Life goes on. With or without Kano, it goes on.
Every day is empty. Kido wakes up, she wanders around, then she goes back to sleep. She isn't the same since then, and snaps at anyone that tries to get close. Seto apologizes in her stead, even though he, too, is grieving.
They can't even afford a proper funeral. Or, if they can, they don't want to go through with it, because it's the same as admitting that Kano is truly, really dead.
He can't be, Kido tells herself. He has to be alive.
He has to be. She deludes herself of this possibility, absorbing herself in his memory and image. She shouldn't have yelled at him, shouldn't have hit him all those times. Even though it's for his own good—pain cancels out the power, after all, because pain reminds Kano of himself, and God, they're all so fucked up, aren't they?—even though it's never her intention to actually hurt him.
Is it her fault? The night he left, did he say something important and she simply failed to catch it?
Can she still fix things?
Kido asks herself these things each day as she finds the courage to live again. She knows she can't just dump everything on Seto forever, and the others deserve an explanation for her behavior, too. Everyone mourns in their own way, and Kido can't help it if hers is different from theirs.
She has lost enough people in her life as it is—she doesn't need to lose any more.
Seto has work, because of course he does. Things were easier with Kano around, as he would disguise himself as others, stealing supplies and transferring money to help their cause. He'd take care of most of the dirty work that involved keeping their upkeep.
With him gone, Seto is the sole source of income, and he makes a lot, for someone that only takes on part-time work. He is a busboy, a barista, a florist, and a cashier. He walks the streets of the city, rides the bus, takes the train—he stays out all day and all night to secure a means of living, even if it means that he himself scarcely gets a break. He eats and breathes hard work, he sleeps only when his body has had enough.
Today, the city is crowded, and Seto tries not to get sidetracked, because of the traffic. But when a fluffy dog comes into view, he just has to stop and pet it. He has to, it's practically mandatory for someone like him.
It's early January, past the new year and over six months since the Mekakushi Dan lost Kano. Seto never thought he'd get to this point in time, yet here he is, bundled in winter clothing and petting a dog.
"Thanks," he tells the owner. "Have a good day."
"You too." The dog and its owner are gone, and Seto sighs as he readjusts his bag and continues heading in his direction.
He sees someone blond.
He stops.
Not again, he thinks to himself. Seto Kousuke, you are not going to stop random strangers to see if they're Kano. It makes no sense, and it always ends in embarrassment. Do not do this to yourself, Seto. Don't do it.
...
I'm gonna do it. Seto sighs, his own little apology to himself, as he walks towards the stranger. From the back, they look like Kano, because the height is just right (although maybe a little bit taller than before?) and the hair sticks out almost the exact same way. Granted, the stranger is wearing a white overcoat, and Kano is known to wear black, but Seto won't mince details just yet.
He gets closer, and closer, and closer still—heart racing at the thought of it. What if it's Kano, for real? What if Kano is alive after all this time? What if it's a clone of him? What if it's a stranger, and Seto has to apologize before he gets a restraining order put on him?
What if?
An eternity passes in between crosswalks. So many times, Seto thinks he's lost him, until the blond comes back into view, bobbing like a floater out on sea. Seto picks up the pace, holding the bag close to his side, eyes focused, hands reaching out to grab him, and—
"Excuse me," Seto gasps as he reaches for the stranger, grabbing them by the shoulder. "Excuse me, I need to see something."
It takes a while, because the stranger's shoulders hunch upward, and they don't turn around to face Seto immediately. He considers speaking out again, worried that the stranger didn't hear him the first time—or worse, that they're a tourist who doesn't speak the language.
Soon enough, they turn.
Seto's heart flies and falls in the same motion.
It's him, he thinks. It's him. No one else has those same golden cat-eyes, no one else has their hair worn in short but messy strands, sticking out in some places and curling inward towards his neck in others. No one else can raise their eyebrow, twist their lips, or form expressions so easily with their face. But he can.
Kano can, and his mouth opens slowly, rending all of Seto's hopes and dreams into shreds.
"...Who are you?"
Kido wakes up after sleeping in. She fumbles for her phone, and checks her texts after nearly dropping the thing. With a groan, she wipes sleep away from her eyes and mouth, and blinks hazily at the screen.
Out to work, Seto's text from earlier reads. Lunch today?
Sure, I'll cook. Let me know what time, Kido answers, glancing at the time. It's a little past noon, so hopefully Seto is still at work, because that would give her time to actually prepare something. She can even take a shower and clean the apartment a little bit, since it's been a while since she did either of those things.
"Today's gonna be a good day, a new day," she tells herself as she gets out of bed. "I can just feel it."
