Mr Reaper

by EeveeGen9988

A young Reaper set in his ways has enough of seeing Shibuya being left unprotected from criminals, and finds himself leading those of common interest to take action. If only he knew how one step to betterment would lead to another he would take alone... Written for [Shibuya Operation - Story Storm 2019-present] and [Twelve Shots of Summer 2019].

2. Mr Sadist

Mr. Reaper

I do not own The World Ends With You, Square Enix does!

Mr. Reaper Part 1 was written as a one-shot for Twelve Shots of Summer: Hexa-Code-Kernal - Week 10...

Subsequent chapters may or may not reflect the same disclaimer format as seen above and will receive author notes when applicable.

...

1 - Mr. Sadist

---

One week later…

---

Walking up to the front shoji, the nineteen-year-old stared at the door for a minute before retrieving his keys. He fumbled with them, soon managing to press the right one in when he found it and pulled the sliding door open.

"I'm home!" he called out instinctively, standing for a long moment then felt hollow when he received nothing in return. He knelt down, undoing his shoelaces slowly to savour the feeling as he pulled each one off, moving to put slippers on... but didn't in the end. He quietly stepped in, shutting the door slowly.

He watched how his mother and Kage were conversing; paying him no mind… Inhaling gradually, he started to glance around.

His mother (he used to see her as) was frowning, her hands clasped on the cubudai, her head bowed. Kage- on the other hand- was smiling slightly, albeit forced, as he sat on a new shabby cushion he shifted constantly on… Must have been bought at a second-hand shop, the younger male supposed bitterly. It didn't have the good quality as the ones his father and grandparents from Kyoto made, but it was doing a great job at annoying that scumbag. Now that was the only redeeming quality it had! At least, his spot wasn't taken for once...

The younger male walked around them on the ivory tatsumi, actively pushing himself to ignore them. He was none too eager to get their attention- not that he would- and made for his room.

Just as he was moving his hand to the shoji door, he halted upon hearing Kage grunt, "I-I'll see you tomorrow, Amaya-chan!"

"R-Right!" she hesitantly chirped.

The young man turned to watch with the woman as the man scooped up his cushion, probably on probation with their cushions after the umeshu stain ordeal, moving to the front door only to pause when the younger man noticed it was still open. It was a second later that the man slid through the crack of the door and shut it this time around, and the younger man soon watched as the charcoal black haired woman slowly rose.

As she went to the front door, the young man turned back to open his room's shoji door when he paused to firmly touch the door. When his fingers felt the elaborate paper, he slowly eased it open only to panic when the lock sounded behind him before shoving the shoji open. He cringed upon hearing the door banging on the stopper and went rigid.

"Who is there!?" the woman shrieked in alarm.

Her previous son dove into the room, knowing it was too late now to close it without detection.

He hurried to shield himself against the shoji on his side of the room, scolding himself for his decision to return home and freezing when soft footfalls moved in his direction. As he watched the woman halt in the doorway, he stilled his breath and observed her fearful eyes as they flickered around his side of the neatly organized room. She stood motionless as she rested her hands, one slightly over the other, over her heart. "I-I could have sworn…"

When she edged forward, her face unreadable once she was further away from him, he slowly tiptoed sideways until he backed into the main room. When he felt the tatsumi under his bare feet again, he spun around to bolt for the front door. He cursed when he began fumbling with the lock, trying harder until he yanked it open and stumbled onto the genken.

He immediately knelt to put his socks and favourite trainers back on, standing up and started to lunge forward into a run- only to hear her call out with a crack in her voice, "I-Is that you?" His breath hitched as he stopped, not daring to move as he heard her reenter the room behind him with unequal steps. "M-M-My s-son!?"

Smiling bitterly at the cursed title she seemed to cling to, chuckling humourlessly to himself, he allowed himself to be silent. She said no more, probably waiting on him to face her for the first time since he stormed out…

But why would she care now when she finally got her break from him?

His heart tugged immediately, yearning for interaction with her...

Fairly soon, he found himself betraying the plan he had to just drop on by to hollowly regard her instead. "Yeah, it's me." He tried to push as much energy as he could into his body, hearing her breath hitch as he met her gaze sharply and bowed in greeting. "I didn't mean to intrude," he mumbled as he rose back up, looking away as he frowned when hearing her breath stutter for some reason. "I'll see myself out."

"It is you…" she murmured breathlessly and he shrugged slightly at that. "H-How-"

"Look, it was a poor choice on my part to come back," he said coolly, turning to go when she shouted in protest. "You don't want me here, and I understand I should remove myself from your premises before I cause you more trouble-"

"N-No- do not go-"

"I am only doing what any child should do, after all..." he hissed with a roll of his eyes, continuing with as much venom he could weave into his curt voice, "Listening to their parents' word." She nearly cut in again when he added tartly in deride, "So, what do you want now?"

"To know wh-what happened..." she responded weakly in a keen. This caused his eyes to widen, his body to seize as numbness started to overwhelm it and his heart rate sped up. "I-I only heard it from Kage, but it makes no sense-"

"That it happened? That you're not happy even though I heeded your word?" he sneered icily with a sharp scoff after managing to tug himself out of his near anxiety attack. He let the words ring between them, soon snarling bitterly as he swerved back to lock gazes with her and glowered hard, "Be happy already for damn sake- You don't have to deal with me anymore, woman! You have nothing to hold you back from having your fucking happy ending with that scumbag!"

"N-No…" she whimpered, stepping quietly his way as she went on, "I-I want to know what h-happened."

He snapped sharply as he bristled, "I don't know! If you want to hear it from someone you actually listen to, why not badger your boyfriend!?" He turned, trying to pull himself back and heard the woman shriek in alarm. "He knows all the answers to fill your empty head with! Why bother me when you don't need to!?"

"But I want to hear it from you-"

"When have you wanted to listen to me before!?" he yelled furiously, feeling tears well up in his eyes. "You never listened to me… and now you never will."

"P-Please…" she pleaded in a sob, folding her hands over each other again against her chest. "I want to listen…"

"You blew that opportunity…" he sneered coldly, shaking his head as he backed away. "Nothing will make up for the pain you put me through…"

When she approached him more with despair in her gaze, he tugged on himself harder, desperate to escape as stress was coursing through every inch of his body now. "I loved you- and all you did to reciprocate that love was of spite to the son who wanted to do everything to make sure you were safe." He raised his voice in distraught as he tried to distance himself from her, barely holding himself together the longer he was near her. "What he thought was right!"

This was a mistake… What was he thinking!? He had to leave now!

"C-Come back…" she murmured with hopelessness, her face twisted with grief. "M-My son… p-please come back-" Her voice grew raw as he narrowed his eyes to slits. "I am sorry…"

"I can't do that," he sniffed curtly, finally tugging himself back entirely and kept his stony gaze on her. As she frantically called out for him shrilly, he stretched his restored appendages. Upon feeling a crick in them, he proceeded to flap them to push the pain out.

Flattening his lips, he turned to walk to the edge of the genken where he slowly fanned out his wings.

"Not when I'm dead."

---

Seven weeks later...

---

The sky was gorgeous today…

A rich cerulean that yawned for miles, only spotted once and awhile with innocent, white clouds… And- of course- excellent weather for air travel.

He shifted his flight path to avoid a particularly fleecy cloud, rolling before flapping his intricately webbed wings to regain his stability in the air. 'That was close,' he thought in relief, glancing over his shoulder briefly then kept his eyes on the sky in front of him again. 'Would have caused a backlog, and I definitely don't need that right now.'

Skimming his gaze across the area below him, he slightly twitched his wings as he followed the route he was given for the Mission today. It was his last chance before his target was open for everyone to dig into tomorrow, and he damn had to make sure no one screwed with their work...

"Now, where are you…?" he drawled mindfully. He rode on a gentle breeze as he glanced more, feeling his earlier frustration build up as he saw no sign of them. "Come out, come out, wherever you are…"

He carefully diverted his path to flutter lower to the ground, soon spotting a low, half-built skyscraper coming up and sighed. He shifted his wings, fluttering as he moved his feet before feeling himself land with a slight step or two to catch himself from vaulting over the edge. He drew his wings closer together when he was safe and knelt down to observe his general surroundings.

With three Pacts remaining for this Week, he hoped the vultures hadn't gotten to the one he was eyeing to try. He scowled at the thought, searching harder as he wondered what the delay was with-

Wait a second...

There we go!

Adrenaline surged through the Harrier Reaper and a grin immediately spread across his face, letting him feel alive as he rose up just for a few seconds before pushing off the rim to jet to the ground. Upon landing precisely in front of the hurrying pair, their twin cries of shock made him chuckle internally in amusement as he swiftly spun on his heel to stand tall to face the startled Pact. To spice it up a little more, he decided to alter his demeanor to a mild excitement... just to save his gloating for later.

"Hello again~" he supplied glibly with a slight smirk. "Miss me?"

"Goddamn it!" shouted the buffer of the two- the target- who bristled at him. "No matter where we go, you're chasin' after us! Why can't we jus' lose you for once!?" The Reaper received a glare from him afterwards, while the other tensed with his regular fear enveloping his expression.

How cute.

'Because I'm smarter than you, brainiac…' He narrowed his eyes tersely. 'Grow a brain, then maybe you would!'

The Reaper allowed himself to shrug and held it for a few prolonged moments, casually fluttering his medium-sized wings to avoid getting more annoying cricks in them. He had no idea wings could get so stiff if you didn't take the time to allow them to breathe... so to speak. Already he knew the tribulations of forgetting to flex or stretch them with the memory of Players laughing at him entering his mind, of the muscle pulls chancing his wings when he was about to sic Noise on his 'meals' that day. It took a while to realize sporting arrogance and overconfidence to disguise his need of stretching his wings to avoid humiliation again was the best decision he made. Especially... if he didn't want to hop about like a damn ballerina now in front of this Pact.

As he soon relaxed his stance while releasing a groan of contentment, he crossed his arms as he retorted curtly, "Lose me?" He unfolded them and held them widely open, whisking them as he made his voice lighten up. "Now that's just sad. I was looking forward to seeing you two again."

When they gave him flat looks, he dropped his arms, smiling slightly for a moment before flattening his lips. He shook his head, giving a sigh as he pointed to them matter-of-factly, "If you actually were to lose me, which worked for a while somehow- mind you- you would have tried even harder to finish your Mission today. At least tomorrow-" He snapped his fingers as he darkly crowed, "You would have met my friends... mano-a-mano!" He whisked the same hand's fingers in a slight circle as he tested that new Spanish saying he learned… even though he found out later it may have been Latin, but that doesn't matter right now!

One good thing about being a Reaper… even if the posh bastard grilled you to go out to do your daily grind and try to 'eat', you can still sit back at the Barracks in the literal River of Styx of Shibuya and be an egghead to learn a language or two! Mind you- being an egghead was the nicest, correct way to put it if you actually focused on the word itself instead of the insult- if social interaction with those who knew the language was not for your delicate palate.

"'Hand to hand'? Mano-a-mano?" he mockingly pressed, tilting his head briefly before intentionally jumping at the 'not so obvious thing they don't know oh no how scandalous they don't know it' in disbelief to mess with them. He recoiled himself back, shaking his head. "Seriously!? Don't tell me you don't know Spanish, it was a kick to learn!"

When you knew how to study properly like he did! He left that part out intentionally to not make himself seem more annoying than he wanted to be perceived. Even with his mindset when he was in the thrill of the hunt, he had standards to stick to.

It only took him half a week with a Spanish Reaper to curb off the rough edges he had after juggling with a flimsy Japanese-to-Spanish dictionary a Week before. French, on the other hand, was on hold for his to do list because he had to tutor his friend in Japanese to become better comprehensible to the Underground.

...But the posh bastard didn't have to act so high and mighty that the Harrier Reaper was the only one to pick up the slack when no one vouched to lend a hand to his friend! It wasn't that much of a big deal... They had been in a Pact together, so why not educate his former Partner away from the piss-poor effort of speaking the language so far and culture it to near perfection?

Oh right- Pacts! He had to focus on this Pact right now.

When the frightened one kept staring at him incredulously, the other only snorted out with annoyance in response to the Reaper's great wisdom of how they fucked up their evasion of him.

The Reaper simply tutted at that, rolling his eyes at how these morons were going to be child's play now, "But, seeing as you chose to smell the roses-" He started to circle them in a lazy side-stepping fashion, placing a hand on his chin when he got halfway around to halt. He clicked his tongue as he went on, "Meandering and not going the extra mile…" Releasing his chin now, his hand bobbed towards them as he snarked, "You made it perfectly easy to find yourselves…" He crisply smiled in amusement; goading time. "So, how did you expect to hide from me?"

"You won't stop following us- so what do you expect from us!?" cried the fearful one of the Pact... hold on- was that spunk in his voice!? Hmm... now that one was taking his liquid bravado in morning? Interesting development... Too bad it was so late in the Week for that to come out in the Player when it was time for the Reaper to actually dig his claws into this Pact.

The Reaper paid the male no more mind as he drew out his blank paper and sent a little of his energy to get its pulse started. As he felt the sensation of Noise Symbols appearing to squirm about on its surface, he idly drew in another just to spruce up the fun. What? He wanted to make sure his target was Erased this time.

"What's your problem!?" shouted the now agitated Player as their voice retracted into apprehension; the Reaper guessed the poor soul had spotted the paper no doubt. "J-Just leave us be!"

"Oh, I'm not bothering you, so chill out about my pleasant visits with you guys," the Reaper said with a huff, pausing for that effect of wooing the crowd- per say- before coldly explaining, "I'm afraid it's not your fault you had to be handcuffed to this wrongdoer."

As he spotted his target recoiling, the Reaper shook his head while softening his gaze to the Player. "Your Partner hasn't been very truthful, you see… Didn't he tell you how he was a delivery boy under the head for an illegal firearm trafficking scheme? It was hard to explain over these past five- or six, if you already total it up for today- days when you've just been running and running away before I said my piece. Which is why I literally have been chasing you two down." He stepped forward, opening his arms as he frowned sincerely this time. "Just step aside and look for a new Partner… okay? I promise this will not take long."

"What!?" The Player sharply faced the wrongdoer. "Don't tell me that's why-"

"This Reaper 'as been gettin' under our skin these last few days," said the wrongdoer nonchalantly. "Don't listen to 'im, Giro, 'e's lyin' to you. We jus' gotta show 'im we're not scared of loony flyboy 'ere again, and we can finally get on wit' the Mission like last time."

'Oh, the typical slander to shift blame.' The Reaper slowly smirked from under his hood. 'That defence mechanism will not make my Noise part ways for you…' He pushed himself from the ground, shooting into the air and hovered with a few flaps of his intricately-webbed wings. "So, you think I'm just messing around, huh? Well, I doubt you'll be singing to the same tune after this-" The Harrier chuckled a little after speaking, soon lowering his tone dangerously. "Not that you will... because I know you'll not survive this time!"

The Reaper smirked harder. "Trust me."

Immediately sending a surge of energy straight into the sheet, he watched the static dance across the surface and slog off onto the ground nearby the Player and wrongdoer's feet. "This is your cue to run, Player," the Reaper called down with a weary shrug, observing the Player backing away in fright as the static altered into frantically moulding light that crackled while swelling upwards. "It's not my fault the wrongdoer tagged you as his accomplice in our Game, so don't blame me if you're a sitting duck in a minute."

"You're fuckin' are goin' down after this!" roared the wrongdoer furiously, shaking a raised fist stiffly as his glare became a sneer.

"Oh, why are you lying when you know you're in a pinch?" he chuckled as he saw his three wyvern Noise shuck off their staticky sheen. "Don't make promises you can't own up to-" As the Player screamed, the Noise charged forward at the Pact. "- then maybe I wouldn't have dragged you into the Underground..."

The Reaper let himself flutter down as his target and the Player disappeared promptly with the Noise to their Plane, landing soundlessly as he started counting mentally. He barely got to twenty when rustic red particles burst in front of him, with silver and gold Yen Pins flipping as they scattered onto the ground nearby the Reaper's brown, cream and white shoes. The particles were bunching up together as the Player was spat out of the Noise Realm with a shriek, stunned before cringing when he faced the winged person alone this time.

As the Reaper sighed, he accepted the points with a mere whisk of his hand; the particles hovered close to his palm and thrummed irresistibly. A delicious meal for him to feast upon after a long run… excellent. He pointedly stared at the Player upon crushing the Points within his grasp, that revitalizing sensation entering his veins immediately. "See?"

"Y-You monster!" yelled out the Player, his body shuddering wildly. The Reaper merely started to amble around the road, kneeling to remove his ochre knapsack from his arms and intricate wings carefully. "Do you know what you've done!?" Once it thudded on the ground, he began zipping it open. "You killed him!" The Reaper leaned down and started scooping up Yen Pins into both of his palms and shoved them into his bag quietly, hearing them ting against the others he had collected during his time in the Underground. "I don't know if he was a criminal or not, but he was not a terrible person!"

"Not to you at least," mumbled the Reaper with a huff, continuing to collect the fallen wrongdoer's Yen Pins. "A silvertongue will always become the bell of the ball and trumps who the true princess is with their wiles." He chanced a look, uncaring of how fearful the Player still was then shrugged. "I gave you a shot to not get caught up with him," supplied the Reaper matter-of-factly with a tsk. "Yet here you are: Partnerless… and not running for your survival."

The Player only made a squeak, incoherently replying as the Reaper went on, "Now, now… show me your left hand." The Reaper waved his own, rotating it palm up and curled his fingers a few times to gesture to the Player. "Come on, we don't have all day."

Flinching, the Player did so, timidly staring at the Reaper.

The Reaper quickly spotted the black timer on it then went on to explain with a tired sigh, "You have nearly lost two minutes now in your seven minute grace period. I suggest you run, like I said, and tag another Partner if they're Pactless before it reaches zero." He turned his own left hand's palm to himself, tapping it with his right index finger impatiently. "I know how stressful this can be... so if you want, I can keep count for you."

Not that the Reaper needed that confirmation, he was already tracking the time after tapping his finger enough to get the beat right as he ceased the action. "Five with thirty-five seconds…"

"...Wh-What are you talking about!?"

"Players gets seven minutes to get a new Partner," repeated the Reaper firmly, briskly walking up to the Player who edged back in alarm. The Reaper hooked his hands on the trembling Player's shoulders, spinning them around and shoved them forcefully, "You'll get an automatic Erasure if you don't- so get going!"

The Player darted away, leaving the Reaper to watch their unsteady amscray for a few seconds before he heard the hard flaps of receding beats of wings. Another Reaper had landed on his low skyscraper perch from earlier, but he didn't need to check who it was. He sighed, cupping a hand to his mouth before shouting as he gazed up at them boredly, "Well, well… you're late."

