It's Your Fault It's Complicated (Files 79-80)
That thing about updates? Haha, sorry, I fail. ._.
Title: It’s Your Fault It’s Complicated
Author: anigirl15
Rating: PG-13 for the f-word, up to NC-17 in other chapters
Warnings: Joshua/Neku. Spoilers for EVERYTHING! (Well, you don't actually have to have read the Secret Reports, but I'll spoil them for you if you haven't.) My theories and ideas about various things in the TWEWY universe. Swearing. Boysex (but not now).
Summary: Neku knows he shouldn't agree to anything Joshua proposes any more. He knows, yet he willingly starts a chain of events that will eventually shatter the boundaries of his world and shake Shibuya to its core. Stupid Joshua.
Notes: This is the companion fic to Because Life Can Never Be Simple, which is posted at subarashiki_ds. These are the exact same story told in two different parallel worlds: one world where Joshua falls for Neku, and one world where he does not. Now the stories begin to diverge. If you wish to read the other story, you can find the link below, or click the cut to read this one.
It’s Your Fault It’s Complicated (Files 79 - 80)
[first] [back one] [forwards]
[jump to the other side]
[File79]
“Hey, Neku. What’re you doing up this early?”
Neku stifled a yawn and scratched the back of his head. The reality was that he was still up from the previous night, when Joshua had dropped an order of pins on his head that, while he didn’t run himself ragged over, still took him well into the morning. He’d decided to take a stroll around Shibuya at sunrise, and somehow, probably subconsciously, had wandered across a giant concrete stretch of wall and the man spray-painting on it. But that was too many words, and he was too incoherent to say them all. So he ignored the question entirely. “Mind if I watch?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
He sat himself down on the ground a few feet away, watching as Mr. H. did his work. He kept glancing at the paper in his hand, probably the sketch, always before changing colors or adding another detail. Neku could feel the imprint of the work slowly coming through as the man continued, though it couldn’t be fully read just yet. It wasn’t long before the soothing hiss of the spray cans and the gentle lull of Shibuya’s Music had Neku nodding off, probably a bit too content with just lying down on the warm pavement and sleeping.
“… Neku?”
It took him a few seconds to register the voice, and that it was his name that had been said. His chin lifted and his eyes slid open, he was still sleepy and was almost sure that if he could just rest here he could have a dream of how wonderful the world would be like if Shibuya weren’t falling apart around him. “What?”
“How long you been living in Shibuya?”
Neku let out a soft sound. “All my life.” That’s right. All of his life, when he’d always been under Joshua’s influence, even though he’d never known it. There had always been this horrible Game, and always the master behind it. This Game that fucked with all the rules of death ever, and meant that the friend he’d killed three, four years ago was still walking around, and at least there was a bit of solace in the fact that had the Game not existed, he wouldn’t have been shot for it, but that would also mean that Shiki and Beat and Rhyme would all still be dead and he’d never have met them, never have changed. And Joshua would… he didn’t even want to think about Joshua right now.
“It’s a great place, ain’t it? So many people, so many ways of thinking, so much potential. That’s why I do my works here. They just don’t get appreciated as much anywhere else.”
That was probably a lie, but Neku didn’t really care. Hanekoma was treading on such thin ice. Neku wondered to himself just how lucky the man had been to get off with his life.
“You.”
Neku nearly jumped five feet at the voice, instantly turning to find its source. His gaze fell to Kienna, who was glaring at Mr. H., positively seething. He could feel the power building around her, fueled on by her anger.
“What are you doing here?!”
Hanekoma gave her a raised eyebrow and held up a can. “Painting. Sorry, that against the rules? You don’t look much like an undercover cop.”
Kienna faltered for a moment, and Hanekoma turned back to the wall. Just as he positioned the can to resume his work, Kienna dashed forward. Neku startled. “Kienna, he’s not-!”
But she had already grabbed his wrist. The paint fell from his grip and his expression instantly became pained. Neku could only imagine how much power she was putting into the hold. Hanekoma tried without success to pull free. “Geeze, sister, what the hell are you-?”
