101 Cycles - Sol Solis Pluvia (Part 2)
Authors: summersserenity and fushigimaii
Rating: PG-13 just to be safe
Parings: Eventual Josh/Neku Possible Others
Warnings: Endgame spoilers, Future boylove, swearing, and the constant involvement of OC's
Summary: Joshua took a risk when he chose to save shibuya. No good deed goes unpunished.
Notes: It's too long once again, pardon the mess!
Chapter Guide: Solis Occasus (Part 1) (Part 2) Peratio Tempus (Part 1) (Part 2) Sol Solis Pluvia (Part 1) (Part 2)
By the time the woman entered, Joshua had given up of looking around the room and closed his eyes, hoping to go to sleep. Sakuraba-san would have to greet him later.
She walked into the room cheerfully. “You’ll never guess what I found out toda-“ her voice trailed off as she looked at her son carrying and injured boy on his back.
“Oh god! What happened to him? Are you okay? We need to call an ambulance! Neku, why didn’t you just take him to the hospital! I could’ve met you there. Oh, don’t worry about that now I’ve got to-“
Joshua opened his eyes. He didn’t recall why, but the word ‘hospital’ made him sick to his stomach. “N-no I’m fine. You really don’t have to…” Why did that shake him up so much? Hosptial, what happened in a hospital….
“I…My mother…she…died in a hospital…when I was just born…I…I don’t like them much…” he pieced the words together. It was awkward, but he could tell it was right.
Before then, Neku had forgotten that Joshua is human, no matter what title he has, or had, and he’s had his traumas too. So once he heard that fact come out of the other boy’s mouth, he was more than a bit surprised.
Huh. Even that child has some normal problems.
And of course Thiera was still watching, from a plane higher than the UG.
Neku swayed on his feet a bit as he took another step inside, so he could close the door.
“Can I put him down, mom?”
Without even waiting for an answer, he rested the former prissy boy on the living room couch, and sighed with relief, his mission accomplished.
Well, not completely. There was still a pain pounding at his skull, and an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Neku thought they were normal aftereffects of what had happened down below, and he was probably right.
Upon hitting the couch fabric, Joshua winced and flipped over with amazing vigor. He shut his eyes tightly at the searing pain that had just returned to him upon losing contact with that beautiful music. He dug his fingers into a throw pillow that he now rested his head upon as he fought the pain.
“Oh my-…” Neku mother clasped her hand over her mouth. The marks burned into the boy’s back were terrifying.
There were two of them laid in a way which mimicked wings.
“What is it?” Joshua asked shakily.
“…Someone…had to have done that to him…Neku, what happened to you two?”
“Dunno.”
Neku was telling the truth, he really wasn’t sure what had happened, even though he was there.
“We got separated for a little while, then I found him, and he was like this.”
Neku’s mom gave him a bit of a skeptical look, but accepted the explanation.
As Neku’s mother pondered over Joshua’s injuries, Neku prayed to whatever good being that was in the higher plane to get rid of his random bodily pains.
Neku would’ve been able to deal with them alone, but combined; it was like Joshua shooting him all over again.
They hurt.
The headache wasn’t helping him focus on anything at all, the dizziness ruining his whole “I saved Joshua” look, and his stomach was trying to fight its way out of his body.
“Anybody want water? I‘ll go get some.”
“Oh Sakuraba, you cease to entertain me.”
Thiera spoke as if anyone could hear her. With the amount of relaxation she felt, she should’ve been in their living room, lying on the couch instead of Joshua, sipping soda and eating popcorn.
She chuckled.
“I love my job.”
Joshua made a dissatisfied noise. This wasn’t working. He couldn’t go to sleep. All the noise around him. He knew no one else could hear it. It was too obnoxious to just ignore. He clenched his eyes shut, but the annoying buzzing static in his ears kept him awake.
He wished he were close to Neku again. His music was calm and soothing and it drowned out the crazy things that kept him from resting properly. He’d never feel any better like this.
At least he knew he was safe here. Whatever happened to him, whoever hurt him…they weren’t here.
