Kai Hiwatari - The End Of A Life
Summer '17
Yuriy was trying to study in his room but he kept dozing off. When Kai walked in with a large black bag and dropped it at the foot of his bed he was startled awake by the sound, the book comically falling off his face onto his lap.
"Guess how much that is?" asked a Kai with a battered and bruised but proud face. A cut on the side of his lower lip, a bleeding one near his temple and a quickly purpling right eye.
"You're raking in cash?" Tala moved forward on the bed to grab the bag and lift it, trying to guess how much was in it by its weight. "Half a million yen?"
Kai shook his head, a smile hiking up the side of his mouth. His black hoodie was clean, sleeves rolled up to elbows, leather gloves on his hands, running boots on his feet. If it weren't for the cuts on his face you'd think he was coming back from the gym. "Half a million US Dollars."
Tala unzipped the bag revealing stacks of greens. He whistled low at the sight.
"Most of the viewers are foreigners, dealing in dollars." He moved to toe his boots off as he talked. "There are euros floating around too but the bookkeepers keep all the bets under one currency which means exchange trading is probably going on. More money to make there." His pants joined the boots on the floor as he got ready to take a shower. "But we need to find a place to store at least fifty million in cash first. Banks aren't an option anymore. This money has to be kept hidden."
"What about those storage spaces you can rent?"
"Don't the police have an eye on those?" asked Kai, grabbing a towel.
"I'm not sure," said Tala, meeting his eyes. Kai clicked his tongue, throwing the towel over his shoulder and heading to the bathroom with a pensive look on his face.
Tala picked up his phone and texted 'my room' in the group chat. They showed up one after another within the span of five minutes.
Bryan was the first to come in, sporting an ugly green vest and shorts, scratching his stomach, a textbook balanced carelessly on his right hand. "So are we boycotting this exam or nah?" His gaze fell directly on the half open bag once he was in the room. "Who did he kill tonight?"
"No one," replied Tala. "It's a regular fight. You should probably consider talking to that Warden guy too."
"No need. I'm rich and the school fights alone are plenty entertaining."
Sergei was the last to make it, he looked half-asleep, but when he spotted the bag he woke up fully. "Where'd all that money come from?"
Tala nudged his chin towards the bathroom from where they could hear the shower running. "Half a million US Dollars we need to hide." He got up and zipped the bag. "Putting it under my bed for now but we need to find a place to store all this cash."
"What about one of those rental spaces?" asked Bryan.
Sergei considered it, chewing on his thumb, pacing around the room as he quietly revised. "Could work."
They were brainstorming together till Ian said something that threw them all off.
"It's not our money," he said out of nowhere. "Kai's the one getting beat up. It's his money."
"Great thought, runt," chuckled Bryan. "No one cares."
Tala's face grew pinched, speechless for a minute.
"His money. Our money. Who gives a shit?" asked Sergei. "We have to help him. We've always helped each other. Where's this coming from, Ian?"
"What's that thing on your head, Ian?" Tala snapped. "That's not hair."
"It's hair."
"It's white."
"It's cool," he said, combing fingers through it and taking a seat on the extra bed in Tala's room. "I think it's cool."
Tala rolled his eyes. "Rental space, then?" he prompted, glancing at Sergei.
"Yeah"
"Yeah"
Ten minutes later, Kai was out, clean and fresh. He pulled on a pair of knee-length shorts and a grey sweatshirt, picked out his books to study and sat down at a small desk with a bag of unsalted peanuts.
He chewed on them as he went through his notes. The boys rarely borrowed his notes to study because he had a habit of looking into things outside of the syllabus as well and making elaborate observations on them.
Bryan was lamenting about Chemistry and what a pain in the ass it was. The other boys grumbled with him.
"Want to go around P-Block's mulberry bush?" asked Bryan. Mulberry Bush was a game they played whenever group study turned into a drag. "I'll start. Properties of Nitrogen. Atomic number 7. Yuriy?"
Yuriy looked up from his book and at Bryan, thinking hard. "Atomic mass 14.007. Boiling point...Sergei?"
"Uh...fuck."
"-195.8 degree Celsius," Kai droned, joining in on the game, eyes still on his notebook. "Ian"
"Inert, non-metallic," added Ian. "Bryan"
"Colourless, odorless, tasteless," said Bryan. "Tasteless like Sergei whose dessert goes to Yuriy tonight. Congratulations, Yuriy!"
"Yeah!"
"Round two," Sergei glared. "I'm winning my dessert back."
Kai's lips curved into a light smile.
Julia had changed her hair colour again. Red bangs framed her face as she tied up the rest of her tresses into a high ponytail, sitting next to Kai on a bench in the school grounds on a bright sunny Monday.
It was a free hour for the two of them and Kai had a speech to pen. He was working on his extracurriculars again because he didn't like falling behind anyone on anything. The teachers were delighted to see him putting in effort and participating in events that would not only help him but the school's overall name as well.
He was good at many things but accepting apologies was not his forte and Julia was hell bent on making him take hers.
"I shouldn't have gotten you into it," she was saying. "I was spiralling and you looked the way I didn't want to feel. I wanted to make the two of us feel better. That's not an excuse I know but that was the reason."
"You helped me, Julia," said Kai, while he wrote about the concept of justice in the modern world. "Whether it was the right way to do it or not you helped me get out of that place and I'm thankful for it."
