Chapter 22 — Friends / Family

Yuri parked along the street. Mercy, in her black hooded sweatshirt, tucked her hands inside each sleeve and looked outside the passenger seat window. "Famous Last Words" was playing, and they sang along with eager emotional inflection, with the angst of a middle school student and the bloodthirst of a vampire.

The driver turned his head back. He doubted whether Yomotsu appreciated this; not everyone in the car was a My Chemical Romance fan. Yomotsu, however, looked perfectly contented. His mouth was concealed by the collar of his puffy red coat, and he was twiddling his gloved hands over his lap. The light in Yomotsu's expression was evidence enough of his happiness. He looked younger, and not just because he looked so small in his coat. He was absorbing all the life from moments like these, and when Yuri looked down at Yomotsu's feet, he saw that he was kicking them back and forth, like a child.

When the song ended, he and Mercy were left singing "Nothing you can say can stop me going home" over Gerard Way's vocals. He looked back at Mercy. She had a serious look on her face. "Home" meant something to her, or at least, it definitely looked that way to Yuri. She was twirling her finger around the pendant around her neck. He remembered how, the other day, she had referred to their friendship as "My Chemical Bromance." Yuri remarked that, between him and Mercy, not all of them met the qualifications for a "bro." She laughed and answered that the other nickname for their friendship was "The Twisted Sisters," and he was able to now accept the first suggestion a bit more eagerly.

My Chemical Bromance. He rolled it over in his mind. Was what he and Yomotsu and Luke shared a "bromance"? Not so much at all. He never dug himself deep. What Kotetsu and Barnaby had—that is the definition of a "bromance," and Yuri was about ready to say that such a friendship was not something he was interested in, when he thought about Yomotsu. Him and Mercy, then, would be a second bromance—a second bromance, with the young woman who used to date Luke. A friendship based on singing MCR and doing each other's hair and watching glanced back at Yomotsu.

"We still want to go here, right?" Yuri asked.

They were parked outside of Toys & Collectors, Graceville's action figure store. Yomotsu replied with humor in his voice, "But Yuri, you were the one who said you wanted to go here, to see if they sold a Lunatic action figure."

Yuri shrugged and said sheepishly "True, but… Not if you don't want to go…"

"I have never really collected action figures, but honestly, a Lunatic or 12th one would be pretty cool," Mercy said. "Either way, I'm freezing… We can decide once we're inside whether we want to be there or not, but don't worry about you wanting to go to an action figure store changing our opinion of you. You can't make us think you're much more of a loser than we already think."

Her teasing elicited a smile, and with that, Yuri turned the key and opened his door. He stepped out into the street, with the white snow blowing all around his frame. He went with his standard gray suit today, paired up with a white tie with a rose design. He opened the door for Yomotsu, and then Mercy skipped over to the other side of the vehicle and opened the door for them. The friends entered Toys & Collectors together, Yuri first, then Yomotsu, then Mercy.

It was a small store, but it was packed with products. The aisles of toys were divided by genre and then alphabetically by series. There was a special section near the "MISC" genre where real-life heroes were featured. The three drifted there first. Indeed, there were Lunatic and 12th action figures, as well as figures and cards for the heroes of Sternbild and HeroTV. It was a bit disconcerting, however, that nearby in the same section was a "Who's Kira?" board game and other pro-Kira merchandise. The consolation was that all of it was marked "clearance." Yuri's lips twitched into a vicious grin.

Mercy picked up the Lunatic and 12th figures, both put out by the same company, and held them up for comparison. "The 12th is so much more handsome," Mercy remarked. "Those muscles… And even the action figure has such confidence, like the real thing. You can clip various ammunition to his Transformation Belt. I'm so glad I just got my paycheck… Now I won't feel as guilty! I just don't know what to do with toys like this."

"If they are representations of the 12th and Lunatic, they must be put in a safe place," the 12th remarked as he held up an action figure of some rookie heroine named Anemone. "Kept in the packaging, perhaps… They will get more valuable as time edges forward."

Yuri was, in truth, a bit disappointed with the Lunatic action figure. It did not allow for all of the right poses and had minimal attachments and features. His took from the shelf a Wild Tiger action figure, and that one was much more promising. There were two different outfits, his old blue suit and his updated power suit.

"Shhh, look toward the door! I sense trouble!"

Yuri turned, and before he could question how the heck Yomotsu could "sense trouble" when the person had not even opened the door into the store, he was faced with a surprising and slightly disturbing image. At the door was a man with long white hair and a long, thins word in his hand. He was in a black cloak and had metallic pauldrons. Sephiroth had entered the toy store.

Worse still was that this Sephiroth cosplayer was clearly Rocco from Yum Yums. The wig looked ridiculous on him, and his body shape was not exactly identical to Sephiroth's. Rocco's sword was latched to his side, but he had his hand on the hilt. He looked around and said, loudly, "I am here for the Reunion."