“Neku, bring some water for your friend too!”
“Okay.”
Neku shuffled into the kitchen, which was connected to the living room, and took two glasses from the cupboard.
He slowly opened the faucet and held one glass under, waiting for it to fill to the top.
I wonder how things will go from here. What’s going to happen to Shibuya without a Composer?
…What’ll happen to Josh?
Neku’s mother turned her attention away from the boy on the couch, wondering what was taking her son so long, and saw him holding an obviously overflowing glass.
“…Neku, dear, the water.”
“…Uh huh.”
“It’s overflowing, dear…”
Neku snapped out of it, quickly pulled his hand from the faucet, and filled the other glass. At least he was awake enough to drink some out of the first glass so it wouldn’t spill.
The doorbell rang just then. Neku’s mother looked around. “Oh, Honestly, like I need another thing to deal with.” She mumbled walking over to the door hastily. “If it’s one of those people selling magazines…I’m gonna.”
She opened the door to see no one. “Um…hello?” She looked around, and then downwards. A white box was lying on the floor, tied together with a brown string. “Huh..” She picked it up and looked at the note attached. “Neku, this package says it’s for you. You didn’t order one of those ridiculously overpriced Gatito things, did you?”
“I…didn’t order anything…”
Neku blankly stared at the box and wondered if something was gonna come out and attack him.
…Oh well. Might as well open it. Not like I haven’t been in mortal danger before.
He bent down and picked up the suspicious white box.
He untied the brown string, slowly getting more curious and opened the top of the box.
Inside the box laid a pin that had been given out a few months ago as a promotion from sunshine. The only reason anyone would know this was if they collected them.
Or if they, say, went by and got them in honor of a deceased friend who they felt responsible for.
The pin was laid on top of a note that was marked “read first” and to the side a lollipop. Bean paste flavored. A curiously un-related item to the rest of its contents.
Neku’s mother looked at the contents and shrugged. “Who would send you a box of junk like that?” she sighed and closed the door.
“…Ka…riya?”
Anyone who had played the Game would be able to connect the lollipop to its owner.
Neku picked up the note and began to read it.
Good job, if you’re reading this my package wasn’t intercepted by anything angelic. For the sake of those watching, I refuse to reveal my identity just yet. Keep them on their toes, hm?
If you’ve actually taken the time to read this before grabbing up that pin like a moron, then I suggest you go to a different room before doing so. It’s laced with a bit of soul that contains information the Composer has chosen to disclose to you in the off chance that his is erased, or sentenced to mortal suspension.
There will be more packages to be given a certain times. As you go along, it will become more evident what the message behind them is. Also, my identity will be revealed to you eventually.
Now you may go right on ahead and find a quite place to go over the information on the pin. Just don’t allow the Composer to know any of it if he is in mortal suspension or the angels will erase him and possibly you immediately.
The letter was signed with a doodle of what looked like a pin with a tiger noise on it.
Neku sighed, inwardly.
His mom definitely wouldn’t let him out of the house to go someplace quiet. Like the sewers.
Oh well.
Neku walked down to the bathroom, stepped in and locked the door.
Thiera had conveniently left just before the doorbell rang. It was very unlike Thiera to be so laid back on the job, but she truly believed that nothing would get in the way of its proper completion. And if anything did, she would just erase it.
Neku vaguely wondered how on earth he was supposed to use a pin when he was in the RG and just a human, but he shrugged and grasped the pin in his left hand, the other still clutching the box.
The pin activated quite easily. At first, it was like being in a dark room with little screens moving about. The screens projected from a person’s point of view, seeming like a faded memory.
One of them came into perfect focus, and the memory projected one of Joshua stand on top of Pork city. The person standing with him was watching and he looked pretty amazed at what he was seeing,
“…Music…of a city?” the person’s voice questioned. That voice was familiar. Who was this?
“Yeah, it’s the most amazing sound in the world…” Joshua replied dreamily. “I really do wish I could just show you! It’s impossible to describe it efficiently.”