"Aoh, shutt yaawr maoutth! AI caouldn'tt geitt mah wiings ta waorlk rlightt!" retorted his friend in frustration, said large-sized wings now twitching occasionally and bent closer to the tips. "Sttuupiid thiings gaott caaughtt ein aah chaain-rengtth fence when aI puurled mahself baack flom the Leargrround- aahnd naow they'rre naott fllaapping rliughtt!"

Ooh... that had to hurt. Andy should have been more careful and chosen a better location to return to the Underground from, because those little oopsies were a literal pain to deal with...

"Sorry to hear that, but your meal is eager to not be on your plate today!" he retorted while crossing his arms. "Although you shouldn't be concerned, he's got less than five left." He huffed when adding, "But... I doubt he'll get far."

"Aaightt, terl me whaatt dirleccttshuon he's shuuttin' folr," his friend hollered back as the Reaper strained his ears to listen for the awkward footsteps disappearing in the distance. "AI'rl plraow the miiddrre ta aavaoiid the trlaaffic- yaa gao the hiigh aahnd laow aagaaiin- yaa gaott eit?"

"Going northeast... running sloppily like a drunkard," noted the male Reaper; finishing with a nod to affirm their established pathfinding for the final leg of their hunt.

He walked back to his bag, swinging it and sliding his arms and folding his wings painfully through. After flapping his wings to test their range of motion, he noticed the Player was skirting on the spot where he shouldn't be right now. Fairly soon, the Player was trying to hightail it again and he grunted loudly back to his friend again, "How does he expect to get away if he's zigzagging like that?"

"Aaw… thaatt caotttenttairl aain'tt gaoing baack ta the buurlaow aahftterr aI baag him then! Heheh!"

"Not unless we lose him…" he reminded his friend flatly. "I have to deter the vultures first, Andy."

"Yaa waorlry taa much aof the deettaails! Sttaop thiinking, maorre huntting them daown!"

"That's fine by me," he quietly shot back quickly before sprinting after the fleeing Player. 'Time to shine- let's put on a show!'

The Reaper slowed to a jog when he saw Reapers looking the Player's way, waving frantically as he shouted to the vultures, "Andy's kill!" Immediately, the other Reapers backed away, turning as the Reaper kept going to shout to another crowd of Reapers, "Andy's kill!" The majority of the Reapers groaned in disappointment, yet the Reaper pressed on to another Reaper who was starting to dart forward. "Andy's kill!"

"Andy can't claim them all!" yelled the Reaper angrily, whipping back to shove the younger Reaper away. As the manhandled male sighed in annoyance while steadying his footing from the stumble, the Reaper barked louder, "I've hardly gotten any this week! Stand down now or you'll regret it!""

This is what he had to put up with for his friend; dealing with stubborn asses like this because they wanted to be difficult and grouse about their losses by making him suffer. They just didn't get it... he surmised as he rolled his eyes. Andy won't be happy about the delay...

"Oh I'm sorry! Why don't you actually bust your ass next Week then," he snarked back with a huff, leaning towards the sore loser to silently challenge him back and drive him out from invading the young male's personal space right now. "That's Andy's kill, Buttercup. Suck it!"

The Reaper furiously reached for him. "Why you fucker-"

A sudden ricochet made that wise guy cringe with a yelp as ice burst over the pavement. The Harrier Reaper snaked around the fool slipping on the ice-field, standing clear of the pained topple then sniffed at the sight of the moaning moron. Looks like Andy was taking over the diplomacy now…

His friend landed roughly in a roll before springing over to shove a rifle in the downed Reaper's face; wagging it violently while crowing irritably, "AI jaust ded, rlettaarrd! Sttaop sttaarling him- wee haave waolrk ta dao!"

"Fuck you, Andy!" spat the bristling Reaper.

"Fuuck yaa taa!"

The Reaper jogged again as his friend and the moron continued their bickering and flickered his gaze for the Player.

Three and thirty seconds…

He caught sight of the poor soul again as the Player sprung away from a disappearing glittering diamond-patterned Wall, bolting and unaware of how he was passing the same Reaper pursuing him. Was the Player that dumb!? He was giving away his intended path of travel as he kept up with his panicky darting and had nearly three minutes left now!

"Haow's the caountt?" hollered his friend behind him. He turned to watch his fellow Reaper kick off the ground to grapple onto the side of the closest building, damaged wings beating recklessly to assist the climb. "Gaott ta rreaadjaustt mah view aaftterr thaatt rlettaalrd brraoke mah caoncenttrlaattiaon aahnd waas taangrling witth yaa!"

"Three and counting down."

"Perlfectt. Keep yaawrr eiyes aon him, bud! AI need aah beetterr spaott ta aaim flom!"

"Keep count and keep up chase?" he asked coolly with a head tilt as he watched his friend continue to crawl up the side of the building, hearing a grunt before running out to leave the shady street. "Got it." He called over his shoulder as he sped up, mentally reminding himself of the time, "I'm going to run interference for you, so hang tight and give me a signal so you don't miss."

"'Scuuse me- wheen haave aI evelr miissed mah kiirls...?" came an unimpressed growl from above with a miffed sniff afterwards.

Instead of responding, the Reaper bunched his muscles as he felt the momentum was enough before vaulting over a hydrant and kicked his feet against it hard to hurl himself into the air again. He beat his wings as strong as he could to push himself higher, repeating the actions before he soared. He eased himself into beating his wings rapidly to keep his speed from faltering then allowed himself to hover on a current he found.

'You never have… you never will, Andy,' he finally answered with slight amusement, chuckling before looking down to relocate the Player. 'Two and twenty seconds…'

It didn't take long until he watched Andy's target as he flew past him, soon stopping his wings meters away to plunge down to the ground. He started flapping erratically when he was closer to striking the cement to slow his fall, landing awkwardly with brief wild flaps. With a brief set of glances, he soon was running over and crying out to the nearby Support Reaper guarding the lane and the Scramble Crossing entrance, "Wall up- now!"

"But-" the man looked back to the opening to the heart of Shibuya and forth to the Harrier as he joined the red uniformed Reaper. "The Players already cleared it!"

"For your information, my friend, a Pactless Player is incoming any second," retorted the backpack Reaper, leaning closer to add curtly, "Andy's kill- mind you!"

"What!?" The Support froze, soon reanimating wildly to fumble with his Keypin. "Oh my god- give me a second-"

As the Harrier impatiently watched him flounder, he heard sharp, uneven pounds on the cement before turning his attention to the Player who was coming into view. "Darse prisa-" He sharply turned his head back to hiss, "Darse prisa- What are you waiting for- get it up already!"

"I am!" snapped the red hoodie Reaper and the Harrier Reaper noticed a twinkle in the Support Reaper's palm. "There!"

The Reaper heard the Wall manifesting as the Player was shooting past. With a mere pivot, only to watch the poor soul bounce back with a cry of agony, the Harrier promptly looked at the stationed Reaper again. "...Much thanks."

He got a disgruntled grunt back, soon facing the Player again, ambling to them as they were trying to scramble to their feet.

The Reaper grabbed their left hand, tightening his hold as the Player tried yanking it back, and watched the black minute digit disappear as the final sixty seconds started blinking. He side-glanced when he saw a figure leap across buildings in the distance. "Locked on him still, Andy?" he yelled, tightening his hold when the Player tried yanking his hand back. "A minute to go!"

"Aoh, yeaahh…!" he heard his friend holler, grimacing when the Player's other hand tried to claw at the Reaper's. "Neverr saaw aah Prlayerr baounce baack thaatt faalr!"

"Player. Fifty. And it's far, not faalr!" He scowled, clamping his hand hard and heard a yelp from the Player. "Could you cut that out!?" he hissed to them in irritation.

"Let go of me!" the Player screamed in frustration and terror.

"Bite me!" he spat back, only to place a hand to their face to stop them. "No, no- no... don't you dare…" His face twisted into a glower. "Andy, are you ready already?"

"The caountt?" Andy snappishly returned as he saw a figure land close, watching the Reaper crouch as light surrounded his friend's hand before a rifle materialized into it again.

He sighed, "Thirty-seven…" The black hoodie Reaper released his hold as he threw the Player's wrist back and watched them flail on to the road with a yelp. "Thirty-four." The Player twisted on the cement before springing up to waver on his wobbly feet, trying to start up another run only to trip and disorientedly manage to keep going in a wobble. "Twenty-seven."

"Keep yaawrr eiyes aonn him, aI waannaa knaow haow he gaoes daown!" yelled Andy with a jubilant whoop. "Jaust keep aonn yaawrr prletty caounting folr yaa baaudd Aahndee, aahnd aI maay spritt the daough witth yaa aah thilrd aonce wee baag mah kiirl."

"Keep focusing then... Fifteen."

Andy's target pressed his hands to his ears and shook his head distraughtly when stopping for some reason. The Reaper felt the stress may have fried the Player's thoughts to fight-or-flight mode's freeze and go numb option, probably done with the hopeless escape... The Reaper sighed when he threw that thought away as the Player let out an animalistic scream. 'Seriously… just lay down and accept it.'

As the Player burst into a sprint, shooting forward in a zig-zag, the Reaper stopped his waiting and hummed, "Five, four, three-"

Just as the Player was turning a corner, a whir cut through the air and a molten pellet struck them dead in the collarbone. They splayed out their limbs with a screech, seemingly hurled in the air in slow motion for a brief moment before an eruption of lava fell over their figure, falling to the cement as particles escaped into the air.

Yen Pins showered the ground as the Psych finished, followed by a cry of pure fiero carrying over to the Reaper's ears from his friend, "Enjaoy yaawrr srreep faorrevelr naow yaa sttuupiid caotttaonttairl! HAAHAAHAA…"

"Zero." The Reaper exhaled softly. 'Que acabado perfecto...'

The Harrier smiled warmly for a moment or two before he went up to the Support Reaper. He reached into his side-pouches of his knapsack, folding ten ¥10,000 Pins into their hands before clasping their fingers over the Pins. "For your troubles."

"O-Oh- thanks," mumbled the Support Reaper in surprise, rubbing their nape. "Just doing my job."

"As we all are," returned the Reaper a nod of agreement, stepping back as the Wall clicked open. "That's all we need from you."

When he went up to the fallen Yen Pins, he heard Andy screech, "Aohkaay- rlay eit aonn Aahndee- haow ded he gao daown!?"

"I can't really quite describe it, but if you want, I can act it out before your jealous coworkers try to reap what we sowed."

"Wee?" His friend echoed flatly. "Whenne ded wee becaome aah 'wee'!?" his friend demanded angrily with a heavily cracked voice.

"You wouldn't have gotten it without me laying the pieces down for your kill, Andy." He pointedly put as much annoyance into his voice as he could, but inside he laughed at how Andy may have been just too stubborn to admit how amusing it was as he thought it was inside. He crispened his tone to be mild as he went on matter-of-factly, "And you're not popular with me heralding your kills, so you better get here before those vultures try to shoot your messenger again."

"Welrl daaln- aI geeuss aI gaott ta give yaa saome cledeitt… Aohkay, mah saweett bummpkein, yaawrr baaudd Aahndee's jaust gaonna taake aah secc-"

It didn't take long until the semi-tall and wiry Reaper joined him. Immediately his friend's hood was flipped off as shaggy, cropped dirty blonde hair and gleaming amber-brown eyes glowed in the late Spring sun. "Aooh-haoo- Reett's see whaatt aI gaott flom them…" she said in her heavily accented, low croaky voice, rubbing her hands together eagerly as she inspected her spoils. "Laotts aof Yeen!? Heck yeaah! AI heitt the jaackpaott!"

She began stuffing them into her trouser pockets, giggling giddily without a care in the world. He watched quietly, pretending there was nothing wrong with how distracted she was now with her Yen until he finished counting up to a full minute.

The Reaper inhaled before aheming, soon speaking up, "How much of your spoils do you think you can share with your messenger?"

"Aah thilrd- dedn'tt aI terl yaa…?" she drawled out with annoyance in her broken Japanese, tsking with sharp shakes of her head. She pulled some Yen Pins towards herself, patting it until a small pile was roughly smoothed out before tapping her foot close to it. "Helre yaa gao… yaawrr thilrd, shaorrtt sttaacke."

He nodded, leaning down to pick up his share of the Erasure assist.

Before pocketing it, he went back to the Support Reaper, handing ten more ¥10,000 Pins before returning to his companion. The male Harrier watched as she soon shoved the last handful into her satchel, trotting up to the sparkling, blue bundled particles before clapping her hands against them. A glow enveloped her fingers before she placed a hand on her hip, with a large, toothy grin thrown his way afterwards.

Andy was very much electrified when it came to getting her Reaper Points for the Week. Or, to be specific, if he busted his back for her. Even at the thought of being used, the Reaper shifted to slide his bag off again, carefully dropping his Yen Pins in before smiling tenderly.

It was their shtick.

To be honest, he never would have guessed there was another Plane of existence above Shibuya. Especially in regards to the underground activities going on that he would never see even if he looked straight up- even if he caught the gaze of the sun. Now? He's living the dream with Andy at his side; surpassing themselves each and every day!

Andy pushed him along… and he returned the courtesy. For a twenty-year-old Japanese girl who could hardly string her Rs and Ls right after setting foot in her native country for the first time since infancy, she knew how to string along the Players on the right street corner for little nineteen-year-old him to do the exchange of pleasantries. Andy wasn't a bright girl, but he was a bright guy. If she couldn't trick a Player, he could. If he couldn't find a target, she could. If she couldn't get Players to stop running, he could.

They leapt and leapt all over the place… their line of working together was the ever splendorous, symbiotic glue. They fended for each other and would make sure all wrongdoers paid their dues!

If… they were stronger.

He frowned at that thought, curling his hands into fists.

It took them about a Week to make three Pacts' existences blink away… and just their combined efforts alone made the Reaper realize they had to get some more in. But that's the thing: There weren't any more wrongdoers here, and him and Andy had standards… If it was a Player who happened to lose their Partner through the Game's natural means, and him and Andy hadn't had luck getting a target... they'd bent the rule a little just to share a teeny snack for the road. It wasn't one for each of them to be sustained by, so when it came to that... they'd have to ditch the Underground for a bit to search for new targets to fill up the slots of the next Week for their following hunt.

The first two Pacts they downed were hapless First Day morons, so the amount of Reaper Points they collected was none too gratifying or plentiful... This last Pact was certainly more forgiving and gave him more pep in his step than he had in the last five Days, but it felt more like he ate a person and half another. Even if his stomach didn't rumble anymore, he at least wanted to avoid allowing himself to experience the pain that will be wringing nearly his whole body again at some point for more meals. However... it was the second to last Day now. If the vultures hated them for stealing their potential last kills, gee... imagine what would happen if Andy and him sprung in to swipe another?

...Hah, like he would seriously think deeply about something that obvious. For now, he concluded in resignation, him and Andy would have to do with tracking down wrongdoers tomorrow.

He slung his bag back on, carefully adjusting his wings again before an arm made him turn his head calmly to his partner. "Shaourld wee cellehbrlaatte?" she asked with a wolfish grin. "Heaarrd caonveeince sttaoles gaott gaood niibbrluerrs!"

"Uh, I kind of was hoping to find next Week's targets," he said as he smiled fondly. "Crime won't stop for no one."

She scoffed, shaking her head, "Yaa gaottaa bee kiidding mee… Wee ded gaood this Weeek, aahnd yaawrr telring mee yaa waaanaa keeep gaoing aatt eit?"

"Well, when you hug your fading belly, come find me," he said dryly in amusement as he crouched, effectively escaping the dirty blonde's hold. As she groped the now empty space, he edged back in his crouch before he rose fluently up, flapping his wings to test their range of motion again then began walking. "In order to walk ahead, we must plan ahead."

"Baautt yaa daon'tt think yaa waanaa haang laow?" she asked as she fell into step with him, making him briefly glance at her before looking forward as they strode into the Scramble Crossing. Automobiles honked as they slid through them, the toei bus groaning out upon stopping to let out the business men hopping off. They all adjusted their hold on their briefcases as they gradually broke from their pack, beginning their march for home...

The Reaper flinched, broken out of his thoughts when Andy pushed herself ahead of him. As she twisted around to face him, she smirked. "AI meaan, caao'maone… wee gaottaa eienjaoy aourselrves befaorre thaatt Caoundaattaorr caattches weiind aof-"

A somewhat dry cough sounded.

The Harrier Reaper froze, immediately having the feeling of smallness stirring in his heart before he scowled past Andy at the man who left-held a cane behind her. Midnight blue eyes were directed their way, his slicked-back fawn coloured hair not having a single hair sticking out and, as always, the Conductor's white, cream and gold suit looked brand new... But even though he wore and held the regal appearance to no fault, the polite smile and cold gaze didn't erase the haughty image the man probably had no clue he was exhibiting to the two of them right now.

Andy's exuberance evaporated when she finally turned, starting backwards violently with a sneer at the said man. She backed away warily to flank the Reaper's right, crossing her arms as her stance remained stiff. Her large, twitchy, bent wings fanned out aggressively as the male Reaper continued to scowl at the posh bastard.

"Great job, Andy... you summoned the devil right to us," he whispered dryly to her, receiving the stink eye as a response from the corner of his eye. He sighed, shaking his head, "Alright, alright... let's get this over with..."

After a long pause, he tilted his head at the man, raising a palm up as he breathed flatly, "Oh wow, we didn't see you there... what do you want this time?"

"I have little idea what goes on in your heads... when you cheer about your little killing sprees and don't even make an effort to pretend your actions don't garner disgust," said the Conductor crossly and the Reaper gritted his teeth from under his hood. The fawn-coloured haired man sniffed, his eyes drifting to the Reaper, "Remove your hood."

The Reaper narrowed his eyes. "I don't have a reason to want to." He shrugged lazily. "The sun keeps hurting my eyes… I find it personally hazardous when my hood slaps me in the face when flying… And I don't it like when people stare at me… especially posh bastards like you."

"...Is it really that hard for you to show your higher-ups respect?" asked the Conductor with a sigh and dismissive shake of his head. "I cannot see why you wish to resist the Underground's policies when we have given you shelter to sleep in. Nor do I understand why you have not made an effort to take the honest to good chance of turning your lives around for the better."

"Hah, like existing counts as living…" muttered the Reaper bitterly, kicking a pebble boredly. "Does antagonizing us make your 'life' happy?" he asked the man in a sneer, watching the man's eyes light up in anger as the Reaper pressed, "Do you get a rise from greying out your hair because you just hate our guts?" He paused, soon adding in annoyance, "Wait… If the rumours are true... why are you acting like you're a saint when we're both stuck in the same Age Freeze? Think you're a special cinnamon bun or something to feel fucking better about yourself?"

"Cease, your, words…" the Conductor said sternly, his hand clenching his cane harder enough to turn white. "Follow me." As he strolled away, unsteady, sharp clacks striking the cement, he soon halted when the Harrier Reaper and Andy refused to budge. "I said, follow me."

