Friday.

I found the fact that this suit that I'd spent so much money on in the past was now something that I could project my reignited loathing onto quite amusing. Kimiko didn't seem to give any response to me wearing it, other than a very, very slight raise of her brows as she saw me staring it down in the mirror.
"Shut up." Came my immediate response to her stare, hands smoothing over the front and digging into the pockets for no real reason. She merely hummed her amusement and opened the book she'd brought into the room with her, settling down on the very side of the lounger to read it.
"Oh, by the way… I'll probably still be up whenever you get back." She announced, not even bothering to look up at me this time.
I gave an irritated look to my reflection and made some half-assed attempt to smooth down my cowlicks, which stood boldly either side of my head. The moment they passed through my fingers, they eagerly sprung up again. I usually wore suits, so that wasn't exactly the part of this that bothered me. What bothered me was the fact that somebody was forcing me to wear one to some stupid blackmail… reunion thing. Still, it was what I had to do at this point.

I didn't really know if it would be okay to bring any alcohol along, since Masaru was apparently going to attend. Personally, I'd given up drinking quite a while ago—well that had been the case, up until recently. Since the letter had arrived, the whiskey and sake started to look better and better by the minute. Disappointing myself with a lack of impulse control, I'd ended up drinking my way through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. That didn't exactly end well. The suspension was ridiculously small as punishment, though, and I paid the fine almost immediately. I had my licence back already, but that was probably only because the police around here were incompetent. Laws had been shifty ever since the Tragedy, anyway. People were too unstable these days.
Giving the bottle of wine another glance, I gave a resigned sigh. What choice did I have? The invitation said to bring drinks, and… Kimiko had already troubled herself with getting it for me. I'd just keep it hidden in a bag in case of some… major wine emergency.

At this point I was simply putting off getting in the car, picking lint off the suit and refastening my bowtie. Kimiko gave something of a snort in the background, but glanced back at her book the moment I shot her a glare in our reflection.

A reunion. Blackmail. Hell. What on Earth could this person want?

…Only one way to know for sure. I turned back toward Kimiko, taking a deep breath in.
"If I don't text you by midnight, call the police—" I paused. Like that would do any good. "Or… you know, come to the address with a weapon."

Kimiko stared up at me blankly, flipped a page and then gave a small laugh.
"Alright, Nags."

My palms were sweating the entire drive, my stomach in knots and my head reeling with theories on who this could be. I'd seriously contemplated just going back home a few times, but resisting that urge, I managed to pull the car up on the side of the street just across from the meeting spot on the invite. No other cars were there, so either I'd gotten there first, or nobody else had bothered to show up. Nervously, I glanced at the time… and then again, just to be sure. Yeah, I was early. The others would probably show up, but just in case… waiting seemed to be a good plan.

The meeting place was a big estate; the huge remains of an old, yet somewhat familiar house. It was like something that you'd see in a horror movie, not that I watched many of those. The main difference, though, was that it was clearly not 'abandoned' or anything or the sort. There was a big water feature in the front courtyard, where a driveway wrapped around it. Old Japanese carvings littered the stone-faced walls surrounding the house and a traditional garden bordered the panelled walkways.
I probably would have appreciated the architecture more if I wasn't so determined to hate whoever set this up.

I remained parked for a few more minutes, waiting- no, HOPING that somebody else would arrive. It must have paid off, because somebody banged on my car window in the dark. Peering cautiously across the car, I barely made out some of the pale features pressed up against the glass. It was Daimon.

He'd put on more muscle over the years, but his height was about the same as when I'd last seen him. He was short, which seemed funny on such a sporty man. His face seemed mostly clear of wrinkles, though, which both surprised and infuriated me. He was about as handsome as he would have been in his early twenties, and to me, there was something seriously messed up about that. Not that I was envious. …Seriously.

A quick flick of the lock and the passenger door was wide open, Daimon clambering his way carelessly onto the seat and pushing his suitcase between the heads of our chairs and into the back.
"Hey!" He was grinning as he slammed the door shut and turned his head to stare at me.
"Hi." A cautious response, and I attempted to shift my gaze away from him. Something about this meetup made me very uncomfortable, and it probably had something to do with unresolved issues.

