Story: Mind the Gaps (French version available : "Intervalles")

Date: posted the 30 of July 2023

Beta: None

Fandom: The World End With You

Disclaimer: No, I don't own TWEWY, and I'm not making any profit from this story.

Summary: Just after the Long Game, Joshua saved and resurrected the rest of the Hashiko gang but was condemned by the Angels for his actions: He is confined to Shibuya and half of his powers have been sealed. Neku dies again, but without his powers, Joshua cannot resurrect him. He takes him to safety anyway, which leads to M.H being banished by the Angels. Joshua is left alone to manage Shibuya, well not quite since he's got Shinjuku's scum on his hands. Months pass, Joshua is struggling to manage the UG without Sanae and Kitaniji and Shiki and the other reach out with an offer of friendship. But Shinjuku's Reaper strike a coup and Joshua loose a lot of powers. He still tries his best to make the city survive.

Trigger of this chapter: None I can think of

Happy 16th Birthday to Twewy and 2nd to NTWEWY :D
Enjoy your reading!

"Congratulations!" Rhyme exclaimed as she pulled on her cracker. With a loud bang, the thing exploded and sent a surprising amount of confetti at the three graduates in front of them. Joshua blinked and did the same, a step too late. Rhyme had stuffed it into his hands no less than ten seconds earlier, and he'd had to find the trigger to add another layer of paper to the others with a deafening noise. Eri had spent the day with a huge grin on her face, but that didn't stop her from laughing again as Beat choked on the confetti Joshua had inadvertently sent into his mouth.

"Bah! You're serious dude?" He spat, two more pieces of confetti falling from his face to crash onto the old wooden floor of the workshop.

"My apologies." Joshua smiles without a hint of sincerity. All the more visible when he continued much more warmly. "Congratulations on your graduation."

"Thank you, Josh." Shiki beamed as she removed the confetti that had clung to her hair.

To Beat's grunts and Eri's laughter, they all settled around the workshop table and the ridiculous number of drinks and snacks amassed there. Especially considering that it was nearly ten o'clock and the young graduates had already spent the whole day celebrating with school ceremonies, parents and wild parties with friends. But Rhyme had insisted that the five of them should have their own party. Neku's birthday was just around the corner, after all, and it had become a tradition to get together around that day. Plus, she'd made a point of saying that afterwards, they'd be so busy, they wouldn't have as much time to hang out as they used to. And... well, she was right, that was what Joshua was afraid of, even if he tried to convince himself otherwise.

It was easy when they were at school. Free enough for them to see each other whenever they wanted, not enough for them to be away from Shibuya for too long. The most it had been was the two or three weeks holiday with their families that they took every year. But now... Now Beat was going to university and Shiki and Eri were moving to Nakano. And, yes, it had been Joshua who had given them the necessary contacts, but it had been precisely with a view to preventing a lesser evil.

Joshua had done his job so well over the last few months, doing everything he could to foil The Executor, that there wasn't much accommodation left and certainly not in the price range of the two ex-schoolgirls. The girls had come to look at rentals in Shinagawa and Joshua had had to put his foot down. It was out of the question for them to become citizens of this disillusioned cretin. No, as much as it pained him to say it, at least Nakano's Composer was sensible and benevolent. What's more, marked as the teens were by Shibuya, if anything happened to them, Nakano was respectful enough of the rules that she'd transfer their file to Joshua. That's if he didn't hassle her too much. With great pain, Joshua made a mental note to accept Nakano's latest project, which was gathering dust at the bottom of his drawer. Now there, something to pacify her a little.

In other words, he was currently making all the necessary arrangements to at least allow them to open a shop at 104. Fortunately, for once, the Executor was useful. Still busy trying to siphon off the imagination of Shibuya to force an Inversion, he'd closed another shop. They'd gone out of business for good last week and a new location would soon be available. All Joshua had to do was use one or two well-placed memes and, tada! Eri and Shiki had got their first shop in Shibuya. Shiki had been terribly suspicious when she'd received the phone call from 104 to tell them about the opportunity, but Joshua had acted as if nothing had happened. Even if she wasn't fooled, it was hard to turn down this golden opportunity, especially with how ecstatic Eri was, bouncing around and crushing all her friends, Joshua included, with hugs worthy of the worst choking torture.

