Andy's Secret

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

Written for: Twelve Shots of Summer: Eleventh Hour - Week 5

- 1975 -

Andy flexed her hands after the flare of light vanished, already feeling the glare of the Japanese man she was stuck being tugged along after getting away from the odd-limbed monsters again. She could only offer a grimace when he said something unintelligible; it was so frustrating! No matter how much Andy wrote on her whiteboard in English, he pretended to not read it and kept throwing useless Japanese at her.

The dark dirty blonde already spent six days with this jerkwater asshole. She didn't know what was happening for six days. She was so done with this shit. If she hadn't been wasted before ending up here, she would have known why things were suddenly drastically different in wherever she was in Tokyo.

Bloodthirsty 'animals' with odd limbs attacked her. Red-hooded winged hunters stabbed her palm every day with a timer after handshakes. Walls would randomly appear and slice at her skin without evidence between locations. She couldn't leave the boundaries of Shibuya no matter how hard she charged at the invisible barricades that also hurt her just as much...

But that paled in comparison to the whole thing with people vanishing and not coming back! How some came out together while some scrambled to find new companions or the hunters would strike them down! It was crazier than finding a skunk that you could only poke a stick at the in hopes of scaring the fluffy-tailed animal off only for the skunk to decide to get up and start to play with the damn stick like the stupid mammal wasn't offended by the stick!

If the Japanese people could just speak to her in English like they should have when she moved here, then Andy wouldn't have a problem!

She instinctively drew out from under her armpit her whiteboard her parents gave her and fumed as she started curling her wipeable marker across its smudged surface. She stuck out her tongue in concentration before raising the board up, not caring she didn't spell everything out right, whilst facing it outward to her companion lacklustrely as she grumbled to herself.

SOLW DOWN! JUST HELPP ME ALREADYY!

The man she was with didn't even look back at her as he scoffed something to himself and walked off. Andy merely kept her whiteboard raised a little while longer before she ultimately lowered it out of bitterness.

As the dark dirty blonde grumpily stalked after the man, she used the time to smear away the dark lines with her right hand. Once she had, she idly rubbed her fingers on the same hand against each other before deciding to not bother with it longer, even though her skin felt irritable with the marker coating it.

She slid the whiteboard snugly against her arm and side in her right armpit as she fought to catch up. She didn't like it when she didn't know anything; she didn't like it when people looked down on her… She could always roll with the insults, but when the insults involved not understanding what was being said, it boiled her blood badly.

But, she told herself snippily, she just had to wait for whatever was happening to be over. Clearly the others were going crazy with how they ran around to random locations and did specific things each day. However, considering Andy's inability to work with her companion, it wasn't like Andy could nail the homerun with everyone she met… or understand what homerun she was supposed to shoot for. She quite enjoyed having rivalries with people she disliked so long as she didn't make enemies too often, but having to deal with the asshole was unbearable when nothing meaningful could be swapped between them.

…However, not many people liked her here. It almost made her feel like she should have run away the day her parents moving them back to Tokyo by plane, so everything in her life wouldn't have been uprooted and fucked over from losing what she had in good Riverside, California.

Upon turning a corner in the streets, Andy had stopped long before the Japanese man had to spot the yellow-hooded hunter, identical to the others who kept chasing them around all this time. She already saw them pulling out a paper before fat globules came out of it to fall onto the pavement, morphing threateningly as it started to do what should have been the unthinkable.

But by now, Andy had learnt the hunters weren't the ones to trust, as the Japanese man she was with cried out in terror from being directly in front of the gaping jaws of an armless navy dragon with a crimson-to-black head, fangs, tail, and limbs that had materialised finally.

Andy's first thought was to cower back, in spite of knowing what came next.

However, as the dragon's gradiented fangs were about to contact her companion… Andy's next thought was how badass the monster was.

The dark dirty blonde knew by now that she shouldn't be excited at the thought of seeing a thing that could make her disappear like everyone else, but the thrill pumped through her blood. It created a motivation unlike any other as she was thrust into a new location via a blinding cascade of light before she was cast alone again in her new surroundings.

Another thing to question was why she was separated from her companion each time they were attacked, but Andy merely tossed her whiteboard aside without hesitation, knowing it would somehow reappear with her once she was out of there.

