A glimpse into the past, part 8: this part of this fanfiction details events that had happened before the time series covered by the anime. Basically, this is a prequel, happening before the anime and before the non-"A glimpse into the past" chapters of this fanfiction as well.
~Mount Asoyama, Nishitama District, around 20:54 (08:54PM)~
Enju: "Are we there yet?" came the exasperated and tired question from the small child who, despite not having walked that much through most of that trip, was still becoming impatient after waiting for more than an hour on that bike to reach their destination.
The forest felt eerily quiet for her, the only noises that were in range being the ruffling of leaves and the cracking of fallen branches as the wheels of the bike they were on would drive over them, leaving their broken parts behind.
Rentarō: "Almost there…." he was breathing very heavily from all of the pedaling that he was doing. Apparently having a passenger on his bike does increase the amount of effort necessary to drive it by a lot.
Interestingly, despite all of the physical training that he had received over the past couple of months, he still failed to have enough stamina to allow them to comfortably travel on long distances like that. The amount of effort he had to put into pushing them forward was becoming almost too much to bear.
Still, he was trying to ignore the lingering tiredness that was making his feet feel so sore since they were almost late for the event. In fact, he was so late for the event that he wasn't sure if they will make it in time or miss it.
Rentarō: "I can't give up now….we're so close!" he said to himself, feeling the sweat drops fall down his face from his forehead.
The girl could tell that he was about to reach his limit and was questioning internally how they would make their way back down that trail once the excursion would be over. She didn't like thinking about this but, then again, that was still a pressing concern.
But before she could nag him again over the logistics of his grand plan, the bike suddenly came to a stop, in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, with the only notable thing outside the forest trees being a large cliff that they were now sitting on top of.
Off the edge of the cliff, a magnificent view of Tokyo could be seen from the distance, as the city lights were glaring intensely, creating a powerful contrast against the night sky.
The girl's eyes lit up at such a beautiful sight, as she immediately hopped off the now static bike and approached the said cliff to take a closer look of the distant city.
Enju: "Oh….this is pretty nice" she said to the boy behind her who now pulled out of his backpack a large electric lantern. He then moved the lantern close to the edge of the cliff as well, laid it down on the ground and turned it on, exploding light rays all around them and illuminating their surroundings.
He then joined the small girl.
Enju: "So, this is what you wanted me to see?" she began a conversation with him, now that he was also free.
Rentarō: "No", he responded very directly, surprising her.
She wanted to ask exactly what it was that he did want her to see but, before she could do that, she heard the rustling of leaves in the background, which immediately scared her into action.
Enju: "WHAT WAS THAT?!" she turned around so quickly, he barely had time to register her movements at all.
He also turned around to look at whatever had been the source of the sound, only to realize that it was just a bunch of branches from some trees, moving around due to the wind.
Rentarō: "Don't worry, it was nothing!" he tried to reassure her calmly. The girl was still very tense and she was looking around, scanning the area very carefully. Sadly, due to it being so dark, she couldn't really effectively say for sure if they were indeed alone or if there was something lurking in the forest behind them.
Enju: "I'm worried, Rentarō! If there's a Gastrea around us, we're screwed! We're all alone out here! It won't be easy defending ourselves, especially in this darkness!" she did make a good point.
A Gastrea during the night was more dangerous than a Gastrea in full daylight, due to the fact that it would be way more difficult to spot during nighttime. Still, he had reason not to worry.
Rentarō: "This area is still well under the influence of the Monoliths to the north of here! Besides, I've been taking this route multiple times in the past couple of years, even during the night, and I almost never saw any Gastrea around here!" he tried to reason, which did help in calming her a bit.
The girl relaxed her muscles when hearing that, although she didn't fully let it go just yet. After all, she still had scars from her previous adventure in The Room and, as such, she still felt deeply uncomfortable whenever she's standing in the darkness or even, in this specific case, in an area fully surrounded by darkness from almost all directions.
Seeing Tokyo in the distance off that cliff was a testament to how far away from civilization they were at that moment.
Needless to say, she was also worried about why Rentarō had decided to bring her there, of all places. What possibly could he have wanted her to see to justify bringing them to such a remote location?
But as she was thinking that, she finally noticed it: in the distance, all the city of Tokyo went dark all of a sudden, becoming shrouded in darkness as the electric grid for the entire city was shut down. Now, even the remote lights that were over there were gone, leaving them only with the lantern that Rentarō had set on the ground previously.
Enju: "Oh, look! It's that annoying power outage that keeps happening every evening!" she remarked dully while pointing her index finger towards the city. Rentarō only smiled in response to that.
Rentarō: "I know that that's how I described it to you. And while that's technically true, that power outage doesn't happen every evening by accident! It's actually planned!" he revealed, as the girl raised an eyebrow at what he had just said.
Enju: "Wait? You mean to say that this is all intentional?! Why would the city decide to cut the power every evening for five straight minutes?!" naturally, she was just as surprised by this as he had expected that she would be.
Rentarō: "Just watch!" he replied while smirking at the girl knowingly. She pouted in response because he hadn't given her an answer but then she turned her head back towards the city and noticed what he was trying to say: it wasn't the entire city that had no power, or at least that wasn't the case anymore. In the distance, from their viewpoint, they could make out that some regions of the city began receiving power back and their buildings were shining brightly once again, contrasting very sharply with the others that were pitch black.
Enju: "What…..the hell is that?!" she didn't understand what was going on. She squinted her eyes to make out exactly what was happening and, after staring at it for a long minute, she finally understood why that was. The still-being-illuminated regions of the city formed letters that could be easily read from a distance. It was in kanji.
Enju: "It's….a word! It's spelling out a word!" she pointed out what was now obvious.
Rentarō: "Yes, I brought you here to see this for yourself. While this is far away, it's one of the best vantage points to see the whole scene in front of you and make out what it says!" that was pretty nifty, if he did say so himself. He was saving this ever since she had been released from that facility, waiting for a special moment to show her what she needed to see. "And do you know what it says? It's kanji! It was among the few ones that I did teach you because I knew I would show you this one day!" the girl tried to remember.
Enju: "-yoshi…." she read the second letter but couldn't remember the first one.
