A bit of a bump here, but going right back to the first page of this thread:
Yubiseiharukana wrote:Okay, so in seriousness, here's my full theory:
1 - You must go down the Shizune path to follow this chain of events
2 - (As seen in Act 1) Shizune and Hisao get fairly close
3 - Continuing through time, as Shizune and Hisao get closer, the bonds between Shizune and Misha begin to break
4 - Eventually, Misha confronts Shizune with her fears of being left out. After a heated round of signing, Shizune runs away from Misha
5 - Misha is tormented by the idea of losing her one close friend (she has had a hard time gaining close friends due to her personality)
6 - Eventually, Misha's condition will kick in. The issue will be internal (as with Hisao's arrhythmia), and, as with Hisao's first heart attack, the emotional stress will cause her body to go haywire
7 - Misha survives, but only due to life support. She has enough energy to speak to a distraught Shizune before she dies.
8 - By this point, Hisao has learned sign language from Misha, and can fluently communicate with Shizune
I'm 100% sure that this is totally wrong

I actually think that this could be a splendidly affecting way and emotional way of resolving the story. Misha is fading, and as she shares her last words with Shizune she's too weak to sign out effectively - but Hisao, who by this point has learned sign language, acts as the interpreter for her. This shared moment of honest intimacy between the three of them repairs broken bridges - previously Hisao was the unfortunate wedge that drove them apart, but now that wedge has stuck there and welded all three parts into a whole. There is a reconciliation between Shizune and Misha, and also between Misha and Hisao, who gets to use his new skill in partnership rather than competition. By this act Misha also symbolically passes on the torch of Shizune's companion to Hisao, and she can meet her end at peace with herself knowing that all that can be done has been done.
It would mean that all of Shizune's H-scenes would have to happen early on in the game, though, as given the tragic melancholy atmosphere of this scene it'd be difficult to do it afterwards... but then again, you could a quiet and tender sex scene after Misha's death if it was presented as Shizune, normally so fiercely confident, admitting her vulnerability (exposed by the loss of a complementary companion) and pleading with Hisao to not leave her alone.
On a tangental issue, I don't think that it would be wrong or "forced drama" to include death in the game (there already is death anwyway, what with Hisaao's bad end, but in terms of an ongoing storyline rather than its end). As coming to terms with yourself in all your potential and limitations is a central theme to KS (at least it was stressed several times in Act 1), this is as much a part of it as not stressing yourself on the running track - it is an unfortunate but inevitable truth that not all of the pupils of the Yamaku Academy are going to receive their full three score and ten. I suppose one barrier to including death in the game, though, would be the timescale it takes place in - assuming that each Act is a week of narrative time, would someone really sicken and fade over the course of a less than a month? It would seem very sudden unless there are timeskips included.