A/N: Oh, how I love this one. It's so very long, but to me it was worth it. Also, fun fact: it has spoilers for The Potter's Son in it. Which is, in fact, coming out soon. Be prepared.
Thanks for all new follows, faves, and reviews! And shoutout to Zain for getting an account! I've been rambling to him about this fic since I started it back in '15. There's more Otonashi/Kanade married fluff where that came from, I assure you. :) I hope this upcoming reunion is to your and Rival Argentica's liking! I certainly had fun with it. ^^
Enjoy!
[Chapter 07]: Meeting Anew
"Hey Naoi," Hinata said, nudging him in the side. "What's it feel like knowing you're gonna see Yurippe in less than two hours?"
He was sitting in the passenger seat of Ayato's car, much to the latter's displeasure, while Otonashi and Kanade were snuggled up all cozy in the backseat with their bags. Hinata certainly wasn't his first choice for passenger seat, but the dolt seemed to be making the most out of it.
"Don't touch the driver," said Ayato, his eyes on the road ahead and his hands planted firmly on the steering wheel. At the moment, his fingers twitched with the urge to swat at him.
"I'm just wondering." Hinata leaned back in his seat, while Ayato used his peripheral vision to suspiciously keep a close watch on his companion's feet, lest they end up on the dashboard. "Most guys go out of their way to avoid their ex-wives."
Ayato just grunted. Through the rearview mirror, he caught a glimpse of Otonashi smiling in the backseat.
"Did you mean what you said yesterday?" Hinata asked. Although he was getting himself comfortable for a nap, he opened one eye. "About trying to make things right with her?"
"It's like I said." Ayato slowed to a stop at a red light, but still didn't look away from the road as he fell back in his seat. "I'd like a little closure."
Hinata began to grin. "Closure," he echoed with a scoff. "Try 'you miss her and can't stand any more of her not speaking to you.'"
Rolling his eyes, Ayato gunned it as soon as the traffic light allowed. "I swear. I'm sure you've all missed her too. Why are you three so obsessed with getting me to admit that I miss her?"
"Because it means that it mattered."
If rule number one in this car was "don't touch the driver," then rule number two should be "don't shock or confuse him either." Ayato shot a quick glance at Kanade through the rearview mirror, quirking an eyebrow and hoping his bewilderment could carry through the reflection. "That what mattered?"
"The life you had here with Yuri," she said. "The memories you made with her in this life."
Ayato harrumphed. "How do you know it's not the Battlefront Yuri I miss?"
Otonashi looked up from his book in interest. "Do you?"
"Of course I do," said Ayato, scoffing. "I'm with all of you now because I want to go find the girl I graduated with too. I wasted my last reunion with Yuri divorcing her. If you don't mind, I'd rather replace those memories."
"Aww!" Hinata reached over and mussed Ayato's hair. "Listen to this guy! He does care!"
"I will unbuckle you and hit the brakes!"
Hinata threw his hands up in surrender and backed off, but made no effort to hide his smirk as he turned to face the window. Ayato heard the unmistakable sounds of texting, shortly followed by Otonashi's phone buzzing. He rolled his eyes. How childish. But whatever made him shut up. He was slightly cheered when whatever the text said made Otonashi roll his eyes as well.
They drove out of Mizuzaka in silence for the most part, and silence followed as they passed through Mikage. The other three were either reading or lost in thought, which left Ayato to listen to his own. He tried to keep them strictly on driving, but his nerves were getting to him.
He gripped the steering wheel tightly. The distance between him and Noroi was rapidly decreasing, and more and more he wondered what exactly he was getting himself into. The "leaving town" gesture had been a big fat "leave me alone" sign and he was blatantly defying it. This was a risky move. He tensed up as soon as he read the sign ahead of him: Noroi, 50 km.
"Naoi," Otonashi said. He flashed him a reassuring grin when Ayato glanced in the rearview mirror at him. "I think she's going to be glad to see you."
Ayato chuckled softly. "She'll take one look at me and slam the door in our faces."