"What?" Seto doesn't sound angry, mad, or even shocked. His voice is lacking in any emotion whatsoever. He repeats himself while trembling. "What?"
"You said you needed to see something, didn't you? Is this a trick? You trying to sell me something?" Kano narrows his eyes. His voice is unmistakably his, but Seto can't fathom his sudden unfamiliarity. It's weird, it's strange, it's not right. "I'm not interested, okay?"
"Are you serious? Kano, I don't know what kind of joke you're playing right now, but I—"
"How do you know my name?" he snaps, with an anger that he doesn't usually show unless he's cornered, desperate. Seto can't help but wince as he says, "And I'm not playing any jokes, either. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Stop it!" See, Seto can be desperate, too. "Cut it out, already! Don't you know how worried I was? How worried everyone else was? I don't believe you!"
"You're crazy," Kano cries out. "Listen, I have no idea who you are, so just leave me alone, already!"
"Stop lying! If you would just come with me, I—"
"I'm sorry," he interrupts, "but I don't like lying to people."
"H-Hello? Who's there?"
"It's me," Kido calls from the kitchen. "Don't be scared."
"Wh-what? Leader?" Mary emerges from her room in the hallway. The apartment they live in is modest, but it has lots of rooms. It has enough for the members, if Momo and Shintaro paired up in one room, and Hibiya and Konoha paired up in another. Kido, Seto, and Mary all have their separate rooms.
And Kano, of course. Kido tries not to think about him as the medusa approaches her, and she offers her a tiny smile. "Yeah, I know, it's been a while. I thought I should finally get my act together and be useful."
"I see," Mary murmured. "Y-You even cleaned the kitchen?!"
"Yup, and the bathrooms, and the living rooms. I went on a cleaning frenzy, pretty much."
"Wow. I-I'm proud of you, Leader! Do you need me to-to help?"
"No, I—" she's about to say something like I got it but she realizes what a lie that would be— "actually, yeah, that'd be nice."
Mary smiles, and ties her mass of white hair behind her, using the pink ribbons that were her favorite. With rolled-up sleeves and a newfound determination in her rosy eyes, she looks up at Kido expectantly. "Ready!"
"You seriously don't remember me? Like, at all?"
"I said this once and I'll say it again: I don't know who you are. Sorry if that's inconvenient for you, but I just don't." Kano looks to the crowded streets. He and Seto took their little argument to the side so they wouldn't block traffic, and now he longs to go on his merry way. "If that's all there is to it, I'm leaving."
"And go where? Kano, you're not making any sense. You've been gone for months and now you're just—you're gonna act like you don't know me? Like you're a stranger?"
"We are strangers!" Kano shouts, attracting the attention of onlookers. "I don't know who you are! How many times do I need to say it until you believe me?"
"Once more, apparently."
"I—"
"How about this? If we're strangers, why I know your name?"
"That's what I asked you but you didn't answer!"
"I know more than just your name," Seto insists. "I know you're Shuuya Kano, born on the tenth of May, with blood type B. I know you love sweets and you hate bitter food. I know you're allergic to shellfish and nuts, and you hate it when people fold the pages of books to mark them. You love mobile games. You're ambidextrous! You have a birthmark on the back of your neck—"
Seto feels breathless as Kano shoves him into a narrow alleyway, pressing him against the wall and covering his mouth with his hand. Kano glances at the sidewalk, and stares at all the people passing by. They see him, and he sees them, but no one dares to intervene. With a tiny huff, he lets go of Seto, and glares up at him with poison in his eyes. "How do you know all that? How do you know so much about me? Who are you?"
"I know you because I grew up with you," Seto explains. "We all did. Your friends, your family...they're waiting for you."
"I don't have any family," Kano counters. "And I'll be damned if I consider you a friend!"
Eloquent as ever, Seto thinks. He's still so stubborn, even at a time like this... "You have to admit that this is too strange to be a coincidence. You know it, don't you? There's something else going on here."
Kano freezes up, and Seto almost screams for him to stop. He's never seen him look so lost before, because even when they were younger, Kano insisted on putting up walls and never letting them down. Seto knows he suffers, he's aware of their flaws, and how behind Kano's smile is pain. Pain and suffering, caused by their circumstances and enhanced by his own power.
Pain and suffering, and nothing else.
Seto swallows. "Come with me. I'll show you everything, and maybe you'll remember."
"I doubt it," Kano scoffs. "There's nothing to remember."
"Just come with me. And if it doesn't work out, then you can go back to whatever it is you were doing."
"..."
"I'm not a bad person. I'm not gonna hurt you or take you somewhere shady," Seto promises. "Just—just trust me!"
"That's impossible," Kano says. "I can't trust someone I just met."
