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Character name: Neku Sakuraba
Fandom: The World Ends with You
Timeline: Post-game!
Age: 15
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths:
All of Neku's powers come from little pins! In TWEWY world, such pins possess a sort of psychic power, if you will, called psychs. While most people are only able to use one or two psychs, Neku is a sort of wild card-he can use almost any pin that exists. This gives him access to a vast number of different abilities, although he can only use six at a time. Regardless, this wild card aspect makes him one of the most versatile and formidable fighters in the UG.
In addition to his psych pins, Neku also possesses a Player Pin, as all Players do. It has several functions- it: allows him to "scan," or read, other people's minds; prevents other people from reading his; protects him from being put under the influence of mind control; allows him to scan for Noise; and gives him the power of "imprinting," which allows him to "push" a word or idea into someone's mind, sort of like a supernatural persuasion technique.
How would they use their abilities?
He probably won't use them except for self-defense. In fact, being that he's no longer a participant in the Reapers' Game would probably mean he wouldn't even think of using them unless absolutely necessary. However, there are rules that come with the pins that continue to limit their use even outside of Shibuya-he can only use them when in the general vicinity of Shiki, Joshua, or Beat.
While Neku does have a good number of pins on him, he certainly doesn't have every pin that exists in Shibuya. For the sake of keeping him from being too godmoddy, he'll usually only use six pins, which contain the psychs Shockwave, Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Force Rounds, Freeze, and Cure Drink. If a situation comes up where he needs to use a different pin, I'll bring it up...!
As for using his Player Pin, there's little to no chance of him actively using it. There's no Noise on the ship-unless we do some plotty stuff but I digress-and he probably won't have any reason to be barging into other people's minds.
Appearance:
Neku is a rather skinny guy, and a little on the lanky side; such is the fate of many a Square-Enix character. And speaking of which, he's got the trademark Spiky Hair that marks his main character status-in his case, his is orange, and it's usually divided by his signature purple headphones (rightfully earning him the nickname "Phones"); the front part falls over his eyes, while the back spikes up. For someone who claims to ignore the fashion side of Shibuya, Neku has a very defined style, albeit it being a... rather strange one.
Background:
Meet Neku Sakuraba. He's just a fifteen-year-old kid, who's lived in Shibuya, the city of hot trends, fashion, and culture for pretty much his entire life. The guy's different than most others-he cares about no one but himself, preferring to just ignore other people, and he kind of has a fetish for this graffiti artist named CAT (debatable??). Oh, and uh. In the beginning of the game, he's kind of dead.
His story begins when he wakes up in the middle of the Scramble Crossing. Neku has no idea what he's doing there, or even who he is-all he's got is his name. Nobody seems to be able to see him, and he's got this funky little pin in his hand. Suddenly, he starts hearing voices in his head, which he finds out are other people's thoughts. Freakyyy. He then gets a message on his phone, which reads "Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. -The Reapers." At first he believes it's just spam, but the pain in his other hand tells him otherwise-a timer has appeared on it, and things start attacking him. Confused, he just... runs the hell away.
He eventually runs into a girl named Shiki Misaki at the statue of Hachiko, who tells him the monsters after him are called "Noise," and they "erase" "Players" who haven't formed a "pact." These words make absolutely no sense to Neku, but seeing as he has no other way to survive, he agrees to partner up with her. Together, they wipe out the Noise, and Shiki tries to explain to him that they're both Players in something called the Reapers' Game. They complete the mission successfully, and so starts their weeklong effort to survive the game.
As Neku eventually finds out, all of the Players in the Reapers' Game are dead, and are playing for a second chance at life. Shibuya itself is separated into two distinct "planes"-the Realground, or RG, the "normal plane;" and the Underground, or UG, where the Reapers' Game takes place. Inhabitants of the RG cannot see people in the UG Each Player has an entry fee, their most prized possession, taken from them at the beginning of the game; the only way to get it back is to win the game. In Neku's case, it's his memory. His desire to remember who he really is drives him through the rest of the game. Although he's constantly annoyed by her at first, Neku soon finds himself forming an attachment to Shiki-the first real contact he's had with another person in years. Throughout their partnership, she helps him open up, while he in turn helps her deal with her own issues.
