Thursday, 8/4
Noon came fast for GRAVY. The late night cost them their morning, though none of them regretted it.
At least, that was what Ryuji believed. GRAVY spent the night watching 'Spirited Away' at Haru's request. Because she won the cannonball competition, GRAVY obliged with no complaints. The film's quality spoke for itself, and it wasn't like anyone would complain about getting to watch a film as great as 'Spirited Away.'
After that, GRAVY had split in two. The girls had gone to their room to do… Ryuji wasn't sure. Girl things? That was the label that he mentally gave it, but he didn't care beyond coming up with that label. He, Ren, and Yusuke spent their night playing brutal games of Rash Toes with lots of cursing, shouting, complaining, and accusations of cheating. Ryuji was the first to admit that about ninety percent of all that came from him.
As punishment for their sins upon their natural sleep cycles, the cruel mistress of exhaustion kept the trio in bed until a little before noon. When they woke up, they tiredly lumbered out into the living, only to find that the girls had seemingly woken up minutes before. They sat at the kitchen counter, eating breakfast.
"Mornin'," Ryuji said as he scratched the back of his head and immediately went to the fridge. He took out one of the many bottles of orange juice for himself.
"Good morning, Ryuji-kun," Haru said. "Would you, Ren, and Yusuke like some food?" She gestured over to a few plates of food in the corner of the kitchen.
"Haru, some food sounds scrumptious," Ren said with a smirk as he walked over to the plates.
"Scrumptious? Man, you sound like Yusuke," Ryuji said.
"Ryuji, your vocabulary could always use some enhancement," Yusuke added.
"Sorry that my," Ryuji began before putting on a voice of faux intelligence, "linguistic ability isn't as elephantine as yours, sir Yusuke Kitagawa of Tokyo."
For once, Yusuke laughed, though it looked more like him breathing very heavily for a second rather than an actual laugh.
The three joined the other half of GRAVY at the kitchen counter, though on the other side. As they ate, they discussed plans for the day.
"So, uh, what's happening today?" Ryuji asked, excited for whatever Iwatodai would provide.
The girls exchanged several glances between themselves. To Ryuji, it seemed that they already had their minds made up about what the plan was without including the guys in the decision-making. That's gotta be sexist, right? Ryuji thought, though there was no one to validate or question his thoughts.
"We're feeling really tired," Ann said. "And we haven't spent much time here, at the mansion, so we figured we'd do a day where we stay here."
"Do nothing all day?" Ren asked. Ryuji looked at his friend closely, seeing that Ren was making cutesy eyes across the table at his new girlfriend.
To put it simply, Ryuji was a little pissed at Ren, while being happy for him at the same time. I bring home a huge effin' win with Chihiro, and then he's like "Oh, Ryuji, haha, the score is tied, I'm gonna go eff Makoto," and now I'm behind again. Effin' bullshit, but he's still a homie. I'll forgive him after I have two kids with Chihiro, own a big-ass house, and have a six-figure job, Ryuji thought to himself. Oh, and him getting all lovey-dovey with Makoto is a bit annoying.
"Well, the beach is still an option," Haru proposed. "Those of us who wish to be a bit more active can spend time on the beach outside the home, or just sunbathe."
"I gotta work on my skin tone," Ren said with an enthusiastic nod. Ryuji knew how much sarcasm that Ren enjoyed using, but it had got to a point where he didn't know whether the GRAVY leader was serious or effing with everyone around him.
"Sure, man. You do you," Ryuji dismissed as he turned to Yusuke. "Wanna get some Rash Toes practice?" It wasn't what Ryuji really wanted to do, but he didn't want to upset Haru by bringing it up in front of her. He would wait until breakfast was over.
"If you need anything, just call or come down to the beach!" Haru said, waving before she went down the steps that led to the beach. She left Ryuji and Yusuke alone in the house.
Alright, it's go-time, Ryuji mischievously thought before he immediately walked away from the sliding glass door and over to the largest couch in the living room.
"Ryuji, the Switch is back in our room," Yusuke said as he came around the couch to face Ryuji.
"We're not usin' the Switch, dude. We're gonna explore!"
"We have already accessed the entirety of the house."
"You mean that we've seen all of the house that we're allowed to see. We gotta check out the other side! Maybe there's some cool laser gun, or maybe a UFO!"
"But Noguchi-san told us that the other side is off-limits."
"And now she's stuck in the guest house with headaches. We're the only ones around, Yusuke," Ryuji said as he stood up and began walking in the direction of the home's entrance, which would lead to the other side of the house.
"Ryuji, I will follow not because I wish to, but because going outside today means that I must apply my lotion."
"You mean sunscreen?"
"You could say that."
I am not asking what the eff he means by that, Ryuji thought to himself as he came to the entrance. The hall to the other side was within striking distance. He turned around to make sure Yusuke followed before gazing into the unknown and entering.
The other side of the house was structurally similar to the side that GRAVY was staying in, though a tad thinner. To the left of Ryuji and Yusuke was a bar that looked like it hadn't been used in years, covered in dust and cobwebs. To the right was the rest of the room, but to their immediate right was an object covered with a sheet to keep the dust off.
"Ryuji, I am aware of what you want to do. Please, do not-" Yusuke began, but was cut off by Ryuji doing that very thing. He pulled the sheet off to reveal a shining grand piano. Like the bar, it hadn't seen use in years, but this wasn't covered in signs of age. In fact, it could've passed as a new piano if not for the vibe that Ryuji got from it.
"Eh, just a piano," Ryuji said, not being able to shake the strange feeling that he got from the piano. He couldn't put a finger on whatever it was, but its eeriness stuck out to him. He pulled the sheet back over the piano and kept walking.
They went down a couple of stairs to what looked like another living area, this one not including a massive TV. The chairs and couch were instead centered around a stone fireplace and a coffee table. Unlike the piano, all of these things had dust on them. Ryuji ran his finger along the edge of the leather couch as he walked past it, picking up some of the dust on his finger and leaving a clear path where his finger had been. Nobody's gonna see it. If Noguchi was cleaning this side of the house, these wouldn't be covered in dust, Ryuji thought.
They reached the end of the room, which held a tall window that made up the entire wall. It featured a view of the beach, the city, and the ocean similar to the view that the deck gave from the other side of the house, but more of the city was visible. Ryuji looked to his right through the window, seeing GRAVY on the beach. The girls were all lying down on towels, sunbathing, while Ren did the same. Ryuji laughed, feeling a little jealous of Ren's view, before walking away from the window. He looked up towards a spiral staircase.
"Ryuji, I must insist that we stop here."
"Have a little fun, won't you?" Ryuji said.
"We are guests in this house, Ryuji, and we are violating the one rule that we accepted to stay here."
"Rules are made to be broken."
"The sentiment of a child."
"Call me a child," Ryuji joked as he went up the stairs, hustling to the top as if he actually was a child.
The staircase led to a loft-like area that had a view of the fireplace downstairs and out the massive window. To the right, there was a hallway, which Ryuji could see doors in. He continued his journey by going down the hallway and opening the first door on his left to… nothing. An empty storage room. See, Yusuke, there's not shit on this side of the house. I'm thinking that Noguchi didn't want us over here just because it's dirty, Ryuji thought as he closed the storage room door and went to the door across the hallway.
He opened it to a barren average-sized room, clear of any objects, curtains, or remains of when the room was in use. Weird, Ryuji thought before he closed the door and moved on. The next door down the hall felt different to Ryuji, giving him a good feeling, so he opened it slowly to play into his own suspense.
His gut was right. A fully decorated children's room awaited Ryuji and Yusuke on the other side of the door. A pink carpet with matching furniture filled the room, along with a massive pink and white canopy bed centered on the far wall. Dolls and other toys were left on the floor across the room, like the owner of the room had been playing with them just a few hours ago, not bothering to clean up their mess.
It's probably Haru's, huh? Weird that this one didn't get cleaned out like the others. Also, does this mean that she has two effin' rooms in this house?! I know that she has one on our side, but she has one over here. Damn, that's crazy, Ryuji thought. But I'm not supposed to be on this side of the house, or going into the rooms. The least I can do is respect Haru's privacy.
Ryuji closed the door and turned to face Yusuke. "Showing some restraint?" the artist asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Moving on to the next one," Ryuji said before he turned to face the door at the end of the hall. Immediately, Ryuji could tell that this one was different from the others. Its taller frame accented the intimidation that Ryuji got from it. Whether he was playing into his own tendencies to exaggerate things, or because he was truly afraid of what lay behind the door, Ryuji crept up. Taking a deep breath while feeling Yusuke's disapproving presence behind him, Ryuji turned the knob. He pushed the door open as he stood at the side of the door frame to let the serial killer who definitely waited behind the door jump out so Ryuji could get the advantage.