“You should be gone!” She spat it right in his face, and Hanekoma’s eyes went wide. “Do you have any idea how much you hurt him?!”
“Stop it!” Neku gripped her arm to pull her off, only to find himself blown onto his back several yards away. He gingerly picked himself up to find that Kienna had barely moved. Hanekoma, on the other hand, had fallen to one knee, face twisted in pain. Even from here, Neku could see the red starting to spread on his arm. If Kienna didn’t stop soon, she’d likely burn his hand clean off. Neku realized with a start that even if she did, neither Joshua nor any of the other Angels would probably care one bit. “Kienna!”
“He deserves it!” And she was dangerously close to pushing out her wings, the light already building on her shoulder blades, and if she did that it would be one less restriction on the full use of her power in an RG and one step closer to Hanekoma losing a limb. “This bastard deserves it for all the damage he’s done!”
Suddenly the two of them were blown towards the wall. Kienna hit shoulder-first, her face a close second. She stumbled for a moment, too dazed to notice the bit of white paint now gracing her cheek. Hanekoma collided square in the back. He crumpled instantly, cradling his bleeding wrist to his chest. His face had lost the pained look for a moment, replaced with a somber expression of regret. All Neku could think was that he was probably thinking to himself, ‘I do deserve it,’ and Neku wasn’t one to gloss over grudges but he still believed in Mr. H.; and when he glanced up and caught Neku’s gaze for a moment, the sad smile that he gave was way too much like the one he’d seen on Joshua’s face just before Neku watched him vanish in a burst of energy that he’d thought had erased him for good.
Speaking of Joshua.
“Are you quite finished?”
Kienna slowly straightened up, doing her best to hide that she was bracing herself against the wall behind her. Joshua stared at her levelly. She opened her mouth to say something, and seemed to falter for a moment before speaking. “That was unnecessary.”
“Oh? And what you did to him wasn’t? I didn’t think I’d have to remind you, but he’s still alive because of his art. It would be quite a shame to lose it prematurely. By the way, I’m curious what you were going to say, because that clearly wasn’t your initial thought.”
She stiffened. “That’s not your business.”
“Everything is my business.”
Kienna didn’t like that. Her expression soured for a moment before she spoke again. “I was doing it for you, J.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I can take care of myself.” He gave her a smile. One of those smiles that said he was dangerously close to making the existence of someone or everyone in Shibuya into a living hell for quite a while. Kienna quickly shifted her focus to Hanekoma instead.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?!”
“Uh… sorry?” His expression was back to one of confusion. He scratched the back of his head with his uninjured hand. “I mean, I’m not sure what I did to deserve… uh…” he trailed off, gaze falling to his injury before going back to her. “But I’ll apologize anyway if you want, miss.”
She made a sound of frustration and her gaze fell to the ground as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Finally she gave a heavy sigh. “Fine. If that’s how you want it, I’ll leave.”
“Please do.”
She shot a glare at Joshua before turning and storming away. The three waited in silence until she was well out of earshot.
Hanekoma turned and looked at Joshua, almost like he was worried how the Composer would deal with it. Joshua’s gaze flicked to him, and just as casually away. Without a word, without a gesture, without any comfort or any scorn, he vanished into the morning air as if he’d never been there in the first place.
He turned to Neku next, and after a moment, guiltily lowered his head. “You should probably go get some sleep, Neku.”
He wanted to be alone. Neku wasn’t sure quite how he got the message so clearly, because he wasn’t reading the man’s thoughts, but it was as obvious as if he had been. So without protest, he stood up and left Mr. H. alone. But not without one last glance back, just in time to watch as he balled his good hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall behind him.
[File80]
It was kind of funny, he thought to himself as he stretched out on the bench. It used to be that his headphones were his way of cutting off the rest of the world. But now, all he had to do was lay here, his music playing just loud enough to distort the voices of the people around him, his eyes closed, and he could watch all of Shibuya perfectly. He could track anyone, locate anyone he wanted, slip into their mind so easy and read anything and everything about them, watch every action somebody took, anything. On one level it was terrifying. He’d lived in this Shibuya, with others who’d had the exact same abilities. On another, it was a great relief, as he watched Uzuki stalk around her first Game she was acting Game Master for. She seemed to be staying on just barely the legal side of the rules, and he didn’t trust her not to try toeing that line if she thought she could get away with it and earn some bonus while doing it. He’d been stupid enough to fall for it; he didn’t expect any new Players to know better, either.
