An Innocent Time
1970

To live, not just survive.

The gunshots had stopped ringing out by the time that Detective Ryuuji Chiba arrived at the house at two in the morning, but he was sure that whatever had happened within those walls, the impact of it would last forever.

That, and people would be talking about it for days.

He sighed as he surveyed the small crowds that had gathered around the house, curious. Different ages, all in night clothes of some sort, wrapping dressing gowns and jackets around themselves, exchanging looks between themselves as they gaped at the house. Whatever's happened, they're treating it as entertainment, aren't they? What idiots. This isn't….

"Should I deal with the audience before joining you inside? I reckon Fuwa-Chan's on her way, and some uniforms should be too, so you won't have to process this alone."

Chiba had not noticed Yada come up to him, but he nodded gratefully and watched as she went to do just that. Female detectives were not generally common, but there were two of them on the Kunugigaoka Town Police Force, and he knew he could count on both of them as much as he could count on any other male. Had done so countless times before, on other cases. Yada in particular had a friendly aura about her, and was skilled at negotiating with large groups of people, so he happily left the gawking neighbours to her, and decided to get inside the house. But first, he headed over to the only neighbour who was not just curious, but worried.

"Do you live in the house next door to that one?" he asked, pointing to the one the gunshots were coming from. The neighbour, a tall dark haired man in his forties, nodded, golden eyes troubled.

"Yes. I..I..we called it in." he gestured to next to him, where a woman, presumably his wife, a tall, svelte woman with light brown hair, stood carrying a sleepy young girl who stared at him in bafflement. A teenage girl stood by her side, also staring at him, but more sceptically.

"Do you need the keys, to get in?" the woman asked. Chiba nodded.

"If you could." He would break down the door if he needed to, but he preferred not to.

"Is there anything that can we can do?" the man asked, as his wife went away with the younger girl.

"For the Asanos, I mean? There were a lot of shots, and the children…..I'm really worried about the children, Detective. What could have happened to them?"

"You said that there were children in the house?" his instincts pricked up. This isn't good. He looked up at the house. Some of the lights upstairs were still on, but there was no sign of life in the house. He sighed.

"How many children, how old? And what about their parents?"

The man opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by his teenage daughter.

"They're all young, still in elementary school. Hiroto-kun and Hinano-Chan are twins, 11 years old. Rinka-Chan is the same age as my little sister Yuki, and Kouki-kun's just six. Can I come in with you?"

"Megu, didn't your mother tell you to go back inside with her, and go back to bed?"

"Why should I?"

Megu, tall and willowy and the spit of her mother, crossed her arms and glared.

"I know them. We all do. And you aren't going back to bed, are you? "

Her father sighed, and turned back to Chiba.

"Sorry about that. But yeah, she's right. Their parents are Osamu and Haruka Asano, both in their forties, about my age. I…I don't understand how someone with a gun could have gotten into their house. I hope they're alright. And…is there anything I can do? Should I come in with you?"

"I, well-"

"I'll come too, if there's anything that can be done."

"Megu!" the man looked at his teenaged daughter in shock, and then sighed, before turning appealingly to Chiba.

"I'm afraid that at this point, the house is a crime scene." Yada appeared by Chiba's side once again. She was accompanied by a uniformed policeman, a young thing with wide blue eyes and hair in an equally shocking shade. Chiba nodded at him, recognising the officer.

"That's right." Chiba added. "But if you could give Officer Oishi a statement telling us exactly what you all heard, that would be incredibly helpful."

"Ah-yes, of course." The man nodded. As he moved to a side with Oishi, his wife came out and approached them. She handed Chiba the keys quietly, but held his gaze for a moment longer. Though she was clearly startled by his sunglasses, she did not falter in this.

"If the children are hurt, you'll catch whoever did it, won't you?" She eventually asked.

"We will do our best." Was all Chiba could offer. The woman nodded, and turned to walk back to the house. Then, she turned and did a double take, her gaze landing on Megu. She sighed.

"Megu! You've got school tomorrow!"

"But Mum…."

"Megu. Back in, now."

Megu tried to protest further, but quickly gave up and started to walk back towards her house. Chiba walked with Yada towards the Asano house, where just moments earlier, bullets had been raining down, presumably aimed at the inhabitants. But just as he got to the door, he turned back and called out to Megu, who was still dragging her feet as she followed her mother.

"Megu-Chan! How old is your sister?"

"Seven." Megu replied without missing a beat, just before she disappeared into the house. Chiba nodded, satisfied. I thought so, he thought, though he had no idea why he had thought so.

Carefully, he took the key that Megu's mother had given, and opened the door. Just as he did, he was joined by Fuwa –the other female detective he had counted on many times before-and the crime scene technicians. Kunugigaoka Town's Medical Examiner was also there

"Okay!" Fuwa declared. "Let's get to the bottom of this!"

Snapping on gloves, Chiba went for the light switch in the landing so that they could at least see what they were dealing with, and prepared to call out to announce their presence, but the words died promptly on his lips as his eyes alit on the exquisitely carpeted stairs and what was on them.