Instead, nothing happened except the door creaking. Ryuji stood up straight, brushed the dust he got on his hands from the door onto his shorts and pushed the door open further to enter the room. No serial killers were there, only an old-fashioned study. Bookshelves towered up every wall, with a single desk in the center of the room. The most modern thing in there was the adjustable chair behind the desk.
"Kinda looks like a principal's office, don't it?" Ryuji said, still feeling the relief of not being murdered because he opened the wrong door.
"It does remind me of that, I suppose," Yusuke said as he approached one of the bookcases. "Quite an extraordinary collection…"
"See? I knew you'd get something out of this."
Yusuke turned around with a book in hand. "I believe it would be a fun time reading this book with the others. What do you think?"
Ryuji squinted at the book. 'Kama Sutra'? The eff is that? Probably some boring art shit, Ryuji thought.
"Nah, put it back. Don't want people goin' to bed early because you bored them to death."
"So be it," Yusuke said as he put the book back on the shelf. He continued inspecting the collection. Ryuji went to the desk and plopped himself down in the adjustable chair.
"The eff?!" The chair was way too high off the ground. Ryuji's feet couldn't even touch the floor. Naturally, he reached under the chair to use the lever and lower the chair. When he pulled, the chair didn't lower. "This thing has gotta be jammed or some shit… well, when something's broken, break it until it's fixed." He harshly jittered the lever until he got a reaction.
However, this didn't come from the chair, which stayed at the same height. The bookshelf to the left of the room's entrance retracted into the wall, Ryuji seeing it slide away further into the wall until he directed his attention at what the bookcase revealed. A thin, concrete staircase opened up.
"Dude…"
"Ryuji, it is time to go back."
"No effin' way! This is the best part!" Ryuji popped out of the adjustable chair and walked over to the top of the staircase. He attempted to down it but couldn't see past the darkness. He pulled out his phone and tried to use its flashlight function to see further, but it didn't have the range. To Ryuji, there was only one option. He began descending the steps, hearing Yusuke sigh and begin to do the same.
"Ryuji, I beg of you. Respect the privacy of the Okumura family. We are guests."
"You're right, but we can't quit now! We're about to uncover some crazy shit." Yusuke said nothing as they continued on. After a bit more walking down the steps, Ryuji got to a steel door, the light of his phone brightly reflecting off of it. Ryuji put his phone on the stone floor with the light facing up and pushed against the door with his shoulder. It didn't budge. "Yusuke, man, c'mon and help me with this." In response, Yusuke sighed, only prompting Ryuji to request more help. "We can't go back now, man. We've seen too much. Might as well finish it, right? Just help me get this door open."
Yusuke came up beside Ryuji, putting both his hands on the door. They nodded to each other before beginning a concentrated push. Realizing that no progress was being made, they pushed harder and harder until their breakthrough arrived. The door slightly shifted. This made them only push more, which brought more movement from the door, which made things easier as the door became unstuck. With one final shove, the door swung open, loudly slamming into the stone wall. A chill went up Ryuji's spine out of fear of being caught now, but he remembered that everyone else in the house was on the beach or stuck in bed.
He picked up his phone and went into the room. Immediately, the cold, stuffy air of the room overloaded his senses. The musty smell was certainly not a pleasant one, but Ryuji prioritized adventuring into the unknown over his nasal health. Looking around with his phone made it difficult to see much, but he could make out a few things. A fabric curtain next to a padded table, similar to one that would be found in a doctor's office or at a hospital. Metal boxes were piled up the walls, all of them opened and emptied. Cobwebs replaced whatever contents once called the boxes home.
Ryuji kept walking, but his foot suddenly slid and he began to fall backward. "Oh fu-" His fall abruptly ended in Yusuke's arms. The artist helped Ryuji up straight. "Thanks, man," Ryuji said, receiving a nod from Yusuke. He looked down to see what he had tripped on.
A metal tray lay on the ground. Most likely, the pressure of Ryuji's foot caused the tray to slide and take Ryuji's foot with it. Ryuji picked up the tray, ready to toss it aside when he noticed something under the tray.
The eff is… oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Ryuji's thoughts raced as a red-stained pair of medical gloves burned itself into his brain, never to leave it. He shot upwards from his inspecting crouch, immediately stumbling backward from the gloves.
"Shit, dude!"
"As you said, we cannot give in now," Yusuke reminded me. "I do not wish to have wasted all this time only to be deterred by stained gloves."
At least we're now focused on the same goal, Ryuji thought to calm himself to no avail. He decided he would press on through the cold, dark room. Unless the Holy Grail itself awaited them on the other side of the room, Ryuji wouldn't be forgetting about the bloody gloves.
Ryuji oh-so-cautiously stepped around the gloves, not even taking the chance of stepping over them, and kept walking. As he kept moving through the dark, a reflection from the direction he was going in took shape. Ryuji had found another metallic surface, though this one was not a door.
"The hell is this?!" Ryuji was left dumbfounded by the strange thing in front of him. It appeared to be a portion of the wall covered in metal, but a metal handle on it.
"This…" Emotion seeped into Yusuke's voice. Even he was shocked by what they found. "This is a mortuary cabinet…"
"Japanese, please?"
"Mortuary cabinets are what store dead bodies for periods of time. They prevent decomposition through low temperatures," Yusuke explained, though still alarmed by the discovery. "But one down here… it is a strange discovery."
"You're tellin' me…" Ryuji took another look at the metal handle. For just a yoctosecond, he considered pulling it. "Let's keep going."
Ryuji wanted to stop. Everything they found in the room was a step in the wrong direction. However, how could he stop when he had encouraged this? How embarrassed would he be if he turned back now and admitted failure to Yusuke? How on Earth would he sleep at night without learning why this room existed?
Ryuji turned to the left of the mortuary cabinet, immediately seeing the nearest wall less than ten feet away from him. As he moved his flashlight lower to see the whole wall, he found something else.
A cabinet, this one wooden and quite expensive-looking, was pushed up against the wall. Various objects that Ryuji couldn't quite make out in the darkness rested atop it. He took a few steps towards the cabinet until he was looking down at its surface.
This kinda looks like… shit. That's what it is, isn't it?! Fuck! The horrible discoveries kept coming. On the cabinet was an incomplete, lazily thrown-together shrine. A clock, unlit candles, a piece of sheet music, and various other items surrounded a framed photo of a woman and an urn. I have little to no experience with these shrines or funerals of any kind, but even I know that this shit is straight-up disrespectful to whoever's shrine this is supposed to be. Speaking of… Ryuji looked closer at the photo. A woman with long, curly auburn hair stood in front of a railing, with a gorgeous view of the ocean backing her. Her long hair flowed with the wind in the photo. Her seemingly accidental smile gave Ryuji the impression that someone must've told a great joke just as the photo was taken. Ryuji looked over the photo for a few more seconds until something stuck out to him: the railing in the photo was the same one as the one on the deck that they had been eating dinner on each night of the trip. From there, the pieces put themselves together.
That, and Ryuji leaned in closer to read the text inscribed on the urn.
"Aika Oku- holy shit…"
Five Years Prior…
"Kunikazu?" Aika asked into the dark. The closing of the bedroom door in the middle of the night had awoken her. For the past few months, this was the typical night for Aika. The nights that weren't typical were when her husband wouldn't even come home. She shifted under the blankets and sat up in bed.
No response. Aika reached over and flicked on the lamp. While Kunikazu wasn't in the room with her, it was clear that he had immediately gone to the bathroom. Aika got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom door, slowly knocking.
"Kunikazu? Is everything alright?" A question asked and left in the air many times before. For months, Kunikazu had been evasive and moody, usually opting to spend time out of the house for the sake of his "business" instead of with his family. Aika could deal with that just fine, but Haru was an eight-year-old girl who was witnessing her father abandon her before her eyes. Aika couldn't allow that.
Yet she did. Every time, Kunikazu would provide no explanation for his behavior, and Aika didn't do shit about it. The most she reacted was not facing him while they slept next to each other.
"Kunikazu, please." Aika accelerated her knocking, as well as raising the intensity of it. "You know what you're doing to this family."
"And you do not know what this family is supposed to be doing," Kunikazu suddenly growled from the other side of the bathroom door before it swung open. He stared down at Aika with unprecedented wrath in his eyes.
Aika didn't care. She was fed up. "Yeah? What's that? Selling food, or conspiring with criminals?!"
"You know nothing," Kunikazu said as he tried to push past Aika and go to the bed.
"You're right, and I wish I did! Every night, I sleep alone, wondering if you're out fucking some whore!" Aika knew that Kunikazu wouldn't cheat on her. Abandonment seemed to hold less moral weight than infidelity for the businessman whose heart began to turn cold.
