Disclaimer: If I owned The World Ends With You, the event I'm writing about wouldn't have happened.

Authors' Note: I seriously wanted to cry when this happened in the game. It made me really, really, really have a vendetta against Ironface. As a result, I tend to just pretend that it never happened. It wasn't real, it didn't happen . . .

Elegy

It was always dark in A-East, but that day, it seemed even darker.

Still, as Reapers, they could see through the dark. It was just as well, since it seemed like the lights would never be fixed. Tenho couldn't count the number of times that 777 had screamed for the lights to be fixed. Tenho never yelled - it was always 777 yelling, or BJ, when he was fighting with 777 over the microphone. But he remembered listening to 777 scream at the tech to fix the lights - remembered the tension that always came right before a show, because they wanted their fans to be able to see them perform.

But it was always dark in A-East, and even darker now.

"Who's responsible for this?" BJ's voice was shaking with barely controlled rage as he gripped something made out of smooth leather in one fist. Tenho hadn't removed his eyes from the collar that had been worn so faithfully around 777's neck, nor did he open his mouth to answer, yet he somehow heard his own dead voice.

"Probably this week's Game Master. Konishi."

"Fuck!" BJ swung his arm, as if to throw the collar across the concert arena, but he didn't release it. The arm fell back limply to his side, and his head dropped, his next words coming out quieter. "Fuck . . . I'll - I'll kill her, Tenho. I'll erase that bitch."

BJ could feel his entire body shaking, 777's collar cutting into his palm. Tenho didn't respond, yet his silence said it all. BJ couldn't erase Konishi. As a Support Reaper, he didn't have that power. There wasn't a single thing he could do to avenge 777's wrongful erasure - nothing he could do to get his bandmate, his friend, back. 777 was gone, which meant their sacred triangle was broken, which meant Def Märch was broken as well. BJ couldn't erase Konishi - couldn't watch as her body disintegrated into nothing - but he wanted to. He needed to, because she had taken apart the very fibers of Def Märch with nothing more than a merciless giggle. He could taste his desire for vengeance just as much as he felt 777's collar cutting into his palm.

". . . We'll only play one song at the show," Tenho spoke up after a moment, his voice sounding just as dead as before. BJ looked up at him, disbelief etched into his every feature.

"You still want to perform? Def Märch's lead singer just got erased by the Iron Bitch, and you still want to perform?"

"One more time." Tenho's voice became a bit tighter, and he aimed his eyes at the floor, where 777's collar had rested before BJ had picked it up. "A tribute. For him."

". . . Fine." After a thick swallow, BJ turned away, pulling his black hood farther over his head, clenching his fingers so tight around 777's collar that he almost thought he had developed rigor mortis. "A dirge. An elegy. For him."

A-East was always dark. But as two Support Reapers stood in the center of the stage, mourning the death of their best friend, it somehow seemed even darker.