Chapter Ten: Most Faithful Mirror
It was Sunday morning at the Niijima household. Makoto and Sae sat at the table in the apartment's small dining room, having breakfast in silence. Although the scene was no different than many times before, there was a remarkable distinction, one as stark as night and day. The silence between the sisters was no longer heavy with tension. Instead, it was a peaceful silence; light from the burdens released over a year ago. After Makoto and her friends encouraged Sae's shadow into changing her own heart, thus undoing the distortion within, Sae found herself free to pursue her goals as her heart's true desire commanded.
The diametric contrast to her change of career helped further, though the transition from prosecutor to defence attorney was no easy matter. Even in this field, Sae Niijima encountered similar challenges to those she knew on the other side. On previous nights, she indulged in her sister's willingness to hear her out to vent a little. Makoto, patient as always, listened attentive and offered as much advice as she could from her outside perspective. Sae weighed her words, and felt – to her curious amusement – that sometimes, her little sister seemed the older one.
Makoto also had a few troubles of her own, which Sae knew still lagged around from her first year as a university student. There was a classmate, Kyosuke Satake, who became infamous for constantly hitting on Makoto last year. Though insistent, the young man did not mean to harass her. After Makoto put him through a stern Niijima-style talk, her fellow student revealed the motive behind his actions. He was a homosexual young man, stranded in a family that would look ill upon him if he were to come out. The pressure of old taboo constricted mercilessly him while he pursued his calling, one hardly different to Makoto's. Thusly, he did all he could to maintain appearances, though it still helped none.
On the other hand, there was also a faculty member, Dr. Isao Shinoda, who became a highlight for dinner conversation. His name was already known to Sae, and many of her peers, as a brilliant but unconventional prosecutor who retired from office in favour of teaching. As chance would have it, the man quickly took a shine to Makoto and began imparting onto her some personally-earned life lessons. But each morsel of experience he gave bore an edge to it: each word carried the man's infamous reputation as a belligerent and spiteful man. At his core, however, Dr. Shinoda still believed in social responsibility. Neither sister was convinced his advice could be entirely heeded or disregarded. Perhaps, in reality he was a lonely man who needed to be heard.
The months passed until the present days, and still those names would come up every now and then, and with them, a tone of concern. Sae's opinion, likewise, changed little: Makoto just cared too much sometimes. While that may prove an inconvenience in the long run, Sae guessed that was precisely why this choice of career was perfect for one like Makoto. It was in their blood to care, even through the stumbles suffered.
Caring. The word left a peculiar taste in Sae's palate as she ate. A sensation that urged her to speak her mind. In truth, she had been considering the idea for a while. It started as a nebulous 'what if'; her deep disappointment over the more recent times she has dated only made the idea more palpable. Sometimes, she lay awake at night wondering, spelling out the question. Now, she felt like she had an answer.
Sae waited till Makoto finished her mouthful to break the silence.
"I'm thinking of getting a puppy." The older sister said casually.
Even though Makoto did finish her mouthful, she looked like she was about to choke on her food for a fraction of a second. Sae had a habit during her early adolescence, that she often found ways to fluster and shock her younger sister for a bit of fun. Years later, the considerably mature woman sometimes indulged in echoes of her juvenile mischief.
"I-I see!" Makoto looked neither pleased nor displeased, just surprised at the suddenness. "Why, though?"
"Hmm." Sae neatly put the chopsticks on a napkin by her bowl. Her hands went into a contemplative gesture. "I've thought of it for a while. These changes in my life have made me look long and hard at myself, as a person, and the things that are missing from my life. Makoto, I think I might need a new friend, and honestly, I'm not liking the people I'm meeting lately."
Makoto resisted the notion of quoting her friend Ryuji Sakamoto by words that were crude but fitting.
"Bad adults?"
"You could say that." A half-smile formed across Sae's lips.
"Well… when you put it like that. I don't think it's a bad idea at all!"
"It would certainly be a first time for me. Or maybe not, we did have Kino, after all."
"Does a goldfish really count? How long did he live, anyway?"