So Neku lay back and watched her.
It was already Day 5, and this was her first time stepping into the field since the beginning of the week. There were only three groups left, but all of them were skilled. Two of them seemed to still be working out the kinks in their partnerships, to put it nicely, and she was hovering back and forth between them, waiting for her chance.
Neku and Uzuki both realized it had come when the timer vanished from the Players’ hands. Instantly in one group, the girl started berating her partner. It had been a puzzle mission, and apparently they’d gotten stuck. Neku pulled himself up from the bench just as Uzuki made herself known to the two. Good thing they weren’t too far away from him.
Within a minute he’d reached them, in front of the Shibu-Q department store. None of them seemed to notice him-why should they have?-as he approached their conversation.
“You’re just trying to trick us!”
“Trick you? Please. If I wanted to erase you, I’d just erase you and be done with it. I’m offering you a deal here. It’s perfectly legit. Erase your partner and you get a free pass back to life. What do ya say?”
“I wouldn’t do that!”
Uzuki turned to the other. The one who’d been yelling at her partner. “Such a shame. How about you? Come on, it’s an easy way out. You don’t like him much anyway, do you?”
The girl’s gaze fell to the street.
“Come on, Yuriko, you can’t be seriously thinking about it?”
“Well, why shouldn’t I be?” She turned her gaze to glare at him. “I want to come back to life. Almost everyone else has been erased already. If both of us get erased, then neither of us comes back to life! It’s not like I really care about you, anyway! You’re always getting in the way!”
“Me? You’re the one who…!”
And Neku could feel the energy of a psych building between them, so if he wanted to stop them, it had to be then. “Hold on.”
All three turned to him, and Uzuki almost instantly spat. “You.”
“Yeah. Me.” He crossed his arms and glared at her. “You don’t have any say in who comes back to life and who doesn’t. Stop pretending you do, and stop lying to Players to get them to erase themselves.” He glanced towards them. “There’s no easy out. You just have to win. And don’t let her tell you otherwise.”
Uzuki had quickly turned from annoyed to seething fury. She had become so angry, her wings were twitching. “Why are you always spoiling my fun?! I just want to watch them fight each other, is that so much to ask?! And it’s not like you know anything about them coming back to life! I could totally ask the Composer and get Him to do it!”
“You think it’s that easy?” His expression slowly became blank. “You think it’s so simple to get someone revived? You’ve never even held a proper conversation with the Composer, have you?”
That struck a nerve. “What does it matter?! Stop acting so high and mighty, brat! You’re just someone who used to be a Player and now… arg, I don’t even know why I’m bothering with you!”
Suddenly she pulled out her gun and fired straight at Neku. Without him needed to even blink, it collided with a white barrier and deflected off even faster than it had come at him. After a moment Neku startled, realizing what he’d done, but the damage had already been done.
Uzuki slowly lowered her gun, staring incredulously. Both Players had frozen stiff. Finally, Uzuki seemed to at least manage to regain her voice. “What are y-?”
She cut off as the Players vanished, drawing her attention to the space where they had just been. After a moment, she gripped her hair in frustration. “AUGH, DAMMIT!” She turned on Neku. “I’m gonna kill you one of these days!”
With that, she spread her wings and took off, shooting Neku a dirty glare all the way.
He watched her go, then turned to watch the Players for a moment.
They’d slipped to a higher frequency, out of Uzuki’s perception. Even to him, all they looked like were two balls of energy, two Souls, orbiting around each other, held together and in place by their Pact. This, Neku thought, had to be why the Partner system existed. If it weren’t for the Pact, the two Souls would each be lost among the mass of energy that permeated Shibuya. Instead, by using each other as a focal point, they remained distinct from the rest of it, defined as themselves, separate from everything else. They couldn’t exist without each other, or they’d be lost.