As Aika expected, her husband seemed genuinely hurt by the remark. "Aika, I have done no such thing. I am simply doing my best to keep this family afloat."
"Afloat?! Kunikazu, you're worth thirteen billion yen!"
"I mean to keep the Okumura name alive. I must secure my legacy."
"And you're doing a great job of that. Your actual legacy, your daughter, barely gets to see you, let alone have time with you!"
"Don't you dare tell me how to be a father!" Kunikazu roared, getting his finger awfully close to Aika's face. He had never violently touched her before, but Aika had a feeling that something was building towards that outcome.
"I'll tell you because you need to learn! Who else is going to call you on your bullshit?! The guys from that fucking party you joined?!"
"Aika, it is-"
"They're scum, Kunikazu! They have yakuza connections. Just a quick internet search will tell you that!"
"Careful, Aika." The dirt on Kunikazu's new friends was apparent to everyone who met them or even just did a little research. Even Kunikazu knew, and that was why he didn't want Aika to say too much. Aika already knew more than she wanted to know about these people and more than she probably should've known. It only made her more upset with her husband for tainting the Okumura brand with association to these people.
"No, I don't care!" Aika shouted before she spun away from Kunikazu. All the courage she mustered to stand up to him had faded into lonely sadness. The man she once loved had deteriorated into the unrecognizable person in front of her. "And why should either of us care? Do you even love me anymore?"
Facing away from Aika, she expected a lie to worm its way into her head. She wanted to be lied to. She wanted him to tell her that he loved her.
Nothing. The lies were over.
Fine, Aika thought. Have it your way.
Aika stormed over to the dresser, grabbing the suitcase out of the closet along the way. She began to urgently throw clothes into the suitcase, intent on leaving the house that was no longer home to her. Still, even when she fully planned on leaving, Aika desperately wanted Kunikazu to complain. She wanted him to say something to her, to call her out for leaving, to command her to stay.
He didn't.
She finished her messy packing job and left the room, not even looking back at Kunikazu. Aika went over to the stairs, barely realizing that she forgot something as she took her first step down. Aika spun around, walked back down the hall, and went into the door labeled 'Haru's Castle.' It was named so because of how often Haru liked to pretend to be a princess. What she wasn't aware of was that she basically was one.
Aika didn't knock as she entered, swiftly but silently approaching her daughter's bed. Haru slept soundly on her side, just a foot away from the edge of the bed. She had always preferred the side of the bed that touched the wall, especially after an incident with the monster under her bed. It did make getting to Haru more difficult for Aika, but she refused to quit now, despite risking waking her daughter. That was the second to last thing that Haru wanted to do, mainly because she did not want Haru to remember this night.
Aika scooted across the bed towards her daughter. When she reached her, she pressed up against her daughter and put a hand in her daughter's poofy hair, which she had gotten from her grandmother on Kunikazu's side. She soothingly stroked Haru's head, careful not to wake the girl.
Leaning over, Aika kissed Haru's forehead. "Mommy loves you very much, Haru. These next few years may be tough, but just remember that mommy loves you," she whispered into her daughter's ear. "I'll always be with you."
Aika kissed Haru's forehead one last time, then said her final goodbye to her daughter. She got out of the bed and left the room. Taking the suitcase in hand, she hurried back down the stairs, then out of the massive home that Kunikazu owned. She triggered the alarm system, but Aika didn't care. She got to the sleek black car in the driveway, packed her suitcase in the trunk, and got in the driver's seat.
With ignition, Aika said goodbye to the Okumuras forever.
Well, not entirely. Her destination was still tied to them. Their home in Iwatodai had enough distance between it and Kunikazu, as well as giving Aika a place to gather her thoughts. She would also be able to collect any family relics that were stored in the home.
Aika backed out of the driveway, hating Kunikazu for forcing her to do this.
A few hours later…
"I can work things out with her… just give me a little time, Masayoshi," Kunikazu pleaded. After getting a call about what the party planned on doing about Aika, he had immediately reported to the party leader: Masayoshi Shido.
"Time is the scarcest resource on earth, you know that," Shido said, not facing Kunikazu. He stared out his office window, overlooking the cityscape of Tokyo. "Perhaps the people you have flipping burgers eighteen hours a day could use a bit more time, hm?"
"I-"
"You knew what you were agreeing to when you joined us, Kunikazu. If there's a leak, the whole ship sinks," Shido interrupted. "Aika is a leak, as well as an opportunity." Silenced by disbelief, Kunikazu meekly stood on the other side of Shido's desk. "I trust you are aware of the advances we've made in cognitive pscience?"
"No, Masayoshi."
"I find it difficult to explain all of it, but it boils down to this: we can strike a target without it tracing back to us. We can influence world events. We can do anything we want with no usable evidence tying these things to us."
"How far along is the research?" Kunikazu asked weakly. He had a feeling that something horrible was coming.
Shido turned around to look Kunikazu in the eyes, grinning as he swirled the wine in his glass. "The first tests will be over by sunrise."
Kunikazu gulped. He never found himself being looked down upon, humiliated, or not in the position of power within a conversation, but any interaction with Shido accomplished all three. Now, if Shido was telling the truth, he could snap anyone out of existence.
Aika included.
"Masayoshi, please. As a favor to me, don't-"
"A favor?" Shido laughed as he turned back to the window. "I thought you were doing a favor to me by sending away your wife."
"I'll find someone else for the tests!" Kunikazu's desperation seeped through. Even if his and Aika's relationship had taken a cataclysmic turn earlier that night, he wouldn't let this happen to her. She was his wife. "I can-"
"It has already been decided, Kunikazu. If the test succeeds, you're out of a wife. If the test fails, you're still out of a wife," Shido said with another life. "I hear the whores in Shinjuku treat lonely men with more care, if it means anything."
The remark left Kunikazu disgusted. He wanted to push the empty husk of a man before him out of the window, but he couldn't. All hell would descend on him, and Aika's fate was likely already sealed at this point. If Aika was going to die for Kunikazu's career, then he couldn't throw it out.
"Is there any-"
"No. Continue asking and that daughter of yours will be the next test subject," Shido lowly uttered. "Leave."
Seeing no point to continue arguing, Kunikazu bowed his head, turned around, and walked out the door, knowing that he condemned his wife to death. His inaction with Shido and his inability to even feel emotion towards his wife while she was present had brought him to this point.
Knowing that he indirectly killed Aika, Kunikazu had one last thought for Shido. He went back into the room, causing the party leader to turn around with fury on his face.
"I thought-" Shido was interrupted mid-sentence, not closing his mouth as Kunikazu spoke.
"At least put together a shrine for her?" Kunikazu somberly asked. "And leave the piano? And-"
Shido laughed, took a sip of his wine, and turned away from Kunikazu.
"You believe us to be animals?"
Aika delicately played the keys of the piano, a wedding gift that the Okumuras had received from some family friends. For the time being, the piano would serve as her escape from what she had done and what had been done to her. Aika spent roughly an hour trying to lose herself in the piano notes to no avail.
It didn't help that a photo of Haru hung on the wall on the other side of the piano, or that one of Haru's favorite songs to hear from her mother on piano was what Aika had unconsciously transitioned into. The photo was of Haru's first day of school, back when she was only five years old. The rose gold dress she wore was overshadowed by the enormous backpack that threatened to make the girl tip over. Despite the weight on her shoulders, Haru elegantly smiled for the camera, something that she was much more talented at than Aika. She always felt out of place with the high-society lifestyle.
When Aika wasn't stuck staring down at the piano keys, she looked up at the photo of Haru on the wall. She couldn't pry her eyes from it, or else she'd call back too many happy memories from the time the Okumuras had spent in the house.
Like on the leather couch twenty feet from Aika, where Kunikazu and Aika traded off storytelling duties for the tale of how they met and got married as Haru eagerly listened from Kunikazu's lap.
Or out the window, on the beach, where she and Haru had built quite the sandcastle. For a few months, Kunikazu remained convinced that Haru had architecture in her future. Maybe she still did, but Aika would never know.
By leaving, she threw it all away. Kunikazu forced her into this. Aika couldn't spend more time in that insufferable mansion pretending to be happy, even for her daughter's sake. She would've brought Haru with her if it wasn't for the fact that Kunikazu would overturn continents searching for them. Maybe Aika leaving would be a kick in Kunikazu's ass to be a better father. Also, by leaving alone, especially after such a fight, Aika increased her chances of successfully escaping the web that she had been caught in.
Poor Haru. Aika left her motherless and alone in that web. How could she do such a thing? How could a mother be so selfish? Aika went back and forth with herself, debating whether to go back or not. In the end, she always arrived at the same conclusion: play the piano and don't think about it.
