Nagito Komaeda stared at the empty shot glass in front of him, exhaling as much of the burning whiskey as he could. Any more of the booze and there's no way he could drive himself home. He certainly could get Hajime to pick him up from the Kuzuryu's bakery, but that wouldn't be the issue. What Nagito didn't want to gamble on was his chemo damaged liver. Nagito rarely drank because of it. He'll enjoy the occasional half glass of wine with dinner, or a weak cocktail at parties. Shots of top shelf whiskey in the kitchen of a bakery? Now that's uncharted territory.
The ovens that surrounded Nagito were absent of heat, the mixers disassembled and meticulously cleaned. The lights up front keep the cute patio tables and chairs up front shrouded in darkness. Peko's Bakery and Sweets closed early tonight, allowing the husband and wife owners to attend Parent-Teacher night at their daughter's school. Peko Kuzuryu kept a mental note to thank her employees for their flawless cleanup today.
Nagito couldn't help but notice how overdressed Fuyuhiko and Peko were. Even with his rolled up sleeves and unmade tie, Fuyuhiko's silver and black blazer and slacks appeared more fitting for a red carpet event than a simple meeting with his child's teacher. Peko removed her black jacket almost as soon as she arrived at the bakery, revealing her silk silver dress and the large tigress tattoo on her back. Nagito almost felt like a pauper in his simple red dress shirt, Hajime Insisting he needed not to dress up.
"You up for a second round?" Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu smirked. The short blond held out the whiskey bottle, ready to pour. Nagito quickly flipped his glass over, flashing a polite smile.
"Tempting, but I think I should play it safe tonight." Nagito graciously declined. "Can't say I'm much of a drinker anyhow."
"Heh, neither are Peko and I." Fuyuhiko laughed as he poured his wife a second shot. "But It's been far too fuckin long since either of us have taken a night off. So, excuse me for wanting to unwind a bit." The husband and wife duo clinked their glasses before drinking each other's shots. Fuyuhiko did a poor job in hiding the sour look on his face as the whiskey settled in his throat. Peko maintained a strong poker face as she placed her empty shot glass on the table top.
"You'll get no judgment here." Nagito grinned. He knew the bakery closed no later than 6 pm, interestingly enough. An inconsistency that bothered Nagito. Perhaps he's being too literal, an easy rational to get the thought out of his head. Certainly owning a business is work even after hours, right? "Though I'm not sure if I would call Parent-Teacher conferences an exciting night off."
"No, but that's what this whiskey is for." Fuyuhiko delighted. "I say we drink for celebration, to our children making us proud and not being the reason we're drinking in the first place."
Fuyuhiko made no attempt to swell his pride in his daughter during his meeting with Yukizome earlier that evening. Of course Kirumi has been nothing short of an absolute joy towards the experienced teacher. Kirumi's manners were far above her old mans, taking after her mother in that regard. Even then Kirumi was far friendlier than her matriarch.
"Sounds as good a reason as any." Nagito perked. It wasn't often to see either Kuzuryu in such a good mood. Nagito surely had no interest in derailing that train.
Off the corner of Nagito's eye, he watches as Peko and Fuyuhiko share a whisper and soft laugh. Peko grabs the liquor bottle and carefully pours herself and Fuyuhiko another shot.
"We're going to toast this next shot, you should join us." Peko offered.
The sinister hold of peer pressure lightly held Nagito by the throat. He looked back at his upside down shot glass, his hand absentmindedly circling the rim of the bottom.
"I guess one more shot wouldn't kill me." Nagito sighed in resolution. He knew he could graciously decline without offending his hosts. The worst thing he'd receive would be a verbal jab thrown at him by Fuyuhiko, something the height impared man normally threw out for free as is.
"I'll fill it half full." Peko sweetened the deal.
"Perfect."
Peko flipped Nagito's glass back up, filling the small cup about 60 percent full. Once the bottle was again resting on the table top, all three raised their glasses as Fuyuhiko cleared his throat.
"To our progeny!" Fuyuhiko belted, smiling as he pictured his daughter waiting for him back home with the sitter.
"For making us proud, and for us to keep on nurturing them into reaching heights greater than we can climb." With a clink of the glasses, the three parents swallowed their shots in one gulp, Nagito nearly choking without a chaser. Even as he struggles to keep down his booze, Nagito's heart is intoxicated by the hope that flows through him.
