Chapter Text
A large crowd gathers in front of a set of TV displays. At the outer edge stands a tall boy with grey hair, or rather he’s trying to get through the crowd.
“These people sure do seem interested in this Yamano lady, I just wish they’d be interested somewhere else.” Yu mutters to himself, forcing his way past the crowd.
The train ride is silent, most passengers engrossed in their own business. Yu looks at the journal his mom gave him before his parents left the country. Her words still ring in the back of his mind:
I know we’re gonna be gone for a while, so I got you this. Inaba is very different from the places we’ve normally lived, so promise me you’ll make the most of it, ok?
Yu couldn’t deny that he was upset about being forced to move again, but at least he was going to be with family. He could still see his uncle’s face the last time he saw him, a couple of months after Nanako was born. His face radiated anytime he looked at her. His expression that of a man on top of the world.
– –
This was not his uncle.
Dojima looked bad. Word of Chisato’s death had reached the Narukami household, but that was 2 years ago. This Dojima looked tired, both physically and emotionally, as if the funeral had just taken place last week. His voice did a decent enough job of concealing the negative emotions hiding behind his mask.
“Welcome to Inaba. I’m Ryotaro Dojima. I’ll be looking after you.” he says, as if he’s reading a script. Dojima’s eyes close for a moment and Yu wonders if he’s been taking care of himself.
Has he been sleeping?
“Let’s see…” Dojima pauses thinking of a good transition, “I’m your mother’s younger brother… and that about sums it up.”
In an attempt to lighten up the atmosphere, Yu smiles, “It’s been a long time!”
“Heh. You probably don’t remember, but we’ve met before. I used to change your diapers a long time ago.” Dojima states, his eyes and words drifting off towards the end of the sentence. Taking a moment to remember where he is, he snaps himself out of his trance and pats to the girl standing behind him. “This here’s my daughter. C’mon Nanako, introduce yourself.”
Guiding her by the shoulder from behind him, Nanako’s eyes stay on the ground until she’s directly in front of Yu. She mutters out a “...’lo.”
They’re both not taking this well…
Yu squats and puts his hand up for a high-five with a friendly smile. This has the opposite effect that he hoped, as Nanako runs behind Dojima.
Letting out a hearty chuckle, Dojima asks her what’s wrong. Nanako hides her face behind his jacket and for a moment, everything feels normal. Before Yu gets to bask in that moment, he hears Dojima call his name, the two of them starting to walk towards Dojima’s car.
Beginning to walk, Yu hears a voice call out to him. He turns around to find a girl with deep blue eyes, and a sleeveless button-down shirt holding something out to him.
“You dropped this.” the unfriendly-looking girl informs him, her tone completely betraying the look she’s giving him. Having been raised right, Yu offers thanks, to which he is met with a much more fitting response. “Whatever. All I did was pick it up.”
Looking down at the paper he realizes it’s Dojima’s address that he wrote down just in case he had to walk. Considering that he’s going to be getting a ride back, he stuffs the paper back into his bag, just in case he may need it while learning the layout of the town.
The girl stares at him for a while before turning and walking away.
– –
The trip to Dojima’s place is actually quite lively, with Nanako asking Yu about his life in the city and what he used to do for fun. The car slows down as Dojima pulls into the gas station. It’s small, just barely looking like it fits into the corner of the street it’s on. It appears to be a part of a chain of gas stations but Yu doesn’t recognize the brand. A green truck with a rabbit logo pulls out as Dojima pulls into the station and an attendant runs out in front of the car. Dojima listens to the attendant’s pleasantries as Nanako analyzes the side of the building to find the bathroom.
The attendant snaps his eyes? Her eyes? The attendant looks to Nanako and tells her that the bathroom is in the back to the left, as they give a condescending reminder to her on which hand is which. They don’t even seem to register Nanako’s frustration as Dojima and the attendant start chatting again.
“Are you taking a trip?” the attendant asks in that ever-grating customer service voice. Dojima explains that they just picked Yu up from the train station after a long trip from the city. The attendant’s demeanor changes ever so slightly. Dojima instructs the attendant that regular is fine and walks off, cigarette in mouth, trying to find his lighter. The attendant then turns towards Yu and begins overwhelming him with questions.
“Are you in high school?” they begin, Yu still looking at Dojima as he begins his quick smoke break. Before Yu can even process the first statement, the attendant continues; “Does it surprise a city boy to see how little there is out here?”, “There’s so little to do, I’m sure you’ll…”
Starting to zone out at this point, Yu offers the occasional nod or introspective head tilt to play off his disinterest. He suddenly regains consciousness in the conversation as the attendant walks up close after saying something about part-time work and puts out their hand. The handshake feels innocuous enough, but Yu can't feel like something was... unusual. Although, he could just be tired from a long journey.
