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].

8. Mr Survivor

Mr Reaper

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

Mr Reaper Part 7 was written for Shibuya Operation - Story Storm (SOSS) 2020/21; previous chapters (Parts 0 and 1) were posted during Twelve Shots of Summer (TSoS) 2019 and Parts 2 to 4 were posted during Shibuya Operation - Story Storm (SOSS) 2019/20.

...

Part 7 - Mr Survivor

---

Months Ago...

---

"Fifty-four percent… going on fifty-five."

"Windows and mirrors are your friends… You can look outside, you can see yourself as plainly as can be…"

"...Fifty-four percent… going on fifty-five."

"Break them all, break them all… Don't care about the bad luck thlime…"

A sigh sounded, "Looks like your words are still malfunctioning… I guess that would be a fifty percent then."

"Mirrors pretend, mirrors pretend… For they are not your fwriends…"

"Oh boy, didn't think of you as the type to go singing on me."

"WIndos let you see, windooows let you see-ee… But they're going to not set you freeeee…"

"..."

"You're just as trapped, just as trapped... As the far can see… for all that you can see... All you need to do is break them all… for they're taunting you-ou-oupuuu…"

Another sigh sounded, "Going to have to fiddle with your filter from the looks of it. Knocked down to forty percent, but that won't be a problem to fix."

"Break them all, break them all-all-all… Don't care about the bad-ad-ad-ad luwk thime…"

"Although, now that I think about it… I wonder what you'll look like in the end. All I've seen is shit, so I guess I have to make some decisions for fine tuning how your composition will be soon."

"Break them, break them, break them, break them-"

"...You know what? At this rate, you're definitely going to be breaking any in a ten-mile radius with your looks."

---

- Present Day -
1975

---

It was quiet this morning, the Harrier found, as he laid on the sofa he often was on in Jimmy's house, feeling devoid of feeling as he shallowly breathed in his attempt to rest. Ever since he gave the slip to Reapers in his panic to get away from the River, he'd been constantly on edge after he clambered onto the sofa after nearly forgetting to lock the door yesterday to sob from the stress. As much as he hated to admit it, he must have been close to hysteria when he got here, leaving him restless as he tried to pull himself out of a full-blown panic attack. It left him pretty exhausted at this point when he realized the whole night had passed when he was blinking crustiness off of his eyelashes.

He couldn't help but just listlessly stare up at the ceiling as he deliberated this, his hands clasped together on his stomach as he silently regarded the ache of his eye regions, his shortness of breath becoming shallow intakes and the flush of exhaustion coursing through him. His mind was pretty much blank if he didn't count for the fact that every time a thought passed through it, it would send him back to yesterday as sharp stings infiltrated his left flank and right wrist as if he was back in that alleyway to bleed out while the previous… no, the Player Killer was frustrated over his lack of apparent 'victory'.

The Harrier almost wanted to roll onto his side, but that would only mean he would have to lay on the side of his body that was ruthlessly dug into by that knife… or the side the Posh Bastard had struck him on… So he opted to be on his back, despite the start of aches entering it from the cooped up position he stayed in. It then occurred to him he had stayed like this the whole time he's been here, as he didn't want to move out of attacks of fear towards ending up being cornered again.

From his vantage point, he had a wide range of openness in his vision, he realized, as he took in the fact that he was facing towards the kitchen. He could also turn his head to his right and spot if whether or not anyone would intrude in the abode, so he had a open route to the hallway to sprint to before the people at the door could begin to give chase…

Shaking his head wearily, he wondered if it was the anxiety or the paranoia that led him to keep thinking about reasons why he was in the best position to get to safety. He knew unless someone had a spare key, he would be out of reach from anyone. However, it was as if it was a false security to him… that he was safe when he was beyond being safe because the fact remained that he could say goodbye to leaving Jimmy's home.

The Posh Bastard had to be blind to not know that the Harrier was still here. The black-hooded Reaper was indeed spotted by him and his mutts he had to barrel past when he was leaving the one place he claimed he would never return to. But it wasn't like the Harrier had a choice to make a big ruckus over his flight…

For that all that he knew, what he couldn't wrap his brain around, as distressed as it was then and clung to that distress now, was how he found himself in that room with Sadist Saiyama.

No matter how many times he ran over his logic over the situation, he could have sworn he was close to leaving the world with Jimmy vanishing on him, not waking up in a bed while the Sadist openly gawked in dumbfoundment. While the thought that Jimmy took him to the River was plausible, it didn't befit the nature of his friend to drag a dying Reaper into the Underground when the dangers of Erasure-upon-arrival was evident. Nor did it make sense for Jimmy to go to the Sadist specifically to do whatever the hell he was doing to the Harrier most likely, especially when Jimmy wouldn't even know about the Harrier being plopped into rooms on a constant basis...

Scrunching his eyes closed, the Harrier grimaced as he placed a hand over his head, shaking it again only to pause at the sight of the frayed hole of his right sleeve when his eyelids rose slightly. He silently took in how the threads flared out, almost as if they were reaching for something to snag onto… and that was when an immediate lament came over him. It was a dreadful reminder of the fact that his left flank's portion of the hoodie was ruined as well.

Frowning as he gently pinched the top of his sleeve with his left hand, letting his thumb pet the damaged, newly-created wild edges of the hole, he felt his gaze well up at the thought that this was the first time his hoodie got damaged. It even brought recurring prickles of stings to his right wrist and left flank that brought forth the memory associated with them, leaving him to fight hard to drive it away. And once he had done so, he was left to sniffle as he silently apologized to his grandparents again.

While some may view clothing as just clothing, he saw his hoodie as a treasure that wasn't meant to be soiled with. On his nineteenth birthday, he couldn't be more surprised when he received a gift in the mail from his grandparents from Kyoto while the Woman he lived with exhibited her displeasure. Although he didn't care like she had that they hardly kept in touch and would stoop to interacting with them now after so many years of their letters going unresponded, as she merely scoffed at the sight of his hoodie, he couldn't be more appreciative of their present, even if the hood was bigger than it should have been. He didn't really get presents, so to him, this was a godsend. It even blew his mind that they were able to make a hoodie, even though they were a textile shop that dealt with wares that didn't include apparels, so he decided to honour what they had given him by wearing it as often as he could. His only complaint was that he was unable to write back to them; the Woman wouldn't allow for it for some odd reason.

So it was devastating to see that his hoodie sustained damage from a fight the Harrier couldn't get himself away from. The first thing he wanted to do was find anything that resembled thread to repair the holes, but even so, he knew it wouldn't erase the memory that it had happened. The chances of not remembering it was as slim as erasing the sins of the Earth. No matter how hard you tried, you would only have it catalogued as some event in history they decided to write down to teach to children and teenagers, which would totally negate the ability of anyone to forget it happened because everyone would have common knowledge they would only pass down to the next generation, then the next… then the next…

The Harrier hiccupped as he released a sob from his throat, releasing his sleeve to clench his hands as his heart twisted with misery. 'Why did I have to be so stupid…? I could have walked away from that Player Killer like I wanted too, but I had to just fall for the chance of finding out what could have been when it was just a ruse to trap me! I'm smarter than that- so why couldn't I mind my street smarts and get the hell out of there!?'

As he was aware of how he couldn't stop himself from the waterworks, he nipped his lip and exhaled raggedly as he shook his head. 'I-I should have just stayed here, even though I was so angry with Andy- But why couldn't I just let it go when I had every opportunity to use my better judgement back there!?' With another hiccup, he tightened his fists and clenched his eyes harder. 'I-I don't even know if Andy or Jimmy's okay…! I-I don't even know where they are- or if something bad happened to them while I've just been hiding like a fucking coward!'

While he was still unsure about how to feel about Andy, the fact that they hadn't returned since his escape drew in his intrusive feelings and thoughts on the matter of what may have happened to them. Even at the time that Andy had arrived and swiftly ran off, he knew her presence must have not been an illusion as he had led himself to believe… Or the fact that Jimmy stayed with him, listening to what the Harrier thought to be his final words… The memory of receiving Jimmy's keys to his home and shop now rang perfectly clear in the Harrier's head.

The Support Reaper must have thought Processing the Harrier would only undo the injuries, but with the Harrier appearing elsewhere… the Harrier could only imagine how Jimmy felt when the Harrier vanished on him again. Did the New Zealander think the Harrier actually faded away, his keys vanishing into the unknown along with him? Or did Jimmy think the Harrier was just teleported to the Scramble Crossing or wherever Reapers went after entering the state of Stasis? Whatever the reason was… the Harrier still ended up elsewhere and left Jimmy to his own devices.

And now that led to the question of where either of the Harrier's friends could be?

On one hand, while the Harrier believed they must have been searching for him again like when he was nearly Erased, another hand came up. And that hand made him almost sick at the thought that either of them could have had something bad happen to them. Even though that latter point was a possibility, the Harrier wanted to hold onto the hope that they hadn't rounded back and discovered him here yet, or perhaps they had checked up on him earlier and went about doing their daily tasks while leaving him to rest. Except, that would have made sense if the Harrier had a wink of sleep…

Frowning even more, the Harrier couldn't help but relax his hands and release a stuttering breath as he remained on the sofa. There was no reason to believe they were Erased. He had to just wait it out and they would come back soon…

...Right?

---

Days went by and the Harrier felt his worries rise when Jimmy and Andy still hadn't appeared. He had taken to staying in the living room, as opposed to moving about elsewhere in Jimmy's home, for fear that Reapers could hear him. He didn't want to incite suspicion in case Reapers were deliberately on watch if they had somehow tracked him down without him knowing and were ready to ambush him the moment he walked out. So the Harrier was starting to find being here was lonely for him. But it couldn't be helped if the only people who visited this place was Andy, Jimmy or his own friends… or rather, other friends if what he barely remembered about what Jimmy told him before his second death held truth.

He surmised, from his own calculations and the angle of the bleak light from the curtained windows in the kitchen, that it was past noon. Seeing as the windows were facing East, rather than West, it meant that it was later in the Day most likely. However, he was quite confused when he became aware of how murmurs were coming from outside along with the shuffling of footfalls…

Starting up, he widened his eyes and strained his ears, only to slightly relax. He realized the sounds were nearby the kitchen area and not from the stairs to Jimmy's front door. However, he had a sudden thought as for why that was when he decided to investigate discreetly.

The Harrier carefully crept over towards the kitchen, placing each step down gently as he soon passed the counter on the side nearest to the hallway until he arrived at the curtained windows. He twisted his head and continued to listen, hoping to hear something that could alert him to whoever it may have been when he heard a clearer voice.

"You do realize that this place is hardly open," said a feminine speaker with a slightly muffled tone of no-nonsense.

"But I wanted to check it out in case it has stuff that can help us fight, Chotaka-senpai," replied another probable female in distressed annoyance. "It seems like attires does you wonders here, and I don't want to miss any opportunity to keep us alive out there."

"Style won't save us from being Noise food," returned the first speaker with a huff. "You know we can't fall behind on the others, so could you just let it go."

It took a few moments for the Harrier to realize that he had a dilemma on his hands: Jimmy had customers. From what he inferred from his chats with Jimmy, the New Zealander would kill for profits right now. But without him here, Jimmy would sorely miss Yen in his pockets because he couldn't make transactions when the Support Reaper was who knows where.

For a few seconds, the Harrier mulled over the fact that there was no way he could do anything to help the situation. It made him frown that Jimmy was probably going to be upset that he wasn't around when these Players needed the shop to be open.

However…

"Service is always slow, but that's because the shop's open whenever it is."

"Had it pretty consistent until then. But it's a mare to do the same thin' when your Days are numbered now, eh?"

The Harrier frowned as the conversation went on, growing increasingly uneasy as he crossed his arms. 'I suppose… I do have stuff at my disposal.'

---

It was minutes later when the Harrier opened the door, turning his head promptly towards the pair of teenagers who were starting to head off. So in a panic, he quickly locked the door before hustling after them, only slowing down as he called out, "Hey!"

The both of them instantly turned around with surprise plastered on their faces. They were both dressed in school uniforms consisting of navy blue shirts and skirts decorated with double stripes twisting around their hems as well as having dark red sailor neck ties on. But apart from their attires and body shapes, they were chiefly nondescript to him.

For a few seconds, they stared at him and he stared back nervously, shifting his feet in his borrowed Scampers and Support hoodie setup. He gazed at them a little while longer until he cleared his throat. "Were you the ones outside that shop moments ago?" he asked sternly, taking a moment to grab his red hood to fix it. He had been in a rush of putting it on after searching for where he lobbed it off a few Days ago.

The lankier of the two placed her hand on her hip and eyed him suspiciously as she spoke first, "What does it have to do with a Reaper like you?"

Inhaling to calm his frayed nerves down a little, he soon breathed out coolly, "If you must know, that shop there is Reaper-run."

Her companion, who was more on the short but slightly pudgy side, had her dark grey eyes flash with momentary shock. "Oh… I had no idea you guys could do that stuff."

While her Partner gave a shallow head tilt towards her, the lanky Player soon drew her attention back to the Harrier as he nodded and placed a hand over his heart. "While it's quite understandable that you lovely Players, such as yourselves, see a fine line between trust and understanding towards us, I assure you that I speak the truth when I say we can do plenty of things. As such, it can include business."

"Then was this just a memo that we shouldn't assume that place is abandoned?" asked the lanky Player warily. "Or are you just stopping us to make sure we don't catch up with the other Players."

"A Support Reaper would have qualms to steal away the duties of Harrier Reapers, my dear," he answered sweetly with a slight head tilt. The Harrier smiled as he soon went on, "But seeing as I'm not on duty, and I know the Reaper that's in charge of that establishment…" He blinked before pushing the selling point of the conversation he created. "I would gladly allow for you to browse his wares, considering how he is currently too busy to tend to his customers for the time being."

The pudgier Player nearly shrank back before frowning worriedly at her Partner. "Do you think we should trust him?"

"No. But even if he's not lying, I know that he probably will be chasing us unless we do something," stiffly said her Partner before wrinkling her nose at the Support-Harrier. "How do we know you're not luring us into a trap?"

The Support-Harrier straightened his back and hummed simply, "You've been shopping this Week, correct?"

"That's right." The shorter Player nodded then the other one did so as well after a bit of hesitation.

"Then I suppose you know that shopkeepers can see you when you visit them," Tipping his chin up, the Harrier soon breathed out calmly, "It goes the same for us Reapers because the markings outside the shops and places also brings us down a notch, if you will. So while we're both tugged down to the Realground shopkeepers' level, we are unable to use our Pins or fighting abilities. Therefore, there's no reason for me to be able to attack you as long as we're in the shops."

He then placed a hand on his chin. "Come to think of it… if we openly attacked Players there, it wouldn't do us good or businesses good if they witness a murder before their eyes and are powerless to find the culprit at fault." He sighed after that, "Not to mention… it would seriously give us a bad rap and our boss wouldn't be too happy to find out about our little oopsie..."

When he finished speaking, he waited on the two as they began swapping silent messages through their glances towards each other. And after a minute or two, the pudgy one shifted uneasily. "Um… thank you for the offer, but I think it might be better if we don't."

Before the lanky one offered her opinion on the matter, the Support-Harrier nodded. "Fair enough." He drew his hand away from his chest and gestured towards them. "Good luck out there, then…" He grimaced as he added, "And, I uh, guess… thanks for hearing me out."

With a quick nod to them, he turned around and began to walk away, feeling his face warm up in embarrassment that he came outside for nothing. Clearly Players wouldn't want to get tangled up with Reapers, and these ones clearly had a bad encounter with a Reaper from the looks of it… So why would he think they would trust someone like him? He tried telling himself he should get over it. It wasn't important if a Player trusted his word over another Reaper's or not; they were mutual enemies, after all.

While he was nervous about being outside for too long, he was at least glad he gave it his best to try to help Jimmy… As short-sighted as it was that he could win over some Yen for his friend when-

A Support Reaper abruptly appeared in his path, causing him to skid with a start as his heart leaped out of his chest. 'Fuck!' As his arms waved and flailed up in the air, feeling his body go rigid from the shock itself, he stared wide-eyed at the Support while panicking. 'Oh no… they must have come from the Realground- That means there's a chance they haven't seen me yet, which would be a good, good thing!' He gritted his teeth. 'I might have time to stay unnoticed if I just…'

Suddenly the other red-hooded Reaper flinched, which wasn't a good sign because he had been seen… But then again, with this Support hoodie and shoe get-up… he shouldn't be identified and should be safe for now if he just walked it off as shock and not alarm.

Giving a nod to the Support, he placed a hand over his racing heart- not just for show- before stepping around them and heading off. He couldn't risk beelining for Jimmy's house with the Support Reaper here, so he supposed he had no choice but to wait until they left so the coast was clear for him to reenter Jimmy's house and stay for… what? The next Week or more until he figured out what to do with himself and the Reaper Hunt situation he was in.

So as he was continuing to put more distance between him and said Reaper, the Harrier-in-Support-disguise came to a halt when he heard the other Reaper speak, "I am sorry for scaring you."

The Harrier's gaze, for a brief moment, couldn't see what was in front of him as he processed the sound of the voice. He even felt his mouth part and hang slightly as he soon blinked in dumbfoundment as he slowly turned his head back. He blinked more as the seconds went by and soon shakily breathed out quietly, "H-Honoka…?"

She instantly turned around as he did to fully face her, closing his mouth as she merely looked surprised while placing a hand over her heart. She slowly walked up to him, soon looking down at his shoes then towards his hood before breaking out a sob with a smile, "It really is you!"

