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Shinjuku's Epidemic

Summary:

Hishima and Susukichi investigate a disturbance in the city. When they do, they encounter a strange new kind of Noise but fortunately receive aid from a reliable friend.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

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The beginning of the end starts with a moment. It was a reflection that Hishima would have later that day when he thought back to these events. For example, one doesn’t typically wake up in the morning and know that this is the day that they will contract a severe illness – a fatal fever, perhaps. There’s no prior knowledge that warns when the doom will arrive until the first signs start to show. Those signs are that moment; the first indicator that everything is about to change.

No. Not just change. That wasn’t it.

Everything is about to die.

Often, a moment such as this was one that Tsugumi would help everyone avoid with her “Trailer” power, bestowing others with visions of the future to prophesy potential disasters, so this reflection was not one that Hishima had ever needed much reason to have sooner than this, nor one that he would have held with such morose intensity. But Tsugumi… Perhaps Hishima should have taken what happened to her as that pivotal moment.

Instead, he allowed himself to believe that there was still a semblance of normality to how the Reapers of Shinjuku were conducting themselves, how the Reaper’s Game was being run and even perhaps with how the city of Shinjuku itself and its vibes were shifting in response to all these suspicious circumstances. Perhaps it was blind optimism, a trait few would even think Hishima capable of given his usually straightforward persona. Even less likely for him was wilful ignorance, yet that remained another possibility. Things were dire in Shinjuku, in more ways than one, especially for Hishima personally. And dire circumstances can have a way of making someone – even someone as realistic as him – look away until it is too late.

This is why Hishima was unprepared for what he encountered on that fateful day. To him, it was another day like any other and while current circumstances were inauspicious, there was little cause to assume that the brink of tragedy was at hand. Not until he experienced the beginning of the end, first-hand.

It started when he detected some unusual instability occurring in the Yodobashi Area of the city, along with a sharp decrease in emotional stability for many of the city’s Realground residents. Feeling a responsibility to at least observe any potential malignant factors endangering these people from the Underground, Hishima decided to investigate what the source of this negativity may be. His friend, Susukichi, had been nearby and complaining about his recent boredom when Hishima had noticed this discrepancy, so he readily accepted Hishima’s offer to investigate it together.

Was that the moment? No. It was a precursor to the moment. One of the many dominoes that may have propelled Hishima to where he ended up. But it wasn’t the pivotal point that promised the apocalypse Hishima would have ultimately preferred to avoid.

Regardless of those matters, this was how Hishima and Susukichi found themselves wandering to the west of the Shinjuku Station, approaching some of the rather renowned skyscrapers of their fair city. So far, they hadn’t seen anything unusual in their own plane, but they had noticed a dour emptiness emanating from some of the citizens that they passed. Their thoughts, should they try to read them, were not merely negative in nature, as is natural for people to be from time to time. No, they were worse than that. They were… apathetic. Entirely apathetic.

“Gotta say, bro!” chirped Susukichi from Hishima’s side as they walked. “Been a while since I’ve seen you makin’ moves on this board!” Evidently, the apathy situation didn’t concern him very much – at least not enough to distract him from being his usual cheerful self.

“I suppose it has been some time since I took it upon myself to engage with the activities of the city,” Hishima replied, as neutral as ever. “I certainly hope my presence isn’t a deterrent or a distraction to your own-”

Hishima was cut off by Susukichi’s sudden burst of laughter. “You got it all wrong, bro! I’ve been lookin’ forward to the next time the two of us could flip some discs together! Been a while, y’know? It’s a lotta fun when you take a side!”

“Hmm…” Hishima gave nothing away, but quietly felt reassured that Susukichi still seemed to value their friendship. “I apologise for my absences.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, bro! Just try to look busy the next time Shoka sees ya. She thinks you’re just some slacker with no discs to your name!”

“I take it you haven’t corrected her of that assertion, then?”

“Where’s the fun in that, bro!?”

“Heh,” Hishima glanced upwards. They were approaching the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building now. “How is Shoka doing, presently?”

For once, Susukichi got a little serious. “She’d been doing great before. Settled in like everyone’s little sister, no problem. But…” Susukichi sighed. “What happened to Tsugumi’s been gettin’ her a little worked up, bro. She’s been visitin’ Fortune Bro more than before.”

