Reconstruction
By: Aviantei
Chapter Two
Remains II
After a long walk that took far too much time than could be considered reasonable, the duo of Hitomi and Eri made its way into the main part of the city by pure luck. While Hitomi was content to simply wander until they found a suitable place to eat, Eri had no such patience and insisted they asked for directions. This job fell to Hitomi.
"But if it's your idea to do it, why don't you ask?"
"Because you know very well I don't like speaking in front of others. It looks too suspicious."
While Eri had considered different options before, she had never found a good way to use the plush in front of others without arousing attention. Carrying the toy around was simple enough to get away with, but making it talk in front of others was out of the question. She had almost used ventriloquism as an excuse, because it was close enough to the truth, but that was too easy to be exposed as a lie. It was better to play it safe and not speak at all.
Meaning that the less polite Hitomi was left to the job of asking for directions. There were a number of failed attempts on the younger girl's part, but they were able to finally encounter someone who didn't run off at Hitomi's punk-esque looks or attitude. After that it was smooth sailing to a street that hosted a large number of restaurants to choose from.
"Man that was brutal…" Hitomi muttered under her breath. "Nee-san, do you gotta keep making me do things like that? Even when you're mute you're a better speaker than I am." Eri glanced around the crowded street.
"You need to work on your social skills, Hitomi-chan," she said. With this many people around, it would be difficult for anyone to even notice it was her talking. "It's important in general and for what we're doing. Ruyaki said he wished you would get along with people better…" Eri frowned, and sadness was evident in the voice coming from the cat.
Hitomi sighed and looked away. "Yeah, yeah, I know…" Her voice was aloof but her expression wasn't. "I guess I just need to try more, don't I? Everything that's gone wrong has been because I didn't try hard enough, right?"
"Hitomi, you know that's not true." Eri was frowning at her sister, a tiny glint of anger in her eyes. "No one is at fault here, especially not you."
"Well if no one's at fault, then what happened to Ruyaki? Are you telling me that it just happened for no reason? If that's the case, then what are we even doing this for?!" Hitomi turned to Eri, demanding an explanation. A few people stopped in the street to look at them.
Not wanting to be found out Eri only reached out her cat's paw to deliver a light hit to Hitomi's face. She then lowered the plush to where she pushed it into the other girl's stomach. Looking up at Hitomi with worried eyes, she willed her words to get through. You were hungry, right?
Hitomi looked down at the older girl and sighed. "Yeah, yeah," she drawled, the tension draining from her shoulder. "I really don't give a damn what we eat. Just pick wherever, Nee-chan."
Eri looked around with a finger poised in the air. She was observing the crowd's behavior almost as much as her restaurant options. When she was satisfied that they were no longer being looked at, Eri pointed to one of the many signs. Hitomi followed the finger's guidance. "Ramen? Sure, that works. They might have private booths, too."
Eri nodded, smiling. Hitomi had followed her train of thought perfectly. Having a booth to themselves would make discussing things easier. The duo walked towards the shop's entrance, and Hitomi lifted up the curtain over the doorway.
A figure exited the building at the same time she was about to enter, and the two collided. Eri grabbed onto Hitomi's shoulder to steady her. The other figure stumbled before running off down the street, shouting something that sounded like "Excuse me! Sorry!"
Hitomi growled. "Fucker!" she cursed, even though the figure was already lost in the crowd. Eri tugged on her arm, and Hitomi sighed. "I know, I know, we need to relax. Some assholes just have no manners." Flipping a middle finger in the direction her "assailant" had disappeared in, Hitomi shrugged and walked into the shop.
It was a small but standard place, with the menu above the counter. A few tables were along the opposite walls, with a single private section on the left-hand wall. Eri smiled at a reluctant Hitomi and gave her a light push towards the counter where the chef stood.
"Um, excuse me… is the private booth free?"