The voice merely hummed. It didn’t sound like such a big deal. It was Shibuya’s music after all. The place wasn’t especially beautiful.
“Hm, perhaps one day I’ll be the composer. Then I’d be able to show you.”
“Hey! Don’t lean over the edge like that, you’ll fall!”
“Eh? Oh!” Joshua stepped back from where he had been leaning in to the sound of shibuya’s music. The sound was a dangerous thing indeed. He apparently hadn’t noticed at all.
That memory faded out and another came into clarity.
“You’re….insane.”
Joshua merely giggled a twirled around. “Don’t you like it? I think it looks splendid.” He was wearing a poofy Lolita dress with frills and ribbons and lace.
“You aren’t actually going to buy that thing, are you?”
“Why not? It’s expensive, girly and my father is going to absolutely hate it!”
“….Those would be reasons not to buy it if it were anyone else…”
Joshua giggled as the memory faded out again and the pin’s information was spent.
Neku had dropped the box throughout absorbing the pin’s information.
He released his grip, and stared at the pin.
Neku vaguely wondered why he was being shown such a, was different the right word?
No.
Happy.
Neku wondered why he was seeing a much happier Joshua, and what had really happened.
Neku opened the door to the bathroom and stepped out.
He looked at the pin one last time before he shoved it into his jeans pocket, and something hit him.
…It can’t be.
Neku was looking at the pin with complete shock now.
This is the same pin…
The same one from a few months ago…
It was.
It was the same pin that had fallen to the ground in front of their usual spot. Neku had placed it there, right in front of the Udagawa mural. This was the…sixth in the set, wasn’t it? Every time he’d left one, it had been gone by the time he came back with another.
His friend had really loved that stupid game.
He’d joked about it sometimes, and told them those things would be useless eventually when the next craze hit. He’d pretty much made fun of him for it. Now he felt like it was a tie to him, to leave them here and have them disappear when he came back.
Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe some kid had walked by and saw them, and took it away. It could’ve been knocked away when someone walked by. Neku liked to think it hadn’t been that, but obviously he was wrong.
The question now was…who did take them?
Rating: PG-13 just to be safe
Parings: Eventual Josh/Neku Possible Others
Warnings: Endgame spoilers, Future boylove, swearing, and the constant involvement of OC's
Summary: Joshua took a risk when he chose to save shibuya. No good deed goes unpunished.
Notes: It's too long once again, pardon the mess!
Chapter Guide: Solis Occasus (Part 1) (Part 2) Peratio Tempus (Part 1) (Part 2) Sol Solis Pluvia (Part 1) (Part 2)
By the time the woman entered, Joshua had given up of looking around the room and closed his eyes, hoping to go to sleep. Sakuraba-san would have to greet him later.
She walked into the room cheerfully. “You’ll never guess what I found out toda-“ her voice trailed off as she looked at her son carrying and injured boy on his back.
“Oh god! What happened to him? Are you okay? We need to call an ambulance! Neku, why didn’t you just take him to the hospital! I could’ve met you there. Oh, don’t worry about that now I’ve got to-“
Joshua opened his eyes. He didn’t recall why, but the word ‘hospital’ made him sick to his stomach. “N-no I’m fine. You really don’t have to…” Why did that shake him up so much? Hosptial, what happened in a hospital….
“I…My mother…she…died in a hospital…when I was just born…I…I don’t like them much…” he pieced the words together. It was awkward, but he could tell it was right.
Before then, Neku had forgotten that Joshua is human, no matter what title he has, or had, and he’s had his traumas too. So once he heard that fact come out of the other boy’s mouth, he was more than a bit surprised.
Huh. Even that child has some normal problems.
And of course Thiera was still watching, from a plane higher than the UG.
Neku swayed on his feet a bit as he took another step inside, so he could close the door.
“Can I put him down, mom?”
Without even waiting for an answer, he rested the former prissy boy on the living room couch, and sighed with relief, his mission accomplished.
Well, not completely. There was still a pain pounding at his skull, and an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Neku thought they were normal aftereffects of what had happened down below, and he was probably right.