With a big grin as the pins on her pale green tank top glinted in the early March sunlight, she whipped out a gun out of thin air and promptly belted out bullets at the monster once It came into focus in her vision.

Some called her stupid. Some called her careless. But how else should you react over time when the initial shock fell away and you understood how fucking cool it was you could be an almighty badass with a gun without the Japanese scolding you for having one on yourself!?

Owning a gun was okay in America, so Andy wasn't going to punch the gift horse in the mouth over having the excuse to fucking use one again!

The armless drake screamed out distortedly in bestial anger at the fact It was being retaliated against, but Andy didn't dare to stand still. She instinctively adapted to Its immediate response to charge, rolling into a kneeling position to dodge Its strike to shoot off bullets. After they struck Its scales, her attacks visibly started to chill the air as frost started to fan out on Its huge form from where her projectiles met their mark. Then, as swiftly as she had shot, Andy thrust herself to her feet and leapt back to aim another round of bullets midair.

A satisfied grin stretched across her ecstatic face during the freefall as she whooped with a boisterous laugh at the drake's blatant misery. However, once Its attention was pulled from her after she landed soundly, suddenly spasming randomly, Andy knew her companion must have been attacking from wherever he was spat out to. She hummed in disappointment and merely twisted and swung her firearm idly to adjust her grip before raising the scope up, lining it in order to get her summoned weapon into a good position for one last round of shots while the opportunity was still possible…

Then, as she observed how the navy-scaled drake roared and stopped shaking on the spot, Andy's intent wavered as the monster's empty eye slot shifted in shape before growing smaller as the mighty beast's head stilled in one direction.

From all the stories Andy experienced in America, watching cartoons and reading books about awesome, cool fire-breathing dragons… she could never be too sure how a dragon was supposed to react to prey. Some of the ones would speak in the funny adaptations she saw; some would be nothing but a brainless brute, as this one was. But it wasn't hard to tell that whatever the Japanese man did, it really pissed off the armless dragon. And now, Andy was certain that unless Andy broke Its concentration, her companion would probably meet his demise and vanish like the others who went missing.

Yet still… Andy didn't move a muscle. She remained motionless. Her amber-brown eyes narrowed in thought, as something occurred to her.

After all of the times she was notably screamed at, ignored, and her whiteboard's pleas were neglected, she wasn't so sure if that man deserved her mercy. As much as she hated going to church and listening to preaches about God every Sunday, forced by the religious schools her parents originally enrolled her in as she graduated each one, and especially forced by her parents because Andy couldn't hold a job to her name but her parents wouldn't let her move out to room with her friends out of their distrust for her wellbeing, Andy knew for a fact that she had no reason to play to God's favour and grace today.

In fact, she found that the more she had to sit and waste her morning hearing of His praise, the more it sounded like a sham. It was utterly shabby how she learnt to pray to someone who she couldn't even meet in person. Her parents always scolded her whenever she gave a penny for her thoughts, but what use was there to believe in a person Andy couldn't see or speak to for herself? It had to be some garbage some crazy moron came up with. It had to be, because no matter how much Andy tried to weigh in on believing, she had no shitty revenue for her patronage in return.

If He truly did exist, Andy wouldn't have been trapped in Tokyo. She never wanted to be shipped out to here in the first place. She shunned her real name for bullshit's sake because of how much she hadn't wanted to have been born Japanese!

Her parents moved to America when she was an infant, why couldn't they have just stayed there!? Things were perfect until Andy came to Japan and drunk her sorrows away daily until she wandered out onto the road in the middle of the night only to wake up here.

Therefore, as she thought she faintly caught the panicked yells of the Japanese man, she gradually lowered her gun, slackly pointing it to the ground and in front of her red boots. She chose to close her eyes briefly for a mockery of a prayer, soon scowling to herself as she coldly watched the armless dragon lunge with a ferocious bellow of Its lungs before It swung Its head to the ground and was wildly snapping Its fangs.

The moment It raised Its head and she felt Its seemingly empty eye sockets meet her gaze, she remembered that she was also being targeted.

