When Eiji's death reached Kyoko, she stood and stared blankly for a moment. She didn't feel sad, not very much, and she hadn't known him enough to truly regret him.
Still, there was a strange pit in her stomach, a deep sense of loss she couldn't quite shake. She didn't understand it. It didn't make sense. So she just stood there for a short while after being left alone, and stared at a blank space on front of her while she tried to figure it out.
She showed up to his funeral. There was her, Leiko, so of course Akio, and the rest of the Aces. The town chief and his son stood besides the body wrapped in a sheet braided shut with ribbons, red and pink and orange to symbolize eternity and fate and bonds. There wasn't Eiji's father to stand besides the corpse, or his mother to cry and lament. Just Kyoko, the Aces, and the village chief and his son.
Kyoko watched as they lowered the body into the grave. She gave a glance to Leiko, muffling her silent crying with a hand in front of her mouth. Akio had his working arm around her, and she was leaning into the embrace.
Eiji made a dull thud when they dropped him in the hole. Kyoko felt like he was going to rip his way out of the sheet and jump to his feet, screaming and complaining, any second now.
Of course, that didn't happen. He stayed perfectly still, even as they covered him in dirt until the grave was filled.
The gravestone just read: Eiji, son of Daiko. Kyoko didn't ask why his father or mother didn't show up to Eiji's funeral. She wanted to know, but it felt out of place to ask. So she stood there and stared at the names for a while, long after everyone else had left.
"I don't get it," she said out loud.
There was still a deep sense of loss at the bottom of her stomach, heavy like lead. It didn't make sense.
"You're really dumb. You should have known this would happen."
She felt silly, talking to the grave like that. So she stopped. She just stared at it, hoping that it would make this strange pain leave. It didn't.
Eventually, the sun started setting, and it bathed the gravestone in a warm orange light. She stared at it, and wondered how it was that light could somehow find its way to him.
