Here I am, writing for yet another fandom. This was part of a drabble trade with TheForsakenShadow but it ended up much longer than I anticipated. This is my first attempt at a fic for The World Ends With You, so I hope I managed to keep everyone in character...
Disclaimer: I do not own TWEWY or any of its characters.
The True You
"Who am I?"
Before the Reapers' Game, Neku had often asked himself this question. Even now, after his return, the thought still came to him on lonely nights while he tossed and turned in bed, desperate to fall asleep. It plagued his daydreams and, on some days, his every waking moment. And it hurt him most knowing that, even after everything he had been through, there was no answer waiting for him.
'I've changed so much...has my identity changed too? Am I no longer...myself?' It was true that after his experiences, he learned to open up to people, to trust them more. But as the days passed, he began to wonder if he was losing himself in this new identity he had created.
'Or what if...I never had an identity to begin with?' This was also a possibility. After all, if he couldn't figure out who he was before, who was to say that he had been anyone at all?
These thoughts had the ability to make his head spin for hours, preoccupying his mind and filling it with nothing other than thoughts about his past, his present, and his potential future. Every possible conclusion seemed to lead to a paradox, mostly about him never existing in the first place. He tried to ignore those conclusions and push the thoughts away, until one day, it finally hit him.
'If I can't figure it out now, I may never know who I really am.'
And so he resolved to find out.
"Who ARE you? What kinda question izzat?" Beat gave Neku an incredulous stare. "Phones, if YOU don't know who you are, how'm I supposed t'know?!"
Rhyme merely patted her brother's arm, smiling calmly as always. She then turned to Neku. "You're you, Neku. Isn't that all that matters?"
Her insightful and neutral advice would have satisfied anyone, but not him. He needed answers. Real answers. And fast.
"I think who you are depends on what you wear," Eri told him flatly. He groaned - he should've expected this from her. What he did not expect, however, was for her to continue talking.
"I mean I know Shiki's tried to get you to change your look, but seriously, what is UP with that hair? And those headphones? Technically you aren't even allowed to-"
He slammed the classroom door in her face and walked away.
"Typical Neku..." he heard a vague chuckle from somewhere behind him. The voice was familiar, but when he turned around, he saw nothing but an empty hallway. He sighed.
'Stop messing with me, Josh.'
At the end of the day, he found Shiki waiting for him at the school gate. It had become a routine for them to walk to the Hachiko statue together, and then go their separate ways. She gave him a small wave, which he returned, and they began their walk as always.
They did not often talk on the way home, but it was always a comfortable silence that hung around them. This time, however, Neku had something else in mind. He stopped in his tracks and turned to her.
"Shiki, I want you to tell me something." His tone was serious, and she nodded, equally solemn.
"I want you to tell me who I am."
She looked at him, much like Beat had earlier, but she seemed more confused than in disbelief.
"Shiki, who am I?" he repeated urgently. "I need to know."
After a few moments, she smiled. It didn't reach her eyes.
"You're asking the wrong person, you know," she told him, adjusting her glasses. "Until a while ago, I didn't know who I was myself."
He sighed. "I understand that," he replied. "But I don't have anyone else to ask. No-one could give me the answer I needed."
Her eyes grew wide as she saw his own, pleading with her.
"I'm lost," he whispered. "I don't know what to do."
Shiki looked down for a few moments. She took a deep breath and let it out, then began to speak.
"I-I'm not sure who you were before the Game. But the Neku I first met is so different from the one standing in front of me right now. You've changed."
He opened his mouth to interrupt her, to say that he already knew that, but her next words stopped him.
"And even so, you haven't changed at all."
"...huh?" That was something Neku had not been expecting. Hadn't he already established that he had changed? Wasn't that a fact?
"B-but you've seen me, Shiki! I'm not the same at all! I can talk to you like this - I can talk to people now."
She placed a hand under her chin thoughtfully. "That's true, and that's why I said you've changed. But look at yourself."
He looked down at his feet, then back up at her. She smiled knowingly.
"See? Nothing's changed. You still wear the same clothes, the same shoes, the same headphones, even if they're a little dented now. You don't care what other people think - all you are is yourself, and that's enough for you."
She looked him in the eye. "That's the Neku I made a pact with. So don't ever change, okay?"
It was Neku's turn to stare at her incredulously. She shrugged, and soon he began to laugh. Shiki let out a sigh.
"Maybe I was wrong," she said, turning around and walking away. He jogged towards her and soon matched her pace. "You're laughing now, after all. I think you have changed."
"Shut up, Stalker."
"...or not."
Neku grinned lightly as they walked towards Hachiko in silence once again. Now that he thought about it, she didn't really answer the question. If anything, her answer blew holes in every theory he had.
But it was good enough for him.
I like to think that after Neku took his headphones off at the end of the game, he went back for them almost immediately. It's hard to let go of something really precious, after all. But they got damaged because he dropped them on the ground. They still work, though.
R&R please! Let me know what you think!