While the Harrier was appreciative of the sentiment, he knew better than to be swept up with being blinded by it. He took a moment to glance around before he whispered, "Yes, yes… But I'm trying to keep a low-profile, so maybe we can go someplace else to talk." After a brief moment, he added sheepishly, "I mean, that's unless you're doing something else right now… Then I don't want to keep you from that."

...It occurred to him that he shouldn't be blurting out all of this when he should be inside, not out in the open for Reapers to stumble upon if they recognized him by sound.

In any case, he heard her make a noise and focused on Honoka again. "Heh." He watched her lips twitch in amusement before she looked up at him with her barely visible ebony eyes and soon frowned. "I mean… I was not expecting you, so I was not prepared for the chance of a talk?" It was the Harrier's turn to frown as she quickly shook her head before her face grimaced. "I did not mean to phrase it like that-"

"Don't worry," he told her, trying to bring himself to smile again as he gave a small chuckle, "You just popped in from the Realground, so it's not like I was expecting to have a conversation, myself."

While Honoka relaxed at that, she soon dipped her head. "I see." She soon tilted her head to one side, still gazing at him as she murmured, "I am so glad that you are okay." Her left hand grabbed her right as she swayed on the spot with her feet, her right fingers curling over her left thumb. She quietly regarded them before continuing gently, "I heard that something had happened… That… th-that the Conductor hurt you. But hearing you makes me feel better, knowing that you had not been as badly hurt as he said-"

"Wait- he's been talking about that!?" asked the Harrier quickly in surprise, which made the female Reaper jump before staring at him with wide eyes. He immediately frowned, noting how she seemed startled by that for some reason as she soon offered him a bashful smile.

"I-I meant to say... another Reaper I know said you looked badly hurt. Not the Conductor," she apologetically explained as she lowered her gaze with an awkward laugh. "Sorry for the confusion."

"It's alright." With a shake of his head, he soon mumbled out mildly, "With how you mentioned the guy and the pronoun... it's pretty easy to infer that the person telling you that was the same man."

She nodded before murmuring, "Sometimes the friends I have burst into English, so it is pretty easy to mix up Japanese after hearing it."

"Ah, so you're multilingual, I see…" he noted and smiled as he placed a hand over his heart. "Well then, I suppose that it's great to know that I'm not the only one making an effort to not forget about the other languages we learned in school." When she gave him a confused look, he merely swallowed before he enunciated, "A lot of Reapers stick with Japanese in the Underground, which is great if you just speak Japanese… On the other hand, though, the P-Conductor doesn't speak Japanese and usually doesn't seem to like Reapers who can't talk to him. Doesn't even try to learn English himself and expects the English speakers to learn, even though it's a steep learning curve for them if they don't even know Japanese."

At that, Honoka's expression fell. "I did not know that," she breathed quietly, her eyebrows knitting as she frowned sadly soon. "Did he tell you that?"

In response, the Harrier shrugged with a sigh, "I know well enough from all the conversations we've experienced. It mostly involves him talking down to my friend, or on some occasions, trying to get me to translate for him." With a pause, he mulled over his next words before he explained further with a huff of annoyance, "While I may understand it since he doesn't know it, him acting like those who can't speak the language he does know are not choosing to know it is just plain awful if you ask me."

As he eagerly waited to see what Honoka had to say, he couldn't help but make note of how she appeared visually disturbed by the information. Although, he wouldn't quite say disturbed, it was moreso as if she looked simply nauseous.

The moment the thought came into his head, he reached towards her, furrowing his eyebrows as he asked in concern, "A-Are you alright?"

For a few seconds, it was as if she hadn't heard him. But then she blinked and shook her head sorrowfully. "I never knew..."

The Harrier smiled bittersweetly at that and sighed, "I mean, I wouldn't blame you. I've always gotten the gist that he doesn't like making himself out to look bad in public. So when I say I know these things, it's out of personal experience."

Honoka merely clasped her hands together again and murmured pensively, "I am so sorry to hear that."

He placed a hand on the back of his hood and grimaced. "I'm used to it."

"Mmm." She shook her head and frowned. The Harrier couldn't pick out a particular emotion to pin to her expression or voice when she next spoke, "You should not be treated wrong if you do not deserve it in the first place."

"The sorry truth to that is... people who don't deserve it still get hurt by those who don't care about that rule." The Harrier let his gaze drift off to his left as he pursed his lips. "Sometimes I feel like the universe is out to get me."

"If the universe was out to get you, you would not have been born," Honoka supplied in a plain tone, which made him sigh to himself as she soon went on kindly, "And the longer you think that way, the easier it will be that you will believe something that may not be actually true."

He kicked at the ground and sighed again, picking out how the light wasn't being absorbed into his hoodie as easily as his usual one. While he was thankful for that, he just wished he could have a reason to feel the heat as a chilly breeze went by them.

In the meantime, Honoka continued talking as he felt the burn of her gaze on him, "Consequences, on the other hand, only happen if you do something that causes it to happen. You may not always know of what may happen by the decisions you make, but you cannot escape the chance they may occur, even if you do what you believe will not have a feedback."

"Like it's a chain reaction?" he offered quietly while closing his eyes.

The Harrier felt her nod. "Yes. That too." For a few moments, she was quiet before she breathed out more and bounced up on her toes once, "But a chain reaction only works if each factor offers an action to cause another response. It is in the name itself, but there is always a point in which the reaction will stop. We all have choices to make, and can choose to stop the reaction at any point... even if it seems like it is out of our control."

He suddenly felt her hand touch his right flank, causing him to jerk away in alarm as he gasped out, "Wh-What are you doing!?"

The female Support Reaper blinked before she replied worriedly, "You have been favouring this side even though you are in pain."

Right away, the Harrier blinked at her in disbelief. "W-Wait- what!?" Was he actually doing that? How did he not notice it? He could only feel stumped that she noticed something that he usually was on top of being aware of, but was the conversation that engaging that he lost track of himself? He could only feel himself draw a blank to all the other questions he had as he continued to stare at her.

For a brief moment, Honoka's hand drew back, only because of how she put it on her chin as she hummed. "You seemed tense," she came to say after a long spell of wordless silence, even though the Harrier frowned in befuddlement at that explanation. She promptly dipped her head and added with sadness, "I did not mean to invade your space, I just thought the way you were carrying your body seemed off."

"I know you like physical contact, but guys like me don't like it," he told her gruffly with an eye-roll. "I don't even know if you keep forgetting, or just-"

"Is that…" She took a moment to inhale before she asked cautiously in concern, "Where he struck you...?"

The Harrier let the rest of his words die before he coughed into his sleeve. He inhaled a deep breath then answered in a subdued, defeated tone, "Y-Yeah, it is."

Honoka's gaze seemed concentrated on his right flank rather than him, but she soon pinched her lips as she asked gently, "Is it okay if I can try to make it less painful for you?"

Blinking in surprise, the Harrier felt his mouth open as he gawked at her. "I-I would like that, but I doubt you'd be able to do anything for me that can combat an attack from the Pos-Conductor himself, Honoka-chan." While he shifted a look around them, he could see that they were still alone. However, he couldn't count on the fact that a Reaper couldn't overhear or spot them and suspect it's him.

When he looked back at Honoka, she merely appeared to be calm as she regarded him again. "I promise you, I do not want to see you suffering from an unnecessary punishment," she said with a sad frown. She gazed at him pleadingly as she soon murmured, "Please?"

The Harrier furrowed his eyebrows at that, feeling almost lost for words from the silent desperation she had. He could almost say that he couldn't deny the fact that he had no clue how she could have known he was in pain when he wasn't too aware of it until she mentioned it. But at the same time too, he couldn't help but feel touched that she wanted to help him. In fact, he didn't know how else to refuse the offer, being that it was coming from genuine concern from someone who seemed to understand what he was saying for once. However, he couldn't help it that he wasn't sure if she would be able to help him when the attack left lasting, invisible impressions on his body.

He wasn't sure if it was possible to ward off the aches he felt, but he felt that if he told Honoka that, it would only be letting her down for some reason. He wasn't certain about what she could do for him, but if it appeased her worry, then he guessed it wouldn't hurt for her to try. At least, if she received the same results that Jimmy had… it would be easier to explain why she shouldn't be unhappy about it.

With a small nod, he skirted his gaze away and took a breath to brace himself as she grew closer to him. It made him feel a wave of uncomfortableness flutter into ripples in him, yet all he did was tell himself that this wouldn't take long. After all, it was only going to be a simple Psych-

He gave a muffled grunt of pain, widening his eyes in alarm as he shot a look at Honoka. "Wh-What the fuck!?" Before he could demand what she was doing, he felt almost like a sheet of paper with a tear shredding through it as he gave a mute scream when his mind blanked at another-

The Harrier suddenly was aware of how arms were supporting him, dazedly making out red filling his vision before he gasped in deeply and loudly. His knees wobbled and turned weak almost immediately, leaving him to crumple to his hands and knees as he continued to pant as vertigo hit him. Honoka's shoes soon formed in his vision and he harshly breathed as he regarded the fact that his side was on fire- but it was ebbing and becoming less aggravating for him to heed when Honoka soon crouched down before seating herself on her knees.

He very soon felt hands lift his head up, leaving his sight to swim from the motion before he was staring at her. He was gasping quieter as he tried concentrating on the female Support. "Wh-What was that…?" he choked out miserably. His throat was painful when trying to thrust the air into his mouth and it left him coughing. He shakily tried bringing a hand to his throat to massage it, hoping to rub out the ache it had for no reason.

"Y-You passed out," she said uneasily as she continued holding his face, soon removing her hands to place them on her lap. The Harrier shifted to do the same but cross-legged and ponderously from his impaired ability to move himself for some reason. Once he was sitting, he was thinking over the information he was given when Honoka added nervously, "...It was harder than I thought it was going to be."

As the Harrier placed his hands on either side of him to support his balance better, he mused quietly in worry, "But why did it feel like that…?" He couldn't deny that the throes he experienced earlier felt almost like the time when the Posh Bastard helped to bring out his wings. When they first manifested, they formed upside down, so the Harrier had to bear through nearly the same intolerable pain as the man fixed the issue. Except, if he remembered it correctly, he hadn't actually fainted in front of the Posh Bastard...

"It only felt like that because of the nature of the attack, I think," she said dolefully. Her hands curled around the fabric of her dark green pants as she sighed softly, "I do not know what it felt like when you got struck, but I believe the worst of it will soon pass."

"To be frank…" He placed a hand on his flank, expecting to feel the same achiness start up but instead felt nothing. Blinking with awe, he patted himself down from his right shoulder to his waist, even sliding it along his whole arm before gasping out silently. He shot her another look; one of amazement. "Y-You did it!"

She twitched as she leaned backwards a bit in surprise. "R-Really?"

"Yeah!" he said cheerfully as he felt his lips curl up, his teeth showing in his grin as he chirped, "I thought it was going to be impossible to walk it off, but you- you did it!" He felt the urge to hug her, but something held him back and left him to gaze at her with joy instead. Whatever that something was… he wasn't sure. But he just wrote it off as not wanting to overstep his boundaries.

Honoka merely gave a gentle smile. He wasn't sure when she took her hood off, but it helped to see that her ebony eyes twinkled with happiness. While he was content with the end result of what she had done, he couldn't help but feel woozy after a few more seconds, grimacing as he felt a headache come to him. While he touched his temple, even though it wasn't enough to sate the pulsing stings, he could have sworn he saw her figure develop an aura…

He felt as though he should really lie down. Seeing things that weren't there probably meant his body was still trying to get over the healing Honoka did.

---

After exchanging a few more words with Honoka then waiting out of sight in an alleyway until he knew the coast was clear, the Harrier returned to Jimmy's home to change out of his disguise and was soon back in his black hoodie. Yet although he was safe, he couldn't help but feel nervous still as he paced around idly in the meantime as thoughts drifted through his head.

The Harrier was surprised that he wasn't as weary as he had been outside, so that left him to his devices with his anxiety and feelings on the matter. After all, he couldn't be more thankful that no one seemed to occupy the district when he had been interacting with Honoka. And there was no part of him that was worried about the kind Reaper ratting him out to the Conductor. He couldn't be more happy that he had a chance to see her again and the fact that she seemingly solved one problem of his.

He eventually felt adventurous enough to wander into the kitchen, heading to the cupboards he memorized Jimmy would go to for glassware as he brought out one for himself to fill with water. He was slowly sipping on the beverage, despite disliking the lack of flavour it had, as he mulled over the fact that he felt better than he had earlier. As mundane as the thought was, he couldn't help but note that the stifling feeling he had when he started hiding here three Days ago was less sufferable. He could even say that he had near authentic peace.

That was until he heard a knock on the door.

The Harrier only had seconds to regain his slackening grip on the cup then gradually placed it down when he had. But his nerves still got the better of him as his mind suddenly began to whirl out of control, anxiously shooting looks in the direction the sound came from as his body began to grow tense.

'...There's no way somebody knows it's me… right?' he asked himself as he debated his options, wondering if by chance the curtains had somehow become see-through recently. No one had tried to knock from the time the Harrier laid awake in perturbation, so this had to be a fluke that someone thought the Harrier was here. Unless it had to do with Jimmy's friends mistakenly perceiving that the Harrier had been Jimmy, if they caught sight of him by chance when the Harrier was letting himself back in…

Bringing his hands to his face to give both of his cheeks a patted slap, he soon buried his face in them as he groaned quietly, 'Of course they would think that… They don't know Jimmy lied to get spare Support uniforms for him and me, so why else would they think otherwise?'

Even though the visitor had been quiet up to this point, they didn't seem thrilled about humouring the idea that no one was home. They were already knocking again.

Feeling his face contort painfully, the Harrier could only think that the best thing to do was for him to pretend he was a dead man. If he made any sudden movements, it would only confirm there was indeed a presence in the home. But it wouldn't be the one the visitor was looking for. Oh no, it was just one that was made public enemy over two Weeks ago!

"I know you're in there."

The reverberation of the unknown man only proved to make the Harrier panic, dropping his composure faster than he otherwise would have liked to in such a dangerous situation. But he tried to keep his breathing quiet and shallow to keep himself from being heard.

So as the Harrier stayed glued to the spot, not even daring to lean back against the counters for support as a spell of dizziness decided to grace the Harrier maliciously, the black-hooded Reaper soon heard the voice again. "I know you're not Jimmy-san, but I really need to retrieve something from here."

With a hard swallow, the Harrier cleared his throat upon having an idea.

"Sorry I couldn't hear you earlier..." the Harrier murmured as he tried to modulate his voice differently into an awkward, higher lilt that denoted that he was the opposite gender. If anything, passing himself off as not himself was in his best books and he should be grateful that his normal voice wasn't too deep. As he wiggled his jaw in thought, the Harrier soon decided on his next lines. "I'm indecent. But if I let you in, you promise you won't peek~?" He tried to make the last word into a sultry purr to further sell the indelible impression of a luscious woman.

A profligate woman tried using that on him once; it made him extremely uncomfortable during one of his shifts at the Gotorutsus' bodega for the sake of a totally unnecessary discount. ...God he hated how he learned by example; he had to shift gears before he retched.

As flimsy as his delivery was, it seemed to do the trick. "O-Oh… You could just unlock the door and I'll try to not do that?"

"Sounds good!" he 'perkily' sang in response.

He walked lightly- like a girl? Do girls' footsteps sound different? If they do, he certainly hoped he was doing a damn passable imitation. It wasn't like he knew many girls or paid attention to how their footsteps went. He tried to ruminate his brain for any examples he could use, but all that he could think of was Andy and Andy was hardly a girl to begin with! She acted more like a guy than a girl ever did- so Honoka was his saving grace! But he could hardly think of a way to channel his inner Honoka either...

Well, if anything… his socks shouldn't give him away.

By now he reached the door, despite his embarrassment tormenting him at the lengths he was going just to pull wool over this gullible Reaper's eyes for his interests of survival, and quickly undid the lock without delay.

"Just wait a minute before entering and you'll be okay, sugar!" he chirped, hopefully demurishly endearing as he tried to not falter in his suggestive tone. He then pivoted, keeping his feigned gait in check while bustling towards Jimmy's room. As he reached the door, he heard the creak of the other door and quickly welcomed himself into the room. He shut the door with his back as he expelled a relieved exhale and slumped against it.

'Phew... that was close.' he thought wearily as he felt himself make a fragile smile. 'I'll be safe as long as I stay in the room. And when Jimmy's friend is gone, I'll be home free…'

After a minute of listening to the constant shuffle or footfalls close by, probably dwelling in the living room if he wasn't mistaken from how close it was to the Harrier's general location, the Harrier's anxiousness started to taper. It allowed for him to feel that he didn't have to do much other than the finishing blow of sending Jimmy's friend off with a goodbye once the male Reaper was done with his business. Come to think of it, the Harrier felt as if the sounds from the outside were a bit muted now. But that didn't necessarily mean the friend was gone… this room probably had a good soundproofing quality. Which, to be fair, was pretty useful to have if the Harrier lived here himself.

The Harrier remembered when he was an elementary school student, the first time he heard that some of the other students had their own rooms, through unintentional overhearing, he couldn't help but wonder why they did. He must have been so used to the fact that their home only had one bedroom that the kid him couldn't have possibly imagined the possibility that other houses could have other bedrooms. But being the kid he was, he couldn't help but feel as if jealousy had no room in his heart. Growing up used to his living situation must have blinded him until that point of how other children fared better than him, seeing that the house he'd lived in was expensive but made in mind for a single couple who didn't have plans for children.