Hishima considered that. Susukichi obviously meant Kaie Ono by “Fortune Bro”, a good source of empathy and insight when one needed it. Hishima knew little of Shoka, but she seemed to have struggled in many of her adjustments. Now with Shinjuku on the brink of some kind of significant change, he wondered how well she would be able to handle it. He felt a little sorry for her, but fortunately he knew that Ayano, Kaie and Susukichi were often looking out for her.

“I expect she will be in capable hands, regardless of any potential unwanted outcomes,” he said. “I admire your capacity for lively mischief in various circumstances; though I personally cannot relate to such an outlook.”

Susukichi looked over at Hishima with an amusing expression – a scrunched up smile with narrowed eyes, perhaps displaying dubiousness. “Hishima, bro…” he started to say. Suddenly his eyes darted over Hishima’s shoulder and in an instant he became serious. “YO, LOOK OUT!”

Hishima was suddenly hurtling off to the side from the force of an almighty push. He ought to have been knocked off his feet but he managed to maintain his balance with impressive grace and stayed on his feet with a little effort. He spun around as he came to a stop to look at what Susukichi was fighting. His much larger friend had shoved Hishima out of the way before raising his arms to block the blow that might have struck Hishima had he still been standing there.

At first, Hishima thought that their assailant was perhaps invisible, or possibly even just a figment of Susukichi’s imagination. He couldn’t see anything there despite Susukichi’s stance clearly indicating an ongoing struggle of some kind. But then he focused his vision and realised that there was a faint outline of something large pressing down against his friend. Something beastly and strong, not unlike certain kinds of bear-shaped Noise. It wasn’t completely transparent, but it was difficult to perceive.

“The hell’s up with this Noise…?” Susukichi grunted, pushing with all his strength.

“It matters not,” Hishima prepared a psych of his own, as calm as ever. “Nothing can stand up to you.” He unleashed the psych, not an attack but a supportive boost of strength to Susukichi’s already formidable power.

The Reversi-lover took on a delighted grin and started laughing madly. With one motion, he pushed back against the Noise, almost throwing it off balance, before charging forward in a massive tackle, his arms spread out wide and light glowing all over his body. It was a move that Hishima had witnessed eliminate even some of the strongest Noise in a single blow.

He went barrelling right through it like it wasn’t there.

Grunting in confusion, Susukichi turned with surprising control of his momentum and tried again. Once again, he was on-target but to no effect. Again and again he tried to hit it, with Hishima powering up his attacks each time, but again and again the attacks phased right through the bear-like beast without visibly damaging it in any way.

Suddenly the bear made another swipe at Susukichi and while the latter tried to block it, his reaction time was clumsy, resulting in a hit that knocked Susukichi back towards Hishima. He managed to stay on his feet but his perpetual smile finally faltered. “Wh-What the hell is this thing?”

Hishima could not maintain the power boost any longer, so he switched tactics and joined the fight himself. With a single hand, he summoned a large orb of fire and threw it straight at the Noise, which was slowly advancing towards them. The blaze engulfed it at once in a glorious explosion that briefly obscured it from view, but when the light died down, the Noise could be seen still walking towards them, utterly unfazed.

“How vexing,” Hishima muttered. “It appears fire has no effect on it either. I find our unrewarded efforts quite unfortunate.”

“Oh, ya think!” Susukichi chuckled, bright as ever, but clearly no less annoyed than Hishima.

They both then jumped backwards in different directions to avoid the bear as it pounced towards them, its massive claws presenting an obviously deadly threat that Hishima was already concerned may be more than physical. To test the waters a little, he shot a small bolt of lightning at the creature and again watched it pass right through it like a ghost.

For Hishima, losing any amount of patience was unheard of, something recent events had been putting to the test, but he was beginning to feel slightly irked that none of their attacks were having any effect. “We had better exhaust all our options before we exhaust ourselves,” he called to Susukichi.

“What kinda cryptic advice is that, bro!?”

“Just try as many forms of attack as you can to determine what works and what doesn’t.”

“Flippin’ all the discs from every angle? I like your thinkin’!”

With that, the two of them used their superior mobility to weave around the Noise and attack it with various psychs, whether physical or elemental. But every effort, no matter the brand, attributes or power level, met the same result. The Noise was like a ghost, unaffected by anything they tried, but frustratingly unlike a ghost in its ability to cause them harm. They were at least more than capable of maintaining an evasive distance from it, but then a nasty surprise came along and put an end to that.

