Tin Pin Turnabout:
A Sauce Project Production
By EeveeGen9988 and Chronic Guardian
[Shibuya Operation - Story Storm]
Chapter 4: Rebound
- 3 years later -
Tipping his head to the side slightly, fighting the urge to nibble at the top of his purple-ink fountain pen, Joshua pondered a way to respond to this overzealous fanmail… Most likely from one of his fangirls, as the swirly writing suggested. It was easy enough to brush aside confessions of love and marriage proposals sent directly to his family's mailbox, but matching the excitement she had when addressing pointless personal matters that really didn't needed to be discussed was a different matter.
A tired sigh escaped his lips, frustrated from her lack of vocabulary. Generic fanmail wouldn't be such a boring and bothersome feat to force himself through if people would just learn to articulate themselves a little more creatively. At the current norm, it felt like he was answering the same letter a dozen times a day..
After giving a response that would appear to drench the fire the fangirl created, despite likely to be refuelled by the oil his pen scrawled his response with, he waited a five good minutes for the ink to dry. He packaged it in, carefully pushing back the flap of the envelope to close it somewhat. Most people would seal envelopes with a stamp or… He narrowed his eyes, disgusted at the thought of sealing the envelope with his own saliva. He wasn't germaphobic, it was that father always suggested to neatly push back the flap. It would be better than licking it closed... when anybody could have touched it before him when they handled the shipments. And… how would his fan react to finding his blood on the envelope if he had a paper cut? An immediate action taken to clone him through his dried DNA alone? A creepy obsession to never part with the letter marked with his own blood? Or a bizarre need to worship the letter day and night as if it was a sacred artifact? As much as the fifteen-year-old would have loved to shudder at those unruly thoughts, he merely giggled, seeing that this wasn't in his vicinity of paranoia. This fangirl would merely become lost in his sea of admirers anyway, so the outcome wasn't important.
When he deemed his quota of fan mail responses were complete, he reclined in his desk chair, letting out a brief exhale of relief his fountain pen could rest for another day. Now that the deed was done, he could relax. He would worry about the mailing later...
As he quickly grew bored of doing nothing but admire his selfless work of paying homage to his adoring fans, he set them aside as he settled his laptop down, accessing it within seconds before firing up the web.
One thing that never bored the ashen blond was to discreetly check up on his competitors… and of course, the Kindred Spirits. The first place he whisked himself away to was to see if anyone was up to play with him, but after scouring through Pinhead Weekly membership blogs and articles, most of them were away for Winter break.
How troublesome… he thought with a disappointed tut, idly drumming his fingers one-by-one on some of the keys. All I'm left with now is myself, my imagination, the worldwide web. Shaking his head, he checked up on any events that he could ease himself into until someone had the audacity to actually pay heed to him. It became apparent there were no available tournaments, so with a sigh, he lazily browsed through the photo gallery of previous successful little Pinhead Weekly sponsored events.
He filtered through the ever mundane ones, showcasing those he didn't care to pay attention to and stopping to admire the ones that truly mattered. Although, it was annoying how long it took to catch a glimpse of himself.
It was a long while until he found something that made his hand on the mouse freeze.
Apparently the organizers had issued for photos to be taken. What a shame… he could have had a chance to at least pose for it. Although, a bitter churn from remembering that day made him frown.
After his supposedly 'cheating', the organizers had promptly pulled him and the opposing team off to the side and disqualified him once they verified the launcher was tampered with. But that didn't set him off, he held no ill-feelings towards the gracious Pinhead Weekly when they had pardoned him for his innocence two weeks after the event went up in flames. No… if his middle-tier cousin hadn't announced to the world Joshua may have tweaked the rules for their benefits, no one would have known. They would have won, he would have won…
...Ayumu would have won.
The heartbroken expression on Ayumu's face was ingrained in the ashen blond's memory.
Sighing exasperatedly, Joshua closed his laptop, silently acknowledging the fact they were so close to dethroning the Tin Pin King of Shibuya. So close to winning Ayumu's debuting tournament… Ayumu hardly spoke to him for the next few days, opting to burst into tears instead… Eventually Joshua's youngest cousin pulled through and was able to talk with Joshua again, but any suggestions of playing together in tournaments (or little practice matches over at each other's houses) made Joshua think Ayumu wasn't over the events mentally when he refused each invitation.
