Chapter Text
“Ojiichan?”
“What Yuji?”
“There was a man at school with lines on his head. Like mommy has in my dreams.”
Grandpa stopped walking. He didn’t look at Yuji, but Yuji knew that he was troubled. His forehead was scrunched up like he was trying to solve the morning crossword. He gripped Yuji’s hand tightly. Not enough to hurt, but enough to make Yuji concerned.
“Ojiichan?”
“Don’t go near anyone with stitches on their forehead. Understand, Yuji?”
Yuji nodded. “Sure.”
~.~
Yuji loved playing kickball, but he never did. He could kick a lot farther and harder than the other kids, and sometimes they cried when he tried to join in a game. So instead he played tag on the playground. He learned not to run as fast as he could. Sometimes a slow jog was still faster than the other kids could run anyway, so he won a lot.
The kids in his class were nice, but Yuji didn’t really feel very close to any of them. One day, Yuji had overheard Ms. Sayaka telling Grandpa that she was worried he wasn’t getting along with the other kids. That wasn’t true. Yuji got along great with the other kids, he just didn’t get too close to any of them.
“Yuji, you’re it!” Miko screamed, and Yuji turned to try to find a kid to tag. He saw Hana run and hide under the slide. She was shy, and Yuji knew she ran out of breath fast. She had as-ma. Asthma. He turned and saw Joyun breeze past him. It was so on. Yuji raced after the kid, mindful to stay slow, and just barely grazed the kid’s shoulder.
“You’re it!” He yelled.
“That’s not fair!” Joyun whined. “You barely touched me!”
Miko stepped in. “It doesn’t matter, Joyun. He tagged you.” Yuji thought that she secretly liked Joyun. Or maybe not. She yelled, “Joyun’s it!” and chaos broke out over the playground again.
Yuji started running but stopped as he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Joyun saw that Yuji had stopped, and ran over to take his chance.
He touched Yuji, and in the background Yuji could hear Miko complaining about no tag-backs. But he wasn’t paying attention. There was a man standing by the playground. The same as last week. He had stitches on his forehead. Despite standing still, Yuji felt his heart begin to race. He didn’t know how he knew, but this man was not good. Yuji didn’t like him.
He turned to the other kids on the playground and said, “Sorry guys, I’m not feeling good.”
Joyun frowned at him, and some of the other kids acknowledged what he said, but soon the game resumed and Yuji started walking to the school building, trying to get as far as he could from the man with the stitches.
His teacher wasn’t inside the classroom. Yuji slipped into his seat and set his head on the desk. He didn’t like men with stitches.
~.~
Sometimes Yuji would wake up in the middle of the night. He knew he had nightmares, but the only thing he remembered was blood and stitches on a woman’s forehead. Ojiichan said that it was probably a memory of his mom.
Yuji asked once why his Mom had had stitches. Grandpa had changed the subject. In all honesty, Yuji didn’t really want to know about his parents. He had Grandpa, and that was all that mattered.
Still, his apathy toward his parents didn’t stop the nightmares. So Yuji got up from his sweaty bed, changed into fresh pajamas, and padded down the hall for a drink. Grandpa was probably asleep. He was old and needed lots of sleep to stay healthy. But the juice was on the bottom shelf specifically so Yuji could pour himself a cup at night.
When he was littler, he would go crying to his grandpa after nightmares. But eventually, he learned how to deal with them on his own. Grandpa needed the sleep.
~.~
Sometimes Grandpa needed the neighbor, Ms. Fumiko, to go get him groceries. Yuji wasn’t old enough to go get them himself, and some days Grandpa had a hard time moving. He had arthritis, which made your body hurt all over. But Yuji was glad to help Grandpa, because Grandpa also helped Yuji a lot.
Today Yuji was going with Ms. Fumiko to the market. Grandpa had given Yuji a list, and it was his job to keep track of what they got.
Ms. Fumiko smiled down at him. She was really nice. She was old, but not as old as Grandpa. She had graying dark brown hair, and a face full of smile lines. Grandpa said that meant that someone spent a lot of their life being happy. Yuji wanted to have lots of smile lines like Ms. Fumiko when he was old.
She smiled down at him now, and Yuji did the same back.
“How has school been for you, dear?” She asked, and Yuji saw that as his invitation to start talking.
“We’ve been growing plants!” He exclaimed, bouncing up and down on his toes as he continued, “We keep them in paper towels right by the window, and the seeds grow because they have water, and sunshine, and kids to help take care of them. I named my plant Haru, because it grows in the light! But Kou told me that it was dumb to name the plants, but I asked him how his plant was gonna grow if it didn’t even have a name, and then Kou said…that…” Yuji stopped talking and gripped Ms. Fumiko’s hand harder.
Across the market was the man again. He was staring right at Yuji.
“That sounds really nice dear!” Ms. Fumiko said, oblivious to Yuji’s rising panic. “Now, can you help me find the cabbage heads? I can’t seem to figure out where they are. They must have moved them recently…”
Yuji stopped listening. The man took a step towards Yuji and Ms. Fumiko. Yuji’s breath hitched and he stepped in closer to his temporary guardian. He was about to say something, but before he could, he blinked and the man with stitches disappeared.
It took a second for Yuji to get over his panic. When he did, he noticed that Ms. Fumiko was saying his name.
“Yuji? Yuji?”
He turned to her. “Yes? Sorry.”