A suitcase had been flung –presumably in anger-down them, landing and breaking open on the third step from the bottom. A whole disarray of clothes-women's and children's- spilled out of it, and they were all sprayed with blood. But that was not even the worst of it. That label was best given to the man sitting a few steps up while holding a handgun, as if waiting for them. Except, he wasn't really waiting, not with his brains blown out and his body slumped like that. Ah…just like that, a picture of what had possibly happened started to form, and Chiba closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them and turning to his two fellow detectives.

"Fuwa, you check that downstairs is clear. Yada and I will take upstairs. Takebayashi, will you come with us?" Chiba asked the medical examiner, who nodded gravely as he got his things together.

"Of course," he replied, adjusting his glasses. "I presume you think the rest of the family are upstairs?"

"Yeah…" I don't think any of the family managed to get further than Osamu Asano did. The thought made his stomach churn. But he tamped it down as they got on with things-Fuwa snagging two crime scene techs and a uniformed officer to accompany her as she checked downstairs, Chiba, Yada and Takebayashi heading upstairs. Takebayashi stopped when he reached Osamu's body, to examine him, and so the two detectives continued on forward.

"Did you get the names of the family from the neighbour who called it in?" Yada asked.

"They're the Asano family. I'm guessing this is Osamu Asano. " . Haruka-san, Hiroto-kun, Hinano-Chan, Rinka-Chan, Kouki-kun. Repeating the names like a mantra in his head, he quickly updated Yada on the sparse information he had gained from Megu and her father.

And then they came across another body lying face down, taken down by three bullets in the back. An 11 year old boy with tawny hair, wearing a blue outdoors jacket over his pyjamas. Hiroto Asano.

"It looks like he was about to go somewhere." Yada commented, as she knelt down. Chiba didn't say anything-he had thought much the same. And though it wasn't a specific place as such, he had a good idea where he would have been headed to.

Gently, she checked for a pulse, but after a few seconds, she looked up and shook her head. Then, she stood up and rubbed her forehead.

"If this is what has happened to the other three little ones, this is going to be a long night." She sighed. "That being said, I did tell them to come with an ambulance, in case one of them was alive. …"

Chiba just nodded at this, and then looked ahead. Behind the 11 year old boy were two more bodies-one sprawled awkwardly on the floor, a few steps behind the boy, and another nearer to the door of one of the rooms. Yada was the first to step forward, and she knelt beside one of the bodies.

"This one's an adult female. The mother, assumingly. She got the worst of this." She stated, gesturing to the sheer number of gunshots that the woman had sustained, as well as some bullets nearby.

"A rage killing." Chiba commented, joining her. "This was motivated by rage. Somehow, I doubt that it'll be easy to tell which shot killed her."

"Hmm….Takebayashi-san should be able to do so though, right?" Yada aimed the last part of her sentence at the medical examiner, who was still by Osamu's body.

"Once I've got the go-ahead to take them back for autopsy, yes. "Came the terse reply. Yada rolled her eyes and pulled a face.

"Alright, we've got it. " Yada turned to Chiba. "Chiba-kun, lets's see if we can find the other two."

"Right." He said. Frowning, he quickly scanned the area, and made a decision.

"You start in that room-I'll start in the one next to it." He told her, swallowing down the horror he felt and going to the room that had a body by the door.

"Eh-oh? Well, okay?"

Chiba didn't look up, and instead knelt by the child. This one was a girl, her eyes squeezed shut, as if she didn't want to look at whatever was in front of her. Also clad in pyjamas, she had clutched a pink cat-pattered drawstring bag to her, but that hadn't been enough to staunch the gunshot wound that she had sustained, and certainly hadn't made a difference, given the other that had passed straight through her head. For some reason, a hat with bear ears was pulled over her chin-length curly orange hair, and the sight of it so damaged hurt his heart a little. Deal with it. There are two others to find. Look for them.

He straightened, and reached for the handle of the door the girl was lying in front of, and tested it. Thankfully, the door opened, and it swung inwards rather than outwards, so carefully, he stepped over the girl-mentally giving his apologies- and went in.

The bedroom was clearly shared by both the Asano daughters, the beds opposite to each other, pushed up against a wall. Switching on the light, he saw that the walls were pale pink, and that each side was decorated differently-one bed was full to the brim with stuffed toys of different creatures-teddy bears, cats, dogs, bunnies, even things like an octopus, a walrus and a beetle. There were also lots of pictures stuck to the wall, again of animals. The other bed was…neater. That little girl also had soft toys, but less of them, and arranged more neatly, and her posters were fewer, and there didn't seem to be a real theme that he could see, though there were quite a few ballet dancers. Indeed, on the bedside table he saw a little figurine of a ballerina, clad in blue rather than the usual pink. Not that he'd know. But more importantly, the room appeared empty. Or, wait…

Something sparking in his mind, he crouched momentarily, noticing for the first time the red splotches on the fluffy white carpet, and the fact that they seemed to lead to the wardrobe. Some of them looked like drag marks. Instantly, he strode over to it, and swung the doors open, and saw…nothing. Nothing that he wanted to see, as such. Clothes-tops, skirts, dresses-hung in the cupboard, and others were folded and put on the upper shelf. There was a mirror on the inside of one of the cupboard doors. And another suitcase stashed at the bottom of the cupboard, laid flat and unzipped, bulging slightly, as if over packed. There was also a small deep red smudge on the lid, which set of another spark. So, holding his breath, he knelt down once again, and carefully flipped open the lid.

