Story : Wonderful Investigation Noteworthy Group of Shibuya
Date : July 23, 2021
Beta: Nouillevertes
Fandom : The world end with you - Subarashiki Kono Sekai
Disclaimer : No, I do not own TWEWY and I am not making any profit from this story.
Summary: Three weeks after the end of the Game, while Neku is finally starting to experiment a normal life without Noise, Reaper or Joshua to make him miserable, he discovers that his phone still has the application to take photos of the past.
I posted another TWEWY OS on Joshua and Neku if you're interested ! It's "Better From Below"
Good Reading !
Slumped against the wall on the other side of the pedestrian street, Neku stared at WildKat without really seeing it. He hadn't wanted to come here, he still didn't, but what else could he do? He wasn't supposed to be able to keep that photo app from the past...it was a Game thing, he shouldn't even have his pins! Shiki, Beat and Rhyme certainly didn't. Not that he had asked them of course, the Game was traumatic for all of them and talking about it tended to evoke strange feelings. Neku didn't want to hurt his friends so he decided not to say anything. This app… it was just a mistake after all, right? He just had to get rid of it… But he tried to delete it in his phone settings: it was still here. And if he wasn't supposed to have it in his new life, it might create troubles for him later... So there was only one thing to do: find someone from the UG.
Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy… He hadn't spotted Pinky's characteristic pink hair nor Lollipop's unnerving gait since the Game. And unfortunately for him they didn't miraculously appear in front of him when he needed them… He even put his pride aside and called their names in an empty alley but nothing happened.
His next stop had, of course, been Death Märch. Shiki had told him that she hadn't found them the week before but, Neku being out of ideas, he had inquired all the same and the record store had told him that they were on hiatus to write their new album.
So he was left with only two choices. M.H or…Joshua.
Suffice to say that he immediately dragged himself to Catstreet.
It was crazy how in such a short time, Neku had managed to make memories here. Both good and bad. Looking at that dark cafe storefront, it was hard to think of all those times during the weeks of The Game when he'd taken refuge there, where he'd laughed with Joshua, where MH had given him advice... It all paled in comparison to what he had found, that Tuesday evening, the first week after the end of the Game… Confused about what had happened to him (why was he alive?) and worried about MH, he ran to Catstreet immediately after school finished. There, hesitating when he saw the "closed" sign on the door, he still knocked, nervous. But no one answered and after looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to him, Neku pushed the door, pleasantly surprised when it opened. Entering the store, already in the dark, without light and with the night approaching, Neku had fumbled to find the switch, the flickering bulb allowing him to better measure the extent of the surrounding disaster. It was exactly as it was when he left it on the last day of the Game…two days ago. How could it have been such a short time when it felt like an eternity?
"M.H?" He had called but only the echo of his voice answered him in this big empty room.
Uncomfortable and worried, Neku began to put the chairs up on the tables, decluttering his way, and slowly approaching the counter in his effort. Even though M.H wasn't there, Neku... really didn't feel like going home now. So as long as he was there and taking advantage of M.H's café, better be useful, right?
So, once all the furniture was up, the chairs turned over on the tables so that he could sweep more easily, he went in search of cleaning tools. But no matter how much he opened all the cupboards and even went behind the counter, he found nothing. Glancing at the door with a small "Staff only" sign on it, he bit his lip. He was about to get home when he plucked up his courage and went through the little door behind the counter. However, instead of finding a rest room or a closet as he expected, it was a large wooden staircase that led upstairs. Neku was a little afraid to intrude on M.H's privacy but… what if he was up there? And that he needed help? At this thought, Neku climbed the steps one by one, opening the door at the very top to land… in a gigantic workshop.
