They were given a name, two possible locations, and a brief description.

Hayabe Tanomura.

Frequents the arcade and the mural at Udagawa.

Long black ponytail past his waist. Red hoodie that looks just like a support Reaper's except for the giant black skull design in front.

They were supposed to kill him. Well, erase. Joshua was very particular about details.

At the younger partner's behest, they first checked the arcade. They didn't get very far though, as the establishment seemed to be installing some new sort of gaming table involving pins.

"It's gonna be big…" The arcade owner whispered.

Joshua had his doubts.

Due to the construction, most of the arcade was closed off. Many of the classic arcade games were still open, though, so they examined the area. No ponytail, no red hoodie.

"Is it really necessary for us to go to Udagawa?"

Sho stared at the younger boy. "You got something against Udagawa recently?"

Josh only looked at his feet, shifting them uneasily. He was hoping to appeal to Sho's older brother instincts by acting childish. "Sho, I don't wanna do this. I don't want to kill anybody."

"Some Old Horses…" Sho muttered. Either Joshua wasn't as convincing as he thought, or Sho knew him too well. "I been watching you. You didn't have any problem with this mission until the Iron Maiden mentioned that spot. Now you tell me what the factor is your problem, or I'm leaving you to explain to her Iron Frostiness why we couldn't complete this mission."

Joshua sighed and crossed his arms. "You got me. I really, really, truly don't want to go."

"Didn't we just go there last week?"

"Yeah, but it's not like I could have seen anything anyway."

Sho adjusted his hat. "You gonna tell me what's goin' on?"

Joshua threw his arms up in the air in exasperation. "Never mind. It's no big deal. Let's just go." Sho nodded, but he obviously wasn't convinced.

"You tell me later."

"Sure."

Joshua tried to imagine what the Udagawa back streets looked like through Sho's eyes.

Litter and skidmarks covered the place. Loud, boisterous music sounded from Wild Boar. And a lone skater practiced on the rails of the first staircase.

Closer to the mural was a boy. The boy had earbud wires sticking out of his orange spiky hair as he ignored everyone around him.

Seen through Sho's eyes, he was just a boy.

But he wasn't alone. Joshua curled his hands into fists as he noticed the six winged red hoodie sitting unbelievably close to Neku as if he wanted to catch some of the beats. Judging by the blurriness of the smaller boy and the sharpness of the man, Joshua understood that Tanomura, like them, was in the UG. Neku had no idea that there was a man listening to his music with him.

Tanomura turned around as he heard the pair approaching. He raised a hand in a casual wave. "Well, if it isn't Pi-Face and Josh- can I call you Josh? He usually did." The ponytailed Reaper jabbed his thumb through Neku.

Sho looked concerned at the sudden change in Joshua's demeanor. "Get away from him!" The white-haired boy yelled.

"J, what the factor?"

Tanomura stretched his arms lazily above his head. "Tone it down a hair, Josh. I just like the kid's taste. Always have."

"What do you mean, always have?" Joshua nearly hissed.

"Kid's got good taste." Tanomura shrugged. "Hey, calm your tits. Well, guess I owe you an explanation, huh?"

Joshua began playing with his hair to focus on anything other than the infuriating nature of this Reaper who was so close to Neku.

"This mural, it's got a message in it. Oh, I guess I shouldn't talk about that. Well, anyway, you, me, and Neku here were all drawn to this mural for a reason. I came to check it out one day and what did I find? Two kids giving each other the cold shoulder. I kept comin' by just to see the mural, but then I saw you two getting closer. And I thought, 'well ain't that just the cutest thing?' And then you two would always listen to the best music, so I had all these reasons to stick around in the UG and hang. You understand?"

Sho looked from Tanomura to Neku to Joshua. "SOHCAHTOA. I never stop talking about Jun, but here you factoring-"

Joshua did not let his partner finish. "Mr. Tanomura. We're here on a mission from Megumi Kitaniji."

"My man Meg? Oh, how is the good ole' Conductor doing? Never see him anymore since he got that promotion."

"You're friends?" Sho asked.

Tanomura laughed and stood up. "Hell yeah. Meg was my partner."

Joshua would be lying to say he wasn't slightly disturbed by that information. And of course, that same emotion was written all over Sho's face. The boys exchanged glances, not sure who should speak first.

"What's with those faces? Can't see me and snake guy runnin' around as kids? Well, believe it. Once we became Reapers, they told us it's better to make pacts with our shadows. Not that that stopped you- hey, I don't judge. But we still went on Player hunts together. Good times. We became Officers around the same time as well. But now since he became Game Master and then Conductor he's been way busy. Kinda sucks." He looked at the younger Reapers who looked increasingly troubled with every word he said. "So, uh, what's Meg want with me?"

