"Joshua is dying."

Those three words hit Neku like a subway train that was carrying a mountain that also fell on him. He looked up from his recent bandaging, having suffered a rather trying joint memory with the Composer involving knives.

"What?" his voice was soft, his tone clipped. "The hell you mean he's dying?"

Sanae leaned against the doorframe, clearly heavy hearted and drained because of emotion, as well as the fact that he knew exactly what would happen after the Composer took his last breath.

"He can't heal. He's now getting wounds that during the trial were nothing and healed eventually by his tormentors. His RG body won't last the week like this, getting torn apart and thrown around every time he has a lingering memory. There's a reason the punishment is called Memory Hell, Phones. J's dying. And I can't do a thing to stop it." The Producer hung his head, emotion choking his voice "Not a damn thing."

He phased in the UG so the kid wouldn't be able to see him rage and cry at the injustice of the situation. He was normally reserved, carefree...a great uncle figure.

But not right now. Yes, it was true that during the Long Game, he had tried to assassinate Josh using Taboo Noise. That was hard for him but he needed to save the city. It was justified. It burned him...it nearly destroyed him, to have to do that. But he had to save Shibuya, and Josh had to be stopped. What's more, it would have been over without Sanae having to see him die, makling it a tiny bit easier to justify his willingness to do it.

But this?

The Angel roared and struck a wall, shattering it on impact.

This wasn't right.

"WHY?!" he lifted his head and shook a fist "Why are you allowing this to happen?! Is this how you're having him pardon me?! Is this my actual punishment for something else I've done?!"

He dropped to his knees, tears flowing down his face as he struck the ground hard with both fists."Why are you taking him from me?! WHY?!"

He crouched in that position, body shaking in silent, powerful sobs as he wept for the snarky boy he'd practically raised as a son, both as a living soul, and as a citizen of the UG., and as the god of Shibuya. "He doesn't deserve to go out like this...not so soon and not like this! Please...please don't...please. I'm begging. I'm screaming from the entirety of my soul...Don't do this to him! Seraph...Seraph please...I'll do anything."

Yoshiya Kiryu's fate is sealed.

"Dammit! I'll become Fallen again if that's what it takes!" Sanae pleaded, hand raised in the air, head down, heart broken.

No. Yoshiya Kiryu's fate is sealed. The process has begun.

"Please..." Sanae's voice had grown soft, his pleas becoming whispers as he practically begged with every fiber of his being. "He's a child, Seraph! A child who just expanded his world...got back something he'd lost for so long..."

Yoshiya Kiryu's fate...has been sealed.

Hanekoma wanted to curl up and die right then and there. The High Councilman was not going to help him. His boy was going to die, and it was every bit partly his fault.

Picking himself up, the barista made his way back to Neku's place, barely seeing the bright sights on the way. Everywhere he turned, he saw ghosts of a little boy with ash-blond locks and a smile that didn't quite look like the characteristic smirk just yet. Purple eyes filled with laughter followed him down the lonely streets, until they morphed into witty eyes and a skinny frame that had lost all joy but had found something better...a future. Eyes that searched for answers, and a smirk that mocked the world followed him down Cat Street, and the ever-present giggle reached his ears, making him weep all over again, his soul crushed by the fact that soon, that sound would never again reverberate through Shibuya's streets.

As he warped into the house, he felt greatful that Neku couldn't see him as he knelt next to the boy he raised and brushed ash-blond bangs that were sticky with sweat to the side, tucking them behind his ear.

"I'm so...so sorry, kiddo. I can't save you this time. I even tried to appeal to the council on my knees. But..." his eyes once again filled with tears "Your fate...is sealed. Forgive me, Yoshiya Kiryu. I failed you."

He stayed there for the rest of the day, weeping over the boy he considered his son, begging forgiveness for a promise broken. His soul cracked as Joshua suddenly looked right at him and smirked,

"I regret nothing, Sanae."

The voice was a rasp. A weak, feeble rasp bordering on a whisper. It broke the Producer. Hanekoma begged for erasure right there and then...but of course like everything else, his plea was ignored.

So he continued to weep into the night, utterly shattered.