It seemed like forever since you last visited the arcade. Confidently, after practicing for a few weeks, you marched in the door of the Extreme Arcade... only to be intimidated again by the players on the machine.

Rage was playing on the right side, grasping the bar for dear life as he tried to clear a fast song. Emi must have been playing at a different level as there were hardly any arrows. Curiously, you watched Rage's feet as they scrambled on the arrows. You glanced at the arrows on the screen, but they were scrolling so fast you were getting a headache trying to read them. The man panted and stomped until he reached the final arrow. After the song was finished, he put all his weight on the bar, exhausted. Everyone around, including Emi, cheered for him.

"Good job, Rage!" the girl congratulated. "You passed Max 300!"

Rage shook his head. "That stupid X... Special," he yelled between breaths, "is weird. Get me... off this thing."

He wobbled off stage and Emi eagerly stayed by his side. Not knowing a lot of other people, you walked up to the couple to greet them.

"H-ey Ssouji," Rage tried to say, "how's it going?"

"Hiya," Emi said. "Um, about that game I was gonna give you... you don't have a PS2, do you?"

Well, that wasn't something you wanted to cram onto a plane from Japan. You answered no.

She chuckled. "I'm sorry, I'm still trying to unlock everything on my games at home. Maybe when I'm done, you can borrow my system. Plus, I gotta find something to carry everything here..."

You told her it was no problem. You meant to ask Rage about introducing you to Zero, but he wasn't in much of a condition to help, so you didn't want to bother him about it.

"Hey, it's Zero!"

Emi waved to someone behind you and you turned around quickly. The silver haired man you saw before in the same fur coat was walking in your direction. He didn't seem happy, but you didn't think he seemed angry, either.

"How have you been?" Emi continued. "Are you gonna play some DDR?"

He looked at the machine, as if he needed a moment to ponder her question. "It's the same every week, isn't it?" His voice was calm, though he strained its volume slightly to talk over the games.

"Oh yeah," Rage started, "You haven't met Souji, have you?"

He looked at you, and you stared back at him. His dark eyes refused to make contact with yours; he seemed to examine you from head to feet.

"Are you a dancer?" Zero asked.

Besides playing DDR, you couldn't say you were much of a dancer.

"Hmph. I like you already," he said. Despite his word choice, he didn't sound like he cared much about your answer...

"Hey," Rage called to him to get his attention, "do you know if there are any job openings at the hospital? Souji worked as a janitor before and he was just looking for something to do. Think you could put in a good word for him?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't know what to say about him."

"Well, you guys just go and get to know each other," Rage encouraged, "or just make up some stuff."

Zero sighed. "I'll see what I can do." He hastily walked out of your small group and to another side of the room.

"See, I told you he wasn't all bad," Emi said. "You should go talk to him some more."

You tried not to frown. Truthfully, you thought he was sort of creepy... but you didn't really know him yet. It was worth a shot to learn more about the man, so you looked around that corner of the room and tried to find him.

He was leaning against a wall, around Akira, Alice, and Gus, who seemed to be laughing.

"I'm not locking her up," Akira said.

"Hey, it's that guy again!" Gus said, addressing you. "Akira was just telling us about how you were trying to hide Yuni yesterday."

Ah, of course. You laughed as well, happy that Akira wasn't upset about it. Speaking of him being upset, you wondered if he ever noticed anything about his sword... well, you weren't about to bring it up, so...

"He's getting pretty good at DDR," Gus said to the others, "for having only been here for a couple weeks."

"Will you be playing today?" Alice asked. "I'd like to see."

You figured you would, whenever you got the chance.

"Dance with me."

It was that dark voice again.

You looked in Zero's direction. He was staring at you after issuing his command. You had no choice but to agree to it.

Yuni and Devil Zukin were playing on the machine. With several DDR regulars talking to each other and Rage still recovering from his round, you knew you and Zero were next. He didn't say anything while you waited; he simply stood behind the machine, observing the dancers with his arms crossed.