Hishima almost didn’t see it, translucent as this new threat also was, until suddenly ghostly claws were closing in on him at high speed. He spun to avoid it but a scratch caught his arm and he winced in pain. The creature that did this carried on with its own momentum and passed him by, before bounding onwards on all fours, circling him. This one had the appearance of a wolf.

Looking over, Hishima didn’t need to warn Susukichi, he’d been getting clawed at by two of these wolf Noise already. He was so distracted by them that he didn’t see a group of even smaller Noise, again practically no more than outlines, bouncing towards him from behind. Hishima hurried to his side and did his best to block these Noise – frog-shaped this time – sustaining more injuries as he did so.

“Whoa, you okay?” his companion called back to him.

“Nothing that won’t heal, probably. What of yourself?”

“Heh heh, this is nothin’! The game’s only just getting’ interesting!”

Hishima looked around at their situation. They were almost surrounded and had lost the advantages of both mobility and numbers. Nothing they were capable of seemed able to harm these creatures while the two of them were getting worn down. Susukichi was laughing this off as he did for most things, but Hishima could tell that he was in more danger than he was letting on. Even now, he was wrestling with more of these things just to keep Hishima from further harm. It wasn’t something Hishima was willing to allow any longer.

"Susukichi, we are outmatched. It may be prudent for us to fall back."

Susukichi was grinning, but annoyance was still very visible on his face. "That's not a move I like to make without a strategy, bro. You got some kinda plan?"

"Admittedly, no." Hishima frowned - slightly deeper than usual - and looked around. "But at this rate, our most sensible option must be to outrun these Noise rather than outfight them. Especially since we have no intelligence on how to-"

Just then, Hishima's phone started ringing.

"Yo, now ain't exactly the time for a social call!" Susukichi chided as Hishima wordlessly answered it. It was occurring to him as he reached for it that calling in reinforcements might be a wise alternative, but when he answered the phone, he saw that the caller had already hung up. A glance at the caller ID revealed why.

"This way," Hishima instructed, moving at once towards the government building. Susukichi grunted in confusion but obliged nonetheless. His confusion grew when he saw Hishima was running straight towards a wall.

"I'm all for a good edge move, bro! But, uh, you sure this ain’t a poison disc?"

"Just follow my lead."

To his credit, Susukichi obliged without another word, even if his grin took on a slightly panicked manner.

Hishima wasn't completely sure himself that this was accurate at first, but as he closed in on the building, he could see it. He wasn't sure if Susukichi was attuned to psychs of this nature, so he made sure to make his movements obvious enough for him to follow with ease.

He leapt at the wall, arcing his feet up and towards it.

He landed feet-first on the wall and started running up it.

Glancing back, Hishima saw Susukichi follow suit without issue. Enlightenment dawned on his face as he did so. "Yo, this what I think it is?" he said.

The two of them kept running, the verticality of their direction sparing them from any chance of being pursued, unless the Noise could climb walls. Once they were high enough to be safely out of reach, Hishima looked back down. The Noise weren't able to follow them, it seemed, but nor were they yet willing to resign the chase. They congregated at the base of the wall below them and scratched at it with claws and pads alike.

"Guess this move's not over for black, even if it's white's turn," Susukichi grimaced. "Good thing they don't got no ranged moves, right?"

"Are you certain about that hypothesis?" Hishima replied, watching the smaller frog-shaped Noise. They appeared to be charging up some kind of energy.

"Aw hell," Susukichi muttered. "Let me tank this one for ya, bro."

"Would it not be simpler for us both to just dodge it?"

"Hahahah! That's...a good point."

Susukichi may yet have gotten his wish. The frogs fired beams of energy that were much faster and stronger than either of them were expecting. Unprepared, they stood no chance at dodging it.

But shortly before they fired, Hishima heard footsteps coming from behind/above them. Suddenly a tall skinny figure darted between them and splayed out his hands, raising a barrier at the last second before a forceful impact. The attacks from the Noise were strong, almost immediately cracking the barrier, but it held until the attacks dissipated. They were safe.

