An empty sake-bottle laid on the ground, next to some pills. Over that hang an lifeless arm. He fell asleep before he was ready. Now he laid there like a dead...
First he wanted to take just one. He wanted to sleep one night to think about it. But it was too much for him, so he took enough to kill himself. All this mess, and than this stupid message on the backside of a CD-cover: „Thats enough! I can't stand it anymore! Keigo... I say it simply: It's over!"
He never believed that he overacts so much. Nobody would. His alarm-clock next to his bed was ringing. But nothing could wake him up. Everyone who would find him would say that he is dead. The ringing alert-clock and the ringing phone in the living-room were not able to wake him up. The drugs and the alcohol worked to well.
Everything seemed so wonderful. After all the shit in his past. Here was his own little peaceful world. He had succes, was popular, he earned more money than all of his former classmates together... and he had his peace. His violent sister was just a demonic memory he succesfully suppressed, when it came up. His selfish parents, who prefered to look for thier careers first and only groused. And his classmates... his so called friends... Keigo knew that this 'group' just tolarated him reluctantly. Seeing not more than a nuisance in him.
Here he was happy. Shortly after his graduation from high-school, his sister banished him out of thier appartment. Due to his bad grades he didn't went to college like the others. So he decided to go. To start all over again. The others did not care. He moved to Central Tokyo. He lived there as a homeless, untill he finally found a job in this dubbing-studio. It was just a poorly paid temporary job. But it was enough for the first time. One day, someone heard him talking... and that was the beginning of his voice-actor career...
And now he lives in this wide, expensive penthouse in Minato. Tokyos most expensive neighbourhood. With a wide terrace that had enough space for a jungle of plants and some pets (3 chickens and 2 ducks) with his self build hutch. Here in the 14th floor it was quiet and some people told him that he has luck, to have some green space here in the middle of worlds biggest city.
And there was her. They worked together. He had a crush on her from the beginning. She a bit later. He bought her presents, they went on journeys toghether... But her condition was that he tells nobody about thier relationship. The people would talk about it. And he accepted. Although he wanted to pose with her. Especially in front of his so called friends, who said once that they don't believe that any women on this world would withstand a relationship with him. That he just listened once, when he eavesdroped on them.
But now, everthing was over. His little world was crumbling. His self-made protective shield blowed up. The past hit him with a punch that even Tatsuki would have cried like a little girl. For what? Why he is the one, who has to handle all the shit? The media had spread it. For months the people in Japan had no other subject to talk about. Even in the United States and Europe the people had wild theories. At first it looked as if he comes away unscathed. After his departure from Karakura, he had distanced himself from everything. He quickly regretted that he returned to years ago to watch Chad's boxing-match with the others. Not only because of the eight slaps he recieved that day from Tatsuki. Nobody seemed to know what he recieved till that day. He left before the fight was over. The others didn't seem to notice his sudden disappearance. Only Kazui, Ichigo's son, and Ichika, Rukia's daughter, saw him leaving. When the little boy asked, what was going on he just answered: He must go!
No phone-call, no E-Mail. He left and went for his own. Nobody knew that he was already more famous than Chad. But no one said anything. Keigo knew, that nobody care for him. So he left. He was tired to run after his so called friends. He thought he had done everthing right. But now he knew that it was not so...
The telephone in the living-room rang ever and ever again. Eight messages where on the answering-mashine. But Keigo Asano, who thought he was finally on the top, didn't wake up. Will he wake up ever again?
Some kilometres away, the woman, Keigo thought she was the only one and just played with him, stood in front of a microphone in the dubbing-stuido. She weared headphones, to keep sure that she hears everything. On the desk in front of her was the script, an author wrote together with some translators. She only had to read it. And she had to speak, so that it looked like the blonde American lady on the screen in front of her said it. A brand new play that was dubbed for the japanese theaters. She was a very good voice actor. With cold eyes she stared on the screen and talked...
"Give me just one reason to believe you!" she said with a mad and threatening voice. The picture changed to a man who said something. But there was no sound. Of course not, because they where dubbing here into Japanese. "So, if it's true... tell me that you love me!" she continued. The picture changed to the man again who said something and than to the woman again. "Tell me, that you love me so much that you have died for me! That I am so important for you!" The American on the screen became mad when he said something. The picture changed to the woman again: „You see, that is not so difficult!"
The man on the screen grabed a bottle and threw it angrilly on the ground. Than the scene was over. The women took off the headphones, bored and threw them on the desk in front of her.
"Ready! The rest you can make by yourself!" she jelled with a strident vioce threw the studio and left.
The man who worked at the welcome-desk of the studio knew that this job was not as well as he first thought. Everytime he met this woman, that showed her true character when Keigo was not there too, he realised that he was underpaid. She was a difficult and sickening person. She wrote down two phone-numbers on a note and handed it to the man.
"Connect me with this numbers!" she said imperative.
The man didn't even ask why she did not use her own cell phone, so he just followed her order. Just to avoid any other word from her...
Keigo was still in bed. Sleeping like a dead, when the phone start to ring. The answering mashine switched on immediately.
"Keigo, are you there? If not... not so bad... well! I just want to tell you that I will fly away for a week. I come later and pick up my personal things. It would be very nice from you, when you put my things into my suitcase and..." In that moment Keigo woke up scared. He felt dazed and sick. But her brash voice scared him up. "...I'll call you back..."
Keigo jumped of his bed, ran out of his bedroom, stumbled over a blanked on the ground and reached the phone.
"Goodbye, Keigo!" where her last words before Keigo finally reached the phone and picked up...
"H... Hello... Akira?" he said. But the only thing he could hear was the beeping in the line. She hang off before. Immediately Keigo felt dazed again...
_Chapter 2_
Keigo start to get nausea. The pills and the alcohol caused a terrible hangover and horribile headache. Keigo opened the list of incomming calls and found the number of the phone she used to call him.
In the lobby of the dubbing studio, the man from the welcome-desk picked up the ringing phone. "Nippon Dubbing! Welcome desk! How can I help you?"
"This is... Keigo Asano speaking!" Keigo stammered. „I got a call, just a minute ago! Is..."
"NO!" the man said immediately. "Sorry, she left!"
