A/N: Alright, so here's the biggie. Think of it as a season finale. I didn't feel like splitting it up into two chapters because they're too short to be separated by a week, and the first part is too important to be accidentally skipped if they're posted within a couple days of each other. So I'm pulling a two-parter special, especially since I couldn't decide between two titles. Merry belated Christmas and happy holidays to all who celebrate, I hope it's been a good end to the year, and thanks to everyone for the reviews!

ZainR: You were right on the money about Shiina's feelings, don't worry! And I'm happy you appreciated the TPS/HC connection there. :D Thanks for clarifying later about the Takamatsu and Saitou thing, what a perfect excuse that would be to finally get a beach episode and find two people at once! Galaxy brain idea tbh. As for Naoi, it is a dismal thought, isn't it? After the concert, there go his regular excuses to see her. Except she just hopped in the car with him to save his mom so apparently she's okay with seeing him outside of missions...? I hope this chapter answers your (and Naoi's) questions!

serial napper: Oh yeah, there's a lot to be said about this chapter in regards to Akuma drama! But for those who have patiently endured Naoi and Yuri's exchanged glances and eyebrow raises, this one's for you. (Thank you! Naoi and Shiina have a delightfully awkward potential friendship dynamic, I think.)

Silver-Tritium-Protractinium: XD Tis the season, am I right? Though, I will say I waited until after Christmas for a reason. They're not exactly riding the Polar Express to meet Santa Claus. Enjoy your mixed bag of emotions.

Seiram: Hah, true! (*Loki voice* That's how that feels!) And hopefully Shiina realizes that Hinata and Yui would never forget about her. It's just hectic and eventful atm what with the operation and all. I feel for her though. After all the times she's hidden in the shadows, she deserves to know she's seen and valued a lot more than she realizes. If only she'd heard what Naoi heard in the kitchen last week. As for Naoi and Yuri, ohh, power couple is absolutely the right term for them. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Alright, now before I go on, I feel obligated to remind you (similarly to how I did in TPS Chapter 13) that this is still a story based on Angel Beats, one that highlight on Naoi's past with his abusive father. So I want to issue a content/trigger warning without giving too much away, that there is always the possibility of language, blood, violence, abuse, death, tragedy, etc. Just know that going forward.

Enjoy?


[Chapter 57]: Gone Too Far


[Part I]: Homeward Bound


In no time Yuri and Ayato had left Kōmyō behind and were hurtling down the road that would take them towards Akuma. Yuri had explained on the way that her parents once told her about a shortcut from Akuma to Mizuzaka that happened to cut through part of Kōmyō. It should shave at least ten minutes off their arrival time. Ayato wondered if it was enough.

Trees, buildings, and lights whipped by in a blur as they roared past, the wind howling at their windows with a vengeance. Yuri weaved expertly past the other cars without bothering to use her horn (she had blared it only once but never again, thankfully so because it made Ayato clutch his head in pain). There weren't actually many out there on the road to dodge, which made ducking into and tearing through the side streets much simpler. In the first five minutes or so he'd managed to recap to Yuri everything Ryou had told him on the phone without incident or dangerous distraction. The only obstacle they ought to worry about at this point was—

"Watch your speed!" Ayato urged, gesturing desperately at her speedometer.

Yuri's mouth fell open in indignation; she shot a half-second incredulous glance at him before turning her eyes back to the road and zipping through a yellow light. "You're kidding me! You just got through explaining why time is of the essence and you're lecturing me about going the speed limit? We're in a bit of a rush here, we can't afford any slowdowns!"

"Exactly!" Ayato was craning his neck to look behind them for flashing lights. "You getting pulled over is the last thing we need right now!"

"I'm not going to get pulled over," Yuri snapped, turning the wheel and making a sharp turn onto a side street. "And even if I do, if we explain what's going on, at least we might come out of it with a police escort. So either we get there fast or we get there faster and with the police in tow."

He blinked, considered, and fell back in his seat. That was…

"Wait a minute – the police!" He dug into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and called Ryou back. "Ryou, did you call the police already?"

"I… no, after your mother called me I immediately tried to reach you!" she said, sounding flustered and concerned. "Wouldn't she have called them first before either of us?"

His blood burned hot with alarm. Unlikely, knowing his mother. She never got the police involved, never wanted that kind of attention and would never press charges. But barricaded in a room with a cell phone, was a situation like this drastic enough for her to change her mind?

No, he couldn't count on that.

"Probably not. I'm going to hang up and call them now," Ayato said. He ended the call, hastily punched in the dispatch number, and held the phone to his ear.

Moments later, Yuri snuck a sideways glimpse at him and watched his anxious expression change to a frown of dismay, followed by a frustrated scowl. "What? Aren't they answering?"

He lowered the phone and shook his head. "It's a busy signal!" he said in disbelief, then cut off the call and angrily smacked the side of the door. "Shit!"