There was a little girl in the suitcase. Like her sister, she was curled up, eyes screwed shut. But unlike her sister, she was breathing. Chiba could see her chest rise and fall, and her fingers twitched slightly. He noticed a bright red school backpack on her back, and noted that she wore a nightdress rather than pyjamas, but she was curled up enough that he couldn't discern anything else. Cautiously, afraid, he reached out and lightly touched her cheek with a gloved finger. Almost instantly, her eyes started to flutter, eventually widening in terror. Emerald-green, her gaze flickered here and there and her face contorted as she looked around her. But eventually, she noticed him, and the panic in her eyes slowly drained away as she locked her gaze onto his. For a moment, it seemed like she could see right through his sunglasses and into his very soul, in a way that made her seem ageless. It was disconcerting, and he squirmed a little, and yet he found that for whatever reason, he couldn't move away. But then the child spoke, and that reminded him that here he was dealing with a little girl. A little girl.

"W-who are you? It's…quiet…" the words came out in a quiet, laboured whisper.

"Are you Rinka-Chan?" he asked, wondering why he hadn't just asked 'what's your name' even as he did so. Of course, he couldn't be sure, but this girl was a great deal smaller than the one who had been outside the door of the bedroom. So it was logical that this little girl was Rinka, not Hinano. Or so he told himself.

"I…I..yeah. I am. Who are…you….?" She persisted, still looking afraid. Don't be afraid of me, it's fine, he wanted to say. But instead, he decided to answer Rinka's question.

"I'm a detective. Ryuuji Chiba. "Seeing doubt in her eyes, he pulled out his badge and held it in front of her. Rinka regarded it, and then nodded, so he put it back in his trouser pocket.

"Can you get up?" he asked her. Rinka frowned, but nodded, and slowly uncurled and pushed herself up into a sitting position. She winced in pain more than once, but didn't complain, or even mention anything about it, but when she was sitting up straight, it was impossible to miss the stain blooming across the front of her nightdress. Noticing him look at it, she wrapped her arms defensively and glared.

"I-It doesn't h-hurt…It's ju-" but she stopped mid-sentence to wince once again, gritting her teeth and nearly folding over again. Straight away, Chiba stirred himself into action, and took off his jacket and ripped some material from the lining, and roughly fashioned a sort of bandage from it, going all the way around the little girl's middle. Then, he scooped her up in his arms and got up, making a run for it as he held her close, willing her to stay awake, stay alive. Please, please. I can't lose you too.

"I've found one of them alive!" he yelled out as he pounded past the other bodies and down the stairs.

"Don't look." He whispered to Rinka. "You're safe now. Don't look."

He tried to hold her such that she would be shielded from the carnage made of her family, but it wasn't possible, and he did not feel her face press into his shoulder, didn't sense her closing her eyes, though she did loosely wrap his arms around his neck. She remained silent as he rushed, not complaining of pain or asking what had happened or what would happen. She's trying to be brave, he realised, a revelation that filled him with equal parts pride and devastation. Just how much of an ordeal did she go through, to shut down like this? He had an awful feeling that she would be the only one he'd be able to ask, and as much as he wanted to solve this case, he worried about her. About what the asking would do. But first, make sure she survives.

"Where was she?!" Yada asked, catching up to him. He barely acknowledged her. All his energy was focused on the child he was holding.

"The girls' bedroom." He said, tersely as they left the house. "Where's the ambulance?"

"Over here!"

Chiba followed Yada and Fuwa to the ambulance, which had its doors open, and a stretcher waiting. Once he reached it, he carefully tried to disentangle her and set her down. At first, she was as calm and unreactive as before as she watched his face, but when a paramedic entered her line of sight, she suddenly bucked violently, trying to get away from the paramedic and attempting to climb back into Chiba's arms. Startled, he tried to lower her again, but this only made her efforts more frantic, and she started screaming. Piercing, desperate sounds that rang through the street as she struggled and struggled. Others swarmed around, tried to get her away from him and into the ambulance, but her resistance only became more fierce and terrified.

"Shh, shh…" he tried to soothe, ineffectually.

"Go with her." Fuwa suggested, raising her voice to be heard over the screaming. Chiba gave his fellow detective an incredulous look.

"What? We can deal with the scene here for now! "She declared. "That, and she's become attached to you for whatever reason. "

Fuwa stopped at this, eyeing the child with trepidation. Chiba hesitated, still unsure.

"But what about…"

"I'll clear with the chief." Yada reassured. "Besides, this way it will make things easier when keeping a track of her status. So, go."

