Tumgik
#and then joshua comes and says he 'wanted to make sure Neku kept his secrets for himself' BITCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW WRONG YOU ARE
purplelea · 1 year
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Everyday I think about how Neku lied to all of the Wicked Twisters, including Beat, about who sent him to Shinjuku. He looked at them in the eyes and said "I have no idea." when he absolutely knew it was Joshua. He knew it but he also knew that 1. Joshua wouldn't want him to reveal that and 2. it wouldn't help anyone, just confuse things more. So he didn't say anything and focused on saving Shibuya. A true king.
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sage-nebula · 3 years
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Major Neo: The World Ends With You spoilers:
[[MORE]]
I was thinking about the fact that Neku has been dead for three years as of Neo while driving into work today, and I just—
Neku has been dead for three years.
I know the Secret Reports in the original game tried to solve the “how do they just return to life like nothing ever happened” issue by saying that Players in the UG weren’t actually dead, but rather their frequencies were just tuned into the UG while they played the Game, but given that everything else in the game states that the Players are dead (and that the “you died and are dead, dummies” comes up again in Neo), I’m going to go ahead and say that the Players are (usually) dead, that they died, that they’re not just in comas, that they are dead and that the memories of those left behind (who didn’t have prior experience with the UG) are just altered to forget that the death ever happened (along with funeral markers and such being erased, etc). The fact that the Reapers’ Game usually only lasts one week would make this a lot easier to do, I think, for those who were given the chance to come back to life at the end of their Game.
With all of that said . . . Neku has been dead for three years.
I’m thinking, mainly, about how Shiki and Beat (and Rhyme, to a lesser extent) handled this. Like, okay, Neku gets shot (again). Beat is there to witness it, he sees it happen. Neku is rushed to the hospital, he doesn’t make it. Of course this is horrible, but for Beat, Shiki, and Rhyme, they figure, okay. This is horrible, but it’ll be okay. Neku died, but he’ll be able to play the Game again, and he’ll win, and he’ll come back. They’ll just have to wait a week, but then he’ll be back.
A week passes. Then two weeks. Then a month. Then three months, and he’s still not back.
There would be a funeral service. We know nothing about Neku’s family, but assuming that his parents know his friends, they would have been invited to the funeral. And they’re not going to look like they don’t care that he died, but they go even though they know that Neku has to be playing the Game and that he’ll have to be able to make it back. Right? Because he’s Neku. He’s the strongest psych user there is. He won the Game three times in a row, there’s no way that he wouldn’t be able to win it again. The Reapers wouldn’t be able to erase him. Joshua wouldn’t deny him the chance to come back. And Neku wouldn’t choose to become a Reaper instead, would he? Why would he choose that? He wouldn’t. Would he?
Neku’s family would mourn him, because he was shot in the middle of the street (and his murderer never found), and they wouldn’t know about the Game so they would just assume that he was dead and never coming back, because the dead generally don’t do that. But Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme, who know about the Game, would have their certainty about Neku’s return shaken and broken down with each passing week that there’s no sign of him. They wouldn’t know that Joshua had locked Neku in Shinjuku with Coco, that he wasn’t able to play the Game again to get another chance at life. They wouldn’t know that he was okay, that he was working on a way back. They spent three entire years not knowing if Neku had been erased or not, or if he’d somehow been turned into a Reaper or not. And what that means is that while Neku’s family had a chance to mourn him and move on, Shiki and Beat were stuck in limbo, missing him so badly it felt like they had bleeding wounds in their chest that just couldn’t heal. 
And I think we see this in the ways both of them handled the situation.
Shiki had the benefit of working on Gatto Nero with Eri. Since I’m pretty sure they started it up as soon as she returned from the Game, we can assume that they already had its preliminary stages going when Neku was killed again. That would have helped her keep her mind off things, at least a little, but we know still that she continued waiting for three years until he came back. Given what she says in the end, about how she kept waiting by Hachiko for him day after day even though each day passed without him coming back, I think we can deduce that she spent at least a few hours each day standing by Hachiko, hoping that he would come back. Obviously she didn’t put her life entirely on hold—Gatto Nero wouldn’t be where it is if she had—but she still did what she felt she could do, which was hang onto faith that he would find his way back to them somehow, no matter how long it took, and her standing by Hachiko with Mr Mew was her way of doing that. But while she managed to keep the faith, I think that doesn’t change the emotional toll that it must have taken on her . . . or how it must have worried Eri, who wouldn’t know about the Game and thus wouldn’t exactly understand why Shiki was waiting for Neku to come back when Eri probably attended the funeral service with her, to lend moral support. Shiki might have tried to explain, but how can you explain the Reapers’ Game? How could she explain that she was killed and came back to life when Eri never remembered that happening? She would sound insane. Eri was probably fine with just letting Shiki do her own thing for a while, but overtime she probably grew more and more worried. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Shiki was gone away on a business trip partly because Eri encouraged her to go, all but pushed her out the door, to get her away from Shibuya in hopes that she could help Shiki move on from her apparent grief. And Shiki probably agreed to go not just because it was her job, but because the emotional weight of not knowing what was going on with Neku, when (or if, but she didn’t want to think if) he was coming back, was taking a toll on her that, at times, felt unbearable.
And then there’s Beat. Beat, who flat out tells Neku that he has looked literally everywhere for him. Beat, who has taken to wearing headphones everywhere just like Neku used to, and who has styled his hair similarly to how Neku used to wear it. Beat isn’t one who can stand idly by and hold onto faith that things will work out. He’s calmed down a lot over the past three years, but he is still very much a man of action, especially when it comes to people he loves. He misses Neku, he sees that Shiki is hurting, he’s not going to just sit around twiddling his thumbs waiting to find out what’s going on. He’s going to see for himself. In Neo, Beat says that he figured Neku would be in the UG, if anywhere, but he makes it sound as if going to the UG was a last ditch attempt at finding him. I think that it might’ve been, if only because Beat was in denial that it really was taking Neku that long to win the Game / he didn’t want to see that Neku had chosen to become a Reaper instead, had Neku chosen that. (And again, obviously he wouldn’t, but three years is such a long time to still be playing the Game.) Beat looked everywhere for Neku, flat out refused to believe that Neku could have been erased, and went so far as to get himself involved in the Game again because he couldn’t rest until he knew what happened to his best friend. And that’s heart-wrenching enough, but when you remember that he had been waiting and searching for three years . . . man.
Of course, Neku comes back. He finally gets returned to the RG. Records of his death are likely erased and those who haven’t had any experience with the UG (such as his parents / family) probably have no recollection of him ever dying. But Shiki and Beat remember. They were without him for three years and they remember every second. And while my heart aches for them (and for Neku, too, who was locked in the ruins of Shinjuku with Coco for those three years), I can only imagine that if anyone dares try to take him from them again, they honestly might just rip the UG apart with their bare hands themselves.
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vampkomori · 2 years
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the TMGB theory
i think theres a bit more to Shinjukus “destruction” if we shift our attention to its most iconic landmark, the tokyo metropolitan government building. 
Note: this theory is just for fun. but I think it has a good shot at estimating the future higher plane storyline
Before we get into the details of the TMGB, lets first establish something about the purification of Shinjuku
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This dialogue from w2d4 is about much detail as we’ll get about what happened to Shinjuku, and what effect its “destruction” had on the RG. It was “wiped out” “erased” and “vanished”; nobody in the RG remembers it, except for the people that had been in the UG before.
