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[aworldbeginning-blog]

And of course Joshua elects to keep his mouth shut whenever it convenienced him. Not that he’d expect anything else from him, but some part of Neku feels annoyed that even in this new place Joshua’s still sticking to that cryptic act of his. It wouldn’t hurt to at least even be a little more open about this, right…?

He doesn’t know if Joshua has his phone, though now recalling what little the scientists had told him he doubts his companion does— something about waiting a month until then, or something like that, and with how the Composer is dodging the question he assumes he doesn’t: and a small part of Neku feels smug, almost victorious, at that. Not in that it’d help either of them in its absence— and it makes him wonder some, what did he get instead? Saying that he got something in the first place— but that at least Joshua wasn’t still completely ahead of Neku. Completely.

Neku pockets away his hands again, and finds his thumb brushing the edge of the pin, again, pulling it into the crook between his fingers. He scowls at Joshua’s words, and rolls his eyes and turns away.

“Considering what happened back at Shibuya, I really don’t expect anything else from you…” And what’s with calling me a rascal? he adds mentally, then picks at the pin again. “If you’re going to make the location a surprise, I guess it doesn’t matter if what you’ve figured out is one, too. Besides…”

Neku hesitates, a moment (and some part of him wonders— why is he hesitating? Doesn’t he trust him enough with this? Isn’t this the reason he wasn’t so sure, wasn’t so convinced?) before he, almost reluctantly, pulls out his hand, exposing the pin.

“I, uh… I was wondering about this.” He shows it to Joshua in an upturned palm, then looks his companion in the eye. “Got any idea on what this is about?”

✨ – And without a single hint of remorse, he brushed all of his questions off, picking out whatever he wished to answer and only that alone. The truth was that no, he didn’t have his phone with him, and if he understood the rules that had been forced upon him and every other citizen in the city, then it would take a bit of time until he could oh-so kindly request to get it back. 

An obstacle of no importance, at least not to his partner, so he decided. He didn’t need to know about how powerless he was until it eventually mattered. That was something he alone had to deal with anyway, an issue Neku could neither solve nor change, whether he revealed it to him or not. Besides, he had the perfect way to change tack, considering that yes, he was in possession of information his partner would without a doubt find more useful than a silly little cellphone that didn’t belong to him. Some questions he felt more comfortable, and more confident, answering in that moment too.

“Well, you’ll find out as soon as we get there, right?”, he replied cheerfully, and that was all the answer his partner would need for now. Knowing where Joshua wanted to lead him, considering he didn’t know anything about this city yet, how profitable was this information going to be anyway? “For starters, it would be much easier if you let me explain the few things I’m positive about so far. I mean, you already figured out that I’ve been looking around here and there, you clever little rascal. Aren’t you curious about what I found out?”

[aworldbeginning-blog]

Like I had much of a choice? Neku comments silently, simply giving his companion a bit of an annoyed expression as he picks up his feet to follow after the ex(?)-Composer. Leave it to Joshua, to take Neku’s ‘promise’ before making a metaphorical run for it without additional input, it seems. Not like he really had anything else to do, honestly, but that doesn’t mean he has to enjoy this.

Neku does the tiniest of skips over a gathering of derbies, then pockets away his palms as he aimlessly dribbles a pebble between his heels, half-listening to the skidding of his soles on the concrete. He doesn’t know what’s going on in this city, not really, with the upturned sidewalks and crumbled infrastructure, sparking lines and cracked poles— but Joshua seems fine, unworried and nonplussed by the entire thing, and even though there’s the smallest inkling of worry some part of him feels compelled to feel— and perhaps even act— the same.

He peers around their surroundings, feeling just the slightest bit curious, a tiny touch apprehensive. He decides to shoo it off by turning back to his partner and replying with, “So you’ve been here for a while, is that what you’re saying? Probably snooping around everywhere… do you have your special phone? Or did the scientists give you something else?”

Neku hesitates, slightly, at his own words. His right hand fingers at the player pin the scientists’ve given him for some unknown reason, and he almost thinks to bring it up when Joshua speaks again.

“Will it hurt to tell me where this place is?” he says then, pulling his hands from his pockets and ignoring Joshua’s sort-of compliment. “Or are we chasing some unknown ‘signal’ again?”

