| Joshua Kiryu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Played by Kyt | |
| Fandom |
The World Ends With You |
| Canon Point |
Post-Game |
| Age |
Immortal. Physically 15 in human form and 25 in his true form. |
| Race |
Ambiguous/debatable, with both reaper-like and angelic qualities, even though he's not truly either one. |
| Gender |
Male |
| Status |
Active |
Skills[]
Joshua is a highly ascended being, whose soul is too high-pitched for most creatures to notice or comprehend. He's meant to dwell above the world, not within it. Therefore, he is not only untouchable, but also invisible and undetectable to anyone who does not have great spiritual power or awareness. He can choose to reveal himself temporarily, allowing others to see and hear him regardless of their ability, but this is both strenuous for him and possibly even damaging to the other person, sometimes resulting in lingering emotional/spiritual agitation and illness after too much exposure.
While in this form, Joshua is absurdly powerful in theory, but is also unable to touch or affect anything "below" him. (read: everything ever.) In other words, he's completely cut off and powerless in Pandora, unless he takes an avatar. To do so Joshua adjusts and tunes the frequency of his own soul, willingly locking away the vast majority of his power in order to turn himself into a living human. When he's ready to disappear again, he does the reverse. Shifting down is trivial, but with the limitations on his squishier form, shifting back up requires time, effort, and concentration, and if he is injured or fatigued enough, he will be unable to do so.
The resulting mortal form is vulnerable to all the normal human weaknesses - hunger, thirst, injury, fatigue, and so on. It is, however, a temporary shell, destroyed when he shifts back up and created anew when he shifts down. Therefore, harming or tampering with him does nothing permanent. Unless he's hurt/tired enough to be "stuck," he can essentially reset himself by shifting up and down. Forcing him out of his avatar, such as by exorcising him or "killing" him, will expel him to his true frequency and force him to remain incorporeal and isolated in his true form for a few days while he recovers from the shock. Attacks or magic intended to hit imaginary targets, hit incorporeal targets, hit targets on a higher plane, or directly harm the soul will bypass this disconnect, and can truly harm or even kill him.
As a side note, inter-dimensional travel in beings not meant for it can sometimes harms their base frequency. Joshua was hit hard by this upon being taken from his own world, and as a result he's now dramatically weaker than he used to be. He can't alter the fabric of reality, rewrite souls other than his own, or erase people from existence with a thought; his omniscience and clairvoyance are gone, and hopping between worlds is obviously out of the question. All the below powers are those Joshua's human form has, since his full power is functionally moot and therefore irrelevant.
Joshua is telekinetic, allowing him to effortlessly perform feats such as tossing cars around, stopping bullets, and controlling several objects at once. He can also leave fields of telekinesis in small areas, with effects similar to slowing down or stopping time. When used on himself, this functions like levitation, and makes him pretty much immune to any sort of impact damage. He can paralyze others with a thought for a couple seconds, robbing them of the ability to do anything but speak. He can teleport himself, others, or objects across very short distances, such as from one side of a room to the other.
Joshua can steal and rewrite the memories of others, as well as plant elaborate false ones. If the victim has strong willpower or an exceptionally bright soul, they can break free, but it is a gradual and painful process. He can plant short, fleeting thoughts and concepts into the minds of others, no more than a few words long. He can also gift others with bursts of creative inspiration.
Joshua can instantaneously create just about anything from pure imagination, so long as he can conceive it clearly and logically. Since he can also control where it appears, when it appears, and when it inevitably disappears, this is a rather diverse ability. The more specific his intended creation is, the more effort and concentration it requires. When holding back, he generally fights by summoning heavy objects such as cars and vending machines above his target and letting them drop.
Joshua attacking.
When not holding back, he fights by calling pillars of divine light down from the sky. Their power is variable; at their usual, they feel like holy fire and inflict sharp licks of pain; at their strongest, they incinerate most things they touch. He's capable of adjusting the frequencies of these, too; practically speaking, this means he can not only attack other planes within reach, but also strike incorporeal targets or directly burn up his target's soul. Joshua tends to shy away from using this power for two reasons. Not only does it require far more effort and strain than he's comfortable with, and therefore risk putting him in a vulnerable position as he tires himself out, but as it gets stronger it also becomes more unmistakably divine and awe-inducingly holy, and the implications of that would threaten to expose his secret identity.
