Damned if I Don't
Chapter One - Damned if I Do
A little while after Neku had gone unconscious a second time, the Composer shed his younger appearance and was now in the form that he had become accustomed to after rising to the throne of Shibuya.
It was a strange scene to be upon for him. The room was, for once, anything but empty. Yet, he felt a sort of emptiness about him. He had not scanned Neku's thoughts before the final showdown. What was the fun of having a last game if he already knew the outcome? For once, he had remained uncertain. How much did Neku value friendship now?
From the absence of a bullet in his chest, Joshua knew that it was the most important thing to him. He didn't know if he was touched or thought that Neku was stupid. Yes, he hadn't really been intending to destroy Shibuya anymore, but what if he had been?
Letting go of that train of thought, he looked down at the still bodies lying on the cold, hard ground. One was Neku's, of course, his two other partners and lastly the young girl, Rhyme.
Now, what was he to do with her...?
The elder three of those on the floor had successfully earned their rights to be brought back to the world of the living.
The girl was different on the other hand. She had not been Erased due to his involvement.
The course to be taken would be clear if Neku had gone ahead and shot him. As the new Composer, Joshua had no doubt that Neku would give Rhyme back her life. If not for his newfound set of morals, it would be for the sake of Daisukenojo Bito, who he now considered his friend.
"Hanekoma." Joshua called out to his Producer, standing on his left and slightly behind him.
"Yes?"
"Is there any specific reason why you turned this girl into a pin?" He turned to look straight at Sanae Hanekoma, determined to get a serious answer.
"Ya know, I kinda just felt like it." The casual tone he replied in told Joshua that his attempt at intimidation didn't quite work. He supposed that Hanekoma got enough of that from the Higher Ups.
"Hanekoma." The Composer's stare grew in intensity.
"Alright, alright, I give," he said, throwing his hands up for emphasis. "That really was just a spur of the moment act of sympathy but I also kinda figured they would be interested."
"The Angels, you mean."
"Bingo. And I hit the bull's eye there, with my guess. I'm sure you've already guessed but she's on the list for the Examination."
Right, it was just as he suspected. It seemed odd that even with all that was going on, this one young girl managed to avoid having her Soul drift off; it seemed too convenient that even after being in Konishi's hands, she somehow survived. No one was that lucky. It was a different story if the Angels wished for her to continue existing.
"I'm interested to know why they chose her of all people. Her Imagination surrounded her dreams but as she lost the game, she has lost them, am I right? "
"It's as you say," he confirmed. "She can't remember her dreams anymore. But ya got forgot one thing. Her dreams came from her Imagination, not the other way round."
"Ah, that's right. Still, I cannot say that her Imagination is of outstanding value. I still don't see why they have Selected her."
"That's where you're wrong. She's valuable, trust me."
"I really find that hard to believe."
"Hah. Thought you learnt a thing or two in these past three weeks."
"I learnt things about people. Their diversity is what makes Shibuya tick. Yet not all of them are suited for higher planes."
"But the Angels think this little lady is suitable."
"Hmm."
Since he was back to full power, it was easy to reach into the girl's memory. He failed to find anything that was especially of value. If one were to go on what was considered ideal 'human qualities', he would say that kindness, patience and determination would be what he picked out to put into that column, for Rhyme. However, that wasn't so uncommon.
"Hey, they chose you. No matter how you look at it Skulls Junior is a fantastic choice compared to you."
Joshua said nothing but Hanekoma started laughing.
"Where did that teenage kid go? I was enjoying his sarcasm."
For the first time in this conversation a smirk wormed its way onto his face.
"Oh, he's there alright. I like to think that this form is akin to a business suit. "
"Gotcha."
"And going back to business, I've decided."
"Ohoho, have you now?" Hanekoma said.
Joshua extended his hand down towards the former Players and in a flash they were all gone.
"Resurrection, eh? The Higher Ups won't be too happy about that. It took them a while to find a worthy Candidate."
"When they call me up for a hearing - and they will - they can add it to the list of rules I broke."
"Whatever you say, Boss."
That was one of the things about working with Hanekoma. To everyone else, he may be friendly, but Joshua found him to be rather patronising; he treated Joshua, sometimes, as if he was a child, and as Joshua was a patronising person himself, he found it all rather distasteful.
