Warning: graphic imagery and mention of blood; description of PTSD
Note: Chichi - Japanese for "father" or "Dad"

Chapter Text

Makoto dreamed she was floating.

She felt the lull of an engine humming loudly against her skin, and the darkness around her caved until it slowed - dithering abruptly to a halt.

"That's strange."

Makoto opened her eyes to a blurry world. Outside, a hazy dusk flashed a strange red and blue. Rain had settled in. Droplets cascaded down to ripples against the windshield, broken intermittently by the insistent rub of the wipers as they fanned across the glass.

"Wait here," Sae said tersely. Her car door swung open. All Makoto heard was the sound of thunder rumbling from far away and the clatter of raindrops crashing against gravel and stone. Sae's heels clicked against the ground before she disappeared, letting the car door slam behind her.

Makoto sleepily rubbed her eyes with the point of her knuckles. She felt like a child sitting inside the car all alone, trying to make out the mass of dark shades huddled just a slight distance from the car. Here and there, a shape would give way to the flash of red and blue, blinding her as it swept across the horizon.

Lights… Police lights?

Makoto rubbed her eyes harder to jolt herself awake, but there was something that bothered her - like a fright she couldn't quite shake off. She could feel the tiny hairs of her arm prickle like static against her flesh.

Makoto stay inside .

Her father's voice. Alone. Yet confident. Tragically confident.

Chichi!

In her mind, her plaintive calls were drowned out. The voice of her father echoed in her ears, as if she heard them over and over in an endless loop.

A vacuum effect deafened her ears before she flashed back. Back to the tiny sedan, sheltered from the rain.

"Sis!" she blurted out with a loud knock against the window. She felt panic seize her as she hurriedly fiddled with the seatbelt, somewhat relieved when it finally clicked with release. Her eyes searched wildly through the window, but she saw nothing save for the shapes outside all blended into nameless shadows. The intermittent glow of red and blue lights were the only telltale signs. A chill crept up her spine.

Makoto shoved her entire weight against the car door, as if simply opening it wasn't enough.

"Sis!" she called out again, but her voice sounded hollow against the deafening rain.

But it was sunny just now...

It took Makoto a moment to realize that she had fallen asleep during the car ride. Had it been mere minutes? Hours? The low, thickening rumble of clouds gave no answer.

There wasn't much Makoto could see of the scene. A crowd of people, some in dark rain coats, and others in more noticeable yellow, bag-like ponchos. They were all huddled around something, pushing into the center until they all became indistinct as the clouds above. Though visibility was low, Makoto could squint and see the frame of a modest two-story house before them. Some lights flickered on, shielded by sparse spindly trees weaving around the road behind them.

"Ne! What's going on?!" Makoto grabbed hold of a policeman nearby. He was also garbed in the glaringly yellow raincoat while his hands flailed in frantic gestures to redirect the movement around them.

"Step aside miss. This is a crime scene. Investigators and officials only," he responded gently. His speech was punctuated by a slight wave before he redirected his attention to the next passerby, just as confused and just as hungry for answers as she.

Makoto hugged herself. She felt cold, the water like frozen needles stiffening the cotton fabric of her drenched uniform.

Makoto stay inside . The voice was haunting her, taunting her to back away.

Her legs were shaking. She couldn't move them. A police siren blared a few feet away as the red-blue lights flashed across her eyes.

"Hey! What happened over here?!"

From the corner of her eyes, she could see a silhouette push past her to the policeman. He had yellow hair - roughened and paled by bleach - and a loud, rattled voice.

"Sir, please step away."

"Dammit! You can't do this!" The young man fought hard, but he too was turned away.

Other voices soon joined his protests, crescendoing as the shadows around her made way. The empty town of Kuromachi suddenly bristled with gray, amorphous life. They were mere silhouettes panicking around Makoto.

Soon, other policemen in their yellow raincoats rushed past them. They were all rolling a gurney. A pale bluesheet hung over it, suggestively outlining the contours of an unmoving body.

"Make way! This is a crime scene!"