It was a lie. She was still in the lobby and just prepared to go. But the man didn't want to talk to her again, so he lied.
"Is that Asano on the phone?" the man from the studio asked. The receptionist nooded. "I want to talk to him!"
"Oh, Asano-san, the producer is here. He wants to talk to you!"
Keigo got a little bit scared. He knew that he would be really mad. He saw that it was almost midday and he was not in the stuido.
"KEIGO!" the producer jelled angrilly. His voice caused much more pain in Keigo's head. „Where are you? I tried to call you the whole morning?"
"I'm so sorry!" Keigo murmured and hold his aching and throbbing head. Now he need a well apology. "I... sleept pretty bad last night so... I took a sleeping pill! But it was not so good and it worked a bit... to well... I come as fast as I can!"
"Well... The first soundtrack is ready. We recorded it without you!" the producer said while looking on the watch. "Please hurry, so we can finish the rest today."
"Okay! I'll be there as soon as possible. I just need a few minutes because, I have to pick up a test-result from my doctor. But than I come..."
After that, Keigo hurried to leave as soon as possible. He put on his clouthes and went to the bathroom. He looked horrible. Everyone could see that he had a hangover and that he took some drugs. He had to hide his condition or the people would talk about it. A few minutes later he left his penthouse, wearing sunglasses and a cap to hide his face. After the scandal it was necessary. He turned into a quiet and shy person. The people realised that.
He took the elevator down to the lobby and left the building. He had to see this doctor. After that, he will return, take his car and drive to the studio in Shibuya. He looked around. His neigborhood was one of the best, safest and most expensive in Tokyo. Between the buildings he saw the Tokyo-Tower, that was just a few minutes away.
Keigo went to a small clinic. When his girlfriend had to puke several weeks ago he took her here because the doctors here where some of the best (and most expensive) in Japan. They where also very fast with test-results. So Keigo had to waid only two minutes, before he got an envelope with the test-results from the doctor. The name of his girlfriend and the word 'confidental' was on it, but Keigo got it, because he paid the bill.
"Why she didn't came? Whe told her two weeks ago? She said that someone will pick it up for her so your welcome!" the doctor said and bowed. "Don't smoke anymore and watch your diet. And please tell her to contact her doctor regulary. I wish you all the best!"
"Thank you!" Keigo said. He was speechless after that diagnosis. But he had no time to think about it.
He went back to his house and took the elevator down to the parking garage. There he entered his car and drove as fast as possible to the dubbing studio in Sakuragaoka-cho, a district of Shibuya near the station. There he parked his car and went inside to the welcome desk.
"Fukushima-san is requested to contact Studio B! Fukushima-san, please contact Studio B! Thank you!" the voice of the receptionist echoed thew the building. His microphone was still on when Keigo arrived in front of him.
"Hi! Did Akira left something for me?" he asked full of hope.
"Yeah... and?" the man asked still talking threw the microphone so that his voice was still comming out off the speakers. "No, she didn't! Forget that stupid jinx man!"
Keigo sighed. Than he realised the note with the phone-numbers. One of them was his. It was definetly her handwriting. So she called someone else, too. Keigo grabled the note as fast as he could and stole the note. "Switch of your microphone!"
Keigo left. The receptionist was mad and shouted threw the microphone. "HEY, did you stole my note?! Hey... HEY! Give it back!"
Keigo closed the door to the corridor to escape the voice of the receptionist that echoed threw the whole building. The people already gazed. He entered one of the rooms, put off his jacket and greet his producer. He was relieved, but still very mad on him for beeing so late.
"Hi! I'm so sorry!" Keigo said when he reached the little group in the dark room.
"Awww... Finally you are here!" the producer said with a mad sound in his voice and handed Keigo a pair of headphones. „This came in today! It has to be dubbed today! It's just a short commercial!"
Keigo put on the headphones. Next to the producer, there where a unknown man and an unknown woman in the room. The commerical start to appear on the screen in front of them. Keigo saw immediatelly that it was a spot for TV. Filmed in Korea or somewhere else. They dub it for the Japanese TV-viewers. That was cheaper to film it in Japan with Japanese actors.
The commercial start with a marriage in a church. Together they stand around the microphone. The camera went closer to the priest.
"Today, we came here together, because these two want to enter the holy bond of marriage." the producer spoke. He was the priest.
The unknown man made a loud theatrical cry. He was the mother of the bride in the background.
"Do you want..." the producer continued. "...to take this woman to your wife. So answer with... I do!"
"I do!" Keigo said friendly. He was the bridegroom.
"And do you, my daughter, want to take this man as your husband so answer with: I do!"
"Yes, I do!" the woman, that dubbed the bride, said. Her voice was warm and friendly.
On the screen, the priest went closer to the bridegroom. „But remember one thing my son..."
"And what?" Keigo asked nervously, as it stood in the script.
"There is sin in every marriage. But when you sin..." the priest handed a condome to the couple. „...sin safely!"
The screen became black. The scene was over.
"Okay, thank you!" the producer said and everyone took off the headphones. "That was everything. The post-production does the rest!"
"What was that?" Keigo asked mad smashed the headphones on the desk in front of him.
"That's our job! Don't be so mad! You should be happy that I still have work for you." the producer moaned and send the others out of the room. With a handsighn he told the sound engineer to switch off all microphones, so nobody could listen to them. The subject of the conversation was very important.
"Why? Is it because of that what what was in the newspaper yesterday. Or is it because of that what they discuss in the talk-shows? I already told you that I have nothing to do with that." Keigo explained. It was one of this moments he talked like in school-days. Fast, loud and shrill.
"Don't explain that to me! Tell that to the press!"
"I already told the press, that I won't tell them anything!" Keigo said with waving arms. "Because I'm in the hell not involved in that!"
The producer put on a cigarette and offered Keigo one while listening. "Keigo, how long do we know each other? Six years?
"Seven!" Keigo corrected and took a cigarette from his producers box.
"Seven, okay! Keigo I realised that you are a very... difficult character. Don't take it the wrong way but you are shrill, obtrusive, brash and overreact all times. But... you are a great voice-actor and a good actor. Loosing you would be a great loss. But you have to be happy that they didn't arrest you yet. So I beg you fix up that..."
