Chapter 1
Title Outreach [1/?]
Author starcrossed_sky
Genre Various
Word length Chapter 2K; 2K total
Summary: It's been two years since the end of the Game, but it seems like the Game (and Joshua) aren't going to let Neku go so easily.
Rating: T+ for cursing, some battle stuff, and Composer on Neku lovins
Pairingy stuffs: Eventual Josh/Neku, with a bit of Beat/OC and possibly others on the side.
Notes: This chapter's Director's Commentary can be found here. I'd also advise reading the pre-fic timeline. THIS FIC IS VERY MUCH POST GAME, EXPECT SPOILERS HURR.
The sound of a gunshot. The thud against his chest, he knows it has to be bleeding, but he can't feel anything. The smirk is still in place, untouchable as ever, but as he crumples to the floor, the eyes behind the barrel soften in some undisclosed emotion. There is a whisper of some power, and then his vision goes white, and he can't remember anything after.
-----
And that was the last time Neku saw Joshua.
Two years have passed since that first day, that first shot in Udagawa, and Neku knew he should be moving on about now. He has friends to hang out with and things to do, after all. But it always seems like, when he gets comfortable with living again, something happens.
Like when, two months after being returned to life, Neku realized that he could still see Players running through the streets. He reached out, trying to help a girl who'd fallen, and his hand passed right through her. The look on her face when their eyes met still pops up in his dreams, sometimes. And the look on her face as her partner was Erased three days later will live on in his nightmares.
Or like when he first realized that he was being watched. It was like a feeling of eyes from all over, just Joshua checking in, a little reminder that he was still out there somewhere, watching Shibuya from wherever he watched from. Neku didn't especially want to talk to him, most of the time. Let the Composer go on doing Composery things. The less Neku interacted with that world, the better.
But today was different. Today Neku was all too aware that dying was, in fact, a life-changing experience.
He'd be perfectly happy to not do any more of it, thank you.
The mural had changed a few times over the last two years; no one ever saw who did it, so CAT's identity was still unknown to most of the world. Right now it was a collage of wings, angelic and demonic and the strange tattoo outlines of Reaper's wings all thrown together. Neku absently ran his hand down one of the black spray-paint marks, before reaching down to finger the Player Pin he's always wearing.
The sensation of opening the world to see into people's minds was as electric as always, even though hardly anyone was around. Just the shopkeepers down in the skating stores Beat loves and... a pair of Players. Neku let go of the Player Pin with a slight shudder, and walked away from the mural down towards the shops. He thought he could help them somehow, but by the time he reached the shop, the Players were already gone, that odd disappearance that happens at the end of each day's Game. Neku hoped they'd managed their objective, or at least that someone else had managed it for them.
Rubbing the back of his head (Joshua was watching again, probably more observing the Players who'd just disappeared than anything Neku might be doing), Neku turned the corner just in time to spy a familiar figure ducking into the art supply store down the way.
"Hey, Rhyme! Wait up!"
----
"So lemme guess, he wasn't there." Rhyme hadn't really said it as a question, but Neku nodded slightly anyway.
"Yeah, nothing as usual, that jerk." Rhyme sighed, causing her bangs to flutter upward for a moment, before going back to browsing the shelf of artist pens.
Rhyme had grown a lot in the last two years, finally catching up a bit to her much taller brother. She was about Neku's height now, taller than Shiki, and she had let her blond hair grow out a bit. She'd taken up drawing a while ago, and seemed to have acquired an odd "gift" - Rhyme was constantly drawing Erased Players for some bizarre reason, even though she'd never seen most of them. Neku didn't look in her sketchbook much anymore―he couldn't stand seeing all the faces that he knew only existed any more on this slip of paper, in these pencil marks, in this doodle. Rhyme drew Noise sometimes, too, and Neku wasn't sure if she could see the Noise or if the Noise came into being because of her.
"I don't see why you don't just, call him or something," Rhyme said a while later, when they were in the back pick out some fabric paint that Shiki had asked Rhyme to pick up. "Look him up in the phonebook or something. Shiki likes this brand, right?" She lifted a small squirt bottle, and Neku nodded in response to the last question.
