The World Ends With You

Kia sat on one of Sho's artworks, one of her Noise next to her. Today was the first test for the Taboo noise. It'd take a bit longer until he'd start using them for real, of course, but he had to test them first. His plan was only to summon some weak ones, and lead them in Kia's direction so she could get rid of them before they attracted anyone's attention. Should be doable.
The Noise - It used to be a girl called Ayano, once upon a time - nuzzled her sleeve. "Don't worry, Aya. I'll be fine." Now, of course, Aya had roughly the shape of a cat, ears and tail being formed of the classic Noise Tattoos.
Aya tilted her head to the side. Are you sure about this?
"Sure as I'm gonna get." Kia gave a more-or-less authentic smile. She'd decided to trust Sho, and if he thought the Taboo noise were the way to go, she'd accept that, for the time being. Right now, all she could do was wait for the Noise to show up and see if they'd attack her. If they did, everything had worked according to plan. If they didn't... They'd have to rethink.

Sayuri sat on one of the desks in WildKat, scribbling in her notebook while listening to music and trying to shut out everything around her. It had been a rather quiet day so far and the cafe was empty except for Hanekoma and of course the young angel. Unfortunately it didn't stay that way though when a group of noisy teenagers entered the bulding, sitting down on a desk next to the girl. A bit annoyed and uncomfortable Sayu packed her stuff and got up to leave.
She walked around for a bit, trying to avoid as many people as possible, when suddenly she noticed a few noise coming towards her. Being confused because of their unusual behaviour the girl just stood there confused, not moving at all.

Aya meowed and tugged at Kia's sleeve. Look over there.
So far, the reaper had been focused on the direction the noise had been supposed to come from; they were drawing closer now, but they weren't the only ones. Some... What? It wasn't a reaper, but it couldn't be a player, either, there was no game running. But either way, while one or two of the Taboo noise had spotted her, the rest seemed focused on the girl. So she was in the Underground, whatever she was.

Kia reacted quickly. She put Aya down at the top of the artwork and jumped, transforming into her noise form mid-fall. Not that it looked too threatening, especially not compared to Sho's Leo Cantus or especially Yodai's Ovis Cantus, but it worked well enough when she didn't want to call on any noise to help her fight.
At least they weren't too strong. A wolf, two minks, and a couple of frogs; not a nice fight, but she'd be able to handle it. Or so she hoped, anyway.

First one to go down was a frog, as it didn't agree with getting hit by her claws. The other opponents weren't taken care of quite as easily, but at least Kia had drawn their attention away from the girl. The minks were next, though Kia had to take a few hits, too; not just from the minks, but especially the surrounding frogs.
Thus, she was quite a bit battered by the time only the wolf noise remained. It was a little taller than her, and let out a menacing, distorted growl before it attacked. Kia bared her teeth and braced herself, the two Noise rolling over the ground. Kia's orange pelt was easily enough to distinguish from the wolf's black one, even as tangled as they were.

A few moments later, the wolf noise disappeared, leaving behind only a panting Kia; the environment shifted back towards the Underground, too, showing that they weren't in the Noise Plane anymore.
Kia took a few seconds to collect herself before transforming back into her reaper form and looking around to see if the other girl was still anywhere nearby. Her clothes had more than just a few rips and tears, but those she could replace; the bruises and scrapes would heal soon enough. Not like she normally had to fight, after all.

Sayu was still a bit shocked, but after a few seconds she started to move again. Since apparently someone, or well, apparently a reaper came to help her, she just tried to stay away from the noise as far as possible. It wasn't like she was unable to fight, she just didn't as long as she didn't have to.
Once the noise were erased and they were back to the UG, Sayu stroked a strand of her hair back behind her ear before turning towards the girl who had helped her and slightly bowing. "Thank you", she softly said before raising again and simply starting to walk away.

Kia ran a hand through her hair; some quiet noises from the artwork told her Aya was already making her way down, so no need to worry about her. Instead, she looked at the other girl.
"Uh, no problem. Are you okay? Did any of them get to you?" she asked. Didn't seem like the other girl was in the mood for much of a conversation, but Kia wanted to at least be sure she didn't get hurt. Zetta bad timing--A small smile appeared on Kia's face when she caught herself stealing Sho's catch phrase, but only for a moment. "And who are you? Or rather... What? You're not a reaper, and there's no game running, so you can't be a player." Would she report the strange Noise? That might put Sho's plan in danger.

