Chapter I
THE TOWER
**
November 19th 2015
Sunday Night
8:21 PM
**
"Finally, done.." he said as he placed the pen down beside the paper he completed on accounting for school. It was a take home final that had to be finished and turned in by tomorrow morning so he would be able to prepare for departure and still pass the class. He proofread his work, starting at the top, where the first line read….
Name Seta Souji
**
November 20th 2015
Monday Morning
9:19 AM
**
"….. the essay, bibliography, general ledger page, the invoices, and inventory pages are at the end of the booklet behind the final exam" Souji mentioned as he turned in the final project early.
"I'm so sorry to hear about your parents Seta-san. But I'll correct this as soon as I can and I'll email you the results; I expect it to be perfect having known you!" his professor said with a soft smile.
"I wish you the very best in Inaba and if you ever need help or have questions in business management, you know how to reach us here at the school…"
As unprofessional as it was, his professor stood from her chair at her desk to give her student a hug before her first lecture began. He was her best student in years, and for some reason she felt Souji was more of a distant nephew or little brother. They always got along, and Seta always had the answers and procedures to the problems.
"Thank you Hanako-san. I appreciate everything. And thank you for the letter of recommendation and for working out the kinks about transferring credits. You're making life so much easier…"
"It's the least I can do for my favorite student!" the professor teased.
"You'd better get going or else you'll have to answer to your class! Get goin'…. Good luck Seta".
**
4:42 PM
**
"Calm down, calm down! I'm sure I won't be the only sad one here but I have some unfortunate news…" said the head of classroom 6C the I.T of Japan in Okinawa Prefecture.
The muttering and sidebar conversations of the college classroom were pierced to silence when the professor mouthed the words…
"Seta won't be with us as of the end of this semester".
The sidebars continued but much louder until a distinct voice shot through directed towards the professor. "Professor Hanako, is something wrong with Souji?"
The professor was a medium height brunette always clad in business casual attire; which usually consisted of a black or khaki skirt just above knees length, a matching silk blouse of whichever color fit her mood that day, and thin black wire framed glasses that accented the method of using lacquered chopsticks to tie up her hair in a loose ponytail.
"Souji will be finishing the semester here and transferring his credits to a school in the outskirts of a suburb called Inaba. If Seta feels comfortable in giving you the details, I'm sure he will discuss them with you at an appropriate time. With that being said, turn last nights assignment, and the lecture is dismissed".
All the students could sense each others despair, seeing as they just found out the classrooms highest ranking and sweetest student was not finishing the entire course with them. For the ones that had it, they reluctantly turned in their paper on business accounting to Professor Hanako who was standing by the only exit door.
**
9:32 PM
**
As he turned the door knob and inserted himself into his own bedroom, he had mixed feelings about all the sympathy cards, flowers, and other "get-well" gestures he had received in the mail throughout the past two weeks. Half of him felt like it helped through the grieving process, the other half of him felt like he was simply being pitied, and he hated that feeling.
Souji took off his black denim jacket and hung it on the right angle of his bedroom door and plunged himself rear end first into the love seat facing the TV on the opposite wall. Adjacent to the loveseat was his side stand where he kept his lamp, usually in the off position, and his cordless phone which was on the charger hub.
Facing the blank TV almost in a trance-like state he could see a blinking red light in his peripheral vision. He focused his eyes to the source and was not surprised at all to find that it came from his phone hub. He had 2 missed calls, and 2 voice mails.
With a sigh, he stood up and unbuttoned his jeans, letting them fall off his slender frame to the floor and slipped into a pair of black soccer shorts he pulled from his duffle bag on the floor before picking up the phone and dialing pound – zero.
You have, t.w.o, missed calls and, t.w.o, voice messages. Please press….
Souji quickly typed 'one', then 'one' again to begin listening to the recorded messages.
"First message…"
"Souji, it's Dojima. I'm sorry to be leaving you so many messages but I just want to make sure everything's all set. I'm having a taxi pick you up and bringing you to the train station for 9am tomorrow morning. Your tickets already paid for and I transferred funds to cover your cab fare also. I'll be waiting for you. Oh, and no one knows about you coming back to Inaba. I wasn't sure if you would be ready to see everyone at once. We'll talk more when you get here. G'night".
"End of message"
Souji let go of a small smile of comfort knowing that when Dojima said he was family, he wasn't kidding around. Other than his now deceased parents, Souji didn't know any other blood relatives that would do so much for him on such short notice.
He wanted the second message to be from someone specific, but when Dojima said no one else knew that he was coming, he knew he wasn't getting the phone call he wanted.
He turned around to see everything packed except for the "get-well" objects, the items he was leaving behind for now, and the jeans on the floor.
"Next message…"
"……….. Sou …….. ji....."
"End of new messages. To listen to your messages, press one. To end, press …. "
Souji pressed star on the phone to log out of his voicemail box and put the phone down on the hub and curled up on the loveseat.
"Souji…."
