Kagami didn't close her eyes for more than two seconds for the rest of the night. She could still hear the gunfire. She could still hear the screams of that wounded boy. She could still see his flesh melt around his neck and throat when Miyakawa poured a full pot of boiling water down his mouth. She could also still see and feel Ryuji turning and slapping her across her face. Kagami had never been struck by another person before in her life let alone a strong young man like Ryuji and it scared her further in addition to the horrifying shootout she was caught in the center of.
As she rested on Miyakawa's lumpy couch with a smelly sheet covering her, she was finally able to start seeing her surroundings for what they really were. She had witnessed Misao Kusakabe's death firsthand, but it was a whole new ballgame to watch a girl she thought she could trust so callously take a young boy's life away and laugh while doing it. Kagami gave herself to Yuka Miyakawa. She thought that all her prostituting was helping her gain financial upper hands and she could spend her life with Miyakawa as lovers. Miyakawa was still the only person that ever told Kagami she was in love with her and that she was beautiful, but now Kagami was beginning to suspect that it was all a lie.
When the sun finally rose the next morning, Kagami's cell phone was fully charged and she scooted over to it and opened her contacts list. She immediately scrolled to Tsukasa's number and sent her a text message, still oblivious to her vicious ax attack.
I made mistakes. Can we talk?
Kagami knew that Tsukasa wasn't a morning person and it would probably be past noon until she would finally read it but that was the least of her concerns. The last thing Kagami remembered was she stormed out of the intervention and said truculent things to Tsukasa, including that she was expendable and easily replaced in her life by drugs. She felt immense guilt from that now and wanted to honestly make amends and even consider rehab options from Dr. Nagisa Kishimoto this time.
As Kagami stayed curled around her cell phone, she heard Miyakawa's bedroom door open and she slowly walked out rubbing the crust and smudged makeup from her face. She looked even more monstrous in the morning, but of course why would someone like her care about how society viewed her?
"Good morning, Kagami. Who are you texting?" She mumbled.
"My baby sis, Tsukasa." Kagami whimpered back, still fearful of Miyakawa.
Miyakawa formed a confused look across her face. "Tsukasa? Oh sweety…don't you know about Tsukasa by now?"
"Know what?"
Miyakawa tilted her head and chuckled slightly, disheartening Kagami a bit. Kagami saw what Miyakawa did to that teenage boy last night but still couldn't believe that she would be capable of hurting someone as innocent and pure as Tsukasa. Only someone with truly no morals and no soul would be capable of such a thing, but once again Kagami still couldn't see that that was Yuka Miyakawa in a nutshell. Still, Kagami was concerned when she saw Miyakawa chuckle over a possible news story that involved her sister.
However, before she could answer, Miyakawa's apartment door flew open and Ryuji stormed in and closed the door behind him. He was panting and was out of breath so he was obviously running from something, garnering Miyakawa's and Kagami's attention.
"Pack your shit! Pack your shit! We have to get the fuck out of here now!" Ryuji finally exclaimed, making Kagami panic as well as she breathed deeply and sweated.
Miyakawa was the only one who kept cool and snapped back, "Shut up you dildo now what the fuck are you talking about?!"
"It's Jiro! He's dead! Those fuckers killed him!" Ryuji yelled.
"Jiro? Itou's brother? The one who owns the pawn shop?" Miyakawa replied softly and still calmly.
"None other. Those gangbangers kidnapped him after their ambush on us last night and gutted him like a fucking trout! We found him hanging from a tree in Itou's backyard with his guts hanging out like Drew Barrymore in that Scream movie!" Ryuji added as he tried to calm himself.
"Wow…" Miyakawa began. "Hey I remember that movie that was a good one. Remember that scene where the killer slit the fat cameraman open and put his body on the news van so when that reporter turned the headlights on the windshield was covered in blood? That was hot."
"Didn't you hear a fucking word I just said, Yuka?!" Ryuji exclaimed. "The gangbangers have declared war, just like what that damn kid was talking about last night! We have to get the fuck out of here! They have us outmanned and outgunned!"
"Get your balls together, Ryuji!" Miyakawa finally yelled and sucker punched her cousin in his groin, making in yelp and fall like a stone as the frightened Kagami watched with watering eyes. "Now look, none of us are going anywhere. This is just a tit-for-tat between us. All we have to do is stand our ground and show them we're not gonna blink. This is our territory. We were here first and if we want to push drugs or fuck clients for more cash we're going to do just that."
