"So, Josh...How're your folks?"

"Busy, as usual. They don't care where I go or what I do, even when I need them used to bug me, but then I saw that some of the other high-class folks do it to their kids too. Maybe it's a rich person thing."

The 10-year-old sipped his hot chocolate and sighed

"Mother is always praising me to her friends, saying how proud she is that I'm correcting my teachers, and never involving myself in 'lesser affairs' such as sports and clubs. I know what she really thinks though. She thinks my imagination is too wild and she wants to 'fix' me."

Hanekoma raised an eyebrow "You told her?"

"A Noise was floating around her head! I just shooed it away, she asked me why I'd smacked her forehead, and I told her!"

He stared into his mug "I should have kept quiet."

Sanae asked quietly "She told your father?"

The ash-haired child nodded, then scowled

"He threw me into the wall, then lectured me for ten minutes about how 'imagination is the enemy of sound thinking,' and 'the future of this family is not built on useless whimsty.' Then I was sent to my room without dinner. For two days."

Sanae scowled. The boy was ten years old! He did not approve, but he could not do anything to stop it.

He wished he could.

Especially when Yoshiya burst into WildKat four days later, threw up in his toilets, and ran back out, only to get tackled by his father and force-fed some kind of pills.

The boy kicked and struggled and fought his father, refusing to open his mouth until it was literally pryed open. The instant Daichi Kiryu got the offending pellets down his throat, Yoshiya's struggling stopped, and he went limp, eyes glazed over in what was clearly a doped-out daze.

"Bout time you mellowed out, Joshua." The man muttered, panting "Why does every day have to be like wrestling a bear with you?"

He pat the boy and said softly

"It's all right. Let the meds work. You'll be free of those aweful visions soon, son."

Sanae knew the boy would never be free of what he saw. Joshua's parents were trying to kill his amazingly high level of Imagination, and the angel feared, as the weeks went by and the dosages increased...

He feared they might be successful.

Sanae looked at the sleeping Composer, moving ashen hair off his forehead gently and tucking it behind his ear. His parents, thankfully, hadn't been successful in their goal. But Sanae still feared for the being curled so peacefully on the couch.

Because Apollo might actually succeed where the Kiryus had failed.

He was fully capable of crushing Josh's indomitable, unruly spirit, he just needed time, and obviously, contact.

And the council was still going over the evidence of his crimes, and rewatching Joshua's Battle over and over, picking it apart and overanalyzing it to death. At the rate it was going..Neku's bet would be settled long before the Council came to a decision.

That meant the Composer's fate was squarely in the Proxy's hands.

"Oh Phones..." the barista pleaded, rubbing his surrogate son's back soothingly. "Don't let us down."

TWEWYTWEWYTWEWY

"That's it, Josh! That's it! Fight for what you want, don't let anything stop you!"

Kariya strained from his position under the couch as the Composer suddenly threw himself into the restraining ropes.

"Don't let him up, Kariya" Neku said firmly "He isn't fighting."

"Coulda...fooled me, Kiddo!" the reaper grunted as Joshua's full weight nearly ripped the bonds out of his hands, "cause this ain't relaxing!"

"He's throwing a tantrum." The Proxy said grimly "He's not even in control. This isn't what we want. We need him to fight for control, not throw a hissy fit because he lost it."

"Fightin's fightin'" The Conductor strained "What's it matter as long as he's struggling and not accepting the fact he's tied up?"

Neku frowned "The difference is Apollo can use his frantic flailing and mindless ranting to crush his spirit. He can't do a damn thing if Josh is fully in control of himself and fighting whatever psych is being used with all his wit. Josh's mind is the most powerful weapon he has. Once he's in a cunning mindset, nothing can get through to him. Nothing."

Kariya grunted his agreement, and sighed in relief as Joshua tired himself out and finally went limp in his exhaustion.

Neku sighed "That;s the second problem with what he just did. He wasted way too much energy accomplishing nothing. An exhausted mind is one easily manipulated. He'd have no strength left to resist."

The Proxy went to his student and folded his arms "What are you doing on your ass? We aren't done yet. Kariya! Again!"

They went for two more hours, straight. They only stopped when Neku noticed that Joshua's eyes were drooping and worse, getting hazy. He realized he'd pushed too hard for the day, and the opposite of what he wanted was happening.

"Hold up...hold up! Kariya...enough." he hung his head. "Enough. Let him go."

The Conductor flopped on the ground and chuckled "Maaaaaaaan. Am I glad you were never Conductor when I was a Harrier!"

"Shut up and treat yourself to some ramen. But don't bother with his. He's getting minestrone"

"NEKUUUUU-KUUUUUN!" very loud protests from his student complained.

"Don't give me that you failed the lesson today! You get minestrone."