"Mind if I take a seat?" A figure asked the man seated right at the bar.
"Sure." The man wore a smile. It would have been weird to say no in such a place, where everyone at least above the drinking age is welcome.
The figure pulled his stool out and was seated next to the man. Through the glint of his dead eyes, he noticed the person next to him was blonde.
"Is there anything you would recommend?" The figure once again asked him.
"Uhmm. What about an old fashion or maybe a Martini?" The man turned towards the figure. His hair was shabby and had a pretty handsome face.
" or just talk with the bartender regarding your preferences?" He continued with a slight smile, almost as if smiling was in his default settings.
"The place seems to be well off. I think I have seen some familiar faces." The figure went along.
"Hmm.." The man started to think to himself looking at the table countertop right in front of him, seemingly trying to avoid the figure.
"That's quite odd. Now I wonder how you managed to find such a place like this?" The man turned around back to the hooded figure.
"What do you mean?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
"Well. This place, I just seemed to have found it."
"Which agency or production team!" The man stood up from his stool.
"Huh?" The figure seemed to be baffled.
" I may be overreacting now. Let's just drink like normal people for once." The man sat down again. Till now he didn't seem to raise his voice, yet he expressed his strained annoyance through his sudden cold spine-chilling demeanour. His voice dropped with the act, almost as if he was a professional concealing or rather just simply wearing this mask of his. But the grim part was that it all seemed natural like he was an actor whose fate was to play this role, which really would make one wonder when this mask of his is being worn.
The bartender silently placed the drink right in front of the man. As he picked it up, and drank it in little sips, almost as if he took delight in it while being exquisite. He looked from the side, revealing his dark eerie star-shaped pupil in his hazy …. iris which appeared to look at the figure.
The figure also placed his order and watched patiently as the bartender tended to his request. As he waited, he seemed to sing a little tune.
" la..la..la..la..la.."
"Hmm." It seemed audible to the next person.
"La… Lalalie" the figure ended its mumble, turning its head this time to look at the man's reaction.
Yet nothing. Almost as if he never heard anything till now. The figure sighed like he knew this was expected, as he turned back, he heard something.
"Ever heard of this quote? If you fight fire with fire, you are just growing it bigger."
"I didn't expect to get a dose of philosophy in a bar like this." The figure replied smugly.
"I think you are mistaken here, it's all perception."
"Now that would be immature on my part to contend with it any further."
What followed was silence, as they both took the moment to enjoy the serene ambience and the violin playing in the background. One waiting for the drink and the other enjoying his.
"Who are you, exactly?" The man finally drank everything and placed his glass on the marble tabletop.
The figure got his drink and started sipping on it. After his first sip.
" Why don't you introduce yourself first? Kamiki Hikaru?"
Hikaru looked unamused as he continued staring at the figure, slowly changing his expression to an ominous smile with his mouth oblique up.
The bartender had already placed the two refilled glasses on the table.
"As a token for our newly formed and still growing friendship. Cheers." Hikaru raised his glass and expected the same from the figure. To which it quietly obliged.
Clank
As their both glasses touched each other,
"Now, from where have you ever heard me? And more importantly, who are you to find me?" Hikaru sounded bleak.
"Starting to slip more."
"Huh?" Hikaru turned back to the figure.
"That mask of yours, it's slipping."
"I don't want to hear that from someone who is purposefully trying to cover his face."
The figure chuckled lightly as he signally asked the bartender to pour more drink into both their glasses.
Hikaru held the once again filled glass in his hand, as he swirled the contents inside of it. He looked at the glass while he asked-
"You want me to be drunk, don't you?" while he calmly sipped on the drink.
"Yet you are still drinking. But let me say. I don't need my 108 skills to point out how far from the truth you are. I am not as cruel as you think I am."
"Then just tell me what exactly you want, you are cruel if you still keep me in the dark," Hikaru responds as if the familiarity with each other were deeply etched.
"Nothing. Nothing much. Just the fact that you reminded me of someone." The figure spoke as another person entered but with something covering his face, a bouquet of white roses.
Hikaru stared at the bouquet with wide opened eyes.
"Who would that be?" Hikaru asked with a tilted head.
"He has two names actually, you probably know both of them. Well, now he is well I guess, Aquamarine Hoshino."