"I would think that you would be worried, seeing as how your slate isn't clean either."
"No point worrying 'bout something ya can't change. The Angels will do what they want." Carefree as always.
"Let's go, we still have things to clean up. The Reapers are a mess..." This was going to be a huge bother. After having his fun and games, Joshua was now ready to be content on just sitting down and overseeing the Games for a while, but yes, there needed to be enough Reapers to hold the Games in the first place.
"Hopefully we'll sort it out before they contact us."Hanekoma sighed. "You realize how long that gives us."
Joshua didn't answer that.
Seven days now seemed too short to restore everything.
XXXXX
"You know, this mess is gonna have some repercussions Upstairs. But hey, at least things are back to normal, right?"
Normal. Yes, the UG was as normal as it could ever be. There had been many Reapers erased, mainly by Neku. It might have been a little unfair of him to let them go like that, so he tried to catch the Soul that was still drifting around to try and restore them. He didn't manage to bring back all of them, of course, but that's just how the after-life went. At least Neku and his friends looked happy.
That thought, at least, served as some consolation as he ascended up to what was generally thought of by most people as 'heaven'. This was really just the plane in which the Angels inhibited, or the Higher Plane as most called it.
There were apparently seven levels of the Higher Plane, but Composers, not really being Angels, were only qualified to enter the first level. At least, that was what Hanekoma told him; he'd never been Upstairs before.
It wasn't as fluffy and white, as most would think heaven would look like. Well, that wasn't completely true. It wasn't at all fluffy but it certainly was white. There wasn't much here, to be frank. There was a field that went on for as far as Joshua could see around the whole radius of the place, and there was a massive white castle which looked like someone just dropped it there for fun. Maybe heaven got fluffier as you went up the levels of the High Planes; Joshua doubted he would ever find out.
He willed the door open and stroll in. How predictable – the insides were also white. Now, how was anyone going to tell apart from him and the wall? He was a glowing bright white just as much as everything else in here was. The seats, the tables, the reception desk. Yes, there was a reception desk. Albeit how grand and roman-looking the castle looked on the outside, the interior was as modernised as it could get.
He approached reception desk. There was a lady clad in – yes, you guessed it - white. She was on her phone, playing a mobile game (he knew this because he had that game on his phone too). He cleared his throat. "Why, hello. I'm Yoshiya Kiryu and I'm here for a meeting."
She didn't respond to him immediately. She wasn't a very good receptionist; she took her own sweet time finishing her level before locking her phone and looking up at Joshua. "Mmhmm. Which district, are you from, sweetie?"
"Shibuya." It was Hanekoma, who answered, having been a few paces behind him the whole time. "We're from Shibuya."
"Ohh!" She suddenly looked a lot more interested. "Oh, you're one of them. In that case just head down the corridor to your right it'll be the room right at the end."
Joshua started on his way while Hanekoma thanked the receptionist and caught up with him. He eyed Hanekoma wearily. "How come you're still in that form?"
"I still gotta lower my vibe for the low levels of the Higher Plane." Hanekoma laughed heartily. It made Joshua wonder about his level of Imagination. He could never gauge exactly how high it was. Certainly it was levels above his own but…
The door swung open in front of them. Joshua found the room interesting; it wasn't white this time. It had red walls and a long, rectangular glass table with black chairs all around. Each of the seven seats were occupied except for the ones that were meant for Joshua and Hanekoma. Everyone here was just as luminescent as he was. How convenient.
His eyes were drawn to the head of the table. There was certainly someone sitting there, but he seemed to flicker in and out of view. From what Joshua could make out, the man looked fairly elderly, hair being missing from his head.
"That's the Head of Producers," Hanekoma whispered to him. "His Imagination is usually too high for you to perceive him, but he's lowered his vibe for this."
"Hey, old man. Are we just gonna sit around here all day? We're all here, so you can start the meeting already." That was certainly a strong kansai accent. The woman who had just spoken was sitting opposite Joshua.
"I do not tolerate impudence." The 'old man' as she put it, had a voice that vibrated throughout the room and shook the walls, causing most of those present to wince.
"Geez, tone it down a little. You're hurtin' my ears," said the woman, a look of irritation clear on her face as she flicked her long hair behind her.
