Chapter 09

Chapter 09

 

TABUKI KEIJU’S MOTHER loved the piano. This was why she married Tabuki’s father, a pianist. However, not long after Tabuki was born, the two of them separated.

“That man was no good for me. He had no talent at all. Keiju, you would never betray your mother, would you?” she would often say to him around the time of the divorce. As she stroked her young son’s head, running her hands through his soft, supple hair, Tabuki would always nod.

Once, Tabuki’s mother gave him a new friend as a gift. It was a darling little bird. By his mother’s logic, a human friend would only get in the way of his music lessons, so a bird was just right instead. This did not especially bother Tabuki, nor did he think it was strange.

The little bird lived in a round bird cage on a dedicated stand, next to the grand piano Tabuki practiced on.

The young Tabuki lifted the heavy lid of the piano, noisily plunking at the keys, and as his legs were not yet long enough to reach the pedals, he either simply pushed them up against the piano or swung them, just enjoying the sounds.

Whenever he played the piano, he and the little bird were always together.

“Keiju. Your mother loves people with talent.” Whenever Tabuki poured himself into the piano, his mother would always give him a warm embrace. Enough time passed that his feet now properly reached the pedals, and he could read sheet music as well. He practiced for hours every day, and performed in numerous competitions. His eyes began to weaken from staring at scores for too long, which necessitated his getting glasses, but that sort of trifling thing did not bother him.

His shelves were lined with various trophies, and countless framed awards hung from the walls.

Not long after, Tabuki’s mother remarried an up-and-coming composer. Tabuki was a bit puzzled by this new father and this new surname—“Tabuki”—that he was supposed to use from now on, but his mother was elated for the three of them to start their lives together, even smiling and telling Tabuki, “We’ll have your father teach you all sorts of things about music.” As it turned out, his father was a good man who knew much about music.

Eventually, a second son was born to the Tabuki household. Tabuki was thrilled to welcome this little one into the world, and even introduced him to his little bird. It filled him with such joy to be gripped at by those tiny hands, to stroke the baby hair that just started to sprout from his head, a feeling like they truly had become brothers. Though he had no human friends yet, his little brother would be his friend as well, after his little bird.

Every day, his little brother wailed and ate and played, all to the tune of the music his stepfather played or the sounds of Tabuki on the piano. The Tabuki household was a lively one, overflowing with all manner of beautiful sounds. However, it did not take long before Tabuki’s brother, who was supposed to be his friend, grew into a threat.

The toy piano his mother bought for his brother was wooden and painted white, with its own little legs. His brother would sit in front of it, handling it as recklessly as he did his other toys. One day, however, Tabuki watched his brother striking the keys of the toy piano, and his breath hitched. He looked as though he was only making random sounds, but within seconds it approached something resembling a tune, at length growing into a real melody.

Tabuki, clutching his thick piano instruction book, was stunned to hear the music his brother was playing, the sounds wild but unmistakably taking form. Everything that had taken Tabuki years to accomplish, his brother could suddenly do effortlessly, without even any clue what he was doing.

Tabuki was distraught. There was no doubting his brother was a genius. At the very least, he was probably already on a level that Tabuki himself would never reach, no matter how much he practiced.

His mother loved people with talent. So far, Tabuki was the only one who knew about this, but what would happen if his mother were to find out? She would probably spend all her time mooning over his genius little brother.

Tabuki increased his practice time, playing the piano single-mindedly. He spent countless hours sitting at the piano, his only friend the little bird at his side. Even still, his brother inevitably grew older, his talent becoming apparent as he left Tabuki in the dust.

“Keiju, you know I only like things that are the best. You may as well burn those second-place certificates.” This was not a suggestion, but a statement of fact. This was her declaration that anything below first place was meaningless to her.

With his second place and lower trophies and certificates gone, Tabuki had very little left with which he could prove his existence to his mother.

Crestfallen, Tabuki watched his little brother happily playing his toy piano. By now, it was a perfect melody. It reverberated throughout the room, pleasant to the ear, smooth as silk.

Tabuki was embarrassed that he was jealous of his own brother, but as much as he hated that dark feeling, he could not bury it away. One day, the child would steal all of their mother’s love and attention away from him. One day, Tabuki would be thrown away and burned up, just like his unworthy certificates.

Tabuki could do nothing but practice with all his heart.

He woke up early in the morning and practiced, ran to school, ignoring all his lessons to study sheet music, focusing on strengthening up the muscles needed for playing piano. Once lessons were over, he would run home and start practicing again. He sacrificed both eating and sleeping, often even passing out right atop the keys.

Just as Tabuki hoped, he once again took first place at a competition.

