A/N:
I apologize for taking so long (especially for a chapter this short) but here we have it, the second chapter, stuff starts to happen and we get the first appearance of our villain.
I know that in fanfic OCs are generally not liked because they'll tend to be Mary-sue/Gary-stu but I'm going to try and keep mine from getting too out of hand besides I couldn't exactly just use a bad guy from the original game I needed someone from somewhere else.
I thank Saku-san, Queen Weirdo-san, and Syn'ph-san who reviewed the previous chapter.
Naturally I do not own TWEWY, it belongs to... well other people. Thank you in advance for reading, and I ask that you please review.

...

The ringing of his cell phone was what woke woke Neku up.

Sleepily he reached for the phone, not even getting out from under the covers.

"...Hello...?" Neku spoke groggily into the phone.

"Neku! Where are you!" shouted a familiar feminine voice, "We promised to meet up an hour ago didn't we?"

"Eh... What time is it?" Neku took the phone away from his ear for a second to look at the time, waking up instantly as he came to realize that he was indeed late, "Oh crap! Sorry a bunch of stuff happened last night and... never mind, we were meeting up at the usual place right? I'll be there in a few minutes."

"`Kay see ya soon," Shiki replied happily.

Neku promptly hung up and threw together a reasonably cool looking outfit (sure he wasn't quite so fashionable as Shiki but he'd learned a few things since meeting her), making sure to put on deodorant to make up for the fact that he hadn't taken a shower.

For a moment he considered waking up Joshua who was still asleep on the couch but he figured that whatever had happened between him and the other composer probably left him pretty tired so it was probably better for him to sleep a while longer, Neku left a note explaining where he was going along with a roll of bandages in case he felt like changing them when he woke up.

And with that Neku was out the door.

He soon arrived at their usual meeting place, which was of course the statue of Hachiko. Shiki had gone into the nearby accessory shop to wait since Neku had been late, though as soon as she noticed him in front of Hachiko she ran out and gave him a hug.

"What took you so long Neku?" She said with a smile, giggling a bit as she released him from her hug.

Even though it had been months Neku still found it weird recognizing the girl with short black hair and round-rimmed glassed as Shiki Misaki, after all when he'd met her she had longer pink hair, a different style entirely and even a different voice. But there was no denying that it was her, his first partner and friend, his second entry fee, and now his girlfriend.

"I kinda overslept," He answered honestly, smiling a bit, "I didn't go to bed until late, I guess I was trying to make up for it or something by getting up late too."

Shiki seemed curious, "Did something happen?"

Neku felt like it'd be a bad idea to tell Shiki the details of what happened the previous night. It wasn't that he felt he couldn't tell her, rather he didn't want her to worry that something strange was happening in Shibuya again, even if it was true. So without missing a beat he replied, "Nothing, really."

Shiki didn't quite seem to believe him entirely but she dropped the subject and the two continued to hang out without mentioning it.

...

Joshua, on the other hand, woke with a start. Jolting upright on the couch at such a speed that it reopened his wounds after some ill omened nightmare had come to a close.

For a moment he had forgotten where he was so he looked around and soon remembered that he was at Neku's house as well as why he'd come. He quickly read over the note that Neku had left.

"I'm going out for a bit to hang out with Shiki, I'll be back before it gets too late. Make your self at home while I'm gone, help yourself to anything in the fridge. Don't forget to change your bandages, I think your supposed to do that to prevent infections or something.
-Neku"

"He must not have been too worried, to leave me alone without getting a proper explanation first," He muttered under his breath. He quickly followed Neku's advice and wrapped new bandages around his injury.

The cut was better than it had been when he'd first received it, but it still looked rather worrisome. Joshua wished that he could have used his powers and healed it himself, but he couldn't heal this kind of wound when he was in the RG his power was too limited and if he returned to the UG now the person who'd injured him in the first place would be able to find him again and attempt to finish the job. For the time being his best bet was to just tough it out like any normal person would... and try to get Neku to help him.

