Here is the second part of the prologue, I hope you will like and I'm sorry for any grammatical mistakes I made or the incorrect phrasing. I hope you will able to forgive me.

~1 year after~

It's a whole year from that fateful night that take their son away from them, Kenichi was going back home after work driving his car on a rainy night, he was forced to stay at work. His boss needed someone to do extra work because some of his colleagues were sick, so He offered himself, he took the chance to delay his arrival to home because when he was working it was the only moment where he didn't think anything except his work, he could fog his mind for any external thought...especially the ones that ware persecuting him for a long time...

"Did he kill himself? Did he run away? Was he kidnapped? Why?… Did I fail as a father? Could I be able to save him if I wasn't so slothful and stupid?... I want...to see him one last time..."

During this stream of consciousness, the rain becomes heavier and that caused to distract him from all of his thoughts for one second, and he was glad that he lived that single second of anything...

Kenichi decided to turn on the windshield wipe, he knew that he had to turn them on way earlier but...he simply forgot, he was driving using his muscle memory, the body knows where he had to go so it simply drove the car to get him there, especially because host mind was spacing out bad.

After half an hour of driving, he finally arrived

To the place, he once called "home".

A home is a place That is supposed to be the safest place from the hostile world, a place where laugh, talk and pass time with the most important people in someone's life.

But Kenichi didn't have a "home" anymore, not because it was physically taken away from him but because those four walls and roof for him now was only a memento of his failure: has a person, as a husband and...as a father.

He hated it.

That building was similar to the many others around, it had the traditional modern style for Japanese suburbs, it was plain average, it was not too fancy and neither straight-up poor.

He parked his car in the parking nearby and got out of the car and started walking towards his "house" that was far only 200 meters, he walked slowly and in meantime the raining keep become heavier and heavier, he was getting soaked wet, the man watched the sky to feel the rain on his face while he was taking off his glasses and said

"damn... I forgot the umbrella in the car"

That was a lie, he remembered about the umbrella while he was in the car, but he simply decided to not take it, in his mind he didn't deserve it, what he deserved was to get soaked and maybe getting sick because to, that's what Kenichi deserved for his failures.

After saying that lie he put the glasses back on his face and slowly resume his walking after finish gazing at the cloudy mess that was on him, like always he couldn't see a single star but this time…he couldn't even see the sky.

He finally arrived at the place where he usually slept and eat, the same place torturing him every time he opened that cursed door.

He was watching from behind the fence, he had to find the courage to face his demons another time, one step at the time, he sighed tiredly and slowly approached the little gate that separated the street and his garden, he opens it and entered...every single step he took he remember all the time he played with him when he peeled his knee while he was playing the knight or samurai, the times that they enjoyed a simple summer day in the inflatable pool with his son embraced in his arms sleeping.

Every single step he took was killing him inside, it wasn't something new to him because it happened every single day for the last 10 months, but even if this wasn't his first time he went through that garden and remembering what he lost...it never became any easier.

He finally arrived at the stair that would lead to the entrance door, he slowly put his feet on the steps and start climbing it, for Him, he was like to climb Mount Everest every single time.

He arrived in front of the door and sighed, the moment he hated the most during the day finally arrived today too, he slowly took the key from his pants that used to work and slowly move the key he took towards the keyhole to open the door.

But when the hand was close to it, he noticed something that he didn't notice in the last months.

His arms didn't fill up his black uniform anymore, strange, it was perfectly made with his measures so why it didn't fit perfectly anymore?

"Yes, I stopped working out, but it's been only 1 year, How could he lose so much of my body shape? Maybe I didn't eat very well? No, impossible…Naoko cooking is enough to fill my body, heart, and soul" The man whispered.

The Kenichi that was in front of that door was only a shadow of the man he was before, his body from well-built and strong, it becomes a plain average skinny body, you could still see that he was jacked before, but it was like watching a ruin of an old and mighty empire. He simply didn't care anymore about his body, but not to the point of actively trying to damage it with the use of alcohol or smoke.

