A fog of gloom had settled in the Sakuraba household.

When Joshua wasn't busy having an episode, he was on his phone sending last instructions to Kariya and texting his mysterious replacement who was not Neku, (much to his chagrin). He also attended another Composers meeting via phone but was forced to drop the call because his now very promonent cough had him vomiting blood on to the floor half the time.

Neku remembered well the reason for the ragged coughing, and it had nothing to do with the illness Josh had picked up. He subconsciously put a hand to his own throat and swallowed hard.

Pinned to the ground by three pairs of glowing eyes, he found himself sneering up in defiance as one of them made a rather unflattering insult. He countered haughtily, smirking and blowing his hair out of his face. The glowing being doing the insulting slapped him hard, then smiled wickedly.

"You have a sharp tongue, Shibuya, and a hot throat to go with it. Let's see how you spew REAL fire!"

It started small, like a warm blanket. Then all of a sudden it blazed to incendiary levels, scorching him...burning and charring and he screamed to let it release him from it's agony! It worked for five seconds until the sensation returned. His throat was literally on fire and the more he expelled, the worse it got until he was trapped in an endless cycle of expel and ignight. He thought his vocal cords would never recover, he swallowed hoping the saliva would drench the burning embers that had materialized in his throat, but that only sent waves of agony down the rest of his being and triggered his gag reflex, expelling more searing flames as he wretched, and making his eyes water humiliatingly giving the impression that they once again made him cry like a baby.

Neku shuddered at the memory, and wondered where Mister H. had gone to. The barista was taking Josh's impending doom harder than the one actually doomed. He'd been uncharacteristicly mopey, the tags he was experimenting with were laced with a bitter self-loathing. Neku was concerned as he looked at one such sketch he'd snatched from the angel hours earlier. This wasn't CAT's work at all. This was the work of a man with little to no hope, a father who'd had something dear ripped from his heart and was watching it drip through his fingers and disintegrate into dust.

This was the work of a broken soul.

The Proxy could hardly blame the man, after all he was walking a thin line himself, trying to keep from falling into the depths of despair and shatter at their relentless bottom of depression. The boy still had hope that the snarky Composer would recover, and things would go back to normal. Joshua was a notorious drama queen, he could easily be making it look worse than it actually was, after all. Neku paused in his thoughts as he snorted. When had he become an optimist? Maybe he was starting to crack.

Haineko had been called back up, much to her relief. She dearly missed her old Partner, but she had no desire to watch him die, nor to suffer Hanekoma's wrath at her part in Josh's inevitable fate. The Council would handle her punishment themselves. She did snag a peck on the cheek by the damned, as he apologysed for neglecting to search for her, and joking that she had left him. Neku had growled and shoved her out the door, his rage that he'd been right about her burning in his belly and in his eyes. Joshua looked forelornly at the door after he;d closed it, but the Proxy's returning glare held no sympathy.

"I'm back Phones."

Speaking of sympathy...

"Mister H!" The boy rushed to the barista, hoping to see some spark return to his soulless eyes. He was disappointed, as sadness still pooled within Sanae's man dropped his shoulders and went into the kitrchen

"Got some groceries here for ya. I picked up shoyu for dinner as well." Sanae called.

"Sanae" Joshua rasped after coughing out blood "You only got Shoyu? Where's my shio? Surely the damned get a few last meals."

Neku realized that was exactly why the barista hadn't picked up any of Josh's favorite ramen. He refused to give him a 'last' meal, because that meant death was ever closer to gripping the Composer by the throat and dragging him away.

"I won't starve you, J." the man said tiredly "You'll have to settle."

Joshua was about to reply, when he suddenly wretched so hard that his body lurched, landing on the floor. He twitched for a minute before gasping and clutching his throat. Neku dashed forward, knowing what was wrong.

"It's ignighting again!" the proxy barked, fetching a water boittle he'd kept near in case that happened. He'd had to put out Josh's throat twice already.

This time though...he doubted he would be able to get close. The skinny boy wasn't just thrashing aimlessly. He was in agony, expelling charred and mangled fleshy bits out of his already blackened, bleeding throat, small bursts of flame spewing out his mouth. He grabbed everything and anything that was liquid and downed it...

But it only made his pain worse.

Neku had to tackle him and force his mouth open so he could pour the cold clear liquid down the flaming gullet and relieve the agonizing torture raging in his throat. Joshua went limp in his arms, relief on his face as the coals that lit his throat were finally doused.

Sanae looked relieved as the two boys interacted, but the light was gone from his eyes as he sighed heavily and said lowly "J...why do you do this to yourself? Erasure would be quicker than waiting for this body to shut down."

The Composer frowned deeply "Sanae! Are you seriously suggesting I simply lay down and embrace erasure rather than fight until I can't anymore?! How long have you known me, my producer?"

Neku snarled "Save your voice and your breath, Josh. Mister H. shut his soul down."

"Sanae..." Josh closed his eyes and concentrated hard for a moment, ignoring everything but the Music. He suddenly gasped "Sanae...your song...it's..."

He could not finish, so shocked was his revelation. He suddenly spoke very softly, deliberately, his head down and eyes shut tightly as if he were in pain, then his violet gaze locked the barista in a stare of disbelief.

"When did you clip your wings?"

Hanekoma choked back a sob, sinking to the floor "I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

Josh clenched his teeth "That wasn't the question." His purple eyes swam with confusion and horror over what the Angel had done "You cut your power in half, deprived yourself of flight, and at your level you also shortened your lifespan! Why, Sanae?! WHY?!"

"Because I'm losing you!" The barista shouted back "I can't do a damn thing to keep you here! What use is flight to me? What does it matter how much power I have if it's useless to cure you? Life is shorter without someone to care for anyway."

Neku snarled again, but Joshua held up his hand, turning again to the Producer he asked, voice cracking in emotion and hurt, a bit of betrayal spicing it up,

"Did my sacrifice mean nothing to you, Sanae?"

The angel knelt next to the couch quickly, grabbing the limp, skinny hand in both of his,

"Of course it meant something, Yoshiya Kiryu! It meant the universe to me!"

"Then why are you wasting it? Trying to negate what I got granted to you by deliberately shortening your lifespan?"

Sanae admitted that he had no answer for that question. Joshua would let him stew on it. His time was his own. As long as he continued to fight...he would remain alive.