"It could have backfired on you. I could have gotten you to a much worse place."
"But you didn't." He looked up from the paper to lightly smile at her. "You got me into it and out of it. That's all that matters."
"You're giving me too much credit."
"Not any more than you deserve."
Julia snorted, playing with the end of her ponytail, watching the blades of grass around them and lake water before them glisten in the 10 o'clock sun.
Kai finished the last sentence on his final draft and clicked his pen shut, reading the ending paragraph over once more. Justice in the modern world. Julia was still taking a small dose of molly every day to help with withdrawals and cravings. She had strength. A lot of it. Kai respected that.
"What are their names?" he asked her.
Julia glanced at him, her face growing solemn. "Why do you wanna know?"
Kai gave a small shake of his head. "What are you going to do about them, Julia?"
She looked away then, wrapping an arm around herself. "There's nothing I can do. I think it's best to just...forget and move on."
"Forget and move on after what they did to you?" He tapped on the speech with his pen. "You're going to let them walk around laughing while you're still struggling to get over it everyday?"
"Getting back at them is not going to help me."
"No, it's not, but if someone stabs me in the eye, I'll take theirs," he said, looking at the ripples in the water. "I think that's only fair."
Julia glanced down at the speech he'd written. What was in the paper was a milder, peaceful and more eloquent version of what he was saying. There was no violence in the paper, but it was in him.
She went quiet, thoughtful but sad.
In the end he said, "You should do what you think is best for you. But if you ever change your mind," he met her eyes, nodded, "give me their names and I'll help you."
Julia considered him, tilting her head, lightly squinting against the sunlight. "Thank you"
Autumn '17
A week of holidays due to protests against the government gave the boys a chance to escape to the Valkov's private island again. There they got a good feel of the guns they'd stolen from Maxim Kuznetsov.
The first crack of the shotgun firing was so loud the boys flinched, their ears ringing as the bullet missed the target, a beer bottle placed on a boulder on the beach.
Kai whistled. "Damn"
"Earmuffs anyone?" Tala teased, an assault rifle in his hands.
"Pipe down," said Sergei. "It's been a while."
Bryan aimed again, concentrating hard, slowing down his breathing. Kai focused on his target, one similar to Bryan's and fired.
He missed.
The boys booed.
He tried until he hit his mark and the bottle shattered into smithereens in a great shower of glass. The gun felt at home in his arms then. The trigger familiar against his fingers.
"Yeah" Tala hooted and fired multiple shots into the empty beach before him.
Kai took out Sergei's, Ian's and Bryan's targets in revenge for the booing.
"Set them up again!" he called after. "We have more rounds to spend."
When he returned home the day before he had to head back to school, Voltaire was holding a private gathering with government officials in his study.
The security around the property was exceptionally tight and he had no choice but to enter the grounds through the front gates.
He pulled into the parking lot and was hoping to surreptitiously slip past his absently smoking father who was standing in the front lawn staring up at the sky.
Susumu wasn't a regular smoker. He only puffed on a joint when he was in a particularly sour mood.
Despite Kai's efforts, he was noticed right away.
"I see you're taking that car around a lot now," he commented, gesturing towards the Lamborghini he'd gifted Kai two years back.
Kai glanced back at the car and then at Susumu, hands deep in his pockets. "Yeah" He was unsure where this conversation was heading. It wasn't often his father spoke to him, let alone initiated an interaction.
Susumu looked more bitter and forlorn than usual. Kai guessed it might have something to do with him not being included in the private meeting going on inside right now.
"It has a nice rim," his father mused around the cigarette, appraising the car. "Great color."
Kai nodded, slowly trying to edge past and walk into the house.
Susumu stopped him. "Can I talk to you, son?" he asked, looking directly at him for a minute. Kai froze in his tracks then mutely walked back to his father's side, leaving a good amount of space between them.
"I haven't called you to my side in a while, have I?" he asked rhetorically. "You're grown now. And into quite the man I never was," he said, the last three words more to himself than Kai. More bitter than proud. "You're everything my father ever wanted me to be, do you know that?"
Kai didn't know how to answer. His jaw clenched. Teeth almost grinding as he listened to his father go on.
"He was so disappointed in me till you were born. I didn't have a hand in raising you, perhaps that's why you turned out the way you did. Just like him." Kai felt his world slow down when his father looked at him and said once more, in case he didn't hear it the first time. "You're just like him."
"He must be real proud he finally found someone to lead the family after he's gone. All I can say to you is watch your back. We're surrounded by people who want to take everything that we have from us. Trust no one. Not even your own mother or me. There's no real love in this family." He stamped out the cigarette, exhaling heavily. "We better head inside. It's cold and getting late." He started to walk back to the house.
Kai nodded, his heart beating erratically.
"Goodnight, son."
"Goodnight" he said, his voice hoarse because his throat was closing up.
You're just like him. You're just like him.
The stars must have been even farther away that night because it felt like the sky was improbably dark as he roamed around the gated community around his house. The only other families in the community were that of the other boys' so when Kai sat down on a pavement after hours and put his head in his hands Sergei finding him there wasn't unexpected.
"Kai?" he called his name softly, touching his shoulder.
Kai looked up at his friend and glanced down almost as fast when he saw who it was, rubbing his upper arms against the chill.
"Want to talk about it?" Sergei offered after sitting in silence with him awhile.
"Am I like him?" Kai asked quietly, staring hard at the ground.