Joshua's supernaturally enhanced senses allow him to see and hear assorted normally-imperceptible things, such as souls. Since every person's soul sounds unique to him, it's impossible to hide from him or fool him with shapeshifting, and he can tell a decent amount of information about others just by being near them. He can see every plane of existence at once, be it below or above him, as well as most incorporeal or magically hidden creatures or objects. He can tell when someone's trying to read his mind, and has some basic mental shielding, though he has to concentrate to keep it up; using this, he can conceal his thoughts and memories or disguise them as something false.
Like most reapers, Joshua can create, control, and dismiss Noise - mindlessly destructive animalistic monsters made of raw negativity and/or scrap soul.Different varieties have different capabilities and magic powers, but it's never anything groundbreaking; for example, foxes can shapeshift, bats can leech away electricity, and dragons can shoot fire. Noise is primarily useful for combat, but can also possess people who are currently overcome with negativity, entering their soul and forcing them to dwell on their unhappiness until they become obsessed and miserable. This process is reversed when the Noise is destroyed or the victim becomes positive enough to shake it off.
Despite what he would have you believe, Joshua's cell phone has nothing to do with his powers, and anything he does through it, he can do just as easily without it. He just likes people to think he relies on a crutch. Nevertheless, it is still angelic technology, containing both a tracker for assorted spiritual things and a camera that can take pictures of the past up to three times a day.
Joshua's talents don't lie solely in the supernatural, either - he's also a master of manipulation and deceit. Lying comes naturally to him, and his high intelligence makes it easy for him to predict outcomes and tweak situations to his advantage. He's highly knowledgeable about human nature, and so he's good at toying with and exploiting he emotions of others. He's well-educated and knows a lot of random things, especially when it comes to math, history, and music. He's a decent shot with handguns, and has killed with them before.
Physically speaking, he's rather pathetic - aside from some basic dodging skills, and reflexes fast enough to perform assorted "impossible" telekinetic feats, he doesn't have anything but weaknesses in this area. He's several notches more fragile than the average human; he bruises and injures very easily, and he has low stamina. An average human, with no combat skill or training whatsoever, would be able to easily beat the shit out of him with a couple well-aimed punches, so long as they can manage to get close enough to do so.
Personality[]
On the surface, Joshua is a stuck-up, mouthy brat with an incredible ego and sense of entitlement. He had contempt for everything and everyone around him, treating others like dull-witted children at best and disgusting filth at worst. He knows he's smart, and he won't hesitate to rub it in everyone else's faces. The discomfort and unhappiness of others visibly amuses him, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to provoke it; insults, sarcasm, and petty jabs are common, but he also likes to go the other way and prompt sweating by acting inappropriately affectionate. He's a little bundle of pure obnoxiousness, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Like any sociopath worth their salt, he can be superficially charming if he wants to, but doing so easily becomes boring for him...and if there's anything he hates, it's boredom.
Joshua is a colossal troll.
Joshua acts like such a douchebag for two reasons. The surface excuse is that it makes people easier to control - if you can gauge what actions prompt what reactions from someone, you can make them do anything. Control is a high priority for him - he needs to be the dominant party in any relationship, even if the other person doesn't know he is. It's the only way he really knows how to relate to others. But aside from that, he likes confusing people and pushing them out of their comfort zones to help them grow - by subverting the expectations of others and shaking them up, he can prompt them to philosophize and question, which is a good thing, even if it isn't always that simple.
Joshua is very deceptive - he never says what he means, instead obscuring his speech through riddles, parables, and general vagueness. He's a fan of double-speak, and is especially amused when someone else is capable of giving it back to him in return. People interest him, and so seeing what results when he twists the truth in just the right way is a favorite pastime of his. He is, however, not a fan of outright lying, and avoids it unless it's necessary or he's in too lazy of a mood to be properly manipulative - it's the Composer's nature to guide and uplift others, and blatant falsehoods are too far removed from that for even Joshua to justify.