"Yuka, I want out! I want to go home!" Kagami finally cried as this was more than she could take.
Miyakawa and the groaning Ryuji turned their heads to Kagami. Miyakawa smiled which frightened Kagami given the circumstances and replied in a sweet voice, "What makes you say that, baby?"
"I can't take it anymore! I don't want to be involved in killing people! Besides, this rash on my privates is getting worse and I think it's an STD! I don't want to do drugs anymore! I don't want to have sex with strangers anymore! I want to go home and be with my baby sister! I know I'll have to go through horrible withdrawal and pain and guilt but I'll endure it all if I can be with my family again!" Kagami wailed her eyes out.
Miyakawa's stone cold face illustrated no pity for Kagami's rekindling old self. Instead, she slowly shook her head. "You do not have my permission to leave us, Kagami."
Kagami felt her heart pound in unremitting fear of Yuka Miyakawa. She stuttered before she was able to reply, "Wha…what was that?"
"I said you cannot leave us, Kagami. You're my property now." Miyakawa added with a darkening tone as Ryuji slowly stood again while rubbing his groin as his cousin continued. "That 'special spot' between your legs is my property now and my cash cow. Everything about you belongs to me to use and abuse as I see fit."
Kagami was able to form a tear-soaked glare at Miyakawa. "I'm not your toy, Yuka! I'm a human with free will and I'm going home right now to be with Tsukasa again!"
Miyakawa grinned again. "Oh Kagami…Tsukasa is dead."
A thousand daggers struck Kagami's heart when she heard this. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it. "No, Yuka, you're wrong! My sister is fine!"
Before any of them could reply, Kagami's cell phone began vibrating. She had received a text message and she turned and dove for the phone as the two cousins watched. Kagami nearly ripped her phone in two when she opened it and saw who it was who texted her. She quickly turned and showed Miyakawa the screen.
"See, Tsukasa just texted me! She's fine!" Kagami cried happily and read the message.
I'm not allowed to talk to you anymore, sis.
Confused and scared by the message, Kagami began typing her reply hoping for an explanation while Miyakawa stood dumbfounded. She could've sworn that Kagami did her own sister in with that ax, as well as the rest of her family but it was clear that she was wrong. Miyakawa was a girl who always hated to be wrong or to lose, so she felt the anger boiling inside of her. Her paranoia made her believe that this was her older sister's doing just to spite her. To keep the Hiiragi family safe while laughing at her as she wastes away in the drug world. After more than a decade of unrelenting anger and hatred fueled by her rape, prostitution, drugs, and violence, Yuka Miyakawa truly and honestly believed she was at war with her sister.
Miyakawa quickly snatched the phone out of Kagami's hands before she could send the message, grabbing the oldest Hiiragi twin's attention. "Give that back, Yuka!"
"Like I said, Kagami, you're my property. Everything about you belongs to me." Miyakawa replied with a smile and a wink.
"I said give that back!" Kagami exclaimed and dashed forward with the intent to physically assault Miyakawa.
Ryuji however was there to stop it all. He latched onto her long hair and used it as a weapon of Kagami's own undoing and threw her into the kitchen, where she collided with the table and knocked over pots and pans for cooking drugs. Before she could stand, Ryuji stormed in with clear anger on his face and he grabbed Kagami by her head and slammed it against a pantry door, dazing her before slapping her across her cheeks as she yelped and cried in pain.
Miyakawa slowly walked in and saw her cousin beating Kagami senseless as she cried for mercy until she announced, "Enough!"
Like a dog obeying its master, Ryuji took several steps back and revealed the crying and battered Kagami Hiiragi curled in a ball on the dirty kitchen floor. She was trembling relentlessly as she slowly looked up with eyes that screamed pure terror and fright. Her cheeks were black and blue as was her left eye, her nose was bleeding, and her lip was swelling. She held her hands up with her palms facing towards them, both as a sign of surrender and a plea for mercy.
As she cried, Miyakawa giggled and bent down to her, Kagami flinching with each movement until they were face-to-face. Miyakawa stared at Kagami with a small grin until she said, "Let that be a lesson to you, Kagami. You're a part of our world now…forever. The only way out is death."