✨ – His smile switched from fake and way too sweet back to the usual, cunning grin that always perfectly emphasized the cunning yet mysterious personality sleeping beneath his facade. His eyes narrowed, and without giving his partner another chance to protest or even change his mind, he turned on his heels, walking into the opposite direction of him. “No resistance? The time with Sora really did you well, it seems”, another chuckle followed, before he slowed down, only picking up the pace again when the other had caught up.

Wordlessly, they made their way through what Joshua had figured out was the third sector, though considering their destination that didn’t matter much. It had been pure coincidence that this had been the place where they had met, and while the debris and dirt clearly told stories of gang wars and much greater catastrophes, he found little care in himself for these small details, not until the bigger picture had become much clearer to him. Passing strangers nobody wished to encounter alone in the dark and heading straight forward, it took him a while until he decided to break the silence again.

As glad as he was about a familiar face, and someone he could trust at that, he’d have to lie in order to pretend that everything was calm and peaceful between them. Hanging out as if they didn’t have a history felt awkward, no matter how good his pokerface clouding his thoughts was, he couldn’t shake them off completely. Regardless, his voice was cheerful, free of worry despite them walking through what the Composer had quickly identified as one of the more dangerous parts of this city. The only thing missing was that he was skipping in his step, but his smile was telling anyway.

“It’s true that we’ve just met, but au contraire, not both of us have been in this place for the same amount of time.” The truth was he had arrived only a couple of days before Neku, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t spent his every waking moment with investigation and looking for clues. It didn’t took a genius to tell that already he was much more familiar with their new surroundings than his proxy, which made it hard to believe he wasn’t involved with anything. Not that it mattered whether or not Neku suspected him. “There’s a place I’ve been wanting to check out for a while now. How lucky that I ran into you on my way there. Really, you’re a lifesaver.”

[aworldbeginning-blog]

Joshua speaks to him, his words circling and sneaking around him the way he is, now, and Neku wonders, distantly, what exactly he’s trying to attempt with a move like this. Eyes following the other’s figure, Neku keeps his lips thin, quiet, silent— knows not to interrupt him, not until he’s finished. Not that he’d really know what to say, anyway. Not that he ever really knew what to say when Joshua spoke, to be honest.

When Joshua mentions a place he’s found already, one they suggests they visit, tosses in a bit of a tease afterwards about their whole partnership, Neku finds an irony on how the distrust flares, once again, the annoyance of not knowing everything, the frustration of Joshua refusing to explain anything. “Already?” Neku says, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. “We’ve only just met, and you’ve already got something together…”

Sometimes they had this thing, of Neku pointing something out, something never posed as a question but one Joshua would answer like one, anyway. But here he’s asking, something he’s never been able to put into words, even back home, when he despaired over his death, and how it came along--

What do you know?, Neku is asking. What does he know? Neku’s never known, never understood, the way Joshua refused to share anything, information or knowledge or otherwise, then found a sick kind of amusement as Neku stumbled behind in an attempt to keep up. Joshua doesn’t lie, not really— it’s more of a selective omission, never saying everything, never revealing all, though in some ways Neku finds himself getting more bothered by that, than anything else.

But Neku simply scoffs, releasing a sigh and dropping his hands.

“Alright. Whatever. Not like I really have anything better to do...”

✨ – His lips parted, only to be closed again a second later, the teasing, aggravating words dancing on his tongue forcefully swallowed, and dismissed with another smile. Instead, he let a giggle press through his teeth, his hues still locked on his partner’s palm, even when it was long put away again. The gesture of checking his timer, no matter how small and meaningless he had tried to make it said more about the lingering distrust between them than his proxy probably wished to admit. Regardless, he decided against commenting on it, against picking a fight or urging the teenager into the wrong direction. 

No, this was a serious situation, and Joshua didn’t plan to complicate things by toying with the other’s mind if he was truly and absolutely powerless in their situation. This was unlike the time they had spent in Traverse Town, when they had been forced to leave their home behind as well, because this time the Composer had had neither control of the time or location of what happened to be their involuntary destination. In response to Neku’s question, he shrugged, a gentle frown decorating his face as a hint of his underlying annoyance.

