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New Grounds	By : Xenos_Helia Category: +S through Z > World Ends With You, The (Subarashiki Kono Sekai) > World Ends With You, The (Subarashiki Kono Sekai) Views: 1634 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I have no ownership of The World Ends with You or the characters therein. It all belongs to SquareEnix and I make no money from the fiction I write.

Chapter List
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AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is a story I've been working on, on and off, for quite a while now and I am making slow progress with it. It is going to be a long fic so many of the warnings are for later chapters. Also, please be aware of BAD tense usage in this fic. Part of its purpose is for me to experiement with first-person writing, which I don't do very often and so sometimes I get my tenses a bit mixed up. I'm aware of it and working on it, so please be kind :) There are original characters in this fic for the story line and I have taken a few liberties for the sake of the story, but I hope people enjoy it all the same.
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CHAPTER ONE:
Same city. Same streets. Same crowds....I may not be able to see the noise that I had once grown so familiar with, but that’s the price I pay for being back in the Real Ground. A lot has changed since I played the game two years ago. I’m sixteen now, my grades have generally improved and it looks like I’m going to have a pretty productive future, well, as long as I keep my ass in line. But more than anything, I have friends now. I have Shiki, Beat and Rhyme. Shiki and her friend Eri have a small online shop now for their custom clothing line ‘Sherri Designs’; Beat and Rhyme have each been chasing their own dreams, Rhyme has always wanted to be a performer and has recently taken up music – making quite the impression with her natural talent on bass. And Beat has been spending a lot of time on his skateboarding, even competed a few times now and placed more than once. As for me, my creativity and passion have also risen since The Game. I’ve been spending a lot of time drawing and painting, writing, sculpting...anything that takes my fancy. My mother says I’m becoming too artistic and she might be right, these days I can’t keep my imagination under control. I still look mostly the same. Mostly my clothes are still Jupiter of the Monkey brand, my orange hair is still longish and spiky and I still always have my headphones with me, though these days they’re usually around my neck unless I really need to block things out, which happens more often than I’d like. I’ve taken to wearing sunglasses the last few weeks to hide my eyes. Apparently my eyes have changed over the past few months, everyone says so. I see things not as they are, but what they could be. And I’ve been getting headaches, bad ones. And sometimes I swear...I swear I’ve been seeing reapers. I mean really, we all see reapers from time to time while they’re in the RG, but now and then I catch a glimpse of a reaper, see them flicker slightly, their wings appear and the rest of the world start ignoring them...like I’m seeing the UG from the RG. I thought I caught a glimpse of a noise the other day. I was shopping with Shiki and I nearly grabbed her to pull her into battle but then remembered where we were. I had no idea what to think, I didn’t know what was happening. There was one person I could ask but I really didn’t want to, I hadn’t talked to him since The Game ended...not...not since he shot me for a second time. But it had to be done.
I walked into Wildkat, my eyes downcast and feeling rather crap about the whole situation. The place was empty, as usual, and Mr. H looked over to me from where he was sitting behind the counter reading a magazine.
“Hey, Phones! How’re you doin’ kid? Lookin’ like you could use a cuppa joe!” I sighed and walked over to the counter and after looking around, double checking that there was no one else there I got straight to the point.
“I need to see Joshua...” He was taken aback. I could tell by the way his face suddenly got serious. Stepping out from behind the counter he hurried to the door to the cafe and closed it, locking it and flipping the sign. He indicated for me to take a seat and I obliged.
“Let’s talk, Neku. Let’s think about what you just said.”
“I just said that I need to talk to Joshua...it’s important. You’re the only one I can get in touch with that can get me into the River. I tried but it’s sealed. I need a keypin...I don’t understand why I’d need a keypin...we’re not in the UG...”
“When approaching the Shibuya River one is forced into the UG; much like how during The Game you were forced into the RG while in shops with the player decal.” I nodded understandingly, that seemed to make sense. Really, it was surprising I hadn’t thought of myself. “Now, why do you need to talk to Josh?”
“I...I’m not right. The Game did something to me.” He chuckled slightly at me.
“The Game does something to everyone who partakes.”
I shook my head. I knew that The Game changed people to a degree. Mr H had explained it to us after we begged and pleaded with him. But this was different. The others had reached a peak and stayed there, for the better, I had gone past that point and hadn’t stopped. Something was happening to me and it scared me.
“Not like that. I...I saw a reaper the other day. And I almost tried to pull Shiki into battle the last time we were out together, I saw noise...”
“No you didn’t Neku. Your subconscious is just impressing these images into your mind as a way for compensating for the fact that you are no longer in the game. You became surprisingly attached to the game; honestly they wouldn’t have been able to put you through a fourth game, your entry fee would have been the game itself.” My eyes narrowed behind my sunglasses.