Over the years, Ayumu slowly came back to the sport, but never with the same fervor he had before. A lot of times Joshua caught Ayumu playing by himself, but seemed to wiggle immediately from Joshua's presence when it appeared Ayumu sensed him. Whenever Joshua asked the petite blond about these instances, Ayumu always told him he was building his skills up in little competitions sprawled across the city… but going out to competitions every day now merited the ashen blond's suspicion. But Joshua trusted Ayumu knew what he was doing… or, at least Joshua hoped his youngest cousin was alright. Half of the time, Joshua couldn't tell what was going through Ayumu's mind.
Maybe he would appreciate a visit today? Joshua thought crisply, shifting to get up. After all… I can visit him anytime I want… But then he paused, a flicker of a frown gracing his lips. If, he's home today. Then I might have to reroute my plans.
Even before he grabbed his orange cell phone, it began ringing needlessly. His hand twitched from the abrupt ringing, furrowing his eyebrows as he hesitantly reached over to grab it. Who could be calling me at this time? Hopefully another fan doesn't request for another meetup… I'd hate to shatter their expectations.
Regardless of the call, he flipped his cell phone open, then sang airily, "Hello, hello~ This is the one and only Yoshiya Kiryu at your-"
"Cousin."
Immediately his spirited response dwindled on his tongue, and Joshua drew his lips into a purse. "...Cousin."
Regaining composure among the silent treatment he received promptly, he smoothly breathed slowly, "Might I ask for your lovely reason for interrupting my day?"
"I don't have much time-" Rueban's voice lowered. "-or time to deal with your antics right now… so can I expect your best behaviour on the matter?" Rueban said with strained politeness. Joshua giggled at the effort. Either Rueban was restraining himself in front of company, or the whole 'perfect Rueban Kiryu' act was finally so ingrained he didn't even notice he was doing it any more. Rueban, after all, was a slave to appearances. Except the time of their last match when Joshua's middle-tier cousin had assimilated himself into Kindred Spirits wannabes, Rueban's tongue would never act out of line. Anything Rueban would say against Joshua wouldn't crawl unnoticed, so Joshua was free to say whatever he wanted, and mess with Rueban however he wanted.
At that thought, Joshua drew his lips into a smirk. "Antics...?" he asked innocently, bringing his hand to his chest as he imagined his cousin was fuming. "I have no clue what you're talking about, cousin. It wounds me to hear such accusations from family…"
An inhale sounded, whistling sharply into Joshua's ears. "If you're done admiring your own sarcasm, I have a favour I'd like to propose." After a heartbeat, Rueban added suggestively, "One we would all benefit from."
"Hmm… would you be a little more specific? I hardly would doubt the world would benefit from my humble grace alone." Joshua gave a chuckle, knowing very well a three-year-old's birthday party would be the source of their topic unless Joshua was enlightened more on the matter.
"Mmm, charming. Unfortunately, this doesn't concern the world at large. It has to do with Ayumu."
Immediately, Joshua's chest tightened, thoughts whirling towards questions of Ayumu's wellbeing. If Joshua was an irrational teenager, he'd be breaking through his front door for his youngest cousin's sake. Instead, he collected himself, coolly breathing out while ignoring how his heart raced, "Oh? Has Ayumu notified you about any qualms?"
"If you recall a certain event, where you had shattered Ayumu's hopes and dreams-"
"Ah-ah… I am innocent, if you recall how the interference was not of my accord," Joshua quipped flippantly.
"...Innocent or not, you ruined the tournament and the game for him, cousin," responded Rueban firmly. "You can't keep thinking only of yourself all the time. Maybe if you stopped treating everyone like your personal puppets for once in your life you'd realize your actions affect people, and you can't just go around getting away with murder. Or, is that asking too much from Yoshiya Kiryu?" Joshua smirked, knowing he touched a nerve if he was receiving Rueban's classic 'I am dad' lecture. "...But this isn't about our disagreements on how to play the game, this is about Ayumu."