Along the way, they meet two other Players, named Beat and Rhyme. Despite Neku and Beat's initial clashing, the four form a team effort in order to win the Game. However, not all can be happy-after they finish the mission for the fourth day, two Reapers, Uzuki and Kariya, spring a trap on the group. Beat doesn't notice the Noise forming under his feet, but Rhyme does. At the last minute, she pushes him aside, getting erased in the process. Beat starts to fade away, as a Player can only survive for so long after their partner has been erased, but luckily he is saved by one Mr. Hanekoma, self-proclaimed "Guardian" of the Game, who makes sure the Game is being run the way it's supposed to (earlier, he had stopped Neku from erasing Shiki thanks to Uzuki trying to trick him).
Neku and Shiki (and Beat) survive the entire week, and successfully defeat the Game Master. They then find out that only one of them will get the chance to come back to life-and that ends up being Shiki. Before she returns to the RG, she promises to wait for Neku to come back to life too, and then vanishes. Megumi Kitaniji, the Conductor (or head Reaper), gives Neku and Beat three choices: play the Game again to try to win another chance at life; become a Reaper; or simply be erased. While Neku chooses to play again, Beat requests to become a Reaper. Kitaniji accepts both of their requests, but before he leaves, he gives Neku back his memories... but for some reason, he still can't remember how he died. When he tries to ask about it, Kitaniji just brushes him off, and proceeds to take his second week's entry fee... the most important thing to Neku now: Shiki Misaki.
Neku wakes up in the Scramble Crossing again, still pissed off at Kitaniji... but gets his ass in gear to find a partner, if only to save Shiki. He makes a break for Hachiko again, hoping to find someone else to partner up with... and in desperation, reluctantly forms a pact with a kid named Yoshiya Kiryu-otherwise known as "Joshua." While Neku just wants to win the Game for Shiki, Joshua has other goals in mind-he wants to "jack" Shibuya and become the Composer, the ruler of the UG and all-powerful administrator of the Reapers' Game. Beat also shows up a couple of times, too-as a Reaper, he runs into Neku and Joshua a couple of times, but never erases them. Always with him is a... weird squirrel-type Noise, later revealed to be Rhyme, brought back as Noise.
Neku soon finds out that he can read Joshua's mind, which should not be possible, since they're both Players. Joshua then reveals that he's actually alive, and has had the ability to see the UG since birth. Even more disturbing is that what Neku sees in Joshua's mind is... his own death. This leads him to believe that Joshua is his killer, which... puts them at odds for a while! Joshua just nonchalantly shrugs him off, while Mr. H reminds Neku that, in order to survive the Game, he needs to trust his partner. Turns out, Joshua and Mr. H have known each other for a while... and that Mr. H is actually CAT, perhaps the only person Neku respected in the world before his involvement in the Game. This encourages Neku to deal with his situation, and over the course of the week, he actually finds himself relating to Joshua.
The GM for this week, Sho Minamimoto, seems to have his own agenda, independent from his duties. Upon reaching the seventh day, Neku probes Joshua's mind once again, seeing more of the moments that led up to his death. He finds out that Sho is his "real" killer, and that Joshua hadn't been lying to him after all. Before he can apologize to his partner, Sho throws one last blow at them-his Level i Flare. It looks like the end for Neku... until Joshua pushes him out of the way to take the blow. Neku is depressed when he realizes he hadn't gotten the chance to apologize to Joshua for accusing him of killing him. It really doesn't help when Kitaniji shows up and tells him the Game is over... but the week was considered null, since Joshua was alive and therefore it was illegal for him to be participating in the Reapers' Game in the first place.
So, Neku has to start aaall over again! Yeah, his afterlife sucks pretty much as much as his actual life did. Maybe even worse. Anyway, this next Game comes with an additional rule-it's Neku's last chance. If he fails this time around, he'll be erased for good.