Sae searched her memories about the fish, confined to a small world of a bowl with a shabby-looking underwater castle devoid of all royalty.
"A fortnight maybe, and that's a generous estimate. I'm actually surprised you even remember Kino."
"I remember he grossed me out."
"Well, I think you'll agree a small furry mammal could hardly gross anyone out. Cats are cute, but definitely out of the question. Just thinking of that cat that always accompanied you when Akira came by made my nose run."
"Haha… yeah…" The younger sister hoped she successfully concealed the truth of those two nights.
"I hear divisive opinions on rodents, and I don't think either you or I would like to search through tight places just to clean up after them. So, a dog would probably be the best option."
"That's true, but what breed of puppy would you want?" Makoto, a self-admitted fool for cute things, started to get more and more invested on the topic. Rather than only thinking of puppies, her mind started filling with images of her sister with dogs of all types, from puny to really large dogs, and then extraordinarily large dogs. The young woman could not keep her face straight.
"I definitely need to do some looking into, but I think a medium-sized breed would do. I don't want a dog so small I need to watch my step when I walk around the apartment, and I don't want a dog so big that it'd need to eat better than me. It's not a must, but it'd be nice if it didn't shed too much fur."
"Fair. What would you name it, though?"
Sae placed two fingers on her chin. "Niko?"
"Doesn't that sound too similar to 'Kino'?"
"Fine, you come up with a better name, Makoto."
Makoto's cell phone vibrated on the dining table. A text message from Yusuke.
Yusuke: Makoto, We need your help.
Makoto: Who's 'we'?
Yusuke: Akira, beauty and I. The lighting is perfect.
The eccentric young man was as vague as ever, not that he ever really noticed. The young woman sighed a tired breath. Yusuke hardly ever asked for anything himself, so the request at least had to bear some considerable importance to him. It was Sunday, after all; while she could stay and review her notes and papers to be turned in throughout the week, she could also afford a chunk of the day for her friends. And Akira's involvement was, as usual, a tempting factor.
Makoto: What do you need me to do?
Yusuke: We require your presence at Inokashira Park.
Makoto: Beauty, Akira and you?
Yusuke: And the lighting. It's perfect lighting.
Makoto: Right. I'll be over.
"So, Sae?" Makoto lifted her eyes from her phone. "How does lunch at Inokashira sound to you?" True to Yusuke's insistence on 'lighting', it did look to be a bright day. She figured Sae could do with some fresh air and sunlight herself.
[ ]
Deep within, half of Makoto regretted coming to the park with Sae.
It did not take long for the two sisters to find Yusuke. His height made him stand out even among the trees. Next to him was Akira, who waved at the pair, and an easel, carefully set on the grass, oriented towards the pond. The shadow of the trees reached over the surface of the water, yet the gaps in the canopy made the sunlight filter through, like ephemeral golden spears plunging into the water. The scene truly had a hazy, vesper-like tone to it. If Yusuke wanted to paint it, he could do it well on his own; but the need for Akira and her hinted strongly at something else.
"Makoto! Perfect! Sae-san! Perfect!" Yusuke wasted no time. He hurried ahead of Akira to greet the two sisters. The young man always had a formal, traditional air to him for as long as Makoto knew him, which remained even after the bonds in the group forged tighter. To see him so cordially bowing towards Sae and her still caught her off guard. It seemed that this day was truly a momentous occasion to him.
"Good morning, Makoto. Good morning, Sae-san." Akira joined them soon after. As usual, he kept public displays of affection to a minimum in Sae's presence. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."
"It's a nice day to spend out." Makoto smiled. "Hope it's okay with you that I asked my sister to come along."
"Always a pleasure, Sae-san."
"Likewise, Akira-kun."
"Ah, yes indeed! Makoto, a grand idea. A moment like this deserves a witness!" Yusuke went towards his easel. "I am honoured that somebody of such great standing will see it happening."
"See what happen, exactly?" Sae squinted, slightly preoccupied.
