Part Three
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Yare, yare. Somehow this day has been both one of the best and the absolute worst days of my life, and it's barely half over! Still, if there's one positive take-away from all this, Yuuta is still safe and with me. Sure, Kuwabara is gone, but he's at least twice my age, a life-long fighter, and part god, so I'm really not that worried about him. Plus, now that we're at the temple again, Teruhashi's brother can get looked at. I personally couldn't give a shit if the guy lives or dies (I may or may not be silently rooting for the latter), but Teruhashi cares, so it's good he's getting the help he needs. I guess.
Urameshi put us all in the care of his wife Keiko-san, who took us to see Yukina-san, who is pretty shaken up over her husband's disappearance but is otherwise holding up remarkably well. I imagine that after having your husband torn to pieces and his soul kidnapped, a minor disappearing act just can't compare, even if he did disappear in the company of a deranged, murderous psychopath.
(We didn't tell her that part.)
Anyway, Yukina-san showed us to a set of rooms we can use while staying at the temple, but I don't plan to be here long enough to make use of it—aside from Yuuta, who already fell asleep. Unfortunately, before I can leave, I need to get ahold of my and Yuuta's parents, and it seems my and Teruhashi's phones disappeared in the chaos of the park, so now I need to find a landline.
Yare, yare.
Where The Morgue Is
"Please take all the time you need," Yukina said, her voice soft but her expression drawn and tired as she motioned toward the old rotary phone sitting on a narrow cabinet in the middle of the hall. Kusuo bowed.
"Thank you, Yukina-san."
She smiled wanly and returned his bow politely before stepping out of the hall and into the main sitting room where Urameshi and his wife were waiting for Kuwabara to pop back up.
Kusuo dialed his home first and waited as it rang, rang, rang. His brow furrowing, Kusuo ran through the numbers mentally, just to make sure he'd dialed them correctly. He had. The phone rang, rang, rang.
Stomach twisting in on itself, Kusuo blocked the dangerous thoughts that tried to manifest. Thoughts that said his parents were home but unable to come to the phone because Homura made a stop before going to Universal Studios…
Click. Relief washed over him as the receiver was picked up, and he opened his mouth to acknowledge his mother—
"Kusuo."
Kusuke?
Kusuo closed his eyes and clutched the phone so hard the plastic creaked beneath his hand. Damn.
"What happened, Kusuke."
"Where were you?" Kusuke demanded, his voice low and strained. Kusuo had never heard his brother sound so lost before. So unsure of himself and…broken. "If you were here, it wouldn't have happened."
"What wouldn't have happened? Where's Mom?"
"Hospital. They're not sure she'll walk again."
"What the hell happened, Kusuke?"
"You weren't here."
"Kusuke—!"
His brother hung up.
"Kusuke!" Kusuo slammed the phone back into the cradle. "Damn!"
"Kusuo?" Teruhashi came up behind him and grasped his sleeve. "What happened?"
"I don't know! That idiot Kusuke didn't tell me anything! He just said…he said my mother…she…" Kusuo's stomach lurched. They don't know if she'll walk again. Kusuo gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. What happened while I was gone?
Teruhashi wrapped her hands around Kusuo's arm and pulled him around, her hand coming up to nudge his chin so they were eye to eye. "Breathe, Kusuo. Just breathe."
I don't remember how.
"Kusuo." She tapped his face with her fingertips, not hard enough to be a slap but with enough sting to center him. Kusuo gasped, the red haze in his brain retreating just enough for the world to reform around him. "There you go. Just keep breathing."
Kusuo took another breath, then another, then a deeper one.
"Have you tried Yuu-chan's parents yet?"
He shook his head.
"Do you want me to call?"
There was a brief pause before he shook his head again. "I'll do it. Thank you, Teruhashi, but I need you with Yuuta right now. I don't want him alone."
Teruhashi smiled softly and stroked his cheek with her thumb. "Okay. But call me if you need me."
He nodded but didn't move another inch as Teruhashi backed away until her fingertips brushed along his jaw and disappeared from his face entirely. She vanished back down the hall, only two doors away from where Kusuo stood, but the distance may as well be a widening cavern. Taking another deep, shaky breath, Kusuo turned back to the phone and lifted the handset. He tried home again first.
This time, it only rang four times before Kusuke picked up.
"What do you want, Kusuo?"
"I want to know what happened," Kusuo said, forcibly keeping his calm. "You said Mom is in the hospital. Where's Dad?"
"…The hospital, I suppose." A long, contemplative pause. "I guess that's where the morgue is."
…morgue…
"He's dead?"
"…yeah. He was shot in the head. To protect Mom. I…I didn't get here in time to save him."
"Who was it, Kusuke?" His stomach roiled, his heart ached, and his whole body burned from the inside out. "Who killed him? Who hurt Mom?"
"A girl."
Kusuo stifled a hiss. Akemi Homura.
"Or maybe a woman? Your age, maybe. Definitely younger than me."
My age? Kusuo frowned. Not Akemi Homura, then.
"What did she look like?"
"Blonde hair, gold eyes. Average height." Another pause. "I think she was western. Maybe American. I'm not sure."