Neku starts his final week all alone-literally. His entry fee for the third week? The other Players. Things start to look bleak for him, as he's defenseless against Uzuki and Kariya. Just as he's to be erased, someone jumps to his rescue-it's none other than Beat! The two form a pact, and Beat gets demoted back to Player status. When Neku asks him why he did that, he tells Neku he couldn't just stand by and watch Neku get his ass beaten without the chance to fight back. He reveals the only reason he wanted to become a Reaper was because he wanted to bring Rhyme back. The reason he's so hellbent on doing so, as Neku eventually finds out, is that Beat and Rhyme are actually brother and sister. While Rhyme's entry fee were her dreams and ambitions, Beat's wasn't something of his own; instead, his most treasured possessions... were Rhyme's memories of him. When they woke up at the beginning of the first week, Rhyme had no idea who Beat was, which pretty much broke Beat's heart, and convinced him he was going to do everything he could to make sure he'd get to live happily with Rhyme once they were revived.
During Beat's week, things get a liiiittle weird. The GM for that week, Mitsuki Konishi, issues the pair a single mission: "Defeat me. You have 6 days." She then takes Rhyme's Noise as Beat's entry fee, turns her into a pin, and disappears. Throughout most of the week, Neku and Beat forgo their search for Konishi in favor of finding out a way to get into the Shibuya River, the supposed location of the Composer. Beat gets the idea to become the Composer himself, all to bring Rhyme back... and because he didn't erase anyone during his stint as a Reaper, which means he only has five days to live. The rest of the city's condition is also worrying-people appear to be possessed, repeating a certain phrase over and over: "To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise. What a wonderful world such would be..." Yeah. At first only a few people are shown saying it, but eventually, everyone in Shibuya turns into a mindless drone.
Neku and Beat manage to break into the Shibuya River, and run into a crazed Minamimoto! He goes on to confront the Composer, while Neku and Beat defeat Konishi once and for all (who was hiding in Beat's shadow the whole time, the whore). The pair soon meets up with Shiki, who had been held in the River since she was taken as Neku's entry fee. On the way to meet up with the Composer, they find Minamimoto's body, crushed under a vending machine. Hmmm... The three of them continue on and eventually reach the Conductor's HQ... where Kitaniji himself reveals the city's brainwashing is his grand scheme, achieved by spreading "O-Pins" throughout the city, whose effects could only be negated by a Player Pin. He then puts an O-Pin on a Player Pin-less Shiki, and turns her against Neku. Neku and Beat end up fighting Kitaniji and Shiki at the same time-they defeat him and break his control over Shiki. He then tries to control Neku after breaking his Player Pin... but the mind control doesn't work! Neku actually has two Player Pins, so the O-Pin's effect is negated. It seems like the three can finally go confront the Composer once and for all...
... And then Joshua comes to crash the party. Safe to say, Neku is extremely shocked, since, you know. He saw the guy die in front of his eyes. Apparently, Joshua had some sort of "game" going on with Kitaniji, and Kitaniji lost, resulting in his erasure. What exactly is this game, you ask? Well...
Joshua's the Composer. Yyyup. Joshua had grown weary of dealing with Shibuya, and intended to destroy it. Kitaniji opposed this idea, saying that Shibuya had so much potential-it just hadn't been unlocked yet. He fought to save Shibuya, and Joshua proposed they play a game: if Kitaniji could fix Shibuya in a month, to get it out of its funk, he would win and Shibuya would stay. However, if he failed to change the city, Joshua would win, and he would erase both Kitaniji and Shibuya. Kitaniji thought that by erasing everyone's individuality, he could create a paradise-hence the O-Pins. Of course, this would never work, so Kitaniji was declared the loser.
Joshua then reveals his true identity to a distraught Neku. Neku is shocked to learn that he really did die by Joshua's hands, and that Joshua had been using him to fight Kitaniji the entire time. Joshua decides to play one last game with Neku: they each have a gun, and ten seconds to shoot. If Neku shoots, he becomes Composer-if Joshua shoots, he destroys Shibuya, as originally planned. Neku is pretty much lost at this point-he thought he'd finally found someone he could relate to, only to find out it was all a lie. Joshua keeps taunting him, while Neku brokenly responds... and then, a gunshot. Neku then cries out one last time.
