Author's Note: We're (sort of) back to Hisayo and Toshiko. I haven't written about them in a long time. I almost feel bad that I haven't been using them how I want. I might have to change that in the near future. We also get a little more back story about Kitano and his friend, Kubo. Their relationship will become crucial to the story. I also added in some ideas that I have been sitting on for quite some time. There are two more weeks until this season is over. I already have this year's omake planned. Don't forget to check out Wonderland Bites while you're at it. The next one is coming this Saturday, on Shizuo's birthday. Look forward to that. For now, enjoy this week's halo.
Halo Twenty-Seven: Hisayo:
She can see that city is changing. A new darkness is on its way. Hisayo has no feelings about it. But she will be an instrument in the game. For now, she watches everything in her current body.
The world has seemed to have forgotten about Molly Dylan. She hasn't been out of her apartment in months. Poor Molly. She looks like a witch of nightmares now. Her clothes were soiled. In fact, she only wore a sheet wrapped around her body. She looked like she had been crying with bag under her eyes. When was the last time she combed her hair? Molly looked so gaunt and thin. It didn't look like she had eaten in months. She could barely stand up anymore. The light would probably hurt her eyes.
Scott's body still lay there in the kitchen. Come to think of it, there was something wrong with the apartment itself. (Okay, there was always something wrong with the apartment since 1987. But this is different.) The whole apartment felt like an icy tomb.
Why hasn't anyone gone to check on the couple? The rent was put on autopay. Scott's business ran itself now. What about friends and family? Surely, someone must have been asking questions by now. They must have.
Well, there might be an explanation for that. We will visit it at a later date.
-Kitano-
I don't kill people when it is not necessary. I did come close one time.
Kubo and I still kept in touch after I quit my job at the hospital. I'm giving I was the only friend he had left. I wasn't sure why. The two of us couldn't have been more different. Still, he didn't annoy me. Our daughters were also friends. Despite the age gap, they made it work. Kubo and I were close but not close at the same time. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to. Though, I had another motive to stay by him.
Around 2011, Kubo got himself mixed up in a… situation. On a hunch, I called him the summer that Chisa was in grad school.
"Hello?" Kubo asked.
"Hey, Kubo," I said. "How have you been?" There was a pause on the other line. Kubo quietly chuckled to himself.
"Not so good…" he mumbled. I frowned to myself.
"What did you do?" I asked. It took a while but I managed to get the story out of Kubo. I'm going to give you the abridged version. Basically, his brother-in-law got mixed up with some bad people and now owes money. I can already see where this was heading. I could too.
"Kubo!" I said.
"Sorry," he said. I rubbed my forehead. I already knew where this was heading. Might as well cut to the chase.
"Do you need my help?" I asked.
"What?" Kubo asked. "Kitano! I couldn't!" I put up my hand as if he could see me.
"No," I said. "I am going to get you out of this. I told you not to get involved with him."
"What else could I do? It was a huge debt."
"I know, I know." I sighed and rubbed my forehead. I thought he grew out of that habit. I thought that I was going to fix this mess and I would be on my merry way.
This didn't happen this time. No, it would even get worse.
Hisayo and her sister are watching everything. They will be looking for blood soon. That's just how their nature is. However, that isn't the only thing they can see.
They are watching ties being broken.
Kanacchi and Kyo-nee just got through telling Non and Sienna how they helped kill a witch. The honeys not in the cult stared in stunned silence.
"That is just fucked up!" Non said.
"What do you mean?" Kanacchi asked.
"That is just fucked up!" the main girl shouted. "You just murdered an innocent girl!"
"No, we didn't," Kyo-nee said.
"She was a witch," Kanacchi said.
"Yes, yes!" her fellow cult member said. Non pulled out her phone.
"What are you doing?" Kyo-nee asked.
"What else?" Non asked. "I'm calling the police!" She had just finished dialing when Kanacchi rushed forward and tackled her. She tried to take the phone out of her hand. Non tried to fight back.
"What are you doing?!" she shouted. "Get off me!" She turned to Sienna.
"Help!" Non screamed. Sienna ran over to pry Kanacchi off of her. Kyo-nee ran in and joined the melee. Non's phone slid across the room at one point. In the end, Chikage, Non, and Sienna had to cut ties with Kanacchi and Kyo-nee. It hurt the playboy biker to do it.
"They're gone," Non said, patting him on the back. "You have to let them go." Chikage wanted to be the one to rescue them but those girls were in too deep. He didn't even know about the murder. Non and Sienna decided to not tell him just yet.
Non called the police and told them everything afterward.
-Kitano-
Yukimura was a snake. However, there is a bigger snake behind him.