She'd forget about Haru whenever she found her new life, right? Whenever that would start, Aika wasn't sure. The point of coming to the Iwatodai vacation home was to create distance and give her time to think while alone. So far, it had given her time to mope and a desperate need to shorten that distance, if only to be with Haru once more.
Several tears had already hit the keys since Aika started playing. More came in moments where Haru went through Aika's thoughts.
I'll never see her first day of high school, or send her off to college. I'll never meet her first boyfriend, or go to her wedding, Aika thought as she began to weep uncontrollably. The sadness overtook her playing, forcing her into ugly mistakes that were not easy on the ears. I'll never get to wake her up for breakfast or chase her around the house. No more family trips to Iwatodai… no more family.
The lowest moment of Aika's life was punctuated by the slam of her hands on the keys. While her playing had become uglier and uglier the more distraught she became, this one stuck out because of why it happened.
Aika couldn't feel her hands. They simply dropped onto the piano keys without her input. Curious, she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes so she could see her hands more clearly, only to find that her arms were limp as well.
Wh-what is happening to m-me?! Aika frantically tried to stand up, but she couldn't move. Paralyzed by something, Aika could only look around the tragically empty home that she escaped to. The Haru of years before in the photo locked eyes with Aika, watching as her mother succumbed to the terror that her paralysis brought.
Aika felt her muscles go stiff. The sudden change brought unimaginable pain, like every nerve in Aika's body was being surgically removed at the same time. She wanted nothing more than death at this point. The torturous feeling lasted for what felt like hours, keeping Aika locked in place as her body underwent what must've been the feeling of being burned alive. Aika tried to scream, desperate to relieve at least some of the agonizing torture, but no sound could be produced from her motionless throat.
The last face Aika ever saw was her own daughter, smiling as she awaited the beginning of her first day of school, beaming down at Aika as her eyes rolled back into her head and-
"Oh, fuck… look at her head!" Biggs called over to Wedge in the other room. "This bitch ruined a perfectly good piano!"
Biggs and Wedge were the first of the "clean-up crew" sent by the party to make sure that things proceeded properly. Aika's body was to undergo rigorous testing to study the effects of a cognitive psience-induced death on the body.
"Dude, it's just some blood. The piano's not even chipped," Wedge said as he came over. "And you're wasting time. Come on, we've gotta get her on ice so that we can set up the lab."
"Why don't we just bring her back to Tokyo?" Biggs asked. He was never privy to these things; orders were always given to the squad leader, who then gave the orders to Wedge, who would then give the orders to Biggs. Wedge tended to leave out the important bits.
"Because we don't want this body being tied back to us. The most they could do is put it on her husband, but he can prove that he wasn't here when she died," Wedge explained. "And this place already has an easy hiding spot."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Biggs said as he pulled the corpse away from the piano. The head had landed on the top of the piano before sliding down to the keys, leaving its upper body leaned over its right side with a streak of bile and blood on the piano. Her face remained pure agony, along with her eyes rolled so far back that Biggs nearly dropped her out of surprise. "Aw, what the fuck?!"
"Relax! They said that this was gonna be one of the side effects!" Wedge pulled the corpse by the arm off the piano stand before picking her up by the legs. "Now let's get her in the temp-freezer so that we can get the lab ready. That fucking freezer is gonna take hours to put in the wall. I don't even know why we need it. We could probably finish these tests on her body in a night. Not like we need multiple nights of dissecting the bitch while refrigerating her nightly." Wedge held up her legs for emphasis. "And look at her! She's pretty damn dead! That should be enough for the higher-higher ups, right?"
Biggs and Wedge carried the corpse out front to the truck that the squad was in. As they left the mansion, body in hand, Biggs figured it was a good time to decide who would be cleaning what when the time came. "Dibs on not wiping the piano!"
"Man, you chose the wrong career path." Wedge's disappointment came with him shaking his head as well.
"Congratulations, Goro," Shido said as he approached the boy. "Your first mission seems to be a success."
Goro was getting his blood drawn as part of a medical inspection. His short time in the metaverse was among the first-ever. As the science of the metaverse was still mostly unknown to Shido's team, extensive tests and exams were necessary to make sure that Goro came back in one piece.
"Thanks!" he said, still feeling the rush of what had happened back in the metaverse. Aika's shadow had been timid and afraid; an easy target, even for someone as inexperienced as Goro. Also contributing to his enthusiasm was Goro's recent discovery of his relation to Shido, courtesy of his mother. The man was his father, whether Shido knew it or not. Goro planned on proving himself further to his father before telling him of their relationship. The events that had just taken place were only the first step, as well as necessary for Goro to save the only person who loved him. "Does this mean you'll help my mom?"
Shido chuckled, putting a hand on Goro's shoulder. The boy stiffened at the unknown sensation of human contact, only to be scolded by the nurse because he was still getting his blood drawn. "I will do all in my power to help her," Shido said genuinely as he looked Goro in the eye. "You have my word."
To be blunt, Goro's mother had cancer. A massive tumor grew and kept her in the hospital for months. Goro and his mother were absolutely broke, not having the money for the health insurance that was required for the government to pay the majority of the healthcare costs. For those first few months in the hospital, Goro had no clue how his mother was already paid for.
Until he was visited by Shido. The man told Goro he was a very gifted boy who needed to have his talents maximized through professional training. Goro didn't know what that meant, but he agreed, at the asking price of Shido helping his mom, which Shido complied with.
Only after his first meeting with Shido did Goro learn the truth of his father, after telling his mom about the nice man who had been paying for her hospital stay. She recounted her brief relationship to the man, fascinating Goro while also pinning the boy's need to be validated on his newfound father.
Now, Goro had completed the first task in having his mother's healthcare paid for.
"Goro, how would you like a new job?" Shido asked, his glasses glinting with light from the lamp that hung over Goro's arm.
Eager to please his father and save his mother, Goro nodded.
Days Later…
"Did you clean out the master bedroom?"
"Yep."
"The storage room?"
"Yep."
"The bar?"
"Yeah, man. It's all clean," Biggs said angrily. "If you care so much, go check for yourself."
"It's not that I care," Wedge replied. "If we don't follow the orders that we got, we're fucked," he said as he held a finger gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
"I know. It's just a buncha bullshit anyway. Clean out all the rooms except the study and the girl's room? And clean the piano off but don't cover it?! Make a fucking shrine for some bitch we don't even know?! What kinda maniac owns this house?"
"A maniac who just had his wife killed, that's who," Wedge said sympathetically. "I'd have weird conditions if I was managing my wife's death."
As if instinctually, both of them looked at the freezer where the crew would keep Aika during their breaks. They were supposed to incinerate her a day ago, but neither Wedge nor Biggs had worked up the courage to open the freezer. They were just the muscle of the squad, not the actual doctors. Because they hadn't seen Aika's body since moving it off the piano, they believed that opening the freezer would lead them to a pile of limbs.
"Dibs on not doing it," Biggs said.
"Man, you can't call dibs on shit like this!"
"You owe me a solid for that one time that I scraped up that guy who got crushed by the statue."
"Shit, you're right," Wedge realized. "Fine. I'll incinerate the body and get the urn for it. You put together the shrine by the time I get back."
"With what?"
"I dunno, just grab shit from around the house."
"Wedge, don't you think this is disrespectful?"
"If the guy wanted it to be respectful, he wouldn't have gotten his wife killed and he wouldn't have left us to do everything for him."
Thursday, 8/4
"Ren, I think you're starting to burn," Ann said to Ren from above him. He, Makoto, and Haru were each laying down on towels of their own, working on their tans. Ann was satisfied with her own, but she apparently felt the need to watch over the others from a standing position.
"You're the expert," Ren said coolly, probably not caring as much as he should've. "Makoto? Would you help me with applying sunsc-" Ren's plan to cure cancer, end famine, and eliminate poverty was interrupted by a familiar face sprinting down the beach towards the group.
Ryuji's urgent pace, even on sand, immediately signaled that something went wrong.
What the hell could go wrong playing Rash Toes? ...They weren't playing Rash Toes, were they? Eh, can't be that bad. Probably just broke something in the house. Sure, that sucks, but it's not an emergency.
"Ryuji-kun?" Haru called over to the runner who finished his approach. She lifted her sunglasses off of her face, worry written into her expression. "Is-"
"Nope, you gotta come with me right effin' now!" Ryuji said with a passion that Ren never witnessed from the runner. Ryuji wore his emotions on his sleeve, but never panicked like this or got this urgent.