She was desperately forcing her brain to remember what he had taught her. It was hard, all kanji were hard to remember.
Rentarō: "Close, the second letter is actually pronounced '-yu' in this word! And what's the first one?" seeing how there were only two letters, specifically 自由 , it shouldn't have been too hard for her to figure it out, he estimated. Nonetheless, she was having a hard time.
Enju: "Is that 'sun'? 'Sunyu'? Wait, no, that's...'ji', isn't it?" he nodded.
Rentarō: "Yes, that's 'ji'! So we get-" but he was interrupted by her.
Enju: "Ji-yu…..freedom…" she finally understood the word. It spelled out "freedom" in kanji. It was simple for the city to make this happen, since it was only two characters so the logistics of setting this up wasn't that difficult, she imagined. But now the better question would be 'why?'.
Rentarō: "After all of these years when most of Japanese society has been isolating itself behind Monoliths to survive the Gastrea invasion, we only ended up barricading ourselves in fortresses, unable to freely roam around the country as we once did before the Great Gastrea War. Many people have not forgotten about the days in which you could travel freely and we all still yearn for that freedom once again. It is a freedom that we all wish for. And this is a symbol of our longing, a longing that is so powerful that most of us are willing to have our power be taken away from us every day for five minutes, as a sense of solidarity for our shift in lifestyle. This is, for all intents and purposes, Japan's way of saying 'We want to return to our previous ways of living'" he explained, almost as on cue, when she was wondering about that.
Enju: "…." she was in awe, speechless. Never before had she seen anything like this and while this was not that impressive to any adult, especially for Rentarō who had seen this on so many occasions in the past, it was incredible for an easily impressionable child like herself.
But, in actuality, this should never have been heart warming. This was, in fact, tragic, as this only represented urges for long lost freedoms. It was a sign of suppressed desire that the population of Tokyo had had to cope with after so many years of isolation.
Rentarō: "This is a good reminder for me for why I choose to fight the Gastrea! Every season I come to this spot, camp for a little while waiting for this moment, then I enjoy the view! Up until now, it reminded me of why I should become a Promoter and do what I have to do! Because, in the long run, my duty is to help humanity in getting rid of Gastrea. That's my purpose for living and this is why I spent most of my life dedicating it for this specific goal!" the girl simply stood there, genuinely impressed. It was a touching moment for her.
Enju: "And now that you finally got your license, you're ready to do just that, huh?" she didn't even know how to feel about that. Initially she had thought that his purpose was exacting revenge on the Gastrea for burning down his house, killing his parents and mutilating his body. But now he was adding another factor into the equation, an unexpected one.
Rentarō: "Yes, and this is exactly why I need your help, Enju! You're the only one who can allow me to reach my true potential!" the girl turned a bit towards him, raising her eyebrow.
Enju: "You say that but, still, you're the Promoter! I'm just your Initiator! And if I were to die tomorrow in a Gastrea battle or for any other reason, you would just get a replacement for me, wouldn't you? As long as you get a partner to aid you in battle, it won't make a difference who it is!" the boy frowned at that.
Rentarō: "No! That's not true! Who I'm partnered with is something that's decided based on my personality so that someone who's compatible with me is paired with me. So if you were my first Initiator that got paired with me that just means that you are the most compatible one with my own fighting style!" he began explaining in detail. "And, also, if I were to die, you'd be the one getting assigned a new Promoter as well, one who's compatible with you! But that's not the point! Just because you can die at any time because you have to battle for others doesn't make you any less special than anyone else! If anything, it makes you even more special!" he tried to bring her morale up as much as he could.
Enju: "'Special'? What's so special about living my entire life just to be a weapon?! We're both disposable! We can never lead a normal life, can we?" as a Cursed Child, it felt especially painful hearing that from her, since her comments came from a place of truth.
She had been groomed her entire life for this purpose, even more so than him who simply got to choose this path. She never had that choice, unlike him. Maybe this is why she was so resentful.
~Flashback~
Sumire: "For starters, and this is just baseless advice of mine, you can tell her that you love her! That's probably something that she never heard before from anyone"
~/End of flashback~
Rentarō: "…." he hated Sumire. This was the only moment he could bring this up and have it tie more or less naturally into the conversation. Even so, he didn't want to say it. He felt so embarrassed, it was paining him greatly. "That's not true, you know! We can still enjoy life just as much as anyone else can!" that didn't convince her, though.
Enju: "Rentarō, nobody's going to care once I die! Nobody even heard of me except for a bunch of old people who never cared for me and who just saw my name on a paper! I'm never going to be able to-…."
Rentarō: "I care! I….l-….like you!" he blushed when saying that, interrupting the girl's train of thoughts.
Enju: "….what? You what?" she wasn't sure if she heard that properly so she inquired for it again.
Rentarō: "Oh fuck it! Just say it! I….love you! You're not just a girl whose name will be forgotten easily! I'll remember you! Forever!" that came out way more awkward and dramatic than he had planned for it but he still pulled that off.
The girl simply stared at him, even more dumbfounded than before, as the entire city from the background finally came back to life and all the light began to flow into them, revealing their blushes to each other.
Rentarō: "Goddammit! Why did it have to happen now?!" he thought to himself while looking away into the woods, averting the girl's gaze.
Enju: "….." she had nothing to reply with. She just stared at him as, suddenly, that scene from that love drama that she had watched on TV played out in her mind, with Yamato having confessed using those exact same words towards Koharu.
Enju: "Is this….a confession?! Is he really doing this to me?! Why?! What the hell?!" she stared, thinking about her own feelings now. What could she say to answer to that? How could she even begin? She had never expected before to be confessed to so now she was caught completely off guard.
Enju: "I...I….I-….I'm….uh….I" she began to stutter, realizing that her blush was now visible to him as well and feeling ashamed because of it. Reflexively she began looking away from him too, making for a cute scene in which both of them were staring into opposite directions, neither knowing how to continue the conversation.
Enju: "I…..why?!" she finally managed to collect her thoughts back up and begin to form cohesive mental reasoning. "Why would you say that?! I'm your Initiator! You can't just blurt that out to me!" she was more shocked than angry with him; and genuinely curious. She didn't even know where to begin with this situation.
