Reconstruction

By: Aviantei

Chapter Seven

Remains IV

For Yukizome Kukuri, life had been good. All things considered, she had had a normal childhood, one without much incident. There were the loving parents, the hours spent at school, the friends, the cramming to get into a good high school, and make it onto the student council no less. The most out of the ordinary things that had ever happened to her were when she broke her arm during a gymnastics routine in elementary school (and consequently never touched the sport again) and when she had been confessed to into front of the whole school by a classmate from the top of her high school's clock tower (which she still flushed deeply at any time someone even got close to referring to it).

But that all was past her. Since the school festival had been wrapped up a few weeks beforehand, life was once again relatively normal. Kukuri still had responsibilities to hold with the Student Council, but her schoolwork and social life blissfully passed by without the slightest indication of ever getting any more hectic until the next big holiday or festival showed up. Valentine's Day didn't count, since Kukuri had no intentions of making anything besides some friendship chocolate for Sumika and the members of the Student Council, and she certainly wasn't going to leave herself vulnerable to another confession out of nowhere. If another one happened like it had back in December, Kukuri was going to hole herself up in her dorm room and never come out even after she graduated.

And in her seventeen years of ordinary life, Kukuri had accepted it. She wasn't anything too positive or too negative. All in all, her existence was average, nothing to be noted of at all, other than some statistics about the population of Japan in some textbook way in the future. That was the existence she was set to live, and Yukizome Kukuri faced it head on and didn't look back. Even with the incident in December accounted for, she had no regrets.

Which was why the dreams were starting to bother her. Before when Kukuri had dreamed, it was of everyday life, like going out to eat with her friends or maybe some project the Student Council was putting together. Every now and then, but it was very rarely, she would dream of being a kid again, going to the park with her parents, making friends on the playground, all in her blissful childhood ignorance.

The first unusual dream had occurred after the festival had finished, when the school had been cleaned up spectacularly, good as new. In her dream there were people she had never met before but were hanging out with her anyway, dressed in costumes and practicing for the festival. What had bothered her was that she was dreaming of people she had never talked to like she had always known them. Whenever she dreamed of people she had never met or didn't exist, they had never been so active, so vibrant, so alive. She had woken up in a cold sweat, names on her tongue that she couldn't remember how to pronounce but could taste that they had been there.

And it didn't stop there. The girl in her dreams had mannerisms like a cat, and could even turn into one. One of the boys carried a real sword disguised by his period era costume and pulled it out more than once to fight. Entire groups of people with strange powers, flashing in red and blue, fought over the school grounds, tearing it apart. Sometimes even Kukuri was different, an entirely different person as she chased after others, laughing and dancing and never making up her mind if what kind of person she was supposed to be. Most unnerving was the boy that always smiled at her, made her feel like they had known each other for years, then had simply disappeared.

This was all such a shock from what she had normally experienced, that Kukuri didn't know what to do. She still slept normally, but the dreams bothered her in a completely different way. She was certain nothing had happened to her that would make her dreams change too drastically, so then why had the change happened in the first place? Curiosity was driving her more than anything, alongside with one thought.

I want my normal life back.

Kukuri was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the man until he was right in front of her, and that was only because he had talked. With a simple request of "Excuse me, ojou-chan, could I impose on you enough to ask some questions?" Kukuri's head whipped up to see the person in question, a man about in his early twenties with light purple hair that was long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail. He had a bag on his shoulders, a camera in his hands, and a smile on his face. "I'm Fujioka Goro, a freelance photographer. A client has asked me to take some pictures here, but I'm afraid I don't know my way around like I used to. Could I impose on you enough to show me the way?"

He shoved a business card into her hands, confirming his occupation, alongside his contact information. Taken aback, Kukuri had to pause and think for a moment before smiling, resorting to her usual self. "I wouldn't mind, but I'm certain you need to clear these things with the principal first…" she said.

Fujioka smile only grew wider, and he winked at Kukuri. "Of course I've already been approved. That's how I got my pass to get in here." The logic made Kukuri feel silly for not thinking of it herself, and she nodded. "Now, the place I'm headed for is a monument that's been put up recently. Do you know the one?"

"Yes I do; it's right this way." Kukuri started out with her walk, Fujioka following close behind her. His camera kept going off, and she wondered if that was part of the job, too, or if he just really wanted to.

Either way, he must really love photography.

The silence was starting to get to her. Kukuri was naturally a social girl, so not saying anything wasn't an experience she was used to having. She put on her best smile, even though Fujioka was trailing behind her. "So, Fujioka-san, you said you haven't been here in a while. Did you used to go to school here?"

The camera stopped clicking. Kukuri looked back over her shoulder, Fujioka having a contemplative look on his face. "Ah, I guess you could say that," he said. "I went a lot of places during my school years, and was here for a while. Although, in all honesty, I was referring to the last time I had a job here, um… sorry, I didn't catch your name, ojou-chan."

"Yukizome Kukuri."