Sayu stopped walking when the other girl started talking and turned back around. She didn't really like talking to strangers, but she also didn't want to be impolite, especially not after the reaper helped her. "I'm fine", she replied, looking down on her body to check herself, but she didn't notice any of the noise even touching her, so she was sure she didn't have any injuries.
"I'm just...a nobody, don't mind me...Thanks again though, you really helped me", she then added, bowing again before trying to leave once more.

"Hm." Kia tilted her head a little to the side as she watched the girl leave. Not like she could force her to talk.
A mewl from above alerted her to open her arms a little, allowing her to catch Aya. The little Noise had apparently decided that climbing was too hard; now, she was purring as she settled herself on Kia's shoulder.
Oh well. Time to inform Sho about how it had gone. The Taboo Noise had been far stronger than regular ones, so that was something to consider as well, especially if he wanted to call rhinos or bears, too. So, Kia turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

When the reaper girl didn't say anything else Sayu let out a reliefed sigh. Talking to strangers really wasn't something she enjoyed. And if that girl had been a bit more like Joshua it would've been hard to escape that situation. Sayu smiled a little thinking about her friend for who she cared so much now, even though when they first met he just had been really annoying. Where was he anyway though? She couldn't recall seeing him today yet. It wasn't unusual that he would just disappear for a while, but since he never told her where he went she couldn't deny that she was at least a little bit curious. Plus, those Noise behaved very strangely, just attacking the girl like that. It probably was something the boy would be interested in. Who knew, maybe he even had one of those not-really-answering-the-question-answers for her.

Sho was already waiting at their meeting place when Kia arrived; instead of a greeting, she wrapped her arms around him for a moment.
"Well, your Noise work." Kia tugged at one of the rips in her clothing. "Be careful with them, they're much stronger than normal Noise. The wolf alone put up one hell of a fight, I wouldn't want to tangle with a rhino. And someone else saw them - Some girl, she was in the Underground, but not a Reaper."
Sho's hand lingered on Kia's arm, fingers carefully tracing one of the scrapes. "If I'd known, I'd have tried only summoning a fraction of them."
Kia shrugged. "Well, it'll heal soon enough." Then her gaze fell on Sho's arm - The skin had blackened from his fingertips up until near his elbow. "What happened to you though?" When she took his hand, it felt off, too. Warmer than the rest of his body, and rougher, kind of like she'd imagine shark skin to feel like.

Still deep in thought Sayu barely noticed anything around her until she bumped into someone. "Ah, sorry", she quietly mumbled quietly, not looking up before she noticed an all too familiar voice. "And what might you be thinking about?" "Sorry Josh, I didn't see you there", Sayu added, now deeply blushing. "So I noticed."
"I just...I just met someone. And something strange happened..."
"Strange how?"
"Ah, there was this girl...I didn't really notice her at first...but then some noise attacked me, it was weird. They also looked somewhat off? And it's news to me they just attack people?", Sayu tried to explain, stuttering a few times. After all that time she still struggled a bit talking casually to other people. Although it did help that she considered Joshua a friend.
"Strange indeed", the composer only replied, seeming deep in thought. "Are you alright though? They didn't hurt you?"
"No, no, I'm fine, don't worry..." The angel felt her face getting even redder while Joshua just nodded and started walking towards WildKat. For a moment Sayu was about to ask something, but then shrugged it off and just followed him.

Sho lifted his arm and turned the hand a few times. "Huh. Interesting. I heard that Taboo Noise come with a price, Q.E.D." Then he shrugged and just grinned. "But at least it looks zetta cool, doesn't it?"
Kia didn't quite agree. "Does it hurt, though? You can still use that arm?" She wanted to change something, sure, and maybe Sho was right and they did need the Taboo Noise for it... But she didn't want to lose him just because of it.
Sho opened and closed his hand a few times. "Eh. It's a bit stiff, but that's it, don't worry."

