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

Date: posted the 10 of October 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. He became friend with the Hashiko Crew, keep in touch with Neku in his dream and, finally, after 3 years, succed in launching a game with his Tuners which will decide of the futur of Shibuya. He chooses a proxy, Rindo Kanade and then wake up Neku.

Trigger of this chapter: None I can think of

Only 5 chapters left! Almost there :D
Enjoy your reading!

Okay, Joshua was taking back what he'd said: it was his problem.

The Composer could have counted the number of times Beat had managed to unconsciously lift himself into the UG on his fingers. Admittedly, a handful of times was far more than the vast majority of living humans, even taking into account former players, but it was still only about ten times in over three years. Less than once every four months. And yet, Beat had managed to end up in the UG exactly the week he really shouldn't have. Well... that's what Joshua felt, but it was clearly good news from the Composer's point of view. Beat was a veteran, after all. An ex-player brought back to life, a human with a soul extremely refined by this second chance, and, even better, bound to the Composer by a pact. It was as if Joshua had suddenly gained a queen in his chess game with Kubo: a pawn he could manipulate as much as his Proxy without fear of reprisal.

So yes, for the Composer looking to spare Shibuya, Beat's participation in the Game was a godsend.

For Joshua... not so much.

He would have liked to do as he had done with Shiki and Eri and send Beat away from Shibuya for the duration of the Game. He'd more or less thought of inserting a meme for him to stay with a university buddy, but he'd saved the idea for the weekend, confident that he'd be at university outside Shibuya during the Game phases anyway.

But no. Beat had had to skip classes to 'look for' Neku, accept a dodgy badge on the street and of course, ascend to the UG while skateboarding.

Joshua should have known better, really. Badges looked for people with psychic abilities in the living and Beat had them in spades.

The trouble was, Joshua was now faced with a choice he didn't really want to make. On the one hand, since Beat wasn't yet registered in the Game (one of the Reapers would have to catch him to do that) Joshua could simply do his job and bring him back down into the RG, completely within the law. It was as if a living person had changed his plans because of a flash of passion, it was his job to deal with it and Kubo couldn't say anything against it. In fact, he'd probably be very happy about it. On the other hand... well, his Proxy needed all the help he could get and, unfortunately, Neku wasn't up to it yet.

It was Joshua's fault, really, for waking him up so late in the game after three years in a coma. Of course it was going to take him some time to get back on his feet and then to get to Shibuya too. Joshua could sense her fatigue and weakness through their pact. It had clearly been a miscalculation on his part, but it wasn't as if he could have woken him up much earlier anyway, the game having been decided at the last minute.

Anyway, Neku wasn't there, but Beat was.

And now he was coming to what he had wanted to avoid: choosing between what his duty as a Composer told him to do and... well, himself? It was strange to conceptualise. Joshua had been nothing but the Composer for so long that... well, he'd forgotten it was possible to have other priorities.

But... he thought as he felt the melody of the city caress his ears, Shibuya was still number one... wasn't it?

So Joshua left Beat in the UG.

It was also around this time that Joshua stopped all contact with anyone. That meant no reply to Eri when she continued their debate about the new rock band that had taken Nakano by storm. No text message to Shiki either when she asked if he was free to try out a new concept this weekend. No codes in return when Kariya sent him an encrypted message about a certain rogue player. And certainly no answer when Rhyme asked him where her brother was.

'Do you know where Beat is? He didn't come home yesterday and there's something strange about the pact, it's not acting as usual'. She had sent him first.

Joshua looked at the message before switching off his phone and concentrating on the game. Funnily enough, everyone had started to believe that Beat was the legendary Neku. Joshua wasn't sure who had started the rumour first, but he could have kissed them, it was simply hilarious. In the meantime, Beat went on with his life, not seeming to have quite noticed that he'd got caught between two planes. At the same time, he spent his days completely focused on the idea of looking for Neku. Having skipped university and warned his boss that he wouldn't be around for a few days before moving on, there was nothing, really, that could have given him a clue as to his condition. Well, nothing except their mutual friends, like Rhyme, for example, who, barely two hours after his first message, had sent him another.

'I know you're busy, but I'm really worried, it's not like him not to answer me for so long. Even if you don't know anything, tell me, so I know it's an RG thing and I'll go to the police.'

Joshua had looked at the message, his thumb hesitating over the keyboard. Because it wasn't an RG thing, it was a UG thing, and although going to the police wouldn't really affect him, he'd rather save Rhyme the trouble. On the other hand, he told himself as he began to erase everything he'd started typing, he had absolutely no desire to face her judgemental stare right now.

His answer box empty again, Joshua closed his phone and pocketed it. He was about to continue walking when it vibrated again. Frowning when he saw it was Rhyme again, he opened the notification and immediately swore.

'You know I can see if you've seen the messages or if you're writing, right? If you don't reply, I guess it's got something to do with the UG after all.'

Obviously he knew that, but he'd never avoided their messages before and the idea that he should do it this time hadn't quite gone to his brain. There he was, staring at his phone, not knowing what to do, when the three little dots showing that Rhymes was writing began to dance across the screen again. He thought for a second about closing the application and pretending he hadn't seen the new message, but... he was far too curious. So he continued to stare morbidly at the dots until the message appeared:

'Answer me or I swear I'm coming to get you two myself, UG or no UG.'

Ah. It wasn't Rhyme's style to threaten like that. Not if she wasn't actually very worried. Maybe he should... no, no.

'Okay. I'm coming.'

Those two little words echoed through him like a wave crashing against his chest. The feeling wasn't just in his head: he could feel the mix of determination, frustration and slight hint of fear through their pact, strangely stronger than usual. Rhyme had managed to make a meme through the phone in the RG. It wasn't a command, or a suggestion, but a declaration filled with her Vibe: one way or another, Rhyme would be there.

Joshua had no idea how, but he had no doubt that she would succeed.

Think about letting a review on your way out, and see you the 30th for the continuation!