"A busy signal?!" Yuri echoed, rounding a corner onto a quiet country road. "It's probably a cell tower issue or something – just try them again!"

He tried the number again. No luck. Outside his window, the fields disappeared and now they were blazing past nothing but trees.

"It could be an issue on their end," he muttered. "We need to reach someone. Someone who might get there before us! Do you know if your parents are in town?"

"Doubt it," Yuri said tersely. She gripped the steering wheel tighter. "What about Yukine in Kyuuya?"

"Visiting gang friends," Ayato reminded her, and then his eyes widened in realization. "Shiina! She was planning to head home early. She never came back to the room so she might've left way before we did—"

"She also left her cell phone at home." Yuri scrunched up her face in thought, as if conflicted about something. "There's someone else we could try…"

His frown deepened as he understood who she meant. "He might be off duty – it's a waste of my phone battery, I can't just – he wouldn't—"

"Are we even talking about the same guy?" she cut in. "He would. So call him!"

She was right. These were special circumstances and he needed to use all the resources he had. Without wasting another second, he put in the number and waited for it to ring.

A voice he hadn't heard in a long time came through the speaker. Followed by a beep.

He froze and hung up.

Yuri barely blinked as her car flew down a steep hill, only looking over at Ayato when the bumps made him fumble with the phone. "He didn't answer?"

"It went straight to voicemail," he told her matter-of-factly, like he'd expected as much.

"So leave a voicemail!"

"I told you it's a waste of my battery!"

"Then try the police again!" Yuri said firmly. She coasted up another hill and emerged from the canopied area; straight ahead, buildings and restaurants were starting to look familiar. "Whatever the issue was I'm sure it's probably fixed by now. We're almost in Akuma, just keep trying until you get an answer!"

"Fine, I'm calling!"

He looked dismally at his battery percentage but dialed the emergency number again. It took him a few attempts because his fingers were fidgety from nerves but he connected – and got put on hold. He waited for what felt like an eternity but what could've been merely three minutes, growing more and more agitated with each passing second. There was nobody on the other end to hear his growling but Yuri certainly got an earful of it as she zipped through downtown and over a bridge, squinting and trying to keep alert for street signs.

"This is ridiculous!" he snarled, ripping off his hat with his free hand for the sake of throwing something on the floor.

"Yeah, I heard you the first fifteen times—"

"Well what the hell is the holdup?!"

"It's Saturday night!" Yuri gunned it through another yellow light. "People are setting fires or partying too loud or something, they're probably getting a lot of noise complaints."

"And what about the people with actual emergencies?" He aggressively hit the end call button and threw his phone down too.

"What are you doing? Don't hang up!"

"It's not like there's anyone to hang up on!" Ayato shot back.

"There will be if you stay on the damn line!"

Ayato made a frustrated noise but bent to retrieve his phone, checking the display screen. The battery life had drained to a sliver. Why had he forgotten to charge it overnight?!

"My phone's almost dead. Even if I do get ahold of them I wouldn't be able to stay on the line anyway." He considered her purse, which was lying at his feet, then picked it up and put it between them on the middle console. "I need to use yours."

Yuri startled, alternating sporadically between watching the road and gaping at him in shock.

"H-hey! Stop!" she protested, starting to free a hand to bat his own away before changing her mind and quickly returning it to the steering wheel. "What are you doing?! I don't want you fishing through my purse!"

"Do you want me to call them back or not?!" Ayato countered. "I'm just getting your phone!"

"I'll get it out for you at the next light!"

"I don't have time for that! To your credit you've been making almost all of them." Yes he realized as he was doing it that looting around in his ex-wife's purse was rather ill-mannered but this was an emergency, and in his defense he thought he would have found what he was looking for by now. Makeup, a comb, sunglasses, and loose receipts were impeding his blind search.

Wait – he might've found it!

"—just be patient, it's not like you'll be able to unlock it without my—" Yuri stopped abruptly, a strange expression twisting her features.

At first Ayato thought it was from the sudden awareness that he might very well know her unlock code, but then something caught his eye as it peeked out of the purse. Something he must have dug up and brought with him when he unearthed the phone. Sporadic flashes of light illuminated that little something with each streetlamp that passed by.

His curiosity piqued, he reached for it – dodging Yuri's furtive swipe or attempted hand slap. Successfully snatched it up and angled it under the light.

And his squinting eyes opened in recognition.

It was a photograph. And not just any old photograph. One that he knew with certainty had been in his mementos box just a couple of weeks before (until, of course, Ooyama had discovered them and dashed back to the group, waving them all about). A picture of the two of them together.