"Leike wee caarre…" Andy scoffed, shaking her head. "AI daon'tt think yaa knaow wee daon'tt geive aah sheitt aahbaoutt whelre yaa waantt aus ta gao. Aahnd since aI'm twentty, daoesn'tt thaatt maake mee yaawrr senpaai?" She flicked her gaze to him questioningly and the Harrier nodded. Looks like the lessons were readily paying off in some form… even if her fluency of Japanese lacked tact right now.

The man's eye soon twitched as he rubbed his temples with his free hand. "...You have been in the Underground for seven weeks, and you haven't even gotten your Japanese under control yet?"

"'Scuuse mee, AI daon'tt haave ta geett gaood lreicckeittee spleeitt, dao AI? AI haave aahrl mah leife ta geett this underr caounttrlaoll…" she called out in ire, curling her lip as she glared back at the man. "Daon'tt haave aah heaarltt aatttack becaause aI aain'tt perlfectt!"

Oh man, it would be a dream to see an Underground version of a heart attack right now!

His excitement was killed when he felt eyes on him, flickering his eyes to see they were from the Conductor. The Harrier Reaper trembled in anger when he was on the receiving end of accusation from the midnight blue orbs that turned into cool reflections seconds later. ...Was the posh bastard pining her failure of speaking Japanese properly on the Harrier himself? How low can that posh bastard go before admitting he was in the wrong of assuming she would be dancing and tooting out Japanese within an hour of a single lesson!? Damn him!

"And for your information, I can only teach her so much in a Day," added the Reaper with a hot huff, taking a step forward. "Since I'm apparently the only one with the sense to help my friend who is struggling with her native tongue over here." He looked at Andy who was bristling, her face pure scarlet as it firmly held a hideous sneer towards the mam who expected them to obey him when he hardly lifted that stupid cane to make their existences better. The Harrier stepped closer to her, leering at the man while coldly continuing, "Or would you like to finally break the language barrier and make English the national Underground language- the thing we all learn in school and what is generally accepted in the rest of the world to use- so she can talk without fear of discrimination for her broken Japanese? Or- why don't the three of us go on over to the Composer, tell Him about Andy's and my concern, while you sit in the corner and let the grownups talk?"

He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Peachy with that?"

The Conductor remained tense- maybe becoming more rigid by the second- and soon turned around before his obviously fake smile grew tighter. "If you must continue, I will not refrain from the shame of handcuffing myself to one of you, or dragging you by your hood, if it means I'll get through to you somehow."

Andy snickered and shook her head at that.

The Reaper was about to comment on the absurdity the Conductor would stoop to blatantly bluffing about doing something he knew the man would never do out of humility and pride when the Conductor started towards them. The Reaper wasn't phased by this, knowing full well that intimidation wouldn't get him to budge when the Conductor halted in front of him. The man's unchanging expression slowly began to ooze out grimness before the Reaper yelped when a hand curled the base his wings and squeezed them hard.

Within seconds, the Harrier found himself being forced to briskly walk nearly beside the posh bastard who was stubbornly dragging him along.

The Harrier cried out anxiously in agony, "St-Stop it-" His eyes watered as he tried to claw behind himself feebly at the hand holding his wings captive, breathing out unsteadily as he spat harshly, "What the hell are you doing!?" This was just downright humiliating- not to mention-

Why was the posh bastard doing this!?

Their wings were delicate despite their leathery texture- their indicators of strength- At the intensity of the posh bastard's death grip, the Reaper realized he finally pissed the Conductor off and his wings might get clipped if he wasn't released now! Damn that posh bastard! He leered furiously as he fought to beat his wings hard, hoping it would annoy the posh bastard to release the Harrier if the wings slapped the Conductor in the face enough... even when the Harrier's pain increased- Oh dear- fuck- this plan better be worth it!

"Making my point," the Conductor replied in pleasant mockery despite how the tattooed wings were clearly stinging his face, his steps steady and clacks undeterred by his blatant torturing. "I felt that the other two options may have been much too mellow for a man of your age, so I amended my lapse in judgment promptly as I should."

"You're hurting me!" the Harrier retorted through gritted teeth as he ceased flapping his now agony screaming wings. "You're a sick, posh bast-" He cried out in a groan when the Conductor's hold tightened and instantly the Harrier tried to dig his heels down hard into the cement to resist the relentless tugging. If he had dirt, he may have had a chance to root himself in… but he was recklessly ruining the bottom of his favourite creamy loop-striped sneakers.

"Stop…" he gritted out in the lowest growl he could make. He sucked in air, shaking his head before yelling harshly when the man continued to keep his clamp painful and easily kept them moving forward to who knows damn where, "STOP IT- DO YOU WANT TO TEAR MY WINGS OFF OF ME!?"

"If you insist."

Suddenly, the Reaper crashed and found himself on the ground, but he wasn't happy about the fact he was free from the Conductor. Agonizing white pain pulsed near his shoulder blades, leaving him sobbing out a wail as he unconsciously curled in on himself. He exhaled a muffled scream as he tried to flap his wings to ease out the pain, only to find he couldn't to his dismay.

"M-My wings-" he uttered out in raw horror. "Where are my wings!?"

"I believe you'll survive without them," said the Conductor mildly, not that the Harrier Reaper couldn't see through the facade for the tremendous satisfaction oozing readily from his veiled voice. "And you did give me a choice, must I remind you. If there's anyone to blame for your loss, it would only be for yourself." He shifted himself and tapped his cane trice, soon content on watching the wingless Reaper's suffering like it was the most entertaining thing in the world.

The Harrier raised his head to get a better look at the man towering over him victoriously, venomously glowering at the conceited bastard who continued speaking, "This is why we should never allow ourselves to believe we can leave Shibuya's streets to the youth; they will tarnish the values we intend to instill and keep unless we remain involved. If only you made it easier on yourselves… then you wouldn't be so miserable in your floundering..." The man paused before his dark gaze hardened. "Now would you?"

Straightaway, the Harrier's heart stopped and his eyes went wide at those familiar words.

"Screw you…" hissed the Harrier, keeping his cry of pain lodged in his throat. These mind games… he wouldn't dare to play them, not when this man thought he was obviously better- no, superior to them! It made the Harrier sick, disgusted and it reminded him of a certain somebody…

His breath harshly hitched at that thought.

He threw himself up, slightly knocking Andy away by accident before he rigidly stood towards the man furiously. "If we are not worth your time, then how about you mind your own, damn, business…" He set his taut expression directly towards the man, ignoring the agony slicing through his shoulder blades, barking out bitterly, "When you get nothing from tampering with our lives!? Taunting us- Hurting us- Chipping us down until we are broken toys for you to put back together as something to your ideals!" He swung his right arm outward, his nostrils flaring before he spat out, "I've had it!"

"Why must you be so difficult?" The Conductor started to walk towards him. "I'm only trying to help you…"

The Harrier shook his head when his thoughts were disturbed by those words as well. "St-Stop it…" His vision started to blur and he felt dizzy as he shallowly breathed, "D-Don't get closer…" Slowly, the figure transformed before him when it kept approaching him and the Reaper's breath hitched more as a familiar snakelike smile curled at the younger-

Kage narrowed his eyes back at the younger male.

A chill immediately ran down his back and the younger male was sick to his stomach. "Stay back-" he choked out, crouching as he backed away anxiously. "I'm warning you, scumbag!"

"Why don't we go for a ride in the car… just you and me…? It is raining, and we don't want your mother scared half to death about her son foolishly dying from staying out in the mere cold, now would we?"

The younger male felt small again. 'N-No…'

"Oh no- why is my engine smoking up!? Why now of all times!? Argh- I just got it repaired yesterday! Now I have to… grr… G-Go open the hood and tell me if you see what's wrong…

He shook his head, numb while trembling as Kage stalked closer. 'No-'

"See anything? Let's see… oh- maybe you need a closer look-"

"GET AWAY FROM ME! WHY WON'T YOU STAY BACK ALREADY!?" he bellowed raggedly, stumbling backwards and wrapping arms around himself, breathing harshly. He glanced wildly around, his vision blinded by static as he rushed backwards, shuddering violently. "YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT'S RIGHT FOR MY FAMILY- YOU-"

He winced upon a touch to his shoulder, flinging a fist forward angrily as everything was closing around him and trapping him… only to feel pressure around his shoulder again. Something was crushing his shoulder! It was keeping him in place as a darkness crawled into the sides of his vision, smoke shrouding his gaze as he shook his head in horror as his skin prickled at the heat starting to dust across it.

Choking out a cry, it was half-strangled in his throat as a scream rose weakly out, "L-Let… g-go… I-I don't want to DIE!"

"That's enough, Oshiro."

"Oshiro…?" the younger male whimpered in bewilderment. "Wh-Who…?"

That didn't make sense… who was Oshiro!? He didn't know any Oshiros, Kage was- Kage was the only one with the younger male! So how could...

Inhaling shakily, his hazy vision finally broke, allowing his senses to return and to shallowly breathe in again in confusion at the otherwise clean air. The Harrier blinked slightly, blinking more before he started with a violent jerk. Instead of moving like he wanted, he could only groan in pain at the pressure on his shoulder keeping him from investigating his surroundings.

'Who the hell are you!?' the Harrier gaped in disbelief at the person beside him. 'When did he get here!?'

A shaggy, matted, half-grizzled haired khaki army man was death gripping the Harrier's shoulder blade. There was a haunted, grim expression set upon the stranger's face as murky green eyes were directed away from the Harrier Reaper to the calm posh bastard.

"I suppose you wouldn't mind taking over then," crisply returned the Conductor, simply adjusting his grip for some reason on his cane to hold it tighter. "...Best of luck."

The burly man, still holding the Harrier unforgivingly, grunted gruffly in response.

Andy skirted on the edge of the Harrier's vision, but all the Harrier could focus on was how the usually smug or faux pleasant expression on the posh bastard's face was now simply disturbed. It took a second or two for it to morph to one that was nonchalant, schooled and probably what that man thought was 'dignified'. That posh bastard could act like instilling the Harrier's rage was nothing, but that man shouldn't expect this was over...

Clacks and brisk, careful steps began to move the Conductor away promptly, but that wasn't enough to ease the Harrier's stress as the man headed in the direction of the Shibuya River. The Harrier's body refused to stop trembling, and all he wanted was to break free and dash away to hide in his shame of losing his wings and sulk about in his anger of the humiliation from what he was reduced to in mere moments from the haunted recollection. He wanted to sock that posh bastard in the back of the head and hope the man wouldn't get up- Upon the squeeze on his captive shoulder, it grounded him enough to allow for his self-consciousness to win over his intent for harm.

He clenched his eyes closed, scolding himself that he lost himself just as he was making his point when he lost his balance. Immediately, he kicked his legs and flailed his arms upon the abrupt relinquished hold on his body, only to feel arms hook onto and keep him half-upright while he half-sunk to an awkward crouch. He caught amber-brown eyes peering at him worriedly before the Harrier pulled his head up to manage a glance at the other remaining Reaper.

As the Harrier struggled to readjust his footing, trying not to let gravity smack his ass and crack his skull open on the road, the army man gave a hefty sigh of annoyance.

"Pah- If you think you can break it down and make him understand, you shouldn't count on those childish dreams," gruffly said the newcomer in his deep, scratchy voice, crossing his muscular arms in disapproval as he shook his head slowly. His limp, tattered sleeves swayed as he growled, "One thing about Oshiro: He can't learn to cradle a baby right. You could place one in, but expect he'll drop them unintentionally and pretend the baby jumped out of his hold."

"Uh… whaatt?" Andy frowned as she steadied the Harrier. She soon was leaning forward- while the Harrier stood normally again- as she yapped bewildered, "Bauutt therre aain'tt aahnee baabees heerre…"

The man stomped a muddy, brown and pale yellow stitched boot down, appearing disgruntled by the looks of it. "What I'm saying is that Oshiro only cares about comrades who are at his beck and call- not about what you young people bellyache about all day."

"Naow thaatt aain'tt noicse…" Andy crossed her arms with a scowl. "Wee haave vaarid caouncelns!"

"Oh ho, believe me- he's stiffer than a plank and he always sticks his nose up to the clouds." The brash Reaper herumped and crossed his arms as well. "And those at odds with him are not his favourites…" He waved a brawny arm their way with a swish. "You're not his favourites…"

"I think we get the point," said the Harrier Reaper tartly, sighing as he went to rub at his shoulder region, "But I rather see him as an abhorrent, posh bastard who thrives on shadowing us to make us miserable. Which, quite frankly, doesn't make me eager to jump off a cliff or eat my own hands at the dastardly flick of that cane of his."

The pain was receding, little by little, which he was glad about. The fact that the posh bastard took his wings tainted that relieving thought into one that was of bittersweet and deeper loathing of that man. As the Reaper returned his gaze to the huge man, he pursed his lips while pondering about the man's sudden appearance. Perhaps trying to glean some information from the man would help to distract the Harrier from the throbbing for now, since it appeared their visitant with the ruined uniform seemed very eager to talk with them right now...

Swampy green eyes sharpened as the larger-than-average Reaper nodded curtly with a 'mmm-hmm', with an ugly frown being displayed within moments. "He can't tell when to stop flapping his trap when someone is experiencing their bad days, being that he's forgotten he had his own once- if I remember it right..." He unwrapped his arms, the fluid motion rotating his right hand to push its palm up flat as he pointed his arm towards the younger Harrier. "So, what about you? Feeling better now, son?"

"Don't call me 'son'!" snapped the Harrier fiercely, scrunching up his face behind his hood. He watched lividly as the Reaper stepped back and held up his hands.

"Fine, fine-" the oldster Reaper snorted with irritation, dropping his arms with a grumble. He gave heavy stomps closer while inhaling raspily before growling out in ire, "Are you?"

Turning away, the Harrier gripped a knapsack strap to distract himself. "...I guess."

"Hmph, you are or you are not, maggot!" he snarled out viciously. The Harrier simply rolled his eyes, figuring his guess at 'army man' wasn't too far from the tree by the uniform alone now. The man lumbered forward, fingers curled as he leered. "Excuse me for caring about when I see a haunted man's eyes after all the ones I saw after the War! No child should be hurting like the men I've seen crawling out alive from the Wars across the globe!"

Narrowing his eyes, the Harrier huffed coolly, "Then you're Sadist Saiyama…" Upon seeing the man's taut expression hardening slightly from the corner of the younger Reaper's eye, the Harrier shook his head. "Never would have expected such kind words from the one who enjoys the pain he gives onto his enemies, and loves the trouble he dumps onto his 'comrades'."

"You aren't an enemy," returned the man with a sniff. "Just a broken child on the cusp of adulthood."

"I'm only nineteen," he told the man coldly, crossing his arms and lowered his gaze. "I would be an adult by next year if I hadn't chosen to stay down here… Don't act like you know what I've been through."

"Oh ho, ho… never crawled back into your life, did you now? Why stay when you clearly suck at following Underground politics?" jabbed the army man, but the Harrier refused to answer. "Well?"

"Come on, Andy…" said the young Reaper with a sigh, trying to cast away the thoughts flooding in and threatening to asphyxiate him from the older Reaper's question. "We got better places to be."

She nodded with a grimace, poking a thumb in the army man's direction while facing the Harrier. "Leike aI waannaa sttick aalaound weith thiis grlaampaop… eeick."

The large man bristled at that. "What?" He turned to watch as the Harrier began walking the way they came earlier, veering off to the right as the Harrier's friend began to follow after him immediately. "You're not doing yourselves favours running away from someone trying to help you!" the older man boomed in anger.

"With what?" asked the Harrier bitterly, not looking back. "Trying to go from the foundations up on why my life was screwed over? Trying to make me open up when all I want is to pretend a little longer…?"

"Pretend all you want, but that hasn't worked out for you yet…" growled the other Reaper back. "Feh."

The Harrier Reaper pressed on, shaking his head. "I gave up on listening to fools who think they know better than me months ago. Stop wasting your breath, old man."

Content at receiving sweet silence as a response, he turned unenthusiastically to Andy. "Where are we going?"

Andy grinned, smacking a hand on his shoulder and quickened her stride. "Weerl…"

---

Upon glaring down at the piss-coloured liquid in his glass, the Harrier was happy to just let his companion move her non-stopping jaw instead of becoming hammered like her.

'Should have specified for no izakayas...' he wearily thought in annoyance, rapping his fingers on the table and pretended he didn't see the offensive beverage in front of him. He sighed internally, cursing his luck that Andy was in the mood for this after that bad confrontation with the posh bastard and the apparently 'charitable' Sadist Saiyama...

"Yaa knaow? AI laovue yaa, maan!" she crowed out, laughing heartily before grabbing his shoulders from across the table with a hardened look and purse of her lip. "Naott thaatt laowue…! AI aain'tt thiinking aup aahnee faancee folr yaa…" She made a spitting, gagging motion with her mouth before grinning lopsidedly.

When Andy began poking at his cheeks, he grimaced slightly yet he couldn't be annoyed at her need to manhandle him after she had a well-deserved drink. Nor could he care when he found himself drowning in how he didn't give a shit for anything right now. "AI'd give yaa sugaalr naow, baautt... aI daon'tt waannttah geett the aorl' ruuemaoulr miirl spienning aalaound by them…" She started patting his cheeks. "Taarlking 'baoutt aus aasz aahnn aaittiemm, aahnnd ausz dinnking aoulr skaaorls wuorlying 'baoutt haow ta caautt their hoottsz sierreentt folr gaoodd- sao haow 'baoutt this?"

Andy punched him hard in the arm, causing him to cry out in pain and scowled this time. She released him to allow him to hold his tender shoulder as he silently lamented again from what the Conductor had taken from him. The Harrier Reaper grimaced painfully once more before watching her put a hand cockily on her hip when she stood up, swaying them as she ambled away tipsily to slam her glass down at the counter.

As the meek waiter filled the glass with whisky, glancing at him before topping the drink, she flicked her head back while shaking it to the Harrier. "Aahw, caao'maone… aI dedn'tt saock aoutt yaawrr saockiett ded aI…?"

"It's love," he corrected, drawing the syllables out to shift the last topic he wanted to hear right now away. He rubbed his arm idily as he spoke again, "Love..."

He lifted his whisky glass, contemplating on whether or not to chuck it at the wall upon being reminded of the umeshu stain event, or let Andy down it again like he usually decided to.

Sometimes, despite his conscience, he wondered if it was worth fighting with his principles as the thought of downing it didn't disturb him as much as it used to… It was tempting, to not fall back on the rules of his family home when he couldn't give a damn about things anymore as the days went by and everything kept going south for him. If the world wanted to burn… let it burn. The thought sparked bad memories, yet it fit so perfectly with how he felt when he was at his lowest. It rang true as he repeated it over and over, spinning the liquid sin in its glass cradle as he damned it for being ordered for him by his friend who was an addict for it.

