A/N: This may be a Frankenstein of Japanese wake/funeral proceedings since I had trouble getting a straight chronological answer. Nonetheless, here's the first half! "Half," I say liberally, knowing the second part is a thousand words longer… Well, anyways, thanks for all new faves, follows, and reviews!
ZainR: The "already talked to him" thing referred to Naoi calling her parents at the beach in the previous chapter! Easy thing to forget after a six-month hiatus tbh. ^^ And I'm so glad you like Banira! It's true, it's her first appearance in the series. I'd love to introduce her in TPS. For now, he's lost a mother, and she's lost a daughter, and that moment felt like the right time to bring them together. (And you'll find out what Yuri showed him in this chapter!)
Enjoy?
[Chapter 65]: The Funeral (Part I)
Despite the meticulous planning that went into arranging a wake and funeral, it seemed to Ayato that he'd materialized there the day of in a mere eyeblink.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe two or three days really did pass that quickly. Maybe Yuri had gotten him here and autopilot had only just disengaged. All he knew was that at one point he opened his eyes and found himself in a too-bright funeral hall, greeted by the overpowering scent of incense and flowers and the sight of all his friends and former neighbors wearing black. The latter was one of the many thoughts Ayato got stuck on for a while as he and Yuri accepted a trail of condolences.
"It's strange, isn't it?" Yuri had whispered to him at one point, reading his mind. "Seeing Battlefront dressed so formal?"
"Ironic, considering we met them in death," Ayato had agreed, out of the corner of his mouth. "And yet here they are for such a somber occasion… I'm not used to it."
"Me neither," she sighed. She was so close to him that her warm breath tickled his neck, making him shiver. "I know, the air-conditioning in here is nuts."
"Yeah," he said, averting his eyes as he cast a sweeping glance over the funeral hall.
Pictures of his mother rested on various surfaces, surrounded by arrangements of flowers and candles and lanterns. Many of the pictures featured Ayame as she was growing up (pictures he had acquired after reaching out to the Endo side of the family). Some were of her and her sons, many he had found in her packed suitcase. None, if he could help it, featured her killer. A few family photos that were on display had corners carefully torn off or were folded in half. If that didn't do the trick, Ayato was not above removing faces with a hole-puncher.
The pictures from the Endos, though, Ayato had never seen them before. He'd actually been taken aback when his mother's cousins gave them to him.
"Yeah, I remember her at eleven," Hotaru had said with a laugh, pointing to the photo in Ayato's grip. "She always had to have something on her head. Bows, caps, sunhats… they made her feel safe."
"Remember the one surefire way to make her mad?" asked Giichi, his twin brother. "Muss her head and mess up her bow—"
"—or make her hat sit crooked?" Hotaru finished. "Her face would puff up like a balloon! And she would give us this dangerous look – I swear if she could make her eyes turn red and blow us up on the spot, she would've."
"She was a feisty one," Giichi agreed. "Definitely someone you wanted on your good side. See that sweet little girl in the picture, Ayato? Would you ever believe she'd pull practical jokes on her older cousins? She was subtle about it. Never got in trouble."
Indeed, Ayato and Yuri had gawked at the photo. A round-faced young girl with bright, innocent eyes and shoulder-length wavy dark hair pulled back by a thick headband beamed at the camera underneath a canopy of wisteria.
Ayato couldn't believe it. She…
"She looks like you," Hinata said, awakening him to present day. He squinted at the picture, then at the one next to it where she was standing with her ten-year-old sons. "I mean, at least as kids. That's uncanny."
Otonashi smiled softly, examining the row of pictures for himself. "She really does. You have a lot of your mother in you."
"I hope so," Ayato murmured, his eyes finding Banira in the crowd of mourners.
"It's true." Turning, Yuri admired the family photos that Kanade had been drawn to. "Who knows, maybe your kids will end up looking like her someday."
"Whoa-whoa-whoa, kids?" Fujimaki's voice broke in. He, Matsushita, and Ooyama were approaching with Ryou and Yusa in tow. "Yurippe, is there something you're not telling us?"
Yuri immediately bristled at him, a flush of crimson overtaking her face. "Stupid! You know that's impossible."
