For Angel.
Yoshiya Kiryu.
There were tales about a child like him. Children who could see lingering spirits, their tortured souls running, screaming, being devoured. Yoshiya could see them all. He had always seen them. He had even chatted with some at a point, until his mother got worried and pulled him away.
Yoshiya's grin shone brightly when he looked up at the woman. She was eighteen. She died in a car crash the day previous. Her dark eyes were kind when she bent down to look at the small boy.
"Hello, there," She said, "You aren't dead, too, are you?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not dead." Yoshiya flicked his hair from his eyes- a new habit of his. "You are?"
"Yes…" The woman looked wary now, but she still sat. "My name is Kumarei Sakuraba."
"Then you should go find someone else who's dead, Ms. Kumarei Sakuraba."
The girl stared at him. Her lip twitched slightly. "Excuse me?"
"Dead people who don't find other dead people disappear. Plain and simple- you'd be smart to find someone quickly." Yoshiya folded his arms across his chest, frowning at the older girl.
"Disappear…?" The woman was deep in thought.
"Run. Don't look back." Yoshiya faintly heard his mother calling his name. "Joshua," She called. The corners of his lips turned upward. He loved to be called Joshua.
"Run?" The girl whispered, shaking her head.
"There is always a monster behind you. If you look back it will eat you."
"Who told you this?" The woman looked uneasy, unable to figure out if she should trust the child. He was a child. What was not to trust?
"A fallen angel."
"Joshua!" The boy was quickly pulled away from the busy street by his mother. "Joshua, who on Earth are you talking to?"
"No one, mother." The boy said, a smile growing onto his face. "I was just admiring this car. Very nice, isn't it?"
The woman stared at her son, frowning. "Come, now, Joshua. We have to go see your father."
Joshua's face fell slightly. "Oh."
His mother nodded, her orange hair falling over her eyes. "We'll go out for ice cream later," She said, a smile creasing her skin. "Alright?"
"Okay, mother." The boy turned and waved to the dumbfounded teenager. "Goodbye, Kumarei Sakuraba."
She waved at him.
When the boy's mother looked at the Newspaper, she found that that name was written in the obituary. She didn't tell anyone.
Joshua was the kind of person who sat back and waited. Watched, and learned. Sitting, at fifteen, in a musty old building next to a Fallen Angel was quite something. But Joshua had known Sanae Hanekoma since he was four years old. The boy had wandered onto Cat Street, a mere child confused and alone- that being misunderstood. His father had been a step away from calling a professional to look at the boy.
And then, the tiny boy came across a run down building, with a broken man inside it.
"Hello," The boy watched the man stiffen slightly. "Are you alright?"
The building was very run down indeed- across the walls were drawings. Graffiti, wasn't it called? Joshua frowned a bit. The whole room was covered in debris, papers all over. In the corner there was a scratchy mat. Above it was a map of the world. Joshua ran his fingers across the continents, and they tingled a bit at the thought of this paper being the world. The man had not yet stirred from his frozen state. Joshua directed his attention to the opposite wall.
Insignias and doodles were strewn across the wall. Joshua ran his hand over a skull-like doodle. He was captivated by it. It was a cool burnt ash color- and in Joshua's eyes, he saw a flurry of ash snowflakes fall innocently to the ground. A wail of sirens. A plume of smoke. The boy tilted his head. He very much liked this picture.
His breath hitched in his throat. The skull- it was nothing compared to the mural next to it. The boy was gaping at the bright white wings- how had he not seen them? How? They were…
Joshua could not form the words. They had just been taken away from him. Wings. Beautiful, light wings etched across the surface of the dry wall, detail scratched into every nook and cranny of the mural.
"Wow…" Joshua's whisper echoed through the room. The man stiffened even more.
"Did you do this?" Joshua turned to face the man. He did not turn.
Joshua sighed, now annoyed in a greater sense. He scowled, folding his chop-stick arms over his chest. Could the man even hear him? Joshua smiled, suddenly struck by an idea. If he couldn't he would.
"I see dead people." Joshua said matter-of-factly, smiling coyly at the man.
The man's head shot up, and Joshua froze in his place. So he was listening after all? Joshua watched- a trickle of fear rising in his chest. But the man's unshaven face had a smile of knowing on it.
"Well," the man said, "I wouldn't really shout it to the entire world, kid."
Joshua's face split into a grin. He already liked this man.
Joshua leaned against the door pane idly, watching Sanae Hanekoma sift through the piles of junk that had lain forgotten on the cement floor for years. Joshua was a smart boy. Too smart, he mused. Joshua had known about Shibuya for years. Its game- the Reaper's Game, they called it, astonished him in a awe-worthy way. He had never quite forgotten about when Sanae had explained the Composer's game to him. And the six year old had no doubt found flaws. But Joshua was patient. He and Sanae had come up with many solutions to these flaws, and as Joshua became older, smarter, he began to understand things more and more.
He understood the Composer perfectly.
And he understood, and accepted the man's objective.
Joshua was a threat.
Threats were not welcome in Shibuya.
