Chapter 10: Dreams & flashbacks
3 years ago, New York, America...
Hanayuki quietly closed the door behind her, before walking down the front steps and out of the front yard to the sidewalk. She took in a deep breath of the cold morning air. It's still a little dark, but at least the air's fresh.
After a couple of warm-ups, she began to jog down the walkway. Because it was a Sunday morning, there weren't many people on the streets; most of them were still keeping themselves warm underneath their blankets.
Oh well, all the better. I don't have to dodge baby prams, cyclists or other runners. The road is all mine.
Taking the usual route, she ran past a block of shop lots which were currently under renovation.
Yuck! The smell around this place is horrible. I wish they would hurry up and finish whatever they're supposed to be-
A pair of dark, callused hands placed themselves over her mouth from behind, snapping her out of her thoughts. She struggled as hard as she could, her hands trying to peel off the hands which were clamped over her mouth, her legs kicking out against the ground.
She found herself being dragged further away from the sidewalk and into the back alley of the empty shop lots. The sinking feeling in her heart sank even lower. Oh my God! Please, somebody help me!
The attacker suddenly let go of her and slammed her against the wall, before lunging towards her. Instinctively, Hanayuki kicked out at him, hitting him in the stomach. Seeing her attacker doubling over in pain, she took the opportunity to escape, but before she was even 5 steps away, he pulled her back, this time throwing her on the ground.
Hanayuki tried to scream, but broke off when she felt something hard hit the side of her head. Then the other side.
Somebody please help me!
She knew that all would be lost if she didn't stay conscious, but there was nothing she could do as the world around her began to slip away into darkness. And the last thing she saw before everything went black was the blurry face of her attacker, which was coming closer and closer towards her own...
---
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Hanayuki screamed, at the same time sitting up in bed. Sweat beads lined her forehead, as she breathed heavily.
"It's alright Yuki. It's just a dream."
Hanayuki looked at Rukawa, who was looking back at her in concern. He reached out to brush off her dishevelled hair from her face. "It's just a dream."
"Kaede..." Hanayuki closed her eyes and nodded her head. "Yes, it's just a dream."
"Go back to sleep. It's ok. I'm here with you," said Rukawa soothingly.
Hanayuki nodded her head again, and lay back down on the bed, her back facing Rukawa. She let Rukawa pull the blanket around her, and didn't protest when she felt him lying down beside her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to his chest.
Relishing in the warmth of his body, she slowly drifted off to sleep.
---
Hanayuki woke up to find herself surrounded by people. Their faces were blurry, and even after she blinked numerous times to clear her vision, they still looked blurry.
She tried to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth. She then tried to listen to what they were saying, but all she could hear was... nothing.
Her head began to throb badly, and she closed her eyes, as if doing so would ease the pain. When she opened them again, she found herself in another room, which looked like a doctor's office. Her parents were sitting quietly, their eyes red and puffy, across the desk opposite a man she assumed to be the doctor, who looked grim. Hanayuki herself was standing in a corner of the room.
"Okaasan? Otousan?" Hanayuki called out, but nobody answered her. It was as if they couldn't hear her or even see her. It was then she realised that, apart from being able to see clearly, she could speak and hear clearly too.
Just then, the doctor began to speak.
"Mr and Mrs Anzai, your daughter was very lucky to have survived the attack. It could have been worse, as she could have had a heart attack and die from heart failure, but that didn't happen, so we must be thankful for that."
"What about her hearing, doctor? Is there nothing you can do about it?" asked Anzai-sensei. He sounded desperate.
"I'm sorry, Mr Anzai, but we have done all we can. She had been hit hard on both sides of her head, causing severe damage to her inner ear organs. It is already a wonder that she didn't lose her hearing completely. Not to mention that she didn't suffer from brain damage."
"But she lost almost 90 of her hearing in her left ear and half in her right ear! She'll have to depend on hearing aids for the rest of her life. What difference does it make, whether or not she lost her hearing completely?" Mrs Anzai burst out tearfully.
"I'm really sorry, Mrs Anzai-"
"She's just turned 12! Her birthday was just 2 weeks ago. How can something like this happen to her?" Unable to control her emotions any longer, Mrs Anzai started crying, and Anzai-sensei put his arms around her, trying very hard not to cry himself.
Hanayuki tried to reach out to them, but the more she tried, the more they seemed to shrink into the background, until all she could see was white nothingness.
Next scene...