Haru looked over to Ren, Makoto, and Ann for permission to go, which she obviously didn't need. The three still nodded at her to go with, so she got up from her blanket, rolled it up, and placed it next to Makoto. Ryuji started fast-walking up the beach, beckoning for Haru to follow.
"Um, I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'll be back soon," Haru said to her friends before she went off with Ryuji.
"That was weird," Ann said as she sat down on the hot sand, not minding the satisfying burn on the surface of the beach. "What do you guys think happened?"
"Probably just Ryuji clogging the toilet or something. Why do you think he didn't tell us what it was?" Ren reasoned, chuckling at the end of his guess.
"If I owned toilets as nice as the ones in there," Ann said as she pointed up at the house, "I'd be pissed if they still got clogged."
"Hah, same. One of Haru's toilets is probably worth my apartment," Ren said.
"You'd be surprised, Ren. Iori may be a poor neighbor, but everyone in the building knows how wealthy he is."
"Then where's my billion-yen-toilet?"
"Maybe you have to put it on a shopping list for him," Ann joked, starting to laugh. Makoto and Ren soon joined in, completely unaware of what was happening in the house they looked up at.
"Ryuji-kun, I thought that Noguchi-san made herself clear that no one is supposed to-" Haru tried to remind as Ryuji began leading her to the supposedly abandoned side of the house.
"I know, but curiosity really effed me over. I'm sorry for disobeying, but I think that you need to see this," Ryuji said as they entered the main room on the left side of the house.
Haru noticed the spotless piano, remembering the times that her mother tried to teach her how to play. She always got frustrated with her lack of immediate progress, but she always found enjoyment in watching her mother play. Aika had been quite talented.
The room was much dustier than she remembered, bar the piano, and the walls were now barren of any of the art or pictures that previously hung. The erasure of Haru's childhood vacations did have a disheartening effect on her, but she got the feeling that this wasn't what Ryuji wanted to show her.
"Where is Yusuke-kun?"
"He's, uh, shit, waiting for us," Ryuji stammered, suddenly stopping in place at the bottom of the steps to the second floor. He spun around to face Haru, though not meeting her eyes. "Look, Haru… this is some serious shit. If I'm gonna be honest, it'll change your family forever… the only reason I haven't told you already is that you need to know that you want to see this."
What does he mean by that? Haru couldn't think of how to respond to such a claim. It'll change my family forever… what on earth could they have found?
"It might be hard for you to see, but I just want to leave the choice to you," Ryuji stated. "Do you want to see it, or just keep things the way they are?"
That moment decided everything. Haru could go back to living in occasionally blissful ignorance of whatever Ryuji found, or she could learn the truth of why Ryuji brought her back into the house. However, there was one thing that Ryuji was wrong about: no matter what, things would never go back to the way they were. Even if Haru chose not to go up the stairs, the seed would always be planted in her mind that something was waiting for her at the top of that staircase on the second floor of her family's old vacation home.
"I want to see it," Haru said.
Ryuji's negative reaction to that told Haru that he didn't want to have to show her, but it was her choice to make. He solemnly nodded and began climbing the steps. As Haru followed, she pondered what could be at the top. The room that she used to stay in during vacations was down the hallway at the top of the stairs, but Haru doubted the importance of anything in there.
My parents' room? Father's study? I don't think that there's much up here. Downstairs was mostly cleared out and abandoned, so there can't be much down here, Haru thought as they began walking through the hallway and she was proven partially correct. Ryuji led her past her former room and her parent's room. The open door at the end of the hallway of Kunikazu's study welcomed the pair into the room of towering bookcases and-
A staircase in the wall… a secret passage? Haru's confusion only grew from this point. It didn't help that neither Yusuke nor Ryuji would look her in the eye to offer reassurance.
"It's down there?"
"Y-yeah…" Ryuji said shyly. "I'll go down with you. There's no light, so it's hard to see. You got your phone?"
Haru fished her phone out of her bag, which she then set down outside the staircase. Taking a deep breath, savoring the last moment of the ignorance that Ryuji hinted at, and went down the steps. As she descended, the air became colder, drier, and darker. If it wasn't for her and Ryuji's flashlights on their phones, they'd be enveloped in complete darkness.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and passed a metal door, which had been jammed against the wall. She kept walking, keeping ahead of Ryuji for better or worse. As she went into the room, the first thing to come into view was a bloody glove. Haru gasped, only for Ryuji to put a hand on her shoulder. "That's not it. We gotta keep moving," he said calmly. "Here," he said as he walked around Haru and extended a hand to her. "Take my hand."
Haru obliged him, getting led through the dark. She used her flashlight to look around, seeing what looked like doctor's tables, and opened filing cabinets scattered around the room.
After a few more steps in the same direction, they turned left and the light of their phones began to reflect off a glassy surface a few feet in front of them. Haru couldn't see what it was, but they got closer with that very goal.
Ryuji stepped out of the way and went behind Haru to let her take everything in on her own. The first thing she noticed was a waste-high cabinet pushed up against the wall with various objects scattered across the top, including the object that had reflected the light from her phone.
A photo.
Haru dropped her phone when she saw who was in the photo. Light vanished from Haru's view as the phone dropped, but Ryuji quickly handed her his phone so that she could see yet again.
Every photo of Aika in the Okumura household had been removed over the years, leaving Haru with a blurry wedding photo of her own mother and nothing more. Her first reaction to seeing the first quality photo of her mother in years was to reach her hand out, which she only stopped when she noticed something else.
An urn, inscribed with Aika's name.
The realization shot through Haru's body to her head so quickly that it took a second to hit her what that truly meant. Aika vanished years ago, but here she was… in ashes, and with a shoddy shrine to her.
"M-mom…" Haru whimpered, the overwhelming feelings forcing her eyes to flicker into tears. "Why… why why why…"
Why did Aika leave? Why were her ashes here? Why wasn't she buried in the Okumura cemetery? Why didn't she say goodbye?
Ryuji's hand brushed against Haru's shoulder, likely to comfort her, but it missed as Haru's knees buckled. She dropped to the cement floor, the sting of her knee scraping not enough to distract her from the devastation that hit her.
Did Father know? Why didn't he say anything? Why did he never say anything? Is that why Aika left?
Just as her parents had left her in the dark, Haru became enveloped in darkness as she dropped Ryuji's phone to the ground to bring her hands to her eyes. Her breathing grew thin and rapid as questions filled her head and the darkness smothered her.
Something touched her shoulder, shaking her to get her attention, but Haru lost the feeling among the sea of the unknown.
Why was this hidden in such a lifeless place? Why was it in a secret passage?
Actually, this was the question Haru answered on her own. It's because Father wanted to hide it. He didn't want anyone to know. Something bad happened to Mom… and it's because of Father, she thought. Those tables and cabinets... were they part of her death? ...Did they experiment on her?
Haru's hyperventilation continued, not being able to stop the flood of anguish that came with it. Haru wanted to seek comfort in the arms of her mother from days past, but she knew that she couldn't.
Even with Aika just a foot from her face, Haru still couldn't see the woman supposed to be her mother. At the bottom of the stairs in the other room, Haru had chosen to leave her ignorance behind her. Now, she succumbed to the darkness of ignorance in a way that she never knew before.
Ignorance that her own father wanted for her.
Ryuji fought back the regretful feeling that slammed down on him when Haru dropped to the ground. Her choked, gasping sobs hurt him more and more each time. Left in complete darkness, Ryuji quickly took a knee and found one of the phones, pointing it upwards so that they could see. Haru continued softly sobbing through her heavy breaths, while the most Ryuji could do for her was put a hand on her shoulder to let her know that she wasn't alone.
A part of him did blame himself, but he knew that thinking such a thing was stupid. Haru deserved to know what was in the secret room. If Ryuji and Yusuke kept the secret, then they would regret it and Haru would never learn the truth about her mother.
Now that Ryuji thought about it, they still didn't know the truth. They found Aika's ashes in a secret, abandoned room with old lab equipment laying around, but what did that mean? Aika was tested on, resulting in her death, or were the ashes just moved here to hide them from Haru? What if both were true? Ryuji had only brought half of the truth to Haru, and that probably hurt her more.
But what if she was experimented on… her body dissected, dishonored, and desecrated… Ryuji refused to believe it. If that was the truth, he couldn't tell that to Haru. She deserved to know, of course, but that must've crossed some boundaries.
At least Ryuji knew just as much as Haru. Well, not just as much. Haru probably had a bit more context considering that Aika was her effing mother, but Ryuji could at least try and help her. He put an arm around her shoulder, still on one knee. "Can you stand?" he asked calmly as her hyperventilation began to slow.
No verbal response, but Haru did put one of her knees up, revealing a nasty scrape from when her knees buckled. Together, they slowly stood up, Ryuji's arm staying around her shoulder to reassure her of his presence. He began turning them to leave, hoping to get Haru somewhere more comfortable for her so she could process everything less stressfully.