"Impossible?" Fujimaki repeated incredulously, looking around at all the Akuma residents within earshot. "What's so impossible about it? When a perfectly fertile married couple lives under the same roof—"
"Fujimaki, this isn't the place for that!" Ooyama chided, squeezing his shoulder in warning. He inclined his head and Ayato distinctly heard him mutter aside to Fujimaki, "And don't jinx it…" To the rest of them, he added, "Besides, we need to let Ryou and Yusa offer their condolences."
Fujimaki obediently stepped aside, but Ryou's teary eyes widened ever-so-slightly in confusion. "Married couple…?"
Ayato and Yuri exchanged wary glances, realizing only just now that they hadn't let anyone outside of the Battlefront in on their little charade. "Ryou—"
"So the cards were right? I thought I'd misinterpreted something but they did indicate some kind of proposal—"
Yuri hastily wrapped her up in a trap disguised as a consoling hug and whispered something urgently in her ear. The girl looked bewildered at first, then enlightened, before pulling away with a perplexed head tilt. "Wait, so you two aren't engaged or anything?"
Ayato instantly pokerfaced. Yuri's mouth cracked open but only half a choked syllable came out. Coming to her rescue, Yui snatched her left hand and held it up for display. "Please, do you see a ring on this finger?" she said, her level of indignation matched only by her volume. At the look Yuri sent her, she blushed a deep pink before adding brilliantly, "Because it's being cleaned, of course! Duh."
Ryou looked sheepish at the attention she'd drawn, and swiftly changed the subject by offering her condolences.
"It was a pleasure to have known her," she told him sincerely. "I don't know if this is any comfort, or if you'd think me silly or insensitive, but I… I read her fortune that night. I wanted to know if she would be okay. It showed me death and heartbreak at first, but then comfort and healing, an old friend and a new friend, and love. I thought it meant she would survive. Now I believe, or I want to believe, that it was showing me her second chance. A new life for her." She wrung her hands shyly. "I hope that helps you."
Looking at her, Ayato softened a bit. She had been a true friend to Ayame from the moment she met her, and for that he was grateful. But also that particular card reading, while sending a shiver up his spine, somehow brought him peace.
"It does, Ryou," he said honestly. "Thank you."
After passing Kyou's, Nagisa's, Okazaki's, and even Noda's condolences on to him, she went on her way. She hadn't gone far before she was promptly stopped in her tracks by a nearby Ami, who asked with budding curiosity, "Did I hear you talking about tarot card readings?"
Ryou brightened, and they introduced themselves to each other as they walked off together. Yuri watched them go, intrigued but wary at the mention of Mizuzaka, then breathing a sigh of relief when she heard the subject switch to drama club.
Yusa paid her respects next, initially more subtle and composed than Ryou as she commended him for not dignifying Kimito with a funeral. Ayato was, however, mildly disturbed by her unflinching expression that she paired with barely concealed bloodlust.
"It's a shame I didn't accompany you both that night," she said softly, her hands clasped innocently in front of her. "I like to have my sharpest pair of scissors with me just in case, and I would've been glad to—"
"That's very noble of you, Yusa," Yuri cut in, while Otonashi nervously glanced around for eavesdroppers. "But having recently been stabbed himself, I think Ayato can wait to hear this and relive traumatic memories until after the funeral."
Yusa blinked at her doubtfully, perhaps detecting the prickliness in her tone, then nodded as if she understood. "Yes…" She looked deeply pensive for a moment, with a small hum of consideration. "Though the weapon he used, a broken pottery shard… if I had stolen it away like Yurippe did, it would have made for a more satisfying weapon than scissors. Jagged wounds don't heal as easily."
"You're telling me," Yuri and Ayato muttered simultaneously.
"You'd let him live long enough to heal?" Hinata asked with an eyebrow raise.
"This conversation is getting creepy," Otonashi mumbled into his palms.
"Like it wasn't already?" came an outside voice.
The small Battlefront sea parted to reveal Iwasawa standing there, eyebrow cocked, with an older woman at her side. The woman waved a hand dismissively, managing to toss her shoulder-length strawberry-colored hair as she lifted her chin in defiance.