(A/n: Hanayuki is recollecting her past in her dream, and the scenes change from one to another, thus the 'Next scene...'.)
Hanayuki found herself in another doctor's room. Like before, Anzai-sensei and Mrs Anzai were also in the room, sitting together across the desk opposite the doctor. Only this time, the doctor was a woman. The expressions on each of their faces remained the same; Anzai-sensei and Mrs Anzai looked sad, while the doctor looked grim.
Again, Hanayuki tried to call out to them, but to no avail.
"Mr and Mrs Anzai, I hope that you'll stay calm after hearing what I have to tell you. This is going to be difficult to accept, I know, but if you wish to help Hana-chan, you have to stay calm and focused," said the doctor.
"What is it, doctor?" Anzai-sensei asked, his voice soft and fearful.
The doctor looked at them for a moment, before answering, "I'm afraid Hana-chan is already 2 months pregnant."
Tears began to roll down Mrs Anzai's cheeks, while Anzai-sensei buried his face in his hands.
Next scene...
"Hana-chan."
Hanayuki looked up to see Anzai-sensei and his wife walking into the hospital room, followed by a nurse. Mrs Anzai seated herself on the chair next to the hospital bed and held Hanayuki's hands in hers.
"Hana-chan, we've just come back from the baby's room. She looks absolutely adorable. In fact, she looks just like you when you were a baby," she said.
Hanayuki looked away without responding. Her left hand subconsciously touched the spot near her abdomen, where the doctors had cut her open and took out the baby through a Caesarean-section.
"Hana-chan, are you sure you want to give her up for adoption? She is yours after all. You gave birth to her after carrying her for 9 months," said Mrs Anzai.
"She's not mine. And yes, I want to give her up for adoption," came Hanayuki's reply.
"Won't you at least take a look at her before she is given up for adoption?" asked Mrs Anzai sadly.
"No. I don't want to see her. Just give her away and be done with it."
Next scene...
Hanayuki was standing in the living room of her American home. She looked at the little girl, who looked no more than 3 years old and was seated on the floor with Anzai-sensei.
It can't be her. It can't be. She was given up for adoption two years ago, wasn't she? What is she doing here then?
"I'm sorry, Hana-chan, but we never gave Aoi-chan up for adoption. All this while, she has been staying with your Tomo-niichan and his family," she heard her mother say.
Next scene...
Hanayuki was lying in bed, crying. Ever since that day when she saw Aoi-chan for the very first time, she had been having nightmares of the incident 3 years before, something which hasn't happened for a long time. It didn't help that the little girl called her okaachan, since she recognised Hanayuki from pictures shown to her by Anzai-sensei and Mrs Anzai (they told Aoi-chan that the person in the pictures (in this case Hanayuki) was her mother).
She didn't hear someone coming into the room through the open door, until she felt that someone tugging at the blanket. It was Aoi-chan.
"Okaachan, why are you crying?" asked Aoi-chan.
Hanayuki just stared at her, not knowing how to answer the question. To her surprise, the little girl climbed onto the bed (with a little struggle, of course), lay down beside her, and touched her face gently.
"Don't cry, okaachan. Aoi-chan loves you."
As if the magic words had been spoken, all the barriers that Hanayuki had put up between her and Aoi-chan broke down. That night, and the nights after that, Hanayuki hugged Aoi-chan to sleep.
---
Rukawa could feel Hanayuki's ragged breathing slowly calming down, as he held her in his arms.
-Flashback-
"Rukawa, just to let you know, it's not that she didn't tell you about it because she didn't love you. On the contrary, it is because she loved you too much that she didn't want to tell you. She was afraid that you wouldn't be able to accept the fact that she had been... well, you know, and is a mother of a 3-year-old kid," said Fujima.
Other than the tiny flicker of hope coming to life in his eyes, Rukawa didn't show any indication that he was overjoyed or even glad to hear this.
"There's also something else which I think you should know," Fujima continued. "It's about your father."
That took Rukawa by surprise, whose eyes widened considerably.
"I'm sure you already knew about your father hiring a detective to investigate Yuki's background."
"Nani?!" Sakuragi burst out, before Fujima could go on. "He did?!"
"Man, why the heck did he do that for?" Mitsui asked.
"Guys, please, can I continue?" asked Fujima, before continuing, "Anyway, what you probably don't know is that he once went to Yuki's house to see her. To put it nicely, he asked her not to see you again. To put it in a bad way, he threatened her to stay away from you."
Rukawa stiffened in his seat. What the hell...!
