Hey everyone! It's been awhile. A long while. These (this and the last) chapters have been sitting around for a long time as well, so I thought I would finish and post them finally. I didn't do much editing on them, so be aware they're a little bit old. I'll be ending the series with this. Thank you all for reading and being patient all this time! (I'm posting this message on both chapters in case you miss it.)
Summary: Neku can't bring himself to shoot Joshua.
"I can't shoot you, Joshua! You can't ask me to do this!" Joshua stood across from him, hearing his cries and continuing to count coldly, the whispered numbers almost imperceptible to Neku's ears, yet somehow seeming to deafen him. The tears fell from Neku's face freely, the gun hanging limply in his hand. He stared with disbelief and bottled fury at Joshua, cursing him that he wouldn't speak. "I can't do it." His face fell, his eyes staring blankly at the floor as he waited for the shot that would end his pitiful existence, hoping absentmindedly that Joshua would at least allow those with worthy souls to flee the city before he destroyed it.
Unbeknownst to Neku, Joshua behind his cold expression was filled with turmoil. He reached his last number and his finger tensed. But he faltered. He couldn't pull the trigger either. His arm lowered with a jerk, and he slowly walked over to his broken proxy, his shoes producing sharp echoing clicks throughout the chamber.
His proxy collapsed at his feet, his sobs suddenly gaining sound. Joshua watched him for a moment, thinking that he had utterly broken this boy, usurping his pessimism and replacing it with utter hopelessness. He kneeled down in front of Neku, and finally Neku looked up at him.
"How could you do this to me?" He whispered. "Don't you have a heart?" Joshua pursed his lips.
"I must have one Neku, because now I can't shoot you either." A sad smile crossed Neku's features. "But unfortunately things cannot be left where they are. There must be a winner of this duel." The smile disappeared from Neku's face as quickly as it had come. Joshua set his gun on the ground and picked up Neku's hand, still clutching his own gun. He lifted it until the barrel rested on Neku's temple. Their foreheads touched. "So I'm afraid I must ask you to do this—if you cannot shoot me, please shoot yourself." Neku searched his face, looking for a hint of something, anything, that could stop this. Joshua smiled at him. "I promise, you won't feel a thing." Neku nodded and closed his eyes, his finger tensing on the trigger before he could give it more thought. His body fell, the gun slipping from his hand and hitting the ground with a dull thud.
Joshua stared at the body of this boy, suddenly feeling conflicted . It all came down to him—either he could send this boy back into his human shell in the RG, or he could simply revive his soul here. Whatever he chose, he had to work quickly before his soul burst into pieces and he had to gather them back up again. But even with this warning to himself, when he went to start, his body didn't move into action. He simply continued to stare.
He didn't want Neku to leave him, didn't want to go back to the way it was before this game. He didn't want to be alone again. And it seemed that, no matter what he did here, that was all that was left for him.