"Please, Masami, let them finish!" she said with unabashed scorn, rolling her deep brown eyes before they sharpened with disdain. "I hated that pompous, overbearing, pain-in-the-ass, clay-for-brains—"
"Naoi, this is my mother – Akami Sawashiro," Iwasawa interrupted, gesturing to the woman. "Please accept our sincerest condolences."
Though Ayato would've been more than happy to let her mother go on, he nodded as Akami joined her daughter in a reverent bow. "Thank you both for coming."
"Thank you for inviting me," Akami said, taking on a more serious tone. "When Masami called me this weekend to tell me she loved me and was glad I got away, I was truly touched to hear those things from her. Though, when I asked what brought this on, the answer broke my heart. I was devastated even before I heard the name." She glanced between Ayato and Iwasawa. "I didn't even know you knew each other."
"Yes, well, you can imagine our surprise when we found an Iwasawa in my mother's address book," Ayato countered. He could still remember stopping short on his way back when he opened the image attachment Yuri had sent him, reading the name over and over without registering it.
Akami smiled sadly, lowering her eyes to the floor. "Your mother and I were friends a long time ago. A very long time. We lost touch not long after you and your brother were born," she explained. "If you can believe it, I… used to give her a hard time about her relationship. Even before they were married, I could tell Kimito was no good. Just a jerk who wanted someone else to control after being controlled all his life. I saw the red flags early on and I tried to wave them in her face. Needless to say, he didn't care for our friendship. Apparently I was too young and I 'riled her up.'" She scoffed to herself. "Too young… Thirteen-year-old Akami wasn't too young when he was eighteen and yelling at me for trying to find her another boyfriend."
Ayato scoffed as well, finding a scenario like that unsurprisingly easy to picture. But at once her words struck a familiar chord with him.
"I've heard this before," he said, in growing realization. "She never forgot about you. She said you two got into an argument about it and eventually stopped talking to each other afterwards, but she missed you every day. She told me you always wanted your kids to grow up together." Across from each other, he and Iwasawa shared an awkward but not unfriendly moment of eye contact.
"We did," Akami confirmed with a nod. "It just upset me that she became so demure with him. I looked up to her, and… and I told myself if the man I loved ever yelled at me like that, I'd yell right back. I remember when Masami's father started drinking and getting belligerent, I reassured myself: 'See? I don't take his shit. We just have fights, he would never hurt me physically.'"
She turned to Iwasawa with an apologetic frown.
"Which is why when you told me about your dream, I refused to believe it," she said, resting a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "After all the things I used to say to Ayame about her husband, I didn't want to believe I had ended up in that kind of marriage. So I chose denial, and it lost me you."
Iwasawa stared at her mother in shock, her wide eyes beginning to tear up. "Mom…"
"The moment that those beer bottles hit the wall, it was like glass had shattered in my head," Akami continued, her voice quivering at first but then growing firm. "In that moment I thought of you, and Ayame, and how wrong I'd been. In my own stubbornness, I'd driven you both away. If I let it slide, I would be everything I'd scolded Ayame for. That gave me all the strength I needed to throw him out."
Facing Ayato now, her expression softened.
"It isn't easy. I know that now," she admitted. "I believed that love made your mother blind… It turns out pride can do that too. So I thought like her, and I humbled myself – but to someone who truly deserved it." Lovingly, she gave Iwasawa's arm a gentle squeeze. "It's thanks to Ayame that I got a second chance with my daughter. I only wish the same could be said for our friendship."
A light, hopeful smile crossed Iwasawa's face. "Well, at least it lives on through the next generation," she said, and turned her gaze to Ayato. "Right?"
Though initially dumbfounded, he blinked through it and managed a nod. "Right…"
"That's all I can ask for," Akami said, breathing a watery sigh of relief. As silence fell, distant music drifted their way, and the woman seemed to perk up at the melody as she looked around for the source. "Masami, which one of your GirlDeMo friends plays piano? It sounds beautiful."
"No one, Mom," Iwasawa answered, confused at first and then similarly intrigued as she spotted the figure sitting at the funeral hall's piano. "That's Kanade, another one of our friends. She's not in the band."