This one was from fall of third year, taken as a birthday present for Kurimu so she could have references to draw her friends. They were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on a stone bench with the school trees' colorful autumn leaves as a background, Ayato grinning smugly at the camera after making a wisecrack while Yuri tried to glare at him for ruining her composure. It hadn't worked, and Ami had captured Yuri in mid-smirk as the fake exasperation failed to match the fond look in her eyes.

Ayato gawked at the photo in disbelief, his mouth falling open while only a couple stutters of confusion came out. What was it doing in her purse? All of this was starting to hurt his head. How did it… when did she…?

He remembered, then, something fluttering from her unzipped purse as she stormed out of the house two weeks ago. Something Kanade had picked up for safe-keeping – and presumably returned to her.

Blinking from the flashback, he shifted his widened gaze to Yuri. Her eyes were just as wide but stubbornly fixated on the road in front of her. She bristled when she sensed his stare.

"What?!" she hollered, and chanced a furtive look before turning red-faced back to the road. "Don't you have a phone call to make?!"

Her outraged shriek rang painful but true in his ears, and he heard what she was saying: now is NOT the time!

"Yeah," he managed, quickly slipping it back in her bag. "Right...!"

He couldn't even begin to process what that picture meant right now, if it meant anything at all. His mind was racing as fast as the car but spinning in all directions when at the moment both needed to be speeding towards Akuma.

Yuri snatched her phone back and when they reached the tail end of a red light she promptly unlocked it and handed it back to him. There were a couple of missed calls and texts from Otonashi and Fujimaki but Ayato ignored them in favor of hastily dialing the emergency number again.

And again, he found himself waiting on the line, growling and drumming his fingers restlessly on the car door as the automated message bleated in his ear. Cursing every second that ticked by, every second his mother couldn't spare.

"Yes, please stay on the line while we answer all the butt dials and prank calls ahead of you!" Ayato sneered after a full two minutes of this. "What's that? You heard a woman screaming? We'll get to it right away, sir – we just have to BREAK UP SOME TEENAGER'S PARTY FIRST!"

Dropping the phone from his ear, he punched the end call button with another frustrated snarl and started putting in a different number.

"I told you not to hang up on them!" Yuri said severely, and did a double-take. "Wait, who are you calling now?"

"Your parents! Are you absolutely certain they're out of town?"

Yuri scoffed, "I guarantee you we're closer than they are – now you're just wasting my battery!"

Ehana Nakamura's phone was on its second ring at that point. Yuri was right – they would get no answers from either of her parents tonight. And he could see the Akuma sign in the distance, coming at them fast. He hadn't seen it in four years and here it was barreling toward him like an unavoidable slap to the face.

There was no time to prepare himself, no time to brace for impact. As soon as Yuri sped past the sign and plunged them into Akuma, it was like everything hit him at once. The reality of this place weighed him down and overwhelmed him in a way that for a moment was almost tangible. As if somehow they had simultaneously crashed through a glass window and a waterfall, the shattered pieces ringing in his ears as they pelted him like rain.

Then the ringing became the phone's fourth infernal trill, like an alarm going off the moment they crossed into town. Ayato caved and hung up with a loud groan, letting the phone plummet to his lap as he clutched his head. "God, I don't know what to do! I can't even think straight—"

"I'm sorry!" Yuri burst out.

Ayato rubbed at his temples until the lights ahead of them blurred. Although initially confused and taken aback, he recovered with a sigh. "It's fine, we're both tense right now—"

"No, not that! It's more than that. I…" Yuri gripped the steering wheel harder, chewing on the inside of her mouth. "We've been tense. We've been tense ever since we both found out about that potion." Faint sprinkles of rain began to accumulate on her windshield, so she flicked on her wipers. "I don't know if I'm sorry for taking it because I can't remember why I did it, but… but I am sorry for how I've treated you since… since the thing at the bridge."

"You're sorry?" Ayato repeated, staring at her incredulously. Everything he'd said to her that day and afterwards came roaring to the front of his mind, and his face heated up in embarrassment that he'd had her be the one to apologize first. "I'm sorry! I didn't handle it any better than you did!"

"Yeah, well I've been down this road before," Yuri muttered.

Ayato looked at her curiously, raising an expectant eyebrow, and she heaved a sigh.

"You know about Hisakawa," she said, briefly glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. "I don't know how much you know, but… she was my best friend and she hurt me during a difficult time in my life, so I pushed her away. And I never forgave her. Well I did, but… not really."

Ayato nodded thoughtfully; the confession came as no surprise to him. He noted her casting a pensive glimpse out the window at the neighborhood they were passing.

"I don't think I'll ever know how big a mistake that was. But I don't want to make it again with you." After slowing to a stop at a red light, she turned to him and met his stare firmly. "The two of us, we're from Akuma, we understand so much of each other that the Battlefront never will. I shouldn't have…" She hesitated; her eyes began to glisten. "I shouldn't have tried to push out another friend."