... As a Player. The game then skips forward to seven days later, with Neku walking the streets of Shibuya. He's flashing back to all of the experiences he had during the Game, and how much he's changed since that first fateful day. It's revealed that Joshua never went through with his deal to destroy Shibuya, because he saw how much Neku changed. The whole reason he chose Neku as his proxy was because he thought Neku was the worst kind of person in Shibuya, one who was completely unable to change. Neku proved him wrong, and Joshua thought that if even the worst person in Shibuya could change, the city itself could too, and it deserved to stay. At the end of the game, Neku meets up with Beat and Rhyme in front of Hachiko, and they are soon joined by Shiki. Neku states that he can't forgive Joshua for all that he's done to him, but that he trusts him.
Mr. H once told Neku the world ended with him; now, he's finally realized the truth: the world begins with him.
Personality:
In the first week, Neku is kind of a dick. Like, seriously. If Shibuya had its own dictionary, the picture under "douchebag" would probably be his. Or Joshua's. Either or. He lives by a mantra of CAT's: "Do what you want, how you want, when you want." To him, forming relationships is stupid, and other people only serve to get in his way. Early in the game, he's tricked into believing he can get out of the Reapers' Game by erasing Shiki-to egg him on, Uzuki says "What are you waiting for? Do what comes naturally. Save yourself. Screw everybody else, right?"
However, being in the Reapers' Game starts to change him. During Joshua's week, he remarks that he no longer feels like he used to towards other people. Scanning people's minds makes him realize that Shibuya isn't just a boring town with nothing to see. He starts to see the good in people again, that everyone in Shibuya has something to live for. Mr. H tells him that "the world ends with [Neku]"-and he realizes that, to get the best experience out of life, he needs to start opening up to people.
His partners help shape his new outlook on life immensely, as well. He and Shiki start off as polar opposites, but eventually, Neku starts to enjoy her company-to the extent that she becomes the most important thing in his life (a rather embarrassing fact for them both). With Shiki, Neku discovers something he'd never experienced before (or at least, not for a long time)-friendship. He learns to trust people, to stop being so inconsiderate. It even gets to the point where Neku is able to restore Shiki's self-confidence after losing herself to envy towards her best friend. His attachment to Shiki is largely what fuels his participation in the following weeks of the Game.
When partnered with Joshua, Neku remembers some of the resentment he felt towards other people. The way Joshua teases and lies to him reminds him why he started shunning other people in the first place. However, he does put up with it, and realizes that he and Joshua are actually sort of alike. In the end, when Sho "kills" Joshua, Neku feels genuine regret for not being able to apologize for all the crap he's said to Joshua-something that would have never happened had the previous week's Game not changed his life.
Beat's week shows even more progress in his emotional change. His banter with Beat, which are mostly jabs at the other's lack of intelligence, is proof of this. Had this been pre-Game Neku, he wouldn't have even bothered saying a word to someone like Beat. He understands the other boy's drive to get his sister back, and respects him for having such a strong thing to fight for. And of course, near the end of the week, Beat tells Neku that he no longer thinks of Neku as a partner-he thinks of him as his friend. This inspires Neku, and makes him realize just how much he's grown, from that distant loner he used to be.
By the end of the game, the true extent of Neku's emotional development can be seen. I mean, come on, just look at this guy. Yeah. Although he still retains some of his previous standoffishness, he's much more open to forming relationships with other people. That isn't to say he's done a complete 180, though. Because he's spent so long shutting the rest of the world out, he can be pretty socially awkward. His habit of listening to music while talking hasn't changed, and while he does do it less often, it can still give off the impression he's ignoring people. He's also gotten a little better at controlling his anger, though he is prone to short outbursts if he gets really annoyed. Still, he's way more chilled out than he used to be, and has more of a "cool and collected" feel to him, rather than his previous "bitter and angry" one.
TL;DR he used to be the biggest jerk ever. But now he's learned to trust, to open up. There are some things he can't just forgive and forget about, but with friendship on his side, he's changed-and is still changing-for the better.
"I’m glad I met you guys. You made me...pick up on things, I probably would’ve just gone on ignoring. Trust your partner...and I do. I can’t forgive you, but I trust you."