Hishima got a text message at that moment, which he knew at once was from their saviour. Kaie. Reading it, it said "Good timing! I'm glad I could be of assistance! :D" Kaie, first making sure they weren't in immediate danger, turned to them with a nervous smile, though his eyes remained on the screen of his adorable pink-cased mobile phone. He had some kind of bag with him.

"I am also elated to have you by our side," Hishima nodded in as solemn a voice as ever.

"Great to have another bro on the board!" cheered Susukichi. "You here to make this a three-player game?"

Kaie typed away on his phone at an impressive speed, communicating back to them via his preferred method. "Indeed. I suspect I was investigating the same anomalies that you were when I spotted you. It was a good thing I saw you when I did!"

"Aw, we would have handled that somehow, no sweat!"

"I suppose with you, that was certainly possible, Susukichi! :)" Kaie then frowned slightly as he continued typing with a look of annoyance that Hishima was familiar with. "Of course, I might have had an easier time alerting you if Hishima was in the habit of checking his messages. >:("

Susukichi cackled. "Gahaha! He's sure got your number, bro!"

Hishima chose to ignore this jab entirely. "So, to the matter at hand: what can you tell us about these new Noise?"

Kaie looked back down at the Noise below them and the others then did the same. Some were still hovering around for a chance to finish what they started while others had lost interest and were already drifting away.

"I'd been studying these Noise for a while from many observation points before you showed up. I don't know anything about their origins, but they are clearly extremely dangerous. Their power and willingness to attack Reapers aside, they appear to be having a corrosive effect on the walls between the UG and the RG."

Hishima and Susukichi were both startled to hear that, though Hishima didn't show it as much. Still, news of this nature was enough to raise his eyebrows.

“Whoa, what?” Susukichi actually sounded nervous, which was deeply abnormal. “You’re not sayin’…?”

Kaie looked grim as he typed. “I do not know for certain what it means, but it is definitely fair to say that our city is in danger.

As Hishima tried to wrap his head around this news, Susukichi suddenly pointed. “Yo, look!”

A man in the RG, a businessman from the looks of him, was passing by the mysterious Noise down below them. The three of them watched in horror as two of the wolf Noise pounced on him. He was oblivious to their presence, of course, but the Noise disappeared on contact with him, seemingly diving into his body in some way.

The man kept walking for about a second before abruptly slowing down to a stop. He just stood there, his head slowly hanging and his posture steadily lowering. Beyond that, he remained stationary, but Hishima could sense what was happening to him. The apathy that he’d detected from the other RG residents earlier. It was here. It was them.

These Noise were the cause of this bleak outlook outbreak.

“So these discs are behind those poison moves…” Susukichi growled.

Yes… As far as I can tell, these effects are irreversible without a way to dive within a person’s heart. As such, our current abilities can do nothing for them. :(

“So, we have no choice but to accept defeat?” Hishima asked. Even he wasn’t sure about this, but he felt that his voice may be quieter than usual.

“Naw, bro. Weren’t you listenin’?” Hishima looked at Susukichi and, to his surprise, he saw that he was grinning again. “I’m only just gettin’ started. We ain’t gonna let some lousy Noise screw up our city! I’m gonna find the right strategy to crush these discs, even if I have to break the board in two!” He pounded his fists together to emphasise his point.

Hishima continued looking at him and felt the smallest hint of a smile form. He then looked to his other companion. “Kaie, in your studies, did you observe a way to damage these disruptions?”

Kaie smiled. “That’s the good news! I had just made a breakthrough before running into you. I do believe these Noise have a weakness! :D

“Gahahah! Well what’re ya waitin’ for bro? Spill the discs!”

Kaie threw an object to Susukichi and then another one to Hishima. It was a floodlight of some kind. On closer inspection, it was labelled as a blacklight. Kaie also had one of his own.

The two of you affix those blacklights at those points there and I’ll do the same here” Kaie typed while pointing to some points on the building wall.

Susukichi shrugged and ran to do it at once. Hishima strolled over to his designated point and saw Kaie had already outfitted them with a panel of some kind to make them hold in place, if attached correctly. He set his light up and then looked over to see the others were ready as well. Kaie typed away once again.

Now turn them on.