“It’s not like that. Yes, I grew accustomed to the game, I became comfortable in it. But that’s not what it is.”
“Neku...I’m sorry but I’m sure that’s what it is...No one has ever seen noise after the game. It’s just your subconscious-”
“It’s NOT my damn subconscious!” I slammed my hands on the table and stood over Mr H angrily before reaching up and ripping off my sunglasses, “Would my subconscious do this?!?!?!” Mr H’s eyes widened and he swore, obviously no one else’s eyes had changed. Not so that they were a mixture of red and purple at least. I had noticed when I looked in the mirror that morning and realised that I couldn’t put off seeing Josh any longer, no matter how angry I may still have been, no matter how broken hearted I may still have been.
“God Neku...when did that happen?” Mr H stood and walked around the table, pushing me back into the chair and looking closely at my eyes. “No forget that...What the hell else has happened to you? Beat said the other day that your creative streak has been getting away from you a bit lately...and Shiki said that she sees you a lot taking painkillers and rubbing your head in class. What the HELL is going on in your head Neku, I need to know now.”
“I don’t know!” Speaking of painkillers, I needed more, my migraine was coming back. I put more hand to my forehead and started rubbing it gently, trying to ease the tension a little, “The headaches don’t stop, painkillers hardly even take the edge off anymore, I have to paint, or draw or do...something creative to make it hurt less. If I concentrate on something else so intently then it seems to hurt less, but once I stop...when I stop the pain seems so much worse...”
“...Do you have a sketchbook here?” I nodded and pulled two pocket sketchbooks out of one of the right leg pockets of my cargo pants and put them on the table. Mr. H took the first and started looking through it. I knew he wouldn’t like what he saw...
“These are...noise? But...these aren’t noise from your game...I’ve never seen noise like these. You’ve been designing noise?”
“Yeah…” I nodded, “I don’t even know what I’m drawing...Sometimes it’s like I go numb...or like I black out, and when I realise what I’m doing there’s drawings everywhere...I’ve lost count of the sketchbooks I’ve filled, and my bedroom walls are covered...There was a pig noise scratched into my desk at school and I don’t remember drawing it there. But...that’s not all I draw...there are pictures of everyone in there, of Shiki, Beat and Josh fighting...though I never saw them fight, they were always in the Other Zone. It’s all stuff I’ve never seen...but it’s like it’s burned into my head...” He was still flicking through the sketchbooks. There were images of everything...everything that had ever come into my head even some...rather suggestive ones of Joshua. But that wasn’t important. My headache was getting worse and I needed to talk to the composer.
“Mr H, please; I need to see him. I know you have a master keypin. Give it to me so I can get into the River and see him.”
Mr H closed my sketchbook with a sigh and nodded, “I have no idea how to deal with this, and I’m not sure he can either. But he is your best bet.” I snatched my sketchbook from him and put the two of them back in my pocket, I also put my sunglasses back on.
“Thanks Mr H...also, do you have any painkillers? My head feels like it could explode. And two coffees for take away please. You know how he likes his coffee and I shouldn’t turn up empty handed...”
********************************************
A few minutes later I was back out in the sunlight, painful even through my dark lenses. Striding on despite the pain, music blaring in my ears through my headphones I focused on my goal. Had to get to the Shibuya River, had to get to the Shibuya River. I repeated it in my head like a mantra until there it was...the seal to enter the River. This was my last chance to turn back but I couldn’t. Taking a deep breath, keypin attached to my belt, I stepped forward through the barrier and onward towards the Dead God’s Pad, where the Composer and his minions would be.
I was scared as I stood outside the lounge, not sure whether or not to proceed. With my free hand I reached up and pulled down my headphones to hang them round my neck before opening and stepping through the door before me sullenly. I heard laughter and remnants of a conversation that ceased upon my entrance. I looked around; all familiar faces...apparently Joshua had revived even the reapers that had been killed during my games. Def March where there, and of course Kariya and Uzuki. There was also a new face that I didn’t recognise...
“Well,” Kariya stood up and looked at me with that almost interested look he often had, and as always he had hold of a lollipop, “If it isn’t Phones, what’re you doing here? And how did you get in?”
“Who’s he?” A female reaper I hadn’t met piped up looking over, her hair was blonde and her eyes blue...a foreigner.
“I need to see Josh-” I cut myself off looking down. It didn’t seem appropriate to use his name, “I need to see the composer. Why and how I got here is no concern of yours, he’s the only one I’ll deal with.”