She wouldn't budge, forcing Ryuji to let go so he could turn around and talk to her.
"We can't leave her here…"
"I… yeah, you're right. Do you wanna take her now… or…?" Ryuji didn't really know any alternatives. Would he go back later for it? That couldn't be right. This wasn't his task to perform. Haru surely wanted it to be herself removing the ashes from the room.
Again, Haru didn't verbally answer but answered with action. She turned around, grabbed the urn and the framed photo before starting to walk, even overtaking Ryuji to lead them out of the room.
Not sure if she reacted better or worse than I expected. She did freak out, which is probably how I'd react, but she got right up and walked out before me, Ryuji said as Haru started going up the stairs, not hesitating or looking back into the room behind her. She's stronger than any of us.
"So let's get real: who really had the best cannonball yesterday?" Ann asked seriously, though with a grin. "Yusuke's was really cool, but the whole cannonball thing rules him out."
"Makoto's was easily the best. Eleven out of ten, I cried, it redefined the artistic medium of cannonballs, and it was the culmination of human existence."
"High praise," Makoto said, laughing at Ren's words, despite him being one-hundred-percent serious. "I think that-"
"Guys," Ryuji said as he walked over to the group, sand being lifted and dropped by his feet, "could we, uh, talk?"
Okay, what is this about? Did something bad actually happen?
Ren wouldn't have been worried if a somber expression wasn't plastered across Ryuji's face and his usually enthusiastic walking pace had slowed to the serious gait of someone at least fifty years older.
"Sure, Ryuji," Ann said as she sat up. "What's up?"
Ryuji sat down on the sand in front of the three sunbathers, the ocean horizon behind him. It would've made a great Shujinstagram photo, but Ren knew that this was not the time to ask.
"Yusuke and I disobeyed the housekeeper's rules. We explored the house," he said as he glanced around the beach. Anywhere but Ren, Ann, or Makoto's eyes seemed to be his focus as he paused before continuing his explanation. "We found some kinda room, and… well, Haru's mother's ashes were being kept in there."
The three who had stayed at the beach all day were speechless. Makoto could only voice her thoughts of disbelief "What?" she asked, clearly shocked by Ryuji saying such a thing.
How the fuck does that work? Why the hell are the ashes in here? Why did this hap- wait…
"Ryuji, if you know, what's Haru's mother's name?"
"Aika Okumura," Ryuji said, glumly nodding. "Haru's in her room. I think Yusuke-"
I knew it. I fucking knew it and I didn't do shit.
Ren stood up, yanked his towel off the sand, and started walking back towards the house.
The dog tags. The fucking dog tags in that vision told me that I'd find Aika. I could've done something. I could've stopped this. Whatever Haru is going through… that's on me.
Ryuji sighed as he closed the sliding glass door behind him, content that he informed the others of what occurred but upset that he had to do it in the first place. Those ashes should not have been there, and GRAVY was never meant to find him.
If only Ryuji wasn't such an asshole and didn't explore the house, maybe GRAVY would have continued the great trip they were having. Instead, Ryuji tainted it forever. The Iwatodai trip wouldn't be remembered for Ryuji kissing Chihiro, it would be remembered for Haru finding her dead mother.
For now, Ryuji couldn't beat himself up over it. It was clear that Haru was already doing just that with her own conscience, and the other members of GRAVY would join in with their own depressing thoughts. Ryuji had to stay strong for the others. He needed to keep them together.
Speaking of the others, what the eff is Ren's problem?! He just walks off when I'm trying to tell him some important shit?! Maybe he was going to check on Haru, but he could've said that and not acted like an asshole, Ryuji angrily thought. He wanted to give Ren a piece of his mind, but then he would be too revved up to keep the others calm or comfort Haru.
The latter was his current priority. After he and Haru departed the secret room, she immediately went to her room on the occupied side of the house, with Yusuke following after her to check on her. Ryuji briefly asked if he should notify the others before she walked away, receiving a nod just as Haru left the study.
Ryuji walked down the hall of bedrooms that GRAVY currently stayed in, eyeing the door to the room that the guys slept in. Ren was inside, probably moping. His selfishness pissed Ryuji off to no end, and Ryuji would certainly make his opinion known once enough time had passed. People needed Ren, the leader among their group of friends, to effing lead them, but he ran away from the problem.
Ryuji reached the end of the hall. He knocked on the door, not hearing anything from the other side until a soft voice spoke. "Come in," Haru said. Ryuji opened the door and entered.
It certainly was a more plain room than what Ryuji expected. Gray walls, white curtains, white bedsheets. The coloring of the room was very bland compared to the pink of her room on the other side of the house.
Ryuji spotted the urn on Haru's desk. With decent lighting, he could make out its design much better. A gold lid and stand made up the top and bottom of the urn, while the part in-between was a shiny, dark brown texture that featured abstract, coolly colored designs across it.
"Look, Haru…" Ryuji muttered as he walked up to the heiress, who was sitting up straight on her bed, staring out the window to her right. "I wanna say sorry for what's gone down today. I had no right to go to the other side of the house. I shouldn't have pressured Yusuke. I-"
"Ryuji, it's fine," Haru said, her voice maintaining its soft, delicate yet elegant tone. "I needed to know."
"Yeah, but if I never found, ya know, then we could've stuck to business as usual," Ryuji explained. "And this isn't how you should've found out about your mom."
"No, it isn't, but my father shouldn't have kept it hidden in this place." Haru's tone caught some fire with the mention of her dad, letting Ryuji know who Haru placed the blame upon. "Mom deserved better than that room…"
"You're right."
"I want to rebury her on the beach. I know that it's not traditional," Haru paused, letting out a sob before straightening her posture and steeling herself. "But I can't do anything traditional for her. The Okumura cemetery would be off-limits because of my father. When I can find a better resting place… I want to put her there…"
Ryuji nodded, even if Haru wasn't looking at him. "Alright. We can do that." He thought more of what Haru said about the Okumura cemetery. "I'm guessing your dad would-"
"If he knew of our discovery, it would destroy our family."
If I were her, that's exactly what I would want. Haru's dad definitely hid Aika here and didn't tell Haru. What a prick. He doesn't deserve a family if he just throws away his wife like that, Ryuji thought. But I still respect Haru for not destroying her family. Even if horrible things have happened, she still feels responsible to be an Okumura.
"Um… you want me and the others to come with? For the burial, and everything?" Ryuji asked.
"Please." Even in grief, Haru's manners held strong.
"I'll let them know. We goin' now, or do you want to wait?"
"We have to go now," Haru said, still gazing out the window. "I don't know if I'll be able to do it if I keep her in here any longer."
Seeing Ryuji go into Haru's room sparked something in Ann: curiosity. She wouldn't dare eavesdrop, especially at a time like this, but she did take note of what Ryuji did.
As much of an idiot as Ryuji could be, Ann did admire his loyalty to the concept of friendship. Even just a few days after unfairly and immaturely locking lips with someone probably twice his age, Ryuji showed the most emotional maturity of anyone in GRAVY, except Haru because Ann hadn't been able to witness how she was handling the situation.
Yusuke kept to himself, though in the living area. His silent presence was appreciated as simple company, but it could be considered a little creepy. Makoto paced around the kitchen, seemingly lost among the few options of things she could do. If Makoto wanted to speak with Haru, Ann could tell that the student council president was having a tremendously difficult time finding the right words to say.
Ren was currently having a very poorly-timed mood swing, which Ann couldn't really decipher the reason why. Perhaps the revelation of Haru's mother's ashes proved to be too much for the GRAVY leader, even after doing something like beating up someone much larger than him. Ann often found herself confused by Ren's actions, but now was the worst time of all. Haru needed support, and Ren decided to sulk.
But Ryuji… he apparently helped Haru in the moment of discovery, along with informing the other members of GRAVY of what happened, and now he was consoling Haru. It impressed Ann quite a bit, even if her memories of Ryuji's boasting from a few nights back were still fresh in her mind.
As Ann lost herself in thought, the door at the end of the hall opened and Ryuji emerged from whatever discussion he had with Haru.
"Ann?" he asked, seeing her odd position at the other end of the hall.
"Hm?" Her feet shuffled as she was caught. "I'm just, um… thinking. How's Haru doing?"
Ryuji walked down the hall towards Ann. She thought he was going to get in close to tell her something, only for him to walk straight past her into the kitchen and living area, all while answering Ann's question. "Better than I expected, but she wants to bury the ashes on the beach. Just something for the meantime until she can arrange for something better, ya know?"