Yada winked at him, and he rolled his eyes. Then, he blocked everyone else, and focused on what needed to be done.

"Let me." He told the paramedics. They nodded, and eased away, ready to step in once he had her calm. Carefully, he attempted to lower her onto the stretcher once again.

"I'm not leaving, okay? I'll be right here the whole time. You're safe now, okay, Rinka-Chan? I won't leave you. "

He repeated the words over and over in different variations, endlessly and exhaustingly as they somehow got the child loaded into the ambulance. She soon stopped screaming and struggling, but still whimpered and fussed, as if whatever terror she had been feeling was now just kicking in. As they sedated her and the last of these noises died away, he found a place to sit next to her, and reached for her tiny hand.

"It's alright for me to do this?" he asked a paramedic leaning over. Looking up with sad and horrified eyes, he blinked, clearly not sure where to look, given the sunglasses. But Chiba did not waver, and just waited.

"Yeah, sure. "

Nodding at the paramedic, Chiba gripped Rinka's hand, and kept out of the way as much as he could as the ambulance hurtled its way to the hospital. And as it did, he prayed over and over for her survival, with a fervency that surprised even him. Please, please, please.

…

It was no surprise to Chiba to see the Asano's neighbour rush into the hospital waiting room carrying a bag and looking frantic. Calmly, he put a hand up-but did not get up from his seat-so that the man would see him. Sure enough, he did, and soon came over.

"They say you found one of them. Rinka-Chan." The man-at that moment, Chiba remembered his name was Isogai- wasted no time with niceties. "How is she?"

Chiba thought of the million things he could say about that. Terrified. Brave. Stoic. So small. Mesmerising. Sweet. A survivor. He thought of the screams that had emitted from that surprisingly tiny body, with the small warm hands. Those green eyes. He said none of that.

"She was conscious when we found her, though she had to be sedated on the way here. She's currently in surgery. I believe that she will make it."

"Oh. Oh. I see. And the rest of her family?"

Chiba's lack of response seemed to be enough for Isogai to understand, and he closed his eyes and lowered his head for a moment. But then he pulled himself together and looked Chiba in the eye.

"In that case, we'd like to have her live with us, once she's out of the woods. " he said. This Chiba was not expecting.

"Why?"

"We've known Rinka-Chan and the rest of the Asanos ever since we moved in there, just before Megu was born. Yuki is in the same class as Rinka-they walk to school and back together every day, and are always in and out of each other's houses. So she knows us, at least. Please, if you can, can you make sure she comes to us?"

Chiba took a moment to answer. In truth, he had not thought about the afterwards, what would happen to the child once she was physically healed, once they had closed the case. When it is all over. Somehow, the idea saddened him. But this wasn't about him, or his feelings. It never was, never would be. Yet it still saddened him. Which is why I will do my best for her.

"We're not really in control of that-that's the responsibility of social services." He made a note that they needed to be contacted as he said this.

"Then there's the investigation. But, I will make sure to mention you."

Isogai's mouth thinned into a line, and he nodded sadly. Then, he steeled his shoulders and smiled again, winningly so, and thrust the bag he had been holding at him. Startled, Chiba took it and stared at it.

"Meiko-my wife-put together some of Yuki's clothes for Rinka-Chan to wear while she's here, because I'm guessing she'll need them, and I also assume we can't go into the house to get anything for her…we will be able to do that though, won't we?"

"Yes, once the house is cleared." There was a silence, and then Chiba cleared his throat.

"This is incredibly helpful. I'll make sure to pass it onto a nurse. Thank you." He said, somewhat awkwardly.

"Ah, this is nothing, really. " Isogai took a deep breath, and then got up. "Well now, I need to go. See the girls off to school, go to work. You know."

He sounded sad, and a little amazed that life could go on after a tragedy had occurred in such close proximity. Chiba couldn't blame him, but kept his emotions in check as he stood up to shake the man's hand.

"Of course. Have a good day now, Isogai-san."

"Mhm."

With that, Isogai left the hospital. Chiba stared for a moment, and then sat back down. He pushed his sunglasses up for a second to rub at his eyes, and then put them back down again. Then, he settled the bag on his lap, and waited to find out whether Rinka Asano had survived her ordeal.

…

The child survived her operation, somehow, miraculously. The investigation went on, and between what was found in the house, the accounts she gave and what they managed to find out by interviewing those who had known the family, a grim picture was formed.

Osamu Asano was a strict, but fair-seeming man who had been brought up in a strict and definitely unfair family. Those who had known Osamu for a long time remembered his father Manabu (long since deceased), who veered between excessively violent and overly distant, but always, always demanding perfection. And as such, he had expected the same from his own family, when he had created it. But at first, it seemed like he knew how to balance that with kindness, and basic human decency. People described Osamu as being openly affectionate (albeit in a subdued way) with all his children and loving towards his pretty wife Haruka. Rinka herself spoke fondly of her daddy and how he always had the answers to things. But then the high-powered investment company he worked at had gone bust, and people had begun to be laid off. And Osamu, despite being a hard worker and one of the higher-ups, was one of those people. And that was when it all started to crumble.