"I already told you that I have nothing to fix!" Keigo murmured and turned away to stare on the black screen while smoking. Now he talked quieter and more like an adult. "I told them everything what I can. The thing makes me worried. I have no clue what's comming next."
Keigo was worried and sad. His producer saw that Keigo was on the verge. „So... I wish you good luck, Keigo. You know, when the situation gets worse... We can't help you! So, we have to go on..."
The producer prepared everthing for the real dubbing. Keigo put off his cigarette and went back to the desk. The screen turned on again when Keigo put on his headphones again and prepared for his part.
It was the same scene as today morning. An American couple, that sat in a dark restaurant on a table. The man, a shy nerd and the woman a domineering beast that threathed all man like waste. Keigo heard the theme. Soft and calming guitar-sounds. Keigo crossed his armes and stared emotionless on the screen. The producer settled down on a couch behind him and watched everything observantly.
"Give me just one reason to believe you!" he heard his girlfriends voice.
Keigo knew that they had to be here together to dub the scene. But he just continued, he didn't want to think about it.
„Because I did everything for you. I fulfilled every of your wishes. I gave you everything. Without any word from you!" Keigo spoke quietly, but very mad into the microphone.
"So, if it's true... tell me that you love me!"
"I told you so many times, but okay: I love you!" Keigos face start to twitch. He felt like he is the man in this movie. Althoug he just borrowed him his voice.
"Tell me, that you love me so much that you have died for me! That I am so important for you!"
„I would have died for you. Yeah. You are so important for me that I have died for you. No matter how!" Keigo became choppy. Not just because the script prescribed it and the actor in the movie played it that way. In truth his heart was rushing.
"You see, that is not so difficult!"
The script prescribed that Keigo had to make a loud and angry wheeze, while the man in the movie grabs the bottle and smashes it to the ground. But for Keigo it was too much: He fell down unconcious. The alcohol and the pills caused a short circulatory collapse. Everything went black. The next thing Keigo remembered was his producer standing over him worried.
"OH MY GOSH... Keigo, are you okay?" the man said when Keigo woke up. "Shall I call an doctor?"
"No, I'm okay!" Keigo said and stood up to leave the room. He hoped that his producer didn't smell the alcohol. "I... Just need a moment. I'm... in the restroom..."
When he was in the corridor he start to cry. He realized: He was the American in the movie and his girlfriend was the mendacious bitch. He was the stupid again. The stupid who gave everything and lost all.
In the mens restroom he poured cold water over his face and tried to calm down. It was over. But he had to move on...
The time passed. The first people left to go home when Keigo was standing on the welcome-desk and wrote the foregin phone-number on a note. The receptionist had left to get a a coffee for himself and came back to try to take away the note from Keigo again. But Keigo was faster, and pulled away his hand before. When he finished his own note, he gave the note back and turned to the receptionist.
"You are strange, today!" the man murmured.
"I need to call this number!" Keigo said.
Keigo felt that the people gazed at him. They all knew the news from the gossip press. But Keigo didn't mind... there where other things he had to check now.
"Than just call it!" the man said and handed Keigo the telephone from the desk.
Keigo put the horn from the reciever and called the nummer. After just a second someone picked up.
"Hello?!" the male voice said. It sound tired and mad.
"Ehm... Hello!" Keigo said friendly. "Who's speaking?"
"Mind your own business!" the man on the other side of the line said angrily.
The man was in his own litte, dirty apartment in a run-down tenement, somewhere in the north of Tokyo. The only window gave just view on the wall of the nearby building.
"I just need to check something! Did you recieved a call from..."
"Shut up you idiot! It does not concern you who calls me! So spare me with your annoying anime-voice and leave me alone!" she man shouted and smashed the horn back on the phone.
"Hello?... Hello?!" Keigo said. But he could just hear that the man hang off. Keigo hang off and handed the phone back. That was strange. Who was that guy? Why he insulted him? Keigo left the building and went to his car. He wanted to stop all. So he drove to an office-building near his apartment. It was the office off his estate agent.
"Oh, hello Asano-san!" the real estate broker greeted him friendly. He was the one who sold Keigo his luxury penthouse, and recieved a pretty commission from him. "How can I help you? Do you like the apartment?"
Keigo took a seat in front of the man's desk. "Hello... yes! Yes, I like the apartment very much. It's wonderful. It's just... that... There are some personal changes in my live, and I... To keep it short, I can't live there anymore. I want to move out. But I want to keep it so I can rent it out!"
"Oh, okay..." the man said and wrote everything on a note. He didn't ask for a reason. He read the newspaper and could imagine. "That's no problem. I can arrange everything for you. The demand for aparments in your neighbourhood is very high."
Keigo thanked him and left.
Meanwhile... on the other side of the Tokyo-bay, a young man left a train at Midori-station in the Chiba prefecture. When leaving the train he saw that he was wrong. All around him people pushed out of the train to go home. The shy young man apologized to everyone who pushed him down and allowed the mass of people to carry him along with them. Here he was definetely wrong.
The mass of people disappeared and finally he could 'walk' again. He was tired after this long, and senseless, journey. He missed the station, he had to use to leave the train, long ago and now he end up on the wrong side of the bay. He pulled out the note with the description of the route from Karakura to Minato and finally found a map. Now he was pretty sure that he was lost. But he had a job to to. An important one. And he was committed to fulfill it. But he had to admit that it was more difficult than he first thought.
On his note was a phone-number. He could try it. He had to. Because he had no clue how to go on further...
_Chapter 3_
Keigo went into his car and drove home. Than he walked to a nearby building in his neighbourhood. Here between some brand new luxury buildings was the house, his girlfriend lived in. It was not as big as the others. Only 4 stores high, but very luxury and expensive. She lived in the penthouse, in the top floor. Months ago, he helped her to get this apartment and helped her moving in. Because that, he knew the house very well. While leaving the elevator, he met a man. Black hair, tired face and stubby body. Both men didn't recognize each other. But the foreigner saw that Keigo went to the apartment, he just came from...
