The sun was too bright on for Kusanagi's eyes, so he hurried his steps to HOMRA.
When the bell clinks as he opens the door, he was shocked. The bar was blaring with fragrant floral smells.
"What ..."
"Welcome back, Kusanagi-san!", greeted Tatara.
That rascal ...
Kusanagi sighs as he placed the paper bag filled with drinks at the bar. There were flower pots decorating it now.
"What is it now?", asked Kusanagi.
"We decided to do ikebana now!", answered Tatara happily.
"We?"
"Not exactly we. But Nemu-chan seems pretty interested in flowers and turns out to have a vast knowledge of flowers and ikebana. So I decided to try it out too."
There were 2 flower pots on the bar. One with a neat arrangement and one with messy and abstract one. With Tatara's explanation, Kusanagi didn't have to ask which one is whose. Kusanagi looked closer at the neat flower arrangements.
"Flowers, huh...", he mumbled
Tatara sat on the bar, watching Kusanagi. The bar was quiet that day since the noisy ones are out. Mikoto was upstairs resting.
"Maybe she's a florist before?", asked Kusanagi.
"Florist, huh. Good guess. Well we're behind it now. It doesn't matter anymore."
"How long has it been ..."
"3 months.", answered Tatara with a smile.
Kusanagi moved the flowers to a better position, somewhere the sun shines on it. He sighs again because next day he'll have to clean up again. But he's somehow used to it. Tatara and his habit of picking up new hobbies and dropping it not long after.
"You really found yourself a match. She kept up with you trying everything."
"I told you, she's always curious."
"But she's more diligent that you. She kept trying while you just drop it.", complained Kusanagi.
Tatara's 'legacy' on the bar keeps increasing in number. Kusanagi looked around his prized bar. It was quiet that day, and it was odd. They don't usually have quiet times.
"Speaking of her, where's Anna and Nemu?", asked Kusanagi.
"They went out. Nemu found a new company and Anna preferred her over me.", Tatara said while feigning sadness.
It may have been a mere 3 months since Nemu was part of Homra. For some reason, everyone really welcomed her. Maybe it was because of Tatara, or maybe it was because how everyone sees her as a pure soul. In one way or another, she was a bit like Anna.
It was weird to see Nemu and Tatara since one was too outgoing and one was quiet, but that's what they say about true love, they complete each other.
"I was thinking that we should go plan out Anna's surprise birthday party!", shouted Tatara.
Kusanagi and Nemu who was standing behind the bar was surprised with the members' excited reply. Tatara sat on a round table like he was directing a meeting.
"It's Anna's birthday soon?", asked Nemu.
"Yeah, she's turning 11.", answered Kusanagi.
"How nice."
Kusanagi was worried how they'll keep it as a surprise since they'll spill their plan anyway. Yata gave an even more absurd proposition of making it even more extravagant than Anna can imagine so she'll still be surprise even if she knew about the surprise.
Tatara of course gave an even more absurd plan.
"Then first let's make a cake around 5 meters tall!"
Nemu smiled as she looked at how happy Tatara is when he is with the other members. And how everyone at Homra seems to look like a very tight-knit family.
She wasn't an official Homra member with Red powers, she can't be one of them. But they still treat her like she's part of the family. And how they love Anna as their youngest was beautiful in their own way.
Kusanagi kept thwarting the absurd plans the member came up with. At that moment, he is the most logical person in the person.
"We give her one red rose at a time. Then once all of us have given it, Anna will be holding a bouquet of roses in her arms.", Kusanagi said.
"Good idea! Of course we should have King to do it too!", Tatara said.
Everyone finally agreed to the plan Kusanagi came up with.
"I can ask the friends from the Ikebana club for the flowers, so we can make it a special one.", Nemu said.
All the excited eyes went to Nemu. Tatara smiled proudly to her.
"That's a good idea."
"As expected from Nemu-san!"
In the end, the members depart with their own tasks. Yata decided to cook for the party food with Kamamoto trailing behind him and Eric went looking for red-colored presents. Nemu picked up the roses with Tatara.
"Kusanagi-san, have you texted King to meet us at the izakaya?", asked Tatara.
Kusanagi, Tatara and Nemu walked through the narrow alley. Tatara's hand kept holding Nemu's. A habit that Kusanagi was annoyed at first because it made him look like a third wheel.
"I think I'll be heading home first.", Nemu-said.
"Eh? Why?", asked Tatara.