Fandom: The World Ends with You
Timeline: Post-game!
Age: 15
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths:
All of Neku's powers come from little pins! In TWEWY world, such pins possess a sort of psychic power, if you will, called psychs. While most people are only able to use one or two psychs, Neku is a sort of wild card-he can use almost any pin that exists. This gives him access to a vast number of different abilities, although he can only use six at a time. Regardless, this wild card aspect makes him one of the most versatile and formidable fighters in the UG.
In addition to his psych pins, Neku also possesses a Player Pin, as all Players do. It has several functions- it: allows him to "scan," or read, other people's minds; prevents other people from reading his; protects him from being put under the influence of mind control; allows him to scan for Noise; and gives him the power of "imprinting," which allows him to "push" a word or idea into someone's mind, sort of like a supernatural persuasion technique.
How would they use their abilities?
He probably won't use them except for self-defense. In fact, being that he's no longer a participant in the Reapers' Game would probably mean he wouldn't even think of using them unless absolutely necessary. However, there are rules that come with the pins that continue to limit their use even outside of Shibuya-he can only use them when in the general vicinity of Shiki, Joshua, or Beat.
While Neku does have a good number of pins on him, he certainly doesn't have every pin that exists in Shibuya. For the sake of keeping him from being too godmoddy, he'll usually only use six pins, which contain the psychs Shockwave, Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Force Rounds, Freeze, and Cure Drink. If a situation comes up where he needs to use a different pin, I'll bring it up...!
As for using his Player Pin, there's little to no chance of him actively using it. There's no Noise on the ship-unless we do some plotty stuff but I digress-and he probably won't have any reason to be barging into other people's minds.
Appearance:
Neku is a rather skinny guy, and a little on the lanky side; such is the fate of many a Square-Enix character. And speaking of which, he's got the trademark Spiky Hair that marks his main character status-in his case, his is orange, and it's usually divided by his signature purple headphones (rightfully earning him the nickname "Phones"); the front part falls over his eyes, while the back spikes up. For someone who claims to ignore the fashion side of Shibuya, Neku has a very defined style, albeit it being a... rather strange one.
Background:
Meet Neku Sakuraba. He's just a fifteen-year-old kid, who's lived in Shibuya, the city of hot trends, fashion, and culture for pretty much his entire life. The guy's different than most others-he cares about no one but himself, preferring to just ignore other people, and he kind of has a fetish for this graffiti artist named CAT (debatable??). Oh, and uh. In the beginning of the game, he's kind of dead.
His story begins when he wakes up in the middle of the Scramble Crossing. Neku has no idea what he's doing there, or even who he is-all he's got is his name. Nobody seems to be able to see him, and he's got this funky little pin in his hand. Suddenly, he starts hearing voices in his head, which he finds out are other people's thoughts. Freakyyy. He then gets a message on his phone, which reads "Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. -The Reapers." At first he believes it's just spam, but the pain in his other hand tells him otherwise-a timer has appeared on it, and things start attacking him. Confused, he just... runs the hell away.
He eventually runs into a girl named Shiki Misaki at the statue of Hachiko, who tells him the monsters after him are called "Noise," and they "erase" "Players" who haven't formed a "pact." These words make absolutely no sense to Neku, but seeing as he has no other way to survive, he agrees to partner up with her. Together, they wipe out the Noise, and Shiki tries to explain to him that they're both Players in something called the Reapers' Game. They complete the mission successfully, and so starts their weeklong effort to survive the game.
As Neku eventually finds out, all of the Players in the Reapers' Game are dead, and are playing for a second chance at life. Shibuya itself is separated into two distinct "planes"-the Realground, or RG, the "normal plane;" and the Underground, or UG, where the Reapers' Game takes place. Inhabitants of the RG cannot see people in the UG Each Player has an entry fee, their most prized possession, taken from them at the beginning of the game; the only way to get it back is to win the game. In Neku's case, it's his memory. His desire to remember who he really is drives him through the rest of the game. Although he's constantly annoyed by her at first, Neku soon finds himself forming an attachment to Shiki-the first real contact he's had with another person in years. Throughout their partnership, she helps him open up, while he in turn helps her deal with her own issues.