The crowd pushed past Makoto. As the gurney rattled towards the ambulance, Makoto saw it trip over a rock, and the pale blue sheet fell partly to the side. She saw golden hair, glimmering like priceless treasure, and the beginnings of flesh. Blood shone like scarlet in the rain, splattered and crusted as it were on the dead body's hair.

Whispered voices trailed the gurney.

"They say it was that foreign exchange student…"

"No kidding?! What was her name? Lavenza-san?!"

"Yeah, the one the Sakamoto family was hosting."

Makoto's eyes were transfixed. She tailed the gurney, seeing it lifted ceremoniously to the ambulance. Another group of men crowded around it before the doors were shut closed. It was familiar somehow - a scene she had dreamed over and over.

"Makoto! Hey Makoto!"

She felt a hand grip her forearm, jolting her from her a nightmarish trance.

"I told you to wait in the car!" It was Sae. Her brows were furrowed and stern.

Makoto looked dumbly back at her sister. She too was drenched, her chestnut hair snaking along her cheeks like vines.

"Sis…" she stammered out. It took Makoto a few moments to realize she was still shaking.

Sae gasped at the current state of her younger sister. She had a sickly pallor and was shaking uncontrollably. True it was raining, but it wasn't enough to make one so deathly cold. Sae could almost hear her younger sister's teeth chatter.

Sae looked away for a brief moment. Makoto's trembling was hard to watch. It was as if her younger sister - the cheery and fastidious creature she had come to known - disappeared into a terrified shell of a person.

"I'm sorry," Sae muttered apologetically. "I forgot-..." She stopped, unsure if even uttering the word Dad would have been a safe bet. "Nevermind," she said sternly before offering a piteous smile, softening her features as a soothing gesture. "We shouldn't stay here."

She draped an arm over Makoto's shoulder, ushering her younger sister away from the frantic scene. The two walked close together until they got to the car.

The tempestuous rain calmed to a gentle shower. The two were soaking, but even as Sae tried to hold her sister close, there was still some intangible, unbridgeable distance between them. Makoto felt miles apart to Sae, much to the latter's chagrin. She was clearly lost in a traumatic loop of past memories.

The car door was open, and Makoto seemed to glide in her stupor. The other ran around and quickly assumed the driver's seat. Sae looked, not without a tinge of irritation, at all the water she wrought on her leather seats.

"I'll take you home, okay?" she said with a fledgling tone of reassurance.

From her side, Makoto was still shaking, but something in her eyes shone like a resumed state of consciousness. Still, she gave no answer.

Sae shrugged and revved the engine.

"Sis," Makoto said suddenly. Her voice was frail, a little mousy.

"Hm?"

"Chichi…" Makoto's eyes fell on her lap. Sae noted with surprise that her sister's hands were already toying with an old, cartoonish pencil case. "That looked a little too much like what happened to Chichi."

Sae sat in tight-lipped silence. Though she hadn't been there when… it … happened, she was too busy gathering information to even connect the two murders together, or consider the possibility of triggering PTSD in Makoto. A heavy pause fell on the lawyer's shoulders that made it impossible to think. One hand hovered ready over the steering wheel and another on the gear stick. The lawyer pondered her words, mulling carefully over the import of her meaning.

"I shouldn't have stopped," she finally said. "This isn't something for you to see." Sae mechanically put the car in reverse. She backed up, carefully and deftly avoiding the crowd. It wasn't long before the tires found concrete again. "We're actually not that far from home. We'll skip the school visit for now." Sae's red eyes scanned the rearview mirror, catching a glimpse of her near-catatonic sister. "I'll also call off dinner with Sakura-san. You need to get some rest."

Makoto nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on the pencil case.

"We'll start over tomorrow."

To: Nijima.S

Subject: [REDACTED]

CC: [REDACTED]

Time stamp: 19:04

Nijima-san, please report to the office immediately. Prosecutor out of town. The Chief superintendent wants you on the case. Police report: homicide victim identified as Elizabeth Lavenza, an exchange student hosted by one Mrs. [REDACTED] Sakamoto. No witnesses. Investigators in search of possible suspects. The district has sent Detective Gorou Akechi to aid in the investigation. You must guide him to the crime scene tomorrow after his arrival at the Kuromachi South Transportation Center.