Ryousuke didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be in the same place his little brother had last been in. He didn't want to remember how he'd been rather distant and cold to Haruichi, letting petty jealousy get in the way of cheering on the younger Kominato.
Youichi stood by his side, even though he wasn't meant to be there. The younger man had refused to let him go without him. Ryousuke was grateful. He hadn't been back to Seidou since the day he'd learned his brother was missing all those years ago.
He hadn't planned on coming back, but the others had convinced him to go for at least an hour. Talk to their old classmates, and just show his face. Then he could leave again. Glancing at his watch, he stifled a groan when he saw they'd only been there for ten minutes. Already, numerous of his classmates had told him how sorry they were about his brother.
He didn't want to hear it. Not again. He'd been hearing the same thing for years. Every time someone found out about his brother, they apologized and avoided any topics about family around him. It was annoying. Each time they brought it up, or apologized, it just reminded him of how he'd failed as a big brother.
Youichi put a hand on his shoulder, quietly asking if he was alright. "I'll be fine," He answered softly. In truth, he was far from fine. His hatred for the person who'd taken his little brother from him had never quelled, and stilled burned hot and tight deep in his stomach. The police had closed the case, but Tetsu, Jun, and Youichi – all three of which had chosen to forego baseball careers and instead became officers themselves – always kept looking.
They refused to give up, and while Ryousuke was grateful to them, it was also painful. There was no news, and after all this time no leads. His parents had sold their old house, unable to live there any longer, and had moved to a small apartment in Tokyo with Ryousuke. None of them had wanted to be too far from each other.
Apart from Youichi, Tanba had been the only regular from his year able to make it, and he'd been and gone already. Tetsu and Jun had gotten tied up with a case they were working, and had promised to drop by his house later if they were able. He hadn't heard from the others.
Ryousuke glanced at his watch again. Only five minutes had passed. Setting his drink on one of the tables that had been set up, he nudged his old partner. "Let's go." Youichi didn't argue and simply followed him towards the door. As they headed through the halls, a young woman stopped them.
"You probably don't remember me," she said with a nervous smile. "I was in…I was two years below you." Ryousuke's mood dampened further. She'd been in Haruichi's class. "I know you don't want to hear it, but I really am sorry about what happened to your brother. He was always kind to me." She swallowed and looked down. "I know it's not the same, but I think I know how you feel. See, I used to be really close to my uncle, and he also took his life when I was little. It's hard, and I never thought Kominato-kun would-"
"Haruichi did not kill himself," Ryousuke interrupted, anger stirring in his gut. The woman before him seemed shocked by that.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't…my family moved before it happened. All I'd been told was that…I'm sorry."
Before he could say anything else, Youichi asked, "What was your name?"
"Amatsu Kuni."
"Amatsu-san, why did you think he killed himself?"
The woman frowned. "You didn't know?"
"Know what?" Ryousuke growled. The girl flinched.
"I…during our second year, before my family moved, I was in a different class than Kominato-kun. Everyone else in the grade knew that when it was his turn to clean the room the others who were supposed to help left. Kominato-kun was too nice to say anything. Some of the third years found out, and made it a habit to stand outside the room while he was cleaning and say mean things about him. I tried to bring it up to the principal, and even recorded them doing it, but they were just told not to do it again and let go without any sort of punishment. We moved soon afterwards, but I'm sure they never stopped."
"And you didn't try to stop it?" Ryousuke demanded, angry with what he'd just heard. Why hadn't Haruichi said anything? His gut twisted as he remembered the last time he'd spoken to his brother. Maybe he had. Maybe Ryousuke just hadn't listened.
"Of course I did! But when I got involved, their words got worse. And nobody else was willing to do anything!"
Youichi raised his hands in a calming gesture between the two. "Do you remember what they said?" He asked.
Kuni shook her head. "Only bits and pieces. Sometimes they were saying things like how he only got on the team because of his looks and favors he'd give the coach and other players. Other times it was how he wasn't needed on the team, or things like how the other players actually hated him. I think they were just jealous, and sadly Kominato-kun was normally alone, so an easy target for them."
Ryousuke was ready to murder whoever had filled Haruichi's head with those lies. He wanted to demand their names, faces, anything, but Youichi quickly thanked the woman for telling them and pushed the shorter male away. He stayed quiet until they reached the front gates.
"I ignored him Youi-chan," Ryousuke said softly, feeling worse than he had in a long time. "He tried to call me and I ignored him."
"We all did Ryou-san. I promised to look after him, but I was too busy thinking of ways to get rid of the coach. I didn't notice anything."
"He tried to tell me, and I just hung up on him."
Youichi put his hands on the pink haired male's shoulders and stared at him seriously. "This is not your fault. This is the fault of those bastards who said those things, and of the piece of shit who took him. You know this Ryousuke."
The thirty year old felt his shoulders slump and rested his head against his old partner's chest. All the pain of losing his baby brother was coming back again. The taller male didn't say anything and just held his friend.
"They what?" Eijun yelled, jumping to his feet and gripping the edge of the table so hard his knuckles were white.
Youichi had called the rest of the regulars from back then and arranged a little get together with them. Ryousuke was the only one missing. He'd just finished explaining what he'd learned the night of the reunion. Other than Eijun's yelling, the others were glaring at the ground or walls around them.
