Faded Lines and Future Signs
A Sauce Project Production
By: Aviantei & Chronic Guardian
}Hybrid::Mixed Feelings x Muse{
[Shibuya Operation – Story Storm]
-Chapter 1UG: When the Leader is Lost-
The Reapers' newest recruit was ironically quite old. He also wasn't much to look at. He was a good head shorter than the average Reaper, slightly heavy set, and almost always frowning. He wore more wrinkles than most UG residents so it was more or less taken for granted he would not last long. The old did not adapt well. And yet, against all odds and appearances, Ganabara Hideo had emerged victorious from the Game and was now putting his talents to use as a Processor.
After meandering through a short series of corridors, Ganabara and the Reaper assigned as his mentor found themselves in a large den of desks lit by hanging lamps. In a way it felt familiar, the same as the life Ganabara recently left. He had been an accounting consultant. He was used to seeing file cabinets, calculators, and colored graphs in the same way that most people were used to seeing the sun.
What was different here was the population. The man walking beside him, for example, was a German Korean with a shock of sandy hair and a maze-print coat with tattered tails. Gaijin mutts like him were an uncommon sight in the land of the living, or what the Reapers referred to as the Real Ground. On the other hand, the afterlife, known as the Under Ground, sported a surprising amount of diversity. Were he not seeing it for himself, Ganabara would doubt Shibuya ever had such a population.
"Who is that?" the reaper recruit asked his companion, shifting a meaningful look towards a young woman at the center of the room. Her hair was a similar light hue, making her look more western than Japanese. She wore glasses and a turn-of-the-century European-style dress with lacy sleeves and a high collar. Ganabara had seen something like it in a magazine once. His wife was fond of novelties like that.
"Konishi Mitsuki," Ganabara's mentor replied curtly. "Current Master Processor. She will be overseeing our work and reporting it to the Conductor."
"Current Master, eh?" Ganabara muttered to himself, glancing at the other Reapers in the room. The general atmosphere seemed to follow their leader's aesthetic trend of eccentricity. "Did your last manager retire?" It seemed an odd thought, having to work towards retirement in the afterlife. Apparently surviving the Game was not sufficient toil to secure a stable existence.
"Musagi-sensei was erased."
Ganabara grunted and continued to watch the current master. She seemed focused, detached, professional. "Is Konishi-sama very much like her predecessor?" he asked.
"...In some ways." Ganabara's companion seemed hesitant to admit the semblance, perhaps as a matter of lingering loyalties. From what Ganabara had seen of the man, he did seem the dogmatic type. "However, Konishi-san lacks the attachment that lead to Musagi-sensei's end."
"Attachment?"
"Perhaps that is not the best word for it," the gaijin admitted, clasping his hands behind his back. "An unbiased reading is crucial for a Processor's success. Musagi-sensei ruined herself not because she was unfair, but because she overstepped her bounds. She was attached to an ethic running contrary to the Composer's rules. Konishi-san is different: she follows whatever doctrines allow her to survive and succeed."
Ganabara shifted a look to his companion. "I sense you disagree, Tanaka-san?"
"Forgive me, Ganabara-san. This is not the way things always were."
In Ganabara's opinion it was a useless, sentimental thing to say. "It is the way things are now," he returned.
"You misunderstand," his mentor insisted. "To us in the present, the way of the world seems solid, changeless; but it has changed before and it will change again. This world we have now may not be the world we leave, it is only the world we must learn to live in."
"With all due respect, Tanaka-san, a different leader will not change the nature of our work. If your old leader was erased it was because she was not suited to her post."
"Perhaps," the gaijin said evenly as they arrived at an empty desk. The man stepped aside and motioned for Ganabara to sit."But I believe our Musagi was only as fallible as our dear Composer. There are many columns and ranks in a company of marching men, but there is only one destination they are marching towards. If the leader misunderstands what that destination should be, the entire company is fated to ruin unless someone in the ranks dissents."
Ganabara remained standing and crossed his arms. Looking his guide over again, the newly appointed Processor tucked his lip under his mustache before asking, "What gives you the right to dissent against your chosen leader, Tanaka-san?"
"Leaders hold their right by virtue," Tanaka replied. "If they lose sight of that virtue, they lose their right to lead."
