Title: Ikite-Yuku [生きてゆく] (translated as: Going on Living)
Date Published: 4th of April, 2009
Summary: (Sequel to A Day in the Life) Some months had passed since things stirred themselves up last, and things are finally returning to normal, but when people and the circumstances around the change, life cannot stay stagnant for long.
Tags: AU, Continued Sequel, OT, Drama, Slice of Life
Warnings: Sequel, some cursing, possible mature situations and violence, some OCs, general storyline not aimed for children, possible long waits between chapters, complete and total non-sense, and pointless author's rants.
Notes: I just wnated to let you know that, no, I did not just copy-paste some random tid-bit in the middle of the chapter, and that one of the OCs is actually someone you've met story-wise. None of the OCs are going to be highly significant, I just needed some filler characters to stick in the blank. Just some bit of reference from the previous Arc: Things said in English will be bolded, the story is set in Tokyo, Krad is a foreigner, Kosuke is in South America, Dark has fled town, and Satoshi is no longer Kei Hiwatari's son.
Disclaimer: If I owned DNAngel, we'd've already found out what Saga's and Funabashi's roles are from way back in the Fredert Arc.
A/N: The long awaited sequel has arrived! -insert fanfare and confetti here-
Ah, was it really long-awaited? Maybe it wasn't so long a wait. I should've held out lounger. I don't even like the title............
Meh. Please don't anticipate quick updates, as my situation has not changed from the last time. You may have noticed that the link to my blog actually works now, so any of you who are actually interested in hearing may see it, and it's out of the way for those who don't care. I'm holding financially and still driving myself into the ground, so same-old, same-old.
I do not really have anything down after this, except for one section of the next chapter, and the epilogue. Yes, the epilogue to this entire arc. That is how I roll.
I'm so tired....
As noted above, you may see the chapter take a sharp turn to Confused Reader Land. Do not fear, for I shall not lead you astray (any longer than it amuses me to do so). You may recognise one of the OCs. Feel free to guess who and all that, and I may just tell you if you are right, though I feel I've dropped many, many clues, and that I'm being too obvious. I've felt that way before and confused people straight out of readership with it before, too.
Oh well.
I'm almost done with the next chapter of Wisdom, by the way. I just need to flesh it out......... somehow.
Well, enjoy the first chapter of the second arc!
It was a quiet day that day, even for him. Every day was quiet around this time, but today was abnormally so as he sat on the edge of his old bed, staring at nothing but a curious stain on the wall he had never quite figured out in all the time he had been there. Now that it didn't matter anymore, he wanted all the more to figure out what it may have resembled.
He never was very good at abstract thinking, and not a thing had come to his mind when the woman he was so used to seeing stepped into his functionally empty room, the clacking sound of her heels echoing more than they ever had.
"Your ride is here." The cheer was gone from her voice, and he wondered if she really was so sad to see him go.
He sat on the bed a moment longer, hesitating even though there was nothing left to hesitate about. All the necessary decisions were made weeks ago. All he had to do now was get up and go. He didn't even need to pack; he had so little it had been done for him and his single bag had been sent ahead. "Thank you." She stepped to the side of the door, remaining more professional than she had been since he had arrived in the first place. "That will be all."
He left her behind, having no further use for her. She was instrumental in a place like this, but he was moving on. All the necessary things had been accomplished in the required time frame, and there was no further reason to be held there. In all honesty, he didn't feel as if he had to be there at all, but laws and concerned friends had forced his hand. He found himself not resenting any of it at all. If nothing else, he had taken the time to learn from his mistake and focus on how not to make it again.
That wasn't exactly the point of his "imprisonment", but it satisfied him all the same.
Satoshi Hikari pushed beyond the doors that lead him to freedom and immediately lifted his arm to shield his eyes from the searing light. It had been so long since he had been out in the sun that his eyes had forgotten its brightness and took longer than he would've liked to adjust. He squinted to make out the form of the car idling in the pick up lane and made his way over with all his grace and dignity.
He slid into the back seat where it was thankfully much dimmer, paying no attention to the driver, nor did he look back to see his self-appointed nurse step out of the rehabilitation center to bid him good-bye. "The train station, please."
"...however, if you are referring to more than one object or person, the pronoun becomes they and the verb must be are, and all related rules are applied."
Daisuke tried his hardest not to sigh in boredom at the topic that had been covered most thoroughly in the lessons from last semester.