Rentarō: "I said what I said and I'm not taking it back! You're a good girl, Enju! It doesn't matter how the world sees you! To me, you're special! And nothing will ever change that!" this was her breaking point.
She would have wanted to run away at that moment but she resisted the urge for that. Was she supposed to be happy? Sad that he confessed to her? Or just scared?
Enju: "But...you…..you do know what I am, right? I'm not a normal girl, Rentarō! I'm….cursed!" she finally looked back towards him, saying something which he had already expected her to say.
Rentarō: "That doesn't matter" he looked back towards her again, having their eyes meet finally. "It doesn't matter what you are! I want you to be by my side!" it was then that Enju remembered what had happened afterwards in that specific episode on TV that she had watched.
Enju: "Wait….don't tell me….he's…..planning to propose to me too?!" now she was even more flustered. She wanted to say that this was insane but she didn't want to be rude. "But…..you'll never be happy with me! I'm slow, dense and I'm not that good with people! I'll just end up making you sad!" Rentarō just raised his eyebrow at that.
Rentarō: "What? So what? We already live together and get along fairly well already, don't we?" he did make a good point.
Enju: "Geez, why are you so persistent all of a sudden?!" she wanted him to stop. Wait. Did she? Had she given this enough of a thought? Maybe she was just rushing through this too quickly?
Enju: "But….I'm not ready yet, am I? I can't…." but she remembered then: she didn't have that long of a lifespan to begin with. She was a soldier, a Cursed Child no less. She wasn't even expected to reach her adolescence. If anything, this proposal would be the only shred of normalcy that she could ever attain realistically given her situation.
Rentarō: "And besides, what I wanted to say the most was that this day should be special to you! Happy bir-…." but he couldn't finish that thought.
Enju: "I love you too!" she suddenly yelled back towards him, way more enthusiastically than she should have, which startled him.
Rentarō: "Ugh….Why are you so into this all of a sudden?!" being as clueless as he was, he didn't realize how serious this topic had suddenly become, for her anyway. "A-anyways….I wanted to give you this, Enju!" he suddenly pulled from inside his suit a small plastic box and handed it over to her.
The girl's eyes shined, as tears suddenly began to form in her eyes, as the lights of the city reflected from her crying eyes from a couple of miles away. She burst into tears.
Enju: It….it really is?! You're really doing this, aren't you?!" she snatched that box from his hands like a wild animal, staring at it in pure bliss, almost as if her life depended on it. "Geez, I never knew, Rentarō! Why didn't you tell me before?!" she was happy, no, ecstatic. She couldn't contain the joy that was filling her heart right now.
She was living the exact same scene that she had seen on TV between Koharu and Yamato, a scene she was sure she would only dream and never get to actually experience for herself.
Rentarō: "I wanted for this to be a surprise! I knew you would like it more like this! And I wanted to do this over here where you could enjoy this view of the city! I know it's not much but I hope you like this!" honestly, this went way more smoothly than he could have ever expected. It felt really nice to see her this happy over her first birthday gift. Or that's what he thought, anyway.
Enju: "I will! I never knew you cared about me like that, Rentarō! I never knew you were this….romantic! I'll treasure this for the rest of my life!" she showed him, at that moment, a smile so wide, he almost couldn't recognize her. This was the very first time he had ever seen such a face from her. He hadn't even known that she was capable of looking like that.
Rentarō: "That's….a bit too much but you're welcome!" he was starting to feel uneasy. Was she misunderstanding something?
The girl savagely tore the box open, her expectations flying through the roof to see what was inside, only to suddenly have them immediately fall back onto the ground and break upon impact immediately afterwards when she finally managed to catch a glimpse of the actual contents inside of it: a bluray disc package.
Enju: "Uh…..Rentarō?" she immediately asked in a lower tone, which was very different than the happy-go-lucky one that she had used up until that point, which made the boy shiver a bit.
Rentarō: "W-what?" he asked, realizing that she was most probably disappointed with her gift from him for some reason.
Enju: "What's this?" she tried to maintain her composure, not showing her dissatisfaction yet until he had the chance to explain himself to her now broken heart.
Rentarō: "That's the home edition of the recently finished anime called 'Blue star girls'! I heard that it was really popular with girls around your age, so I thought maybe you'd wanna watch it before starting school next week and have a subject of conversation with the other girls in your classroo-…."
Enju: "That's great and all but….uh….where's my ring?" she could barely manage to not start yelling at him immediately. Even her crying stopped in its tracks entirely, so suddenly that it couldn't have been healthy for her.
Rentarō: "R-ring? What ring, Enju?" now he was completely lost.
Enju: "…."
Rentarō: "…."
Enju: "…."
Rentarō: "…."
Enju: "…..are you kidding me?!" that's it, she lost it. She looked so intensely at him, so furiously, that the boy instinctively reached for his gun on his back, only to immediately reprimand himself for having done so. "What do you mean 'What ring'?! How are you going to propose to a woman without a ring?! Wasn't this part of it?! You told me that this was how it went, right?!" he froze. He stood there, scared. What had he unleashed?
Rentarō: "I….but I….what….made you think I was proposing to you?!" but he didn't even finish saying that when the words 'I love you' rang back in his mind and made him finally realize, internally, what should have been obvious. "Oh…..you didn't think I was...-" but he was cut off yet again.
Enju: "Yes! I did! You said you loved me, didn't you?! What the hell was that even supposed to mean if not that kind of love?!" she was so aggressive in her yelling that even the howling of a wolf was heard in the background, as the poor animal, at the hearing of that voice, began to retreat even further into the forest, afraid of whatever creature was making those angry-sounding noises in the middle of the night.
Rentarō: "I….just meant…..the….uh…..the brotherly kind of love!" he tried to manufacture even a small semblance of a defensive argument.
Enju: "What kind of brother says that to his sister?! And in that awkward tone too?! Wait...should….should I be worried about you having weird fetishes, Rentarō?" she got him, really badly.
Rentarō: "Sumire-sensei, I'm going to get back at you for this! I swear!" he said to himself, resolving himself to his fate and acknowledging the good life he had had up until that point almost as if he was expecting himself to not reach the next day anymore.
Enju: "And what about that whole 'I want you to be by my side' crap?! What did you mean by that?!" there was no way he was going to get out of this without a lot of pain, he was sure of it.
