Warnings: before!canon(?), take it as you wish
Author's Note: Had to read some William Blake for my Romantic Literature class, and for some reason the poem used "The Fly" made me think of Joshua, so I had to include it.
Disclaimer: I am not William Blake, and I suck at writing poetry, no way it's mine.
22. Mother Nature
Though he had the title of Composer, and liked to flaunt the idea that he had control over every little aspect in Shibuya, Joshua was well aware exactly how powerless he truly was. All he could do is follow the rules set down by his predecessors and hope that when the day came for him to be replaced, his replacement would be just as respectful of the rules and regulations the Angels tossed at him. And maybe his replacement would be just as in love with his Lady as he.
Occasionally, when he liked to step away from the paperwork and laws that he had to constantly oversee, Joshua would allow himself to become completely immersed in the Music of his Lady Shibuya. When he did this, he couldn't help but wonder, exactly what was the Lady's plan for Her world. And poems would recite themselves in his mind, poems he never remembered reading while alive, or poems he wasn't sure existed at the time. But every poem he would recite out loud, as if his Lady was asking him. Why else would She gift him with every line so carefully?
He tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, humming to the tune of his Lady and checked on all the little tiny flies bothering his Dear. Many of them were those random few souls of Imagination that would leave Shibuya just as soon as they arrived on the subway, but a few were little souls that his Lady tended to focus all her attention on. These weren't flies, could never be as loathsome or annoying as flies.
As if they were little plants in a garden, the Lady Shibuya tended to the weeds and flowers alike. These plants were Her favorite and blossomed grandly under her command. All except that stubborn weed named Sakuraba Neku. He was once the greatest soul Joshua had ever watched from his Lady's eyes and now, years later he was just as dim and dull as the rest.
His inhuman purple eyes, a gift from his Darling Lady after taking the position of Composer, focused on the horribly large pair of headphones Neku wore and realized the issue. He was blocking out the natural music the Lady gave him, causing his soul to erode. The rose bush was dying, leaving only thorns in its wake. He turned away from the mortal a second, just long enough to confer with his Lady and together they came to a decision.
If this little rose bush/plant/fly would realize exactly all the love and devotion She gave to him, then he would bloom even brighter and more beautiful. However if he turned away, or even dared leave the Lady, Joshua knew he'd hunt the weed down and murder him.
After all, how did that poem go?
"Little Fly
Thy summers play.
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing:
'Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath:
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die."