Yomotsu tensed up. "He must be some sort of criminal," he whispered.

Yuri looked toward Mercy, who was nodding her head cautiously. "He looks pretty dangerous… I hope he doesn't see us."

"You!" Rocco unsheathed his sword and was aiming it at the man at the counter. "Where is the Black Materia? I need it for my Mother."

"The scoundrel is going to stage a robbery, or worse!" Yomotsu worried.

"I sure hope the 12th and Lunatic get here soon," Mercy piped in.

The two were huddling closer to each other. Yomotsu wanted to shield her, and Mercy wanted to be held. Yuri rolled his eyes. "Yomotsu, any other time your hearing would make the situation clear, but now of all times… Surely you guys really—"

"Listen, all of you!" Rocco said loudly, turning toward the handful of customers in the aisles. The three friends were in the last aisle and presently out of direct view. Rocco waved his sword over the sales end of the store. "I am going to gather up all of these toys and ride the galaxies on my Meteor—I have a one winged angel, and I will use it to bring about your death with my Mother."

Yomotus looked as though he was about to leap into action, but Yuri stopped him from making a total fool of himself. He grabbed him the shoulder and made it painfully clear to him and Mercy, "That is just Rocco, from work. He's not dangerous. Granted, I'm not really sure what he's doing…"

Rocco/Sephiroth/Sephirocco could then be seen walking toward the Power Rangers section. He drew the attention of the next two customers who entered the store, but otherwise, he bothered only people who were dumb enough to approach him. Yuri picked up his Wild Tiger figure and Mercy grabbed her pair of figures. Yomotsu went to the counter with nothing.

They paid for the figures and were about to leave the building when two police officers entered—and Yuri immediately recognized them as the same pair that had apprehended Wi-Fi Man during that first encounter last summer.

"THIS IS THE POLICE AND STUFF!" The plump cop with the gorgeously thick mustache said, aiming his gun immediately for the three who had just checked out. "PUT YOUZ HANDS AND DOLLS UP!"

His taller, bald partner whispered something to him, and the cop made an abrupt turn toward the aisle Rocco was down, eyeing a White Ranger figure. "HEY! Youz better knock it off! I ain't got time to mess with low-lifes!"

"Dats right," his partner echoed, aiming his gun ahead also.

Rocco froze in place. His mouth hung open. He dropped his katana and stammered, "Hey, guys, I'm only joking. I just came in here to buy a birthday present for my friend Garret and I didn't mean to cause any trouble, seriously, I can explain—" He thought for a second and then clarified, "Okay, I can't necessarily explain all of this, but, I seriously am just here to shop!"

"Hey! Youz shut it up, pretty boy! I'm sick an' tired of hearin' excuzes from people like youz, who think they can jus' waltz in and wave their swords aroun' and disturb the peace and not have to answer to the law! Just because ol' Eye Sore and Hand-Face are big league heroes ain't got pepper jack to do with this! Stop insulting me!"

"But I didn't even say anything about—"

"HEY! I SAIT SHUT IT UP! I don't need any more insultation from youz! Youz think the police are some kinda joke, eh?"

"No, I mean, really, I don't ever joke, never, never about the police, because I love the police—"

"Awwwww man, youz really don't know when to quit! What should we do wit' him?"

The taller cop coughed into his hand and then, raising his pistol to the ceiling, said, "Give him a minute to run."

His partner looked confused for a while, but then he began to nod furiously. "Yeah, yeah! YEAH! I like 'dat! Dat's why youz my partner! YEAH! Youz hear 'dat, pretty boy? Youz got a minute to get outta toyland. Then we'z gonna arrest you so hard."

Rocco froze for a few seconds and then, when it finally registered, ran past the cops in a flustered fury. He turned back to them and backed out toward the door. "This is why I don't like the police," he said, waving his arms around. "You're always against me! Always against me!"

Rocco turned and bolted out of the door, knocking over a display of Batman plushies. When the cops asked Yuri, Yomotsu, and Mercy about what they had seen, they all had to honestly testify that he had done nothing dangerous and, although they were unsure about laws concerning carrying plastic katanas in stores, nothing illegal. They had to admit, however, that they had no explanation as to why Rocco had dressed up like that in the first place.

Rocco proved himself to be the greatest enigma.

"It's hard to tell who has a Bluetooth nowadays and who is just talking to themselves," Olivia remarked, while she people-watched. "Sometimes I put one in so I can talk to myself in public and not get put in the hospital. I love loopholes."

Dostoevsky was on Yomotsu's lap. He stroked his fur slowly, and the obese cat purred. Yuri was at work, and Mercy was taking some time to take care of some odds and ends. She said she was interested in meeting Olivia, based off what she had heard about her so far, but she could not join him. That was fine with Yomotsu, who had not even brought subject up with her. He planned to see Olivia alone.