After he died, he found it hard to have the same excitement or energy for the things he used to care about unless it involved killing wrongdoers and dragging them to the Underground to hunt them down again. Something he never experienced when be was alive… was how much fervour he felt when enacting those actions. Like it was the only damn thing that made him feel good about anything anymore.

The idea of killing and hearing about murders in the newspapers used to horrify him, but now it thrilled him because he could stop it! Him and Andy could! Kill the killers- go home as the saviours! He could only think that-

He blinked, noticing his friend was giving him the stink eye. "What?" he scoffed in annoyance.

"Yaa thiink taa muuch." She pursed her lips at him.

"No, I don't," he trenchantly replied while setting the glass down sharply, soon sighing, "But that's not the point, what do you want?"

The dirty blonde rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Neeverr daatte. Yaawr gaoing ta iggnaorre aarl aof them when yaa maake yaa thiick heaad blaoaatt leike thiis while eaach aof them gaoes haome aah suuckerr."

"Seriously, what do you want, Andy?" he asked again in a flat tone this time and with a few head shakes. 'Not that I will date, sheesh…'

"Ded aI saay rovue rlightt, aor ded thaatt naot paass thrlough the baalrrielrr thaatt eis yaa fuucking skurl folr taarrnaattion!?" she spitted in irritation as she banged a hand against the counter. Her drink toppled and the waiter went pale as his hands froze close to where Andy's hand rested, and the Harrier watched awkwardly as the man sunk down to hide under the counter.

"Ooh… sorry about that…" called the Harrier sheepishly over to the hidden waiter, who was probably going to ban them after this, while grimacing. It wouldn't be the first time they got banned because of Andy blowing a fuse over his fixation of 'over-analyzing' things, he mused with contrite. "C-Count that on our bill… I s-suppose?"

All he got was a whimper from the poor soul.

Sending a sharp look at Andy, she rolled her eyes and blew a raspberry. "Chiiccken…" she muttered with a head shake.

"Oh bite me, you could have been nicer about being annoyed with me!" he spat, feeling his hackles rise as he abruptly got up. "You scared that man, Andy!"

She huffed, "Naott mah faaultt he's plraaying paossum…" She soon fell into giddy snickers as her flushed cheeks reddened more.

He could only point at her in exhaustion. "No more whisky for you."

"Geive meh aahnaottherr, Chiiccky-Piie!" she shouted and banged another hand, leaning over the counter to peer at the man who was probably cowering and crying in terror down there.

The Harrier merely sat back down, grumbling before he watched as the waiter reappeared to stand at the counter again, trembling like he was at gunpoint. As the man shakily righted the glass, reaching for a whisky bottle, Andy sniffed, "Rlouve."

Sighing, he simply decided not to comment. "Love."

His only friend crossed her arms, ignoring the refilled glass as she heavily leaned onto the counter and nearly knocked it over again. "Raouvue…?" He shook his head. "Laovue…? Lraowue…?" He shook his head a few more times, waiting on her again. "Lraoave? Lroovve...? Lrovve?"

"Love," he repeated, resting a hand to his forehead.

"Laavve…? Love?" He nodded with a sigh. "Lealry!? AI gaott eitt!?" He nodded again. "Aahah whlight- aI gaott the love waolrd daown naow- daon'tt wuaorly, baaudd! Love, laove, laavue!" She grimaced, screwing up her face. "...Love...?" She straightened a bit more, looking proud of herself while resting a hand on her chest and closed her amber-brown eyes.

Andy staggered back to the table after scooping up and precariously holding her small glass. Instead of returning to her seat, she sank into one next to him. "Yaa knaow haow haarld eit eis witth traansiituoning taa Jaapaanesze flom Engrrish. AI'm glraad yaa wilrlin' taa putt aup witth mee, aahnd maaking suerre AI'm aabele taa geitt mah Jaapaanesze beettterr..." She ripped out a thick pocket dictionary that was brimming with sticky notes, flipping it before bringing it close to her face. "Love… leike aah daovve… leike aah rlauhbb~aahh~dauhbb~dauhbb..." She slammed it closed, shoving it back into her cargo pants before grinning with a sharp nod. "Gaott eit…"

She chuckled crisply in her low, croaky voice, downing her refill before she leaned towards him. She slung an arm around his shoulder, only to flinch when he winced before hooting out, "Yaa knaow? AI daon't knaow whaatt aI'd dao weitthaout yaa, mah saweett bummpkein."

"Well, I certainly can't imagine what it would be like without you," he supplied back, trying to subtly move her appendage away from the sore areas his wings had been. "Even if others don't understand our work, you do."

"AI knaow…" she slurred with giggles, picking up his glass and ogling it before raising it towards him. When he raised a hand to decline it she shook it, leaning close with a darkened expression. "Caa'maon, maan… jaust oanee waon't huurltt yaa. Yaa shaould knaow yaa need this…"

"No thanks." He turned his head, pursing his lips in disgust before his mouth was forced open. As he was flailing as the harsh liquid burned down his throat, he sputtered out in coughs, "A-And-dy-" He coughed heavily and wheezed soon after she patted him on the back, glowering at her with a side-glance. "I-I said I didn't want any!" he shouted out and instantly shoved her off of him, feeling his flared irritation simmer into frustration towards her.

"Yaa caan'tt terl mee yaa deedn'tt need thaatt, rlightt…?" she breathed raspily as she slowly retook her seat on the other side of the table, raising her lips in a slight cheeky smirk. "Daon'tt bee aah wuss, yaa spirled maorre thaan yaa haad maorre. Yaa lleminded mee aof the Piggies yaa keptt missing wheen aI keptt hittting them ein the eiyzes! Hehehe..."

Oh joy of that memory... Andy wouldn't let him live it down for two Weeks. Didn't he make her promise to not bring it up again!? ...Not that it was important to think about right now, of course.

He frowned yet he didn't feel the alcohol taking effect yet. He didn't know if he was the type of person who would lapse within minutes from being a lightweight or was one of the lucky people to remain sober… In order to not test his luck, he decided he should be careful for the next few hours in case a buzzed Andy felt the need to intervene further to lush him.

The Harrier slightly raised his hand, coughing weakly as he called out quietly, "Could I get some water…"

"Aohh baoooo, Mrr. Waowserr..." Andy moaned in disappointment, shaking her head in mock scolding. "Yaaw'rre nao fuun!"

"I'm the only one who can take us home safely, Andy," he said matter-of-factly with a slight rasp, soon becoming aware of how he felt himself sway slightly. Hmm… from his understanding, his little consumption of the harsh liquid was already working through his bloodstream. ...Was it that easy, to let the glass of venom do it's magic even when you didn't want it to? He simply sighed at the thought, mumbling back to his companion, "...Even if I did want to go for the 'complete experience'."

"Wee gao dreenking, yaa hoolding deenkee waatterr… Wee gao daanczing, yaa aatt the waarl aas aah waarl frloweerr…" She shook her head, grinning goofily despite her disgruntlement as she sneered mischievously, "Yaawr jaust scaared… leike Chiicky-Pie aoverr therre!"

"No, I'm just…" He tapered off then paused to thank the waiter for the new glass being rested down on the table. After picking it up, he brought its rim to his lips to sip. Just having something to wash down the whisky- that already made him realize he was starting to get squiffy- was enough to be grateful for. "Not in the mood."

"Faaillr eenouuf!" she exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table and caused the waiter to cry out a feeble complaint. "Thaatt Coonnduucttaar eis jaust the wourlstt! Taaking yaawrr weengs leike thaatt-"

"Andy- inside voices!" he hissed, glancing at the other person in their vicinity. If the Conductor hated them for their usual antics, he would likely be back when the posh bastard finds out a buzzed Andy is spilling everything about the Underground nearby an unsuspecting Realground inhabitant. The Harrier waved at the bowl-cut haired man, pushing out the most believable laughter (while cringing internally) as he shouted, "No more drinks for my friend, eh?"

Slowly, the pale man smiled sheepishly; nodding mutely but slightly shaking.

The Harrier returned his attention to Andy, feeling his vision tip a bit, and put a hand to his forehead. 'And certainly no more drinks for me…' He tried to not gag as he hissed sternly, "Wait until later, we can't talk about it here."

"AI thiink naow's the time, ezpecciaallee wheen yaa gaott nao weengs 'caausze aouf thaatt maan- he's geittting taa big falr his brrittches…" she sneered angrily with her gaze hardening and darkening, her lips slowly drawing back in a snarl. She poked him in the chest, making him scowl when it seemed apparent she was too drunk to catch his drift to stop talking. "Wee'lree daoing naotthing wlong… jaust sttlrieeping the sttlleetts aouf thaose baasttalrds...Yaawrr rlecrluetting…"

"My… what?" he softly echoed, only to have a sticky note crammed dictionary be shoved in his face within seconds. He grimaced at the tact of getting his attention before a fidgety, tapping nail-chewed finger drew his interest to a single word.

Recruiting.

He frowned. "Recruiting...?" He put a hand on his forehead, shaking his head lightly. "Andy… I don't follow whatever you mean by that."

"Yaawrr rlecrluetting aarl aouf theem… baaad guuys!" she spat harshly, throwing the dictionary down. She crossed her arms, pursing her lips before grumbling, "Haow dao yaa feerl wheen theey daon'tt thaank yaa folr aarl yaa doo ta keep thee sttleetts saaffe!? Theey knaow eit's naott saaffe, bautt theey jaust plettend eit's nao biig deeaal aahnd snuube aus folr dooing aah rlightt folr Shiibuuyaa!"

He opened his mouth to counter her claim when he stopped half-heartedly. Blinking, he soon settled for a scowl and lowered his gaze, watching the glass of water shift as anger churned in his stomach. "You… got a point."

"Aahnd whaatt dao yaa thiink aahboutt thiss…?" she asked warily, staring at him intently.

"What do I think...?" He hardened his expression as he rolled the question around in his head, narrowing his eyes slowly. "A lot, actually…" He frowned deeply, sipping the rest of the water before setting down the glass as he sneered coolly, "It's ridiculous how we're being reprimanded when everyone could be bringing the wrongdoers here to understand what they should have realized sooner…" He clenched his hands, gritting his teeth as he heard his tone give away the frustration he was trying to keep in check for the last few weeks. "Yet they're walking free on the streets- smug on their freedom- when they deserve nothing but pain and misery! Those bastards are the reason why many are suffering down here to begin with- so why can't the Conductor see we're doing the world a favour by thinning them down to nothing!?"

The Harrier exhaled sharply as he looked at his companion, who was silent as she gestured for him to continue. Usually, he knew it would be rational to stop and let the issue go to fume it about later mentally... But right now, he couldn't help but thrive on the adrenaline coursing through his system. If he was going to let off steam, he damn knew it had to be let out now!

He felt his body go rigid as he sharply gestured his hands while hissing angrily, "It's disgusting… that they think they have the law around their fingers- that they're above justice and the ones who they make suffer! It isn't much to make them disappear for good! So why can't the posh bastard see that we're not causing trouble- we're only stopping it!?"

Andy suddenly sat up straighter. "Aoohh!" He looked at her intently as she slapped her hands together and started to rub them, giggling maniacally, "AI knaow aah waaaay…" A glint passed through her eyes when she proclaimed, "Aah peettittion! Leike the aonnes ein schaooorl!"

He frowned, but allowed her to take the stage in their discussion as she went on excitedly, "Thaatt Saadish Yaamaarlaamaa saaid the Caounduucttaarr aonnrlee rristtens tao aorttherr Leaapeerls… bauutt- whaatt eiff wee geett maany, maany, aottrherr suppolrtterrs aon yaa rlecluetting yaa doo aahllwaays!? Whaatt eiff wee'rre naott the aonnrlee aonnes whaoo thiink eit's telriaabrle nao aones deaarling witthh the baad guuuyz? Taomaorlaow leet's geet naames daown aahnd gaatthelr aotthelrs whaoo aagrlee wiitth aus aahnd shoave eit ein thaatt baasttalrd's faace sao hee wiirl see wee aahll waantt ta maake aah diffelrwence!"

The Harrier's breath hitched. "But then we're listening to what Sadist Saiyamma told us."

For a brief second, he thought the chinking of glass being cleaned stopped, and glanced at the waiter who froze upon meeting his gaze. The dark auburn haired man started to whistle promptly and the Reaper narrowed his eyes. 'Does he know Sadist Saiyama…?' The whistling sounded forced; that had to mean that meek man was awkwardly trying to divert their attention!

Immediately, the Harrier turned his body completely towards the man, smiling slightly. "How would you feel if criminals went missing for good?"

"H-Huh-" The man in the black long-legged pants and long-sleeved dark mauve uniform immediately dropped the cup. When the sound of it shattering echoed through the room, he cringed as his cheeks darkened to a cherry red. Dismissing what he saw, the male Reaper waited patiently until the man laughed sheepishly in his countertenor voice, "Um… I-I don't think I understand what you're asking…"

"What's your name?" the Reaper asked curtly, watching the man blanch.

For a long time, their host was silent playing with his white waist-apron with maroon swirls before the dark auburn, bowl-cut haired man stopped. He dipped his head and mumbling his response, "H-Hiraku Maeda..?"

"Alright." The Reaper nodded, allowing his voice to richen with practiced sweetness. He slightly lowered his hood to allow the man to meet his sharp brown eyes, a glint passing through them. "Mr. Maeda, may I have a moment of your time?"

"Yaaah-haooo-" Andy rubbed her hands keenly, a mischievousness settling over her wide, cheek-stretched grin. "Aoohh maan, yaaw'rre dooing eit." She rubbed her hands faster with giddy laughter. "Thiiss eis gaoing tao bee gaood!"

The Reaper got up, letting the motivating whoops from his companion serve to fuel his determination. He tried to steady his feet from sitting too long and from the unfamiliar tipsiness threatening to yank him sideways before sauntering to the man. He kept his gaze locked with the man's dark brown as he took a seat in front of the waiter, flattening his lips as he explained curtly, "This is a, uh, rather hypothesized scenario." He neatly folded his hands together on the counter, pretending it wasn't sticky from Andy's earlier disruption. "I'm curious about what you might think of it."

"Oh!" Mr. Maeda relaxed partly, wiping his hand across his face before laughing softly, "It's not much trouble, actually…"

Despite how nonplussed the waiter reacted initially, the Reaper's skillful observation told him he successfully pushed the question from alarming to a casual exchange of opinions…

Being suave like this disgusted him from how often he was forced to feign his pleasantries with that man who was chasing after the Reaper's so-called mother… However, it served him a fine purpose of dragging out the scuttling truth that refused to make an appearance, wailing and yelling into centre stage. It always angered the scumbag that the Reaper could swindle out and expose those veiled lies. And it certainly was… satisfying... to rub it in the lying scum's face- to laugh at how the younger man won and how the swine failed to pull wool over the Reaper's eyes.

He smiled slightly. Although, if anything, he wondered if it appeared more as a smirk.

Easing himself into a more comfortable position, the Reaper tried to soften his face to match the meek man's expectations. "Well, what would happen if… let's say… you hate someone?"

"Hate someone?" echoed the young adult, tapping his chin's mouche in thought. "Huh… don't know many I would consider hating, though…" He crossed his arms uncomfortably with a sad frown. "I know one person that is a bit harsher on me than the others, but I don't think I would hate them for getting mad with how I am." He sighed as he half-closed his dark brown eyes, "I'm just a ham-fisted sack of potatoes..."

'Well, you certainly are honest… but that's not what I was looking for.' The Reaper strained to keep his face from grimacing. "Y-Yes. But, what if you did have someone you hated? Always rubbed you the wrong way, or…" He gestured his hand slightly as he tried to come up with something that reflected innocent sounding intrigue. "Hmm… you would rather never bother you ever again?"

"I see, so they move away, right?" asked Mr. Maeda with an awestruck gasp, untangling his arms to thud a fist into his other open hand. "And hopefully become a better person because they go somewhere happier and peacefuller!"

The Reaper nearly wilted. 'I chose the wrong person to ask about this…' He inhaled, trying to disguise his disappointment for simply the former. "Uh, perhaps… But, what if they didn't move away?"

"...Then where would they go?" The waiter grimaced with evident bogglement. "When would they be back?"

"N-Not exactly…" Come on, don't fail now! He couldn't let this man walk over him with his apparent innocence and optimism to trust the misguided wrongdoers. He made himself sit taller, hardening his eyes as he looked deeper into the man's eyes. "No. What I mean is... what if they just vanished?"

"Vanished!?" the man gasped, pressing his hands- and by extension the rag he was holding- to his cheeks in distress. "Where did he go!?"

"I… I-I'm not sure, but what if you never saw them again because they vanished, and you didn't like them because they were so terrible to you?" probed the Reaper, adding to make sure the person didn't interrupt the message the Reaper was trying to paint with more moronic assumptions for positive scenarios, "And you never saw them again, but you know they did such other horrible deeds to others that everyone else didn't like how terrible he was at all?"

The man's jaw dropped, opening and closing it in appall. "I… I-I don't know?" He closed his mouth to frown, his eyes becoming sad pools. "I'd wonder where he went, or if he was okay…"

This man was a tough cookie to crack, but surely this person wasn't this forgiving for wrongdoers!? Wait… now that the Harrier thought about it, was he... Oh no, did he accidentally change the subject's person he was referring to!?

The Reaper inwardly cursed at his mistake, shifting gears immediately. He tried to mirror the man's face, putting in the effort of making his voice wet sounding and his eyes watery for the desired effect. "So you w-wouldn't… be happy? Even if they were a criminal that wouldn't do anymore harm and suffering to innocent citizens…? Would you want others to suffer so the criminal can live happily and continue with their misdeeds?" He lowered his eyes, trying to think of the falling out with the woman he used to think of as his mother, soon feeling angry warmth behind his eyes spill down his face. "Hurt m-more people…?"

"W-Wait- criminals!?"

The Reaper blinked, yet still felt his crocodile tears leak down his cheeks.

"You didn't say anything about criminals!?" the man tried to explain frantically, instantly reaching for the Reaper's shoulder. The Reaper fought against the instinctive urge to cringe away to allow the hand to gingerly land on it, keeping his head still and eyes averted. Keeping character was hard; guilt tripping was easy. "I-If you meant criminals, surely they should serve their sentence and work towards righting their wrongs! I-I mean, I-I thought you meant a bully, o-or a mean-spirited person-"

"S-Sorry, I should have been more sp-specific…" the Reaper stuttered, or at least, he hoped it was a believable stutter. He could already see the pity on the man's face… perfect. "I th-thought I said criminals, b-but I guess I forgot to…"

"N-No- no… don't feel bad! I'm not always specific, and people I know always get angry at me for not being clear enough, o-or saying things I shouldn't have told people-"

'Thanks for guilt tripping me…'

"- but I think sometimes… we just got to have more tolerance to letting ourselves carefully piece sentences together and for us to plan out what we have to say instead of just winging it from pressure to respond immediately!" The man gave a thumbs up after he was finished blurting everything out in that long, frazzled sentence and was now grinning brightly… The Reaper could see how hard the man was trying to cheer him up from how tightly he was trying to keep his lips from downturning, knowing the gesture wasn't a common one done by the man from the forced gusto it had.

