Author note: alright, first, there won't probably be an update until next week, as I'm going to Luxemburg on Saturday and I won't come back to Spain until Monday night.
Second, CHECK OUT THE TVTROPES ARTICLE -and contribute to it- WOOOOO!
And third I was thinking of making a cover picture for this fic. One more fitting than the previous one. Got any ideas? :o
The Fools decided to name the couch their bed when they arrived at the dorm at dawn, after a tiring night roaming the streets of Iwatodai.
"Stop licking my ear… I'm not in the mood…" Minato grumbled in a low voice.
"I'm not licking you…" Hamuko mumbled back. "So stop nuzzling my hand…"
"I'm not nuzzling your hand…"
"Woof, woof!"
"…I think I like it better when you purr, Hamuko…"
"I'm not the one barking…" The brunette yawned.
"Woof!" The barking became louder and louder, but the teens were determined to ignore it… until something bit Hamuko's cut and sewn and dragged her to the ground.
"Aw what the-?" Before she could finish her phrase, a gray furry thing began licking her face. Hamuko stared at it until her vision became clearer. It was a gray dog with a yellow suit with cute angel wings on its back. A smile formed immediately in her face. "KORO-CHAN!" She hugged the dog with all her strength. "YAAAAAY! You're fine!" She laughed while the dog wagged its tail happily. "Hey, Minato, look at this! We have a new dorm mate!" As she pronounced these words, her expression darkened considerably.
"Good morning to both of you…" Minato got up from the couch and smiled sadly at her. He petted Koromaru's head while the dog gave him a confused look.
Hamuko got up from the ground and followed him to his room with Koromaru by their side. "You haven't packed anything, right? I'll… I'll help you."
"That won't be necessary…" The boy opened his wardrobe and began putting all his clothes on the bed in an orderly fashion. "I'm used to this…" He sighed. "I still have to tell S.E.E.S. about this… inform Gekkoukan… do so many things in such a short time…"
"Sorry for making you stay up so late… I'll… I'll handle talking with everyone later, okay? They… probably wouldn't let you leave if you told them…" She looked at Koromaru. "Something tells me that that meeting we missed yesterday had to do with him… We missed your last meeting…"
"Allow me to remind you that you are encouraging me to-" Minato received a strong hug as an answer. "Ssh, it's okay… I mean, this isn't the last time we'll speak… We can call each other, right?"
"I-I'll call you everyday and tell you who we're doing with the Shadows and how school is going and… and how Aigis is growing up!"
"Aigis, huh…? How are you going to tell her this?"
"I'll… I'll tell her that you're just leaving the house, because you now have another family… but you still love us the same… and… and it's not her fault and…"
"She's not a little girl, she's a twelve years old robot. She'll get over it, don't worry."
"Y-yeah… That's.. right, isn't it…? Of course…" She sobbed. "Don't leave! You told me you wouldn't leave me alone!"
"Hamuko, you want me to leave." Minato sighed. "Make up your mind."
"I… know! You hafta go with your family, man! And if you don't I'm gonna kick your ass until you can't ever sit down again! B-but…" The brunette wailed.
"You could try to make sense… for once… Ah, fuck it." Minato pressed her closer to himself. "This is probably the cheesiest phrase I could ever say, and the stupidest, since all the feelings come from the brain, but… you're not alone. We'll always be together. I'll be always thinking of you, because you'll always be in my heart." He placed a hand on the base of her neck. "And I hope I'll be in yours."
"Y-yeah…" She hiccuped a bit as the tears stopped leaking down her eyes. "But watch that hand, you… "
"Woof, woof!" Oh, wait, Koro…
The bluenet laughed a bit as he pulled away from Hamuko. "Look after her, alright?"
"Woof!"
"Hey, I'm the one who has to look after him, not the other way around!"
The hours went by quickly, mostly occupied by packing up, dealing with doubts, rescuing a cool red pen from Koromaru's suit and hiding from other dorm members. Sometimes at the same time. They finished at half past two, and before they noticed, it was a quarter to three, so Minato had to run to the station alongside Hamuko.
"Alright! Where are your relatives? I wanna meet them!" Hamuko looked around excitedly.
"…There they are."