As the man placed the bouquet on the table revealing himself, Hikaru stood up and took a step closer to Aqua, examining his face. The blonde hair.. even he had those dark star eyes filled with malice. Almost as if he was looking at a younger version of himself.
Hikaru was preoccupied that he didn't hear the other person laughing to himself slightly, which slowly started to die after both 'father' and 'son' noticed and stared at him
"Who keeps the name Aquamarine?… What a nice family reunion." The figure pulled a white rose from the bouquet, then he turned to the bartender.
"Can I take a seat with you back there?" but before any response the figure climbed up the counter and was on the same side as the man serving the drinks.
"I have been waiting for this day," Aqua mumbled.
"Is this how you greet your father?" Hikaru replied.
"You don't even deserve the title. A deadbeat- father has a better chance for salvation than you." Aqua spoke out coldly, his eyes couldn't be bothered to meet the man in front of him. All those years he spent cultivating this hate towards this man was for this exact moment he thought.
"Too bad, Ai couldn't discipline you before she was gone." Hikaru mocked.
"Shut up..you just couldn't leave her alone, didn't you?"
"Why would I leave my beloved? Hmm well, we weren't exactly married. Let me change this part of the script. Why would I leave my beloved Ai, the mother of my two children alone?"
"I am not your son. Ruby isn't your daughter. Ruby is the proud daughter of the idol Ai Hoshino only."
"Still holding on to everything dead? Please don't tell me that she is still alive in that heart of yours." Hikaru held out his hand and with his finger, struck out a cross on Aqua's chest.
The figure just looked at them with uninterested eyes, almost as if he never wanted to be in this place.
"Death would be too benevolent for you."
"Looking down on me now?"
"No.. not now. But I will be looking down on you, while you rot in hell." Aqua snickered
"Don't get too cocky."
"Why would I be scared of you?"
"Why wouldn't you?"
"If my memory serves me correctly. You never did your dirty work. It's always been someone else, so you will not..."Before Aqua could complete it, Hikaru grabbed a wine bottle and smashed it at Aqua's head. Aqua didn't continue as he stared while the red liquid dripped from his hair whether it was blood or wine.
It was a mess around him, with the glass shards shattered around him. The figure turned to his side and saw the bartender already leaving him alone with the other two.
"Dammit," he silently told himself.
"Yura Katayose.." was the name of the top actress who was recently found dead on a hiking path due to an intense head injury.
"I was the one who was grateful to take her precious life with these hands of mine. These hands are attached to my body.. but not only her, Himekawa." Hikaru listed out the names of all the people who he directly or indirectly killed.
With each name withdrawn from his mouth, Aqua started getting more disgusted with the man he supposedly shared blood with and a sense of disturbance. It was miraculous how this man was sleeping easy.
"Ai Hoshino." Hikaru finally ended with her name. Hikaru was smiling.. a grin. It wasn't acting anymore.
"You don't have any regrets?" Aqua demanded to know what was going on inside the man's head.
"Well, I do have one. I wished that stalker could have also gotten rid of you both before he was gone."
"All the weight of their souls, it's bringing me down, isn't it? It is almost like it brings me down to earth. Each time it just tugs me from below, it's wonderful. Like this intense feeling, I can't fathom how much joy it brings me. Their faces of despair, I want to mock them yet I also pity them and give them their destiny through my hands. Their burning bright futures.. extinguished just like a dying star." Hikaru was laughing with joy.
"And you seemingly think you are innocent." The figure spoke out from the other side.
"What made you think that?" Hikaru turned to him with a hint of curiosity.
"The white roses in your bouquets. they symbolize innocence and purity." The figure held out the flower.
"Or perhaps a new beginning, soon to be stained with red and black." It proceeded.
"Behind the colourful screens you all see is a colourless entertainment industry." the older man expressed a somewhat pensive emotion.
"Placing yourself only in the spotlight." the figure replied with rebuke
"So what if I want to be the only one under this judgemental spotlight."
The figure noticed that Aqua pulled out something from his pocket, so he got up and started walking towards the door.
"I have something to do. I bid goodbye." he stood right next to Aqua, they both looking in opposite directions.