"Oh, she will not." Otonashi turned the page in his book. "For all you know, she's missed you just as much as you've missed her."
"Then why haven't I heard from her?" Ayato retorted.
"Because like you, Yurippe's way too proud for her own good," Hinata quipped, still staring out the window.
Kanade nodded. "Obstinate too."
"Chances are, just the fact that you've come to see her is going to at least impress her," said Otonashi, shrugging.
"And if that's not enough," Hinata piped up, turning to join the conversation, "you've helped us find her. Reuniting her with her best friends should score you a few brownie points."
In absolutely no possible lifetime would Ayato ever say "you're right" to Hinata out loud, but his and Otonashi's words made a respectable amount of sense. Ayato lightened his hold on the steering wheel.
Maybe what he was feeling wasn't as much anxiety as it was hope.
Noroi, 40 km.
Noroi, 25 km.
Noroi, 10 km.
Kanade had fallen asleep against Otonashi's shoulder by the thirty kilometer mark, and Otonashi was stroking her hair.
Those two… They had it so easy.
"Did you ever find Yui?" The words slipped out before he could stop them. Hinata turned to look at him, mildly floored by the question.
"Oh, right. I did tell you about that, didn't I? When we were setting up for graduation." He laughed lightly, then his eyes got a faraway look in them. "Yeah. Just like Otonashi and Kanade, and you and Yurippe, it happened before we got our memories back. We met in high school. My baseball didn't go through her window, but it did narrowly miss hitting her in the face."
"Bravo," Ayato said, snickering.
Hinata smirked sheepishly. "Yeah, I was just lucky some girl dove in and caught it before it could do any damage. Don't remember who she was or what she looked like, but her killer reflexes made our first meeting very memorable where it could've been tragic. I could've shattered Yui's nose."
"When I met Yuri, she shattered my pottery." Ayato shook his head at the memory. All those vases in pieces on the floor of his father's shop… He thought he'd seen his life flash before his eyes. "It was an accident, of course. I yelled at her for five minutes and she cut her finger on one of the shards trying to pick them up even after I told her not to bother. Bled all over the floor."
"I guess a great way to meet women is by almost or indirectly injuring them," Hinata mused.
Otonashi made a face. "I don't like the sound of that."
"I'm only kidding, Otonashi," Hinata said with a chuckle, cutting himself off when he caught Ayato's similarly disapproving glare. "Even though when you and Kanade met, she stabbed you right through the heart, and you shot her in the stomach." Cue Otonashi protesting that that was in the Afterlife. "But anyways, I didn't hit Yui in the face, and after she yelled at me for a minute we actually had a laugh about it. We hung out a lot after that, became friends without trying to kill each other…"
A scoff in the backseat from Otonashi.
"Okay, there may have been a few locks," Hinata conceded, grinning and rubbing the back of his head.
"90% of them done by Yui," Otonashi chimed in.
"So she tells you!" Hinata shot back defensively, wriggling against his seatbelt to turn around and glower at Otonashi. With an exasperated huff, he settled back in his seat. "As I was saying, Yui was as big a music and tv fan as ever. She became an Iwasawa groupie all over again, and took me to see the concert with her, since she actually came to play in our city." Fondness smoothed his features as he examined his ring finger. "I asked Yui to marry me as soon as I remembered her."
The smirk that had followed Otonashi's accusations slowly vanished from Ayato's face. "I see. So, why isn't she with you now?"
Hinata shrugged softly. "This is a graduation reunion. Yui understands. We had our people we wanted to find, and she had hers." He glanced down at his phone. "We haven't been apart for that long, anyway. And we've called and texted each other since I left. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, y'know?"
"I suppose it does." He creased his brow in thought. "Who does Yui want to find?"
"GlDeMo, mostly," Hinata said dismissively. He laughed then, shaking his head. "She bets she can find them before we do."
Otonashi laughed too. "I wouldn't put it past her."