"Like who?" Sergei urged in his calm, gentle manner he always addressed everything.
"Am I like my grandfather?" He bit his tongue right after asking the question not wanting any more stupid shit to fly out of his mouth.
"You want an honest answer?"
Kai nodded. He could trust Sergei to be truthful. Always.
"You are a bit like him. Your drive, your ambition, that comes from him." Kai felt a lump rise in his throat. "Your smarts. I don't know who your smarts are from but you're like your mother in some ways. Her kindness, her eye for detail. We're all sum of the parts of the people around us, and predominantly the people we grew around. Aren't we? That's not something to beat yourself up over. You're like us a bit too. A lot, to be fair. What?"
Kai shrugged. "Thirty percent?"
"You want a percentage?" asked Sergei.
"Yeah"
"You're may be...ten percent like your grandfather."
"Ten?"
"Just ten."
Kai breathed in and let it out, the tension in his body leaving.
"I know you better than most people. You're alright." Sergei stroked a hand down Kai's back a couple times, before giving him a pat and taking his hand away. "You want to tell me what prompted this mini breakdown?"
"I talked to my father."
"Ah"
Winter '17
Kai was on his way to the dorm from the central library late at night when he received a text from Wyatt, about a paragraph long and sincere.
He was sorry for the way he'd behaved all these years and told Kai that he understood why Kai did what he did to him last Spring. He made it clear that he held no resentment toward him or the other boys and that if anything he was glad he made it known he was making him uncomfortable. His intention, however, was never to raise Kai's ire but he was wrong to have put Kai on a pedestal and worshipped him so. He still looked up to Kai and held great respect for him and hoped he accepted his apology one day.
Kai read the message and didn't reply, but he immediately regretted framing his cousin and having him sent to boarding school.
It seemed he acted out of anger more often than he expected of himself and that was disappointing. His negative feelings toward Wyatt disappeared that night and he resolved to make amends next time they met. But the next time he went home tensions rose within the Hiwatari family more than they ever had.
Spring '18
Coffee at six in the morning was a ritual for him. He drank a cup at four when he woke and then again at six after two hours of working out. He was still averaging three hours of sleep every day and his body was starting to underperform. He needed to get his hands on those sleeping pills because chamomile tea wasn't working anymore. It stopped working a long time ago.
And when at home, his bed was always cold and empty. At least back at the dorm he had company. A warm body to hold close. Maybe it was time he got himself an apartment to stay at during holidays.
"Good morning, Kai," a low and gruff but confident voice snapped him out of his early morning reverie next to the coffee machine. He glanced over his shoulder to see Soichiro taking a seat at the breakfast table, fully dressed in a brown suit and a warm beard-covered smile on his face.
"Morning, grandfather," he replied, picking up his cup and taking a sip at the counter as he watched the maids set the table in a hurry for the head of the household. "Where are you off to so early?" he asked.
"Big day today," said Soichiro, unfolding a napkin on his lap. "We're finally meeting the people from that German company I told you about."
"The Electromotive company?" Kai leant his back against the counter, gears turning in his head as he made small talk.
"Yes, that one." He dug into his eggs with a fork, the yellow yolk running into the bread and meat on his plate and took a bite. "I'll take you with me to meet them next time. Polish your German."
"[in German] My German's good," he replied.
"[in German] That's my boy," he said, smiling proudly. A tiny naive part of Kai preened at the compliment. "Come, take a seat." He invited to sit on the chair next to him.
Kai obliged. The maids set a plate for him as well as he joined his grandfather for breakfast.
All was well and good till Soichiro brought up the topic of college.
"How is your application file for Harvard looking?" he asked. "Have you raised your extracurricular credits?"
Kai must have been feeling brazen that day because he suddenly said, "I'm not aiming for Harvard."
"Mmm?" Soichiro hummed in delight. "Have you set your sights somewhere higher? We all went to Harvard. Let's continue the tradition."
"I'm planning to go to a local university," he said, his voice a little too defiant, a little too boisterous. A little too childish.
Voltaire stared at Kai's face in dumb silence for a minute before bursting out laughing. "Good one! Good one! That was a good one." His brassy laughter grated on Kai's nerves, eyelids shuttering briefly in annoyance.
"I'm being serious," he said softly.
Soichiro looked at Kai this time, eyes wide and sharp, and mouth grim. "You're going to Harvard. I'll make sure you get in."
"I'm not planning to go to Harvard," said Kai, voice slightly raising as he realized he wasn't being taken seriously.
"You're young, Kai. And young people often make mistakes. You will learn soon, but for now you follow the path set for you by the people who know what they're doing."
Kai's teeth clenched, his appetite dying. Arguing with this man was pointless. He wasn't being heard and he was never going to be heard. The only thing he could do was let his actions speak for him. Those would be heard loud and clear. He rose from the table and walked out of the kitchen without finishing the rest of his breakfast.
The frustration from the talk he had with Voltaire that morning bled into the fight at one of the underground clubs that night. And he did make his opponent bleed, punching him out till his knuckles were raw and black entered his vision from the corners of his eyes.
He was in a daze when he got back to his feet in the ring. His competition lying unconscious next to him. The boys had come to see him, and they cheered obnoxiously, coming to his side as he stepped off the ring.
"I need those pills," Kai said as soon as he was off the platform and made his way towards the locker room.