Immediately he left the elevator and hid around the corner, watching Keigo ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door. Keigo waited a few seconds, but than he realized that nobody was at home. Keigo took a pen and a note-block and wrote down a message. The foreigner watched everything exactly and saw that Keigo left the message at the doorknob. When Keigo went to the elevator again he hid and came out when Keigo was gone. He took the message and read it.
"Akira, we have to talk! Please call me! I found out something we have to discuss! It's really important! - Keigo!" the man read before he crumbled the note and took it with him.
Keigo went to a small bar on the other side of the street and ordered a drink. It was quiet. Many people where still at work so he had some piece. But just after he ordered his drink he saw the man from the elevator again. He left the building, and threw the message that Keigo wrote into a trash-bin. Keigo stood up an ran out...
"HEY! You have to pay for that!" the barkeeper asked angrilly when he saw that Keigo left before paying the bill.
The foreigner entered a taxi and drove away before Keigo could talk to him. He winked to get another one and jumped in front of one to force it to stop. The driver was so scared that he made an emergency breaking to avoid a crash. Keigo went into the taxi and pointed on the other taxi. He wanted to know who this guy was. He wanted to know why he took away his message.
"Follow that Taxi!"
The driver was really surprised. "HEY! What's going on here? It's the first time that someone tells me to follow..."
"Just drive, please!" Keigo moaned. "I'll explain it later!"
The driver just nooded and start to follow the other taxi across the city. Keigo leaned back and observed the other taxi threw the front window.
"Aren't you... Yes... You are! You are some kind of TV-star, aren't you?"
Keigo shruged.
"Yeah, you are... You are the brother of that subway-killer!"
Keigo would have liked to puke. That role was very embarrassing. From that day, the scandal began, it seemed to be the only thing the people refered him to. The taxi became slower and finally stoped in a run down residential area somewhere in the north of Tokyo. Keigo asked where they were and wrote the adress on a note before he told the driver to drive him back.
Keigo arrived home relatively early. On the way home he bought some vegetables to have something to eat. He was tired and looked around. It was a shame that he had to move out. But he couldn't stay here. With all this memories. And if the scandal continues and he really looses his job he wouldn't be able to pay the advice payments at all. Allthough he already paid more than two-thrids of the purchase price when he moved in. Keigo left the vegetables on the kitchen-table and went to his answering-mashine.
"You have... ten... new... messages!" the female voice of the answering-mashine said.
He skipped the messages from the morning. It was his producer, who wanted to know where he was. The first new message was from the real-estate-office.
"Hello, Asano-san! This is Takagi from Tokyo-Estates speaking! We already have some applicants for your apartment. We would like to send the first ones for a viewing tomorrow, if it's possible..."
Keigo nooded. That guy worked fast. The next message was very surprisingly. Keigo went closer to the mashine and listened.
"Hello?!... Helllllooooooooo... Asano-san? Is this a mashine that picks up when nobody picks up the phone?" a shy, young voice asked uneasily. "You don't know me... My name is Hanataro Yamada. I have an important message for you... Hello... Are you there?"
Keigo had the strange feeling that this guy had no clue how a telephone works. Nor an answering-mashine.
"I'm at a train-station in a town called Midori..." Keigo didn't know where Midori was. He just knew that it had to be somewhere in the Chiba-prefecture, on the other side of the bay. "... I have an very important message for you from Ichigo Kuro..."
Keigo pressed the delete-button before he could hear more. He didn't want to know what was going on. He didn't worry about Karakura anymore. Nor he didn't want to accomodate any Shinigami ever again. He got enough trouble in the past.
He settled down on his couch tired and leaned back. He tired to have another thoughs. Will his move be very expensive? Will the stuido fire him? Shall he move back to Naruki? The though dazed him. Tired he put his hands into his pockets and found his notes. The one with the adress and the other one with the foreign phone-number. Keigo became curious and took the phone-book from the shelv to look for the adress.
"Okay... Setagaya... forth crome... number, number, number... two, three... four..." than he found the adress. The number he called today, belonged to the guy he just observed. "That's unbelivable. It's the guy who insulted me!"
Angrilly, Keigo threw the phone-book on the ground...
Meanwhile, Hanataro Yamada finally found out where he was. After hours of searching he finally realized that the was on the wrong side of the Tokyo-bay. The women from the information-desk avoid to laugh and just became red while she explained the awkward Shinigami that he had to leave at Hamamatsucho station. Embarrassed he bought the ticket for the long and arduous journey back to the city... he had to talk to Keigo...
That one walked up and down in his penthouse. Waiting for a call from his girlfriend. But the phone just didn't want to ring.
„Awww... Just call you stupid kind of lady!" he grumbled. But it didn't helped. He tried it so many times, but she never picked up.
Outside, the watched the sunset turning the sky into a deep red and orange. The lights of the Tokyo-Tower reflected in a nearby building. Keigo went out on his terrace and looked around. He loved the view. Especially on this daytime. The sparkling lights of the city calmed him down. That was the thing he would miss most when he moves out. Keigo went back inside and settled down on his couch again to watch some TV. He stopped zapping when he saw that horrible commerical he filmed...
"Hi! I'm the brother of the subway-killer!" Keigo said in the commercial frienly into the camera. And lift up a white shirt full of blood. „Look at this mess. And that allways when I am on duty with the laundry... My family is so sick! But fortunately I have something that helps..."
The picture cut to a door, someone knocked angrilly. Keigo opened and two police-officers in uniform stormed in. "Where is the shirt, your brother weared yesterday?" one of the officers asked mad.
The camera went closer to Keigo: "I'll show you!"
Keigo took a clean and white shirt out of the washing-mashine and presented it into the camera. "So, you see..."
The police officers grabled it and investigated it. "No trace of blood. And this wonderfull fresh smell!"
The picture changed to Keigo again who hold a bottle of liquid detergent and presented it happily: "Now also as liquid. The new..."
Keigo switched the channel. He could not bear it. It was embarrassing to make a so stuipid commercial. He made various commercials. Funny ones, but also serious beneficent ones. But this one was definetely the worst. Keigo asked himself, what drugs he took when the sighned the contract when he saw that he changed to the news.