Especially a threat like Joshua.
Having the sight of a Composer was not a good thing.
"Christ, Josh'," Sanae said, trying to shift a large cement block, "if you're going to just stand there, you can at least give that wall a new coat."
Joshua raised an eyebrow, glancing at Sanae's latest creation. It was some kind of fire. He was intrigued, but not too much. "Repainting that wall again? Mr. H, honestly, you need to find someplace else to draw your murals." Joshua giggled- a fairly new trademark of his that annoyed his father to no end. Which is why Joshua was using it more often.
"It's not as if I have too much wall space." The man laughed shortly.
Joshua shrugged, bending down to pick up a paintbrush. "Make your own wall space."
Sanae snorted. "Easier said than done."
Joshua rolled his eyes, swiping the brush into a bucket of white paint. "I thought you could do anything, Mr. Hanekoma." He giggled once more, running his paintbrush along the wall.
"I can."
"Well, then go out and get yourself some wall space so I don't have to paint over this damn wall." Joshua smirked, looking back at the older man.
"Don't get cocky, Josh'. Now paint." Sanae said, shifting through more littered papers.
"Of course." Joshua grinned, turning back to the wall. The wall wasn't too big. He was about a quarter done with it.
"Hey, I forgot to ask." Sanae said from behind him, "How's the midget doing?"
"Hmm?" Joshua glanced back at Sanae, raising an eyebrow. "Oh. He's fine. Too shy, if you ask me. But I'm not about to turn into my father and teach him any discipline or something. He's just…" Joshua trailed off, and shook his head. His mind was nagging him.
At ten, Joshua had become awfully curious. Earlier that year, he had found out he was going to be an older brother. Of course Joshua barely cared much. He had bigger problems than a younger sibling.
But, then, why was he standing in a slightly grungy hospital, staring through the glass, watching the tiny infants sleep away?
It was December 18th. 4:19 AM.
Joshua's younger brother had been born almost a half an hour earlier.
He was the only one staring through the glass. His fingers pressed against it, almost gripping it. If it were not glass, he would have succeeded in putting some kind of dent into it.
He could hear his father on his phone in the hallway to the right.
He could see the sleeping infants wrapped snuggly in blankets. All of them slept.
All, except for one.
Joshua peered closer into the glass. Two glassy blue orbs stared back. They were distantly aware of his presence. Staring blankly at him.
The back of Joshua's mind prickled from familiarity.
No… it couldn't be…
"He's a little bit of a space cadet." Joshua shrugged, watching as he made it to the middle of the wall. Soon enough he'd be finished. Soon enough.
"And you weren't when you were his age?" Sanae raised an eyebrow, pulling a garbage bin over to him.
"Of course I was. But I'm not talking about the way I was. I went around Shibuya looking for trouble. He's more of the… type to keep quiet." Joshua continued with his wall, frowning a bit. His brother was most defiantly the mystery.
"Ah, so he's pretty much the complete opposite of you, huh, Josh?" Sanae laughed, throwing a pile of yellowed newspapers into the garbage bin.
"Pretty much." Joshua smiled slightly. The two brothers were… close enough, per se. But Joshua knew that his relationship with the five year old wasn't the closest it could be. He was very fond of his brother. Very, very fond. But there was just something about him. Something Joshua couldn't quite pin point- something about the boy that just didn't fit.
"Well, bring him in next time. I'd like to meet him- it gets boring talking to just one person." Sanae grinned at Joshua's sour expression.
"Oh? You don't like my company?" Joshua pouted slightly. "Well, I could stop visiting you altogether."
"Yeah, sure. See how long you live for." Sanae's grin did not falter.
"When I die, I will do my best to overthrow the Composer, Sanae." Joshua stood back from the wall, glimmering with a glossy sheen. "If I fail- well, I suppose there's no real reason I should fail, is there?" Joshua giggled, brushing his hair from his face.
"Don't talk about dying, Josh." Sanae's grin had been wiped from his face. "You aren't strong enough to face the Composer. You know that."
"I may not have a choice, Sanae." Joshua whispered, staring at the bright mural on the wall parallel to his. It was the one thing Sanae had not painted over. The Angel wings. The loss that Sanae had. The thing that Joshua wanted most.
"Look, it doesn't take a fool to know that Hiroko Kokyuu is a man you don't want to cross paths with. Joshua- look at me, will you? The Composer has no limit. He will stop at nothing to see you begging for death." Sanae stared at the boy, his lips thinned. Joshua shrugged.
"Relax. I'll be fine." He giggled.
"You say that now, Josh. But, come on, we both know the guy is planning something for not killing you yet."
Joshua raised an eyebrow. "Can't you just be grateful I've been spared so far?"
"Josh, seriousl-" Sanae stopped. The door had creaked open behind Joshua.
Frowning, Joshua turned, staring at a small boy with an array of orange spikes floating around his head. They fell over his crystal ball eyes, which stared across the room rimmed with clouds. Joshua raised an eyebrow, folding his arms across his chest.
"Neku?"