Chapter 3: The Father and The Princess
Inaba's father opened the door to his limo and motioned for her to come inside.
She did. Maybe if I talked to him, if I tried to explain...
Water poured out of her wedding dress as she sat down, filling the seat-cushion and the floor of the limo with rainwater. Her father leaned forward and said, "Drive." Then he pushed a button and the opaque sound proof partition rolled up between them and the limo driver. He was a nameless Korean in a black uniform and cap who stared straight ahead.
Her father pulled out a pure silk handkerchief and gave it to her. Inaba began to wipe her face. "Thank you.."
He looked at her carefully. "Did he strike you?"
"What? No, Taichi wouldn't hurt a fly."
"I understand. You are protecting him. The duty of a wife is to protect her husband. That is admirable of you. But I will not forgive this."
"No, wait, he didn't touch me. Please father, don't punish him. It was my fault, not his."
"My little princess, to be the domo of a keiretsu you must be strong. Even brutal when necessary. Compassion is weakness. A heart is weakness. If I am to name you as my successor, then you must learn to be strong as well. I will show you." He pulled out his cellphone and started dialing.
"Father, stop! It was me! He did nothing wrong!"
He stopped dialing and looked up. "Then explain it to me. Why did you flee into the rain in your wedding dress? This is your wedding night."
Inaba thought back to Heartseed. This was all his fault. "It's complicated.."
"Complicated? Ah. I have heard that excuse before. From my underlings, from those who did not want to explain their failure. I suspect the real answer is very simple: Now that you are married to him, he revealed something to you. He told you some secret that he has been hiding until this very night. Am I right?"
She thought back to what he said, about using her money to help others. Inaba looked away, "No."
Meanwhile her father was watching her very closely.
He sighed. "You are lying. I can see it. Oh, I do not mind your little lie, my darling princess, because you are merely protecting your husband, which is your wifely duty and obligation. But you are lying."
Inaba remained silent.
"That is another trait that you will learn from me: how to detect lies." He spoke into the cellphone in a clipped staccato: "Taichi Yaegashi. Full profile. Level black. All methods." He then hung up.
Inaba knew that 'level black' meant to use both legal and illegal methods to obtain dirt on her husband, including illegal surveillance. She made a small inward smile. Good luck on finding any dirt on Mr. Goody Perfect. Still, Taichi's in trouble. I have to stop this.
She looked straight at her father. "Taichi is innocent." She hoped that he believed the truth in her eyes.
He did, but only her sincerity. "If he is innocent, then tell me what he said to you. Then I might reconsider." His eyes narrowed. "And do not lie."
Inaba did not know what to do. Should she tell him? Or should she remain silent? Things couldn't get any worse than they already were. Her father would just keep digging. And when he found nothing? He could just frame Taichi and create evidence. He could create a fake bank account in his name or hire some fake witnesses. It would be easy for her father. She knew that power and money made it easy to destroy a person, especially someone as naïve as Taichi.
No, she had to tell him the truth. There was no other choice.
"He just wants to help people. Start a charity, help the poor, the sick.."
"Ah." He thought for a moment, then he nodded to himself. "Of course. I should have known."
"Father, he just surprised me, that's all. I flew off the handle. I slapped him and walked out. I do that sometimes. We've had these fights before. I don't know why we always have these fights, but we do. It's always my fault, not him."
"Yes, I am already aware of some of your, shall we say, disagreements. When you first started dating him I assigned some surveillance to watch him."
She was shocked. "Father!"
"I did it to protect you, my princess. I wanted to learn more about your suitor. It was discrete. Outdoors only, long distance, telephoto lenses. I always respected your privacy. Both of you."
"Still, you could have at least told me!"
He ignored her. "I saw the photos. You two have had many arguments, many fights. You left him several times. In one photo it appeared that you had even injured him during a fight. But you always eventually came back to him."