Mouth agape and eyes wide open, he took a few steps around the room to get a better look at it. If he had any doubt before that M.H was Cat, they were all gone now! The walls and ceiling were filled with colorful spots, beginnings of tags resting on old ones and surrounding more classic scenes or even abstract paintings. Each wall was so covered in paint that Neku couldn't even define their base color. Even the squeaky parquet floor was studded with colorful stains, no doubt relics of a little too intense creative fervor. Overturned or tarp-covered canvases leaned against the walls, and drawings and photos tied to strings dried above his head. At the back, a discreet iron spiral staircase rose to a trapdoor in the ceiling and Neku curiously wondered what could be up there. Right in the middle of the room, a huge table took up space, stools pushed around it. On the left, below the windows, two smashed and mismatched sofas sat enthroned and, given the large blankets and pillows that rested on them, they must have served on several occasions as a crash point for an exhausted artist. Finally, surrounding the sofas and between each window, sturdy shelves were pushed into each corner, supporting a multitude of art supplies close to falling to the floor.
It was there, on the big work table, next to an abandoned cold cup of coffee and an ashtray filled to the brim with cigarettes, that Neku had discovered the famous reports. He hadn't tried to read them at first, he was just flipping through a sketchbook next to them when his name immediately drew his attention. Curious, he got hold of the first report… then took the second… and then the third…
Half an hour later, he had dropped the sheets to the ground, hands shaking, and had run out of the café and all the way home, fighting the tears stinging his eyes, from the betrayal he felt.
And now, nearly three weeks later: Neku was back.
Pushing himself away from the wall, Neku crossed the road decisively and without even knocking this time: he pushed the door open. Once again, the door gave in to his push, having been left unlocked. Had anybody been here since? Everything was exactly as he had left it last time… chairs on tables, rubble still on the floor… Come to think of it, he had never found that broom…
"M.H?" Neku called but this time his voice was much more angry than worried.
But no. Still nobody.
Taking a deep breath, Neku approached the door leading upstairs and climbed the stairs four by four. The workshop was exactly the same. The pages on the floor, the blanket he had dropped on his way out...
M.H was not here.
He hadn't been home since the Game.
Despite himself, Neku shivered and an even more lively concern than before settled in him. Intellectually, he knew what M.H had done… Maybe, no, surely, M.H didn't really care about him. But Neku, despite the betrayal, still saw him as a mentor and if he hadn't returned home from the Game, did that mean he had been… erased?
What about Joshua?
Forgetting all his old fears, Neku ran down the stairs before running towards the Shibuya River. Unfortunately, he was no longer in the Game and his cardio wasn't what it was and before he even got to Scramble Crossing, he had to slow down to avoid coughing up his lungs. That didn't stop him though and he continued with the same energy to the river. The area was as deserted as usual but even though there was no Reaper barrier this time around, the physical obstacles were annoying and it took him a while to sneak inside the sewer.
Still, no matter how much he walked and walked and walked… He never saw the door leading to the weird Reaper bar. It should have been there! Right after the waterfall, right after the Minamimoto garbage heap! But no, there was the waterfall... there was the heap... but there was no door.
Neku couldn't see it anymore.
No matter the badge or the app in his possession, Neku couldn't see the UG anymore, he couldn't see Joshua or M.H or Pinky and Lollipop anymore. He couldn't know if they were okay… And even then, what could he do about it? If Joshua had a problem, Neku no longer had the power to help him. And if all was well… then it was that Joshua just didn't want to see him anymore.
Neku put his cell phone back in his pocket, brushed his gamer badge with his thumb, and turned around.
He belonged to the RG now.
Of course not :))) Well, yeah but he is not done with the UG, that's for sure :3
I was surely in a weird mood when I wrote this one, it's so depressing and short, quite different than the first and next chapters ^^'
Anyway! It's been a long time but I actually had this one finished before I posted the first chapter. But, well, I wasn't happy with it but couldn't seem to do better so, meh, I'm posting it anyway now so we can move on the continuation!
Would anyone be interested in betaing? English isn't my mother tongue so It would be really helpful!
See you next time!