The Reaper could either keep the charade going longer and torture the man's need for cheering up disheartened souls, or finish his delivery now by fulfilling the man's desire with a nicely done-up ribbon.

Slowly giving a reluctant chuckle, the Reaper opted for the latter and smiled fauxly. "Th-Thanks…" Upon seeing the zippy, sunlight-imbued smile, the Reaper tried to make his feigned actions not obvious by casting his terrible mother out of his head. He allowed himself to genuinely smile for the fact that he didn't choose the former option. "Y-Yeah, I was talking about criminals, Mr. Maeda."

"O-Okay then! Uh…" The man drew back, the place where he rested a hand burning and the Reaper hyperaware of the weight previously present. Mr. Maeda rubbed his tan-skinned hands nervously, but also in embarrassment (the Reaper noticed), as he chirped, "I-I don't know what to think if criminals vanished, but it would mean they're not harming people- and that's a good thing, right?"

The Harrier smiled, blinking as satisfaction waved through him. 'Hook, line and sinker…'

He nodded, and turned his head to look at Andy, whose face was pure red. She was silently laughing and seemed to resist the urge to bang her hand as she gasped for air from the apparent hilarity of the scene the Harrier made. He looked back with a glint in his brown eyes.

"That's what I was hoping…" he mused carefully, watching the man eagerly nod. Leaning closer, the Reaper lowered his voice. "Although, I also have a request."

When innocent eyes snapped to attention, dark brown orbs slowly grew round as they flashed with fear as the Reaper darkly gazed back. "I find it disquieting that you eavesdropped on me and my friend's conversation… Even if we were a tad loud, I suggest you mind your own business. Does your manager encourage you and your coworkers to listen in on customers as much as possible, by chance, or are you just the noseiest one who is all too eager for gossip material?"

Instantly, the man flinched. "U-Uh- I-I'm actually the manager…" He tapped his index fingers together timidly when offering a small grin.

"Oh really? Then would it be so kind of you…" He curled his lips in disgust. "To allow yourself to respect every person's privacy?" He leaned back slightly, sniffing in annoyance, "I find it rude and distasteful, to be frank, and I think you should know that you may lose out on business if you butt your nose into the lives of those who don't concern you. I'm not a lawkeeper, but at least I know when to point my ears away from personal conversations I don't belong to!"

Mr. Maeda backed away, gaping as he quivered. "I-I'm sorry- I-I didn't mean to infringe- I-I thought I heard someone familiar- a-and-"

"Save it." The Harrier's eyes narrowed into slits and the man was sweating profusely in front of him. "Remember what I told you, and there shouldn't be an issue in the future."

And… that should do it. Time to make the curtains fall.

After the man nodded rapidly and squawked out many apologies, the Reaper relaxed his face and allowed himself to move his lips into a pleased smile. "Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Maeda. That's all I need."

...End scene.

He went straight for the table, throwing down the Yen Pins he already counted up from the number of glasses of rice wine, whisky and water on the table... including the one Andy spilt... and the table charge. He yanked his friend out of her chair and off of the table where she was gasping for air, maintaining a firm grip as he strode for the exit while fuming.

When they were both outside, the Harrier sighed in a huff, "We're not going back there- No other izakayas either, Andy."

The only response Andy gave was her continued gasps and wheezes, finally slapping her closest knee with her left hand as she released gleeful snickers. With another sigh, he guided her along despite her buzzed complaints and how sleepiness made itself known to him.

"We have to go home…" he murmured as he squinted, the lights of the street taking on a rippling aura and the ground below him seemed to dip and waver. He grimaced, shaking his head and ignored the questioning babble from Andy as he edged them forward onto the road. 'Never again… never again for me to drink alcohol after that damn shitshow…'

Automobiles rode on by, but the Reaper's pace didn't stop or freeze upon the toei bus phasing through him. He caught the sight of sleeping children leaning on their parents, yet pretended he saw nothing as he felt the weight of Andy against his back slowly become more prominent as the minutes went by. By the Scramble Crossing, he was carrying her on his back, trying his hardest to not succumb to his own exhaustion and own inebriation when staggering underground alongside the sibilant River.

Upon reaching the Barracks after veering off from the way to the Lounge, he paused to catch his breath, glancing between the female quarters and the males'.

Usually, he would knock on the door of Andy's quarters until a female Reaper answered it to shove Andy into her arms, giving the tart warning to make sure Andy got to her bunk… But for the current moment, he couldn't deal with this shit. He inwardly groaned when all his mind could focus on was how it would be nice to just sink down and sleep in front of the forking hallway, let his dignity be damned if he got odd looks the next day...

Whether it was the little whisky in his system or the exhaustion itself, he eventually turned into the males', shooing away a dozing person on a bunk beside his own, glaring back at everyone else when they gave him questioning stares. He challenged them silently, too tired to shout for them to leave him and Andy alone before settling her in then moving under his own covers. He kept watch despite how weariness tugged at him until they went about their own business, waiting longer until no more eyes were on him before sinking into his own creaky, stiff mattress.

It was not too long until everyone else turned in and slept soundly… yet he still laid awake.

...Not again.

He drummed his fingers gently along the bedframe, mulling over the day, yet the darkness around him invaded his pondering. It drew in the thoughts he hated, making him want to turn on a light to ease his worry but knew he would get another word from the Conductor if he did. Instead, he was left to his own devices and willed for himself to slip into unconsciousness, blinking his eyes open only to stirring Reapers before trying again.

No matter how hard he tried, the Harrier was still nursing the company of the darkness… He immediately cursed his luck for the slight given on to him again. It was never comforting… being in the dark now. It always reminded him of what happened… How helpless he felt- how small he felt- how alone he truly was…

"P-P-Please... I-I don't want to die..."

The darkness felt darker to him… A blackness that would never stop growing darker… a shade that would never be driven away by light... and an unknown forcing him into anxiety and panic of what was hidden and what was watching him…

Just a terrible darkness…

"I-I don't… w-want to... d-die…"

...Bad days.

Huh, the older Reaper's words earlier in the day came to him. However, he couldn't find himself appreciating how that man poked the younger's phantoms right in the eyes when the Harrier struggled with them all these weeks. He didn't want to be told he was experiencing them- he didn't want to have someone label them for him-

Yet now that someone had... the name and phantoms stuck around like hardened tar.

Too bad the bad days would never go away, old man! Not when they became fresh ideas that he wanted to wish away for a goodnight's sleep! He now lost all of the progress he's been working towards because of that stupid army man!

He could have had a clean night number four... now it was a far off fantasy!

Rolling over, he felt anxiously around his face, his shoulders, his waist… soon raggedly breathing before repeating the ministrations. His ears echoed, his skin tingled and of course, as always, his nose couldn't erase the scent of smoke and burning.

Trapped… to smell himself burning and suffocating under that stupid hood…

That laughter… that laughter he couldn't figure out...

Unable to move… unable to move away from that god awful pain…

The heat was too much! He shuddered. Too hot- too much-

Too dark!

The Reaper's breath hitched loudly. 'No- no- no- I just wanted a number four- dammit!' He frantically grabbed the bed frame as he sat up, promptly patting his head, shoulders, waist… then gripped the thin, scratchy bed sheets tightly as he could. His hands could break for all he cared- he had to snap himself out of this! 'Stop it! Why did you have to hit the bullsye, old man- fuck you, OLD MAN!'

Even if he thought his chief complaint would be not sleeping on the floor in his futon when he first saw these stiff, rickety beds… it soon became apparent that wasn't the thing he should have fixated his worries on originally. The moment the light vanished each night to encore sleep, it only encored the bad days for him!

Dammit- why was he calling them that!? Argh- 'bad days'!? It was so stupid!

'This isn't the car… this is your bed...' He tried to keep his ridiculous sobs in, trying to breathe in and out deeply to stimulate the chemicals in his body to soothe this nightly episode now. He held himself tightly as he clenched his eyes closed. 'This isn't the car… this is your bed!'

And yet, even though he reminded himself of that, his mind wouldn't stop forging those memories in frame-by-frame images. It all came in at once- flashing in front of his eyes like a film reel that maliciously refused to stop once the projector was started up…

---

Stumbling.

Falling.

"Oh sh- Ji-Ji!"

Pain.

Agony.

Burning.

Screaming.

"Hold on, Ji-Ji- What the fuck- why won't it budge!?"

Trapped.

Darkness.

Burning.

"Help me! Somebody! I can't get him out- he's stuck!"

Trapped.

Coughing.

Convulsing.

Burning.

"A-Anybody…!? I can't open it! I need to get him out!"

Yelling.

Pleading.

Coughing.

Trapped.

Thrashing.

Screaming.

Burning.

"S-So pitiful… this is just what I need."

Laughing.

Trapped.

Coughing.

Burning.

Pleading.

Burning…

Coughing...

"At least you'll be happier with your father…"

Laughing...

Frozen…

Wheezing…

Gasping…

Dizziness...

Numbness…

"I'll take care of her for you now…"

Whispering...

Numbness…

Blackness…

Darkness...

Silence...

Nothing…

Only nothing but that darkn-

---

The Reaper blinked in a daze, gasping and shuddering fiercely after a snort from close by alerted him.

With a quick glance, he unsteadily made out Andy rolling over in her sleep before he carefully checked his head, throat, chest and waist with small, timid touches of his fingers. His body slowly eased itself out of being locked up at some point during the scare he passed through successfully, leaving him in complete silence and unnerve.

'This is… your bed,' he told himself again weakly, quivering as he pressed his hands down against the mattress. He shuddered once again. 'This is… your bed... and you're already dead.'

...Even though he saw the same scenes almost every night, he could never figure out how he lost his balance when checking the engine on that damned, dreary day.

As much as he wanted to blame that man, did the Reaper himself actually cringe involuntarily upon realizing who was behind him only to find himself falling? He wanted it to be the man who dated that woman, but what he could remember of what the man said didn't make sense.

Was that man too hysterical to help the Reaper? Or did he intentionally press his weight down on the hood to keep the Reaper pinned until he perished?

Nothing added up...

His discombobulated mind immediately accused the man, scolding himself for glossing over the details that were so plain to see. Yet another voice cried it had to have been an accident! He couldn't side with either claim, there was hardly any evidence to begin with! Only the newspaper, the half-finished autopsy he gandered and got recriminations for when sneaking into the facility that was keeping his own body for analysis, as well as the only witness to his own death…

That scumbag.

The bastard who was now dead… because the Reaper killed him.

That scumbag was dragged by the Reaper into the Underground, then was chased down until caged in for one final 'chat' before the Reaper Erased him out of blind rage.

The only person who knew… gone. The tight-lipped secret tiptoed around and never weaselled from that bastard's grasp despite all the tricks the Reaper had done to reveal the truth… was now haunting the Reaper to this day.

It was a mistake to Erase the man- the only witness- the first he 'recruited'...

The final words started to toss around his head, distorted and taunting him as he unsteadily breathed.

"Why don't you look at yourself, Ji-Ji... You were never one to accept me, yet you act like I'm the bastard. At least you had your fun pretending to be the bigger man... because you'll never grow up to be one. Getting rid of me will not make you feel better when you don't know who to look up to, but I dare you to Erase me! See if you still are the bigger man, Ji-Ji… see if you still are the bigger man…"

It all pointed to that scumbag if he only focused on the statements… but it didn't help because none of it unveiled the concealed truth. It was the one time he failed to drag out anything from the man… leaving the Reaper to burn his failure away out of shame and frustration… and of satisfaction.

Sickening… it was all just sickening and disgusting and making him repulsed of what he felt during that shallow moment of 'victory'... Looking back, he knew- then and there- it was the point where he was no longer that polite, honest to good young man who tended to his mother's health and welfare as the sole workingman of the household.

Only a poor, unfortunate soul... who embraced death, and was scared of that damn shadow!

The same Reaper- a wayward soul clinging to what little he has left of himself- taking to the streets for ungrateful acts of justice to stop criminals from ruining other persons' lives!

Why couldn't things go right for him!?

He only wanted to do what was right!

The Harrier cried silently, covering his mouth in vain to conceal his weepings. And for the rest of the night, he tried to not vomit or yell out his aggravation.

He just wanted to pretend... a little longer...

---

It was silent until the end of the night.

The daybreak bell peacefully chimed- if blaring horns mixed in with the gentle rings counted for that- and roused all those who dreamed to wakefulness...

He was awake in his bed as bodies stirred… having never slept.

Blinking, disturbed crusty flakes shifting off from his eyelashes, he groggily lifted his head as he squinted blearily. He lay in a daze, trying to piece together where he was until hoisting himself up and peering around confusedly before his eyes finally landed on an also awake- and probably hungover- Andy.

'Number three…' he thought grumpily, deciding the world could burn again today. The Harrier flopped back and struggled to pull his covers up. 'I just wanted a number four, dammit!'

"Geit aupp!" Andy yelled, yet the Harrier steeled his grip in silence and refused to release the stupid, scratchy cloth they were calling 'blankets'. When he sensed her fingers clump a wad of the fabric, he immediately growled in frustration as his friend tried to wrangle it from him. "Berls haooting aahnd waon'tt shutt the shiitt aup- sao geit the fuuck aup!"

"Bite me- I don't give a shit 'bout goin' anywhere today!" he snapped groggily, pressing the blanket firmly to his chest as she pulled hard in return with a grunt. "Posh bastard can suck it…"

"Aohkaay-" She ceased the tug-of-war thankfully after that. He could make out her angrily putting her hands on her hips from under his flickering, dozy eyelids. "Yaaw'rre jaust being ugry!"

"Aw, shut up…" he grumbled as he rolled away to the wall, frowning deeply as he sighed, "If I could catch a wink… a godsend wink… I will get my ass off this metal rack."

Suddenly, arms slung over his form, Andy groaning as she tussled with him to roll him back to face her again. She knelt down to gaze deeply into his mostly brown eyes and gave a hard, face contorting wink. He stared at her blankly for a long time, soon chuckling in dry amusement for a trice then grumbled, "If you're finished, let me sleep already…"

"Yaa gaott yaawrr wiink, naow geit aup!" she spat shrilly as she grabbed his body, yanking it towards her roughly. This caused him to flail in surprise sloppily as he being itched towards the edge. "Yaaw'rre hiszy becaause the Caounducttaorr shaatt ein yaawrr caouffee tadaay!? Huh!? Fuuck yaa then folr mee caarring aabaoutt yaa!"

"Okay, okay-" he yelped, shoving her hands off before jolting to sit in his bed rigidly. "You didn't have to almost give me a concussion- " he groused in irritation while lashing his hands to wave her away from him again. Her only response was her grumpy face to mock him back as he was about to hiss, "Sheesh, Andy!"

She soon scowled and yapped back, "Yaa dedn'tt haave ta slreep folr aahnee raongerr!"

"I didn't sleep!" he spat in frustration as he rolled his legs over the edge of the stiff mattress, dangling them as he scoffed bitterly, "Number three… it was not a number four, dammit!"

"Aoh…" She grimaced. "Aah nuumburr thrlee…"

He nodded stiffly. "Number three."

When she didn't respond, he took the time to quickly fix his hood, shiftily looking around before relaxing. 'No one saw… good.'

Even though it seemed stupid to keep his hood up all the time, even as Summer was around the corner… he didn't like the idea of people knowing who he had been. He was certain someone may recognize him, and he couldn't bear the thought of having to disappoint them that the guy they may have known was gone. The Harrier could confess he hated his new life in the Underground, especially how quickly he adapted to this harsh environment of kill or be killed… It broke his heart at the thought he was nothing more than a disappointment to the eyes of the other denizens here with Andy at his side. If he hurt people from allowing them to discover he changed into this… he couldn't imagine the thought of what to do then.

It was hard enough when he was a Player… Constantly, he was dragging around hero-complex morons left to right… watching them all succumb to Erasure. The Reaper remained through his wits and intelligence alone because he was the only one to ignore the obvious snares set out for them. It boggled and angered him when One to Five brushed him off when he was just trying to save them all… but then he met Number Six. Thankfully, Number Six listened to him.

Upon becoming a Reaper, he was slogging through choosing between his morals and principles and choosing between kill or be killed… He dragged his ass this far from adapting correctly; all that was left was a pseudo con-man for the Players, a competitor for his fellow vultures and a messenger for Andy's kills and lastly, he was Andy's only friend...

The Harrier hated lying and scheming, but he had to do it to make ends meet. He cycled through so many personas to just keep up with Andy's expectations and keeping himself from fading from existence. The only thing he recognized of himself was the burning urge to protect, not those close to him, but for all of Shibuya. From protecting that woman from the scumbag- he set his sights now to protecting Shibuya from her wrongdoers… He couldn't bear the thought of straying from his intended path now… yet loathed how parts of him peeled off the longer he walked it.

His father must have been turning in his grave still from how much the Reaper had changed, he supposed darkly. Idly, he tucked in a few more light strands of his hair that stubbornly fell out from under the hood, keeping the thought held up after he finished with the small bothersome action… Halting, he soon found himself squinting at a dark strand, blinking sleepily and slightly moving his head in surprise only to see it lighter coloured.

Great… a number four would have stopped the trick of the light from screwing with him! Today was just going to be shitty, wasn't it!? He internally seethed, lashing a hand to push it back under his black hood before huffing in annoyance. These early morning rouses will be the Erasure of him… He could already imagine the smug face of the posh bastard looming over him when the Harrier's body was deteriorating from… from… Aw, fuck it- Hopefully coffee will be the fix for him! He'd have to let Andy know if she wanted to be in on the deal of sloshing coffee in their mouths to curb being hungover, as well as for him to cure his own fatigue!

A hand waving in front of him disturbed his aggravated thoughts. He flinched and blinked before Andy grumbled in annoyance, "Yaa thiinking taa muuch!"

"I was thinking for good reason!" he growled back and sharply whipped his head away. He side-glanced her as he crossed his arms. "Ugh... what did I miss this time, Andy?"

"AI aasked why yaa dedn'tt srleep!" she scoffed with a sharp cock of her head, grabbing his cheeks harshly with her slender hands to direct him to her face. Her grip didn't budge and all he saw was her fiercely glowing, furious amber-brown orbs. "Rraay eit aon Aahndee! Cuutt the sheiitt yaa puuttting aon mah brreaakfaastt plraatte! Aahnd sttaop being hiszy- diipsheitt!"

