YAMI NO MATSUEI – DESCENDANTS OF DARKNESS

THE SHADOWS OF MY PAST

Chapter Six: Skeletons in the Closet

Nineteen forty-one – the 15th year of the Showa Period. The world was in the brink of war and Japan displayed her military might for the entire world to see. Everyone worried about what consequences that the war would bring to the country, moreover how the war would change our lives.

But for now, on this lovely spring day, all those worries would be cast aside even for just a couple of hours.

That glorious day finally came – my graduation. It was a sea of happy and anticipating faces at the university grounds as proud family members doted on their respective graduating loved one before the commencement ceremony began. I finally would be receiving my degree, and there have been offers for me to work as an accountant from different employers.

Ishino Toya never stopped offering me a position as one of his aides. Mako-san and I have been thankful that he had been gracious enough whenever I declined Ishino's offer. I still blamed the man for my sister's suicide but he was now less of a bastard in my eyes.

I guess time did heal all wounds, but some wounds take more time than others. It had been barely four months since Mother died, close to two years since Inari's suicide, and close to 15 years now since Father passed away. In spite of the passage of time, I long for them. Slowly but surely, I was winning back small slivers of peace.

I could not help but drift into a daze from moment to moment, my mind's eye playing tricks on me as I vividly pictured my family doing the same for me.

A couple of feet away from where I stood were my family. Father waved at me and prodded me to get ready for the march. Beside him was Mother, appearing the way that she looked during better and happier times, leaning on Father's shoulder and smiling at me. There was my younger sister Inari, looking as beautiful and radiant as she did the last time that I saw her alive, giving me such a warm smile.

Seeing my family once more made me smile and then reality set in as the spot where they stood became what it truly was in a blink of an eye – empty space.

"Your sensei's looking for you, Tatsumi-kun," said Mako-san with all smiles as he came from behind. He insisted that we should take a day off for my graduation and celebrate after the ceremony.

The old man, after all, had been the only family that I have in this world. I do believe in wise sayings that blood is thicker than water. I also believe, however, that the word family is not simply embodied in blood.

I smiled at my business partner and father figure, telling him, "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, Mako-san. If you didn't help me in so many ways…."

Mako-san patted me on the back, the smile in his face becoming much warmer. "It's also a big day for me. Don't forget that. You've been my son all this time…and so had your Father when he was still alive. I cannot replace them and wouldn't dare do so, but you're very dear to me."

Shortly thereafter, Mako-san's sentimental trip to memory lane was cut short as he heard someone holler my name. He then patted me once more on the back. "Time for you to go…. You have a march to lead and a speech to do, after all."

------------------------------------------------------------------

The months quickly flew by. A couple of weeks after I graduated with an accounting degree, I was now working as a clerk for a church in my home town. I figured that out of the job offers presented to me, the church would be the best because such an organization would respond and adhere to the principles of a higher authority – God.

I also steered away from Ishino Toya's influence as far as I could. There was an old adage that said, "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are." I find that saying as wise as true. Sure, the man now had a cleaner reputation which started after Inari's death but I had no sense of peace whenever he was around.

I only trusted two friends, and those were Mako-san and my shadows.

At night – after my prayers for Father, Mother, and Inari, I worked on controlling my shadows. At this point in my life, my fear of them had greatly diminished. So far, I could only perform simple tasks with them – one of them was to use them as camouflage, and another was to have them physically touch and manipulate corporeal objects.

And as it had always been, my shadows have been a deep, dark secret that I kept from everyone – including Mako-san.

As to my work in the market with Mako-san, I worked with him during my days off and passed by to help him with our customers and packing up for the trip home hours later. I also insisted that my father figure spend the evenings with me over a light supper, with me coming over to his house and doing the cooking.

My employer – a priest – did not necessarily have a good reputation. People talked about how purposefully disorganized his records were, or how he had gone through one clerk after another in a course of months.