"Well maybe she should be," Akami said decisively, her eyes alight. "Come on, I'd like to meet her! She's very talented…"
The mother and daughter pair disappeared into the crowd after that, but for Ayato and Yuri there was still no shortage of mourners offering koden and consolation. More members of the Endo family came by with kind words and old memories, for which Ayato was grateful. He didn't know his mother's side of the family all that well, and it helped to break the ice considering he would be picking through bones and ashes with them later.
Other faces were familiar. Faces he used to see around Akuma for many years. Former classmates and customers. Some he hadn't seen since he left town, others since graduation. Some still lived around here, others had left long ago.
Banira embraced the two of them, happy to see them both at once. Ami and Eisuke Masuda formally expressed their condolences, and extended some from Chaa and Ishiko, who were at home babysitting Mio. Fujimoto and Takada, still YouTube stars of their friend group's exploration channel, managed to get a laugh out of him, though Takada looked astonishingly solemn without his sunglasses on. Horigoshi, Jinko, Matsumoto, Sayuki, and Kaori were all drama club alumni and therefore closer to Yuri, but all too glad to honor her mother-in-law. Kaori and Sayuki enthusiastically got Yuri up to speed on the house they'd bought together in Nerima, while Ayato gradually came to the unnerving realization that the latter had portrayed him in Kanade's and Jinko's play.
It was surreal, greeting all of them. As if he had stepped back in time with one foot and was still standing in the present with the other, the strangest line to straddle.
He looked at Yuri, and she grounded him to this world with a smile. This was her liminal space too.
Even so, Ayato found a spark of warm comfort when members of Battlefront flocked back to rally around them. Mostly for support, but also because this wasn't exactly their hometown filled with nostalgic classmates. Except Kanade did vanish now and then, snagged by Jinko and the rest of the drama club alumni. Even Otonashi had trouble keeping track of her after that, but sometimes the group would spot a head of silver hair either over by the funeral hall's piano or somewhere in the crowd being fawned over by thespians. Meanwhile, the rest of Battlefront were not above people-watching at funerals.
"Who's that?" Hinata asked, motioning toward Kanade's latest fan. "The tall one in the suit who's looking at Kanade like she's a mermaid from the moon?"
Yuri cast a glance in the direction he was pointing. "That's you."
"What…?!"
"Her name's Kaori Hikida," Yuri elaborated with a snicker. "She was you in that play we were talking about. She played the character Kanade subconsciously based on you."
"She played me?" Hinata twisted his lips consideringly, watching her with a raised eyebrow as she laughed and tilted her head, letting her shaggy chin-length hair fall in front of her face. "Uh… permission to say she's hot?"
"Granted," Yui and Shiina said in unison, transfixed.
Ayato looked at them and opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it, closing his eyes with a shake of his head.
"Not so fast. The armrest she's leaning on is her girlfriend Sayuki," Yuri cut in, raising a finger. "Fun fact – she was also one of the main characters in the play. Cocky self-absorbed rich kid type who kept arguing with you."
"They probably got together for real because of their characters' belligerent sexual tension," Yui gushed, blissfully unaware while Ayato tried to explode her sparkly daydream hearts with a wide-eyed glower. They went away on their own as Yui blinked in confusion. "Wait, Kanade thought I was a cocky rich kid?"
Studying Sayuki's short hair and messy black bangs, Yuri's face cleared with amused epiphany as her eyes shifted towards him instead. "Actually, come to think of it—"
Ayato hastily grabbed at her and clapped a hand over her mouth, shaking his head at her emphatically. "No! No. No."
Yuri pulled his hand off of her mouth, but kept her lips sealed in a playful smirk. Even so, her eyes danced daringly as they locked with his own. Ayato faltered, trying not to blush. Never mind the fact that she had yet to let go of his hand…
"Hey, I remember that play," a familiar voice dipped in cool mischief broke through Ayato's reverie.
Breaking apart, he and Yuri both turned to see Nezumi and Shiruba approaching them. Shiruba's staticky silver hair looked like he'd at least attempted to tame it with a brush or comb, and Nezumi had lost his signature red leather jacket in favor of a black suit. But as formal and solemnly as the two presented themselves, there was no hiding the friendly golden twinkle in Shiruba's eyes or the ever-present seeds of a smirk in Nezumi's.
"Second year, right?" Nezumi asked, and nodded to Yuri. "From backstage work to your big debut? Whole thing was pretty awesome, as I remember it. Not a school festival I'd soon forget."