Kenichi opens the door and enters the place that he loved till a year ago, but in his face, there was no happiness, of course, neither sadness, not because he wasn't sad but simply because he learned how to hide his broken heart.

He slowly undresses his wet clothes and shoes and puts them in a nearby chest near the entrance to put them to wash and dry later on.

After undressing, he went to his room fast without watching a specific door in the hallways, both he and Naoko didn't even dare to try to enter that door and the last time they did it was over 1 year ago, they didn't want to touch anything in that room hoping that the original inhabitant would come back sooner or later, but till that day, for them that cursed door was only another symbol and memento of their infinite failures as a parent for that wonderful boy.

Kenichi went to his and his wife's room, it was a very simple modern style bedroom, there was a chair where there was a big pile of clothes that had to be washed, but it seemed that they were for a long time, There were a plastic grey wardrobe and walls were decorated with pictures of natural landscape or family picture, but those were turned around, and you couldn't see them, then there was a big bed in the corner of the room that wasn't used for anything except to sleep in the last months, Kenichi opened the wardrobe, and he dressed in his usual one-piece black pajamas, he wore his warm slipper and quickly got out of the room and even passed the hallway even quicker without giving a single glance to the door of his failures.

After finally passing the hallway he arrived in the kitchen, there was a woman figure that was cleaning the same dish over and over again, ignoring the other dirty dishes.

She heard his husband come, and she simply said with a lifeless voice:

"Welcome home dear"

She didn't even give him a gaze, she was simply watching in front of her without reacting to the surrounding.

She wasn't crazy but simply tired for all the sleepless nights she was facing in the last months, she couldn't sleep and the only thing that helped her a little was her husband's embrace during the night.

Naoko was a person that always prioritizes someone else, the motherly love she had was so deep that you could drown in it, and now... That only person that she could direct her infinite love disappeared from her life she simply broke, he resisted for sometimes thanks to her husband, but it worked for only for a short time, every day that passed for Naoko it only thinned the chance to even see that person, whatever it was dead or alive, the love of her life, the boy that was the first in her heart even before her husband, her son...Subaru.

She stopped crying after a while, not because she didn't feel pain, no, that pain she was feeling was so deep that could physically break her heart and killed her, the only way she had to coup was too detached herself from reality every time she had the chance, because when she was like that her pain becomes a little easier to handle.

She became a real pro in this incredible Art of detachment from reality.

His husband that just entered the kitchen and after earring her "welcome" he bit his lip so hard that he started bleeding, he hated seeing his loving wife like that, a shell of herself, he was scared of losing his wife too, that would only become one of the many infinite failures of Kenichi Natsuki,

He cleaned the blood with his sleeves and simply answer with a voice without personality or his usual antics

"yes... I'm home, Naoko."

She didn't say anything, and she simply kept cleaning the same dish as before.

Kenichi simply stared at her hoping for a reaction that would never come, like a kiss. But he didn't deserve that.

He walked inside the kitchen and slowly posed his eyes on the nearby little table, on the wooden surface of the tables there was a big pile of denied request he made to the police to keep searching for his boy, the police stopped searching for him after 2 months but Kenichi didn't want to give up, so he kept insisting and sending those requests that were always refused, not because the police didn't want to help the poor couple but simply because it was useless, there were not any kind of tracks to follow or any suspect, it felt like their son simply disappeared from existence like a grain of sand in a windy day.

But Kenichi was not that kind of man to give up especially for his son and he will not give up till the day he will see his son's lifeless body in front of him, till that day he will never stop annoying the police, and he will force them to continue the research.

He walked to the little table and took one of the requests that weren't still compiled, he took the pen that was on the papers.

Then he moved to the center of the kitchen where there was the table where he and his family used to eat together, he sits down in one of the chairs, took the remote of the TV that they put in the kitchen to watch, and hear the news, hoping to watch something that could lead to traces of their son or maybe to simply confirm his death, he took the remote and after some second of hesitation, he turned on the TV.