“It’s all right dear! Did you get distracted by the fancy toys over there?” Yuji looked in the direction that Ms. Fumiko did, and noticed a whole stand filled with antique looking toys.
Taking the excuse for what it was, Yuji nodded, and Ms. Fumiko smiled down at him.
“Well, now, I’m sure Wasuke gives you some sort of allowance, given how hard working and sweet you are. I’m sure you can save up and we can come get one of those toys another time, hmm?” Yuji nodded, and she continued, “Now, can you help me find the cabbage?”
Yuji was happy for the distraction, so he dutifully set off to find the cabbages in the maze of the market.
~.~
“Ojiichan, I saw the man again today. At the market.”
Wasuke stiffened in his arm-chair. There wasn’t much he could do to protect his grandson from that monster, especially with his body going downhill the way it was.
“You stay away from that man, you hear? And anyone else with those accursed stitches on their head.”
His grandson agreed, but it was little comfort to the old man. He was running out of time.
~.~
It was a Tuesday. Yuji had just gotten home from school. He had pulled out his homework, knowing that grandpa would make him do it regardless of whether Yuji wanted to or not. The old man was sleeping on the couch, the newspaper laid out next to him.
There was a knock at the door. Yuji knew not to answer it without an adult, so he walked over to Ojiichan to wake him up.
Another knock.
He shook the old man, saying, “Ojiichan” with each shake. After a few shakes, his grandpa woke up.
“What? Huh? Yuji? What are you doing? Did you finish your homework?”
Yuji shook his head. “No, but there’s someone at the door!”
Ojiichan craned his head to look at the front door just as the knocking sounded for a third time.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” He yelled, standing up with a crack to his back. Yuji followed closely behind Grandpa, wanting to see who was at the door. Maybe it was the deliveryman? Oh, or Ms. Fumiko here with dinner? Or–
The door opened, and Yuji’s thoughts died. It was the man with stitches.
Yuji went quickly behind his grandpa’s back, hoping that the stitched man wouldn’t see him. He looked right past Yuji’s feeble shield and said, “Hello, Yuji.”
Then the man looked right back up at Grandpa, just in time for Grandpa to slam the door right back in his face. He turned quickly to Yuji, quicker than he typically even thought of moving.
“Yuji, listen to me. You have to run. You have to hide. No matter what happens to me, promise that you will not let that man get you.”
Yuji felt tears coming to his eyes. What was Grandpa talking about? The door was closed, so the man couldn’t get in. Right? Grandpa was going to protect him. That was his job. Still, Yuji found himself nodding as his grandpa shoved him down the hall toward his bedroom.
A second later, Yuji heard a boom! like the front door had been slammed down. Maybe it had.
Hide, he needed to hide. But…what about Ojiichan? He wasn’t hiding like Yuji. The stitched man would hurt him.
Yuji sniffed and wiped his tears. He was strong, way stronger than his classmates. And fast. He could go protect his grandpa. He had to.
Mind made up, Yuji ran back down the hall, determined to land a punch on the man. The man was standing over Grandpa, the front door indeed laying on the ground at the man’s feet. The man was smiling. Yuji didn’t like that smile.
He raised his fist, running at full speed to get the most power in and—the man stopped his punch and threw Yuji to the floor.
“Now, Yuji, you should know better than to interrupt when two adults are talking. It’s rude. I suppose that’s something we’ll have to fix.”
“You’re not taking my grandson anywhere you bitch!” His grandpa yelled, despite not being able to back up the words.
“Ah, that’s ‘son of a bitch’ now. This body is fairly masculine, don’t you think?” The stitched man smiled. “I’ll be taking what belongs to me now. Goodbye, Wasuke.”
Yuji tried to stand up, but before he could get back on his feet, he was picked up by the arm and held up. It hurt.
“My, what a beautiful vessel you will be. Say goodbye to your grandpa now, Yuji. You won’t be seeing him anymore.”
It took Yuji a second to process what the man was saying. “What? No! You can’t do that!” Yuji yelled, but he stopped abruptly when the man gripped his face with his free hand, the other still holding Yuji aloft by his arm.
“And we’ll be doing away with that incessant yelling, too.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” His grandpa was standing now, and as Yuji struggled against the iron grip holding him up, Grandpa used his cane to hit at the man. The man didn’t budge. Instead, he tilted his head and said, “I was going to let you keep living, but that was very rude. Actually, this will be a good lesson for little Yuji. This is what happens to those I have no use for.”
The man dropped Yuji, putting all his attention on grandpa. Yuji was about to get up and run to protect grandpa, but before he could do anything, he heard a loud crack! and grandpa fell to the floor.
“Ojii…chan?” Yuji’s eyes were wide. What happened to grandpa? Why was he laying down like that? Was he taking a nap? Yuji ran over to him, turning the body over. He wasn’t moving. His chest was still, why was it so still? Why wasn’t he breathing?
Tears started to form in Yuji’s eyes as he tried to shake his grandpa awake. Just a minute ago Yuji was waking grandpa up from his afternoon nap. Now he wouldn’t wake up.
The man with stitches tutted and looked down at Yuji, his stare boring into Yuji’s back like a spotlight.
“Come along, then, no need to stay here any longer.”
Yuji couldn’t move, but that didn’t matter much to the man. He picked Yuji up, and Yuji found he barely had any strength left to fight back.