Story: Mind the Gap (French version available : "Intervalles")
Date: posted 20 november 2022
Beta: None
Fandom: The World End With You
Disclaimer: No, I do not own TWEWY and do not make money with this story
Summary: Just after the Long Game, Joshua saved the rest of the Hashiko Gang but have been condamned by the Angels for his choices : He is bound to Shibuya whith half his powers restrained. Neku participates in the Shinjuku Game with Coco, Sho and Tsugumi, hoping to return to life but Shinjuku is destroyed. Joshua saves his life by hiding him in Shinjuku but M.H is punished in return.
Trigger du chapitre: None I can think of
A big thank to Z (Oddvector on AO3) for their help with the name of Neku's Friend :D
Enjoy your Reading !
Joshua was sitting on a battered sofa. A greyish, surprisingly comfortable thing, used as a vent for the claws of an overzealous cat. There was an old TV in front of him and a playstation on standby underneath. But Neku had promptly abandoned his controller when he found one of Sanae's notebooks.
"Can you believe it? CAT..." Neku breathed as he religiously stroked a sketch. This was at least the third time the boy had expressed some variation of his admiration and Joshua would have been tempted to laugh if the situation wasn't what it was.
"Mr. Hanekoma." Joshua corrected with a dry mouth, his gaze fixed on the ceiling.
"Hmmm?" Neku asked confusedly as he turned his head towards Joshua.
He knew it was pointless given the last few attempts but... maybe... "Sanae Hanekoma is CAT."
"Who?" Neku asked, his eyes filled with confusion. "What are you talking about, Kikuo?"
Joshua flinched involuntarily. He was going to have to give him a hand, not really wanting to be mistaken for his dead best friend any longer. Sighing, he straightened up and raised his arm, brushing the boy's forehead. The effect was immediate, Neku flinched and his eyes sharpened, staring at Joshua with a recognition he didn't have before. "Josh...ua." he hiccupped. "But...but Kikuo was there and..." He stammered before he froze again. "Are we in a dream?" Joshua hummed an assent. "But I thought you were going to send me to another Game? No, wait, you did and then... Tsugumi! How is Tsugumi!?"
"She's alive." Joshua simply replied, trying not to let his anger show at that simple fact. Difficult when she was a huge part of the source of their current problems. But Joshua knew Neku wouldn't see it that way, and he had no desire to argue now.
"Oh..." Neku sighed with a smile, letting himself fall back onto the couch again, the adrenaline leaving his body as quickly as it had come. The smile quickly fell again, however, as Neku looked up at Joshua, lips quivering. "Shinjuku is... the city is gone and I doubt the Game will resume, so... what's going to happen to me now?"
Joshua really didn't feel like answering that question. But... he'd already put this conversation off for far too long. It had already been a week since the Shinjuku Game had ended, after all. But in his defence, it wasn't as if Joshua had been twiddling his thumbs during that time. The day of the reversal, as soon as he'd gotten Neku to safety, he'd rushed to the border, but it was too late. One of his Tuners was already there waiting for him. And it was only a small relief that it was "Father" rather than "Mother" who was watching him from behind the border, arms crossed and eyes curious.
"Joshua, Joshua, Joshua..." he sighed in that tone that never missed to annoy the Composer. "What are we going to do with you, huh? Come on, let's go to the Heart." He said, taking the younger man by the shoulders before leading him towards the Death God Pad. Joshua would have preferred to run to Cat Street instead, and preferably without the Angel's arm, but he knew that going there would be pointless. If "Father" was here then "Mother" was with Sanae and, as much as it hurt him to say it, interfering would only make it worse for both of them. So he kept quiet and followed the Tuner without complaint even though he felt as if an iron collar was choking him.
What happened next... was surprisingly a little less bad than expected. For one thing, Sanae was still his Producer. In name, anyway. Banished to a lower plane, they had forbidden any contact for the foreseeable future. But they weren't stripping Sanae of his title, and that... was a huge relief. It meant that, although it might take years or even decades, her Tuners were thinking of giving Sanae back his rights and duties one day. And on a less important but equally joyous note, it meant that Joshua wouldn't have to put up with a new Angel who was likely to be far too rule-abiding and prevent him from cleaning out Shibuya properly. Which was... incredibly suspicious of his Tuners. Joshua would have thought that they would immediately take advantage of the vacancy and stuck him with a carefully selected babysitter. As if reading his thoughts, "Father" had immediately shaken his head in a strangely human gesture. "No, no." He had said. "We can't leave you without a Producer with the instability due to your Games and those of Shinjuku, especially when you barely have a Conductor worthy of the name." Unfortunately for Joshua, an experienced Producer had just lost his job. And, ho! Look at that! Shibuya was also in serious need of Reapers and there were a slew of available ones roaming the streets. So, incredibly happy to solve two problems at once, "Father" had dumped the surviving Reapers from Shinjuku and, worst of all, the ex-Executor in his lap.
And everything had continued to get worse after that.
So it hadn't been a good week for Joshua. Or months. Or to be honest: years. And the next one didn't sound any better… But Joshua didn't tell Neku about it. What would be the point of dumping a mountain of other problems on shoulders that already couldn't take them? "I can't get you into another Game anymore," Joshua said in as neutral a voice as possible. Because he could. Nakano would jump at the chance to get Neku into their ranks after the show he'd given them in Shinjuku. But Joshua couldn't condone it. "And with the state of your Vibe... you wouldn't be able to handle the transformation into a Reaper. So..."
"...We wait?" Neku completed when Joshua struggled to finish his sentence. The Composer nodded and Neku whispered in a small voice, "Years?"
"I can't tell you that, Neku. It depends on when I get my powers back. Or when you've recovered enough if you want to come back as a Reaper."
"What's going to happen to me in the meantime?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to stay in the dreamworlds for now. You are too weak right now to even keep a corporeal form. If you tried to walk around the UG in your condition, I wouldn't give you two hours before you turned into Noise."
Neku grimaced but eventually nodded. A minimal movement of his head, hardly an agreement and more a way of showing he'd heard. There was a long silence. Joshua found himself playing with his phone, opening and closing it without even realising it. Neku had a blank stare.
"Is that...was it you who made me dream about him?" Neku murmured, staring at his hands.
Joshua didn't really need to ask who.
"He looked so real... I thought..." Neku paused and looked at Joshua, doubt in his eyes. "Did Kikuo participate in the Game when he... left the RG?"
It would have been so easy to answer him, but no matter this one, it would only bring the boy pain. "Do you really want an answer to that question?"
All the courage Neku had put into his request vanished all at once and he shook his head. They remained in silence for a long time until, suddenly, Neku stood up to pick up a book. His body language had gone from downcast to excited in less than half a second and Joshua didn't even need the room around him to fade into a library to understand what had happened. The dreams had caught up with Neku, making him lose all sense of reality. But worse than a dream, it was another memory.
As Neku turned with a smile to Joshua, the almost Angel disappeared before he could call him by another name.
Think about letting a review on your way out and see you on the next chapter !