Nanako comes speeding out of the store as Yu starts to feel an oncoming migraine. “Are you okay? Did you get carsick? You don’t look too good…” Nanako asks in repetition, the questions almost failing to register in Yu’s mind.
When did she become this observant?
Dojima, watching the situation unfold from across the street, walks over and suggests Yu should walk around and get some air. Going from a stuffy train to a stuffy car was probably doing something to his head.
The shopping district is quiet, despite being surrounded by car-heavy streets. As odd as it is, it’s a blessing as Yu’s head is absolutely pounding. Getting a look down the street, he sees a familiar face. Surprisingly familiar given the 20 minute drive they just took.
“Hey.” he says, perplexed as to how she got here so quickly.
“Hm…? Have we met before?” The girl responds, as if she didn’t just bump into him at the train station.
“I saw you at the station not that long ago.” he says, getting more confused by the second.
“Recently…? Hmm, okay.” she responds, staring off into space. As she thinks to herself, Yu spots a glowing blue butterfly and decides to approach it slowly. Insects like this weren’t common in the places he used to live in. It perches on his finger before dispersing into a glittery mess in the wind.
Am I really that out of it?
The rest of the district seems kind of dull, which makes sense considering it’s a Monday afternoon. There’s a book store right next to the gas station, and it seems it has decent reading material. Making a mental note to come back here after a couple of weeks of school, Yu continues his walk down the block. The rest of his walk is spent trying to examine the shops in this area. As he continues, a pair of siblings argue within earshot, their trivial dispute compounding his headache further
An armory, a tofu shop, a convenience store, and… a locked building. There seems to be more that way but I don’t want to keep Dojima or Nanako waiting.
After making a mental note to come back and check out the remaining shops this weekend, Yu begins his walk back to the car. With each slow step, he feels someone… No, something watching him. He decides to press on and waves to Nanako and Dojima as they come into view.
– –
The rest of the drive back is quiet. Probably out of respect for the headache that the previous walk failed to minimize. Upon walking in, Dojima motions over to Yu to follow him upstairs. He opens one of the doors at the end of a hallway and motions Yu inside. “This is where you’re gonna be holed up while you’re here. We still have some time before dinner so you can leave your bag here and take a nap on the futon, we’ll grab the rest of your stuff out of the car before we eat.” A warm, sympathetic smile crosses his face.
Yu nods, the headache still visibly affecting him, and walks inside. Unable to fall asleep, he stares at the TV before beginning to unpack his duffle bag. There’s not much in it: some spare clothes, his phone, the address to Dojima’s, and the journal his mom gave him. Her words ring in the back of his head again, providing a moment of solitary peace.
If I knew you guys were gonna be moving around this much, I would’ve just asked you to put me up for adoption.
He chuckles to himself, flipping through the blank pages. Each page for an individual day, and some spare pages at the end that can be brought forward in case specific days have more to talk about than others.
She went all-out on this, huh…
A set of soft knocks on the door bring him back to reality.
“... Uhm… Dad said to come get you because dinner’s almost ready.” chirps a timid voice, seemingly eager to run off. Yu snaps his journal shut and notices for the first time that his name is engraved on the spine of the book.
Wow… She really spared no expense. I’ll take this seriously then.
– –
Unloading the car was a quick enough process, and the neighborhood was quiet enough as to not upset his head any further. The two unpack the car with no words said, but silent pleasantries exchanged anytime Dojima recognized a photo or sticker on the side of Yu’s boxes. As Yu places the last box in his room, he wipes his forehead of any remaining sweat and heads downstairs to clean up before dinner
Nanako sets the table for dinner and for once Yu has something to look forward to. A family dinner where everyone is around the table is something that he hasn’t experienced consistently with his parents in years. Everyone sits around the table, drink in hand as Dojima starts up. “All right, let’s have a toast.” he exclaims, a smile beginning to form on his face. Glasses raise, and the atmosphere brightens.
“So… Your mom and dad are busy as always… They’re working overseas, was it…? I know it’s only for a year, but getting stuck in a place like this because of your parents… It’s rough being a kid, isn’t it?” Dojima ponders his statement before focusing on Yu.
“It was terrible the first couple of times, but it’s happened so much that I’m kinda used to it. I haven’t ever lived with family outside of my parents, however, so I am looking forward to that aspect!”