"Hmph, no respect for hierarchy," Ganabara muttered, folding his legs beneath him as he situated himself at the desk. Yes, Tanaka-san was definitely a foreigner. To Ganabara's ears, it was a fickle and fragile strategy. Survival was not the right of the virtuous, it was the right of the cunning.
"Give it time, Ganabara-san. The Shibuya UG has a habit of shifting. Perhaps it will shift you, too."
"Forgive my skepticism," Ganabara said, straightening his pointed mustache. "But I doubt it."
-Thirty-Three Years Later-
Wind whispered up and down the Processor's Den, filtered in through pipes and pushed about by fans pretending to be a breeze.
Sitting with back straight and legs crossed, an aged gentleman twitched his mustache at the airflow as it played with the edge of the papers he was reading. He gave an ornery grunt and reached across the desk for some paper weights before smoothing the papers down again exactly as they had been. Ganabara thought it was grievously inconvenient to deal with such distraction, but he also thought himself very gracious to tolerate them. The other Reaper working the den, Tendo Suzumebachi preferred the breeze and, although she was his subordinate, Ganabara considered it a mark of character to slog through the unfairness of the world. Even if he objected, he still preferred to suffer than to change.
He had just settled down again when someone got the nerve to step in front of his light. Giving a pointed look over his glasses, Ganabara raised his eyebrows and slowly said, "Is this terribly important?"
"More important than last month's reports," his visitor answered, crossing her arms as she looked down on him. It was Koizumi Yutsui, the current Conductor and third to hold the position since Ganabara's induction. She had the shadow of a smile on her face, but he couldn't tell if it was amused or patronizing. "Have you noticed a shift in the UG, darling?"
Ganabara paused for a moment, reaching out with the sixth sense native to all Processors. He could feel the UG; uneven, coarse, flowing like a river over his fingers. A slight frown tickled his mustache as the flow began to thin and fray. It was becoming unstable.
There had been a similar incident nearly a year ago. Ganabara only knew the feeling, not what it particularly meant. It felt worse this time, but he couldn't tell much beyond that. Giving Koizumi a troubled look, he opened his mouth and began to formulate a response.
"Harmonic dissonance," the Conductor supplied, cutting him off before he could try to work out anything coherent. "Something in the RG is mimicking the Composer's authorative frequency. It's disrupting the balance of power."
"You mean to say an upstart is disrupting the market?" the aged Processor asked. "Or is a previous investment backfiring?"
"Not sure, dear. That's why I want you to investigate."
"Investigate? Me?" Preposterous. It had been decades since Ganabara's last day on the field, his talents were best served at his desk. "Forgive me, Koizumi-san, but do you know who you are—"
"Master Processor and keeper of the Sus Cantus, Ganabara Hideo," Koizumi said without batting an eyelash. A small smile touched her lips as she then pointed back at herself and tilted her head. "Now who am I?"
"You're missing the—"
"Answer the question, Rosie-kun."
Ganabara's mustache twitched in annoyance. He hated this, every bit of it. Koizumi was not only ignoring his own standing, she was also abusing her office of Conductor. Selecting candidates for a job was more than throwing supply at demand. In fact, there were times when the components seemed so perfectly mismatched that Ganabara thought his superior simply got a kick out of ignoring efficiency.
And yet, she was still his superior.
"...Sixty-third year Reaper and Conductor of the Shibuya UG, Yutsui Koizumi,"
"Very good," Koizumi gave a frank smile and a sarcastic slow clap. "And that makes me what?"
Ganabara glared back. "Old."
The remark didn't seem to faze her. "Close," Koizumi said, tucking a lock of her auburn hair behind an ear. "But the correct answer is 'your senpai'."
"With all due respect, ma'am, your strategic recruiting could use work."
"Recruits can be refined," she assured him, waving the statement off like a bothersome insect. "I chose your royal crochetiness for two reasons: first, because you've been here long enough that you know what the UG is actually supposed to look like; and second, because the Composer asked for it. Personally. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's a very good reason to shut up and take the job."
"I can process the data from here just fine, thank you," Ganabara said. "Find someone else to collect it."
Koizumi didn't move. "Sorry, darling. The rest of the staff chose to take up our dear Composer on some paid vacation for Golden Week—"
"Which is a terrible organizational decision, by the way."
"—which means I only have the two of you to work with."