"You're…" For a moment, it appeared like he was going to say something sentimental. "…So OLD now!" Amazing. He couldn't seem to shake his stupid grin, even as I shot him a clear look of distaste in response to his lack of discretion.
"I'm only twenty-eight."
"—OLD!" He interjected boldly and immediately. Sighing, I channelled my silent rage into squinting out of the car window. Maybe if I stopped responding the way that he wanted, he'd eventually catch on to my annoyance.
"Heyyy, Nagisa, aren't you happy to see me? It's been years, after all…!"
I sharply turned my head to him, deadpanning.
"Not really thrilled about the circumstances. Sorry."
"Well… yeah, but still…" He trailed that off into a mutter, scratching his knee and glancing down at the floor. What proceeded was a lingering moment of uncomfortable stillness and then…
"So, uh, Kimiko, huh?"
At first it didn't really strike me as odd that he'd said that, but then it sank in. I'd never told him that I was living with anybody, and because of that, I felt a need to reply.
"How did you know that?"
He ignored me.
"Well? Are you two… like, together?"
"What?" I actually sat up in vague surprise.
"I don't care or anything, since it's been like, ages and ages and I wasn't really into her back then or anything—"
"Woah, hold on," I stopped him, "I am not dating her. I'm not with her at all."
"You haven't even…?"
"I'm not with her."
"Oh." Masaru went silent almost instantly after that, almost as though he was thinking about something. Though, it felt a lot like he was wanting to add to the conversation again after that, but as it turned out, we both just ended up being distracted by the high-beam lights from the limousine pulling up across the road.

At first, I couldn't see who was getting out on the other side, but I had a pretty good guess on who it was. Masaru and I both leered over to one side to get a better look. The limousine drove away moments later, and there, as we could make her out through the spotlight flooding from a single streetlamp, was a woman in a long silk dress and mink coat. Her pink hair was the dead giveaway, though, rolling to her shoulders in light, stylish waves. Kotoko.

"Is that Kotoko?" Masaru asked, gaping in about the same amount of astonishment as me. She looked… really good. I knew that much already from seeing her on the television, but seeing it in person was simply surreal.
She stood out all alone in front of the gates, purse clutched tightly in one hand and a phone in the other. She seemed thoroughly invested in it.
"I… think it is." I finally replied. More hush, the both of us just watching her in amazement.
"She… looks great!" Yeah, Masaru. We established that. I simply nodded, distracted for only a moment longer as another car pulled up. This one was also nice—just not on limousine level. It had a driver, though. Somebody got out of it and Kotoko instantly walked over to hug them. It took me a moment but going by the light hair… no way.

"No way." Masaru gaped.
"That's… is that Jataro?" I murmured. He looked so… formal in an artsy kind of way. But what struck me the most was that his suit perfectly fit him for once. He was holding a few plastic bags full of what I could only assume were drinks and stood close to Kotoko to pursue some sort of conversation with her. I wondered what they were talking about, but it was easy to figure out once they both started to look around in search of something. Kotoko pointed over at my car, suddenly, and both Masaru and I jumped to duck down and hide. There wasn't really any reason to do it, either—we both simply seemed to panic. When we lifted our heads back up, Jataro and Kotoko were headed toward the front of the house.

I hesitated. There was only really one more person left… and I had no idea if she was even going to show up or not. Great, and I suddenly felt sick again. Masaru seemed to catch on pretty easily to my tense nature, too.

"She's probably not going to turn up, Nagisa. I heard she was out of the country or something—and let's face it, with Monaka, a crime like this isn't really something she'd give a shit about." He was trying to be encouraging, but mostly I was distracted by the fact that he seemed to have a decent point. He moved to leave the car, pushing his door open.
As he walked across the street I experienced a split-second panic and grabbed the wine from the bag, easily unscrewing the top from it without so much as a glance and taking a big chug. The aftertaste gave me a moment of slight unpleasantness, but with that, I shoved it back into the bag and gathered everything together to take it out of the car with me.

Jataro and Kotoko were already inside, and let us in the moment they spotted us walking up the driveway. Kotoko began pulling us all into hugs, surprisingly chipper in regards to our situation.

"It's so weird! It's been such a long time!" She exclaimed, taking a moment to give Masaru a once-over before she actually hugged him. Jataro gave me a half-smile and went in to hug me without any hesitation.
"Uh… ten years, huh?" I pointed out, whilst trying to survive the gesture with a firm pat on his back. All of these years and I still had an issue with physical contact. Any improvement just went down the drain upon meeting Jataro again.

"Yeah, I was just saying to Nagisa that we've all gotten so old!" Masaru laughed into his words. Kotoko simply smiled and laughed alongside him, but something told me that she was partially irritated by the comment.

"Where did you all come in from?" I asked, shifting the conversation and my bag of things. I placed it down on a table by the door, and the wine bottle ended up sticking out of the top. Masaru caught a glance of it, but turned the other way immediately, as if pretending he didn't see it.