"I was thinking of making a special bouquet for Anna. A present from me."
"Ahhh, that's not fair. She'll like yours better than ours.", grunted Tatara,"Why don't you make one for me instead."
"No! This is for Anna."
Tatara reached inside his pocket and gave Nemu a set of keys.
"Here. Be careful heading home, okay.", Tatara said.
Nemu nodded and left the two.
Kusanagi and Tatara then continued their way to the izakaya.
"Ah? Birthday?", Mikoto asked in daze.
"Yep! So the plan is that all of Homra members will give her a red rose that day.", explained Tatara.
"Make sure to congratulate her.", reminded Kusanagi.
Mikoto sips his sake and looked towards Kusanagi and Tatara, finding something odd.
"Where is ..."
"She went home already, making a bouquet of her own. She won't want to be disturbed."
As they finish their drink and the sky was dark. The trio exits the izakaya. Mikoto and Kusanagi was going back to Homra, but Tatara went the other way.
"Ah, head back first. I'm going to drop by the convenience store. Nemu texted me to go and grab some things.", Tatara said.
"Oh, okay. See you later."
Tatara went separate ways with Mikoto and Kusanagi. And as he tread his ways, a silver haired boy passes ways with him. The boy stopped and looked at him with dazed eyes.
"Look, the stars and the city's lights are beautiful."
Tatara took Mikoto with him as he went to take some night shots. Mikoto was on his way to buy cigarettes, so he got dragged along.
"What is that red thing?", Mikoto asked.
Among the city lights there were a number of small red light appearing.
"Hmm? Ah, that's the PDA's lights. There's an app called 'Candle' which lets you light up the PDA in red color and people say that you can see the light from extremely faraway.", explained Tatara.
Mikoto looked as Tatara lit up his PDA in red color himself and lifts his PDA up to the sign.
"What are you doing?", asked Mikoto again.
"Sending a sign to the aircraft. There's an urban legend that states when someone who is suffering, points their candle at an aircraft, those above the earth will rescue them."
Mikoto looked up at the night sky together with Tatara as the red light keeps pointing at the aircraft above them.
"Are you suffering?"
"It's not me.", Tatara answered slowly.
"What?"
"It's Nemu. There were a number of times I found her up in the middle of the night, just looking outside. She had this expression in her eyes I cannot tell. I never asked her about it, I couldn't bring myself to. So I thought maybe she had something of her own and I hoped that someone would be able to rescue her."
The Himmelreich moves forward slowly from the point of view of the ones on the ground. Mikoto kept looking at it.
"That is..."
"Yes, that's the one the first king rides."
"Are you interested in aircrafts now?", Mikoto asked Tatara.
"No. I have you, I have Nemu, I have Anna and everyone else in Homra. I'm not interested in the things floating above earth."
Mikoto gave no reply to Tatara's statement but he was satisfied with it in his heart. The silence between them was filled with crackling sound of Mikoto's cigarette.
Mikoto went downstairs after Anna wishes him good night. She looked like she was in a good mood.
"Oh Mikoto, has Anna fallen asleep?", asked Kusanagi.
"Yeah."
Tatara reached for a rose from the stack on the table. Nemu had left it there with all the other roses for the Homra members. He handed one of it to Mikoto.
"Then King, here. Pass it to Anna tomorrow and don't forget to say happy birthday.", reminded Tatara.
Mikoto, much to Kusanagi's surprise, obediently took the flower.
"Oh, aren't you being obedient!", Kusanagi said in surprise.
"Keep Anna upstairs until noon tomorrow. We'll get ready for the party around that time.", said Tatara.
Yata and Kamamoto was still there at the bar. Tatara stood up and approached him.
"Kusanagi-san, do you need help with anything else?", asked Tatara.
"Ah, if there's any work left, I'll do it!", Yata answered excitedly.
"Really? Then help me file away these plates."
"Okay!"
"Then after I finish my errand, I'll head home."
"Errand? Is something up? Nemu?", asked Kusanagi.
Mikoto and Kusanagi looked at Tatara in surprise as he picks up his came.
"No, you see I prepared a giant cake!"
"WHAT?"
"It wasn't possible actually. You know the other day we got to see the candle light? I thought it made the entire city look like a cake with candles. It's not much but I wanted to show it to Anna tomorrow.", explained Tatara.
"Ah I see.", Kusanagi replied.
As Tatara left the bar, the four said their goodbyes.
