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What is time to a god?
Immortality strips away all sense of what a normal life should be like.
Joshua learned the hard way what that was like.
Sometimes Neku awoke from a nightmare. The same one, every time; running, fighting, betrayal from a friend whose face always slipped away.
It felt real, but the details blurred too much to solidify.
He couldn’t remember how he met his friends, but that’s okay, they were there for him.
If only he could figure out who had the great, teasing, enjoyable, missable, annoying giggle.
School’s rought, parents suck, and people mock him for his lack of book smarts. But Beat had people to turn to now, they helped him with schoolwork and got him to stop listening to the assholes.
He’s afraid, the first time he sees the Game. He’s terrified by the Noise, and it doesn't help his worry when he notices Rhyme watching too. Former Reaper and Noise, both with the strongest connections to the UG, of course they’d be able to see it all, see it and remember.
Beat and Rhyme agree never to mention this to the others.
None of them remember.
Shiki remembers waking up and sprinting to Eri’s, apologizing for running off after their fight. Eri apologizes too, for everything she said, explaining what she meant, and they smile and hug and make up.
(Later, alone in the fashion club-room, they share their first kiss. First in their long relationship).
Shiki doesn’t ever think about why, when she showed up at Eri’s house, the other acted like she’d seen a ghost.
Rhyme remembers. They were the only living person to remember everything. The Game, they knew Beat remembered that.
But they were sure none of the others remembered the short, white-haired boy with violent violet eyes (that they knew were filled with loneliness).
The Composer, Josh, had revived a small squirrel Noise, and told that person everything. Including the complexities of gender identities.
Rhyme visited that lonely boy sometimes, and gave him a smile when he came to watch the group gather.
Eri remembered three excruciatingly long weeks where Shiki didn’t visit, didn’t come to see her. She remembered the way Shiki had died.
Of course, that was a dream. A dream which gave her the courage to open up and kiss Shiki when she returned.
Life is short, right? Love, have fun, and take chances. Her own new motto.
Shibuya watched, watched as she always does. She saw her beloved Composer rework reality for four kids, two remembering what happened, and one remembering him.
She comforted him as he mourned his losses. Those kids were his, in a way, they changed him and changed Shibuya for the better.
Shibuya staked a claim on them, she wanted them, and so did her Composer, so they were her’s.
Especially the one boy with orange hair.
Mortals were fragile, young, weak, but oh so beautiful too. Josh got that now,
It was, unfortunately, too late to be like them, to live again.
The dead don’t see the living. Joshua, being dead, would never be able to speak to the living Neku.
Neku wanted to see that white-haired boy, the one with violet eyes and a frustrating giggle that he’d come to long for in dreams. The passing time, time spent outside Shibuya, and Shibuya’s own influences, broke down much of the mental block on his memories.
He confronted all his friends. Two had known everything the whole time, known most details, one experienced the same forgetfulness as him, and the other admitted to a dream where the previous was dead.
He knew what he had to do.
“Neku, how nice to see you again.”
Neku looked up at the lonely boy playing god, and all the memories clicked.
“Joshua. Your name is Joshua.”
The boy named Josh smiled, nodding. “How nice of you to remember that little fact about me.”
He paused, however, as Neku smiled and pulled out the gun Josh had given him all those years ago. He’d neglected to get it back.
Neku set the end of the barrel against his own head, clicking the safety off.
“Make me your Conductor, when I win again.”
The resounding shout of No! got lost in the resounding sound of the gunshot as it echoed around the throne room. The horror on Josh’s face remained as he once more mourned the body of the boy who had been forbidden to play the Game again.