In fact, he remembered one time hearing through the walls of that Woman and his father talking when he was in the middle of his studies. His father was reminiscing about the fact that they never planned to have him in the first place; that he was a happy accident. While the Woman asserted that her son was no accident, the boy that night couldn't have the heart to finish his homework with the thoughts attacking him of what the idea of him being an accident meant. He feigned doing his work while his mind could only dismantle and try to piece together in vain what the actual meaning was, of whether or not it was bad he was born or if his father meant it was incidental that they had him because he said it was a happy event.

He was around seven, eight, or nine at the time, he recalled, so perhaps his brain was starting to become overactive at the wrong time. Any of the thoughts he had tended to sit on his mind and worry him more than it should, especially more than it should for a child at least, now that he thought about it. But there were certain ones that started to make him twitchy when a child should not be worrying about anything at that age. He sometimes couldn't control himself once those thoughts took root; they made him anxious and limited his ability to think clearly in such trying times…

Shaking his head at that memory, he frowned as he half-closed his eyes sadly. 'Figures… I can't seem to think about one good thing from my childhood, can I?' He could only bitterly surmise that it was just hard to think about happy things, especially when it came from a guy who hardly had a crack of happiness since the Day his father died. ...Unless the time when he got his hoodie and first became a Reaper counted? Or the time that he...

Going back to concentrating on the other Reaper again, the Reaper listened closely and stayed where he was. He decided to keep quiet; he didn't want to screw up the story he was trying to spin for the poor soul who was gullible enough to believe he was a woman who had been indecent just a few minutes ago.

"...I think I found it," said the Reaper finally. With how close his voice was to the room, it was as if the other male had snuck up to the door. It certainly made the Harrier feel on edge at the thought that the Reaper could have possibly intended to continue the surprise search there at any moment if he hadn't found what he was looking for. "I'll be leaving now, but could you give Jim-san a message for me?"

Biting his lip, cursing his abhorred luck that he had to jinx yet again, the Harrier offered up a shaky smile that only the world of gazes of the unseen would see before modulating his voice back to a higher pitch. "Of course I can, sugar…" he said, cringing painfully on the inside when he realized his voice was noticeably shriller than he wanted it to be. But he hoped the visiting Reaper wouldn't pick up on it so easily through the door. "What shall I say for you?"

"Tell him Michito came by for the spare shop key and hopes that he'll run it exactly the way he'd seen it was run," said Michito in a nervous titter, which immediately made the Harrier widen his eyes in surprise. Wait? What were the odds of Jimmy's friend coming by when the Harrier had intended to do the same thing before?

If Jimmy's friend had come along sooner, and the Harrier had managed to convince the Players from earlier to check out the shop, then there was a very, very good chance that Jimmy's friend would have stumbled upon him and that would have become a stickier situation to get himself out of than this one. Not to mention, the Harrier would have not have run into Honoka then… Or perhaps, Honoka would have come back from the Realground and had a possibility of stumbling upon the shop to stumble upon the Harrier having to try to get his neck out of interacting with Michito too much with the Players as his active audience…

Just the thought of that occurring made the Harrier's head spin, even causing queasiness to swell in him. 'Oh god… thank goodness that didn't happen!'

"Mmhmm!" managed the Harrier to his best of his ability of not shouting that out with anxiousness. He found himself nodding unconsciously as he soon laughed jitterly, "I-I'll be sure to pass it along… hun."

"Oh and-" As the Harrier felt himself choke on his breath, going still as he wondered what else the other Reaper had to say to remain here, the Reaper went on with a small chuckle, "To be honest, I didn't expect this from Jim-san."

"E-Expect what?" the Harrier asked reluctantly.

For a few seconds, Michito was silent, but then he answered in a good-natured chirp, "That this was the reason why he's not letting us stay here!"

All the Harrier could do was blink blankly in bemusement, but then he got over it upon quickly recalling earlier conversations about the matter with Jimmy. With less of a nervous smile, he chuckled as he replied in his faux voice, "Oh? I did not know I was intruding…"

"Intruding? No, no… it's great that Jim-san has found someone! Even though I never thought that... dating... was the thing he would be after in the Underground. I mean, he's just had such terrible luck with his shop lately and all."

That brought a frown back to the Harrier's face. "Terrible… luck?" Seeing as the 'lady friend' of Jimmy shouldn't know this, the Harrier had to act oblivious and all should go well…

"Not terrible luck," Jimmy's friend clarified sheepishly. "I mean… having not good luck because of how hard it's been to run the shop as a Reaper. To be honest, he kind of gets shy about asking for help- I think?- so he tends to try to run the shop in a way that makes it harder for him to get sales. I've been in his shop when he's run it, seen it when he's been absent… So it got me thinking that since the lack of activity's been a thing, it could be the thing that's driving away his customers."

"I kn-" The Harrier immediately slapped a hand over his mouth. He was horrified that he was about to give himself away over the realization that he wasn't the only one who thought of that and felt humiliation that he almost had. The Harrier tried to recover by coughing into his hand, soon sliding it off his jaw to giggle cloyingly, "Tee hee… and here I thought he was a hard worker."

"Well, um… that's kind of a thing. But it also is a thing that's crippling him as well," explained Michito; his footsteps warning the Harrier that Michito was approaching the door. But as soon as it sounded like Michito wasn't going to open it, judging by the thump that sounded dangerously close to where the Harrier had his back to the door, the Harrier could only deduce that Michito also had his own to it. "Don't tell him I told you this, but between you and me... Jim-san overworks, but he does it selectively. He chooses some Days to go get some Reaper Points for himself, chooses some Days to make more wares so he can restock shelves with what was popular or was sold, then chooses some Days to actually run the shop.

"When you think about it…" Michito's voice tapered, making the Harrier try harder to hear him. He wondered for a second if Michito was finished talking when the other Reaper picked up from where he left off, "He's not managing this very well. With all the stuff he's been trying to tackle alone, not asking for help… the one thing I think he doesn't get is that there's only one of him." The Harrier internally nodded at that, and as if Michito could read his mind, Jimmy's friend went on, "Now that's he's not around at all lately, it's only going to run his shop into the ground! And I don't even know why he's not running the shop! He hasn't said anything to me or Joben or Haruo lately- so it makes me worried that he's..."

As the Harrier felt the other bow his head, a long silence spanning from what remained unspoken, the deep timbred Reaper eventually sighed as his voice strained, "I'm sorry, but I guess you could say I lied when I said I forgot something. I really meant that I was just going to try to see if Jim-san's place was open or do something just to get the keys." The Harrier's eyes widened at that as a quiet gasp left his lips. "I-I mean, stealing is wrong, yeah, but I don't want to find out what happens if Jim-san comes back to find he can't pay the rent for his shop because he hasn't been running it enough this month."

"So you… pretended that someone was in here?" asked the Harrier carefully after recovering from his shock. He narrowed his eyes a little. 'What kind of friend breaks into your own home to do that!?'

"Eheh… I guess so? Just wanted to make sure no one was actually here before I did it, or this… this would have been very awkward," admitted the deep timbred Reaper. He soon gave a series of nervous laughs on his side of the door before talking again, "I-I mean… now that there was someone here, that being you… I guess it is awkward, huh?"

Something about the way the Reaper phrased that, that with his chosen tone of voice being kind, silly and a little bit on the diffident side, the Harrier couldn't help but feel the sides of his lips rise up more. He now had a warm smile. "I guess it is."

"And I hadn't actually expected you to have opened the door for me, so I really, really feel bad about getting you involved with this," said Michito again as his voice became crestfallen. He soon sighed as he mumbled, or rather, his voice was muffled to the point it was basically a mumble, "...I'm sorry."

While the Harrier had a lot to say about burglars, he couldn't help but not feel anything ill towards this technical one. Technical as in... Jimmy's friend wouldn't have been one until Jimmy realized he was missing an extra set of keys for his shop.

"...Tell you what," the Harrier said kindly, soon inhaling before he spoke more, "If, let's say... we say that I 'gave' you the key... then we can forget about your near act of thievery, sweetie."

"You mean it!?" exclaimed Michito with amazement. He soon expelled out a louder yet gleefuller tone as he went on, "Man, when I see Jim-san next, I'll make sure to put a good word in for you because you're a godsend- a keeper!"

Was that a compliment? Eh… probably. Probably one coming from a guy that almost robbed from his own friend? Then yes. It was probably the closest a compliment could be in this bizarre situation.

Thrusting out a laugh this time around, the Harrier merely replied sweetly, "Aw… that's so nice of you, darling… You're too nice for your own good, tee hee hee…" The Harrier hoped that's how women would have reacted in such a situation, but to be frank, even the Harrier knew he'd fucked up and it likely sounded forced to Michito. It didn't sound believable enough, the Harrier wallowed bitterly as anxiousness rose up inside him again.

But regardless of that, the Harrier blinked when he heard Jimmy's friend remove himself from the door. That brought back his relief over the situation, even moreso when Michito moved further away until he spoke again, "Maybe just tell Jim-san that I swung by and had his interests at heart? Do you think that'll sound better?"

"Yeah, I think so," admitted the Harrier before adding on as an afterthought, "If he doesn't like it, sugar, I'll try to turn his head and make you sound better." That definitely was going to happen; 'lady friend' or not.

"Gr-Great then, you have my thanks…" As soon as Michito tapered off, the Harrier to his horror realized what was going on.

It was a name exchange.

There was no fucking way he was going to give out his real name when he was under the guise of a sick recreation of an old twisted experience that the Harrier had when he was alive! Come on, think! What girl names did the Harrier know!? He had to come up with something quick, or-

"L-Lei!" he cried out, hopefully not distressed as his mind registered it as. He coughed as he repeated himself in a hopefully better light, that of risqué allure, "It's Lei to you, hun."

"Lei? That's odd," said Michito, causing the Harrier to nearly wilt in horror. "Did you say Lei or Rei?"

"R-Rei? ...Don't be silly, dear. It's Lei, as in lady. Not Rei, as in ray of light…" sputtered the Harrier in what was not an unconvincing laugh. It was supposed to be a laugh that was intended to be awkwardly adorable yet cute for girl standards that guys had for them. ...From what he knew, at least. "You run along now and do your best out there today for-" Ugh… "Jimminidoodle~"

He was going to be sick… Why did he say that!?

"And you're sure your name's not Rei? Because I didn't think Lei was an actual name before…"

"Don't be silly~ it's short for my real name~!" And hopefully Michito wouldn't conjure up any telling imagery for why 'Lei' would be puking in the next minute nor try to check up on her out of the goodness of his heart and just leave… Or, more importantly, ask what Lei was short for. The Harrier should really buy a baby name book for himself the next chance he got... if Michito didn't slide into that river of curiosity and discover that Lei was short for nothing.

That brought out a chuckle from Michito, "Right, right…" From the sound of his footfalls, the Harrier's chest began to swell as it cheered from triumph and relief the further Michito got away from the Harrier. "Thanks, Lei!"

"Same to you, Michito~" he sang back sweetly and mentally heard his joyous clapping echo throughout his mind. "Be safe out there~"

As soon as the Harrier was alone again, the Harrier waited a little longer until he heard sounds coming from the shop beneath him. He then started to speed-walk to the front door while grimacing. 'Never again… never again!'

---

When the Harrier no longer heard movement down below, certain of the sound of keys going through the shop door at some point, he kept straining his ears for any more sounds until he exhaled out deeply in relief. 'I must be in the clear now.'

As the Harrier felt himself melt against the sofa, absolutely feeling boneless as he left his weight on it, he couldn't be more happy that he wouldn't have to deal with anything else right now. Unless more Reapers came to knock on the door, mind you, but he doubted that would be a nuisance. If Michito told Jimmy's other friends about Jimmy's 'lady friend', they probably wouldn't try to bother 'her' and be mindful of that.

Releasing a groan slowly, he blankly stared up at the ceiling as he worried his bottom lip. 'Now that it's just me…' He knitted his eyebrows. 'What should I do to scratch along?'

He wasn't sure for how long he sat there, waiting for the answer to come to him. But he eventually found he must have dozed off at some point, as he was being pulled out of it to groggily blink in slight confusion when sounds started to enter his hearing. Knitting his eyebrows in puzzlement at that, the Harrier blinked again when the sounds became more profound, soon cluing him in that it was coming from the front door itself to his blooming horror.

Snapping his head to it, he felt his shoulders rise as he warily regarded it, blinking as he pondered what he should do or who it may have been this time. It was a few seconds later that he could have sworn he heard a muffled voice.

When he listened more closely, he soon felt his eyes broaden in alarm and shot off the sofa as a curse passed his lips. "Please be in there!" The moment he reached the door unsteadily, ignoring the fact he should have taken more caution as he unlocked and threw open the door, the Harrier panted as he gawked back at Jimmy's sallow complexion before his body seized up in the abrupt hold of the New Zealander. "Bro... you didn't have to leave me hanging for that long!"

Despite how Jimmy let go of him promptly, the Harrier still stared back at the lanky Reaper in muted shock as he eventually blinked with a start. He didn't know when the door was closed, but the look on Jimmy's face transformed rather quickly when his eyes sharply travelled over the Harrier's body. Feeling himself tense at the uncomfortableness of the heat of the grey eyes touch him wherever they went, the Harrier soon was treated to the sight of Jimmy's face falling as he sighed in disappointment, "Can't believe I didn't fix parts of your clothes, bro. Didn't mean to bludge my attempt."

"I-It's…" breathed the Harrier nonplussed as he blinked bemusedly. "Okay…?"

Jimmy's face twisted with an emotion the Harrier couldn't name before the Support drew a hand up to hit his forehead as he stepped back. "Oh! Sorry, bro-" He shook his head then tangled his hand through his curly copper locks after lowering his chin. "Let's yack on the sofas!"

The Harrier only registered that Jimmy went around the corner after half a minute, sluggishly pushing himself into following the Support soon to deposit himself carefully on the burgundy sofa. Jimmy appeared eager, or rather, pensive with restlessness as one of his knees bounced while he sat on the dove-grey sofa. His face was almost holding a smidge of frazzled light in his eyes as he gave a shaky smile back to the other Reaper. It soon hit the Harrier that the Support may have just been stressed, as his harried demeanour was visibly clear as he wrangled his jittery hands together…

Despite the fact that they came here to talk, a silence had developed instead. The Harrier awkwardly studied the other until Jimmy eventually started to frown worriedly. Wait, was the Harrier missing some kind of social cue or something?

Blinking in realization, the Harrier immediately bent to the side as he fished through his pockets, soon drawing out the keychain he retrieved as he forced a smile onto his lips. "H-Here you go." When Jimmy didn't make a move to stand up, the Harrier knitted his eyebrows and dropped his smile as he awkwardly spoke, "Oh, I-" Pushing his hands down to help his body up, he was about to go over to the lanky Reaper when Jimmy jolted and shook his head frantically.

"Just sit down!" said Jimmy quickly, easily stopping the Harrier in the process as the black-hooded Reaper blinked in confusion. He hesitated for a bit before watching as Jimmy brought a hand back to rub at his nape. "You look heaps knackered…"

As the Harrier lowered himself down with his bewilderment, he furrowed his eyebrows and half-closed his eyes as he mumbled, "Um, okay then?"

Jimmy nodded twice before exhaling harshly, soon hanging his head as he sighed sadly, "Nah, bro, I to the Days mean it." His expression appeared strained. "I... I didn't even properly explain myself and there's a fair go you've been sick with worry." While the Harrier didn't know if answering that would make Jimmy feel better or worse, he merely didn't say anything to let the other express himself. After all, he wasn't even sure where the conversation was going anyway. "It was trashy of me to leave you hangin' back there."

As vague as it was, the Harrier felt that maybe he did have to say something. His own questions when he had been alone came into the forefront of his mind as Jimmy continued to frown, but he knew overwhelming the other wouldn't do well. Instead, the Harrier rifled through what he had drifting in his head before plucking out the most relevant of them.

"What happened?" the Harrier asked dismally. Jimmy raised his head as the Harrier frowned and mumbled, "You gave me your keys and-" He closed his eyes painfully. "Then you were gone for several Days… What happened?"

The New Zealander, when the Harrier reopened his eyes, dejectedly gazed at him. His eyes began to narrow the moment he was scowling. "Reapers caught me in the alley. 'Ey took me and Annee when 'ey got her to the Conductor to dob us in." The Harrier half-closed his eyes slowly; he merely said nothing to let the Support explain sullenly, "I got lumped with her and the Conductor questioned us for a long time." He closed his eyes and sighed, "He knew you still exist. Kept askin' us where you were, what we knew about you being there…"

He shook his head unhappily as his grey eyes darkened. "We had to come clean about heaps of it, but we didn't tell him where you went."

As the Harrier unconsciously felt his chest start to deflate, he lowered his gaze to his hands as he breathed, "I see…"

"Annee argued with him to the Days about how she was savin' you, but he wouldn't hear it." Jimmy frowned hard as his glower turned upward. "And as soon as he got me to say I Processed you and the stink fulla, he wouldn't let us go."

The Harrier right away gaped as he sharply focused on Jimmy again. "Wait- you Processed who?"

"You and the stink fulla," replied Jimmy as he promptly flickered his eyes back. He furrowed his eyebrows as he soon mumbled, "It was more of a mare than I thought it would be. T'was my first time after you."

If the Harrier had to take a wild guess, as much as he wanted to believe it wasn't true… Jimmy seemed to be implying that he had Processed the Player Killer.

Inhaling his stifled breath, the Harrier found he was still trying to help himself breathe as the feeling of ice spread over him. If Jimmy understood the Harrier was actually on the verge of freaking out, he didn't show it other than his facial features softening. He took on a new frown of confused uncertainty as his eyes stayed trained on the Harrier. "You not mad?" he asked carefully.

