(no subject)
Title: Signal to Noise - Boy with a Coin (7/?)
Author: twigcollins
Rating: PG-13 this chapter. Swearing, mostly.
Warnings: Spoilers through end of game plus secret reports.
Summary: Hey, what’s the worst that can happen?
Author’s Notes: Cross-posted to thewewyfanfic
Archive of StN links available here: http://delicious.com/Flidget/Signal2Noise
Eri is an amazing designer, with a natural eye for the sharpest angle, the most stunning image, the effortlessly iconic look. Shiki can’t help but be a little envious, even if Eri is quick to point out that without her skilled needle, even the best designs would end up as nothing but vague suggestions of what they ought to be. Of course, on occasions like these - with their first big show looming just around the corner and their line still a few pieces low - Eri’s pencil can get a little ahead of her, her artistic vision trumping things like three dimensions and the laws of gravity, until Shiki has to stop turning the design around in her hands and just admit defeat.
“Eri, love, I know you’re set on this particular fold, but to make it look this way we’ll have to break the model’s shoulders.”
It’s the fashion club, and one of the other girls has her hands on a copy of Vogue’s newest runway overview, a thick catalog of every designer and every outfit, with the rest of the club standing around her making remarks about each page. Most of them are just there to trade makeup tips, talk about new stores and new sales and who wore The Wrong Shoes In Public over the weekend. Which is just fine by Shiki, there need to be people to buy the things they’re designing, and though she used to feel a little self-conscious, nervous surrounded by all those chattering voices, she’s a little less shy now, confident in her abilities. One day, it’s going to be her work in that magazine.
Eri is standing over her shoulder, looking at the seam she’s pointing at, and Shiki can hear her blow her bangs out of her eyes - not angry, just frustrated with herself. Eri hates it when reality gets in the way of her vision, and she quickly snatches the paper out of Shiki’s hand, moving back to her drafting table. Frowning as she makes a series of careful, deliberate marks, erases, makes new ones, erases some more and then starts adding what might possibly be the start of a train to the back of what was supposed to be a trim, minimalist pantsuit.
Shiki rolls her eyes, and pushes the fabric she was working on out of the way. When Eri gets like this, it’s usually easier to wait for her to beat the ideas into submission, and start from scratch.
The second bell rings, and all the other girls leave for the day, until only Shiki and Eri remain. The club room is practically like their second home, and neither of them feel any urgent need to leave. Eri’s parents are completely supportive of their daughter - not that Eri would have brooked much argument - and Shiki thinks her parents are just glad she’s spending her time with a nice girl instead of some boy somewhere.
Oh, if only they knew all the ways Shiki has found to spend time with a nice girl in a deserted club room. Of course, that doesn’t mean she can’t also worry about some boy, somewhere.
“I hope Neku’s doing ok.”
Eri snorts, not looking up from her design, and grins. “If I were a lesser woman, I think I’d be jealous. I bet he just got bit by the art bug. Probably trying to drag a screenprinting rack into that tiny apartment or something.”
It’s a relief for her, that Neku has finally found his passion, a way to get out some of what he’s always thinking. It hasn’t always been that way, she can remember when he wasn’t this happy. Still, Shiki doesn’t like to be too nosy, doesn’t want to push, but she is shy and Eri is gregarious and Neku is one of those people who will spend all his time in his own world if nobody cares enough to drag him out of it.
Eri notices she’s frowning, and sighs. “You don’t have to worry. My spies are everywhere.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Chiyo’s brother goes to St. Michael’s. I told her to tell him to go poke Neku sometime at lunch. He does that photography thing, so they’ve got something in common. They can totally hang out.”
“Oh, Eri…” Shiki says, chewing on her lip in sudden worry. Eri is wonderful, and kind, and friendly, but she also just kind of does her thing, and if you get in her way, you become her thing. It’s not bad, that she wants to help, just…
“What? Why are you giving me that look?”
“Well, I mean… Neku can be kind of…” Shiki searches for the right word, “… defensive. He needs a little time to get to know people.”
The details of the first time /she’d/ met him are not so clear anymore, but Shiki still remembers that it hadn’t gone very well. They’d been thrown together for one reason or another, and Neku had wanted very little to do with her or anyone else who wasn’t in his headphones.
“Are you kidding? He’s a kitten.” Eri as always, undeterred and eternally determined, staring at her with her hands on her hips. “So some waste of space broke his heart - he needs new friends. A lot of them, so he can get over it and be happy again, as fast as possible. Why mope over some idiot?”
“What?” Shiki says, eyes wide. “Who? When was this?”
“Chiyo said her brother said he heard something, he wanted to know if that was why Neku didn’t hang out with anybody. Apparently it happened a while ago, before you knew him. I don’t know if they were just friends or what but… yeah, it was pretty bad.”
“He never told me.”
“Well, I don’t think he told anybody. No one wanted to point out this guy to me either - probably afraid of what I’d do to him.” Eri crosses her arms and scowls, and Shiki knows for sure that’s the reason, that nobody wanted to be the one to start that fight. Eri has always been very, very protective of the people she cares about, and Shiki can’t help smiling, knowing that somewhere Neku is probably starting to realize just what being her friend means for his social life.
“So, I don’t suppose he’s mentioned the other guy again? The one he went to that party with?”
“/Eri/…”
Neku had given the suit back, carefully dry-cleaned at no small expense, but no matter how they’d asked he’d been evasive, leading the both of them to assume that quite a bit must have gone on.
“I’m just saying. If he messes with Neku, I’m going to redesign his face.”
“Eri!”
She laughs, and Shiki can’t help but laugh too, and before long they’re both busy, back to work, not leaving until nearly sunset.
-----------------------
The night game gives Neku a halfway decent chance to catch up on his sleep, although the tradeoff is now he’s doing his homework in the UG, which is really kind of weird, trying to concentrate with shuffling steps and half-heard conversations - verbal and otherwise - all swimming around him. He’s already heard a few things he’d really rather have missed, and there are a few stores that might be worth avoiding now, for varying reasons.
//Varying… like if they want you shirt or pants-first.//
The UG seems even more vibrant somehow, all lit-up, the Players all the more ghostly as they flit across the city streets, Minamimoto’s statues rising up in the darkness, craggy silhouettes that still aren’t impressing him much. Neku’s somehow managed to get worse at math as he’s gotten better at art, which cannot possibly be true, he just doesn’t have the time to put into really thinking about it, giving it any extra attention and it’s all neither fair nor logical anyway as there’s a ton of practical math in the application of any number of artistic… Neku grimaces, erases his answer, and then the entire tortured equation preceding it.