[CloseFiles]
Comments/critique are much appreciated.
Title: It’s Your Fault It’s Complicated
Author: anigirl15
Rating: PG-13 for the f-word, up to NC-17 in other chapters
Warnings: Joshua/Neku. Spoilers for EVERYTHING! (Well, you don't actually have to have read the Secret Reports, but I'll spoil them for you if you haven't.) My theories and ideas about various things in the TWEWY universe. Swearing. Boysex (but not now).
Summary: Neku knows he shouldn't agree to anything Joshua proposes any more. He knows, yet he willingly starts a chain of events that will eventually shatter the boundaries of his world and shake Shibuya to its core. Stupid Joshua.
Notes: This is the companion fic to Because Life Can Never Be Simple, which is posted at subarashiki_ds. These are the exact same story told in two different parallel worlds: one world where Joshua falls for Neku, and one world where he does not. Now the stories begin to diverge. If you wish to read the other story, you can find the link below, or click the cut to read this one.
It’s Your Fault It’s Complicated (Files 79 - 80)
[first] [back one] [forwards]
[jump to the other side]
[File79]
“Hey, Neku. What’re you doing up this early?”
Neku stifled a yawn and scratched the back of his head. The reality was that he was still up from the previous night, when Joshua had dropped an order of pins on his head that, while he didn’t run himself ragged over, still took him well into the morning. He’d decided to take a stroll around Shibuya at sunrise, and somehow, probably subconsciously, had wandered across a giant concrete stretch of wall and the man spray-painting on it. But that was too many words, and he was too incoherent to say them all. So he ignored the question entirely. “Mind if I watch?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
He sat himself down on the ground a few feet away, watching as Mr. H. did his work. He kept glancing at the paper in his hand, probably the sketch, always before changing colors or adding another detail. Neku could feel the imprint of the work slowly coming through as the man continued, though it couldn’t be fully read just yet. It wasn’t long before the soothing hiss of the spray cans and the gentle lull of Shibuya’s Music had Neku nodding off, probably a bit too content with just lying down on the warm pavement and sleeping.
“… Neku?”
It took him a few seconds to register the voice, and that it was his name that had been said. His chin lifted and his eyes slid open, he was still sleepy and was almost sure that if he could just rest here he could have a dream of how wonderful the world would be like if Shibuya weren’t falling apart around him. “What?”
“How long you been living in Shibuya?”
Neku let out a soft sound. “All my life.” That’s right. All of his life, when he’d always been under Joshua’s influence, even though he’d never known it. There had always been this horrible Game, and always the master behind it. This Game that fucked with all the rules of death ever, and meant that the friend he’d killed three, four years ago was still walking around, and at least there was a bit of solace in the fact that had the Game not existed, he wouldn’t have been shot for it, but that would also mean that Shiki and Beat and Rhyme would all still be dead and he’d never have met them, never have changed. And Joshua would… he didn’t even want to think about Joshua right now.
“It’s a great place, ain’t it? So many people, so many ways of thinking, so much potential. That’s why I do my works here. They just don’t get appreciated as much anywhere else.”
That was probably a lie, but Neku didn’t really care. Hanekoma was treading on such thin ice. Neku wondered to himself just how lucky the man had been to get off with his life.
“You.”
Neku nearly jumped five feet at the voice, instantly turning to find its source. His gaze fell to Kienna, who was glaring at Mr. H., positively seething. He could feel the power building around her, fueled on by her anger.
“What are you doing here?!”
Hanekoma gave her a raised eyebrow and held up a can. “Painting. Sorry, that against the rules? You don’t look much like an undercover cop.”
Kienna faltered for a moment, and Hanekoma turned back to the wall. Just as he positioned the can to resume his work, Kienna dashed forward. Neku startled. “Kienna, he’s not-!”
But she had already grabbed his wrist. The paint fell from his grip and his expression instantly became pained. Neku could only imagine how much power she was putting into the hold. Hanekoma tried without success to pull free. “Geeze, sister, what the hell are you-?”
“You should be gone!” She spat it right in his face, and Hanekoma’s eyes went wide. “Do you have any idea how much you hurt him?!”