"Yokohama." Jataro replied first, "I own a gallery there, but I kinda fly overseas a lot for art events and thingies... S'pretty cool."
"Did you get a plane over?" I asked, to which Jataro nodded. Kotoko interjected.
"I actually just flew in from L.A. I have acting work over there. I'm essentially pretty famous, like, everywhere."
"Yeah! I see you on television heaps!" Daimon pointed out, "I got the train from Tokyo. Big game on Wednesday… it was on television as well! Ajinomoto Stadium… you know…?"
"Ooh, what about you, Naggy-kun?" Inquired Kotoko, probably using the nickname in some attempt to seem cute. I squinted in response to it.
"I live in Towa…" A pause, "I work for Towa Group. …Um… under Haiji Towa."
Kotoko screwed up her face.
"Um, GROSS. Lolicon fuckboy alert!"
I didn't reply. I felt the same way about him, but it wasn't like I had any other options.
"—Ooh! Okay, new question! LOVE LIFE! Who's hitched?" Kotoko chimed. There was a silence, and then she, herself, held out her hand to show a ring.
"I'm engaged. American guy." She smiled. Jataro patted her hand, awkwardly, like he didn't really know how to respond but figured that touching her in some way close to the ring would be decent enough of a congratulatory gesture.
"Congratulations." I said.

"Oh, Nagisa's living with Kimiko!" Masaru said.
Everybody turned toward me in surprise and I quickly shook my head. Way to make me feel victimised, Daimon.
"We're not dating."
"Oh." Jataro and Kotoko said simultaneously.
"Well, anybody else found someone?" Kotoko asked. There was a long silence, and then…
"I have." A higher voice, belonging to a woman halfway through the door in a nice green dress. She looked… ugh, how should I put it? Absolutely beautiful.
Her green hair was just past her shoulders, a diamond-crested headband that could've been a tiara on the top of her head. We all just took a moment to watch her as she entered the room.

"Monaka." We all seemed to speak in unison. She neatly closed the door behind her and took in the expressions on all our faces. Suddenly, she seemed upset. Guilty.

"Hi." She stood there, unmoving after that. I doubt any of us even really knew what to say.
"...I'm with someone." She repeated, seemingly a little unsure of her right to speak. "Um... do you remember Phillip? The SHSL Prince we went to school with?"

"I was trying to forget." I muttered, while Kotoko screwed up her face, almost as much as she had when I'd mentioned Haiji.

"We're married now." Monaka gave a nod, as if to affirm her words.

…And Kotoko lost it.

She immediately threw her expensive purse down on the floor, huffing angrily.

"Oh, would you fuck off?! I'm a millionaire- a WORLD FAMOUS actress, and you would think that I could sit back and be pretty damn satisfied with my awesomeness- clearly the most successful of all of us... and of course reunion time rolls around and MONAKA walks in with her pretentious fucking diamond headband and her... stupid pretty face and is all like 'OH, BY THE WAY, I'M A QUEEN L-M-A-O!' Yeah, like it's not even a big deal, like just- fuck off! Fuck off! I worked HARD to get where I am! IF ONLY you knew that I made 32 million yen since June!"

We all met that with stunned silence, before she grabbed the wine half-out of the plastic bag I'd brought and downed a bunch of it at once. Jataro, Monaka and I glanced over at Masaru to watch his reaction, but he simply looked at the ground.
"You're gonna smell like shit for the rest of the night." A mutter. That was all. Kotoko simply ignored him, took another sip, and then shoved the bottle into Jataro's hands.

"Ooh… oh… so this is why we were told to bring drinks…" Jataro figured, nodding in understanding. …And then another moment passed and he mumbled a small 'what the hell?' and took a very small sip. Party hard, Kemuri.

Monaka and I shared looks, and then quickly joined Masaru in staring at the marble floor with great concentration.
"Uh…" Jataro began again, "So, who is this mystery blackmailer, anyway?"
"Monaka." Masaru and Kotoko chimed in unison. Monaka first seemed affronted, and then just… remorseful.
"No…I didn't do this. I was in the picture, too." She was looking more and more uncomfortable by the second.
"Well, maybe it's a trick! The Monaka we know wouldn't have to answer to blackmail!" Masaru clearly hadn't changed much in personality since we were kids… but it was oddly endearing, and probably a result of all that intense sportballing and whatever else.

"It wasn't me!" Monaka insisted, looking genuinely frustrated. "Maybe I could afford it back then… but I have a reputation to uphold, now."
"Not much of one if you're married to Phillip, that fuck is an inorganic." Kotoko commented, to which I squinted. Did she just say that, or was I just getting really dizzy suddenly?
"In…organic?" I started, "Did you mean to call him an… ignoramus?"
Monaka just frowned at her again. Talk about a rough start.

"What are we WAITING for anyway? I have to be back in America by tomorrow for an important shoot—"
"WOWZA! Kotoko-chan is like… is LIKE… a BIG BADASS ACTRESS, NOW! L-L-LOOOOOOOK OUT!"

I could tell that we all froze at that. Like we'd been slapped. All of us.

I whirled around, feeling less and less in control of my body by the second.
…There she stood.
"Junko… onee-san?" Monaka spoke first. I could hear the trembling in her voice. My legs felt weak.

I honestly could tell you much about what happened after that, because the last memory I had of that night was Junko pulling out a firearm and shooting down the chandelier. Yeah… something about that still doesn't make sense to me.