"You are not going to help me?" Aqua said with a deadpan look.
"Laterwards… fight your fight." was the last thing the figure said with a reciprocated detached tone before he exited the bar.
It was a night without anything much could be seen except a single car that was parked.
Knock knock
There could be a knock heard against the tinted glass window, which prompted the window to go down.
"Director Gotanda."
"Ahh yes, over already? And where is Aqua?" Gotanda san, a man probably in his late forties stuck his head out the window.
"..." The figure just opened the door and sat in the seat next to the driver. He pulled up the phone from his pocket and gave it to the director.
It was a recording, he clicked on it. The figure silently waited as the recording finished and noted the director's reaction.
The director cold-sweated turned to the figure.
"He did kill them all? Sounds like something that came from a horror murder movie."
"And he enjoyed it… a hobby which will never end as long as more people come to this accursed industry."
"Have some respect for the entertainment sector, Hikigaya san," Gotanda replied with a hint of trivial offence.
"Respect. To something which blatantly makes everyone wear that fake mask of theirs. I would rather not." Hikigaya Hachiman replied with disgust on his face.
"Aqua must have done some deep thinking to let someone like you in."
"I wouldn't respect anyone who wants some pity revenge. But he is among the few who managed to grasp it. About me. For now, he made me his pawn. Not for long."
Ring ring
"Apologies My sister is calling."
Hikigaya picked up the call.
"Komachi. Yes, it's your lovable onii chan speaking. Ahh, what do you mean I am creepy, for that you are losing Komachi points. What do you want?.. I know you want something from me. Really? Nothing? By the way, Do you want a bouquet of white roses? Bye," Hikigaya smiled as he pulled out Hikaru's bouquet he got from the bar.
Gotanda thought to himself how both of them were sis-cons.
"And that's it." Hikigaya returned to his phone with an expressionless face.
"Did you just post it on the internet?" Gotanda got a glimpse of what was going on on the phone.
"If you can't kill a man. Kill his image and everything he stood for. But even in revenge, everyone is greedy." he spoke as if he knew a thing or two about social suicides.
"This is what he wanted."
"Yes.. the public is ruthless. They will devour him like a pack of dogs." Hikigaya Hachiman silently said it calmly, almost as if he didn't feel anything towards that man.
What followed next was silence, with nothing but the sound of the air conditioner running. The director seemed to have bought a pair of earphones and was vibing to the music.
While Hikigaya was looking from outside the window, noticing a flickering streetlight further ahead of them.
The sky was already dark.. with no light passing through the vehicle. Until a phone placed next to the Windshield was glowing.
Ring ring
Another call, as Hikigaya saw the name which flashed, he got up from his seat and left the car.
Walked Himself with his whistling and looked at the sky right above him.
What a beautiful night as he felt the wind passing by, returning to the sea. A knack of knowing where the breeze flows one would say.
Reaching a secluded building with just a yellow fluorescent bulb that was glowing, he pushed the buttons on an elevator and left on the mezzanine floor.
Turned to his left the door opened by him to see.
"I see. There is more mess than before." He said while looking at the back of Aqua who was busy kicking a body lying on the ground.
"He's dead?"
"I wish he was. Just unconscious or about to be.."
"How many anaesthetics? 4..5 "Hikigaya started counting the number of needles of local anaesthetics.
"You were trying to overdose him." He noticed Hikaru's wide-open eyes as his face slammed against the ground.
"I used all the needles I could grab onto."
"He seems to be wanting to say something."
Aqua ignored the statement along with the man mumbling as if he wished he was unconscious already. He wouldn't even bother to listen to his father even if he was pleading for mercy or it was his last words.
"Use the washroom. Clean up that hair and mess he made." He looked at how Aqua was in disarray.
Aqua agreed to it but need not say it outright to which Hikigaya took Aqua leaving the room as an affirment.
Hikigaya squatted right next to Hikaru's face.
"You ain't dying yet."
"You are one of them aren't you?" Hikaru said with a hazy voice, likely a side effect of the medication.
"…. He could have messed up that handsome face of yours a little bit more."
"..."
"...so I was wondering why you didn't kill your children in the first place."
