Hopefully after my last chapter there are still people wanting to read this. I will be posting one chapter per day now, sorry if I flood anyone's e-mail with a whole bunch of stuff they didn't want to see. As a reminder as well, if you didn't see that I posted two chapters yesterday, you should go back and read Shinobu Monogatari 6. Things will make more sense in Shinobu's story if it is read before this chapter.

Cheers!

/GG/

Betsu No Ai oKeiken Suru Monogatari

Shinjitsu no Monogatari 1

(2011)

Whoever came up with the phrase, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get" definitely knew what they were talking about. Especially if that box included things like insects covered in chocolate. In the case of a box of chocolates that have such a variety of fillings, a person can get lucky and end up with something they like, or they can end up with something that makes him or her cringe.

Life may look pretty and delicious from the outside but on the inside can look and taste horrible. Each person has different expectations to life and may react differently. It's when a person receives that chocolate that really is horrible looking on the inside, but realizes he or she isn't seeing it as he or she should, that things start to get interesting.

Shinobu

The young terrorist had been waiting outside of Miyagi's apartment since six before the old man left the building. He watched as Miyagi got into his car and drove off; Shinobu followed in his father's sports car. This was a matter of sanity; Shinobu needed to know what Miyagi was doing on this day every year. It was at this place he was sure he was going to get the answers he so rightly deserved and wanted.

Miyagi may not have been able to tell him where these memories were coming from, but at least there was one thing that was certain: Shinobu had NOT been abducted by aliens. That thought just happened to be the first one to pop into his head when all this crap started happening to him. He was not going to fall for all that garbage involving aliens abducting people and the like. If anything the aliens had kept him on Earth and were playing with his brain using radio signals or something.

Shinobu continued following Miyagi out of the city limits and then even further down the road. He wasn't expecting to be on a drive for this long and he hoped there was enough gas in the car. The whole trip the thoughts in his mind were Miyagi that and Miyagi this. How could anyone function with only one thought on his or her mind? Oh, right, they couldn't function, which was why Shinobu was in the process of stalking the older man across half of Japan.

Finally they stopped somewhere and Shinobu was afraid he'd end up peeing himself. How the older man (didn't all older men have weaker bladders) didn't have to pee during the drive was beyond him. Then again, Shinobu wouldn't have been able to leave the car for fear of Miyagi seeing him or losing him. He was going to have to hold it as long as he could.

Nowaki

On days like that day Nowaki would have been up at the crack of dawn. After being caught in a torrential downpour the prior night he'd decided to stay in till the sun was up at least. At seven in the am he was woken by a few of the children from the center who had all but adopted him and decided he was their new papa. He couldn't have been happier knowing he was making the lives of these children happy. He vaguely recalled having children of his own somewhere, but they were not important, right? Nothing in his life seemed important anymore.

Anyway, he got up and went to the table where his mom was doling out food for the other orphans in the center. He'd be able to eat with them before heading to the bench in the park. His days were spent in that park just waiting. What he was waiting for he didn't quite know, but he knew he needed to be there in order to wait or it was all for nothing.

After finishing breakfast and promising to help people with their homework after supper that night, Nowaki headed out to his place of peace. His heart jolted every step closer to that bench. With each jolt it was like he was being revived with a defibrillator. Each jolt was accompanied by a pang in his chest that felt like it was calling out to someone. It was like a string had been attached to his heart and to that of the man he was waiting for. Only when they were brought back together would everything be alright.

Misaki

The waiting area in the hospital was a madhouse. Misaki was there to see about his child, but his head just wasn't in it. Less than five hours prior Usagi-san had died in his embrace. The first person he had ever confessed to had left him on the planet by himself. Thoughts of suicide entered the youth's head, but then he recalled a conversation with Usagi-san the week prior in which the man had told him to be a good father to his child since Usami's father hadn't.

Now that the man was dead, Misaki wanted to do what he could to follow the man's wishes. Even if that meant living out the rest of his life as the guardian of a child whom he would call Akihiko; whether it was a boy or a girl. In truth the boy thought there was nothing left for him in existence. Only a feeling in his heart was keeping him coherent, and the coffee Kamijou had given him before he disappeared somewhere.

Misaki took a gulp of the drink and looked at the doorways in front of him. One lead to the upper levels where Kimiko was busy pushing out the kid. The other door lead to the basement where the morgue was. He wondered if Usagi-san's body had been brought in to this hospital and was in the basement waiting to be tagged and catalogued. It hit Misaki that he had no idea what happened to the bodies after they died. With the older man having AIDS it was probably better if he was cremated rather than put somewhere else where he could infect other people. Then again, Misaki also didn't know if the man could have infected other people after death.

So lost in thought was the boy that he didn't hear the doctor walking down the hallway toward him. He didn't even feel the man stop next to him or hear him clear his throat. The only reason he knew that anyone was there at all was because someone from behind whispered in his ear.