Kusuo's eyebrow twitched. How could Kusuke not know if the woman was American or not? He'd spent the last six years of his life in England!
He's in shock, Kusuo reminded himself. He can't process properly because he doesn't know what he's feeling.
Kusuo could relate.
"When did it happen?"
"This morning. I tried to call, but you didn't answer your phone."
Because I put it on silent last night. He always did that before going to bed, but with the chaos of the morning, he'd forgotten to turn the volume back up.
"Sorry."
Kusuke snorted. "Cause your sorry makes a difference."
It couldn't, and it didn't make Kusuo any better to have said it, but saying nothing just seemed wrong. Callous.
Yare, yare, how am I feeling right now?
Honestly? He was just numb; any other emotions he felt were buried so far beneath the surface he wasn't even sure they were even there.
"Do you know where I am, Kusuke?"
"You went off my radar about twenty minutes ago."
Well, it was good to know Kusuke didn't have a means of spying on the temple compound. Because if Kusuke couldn't find it, Kusuo sincerely doubted Akemi Homura or her flunkies could.
"Are Yuuta's parents home?" Kusuo asked expecting a negative; the reason he was watching Yuuta in the first place was because his parents were supposed to be out of town.
"No. But someone wrecked their house. I noticed when I flew in to rescue Mom and Dad…well…to rescue Mom."
"Okay, thanks…" Kusuo glanced at the closed door of the sitting room where he could hear the Urameshis conversing lowly with Yukina and the blue-haired girl named Botan. "I'll see if I can send someone to get you."
"…Fine." Kusuke hung up, and Kusuo did the same with a sigh. He still didn't feel anything, which meant he was probably in Fight mode instead of Flight. He needed to focus on the things he could do, not on the things he couldn't change. Later, though…Just…later…
Kusuo swiped the cell number for Yuuta's mother into the rotary dial and waited for her to pick up. It rang once before the phone connected with, "We're sorry, but the number you have dialed is unknown or disconnected. Please, check your number or try again later."
Yare, yare, Kusuo thought as he hung up. I have a bad feeling about this…
He tried again and got the same message. Gritting his teeth, Kusuo hung up again. He stood in the hall, motionless and trying to reign in his growing nausea as he tried to convince himself that he'd just called the wrong number. Except he had an eidetic memory, so he couldn't have remembered it wrong, but surely there was a chance.
Shaking his head, Kusuo picked up the handset and rang Yuuta's father. It was answered almost immediately.
"This is Dr. Arisawa Ami," an unknown woman said, and Kusuo irrationally hoped that Iridatsu Kouta was having an affair. "May I ask who you are?"
"…My name is Saiki Kusuo," he said. "Why do you have Iridatsu-san's phone?"
"Iridatsu-san?" There was a brief pause, but Kusuo could hear scratching as if she was writing something down. "May I ask your relationship to this Iridatsu-san?"
Fuck.
"He's my next-door neighbor. I'm watching his son."
"I see. I should really be talking to a family member…"
Fuck.
"I've been trying to contact his wife, but she isn't answering her phone, and I don't know any other family members." Kusuo swallowed down his mounting panic and cleared his throat. "Iridatsu-san's son is in danger, and so are Iridatsu Kouta-san and his wife by extension. Please, tell me if he's all right."
"…I'm afraid not. At least, assuming the man who came into my lab today is Iridatsu-san." Dr. Arisawa's tone softened. "I am the coroner for Sapporo City General Hospital. A man in possession of this phone was signed in this morning with fourth degree burns from head to foot."
Kusuo hissed, trying to deflate the sudden burning pain in his chest. What?
"Any identification he had was lost, and his phone is heavily encrypted, so I can answer it, but not open it."
"If…" Kusuo swallowed and started again. "If he has burns all over his body, how do you know it's Iridatsu-san? Isn't it possible he just dropped his phone, and this is someone else?"
It really wasn't fair of Kusuo to hope for such a thing, but he didn't know the people who were friends and family to a stranger. Kouta, he knew and liked, and more importantly, he was Yuuta's father.
"It's possible. Before, it was our best hope of attaining an ID, but with the information you gave, we can request his dental work to verify if he is who we think he is."
"…How long will that take?"
"It depends," Arisawa said, her tone shifting down. She cleared her throat lightly and continued. "Depending on when we get ahold of his dentist office, whether we need a subpoena, how soon the documents can be transferred…It could be as soon as this evening or as long as three days from now. I don't suppose you know who his dentist is?"
"No. I'm just a neighbor who watches his son sometimes."
"I see. Well, I suppose I ought to get searching. Thank you for calling, Saiki-san. I'll do my best to keep you posted on our progress."
Kusuo nodded, even though she couldn't see him. "Thank you. Oh, and Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Iridatsu-san is from Tokyo. He was in Hokkaido for business, but I'm afraid I don't know any more than that."
"No, thank you, that was very helpful."
"Okay."
An awkward silence followed.
Yare, yare.
"Okay," Arisawa said. "Well, goodbye, Saiki-san."
Kusuo nodded again. "Yeah."
He carefully settled the phone back on its cradle and stood staring at it for a long, long time.
What was he supposed to do now?
