It hasn't been too long when the two had bumped into each other by chance or so it seems-- it felt like hours of torture however according to Hakua. "So what's this 'pact' and 'save yourself' shenanigan supposed to be about?" the boy suddenly asked to break the silence.

"Oh boy, a conversation."

The young lady looked over and smiled casually, wondering if he expected her to know what the heck they were supposed to mean. He should take a hint especially right after she asked him what was up with their environment. "I don't know. It's not like we know if we even have this pact thing in the bag in the first despite saying yes to making one."

"You're right...! I wonder what's up with Shibuya. It seems like the usual Shibuya we live in."

Laid-back and clearly not so bright on his end, Kichiro continued to ask identical questions to his new partner in hopes of figuring out their situation quicker, but they only ended up getting nowhere with his help. It was starting to irritate his suppose-partner further since he wouldn't keep his mouth shut for even a minute.

"Look, let's just say we're both clueless and are just... simply dreaming. We'll wake up from this dream and--"

Before she could finish, vibrations from her pocket and her alert noise suddenly cut her sentence off, prompting her to stop walking and check her phone. It wasn't exactly out of the norm for her to receive messages per say, but something about the usual alert noise just gave her a strange feeling that it wasn't an ordinary message she received daily. Silence decided to creep up between the two with Kichiro curiously looking over her shoulder to see what she was reading.

"Are you being nosy?" she suddenly hissed.

"S-sorry..."

Not a moment too soon, his phone vibrated as well, causing Hakua to raise her eyebrow in response. Frantically pulling the device out of his pocket, the boy quickly threw his flip phone open and read the content with confusion written all over his face.

"Erased? What's that supposed to mean?" he mumbled.

Hearing the word come out his mouth, Hakua quickly snatched his teal-blue phone out of his hand to check the message herself without a second thought.

"H-hey!"

"You got the same text I did. Is this a joke?" she questioned with discomfort coating her words. "There's no way you would get the exact same text unless it was a spam message of some sort."

It took a while for the girl to scan both phone screens, but it was soon cut short the moment Kichiro caught a glimpse of a strange shape traveling closer to them at high speed.

"U-um, Hakua... I think we should get going... I see some strange things comin' straight after us!" Kichiro claimed as he started to pick his feet up to run. Before she knew it, the boy had already grabbed her wrist and dragged her close behind him as he looked for a place to hide. What were they running away from anyways? Looking over her shoulder out of curiosity, a strange looking blue fin stuck right out of the ground before it sunk back into a strange looking black and red symbol traveling across the ground. Was is a mouth...?

She blinked a few times to check if her eyes were playing tricks with her again before looking back to speak with Kichiro to stop him from dragging her back through the streets of Shibuya's Spain Hill where she came from as fast as he could. Before she could open her mouth to confirm that nothing was chasing them, a giant blue and grey shark suddenly lunged right out of the ground-- attempting to catch her leg along the way. Little did she know, some kind of sharp pain struck her hand along the road, but she was too busy being driven into hysteria by the animal whom was currently chasing after them and wanting to chomp her leg off.

"H-holy-- THERE'S A SHARK!" she hollered fearfully. "BUT WATER DOESN'T EVEN EXIST AROUND THIS AREA HERE FOR IT TO TRAVEL! WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"I-I think it's safe in here!" Kichiro responded as he made his way into a store, quickly pulling her in with him. They were both very exhausted from running full speed away from the strange looking animal, catching their breath now that they had stopped running. The customers in the clothing store looked over curiously, wondering where they came from and why they were breathing so hard. It wasn't like Molco's district had any sales that day, so what was the rush?

Hakua had already dropped down onto her hands and knees trying to calm her racing pulse back to regular rate from their escape, their phones still in her hands. On the other hand, Kichiro clung to the wall before he fell over onto the ground. They both were very tired and shocked from the sudden turn of events-- really, it was actually considered as peaceful before that shark showed up.

"S-sorry, for disturbing you..." the boy dismissed awkwardly after he swallowed his saliva to lubricated his dried out throat again. He flashed a tired grin as he waved his free hand and rested it back onto his knee to help himself settle down and remain standing.

"Um... Kichiro..." Hakua breathed as she stared at the palm of her right hand. "There's some kind of timer... on my... palm..."