The animated clock on the TV-screen was slowly ticking to 9 o'clock before a melody sound up. The theme of the evening news programe. The picture changed to the stuido where the newsanouncer greeted the viewers smiling. Keigo knew her privately. Her studio was in the same building as his ones. She sometimes warned him when there where news about him.
"It's 9 pm! Here are the news on Tokyo-One! Good evening!" she greeted before the camera went back a bit so that there was enough space in the background to show the pictures. Keigo hoped that they don't have any news about him. "In one of the biggest police raids in the history, the police arrested some presumed members of a terrorists-cell in various towns in the prefectures Tokyo and Chiba..."
Keigo was relieved. They didn't report something about him.
"...confirmed by a police spokesperson one hour ago. The four arrested men a presumed members of a North-Korean-terrorists-cell, who came to Japan approximetly two months ago..."
In the west of the the Tokyo-Prefecture, Yuzu Kurosaki sat on the carpet in front of her own TV in her small apartment and listened to the news distraught.
"... the police is pretty sure that they planed a big terrorism-attack in our contry..."
Yuzu stood up crying and looked around in the small apartment. It was awful. If that's true, she'll be dead. While the news showed some pictures of the arrested men, Yuzu hurried threw the apartment and put everything that didn't belong to her into a plasic-bag.
"...For ascertainment reasons, the police haven't published any more informations by now. But it's pretty sure that they might have com..." Yuzu switched off the TV and stormed out of the apartment. Carrying two full plastic-bags and her own purse with some clouthes...
In the darkness she climbed up a steep hill. Behind her, the lights of Karakura and far away the lights of the rest of Tokyo light up the dark sky. She looked around, hoping that nobody sees her while she arrived on at wire-mesh-fence. She placed her purse on the ground and than she threw the both plastic bags over the fence... On the other side of the fence was the landfill of Karakura...
Meanwhile, Keigo spend hours of waiting for a call. His voice came out of the TV, when an episode of a very popular anime was running. Keigo listened to his voice, one of the main characters used. He remembered that day they dubbed this episode. It was pretty funny. As a 'Seiyu' he found his dream job. It was good that his 'annoying voice', his sister always said was good for something. That he became an TV-actor too was just a random. He never imagined to be sucessful and popular. He dubbed hundred of anime-episodes. Made comercials and was a minor character in a popular crime series. He also had two little scenes in a theatrical movie, that was going to be in cinema in a few months. But now everything start to collapse. Keigo realized that he had to leave and go out for a walk. It would help. Sitting here and wait was no solution.
Keigo put his jacket on and prepared to leave when the phone start to rang. Finally, he thaught? He was excited and ran back to the phone to pick up. He didn't looked on the screen to see that the call came from Karakura...
"Hello!"
"Hello, Keigo?" it was Yuzu. She was in a phone booth near the landfill.
"What? Who's there?"
"It's me, Yuzu!"
"Yuzu, who?" after the question, Keigo remembered that there was just one Yuzu he knew.
"Yuzu Kurosaki!" she was very agitated and her voice was full of fear. "Keigo, I'm in trouble!"
„"Yuzu? Ichigo's sister!" Keigo realized. "What's going on? Does your brother has more surprises for me?"
"No, I made a terrible mistake! That has nothing to do with Ichigo... well... not at first..."
"Awww... So why you don't ask your brother? I have no time! You can't imagine what trouble I have now." Keigo explained mad. "I call you back!"
"Keigo, please I... Hello?... KEIGO!" Yuzu could hear that Keigo hang off and start to cry.
Keigo left his apartment and entered the elevator. He could hear Yuzu calling him again when the doors closed...
The night was pleasant. All over around the Shiba-Park in Minato the sparkling lights of the city shivered. The bright shining Tokyo-Tower stood high over the few people that where still outside. In Naruki or Karakura he never could go out late at night without being attacked by a thiev or a bully. Keigo was like a magnet for these people. But here it was different. Here he was just one in the crowd. One more reason for him to not to return to his hometown. He settled down on a bench tired and watched the environment while he ignited a cigarette.
There where couples on romantic dates, buisinesspeople on the way to the bars and clubs after very long days and the others... the ghosts...
The ghost of a woman passed Keigo. Her chain of fate was hanging in front of her down to the ground. She cried loudly. And there was the ghost of a little boy, pounding angrilly in front of Keigo everytime he was here.
"I KNOW YOU CAN SEE ME! WHY YOU ARE IGNORING ME? HELLO! HEEEEELLLLOOOOO!" the plus screamed.
Keigo ignored him, as he always did. He knew: The only reason, he was able to see ghosts, hollows and Shinigami was Ichigo! An ability he would have liked to do without. Keigo looked up. On the pagoda of the Zojo-ji-temple, one of Tokyo's most famous sights, he saw a Shinigami 'shunpoing' from roof to roof exremely fast, watching for hollows. For a short moment Keigo asked himself: Is he a familiar one to him. But he didn't want to think about it anymore and looked the surrounding buildings again. The Tokyo-Tower, the Prince Tower Hotel, the Zojo-ji-Temple... and than he saw it... it was just standing there. He didn't know that they still exist, but there was one: a phone booth.
Keigo became a bit restless. Maybe his girlfriend finally called. He could use the phone booth to check his answering mashine. He lost his smartphone several days ago. It just disappeared. So the only way to contact him was the landline in his apartment. Keigo stood up and went to the phone booth.
"Hey, I'm still talking to you!" the plus moaned. "HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Keigo needed a moment of silence. He entered the phone booth, took a coin from his pocket and dialed his number to check his mashine.
"Keigo, this is Yuzu again! Please, pick up the phone..." Yuzu's voice cried on the tape.
"Aw... Yuzu... you start to annoy me..."
Keigo couldn't finish the sentence. A loud bang scared Keigo so much that he went down on his knees. The windows shattered and the roof of the phone booth was cut when something long and sharp hit it and cut the whole both into two halfs. Keigo opened his eyes when the noise was over and saw that it was a sword, that destroyed the phone booth. A Zanpakutou to be exactly. And it stopped just a few inches above his neck.
"Aww... DAMMED!" a young male voice cursed.
