Fate/Imaginary Vectors
Chapter 06 – My Happiest Day was the Day you took my Hand and didn't let go:
Upon his return from Shou's family restaurant, Kageyama opened the door to his home, still carrying Daiyu on his back.
It was a small apartment, just two rooms on top of a bathroom. They actually lucked out when looking for a place to live in, managing to find something that wasn't literally just a singular room.
"Almost there."
"Hmm…"
Kageyama made his way to the bedroom and carefully placed his dizzy girlfriend onto the bed. Though it still ended with a flop. Before anything else, he fetched a glass full of water and sat beside her. "Come on. Drink up. I know you don't want a hangover in the morning."
"I know, I know…" Making a bit of an effort, the crimson-haired girl sat up and took the cup into her hands and drank the clear liquid with some reluctance.
With the annoyed expression on her face, Kageyama could guess what was going on. "I'm guessing Shou's comment annoyed you, didn't it?"
Once she was done downing the water, she narrowed her eyes at the boyfriend. "…Yeah."
"Please don't hold a grudge against him."
"Wasn't planning to. He's free to choose whatever he wants to do with his life. It's just…" Her grip on the glass became stronger. "Aaargh! So annoying!" She couldn't keep it in anymore. "Talking about family so cheerfully like that! Family doesn't always mean shit!" Daiyu raised her arm, about to hurl the glass against the wall, but Kageyama's hand caught her wrist just in time. Her eyes widened a little, snapping out of the burst of anger she hadn't expect to happen. She looked up at the stoic Kageyama, just as his lips curled a little. "…Sorry."
"It's okay." He softened his grip, as it was no longer necessary. "Just refrain from breaking our crockery." He gently took the cup back into his hands and moved back to fill it back up again.
Daiyu leaned back down onto the bed, sighing while staring at the ceiling. "How do you deal with me?"
"You're not as annoying as you may think you are."
"Pretty sure getting annoyed at people for dumb things for reasons that have nothing to do with them is an annoying trait."
Kageyama returned and offered her the glass once more. "All things considered, you dealt with everything pretty well. And taking into account what you've been through, I can't blame you."
Sitting up, Daiyu took the glass to drink yet again, her mind began to wander to the past…
To the day the two first met a few years prior.
Sunset. Blowing winds. After school.
Daiyu looked over the horizon of the small city from the rooftop of the city.
With a blank face.
She didn't seem to feel anything at that moment. She even wondered what she was supposed to think of the orange sky and the hiding sun. Was it supposed to be beautiful? Perhaps, but it didn't move her much.
"Can't even appreciate a sunset… Hmph. Guess I do deserve this."
The girl stood on the edge of the rooftop, outside the gridded fence. Her shoes were placed neatly aside on the inner side, with the Assassin Class Card placed on top of them.
"Now that I think about it, they'll probably think this was for attention or something. …Who cares? It's not like I'll be there…" She turned to the sky above, took a deep breath, and shut her eyes. "Goodbye."
And with that farewell, Daiyu let the weight of her body be pulled down by gravity…
However, her eyes opened wide upon hearing the sound of the door that connected the rooftop to the rest of the school slam open, followed by a worried shout.
"Don't jump!"
"…?"
It was useless, she thought. There was no turning back now.
However, despite his yell, the boy moved. How he was so fast was a mystery even to him. Probably the rush of adrenaline gave him some sort of boost.
He closed the distance and, somehow, despite how thick his arms were, managed to shove one of them through the holes of the fence put up exactly to avoid situations like that to happen to begin with.
He managed to take a hold of her wrist. Sheer luck, no doubt. But the girl had already taken the step forward, so she hung on the rooftop, held by the strong hand of the tall mountain of muscle that he was.
While surprised at first, she stared back at him with a blank face.
"…That hurts, you know?"
"J-Just take a hold of my hand, I'll pull you up!"
Daiyu frowned. "But this is my choice."
"It's a choice you can't go back on!" The boy yelled back in a bit of a panic. "L-Let's talk first! Just let me pull you up!"
"What, you'll let me jump if I present good enough arguments?"
"That doesn't matter now!"
"It does, actually. Are you trying to be selfish and choose what I should do with my life?"
The boy hesitated to speak for a second. "…Yeah. I'm being selfish. Really damn selfish. But if it means I may have just stopped someone from making what might be a big mistake, then I don't care! So just let me pull you up already!"
"…You don't even know me."
"It's exactly because I don't know you!" His breathing became more ragged. "Or rather… It doesn't matter if I know you or not. I don't think anyone should be pushed to this. So let me pull you up and let's talk this out."
"…" Daiyu was split. She'd come this far only to have someone appear out of nowhere. An annoying event to be sure. But… this seemed intriguing enough.