Upon blinking, bringing himself out of his spell of concentration, the Harrier furrowed his eyebrows as he grimaced. "I don't know what to think…" His gaze went down as he started to clasp his hands on his lap as he admitted, "But I can't help but wonder why."

Jimmy released a long sigh. He dwelled in silence for a while, as if he was collecting his thoughts, until he finally replied wearily, "Leavin' him to push up daisies…" He shook his head. "It didn't feel right after what he did to you, bro."

"B-But he's now here!" uttered the Harrier in a window of stress, feeling his fingers grasp themselves tighter as he tried to calm his lame tone. "And if he's here-"

"Not yet." The New Zealander's voice was hard. "If we're lucky, no Player will want to Pact with a stink fulla like him when he is."

The Harrier met Jimmy's gaze with waver. "...There's other Players who may not have been killed by him."

That made Jimmy's face blanch, his eyes slowly opening as he dumbly stared at the Harrier now. "H-He killed other…" He frowned deeply as he exhaled out shakily, "Wh-What?"

"He confessed to have been killing previous Players…" The Harrier's eyes darted to his whitened, clenched hands, keeping his gaze on them as he mumbled panickily, "Killing them to draw me out, killing them because of some grudge he has with me… Bringing him here will have solved nothing, Jimmy, because he won't feel any guilt, any remorse, nor any passion over being lumped into the same group he strung together here!"

Jimmy's head thumping the top of the sofa made the Harrier whip his head up in surprise. He quickly observed how Jimmy looked pallid as the New Zealander absently stared upwards with a horrid expression. "Shit…" He closed his eyes as he hissed in aggravation, "That could have helped to convince the Conductor-!"

"Convince him of what...?" breathed the Harrier in trepidation.

The copper haired Reaper sharply exhaled before he answered harriedly, "That you were a victim, not killin' a wrongdoer-"

As the Harrier's eyes blew open, he felt his mouth drop in horror. "He thought I was killing a Wrongdoer!?" A quiver started up in his body as he choked out on his next breath, "But I wasn't-" He went still when a single thought came across his mind. 'Does the Composer think I opposed His response!?' Before he knew it, a hand was over his mouth as his vision shook. 'Oh god…'

The need to retch overtook any necessity to continue talking to Jimmy and he immediately was on his feet to stagger forward quickly towards the hallway. But even before he made it, he fell onto his knees as the sound of Erased Noise assaulted his head; the dissonance making him keel over.

His eyes shook- no, his vision shook at the carpet before a nasty taste landed on his tongue then scarlet particles drifted over the fibres of the carpet…

Then he was back on the sofa.

A feeling of being whooshed back from a steep drop made him gag again, blinking as salt-and-pepper speckles spun in front of him. He gasped in deeply as he swung his head to Jimmy, who had his head bowed with a contemplative scowl, then kept staring dazedly as he wondered if his thoughts ran rampant enough for that illusion. Unless it wasn't a figment of his imagination... then he wasn't sure what was going on.

Stuttering in another breath, the Harrier ignored his lightheadedness as he started anxiously, "J-Jimmy?"

The New Zealander raised his head with an attentive blink. "Eh?"

Biting his lip uneasily, the Harrier spoke carefully, "D-Did I just…"

"Just what?" prompted Jimmy as a patient look came over his features.

"D-Did I... d-did I just l-leave the room?"

"Yeah, nah, bro," replied Jimmy in bewilderment, his eyebrows rising into his curly bangs. "Told you 'bout how the Conductor thought you were the one to push up the daisies for that stink fulla… then you went ow quiet."

Bringing a hand over his face and screwing his eyes up, the Harrier let out a groan, "Must've zoned out or something… Sorry."

'...Definitely an illusion then,' he thought bemusedly. 'Definitely an illusion...'

As Jimmy fixed him a quizzical grimace, the Harrier quickly decided he didn't want unwanted attention over an imagined topic. He rested his hand on his other on his lap as he shakily spoke with a forced smile, "I don't suppose you can remind me how long it'll be until the next Round?"

If Jimmy had something else to say, he didn't seem to want to express it. He merely straightened his posture as he scowled again but at his lap. "Six Days. Will be June twenty-"

"We're in May, though," said the Harrier with a weakened smile, causing Jimmy to take another look at him. The Harrier rubbed his hands distractedly in the meantime. "Should be mid-May, if I'm to be precise."

After Jimmy's face twisted into something that made the Harrier frown in confusion, it was a while until the Support merely shook his head with a mutter too low for the Harrier to hear. The Harrier was about to ask what was the matter when the Support sent him a plain smile as he chuckled, "Sure, bro."

Knitting his eyebrows, the Harrier thought of that as odd but didn't muse on it further. He instead nodded as he let his expression return to neutral and closed his eyes. 'I must be more tired than I thought l was…'

As much as he wanted to question the New Zealander more, the Harrier felt satisfied with the knowledge he gathered and decided he should turn in for the night. He didn't have any reason to ask about Andy's absence especially, likely knowing from his previous experience that it was better not to ask...

After all, why should he ask about the welfare of one who hated him.

---

In the Days that had passed since Jimmy returned, the Harrier couldn't help but feel as if the general mood of the house was lacking its usual quiet. Not a peaceful, tranquil quiet, no… It lacked a quiet where the air wasn't stifling; a quiet that was of a neutrality; an atmosphere where it was easy to do stuff without having to worry about anything or feel as if you were supposed to feel something.

The Harrier felt when he first spent his Days hiding out in Jimmy's house, he suffocated because he didn't know how to feel about his situation, nor did he know how to deal with the aftermath of getting struck by the Posh Bastard as he had. ...Now? Now he felt as if the air wasn't stagnant; it was filled with uneasiness, frustration, even awkwardness. The Harrier wasn't even sure if Jimmy was aware of it, seeing as Jimmy was hardly calm nowadays.

At least, in the Harrier's mind, Jimmy wasn't like his usual self after their previous conversation.

There were times when the Harrier caught how Jimmy was barely able to keep his hands steady as he did his usual thing. At least, what the Harrier concluded was what he did usually: Creating more wares for his shop. But during these moments, the Harrier could tell that Jimmy's usual steadfast concentration was misplaced as it was replaced with irritation. From where the Harrier was sitting on the sofa he liked to sit on, while Jimmy's back was towards him, the New Zealander once and awhile trembled or muttered something under his breath. The Harrier considered that Jimmy thought he was being quiet enough to not alert the Harrier, but the Harrier noticed it readily each time, as Jimmy was ultimately smushing the clay he was working on more than finishing his creations and would soon be starting again from scratch.

Andy, on the other hand, was still absent. It left the Harrier with only Jimmy as the only person he could chat with… if Jimmy chose to chat with him. The Harrier couldn't possibly figure out, as of right now, why Jimmy was refusing to talk to him, or whether or not the Harrier accidentally said something so off-putting that he offended the Support somehow into silence. But the Harrier eventually came to the conclusion that it was best to back off and not poke a bear when it wasn't in the mood to be poked… Or poked at all, for that matter.

That was why the Harrier decided, despite his nervousness, to venture out in his Support disguise today.

The Harrier had stepped out into the rain, yet he didn't pause to revel in it as he hastily moved forward. He told himself as long as he didn't venture close to wherever the Mission was for the Day, the possibility of running into the Player Killer was low enough for the Harrier to miss him altogether. And even though it seemed like the Mission wasn't taking place in Shibukyu, nor did the Harrier know when the Player Killer would be released into the Game, the Harrier kept having flashes of fear whenever movement from the Realground entered his peripherals. It made things harder for him to go from Point A to Point B, but he steeled himself to keep going after reminding himself why he was braving the elements.

Even with how risky it was to go outside, even in the disguise, the reason why he went out mattered more to him.

He had to do this no matter what.

Despite the short distance it actually was to get to his destination, when he eventually arrived at the various shops decorating the corner of the district no more than five minutes later, he released a shaky sigh as he paused to adjust his disguise. He pulled at the red hood to shield his face better, not against the rain, but to cover his face. It didn't offer the same concealment his usual hoodie had, but as long as Jimmy stayed inside, the Harrier could pass himself off as the lanky Reaper if all passerby only took a glance instead of doing a careful observation. Sure, Jimmy was taller than him, but their difference in height was limited enough that a passerbyer wouldn't be able to tell the difference...

That was unless they took note of the lack of wings, but that wasn't too important if he didn't focus on it. For all they knew, he could be a Support that was strong and got demoted.

So when he reached the shops, eying each of the signs carefully, he tried ruminating on whether or not they could possibly hold what he came to get. For a brief moment as he surveyed the signs, he brought his hands close to his hood and puffed at them to warm them up, soon rubbing them together and their wetness before picking two of the shops that weren't for the Tigres Brand. He knew without his knapsack he was basically broke, but if he could figure out where the items he needed were he could easily take a moment to obtain Yen from Noise to spend it on himself.

He eventually took to drifting into other shops that were nearby only to find it still didn't do much for him in the end. However, that was a given for the one housing Tigres merchandise that he had to draw his eyes away from. So without much more he could do in the district, the only choice he had was to go back to Jimmy's home before some Reaper noticed it was him. As much as it pained him to return, the Harrier still didn't want to take any chances.

As soon as he entered the house, dripping wet but not soaked while undoing the laces to his Scampers, he left the shoes by Jimmy's Ligres before stepping onto the carpeted region. He edged forward with the intention to swap the hoodie with the Harrier's knifed one in the bedroom, only to halt upon hearing Jimmy. "Where'd you go, bro?"

The Harrier simply didn't say anything for a few moments before he answered quietly, "I didn't go far, just checked out some nearby shops."

"You geezin' for somethin'?" then asked the New Zealander as the Harrier turned his head to regard him. He noticed how Jimmy had at some point changed out of his messy hoodie for his spare Support hoodie and was now sitting on the sofa facing the standing Harrier. The Support seemed less tense than he had been when the Harrier left a few minutes ago, which was good, but the Harrier easily traced the edginess the other had still. "I didn't notice you left, bro. You were real quiet that when I saw you were gone…" Jimmy grimaced when he had paused. "You understand why, eh?"

Pivoting to fully face the Support now, the Harrier let his hands dangle at his sides and hung his head as he sighed softly, "Sorry."

"Nah, it's all good. I just wish I got a warnin' before you gapped it," said Jimmy in what the Harrier felt was a forced nonchalant manner. He then leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs to help keep his upper body propped up as he then said, "I don't mean to make you feel bad or anythin'…"

The Harrier grimaced, regardless of what Jimmy said, before raising a hand to rub the back of his damp hooded neck. "No, no… It's perfectly justified, so I get it. I'm the one who should feel bad after what's happened, so don't worry about hurting my feelings since I'm to blame for worrying you." Furrowing his eyebrows as he still held his hand there, he soon murmured as his lips twitched into a frown, "If it's alright, I should really change back before I catch a cold." The moment Jimmy gave a hesitant nod to acknowledge that, the Harrier turned towards the hallway again then started forward.

Now that he was alone again when he slipped into the room, as he was shrugging himself out of the red hoodie, the Harrier couldn't help but let his defenses fall as guilt ate away at him. He shouldn't have thought it was a good idea to not announce it when the Harrier had been killed a few Days ago. But at the same time too, the Harrier thought it wasn't going to make Jimmy worried like that. It really was a terrible move on his part, so the Harrier felt that he should be more responsible going forward until the threat of the Harrier's hunt ended and until knew about the Player Killer's Game status.

Even with the fact that he was basically safe as long as he stayed in Jimmy's house, the Harrier couldn't help but feel antsy again at the thought that he very well could be found out still. His actions today fought against that security, even though the Harrier thought stepping out for not long wouldn't do any damages. But nonetheless... it had on Jimmy's part.

The Harrier had been quick to make sure he didn't linger too long on changing into his usual hoodie, soon stepping back out of the room after leaving the disguise hoodie to dry in Jimmy's dryer he learned to use. So when he rejoined Jimmy in the living room, trying to push down his remorse as he looked at the New Zealander with a little more attention on his part to make up for what he had done, the Harrier quietly breathed in while readjusting himself to sit more comfortably on the spot he claimed.

"I was trying to find thread," said the Harrier finally as he kept his gaze on the other Reaper, to respectfully acknowledge Jimmy's question from earlier. It earned him a confused look from the lanky Reaper straightaway so the Harrier decided to add more for elaboration, "I just…" He shook his head. "I just can't stand not doing anything about this." The Harrier immediately raised his right arm up, feeling the sleeve's hole bend out from gravity and heard Jimmy give a hum of thought.

"That's right…" Jimmy half-closed his eyes as he worriedly stared at the Harrier. Even though the response was practically harmless, it dug deeply into the Harrier's mind about the matter. "It does look munted as..."

The Harrier gave a nod and troubled sound of agreement, not letting his gaze stray from the frayed hole. He drew in a shuddery breath as he grimaced. "I mean, I can only do so much... but I know I can repair it."

Jimmy's tone suddenly changed into surprise. "Eh?"

The Harrier glanced back at the other with a purse of his lips; a flutter of uneasiness coming into his stomach. He debated for a bit of whether or not he should share more about himself, especially when he didn't like thinking a lot about his life. Except... this one was more precious to him than unlikeable. So was it that bad of an idea to tell the other?

Already the scoff of that Woman came into his head and he had to shake his head to clear it out.

He steeled himself for a while until he felt he was ready, inhaling once more before he murmured cautiously, "I... I know how to sew."

The New Zealander's visage didn't change except for how it softened. It almost looked nonchalant as he soon soon tilted his head. "Hobby?" His tone seemed open-minded; the Harrier couldn't be more reassured the other wasn't going to mock him... yet.

"N-Not exactly..." The Harrier folded his hands together, frowning to himself as he soon sighed a little, "It's just something I picked up when I last saw my grandparents." Jimmy's eyes brightened with surprise again at that as the Harrier let himself rest against the sofa's back cushions. He soon stared absently at the ceiling. "It was the first and last time, since we were frugal in our household. So I honestly didn't expect that they would take an instant shine to me..."

"Why wouldn't they like their own grandson?" asked Jimmy in bewilderment. "You're family."

The Harrier closed his eyes. "They're my only living grandparents, so I had no idea what it would be like."

Jimmy offered up a chuckle; his tone was chill. "Family is family, bro. You can't expect that they'd hate you."

The Harrier all but grimaced sheepishly, keeping his gaze up to hopefully not see Jimmy's reaction to what the Harrier was about to say. "If you told me that seven years ago... I wouldn't have believed you."

While the Harrier kept staring at the ceiling, he couldn't help but feel a little curious about Jimmy's reaction. Just the thought that he put it out there, even sharing bits about himself, made him suddenly sick to his stomach as well. He didn't know if Jimmy thought of that as weird or not; the feeling of being strangled started to close in on him the longer he stared upwards.

In the end, he managed to not check on Jimmy. He simply clasped his hands together instead as he breathed as calmly as he could, "To put it simply... Get me a needle and thread and I'll sort out the rest on my own."

"You could have just asked," said Jimmy nicely, yet the Harrier couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in response.

When the Harrier finally stole a look at the New Zealander again, the Support was looking at him with a head tilt. The Harrier bit his lip and grimaced more. "I didn't want to disturb you, since it's not the most important thing to get done in the world-"

Jimmy shook his head and frowned. "It wouldn't have inconvenienced me, bro."

At that, the Harrier turned his head away and sighed sadly, "I know how important it is for you to get stuff done, and because of me…" He hung his head heavily. "You lost out on sales and Michito came over because he knew you weren't here." In the corner of his gaze, when he drew up his head to face forward again, he noticed how Jimmy widened his eyes in disbelief. "Not to mention... this whole thing wouldn't have happened if I hadn't stormed off."

Jimmy didn't say anything at first, but his eyes were flashing with multiple emotions right now. The Harrier could only make an assumption that the emotion the Support was feeling the most was uncomfortableness, so the Harrier didn't blame him for feeling like that. It made sense because the Harrier basically butchered up a lot of the normalcy around Jimmy's life for the last two or so Weeks, so it wasn't far from the truth that the Harrier was the one at fault for screwing over Jimmy.

The Harrier had closed his eyes when he had dwelled on this. He only brought his attention back to the other when the copper haired Reaper spoke softly, "You were angry."

"That doesn't excuse me from almost dying- or dying- in front of you because of a tiff!" protested the Harrier immediately, but Jimmy raised a hand up in response and shook his head. The Harrier furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the other, soon narrowing his eyes as he whipped a hand up into the air to angrily whisk it towards the front door. "And if that's not messed up, why haven't you just kicked me out yet for causing you grief!?"

When the Harrier kept his blazed gaze on the Support Reaper, Jimmy didn't react apart from a small twitch of his shoulders. They soon relaxed and fell as the copper haired Reaper soon shook his head yet again. "I'm not goin' to give you away," said Jimmy firmly as he inhaled while continuing to stare at the Harrier. He then breathed determinedly, "Not even. I'm goin' to keep stickin' around you, bro."

"The only reason why we started talking was because you wanted in on our plan that went up in flames!" returned the Harrier in frustration. His gaze hardened as he bitterly added with another waspish flourish of his hand, "Everyone else left, so are you expecting me to magically have it happen still like Andy has when the Composer will never make it a thing!?"