Upon hitting the couch fabric, Joshua winced and flipped over with amazing vigor. He shut his eyes tightly at the searing pain that had just returned to him upon losing contact with that beautiful music. He dug his fingers into a throw pillow that he now rested his head upon as he fought the pain.
“Oh my-…” Neku mother clasped her hand over her mouth. The marks burned into the boy’s back were terrifying.
There were two of them laid in a way which mimicked wings.
“What is it?” Joshua asked shakily.
“…Someone…had to have done that to him…Neku, what happened to you two?”
“Dunno.”
Neku was telling the truth, he really wasn’t sure what had happened, even though he was there.
“We got separated for a little while, then I found him, and he was like this.”
Neku’s mom gave him a bit of a skeptical look, but accepted the explanation.
As Neku’s mother pondered over Joshua’s injuries, Neku prayed to whatever good being that was in the higher plane to get rid of his random bodily pains.
Neku would’ve been able to deal with them alone, but combined; it was like Joshua shooting him all over again.
They hurt.
The headache wasn’t helping him focus on anything at all, the dizziness ruining his whole “I saved Joshua” look, and his stomach was trying to fight its way out of his body.
“Anybody want water? I‘ll go get some.”
“Oh Sakuraba, you cease to entertain me.”
Thiera spoke as if anyone could hear her. With the amount of relaxation she felt, she should’ve been in their living room, lying on the couch instead of Joshua, sipping soda and eating popcorn.
She chuckled.
“I love my job.”
Joshua made a dissatisfied noise. This wasn’t working. He couldn’t go to sleep. All the noise around him. He knew no one else could hear it. It was too obnoxious to just ignore. He clenched his eyes shut, but the annoying buzzing static in his ears kept him awake.
He wished he were close to Neku again. His music was calm and soothing and it drowned out the crazy things that kept him from resting properly. He’d never feel any better like this.
At least he knew he was safe here. Whatever happened to him, whoever hurt him…they weren’t here.
“Neku, bring some water for your friend too!”
“Okay.”
Neku shuffled into the kitchen, which was connected to the living room, and took two glasses from the cupboard.
He slowly opened the faucet and held one glass under, waiting for it to fill to the top.
I wonder how things will go from here. What’s going to happen to Shibuya without a Composer?
…What’ll happen to Josh?
Neku’s mother turned her attention away from the boy on the couch, wondering what was taking her son so long, and saw him holding an obviously overflowing glass.
“…Neku, dear, the water.”
“…Uh huh.”
“It’s overflowing, dear…”
Neku snapped out of it, quickly pulled his hand from the faucet, and filled the other glass. At least he was awake enough to drink some out of the first glass so it wouldn’t spill.
The doorbell rang just then. Neku’s mother looked around. “Oh, Honestly, like I need another thing to deal with.” She mumbled walking over to the door hastily. “If it’s one of those people selling magazines…I’m gonna.”
She opened the door to see no one. “Um…hello?” She looked around, and then downwards. A white box was lying on the floor, tied together with a brown string. “Huh..” She picked it up and looked at the note attached. “Neku, this package says it’s for you. You didn’t order one of those ridiculously overpriced Gatito things, did you?”
“I…didn’t order anything…”
Neku blankly stared at the box and wondered if something was gonna come out and attack him.
…Oh well. Might as well open it. Not like I haven’t been in mortal danger before.
He bent down and picked up the suspicious white box.
He untied the brown string, slowly getting more curious and opened the top of the box.
Inside the box laid a pin that had been given out a few months ago as a promotion from sunshine. The only reason anyone would know this was if they collected them.
Or if they, say, went by and got them in honor of a deceased friend who they felt responsible for.
The pin was laid on top of a note that was marked “read first” and to the side a lollipop. Bean paste flavored. A curiously un-related item to the rest of its contents.
Neku’s mother looked at the contents and shrugged. “Who would send you a box of junk like that?” she sighed and closed the door.
“…Ka…riya?”
Anyone who had played the Game would be able to connect the lollipop to its owner.