Well “how can a whole city just vanish?” the answer is: it cant. But lets first bring this visual aid into play
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Shinjuku used to be just north of Shibuya, but its not gone in the sense that it left a hole in reality and people just black out whenever they pass through. No, it seems like Shinjuku as an established district is gone, meaning its borders were never drawn, and all its space was instead given to all the other districts.
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Basically, instead of “vanishing”, its more like memories and history were rewritten so that Shinjuku was just never a thing. Instead, the other districts just expanded their reach and parts of formerly-Shinjuku are now parts of other cities.
I believe this has to be the case because the alternative brings more trouble than its worth: If it was truly erased to a point where the space it formerly occupied is just empty, people would notice. But as we see with rindo and the others, they dont! rindo had no idea there was even a city up there. Itd also make no sense if people just blacked out and suddenly ended up on the other side of Tokyo, itd mess with measurements bc theres just a bunch of space unaccounted for. people with a 6th sense would also have picked up on the area being iffy, but none of this seems to be the case
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Now we can get to the tokyo metropolitan government building! Its pretty important considering its uh. The government. And also shinjukus most iconic landmark. If the city had actually been destroyed, then thered be severe consequences in the RG because their government building is suddenly just gone. A simple memory wipe could not make up for it not existing, and it definitely couldnt just magically conjur up a new building within moments. (I mean, whose jurisdiction would this even fall under? The other Composers would fight over whod get to have the literal government in their city)
Suffice to say “Shinjuku” still exists in the RG. Its just broken up into pieces and those are considered part of the other cities now.
So, if Shinjukus RG is fine, what about its UG?
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What we see in A New Day may actually just be Shinjukus UG slowly fading into another plane. 
To backtrack a little, theres a reason the Shibuya UG we’re in during neo doesnt include its newly gained parts of shinjuku, its because Shinjukus UG also still exists, and as neku says “it’s still there, but it’s been cut off from both the RG and the UG.” so its inaccessible. Also meaning, it cant be broken up and added to the expansion of the other UGs. if someone were to, theoretically, die in the RG of the areas that were formerly part of shinjuku, theyd simply go to the UG of whichever district claimed that area, and just wouldnt be able to access that other area in that UG
Now that thats out of the way we can go back to the actual star of the show: the tokyo metropolitan government building! Needless to say, whichever district has the literal government within its borders is bound to be incredibly influential.
And it just so happens
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That the TMGB now falls into Shibuyas borders!
I believe this may be the key to the future relevance of Shibuya. The city is already extremely influential, as joshua himself said
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Shibuyas influence is too strong.
So strong in fact, it could potentially “poison” the other districts. Now imagine how powerful Shibuya would be if you added the Government into the mix.
Additionally, Shibuya is already considered special by the Higher Plane due to the Shibuya River.
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The Shibuya River is a particularly unique place, though we dont know which exact properties make it so unique, the fact that it started flowing into its own plane even after its source was destroyed already marks it as incredibly powerful.
So Shibuya as a place is impressively influential, so itd be no surprise if the Higher Plane kept an eye out for it, but if there was any doubt about this,
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Due to the events of og twewy, the city is also considered to have reached its ideal state. Without a doubt this only adds to its already impressive level of power, and basically assures that the Angels keep an eye out for the city even after the Game between Joshua and Megumi was over.
But then why were they suddenly so insistent on seeing Shibuya purified in neo? Well, we dont know. Despite mentioning purification so often and the fact that Angels seem to encourage it, we dont actually know why the Higher Plane wants to see Shibuya purified. By all means, it should be an optimal parallel world now, so why would they suddenly want to see it gone?
The key may actually be Joshua himself. After all, he intended to stop Shinjukus purification. Though we dont know why he interfered, whether it was out of a newfound appreciation for humanity that went beyond his own city, or if he actually wanted to prevent the TMGB from falling into his borders, he was actively going against what the Higher Plane wanted, which would automatically mark him as a nuisance in their plans. Surely by purifying Shibuya, its entire area and also the area it claimed from Shinjuku, would once again fall into the borders of another district, and thus another Composer. 
Its difficult to say whether this is an overarching plan from the Higher Plan that has spanned across both games. If youve read my post about Composers, which is about how Hazuki may actually be a demoted Angel from the Higher Plane, it could be possible that his demotion was on purpose, and that they intended for Haz to purify Shinjuku, therefore making Shibuya more powerful due to the TMGB falling into its borders. He would be the ideal candidate for this, as hes considered unsympathetic and lacks knowledge about the lower planes (and thus doesnt know about the TMGB), making it extremely easy to influence him to erase his city. (though you could also claim he was in on it, but then later changed his mind about it and decided to intervene with Shibuya’s destruction, once again due to Joshua’s influence)
Either way, Shibuya was saved! (again!) and now its more influential and powerful than ever. No doubt even more people would want to come after Shibuya’s seat of Composer, just to govern this massively important city. 
And who else still desires this seat other than our favourite math guy
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The fact that his plotline about still wanting to go after the Composer is tucked away in the Secret Ending of Another Day, means that this still has to be followed up on in a potential next game. 
And what better scenario to bring this up than Shibuya being highly sought after due to its recently acquired influence-boost in the form of the government
and to summarize everything once more for extra clarity
Shinjuku wasnt destroyed so much as history was just overwritten so that Shinjuku as a district was never established, causing its area to be split up amongst the other districts. the TMGB now falls into the borders of Shibuya, and with it comes even more power and influence. Shibuya as a city already had an intense amount of influence over tokyo, and even the Shibuya River is so unique that it catches the attention of the Higher Plane. Despite Shibuya having reached its ideal state of being an optimal parallel world, the Higher Plane still wants to see it purified for some reason. Though we dont know why yet, it may be because of Joshua, the fact that hes Shibuyas Composer, and that he willfully goes against the Higher Plane, most notably when he interfered to prevent Shinjukus Inversion. Whether Hazuki is aware of an overarching plan or not, Joshua still influenced him to a point where he also decided to go against the Higher Plane by saving Shibuya. With Minamimoto still wanting the Composer’s seat, it sets the tone of Shibuya’s throne being more sought-after than ever. And the Higher Plane may be more relevant than ever to make sure this influential district falls into the hands of one of their own
this concludes my case
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stillunpainted · 3 years
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Postmortem
cw for implied suicide.  1.8k fic under the cut baby.  Pretty much Neku dealing with the aftermath of the game and then having a conversation with Joshua.
    Neku couldn’t take sudden noises anymore.  It’d always been somewhat of a bother, and his music had helped him block out the little surprises that’d make him jump, the startle like a lightning bolt, but now it was agonizing.  It was as if at any time, he could be seized by the hand of death, freezing his blood like a blizzard.  Though he’d made a promise to himself to wear his headphones less, especially in public, it wasn’t easy.
    Shibuya was vibrant and busy, but it was also overwhelming.  There were times where after simply going to Mr. H’s cafe with Shiki or Beat and Rhyme would result in him having to go lay in bed for hours afterward, staring at the ceiling until he was able to think again.  His parents were worried.  They’d noticed that he was going out more, and generally seemed to be happier than before, but the exhaustion, the anxiety, those weren’t things he could hide.  He enjoyed spending time with his friends, but he wasn’t used to them.  He felt out of place, worried that he’d somehow mess up and they wouldn’t want to be with him anymore.