Inaba cringed. That was the time she threw that little buddha figurine at him. It clocked him right on the forehead. She had raised her hand to her mouth in shock at what she had just done, then immediately ran up to him and apologized profusely. She then bandaged the gash for him while begging for forgiveness. He merely shrugged it off as usual. Her father's operative must have then snapped a photo of her sneaking out the back window of his men-only dorm room like she always did, this time in tears. Then shortly afterward another operative must have snapped a second photo of Taichi walking out of the front door of the dorm with a big bandage on his head. Even years later she still occasionally apologized to him about the incident. And for some reason he still kept that damnable statue in his room.
Her father gazed absently out the limo window at the pouring rain as he spoke. "Let me guess. He was always steadfast, yes? He never got angry at you in return, not even once, yes? Never wavered?"
She was surprised. "Yes, that's right. That's it exactly. How did you know?"
"I think I am beginning to understand your husband. And I respect him."
Inaba's heart leapt. He understands? He understands Taichi? Oh, thank god, he does. I was starting to worry...
She noticed they were turning the corner to enter her old neighborhood. He was taking his disgraced princess home. Her father still lived in her old childhood home, hidden on the far west side of the prefecture, with only a single large gate visible from the hedgerows. The home was quite large by Japanese standards, but not gauche or extravagant. It was the home of, perhaps, a well-paid business executive, not the home of the domo of a 100 billion yen empire. Her father was always like that, always living under his means. She knew that most self-made entrepreneurs tended to live that way. It was those who inherited their wealth that tended to spend it lavishly and wastefully.
Her father nodded to himself. "Yes. I see it now. He has been after your money the entire time."
What?
He looked back at her with sad eyes. "I am sorry, my princess. He does not love you. He never has."
Preposterous. Inaba knew that nothing could be further from the truth. It anything in this world was certain, it was Taichi's love. Oh, she questioned his motives, the reason for it, that he loved the idea of being in love, not her, but the emotion was definitely genuine. Love was what defined him.
She got agitated. "No! No! He really is in love!"
He shook his head slowly. "No, my little princess. No man is that patient. No man is that forgiving. That man does not exist. Do you not see? It is a front. Each time you slapped him he steeled himself by thinking of the vast wealth he would someday inherit from you. He is a patient man. He waited. For years. And I respect that. I respect that kind of patience, his ability to defer gratification. That ability separates us from the animals. I am impressed with him. He might even become a good businessman."
"No! You're wrong! He is a good man!" This was a travesty. Her father did not understand anything. He was disparaging the very heart, the very soul, of her husband.
He gently cupped her face in his large hand, his eyes sad but caring. "No. In time you will understand, you will see that..."
She slapped his hand away. He was shocked.
The limo was waiting at a red stoplight. She knew where she was.
She fumbled for the latch.
Her father grabbed the hem of her wedding dress. "Princess! Wait!"
She wrenched the dress right out of his hands. The soaked dress tore, leaving him with a fistful of torn taffeta.
She ran out into the pouring rain.
Aoki used his last 4000 yen to buy a disposable cellphone.
He made the call. He had the number memorized. He hoped it still worked.
He heard the ring. 1..2..3..
Someone picked it up. He heard the person who answed, "Inaba! Is that you!?"
Aoki was a little startled. "No.. this is Aoki."
There was a pause on the other end.
"Aoki?"
"Yeah, it's me. I was just released from prison a few hours ago."
"Oh! Hey, that's great! Why didn't you tell me they were going to release you? I would have picked you up or at least sent a taxi. You okay?"
"I guess. Look, I don't have a place to stay. It's really raining hard, and I was wondering if.."
"You don't have to ask." Taichi then gave him the address of his hotel. He chuckled. "You'll love this hotel. I got the honeymoon suite. Tell the taxi driver that I'll pay for your fare."
"Thanks, Taichi. I owe you my life. Uh, wait, the honeymoon suite?"
"It's a long story."
Aoki smiled. Just like old times. "Sounds interesting. I can't wait to hear it."