"Sure, it was a bludge." Jimmy nodded during his steady tone, but his gaze appeared hard as he soon went on, "But that doesn't change how I got to know you and Annee, how I got to know a bloke who bust a gut and gave it heaps on doin' the right thing, or how you're not just a bloke I know. You're one of my bros now, and I told you that when you were pushin' up daisies again." Even as the Harrier found himself twitching involuntarily upon hearing that last part, Jimmy proceeded to shrug with his hands. "Hard out scared me back there… but that doesn't mean I hated you for it."

As the Harrier watched the Support's hands lower, he then fixed the Harrier a firm look. "Before I met you and Annee, I was strugglin' to not cark my shop and I still am. So gizza reason why you'd think I'd walk away when I haven't after hearin' about how the plan failed while heaps of the other Reapers had."

Pursing his lips, the Harrier simply deigned to study the other warily. The Harrier couldn't help but wonder why Jimmy was getting emotive, as he could only feel distrust over whether or not Jimmy was telling him the truth.

Lowering his arm, letting it fall onto his lap as he soon sighed, the Harrier wearily replied, "I'm not going to say you're lying, but how can I when you would be better off not having to house me?"

"Says who?" asked Jimmy sharply with an unhappy frown.

The Harrier tipped his chin down nervously. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have had to face the Conductor or leave your friends wondering why you're denying them shelter-" He grimaced. "All because of how I had to attract Yellow Noise and fuck up the Barracks!"

"It sounds heaps like you're makin' excuses," commented Jimmy in a plain tone which surprised the Harrier. Jimmy's gaze lost parts of their intensity when he sighed and shook his head, soon setting his gaze towards the floor as he added calmly, "I straight-up don't care about how you think you're bad when you're not, I only care about makin' sure my bro is safe." His head gradually tilted to one side. "Is that a mare to understand?"

The black-hooded Reaper merely felt as though with all these points, Jimmy was making it seem like the Harrier was silly for having come up with these thoughts about himself. A part of him even appreciated that Jimmy was giving him his viewpoints on the matter while another was gobsmacked, wondering why the Support Reaper was so okay with all this. Any normal human being wouldn't think twice about leaving when it seemed like they wouldn't gain anything else or anything useful in return from interactions.

So as the Harrier observed the other curiously, wondering why Jimmy thought differently than the general population's inclination, the other Reaper sighed again and gave a smile. He didn't say anything yet, but when the Harrier waited, the black-hooded Reaper still received nothing more but a silent moment with the other. It didn't make sense to him how the Support Reaper was maybe a little too understanding, but another part of him released a sigh of relief over how someone wasn't going to look at him and think the Harrier wasn't worth it. Or at least… that's what the Harrier thought was the case.

The Harrier eventually let his head angle normally as he simply regarded the other in less of a frustrated manner. He knitted his eyebrows as he mumbled, "I mean, I suppose it's not?"

Jimmy chuckled lightly at that, his smile stretching more as he soon hummed, "Then don't forget it." He readjusted himself to sit more comfortably before he spoke again, "You're all good in my book."

As the Harrier nodded in response, the New Zealander got up, signalling the end to the conversation from the looks of it. The Harrier let himself relax on the sofa but realized as Jimmy was heading over to him, he may have misread the social cue. So when Jimmy stood in front of him, the Harrier offered the other a frown of confusion.

Jimmy simply held out his hand. "Is it all good if I can get a look-see of your sleeve?"

Blinking in surprised realization, the Harrier wordlessly raised his right arm. He curiously watched as Jimmy took hold of it, turning it over before leaning in slightly, probably to get a better look, then let go of the Harrier.

"Sorry, I just needed to check on the colour," Jimmy explained mildly with a soft 'heh' almost slipping past the Harrier's notice.

"Colour?" the Harrier echoed before Jimmy nodded. After a few seconds, the Harrier blinked in realization as he exclaimed, "Oh- for the thread then." He mumbled the last part, not feeling as embarrassed as he thought he would be as Jimmy gave a short chuckle of amusement.

"Heh, I didn't mean to be weird. I only wanted to get the right one," said Jimmy sheepishly as he soon turned and the Harrier watched him walk away. "Bugs me if I'm careless about choosin' 'em."

That made the Harrier feel amused. He sported a small smile as he murmured warmly, "Is that the torment of an artist I hear?"

Jimmy stopped at the wall that would have blocked him from the Harrier's vision before he turned back. "I reckon it is. Call me picky, but I can't help it."

The Harrier couldn't help but feel content as Jimmy finally left his sight. But at the very last moment when he heard the lock being turned, he jumped off the sofa and whirled around the corner.

"Be careful," he said anxiously as he gazed at the back of the Support Reaper when he was in the middle of opening the door. It put a halt to the action as Jimmy turned his head enough that one of his eyes was visible now while the Harrier mumbled nervously, "The Player Killer…"

Jimmy's visible eye blinked while his lips twitched downward. "Chur, bro. I'll keep an eye out for him." He turned back to the door as he added with some optimism, "But I shouldn't be too lon'."

That brightened the Harrier's mood a little; he almost smiled at that as the other let himself out the door. Yet as soon as the black-hooded Reaper was staring at the closed and locked door, he felt his expression falter as he remained alone. He eventually walked back over to the sofa and sat down, letting himself flop over onto his side and released a sigh before he bit into his lower lip.

He could only hope Jimmy would come back.

---

While the Harrier waited on Jimmy, the Harrier took to dozing for a means to get his mind off of terrible outcomes happening to Jimmy. Although, it fairly soon became clear that it wasn't the most effective method to do so. Just the knowledge that the unhinged man could have been on the prowl left him wide awake.

Even though the Harrier had no idea if the Player Killer was actually active in the Game, it sent shivers down his spine. But it was pretty stupid of him to assume the Posh Bastard would let the Player Killer in when there was already a multitude of returning Players on the board. When you Processed a dead person into a Player, the matter of seeing them next depended on how soon you finished sorting out their Composition, what Day you did it on and how many Players there were leftover for the next Game. Seeing as there were all the victims the Player Killer created, it wouldn't surprise the Harrier if the Player Killer didn't end up in the Game until a month from now or whatever time it took for the vultures to weed out the innocents.

The thought only made the Harrier even more anxious as he fought to not bite his nails. He quickly told himself, in spite of his opinion of the Posh Bastard, that the man wouldn't pass up the opportunity to twist what he had available into his favour. As dull-minded as the same Frozen Aged man was a lot of the time, the Harrier hated how he had to give the man credit that the Posh Bastard had all the resources he needed at the ready. And be that a death happened and the Harrier was near said death and the Posh Bastard already suspected the Harrier was behind the occurrence... the black-hooded Reaper wouldn't be surprised if the Dead dropped into the man's lap was much appreciated by the man. In fact, the Harrier wouldn't be surprised either if the Posh Bastard had the idea to draw him out with said Dead.

Scowling as he felt himself curl his fingers, the Harrier hated how everything had been turned against him because he made the mistake of taking the Player Killer's offer. The most logical venture the Posh Bastard had was to hear out what the Player Killer had to say about himself. But the Harrier was certain because of the rule to not allow for Players to 'wake up' before their Game Round, it would be much too late before the Posh Bastard understood a dangerous criminal was ready to be unleashed on the scene. In fact, with how many times the man lectured him in the past about dealing with Wrongdoers, it almost made the Harrier think the man actually liked letting the Wrongdoers run free to further his agenda for chaos and kill or be killed mentality here.

It made sense at first why they had to enter said mentality as a Player fresh from death, but now that the Harrier had a long look at the situation... He couldn't help but feel his stomach twist that he was once okay with it.

He thankfully didn't have to think longer on it because the door was being unlocked.

As soon as Jimmy handed him the bag of thread and differently-sized sewing needles, the Harrier put himself to work without any delay after swapping hoodies again. While he was both relieved at the return of Jimmy and the sight of black thread and his chosen sewing needle, he couldn't help but feel a strange excitement the moment he had himself set up on the sofa he frequented after his preparations were complete of snipping away the hoodie's frayed threads as he turned the hoodie inside-out.

The Harrier could only marvel as he fell into doing movements that he had thought were lost to him: Helping to ease the thread through the needle, snipping the right length of thread he estimated was needed to do the job, connecting the other ends of the black thread... He soon poised his hand over the inside-out hoodie's sleeve while holding on to it securely with his other hand as his heart swelled. To one that may not have sewed, this wasn't rocket science. The Harrier knew off by heart how to do it still and he couldn't be more delighted.

He recalled faintly how the Woman scoffed at having her own son fiddling with a 'feminine feat', making the twelve-year-old feel almost ready to give up even before he started had his father not encouraged him to continue. The Harrier supposed his father was pleased his son was learning something he had learned, and in turn, the boy himself was in awe of how he was going to do the same thing his own father had learned at one point. It made the boy want to make his father proud, despite his sadness the Woman didn't approve of it, and probably spent hours observing his grandmother in their family owned shop to see how it was done. The boy's fine motor skills, before he was taught, was only attuned to how to hold his chopsticks right or to diligently take notes and have neat handwriting… But after being shown different ways to patch up damaged items, how to make hems and even learned sewing techniques that had him pricking his fingers more than getting the hang of them, the boy couldn't believe he could sew by the end of that Day.

The Harrier found himself smiling upon thinking of that part of his visit to his grandparents, pausing as he started to ease the needle in. He brought the needle past the rip to poke it through on the opposing side, pulling it through to guide the needle out then poked it into the first side again as a loop of thread followed.

He pulled it taut before doing the same actions again, looping the needle again and again quietly while Jimmy was working on his art in the background of the Harrier's focus. His exuberance faltered a little into the sewing when the memory struck him again why he was doing this, trying to cast it off the best he could so he wouldn't lose focus and screw up the mend. The rhythm he fell back into was easy to bring him to a thoughtless lull; it was welcomed readily by him as he soon found he was done the first rip.

Holding up the hoodie after creating the knot for the thread and carefully embedding the needle into the stool of thread, he started folding the fabric of the sleeve to flip it over and inspected his finished work worriedly. He saw no trace of the thread and internally sighed, not wanting to have to cut open the rip again and restart. So he nodded contently at that before unravelling more thread, soon turning his attention to the other tear to continue the 'Hoodie Operation'. He supposed by this point in time he was doing surgery on his own hoodie, after all.

The Harrier pushed away his amusement to focus on prepping the next thread loop after severing it from the spool. He was carefully easing it in when Jimmy asked, "How's it goin'?"

He answered when he successfully got the thread through again, "Pretty good."

"I haven't seen you this focused before," then commented Jimmy as his head turned back to the clay he was shaping. A few seconds passed before he added, "I reckon you weren't kiddin' when you said you knew what you were doin'."

"I'm afraid my handiwork has yet to reach fruition, you see," murmured the Harrier as he was wiggling the ends of the thread around with his thumb and index. He soon created a small loop he pulled the ends through before using his two fingers to finish the knot. "Hold your applause until the performance is over."

As the Harrier was locating the next tear, Jimmy gave a hum. "You're hard out like a different person. If I knew you liked sewin', I would have gotten you the thread sooner."

"Like I told you before, this isn't a hobby," the Harrier told the Support as he braced himself for initiating the next mend. He readjusted his hoodie's position then tacked on, "This, my friend, is a practical skill."

"Uh-huh…" Ignoring Jimmy's lighthearted skepticism, the Harrier decided to bite the bullet and began sewing again.

The two of them fell into silence again, but the Harrier appreciated it the longer he spent trying to not mess up with the needle. Usually by now he knew the quiet would have made him antsy, yet he found it was easier to do what he was doing because of it. It sloughed off anything that would have already made him anxious at this moment, allowing for him to finish with a satisfied smirk when he inspected the other tear after flipping the hoodie back to normal.

With a happy hum, he soon set it down on his lap as he heaved out a sigh of relief. 'Finally fixed…' He took to checking on Jimmy's progress as he continued to think, 'I won't bother with my shirt's rip for now… I don't want to bother Jimmy about going out again for something no one will see.'

As soon as the Harrier went back to Jimmy's bedroom to change, knocks were heard on the door as he was halfway down the hallway. Turning back towards the entryway, the Harrier had already tensed a little as he anxiously edged backwards to cautiously get closer to the door. 'Jimmy's friends…?'

Jimmy was already approaching the front door, casting a brief look to the Harrier, who nodded before slipping into the room beside him now. Once he closed the door, the Harrier threw his hoodie onto the bed as heard the lock was being turned a few seconds later. But even before the Harrier had a chance to slip off his disguise, he froze with it midway up his torso at the sound of unfamiliar voices. Widening his eyes in appall, the Harrier remained perfectly still as he aborted his actions instantly to strain his ears.

"Are you goin' nuts!?" The Harrier could easily tell the visitant- or visitants- weren't the ones the Harrier was hoping to avoid if Jimmy was raising his voice like that. It would have at least reassured him about what was going on if Jimmy had said a simple, 'How may I help you?' or any other greeting that wasn't implying someone he didn't want to see was there. The Harrier pressed his back to the door after a sobering moment of dread hit him when he realized Jimmy hadn't even shut the door yet…

Whatever was exchanged next was lost to the Harrier, seeing as he couldn't hear anything but the semblance of conversation through mumbles and hushed tones. It was downright stress-inducing that the visitants were unknown to him as of the moment, so the Harrier could only stand there as an unsteady inhale and exhale passed through him. 'Okay… don't panic… You might not be strong enough to prevent the door from opening, but there's another way you can evade detection!'

After a few seconds of the unknown still happening, the Harrier almost jumped at a loud bang that resounded through the walls and foundation. 'Okay, who am I kidding!? New plan-'

The Harrier carefully toed forward, keeping his ears open as he edged towards the bed. He knew he only had so much time before those visitors likely came out as Reapers ready to wrangle him back to the Shibuya River so he had to act quickly. 'Jimmy's bed has space underneath it… but I'm not sure if I could squeeze under there… But there's a chance I can do it if I use a little switcheroo…'

And all he had to do after that was to destroy his double with Ignis Swarm before it was too late.

Gradually yet carefully falling to his knees when he crouched down onto them, he gave a quick glance underneath the bed before reaching under it. His eyes squinted as he tried to locate his own shadow within the other shadows then he sent energy into his body, willing it to manifest when the door opened.

Going rigid immediately, his arms stiffly hovering where they were, the Harrier began to sweat when he realized he forgot to hide his hoodie in his desperation to get under the bed. His breaths turned painful as he could hardly pull in the air he needed to breathe, feeling himself start to shake as he soon realized a hand was on his shoulder.

His heart stopped then and there.

"What are you doin', bro?" asked a voice from above in dismay.

After a minute of silence before the Harrier registered it was Jimmy, his breathing had choked and sputtered momentarily before going back to normal. His heart beated as it usually did again and all tension from the Harrier's body was drained, leaving him boneless as he sagged entirely. His forehead fell forward to press against the bedframe when he released a long sigh and bemoaned miserably, "Fuck- you scared me, Jimmy…!"

"Straight-up, what were you doin'?" asked Jimmy again as he pulled his hand away. The Harrier turned and lifted his head up to stare at the other as a shudder went through his body, watching the Support cross his arms while he was frowning. He soon closed his eyes as he sighed, "Nevermind that-" He opened them again as he went on with weariness, "You have visitors."

That caused the Harrier to jolt as he pushed his hands against the bed to spring to his feet instantly, twisting around as he stumbled backwards in appall at what Jimmy just said. "This afternoon you told me you weren't going to give me up!?" he shouted out in aggravated horror, taking another step back as he shook his head as he cried out again, "Were you lying to me!?"

"Wait, nah-" Jimmy widened his eyes and raised his hands up in a manner that suggested he was trying to calm the Harrier down, which would have been fine had the Support not just announced the Harrier had Reapers here to drag him away! Jimmy inhaled deeply before he spoke again in a weary tone, "Annee… Annee just popped over with other Reapers…"

The Harrier grimaced then kept his eyes narrowed while he scowled at Jimmy. "Why would she be with Reapers other than to ensure my capture is complete?"

Jimmy gave him a pointed look as he frowned. "She brought the blokes here."

"Andy brought them here!?" he hissed out in disbelief, shaking his head as he spoke again, "...Not a Reaper pretending to be Andy?" The Harrier tilted his head as he knitted his eyebrows. "But our Andy?"

Jimmy gave a slow nod. "That Annee."

For a few seconds, the Harrier kept his gaze on the New Zealander before he cried out in frustration, "Why would she do that!?" Suddenly, when an unpromising thought came to mind, his anger fell and fear gripped him as he then gasped, "D-Did she- ...th-they made her bring them here!?"

"Nah, yeah... but not in the bad sense?" Jimmy supplied a grimace.

The Harrier scowled again, but instead of the anger associated with such an expression, he was thoroughly baffled. "What do you mean…?" he came to ask in a guarded tone as he frowned unhappily at the other.

Jimmy's shoulders slumped as he gave a heavy sigh, "You should take a squiz of it for yourself."

---

Despite the Harrier's low expectations, this wasn't what he was expecting.

As he remained beside the hallway wall that connected into the living room, the Harrier warily watched the 'visitors' from his position with his arms folded and his eyes hardened behind his hood. 'You got to be kidding me...'

Andy was sending looks of expectation between the Reaper settled beside her on the sofa and the ones taking the far sofa hostage. She had her work cut out for her as she had to draw her head back and forth to occasionally catch the Harrier and Jimmy, who stood closer to the unconnected counter in the middle of his small kitchen. If it were for the fact that someone was actually talking, then perhaps her focus wouldn't be so divided...

And speaking of that, the Harrier was the one to do so.

He mumbled half-crossly, "Andy… what is this?"