Jilting her calm for alarm, Andy unsteadily raised her firearm again and aimed, her thumb unsteadily moving to press against the trigger to will for her attack to strike true to take It out. However, at the lack of boom and the noticeable nothingness of the recoil, Andy grimaced and suddenly thought to look into the gun barrel. But with all of the lessons of gun safety she was taught by her friends back home, you'd be dead sooner than if you had distractedly walked off a cliff from being that irresponsible.

At the lack of resistance the oddly-limbed creature had to approach her, Its crimson-to-black coloured fangs glistening from the saliva that dribbled out from Its gaping maw, Andy felt a pall fall over her. Her gun slipped out of her failing grasp, only to break into green particles as the monster loomed closer. Was the Japanese man returning the favour? Was Andy being jinxed because the asshole resented her foul play? Andy didn't care what his excuse was, because it wasn't going to save her from being the drake's next meal!

Its body went rigid, ready to lunge again-

Andy immediately raised her hands to her head, out of trepidation that she was going to be devoured-

Blood roared through her ears just as everything darkened around her-

Then she blinked stiltedly in her panic at the fact that she was back in the streets of… Udagawa? If that was the name of the street she memorised correctly.

To say she was clueless as she was lowering her arms was nothing compared to how chilling it was to faintly register how the yellow-hooded hunter was giving a kiss to his paper before pocketing it. Or how he soon was applauding her as his male voice cackled callously.

Andy whipped her head to him as her hands clutched her whiteboard to her chest. Her widened eyes took in how the winged hunter soon paused to tap at his left palm, before his right index drew across his neck almost smugly.

With a blink, Andy stood by herself for a bit before she eventually drew up her left palm gradually after transferring her whiteboard fully into her right hand. If it wasn't apparent enough that something was up, with how she wasn't with her companion anymore, or how the ground was also speckled with the little pins that they'd been using to purchase items, or that a powdery ball of matter humming with energy was hovering close to her right bare-skinned arm, then it wasn't hard for herself to become startled at how she had attained yet another timer.

Unlike the ugly scarlet-red one that the red-hooded hunters kept burning into their hands each day, Andy was met with the sight of inky-black numbers counting down from six minutes and three seconds. She felt her jaw fall loosely upon seeing it, soon lifting her eyes back to the person as he was padding up and reaching out for the matter beside her.

All in an instant, the moment it was absorbed into his hand, she knew exactly what had happened.

Andy promptly twisted her head around in a panic, feeling her mind whirl as she knew she was fucked. She hadn't remembered that losing that asshole meant she would be preyed upon outside of battle- or correlated that she wouldn't be able to battle without them-

Or known that a fucking new timer would be branded onto her left palm to count down to her demise!

Shit, this was the worst time to find this out! The other people without wings weren't nearby, but she did see them go off somewhere further north.

She sped off straight away, her eyes darting back to her palm she kept upward to keep watch of it as she cursed at the fact that she was losing time. She already noticed what happened to those who hopped around like rabbits who couldn't stop bouncing because they were scared shitless- They would vanish again and another of those winged hunters would swoop in and reap whatever it was that appeared after people went missing-

Upon stopping at the sight of normal people, Andy swivelled on the spot desperately, glancing around in the hopes of seeing another person who was on their lonesome like her. But the two pairs she saw were full- she realised early on that you couldn't have three to a team or whatever they were to each other. And those two pairs of Japanese people were busy with whatever it was they were busy with-

Then, upon revolving around as her wired thoughts unravelled into despair, she spotted someone sitting on a bench. Not only that, they were alone for the first time.

Without even having to ponder about it, she already recognized him. It was hardly difficult when Andy had seen a majority of examples happen to him already. The person who was always wearing a black hoodie with the oversized hood on, currently clinging to his head and hunching on the spot as he silently quivered.

Marching right toward him, Andy didn't hesitate to draw out her whiteboard and write out briskly in English. She didn't know if this person would snub her like everyone else had, but she had no time to think-

She had to slap herself on to him and bear through whatever happened next.

Throughout the time Andy had been here, this person had quite a history. Andy couldn't deny she was intrigued the moment this person constantly started to become surrounded by different people every time she looked back at him. By the fourth day she was here, the others started to avoid whoever was with him and the guy himself, always casting unnerved or furious looks at him, so something unique must have been occurring. Whatever it was, Andy wasn't too sure, but she knew she couldn't weigh the positives against the negatives right now when the possibility of vanishing was ticking down ever so menacingly on her hand…

Once she reached him, whipping up her whiteboard as she felt her hands shake after glimpsing how she had three minutes left, she almost felt annoyed when the person didn't look at it. He was breathing shallowly, almost swaying on the bench as he curled more in on himself.

