June 21st, 2004
Multi-colored lights are flashing furiously outside of the mansion, in which Hotaru currently still resides with her estranged mother. Inside, on the second floor hallway, the aforementioned fifteen year old is sitting on the floor with her knees up, back leaning against the wall. Absent-mindedly, she picks at her nails, her bruised eyes staring into the bedroom across the hall. Nearby, her mother speaks quietly to an officer, tears streaming down her face.
Unlike the older woman, Hotaru's emotions about the delicate situation are more subtle, seen only through her "odd" behavior. Maybe she's in shock, maybe she's dissociating, maybe she's just processing what happened, maybe she's thinking, maybe she doesn't care; it's difficult to tell precisely what's happening in her head, from a bystander's viewpoint.
The paramedic, having been watching the teenager since arriving, steps aside, so that her two co-workers can carry out the body; an older man who, they presume, was her father. With a sympathetic expression, not for the loss but for the obvious horrors Hotaru went through, the paramedic follows them out. They'll be back to collect her shortly.
Hotaru chooses then to briefly glance at the backs of the paramedics before rolling her eyes at them; she doesn't need their sympathies. The bastard's death isn't much of a loss; she hated the man. The "beatdown" she got from him, and she gave it back as best as she could, was fucking nothing; it could've been much worse. No, her reaction to what happened altogether is more about how perplexing the cause of death is.
The asshole was on top of Hotaru. They'd managed to land a few hits on one another, after Hotaru, for the most part, kept evading his many previous attempts. Even when his swings connected with her face, she remained unphased, still standing; he didn't know just how resilient she'd become. However, like the con-artist he was, trickery led to him pinning her down and choking her.
She continued fighting back, though it was becoming more and more of a struggle. She did, ultimately, manage to get him off of her by scratching at his eyes with her nails. She coughed and crawled to a corner of the room, needing the wall as support to stand. Her mother wasn't much help in the situation but it wasn't her fault; she was unconscious in the hallway. Back against the wall, Hotaru got ready to defend herself again as her father came at her once more.
Only, he never actually made it to her again.
He just…started grabbing at his throat, like he couldn't breathe, like someone was there, strangling him like he tried to strangle Hotaru. But unlike Hotaru, he couldn't get away. He went limp and…whatever it was that got ahold of him finally released their grip; his body dropped limply to the floor.
She rubs at her bleeding bottom lip as she thinks. She can't figure out what happened. It was unexplainable. He didn't have any specific medical conditions, no ailments; he was as healthy as a horse (or any animal that procreates a lot, which would be more accurate for the dead man). So, why did he suddenly find himself unable to breathe?
She loses her train of thought when the paramedics return for her. She's given a neck brace, just in case, and placed on a stretcher. She doesn't acknowledge them, not really; she just keeps staring at nothing, once again wondering what exactly happened.
And, for a split second as they're rounding the corner, she could've sworn she caught a glimpse of a broken red string of fate.
Invisible to everyone without the gift of clairvoyance, the spirit of Toko stands in the middle of the room, watching Hotaru get carried out of her home. With an irritated tsk, she fades away like dust in the wind…
Life for sixteen year old Hajime has been relatively the same as it's always been; he's still quite the scatterbrained oddball whose only friends are his relatives and an asshole. And he still is taking care of his sickly adoptive grandmother whenever he can, though unfortunately she has been bedridden for a while now and a nurse has to watch over her during the time he's at school, unable to watch the elderly woman himself. Soon, the nurse would likely be at their home indefinitely, until the elder's passing, of course.
With a heavy heart, he knows that, yes, his grandmother's time in this world is coming to its end, but he's trying not to dwell on it. He's grateful for what time he has left with her, and is happy for all the time he did get beforehand.
Which is why, sometimes, like right now, he wishes he just ignored the other aspects of his life.
He will still never, ever say it to his face, but Light Yagami is just a whole new level of an asshole. Before, it was just little things; undermining him, mildly making fun of his flaws, ditching him to be with girls instead. Now, it's definitely worse; he still does the previous things, for sure, but now, Light is just a lot more problematic.
For starters, he's an absolute womanizer; you can't imagine just how uncomfortable Hajime felt when Light went on and on, and on, about how he lost his virginity, in excruciating detail, following it up with every single other tryst he took part in. Did Hajime ask? No, he really didn't. But tell him, Light did. Every single day. And ever since the first one-sided conversation, he's been trying his damn hardest to peer pressure Hajime into joining the club.
The latest conversation led to Light showing Hajime a porn magazine when he least expected it. Which is why he's currently not in Light's bedroom anymore; he sprinted out of there the very second he saw undergarments. Even though he's safe inside the living room, Light's laughter rings in his ears.
With a whimper, Hajime hugs himself tightly. Light really knows how to make someone feel shameful for their own decisions in life.
When Light's mother approaches him to ask what's wrong, Hajime doesn't completely lie, more so conceals the biggest part of the issue; he just says he feels overwhelmed with everything going on. However, he didn't bother hiding how grateful he is for an escape when she suggests they make dessert together; unlike Light, his mother quickly noticed how cooking seemed to be a comfort for Hajime, especially after his grandmother began falling ill.
And when Light enters the living room some time later, after Hajime and Mrs. Yagami had mostly finished creating the dessert, he acts like nothing happened upstairs. And so, Hajime, too, acts like nothing happened; he'd sooner remain compliant than lose access to his only friends.
June 25th, 2004
Laying in a hospital bed, with her arms crossed over her chest, Hotaru lets out a huff of breath, sounding annoyed by her prolonged stay there. Psychological evaluation, they said. We need to make sure you don't do something crazy, they meant. You'll be fine, her mother said. Fuck all of you, she said back.
Monitoring her mental health, her ass; they just wanted more money. She is completely fine. She isn't traumatized by witnessing her asshole father dying; she's ecstatic and confused, really because yay, goodbye asshat, and just how the hell did he fucking die like that.
And the weird occurrences happening in her hospital room aren't helping either. Like, seriously; flickering lights, sudden cold atmosphere, the TV malfunctioning. Just what kind of shitty hospital is she fucking stuck in?
On the bright side, being "trapped" there for several days has really got her thinking about her past actions. She hadn't wanted to think about it, but one's mind tends to wander when you've got fuck all to do in a hospital.
Thinking about the shit she did to her father, she still doesn't regret it; he deserved that downfall after all the bullshit he put her and her mother, and her many, many half siblings, through. Everything else, she feels bad about; hurt people hurt people and that's what she did to a lot of girls (and some guys) that rubbed her the wrong way throughout the years. Not that they know she did them but still; she feels bad. She kind of feels like she became some version of her father. And that fucking sucks to think about.
Toko, though, (yeah, she remembers her name), Hotaru has to say was the worst of it all; she ended up dying, of course, and, for too long, she hadn't cared. She hadn't cared that she'd gone too far, exposing her in all her glory to the entire school (and who knows what other kinds of people). She hadn't cared that the girl got brutally assaulted in the worst possible way and that's how she died. And not many other people cared about her dying; to them, she was just "another slut they can live without".
And being stuck here, thinking about all this, she's realized that she's been feeling bad about a lot of things for a while. She hates it. She hates it so much.
And so, from there, self-hatred begins to bloom within her.
The reason Hajime's side of the story tends to be the shortest and the least bit interesting (but still interesting) is because his life is the most simple out of all of them. I only write what I feel is relevant to show and tell, such as glimpses of his one-sided friendship with Light.
That last bit is the same reason some chapters lack dialogue.