"Which she did, in a way, if you still remember what had happened after that. You guys remained as friends, and thankfully, your father left her alone, although she didn't exactly do as he had said. Towards the end of last year, she began to think that she didn't care about your father, and was going to accept you, but, who knew that a trip to America would change all that? With Aoi-chan back in her life, she didn't think that it would work out. Even if you didn't care about her past, your father wouldn't have just sit back and let you do whatever you want."
"Rukawa," Sendoh spoke up. "I understand your frustrations of not knowing what's going on, especially when it concerns someone you love very much. But just because she didn't tell you anything doesn't mean that she didn't love you. Just because she didn't love you the way you wanted her to, doesn't mean that she didn't love you with all her heart and soul. That was what she had told me yesterday, and now I'm telling you."
-End of flashback-
Rukawa closed his eyes and snuggled closer to Hanayuki.
It's alright now, Yuki. I won't let anyone hurt you again. I'll always be here by your side to protect you, and I won't let anything or anyone get in our way. Not even if it's Kami-sama. We'll always be together, no matter what. I swear.
---
Fujima sat alone in the dining room, his hands clasped together, lost in his own thoughts. Up until about an hour ago, the dining table had been filled with 7 other people, all of whom were curious to know about Hanayuki's past.
Being one of the very few who knew all the details, Fujima had spent almost half an hour relating the story and answering questions. When all was said and done with, Sakuragi, Mitsui, Kogure, Sendoh, Miyagi and Ayako had gone home, while Rukawa went upstairs to watch over Hanayuki.
Fujima recalled the question which Sakuragi had asked.
"How did you get into the picture, Fujima?"
How did I get into the picture? I guess it's fate, Sakuragi. It was fate that got me into the picture...
-Flashback-
"Oh, that's our plane, Kenji," exclaimed Mrs Fujima. She took one last look at her son and ruffled his hair. "Now you take good care of yourself, alright?"
"Yes, okaasan. I will. You take care too. Send my regards to oneesan," said Fujima.
"I will. I'd better get going. Bye!" With a wave of her hand, Mrs Fujima went off in search of the said gate.
Fujima waved back and started walking in the opposite direction. Best be using the men's room before going home.
Some minutes later, when he came out of the men's room, he saw a small girl standing right outside the women's room, crying her eyes out.
Kneeling down in front of her, Fujima asked, "Hello there. Why are you crying? Are you lost?"
The little girl stopped crying long enough to nod her head, before wailing at the top of her lungs again.
"Don't cry. Oniichan will help you find your parents, alright?" said Fujima, patting her on the head gently. Just as he was about to carry her up, the door to the women's room burst open, and a young woman rushed out, panic written all over her face.
Catching sight of the little girl in front of her, she dropped to her knees and pulled the girl towards her in a tight hug. "Aoi-chan, thank Kami-sama you're alright! Okaachan was almost scared to death!"
This lady looks familiar, thought Fujima to himself.
When she looked at him, he immediately recognised her.
"Hanayuki-san?"
---
"...so that's how it is," Anzai-sensei finished.
Fujima stared at his cup of coffee, not knowing how to respond or what to say. He was at the Anzais' house, where Anzai-sensei had just told him everything about his daughter's past.
For a while, neither of them said anything. Then, with a determined look on his face, Fujima said, "Anzai-sensei, perhaps there's something I can do to help her."
---
"This is Midori-kaachan," Fujima introduced.
Hanayuki bowed to the older woman, who bowed back.
"Midori-kaachan used to be my nanny; now she's my family's housekeeper. She's very good with children. I'm sure Aoi-chan will love her," Fujima continued.
"Thank you, Fujima-san, but I really do not wish to trouble you," said Hanayuki. "You have no obligation to help me."
Fujima took Hanayuki's hands in his. "True, I have no obligation to help you, but I want to. And I hope that you will let me."
Tears brimming in her eyes, Hanayuki smiled and nodded her head.
Fujima smiled back. "If Aoi-chan stays here, you won't have to worry about people finding out about her. She'll be very well taken care of, and I'll drop by to check on her every day; my university isn't far from here. If you want to see her, I can always go over to your place and bring you here, since you don't live too far away either and I have my own car and driving license."
"Hai. Arigato gozaimasu, Fujima-san," said Hanayuki gratefully.
"You're welcome, Hanayuki-san."
-End of flashback-
It wasn't too long after that before we started calling each other by our first names. It wasn't too long after that either before Aoi-chan started calling me otouchan...