Koizumi finished the statement by motioning to Tendo. Ganabara gave his underling a glance to gauge how much attention she was paying. Although she was reasonably good at her job, Tendo had a record for chronic ambivalence and he wouldn't put it past her to simply ignore the middle of the room.
Still, just because she did not care did not mean that she could not be useful.
"So why not employ Tendo-san?" Ganabara suggested. "I'm sure her familiarity with the current market standards will serve better than my own."
"Tendo-chan also far less dogmatic," Koizumi countered. "I can't count on her to stick to the mission the same way you do."
"She's right," Tendo seconded without looking up. "Go for it, Ganabara-san. You could use the fresh air."
Ganabara shot a sharp look that went over the girl's head before turning back to his direct superior. "You cannot do this to me, Koizumi-san. Tendo-san is my subsidiary. Do not disrupt my authority by—"
"Relax, Rosie-kun," Koizumi chided him, reaching out to ruffle his unkempt silver hair. "I'm sending both of you."
"Both?" That got Tendo's attention. Suddenly, her eyes were tracking Koizumi like a fly eying a swatting paddle. "Why both? Why not just him?"
Koizumi lifted her eyebrows and slowly turned towards the girl. "Because he's got general experience and you've gotten a whiff of what we're looking for, darling. According to my records, you should know best what the authorative frequency feels like because you, my dear girl, have personally encountered the Composer. Frankly, even if I had Reapers to spare, you'd still be on the hook."
"Hold a moment," Ganabara said, raising a hand as he tried to sort out the implications. "We are looking for what now, exactly?"
"You're scouring Shibuya for traces of the Composer's Imagination or something like it," Koizumi said patiently. "Basically, something out there is making power surges strong enough to affect the UG and I want you to figure it out before it becomes a problem."
"Because the fate of the UG is not a big enough problem to call a few Harriers off of their precious break period," Ganabara noted. Her gave her a skeptical look and crossed his arms.
"Not yet," Koizumi said. "According to the Composer, anyway." Her voice dipped in disagreement at the end of the sentence.
Ganabara narrowed his eyes. Perhaps she was exaggerating the weight of the situation...
"Regardless, I promise you'll be treated well for your services," she went on before he could protest. "Three month's boost in points and an audience with his royal snarkness. Given that I'm making this mandatory I'd say you could do worse."
Ganabara simply snorted. "You can't be serious."
"I'm a Conductor following orders, darling," she said with a wink. "I can be as serious as I want. If you have a complaint, I can always relay it to the Composer for you after you finish this mission. Now really, Ganabara-dear, I don't have time for a discussion. Get out there and make me proud."
Turning on her heel, she threw a wave over her shoulder and walked out of the den. Ganabara fumed and watched her go, silently throwing every logical argument he could muster square in her back. When she was gone, he shook his head and turned to his subordinate.
Tendo gave him a sideways look before returning her eyes to the closing doors. "So… are you in on this one, Ganabara-san?" she asked, excusing herself from her desk and moving towards his position. He couldn't help but notice a certain energy boost to her aura.
Someone's taking this well, he thought to himself.
"It doesn't seem I've much room to bargain," the older Processor sighed. His mustache twitched again and he ran a thumb across his cheek. Today was going to be a long day. On the upside, Tendo seemed enthusiastic about something. That was odd in and of itself, but Ganabara didn't mind the help. In fact, the more of this he could push off on her the better. "I take it you see some marginal gains in this occupational shift?"
The girl stopped for a moment. Perhaps she hadn't been expecting him to read her so easily. Too bad. He was the Master Processor, she should have known better.
"...I'm looking forward to seeing the Composer again."
"Seeing?" Ganabara asked. "Or confronting?"
There was a slight shift in her posture and she gave a small shrug."With a guy like that, I don't see much difference."
"No respect for hierarchy, I see," he muttered, shaking his head. What was the world coming to? Nationals were acting just as brashly as gaijin.
Suzumebachi gave him a blank look. "He deserves it."
Ganabara watched her for a moment longer before wiggling his mustache and turning back towards the exit. He didn't like the sentiment any more than he personally liked the Composer; he considered both to be erratic and ill informed. However, while Ganabara often objected to the world, he was even more loathe to change it.
In his opinion, that job was better left to leaders.