All three of them clicked their blacklights on in unison and they shone down onto the street below them. The light flooded over the Noise and the effect was immediate. They themselves seemed distracted at most by the light, possibly experiencing a form of itchiness or mild discomfort from it. But their outward physicality at once took on new form. Their translucency melted away into a much more solid and opaque surface, albeit one that had a very silvery and reflective appearance. Their ghostly bodies seemed to no longer be a factor.

The lights had also received the attention of the Noise. They were drawn back to the three of them on the side of the building and bristling themselves for another round of attacks.

These kinds of lights seem to make the Noise vulnerable” Kaie texted, confirming Hishima’s suspicions. “So as long as we fight them here, we should be able to beat them! :D

“You know for a fact that we can now damage them?” Hishima quickly queried.

It’s technically only a hypothesis. :/ But what better time to test it than right now? And I shall be happy to assist you! ;)

The frog Noise were charging up those energy beams again. The wall that had defended them was still cracked.

“Heh heh heh!” Susukichi pulled a Reversi disc out of his pocket and flicked it into the air with his thumb before catching it in his fist. “A minute to pick up and a lifetime to perfect, huh?” He then suddenly slammed his fists together again, this time causing white energy to glow across his body. It expanded more than before, forming a large pair of antlers from his head and a more intense glowing across his eyes. “ALRIGHT, LET’S DO THIS, BROS!!”

Kaie took up a battle stance in compliance. Hishima simply glanced at them both and nodded, turning his attention towards the Noise that lay before them. “Don’t let down your guard,” he warned before preparing a few psychs of his own.

“NO PROMISES, BRO!”

The frogs fired.

Kaie did something interesting and stepped off the building and onto the shield, regaining a horizontal platform to stand on. He stepped lightly across it as the beams hit the shield and shattered it, just missing him and causing him to fall. But it was clear that he’d intended for that and was already cloaking himself in energy of some kind – energy that was growing in scale as he gained momentum.

At the same time, Susukichi was charging, practically helping to smash through the shield in his ferocity, pushing past a couple of glancing blows and focusing entirely on charging forward like an unstoppable rhino towards the ground.

Hishima, for his part did what he’d wanted to do before and calmly sidestepped the beams. He then ran down the side of the building, deliberately slower than the others, firing off his own blasts of energy, similar to the fire attack he’d launched earlier. This time he spread out a series of smaller blasts across the entire battlefield, carpeting the whole area with a shower of little meteors.

Kaie accelerated faster than the others and reached the bottom first. One of the imposing bear Noise had pounced when it saw him coming, jumping up and attempting to swipe him. But Kaie was much faster, dropping onto the beast mid-swipe with a powered up drop kick that hit it so hard and fast that it cleaved the Noise in two in a single blow. Its severed halves evaporated at once while Kaie landed gracefully, but he was in the thick of of the rest of the Noise, completely surrounded.

Before they could close in, Susukichi hit the ground with an explosive shockwave that sent all the Noise flying backwards. He got up quickly enough, cackling with glee, before rushing towards his next target. Said target was another bear that had been further back from the blast and was intent on charging him. Susukichi met its blow as he had done before, but this time when he caught it, he drove it up into the air with a jaw-breaking uppercut that clearly did damage to the Noise that he’d been unable to do before.

The bear was then blasted with fire, as were all the other Noise in the vicinity as Hishima’s attacks rained down on them, scorching the battlefield and scarcely giving any of the monsters any time to recover. Hishima himself casually dropped in next to his companions, watching his fire finish off a couple of the frogs and Susukichi take out that bear with one more powerful punch.

“Your hypothesis was correct. Congratulations.”

Thank you! :D Now let’s clear out the rest of them before they get anyone else!

“DON’T TEXT AND FIGHT, BRO!”

Sorry! :O

The three of them got to work. Even when made vulnerable, these silvery Noise were still deadly. Their opening attack had given the trio a strong start but they really couldn’t afford to let their guard down against the raw power of these things.

Still, their teamwork was remarkably effective. Susukichi had no problem taking on waves of Noise in single attacks as well as drawing attacks from them away from the others. His size and strength meant that he was able to plough through them with incredible power of his own.

Hishima kept himself at a distance, such was his preference. He used ranged attacks to support the others when he wasn’t boosting their abilities. Much like before, his attacks were useful for blanketing the arena of their battle in hazards for the Noise that weakened their stamina and created openings for his allies.