"As far as Ayumu's concerned, your favour cannot possibly benefit the likes of him. Ayumu is happy as the button that freed itself from one of your premium blazers recently, which I congratulate it for its valiant success." Joshua smiled despite biting his lip promptly after the words left his mouth. Even if Joshua had his own uncertainty that Ayumu was falling into the wrong crowds at one point after the event, from the whiff of smoke the ashen blond had detected on Ayumu during one visit and simply reassured himself it was mere secondhand smoke from the unruly homeless Ayumu briefly passed, Ayumu had nothing preluding to being coerced into wrongdoings nor was in a state of crestfallen gloom from how he sparkled after returning from his outings each day.
Unless, Rueban had been filling their youngest cousin's head with ludicrous ideas that he wasn't okay. Rueban was too perfect to pass up an opportunity to make Joshua feel as though he hadn't been catering to Ayumu's needs as he should be, and rubbing it in made an acetous taste form in Joshua's mouth.
"And… as far as I'm concerned..." Joshua drew in a steady intake of sweet oxygen, hoping that by the time he exhaled that both his piqued ire and the taste would dissipate without any delay. And Joshua liked to be as nonchalant as he could to not give his middle-tier cousin the satisfaction of knowing he was knocking Joshua down a peg. "That little event in our lives associates Ayumu no more. You do realize he's been doing his own cute things since then, and I do believe he wouldn't be interested in hearing you lie anymore. After all, how has making me appear to be 'the bad guy' worked out for you?" Joshua's eyes hardened, pursing his lips. "You must be feeling bold, cousin. As I do see you are accusing me, unlike what you told me before."
Rueban went silent after that, and Joshua hoped the call had ended after a good minute. But to his disappointment, the caller ID was still present on the screen.
"...We need to give the tournament another shot," Rueban said quietly, almost pensive from the way his voice sailed into Joshua's ears.
"Pinheads Weekly discontinued it after a certain someone convinced them for a couple of weeks that one of their VIP guests had tried to sabotage their kind effort," returned Joshua curtly. "Which is a shame, knowing they put their heart and soul- especially almost all, their, money into the first big gig of their profession. They could have expanded further, becoming a big name in the thoughts of Slammers and fans with multiple competitions galore… not mere sponsors anymore with a pretty blog and speckle of an event every six months." Joshua lazily tutted, "And now you expect them to miraculously revive it after its humiliating debut?"
"Look, it may not have been important to you-"
Joshua nearly snorted at that.
"-but it was important for Ayumu." Rueban had a catch of exhaustion in his tone, but Joshua merely listened with pushing at his middle-tier cousin's buttons later in mind. "I know you have a contract with them, you're one of their favourite Slammers to sponsor. You must have some way to convince them to set it up."
"Hehehe, that I do know…" haughtily replied Joshua, stretching slightly as he went on in a lazy slur, "But who is to say I want that?" The ashen blond could have sworn he heard a growl, but he pressed his eyes closed regardless. If Rueban was going to play this game with him, twiddling the remote above Joshua's head… Joshua would have to be the one in control now. After all, Rueban's proposal was all on him, and Joshua didn't think his middle-tier cousin would have any luck with finding the backing he sought for his crusade. "To bring myself back into the position where I'm almost banned from Tin Pin because of one, petty, complaint of cheating hardly can spur me to run into your arms ever so gleefully, cousin."
"You know in my position, thanks to a certain past indiscretion, I'm not exactly on Pinheads Weekly's 'nice' list? So you're the only person I know who can turn their heads around."
"My, my… you're the same as always," Joshua laughed dryly. "Desperate 'ittle Rue-kun… You have many sponsors, why don't you strut up to them instead of haring to me?"
It was awful long while until his middle-tier cousin managed to find words to reply with. "Because the tournament needs to be the same," came his somber mumble. "Pinheads Weekly was in charge of the event before, and it has to be now."
"Forcing slander into my throat was unwise then," Joshua scoffed lightly. "I'm only lucky Pinheads Weekly knew the Heimlich maneuver."