“Well, it’s just me and Nanako here, so it’ll be nice having you around. So long as you’re here, you’re part of the family, so make yourself at home.” the smile forming on Dojima’s face, genuine and soft.
Yu responds with a “Yes, Sir!” and salutes in an attempt to lighten the mood for Nanako who has yet to say anything as she picks at her food. Dojima, picking up on what Yu is trying to do, chuckles.
“C’mon, there’s no need to be so formal. Look, you’re making Nanako all tense.”
Nanako, shocked that she’s been brought into the conversation, shoots her head up and looks at both Dojima and Yu before refocusing on her food.
As soon as Dojima remarks that everyone can eat, pinging noises erupt from his pocket. The noise is loud enough to startle Nanako and upset Yu’s waning headache.
“Who could be calling at this hour?” Dojima questions through gritted teeth, bringing himself to his feet. He wanders to a corner of the room as Yu notices a dejected look start to form on Nanako’s face. Dojima mutters to himself before turning back towards the children and apologizing about having to leave and offering to make it up to them somehow. The look on Nanako’s face turns from dejected to outright heartbroken.
As the door slides open, rain can be heard splashing the asphalt outside. Dojima asks Nanako about the laundry. Nanako responds with a quick, “I already brought it in!”, a twinge of anger sits on the sentence but Yu doubts that Dojima registered it. Dojima apologizes once more for assuming otherwise and closes the door, his car engine starting shortly thereafter. Nanako sits back down and turns on the news. The woman in red begins explaining the forecast for tomorrow.
Rain on the first day of school, how wonderful.
Nanako suggests eating before digging into her food. It’s quiet, uncomfortably quiet. Yu feels the need to break this sad silence and does so; “Soooo… What does your dad do?” Nanako looks away from the TV and explains that he’s a detective flatly.
Almost as if some cruel joke from the universe, the news station immediately changes topics to the affair between Taro Namatame and Mayumi Yamano. Yu picks at his food, annoyed that this affair is being considered a big enough deal to run twice on the same station in one day. Nanako immediately remarks on how boring the story is, and changes the channel.
You’ve got that right.
Yu can’t catch a break between annoyances as his eyes and ears are assaulted by a very loud commercial, which finishes with an unexpectedly catchy tune. Nanako’s eyes light up once the lady in the commercial starts singing and begins to sing along with her after it ends. She then turns to Yu and asks if he’s going to eat.
After returning to his room for the night, Yu struggles to put pen to paper and make something meaningful out of today for the journal. He begins scratching the back of his mind but most of the things he's done today have been of very little importance. He met with Nanako and Dojima at the train station. He met that girl who looked like she hated the very ground he stood on, he met that weird gas station attendant that did not know when to take a hint.
“I guess I can write down that Nanako likes that jingle on the TV… It’s better than nothing.” he confirms before scribbling and closing the journal.
First day of school is tomorrow, it’s gonna rain so that’ll be fun… And this headache refuses to leave.
He slides under the covers of the futon and forces his eyes closed.
– –
It’s foggy. Too foggy. The ground is barely solid and feels more like building blocks floating on water than solid ground. Considering his options, and a lack of an exit, Yu begins to walk down the path laid out before him. A voice rings out, “Do you seek the truth…?” It sounds familiar, but nothing concrete to pin it to. He continues.
“If it’s truth you desire, come and find me…” The voice echoes through the abyss with seemingly no point of origin. Still, he continues forward. He is soon met with a wall. Black as coal, a pattern of black squares and red outlines being the only thing to break up the wall. The wall feels warm under the press of his skin. The blocks begin to rotate and open up, revealing a small area with a silhouette inside.
“So… You are the one pursuing me…” The voice from earlier, now clear as day, speaks to him. “Hmhmhm… Try all you like…” it taunts. Yu reaches out and is able to grab an arm before it is pulled away from him. “Hmmm… It seems that you can see, despite the fog…” Yu reaches out again, just barely missing the figure as it glides away from him. “I see… Indeed… That is very interesting information… But you will not catch me so easily…” The fog is starting to dull his senses.
“If what you seek is ‘truth,’ then your search will be even harder…” The silhouette starts to gurgle, drowning Yu’s surroundings in an even denser fog. “Everyone sees what they want to… The fog will only deepen… Will we meet again…? At a place other than here… I look forward to it…”
Black creeps in from the corners of Yu’s vision as his mind goes blank, his body collapsing under its own weight.
“Breakfast is ready!” a voice rings out loudly. Luckily there is no headache to upset anymore. After folding up his futon, Yu ruminates on the events of last night as he scavenges through his boxes for his uniform.
Surely that was only a dream.