Shiruba side-eyed him suspiciously, bumping into his shoulder. "What he meant to say first was, it's good to see you two again."
"Right, of course." Wrangling his attitude into something more earnest, his eyes softened and he ran a hand through his grass green hair. "And we were really sorry to hear about your mom, man. Means a lot that we could offer our condolences in person."
"Yes, Eisuke figured it would be a good idea to invite you, and we thought so too," said Ayato, turning his gaze to Shiruba. "He reminded us how you'd always been a fan of her desserts at the annual Akuma bakeoffs."
"The woman was a culinary genius," Shiruba insisted. "Her melonpan? The Tsukimori family recipe could never compare."
Otonashi, who had been eyeing him oddly since he showed up, suddenly blinked as if pricked by something sharp.
"Tsukimori?" he repeated.
"My mother's side of the family," Shiruba said with a shrug. "Passed down from her grandma, I think. No idea, we're not in contact with that side. Still – sorry, Great-Grams!"
Otonashi looked like he wanted to say something else, but Nezumi's eyes suddenly brightened and he flashed Ayato an exuberant smile. "And hey, speaking of desserts—"
"Oh, for f—" Shiruba cut himself off, but rolled his eyes heavily. "Mirou, do not."
"Look, I have to ask—"
Leaning in close, Shiruba hissed against his ear, "Dude, read the room, this is seriously not the time or place to—"
"It's the perfect time!" Nezumi made a swooping gesture at their surroundings. "We don't know when we're going to see him again, Ami and Horigoshi are currently nowhere in sight—"
"Okay, what are you two talking about?" Fujimaki asked, smirking. "It sounds juicy."
Doing a doubletake, Nezumi broke into a broad, devilish grin. "Oh, buddy, juicy doesn't even begin to cover it!" he declared, already getting ramped up. "Don't tell me they never told you about the strawberry filling incident."
"The what?" Hinata demanded, breaking into a sweat.
Fujimaki's eyebrows jumped upward. "Maybe that is something you don't talk about at a funeral."
Nezumi bit down on his lip, looking absolutely delighted. "Well it's nothing like that, but I like the way you think," he said, shooting him a merry wink. Beside him, Shiruba cleared his throat and shot him a warning look, so Nezumi quickly switched his attention to Ayato and Yuri. "C'mon, you two know what I mean! It was deliberate, right?"
"I really don't," Yuri said, eyes narrowing in confusion. "What was deliberate?"
Nezumi laughed. "Yeah right, Naoi had to have told you about his and Daisuke's shady dealings," he said coyly. "I still hold tight to my theory that it was probably one of the reasons you two got back together as friends back then—"
"Tell us the story!" Yui burst out, trembling and hungry for gossip.
Even Ooyama's eyes were shining. "Yeah! We want to know about the shady dealings!"
Nezumi glanced at Ayato. "You wanna tell them, or should I?"
Ayato scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. "Go ahead, you're clearly ramped and ready for story time."
"Oh, you know me so well," Nezumi said fondly, while Shiruba heaved a sigh. "Alright, so back in our second year of high school when these two were 'just friends,' they got into this huge fight in mid-October, right? I think, if I remember correctly, Naoi was mad she was all wrapped up in drama club or something. Or she was keeping secrets, or she had the hots for Masuda," he paused when Ayato and Yuri both glared at him. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. They weren't speaking to each other. Two, three weeks go by, school festival is coming up, and so's the drama club's big play. Now before Daisuke here came to his senses and realized he was hopelessly in love with me, he had this huge embarrassing crush on Yuri's best friend Ami—"
"To clarify, I had called her cute once," Shiruba told the group, before amending under his breath, "at the time."
"Well, as his best friend, it was my job to make a whole obnoxious thing out of it," said Nezumi, shrugging. "Plus I had my own mess of feelings for him and didn't recognize it yet, so obviously the only solution was to throw him at this girl he liked and never ever let up on him about it to the point of daring him into making a move."
Fujimaki nodded his understanding, stroking his chin in thought. "Of course. Naturally."