Neku picked up the note and began to read it.
Good job, if you’re reading this my package wasn’t intercepted by anything angelic. For the sake of those watching, I refuse to reveal my identity just yet. Keep them on their toes, hm?
If you’ve actually taken the time to read this before grabbing up that pin like a moron, then I suggest you go to a different room before doing so. It’s laced with a bit of soul that contains information the Composer has chosen to disclose to you in the off chance that his is erased, or sentenced to mortal suspension.
There will be more packages to be given a certain times. As you go along, it will become more evident what the message behind them is. Also, my identity will be revealed to you eventually.
Now you may go right on ahead and find a quite place to go over the information on the pin. Just don’t allow the Composer to know any of it if he is in mortal suspension or the angels will erase him and possibly you immediately.
The letter was signed with a doodle of what looked like a pin with a tiger noise on it.
Neku sighed, inwardly.
His mom definitely wouldn’t let him out of the house to go someplace quiet. Like the sewers.
Oh well.
Neku walked down to the bathroom, stepped in and locked the door.
Thiera had conveniently left just before the doorbell rang. It was very unlike Thiera to be so laid back on the job, but she truly believed that nothing would get in the way of its proper completion. And if anything did, she would just erase it.
Neku vaguely wondered how on earth he was supposed to use a pin when he was in the RG and just a human, but he shrugged and grasped the pin in his left hand, the other still clutching the box.
The pin activated quite easily. At first, it was like being in a dark room with little screens moving about. The screens projected from a person’s point of view, seeming like a faded memory.
One of them came into perfect focus, and the memory projected one of Joshua stand on top of Pork city. The person standing with him was watching and he looked pretty amazed at what he was seeing,
“…Music…of a city?” the person’s voice questioned. That voice was familiar. Who was this?
“Yeah, it’s the most amazing sound in the world…” Joshua replied dreamily. “I really do wish I could just show you! It’s impossible to describe it efficiently.”
The voice merely hummed. It didn’t sound like such a big deal. It was Shibuya’s music after all. The place wasn’t especially beautiful.
“Hm, perhaps one day I’ll be the composer. Then I’d be able to show you.”
“Hey! Don’t lean over the edge like that, you’ll fall!”
“Eh? Oh!” Joshua stepped back from where he had been leaning in to the sound of shibuya’s music. The sound was a dangerous thing indeed. He apparently hadn’t noticed at all.
That memory faded out and another came into clarity.
“You’re….insane.”
Joshua merely giggled a twirled around. “Don’t you like it? I think it looks splendid.” He was wearing a poofy Lolita dress with frills and ribbons and lace.
“You aren’t actually going to buy that thing, are you?”
“Why not? It’s expensive, girly and my father is going to absolutely hate it!”
“….Those would be reasons not to buy it if it were anyone else…”
Joshua giggled as the memory faded out again and the pin’s information was spent.
Neku had dropped the box throughout absorbing the pin’s information.
He released his grip, and stared at the pin.
Neku vaguely wondered why he was being shown such a, was different the right word?
No.
Happy.
Neku wondered why he was seeing a much happier Joshua, and what had really happened.
Neku opened the door to the bathroom and stepped out.
He looked at the pin one last time before he shoved it into his jeans pocket, and something hit him.
…It can’t be.
Neku was looking at the pin with complete shock now.
This is the same pin…
The same one from a few months ago…
It was.
It was the same pin that had fallen to the ground in front of their usual spot. Neku had placed it there, right in front of the Udagawa mural. This was the…sixth in the set, wasn’t it? Every time he’d left one, it had been gone by the time he came back with another.
His friend had really loved that stupid game.
He’d joked about it sometimes, and told them those things would be useless eventually when the next craze hit. He’d pretty much made fun of him for it. Now he felt like it was a tie to him, to leave them here and have them disappear when he came back.
Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe some kid had walked by and saw them, and took it away. It could’ve been knocked away when someone walked by. Neku liked to think it hadn’t been that, but obviously he was wrong.
The question now was…who did take them?