It was at this point that Kanade raised her head from Otonashi's shoulder, emerging from her slumber as quickly as she had fallen into it. After yawning and rubbing her eyes, she leaned over Otonashi's lap and gazed out the window.
"Oh," she said, faint traces of sleep still in her voice, "we're here."
Sure enough, the Noroi sign welcomed them just ahead. Ayato coasted past it, trying to ignore the sudden ruckus that had started up in the car. Seeing the sign had suddenly made things very real.
"Okay, okay, how are we going to do this?" Hinata said eagerly, wriggling around in his seat again like a little kid and twisting up his seatbelt. "Maybe we should freak her out, like bang on the door and pretend it's an abduction."
"Even I can tell you why that's a bad idea," Ayato drawled.
"Oh, right. Memories." Hinata smacked himself in the forehead, something Ayato briefly wished he'd gotten the honor to do. "Alright, fine. What about this? We could ring her doorbell and leave a bag of—"
"Hinata!" Otonashi scolded. "No pranks!"
"Lighten up, Otonashi! This is our chance to have some fun!" When Otonashi wouldn't budge, Hinata switched his attention to the former Angel. "Kanade, you agree with me, don't you?"
Kanade merely blinked at him. "Hinata, I was student body president in the Afterlife. Do you remember how I felt about pranks?"
Making a dismissive growling noise, Hinata waved them both away and turned back to the front. "Bah… I miss Yui." He made a few grumbled comments under his breath about "Mr. and Mrs. Stick in the Mud" and "the hell with you two."
"It's still going to be fun!" said Otonashi, grinning. "Come on, Hinata. Can't you get excited to see Yuri without scarring her for life?"
"I guess," Hinata muttered.
They continued this discussion for the next ten minutes, Ayato half-listening while he followed Kanade's printed out directions through the twists and turns of the streets. And then he cut into their conversation with an "okay, Mahou Complex Drive, now all of you shut up and help me look."
9319 Mahou Complex Drive was an attractive, cozy buttercup-colored two-story at the far end of the road. Without too many trees to shade it, the shine of the sun and the contrast against the vivid blue of the sky made the house look almost golden. This was it. This was where Ryou told them she'd gone.
Hinata pointed to the garage. "That her car?"
"Unless someone else moved in with one just like it," Ayato confirmed.
Otonashi, Hinata, and Kanade burst out of their respective car doors the second he parked. Even Kanade was sprinting full-force to the front door. Ayato scoffed, smirking as he got out of the car and trailed after them. It was like babysitting a trio of excited little children. At least they knew she was home.
Hinata got to the door first; he ignored the doorbell, and by the time Ayato wandered up next to Otonashi, he was pounding his fist against the wood of the door. As aggressively as if he were a police officer doing a raid.
"Don't break it down," Kanade warned, a bit startled by his force.
"That's rich, coming from you," Ayato said.
That was when they heard the footsteps. Light footsteps, a couple of seconds' worth. What followed was a voice, distant and muffled as if coming from the middle of a staircase.
"Geez, I'm coming! Who the hell is it?"
Otonashi snickered, while Ayato suppressed a smirk. They had to be all thinking the same thing—now didn't that dulcet tone sound familiar?
Hinata accentuated his presence with one last rapid POUND-POUND-POUND.
"Open the door, Yurippe!" he said. He and the other three backed up off the porch onto the walkway.
The footsteps resumed, swifter and heavier than before (a familiar thud told Ayato that she'd leaped over the last two stairs). If Hinata hadn't knocked the door loose, it might as well have been almost yanked off its hinges when it swung open to reveal the fifth and final member of the Afterlife Graduation group, who cried out in joyful disbelief.
"Oh my God, you guys!"
"Yuri!"
From the flurry of magenta as she flew out to greet them, and the bright smile that matched the euphoric sparkle in her emerald eyes, Ayato was beginning to take back any fears or regrets he had about coming here. Her delight upon seeing them all standing outside her door was contagious; he himself felt a grin on his face, and wasn't sure how long it had been there.