Stunned, Ayato found himself at a loss for words as he looked into her eyes. His silence must've been unnerving, since Yuri broke their connection and looked up in time to notice the light turning blue. She cleared her throat awkwardly and accelerated through the intersection, darting over another hill.

"You considered us friends?" he asked after a moment.

Yuri smiled weakly, turning the wheel around a bend onto another quiet road. "Weird, right? A divorced couple, one an amnesiac…" She gave a dry chuckle, but it faded after a second. "Why do you think I stole that picture? I have pictures of all of my friends. But I didn't have one of you."

Ayato's breath caught in his throat. A mess of incoherent thoughts stumbled around in his brain but only one stood out among the rest. No matter what he did to detach himself from Yuri Nakamura, his heart would never follow.

"Yuri," he managed, "I—"

Suddenly Yuri flinched with a gasp as her headlights lit up two figures lying in the middle of the road. "What the hell?!" she shouted. As soon as she saw one of them lift their head up she smacked the horn twice, making Ayato wince, and rolled down the window just enough to holler, "GET OUT OF THE STREET!"

They got just close enough to see what looked like a young couple their age before the guy jolted and rolled both of them to the curb with impressive agility. As Yuri weaved and blazed past them, a bewildered Ayato arched his neck and looked over his shoulder to find the pair now on the sidewalk. The guy, taking a few steps forward even as he shrunk in the distance, cupped his hands over his mouth like a megaphone.

"Hey, speed racer! Where's the fire?!" he yelled, his voice carrying over the wind and echoing down the otherwise empty street. Beside him, the girl had doubled over and was positively giddy with laughter.

Ayato turned back around, eyes wide with disbelief. "Idiots," he and Yuri scoffed in unison. They looked over at each other and shared a half-smile.

The moment broke as swiftly as it had come. That idiot's jeer reminded Ayato of the very real emergency they were racing toward, and from the look on Yuri's face she was thinking of the same thing. "Call them again," she ordered, "and don't hang up until you talk to someone."

He obeyed and redialed the number, finally getting a dispatcher after thirty seconds. Through gritted teeth of rage and relief he repeated what Ryou had told him and the dispatcher assured him they'd get assistance over there "as soon as they can."

"As soon as they can," Ayato repeated derisively after they'd hung up, and dropped Yuri's phone back in her purse. "Soon isn't quick enough!"

Yuri huffed knowingly. "Tell me about it," she said under her breath. "We're actually going to beat them there."

Sure enough, up ahead he could see the glow of streetlights, signs, and buildings that were all too familiar to him. The ceramics store, the Maeda coffee shop, the Aoki bakery. If they had kept heading that way, they would've come upon the fork in the road that diverged between the forest trail to the Naoi estate and the Nakamura's side of town. But Ayato had Yuri turn onto the road just before the entrance to Midori Hill. It curved around the neighborhood and sloped down behind the Naoi estate, bordering the mountainous area where he and his brother once dared to play.

Ayato pointed out the secluded staircase that led up behind the estate and Yuri quietly pulled onto the side of the road, under the shelter of the trees. The rain was starting to come down a little harder now, a thin mist revealed through Yuri's headlights.

They both sat there for a second, staring straight ahead at the road and listening to the rain's timid patter. Then Yuri voiced the thought on both their minds. "We're here," she murmured. "Now what?"

Her question seemed to break him out of a trance. Ayato unbuckled his seatbelt and bent to pick up his cap. "He would've spotted your car if you came through the front entrance. If I go up this way he won't see me coming—"

"Wait, you're really going up there?" Yuri snapped her head to look at him as he was reaching to open his door. "You're not seriously going to confront him, are you?!"

"Why did you think you brought me here?" Ayato asked, turning to her. "Why else would we come all this way?"

Yuri looked flustered. "I don't know, to be here to get your mom to safety or the hospital or something – I didn't exactly think it through!" she snapped, furrowing her forehead. "And obviously neither did you! What the hell is this 'me' and 'I' crap? You're not going to face him by yourself. I'm coming with you!"

"No! No you're not, I need you to stay here and wait for the police—"

"What if they don't come by this way? What if they go through the front? I'm not just going to sit around and wait while you—"

"It's too dangerous—"

"Exactly!" Ayato opened the door but Yuri was adamant as she grabbed his arm, her flashing eyes even firmer than her grip. "You don't know what's going on up there, you're not armed, you can't even use your hypnotism to defend yourself!"

He freed himself but turned more fully to face her, frustration thrumming through his temples. "Yuri, listen—"

"No, you listen!" Yuri seized a fistful of his shirt this time, pulling him closer so they were practically nose to nose. "I didn't drive you here just to drop you off, I'm going to stick by you and I'm going to have your back while you do this."

"I don't have time to argue, I'm asking you to please just stay in the car!"

