The World Ends With You:

Time After Time

catchan: I DON'T OWN THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU OR THE OCS (except for a few minors characters and Anzu)! Finally it begins! I'm so excited! I hope I can live up to people's expectations! Wait...oh God...pressure!! ARGH!! I RUIN EVERYTHING!! I'M SO SORRY!!

X X X X

Chapter 1

The ABC Killer has appeared to have struck again; this time twenty year-old student Yoshimoto Kazunari was found dead in his dorm room. He'd be stabbed one hundred and five times...

...The latest in a long line of victims of the ABC Killer has been found in the water of a private swimming pool. Thirty-five year-old Usui Ryuko had been drowned in her pool yesterday evening. Her body was found by her housemaid and the victim's brother-in-law, who were both concerned with her behavior of late. It appears that Mrs Usui knew her killer...

...Higurashi Subaru, the eight year-old boy who was feared to have been abducted last week, was found in the early hours of this morning, shot. It is believed that the boy is the twentifith victim of the ABC Killer...

Panic rides in Tokyo as the ABC Killer, named after the murderer of the book by Agatha Christie, begins to work. With each kill, the Killer leaves behind a strange t-shirt on the victim with the first three letters of the alphabet. The victims have no connection, the shirts are home made and the victims vary in all ways so the Police are finding it hard to track the killer down.

X X X X

“Come on; that guy was a dud anyway. Let's get drunk!”

“Wow! I just LOVE that shirt! Where'd you get that??”

“Oh hey! Fancy meeting you here!”

God...why are people so two-faced? You listen to their conversations and you think “Is this really what they're thinking?”.

A girl with green hair trudged through the crowd. She stared at her feet and made her way towards Hachiko. She was humming the tune of some song she adored and she skipped occasionally. You could tell that she was in a good mood, despite what she was thinking.

But to be honest...even I am like that. It's human nature, I guess.

X X X X

“Hi! How's you?”

“See that girl over there? She is so ffine!”

“Su-chan? You alright? You don't look so good...”

“Mamiko! Where are you?? MAMIKO!!”

“Hm..?”

Anzu pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. She wobbled a bit before she managed to stand up. She stood up and looked around blankly. “Where...” she began before looking at her hand; it was a black pin with a white skull. Instead of asking the crowd if it belonged to anyone, the girl flipped it into the air and caught it with the same hand. Suddenly, searing pain shot through her head and the voices of thousands of people ran through her mind.

“Whoa!”

Anzu looked around the crowd and began to think to herself “Okay, this is NOT normal. Did I just read people's minds??”

She looked around again and held her hands to her ears. “Okay...focus...”

There voices blared into her head like music out of someone else's car, but this time they were more clear.

God, Miyuki said she'd be here by now...I hope she's not in any trouble...

My boss is gonna kill me if I don't find where he is!

Hm...maybe I'll buy a sombrero...yeah! That's different! I'll totally stand out!

Anzu gasped and somehow stopped listening to these thoughts. She then said out loud “This. Isn't. NORMAL!!” What the hell's going on?!

She covered her mouth as if she expected people to look at her. But they didn't. Then her phone began to ring and she brought it out of her pocket. Flipping it open, she read the message:

Reach 104.

You have 60 minutes.

Fail and you will be erased.

Oh my...what a...funny message...

“Ha ha ha...hahahaha!” Anzu laughed like someone losing their mind and no one noticed. “I'll just delete it. It's got to be someone's idea of a joke...”

But it didn't delete. Anzu started shaking; “What IS this?? Talk about spam mail from Hell!!”

Suddenly, there was the pain of something being burnt into her hand.

“Huh?”

A...timer..? It says 59 minutes..? What the hell..?

She felt her reality set in; where was she? What was she doing here? How come she only remembered her name? And why wasn't this horrible text message being deleted??

...I've got to move...

Anzu started swaying from side to side. She then stared back at the pin and asked herself where did she pick it up. Thinking she had picked it up off the floor for someone, she wanted to give it back so she pined it to the top of her poncho, along with some others she found in her pocket, and started shouting “HEY! IS THIS ANYONE'S PIN?? HEY!!”

Why are they ignoring me?

Something smacked the girl in the back, making her scream loudly. She turned around and saw...frogs emerging from strange floating red and black tattoos.

“EEEEH?!” Anzu gasped and took a step back, “W-why are frogs falling from the sky?!”

The frogs landed and started ribbeting at her in a menacing way. They all pounced for an attack towards the confused girl.

“!!”

Anzu did the only thing she could do in this situation-RUN!

X X X X

Anzu tripped up in front of the statue of Hachiko. She turned around and, to her horror, more and more frogs were appearing! “DON'T YOU EVER GIVE UP?!” Anzu demanded. She struggled to get up but fear really set in and she couldn't move.

Some people around her were screaming and they all disappeared very suddenly as if the floating tattoos had eaten them up. The girl closed her eyes and screamed again, even louder than before. This was going to be it-

“HEY! GET UP!”