At least this way, they would be forced to spend some time in Shibuya, which should still encourage friendly visits by the rule of "killing two birds with one stone".

In any case, even so, they'd all be out of Shibuya on a regular basis, much more than just a one-off shopping trip, and Joshua... wasn't taking the change very well. How was he supposed to protect them if they all left his kingdom? Knowing that this was going to happen, that yes, humans did grow up and leave the family nest, had helped very little. In fact, it hadn't helped at all, it had just made it easier for Joshua to hide his discomfort from them.

In any case, Joshua thought as he sipped his drink, WildKat was going to be quite empty again without them. Joshua had never got used to not seeing Sanae behind the counter downstairs or painting upstairs, but... the constant presence of Eri at the drawing table or Shiki, fixing a jacket on Beat or Rhyme, using the whole floor for his new hobby of the month... it had helped. But now that the girls were renting their own place and could turn their living room into a workshop, they'd decided to give Joshua the keys back. And, well, Joshua couldn't exactly make them stay. Maybe with a series of well-placed memes, a few choice words and... But no, Joshua thought. Besides, it was better to keep them away from Shibuya for a while, especially with the tensions that had been escalating lately. And as much as it pained him to say it, Nakano was the safest district they could be in. Besides, it wasn't as if they'd be out of Shibuya all the time. Their shop would soon be here and they still had family and friends there. Well, at least Eri... Shiki's parents had more or less come round to accepting their daughter's career as a dressmaker, mainly because of her recent success, but the tensions this choice had caused were difficult to get past. Joshua wasn't sure she'd be visiting them much now that she could finally have that flat-share with Eri they'd always dreamed of.

"You all right, Beat?" called Rhyme softly from beside Joshua.

Averting his gaze from Eri, who was preaching her idea of rearranging their future premises in Shiki with a series of sketches, Joshua turned his head towards Beat.

The boy, or rather young adult, was now slumped in deep contemplation over his soda.

"Yeah, don't worry, sis," he replied at once, but at the unimpressed look on his sister's face, Beat sighed. "It's just... all day I've been thinking 'another thing he won't have lived through' and now I'm going to uni, can you believe it? I never thought it would happen to me, but the only time I thought about it, I kept saying to myself 'at least I won't be alone, he'll be with me' and... yeah, yo, I feel guilty going when he can't."

No need to ask who Beat was talking about.

"On the contrary, Beat, enjoy it! Live this experience to the full, so you can tell him all about it when he comes back!" Rhyme exclaimed before giving a more sly little smile. "I bet he'll be surprised, but you'll just have to make him your curry and he'll be convinced too."

Beat smiled, something filled with pride fuelled by all the trouble he'd had finding his voice. Or rather, a voice. Maybe he'd change later, but for now, the idea of becoming a chef had turned enough in his head to become concrete. It had been a long journey, and the five of them had set out to help him. First, Beat had to admit that he didn't really want to become a professional skateboarder. It had been difficult to get him to say the words, but when Rhyme hadn't had a negative reaction, he'd happily given up in favour of keeping it up as a hobby.

But the problem was that without it, Beat had absolutely no other idea of what he wanted to do in life. So they had a crisis meeting. He needed something manual, Rhyme had said, where he could spend his energy and not just sit around all day. A job where he was making something, Joshua had added, even though this requirement was as much for Beat as it was for him. Beat had a wonderful imagination, he'd be too stupid to waste it on an aimless job. A job where he can help people, Shiki had suggested, and Beat had nodded frantically.

"A manual job, where he has to build things and where he can help people..." Eri had summed up before snapping her fingers, a big smile on her face. "Why not a cook!"

It hadn't been the only proposal, but it was one that hit the nail on the head. That and construction worker. Both professions suited Joshua very well, and whether it was one or the other, Beat would put his imagination to good use in Shibuya. Fortunately, faced with the possibilities, the young adult had rediscovered his enthusiasm and had started to make active researches. He had taken a small job in a restaurant, as a waiter but still with the opportunity to get behind the counter and see what was going on from time to time. He had also started to learn about DIY in earnest, repairing all the slightly broken stuff with the help of YouTube videos carefully selected by Rhyme. This new habit had delighted his parents, who had supported him wholeheartedly, even buying him quality tools to encourage him.

