The train stopped and Gou and Nagisa jumped out as soon as the doors opened. It was Friday morning and the time was only a little past 9. They had been in the train for two and half an hour. They were now in Osaka, and there were way more people on this station than there had been at Tottori-shi.
"What was her name again?" Gou asked as they got outside on the street.
"I think it was Tamura Shiori," Nagisa said.
"How do we find her?" Gou asked.
Nagisa thought. "Walk around in town and ask?" He suggested.
Gou sighed. Nagisa wasn't dumb, but when he couldn't come up with any weird ideas, he usually tended to just get lazy and not want to think up anything serious. She realized it might have been good for him that she tagged along. Without her, who knows where he would have ended up?
"Maybe we should try to ask at a post office or something?" She suggested. "Someone must have her address there,"
Nagisa nodded, but didn't do an attempt to look around for an office. It seemed his mind had gone elsewhere. Gou wondered what he was thinking about, but decided to leave it be. She was almost certain he was thinking about Rei and if she started asking about it, the mood would fall to very uncomfortable and stay like that until Nagisa had had enough.
Gou led the way to the nearest post office. Luckily for them, it was within sight. It was just a little further down the street, and even more luckily was it that there were no costumers.
"Excuse me," Gou called as she approached one of the people sitting there, a man in his late 40's.
"What may I do for you?" He asked politely. Their eyes met in a brief second and Gou noticed that he was wondering what in the world two kids were doing here at this time of day. A gut feeling told her, that they would probably get in trouble if they told this guy too much. She had to think carefully about her words.
"We are looking for a Tamura Shiori-san," Gou asked.
"What makes you come here for that information?" he asked.
"Well…" Gou hesitated.
"We are her cousin's children," Nagisa stepped in and saved Gou before her hesitation became too obvious. "They were really close back in the day but our mother is very sick and we had to tell Tamura-san. The problem is that she and mother had a falling out and then… Tamura-san moved away from her old address. We were told she moved here, but we don't know the new address," Nagisa said.
"And you don't have a phone number or anything?" the man asked suspiciously.
"No," Nagisa shook his head violently.
"Did you know she was living with her parents?" he asked.
"Our mother lost contact with the entire family before we were even born," Nagisa said with a saddened look.
Gou wondered if he was overdoing it. She wondered if anyone would buy it, but she had no right to complain. Any lie was better than an uncomfortable silence, and there was always a chance he did believe them.
"I see," The man looked at a laptop. "Tell me your names and I will give you the address,"
Gou looked at Nagisa, and he looked back at her. None of them knew what name to give. Their own names were a little outstanding.
"I'm Tachibana Naruto," Nagisa said in lack of anything better. Then he looked at Gou.
"I'm…" she bit her lip before giving up her name. "Tachibana Kou," she said. They would have to give up the same surname if they wanted their story of being siblings to be believable.
The man gave the address with an unwilling expression that made the worry return to Gou. Again she wondered if he believed them, and something told her that he didn't. But then what did he think they wanted, and what was he going to do once they had left the post office?
The area was peaceful. Once Nagisa and Gou got off the bus, a strong scent of flowers surrounded them. There were many. This was a little outside Osaka, with little houses with gardens with plenty of colorful flowers. Nagisa found himself thinking about how Rei would call it beautiful to no end. He smiled at the thought.
"It was somewhere around here, right?" Gou asked.
Nagisa looked at the map they had borrowed and nodded. "I think it's up there and to the left," he said.
Gou nodded and started walking. Nagisa followed in a quick pace. They followed the directions and indeed ended up in front of a house with Tamura written outside.
"Guess it's here," Gou said.
Nagisa nodded. "Let's go," he said. "I want to know about this," he said.
"We have to ask if she is there though," Gou warned in a slightly worried tone.
"Relax Gou-chan," Nagisa said calmly. "She has to be there, everything has been right so far,"
"He could have given us the directions to a wrong Tamura family," Gou said.
Nagisa doubted that fact and walked ahead. He entered the garden and with determined steps he approached the front door of the Tamura home. Gou hesitantly followed as Nagisa rang the doorbell. She stood half behind him as they waited for someone to open the door.
After about 5 minutes, the door opened and an elderly woman peaked out. "Oh," she said. "It's been a while since we had such young people come to visit," she said. "And if we have, it has only been family,"
"Are you Tamura Shiori-san who worked at the general hospital at Tottori-shi?" Nagisa asked.
The woman looked slightly surprised, but then nodded. "That's me," she said. "What do you want?"
Nagisa took in a deep breath. "My name is Hazuki Nagisa, I want to know what exactly happened to my biological family," he said.
Tamura-san said nothing at first. She just nodded. It seemed she had to adjust to the thought. Then she smiled and little winkles were shown on most of her face. "Come in both of you. I will make some tea," she said. "I am the only one at home right now, so don't worry about disturbing anyone," she said.
"Thank you, Tamura-san," Gou said as both she and Nagisa entered. Nagisa also delivered a thank you on his way into the small house.
Tamura-san went into a small kitchen and started preparing tea for her two young guests. She asked them to sit by the small dining table as she put the water on the stove. After a little more than five minutes, she came and sat with them. She had a tray with a teapot and three cups on it. She poured tea in all three cups and handed one to Gou and one to Nagisa before sitting down with her own.
"How much do you know already?" she looked at Nagisa.
"I know that my family died and that you brought me to the orphanage where I was adopted from," Nagisa answered while taking a sip of the hot tea.
Tamura-san nodded. "I was also there when it happened. It was rather disturbing,"
"What happened?" Nagisa asked.
Tamura looked thoughtful. "It is not a pleasant tale. I have been looking into it, so I know most of what happened and what led to the death of your entire family. Your parents and your older sisters were all killed in the same time, you see,"
Nagisa got even more curious. "Please tell me!" He begged. "I want to know!"
Tamura-san sighed. "It all began back here in Osaka," she paused, "with a family named Ryugazaki,"
Gou found her gaze turning from the teacup, which she was holding tightly, to Nagisa, to see his reaction. His round, magenta eyes were wide with the surprise and his hands were also holding the teacup tightly. He was tense, so tense that he was shaking. So many emotions were displayed on his face that Gou found it impossible to interpret.