Story: Mind the Gaps (French version available : "Intervalles")
Date: posted the 10 of June 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
Enjoy your reading!
"Joshua!" Father called joyfully. Trotting over to him, he dropped onto the Composer's shoulders, placing his chin in the hollow of his neck. He had the perfect posture of a man relaxed and at ease. Yet there was nothing warm about this embrace, and while Joshua didn't feel uncomfortable, he didn't feel much of anything positive either. It was a far cry from Beat's tonic bear hugs or Shiki's gentle cuddles. No, it was more... analytical. Another of Father's experiments, in short: how to emulate human physical proximity. Joshua was sure this was it.
"Hello Father." He greeted. "You're early."
"Awww, Joshua, you almost sound disappointed!" The Tuner smiled. He jabbed a finger into Joshua's cheek, and the young adult had to restrain himself from pushing the man off him. "I just came to say hello. We always only see each other for work, it's such a shame. How are you?"
"As you can see, I'm doing very well." The Composer replied. He almost continued to speak, but barely held back. Father wanted information, that was obvious, but he didn't know about what. The less he gave the Tuner, the better it was for himself. His interests and Father's coincided more often than not, but that didn't mean the Angel was on his side.
"I see, I see." Father replied, finally letting go of Joshua. Sliding beside him, he leaned on the railing to observe the street below them. The two Angels were in Dogenzaka, just above the new ramen shop. "And you're working, I suppose?"
Joshua hummed in response. On the floor below, they could easily see Wall-Reapers whispering. They were newbies, labour hired after the coup. Technically not from Shinjuku, but certainly not from Shibuya either. Joshua hadn't refined these souls, they lacked that something that typically characterised Shibuya's Reapers, and thus Joshua felt no attachment to them. But still, he felt a little sorry for them. Because these Reapers, shaped by a bastard doctrine, were in a very bad spot. They didn't have the support of either the Shibuya Reaper or the Shinjuku Reaper. As a result, those who miraculously managed to survive their initiation period were not at the end of their tether. Without anyone to rely on, constantly trying to keep their heads above water, they were forced to resort to unsavoury means.
Like the two Reapers below, who were forcing players to do some of their work in an attempt to pick up a few much-needed points.
Of course, everyone knew that the Reapers shamelessly used Players to do their dirty work. A mission to unblock a wall was normally left to the discretion of the Wall-Reapers, and those that helped the well-being of the city were preferred. Killing a certain number of Noise, making one brand more popular than another, selling a product, encouraging new ideas in the RG or even solving private problems to stop a source of Noise... that was classic. But if they wanted players to bring them coffee to let them through, they had every right to do that too. Or, at least, as long as the mission was in line with the Game Master's requests for the week. However, there were exceptions. In particular, all Reapers below the rank of Officer, i.e. Lieutenants, Wall-Reapers and, of course, Apprentices, were forbidden from carrying out missions directly related to game management. As a result, it was illegal to let players sort out the souls of the newly dead, or write mission reports or, as in this case, leave them out of stasis outside game hours to help prepare for the next day's game.
It was 2pm, not what you'd call late, but given that the day's Game had taken place from 8am to midday, there was no reason why two players should still be awake now. And yet that was the case, a man in his forties and a girl in her twenties were still battling Noises. They were from the Celestial Equine team, a very young group, no more than four weeks old. Well, after a month, you couldn't really say they were new. With Matsunae tending to wipe out teams left and right, and the ever-growing number of Noises doing the same, a month was starting to be a pretty respectable lifespan for a team.
"Isn't that against your rules?" Father asked, putting his cheek in one hand to look sideways at Joshua.
"It doesn't seem to be against those of my Conductor." Joshua replied as if he didn't care. Father wasn't fooled, though, and a small laugh escaped him. Not that he'd tried to hold back, or in any case, he'd put very little effort into it.
