Chapter Text
He supposed it was inevitable; three weeks spent in the UG, using pins and power and running to keep your very existence going…that normal life would be almost a let-down. More of a reverse shock to the system. There was no looking over one's shoulder for an attack, no dodging from Reapers.
No Composer looking over your shoulder to see how you were doing.
Well, he couldn't say that last part with any certainty. As Mr. H had explained it, the Composer was Shibuya and if Neku was there; well… it stood to reason Josh was somewhere nearby as the case went, watching him.
Watching everybody, Neku told himself firmly. He's the freaking Composer, he's not just going to single you out just because he decided to kill you and use you for his own purposes. For all you know, he makes a habit of that.
As he sat near Wildkat, sketching carefully, he watched people as they went back, eyes sharp on the café. Would he see people suddenly appear in there? Was there a Game going on? Why am I still thinking about it?
He couldn't help but be drawn to the areas he had gone over so many times while he was a Player. Something kept on pulling him back, little whispers of memory in his ear. His fingers clenched around pins that were no longer a part of his daily accessories and he always watched people. He was probably the only one that could spot a Reaper without their wings and he berated himself for how he was acting.
"I just need to get over it," he muttered to himself, staring down at the sketches of thin-boned creatures of fantastic shapes, ones that he hadn't seen in the Game, but ones that he could imagine being there. Pins that could do so much more than the ones he founds, new variety…
His fingers twitched as he held onto his pencil. He was not missing the Game.
He had been screwed around with the entire time he was there, not to mention how he got there in the first place and why he was brought there. He should think of that instead of the Game, of the sheer ability to change things for the better, of the Music that hung in the air so thick that you could almost touch it with your fingers…
"Phones… you still out here?" Neku looked up, more than a little startled at Mr. H looming in his view, eyes showing concern. The depths of his concern was shown when he placed a drink by him, 'no charge' written on the side of the cup.
"Yeah—well… I mean, I just got in the mood for sketching out here, you know?" he gestured to the quiet bustle of the people moving in and out.
"Not watching for the Game again, are ya, kid?" Mr. H pushed his glasses up and sighed. "I don't know what Josh is thinking, having you remember and all…"
"I really have nothing to do with it," Neku jerked in shock, pencil falling from his hands and rolling towards an over-priced shoe. "Neku always was a special case. It seems he just can't seem to come down from the Vibe that his soul was tuned to for so long."
"And that's not your fault how?" Neku scowled up at Joshua.
"Really, Neku—all I did was simply push you into the Game—" he ignored Neku's 'yeah, by shooting me' "and your Soul was what reacted to the rest. Now…what do we have here?" Before Neku could stop him, Joshua held his sketchbook in his hands.
"Hmm…these are quite interesting, Neku-dear. Very…Imaginative."
Neku couldn't miss the emphasis that Joshua used with the word, it was how it was in the UG—Imagination was everything and something curled inside of Neku; whether it was fear or something else, he wasn't entirely certain.
Mr. H looked over as well, eyebrows raising. "Interesting…" he murmured. "Lots of potential; I see what you meant from before, Boss."
"I told you, he's perfect for it. Even has the new line up ready to go—" Joshua smiled brightly at Neku, who was staring at the both of them as if they had gone crazy, hands reaching out for his sketchbook.
"I don’t know what you're talking about, but can I have my stuff back so I can go?" he demanded.
"Just a moment, Neku—" Joshua forestalled anymore protests with his hand. "I first have a question for you."
After nothing was said for several moments, Neku snapped. "Well, out with it!"
"Patience…" Joshua leaned forward, causing Neku to flinch back. He still didn't know what to expect from Joshua some days. "It might take a moment… ah—there we go."
Neku didn't have to ask what it was that Joshua was talking about before the Music assaulted him from every corner, the vibrations humming along his bones and nerves and singing through his blood.
"Did you want to help me create Music out of this discord, Neku?"
Neku stared at him, trying to block out some of the sound, the desire to have his sketchbook back overtaken by the need to become suddenly deaf. Without realizing what he was doing, he gripped a line of Music, shifting it so that it went away from him.
"Very good," Joshua's smile curled up at the corners. "Welcome back to the UG, Neku."
"You've got to be kidding me," Neku backed away from the both of them. "Stop it now, Josh—put me back where I came from. I…I'm not playing your sick Game again."
"Who said anything about your playing a Game, Neku?" Joshua wound his hair around slender fingers, smirking at Neku. "I'm talking about bigger and better things. Things you were destined for." He sighed at Neku's look. "Honestly, Neku—you had one foot in the UG as it was."
"Then you can push that foot right back out," Neku snapped.
Mr. H had the grace to look embarrassed, at least. "Well, Phones—here's the thing…with as much involved as you were in the Game; and with the Boss being your Partner and all… it was sort of a… test."
"… a test?" Neku felt that feeling curl tighter, twisting his insides.
"Mm….one that I really don't know about until our dear little café owner owned up." Joshua looked calm about whatever this news was, though—it meant nothing to him, of course.
"You see—people have to move in and out of the city, brighten it up—change things up and make sure it doesn’t rot." Mr. H was explaining this all calmly and Neku stared at the cup instead, wondering as to what it contained and how bad can the news be if he's giving me free coffee?
"Yeah…that's why Josh shot me, wasn't it?" Neku hunched down, not sure he wanted to know where this was going.
"Well, that's just it, Phones—the Boss was playing his own Game—but well, the Angel's had already tagged you."
He really didn't like this.
"We already knew that we needed a new Conductor and we were going to wait until Nature took its course…" this time, Mr. H glared at Joshua, who looked unrepentant, "but things got shoved up a bit."
"… what does this have to do with me again?" Neku asked.
"You are playing dumb today, aren't you, Neku-dear?" Joshua giggled as he handed the sketchbook over. "Shibuya's chosen you as the new Conductor."