Keigo looked up and saw the Shinigami from the temple standing outside the phone booth. His Zanpakutou was strucked in the phone and he had to pull hard to get it out. More glass shattered and the phone was ripped off and fell down in front of Keigo. Keigo looked on the Shinigami. It was a foreigner. He looked very young... a high-school-student maybe. But Keigo was pretty sure that he never met him before.
"Sorry! I thaught there was a hollow. I'm not so long in this business..." the Shinigami said with a smile, but ashamed. He didn't know that Keigo could see and hear him.
"Did... you try to kill me?" Keigo asked in shock.
"WOW..." now the Shinigami was scared and moved back two steps. "You can see me?"
"What? NO... no, no, no... I don't see anything... I see absolutely nothing!" Keigo said fast and loud while he left the destroyed phone booth and removed the broken glass from his hairs and his clouthes. Then he pointed on the both ghosts near the bench. "Look over there... Two pluses! I go and look for another phone, because I have to call someone... that's the thing you need a phone for..."
The Shinigami was distract for a moment and watched the both ghosts Keigo mentioned. When he turned back he saw Keigo running away, with his enhanced speed. "WOW... This guy is fast! Wait... ASANO?"
The Shinigami realized that he almost attacked the person he was looking for. He had a photo of Keigo with him. An old one, showing Keigo as an 17 years old. But he was pretty sure that he is the searched one.
"ASANO-SAN, PLEASE WAIT!" the Shinigami shouted and ran after Keigo.
Keigo hold his ears and and hid between the trees. Running away from the ghosts and the Shinigami, who tried to decapitate him. He ran till he felt safe and finally fell on his knees. He never found out why he had enhanced speed. Maybe because of Ichigo, too? But that was not important now.
For the rest of the night Keigo walked threw the park dazed and in a state of shock, asking himself ever and ever again: "What I have done to deserve this?"
_Chapter 4_
The sun already shined again when Keigo came back to his apartment. After hours of wandering around he was tired, hungry and felt dazed. The incident with the Shinigami was bad enough! Did he really try to kill him? Or was there really a Hollow on the top of the phone booth? But he didn't care. He was attacked so often that it didn't bother him.
Keigo went to the kitchen and saw that he didn't put the vegetables, he bought yesterday, into the refrigerator. Moaning the threw the whole bag into the almost empty fridge and went back to the living room to check his answering mashine which was filled with messages... all of them from Yuzu...
"You have... twenty... six... messages!" the voice of the mashine forced Keigo to moan.
"Keigo! Are you there? Please, pick up the phone! I need your help..." Keigo moaned and pressed the button for the next message. "... BEEP... This is Yuzu again. I know you are mad on Ichigo but... BEEP... Hello, it's me again! Keigo I... BEEP... KEIGO, I NEED YOUR HELP... BEEP... Keigo? KEIGOOOO... BEEP... Keigo, I'm on the train station and..."
Keigo switched off the answering mashine and went back into the kitchen. Angrilly he took the vegetables out of the fridge again and start to chop them. He had to eat something! When he cut his finger he woke up from his lethargy and start to scream and curse out all his anger...
It was Crap! His whole live was just crap! That was his only mind when he put the choped vegetables, some seasonings and some bread in a blender and pureed everything into a thick mush. He found the reciept in the Internet. A Spanish Gazpacho. His girlfriend liked this cold soup. It was easy and quick to do.
This was his breakfast: A sleeping-pill, a pill against headache and some morphine with some gulps from the blender. Keigo calmed down immedately when the morphine start to work and looked on the blender with a bright smile. He got an idea... A little 'farewell gift' for his girlfriend. He took the remaining drugs and threw them into the soup.
"Enjoy your meal!" he murmured frustrated while he watched the pills slowly dissolving in the soup. „Oh my god! What do I do?"
Keigo realized that he couldn't do that. He could kill her with that. He took the soup and placed it in the refrigerator again: Out of sight, out of mind!
In the meantime, Yuzu Kurosaki left a train at Shibuya-station and hurried to the nearest exit. She weared a headscarf and sunglasses to hide her face. She looked around and felt lost. Alone in this big foreign city. Everything was different here. But she had no choice. He had to find him... She rushed away to the next subway entrace to took the next train to Minato...
Hanataro Yamada finally arrived his final destination at Hamamatsucho-station. After another irrigation (this time to Yokohama) he finaly arrived in Minato. Now he had to hope that Keigo was at home...
Keigo went to his walk-in wardrobe when he realized that the sleeping-pill wasn't working as well as he hoped. So now he could do what his girlfriend wanted: To pack her things into her stupid suitcase. So at least her things would be out.
He pulled out her wickedly expensive designer suitcase (he paid for) out of the wardrobe and kicked it into the bedroom where it rolled on the bed and smashed on it. Than he took as much as possible from the wardrobe and threw the clouthes on the bed. Some of the pieces where really expensive as they where also from famous labels. Keigo knew it: He paid them, too. Keigo thought about. Was it right to give her everything back or shall he throw everything into the trash-container. He paid for everything, so technically they belong to him. While Keigo was thinking he walked to his bedside table and took out a box of cigarettes. He had to smoke one...
"Nobody tells me to stop smoking!" he murmured while he ignited a match to turn on his cigarette. "What does this mountebank know? I'm not the one who should stop smoking!"
Keigo was totally dazed by the drugs he took, so he didn't realized that he didn't turn off the match correctly. It was still burning when it land on the other matches that fell out of the box when Keigo threw them on the bed. Slowly, the flame became bigger and bigger when the matches ignited the bedsheet and the dresses...
Keigo didn't realize what was going on, when he went to the living room and picked up a plastic-flowler, his girlfriend bought him as a present once, when he realized that terrible stench in the air. It smelled like something was burning. He went back to his bedroom sottish, where his mattress and his girlfriend's dresses burned...
The only thing he saw was a muzzy, yellow-orange shining when he stood in front of the fire stunned. It was so hot, that the plastic-flower in his hand start to melt. Keigo bit on his lip and asked himself: What's going on here... But when he took a deep breath and start to cough by the smoke he woke up from his trance... Now he finally realized that his bed was on fire...
Keigo throwed the cigarette into the fire and ran out to get the water hose from the terrace...
