Chapter Text
“We should be able to get to that side of the dam through here—“ Detective Hasebe Nagisa frantically told her fellow officers as she called for the medical officers to hurry up.
“They haven’t been inside the water for so long... they should still be all right!” she muttered again to herself as she wiped away the tears that kept falling ever since she saw both Aoi and Ryuzaki fall into the dam earlier. The officers, equipped with diving equipment just stared at each other wordlessly as they prepared to dive into the water to look for the two persons.
Nagisa just nodded them off as she scanned the area while telling the medical officers to wait at their position. Just as she said that, she noticed a flash of light not far from her. To her surprise later as she investigated the place, she found Aoi Ryosuke lying on a small patch of land beside the edge of the dam. She gave a cry as she called the medics and rushed towards the man’s side.
xxx
“Aoi-san! Aoi-san! Get a hold of yourself!” Nagisa cried as the paramedics succeeded in reviving him and covered his body with a warm blanket.
Ryosuke looked at her blankly, as if he couldn’t grasp his current condition at the moment. She helped him to sit up.
“Hasebe... san?” he started to say.
Nagisa nodded her head, still in tears as she hugged him; grateful that he’s alive. Heaven knows how her heart seemed to froze the moment she watched both Ryuzaki and Aoi dropped into the dam’s water and neither of them coming out of the water soon after. Both of the siblings had gone through many hurtful things in these few weeks, it would be cruel for them if they had to face an end like this. God shouldn’t be so cruel...
“You’re alive...” she said again as she pulled herself away. “My fellow officers are already inside the water and all over this place to find Ryuzaki. We’ll find him for sure!”
It seemed only then that Ryosuke’s eyes started to become clear as the mention of his older brother brought himself back to the present. Ryosuke slowly shook his head as Nagisa looked at him, puzzled.
Ryosuke slowly spoke, still in a daze. “He wanted to die under my powers. I... he was holding my hand. That time... in the water...”
As soon as he realised where he was, he tried to jump back into the water to look for Ryuzaki before Nagisa pulled him back. Ryosuke had looked very lost, so much that it hurt Nagisa to watch.
“How did you manage to swim up here?”
She had to ask. Anything that could keep his and her mind off Shinji’s probable fate. Ryosuke just shook his head again.
“I can’t... remember,” he said as he looked up again towards Nagisa. “Ne... I should have died too, shouldn’t I? Why I’m the one always kept alive? Why should I be the only one to—”
“Enough... you don’t have to say it!” Nagisa cried as she embraced him again. “Don’t say such things! You have to live. If you die, a lot of people would be sad. Ryuzaki... Ryuzaki wouldn’t want that to happen to you either!”
She said again as she held him tightly. Ryosuke kept apologising as the more people started coming...
xxx
A year later...
Nagisa smiled to herself as she stood in front of the walls of the boy’s private high school. To think it's only been a week since she walked here to see Aoi. She couldn’t help smiling as several boys passed by her at the corridors. It felt like such a long time... since she herself was at that age.
Aoi just walked out of his classroom and closed the door before turning to see her smiling at him. He smiled.
“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”
Nagisa grinned.
“I’m just in the neighbourhood. Are you busy now?”
Aoi shook his head.
“Nothing much. I only have an academic meeting today after this. Is there something wrong?”
Nagisa just smiled.
“Not really. I just felt like giving you a visit. Mio misses you. She already started to accept that she might not be able to see Ryuzaki again; that I’m so glad about. But she missed you terribly regardless.”
Aoi grinned before shrugging to himself.
“I missed her too. Perhaps, we should have lunch together sometime soon?”
“That would be great!” said Nagisa, smiling as she bowed at him. “See you later then,” she added as both of them excused themselves.
xxx
Walking out towards the gates, she paused and turned around building behind her. Somehow, Nagisa felt like the burden in her heart started to be lighter. Aoi... seemed so much better now.
More cheerful, perhaps that’s how he used to be before she met him. Before the two of them met with Ryuzaki Shinji.
She sighed, at least now... Aoi was in a better condition than last year. Last year, he had been so depressed over Ryuzaki. It took a lot of people, a lot of time; to convince him to get out of his depression.
Too bad she missed him then when he checked out of the hospital. At least he’s fine now and that’s all that mattered.
“—isn’t it? It’d be a nice surprise! Aoicchi would certainly love it!”
Nagisa blinked as she turned to glance towards a small group of students chattering in front of her. The girls, definitely not from this school but the boys were. And one of the girls seemed familiar to her...
The girl in question suddenly turned towards her as she smiled at her in recognition. It was then that it dawned on her on why the girl had seemed to be familiar.
“Detective Hasebe-san! It’s been a while...” the girl called out to her as she had to smile. Some of the girls appeared puzzled but some of the boys seemed to recognise her. They seemed to look like some of the students that Aoi used to teach in his last school.
“Shirakawa-san... it’s a surprise to me as well. How are you?” she asked as Shirakawa Kana just smiled happily.
“I’m fine. I happened to find out where sensei's new workplace is recently, so I thought of giving him a surprise,” Kana explained before starting to introduce Nagisa to the rest of her friends.
“Thing is... Hasebe-san, it’s been such a long time since we saw sensei so we wanted to make a party for him.”
