Hey people! :D Sorry for such a long wait! I've been really busy working on my book lately as well as cooling down from the holidays and making a few videos. I'm afraid I've been abusing Amity Invasion, so I'll have to update that one next. Before we get started though, I have a few things to say.

I honestly didn't expect this fic to pick up quite as well as this. It's my second most favorited fic (second only to Duel Disks and Keyblades, which has been completed) and has the most story alerts out of all my other stories. It only started as a little plot bunny in my head that I had to write out, but eventually I got more and more ideas and just kept going. I'm glad everyone's been enjoying this, it's fun to write. The only thing I regret is not thinking of my chapter naming idea earlier…but it's okay this way, I guess.

I also forgot that AMC is actually AMX. Whoops! Sorry, folks!

Also, I've received several great ideas for new missions. While I'd love to implement them all, I'm afraid I can't, but I will include hints of them if I can. All of the ideas I received were excellent, don't get me wrong! Don't worry about the final mission; I have something planned out. Zetta thanks, everyone!

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 Ten: Leaked

Cid thought the world would end (again) before he got a response from Leon. For hours, he sat at the edge of his seat, waiting for a call back on Sora's condition. Merlin and Aerith both scolded him for being so impatient, but for the first time he ignored them. They knew as well as he did that if Sora was gone, then everyone was doomed unless the keyblade chose a new master…fast.

So when the call finally came in, he dove for the "on" button. "This had better be good news, Leon!"

"Leon's off getting us some food," Yuffie's voice replied, "And we're not entirely sure if what we have to tell you is good or bad."

Cid rolled his eyes and sat back. "Well, gimme the bad news first."

Yuffie hesitated. "Well, to put it bluntly and honestly, Sora's kind of, well…dead."

"WHAT?!"

"But the good news is he's still here!" Yuffie added quickly. "And he's still fighting heartless, and he even spoke to us…"

"Quit playing games, Yuffie," Cid growled. "If Sora was dead, he wouldn't be able to do so much as twitch a finger. What're you trying to pull?!"

"We didn't get it at first either. We saw his body in the alley where he was killed, but when we were ordering food, he just walked in and said Hi. Then he explained everything. Apparently he's in an alternate Shibuya called the UG playing what's called a Reaper's Game. If you win you get to come back to life, and from what we gather the guy in charge is restoring him once he's done anyway."

Cid crossed his arms. "I always thought you were full of it, Yuffie. This is just proof."

"She's not full of it, Cid. I saw him, too."

The sound of Leon's voice startled the engineer. "Not you, too!"

"Look, Cid. Neither of us is lying. Sora's bound to find the keyhole sooner or later, but he asked us to keep an eye out for any heartless that show up in the RG. If you want to help, feel free to come." With that, there was a click, and the connection closed.

Cid sighed, shaking his head. Even when going insane, Leon was still blunt and to the point. How am I going to break this to Aerith and the others? He wondered, staring at the ceiling. If Sora's really dead, then our operation is doomed to fail.

As though purposely trying to make him more miserable, the communicator rang again. Cid lazily picked up and greeted whoever was on the other side. "HBRC, this is Cid Highwind speaking."

"Ah, Cid. Just the person I needed."

Cid hesitated. He didn't recognize this voice. "Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry. The name's Sanae Hanekoma. You can call me Mr. H if you want. I have a few things to discuss with you…"

"So, Sora…what do you gather from this mission?"

The keyblade master shrugged. "Appease the darkness? Well, the darkness is obviously the heartless, but 'appease' basically means to please or calm. I don't think we'll be fighting this heartless, and that alone tells me pretty much what we'll be doing."

"There are peaceful heartless?" Neku asked.

Sora nodded, remembering the toadstool heartless he had fought. "Yeah. There's several kinds. White Mushrooms like to play charades with magic, and Rare Truffles liked to jump around, so if you toss them into the air a lot they'll give you presents."

Neku blinked, obviously finding it hard to believe that the same monsters that kept trying to kill them would be friendly. "Like what?"

"Oh, nothing much," Sora replied. "They have a weird taste in gifts, but some of the stuff they gave me was actually useful. I kind of feel bad for them sometimes."