“Supposedly, yes”, he all but huffed, sliding his hands back into the pockets of his pants, before he decided to approach him. Apparently in thought, he took slow steps around the other, talking until he halted in front of his face again. “And naturally, you’re right when you say we’ll come up with something better if we stick our heads together. In fact, I already have a place I’d like to check out with you.” His serious expression completely blown out of the window, he smiled almost cheekily, tugging at a strand of his hair like a school girl asking out her crush.

“You won’t mind tagging along, right, partner~?”

[aworldbeginning-blog]

“This… you have nothing to do with this?”

Are you sure about that? he almost wants to ask— knows he’ll probably get some stupid, condescending snap of a reply back again (but Joshua Kiryu never snapped; it was Neku who snapped, words prickling and hot, but Joshua was smooth, a thin sharpened blade carved of ice, a knife that would wedge itself into places with crafted words, seep between the cracks like cold water to and in places Neku would never let anyone touch, would never let anyone see, but where Joshua still managed to find his way to, anyway, expanding out and opening something new, something else, and it was times like these that made Neku wonder), but some part of him wants the clarification, almost, to make sure Joshua isn’t playing around with him again like he’s always done.

But his answer is straightforward, or at least sounds enough so, and Neku trusts Joshua not to screw him around at a time, in a place, like this. (He may never forgive him, for what he’s done, for all the secrets and all the words and everything that never made sense, but he trusts him to do the right thing.)

Neku watches him, for just a moment longer, as the city rolls by them— streetlights flicker above them, in just the slightest, and pedestrians shoulder past, utterly disinterested, and some part of Neku feels like he’s back in the game, again. Half out of habit, half because he really isn’t sure, any more, he lifts his palm and glances at his smooth, empty palm.

He pockets it away again, before Joshua has a chance to comment, and looks over his— partner? Is that what he is, now? The game’s past them both, the week they’ve spent together, the night in Shibuya’s basement where his brain was wrought with searing memories and the crush of utter betrayal, forced into a game that would determine the fate of his life and his world— that was over, that was gone, and now it’s only them, standing before each other on a street, in a world neither of them recognized.

Strangers— but not to each other. They were allies, after all. Friends. They had each other, still, and however sappy it may’ve felt, however stupid it should’ve been— Neku feels the slightest bit of warmth at that.

“So we’re stuck here, then?” Neku says, “with no way of going home? … well. At least we’ve got each other, right? I mean… this may not be one of your games, Joshua, but I think we can come up with something.”

✨ – They were friends. That was what the teenager had told him during their last meeting, and perhaps part of the reason why his amusement didn’t fade was thanks to that fact alone. Another, deeper part of him was glad to see his ex-proxy safe. Regardless of what Neku assumed or accused him of, the fact remained that this time, Joshua’s hands were tied, his powers shattered and broken like mirror shards, tossed into the squall of this strange world. In a way he found it funny, how his partner seemed to be more relaxed, more used to this kind of situation than him. The lack of power tugged at his nerves though, together with his inability to go home and fulfill the only purpose he had in this life still. However, his partner didn’t need to know about that.  And so, all that followed his question was a chuckle, hidden behind his fingers. His eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke, head tilting to the side. “Still not the best listener, hm?”, he hummed, arms crossing in front of his chest.

“Though I am flattered you’re giving me this much credit. This city, however, is way out of my reach. And if my assumption is right, then returning to Shibuya could turn out to be quite difficult.”

[aworldbeginning-blog]

Neku peers down at the player pin in his hand, rolling it between his thumb and his index with pursed lips and a bit of a puzzled expression.

Why?

He doesn’t know why he has it. This— the player’s pin, the token for those participating in the Reaper’s Game. But— isn’t he alive? He’s sure of that, or else everyone else here would be dead, too— though there would be no way to prove that, would there…? Joshua’s as annoyingly cryptic as always with his words, but Neku’s figured out enough to know that the Composer isn’t behind any of this. … if he takes his word for it, anyway. But he does, because he trusts him, and besides, he doubts that Joshua would really gain anything from lying about that. (... right?)

