Archive of Our Own ^beta

A cat, curled up on a pile of random garbage.

A Reaper, sleeping peacefully on his own form of art.

A Taboo Noise, coiled in waiting, ready to be released.

Whatever you call it, Sanae Hanekoma was disappointed in the higher-ups for thrusting a literal ten-year-old into this life of cat-eat-dog.

Sho Minamimoto was never meant to die. He was never meant to join the game, or befriend his partner, or even accidentally lose (and his entry fee with him). His partner wasn’t supposed to beg for his life. He wasn’t supposed to join the Reapers as a volatile bomb about to explode at all times.

He was supposed to be normal.

But no, the Angels just HAD to notice the shy mathematician in his normal life and deem him a threat to the very order. If anything, they’d just increased the likelihood the kid would eventually become Taboo. His self-control had been slowly deteriorating ever since he lost the game; lose the game, lose your entry fee. And his was his precious self-control.

Sho had always relied on that; as Producer, Hanekoma had taken it upon himself to watch over the little guy. Once he’d started to explore, to look into things the living weren’t supposed to know, it had taken all of Sho’s willpower to prevent himself from spreading what he’d learned. It was what he valued most.

Then that day… The Angels killed him. Unjustly. Unfairly.

Hanekoma did what he had to do. He’d remodeled the poor kid’s Soul— not into a Player, as he would never be accepted due to the age restrictions, but into a Noise. That way, he could force his Proxy into the Game, and have him compete. But… his partner noticed the Noise would never attack him, one of their own. He’d started asking questions. Too many questions.

He’d come to Hanekoma for answers while Sho was busy chilling with the Noise.

And that was how Koki Kariya had gotten himself into this whole mess.

While watching the peaceful kid, Hanekoma made a decision. One that would eventually evict him from the Angels as a whole, and force his hand in a fateful game.

Hanekoma texted Koki his plan, then scooped up the kid on the heap and set off for WildKat.

—

Raising a Noise was not as fun as one would think. Especially one who wouldn’t. Stop. Moving.

On second thought, perhaps he shouldn’t have altered Sho’s vibe so much that he couldn’t control his Noise side. Maybe the higher ups were right about one thing— the kid had always been half-Noise.

And Hanekoma was the lucky guy who let that Noise loose.

Sho made strides— he was the first Harrier Reaper to ever manifest a Noise Form, and the first-ever Reaper to manifest his Form as Taboo. Courtesy of Hanekoma’s teachings, of course.

The kid even learned how to manipulate the math of space to teleport. Even Angels could only do that under heavy training, yet this kid mastered it in the first week of trying. Maybe that was a mistake… Now Hanekoma couldn’t even keep tabs on him.

Sho’s absence wasn’t missed, and Hanekoma had to ask Koki to cover for him more than once.

One day, a year after this had started, Sho walked into the main café and Hanekoma froze when he saw the black tattoo covering his left hand.

He chuckled. Guess it was time to let his kitty go back to the wild. After just about a year of training, maybe Sho was finally ready for the world.

Sho smiled, revealing his fangs (inherited from the Taboo nature of his Noise Form), and ordered his special. The cute blinking eyes of the kid convinced Hanekoma to put it on the house yet again, as he had since Sho came. It had become harder and harder to resist Sho’s puppy (kitty?) eyes ever since they started becoming more and more… well, cat-like. He also had developed whisker-like markings on the side of his face. They had originally been real whiskers, but eventually Hanekoma had convinced him to hide them in the form of tattoos. (He had explained that it wasn’t a good idea to show that he’d been inheriting features from his Noise form, as that was a mark of Taboo. He’d been able to convince him that it was generally frowned upon by the main Reaper base, and Sho promised he wouldn’t use his form in front of the other Reapers if he could avoid it. Koki had been told ahead of time, in case something went awry.)

And with that, Koki came to WildKat to pick up Sho and take him back to the Reapers.

He seemed to be rather amused when he noticed Sho’s increasing feline-ness, though he said nothing about it, instead telling Sho to wait for him at the Statue of Hachiko.

He approached Hanekoma. “I doubt the other Angels approved of this, Producer.”

Hanekoma smirked. “Who told you?”

“There’s been a recent deposition of the Composer.”

“I had noticed the changes in the Soul of Shibuya.”

Koki smiled slightly and unwrapped a lollipop. “Well, for a week or so no one could figure out what happened. Konishi and Kitaniji were suspects for a bit, but they heavily denied killing him, and you know those two would take any fair power grab they could get their hands on. So, Kitaniji was appointed Conductor by proxy, and I was positioned as puppet Composer.”

Hanekoma raised his eyebrow. “You? You’re a Harrier.”

“I’d noticed.” Koki responded dryly. “And yet my readings are off the charts. I’ve racked up enough points to keep me set for the next decade. My loyalty to the order is no secret, either. I was the best candidate for the time being.

“‘Course, eventually they found who did it. Some kid named Yoshiya Kiryu, though he prefers to go by Joshua. But I had to be able to run the Game effectively, in case it’d taken longer to find the little suicidal kid, so I was given the lowdown—”

“Wait,” Hanekoma’s incredulity rose with every word the teen spoke. “What does this Joshua look like?”

Koki zoned out for a second. “White hair. Pale complexion. Purple eyes. Silver shirt and tan pants. You know him?”

“Yeah…” Hanekoma took a second to mourn the little guy. “He could see the UG even while he was alive. He’d come to me to talk about it. I told him a few things, about the Game, the Reapers, the Composer, the Noise… Guess he thought the UG was better than life…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “Can’t believe he committed suicide… How’d he die?”

“Bullet through the heart.” Koki responded without missing a beat. “He shot himself.”

“Shame…” Hanekoma muttered. “Well, I’ve trained Sho as best I can. You’ll have to take care of the rest. I can only watch from the sidelines, so make sure to keep the kid in line. I’ve essentially turned him into a Taboo Noise with a Reaper’s vibe, so you might have to step in to disguise him if the higher-ups notice.”

“Understood,” Koki affirmed. “I might visit from time to time, updates on the boy, some coffee, you know. See you then.” He turned and flew off.

Hanekoma watched him go. “There’s a storm coming… You’ll need a new partner to survive it. No telling what’ll happen, but the Inversion of Shibuya might be inevitable.

“Enjoy every moment with all you’ve got, Koki Sakuraba.”