Joshua is highly competitive and playful. He treats everything like a game and, as an extension of that, tends to treat others like toys. While sadism tends to be a large part of this, there's an element of authentic childishness to Joshua's games as well, and depending on his mood, things like simple toys and wordplay can captivate him just as easily as - if not even easier than - mass murder and tearing lives apart. He doesn't always play fair, but he expects others to. He absolutely despises cheating, unless he's the one doing it. Joshua is a rather sore loser, especially when he feels the other person wasn't "playing right" - when someone spoils his fun by besting him, his smug mask tends to slip, making him whiny, petty, and hostile.
He's not a very nice person.
Primarily, his dismissive worldview is born of apathy. As far as he's concerned, he's already seen it all, and therefore nothing interesting or important is left. When you're used to viewing the world on a universal scale, it's hard to take anything smaller than that seriously...and as such, Joshua often comes off as completely detached and jaded, concerned only with keeping himself entertained. Which isn't even remotely true; he's ambitious and visionary, and always has the bigger picture in mind. But given how little concern he has for things most people consider important, like human life, it might as well be.
Hard as it may be to believe, Joshua honestly cares about the human race, and wants to see it become as enlightened, creative, and overall successful as possible. He loves all of humanity in an unconditional, paternal way. This benevolence simply doesn't extend to individual people - since they are simply tiny, irrelevant, easily replaceable notes in his grand symphony, it's natural for him to treat others with apathy and cruelty. He's a firm believer in suffering making one stronger, and he dismisses the countless souls that have been torn apart or defiled due to his extreme methods as inevitable casualties, who deserved to die for their weakness. Nevertheless, nothing pleases Joshua more than watching someone grow spiritually stronger or more enlightened, and he never does anything to anyone that he believes would be negative in the long-term - when he torments and hurts others, he's giving them a chance to learn from the experience and grow from it. Although he's not entirely altruistic. Having fun at the expense of others is still a part of it.
At this point, Joshua is inhuman to his core, without any chance of turning back. Generally speaking, he only feels things such as empathy and emotion in a dull, muted way...even though he pretends he doesn't feel them at all. It's very difficult for him to gain personal opinions, especially when it comes to other people - any sort of bias, positive or negative, is inappropriate for the Composer, as he's supposed to be completely just. [And the one time he accidentally became enamored with a human on a personal level, it reeeeeally got to him.] He's more of a force of nature than an individual, even though he hides it expertly.
Joshua's vulnerability lies in the tiny bit of very repressed humanity left in him. Deep down, Joshua hasn't matured much over the years, and is still who he was when he died - a lonely, unwanted child who doesn't know what it's like to be loved or cared about. He's never had a legitimate, no-strings-attached friend, and the one time he came agonizingly close, he ended up shooting the kid. Joshua denies his very human yearning for companionship, hiding it even from himself by convincing himself that the rest of the world is beneath him. In order to be truly happy, he would have to put his pride and anxieties beside and let others in, but he instead pushes people away, thereby perpetuating his own problems and making himself unhappy.
Also, he's so fabulous it hurts. This is an important part of his personality.
Appearance[]
When Joshua tunes his soul down to interact with others, his appearance reverts to a younger state as a side-effect. The Joshua most people know is a scrawny, fragile boy - his 5'3 frame holds little substance or bulk, and his usual disdainful slouch does nothing to help. His flesh is a bit paler than the norm. His hair is a fluffy, curly mess of gray, cut in varying uneven lengths ranging from his chin to his shoulders. It likes to spiral and twist off in random directions. Even on the rare occasion Joshua bothers to tame it, it quickly snaps back out of place, giving him a perpetual bedhead. His eyes are a dark, highly desaturated shade of lilac; unless Joshua's under specific lighting or being appraised from mere inches away, they generally appear to be cloudy black. His eyelashes are short but thick, and very noticable when he blinks. When emulating emotion, Joshua tends to be somewhat lazy about his eyes, letting them remain in the same dead position even when the rest of him is giving a stunning performance. Overall, Joshua's features are androgynous - he could easily pass for female.
