We're setting the foundation for the Second Nonary Game now. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 7
- - November 4th, 2027; 5:52AM - -
A shaky hand thrusts a water bottle into his face.
"Here." Her voice is soft, raspy, and full of sleep, in the darkness of the dimly lit warehouse.
Keiichi silently takes the bottle from her. The air is filled with tension – Keiichi's palms are sweaty and his heart is racing. But it feels as though every cell in his body is tingling with delight, anticipating the events that will unfold in the near future.
It's a dangerous feeling, and he hasn't felt anything akin to this since the First Nonary Game. He holds back a sardonic laugh at the irony. It was innocent, fearful dread that had filled him back then – now, it is sick, twisted anticipation.
He looks into the woman's soft, unsure brown eyes. He had no idea that looking into the startup that turned his father's proposal down would lead him to this. A frazzled, panicked Jin revealed to him this summer that Gentarou tracked down and wanted to fund a company's research into developing more durable and long-lasting ABT, whatever that was, in exchange for licensing it to Cradle Pharmaceutical. But the haughty representative they sent – Keiichi struggled to remember the woman's rather unconventional name at the time, but it started with an E, maybe? – immediately turned him down. Intrigued that they turned down such a ridiculously large sum of money, he asked Jin for the name of the company.
Crash Keys.
The name felt so familiar to him, and he wasn't sure why. He repeated the word in his head for the rest of the day. It wasn't until a tired, half-asleep Keiichi, heading to bed, accidentally garbled out the word, "Kurashikis," instead of "Crash Keys," did he finally make the connection. His eyes immediately snapped open after that, and needless to say, he lost his sleep, and spent the next few days trying to track down their contact information through Jin, finally managing to get a hold of their number.
Though it took multiple efforts to get through Akane, Aoi immediately was able to recognize the potential in Keiichi and his use to their plan to conduct the Second Nonary Game, which Keiichi more than readily agreed to. To Akane, it wasn't a matter of whether or not she trusted him, but it was the matter of involving more people than necessary. In the end, though, she had no choice but to concede to Aoi's point and have him join their scheme.
"Are you done fixing that metal plate?" she adds in forethought. "We need to bring it with us tomorrow to cover one of the cabin windows. Aoi said that we'll have to pack it carefully for the private jet."
He puts down the welder and removes his mask to reveal that his eyes have widened and his jaw has dropped. "Holy shit! We're flying in a private jet?!" he exclaims.
She smirks as she crosses her arms over her check. "What? The son of Cradle Pharmaceutical's CEO has never been taken on a private jet by daddy dearest?"
"Fuck no! I left that bastard's house as soon I turned 18, Nona."
"Oh." The young woman is quiet for a moment. "How else do you think we'll be able to fly 9 unconscious bodies from Japan to Nevada without a hitch?"
"Ah." He blinks, before shaking his head. "And, yeah, I've finished with the plate. We'll pack it before I leave." He pulls off his heavy gloves to take a hold of the bottle. "Thanks." He twists the cap open and brings it to his mouth. Ah, it feels so refreshing.
He's been here at the Crash Keys warehouse for over an hour already, and has to report to the law firm he works at by 8:30 to meet with a client whose landlord's rent is too high.
She tucks a piece of her dark hair behind her ear. "You know what I was thinking?"
"What?"
"We've made it so that the door is only going to open with the digital root of 8. That's the way it's set up – that 9 is really a 'q,' which is 26 in hexadecimal."
"I know. What are you trying to get at?"
"Isn't it ironic? When Light made you and the others go through the door, your digital root was 8, too. I was so confused, but also too scared to say anything about it, and then when we were able to get off the Gigantic, I forgot all about it . . . at least, until a few months after the whole thing. Did your father lie about the digital root for the final door being 9? Is that why Akane had to make the digital root 8, for the last door this time around, too?"
"I don't know, Nona. I think about it all of the time," he sighs, "Rikona thought that my father made it so that my bracelet could adapt as any number to make the needed digital root . . . but the fact that Akane is so insistent that the door has to be programmed so it opens to a digital root of 8 makes me unsure."
"But Akane also told us that if things go wrong, we will see Light take off his bracelet to enter the number 9 door. He could have done that during the first game, too. It was me, Light, Aoi, and Akane. 4+5+8 equals 17, and the digital root of that is 8!"
He shakes his head. "I don't know, Nona," he repeats once more, a chill going down his body, as he realizes that he truly doesn't know what is going through Akane Kurashiki's mind.
.
"We could have met for breakfast at 8, too. Keiko doesn't have school today."
Keiichi shakes his head. "No, lunch worked out better – I was in the middle of work at that time."