Her words were nearly inaudible but Kagami was able to whimper through her swollen lips, "You…you said…anytime…I wanted out…I could…"
"Oh yeah, about that. I lied." Miyakawa giggled again, creating a more gut-wrenching look of fear on Kagami's face. "I also lied about you being beautiful and wanting to spend my life with you. Look at yourself, Kagami. You're a soiled, disease-ridden slut that could even stand to drop fifty pounds. No one in their right mind would ever want to touch you let alone stand by your side and be your man. We're the only ones you've got. Without us…you'll die in the streets. I'll make sure of it."
Kagami's tears flowed down her discolored cheeks again and she tried to cower away from Miyakawa. The depraved girl outstretched her hand and placed it on Kagami's head, making her jump and tremble beneath the touch. Miyakawa gently rubbed her head and smiled a teeth-rearing smirk as she reveled in the fear and pain she brought Kagami. She lowered her mouth to her ear to further dig herself into Kagami's psyche.
"Aw…look at you. Bruised, bloody, beaten, and crying. You look just like I did when I first lost my virginity." Miyakawa whispered heinously and pulled away from Kagami's ear.
Kagami was so scared she barely remembered the one-on-one conversation she had with Kishimoto where she was informed that Miyakawa was raped by her uncle at age nine, turning her into the monster that stood before her today. Miyakawa stood again and slid Kagami's cell phone in her pocket and Ryuji turned to her.
"What do you want to do with her?" He asked.
"Take her to Teasers. I have her booked for prostitution from now until sundown. That's more than twelve hours of fucking so I hope you got plenty of rest last night, Kagami. And don't worry, they all like it rough so all you have to do is cry like you are now since you'll be doing plenty of that today." Miyakawa laughed hysterically and Ryuji bent down, grabbed Kagami by her hair again, and pulled the crying girl up and led her out the apartment door to take her to Teasers where he'd freshen her up with makeup to cover the bruises before throwing her to the animals again.
When Miyakawa was alone again, she pulled Kagami's cell phone out of her pocket and looked at the message Kagami was about to send to Tsukasa.
Why not? What did I do? I want help and
Miyakawa deleted the message and just as she was about to destroy the cell phone, she came up with a plan so evil that only her Machiavellian mind could possibly concoct it. With no sense of what she was about to do to the Hiiragi family forever, she opened the cell phone again and readied to text Tsukasa. The ideas she had in her mind; not even the darkest demon including Satan himself would be able to fathom such rancor evil that Yuka Miyakawa was about to bring to Kagami's family's doorstep, especially for Tsukasa. If Tsukasa would fall into it, she too would be forever lost like her big sister.
"If Kagami loves you so much, little Tsukasa, I say it's time for you and I to meet face-to-face…and for you to join us…forever…" She laughed evilly as she started typing her reply for Tsukasa.
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Tsukasa watched with broken eyes at the police officers walking through her home from the backyard. She never would've believed that her family would have to become one of those families where police were always called but it was now a concrete reality for her. Some of the officers even knew her family members' names by heart now ever since Kagami first went crazy and attacked them after Tsukasa discovered her sister performing oral sex on a client in her bedroom. Now she simply sat in a lawn chair outside holding another stuffed animal tight and waited for the police and insurance claims specialists to leave. A man and a woman dressed in professional attire with shirts and ties also accompanied Miki and Tadao Hiiragi around their home surveying the damage Kagami had created with her ax.
It was going to be a lengthy and expensive recovery process but the two Hiiragi parents had good relationships with their home insurance provider. They would pay for most of the damage barring personal artifacts such as family pictures that Kagami destroyed in her rampage. The police also took their statements and promised to write their reports. No one had to tell Tsukasa this but the police had no choice but to issue an arrest warrant for Kagami now. High on drugs or not, she still attacked her family with a deadly weapon and was loose in the streets somewhere. The police had no choice but assume worst case scenario and assume that she was still high on whatever it was that made her go insane like that and find her as quickly as possible.
Of course, Tsukasa immediately became fearful when she received a text message from her sister only a few minutes ago. It was a simple but true statement followed by an even simpler request. All she wanted to do was talk but Tsukasa remembered her mother and father's words in the aftermath of Kagami's ax attack. Tsukasa and Inori were both forbidden to talk to Kagami until the police could detain her. Despite that firm order, Tsukasa was once again caught between a rock and a hard place. She still couldn't deny the fact that she still loved Kagami and wanted to see her in rehab over a jail cell, but what happened the other day was nothing short of horrendous.