"Where—Oh my…" She watched breathlessly as Minato walked towards Johei and Naoto. "Don't tell me you… and them…"
"So you chose to come with us, huh?" Johei stared down at the bluenet.
"Indeed." Minato nodded and then hung his head low.
"I see." There was some disapproval in his voice. "Go say bye to your friend. We'll depart soon."
Minato walked towards the brunette. A half smile decorated her face. "Yanno if this wasn't so sad, I'd..."
"…Be squealing because you've been with the Junior Detective's brother all along without knowing it?"
"Well I was going to say that I saw Raidou Kuzunoha in person, but yeah…" An awkward silence took over.
"This might be the last time we see each other…" Minato stepped closer to her. "…You don't have anything for me?"
"…You can't expect me to kiss you or something and then let you leave, can you?"
"…Of course not." He wrapped his arms around her and shortened the distance, planting a kiss on her forehead. "I did bring something for you, though." He reached into his pocket and brought out two carefully folded papers. "This one is for you."
"Huh? What is this?"
"I don't know. Naoto told me not to open them until she left. Maybe it's important, or maybe it's just an autograph." They exchanged troubled glances. "Do you think this will be a goodbye?"
"Just a… call you later?" She tried to smile as convincingly as possible. "Well ah… Make a lot of friends, have fun and don't get in trouble, okay?"
"Will do…"
Minato never though that he'd ever care about leaving a city. He never thought he'd be bothered by seeing someone watch the train leave, either…
"Take care!" Hamuko yelled. "Come visit some day!" She waved her hand in the air as the train disappeared in the distance. She stood there a few seconds until she came to terms with the fact that Minato's train wasn't suddenly going to come back. "Well… he's gone… Minato is gone…" The brunette walked out of the station with a straight face, but by the time she had arrived to the dorm the tears just wouldn't stop. Funny, she had said bye to loads of people through her life, but none had managed to affect her so much. Ah, probably it was one of those stupid aftereffects of love… In any case, she couldn't just go back home and tell everybody what happened in that state; Naganaki Shrine was the place she chose to cry her heart out. She sobbed inconsolably, not quite sure why, while a familiar sick-looking boy did her best to ignore her, quite fruitlessly.
"You're disturbing my peace." He sighed. "What could ever make you do that?"
"I'm… I'm sorry… Err… you see… the boy I love… left."
"You mean he died?" The boy with beige hair asked quite coldly.
"Oh, no! He just left the city…"
"Then you have absolutely no reason to disturb me." He folded his skinny arms over his chest. "I'd write about this unfruitful encounter in my journal, if I had my red fountain pen…"
"I'm not very sure about the meaning of what you just said, but… I have a pen if you want it." Hamuko reached into a pocket in the side of her cut and sewn and took the pen she'd found on Koromaru's suit that morning.
"My pen!" The boy seemed delighted. "…Maybe… this wasn't such a meaningless talk after all… My name is…" He coughed. "Akinari Kamiki."
"I'm Hamuko Seikatsu." A tiny smile appeared on her face. "You… You're that Striped Shirt, aren't you…?"
"Yeah...? Oh, I remember you." Akinari's eyes lit up. "You're the girl who was playing with that elementary school girl. And I guess the guy was the one leaving…?" He didn't wait for an answer. "It's been a while since I last saw Maiko-chan. She was very... bright. Her face shone with the warm light of new life."
"Yeah…" A fast thought crossed her mind: what if Maiko had gone ahead with her idea to leave…?
"...And then there's me, cooped up in here, struggling to breathe. Compared to her light, I'm but a vanishing shadow. Misery is a harsh mistress."
"Are you sad as well, Akinari-san?"
"Sad? I feel as though I'm lying in an unyielding darkness." He frowned. "...Can you understand how I feel?"
"A… bit?" Hamuko knit her eyebrows together as the sick boy's expression turned into an angry one.
"No, you don't have any idea! No one does! You don't know the first thing about what I'm going through!" After raising his voice, he wheezed. Hamuko only stared at him, shocked, until he got his voice back. "Any day now... I'm going to die. I have a genetic disease without any known cure. Unless you're in my situation, you can't understand what it's like. You have no right to compare your little love problems to that." He released a tired sigh. "...But I prefer that no one can relate to it. I wouldn't wish this on anyone."
"Can I… do anything for you? Anything to help?"