Andy couldn't believe she was being ignored again. She couldn't believe the only other person existing that she could link up with was ignoring the person right in front of him that he needed currently. It pissed her off, but Andy couldn't argue that her dread was overshadowing it completely with what was at stake right now. It was only a miracle she was able to pair up with her original companion despite their inability to communicate, but nods apparently worked to do the trick as Andy had accidentally done it in the first place. Maybe if she was sneaky enough, she could ask a question in English and grab the person's head to make him nod for himself as he still wasn't even looking at her.

If Andy hadn't had a split second to have a murderous thought back in the fight she lost her companion in, she wouldn't be in this mess. It wasn't like she didn't know this would have happened, but Andy didn't feel an ounce of regret for letting the companion of hers go away, even though she felt she should have with how dire things started to become.

It was only until the person in the black hoodie drew out his left hand with an inky-black timer and inclined his hood in that direction that Andy lost her patience entirely.

Just as he was exhaling out shakily, his hood not budging from its terrible position, Andy stepped closer without caring about the consequences. She smacked her hand harshly on his right shoulder then withdrew swiftly to see he didn't even react to that. However, seconds passed until the person ever so slowly brought his hood forward finally, allowing for Andy to thrust her whiteboard out so he could finally see her message.

We need to group up!

Andy almost wanted to grimace at how painfully long it was taking for the other person to respond. She was starting to hear her palm tick as she became aware that his left palm was doing the same but louder. But, in the end, she stilled as she heard him mumble shyly, "...H-Hai."

Hai? Her brain immediately defaulted to register that he was saying hello to her on instinct, but then she reminded herself that it had to mean something else.

Nearly every time her parents greeted someone since they got to Japan, they never said 'hai'; it was some other gibberish Andy was too determined not to learn. It initially made Andy know that she shot herself in the foot when she continuously refused to learn her birth language because no one else spoke it in America, especially when her parents offered throughout childhood even before she got to Tokyo. However, Andy wasn't going to berate herself right now as she blinked thankfully at the sight of a shower of lights flashing around them to seal the deal.

She immediately sagged in relief as the irritating ticking went mute, almost slumping to the ground had she not used her core leg strength to dig her boots in the ground to steady herself. But the moment she could see her new companion again, she fully expected that he would get up and walk off without her now that things could go back to the status quo…

"...Alre you arlight?"

Blinking once, then twice, then staring in disbelief at the male on the bench, Andy felt her jaw drop at the fact that he spoke in English. It wasn't the best English even though he was mostly fluent, Andy's mind provided in disgruntlement, but she could hardly believe her ears as she felt herself stuttering as the hooded person kept his head up whilst staring at her.

At least, it seemed blatant that he was, as he sounded unsure when speaking again, "I-Is this okay? I-I know you can't tark to my rangradge, so… I thought maybe you'd be more comfoltabre healring Engrish." He put his hand on his covered nape, and she thought she saw either brown or green flash from behind the cover of the oversized hood. "But is it okay…?"

Andy wanted to break his spine with how hard of a hug she was prepared to give him. So the Japanese could speak English!? They were capable of speaking English and yet she was now encountering the very first instance of it!?

Her eyes welled up fiercely but she tried to remain strong from her overwhelming elation. Luckily, she managed to breathe out wetly without releasing her tears, "Th-Thank fuck… you're not like that asshole…"

The person flinched before he remained quiet. Andy wasn't sure what that meant, but then he slowly replied, almost sounding as if he was grimacing through his tone, "Wh-Why wourld… I-I be?" Was he testing out his vocabulary? Despite knowing his English was clear enough that Andy could mostly understand him, it was evident that he could understand her back. And that, in itself, was good enough for her. He didn't need fancy words to let her know they were standing on level ground now. "I-I know evelyone's harlder on you, but who are you tarlking about?"