He thought to himself, over and over. Granted it was a scrambled message and you could barely hear 'Sou' and 'Ji'… the voice was so unfamiliar.
Souji passed it on for either a poor telemarketing call, a fellow student trying to say their goodbyes, or someone from the funeral parlor wondering when the check was coming in from his Uncle Dojima.
He had only hoped the phone wouldn't ring anymore in regards to his parents. He was upset enough as it is that they had passed away due to murder let alone aggravated that the local police looked at him as a suspect.
**
Two weeks earlier
Okinawa Prefecture Police Department, Office 4
**
"So you got home and just saw them dead on the floor like that?"
"Yes, that's what I've been saying this whole time!" Souji exclaimed, hooked up to a polygraph machine as he was trying to pass the lie detector test.
"There was no sign of forced entry, we haven't found anyone who could be linked to the murder and a pistol was found in your bedroom by our officers!" said the officer with a cold glare.
Souji knew the empty pistol engraved with Naoto's name as a gift wouldn't help his case.. but he was about to lose all composure he mustered before agreeing to the test. He knew if he lost his temper he'd be further under scrutiny.
"Listen.. if you stopped wasting your time asking me questions, and did your job walking the streets and making phone calls – and paying attention to your officers, you'd realize that no ammunition was found in the house, and according to the ballistics report the caliber bullet extracted from my parents bodies didn't match the caliber gun that was recovered from MY bedroom! I didn't kill my parents!" Souji exclaimed, tears forming at his eyes
He used all the knowledge and advice he got from his uncle. He refused to be walked all over as if he were just another suspect. If anything, he may have been a victim.
A voice from the intercom came over most likely from behind the hidden glass.
"That's enough Hiro.. I'm very sorry Seta-san for your loss, we've no further questions. We'll keep you informed if we find anything else."
The officer whos name was apparently Hiro, muttered something under his breath about Souji being lucky, and was given the bird on Souji's way out.
**
Present, 9:45 PM
**
Dojima… Souji had so much to thank him for. Dojima did everything he could over the phone mostly at the Police Department on his own time. Everything from making the funeral arrangements for friends and family in Okinawa, to paying for the services with his sister and brother-in-laws accounts, to closing out all their bills and other affairs. Souji even found out about the fact Dojima noticed there was an ample amount of funds left over after the affairs were handled, and put the difference in a trust account in a bank in Inaba in Souji's name should the need for money arise for school or something else important come up.
Dojima and Nanako were his only family at this point, and he could not wait to see them at all.
Souji lost interest in fighting to stay awake. His heart and body felt so heavy at this moment in time, all he wanted was to be in the company of his friends and family back in Inaba as he never left.
With his eyes closed, he continued to think more and more as he drifted more and more into sleep.
He hurt a lot of people on that day…. March 21st…. 3 years ago.
**
March 21st, 2012
Monday Afternoon
1:37 PM
**
Souji didn't know what to do, feel, say, express. All he saw from the window was his friends, no.. his family get smaller and smaller. All he heard was..
"It won't be the same without you senpai…"
"We'll always be friends, no matter the distance!"
"Take care of yourself big-bro!"
"I'll always love you!"
He had to look away, the emotions were building up so fast Souji was afraid he'd lose all composure. He felt something wet hit his knuckles.
He had lost it. He wanted to turn around this train around in the worst of ways.
**
November 21st, 2015
Tuesday Morning
9:16 AM
**
"So where to?"
"….."
"Hey, kid… which train station was it that you were going?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not sure of the name, we didn't go over the details. It's the station that handles Okinawa to Yasoinaba".
"Oh okay, we can get there in time. Just sit back and relax".
Souji was aware that the reason the driver was being so kind and 'understanding' was most likely because Dojima had some input with his superiors when ordering the cab ride.
The ride itself was smooth, comfortable, and fed his liking for staring out the window when travelling. As he got closer and closer to the train station, he saw the skyscrapers and high risers become smaller, and smaller behind him.
**
9:41 AM
**
"Here we are, I'll help you with your bags. The fares paid for kid!" The cabbie was most generous Souji thought. Even if he was probably being paid for it..
Souji grabbed his laptop bag and hung it from his shoulder, and took the large duffle bag from the hands of the cab driver.
"Thanks for everything… uh…"
"Don't mention it. Have a great time in Inaba!"
Souji stood by the ticket counter fishing for the magic piece of paper as the cabbie spun tires and peeled away from the train station parking lot. He felt paper…
He could barely reach down that far in the bags pocket, so he pinched the corner of the ticket and yanked it out and provided it to the ticket master, who used a hole punch to assault the ticket and let Souji through the gate, and onto the train.
Souji handed his duffle reluctantly to the attendant who placed it into the overhead compartment.
He found his place by the window and rested the laptop bag in his lap, and sighed.
Seta was able to smile though, regardless of everything that has transpired in the past four weeks, because he was finally going back to where he belonged.
Souji rested his head back, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth just slightly…
"…home…"
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