"What pills?" asked Tala.
"Sleeping pills." His vision was clear now but there had been a moment earlier. "My body's growing weak without sleep."
Tala stopped in his tracks, letting Kai go to the locker room with Sergei and Bryan instead. Ian hung back and glanced suspiciously at Tala, who was feeling a faint stab of guilt, remembering the incident with the Yakuza men. To some degrees he blamed himself. And so, he turned to Ian and said, "We need to fake a prescription. Kai knows the name of the drug. We just need a doctor's signed prescription sheet. Ian?"
"I don't know, man."
"Your mom's a doc. Sneak a page or two out of her office, will you? I can do the doctor scrawl."
"Can't we just ask her instead?"
"For a prescription for sleeping pills? Who's taking the fall? You or me? Because it sure as hell isn't gonna be Kai." He checked himself, speaking the next words in a more level tone. "We can't risk the families knowing, especially not his ape grandfather."
Ian worried his lower lip.
"Are you gonna do it or do I have to?" Tala cocked his eyebrows. "I can invite myself over for a slumber party."
"Slumber party?" Ian looked up hopefully. "That might be nice."
Tala smirked. "Pussy"
Voltaire began pulling strings to get Kai into Harvard that spring and when Kai learned of this through his mother's accidental slip of tongue, he was furious.
"Early admissions?" Julia marveled. "Oh wow"
He was hanging out with her at a restaurant after going to see Bryan and Sergei demolish a local football team on their own turf. "It's not happening." Kai shook his head. "I'm leaving after graduation and never returning."
"Where are you planning to go?" asked Julia. "Which university do you have in mind?"
"Toho" Kai said softly. "My grandmother went there."
"Father's side?"
He canted his head in a nod, swirling the little olive in his drink.
"Does Tala know?" Julia's lips curved in a wan smirk.
"No. But he's got family in the alumni. He'll probably end up going there too. We all will."
"You seem so sure."
"Pretty damn sure. I know them as well as I know myself."
"Toho's in my final list of schools. Are we gonna have a reunion at the Tokyo campus?"
Kai looked up and raised a brow.
Julia chuckled, excited at the prospect.
He let a ghost of a smile show on his face.
Mera was ready for her night out with her girlfriends, gold and satin dress on, high heels on her feet, hair in an elegant bun. She was making her way down the hallway to the front door when she saw her son blocking the path with a clear intention.
"What are you doing, Kai?" she prompted, stopping in her tracks confused.
She had no idea where he went these days. He was rarely seen inside the house and tonight he was suited up and she didn't have the first clue whether he was heading to an event or returning from one.
"I want to talk," he said, with a light inscrutable smile.
Mera sighed inside. The one time Kai showed up to talk it had to be on her way to a long awaited get together. She must have had gone way too many seconds without a reply because he urged again, "Let's talk, mother." Gesturing towards a room on the side with a tilt of his head.
So the night was cancelled then. Mera obliged, walking into the room with him following after her.
"There's a shitshow coming up on our graduation day, boys," Tala announced triumphantly, lighting up a cigarette by holding the other end of the bud tucked between his lips to a candle flame on the beer table.
"Graduation day is the day?" asked Bryan overjoyed.
"Graduation day is the day! We finally have a date. Aunt Mera told Kai our families were arranging a surprise party for us at the great Dom Ognya, with the top brass of Japan in attendance, including the honorary minister of education."
An applause went around. Bryan refilled everyone's glasses and waited for the big toast.
"Ladies, Boris is going to jail!" Tala lifted his glass just as Kai walked in. "And this time he will stay there!"
Kai went up to the table to grab a glass as the boys cheered. "Voltaire is over!" he toasted.
"Voltaire is over!" They celebrated and drank.
Summer '18
"Boris is our warden," informed Ian.
"What the fuck," cursed Bryan.
"What the fuck?" Sergei's mouth fell open.
"He's giving a speech downstairs. Yuriy is dying and Kai is gagging."
"What the fuck. Voltaire, that cursed son of a bitch never quits, does he?"
"How did he manage to get a known criminal hired as a hostel manager?"
"I'm going to murder him in his sleep."
"What do we do?" Ian sagged against the door, panicking already.
"Ian, calm down. He can't do shit to us in here," Sergei comforted.
"We're not 8 anymore, Ian. I can bench press five times that runt's weight. He's not touching us, I promise."
Tala burst in then. Kai right behind him. "The speech is over," Tala said. "I feel like throwing up." He crashed face first onto one of the beds.
Kai was silent for a few minutes as the others swore and wished every bad thing on the earth on Boris and Voltaire. "There are going to be journalists at the graduation party," he said. "They're not getting away this time. At least one of them is going to prison for sure."
Autumn '18
Kai's love language was giving gifts to people. He believed actions spoke louder than words and when he ran out of words to give to someone, he gave them things he thought they might covet instead.
And when it came to apologies, he resorted to a smaller version of this gesture.
He held the cup of latte out to Wyatt, leaves of trees swaying around them in the park.
"Thank you," Wyatt accepted the drink with a smile.
"I acted out of anger," said Kai. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve it."
"No, don't apologize. It's fine. I was stupid to not have realized I was bothering you sooner." He took a sip, licked his lips. "Mmm, this is good." Kai'd made it himself. "And the school is great. I love it. Its reputation paints it out to be an ugly place, but it's not."
"You've made friends?"