The dirty blonde Reaper's face fell as she pouted emotively at him and her shoulders sagged. She threw up her head with a deep, throaty growling noise as she groaned, "Whaatt dao yaa think this eis…!?"

With a narrow of his eyes, the Harrier scoffed before he huffed curtly, "To be quite frank, I wouldn't have asked if I knew."

One of the Reapers on the sofa facing the kitchen, a Harrier Reaper who chose to wear the traditional mustard Harrier hoodie, spoke up, "When we heard you weren't actually Erased, would you blame us for wanting to see if that's true?" Her voice sounded familiar, but the Harrier couldn't figure out who it may have been, even if it was on the tip of his tongue.

The Reaper beside the female Harrier had been quivering the whole time since he was sitting there, but now he quivered even more as he added meekly, "T-To see if you're okay…?" He gulped audibly before adding more, "B-But if th-this is a b-bad time-"

When the Harrier Reaper neighbouring him sharply shot him a look, the Harrier could only watch as the Support wilted from fear. The black-hooded Reaper soon bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed wearily, "No, no… It's... not a bad time."

As that seemed to sate the jittery Support Reaper's nerves slightly, the Harrier let go of himself while he swept his gaze between the Reapers in the room again. He soon sighed once more and turned his attention back to Andy. 'This is going to be a problem.'

He coolly breathed, "Andy, not to be rude, but… don't you remember we're supposed to keep me hidden?"

Andy's eyes briefly narrowed before she decided to blink them closed instead. She huffed as she crossed her arms then replied, sounding unfazed, "Haow caourld aI saay nao tao them when they were sao eaagrlerr ta see yaa?"

"That's no excuse and you know it!" spat the Harrier back as he narrowed his eyes to slits. He turned his head away as he soon growled surlily, "I don't mean to be rude, everyone… and I really mean it… but this is going to be a problem."

"Aoh eaatt eit!" Andy snapped immediately. Past the edge of his hood, he caught a glimpse of the amber-brown eyed Reaper giving him the stink eye. "They'rre naott gaoing ta drlaag yaa baack ta the Caounducctaar!"

"Once again, not to be rude, but has it occurred to you that they could have lied to you?" The Harrier's gaze hardened as he pursed his lips, feeling his folded arms tighten more against his body as he refused to face anyone. "I know that makes me out to be an asshole, but could you blame me for thinking that after two Weeks in of being the subject of a manhunt!?"

"You don't know?" Blinking at the sound of the other female Harrier's firm voice, the Harrier slightly angled his gaze towards her as her hood directly faced him.

The Harrier furrowed his eyebrows, pursing his lips in his frown when he stiffly regarded her. "Know what?"

Before the female replied, the Harrier noticed that Andy took on a irritated mien as she narrowed her eyes darkly. The simple observation quirked his curiosity even more as the other female Reaper began, "Just this morning, instead of just giving us the usual announcements, the Conductor updated us about the situation behind the inundation of Players we've had for nearly five Weeks."

The Harrier felt a chill go down his spine straightaway at the mention of that. He widened his eyes in worry, feeling his earlier vexation subside a bit as he drank that in. Andy's gaze, from what the Harrier could see, hardened as she adopted a dangerous look, as her shoulders had gone rigid the moment the information was brought onto the table.

From nearby, the Harrier was aware of how Jimmy was starting to tremble as he asked in a grave tone, "And what did he say?"

Seemingly aware of the fact that she stole the floor for the conversation now, the unknown female Harrier merely lifted her chin as she explained in terse coolness, "He went over the uncanniness of why we've been having so many Players end up in the Underground. Since there's never really have been this many in a Round before, or the alarming contribution to the Player count for the Weeks like this." She inhaled before she gave a heavy sigh, "As much as I like how there's more Players to go around for us to hunt, just knowing the reason why makes it feel like we've been having sloppy seconds set down for us on a dinner table..."

The Reaper, who was beside Andy and hadn't supplied anything to the conversation so far, added curtly, "The Conductor said that the former Players, the ones who returned because they were murdered from what we overheard from them on the streets, wouldn't be given compensation for what has happened to them. They are to remain in the Game with the current Player roster and will have just of a chance to get the Second Chance like the rest of them."

Upon hearing that, the Harrier immediately felt himself go rigid as his chest tightened. He narrowed his gaze angrily as he let his scowl drop to the floor. 'He doesn't care about the victims, huh. I bet he thinks the Players chose to let themselves die again.' He gritted his teeth as he shook his head, trying to get a handle on himself to not distract the Reapers from supplying further information as the black-hooded Reaper retorted frigidly, "Figures."

"A lot of us already heard beforehand of a rumour, from Reapers who claimed to have seen the culprit in the act of killing you," continued the female Reaper, causing the Harrier to flinch violently and clench his eyes shut painfully from that mere detail. He couldn't have been more sick to his stomach from hearing that he'd been spotted, but he couldn't figure out what was worse: The fact that these so-called witnesses didn't think to save him, or the fact that he must have gained so many haters that they probably wanted it to happen and decided to leave him to the mercy of the Player Killer for laughs. "So most of us were already in the know when the Conductor gave us the news that the killer will be joining the ranks of the Players next Week."

He couldn't help but feel his breath go shallow as Andy was adding, "Sao thaatt baastaarld taorld aus thaatt eit waas decided thaatt thaatt the sheitt eisn't gaoing ta bee apprlehended."

The Harrier's breath hitched. '...Wh-What?' His blood ran cold. 'N-Not going to be apprehended!?'

"Saaid thaatt he's prlettee much ein the saame baoatt aas the rlest aof the Praayerrs." The dark dirty blonde's face contorted as she let out a growl from her throat, "Saaid thaatt the aonree thing thaat caould bee daone aas aof naow eis the Gaame wirl rlun leike eit ausauarlee daoes."

"H-He's…" The Harrier's raised tone and voice died swiftly, soon coming back abruptly in a loud yell of distraught, "He's letting the killer go!?"

As much as the Harrier would have liked to believe he was being strung along to a cruel joke this whole time, he could only stare at the party of Reapers in appall when he realized how dead serious and silent they all were. His widened eyes he dwelled on each of their mannerisms, mulling over and trying to discern whether or not he interpreted the meanings wrong when he watched Andy's head move his way.

Her eyes rapidly shot towards him, giving him a view of how darkened they were, not casting off light whatsoever as she set her jaw rigid and continued to glare at him. A spell of vertigo seemingly struck him moments after as the situation dawned on him, leaving him feeling faint to his stomach…

Then he was being helped to sit up, blinking dazedly as he became aware of how hands were grasping and moving around his arms and supporting his back as he felt nausea sinking into his stomach. Soon grimacing, the Harrier could only let the other silently fuss over him as he realized he could hardly get a handle on his limbs to do it himself. But he still mentally cursed upon also realizing he must have experienced syncope in front of the whole room, leaving him self-consciously embarrassed as he despised that fact thoroughly.

'Why am I so pathetic…?' he thought miserably in frustration as he sulked once he was back on his feet. Fighting off the urge to scream, like his body was preparing itself for, he bit down on the insides of his mouth and clenched his eyes shut. 'Can't I just last one moment without being pathetic like this!?'

When he felt he could try to assess what was going on without throwing up, he experimented with lifting his eyelids, soon regarding how Jimmy was studying him worriedly while Andy had remained in her seat. However, even from where he was, he could tell from her paled complexion that she was perturbed by what happened. A part of him cried and yearned to believe that she cared about him, but right now, his mind could hardly grapple thinking about amending past grievances.

Feeling his face become blank, or rather, not even knowing what facial expression he was making from the news he had been given, he couldn't help but lower his chin and mumble, "And the Posh Bastard expects us to ignore a walking threat..." Upon receiving the burns of multiple gazes on him, the Harrier's pursing lips shook as he muttered lowly in his muse, "He expects Reapers to not attempt anything..."

While he wasn't sure what he was exactly feeling, as his overflowing emotions were hard to distinguish and he could possibly say he was numb and going through some sort of shock, he remained on the ground while he absently regarded the ebb of the boneless sensation in limbs. He finally felt a slice of something rise in him, soon trembling so much he didn't even register he was growling in fraught rage until he snapped curtly, "That's stupid!" He uttered harsher, "He's stupid!"

With an abrupt lift of his head, he gave everyone in the room an once-over as he bitterly asked them, "He actually said that!?"

From the way Andy grimly frowned harder, pushing herself to her feet to stiffly approach him, her whole body was rigid to the point he could hardly tell if she was actually breathing. He barely had any time to create an ideation of what she was feeling before she hissed shrilly to him, "YES."

The Harrier couldn't help but breathe unsteadily, harshly hauling in breaths of air as he dwelled over the confirmation he received. His heart was thudding ridiculously hard; he was feeling it almost everywhere in his body from each sonorous vibration that waved through every fibre of his being as he lowered his head when he cursed harshly in a barely-contained mutter.

"...You got to be fucking…" he mumbled, aware of the thick rage bleeding out in his quiet voice. Yet he didn't do more except clench his hands hard. They were tight to the point he felt feeling in his body, as the feeling of an ache transformed into intense pressure when pain filled his hands. He could barely control himself, but his mind couldn't even bring itself to analyze the situation clearly as his thoughts were boiling over in pure anger. He didn't know what else to say or think, but the fact that he knew this made it impossible to not zero in entirely on the Posh Bastard's actions.

Exhaling shakily, he soon smiled frailly as he felt an ugly chuckle escape his throat. No one said anything, leaving his voice to be the only source of sound contained in the living space as he found that he was full on laughing coarsely, brokenly… He wasn't sure why this was happening, but he found he couldn't really stop himself at the same time too. He might as well be seen as an insane man, even if he didn't think he was insane… But even he knew the way he was aware of how he was reacting could only raise flags for irrationality as his body's responsiveness began to slip from him.

Was he hysteric? That thought alone dove right into the center of his mind, making him believe he was falling apart as he shook his head and continued laughing hoarsely in that ugly tone. Then came the faint understanding that his chest was too tight and his heart was thudding with something he couldn't have realized was there until he happened to name it.

...He was so fucking scared.

Upon thinking that, he smiled more as he could only accept that patheticness; that he was actually feeling of all things scared right now when he should have been filled with visceral anger. Perhaps he thought he was angry, he supposed feebly; feebly aware of how much his chest and lungs hurt, unable to cease the expulsions of laughs continuing to flood out from his lips…

Momentarily, he could have sworn his vision blacked, hating himself for it as he soon found himself drowning in it. Alone to himself… Alone to his barely contained emotions… Alone to the violin playing without the one string… He couldn't even appreciate how nicely it was being played… He was too pathetic to figure out what occasion it could have been to be graced by a lonely, imperfect song…

It was as if he was dying. It was as if he was dying...

Everything wasn't making sense, but he couldn't even pay respects to that miniscule detail that fluttered seamlessly in and out and away of his head fleetingly.

Then he felt like he wasn't breathing… And yet… it still felt like he was laughing…

Laughing, laughing, laughing… to the melody of the crying violin. The violin was reverberating and making his ears ring and ache as the ringing rippled around him. It was as if it enveloped his being… distortion chancing of the tunes each time the precariously, listlessly moving ripples contacted each other while discord was brewing… from the pitiful sobbing from the very thing creating this lullaby song...

Everything was fucking terrible yet wonderful at the same time… saved only for the ears of him… Him alone and him to his fading laughter...

---

The Harrier blinked as he found himself on the sofa, blinking more as he could only be confused about when he sat down on it. For whatever reason, the Harrier felt torrents of exhaustion run through him as he frowned upon finding that he was next to Andy. And when he became more aware of his surroundings, he noticed the Reapers he didn't know were taking up residence on the other sofa while one of them was chatting quietly with Jimmy in the kitchen.

But even though was a mundane scene, he couldn't help but feel odd about it.

For a brief moment, he could only come up dry again for how he came to be situated here. But upon realizing that Andy had her attention on him, he couldn't help but flinch. How could he have not noticed that!?

As soon as he angled his head towards her, her guardedness seemingly fell as her eyes grew more alert. "Yaaw'rre baack naow?" she asked without a single inflection in her voice.

Grimacing at that, the Harrier couldn't help but groan bewilderedly, "What do you mean?"

From the way her chest puffed up from her deep inhale, it made him suspect she was feeling tense. "Yaa ded eit aahgaain," was all she grumpily told him.

"Did…" He stopped himself to scowl, shaking his head before he scoffed, "For the last time, I don't think too much."

She jabbed a finger his way with a peeved expression. "Yaaw'rl neverr staop being aah zaombie."

All the Harrier did this time was make a disgruntled noise in his throat before he grumbled, "What does that have to do with anything right now?"

As soon as he said that, Andy drew back her hand and fixed him an odd, pointed look. "Why yaaw'rre aon this saofaa naow." When the Harrier raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips, Andy continued to explain, "Yaa staopped rleaaspaonding."

The Harrier scowled as he huffed, "Can you please just tell me instead of laying down cryptic fragments of the whole picture… I would very much appreciate knowing but not at this snail-fast pace."

In an annoyed manner, Andy released an exhale that blustered from her mouth. She then replied stiffly, "Yaaw'rre naott maaking aahnee sense." While the Harrier frowned deeper at that, vexed with how she was talking to him right now, she soon rolled her eyes as she huffed, "Aahnd why waourld yaa waant ta heaarr meh aoutt aahyeewaay? Yaa neverr risten ta meh naowaahdaays, sao why baotherr."

The moment he opened his mouth to respond to that, the Harrier halted before slowly closing it with a disgruntled scowl. He refused to offer her an answer and instead focused on how she wasn't even looking at him now. A part of him couldn't be more irked that she was acting petty when she was in the wrong after what happened.

Pinching his lips together, he soon mumbled in snippy irritableness, "Well now, aren't you sunshine and rainbows…" That made her twitch, inviting him to continue bitterly in a grumble, "If I recall it correctly, the last time we were here you belittled me and even had the gall to punch me because you didn't like what you were hearing." Andy's head snapped towards him, displaying her miffed reaction as he narrowed his eyes more. He humourlessly laughed, "So why not tell me why you think I should be doing something when you won't even tell me what the damn problem is!"

The dirty blonde's amber-brown blazed with anger and she already had her mouth open to probably yell at him. Yet before she could, he tried adopting a blasé mien while he huffed in what he hoped was an aloof drawl, "But I suppose you can be as petty as you want to be... because it's not like you're going to drop the act anytime soon."

"Risten herre, yaa-" For some reason, her words halted as she wrinkled her nose in frustration and shook her head. Her leer soon scorched him as she crossed her arms stiffly. "Dao yaa even caarre?" she then asked sternly, earning an unimpressed eyebrow raise from him as she soon sighed, "Thaatt yaa aahrlmaost… yaa knaow?"

That flushed away most of the anger he held currently. The Harrier widened his eyes as he nearly shrunk away from her despite having the sofa arm stopping him from fully doing so.

"...I don't want to talk about it." He averted his gaze immediately, trying to concentrate on what Jimmy and one of the Reapers were doing in the kitchen instead as he feigned his rapidly depleting composure was intact. In fact, he could almost pretend it was working when it actually wasn't because he knew Andy was still staring at him, waiting for an answer he wasn't about to admit right here and now.

"Why?" she asked with no betrayal to her emotions.

Frowning hard, the Harrier mumbled irritably, "Does it matter?"

As he prepared himself for Andy to go on a rant about how he should be spilling his secrets and just do the deed, he hadn't expected for her to have gone completely silent. That perplexed him and it was almost enough to make him take a look for himself to figure out why she was.

But he never had the chance to do so.

The moment his left wrist had fingers curl around it, he couldn't even control how he froze up as a jolt of panic instantly filled him. His mind even went blank, leaving him nothing to be distracted by from the fact that the dirty blonde was… pulling him to his feet?

Frowning in confusion, he shot her a wide-eyed look but she was staring forward as she walked. He was being guided away from the sofa, led by the silent female Reaper towards the hallway. A part of him felt the need to rip himself away, but he numbly found that he was just following her without understanding why he couldn't react to this appropriately. He couldn't help but be uncertain, uneasy and even be reluctant when he ultimately was back in Jimmy's room, being situated on the bed before Andy let go of him.

Even when he finally had room to think again as she went to close the door, he found his mind couldn't focus right. There were so many things, so many questions he had… but all he could do was stare dumbly at Andy and feel guarded as she was returning to join him on the edge of the bed. Then the next thing he was subjected to was the tense silence, buying into it himself as he could only be baffled about why she took him here out of the blue.

He could only suppose she may have wanted to yell at him without Jimmy around, so he plucked up his courage to scoff in self-deprecating scorn, "About to finish the job then?" Andy gave him nothing to work off of for how she felt about that, but the Harrier didn't dwell on it too long. Instead, his shoulders rose as he continued with a bite to it, "Ready to dish out your aggravation about why I'm so pathetic?"

And yet, despite him egging her on to just say it to his face, she merely gave him a sombre look. "Eis this betterr?"

He momentarily blinked in surprise, only to scowl again as he kept his hard gaze on her. "What are you talking about?"

Andy sighed with a roll of her eyes and shake of her head, soon fixing him a neutral expression. "Aahrree yaa lreaadeee ta speaak naow?"

"Am I ready to…" He frowned as his eyes unnarrowed a little, starting at her blankly as she briefly drew her gaze to the door then him again. With a couple of blinks, he tilted his head as he breathed in quiet confusion, "Why did you take me here?"

Andy closed her eyes, her face scrunching up a bit from annoyance probably as she huffed, "Yaa werre strlessed." The black-hooded Reaper remained silent, studying Andy in disbelief as she placed her hands by her legs. She started pushing down on the bed lightly when she breathed more with a shrug, "Eit's eaasee ta terl when yaa aarre."