"Daddy was sad about that. He worked very hard, because working hard is the only way that you can succeed at anything, he said. But his working hard didn't help him. So he was sad, and had nothing to do. And Daddy isn't good at being sad, or at being bored. " Rinka told Chiba during one interview.

And her assessment was right. Osamu Asano did not know how to be sad, how to deal with not having a successful job. How to deal with setbacks, in other words. To him, this one event was one that spelt the end of everything. And so gradually he became angrier, less kind, more like the father whose legacy he had once tried so hard to shake off. He became more easily enraged with the ordinary human foibles of his children-children who gradually became withdrawn and unhappier in school-, spent ages searching for jobs and going to interviews and networking events, becoming more and more angry and desperate with each failure-and took it out on Haruka. Haruka, his pretty, sweet, supportive wife, who he had once publicly proclaimed to be his rock. At first, it seemed she had tried to just deal with it, believing that her husband would return to who he had been once, but eventually it got so bad that she began to make plans to leave him, and take the children with her. When it got to the point that she feared for her children's safety, her plans moved from abstract to concrete, according to her bereaved parents. She started packing, looked into different schools-she even looked into changing their names, and getting a divorce. But unfortunately, Osamu found out, and considered this to be another of his own failures.

And Osamu did not like to be a failure, nor did he like to be reminded of his failures. This was both, and so his solution was to erase any traces of this failure. Which, though he had not said anything as such or left any notes, apparently this translated to killing all his family, and then doing the same to himself. And he waited to do this on the day they had chosen to actually leave. Haruka and Hiroto had been killed as they tried to make it down the stairs, Hinano trying to protect her two younger siblings, and Kouko and Rinka while they tried to hide. Kouki had not made it to a hiding place, however, and he was found in the bathroom. Only Rinka had survived in the end, aided by a big sister who'd had to make a tragic choice as to who to attempt to shield. But even she had not escaped completely unscathed.

And this, more than the other facts that they amassed over the course of the investigation, was the one thing that stayed with Chiba.

…

"I'm sorry I screamed, Detective." Rinka said as soon as he came in to the hospital room that day. Quizzically, he tipped his head to the side as he sat down beside her bed.

"What do you mean?"

Rinka blushed, the red harsh against her complexion, and she averted her still-pretty eyes. There was a teddy bear sitting on the bed next to her, one that looked new. She grabbed it and squeezed it as she explained what she meant in a stilted, embarrassed tone.

"Screaming. When you rescued me. I shouldn't have, that was rude." She bit her lip, and looked him in the eye. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be. You were hurting, and you were scared. "He told her.

"But it was childish of me. That was bad of me to do." She said, almost sing-song. As if she was parroting the scolding that someone else had once given her. You poor thing.

"You're a child! You're meant to be childish." Chiba blurted out, taken aback. This surprised Rinka, and this clearly showed. But quickly, she became offended.

"But I'm a big girl! I'm seven!" she declared, glaring as she held up seven fingers. "I'm in first grade and everything."

Stifling a laugh, Chiba nodded soberly and apologised. Rinka scrutinised him, and accepted the apology. Then, the mood in the room dulled immediately, as she seemed to remember something.

"My little brother was supposed to start school this year. Before things went bad, Daddy took him to get his backpack. It looks just like mine, but it's black because he's a boy. I went with them. We brought a keyring for him to put on it, so he knows it is his. It looked like those movie things that they snap and scream 'CUT' with when they film something wrong, because he likes movie things. He's supposed to start first grade this year…."

"Rinka-Chan…."

"I thought adults knew how to do everything and anything." She continued, blinking rapidly, trying to push back tears. "Why didn't Daddy know how to be sad and how to stop being sad? Did you manage to find that out, Detective?"

Chiba gasped before he could hold it back. He hesitated, and Rinka picked up on the hesitation, for the tears she had been trying to hold back spilled down her face, and angrily, she tried to wipe at them, as if trying to blot them from existence. It occurred to Chiba that in a way, Rinka did not know how to be sad either. And that made him sad. So, what do I say to this child that'll help her?

Carefully, he leaned over and put a hand over her tiny fists, stopping her from scrubbing at her face. Astounded, she stopped and looked at him. He did not say anything, but instead just maintained eye contact the best that he could (especially given he had sunglasses on). Rinka returned the contact in kind, not even slightly put off. Just like when they had first met. Eventually, she took a few deep breaths and managed to calm herself, and he eased back again.

"Perhaps he didn't know that it was alright to be sad in the first place. You know it's okay, don't you?"

Rinka frowned, too seriously, then eventually nodded slowly.

"I guess." She pouted. "But it feels a bit embarrassing, a little."

"And that's okay too."

"It is?"

Chiba nodded as sincerely as he could. In truth, he wasn't sure. What was right in this sort of situation? He had no real experience of children, apart from talking to other colleagues about their own little ones, so he didn't know if he was helping or harming. But at the same time, he believed what he said, and he didn't want to wrong her by lying. So he persisted, anyway.