Rentarō: "I….meant that as your Promoter! As your partner! I didn't want it to mean like…..a husband or anything!" now he was blushing profusely, realizing how awkward this must have been for her. "Was that the reason why you were crying?!".
Enju: "YES, YOU IDIOT! WHY DID YOU THINK I WAS CRYING?!" this was a new side of Enju that he had never seen before, and hopefully will never have to see again either.
Rentarō: "I….just thought you were happy that I organized this birthday party for you! I thought you were overwhelmed!"
Enju: "…." she couldn't believe him. And she had genuinely began asking herself if she was ready for this kind of commitment too, if she was actually prepared to reciprocate her feelings for him before he ruined her hopes like that. And now he just turned 180 degrees faster than a soccer ball hitting a concrete wall and ricocheting in the thrower's face….which coincidentally felt like her face at that moment.
Enju: "You….even made me cry. I genuinely thought you were going to ask me to marry you! And now you're acting like nothing ever happened?!" in pure disbelief, she was now treating him like a vile criminal that had committed a heinous crime against her person.
Rentarō: "I...didn't do that! You just started crying all by yourself! I….didn't think you-…."
Enju: "NO!" she suddenly declared, immediately deciding that this went too far already. It was time to stop this nonsense. "To hell with this! I don't need a ring! We'll just gonna do it like this, for the time being, until you'll buy us a pair!" seeing how futile it was to argue with him about this, she just decided to go for the direct route now.
Rentarō: "Uh….excuse me? I said I wasn't confessing to you!" he remarked, squeamishly.
Enju: "I don't care!" she replied simply, finally taking a deep breath to calm down before continuing. "You played with my pure maiden's heart! You made me cry! And now, as a man, as MY man, you're going to take responsibility for what you just did!" Rentarō was stunned. How should one respond to this?
Enju: "As such, I'll just take the liberty of declaring my misunderstanding as the truth! From this day forth, we are engaged!" she proudly declared, all of the previous anger she had harbored having vanished in thin air.
Rentarō: "You….can't just decide that by yourself!" he tried to get a word in but, as expected by that point, was interrupted.
Enju: "Oh, but I can! And, just so you know, I want a ruby engagement ring! That's nonnegotiable!"
~Two days later, Satomi Residence~
Kisara: "Happy birthday, Enju!" came the cheerful declaration from the other woman in that apartment, who happily handed the child her gift.
Enju: "Thank you, Kisara-san!" the girl beamed another sweet, heartwarming smile before she began to open her gift eagerly.
While she was doing that, Rentarō was finishing up his slice of cake while staring bored at his partner enjoying the time of her life.
Enju: "Oh…..wow! It's…..a phone!" she declared happily as she pulled the brand new smartphone out of its box, happy to hold it inside of her hands. "I never had one of these before!" she then tried to turn the phone around and figure out exactly how to use it.
Kisara: "Yes, I kind of figured that. And it's pretty unbelievable how Rentarō was planning on sending you to school without one!" she glared back at her employee for his obvious blunder.
Rentarō: "I don't see the problem! Back when I was in middle school I never had a phone on me and I did just fine on my own!" he tried to dismiss that comment, to no avail though.
Kisara: "Back when you were in middle school, people would be dismembered from having an infection in their limbs! Anyone that underwent surgery would likely die from being cut open and one out of every nine women giving birth would lose her life in the process!" she remarked sarcastically.
Rentarō: "I WASN'T BORN IN THE MIDDLE AGES!" he yelled back, feeling like Kisara was making fun of him once again, as she usually did; which wouldn't hurt so badly if Enju wasn't already in the room overhearing her humiliate him like that.
Kisara: "Then stop talking like you were!" she finalized that discussion before moving onto helping Enju open her phone up. "No, like this! This is how you swipe!" she began teaching the child how to use the touchscreen of that device.
Rentarō stared at them, contemplating how odd it felt to have the two women in his house act like they were part of the same family. Given their backgrounds, it felt unusual for them to be this happy and comfortable in each other's presence. He felt a small sense of relief when looking at them.
Rentarō: "Maybe Kisara really needed someone like her in her life!" he thought to himself, smiling a bit while finishing up his dessert. "Anyways, if I knew you were planning on gifting her a smartphone, I would have bought something a bit more expensive for her too! I didn't expect you to set the bar this high!" he remarked calmly.
Kisara: "Oh, don't worry about that! I didn't have the money to buy her this phone!" she revealed, making the boy suddenly feel a sudden surge of fear in his body.
Rentarō: "What do you mean by that?" he knew he shouldn't have but he asked anyway.
Kisara: "Well, naturally, neither one of us had any actual contracts to complete yet since you barely just got your license! So, since our company doesn't have the funds, I just took the liberty of buying Enju's phone by subtracting the money from your salary for this mont-…."
Rentarō: "YOU DID WHAT?!" he couldn't believe her. Well, actually he could, that was the most frightening thing about that whole situation. "Put it back!" he suddenly ordered his Initiator. "Put that thing back in its box, Enju! We're returning it right now!" he could barely contain the situation. The girl wasn't even paying any heed to him though.
Enju: "Thank you for your sacrifice, Rentarō-san! I'll remember this for when I'll be buying your gift on your birthday!" disturbingly, this was the first and only time she had ever used the '-san' honorific on him, in the sleaziest most manipulative context he could have ever imagined.
Rentarō: "Don't just ignore me!" he knew he had no leverage to pull. He was going to be ignored regardless of how much he would protest. That was the worst part about that whole situation.
Kisara: "Well, it's not like I even knew about Enju's birthday so that I could even save up for it! I only found out about it yesterday after you mentioned it in passing! Seriously, though, what the hell was that all about?! Why didn't you invite me?!" her anger was clearly directed towards him, not to Enju herself since obviously he was the mastermind behind all of the decision making.
Rentarō: "I just didn't think you'd have been interested in it! Last time I asked you, you told me not to pester you with and I quote 'useless birthday parties that I couldn't care any less about'! Do you remember that?" well, he did have a point.
Kisara: "I was talking about my own party when I said that, Rentarō! I thought that was obvious when you kept on nagging me about which present I would have wanted before by own party last time!" and yet that was also a fair thing to conclude.