“Bollocks,” he says, and then “/merde/,” because it sounds pretty good and it’s nice to be learning how to swear in multiple languages.
“1.61803399.”
He should have saved up on those swear words. Minamimoto is looming over him - god, but every Reaper taller than him never misses a chance to point it out, do they? He’s smirking. He’s been smirking every chance he can get, since they’re both well aware which one of them is Shibuya’s darling new artistic talent, and which one of them is running a Game with his popularity entirely in imaginary numbers.
“Am I interrupting your minimal compilations?”
Neku tries to keep his expression blank. “Don’t you have a wall to talk to?”
Minamimoto stretches, shrugs. “These random coordinates plotted a different curve, nothing for us to do but sit back and wait.”
Neku smiles a little at that. He’s been watching out, today’s challenge a bit of a scavenger hunt, bouncing the Players past the Mexican Dog twice, around Molco, and even up to CAT street, pretty much everywhere except where most of the Wall Reapers are stationed, unless they get unlucky enough to get turned around and slowed down there. Two sets of Players, two girls and two boys have been the ones trading off wins so far, neither of them showing any sign of slowing down. He’s refrained from looking at their stats too closely, doesn’t want to get his hopes up, or think about what will happen if all four of them do make it to the end of the Game. Neku’s absolutely forbid the kind of cheap shots that took Rhyme down in his first week - fair play only. Not that he can trust any of them to listen to him, which is why he’s been around, letting everyone know he’s here, and he’s already seen the two pairs criss-crossing paths, downing chili dogs and high-fiving each other as they go. Neku’s feeling pretty good about their chances, even if he’s still worried - which is why Minamimoto’s able to reach out and grab his workbook right out of his hands.
“Hey!”
“Zetta slow!” Minamimoto crows, and attacks the book with a vengeance, brow furrowed as he makes his way through the problems, letting out a chuckle now and again at Neku’s obvious stupidity. It’s easier to let him think he’s winning something, and hell, if he /wants/ to do someone else’s homework, might as well let him. Neku’s stomach rumbles, reminding him that - Minamimoto or not - he’s been increasingly lightheaded and headachey for the past half an hour, and even if it means having a second dinner later, it’s time to eat now. Neku considers the potential dangers of leaving Minamimoto alone with his homework versus having to eat with him in the same room and just walks off, leaving the guy who’d nearly killed him a couple of times, who’d opened a can of Taboo Noise whoopass across the entire Game, scribbling in his notebook and making half-garbled declarations to the empty air.
He has to have a serious talk with Joshua about Reaper qualifications.
----------------
“… and make sure you be careful, getting those boxes!”
Ramen Don is more popular than when he’d been there during his own Game, increasingly busy since getting the top space on the Prince’s blog. So maybe the guy is good for something. Still, it’s a little past the rush hour and, more importantly, there are no Players around for him to have to think about while he eats. Neku grabs a seat at the counter just as a shape pushes past the back room curtains, yelling back.
“I got it, don’ worry about me!”
He sees Neku, and freezes, and for a moment there’s nothing for them to do but blink at each other.
“Beat?!”
“Oh, hey Neku. What up?” Beat grins weakly after a moment, scratching his head with the arm not in the cast. Neku’s glad to see the work he did on it has held up, a simple black and white pattern, strong lines and bold curves. A little bit like the Taboo Noise on Minamimoto, maybe, but just because /he’d/ been an idiot didn’t mean it didn’t look good elsewhere.
“What are you doing here?” Like he needs to ask, Beat wearing an apron splashed here and there with varying degrees of brown broth. “You got a job?”
“Yeah. Kinda. Mom and Dad weren’t too happy wit’ me skateboarding wit’ this,” - he says, holding up his broken arm, - “so they said I should find somethin’ else to do. I saw a sign, this place needed some extra help. The owner’s teachin me to cook, too, so that’s better than jus’ flinging fries, right?”
“Sounds… great.” Neku says, still surprised, but it does make some sense. He can’t really imagine Beat holding down a regular job, being a salaryman and pushing papers around. Maybe this is the kind of thing he would be better at. A noise from the back room brings Beat out of his surprise, and he ducks down beneath the counter, coming back with a box under his good arm.
“I gotta go do some prep work in the back. You want the special today? It’s good.”
“Make it two.”
Neku startles, maybe expecting the words but definitely not the voice, deeper than Joshua’s, Kariya sliding into the seat beside him with a friendly grin. Beat glances between them, shrugging when Neku nods, going into the back as he turns to glare at the lazy Harrier.
“Come on, boss. Be a little magnanimous to us poor, working stiffs.”
“Yes, my heart, it is breaking.” Neku mutters, though of all of the Reapers he really has the least problem with Kariya. How he puts up with his uptight, high-maintenance partner is beyond Neku’s understanding, but alone he is quiet, not trying to pick any fights, doesn’t even say much unless there’s something to say.
“Oh,” Neku says, reaching in his pocket. “I keep forgetting to get this back to you.”
Kariya’s keypin, and the Harrier looks a little surprised to get it back. Of course, when he’d handed it over none of them had been so sure that anyone was going to survive, and Neku spends the next few moments trying not to think about that, until the food finally shows up. He digs in, only realizing how fast he is wolfing it down when Kariya makes a slight sound of amusement, and Neku forces himself to slow down, eat like a human being instead of some ravenous Noise. Beat pops in and out of the back room, focused on his job, and there’s enough conversation around them that they can talk without being overheard.
“Nice pin you made there. Uzuki nearly got herself Erased.”
The rebound pin, throwing the noise back at the Reapers. Neku is half caught between an apology and being surprised it worked so well. He wonders what Kariya is expecting, if this is going to turn into a fight. If he’s actually going to have to say ‘let’s take this outside.’ Kariya was not exactly easy to beat the first time, and Neku’s not looking forward to a repeat, even if he is the Conductor now.
“Relax, boss. I’m impressed, really.” Kariya sips at his broth, eyes down. “She wasn’t paying attention - it shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near her. I don’t suppose…”
“Mm?”
“Nevermind.”
He really shouldn’t want to continue the conversation, the Reaper can’t be expecting it, but Neku has nothing else to do to stretch out the meal but try to think of something to say.
“So do you two live together?”
Kariya lets out a chuckle, shaking his head.
“Uzuki? No way. She’d kill me for sure. Way too picky. I don’t know where she is, these days. I’m staying in the apartment of that tall kid. The Player that won the Game yesterday.”