"Remember from yesterday's lesson that you always uses are."
English class had gotten so boring ever since he had become good friends with Krad and Satoshi. If he ever wanted to know any more about English, he could ask them and probably get better answers than his Japanese professor was giving.
"Please note that you can be singular or plural—and that will be on the test—though the singular form is what most people will assume."
He knew that, and just wanted the teacher to get to the point already.
"To avoid this, most people will deviate and say you all or less formally you guys or the regional y'all."
Daisuke distractedly jotted down y-a-w-l, reminding himself to ask Krad about that one later.
"Many branch away from pronouns and use the title of the group the people they are referring to belong in, such as a company or class name, or just everyone."
Ok, even Daisuke knew that last example wasn't true. It didn't even sound plausible, and yet when he glanced down at his neighbor's notes, there was everyone, scrawled in sloppy English letters.
"Actually, sensei," a new voice chimed in and all heads turned to the classroom door in various emotions varying from offhand curiosity to outright shock—and very few people who recognized the voice leaned toward the former. "I don't believe it is common English practice to use regular nouns as a substitute for you."
Silence reigned throughout the classroom only slightly softened by the drowned-out echo from a music class around the corner and down the hall as every eye focused on Satoshi in the front door, looking for all the world the same as he had the last time most had seen him. It was almost as if he were a ghost, coming and going as he pleased, changeless in the face of time.
Daisuke knew better. "Hiwatari-kun, you're late for class."
Satoshi silently thanked Daisuke for killing the oppressive silence. "My apologies; I underestimated the delay my train would have this morning. Please excuse my tardiness." The teacher didn't seem to be waking from his stupor any time soon, so Satoshi brisked ahead of him to take his usual seat, which had been left untouched, if only to retain a semblance of sameness by tacit agreement of the entire class. Even the pens beneath the cover were precisely how he had left them before.
The teacher seemed to pop out of his momentary daze, muttering an acknowledgement of both Satoshi and his point before continuing in his slightly flawed lecture Satoshi planned on paying no attention to.
And by how quickly a note was passed to him, neither did Daisuke.
Welcome back, Hiwatari-kun. Everyone thought you transferred out. Have they let you out for good?
Satoshi shook his head, writing something down, and passing the note to the girl who had passed it to him. He and Daisuke were sat too far apart to just converse. Back came his reply, with Daisuke's below it.
Thank you for telling me. I still have to go to weekly counseling for a while. Pay attention in class.
I already know all this, though.
Satoshi read over the note and sent Daisuke a look that reinforced his earlier command and responded to the note no further. Instead, he took the time to look around and determine if anything had changed, and other than the fact that Ritsuko had moved closer to Risa and that Michiko was in her old spot, there wasn't anything different aside from small changes such as hair and natural body changes. When the bell rang, Daisuke was quick to bound up to Satoshi's desk before he could be overwhelmed by curious classmates.
"Hey, was sensei right about yawl?"
Satoshi frowned, hearing the misunderstanding of the term in the pronunciation and wondered why the teacher felt compelled to ruin everyone's meager grasp of the English language. "It's y'all, Niwa. Like you all, but said quickly. And, yes, some people say it, but it's not proper English, and I don't want to hear you say it."
"Alright," having settled that curiosity, Daisuke switched subjects. "Hey which train did you take, anyway?"
"I took the Keiyō to Tōkyō Station, then the Maru-no-Uchi to Shinjuku, then the Yama-no-Te to Ikebukuro, then the Seibu-Ikebukuro to Nerima, and the Ōedo to Toshimaen."
"Are you serious?" Judging by Daisuke's stare, Satoshi could've sprouted a third eye. "No wonder you were so late! Why'd you take the Maru-no-Uchi all the way around? That must've taken forever, not to mention how much it had to cost!"
"I'm new to the morning commute thing, Niwa." Satoshi only realized his error after boarding the subway, realizing that he could've just taken the Yama-no-Te all the way around. "I'll be coming from home tomorrow, so I'll find a better route there."
"Asagaya, right?" Satoshi nodded. "Take the Chū-Ō from Asagaya to Higashi-Nakano and transfer to the Ōedo line and you can take that all the way up to Toshimaen. It'll be cramped, but you won't be late and it'll cost less. And if you ever have to come straight from there again, take the Chū-Ō Rapid from Tōkyō to Shinjuku, then the normal Chū-Ō to Higashi-Nakano. By the way, did you get a commuter pass, yet?"