His name is Akabane Kazuma. We met each other only once. That was all it took for me to decide that I didn't want anything to do with him. Something about him told me not to trust him. Yukimura worked closely with Kazuma. Like Kazuma, it took one time to meet Yukimura and I already made up my mind about him.
My dear friend Kubo. He's too good-natured. He's not an idiot, I will give him that. Kubo will listen to you. The problem is that he tries to be polite when he really wants to say no. Sometimes, I would have to be the one to say no for him. That all led to the mess that started two years ago.
Kazuma was always on the lookout for people to invest in him or work for him. He sought out Kubo for the latter. Now, I warned him about both snakes ahead of time. To his credit, Kubo did listen to me. The problem was that he kept dancing around the topic with Kazuma and putting off giving him an answer.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked Kubo ten days before the accident. He shrugged at me.
"Honestly, I'm not sure why," my friend said. I frowned at him.
"Kubo, you can't keep doing this," I said. "You are playing a dangerous game. Just bite the bullet and say no." The smile dropped from Kubo's face. I frowned as I started to picture where this conversation was going.
"What did you do?" I asked. Kubo just stared at me.
"I tried to say no, but he scares me," he said. He looked around for a moment. Kubo leaned in closer.
"I think someone is following me," he whispered. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked.
"Yes," Kubo said breathlessly. "Last night, I saw a black limbo circling my block. I would've chalked it up as nothing but I noticed it passing by my apartment three times. Plus, I keep getting strange phone calls in the middle of the night." He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"It's all nerve-wracking," Kubo said. "I don't know what to do here." I rubbed him on the shoulder.
"I believe you," I said. He stared at me with big eyes.
"What am I going to do?" Kubo asked. Of course, he expected me to fix this latest mess. Normally, I would've said no. But this was Kubo here and he's royalty fucked up this time. I don't mean to sound crass. But that's how bad the situation got.
It was about to get even worse.
Hisayo and her sister are watching everything. They are watching a body being found.
Haruna has been missing since early November. Her father posted a reward for any information. He should be used to her running away by now. But this was different. Shuuji couldn't hear Saika's voice anymore. That wasn't supposed to happen, right?
Meanwhile, a body had been found in the rural parts of Japan. Three drunk Yankees were riding around on their bikes on the back roads. It had to be about one or two in the morning. There wasn't anyone on the back roads. The young men just planned to ride around on their bikes all night. One of them looked when they saw something gleaming in the headlights. He about swerved and hit the edge of the road.
"Shun!" his friends shouted. They pulled their bikes to a stop. The fallen biker jumped to his feet.
"You okay, man?" one of his friends asked.
"Yeah!" his friend said. The biker dusted himself off.
"What happened?" his other friend asked.
"I don't know," the first biker said. "I thought I saw something over there." He pointed further down the road. His friends caught the gleam in the headlights. The three young men stared off at it in the distance.
"What is that?" one of them asked. The Yankee who fell walked closer.
"Shun!" his friends shouted. Their friend suddenly stopped in his tracks. He turned his head with a confused look on his face.
"It's a cross," he said. His friends looked just as confused as he did.
"What?" one of the other bikers asked.
-Kitano-
Now, don't get me wrong. Kubo is a good man. Sometimes, I wonder why he still hung around me after all of this time. Maybe he saw me as a protector. Maybe he saw me as someone who needed to be fixed. I never could figure it out.
"Why do you still associate with me after all these years?" I asked him shortly after I quit being a doctor. Kubo shrugged at me.
"Because," he said. "You're letting me." Part of me thinks that he stuck around me because I could get him out of trouble. In return, he made me look approachable. I could've stopped hanging around him in our earlier days. Why didn't I? Honestly, I didn't have any reasons not to. Not a good one at least.
I think I'm going to be bound to Kubo. I don't really mind it. He's been a supporter of the game after all.
I sat back in my chair.
Kubo was actually okay with the game. He didn't think I was crazy. He didn't try to talk me out of my plans. Kubo didn't even try and tell me that I was wrong. He just sat there and listened. I don't know why I told Kubo anything. It just kind of came out. Did I ask him to join me? No. He just offered to help me.
"You sure you want to do that?" I asked. "I don't think you understand what I am trying to do with this game."
"I want to," Kubo said. "Please. It's the least I can do. Take it as a thank you for all of the times you stuck up for me." I stared at him. He wasn't going to back down, was he? I threw up my hands in the air.
"Fine, whatever," I said. Kubo quickly bowed his head.
"Thank you so much!" he said. To be fair, Kubo has been providing for the game so far. Because of his help, we have gotten far. He managed to bring together plenty of allies to help keep things going. I don't know how he does it. Even overseas, we are still getting support. Kubo is staying true to the cause even after everything that happened to him.
