[ For once, Joshua is broadcasting from outside. For anyone who wishes to track him down, he's not hard to find, simply sitting in the plaza. The sound of the fountain is just faintly picked up by the journal. ]

In a place like this with so much in flux, it isn't surprising, but still manages to somehow be unexpected. Like a next door neighbor who you didn't realize was moving away until there's a truck outside loaded up with boxes. It was just a part of the setting that you always expected to be there.

I suppose it's reasonable. When the last resident of a house leaves, everything that the entire group had goes with them. After all, the Malnosso don't seem fond of leaving loose ends around here. What's the difference between a room and an entire building?

Though I should probably make the announcement that it likely now falls on me to make. If you knew of a boy who called himself Beat, he appears to be no longer in Luceti.

[ And with him, the last piece of home Joshua had vanishes into thin air.

One thing that Joshua doesn't realize is that his death penalty is temporarily gone, so if anyone feels like showing up and making some music around him, it would probably freak him out quite a bit. ]

(( Backdated to yesterday ))

[ Normally Joshua would poll the audience on his anniversary, but this year, he gets a bit distracted. You see, a collection of spray paints has shown up in the store, so Joshua is taking the opportunity to make off with all of them.

Or, trying to. His bag sort of breaks, so at some point between the store and 39 you might find a spray paint can rolling towards you with a Joshua chasing after it. ]

Grab that for me...!

[ Alternatively later in the day you can find him adding another mural to the back of his house to accompany the ones to either side. As it slowly takes shape it reveals itself as a cityscape, viewed from a very high angle.

Four years. What he wouldn't give to be home right now... ]

[ The 16th. July 16th. Six months minus one day after January 17th, one year minus one day after July 17th of the previous year, and one year and six months minus one day after the day he was made to be no longer an Angel. Hanekoma and Neku are both gone. Shiki has been here even longer than he has. Rhyme and Beat are both Players, far too fragile to rely on, far too distant to trust.

Tomorrow, he will probably die.

It's strange, in a way. He's never been afraid to die before. But he's caught up now in so much more than he was any of the previous times he was faced with death. This time, if he dies, there's no telling what will happen to Shibuya back home. And that's what he's afraid of.

This entry is public. This entry isn't anonymous. Maybe it's his way of saying goodbye for now. ]

Why are you afraid of death? Or, why aren't you afraid of death? Home, here, or both.

[ A few moments later, after drawing up a filter, he adds this to the message. ]

[ Filtered to Shiki Misaki: 100% ]

I have a favor to ask.

[ Sometime in the early afternoon, the following question goes out over the journals. The camera is covered, and the handwriting is disguised. ]

Let's have a thought experiment. Say you were dying, and the only possible way to save yourself is to get help from someone very close to you. However, you don't know for sure that this help will indeed save you, and whether or not it does, there's a chance that it will damage the one helping you. Trying to help you might even kill them.

Do you ask for their help anyway? Would you accept their help if they offered it?

[ Later on in the evening, Joshua makes a separate post from the previous, this one voiced and not anonymous. ]

[ Filtered to Neku, 100% ]

Hey Neku, are you busy tomorrow?

[ /Filter ]

[ The camera is covered, but Joshua is making no real effort to disguise his handwriting. He's too upset for that. ]

What should you do if you're so homesick you honestly, truly cannot stand it?

[ A few minutes later, the following is added. ]

[ Locked to Haruhi - 100% ]

The friendship club might have to wait a bit longer.

I'm guessing most if not all of you have felt the phenomenon where time seems to move at different rates, even though you know it's all in your mind. So tell me, does being in Luceti cause time to feel different to you than it did when you were back home?

[ Two years. It's been two years, and after experiencing as much time slip by as Joshua has, feeling those two years is a less-than-welcome change.

As a distraction, he spends the day painting a side of his building that has been blank ever since a certain someone went home. It's certainly not Hanekoma's style, but it's similar to it, the color scheme the same though the designs are more fluid, less blocky and more streamlined, with harsh points instead of rounded curves.

Maybe this is his way of making peace with it. Maybe he's finally moved on.

Maybe he's just that homesick. ]

[ If you happen to be celebrating the new year with some coffee or pastries or... whatever else Hanekoma feeds people at Kat's Kradle, then you might hear the sound of someone tuning a violin coming from the second story.

It starts off quite out of tune, but within a minute or two, it sounds fine. Then, Joshua starts up a piece of music: fast-paced, somewhat frantic, somewhat chaotic, without chorus or verse, but it has an overall feel to it of life, of progress, of change.

Or maybe you just missed the whole performance.

Either way, a little later, the following goes out over the journal. ]

Why do you want to go home? [ And then, after a short pause, ]

Why do you want to stay?

[ Filtered to Hanekoma, 86% ]

So tell me, did you Erase him?

[ Joshua's voice is calm, but very cold, both disdain and disgust lacing his words. ]

[ The feed begins with a soft giggling. ]

It's so obviously a trap that you can't help but spring it. So, I'm curious. Where does everyone think this gate really leads? Let's see whose guess is closest.

[ That too, but a certain protective Composer is starting to get paranoid about his city. He is not about to admit this. ]