Rather than toning it down, the room shook harder even whilst he wasn't speaking. That effectively prevented the woman from saying anything else. Then quietly, very quietly, his voice was heard again, "As a requirement for all meetings in the Higher Planes, you are all required to state your rank. I am Head of Producers. "You will call me 'Sir." Quiet but definitive. "We shall go around the table, starting with the rude one."
"You talkin' about me…Sir? Fine then. Composer of Osaka."
The next one over was a man, looking older than Joshua appeared but looking more timid than a two year old. "H-hello, Sir. I'm the C-composer of Sappor-r-ro."
"I'm the Producer of Sapporo," said the woman sitting next to him, arms crossed over her form.
As the Head already introduced himself, the turn was skipped over to the man sitting beside Hanekoma. "I hath the honour of serving as Kyoto's Composer." His way of speaking was ancient; he must be one of the veteran Composers.
Next was Hanekoma. "Nice 'ta meet you all. I've got the fun job of being the Producer of Shibuya."
Following the suit, Joshua simply stated his rank, "I'm the Composer of Shibuya."
All eyes besides the Head of Producers were on Hanekoma and Joshua. The Composer of Osaka narrowed her eyes. "Hey, Sapporo."
"Y-y-yes, Osaka?"
"You tellin' me this chump defeated Tokyo."
Ignoring her reference of him as a 'chump' he said,"If you're referring to the previous Composer, then yes, I defeated her."
Joshua expected an angry outburst but Osaka just blinked and her lips curled into a devious smile. "Good news. Didn't like that woman. But I want to know – what happened? How come you're only Composer of Shibuya? Was Tokyo too big for you to run?"
"I run my city effectively. Even those who die out of Shibuya's area, and are eligible, are put into a Game in Shibuya. It's the life of the city after all, and there's no one living in Tokyo who hasn't been to Shibuya at least once. Common knowledge, dear. Although, that might be too much information to grasp for someone of your intelligence."
"Why you-!" People were so easily riled up.
"C-calm down, Osaka!"
"Listen here, Shibuya – "
"I see I get the nickname too. I didn't realise we were on such good terms already."
"Enough." The Head cut them off. "You are all equally fools, which is why you are all here today."
Touchy.
"It is simpler to pass down your penalties altogether, rather than calling upon you separately. Composer of Kyoto. It was discovered that for two years you have been subtly and unfairly increasing the ratio of older Players who are resurrected rather than the younger ones."
The bearded Composer gave a snort. "Unfairly? I hath always been just. Is it not just that the elder and wiser Players are given longer to live?"
"No, that is not the point. We need some young, Imaginative, blood back in the RG so as to keep it flowing. The balance must be kept. Your Producer has already been transferred elsewhere, and you are now to be under the observation of a newer, younger Producer." Kyoto glared at the Head's words. "Their age is of less than one hundred years."
"Less?" Kyoto looked mortified.
The man had a phobia of young people and now his superior was one. Poor dear, hee hee.
"Sapporo."
"Eeep! I-I mean, yes?" What a nervous man.
"Your count for resurrection has always been higher than most other districts but these past three weeks…" He interlinked his fingers and glared straight at Sapporo. "Did you not think about the consequences of allowing all of the Players to live in not only one, but three Games?"
"B-but t-they all seemed to r-really want to come back to life," Sapporo spluttered, the poor soul.
"You seem to have completely forgotten the purpose of the Game. You are hereby only allowed one resurrection perGame."
"O-only o-one!" If there was any colour other than white on Sapporo's face, Joshua was sure that this would be the point in which it all faded away. The man looked so dejected that he didn't even try to argue against the Head.
"Shibuya."
Show time. "That's me, it seems."
"You are young for a Composer yourself, just about over a hundred years old if I recall correctly." Only a hundred years old. "Yet according to your Producer's reports, you have recklessly and selfishly, I might add, decided to attempt to wipe Shibuya and its Underground out of existence."
"True. I didn't see anyone trying to stop me and I didn't do it in the end, so I don't see what the problem is."
"The problem is that you went into the Real-Ground to collect your proxy. It is forbidden – it upsets the balance. Furthermore, you did not attempt to contact the Higher Plane through the Producer to discuss the reasons besides your decision. We waited, in hopes that you would eventually call on us. It seems we were mistaken to wait. Furthermore, concerning your Producer," and here it was, "he allowed taboo noise to be created. Whilst Shibuya is one of the few districts who enjoy using Noise as a tool for their Game, the taboo were strictly forbidden. As such, Hanekoma has received the status of a Fallen Angel."