Thinking back about how people's wagging tongues have done such a disservice against my family and our good name, I decided to take the offer and help out the priest as much as I could in terms of organizing his books…that maybe he too was simply a victim of nasty gossip…that maybe he was really living his role as a man of God.

I did not socialize that much with my peers, although I was civil towards all of them. They spent more time gossiping rather than doing their respective work.

As to my work, I had my work cut out for me. I organized the church's accounting records – invoices, contracts, and other financial documentation – to substantiate what was reflected on the monthly financial statements.

The longer and more in-depth that I delved into my work, I noticed many things hinting that maybe what the people were saying about this priest was true.

Three-fourths of the records were missing. As a remedy, I called the respective vendors noted on our records. I was able to retrieve some of those records for the church's files, but it turned out that at least half of the missing invoices noted on the expense reports were not legitimate.

Secondly, I also discovered that many of these missing records have two names involved – the priest and Ishino Toya. What bothered me most about this was that during my trace, I uncovered a large cash donation given by Ishino Toya to the church as well as a sizable cash gift to the priest days before Inari's death.

I really wondered how legitimate these findings of mine were since I never bumped into Ishino Toya since my employment at the church. To satiate my curiosity, I stayed longer one workday in my office. I stayed for as long as I could in the dark with my servant shadows covering me…making the priest believe that all his staff had left for the day as they normally would at this late hour.

My wait had finally paid off, and I heard Ishino Toya's voice as well as the priest. The priest was asking for more money as he blamed Ishino "The price for my silence had gone up…and time's running out on me. That boy will find out everything. He's already asking me questions about the missing records."

Ishino's nonchalant comment was, "Tatsumi-kun's just doing his job. You should be thankful of his presence here at your church. People are concentrating less on how dirty you are…how you could be easily bought…that a man of God happens to be more a man of the fresh. I wouldn't be surprised if people are giving you more donations since they have the impression that their funds go to a good cause."

"Laundering dirty money is one thing…covering up for a murder is another," quipped the priest. "Just imagine how the people would react if they find out that their now-favorite politician…a man of the people…was responsible for killing his mistress and made it look like the poor young woman committed jigai."

I could just picture Ishino's eyes narrowing in such anger as he yelled, "Don't you dare blackmail me, priest! You don't know who you're crossing! You even had a taste of her, at least twice. And who do you think they'll believe more - you, or me?"

I heard the priest chuckle, their voices continuing to echo inside the almost-empty church office. "I'm a reasonable man, Ishino-kun. Just give me what I want and I'll keep my mouth shut."

"You want money?" yelled Ishino. His strained voice then became more audible as he added, "No one blackmails me – no one!"

I heard a struggle as well as the priest's choked gasps for air along with an object hitting against the metal file cabinets inside the priest's office where their meeting was taking place.

A couple more minutes later, I heard a body drop on the marbled floor with Ishino saying to the probably now-dead man, "Burn in Hell, priest. You've just taken my secrets to your grave."

--------------------------------------------------------------

"You're home late. I took the liberty of cooking supper for us," said Mako-san in such a cheerful mood. "We did very well today."

Still feeling the surge of heavy emotions that I barely held back, I told the dear old man as I helped set the table, "I'm thinking about taking Ishino-san's job offer."

Mako-san blinked and stopped what he was doing. "I thought that you'd never work for the man."

"The church isn't offering me much opportunity for professional growth. I want something more challenging…something more interesting. Plus government jobs are more stable…more prestigious."

Although Mako-san still had that curious expression in his eyes, he told me, "Would working for the man make you happy? As long as there's a sense of reward and you love your work, why not? Maybe this will be a good move for you…to bury the past and move on to a better future."

Entertaining thoughts of retribution as I thought about my sister's death…or murder…and the events that followed afterwards, I told Mako-san as I sat down with him for our meal, "Oh, it'll be rewarding. I'll make sure of it…"

End of Chapter Six

Normal Disclaimer

I do not own Yami no Matsuei and its lovable characters. However, I do own this fic and other original characters.