Along the way, they meet two other Players, named Beat and Rhyme. Despite Neku and Beat's initial clashing, the four form a team effort in order to win the Game. However, not all can be happy-after they finish the mission for the fourth day, two Reapers, Uzuki and Kariya, spring a trap on the group. Beat doesn't notice the Noise forming under his feet, but Rhyme does. At the last minute, she pushes him aside, getting erased in the process. Beat starts to fade away, as a Player can only survive for so long after their partner has been erased, but luckily he is saved by one Mr. Hanekoma, self-proclaimed "Guardian" of the Game, who makes sure the Game is being run the way it's supposed to (earlier, he had stopped Neku from erasing Shiki thanks to Uzuki trying to trick him).
Neku and Shiki (and Beat) survive the entire week, and successfully defeat the Game Master. They then find out that only one of them will get the chance to come back to life-and that ends up being Shiki. Before she returns to the RG, she promises to wait for Neku to come back to life too, and then vanishes. Megumi Kitaniji, the Conductor (or head Reaper), gives Neku and Beat three choices: play the Game again to try to win another chance at life; become a Reaper; or simply be erased. While Neku chooses to play again, Beat requests to become a Reaper. Kitaniji accepts both of their requests, but before he leaves, he gives Neku back his memories... but for some reason, he still can't remember how he died. When he tries to ask about it, Kitaniji just brushes him off, and proceeds to take his second week's entry fee... the most important thing to Neku now: Shiki Misaki.
Neku wakes up in the Scramble Crossing again, still pissed off at Kitaniji... but gets his ass in gear to find a partner, if only to save Shiki. He makes a break for Hachiko again, hoping to find someone else to partner up with... and in desperation, reluctantly forms a pact with a kid named Yoshiya Kiryu-otherwise known as "Joshua." While Neku just wants to win the Game for Shiki, Joshua has other goals in mind-he wants to "jack" Shibuya and become the Composer, the ruler of the UG and all-powerful administrator of the Reapers' Game. Beat also shows up a couple of times, too-as a Reaper, he runs into Neku and Joshua a couple of times, but never erases them. Always with him is a... weird squirrel-type Noise, later revealed to be Rhyme, brought back as Noise.
Neku soon finds out that he can read Joshua's mind, which should not be possible, since they're both Players. Joshua then reveals that he's actually alive, and has had the ability to see the UG since birth. Even more disturbing is that what Neku sees in Joshua's mind is... his own death. This leads him to believe that Joshua is his killer, which... puts them at odds for a while! Joshua just nonchalantly shrugs him off, while Mr. H reminds Neku that, in order to survive the Game, he needs to trust his partner. Turns out, Joshua and Mr. H have known each other for a while... and that Mr. H is actually CAT, perhaps the only person Neku respected in the world before his involvement in the Game. This encourages Neku to deal with his situation, and over the course of the week, he actually finds himself relating to Joshua.
The GM for this week, Sho Minamimoto, seems to have his own agenda, independent from his duties. Upon reaching the seventh day, Neku probes Joshua's mind once again, seeing more of the moments that led up to his death. He finds out that Sho is his "real" killer, and that Joshua hadn't been lying to him after all. Before he can apologize to his partner, Sho throws one last blow at them-his Level i Flare. It looks like the end for Neku... until Joshua pushes him out of the way to take the blow. Neku is depressed when he realizes he hadn't gotten the chance to apologize to Joshua for accusing him of killing him. It really doesn't help when Kitaniji shows up and tells him the Game is over... but the week was considered null, since Joshua was alive and therefore it was illegal for him to be participating in the Reapers' Game in the first place.
So, Neku has to start aaall over again! Yeah, his afterlife sucks pretty much as much as his actual life did. Maybe even worse. Anyway, this next Game comes with an additional rule-it's Neku's last chance. If he fails this time around, he'll be erased for good.