Not far away, Yuzu Kurosaki left the subway-station and ran over the square near Shiba-Park. She hoped that the adress was right. Meanwhile, Hanataro Yamada left the other station too and went to the same adress. He saw smoke comming out of the building.
The fire was extinguished quickly. Just the matress and the dresses were burnt, but the rest of the room was damaged. The carpets where wet, a big black soot spot was on the roof and the wallpapers behind the bed where wet and damaged. Coughing, Keigo rolled up a damaged bedside rug and put it into the suitcase together with the burned leftovers of the clouthes in a trash bag.
"So... Here is your trash. You can have everything back..." he said crying while he put some of his girlfriends horrible gifts into the suitcase. "Great gifts! Really! You get jewellery and I get ugly and dirty, 100 yen trash, made in North Korea."
The whole apartment was full of stinking smoke. Keigo ripped of all windows, but his bedroom was still full of smoke. It would need days, or even weeks before the stench disappears. Keigo put some photos and some postcards into the suitcase. It was jam-full, so Keigo had to sit on it to close it. Everything that wouldn't fit in he will put into some plastic bags. He hold his head still coughing. He did it again! He was the stupid idiot again! The deadbeat, who almost burned down his own apartment. He tried to abadon this image... But he failed. And start to cry.
Keigo continued searching the drawers in his bedroom. Everything that reminds him on 'he knew who' had to get out. If it wasn't burned yet. He found an envelope filled with some old photos. Photos of him and his 'friends'. Keigo took out one of them. He remembered that evening. It was a photo of Keigo, sitting on the middle of a couch. Left and right next to him, Ichigo, Orihime, Tatsuki, Chad, Mizuiro and Ishida. Great friends, he thaught and teared off the picture.
"I hope you enjoy your time in Soul-Society!" Keigo moaned and threw the both photo halves onto the burned mattress. He continued with other photos... till someone rang the doorbell...
Keigo stopped immediately when he heard that someone was standing in front of his door. The doorbell rang again, before the person start to knock loud and fast.
"Awww... F**k!" he cursed. Maybe one of his neighbors smelled the smoke and called the fire-brigade. He hoped that it wasn't true and that he was ignored as always. He didn't want the fire-brigade in his apartment now. Quickly he cleaned up his face with the sleeve of his shirt and went to the door, still coughing. Maybe it was his girlfriend, who wanted to pick up her suitcase. He didn't want her to see him in this condition.
„YEAH, YEAH... I'M COMMING!" Keigo screamed angrilly when the knocking became louder.
Keigo checked his face in a mirror and pulled his shirt straigt. Than he went to the door to open it... what a surprise... It was Yuzu!
"Yuzu?!" Keigo was surprised. Ichigo's sister stood in front of his apartment. Her hairs were tousled, her face totally pale and she looked like she hasn't sleeped for days.
Both haven't seen each other for two years. She didn't change very much. Her hairs were longer and a bound together as a ponytail.
"OH, Keigo... Finally I found you!" she said feared and came in.
"Oh, please come in!" Keigo murmured after Yuzu already entered and closed the door loudly. "Where you got my adress from?"
"Ichigo told me!"
"And who told it to Ichigo? I never did!" Keigo asked angrier while Yuzu found the burned bedroom...
"What... What happend, here?" she asked and pointed on the burned mattress.
"Nothing!" Keigo moaned and went into the kitchen to look for his pills.
"Keigo, I tried to call you but..." Yuzu said before the doorbell rang again and she start to scream.
"Great! I'm pretty sure that that is the fire brigade!" Keigo said mad and went to the door again. Yuzu meanwhile hid behind one of the many plants and cried in fear. Keigo opened the door and start to moan: "Here is no fire!"
Hanatara Yamada was really surprised. Keigo saw that Hanataro was not the fire brigade and that he was sightly nervous.
"I don't buy anything!" Keigo said and tried to close the door again.
Hanataro stepped in to prevent that Keigo could close the door: "Asano-san! Please! I'm looking for you for days!"
"I won't answer any questions!" Keigo said. He thaught that Hanataro was a reporter from some kind of gossip magazine.
"No! Please! My name is Hanataro Yamada! Ichigo Kurosaki told me to..."
"WHAT?" Yuzu screamed when she heared her brothers name. "Keigo, leave him in!"
Yuzu grabled Keigo's arm and pulled him away from the door. Hanataro finally entered and closed the door after him. "Kurosaki said you would be mad but..."
"LALALALA!" Keigo sang and hold his ears. "I don't want to hear it!"
"Please, for two days I'm looking for you... I have to talk to you! It's really urgent!"
"Is it about my brother?" Yuzu asked exited.
"Brother? You are... Yuzu? Yuzu Kurosaki?" Hanataro asked inquisitively.
"Yes! Yes, I am! I just arrived, too. I'm in trouble!"
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Keigo screamed angrilly. "WHY I HAVE TO HANDLE THIS F... MESS? WHAT DID YOU'RE BROTHER DID FOR ME IN EXCHANGE?"
"But... Keigo..." Yuzu began but Keigo cut her off.
"SHUT UP!" he continued. "I'M SICK OF IT! I HAVE ENOUGH TROUBLE OF MY OWN AND MANY OTHER PROBLEMS! I WON'T ACCOMODATE ANY MORE SHINIGAMI EVER AGAIN."
Keigo stormed to the door and opened it.
"GET OUT!"
"But..." Hanataro tried to say, but was cut off, too.
"GET OUT!" Keigo screamed again. The whole building could hear it.
Keigo stopped screaming when the phone start to ring...
Exited the rushed to the phone, passing his uninvited guests and picked up. Maybe it was his girlfriend. He hoped so much. He had to talk to her. So he picked up hopefully.
"Hello!... Who?..." Keigo was disappointed. It was not his girlfriend who called. "NO, I WOULD NOT LIKE TO BE PART OF YOUR PHONE SURVEY! YOU'RE BLOCKING MY LINE!" Keigo screamed angrilly.
