Too late. Togusa could let the ground open up and swallow him whole right now, he feels like such an idiot. He knows she is afraid of it. The images from her nightmares where she was more machine than person, the constant visions of being interconnected in a horrific way. And he just jumped right into the topic.

He bites the hell down on the 'I'm sorry.' "Maybe a non-issue, if we get to Vanderweele fast enough."

Her hand continues to move, and it is such a different tic that it comes off wrongly to Togusa. It's not Mariko, so he has to wonder if it's her. It is somehow disturbing, but he makes himself continue to watch as if it's some kind of sequence she has to finish.

Blink. "Why did he mention it? Ah. It's a progressive condition. Sometimes, when someone gets injected with the micromachines that make up a cyber-brain, their immune system doesn't take to it, it attacks everything instead. It leads to a progressive hardening of the grey matter of the brain, somewhat similar to the plaques of Alzheimer's."

Pause, and his hand goes right the hell back to his chest. "Togusa was investigating a charity, a group dedicated to helping people with the disease." So it did have to do with the Laughing Man. But how?