Chapter 42

It was much later in the evening but Mikuo, Luka and Miku still had not reached the place Kaito had taken Len to. Mikuo didn't have any sort of true destination, so to speak. All he'd known was the general direction that Kaito had sprinted off in. For all Mikuo knew, he could be leading the girls off into a dead end or worse, even more trouble than they'd escaped from. In any event, perhaps they'd simply wander until they found themselves in an abandoned neighborhood or, god forbid, another forest. Mikuo forced back a scoff at the pessimistic thought. He alone, out of the entire trio, had to remain positive. He was the only one who could remain a tiny ray of clarity in their suddenly absurd reality. Even if the clarity he provided was false.

He wasn't a fan of providing false hopes. There was just something about telling people what they wanted to hear for closure that felt, well, wrong to him. The very idea of it was deplorable. It made him feel like a high-strung tax collector who went around collecting iniquitous taxes and fines. It made him feel like a dictator who went about and forced emotions on people. Saying something that he didn't mean as if it were a job, such a thing felt frigid. Then again, Mikuo was more often than not a realist. Such was the curse of those who had a certain perception about people. Additionally, there were thoughts that he needed to start stringing together. After all, it'd only be a matter of time until the girls bombarded him with questions.

However, when Mikuo really stopped to think about it, what did he know? He knew that Rin wasn't Len's childhood friend, and Len had actually found her chained up in that old cement house in his own neighborhood. That Rin had amnesia and couldn't remember who she was, where she was, or why she'd been there. Not too long after, some crazy scientist had tried to collect her and he'd failed. Despite that, they'd been more than willing to kill Len. Mikuo also knew that whatever Rin was happened to be abnormal. Rin was valuable and people were after her; dangerous people. The same kind of dangerous people who had just collapsed their entire school building. Mikuo had felt that Teto had known. That Teto had been planning something deceitful. Even Kaito no longer seemed like himself. Mikuo knew it all tied into the mystique that encompassed the agency. And in the bigger picture of it all, the mystique that shrouded Rin.

Where was the subject of all their peril and distress now anyway? Rin's absences seemed to be ironically and perfectly fortuitous. So many things weren't adding up, and Mikuo loathed to be in a position of uncertainty. How could he tie together all the things he knew when the prime factors were missing? There were huge gaping holes in the story for him that he could not fill. Furthermore, he wasn't sure that anyone at all possessed the entire story, which only makes the final story that much more of a conundrum.

They reached the end of the road before Mikuo had any more time to process the facts he knew. The path was cut off by a long river that raged the silent fury of nature and mercilessly tossed pebbles up in a violent spray. Strange, Mikuo didn't remember there ever being a river here. The community had always ended with houses that fell further into poverty and shambles as the community vandalized them. The area lay on an ever tilting edge between shantytown and lamentable residences. Regardless, there would be no crossing it. Mikuo didn't sigh aloud, but he sure as hell wasn't silent about his dismay at the abrupt ending of the path.

"I knew it," Luka said wearily, "you have no idea where you're going. We've done ourselves as much good as running around in tiresome circles." She folded her arms over her chest and cast an accusing gaze at Mikuo and similar suspicion at Miku. Her gaze held all the assuming calculation that Miku and Mikuo were somehow deceiving her. As if she was the outsider to some secret only they shared. "I'm not taking another step until one of you tells me what the hell is going on here." Then she planted her heels solidly in the grass. They punctured small holes into the ground, but she didn't stumble.

Miku's sudden laughter filled the air at a mocking frequency, "Didn't you see what just happened to our school? Isn't that clarification enough?" Luka shook her head. She scanned her pedicured nails with sudden interest.

"Well, perhaps something was in the air," Luka suggested. " It wouldn't be uncommon. I mean, the whole building shares a ventilation system-"

"So you're assuming we're drugged and hallucinating?" Miku interrupted.

"Doesn't that make more sense than assuming that an entire building collapsed?" Luka said reassuringly. Mikuo only wondered for a moment on who exactly it was she was trying to reassure.