Furrowing his eyebrows, the Harrier merely mused in a bemused mumble, "I… I am?"

"Aof caourrse yaa aarree!" Andy cried out as she whipped her head to him, showing her displeasure as she raised her left hand up sharply. "Yaa aahrlwaays aahctt leike this when yaa aarre!"

Oddly enough, the Harrier couldn't help but feel touched when he realized Andy was concerned about him.

With a sigh of his own, the Harrier hung his head. "Even though we were literally bickering... you saw that?"

She blew a raspberry before she retorted, "AI knaow yaa betterr thaan aahneeaone herre." She kicked her feet lightly in the air in front of her briefly as she went on with another huff, "Haow caourld aI naott see thaatt?"

The Harrier simply kept his gaze down as he mumbled again, "We keep arguing… so why would you pick that out, out of anything from our interactions?"

That seemingly delayed Andy's response, leaving him to make note of how she may not have expected that even though it was but the truth. They haven't stopped arguing since they got the Composer's response, so what was stopping her from noticing?

His answer came in the form of how she merely let her arm flop, effectively hitting the space between them as she agreed with a sigh, "We haave." That surprised him a little, as he hadn't expected that she would have agreed with it. And that made it possible for him to cast an astonished look her way while she simply opened her eyes. "Bautt aI caan terl yaaw'rre baotherred by whaatt haapened. Yaa neverr frinch leike thaatt... yaa daon'tt waant ta tarlk aahbaoutt eit... "

When she turned her amber-brown eyes back to him, she half-closed them. "Saomething's naott rlightt… eis eit?"

"...I'm not touchy-feely," he told her brusquely instead.

She instantly jabbed a finger towards him and spat, "Thaatt's naott rlelratted!"

"Of course it is…" he replied, but all he received was an unconvinced look from her. Scowling again, he pursed his lips as he shook his head. "Do you really think I want to talk about it?" he chose to say next with a note of irritation.

"Yaa daon'tt," she flatly said with a head tilt. "Yaa neaarlee died twice."

As soon as she said that, the Harrier dropped his scowl as uncomfortableness squirmed inside him, making him grimace as he lowered his head again. After a few seconds, she sighed again, "Nao aone waantts ta die, naott even twice." The Harrier didn't have exactly anything to say to that, choosing to hold down his tongue instead and listened quietly. "Jaustt seeing yaa aon the paavement leike that jaust kirled meh."

"...Could you stop putting death-related words into your sentences right now," the Harrier mumbled, pretending his uneasiness didn't actually leak into his tone.

"Thaat waon't maake eit seem leike eit dedn't haappen," she returned curtly, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes. "AI knaow eit becaause aI haad ta shaoott him faorl yaa, sao eit's naott leike aI'rl faorgett eit haappened."

Just hearing that made the Harrier feel humiliation flare up inside him, leaving him to feel even more uncomfortable than he had earlier. But that didn't stop him from mumbling in irked annoyance, "Is this the part where you're going to tell me I'm pathetic for not fighting back?" Letting one beat of silence pass, he then sneered bitterly, "Because for your information, I definitely did fight back, if you must know. But you can mock me all you want about how unsuccessful I was because of your 'saving of my ass'."

Bracing himself, he didn't say any more so he could give Andy the floor to berate him to her heart's desire and pleasure. For her to let it all out so he could know just how much of a fuck up he was for almost dying to a mere Realground citizen when he had the strength to fend the Player Killer off, how much of a weakling he was, how much of a fool he was for not murdering the Player Killer sooner, how much-

"AI haatted seeing yaa leike thaatt," she said instead, in a small voice that only held misery. For a few seconds, the Harrier was left in stunned silence. It seemingly felt as if it would last forever, except she soon added dolefully, "Haatted thaatt aI haadn't faound yaa saoonerr."

He couldn't bring himself to speak at this time, even though he desperately wanted to say something,

The Harrier's eyebrows knitted as he stared at her, studying her expression carefully as he bit his lip. "Why would you want to find me sooner after what happened?" He closed his eyes briefly before he sighed in a mumble, "You despise me. You had no reason to look for me. And yet... I don't understand why you had after what you did."

"Caan yaa caan eit!?" she shrieked out abruptly as she whipped towards him with a heated scowl. Her lips were pursed to the point they looked puckered up with sour aggravation as she retorted tetchily, "AI'm trlying ta terl yaa saomething!"

Dipping his head slightly when he nodded, she soon swung her head away before she breathed out irritably, "AI'm naott trlying ta maake aah fightt aoverr this…" Her expression became torn, appearing pained momentarily as her narrowed molten eyes gazed at the dresser as the Harrier could only make note that a part of her statement resonated with him to some degree. Her gaze soon flickered almost back to him as she huffed a defeated sigh and her shoulders slouched, "Whaatt haapened ta aus?"

The black-hooded Reaper was almost tempted to answer, but from the way she had been reacting negatively to that so far, he simply chose to hold his tongue for now. He inhaled deeply to gather himself, merely shedding her a glance as he remained still, to indicate he was not going to interrupt her via his body language.

He brought his hands to his lap and clasped them quietly while Andy, on the other hand, slowly drew the rest of her face back to him. She was blinking slowly before she finally spoke again, her voice having lost its usual intensity for a saddened subtlety, "Eif aI haatted yaa… aI waorldn'tt haave hurlt the sheitt. AI dedn't think, aI shaott." Her gaze took on a hardness as her lips curled down; her gritted teeth slightly showed. "Thaatt's whaatt haapened when aI saaw yaa. Yaa aahrren'tt leike that… yaa waorldn'tt jaust lrett him dao thaatt."

Bowing his head after he faced forward again, the Harrier sighed, "It… it was my fault..." Andy's attention was on him the longer he tapered on his confession, which made it all the more harder for him to finish when he had, "I delayed myself from leaving, so I suffered the consequences of ignoring my gut because I'm too curious as fuck for my own good." He offered a loose bittersweet smile. "What sucks more is that it wasn't just some stranger off the street. At least, for me, I didn't realize he wasn't a stranger... He came out about us sharing the same Game Week."

The dirty blonde cocked her head with a bemused grimace and he merely turned his gaze up as he frowned. "He was one of our fellow Players who hated my 'life choice'. He was stalking me this whole time after he got his Second Chance, Andy."

"Whaatt!?" As he let her cry soak up his dreary thoughts, he couldn't help but half-close his eyes as his mind almost drifted back to that Day. He luckily didn't have that happen because Andy took up his attention. "He waas!?"

"Apparently, he was an unofficial fan of our work…" supplied the Harrier dryly with a sigh. "And when we were busy with our legalization, he took offence in the worst way possible." As he let his gaze travel back to the female Harrier, he went on wearily as he met her burning gaze, "He was the one responsible for killing former Players, Andy."

The Harrier let his head return to its normal level while he appraised how Andy's minacious expression was developing the longer the information was set out for her to soak in. He took this as blasély as one could be when something had stripped them of all their spirit. A part of him was threatening to break his faux calm right where he was sitting and he was all but clinging to his stoicism the more he stared at Andy.

When he figured that Andy was taking much too long to respond to the revelation, he spoke quietly to ease the conversation along, "He was trying to get my attention. And quite frankly, I think it worked."

"Wh-Why!?" finally came Andy's sputtered cry of contempt. In response, the Harrier didn't really convey anything as he knew Andy would probably have more to say. A part of him laughed that, after all the shit going down, he still knew what would turn her off or drive her crazy in such a time. But it wasn't about amusement, it was enlightenment that he was lucky to hold for himself. "S-Sao eit waas aah trlaap!?"

"One that I figured out much sooner than he had the time to act out," added the Harrier vapidly with a dip of his head. He curled his right hand as he sighed sadly, "I couldn't even do anything noteworthy…"

Andy suddenly grabbed his hand and it caused him to flinch in alarm. The Harrier wondered what she was doing until he realized that it was just a means meant to soothe him when she merely kept holding it, even though Andy should have known better than to do that. To him, he felt that if his earlier reaction to being grabbed raised flags, grabbing his hand should have been avoided entirely.

She waited until his hood faced her before she hissed out, "Thaatt aahsshaolle knew aahbaoutt aour waorlk!?"

"And he recognized me," said the Harrier flatly as squirming commenced in his chest when she incorrectly brought up that fact. "Which can only mean he may not be the only one who may." When Andy scrunched her face up at that, the Harrier felt obligated to give the answer to her nagging question. "So it seems walking out of what we've done in the past has been compromised."

"Ded yaa rleaalree fight baack?" Andy asked suddenly, which only made him rip his hand away from her. He turned his body away, adverting his gaze as long as he could before she spoke again but less enthused, "Yaa waantted ta die?"

"...Could you cut it out?" he asked wearily as he let his shoulders fall; hunched forward as he mumbled on, "Don't you realize that killing him wouldn't have meant anything? The Composer, not to mention the Posh Bastard, would have seen this as an act of defiance on my part for continuing what I started when it's the last thing they both want." He rolled his right shoulder in a half-shrug and miserably stared at the floor. "I'm not going to go back there and come clean about how I was a victim when all evidence would point to me seeking 'trouble' again. You two both explained to the Posh Bastard what happened… and he lets the same person go, even when the evidence was partially gifted to him... " He hung his head as he shook it. "No matter what I do now, he's only going to see anything I do as suspicious."

Andy didn't speak when he put that out there; she still hadn't even when he took the time to reflect on the truth. But after a while longer, she shifted before she did.

"Dao… dao yaa waantt him ta see yaa differrentrlee?" Andy posed the question in a lowered voice.

Automatically the Harrier's jaw moved to respond, only for him to stop entirely as he took the time to process what she actually said. Blinking bemusedly, his throat suddenly felt so dry that he almost felt like getting up to grab a glass of water to stall his response. However, as he kept that statement in mind, he soon widened his eyes.

"N-" He turned his head back to her in surprise. "...What?"

While her expression didn't give away what she may have been feeling right now, he couldn't help but feel her external reaction on the inside. It was hard to explain, or rather, hard to figure out what he wanted to come to an agreement about how he wanted to feel. Most of himself was baffled by the absurdity of that, but the rest of himself found something that stole his curiosity away. He soon slapped down the label that it wasn't curiosity, but rather it was of intrigue.

Composing himself as he clasped his hands again, upon musing further on the matter, he finally drew himself up to sit taller and cleared his throat. "It's not a matter of… that," he started lamely, knowing full well that he wasn't as prepared for approaching the topic as much as he would have liked. But he merely kept his gaze on Andy, trying to keep it steady as he explained with what he hoped was a more collected mien, "If you must know, the Posh Bastard speaks with the Composer. And if he's the one who speaks to the Composer, it's fair that anything reported to him will be reported to the Composer Himself."

Andy just shook her head. "The trluth."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I just told you, Andy."

She rolled her eyes and huffed, "Daon'tt give meh burlsheitt." She fixed him a pointed look. "Think."

The Harrier rolled his eyes as well and scoffed, "Honestly, why are you expecting something else?"

"AI jaust waant ta knaow whaat yaaw'ree rleaarlee thinking," she curtly told him as she crossed her arms. "Speitt eit aout."

"Argh, fine!" He raised his chin up and screwed up his face, sniffing for a few seconds before he grumbled, "Why would I want to change his mind when he'll never believe otherwise from me?"

Andy pursed her lips when he said that, her eyes slightly narrowing as she crossed her arms. "Yaa aahctauaarlee berlieve the Caompaoserr exists?"

"Yes!" he retorted as his previous anger flared up in him over her mentioning that. He threw his arms up in the air as he huffed in frustration, "How many times do I have to repeat myself!?"

"Aahnd yaa daon'tt waant ta kirl aahnee maorre Wrlaongdaoerrs?" she then asked in the same terse tone.

He nodded but narrowed his eyes, easily marking that question off as Andy trying to lead him towards something she wasn't going to just tell him like she should. "Your point?" he scoffed tartly.

The dirty blonde gave him a long look, inhaling through her nose before she finally breathed out, "Yaaw'rre naott…" She stopped, grimacing for a bit before she went on carefully, "Lrying ta meh... aahrre yaa?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" he crabbily asked and scowled in confusion, feeling his frown deepen.

Andy adopted a saddened expression, lowering her head promptly as she sighed, "Eit maakes nao sense."

Just as he was going to make a comment about that, he refrained from doing so and let himself think over what she said. To him, this whole conversation was full of twists and turns that only made him queasy, frustrated and angry… He knew Andy only intended to give him room for privacy to speak his mind, even if he was failing laughably at that. But having their talk veer off into this matter only brought a faint understanding to him.

The more he analyzed their earlier interactions and responses, the more he realized how apparent it was how much they didn't know how to interact with each other properly as they used to. Lament came to him upon recalling how, about over a month ago, they had no qualms or disputes. Everything came into place easily and he could almost say they were carefree- sans himself to some degree. But still carefree, he reminded himself. And what happened to what they had? It was meddled with and broken from their energy being focused upon achieving the legalization of Recruitment. All because of a drunk epiphany; raring to ensure it became a reality…

Closing his eyes, but keeping them barely open, he lowered his head as he stared at his hands. "It makes no sense because we were fools."

He was aware that Andy's head shot up, but he didn't take the time to look at her. The Harrier's frown wobbled as his eyelids shifted up momentarily before they were lowering again when he sighed, "We changed."

"...We haave," Andy agreed gently.

Grimacing, he didn't need long to mull over his realization and tightened his grip on his hands. "All of what we've done, all of what we hoped to achieve… It's gone." He didn't give Andy the opportunity to speak, turning his head to her as he mused sadly, "And now we're picking up the shattered pieces, having lost those pieces all because it went up in flames. It's hardly anything we can salvage… nor do I believe we can salvage ourselves over what we've been through."

Andy scowled; her amber-brown eyes were darkening when she growled, "Yaaw'rre the aone thaat eisn'tt putting aahnee effaorrt ein."

The Harrier narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Andy, I'm going to be frank with you." He lifted his chin and gave her a serious look. "I won't be killing another Wrongdoer." She opened her mouth, but he cut her off sharply, "I don't think I can even stomach the thought of going back to the Realground right now." He stood up, turning his body towards her completely as he then growled out bitterly, "And I'm set to be Erased from lack of effort on my part to keep my existence afloat because my meals I've been dieting is no longer an option I can pursue!" He whipped his arms up in the air and spat, "Don't even think twice about me lifting another finger for that anymore!"

"Sao yaa aahrre giving aup?" Andy frowned as her scowl remained on him.

"In other words, yes- That happens to be the answer I was looking for!" he cried out as he whipped around to walk stiffly to the other side of the room. The Harrier pivoted back to her, glowering as he waspishly continued, "I just can't do this, alright."

Andy's gaze moved away from him for half a minute before returning to him. Her lips were pursing as she pressed, "Whaatt aahbaoutt meh?"

"What about you?" He folded his arms as he retained his glower.

"Haow dao yaa feerl aahbaoutt meh daoing eit?" she asked in a measured tone. A part of it contained an edge to it as she regarded him with open sternness.

The Harrier frowned but answered flatly despite being off-kilter, "You're not supposed to be doing it."

"AI knaow, aI knaow…" She gave a big roll of her eyes before whisking her hand downward. "Bautt…" she drawled out as she cast an intentive look at him. "Eif aI'm daoing eit, aahnd aI'm aohkaay with daoing eit... " She gave a shrug with her arms and huffed, "Eis eit wrlaong then?"

Biting his lip straightaway, the Harrier tipped his chin down and grimaced. "I… I-I don't know."

"Eif aI keep daoing eit," she said intensely, rising to her feet as well and stepped closer to him as she raised an eyebrow. "Waourld yaa staop meh?"

The first thing the Harrier did was feel himself gulp. He didn't know what to think when Andy posed that question, despite knowing it was a perfectly logical one at that, as all he had to do was answer yes or no. But despite the simplicity of the situation, he discovered he couldn't find it in himself to decide on what to supply to Andy as his response.

It was a matter of his values, a matter of what he believed in… He kept his head down and refused to look at Andy as he dwelled upon what he could or couldn't say, thoroughly perplexed that he hadn't even given thought to the idea before. While he knew that he was against it when she suggested for them to continue after they read the Composer's response, now that he had time to actually process the subject, he wasn't certain about what to think of it. Before, it was an easy question when it pertained to him. But when it came to pertain to Andy… he found he couldn't settle on a clear answer for the life of him. However, in spite of that, he knew it was crucial he couldn't put this off to mull over later. This was something Andy needed to know now, not later, because this was too important to ignore in the grand scheme of things. And yet, despite his misgivings, he knew there was an answer he had been overlooking up to now. He had to work towards it with much needed logic to back it up so he wouldn't be indecisive anymore.

In order to come up with the answer, he had to not take the question at face value. Instead of seeing it as a yes or no, a question with scripted choices… he would need to twist and rephrase it to better consider it. And for that, it had to become a question to spark discussion; not finite solutions.

So if he were to think of the question as 'If I keep doing it, would you be able to stop me?', it would be an objective case to undergo solving. It wouldn't validate her feelings on the matter, when he took into account her desire to do it, and this wasn't about telling her he will stop her or not. It would have to become whether or not he should, could, or wanted to stop her, even to question his ability to cease her actions if he chose to or not, which made it all the more easier to debunk, break down and mull over.

If he thought he should stop her, he had no clue. If he thought he wanted to stop her, it wasn't an worthwhile ideal he would be able to undertake. However, if he thought he could stop her... it was something he could shed light upon.