Sho muttered something along the lines of "son of an isosceles…" And Joshua merely thought. He didn't like being made to do dirty jobs, especially when he wasn't sure the reason behind such a strange request. But there was information he wanted, and who knows what would be done to them if they failed in their mission. Is this how they disposed of uncooperative Reapers? He didn't want find out what they would do to them if they disobeyed.

"Mr. Kitaniji sent us to erase you."

Tanomura laughed awkwardly. "Never really pegged ya as a joker, Josh."

"Radian's not joking." Sho said without meeting the other Reaper's eyes. "We really are supposed to- well, you get it."

Tanomura sat down shakily next to Neku, who faced the opposite way and was ever oblivious to what was going on. "Well. How do you like that?"

The partners stood in silence as the ponytailed Reaper continued to laugh bleakly. "So this is what I get. I support him and help rise through the ranks for years, and this is my thanks. He writes me off for a couple weeks and then sends his lackeys over to put Hayabe out to pasture. Good old Meg."

"Mr. Tanomura. We do have a mission." Sho glowered at this.

"Of course." The six-winged Reaper rose slowly, "Well, I'll have to return Meg's message with one of my own. But I can't promise I won't kill the messengers."

And with that, Joshua and Sho found themselves thrust into the Noise Plane.

Joshua had never seen the Noise Plane before, so he found nothing wrong with taking some time to examine his surroundings before he continued the battle. Although, to be perfectly honest, it didn't look that much different from the rest of Udagawa. It seemed to be a parallel universe. The only difference is that there seem to be quite a lot of Joshuas running around. Albeit the face was covered in a white and red mask, but he would still recognize that curly white hair anywhere, as well as those lovely clothes the kind salesperson at Edoga had picked out for him.

But there was no way that these imitations could be him, as he would never be running around so aimlessly. If he was running all.

Joshua watched as Tanomura placed a mask on his face and then morphed into a fox which morphed into perfect replica of Joshua. Then, as if he was some science textbook illustration of mitosis, he began splitting off into various other Joshuas.

"A lot of you or a lot of me?" Sho's mind voice sounded a bit gruff and exasperated.

"Me." Joshua answered matter-of-factly. "Look for some sort of distinguishing quality, whether physical or behavioral. There's got to be something."

Joshua tried to follow his own advice, but it seems Tanomura was very good at making these copies. The worst part was that every so often one of them would rush him with thick claws or nibble on him with the fangs. They would stay just long enough for him to shove them away and then they would run back and continue darting around the Plane.

Needless to say, Joshua was starting to get a bit tired of this nonsense. He pulled out his orange cell phone and began attacking Fox Joshuas at random. They disappeared once they were crushed, but this strategy really couldn't narrow them down fast enough, as the remaining ones would continue multiplying.

"I found him." And Joshua could feel Sho's excitement as he focused his strength on the true Tanomura.

After a few moments, Sho seemed frustrated again, "Hectopascal got away. Got a few good hits on him though. His mask was a little off center."

Joshua was impressed. How could he have seen that from so far away? Even with his restored vision, Joshua wasn't sure if he could pay that much attention to detail. But he could try.

He stood on his tip toes, knowing full well that heart pin would have been welcomed now. Was that one- no. That one was just the same as the others. How on earth was he supposed to do this?

He began walking through the hordes of swarming Joshuas, fending off their attacks as he moved.

There.

He found it. The mask wasn't off-center in this plane, but had slightly different coloring. He began madly jamming buttons into his cell phone. He realized that at some point he would really have to pay attention to which button did what now that he could see. But there was no time for that now so he aimed for the discolored Fox.

The 10-year-old let out an undignified whoop as the safe connected with the true Tanomura. The others disappeared. With that encouragement, Joshua began attacking him with raining objects again and again until Tanomura recovered enough to send out his clones again.

Rinse and repeat.

The flight was extremely frustrating as the difference changed every time. It seemed he wasn't leavng these clues it on purpose- at least, Joshua hoped that this Reaper Officer wasn't so weak as to go easy on them.

Every once in a while either Joshua or Sho would call excitedly in the other's mind about how they had found where Tanomura was hiding.

Finally, with Tanomura fading, they were returned to the UG.

The boys watched helplessly as they successfully completed their mission.

"I- I don't understand. Meg, what did I do?"

And he faded from existence

Hello friends! Well, on that happy note, hope you accept my apology for this chapter being a tad late. Family issues, possible divorces 25 years in the making, you know how it is. It's hard to find time to write this, although it's a great way to keep my mind off stuff. All right, enough about me. Poor Tanomura. I kind of liked him. Even though Joshua really, really didn't. More about Joshua's awful attitude about Neku coming. Anyway, please read and review and I hope you stay tuned for the next chapter!