The back of Anzu's poncho was grabbed and she was pulled up onto her feet, narrowly dodging the frogs. “E-eh..?” Anzu turned around and said “Thank you for savin-HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!”

Her Saviour had an appearance no one expected; it was a boy with a build that was neither fat nor thin. His short brown hair was messy and the only thing he was wearing was a pair of heavy duty shorts. To Anzu's shock, the boy had a tail and claws for hands and feet, which were also scaly but faded into skin. He looked at her and ordered “Oi! Make a Pact with me! Hurry!”

D-dinosaur t-t-teeth t-t-too!! Oh God! Tel me this is a dream!!

“HEY! DO YOU WANT TO LIVE OR NOT?!” the boy was really pissed off now. “I WILL throw you back to the Noise if you aren't careful!”

“If you do that then I'll haunt you!!” Anzu barked back.

“JUST MAKE A PACT WITH ME!!”

“FINE!”

The boy let go of the girl and both faced the growing-in-number of Noise. They closed their eyes and were engulfed in a white-blue light. There was silence.

“...that was it?”

“...looks like it...”

“Alright!” the boy began to do some warm ups and said “You'd better no die on me here, girly! 'cause it you die, I die too!”

“God, I love the fact you give me no PRESSURE at all!” Anzu barked back. A blue light transported the two to an exact copy of Hachiko, filled with frogs and not people, of course.

Anzu could see the boy in an offensive position and then saw him charge towards the animals. Somehow, she knew what to do next; she held her hands to her ears and began to float above the ground. The frogs were about to charge at her when they exploded into balls of fire, one by one.

The boy smashed frogs into the ground using either his tail or claws. He then stamped onto them with his feet and roared at them

Anzu opened her eyes and pointed at a blank spot where numerous sparks of thunder shot out of the sky and empaled the frogs like spikes. She panted and held her arm, as if it were in pain and paused to look at what she had just done.

Did I just...kill animals??

“HEY!! LOOK OUT!!”

Anzu turned around to see another frog leap at her. Her eyes widened and then suddenly-a tail smashed the frog into oblivion.

Anzu stared in awe and the boy seemed to be staring at her in anger. The scene seemed to dissolve around them and they were standing in their starting positions, filled with the people. They were continuing on as if nothing had happened!

The boy grabbed the girl's poncho and said “Look, what did I say before we fought??”

“I don't know what's going on you freak!” Anzu did that hand flip-thing that makes everyone let go of items of clothing and shouted “What exactly is your problem anyway??”

“FREAK?! YOU'RE ONE TO TALK! WHO WEARS PONCHOS IN THIS WEATHER?!”

“I HAPPEN TO THINK THEY'RE CUTE! IS THAT A PROBLEM?!”

They stared so intensely at each other that sparks shot out of their eyes. The boy looked at his hand and cursed loudly; “Oh crap! We have to move!”

Anzu took a step back and asked “Why do I have to go with you?”

“You saw the text, right?” the boy sounded serious, but still pissed off, “If you don't move your ass, we'll be erased! Dead! Never to return! So move it!”

Anzu remained silent as she took this in. She then asked “...fine, where's 104?”

“...this way.”

The boy ran ahead and was closely followed by Anzu.

X X X X

104 was a massive building filled with fashion shops, among other things. People swarmed outside it like bees do around its nest. The team made it there and both stopped to catch their breath.

“T-this i-i-it..?” asked Anzu, holding her chest.

The boy, who was leaning with his hands on his knees, looked at her and asked “Wha...at? D-don't y-you l-l-live h-here?”

“H-how do...I know...” Anzu caught her breath and said “I can't remember anything, only my name...”

“Ah, so you sacrificed your memory...”

“Huh?”

The boy caught his breath and then said “Name's Raptor. What's yours?”

“...Anzu, Oguri Anzu.”

“Pfft, Anzu...” Raptor held back his laughter. Anzu was annoyed and said “Don't say that, RAPTOR.”

Raptor asked “You really don't know what's going on?”

“Hell no.”

Raptor said “Well then, you'll find out at some point so I'll use what little time we have left to explain.” He stood up straight and looked directly into her eyes; “We are dead.”

X X X X

Omake:

-Curtains open-

-Chibi Anzu and Raptor are sitting on bean bags-

Raptor: What the hell is the Omake for?

Anzu: Well...it's for fun really.

Raptor: Well, it's stupid.

Anzu: Well, we haven't done anything FUNNY!!

Raptor: What do you expect us to do?

Anzu: Hm... -silence- How about this! We wear silly wigs and sing silly songs!

Raptor: ...

Anzu: ...

Raptor: NO.

Anzu: Aw...

-Curtains close-

X X X X

catchan: CLIFF HANGER ENDING! Raptor belongs to kingofboomansion (I CAN GET IT RIGHT! MWHAHAHA!!). I started with some info about the ABC Killer and ended with introductions between our two main characters. I wonder if those two will ever get along..? Maybe a tiny bit...cause Raptor's always annoyed. Stay tuned!