Neku stares. “You… what, squat in the Players apartments?”
Kariya nods. “Sometimes. If their parents rent them for them, or if there’s some other reason they’re alone. So, you see, sometimes it’s nice when they don’t get Erased right away. I mean, I got lucky with you for those three weeks.”
It takes him a second, and Neku nearly chokes around a mouthful of ramen, spluttering. “My house? You were in my HOUSE?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re pretty boring.” Kariya is completely unfazed by Neku’s outrage, picking the last of the chicken out of his bowl. “I think some of the Wall Reapers all cram together in some little apartment, they pool the rent. A few of them still have families, or they’re homeless, but the ones with a place will help them out when they need it.”
“I didn’t…” So much time, thinking about them as cruel monsters, Neku never really considered what the Reapers did with the rest of their time. Especially for the Wall Reapers, the ones who didn’t get to hunt, who didn’t go up in rank, it really was just another kind of part-time job. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Shibuya’s a little tight, hard to negotiate sometimes. It’s different in other places. I used to do a lot of camping, or sleeping on the beach.”
Neku looks at him in surprise, but Kariya is still quietly picking apart his meal. He’s trying to remember what he’s read about Reapers - but most of that doesn’t match with what he just said, not even the higher-level Harriers tending to leave the boundaries of their UG. “You… you weren’t always a Reaper here?”
He shrugs. “I get around.”
Nothing in his tone to suggest he cares one way or the other, but Neku doesn’t think that asking more questions is going to get him anywhere. Kariya pushes his bowl away, grinning at Beat as he walks by, grabbing it off the counter.
“Higashizawa would love that. You can’t get him to shut up about the slow food movement, the need for the next generation to go back to the old ways of cooking, whatever. I don’t know why in the hell he wants to be Games Master so badly. One of those type-A chef personalities, I guess.”
“So he actually cooks?” Neku says, and scowls when Kariya gives him a look. “Listen, I don’t think a team of shrinks could tell which of you jerks have actual personalities and which are just batshit insane.” Like the fraction-obsessed freakshow running around out there somewhere with his math homework. Kariya shrugs, conceding the point.
“He’s in culinary school. Nearly done. I think he teaches some class to little kids and old ladies on the weekends. He’s good with kids.”
“He…” Neku trails off, but the brain damage is already done. Good with children. Seriously. What.
“Neku!”
Two arms grab from behind, pulling him into a happy hug, Rhyme leaning her head on his shoulder with a bright smile. Neku has quietly and determinedly tried to divide the UG and RG parts of his life, or at least the people involved. Shiki, most of all, but Rhyme is a close second - she went through way too much during the Game for Neku to want her anywhere near any of it now, not even Kariya, even if he doesn’t seem to be interested in doing more than digesting his meal.
“Are you here to see Beat?”
“I didn’t know he was here.”
Rhyme frowns, kicking one toe against the floor. “He’s trying not to let anybody know. I don’t know why. Everybody needs to eat, right? What’s wrong with wanting to be a great chef?”
Did Beat not want him to know? Neku never thought it mattered much to him, who was smarter or had the better grades, but for all his transparent nature Beat is obviously just as capable of keeping secrets. Rhyme steps back, and grins at Kariya. Neku flashes him a warning glare, but all the Reaper does is smile back.
“Listen, Rhyme, I’ve got to get going. I’m kind of… busy right now. It was good to see you, though. Tell your brother I said thanks, and I think he’ll do great.”
“Okay!” Rhyme chirps. Neku slaps down some cash against the counter, a little more than necessary but he wants to get out of the place more than he wants to wait for his change. He hears Kariya walking behind him, but doesn’t look back. Isn’t thinking enough to remember to flip Frequencies when he goes through the door, slipping back into the UG, and completely misses it when Kariya looks back from the threshold, Rhyme watching him, even when he steps through the door. He stares for a moment, surprised, and winks at her before turning away.
-------------------
Neku gets maybe ten steps onto the street when Minamimoto appears out of nowhere. He slaps the workbook against Neku’s chest, smirking proudly, standing tall - he really thinks he’s the adult in this entire thing, doesn’t he? Neku tries not to listen to what he’s saying - some random mnemonic, but at least he’s easy enough to read, a part of Neku always watching his body language, always aware of the way things stand. Minamimoto and Kariya aren’t friends, he’s pretty sure of that, but all he needs is for some crazy-ass deal to be made, so much he still doesn’t know about any of this, and it’s already fairly established that /everyone/ wants his damn job.
He flips quickly through the book, Minamimoto has done the entire assignment for the day as well as half of the one for tomorrow, including the practice problems. In a moment of sadistic inspiration, Neku flips to the back of the book, where the answers are given for at least those few.
“… my superior skills, a logorithmic equation of awesome to base twenty-”
“It’s not right.”
Minamimoto stops talking. Neku flips the book flat in his hands. Kariya is leaning over from the other side.
“It’s the wrong answer.” He’s honestly surprised, and checks a few more, the ones he’d deliberately left empty because he’s pretty sure he knew the answers and needed to focus on the more difficult ones first. “I think this one is wrong too. If you do out the whole thing, you should have negative seven, right?”
Minamimoto is silent, watching Neku work out the problem, calmly erasing his grandiose computations. Kariya is making a choking sound from behind his hand, as Neku flips the page.
“Uh… yeah. So… thanks for getting it back to me.”
Kariya is laughing so hard he’s leaning against his knees, wings sticking straight up. Minamimoto howls with anger, storming away down the street, screeching about binomials and high school and stupid freaking hectopascals as Neku sighs and tries to think of the closest store that sells really big erasers.
-------------------
The clock is ticking down, and nobody’s won yet, and even though this night’s Game is longer than the days before, it’s still starting to worry him. Of course he doesn’t have to be here, he can just go home, but Neku knows he won’t be able to sleep if he does. He’ll only toss and turn and stare at the ceiling and wonder if anyone’s made it out alive. The sky does strange things in the UG at night, the city just as bright but the sky above lit up as if there’s no city at all, a sea of whirling galaxies, a whole pail full of glittering sand tossed out into the darkness. It’s beautiful, and for a while Neku can’t help but glance up at it, try to figure out how to draw it.