“This is wonderful, Keiju. Let’s frame this one.” His mother smiled softly, stroking his head.

Tabuki was happy. He knew in that moment that his mother loved him. Yet, at the same time, he knew that in the not-too-distant future, his brother would surely rise to number one. Though Tabuki spent absurd amounts of time practicing, finally clawing his way to first place, his brother would soon overtake him.

Tabuki was never certain if the warbling from his little bird was meant as encouragement, or as pity. Even so, the bird was very special to him.

One day, however, the bird no longer replied to the words that slipped from his lips.

“I’m sorry.” He opened the lid of the piano and placed his left hand gently on the keys. Then he slammed the lid shut. There was no other way.

If his time as a pianist was over, then surely time would stop for his mother as well, frozen in the time when he was still number one. No matter how splendid a performer his brother would grow into, surely his mother would still comfort him, show him love and compassion, telling him, “If you had kept playing, I’m sure you would have been number one.”

The pain of the lid falling on his hand sent spikes of agony throughout his entire body. He lost all sensation in his left hand, as if it was permanently asleep. Although his swollen, broken fingers were still connected to his hand, he would never again be able to play the piano as he did before.

Tabuki was certain he had secured his mother’s eternal love.

“Don’t worry, Keiju. I’m sure your brother will be number one at the next recital.” She smiled softly at Tabuki, his left hand wrapped in a sling, and sidled over to his brother, who had taken up the seat at the piano he once played.

Tabuki was all alone.

 

One by one, the shadows of the red steel beams that made up the building flowed past the trio’s faces and bodies. Tabuki’s head was lowered slightly, looking at his left hand as the elevator climbed up and up. His hand would never move the way it once did, but it proved no real obstacle to a normal life.

“Where…where are we going?” Ringo’s voice grew frantic, unable to grasp Tabuki’s intentions. It was an incredibly tall building, if “building” was the right word for something so unfinished.

“To the place where our fates reside,” Tabuki softly replied.

The elevator swayed and clattered to a halt. Ringo’s anxiety grew as she looked around the floor at which they arrived. Its ceiling was made of bare steel beams, its floor only of smooth concrete, no barriers or anything else in place. Ringo was unsure of how high they had climbed. Himari looked at her, equally afraid.

“Um, Tabuki-san…” Ringo started to say, when Tabuki pushed her away, shoving her back into the elevator. She fell backward, the sleeve of Himari’s cardigan slipping out of her hand.

“Himari-chan!” She picked herself back up frantically, reaching out, but Tabuki swiftly picked up Himari, closing and bolting the accordion-like elevator doors.

“Open up! Tabuki-san!” Ringo gripped the doors, pulling with all her might, but they would not budge. At her feet, a single ball of yarn rolled out of the Yozawaya bag that fell from Himari’s hands. “Why are you doing this?” she cried.

“There is nothing meaningless in this world.” Tabuki’s demeanor was still calm, but his expression was cold and empty, not a hint of the usual light in his eyes. “Those words are not a lie. Look around you, Ringo-chan. Do you see what it is I live for? Why I must exact revenge on the Takakura family?”

Ringo was lost for words. It would seem that neither she nor Takakura Shoma or Kanba knew a single thing about the real Tabuki Keiju. The Tabuki standing before her looked nothing like the man she knew. But what if this was who Tabuki really was?

Himari was unable to even struggle in fear, her lips trembling. She knew there could be no reason for this punishment they were to suffer, other than the accident.

It was natural that the members of the Takakura family should be met with hatred and scorn. Himari believed that ever since Hibari and Hikari had left her side. She always felt that one day their punishment would come, just like this. If that was to be so—if that fate was unavoidable—she prayed that she would be the one to be punished, sparing her brothers.

Himari trembled and prayed to a god she didn’t know for sure existed that this would be the end of it. She would sit back and receive her punishment. Please, just let this all be over.

 

The place stunk of metal, and something like a massive ventilation fan spun around it, making a hideous sound. It was so vast that it was hard to discern the walls or the ceiling. Tabuki was huddled on the floor with his hands around his knees, amongst a mass of other children doing the same. His little bird was in a cage beside him.

“Where are we? There’s a lot of other kids like me here.” As far as he could see, all the children were haggard and quiet, huddled up small.

“You don’t know? This is the Child Broiler,” said another child, who appeared to be the same age as Tabuki.

“The Child Broiler?” When Tabuki had come to, he was already sitting on the floor, with no recollection of coming to this place.

“Yep. It’s where unwanted children are discarded. We stay here for a long, long time. Then our existence begins to fade, and finally we vanish from the world.”