"Can you be any more patronizing?" Miku criticized. "Our school did collapse, Luka. Two people caused our school to collapse. They were abnormal. They definitely weren't human-"

"Just stop!" Luka suddenly screamed. Her hands trembled as she smoothed her shirt, and then embellished her exterior of calm with a soft chuckle. "That's impossible. It's just not logical."

"And your theory of hallucinogens is?" Miku interjected, "Why don't you believe that something abnormal did this, Luka?" Miku furthered angrily. "You saw it for yourself. You felt the ground quake and heard it fall. How can you stand there and deny what you saw?"

Luka flicked her bangs away from her face and unfolded her arms only to fold them again over herself.

"Why would something like that happen? Why would anyone want that to happen?" Luka stuttered. "We haven't done anything."

"I don't know, Luka! I don't know, but that's what somebody has done!"

"Calm down," Mikuo said irritably.

"Calm down?" Both girls repeated.

"I'm sure we'll find a simple explanation for all of this."

"I know what I saw," Miku said, in a subdued voice. She no longer looked at either of them. "Len was a wreck."

"Because it's always about Len, isn't it?" Luka commented sourly. Never before had Miku turned on her so swiftly.

"What is your deal, Luka? Len was in pain! God, if you'd only seen him. He needs to get to a hospital! Tell me, Luka: are you in pain? Are you suffering?"

"Maybe I am," Luka broke in. "Not that you'd ever notice. You're too busy brooding over Len all the time and we never really hang out anymore."

"And why would I want to hang out with you, when you're so goddamn miserably bashing Len all the time?" Luka's eyes flashed. Her lips pressed together. From the look on her face, Miku had already begun to regret the comment. She was flooded with the horrible, awful feeling of having said too much. Luka no longer looked at her, and Miku didn't apologize.

"Don't you know how men are? Don't you understand what Len is? What he promotes?" Luka grimaced. "Or are you so childish to believe in him? So childish as to rely on a man for anything." Luka looked directly at Miku then. "You just won't get it, will you? That's well enough. You won't understand something until it cuts right through you. You'll never fully grasp the detriment of something until it happens to you. I'll be the first and the last to provide you some simply clarity then." The glare Luka shot Miku held no warmth. The gelid shock factor of it was on a higher scale than liquid nitrogen. "Len doesn't want you Miku. He doesn't and won't ever love you." Luka's abrupt laugh was as frosty as her glare. "He loves Rin. Even if they separate, he still loves Rin. Nothing ever ends, Miku. Ingrain these words into your skin if you have to because I will never let you forget them once I have said them. If a man doesn't want you, nothing will ever convince him to stay."

"So, I'll simply try harder."

Mikuo said nothing. He stood in Luka and Miku's taut and rigid silence. Luka walked confidently past Miku: her head held high. She passed Miku as briskly and indifferently as a defiant woman leaving her past behind her. It was as if Luka was the all-worthy sun and Miku was the bleak plastic rubbish that melted into nonexistence in her wake. Their Ying and Yang relationship had shattered. Only then had Mikuo realized he'd just witnessed a tragedy. It was because in the same way that Luka thought Miku was broken nowadays, Miku thought Luka was the broken one. The realization was so alien that Mikuo was robbed of any response he had prepared.

How could they be best friends? They viewed the world with such fundamentally different eyes. One thought that one shouldn't bother to chase love that won't be realized. The other thought it was foolish not to chase the kind of love you wanted: the person you wanted. And now they stood on opposite sides of who was right and who was wrong. They both thought the other was mad; somehow just not right. How could Mikuo respond to that?

"Walk." Is all Mikuo heard Luka say. He changed his course and walked along the riverbank. It was a wonder in itself that he didn't stumble under the weight of his new discovery. There is no further conversation behind him. He only hoped that there was somewhere down the banks where they could cross over. Why? The new silence was killing him.