Rentarō: "You changed a lot since when we were kids! Back then, if I dared to forget about your party, you'd have barged into my room an-…."
Kisara: "-aaand that's enough memory walking for us! This isn't about that, Rentarō! This is about Enju's birthday now!" she immediately tried changing the subject to not allow him to reveal to Enju some of her less than savory parts of her past.
The girl still noted that topic though. And when she noticed how the boy was so easily manipulated by her orders and yet how comfortable they were talking to each other, a sudden hypothesis developed in her mind.
Kisara: "And this is where you save your contacts list! The contacts are people who you want to remember the phone numbers of so you can easily get in touch with them again! Like to have a phone call with or send a message to!" she informed her happily. "I took the liberty of adding my own and Rentarō's phone numbers in your agenda so that you can easily call us if you'll ever need our help with anything! This is especially important during the school when neither one of us will be there by your side so if you'll ever have problems over there, just give us a call!" it felt really weird seeing Enju wield such a complex device. He would have personally been against this but he tried to refrain from going against Kisara's wishes. And also, maybe this will be an interesting experiment to test Enju's affinity to using technology, since she also seemed to be lacking in that area as well.
Enju: "What's a message?" curious by nature, she further inquired from her now best friend.
Kisara: "A message is when you send someone snippets of text to their phones so that they can read them. Each snippet gets sent almost instantaneously after you press that 'Send' button, over here on the screen!" she pointed to that specific area. The girl nodded in response. "Here! I can show you! You tap this area over here and this keyboard pops up! See? And, using this keyboard, you write down whatever message you want to send. Rentarō told me that he had taught you how to write using hiragana, right? So this should be easy for you!" once again, the girl nodded in response.
Enju: "Yes, he did" she just acknowledged that to be true before trying to press the small keys on that virtual keyboard in front of her. It felt annoyingly clumsy for her to have to tap such small buttons but she did her best anyway.
After a couple of misspellings and corrections afterwards, she managed to write a proper fully fledged sentence: "I want more cake".
Kisara: "That's great! See? It wasn't that hard, was it?" admittedly, to her chagrin, it had taken herself way longer to master that specific skill than it took Enju right there, which made Kisara a bit sad. Maybe there really was an innate amount of skill in handling these devices that differs for each individual and she just so happened to be less natural in using smartphones. Who knows?
Enju: "Uh….what's this weird face looking button down here? What does that do?" she asked before answering her own question and pressing it on her own, only for a new screen that replaced the keyboard to appear and show a list with a bunch of emoji faces, all in front of her. "Ohhhh, this is so cool!" not unlike a child having discovered a new feature from her brand new toy, she began to play around with that and insert various emojis into her text message, before finally pressing the 'Send' button, as Kisara had instructed her. Immediately, Rentarō's phone beeped in his pocket. The boy rolled his eyes before pulling it out and checking the contents.
Rentarō: " (sigh) No! You had enough cake for tonight, Enju! You won't be getting another slice!" he calmly replied, before the girl received another piece from Kisara instead, literally one second later. "Hey! I said no more cake for her, Kisara-san!" he angrily tried to protest but, again, to no avail.
Kisara: "What's the harm in it? It's her birthday, after all, Mr. Grumpy-san. If you're that mad, maybe you should try another slice yourself, to let some steam out!" she sarcastically replied as Enju showed her tongue to him in a taunting fashion from behind before taking a bite from her new slice.
Rentarō: "Why am I always the bad guy whenever Enju's with someone else? This isn't really fair!" with less money on his next salary, humiliated and ignored by the women in that room, the boy just shoved his phone back in his pocket and poured himself some Cola to drown his misery in. It had such an intense sugary taste that it felt almost nauseating to him.
And so did the evening continue, with the party overly enjoying themselves and bonding together. Enju and Kisara had gotten along way better than he could have ever expected, even though that naturally meant that he ended up acting like the third wheel in that room now.
Not that he minded that anyway, since he wasn't that interested in the conversations that they were having anyway.
~A couple of hours later~
Rentarō: "OK, this is it! It's almost 22:00 (10:00 PM) and I think it's about time for your bed time, Enju! We have stuff to do tomorrow in the morning, too, so I think it's about time we call the party off!" after double checking his phone for the time, he suddenly announced to the women who were having way too much fun now.
Enju: "But I want to spend more time with Kisara-san!" she tried to argue, as Kisara only smirked at him victoriously.
Rentarō: "I know, but you two will get to know each other really well in the coming months, especially since we will receive all of our tasks directly from her, Enju! So you'll have plenty an opportunity to do that later!" this was one argument he wasn't going to compromise to. After all, after this party would be finished, he would have to start cleaning all the mess left in that room too before he could go to bed as well. And he was less than eager to do that, obviously.
Enju: "Fiiiine!" she exclaimed in disappointment, before hopping out of her party chair and dropping the little triangle hat off her head. "I'll go get ready for bed then!" she declared before beginning to walk out and heading for her own room.
Rentarō: "Ahem! And just where do you think you're going?" he asked sternly, stopping the poor child in her tracks. She immediately froze, cursing in her own mind that he had still noticed even after all the festivities that had taken place.
Enju: "To bed? Like you asked for?" she tried to play innocent, even though the boy could see right through her.
Rentarō: "You didn't brush your teeth though! And you ate so much cake and drank so much soda that they're probably about to fall off right here! Even if you got rid of your infection, that doesn't mean you can just ignore good hygiene practices! Remember what Sumire-sensei told you about brushing twice a day!" he ordered, less than amused by her annoying antics.
Enju: "But-...but-….it's my birthday, though! Can't you just let me off the hook at least today?" she tried to put up a puppy dog face to try to manipulate him. Still, he had already developed immunity to those eyes.
Rentarō: "I don't care, Enju! And the bathroom is that way!" he pointed in the opposite direction to where she was walking.
The girl just dropped her sweet face and made an annoyed frown in response, before beginning to walk into the specified target.
Enju: "Meanie…." she grumbled. Kisara was chuckling in the background.
Kisara: "Geez, you turned out to be a stern old man. I never thought I'd see the day when this would happen to you!" she joked, bemused at that whole comedy scene in front of her.