He does circuits of the area, the Scramble to Dogenzaka and back, up through the hall, over to the park. He keeps away from where Joshua is, doesn’t linger near CAT Street - he’s here to keep track of the Reapers, not the Players, tries to stay out of their way while letting the Reapers know he’s around, and watching. It still kind of feels like being a nature photographer, dispassionately watching the lions chase the gazelles, but the closest he’s gotten so far to having to see anyone Erased is coming around the corner to find a pair of Players circling the edge of a Blue Noise, wary and curious, while a pair of Wall Reapers egg them on.
“That’s cute. Real cute.” Neku snaps, and the Wall Reapers instantly scatter, disappearing into the night, leaving him with the Blue Noise and two Players, both in battle stances, the one in front glaring at him while the other watches warily from behind. It reminds him so much of Shiki and Eri that his heart goes tight in his chest.
“Who are you, then?” The girl’s hand is glowing slightly, possibly an ice pin and probably very well charged. This is one of the pairs, the girls, the ones he’s hoping can take it all the way.
“I’m somebody nobody ever feels like listening to.” Neku can’t help but glare in the direction the Reapers have vanished. The Blue Noise is still hovering patiently, waiting for someone to make the mistake he made the first time he walked into one, thinking it was part of the day’s challenge, that it was super important to beat. And Joshua, ever-helpful Joshua had said nothing at all except to chide Neku for not doing a better job as he’d crawled out of the battle pretty much on his hands and knees.
“He’s /really/ strong.” The meeker of the two girls whispers to the other, she must have some affinity to the Game, the type of person who might make a good Reaper, if she wasn’t obviously scared out of her mind.
“I’m not your goal, and neither is this. I suggest you get moving, you’re running out of time.”
“We want to go home.” The girl in front says, and her eyes are flashing with anger but her voice quavers on the word, and Neku doesn’t want to be this, doesn’t want to be freaking Kitaniji. It’s so easy, it was so easy to give into the fear and turn on Shiki, and it would be so easy to stop caring now, so much more enjoyable, to forget what it was to be powerless.
“Win the Game. Win the Game and I promise I’ll get you both home.” If he has to turn Joshua upside down and shake the Composer power out of him.
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
Neku knows the pin she’s using, knows what it is to clench his fist and call the cold. Feels it now, and draws the block of ice together silently, effortlessly, letting it fall - it’s half the size of a car, smashing to the ground only a few steps from where she stands. Her partner shrieks, clinging onto her arm, and she’s jumped to the side, staring at Neku with wide, shocked eyes.
“Get. Moving. Win the Game. It’s what you have to do, so do it.”
Neku can’t relax, can’t even manage a deep breath out until they’re gone, and it’s just him and the Blue Noise, still content to hover in place in a really kind of annoying way. Like /hell/ he’s letting it hang around - maybe tomorrow, but it’s still too early on for them to have to put up with this kind of thing. Neku reaches out, feels the cool tingle - the regular Noise do not come near him, sensing his power, he’s by far the biggest threat around. And they were people too once, right? Bits and pieces of former players, collecting more energy, trying to move up just like the Players are trying to move up, and the Reapers - nothing changes. Or everything does.
//Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.//
Vancouver’s asked him, how it feels to be the Conductor. Neku still doesn’t know what he’s going to say.
The world shifts, not quite the way it did when he was a Player, as he prepares to fight. He simply touches the Blue Noise and it fades, and he knows there’s a boundary around them now. Waits for the creature to appear in its true form, to attack. Glancing above him, in case it is preparing to swoop down, or to see some version of himself with a fox mask face - but the minutes pass, and nothing happens. The area seems entirely empty, and Neku exhales. He can read people’s thoughts, he can throw all kinds of power around without Pins, he ought to be able to find one Noise. He drops his guard just slightly, forces himself to relax just that much further, and reaches out, looking for… well, he figures he’ll know when he finds it. It doesn’t take long, although it’s kind of… smaller than he thought it would be.
Neku walks over to a bench, looks around again for the sneak attack that just has to be coming, and puts a knee on the seat, leaning down to look underneath.
“Hey. Hey, I can see you.”
One small, liquid eye, watching him from the darkness, but it doesn’t move. Probably waiting for a better shot, a moment of vulnerability. Neku weighs his options, and the possibility this will all end in some humiliating way, and drops down to the pavement, so he can reach a hand out.
“Hello? Come on, you’re supposed to be attacking me. Otherwise Joshua’s going to turn the channel.” He’s almost certain the Composer is somewhere watching all of this, probably recording his least impressive moments for the ‘greatest hits’ collection.
The shape seems to cower a little further back into the shadows, but just about the time Neku’s ready to drop his hand it takes a tentative step forward, and another. Well, not really a step - more of a hop. It’s a bunny, a little, tan mini-lop with a teardrop shape around each eye, like dark brown eyeliner. So this is either a baited bear trap or some sort of Angler fish Noise with a cute bunny lure. Oh, what the hell, it will make for good comedy either way.
“It’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you.”
It would really be off-sides to destroy it, even if it is supposed to be some sort of high-level Noise. The tiny creature still hasn’t actually /done/ anything, and it’s really kind of adorable. Neku waits, keeping his hand still, his knees starting to ache from the forced hold, when he feels a soft, velvety nose against his fingertips, and fur, and then the tiny creature is hopping out, nose twitching - obscenely cute, for Noise, and oddly… familiar, somehow. Neku gently strokes the soft fur at the crown of its head, glancing around and behind him, but this tiny creature is really all there is.
No, Game. He’s not murdering the tiny bunny. Just, no. But he can’t leave it here for the next player to pound flat, either.
“Come on, then.”
Neku gently picks it up, and puts it on his shoulder. The lop might be small but it’s still a Noise, and he feels its claws dig in firmly, not enough to hurt, but certainly in no danger of falling off. Hanekoma has sent him some extra material Neku was sure he wasn’t supposed to see, nothing on how to /make/ Noise but on their various properties and needs - basically, everything about how Rhyme had been in her Noise form, how she’d pulled all the energy she needed from her partner, and if Beat could handle that, Neku’s pretty sure keeping it fed won’t be a problem. He glances over, watching the tiny nose twitch.
“If you try to eat my head, the deal’s off. Got that?”
One dark eye blinks at him, and he feels the slight shift of the ‘battle’ ending. He’s back in the UG proper with no Blue Noise and now, a fuzzy souvenir. Neku turns at the sound of footsteps - didn’t even notice when the Game had ended, but here’s the Reaper with the nightly report. Neku flips it open, immediately, to the day’s winner, relieved to find there is one.
==================
Author’s Notes -
1. chapter title - Elliot Smith - Go By
2. The first time I ran into a Blue Noise happened pretty much like that. Stupid Blue Noise.
Author: twigcollins
Rating: PG-13 this chapter. Swearing, mostly.