"A lot of them," said Wyatt, beaming.
Kai smiled. Wyatt had grown too. He wasn't the scrawny, desperate boy he once was anymore. He'd developed confidence in himself and some part of Kai surprisingly felt proud.
"So, how long do you have before you have to go back?" asked Kai, continuing the conversation which would go onto last for over two hours.
The boys reaped the most benefits out of Kai's gifting habit. He gave away the things he wanted for himself to one of the boys time and time again. Sometimes these gestures were small, like letting them have the last piece of a tasty dish, or helping them with their projects before finishing his own, or giving them his car to drive. And sometimes these gestures were big, like choosing to give away a part of his soul to save theirs and expecting nothing in return.
Winter '18
"Kai, get in here!" Susumu yelled from his home office as Kai passed by its doors. He paused immediately. His father had never once shouted or used that tone with him before.
He stopped by the door and waited as Susumu got up from his chair and strode towards him with lines of worry across his forehead.
"Where have you been getting funds from?" he stepped close to whisper to Kai. "You haven't withdrawn money from any of your accounts for over three years."
"I've been using one of my mother's," Kai lied easily.
"Why?"
"To save up some for myself. What if there was an emergency?"
Susumu frowned. "What? You have an inheritance. This is all going to be yours one day. You don't need to save up for anything and you and I both know this so stop with the bullshit. Be honest," he hissed. "What have you been up to? Where are you getting the money from?"
"Why does it matter to you?"
Susumu grabbed him roughly by his elbow. "Your grandfather asked me to look into all of our finance records and yours have been inactive or rather untraceable for years. He knows something's up. He is suspecting us. You better talk to me now."
"Why should I?"
"I'm your father!"
"'There is no love in this family. Trust no one.' You said that yourself."
"If you're planning to run away, know that there is no place on earth you could hide from him. You don't know what he is capable of. He will drag you back from whatever hole you crawl into himself."
"I think I know better than you."
"All this pride over what? Over what Kai? You have everything! Why try to throw it away?"
"I have everything only as long as I do exactly what I'm told to. The minute I put a toe out of line I have nothing. It may be a golden cage but it's still a cage."
"There is no such thing as a poor rich man, Kai."
"And so you've been brainwashed into thinking."
Susumu pushed his elbow away with a frustrated 'tch'. "Don't be a fucking idiot and get us all into trouble." It was obvious that his father was scared and panicking. He had no words of comfort or confession for him because at the end of the day his father was no one's ally except his own.
Kai held his gaze silently for a moment before walking away.
"Master Kai, where are you off to?" the security demanded, blocking his way as he was about to exit the dorm.
"The library," drawled Kai.
"It is almost 9 pm, sir." The man kept his hand extended, as if he thought Kai was going to make a break for it if he took his arm away from the door.
"I have an exam tomorrow." He'd fallen asleep at noon that day for around three hours when he should have been studying. He'd woken up late in the morning. The sleeping pills were wreaking havoc on his internal clock and messing up his daily routines. Then there was Boris and his newly appointed security guards monitoring the students that were going in and out of the dorm like they were inmates. "I need to study."
The man removed his hand from the doorway and stepped aside. "Have a productive evening, master Kai."
Kai sighed as he made his way out. They were calling him by his name. These guards were probably vetted by Voltaire himself.
He couldn't wait for the academic year to end and his high school life to be over.
Kai was leaning with his hand braced against the side of the bridge when Ozuma pulled up in his car. The short man stepped out soon after shutting the engine off, hat on, snake tattoo visible under his cuff, the toes of his boots curled and pointy. The shoes tap-tap-tapped on the asphalt as he strode up to Kai.
"Ozuma" Kai straightened, dug a key out of his pocket. "Any news?"
"Nothing important."
"Hm" Kai paused, then he held out the key. "I want all three we talked about. Men to stand on guard too. I'm giving you the key to 5.1 million US dollars. I want every dollar spent well."
"You got it," Ozuma reached for the key. Kai held onto it for a moment.
"Bryan will come with you," he said as Bryan stepped out of Kai's car and closed the door. "Just in case you consider running with the money."
Ozuma's narrow eyes flicked to Bryan and hardened as soon as they settled upon him. "I won't"
"Good" He let go of the key.
Entrance examinations were right around the corner and if he didn't get a perfect score on all the tests and top Toho's list of candidates, he would never live down the shame, not after rejecting his grandfather's offer for Harvard.
He was working overtime and his body kept powering down at the most inconvenient of times. The pills were kicking his ass.
Yet alarms didn't go off in his head till he happened to doze off in the examination hall and a girl from his grade came to wake him up.
"Kai-kun?" He felt a tap on his shoulder. "Kai-kun, everyone else has left the hall."
Kai's eyes opened and he lifted his head, confusion washed over him as he looked around the empty desks and chairs. "Where's everyone else?"
"The exam ended ten minutes ago. You fell asleep."
"I'm sorry, do you know how long I was out?"
The girl shook her head. "The invigilator took your paper while you were sleeping."
Did he not finish the exam? Kai shot out of the chair, thanked the girl, apologized to her for leaving in a hurry, she said she understood and he hurried out of the hall with his things.
The invigilator wasn't hard to find. He hunted her down easily enough and apologized for his behavior during the examination. She told him not to worry and that he was probably tired from studying hard the night before.
"Did I finish the exam?"