"Sure thing, onee-san," the chef asked without looking up. "If you give me a minute to clean this up I can come back and take your order." He gestured to the half-eaten remains of a ramen bowl sitting on the counter.
"That's fine but we'll just take two orders of shio ramen if that'll save you the trouble."
"Coming right up."
Hitomi held in her sigh until she and Eri were seated and the booth's door was securely shut. "I can't keep doing this, Nee-san, I just can't," she complained, sinking back into the cushions. "People are impossible to talk to."
Eri smoothed out her skirt before returning her hands to the cat plush sitting on the table. "That's only true because you don't try. If you talked to them more things would be a lot easier for you," she said.
"That's easy for you to say. You never have to talk to people. At least not properly."
Eri frowned. "Just because I can't speak to people doesn't mean I can't talk to them," she countered. "You have to remember hardly anyone ever knows sign language. It's very nerve wracking not even knowing if the person I'm trying to communicate with will understand me when I try to get what I'm feeling across. Trying to talk to Kusanagi-san was a nightmare."
"Hey what do you think I made this for?" Hitomi asked, tapping the stuffed cat's head with her knuckle. "I know you don't like using it in front of others, but I think if you got over it, people wouldn't care as much as you seem to think they would."
"…I suppose. But I'll need to be more comfortable with myself first." Eri hugged the toy to her chest. "Though I am grateful that you made Mie-chan for me. He's really helpful. But enough about our problems. We need to discuss the matter at hand." The plush Mie-chan was returned to sitting on the table.
"Right-o." Hitomi put her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm. "So this 'Kusanagi-san,' was he the leader Urumana mentioned?"
Mie-chan let out a short humming noise in Eri's steed. "I honestly can't say for sure," Eri admitted. "If anything, he definitely seems like he's high up enough to agree to help us. Though it kind of bothers me that it's been a month since they released the bounty and they still have no idea where he is."
Hitomi nodded. "That started to bother me when you said it, too. Despite being a bunch of street punks, HOMRA has it together better than you'd think. They should have had him by now. So what's the fuckin' deal?"
"I wonder… Maybe if we get close enough to them we'll get them to tell us the whole story. All things considered, I really wouldn't trust some random woman who says they're out looking for someone who supposedly killed one of their members. Even the little girl in the bar caught on by just looking at me." The tone coming from Mie-chan was solemn. Hitomi looked down at the table, drawing circles with her free index finger.
"There's no way… he would really kill someone right…?" she asked quietly.
"Of course not!" Eri's voice almost echoed in the small space. "No matter what… he'd never! There's absolutely no way he could ever…" The anger in her expression dimmed down. If anything, she was now on the verge of tears. "That's why we're doing this, Hitomi-chan. Because there's absolutely no way. And we need to find the reason."
Hitomi reached a hand out to place on Eri's shoulder. "You're right, Nee-san," she said, halfway forcing the smile now on her face. "We can get through this, just me and you. We'll find out the truth about all of this together. We'll find Nii-san."
If there had been a contest within HOMRA to see who was the most depressed by the loss of their king, Yata Misaki would have taken second place. While Anna had definitely taken his death the hardest, Misaki was close behind. Add on that he had been the one most affected by the death of Totsuka-san right before that, and the young man was nothing short of a mess.
Losing Totsuka had been hard enough on Misaki, particularly since the senior HOMRA member had died in his arms. Misaki still had nightmares about it and always woke up in a cold sweat as Totsuka-san's thumb left a streak of blood on his cheek.
The dream had only gotten worse after the conclusion of the incident on the school island. Sometimes it was the same old dream, sometimes it was Mikoto dying in his arms in Totsuka's place, and sometimes it was something he didn't even want to describe nor could ever remember properly once he woke up.
Unlike Anna, though, Misaki had done his best to carry on as best as he could. As far as everyone else in HOMRA was concerned, the Yatagarasu was the same as always, looking for trouble and begging that they go out and do something. And while he knew better than to ask Kusanagi-san for any sort of work, he still tried, because otherwise he was probably going to fall apart.