The two stopped in front of AMX upon arrival, keeping an eye out for any other players. They didn't find any. "I'm not surprised," Neku muttered when Sora asked about it. "Eight hours is a long time. They probably think they'll cruise through something like this."

"It's not too hard," Sora replied, summoning the keyblade in his hand and changing topic. "I think I can feel some heartless nearby. That's probably our goal."

"Then let's get moving," Neku said. "Lead the way."

Sora did. They weaved their way through the crowd (which wasn't entirely necessary because they could walk through everyone, but it still felt like something they should do) near the AMX entrance and found an interesting creature waiting for them: a familiar white robe, two arms with little stubs for hands, and a large red turban on its head, two little yellow eyes peering out from beneath it. There was also a familiar heartless crest on the front of its robe. Sora grinned. "Looks like we found a White Mushroom."

"What now?" Neku asked, eyeing the creature. "It's a heartless. How are we supposed to 'appease it'? You said it plays charades with magic, but all I have are psyches."

"Leave it to me," Sora replied, sighing. "I really didn't want to let it this out early, but I guess it might help." He knelt down to the creature's eye level. "Hey there," he began, offering a hand.

The white mushroom at first hesitated, but it offered its hand forward and Sora shook it in a friendly manner. "Nice to meet you too," Sora replied to an unspoken phrase. "You wanna play charades?"

In response, the mushroom jumped up and down excitedly. Neku stared as though it had suddenly grown five heads. "It understands you?"

"And I understand it," Sora replied, shrugging. "So, little guy, you want to play some old-fashioned charades? Three rounds, basic style."

The mushroom nodded eagerly, and Sora backed away, keyblade at ready. "Okay, ready when you are."

"What are you doing?" Neku asked. "It's not trying to hurt you, put away the keyblade."

Sora shook his head. "Just watch."

The mushroom bobbed around a bit before suddenly pausing, standing in a daze as a sphere of light appeared over its head. Reacting quickly, Sora felt a tingling energy originate in his heart and spread down his arms and his fingers into the keyblade's shaft, bursting from the keyblade's tip as he instinctively swung it, sending the lightning crashing forward into the white mushroom, whom jumped happily once it impacted.

Neku's jaw would have hit the ground had it not been attached to its head. Sora, however, decided to ignore him for the time being and waited calmly for the mushroom's next move. This time, it fanned itself with its arms. Closing his eyes, Sora summoned a cold wave of energy that seemed to cloak his keyblade in a thin layer of frost before letting loose a beam of ice. Once more, the mushroom jumped up and down cheerfully. "Okay, one more round!"

This time, the mushroom shivered, and Sora called forth a completely different energy from before: this one boiling hot. An enormous fireball shot out of the tip of the keyblade and slammed into the mushroom. Neku looked about ready to protest when the mushroom cheered happily (which sounded quite similar to a squeaker of sorts). Sora smiled. "I'm glad you had fun."

"What just happened?" Neku asked, a bit more quietly than he normally did.

Sora shrugged. "Easy. I played charades with the white mushroom. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt them or anything."

"No, not that…I meant the fireballs and the thunderbolts…"

"Oh," Sora said, blinking. "Well, I said we played charades with magic. That was magic. It's a lot like your psyches, actually."

"How come you never used it before?" Neku asked, eyes bulging.

Sora rubbed his head sheepishly, thinking back on Merlin's constant advice when he had practiced in his spare time. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about the furniture and sets of teapots being destroyed since Merlin could fix them in a split second, but at the beginning of his training he often misfired and didn't hit them. Luckily, he didn't need to worry about broken windows or charred walls, either, but even when Sora finally got the art down Merlin was still giving him pointers. Donald, on the other hand, had often lost patience with the boy's incompetence when it came to magic…though, it was to be expected: the duck's short temper mixed with his vast knowledge on the subject never helped any. "Well, I'm not quite as good at it as some people I know. Mainly I just stick to defensive stuff when I can. If you rely on it too much, it drains your energy and you might pass out."