Back at WildKat Sayu noticed that it was completely empty again. Well, aside from two fallen angels and a composer of course. She sat down at the counter next to Joshua where Hanekoma offered them something to drink before the girl explained what had happened to her a bit more detailled. For a moment Sayu thought Hanekoma wanted to say something useful, something like he'd know what exactly those noise were, but to her disappointment that didn't happen. Her best friend didn't seem to have an answer either and instead remained mostly silent and probably deep in thought again.
"This girl you met...she helped you though, right? Maybe you should look for her and talk to her again? You could use some friends", Hanekoma suddenly suggested. "Huh? I got friends though? I mean...Joshua's my friend, right?" - "Guess so" - "See?"
Hanekome chuckled for a moment and shook his head. "Yeah, guess so..."

While she was still somewhat worried, Kia decided to believe him, for now.

Meanwhile, a little puppy Noise named Judai was strolling around near WildKat, looking for some trouble to get into. He wasn't supposed to set foot into any stores, but, well, he was great at ignoring directions.
When he entered the café, Judai was forced to the Realground's frequency as well, making his tattoos disappear and giving him the look of a normal chocolate colored puppy. He collected a few pets here and there, still trying to decide on some mischief to do.

"Maybe you should talk to this girl again anyway, maybe she knows something", Joshua added after a while, but Sayu shook her head.
"You know me...I don't like talking to strangers....", she replied and avoided eye contact with her friend, when she suddenly noticed a puppy entering WildKat. "Awwww, look at that, it's a puppy!", she exclaimed happily and got up to pet it, causing Joshua to snicker slightly.
"Hello you, how did you get here? Where's your owner?", Sayu said softly and knelt down beside the little dog before slowly reaching out a hand to pet it.

Judai happily wagged his tail when the new person bent down to pet him. And what a pretty necklace she had! He tilted his head to the side for a while, still tail-wagging and enjoying the pets. Then he leapt forward and caught the necklace between his teeth before turning around again, the sudden tug ripping the necklace off the girl's neck. Bounty in mouth, Judai sprinted out of the WildKat.

"So, what's your big plan with--" Kia started, but was interrupted by oddly muffled barking. When she turned around, she could see Judai running towards her, with something hanging out of his mouth. "Whatcha got there?"
He gladly handed the necklace over, panting and tail-wagging.
Sho looked over Kia's shoulder. "What's this?"
"Hm... Looks familiar..." Kia turned the pendant a few times. "I've definitely seen it before... None of the other reapers have a necklace like this though, right?"
"Not that I know of."
Kia thought a bit longer before remembering. "It might belong to that girl I told you before." She looked down at Judai. "Come on kid, let's return this, and you'll apologize." And with that, she stood up and went roughly in the direction she'd last seen the girl.
Judai's ear twitched, but he obediently followed. But as Kia knew, he wouldn't lead her to where he'd stolen the necklace.
As did Sho. "Hey, I wanna see who that mysterious girl is, too!"

Sayu enjoyed petting the puppy until it stole her necklace. "Hey, give it back!", she shouted and tried to reach for it, but the dog was already on its way.
"You'll probably never see it again", Joshua said, but Sayu just shot an angry glare at him and shook her head. "I will get that dog!", she replied and started running outside, but she had already didn't see the thief anymore. "Dammit...", she murmured and walked into one direction, looking around. She didn't really like to be surrounded by people again, but this was her necklace and she really treasured it, so she wouldn't give up that easily. "Come here, little puppy!"

Luckily it didn't take too long until Kia heard someone looking for a puppy; she glanced at Judai, whose flicking tail told her that this was definitely the person they were trying to find. "Over there!"
It was a little crowded, but there, between some others, was the stranger - and by the looks of it, in the Realground. "I'll switch over."
Sho nodded. "I'll stay here, see if she needs to be added to the heap."
Kia looked around for a slightly less busy area to attune her vibe to the Realground. Once there, she quickly hurried back to where she'd seen the girl. "Hey! I think this is yours?", she asked, holding out the necklace. "My dog had it, and it didn't seem like something someone would just give up."