To be perfectly honest, yes, Joshua was incredibly annoyed. There were rules for a reason, and normally breaking them didn't help either the Players or the Reapers in the long run. But after two and a half years of struggling with almost nothing going his way, Joshua had mastered the art of 'dealing with it'. And one had to take things into account: this wasn't 'normal times', so the Reapers' actions were understandable. They needed points to survive and, unfortunately, Shinjuku's excessive timetable meant that they couldn't earn them outside the game. Goodbye, then, to the option of earning points through their artistic activities.
The problem was that not only did they have to earn enough points to support their Vibe and therefore survive, but they also had to complete all the tasks assigned to them if they didn't want to be erased for incompetence. So yes, forcing the players to fight the Noises they had to manage wasn't legal, but it was understandable. And even then, Joshua would surely have punished them if, once again, they weren't in such an abnormal situation.
The situation being: there were far too many Noises to deal with.
The Conductor's campaign to increase the population had worked far too well and they now found themselves in the rather comical situation of not having enough Reapers to manage them. Not that the Conductor seemed to mind, of course. After all, it wasn't a lack of incompetence that had got them into this mess. No, it was entirely deliberate.
And so now Joshua had to do damage control. He needed the Reapers to do their job, but the Reapers couldn't handle the enormous load, so Joshua wasn't against the Players taking care of it. Because, obviously, what mattered most to Joshua in this equation wasn't the Players or the Reapers, it was Shibuya. And in this case, the Reapers had a better chance of surviving and doing the town a favour than the Players who, after one or more weeks, would be wiped out, rejoin the ranks or come back to life. He would then take it upon himself to let the Reapers do their little business to the detriment of the Players.
In any case, if these Reapers needed the Players so badly to survive, it wouldn't be long before they were wiped out too.
"You know, Joshua, I have to admit I'm impressed by your tenacity." Father said suddenly, interrupting Joshua's thoughts. "Even if I had bet my better half that you'd last longer than she thought, you're not far off exceeding my wildest predictions."
"I'm very sorry to disappoint your expectations." He replied, absent-mindedly playing with his hair.
"Don't be! I find it all tremendously amusing. It's been decades since I found anything so interesting!" Father smiled. "But still, I wonder, after more than two years without power, with a city you barely control and no one left to support you... Wouldn't it be easier to just give it all up and ascend?"
With the flat tone and phrasing, it sounded like Father wanted what he was asking about. However, Joshua knew who he was dealing with and Father was very different from Mother. No, what the Tuner wanted was...
"Don't worry, Father, your source of entertainment isn't going away anytime soon."
Father grinned, a thing with a bit too many teeth, not quite human. But it was fitting, Father wasn't human at all, anyway. Resting his head completely on his arms, the Tuner looked up at Joshua from under his lashes.
"I'm very glad to hear that." He purred. "Although I suspect my enjoyment had very little to do with your decision."
Or at all, Joshua tried not to think too loudly.
Suddenly, the Tuner stood up, leaning a little too close to the Composer. With the latest growth spurt that Joshua had undergone in order to age at the same time as his partners, Father had become slightly smaller than he was. But that didn't stop him from being incredibly imposing, and Joshua had to force himself not to back down.
"What are you so afraid of? It's not as if this is the first time you've thrown yourself into the unknown, you chose to be a Composer, after all." Father asked curiously. "I'd also go so far as to say that you're the best-prepared Composer for Ascending that I've ever met. Knowing that, without boasting, I have come across quite a few in my long death."
And then, without even giving Joshua time to find a retort to this, Father passed his hand under the Composer's arm to touch his spine. Without Joshua being able to do anything about it, the Tuner coaxed his Vibe and withdrew his hand, causing two pure white wings to sprout behind the Composer's shoulders.
Beneath this mass of white feathers, the bony structure of the young Reapers' wings was nowhere to be seen. Joshua didn't need Father to speak any further for him to understand his point: even if Joshua didn't ascend, he was already an Angel in all but name. So what was the point of arguing? It was a question Joshua had asked himself for a long time and to which he had found, but also lost, many answers.
However, Father and Mother would have to wait a little longer before he joined them: he had once again found a reason to stay.
Think about letting a review on your way out, and see you the 20th for the continuation!