Kaie was especially good at taking advantage of those openings. It had been a while since Hishima had witnessed him in action and he was reminded just how strong Kaie could be when he was needed. He practically danced around the battlefield with impeccable grace and balance, striking the Noise at close quarters or setting traps for them from afar. He may not have been good at communication without his phone, but he didn’t seem to need it in the thick of the fight, observing everywhere that he needed to be and when he needed to be there without any trouble.

The Noise were troublesome nonetheless. Hishima called out a few warnings for the others to avoid even some of the smaller ones. The frogs were easy to take out when they were targeted, but this made them easy to ignore, which was when they could catch you off guard with their powerful beams. The bears were slow but Hishima was still wary that one good hit from them could possibly take Kaie or himself out of the fight, one way or another. Fortunately, Susukichi was good at keeping them busy and Kaie was careful around them.

The real trouble was the wolves. They were too fast for Susukichi to hit them, too good at swarming for Kaie to outmanoeuvre and too aggressive for Hishima to deal with that effectively. When Hishima and Kaie were finishing off the last of the frogs and Susukichi was taking down the last bear, three wolves were still circling the three of them. Hishima found himself back-to-back with Kaie, warily watching the wolves. He couldn’t be sure, but they seemed to be untouched.

Before they could coordinate a strategy, the three Noise appeared to wreath themselves in blue energy. Hishima had noticed that these canines had been getting gradually faster throughout the battle, so this development didn’t bode well for them.

He and Kaie both fired a synchronised lighting strike at one of them, simultaneously deciding to try and circumvent whatever they were up to by striking first and striking fast. Together, they unleashed a decisively powerful blow.

It struck nothing. Suddenly the wolf was gone.

Then there was chaos. Hishima couldn’t see any of the wolves. All any of them saw were what looked like blue flames tearing up and down the battlefield, blitzing the area in a wild zig-zag, more forcefully than any of the Reapers could hope to.

Suddenly Hishima felt a searing pain and he was sent flying by a hit he couldn’t see coming. He hit the ground and felt his glasses fall off. He heard Kaie grunt in pain from a similar hit somewhere behind him. As he struggled to get up, an instinct made Hishima roll out of the way just as a blue light nearly completely filled his vision – an intense heat brushing past him. He could hear Susukichi try to call to him before it sounded like he was knocked down as well – with a much louder impact, of course. Hishima reached out and felt for his glasses on the ground. He found them and slipped them on, just in time to see another rush of blue coming in on his left. Hishima blocked the blow but it did little to stop it from hurting. He was sent skidding across the ground again, landing on his back. With every effort, Hishima tried to prop himself up and check on his companions.

Kaie was holding his side as he helped Susukichi up, almost losing his balance in the process. Susukichi looked more ticked off than hurt, but he was definitely moving slower. Fortunately, he wasn’t the only one. The wolves had stopped whatever that menacing barrage was and could now be clearly seen, pacing slowly again. One even now was prowling towards Hishima, but he knew it was only a matter of time before they were able to power up to that state again and none of them would survive a second bout.

He steeled himself as the wolf closest to him pounced on him.

“BRO!” Susukichi yelled in alarm.

Hishima was on his feet before anyone saw him get up (taking his own turn at moving faster than the eye could see, he thought to himself in amusement). His fist caught the wolf in the throat and sent it howling back towards the others with a powerful blast of ice bursting from the point of impact. The other wolves jumped back in surprise.

Hishima allowed a very small moment of pride in his successful counter before he sighed in exhaustion. His arm was starting to feel a little numb and they were running out of time. This would not stand.

He glanced at his comrades. “It would be inadvisable to let this proceed any further.” He straightened himself up and took another breath. “And it would be highly unflattering for Shinjuku Reapers of our calibre to be so easily dispatched by mere Noise.”

Kaie kept his phone pocketed and simply nodded with a nervous smile.

“Heh heh,” Susukichi grinned, stepping forward. “Good to have you back, bro. Now let’s break the board in two!”

With that, Susukichi’s cloak of energy turned from white to black and many giant Reversi discs appeared all around them, covering the area in a perfect grid. They weren’t entirely physical, so everyone was able to occupy the same space as them and some were white while some were black. The wolves snarled and started running around like before. Time was still running out.