“Listen Phones, you can’t just come in and demand to see the Composer and think we’ll just let you through.”
“Oh no?” I scoffed and stepped directly in front of Kariya, for some reason I had always almost nearly trusted him as far as the reapers went, he didn’t seem to be as against players as the rest of them. Making sure no one but Kariya could see I lowered my sunglasses down my nose with my free hand so he could see the abnormalities they held. “I think I have sufficient reason to demand an audience, don’t you?” His mouth fell open and he stammered slightly, trying to find words before whispering to me to put my sunglasses back on. I obliged.
“Follow me, I’ll take you to the Composer.”
“EHHH?!?!?! Kariya! You can’t just-”
“I’m conductor now aren’t I? And if I think that this boy has a right to see the Composer it’s up to me to allow it!”
So, Kariya was Conductor now? Well how about that? The only reaper with no ambition ended up the top of the ladder. How ironic was that? He headed off and I followed him. My heart was racing but I was glad to find that I wasn’t shaking. Other than hoping that the coffee I carried was still hot I was surprisingly calm about seeing my twice-over assassin. I waited outside the door as Kariya entered The Room of Reckoning, where I knew Joshua’s throne to be. He exited a few moments later and turned to me,
“You have a choice here, Phones, as this stage the Composer is in his true body. How he actually looks. Not as you remember him, nor how you’ve ever seen him. He’s...suggesting that he change into the form you remember him being in to make it more comfortable for you if you want. If you don’t think it would be too shocking to see him as he actually is you can go in now, if you want him to be in the form you know I’ll have to enter again first and inform him to change.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of my sketchbooks and found a particular bookmarked page and showed it to him. “I think I’ll be fine.”
“How...When did you see his true form?” Kariya looked at me in shock.
“I haven’t.” It was a simple statement and I pushed open the ajar door and entered the large hall, closing the heavy door behind me. Taking a deep breath as a put the sketchbook back in my pocket I took a moment to prepare for myself what I was about to see. I turned to face the throne where Joshua was sitting in all his true splendour. Tall, elegant, and with a power in his eyes that would make most fear, but not I, the depth of his eyes made me melt. I swallowed hard and walked towards him.
“Composer, it’s been a while and I come bearing coffee.” I walked right up to the throne without any hesitation or show of surprise and placed the cup holder on the bare arm on the throne, as there was no table and Joshua was sitting with his hands in his lap. I pulled my own coffee out of the holder and took a sip. Good, it was still warm enough.
“Well, this is certainly a surprise.” Joshua took a sip of his coffee and smirked, “Ah, I see now. That’s how you got in. Now why would my dear friend Hanakoma give you his masker keypin, hmm?”
“Because at this point I need it more than he does. I need answers. A lot of them.” There were a lot of things I wanted to ask and I seemed to be thinking clearly, here in the UG my headache didn’t seem as bad, though it was still there. Or maybe the painkillers Mr H had given me were much stronger than the ones I usually took...
“And you aren’t going to answer any of my questions until I give you your answers, are you?” When I shook my head he chuckled that sinister chuckle of his and nodded knowingly. With a faint sigh he indicated to the space to his right, which now I looked closely had a secondary throne, smaller than his but still definitely there. “Then sit, Neku, and ask me whatever you like. I will try to answer as best I can and to be as truthful as possible.”
I stepped forward and took the seat next to him. The throne was comfortable and I could have sworn my pain left for a second as I sat down. I took a deep breath and relaxed a little into the throne, something felt right about my sitting there...
“There are a lot of questions I have for you, Composer.” My tone was serious and I was starting to feel my body start to go numb again, numb was bad...I didn’t want to lose what control I had here, not after how much effort it took to get here.
“You can still call me ‘Josh’, Neku.”
“Doesn’t seem right to at this stage. Besides, I’m still hurt and upset with you.”
“Understandable.”
“Why did you pick me as your Proxy?”
“My Proxy had to be extraordinary in multiple ways. You met those criteria, you still do.”
“Extraordinary how?” I was staring straight ahead but fighting to stay in control, I needed to know these things.
“You had intense potential for psychs, more than any player before you. Your mind was in chaos, you needed the game. You were one of the only people in Shibuya with enough imagination to comprehend the concept of the game and the idea of ‘jacking’ Shibuya without question. And you’re attractive to look at, I didn’t want to be stuck in a game with someone I couldn’t easily gaze upon.”
“So it was completely a strategic choice, there was nothing personal about it?”
“Of course not Neku, I didn’t know you. How could it have been personal?” My hand moved of its own accord to collide with my forehead as a huge pang of pain hit me. I gritted my teeth and waited for it to pass.
