The Game (Neku x Reader)

Chapter 9

"Hey! Neku!"

I ran towards the group of teens as they were waiting outside of WildKat, near a store called "Jupiter of the Monkey", where Neku was looking inside the window, peering inside at some pins and threads that were on display in the window. He turned towards me when I called out his name.

"Hey (Y/n), are you OK? That was pretty rough back there," Neku said. I nodded, unable to get what Mr. Hanekoma had said out of my mind.

While there was more than one person that I could name that knew of the situation at hand, Mr. Hanekoma was the only one who offered to explain things.

Neku was right about Mr. Hanekoma being someone you could count on for information regarding the UG and I had seen it firsthand even in the Game. There was something about him that just drew me in; a welcoming aura that made me feel like he was trustworthy. Even then, he did try and help us when Katsumi and Naomi had barged in.

A hand in front of my face brought me back to reality as Neku then waved my phone around in front of me, knowing he had my attention. A wave of deja vu passed over me as I suddenly thought back to Koki when he tried bringing me out of my daydreams.

I took my phone from Neku and thanked him as I opened it and saw a few messages from multiple people. One of which, was the one person I was dreading to see, but at the same time, I needed some answers, and whether or not I would get something from him was the real question.

"Your phone blew up when we came out here," Neku said, as I flipped through the messages. Two were from Koki while the remaining one, belonged to the Composer himself. Koki's message wasn't my top priority but I still read it to not seem like a complete jerk to one of my only friends in the UG. He wanted to know if I wanted to meet up with him somewhere for ramen as Uzuki was busy with another job.

I glanced at Neku and everyone else before quickly typing back a message explaining that I was busy and would join him for ramen another day.

When I checked the message from Joshua, my heart stopped in its tracks and dropped as I became frozen in my place, rereading the message more than once to confirm that what I read was accurate and that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me.

'There's an emergency. Come to Dead God's Pad, the main area as soon as you can. Bring Neku only. I will worry about crossing him over.'

I swallowed and pocketed my phone. The last thing I wanted was to bring Neku back into the UG in anyway, but I didn't have a death wish either. I wasn't going to straight out defy the Composer, who I knew would throw me into one of his own games if he was feeling bored or agitated about something. Neku noticed a troubled expression on my face and crossed his arms, expecting some kind of response or answer as to why.

"U-Uh, Neku, you wouldn't happen to be busy after this, would you?" I asked, feeling self-conscious at the sudden attention on me. The orangette shook his head.

"Hang on yo! You da new Conductor? What's up wit that, man?" Beat asked. I already knew deep down that they were going to ask questions about that.

"Yeah, I am, and I'm technically not supposed to be wandering the RG like this but the Composer likes to make my life hell from time to time, except, I can't be mad at him for what he did earlier," I shrugged and Rhyme took this as he chance to ask a question of her own.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you become the Conductor?"

"The Composer asked and I agreed but it's only temporary. I don't plan on staying the Conductor of Shibuya. Speaking of that guy though, he's asked me to bring Neku to him so he can speak with him. Apparently it's an emergency and that he will cross you over into the UG temporarily to see him when you enter his area," I said, half expecting him to say no. To my surprise, Neku spoke up.