"Fibn alleddy! Cogld yu lett 'o ouf mye fayce firist?" he asked in annoyance, his face hurting from having to squirm in the lack of leeway her hands stole from his muscles. "Iey cann't talck rightt likk t'is, Aandiye!" She relented after releasing a raspberry and a huff right after, allowing for him to message his tormented cheek bone regions lightly before he scowled murderously at her. "...Much thanks."

"Kiindrlee aof yaa ta aask," she replied with an eye-roll, pretending to tip a hat to him if he guessed the actions correctly. She added coolly, "Naow… taarlk."

He huffed a sigh, shaking his head before trying to sit in a more comfortable position. As he looked back at his friend, he sagged his shoulders as he half-closed his eyes. "It's not rocket science…" he mumbled, idily scratching his chin and blearily catching her gaze. "Andy, you do know I don't sleep almost all the time… right?"

She gave a mere nod, leaving him to gather his thoughts on what to say next. "And last night was no different than last time- a-and I just... hate it." He took a moment to pause, hoping he was doing his best to crunch the numbers with what little his sluggish mind had of available brainpower before continuing with a groan, "Three out of seven… That makes it… an average of two to three days per week of sleep on average thus far." He grimaced hard, huffing bitterly, "But I frankly believe it might be more accurate to settle for two days instead…" He slapped a hand to his face, keeping it there as he muttered hollowly, "I'm surprised I'm still functioning enough as it is to not keel over and slumber out on the concrete yet... I-I'm basically a zombie out there, Andy…"

Boy, he felt exhausted… maybe woozy by the looks of everything swaying and felt nearly everyone's presence suffocating him… That former thought may come true today, he supposed grimly as he smacked his head lightly, hoping for his vision to correct itself.

There was just one thing he couldn't understand his about Psychomancy... When he was initially able to harness it as a Player, he hadn't gotten a Pin that could explain why he could just… sense people. Not like the boloney that people keep droning on about psychics for, literally being able to tell where people are and knowing what those persons were doing! For him, it was as if his reflexes were honed drastically with a stone when he was in Stasis before his Day 1 started.

He couldn't understand another thing about that fact… why Andy could easily spook him out of his deep ponders if he suddenly had lightning fast reflexes in and outside of battle. Already he was facing enough problems from the posh bastard now and back then, as a Player, he didn't think it was worth mentioning he knew where people were. Number One to Five didn't get what he was trying to explain to them when he tried to steer them away from danger he somehow knew was waiting for them… why would anyone care now? If anything, the only use for his reflexes was in battle, but as a Reaper, battling once a Week on Day 7 against Players didn't cut it for him to not apply them elsewhere.

Players were only allowed to equip their Player Pins and six others for battling Noise if their Imagination was better attuned... that was the rule you had to remember by heart! Anything else was outlandish- from what he could pull from enough sparse interactions as a Reaper. But to his understanding... what counted as outlandish? Each definition he came by offered loose, polarized interpretations that made his head spin from trying to narrow it down to a synchronized theme... but from what he inferred, his tactical ability may have been what the Reapers were calling Arts.

The Harrier blinked, pulling his hand away as it shook- He blinked, placing the same, not shaking hand down. "First order of business… coffee after we get away from here, then we shall conduct our work as usual." She frowned at him as he sighed, slightly tipping one of his temples her way, "Because my mind can't seem to cease screwing with me this morning, Andy. All these Number Twos and Threes are stacking up on me, and I'm damn too exhausted to deal with anything but pitch our work out to others…"

He grimaced as he folded his hands in his lap, keeping them clasped as he lowered his head and tried to not drift off. "Well… what do you think?"

"Brress yaawrr heaarrtt…" She blew a long whistle at that. "Thaatt liitttrle?" Her amber-brown, rounded appalled eyes were focused on him, even if he didn't look up as pain prickled through his skull briefly. "Shucks… yaa mustt bee aas grlumpy aas aah beaarr whao's been faorrced aoutt aof his caave ein the middre aof Wiintterr becaause aof haow nao aone thaoughtt ta aask eif hee waantted ta sluumburr raongerr even thaough eit waas aofficiarree Splring by the daatte aon the caaraanderr bauutt the snaow waas sttiirl faarling aon the glaound!"

All he could do to react to that was pointedly stare at her. "How could you say all that in one sentence?"

Her expression turned to one of pride, her hand resting over her heart as she smugly hummed, "Prlaacttice. Haad ta aouttdao aahll the neighburr kids becaause they thoughtt aI waas naott aone aof them… jaust aah weilrd Jaapaanese giilr whao waantted ta praay ein the mud when eit gaott scaolrching leike the sun waas giiving aus sugaarr bauutt wee dedn'tt waantt them becaause the sun caoulrd haave caootties leike aahll kids think giilrs dao baack then. Bauutt aI haad mah taongue srippelierr thaan aah snaake sunbaatthing aonree ta hiiss aahnd sttliike eif kids dedn'tt knaow beettterr aahnd waantted ta heitt the daarln thing becaause they think eit waon'tt lrunge aatt them!" She beamed widely. "Haahaah-haah..."

She frowned afterwards, looking glum as she lowered her molten gaze. "Bauutt aoverr helre? AI caoulrn'tt keeep aup witth aahll the tarlk aI reaalned becaause nao aone speaaks leike thaatt helre..." She sighed. "Eit's sttuupiid haow aI thaoughtt thiings waoulrdn'tt bee differlentt thaan baack ein Aahmelrikcaa… yaa knaow? AI waoulrd haave sttaayed aonree eif mah Paa aahnd Maa dedn'tt caonvince mee ta gao becaause they thaoughtt eit waas saafferr ein theilr haome caounttree-" She sharply pressed a hand to her chest, sniffling, "Jaapaan dedn'tt seem leike haome ta mee… Aahmelrikcaa haad been."

When he nodded, she raised her head again and held up her dictionary. "Naow aone taakes mee serliousry leike yaa dao, mah saweett bumpkeiin…" She scratched her head after pocketing her book, her gold and brown locks becoming ruffled as she dug what was left of her nails in when he slowly eased himself up to not hunch over. "AI waas grlaad yaa waas thelre ta sttaand aup folr mee yestterlday… Eif aI haadn'tt died… whao knaows eif aI caoulrd haandrle realning this aon mah aown?" Andy leaned closer, poking him in the cheeks as she added warmly, "Aone gaood perlsaon caan maake aup folr aahll the aones whao shaould liive ein the gaalrbaages becaauses they aain'tt the maan yaa aalre- aone the wuorld haas deselrved..."

He nodded with a heavy exhale, smiling at the complement as he rubbed at his eyes sloppily. "At least you didn't go the way I had to get here."

"Geeittting hiigh waas sttuupiid!" she snarked with an angry grimace as she lurched back onto the bed she occupied last night, crossing her arms while shaking her head slowly. "Drleenking aafterr waas aah misttaake." She stopped for a second or two before flicking her index finger in the air towards him, speaking softly with a sigh, "Aatt lreeaastt aI waas haalff aawaarre aouf eit beefaorre aI gaott mahselrf aoffed by thaatt laatte niightt caaberl caarr. Yaa gaott naottthing bauutt aah baag aof sheiitt ta caarlee aarlound weitth yaa…"

She scooted near the edge of the borrowed bunk, leaning closer to him again as she lightly pressed two coarse, gnawed fingernails against his temples. "Yaa knaow whaatt haappened… aahnd thaatt's whaatt succks!"

Smiling in his grimace, he knew Andy was trying, but it wasn't working. No matter what, he couldn't forget what happened… what he could remember, at least...

"Any stragglers who don't have the day off, come on out!" called a Reaper grouchily who popped their head in from the doorway. "Mission of the day debriefing is about to start! I know none of us want to miss out on our Points or get the Conductor's panties in a bunch!"

Pulling at his black hood, feeling it protest from being stretched more than it should, the Reaper slowly rose. "We got work to do."

"Bauutt wee daon'tt haave aahnee morre tarrgeitts!" Andy groused with a raised eyebrow, her squinted eyes silently asking him the rest but he mouthed for her to wait. Clearly, her buzzed memories didn't translate into her thoughts for what she said had last night… now it was his job to smack her head a bit to get her back on track… He knew- even if he was tired with a headache starting to announce itself- he'd get her back on the ball in no time.

As he turned back to grab his knapsack, he blinked slowly and ran his gaze over his bed then widened his eyes. He knelt down, scrounging around and flipping through his memories of last night as Andy called, "Whaatt aarle yaa daoing?" He felt her waving towards the doorway, his head tinging as she added with urgency, "Thaatt Leaaperr saaid-"

"I'll be out soon!" he hissed, directing his scowl under his bed as he pawed the floor. "Just go on without me!" He raggedly breathed, pressing his eyes shut as he cursed. 'Don't tell me someone stole my knapsack- it's the only thing I have!'

Upon hearing the click of shoes, he jerked his body up to see the Reaper from earlier towering over him. With a huff, the Harrier hoisted himself up and grumbled, "I'm going, I'm going..." He shoved past the Reaper, feeling his stress and anger bubble through his blood. As he left the room, bolting through a group of female Harriers and Supports, he kept going until he fell in step with Andy who gave him a curious look before he shook his head.

'I'll worry about being broke later!' he thought sharply in disappointment. 'For now- the actor has to maintain his mien in spite of grief.' Inhaling deeply and slowly, he hoped he appeared more presentable and composed to his fellow Reapers when they started to flank them.

As they followed the other slow moving masses into creating the congregation waiting for the Reaper of the hour, they were soon being pushed back to peer with jealousy at those resting in the lavish lounge ahead. The Harrier Reaper side-glanced back to a disgruntled Andy as he waited for the Conductor to start his speech, noticing how she swayed with a sigh of impatience. He glanced forward the moment he heard the Conductor. "Today is the final Day-"

Ignoring the rest of the rubbish spewing from the posh man's lips, the Reaper shifted closer to his companion. Upon getting her attention, he whispered warily, "We're not going on an escort mission today, we're going on a nice name hunt for our cause."

All she did was smirk and wink back.

"Brace yourself for a long day, I'll fill you in more later," he added whilst shrugging, starting to fan out his wings to annoy the Reapers neighbouring them only to freeze. Right... the posh bastard took them away. He immediately seethed, instantly feeling a prickle from the muscles protesting back as a reminder. 'Okay- what to do.. what to do...' If those vultures were listening in on them, he had to deter them from doing so! His plan for 'accidentally' hitting them with his wings was now thwarted... so else could he do?

He kept close to Andy, refusing to move away until he had a solid course of actions in mind. It unnerved him a lot... of the idea that people were spying on him, people watching him... Call him pessimistic all you want, but lately it felt as if someone was deliberately watching him. Perhaps this was what the posh bastard meant when the Reapers knew of Andy and his aspirations... that they were going to be put on watch... He felt the urge to scratch at his arms when they itched irritably, yet held himself away from inflicting that kind of display in public. It wouldn't do to make a scene because...

The Harrier brightened upon getting an idea.

Might as well make this a good show for them!

Immediately, he began to side-step on the spot before moving his nimble feet away from Andy and onto the heels of the Reaper in front of him. The Harrier flailed his arms as he jerked back into a Reaper, who cried out their ire, before tottering around to the dismay of all the Reapers shooting him sharp scowls. He siphoned and savoured their noncommittal grumbles in the tiny space he shuffled in, bracing himself seconds before he seized his muscles-

Falling sideways to his right.

He pressed his eyes closed when he felt himself collide with the Reaper flanking him seconds before being shoved away then meeting the floor with his face. He kept himself from yelping the best he could and remained sprawled out, letting his self-induced dizziness sway his mind and allowed himself to keep still and limp. His earlier exhaustion returned, which he wasn't planning for, but reached for it as long as possible to doze on the ground.

Even if this was the Plan B, hopefully this would serve a warning to keep those Reapers to themselves and not him and Andy. He would rather be a shit disturber to ward off the vultures bothering him anyday… For all he cared, they could all suck it!

"What happened!?"

"Did that Reaper just faint!?"

The Harrier had to fight off the content groan he wanted to release. 'At least I get a chance to close my eyes for the next bit...' Even if his face ached, his body scolding him for harming it... this was all worth it. He didn't expect to have someone push him back, but the Harrier thanked the sucker for making things worse- in the best way possible!

"Why did you do that!?"

"I didn't know the Reaper was fainting!"

"You may have hurt him!"

"Him!? It could be a girl under that hoodie!"

"Fuck... I heard him talking to his friend, and that wasn't a cute girl, asshole!"

'Knew it!'

"I'm sorry- alright!"

"Check his pulse then if you're so sorry about it!"

Man... it actually felt nice being on the ground...

It wasn't long before hands grabbed his left arm, pressing against his inner wrist before he groaned out inadvertently. He flickered his eyes open instantly, exhaling shallowly while lolling his head to rest on his right ear- as awkward as it was with his current position- before mumbling softly, "Wh-What..."

"Are you okay?" an unknown voice asked, and he refused to answer before slightly shifting his head. "Look, I didn't mean to-"

Sluggishly moving to sit up, he let himself sway before planting his left palm down to 'ground himself'. Gradually he rested his other hand over his face, groaning to continue stroking the ploy, "Wh-Why does my head hurt...?"

As bickering started above him again, he kept his head drooped as such joie de vivre pranced inside him, hearing Andy groaning while helping him up. She struggled when he kicked to get his footing steady, feeling her try to balance him herself. Andy kept her arm slung across his back and under his right arm when he blinked slowly, letting himself gag. The next moment he faintly heard a Reaper talk to Andy before he was being turned around and led through a crowd-

Who was staring right at him.

Straightaway, he mentally screamed for them to stop looking at him; trying not to let that translate into his body language as he kept himself staggering with Andy.

He didn't know if the Conductor could see them back here, but he couldn't just allow himself to finish his little skit until they were at a safer distance. All he did know was that the posh bastard must have informants on the ready. It had to be the Officers… the Harrier couldn't imagine them not sipping rice wine and acting high and mighty in the lounge as the posh bastard's nobles. The Conductor tended to not lower himself to speak to the 'peasants', and from enough encounters, it wasn't hard to understand that the posh bastard saw himself as royalty most of the damn time. Even the youth were disregarded as if they were mere specks of dust on his impeccable multi-layered cream, white and gold suit.

It sucked that the Harrier couldn't find a single Officer to report his questions and concerns to because they were the damn mutts of the posh bastard. None of them were worth the Harrier's time to pester when he had other things to worry about for himself and Andy. He wouldn't be surprised if they were Imprinted to maintain their ridiculous perfection and pristine...

His head felt fuzzy just as he realized they weren't moving to the back- they were going forward! Dammit- maybe the success he was riding on was now inverting on him! He couldn't lose this performance now when they were practically entering the radar of the Officer Reapers and the Conductor himself! He groaned quietly- hopefully sounding dazed and not frustrated- while letting himself lean against his friend as it seemed she was being instructed to situate him on a... wow. It certainly was nice to sit on this.

Even if he was faking it before, he couldn't help but be dizzy now from the overwhelming sensation of this couch's texture and how snoopy eyes were burning into his flesh.

...That posh bastard was letting the Officers live in a lap of luxury! Fuck that man for letting them have this when his bunk was utter shit!

Shifting, the Harrier couldn't help but cast fugitive sneers the man's way as his immoderate speech continued without falter. Even if the man was acting as he usually had, the Harrier knew the Conductor wasn't happy for the disruption the Harrier caused. As a few Officers began asking him questions when the Conductor was finishing up, he refused to lower his hood despite how insistent they were for him to do so. He felt his body go rigid while curling in on himself, trying to appear smaller to ward them off despite how small he actually felt being in this Lounge full of the posh bastard's mutts- or to be frank now- trapped in this den of lions and bears!

Trembling, he wished he could control his body now as he felt gazes continue to train on him... 'St-Stop it... d-don't look at me!'

Why couldn't they mind their own business instead of dissecting him like an insect with their interest in him!? Why did his plan have to backfire on him to subject him to this torture!? Why did these Reapers care so much when he was below them!?

As the Conductor briefly glanced his way, Reapers dispersing to do their tasks for the final Day of the Week, the Reaper flushed in anger when he knew someone was still watching him. He felt their eyes on him, yet he couldn't make out who it was. If his 'fainting spell' was enough for 'concern', being agitated by whoever it was wasn't making his predicament better.

All he did was remain silent in his vexation, frowning as he grimly let the Officers tending to him continue with their fussing, poking and prodding.

---

After a long, gruelling period of being tormented by questions from Officers and the posh bastard himself, it had been deemed he must have experienced a burnout. He merely accepted their recommendation to take it easy for the next few days, finding himself too overwhelmed to weasel his way out from being clustered for far too long.

Even if the Officers disagreed on letting him outside, he luckily had Andy vouching for him needing fresh air to settle their complaints. He couldn't remember all the details they rattled him with, which was why he was glad he could finally breathe out here and away from them while leading Andy around on the streets. Being inside would only make him...

He told himself he'll explain what happened at a later time. Andy seemed stressed out, and he didn't want to have her storm off before they even begun their work for today...

Stretching, the Harrier tugged at his hood after exiting the supply shop. Without his trusty knapsack, Andy spared him some of her Yen Pins to go collect what he thought they needed, so he knew he owed her for the amount he sparingly used. It still frustrated him that someone took his knapsack without him realizing it... so he hoped this wouldn't become a theme for him to rely on Andy forever. He had decided until he gathered up new funds for a new one, he'll crunch the numbers of what he used to make it up to her for the circumstances.

The Harrier had two ballpoint pens and a medium, black notebook in hand as he joined his friend by the curb. "We got our mode of writing, pathfinding in mind…" he mused thoughtfully as he flipped through the crisp, lined pages. He sniffed after finishing his inspection of their weapon of choice for change before he slightly glanced at the noisy pageturn of Andy's dictionary. He pressed his lips flat and tilted his head a smidgen. "All that is left now is to brew up a pitch to woo the audience before we raise the curtains."

She turned her head curtly to look at him. "Naaw, aahll yaa need iz yaawrr snaake eiyez aahnd yaawrr faancee wulrds," she quipped with a cock of her head, chuckling heartily as she narrowed her eyes slyly. "Yaa thiink taa muuch… Whyy daon'tt yaa jaust gao folr eit instteaad aouf aahll thisz sttuupiid sttaaalring?"

"If I don't advertise us right the first time, we'll just be pestering them the next," he flatly intoned with an unimpressed raise of an eyebrow then sighed, "And you don't have to be worried because you're not the one who's going to perform our shitstorm."

'Especially when everybody knows you 'fainted' because of your 'burnout'...' he sneered in annoyance to himself. 'Now I have to work even harder than I thought I would if I don't want people assuming I'm just peddling them for sympathy after my earlier fucked up performance!' He shifted, clenching his hands only to stop upon remembering he had precious cargo resting in them. 'Even if no one saw what I really look like, I know they won't forget what happened to that wingless, poor, syncoper!'