"So Ami was going to star in the play," Shiruba continued for him, "and I innocently suggested I wanted to do something nice for her…"
"And our friends and I, we take our wingmen jobs super seriously," Nezumi chimed in. "Hirohashi tells him he should go see the play – we'd all come see it and he'd congratulate her afterwards. But Takada is smarter than he looks sometimes and he says 'no, that's not enough, a lot of people are gonna be congratulating her, he's got to do something to stand out.' And that's when Naoi here comes walking by just going to town on some anpan I assume his mom must've made, which gives us an amazing idea."
"They wanted me to bring in food," said Shiruba with a sigh. "Which would actually be a good idea, except I had zero baking skills back then, and I didn't want to go to the Aoki bakery since I knew – Kurimu being Ami's best friend and all – she and her mom were probably already planning to make something for the afterparty."
"…So, does that mean you went with Naoi's mom instead?" Ooyama asked curiously.
Nezumi snapped his fingers and pointed to him. "Bingo! Somebody's listening," he noted, awarding Ooyama a little grin of approval and completely missing the expression that had begun to blossom on Yuri's face. "One day we flag Naoi down and, with a little encouragement, Daisuke offers to pay him in cash if he brings in some kind of baked dessert and lets Daisuke give it to the drama club and take credit for it. Naoi's understandably skeptical at first but he agrees."
Hinata side-eyed Ayato, lifting a brow. "Back-alley dessert dealings?"
"You're so bad," Yui teased, snickering into her hand.
"So, we all meet at school the morning of the festival, Naoi hands over the stuff, Daisuke pays up and delivers these perfectly innocent-looking little chocolate cake bites to his inside man Horigoshi to give to the rest of the drama club first thing in the morning as a pre-performance treat." Nezumi's grin broadened, stretching from ear to ear. "Cut to a couple hours later…"
"Oh God." Shiruba face-palmed, visibly aware of what was coming next.
"Daisuke and I are minding our own business, just trying to enjoy the festival, when we hear Ami yell his name and come charging down the hallway," Nezumi said gleefully, laughter beginning to bubble in his voice as he draped an arm over Shiruba's shoulder. "She immediately starts laying into him and telling him exactly what his cakes caused, and she's all what were you thinking, I thought Horigoshi was your friend, didn't you know he has an intolerance to strawberry?!"
"No way," Otonashi said in disbelief, sending a suspicious glance towards Ayato (who bit his lip and discreetly covered his mouth as he cut his eyes to the side).
"And he's shrinking against the wall, as she's telling him how Horigoshi ate three of those strawberry-paste-filled bad boys and is spewing like a fire hydrant and Daisuke's just lucky he has an understudy," Nezumi said, positively trembling with mirth. "And meanwhile, I'm standing there, biting my tongue and pretty much choking back tears trying not to die laughing on the spot, as I ask her who Horigoshi's understudy is. She tells me, in no uncertain terms, that thanks to my friend's sneaky little strawberry stunt, the role is now Yuri's."
Otonashi, Hinata, Shiina, Ooyama, and Matsushita the Fifth made various sounds of startled realization as their eyes trained on Ayato. Yui, to her credit, looked relatively unsurprised but pleased with him all the same.
"You didn't…" Fujimaki said slowly, his eyes twinkling.
"Anyway, Yuri shows her face onstage, and totally kills it by the way," Nezumi summarized ever-so-gaily. "Our dear sweet Chitose tracks her down and publicly drags her to the depths like the vivacious little sea monster she is. Naoi bursts in on the scene and stands up for her. He and Yuri get back together as friends. Happy ending. It's perfect." His eyebrow flicked upward as he leered at Ayato. "Almost too perfect."
Shiruba groaned. "For the last time, he said he didn't know—"
"No, no, he only said it was something a friend should know," Nezumi corrected. He looked to Ayato hopefully. "C'mon, Naoi. Fess up, now's as good a time as any. When you baked those cakes, were you or were you not in full knowledge that Yuri was Horigoshi's understudy and that he had a sensitivity to strawberries?"
The Battlefront members present were watching Ayato with bated breath. Yuri looked a mix of flustered and suspicious, her memories noticeably warring between themselves while she wrestled to keep a straight face. After a moment, she settled on questioning, studying him still but doing it less intensely as a gentle piano melody picked up quietly in the background. Her brow lowered and her mouth twitched as if she wanted to ask it again herself.