"Beautifully said, Fuyuhiko." Nagito complimented once he caught his breath.
"Thank you." Fuyuhiko beamed. "Can you tell I'm happy my kid is fuckin' well behaved."
"I think I've started to piece that together." Nagito winked.
"How has Shuichi been? Kirumi told us about that bit of trouble he had with the Ludenberg boy a few months back." Peko inquired, Fuyuhiko venomously snarling at the mention of that name. It was the same Ludenberg boy that bothered Kirumi almost every day last school year. The same Ludenberg boy that created issues with most of his classmates now that Fuyuhiko thinks about it.
"Shuichi's been good." Nagito sighed. "We've finally been able to take him to a therapist his aunt recommended. We would have had him start sooner but figuring out Shuichi's insurance turned out to be more of a hassle than anticipated."
"Which was probably a mistake on your guys' end." Fuyuhiko teased.
"True, but it's water under the bridge now. Shuichi seems to enjoy talking to his therapist. Granted that may be because of the rabbit avatar she uses to communicate."
"Is the avatar cute?" Peko asked. Perhaps she should look into this therapy rabbit for herself.
"I think so, the avatar is called "Usami". Chiaki may be a bigger fan of it than Shuichi though." Nagito laughed.
"Therapy with a rabbit?" Fuyuhiko wasn't one to negate the importance of counseling, even if he doesn't indulge in it as often as he likely should. But having a cartoon tell you how to process trauma seems rather jarring in theory.
"Dr. Gekkogahara stays in the room, she isn't silent during the meetings either." Nagito shrugged. "Regardless, Shuichi's been responding well to the sessions. Dr. Gekkogahara even thinks Shuichi will be okay to have his weekly sessions turn bi-weekly soon." Nagito wasn't going to complain about the results. He trusted any Hope's Peak alumni, especially one suggested by Kyoko Kirigiri.
"I gotta ask, did the school make you guys take Shuichi to a shrink?" Fuyuhiko amused. "Ya know, after he rocked Ludenberg's shit."
"They didn't make us, Principal Munataka suggested it to Hajime and we all agreed." Nagito waved his hands up. "Believe it or not, Kokichi apologized to Shuichi on his own volition not long after the incident."
"Did he now?"
Nagito sighed, understanding Fuyuhiko's reluctance. After all, the Kuzuryu's were among the first parents to offer assurance as word of Shucihi's fight carried on from the playground to the pick-up line afterschool. A day best left forgotten as far as Nagito is concerned.
"Hajime can vouch for it too. I will admit this though; Shuichi is far more forgiving than I ever would have been." Nagito had little desire to repeat what was said to the poor kid.
"Well, Shuichi does have some good guidance now." Fuyuhiko chuckled.
"Yeah, he's been taking after Chiaki and Hajime a lot since he moved in." Nagito shrugged.
"Oh don't give us that, Nagito." Peko frowned. "I'm sure Shuichi appreciates you as much as anybody else."
"Yeah give yourself more credit man." Fuyuhiko playfully slapped his friend's back. "The moment we heard you and your partners were going to be fostering a kid we knew you'd all be great parents. You may be an odd duck but you're a good man, Nagito. I trust your son loves you dearly."
Nagito found himself flustered, sheepish to the highest degree.
"Oh, um. Thank you, Fuyuhiko. Thank you, Peko." Nagito awkwardly mumbled. "I'm trying my best, I just hope it's enough for the little guy. If I'm being honest, I've already gotten comfortable calling Shuichi my son." Nagito admitted as he ran his hand through his soft white hair, undoing the ponytail in the back.
"Kids really are a blessing." Peko laughed. "Shuichi moved in with you guys in the spring, right?" Peko asked.
"May 21th was his first day with us." Nagito clarified. "Though the stress of taking care of him has started to really add up as of late. Have you ever had a panic attack about school supplies? Because let me tell you, that shit is no fun.
"It wasn't over school supplies but I think we've both been there, done that before." Peko laughed, bringing an embarrassed Fuyuhiko into a big side hug.
"A lot of change has happened in a relatively short amount of time. It's normal for your feelings to have to catch up to you in that case." Peko assured Nagito.