"...Enough of your games." Rueban sounded like his perfect teeth were grating into the speaker. "Can you be serious for once?"
Joshua merely entertained his middle-tier cousin with humming as he mulled over the information he gathered from the conversation thus far. Now that he had a fair amount of knowledge for this proposal, he could properly gauge his answer.
Rueban really was desperate for this event to return, but Joshua would think the win was for Rueban to brandish smugly on his Slammer profile. Perhaps it was to iron out his achievements portfolio? His perfectionist side was probably going haywire over the loose ends, even if he was responsible for the mess in the first place. No, that little face would be conveniently glossed over to preserve his pristine self-portrait. As well, Rueban went the mile by trying to use Ayumu as his shield, which was absolutely revolting. Joshua's unfortunate excuse for a cousin was likely baiting him so Rueban could get him framed and banned, which was such a selfish way to get rid of the competition…
Joshua knew himself always wanted to win that tournament… especially with Ayumu on his side. And if everyone had followed him that day, Joshua would have joined the ranks of those who managed to defeat a Tin Pin King. Any direction his thoughts streamed, the tournament became more and more vivid in his head.
However, if he were to agree to this… Rueban would likely be pulled onto the team. Unless Rueban already had some of his playmates ready at his beckon, which Joshua hoped they were.
"If I were to, I don't know… join in your endeavour, would you spare yourself from our team?" asked Joshua slyly.
"No. As much as I hate to say this, all three of us must be together for this."
Joshua bit his lip, frustrated but swallowed the feeling down while keeping his pride in check. "Getting a little sentimental, are we?" Tapping his finger along the back of his cell phone, he sat down in his desk chair. "Your playmates must have instilled that silliness in you then…"
"I'm sure you're thrilled at the idea of playing with him, considering how Ayumu seems to shrug you off most of the times." Rueban paused, leaving it up in the air of what he was doing to pull his attention away from the matter at hand. When Joshua was tempted to check if the call had ended again, his middle-tier cousin's voice resurfaced. "But it's not about silliness… it's not about my fellow Tin-pinjas-"
Joshua snorted. Talk about that diction you just used… I'm surprised your senseless getups to avoid your fans hasn't warranted your acknowledgement that you still haven't outgrown your training wheels.
"-it's about making things right. For all three of us, and you should know that, cousin."
The ashen blond merely inhaled slowly, sharply aware of the weight Rueban was pressing down on him. This was irksomely how Rueban was, believing his halo was glowing brighter and brighter each meager task he felt had soothed any injustices.
"I would say using our dear cousin as a bargaining chip is quite tacky, don't you think?" asked Joshua dryly, trying to wash out as much venom that threatened to leak into his tone. His lavender eyes sharpened as he went on, "If only your parents knew you made such low-blows in the name of the family."
"...Will you do it then?" Rueban's huff didn't escape his notice.
"I guess you have my vote." Joshua mumbled, shaking his head in frustration. "Or you might even aim lower."
Rueban went silent for a while, and Joshua was certain he was gloating. The very idea of being swindled by his middle-tier cousin made Joshua's skin crawl while he attempted to make himself understand what happened. The feeling wormed into him, and he couldn't help but fume from having his kite wrestled away by the wind.
"Excellent." Joshua nearly crushed his cellphone from hearing the satisfaction in Rueban's voice. "Pleasure making business with you."
"How about you skitter away while I tend to important matters." Placing his phone down briefly to ease open his laptop, he finished dryly, "Ayumu plays in the streets of Shibuya quite a lot these days." He then ended the call.
After refreshing himself grimly on the reality of the situation, Joshua gradually inhaled deeply and hardened his expression. This time… you'll follow my lead, cousin.
CG's Rueful Author's Notes
Well, Eevee basically juggled every natural difficulty and having to deal with loads of poking and prodding from me before this chapter hit the shelves, so to speak. Not only did she have to deal with a flash forward scene that retroactively fills in a few Joshua cracks that I didn't quite touch on, but she also had to write Rueban Kiryu (Who I wish I was kidding when I say at least 80% of my notes were musings and revision suggestions on his lines, but apparently I'm more narcissistic than I'd care to admit), and write up a years long rivalry that needs to be set aside for the current storyline to even happen. For this last point especially, Eevee needed to put a muzzle on Rueban and Josh's acid wit to keep them from spending all night ribbing each other with comebacks (which, as fun as that would be, wouldn't move the story along and wouldn't be true to Rue's dogmatic character), so the very fact that she's attempted such a task already gives her major brownie points in my book.