"Your timing is perfect. I really need to talk to you. Inaba thinks that Heartseed is messing with her. Nobody else has seen him."
Fear entered Aoki's heart. "H-Heartseed?"
"Yeah, she says he's back. You are one of the few people I can trust. Inaba's really gone off the deep end this time. I'm really worried about her."
"Got it. I'll be right there."
"Thanks, man. It's great that you are out of prison. Look, I know that what happened wasn't your fault. It just burns me up thinking about it. You know I'm not a violent person, but after what Heartseed did to you and Yui, her especially, I think I'd probably..."
"Stop. You can tell me when I get there. I'm getting soaked."
"Oh, sorry. Bye."
Aoki lowered the phone.
Heartseed.
So. Taichi still did not believe him. No one believed his story: not the police, not the detective, not the prosecutor, not the judge, not the jury. Nobody did. Not even his closest friends believed him. They had attended his trial and gave their support, but he could tell just by looking at their faces. They did not believe him either.
Except Yui. She knew the truth.
And she was gone.
He dialed for the taxi.
He stood in the rain and waited at the curb, thinking about the past.
Inaba ran down the street. This was her old neighborhood. She had walked down this sidewalk hundreds of times on her way to Yamaboshi Academy.
Inaba needed to talk to someone. Someone who knew about Heartseed.
She stopped. This was Aoki's old house. It looked vacant and boarded up. He was still in prison anyway.
She ran further down the street. Another house. This was Iori's old home. The last thing she heard was that Iori was still living in the house with her mother, but that was at least a year ago. And Iori herself had not spoken a single word to her in almost three years. Did she and her mother still live here? And would she..?
But Iori knew about Heartseed. Inaba steeled herself then approached the door and knocked, grateful to be under the awning and out of the rain.
No answer. She knocked again, harder this time.
Someone opened the door.
Inaba saw that it was Iori. She was wearing a simple dress. Inaba saw that her hair had grown out to a shoulder-length cut, and she was bit taller and had filled out a bit, a late bloomer apparently. She was not an unattractive girl with her distinctive pixie face and the cute dainty mole that was located just below and to the left of her mouth.
But now that face was expressionless and unreadable.
Inaba fumbled for the words to say. She had not thought this far ahead. "Iori, uhm, I'm sorry. I know I have no excuse to be here.."
The watcher at the doorway remained silent and impassive.
"Something happened. Heartseed is back. He's running his damnable tests again."
Silence.
"I just, well, ran out from my, uh, wedding, as you can see.. and from my father.."
Silence.
Inaba grew more nervous under her cryptic gaze. "Look, I am really sorry. I know I messed you up, that I hurt you.. I am so sorry. I really am. Normally I would never come here like this, but it's Heartseed again. I need to talk to someone who understands. Nobody else does."
Silence.
She got frustrated. "Look Iori, if he's skulking around again then that means he's after you too. You are in just as much danger as I am!"
More silence.
The silence was beginning to unnerve Inaba. "C'mon, Iori! You know that this is exactly how he operates. He divides us! Sets us against each other! It's happening again!"
Silence.
"Iori, please.."
She then closed the door in Inaba's face.
Inaba just stood there in the rain. She was lost and utterly alone. Several minutes passed.
She turned around to go. She knew she would have to walk the five blocks to her father's house. She began think of the proper words to say to her father in apology for her disgraceful actions.
Then she froze. Her heart turned to ice. It was because she saw the figure that was standing on the sidewalk next to the front gate. He was holding an umbrella, watching her with dead eyes.
It was Heartseed.
A/N:
Kokoro Connect has a decent English dub and I recommend it. In the US, the dub can be streamed legally on The Anime Network (subscription required). David Matranga does a great job as Heartseed, and Greg Ayers' Taichi is spot on. During the body swapping arc the English voice actors do a far better job of imitating the other characters' cadences and vocal mannerisms than the Japanese VAs.