Nagito chuckled. "You know, Shuichi staying with us was supposed to be a temporary arrangement." Nagito chose to ignore the surprise that snuck onto Fuyuhiko's expression.
"The idea was we watch Shuichi during the day, which would be a bit of a "test run" of parenting so to speak. Kyoko and Makoto wouldn't have to leave their nephew home alone all day and have to commute all over…" Fuyuhiko's smile dropped the second he heard the name of the famous Kirigiri.
"... While Chiaki, Hajime, and I get to earn some necessary experience in handling a child. We were talking about kids again a few days before we got that first call from Makoto. As sudden as everything was, it felt like an answer to our questions."
Nagito continued his tangent. "It was probably day four or five when I first realized just how happy I would be to keep Shuichi around. I woke up before Hajime and Chiaki that morning, which almost never happens. Shuichi was already awake, so I ended up making breakfast for him. We had a nice heart to heart that morning. It was then I truly saw the burden that boy carries on his shoulders. I saw more than a little of myself in his sad little eyes. I realized how much I could help him."
"Lemme ask you something." Fuyuhiko leaned in.
"Of course." Nagito politely sniffled.
"Would you die for your son?"
"I-is that a threat?" Nagito grimaced.
"No! No, shit sorry." Fuyuhiko's eyes widened. "I meant how far would you go to protect him."
Nagito cursed himself for jumping to any other conclusion. He needed no time to answer the question at hand.
"I would give my life for him." Nagito asserted. "That's why it's funny calling him my son. I've never been more certain about wanting to protect this kid than anything else besides. I went into it not really expecting anything but alas, within a week he had all of my heart."
"And this is why we've never had any doubts about you." Fuyuhiko smiled. "You all clearly care for this kid. I think fate itself brought you together."
"Fate… I like the sound of that." Nagito trailed off. "Like finding a missing piece of an otherwise complete puzzle."
Nagito silenced himself as he got lost within his own thoughts. The pleasant conversation petered out, Nagito struggling to think of a topic. He already asked about the bakery, his joy of shops growing success already long congratulated. Nagito got careless.
"How's your sister doing? I know Hajime's been worried since he hasn't heard from her in a while now." Nagito asked.
Nagito froze up as he saw unmistakable worry wash over Fuyuhiko upon mention of his sister. Peko places an assuring hand over her husbands. Fuyuhiko takes his free hand and goes for the whiskey bottle.
Nagito feels increasingly uneasy as he watches Fuyuhiko pour himself a shot.
"Did I touch a sore subject?" Nagito awkwardly acknowledges.
"Yes, but you're fine." Fuyuhiko sighs before gulping the shot like a champ. A champion if he was playing the game called "repress the feeling".
Peko grabbed the whiskey bottle away from Fuyuhiko before he could entertain the thought of another shot. She shoots Nagito with her version of a sympathetic smile. Nagito tries to smile back but can't commit to it mostly out of guilt.
"Natsumi is… As good as she can be right now." Fuyuhiko carefully reveals. "She's been laying low since the summer. Some of her employees got caught with their preverbal pants around their ankles. I've been calling her about every other day or so but I haven't seen her since August."
A sick feeling suddenly sunk into Nagito's stomach. A sickness he could not define, but knew ignoring it would only drive him to madness.
"At least your sister is okay. Has she been keeping herself busy wherever she is."
"Natsumi's in the mountains, the family has a vacation cabin that's left alone." Fuyuhiko exhaled. "She's been damn near a hermit since the bust went down. She has been understandably paranoid with her associates trial coming up. The damn fool is taking the fall when we told him not to."
"I feel like I read about a similar case on the news earlier this year." Nagito claimed, his calm nosiness masking the ever sinking feeling of dread consuming his heart. "I thought I remembered hearing about a city cop being among those caught in a sting."
"Yes, turns out our shit was too rancid for those parasitic journalists to ignore." Fuyuhiko scoffed.
"You know about the case then?" Peko calmly asked.
"Only bits and pieces." Nagito obviously lied about that. "You told him not to take the fall for you guys though?"
Fuyuhiko and Peko glanced at one another. Peko nodded, Fuyuhiko sternly agreeing.