Rentarō: "It's not my fault! If I don't act like this, she almost never listens to me! If you don't believe me, you try living a day with her in the same house! See how well you'll fare!" even though he found this a really serious issue, the teenage girl was still quite bemused.
Kisara: "Don't worry, I trust you! And, to be frank, I think this change is for the better for you!" that was a surprising comment, especially coming from her.
Rentarō: "You do?" he wasn't sure how to take that.
Kisara: "Yes, ever since she moved in, you cleaned up this place quite well. Last time I was here, this entire house was filled with cardboard boxes to the brim, dusty furniture and cobwebs everywhere the eye could see! And yet now this place looks impeccable! You started dressing formally and you even learned how to bake a birthday cake that's actually decent!" she complemented him happily, as the aforementioned child came back from the bathroom, passed an annoyed look between them, and then started walking to her room again, this time sure that she was finally ready to get to her bed without Rentarō complaining about her lack of oral hygiene. She took notice of the friendly banter that Rentarō and Kisara were having in her absence.
Rentarō: "Well, I'm glad you liked it! It's not easy baking! Last time I tried the results weren't so great…." he trailed off.
Kisara: "Yes, I remember when you attempted to bake me a cake at my birthday that one time…." oh no. He never should have initiated this conversation. Now she was going to mention The Incident. "I knew there was something bad with that thing that you made! I could instinctively tell it! But I still tried to be nice and play along and I still ate whatever...uh….that thing was!" calling it 'a thing' was rude, even he had to admit that.
Rentarō: "I was only eight when I did that! And your brother could have stopped me!" he tried to argue, only for her to hand-waive his argument away.
Kisara: "My brother would never do that, Rentarō! And after eating your cake, I was hospitalized for food poisoning, for crying out loud!" yep, she remembered what had happened quite well, sadly for him. "What the hell did you even put in that thing….?!" to that the boy looked away, trying to avoid eye contact.
Rentarō: "I….can't remember that well. But I suspect the culprit for that was the toothpaste…." the girl's eyes widened at that.
Kisara: "You tried putting toothpaste in a birthday cake?!" she was genuinely surprised, which was all the more scary for him.
Rentarō: "Like I said, this was eight years ago! Forgive me for being clueless back then! And, to a kid, toothpaste tastes very refreshing, you know! So the thought kind of came naturally to me!" he tried to explain himself to the best of his abilities, despite the fact that Kisara was still glaring at him, this time her being the stoic one.
Kisara: "If you hadn't protected me like the way you did when that Gastrea attacked us, I would have hated you for the rest of my life just because of that cake incident!" he originally thought that they had agreed never to bring the Cake incident into the light of day ever again but apparently Kisara just spontaneously decided to break that rule that evening, for whatever reason, much to his displeasure.
Rentarō: "Well, I hope tonight's cake will make up for what I did…." he tried to show her remorse by offering her another slice that was still left unfinished.
Kisara: "No thanks! I'm full! I couldn't eat another slice even if my life depe-…" but she got interrupted by a sudden call from Enju's room.
Enju: "Rentarō, could you please help me find my phone? I think I lost it!" the yell came across the hallway, interrupting the two teenagers.
Rentarō: " (sigh) You just received it tonight and you already lost it?!" he cried out, truly annoyed.
Enju: "You can scold me all you want! But the sooner you'll help me find it, the sooner we're gonna get in bed tonight!" she made a good point. He rolled his eyes, already feeling depressed.
Rentarō: "Give me a break!" he complained audibly before beginning to head to her room as well. "Excuse me, I'll be right back!" he told Kisara, who began to pick up any waste off the floor and deposit it in the trash bags to help Rentarō and Enju out while they would figure things out in the latter's room.
Rentarō made his way inside his Initiator's (his parents' formal) room, and noticed her legs on the floor and the rest of her body hidden under her bed.
Rentarō: "What…..do you think you're doing?" came the obvious question.
Enju: " (from under the bed) I'm trying to find that darn phone! I think I can see it under here but I can't reach it! Can you give me a hand, please?" her body was already half under the bed and he genuinely wondered why she couldn't simply move herself just a bit further under it and grab it herself if it was indeed out of reach. She was small and that would have been easier for her than for him to get to it.
But he didn't remark on that. He was supposed to be her big brother and he had to help her out as much as he could.
Rentarō: "Fine, I'll help you out!" he knelt in front of her bed immediately next to her and tried to take a peek to see what's under there. Surely enough, he could spot her small phone right under the bed, right out of her grasp. "Yep, I can see it!" he reassured before lying completely horizontally on the floor and beginning to squeeze his way larger body underneath the king-sized bed. He pushed through the dust bunnies and the genuine filth that was under there and managed to extend his hand, far enough to reach it.
Triumphantly he turned to Enju who was next to him and declared:
Rentarō: "I got it!" but it was then when she noticed that she did finally squeeze herself a bit further under the bed, only so that their faces could be on the same level to each other, her being unusually close to him. "Why…..are you looking at me like that?" he asked, immediately beginning to feel very vulnerable for some reason.
Enju: "You seem to have enjoyed your little chit-chat with Kisara-san back there! I'm guessing she was the special one you were saving your first kiss for, right?" he froze at that.
Rentarō: "Wh-….why are you bringing this up now, of all times?!" he began to blush although she couldn't notice this due to the darkness under the bed.
Enju: " (sigh) Yeah, I thought as much!" she had her confirmation, having read it off of him like an open book. He was about to protest but before he could say anything he felt two small hands press against his cheeks all of a sudden as Enju approached her face to him even more closely than before.
Rentarō: "N-no….you wouldn-'…." his heart skipped a beat. And then it happened.
The taste of even more cake and the nauseating aroma of soda flooded his brain as the child literally slammed her mouth into his.
Enju: "Chuu~❤" it happened so fast he couldn't even respond to it. The low sound of her sucking a kiss out of him aggressively, went unnoticed for Kisara who was still cleaning in the other room. But those few seconds when he could feel this child's lips on his own felt so gruelingly long for his poor brain, that it felt like an eternity. An eternity of tasting cake and soda from Enju's lips.