"…and for the weather of tomorrow, we will have..."

Kenichi sighed and simply said:

we will not get anything today too uh

he then slowly lowered his gaze towards the eating table, closing his eyes to rest for some seconds.

Naoko in the meantime that Kenichi turned on the TV like she was programmed, stoped cleaning the same dish from before, took two instant noodles from the larder near the fridge, opened it and filled them with a water bottle, and put them in the microwave, in the meantime she was watching with her evil-gaze and lifeless eyes the noodle cup spinning around in the microwave till they were ready.

The loud sound of the microwave, the sound alerted the couple that their dinner was ready, Naoko took with her bare hands the noodle cup and two chopsticks to eat, one for her and one for her husband.

Kenichi that was almost falling to sleep wake up a little scared and agitated by the loud sound but quickly recovered after that his wife gave to him his dinner.

Naoko simply sit in front of him and started eating without any regard for the heat of the just fresh microwaved muddles, her face was shallow, her eyes didn't have light, her lips were dry and her nails were short and damaged for all the time she ate them.

She was a champion in detachment indeed.

Kenichi was not in a better state, but he still had to be presentable for work, he simply watched her eating while his cup noodles were steaming still untouched.

He had to say something, he needed to see his wife smile and take her away from her self-imposed slumber, he was thinking, thinking, and thinking what to say while he was gritting his teeth for anger for his inability to save his wife, so he started tho say the first things that came in his mind.

"You know Naoko today I was thinking... why don't we take a holiday? Let's go on a trip! I don't know and where it can be anywhere! Hawaii, Los Angeles, Toronto, machu pichu! Or even in Italy! I heard it's great in this period! Yes! It's decided we will visit All of them! Yes, that's what we will do!"

He said gasping without even take the time to breathe, but Naoko simply continued his eating his noodle with a straight face without reacting, Kenichi widened his eyes Desperate for his failure, another of the many.

But he didn't want to give up, not yet!

"Oooh, better idea! Why don't we go on a cruiser? I know you always loved the sea so why not live for 10 days on a cool and expensive ship, ooh we could visit so many places and taste many delicacies around the pacific! What do you think?"

Again Naoko didn't answer Kenichi was failing again, and again, his eyes were filling with pain to not be able to save his son neither his wife, he got up from the chair and went around the table to where his wife was seated eating his noodle, he kneeled beside her and slowly took with his manly man her soft and delicate womanly face, and he and turned her gaze toward him with a gentle touch and said:

Please Naoko...please...

He started to tear up a little.

"Answer me... I want you to talk to me not like a fucking robot, please...stop isolating yourself from the world! ...and from ...me"

Naoko weakly reacted to that, it was almost unnoticeable, Kenichi took away his glasses that were so wet that didn't allow him to see his beautiful wife's reaction.

He took both of her hands with his and watched her in the eyes again

"We can't keep going on like this...is killing us both Naoko...we can't simply hide our pain hoping that it would simply disappear, because it will not...it will never go away...not today, not tomorrow and neither the final day of this forgotten by god world... Naoko..."

Kenichi didn't program or even thought to say those things, he wanted to save his wife and during the discussion, he realized how much the life they were living was killing them both, they needed to accept the truth...the horrible truth that they tried so hard to run from, the horrible reality of...

"Naoko... Subaru is dead..."

Kenichi finally said Those words, they were not liberating, but they needed to accept the truth that they will never see their son again.

Naoko gulped a little, and her eyes started watering a bit, but she still wasn't crying,

"We tried to run from it...we dread it... but we can't escape anymore from this truth...Our beautiful boy...is dead...and we will never see him again..."

Earring this caused her heart rate to increase, she started to breathe more loudly while sobbing in the meantime but the same could be said for Kenichi.

"I failed you, Naoko... I failed as a man, as a husband, and as a father... I failed our son, I ignored his pain by allowing him to isolate himself from society, I killed our son! IT'S MINE FAULT... I...am a failure..."