Tabuki immediately understood. In the end, he really couldn’t do anything right. It was his destiny to be cast aside by his mother. He was an unwanted child in his mother’s eyes. That was why he was here, and why he would one day fade away and vanish.

“I’m sorry,” Tabuki muttered to the little bird. He tried to open the door of the cage, hoping to at least let the bird escape, but the door had at some point rusted shut. “It won’t open.”

Just then, a girl called out to Tabuki. “Let’s go home!”

He had seen her face before. It was Momoka, one of his classmates. She spotted him right away within the sea of children, and was looking straight at him. Her eyes, peeking out from beneath her thick, straight cut bangs, were strong and willful.

“C’mon!” She walked right up to him and offered her hand.

“Where to? I don’t have a home to go back to anymore,” Tabuki quietly replied.

“You’re coming home to someone who needs you.”

“There’s no one who needs me.” His self-deprecating tone sounded hideous even to him. But there was no other way for him to say it.

“I do. I need you,” Momoka said, looking him straight on.

Tabuki lifted his head, peering at her. She has to be lying, he thought.

“You played piano in the music room after school every day. You probably didn’t know it, but I was always listening.”

“What? In that case, you’re just gonna throw me away too. I can’t play the piano anymore,” Tabuki spat, lifting up his still-bandaged left hand.

“That’s got nothing to do with it. What I was listening to was your heart.” Momoka shook her head, frowning sadly.

Tabuki was stunned by this grandiose declaration, but he just wrapped his arms back around his knees. Momoka kept talking.

“Whenever you played the piano, I could see the music overflowing from the windows of the music room, falling down in sparkles into the hallway, and onto the flower beds. It was so beautiful.” Momoka grinned. “It seemed like you were having so much fun.”

“Enough of this. You sound stupid,” he said, not caring if it made Momoka sad. “What do you even know? There’s no point in doing something if it isn’t perfect. If you aren’t number one, or the most talented, or a genius.”

Momoka was taken aback, retreating as Tabuki babbled on, half-crazed.

“All right, everyone, have you prepared yourselves? It’s time for all of you to fade away!” There was a sudden loud, lively announcement from the adults, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

The adults wore bright blue and pink, long-sleeved coveralls with caps of the same color worn down low over their eyes, leaving only the lower halves of their faces visible. Their mouths were twisted into eerily wide grins.

“No need to be afraid. You just won’t be able to tell who is who anymore. You’ll just be worthless nothings!” they shouted.

Everyone, including Tabuki, fell silent looking at them. Not a single one of the children panicked or tried to run.

“No,” Momoka muttered quietly.

By the time Tabuki noticed Momoka’s voice, the floor had already begun to move, heading toward a great cliff. They were being carried toward it as though they were on a conveyer belt.

“Oh.” The children closest to the cliff were dropped over the edge in the blink of an eye. Then a flame erupted with a roaring sound, burning the children up completely.

The sounds of the fire and the hot wind were growing closer.

Still sitting on the conveyer belt-like floor, Tabuki looked at the birdcage at his feet. He gripped the edge of the cage and quietly began to slide off the precipice.

Without a sound, Momoka grabbed his left arm. He looked up in surprise to see her desperately reaching out from the edge of the floor with her right arm. As he swung, he somehow managed to keep his grip on the birdcage with his right hand. When he looked down, everything below him was enveloped in flame, and his legs were growing hot. To his side, countless other children were falling in, burning up to nothing in an instant.

“You can’t go!” Momoka forced out the words.

“Let me go. When I fade away, I’ll be free.” Tabuki meant to shout this, but the hot air burned his lungs, and he could not speak very loudly.

“You can’t! You have to stay yourself, Tabuki-kun!”

“Why? I’m already…” Unwanted. By everyone.

“I…I love you!”

Her words were softer, more assuring than any other sound he had ever heard before.

“Now you don’t have to fade away. You can come back home with me.” She smiled, narrowing her eyes to shield them from the embers.

“You’re lying.” His mother always said that she only loved people with talent. Even though she stroked his head as she said this, she still threw him aside. No one could ever love or want him.

The strength of Momoka’s small body was not enough to lift Tabuki up. Little by little he slipped downward, until only the palm of his bandaged hand was still connected.

“Tabuki-kun!” Momoka leaned in, putting all of her strength into her hand. If she were to grab hold of the bandaged portion, it might slip and come undone.

“Okay! We’re just going to go ahead and burn away this lifeline of yours!” Suddenly, one of the coverall-clad adults appeared, brandishing a lit blowtorch.

“Go away! Stop it!” Tabuki reflexively screwed his eyes shut.