Many alarm bells began ringing in his head, all alerting him that something really really bad was happening and yet, because he was under the bed he couldn't pull away easily, otherwise he would be slamming his head against the bed above. It was at that moment that he realized that Enju hadn't really needed his help to recover her phone and he had innocently fallen into her trap.
After five seconds of this, a pop was heard from their lips finally parting as the pressure of the shared air in their mouths equalized with the exterior. It felt so refreshing feeling the breath of fresh air come back into his mouth, only to then realize that her own breath was still in his mouth as a reminder of her vile attack on him.
It took a second and then he screamed.
He screamed loud and began pulling himself out from under her bed, dropping the phone that used to be in his hand back onto the floor and, after sliding out from under the bed, he rushed backwards until he hit the wall that was near the door to her room. He was staring at the bed where he had been under and then at the girl still under it, eyes wide open and him breathing heavily, almost like he had seen a Gastrea completely out of nowhere.
After that ruckus, Kisara, obviously worried by the girly yell that came from Enju's room, rushed in to see what had transpired in that chamber.
Kisara: "What the hell happened here?!" she asked, noticing the boy's obviously restless disorganized face, on the floor, looking like he had been scarred.
Rentarō: "I….." he had a look that screamed 'My life is over now', filled with misery and suffering, as drool was falling from around his mouth in the most disgusting manner possible.
Kisara: "What….the hell happened to you?!" she had no idea what to expect. But before he could answer her, the small child pulled herself from under the bed, with the happiest smile she could deliver, showing off her phone to the two bewildered adolescents.
Enju: "Nothing! Rentarō was just helping me get my phone back when he suddenly saw a really big spider under my bed now and began screaming! But it's alright now! I killed it, Rentarō!" she lied so cheerfully and innocently, Kisara just immediately took what she had said as true, regardless of how implausible it was. "Isn't that right, Rentarō?" she asked him girlishly and sweetly.
Rentarō: "She...she…." he was about to burst out into cries of desperation before he realized the actual situation he was in. "She…." he stopped himself before he could spill the beans to Kisara.
Kisara: "She what, Rentarō?" the woman looked very sternly at him, trying to understand what he was about to say.
Rentarō: "I...can't tell her that I just lost my first kiss to...to….her! What will she think of me?!" he thought to himself, feeling ashamed that he had allowed that brat to do such a horrible thing to his poor first kiss. "She…..yeah, there was this….uh….spider and I got startled" being in the heat of the moment, he couldn't even make up a better excuse for himself, just submitting to Enju's scenario and giving up at that point.
Kisara: "Rentarō….you really are pathetic, you know that?" she couldn't believe her ears. Her supposedly incredibly strong employee and one of the strongest soldiers in Japan due to the New Human Creation Plan, had been scared by a spider. That thought alone was so genuinely disheartening that she wished, as his employer, that the ground would just open up and swallow her whole right there.
Rentarō: "But….it was a really big spider!" at that point what could he have said to save face?
Kisara: "Just…..let's get back to cleaning the living room! Let's let Enju sleep, OK?" her dissatisfaction oozing out of her voice, she tried to convince the boy to leave the evil creature alone. "Have a nice night, Enju! I'll get this scared little cat out of your room now!" she tried to waive to the little girl over there who was still smiling mischievously at the duo like no one's business.
Enju: "Good night, Kisara-san, Rentarō-kun!" she waived her hand after them as Kisara exited the room quickly while also pulling on Rentarō to come after her before they closed the door behind them, leaving Enju alone in her own room.
Kisara: "'-kun' huh? You two are really close already, aren't you?" she pointed out the subtle hint that she had noticed from Enju. The boy just stared at her, still with a horrified look on his face almost like witnessing a train filled with kitties plummeting into the cold ocean underneath.
Rentarō: "Yeah…." he replied simply.
Kisara: "What the hell is wrong with you?! Why are you acting so weird?! It's just a spider, Rentarō!" she tried to get him out of his lobotomized trance.
Rentarō: "Yeah…." he still apparently refused to communicate with her though.
She rolled her eyes, realizing that he was in an hopeless state.
Kisara: "I put most of the trash in the bags over there! I'll go and throw out the trash bags for now! You wipe the table clean while I'm gone!" she began to walk away from the traumatized boy. "Oh and wipe that drool off your face already! You screamed so hard back there you look like a dog that just drank water after slurping it everywhere on the floor!" she commented, as the boy felt that comment hit him like a whip.
Rentarō: "THAT'S BECAUSE ENJU HAS NO IDEA HOW A KISS IS EVEN SUPPOSED TO WORK!" he wanted to scream that to her so badly, he wanted to, but what would she think of him if he did tell her that? She would either dismiss him for being even more pathetic for allowing a child to do that to him, not to mention ruin any chance he would have ever had with her once she'd learn he already lost his first kiss to a ten year old or, in the worst case scenario, she'd just assume the worst and call the police. After all, she seemed to trust Enju way more than she trusted him, her own childhood friend, so if worst comes to worst, she'd probably believe Enju's version of the story before she'd believe him. Which left him with no other choice but to lie.
Rentarō: "I…..was tricked!" nobody in this world would believe him. All he could do now was just cry to himself, internally.
Suddenly, his cellphone beeped in his pocket while also vibrating a little, letting him know that now he had a new message from someone.
Realizing who that someone could have been at such an inopportune hour, he immediately pulled it out and checked the contents.
Enju: "That's for playing with my heart two days ago! Have a nice night, darling!" she commented cheekily at him.
Infuriated, the boy wanted to reply to her back with a particularly scornful message before he received another one from her.
Enju: "PS: I'm still waiting for my ring!" came a second message immediately after the first one. For someone who had barely learned how to use her phone for the first time that night, she was handling it quite well.
Rentarō's phone: "I'm not buying you any ring! And what the hell?! You're going to pay for that!" he tried to maintain whatever shred of composure he could still muster, barely.
Enju: "Oh really? How? :P" she asked mischievously.
Rentarō's phone: "You're grounded from this day on for the next two years! And you won't see another birthday party in this house for you for the rest of your life!" even in a pure textual format, she could still detect the vitriol in his soul just from the way he was phrasing his replies. While it was heartbreaking to him, it was adorable for her on the other side.