"Then—"
"I'm going with you, but only for a little while. And then once I prove to you that we're strangers, you're gonna let me go, and the two of us are gonna forget this ever happened." Kano stuffs his hands into his pockets, and takes a step back to assess the damage. His face scrunches up at the mere sight of Seto, and he says, "That's the only option I'm giving you. Take it or leave it."
"Taking it," Seto agrees. "Let's go. Also, fair warning, the place we're going has other people in it. " The two of them melt into the crowd together, and Seto is surprised to see Kano go along without incident. He doesn't know what happened to Kano last year, but he knows something changed, and now the boy's been living without memories. At least, he doesn't remember the important things, and the bonds which hold him and the rest of the Mekakushi Dan together.
Instead he's frayed, like thread, and falling to pieces.
And Seto, ever the loyal older brother he is, will put him back together.
He takes out his phone. "Kido is there," he tells him. "And you might not remember her, but she cares more about you than anything else in the world."
"Small world she lives in," Kano bites.
But he goes along with him, anyway, like any faithful third-in-command should.
"Kido?"
"Hey, Seto. Glad you called, I wanted to ask: can you stop by and pick up some groceries? I'm cooking lunch. Did you check your texts? I—"
"Kido, listen, I need you to sit down."
Kido takes in her surroundings: a pre-heating oven, counters covered in cutting boards and bowls, Mary tip-toeing to reach over the sink and attempting to wash the berries, and the table settings not yet placed. Even though Mary offered her help earlier, Kido spent more time showing her how to do things than actually doing them.
She sighs. "I can't sit down right now, I'm busy. When you get to the store, I need—"
"Tsubomi," Seto says. "This is important. Sit down."
She blinks, but finds her way to the kitchen table, anyway. She leans back in the chair with a scoff. "Okay, Kousuke. What is it?"
"Are you sitting down—"
"Goddammit, will you cut it out and get to the point already?" The irate energy from before, together with the anxiety of not knowing, combines into one emotive force of frustration, sending Kido's voice into higher octaves—darkening her face with three or four shades of red. "What's going on? What's happening?"
Silence. She's worried he's hung up on her, but a sharp inhale reminds her that he's still on the other line.
"It's Kano," he says. "He's alive."
Funny, Kido always wondered what she'd do if Kano turned up alive one day.
She never thought it would happen so soon.
"I hope Seto is telling the truth," Mary says, sinking to her own chair after hearing the news. "I want this to be real."
"Me too," Kido admits, burying her face into her hands. "God, me too."
The apartment is the same one they've had for years. Before that, Kido, Kano, and Seto all lived with Ayano at her family's house. Ayaka and Kenjirou were their adoptive parents, and they always treated the three of them equally—as if they were their own flesh and blood.
Then Ayaka was crushed to death and Kenjirou mysteriously disappeared, but that didn't quite matter now.
What matters now is that Seto and Kano are in front of their home.
Together. Alive.
Seto has to tell himself a hundred times not to cry so it becomes a reality. "We're number 107," he tells Kano. "We had the same room number back at the orphanage. You used to call it 'The Room of Monsters.'"
"Orphanage? Monsters?" Kano snorts. "You sure love making up all this bullshit, don't you?"
Seto deflates at his words but tries not to let it get to him. The result is a half-whimper that comes out as, "Yeah. Let's go inside."
He unlocks the door. The apartment door opens into the living room, which has a leather sofa and a small TV, but it's enough space to get them by. To the left is a hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms—again, it's small, but a lot for kids who don't have much else to their name. To the right is the kitchen, and Seto takes in a deep breath as he steps forward.
Kano is right behind him, and the two of them are shocked as Kido comes into view, eyes wide and mouth covered with her hands.
"Kido," Seto warns, "before you do anything I—"
"You idiot!" Kido cries out, pulling Kano into a hug. "Where have you been? What happened to you? I thought, we thought—"
"Kido—"
"I'm so happy you're safe. I'm so glad."
"Kano is back?" Mary steps out from the kitchen, going as white as her hair at the sight of him. "O-Oh my gosh...! It's really you!"
"It's him," Kido mutters into his shoulder. She squeezes him tightly, not caring if he'll break, and not noticing the way he hasn't hugged her back yet.
He stiffens at her touch, silent and motionless. Then, he exhales, and pries her away from him with a cold look in his eyes. A look that says he doesn't recognize or trust the girl with long olive-green hair, or the girl with long wavy white hair, or the tall boy with short, black hair that brought him here to the first place. A look that says he's finally had enough of this charade, and the madness stops here.
"I don't know who any of you are," he says. "So, after this, would you please just leave me alone?"