"And what makes you think I'm not going to follow after you the second you're gone? Why are you so stubborn that you have to do this alone?!"

"Because the last time we were here together, I vowed I would never let him hurt you!" Ayato shot back, seizing the wrist that held him. "I swore on my life that no harm would come to you by any Naoi. That I would always protect you just as you had protected me. That the family we made for ourselves would be free from the shadow he cast over his own." He grimaced then, remembering the nightmares from nearly two weeks before, then resolutely met Yuri's gaze with his own. "I know what you're capable of. But whatever's happened up there, you're not safe near him. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you because you came here with me tonight. Please just stay clear."

Yuri stared at him hard, her stubborn resolve thawing and being replaced with a flicker of something else. The car engine purred in the night, the rain still sprinkling outside in a soft but steady hiss, enhanced by the silence between the two of them as they looked heatedly at each other. Yuri bit down on her lip and it was all Ayato could do not to push forward and claim it for himself, to let go of her wrist and cradle her cheek as he sated a seven-month hunger.

He wanted to kiss her. He wanted it terribly. But he knew if he did, he'd get lost in it and never know when to stop. To stop kissing her would be practically unbearable, would leave his mind reeling afterwards. And of all the moments to—

Yuri's firm shove sent him toppling out the open passenger door with a startled cry.

"Just go!" she said sharply, glaring out at him as he lay there dazed and sprawled in the dirt. "You're wasting precious time!"

Blinking, Ayato came to his senses with a shake of his head. He reached in and snatched his hat off the car floor before standing up and shutting the door behind him. Straightening his hat, he squared his shoulders and headed for the staircase in the spitting rain.


[Part II]: Gone Too Far


For a while the treetops interrupted the growing downpour, but the sound of the rain hammering against the leaves reverberated in Ayato's ears as his sprint up the stairs became a burdened traipse. It was different outside the shelter of Yuri's car; at least there he still had threads tying him to Kōmyō and Mizuzaka. Out here, it was as if they'd been cut, snapped like a thin wire under stress, and rendering him bare and exposed to the reality of this place. A world he'd allowed himself to forget, but now déjà vu was coming at him from all sides and clawing at him like possessed tree branches.

He got to the top and cut through the forest, winding around the trees by awakened instinct. From a distance he could tell that the lights were off in the house, yet it pulsed with a familiar unstable energy that beckoned him further into the darkness. He could hear the raindrops sprinkling on the surface of the river nearby, caught a glimpse of the walking bridge through the trees and knew he was close. Moving onto the dirt path, he followed it until the tree canopies began to open up, revealing a dense and ominous storm cloud hanging overhead.

Reaching the clearing that marked the edge of the Naoi estate, he took a cautious step out of the forest. Then another. And stopped.

The rain had died down some, lulled into a fizzy spatter. Save for the wind blowing the leaves behind him and the incessant tinny ringing in his head, all was unfathomably silent. He wondered what he was even doing here. If he had imagined everything leading up to this point. Could it be that this was just another dream? It seemed the only explanation for why he was standing here now, before the house he grew up in, which for the most part looked to be in a dead sleep.

Closer still on his right, within rock-throwing distance, stood the workshop where he'd spent countless days slaving over a potter's wheel. None of this seemed real, so many years had passed, and yet he could almost hear his father shuffling around inside like it was yesterday. Like the door could burst open right now and Kimito would come thundering out demanding what had taken him so long.

Don't keep me waiting, Ayato!

A lingering anxiety gripped his chest and tightened in his throat. He wasn't late, he wasn't about to be dragged inside and berated. That wasn't his life anymore. But staring at the house right now, the unnerving stillness in the dark… he recognized a tension in the air. A hush over the Naoi household that never exactly screamed "peaceful resolution."

Something was still terribly wrong.

He took another step forward, stopped, swallowed hard. His heart was already pounding. What did he think was going to happen once he got here?

That was the thing. It hadn't been a matter of thinking. After that call… whatever he was going to do, he couldn't do anything in Kōmyō.

His gaze shifted across the estate, studying the house for anything he might have overlooked at first glance. Movement, silhouettes... the front door. The front door was open. Just a crack, but not shut securely.

Hopeful, Ayato scanned the surrounding areas, the forest, wondering if it was a sign of her escape. And then something caught his eye.

The grass. Beside the front walk. It looked like it'd recently been flattened. Part of it, at least, in a straight path, as if someone had dragged a mulch bag across the lawn.

A mulch bag, or…

Ayato's breath hitched as he followed the indent with his eyes. The grass was darker than the rest of the lawn, particularly at the start of the path. A stain that the rain had only barely begun to wash away. Daring to believe he was seeing things, desperate for a closer look, he took another couple of steps forward.

Until he heard the creak.