"It dawned on me last night." Yusuke's voice dropped the fanfare to a moderate volume. "It is one thing to try and imitate life on a canvas. It's all around us, after all. But there is a facet to it that does not settle with being… it expresses itself through doing."
"Okay?" Makoto was starting to put the pieces together, and in doing so, bracing herself for the blow.
"Akira aided me in my previous attempt." Yusuke reminisced wistfully. By the uncomfortable look on Akira's face, he remembered it too. "It ended poorly. But the crux of the problem was only the wrong subject… Not this time." The young man placed himself between the easel and the rest. "Makoto. Please, I need you and Akira to pose for me."
Makoto's lips slightly parted as reaction to Yusuke's request. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sae looking at her. Even Akira looked rather timid.
"If you say no, we can still have a picnic. I brought food." Akira said to try and lighten the atmosphere.
"Delicious food." Yusuke agreed with a pleased look in his face.
"U-um, well…" Makoto blushed. "I guess I'm okay with it." She dared a bashful look at her boyfriend, who met her with a reassuring smile. Still, the image of her older sister remained at the edge of sight. Her eyes must be fooling her, she thought, but it seemed as if Sae was fairly entertained.
"Splendid. We'll get started in a moment. But first, Akira, would you mind renting a boat for the day?"
"WHAT?" Makoto gasped. Behind her, Sae was trying her best to hold her laughter in.
[ ]
In all the time they had been together, it never occurred to Makoto to do something like this with Akira. For months, they would scour Tokyo in search of places to venture, sights to behold, tastes to savour; diverse ways to be together. Yet one of the more obvious alternatives went unchecked in spite of their meticulousness. The young woman was not at all opposed to it, seeing her boyfriend row the boat towards the perfect spot beneath the sun-pierced canopy. In thought, it seemed to fall on the cliché side of romantic, but out in the open, she could not deny the charm of it.
"Right… there." Yusuke indicated from his position at the easel. Sae stood behind him, biting a chunk out of a ripe, green apple.
Akira stopped soon enough for the boat to remain in place without drifting further. He interpreted Yusuke's silence as a way of approval. With a slightly bashful smile, the young man looked up to meet Makoto's eyes. He silently mouthed a 'thank you'.
"Stay like that, for a moment. A few seconds should… do." Yusuke's voice was now lower. His concentration was almost palpable as he quickly did a rough sketch of the composition; no need for details, save for those that truly caught his eye – these would be his annotations for things he would flesh out in colour later on. A displeased frown crossed over his face suddenly, as if instinctively detecting something amiss, something he could not quite place.
Makoto wished to turn and see the beautiful scene around them while she still could, but one sight in front of her held her eyes captive. Akira looked handsome as always, but there was something spectral, even unreal, about the way the sunlight bathed his skin and hair. It was as if she could see the soul that inhabited his flesh. It was then that, for a single moment, she felt like she could understand Yusuke's quest to behold and create beauty. It was almost perfect.
Without thinking it, her hands delicately removed Akira's glasses from his face. She could now see his eyes, dark and deep like oceans, looking at her, enraptured in much the same way Makoto was. Now it was perfect.
"Thank you, Makoto." Yusuke said, realising what was amiss. Seven seconds later, he was ready. "Very well. Now, I want you to behave naturally, but be very still. Do what you would, but do it very still… Bask in your love!"
Akira and Makoto both turned to look at Yusuke with puzzled expression. There were many things they could do to 'bask in their love', but few they could do while staying still.
"Akira… what do we do?" Makoto whispered.
"Hmm, I'm not really sure what he means. But he'll probably be fine if we do it very slowly."
"… Do what now?"
"Bask in our love." He smirked with a little devil at the corner of his mouth.
"But however are we gonna do that?"
"That's the question, isn't it? If you don't mind, I think I'll just lose myself in your eyes."
"Dork." Makoto blushed, thinking of the times he has said things as corny that could still somehow make her weak in the knees. "Then, I'll do the same." She carefully got closer to him and placed her hands on top of his. It was a comfortable position to do their basking for a while.