"I somehow doubt the Composer put himself in the phonebook for just anyone to call up, Rhyme." Knowing Joshua, he'd use those light beams of his on any telemarketer foolish enough to call. "I tried texting him a few times, anyway." With the number in his phone from that time Joshua sent him a fake Mission Mail.
Rhyme loaded a few tubes of the paint into her shopping basket. "'If at first you don't succeed...' It can't hurt, Neku. What's the worst he could do?"
"Show up and shoot me again?" Okay, so maybe Neku was still a bit bitter about that. Rhyme rolled her eyes. "Hey, you're the one always going about 'third time's the charm' and all that. I might actually stay dead, next time."
"Neku, he must have had a reason."
"Yeah, well he's not exactly being very forthcoming about it, is he?!" Neku snapped back, almost immediately feeling bad. It wasn't Rhyme's fault that Joshua was a dick. Rhyme put a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on Neku. At least give him a chance." She headed off to the check out, leaving Neku alone with his thoughts. Neku resisted the temptation to pull the familiar safety of the headphones around his neck over his ears; even after two years, he hadn't fully broken himself of the habit.
All I want to know is why.
----
Neku walked Rhyme home afterward, carefully steering her away from any topic that touched on Joshua. Beat was as glad to see them as usual; he was messing around the alley near where the two lived again, humming a tune from the band he was with right now. Bands in Shibuya came and went a lot (hardly anyone remembered Def Märch anymore, although their lead singer getting Erased might have had something to do with that), but the one Beat was with was still mostly together after eight months, much to his frustration. According to Beat, it was only the bassist holding the group together; the lead guitarist and the girl doing the singing were fighting constantly, and most of the rest of the band was getting really sick of it.
"Seeya later, man!" Beat called as Neku waved over his shoulder at the two, trying to avoid Rhyme's gaze. She'd probably pester him about seeing Joshua tomorrow, though. Neku didn't even know for sure why she cared all of a sudden.
It's been two years. It's not as though he's going to be waiting around the corner or something. There was a phone booth around the corner, though. And it was empty. In fact, all the phone booths on Neku's way home were empty, like Shibuya itself was trying to convince him to give Rhyme's a suggestion a shot. After a stalled car and redirected traffic forced Neku to take a "scenic route" through Molco (and past the famed Phone Booth Of Love~), he gave in and headed into the payphone, heaving the thick book onto the little shelf and paging through it.
The page where Joshua's name would have been was a bit odd looking, although at least there wasn't "NEKU, COME SEE ME" written across the entire page. It took Neku a moment to realize why -there was an extra name and address in one of the columns, which, he was sure, would end up being the Composer's when he looked closer. So Joshua's name only showed up if you knew where to look, huh? Well, it was one way of keeping out telemarketers.
There was only an address, and Neku scribbled it down on one of the scraps of paper in his pocket. "You couldn't just make it easy for me, could you?" he said to the sky (or rather, the roof of the phone booth) before closing the phonebook. The feeling of Joshua watching him didn't really change, but Neku somehow knew that his old Partner was probably doing that stupid girly little chuckle somewhere. Muttering to himself, Neku shut the door of the booth and resumed his walk home.
"Fine, I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" After a moment, his phone beeped. Neku pulled it out of his pocket, raising an eyebrow at the text message from "My Jackass Partner";
[See you then. <3]
Neku just groaned. "Was the heart really necessary?" But the feeling of Joshua watching him was already gone.
The rest of his walk home, Neku could have sworn that Shibuya itself was singing.
----
Neku sighed, glancing over his shoulder before peering back at the street signs. "You guys really didn't have to come, you know."
"What're you talkin' about? 'Course we did, man." Beat gave Neku one of his practically-trademarked grins, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly (and almost whacking Shiki with his elbow). "Someone's gotta be able to tell the police where you went."
"Gee, that really makes me feel confident about this whole thing. Thanks, Beat."
"Hey, I'm just tryin' to be realism..."
"Realistic, Beat," Rhyme corrected automatically.
"Righ', what she said, yo."