“Stop it!” Neku gripped her arm to pull her off, only to find himself blown onto his back several yards away. He gingerly picked himself up to find that Kienna had barely moved. Hanekoma, on the other hand, had fallen to one knee, face twisted in pain. Even from here, Neku could see the red starting to spread on his arm. If Kienna didn’t stop soon, she’d likely burn his hand clean off. Neku realized with a start that even if she did, neither Joshua nor any of the other Angels would probably care one bit. “Kienna!”
“He deserves it!” And she was dangerously close to pushing out her wings, the light already building on her shoulder blades, and if she did that it would be one less restriction on the full use of her power in an RG and one step closer to Hanekoma losing a limb. “This bastard deserves it for all the damage he’s done!”
Suddenly the two of them were blown towards the wall. Kienna hit shoulder-first, her face a close second. She stumbled for a moment, too dazed to notice the bit of white paint now gracing her cheek. Hanekoma collided square in the back. He crumpled instantly, cradling his bleeding wrist to his chest. His face had lost the pained look for a moment, replaced with a somber expression of regret. All Neku could think was that he was probably thinking to himself, ‘I do deserve it,’ and Neku wasn’t one to gloss over grudges but he still believed in Mr. H.; and when he glanced up and caught Neku’s gaze for a moment, the sad smile that he gave was way too much like the one he’d seen on Joshua’s face just before Neku watched him vanish in a burst of energy that he’d thought had erased him for good.
Speaking of Joshua.
“Are you quite finished?”
Kienna slowly straightened up, doing her best to hide that she was bracing herself against the wall behind her. Joshua stared at her levelly. She opened her mouth to say something, and seemed to falter for a moment before speaking. “That was unnecessary.”
“Oh? And what you did to him wasn’t? I didn’t think I’d have to remind you, but he’s still alive because of his art. It would be quite a shame to lose it prematurely. By the way, I’m curious what you were going to say, because that clearly wasn’t your initial thought.”
She stiffened. “That’s not your business.”
“Everything is my business.”
Kienna didn’t like that. Her expression soured for a moment before she spoke again. “I was doing it for you, J.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I can take care of myself.” He gave her a smile. One of those smiles that said he was dangerously close to making the existence of someone or everyone in Shibuya into a living hell for quite a while. Kienna quickly shifted her focus to Hanekoma instead.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?!”
“Uh… sorry?” His expression was back to one of confusion. He scratched the back of his head with his uninjured hand. “I mean, I’m not sure what I did to deserve… uh…” he trailed off, gaze falling to his injury before going back to her. “But I’ll apologize anyway if you want, miss.”
She made a sound of frustration and her gaze fell to the ground as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Finally she gave a heavy sigh. “Fine. If that’s how you want it, I’ll leave.”
“Please do.”
She shot a glare at Joshua before turning and storming away. The three waited in silence until she was well out of earshot.
Hanekoma turned and looked at Joshua, almost like he was worried how the Composer would deal with it. Joshua’s gaze flicked to him, and just as casually away. Without a word, without a gesture, without any comfort or any scorn, he vanished into the morning air as if he’d never been there in the first place.
He turned to Neku next, and after a moment, guiltily lowered his head. “You should probably go get some sleep, Neku.”
He wanted to be alone. Neku wasn’t sure quite how he got the message so clearly, because he wasn’t reading the man’s thoughts, but it was as obvious as if he had been. So without protest, he stood up and left Mr. H. alone. But not without one last glance back, just in time to watch as he balled his good hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall behind him.
[File80]
It was kind of funny, he thought to himself as he stretched out on the bench. It used to be that his headphones were his way of cutting off the rest of the world. But now, all he had to do was lay here, his music playing just loud enough to distort the voices of the people around him, his eyes closed, and he could watch all of Shibuya perfectly. He could track anyone, locate anyone he wanted, slip into their mind so easy and read anything and everything about them, watch every action somebody took, anything. On one level it was terrifying. He’d lived in this Shibuya, with others who’d had the exact same abilities. On another, it was a great relief, as he watched Uzuki stalk around her first Game she was acting Game Master for. She seemed to be staying on just barely the legal side of the rules, and he didn’t trust her not to try toeing that line if she thought she could get away with it and earn some bonus while doing it. He’d been stupid enough to fall for it; he didn’t expect any new Players to know better, either.