    He’d picked up an old acoustic guitar, and spent about thirty minutes trying to figure out how to tune it.  That was all he could bring himself to do for the day.  He checked his messages, and it was much of the same.  Shiki had sent an update on her most recent project with Eri, and was still trying to convince him to try it on.  He wasn’t adamantly against the idea, he just wasn’t sure if it was his thing.  He’d had to expand his fashion sense during the Game, and he wasn’t sure where to go with that now.  Was it something he wanted to pursue on his own, or did he want to be influenced by the people around him?
    Though Neku had avoided Udagawa like the plague, he still could see CAT’s art when he closed his eyes, peering over him as he stared up at the painted walls.  He wanted to see it again, as his mind could only replicate everything with a certain degree of accuracy, but the thought of going back made him feel sick, sick enough to rush to the bathroom and wait for it all to come up, but nothing was there.
    The Composer often lingered in his mind, interrupting his normal thought processes.  In this moment Neku was staring at the ceiling again, tapping his fingers to the beat of a song, when he suddenly remembered Joshua off-handedly mentioning that he liked it.  Neku took his headphones off.  He still hadn’t forgiven Joshua yet.  There was so much pain, so intense that even though those bullets left no scars now, he could still feel them.  He sat up, deciding that today he would face it.  He wasn’t sure why, but felt if he didn’t go to Udagawa now, these thoughts would never stop, haunting him like old ghosts over and over.
    On his way through Shibuya, he kept his headphones on around his neck, ready to put them on if necessary.  He walked past stores he’d come to know well, absentmindedly trying to spot the faces of the shopkeepers he’d spoken with over and over.  There were so many people.  Even though he couldn’t hear their thoughts anymore, it floored him how they all were living their own lives, their own narratives that he would never be privy to.  Their secret gardens.
    It was a conversation he thought back to at times.  He’d wondered if not being able to cross into someone’s garden was even a bad thing.  Was trying to understand someone enough, even if it wasn’t actually possible?  He felt he knew Shiki and Beat pretty well, and Rhyme and Eri to an extent.  His memories of Joshua though… Joshua at times felt completely alien yet familiar, almost like a trick mirror.
    Neku arrived at Udagawa, and saw that the art had changed significantly in his absence.  CAT’s work was still there, some of it new itself, but there were other artists who had added to the wall.  Nothing unusual, but the change made Neku’s chest feel heavy.  He was used to seeing everything shift gradually, not only see the end result.
    It was still beautiful, he decided, just different.  Still the same wall, marked by the same kinds of people.  He wondered if one day he would get some spray paint himself, though he had no idea what he could create.  It wasn’t a part of himself that he’d explored in a long time, not since… 
    Even now, he felt the empty space within his heart.  He still had the last message his friend had sent him on his phone. “See you there,” it’d read.  An interaction that had never been complete, a day that never happened.
    “Well, you’ve brought yourself back here, haven’t you?” A recognizably smug voice rose above the background noise of everyone else passing through.
    “Look at what the cat dragged outta the sewers,” Neku retorted dryly.  Joshua crossed his arms, but there was the tiniest hint of a smile on his face.  Neku was tense, but this relaxed him somewhat.  He figured Joshua hadn’t merely returned after what, months, simply to antagonize him.  Though he didn’t rule it out of the realm of possibility, “what brings you out here, anyway?” Joshua put a hand on his chin.
    “I was intrigued as to why you returned here.  It seems like a morbid place to go by yourself.  I thought that maybe you’d need supervision,” Joshua said.  Neku pulled at his hair, trying not to visibly give Joshua the satisfaction of annoying him.  Though he supposed that Joshua could read his mind, which agitated him further.
    “I don’t need- whatever, it’s just that I kept thinking about everything that happened.  I dunno if closure is exactly what I’m looking for, but it’s something like that, I think,” Neku shuffled his feet.  He was never especially good at reading people, but Joshua was always a special kind of enigma.
    “There’s nothing I can add to that.  You already know why I did what I did,” Joshua said, “neither of us can take that back.”
    “You can’t take that back.  All I did was survive,” Neku said.  He didn’t expect an apology, nor was he surprised by Joshua’s nonchalant attitude towards it all, but it still stung a little.
    “Oh come on Neku, we’ve both made mistakes,” Joshua said, wrapping a hand around his neck.  A flash of guilt washed over Neku, but he let it pass.  He’d talked about it a lot with Shiki after the game, though it was still something he’d never fully forgive himself over.  He’d found that he had a pattern of hurting people.  He’d finally stopped at his duel with Joshua, but still.  He wondered if that old self was buried within, ready to rise at any time.  I killed him- “Neku?  Locked up in that head of yours again?”
    “What would’ve happened if I’d shot you?” Joshua didn’t even flinch at the question.  But he wavered a little.
    “I would’ve been erased.  I would’ve lost that game, yknow.  That’s how the rules are,” he says.
    “I know, but-”
    “The UG would’ve been destroyed, but I can’t say I’d know what would happen after that,” Joshua says, “I can’t give you a real answer, even if I wanted to please you that way.”
    “So even you don’t know,” Neku said.
    “Yes Neku, you’re a fantastic listener,” Joshua replied.  His normal grin is back, though something about it seems off.
    “So why would you do that?  If you’d actually gone through with destroying Shibuya or whatever, it wouldn’t have mattered at all if I’d pulled the trigger or not.  Not much of a crossroad, really,” Neku put his hands on his headphones, contemplating putting them on.
    “It was all a game.  My bet with Megumi.  You were my proxy,” Joshua said, crossing his arms again.
    “What were you even trying to prove with me?  That I’m terrible and representative of Shibuya’s evils, or something?  I was just trying to live and help Beat get Rhyme back at that point.”
    “That’s spot on.”
    “Then did your proof involve me shooting you at the end?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then your plan would’ve killed you no matter what,” Neku said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “No UG means no Composer, right?”
    “Correct indeed.”
    “So you were planning on dying.” A silence settled over the two of them.
    “Well, I didn’t,” Joshua says.  Neku thought of how he initially saw the game as a dream that he dreaded the end of.  There was nothing he had to worry about other than missions, nobody to talk to but Shiki, nobody to nag him.  It was the closest he’d ever been to whatever his own ‘world view’ had been.
    “I can’t believe I’m saying this but,” Neku paused, wondering if it was even worth saying.  Joshua had killed him twice over, but still, “I’m glad you didn’t die.” Joshua narrowed his eyes.  The Composer wasn’t alive per se, but even he knew that wasn’t exactly what Neku had meant.
    “And that’s that,” Joshua said, turning away.
    “Don’t think I’m going to take that as an excuse.  You didn’t have to turn it into some big game with my life,” Neku said.
    “Well aren’t I alive because I did, based on your logic?” At this point, Neku wanted to tear out his hair.  Joshua was the same as always, so he didn’t know why he was expecting anything different.  But surely something had changed within the Composer, as he had preserved Shibuya and brought everyone back to life.
    “Dammit, do you even realize what all of that was like?  You killed me twice, and- and…” Neku trails off, shuddering.  Joshua’s hands ball up into fists and he stares at the ground for a moment, frowning.  He almost seems small, completely losing the aura of being something beyond the fifteen year old standing in the streets of Udagawa, the mural hanging over his head.  He straightens his posture and he’s the Composer again.
    “I do realize.  I’m not incapable of understanding pain,” Joshua says, “hmmm.  Maybe that worsens my case.” He turns to face Neku once again, who wants to back away, but doesn’t.
    “I guess it’s hard to keep going.  I’m not on my own anymore, at least.  Shibuya’s felt bigger than it ever has for me, and that’s exciting on one hand, but overwhelming.  There’s so many places I could go, but I also feel like something terrible is always on the horizon again,” Neku says.  He doesn’t know why he’s telling this to Joshua of all people.