Satoshi was unfazed by the quick subject change coupled with the suggested route. "Yes, Niwa" The math teacher walked in at that moment and instead of returning to his seat, Daisuke plopped down in Takeshi's desk on the other side of Satoshi. The journalist was ditching this morning anyway.
"Good, it'll be cheaper that way."
It was the last said between either of them before the math teacher called the class to order.
"Ev'ryone though'chu were dead," Saga stated around his everything-on-it sandwich, content to use Funabashi as a wall as he reclined comfortably.
"Niwa said everyone thought I transferred," Satoshi muttered, not interested in conversing with Keiji. Krad and Daisuke both proceeded to ignore the conversation, more interested in trading various items in their lunches, more for Daisuke's benefit than for Krad's.
"They did, but ev'ryone with half a brain knew ya were dead."
"I'm not dead." Satoshi was getting aggravated, both at Saga's stupid argument and the high-and-mighty tone he was taking.
"But ev'ryone though'chu were."
"Saga," Satoshi deadpanned, more than finished with arguing with the idiot and ready to begin eating, "I am not, nor do I plan on becoming dead any time soon."
Saga let a smug grin spread across his face. That was all he wanted to know.
"Hey, Satoshi-kun," Satoshi moved his attention to Daisuke, still unable to take the first bite out of his lunch, believing it impolite to eat and hold a conversation at the same time. "Is it ok that I called you Hiwatari-kun in class?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Thank you." Of course, no one in class knew anything about what had happened, be it the incident that started his long string of absence or the following adoption into Krad's family and subsequent name change. Since Satoshi had absolutely no intention of explaining any of it to his nosy classmates, he would just live with being referred to by the wrong name in school.
Daisuke understood completely. "Ok. What do you want me to call you outside of class?"
"I don't really care." Satoshi assumed the conversation was over and finally took the first bite out of his lunch and was content to remark in his own mind that it was delicious.
At the end of class, Niwa was promptly abducted by Saehara (who had returned to take a Geography Test and was caught before being able to leave again), leaving Satoshi completely vulnerable to any and all forms or classmate-based attacks. Luckily, instead of them coming all at once and overwhelming him, they all seemed eager to leave the classroom to study for the Pre-Calculus midterm the next day. All the students that is, but one.
"Hiwatari-kun?" Satoshi consciously kept himself from rolling his eyes before turning from placing his things in his bag. Standing there was one Risa Harada, quiet, curious, and slightly shy. "I thought you had transferred out."
"The lessons there were behind my current level, and they did not allow grade-skipping." It was a lame excuse, but it was the only one he had prepared.
She stood there silently, shifting as if nervous, and Satoshi out of politeness, stayed and waited her out. She was irritating, yes, but that was no excuse to walk out when she didn't seem to be finished with the conversation. "You never answered me, you know."
"Answered what?" Satoshi slung his backpack over his shoulder, trying to convey that he rather wanted to leave.
Risa looked directly at him with those timid rabbit eyes of hers. "The day the window broke, I asked you how you got hurt, but you didn't tell me."
Satoshi shifted his weight uncomfortably. This was not something he wanted to discuss with her. "I told you I fell."
"You didn't fall."
Satoshi ran a hand through his hair with a quiet sigh. He hated admitting to small weaknesses, especially in front of people who had yet to gain his trust, and there were enough of both that he managed to keep himself rather secretive. He liked that. He liked it a lot.
What he didn't like was this damn woman's intuition Risa seemed to have developed, and how bad he felt lying to her.
"Look, it's taken care of, so you don't have to be worried, alright?" He avoided her eyes, and she looked away as well. Satoshi felt so surreal, he wondered if he had dozed off at his desk and was dreaming the conversation. "I've taken steps to ensure it will not happen again."
Risa grinned and perked up a bit. "Ok." She turned and practically skipped to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"
Satoshi nodded, still unable to shake the surreal feeling. "Yeah. You'll see me tomorrow." Then Risa was gone and Satoshi was left standing in the classroom alone until he forced himself to realise he would not be waking any time soon. He didn't know how he felt about that, so he stood there, thinking about how he felt about things until he frustrated himself enough to send himself storming out of the classroom.
If nothing else, he could subtly make fun of Saga or Niwa to improve his mood.
Assuming he could find either or them.
