Hilo! I am so surprised I finished this so fast. I decided to write the next chapter on a whim and completed it in only two hours. I swear, it's like a record for me. I'm kind of hoping, this win invoke a bit of emotion, but I know there are some out there who are tired of the sad story… oh well, too bad. I'm playing that card.

"There's a strange sort of quiet when you're dying. It's as if you're in a glass room, ad the walls keep getting thicker and thicker." - Gabrielle Zevin

As soon as we heard him drive away, the twins lunged at me, wanting the card that I had planned on ripping up. "You can have it!" I yelled, throwing the card to them. I didn't know what was going on, but it had to be at least somewhat important if the twins were that impatient. Of course, then again, they were always a little impatient, but this seemed different, as if they were actually eager.

"'Iemochi Washi,'" the twins read aloud. "Who the hell is that?"

"He seemed to know you though," Haruhi stated curiously. I was getting a little curious also, despite not liking the sarcastic bastard, but still grateful for the change of clothes and rescuing me, even though I don't remember that part.

Kyoya had brought out his laptop and looked him up the second the name was announced. "He's a photographer for sports' articles for several different newspapers."

"Eh?" The twins uttered, confused. "We wouldn't know anyone from there."

"Interesting," Kyoya said, narrowing his eyes at the screen before tapping at his keyboard. After a minute for a report, he came back with, "His past has been erased. As far as I can tell, this 'Washi Iemochi' doesn't even have a home address."

Now I was thoroughly confused. "But I just came from his apartment. How can that be?"

The twins, Kyoya, and the idiot thought. "Oh!" The idiot sprang from the kotatsu in excitement. "Maybe he's a spy-!"

"No," Kyoya interrupted. "He seems like an intelligent person, he wouldn't just blow his cover talking to Kaoru and Hikaru."

The idiot sank back before popping back up with a new bizarre theory. "Maybe someone's out to get him so he had to change his identity!"

Kyoya, again, shot him down. "They would have at least invented his past instead of leaving it blank, in addition, he wouldn't blow his cover."

After the idiot sat back down we all stared at Hikaru and Kaoru who were mumbling to each other. A minute later, there was a spark in their eyes, and they rested one fist in the other open hand. "Nyoko Eishi," they said together.

"Where'd you come up with that?" I asked.

"He's the only person who called us 'Hitachiin-sou since he said he didn't want to bother deciphering which one of us was Kaoru or Hikaru."

Yeah, that sounds like him, I thought. "Does that mean he really did take photos of models?"

"Yeah, he even married one of them, but then he disappeared all of a sudden a few years ago."

Kyoya came back with real answers-or, more or less, his history. "Nyoko Eishi. His mother died of an illness when he was three, so lived with his father, Nyoko Abe, a professional photographer for the modeling industry. He died of cancer twelve years ago, which was when Eishi dropped out of school to pursue photography while also working as a waiter. He found a job with the Hitachiin clothing line, photographing the models, which is where he met his wife, formerly known as Jukodo Yuya. They had a small wedding ten years ago and had a son, Nyoko Senzo, a year later." Kyoya's voice diminished while reading.

"What is it?" Tamaki asked, concerned. We were waiting for whatever piece of information Kyoya was about to reveal to us.

He pushed up his glasses before he looked at us, but I felt he was focusing more on me. "Five years ago, he, his wife and son, were found in their home, stabbed. Only he survived."

There was a pang in my chest. In the car, it seemed as if his wife and son were a touchy subject, so I had assumed that divorce was involved. I hadn't expected him to have gone through all of that.

"The assailant was found dead-she was shoved out of the window from the second floor. According to the police reports, Eishi said-after waking up from the head wound and the shallow stab to the lower abdomen-that one of the models was simply jealous and had assumed that he was being biased. When she was about to stab him again, he grabbed her wrist and just shoved her away from him, not really thinking about where he was pushing her. He was called on self-defense so there wasn't a trial. A quarter of a year later, he left without a trace for over a month and then sold his home with much of the items that were in it. That's when 'Iemochi Washi' started appearing as his main alias. He has at least ten more aliases for other magazines and newspapers."

"The fact that you got that drunk when you had to walk home in the snow and, to top it all off, while you had a daughter waiting at home. That is what irks me. That is what I don't like about you." His words and the fierce hatred in his eyes bit back at me inside my head. I looked at Haruhi and wondered if I would be like him if I had lost her too; bitter, easily angered, wanting nothing more but to be left alone, but I wouldn't know-thank god I didn't know what it was like. I could only imagine the kind of hell he's been going through these past five years. It made me think of Kotoko, and how I acted right after she had passed. He must have felt at least ten times worse then that.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," the twins said, with a touch of solemn in their voices.

"Mom was frantic when he hadn't shown up after a couple of weeks," one of them said.

"We thought he had just jumped off of a bridge or something," the other continued.

"Mom hadn't told us what had actually happened to Yuya or Senzo," they both finished. They were young, so of course what they were told was heavily sugar-coated.

"Thank you for the information," I said, not loudly, but they had heard me. "I think it's time you all go home."

Strange as it was, they agreed without whining or groaning. They could always see Haruhi at school the next day anyway. I guessed that solemn moments like that just made more awkward silences.

Haruhi looked back at me with an almost worried expression, and asked, "What's wrong Dad?"

I gave her a smile, no matter how weak it was, and hugged her tight. She could struggle and say all the mean things she wanted, but I wouldn't let go for at least a while. After a couple of minutes she gave up and just stayed still.

"It's okay Dad," she whispered. It was almost as if she had known what I had been thinking. To be honest, my mind was so jumbled that not even a psychic would be able to discern from one topic to another. I couldn't even tell if I was thinking words. When I let her go, much to her relief I bet, she said that she would get started on dinner.

I looked down at my lap and realized I still had his (wife's) clothes. He had kept her clothes, make-up, his ring, photos, and probably as much as he could fit in a room. It was clear to me that he hadn't moved on after all the time that had passed. I felt sad, like the first anniversary of Kotoko's passing. It had been ten years since she died, and I knew I had moved on enough to actually start seeing other people (men), but what was I like after only five years? I couldn't remember. My only focus was seeing that Haruhi was safe, and happy, but it seemed like she had been doing the same for me. I remembered several instances where Haruhi had sacrificed special events at school just so I could rest so I wouldn't get sick. It must have felt like she didn't have a mom or a dad at times. A bit of regret started filling my chest, like I was beginning to drown.

I decided to wash off the make-up, change into my 'manly' clothes, and pray to Kotoko for a while. Maybe she would give me advice in my dreams.

Hilo again! Well, I hope you enjoyed. If not, hopefully the next chapter will be better.

"When you lose someone you love, you die too, and you wait around for your body to catch up." - John Scalzi