    “Could I be the cause of that terrible something?  Is that what you fear?”
    “No.  I still don’t… I don’t know if I’ll ever fully forgive you really, but I trust that you won’t use me again.  I’d be lying if I said being around you doesn’t make me nervous, but I still trust you.  We were partners, right?” Neku says.  Joshua tilts his head.
    “Right, we were.”
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subasekabang · 5 years
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Gymnopédie- Part 1
Author: Alex Rating: Teen Word Count: Total - 10219 (including title names); this chapter- 2397 Pairings/Characters: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu, Neku Sakuraba, Sanae Hanekoma, Sho Minamimoto, Daisukenojo Bito (Beat), Raimu Bito (Rhyme), Shiki Misaki, Eri, Megumi Kitanji, Ken Doi, implied Shiki/Eri, implied Joshua/Neku (mostly one-sided), agender!Composer, Neku's Mom Warnings: Suicide, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mentions of Voyeurism, Mild Language, Implied/Referenced Bullying, Depression, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Major Character Death (?) Summary: Joshua said he just wanted one normal day. Hanekoma wouldn't deny him that, for soon the boy would have to take his duties as Composer seriously.He didn't think Joshua could die a second time.
Slowly and painfully.
Joshua sprawled across the couch. He watched the fish flit about beneath the glass tiles, then breathed out a sigh that made Megumi glance in his direction.
“Is something wrong, Sir?”
“No, Megumi.” He sighed again and rolled over onto his stomach.
Sometimes Megumi had to remind himself that this was a god and not some sullen teenger. “With all due respect, Sir, I do not understand why you insist on taking that form.”
“With all due respect, Megumi, I don’t understand why you insist on asking so many questions,” he said mockingly.
“My apologies.”
The malice melted out of his voice as he replied, “Forgiven.”
One orange fish bumped up against the glass below his dangling fingers. Of course it would be orange, he thought. There was no escaping it, was there? What a shame; he didn’t know what to do with the feeling other than run and hide. But even here in the one place he thought he was safe, the guilt gnawed at his insides, embodied in this moment by the dumb creature headbutting the glass. He closed his eyes, but that only made the incessant thump thump thump louder in his ears.
Noise. Noun. A sound, particularly one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance. This fish was definitely causing him some disturbance. He sat up. “Megumi, I’m heading out.”
The Conductor hid his surprise behind his mirrored shades. It had been many weeks since Joshua had been outside. Or even moved from the couch.
Joshua excavated himself from the cushions and swung his feet to the floor. He swayed a little as he stood, the room spinning around him, but that was just another inconvenience of keeping this human form. Having to worry about legs and balance and such. He checked his reflection in the glassy floor and shook the hair out of his eyes.
“Don’t let anyone in while I’m gone,” he said pointlessly. People weren’t exactly lining up at his door for a visit.
He chalked it up to paranoia. That was much easier than admitting to himself that it was hope that made him say those words. A vague, pathetic little hope that maybe someone out there cared enough to check on him.
Joshua tuned himself to a frequency that hid him from humans and Reapers alike as he weaved through the streets. After the events of the Game in which he staked Shibuya, his appearance was no longer a mystery. To be seen was to be recognized; no longer could he wander through the RG as if he were an ordinary kid.
Still, as he slipped through the doors of WildKat, its modulator jolted him down to the RG. He could combat it if he really wanted to, but what was the point? It wasn’t like Hanekoma got many customers. Joshua plunked himself down into at one of the many empty tables and waited to be noticed.
It didn’t take long. Joshua was nothing if not noticeable.
“Josh? What are you doing here?”
He definitely didn’t look happy about his presence, but he hadn’t kicked him out either. Joshua decided to be the optimist for once and take it as a good sign. He folded his hands on the table in front of him with a smile. “I wanted to pay my dear, sweet Producer a visit. How are the higher-ups treating you?”
“Your mess has given me quite a few headaches. You know, Josh—”
“Oh, hush,” he said, pressing a finger to his lips in the universal sign for silence. “I came here for coffee, not a lecture. We can talk business later, Sanae.”
“We have to talk it eventually.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you get on with it?”
“Cash first.”
Joshua pouted. “Really? I have to pay? Do I at least get a discount?”
“You get to pay extra.”
He stood and shoved past him on his way behind the counter. “I’ll do it myself, then.”
Hanekoma looked down at him. “Joshua.”
“I’m the Composer; I do what I want,” he said over the grind of the coffee machine.
“And what happened the last time I let you do whatever you wanted?”
Joshua smiled sweetly and turned, hands clasped behind his back. “No permanent damage was done and everyone involved became a better person? I don’t see the problem.”
Hanekoma pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to ignore the headache that Joshua was giving him. He sincerely hoped he was joking, but it was impossible to tell with Joshua. He worked off of his own logic, utterly divorced from the way the rest of the world worked—“my secret garden,” Hanekoma could hear him saying—and maintained that everyone else functioned in the same way. In Joshua’s version of the world, communication was difficult, and understanding near-impossible. Even after all these years, Hanekoma couldn’t trace the arcane paths of his thoughts. For all he knew, Joshua may have truly believed that he had done nothing wrong.
“Do you need me to explain what the problem is to you?”
“Maybe, but I don’t care, and I won’t listen.” He busied himself with drawing a cat in his coffee with the creamer and cooed, “How about latte art, Mr. CAT?”
It was hard to tell if Joshua was talking to him or the coffee. He leaned over to inspect his work. “... Don’t quit your day job.”
“What, you don’t like it? I think it’s quite cute.”
“I think your ego is getting in the way of your judgement.”
“Ouch. You’re crushing my dreams, Sanae.”
“Some dreams need to be crushed.”
Joshua swirled his coffee around in his cup, the cat-ish thing he drew dissolving into a pale brown. “I don’t need a reminder. I know very well that dreams don’t come true.”
“Not with that attitude, they don’t,” Hanekoma replied automatically.
Joshua made an over-exaggerated display of abashment, his hand fluttering up to his mouth like an old-time actress about to swoon. “Even dreams have a problem with my attitude? How cruel!”
“To be perfectly honest, Joshua, I can’t think of a single thing that doesn’t have a problem with you attitude.” He nudged Joshua aside to make his own coffee.
Joshua hoisted himself up onto the counter.
“Please sit in a chair.”
“No. You don’t control me.”
Hanekoma sighed. “Actually, I do. Or at least I’m supposed to. Instead, here I am, getting sassed by a kid who never left his rebellious phase.”
“It is not a phase,” he said, putting his coffee down to cross his arms.
“Case in point,” the Producer grunted. “Spoken like a true emo teen.”
“Fair enough. I have been known to flirt with both ends of a gun.” He reached for his coffee again and took a sip.
Hanekoma winced in sympathy. He could practically hear Joshua’s fingertips and tongue sizzling from the scalding hot drink. Joshua didn’t seem to care, but Hanekoma picked up his own cup gingerly, hot even through its sleeve. “I don’t know who allowed you to get your hands on one.”
“Since when have I waited for permission?”
“Never, unfortunately for the rest of us who have to deal with the consequences. Sometimes I think you’re more trouble than you’re worth…”
As soon as that last sentence slipped out of his mouth, he saw something shift in Joshua’s face and knew he had struck a nerve.
He chugged what was left of his coffee and dropped the cup back down on the counter, chipping the edge, and jumped to the floor. “When I was alive, I was better off dead. Now that I’m dead, I’m better off, what? Not existing at all? Oh, believe me, if I had the choice!” He laughed sharply.