Andy snorted in amusement before she closed her eyes. She knew she should respond; she was quite honestly overjoyed that she could hold a conversation for the first time in nearly a week. Not only that, she couldn't help but maybe think letting her companion fall was the best thing she could have done for herself. However, the shaggy-haired woman knew she didn't know this person. If she so much as revealed that she let her previous companion vanish, it might make this new person suspicious of her. In fact, she didn't know if she could fully trust this person's exuberance as he continued to gaze at her from behind his oversized hood.

Whilst ruminating over the situation, Andy couldn't help but realise she was the only one who truly knew what happened to her companion. She was certain the winged hunter hadn't seen the verdict outside of collecting the powdery matter, given how she never saw the hunter during the fight. Therefore, she knew that while she had gained freedom, it was at the expense of that asshole's disappearance out of Andy's choice to not save him.

So maybe, just maybe… Andy's secret would be safe for now. None would be the wiser if she never let it slip.

A grin gradually grew on her face as Andy tucked her whiteboard under her right arm again. Then, before her new companion could question her again, Andy chirped, "Y'all haven't spoken English at all since I moved here! It's made me madder than a person who caught their foot on fire!"

Her companion cringed before immediately tipping his head at that. "B-But… wouldn't they tly to avoid that…?" His voice came out shaky and his breathing grew uneven while his body trembled suddenly.

Oh yeah, that's right… Her parents lectured her before their plane arrived in Japan to be clear with whatever she said to strangers in Tokyo. Apparently they often interpreted sarcasm as fact or were confused by ironic statements because they took them at face value. Even though her dad scolded her for thinking about making fun of the stereotype, Andy knew unless she explained what she really meant, this person wouldn't get it.

"Doesn't matter! It's a thing from America!" Andy responded gleefully, to which the person inhaled deeply and relaxed a little.

"So peoplre from the Americas… intentionalry buln their feet occasionally enough to tarlk about it?" mused the black-hooded person in bafflement. He unsteadily breathed out shortly after as he put a hand over his face, "Or, wheleverr you were befole Shibuya…?"

Ah… Shibuya… So was that the name of this place?

"No," Andy scoffed before she rolled her eyes. "Forget about it." She immediately took a seat beside him, causing him to inch away from her like a skittering spider. Andy almost frowned at that yet shoved her hands over her knees as she leaned her head close to him excitedly. "So tell me…" Her smile remained on point as she blinked, knowing now was the time to press for information. "What the fuck is happenin'?"

The person merely shrank away from her more. He even scooted his body further until he was on the end of the bench as he bashfully spoke again, "L-Light, y-you woulrdn't know." After a deep inhale, he lifted his head as he mumbled on, "Today's another mission, and I don't know how many missions we'rl get… But it's not rike we'rl mostly go on foleverr- so I think we'rle heading crose to the end of something else. Or at least, I hope we are. Or maybe there's…"

Andy's smile threatened to fall yet she merely strengthened it. Not enough to alarm the other, but tried to make herself more friendly as she finally withdrew enough to give him breathing room. She was well aware that her actions may have been disarming, so it wouldn't do to make the only other person who spoke her language uncomfortable.

Blinking as she smoothed out her face, adjusting herself so she wasn't looming over him as she relaxed her hands, the dark dirty blonde hummed out casually, "Is that why we've been walkin' so much that our feet will fall off?"

"What? Our feet won't farl…" Her companion trailed off and was silent for a few seconds. When he spoke again, he breathed out brightly with a small chuckle as he raised a finger up, "Oh! Is this a figule of speech flom whelre you flom?"

"Yep!" chirped Andy plainly. She was pleased he was finally catching on.

She watched in satisfaction as his shoulders drooped. He soon breathed out bashfully in relief, "Solry, this is filst time I've met an Enrish-speaker. I hope my Engrish isn't too lusty." Half a second later, he choked flusteredly before he stuttered in embarrassment, "I-I mean, rusty! D-Don't think I-I was finding you attlactive!"

Andy let herself snicker to herself at how his tongue kept messing up common words even though it was painful to listen to. She knew it was probably the wrong thing to do with how pathetic he was being, because her companion immediately facepalmed with a groan, "I'm very s-sorlee! I-I'm just sclewing things up- I-I'm making it awkward, a-and you don't need me to make things awkward-"

Wow. Just wow. Andy hadn't seen a guy this super awkward and bumbling through his words since students tried asking her to prom. Not that she stayed long at prom, since someone spiked the punch bowl early on and the teachers closed everything down when people got drunk, but she wasn't expecting this.