Yuri even hugged Kanade with such enthusiasm that she lifted the girl off her feet—not too hard to do, considering Kanade's size, but still touching.
She was happy. He hadn't seen her like this since… well, since they got their memories back.
He didn't expect her to hug him. She'd flung herself into Otonashi's and Hinata's arms, and he felt an annoying twinge of envy and wanting in his own, but the polite smile she'd sent his way afterward was more than he'd asked for.
So she was being civil. Things were off to a good start.
"What are you all doing here?" Yuri asked breathlessly, amused and more than a little pleased. "How'd you find me?"
"Your friend R—" Hinata started, but then Ayato elbowed him in the side. If Ryou had been nice enough to keep from calling Yuri in advance, he didn't want to snitch on her for telling him where she was. "Um. Anonymous tip," he finished, and Ayato and Otonashi simultaneously rolled their eyes. Phonebook. Family. Anything else could have worked.
Otonashi stepped in for him next. "We wanted to bring the whole Battlefront back together, now that we have our memories of each other," he explained, then gestured to the rest of them. "So we figured we'd start by reuniting the graduation group."
"And now that we've found you, we've got all five," Kanade said with a smile.
Yuri returned the smile at first, but then it faded into a questioning frown.
"Um, five?"
"Don't be offended that you're the fifth." Hinata clapped her on the shoulder with a supportive grin. "I ran into Otonashi and Kanade, and then we just happened to track down Naoi first."
Yuri stared blankly at him. "Who's Naoi?"
Ayato's eyebrows shot all the way up his forehead. So much for civility and maturity! Next to him, Otonashi and Hinata exchanged glances and sweated nervously.
"Come on, Yurippe. Don't be like that," said Hinata, rolling his eyes. He gestured to Ayato. "He already told us what happened between the two of you—"
"Nothing happened."
She said it so coolly that it took him aback. It was like listening to himself the night he'd ended things. Nothing happened. It meant nothing. Hearing it from her made it sound emotionless and matter-of-fact, to a staggering degree.
"Here we go," Otonashi said with a sigh.
"Yuri—" said Kanade.
"I don't know what's going on or what the hell this guy told you," Yuri said, crossing her arms, "but I've never seen him before in my life."
Ayato's mouth fell open in pure indignation. Now that was just taking it too far. How could she say that with such a straight face?! How could she even pretend—?
"We were married for three years!" he shouted, clenching his fists.
Yuri finally had the decency to stop staring right through him, and instead gave him a confounded look. "Are you insane?! I think I'd remember getting married to someone! Let alone spending three years of my life with them!"
Seven, Ayato mentally corrected her, and if he could inwardly smack himself he would've.
Hinata scoffed. "Yeah, and you'd think you'd remember fighting in the Battlefront with him too." He placed his hands on Yuri's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Yurippe, are you being serious right now? Because otherwise this is really uncool. I don't care if it's Naoi. He came to make things right and you're just making things weird."
"I'm making things weird?" Yuri echoed, raising her voice as she shoved him away. "Is this some kind of joke? You guys are the ones throwing some random guy at me and insisting he's my—"
"But he isn't some random guy!" Now Otonashi was scratching his head, looking appropriately dumbfounded at the path this reunion had gone down. "Yuri, how can you remember us and not him?"
Yuri faltered at the genuine concern in Otonashi's voice, but the coolness lingered on her face. She pursed her lips before looking Ayato dead in the eye.
"Am I… supposed to know him?"
He averted his gaze, fuming silently to himself. If this was some sort of sick, petty revenge six months in the making, he had two things to say about it. One, Yuri Nakamura was an incredible actress. Two, whatever it was, it was working.
"Yuri," Kanade said, grasping her sleeve, "Naoi was at the graduation ceremony with us. He joined forces with the Battlefront just before I did."
Shocked, Yuri searched her eyes for answers, but it was needless. Everyone in the graduation group knew that Yuri could trust Kanade with her very life.
