Story: Mind the Gaps (French version available : "Intervalles")
Date: posted the 20 of March 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 are a lot of troubles until...
Trigger of this chapitre: None I can think of
Enjoy your reading!
"And the emperor?"
"Uh... Yamashitastuff?"
Joshua sighed heavily. "No." he replied simply before thinking that this refusal didn't convey enough how wrong it was and adding, "Really not."
"Ah shit..." muttered Beat as he slumped back onto the couch. Joshua felt like doing the same. He hadn't signed up to be a history tutor after all and especially not to a dunce like Beat.
But, well... Well, it occurred to his surprise that his phone hadn't even rung once in the last week and a half. Well, no, it had rung, but for a whole lot of useless matters that somehow were totally for Joshua to handle. A Reaper deciding to see if the grass was greener elsewhere without an official transfer order? Yeah, okay, annoying, but he knew how to deal with that kind of thing. But a leak in the roof of Pork City? Technically, that was his responsibility, Joshua was the manager after all. Yeah, except, well, Sanae had been handling all those logistics before and he had absolutely no idea what to do. So he'd spent the week literally and figuratively wading through this problem. He had finally sorted it out with the impromptu but much needed help of the Reviewer. Apparently, in addition to knowing a lot of Shibuya trivia, the Reaper was a former handyman before the UG. The forty-something had seen Joshua, in his teenage form, staring blankly at the ceiling leak in the top floor corridor and had rolled up his sleeves.
Having absolutely no desire to deal with this kind of thing again, the Wall-Reaper had found himself with an impromptu job change the next day. A part-time job as manager of Pork City. Kariya had told him that he was rather happy about it, znd it wasn't surprising, it was hard to spit on the nice halving of the number of points needed as a Wall-Reaper. Especially with the increase in Noise at the moment, which made the work of the less powerful downright dangerous.
And did the Reviewer realize that the clueless teenager he'd helped was in fact the Shibuya Composer, or at least related to him? Possibly. But Joshua was going to shrug it off and be just fine. Until it eventually exploded in his face, anyway.
All that to say, with that on top of his usual problems, Joshua hadn't immediately noticed that Shiki and the others hadn't even sent him a single message in nearly two weeks. He still had one ear more or less to their Vibe, isolating them in the symphony that was Shibuya without too much difficulty, so he knew they were fine if a little stressed. And so the fact that they weren't pestering him with messages was... not worrying! Just a little... surprising.
Because, ever since Shiki had extorted his phone number from him at Neku's birthday party all those months ago and then had the audacity to share it with the whole group, Joshua hadn't been able to go a week without even a single email checking in or asking when he was free. Especially when Eri had started to get into it after they'd put them in touch with Gatito. Not having the holy respect that others, knowing he was the Composer, had, Eri had absolutely no qualms about pestering him despite his repeated refusals.
And, of course, he only received their messages when he took the time to go down to the RG with his phone, the messages not passing between two plans (well, not yet, one of the new Reaper was working on a promising network though...) but it was always annoying when, after a long week of Playing where he hadn't been down once, his phone was convulsing on itself while receiving the numerous pending notifications.
So this time, when he finally set foot in the RG after a week and a half and triple the usual problems behind him, Joshua froze for a few seconds wondering what was bothering him before realising that his phone hadn't had its usual epileptic fit.
So, once again, Joshua wasn't worried. Just surprised.
It was not difficult to spot their Vibe. Not only because he knew them by heart by now, but also because Shibuya had developed a strange habit of pushing them towards him, even at the most inconvenient times. Especially at the most inconvenient times, in fact. For example, when he really had to nipping yet another revolution in the bud and not worry about why Rhyme was feeling sad today or why Beat was leaving the district when he should be in class. Anyway. They were in Sanae's studio above WildKat which wasn't surprising when they had free time but a bit more so considering it was Sunday and it was well... Joshua checked his phone... nearly 10pm. Urgh, his post-game meetings seemed to be getting longer and longer if that was possible. The fact that he'd been treated to a sermon from Mother must have contributed to that.