With a prolonged groan of protest, the workshop door slowly opened, and a dark stocky figure emerged while wiping his fingers with a cloth. Though it could be no one else, Ayato recognized the cloth before the man himself, chills running up and down his spine as he froze in place. A potter often needed a rag or cloth after his time in the studio, but more often than not he had seen it used for different stains. As it was, he suspected it was not clay that dirtied Kimito's hands tonight.

Jaw ever tightened, mouth sealed in a perpetual scowl, Kimito breathed harshly and steadily through his nose as he turned to lock the door behind him. The moonlight caught him briefly, and that was when Ayato saw it. The bloom of red that had seeped into his shirt. Streaks on his face and neck that the rag hadn't touched.

At once everything became cold, the summer rain now like a shower of ice that lashed down on his shoulders, piercing his chest and freezing his lungs. A static numbness took over his body, pins and needles everywhere except the heaviness of his chest. With the darkness of the forest still looming over him, he almost believed the shadow monsters were creeping up behind and soon everything else would disappear.

But that was the Afterlife; this was Akuma. His real monster in this world was standing right in front of him. Something inside him receded, and he took a wary but purposeful step forward. A twig snapped underneath his shoe.

Kimito pivoted to face him, his acute hearing still very much intact. They stood there staring and mirroring each other, fists clenched at their sides as the storm cloud rolled over their heads and covered the moon.

"You are," the old man said, his breathing labored, "hell-bent on destroying this family, aren't you."

Ayato swallowed thickly through the lump in his throat. After four years away, nightmares could never recreate the sensation he felt when he heard his father's dusty rasp. And now the rain was wetting the man's clothes, sending red-tinted droplets trickling down his arms. The sight of it made Ayato's stomach turn.

"What did you do," he said through gritted teeth.

Hollow eyes scrutinized him from afar, completely unfazed like he hadn't heard him. Slowly he attempted a smile, but as his father had never been a smiling man, the corner of his mouth pulled up into something more like half an animalistic sneer.

"And here I thought I was going to have to come to you," Kimito said calmly. He took a step toward him. Instinctively Ayato found himself recoiling, and held his ground just as Kimito stopped. "Where are my manners? Welcome home, Ayato. Your mother missed you very much, you know. She was going to go visit you without me. You know I couldn't have that happen again."

"What. Did. You. DO?!" Ayato snarled.

"WHAT I HAD TO!" Kimito roared back, bashing his fist against the workshop door. Ayato, whose head was already reeling from the word "again," flinched on reflex. "Did she think I was an idiot?! Did she think I wouldn't notice, that she could hide it from me?" He coughed with bitter, forced laughter. "Visiting the family – she used the same damn excuse the last time she tried to lie to me for you!"

Thunder rumbled lowly in the distance, and the man fell eerily calm. He looked at the dirtied cloth that was crumpled in his grip.

"I'm used to disappointment, and to disrespect to my authority, when it comes from you," he said, shaking his head and neatly putting it away in his pocket. "But your mother… your mother surprised me, Ayato. After all I've given her, that ungrateful whore… It seems disloyalty comes from her side of the family."

"All you've given her?" Ayato echoed with an incredulous scoff. "What have you ever given her except a life of misery?"

"I gave her a home, I gave her my loyalty, and I GAVE HER YOU," Kimito exploded, stabbing a finger at him, "and just look what it did for her! You're the one who played in the mountains with Hayato when we warned you it wasn't safe. You're the one who abandoned and humiliated this family. And you're the one who turned her against me!" His fists were clenched and shaking at his sides, tainted rain dripping from his knuckles. Moonlight cut through the clouds again, bringing out the wildness in his eyes as it set his pale face in a ghostly glow. "If you hadn't corrupted her mind, she'd still be alive! You made me kill her! THIS IS ON YOU!"

In that moment every racing thought in Ayato's mind seemed to detonate, the blasts ringing in his ears and sending shrapnel racing through his blood to his heart while a wave of ice cut through his chest. His breathing grew ragged and he could barely keep himself standing as he tried to fight off hyperventilation.

Part of him had thought… that one day, Kimito would go early like his own father. Then his mother would get the house or sell it and leave. Either way, live out the remainder of her days in peace.

But now… this…

His mother was dead. His mother was dead. His mother was dead.

This was what Kimito Naoi was capable of.

"You've gone too far, Ayato," came his father's chilling voice. "When you ran away, you doomed our family business and befouled our reputation, and evaded my punishment. I thought perhaps I deserved it for going too easy on you. But this… cannot be forgiven." He took a few steps forward, cold resentment glinting in his eyes. "You forced my hand, made me kill my wife. Now I'm going to kill that whore Nakamura after I kill you."

A blinding bolt of lightning lit up the sky above them; the deafening crack of thunder that followed struck as quickly as the words registered. And something ignited in Ayato that scorched in his chest, widened his eyes, and set everything else ablaze. Caught off guard, Kimito looked to the sky, and Ayato seized his moment. He barreled at his father headfirst and knocked him to the ground.