"Don't sleep in tomorrow.", said Yata.
"Be careful heading home.", said Kusanagi.
"Yep! See you tomorrow."
See you tomorrow
Nemu woke up to the cold feeling. She had fallen asleep.
She looked to her side, proud to find her bouquet nice and neat.
This is odd. She looks around. The room has left unchanged since she arrived. Tatara hasn't come home yet.
It's 00:08.
Maybe he's still preparing for Anna's birthday party? She went to check her phone, no messages. Weird, he'll let her know if he'll be home late.
She dialed Tatara's number.
"Totsuka-san ..."
Yata couldn't stop himself from crying. He just lot someone dear to him.
Kusanagi had ended his call with Mikoto. Then, a vibrating was heard.
Yata went to look for the source. Tatara's bloodied phone lit up beside him. Yata approached to phone to look closer at it.
'Nemu'
"Ku...Kusanagi-san... Nemu-san... Nemu-san...she is calling."
Kusanagi went pale. This is an even harder news to break.
"Don't answer it.", Kusanagi said.
He pressed another number on his phone.
"Kamamoto, go to Tatara's place and make sure Nemu doesn't go out."
Nemu's heartbeat went up. Tatara hasn't answered her call. Twice. Why does she has this bad feeling?
It's the middle of the night, it's dangerous to go out. But she'll be fine right?
She changed her clothes and grab a coat.
As she went down, he found Kamamoto standing outside.
"Kamamoto-kun.", she called.
Kamamoto jolted by surprise as if he just saw a ghost.
"Nemu-san, where are you going?", Kamamoto asked in a low voice.
"I'm going back to Homra. Tatara isn't home yet. Have you seen him?"
Kamamoto's face went stiff and pale. Nemu found something odd with Kamamoto.
"Please just wait at home, Nemu-san."
"What's going on?", asked Nemu.
Kamamoto wasn't keeping eye contact with Nemu. It's like he was hiding something from her. Nemu doesn't like this.
"Kamamoto-kun, what is going on?", asked Nemu again.
"Please, Nemu-san! Don't go back to Homra now!"
The word, the warning, every single thing about it. It was like a rush of electricity just struck her powerless. All the bad feelings rushed into her.
"Ka... Kamamoto-kun ... Tell me... what happened... Or I swear... I ... I..."
Nemu had her finger pointed out at Kamamoto, but she couldn't keep it. She was too weak, she was trembling greatly.
It was at that moment, she made a resolve. She had to go. She had to run.
"Nemu-san!"
She ran through the roads, not thinking, not caring that Kamamoto was yelling her name behind her. As Homra came into view. She increases her speed.
Why does it seems like Homra is getting far away?
Her vision went blur, it doesn't just went blur, it spins and spins and spins.
It was getting harder to breathe, as if someone choked her.
Tatara
The last thing she remembered was the hard concrete on her face.
Bad dreams... Bad feelings... Sad dreams ... Sad feelings...
Those things jolted Nemu out of her sleep. She scanned around.
It was one of the bedroom in Homra, okay.
She got a blanket, okay.
Mikoto.
Mikoto sat on a chair next to her. As if he has been watching over her.
"Mikoto-san, I had a bad dream."
Nemu sat up on the bed, letting the blanket fell to her lap.
"That's not a dream.", answered Mikoto.
It was the real thing. The bad feelings were real. Everything was.
She stood up immediately and tried for the door. Mikoto's arm got her first. He was too strong for her to fight back.
"Mikoto-san... Please... Let..me...go..."
Nemu begged with tears flowing heavily. Why is this happening?
Mikoto stood up with his hand still tight on Nemu's arm. He dragged her out and down the stairs.
But as they reached half of the stair case, Nemu tried to stop. She leaned back, trying to stop Mikoto.
She can hear the sounds of Homra members, she wasn't ready for this.
"Mikoto-san, stop. Stop. Please stop!"
But Mikoto was too strong, or maybe Nemu went weak. Maybe she lost all her energy.
As they reached downstairs, Kusanagi was even more shocked to find Mikoto dragging Nemu with her.
"Mikoto! Why did you bring her here?!", cried Kusanagi.
Nemu couldn't hear anything. All her attention was focused on the bloodied body on the living room. No one need to tell her who. No one need to tell her why. It doesn't matter.
"NO!"
With all her force, Nemu pulled her arm away from Mikoto's grasp and ran outside.
She got nowhere to go. Only one.
Back to the Gold King.