"SHIKI!"
The girl turned around, and smiled at the ginger aproaching her. "Neku! Hey, you're out! I'm so hap-"
"Cut the crap! The HELL is wrong with you?!"
The brunette cocked her head "I don't under-"
Neku glared hard at her, eyes blazing and his bangs falling to the front "Joshua. Explain. Now!"
Shiki stepped back, clutching Mister Mew and shaking slightly "I...I…"
"Did you really hate him that much? Did you honestly take it upon yourself to shatter his world just because of your personal grudge? Did you SERIOUSLY expect me to THANK YOU for that?!"
She hung her head "I wanted to set you free. You were suffering, Neku! I did this for you, and it worked!"
Neku turned away from her, hands in his pockets and head in his collar. He closed his eyes and sighed.
"On the outside...I was suffering. But inside, I knew where my place was, Shiki. Trust your Partner, remember? I trusted him. But you...you didn't trust me. Now he's gone, and I found out...that you're the reason. How can I trust you after that? How the hell can I believe that you'll have my back...when you just shoved a knife in it?"
Shiki tried to put her hand on his shoulder, "Neku…"
He brushed off the soft touch roughly "Leave me alone. Just...get outta my face."
Neku left without looking back, leaving a weeping Shiki in his wake. For the first time since his Game...the ginger shut the girl out of his world.
And Shiki watched him go, her hand over her heart and tears welling up in her eyes. Her plan had backfired horribly, and now...Neku may be free but he also may have reverted to his old self, if only to her. This was not the way things were supposed to turn out at all.
"I only wanted...to help you, Neku…"
TWEWYTWEWYTWEWY
"Any change Mister H?"
The man barely registered the boy's tenure for ten seconds, then frowned and shook his head without a word. The dead eyes of the Angel had returned, and until the body on the bed stirred and opened its eyes, the life would not return to CAT's own orbs.
"Damn."
Neku sighed and went downstairs, knowing that he had a difficult task ahead of him. Rhyme had gone home before this incident, and was tending to Beat, who had gotten the flu. It was the Proxy's duty to tell the girl about Joshua, but Neku hesitated. The poor teen had enough on her plate right now, and the last thing the ginger wanted was to add to her weights.
He picked up his disgarded cell phone and dialed the number slowly, hoping to all hope that Rhyme would be too busy tending to Beat to pick up.
Hope was not on his side.
"Neku? What is it?"
With a rock the size of Tokyo in his stomach, Neku relayed the terrible news to the one person whom Joshua truly cherished, a crack in his voice as he detailed the entirety of the situation.
There was silence for about ten beats after he was done. He knew she hadn't hung up on him purely because of the hitched breathing on her end of the line. Her shaking breaths steadily calmed, and her voice, sounding so strong yet so broken, came out as if through clenched teeth. She's trying so hard not to cry…
"I can't be next to him right now, Neku. Beat needs me more. From the sound of it, my being there wouldn't help much anyway. You said...you said he's cut off from the Music. He wouldn't be able...to hear my Song even if I were right next to him." This truth seemed to hurt her more than the situation itself, and a small sob escaped her throat. She pressed on though, desperate that her next words found their way to him,
"Even though I can't be with him...you better be, Neku! You stay by his side, understand?! Don't you dare make him face this alone. You stay there...with him...even if there isn't much time left. Even if he doesn't react to your being there, don't you DARE leave him in that room alone! He might not be able to hear us anymore...but who's to say he can't feel our presence? So don't you leave his side….please Neku...he lived alone his whole life and afterlife. Don't let him...don't make him…"
She couldn't say the words, but Neku understood very clearly, and nodded, though she didn't see it.
"I promise, Rhyme."