Warnings: Spoilers through end of game plus secret reports.
Summary: Hey, what’s the worst that can happen?
Author’s Notes: Cross-posted to thewewyfanfic
Archive of StN links available here: http://delicious.com/Flidget/Signal2Noise
Eri is an amazing designer, with a natural eye for the sharpest angle, the most stunning image, the effortlessly iconic look. Shiki can’t help but be a little envious, even if Eri is quick to point out that without her skilled needle, even the best designs would end up as nothing but vague suggestions of what they ought to be. Of course, on occasions like these - with their first big show looming just around the corner and their line still a few pieces low - Eri’s pencil can get a little ahead of her, her artistic vision trumping things like three dimensions and the laws of gravity, until Shiki has to stop turning the design around in her hands and just admit defeat.
“Eri, love, I know you’re set on this particular fold, but to make it look this way we’ll have to break the model’s shoulders.”
It’s the fashion club, and one of the other girls has her hands on a copy of Vogue’s newest runway overview, a thick catalog of every designer and every outfit, with the rest of the club standing around her making remarks about each page. Most of them are just there to trade makeup tips, talk about new stores and new sales and who wore The Wrong Shoes In Public over the weekend. Which is just fine by Shiki, there need to be people to buy the things they’re designing, and though she used to feel a little self-conscious, nervous surrounded by all those chattering voices, she’s a little less shy now, confident in her abilities. One day, it’s going to be her work in that magazine.
Eri is standing over her shoulder, looking at the seam she’s pointing at, and Shiki can hear her blow her bangs out of her eyes - not angry, just frustrated with herself. Eri hates it when reality gets in the way of her vision, and she quickly snatches the paper out of Shiki’s hand, moving back to her drafting table. Frowning as she makes a series of careful, deliberate marks, erases, makes new ones, erases some more and then starts adding what might possibly be the start of a train to the back of what was supposed to be a trim, minimalist pantsuit.
Shiki rolls her eyes, and pushes the fabric she was working on out of the way. When Eri gets like this, it’s usually easier to wait for her to beat the ideas into submission, and start from scratch.
The second bell rings, and all the other girls leave for the day, until only Shiki and Eri remain. The club room is practically like their second home, and neither of them feel any urgent need to leave. Eri’s parents are completely supportive of their daughter - not that Eri would have brooked much argument - and Shiki thinks her parents are just glad she’s spending her time with a nice girl instead of some boy somewhere.
Oh, if only they knew all the ways Shiki has found to spend time with a nice girl in a deserted club room. Of course, that doesn’t mean she can’t also worry about some boy, somewhere.
“I hope Neku’s doing ok.”
Eri snorts, not looking up from her design, and grins. “If I were a lesser woman, I think I’d be jealous. I bet he just got bit by the art bug. Probably trying to drag a screenprinting rack into that tiny apartment or something.”
It’s a relief for her, that Neku has finally found his passion, a way to get out some of what he’s always thinking. It hasn’t always been that way, she can remember when he wasn’t this happy. Still, Shiki doesn’t like to be too nosy, doesn’t want to push, but she is shy and Eri is gregarious and Neku is one of those people who will spend all his time in his own world if nobody cares enough to drag him out of it.
Eri notices she’s frowning, and sighs. “You don’t have to worry. My spies are everywhere.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Chiyo’s brother goes to St. Michael’s. I told her to tell him to go poke Neku sometime at lunch. He does that photography thing, so they’ve got something in common. They can totally hang out.”
“Oh, Eri…” Shiki says, chewing on her lip in sudden worry. Eri is wonderful, and kind, and friendly, but she also just kind of does her thing, and if you get in her way, you become her thing. It’s not bad, that she wants to help, just…
“What? Why are you giving me that look?”
“Well, I mean… Neku can be kind of…” Shiki searches for the right word, “… defensive. He needs a little time to get to know people.”
The details of the first time /she’d/ met him are not so clear anymore, but Shiki still remembers that it hadn’t gone very well. They’d been thrown together for one reason or another, and Neku had wanted very little to do with her or anyone else who wasn’t in his headphones.
“Are you kidding? He’s a kitten.” Eri as always, undeterred and eternally determined, staring at her with her hands on her hips. “So some waste of space broke his heart - he needs new friends. A lot of them, so he can get over it and be happy again, as fast as possible. Why mope over some idiot?”
“What?” Shiki says, eyes wide. “Who? When was this?”
“Chiyo said her brother said he heard something, he wanted to know if that was why Neku didn’t hang out with anybody. Apparently it happened a while ago, before you knew him. I don’t know if they were just friends or what but… yeah, it was pretty bad.”
“He never told me.”
“Well, I don’t think he told anybody. No one wanted to point out this guy to me either - probably afraid of what I’d do to him.” Eri crosses her arms and scowls, and Shiki knows for sure that’s the reason, that nobody wanted to be the one to start that fight. Eri has always been very, very protective of the people she cares about, and Shiki can’t help smiling, knowing that somewhere Neku is probably starting to realize just what being her friend means for his social life.
“So, I don’t suppose he’s mentioned the other guy again? The one he went to that party with?”
“/Eri/…”
Neku had given the suit back, carefully dry-cleaned at no small expense, but no matter how they’d asked he’d been evasive, leading the both of them to assume that quite a bit must have gone on.
“I’m just saying. If he messes with Neku, I’m going to redesign his face.”
“Eri!”
She laughs, and Shiki can’t help but laugh too, and before long they’re both busy, back to work, not leaving until nearly sunset.
-----------------------
The night game gives Neku a halfway decent chance to catch up on his sleep, although the tradeoff is now he’s doing his homework in the UG, which is really kind of weird, trying to concentrate with shuffling steps and half-heard conversations - verbal and otherwise - all swimming around him. He’s already heard a few things he’d really rather have missed, and there are a few stores that might be worth avoiding now, for varying reasons.
//Varying… like if they want you shirt or pants-first.//
The UG seems even more vibrant somehow, all lit-up, the Players all the more ghostly as they flit across the city streets, Minamimoto’s statues rising up in the darkness, craggy silhouettes that still aren’t impressing him much. Neku’s somehow managed to get worse at math as he’s gotten better at art, which cannot possibly be true, he just doesn’t have the time to put into really thinking about it, giving it any extra attention and it’s all neither fair nor logical anyway as there’s a ton of practical math in the application of any number of artistic… Neku grimaces, erases his answer, and then the entire tortured equation preceding it.