At last, Ayato turned his attention to Nezumi, and his lips curved into a tell-tale smirk before he conceded with a dip of his head.
"I'd heard Ami mention it once in class," he said simply.
That was all it took for everyone to lose their minds. The Battlefront's initial startled sounds from earlier elevated to choked cries and dropped jaws and melodramatic scalp-clutching. Nezumi was going absolutely wild, prodding and playfully punching Shiruba's shoulder and hollering, "OHH! I TOLD YOU!" while the latter (after losing his indignant gawk) alternated between muttering disdainful deadpan curses ("oh, screw you, I can't believe this shit") and shaking his head in exasperated acceptance.
"Good for you. You knew it all along. Go on, give yourself a hand," Shiruba said sarcastically. Then he leaned in and muttered something in his ear. Nezumi's eyes widened and his mouth fell open, but apparently whatever he said only served to make him laugh even harder.
In mid-eyeroll, Shiruba paused, and an unreadable expression took over his face. His features crinkled like he was listening intently and he detached from Nezumi while he scanned the room. After a beat, the satisfaction that smoothed his brow signaled he'd found what he was looking for. His eyes softened, then glinted with warm curiosity. He shrugged Nezumi off and started walking away with a purpose.
Nezumi began to give chase, fighting to make his laughter die down but still grinning regardless. "Aw, c'mon Daisuke! Don't be mad!"
"I'm not mad," said Shiruba, throwing a deeply distracted wave over his shoulder. "I just wanna check something out…"
Ayato watched, eyebrows drawn together, as Shiruba weaved through the mess of mourners until he reached the funeral hall piano, where a head of long silver hair was bent over the keys and playing a tune that was soothingly simple and yet at the same time alluringly elegant.
Shiruba came around from the side, leaned on top of the piano, and said something that made Kanade look up in surprise. She considered him for a moment, with the same fascination Ayato had seen from her at the beach, before smiling and speaking softly to him. Breaking into a warm grin, Shiruba sat down next to Kanade on the piano bench and happily played a few notes, which she echoed back to him on her side.
As an intrigued Nezumi went to catch up with him (but was intercepted halfway by a tackling side-hug of greeting from Saki, to his visible delight), Ayato returned his attention to the Battlefront members. They were all still reeling from his confession, but it was Yuri's reaction that snagged him like a grappling hook.
She looked utterly astonished, her eyes rounder than he'd ever seen them. Her lips, so often pursed in a pensive line, formed a small "o" of disbelief as she seemed at a loss for words. Ayato just gazed back at her, drinking in her reaction as he relished quietly in the nostalgic feeling it unearthed. Not everyone got the chance to relive a moment like this.
Finally, she swallowed a breath, and her brow creased as she locked eyes with him. "You did that for me?"
A sudden bashfulness consumed him, fueled by the way she was looking at him now. You'd really do anything for me... He closed his eyes and waved it away like it was nothing. "The opportunity merely fell into my lap."
"So, wait – you poisoned someone?" Fujimaki asked, scoffing in amusement. Otonashi, who'd previously been watching the intro to the piano duet with great interest, had resumed staring at Ayato, fueled by the great inner conflict of amazement and a doctor's disapproval.
"Not poison. It was just a little digestive distress," Ayato said smugly, quoting Yuri with a grin.
Otonashi sighed. "That's what you want to hear…"
"You two really are perfect for each other," Hinata muttered.
"Is this the first time she's hearing about it?" Matsushita the Fifth asked curiously.
Ayato smirked some more. "No. When we made up after the play, she found an extra batch of the cake bites in my bento box and started hitting me with my schoolbag," he answered with ease, as if it were a memory from only yesterday.
"I did that?" Yuri winced through a guilty laugh and laid a hand on his arm, as if trying to comfort bruises from eight years ago. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Ayato told her with a reassuring grin. "It didn't hurt or anything. You weren't all that mad."
"That's probably because she would've done the exact same thing for you."
Ayato sobered at the sound of the new voice, turning abruptly to face the source. This time it was Hejjiguchi waiting there, suit sharp but hair just as windblown as ever. The friction at once became almost palpable as the two of them stared awkwardly at each other.