Neku facepalmed. Shiki giggled, holding Mr. Mew in her arms as usual. Even though she was still well on the road to becoming a seamstress (Rhyme's outfit was her work, as was the jacket packed into the duffel bag Neku was carrying), she was also the one out of their group that cared the most about university entry exams in a year or so. Beat didn't really care about studying for them (as usual), Neku had acquired the bad habit of putting off his studying in favor of writing music, and of course they were still years away for Rhyme. Between that and her general aversion to all things Game-related, Neku was actually a little surprised that Shiki had come along. He was hardly complaining, though.
"Well, here we are." Neku glanced up at the tall building that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere at the end of the alley.
"Is it just me, or was that not there before?" Shiki looked up at the building, too. "Because I think I would remember that..."
"No, you're right." Neku shoved the sheet of paper into his pants pocket. "Joshua probably did something to it, like with the phonebook."
"Bet he has the penthouse," Rhyme observed, and Neku nodded in response. That was exactly the kind of thing Joshua would do.
Beat scrunched his eyebrows, pulling his cap back from over his eyes. "Is that a... freaking TREE on the roof?!" It sure looked like it, a bulge against the outline of the rooftop in some shades of green. Neku just rolled his eyes.
"It's Joshua, nothing can surprise me anymore."
"Be careful what you wish for," Rhyme chided him. Neku chuckled, shifting the bag on his shoulder.
"Yeah, well... Here goes nothing, I guess." Before Neku could make good on his words and enter the building, Beat wrapped him in a hug, and Rhyme and Shiki joined in. Neku smiled, managing to awkwardly wrap his arms around the girls and give them a squeeze. "Thanks, you guys."
"Ain't thanks for nothing, man. I told ya, you're my friend." Beat released Neku's shoulders, grinning.
"Still, thank you." And then he didn't have any choice but to head towards the pair of sliding glass doors leading into the narrow building. He glanced at the apartment number―1301. Rhyme was probably right about it being the penthouse, with that kind of number. Neku turned his head up to the roof, where Joshua was probably staring down at him right now. "You just couldn't make this easy for me, could you?" Neku pulled the headphones over his ears before heading for the doors-he needed all the confidence he could get.
Maybe if he was lucky, his shuffled playlist would resist playing some sappy Farewell Project love song.
Author starcrossed_sky
Genre Various
Word length Chapter 2K; 2K total
Summary: It's been two years since the end of the Game, but it seems like the Game (and Joshua) aren't going to let Neku go so easily.
Rating: T+ for cursing, some battle stuff, and Composer on Neku lovins
Pairingy stuffs: Eventual Josh/Neku, with a bit of Beat/OC and possibly others on the side.
Notes: This chapter's Director's Commentary can be found here. I'd also advise reading the pre-fic timeline. THIS FIC IS VERY MUCH POST GAME, EXPECT SPOILERS HURR.
The sound of a gunshot. The thud against his chest, he knows it has to be bleeding, but he can't feel anything. The smirk is still in place, untouchable as ever, but as he crumples to the floor, the eyes behind the barrel soften in some undisclosed emotion. There is a whisper of some power, and then his vision goes white, and he can't remember anything after.
-----
And that was the last time Neku saw Joshua.
Two years have passed since that first day, that first shot in Udagawa, and Neku knew he should be moving on about now. He has friends to hang out with and things to do, after all. But it always seems like, when he gets comfortable with living again, something happens.
Like when, two months after being returned to life, Neku realized that he could still see Players running through the streets. He reached out, trying to help a girl who'd fallen, and his hand passed right through her. The look on her face when their eyes met still pops up in his dreams, sometimes. And the look on her face as her partner was Erased three days later will live on in his nightmares.
Or like when he first realized that he was being watched. It was like a feeling of eyes from all over, just Joshua checking in, a little reminder that he was still out there somewhere, watching Shibuya from wherever he watched from. Neku didn't especially want to talk to him, most of the time. Let the Composer go on doing Composery things. The less Neku interacted with that world, the better.
But today was different. Today Neku was all too aware that dying was, in fact, a life-changing experience.
He'd be perfectly happy to not do any more of it, thank you.
The mural had changed a few times over the last two years; no one ever saw who did it, so CAT's identity was still unknown to most of the world. Right now it was a collage of wings, angelic and demonic and the strange tattoo outlines of Reaper's wings all thrown together. Neku absently ran his hand down one of the black spray-paint marks, before reaching down to finger the Player Pin he's always wearing.