"You did." The teacher smiled. "I checked your paper. You answered all the questions. Don't worry. You did well."
A relieved breath escaped him. He nodded, bowed twice and thanked her again before taking his leave.
"I don't know how I did. I can't recall. The pills are shit." A headache was splitting his skull in two. He was in the gym, a warm towel draped around his neck for his aching muscles from the awkward sleeping position on the desk earlier.
"If you bombed the exam, it's over for you," said Bryan, giggling through the line in the group phone call.
"Bryan, please-" Tala face-palmed.
"I heard Julia saying she did better than she thought she would," informed Ian. "If she takes the top spot this time, she'll break your streak."
"If Julia did well, I'm happy."
"'Happy', my ass," Bryan chuckled. "Voltaire will never let you live it down."
"I'm leaving home after the graduation party. He and I won't see each other again in this lifetime if I can help it."
"He'll phone you from prison to nag at you. 'I told you I'd book a place for you at Harvard. You just had to accept. And now you've thrown your life away.'"
"You've got it backwards, Bryan," said Tala. "Voltaire won't be phoning Kai for a long time after graduation party. He's not gonna want to see or hear from Kai. He'd be delighted to hear any bad news about Kai's future."
Kai massaged his temple. "Two weeks until graduation and the party. I'm thinking of not taking the pills for a while."
"That would be a bad move," said Sergei. "Best not fuck with your sleeping pattern again till all this storm blows over. You need the rest. Stop beating yourself up over dozing off a few times. I'm sure you did as excellent as usual on the exam."
"Aww, Sergei," Tala cooed. "How cute."
"Gay" Bryan coughed.
Kai rolled his eyes.
Ian snickered.
"Did that make you feel better, Kai?" asked Tala, still at it. "Did Sergei soothe all your worries and concerns? Do you need a back massage from me too?"
"You guys are such shits," cursed Sergei.
Kai suppressed a smile, the headache fading to the background for a moment as the boys continued to jab at each other.
"They're out! They're out!" Bryan screamed early at eight in the morning, startling all the boys out of bed. They scrambled for the ground floor towards the main hall where the results for the final high school exam were posted on a giant LED screen on the wall.
The list was long and the font was small, so they still had to fight people off to see who was sitting at the top.
1 - Kai Hiwatari
Kai closed his eyes in relief first at the sight of his grade before continuing to read the rest of the list.
2 - Julia Fernandez Rodriguez
3 - Tala Valkov
"The streak wasn't broken," Ian whispered in awe. "And I'm number 10. Wow."
"Bryan, you're five!"
"I'm five? Holy fuck!"
"One down, three more to go," Kai said to himself. Toho's entrance exams were being held later than usual this year which meant he was passing high school before his university future was secured when it was normally the other way around.
The entrance exams passed without any big surprises. Kai had to give a speech facing the entire school and their parents and alumni at the graduation ceremony. Julia whooping and clapping in the crowd along with all his other friends at the end of his speech.
The sun was shining brightly that day. The birds singing pretty songs. Kai was showered with honor after honor for being one of the most excellent students they'd ever had at the school. He bowed deeply in gratitude after accepting his accolades and climbed off the stage to loud applause.
There was a farewell event held after the ceremony and the class took tons of pictures to commemorate their time together.
Julia ended up getting cake all over her hair, thanks to Tala. He snapped a bunch of photos of her in her ruined gown and messy cream-filled bun. Kai escaped the event ten minutes after joining and spent his time overlooking the school grounds from the rooftop. The boys found him later, Julia with them. They ended up spending hours reminiscing about all the fun they had the past few years and sharing stories about the times they didn't get to share with Julia.
The night somehow ended with the entire class leaving school later, and getting up to every kind of shenanigan till dawn. Simply escalating and escalating till things were completely out of hand. Ten students got arrested for vandalizing private property. Three were caught bumping uglies in a public area. Kai, Julia and their group went skinny dipping, set fireworks off at the beach, hot-wired someone's truck and rode it all over town violating traffic regulations and crossing safety laws.
At one point in the long night, Julia climbed up on a tire swing and it flipped over, sending her toppling onto the grass in the park. Tala made an aborted attempt to save her, he caught himself before it was too late but Kai had it on film. Blackmailing material saved and stored safely in his gallery.
Bryan rolled Sergei off a hill. Ian found a child's scooter and tied it to a large number of helium balloons he'd bought from a store next door and got it to fly.
Kai somehow managed to convince someone to rent a waterpark to him and his classmates for the night, and spent hours swimming and diving.
He was sat dripping water at a pool's side when he suddenly got a call from Ozuma. "All set," Ozuma said as soon as he picked up.
"Thank you" he replied.
This was it. In less than forty-eight hours his life of living under his grandfather's thumb would be over. And a new life would begin. One where he had absolute freedom, and no one could wrong him again.
The stylist was fixing Kai's tie as his mother talked to him in his bedroom. The other boys were getting ready in the same place as well, each being tended to by their own stylists.
"You will have to say a few words, Kai," said Mera.
"Why me? Put Valkov on stage." He leant back a bit after saying it to look at Tala's face. "He'd be wonderful at it."
He didn't get a verbal snap in return instead he was met with a calm middle finger.
Kai smirked, glancing back at the mirror. The stylist touched a sprayed comb to tame a stray hair on the side of his head.