Hanekoma suppressed another sigh. He hadn’t really meant what he had said, but neither was he in the state of mind to deal with Joshua’s moods. It was easier to just let him go and deal with it after he cooled down.
Joshua stormed out the door and promptly phased out of the RG as soon as he was out of modulator range. Hanekoma could still see him, but he knew what was happening by the way his body blurred around the edges. Also by the way several people walked directly through him. He glared at them, which of course they did not notice. Their lack of response seemed to only make him more angry. Hanekoma pulled out his phone and dialed Megumi’s number.
“Keep an eye on the Composer. And please make sure he doesn’t get his hands on another gun.”
“Understood.”
Megumi’s mass call to the Reapers wasn’t really necessary. Even without being given orders, none of them would dare to tear their eyes away from their composer. He stomped through the streets like a force of nature, his corporeal form drifting off of him in ribbons to dissolve into the air like wisps of smoke. With each step, his glow grew stronger, until it was lightning stalking through the streets, sparking down the alleyways, sending beacons of light up into the sky. Noise vaporized on contact with his shimmering power, crying out one last time before being silenced for good. Reapers took to the air to avoid meeting the same fate. It was a good thing that the Game wasn’t running that week; every single Player would have been Erased.
Even a few people in the RG noticed the flashes out light out of the corner of their eyes. They looked around in confusion as the world around them lit up and shone and dimmed once more. Had they turned to the sky, they would have seen lights streaking up like reverse shooting stars, but instead they dropped their gazes to the ground and kept on walking, as ignorant of the world around them as they had always been.
Beyond their perception, the Composer phased through the bustling crowds. Feathers fluttered down behind him, and when they touched the ground, they burst into a shower of sparks and music. People suddenly found themselves wanting to stop by Hip Snake or Sheep Heavenly to buy some new swag. The trends were in chaos as Joshua’s influence ebbed and flowed and shifted the charts at an incredible rate.
As for the boy himself, well, he was still simmering with anger. Still lingering on Hanekoma’s words and his own and on the stubborn memories of his life that even now refused to leave him. His nails dug into his palm as his hands clenched into fists; he desperately ignored the burning behind his eyes. He turned abruptly down a dingy alleyway, one last feather spiralling from him. When this one hit the streets, it was more than just a pretty display of sparks. It became the epicenter for a final shimmering wave of power, spreading outward from where it landed and sending any Reaper bold enough to follow him scrambling for safety.
Joshua pressed one hand against the cold, rough brickwork. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe evenly.
In and out. In and out. In and out and on and off and better off better off better off better off…
He pushed his hands up against his ears, but the words came from within rather than without, and he could not muffle them. Had any Reapers still been watching, they would have seen their Composer flicker, flash, and, finally, vanish.
Hanekoma’s phone rang. He was going to put it on Do Not Disturb until he saw the name on the screen. He picked it up.
“We lost Him,” Megumi’s voice said.
“What? Lost who?”
“The Composer.”
“You’re kidding, right? He was a walking light show two seconds ago!”
“I do not kid, Producer. It was too dangerous for us to get too close. He was there, and then He was not.”
“He… Alright. Okay. Fine. I’ll deal with this. You keep doing your thing, and let me know if anything else happens.” He disconnected the call and scrolled through the apps on his phone. Finally, Joshua’s tracker would be good for something. “I swear, this kid is going to be the second death of me,” he muttered as he headed out the door.
He followed the tracker through the streets, phasing through people just as Joshua had moments before. He retraced the boy’s steps, twisting through unused paths and sometimes directly through walls and barriers no normal human could pass, until he reached a dead-end alleyway.
The tracker said Joshua was here, but Hanekoma could see nothing but brick walls and rusted dumpsters. He nudged aside bags of trash with his semi-corporeal foot. “Joshua?”
His own voice echoed back at him. He narrowed his eyes and looked harder. Looked past the UG and the RG and all the parts in between, and the ones that existed below, and the ones that existed above. The outline of a boy flickered into view. He reached out to grab it. His hand closed around the vague suggestion of a limb, which solidified into a bony teenaged arm at his touch.
“Let go,” Joshua hissed at him, making a half-hearted attempt to pull away. He knew he didn’t stand a chance against Hanekoma. There was a reason he was the Producer.
“Kid, what the hell have you been doing?” Now that Joshua was grounded, there was no need for him to hold on. He released Joshua’s arm and…
Hanekoma stared at his hand. His palm was red with blood. He looked down at Joshua, who was hurriedly trying to bind his arm with part of his shirt. He wasn’t very successful.
“Joshua.” He held him by the jaw and forced his head to turn. He stared into those violet eyes, as lost and bitter as they had been when they first met. “You haven’t changed, have you?”
Joshua smiled crookedly, unwilling to show how much the Producer’s disappointment hurt him. “Believe me, I would if I could.”
Hanekoma released him. “You can, but you won’t,” he said. “Come talk to me once you’ve calmed down and are ready to discuss this like adults.” He turned, leaving Joshua to stare at his back as he walked away.
Blood dripped on the ground. Joshua laughed joylessly, breathlessly, uncontrollaby.
At least, that was what he thought. It took a whole minute for him to realize that he wasn’t.
Yoshiya Kiryu, god of Shibuya, was crying.
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subasekabang · 6 years
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The Reluctant Hand - Chapter 1
Rating: G Word Count: 7719 (Total), 2005 (Chapter) Pairings: Platonic JoshNeku Characters: Neku, Joshua, Kariya Warnings: None Summary: Neku’s waited for what felt like an eternity for Joshua to appear in front of him, only to be greeted with bad news. Joshua laments his struggles of fighting the Higher Plane on Neku’s behalf for the last six months, and finally relays the verdict; Neku will only be allowed to continue his normal life in the RG if he also steps up and assumes his rightfully earned title of Conductor, along with all the responsibilities that come with it. Even though the news should be shocking, Neku isn’t surprised at all. It’s okay, really. He’s heard Shibuya calling him to his post, and though he knows it will be a difficult job, there’s no doubt in his mind that he should answer. After all, he can’t let someone like Joshua rule all by himself, now can he? Author’s Note: Hello everyone! Unfortunately, my fic ended up being a bit larger in scope and I ended up being a lot busier than I initially planned for, so I wasn’t able to finish all of it in time. I’m still going to finish it! It’s my offering/homage for the ten year anniversary, so I’m going to try and finish it by the end of the year. Sorry for the delay! Also, the title of this fic is a bit of a play on words: the first kanji in the name “Shibuya" means “reluctant,” which is such perfect symbolism for a certain scene I had to do something with it. So I came up with this title, where “Reluctancy’s Hand” is also “Shibuya’s Hand.” Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. I hope you enjoy my contribution, and happy tenth anniversary to all the fans around this wonderful world!