The sensation of opening the world to see into people's minds was as electric as always, even though hardly anyone was around. Just the shopkeepers down in the skating stores Beat loves and... a pair of Players. Neku let go of the Player Pin with a slight shudder, and walked away from the mural down towards the shops. He thought he could help them somehow, but by the time he reached the shop, the Players were already gone, that odd disappearance that happens at the end of each day's Game. Neku hoped they'd managed their objective, or at least that someone else had managed it for them.
Rubbing the back of his head (Joshua was watching again, probably more observing the Players who'd just disappeared than anything Neku might be doing), Neku turned the corner just in time to spy a familiar figure ducking into the art supply store down the way.
"Hey, Rhyme! Wait up!"
----
"So lemme guess, he wasn't there." Rhyme hadn't really said it as a question, but Neku nodded slightly anyway.
"Yeah, nothing as usual, that jerk." Rhyme sighed, causing her bangs to flutter upward for a moment, before going back to browsing the shelf of artist pens.
Rhyme had grown a lot in the last two years, finally catching up a bit to her much taller brother. She was about Neku's height now, taller than Shiki, and she had let her blond hair grow out a bit. She'd taken up drawing a while ago, and seemed to have acquired an odd "gift" - Rhyme was constantly drawing Erased Players for some bizarre reason, even though she'd never seen most of them. Neku didn't look in her sketchbook much anymore―he couldn't stand seeing all the faces that he knew only existed any more on this slip of paper, in these pencil marks, in this doodle. Rhyme drew Noise sometimes, too, and Neku wasn't sure if she could see the Noise or if the Noise came into being because of her.
"I don't see why you don't just, call him or something," Rhyme said a while later, when they were in the back pick out some fabric paint that Shiki had asked Rhyme to pick up. "Look him up in the phonebook or something. Shiki likes this brand, right?" She lifted a small squirt bottle, and Neku nodded in response to the last question.
"I somehow doubt the Composer put himself in the phonebook for just anyone to call up, Rhyme." Knowing Joshua, he'd use those light beams of his on any telemarketer foolish enough to call. "I tried texting him a few times, anyway." With the number in his phone from that time Joshua sent him a fake Mission Mail.
Rhyme loaded a few tubes of the paint into her shopping basket. "'If at first you don't succeed...' It can't hurt, Neku. What's the worst he could do?"
"Show up and shoot me again?" Okay, so maybe Neku was still a bit bitter about that. Rhyme rolled her eyes. "Hey, you're the one always going about 'third time's the charm' and all that. I might actually stay dead, next time."
"Neku, he must have had a reason."
"Yeah, well he's not exactly being very forthcoming about it, is he?!" Neku snapped back, almost immediately feeling bad. It wasn't Rhyme's fault that Joshua was a dick. Rhyme put a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on Neku. At least give him a chance." She headed off to the check out, leaving Neku alone with his thoughts. Neku resisted the temptation to pull the familiar safety of the headphones around his neck over his ears; even after two years, he hadn't fully broken himself of the habit.
All I want to know is why.
----
Neku walked Rhyme home afterward, carefully steering her away from any topic that touched on Joshua. Beat was as glad to see them as usual; he was messing around the alley near where the two lived again, humming a tune from the band he was with right now. Bands in Shibuya came and went a lot (hardly anyone remembered Def Märch anymore, although their lead singer getting Erased might have had something to do with that), but the one Beat was with was still mostly together after eight months, much to his frustration. According to Beat, it was only the bassist holding the group together; the lead guitarist and the girl doing the singing were fighting constantly, and most of the rest of the band was getting really sick of it.
"Seeya later, man!" Beat called as Neku waved over his shoulder at the two, trying to avoid Rhyme's gaze. She'd probably pester him about seeing Joshua tomorrow, though. Neku didn't even know for sure why she cared all of a sudden.