"Mhm…" Ann paused as Ryuji kept walking, only to realize that she wanted to speak with him more. Quickly, she thought of a question to ask. "Does that mean we're going now? And should I get Ren?"
"Yeah, go ahead," Ryuji said. Ann caught bitterness in his voice, but she didn't blame Ryuji. Ren's behavior since leaving the beach was far from commendable.
Ryuji walked out of sight into the other room as Ann turned around and walked down the hall a few steps. She knocked on the door to the guys' room, which Ren holed himself up in. "Ren? Can I come in?"
Ann heard a grunt from the other side of the door, not caring if it meant yes or no. She opened the door and entered the room. To her left, Ann saw Ren sitting on his bed, using his phone. It angered her that he could be on his phone right now, but taking her anger out on him would mean nothing, at least at the moment.
He looked up at her from his phone, his brown eyes burning holes in her. Ann considered herself angry, but Ren seemed downright furious. "I think we're going to bury the ashes on the beach." Ann realized that she left out the most important part. "All of us, I mean. Everyone's going out on the beach."
Ren put his phone down, broke eye contact, and put his feet down on the ground from the bed. "Alright. I'll be out in a minute."
"Okay," Ann said. Anyone could tell that Ren had problems of his own at the moment. Ann figured she could at least ask so that she could say she offered help. "Ren, if there's anything you want to talk a-"
"Nope. I'm good," he said as he stood up and went on with his business, pocketing his phone and going to grab shoes for the beach.
"Are you s-"
"Yes, Ann. I'll meet you out there."
The message was clear to Ann: Ren wanted her to leave. She did that, closing the door behind her before leaving the hallway and emerging into the kitchen. Makoto's pacing had stopped and the girl now sat at the kitchen counter with a glass of water in front of her. She met Ann's eyes as the blonde came over and sat next to her.
"I don't think Ren is taking things well," Ann plainly stated.
"I know… I'm sure he's got a lot on his mind, even if he could be doing a better job of handling it," Makoto replied, sympathizing with Ren while not defending his poor behavior. "Do you think I should talk to him?"
"Please. I can't stand him acting like this. It's not what Haru needs, and it's bad for him, too."
"I'll speak with him after we get back from the beach," Makoto said.
"Ryuji already told you?"
"Mhm. Explained everything. We're leaving in a few minutes, right?"
"As far as I can tell."
The warm afternoon air of summer could not have been worse for Ren's mood. There was just enough heat where he became annoyed and irritable, but not enough to calm his anger down. Summers in Japan were always egregiously hot, and that was Ren's least favorite part of living there. Even if he didn't have any other place to compare the weather to, he still hated it.
At least the sand of the beach became colder as GRAVY walked across it. Haru mentioned that she had a specific spot in mind for the urn, leading GRAVY further and further from the house in search of the spot. They walked for about ten minutes before they reached small sand dunes, roughly ten feet above the rest of the beach with slopes that seemed easy enough to walk up. The tops of the dunes were topped with tall grass, which had shaded the sand beneath it all day, keeping it cool. A few satisfied breaths were exhaled from GRAVY as they reached the top of one of the small dunes. A patch of sand was free of grass, leading back down the side of the dune to the beach.
Haru went into the patch of sand but stayed on the dune. GRAVY stayed behind her, watching as she set the box that she was keeping the urn at her feet. It wasn't late enough for a full-on sunset, but it hung fairly low in the sky, providing the backdrop as GRAVY watched Haru scoop some sand from the patch to create a divot. Haru stopped digging and looked back up at the others. Her watery eyes wrenched sadness from Ren, even if he never knew Aika. He felt horrible for what his friend was going through, but the sunken look upon Haru's face only hammered in Ren's memories of his vision from the clinic.
Ren could've stopped this. He could've prevented his feet from being planted in this cold sand. He could've prevented Haru from feeling the loss and despair that must've hit her like a truck in that. He could've prevented the tears from falling into the sand from Haru's sullen, tired eyes.
Once again, whose fault is it? Ren Amamiya.
"When I was starting yochien, back when I was just a toddler, I had a very difficult time saying goodbye to my mother every morning," Haru began to say, wiping the tears away. Ren admired her resolve compared to his own; he ran to his room like a little bitch earlier while Haru was already making a speech. "I just couldn't handle the thought of not being with the person who had been with me every day for the first four years of my life. They even had to send me home one day because I couldn't stop crying," Haru said, sniveling with a slight laugh in the face of her grief.
They weren't the only sounds of sorrow. Ren heard sniveling from Makoto next to him, and, using his peripheral vision, he could see Yusuke wiping his eyes.
"Every morning, before I would go into the school, mother would take the extra time to make sure I could go to school that day. Even if it cut into her morning plans, she would stay at the school to comfort me for however long it took until I was ready to be alone that day," Haru continued. "Over time, she did this less and less for my own good, until one day she began walking away as school was starting instead of staying longer with me. I chased after her, begging her to stay… she turned to four-year-old me and picked me up. 'No more tears, Haru-chan. Mommy won't always be there for you, so you need to be a big girl and go to school without me." Verging on breaking down into tears, Haru lost her momentum in favor of reminiscing. Ren readied himself to do something, he wasn't sure what, if she did break down.
Instead, she stood up straight, proudly looked at GRAVY before shifting her sight down to the box, and finished the story. "I did it, mother," Haru said, not stuttering, wiping her eyes, or sniveling. "I made it all these years without you. Thank you for leaving that day," Haru said as she crouched down and placed the box into the divot. She pushed the pile of sand she previously scooped over the box, along with some more from the side. "Love you too, mom."
"Ren," Ryuji said from the other side of the dim room, interrupting Ren's quest for sleep. "The eff was up with you today, man?"
"Tired," Ren said as he rolled over in bed to face the wall. He didn't want to answer Ryuji's questions, or anyone's. The burial of the urn left a bittersweet (mostly bitter) taste in his mouth. Every moment of that day was a result of Ren's stupidity and refusal to take his visions to heart.
Besides, he wasn't the only one in a shitty mood. Most members of GRAVY ate their dinner separately, and the somber mood put everyone to bed relatively early. Thankfully, none of the others approached Ren that evening about his mood.
"C'mon, man. That's bullshit. I'm your friend. Just talk to me," Ryuji mentioned before adding one last bit, "and Yusuke because he's here, too."
"Hello, Ren," Yusuke said from the other bed as if Ren completely forgot about the artist.
"I know… but… fuck, I don't know," Ren said as he sat up. His sour words weren't for Ryuji, but for himself. He threw the sheets off of him and he got out of bed, making sure of his phone's presence in his pocket. "I'll be back." Not giving Ryuji or Yusuke a chance to protest, Ren left the room and entered the dim hallway. The only lighting he had was the moon shining through the window that extended across the entire wall.
Ren walked down the hall into the living area, slowly exiting the mansion through the sliding glass door. He trudged down the steps of the deck, his feet hitting the cold sand. It still felt as satisfying as it did earlier that day at the burial, if only because of the ruthless summer heat that persisted into nighttime.
Ren continued his journey by going towards the water, turning right when he got close enough, and heading up the beach. Not sure what he was looking for, Ren stopped after he believed himself to be far enough from the house that Ryuji couldn't come sprinting down the beach, catch him by surprise, and force him to apologize to everyone.
Not caring what would happen to his sweatpants, Ren plopped himself down on the slope of the sand dune, making sure that he could see the ocean.
Look at you, Ren. Moody and cliché as an anime protagonist, huh?
Ren always hated acting like this, but he couldn't help it. He needed solitude to calm him down and give him time to think.
But that's all I have. I have an apartment to myself, and I spend more than half of my time in Tokyo on my own. I have loneliness in spades, yet I want more.
Continuing down the path of self-criticism, Ren's distaste extended to his greed to be lonesome. GRAVY was indubitably the best club at Shujin, and the members all filled out the top of Ren's list of the best friends he'd ever had.
And Ren wanted to throw it all away. He wanted to go back to that quiet night in Iwakuni and walk past that scuffle he oh-so-bravely interrupted. To Ren, the worst place for him to end up was Tokyo. His life became increasingly difficult with every passing week.
New bullshit every day, and today's has definitely been the worst. The weeks following Kaneshiro were horrible, but it almost feels nostalgic right now. At least back then I wasn't being told what to do and still fucking things up. Now, I literally had a problem handed to me on a silver platter and I did nothing. Haru finding those ashes is what I get.
If Ren could drive, he could go back to the house and take the van back to Tokyo. GRAVY would be left behind, and Ren could find the detachment he craved, so long as he abandoned GRAVY in the last place they wanted to be.