-Flashback-
Fujima peeked into the room, where Aoi-chan was sitting quietly in a corner, holding a male doll in her hands.
"Aoi-chan, why are you sitting there all by yourself?" asked Fujima, as he approached the little girl.
When Aoi-chan didn't respond, Fujima sat down beside her and asked, "What's wrong, Aoi-chan?"
"Ne, Ken-niichan, where is my otouchan?" asked Aoi-chan.
Fujima was taken aback by the unexpected question. "Why do you ask, Aoi-chan?"
"I watched this cartoon today, and I saw the papa dog playing with the baby dog. I want to play with my otouchan too," came the innocent reply.
Fujima was at a total lost for words. How was he supposed to tell a 3-year-old kid that even her own mother didn't know who her father was?
Aoi-chan began to sniff. "I want to play with my otouchan..."
I definitely wouldn't mind being your otouchan...
"Hontou?"
Fujima looked at Aoi-chan, who was staring back at him with big, shiny, blue eyes. "Huh?"
"Will you really be my otouchan?" she asked excitedly.
Fujima realised in horror that he had unknowingly voiced his thoughts out loud.
"Er... actually... I um..."
"Will you really, really, really be my otouchan?"
Fujima Kenji, what are you getting yourself into...?
Fujima nodded, and Aoi-chan got to her feet and wrapped her tiny arms around his neck, squealing happily.
"Yay! I have an otouchan! I have an otouchan!"
Fujima couldn't help but laugh at her antics.
Well, look at it from the bright side. You just made a child happy. And, I think I just made myself happy too. I wonder if Yuki will be as happy...
-End of flashback-
Fujima smiled to himself.
How I wished that I could be your otouchan forever, Aoi-chan. Unfortunately, now that Rukawa is in the picture... Aoi-chan, I think you're going to have a new otouchan soon.
---
At the train station...
Sendoh got off the train and headed towards the entrance of the train station. After waiting for a while for a cab to appear, but none did, he thrust his hands into his pockets and began to make his way home on foot.
-Flashback-
"Fujima-san!"
"Sendoh?" Fujima exclaimed, surprised to see the captain of the Ryonan basketball team there. "What are you doing here?"
Sendoh laughed in reply. "What else can you do in a supermarket, Fujima-san?"
"Oh, right."
"Anyway, I was wondering if you can tell me where the canned-food section is. I'm on a grocery errand for my mother see, and she asked me to buy this particular brand of canned mushroom for her, but I can't seem to find which aisle they're in," said Sendoh, all in one breath.
"Um, ok. It's right there, Sendoh. See that sign? Just go straight, and turn into the 2nd last aisle on your left," said Fujima, pointing to the said directions.
"Oh, thank you, Fujima-san! You really saved me from a lot of trouble. By the way, are you shopping for groceries alone?"
Before Fujima could say anything, a little girl came running up to him from around the corner. "Otouchan, I want this chocolate!"
"Hai, hai." Fujima took the bar of chocolate from her and put it in the trolley. "Where's your okaachan?"
The little girl shook her head.
"Ah, sou ka?" said Fujima. Looking up, he saw Sendoh grinning mischievously at him.
"Wow, Fujima-san, I didn't know you actually have a daughter of your own. So lucky, ne?"
"Actually-" Fujima started to say, but was cut off by a voice coming from behind Sendoh.
"Kenji, is Aoi-chan with you?"
Still grinning madly, Sendoh turned around to face the owner of the voice, and felt the grin froze on his face.
What the... Hana?
As if he wasn't surprised enough to see Hanayuki there, he was further surprised when the little girl cried out, "Okaachan!"
It didn't take a rocket scientist to know who she was referring to.
"Ha-Hana? Did she just call you...? But how-? Why-?" There were so many questions swirling in Sendoh's mind that he didn't know which one to ask first.
It was Fujima, rather than Hanayuki, who came up to him and stirred him away, out of the supermarket and into the first coffee shop they come across, where they sat down and he was told everything about Hanayuki's past.
-End of flashback-
I would never have thought that Hana had a daughter. And a 3-year-old one at that. Too bad I was a step later than Fujima, or I could've been the one Aoi-chan calls otouchan. Oh well, at least I was a step earlier than Rukawa.
He sighed and looked up at the sky.
If only a step earlier than Rukawa makes me, and not him, Aoi-chan's future otouchan for life...
---
Clang!