One thing he had at least been keeping up with was eating. In the past three weeks he had steadily built up a repertoire of running around the city, looking for a glimpse of something to do. And whenever that failed (which it always seemed to do), Misaki would find himself stopping in at the usual noodle shop to ease his hunger.
He started to eat while the bowl was still steaming. If it were anyone else then the inside of his mouth would have been burned. His aura negated the effect. He almost wished it didn't.
It was getting to the point that the chef didn't even have to ask for his order. How much longer would it be until Misaki walked in at the same time as always and his order was already waiting for him? How much longer until he stopped thinking about what else to do to pass the time? How much longer until he was as good as he was before Mikoto-san had found him, just some kid on the streets with nothing to do?
Not that it could ever be exactly the same as it was before.
Misaki formed a fist around his chopsticks, threatening to break the thin wood. That was the last thing he needed to think about. Trying to dismiss the thought, Misaki resumed the activity of consuming his noodles without choking on them. Halfway through, his watch chimed for his attention.
"Mm? Thish ish Yata," he answered, mouth full. Misaki swallowed before speaking again. "What do you need?"
"Yata-chan, we've got work to do," Kusanagi-san said on the other line. "Everyone's meeting up at HOMRA in the next hour or so. It's important so don't be late."
Misaki nearly cheered in excitement. He decided to save the shout for a later date. "You really mean it, Kusanagi-san?!" he asked. The chef gave him a sidelong look from inside the kitchen. Misaki lowered his voice. "So what's the job? Is it something big? Where'd it come from?"
Kusanagi laughed on the other side of the line. "Calm down, Yata-chan. I'll explain everything when you get here. Would you mind letting some of them others know for me? I don't have the time to call everyone."
Misaki stood up and started to dig in his pockets. "Sure thing, Kusanagi-san, I'll get right on it!" After some struggle, the skateboarder pulled out the necessary yen from his pockets and tossed the coins on the counter. He made sure all his belongings were gathered before heading towards the door in a run. "Thanks for the food, Oji-san!"
It would have been a smooth jump onto his skateboard if someone hadn't been walking into the store at the same time. Misaki stumbled, shouting an "Excuse me! Sorry!" over his shoulder. He would have given a more formal apology if he hadn't been so focused.
There was work to do. Finally, after weeks of doing nothing, HOMRA was back in action. It didn't matter what the job was, what they were doing, as long as it was something. For the first time in a while, Misaki grinned as he skated through the crowd. He really couldn't contain his excitement any longer.
"Alright! No blood! No bone! No ash!"
His shout felt as if it had pierced the sky.
Urumana Nezuto was often considered by others to be an idiot. Even his closest friends could say that the only good thing about him was his sense of direction. It didn't matter if he knew anything about the area he was in, he was able to find his way around to almost anywhere, or at least damn close. Which was why he could come into this city and play the role of an escort despite being there for less than two months.
It was really his only redeeming feature.
"Even so… how'd it end up like this?"
Despite their standing as lifetime residents, Hayatama Eri and Hitomi were utterly hopeless at navigation. He was unsure if that was because they truly lacked a sense of direction or just had no idea of how to get around in the more underground parts of town. In any event, Nezuto was certain they couldn't afford to wander around the city without him. So the fact that they had left the area surrounding the HOMRA bar in the short amount of time he was gone was concerning.
"I do have their contact information, so I could call them," he considered. "But if they left without trying to call me then that means they didn't want my help. But Hitomi-chan admitted straight up that they needed me to get around. Are they willing to get themselves lost?"
Nezuto would have normally searched for them, but if they didn't ask for his help, maybe it would be best if he didn't interfere. Sure, they needed him, but having them irritated would only make a terrible experience of the job. And that was something he wasn't willing to put up with.
