68 - Vignette- Post-Game
xxxxx
Of Angels... and other Crazy Gods!
"Shinigami?" laughed a girl standing not so far from where Neku and Shiki stood while waiting for Beat and Rhyme to arrive. "You know I don't believe in things like that."
A small smile played at Shiki's lips. Even if the girl didn't believe in them, it didn't mean that the Reapers didn't exist.
"If only she knew," muttered Neku; he also seemed to overhear the conversation.
It would be have been nice, Shiki thought to herself, to be able to blissfully think that things like Reapers were a myth, like the three girls who were chattering amongst themselves. She could have definitely passed putting her life (death?) on the line in a game.
Just as she was thinking that, two of the girls started walking away while one of them told them she would catch up with them. The girl had long black hair held up by a bright red ribbon, and when she turned towards their direction, it was revealed that she had equally black, piercing eyes.
She started walking towards them.
Both Neku and Shiki tensed up as she approached. Something felt off about the girl.
"Funny, huh?" she said. "Humans refuse to see what's right in front of them."
Which implied this girl wasn't human.
"A Reaper…?" Shiki wondered, the cat plush she was holding closer towards her.
Neku stepped forward so that Shiki was behind him. It wasn't usual for Reapers that they didn't know to talk to them. The only ones they'd really spoken to were Kariya, Uzuki and the remaining Def March members.
"Ah, no, it won't do for you to mistake me for the shinigami," said the girl. "I would think I'm much more pleasant than the Death Gods."
"If you're not a Reaper, then what are you?" Neku asked, suspicion dripping in his voice.
"What, you ask?"
The next moment that Shiki blinked her surroundings changed.
There were pieces of string trailing the streets of Shibuya. Most of red, a few white and even a fewer that were black.
"What is this?" Neku said, looking around.
"Oh come now, you can't possibly not know," the girl said, gesturing around her. "I don't believe you've never heard of the Red Strings of Fate."
"I thought that was just a – " Shiki was going to say 'fairy-tale' but stopped herself. Hadn't she just been commenting on other people's ignorance just a few minutes ago?
"The red string connects you to your soulmate, and turn gold once you've both found each other. I think that's how the legend goes," recalled Neku. "And a black string means that your soulmate has passed on."
"That's the gist of it," the mysterious girl said, nodding. "Your own strings are attached to your fingers."
And suddenly Shiki felt afraid. For some reason, especially with Neku being here, she was scared of looking down to find out what colour her string was. She had not exactly voiced out the feelings she had for Neku out loud yet, but she had been planning to when the time was right. If the strings were still red…then…then…
"…Silver?" Neku had taken a look at his own string.
The girl sighed. "Yes, after a Player completes a Game it seems that their strings turn silver, for some reason. It makes it rather inconvenient for me because as its colours change it means that the fates have changed."
"Why would it be inconvenient?" he asked.
"I am - how should I put this? – the overseer of the stings," she explained. "When a Player returns their fate as well as their soulmate who had not died has changed. It upsets the balance, you see, and I have to come down and sever their strings."
"What?" Shiki gasped. "You mean-?"
"Yes, as an exchange for a second chance of life, another repercussion is that fate will never lead you to your soulmate had you not 'found' them already. It's unfortunate, really." The girl looked genuinely saddened at that.
"Then you're here to sever our strings?" Shiki instinctively clutched onto Neku's back.
"I'm afraid so."
"That's not fair! We already risked our entry fee for our second chance." She pulled Neku back. Even though she had not known about the reality of the strings until today, she knew that she would be losing something huge if she let her string get cut. And she didn't want Neku to have his string cut either…even if that string was possibly connected to someone other than her.
"This and that are two separate things. It's not surprising that they didn't tell you about this. The current Composer is neither considerate nor amiable, to say the least."
"Heehee. Don't you know that it's rude to talk about somebody when they're not around?"
"Joshua!" Shiki exclaimed.
"I hate to say this but I'm actually glad to see you," said Neku.
"Speak of the devil," the black haired girl said with distaste. "Ah no, you're classified as an Angel in technical terms, aren't you, Composer?"
"I'm delighted to see you again too, Cupid." Joshua giggled.
"You know I detest that name," she said, eyes narrowed. "I associate with you one time and the next thing I know, people think I'm a naked baby that shoots arrows through hearts."
"I apologise for that," said Joshua, bowing slightly.
This seemed to take Cupid aback as surprise was visible on her face.
"Now, would you mind doing me a favour and leaving these two particular Players alone?"
Shiki's eyes widened. Was Joshua trying to help them out?
"The Composer's asking me for a favour." Cupid laughed. "Now that's something new. I thought you were above doing such things."
"Perhaps, but I feel like I owe these two, as well as two other Players. They got entangled in my affairs. I would appreciate it if you could leave these four Players be."
"Oh, so the rumours about your scheme were true after all." The news seemed to lift Cupid's mood. "I suppose four wouldn't hurt. In exchange, I would like the full account of what had happened, including what occurred when you went Upstairs."
"Still weak for gossip as ever, Cupid." Joshua smirked.
"Gossip? I prefer to call it gathering information. It's rare for those like us to be called Upstairs, after all."
She turned to Shiki and Neku. "I don't know why, but it looks like the Composer is fond of you, so you've escaped the fate that most other Players get." She reached out and touched Shiki's string. "I cannot turn this back to what it is mean to originally look like though, so I won't be able to know if your strings are red or gold."
"I feel your senses may be dulling. I don't think you need to know the colours for these two," Joshua snickered.
"Hm…?" Cupid looked back at Shiki's string and her eyes widened. "Of course, how could I have not noticed before?"
Shiki looked at her string. "Notice what?"
She tugged hard at Shiki's string.
"Ow!" Neku yelled as he fell down.
"I guess there would be no point in cutting your strings anyway," she said smugly.
Shiki felt heat rush towards her face. Neku reacted to her string being pulled. Didn't that mean that- ? "Um…I...this is…"
Neku shifted on the floor. "You mean Shiki's my…I'm her…What?" He looked up, baffled. "But Shiki doesn't like me that way-"
"That's not true!" she interrupted. A split second later, Shiki covered her mouth, not having meant to blurt that out loud.
"…"
"…"
The Composer and Cupid walked away.
"Heehee. Cupid, you're pretty nasty yourself," Joshua said.
"Perhaps," she shrugged. "And as I've said, stop calling me Cupid. As you are the Composer who brings the Music together-"
They turned back to have one last look at the still blushing ex-Players.
"- I am the Weaver that controls the strings of fate."
A/N: Tadaa! For this chapter I literally just took the title and started writing whatever came to mind and this happened. I'm not exactly sure how I came up with this idea. But yeah, since Reapers are 'shinigami' I guess a cupid would be either an 'aigami' or a 'koigami', haha. I kind of like the thought of Joshua irritating not only humans and Reapers but also non-involved beings. Like the Cupid-chan. Even though this was really spontaneous I kind of like how it turned out. Hope you guys enjoyed it to!
Thanks to 'Anakin Rose the Hedgehog' for the original prompt! And thank you to Curse of Aesahaettr, B.A.G-GOMEZ, ElementLegend, Xerzo LotCN, Crow's Gamble, foggraven, cutekitty5597 and I'll Break Your Heart for the reviews :D I'm glad you guys are still here ;-;
- Dina
(8/3/2015)