Ten minutes later, after a short stroll to avoid the UG's attention, Joshua wiped his feet on the café's outdoor carpet and climbed the hidden stairs to the large workshop. There, as he'd sensed, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme and even Eri were sprawled across the room, books all around them and a dead silence in the air. Unsurprisingly, it was Rhyme who noticed first. She was always more sensitive to other plans and she looked up as soon as he stepped into the room.
With a tired smile she waved her hand in greeting, still without a sound. It was only after the others noticed and asked what was going on that Rhyme explained. "It's midterms." she declared and Beat groaned from the back of the room. "So we're studying. It's rare that you come to us on your own, is there a problem?" She asked in a whisper at the end, probably because his possible worries would surely be UG related and Eri didn't know.
"No, no, I was bored." He lied without a twinge of remorse before continuing a little nastily because they had worried him for nothing. "Sunday night, you know, we just wrapped up a Game and I don't have much else to do." Oh, almost nothing, just preparing for the next one which was scheduled for the following day at 11am because his new administration seemed to be trying to set a new record number of burn outs.
As he expected, Rhyme flinched slightly at the word 'Game' and instinctively moved away from him. Beat hiccupped not far from them and Shiki, who had finally risen from her own corner of the room to join them, tripped violently over nothing.
"Wow!" Eri exclaimed as she caught her partner and steadied her on her feet. After making sure everything was okay, the redhead turned to Joshua with a big smile. "Another campaign? I thought you finished one last week?"
"We're playing every week these days." Joshua replied with a shrug and he saw Shiki wince behind Eri.
"Wow, I don't know how you find the time, it's great!" She exclaimed far too happily. "I've always wanted to try roleplaying but I didn't know anyone who did. You're a GM, right?" she asked. From talking about games with others where she could sometimes hear them, Eri had made the ironic assumption that Joshua worked in board game design for Gatito and organised rounds of RPs there with his colleagues. Which was... not too far from the truth, really. "We should play a game to test it out once. There's five of us anyway, that's a perfect number, wouldn't that be nice?" She said as she turned to the other three and Joshua was pleased to see them attempt their best smile, a broken thing that looked more like a twisted grimace. Joshua didn't need to listen to their Vibe to guess the flashbacks of their own games playing out behind their eyes.
Sensing a hint of annoyance that, in a more traditional person, might be called remorse, Joshua quickly changed the subject. "'So what about the end of term exams? I understand why Rhyme and Beat revise so diligently, but it's not like you two need them with Gatto Nero."
"We can't all be geniuses who finish high school at fifteen, you know." Eri teased him, patting his shoulder. It was a good thing Joshua had proven to Shiki that he wasn't going to attack at the drop of a hat or anything Eri had done today would have made the seamstress faint. As it was, she was still a little white and raised her hands to Eri as if to stop her, but she didn't. Still, he was a little pleased that she seemed more mortified by Eri's actions than truly frightened by Joshua...
"Clearly not." Joshua smiled, quite happy with his cover story. "Your parents, I assume?" Joshua asked, turning to Shiki.
The girl nodded, "Well, I'd like to finish high school anyway but yes, they told me they'd support my career if I could finish high school with honors."
"With honours?" Beat winced and Eri immediately patted his shoulders in support, looking equally disgusted. Eri was doing okay in school but it was clearly not her greatest passion.
"It's okay." Shiki smiled. "I'm managing to keep my grades up for now. There's only one year of high school left, this is the final stretch!"
"Yeah, well, one year if we pass this year first! So hop, hop, hop back to it!" Eri smiled before pushing Shiki towards their previous work area. Shiki laughed but let herself be pushed without much resistance.
"I should go back too." Rhyme smiled but her even more innocent look than usual didn't bode well. "But Beat really needs help reciting... oh I know! Joshua since you're here maybe you review it with him?"
"What? Hey, nah, I don't need pris-... him, yo!" Beat exclaimed, barely restraining himself from insulting the Composer in the process. Habits die hard, Joshua snorted.
It was the look of absolute horror on Beat's face that convinced a not-so-motivated Joshua to help him. Who was he to prevent the transmission of knowledge, after all?
"Of course." Joshua smiled at Rhyme and Beat slumped down with a delicious, strangled groan. Oh, Joshua had no doubt that it was going to be painful for himself too.
But far less than for Beat.
Think about letting a review on your way out and see you the 30th for the continuation!