His phone gave the sound for his email notification, and he pulled it out of his jacket pocket. While it wasn't from either of the women he expected, it was from someone equally important to him at the moment. Nezuto smiled, and let his sense of direction take him where he needed to go. After a few minutes, he found himself leaning against the fire escape in an alleyway.
"Couldn't you have picked a more subtle location?" Nezuto asked, looking up. "Honestly, this just screams 'suspicious'. I expected better of someone with your reputation." The figure sitting above him on the fire escape ignored the insult.
"You said you could help us," it said, distaste lacing the words. "I haven't seen too much of that happening. Just what exactly do you intend to do to actually keep your promise?" Nezuto only laughed softly.
"Easy, easy. I will help you in time. You can't blame me for trying to finish up a way easier job on the side, especially if it pays well. If I recall, you're the one who said you didn't have the money to pay me. I'm really only helping you because you've forced me to. My other clients usually are prepared."
The figure shifted enough to make the fire escape move. Nezuto just barely kept his balance. "You know we don't have much of a choice," the figure retorted.
"I know, I know." Nezuto waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "But you haven't been very specific. I understand you want me to help out with keeping your location and identity under wraps, but I think you two can handle that on your own. What exactly is it that you want of me?"
There was a moment of relative quiet, with only the noise from the main streets buzzing in the distance. "I would like to find someone, but that's not something I think you can help us with. Aside from that, there's certain information I would like to obtain."
Nezuto frowned. "That's not my area of expertise, sir. You should know that," he said. "Normally I'd be willing to try something out for you, except you can't afford it. I'm really pushing it as it is. Sorry, but you'll have to do without that particular service."
"I can pay." The response was a bit too hasty for Nezuto to believe.
"You're going to have to prove it," he said seriously. "No exceptions. I can give you all the time you need to get the necessary funds. But I need hard proof, and I will need it soon if you want me to be effective. Can you do that for me?"
Silence fell again, and that was all the answer that Nezuto needed. The tone in his prospective client's voice was just an additional factor. But he decided to give the other the benefit of the doubt. "Give me three days."
"I suppose I can do that," Nezuto allowed. "If there's any time you can get that proof to me sooner, it would probably be in your best interest. Surely someone like you can understand that. Time is money, after all. And, well, you don't have either of those really, so you can't afford to waste either of them."
The other person growled, almost too soft to be heard. Nezuto wondered if he was about to be attacked. That would be an interesting one to explain to the girls; how their guide had suddenly gotten mugged or some other similar lie. But nothing happened in that regard, and the escort remained unharmed.
"Understood," was the terse reply. The fire escape rattled and the other person in the alleyway disappeared without a trace. Nezuto breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to the crack of sky above him.
"Am I… pushing myself too hard?" he asked no one in particular. A wry chuckle escaped his lips. "I guess not. But really what else am I supposed to do?" Nezuto walked towards the street, exiting the alleyway in the opposite direction he had entered. There was nothing pressing for him to do, but if there was somewhere he needed to be, he'd get there.
"But really, no more charity work. I'm making myself feel sick."
Here we have the second part of the story, giving us some of Hitomi and Eri's intentions, introducing Yata, and indulging in a bit of mystery with Nezuto. It can seem like a lot, but when I look at the big picture, it really is just the beginning. I still have two pages of notes lying around not getting anywhere, and I should really fix that. If anything, this story is one worth working on.
There are times when I look at all the depressing things I write, then I start to wonder if something's wrong with me as an author. Not everything in this story will be depressing, it just happens to have a depressing starting point that will evolve around with the characters. And maybe that isn't such a bad thing, although it does remind me that I should try to write happier things sometimes.
Next chapter will have some HOMRA action, another mysterious character, and some focus on my personal favorite character, although you'll have to wait to see who it is. Please look forward to it.
Thanks to Plexi Pink for favoriting. May this story be worth the decision to do so.