Working With Phantoms

Light Through the Fog

August 2nd

Madran arrived at the LeBlanc Cafe once more to see everyone in Akira's group there, including Futaba.

"Hey, guys, I'm here. Was I supposed to bring anyone else?"

"Nope."

Madran nodded and sat down next to Akira.

"Well, I wanted to hold this quick meet-up because, well, yesterday, well, kinda sucked, like, really bad."

"What happened, Madran?"

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of misfortune and bad news, but..."

Madran shrugged.

"Wysteria died from a total organ failure at around 5:00 PM yesterday."

Madran averted her eyes as everyone made a variety of shocked responses.

"Holy... I didn't know that she was..."

"She, uh, for a good part of Suga's life, had a severe case of apathy syndrome, which is a mental affliction that causes most bodily functions to enter a sort of hibernating phase. Only in March did she recover from it."

"So, did the disease cause her organs to... just, stop?"

"You're pretty close on that, Makoto. Well, they caused her organs to deteriorate to the point where yesterday, they shut down, one after another. Nothing the doctors tried could save her, at all. It's like turning off all the switches to a circuit breaker, y'know?"

Futaba nodded.

"Yeah. If you turn one off, then the set of lights being powered by it can't turn on anymore."

"So, she lost eventual function of her organs, and died from it..."

"Before you all go crazy, I'm going to say, none of this is any of y'alls fault. All seven of you are perfectly fine, and didn't do anything wrong. I just wanted to, well, let you know why Suga hasn't really been so active today."

"Goodness..."

Madran looked to Ryuji, who looked incredibly distressed. Ann was comforting him as he shook his head.

"I mean, whenever I went over to Suga's house, Wysteria was there, and I knew she was, but now she's just... dead?"

"Yeah. It's hard for everyone."

Yusuke sighed.

"This paints a dark picture for Suga's future... have you been able to talk to her?"

"Nope, Herupā asked if we let her be for a few days, unless if she requests to see us. We all grieve in different ways, and I guess that Suga just needs to collect herself."

Futaba looked around.

"I just hope that she doesn't become like me... like, thank you guys for helping me with that."

Morgana then hopped up onto the table.

"Hey, this is a bit of an odd question, but since Sojiro isn't here, I guess that I can ask it: did anything about that number that texted us happen?"

"Yeah, I heard a voice counting down from ten when I was in the hospital's waiting room. Sheila then talked about a shadow called 'Macabre' that visited her and Suga on the 29th."

Makoto nodded.

"Hmm... Macabre is the personification of death, often found being mentioned in 'Danse Macabre' or dance of the dead. Futaba, have you been able to track that number at all?"