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

Date: published 20 december 2022

Beta: None

Fandom: The World End With You

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

Résumé: 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.

Trigger du chapitre: None I can think of


Look who is learning to play nice :D ?

Enjoy your reading!


Sitting on the low wall behind Hashiko, Joshua was observing the people as they passed through the streets. Shiki, Beat and Rhyme had left just over an hour ago, nightfall quickly forcing them to return home. They had parents waiting for them, and they were still too young and alive to really do what they wanted. But Joshua had no obligations for the next few hours and had stayed where they had parted.

It had gone... well.

Surprisingly well, in fact. Because while Joshua knew them somewhat, the reverse was not true. Besides, he was well aware that he was on the defensive and with the Neku-shaped hole between them, he really expected them to come to fisticuffs within the hour. But no, an hour had passed, then two, then three... and the four of them were still strolling the streets of Shibuya. It certainly helped that Beat was tolerating him a lot better since he'd promised he'd tell him once Neku woke up. Somehow he trusted him and even though he still mocked the Composer more often than not he didn't wince every time Joshua opened his mouth. That was progress.

Joshua had let the three take the flowers to Neku's parents without him. He had no desire to inflict another wave of sadness on himself, especially from people he didn't care about.

What's more, when he'll resurrect Neku, he'll change their memories. It will be, for them, as if their son had never died. So what was the point of worrying about it now?

He had joined them again after that and they had gone to eat ramen. The mood had improved a bit with everyone sharing happy memories of Neku. Even Joshua had tentatively chipped in with the story of how Neku had found out that Sanae was CAT and how his reaction was totally out of character. He would have liked to give them the memory so they could see his face but... that power too was blocked. Even with the boost Father had recently given him, he could barely make a decent meme. And then, when they had gotten up to pay, Ken Doï had told them that he was going to close the shop for a while. This was a big blow to the group's morale. They'd been there almost every third day since the Long Game. Joshua wasn't too happy about it either, it was always bad news to lose such a beautiful Imagination, especially in the current state of Shibuya...

And then they'd finished their evening in Hachiko, where the group had strolled for a few more minutes as if... well, as if they were waiting for someone. And then they'd parted. Somehow Rhyme had managed to get him to promise that he would come to the museum with them next weekend. It was a Game week, but... it's not like he had much to do after hours so... He emailed Uzuki to let her know that the Game would be moved up two hours the following Saturday and nodded. Rhyme seemed surprised that he agreed without much discussion and, honestly? So was Joshua. But he had enjoyed the day. Besides, WildKat didn't have much appeal without its owner and he'd promised Sanae he wouldn't be left alone so...

But, a bad taste lingered in his mouth as he thought about his next appointment. As strange as it was for him to think it, Beat was right: they were continuing without Neku. The teenager was technically fifteen now, but trapped in his own dreams unconscious as he was? He wasn't evolving, he was still the same fourteen year old from almost three months before. Of course, Joshua had known that when he'd put him there, and it had even reassured him that he was going to stay exactly as he liked. But... how long would it take Joshua to resurrect him? Six months? Two years? Ten? A fourteen-year-old boy in a twenty-four-year-old body with friends just as old and a family who thought he was equally as aged? Joshua wasn't sure if Neku would appreciate his return to life under these conditions.

But Joshua really couldn't resurrect him. But maybe...

Rising to his feet, Joshua disappeared only to reappear in the heart of Shibuya, jumping the Dead God Pad to avoid the Reapers that lazed in it. Dropping to his throne, he climbed up and closed his eyes, concentrating on the music of Shibuya. Breathing deeply, he plunged deeper and deeper into himself until he found the portal to Neku's dream world. He had taken care to bury it as far inside his being as possible, afraid that his Tuners would find it and rip it away.

An Angel was not supposed to dream, after all.

Neku was unfortunately not in Traverse Town when he landed there and Joshua almost grunted before sighing. Concentrating, he searched for Neku and soon found him locked in one of his memories as he had feared. With disgust he landed in the sunny corridors of a fairly well kept primary schools. Across from him, leaning against the wall, two boys were chatting excitedly, their heads practically pressed together and their eyes glued to the cards in their hands. Neku was young in there, maybe nine at the most. And Joshua had never seen him with such a big smile. Even when he had found his friends alive after the Game, there had been more relief than joy. There was clearly a certain innocence wrapped around this young Neku's every move: he glowed with the classic invulnerability of children who had yet to face the world. But Joshua knew it was coming. Less than two years after that memory, the black-haired boy beside him would be hit by a car, taking that innocence with him.

And that's why Joshua didn't come any closer.

He knew exactly what would happen if he stood in front of the child. At first glance, Neku wouldn't recognize him, but something strange would echo in his head and then, seconds later, faster and faster after each encounter in his dreams, the cognitive dissonance of seeing Joshua long before he could meet him would crash the dream. Neku would then find himself in his fifteen-year-old body, looking infinitely sad at having lost Erikawa Kikuo once again. And Joshua didn't need to go through that again when what he was about to do didn't need Neku to be aware of it.

Shifting from one dimension to another was, unfortunately, another of the powers that had been blocked. Which was incredibly frustrating when Joshua was bored. But creating a one-way link between two versions of the same person? With the little power he'd only just recovered, it was possible. The link already existed between souls after all. It was a bit like a pact. He just had to... open the valve and let the information flow. That's what he did every time he resurrected the winners of the games. The only thing that was a bit complicated was that he didn't take the most important memories at once, but would have to leave the channel open for them to flow out at the same time. Which meant that he would have to regularly check that no other entity from either his universe, the other one or anyone else, really, was touching it. But that wasn't really a problem. Joshua liked to see what could have happened. A little too much, even. And he was going to pick the perfect universe, one where Neku lived a nice, long life full of imaginings. And then... Neku would stop calling him by another name.

He wouldn't see him anymore, anyway.

Unfortunately, he couldn't travel through the infinite number of universes and experience them himself. Fortunately, he'd visited a lot of them this past year when he was trying to... well, find a reason to live. That was why he had chosen Neku for his Game. They were so connected somehow in most other universes that he wanted to see what was so special about him. But he supposed, it was a bit of a vicious circle, if the other Joshua's had thought the same thing then inevitably...

Shaking his head, Joshua began to eliminate the universes he knew one after another. This one, because Neku was definitely dead, this other one, because the other Joshua had managed to destroy Shibuya. He skimmed them little by little, selecting the one closest to his own with a few exceptions. In the two left at the end, Sanae hadn't created a Taboo but Joshua had still made his Game and Neku hadn't shot. He had resurrected him anyway and the boy had continued his life in the RG. Joshua had been punished much more lightly and had managed to prevent Hazuki and Coco from taking Neku to Shinjuku. The only difference between the two... in one world Joshua had joined them in Hachiko and in the other he had remained an increasingly distant memory.

Joshua hesitated at this point and considered both worlds carefully. Neku didn't seem any happier in one than the other... and Joshua's presence was really the only significant change in his life.

The choice was simple.

Joshua knew Neku wouldn't have made the same one, but he pushed that thought away and began to transfer the memories of the world he'd never been to to Hachiko.


Think about letting a review on your way out and see you (the 10th) next year !