But Susukichi laughed louder and longer than before, arcing his back with an almost insane level of delight. “GAME OVER, WOLF BROS!” With that, he raised his arms and all of the psych discs that were white side up flipped over to the black side. For once, the wolves speed worked against them as they ended up running from the safe stationary black pieces to the flipping white ones. The move smashed into the beasts and knocked them into the air.

“NOW, BRO!”

Hishima saw that Kaie was already charging up some kind of psych to finish the job and he saw fit to lend his assistance. He reached out and empowered Kaie as he had done for Susukichi earlier, doubling the power of his finishing blow.

Kaie gave a soft chuckle before whipping out his mobile phone, tapping at it for a few strokes and then swinging his arm to finish the move in an uncharacteristically aggressive stance.

The ground beneath the wolves lit up with markings that Hishima realised resembled the keys of a keyboard, when there was a sudden eruption from the ground as piercing pillars made up of strange dark shapes sprouted from the keys and impaled the wolves. Looking more closely, Hishima realised that the pillars were composed of thousands of tiny emoticons.

The wolves disappeared into nothing like the Noise that fell before them and just like that, the battle was over. The pillars dissolved, the discs disappeared, Susukichi stopped glowing, Kaie put his phone away and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Susukichi groaned and sat down. Kaie turned to him in alarm and scrambled to pull his phone back out and text a message to him. Hishima couldn’t see what it was, but it was assumedly an inquiry of concern based on Susukichi’s reaction.

“Relax, bro,” he was saying, panting. “We’ve...only gotten started on...these things. We’ve got a...whole board to clear...right? You know I’m there. Just need to catch my breath...s’all.”

“If anyone deserves a well-earned respite, it would be you, my friend.” Hishima started towards them, letting the relief of the moment make things somewhat enjoyable for the time being. It had been a while since he’d let himself have a moment of peace and after that ordeal, he was willing to consider himself entitled to it.

Kaie looked over to him with a similar smiling expression of relief.

But then, for the second time that day, his eyes darted to something over Hishima’s shoulder and his face fell.

“Hishima! Look out!” Kaie shouted. Kaie. Shouted.

In a funny way, time seemed to stop. A small moment of shock at an irregularity so extreme that Hishima’s mind felt able to process every tiny thing at high speed. Was it panic? Or perhaps it was something less emotional, like a defence mechanism. All Hishima really knew was that in that moment, he felt a strange coldness. Like he had died all over again. Perhaps he was about to.

He turned around and he saw, as though it were moving at a snail’s pace, one last Noise of this mysterious breed coming into view. It was forming before his eyes into a more solid state as it entered the light of the blacklight. The edge of this radius happened to be very close to where Hishima had ended up – he hadn’t noticed in all the excitement. It was only a few feet away from him.

It was a bear and its claw was swiping through the air towards him.

Hishima was in no state to block it, evade it, nor survive it.

For all his posturing, this was to be his end.

He closed his eyes.

“Hold it!”

There was an impact, very close to him. Hishima opened his eyes. It had landed. The silvery form of this new Noise was inches from his faces. It was looking down at him but its claws were at its side. As Hishima stared at it in confusion, it turned and walked away.

He stared after it, even as he heard footsteps behind him. Kaie and Susukichi – already back on his feet – they were there. Kaie put a hand on his shoulder.

“A-Are you a-alright?” Kaie said aloud in a quiet and shaky voice.

Hishima was scarcely paying him any mind. He was watching the Noise as it marched towards the source of the voice. The voice had been all too familiar.

It was them.

Sparks flew from the government building. The blacklights were smashed out, one by one, tiny golden butterflies glinting in the light before it was snuffed out like an old flame. A strange darkness fell and at the same time, Hishima could swear that the sky, for a brief moment, turned to a warped grey colour. He didn’t know what it meant, but he took it as a sign heralding the new arrivals.

Stepping forward, passing by the bear Noise without a care in the world was the pale, golden-haired yet darkly dressed figure of Shiba Miyakaze. At his side, a middle-aged looking greasy man in a grey suit stopped by the Noise and patted it with a leering smirk. Tanzo Kubo.

Of course. They were behind this. Shiba seemed to have a similar look of disdain at the sight of Hishima, though he was happily masking it with a sneer.

“Ah ah ah, my old…friend” Shiba’s eyes narrowed as he drew out the last word. “I’m afraid this initiative that you’ve found is a little too late and rather too much unwelcome.”