It's been two years. It's not as though he's going to be waiting around the corner or something. There was a phone booth around the corner, though. And it was empty. In fact, all the phone booths on Neku's way home were empty, like Shibuya itself was trying to convince him to give Rhyme's a suggestion a shot. After a stalled car and redirected traffic forced Neku to take a "scenic route" through Molco (and past the famed Phone Booth Of Love~), he gave in and headed into the payphone, heaving the thick book onto the little shelf and paging through it.
The page where Joshua's name would have been was a bit odd looking, although at least there wasn't "NEKU, COME SEE ME" written across the entire page. It took Neku a moment to realize why -there was an extra name and address in one of the columns, which, he was sure, would end up being the Composer's when he looked closer. So Joshua's name only showed up if you knew where to look, huh? Well, it was one way of keeping out telemarketers.
There was only an address, and Neku scribbled it down on one of the scraps of paper in his pocket. "You couldn't just make it easy for me, could you?" he said to the sky (or rather, the roof of the phone booth) before closing the phonebook. The feeling of Joshua watching him didn't really change, but Neku somehow knew that his old Partner was probably doing that stupid girly little chuckle somewhere. Muttering to himself, Neku shut the door of the booth and resumed his walk home.
"Fine, I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" After a moment, his phone beeped. Neku pulled it out of his pocket, raising an eyebrow at the text message from "My Jackass Partner";
[See you then. <3]
Neku just groaned. "Was the heart really necessary?" But the feeling of Joshua watching him was already gone.
The rest of his walk home, Neku could have sworn that Shibuya itself was singing.
----
Neku sighed, glancing over his shoulder before peering back at the street signs. "You guys really didn't have to come, you know."
"What're you talkin' about? 'Course we did, man." Beat gave Neku one of his practically-trademarked grins, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly (and almost whacking Shiki with his elbow). "Someone's gotta be able to tell the police where you went."
"Gee, that really makes me feel confident about this whole thing. Thanks, Beat."
"Hey, I'm just tryin' to be realism..."
"Realistic, Beat," Rhyme corrected automatically.
"Righ', what she said, yo."
Neku facepalmed. Shiki giggled, holding Mr. Mew in her arms as usual. Even though she was still well on the road to becoming a seamstress (Rhyme's outfit was her work, as was the jacket packed into the duffel bag Neku was carrying), she was also the one out of their group that cared the most about university entry exams in a year or so. Beat didn't really care about studying for them (as usual), Neku had acquired the bad habit of putting off his studying in favor of writing music, and of course they were still years away for Rhyme. Between that and her general aversion to all things Game-related, Neku was actually a little surprised that Shiki had come along. He was hardly complaining, though.
"Well, here we are." Neku glanced up at the tall building that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere at the end of the alley.
"Is it just me, or was that not there before?" Shiki looked up at the building, too. "Because I think I would remember that..."
"No, you're right." Neku shoved the sheet of paper into his pants pocket. "Joshua probably did something to it, like with the phonebook."
"Bet he has the penthouse," Rhyme observed, and Neku nodded in response. That was exactly the kind of thing Joshua would do.
Beat scrunched his eyebrows, pulling his cap back from over his eyes. "Is that a... freaking TREE on the roof?!" It sure looked like it, a bulge against the outline of the rooftop in some shades of green. Neku just rolled his eyes.
"It's Joshua, nothing can surprise me anymore."
"Be careful what you wish for," Rhyme chided him. Neku chuckled, shifting the bag on his shoulder.
"Yeah, well... Here goes nothing, I guess." Before Neku could make good on his words and enter the building, Beat wrapped him in a hug, and Rhyme and Shiki joined in. Neku smiled, managing to awkwardly wrap his arms around the girls and give them a squeeze. "Thanks, you guys."
"Ain't thanks for nothing, man. I told ya, you're my friend." Beat released Neku's shoulders, grinning.
"Still, thank you." And then he didn't have any choice but to head towards the pair of sliding glass doors leading into the narrow building. He glanced at the apartment number―1301. Rhyme was probably right about it being the penthouse, with that kind of number. Neku turned his head up to the roof, where Joshua was probably staring down at him right now. "You just couldn't make this easy for me, could you?" Neku pulled the headphones over his ears before heading for the doors-he needed all the confidence he could get.
Maybe if he was lucky, his shuffled playlist would resist playing some sappy Farewell Project love song.