The Head wasn't finished, though. "I've already discussed this with your Producer, and this is as much your punishment as it is his – your Producer is being transferred to another sector."
Transferred. That…wasn't good. It wasn't like he hadn't thought of the possibility that Hanekoma wouldn't be allowed to stay as his Producer but he didn't like entertaining the thought.
"We will assign you a temporary Producer. We are short-staffed, so a permanent one will be instated later on."
"Now, now a transfer? That sounds a bit petty, I would thi-"
"Quit your whinin'. You'll give me a headache," complained Osaka with a bored tone.
Did she just interrupt him?
"Moving on, Osaka. You have the worst case of all." Worst? There was no way she could have done worse than Joshua.
"I assume you think it is just fine and dandy to waltz into Nagoya territory, which is out of your jurisdiction," hmm, "erase all its Reapers," oh my, "and eraseits Composer." It was sounding like it just might be worst. "And then proceed to erase your own Producer who was trying to stop you."
"What? I was bored, okay?" That was her golden reason.
…alright, perhaps her case was worse.
He exchanged a grim glance with Hanekoma. Certainly, Hanekoma had tried to stop Joshua, but Joshua completely understood why. It was his job, and he loved Shibuya; that was just the way Hanekoma was. Joshua wasn't stupid enough to attempt to erase the Producer, he knew that if he tried to, even with Hanekoma's full power on the limit, he could release it all at any time. Albeit, the UG and RG both would be affected heavily, but that could be fixed. Osaka must have been very lucky, or very powerful. He would like to hope the latter was not the case, because he found her an annoyance.
The Head Producer was finding her irritating too. He banged the top of the table with a fist. "Listen here. I would have you Erased this very instant if not for the fact that a Composer can only be replaced once he or she is defeated. It is a rule we must uphold." Unlike Joshua, the Higher Ups could not even imagine breaking the rules, it seemed
"Therefore for seven years, instead of Games in between weekly intervals, a Game will run in Osaka every week. And if winning Players request to challenge the Composer, you are not permitted to refuse." Aha. Joshua saw what the Head was playing at. No breaks between fighting winning Players one after the other could wear him out too.
Osaka simply cracked her knuckles together. "You can bring 'em on. I'll take 'em all down!"
"Hm." His expression read: 'you asked for it'. "That is all. You are dismissed."
In an instant, beams of light shot down on them transporting everyone away.
Except for Joshua and Hanekoma.
Joshua turned to face the Head. "And why may I ask, are we still here?"
"I still need to discuss a matter with you two," said the Head sternly. "It seems that you have unwisely chosen to resurrect a girl who we had Selected."
Yes, he thought that was it. "Oh, have I now?"
"The girl's name is Raimu Bito. You are familiar with her, are you not?"
"Vaguely."
"Sir, J here did send her back to life, but he didn't know she'd been Selected," said Hanekoma, lying very smoothly.
"Whether he knew or not is not of importance. We are not in the position to have those who reside in the Real Ground be put through the Examination." Yes, and they would never dream of asking Joshua to go into the RG and kill her for them. And for the record, no, he wouldn't do it even if they asked.
"It looks like you're going to have to find someone else to Ascend. In which case, it doesn't seem like I need to be here," said Joshua, rising from his chair and turning to leave before the Head could zap him away.
However, the Head did have one last thing to say. "Perfect candidates are but a few. We cannot retrieve her from the Real Ground. It is absolutely forbidden." His lips twitched ever so slightly upwards. "Keep in mind, though, that Heaven's Will is for the perfect candidate to enter the Examination. No matter what the circumstance, Heaven's Will shall be carried out by the end of seven years."
Heaven's Will? Right, there was such a thing…
"We'll see about that."
xxxxxx
The first time Joshua had gone to join Neku and his friends and Hachiko was around a month later, and the first thing he got was a punch to the face.
"You bastard. You don't even feel sorry for what you did, do you?"
I do. Of course I do. Joshua had done a lot of things which he was sorry for but he wasn't sure which Neku meant. But since he was Joshua, he had means to find out.
