. I saw it during my first week in the game."

"They must be pretty close," Sora observed. "I sure hope they get to come back when the game is over."

At the comment, Neku's face stiffened, and he turned away. "Come on. Let's just figure out this mission. This is only day three, and this one is only to wipe out some heartless, right?"

Sora hesitated. Neku was definitely not telling him something, and that something had to be important. Even so, he knew that look: he wasn't about to get any answers. Clearing his throat, he glanced at his cell phone, finally accustomed to having it around. "It says bring light to darkness. I don't know about you, but it might mean more than just wiping out the heartless."

Neku crossed his arms and thought for a moment before plucking a blank pin from his pocket. "Sitting around here and thinking about it isn't going to get us anywhere. I say we figure out how you work when we use this pin. There's several levels of power that I know about, and depending on how well we're synced…"

Sora nodded. "I guess there's no better way of knowing than trying it firsthand."

There was a brief silence while Neku stared at Sora wide-eyed, then looked back at the pin and put it on. "You have a good point. What should we target: noise or heartless?"

"Heartless," Sora replied. "They shouldn't be here, and I'm supposed to be getting rid of them anyway."

The two didn't have to go far to find their target. After a short run around Molco, they found a small crowd of shadows waiting for them in front of a poster advertising some sort of competition. Sora nearly scoffed – shadows weren't exactly the strongest type of heartless around – but he knew that they were the types responsible for devouring his home world and decided that one less heartless, no matter what kind, was one less obstacle and one less annoyance. He whipped out the keyblade as he saw a sphere of light appear in Neku's hand. "When will you know when that pin's ready to use?"

Neku shook his head. "I won't. You will."

Sora blinked. "Me? How?"

"You just will. Now, let's go!"

Deciding to go with what Neku said for now, Sora lunged into the fray, swatting shadows left and right. Behind him, Neku unleashed a trail of flame to consume more of them. For each one of the heartless that they dispatched, however, several more came as replacements. Sora gritted his teeth. We're never going to beat them like this!

Oh, give me a break.

Sora did a double take, but quickly snapped back into reality when a shadow nearly tackled him. Shoving the heartless back, he took the defensive. This is just a lovely time to be making conversation, you know. If I screw up here, everyone else gets screwed over, remember?

I meant there's a way to beat them. Honestly, you took on a thousand heartless at once and you're upset because these guys are bothering you? There's a way to beat them, Sora. You just don't know what it is yet. And if you ask me, I bet it's Neku's pin.

You do have a good point, but I have no clue how it's supposed to work!

You didn't know how magic or drive worked, either. You barely knew how to summon the keyblade when it disappeared. But you figured it all out by just acting on instinct, didn't you?

Yeah…I did.

So, Sora, how about it? Just act on instinct. You'll figure it out.

Sora nodded, feeling a warm, familiar energy wrapping around him. Knowing somehow that the time had come, he sent a glance back at Neku. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Right behind you!" Neku replied, running forward.

Leaping into the air, Sora hurled the keyblade upward. Neku activated one of his pins and hurled a bolt of thunder at the weapon, which showered sparks onto the heartless below in a barrage of electricity. The sound of a heartless vanishing echoed numerous times, and dozens of hearts exploded out of the darkness and soared into the sky. Neku and Sora landed, the sparks dying and the keyblade returning to Sora's hand as the light faded. The heartless had all vanished. A familiar numbing sensation prickled on Sora's hand, and when he removed his glove to check, he noticed that the timer had vanished.

So, day three down, four days to go...can Sora last that long? Who is the guy hanging around Minamimoto? Who is the Game Master this round? All this and more will be answered...later. Like, maybe in the next update. In the meantime, go vote on my poll please? :D