"I don't… He…" She looked genuinely lost. "What?"
Damn it, if she didn't stop staring him like he was an alien he was going to lose his mind. Every empty stare, every denial twisted his insides with rage and something painful but unidentifiable. Just because he'd said what they'd had together was a lie, it wasn't real, didn't mean she could act like this. Even he would acknowledge that it happened.
Hinata stepped in, resting a hand on Ayato's shoulder.
"Something's wrong." His pensive frown deepened as he scrutinized the supposed amnesiac in front of them. "Yurippe wouldn't be this petty."
"Let me try something," said Otonashi. "Yuri. After we overthrew Kanade, who was the substitute president?"
Pure bewilderment took over her face, and she stared at him for a second before she looked to Kanade for help. "We had a substitute president?"
Otonashi smacked himself in the forehead, groaning in exasperation.
"I've got one." Hinata held up his hand to volunteer, as if this was some fun game they were all playing. "Who locked us up in the Introspection room?"
"A bunch of NPCs…" Yuri said, squinting. She said it like it was obvious, but the way she trailed off gave her away. She was mentally questioning her own answer, reconsidering and reevaluating it.
"Why would we listen to a bunch of NPCs?" Hinata deadpanned.
Yuri bristled at him. "It's not like we could shoot them!" Confusion and self-doubt cracked her voice.
Then Kanade took her turn to venture one. "Who was it you enlisted to help Yuzuru regain his lost memories?"
"He…" Yuri narrowed her eyes, thinking hard. "I didn't enlist anybody. I brought him to an empty room… and he thought for a while, and he remembered."
Otonashi gave her a skeptical stare. "Do you even buy that…?"
"I don't know!" Yuri snapped, placing her hands firmly on her hips. "I'm just telling you what I remember!"
"Who—"
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Hinata, Otonashi, and Kanade didn't know who to stare at in surprise first; the frustrated roar had come from both Ayato and Yuri simultaneously. Yuri threw him an appraising glance before focusing her attention back on the other three.
"Stop trying to get me to remember him," she said, her voice low and stern. "I'm going to say this one more time, so all of you should try opening your ears."
Her lips in a grim line, she turned cold green eyes to him, eyes that were missing the joyful luster they'd had moments before.
"I honest to God have no fucking clue who you are."
Ayato opened his mouth to reply, but his very breath froze in his throat. There were no words, no oxygen… just a sharp, throbbing ache in his chest. When the numbness ebbed, he swallowed hard, past the lump in his throat, trying to get rid of the vile taste it had left in its wake.
He could feel Otonashi's and Hinata's eyes on him—and the pure, unadulterated pity on the latter's face only exacerbated his nausea. He wanted to curse, to scream, to tell her to stop playing him for a fool because this game wasn't funny by any means, but the words still wouldn't come.
All the sleepless hours he'd spent working himself up about seeing her again had been pathetic and needless. No, she didn't hate him.
She didn't even know him.
Not just the Ayato who had married her, the "him" who he'd already told her was gone, but the Naoi who had come for her in the Guild and had come again for her now. The words "I'm here too" used here and now would only earn him another blank stare. It didn't matter who he was in this life.
The harrowing truth was, he meant nothing to her.
The ground beneath him seemed to rise and tremble; Ayato gripped Otonashi's arm for support. Beside him, he felt a comforting pat on his hand from Kanade.
"Come on," said Hinata, breaking the silence. "I think we should discuss this further inside."
If it were possible, Ayato could almost swear that the clock in Yuri's house ticked ten times louder than the one on the wall in th—his kitchen.
Sitting—waiting—in a cushy armchair in the TV room, he tried to drum his fingers louder on the wood of the end table. It didn't seem to be bothering Kanade, who he suspected had been told to watch him. After all, Yuri wouldn't want to leave a stranger in her house unattended.
He checked his own watch. Seventeen minutes and counting. It felt like he'd been waiting longer, much longer.