Tsukasa still dreamt of Kagami chasing her with that ax and even succeeding in hacking her to pieces with it, making her scream herself awake. Still, she sat in her chair with her stuffed giraffe and held her phone. She stared at the phone, still waiting for a response, if any, after she texted her sister and told her they couldn't speak anymore. Because Tsukasa was who she was, she still somehow felt guilty about being "too harsh" to her sister, at least in her own mind she was.
When her phone vibrated again, she nearly jumped in subconscious anticipation and she found herself quite surprised to see herself so excited to read it.
I know what I did was horrible, but I want to change. I want to go to rehab. I need your help. I apologize for attacking you like that.
Tsukasa was initially overjoyed to read this but her newfound cautious persona stopped her from replying with haste. She looked up again at her parents through the window and saw them bow to the police officers as they were about to leave. The youngest Hiiragi twin gulped as she was already disobeying Miki and Tadao just by sending the first reply to her but Tsukasa was a never-ending abundance of optimism. Still feeling uncomfortable with this occurrence, Tsukasa still typed her retort and sent it.
You've broken promises to me and lied to me before, sis. I can't take it anymore.
Tsukasa quickly closed her phone and hid it under her stuffed giraffe as Miki opened the sliding glass door and called, "Tsukasa, breakfast is ready."
"Coming, mom." Tsukasa called back and Miki closed the door again.
She knew she could only keep up this charade for so long and as she slowly walked back to the house, her phone vibrated again and read the message.
I know Tsukasa and I'm so sorry. I love you and I know you have no reason to believe me but at least meet me for lunch so I can at least see you again.
Tsukasa would be lying to herself now if she said that she had no interest in at least seeing Kagami again. No matter how hard she fought it, she was nothing but the complete definition and essence of love on two legs. Still, her intuition was telling her that something was still amiss here. The last time the twins were together one of them was trying to butcher the other with an ax and now she wanted to go to rehab just like that. On the other side though, Tsukasa could almost make her own connection. Maybe the full reality of what she did to her and the Hiiragi home had sunk in and Kagami could see how truly debauched she had become.
Regardless, Tsukasa still had to think about it so she stashed her phone in her pocket again and entered her home. Sitting at their dinner table scarred with ax chops and being held up by a phone book and several magazines, the broken family sat around and began to eat breakfast in yet another sea of awkward silence. They all saw the ax wounds in their walls, floors, and furniture yet they desperately wanted to ignore them yet it proved difficult as they were also eating on them as well.
"The…the insurance company says that…we won't have to pay too much out of pocket." Miki uttered, trying to breathe some kind of life into her family again.
Inori took a glass of orange juice and drank it slowly, almost fearful of quick movements in the quiet setting. She sat the glass back down and replied, "That's nice, mom."
Silence once again returned to the breakfast table and Tsukasa sighed, grabbing their attention. She cleared her throat and mumbled, "I…I have a question…"
"What is it, Tsukasa?" Tadao asked.
The family could see something was truly irking the youngest member and her initial muttering confirmed it for them. Tsukasa was eventually able to say, "What if…Kagami texted me…and says she wants to go to rehab now?"
Tadao immediately became impatient. "Tsukasa, have you been communicating with Kagami after what your mother and I told you?"
"She…she texted me this morning. She said she wants help. She wants to go to rehab and she admitted what she did was wrong." Tsukasa quickly retorted in a slight panic for disobeying her parents.
Tadao sighed. "She admitted that what she did was wrong? That's a bit of an understatement, don't you think? She tried to kill you."
"That wasn't my sis who did that. I could see it in her eyes." Tsukasa whimpered. "It was…those icky drugs…that made her do it. She wants help, daddy. Can't we do something?"
He shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Tsukasa. What she did was inexcusable and she's dangerous, even when she's not acting like it. We have to step aside now and let the police deal with this. If they catch her then we can go from there but it'll all depends on how much she'll cooperate with the police."
Tsukasa lowered her head. "Forgive me for disobeying you…but she's still my twin sister. I love her."
Miki and Inori hugged Tsukasa to show her love and Tadao sighed again. He couldn't stay angry at Tsukasa for loving her family too much. He took a breath and replied, "Tsukasa, you have to promise me that you won't talk to her or go near her anymore. Let the police do their work and if Kagami is being truthful, she'll either give herself up to them or cooperate if they find her."