————- There were quite a number of things in Neku’s life up until now that he had, at first, been unable to believe. Most of them, of course, occurred during the same month, and most of them had also involved the same infuriating person. It would have to figure that the next incident could only involve that person as well. There was something deeply unsettling about it, the way one second he had been standing next to Hachiko like he had every week for the past six months, expecting nothing, and the next second he had felt compelled to turn his head and had immediately caught purple eyes gazing at him from just a few feet away. Joshua looked subtly different somehow, in a way that Neku couldn’t quite pin down, but before he could even make the attempt, he was running across the gap that separated the two of them. As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed Joshua’s wrist as though he expected it to be an illusion, but when the boy stood put, very real and very much there, Neku had no idea what to do next. “My, my, at a loss for words are we?” At least, if there was one thing Neku could count on, it was that Joshua would fill any silence without further prompting, and Neku nearly melted in relief at the sound of his provoking voice. “Josh…” The name slipped out before he had thought of anything to say, still maintaining his death grip on the boy’s wrist, and they stared at each other a moment longer before Joshua decided to take charge. “Neku, I’m not going to vanish. You can let go.” Neku swallowed the sudden and intense urge to punch him and finally let go of his arm, taking a tiny step back and straightening up. He took a breath and tried to gather everything back into focus, and as the scene finally settled into his head as real, all the leftover emotions he’d been holding onto started welling up to the surface again. “Where the hell have you been?” There were so many things to say, but he had to start somewhere. “It’s a bit of a long story, and I’m afraid I have some… news for you.” Joshua smiled, an expression tinged with emotions Neku couldn’t quite read. “Shall we go get some food?” “You’re buying,” Neku said, automatically starting to walk towards Cat Street. “Of course, of course. Anything for my beloved proxy.” Joshua caught up and started walking alongside him, and somehow, Neku didn’t feel annoyed or hurt by the title. Not as much as he felt he should have, at least. And somewhere in his mind, he couldn’t help but think it was almost too easy to settle back into the rhythm of their shared steps, like it was just a natural part of his life as it had been a natural part of his death. Neither of them spoke along the way, even though there were a million questions trying to burst out of Neku’s throat, but they arrived at the little cafe quickly enough. Much to Neku’s surprise, Joshua pulled out a set of keys to let them in. “After you, Neku.” Neku slipped past him and into the familiar place, somehow still free from dust despite having been closed every day for the past six months. How the place stayed in business was still a mystery. Joshua locked the door behind them and led the way over to the kitchen. “Have a seat. Do you want a drink?” “Are you… making it?” Neku asked incredulously, taking the stool at the furthest end of the counter. “Of course! Sanae showed me how to do it years ago. You don’t need to doubt me so much.” Neku watched Joshua operating the espresso machine, and the feeling of unreality started to creep back. “Where is he? Mr. H, I mean,” he asked, trying to find something to root himself in the present moment. “You want to ask about him first? How you wound me, Neku.” “Just answer the question.” “I’m afraid it’ll be a little while before you can see him, still. All of our business is concluded, but his… has a few more complications to work around.” “‘Our business’…?” “Drinks first,” Joshua said. Neku fell silent as he watched Joshua prepare their drinks; he eventually finished and settled down on the stool next to him, passing over some kind of iced coffee with unrecognizable ingredients. “Okay.” Joshua took a deep breath. “There’s a lot to go over, so I hope you’ve got time.” “Well, it’s Saturday…” Neku said slowly. “Good. Let’s start from the beginning shall we? You’ve received and read all of Sanae’s reports, yes?” Neku eyed him suspiciously. “I did, but what was that all about? It took me forever to find all the items on each list and my parents wouldn’t stop asking me about the weird letters that kept showing up for me.” “I wanted you to read the reports, so I stole them.” Joshua took a sip of his drink. “You stole them?” Neku asked, alarmed. “Of course! He did tell you he lost them—though, that was the you from the Tin Pin universe, so you wouldn’t know about that, I suppose. Anyway, I set up the item lists to keep you busy and make sure you had enough time to digest each piece of the report as I sent them.” “So let me get this straight,” Neku said, twisting a strand of his hair. “You stole Mr. H’s important and secret journal, then made me run around the city playing scavenger hunt only to just mail me the pieces of it.” “I didn’t mail them, I faked the envelopes and left them in your mailbox myself.” “And it never occurred to you that maybe you should just say hello and give them to me in person?” And somehow Neku had really almost forgotten this feeling of exasperation. “Neku, I told you there’s a lot to go over. I’ll explain if you’ll just wait.” “I’ve been waiting for six months,” Neku said, gritting his teeth. “Then you’ve got a lot of practice, don’t you?” Joshua giggled. “I can’t believe—” “It was important that you understand the hierarchy of the different planes, and the amount of trouble that game caused. There was a huge mess to clean up, and a lot of things to be decided, so I couldn’t come and speak with you directly. Sanae’s reports happened to have all the information you needed to know already conveniently written down and explained.” Joshua took a sip of his drink. “You know all of that now, so all that’s left is—” “To explain how everything went down, right?” Neku finished, an inkling of dread starting to settle on his shoulders. “Yes. I’ve spent the last six months arguing with the Higher Plane over what should be done about it all. We don’t really see eye to eye, I’m sure you realize.” “Sure.” “Well, there were a lot of things to battle with them over; what would be done about Sanae’s betrayal, what safeguards would be put in place so that the Composer would not try and destroy the city again, how to make sure that no innocent humans would get caught in the crossfire of battles in other planes… and most importantly, what to do about you.” Neku frowned. “What do you mean? What do I have to do with anything?” “Haven’t you learned yet, Neku? The eye of Shibuya is on you. It’s been on you for a long time.” Neku stayed silent. “In that game, I chose you as my proxy, and you did better than I ever could have hoped. You changed my mind about this city. However, you also left your own destruction in your wake.” “And whose fault is that?” Neku accused, the dread bearing down hard on him suddenly as anxiety wriggled deep in his mind. He took a drink; the concoction was oddly sweet for how strong the coffee flavor was. “I’m not trying to blame you. That’s how my game works; anyone can fight their way to the top if they are strong, determined, and smart, and you are all of those things. You fought your way onto my doorstep in order to stop me, and you cut down everything in your path. Reapers, the Game Master, and finally… even the Conductor.” “I think… I know where this is going…” Neku said slowly. Joshua smiled. “Yes, I’m certain that you do. Shibuya’s eye is on you, so I’m sure it’s spoken to you as well, right?” “The city can’t talk,” Neku said, concern now showing plainly on his face. “Of course it can’t, but it can still communicate. The voice of the city is the collective voice of the people within. Even if none of them are privy to what went on under their noses, they can feel the change, and they want it to stay that way.” “So the Higher Plane—what did they say?” Neku fiddled with his cup, avoiding Joshua’s eyes. “They said a lot of things… you’re a difficult case, Neku,” Joshua said carefully. “What did they say?” Neku pressed. “…you’re going to be the Conductor. They won’t let you continue your normal life otherwise.” “So… what? They’re going to kill me? Erase me?” “If it comes to it, they might,” Joshua said honestly. “They don’t want to, though. Your soul is valuable, and I won’t see it go to waste.” “So I have no choice, then?” “You always have a choice. But there’s no need to be upset, Neku. I already know that you want to say yes.” “What makes you think that?” Neku asked half-heartedly, turning away. “Shibuya has been calling you, and you’ve wanted to answer, I can tell. Maybe you’re scared, but you can answer now, and I know that you will. Deep down, you don’t have any doubts, even if you’re unsure on the surface.” Neku sighed. “Okay, fine, you’re right. But I guess…” He paused, shoulders sagging. “I’m still not sure if I can just accept it. That’s a lot to take on, you know? It’s too much for a teenager who’s still alive.” Joshua was quiet for a moment. “Would you feel better if I explained the reasoning?” “…it wouldn’t hurt.” “First, there’s the fact that you rightfully beat the Conductor, of course.” “I did that together with everyone, though,” Neku objected. “True. Normally multiple challengers wouldn’t even be allowed. However, seeing as it was a bit of a special circumstance, that you were the Composer’s hand-picked proxy, and that you were definitively the one to land the killing blow, it only makes sense that the title should fall to you, don’t you think?” “But why do I have to take it now? Can’t you get someone else to do it?” “I tried to argue that point. The Higher Plane insists that it would only create trouble down the line, and I unfortunately have to agree. The game can’t run without a proper Conductor, so I would have to appoint someone to the job in the meantime. Then what would happen when you died? The reigning Conductor certainly wouldn’t want to give up their seat to you after holding it for decades. It would create a power struggle, and we all know how that turned out last time.” “But can I even be the Conductor while I’m alive? How can I get into the UG? How can I do anything?” “I’ll explain it all, Neku. Everything’s been sorted out. The only thing you have to do alone is step up and claim your rightful title; I’ll be there to help you with everything else.” Neku couldn’t come up with anything more to object with. “You can trust in Shibuya, Neku. It found its voice again because of you.” Neku took a deep breath. “Then… I’ll do it. I’ll become the Conductor of Shibuya.”
