Let's Try Something Else

by Kanthia

A series of TWEWY drabbles written in part for the 365 Drabble Challenge. Contains spoilers. 19: Mr. H is forced to contemplate what it means to be in desperate times, and what constitutes a desperate measure.

7. A Small Legend

Title: A Small Legend
Fandom: The World Ends With You
Pairing/Characters: Neku
Warning(s): Spoilers
Genre: Gen

By itself, this pin exhibits no power. It reads: "Wind, wood, flame, and mount: so must you be if you would roam the fields of war."

"What have you got there, Neku?" Joshua peered over Neku's shoulder to the pin he was examining. "Must be rather unimportant, if you're staring at it so intently."

"Shut up. Ram Crotch left it at the end of...that week."

"Oh~? What does it do?"

Neku turned it over again. "...Nothing."

"Just like you, right?" Joshua giggled his infuriating giggle, and Neku made a sound that was almost a growl in response.

"Nothing, but...it looks like there's three more in the set. It doesn't do anything on its own."

"Wind, wood, flame, and mount? I'll be the flame...you can be the mount."

Neku groaned.

x x x

He found them in odd places, tucked in corners, hiding in lightless crevices. By the fifth day of the third week he had three of them carefully stored in his pocket where they seemed to shift and fidget, as though they were waiting for something - or someone.

"Whatcha got there, Phones?"

"Oh - they're these weird pins. I don't know what they do."

"Wood, flame, 'n mount? Geez, you're missin' the wind one...got it right here." He fished around in his pocket and drew it out. "Wasn't sure if it was good f'r anything, so I kept it on me."

"Thanks," Neku said, and took it in the hand that held the other three. He blinked and was in the middle of a great battlefield, in the midst of someone else's dream.

x x x

Gatito is famous for that - taking stories and legends and pieces of Composers and splitting them into sets of pins where they remain unchanged by time. Gatito Manhattan, for example, makes a set they call 'Like an Angel from Heaven', which has a little bit of Shibuya in it...Angel's wings, Angel's smile, Angel's flame. Well, I suppose that Gatito of all companies is allowed to do that, eh?

Wind, wood, flame and mount - made that set out of my own two hands. Sakuraba's in for a bit of a trip.