[Avi's Erratic Last Minute Author's Notes]
Hey, all, Aviantei here! Which is ironic because I didn't write this chapter, the good old Chronic Guardian did. However, he had work responsibilities, so I'm slipping in the first chunk of the author's notes. Hope you don't mind.
Anyways, this project is special in several ways. For one, it's part of [Shibuya Operation - Story Storm], a fantastic and fun multi-chapter writing challenge to beat the winter blues. If you have a story you think you can finish up in ten weeks, do check out the forum. It's a small group right now, but we do love the company.
Second, it's also a cross-over between me and the aforementioned wonderful CG. Forget my part in this-that guy's the real hero here. This is our first whack at any sort of collab ever, so it's exciting yet nervewracking. Either way, I'm glad I get to do it with this guy. Seriously.
Third, it's the combination of the Hybrid and Muse universes! If you haven't read CG's Hybrid::Mixed Feelings yet, I highly recommend it. While still in progress, it's a great expansion of the lovely TWEWY universe and has excellent character developments to boot. I'm highly honored to get to play around in this universe with some of the characters I love (ufufu). If you haven't read my Muse yet... That's cause it doesn't exist. I've been planning it for a while, and things are really shaping up, but I'm just not quite there yet. Even so, I hope the teasers and first glimpse of the universe expansion interest and excite you.
This story counts as a sort of epilogue to Hybrid while likewise serving as a prologue to Muse. I'm glad that my half joking mention of that I could easily make Muse work within the Hybrid universe managed to make it into something substantial. In any event, I should stop rambling about this and make sure I'm ready to do my part.
Following [SOSS] rules, this will be updating weekly on the weekends. Next week is my turn, and we'll be dropping down a plane to see Shibuya from a different perspective...Hopefully it'll be just as enjoyable as what you got this week. So please look forward to it and happy new year!
[12.31.2016]
[CG's After Work Author's Notes]
Adding on to what my writing partner has already explained, this is a Post-Game TWEWY story that follows the "Hybrid" timeline (named for "Hybrid::Mixed Feelings" which is more or less an extended musing on Hype-chan). While we're pretty evenly splitting the work between the two plot lines, we're still keeping each other in check and making sure everything goes just right. In other words, (for all you Rue Kiryu fanatics out there) basically all Rueban lines are CG approved. d-.-b
Also, as per usual with stuff like Hybrid or J0KER, we're gonna offer up some ending extras for your reading enjoyment. Because Faded Lines and Future Signs is a little more hodgepodgey than my other stories, we decided it would be best to go with character insights: discussing how certain characters got where they are in the current story and how they've changed over time. This chapter's subject? Yutsui Koizumi!
[Character File: Koizumi as Conductor]
Yutsui was actually one of my first TWEWY OCs and she was made with the role of Conductor in mind. Rather than being a carbon copy of good ol' Shades though, Yutsui is a fresh take on the office. She's more independent, less professional, and for the majority of Hybrid really clashed with her boss. Unlike Megumi, who had the utmost respect for the Composer, Yutsui is very jaded and isn't above actively working against the Composer. She's more subtle about it than a certain mathematician, but it isn't hard to see how she doesn't see eye to eye with Shibuya's patron saint. Basically, she got the job because Yoshiya loves a good challenge and Yutsui naturally challenges him.
In the time since Hybrid, Yutsui has gotten more used to her position and throws her weight around a little more naturally. As a woman in power, Yutsui is a character archetype that fascinates me. There are a few natural keys for this position (a pure, saintly woman or a corrupt seductress to name a few), but most of these focus on the lady primarily as a vessel for power, kind of as a literary device. In every iteration, I feel Yutsui takes up power for very personal reasons, even if she's more or less shoehorned into the job. Even if she may not like her position, Yutsui has a lot of natural talent for administration and human resource management. In that sense, I wanted Yutsui to be someone suited for power who isn't necessarily affected by it. Thus, Yutsui has grown into a role she was always meant for but never really wanted.
It's also important to note that Yutsui's character concept took a lot of cues from Kariya, her nephew. In someways, she's kind of what I imagine him acting like if the Reapers ever collared him into officerhood. Like everyone's favorite lollipop-licker, Yutsui's learned to make the best of her job even if it means sacrificing a little personal enjoyment.
For more on Yutsui, check out her appearances in Hybrid, Deck: J0KER, and J0KER: Speed.
See you next week!
-CG
[12.31.2016]