Memory
Written for the Tantei Gakuen Q Fanfiction Contest 2007 over at the TGQ boards. Won second place!
Disclaimer: I do not own Tantei Gakuen Q nor its characters, these belong to Satou Fumiya and Amagi Seimaru.
Beta'd by Natsumi.
--
clickFLASH!
The very first time Kyu decided to assault Ryu's vision with that confounded machine called a camera, Ryu had run straight into the wall, his stack of books falling to the floor and landing directly on – guess where? – nowhere else but Ryu's own foot.
As birds and stars tangoed 'round his eyes with disco lights to match, Ryu hopped around on his one undamaged foot and attempted to retrieve his teaching materials with at least some dignity. So far, it was failing.
"What," he spluttered, after his miserable attempts to kill Kyu had caused him to trip on a book and sprawl on the unmerciful floor, "the hell are you trying to do, Kyu?"
Though he couldn't see very well yet, the raucous laughter from about two metres away could only mean that a) his reputation as a bishonen had just gone down the drain and b) Kyu was definitely sleeping on the floor tonight.
--
The next time it happened, it annoyed him even more. They had just finished visiting a woman whose brother-in-law had died, and while sneaking through a completely unlit passage where a dead guy had once lived at around ten at night was totally creepy, it was even creepier when your best friend decided to jump in front of your face, snap a photo (complete with blinding flash – AGAIN) and claim triumph for capturing the shock on his face as 'the surprised bishonen'. And threaten to give it to Touya.
Of course, later when the picture proved to be key in the solving of the mystery, Ryu was inclined to admit that he was thankful the picture had been taken – and well, since everything was solved and done, let's delete the picture and get on with life. But Kyu insisted on keeping the negatives, and Ryu can only hope he hasn't given it to Touya, because he hasn't seen it since.
--
As a week passed, two, a month, Ryu hoped that Kyu would tire of his new toy, and abandon the mission to permanently blind Ryu and cause him to see nothing but dazzling light and black spots for the rest of his life. But Kyu showed no sign of stopping, and in the end Ryu had to concede that for a guy with such a short attention span, Kyu clung on to this camera pretty tightly. (It was different from the original one he had gotten at first; that one they had thrown away after they thought it was haunted. The medium had refused to exorcise a camera. This was a new one.).
Only god would know why Kyu loved that batty old thing so much; it seemed to be on his person no matter where they happened to be. When they stumbled on a case (especially when Megu wasn't around) Kyu would take several shots of the crime scene. When Class Q went on their frequent informal outings to the cinema, to ancient creaky beef bowl restaurants with atrocious health standards (all thanks to Kyu – he had never ever seen rubber bands in rice till that day), even once on a boat ride to go diving, Kyu had taken photos of them all. (Of course, he had only been too happy to remain on the boat and take photos while they went diving. Typical.)
Currently Kyu had at least two enormous photo albums devoted completely to these outings, and they sat in his room, collecting dust and refusing to budge. The only thing which would rival Kyu's collection of photos of such events would be Megu's photographic memory. They were that detailed, there were that many photos, and Kyu always complained he didn't have enough memory in his camera.
Interestingly enough, Kyu seemed to take more photos of Ryu than of anyone else. Sometimes the only recollection of an outing he would have would be of that familiar clickFLASH! before his eyes. But even as he flipped through those musty tomes full of photos, he couldn't find a single one which he recalled Kyu taking. How queer.
--
"Kyu?" Ryu called from his bedroom, where he was packing. "Are my socks still in the wash? I'm missing two pairs."
"Eh… why don't you ask 'Kaasan? I think she'd know better than me.."
"Could you please check for me? I don't think I can get out of the room yet." It was amazing how he could have arrived at Kyu's house that day carrying only a simple sling bag he used for school. As he had settled into Kyu's home, O-baasan had bought more clothes for him as he grew, and his collection of books had also grown. Now, his belongings sprawled over the tatami mat, taking up a good one quarter of the room. He waited for a response from Kyu, but when the TV continued blaring from the other room and no socks were to be found, Ryu sort-of pirouetted his way through the colossal mess and went down to the kitchen himself.
Having retrieved one pair of socks (O-baasan had promised to tell Kyu to pass him the other pair when it got out of the wash) he returned, stuffing the rolled-up socks into his sling bag along with two changes of clothes and his DDS handbook. That was about all he could handle. The rest, he tossed into a cardboard box scavenged from the packaging of Kazuma's latest computer. Not exactly organized, but as long as the box held, it would be fine.