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subasekabang · 6 years
Text
Title: Anything To Make you Stay, Chapter 7 Rating: T Word Count: Total: 15,761, chapter: 2,647 Characters: Joshua, Neku, Shiki, Eri, Beat, Rhyme, Hanekoma, Kariya, Uzuki. Pairings: Josh/Neku. Warnings: Suicide, Major Character Death, Depression, semi-detailed depiction of dead bodies, mentions of ableism, one minor allusion to transphobia Summary: Joshua and Neku have been best friends since they were 11, but their friendship starts to fall apart after Joshua goes missing for a week, soon after his 14th birthday. Lies corrode the bond, and Neku’s vivid nightmares of finding someone’s dead body does not help. A year and a half later, they hit the boiling point. Always look before crossing the road, kiddos. Author’s Note: Autistic Josh and Neku! Afab demiboy Josh! Agender Rhyme! Usage of sign language! This was a fun fic to write please enjoy it.
Chapter 7:
The heavy air, weighted with the shouts from earlier, explodes with a scream that tears from his throat. Tires screech as the driver tries to break, and the smell of burned rubber permeates the air. There’s going to be skidmarks there, both on the road and on his heart.
Joshua makes a dash into the road, fueled by the crimson staining the asphalt and the body lying where the truck slammed into it, purple headphones crushed to bits, like the shattered bones in Neku’s body.
He knows this is fatal, there’s no way to sew the body back together, to heal the wounds inflicted. Not by any normal means, and this is no place for a miracle. Even so, he kneels down, shaking Neku, begging him to stay alive.
The driver has pulled over, mouth agape and horror splayed on his face. Some grotesque corner of Josh’s mind says serves him right, he should see this nightmare he has created by hitting Neku, but he knows it wasn’t the man’s fault, not really.
A sob bubbles up from his chest, and tears streak down his face, hot and wet. What a sight he must be, covered in blood and guts and crying over a body that resembles roadkill more than it does his friend.
A thought freezes his despair. The Game. If Neku wins, then he can come back to life, no miracle needed. Some law-breaking required, if he wants to ensure that Neku has the best shot of winning he can.
After all, it’s hard to lose when the Composer is your Partner, and doing all he can to get you a win.
With rigid motions, he conjures up a Player Pin, placing it on Neku’s chest. Joshua takes a step back from the scene of the murder and his emotions, letting them fall away into blank space. He can deal with the distraught panic later. For now, face blank, he walks away, vanishing into the UG as he rounds a corner.
He has a Game to prepare for.
Joshua oversees Neku’s entry into the Game himself. He can’t afford to leave this up to anyone else. He makes sure Neku has the standard knowledge of the Game that all Players should have, before it’s time to take the Fee.
He pauses, sighs, and knows exactly what he’s going to take. Threads of Music wind away from Neku’s body, laid out in the Room of Reckoning. He bundles up the memories into an orb, sealing it away. Maybe a Neku who doesn’t remember him will be easier to deal with in the Game, given their last encounter.
He repairs Neku’s headphones, placing those around his neck. It’d be rude leave Neku without part of his signature look.
The first Day is a blur of activity, as always. He’s quick on his feet once Neku wakes up, offering up a Pact, and then they’re fighting the Noise together. It’s only frogs, for now, but Joshua can feel that pulse beneath the surface as they do battle, Music thrumming in the air, as he and Neku take down the enemies. As the battle ends, Josh lets out a laugh, he hasn’t felt this alive in ages.
Neku takes off, heading for 104 immediately, of course, and no, that won’t do. Players don’t last long if they don’t bond with their Partner, and while Josh knows everything about Neku, feels their old bond on top of the Pact, Neku doesn’t have any of that.
So he drops hints. Between this isn’t my first Game, I’m here by choice, and the mention of his original Fee (he didn’t take one from himself, this time around), he hopes Neku has more than enough material to ask him about in the future. Mentioning languages helps too, nothing like multiple shared languages to bring people together. It might be needed, if either of them go nonverbal, anyway.
Like on Day 2, when he wakes up with acid clawing at his throat, bile building up in his stomach. Neku is dead because of him, None of this should be happening. Neku was never supposed to learn about the Game, he was never supposed to die. Joshua should never have killed himself, should never have jeopardized their friendship in any way, because look where that’s gotten them.
When Neku wakes up, 10 minutes later, he takes one look at Josh, and raises his hands. [Bad day?]
Josh nods. [Bad day. Bad thoughts. Bad memories. If you want, you can speak, but my throat isn’t going to do words.]
“Alright,” Neku says, which Josh responds to with another nod.
Both of their phones beep in unison, and they each grab their own.
^Set the cursed sculpture free. Fail, and face Erasure. You have 60 minutes - The Reapers^
[Hachiko,] Josh fingerspells, before Neku can say the name out loud. [Has to be. Cursed sculpture.]
“That’d make sense. This is the Underpass, yeah? So Hachiko should be that way,” he says, pointing. Josh nods. “Let’s get going then.”
Nothing is ever that easy, because there’s a wall to take down, but luckily the mission is just to take out a bit of Noise.
“What’s up with those guys in red, anyway? You said something yesterday about Reapers?” Neku asks, as they walk out of the underpass.
[Reapers are part of the Game. They test Players, whether by creating enemies, as the Harriers do, or by issuing challenges, like the Wall Reapers do. At the end of a Game week, if a Player survives, they have the option of becoming a Reaper. It’s a fresh start, a way to escape their life, if it was bad, but in order to survive, Reapers need to either Erase Players or continue to issue challenges, depending on if they’re a Harrier or Wall Reaper. If they don’t score points, they’re the ones that get Erased.]
“That’s rough,” Neku says, and it looks like he’s going to say more when a big loud shouty guy comes running up to them.
“Gotchu punks now!” says the guy. Daisukenojo Bito, Josh thinks to himself. Nickname Beat, Partnered to his sibling, Raimu, aka Rhyme.
“You got us good yesterday, but today I’ma crush you, yo!” he continues, and Josh sighs.
“What are you talking about? Who are you?” Neku asks, and he has every right to be confused about a person he’s never met shouting at him like this.
[He probably thinks we’re Reapers. You can’t scan Reapers, and Player Pins make it so you can’t scan other Players, either,] Josh signs to Neku, right as Rhyme points this out themselves.
“They’ve got Player Pins. Players must not be able to scan each other. Remember? You couldn’t scan me either,” they say, and Beat deflates.
“… Oh. Yo, sorry I jumped to conclusions.”
[It’s fine,] he signs, but that makes Beat scrunch his eyebrows together in confusion.