As the seconds passed, the sounds of nature became distant. Makoto had acute hearing, and she could hear even the strokes of the brush on the canvas, but soon that also sank in the silence. It seemed also as if her sister was no longer there either. Everything was quiet. There was nothing in the world but the two, the sun that bathed them ephemeral, and the space between.
But they were never truly alone, not even in a world they made their own for a moment. There was the notion of past, of affection borne from history and experience. There was an amorphous image of future, with countless variables unknown, and one discernible constant of togetherness. And then, the present, in which a peculiar kind of gravity slowly pulled them together. Though Akira's eyes were fixed on Makoto's, it was the mental image of her lips parting, of her tongue gently pushing, wanting, what drew him in. And her breath, which he now felt mingling with his own.
The silence was being slowly penetrating by the tempo of pulses growing restless. Gravity would pull them together at a jolt.
"CEASE YOUR FIDGETING!" Yusuke's voice exclaimed from behind the easel.
A quick flush of embarrassment and frustration took hold of the two as they pulled back from each other.
"Why…" Akira groaned.
"Keep still! I must capture this moment perfectly! A great display of intimate passion between two youthful lovers! This will be my next masterpiece!" The young artist spoke on. "Yes! Like that!"
Sae shook her head in amusement as Makoto and Akira returned to their positions. Her attention had gone from the scene unfolding at the pond to the easel. Art had never been close to her calling; she had never shown a sign of even leisurely proficiency, and she never really developed an opinion on paintings or sculpture beyond whether they were visually pleasing to her or not. It was now, seeing a piece in the making by a devoted artist that she found herself more interested in art than ever.
"How do you do it?" Sae asked. "I could never draw more than stick figures in junior high."
"It's the easiest thing in the world." Yusuke answered with passion in his tongue as he painted. "Stick figures are a solid foundation, Sae-san. One only requires practice and patience to build upon them, and create… marvels."
"Marvels, huh?"
"Marvels indeed, such as the subject before our eyes."
"They're quite something, aren't they?" Sae commented with subdued tone.
"That they are. Ever since I met them, art became the second highest concern in my life. The first is the welfare of my friends. I wish nothing but joy for them. And if they can be a more unflinching, tireless source for each other, then all the better."
"I suppose they look… well together." It seemed then to Sae that she struggled to find the right words as of late.
"Indeed. They bring out such beauty from each other when they are together." For the first time in the day, Yusuke put his brush down to focus on his commentary. "Just look at them, how sweet their calm, tender but still powerful and uncompromising. I don't need to see more carnal expressions, not when their shared silence says enough on its own."
Sae said nothing. She observed Yusuke's models. He was right. Those two said so much without words, even without movement. So many years the two sisters lived under the same roof that Sae could tell so much about Makoto's mood just by the way she stood or sat, even the minutiae of angles were an open book to Sae. In a game of poker, she would easily give herself away. And Akira was no different, despite his abilities. The young man could be easily be read when it came to those he cared for.
She knew this personally, having been his interrogator following his capture. It may have been the drugs in his system at the time, but Akira revealed more than he might have been aware of. The attachment was evident when talking about Ryuji, Ann, Futaba, Haru, Yusuke, and even his cat. But there was something else in there where Makoto was concerned. Sae first chalked it up to the filial relation and the capabilities she exhibited as both adversary and ally.
On hindsight, the truth was sweeter than that.
But then, Sae remembered, something happened near the end of the interrogation, just a little while before he managed to give her the phone for their plan to work. The dizziness caused by the drugs provoked a few quiet spells in the young man; sometimes he even seemed to be spacing out. But this one instance was different. It was as if a terrible realisation dawned on him. It was easy to conclude it had something to do with his friends. The way his expression contorted into anguish and pain confirmed it. His face was that of despair; she saw it reprised back in the memory of people, of victims she had known throughout her career and life. And yet, it faded as soon as it came. He carried on, however addled, as if it never happened.
By that moment, the truth about the Phantom Thieves appeared too vividly to go back. Too much was at stake to stop and scrutinise the moment. She thought it was just the drugs. The situation improved at a good pace after Sae smuggled Akira back to his allies. There was no reason to dwell on the moment. But it was still there in her memory, rising back to the surface, when she least wanted it.