Joshua has a pair of white-feathered angelic wings, each about as wide as he is tall. They appear and disappear at will. Like most high-ranking reapers, Joshua almost always goes without them, preferring to look as human as possible.
His emotional displays tend to be subtle and minimalistic - when his feelings appear devoid of apathy or detachment, it's a guaranteed sign that he's lying through his teeth. His pouts, smirks, and superior grins tend to be faint and thin, and his eyes are almost always half-lidded with boredom or contempt. The exception is when he honestly gets excited or riled up. As he's not used to physically emoting, his body language and expressions come out predatory and crazed when he's passionate. Due to his stoic nature this rarely happens, but it's not easy to forget once seen. By default, his hands remain in his pockets, removed only when he needs them. When holding a conversation, he tends to touch and play with his hair often.
Joshua's actual appearance.
Joshua loves clothes and sees fashion as an artform. Generally, Joshua's clothing is simple, understated, and rather preppy - a stark contrast to his eccentric personality. He prefers conservative, casual-yet-elegant clothing, making it easy to disappear into a crowd if he so wishes. Although Joshua has been unable to find his favored brands in Pandora, the principles and driving asthetics behind them still remain at the center of his wardrobe. His signature brand is Dragon Couture - sleek, classy Chinese imports. In a formal situation, he sports expensive Italian suits and shoes from Pegaso...though he's equally likely to show up crossdressed for the lulz. When in a more playful mood, he's dabbbles in gothic and lolita fashion from Lapin Angelique; ribbons, lace, and even bunny ears make for fun, dark allure.
As for Joshua's real appearance? The most notable thing about the Composer is the blindingly bright, rather harsh white light that surrounds him. Constantly shifting and dancing about his form like wild tongues of flame, it serves to obscure his features by making him difficult to directly at, much less truly take in. However, get a glimpse of his face or even his hair, and he's unmistakably still Joshua. Just bigger. Not only is he ten years older, but he stands almost seven feet tall. His build, while still lean, is far sturdier than that on his teenage body. His hair and skin are pure white. His eyes are solid, pupilless grey and almost resemble empty sockets. While mostly humanoid, the Composer's proportions are just "off" enough to be noticable without being monstrous - his waist is proportionally far thinner than a male's waist normally would be, and his limbs are longer than those of a human. A blotchy gray aura surrounds him, mixed sporaically with streaks ranging from silver to outright black. It trails after him in fading strips of smoke, mixing and twisting around in itself.
Since there's no need to pass for human - or chance at doing so - when in his true form, Joshua doesn't bother with all the little touches that make his disguise believable. His expression rarely changes, staying fixed firmly in neutrality even as he cycles through his minimal emotions. He has no quirky habits, and his body language is non-existant. Since his light shifts to cover and obscure whatever he wears, assimiliating it into the mass of featureless whiteness, he doesn't bother putting thought into his clothing.
Relationships[]
Alexander de Large - Sociopaths are a cancer on society, and really don't deserve to exist as they are now...but damn are they fun to be around. Charming, with good taste in music. He'd make a pretty good reaper, if Joshua were in the business of doing that right now.
Alois Trancy - Probably not worth anything. Selfish, without any creative output to make him productive. That being said, Joshua does enjoy spending time and chatting with him. If he can be shallow for a moment, they go well together. If he were dangling off a cliff, Joshua would probably help him up.
Belle - He hasn't put much thought into her. Sometimes, a person needs a scratching post to stay sane.
Fai D. Flourite - Joshua trusts excessively friendly and chatty people even less than normal. In his experience, there's always an ulterior motive, especially when they willingly deal with with someone as charming as himself. At least he's something slightly different.
Demitrius Destartes Hiccup Haddock - Squeals when poked, which is funny. Though he hasn't witnessed it, Joshua can also hear a spark of creativity here, which is worth not ripping his organs out for. He'd probably push him out of the way of a speeding train, so long as it isn't too far to reach.
Jeremy Goode - Another scratching post, who hasn't recieved much thought. When you're baking cookies, it's okay to eat a bit of the dough, because it's just a tiny dent in the final product. There's enough people running around to justify batting a few around just for the hell of it.