She held onto Kageyama's arm with both her hands and placed her feet on the wall of the school.
Working together, the two managed to pull Daiyu up. Kageyama pulled his arm from the fence, noticing that it had gotten injured and some of his skin turned red from the pressure exerted on it, impeding blood flow for a little while. At her request, he gave the Assassin Card to Daiyu. With a quick install and a leap, she returned to the inside of the rooftop.
Without saying a word, after Daiyu ejected, the two sat against the fence. Kageyama's breathing was heavy, and he held the lightly injured arm.
Daiyu wrapped her arms around her knees and glanced at his arm.
"Does it hurt?"
"Barely."
"Then why are you breathing like that."
The boy with dark silver hair took a more comfortable position. "I panicked. It was the first time I saw… someone about to take their own life."
"It's not a common thing to see, no." Daiyu remarked, looking up at his face. "You're Kageyama, right? We're in the same class."
"Yeah. You're… speaking much more casually than I expected, for someone that was about to jump."
"I've come to terms with it."
"…" Kageyama was taken aback. "Come to terms?"
"I decided to do this last week. I wouldn't do something like this without thinking it through."
"S-Still, I… don't think you should do it."
"Why?"
"What do you mean 'why'?"
"It would just be better off for everyone. Including… myself."
By the silence, Daiyu could tell Kageyama didn't know how to react to begin with. How could he? He had never come across a situation like this before. And as one can imagine, he felt the pressure of, despite having managed to defuse it for a moment, a poorly chosen word could prompt it to happen again, maybe.
"Is it because of bullying?"
"Please!" Suddenly, a burst of emotion. "Like those ugly pigs could actually bother me. They're just jealous because I'm more beautiful than them."
Kageyama couldn't help but smirk a little. "That's a bit cocky, wouldn't you say?"
Daiyu turned to him with a similar smirk, but with narrow eyes. "Are you calling me ugly?"
"I'm not. But I'm surprised they don't affect you."
"They're annoying, sure, but that's about it. I've gone as far as punching one of them in the nose."
"Huh. That explains that day with the bloody nose."
"They think mob mentality is all you need to break someone. Pfff. You can always walk away from three goblins that think are hot shit just because they hang out together and were popular in middle school. Besides, they thought I was an easy target just because I'm a foreigner."
Kageyama raised an eyebrow. "You can always run away, huh?"
Her mood suddenly shifted back to what it was a minute prior. "…Yeah. And there's not a problem with that, you hear me?"
"I didn't disagree. But I think this is a little more extreme than just 'walking away'."
"…I don't really have much of an option."
Kageyama may have never really talked with Daiyu, but he knew a few things about her. She kept to herself, only bothered by a trio of female bullies. Grades-wise, from what he noticed, she seemed to have good ones, probably in the top five of the class. She spent her free time watching videos on her phone. What kind, he didn't know, he had never taken a peek. But from what he knew, if bullying didn't bother her, then it wasn't school. Which most likely meant…
"Is it problems at home?"
Daiyu froze for a few seconds and then looked away. "…"
"If it's personal, I won't pry. What's yours is yours. But if it leads you to this…"
"…"
"…Have you told anyone?"
"No."
"Do you want to?"
"I don't know. I always felt like it would be useless."
"I suppose, but-" Suddenly, Kageyama's phone began to ring. "Oh, one minute. I almost forgot." He picked up. "Hello, mom. I don't think I'll be able to do that, I'm not sure when I'm getting back home. I'm helping a classmate. Came across her when I was fetching my book. Sorry to bother you. If I don't arrive before dinner, can you put my share in the fridge? Thanks mom. Bye." He hung up. "Sorry about tha-?!" And upon turning back, the sight shocked him. While Daiyu remained more or less in the same position, her eyes now flooded with water. "A-A-Are you okay?"
She remained silence for a while, with only the sound of her sniffles breaking the silence. "…Tell me."
"Huh?"
"How… How does it feel to get a phone call from your parents?"
"How does it feel?" Kageyama wasn't sure if he had heard the question correctly. "It…" He pondered if he should answer honestly. "I guess… it's a part of everyday life. But not in a bad way."
It was out of her control. Everything… came pouring out. All because of a mere phone call.
"My parents have never called me for anything. My dad hates me and I don't know why. My mom is apathetic towards everything. She wouldn't care if someone was dying right next to her." Her arms tightened the wrap around her legs. "My dad just asks me to buy him alcohol and keeps saying I should've been a miscarriage, or that he would kick me out if I wasn't good at fetching him beer… I don't even know what I did wrong. Is it because I exist? Is that it? Cuz I can save everyone a lot of trouble by just jumping!" Her breathing became heavy just as she had calmed down. "I just wanted… I just wanted parents, okay?"