“Uh…Boss, what’s goin’ on?” Susukichi said.

“Don’t fret, Susukichi. These Noise are a recent addition and we were just a bit late in informing you of them. In fact, we just got here from providing Ayano and Shoka with the same warning.”

Kaie, a little shakily, got out his phone and Hishima could see the message he typed from where he was standing. “What warning would that be? We were nearly erased by those Noise.

Shiba glanced at his phone and chuckled. “Yes, we’ll take more precautions going forward, rest assured, but these Plague Noise are all part of the plan. So we’d prefer it if you left them alone, for your own good as much as your own safety.”

Hishima heard the threat in Shiba’s voice and it made his blood boil. “Plague Noise?” he echoed.

“That’s right.”

Shiba strolled over to the RG businessman, who hadn’t moved in all this time. From here, Hishima could sense how empty his thoughts were, even without scanning him. The man was alive yet lifeless. His eyes were open but unseeing. Shiba circled him and gestured to him.

“These Noise will be instrumental in our little cleansing of Shinjuku. Think of it! The worries, the fears, the insecurities and every little failure that these sheeple of Shinjuku have to bear. All of it will be thoroughly infected and then scorched away! A clean slate that will leave behind nothing but ashes for us to rise out of.”

Hishima stared, unsure of how to respond or even if he should respond. Things had gotten worse than he’d feared in so short an amount of time. He found himself speaking anyway. “You truly believe that this desolation is the path forward? If you proceed to expand on this epidemic, nothing will be left.”

“Bup bup bup!” Suddenly, Kubo was there. As usual, these days. “Not nothin’, glasses. We’re gonna be just fine since these Noise so kindly answer to me! Nyeheh!”

Hishima glared back at him. “You should stay out of this.”

“Ehhh, not happenin’ tough guy. See, this whole little operation here was green lit by your boss here. An’ all the other Reapers seem to know how high they need to jump when our boy Shiba says the j-word. You three on the otha’ hand…!” Kubo shook his head and his face contorted into a highly irritating look of condescension. “Seems like yous is getting off on the wrong foot here, what with you clippin' our wings while we’re trying to get things off the ground an’ all.”

“But, you were acting in what you thought were the city’s interests with limited information,” Shiba stepped forward again and took control of the conversation, arrogantly as ever. “So this mistake is perfectly easy to overlook.” His eyes narrowed. “However…”

Though he could sense Kaie and Susukichi’s nervousness. Hishima was a statue as he stared Shiba down.

“…this will not be tolerated a second time. Are we clear?”

“Sure thing, boss…”

Of course. Sorry :(

Hishima continued to glare until Kubo once again spoke from just behind Shiba. “Get the picture? If anyone’s gonna be “stayin’ out o’ this”, it’s gonna be you, hotshot. Ya gettin’ any reception in there? Is the message gettin’ through?”

Hishima remained silent for only a few more seconds. “Message received,” he said. Utterly neutral.

“Excellent,” Shiba smirked. He held Hishima's gaze for a moment with a look that was a strange mixture of expressive and indecipherable before turning to walk away. “Feel free to start your fires wherever you like. Just not in the midst of my business. And with that, I bid you adieu.”

For a time, Hishima stood and watched them go. Kubo took the opportunity to smirk triumphantly at him one last time before following Shiba with the bear in tow. Once they were out of sight, Hishima stood a moment longer before turning shortly and walking away.

“Apologies. I must be off,” he said. His voice was quiet.

“Hey, bro, wait,” Susukichi said almost as quietly.

He didn’t wait. Hishima’s phone then chimed softly, which was presumably a message from Kaie. Hishima ignored it. He just kept walking. He was in no mood to converse. He almost wondered if the Plague Noise hadn’t truly gotten him, because he was in no mood to do anything. He felt apathetic. Empty. There was no point in doing or saying anything. He knew what he had just witnessed.

The moment had passed. It had begun.

The beginning of the end.

Notes:

This story was a Secret Santa gift for Darkblaw, who wanted to see Hishima, Kaie and Susukichi fighting Plague Noise in Shinjuku. It was a lot of fun to envision and fill in some of these blanks. I hope you like it and a very big thanks to the community of the SS event for the help and opportunity to do this! Merry Christmas!