Kikuri - Certianly amusing, but she's too young to tell if she'll actually be worth anything. Children make for softer clay than adults, at least.
Kurosaki Hisoka - Introverted people are such a waste of soul. Whatever potential he may or may not have, he's making himself useless by clamming up. Although Joshua does enjoy the excuse to be helpful.
Neku Sakuraba - They've bonded. Joshua would like to undo that, but he can't, and how he's stuck thinking of Neku the way a person would, yearning for a friendship he knows would be unrealistic, irresponsible, and never up to the standard he wants. He likes him for his wit and ability to surprise him, and almost admires the way he's developed as a person. But since those kinds of thoughts are far too alien and human for Joshua to deal with, he rationalizes them away. On a more conscious and artificial level, the amount of attention he gives Neku is merely Joshua keeping him on a short leash - he's proved himself to be a useful tool in the past, and his soul is lovely. It's not true, but Joshua is going to delude himself for as long as he can, because he's not supposed to be able to feel this way.
Razputin Aquato - He has spunk. Joshua is looking foward to seeing just what he can do with him; he's sure Raz will be able to keep up and maintain his attention.
Tsuzuki Asato - Absolutely precious. He's easy to mess with, and it's not hard to tell that there's some deeper trauma behind his demeanor just waiting to be exploited. Joshua would probably toss him a piece of driftwood if he were drowning, even if only to prevent wasting a perfectly good specimen.
Wednesday Addams - Interesting, to say the least. Her outlook is different from the norm, which is always delightful. Joshua enjoys speaking to her. Another good candidate for reaperhood, if Joshua were doing that kind of thing right now.
History[]
Pre-Canon[]
Life[]
Joshua has always been different. From birth, he possessed inhumanly powerful senses, allowing him to see and hear creatures, planes, and even entire worlds outside human perception. The supernatural was simply fact to him, clearly present everywhere he went. As he was so fascinated by and wrapped up in things no one else could see or even believed existed, he's always been isolated. He grew apart from all those who couldn't relate to or understand him, letting his own world pass by around him. His only support in his short life - and as far as Joshua believes, the only person who ever even gave a damn - was Sanae Hanekoma. Unbeknownst to Joshua at this time, Hanekoma was an angel - he recognized Joshua's potential for what it was, and gave him support to help him cope with his gifts.
But Joshua couldn't entirely shut out the mundane world. Boring, everyday reality constantly fought for his attention, distracting him from what he really cared about. As a result, his disinterest and detachment towards it grew into outright hatred. He despised normalcy and routine and predictability and all the blind, ignorant sheep who treated him like a freak. He felt trapped by life, and soon hated his continued existence as well. Formerly just introverted and kind of strange in the eyes of onlookers, Joshua gradually became outright mean, verbally lashing out at anyone who tried to reach out to him, and deriving joy from their misery and hurt when they recoiled.
Death[]
At fifteen, Joshua committed suicide. He needed a rush to truly feel alive, and the threat of total non-existence was the only thing good enough. For kicks, he made a game of it, launching an elaborate plan to assassinate the Composer, the underworld's sovereign who judges the dead. He fully expected to fail, given the odds. The real point was to make his heart race, and to see how many people he could drag down with him as he finally ended his miserable existence.
He succeeded. Not only did Joshua fail to die permanently, but his victory obligated him to become the new Composer. The position changed him - his humanity quickly evaporated away, as he began to identify as the Composer and nothing else. He had nothing to live for as an individual; it was simpler to let his individuality die and live on as a concept. He fell in love with mankind. Though he once despised them, from his new vantage point, humanity was more beautiful than anything he could ever imagine. It was simply rough around the edges. Properly harnessed, humanity's imagination, individuality, and energy could contribute to something greater, and Joshua saw it as his obligation to ensure that happened.