It was still early in the day. Olivia did not typically like to be up late. She most active in the morning, but that did not mean she did not have jobs for Yomotsu. There was some tasks she could no longer take care of on her own. They were taking a break from the housecleaning they had been doing. Dostoevsky was shedding a whole lot lately.

"That means the great spirit juju is active," Olivia had explained in passing.

In Yomotsu's lap, however, the cat seemed less like an oracle communicating loci of the ethereal mist with morals and more like a very sleepy old kitty. Olivia had been observing passersby from the window for some time. It was a nice day. There was some snow on the ground, but the sun was out and the wind was minimal. Graceville was content.

Olivia sat back down in the chair across from Yomotsu. He heard the ticking of the clock behind him, the clock that runs backwards instead of forwards. He had to bring the topic on his mind up with her, but he did not want to sound impatient or the remotely rude about it…

"Scientists are searching for organic life in the universe, with liquid H20 being the foundation, if you will, to compose its structure," Olivia began. "Now, being a scientist myself—a mad one at that!—I find this to be quite a silly endeavor! First of all, the organic chemistry is completely dependent on the subject's relation to its star. The only reason we are composed of H20 is that we are in an environment that can maintain this compound in several of its naturally occurring forms: gas, liquid, and its solid state. If we were to move the planet further out from the Sun, our liquid water could be found as any other mineral: a solid rock amongst iron or any other dense mineral. You see, the universe works on vibrational algorithms to dictate form, and as we work down to lower the frequencies, the denser the form becomes. Even the planets conform to this rule in our own solar system: the planetary systems could be seen as vibrational nodes. When it comes to organic life forms, scientists can hardly comprehend sentient life here'! We are stuck on a time scale with a very short observational tolerance, as our life spans are quite short compared to, let's say, the lifespan of a tree! If a tree was completely sentient, its movements and means of expressions would be completely beyond our grasp on relativity… So even if we find a life form 'out there,' due to the theory of relativity—that, of course, time is only relative to its observer—it will either work on a completely different time scale and not conform to the normality we see on earth, or it might be completely misinterpreted! It might not even be recognized as a genuine life form! Aren't scientists so silly, sometimes?"

Yomotsu had to just cut straight to the point, or he worried they would never get to the real topic.

"Have you found anything out about my parents?" He asked.

Olivia sighed. "Yomo… I told you I was still looking into it."

Yomotsu was not going to let it slide this time. "That was a long time ago… I am beginning to think that you are keeping this from me for other reasons, no offense, ma'am."

He knew that was offensive, though. Olivia did not have to tell him so. Hearing Yuri talk about his family, even if it was almost always in the negative sense, made Yomotsu more anxious than before to finally have some tangible family history.

"…I can't keep you blind from the truth forever, Yomo," Olivia conceded. Her hand found Yomotsu's and gave it a squeeze. "But, let it remain in your mind that they are only your parents in a biological sense—you do not owe them anything any longer."

Yomotsu nodded. Of course, he would have to decide whether or not the actions were right in his eyes. He knew that, whoever his parents turned out to be, they had not been there for him. To cast judgment without knowing the facts, however, would leave him incomplete.

"Your father was a Moldovan spy sent by the government to Japan. He took on the name Masayoshi Hirasaka, and due to the nature of his work, I have been unable thus far to find out his actual name. I know only what I know from contact with a friend of your mother's, and her information is limited to only what your mother confided in your friend about—which is more than enough to show that your mother trusted this woman. She told this friend not only about the story I am about to tell you, but about her NEXT powers. Your mother is a mind-reading NEXT. And a NEXT of that type, then, knows how to make friends better than anyone else… This should speak to the credibility of the source of this story."

"Your mother, Miyu, met your father at an izakaya after a stressful day at work. She had a low class job and never did aim to do much in her life. Masayoshi snuck away and wanted to find himself some fun for the night. Now, according to your mother's friend, there was a mutuality to this arrangement: they were intimate with each other, with no intention of a long-term relationship. They were, as you can guess, quite drunk and both in search of a release from all the stress from their lives, different as they were. What neither intended on, however, was Masayashi's pregnancy. And while Miyu's mind-reading powers might have ineffective while she was inebriated, she was able to discern later that Masayashi intended on not having the child survive. He did not, however, vocalize the concern to her but wanted to later in some way dispose of the child. He was willing to kill a child, but not a grown woman he had made love to. There was simply no way, however, it could be found out that he had done something like this. It was dangerous for him."