But if the Composer wasn’t behind any of this, as the prissy blond had said himself, then how? Why? Was there another game, of some sort? God, if that was the case…

Neku is standing idly by the head of a sidewalk park bench, leaning back on a railing with one toe tracing the ground, one hand pocketed away. His eyes are narrowed, still trying to figure out the pin and its purpose (does it still work? Huh, maybe he’ll try sometime) and as a red sweatered figured just passes by, he murmurs aloud, ust enough for the stranger to hear—

“Joshua… if I’m forced to participate in another Reaper’s Game in this place…”

@matsuuno

[aworldbeginning-blog]

Joshua acts as casual and cocky as ever, with that shit-eating grin that more than once looked like it was mocking him (which he probably was), teasing that he knew more than he did (which he also probably did), and it isn’t so hard for Neku to feel that old, bubbling annoyance roll around in his insides once again, and he gives his former partner an expression akin to a slightly pained scowl.

“Wonderful. I’ve certainly experienced worse,” he mutters back, somewhat sarcastically, eyes trailing up the other boy’s greeting arm before focusing again on the Composer’s own expression, narrowing his eyes, almost as if he expected to figure him out. Joshua’s never been easy to read— and will probably never be— but some part of him still tries, anyway, as if that would change, somehow, after all that’s happened, after all they’ve been through.

(He doubts it, really, but that doesn’t mean he’ll still try.)

“Are you behind any of this?” Neku asks, crossing his arms. Perhaps a little too blunt, but the place is weird, and he doesn’t have time for Joshua’s word games. “Knowing you, I really wouldn’t be surprised…”

✨ – Strange, how a new place without any sort of familiarity suddenly felt more like home as soon as purple hues fell upon an acquainted face. Relief washed over him, though he didn’t dare to show it through the iron mask he wore beneath pale lashes and fluffy curls. The young man’s eyes merely narrowed, a movement so subtle he had doubts the other was able to see it from how far away he stood from him. Yet with all the crowd surrounding them, the world seemed to slow down, pause for them to take each other in. At least that confirmed the safety of at least one citizen of his home, and oh, what a special one he was indeed. 

A smile crept across pallid lips, one hand moving from the inside of his pockets toward the sky, a smile gesture for what was supposed to be an unspectacular meeting. Except it wasn’t, and he - no, they -  knew that better than anybody else. 

“Hello there, Neku”, his words were drenched in the usual cheerful, unsettling and obnoxious tone. Was it even possible for him to talk in a way that seemed approachable? “What a pleasure it is to see you joining us in our little distress. Had an enjoyable arrival?”

[aworldbeginning-blog]

look at me, waking up at like five in the morning...

anyway, let’s try this, yeah? like for a starter! capped at... maybe three. they’ll all probably be short, but who knows. i’ll probably get to these sometime really late tonight or tomorrow, depending on my schedule! 

[aworldbeginning-blog]

This city reminds him of Shibuya, some. It’s as busy, as colorful, with this bizarre rainbow collage of a population,  of people, if not even more so, with all these robots and demons and magicians and dragons and everything in between— nothing Shibuya ever had.

But there’s something about Shibuya this city doesn’t have. Shibuya was more alive; it breathed more. CAT’s bold and wild graffiti dashing across Shibuya’s walls, there was a uniqueness to the city that no other place could even hope to match up to; besides, Shibuya was home. Neku is Shibuya born and raised; he’s really known nothing else.

Either Real or Under.

But there’s Shiki, and Beat, and Rhyme, and everyone else. They were part of Shibuya; part of his world. Their world. In a way, they saved their city, right at his side; perhaps once upon a time, he’d be disgusted at the idea, but here, now, he misses them. All of them.

… even him.

He’s surprised to come across the boy (the Composer, a former partner, his friend) in this city, on the streets, looking the same as… ever. Joshua almost looks like he’s been expecting him, the way he’s standing there with a hand in pocket, elbow danging back lazily, casually— and knowing him… Neku really wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe this wasn’t Shibuya, but what did he know? For all he knew, Joshua was the composer of this place, too.

“Joshua?” he says, finding his own feet stopping just a few steps before the other boy; his surprise is hard to mask, if not impossible. “You’re… here too?”

@noworldangel​

[aworldbeginning-blog]

On prior reserve, here’s Neku Sakuraba from The World Ends With You! Application can be found in the “application” link on the left, or simply in /app.

Welcome to the hive, Neku!

You will be housed in district gamma.

You will retain the use of your black skull pin, though you’ll only understandevery fifth word of what they’re thinking.

Enjoy your stay!

– mod 『 』

[aworldbeginning-blog]

test post

goooooootttagofast nekrun