"You are a bastard."
"Please Sakuraba, your compliments do nothing but flatter me." Apollo said as he once again dragged the Composer off into the other room. It had been barely 24 hours since the last break of the last agreed 'vacation' for all involved, and the Higher Being was eager to get back to training.
Rhyme was present this time, and Shiki had even come for a visit. Not for Joshua's sake, for she still harbored a grudge against him, but for Neku's sake. She sat with him on the couch and comforted him while he wretched on the carpet, unable to stomach yet another psych treatment inflicted on him by the madman.
The young Bito was another story. She stood close to the door Joshua had been dragged through, not one tear on her face as she clutched her hands together and leaned into the frame. Her body shook as her ears caught the sounds from inside, sounds that would make an ordinary girl burst out sobbing. She was no ordinary girl.
She simply shuddered, a single tear disobeying her vigil as a scream tore through that door and pierced her heart. Her hands clutched her heart and held that position, pain coursing through her as wave after wave of agonized screams racked her to the core. Her Composer was hurting, and she could do nothing to ease his pain…
Except keep her vigil close to him, where he could hear her music, and draw on her melody for comfort and strength.
"I don't know why you bother pining for him. He's getting what he deserves you know."
Rhyme gasped and her eyes narrowed, "You have no idea what he's suffering, Shiki!"
"I also don't care."
The younger girl narrowed her eyes but kept her position stalwartly leaning into the doorframe so that any sliver of her Music could reach the tormented soul within. She folded her arms and cocked her head curiously "You still hate him for what he did to all of us."
"I hate him for what he did to NEKU!"
"Neku doesn't share that hatred! Don't you see, Shiki? The only one still so mad at Joshua that they ignore the injustice around them...is YOU!"
"So what?!" Shiki snapped "He nearly destroyed Shibuya, locked us in a three week long purgatory, shot Neku TWICE, and thinks just because he let us live that he's pardoned from those things?! Joshua is a psychopath, and he's getting what he deserves!"
"NO! You don't know him like I do!" Rhyme finally let the tears fall "He's cordial, and kind, and funny...and even a little bashful sometimes...and yes he has a bit of a god complex but can you honestly blame him?! Shibuya is on his head every second of every day, and he cares for her like she was his daughter. He bleeds for this district...he cries! He laughs! He's just as human as he is Composer...and he deserves NONE of this! NONE OF IT!"
The young Bito's waterworks fell freely as she sank to the floor, back against the door "None of what he's gone through...the Council punishments or this torture...he deserves none of it. At all."
Shiki was about to bitterly retort, when Neku stepped in,
"No. He doesn't."
Without any further explanation, the orangette walked slowly up to the sobbing girl and sat beside her, back to the door and body relaxed. Nothing more needed to be said between the two, as they sat in silence, feeding their Music to the drowning soul that had granted them both their right to exist, as well as calming their friend when he needed them most.