He told Kyu he was going, gave O-baasan a thank-you hug for letting him stay for so long, and left, clutching the cardboard box.
--
Ryu had packed and left, Kyu's mother informed him, once he'd torn himself away from the TV to go down and (belatedly) ask about the socks. As the advertisement break ended, he ran back up but he tripped over a photo album he'd taken out. He'd written "To Ryu" on it. Oops. He'd been meaning to give it to Ryu before he left…
Oh well.
It wasn't like he'd never see Ryu again.
--
Déjà vu.
But it wasn't his guttural scream of pain, it wasn't his blood spattering the ground, it wasn't his ashen face and lifeless limbs sprawled on the dirt.
But the pain was much more real.
Kinta grabbed hold of the murderer, and shouted for Ryu to go, go, go!
Pounding. Feet. Heart. His.
Not Kyu's.
Down the mountain, skidding on the slope, round the corner.
The night air was cold. His short breaths appeared in ethereal clouds of mist.
Appear. Disappear.
Condense. Evaporate.
Tear ducts so frozen, they couldn't cry.
His best friend evaporated, and the next cloud never came.
But that made all the difference.
--
The ceremony was short, and consisted of few people. Kyu hadn't really gotten close to many. Just Class Q and A, the DDS staff, the neighbour across the road and some old classmates from middle school.
Class Q stayed behind to help clean up, insisting that O-baasan should rest in the kitchen. She had done enough, Kazuma told her, as he propelled her in to the kitchen to make tea (and inadvertently avoid cleaning up).
They found his photographs, hundreds of them, spilling out of the shelves. Kyu had never been very organized.
As she picked up each photograph, Megu continued crying, while Kinta had rushed to the bathroom muttering something about 'too much tea'.
Ryu didn't know what to say, didn't know how to comfort, so he left the room.
In his old room, he found another photo album. But this photo album was not threatened by death via dust bunnies, instead it appeared to have been wiped regularly, and the words hastily scribbled on the cover in marker (alcohol-based, permanent ink) said: "To Ryu".
He curled up in a corner of the room like he used to, photo album held loosely. Almost like old times, when he'd sit and read books in the exact same position.
The note written on the inside cover was short, and the handwriting childish.
Dear Ryu,
This seems really weird, writing like we'll never see each other again, when I'm probably going to see you tomorrow.
You probably know I have too many pictures to spare, but anyway I thought you'd like to remember our house (though I still can't believe it's the same size as Kazuma's doghouse), and all the things we've done, together as a class, and even when we're really really old and our brain cells have long dropped off, you'll have something to remember times like this by.
Well, I hope you'll be happy in your new home with your dad, and come by once in a while, I'm sure 'kaasan will make natto beans for you and we'll always be happy to have you stay again. See you tomorrow, then I suppose.
Kyu.
P.S. Now that I've written this, I'm probably going to forget to bring this to class tomorrow. So, just to prepare for it in advance, sorry for giving this to you so late.
P. P. S. The pictures aren't blurred! Really! I was really careful with the camera.
Ryu cautiously lifted the first page. Most photographs detailed their numerous class outings, all featured Ryu, and had the precision and skill of a talented amateur. Tediously, slowly, he almost reverently turned every page, each a fragile connection to Kyu.
--
Clichés dictate that when you die, your life flashes in front of your eyes.
Ryu couldn't be sure if that really was true (he obviously hadn't the opportunity to experience death), but now he was certain, that if your life doesn't flash through your eyes, it certainly does through another's.
Flipping through the photo album, the carefully-taken shots got blurrier with his tears, yet completely different images remained completely clear in his mind.
"Hey! I'm Kyu! What's your name?"
"Ryu, you can't die, you can't, you mustn't die, we'll get you through this, Ryu, you're our nakama!"
"Please let Ryu remain in Class Q!"
"Don't ever lie to me, OK, Ryu?"
"Kotae wa hitotsu!"
"If a detective gives up, the mystery will forever remain unsolved!"
Ryu gave up pushing back, and let the proverbial dam break.
--
A picture paints a thousand words, so they say.
Then a memory must contain so much more.
And that was all he had left.
--
I've heard it saidThat people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you…Owari
Credits: Song lyrics at the end taken from 'For Good', originally performed in the Broadway musical Wicked, song and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and originally performed by Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda the Good and Idina Menzel as Elphaba.
A/N: Thanks to Chiqui for organising this fantastic contest!