For a while, she was starting to actually think this guy was okay. But now, Andy knew there were better things to do than listen to his hopeless prattle. They already got off track from educating Andy on the situation, and that sounded like a better investment than alleviating her companion's mortification of his mispronunciation.

"That's not important," Andy replied stiffly, hoping to defuse the situation before her companion devolved into more apologises. She didn't need him apologising right now; he was making it harder to interrogate and she had to tell herself to not snap at the other person.

After his breathing started to even out slightly, Andy blinked and was glad he had finally stopped. Once it was clear that he wasn't going to blubber back into further nonsense, she began to speak mellowly, "So tell me…" She gripped her knees more to cope with her aggravation over his inability to act well before she smiled gently, "You were sayin' somethin' almighty important about 'missions'… right?"

He exhaled out before he nodded lamely. "...Y-Yeah." His tone grew uneasy and wary as he went on whilst raising his right palm up, "You plobabre know this arleady, that no one survives rong with me. I-I don't want to scare you, but I need you to not do anything stupid. Nothing stupid, or we'rl both be sclewed."

Andy thought about that for a bit before she scowled. She wasn't stupid. She hated how he immediately thought that about her. For a brief moment, she thought maybe she was wrong about him. Maybe he was just like the rest of them.

And maybe, it was a mistake to cuff herself to him, even though she had no other options after choosing to do nothing for the other asshole. She should have judged him harder before getting into this mess.

However, Andy decided to try to remain calm. She pointedly bit out in spite of wanting to yell at him, "Because of the hunters…?"

"O-Oh, is that what you're carling the leapers?" asked her companion mildly.

Leapers? That was an odd name. Although, with how often the hunters sprung out to ambush people and make them disappear, it did make a lot of sense. But it still sounded stupid.

Andy held back on further insulting the name she was given by him as she listened to him instead. "W-Well, for your infolmation, y-yeah. Numbers One-to-Five were elased by them. And I don't want you to go down either."

Because Andy was his only lifeline right now? Or was it because he pitied her?

Her tense expression eased as she told herself that she had to maintain relations with him. It wouldn't be of any use to bully him when she needed to survive whatever was happening. If she angered him somehow, which she highly doubted she could with how meek he's been so far… then she would vanish like the others.

From what Andy knew about trust, it was that it needed to be seeded. Andy wouldn't be able to be trusted if she didn't try harder to indicate that she needed his aid to get through this hellscape. He was her only salvation to understand what was happening, and Andy almost felt miffed that she was essentially tied down on train rails for a train to kill and waiting on him to unbind her while he could hardly focus on a single thing at a time. It was like his brain was on hyperdrive… and was thinking a mile a minute with how rapidly he kept firing off his opinions.

With a small blink, Andy put her hand over her heart and exhaled out uneasily, "It makes me relieved… I found you. I'll try not to vanish on you." She hoped she didn't sound too stilted, or he might accuse her of being dishonest. He almost seemed perceptive, if she pulled aside his annoying personality to have a clear idea on that.

As she half-closed her eyes, keeping the person within her sights, the effect she wanted slowly came to fruition as he lowered his hood defeatedly. "S-Sorry, I-I didn't mean to sound halrsh." He drew in a breath gradually before he continued softly in his anxiousness, "I-I know evelything's confusing you light now, and you don't deselve to be talrked down to… A-And who knows if this wirl be our rast mission, or if we have molre tlials ahead… I-I just think that we have to…"

Her companion waffled on obliviously, but the meaning of his words started to blur and become lost on Andy. She started to calm down as she watched him struggle to talk in front of her and it was hard to call it cute by any means.

It wasn't the most ideal situation to be in, but she had to work with this.

Andy's amber-brown eyes almost narrowed but she kept them wide open as she nodded, hoping he wouldn't notice she was phasing out his speech to think better. Her thoughts cast back to when she lowered her gun in that zone she and her last companion were teleported to, to mull over whether or not she should have taken the shot to not be stuck with someone who completely lacked confidence. It was annoying, having to dance around how she had to nudge him back into focus because he couldn't control himself… Would it kill him to pretend to know how to not frustrate others...?