Also, on the subject of writing Rueban, this is apparently Eevee's first time doing that. As with Avi during FLaFS, I soon realized that there's a lot of Rueban that I've thought out in my head without revealing to the general public. So with certain character actions, I can see Hybrid Rue (which is true to a certain part of Rue's character, but is also Rueban at his absolute lowest point) while other times I'll catch the more refined Another Game Rue, and inbetween I come to realize that I've left only a bread crumb trail of conjecture to show how they're the same person. So sorry for that, Eevee! This may not be the mess you signed up for, but I appreciate you working through it all the same!
That said, I tried to restrain myself from doing any direct edits on this chapter aside from small typos because I wanted Eevee to be able to experience more creative control. See, I had an art teacher once who would paint on my canvass to demonstrate to me what I was missing and I remember hating that because it violated my initiative as an artist. Basically, I guess I feel that the artist reserves the right to make the point they want to make as well as the right to be wrong and learn from their mistakes. There's no point in writing a collaborative story if I just grab the wheel every time I think I could do something better (and considering how conceited I am, that can happen a lot). In the spirit of the original TWEWY, the world is full of difference, and I'd hate to paint over that difference just because I know how I would do it..
Finally, regarding the chapter itself (man, I really get bogged down in metareasoning, don't I?) I really like how this basically reverses the first chapter, but still has Josh and Rueban being connected as a family through Ayumu. I think it's especially interesting because it subconsciously casts Ayumu as a plot device more than as a person. Like, Rue and Josh have certain things they want to happen for Ayumu, but both of them are impressing their own vision over what Ayumu actually wants. Maybe the cousins are actually onto something this time, but I wouldn't hold my breath just yet. After all, the adventure has just begun. ;)
See you next chapter as Rue tracks down Ayumu with a little cameo help from a certain someone!
-CG
...
Slammer Profile: Ayumu Ki
A mere breeze in the Tin Pin world, Ayumu Ki hasn't really generated a following… although that hasn't stopped the whispers of his relation to Yoshiya Kiryu and Rueban Kiryu a secret. If it weren't for his cousins' achievements, he would have been a complete stranger on the scene when he accompanied his cousins the day he began to play competitively.
His debut in Pinhead Weekly's Triple Tangent Tourney had failed to launch his Tin Pin career, casting him into the shadows to work his way up in sparse events. You're only lucky if you catch a glance at the elusive boy, but by the time you catch up to him, he would have disappeared from the premises.
The Tin Pin world is unsure of his abilities, pertaining more to the fact he is a blind psychic, and struggling to understand his way to cope with and play the game. If it weren't for the mystery Ayumu emits from himself as well, he may have been brushed to the side of everyone's minds.
Although his main pin deck hasn't been established yet, many spectators have recognized a pale gold pin with cloudy wings being frequented in the little matches he appears in.
His strategy, from what has been mentioned by those he has faced, is a confusing mixture. Although, they have surmised he strikes when the time is right, is wary and doesn't go in for the attack, and often people have complained about receiving headaches after any bout with him. One thing's for sure is that Ayumu can be unpredictable, and is known to be fickle at times…
…
EeveeGen9988's Sorry Author's Notes
*inhales* Due to an unexpected event pertaining to post-secondary last week, I was unable to help CG with the last portion of Chapter 3. I'm terribly sorry about not being there, CG, but I'm glad you were able to pull through with an excellent ending. *exhales*
Now, onto this chapter…
I find it interesting how I was the one who set up both the first and fourth chapters of Tin Pin Turnabout. In a sense, I think I had the responsibility to put everything into motion… which was pretty scary for me. I'm really grateful for CG's support, patience, and suggestions, and I don't think I could have done it without him.
I hope you are excited as I am for next week when CG leads the hunt for Ayumu! =D