Momoka let out a scream. A few embers from the blowtorch flecked out onto Tabuki’s arm as well.

“Let go of my hand! Hurry!” Tabuki wailed. The heat stung his throat, and it was excruciating even to speak. His arms and legs were already at their limits, and he could scarcely even hold the birdcage anymore.

“No! I’ll never let you go!”

He cracked open his eyes at Momoka’s voice. The edges of her hand were hideously burnt, her skin curling and running with blood.

“Your hand! Let go already!”

The coverall-clad adult looked at Momoka, who refused to let go. They gave a thin smile, and once again lowered the blowtorch to her arm.

“Let go!”

Though Momoka screamed again, she did not let go of his hand. Her breathing was hindered, sweat pouring from her face, gritting her teeth through the heat and the pain. Still, her thin arm never broke the connection to Tabuki. Quietly, her breath ragged with agony, she repeated, “No.”

The adult gently tilted their head at Momoka’s stubbornness, and began to turn the dial on the torch. They were trying to make the flames stronger. Tabuki could not bear to see her already battered hand be lit aflame again.

Maybe Momoka wasn’t lying. But within Tabuki’s heart, it was all already over. “It’s fine. Let me go. I don’t have any reason to live anymore!”

“Then live for me!” Her voice was loud and clear, ringing out across the Child Broiler.

His eyes opened wide in shock, and he looked at his own fingertips, wrapped in the burnt bandages. Slowly, he began to slip away from Momoka’s grasp.

He was falling, or so he thought. Suddenly, the door of the birdcage opened, and the little bird flew up and away.

He was glad that the bird had gotten away. The door probably warped as the birdcage melted in the heat of the flames. Then, for a moment, Tabuki thought: I’m glad I got to meet Momoka before I faded away to nothing.

“Tabuki-kun.”

Tabuki slowly opened his eyelids at her gentle voice. The sky above him, dotted with white clouds, was such a faint blue that it looked as though it was painted in watercolor. He sat up and looked around. The Child Broiler was billowing black smoke from its massive chimneys somewhere far off in the hazy distance. The ground Tabuki sat on was moist dirt in which small flowers grew abundantly, stretching all the way to the horizon. A breeze blew soundlessly, playing across the flowers and in Tabuki’s hair.

“The Child Broiler is so far away,” he murmured.

“C’mon, let’s go home now.” Momoka once more offered her hand to the speechless Tabuki. There was no longer any trace of skin left on her hand. Even the blood that once soaked it was burnt black, her fingertips trembling faintly.

“Why…” …would you go that far, just to save me? Doesn’t your hand hurt? How had she infiltrated the Child Broiler, and how did she save Tabuki? Did she truly love him?

There were so many things he wanted to ask her, so instead he just closed his mouth.

“Now the two of us are a pair. I’m sure this was our destiny.” Momoka smiled with glee, looking straight at Tabuki with her big, round eyes, her expression clear.

There was no need for Tabuki to ask anymore. Her words and expression were so frank, they sparkled. He wrapped both his hands around hers in thanks, and stood.

He could almost hear her shoulder-length hair swaying in the wind.

 

Tabuki set Himari on the ground, seized her arm, and pulled.

“Tabuki-san, why? The accident happened so long ago, and you said you didn’t harbor any bad feelings toward Shoma-kun and the others!” Ringo shook the door noisily. “Open this!”

Tabuki ignored her cries and began walking, dragging Himari along. A powerful wind rushed through the scaffolding, sending Himari’s long hair fluttering.

“Himari-chan!” Ringo screamed.

Himari glanced back at Ringo, breathing shallowly. Hearing the word “accident” from Ringo’s mouth shocked her. How long had Ringo known that Himari’s parents were the perpetrators of that attack? Had she still spent time with them, even knowing that fact? Did Kanba and Shoma know about this? That Ringo knew the reason why the Takakura family was burdened with such sin?

“Tabuki-san, stop! What’s the point in getting revenge now?” Ringo screamed through the doors.

Tabuki halted. “There is a point. I think it just might be the direction my destiny has been pointing me,” he said, his back still turned.

“What are you gonna do to Himari-chan?”

“You’ll see for yourself. That is your destiny.”

Tabuki looked across the darkening scenery. There was a tower crane constructed in the courtyard, painted in stripes of crimson red and white. From the wire extending from the end of the crane hung a gondola reminiscent of a square bird cage, constructed only of red steel beams with no roof. Another strong gust blew, sending the gondola swaying.

Tabuki shoved Himari onto the gondola and locked the door. Then he took the controls of the crane, and the gondola rose high into the air. Himari was far out of anyone’s reach.