"M-Maybe… Maybe they'll come around?"
Daiyu turned to Kageyama with the coldest eyes she could muster. "…I'd like that to happen, but I learned when I was 8 that something like that would never happen."
"What do you mean?"
Daiyu looked towards the distance, as more water began to drip. "When I was 8… I thought maybe they would start liking me if I became really smart. So I studied, and studied… And studied. I got grades so good that the school wanted to give me an award. It wasn't anything special. Some certificate. And their presence was required. My dad didn't like that. At all. My mom was dragged around like usual. Sour mood all the way through. And on our way back, at night… I noticed my dad didn't slow down when a kid got on the road. He got hit…"
"W-What?!" Kageyama gasped.
"…I yelled. I yelled 'Are you out of your mind?!' and he glared back. I immediately felt like he was going to hit me or something, but no. It was worse. He pulled over and took me out of the car, dragging me to the trunk. And… he gave me a shovel."
Kageyama didn't want to believe it. "You don't mean…"
"'Bury him yourself, if I'm out of my mind' he said. It was the dead of winter, and it had snowed pretty hard. So… There I went. Crying like crazy, I… buried a kid that was just about my age. I… made my way back and… before I knew it, we moved to a different city. Eventually, a different country. Even then, I couldn't hear a police siren without having a panic attack."
"That's…"
"My dad is never going to change. The same goes for my mom. I really don't care about bullying or misfortune… I just wanted parents. Normal ones. Ones that…" She suddenly went from calm to enraged. "Ones that DON'T MAKE THEIR KID DAUGHTER BURY OTHER LITTLE KIDS THEY RAN OVER!" She reached for her shoes and hurled them across the roof, hitting the opposite fence.
She was a mess of emotions. Anyone could see that much.
"…I feel like I should say sorry."
"For what?!" Clearly, the anger wasn't gone. Her glare, now on Kageyama, hurled the sharpest of knives. "Are you the one that ran over that kid? No! Are you the one that buried him? No! Are you the one that keeps berating me for simply existing? No! Are you the one that barely talks and doesn't give a shit about your child? No! You're just the guy that thought it was a good idea to be selfish and not let me end all of this!" Daiyu yelled at the top of her lungs before hiding her face behind her hands and crying once more. "God damn it…"
"…" Kageyama looked up towards the orange sky. While slowly, it was going to turn purple sooner or later. "…I don't think it was a bad idea though."
"Why?!"
"Should your life end before you get to enjoy it?"
"…" Daiyu removed her hands and looked at the boy, unknowing of what to feel.
"You're in a lot of pain. And… yes, you can't just walk away from it. Family is not something you can escape from when young. But… the fact you thought this was the better alternative goes to show that… it's just wrong. So… no, I don't think you should've jumped. But I'm not saying you should go back to that hell hole either."
"…Where should I go then?"
"My mom usually cooks a bit too much for dinner. Would you like to spend the night at my house?"
"Your house?" Daiyu was more surprised than anything else. She sniffled a couple of times, trying to recover from the explosion of feelings she had suffered.
"Yeah. I don't mind. And I'm sure my mom wouldn't either. My dad is probably going to make suggestive comments of some sort. But my little siblings would behave."
Daiyu sniffled once more. "You have siblings?"
"Yeah. Younger pair of twins. Boy and girl. They turned 10 last week."
"…How's it like to have siblings?"
"It's…" Kageyama pondered for a moment. How to answer this question? He smirked a little and just said what came to mind. "It's nice. They can be annoying at times. After all, they're younger than me, and like to be inopportune. Despite being of opposite genders, they get along really well. And… I'd be lying if I said I didn't like their company. It's funny how they ask me for help in video games."
Daiyu's mean face formed a gentle smile. "It does sound nice."
The two remained silent, lasting for quite a while. They didn't know how much time had passed as they pondered over the evening they had gone through.
To think this all happened because Kageyama forgot a book at his desk. As he approached the school, he spotted Daiyu climbing the fence over to the edge. His legs sprinted as fast as they could the moment he noticed it.
"…Sure."
"Hm?"
"I'll… take up on your offer."
Kageyama's lips formed a smile out of relief. "Hope you like pork."
"Hm? A classmate, you say?"
"Do you mind if she sleeps over?" Kageyama asked his mother. And Daiyu couldn't help but find the image in front of her funny. The woman the boy called 'mother' was tiny compared to him, yet he was just as careful as if saying the wrong thing would cause some sort of disastrous misunderstanding.
"Not at all." His mother leaned aside, focusing on Daiyu. "He didn't kidnap you, right?"