She blew a raspberry while waving a hand sharply down in dismissal. "Yaa maake thiengs morre caomplricaatted thaan teaaching yaa ta squaarre daaunce!"

"Then don't teach me how to square dance," he crisply said in annoyance, soon adopting a cool smile and tweaked his tone to be cheeky. "Leave the diplomacy to me, and you can keep the fancy footwork to yourself."

"Heh." She simply grinned. "AI caan wulrk weitth thaatt."

Inhaling, he closed his eyes, trying to wrack his brain for any possible conversation starters to best equate to the relevance of their crusade. Being overly polite would make some of their potential supporters believe he was wearing too big of dress-shoes, so keeping it down within the moderate notch would supply enough respect from those who did appreciate it. He had to be frank, not twist his words around like the Conductor did, if the Harrier Reaper was to get their message across without confusion- not fumble with his words like last night at the izakaya. And- most importantly- they couldn't barter, trick, or make promises they couldn't keep. The last thing they needed was to rub all the Reapers the wrong way and expect a big profit in return…

"Hey- you two!"

Widening his eyes, he turned his head only to scowl at the brash army man from yesterday. The man was wearing an ear to ear grin for some ungodly reason as he watched them from across the street. 'Him again?' the Harrier thought in annoyance, immediately tucking the notebook under his arm and shoved the ballpoints into his trousers. 'Don't tell me Sadist Saiyama is being sicced on us by that posh bastard now!'

"Heard that Americana became an honourary man last night!" the burly man grunted out brazenly as he lumbered over slowly, heavy steps made by the still disregarded mud-caked boots. If the Harrier could guess, the army man never washed them probably out of pride to wear the blood and glory… Huh, from that uniform alone, those boots should have fallen apart by now. The army man thumped his chest as he barked out gravelly guffaws, "If Oshiro caught wind of the booze on you, he wouldn't have bothered to continue his speech before tearing you apart in front of all of our comrades!"

Wait- they smelled like alcohol!? The Harrier widened his eyes in appall, shakily bringing his sleeve up only to wince. Why didn't he notice that!? Those who hated alcohol will just snub them right off the bat, wrinkling their noses as they walked off in displeasure of the terrible pungent stench! Him and Andy had to swap out their clothing for something different- after shaking off chatty Sadist Saiyama here before they did anything else for the foremost. Wait- he couldn't just change out of his set Reaper uniform- he didn't have another uniform to wear!

'Dammit!' He felt hot tears threatening to leak out, but he sniffed sharply and shook his head to himself. 'Stay calm... you can't lose yourself now because Sadist Saiyama is slapping you in the face with the obvious!' He gritted his teeth, silently trying to stop himself from trembling when he realized he was starting to quiver. 'Damn you, old man... I was just starting to relax!'

Sadist Saiyama stopped, holding his chin with his whole calloused hand. It appeared he didn't notice what effect his words were having on the Harrier- or was he just ignoring the Harrier!? "Don't know if any squealers got to him about you snoozing on down with us guys yet, but I'm sure you're okay for now..." He narrowed his eyes at the Harrier as he added brightly, "But, the burnout I heard about may have just barely saved both of your hides!"

The Harrier couldn't stop himself from tensing at that last part before sharing a wary look with Andy. Her molten, honey-coloured eyes were dark with the same suspicion- which was comforting to see- and the Harrier cautiously stared back to study the overly-cheery goliath. "...What do you want?" he asked coolly as he frowned.

For a second, the man's gruff face twisted, then a certainly unnatural, friendly smile morphed onto his face. "What… not happy to see me?" He opened his arms wide while speaking- was he expecting them to skip on over and hug him!? The Harrier had enough of this nonsense!

The Reaper scoffed, "Look, we don't have time to entertain you-" A protestful flash went through the hulking man's eyes. The grizzled, dark haired man was grounding out an exclaim of disbelief as the Harrier went on frigidly, "We just met yesterday, so drop the ploy of chumminess because I would like to think you expressed enough that we both know you want something from us."

A blustery exhale was released from the man's lips. "Alright, alright… you clearly are the brains of the pair…" He dropped his arms. "You got me." He raised them up again to cross them, grunting as he growled when he glanced at a streetlight, "Ever since I had to drag your sorry behinds out of your squabble with Oshiro, I can't forget your faces for the life of me!"

"Oh, I'm very sorry we plagued you in that way," sneered the Harrier as he placed a hand over his heart. The Reaper rolled his eyes as the man scowled back, soon lifting his hand up again to wag his finger in the air mindfully. "I heard the best solution for that is to distance yourself from what you want to forget- so how about-"

"Shut your pie holes!" bellowed the army man, swinging an arm into the streetlight pole, causing the Harrier to jump at the glass shattering and the pole yielding to the incursion. It timbered over onto the sidewalks, barely missing Realground pedestrians who nearly walked into the path of destruction. The reactions were as expected: Terrified screams and panicky fleeing that raised alarm to the rest of the aghast bystanders.

The Harrier felt his frozen body slowly regain control as the scene of havoc continued on; the tingle of thousands of people shooting through his limpid form (if they actually saw him) became more apparent. He managed to set his wide eyes on the approaching behemoth who finished getting off the road. The Harrier gritted his teeth after making a strangled noise in his throat, just as the man was stopping in front of the younger Reaper.

Before doing anything else, the bulkier man raised his hand up only to blow on his knuckles briefly. He was sighing without revealing any indication he actually felt the agony of what should have been obliterated bones. "As I was saying…"

"Whaatt the heell dao ya waantt weith aus!?" screeched Andy (in the shrillest, banshee-esque voice he's ever heard from her) as she backed away. "Aahnd whaatt's yaawr prroblrem!?"

"You could have hurt someone!" the Harrier yelled in rage; finally feeling his nerves reconnect and jerked away to point both of his arms at the victimized streetlight. "You nearly killed innocent Realground citizens!" He gritted his teeth harder as he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Do you understand what you've just done!?"

"They'll live..." growled the hulking Reaper uncaringly with a sneer on his face and shrugged, soon locking his murky gaze with the Harrier. "Stop acting like I toppled our small skyscrapers and they're falling like dominos as you're bellyaching about the method to my madness."

The Harrier felt himself flinch upon looking deeply into the man's burning orbs. He couldn't help but shudder briefly, glowering back darkly when the man went on, "As I was… SAYING…" He snorted before grunting, "I did some digging, and boy, the things I heard about you two brats is enough to make me wonder if someone raised you like headless chickens!" He leaned closer, rotten teeth toothily peeking out of the man's curled lips. "Heard about how you go out of your way killing people- heck! Why are you making me out to be the bad guy and brabbling about me knocking over a rusty old traffic hazard when you're raiding the Realground and gunning people down!?"

...What?

"Traffic hazard?" the Harrier queried quietly in confusion, blinking and feeling his anger instantaneously drain out. "Wh-What traffic hazard?"

"Hmph." The man jabbed a sausage finger at the downed light-source.

For a long time, the Harrier kept his sight on the burly man, soon narrowing his eyes to slits before sighing. He turned, padding carefully up to the decapitated base and knelt down to inspect.

There were brown webbings of the characteristic signs of corrosion, gasping upon noticing the fallen pole had a huge chunk missing from it. When he glanced around himself while standing up, he couldn't find traces of it in the streets from his vantage point. How the burly Reaper's blow struck it should have left incriminating evidence of the missing pole's chunk on the road! Or- for the chipped metal flakings to be scattered about the region the pole had crashed down on! Unless-

He widened his brown eyes.

The pole must have had a gaping hole in it already! And- fundamentally- that meant the remaining foundation wouldn't be able to hold the pole up for much longer! How could the general public ignore the telltale danger when it was just staring them in the face!?

The Harrier mentally took a step back. He reminded himself when you had places to be after a long work day, or sitting through many gruelling hours of 'boredom' in school (he actually thought school was a blast), you may not perceive your surroundings as well as you should. There were many accidents from falling construction, or casualties from automobiles hitting distracted persons, that you may initially write it off as more morons entering the radar. Only that you may very well be wrong- as you're simply the one at fault for not considering the other variables in the overall equation.

People could be stressed or upset-

Someone could have dumped someone when everything seemed to be going right-

A family member may have died-

The family pet may have died-

Perhaps someone has a big, fat loan they can't pay off, and they're about to face repercussions for it-

It wasn't their fault, and yet- you wouldn't care because you don't know them! In fact- no one cared because they're too preoccupied themselves to have that thought pass through their thick skulls!

That was a sad, hard truth people haven't even learned about in this day and age… Not even the oldsters could make excuses to defend themselves of it... everyone can be at fault for it.

The Harrier's expression softened immediately into sadness. 'He... s-saved them... yet I-' He closed his eyes shamefully. 'Yet I didn't even see it when we got here... and I'm acting like he's the-'

"Could have hurt someone another day if it gave way from something else…" growled the army man with a snort, snapping the Harrier out of his thoughts. He turned just as the man was nasally sucking in air before the Harrier cringed at the disgusting sound of the man spitting onto the ground. The man then gave a thrash of his head. "Imagine the horrors that could have been!" He huffed and frowned ugily, "Hate to have seen it happen tomorrow… next Golden Week…" The shaggy haired man raised a sausage finger and pointed it abruptly at the Harrier Reaper as he grimaced hard. "You don't know when, it, will, happen!"

Nodding jerkily, the Harrier grimaced as he felt sweat roll down his face. "R-Right…"

Andy walked over, tilting her head as her expression scrunched up. "Whaatt aarre yaa ceelrbrraatin' aaboot aah faalring strreetlright folr?" Her voice had returned to its normal, alto croakiness.

The Harrier widened his eyes, instantly facing her as he sputtered out, "Andy, that streetlight could have fallen over and hurt someone later!" He pointed at it, desperately searching her expression for any sign of astonishment or horror… but all he got was a noncommittal shrug.

"Aahll thaatt maattterrs eis eit dedn'tt, rlightt?" she asked in confusion, shaking her head as she crossed her arms. "Jaust aah sttuupiid strleettlrightt…."

As a protest started up in his throat, the Harrier froze once he realized he was missing a certain weight under his arm now. Upon spotting the burly man was closer to the curb, leaning down, the Harrier burst forward. He lunged to his hands and held his weight on his knees to scoop the medium-sized object up before pushing to his feet hastily.

Spinning around, he scowled at the man who raised his hands up in surprise and disgruntlement. "I was just picking it up for you," the man grumbled irritably with a snort. "No need to bite my hand…."

"I'm quite qualified to pick up my own belongings, old man," he hissed back in annoyance, sniffing as he turned away as the man growled in anger at that. "And I'd rather not have someone touching my belongings when I see no reason to trust them enough to invade my personal space."

"You young people are so peckish and flighty!" groused the man with a great big roll of his eyes. "I didn't even get a thank you for stopping you from slugging Americana during your episode yesterday!"

"Yeah right, like I'm grateful for you stomping on over and involving yourself when I had everything under control!" he spat back in a scoff, lashing a hand forward as he went on in seething, "If your goal was to give us a damn demonstration on how your crackpot streetlight slaughter was to make us understand that you are our friend- then think again because you're just getting in the way of our work today!" He narrowed his eyes as he snarled furiously, "I can't afford to let you make fools of us, old man! I shouldn't be angry right now because I have to be the one to pitch our cause or we'll never be heard!" He clenched his eyes shut, breathing out louder and shriller, "Do you hear me!? Now I'm pissed off!"

"Hmph, does it I look like I'm deaf?" grumbled the man in a sharp huff.

"I don't care- stop bothering us!" he yelled harshly, breathing unsteadily afterwards. He breathed out quieter with a rasp, his throat burning from how raw his vocal cords felt now, "We just want them to listen… is that too much to ask for!?"

"And who do you want to listen to you two?"

He sputtered out weakly, "The C-Conductor… fuck- wh-why not j-just the C-Composer for crying out loud!?" He snapped open his shining eyes as he stepped forward, putting his right hand over his heart. "S-Surely… He would listen to us. If we're heard by anyone, anyone, the best bet may be the Composer Himself!" He clenched his hands, gripping a wad of fabric from his pungent hoodie as he looked at the ground while he growling, "The Conductor sure is a stubborn ass- so even if we did give him our list I know for a fact he'll just rip it up- because he sees us as the scum and dirt that he walks on!"

An amused laugh wasn't the response he wanted from the old man…

Instantly, he felt small and meaningless; his body and hands going slack. 'What are we thinking… w-we're going to just be seen as jokes!' The laughter became louder and hearty, rubbing more salt into the realization as warmth started to form behind his eyes. 'Wh-Why can't things go r-right for me for once…? N-Nobody cares, a-and no one will ever understand…'

"And…?"

He picked his wilted body up, keeping his head tucked down as he mumbled miserably, "And what?"

"'And what'!? Boy, you didn't give me your pitch yet!" snapped the army Reaper tartly. The Harrier sighed, feeling even more downhearted because that was part of it. "What? Was that all you had for your pitch!? That you want the Composer to listen while badmouthing the Conductor because you think he's a stubborn ass!? Seriously!?" The Harrier jerked his head up in disbelief, now alert as he watched the man slap a large hand over his face and tug it down with a groan, "Ugh… young people these days..."

"O-Of course not!" protested the Harrier hotly with unsteady head shakes, indignantly going on a second later, "We want recruiting to become legal in the Underground!"

"Recruiting?" repeated the grizzled goliath, crossing his arms as his lips went flat. "This better not be youngster jargon-"

To the Harrier, everything around him was slowing down as his vision for his and Andy's cause began to break apart.

"- for doing unsavoury activities-"

This man just didn't get it... The Harrier's ears began to buzz as static started to wrap and crackle over his sight.

"- because of their desires for-"

The Harrier didn't want to let the message die off because Sadist Saiyama was bulldozing and knocking the Harrier off his feet at every opportunity to speak his case!

...No more being a pushover! He had it-

He had to push everything now into delivering the very core of his cause-

Or he never will-

'Time to shine-' he thought boldly, flattening his lips slowly and inhaling shallowly as his heart began to beat faster. 'Let's put on a SHOW!' His eyes sharpened immediately.

He tightened his hands as his vision became rapidly tunnelled, focusing solely on the damn old man as everything began to speed up.

"We will kill wrongdoers and drag them onto our Plane to dish out what they deserve!" the Harrier Reaper cut in abruptly, the rest of the man's sentence becoming lost the moment the younger spoke. He took a deliberate step forward towards the army man, frowning darkly as he forced as much volume and conviction as he could into his next delivery. "To never see the light of day again- To vanish-" He clenched his hands as he murmured the rest in a low tone, "By Erasing them ourselves…"

He watched as the larger man's expression slowly transformed into disgust and suspicion, yet the smaller Reaper ignored it to chuckle at the thought of actually being able to enact what he proposed. He grinned openly, stepping back to murmur more, "It isn't as bad as you might think… In fact, it's been on my mind since the first time I did it." He felt adrenaline course through his veins, feeling lightheaded as he raised his voice. "It didn't disgust me as much as I thought it would- it was thrilling! I remember the chase like it was yesterday, and trust me… it was nothing like hunting down normal Players!" He half-opened his arms. "And you know why?" He hardened his expression as he brought them to his chest. "I had a sense of purpose- I wasn't mindlessly Erasing like I usually did-" He grinned harder as he exclaimed intensely, "I was exterminating real vermin!"

The Harrier slowly pulled a hand away from his heart, whisking it gently as he explained with fervour and laughter, "Why can't we just make them go away forever… if it means no one else becomes a victim?" He stilled his hand as he pointed it at the man in front of him, sweetening his tone. "Surely, you, Sadist Saiyama, understand what must be done."

He stopped himself from laughing more, feeling his heart thud strong as he caught sight of two gleeful thumbs up from Andy. It hardened his resolve- making him dizzy as he shifted his focus back on the man who didn't understand. "If we sit here and do nothing, then there will be hurt people. Not just hurt- Mentally scarred… Tortured souls… Disabilities onto those who will wish they had died at the thought of not being able to see, walk, or to watch every other second of their lives without the means to live it because they've lost control over their bodies from being preyed upon by paralysis. And why did this happen...?"

The Harrier frowned deeply, feeling every fibre of his face contort from his thoughts centering on the very answer. "Wrongdoers... Wrongdoers are all but to be exterminated- and they are the scum that can never be forgiven." He clenched his eyes shut as he went on, "You will never be safe even if they are put behind bars- because once they're let out… you don't know if they truly are as good as they claim to be. They're just biding their time until they're released to repeat what damage they have strung onto society before, but once again!" He shook his head, dropping his arms to clench both of his hands. He opened his eyes while his face hardened. "The only way to truly keep the streets safe is to use what power we have been given: The power to end their existence!" He shifted his gaze to the side as he angrily growled, "Why can't we make a difference and do the world a favour!? Why are they leashing us like dogs!? We need to take action! These streets are not just for the Realground, it's just as much for the Underground as well!"

Blinking while panting for air when his head spun, he was soon gazing back at the man intently. "Can't you see!?" he shouted boldly, whipping his right arm outwards as his left struck his chest. "We can stop them!"

As Andy wordlessly stared at him, soon rotating her head to the largest of them, the Harrier waited expectantly but couldn't read the man's expression. It was pulled tightly, looking painful yet the Harrier knew the man was in ponder. What frustrated the Harrier the most was the anticipation he was forced to sit through for the agreement he sought...

When the burly army man closed his eyes, he growled, "And what happens after?"

Caught off guard, the Harrier stiffened and frowned. "Th-Then they're gone."

"And what happens after?" the man repeated grimly, crossing his arms. "Mind telling me what happens after?"

"There's not really an after," the Harrier explained breathlessly as he dropped his arms, relaxing the rest of his body and smiling again a split second later. "We keep doing it."

"Then you're telling me there's no end to your…"

"Recruiting." He nodded, although he was confused about what the old man was trying to get at. "If we stop, then the streets will be flooded with them again." He blinked slowly, tipping his head down with a frown. "We have to keep doing it- or our pursuits will be for nothing... Once the wrongdoers believe we're done with them, they will start again and wreak havoc as they had." He put a hand over his heart again, searching the man's gaze as he raised his head to murmur, "Safety for those who are preyed upon by them is priority over all."

A slow sigh escaped the older Reaper's lips, pursing them after staring down the Harrier for half a minute. "...Who are the wrongdoers?"

Immediately, the Harrier shook his head wildly, gaping at the army man. "What?" The man started walking away, leaving the Reaper to trail behind and chase after him in a panicked jog. "Don't be daft with me- What do you mean 'Who are the wrongdoers?'!?"