Tsukasa couldn't argue with her father's logic and she promised to not get further involved in Kagami's decrepit affairs. Just as she promised him this though, she felt her cell phone vibrate again in her pocket. It seemed that Kagami sent another message to her and Tsukasa finished her breakfast quickly and excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she was secluded in the locked room, she opened her phone and saw that Kagami sent her both a message and a picture. When Tsukasa saw it, she felt like crying.
It was the same picture of Tsukasa and Kagami together in their swimsuits during the vacation they took to the beach with Konata Izumi, Miyuki Takara, Yui Narumi, and Nanako Kuroi. The twins were hugging each other and smiling happily on the beach and the pixilated image was a perfect window back in time to an era of innocence and harmony. The era that Tsukasa desperately wanted back. The message in it also tugged at Tsukasa's heartstrings.
I miss you. I miss us. I need you, baby sissy. Please help me. I'll do what I can for Miyuki, too. Please I beg you, don't leave me alone.
Tsukasa wiped a tear away and continued to consider meeting her sister. What could be the harm in it? Everything Tsukasa saw so far that came from her sister's phone seemed legit and heartfelt with feelings and nostalgic love. Maybe her sister truly was turning herself around and all she needed was a little bit extra motivation and support from Tsukasa. The youngest Hiiragi twin took a deep breath and feeling a rush of both shame and optimism, she texted back.
Okay I'll meet with you but you have to turn yourself into the police afterward. They're looking for you. If you love me and mean everything you said, you'll do that for me. After, I'll be with you every step of the way.
Tsukasa sent the text message and felt her heart beat rapidly within her petite body. She also gulped and waited in great anticipation for her sister's response. Every second that passed by was like a punch to the head and it was slow and agonizing but when her phone vibrated again, she ripped it open and read the response.
Okay I will. Just please let me see you one more time before I turn myself in. Please meet me at the French café near the Aku District at noon. I love you, baby sis.
Fighting back the urge to cry again, Tsukasa sealed the deal and promised to be at the café to meet Kagami and hug her one last time before Kagami would turn herself into the police. Tsukasa was so happy she was ready to start dancing but held it all in and saved all her energy for her sister. Everything she told Kagami was going to be the truth. She would stand by her sister every step of the way whether it was through a criminal trial for her attack on Miyuki Takara and her ax rampage, or if it was through rehab.
Tsukasa was already making plans to help Kagami. She would visit with Miyuki's parents and do her best to persuade them to not press criminal charges but rather agree to a plea deal. They would drop the jail time for Kagami in exchange for her completing rehab. Tsukasa would do the same for her family. Of course they would object to her meeting Kagami in broad daylight so she had no choice but to disobey them one more time but she saw it as an investment. If Kagami was going to turn herself in and Tsukasa would be able to tell them it was her who helped her sister, her family would go easy on both of them.
As the hours wore on and the time approached for Tsukasa to leave and meet Kagami, activity around the house continued to be sporadic. Tadao retreated to the shrine to clean it, Miki cleaned the kitchen, and Inori attended the house's garden outside. Feeling butterflies in her stomach, Tsukasa walked past her mother.
"Mom, I'm gonna go hang out with Kona-chan for awhile, okay?" Tsukasa weakly said and tried to make her lie sound convincing.
"Be back in time for dinner and have fun, sweetheart." Miki replied as she scrubbed the sink with her back facing her daughter.
Tsukasa said goodbye again and left the house. She saw Inori in her gardening clothes while also wearing a sunhat and watering the flowerbeds. As Tsukasa walked past her, Inori kept watering when she said, "Give Kagami my best."
The youngest Hiiragi twin froze in her steps and she showed a look of panic projecting forward into space. She stood and breathed deeply trying to calm herself as Inori sat the watering can down and took off her gloves. As she approached her sister, Tsukasa snapped herself out of her trance and turned.
"How did…how did…?" She stuttered.
"Oh come on, Tsukasa. I'm the oldest sister so I've been around the block a few times. You know you can't hide anything from me. The second you brought up Kagami at breakfast I knew you were going to see her. But don't worry, I won't tell mom and dad." Inori replied with a small smile and wink.