"There isn't anything you can do to slow this down or make things better."
A dense silence took over. Hamuko felt like an immature child, being scolded for her recklessness, comparing dying to losing a friend? What was she thinking about? …She really didn't know how to talk to a dying person as she knew perfectly that pity was rather offensive most of the time…
"Sorry about that." Akinari spoke suddenly. "I didn't mean to make things worse… I didn't mean to depress you more…" He ran a hand through his whitening hair. "I haven't spoken to someone my own age in a long time. ...It's natural for those in darkness to yearn for the world of light, even though they cannot understand it."
"No, you didn't depress me… You actually… gave me a lot of perspective, yanno…? I… Thank you… Thanks a lot for speaking to me…" She gave him a warm grin.
Akinari seemed surprised by this, but he gave her a pleased smile of his own. "I'm glad we could meet... If there's a god, I'll be able to thank him soon enough..." The familiar Social Link voices and a card informed Hamuko that she had just formed the Sun Social Link.
"Thanks a lot for the talk, but I still hafta go tell my friends about what happened… I'll… come back again."
"I would rather you did not. You only live once, right? So why waste your life among the dying? …Goodbye."
Hamuko wasn't happy when she left the shrine, that was for sure, but she wasn't so sad either. Hearing about others being in worse situations always made her feel better, as much as she despised that. She walked back to the dorm and sat down on the stairs, thinking about what she'd say. "'Hey, Minato left to reunite with his long lost family?' No… 'Hey, it's not that Minato has abandoned us, and it's not like it was totally my fault!' Ugh…" She ran a hair through her auburn hair. Just then, she heard something falling to the ground –it was a little paper. Apparently, she had been clenching it all along…
"She who desires
My brother's heart, are you not?
I wager a week.
-Shirogane, Naoto."
"…"
The days went by extremely slowly in the cramming sessions at school which Mitsuru had organized for them –and apparently, only remembered to communicate on Sunday when the Fools weren't present. "He's gone on a trip with some friends!" had been the excuse Hamuko gave everyone when they asked about Minato's absence –she practiced saying that phrase once and again until she sounded convincing enough. She should have just told them the truth, but… she accepted the Junior Detective's cryptic bet. The first night she called Minato and asked how the famous Shirogane Estate was, his answer made her laugh hysterically: "This place is WEIRD."
Minato was positively disappointed. He knew Johei was an extremely cold and sensible man from what he'd seen the previous day –and when Minato said someone was cold, it meant he had ice in his veins- but he'd sincerely never expected him to do what he did: he introduced him to Naoto as his new pupil. "I cannot let her know you are her brother just yet." Johei explained. "It would not benefit either of us if she found out that I have been lying to her all along." He went with it, only being able to ask himself if he really was such a manipulative bastard as well. To make things worse, Johei refused to tell him his given name, for he was just as good with his current one.
"They also have food at specific hours… And Naoto doesn't go to school because she's being taught by Johei himself, so she still has classes; he said he'll give me some lessons too!" Minato whined, despite the fact that he was genuinely eager to be receiving lessons from one of the greatest detectives in history.
Johei, seeing that the boy seemed much more focused on the mobile phone than on his teachings about deduction, decided to confiscate it 'for the good of your education'…
The slow summer days went by with no trace of a call by Minato. "Two days and he already forgot me, huh…?" She tried not to give up her hopes of hearing from him, but after the long sessions with Edogawa, she only looked forward receiving calls which never arrived. And so the flame of their love began extinguishing slowly, day after day… and with every day which passed, Hamuko felt more and more alone, still thriving for proof that Minato was out there, thinking of her as he promised. She also tried to call, once and again, and again, and again… to no avail…
"Johei-san, please, I really have to call her!" Minato demanded the old detective, while Naoto only watched the scene with a somewhat troubled expression. "She must be getting worried!"
"She is a grown up who can most likely wait for your call until you learn some manners."
"No, you don't know her!"
"Minato-kun, cease your stupid behaviour, you are not that indispensable to anyone!"
"But—" He futilely tried to protest. "…Yes, sir…"
Naoto could only watch him walk away from the room.