He destroyed the underground and recreated it from scratch, transforming it from a solemn hall of judgment into a deadly and sadistic Game. He forced the freshly dead to play by taking away the things they love most and dangling their existences over their heads. The few Players who came out alive would be better for the experience, and allowed to progress to proper judgement; the many more that lost would serve as raw material for new souls, better than the last. Through he would never admit it, the desire to torture others and watch them squirm further motivated Joshua's actions. Enlightened quasi-deity or not, he remained a resentful, unloved child at his core, who derived satisfaction from making others feel as awful as he did.
Canon[]
First Week[]
In the present day, Joshua grew weary of the humans. They were flawed, petty, and sinful: too selfish and short-sighted to realize their worth, and too complacent to strive for anything greater. Crime rates rose, and creativity fell. This tendency was worst in Joshua's native Shibuya. He saw the city as a cancer on the already-degenerating world, and its inhabitants as useless trash who didn't deserve to live. He decided, therefore, to destroy it. Removing Shibuya's malignant influence would prevent it from infecting other places, and nothing shakes people out of complacency and stagnation quite like an entire city disappearing from the map overnight.
Before acting, Joshua ran his plan by Megumi Kitaniji - Conductor of Shibuya, and Joshua's right-hand man. To Joshua's surprise, he reacted with horror and pleaded for him to change his mind. Joshua, being Joshua, made a game out of it. He gave Kitaniji a month to turn Shibuya's citizens into something more desirable. If he succeeded, Joshua would let them live; if he failed, he would not only destroy them, but erase him as well. To make things interesting, Joshua volunteered not to intervene directly. Instead, Joshua would recruit a human proxy to sabotauge the Conductor. Joshua next informed Hanekoma of the wager. Although he didn't show it, Hanekoma also disproved of destroying so many people so arbitrarily. He launched two separate plans to stop Joshua - one peaceful, one aiming for Joshua's death.
Poor Neku. :c
Joshua took human form, shifting to the living world to find his proxy. Quickly, his attentions settled on Neku Sakuraba. Not only was his soul incredibly bright, promising potent abilities after death, but he was an awful person. Neku was bad-tempered, selfish, and hated other people: the perfect, despicable candidate to show Kitaniji why these people deserved death.
After shadowing Neku for a week, Joshua moved to kill him. This is when Hanekoma's more violent plan came in. He'd given Sho Minamimoto, a rogue reaper officer aiming to overthrow Joshua and take his title, knowledge of Joshua's human identity. He attempted to ambush Joshua, which ended in spetacular failure due to Joshua's power. Sho fled. With that done, Joshua murdered Neku, stole his memories of his death, and left him passed out in the middle of the underground with no explanation.
Second Week[]
Joshua kept his hands off during the second week. He stealthily stalked Neku to make sure he didn't die, taking the occasional picture of his butt. Hanekoma launched his nicer plan by giving Neku a harmonizer pin to stabalize his erratic soul and make it easier to handle prolonged exposure to Joshua's intense, inhuman soul. He also served as a guardian and mentor for Neku, to soften up his harsh personality. Additionally, as Neku bonded with his partner Shiki, his abhorrant qualities lessened.
Third Week[]
By the third week, Joshua bored with observing and took a more hands-on approach. He illegally entered the Game posing as a freshly dead human, then forced a pact with Neku, becoming his new partner. In need of an alias, this was the first time Joshua referred to himself as Joshua. He couldn't say he was the Composer, and he had no desire to use his birth name, as he considered that person long dead. Joshua messed with Neku's head by slowly returning his stolen memories. First, he revealed his presence at Neku's death, but not his actions.
On the second day, Sho unleashed taboo Noise for the first time - powerful, aggressive Noise that blindly attacks human and reaper alike. He continued doing so throughout the week. Although a quick visit with Hanekoma hinted (correctly) that he taught taboo sigils to Sho to help him assassinate Joshua, Joshua mostly swallowed his suspicion.
Though Joshua and Neku initially hated each other, by the third day they'd bonded over mutual misanthropy and bitterness, almost to the point of actual friendship. While discussing the nature of individuality and society, Neku displays views astoundingly similar to Joshua's. To test the waters, Joshua casually slips in how much better it would be if they could just "get rid" of everyone else. When Neku appears startled rather than supportive, Joshua drops the idea.