"The child took on the Hirasaka name, but his wife did not need her NEXT powers to recognize that he was not Japanese. Shortly after the birth, she noticed a shift in Masayashi's thoughts and knew that he was going to attempt something. She took the child and ran, wanting to protect your life so desperately—but Masayashi followed her and predicted where she would turn. There was a confrontation and your father, not knowing your mother's powers, seized you on the grounds that your mother had been trying to take you from him forever. He kicked your mother and beat her until she was unconscious. She was found later and taken to a hospital. She recovered but was haunted by the last thoughts she heard coming from your father—that he was going to abandon you somewhere, to die."

"But when she got out of the hospital, she never was able to find Masayashi or her son. She was haunted by the incredible weight that she would likely never know what happened to her baby boy. She died about a year later, and the friend of hers I spoke to said that she was losing touch with reality rapidly up until her death. Her NEXT powers went haywire; she usually could hear the thoughts of someone standing close to her, and she could 'aim' the powers at one person and isolate others. As time went on after what she assumed to be your death, however, she began to not only hear voices from people far away but also not be able to filter out other intruding thoughts. In the last month of her life, she heard the thoughts of a hundred people all at once, some quiet and some loud, racing through her head and preventing her from having any coherent thought herself. She was a thoughtless creature, walking through the motions of a normal life. She committed suicide by shooting herself in the head."

"That is what your friend knew. This matched up with what I learned about your discovery: that you were found in a garbage can, nestled in with bags of trash. We can presume that is where your father, Masayashi, placed you. When your mother died, so did his real name. No one I can find ever met Masayashi, let alone knows about the Moldovan spy. Your mother's friend tried to get information about the man, but by the time she had the courage to ask your mother, her mental state was too far deteriorated—she could only give vague details. Yomo, I am sorry… I am so sorry."

Yomotsu nodded.

"I'm sorry…"

She squeezed his hand.

Yomotsu nodded and rolled his tongue across the top row of his teeth. He sat back in his chair. His father was a Moldovan spy who impregnated a lower class Japanese woman and then attempted to the kill the child they produced. He was abandoned with trash, and his mother drifted from reality and became engulfed with the thoughts of everyone around her, because she thought her son had died. Yet Yomotsu lived. And he would never get to meet her. The only one he could ever meet would be his father, if he even was still alive. He did not even have a name. It is not like he could just Google, "List of Moldovan spies in Japanese history." There would be no Wikipedia page for that.

"Thank you, Olivia," Yomotsu said. He wanted to rise from the seat and leave the house, but Dostoevsky was still on his lap. The cat was deep asleep. But if he could leave, he would have. He just had no idea what he would do. The house was empty without Yuri. He could take a shower. That always helped his housemate, so he understood. But water could not rinse this feeling away—could it?

"Thank you for… For telling me the truth. This only confirms my resolution that this world needs more justice…"

Olivia could be heard shaking her head. "Yomo, Yomo—you don't have to act that way, with me. I don't want to talk with the 12th right now. I want to talk with you. And perhaps they are of the same substance, but it is this other side of who you are, the side that is my neighbor and my friend, that I need to talk to. He is the one who can figure out what to do, not the 12th. Your Diary will not tell you anything. Only your heart will."

It was a nice thought. Yomotsu smiled, but he knew she would be able to tell it was fake. "I simply… Do not owe them anything. And should I meet my father, he is… A stranger."

Olivia allowed him to breathe a few times before continuing his thoughts.

"I should not be surprised… I know such injustice exists. I am not in the darkness about cruelty. Simply, simply…"

The thoughts just were not processing. Dostoevsky woke up. Yomotsu placed his hand on his temple and scratched his head. Dostoevsky got off Yomotsu's laugh and wandered away.

"If you will excuse me," Yomotsu mumbled, getting up. He turned away.

"Last night… I met my multidimensional Self and had a huge conference with thousands of slightly different Olivias and Olivers," Olivia suddenly said. Yomotsu stood in place, with his back turned to her. Dostoevsky meowed his way toward his food dish. "We talked about string theory and how creating sustainable tears in the fabric of space-time could effectively create a communication line between universes… Turns out that in an Infinite Universe, imagination is the transfer of data between the local host, the individual, to another multidimensional self. I love weird dreams… Don't you?"

Yomotsu shrugged.

"I think there are certain people who function as constants in our lives. Invisible anchors to whom we are connected throughout all our selves, throughout all of space-time. I would say 'people and things,' but no, I think only other minds can connect on such a deep level. Our connection to objects and places is only a reflection of our connection to these anchors, and who am I to say that my love for the morning breeze is universal? What if I lived in a world without the breeze? But I could never live in a world without people…"

He slipped on his shoes. He turned back to look at Olivia. "Thank you," he said. He bowed slightly.

He went downstairs, to Yuri's den. He held down "3" on his cell phone and then put it to his ear. He watched the waterfall in the wall.

"Hello… I know you are busy, but could we speak for a moment? Oh, thank you… How are you?... Ah, great!... I am… Well… That is what I need to speak with you about, Mercy…"