The man's face blurred beneath him as he swung his arm back and slammed his fist down again and again, his vision turning to red and rain. Another crack split through the night air and blood spurted from Kimito's nose, spraying the front of Ayato's shirt as he relentlessly landed blow after blow. The element of surprise would not stay his friend for long but he had never had the upper hand with his father before and he couldn't afford to waste it.

His knuckles stung and his muscles ached with protest. Everything smelled of salt and copper. Wet drops were falling on Kimito's face and he wasn't sure if it was rain or tears but it was blending with the crimson that streaked his skin.

"Stay the hell away from her!" Ayato shouted, hoarse with desperation as he decked him in the jaw. "I won't let you touch her!"

Fresh blood beaded at the corner of Kimito's smirking mouth. He spat a thick glob of it in Ayato's face, and while the latter reeled back in disgust, he took advantage of the shift in weight and kneed him hard in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. Choking on a gasp, Ayato inhaled sharply and scrambled for control but Kimito shoved him down and pinned him by the throat.

"Who's going to stop me?" he sneered, clearly relishing in his son's widening eyes as his grip tightened. Ayato winced not just at the pressure but at the startling scent of alcohol on his breath. "It should have been you back then. For fourteen years you've been on borrowed time and it's about to run out. And Nakamura isn't here to protect you this time. I heard she left you."

His thumbs pressed deeper against Ayato's throat, slowly but decisively crushing at his windpipe. Ayato clawed in vain at his immovable hands, heartbeat roaring in his head, and not enough oxygen for his eyes to even flicker…

"There's something we have in common. Isn't that right, son?" Kimito hissed, looking down on him with a bloodied smile. "Our women, leaving us. Forty years together and she tries to leave because yours couldn't even handle four."

He coughed with more laughter, the drunken sadistic joy of irony and schadenfreude dancing in his eyes. His grip slackened and Ayato gulped in air before head-butting the man in the chin and knocking him back down. Quickly he got to his feet, and before Kimito could sit back up Ayato struck a damaging kick to his ribs that earned him a howl of pain. A clap of thunder rang out overhead as Ayato stepped on his chest to keep him from moving. He was now nothing more than an NPC squirming under his foot, an ant he could crush if he pressed down.

Even with Ayato's weight bearing down on him, Kimito continued to laugh like it was nothing.

"Mine came right back the first time she left," he croaked, faintly trying to budge Ayato's shoe with one hand while feeling around on the grass with the other. "Did yours come back, Ayato?"

Scowling, Ayato moved from his chest to his throat and pressed harder. "Oh, kiss my boot," he growled through clenched teeth. His head was throbbing in agony but the shift in power intoxicated him, sent pleasant waves of nostalgia and excitement through his system. To see Kimito lying there with only words to defend himself… and with one move he could easily be silenced…

Kimito stopped writhing and managed to crane his neck, glancing behind Ayato with a raspy chuckle. "Like what you're seeing, Nakamura?"

Panic backhanded Ayato hard and he snapped his head toward the forest to look for her. It took two seconds for him to realize his mistake, which was enough time for Kimito. The former gave a low cry as Kimito tugged his leg and he slipped on the wet grass, falling helplessly to the ground.

Ayato's body was lighter than Kimito's so he recovered more quickly than his father moved, rolling and pinning the man before he could be pinned first. But at once Kimito's arm shot out like a snake and he felt a searing pain in his side. The shock stunned him, allowing Kimito the upper hand once again. The man rolled and pushed him down with one hand while in the other he clutched what looked like a shard of broken ceramic. Ayato froze, his eyes darting from the bloodstained shard to Kimito's white-hot glare.

"Of course she didn't come back. Why would she want to?" Kimito said, breathing heavily through flared nostrils. He held the shard against Ayato's throat, and there was a hollow anger in his eyes like he wasn't really seeing him. "You're pathetic, just like your pottery. You're an embarrassment. You're garbage!" With that, he raised the shard as if to strike, a bitter smirk etched across his face. "If you meet your grandfather, you can tell him he was right about us—"

A hand shot out from behind in a lightning flash, yanking Kimito off of him and flinging him aside. The man stumbled, disoriented, but found his footing and spun to search for his attacker while still brandishing the shard. Ayato forced himself into a sitting position in time to watch in disbelief as Yuri leapt onto Kimito's back and grappled for the weapon in his hand. Kimito struggled against her, keeping his grip as he backed up towards the woods. Yuri's features twisted into a grimace as she wrenched harder at the shard, which was enough to launch Ayato to his feet.

With a low cry of pain, Yuri successfully ripped the shard from Kimito's hand and tossed it into the darkness. Her triumph was short-lived as her loosened grip coupled with the man's enraged bucking sent her backwards, knocking her head against a tree.