Neku starts his final week all alone-literally. His entry fee for the third week? The other Players. Things start to look bleak for him, as he's defenseless against Uzuki and Kariya. Just as he's to be erased, someone jumps to his rescue-it's none other than Beat! The two form a pact, and Beat gets demoted back to Player status. When Neku asks him why he did that, he tells Neku he couldn't just stand by and watch Neku get his ass beaten without the chance to fight back. He reveals the only reason he wanted to become a Reaper was because he wanted to bring Rhyme back. The reason he's so hellbent on doing so, as Neku eventually finds out, is that Beat and Rhyme are actually brother and sister. While Rhyme's entry fee were her dreams and ambitions, Beat's wasn't something of his own; instead, his most treasured possessions... were Rhyme's memories of him. When they woke up at the beginning of the first week, Rhyme had no idea who Beat was, which pretty much broke Beat's heart, and convinced him he was going to do everything he could to make sure he'd get to live happily with Rhyme once they were revived.
During Beat's week, things get a liiiittle weird. The GM for that week, Mitsuki Konishi, issues the pair a single mission: "Defeat me. You have 6 days." She then takes Rhyme's Noise as Beat's entry fee, turns her into a pin, and disappears. Throughout most of the week, Neku and Beat forgo their search for Konishi in favor of finding out a way to get into the Shibuya River, the supposed location of the Composer. Beat gets the idea to become the Composer himself, all to bring Rhyme back... and because he didn't erase anyone during his stint as a Reaper, which means he only has five days to live. The rest of the city's condition is also worrying-people appear to be possessed, repeating a certain phrase over and over: "To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise. What a wonderful world such would be..." Yeah. At first only a few people are shown saying it, but eventually, everyone in Shibuya turns into a mindless drone.
Neku and Beat manage to break into the Shibuya River, and run into a crazed Minamimoto! He goes on to confront the Composer, while Neku and Beat defeat Konishi once and for all (who was hiding in Beat's shadow the whole time, the whore). The pair soon meets up with Shiki, who had been held in the River since she was taken as Neku's entry fee. On the way to meet up with the Composer, they find Minamimoto's body, crushed under a vending machine. Hmmm... The three of them continue on and eventually reach the Conductor's HQ... where Kitaniji himself reveals the city's brainwashing is his grand scheme, achieved by spreading "O-Pins" throughout the city, whose effects could only be negated by a Player Pin. He then puts an O-Pin on a Player Pin-less Shiki, and turns her against Neku. Neku and Beat end up fighting Kitaniji and Shiki at the same time-they defeat him and break his control over Shiki. He then tries to control Neku after breaking his Player Pin... but the mind control doesn't work! Neku actually has two Player Pins, so the O-Pin's effect is negated. It seems like the three can finally go confront the Composer once and for all...
... And then Joshua comes to crash the party. Safe to say, Neku is extremely shocked, since, you know. He saw the guy die in front of his eyes. Apparently, Joshua had some sort of "game" going on with Kitaniji, and Kitaniji lost, resulting in his erasure. What exactly is this game, you ask? Well...
Joshua's the Composer. Yyyup. Joshua had grown weary of dealing with Shibuya, and intended to destroy it. Kitaniji opposed this idea, saying that Shibuya had so much potential-it just hadn't been unlocked yet. He fought to save Shibuya, and Joshua proposed they play a game: if Kitaniji could fix Shibuya in a month, to get it out of its funk, he would win and Shibuya would stay. However, if he failed to change the city, Joshua would win, and he would erase both Kitaniji and Shibuya. Kitaniji thought that by erasing everyone's individuality, he could create a paradise-hence the O-Pins. Of course, this would never work, so Kitaniji was declared the loser.
Joshua then reveals his true identity to a distraught Neku. Neku is shocked to learn that he really did die by Joshua's hands, and that Joshua had been using him to fight Kitaniji the entire time. Joshua decides to play one last game with Neku: they each have a gun, and ten seconds to shoot. If Neku shoots, he becomes Composer-if Joshua shoots, he destroys Shibuya, as originally planned. Neku is pretty much lost at this point-he thought he'd finally found someone he could relate to, only to find out it was all a lie. Joshua keeps taunting him, while Neku brokenly responds... and then, a gunshot. Neku then cries out one last time.
