"You aren't helping yourself you know."

Apollo jumped slightly at the sudden voice in the window of the house. He recovered quickly and smiled slowly at the voice, a hungry gleam in his eyes as he turned to face the speaker.

"How do you figure, Neku Sakuraba?"

"Lurking around my house. It really isn't helping if you're trying to freak him out. He's known you were there for days, and frankly, you're helping my cause by being the creepy stalker."

"And where exactly is Yoshiya?"

"Same place he's been since you assholes chucked him into a puddle in the middle of Shibuya. Oh, and before you ask, he's sleeping. Peacefully. You're like...an afterthought."

Apollo chuckled wickedly "So he wants you to think, Neku Sakuraba."

"Anyway, I got more important things to do than talk to assholes who think its ok to do whatever the hell you've done to him in the past...not to mention what you did at WildKat. I just came to warn you...that he's no longer alone. And soon, you'll have no power over him at all."

Neku closed the window, leaving Joshua's tormentor to ponder his words.

TWEWYTWEWYTWEWY

"You shouldn't antagonize him, Neku."

"I didn't antagonize him, Josh." Neku said as he attatched strings to the Composer's arm, then attatched one to the wrist on the other arm. "I just—hold on this one's still healing, I'll go slow.—I just told him to buzz off. I figured if he saw his being here as helpful to me, he'd go away."

Joshua snorted, then tried wiggling his ingured arm "OW! This one's a no go. I can't move it hardly anyway. His mind doesn't work that way, my dear Partner. He has more of a...preditor mindset."

"You aren't supposed to be trying to move it anyway, remember? Mister H. did say we should start theropy on it soon, since the break healed nicely. Like I said, I'll go slow. He has the 'mindset' of a sick, twisted lunatic!"

"Just...be gentle with me" Joshua said softly "This is hard enough as it is without you complicating things."

"Josh" Neku said firmly "You have to trust me or this whole thing will end up the opposite of how we want it to go. I have to do it piece by piece. If I don't...I can't show you what you need to see."

"Ooo! Cryptic! I rather enjoy a good cipher." Joshua went to gesture and found himself thwarted. His Proxy had started the lesson without warning, and had pinned both arms to his sides.

"No fair, Neku! You never said we'd started!"

"From what you told me, Asshole's psych was forced on you without warning too. Your arms are mine."

"Touche."

It turned out that Joshua really didn't like not having control over both arms at the same time. Neku was forced to pin both to his sides every twenty movements. When it was just one, the limb was like wood, easily surrendered and easily maneuvered.

But Neku was patient. He was encouraging. Before too long, the Composer figured out that making his Proxy do all the work was more relaxing than fighting him for control. He was rewarded with the full use of his arms, and shio ramen. Both were readily accepted.

During the break, the proxy observed his charge. Joshua was a master of hiding his true feelings, even from Hanekoma, when he had a mind to. Obviously his mind was elsewhere, because his emotions were written all over his face.

"Hey." Neku said softly "This is gonna work. I promise."

"I don't doubt you, Neku." Joshua said with a hollow smirk. "I'm just...I'I worried about what all of this is doing to Shibuya. My sickness...my weakness..."his voice became a whisper "My fear. She feels all of it, and it's stressing her out, making her angry. I need to get out there. The Music is all well and good for composing, make no misake. I can get plenty done in my Concertt Hall. But sometimes, the composer needs to spread his art to the streets."

Neku raised an eyebrow

"You seriously come to the RG and, what, implant inspiration?"

"Actually, yes, sometimes. It's more like I stoke inspiration. I implant Memes, start trends, keep the district lively, make sure crime doesn't get too rampant..."

"Make sure the Game has enough players?" Neku couldn't help needling.

Joshua frowned

"How cruel, Neku. I only did that three times, and one of those times was you. Although, you're not all wrong. One of my duties does include seeing off the souls who died in the RG, and putting them where they should go. Not everyone plays the Game."

"Really?" Neku felt a glimmer of hope.

"The UG would get incredibly crowded if every soul that died in Shibuya ended up there. Believe it or not, Neku, I do have restrictions on how many Players I can grant another chance at life to, it's not because I'm cruel. One of the reasons I ended up like this is because I granted you and your friends life all at the same time, apparently nearly causing an imbalance of Imagination in the RG because not only was it four at once...it was four of the Players who lost."

"And that's bad becaaaause?"

"It could, in theory, break reality in half. But only in theory. The actual worst it could do is fling the whole city of Tokyo into another dimension. At the very least, the UG and the RG would start to merge."

Neku just stared. He had no words. Josh risked all that...

"So yeah, technically I can only grant up to three Players another chance at life per Game, and only if all three won."

The Composer yawned. Fighting for control was exhausting, and with shio in his belly, he was ready for a much-needed rest.

Neku smiled and removed the bowl before it landed facedown on his carpet.

"Sleep well, Josh. You earned it."