Even if Joshua had asked Neku to kill him it wasn't that Joshua particularly wanted to die, but that he didn't really know what else to do with his life. He'd grown tired of being Shibuya's composer, it was about time that he passed the role on to someone else, but he didn't really have much of anything to go back to after he left. The idea of death was just a convenient escape from deciding what he would do once he couldn't be composer anymore.

He knew Neku wouldn't go for it though. If that's what he really wanted he'd have to trick Neku into killing him even though for Neku to become the composer really all he had to do was 'defeat' Joshua... which of course wouldn't be easy, Joshua always played to win. Not that Neku was likely to agree to playing any kind of game with Joshua when the last one had involved shooting each other.

"I suppose I'll just have to be the composer for a while longer," Joshua chuckled to himself.

...

It was getting to be early afternoon and neither Shiki or Neku could deny that they had each heard the other's stomach growl at least once so they decided to stop at ramen don for a quick lunch before doing anything else. They had both ordered something relatively small, and had finished quite quickly so they were just about to leave the shop when all of a sudden a strange man approached them.

The stranger was a tall thin man with long silverish hair that he'd pulled back into a low ponytail and sharp green eyes. He wore a checker printed button up shirt under a long dark coat which somehow served to make him appear like a cross between a young mafia boss and the head of a chess club. Needless to say this person was obviously suspicious.

"Have you seen a man around here? About my height, good looking, light hair, stylish clothes, condescending demeanor..." The man spoke in a cheery tone as he did various motions trying to describe the man he was looking for, "Have you seen anyone like that?"

Shiki shook her head and replied fairly quickly, "No, I haven't."

"What about you have you seen him?" The stranger turned to Neku.

Neku had the strangest feeling that the person was talking about Joshua even though the description didn't quite fit (for one Joshua wasn't quite that tall). He wondered if maybe this stranger was the guy that had been trying to kill him, or perhaps one of his subordinates. It couldn't be a coincidence that the guy had chosen to approach Neku to ask about Joshua, he probably knew that they had been in contact. Despite his suspicions Neku knew better than to say he'd seen him.

"Nope, haven't seen him," Neku replied with a shrug hoping to sound convincing.

However, the stranger didn't seem convinced. He leaned in close to Neku, looking him in the eyes.

There was a dark glint in his eyes as the stranger spoke again, the cheery tone in his voice having been completely replaced with a darker one, "Well if ya see 'im tell 'im dis 'I'm sick 'a jus' playin' hide 'n' seek, le's play somethin' else'. Tell 'im fer me, 'kay?"

Neku was taken aback by the stranger's sudden change, he stuttered a bit in reply, "um... Okay...?"

"Good. Well see you around then," The man smiled, returning to his cheery tone again. With nothing else to say he left Neku and Shiki with just those words.

"What a weird guy..." Neku muttered mostly to himself.

"You've got that right," Shiki replied, "Why'd he even ask us to give that guy a message, what are the chances that we're going to see that guy he was looking for anyway?"

Neku hesitated, wondering for a moment whether or not it would be a good idea to tell Shiki what was going on, and if he said anything how much should he say? If she got caught up in all of this it could turn out dangerous... but if she managed to figure out that he had been hiding it from her he'd be in serious trouble.

In the end it seemed like telling her would be for the best, "He's looking for Joshua."

"Joshua?" Shiki seemed surprised to be hearing that name again, "You mean that kid that turned out to be the composer?"

"Yeah him," Neku said with a nod.

Knowing who the man had been looking for only made more questions run through Shiki's mind, "but that man seemed to be describing someone older and why would he think we knew where he was and why would someone want to look for the composer anyway and..."

Neku knew that she wasn't going to quit rambling any time soon so he cut her off, "Joshua showed up at my house last night, he's probably still there now. Apparently another composer wants to take Shibuya from him, that might have been who that guy just now was."

Shiki could not help but voice her surprise, "Seriously?"