"Alrighty then, Yukizome-chan." Fujioka properly lowered his camera, walking up to where Kukuri was, matching her pace. "Now, if you don't mind me asking some questions myself, I have a few. Could it be that you were involved in the incident that occurred here a few months ago? You see, I've been looking into it and was looking for some records of what happened. The restoration on this place is as beautiful as ever, by the way. Yukizome-chan, are you alright?"

Kukuri had stopped walking. Fujioka came to a halt beside her, a concerned look on his face. In her own self-induced panic, she thought she saw the man playing with his camera, but knew that couldn't be the case. For a moment, Kukuri was certain she remembered something, then realized what she was remembering was part of her dreams. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind and continued walking.

"I really don't know what you're talking about, sorry," she said. "We should keep going, though, we're almost there." The woods on campus was getting closer, the location of the memorial that Fujioka was looking for. Kukuri didn't know what it was for—some benefactor to the school no doubt—so she hadn't gone to see it after it was put up. All she knew was that it had gone up, unnaturally fast, almost overnight.

Fujioka pursed his lips a little, but ended up smiling seconds later. "My bad, I was thinking about a different place, a few towns over. I was busy here, so I missed going to see it," he said. "There's just so much going on and I get sent all over the place, so I mix places up sometime. Sorry to bother you, Yukizome-chan." His camera was poised again, taking pictures of the woods. Kukuri didn't see what was so interesting about them, but there must have been something. Being a freelancer, it was probably a benefit to have pictures of all sorts of things. Some client or another would want photographs of nature one day, and he would already have them, saving a trip.

A path had been built through the woods, breaking off from where an already existing path had been laid. You could see the difference and know where to turn, just based off the age of the stones. They stopped for a short break, sitting on the stairs, Kukuri resting whilst Fujioka remained snapping away, his camera capturing endless image after image. He only stopped once to switch out memory sticks, which made Kukuri stare in fascination. Nowadays the data could carry thousands, sometimes millions of pictures. The fact that he even had backup storage on him to consider he would run out of space said something.

The path led to a clearing in the woods, the memorial in the middle. It was nothing dramatic, just a simple gravestone in the middle of a bunch of trees, hidden away from the world. The fact that it was on its own, a one man graveyard, made it seem lonely, and probably scary if it had been dark enough. Fujioka snapped one picture before he moved forward, paying his respects to the dead. Kukuri, not wanting to be rude, did the same.

She tried to keep her eyes closed, send up a prayer, but ended up reading the gravestone instead. She almost wished she hadn't. The dates scribbled at the bottom indicated that he had died young, only twenty-four. Kukuri would be that old in less than seven years, and she couldn't imagine d and she couldn'he bottom indicated that he had died young, only twenty-four. Kukuri would be that old in less than sying that soon. All things considered she had barely started life, dying being the last thing on her mind. She felt reminded of her mortality. It was depressing. She tried to focus, to see if she could find out why he had died, but only learned his name from staring down the gravestone.

Suoh Mikoto. Then above it, in English: No blood, no bone, no ash.

Kukuri was shocked out of her thoughts by the sound of Fujioka's camera going off. She took a few steps back, wanting to avoid the lens and ruining his work. As she sat on the sidelines, she looked at the whole scenario from a distance. Fujioka was going photo crazy, as if this was some tourist attraction or performance that would never be the same exact way ever again. One he was done, Fujioka turned to the lamps on either side that Kukuri hadn't taken notice of before.

First the man checked inside them, putting his camera and bag down for once. He went back to the edge of the woods, gathering sticks. He filled both the lanterns up, setting the kindling inside to flames with a lighter he had stowed away inside his pocket. When he was done, he went back to taking pictures again.

As much as she didn't want to think about it, the place was probably pretty at night.

"Did you know him?" Kukuri finally asked, the question that had been blinking in and out of her mind finally coming to her lips. Even after walking most of the way back out of the woods, it had taken until just now to get the words out. Fujioka walked beside her, raising an eye brow at the question. It seemed he was satisfied for now, the camera back in his bag for the first time since he had introduced himself. "Suoh Mikoto-san?"

"Ah, Suoh-san…" Fujioka made a face like he was thinking, searching for a memory. "Nope, can't say I did. I meet a lot of people in a job like mine, but Suoh-san was never one of them. The person that sent me here to take those pictures, though, they apparently knew him personally. Or at least it seemed that way."

The casual way he was discussing a dead man's affairs made Kukuri feel a little nervous, but her curiosity won out in the end. "Seemed that way?"

"Well, yeah. People don't just go around broadcasting how they really feel about others all the time. There are people who are truly honest with their emotions, but those people are rare." Fujioka gave a small smile, almost as if he was indicating Kukuri. Her cheeks warmed up a bit. "The majority of people are willing to lie straight through the teeth if it will give a better impression of themselves. It's sort of like whenever a girl or a guy gives a story about the breakup. If they were doing the dumping, they try to make it seem like the other person's the problem. If they were getting dumped, they try and make it sound like the other person's the bad guy, or like they were planning to do it themselves. So when people talk about their relationships with others, they can sometimes say they knew a person personally to make it seem less strange that they know things about them, you know?"