As he caught up, his fingers taking hold on the grimy fabric of the half-tattered sleeve of the uniform unsteadily, the larger man halted but didn't turn to face him. "Are you hard of hearing, boy...?" Slowly, the Harrier let go from surprise, speechlessly staring up as one of the man's murky, swamp green eyes flickered to him. "Do you know who your targets are?" He swung around abruptly, his face twisted in a sneer, hardened eyes making the Harrier step back only for the man to lumber closer until his face blocked the Harrier's view.

The man barked out harshly into the Harrier's face, "Your fantasy of shucking off and doing our cheap parlour trick of making things disappear completely from existence can never be fully realized! You glorified it- you prioritized it- but you forgot the most, important, thing!" He breathed out heftily, narrowing his eyes to slits as a deadly glint emitted from them. "Who are the wrongdoers?"

Miffed by the man's stubbornness, the Harrier huffed. He pushed his chest out indignantly, retorting, "For your information… I didn't expect a geezer like you to understand." He clenched his trembling hands, feeling his body go rigid as he coldly went on, "It's simple: Criminals... Anyone who tries to cheat the justice system… Murderers… Do I need to bring out a thesaurus, or can you connect the rest of the damn dots!?" He whipped out his right arm, keeping his left snugly against his side the- he widened his eyes. Quickly crouching down to grab the fallen notebook, he then tucked it snugly under his arm to keep the notebook from dropping yet again with a grimace.

He faced and scowled at the man, his gaze darkening, flexing his right arm and clenching his hand while taking a step forward. "They're running loose on the streets- all of them!" he started again, confidently pulling his hood down to only allow for the older man to see his sharp eyes as he snarled, "Those bastards need to pay! This is our city- why not keep it safe for those who cannot do so themselves!?"

Swiftly tugging his hood to hide his face again, he then stomped hard into the cement. "I will ensure it-" He thumped his chest, squared his shoulders, yet turned away from the man. He used the same hand to press it abruptly to his forehead that he tipped towards the sky, refusing to properly do the Reaper's Allegiance for this fool and yelled, "Even if I will be Erased for it!"

As he was about to relax his stance, he heard a single clap.

Stiffening, his eyes darted to see another Reaper in a red hoodie, who was awkwardly looking around while his hand movements stilled slowly. 'W-What…?' The burly Reaper frowned in disbelief, shifting his head around as the shorter Reaper now noticed they gained a crowd at some point... 'H-How… W-Why…?' He widened his eyes. 'Oh.'

It hit the Reaper... he was doing the Reaper's Alliance informally to the crowd.

Upon watching the man grimace hard from the corner of his eye, the Harrier slowly eased himself into standing normally to gaze in astonishment back at the eyes of other Reapers. Usually he hated having people look at him… but noticing how rapt their focus was on him- how one of the Supports with their hood down was tugging on the sleeve of a lanky one (once they drew closer) while looking like they were excited- made him backpedal on that discomfort for the first time in roughly two months. With a further inspection, he saw that the crowd was mostly created out of Harriers along with some Supports thrown into the mix if he zeroed in on their Reaper uniforms alone.

All he could do was stare widely at them, blinking incredulously as he thought, 'W-Wow… were we that loud?'

The rather lanky Reaper nodded at the Harrier for some reason, although it soon became clear why he had as the lanky person started to pick their way over. Even the awkward clapper edged over reluctantly... and the Harrier found himself suddenly having more Reapers moving towards him. As they all soon stood in front of the Harrier, it was only then that he instantly felt self-conscious even though his hood wasn't down. 'Why are they clustering me!?' He frowned as he gaped at each of them in confusion. 'There's so many of them, what's-'

"Say, what's this about takin' out criminals?" asked the one who stepped forward first. They placed a hand on their side, tipping their head to the opposite side. "Problem happenin' in the RG we should know about?"

"N-Not currently…" the Harrier breathed out slowly, soon catching himself. He couldn't allow himself to act self-effacing around these guys- this was the moment to cement their impression of him! '...Time to shine...' He pressed a hand to his chest to brace himself, inhaling slowly before mentally nodding. 'Let's put on a show.' He then added on quickly as he took his hand off, whisking it slowly to gesture to the lanky Reaper with a business-esque mien, "But how would you feel, if it was legal to bring them on over here to personally take care of them?"

The lanky Reaper smacked his lips, tapping his chin. "I'd think that be nice… and I know some of my mates might agree with that line of thinkin' too." He tilted his head back. "Tell you what- how about I go bring 'em on over now?"

"Thaatt bee grreaatt!" piped Andy as she darted up to the Harrier Reaper's side. She snatched the notebook the Harrier had been safeguarding, abruptly yanking out a black ballpoint pen from one of his trouser pockets the next moment. She twiddled the pen excitedly as she offered the notebook to the other male, chirping happily, "Jaust neeed aah signaatturre flom yaa!"

"For what, missy?" the lanky Reaper asked, and the Harrier immediately identified he had an accent. Sounded Brittish…? Or was he mistaking that with Austrailian? Hmm… he should really get himself up to date with that knowledge.

"Eit's jaust aah peettittion ta maake Rrecllutting legaarl!" she cheerfully explained, proudly tapping the end of the pen to a random page she opened up to. "Need aahll the suppaorrtt wee caan geitt!"

The lanky Reaper made a sound of recognition, suddenly speaking with a more profuse accent in English. "Is Japnese not your first language then?"

It was a good thing the Harrier actually practiced his English outside of class to understand Andy when she retreated into English immediately. "Yes!" She nudged the Harrier Reaper with a giggle and shouted out with glee, "My friend here is teaaching me how to speaak Jaapaanese, but he keeps telling me I'll only get better if I praactice it aahnytime- aahnywhere- so I caan aactually get it down paat becaause it's like my words aare aah flaattened saandywich thaat waas thrown out the window becaause aah mother's little son haates thaat she left the crust on!" She leaned closer, shifting her head back and forth in a secretive manner before cupping her hand to whisper to the lanky Reaper, "Aahlso... becaause little Jimmy haates tomaattos!"

...He definitely had to brush up on his English a little more. Andy seemed to light up as she fluently exercised sentences like it was nothing… going so fast he could hardly keep up with her words while mentally checking them to understand what was being exchanged to the lanky Reaper. The last time he heard her speak English was when he went to find her and ask if she was interested in speaking Japanese, which had been five weeks ago.

"Well, what do you know-" The lanky Reaper immediately erupted into amused laughter, pointing at his face briskly when he was finishing his chuckles up. "How did you know my name, missy?"

"Waait- thaat's yaawrr naame!?" she cried out with surprise, happily grinning as she blew a raspberry. "Get reaal!"

The lanky Reaper inhaled slowly, thudding his chest as he spoke clearly, "Jim Carlistein. I just go by Jimmy because my mates think it's the easiest name to use in our spiffy loaded guy jokes, but I'm none too offended by them if I do say so myself."

"Haah, I hope yaa none too offended…" she said back with a simple shrug.

"Nah, it's cool, missy," Jimmy said with a shake of his head, crossing his arms soon after. "Although, I think you're puttin' too many A's into your pronunciation… Were you in the south or north?"

"South," she replied quickly. "I think I'm struggling the most with Aa's, so I put more oomph into aahnything just so thaat mah friend here doesn't get lost like other Reaapers haave when I taalk eaars off aahll daay like I'm creaating aah braand new sport!"

"And the L's and R's?" asked the male Reaper curiously. "I get that it's hard to string 'em right, but you're addin' extras in there as well."

"Aain't too baad becaause if I don't, mah friend won't understaand meh," she returned as she slung an arm around the Harrier, who didn't realize he would be roped into this conversation from how intently he was focusing on their fluent words. "Isn't thaat right?"

"Uh…" He mulled over his memory of using English before he straightened and bowed to Jimmy in greeting. "Nice to meet you, Jim Calristein " Immediately, he widened his eyes when the taller Reaper laughed, jerking to stand up again as Jimmy slapped his knee giddily.

"It's a good thing I remembered you were goin' to do that, or I would have gotten a broken hand," said Jimmy mildly, his words slowly going back into Japanese. "Anyways…" He rubbed his hands, quirking a look to Andy. "You said I had to sign a pediatrician? Or did you mean somethin' else?"

"A petition," the Harrier verified, shoving his hands into his pocket. "Would you do the honours again, Andy?"

Immediately, Andy raised the notebook up eagerly, bouncing on her heels. "Helre wee gao- yaaw'rre the filrst!"

"Oh... looks like I'm lucky!" Jimmy chuckled as he took the offered ballpoint and began to press down on the page. "I gotta do it right then, after all…"

As the Harrier watched the lanky Reaper sign, he couldn't help but smile warmly. 'Well then, looks like we gathered a following already.' More Reapers trickled in while others further away looked at each other, some of which began to break off to walk away from the crowd with head shakes. The Harrier felt anger churn in his chest, yet skimmed his gaze around only to find the lumbering form of Sadist Saiyama was quite a distance away from the Harrier.

When the man turned to look back, the Harrier Reaper silently watched as the older man's features darkened into a scowl. The man mouthed something before his unimpressed face turned away, continuing to move off.

Who are the wrongdoers?

Inhaling sharply, the Harrier simply turned back to help Andy with the herd who were interested in his Recruitment legalization. He shook his head in deride before tugging at his hood, trying to ensure his leer was concealed.

What a dumb question, old man…

---

Months earlier...

---

"I-I can't do it!"

"You have to do it- everyone else turned away this person!"

"Is it a person anymore!? I feel like we may have mistaken a mutated animal for a person!"

"What do you think will happen if we pass this up? The Conductor has put out a grand- no, no- a jackpot of Points for this job! It would last us maybe a century- m-maybe not that much, but so much time to exist if we finish the job that no one else could!"

"I-I just c-can't- I feel too sick just looking at this… th-thing!"

"Don't be a moron- think of the-"

"I-I don't care- I can't handle another moment looking at it!"

"Looking at what?"

"O-Oh- just this person- th-thing?"

"Wait- wait- wait- Did you just call this person a thing!?"

"What are you thinking, man!? You can't say stuff like that in front of-

"But it's true! I-I can't work on this thing-"

"You're ruining everything!"

"I'm not ruining everything- I"m just saying things as they are!"

"Oh fuck you..."

"Why are you acting like I'm the bad guy when you're the one who's been forcing me to do this!"

"Because we both know we need the Points-"

"You mean you need the Points!"

"Stop! ...Let me ask you two something... and you two better be honest! Have you made no progress for the last two days, because you're too busy butting heads with your own problems, to realize you're doing nothing for this person!?"

"No!"

"That's total bullshit!"

"Ugh... seriously!? You two are just pathetic, lily-livered buffoons! Just get out of my way- there are worse things to see, and this frowns in comparison!"

"B-But the Conductor-"

"I'm taking over, dammit! A new Round is ready to be stuffed in our noses! Go throw up later- we can't just leave this young person like this! Would you want someone abandoning your hide because you got the shortest damn stick to end up like this one had!? Ugh… cowards, at, heart- that's what you are! Get out of my sight if you're not going to be useful!"

"R-Right-"

"S-See you later-"

"G-Good luck with it!"

"Good luck with the person!"

A snort sounded after a minute, "Hmph… as ugly as you are, you and me are going to be spending a lot of quality time together… It's no wonder they see you as a lost cause- your body looks like shit! But don't bellyache to me when I'm through with you, because I don't know what you even look like…"

"H-Hurts..."

"Who's there!?"

"E-Everything... h-hurts..."

"Show yourself!"

"M-Make it stop!"

"...Make what stop?"

"I-I'm going to die! G-Get me out of h-here! P-P-Please!"

"Huh..."

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

"That's new."

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To be continued… hope you enjoyed the chapter! =3

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EeveeGen9988: "Hello, people! Thought I'd drop in some author notes this time around. =3

For the last chapter, I forgot to mention which prompt it had been for (whoops), so it happened to be for the Week 7 prompt for Burn(). Nothing had burned last chapter, but the word burn appeared which still technically counts for it from what I know from my previous runs in TSoS Trinity Limit, Quarter Queller and Go (even if it was just to post my last one-shot of Quarter Queller for that run)! =D

For this chapter, it was for the prompt Kill(). It goes without saying where that word popped up because our Reaper we followed along with constantly thought about it and about how he died himself. Heh. ;3

Later chapters, as I had mentioned in the disclaimer at the beginning, may not have the format I use for my one-shots. Why? Well, personally, I like it when I voice my thoughts at the beginning of chapters for a multi-chaptered story, but I do not want to give anything away so I try to veil my words so you don't have a clue on what to expect in it. On the other hand, for one-shots, I like to discuss them at the end (especially during Twelve Shots of Summer), but it would look awkward at the top so I do it down here (as you are reading in this format currently). Sure, it may be mind-boggling at first, but I like to not overload all of you people when you're just reading a single entry story. As for this story... it's going to get a complicated experience from me because I'll still be updating after this. *pats it on the head apologetically*

There's also the fact that because of how long this entry is... it's very likely I had some grammar mistakes along the lines... I hoped to catch them with my three edits, so if I missed something... I apologize for not catching it (and my grammar hasn't always been the best but hopefully it wasn't much of an issue for you readers)...

The reason why I'm counting this as an one-shot is because of the fact that the prologue and some chapters when I wrote them felt isolated that they felt more like one-shots. And prologues in my mind usually feel isolated enough from the rest of stories that it's like a one-shot that sits next to a bigger overarching story, if you get what I mean. ;D

...As for the next chapters... I may not be able to get another chapter out quickly for the time being. I'll be literally camping out in a house I'm currently moving into where we haven't gotten the internet up currently, so I won't be able to use my laptops to surf the web until the internet is gotten up. *sweatdrops*

Fun Fact - Regarding the names of chapters, I'm making a theme of it inspired by the name of the song Mr. Brightside by The Killers. I'm an avid music lover and I especially love that song, it spoke such volumes to me that for this story it just felt right to give a nod to the name of the song. Personally, I also feel like Mr. Brightside partly inspired me to write this story. =D

Fun Fact - Regarding how Andy's dialogue is handled and written, our Harrier Reaper's POV maps out her speech based on how he hears her say it. So, before you say I'm doing it wrong, blame the Harrier Reaper for how he hears it. ;3

Fun Fact - For our Harrier Reaper, I personally kept getting Thereon's (from Octopath) voice stuck in my head as our main character spoke during my edits. As for Sadist Saiyama, I kept getting Grunkle Stan's voice (from Gravity Falls) stuck in my head as his voice as well when editing (but more gravelly sounding). I don't know if those voices came to mind when you were reading, but they did for me. Funny right? *sweatdrops*

[Edit - August 26th, 2019] - A mix-up with Doc Manager files led to a terrible mishap where I had to sit through spellchecking the whole chapter (and it definitely didn't like Andy at all *Andy blows a raspberry at that*), fish out the old chapter content I managed to restore from the depths of my Mac Book Pro somehow, because I updated the story with an old version of the chapter that deleted the entire editing I did previously from the last segment of the first scene, after the Mission debriefing scene, Months Ago scene and other content. I feel so humiliated that it happened... *hangs head miserably*

...

As well, it appears you stumbled upon something. =3

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NEW LETTER THREAD HAS BEEN [SUCCESSFULLY] CREATED

THREAD_TYPE = [PRIVATE]=[HM to KF]

DATE_OF_CREATION = 01/00/00/AM/TUES/13/MAY/1975

ENTRY_NO = 48159076

LOG_NAME = MsCFHL

DOCUMENT_ALIAS = Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry 48159076

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Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry 48159076

DOCUMENT CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Ms. Fukuhashi,

I met a really, really scary person today! Oh wait, not today, it was yesterday. Now it's the next day, I guess.

It started out simple, you know, give drinks to the patrons, lay low, that sort of thing you always tell me to do… But things went weird!

It was near closing time when two people stumbled in, and they were Reapers, but one of them claimed the Conductor took his wings (poor guy)! I tried to not involve myself too much with interactions like you told me to, but I heard them talking about Iwao! I want to ask him tomorrow what happened because they were not happy campers, Fukuhashi!

The male Reaper noticed me listening then he's asking about vanishing people then we're chatting about bad people then he's crying about how it was about criminals and not bad people then he's telling me not to eavesdrop after I comforted him about how it wasn't his fault I misinterpreted our conservation topic! It just felt like he was going to punch me from the way he spoke- like a snake ready to lunge and dig his fangs of death into me! He's got the scariest eyes ever! I've never seen something so eerie before! I think he must be a Noise inside someone- what do I do!? I don't know what to do! Please tell me what to do, Fukuhashi!

Eagerly waiting for saving,
- Hiraku Maeda

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Response #1KF to Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry #48159076

RESPONSE CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Mr. Maeda,

First off, stop sending these panic notes and actually write your reports. This is a waste of your time and my time sending these back and forth when we should be focusing on our duties. As an Angel acting as Rule Master, you have no need to be concerned about Reapers you may think are 'scary'. I am not your mother, so stop acting like a frightened child and use the rational part of your frontal lobe for once.

Second, that Reaper is correct. You can watch the Game, but you must focus on the innate details. Anything suspicious, anything threatening the Game and anything or anyone noteworthy to report about. It is not too hard to do that, Maeda, and you should not act like you are eavesdropping on those around you. It is common courtesy that it appears you have not studied upon enough from what I read of your recent message. It is that simple, and I will not tolerate anything more from you unless they are reports sent in, or actual messages that are of real concern for the stability, state, or fate of Shibuya herself.

Third, you will be in the Lower Grounds for seven more years until it is my rotation. Ten more after that will be yours again. Hanekoma is not due for the unseeable future, so you must steel yourself for the road ahead by doing your duties as they are intended. That does not mean you cannot interact with Lower Ground inhabitants, but you must not lose sight of maintaining yourself. Am I clear?

Fourth, I do not believe a Noise is inside a Reaper. Depending on who it is, I believe their past speaks louder than their delivery of words alone. You may be surprised that there are many layers of ambiguity to ones' persona nowadays, and you should know that from how much you speak openly about our duties to Saiyama. Must I remind you to remain composed no matter what is thrown at you and bite your tongue so you will not flounder as you had? Because you need to take care in not nearly informing Reapers you have never met by mistake of who we are...

Finally, try to catch up with the reports you have disregarded. The Master has not received word on the state of the Lower Grounds since you started your rotation three years ago, and has expressed concern of what may be causing you the delays. Do finish them quickly, to ease His disquiet. We do not want the Master to assume the worst.

Waiting for an answer,
- Kotone Fukuhashi

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Response #1HM to Response #1KF to Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry #48159076

RESPONSE CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Ms. Fukuhashi,

I swear, I'm not making this up! His eyes are eerie! That scary Reaper's eyes are muddy and mossy! I read notes where Noise are inside people and you would know that if their eyes are weird and scary!

Still eagerly waiting for saving,
- Hiraku Maeda