"In the middle?" his father asks with widened eyes, surprised. "At what time did you start working?"
"4:30."
"In the morning?!"
This is so fucking awkward. Keiichi wants his father out of his sight. He hates standing awkwardly across him like this in his kitchen; though it's not as grand as his father's kitchen, with his grand, Italian marble countertops, it's quite big, filled with updated appliances, and the counters are quartz - easy to maintain and cheaper than marble. Keiichi would know, since he built the kitchen and bought the materials himself.
It's supposed to be an open-concept kitchen, but, in his father's presence, it all feels suffocating to him.
"Yes."
"Cub, I understand that you're enthusiastic about law, but why on earth did you go into the firm to work at 4:30 in the morning?"
He frowns at his father's use of that nickname. "I wasn't working at the firm. At least, not at that time." His father gives him an encouraging nod. "I went in at 4:30 to work on a contracting gig, and then left for court at 9."
"Oh, I see." Gentarou's mouth has twisted into a disapproving grimace. It seems that his father is not receptive to the idea of him doing the contracting gigs. Of course he wouldn't. It ruins his pristine image - his son is out working lowly jobs like a pauper, struggling to earn and save every penny instead of living lavishly like his father and his associates and their children are.
Ah, if only his father knew where his contracting gig was, and for whom he was doing it for, he'd go ballistic . . .
"Yeah." He shrugs awkwardly, shifting uncomfortably under his father's intent gaze.
He sighs. "Why must you work these lowly side jobs, Keiichi? If you're not earning enough from the firm, you know that Cradle is waiting for you with open arms." Pursing his lips, he also adds sulkily, "You wouldn't even have had to worry about earning enough money if you had just stayed home with me."
Keiichi glares at his father. "Do you really think I'd be able to stay with you, knowing what you did to us 9 years ago?" His voice is icy.
His father lets out a breath of air before speaking. "Do you know why I named you Keiichi, and your sister Keiko?"
Keiichi gives him a blank stare.
"You – you, especially – are supposed to be my jewels. You are supposed to be my pride, my joy." Though his father doesn't say them, Keiichi knows that the words, "my heir, and my successor to maintain the legacy of Cradle," are supposed to follow. "Now, if you're my jewels, would I ever purposely put you in harm's way, knowing that you would get to get hurt?"
"You did, though," Keiichi states flatly.
His father's mouth twists into a grimace. "No, cub, I didn't. I knew you wouldn't get hurt. The Nonary Game was designed to allow every player to come out of it alive."
"You're wrong!" And with that outburst, Keiichi's calm demeanor snaps. "You had us ingest fucking bombs in our stomachs that would detonate if we broke on of the rules – and honestly, we were kids, and one of us could have accidentally broken the rules at any time! And not to mention, the final escape of the game involved an incinerator that was going to burn us all to death in 18 minutes, if that detective hadn't save us!"
Gentarou's eyes darken. "I made sure that you and Keiko did not ingest any bombs."
"What about the other kids?"
He looks away from his son's eyes, like a coward. " . . . I wasn't in charge of them. I only looked after you two."
"Well, Akane Kurashiki almost died!" Keiichi's hands ball up into fists.
Gentarou grunts. "I apologize that you feel this way, cub, but it had to be done. And who was she to you? No one. An orphan – she wouldn't be missed by anyone but her brother."
Keiichi ignores his father's last comment, fighting back the urge to attack his father with punches from said balled up fists. "Why? . . . I've been asking this question for years, with no answer from you."
His father wordlessly stares at him with his blank, unfeeling eyes.
"Is it because of your prosopagnosia?" he taunts darkly.
Those three words are enough to jolt Gentarou from his impassiveness. "W-What?" His face can't mask his shock. "How do you know about that?"
"The cargo room's card puzzle."
Gentarou's shoulders slump in defeat. "From the Nonary Game . . . you caught what I was trying to convey, then." Despite his shock, he looks at his son in pride. Even if his cub turned out to disappoint him, he has proved that he still is Gentarou's son.
Keiichi tries to ignore the proud expression on his father's face, and looks away from him. "Akane, Fumio, and I thought the blurry pictures of us represented how someone with prosopagnosia would see our faces."
"My smart son." He beams, though there is an hauntingly dark, indiscernible emotion in his eyes that makes Keiichi's stomach drop – whether in fear or disgust, he can't tell. "It was only a matter of time until you figured it out." He straightens up his back before speaking. "Where's the birthday girl?"
He's pulling out the Keiko card. Great. It both sickens and amazes Keiichi how quickly and easily his father can shift a conversation as well as its tone.
"In the basement," he answers flatly, unclenching his fists.
"I will go meet her, then." Gentarou promptly turns around, without looking back at his son once.