"You…you mean that…that you support me doing this…even after what Kagami did to me and our house?" Tsukasa asked with intrigue.
Inori was reluctant to answer at first but she owed Tsukasa an explanation for her choice to not rat her out so she came clean. "Look, Tsukasa, I've been having sessions with Dr. Kishimoto too and I believe what Kagami is doing is truly not her fault. Addiction is a disease and I know our Kagami would never even think about doing such things to us let alone actually chasing us with an ax. You two are twins so just by that you already know more about Kagami than I do so go get our sis back. We already lost one sister to a horrible accident, now you bring this one back from the darkness. You've come a long way since the days I was helping mom change your diapers, Tsukasa, and I love you and I'm so proud of you."
Tsukasa once again found herself fighting back the tears and she quickly hugged Inori while whispering, "Thank you…"
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The butterflies in her stomach felt like they were on a rollercoaster ride as Tsukasa sat alone at the foreign café not too far away from the troubled district. She sat with a latte sitting next to her and she twiddled her thumbs anxiously and even nervously. Tsukasa glanced at her wristwatch and saw it was five minutes until noon and she kept looking around for Kagami. She couldn't see her sister in the crowd of people passing by on the sidewalks but still kept hope alive in her heart and mind that her twin sister would make good on her promise to see her and then turn herself into the police.
To kill time, Tsukasa pulled her pink cell phone out again and began to look through all the pictures of her and Kagami together again. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane and it reminded her only of the good times. Now that she was out of high school, the whole experience felt like a dream. With some memories fading from her cognitive projector, she also couldn't help but feel envious for her other friends in Yutaka Kobayakawa, Minami Iwasaki, Hiyori Tamura, and Patricia Martin.
Those four girls were still in high school, a time that in retrospect seemed to be the easiest years of Tsukasa's life. Ever since she graduated, her life was dealt one blow after another. Her big sister was tragically taken away in a car accident, a friend of Kagami's also died, and now her very idol collapsed. Everything about high school seemed so much easier compared to the small taste of reality Tsukasa was forced to swallow so far. Now she truly understood the meaning of the phrase, "you never know what you have until it's gone" and that could be said for everything from high school to Matsuri and even Kagami. More than anything, the end of high school for her also meant the end of something else that was very precious to her, which she didn't even know existed until it too died with her graduation.
Innocence.
"Um…excuse me…is your name Tsukasa Hiiragi by any chance?" A female's voice from behind Tsukasa surprised the youngest Hiiragi daughter.
Tsukasa quickly turned and looked up at a girl standing above her. She had dyed blonde hair with a newly added blue stripe in it, pale flesh, a bit of black eye shadow around her eyes, red lipstick, and was dressed strangely. She wore black boots with purple and black stripped knee-high socks, a purple skirt that drifted around the border of the socks, and a purple crop top with an image of a black bird on it. She did however have a sincere and bright smile on her face which put Tsukasa at ease.
"Why…yes I am. I'm sorry…but I don't think we've ever met before." Tsukasa replied politely.
"Yes I'm afraid not but allow me to introduce myself. My name is Yuka Miyakawa. I'm a friend of your sister's. Kagami's." Miyakawa replied sweetly.
Tsukasa's guard was completely down now. "You know my sis? We're supposed to meet here to talk."
Miyakawa nodded. "Yes I know. You see, your sister isn't feeling well now and sent me to tell you and bring you to her."
Tsukasa's eyes grew a bit. "Sis isn't feeling well? Why didn't she text me or something?"
Miyakawa shrugged with confidence. "I guess because she trusts you and because she trusts me. Kagami was also throwing up a bit and she was going on and on about wanting to get clean and that you were coming. She wanted me to meet you here and take you to her. Your sister has long hair divided into twin pigtails and is what we otakus refer to as a tsundere."
For some reason, Tsukasa's sixth sense was telling her that something was also amiss about this girl. She couldn't put her finger on it but something was telling her not to trust her and even stand and run away. Still, Miyakawa knew details about Kagami that only her friends knew, like her hairstyle and Tsukasa felt a little more at ease when she said tsundere just like Konata. Tsukasa tried to keep an open mind about this girl's overall appearance since she always kept an open mind for Konata in the past and decided to trust this girl identifying herself as Yuka Miyakawa.