"Don't be silly, Kai," admonished Mera. "We're the hosts and you're my son, who graduated with honours yesterday. You will give the speech."
"Alright" Kai murmured. "Save the lecture."
"I think that's enough, Lydia. He looks perfect."
"Okay, ma'am." The stylist stepped away. Kai hollowed his cheeks, feeling around his mouth with his tongue.
"I'm parched," he said.
"There's some juice in the decanter."
"That's juice?" Bryan exclaimed as Kai reached for it. "I thought that was beer. For the nerves."
"No beer tonight," replied Mera. "You're all model students, remember. Ideal youths. Wipe your mouth, Kai."
"Goddamn, mom."
"A new concept," muttered Tala. "A new image everyday."
"Save the sass for later, Yuriy. Your mother's waiting for you in the grand hall already."
Tala nodded in polite agreement.
"That's enough, boys. Time to go. Come on." Mera exited the room, and the stylists followed, the boys right behind them.
Kai closed the door before Yuriy could make it out for a last minute chat.
"Feeling alright?" he asked. "You look a little pale."
"Must be the make up," Tala joked, but his words were a bit hurried.
Kai gazed at him, waiting patiently.
Tala exhaled, worry in every part of his face. "Whatever happens," he said, looking at Kai, an oath in his eyes. "I've got your back. We've got your back, remember that."
Kai nodded silently, a small smile on his face.
Yuriy's gaze fell to Kai's waist. "Are you carrying?"
"Light"
"I packed one too. Just in case." He took a big breath and let it out heavily. "Ready?" He looked at Kai.
"Ready" He opened the door.
He felt nervous. A tingle buzzing under his skin as the esteemed guests gave their speeches on the podium. His gaze found the fountain in the middle of the hall every five minutes. The sight of the artfully flowing water soothing somehow.
He was in the front row. Next to his parents, one on each side. His mother looked over at him to check up on him every now and then.
Camera flashes were timed, relentless and assaulting on his eyes.
The Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, General Yu Tamagachi was present at the event. Kai clapped politely along with everyone else after he was done with his few words. It would be Kai's turn soon and he had a piece of paper with a readymade speech in it that he was supposed to memorize. His mother had handed it to him, told him to study it word for word.
He had taken only one look at it so far.
The Chief of Staff was someone Kai had written a personal invitation to. It was sent with several other handwritten ones, one from Voltaire himself. But there were people in attendance that were here solely on Kai's request and he was glad they showed up.
To be honest, he wasn't expecting them to even give his letters a read.
The last person to give a speech before Kai was Soichiro Hiwatari and Kai smiled beatifically at him before getting up from his chair and climbing up the short set of steps to the stage.
Cameras flashed in his face when he faced the crowd and accepted the microphone from Soichiro. His grandfather had had it taken off the podium because he was short and this gave Kai the opportunity to stand tall and free without a podium restricting him.
"Good evening," he began, the little note in his hand scrunched up and ignored. The first half of the speech went smoothly and as expected of him. He made his promises to work hard, to be a model citizen and so on and so forth. A tiny story about his struggles during the entrance examinations most of which were lies and inventions.
Then it was time for him to thank people and thank he did. He thanked his mother, his father, his teachers, his friends, the school officials, the seniors who graduated last year, everyone he could think of till only one person was left.
"And finally," he said. "I'd like to thank my grandfather." He paused, his heartbeat picking up. "For all the sacrifices he made to raise me well. For all the hours he spent with me in his study, clearing doubts and confusions I had. For doing whatever was possible to get me the best education Japan had to offer. For teaching me to never limit myself and keep pushing on, determined and fearless, just like him. For the sacrifice he made eleven years ago, when I was eight, choosing me and my four closest best friends, my brothers, and sending us to his special summer school…" his throat began getting dry as his voice grew loud in his ears, "every summer. The same school that was temporarily closed due to disturbing allegations." The audience watched on, clueless, not anticipating what was coming, everyone except Mera whose face was suddenly drained of all colour. Her eyes pleaded with him silently. Don't do it. Don't do it.
He looked away.
"At the school they taught me and my brothers how to be men. How to fight, lead and face situations. These lessons molded me and my brothers into the men that we are today. We are strong, fearless, and cunning but we are also broken." It took a moment, but no one was taken aback. "Scarred from what was done to us in there." He saw Soichiro move in his chair out of the corner of his eye. He felt him watching him. He felt his confusion. He felt his growing anger. He saw the puzzlement in the audience's faces now. They were confounded. "From the ages of 8-11 we were put through extreme methods of education that could classify as abuse. We were taught not to cry, not to scream, not to move a muscle as they burned pieces of us away. Literally and figuratively. Burned away our innocence, our joys, our fears, our passions and desires for anything other than what my grandfather wanted." Soichiro rose then, angry. Well Kai was angry too. He'd been angry for a long, long time.
"The allegations were true. We were under Boris Hiwatari's care, and late one night, I stumbled upon something that I found hard to stomach at the age of 11. There were orphans at that school that that man," he pointed so the audience would know, "Third row, fifth from the left, was exploiting. I happened to see it and I was silenced-" The microphone was torn out of his hands by Soichiro.
"Apologies," he spoke into the mic hastily, his eyes blazing on Kai. "My grandson is not feeling well tonight. He has no idea what he is saying. These were things that happened a long time ago and at a very young age. He is clearly not recollecting it properly."