She's here, Misaki!

Shinobu

The walk couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes. During that time Shinobu had realized they were walking through a very posh cemetery. The grounds had been well maintained, and there were pictures of some of the inhabitants on the gravestones. What a way to call dead people, inhabitants.

He followed stealthily behind Miyagi at a distance of about twenty-five meters. This was far enough away to not be noticed, but near enough to keep an eye on the guy. Shinobu figured early on, after seeing the first grave marker that the man was going to see the long-gone sensei his sister had told him about. While he was interested in seeing sensei, he also dreaded it as well.

Shinobu watched as Miyagi went down on his knees next to a humble looking marker and placed some flowers and a picture on the stone. Silently he crept forward and knelt down in the bushes. He wanted to listen to what Miyagi might say. After the man started talking though he wished he hadn't.

"Sensei, it's been twenty long years without you." The old man started. "I've been working at the university, which you already knew, but something's been missing. I know you said to find someone to love and not hold onto you. It hasn't been easy though sensei."

Shinobu listened intently and could hear the inflections in Miyagi's voice, indicating this was a difficult conversation to have.

"I tried to move on. I dated other women and I even got married. I was so sure she was the one because when I was in the meeting room all those years ago with her family I could feel this presence, like the presence of my soul."

The boy in the bushes just about coughed when he heard this.

"But sensei, if it wasn't Risako then who was it? I did what I could to find this one person I know I am supposed to be with, but I could never find anyone who made me feel like you did. And then when I got married I did feel that person again. I felt that person in the ceremony hall with me, so I thought it had to have been her. It wasn't…"

Shinobu watched as Miyagi started to cry.

"I think it was her baby brother, though I wouldn't have admitted it then. He was there in both places. When he was in Australia I didn't feel that force anymore sensei. Now that he's back I feel that force again, but I don't know how to proceed. How am I supposed to tell this boy, who is seventeen years my junior, that I think we belong together, that it is destiny?"

Said boy started to cry right along with Miyagi.

"I don't know how to deal with these feelings sensei. I want to reach over and tell him that I love him, but I can't seem to find the words. I am afraid of scaring him."

Shinobu couldn't stand it anymore and stood up with a start. Miyagi looked over and the two locked eyes.

Nowaki

The park had been rather quiet most of the morning. Nowaki hadn't left the bench at all in those hours. He was perfectly content to sit there and watch the changes in the wind and the few people who meandered in his direction. None of them were the one he wanted to see though, so he paid them no real mind.

Red eyes were the only thing he could see. Not bright red mind you, but more like a reddish-brown, similar to the color in some bricks. He was drawn to those eyes like they were the only thing in the world. He could recall the intensity of the man who had said eyes, the tone of his voice. It had been over a year since he last saw the man, but he never once forgot about him.

That was how it was going to stay until he ran into the man again. On the bench. In the park. He would meet that man on the bench in the park if it was the last thing he ever did in his life. Their future depended upon it.

It was all Nowaki could do to remain coherent at times. His eyes got droopy and he felt tired quite a bit. He wondered if this was how depression felt. Depression was something he'd worked with at his job in the hospital…wait…not the hospital, but when he worked as a social worker. He had never worked at a hospital.

But…did he?

"It certainly took you long enough, Nowaki."

He recognized that voice. It was that voice he'd been longing to hear for months. The one in his head. Nowaki turned his head toward the source and locked eyes with the owner.

Misaki

After being told to wait a little bit longer to see his daughter, Misaki had been given permission to enter the nursery. He was in the process of putting on a hospital gown to keep infection down and he complied since he didn't want baby Akihiko to get sick right away. In his head he was a bundle of nerves waiting to explode.

Behind the door was a person who was going to spend the rest of her childhood and possible parts of her adult life relying on him. He was now no longer alone in the world, but had a daughter to take care of. He vaguely wondered why the child was a girl, but then realized it was probably for the best. The little girl would learn to love her daddy and she would always be protected.

Misaki was led into the room by a nurse practitioner and his daughter was pointed out. She was swaddled in a pink blanket and there was a purple hat on her head. He couldn't see her face well because she was turned toward the side.

The new father didn't even wait to be told it was okay to pick the child up. Misaki walked right over and scooped the baby up like had learned when Mahiro was born. This little bundle was his baby Akihiko Takahashi, named for the famous author who had died on the day she was born.

"I'm going to nickname you Usagi-chan." He said softly to her.

At the mention of her name she opened her eyes and he almost dropped her. He could feel his heart almost beating through his chest. Misaki wasn't looking at the eyes of a baby, he was looking at the eyes of the writer.

"Usagi-sa…?"

/GG/

Author's note.

The term in the opening was used in Forrest Gump the movie. I am unsure if the quote appears in the book.

The title of this chapter translates to, "The Story of the Truth".