Tsutomu didn't know how long he had been sitting in the back of that van. It had to have been at least three hours ago that he climbed back into the back seat of the converted delivery van. It wouldn't have mattered if the air hadn't grown stale from the five of them being in that van for so long, a couple smoking and having a great time, without being able to roll down the windows (Michikawa Fusao, who preferred to be called Mifu, said that we was planning on getting them fixed later).
Mifu was the largest of the group, both from height and muscle, with hair that frizzed out no matter what he did with it. He was generally blunt and got a little rough from time to time, simply left over from growing up with several brothers, but he still managed to intimidate people wherever he went. Mifu was one of those people who could only do one thing at a time, and was clumsy at anything that required steady hands or a great deal of patience. It came out in his driving, and Tsutomu held onto his theory that Mifu had paid someone else to take his driving exam for him.
Up in the front passenger seat—and sleeping—was Suzuki Kenji, with long black hair he kept back in a messy bun or pony tail most of the time. He was built long and tall with little body fat to speak of, and barely seemed to speak at all. He was often self-contradicting, with his chain-smoking habit, but absolute refusal to eat anything he deemed to be unhealthy; he had his ears littered with piercings, but insisted on a clean-cut appearance; he insisted that he preferred to be left alone, but showed up to every group outing whether he was informed of it or not. He and Mifu had been switching off driving since they began the trip as the only two with driver's licenses. Everyone felt safer when Kenji drove, even though he had only taken on the shorter legs of the trip, mostly due to Kenji's bad habit of running himself ragged on a regular basis.
In the next row back was Muraishi Ippei, the tacitly agreed upon leader. He had his dark hair bleached almost white and tried to grow a goatee on a regular basis. Tsutomu had always thought of him as a cat. A sly, sneaky ally cat that was pulling the strings behind everything, and he had a feeling everyone knew it. He was manipulative, and occasionally forceful, and yet somehow, he managed to get along well with everyone else, especially when they needed to pull together. Tsutomu didn't know why they fell for it every time, but none of them seemed to mind much, either.
Next to him was the youngest of the group, Nobusaki Yukihiro. He had originally been simply a friend of Ippei that hung around until everyone had gotten to know him better. He turned out to be a great guy, if a little on the weak-willed side, and seemed to get along with everyone by default. Tsutomu didn't know anyone who didn't like Yuki, nor anyone Yuki couldn't be friends with. Tsutomu had also never come across an item of food that Yuki did not find inherently delicious. There were some days when every time he glanced at the kid, he was eating some strange concoction that most of them would have trouble stomaching.
Yamazaki Tsutomu himself was crammed in the back with some of the gear. He had his dark hair cut short for the approach of summer, and unlike Ippei, Tsutomu actually looked good with his goatee that he cared for with every ounce of vanity in his body. Tsutomu was occasionally loud and almost puppy-like when excited, and very quick to lose his temper when he felt things weren't going right. He was picky, and obnoxious, and if he wasn't so likable as often as he was, he probably wouldn't have been able to remain in the group for long. But as he had mentioned before, he had a crazy amount of good luck that followed him everywhere.
Finally, they began to cross into the outer districts of Saitama, and the air started to feel familiar to Tsutomu again. It had only been a few months, but he had missed his dirty city air so much.
The blonde-headed kid in the row in front of him leaned back over the seat, looking up from his video game for the first time in a while. "How does it feel to be back home, Tsutomu?" Yuki asked with his boredom-fuelled curiosity.
"It feels nice," Tsutomu grinned.
Mifu glanced back through the rear-view mirror. "And you're sure this guy you know will help us out?"
"Of course, he's an old friend of mine. You guys need to trust me more." Tsutomu returned his attention to the scenery beyond the window, glad for the first time to be back in Tōkyō.
By the time Satoshi got home, he was more than done with the rail system in general. It was easy when he lived in Hikarigaoka; he just took the subway a few stations to the end of the line. Now he had to take a crowded subway to a busy station and ride the crowded commuter train to his exit. It was exhausting, and a lot of the people on the train smelled.
Well, at least he was home. Him and three others. Krad, Daisuke, and Saga came in behind him, slightly less eager to be home. Of course they were less eager. They were used to this sort of commute by now. No one was in the least bit surprised when Satoshi ignored Higashino's offer to take his bag and, by pure habit, went straight to Krad's room.