But in the end, he chose cooking and managed to secure a part-time apprenticeship in a small restaurant in Dogenzaka. The other half he spent on a business degree, specialising in the practical side of shop management. It was Rhyme who had suggested this plan B after he had complained again about his slacker boss. This was the more complicated part, the one Beat was most worried about. He was the only one, though. He had worked so hard and was so motivated that the others had no doubt that he would succeed.

"By the way Josh!" Eri suddenly exclaimed as she leaned over the table, startling Beat at her sudden proximity. "Shiki's got something for you!"

It was Shiki's turn to jump, stammering out a "What, I... now?" before bending down to rummage through her bag without waiting for an answer. Joshua played with his lock of hair, a little curious in spite of himself.

"A present?" he asked confused when Shiki presented a small, neatly wrapped package, her cheeks flushed. She nodded and he raised an eyebrow. "It's not even my birthday and you're the one celebrating your graduation."

"Ah, finally some intel! Only 363 more non-birthdays and we'll finally have the exact date." teased Eri and Shiki tapped her shoulder with an exasperated look.

"It's to thank you for... well everything. And yes, as Eri says, we don't know your birthday, but I wanted to make you a little something too, so..." muttered Shiki.

Joshua blinked, looking down at the package. It was soft and knowing who was giving it, it was probably an item of clothing. "Can I open it?" he asked in surprise, a little hesitantly.

"Yeah, go ahead, I want to see the result!" Beat replied before Shiki could open her mouth, completely ignoring all propriety. Even Rhyme, usually so quick to gently reprimand him for his lack of politeness, had her eyes glued to the packet, seemingly impatient to see what it was all about.

Just to make Beat fume a little more, Joshua carefully removed each piece of scotch before finally unrolling the packet with agonising slowness. As he'd guessed, it was an item of clothing - a dress shirt, to be precise. White, short-sleeved, it was obviously handmade, visible in the neat finitions, but not mechanically perfect.

"Try it on!" encouraged Rhyme.

With an amused smile, Joshua took off his cardigan and slipped the shirt over his T-shirt. By the time he had passed each arm, Shiki had already gone round the table at lightning speed to carefully fit the shirt over Joshua's shoulders. Not that the garment needed it, it was perfectly fitted and fell exactly where it was supposed to. That didn't stop Shiki from pulling back the flap, ironing the collar and putting on one of the buttons that Joshua hadn't bothered to fasten. It was funny how Shiki seemed to lose all sense of embarrassment as soon as the fashion was concerned. Finally, the shirt seemed to pass whatever test Shiki had in mind because she nodded and stepped back with a thin smile.

Joshua walked lazily over to the full-length mirror that Eri had brought back to the workshop years ago and admired himself in it. It was comfortable, simple, elegant. It was to his taste, he thought with a satisfied smirk. Rolling his shoulders to test the comfort, a dark shape caught his eye. Standing in profile, Joshua soon had a full view of five black stars embroidered on his left sleeve. Running his fingers curiously over them, he was pleasantly surprised when he felt the softness of the relief.

"Oh, er, yes, the stars! It was uh..." stammered Shiki and Joshua turned to give her his full attention. She was even redder if that was possible

"It's the five of us! Well you know, us and Neku." Eri chirped, waving her hand at Rhyme, Beat, Shiki and herself to make it clear who the 'us' was. "That way we're always with you, even when you go do your weird stuff in the dead world."

Shiki grimaced behind her but Rhyme let out an amused snort that Joshua was tempted to follow. Oh, if only she knew... The diversion by Eri's joke wasn't enough to take Joshua's attention away from the gift, however. Technically, it was as perfect as a made-to-measure suit and, in retrospect, no doubt Shiki had used his exact measurements from his little modelling job. And spiritually? It was magnificent. If Joshua was a player, this would be the pinnacle of his equipment, so saturated with the Vibe and feelings of his partners that he had developed exceptional protection and communication skills.

His hand returned to rest on his left bicep, caressing the stars with his fingertips.

"Thank you." Joshua murmured as he turned towards them. He wasn't too sure if he was thanking his partners just for the shirt, but whatever it was for, he'd never been more sincere.

Think about letting a review on your way out, and see you the 10th for the continuation!