“Yo, whatchu doin’ with your hands?”
“He’s speaking in sign language,” Neku says. “Sometimes verbal language can be hard, we happen to both know sign though. He just said it’s fine.”
“That’s neat! Maybe you could teach us some signs!” Rhyme says, flashing a smile. “Oh! We should introduce ourselves. I’m Rhyme, and this is my Partner, Beat.” Something flickers across Beat’s face, and Josh recalls his Fee as Neku introduces the both of them. Rhyme’s memories of him. He feels a pang of sympathy, knowing intimately the heart-stabbing pain of the most important person in your life forgetting you.
He decides to brood, letting Neku talk with the other pair about phones and Reapers and the mission. It’s not like he can contribute much to the conversation without having to go through Neku.
Then Rhyme is suggesting they work together, and Neku looks at Josh, the question he’s asking obvious by the raised eyebrow.
[Sure. Our odds are better if we have more people working to solve the problem.]
Neku raises his hands to reply. A silent, secret, conversation then. [Can we trust them, though? What if they’re Reapers? I can’t scan them after all, could be a ploy.]
[They aren’t. If you don’t trust them much, then that’s fine, but working together benefits us all. You can suggest we split up to cover more ground.]
Neku nods, and turns back to Beat and Rhyme. “Sounds like a plan. We should split up, we can cover more ground that way.”
The others agree, and off they go.
His brain is fog today, so he contents himself to drifting by, letting Neku figure things out. The battles they fight help to clear the air, but he’s moving through jello, and this headache keeps pounding away. Josh hasn’t kept his vibes tuned down for this long in a while, and he hopes that his body will get used to it, because acidic brain fog is not a fun experience.
Neku can tell that something’s up with him, and once the Moyai is cleared of its Noise, he asks, “Hey Josh, is everything alright?”
[Fine. Just thinking. Don’t worry about me,] he signs, and before Neku can ask anything else, he walks off, heading for Hachiko.
He already knows how to solve the missions this week, of course. He had a hand in creating them, so it’s easy to point out how Hachiko is looking dirtier than usual, less friendly, and they get to polishing.
The Garage Wolves that spring out of Hachiko are easy to take out. The Metal Corehog that Uzuki summons is easy too, but it seems Neku doesn’t feel the same. When the next swarm is summoned, Neku looks ready to pounce on Uzuki instead.
“Please tell me you’re not planning on fighting me? Ha ha ha ha! How stupid can you get? You’ll never win against a Reaper! But all right. I’m game. I was getting bored anyway,” she says, and Josh can only sigh.
Leave it to Neku to challenge a Harrier on day 2.
The fog in his head is blown away by the coming challenge, and he feels his throat open up. Finally. “Neku, Harriers aren’t going to be as easy to beat as Noise.”
Neku spares him a glance, surprised at his voice, no doubt. “She’s just going to keep throwing more at us. Take the problem out at the source.”
“Ha! As if a pair of Players on day two could even stand a chance! You got guts, boys.” She’s laughing and them, and Josh wonders where Kariya is, because he should be here keeping her in line. They balance each other well.
“If you fight with us, it won’t be us who end up Erased, Uzuki Yashiro,” Joshua growls. He lets some power leak, eyes taking on a faint glow, as the wind picks up around them all, his hair flowing in it. He’ll pass this off as a trick of the light, later, but the intimidation works, and her stance falters.
“Hmph, you’re boring. I know, let’s have some fun! A special bonus challenge, just for you, orangeylocks! If you pull it off, I’ll let you out of the Reaper’s Game!”
“Bullshit.” Josh cuts her off, rolling his eyes. “You don’t have the authority to do that.”
“And how would you know? Awfully knowledgeable about how us Reapers work for a Player. Here’s your mission, Erase your Partner here, and you’re out of the Game!” She’s got a smug grin on her face, and Josh frowns, seeing Neku waver.
“I have my reasons for knowing what I know, and I promise, Neku, I will tell you them. Don’t listen to her.”
Neku doesn’t have time to decide on who to listen to, because Kariya, followed by Hanekoma, come swooping down to the rescue. Koki gives a nod to him, and projects a thought, We felt the surge of power, figures that she’d be at the center of it. I’ll keep her off of your back.
Josh sends a quick Thanks, to Kariya, watching as he tries to herd Uzuki away.
“Leave the kids alone, you owe me a bowl of ramen, girl. I bagged more Players yesterday,” he’s saying, grabbing her hand and tugging her off in the direction of Ramen Don. Josh can’t help but laugh at the sight.
Once the pair have gone, Josh turns to grin at Hanekoma. “I see you brought in the cavalry to get her off my back this time. Hopefully Koki keeps her from bothering us much more.”
“You should know better than to egg her on, Josh,” Mr. H replies, and Josh can see how annoyed he is, from his hair sticking up to the barely-concealed splashes of color on his skin. Stress-painting again, he figures. He’ll have to apologize for this fit of anxiety later.
“She started it. Anyway, she’s gone now, so it’s time for introductions. Neku, this is Sanae Hanekoma, he runs the WildKat cafe on Cat street. Mr. H, this is Neku, my Partner.” He doesn’t need to add on anything else, Hanekoma knows all about Neku.
“Nice to meet ya, ‘phones. You’re gonna be in for a long week with J here as your Partner. I’ve known him since he was a kid, always had a knack for getting into trouble.”
“You had a knack for getting me out of it.”
Neku looks between the two of them, eyebrows raised, before he takes a deep breath, and sticks out a hand to Hanekoma. “Nice to meet you. How are you connected to the Game?”
Hanekoma shakes the hand. “Think of me as a sort of…guardian. I watch the Game, to make sure shady types don’t start bendin’ the rules.”
“Alright… And how did you two meet?” He gestures to Josh and Hanekoma.
“I visited his cafe, he caught me staring out the window at things I had no right to be seeing. I’ve always been able to see the UnderGround, the Game, and he saw me flinch when some of the Players were Erased. Took me aside, told me all about what I was seeing. First time in 10 year I heard that what I saw was real. Everything about the Game I know, I learned from him.” He’s nonchalant, as if revealing his sight was no big deal.
“Josh here is a trouble-maker, I’ll say that, but he’s a pretty good kid. You’re lucky to have him as your Partner. There’s only one way to stay alive in this Shibuya. Trust your Partner! Especially you, Phones. I saw you considering the offer.” Josh chuckles as Hanekoma goes on one of his speeches, he’s heard them all before.
Josh lets Hanekoma answer Neku’s questions. A better teacher than he could ever be. When Hanekoma lets the title Composer slip, Josh raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. He’ll fill Neku in on that more later. Once Hanekoma tosses Neku the fusion pin and explains it, he departs, and Josh gives Neku a little smile, before everything goes fuzzy.
“Why the hell did you stop me? I had those two in the bag!” Uzuki says, pouting at Kariya.
“Trust me, you didn’t. The orange-haired one, maybe, but the other? Don’t mess with him, if you know what’s good for you,” Kariya says, and she’s always thought that his laziness was a facade, but never is it more obvious than here.
“Who is he?” she asks.
“A kid I met a while back. You know how those people who have some sense of the UG are stronger in the Game? He’s always been able to see it, hear it, and he’s Played before. I’m a little surprised you don’t remember him, honestly,” he says, and he has that knowing look in his eyes that pisses her off.
“Oh, and why is that?”
“The last time he Played was about a year and a half ago. His name is Joshua. If you’ll recall, that was the name of your Partner.”
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