But he would wait as long as it took if it gained him answers. There had to be some kind of logical explanation for this—
"Do you ever stop humming?!" Ayato demanded, throwing Kanade a dirty look.
Honestly, humming! At a time like this!
She was propped up against the wall, her phone in her hand. Perhaps awaiting a text from Otonashi. Maybe she wanted answers as much as he did… but unlike her, he was in no mood to hum unfamiliar pop songs in the meantime (no matter how aggravatingly catchy they sounded).
"I know you're upset." She even hummed while she spoke. How had she possibly become this mellow since they'd been student body president and vice president together? Perhaps it was Otonashi's doing. "It will be alright. They'll get to the bottom of this."
Ayato grunted. If that was supposed to be soothing…
A door opened at the end of the hall, and Otonashi and Hinata stepped out of Yuri's study room. Ayato got to his feet immediately, advancing down the hallway to meet them both in the middle.
"Well?" he said, crossing his arms and giving them both expectant stares.
"We talked to her—"
"Really! I was wondering what you were doing in there for almost twenty minutes!" Ayato said, his eyes wide.
"Will you let me finish?" Hinata shot back, frowning. "You aren't going to learn anything if you keep cutting in with sarcasm."
Otonashi gave them both a disapproving look, and Ayato piped down. Hinata begrudgingly did as well. His demeanor softened and became apologetic—surprisingly enough not towards Otonashi, but Ayato.
After a silence, Ayato massaged his temples. "Just tell me what's going on with her."
Hinata and Otonashi exchanged a furtive glance. When Kanade wandered up to the trio, Otonashi seemed to pluck up his courage.
"Listen, she's not just pretending," he said. That much was evident. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking rueful. "I know it seems weird, but…"
Weird wasn't the word for it. Weird didn't even begin to describe this.
"It's like someone went in and plucked every single memory of you from her head." Hinata mimed a plucking motion with his hands. A deep crease formed across his forehead. "Like, as far as she's concerned…"
"…I never existed to her," Ayato finished for him. The words felt wrong on his tongue and heavy in his chest.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Even the Yuri he'd known from the Battlefront had acknowledged his existence. Time and time again, no matter how insolently he treated her. Even she had… had valued him.
Hinata put his hand on his shoulder. "You alright, man? You look crushed."
He shrugged Hinata's hand away, turning his gaze to the floor as he began to pace restlessly in the hallway. "How could this have happened?"
"That's what we've been asking ourselves," Hinata muttered, glancing back toward the entrance to the study. "It doesn't make any sense! It's like a really specific amnesia."
"Or something she's trying to suppress," said Kanade.
"If you're suggesting that I did something to traumatize her—"
"Kanade isn't saying that," Otonashi assured him.
Ayato stopped pacing and abruptly whirled around, pointing a finger in each of their faces. "Then what are you saying?!" he demanded. When the cry echoed through the hallway, he winced and lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. "A suppressed memory comes from a traumatic incident. I didn't hurt her like that. I would never, I—"
"We know you wouldn't."
"Then why would a traumatic incident that had nothing to do with me be the cause of this?!" Ayato clenched his fists so tight he was almost positive he'd drawn blood from hooking his fingernails in his palms. "And who the hell ever heard of," he threw Hinata an exasperated look, "'really specific amnesia'?!"
"Naoi—" Hinata started.
"She's got to be playing games with the two of you, because this is just ridiculous," Ayato growled, finding it harder and harder to keep from choking on his own rage. Except… it felt less like anger and more like agony.
"Naoi—"
"Don't start. I know she isn't, but there's no other explanation for this!" His voice was rising again, but his mind was racing as fast as his blood, and at this point he simply couldn't bring himself to shut up. "Why else would I be the only one she can't remember?"
They were looking at him strangely now—he was already so sick of seeing pity on Hinata's face—and something inside him snapped.
It wasn't anger, not just that. He felt small. Insignificant.
Nonexistent.
"How could she just," Ayato paused, unable to meet their eyes any longer, "forget me?"