"Blessings to the children…
My blood is purer." Hikaru planted a smile on his lips, his eye lids slowly closing and shut. His words conveyed a message it was never his intention to never hurt his children, it seemed so bizarre for a serial murderer to spare someone. A hidden reason which he seemed to persist to let out.
Hikigaya got up and took out a black cover from his pocket and started folding it open. He heard a click from the door opening, he turned back.
"He is finally…" Aqua looked at Hikaru's body.
"Yes." The reply came immediately.
"All my aces I had in my sleeve." Aqua told himself.
"He did some damage on you it seems." Hikigaya noticed the scars which became more visible on his neck and arms.
"A truly vile man." Aqua towered over Hikaru's body, the sense of superiority finally. He was looking down on this man.. Not his father but the manifestation of demons in the flesh.
After covering it in a body bag, they started dragging him through the door, the elevator and out of the building. Hikaru's body wasn't particularly heavy and with two people it was an easy task. From the floor to the bare dirt.. Finally behind Gotanda san's car.
"Oi.. open the Trunk" as Hikigaya knocked at the back of the car body.
It opened and they held the body high and placed it into the trunk and closed it.
They return to the car with Hikigaya next to the driver's seat while Aqua is seated at the back.
The engine starts as Gotanda san drives them right onto the next exit to the highway. Hikigaya simply sips on his maxx coffee as he looks at the window next to him. While Aqua held his head low, resting his head on the back of the front seat. It was like last time, him grabbing onto Ai' lifeless body, growing colder. But there was no one next to him.. It was his own body growing colder. He closed his eyes..was it the inner peace he was looking for? But before he could find the answer, he heard his name, someone calling for him.
"Aqua.. Aqua.." Hikigaya turned his back towards the back and saw Aqua all huddled up.
Aqua's eyes open as he stretches his back to the seat.
"What?"
"The video is gaining momentum."
"I see."
Hoping it wouldn't be long for the video to be trending. The last time they ever did something like this was with that journalist who published the real identities of the Hoshino twins, that they were only Ai Hoshino's children.
Journalism and acting are similar yet so different.
Acting is just making blatant lies appear to be the truth. While journalism is to force the truth through a bias and clout. Like a skilled assassin who makes murder appear as accidents.
Aqua scrolled to the post and its comments.. They were wonderful, cursing Hikaru to his death. Wishing him to never have been born. They hate him now..they will hate him. Waiting for articles to be published about his crimes. To turn Hikaru ,His company and his foundation to nothing but rubble. Killing him just wouldn't do it for Aqua.. it would be an insult to all those who died in his hands. It would be unfair to leave the public out of his revenge.. But if Hikaru died he wouldn't be able to see what he fell into.
revenge may be pitiful to others, but for him, at least he would at least be able to get rid of his hatred instead of keeping it all to himself.
But the look over Aqua's face returned back to normal from a devious cruel smirk as he also continued looking at the window next to him.
"Director Gotanda san.. I apologize for what I am making you do." Aqua expresses.
"It's nothing compared to what's going on in your life. Ai's script and her true self. I am grateful I am one of the directors in this movie." He replied with his hands on the steering wheel.
Hikigaya looked surprised at the mention of the movie yet returned to the window.
"So where are we dumping him?" Gotanda san asks.
"The hospital here with the highest mortality rate. And somewhere far from where she is kept." Aqua whispered the last part.
Akane Kurosawa, the person she was referring to. She had been hospitalized since that incident, he couldn't do anything this time. He had saved her once from a bridge but. He couldn't this time. Rushing to the hospital that day when he got the phone call. He knew he had no one else to blame but blame himself. Hikaru did it. Pushed her down the stairs.
Seeing her on a hospital bed got too much into Aqua's mind. They might have been in a pretend relationship, but it was really that she wanted to be safe and happy. 'Why was she so persistent?' he would think as a frown would be formed on his face. The same look was reflected by the glass window he gazed through.
Kana Arima was another person he had grown to care about.
They have talent. They have families. They have a full life waiting for them. Yet he would never admit his feelings, that was the Aquamarine Hoshino they knew.
It was a long drive to the outskirts of the city, where there was a hospital.
"This is the place?"
Aqua looked at the sign and confirmed. The plan was to dump the body right by the parking lot, but someone was waiting for them there.
The car stopped right when it was about to hit him.