A part of him did wonder if it was the best thing he could have decided on using. But in all fairness, he knew that Andy had her heart set on their work. If not for how she admitted it just now, it was from all the times he spent working alongside her to seal the deal. She had always been passionate about following his lead since they made the agreement to hunt together; the moment when they worked out a strategy for her to get fed and for him to have assistance on his runs to the Realground and back. Since he never looked too much into it, he never questioned why she accepted his ideology so quickly and easily. Just knowing that he had her support meant everything to him back then. But in retrospect, now that he could safely say that he wasn't going to be conflicted over his decision anymore, he could only wonder why Andy wasn't going to back out like he had.

On the top of his head, he couldn't figure out what was keeping her firm on her desire to continue.

He finally regarded her again, aware that she had been waiting on him throughout the time he struggled with this dilemma, and merely offered her a bland frown. "...I doubt I could."

The Harrier knew his answer was a delicate one at best. But nonetheless, it seemed to satisfy Andy. She adopted a small smile, losing the tension from her body as her gaze became less harsh and more friendly. In fact, if he thought it was a trick of the light, he could have missed the way she gave a muted sigh of relief.

As he uncrossed his arms, he felt his expression go neutral as he mused, "So you're going to keep doing it then."

The sparkle in Andy's gaze dulled a little, but it was still present as she gave a big nod. "Daamn strlaaightt."

"And what are you going to do now?" he asked hesitantly with curiosity, earning an odd look from Andy as she cocked her head to one side. He merely shoved his hands into his pockets as he mumbled, "Will you still…" He grimaced as his shoulders rose up stiffly. "Th-There's not really a reason for you to still talk to me, is there?"

He watched as Andy's eyes enlarged to the size of saucers, appearing as if he just walked over and slapped her. "Yaa daon'tt waant ta be frliends aahneemaorre!?"

"No, no..." He shook his head and offered her a bittersweet smile as he sighed wearily, "It's just that… let's be real-" He turned his head away and frowned again sadly, feeling a weight develop in his chest as he had to force himself to get the words out. "Other than the fact that we've been skimping out on your Japanese lessons, I'm going to be a boring guy to be around."

"What…!?" she cried out in disbelief, but he didn't have the courage to bring himself to look at her. "Why waourld yaa think thaatt!?"

He almost chuckled, as in he made the motion but nothing came out, and merely smiled in weak amusement over why Andy would say that. The moment he was done teaching her Japanese, she would have no reason to stick around him. It had to be the reason why she even cared to spend time with him other than chasing after him because of his ideology; it was that simple.

Upon hearing her approach him, he blinked in confusion only to turn his head too late because she grabbed his shoulders to turn him around. It nearly made his hood slide off, but that was only half his concerns as he dazedly faced the dirty blonde, who had an intense look on her face. 'What is it now?'

"Risten ta meh," she said sternly. Her gaze flickered with an unknown emotion, her lips were pinched and she didn't wait too long before squeezing his shoulders as she spoke again, "Whille yaaw'rre aohkaay with reaaving meh, aI'm naott gaoing ta jaust rett mah best frliend waarlk aahwaay becaause he thinks he's nao rlaongerr gaood enaough faolr his best buud Aandee."

The Harrier couldn't be more baffled but nodded with uncertainty. "You do realize I'll just be rotting away while you barely escape being lectured by the Posh Bastard for now on, right?"

"Dao yaa waant ta raott?" Andy asked shrewdly as she narrowed her eyes.

The black-hooded Reaper looked away uneasily, hesitating momentarily. "N-No, not really..."

"Then yaa gaoing ta be aah zaombie aahnd naott faade aon meh!" With a glint in her eyes, she nodded before finally releasing him. She gave him a thumbs up as she added brightly, "Becaause eif yaa faade, aI'rl jaust drlaag yaa aaass baack auntirl yaa daon'tt aahneemaorre!"

"Who says I will be Erased?" he scoffed snippily as he rolled his eyes. He massaged his shoulders in the meantime as he stared her down before he did so in amusement, soon blinking as he finished his comeback, "I'm slippery as an eel, so your inference is heavily flawed, my friend."

Andy's smile became a wolfish grin in seconds as she laughed heartily. He had expected for her to add on to his comeback, but he found he was just content with hearing her laugh like that. He soon came to realize he hadn't even heard her laughter in such a long time. It must have been so long that he felt that from how much they lost touch, the simple beauty of a laugh had almost become extinct as a lost treasure to the world. He couldn't help but feel himself smile as well, even though it was more subdued than hers.

The start of warmth entering his chest was foreign until he realized it was something familiar and almost forgotten to him as well while he stood with his friend. But in spite of how he felt, one half of him didn't allow for him to lose the tension from his body, as his thoughts stubbornly stuck to things that he had yet to let go of and those resting heavy on his mind. It frustrated him as much as it saddened him that he couldn't bring himself to feel less shitty when this moment was meant to be appreciated.

And that, in itself, was pretty depressing.

---

Years ago…

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"You wish to see your parents, dear?"

The twelve-year-old hated how he paused in his eating when he heard that. With his eyes stretched wide, he fought against letting the rice and sauce in his mouth fall out. 'P-Parents?'

His father, on the son's right, merely scooped up another helping of his curry and held it in his spoon. His gaze was solely concentrated on it. "I have not seen them in years, Amaiya…"

The boy's mother raised her nose with a weariness. "The last we saw of them was at our wedding… Should they not have visited us first? After all the letters we sent over the years?"

As his father inclined his head towards her, his gaze seemed unreadable to the twelve-year-old. "Running a textile shop can exempt them of their silence. If they were free to see us be bound in hand, that is a mere courtesy they were blessed to have."

For a while the twelve-year-old blinked again, only to flinch when his mother chided, "Food is meant to be swallowed, my son. Do you not know your manners?"

He hastily let the sticky, slimey mush slide down his throat, uneasily noticing how his father was now chewing on his food slowly while casting his blasé eyes on the boy coolly. Then when he met his mother's stern yet irritated chocolate orbs, he shrank under them and jitterly brought his quivering chopsticks to his bowl with a heavy feeling in his chest now.

Their son kept his head low as he quietly munched on his food obediently, trying not to let himself feel hurt when his parents turned back to each other wordlessly. 'L-Lousy… I-I know better than that.'

The black-haired woman inhaled before murmuring again, "And why now of times do you want to visit them?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Gotorutsu's kin have advocated to help them during the busy season," came his father's measured breath. His gaze half-closed and his lips flattened as he continued meticulously, "While they had not by any means shelved me nor ended my services, on their behalf... they had suggested I should take the week to rest."

"And they had not fired you?"

The twelve-year-old nearly winced at that.

"They merely want my energy to be at its prime when the season reaches its peak." His father shook his head. "Only wanting me to have my reprieve." His eyes focused on his hardly eaten dinner; the son couldn't be more concerned when he compared it to his two-thirds empty plate. "They believe I have been much too weary as of late… even though I am perfectly capable of accomplishing my duties at the kobini."

His mother sharply placed her spoon down right away with a scowl. "You have no reason to be asked to step aside."

"I perfectly understand your concerns, dear," he crisply sniffed as he frowned; his head held high as he sighed, "But alas, they may prove to have a point. I cannot run myself down to exhaustion, lest I want to be defibrillated."

Before the boy knew it, his mother leaned over the table to clasp his ears with her hands; a peeved look flashing through her narrowed eyes. The son could only blink in bewilderment as his mother scathingly whipped her head to his father and began to say something to him, something she didn't want her son to hear while his father regarded her with crossness. Even as the son frowned, he didn't voice his thoughts and tried to not appear to be interested in what they were conveying between each other. If his mother was blocking his hearing, the son probably had no reason to be invested in learning what he was missing.

The moment her hands uncovered his achy ears, the son was trying his best not to grimace at the pain as he returned to eating. Maybe if he finished sooner and excused himself to do homework, perhaps it would give his parents the room to not filter themselves in front of him. After all, he wasn't part of this. Being able to be forgotten was for the best.

As he worked to do that, he tried concentrating on his curry and rice despite failing to not overhear the hissing of their sharply hushed exchange...

Upon feeling a weight land on his shoulder, he flinched, nearly flicking rice accidentally at his mother (but thankfully not.) He brought his widened eyes over to his less tense father and he wasn't expecting to see a warm smile on the man's face, wondering anxiously if he missed a shared joke as he stared back stunned.

As he felt his father's fingers curl firmly to remain constant in his awareness, the son parted his lips in confusion soon before his father murmured, "We will be visiting Kyoto before the end of March on your school break." Blinking in surprise at that, the younger said nothing as his father's hand shook his son's shoulder once. "Make sure you study hard before then and do not be distracted by it, my son."

Nodding small, the boy kept his head low when he quietly mumbled, "Y-Yes, Father…"

As his father's hand was withdrawing, the boy's stomach was already squirming as his legs felt like ramen noodles. But before he could focus on trying to figure out how quickly he could accomplish what his father asked of him, he watched his father in confusion as the older male was starting to stand up. He immediately flicked his eyes to his father's dinner as the man was padding off to their bedroom.

Only two-thirds remained...

---

To be continued... hope you enjoyed the chapter! =D

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EeveeGen9988: Hello, it looks like Part 7 has finally come out! *shoots confetti everywhere*

I had meant for this chapter to come out sooner, but considering how we had a modem problem that delayed my progress on the chapter entirely for a week, I had to use another week to get the job done (because I couldn't edit without Wi-Fi). I hope no one minded it. *sweatdrops*

Part 8 and Part 9 should be harder and will take longer to get through, so Part 8 might come out in three weeks or more from now but we'll see. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed your read and took multiple reading breaks! =D

*takes the time to sweep up the confetti to use for next time*

Fun Fact - The name of the chapter originally was going to be chosen from multiple different names and I eventually settled on Mr Straggler. However, just as I finished editing the whole chapter, I cringed on the inside and wondered if that was actually the best name. So after a quick search I realized I could name this chapter Mr Survivor instead, after the fact that not only did MR Protag survive being caught again and survive his second death and deal with the aftermath of his second death this chapter, he survived other situations in this chapter such as when he had to lie to Michito. Cheesy, sure, but it felt like a better chapter title. ;D

Fun Fact - Michito's name was originally going to be Mitsuru, but then I found Michito's name and felt it was a better fit.

Fun Fact - I totally forgot to write one thing before editing but I quickly wrote up what was missing. Might have been around 1494 words before the editing of the missing part was finished.

And speaking of that, it looks like you found and unlocked it! =D

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PREVIOUS LETTER THREAD CONTENT [SUCCESSFULLY] RETRIEVED

DATE_OF_CREATION = 1/30/55/PM/SUN/18/JUNE/1975

THREAD_TYPE = [PRIVATE]=[HM to KF]

ENTRY_NO = 48159078

LOG_NAME = MsCFHL

DOCUMENT_ALIAS = Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry 48159078

INCOMING RESPONSE [SUCCESSFULLY] RETRIEVED

DATE_OF_RETRIEVAL = 9/30/44/PM/SUN/22/JUNE/1975

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Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry 48159078
DOCUMENT CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Ms. Fukuhashi,

For some reason I accidentally deleted the earlier Letter Thread on my end, so I had to create a new one. I hope you don't mind, I was so scared about how you would react!

Anyways, I wanted to just check in on how I was doing with my previous report. Before I lost access to the previous one, I had this feeling what I was saying didn't make sense and I just wanted to know if you think they're not as bad as my mind is making them out to be!

So... if you could get back to me, I would really appreicate it!

Please don't tell me my gut was right,
Hiraku Maeda

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Response #1KF to Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry #48159078
RESPONSE CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Mr. Maeda,

Other than the fact that your grammar and spelling is still abysmal, I was pleased to see that your formatting came out properly the last two times. The Secret Document, on the other hand, is riddled with holes of accuracy. Whether or not you wanted to get the job done faster, it should not impact your judgement to botch the integrity of the information you supply to me, Hanekoma, and the Master.

As much as I despise what I am about to suggest, would you care for me to point out and explain what exactly you had not gotten right?

Do not make me regret asking this,
Kotone Fukuhashi

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Response #1HM to Response #1KF to Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry #48159078
RESPONSE CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Ms. Fukuhashi,

I'm so sorry about how I write things but I'm glad you are able to see the formatting!

It's riddled with holes!? I thought I had everything right, please tell me what I didn't do right so I don't do it again (but probably will but hopefully not soon)!

Scared about the fedback,
Hiraku Maeda

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Response #2KF to Response #1HM to Response #1KF to Maeda's Cry For Help Logs - Entry #48159078
RESPONSE CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS

Dear, Mr. Maeda,

I am certainly pleased you acknowledge that you wish to proceed with this, even though I feel I should be devoting my time to other matters in the Higher Grounds. Nonetheless, I will tolerate you for the duration of looking at where you fell short.

For my first criticism, inciting that the Composer purposefully allows for mistakes such as Composition errors should not be expressed in a Document. Whether or not the Composer is aware of this, it is in your best interests to not be perceived to be working against the Composer but rather working with the Composer. After all, relations with the Composer and Shibuya herself should not be tested, especially if it will be interpreted as slander. And although it is fair to consider it in a Document devoted to the subject, I strongly suggest you do not put in needless thoughts you have during your writings. Do not be surprised, your previous Documents have these occurring too much for my liking. Please consider not adding in subjective information as it will distract the readers, as it creates bias that should be beneath your status as a Rule Master as well as implying it influences your duties.

I would also like to suggest that you do not sign off only to add another Document to the Document you are currently working on. You could have made the second topic into a follow-up report as a supplement, which would have been acceptable as Stasis is a complex matter that is indeed linked to Processing and the delicate proceedings of shaping Composition. As such, I feel my complaints will mainly encompass the Stasis portion of your Document, seeing as the rushed nature is where the errors chiefly lie.

For example, do not, under any circumstance, use my name as a means to cover up your inability to showcase your lack of surety or lack of development of what you write. If you are not understanding what I am talking about, refer back to the 'I'll leave it up to Fukuhashi for now'. I cannot help but express my offence you would slack on parts of your explanations by implying I can shield you for what you can or cannot express to the best of your ability. While I cannot express what the Master expects from you, I will express that you will cease such comments in the future or I will utilize my influence against you without hesitation.

If you understand the following above, please proceed to the next paragraph.

It would be well-advised for you to follow up on the types of emotions these 'Yellow Noise' pursue. Knowing that there is a new breed of Noise may be vital to look into and research the development of as the Composer handles the manifestation. The Master may be intrigued by your findings.

I would also like you for to know that your indication that only the Officer Reapers, Conductor, and Composer can use Stasis is not entirely correct. Unless you were talking about the Stasis where you Process the dead into the Dead, then please fact check and indicate which kind of Stasis you are talking about before you submit such claims for the future. It will contradict what you are writing and cause unnecessary confusion, so I urge you to be mindful of your explanations.

Your theory of whether or not Reapers can use Stasis on each other in the Realground is fascinating, however, do know that it is forbidden. If such has occurred then that implies the Composer has willingly allowed for it to occur. It interferes with the Feedback of Existence if Reapers willingly go to the Realground only for them to die and be brought back safely without paying heed to the consequences, as you can imagine that it is an exemplification that defies 'death' itself. To forever exist would be ideal, nonetheless it cannot be.

As you may know, as the Conductor founded this system, Reapers can bring themselves back from the brink of Erasure if their 'Reaper Points' they collected for themselves are substantial enough. But if it is not, and the Reaper is 'starving' or near 'starving' from lack of Reaper Points, then the Reaper cannot stop the completion of their Erasure, which is different than experiencing death a second or more times in the Realground. Therefore, if any Reapers are responsible for this or are willingly allowing for themselves to be subjected to dying multiple times and are brought back without reparation, they should in turn face the consequences of their decision in the future in some way to make up for their judgement. You can imagine the lengths the Composer would have to go through if the Composer had to alter the Realground denizens' memories constantly if they were seeing the same Reaper die twenty times.

However, I cannot help but feel to talk about, if I were to feed into your theory, what could happen if Reapers hypothetically Processed themselves out from dying again.

If a being who had been previously Processed experiences it again in a semblance of circumstances, that being if they were to die and be Processed again, one out of two outcomes should 'occur.' The first outcome I believe would be if they experience this, their Frequency should be reverted back to one akin to a Player's. As the necessary Notes for becoming Reapers is controlled by the Conductor, tampering with it unless the person is a trained Processor would guarantee that the Reaper would lose their Reaper Frequency and Composition's Notes to remain a Reaper. As for the second outcome, I believe repeated Processings would not refine the Soul from tweaking the Composition but instead cause undue damages. It would likely put strain on the Composition and could even cause a fractured Composition or a broken Psyche, causing physical strains or even psychological strains respectively on the Reaper, if we do not count the trauma to the Soul because of the death itself or events leading to it.

Do not expect me to comment further, as I established these are hypothetical outcomes to your theory.

Finally, as for the naming conventions of Stasis, it indeed was an old term used before the current Composer came into power. In fact, the Composer has probably kept the term instead of renaming or reestablishing the types of Stasis, like Reaper ranks, out of sentimental nostalgia from using it in that period of time before and after the Composer's Ascension happened. Although I believe confusion over the singular term for different circumstances is understandable, it is best to not question the Composer's desires to use such a term in multiple ways. If the Composer chooses to change the term one Day, then it will happen that Day.

Other than that, I believe the areas I talked about are sufficient for you to study and learn from. If you have any questions, please ask so we have no miscommunications in the future.

Please take away something from my feedback,
Kotone Fukuhashi