"You sure about this, J?"

Joshua could sense the unease in his partner's voice as they looked over the railing at the squabbling pair of Players below. But what he saw was not a couple of pre-teens arguing over a mission; Joshua pictured every "innocent child" that had made his life miserable. Every ordinary person that thought he was insane, that never believed him. And the one he thought was his most trusted friend, the only one he looked up to in this world, had just denounced him as crazy as well. Yes, he was quite certain about erasing players in order to ensure the survival of two of the only three people that still mattered to him-one of those being himself.

"Just think of them as irritating Noise," Joshua muttered. Sho glanced at his partner in confusion, but Joshua only shook his head with a smirk and raced down the stairs. "So zetta slow," he called teasingly up to his partner.

"Are you out of your vector?" Sho called. Within seconds he was at the silver-haired boy's side, but he was no longer human. "Factoring hectopascal forgets he's just a Player…"

"What you want me to do, jump on?"

"You did once. It was pretty badass."

Joshua now eyed the creature before him with as much wariness as Sho displayed earlier. It was a large, powerful beast comprised of the same tattoos that decorated all the Noise. What really bothered Joshua though were those glowing red eyes that looked nothing like those of his partner. And the wings… Sho had four wings jutting off his back like some strange leonine insect. Needless to say, this did not look like a very safe ride.

"You know, I really thought you were a Tiger." Joshua observed dryly asked he climbed up on Sho's back.

"What, is my mane not cool enough for you?"

"I'm afraid not."

Cool manes or not, they were apparently still intimidating enough to earn a satisfying scream from one of the boys, who promptly hid behind the partner he had been berating mere moments before.

Joshua smirked before calling out, "that's just sad."

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Oh my, what a bad mouth you've got there."

"Leave us alone, losers." The other boy whimpered from behind his partner. "We need to go solve the mystery at Spain Hill."

"Spain Hill, huh? Hey, J, how about we play a game?"

"Sure, shoot." Joshua grinned.

"Let's see who can erase these yoctograms faster. Loser buys the winner a dog over at Spain Hill."

Joshua shrugged. "Normally I'd prefer ramen, but I'll accept your challenge. Joshua tried to ignore the fur that shook beneath his body despite their banter. Was Sho… Afraid? But of what?

"…Are you Reapers? One of the boys called timidly

"Damn straight."

Sho pounced on the boys, and they were thrust into the noise plane.

Joshua seemed to be alone, but he could still feel his partner in the parallel dimension. And, every so often, the raging tattooed lion would enter his plane, wreak havoc, and then disappear. Joshua tried to switch levels as well, but it seemed his Player state left him grounded. Likewise, without the heart pin they used to basically hack the last game, Joshua could not leave the ground.

"Shame." He said to himself as he pressed buttons on his phone in boredom.

The boy ran about shouting all manner of curses and prayers, but Joshua really wasn't paying that much attention. If anything, most of his energy was spent on analyzing the situation in order to best determine a strategy. He was barely cognizant of the barrier of objects he put up to block the projectiles the boy occasionally threw his way.

Sho began to appear with lessening frequency, and Joshua sensed he was engaged in battle with the boy who wielded a pin like a sword. Sho seemed to have the upper hand, but then the boy before Joshua did… Something. He pulled out a pin that turned into an energy drink. Before Joshua could make some comment about "this is not the time for refreshments", Or something else witty like that, both Players both began to attack with newfound ferocity.

Joshua dodged, finding it much easier to be quick on his feet now that he could see the opponent. In fact, dodging seemed to be a bit fun. He danced around the boy, occasionally blinding him with the flash of his phone's camera so that he could slink behind him. But the boy held on tight to that energy drink pin, and Joshua finally cemented his strategy.

"The boy in my plane," He said in Sho's mind. "Seems to be some sort of healer. I suggest we take him out first."

In response, Sho suddenly appeared behind the Player, claws bared, screaming "INFINITY!" On top of his lungs. As the Player in the other plane grappled with the copious amount of Noise that Sho left for him to deal with, this boy cowered. Joshua swiftly took this opportunity to bombard the child with all manner of bicycles and traffic signs and whatever else he could drop on him.

The Player spent too much time avoiding the objects and walked right into the leonine reaper. Static.

Sho stood still, breathless.

"Well. We could wait the seven minutes, or we could make sure we filled that quota." Joshua played with his hair.

Sho ran to him. "Get on," he said gruffly.

With the help of his partner, Joshua was able to travel to the other plane. There the other player stood, clearly aware of the loss of his own partner. "What… Did you do?!" The boy suddenly charged both of them, sword in hand. Unfortunately, the boy was too distracted by his anger to notice the 18-wheeler levitating a few feet from his head. More static, and the Reapers were returned to the UG.

Only one of them was pleased.

"I think I need three showers." Sho exclaimed.

Joshua stared him in confusion, still reveling in their victory. "What do you mean?"

"You think I liked that?"

Didn't you? Joshua thought to himself. He did. "So what are you going to do about it?"

Sho pulled his hat tighter on his head. "First, outer, inner, last. What choice do I have? I did this so I could protect my little brother."

"And you can."

"Yeah, but now if I don't completely iterate other people, kids no older than him, he'll have no one. I could've-we could have chosen life. If we'd known, if that hectopascal of a shop owner hadn't lied to us-"

"don't talk about Mr. Hanekoma." Joshua said icily.

But Sho had no problem with continuing his rant. "How can I even face him? 'Hey big bro, hey Sho, what awesome stuff did you do today? Did you have fun at work today?' Because that's what they think, you know. Jun and Minamimoto, they think I'm just factoring around in the city all day and droppin' off yen to keep their asses alive. Minamimoto even said the other day I was probably somebody's hitman. Guess that is all I am. Hitman for people who were already dead. No, I'm worse than a hitman. 'Least they can quit without getting a case of the zetta fuzzies. We're fucked up, radian. We're just straight up fucked."

"So that's it then. We wait and mope around and curse ourselves while the "zetta fuzzies" cover our bodies because we're too soft to erase another player. Is this why you hadn't erased anyone before I stopped hearing the music? You are so afraid of what other people think of you? Well too bad. You are a reaper now. People will think of you as a reaper. If I were you, I would start getting used to it."

"I didn't sign up for this."

"Didn't you, though? We can blame whomever we wish, but it still doesn't change the fact we should've known what we were getting into. We had seen reapers erase players. I've certainly seen my fair share of them. It's not too hard to realize that this is a reaper's job. Now, stop whining." Sho gaped at him. "We could be idiotic reapers too afraid to keep themselves alive, or we could be amazing reapers who everyone fears. Look what a great team we made back there. We could be like that every week. We could be better than that stupid snake we fought, even. You're my partner. Start acting like it."

"Slabs Of Ham, Celery And Horseradish, Tons Of Asparagus."

Joshua stopped his pacing. "What on earth…?"

"SOH CAH TOA. Never mind. Are you really only 10 years old? Guess this game ages you quick."

Joshua continued waiting for Sho to say something of value. Was that mean? Did it really matter if it was mean?

"You know, I think you should meet him. Yeah, I am gonna take you to him. And I'm gonna tell him what I'm doing. As much as he'll understand. You're not busy, right?"

"Well, considering I've only been consciously a reaper for a few hours I haven't really had time to make plans." Joshua sighed. Was an introduction truly necessary?

"Great. Jun's going to love you."