Tsukasa stood and followed the smiling girl, whose tone was also soft and smooth, just like Miyuki's or her mother's. The two girls walked side-by-side into the decrepit part of town that was responsible for Kagami's entire downfall and Miyakawa led Tsukasa down an alternate path. To keep Tsukasa calm and unsuspecting of what she was walking into, Miyakawa kept asking her questions about herself and was able to get her to open up about a few topics. What won Tsukasa over with regards to how she felt about Miyakawa was when the acting psychopath innocently confessed that she still slept with a stuffed cat at night.
After walking for twenty minutes and talking about mindless topics, Miyakawa and Tsukasa arrived at a brick building's rear entrance. Miyakawa unlocked the door with a key and opened the door, allowing Tsukasa to walk in first into the dark hallway. As the youngest Hiiragi twin walked in, she had no idea what building she was in. She was in the dressing room of Teasers but this wasn't her ultimate destination. Her setup was waiting for her in the bottom level where all the rooms were stretched throughout a moldy corridor and where also Kagami was and being held down and forced to perform acts on clients.
"Um…Miyakawa-san…where are we?" Tsukasa innocently asked as she turned and looked at the girl, who was still looking outside as she closed the door slowly.
"Well, Tsukasa, now that you're here…I can finally fulfill all my fantasies. How lovely." Miyakawa replied while forming a toothy grin of unprecedented evil and Tsukasa's still oblivious face suddenly disappeared behind the rusty iron door and the psychotic girl locked it. No one was around to hear Tsukasa's screams.
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Lunch time came and went, as did the rest of the afternoon around Saitama. With the evening fast approaching, Inori finished helping her father attend the shrine and as the two walked side-by-side, the oldest Hiiragi daughter couldn't help but glance at her watch. It was quickly approaching dinner time and Tsukasa still wasn't home yet. To Inori, this could be both a good or a bad sign. It could be good in the theory that maybe Tsukasa walked with Kagami to the police station and was supporting her decision to hand herself over to the authorities. However, it unfortunately had more potential to be bad. Anything could've happened to Tsukasa even with barring Kagami from the picture.
When Inori and Tadao returned to their house, Miki was busy setting the table and Inori could see her mother glancing at the kitchen clock every few seconds wondering the same thing she was. Both Miki and Tadao were still oblivious to the earlier actions Tsukasa had taken and Inori was becoming more scared. She hadn't heard from Tsukasa at all since she left the house in the early afternoon.
"Tsukasa still hasn't come home yet?" Tadao asked with curiosity. "That's not like her."
"Yes that is quite unusual for her but at least she's with friends." Miki replied.
As Miki brought a large plate of food to the table, the house phone began ringing, prompting Miki to walk towards it. "That's probably her. She probably just lost track of time; now that sounds like her."
Tadao and Inori giggled to themselves and Inori felt a brief wave of relief. That did indeed sound like a habit of Tsukasa's so she wasted no more time in passing food around. She assembled herself a salad but when Miki quickly returned and showed her face, Inori and Tadao knew there was something wrong. The look on Miki's face illustrated everything.
"That was Konata-chan on the phone. She was calling hoping to speak to Tsukasa. Tsukasa told me earlier today she was going to visit Konata-chan." Miki tried to hide her rising level of panic.
Without further hesitation, Tadao stood and took the landline phone from Miki's hand and dialed Tsukasa's cell phone number. He was determined to get to the bottom of this once and for all. With every passing dial tone however, both his frustration and worriment rose. As Miki inched closer to her husband, she finally heard a girl's voice on the other side but when Tadao formed a perplexed look of his own, she knew something was still wrong.
Miki heard the beep on the other side but Tadao quickly hung up with an even more puzzled and worried look. "Well who was it? Was it Tsukasa?" Miki asked with haste.
"Uh…no. It was somebody else. It was another girl's voice. Here, I'll call again and you can listen." Tadao replied and dialed the number again.
Miki took the phone and put it to her ear. When she saw Inori also come close with intrigue, Miki took the phone away and put it on speaker. The three Hiiragi family members huddled around the phone and stared at it as the dial tones kept coming until the outgoing message picked up.
"You have reached Tsukasa Hiiragi's phone and she is unable to answer your call right now. Please leave a message at the beep and she'll receive your message as soon as I cut it into her flesh!" The girl's voice said and started laughing hysterically until it beeped.
The voice belonged to Yuka Miyakawa.