"Someone, you know?" Gotanda turned his head carelessly to Aqua, while Hikigaya was inept in noticing the man's movements.
Without an answer, Aqua got up and clicked the car's door. Outside the car, he slowly approaches the person. Behind him was Hikigaya who also got out.
"Is it him?" the man asked.
"Yes.. president."
"Thank you, For letting me be a part of this." Saitou Ichigo bowed down.
"Ai.. he really….." he continued stuttering even though he knew everything about Hikaru by now.
The three walked to the trunk and pulled out the filled half-unzipped body bag. Leaving it there, they stare at it.
Ichigo san fell to his knees, raised his hand and started punching Hikaru's face. He did it again and again, he couldn't stop. Leaving no chance the other two pulled him away. They return to the car with the body behind them on the ground.
They could see from the back window of the vehicle
"I want to visit her.." Aqua spoke his mind. There seemed to be no logic behind it.
"Huh?" the other three exclaimed, almost surprised by his demand.
"Her grave. After all, this happened. Take me there."
Gotanda san knew there was no use trying to convince him otherwise. It was already too late in the night and there was a shoot tomorrow evening. But there seemed to be no harm in doing so. The cemetery would be empty.
Another 20 minutes drive took Aqua there, dropping him at the entrance.
Walking inside, the wind flows once more through his face. Disrupting his already uncombed blonde hair. With no one else but him there, he heard only his footsteps with the chirping of crickets in the grass.
Approaching the gravestone, he noticed the trees were silent and something fell on the ground. A dark feathered bird with its medium elongated beak _ a crow lying there dead. Ignoring it he reached the stone engraved with words which read Ai Hoshino.
He stared at it for a while. Sighing with relief he bent down on his knees and kept his hands together, praying.
Everything he wished for. The reason for his living all this time came to its conclusion. Was this the end of his story? Or is there still some more? Yet that lingering feeling inside him, he finally got everything he wanted right? Yet why is it here? the same weight that Hikaru wanted to obtain.
Was this guilt? Or was it just plain regret, it was going back to him. He had always avoided it since Ai passed away. Running far from it, guising himself in the rage of something being taken away from him. But without the anger, he would have essentially felt nothing. He realized that he didn't cry that day, while Ruby cried a lot, it was natural to cry yet he didn't, maybe because it would be weird for a grown-ass man to cry for his idol.
His aquamarine eyes opened, trails of tears flowing down his soft cheeks with a tinted blush. His mouth showed a twisted expression amidst his heavy breathing.
It was natural for him to cry after all since she wasn't just a top idol, she was his_
"Mother. Mom.." He spoke out.
It was the first time he ever called her that. Passionately like a crying child wanting its mother even though he knew he would never get a reply back.
Just lost in this mental turmoil.
"I am not a boy.. a man you think I you probably know that by now." Like he himself was trying to ask whether even he wasn't normal would she still accept him as family. He looked at the grave , almost expecting Ai to be there.
It didn't sound too crazy to him. A doctor who experienced reincarnation, the absurdity he had now gone. Maybe she is also out there, reincarnated . He could just hope for it.
Hope was a word which was strung around a human's neck, pulling them to somewhere. Better or worse.
Why was he like this, he asked himself. It was unlike him, wasn't he the stoic person he perceived in the mirror?
"I am a disappointment as a doctor.." he said to himself. His profession didn't match his actions, the very concept of a doctor was to save someone.. yet it did in some way, they bow down and apologize that they couldn't save this or that person.
"As a person.. as a son .. as a brother… Ruby hates me, do you also hate me for what I did?" Taking pauses with his self deprecation, jabbing himself whenever he could.
"Do you want to take back your last words?"
I love you, were Ai's last words. The words she had finally managed to convey them. But he soon realized he never told it back, what a bad son he thought he was.
"I love you, mom. Thank you for giving birth to someone like me." He did it, with whimpering and quivering lips.
Maternal love he received from Ai was wonderful.
Aqua heard footsteps approaching him from behind, he quickly brushed aside his tears and got up.
"Sons always tend to always love their mothers more." Hikigaya spoke, referring to Aqua himself.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well I lost a Rock Paper Scissors match against Gotanda san and Ichigo san . So I was the one to find and bring you back." Hikigaya thought to himself that older people are still childish enough to do the same tricks high schoolers did and why did he agree to it in the first place.