Her focus soon resumed on her companion just as he spoke firmly, "...But, I'rl tly my best to support you in any way I can."

Andy couldn't help but feel surprise splash over her. She wasn't certain how the conversation led to this portion, but she merely decided to see what was up for once.

She observed how he heartily went on whilst lifting both of his hands up as fists close to his chest, "I-I know I'm not the best perlson forl you, but we got to stick together! We might survive if we look afterr each other! We have to give it our arl!" His voice then petered out to sorrow as he murmured out, his fingers unfurling and soon resting on his lap, "Because I'd lather be the one elased next, if it means I don't fail you too…"

…He was serious. He actually cared. Andy nearly thought he was lying in order to try to motivate her to get her on board with whatever he was talking about earlier with missions, but she honestly couldn't see him as a liar right now. Sure, he was stupidly shy, was presuming too much about Andy, and he couldn't string his sentences together long enough to avoid having his lack of self-esteem kick in… but maybe she could play that to her favour. She honestly didn't trust anyone before arriving here, but maybe this person was the exception to the rule for once.

Andy hated how her mind kept debating whether she wished she could have met him sooner, or if she would rather hold a pole between them to keep her distance from his excitability. But, in spite of what her brain was telling her, she could tell he was a kind soul underneath the messiness he was portraying to her…

It made her almost feel bad that she was partly deceiving him to get what she wanted. But he was the only source of information she had, so it was like having to figure out how to sporadically rein in an untrained puppy.

Although, when she thought further on that, she couldn't help but laugh a little under her breath. He really was like a puppy. Hyper with mood swings and all.

Her companion's rambling came to a sudden halt with a baffled tilt of his head. "Huh…?" He was quiet briefly before he spoke with concern, "You find getting elased funny…?"

"Oh sorry," she said in the end before closing her amber-brown eyes with a genuine smile. "I'm just happier than a kid who snuck candy from the candy store because you seem almighty nice." A bit overwhelming, but she wasn't going to pop his balloon by saying that.

He exhaled out happily and nodded eagerly. If she could see his face, she knew it would probably be glowing from the praise. "I-I assure you, I-I don't think I've ever owned a mean bone in my body in my whole rife! I just rearly want us to succeed, and I'm quite frankrly surprised you haven't interrupted me too much ye-" As he suddenly cast a look out to the other wingless people, Andy watched as his body tensed before he suddenly groaned, "Oh gods, prease don't terl me they're stirl stuck on this…"

When he glanced back at her, he pointed back at the other people. "They didn't risten to me again when I tord them arl they needed to do was scan the symbol on the warl overr there." Instead of looking at what he was mentioning, Andy kept her eyes on him. He was now drawing his index finger toward his face as he sighed glumly, "Then when we were about to do the mission, my paltner got elased. I courdn't finish it forl us because Number Five courdn't see he was being baited arl week by the leapers."

"Huh?" Andy frowned at that. "What in great tarnation are you flappin' your lips about now?"

Her companion hung his head. "I don't know if you'rl berieve me, but… I've been the one compreting the missions for arl of us." He curled in on himself while he finished, "I-I think that's the onlry leason why my paltners never disowned me outside of… using me for noise food."

Despite her confusion of what 'noise food' was, Andy immediately thought he was bragging. But the passive, timid manner he held himself in begged to differ, and she saw that he was trembling now as he started cowering again. It was apparent that unless Andy said something to him, he was just going to freak out about something else.

But he sounded smart. If he was the one pulling the weight for everyone up to now, Andy didn't need him to lament over being treated like trash. However, Andy couldn't understand why everyone wouldn't listen to him if he was their saviour in these 'missions' so far. It was utterly ridiculous that these fucking morons weren't taking slices of cake when they were being provided for everyone.

And if those bozos over there weren't doing shit, and everyone might disappear because they were too inept to get anything done without him…

Then she needed to put her companion to work and keep him alive.

With a low, sharp whistle, Andy jerked her head in the others' direction. "Get back on the saddle and pull it off then." As his hood lifted slightly, probably staring at her now, Andy fought back the urge to glower at his hesitation. She impatiently snapped her fingers at him. "Lickety-split! C'mon now… you gonna do it or what!?"