Time kept going, and so it was Friday, the last day of cram school. Hamuko only needed three days to jump to the conclusion that Minato wasn't going to call her again; he was probably too busy with his family, or he had found new friends, or another girl or... Well, good for him… She… She could do that too… She decided to take Akihiko's invitation to the Festival on Sunday… Hamuko didn't need Minato for anything, she could fill the hole he left with any boy, of course!
Minato was already depressed by Saturday. Alone except for the short talks with Naoto and the stern man who seemed to be acting so strictly on purpose, almost exaggeratedly. He could feel his powers weakening from the lack of contact with the others, but that wasn't what worried him the most…
"Arisato-san, are you unhappy here?" Naoto asked that night, while they both were sharing some dinner alone, as her grandfather and Yakushiji, their butler, both left to attend a case.
"I… Yes, I am…" Minato sighed. "Of course I am, Naoto-kun." 'Kun' was the honorific Naoto was apparently most comfortable with...
"You… miss that girl, right?" She shot him an inquisitive, yet concerned look.
"We were going to go together to a festival tomorrow. See I… I couldn't take her to last month's festival, and I wanted to make up for that… I guess she'll just have to go with someone else, though…"
"…Why are you here?"
"…" He smiled sadly. "You're smart. You know it perfectly, don't you?"
"Of course I do. I knew who you were from the very first day…" She mimicked his expression. "…Our grandfather isn't usually like this… I… I never thought he'd underestimate my powers of deduction so much…" A sigh escaped Naoto's lips. "I became a detective to retrieve you..."
"N-Nao—"
"And I already achieved so." She chucked. "I know you're alive. That is enough for me. You have your life and your new family, which I, after ten years, have no right to take away from you; I only ever wished to know what had become of you. I never lost faith in your promise to come back..."
"…You're certainly something, Nao-chan."
"H-hey! Nobody is allowed to refer to me in such a derogatory way! Not even my family!"
"Haha… I wish… I'd have got the chance to spend more time with you… To see you grow into the magnificent detective you will become…"
Naoto lowered the brim of her cap. "You fulfilled your first promise. The ice cream was quite delicious. Vowing to meet again should suffice for me to forgive your absence."
Minato got up from his chair and embraced Naoto. "I'll miss you…"
"I'll miss you too, my brother…" She hugged him back. "If you tell anyone that you received an embrace from the Junior Detective, I'll track you down and shoot at you until you look like a strainer."
"Don't worry." He pulled away. "I'll tell them the Detective Prince did."
Naoto's eyes widened in surprise. However, she closed them and smiled leisurely, pretending that the new nickname hadn't actually made her quite happy. "I believe a train will leave tomorrow at ten A.M., destination: Iwatodai Station. You should arrive there around dusk… So, ah… rest well tonight."
"Thank you…" Minato smiled. He left the dishes on the sink of the kitchen so Yakushiji could wash them later, and then headed to the door.
"Kitaro." Naoto called all of a sudden. "I… wasn't sure whether grandfather had told you."
"Kitaro Shirogane…" The bluenet mumbled. "…I think I like Minato better."
Sunday. A whole week. And still no trace from Minato… Hamuko had a great respect for the Junior Detective but… the little guy had totally failed in his prediction. Well… She'd better get getting her yukata ready and tell everyone what Minato was up to later…
"It took you long enough."
Johei's deep voice was as startling as always. All the more when Minato was about to sneak out of the manor. "What do you mean…?"
"I knew you wouldn't escape your destiny. I was just speeding up the process." The cryptic old man smiled. "I will give you a lift to the station."
The journey in car was rather silent. "…How do you know about my destiny? That is beyond any detective's powers…"
"…Being the Chosen One is a recurring thing in our family… It's just that our circumstances are rather different…" He chuckled haughtily. "Naoto will have her role in history as well…"
"Ghost's word?"
"Grandfather intuition." The man reached into his pocket and handed Minato his mobile phone. "Do not call anyone just yet."
"Huh? Why?"
"Let's say that I'm… making you a favour."
The Naganaki Shrine was truly beautiful, all set up for the festival. Orange lanterns lightened the walkways of the shrine, and the stands invited the visitors to test their luck in different games or try the delicious cuisine, making the usually calm place an hectic playground for a night were fireflies– and other less pretty insects, such as mosquitoes- danced without any pattern or preoccupation.