Enju: "You know….it'd be a huge shame if Kisara-san were to learn about this little accident of ours….oh and also about your confession to me the other day :P" he couldn't believe her. Since when did she learn how to blackmail.
Rentarō's phone: "You wouldn't…." this was not only bad, it was genuinely horrible for him now.
Enju: "Would I? :P" he lost it. He had nothing to reply with at that. What could he do now? This child….this goddamn child was tarnishing his authority. And, worst of all, he had nothing to use to regain control anymore over her.
Rentarō's phone: "….what do you want from me?" he asked, defeated and in genuine pain, feeling the desperation start to pile up inside of him.
Enju: "Well, like I said, that ring would be a nice start! Oh and also you'd have to start calling me 'honey' from now on!" that was such a gross sentence to read, he felt the urge to wipe the screen off his phone when he saw it on it.
Rentarō's phone: "That's never going to happen! I told you I don't love you that way!" he angrily replied.
Enju: ":( Fine then! I guess we'll just have to have more smoochy time together in the future until you'll change your mind!" he didn't know if this specific sentence was more vile than the previous one, although it still felt wretched on more than one level.
Rentarō's phone: "NO! YOU STOLE MY FIRST KISS!" he finally blurted out what he had on his soul at that moment.
Enju: "Yeah, and you stole mine a couple of days ago, remember? Now we're even! :P" she was incredible, for all the wrong reasons.
Rentarō's phone: "I told you that indirect kisses don't count as first kisses! This isn't fair! That wasn't intended to be yours! Give it back!" for whatever reason, he began typing like a ten year old himself now, almost like her immaturity finally started to rub off on him a little.
Enju: "Well too bad! I have it now and I'm not giving it back! :P" this was pointless, even he knew that. "And if you want Kisara-san to never find out about this and have any chance with her, this will be our dirty little secret, right?" how, when and where did she become such a vile creature? She was never like this before!
Rentarō's phone: "…..I hate you!" feeling utterly defeated, he just gave up entirely at that point.
Enju: "I love you too, darling~!" even if she wasn't there with him, he could still feel her disgusting grin through the phone. He was so angry and so disturbed but there was nothing he could do about that. She won, fair and square, after all.
Rentarō's phone: "Still, there's something else I won't budge on!" he began typing again, all of a sudden.
Enju: "Oh? And what's that?" now it was her turn to fall into his trap.
Rentarō's phone: "You lied to me when you said you brushed your teeth! I could still taste the cake from your lips!" he sent her, as the girl suddenly gulped in her room.
Enju: "Well, technically I didn't lie! I never said I brushed them, did I? :P" she tried to brush that off, although he still didn't allow himself to be fooled.
Rentarō's phone: "GET INTO THE BATHROOM RIGHT NOW!"
~End of A Glimpse into the past, current time~
The boy finally rose from his bed. He looked at the digital clock in his bedroom.
Rentarō: "02:30 in the morning again! Why can't I just have a peaceful night?!" normally he never had problems sleeping but the past nights have been especially grueling to him. Even when he gets to relax enough to finally close his eyes, he still has dreams of him and Enju's memories together.
Rentarō: "Enju…." he called out for her, silently, as he felt tears form in the corners of his eyes once again.
Where was that child? She still never returned home and he and everyone else were still searching for her restlessly. Where could she have gone?
Rentarō: "No….I said I wouldn't cry anymore. I just can't afford more emotional distress at the moment!" his next court hearing would be in two days. He had to keep a clear mind and not get too emotionally invested in his own predicament. He had to maintain an objective persona if he were to have any chance of winning that case.
Realizing that he wasn't going to fall back asleep easily anymore, he rose from his bed and approached the box of Valentine's Day chocolates that Enju had specifically handcrafted for none other than him.
He would have wanted to eat that chocolate in front of her, while she would be there with him but, at this point, he didn't even know if she were to ever be there again with him anymore. Hell, he didn't even know if he'll ever be allowed to walk home anymore two days from then, since the judge could rule against him and have him be sent to prison….or worse.
Rentarō: " (sigh) Why did this have to happen to us?" he asked no one in particular as he grabbed the box of chocolates and began walking back into bed. He opened the heart shaped box by the cute ribbon and then he pulled it open, noticing what was inside: the box had a set of brownies with a yellow margarine-esque cream as a topping on them. And not only that but there was a handwritten note inside there as well.
He knew he shouldn't have done that but curiosity just got the better of him and so he flipped the note open to read its contents:
Enju's note: "To the best Promoter in the world: I love you, my dear Rentarō! Please always be by my side!" was all that was written on it.
Suddenly, memories of her transforming into a Gastrea, her begging him to kill her and him failing her ran at an excruciating speed in his mind. He broke into tears.
He said he will resist the urge, he said he wouldn't, and yet he did.
He couldn't help himself. He was genuinely sad. Such a simple letter, such a small one too. And yet he couldn't resist but cry in despair.
Why could this fate have befallen such an innocent child?
Feeling the misery in his heard, the boy grabbed a brownie from that box and brought it to his mouth, trying his best to devour the small pastry in an attempt to sooth his aching heart. That was until the most bitter horrible taste invaded his mouth upon contact of that concoction with his tongue.
The taste was so sour he felt like cells were dying on his tongue as they were making contact with the food, which only went on to amplify his pain.
Still, he chose not to disrespect her last memory that she had worked so hard on for him and, like a mourning man trying to cling to the memories of his loved ones, kept on trying not to be disrespectful and devoured that brownie in spite of its taste to honor his Initiator's memory.
Rentarō: "Enju….this tastes horrible!" he cried bitterly.
Author's Note : Finally, after all of these years, A Glimpse into the Past is finally over. Now we will return to the regular plot of this fanfiction that I left off since Chapter 7: "Friendly talk". I know this was unbearably long but I genuinely believe this had a purpose in further explaining the characters and their motivations, beyond just what was shown in the anime. Also, for what it's worth, I hope this chapter at least provided some solace for those that have still been eagerly waiting for the end of this detour.
Now, we'll just be heading into the end and this fanfic, as a whole, doesn't have much left. My estimation is that in less than five chapters, I will end it (except for the bonus chapter, that won't count). Thanks for reading!