"Why didn't he say anything?" Eijun asked softly, falling back into his chair. His eyes were moist as he looked around at the others. "Why didn't Harucchi tell us? I thought we were friends."
"What those bastards said probably got to him," Miyuki said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And with how much time and effort we were putting into the coach thing, he probably even started thinking it was true. Think about if from his perspective. He hears these shitheads saying how we didn't like him. We don't spend much time with him and left him out of our plans, probably making it seem like we didn't care."
"He probably saw it as us hanging out and not wanting him around," Youichi added. "We weren't exactly secretive about meeting, and I know I turned down his offer for video games a few times to focus on our 'mission'."
"It didn't help that the asshole coach kept telling him what he was doing wrong or was too weak to use his wooden bat," Miyuki said. "Never had anything good to say, and was harsh in how he criticized you. Thank god we finally got rid of him."
Jun folded his arms and grunted, "It all just kept piling up without anyone realizing. What I want to know is, why did he leave? Where was he going? And why did he have his bat with him?"
The rest fell silent. Those had been questions they'd been asking since Haruichi had disappeared. The police had asked around and eventually gotten footage of the small teen getting onto a train, and off again someplace in the city, but after that there was nothing. It was as though he'd just vanished. Nobody had been able to figure out why he'd taken his bat with him, let alone why he'd left.
The police had speculated about a fight, but that idea was quickly shut down. Haruichi wasn't the type of person to get into fights, let alone go out looking for one. There was no other explanation for why he would bring a perfectly good bat with him into the city though. It had stumped everyone then, and continued to stump them today.
"With what we just learned," Miyuki said, "I'm starting to think that maybe it was a fight. Maybe he finally snapped and decided to hurt those bastards who were talking shit. Things could have gotten bad."
Youichi shook his head. "Amatsu-san was able to point them out in an old yearbook, and I looked into them. They got into some trouble back in their hometown a few days before everything happened. They were put under house arrest the entire break."
The twenty nine year old shrugged. "Doesn't mean he couldn't have snapped and needed to vent some anger. Or maybe, crazy idea, he went to the batting cages in the city. He couldn't use the ones at Seidou, since the equipment was all locked up for the break."
"Only one problem," Tetsu said, "The cameras had him headed in the opposite direction of the batting cages."
Eijun sighed. "I don't think Harucchi would have gotten in a fight, but if he did, what if the person he was fighting with got their blood on the bat too?" The rest of the old regulars stared at him in shock, causing the star pitcher to huff. "What?"
"That's…" Jun started, scratching his head, "Actually not a bad idea. Did they ever check to see if it was all his blood on it?"
Youichi thought back to the case files he'd finally gotten after having annoyed his chief by asking for two years after he'd joined. By then, the detective who'd headed the case had retired. "I don't remember seeing any blood analysis with the other reports. When I asked about it, the chief just said there was a filing mishap during that time and lots of the reports were screwed up or missing documents."
Tetsu nodded and looked at the younger officer. "Kuramochi, we're going to need more blood samples."
Clenching his teeth, the old short stop lowered his head. "You know how he'll react if this doesn't show anything," He whispered. He didn't need to specify who.
"It's the only lead we've gotten in years," Jun growled. "Everybody knows that." He lowered his voice. "Even if it's a long shot, we need to try. Ryou won't let this go until we find something."
Youichi sighed and nodded. "I'll ask him tomorrow."
"Are you sure this is right?" Youichi demanded, trapping the nervous lab assistant in a corner.
"Y-Yes. That's what the sample shows. Is…is there a problem?"
Youichi didn't answer and slammed his fist into the wall, his other hand crumpling the papers he'd been given. "Yes. A big problem." Storming out of the lab, he quickly dialed Jun's number, knowing he'd be able to tell Tetsu and have them help him look into what was going on.
"Yes?" Was the gruff answer he received.
"That motherfucker lied to us."
"Kuramochi? What?"
"The god damned motherfucker fucking lied to our faces!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Youichi waved the papers he was holding in his hand angrily. "It wasn't his."
"I swear if you don't start making sense I will-"
"The blood Jun-san. It wasn't his." Hearing the silence on the line, he took a deep breath and let it out. "I got the results from the lab on the blood from Haruichi's bat. None of it was his. None."
"I'll meet you at Ryou's tonight." Youichi listened to the dial tone before he called Miyuki. The glasses wearing male would get the others.
"You're sure?" Ryousuke asked again, his hands shaking in his lap.
Youichi nodded and gestured to the papers on the table. "It's not his Ryou-san. It never was."
"Then who's was it?" Eijun demanded, anger shimmering in his eyes.
"I ran it through the database, but there's no match. We don't know whose it was." The twenty nine year old ran his fingers through his hair. "I went to ask the fucking head detective who lied to us, only to find out the bastard died a few months after he suddenly retired. When I brought it up to the chief, he swore he didn't know. Said he'd been working on another case at the same time and had left it all to the detective."
Tetsu scowled. "Whoever took Kominato-kun probably paid him off."
"Where is he?" Ryousuke whispered, his head bowed. "Where's Haruichi?" He looked up and stared at his old partner. "If the blood wasn't his, he could still be alive. Where's my little brother?"
Here's the longest chapter. So, they're realizing they haven't been told the whole truth. Ryousuke's hoping his little brother is still alive. Sadly, the still have no idea what happened or anything. Let me know what you thought!