The two women laughed, causing Kageyama to blush. "Please avoid saying things like that… You'll give the wrong idea."
Daiyu calmed her laughter and gave an answer. "No, no, he didn't."
"That's a relief." His mother chuckled a little bit more, turning to Kageyama. "You haven't had anyone sleepover since you were a little kid. Can't I wonder what's going on?"
"We-"
Daiyu stepped in. "Your son is helping me study a subject. If I can't do it alone, I might as well ask for help."
"A smart one, I see."
"Hm?" Daiyu turned around. She finally understood what that sensation was… that sensation of being observed by pairs of mischievous eyes! And she quickly spotted a pair of little twins looking at her from the corner of the hallway.
"Big bro brought a girl home…"
"He really did…!"
"Do you think…?"
"No, impossible."
"BOO!"
"AHH!" Without their knowledge, the girl had snuck up and scared them with a loud sound. The two fled to their bedroom.
"Heheheh. Spying isn't a good idea while I'm around."
"Time to dig in."
Daiyu was a little shocked at first. She tried to remember when was the last time she'd had a proper homemade meal. She did cook a little of her own accord and did her best to avoid fast food, but the dish in front of her sure looked like something else.
"Hm? Are you not hungry, dear?"
"O-Oh, sorry. Allow me…" She took a piece and bit on it. She paused for a second. The family of five could feel the suspense growing thicker. But then, she ate another piece. And another. And suddenly, she began swallowing the food like a madwoman. Kageyama's family was a bit taken aback at the image. Once she lowered the plate back onto the table, she was revealed to be crying, shocking them even further. "Dish ish really good…!" The happiness overflowed through her tears.
Kageyama couldn't help but smile a little bit at the event.
"Ahh…" Daiyu flopped onto the futon that had been laid out to her. "Your mom is a master cook!"
"You asked for seconds three times… For the first time ever in this household, there were no leftovers."
The girl giggled awkwardly. "I… couldn't help myself."
"I noticed." Kageyama chuckled a little, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Are you enjoying your stay?"
"I am."
"I'm glad." Kageyama leaned back a little. "I think this is a good temporary solution."
"Hmm… What, am I supposed to camp here for a while?"
"Do you have anything against that?"
"Well… I like it here, sure. But I don't want to be a burden."
"You aren't." Kageyama assured. "Any other worry?"
Daiyu thought for a moment, hugging the pillow she'd later use to rest her head. "…I don't know how my dad will react."
That was when his expression stiffened. "If he tries something, I'll stop him."
"…Thanks." Daiyu buried her head in the pillow, hiding a grateful smile.
The rest was history.
After spending enough time in Kageyama's house, she went through the process of disowning her parents with the help of Kageyama and his family. It took quite a while, but sure enough, she ended up cutting all contact with them. They didn't even try to fight it. She felt, admittedly, a bit disappointed at that. A natural reaction to have. That was the final proof that they truly did not care for her.
As for her relationship with Kageyama… it evolved the more time they spent together.
He was as direct as an arrow piercing bullseye. "Daiyu, I have fallen for you. Would you like to be my girlfriend?"
"W-What?!"
It didn't help that such a thing happened in the middle of the school's hallway. Not the best place for confessions.
However, Daiyu had complete trust in Kageyama. With returning feelings, she said yes.
Once they graduated from high school, the dreading question of 'What are you planning on doing now?' came up.
And they had absolutely no idea. However, a suggestion came up. A bit of a spur of the moment, granted, but it was as good as anything else.
"What about Performances? We both have Cards, right?"
And that's how they ended up here.
Kageyama offered her the glass of water yet again. While Daiyu's current situation was better beyond doubt, the scars of the past were still present within her heart. A pain that was hard to forget. She took a liking to alcohol, which seemed to calm her down, even if only temporarily.
"Thanks." And once more, she drank the water. "…Do you think I should apologize to Shou?"
Kageyama chuckled a little. "He'd end up confused."
"I still feel like I should."
"Then do so. If that's what you feel like you should do, then maybe it's a good idea."
Her lips curled. "Don't you start saying that now, you idiot."
Kageyama tidied up the cutlery and joined Daiyu's side in bed shortly after. "Better?"
"A little."
The bedsheets rustled as Daiyu shuffled closer to Kageyama, trying to nuzzle up against him.
"…You…"
"Hm?"
"You think… I'll be able to make friends here?"
Kageyama was taken aback. Surprised, even. "I thought you were fine as is."
"Maybe… it'd be nice. You know…" She blushed, looking away. "For once…"
Kageyama's arms wrapped around her, drawing her closer. "I get it."
"…Good night."
"Good night."
"…I love you."
"Love you too."
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