“Neku?” Joshua was leaning closer to me and went to move my hand, but as soon as he touched it I slapped his gentle touch away.
“I’m fine, don’t touch me!” My voice was angry and the pain had blinded me temporarily, but I couldn’t give into it, not yet. “What...Why...” I groaned slightly and closed my eyes behind my glasses waiting for the pain to subside a little.
“Was there anything different about my game? Other than that it was run by the conductor and that it ran for three weeks?”
“Not overly, no.”
“Not overly? So there were differences?” I opened my eyes again to see him watching me with concern in his eyes and I could feel...I could feel it, “Get the fuck out of my head, I’ll tell you what you want to know at the end so don’t you dare fucking read my thoughts.” At my words the feeling left and Joshua looked stunned.
“How did you know I was-”
“I told you I’ll get to that, now answer my question.”
“There was nothing really different. You got more exposure to noise and players but nothing other than that.”
“Nothing that would have an adverse effect on me?”
“You should be no more changed than Shiki and the others. Neku, what’s going on? Why did you come here? I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“Have you done anything to me since the game?”
“Of course not! I have no contact with players after the game.”
“Yeah, like I believe that when you’ve been watching me for months.”
“Neku...Neku how...I wasn’t even on your plane! I was here in the UG! How...who told you?” I pulled out my sketchbooks and handed them to him, “What’re these?” I pulled off my glasses and saw him in his true form, without veil for the first time, the light that seemed to come from him was beautiful and soothing and yet seemed to burn the depths of my mind. He looked from my books to me and even his jaw dropped at seeing my eyes.
“N-Neku?”
“I can see...everything. I’ve seen reapers as they phase between the RG and UG, I’ve seen noise. But...most of it’s in my head, I can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t. I knew what your true self looked like, I haven’t seen you like this til now but...I go numb, I black out, and I come round to find drawings of you in this body all over my walls or through my sketchbooks. And there are noise, I draw noise, hundreds of them. Noise I’ve never seen, Noise Mr H hasn’t seen. I constantly feel like my head wants to explode, the pain is...it’s immense.” As I paused Joshua started to look through the books, taking in the images calmly and evaluating them in every sense.
“Neku...I don’t...I don’t know what’s happening to you. But if you can see the different planes, if you can see things in your head without even being in proximity to them, then I think you’re changing. You may not be human much longer.” I knew that. I didn’t realise that I knew that, but as soon as it was mentioned it was something I’d long known.
“Is it because of the game?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, you were exceptional, even before the game. But...the game may have accelerated your evolutionary process.” He turned the page of the sketchbook and I saw a small smile briefly come to his face at the image he saw. I knew without looking what it was. He and I...in a way I had never wanted to be with anyone. But for some reason I didn’t mind him seeing it.
“What do I do? What can I do? Is it reversible? Can I go back to being normal?”
“No, Neku, I think this is permanent. I don’t think it’s entirely wise for you to return to the RG either. Until we at least figure out what changes you’re undergoing I think you should stay here in the UG with the reapers and I.”
“Stay...no!” I glared at him and he raised an eyebrow, looking deeply into my eyes, “I can’t stay here with people that have tried to kill me, nor with one who actually has...TWICE!”
“Interesting...the colours in your eyes seem to settle and change depending on your emotion. And interesting that you are so angry with me, when you think of me like this.” He held up my sketchbook, the sketch of us together...him kissing my neck while I writhed in his lap...I blushed and glared at him even colder. “Calm down Neku, your eyes are such a dark red they’re nearing black. I’m not sure anyone is prepared to combat that kind of wrath from you at this stage. Please.” He closed the sketchbook and kept eye contact with me gently, caringly, I felt myself start to calm.
“I don’t...I don’t feel safe here.”
“You can’t go back.”
“I’ll find somewhere...”
“There’s nowhere else.”
“But there has to be somewhere where I’ll be safe...”
“Think of others Neku. You said you’ve been ‘blacking out’ realising what you’ve been doing only after the fact, what if you get angry like you just did at me but there was no one to pull you back from it? I don’t know what would happen and neither do you. What if you got so incredibly sad that you felt life weren’t worth living, if you blacked out would you ever come back round? I won’t trust your life to anyone with less experience in these kinds of happenings than myself. Not even you.”
“...It’s my life...and you haven’t come across it before either...”
“No, but I can at least keep you and everyone else safe. Please Neku.” This wasn’t what I came here for. I wanted an instant fix. I wanted to be normal but...I might not even be human anymore...I felt a tear run down my cheek and then a gentle finger wipe the drop from my chin. “It’ll be okay Neku, we’ll figure this out. I promise.”
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New Grounds