“Bollocks,” he says, and then “/merde/,” because it sounds pretty good and it’s nice to be learning how to swear in multiple languages.
“1.61803399.”
He should have saved up on those swear words. Minamimoto is looming over him - god, but every Reaper taller than him never misses a chance to point it out, do they? He’s smirking. He’s been smirking every chance he can get, since they’re both well aware which one of them is Shibuya’s darling new artistic talent, and which one of them is running a Game with his popularity entirely in imaginary numbers.
“Am I interrupting your minimal compilations?”
Neku tries to keep his expression blank. “Don’t you have a wall to talk to?”
Minamimoto stretches, shrugs. “These random coordinates plotted a different curve, nothing for us to do but sit back and wait.”
Neku smiles a little at that. He’s been watching out, today’s challenge a bit of a scavenger hunt, bouncing the Players past the Mexican Dog twice, around Molco, and even up to CAT street, pretty much everywhere except where most of the Wall Reapers are stationed, unless they get unlucky enough to get turned around and slowed down there. Two sets of Players, two girls and two boys have been the ones trading off wins so far, neither of them showing any sign of slowing down. He’s refrained from looking at their stats too closely, doesn’t want to get his hopes up, or think about what will happen if all four of them do make it to the end of the Game. Neku’s absolutely forbid the kind of cheap shots that took Rhyme down in his first week - fair play only. Not that he can trust any of them to listen to him, which is why he’s been around, letting everyone know he’s here, and he’s already seen the two pairs criss-crossing paths, downing chili dogs and high-fiving each other as they go. Neku’s feeling pretty good about their chances, even if he’s still worried - which is why Minamimoto’s able to reach out and grab his workbook right out of his hands.
“Hey!”
“Zetta slow!” Minamimoto crows, and attacks the book with a vengeance, brow furrowed as he makes his way through the problems, letting out a chuckle now and again at Neku’s obvious stupidity. It’s easier to let him think he’s winning something, and hell, if he /wants/ to do someone else’s homework, might as well let him. Neku’s stomach rumbles, reminding him that - Minamimoto or not - he’s been increasingly lightheaded and headachey for the past half an hour, and even if it means having a second dinner later, it’s time to eat now. Neku considers the potential dangers of leaving Minamimoto alone with his homework versus having to eat with him in the same room and just walks off, leaving the guy who’d nearly killed him a couple of times, who’d opened a can of Taboo Noise whoopass across the entire Game, scribbling in his notebook and making half-garbled declarations to the empty air.
He has to have a serious talk with Joshua about Reaper qualifications.
----------------
“… and make sure you be careful, getting those boxes!”
Ramen Don is more popular than when he’d been there during his own Game, increasingly busy since getting the top space on the Prince’s blog. So maybe the guy is good for something. Still, it’s a little past the rush hour and, more importantly, there are no Players around for him to have to think about while he eats. Neku grabs a seat at the counter just as a shape pushes past the back room curtains, yelling back.
“I got it, don’ worry about me!”
He sees Neku, and freezes, and for a moment there’s nothing for them to do but blink at each other.
“Beat?!”
“Oh, hey Neku. What up?” Beat grins weakly after a moment, scratching his head with the arm not in the cast. Neku’s glad to see the work he did on it has held up, a simple black and white pattern, strong lines and bold curves. A little bit like the Taboo Noise on Minamimoto, maybe, but just because /he’d/ been an idiot didn’t mean it didn’t look good elsewhere.
“What are you doing here?” Like he needs to ask, Beat wearing an apron splashed here and there with varying degrees of brown broth. “You got a job?”
“Yeah. Kinda. Mom and Dad weren’t too happy wit’ me skateboarding wit’ this,” - he says, holding up his broken arm, - “so they said I should find somethin’ else to do. I saw a sign, this place needed some extra help. The owner’s teachin me to cook, too, so that’s better than jus’ flinging fries, right?”
“Sounds… great.” Neku says, still surprised, but it does make some sense. He can’t really imagine Beat holding down a regular job, being a salaryman and pushing papers around. Maybe this is the kind of thing he would be better at. A noise from the back room brings Beat out of his surprise, and he ducks down beneath the counter, coming back with a box under his good arm.
“I gotta go do some prep work in the back. You want the special today? It’s good.”
“Make it two.”
Neku startles, maybe expecting the words but definitely not the voice, deeper than Joshua’s, Kariya sliding into the seat beside him with a friendly grin. Beat glances between them, shrugging when Neku nods, going into the back as he turns to glare at the lazy Harrier.
“Come on, boss. Be a little magnanimous to us poor, working stiffs.”
“Yes, my heart, it is breaking.” Neku mutters, though of all of the Reapers he really has the least problem with Kariya. How he puts up with his uptight, high-maintenance partner is beyond Neku’s understanding, but alone he is quiet, not trying to pick any fights, doesn’t even say much unless there’s something to say.
“Oh,” Neku says, reaching in his pocket. “I keep forgetting to get this back to you.”
Kariya’s keypin, and the Harrier looks a little surprised to get it back. Of course, when he’d handed it over none of them had been so sure that anyone was going to survive, and Neku spends the next few moments trying not to think about that, until the food finally shows up. He digs in, only realizing how fast he is wolfing it down when Kariya makes a slight sound of amusement, and Neku forces himself to slow down, eat like a human being instead of some ravenous Noise. Beat pops in and out of the back room, focused on his job, and there’s enough conversation around them that they can talk without being overheard.
“Nice pin you made there. Uzuki nearly got herself Erased.”
The rebound pin, throwing the noise back at the Reapers. Neku is half caught between an apology and being surprised it worked so well. He wonders what Kariya is expecting, if this is going to turn into a fight. If he’s actually going to have to say ‘let’s take this outside.’ Kariya was not exactly easy to beat the first time, and Neku’s not looking forward to a repeat, even if he is the Conductor now.
“Relax, boss. I’m impressed, really.” Kariya sips at his broth, eyes down. “She wasn’t paying attention - it shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near her. I don’t suppose…”
“Mm?”
“Nevermind.”
He really shouldn’t want to continue the conversation, the Reaper can’t be expecting it, but Neku has nothing else to do to stretch out the meal but try to think of something to say.
“So do you two live together?”
Kariya lets out a chuckle, shaking his head.
“Uzuki? No way. She’d kill me for sure. Way too picky. I don’t know where she is, these days. I’m staying in the apartment of that tall kid. The Player that won the Game yesterday.”