You weren't sure why he decided to play DDR with you... you saw him play two weeks ago and he was playing incredibly hard songs. Why would he want to play with a beginner like you? You gulped and waited for your turn while awkwardly standing next to the taller man you were about to be up against. The silence for about two songs was awkward, so you wondered what you could ask him. You began to break the ice between you two by asking why he wanted to dance with you.

"To see you dance," he replied, after a pause. He never looked at you; he continued to stare in the machine's direction.

Why would he want to see you dance? That kind of question just seemed annoying. All you knew about him was that he worked at a hospital, so you waited for the silence to be unbearable again before you asked what he did there.

"I'm a surgeon."

A surgeon? Him? But he couldn't even be that old... you felt like you had to ask his age immediately afterward.

"23."

He was definitely young for a doctor... you wondered what kind of experiences he had. But surely, they couldn't all be pleasant... perhaps it wasn't something to bring up. Lost in thought, time flew by quickly for you. Before you knew it, Yuni and Zukin were done.

Zero acted as if he forgot you were there. He replaced Zukin on the right side of the machine, so you instinctively switched places with Yuni on the left. You and Zero slid your game cards across the slot on the front to put in two credits.

Still unfamiliar with a majority of the huge list of songs, you rested on the bar as Zero chose something. You noticed that the song was called will (in lowercase letters, for some reason). Like Gus, he changed his arrow speed to x2, and you kept your options the same. After he selected the song on Expert, you awkwardly told him good luck, but he said nothing in reply.

You had placed yourself on Basic and you felt it was a fitting choice. The arrows were making more sense to you than two weeks ago. You still felt a constant need to stay in the middle, but you were given enough time between arrows to get most of them. Now, if only your rhythm was better...

You finished your song with a B, and Zero had earned a grade of AA. You waited for him to continue; he took a brief rest on the bar and then proceeded to select the next song, which was apparently Trickster.

And you wished he'd picked a slower one. Though you managed to survive the jump in BPM from the previous song with a C, you were sort of ashamed when you saw that Zero received another AA.

"Your turn."

You were surprised to hear him speak; so surprised, in fact, the fact that you had no idea what to choose didn't matter for a second.

"I want to see what you prefer."

You were under pressure at that point. Surely, he couldn't judge you by the song you chose... could he?

You slowly went through the song list... you wanted to pick something you weren't going to fail, preferably a song you had already played before. The length of the list was overwhelming... but you felt that the longer you took, the less experienced you looked in front of an expert. A tad humiliated by spending thirty seconds listening to previews, you scrolled down the list to find Inspiration: the first song Emi had you play.

You looked to Zero for a reaction. You thought you saw a smirk.

"Go ahead. Select it."

With no indication that he wanted to change options or anything, you chose the song. The familiar melody and robotic vocals sounded. You tapped your feet to the rhythm before the arrows started, giving you a better feel for the speed of the song.

One, two, three, four... you counted the beats in your head, even when there weren't arrows. You could hear Zero's extra steps pounding next to you, but you focused on your side and tapped your arrows. You barely missed any, or at least you missed fewer than normal.

To your amazement, a single A floated before you. It was the first A you'd received on the game, and you were rather proud.

Apparently, it was just an easy song, though... because Zero got an AAA.

You looked at him, and he seemed to study the screen, just as he did when you first saw him. You tried thanking him for dancing with you to get some kind of response.

He half-nodded. That was about it.

You gave up talking to him and walked off your side of the machine. Seconds later, he appeared behind you.

"If you want that job, you should give me your contact information."

You found him to be a little random, but you decided to exchange numbers with him. You asked him if he needed any more information from you... such as a job history or skills, maybe.

"I know enough," he replied.

He went back to the corner with Gus and the others. Emi, Rage, Yuni, and Devil Zukin seemed to have merged with them into one group, so you followed him there. For the remainder of the night, you took turns playing on the DDR machine. Though you could only play songs at around level five, you were growing more and more confident in your skills. You felt more as if you fit in with the rest of the group.

Then you went back home, wondering if Zero would be able to get you a job, so that your weekends would no longer be as boring...

(It's 12:40 a.m. and I'm tired. Prolly gonna be procrastinating some chapters. xP)