"'Not recollecting it properly'. Do you remember this?" He held up his hand, where the skin had newly healed and scarred again. "Do you remember taking me to a hospital to cover up scars after a surgery because you had given me second degree burns? Do you not remember it? Because the surgeon who did it is here today."
Soichiro switched off the mic, enraged. "What the hell are you doing, Kai? Are you out of your mind? Get off the stage now." He tried to put a hand on his arm. Kai stepped away.
"No" he raised his voice and he was loud enough to be heard across the hall without a mic. "You're not silencing me today. Let the world know what you and your little henchman Boris did to children barely 12 years of age. You abused me. You abused my brothers." The Valkovs, the Petrovs, the Kuznetsovs and the Papovs were all shocked and asking for confirmation from their children. "You abused orphans who had no one to protect them and successfully kept it a secret."
The cameramen were filming and the journalists were scribbling furiously across their pads. Several members of the audience were murmuring among themselves, asking if it was true, and surely, his own grandson wouldn't lie about him? Not the heir of the empire himself. What did he stand to gain by putting up a show except justice for the crimes that were committed against him?
The Chief of Staff, General Tamagachi stood up then. He was sitting on the stage along with several other important figures all this time. "Is this true, Soichiro?" he asked, wrinkles across his forehead. "What are we hearing right now? These are serious allegations."
Soichiro turned to answer the man with a string of lies and bullshit.
Mera was crying. Her husband patting her back with a dumbfounded expression. The other boys' families were scandalized now.
"He's a son of a bitch," Bryan yelled from the crowd all of a sudden. "Don't let him get away."
"Where is the decorum?" Tala asked Bryan. All decorum was out the window as Kai and Soichiro had a standoff in front of some of the most important people in Japan.
The other boys' parents rushed to the stage to confront Soichiro themselves. With the press, officials and parents all huddled together the space was getting crowded. Kai was getting angrier with every silly word that fell out of his grandfather's mouth.
"The doctor's here. Ask him yourself. He's got documents to prove the visit and the surgery." Kai signaled for the plastic surgeon to join the other people on the stage as well and it was truly a shit show now.
"Is it true?" asked General Tamagachi. "Was Kai hospitalized at your- your hospital?"
"Yes" answered the doctor with utmost respect.
"To remove burn marks?"
"Yes"
"He's lying!" said Voltaire. "Clearly my competitors are paying him to say these atrocious things. Why would I hurt my own grandson?"
"It's your grandson making these accusations!" the General pointed out.
"It's a habit of his. He's made absurd accusations before. He does these things when he doesn't get his way. He doesn't want to go to Harvard and I'm making him. That's all this is about. Please, everybody, sit down. Let's continue this evening peacefully."
"From what I have seen and heard of him so far, your grandson seems to be an outstanding and determined student," said the General. "A respectable young man."
"He's telling the truth," the surgeon vouched.
A gentle hand touched his arm. "Kai, did he really hurt you children?" asked Dr Valkova.
Kai gave a quick nod. Dr Valkova exchanged outraged looks with her daughter Yelena. The fountain caught Kai's eye again.
"Kai, take back your words now," warned his grandfather. "Tell them you're lying."
"I'm not."
"If you don't, I'm throwing you and your parents out of my house this instant."
Kai snorted. "I wasn't planning on staying a second longer in this shit hole anyway." He met his grandfather's hard stare brazenly, not backing down, then his gaze shifted to the General's and he said, "He's a criminal. Arrest him and Boris."
Soichiro burst out laughing. "This is ridiculous. They can't arrest me without solid evidence, dear child."
"I don't care whether you stay in or out as long as everyone knows about what you did." He turned around then, not wasting another breath on his grandfather and climbed off the stage.
General Tamagachi was still questioning Soichiro when Kai stopped by his parents' side and gave them a set of keys and a note.
His mother stood up. A handkerchief held to her teary face. "What have you done?" she demanded. "I told you- I begged you not to. How many times, Kai? And this is what you do to us."
"Take the keys, mother. They're for your new home."
Susumu's eyes fell upon the keys and his brows furrowed. "What does this mean?"
"This is me keeping my promise to you," he said to his mother. "Take the keys. The address is in the note."
Mera reached out hesitantly, disbelief written all over her features. When the keys and the note finally left his hand, Kai breathed out properly for the first time that night.
"I hope you forgive me someday," he said, and walked away from them.
On his way out, he threw a lighter into the fountain, setting off an explosion, the flames reaching high and far and licking the ceiling, immediately setting the tall drapes and tapestries on fire. People screamed and scrambled for the exits. The Dom Ognya was finally, finally burning down.
Soichiro's name was soiled. Boris would be going to jail. And his parents were free.
He was free.
A/N: Yay! I did it! I honestly didn't think id be able to upload this today. Been trying to push this out since august bruh. Finally! *clap clap clap* so fucking proud. And the word count too? Amazing. So much good stuff coming up. This was the last boring chapter I promise. I hope it wasn't too boring however and it was a very important chapter. Lots of things happened. I would love to hear all your thoughts on it! Your words always make me happy and gets me motivated. And yes all requests are noted. I will try to sneak things in here and there. Lots of love to everyone! Especially Becso. I miss you baby. I will write to you soon. And by soon i mean this week.
Hope I get to see you again soon. Hope we all get to see Tyson soon as well. I miss my favourite boy.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for reviewing. This is my happy place. *hands you my heart*