"Don't get separated, there are a lot of people here…" Too bad the company wasn't the best one…
Hamuko liked her Senpai quite a lot, as she felt that, despite his awkward antics and somewhat violent ways with others, deep down the boy only wanted to protect her, but, it was something surprisingly… platonic; and he thought of her as a child, anyway. And that wasn't good when she had agreed to go with him only to try and mend up that feeling of inner despair she hadn't had in months… It was quite disturbing, how only a week had managed to do that to her… "It really is kinda crowded in here… Don't you want to go somewhere else…?"
"Hmm… Yeah, you're right! Let's go play Lucky Draw!" The boy held her hand and took her to the stand with the game. …He just didn't seem to have any interest whatsoever in her… Or maybe he was just immature like that…
"C'mon Senpai, I'm wearing this to impress you…" If Minato was there, he probably would have made a big deal of her wearing her pink yukata, and told her something like 'you aren't wearing the sash correctly' or something… But oh well. Hamuko took a look around, bored of seeing the silver haired boy getting mad at himself for not being able to pull something with a prize… She could see Mitsuru and Aigis in the distance, playing some other game. Aigis seemed to be delighted with all the new things she was learning… Farther off, she could see Fuuka and Yukari, praying for something in the offertory. Junpei was nowhere to be found… She sighed, bored out of her mind… But, just then, she saw a boy with blue highlights make his way into the crowd quite gracefully. He seemed to be looking for someone… "What are the chances…?" "S-senpai-"
Akihiko seemed completely infatuated with the little game… So much that he didn't notice Hamuko leaving his side, ready to follow her heart… okay, that sounded cheesy. She actually followed the blue head until the takoyaki stand… No one there. Another sigh escaped her lips; had she just imagined it? Oh well… At least now she had an excuse to try the takoyaki.
Hamuko walked off the lit path, afraid of getting food all over her yukata if she bumped into someone. She headed to the enormous tree by the shrine and sat on the fence…
"Good evening." A extremely familiar voice whispered in her ear while she was busy eating absentmindedly.
She almost choked when she heard that. "M-Mi… Mina…"
"Minato. Had you forgotten me already?" He grinned.
"W-What are you doing here? When did you come back...?" She yelled. "Shouldn't you be with—"
"I ditched them." A wide grin broke forth in his face. "I couldn't miss this festival..."
"B-But…! How… How the hell did you dare do that? They're your family! They-!" Her words were cut when Minato placed a finger over her lips.
"I realized I have a new family…" His voice grew softer. "They're still my family, but I have more important people… I have you… and everybody else…" He cupped her cheek and smiled. "But especially you…"
"Then why… didn't you take my calls, why didn't you call me… I… I missed you… so much…"
"Crazy detectives and their educational methods." His chuckles came to a halt when he felt something pressing into his chest, making him lose balance –that was Hamuko pounding him to the ground. "Hamuko…"
"I told you that I didn't want you to leave me…" She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, so she did both. "But… But…"
"I'm not going to leave you… ever…" Minato got up with some difficulty and helped the brunette up as well. "I'm here with you, alright…? I'm not going anywhere…" He soothed her for a little longer. "Now… Let's eat that takoyaki, shall we?"
They ate silently, even though they had a thousand questions about the previous days…
"You… are looking really good tonight… better than usual…" The boy commented, sounding rather impressed. "But you aren't wearing the collar properly."
"I um.." She put a dumpling in her mouth. "Thanks…"
"Oh, wait, you have a little something on—" His initial intention when he placed his thumb on her lower lip was to whip off the stain of mayonnaise, but instead his eyes got fixed in her mouth. He ran his thumb over them carefully as his gaze went up to meet hers. Cobalt and crimson clashed, in a battle for superiority which neither could win. And so, he waited for her to make the first step, not wanting to startle her, and let her come closer, shortening the distance, until there was nothing between their lips any more. It was oddly chaste. And it kind of fitted reaching level 6.
"I… wanna go slower this time…" She muttered while her lips continued caressing his, a bit more eagerly. "I'm not sure I… trust you already…"
"You're supposed to… let go when you say that…"
"I know…"
They kept reminiscing better times, until Akihiko finally began missing Hamuko…
They'd have time to talk another day.
Man what a cheesy chapter.