"Of course it is. "He told her. She regarded him again suspiciously, but eventually, something in her relaxed, and her death grip on the teddy bear loosened. He waited patiently, and continued to watch her carefully as a million tiny, fleeting expressions danced and disappeared across her face.

And then, for the first time since he had met her, she smiled.

…

Given the circumstances of the case, it was one that got solved and shut very quickly, and all involved on the case put it aside and got on with their lives. Except for Chiba. Of course, he got on with his life, worked with Yada and Fuwa on newer cases, occasionally going down to the pub with old high school friends in the evenings, visiting the library reading up on architectural wonders in long-forgotten kingdoms on empty afternoons, and carried on with all the other little details of his life. But he continued to visit Rinka and chat with her, initially in the hospital and then later in the foster home she was assigned to once released. Though looking for relatives to take her was a responsibility now fully passed onto Social Services, he kept himself in the loop on that, so determined he was to do right by her.

Many times, he considered putting himself forward for that sort of responsibility, considered the possibility of bringing her up as his own. But though he considered himself responsible, and cared for her deeply, he knew it wouldn't happen. As a thirty-year-old homicide detective living alone in a small flat that he sometimes went days on end without inhabiting, he knew that he was not the stable parental type that a child-let alone one who had been through what Rinka had been through-needed. It didn't stop him from imagining it, however. And it did not stop him from starting to consider her a friend, and later, in an odd way, an equal.

One such day that hammered this feeling in was when he was visiting her in her foster home. They had been talking about something trivial, like the characters in a comic series her foster mother had given to her when she suddenly asked about his service pistol as they sat in the living room.

"Can I see it? Your gun?"

Chiba hesitated, even as he reached for it. Is this appropriate?

"Why do you want to see it, Rinka-Chan?"

"I just do." She replied, a little defensive. She glared at him in that way that always made him want to laugh, though of course, he did not. Instead, he just carefully pulled it out and held it in his hands. Even with his doubts, his instincts told him as long as he was careful, it would be fine.

"Don't pick it up." He told her, not wanting any accidents happening, especially ones he could have prevented.

"Detective, I'm not stupid." Rinka told him with all the world-weariness of a seven-year-old. But she didn't even look at him, so focussed that she was on the gun. Carefully, she brushed her finger along the barrel, and her forehead puckered as she studied it. Eventually though, she looked up at him.

"Was this the same type of gun as my Daddy's?" she asked.

"No. This type is specifically issued to people on the police force. And your father wasn't a policeman."

"I see." Rinka said, blandly. She looked down at it again, then straightened. Carefully, she touched the area of her stomach where she had been shot.

"If you had been there with that while Daddy was hurting us, would you have shot back?"

"I…well….most likely, yes. If I thought it would save you all." You, especially, he thought, ignoring the sad guilt he felt for thinking it, so used he was to it. Rinka nodded soberly, and sighed.

"Okay. I think maybe I'd do the same. "She said. "If I had one. "

"I can understand that. Though, it's always scary when someone is firing at you. Even if you've got a gun yourself."

"Is that how you feel, when you have to shoot at a bad guy, Detective?" she asked.

"I suppose so, yes."

"But you do it for good reasons though! Right? To save people."

"That's usually the aim, yes."

"Right. Okay." There was a silence for a moment. Chiba discreetly put his gun back where it had been, but Rinka caught the motion and watched carefully. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, but she was clearly trying to hold a lot of emotion in, so he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly. Brave, sweet child, it's okay now. It is, I promise.

"Mhm." She nodded vigorously. Then, she paused and considered. "Or I will be. I hope."

"I hope so too." I know so, actually.

"That's good." She informed him gravely. Then, she picked up an abandoned picture book and shoved it at him with a small smile on her face.

"Will you read this to me, Detective?"

"Of course."

He opened the book to the first page, waited for Rinka to get settled , and then started the story.

…

"Are you Detectives Chiba and Yada?"

The smooth, melodious voice stopped the conversation that the two of them were having in Chiba's office, and they both looked to the door, where a redheaded man stood watching them, a woman standing next to him. Chiba didn't know him, but he was the spitting image of Osamu Asano. Even six months later, he remembered that face intimately, and so he recoiled, thinking instantly of Rinka, still recuperating in the foster home. Yada had a similar reaction, but as it was not as emotionally charged, she was quickly able to school her face into a calmer expression as she stepped forward.

"Yes, we are. I'm Yada, that's Chiba. Who are you?"

The man studied both of them, and then smiled, somewhat bitterly. His gold eyes had an indescribable emotion contained within them. The woman, sweet but shy-looking with deep purple hair, watched them all warily.

"I'm Akane Akabane." He told them. "Although it's more helpful to you to know that I'm Osamu's illegitimate brother. We've just heard what happened to him, and his family, and that one of the children survived, so we came to inquire and found out that you two were the investigators, so we came to see you."