She grimaced when she realised she had nothing to call him by to urge him further, but he seemed to finally pick up on her urgency. His body had shot up straight and he choked out distressfully, "Oh gods, you're light! We got to hurly- we onlry got ten minutes reft!" He practically dove off the bench and started darting in the direction of a wall of a building once his feet met the pavement.

It honestly impressed Andy that he had astounding agility. It would definitely come in use in battle.

When Andy got up slowly after studying that, her companion promptly pivoted back and rolled his arm over his shoulder. "Just do what I say and we shroud be fine-" he called back anxiously then twisted to hare away just as fast. "Get your psychs ready, Number Six!"

Andy gave a cautious nod and started jogging after him. Yet as she had, she couldn't help but tell herself privately that if God actually existed, she didn't need Him to tell her she was actually justified to let that dragon make that stupid asshole disappear.

The dark dirty blonde had a new companion now. And this one appeared to be more adept and intelligent than the last… even if he did have his faults.

- End -

Thank you for reading the story! :D

EeveeGen9988: I never expected to get an Andy POV in this summer, but man it was fun to delve into! :D

So this week's entry is about Andy. She's a character of mine that shows up in Mr Reaper, another story I've been chipping away at for the last few years. While that story hasn't been finished yet, and that I make posts on it with long breaks in-between mostly due to the big scope of the edit that's required each time, I have gotten unedited content written up to Part 31, so eventually, that story will be finished sometime in the future. For now, I have thirteen chapters posted in the story at this current moment. ;D

If it wasn't apparent, or that I never mentioned it before, Andy's backstory involves the fact that as a young infant, Andy's family decided to move to America. So while Andy grew up there, she adopted a lot of American culture into her lifestyle and leaned heavily into it instead of embracing her Japanese heritage, including the fact that she shed her previous name for Andy, as she sees Andy as her true identity over whatever her real name is. This is especially the case where she went with the spelling of "Andy" instead of "Andie" or "Andi", in particular. And by the time she returns to Japan, she's gotten so integrated into being American that Andy doesn't really care about the idea of being Japanese that she sees other people in Japan as different than her, even though she was born Japanese. She's loud, she can be brash, which fed into a lot of her parents thinking that maybe living in America wasn't a good choice for the family after all, which eventually led to their decision to move back to Tokyo for a more familiar lifestyle they wanted to be comfortable with. Although, Andy didn't share the same excitement when they forced her to move back, even though she was old enough to live on her own or room with her friends. But she ultimately didn't have a choice in the end, and landed back in the place she never wanted to live in.

I don't know if culture shock is the right word for Andy's troubles, but I feel that Andy never really wanted to get accustomed to living in Japan in general. The change was too great, so she ended up drinking to cope until she wandered into the middle of a rock and got killed, which sent her to the Reaper's Game in the end, since she created a connection with herself to Shibuya along the way before her death. And from there, things got worse.

But then she met the protagonist of Mr Reaper. A much different MR Protag than we're used to seeing, but a MR Protag, none the less. ;D

I'd have to say that writing MR Protag in his pre-Mr Reaper demeanour was a tad harder than I expected it to be. The one thing about him compared to here is that we get to see him past this stage in his life, so having to play to his old personality took a lot of care to realise the potential of when writing him during this story. I don't know if I made him annoying in a different sense or not, but I haven't had much of a chance to explore how he was during his original Game Week. However, do know that unlike current day MR Protag, this MR Protag is much more docile, terrified, and doesn't have a handle on how to stick up for himself yet. Practically a sweetheart, but Andy ignored a majority of that due to her agenda in the story. :D

To make it clear for what I did with the prompt, I thought long and hard on what to do for this week's prompt. It took a lot of brainstorming until I decided to weave [Last Round] into the narrative as part of Andy's fight scene against the Doom Metal Drake. So, despite there being no trials and not last rounds, I hope I didn't make it too unclear with what I chose to do for the prompt. :O

Outside of my entry for Twelve Shots of Summer, there are a lot of great stories being written by other awesome friends of mine who are participating and in charge of organising the writing challenge. If you could check them out, there is much love to be given to what they've cooked up thus far! :D

So, with that being said, it's time for me to get some sleep, get some reviews out to them, as well as to smack at Week 6 and Week 2 to get them up and running for posting! :D