She wished she had never seen that.
[ ]
An hour passed. Yusuke had been hard at work throughout that time, only once putting the brush down. He was exhausted at the end of it, and his models fared no easier. In fact, Akira and Makoto looked ready to crumble down to dust in the little boat at the slightest breeze.
"It's finished." Yusuke said, with evident relief in his voice.
Sae peeked over his shoulder to look at the finished canvas. For a moment, her only response was the way her eyes opened wide.
"Do you find it satisfactory, Sae-san?"
"You're severely underselling yourself, young man." Sae turned to the couple in the boat. "You can come over here now!"
"Yep." Akira said. His voice sounded strange.
"Are you okay?" Makoto sounded similarly.
"I can't feel my shoulders."
"Me either." The young woman tried moving, turning her face into a pained grimace. "Wait. Let me try something." She took a breath, and shook and her arms, while holding Akira's hands, in turn, shaking his all the way to his shoulders.
"OH MY GOD!" The sense returned to his body with a jolt, a feeling he could not describe as pleasant.
"I'm sorry!" Makoto seemed to regret it as well.
"We're going to need a massage after this."
"I agree… ugh, come on. Let's just disembark." This time, Makoto took it upon herself to do the rowing.
After a few minutes, the couple finally returned to land. Makoto's muscles were warm and nimble from the rowing, so she stepped off first, staying on the bank to anchor Akira, who still felt quite stiff.
"Easy there…" Makoto said as she helped her boyfriend, yet he still ended up tripping and splashing his leg on the pond's edge. She could not help but laugh.
"I'm thinking maybe I should have done the rowing later rather than earlier." He smiled, flustered. A rare sight to behold.
Makoto took his hand and led him towards Yusuke and Sae, who had set a blanket on the ground to have a picnic with all four. The light that charmed Yusuke so, remained above the canopy; there was still enough of a day for them to enjoy. Before joining them, Akira cast one final look at the pond, and wondered.
Was it the way Makoto held his hands, or the way the light joined her skin that eased him so? Or was it the mere fact of her being there that soothed his thoughts? If not for her, the hour that they spent in the boat would have felt like a decade. As per Yusuke's demand, the two young lovers were as still as they could manage. But all the same, she managed to pour all the intention she would express with touching, kissing, hugging and biting into her eyes. Beautiful eyes that held his gaze captive, even as the world in Akira's sight turned red – the sky, the trees, the water.
He had the vague sensation that he saw something similar sometime before, perhaps recently. And it bothered him, but he could not think of why. He looked ahead as Makoto walked with his hand in hers, and for only a fraction of a second, it looked as if she was leading him past a row of red curtains. His heart skipped a beat, but he continued to walk despite himself. Afterwards, he was not sure whether he actually saw anything.
[ ]
That evening, Makoto let herself into her bed, not knowing whether to cry or to giggle like a kid. It was as if she had dreamed it all, but there was no small heartbreak over waking up and finding it was all a dream. This perfect day happened, and it was real. She could not believe her eyes when Yusuke showed them his finished painting: the way she and Akira looked to him. He could not have described it better. It was a celebration of the joy two people he cared for found in each other. As they had lunch, he confessed to doing this as a commission for Haru. But now, looking at the finished work, he felt tempted to either keep it, or give it to them as a present for no special occasion.
In his words, everything was special forever.
It was still early in the semester to feel the pressure building at school. There was no great need to recharge before the week began, and yet, after this day, she felt like she could stride for the rest of the year, light as a feather.
She still had some time to revise her notes before turning in, but a sudden distraction came from her phone on the desk. It was a text message. The young woman was eager to read it, thinking it came from Akira. She blinked a few times in surprise at seeing the sender's name. It was not a name that inspired trouble, still it was the last person she expected to get a message from.
Yuuki Mishima: Niijima-senpai! Hello. Do you mind if I called you? I need to talk to you about something.