The conversation was interrupted when the mushroom began tugging on Sora's sleeve. The keyblade master glanced down as it held out a small pin. Cocking an eyebrow, Sora knelt down. "For me?" he asked. The mushroom nodded, and held the pin out again. Taking it, Sora smiled. "Thanks, little guy."

The mushroom waved at Sora, then Neku, and vanished. Sora examined the pin closely, catching a strange detail. "Odd," he muttered. "It's just like that one you have, Neku…"

"Mine?" Neku echoed.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. It's a blank pin."

"Mr. H told me that mine was the only one," Neku said, staring at the pin in Sora's hand. "And I know what mine does. Maybe this one is different?"

"Probably," Sora replied, stuffing it into one of his pockets just as he felt a numbness return to his hands. "Well, at any rate, the timer's gone. What do you want to do for the rest of the day?"

Neku's eyes traveled to the AMX nearby. "I could really use some new stuff to listen to. Sometimes when I'm alone in Shibuya, I just like to walk around listening to music so I could enjoy myself. I used to do it to tune people out, but it's different now.

He really does like music, huh? Sora observed, glancing at the AMX. That's when he caught something eye of a poster in the window. "Hey, they're having a karaoke competition today. It says they're featuring some new album."

"I guess we could go in," Neku said, shrugging. "The guy there knows me, so he'll give me a discount."

Grinning victoriously, Sora and Neku headed into the music store, with Neku leading the way. The moment they stepped in, Sora felt his eyes bulge out of his skull. He had never seen so many CD albums in one place before. There were rows upon rows of rock, pop, techno, dance, even foreign music. The overhead speakers weren't blaring music at the moment; the karaoke competition was providing its own in the open corner of the shop. "Music is that big here?" Sora asked.

Neku nodded. "Yeah," he began quietly so no one would overhear. "You never really notice it, but when you're in the UG, sometimes you can hear music playing really softly. When you scan it gets louder so you can hear it well, but there's usually plenty of Noise to block it out. In my last game, there were these special pins spread around all over Shibuya, controlling people's thoughts and making them all center in on a single point. It was scary to scan them because they were all thinking the same exact thing, and strangely enough, Shibuya went on a total stand-still that day. It was so quiet. At the time, I would have enjoyed the silence and no one bothering me, but something was just wrong about it. When there's no music to hear, you know something's wrong with Shibuya."

"Sounds devastating," Sora replied. "I can't imagine a place like this being entirely quiet."

"It can happen," Neku said. "I just hope it doesn't."

Dropping the subject, Sora turned his attention to the nearby stand where the karaoke competition was taking place. Currently on the microphone was a young woman with short pink hair, her eyes squeezed shut as she sang.

I can't believe this isn't a dream;
My lucent orb is fading bright!
I can't believe it was a dream;
So hard to reignite myself…

Sora found himself wandering toward the stand, with Neku following closely behind him. "I never knew she could sing so well," he muttered.

"You know her?" Sora asked.

Neku nodded. "Yep. Her name's Uzuki Yashiro. She's one of the Reapers helping to run this game. She's got a hot temper alright, but she's good at what she does…"

I can't believe this isn't a dream;
Is this the way we end up?
I can't believe it was a dream;
A flashback is all I've got in my hand!

Sora cocked his head. "She is good, but… She's a reaper. Shouldn't she be helping run the game or something?"

"Nah. We've got a bit of spare time right now."

The two turned around to see a man with long, spiked blonde hair standing behind them (which strongly reminded Sora of Hayner), a stick of bean paste in his hand. Neku apparently recognized him and crossed his arms. "Koki Kariya. What're you doing here?"

"Just having fun in our spare time," Kariya replied casually. "Reapers can visit the RG if we really want to, so long as we hold up our duties. Uzuki saw the sign for the karaoke contest and decided to join up. I got dragged in with her. Don't think we'll be doing you any favors in the game, though."

"Speaking of the game," Neku said, "What's up with all those heartless running around? Also, the only wall I've seen so far is the one we had on day one for 104. Is there some emergency call going on?"

Kariya shrugged. "Not that I know of," he said. "The GM isn't letting me give the details to other players, but he said the proxy and his partner have every right to know, so…he's using some of the players to help with heartless clean-up duty. The reapers are in on it, too."