There was nothing else much to say as Hikigaya walked away, Aqua followed behind him. The same trail he came back.
Something felt something out of place, there was a crow perched on top of a tree, Aqua stared at it as it flew away at first glance. The crow carcass was missing from its site, Aqua noticed.
It was odd he thought, as they slowly approached the gate of the cemetery and saw the other two outside waiting for them.
"Over right?" The director asked almost as if he was waiting to get out of here.
"Yes," Aqua replied.
"If you need something more, please tell me." Gotanda looked at Aqua as he realized how he would never truly understand Aqua sometimes.
"Please tell us." President, well ex-president responded
"Augh.. fine please tell any of us." Hikigaya gave in.
It was getting stressful in the household. Miyako with her phone walking left and right.
"He isn't picking up." She was panicking.
"Onii-chan is probably hanging out with Kana, " Ruby said while seated on the sofa.
"or in the hospital with Akane." she continued with a depressed tone.
"He did the same thing yesterday. That boy." She kept her hand on her forehead yet showing her hint of sadness for what happened.
"But..it's already 2 am. And why am I caring about him?" Ruby asked with a deadpan tone still furious with Aqua exposing Mama's secret. It would have been a good one and a half months since then but.. She would never forgive him.
"He is still your brother. And why are you still up late, you have your first shoot tomorrow."
Ruby finished her training with the director Kaburagi. She is nervous.. Anyone would be. But she wants it to be perfect, the peak perfection she desires. Playing the role of her mother, she needed it.
The door clicked open.
"I am back." it was Aqua's voice.
"Where were you? We were worried." Miyako san rushed to the door.
"I wasn't." Ruby replied, rolling her eyes she replied while still seated on the sofa.
"I thought you weren't talking to me."
"Tchh.. you and that memory of yours onii chan."
"You aren't asleep yet?"
"..."
"Ruby. Please go to bed already." Miyako san said while she returned inside with Aqua.
"Wait.. Ruby." Aqua said while he was in front of Ruby who was leaving for her bed. He immediately hugged her. It was so sudden.
"Miyako mama.. Aqua is being weird."
"Let me be for once." he replied
"You know.. You haven't been this close ever since Mama.." she softened up a bit.
"I know. Mama.. I also miss her too." They both were smiling.
They slowly pull back from the hug.
"I did it again."
"What did you do?"
"It's nothing.. You need to get ready for tomorrow."
"YES! How could I forget.. ahh I need to send an email to school about the movie production."
With Yoto high school's performance act class it would be common for the students to take leave due to their work, but they would be required to send a letter regarding the matter.
"Ye.. I already talked to your class teacher."
"Huh?"
"I bumped into him."
"HUH! You met Hikigaya -sensei!"
Hikigaya Hachiman- history and japanese literature teacher of Yoto High.
Class teacher of the performing acts class.
"How could you onii-chan!" Ruby didn't seem to like him, maybe because he refuses to call her by her real name. For him she is just 'Blonde Bimbo'.
"Hmmm.. now you don't have to send the letter."
"True but.. What did he say about me?" Ruby could already start imagining the rebukes and insults her sensei had for her.
"Oh.. he just wished you good luck."
"Really that's all?"
"Yes.. also go to sleep." Aqua sighed as he saw Ruby scurry away to her room.
With ruby and no one else in the room, Aqua laid on the sofa, thinking about something with a calm look in his eyes and face, almost relaxing by himself.
_Hence he tasted bitter bitter sweet.
A/N:
Ok so.. I wanted to do something about oregairu for a while, so why not my first crossover.
So if you all have never heard or read oregairu, basically this Hikigaya Hachiman is a cynical guy, nothing much..
But why in a Oshi no ko fanfic.
Well I was going through the oregairu wiki and found something interesting.
Hachiman is a name of a deity, the deity of war to be exact. So maybe some implications.
And also the fact that I found some opposites between Ai and Hikigaya , regarding the matter of lying and genuineness.
But for now.. Hikigaya is a teacher in Yoto high and as a class teacher of his least favorite class.
Rest in pieces, 8man.