So Neku lay back and watched her.
It was already Day 5, and this was her first time stepping into the field since the beginning of the week. There were only three groups left, but all of them were skilled. Two of them seemed to still be working out the kinks in their partnerships, to put it nicely, and she was hovering back and forth between them, waiting for her chance.
Neku and Uzuki both realized it had come when the timer vanished from the Players’ hands. Instantly in one group, the girl started berating her partner. It had been a puzzle mission, and apparently they’d gotten stuck. Neku pulled himself up from the bench just as Uzuki made herself known to the two. Good thing they weren’t too far away from him.
Within a minute he’d reached them, in front of the Shibu-Q department store. None of them seemed to notice him-why should they have?-as he approached their conversation.
“You’re just trying to trick us!”
“Trick you? Please. If I wanted to erase you, I’d just erase you and be done with it. I’m offering you a deal here. It’s perfectly legit. Erase your partner and you get a free pass back to life. What do ya say?”
“I wouldn’t do that!”
Uzuki turned to the other. The one who’d been yelling at her partner. “Such a shame. How about you? Come on, it’s an easy way out. You don’t like him much anyway, do you?”
The girl’s gaze fell to the street.
“Come on, Yuriko, you can’t be seriously thinking about it?”
“Well, why shouldn’t I be?” She turned her gaze to glare at him. “I want to come back to life. Almost everyone else has been erased already. If both of us get erased, then neither of us comes back to life! It’s not like I really care about you, anyway! You’re always getting in the way!”
“Me? You’re the one who…!”
And Neku could feel the energy of a psych building between them, so if he wanted to stop them, it had to be then. “Hold on.”
All three turned to him, and Uzuki almost instantly spat. “You.”
“Yeah. Me.” He crossed his arms and glared at her. “You don’t have any say in who comes back to life and who doesn’t. Stop pretending you do, and stop lying to Players to get them to erase themselves.” He glanced towards them. “There’s no easy out. You just have to win. And don’t let her tell you otherwise.”
Uzuki had quickly turned from annoyed to seething fury. She had become so angry, her wings were twitching. “Why are you always spoiling my fun?! I just want to watch them fight each other, is that so much to ask?! And it’s not like you know anything about them coming back to life! I could totally ask the Composer and get Him to do it!”
“You think it’s that easy?” His expression slowly became blank. “You think it’s so simple to get someone revived? You’ve never even held a proper conversation with the Composer, have you?”
That struck a nerve. “What does it matter?! Stop acting so high and mighty, brat! You’re just someone who used to be a Player and now… arg, I don’t even know why I’m bothering with you!”
Suddenly she pulled out her gun and fired straight at Neku. Without him needed to even blink, it collided with a white barrier and deflected off even faster than it had come at him. After a moment Neku startled, realizing what he’d done, but the damage had already been done.
Uzuki slowly lowered her gun, staring incredulously. Both Players had frozen stiff. Finally, Uzuki seemed to at least manage to regain her voice. “What are y-?”
She cut off as the Players vanished, drawing her attention to the space where they had just been. After a moment, she gripped her hair in frustration. “AUGH, DAMMIT!” She turned on Neku. “I’m gonna kill you one of these days!”
With that, she spread her wings and took off, shooting Neku a dirty glare all the way.
He watched her go, then turned to watch the Players for a moment.
They’d slipped to a higher frequency, out of Uzuki’s perception. Even to him, all they looked like were two balls of energy, two Souls, orbiting around each other, held together and in place by their Pact. This, Neku thought, had to be why the Partner system existed. If it weren’t for the Pact, the two Souls would each be lost among the mass of energy that permeated Shibuya. Instead, by using each other as a focal point, they remained distinct from the rest of it, defined as themselves, separate from everything else. They couldn’t exist without each other, or they’d be lost.
[CloseFiles]
Comments/critique are much appreciated.