Full of anger, Keigo smashed the horn back on the reciever. Dazed from the pills and full of hate and anger he got a total black-out, took the phone, ripped out the cable from the connection socket and threw the phone as strong as possible threw the window. Yuzu and Hanataro yelped when the phone smashed threw the glass, shattered it and land in the hutch of Keigos animals, scaring them. Keigo stood there, both hands formed to fists and gazing on the big hole in the window.
Yuzu and Hanataro were both speechless. Ichigo always described Keigo as an always happy guy. But this Keigo... was rancourous, evil and a ticking time-bomb that was going to explode full of fury and anger.
"Asano-san..." Hanataro asked carefully and quietly. "Do you feel better now?"
Keigo turned to gaze on his visitors with big eyes and shruged.
"Was it really necessary..." he continued. "...to rip out the phone?"
"The phone!" Keigo realized what just happend and he forgot his anger.
"Keigo?" Yuzu began, but Keigo didn't react. He opened a drawler under the phone-desk to search something.
"NO!" Keigo cried. "Oh, no... I ripped out the phone!"
"Keigo, please wait!" Yuzu jelled, while Keigo found a business card from his phone-provider and ran out.
"I HAVE TO CALL THE SERVICE HOTLINE!" Keigo screamed and left to use the public phone in the lobby.
"Asano-san, please!" Hanataro jelled and followed him.
Yuzu was alone now. All around her was just chaos. She wanted to cry. She was also left behind. Keigo was the only one she could trust. But he seemed to be in trouble too. Carefully she opened the terrace door and stepped out on the wide roof terrace to pick up the phone from Keigo's hutch. His chicken surround it like thier food.
"Oh, the telephone!" Yuzu whimpered and chased away the animals to pick up the phone and get it back on the table. When the doorbell rang again, she let it drop and was scared. She was afraid of her suspicion of who was at the door: "The police!"
In fear, Yuzu went closer to the door. The doorbell rang again. Than someone knocked. Yuzu closed the security chain and opened the door carefully. Maybe it was just a neighbor, who wanted to know why Keigo was screaming. When she opened the door a few inches, she saw that the person outside, weared a black kimono and carried a Zanpakutou with him...
"Asano-san?" the Shinigami jelled.
With a loud scream Yuzu smashed the door close.
"Hey, can you see me, too?" the Shinigami asked threw the closed door. "I need to talk to Asano-san! Is he at home?"
Carefully, Yuzu opened the door again to talk to the Shinigami. Unlike Hanataro, he was not in a Gigai and invisibile for everyone else. "Hello!"
"Hello!" the Shinigami said. It was the same one, who almost decapitated Keigo last night. "I need to talk to Asano-san!"
"He is not at home!"
"May I come in? I have an important message for him! Please!"
Yuzu closed the door, opened the chain and let the Shinigami in. Curiously, he looked around in the big penthouse.
"Wow! Not bad! Kurosaki-san, told that his little friend is sucessful... but this is really nice..."
"K... Ku... rosaki!" Yuzu stammered. "Like Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"You are... Yuzu? Right?" the Shinigami asked excited. "Kurosaki-san's other sister! Your brother told me to come to you, too. But when I arrived yesterday evening, you already left..."
Yuzu shruged nervously and followed the Shinigami to the living area where he realized the broken window and the burnt bed in the other room.
"What happend here? A fire?" he asked.
Yuzu shruged again and remained silent. The Shinigami went into the bedroom and found the torn photo in the leftovers of the matress. „"Kurosaki-san! Yes, I know this one! Kurosaki-san has the same photo! So I'm on the right place!"
"What do you want?" Yuzu asked.
"Your brother has an important message for him!" the Shinigami told.
"What, another one!" Keigo said after he returned. Yuzu and the Shinigami turned to see Keigo standing in the door. Hanataro was right behind him. "What's going on here? Did Ichigo publish my adress in some kind of Soul-Society-Magazine?"
"Asano-san, nice to meet you!" the Shinigami said and bowed. "I'm so sorry for what happend last night in the phone booth. I am not so long on missions in the world of the living. It's right what they told me about you: You look better in TV!"
"Thank you! If that was a compliment..."
"Yamada?" the Shinigami recognized Hanataro immediately. He nooded. "So Kurosaki-san send you, too..."
Yuzu realized that she wasn't part of the conversation anymore. The Shinigami came to talk to Keigo and not with her. It looked like her own brother forgot her. Dissappointed and alone, she went back to the terrace in silence...
"...I tell you the last time: I don't wanna know what Ichigo want's to tell me! But you can tell him from me, that he at had should come at least by himself. And not send two... recruits or whoever you are..." Keigo moaned and took away the leftovers of the photo to put them into the trash-bin.
"I'm member of the 12th company! Kurosaki-san send me because of my well knowledge of the world of the living. I remember my live before the Soul-Society..." he told proud before he saw that Yuzu went outside and walked to the balustrade...
„Asano-san, Kurosaki-san is well aware that you are mad on him. He understands! You have every reason for it. Since that day he was exposed and everyone in the world knows about Shinigami and..." Hanataro told.
The other Shinigami meanwhile saw that Yuzu stood in front of the balustrade and prayed...
"...after Kurosaki and his family fled to Soul Society, they evacuvated thier friends, too to avoid any problems for them. Than they realized that you didn't..."
"I left Karakura years ago because I couldn't live anymore with that. I left because I couldn't endure it anymore. My family, my 'so called friends'. Now I am a friend? In High-School I was just a nuisance for them... they let me feel it ever again..."
Outside, on the terrace, Yuzu finished her pray and climbed over a chair and over the balustrade. She foreign Shinigami was stunned...
"They talk in the press so much about the Shinigami. That it was Ichigos fault that Karakura was partly destroyed. And everyone believes that I knew everything because I was one of Ichigo's 'friends'. They gaze me because someone told the press that I am able to see ghosts and Shinigami... My live is turning upside down. Everything I reached is going to collapse. My girlfriend left me because I'm not good for her image..." Keigo moaned, while Yuzu prayed another short pray and sat on the balustrade... ready to jump!
The Shinigami watched everything in fear. Yuzu went forward... and jumped!
"HEY, KUROSAKI'S SISTER JUMPED OFF THE TERRACCE!" he screamed and pointed on the place Yuzu stood before.
Keigo and Hanataro looked outside... she was gone...
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