Fucking coward, Keiichi thinks to himself scornfully, as he watches him disappear down the stairs. He takes out his phone and dials a number. As he waits for it to ring, he gives the stairs a final look.
"Is he coming down?"
Keiichi nods, even though Aoi can't see him. "Yes, he just went into the basement. Get the Soporil ready. I'll be down in a second."
.
"You're going on a business trip?"
Keiichi feels himself frown as he zips his suitcase shut. "Mother has left us some inheritance in the United States. I need to talk with one of our uncles to acquire it."
Keiko stares at him warily, her arms crossed over her chest, as she stands in the doorway of his room. "Which uncle?" Her voice is full of suspicion.
He looks at her and shrugs. "A distant relative, I guess."
"You have to go now? You couldn't have just matter resolved this earlier?"
"No," he answers back curtly, as he turns around from her and walks to his desk. She follows him, too. "Legal constraints." He hates lying to his sister.
She stands behind him and huffs. "But you're a lawyer."
Keiichi desperately doesn't want to face her, so he decides to search for a checkbook that his father had given him last month – he has no clue where he put it. "I'm a lawyer, yes, but that doesn't mean I'm above the law. Plus, I concentrated in real estate law."
Keiko groans, placing her hand on his shoulder, shaking it slightly so he can turn around and look at her.
"What, Keiko? I'm trying to find something!" he snaps, feeling irritation taking over him.
She looks at him sadly, hurt evident across her face – it makes him feel like shit, and he immediately regrets yelling at her. "Why now? Why do you need to do it now? We don't even need the inheritance, anyway. I know you didn't want Papa to pay for your schooling, but let him pay for mine," she pleads gently.
He should have realized how sad she must have been feeling – their father never even called for Keiko's birthday, which is actually Keiichi's fault, let alone make plans (at least, according to Keiko), and now she has to, once again, put up with his and Keiichi's tension. "You're right, Keiko," he concedes softly, taking a hold of her hand. "I'll let him pay for your schooling, but I sure as well won't let him pay for mine. That's why I need the inheritance."
"You're going back to school?"
He nods, meeting her eyes sheepishly. "I want to earn my LLM." It's not a lie, since he has been thinking about it for a while now. After the Nonary Game ends, he will enroll.
"But you have a law doctorate degree already." Her mouth twists into a pout. "Why do you need another degree?"
He shakes his head. "That's my Juris Doctorate. I need my LLM – it's almost like getting a Master's Degree for Law School."
"But you don't need it!" she insists.
"It will increase my chances of getting a better job."
"You wouldn't have to look for a better job if you work with Papa!"
He growls, frustrated. "You know that I don't want to work with him! What's your problem, Keiko? Why are you acting like this? You've been behaving so strangely for the past days! What the hell is going on?"
She closes her eyes shut, squeezing them tightly. "You . . . you don't understand, Keiichi." She opens them back up to reveal that they are filled with tears.
"So, make me understand!"
She sighs. "I don't know how to explain it to you. I've been going through so much lately. It feels like I'm carrying such a heavy burden."
He rolls his eyes at her. "Oh, don't pull that teenage drama dialogue on me. I already know what you're going through."
"No, Keiichi!" she weeps. "No, you don't! You don't know anything at all about what's been happening!" She bows her head bows down.
"The hell I do, Keiko." He glares at her with accusatory eyes. "You like Aya, but are afraid to acknowledge the fact that you're attracted to a girl because Papa might disapprove. Am I right?"
Keiko's head snaps up to meet his eyes, surprised, and quickly wipes her tears away. "H-How . . . how did you know?"
He places his hands on her shoulders. Since he is at least a foot taller than her 5'1" form, he towers over her. "You're an open book . . . and you're my little sister. And I know how our father is, too. Of course I'd know what's happening. I also know that you shouldn't act according to him, and that you should tell her your feelings."
She turns her face away from him, her cheeks reddened in shame. "I already told Aya that family comes first."
His nostrils flare in anger. "So, you're going to suppress your feelings for the poor girl because our shithead of a father cares too much about maintaining his 'pristine' image?"
"He's not a shithead!" She pushes his hands off of her. "You might hate his guts, but I love him! He took us in when Mama passed away! He has always loved us and wanted the best for us! Why have you always hated him so much?"
"Listen, Keiko. Forget about me for a second. Why are you putting the weight of the world on your shoulders? You're just a kid. Go tell Aya how you feel, and then I'll help you talk to Papa about this."
"But that's the problem, Keiichi! How am I going to even to say anything to Papa if he's missing?! That's why I don't want you to leave me now."
Keiichi has to bite his lip so that his face doesn't give anything away.
"Missing?!"