There were a bunch of things Shiki Misaki questioned in her meager 16 years of life. Decisions she second thought, dreams that could have gone way better than she'd planned (which very neatly ended in a dumpster fire, but okay) and words that she could have maybe sorta said a little nicer (Eri, I'm so sorry, I love you-)

One such decision was picking a partner for the Reaper's Game.

It's not like Shiki had much of a choice, the Noise were getting closer, she was running out of time to complete the mission, and there wasn't much she could do with nearly every player getting erased, like, 3 minutes into the game.

But did her partner have to be such an...oddball?

For one thing, when she tried to hand over the pin she'd found, he shrugged her off (a little rudely, but she was letting it slide because the guy was strangely distracted) and opened his phone.

Before she could ask what the hell was he doing checking his freaking phone in the middle of an incoming battle, she saw him press a few buttons rapidly on his phone before 6 pins appeared out of nowhere and attached themselves on to his shirt like it was the most natural thing that could have happened.

To say Shiki was confused was the least of his problems, apparently, because as soon as she was going to ask what the hell did you do? He flipped his Player Pin mid-air and suddenly Shiki found herself all alone surrounded by frog-shaped Noise.

"Hey! Where did you go?" She shouted, dashing away from a frog that looked like it was going to drop-kick her in the face. Shiki had no idea if frogs could actually drop kick anyone, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Calm down. I'm still here.

Shiki nearly stumbled when a voice that sounded suspiciously like her partner's materialized (how did that even work?) in her head.

"Wh-what? But -!"

No time to chit-chat. Take care of the Noise on your end.

"I'm not so sure-"

Trust me.

Something within Shiki clicked, and before she could question what she was doing, she threw her hands out. Following her action, Mr Mew leaped into the fray and decked the Noise jumping towards her, and proceeded to kick ass. Nice.

In the following minutes, Shiki realized that with her every movement, Mr Mew followed without hesitation. Some kind of telekinesis, or puppetry. Whatever it was, she found she had very little trouble getting into the swing of things. Shiki could also hear her partner battling it out with what sounded like his own army of Noise.

"Are you okay?"

Just fuckin' peachy. Hey, watch out-!

"Agh!" she cried out as one of the frogs nailed her in the gut, sending her skidding back into the pavement. Mr Mew scampered back to her side, acting as a stand-by shield while she got herself together.

In short order, Shiki concluded that whatever this Game was, it made them fight on different...areas, probably, with a connection that acted like some sort of communication link. It also let them..become aware of each other, in a sense? Because she could definitely see glimpses of Neku's scuffle in the back of her mind, even if they weren't on the same battlefield. Convenient, if a little jarring.

"Behind you!" she shouted, throwing her hands forward making Mr Mew slash at a frog. In her head-space, she felt a prickly presence, like static, a little ways behind her, which prompted her little burst in their weird connection thing.

Got it.

Before long, she'd eliminated her side of the Noise and found herself phasing out of the area she'd just been in and back to the real Hachiko, complete with bystanders walking by as if nothing had actually happened. The only difference being the tension in the air. Shiki found that whatever they did, it lessened the heavy atmosphere that was surrounding Hachiko before.

She filed the train of thought for later, when it mattered. For now, she had a mission and a game to complete.

Shiki looked around for her partner and found him near the statue.

"Hey!" she waved at him, feeling the high of adrenaline still coursing through her body. (That was kind of metaphorical, considering she was, y'know, dead, but the sentiment still counted, right?) "That was awesome!"

She received no response, which made her falter a little. Did he not hear her? Was it because of those big bulky headphones he was wearing? (What was even up with those, anyway? They were much too big for casual wear, the kind she'd usually see at home used for gaming.)

Walking closer, she found her partner inspecting the Hachiko statue.

"Hello?" She leaned forward, hands behind her back. He still didn't acknowledge her, pacing around the statue, distracted.

Getting impatient, Shiki crossed her arms and side-eyed him. "HEY! Can you hear me?"

She saw his shoulders jolt, meaning he really hadn't heard her. He turned back to look at Shiki.

"What?" he asked, looking slightly annoyed. Jokes on him, because Shiki was definitely annoyed between the both of them.

"What are you doing?" she snapped, indignant. "We need to get to 104! I don't want to get erased!" No, seriously, what was he doing? If they weren't invisible to every living being right now, Shiki would bet that he would have been stared at weirdly by, like, ALL of the people near the statue.

He rolled his eyes in response. "This won't take more than a second," he replied. "Actually-" his eyes gleamed in triumph as he reached out towards the dog's legs and pulled out...

"A box?" Shiki said incredulously. Her partner smirked at her.

"Yep. Let's get to 104. That's where we need to go, right?"

Shiki shook her head. "I mean, yes, that's where we need to be, but why is a box -"

He cut her off. "That doesn't matter, it's just these weird Nose Glasses anyway. C'mon, time's running out."

Shiki did not understand the context of what he just said, but his comment about the timer spurred her into moving, dashing for the Scramble Crossing that lead to 104.

They made it (thankfully) in the nick of time. That hiccup with the wall and the weird red-hooded guy was strange, but all that mattered to Shiki was that they managed to clear the first day of the Game. It was only going to get worse from here.

She looked at her partner again, oddly calm considering the circumstances. She blinked. And squinted her eyes, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Her partner did not have the box he found in Hachiko anymore.

Where did it go?

Shiki decided, then and there, that out of like, a bunch of other players, she ended up picking the weird one.