... As a Player. The game then skips forward to seven days later, with Neku walking the streets of Shibuya. He's flashing back to all of the experiences he had during the Game, and how much he's changed since that first fateful day. It's revealed that Joshua never went through with his deal to destroy Shibuya, because he saw how much Neku changed. The whole reason he chose Neku as his proxy was because he thought Neku was the worst kind of person in Shibuya, one who was completely unable to change. Neku proved him wrong, and Joshua thought that if even the worst person in Shibuya could change, the city itself could too, and it deserved to stay. At the end of the game, Neku meets up with Beat and Rhyme in front of Hachiko, and they are soon joined by Shiki. Neku states that he can't forgive Joshua for all that he's done to him, but that he trusts him.
Mr. H once told Neku the world ended with him; now, he's finally realized the truth: the world begins with him.
Personality:
In the first week, Neku is kind of a dick. Like, seriously. If Shibuya had its own dictionary, the picture under "douchebag" would probably be his. Or Joshua's. Either or. He lives by a mantra of CAT's: "Do what you want, how you want, when you want." To him, forming relationships is stupid, and other people only serve to get in his way. Early in the game, he's tricked into believing he can get out of the Reapers' Game by erasing Shiki-to egg him on, Uzuki says "What are you waiting for? Do what comes naturally. Save yourself. Screw everybody else, right?"
However, being in the Reapers' Game starts to change him. During Joshua's week, he remarks that he no longer feels like he used to towards other people. Scanning people's minds makes him realize that Shibuya isn't just a boring town with nothing to see. He starts to see the good in people again, that everyone in Shibuya has something to live for. Mr. H tells him that "the world ends with [Neku]"-and he realizes that, to get the best experience out of life, he needs to start opening up to people.
His partners help shape his new outlook on life immensely, as well. He and Shiki start off as polar opposites, but eventually, Neku starts to enjoy her company-to the extent that she becomes the most important thing in his life (a rather embarrassing fact for them both). With Shiki, Neku discovers something he'd never experienced before (or at least, not for a long time)-friendship. He learns to trust people, to stop being so inconsiderate. It even gets to the point where Neku is able to restore Shiki's self-confidence after losing herself to envy towards her best friend. His attachment to Shiki is largely what fuels his participation in the following weeks of the Game.
When partnered with Joshua, Neku remembers some of the resentment he felt towards other people. The way Joshua teases and lies to him reminds him why he started shunning other people in the first place. However, he does put up with it, and realizes that he and Joshua are actually sort of alike. In the end, when Sho "kills" Joshua, Neku feels genuine regret for not being able to apologize for all the crap he's said to Joshua-something that would have never happened had the previous week's Game not changed his life.
Beat's week shows even more progress in his emotional change. His banter with Beat, which are mostly jabs at the other's lack of intelligence, is proof of this. Had this been pre-Game Neku, he wouldn't have even bothered saying a word to someone like Beat. He understands the other boy's drive to get his sister back, and respects him for having such a strong thing to fight for. And of course, near the end of the week, Beat tells Neku that he no longer thinks of Neku as a partner-he thinks of him as his friend. This inspires Neku, and makes him realize just how much he's grown, from that distant loner he used to be.
By the end of the game, the true extent of Neku's emotional development can be seen. I mean, come on, just look at this guy. Yeah. Although he still retains some of his previous standoffishness, he's much more open to forming relationships with other people. That isn't to say he's done a complete 180, though. Because he's spent so long shutting the rest of the world out, he can be pretty socially awkward. His habit of listening to music while talking hasn't changed, and while he does do it less often, it can still give off the impression he's ignoring people. He's also gotten a little better at controlling his anger, though he is prone to short outbursts if he gets really annoyed. Still, he's way more chilled out than he used to be, and has more of a "cool and collected" feel to him, rather than his previous "bitter and angry" one.
TL;DR he used to be the biggest jerk ever. But now he's learned to trust, to open up. There are some things he can't just forgive and forget about, but with friendship on his side, he's changed-and is still changing-for the better.
"I’m glad I met you guys. You made me...pick up on things, I probably would’ve just gone on ignoring. Trust your partner...and I do. I can’t forgive you, but I trust you."