Sakuragi kicked a stray can out of his way, as he wandered around aimlessly.
Good things rarely come true. The bad ones do.
-Flashback-
"Do'aho."
Sakuragi turned around and found himself face-to-face with Rukawa. He narrowed his eyes. "What do you want, kitsune?
"We need to talk."
"I have nothing to talk to you about, kitsune. Now leave me alone. In case you didn't notice, I was in the middle of thinking about something." He turned to leave.
"I didn't know that you think," Rukawa deadpanned.
Sakuragi turned to face Rukawa again. "Teme! Are you looking for a fight, Rukawa?!"
"I said, we need to talk."
"And I said I have nothing to talk to you about!" Sakuragi said furiously. Again, he turned to leave, but stopped when he heard what Rukawa said next.
"It's about the girl."
Slowly, Sakuragi turned around and looked at Rukawa. "Aoi-chan?"
Later, the two boys were seated in a corner of a nearby coffee shop.
"You saw it, didn't you?" asked Rukawa.
"Saw what?" Sakuragi asked back.
"The girl."
"Of course I saw the girl. The Tensai is not blind."
Rukawa felt like punching the redhead in the face. "Do'aho, I meant her face."
Sakuragi raised his eyebrows. "What about her face?"
"Are you Yuki's brother or not, do'aho?"
"Teme! Of course I am!"
"Then, you should know how she looked like when she was 3 years old," said Rukawa.
"Sure I do! She looked exactly like Aoi-chan-" Sakuragi broke off when he realised what he had just said.
"Finally..." Rukawa muttered.
"You mean, you saw the resemblance too?" Sakuragi asked, his eyes wide.
"I saw the pictures. What do you think?"
For once, Sakuragi had nothing to say back to Rukawa.
"What do you think about it?"
Sakuragi shrugged. "I don't know. Perhaps it's just a coincidence. I mean, there are unrelated people in this world who look like one another. Plus, kids in general look the same."
"And the name?"
"Well, a lot of people have the same name. Besides, Hana-chan changed her name, remember?" Sakuragi said nonchalantly. He looked at Rukawa, who looked back at him. For a couple of minutes, neither of them said anything, having engaged themselves in a staring competition.
After what seemed like eternity, Sakuragi sighed and said, "I think I know what you're thinking about. Don't you think it's rather outrageous? That Aoi-chan and Hana-chan are related to each other somehow is totally unthinkable. After all, I've known Hana-chan since she was 7, and I've never heard her mention anything about a sister or anything."
"What if they're not sisters but something else? There's something which Fujima is not telling us," said Rukawa.
"You know what, kitsune, you think too much. Thank Kami-sama I'm not like you. My brain wouldn't have lasted a minute from all that thinking you're doing," said Sakuragi.
"I never knew you had a brain, do'aho."
"You'd better not push it, kitsune. And, you'd better stop calling me that too," Sakuragi growled threateningly.
"You call me kitsune," Rukawa pointed out nonchalantly.
"What the- che! Whatever," Sakuragi grunted. "Anyway, it's not what you think, I'm sure of it. Therefore, the matter ends here. Do you understand me, Ru-ka-wa?"
Rukawa refrained from rolling his eyes. "Whatever, Sa-ku-ra-gi."
"Good. That's settled then," said Sakuragi. He paused, before continuing, "There's nothing to worry about. There's nothing to even think about in the first place."
-End of flashback-
Yeah, there was nothing to think about, until the day we followed Hana-chan to the hospital and found out that she was on a first-name basis with Fujima. I had another talk with the stupid kitsune and ended up being splashed with coffee. Even then, I didn't think that it would be possible, that Hana-chan was related to Aoi-chan. But now, not only is Hana-chan related to Aoi-chan, she's actually her mother. And to think it all happened because she was... was...
"I didn't go for a walk on the streets and picked a stranger. It was the other way round."
"A stranger picked me."
BAM!
"Kuso!" Sakuragi cursed furiously, his fist embedded in the wall. "Kuso!"
"KUSO!"
---
Author's notes: So a lot of questions should be answered with this chapter. Hmm... before I forget, I would like to apologise to the anonymous reviewer, bewildered. I'm sorry that you didn't like the previous chapter. I'm sad of course that I've lost your respect. But the truth is it's not unthinkable that a 16-year-old has a 3-year-old daughter. I know people who knew people who had miscarriages or abortions or babies at the age of 12/ 13. Honest. Anyway, thanks to all who have read. Many thanks to those who have reviewed.