Kukuri didn't know, but the torrent of words was too much for her to handle. She nodded like she understood anyway, hoping it would make the flow of the conversation easier.

"I guess what I'm saying is that maybe my client knew Suoh-san personally, or maybe they even know a lot about him. There's also the chance that they never met him in their life, and just said they did so they would have a reason to request pictures of his memorial. Maybe it's because I constantly take pictures and get still images of the world, I know you can't take things at face value. The way something is in one moment will never be the exact way it is in the next. The only way you can know a person is to be that person, and sometimes not even then. The only way you can understand the relationship between two people is to be both of these things at the same time. Since we obviously can't do that, truly understanding someone else by just the way we see them is damn near impossible. Ah, not that anything I'm saying here is slander against the guy who's hired me."

Fujioka looked over to his one-sided conversation partner, searching for a reaction. Kukuri put up her hands in protest, waving them in front of her face. "No, of course not!" she exclaimed. "I wasn't thinking that at all. After all, I don't even know who it is that you're working for. Not that I'm asking!" For some reason she was getting too worked up. Kukuri took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

Fujioka let out a laugh, but it didn't seem to be directed at her. "It's a good trait to be so trusting of people," he said. "Although, what's considered to be 'good' and what's considered to be 'best for you' are two different things. Some people do say that being too trusting isn't a good thing because it makes you miss the bad in others. But at the same time society values the people that have these goods traits."

Kukuri frowned, but took a shot at unraveling his logic. "Are you saying that I shouldn't trust you?"

"No, no, why would I say something like that? That wouldn't do very well with saving myself face, which as a businessman that relies solely on the good impressions I leave on others, I can't just talk myself down. Besides, then I'd just be assuming that you are a person that trusts others too much, and that's not a very fair assumption of you considering we just met. You could be a completely different person and just being kind to me because I'm a stranger."

Memories of running, dancing, shouting intentions to the sky. Having conversations with herself in a dream world where hundreds of other people she didn't recognize existed. A completely different person. Kukuri did her best to shake the thoughts off.

"If you don't mind me saying, you sure do have a complicated view of the world, Fujioka-san."

Fujioka chuckled again, eyes shining behind his glasses. "I wouldn't argue with you on that one, Yukizome-chan."

"I know what you said means you don't assume things about others, but I can't help but be curious." Kukuri mentally steeled herself, hoping she could get the right words out to get a straight enough answer. "Don't you still make impressions of people even without knowing them properly?"

"Of course I do," Fujioka said without hesitation. "I'm only human after all. We take the little things we see and make them reality. Especially in my case as a photographer." He pulled his camera out of his bag, flipping through the still images of the shrine in the forest. "The way you and I and my client view this picture will be completely different based on our knowledge, and the same applies to how we look at reality. We can't help that, Yukizome-chan; it's just the way that life is.

"After all, I can't help that think that if a guy like that ended up with a special memorial on a private school like this, there can't help but be people who care for him out there."

That was the last thing Fujioka said before they stepped out of the woods. He turned around, snapped a picture of what had to be Kukuri's confused expression, and headed back towards the school grounds, probably to leave. Kukuri was left standing there, not knowing what to say, without the energy to go after Fujioka as he disappeared from her vision.

The name Suoh Mikoto left a bad taste in her mouth without her even having to say it.

Gonna keep this short as I am behind on Camp NaNoWriMo and need to get back to noveling.

Thanks to LostOnes, Depressedxdreamer, anonym (Guest) for your follows and review. Even though I can spare few words, I do appreciate it tons!

And in reply to anonym's review:

Sorry if the plot movements are confusing to you. In reality, this is kind of a playground experiment. I wanted to play around with some OC ideas and flesh out the [K] world. In all honestly, while I have plans, I never know exactly what's going to happen before I write, which is fun in itself. I will say though that I do my best to keep consistency between everything that's been going on.

The simplest statement of the plot I can give you with only the information that's been brought up in the past chapters: That Hitomi and Eri are searching for the boy that existed before he was possessed by the Colorless King. However, they (and many others, such as HOMRA) don't know exactly what happened in the final showdown between Kings on Ashinaka Gakuen Island and are searching for answers. The fact that several Kings have recently died has left a power gap in the Clan structures, and it's only natural that maybe some people are taking advantage of the gap.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "deceive your fans." I'm note sure what I would be deceiving about, besides for some upcoming plot twists.

Again, sorry if it's confusing, but I do plan on explaining a lot and exploring a bunch of possibilities down the line, so I do hope you continue to read and things start to make sense.

In any event, thanks for giving this story a chance and dropping off some feedback. I really appreciate it.

But to everyone, I feel bad for leaving a cliffhanger, not fulfilling it in the chapter after, and then not knowing when the chapter that does conclude the cliffhanger is releasing. But, I have been working on adding more chapters to this story in my free time, so do know that the story will continue.

Next time, Hitomi and Misaki learn some teamwork, Saruhiko is less than satisfied, and Nagana makes a report. Please look forward to it!

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