'He shoots me twice, twice. And he disappears for a month without saying anything...dammit. I think I should get my own gu- Joshua get the hell out of my mind.'
That was enough; obviously Neku was just overreacting.
"Now, now Neku, I didn't think you would miss me so much."
"I didn't miss you. I just wanted to know what the hell you were thinking-"
"Neku, aren't we being a tad bit rude here. You haven't introduced me to your friends."
"Don't act like you don't know who they are."
"I'm not. I'm simply showing some common courtesy." When no one spoke up, Joshua sighed. "No takers? I'll go first then. I'm Yoshiya Kiryu, but you can call me Joshua."
"Oh! I'm Shiki Misaki." Neku shot her a glare that was paired up with the thought of 'don't entertain him'. The brunette shrugged in response.
"Name's Beat. But yo, you already knew that Priss," he grumbled. He did not bother covering up the distrust he felt towards Joshua. That, or perhaps he was incapable of doing so.
"My name's Rhyme," said the younger Bito. Immediately after that she gave him a low bow. "Thanks for bringing me back to life."
It seemed to occur to the others that they had to say something about that too.
Shiki imitated Rhyme's bow. "Yes, thanks for bringing us back to the RG."
Beat was a bit more reluctant, and certainly refused to bow, but he added in, "Yeah, thanks, I guess."
As for Neku – he exchanged a look with Joshua. Yes, he already shared his piece with him. He trusted Joshua now, even if he was currently spewing up a bit of pent up rage. It would pass.
See? It was already passing. Neku shoved his hands in his pockets and asked Joshua if he'd like to join them – they were all headed to get some ramen at Ramen Don. He would go, of course.
He would allow himself this. He knew that this kind of pleasant time was not going to last forever. He was fully aware of this. He was here on a mission, and one that he fully intended to fulfil. But on the slight chance that he failed, if he failed, then there would be repercussions. He was not interested in dealing with more repercussions, but they would be there. He was the Composer; he would be able to handle everything. There wasn't any room for doubt.
As they were leaving, he noticed that Rhyme was standing still, looking up at the sky, eyes wide. Joshua saw nothing. She couldn't be seeing something that he couldn't. She caught him staring, shook her head to clear it, and then ran to catch up with the others.
Heaven's Will. A force held by the Angels that resonated through all Planes. According to Hanekoma, if a Will was spoken, it would always come true. It was the rule.
Well, if Joshua stuck around Rhyme, there was no way she would die on his watch. He was always one for breaking the rules, after all.
A/N: Tadaa! I know, I know. TWEWY? Again? Freakin' again? xD I'm addicted to writing for these characters, okay? I love them. Anyway, the idea from this came from me thinking about post-game stuff. I thought of one where Joshua met the other Composers which I loved the idea of. And another one was where Rhyme was scouted by the Angels to become one. This is the result of thinking of them both at the same time and thinking 'wait. I can make that happen'.
The plot bunny became an actual fanfic because of the TWEWY Bang on tumblr. Check it out at 'subasekabang' on tumblr! There are loads of amazing TWEWY fics and fanart for everyone. Plus it has the next two chapters of this if you're impatient and want to read it x3 This is a side-project of mine, so I won't be updating as regularly as my other fics, though I hope you still stick with this!
Oh, if you're wondering about the Composers and thinking 'WAIT THEY ARE OCs BUT WHY?'. Well, I can't really make any in-game characters the Composers, so OCs it is. I hope they won't annoy you guys too much (unless they're meant to be annoying, which they will be, some times).
Aaaand I know some of you are itching to know - 'okay, but WILL WE SHIP?'. My answer is that it's up to you because I wasn't really thinking romance when I wrote this. But shippers are going to ship so if you want to you can put your shipping goggles on. (I'm talking to you, Shanna)
Dedications:
Shanna - I don't know if you've seen this on my tumblr, but this is dedicated to you because I know you love anything to do with Joshua and Rhyme and I haven't given your birthday present yet. I seriously will, I promise. I have it planned in my head...and I'll write it...eventually...
Heiwa - For the TWEWY bang we get partnered up, artists and writers, and she did the amazing cover for this fic. Rhyme's design is so damn precious ;-; You're really fun to talk to on skype, and I seriously love your work. Hope we can continue to talk to each other! Thanks so much!
- Dina (7/10/2013)