Sora blinked. "Wait a sec…I thought we already finished Playing for Keeps."

"We did," Neku replied calmly, leaning back against his non-existent chair. "Haven't you ever heard of an Omake before?"

"Omake?" Sora echoed, staring blankly.

Neku sighed, rubbing his head. Do I have to explain everything to him? "Omake basically means extra. Meaning this chapter holds no relation to the main plot of this fanfic whatsoever."

Sora's mouth formed an "o" and he nodded in understanding. "I get it now. But…why write one? FlikFreak's been kind of inactive lately. Is she trying to appease her readers or something?"

"Actually, she's just really busy," Neku corrected him. "Less active than normal is a better way to put it. Aside from looking for schools and working on her novel, I heard she's heading to Sakuracon next weekend and she's hurrying to get her cosplay of Rhyme done." There was a moment of silence before Neku noticed Sora's face flush. "Sora, why are you blushing?"

"I'm not blushing!" Sora insisted, his face flushing even redder. "I'm just…surprised that anyone would be interested in Rhyme enough to dress like her."

"People do it all the time, Sora. They dress as Rhyme, they dress as me…" A grin. "…they even dress like you."

At this, Sora's eyes went as wide as saucers. "Are you serious?"

Oh man, his face is priceless. "Yep. You're actually pretty popular."

Sora's face began to twitch between confusion, astonishment, and bashfulness. "But…and these clothes were…am I really…but…"

Flikfreak suddenly walked through the already smashed hole in the fourth wall, a load of fabric in her arms. "Guys, cut it out. If you keep this up, no one's going to want to read the omake."

"Sorry," Neku replied. "Sora's just having a difficult time grasping the concept of-"

"I'm aware of that," Flikfreak replied. "Now fix this wall before I have to sic Fluffy on you." She turned to leave before pausing. "Oh, yeah. And be sure to tell the readers that the idea for this omake belongs to Hero Slayer, not me. 'kay?"

And with that she vanished in a puff of red and blue polka-dotted smoke, leaving the two to stare and wonder how the author could simply manifest into her own fanfiction through sheer force of will…and how she managed to make the smoke look like that.

With an air of determination, Neku turned to face the audience, somehow actually knowing which way to look. "I'm pretty sure you already know this, but Flikfreak does not own The World Ends With You or Kingdom Hearts. She doesn't own me, Rhyme or Sora either, and she definitely doesn't own any fashion brands."

"They all belong to Square-Enix," Sora added. "The only thing Flikfreak owns is the idea for this fic overall, and Hero Slayer gets credit for this oh-bah-kay idea."

"Sora, it's omake."

"That's what I said."

Neku rolled his eyes. "Anyway, there may be other omake for this fic in the future. Those of you wondering where the sequel is, it's called Chasing The Truth, and it's been out for a while. Just letting you know."

"Come on, Neku. Let's just let them read while we fix this wall. I don't want to know who Fluffy is…"

"Me either," Neku replied, grabbing a hot glue gun and walking over to the damaged fourth wall.

Playing For Keeps

By FlikFreak

Omake: The Bet

Sora stared almost blankly at the scene in front of him. It's just like Udagawa, he muttered. And Cat Street. And everywhere else. What's going on here…?

Neku had told him about how wearing a certain fashion in the UG could affect how everyone in the RG dressed. If someone wanted to, they could wear Lolita everywhere and eventually cause a sensation to sweep the entirety of Shibuya. He couldn't fathom, however, why anyone would even try to make everyone wear this brand.

So when Neku woke up, Sora asked him. "Hey, Neku?"

"Yeah, Sora?" Neku replied, looking thoroughly exhausted for some reason.

"Why is everyone wearing Natural Puppy brand clothes?"

"They're all wearing it?"

"Yeah. Even the guys."

Neku groaned and looked away, the circles under his eyes getting deeper. "I, uh…I lost a bet with Shiki, so…"

Sora gawked. "Oh, wow. That sucks. What did you bet on?"

The proxy grabbed his headphones protectively and looked away. "You're better off not knowing, Sora…you're better off not knowing."