"I thought so," Sora mumbled.

"I've never been in a game like this before," Kariya continued. "We're helping the players survive this time rather than picking them off. The composer himself told us that the heartless are a major threat…even worse than taboo noise. We kinda put two and two together after that."

"The composer," Neku said under his breath.

A round of applause sounded around them and Uzuki stepped down from the platform. When her eyes fell on Kariya, she snarled. "What are you doing?!" she demanded, hissing out her words. "These guys aren't our friends!"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Kariya protested lightheartedly. "Didn't the composer tell you about spiky and key-boy teaming up?"

"Spiky?" Neku echoed.

"Key-boy?" Sora moaned.

Uzuki groaned. "Ugh, whatever. Come on, Kariya. Let's head back to work." With that, the harrier headed out the door.

Kariya shot one last smirk at the duo. "Take care," he said, before they vanished out the door.

Sora watched as the two exited and turned his attention back to the stage, where the store's owner began speaking to the crowd again, asking who would like to be next. With a sly grin, he elbowed his partner. "Hey, Neku, why don't you go sing next?"

Neku stared at Sora with incredulous eyes. "Me?" he exclaimed. "Sora, there's a difference between enjoying music and actually being good at it!"

"You're just being shy," Sora insisted, much to the silent protest of Neku. "I've had to sing in front of people before. It's not that bad."

Apparently Neku had judged by the look in Sora's eyes that he wasn't about to let this go, and he gave in. "Okay, fine. I'll go." Neku stepped up onto the stage, and the crowd went silent as he took the microphone in his hand. He swallowed nervously, then spoke. "Hey, everyone. I'm Neku Sakuraba…and I'd like to sing 'Someday' by Hanaeryca."

A quiet murmur went through the crowd and Sora glanced around. The song was apparently well-known. The speakers began to play an electric guitar riff, followed by bass, and Neku closed his eyes. Sora watched as the boy opened his mouth and began to sing:

Grab the key, let's go out and have some fun!
Have you ever seen such a perfect day?
What's in your mind? Let's do it one by one!
Have you ever thought that such a day would come?

Time's up! Forget the theory;
Start up a brand new story!
Straight up and put it shortly;
This is the way my life goes…

Somehow I hate to see you lie and lie;
I know how dumb I am, but so are you!
Sometimes I want to laugh and cry at once;
Explain to me what is justice, what is right?

The crowd cheered, and Sora found himself crossing his arms and grinning as the guitar riffs played between stanzas. He's awesome! The keyblade master noted. He really should be a singer…

"This is really getting old…"

Hanekoma sighed as he reached for another dirty mug. "What did you expect, Josh?" he replied. "Right now I have my hands full, what with being-"

"I'm not talking about that," Joshua replied, washing his hands and tossing the dirty rag into what appeared to be a trash bin. "I mean those heartless. Minamimoto isn't letting up, that's for sure, but I get the feeling that something else is at work here. Remember those other creatures we saw?"

"Right," Hanekoma replied. "There was also that cloaked man that was reported to be aiding Minamimoto."

Joshua sighed, beginning to fix himself a cup of cappuccino. "But what about that other guy?" he began. "The one with the big, round ears. You said he visited and warned you about those monsters."

Hanekoma's gaze stiffened and he stared at the floor. "When the heartless first arrived, he fended off the shop. He apparently knew how vibes worked, so he was able to come to the UG the safe way. He stayed long enough to tell me about the monsters and what to do about them, and left in a big hurry. I would have offered him a cup o' joe on the house, but he seemed fine."

"You think it was the king?" Joshua asked, snapping a cap onto his disposable cup and sipping it as he headed for the back room.

"Yep," Hanekoma replied. "The fact that he told us specifically about Sora is a huge sign of that."

Joshua rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "There's also that keyblade Sora has. Do you think it is…"

Hanekoma nodded. "The very same one. I have it on good authority I know what Sora's here for, too."

"How will he find it?" Joshua asked, propping his elbow on the table.

"It's hidden," Hanekoma replied. "But he can find it. You see, scanning and imprinting aren't the only things a player pin is capable of…"

I had to abridge the song. Sorry n.n;