Kichiro looked over at what she was talking about before checking his own, an anxious feeling washing over him completely before he rubbed his neck. Was that the cause of the numbing pain he felt while escaping from the monster? "I think this is what the kid meant about pact and saving ourselves...?" he concluded.

"That does NOT explain anything."

After they managed to lower their pulses back to normal rate, the boy managed to get his phone back, but was now worried about heading back outside to face the strange animal again. Once in a while, Hakua anxiously took ganders through the window wondering if the shark was still there. In turn, she only found symbols traveling around on the ground and onto buildings as well as objects, but none of them were capable of entering the mini shopping mall for some reason.

"C-can we just stay in here until those things disappear???" she requested. That shark was not going to get a taste of her if she stayed inside and who knows what those other things were or if they were also going to suddenly attack them again.

"No, you can't. Sorry."

Whipping her head over to see who it was that was talking, the blonde frowned as she stood back up and made way to the younger looking female that stood behind them, watching the two carefully. "What do you mean no? W-we're customers here, right Kichiro?" Hakua brazenly lied.

"H-huh-- Oh I mean, yes! Yes, we're shopping and it seems that Fuzen isn't done just yet. I'm sorry, go ahead and look for what you need," the boy played along awkwardly.

"Being chased like that-- you two haven't made a proper pact yet," she stated quietly with amusement. "Make a pact and win to live a second life."

"... Hey, is this the brat you were talking about earlier...?"

Kichiro shook his head in response, but realized that Hakua couldn't see him due to latching her eyes onto the pale girl that looked around the age of a fifteen year old, a similar age of the boy he got to glance at before bumping into his partner. "No... It was a boy that approached me. I don't remember how he looked like though since it was so crowded around ten-four."

The female teen hummed a little before she decided to start giving her usual sass towards the younger girl in hopes of simply playing off their situation with her and remain in the building. "We have no idea what--"

"I'm talking about. I'm aware," Naomi stated with a small smirk. "Make a proper pact and those noise will stay away from you both. Temporarily for seven days. Trust me, you'll need it."

A frown formed on Hakua's face-- she hated seeing others give her the look of superiority especially to tick her off and that strange kid was one of them. "Wipe that smirk off your face, brat, or I'll do it for you."

Kichiro quickly blinked out of surprise to see her act so unkind out of nowhere so nonchalantly, but decided to pass it off. Her behavior was probably because of the situation they were put in. Simply shrugging, the small girl walked back to where she last was before she was seen dragging a boy who seemed pretty amused with her action by the arm past the two teens. He also seemed to have some sort of smug look lingering on his lips when his eyes landed on the pair as they walked on pass and to the exit; his eyes were traveling along to stay trained onto the players that were being left behind.

"Wait, can you explain, what this... pact thing is...?" Kichiro decided to ask. He was fairly curious and Hakua was clearly not going to ask anything about this crazy situation. "Just, what is a noise?"

"Welcome, to the Reapers' Game. Good luck to us all," she replied without any further explanations. And with that, the two left the building, completely unaffected by the symbols she had referred to as noise.

"... Hakua, I think we should listen to her... They both seem to know what's going on and those strange things aren't attacking them. Is that what a pact does...?"

"J, are you really going to keep an eye on those two?" Naomi asked inquisitively as she wondered if she had interfered with anything. In her book it wasn't interference, but in the Higher Planes, it could be different. Oh well.

"Hmmm. Maybe, maybe not. But until I find someone else that would fill in their temporary spot-- yes." The boy then glanced over at her arm that was wrapped around his own and then smirked teasingly before brushing his hair out of his own face flamboyantly. "Enjoying yourself?"

In turn, the girl frowned a little and disconnected their arms before he could say anything more. "I know you were trying to look for something embarrassing for me to wear. I had to drag you out before you had the chance to."

"Oh how perceptive."

"I'm telling Hanekoma."

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Hoo boy, I thought I wasn't going to be able to update this story today since it was pretty hectic, but I managed to 30 minutes before the clock struck 12 AM, hahaha! Better than my usual "I'll post today but ends up posting at 2AM" and I'm pretty happy about that. Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful day, evening, or night! R&R and feel free to leave questions about my characters or me anytime!

~LilyBlizz