"I'm Mami Akabane." The woman supplied hesitantly at this point. Chiba nodded at her, but stared at the man. The hair and eye colour were completely different, but his resemblance in terms of physical features was so marked he didn't doubt that they were related. But that begged the question of why it had taken so long for him to turn up. Also….Akane? Really? He has to be making that up!

"It's taken you a while to get here." Chiba stated neutrally.

"Yes, well…." Akane shrugged. "We were only ever half-brothers, not full ones. I'm six months older, so basically good ol' Father Manabu cheated on his wife while she was pregnant. And then he didn't want to acknowledge me, and so we only found out about each other when we were in our twenties. And Osamu was….a honour-bound perfectionist, so while he didn't want to completely cast me aside because of the blood connection, he didn't like the reminder that his father wasn't the model of perfection he had forced Osamu to be…so it was not as if we were in constant contact. That, and we don't even live in Kunugigaoka Town. "

"But we're here now." Mami spoke up. "And we know that one of his children needs a family. If….if we were found suitable, we'd be willing to take up that responsibility. We've got the room, and the money…and the willingness to try."

"I…I see." But is that good enough?

"Really, you'd need to ask Social Services about that." Yada said. "It's not our jurisdiction, deciding who gets custody of Rinka Asano, but we can help you out there. Detective Chiba is best placed for that, actually, because he's struck up a friendship with her. "

"Oh, really?" both Akane and Mami asked, the former raising an eyebrow while the latter took the statement at face value, seeming rather pleased by the fact.

"Well, I guess so." He said neutrally. He was still reeling, but made an effort to pull himself together. "I'll help you in that case. Do you have a number and address for where you're staying?"

"Sure, of course." Mami was the first to respond, and took out a pen and napkin from her handbag, and scribbled the name and number for a hotel not too far from the police station. Akane just waited while she handed it to Chiba.

"Thank you. I'll contact you." He said, neutral. Akane studied him levelly, and then smiled.

"Very well then. We'll see ourselves out then. Right, Mami?"

"Uh, yeah! Sure."

The couple left, and Chiba and Yada stared for a while. Eventually, Chiba sighed and leaned back in his chair. Oh gosh. Yada studied him thoughtfully as she leaned against his desk.

"You're more attached to that kid than I thought, Chiba-kun." It wasn't a question.

"I suppose I am." He said. "I suppose I am. But I won't make things difficult for them, if they want to take her. As long as they're the right people to look after her."

Yada nodded slowly at that.

"It's still going to be hard for you, isn't it? When that time comes. "

Chiba didn't even need to answer that one, and so he didn't. Yada studied him again, and then shook her head almost imperceptibly, clapped and changed the subject.

"Right then! What were we talking about again?"

"This." He told her, pointing to the relevant case file. Almost immediately, they were able to pick off where they had left off, and the Akabane couple were pushed to the back of his mind.

But he didn't forget them, for two weeks later, he took them over to see Rinka, accompanied by her social worker. Rinka's foster mother sat with them too. The social worker introduced the Akabanes to Rinka, but unlike any of the adults in the room, she had no issue with saying what she thought of the male Akabane's first name.

"Akane is a girl's name. "She informed him sceptically. "Are you actually real?"

"Rinka!" the social worker gasped. Chiba stifled a giggle, but Akane openly laughed at that.

"Oh I'm real alright. I just had a mother with a funny sense of humour. Something to do with my hair being red- so I am a red-feathered deep red person." He joked.

"….That makes no sense. But okay. Nanako-san said that you're daddy's brother. But I don't know you."

"We did meet you once, actually, Rinka-Chan." Mami put in at this point. "But you were just a little baby. We have a photograph. Do you want to see?"

Rinka looked around at all of them doubtfully, her gaze stopping on Chiba. He nodded at her, and so she turned back to Mami and nodded.

"Okay then."

Mami took a photo album out of her bag, and flipped it to the page that she had marked with a piece of paper, and opened it to show to Rinka, who looked at the image of herself as a baby.

"Oh. That really is me. I don't remember you though. Do you have more photos? Of Onii-Chan, and Onee-Chan, and Mummy and Daddy?"

"Sure! I think we have a few."

Most of the visit was spent looking through this photo album, with Rinka asking the occasional question about what they remembered about her family. She still seemed to regard Akane as something from another planet, but his constant jokes and off-beat comments made her laugh. Mami, for her part, was gentle and kind, and incredibly patient. And neither of them tried to patronise her, which he appreciated. Which makes them right for her.

"So, what did you think of them?" Chiba asked her an hour later, when they had already left and he was about to leave himself. She sat on the step, staring at his shoes for a moment, before looking up.

"I think I like them. But Akane-san is really weird. Just like his name. But I like them a lot."

"That's good." He told her. And thought it hurt, he meant it.