Nagisa cocked her head at her.
“Party? For Aoi-san?”
Kana nodded her head excitedly. “Yes! His birthday will be coming up in a few days, so we thought of surprising him. Last year, a lot of things happened... and we didn’t manage to properly celebrate his birthday with him so I thought this year we could do it. Sensei... he probably would even forget his own birthday if nobody reminded him.” The rest of the girls started nodding vigourously.
Nagisa smiled. Aoi’s students were certainly very thoughtful.
“Birthday... is it?” she thought in amusement. “That certainly sounded fun...”
“You should come as well, Hasebe-san! You should also bring your daughter along! Sensei would certainly be happy to see you again!” Kana added again as Nagisa grinned.
What a coincidence this was. Just as she was planning for an outing with Aoi and her daughter earlier. She nodded as Kana immediately told her of her plans and gave her number to her. Still amused, Nagisa excused herself as she went off to head back home.
xxx
He smiled to himself as he watched the younger man walk home using his usual route back to his apartment. He laughed at himself. For some reason, he kept doing this for the past year. Watching his little brother from afar.
He had his worries. He heard that Ryosuke had been depressed ever since that incident at the dam. It took a bit of time before Ryosuke managed to pick his life back together again but he was happy that he did. There were many times when he thought he should reveal himself to Ryosuke. Had Ryosuke's situation didn't improve, he might have done so earlier.
Shinji smiled. It's been a while and he managed to live a decent life now. Frm early on, he decided against living with Ryosuke in order to let him regain his normal life. Ryosuke had that other family still with him after all. That should be enough. He himself had started to reuse his real name. Even if his face already became widely known, he could just tell the other people that it’s just a coincidence that they shared similar appearance and first name but that’s all to it. He was Tatsumi Shinji after all, not Ryuzaki Shinji who had the God’s hand that could heal every illness and injuries in the world.
That was the truth now. That power was long gone.
A year. It was that long already.
He never thought he could have survived that day... and he was so prepared for death. That time when Ryosuke used his power, he did feel a jolt running through his body. But instead of darkness overcoming him, Shinji realized that he was still alive.
xxx
He swam towards Ryosuke and got him above water. But by then Ryosuke already became unconscious. So with much difficulty, he struggled to get both of them out of the water. At which later he was left with a dilemma on how to revive his little brother. He lost his healing powers; he was very sure about it. Lucky he thought of healing his own injury before taking Ryosuke’s hand earlier to convince him to use his powers on him. Else he would have more things to worry about aside from his brother drowning.
“Ryosuke! Open your eyes!”
He considered trying that first aid thing he once saw on television. That thing that people do to revive drowning people. But he was not sure if he could do it properly. Ryosuke could instead die because of his doing. He remembered listening about that. That if you do the CPR procedure improperly, you might kill the person you're trying to revive.
Shinji almost panicked with fear for his brother’s life until he heard the commotion nearby. Detective Hasebe had gathered some people to recover them.
How reliable of her.
Shinji hastily searched for some reflective material to use to get her attention towards the place while he eased himself back into the water. He was a few distance away after that before he looked back to see Hasebe taking a hold of Ryosuke while his brother was in a daze.
xxx
Shinji smiled bitterly to himself.
It was better this way. For them to live apart like this. He would still continue to watch over Ryosuke for certain but would remain at this distance. After all... it would be awkward if he should join Ryosuke’s family so suddenly.
He sighed as he turned to leave before noticing his puppy was nowhere near. Shinji looked around for the pup as its barking lead him to it. He grinned.
“Oh, Ryo-kun... I thought I lost you there,” Shinji cooed as he lifted the puppy to his face.
A familiar chuckle came to his attention as he glanced around towards the voice.
“Never imagined you being the type to keep dogs. It’s been a while.”
Shinji raised his eyebrows at her as Nagisa merely shrugged at him. She glanced towards the direction he was looking earlier and managing to catch a brief glance of Ryosuke walking away towards the distance.
Nagisa turned to look towards the direction he was looking at.
“You’re not planning to see him again, are you?”
Shinji shrugged.
“He’s fine by himself now. There’s no reason for me to intrude into his life anymore.”
Nagisa bit his lips.
“What delusions are you trying to convince yourself with? Aoi is your brother! If you've been watching over him all this time, you should know how much he misses you! He’d be—ah, I don’t know what to say anymore!”
Nagisa pulled out her name card and pen from her jacket and wrote something on the back of it as she handed the card to Shinji.
“Aoi’s students were planning to make a surprise birthday party for him. I’m planning to join them with Mio. It'd be great if you could come as well.”
Nagisa bowed before excusing herself as she walked away. Shinji glanced at the back of the card as a date and a name of the place was written on it.
“Birthday party... is it?
xxx
The sound of the all too familiar pop made her heart ran cold. At that moment, everything seemed to run in slow-motion. Nagisa couldn’t remember when did she started moving but she did reacted in defence. In what seemed like ages, she fell the unwanted intruder before the man claimed another victim. She cuffed the man’s hands to prevent him from running away before turning around to see the damage done.
She picked up her phone as she started calling.
“Get some officers down here as well as an ambulance! Hurry!”
Pray God the Almighty... please don’t let this day end in a nightmare...