"Yuri!" Ayato shouted, and bolted towards them. Ignoring the stitch in his side, the sirens going off in his head, ignoring everything else except her.

The shout caught Kimito's attention and he turned around to see Ayato coming at him, which was all the distraction Yuri needed. Shaking out of her daze, she pulled herself back up and rammed into his side. The impact did not knock Kimito down but he did stagger sideways. In his disorientation, Yuri moved fast and unleashed a hard kick to his sternum, sending him crashing backwards against another tree.

Ayato appeared next to her right as Kimito slumped to the ground, groaning. Through the trees he could see flashing lights approaching and realized that the sirens weren't just in his head.

"Why… why do they never get here quick enough?" Yuri wheezed, trying to catch her breath.

Swallowing, Ayato shook his head while rubbing at his throat. He touched her shoulder in silent thanks, making sure she was okay, then stepped toward his father's body and crouched down in front of him. The pins and needles from before had reached his head, a sputtering static that flared into a shrill wail.

"You're garbage," he said lowly, squinting in satisfaction as his father's golden eyes widened to reflect a crimson glow. Gritting his teeth, he powered through a wince at the heat in his head. "Lie there – stay on the ground like the trash you are until the police come pick you up."

Kimito stared up at him, mouth agape but otherwise unmoving. Once he was convinced he'd been completely immobilized, Ayato stood up shakily and backed away from him. His head was buzzing worse than hours before, pain stinging and stabbing at his temples. Faintly he became aware of the police officers arriving on the scene, breaking through the trees and milling about.

Radios blipped and bleated something unintelligible. The rain continued to pour. Thunder rumbled overhead and Ayato kneaded the bridge of his nose.

"Are you okay?" Yuri asked. Concern furrowed her brow at first, but her eyes sharpened in alert. "Where's Ayame?"

Numbly, he gestured toward the workshop. "He came out of there and locked the door…"

A couple of responders who weren't hovering over Kimito immediately stormed the door to the workshop to investigate. After a minute, one emerged, her expression grim as she frantically waved more of them over. He couldn't hear what any of them were saying, it all turned to fuzz and that infernal high-pitched ringing.

It was too much, and he felt it all at once. His scraped knuckles, aching muscles, burning, stinging, pounding in his chest and ears. He turned on his heel and ran blindly into the woods, unsure if his head or his heart would explode first. Branches whipped at his arms and face, rain slicked the ground under his feet, but he wouldn't stop running until he physically couldn't anymore. Chest heaving and burning with exhaustion, he pushed himself harder at the sound of someone calling his name over the piercing screech in his head. He had to get far, far away from all of that.

It was only when he reached Haruna Forest's walking bridge, framed with wisteria while the river water raged underneath, that he wavered and his legs collapsed underneath him. He fell to his knees, hyperventilating, looking upon the naturistic scene shrouded in darkness.

The wisteria, the bridge… he saw only reminders of what he'd lost. What the world took from him, what he could never get back, what he could…

He slumped in the rain, cradling his head, until his hands fell to the dirt in defeat. His vision began to blur and sting with tears, and he shuddered in a silent sob. Over the sounds of the rushing river and the ringing in his ears, footsteps splashed on the path as the cry of his name grew louder. A moment later a pair of arms wrapped around him, holding him close. Defeated and exhausted, he sank gratefully into her embrace.

The cold, dreary rain lashed down on them, soaking them to the bone, but not enough to wash all the blood from his clothes. He gazed down at himself, at the blood on his collar, his hands, his shirt… not all his own. Though his racing mind had started to grow weary, Ayato felt the comfort of Yuri's arms and closed his eyes, basking in the warmth of an ironic sort of déjà vu.

"Yuri," he said tiredly.

"Hm?" came her voice, calm despite its own post-sob tremor.

"Will you marry me?"

He didn't hear her answer. He might've hallucinated asking the question. A wave of dizziness struck. The sound around him faded, and his energy went with it.


A/N: Wish I'd given myself a little more time to review this, but here you go.

Wanna be extra serious for a moment. I've been sitting on this decision for four years, wavering over whether or not to go through with it (wanted to avoid fridging, which is unoriginal). Just know that the next chapter will shed a little more light on what happened here tonight (don't know when that will be out though).

Also, stay safe out there. Domestic violence is a serious, heavy topic. I know how this ended but if you need help, there is hope and there are people out there who will provide you with the help, resources, and love that you need.

Until next time

~Caroline


Preview:

"You're awake."

"Is everyone filled in on it then?"

"He was still on the ground."

"Thank you for being there for her."

"By the way, you have a visitor."

"I had to see it to believe it."

"Don't put that on yourself."

"Why don't you stay at our place tonight?"

"We'll just have to deal with it for now."

[Chapter 58]: Aftermath.