On the fourth day, Joshua fed Neku a bit more of his memories - the first gunshot, aimed at Sho. Artfully crafted, it looked like he shot and killed Neku. Rather than confront Joshua, Neku hid this knowledge to better investigate his motives.
On the fifth day, taboo noise too strong for Neku cornered them. Grudgingly, Joshua showed his actual strength, incinerating the monster in one hit. A watching reaper protested that he's never seen power like that before, and incorrectly assumed it meant Joshua wasn't dead. Joshua ran with it. Neku, horrified by the prospect that his murderer was playing the game just for the hell of it, snapped, accusing Joshua of killing him. Joshua responded like a huge troll, neither confirming nor denying anything: he simply asked Neku if he planned to do anything about it, knowing that as partners, Neku couldn't touch him.
On the sixth day, taboo Noise ran wild, slaughtering everything in sight, both Player and Reaper. To Joshua's surprise, Neku didn't react callously, as he would have two weeks prior. He showed compassion for the dead and anger at those responsible. For the first time, Joshua noticed Neku changed.
On the seventh day, Sho attacked. Before the fight, Joshua revealed a bit more of Neku's memories - Sho's gunshot. Though aimed at Joshua, appeared to be aimed at Neku. After the fight, Joshua faked a heroic sacrifice, seemingly giving his life to protect Neku. These actions combined just as Joshua planned - giving Neku guilt for blaming an "innocent" friend who was willing to die for him. That was motivation enough for him to go after the reapers - and at the top, Kitaniji.
Fourth Week[]
In actuality, Joshua transported to an alternate universe. This dimension resembled bad fan-fiction of his homeworld: everyone in Shibuya obssessed over Tin Pin Slammer, a children's pin game. Though Joshua intended this to be a short detour, he found the cracky new universe hilarious and relaxing, abandoning his plans to go on vacation. A few days later, a very irritated Hanekoma tracked him down and dragged him back home.
When the returned, Kitaniji's plan to fix Shibuya was in full-swing. With the exception of Neku and his current partner, the entire city was under direct mind control, removing their ability to act counter-productively and make negative choices. A bit extreme, but Joshua recognized it as a valid solution.
On day seven of week four, Sho returned, turned taboo by his forbidden dealings. He tried to kill Joshua, but Joshua crushed him to death to prevent him from ruining the conclusion. After discovering Sho's body, Neku and his friends defeat Kitaniji, ending the game.Joshua praised him for being such an entertaining opponent, then erased him. He then restored Neku's memory and revealed everything to him.
Neku's resulting shock and rage intrigued Joshua. He'd recruited him specifically for his selfish assholery, after all; why did he suddenly care if everyone around him died? To test his theories on this, Joshua forced Neku to play one more game, this time with the position of Composer - and the right to decide Shibuya's fate - on the line. He created a gun for both of them. On the count of ten, whoever shot the other down first won. Broken by the betrayal and unable to shoot a friend, Neku spent the entire count weeping. So, Joshua shot him dead.
...Again.
Neku's refusal to shoot proved two things. Primarily, it proved Kitaniji correct; people do have the potential to change for the better, no matter how bad they are. If Neku could become a good person, then what's to say all of Shibuya couldn't do the same? Secondly, it proved that despite Joshua's ulterior motives and false persona coming to light, Neku still cared about him, and the time they spent together was meaningful. For the first time, someone selflessly cared about Joshua for who he was. These two revelations caused Joshua to change his plans to destroy Shibuya. Humanity deserved another chance. This was Hanekoma's plan all along - staying Joshua's hand by causing him to bond with Neku.
Joshua restored Neku and his friends back to life. A week later, when they had their first reunion, Joshua and Hanekoma observed unseen. Watching Neku move on and be happy without him cut Joshua deeper than he'd ever admit. He spent the entire time silently moping, trying to cover how awful he felt. Hanekoma noticed and admonished him, reminding him that they were of a different world, and had no right to interfere. This pissed Joshua right off, and he stormed off without a word. Immediately after leaving the scene, black chords pulled him into Pandora.
Pandora History[]
Lots of stuff forever oh god writing this is going to suck.