Neku stares. “You… what, squat in the Players apartments?”
Kariya nods. “Sometimes. If their parents rent them for them, or if there’s some other reason they’re alone. So, you see, sometimes it’s nice when they don’t get Erased right away. I mean, I got lucky with you for those three weeks.”
It takes him a second, and Neku nearly chokes around a mouthful of ramen, spluttering. “My house? You were in my HOUSE?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re pretty boring.” Kariya is completely unfazed by Neku’s outrage, picking the last of the chicken out of his bowl. “I think some of the Wall Reapers all cram together in some little apartment, they pool the rent. A few of them still have families, or they’re homeless, but the ones with a place will help them out when they need it.”
“I didn’t…” So much time, thinking about them as cruel monsters, Neku never really considered what the Reapers did with the rest of their time. Especially for the Wall Reapers, the ones who didn’t get to hunt, who didn’t go up in rank, it really was just another kind of part-time job. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Shibuya’s a little tight, hard to negotiate sometimes. It’s different in other places. I used to do a lot of camping, or sleeping on the beach.”
Neku looks at him in surprise, but Kariya is still quietly picking apart his meal. He’s trying to remember what he’s read about Reapers - but most of that doesn’t match with what he just said, not even the higher-level Harriers tending to leave the boundaries of their UG. “You… you weren’t always a Reaper here?”
He shrugs. “I get around.”
Nothing in his tone to suggest he cares one way or the other, but Neku doesn’t think that asking more questions is going to get him anywhere. Kariya pushes his bowl away, grinning at Beat as he walks by, grabbing it off the counter.
“Higashizawa would love that. You can’t get him to shut up about the slow food movement, the need for the next generation to go back to the old ways of cooking, whatever. I don’t know why in the hell he wants to be Games Master so badly. One of those type-A chef personalities, I guess.”
“So he actually cooks?” Neku says, and scowls when Kariya gives him a look. “Listen, I don’t think a team of shrinks could tell which of you jerks have actual personalities and which are just batshit insane.” Like the fraction-obsessed freakshow running around out there somewhere with his math homework. Kariya shrugs, conceding the point.
“He’s in culinary school. Nearly done. I think he teaches some class to little kids and old ladies on the weekends. He’s good with kids.”
“He…” Neku trails off, but the brain damage is already done. Good with children. Seriously. What.
“Neku!”
Two arms grab from behind, pulling him into a happy hug, Rhyme leaning her head on his shoulder with a bright smile. Neku has quietly and determinedly tried to divide the UG and RG parts of his life, or at least the people involved. Shiki, most of all, but Rhyme is a close second - she went through way too much during the Game for Neku to want her anywhere near any of it now, not even Kariya, even if he doesn’t seem to be interested in doing more than digesting his meal.
“Are you here to see Beat?”
“I didn’t know he was here.”
Rhyme frowns, kicking one toe against the floor. “He’s trying not to let anybody know. I don’t know why. Everybody needs to eat, right? What’s wrong with wanting to be a great chef?”
Did Beat not want him to know? Neku never thought it mattered much to him, who was smarter or had the better grades, but for all his transparent nature Beat is obviously just as capable of keeping secrets. Rhyme steps back, and grins at Kariya. Neku flashes him a warning glare, but all the Reaper does is smile back.
“Listen, Rhyme, I’ve got to get going. I’m kind of… busy right now. It was good to see you, though. Tell your brother I said thanks, and I think he’ll do great.”
“Okay!” Rhyme chirps. Neku slaps down some cash against the counter, a little more than necessary but he wants to get out of the place more than he wants to wait for his change. He hears Kariya walking behind him, but doesn’t look back. Isn’t thinking enough to remember to flip Frequencies when he goes through the door, slipping back into the UG, and completely misses it when Kariya looks back from the threshold, Rhyme watching him, even when he steps through the door. He stares for a moment, surprised, and winks at her before turning away.
-------------------
Neku gets maybe ten steps onto the street when Minamimoto appears out of nowhere. He slaps the workbook against Neku’s chest, smirking proudly, standing tall - he really thinks he’s the adult in this entire thing, doesn’t he? Neku tries not to listen to what he’s saying - some random mnemonic, but at least he’s easy enough to read, a part of Neku always watching his body language, always aware of the way things stand. Minamimoto and Kariya aren’t friends, he’s pretty sure of that, but all he needs is for some crazy-ass deal to be made, so much he still doesn’t know about any of this, and it’s already fairly established that /everyone/ wants his damn job.
He flips quickly through the book, Minamimoto has done the entire assignment for the day as well as half of the one for tomorrow, including the practice problems. In a moment of sadistic inspiration, Neku flips to the back of the book, where the answers are given for at least those few.
“… my superior skills, a logorithmic equation of awesome to base twenty-”
“It’s not right.”
Minamimoto stops talking. Neku flips the book flat in his hands. Kariya is leaning over from the other side.
“It’s the wrong answer.” He’s honestly surprised, and checks a few more, the ones he’d deliberately left empty because he’s pretty sure he knew the answers and needed to focus on the more difficult ones first. “I think this one is wrong too. If you do out the whole thing, you should have negative seven, right?”
Minamimoto is silent, watching Neku work out the problem, calmly erasing his grandiose computations. Kariya is making a choking sound from behind his hand, as Neku flips the page.
“Uh… yeah. So… thanks for getting it back to me.”
Kariya is laughing so hard he’s leaning against his knees, wings sticking straight up. Minamimoto howls with anger, storming away down the street, screeching about binomials and high school and stupid freaking hectopascals as Neku sighs and tries to think of the closest store that sells really big erasers.
-------------------
The clock is ticking down, and nobody’s won yet, and even though this night’s Game is longer than the days before, it’s still starting to worry him. Of course he doesn’t have to be here, he can just go home, but Neku knows he won’t be able to sleep if he does. He’ll only toss and turn and stare at the ceiling and wonder if anyone’s made it out alive. The sky does strange things in the UG at night, the city just as bright but the sky above lit up as if there’s no city at all, a sea of whirling galaxies, a whole pail full of glittering sand tossed out into the darkness. It’s beautiful, and for a while Neku can’t help but glance up at it, try to figure out how to draw it.
He does circuits of the area, the Scramble to Dogenzaka and back, up through the hall, over to the park. He keeps away from where Joshua is, doesn’t linger near CAT Street - he’s here to keep track of the Reapers, not the Players, tries to stay out of their way while letting the Reapers know he’s around, and watching. It still kind of feels like being a nature photographer, dispassionately watching the lions chase the gazelles, but the closest he’s gotten so far to having to see anyone Erased is coming around the corner to find a pair of Players circling the edge of a Blue Noise, wary and curious, while a pair of Wall Reapers egg them on.