Krad shook his head in amusement, deciding that now was not the time to inform his little brother—the thought made his grin stretch a little wider—that he did, indeed have his own room, and that most of his things were already there. He was, however, a little put down when he reached his room and Satoshi was already settled down, studying.
"What are you doing?" Behind him, he could hear Saga and Niwa pulling out a game system and debating which one they would play.
"I missed a lot of studying while I was out. I need to catch up." Satoshi's reply was automatic and mechanical.
"Catch up to who? The college freshmen?"
"No, of course not," the very idea was ridiculous. Why would he need to catch up to college freshmen? Krad was momentarily placated. "It's the college freshmen who may have caught up to me."
In a brilliant display of poise and self-control, Krad removed the book from Satoshi's hands without even bothering to try to read it (the kanji were too difficult), and held it out of reach of his seated brother's grasp. "You are a Hikari now. You will relax, indulge, and enjoy yourself, or so help me, I will not allow you to study for a month."
Toward anyone else, this would have been a gift from the heavens. To Satoshi, it was a minor annoyance he could get around if he chose to, but he preferred to do things in the easiest way possible. "Alright. How would you like me to enjoy myself?" he asked with a great deal of sarcasm and exasperation, if only to help get his point across.
"You'll figure it out." Satoshi didn't know if that was a promise or a threat, but he scooted from the table to instead watch Daisuke press one button frantically and repeatedly and somehow manage to beat Saga, who had been boasting earlier that he had mastered all of his character's combos. Apparently, combos meant nothing when the other player was rapidly and repeatedly kicking you in the face.
Riku only realised she had blacked out when she felt the coach patting her on the back, and it took a few seconds for his words to make sense to her. "Good job, Riku-chan." Good job? "You've really improved."
Oh, right. Time trials. "Thank you coach." She had been racing her team during time trials. What had she placed? Was she first? She felt like she had been first.
Congratulations came from her teammates in quick succession, and slowly, Riku's breathing pattern returned to normal.
It definitely felt like she had placed first.
"Thanks everyone."
Keiji only had to wait about half a minute outside before his ride arrived and Funabashi exited from the rear to open the door. Saga silently accepted and climbed in, waiting until he was well away from the Hikari residence before nodding at his favorite secretary.
Funabashi took the cue. "No changes. Hiwatari's paperwork is still processing. I estimate two weeks before it can safely become missing. Two attempts occurred toward our dummy network while you were out with zero success."
Saga nodded. "Keep up the good work."
"Yes sir," Funabashi shuffled through a folder. "Also, there was a message left for you from a Mr. Ijiuma." Saga perked up in interest. "It reads: Mister Bear and family."
"Reply with: Lays eggs by the river." Saga grinned. Everything was falling into place. "Also, tell Toriko to have less salmon in her diet."
"Yes, sir."
Satoshi looked over the bedroom from the doorway lazily, exhausted from the day. He wasn't surprised they had prepared a room for him. In all honesty, he was expecting it. What was surprising was how they had managed to acquire all of his belongings from school and from Hiwatari's, though considering what Krad and Saga had done so far, maybe it really wasn't that amazing.
He could find nothing missing, and found several things that must have been recent additions. Most of these things were casual clothing, pictures, and art supplies, all things he noted Krad to have attempted to give him before. Somehow, he didn't mind it so much now. Maybe it was because they were brothers, maybe because he was too tired to object.
Or maybe it was because without them, the room would have felt so empty.
But now was not the time for these thoughts, and Satoshi asked the woman in the hallway to bring him a large garbage bag.
There was a reason some of those things had been left at Hiwatari's in the first place.
A/N: And there you have it. Satoshi's back in school, Daisuke has mastered the train system, people thought Satoshi had died, Risa is suspicious, there is a mysterious gang of 5 OCs in a van, Krad does not appreciate Satoshi's obsessive study habits, Daisuke is a button-masher, Saga and Funabashi are up to something, and Satoshi would rather throw some pieces of his old life away.
And, yes, there were a lot of dropped hints about everything in there. Particularly, one name in there is "backwards" for who another certain character may be. (Backwards by Japanese mora, which is basically syllables, not actual letters). That in and of itself should solve half of it for some people. Please tell me if it's too easy to figure out.
Why do I feel like this is way too short?
Anyway, reviews remind me that I'm supposed to be writing chapters, and give me confidence boosts that people like them, thus make me churn them out faster. Help me to help you! Don't forget to subscribe to this story to receive updates!
I think that's it. Bye-bye.