As for Kazuma and Yukimura, I took care of the both of them. You already know what I did to Yukimura. What did I do for Kazuma? That's going to be for another day.
For now, we are about to enter the level of the game. I had my phone by my side. I should be expecting the call anytime now.
Hisayo and her sister are watching everything. They are watching a new bond being formed.
Sojiro paced around in his room. Why did it have to be her? More memories of Chou Mori started to come back. He had tried hard to bury them. Seeing his fellow tadpoles again had to open wounds. He remembered that he vowed to stay away from them. But Yukio didn't seem to take a hint.
The sand tadpole took a breath. It would be so easy to ask Saori to leave. But he didn't seem to want to. It wasn't her fault that they were like this. They were all victims of the same thing. Though, she took it better than he did.
"How do you do it?" Sojiro asked her over lunch.
"Do what?" Saori asked.
"How do you stay so calm through all of this?" he asked. "Aren't you afraid or angry?"
"I am," she said in a quiet voice. Sojiro looked up. Saori pressed her lips together. The other tadpole gave her a strange look.
"But… why don't you…?" he began to ask.
"There are other things I have to worry about," Saori told him.
"Saori…" he said.
"I have my friends and the others," she said. "I worry about Itori breaking down. I worry about Yukio overstepping his boundaries with her. I worry about how like in Ikebukuro will come to an end. The list just goes on." Saori looked like she was about to cry. She took a breath.
"So, I gave myself two options: either break down crying every two seconds or get it together and try to keep everyone else from breaking down around me."
"Then… who keeps you from breaking down?" Sojiro asked, blinking.
"I don't know," she simply said.
"Wow," was all Sojiro could say.
He looked up when he heard a knock on his bedroom door in present day. That old jolt ran down his spine. Oh yeah, she was still here.
"Yeah?" Sojiro asked. He watched as the door opened. Saori walked in and closed it behind her. She had a little smile on her face. The tadpole took off her jean jacket and slid her dress over her head. Sojiro's face turned red as he stared at her light pink bra and panties. Her breasts had to be about a C-cup in the upper range. Saori was slender with some curves. The sand tadpole cleared his throat.
"W-W-What are you doing?" he asked. She walked over and put her finger to his lips.
"Don't say anything," she whispered. Sojiro stared at her as he tried to figure out where she was going with this. The other tadpole leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Sojiro's whole body tensed. He didn't know whether to push her off or just let it happen. The sand tadpole had a guess of what she was trying to do.
"You can stop me if you want," Saori whispered.
"Hm?" Sojiro asked. She looked him in the eye.
"I will stop only if you ask me to," she said. "But only if you want me to." He pressed his lips together.
"Do you want me to stop?" Saori asked.
"No!" Sojiro was quick to say. The other tadpole kind of smirked.
"Well, okay," she said. Saori leaned in and kissed him again. This time, Sojiro kissed her back. Gently pushed him back onto his bed. Sojiro looked up to see Saori climbing on top. She smiled as she took off her bra. The tadpole tossed it to the side and leaned down for another kiss. Still, delirious about what was happened, Sojiro kissed her back.
-Kitano-
I looked up when my phone rang.
"Hello?" I asked. "Did you find it? Good, good. I will have someone come with me to pick it up. I will see you around three this afternoon. Thank you so much. See you then." I hung up my phone. I gave myself ten seconds before I made another call.
"Hello?" Aya asked. I sat back in my chair.
"It's in," I said.
"Where are we meeting up to get it?" she asked.
"Carport near the hospital," I said.
"How convenient. I will be right there," Aya said.
"See you then," I said. I hung up my phone. I shoved it into my pocket and stood up. I closed down everything before I walked out of my office. This game is moving faster than I thought. I can't wait to see where we end up going next.
Hisayo and her sister are watching everything. They can feel that something was happening. They know what is coming. Soon, Ikebukuro will be a paradise for darkness. And then a land of the dead. It's only a matter of time too.
For now, they hang around and watch. Hisayo and Toshiko aren't the only ones either.
-December 15, 2015-
Shoichi woke up in the early hours of the morning. Something inside of him told him that he had to go. He sat up in bed with a stoic look on his face.
"Baby?" Tomoe asked next to him as she turned on the light. "Baby, what's wrong?" He didn't even look at her. The man only said one thing.
"What?" Tomoe asked.
"I have to go," Shoichi said. He climbed out of bed and walked over to the closet. The man started to get dressed.
"Baby?" his fiancée asked. "Baby, what are you doing?" Shoichi didn't answer. Once he was dressed, the man walked out of the room. Tomoe sat in bed with her hand to chest looking worried as the door closed behind her fiancé.
"Shoichi-kun…" she murmured to herself.