"I'll keep this conversation going, but we really fucking need you to promise to keep it to ourselves." Fuyuhiko warned.
Nagito slid his cell phone to the center of the work table, proving he turned it off while Fuyuhiko was talking.
"You don't have to do that, man." Fuyuhiko sighed. Nagito awkwardly grabbed his phone back, offering a nervous smile. "Look, we're probably being watched but Peko and I aren't involved in that shit." Fuyuhiko insisted. "We really don't have anything to hide."
"You're not involved but you're still kept in the loop?" Nagito pressed.
"Basically, yeah." Fuyuhiko admitted.
"So, it's bad enough for any one of my family's employees to get caught by the law." Fuyuhiko made a point to use air quotes while saying "employees". "But one of the guys they lost just so happened to be one of their best informants on the police force. I think the cops are onto him but they have no real evidence of how deep he ran with us. Not that it calms Natusmi down at all."
"It sounds like your associate got caught with something pretty damning." Nagito mused.
"You can say that." Fuyuhiko winced. "Ever since Natsumi took over the family has been dipping its fingers in more "distribution" than before." Nagito had a nauseating feeling that he knew this Kuzuryu employee. That this employee is fitting one too many parts of the glove to not fit. He had to play dumb.
"I can't say I blame your sister's thought process but I definitely can't approve of it either. It sounds like neither of you two do either." Nagito sighed.
"Correct." Peko exhaled. "But what's done is done. With the trial coming up the media may turn its focus back on our case."
"Tct, don't remind me. At least those parasites lost interest in the story for now. I'm afraid it'll turn into a real fucking circus once the trial heats up though." Fuyuhiko scoffs. "I don't know how Natsumi's going to deal with the stress. Fuck, I don't know how I'm going to deal with it."
"I could only imagine just how difficult that was for everybody involved." Nagito's smile burns with unmistakable passive aggression, despite his best efforts.
Fuyuhiko glares at his old classmate, flickering anger giving way for genuine confusion.
"Are you hiding something, Nagito?" Fuyuhiko coldly asks.
"What do you mean?" Nagito recoils.
"You seem particularly interested in this matter. Why?" Fuyuhiko demands.
Nagito straightens his back, resting his hands on the steel prep table. He's well past the point of return. He feels as if he's stuck on a raft approaching a waterfall, his oar long gone. If he's going to fall to his death he may as well enjoy the adrenaline rush before the impact.
"I can answer that by having you answer a question of my own." Nagito deals. "This case of your associate, I fear I may be a lot closer to it than you expect."
"How so?" Fuyuhiko raises his eyebrow.
"First, my question." Nagito takes a deep breath. "This whole time, we've been talking about the Kenji Saihara case, have we?"
Fuyuhiko bowed his head down.
"You fuckin' tell me, Nagito."
…
No.
No no no no no no no no no.
He knew it. The connections were clear as fucking day. Was it foolish to think that another police officer with mafia connections was arrested? Maybe. In truth Nagito's followed the case since the beginning. Kenji Saihara, along with three other "associates" were busted at the port after an illicit "package" was discovered by an unnamed crew member on the ship. A sloppy mistake to hide such a shipment on a commercial ship, a mistake normally unlike the Kuzuru clan.
…
…
…
"How do you know Saihara? " Fuyuhiko bluntly asks, breaking the mental fog that rested upon Nagito's shoulders for a moment there.
"I can't say I know him personally." Nagito frowned.
"But I guess you can say I know his son, Shuichi."
"Wh-what?" Fuyuhiko chokes out. "You mean like, your Shuichi?"
Nagito stares Fuyuhiko eye to eye. The reality of the situation may as well have snuck up on Fuyuhiko and smack him upside the head with a baseball bat.
"Oh god." Peko gasps.
Fuyuhiko buries his head onto the table top, Peko's hand assuredly rubbing circles on his back. Nagito closes his eyes, hoping he'll open it and everything he just said will turn into an elaborate lie.
"Fuck." Fuyuhiko cries out.
Nagito opens his eyes. The scene is still exactly the same. The kitchen felt still and lifeless, the occupants completely flabbergasted on what to do next.-
A/N: I think that's as appropriate of place to leave as any. What becomes of this new development? Stay tuned and find out.
We have one more chapter of this trilogy. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the month. Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a terrific day.