I don't know how Haru can sleep here, if she's even doing that. I'd want to burn the whole fucking house down. I don't know nearly as much as her or Ryuji about what was in that room, but I'd be pissed. Instead, she's just acting normally. Maybe with a few extra tears and words, and a lot less smiling, but she's fine otherwise. Haru is plowing through this shit like the biggest badass, compared to me, who had a dream and is now moping on a beach. Great.
Ren mostly tuned out the noises of crickets, absorbing himself in the ocean, only to have his attention torn away from the waves crawling up the shore. He could hear breathing and the faint sound of sand shifting to his left. Ren slowly looked over to see his visitor.
"Sorry if I interrupted," Makoto said as she walked up to him.
Ren didn't initially react, but he did scoot over on the slope of the dune, sending the message for her to sit down. She obliged, scooting close to Ren. They didn't need to share eye contact to feel the emotions that the other felt; they just knew, all while holding their gazes on the moonlight reflecting across the shadowy ocean.
"How'd you know I came out here?"
"Followed you," Makoto said nonchalantly before swiftly getting to the point of her following him. "Ann wanted me to talk to you."
Ah, so Ann has to ruin my moonlit moment, hm?
"So you're out here because of her?"
"I'm out here because I want to talk with you." Ren didn't say anything, placing the weight of the conversation on Makoto. "Ren, please tell me what's going on. When Ryuji was telling us-"
"You don't have to tell me. I remember."
"And? Why'd you do that?"
"It upset me."
"Ren, are we really doing this again? That conversation we had the other night… at the bridge…" Ren wanted to look at her face to check for her trademark blushing, but he couldn't bear the shame of looking her in the eye. "Does it not mean anything to you anymore? I want us to be able to talk about things like this."
"So do I." Ren sighed. He did want to tell her, but he couldn't. How could she understand something supernatural happening to him?
"Part of us being together means that your problems are my problems, and my problems are your problems, Ren. I want to know what's on your mind, and I want to help," she said as she became the one making the move, putting her arm around Ren. "When we go back to Tokyo, there won't be an isolated beach for you to vent at, so you might as well get it all out now, right?"
The gesture is appreciated… but where do I begin? How do I begin? Does it- agh, fuck it. Just do it like she said and vent.
"Makoto…" Using her name aloud inspired honesty in Ren. "You remember how I told you that I do clinical trials at that doctor's office near Leblanc? I test experimental drugs and shit for her."
"Yes…" By the sound of it, Makoto didn't like the track Ren's explanation was on. It discouraged him, but only a little. He reminded himself that a pro of venting would be altering his relationship with Makoto in some way, not guaranteed to be positive or negative.
"Every time I test some of the drugs, I pass out and have these weird… dreams, I guess. I don't know what they are," Ren continued. "More and more, the dreams seem to predict the future. I saw someone hang themself from a skyscraper in front of all of Tokyo… I got sent to a battlefield and found a dead soldier with dog tags that had 'Aika Okumura' on them. Both of these happened before the shit that they predicted." Ren's posture slouched, depending on Makoto to keep him sitting up. More than up to the task, Makoto pulled him tight, even if she didn't say a word in reaction.
And I'm still not telling her everything… the blue prison, Chihaya's fortunes… I keep leaving out the important bits, don't I?
"Deep down, I knew that something to do with Aika would be found," Ren struggled to even mutter, the words barely making it out of his mouth. "I knew… and I did nothing…"
"Ren…" Makoto brought the hand that was wrapped around his shoulder up to his head, lightly stroking her fingers through his hair. "That can't…"
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I do…" Makoto insisted, forcing Ren to feel her genuineness with how she comforted him. "Ren, if you knew what was going to happen, you would've done something. I know you well enough to guarantee that you would have tried to help."
Then you know Ren the Liar, not Ren the Honest. Not sure if I even know either of those.
"And, Ren, if you're telling the truth, that means that you can help us in the future, right? Now that you know for sure that those dreams are the future, you can stop them," Makoto reassured, continuing to rub his hair. It was doing an awfully good job of keeping him in place, making him feel loved and calm while self-loathing thoughts continued to churn in his head.
"You're right… but I don't know if I ever want to go back to that clinic," Ren said. "Makoto, I'm scared." Ren paused, but he didn't want Makoto to think he was giving up. Before she could reply, he cut in with some optimism. "But I don't want GRAVY to suffer anymore. I want each of our lives to be happy, and perfect, and… I dunno. What I do know is that the dreams tell me what to do. I'll go back to the clinic because I don't want anyone else in GRAVY to go through what Haru went through today."
Makoto gave a satisfying hum of approval, pulling Ren close.
Right now, right here on this beach, is where I, Ren Amamiya, swear to keep the people I love safe.
Little did Ren know, that promise died before he even conceived of it.
"Alright, Futaba. This is our second day together," Maruki said as Futaba heard him sit down in a chair through the door. "What can you tell me about how the last two days have gone since I was here?"
Two sessions and Futaba already found herself bored with the new therapist. However, bored didn't mean disrespectful and rude.
Unknown Number:
-Meh, Ren hasn't been returning my texts.
"Oh? Is this… normal for him?"
Unknown Number:
-Nah, but that's because we don't usually text in the first place. I just figured I'd text him while he's on vacation to keep him some company. I guess he's a bit too busy for me.
"I know Ren. He'll be here to see you shortly after he gets back," Maruki said through the door, but Futaba couldn't care less. She expected the statement from someone who was supposed to be emotionally supporting her.
Still bored, Futaba glanced out the small slit she had for a window. If she wanted, it could be wider, but she preferred keeping her blinds lowered to create maximum coziness, privacy, and shade for her room.
Through her slit, she saw a few pigeons on the empty street below. Some kid dropped his ice cream, leaving it for the pigeons to clean up. The tapping of their beaks against the street almost hypnotized Futaba, with her only solace being a voice snapping her attention away from the window.
"You remember what happened that day, hm?"
"W-wha…?"
"Do you remember what I bought you?" a woman asked from behind Futaba. The familiar voice and the shape of the shadow told Futaba who stood over her. "A cone of rainbow sherbert ice cream. Do you remember what you did with it, Futaba?"
"I… I didn't do anything…" Wakaba didn't even accuse the girl, and Futaba still felt the heat and rage emanating from her mother behind.
"You threw it out because I didn't get you the flavor you wanted," Wakaba spat, making goosebumps rise on Futaba's neck. "So you know what I did?"
"P-please… you don't n-need to say it…"
"I killed myself because of you, Futaba!" Wakaba shrilly screamed directly into Futaba's ear, slamming her hands down on the poor girl's shoulder. Wakaba dragged Futaba from the gaming chair, slamming the girl directly into the ground behind her, knocking the wind from her daughter.
Futaba gasped, desperate for air, doing her best to pull oxygen to her lungs. She found no luck as Wakaba loomed over her, forcing Futaba to focus on the fiery eyes of her mother.
"Acknowledge what you did!" Wakaba yelled, slamming her foot into Futaba's chest.
Futaba gasped in pain again, hoarsely crying out for help but unable to form anything but wheeze. Wakaba raised her foot to strike yet again, holding it in the air as if she wanted to toy with Futaba.
Futaba closed her eyes, ready for it all to end and go black, just as it always did when Wakaba got this aggressive.
"Your mother isn't with you, Futaba."
Futaba kept her eyes closed, but she knew that she had been left alone in her room. Wakaba decided to vanish with that strange voice that came through Futaba's head. It didn't come from her ears, and it didn't feel like her own voice in her head, but like someone speaking in the center of her brain.
"You're the only one in your room."
Futaba opened her eyes to find that the voice hadn't lied to her. Sitting up from the floor where she fell, she looked around to find the source of the voice.
Nothing.
"Your mother can't hurt you, Futaba. She never can."
The voice did have a point. Her mother's death was years ago. Unless resurrection had recently been discovered, Futaba had nothing to fear.
"You didn't kill her. She didn't kill herself. You've known that ever since it happened."
The suspicion was always there. Wakaba's behavior before throwing herself into the street did not match how any mother, or person for that matter, would act. Futaba wanted to remember exactly what made her mother's behavior strange, but an interruption stopped her.
"You don't need to remember that day. It's in the past. You should focus on your future."
This voice made quite a bit of sense for someone with no face or body. Futaba couldn't help but agree with everything they said as if it mattered in the first place. Even if she didn't agree, Futaba followed the voice's instructions before she could even contemplate what they meant.
"Why don't you open your door, Futaba?" the voice asked, now coming from a familiar place. "You have friends on this side, you know."
A/N: Sorry for the wait. It's another long one, so it justifies the two week wait.
Now that the Iwatodai arc is done, except for bringing GRAVY home, I'll be shooting for the weekly upload schedule again. Next chapter will hopefully be out on Saturday the 18th.
Thanks for reading. Have an incredible day.