For two years we weren't allowed to utter his name.
For two years, I watched my best friend whittle away.
He wouldn't talk to anyone about it. He wouldn't admit to anyone that there was something wrong.
But we knew.
I'd wake up in the middle of the night suddenly and need to use the bathroom. On my way I would hear him crying.
Sometimes it came from his room. Other times he was still downstairs, even at five in the morning.
I learned quickly to leave him alone while he was in this state.
This first time I heard him crying downstairs, I went to go comfort him.
"Yusei, what's wrong?" I asked in a soft concerned voice.
"NOTHING'S WRONG!" he screamed at me, and he struck at me with the wrench in his hand.
He cracked two of my ribs and I didn't get so much as a "sorry".
"What if I had been one of the twins?!" I snarled at him after I returned from the hospital that morning.
"I'd never hurt the twins," Yusei replied calmly and without emotion.
"And it's okay to hurt me?" I demanded.
"You're less valuable."
That hurt me a lot deeper than the wrench.
"He didn't mean that," Crow said to me after Yusei had wandered back into the work room, "He's still grieving. He's not in his right mind right now."
After that we knew better than to try and comfort him. However he'd still lash out at times.
Once I came home to discover that Yusei had smashed every mirror in Poppo Time. Yusei refused to tell us why.
Another time I was whistling while reading the newspaper in the kitchen and Yusei came in and screamed "STOP MAKING ALL THAT FUCKING NOISE!" and threw a vase at me. I was lucky enough to dodge it. By that time Crow and I had told the twins and Aki not to come visit.
For two years we lived like this, fearful that at any moment Yusei could snap and kill one of us. But we couldn't abandon him. He was our best friend.
So we called in Kiryu for help. And finally, Kiryu broke through to him. There were many tears and screams and things broken that night. But finally, Kiryu got him to talk.
"BRUNO'S DEAD AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT! BRUNO'S DEAD AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"
He screamed this over and over, rocking in Kiryu's arms.
The next day Kiryu told us that Yusei was going to go live with him in Satisfaction Town. We thanked him for his help, and, not reluctantly, bid farewell to our friends.
That was four years ago.