A.N. (1/19/21) - The title says it all.


DNAngel (34) - Grief Comes Afterward

"Did you hear the news?"

"I did. Phantom Dark struck again last night."

"Yeah, but apparently the item that was stolen belonged to Kujikawa-san's uncle."

"Really? No way!"

Daisuke ignored the other students talking amongst themselves and walked towards his desk. Saehara gave him a wave as he did.

"Hey, Daisuke. Everyone's talking about what happened last nigh—"

"Sorry, but…" Daisuke interrupted, surprising the other boy. Daisuke didn't really cut conversations short like that. "I'm not really in the mood to talk about Dark. Can we talk about something else?"

Saehara took a look at Daisuke's face and hid his surprise. The boy looked terrible, as though he didn't get a wink of sleep. His eyes were red and poofy, telling Saehara that Daisuke probably cried a lot.

"Did something happen with Miss Harada?"

Daisuke shook his head.

'Strange, what else would the guy be sad about?' Seeing that Daisuke wasn't in the mood, he let it go for now.

"School is about to start soon. Looks like Nagi's gonna be late."

"Nagi's not going to be at school today," Daisuke replied. "He told me to tell the teacher."

'When did the two of them get so close?' Saehara thought. Outwardly, he shrugged his shoulder. "Guess that makes sense, with what happened last night."

"Yeah…"

}-{

Class started, and Daisuke attempted to focus on lessons. Still, thoughts of what happened last night continued to plague his mind.

The two of them found themselves back in reality, the Dark Hour ended already. Misaki's painting had disappeared into particles of light, with only the drawing Misaki drew left behind.

Since they couldn't explain why the painting was gone, they agreed to have Dark take the blame for its disappearance. Nagi left to tell his uncle that the painting was gone, while Daisuke took the opportunity to quickly sneak out of the house and head on home.

Daisuke had trouble sleeping that night. He kept wondering if there was just something that they could've done. Even talking with Dark, telling him everything that's happened inside the painting, didn't give him any answers.

Waking up early the next morning, Daisuke went back to Nagi's place to check on him. It was then that Nagi told Daisuke that he would be skipping school today.

"Uncle's been acting weird after last night," he explained. "I want to keep watch over him. I'm not sure if there are any negative effects caused by what happened."

His face as he explained that was neutral, betraying no emotion.

"Y-Yeah. I guess that's something to watch out for."

"Thanks, Daisuke. Please tell the teacher that I'll be absent. I might be back tomorrow though. Who knows?"

Neither spoke for a while.

"...are you okay?"

Nagi sighed. "No, but I think I will be. I think I just need time to process things."

Daisuke hesitated for a moment, questioning whether or not to speak. "Dark told me to tell you that he's sorry that he couldn't help."

Nagi shrugged his shoulders. "Don't worry, I don't blame him. I don't blame anyone. It sucks that things ended like that, but that's life."

"...you seem calm."

The other boy scratched his face. "Well, I went through something similar when my dad died. I'm not saying that this is better, only that I'm familiar with this."

Right, Daisuke forgot for a moment that Nagi was an orphan. That was why he was living with his uncle in the first place.

Nagi fidgeted. "I still have Misaki's drawing hidden in my room. I'm not sure what to do with it."

"If you want, I can ask my grandfather to have a look at it. It might be something special."

Somewhere in Daisuke's mind, he hoped that the drawing was somehow a possibility that Misaki was alive. Maybe it contained the remains of her power, which they could use to revive her. Not that he would know how, since he barely understood the mechanics of magic himself.

Nagi yawned. "I'm still a bit tired. The last few days had a lot of activity, and I'm not really used to that kind of stress. I'll be going back to bed after this."

Seeing that Nagi looked like he was about to collapse, Daisuke quickly excused himself.

"See you tomorrow."

"Bye Daisuke."

}-{

Nagi spent the rest of the morning sleeping in, only waking up late in the afternoon to talk with his uncle.

His uncle had decided to stay home for the day, checking the house to see if anything else was stolen. Watching his uncle's reactions, Nagi noted that he didn't seem different as far as he could tell. Did he see wrongly when he noticed his uncle acting weird earlier? Maybe nothing was wrong after all.

Then again, it's not like he noticed his uncle's feelings before his visit to the painting last night. It could be that his uncle just has a good poker face. Or maybe he internalizes his feelings well.

The day quickly passed, and soon it was time for the two to retire for the night. But Nagi didn't go to sleep immediately.

11:57 p.m.

He wanted to wait, to see for sure if Misaki was really gone.

11:58 p.m.

He clenched the piece of paper in his hand. He didn't know why Misaki's drawing was the only thing left after the painting disappeared. Maybe it was because it was the object of his uncle's distortions, and this was proof that his uncle would change.

11:59 p.m.

But there was a small hope nudging at his brain. That maybe Misaki wasn't really gone, only weakened. Maybe gaining a Persona might've helped her stay alive, allowing her to change from being the artwork spirit of the painting to this drawing instead.

Nagi watched the seconds countdown to midnight, his heart pounding in his ears.

—3

—2

—1

0:00

And then the Dark Hour came, and Nagi found himself still in his room.

Nagi stood up and quickly walked out of the house. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, other than the usual green sky and pools of blood that came with the Dark Hour.

He went to the spot Misaki's painting was last, and nothing happened.

He looked at the drawing clenched in his hand and didn't see anything special about it.

He desperately tried to see if there was anything left, only finding nothing.

And then he realized it.

Misaki was gone forever.

And that was when Nagi finally started to cry.


I'm almost done with the Misaki arc. I'm gonna probably write a few more chapters before taking a break on this story for a while. I'll see what I decide over the next few days.