"If you're always this loud, I could ask myself the same thing."
When he turned to face the voice, Yuri was standing directly behind him, an eyebrow arched and arms crossed as she stared at him appraisingly.
"You'd think it'd be hard to forget someone who's always screaming his head off," she said, a twitch in the corner of her mouth threatening the beginnings of a scornful half-smirk.
Ayato frowned. If he recalled correctly, there were a certain few experiences he could think of where she was the one doing the screaming. He decided it was safer not to voice that thought out loud.
Wiping the sneer off her face, Yuri replaced it with a pensive frown of her own.
"You know, you're not the only one who feels like someone's playing a trick on you," she said, briefly side-eyeing Otonashi and Hinata. "Just how long did you say we were together?"
"Three years," he answered instinctively. "Five if you count the time we were dating."
"Prove it."
Ayato blinked. "What?"
"You heard me," Yuri said, stepping closer so that her face was inches from his. "For now, I'll buy that you were part of the Battlefront. Since that's what Kanade says, and since these guys seem to know you." Her lips parted into a rich red smirk. "But you and me? They tell me they weren't there for that. It's hearsay. I don't have even one picture of you, and I've never heard my friends—or my parents—make one mention of you."
She hummed a mischievous little laugh.
"So prove it."
Her mouth was close enough for him to do something she might remember him by. He nearly reeled back at the thought. The little minx was teasing him! He should have expected the dangers that would come with seeing her again. The part of his pre-memories self that lingered could still be tempted by her.
That night, the night of the concert and their memories, he'd waited up for an hour after she walked out. He'd finally gotten tired of angrily pacing and muttering, so he'd gone upstairs to bed. Five minutes later, as he was changing, he heard the front door swing open, followed by heavy footsteps on the stairs. He opened the bedroom door and Yuri was standing there in the hallway, dripping wet and soaked to the bone. Remnants of raindrops still on her face.
All he could say was thank goodness she'd gone into the bathroom without a word and opted to sleep in the guestroom, or things would have gotten very complicated very quickly.
And "proving it" in the way that had crossed his mind could cause some problems between them as well.
But how else could… what else would…
"The necklace," he said finally.
"Huh?" Yuri felt around her neck, but nothing was there. "What necklace?"
"A locket," Ayato pressed. Maybe she just wasn't wearing it anymore; it could be in an old jewelry box, or caught between her dresser or desk and her wall like she used to lose so many pieces of jewelry. "Gold. Heart-shaped. With emeralds and amethysts on it. Do you still have that around somewhere?"
Yuri thought for a second, then frowned. "I might've had something like that, but it's gone now."
Gone? He still had the… and she just…
Gone?!
What, had it vanished along with her memories?! She had no pictures, no memories, no locket! No sign of his existence in her life anywhere. It was almost as if they really were never together. Like he had imagined all of it, and it really was a lie.
But it was real. And it…
"Was that your only proof?" Yuri asked, a humorous edge to her tone. "Come on, Naoi. Convince me."
He gave her a long, hard look, then spun around and stormed down the hallway to the foyer with his jaw set.
"Where are you going?" he heard Otonashi call from behind him.
"Home."
"Hey—Naoi, you're our ride!" said Hinata.
"I'll be back later."
"Thanks for the warning!" That one definitely came from Yuri.
Clouds had begun to drift overhead, but the sun was reemerging as Ayato stepped out onto the front porch and yanked the door shut behind him. Hands shaking with frustration, he finally managed to get into the car and start the engine. With a squeal of tires, he tore down Mahou Complex Drive, out of Noroi, and back in the direction of Mizuzaka.
Because Kanade was right.
It had mattered.
Preview:
"I can't believe she has the beret."
"We should decide who we're going to look for next."
"You are so strange."
"I can't just trust a guy I don't know to pull some sort of hypnosis crap on me."
"I think this may be our best operation yet."
"I need that ring back, and you're going to give it to me."
"That… is not going to work."
[Chapter 08]: Chaos and Contemplation.