…

Things proceeded surprisingly quick after that, and it wasn't long before Rinka was packing up to go and live with the Akabanes. They still had yet to formally adopt her, but they had been allowed custody of her, which more or less meant she would soon be becoming an Akabane. And that Chiba would most likely never see her again. It was a fact which made him sad, but he did his best to hide it as he continued to visit her. On the day she left with the Akabanes, he took a day off work and came to see her off, reassuring her that all would be fine, helping load the suitcases and giving her a gift of a beautiful new stationary set, decorated with images of dancing princesses. He also gave her his address, and as she climbed into the car Akane was driving, she gravely promised to write to him, and hopefully to visit.

And write, she did. She never did come back to visit her hometown (and Chiba didn't blame her), but over the years, the letters grew more frequent. At times, he found it hard to keep up, but he did his best , and enjoyed her steady stream of letters. His life had picked up more or less where it had left off before her case, but he found himself appreciating his life all the more, because of having the letters to look forward to. He would much rather have had the chance to see her grow, to be there with her as she grew up from extraordinary little girl to extraordinary young woman, but he made do with the letters-and indeed, they were so much more than a consolation prize. He kept them all in a safe place, and would often go back to re-read them if he was in the middle of a bad case and needed a reason to go on. Reading the details of her life-whether it was how she joined a dance club in middle school and won a competition with them or the antics of the family dog- never failed to make him smile. And so, if a letter came in for him just as he was about to go to work, he would always tuck it into his pocket and save it for when he got in.

This is what he did on the day he died, thirteen years after he had first met her. It was a day just like any other, and so he acted as if it was any other day, and when he saw the letter on his doormat, picked it up and put it in his jacket pocket before leaving the house and driving to work, looking very much forward to reading it (much as he always did), and wondered what it would say. He didn't notice the lorry swerve unexpectedly and block most of the road until it was far too late.

And so, he didn't get a chance to read the letter.

…

Dear Detective Chiba,

This isn't a reply to your last letter. I'll get to that soon though, so your questions will be answered (but here's the answer to one: WE WON!). But I had something important to tell you, so I decided to focus on that instead. I just hope this reaches you quickly.

All these years, I didn't forget that I said that I would come back and visit. Akane-san and Mami-san reminded me occasionally, but really, I had remembered all along. But I had too many bad memories attached to that place. Even though I know that logically, Kunugigaoka Town was not to blame for what Daddy did to me in our old home, my mind made that association, and the idea gave me nightmares. And so I broke that promise to you, and that must have hurt you awfully. You come off as a good person in these letters we exchange, and I remember you as one too. Though you clearly had no idea how to deal with a traumatised little girl, you never patronised me or tried to hide things from me, and I felt myself a little braver just from talking to you. I always looked forward to those visits from you, you know? I think I trusted you more than the social workers and everyone-even Nanako-san, and she was a perfectly good foster mother, I know that much-and you were certainly my favourite person from that time. And yet, leaving with Akane-san and Mami-san and not looking back is how I repaid you for that kindness.

I am so, so sorry about that, Detective. I really am. But I know words aren't always enough, so I'd like to ask if it's okay if we meet again? I'd like the chance to. Of course, I'm going to turn twenty soon, so I don't think I'll be the same person you remember in real life, and neither will you, I guess. But I'd like to see you again. But as soon as possible.

Because, you see, I am dying.

As you might remember, Daddy left me with only one kidney. This would have been fine, and it has been for all this time, but I recently contracted kidney failure, and though I am on dialysis, I am getting sicker. I don't think there is a miracle around the corner waiting for me though. In fact, I know it. But there is so much more I want and need to do before I meet my end-though really, I like to think that so far, my life has been a good one, despite what happened back then. I've certainly had a whole lot to write about, that's for sure!

But as I said, there is a lot I still need to get done, and there are two main ones I can think of. One of those is attending my coming-of-age. And the other, of course, is to see you, one more time. Because of what you meant to me, and how much you made a difference to me, it scares me that I could leave this world without ever, ever getting that chance. It's probably selfish, all things considered, but I think you said to me once that sometimes it's okay to be. That it's okay to be sad. And I'm pretty sad about things as they stand right now. And I'd like to be happy, even if for one last time.

I'm not sure what else to say about this, really, so I will stop here. I hope you're doing well, Detective, and I will reply to your other letter as soon as I can. Or perhaps, if you are willing, I will be able to tell you these things in person.

With love,

Rinka Akabane.

OH MY GOSHHHH I didn't mean for this chapter to end up at almost 9000 words. I apologise for that. I will try to keep chapters at like 5000-6000 words or slightly over, but yeah...it's hard. I mean, with this one, I had to cut out so much, and this is quite literally the bare minimum of what I thought it was needed to tell the story of this particular life of theirs.

But anyway, as you can see, I'm having a lot of fun figuring out AU roles for all the characters, especially the other 3E side members. All of Chiba and Hayami's other lives in this are planned already, but a lot of the other character's AU versions are probably going to be improvised as I write, lol. As an aside, though I think they're fairly obvious anyway, can you spot the AUs of the other characters?

Anyway, before I sign out...

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Read and Read- Thank you! If you do buy 'Midwinterblood', I am sure you will enjoy it. At least, I hope you will. And of course I will update ^^

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