"See, that's what I'm saying," Hinata agreed, gesturing toward Hejjiguchi.
Otonashi tried to mutter something aside to him.
"What?" Hinata hissed back. "The woman starved us for a week!"
Hejjiguchi glanced in their direction, but if he'd heard that last part and now had a number of questions for them, he didn't let on. He nodded to the others in recognition and acknowledgment before his attention settled back on Ayato and Yuri.
Save for Yuri, the Battlefront members around him began to disperse as if to give them privacy, and Hejjiguchi's mouth gave a slight twitch. He let silence fill the cracks of tension in the air between them, and then he inclined his head and leaned against Hinata's former spot.
"Interesting concept, isn't it?" he said, lifting an eyebrow meaningfully. "Showing up to a loved one's funeral. Being there for your friends when they need it."
A slow exhale from Ayato. "I told you I wouldn't come back for anything."
The eyebrow lifted ever higher. "And yet here you are."
"He's dead."
Hejjiguchi's nerve visibly faltered at this. His sardonic expression disintegrated into something humbler and more resigned. Ayato wondered if some of it was because he subconsciously sensed Hisakawa coming up from behind him.
"Fair enough," he conceded. After a moment, he exhaled slowly and cracked a wry grin. "Kind of a macabre reunion, though."
Ayato and Yuri murmured their agreement. "It's weird how these things bring people together," Yuri mused.
"No kidding," Hisakawa piped up, stepping forward with a wave of her hand as she stood next to Hejjiguchi. "We saw your parents in the parking lot as we were heading in – I swear it was like a Loch Ness monster sighting or something."
Saki, who was passing by, stopped in her tracks to interject. "Elusive but not impossible?"
"Of course," she replied, and Saki nodded in satisfaction and moved along. Out of the corner of his eye, Ayato peeked at Yuri and could've sworn he caught a flicker of a smile.
"It kind of feels like a lot of that's been happening in the past couple years," Hejjiguchi observed. "Reunions, I mean, or just people coming back here for one reason or another. First there was Chaa, then you—" he motioned to Hisakawa, "—and then of course Shiruba and Nezumi started coming by more often because you were here—"
"And they wanted to see you," Hisakawa prodded patiently, but her eyes lit up with a memory. "Oh, and not to mention, even Takada's cousin is coming back to Japan in a couple of weeks."
"Right, right, yeah, the one who transferred to America in second year." Hejjiguchi nodded fervently, wagging his finger in recollection. Then he gesticulated in Yuri and Ayato's direction. "And now here you guys are, and you even brought Yuri's mom and dad back with you. As far as odds go, I think I'd put that in the realm of a lightning strike."
Hisakawa jolted as if hit by one. "There was a huge storm on Saturday night, wasn't there? Did you two have a bit of a chaotic drive coming in?"
Surprisingly, Yuri was the one who addressed her. "Just a little rain by the time we reached Akuma. In terms of weather, it was mostly uneventful," she said indifferently, arms crossed. "We did narrowly avoid running over two morons lying in the middle of the road, so that was almost a thing."
"Imbeciles were out there trying to get hurt that night," Ayato snorted.
Twin odd expressions simultaneously flashed across Hejjiguchi's and Hisakawa's faces. A brief wide-eyed look passed between them before swiftly vanishing.
"Haha, yeah, what were those two thinking?" Hejjiguchi chuckled nervously. "What a cheap thrill!"
"Hey, I think I hear Hirohashi calling us."
"Coming, bro!" Hejjiguchi called over his shoulder. Facing Ayato and Yuri again, he offered them an awkward smile complete with finger guns. "Tell you what, we'll catch you guys later."
"My condolences again!" In one smooth motion Hisakawa dropped off her offering, backed up a few steps with Hejjiguchi, and the two of them scampered into the crowd.
Ayato turned to Yuri with a quirk of his brow; she just shrugged.
Preview:
"Is something wrong?"
"I don't want to be any trouble."
"Sad Machine Girl?"
"Maybe we can inspire them to make peace."
"We shouldn't go to this."
"Why is everybody clairvoyant all of a sudden?"
"It's like we're in a timeline where that never happened."
"You guys are better than a soap opera!"
[Chapter 66]: The Funeral (Part II).