Kenichi broke into tears, he stopped holding his wife's hands and put them on the ground while he was watching his tear falling on the floor but…

Like an improvised embrace from an angel Naoko fell on the ground near his husband and started hugging so hard, she took with her feminine hands his manly tearful face and moved his gaze toward her nasty but at the same time...beautiful eyes.

"Kenichi..."

She said sobbing, her eyes and face were all wet from the tears, her lungs were on fire and her heart was squished by the guilt.

She continued:

It's not your fault...you were always a super-duper dad from him... It's me... the one you should put the blame

Kenichi didn't like this speech at all, he didn't want this manifestation of grief to become a race of who was the one to blame the most...but he couldn't stop his wife that was finally talking to him in a normal yet tearfully and guilty way.

She continued

"The day when Subaru disappeared...i...said to him to take care...and he didn't answer and simply got out of the door without even watching me..."

Kenichi was shocked, not because of this revelation of his son behavior...but because he didn't know that she was feeling guilt way deeper than him because she was the last of the two to see him, Kenichi knew that but she never said that Subaru simply went off without saying a word to his mother, it wasn't a relevant fact that could have changed the course of their son research, so maybe she didn't say anything because she was...

"I COULD HAVE SAVED HIM KENICHI! I... I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT HE WAS SUFFERING THAT BAD"

Kenichi that had still in his face in his wife's hands slowly took on his wife hand with his, and he started squeezing gently, the tears that were on his face didn't want to stop, the only thing he could do was to finish them by crying to make up for the time he wasted simply trying to refuse a reality that they were already living, he to embraced his lover with all of his strength to ease both of their guilt, he knew it was useless, but he had to try.

Naoko now in his arms stopped shouting and simply put her head on his husband chest while their hands were still intertwined, her tears started to fall on this husband's pajamas but both of them couldn't care less about that piece of fabricated wool, after a minute she gained a little bit of strength to continue to wish her confession of guilt, and she whispered

"... I could have saved him...but I didn't ...if... I was smarter maybe I could understand was he wanted to do and stopped him... I could have hugged him...telling him that everything would have been alright, but I didn't...Our son...my precious little boy is ...dead because I didn't see the dangerous message his body was sending... I'm a failure as a mother..".

Kenichi was shocked at how much Naoko was living the same pain he had, that one kind of pain you would get by ignoring something in front of your eyes that then leaded to something disastrous, his wife, for all this time had the same thought he had, and he never understood that she was feeling the same pain and inadequacy he had, he had no words this time, he simply engulfed more his wife in his arms on the cold floor of the kitchen, and both of them.

Kenichi and Naoko, husband and wife. a man and woman., and...

A father and a mother...

After one year of silent mourning...they broke in a loud but liberating crying, their frozen souls that stayed in silent grief for all of this time couldn't handle anymore and simply shattered but… with a lot of time they will be able to heal, but they will always miss a piece that could complete them.

Embraced by their each other warms they didn't want to let go of the other, they needed each other and they needed that moment that was the first step to accept their son's death, but for now...

they cried...they keep crying and would have kept crying for the entire night...

Until...

Light.

A light so strong was engulfing the lovers that barely noticed it because of their closed and tearful eyes.

Both Naoko and Kenichi feel their body engulfed by the light, it was like someone turned on the sun in their kitchen.

Both of them watched in each other eyes unsure of what was happening

Kenichi tried to say

"NAOKO GO TO HID..."

He could complete the sentence because his wife was taken away from him

And simply disappeared, but the light was still present

"Wha…'t is happening..." Kenichi was feeling his body transported to another place, he didn't know why he knew that he wasn't going to die instead of being transported to another place."

Before disappearing, Kenichi heard a strange but mainly voice saying :

"TIME, SAGE CANDIDATE?

IT'S REALLY THAT TIME AGAIN?"

Kenichi didn't understand a single thing and simply disappeared from the kitchen like his wife.

The only proof that they were there was the turned-on tv and the cold noodles cups on the table.