“That’s cute. Real cute.” Neku snaps, and the Wall Reapers instantly scatter, disappearing into the night, leaving him with the Blue Noise and two Players, both in battle stances, the one in front glaring at him while the other watches warily from behind. It reminds him so much of Shiki and Eri that his heart goes tight in his chest.
“Who are you, then?” The girl’s hand is glowing slightly, possibly an ice pin and probably very well charged. This is one of the pairs, the girls, the ones he’s hoping can take it all the way.
“I’m somebody nobody ever feels like listening to.” Neku can’t help but glare in the direction the Reapers have vanished. The Blue Noise is still hovering patiently, waiting for someone to make the mistake he made the first time he walked into one, thinking it was part of the day’s challenge, that it was super important to beat. And Joshua, ever-helpful Joshua had said nothing at all except to chide Neku for not doing a better job as he’d crawled out of the battle pretty much on his hands and knees.
“He’s /really/ strong.” The meeker of the two girls whispers to the other, she must have some affinity to the Game, the type of person who might make a good Reaper, if she wasn’t obviously scared out of her mind.
“I’m not your goal, and neither is this. I suggest you get moving, you’re running out of time.”
“We want to go home.” The girl in front says, and her eyes are flashing with anger but her voice quavers on the word, and Neku doesn’t want to be this, doesn’t want to be freaking Kitaniji. It’s so easy, it was so easy to give into the fear and turn on Shiki, and it would be so easy to stop caring now, so much more enjoyable, to forget what it was to be powerless.
“Win the Game. Win the Game and I promise I’ll get you both home.” If he has to turn Joshua upside down and shake the Composer power out of him.
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
Neku knows the pin she’s using, knows what it is to clench his fist and call the cold. Feels it now, and draws the block of ice together silently, effortlessly, letting it fall - it’s half the size of a car, smashing to the ground only a few steps from where she stands. Her partner shrieks, clinging onto her arm, and she’s jumped to the side, staring at Neku with wide, shocked eyes.
“Get. Moving. Win the Game. It’s what you have to do, so do it.”
Neku can’t relax, can’t even manage a deep breath out until they’re gone, and it’s just him and the Blue Noise, still content to hover in place in a really kind of annoying way. Like /hell/ he’s letting it hang around - maybe tomorrow, but it’s still too early on for them to have to put up with this kind of thing. Neku reaches out, feels the cool tingle - the regular Noise do not come near him, sensing his power, he’s by far the biggest threat around. And they were people too once, right? Bits and pieces of former players, collecting more energy, trying to move up just like the Players are trying to move up, and the Reapers - nothing changes. Or everything does.
//Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.//
Vancouver’s asked him, how it feels to be the Conductor. Neku still doesn’t know what he’s going to say.
The world shifts, not quite the way it did when he was a Player, as he prepares to fight. He simply touches the Blue Noise and it fades, and he knows there’s a boundary around them now. Waits for the creature to appear in its true form, to attack. Glancing above him, in case it is preparing to swoop down, or to see some version of himself with a fox mask face - but the minutes pass, and nothing happens. The area seems entirely empty, and Neku exhales. He can read people’s thoughts, he can throw all kinds of power around without Pins, he ought to be able to find one Noise. He drops his guard just slightly, forces himself to relax just that much further, and reaches out, looking for… well, he figures he’ll know when he finds it. It doesn’t take long, although it’s kind of… smaller than he thought it would be.
Neku walks over to a bench, looks around again for the sneak attack that just has to be coming, and puts a knee on the seat, leaning down to look underneath.
“Hey. Hey, I can see you.”
One small, liquid eye, watching him from the darkness, but it doesn’t move. Probably waiting for a better shot, a moment of vulnerability. Neku weighs his options, and the possibility this will all end in some humiliating way, and drops down to the pavement, so he can reach a hand out.
“Hello? Come on, you’re supposed to be attacking me. Otherwise Joshua’s going to turn the channel.” He’s almost certain the Composer is somewhere watching all of this, probably recording his least impressive moments for the ‘greatest hits’ collection.
The shape seems to cower a little further back into the shadows, but just about the time Neku’s ready to drop his hand it takes a tentative step forward, and another. Well, not really a step - more of a hop. It’s a bunny, a little, tan mini-lop with a teardrop shape around each eye, like dark brown eyeliner. So this is either a baited bear trap or some sort of Angler fish Noise with a cute bunny lure. Oh, what the hell, it will make for good comedy either way.
“It’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you.”
It would really be off-sides to destroy it, even if it is supposed to be some sort of high-level Noise. The tiny creature still hasn’t actually /done/ anything, and it’s really kind of adorable. Neku waits, keeping his hand still, his knees starting to ache from the forced hold, when he feels a soft, velvety nose against his fingertips, and fur, and then the tiny creature is hopping out, nose twitching - obscenely cute, for Noise, and oddly… familiar, somehow. Neku gently strokes the soft fur at the crown of its head, glancing around and behind him, but this tiny creature is really all there is.
No, Game. He’s not murdering the tiny bunny. Just, no. But he can’t leave it here for the next player to pound flat, either.
“Come on, then.”
Neku gently picks it up, and puts it on his shoulder. The lop might be small but it’s still a Noise, and he feels its claws dig in firmly, not enough to hurt, but certainly in no danger of falling off. Hanekoma has sent him some extra material Neku was sure he wasn’t supposed to see, nothing on how to /make/ Noise but on their various properties and needs - basically, everything about how Rhyme had been in her Noise form, how she’d pulled all the energy she needed from her partner, and if Beat could handle that, Neku’s pretty sure keeping it fed won’t be a problem. He glances over, watching the tiny nose twitch.
“If you try to eat my head, the deal’s off. Got that?”
One dark eye blinks at him, and he feels the slight shift of the ‘battle’ ending. He’s back in the UG proper with no Blue Noise and now, a fuzzy souvenir. Neku turns at the sound of footsteps - didn’t even notice when the Game had ended, but here’s the Reaper with the nightly report. Neku flips it open, immediately, to the day’s winner, relieved to find there is one.
==================
Author’s Notes -
1. chapter title - Elliot Smith - Go By
2. The first time I ran into a Blue Noise happened pretty much like that. Stupid Blue Noise.