Part XX
Ryo didn't tell anything, just sat on the couch of the sitting room. His head was sunk and his brows were dark with anguish. Saeko was watching him intently. Two more persons were present in the room who were waiting for Ryo to speak up – Miki and Umibozu. Finally Umibozu broke the seemingly never ending silence "Ryo! It's enough. Its unlike of you to be sad over a matter so small." Miki came and sat beside Ryo and put her palm on his shoulder, "Ryo-Chan, don't be so quiet. Tell us the matter, and hopefully we can help you in saving Kaori-San." Saeko too supported her, "Come on, speak up Ryo!"
Ryo was in no mood to listen or reply to them. All he thought about was Kaori's letter and the relation of the person mentioned in the letter to this phone call he had received few moments ago. "What were you trying to tell me Kaori? Why did you leave me that letter? Did you know beforehand that you would have to face this day at some point of your life? What is it that I am missing out? Kaori, help me please! If this goes on, I swear, I'm gonna rip him off once I lay my hands on you Fujimaki! I swear on Kaori's name!" thought Ryo, and absent-mindedly shouted out "I will make you pay Fujimaki, if anything happens to her!" Miki, Umibozu and Saeko were looking at him expectantly, but Ryo said nothing and left the apartment silently, not even caring to lock the door. So engrossed in his thoughts he was! But as soon as he came down on the streets, he was in his former self, "The Great Womanizer of Shinjuku"! Miki, who followed him closely and quietly, gave an irritated sigh, "This bastard is never gonna change!" As Ryo walked past the ladies on the streets, he was drooling seeing their assets, as was expected of this great man!
After Ryo was out of the apartment, Saeko proposed to follow him, but Miki took the opportunity and went out instead for the same reason. As soon as she was out, Umibozu said something, which made Saeko freeze in her current state. He said "Prepare yourself Saeko! I hear a storm coming. This is unlike of Ryo to be so cold and calm in case of so large a crisis. You'll never understand how alone he is now that Kaori is not here with him. That bastard will never admit before anyone, but I know him and trust me, I have never seen him so calm and quiet. Take this as a hint of the weather suddenly calming down before a huge calamity." Saeko was looking at the picture of Kaori and Ryo together, smiling, on the side-table in Kaori's room, she said nothing. Perhaps she had nothing more to say.
Ryo knew very well that Miki-san was following him closely, but he didn't pay any attention to it and kept doing his work. As he reached Kabuki-Cho, his sixth sense awared him of a danger, as he saw a gleam as he was characteristically grinning and drooling from over the tree seeing the assets of a lady walking down the foot path. His muscles stiffened as he lunged for the lady in the pink kimono. He knew pretty well that it was none other than Miki-San who was following him closely. No sooner had he pushed her off her balance, than two bullets hit the same place on the wall just behind to where she stood. Ryo instantly looked up. If it was an ordinary man, he could probably see nothing, but it was the Shinjuku's One-Shot-Wolf after all! He saw a person with yellow hair standing and grinning over the rooftop of a building about some 500 meters away from the street they were in. "Robert!" he exclaimed.
No sooner had Ryo left the apartment, than a lady was seen to approach the apartment just from the opposite direction Ryo was walking to. She even crossed Ryo, but he was so deeply lost in the world of thoughts, that he didn't notice her. Instead, he shouted something which made her to give a violent start and freeze in her place. Moments later, she got back to her senses and was seen to coming towards the apartment. Umibozu was sitting idle on a hassock close to the kitchen, but he was not lost as Ryo. He could very well sense the aura of an unknown yet familiar identity approaching them. His face turned to the door. Saeko saw everything that had happened on the street, Ryo's shouting, and the lady's freezing in her place momentarily. She knew all this. Moments later as Umibozu turned his face towards the door, the bell of the apartment rang. Umibozu stopped Saeko and himself went forward to open the door, "Welcome home Kaori!" he said. But the person, who was shocked more than anyone else, was Saeko. She could see that it was not Kaori who was standing behind the door-frame. It was someone else. Although her face had a striking resemblance to that of Kaori's, it was evidently not Kaori." By the time Umibozu too understood his mistake. Although he was blind, but the peculiar training that he had during his youthful days, had taught him to heighten his senses to their limit. So he was in no place appropriate for the term "disabled". He was more of a person "differently abled".