Unable to guess what was going to happen next, Himari simply stared back at Tabuki. Her lips were parted, her long hair obscuring her view.

His gaze never leaving the caged Himari, Tabuki took out his cell phone and made a call. “Takakura Kanba, yes? I’ve taken your little sister. If you want her back safely, you will bring me your father, Takakura Kenzan.”

Himari wanted to beg him not to involve her brothers in this, but she was too terrified to speak. Only the quiet presence of No. 3 at her feet allowed her to keep any manner of cool.

“I’ll send a map. I’d suggest coming straight away. It’s been sixteen years, after all. I’m already fed up with waiting.” He hung up before Kanba could reply, finally breathing a small sigh. He really was tired of waiting. He had spent all this time keeping up the act of the vapid, grinning schoolteacher, hiding his true intentions even from Tokikago Yuri, but he hadn’t forgotten his purpose for even a moment.

He remembered the feeling that had overtaken him when he first laid eyes on Shoma and Kanba as their teacher. Greeted with the reality that he finally had the opportunity to deliver punishment, it was a trivial matter for Tabuki to keep on acting as their teacher, instructing them with a smile. After all, it was easy for people to smile and act kindly when faced with an inferior opponent.

“Tabuki-san!”

“Yes?” Tabuki sweetly replied, finally becoming aware of Ringo’s shouting.

“Their father has been missing for years. Didn’t you know that?”

“I knew.” This was a tedious line of questioning, as far as Tabuki was concerned.

“Then isn’t it pointless to tell them to bring him here?”

“I wonder.”

“So if Kanba-kun somehow brings his father here, what are you going to do?” The worst possible answer came immediately to the forefront of Ringo’s thoughts. However, his reply was a vague one.

“I’ll find out what it was that Momoka wanted me to live for.” Momoka rescued him from the Child Broiler, then left him all alone in the world. There could be no reason for her to have done so, other than for him to punish the Takakuras.

But then, did anything truly mean anything in his world?

 

Himari sat on the floor of the gondola like a little bird, staring at the bumpy iron sheeting beneath her. She had no idea what to think or how to feel. She had no idea where her father was, nor even whether he was alive. She couldn’t imagine that Shoma or Kanba knew his whereabouts, either.

She tried wiggling her own chilling toes inside her boots, but she felt strangely detached from her own body. It didn’t feel quite real that she was here, swaying in this gondola. Yet at the same time, it felt as though she had already been here for days.

Her visit to the craft store with Ringo, and her time in her hospital bed just before that, seemed like reveries of some distant past.

No. 3 huddled up to Himari.

“Are you cold?” she asked softly, stroking its head.

The sky was already pitch-black. She could see countless buildings, including Tokyo Tower, shining in the distance.

 

Ringo scanned every inch of the elevator’s interior, but it didn’t look like the doors would open from the inside. There were large gaps in the scaffolding making up the roof, and she tried as hard as she could to squeeze her way out, but her attempts were ultimately fruitless.

Had Tabuki always intended to “deliver punishment” on the members of the Takakura family? Tabuki said he was surprised to have ended up as Shoma and Kanba’s homeroom teacher, but that was probably a lie. He had probably become their teacher intentionally. Or maybe it was a cruel trick of fate that once he happened to encounter them, all the darkness within his heart suddenly had a purpose.

 

Tabuki stood straight as a board, not moving a muscle as the wind howled against him, his expression unchanging. He stared at nothing in particular, thinking to himself that it was growing cold. Quite cold, in fact. He recalled the spacious living room at his and Yuri’s flat, which was also a rather cold room.

Tabuki turned only slightly to look as he heard the clanging of someone running up the emergency stairs. Ringo, who sat in the elevator beside the stairs, reflexively stood up as well.

Kanba, along with Penguin No. 1, came barreling out from the stairwell, his shoulders heaving.

“Kanba-kun!” Ringo cried out.

“Where’s Himari?!” he forced out, trying to steady his ragged breath. His lungs ached. No. 1 rolled on the ground, gasping, not moving for some time.

“Over there! In there!” Ringo pointed to the gondola swaying from the end of the crane. It was only then that she realized that her hands were shaking.

“Kan-chan?” Himari said softly from the gondola. She stood and clung to the rails, her face pale. The gondola swayed dramatically with her movement.

“Stop! Don’t move!” Kanba shouted immediately, running toward the gondola.

“Well, hello there,” came a familiar voice. Kanba turned around to see Tabuki in the shadow of the crane.

“Tabuki-sensei? Why are you…?” He stopped mid-sentence. It didn’t matter who it was. Anyone who hurt Himari would pay for it. But why would Tabuki Keiju of all people be doing something like this? Kanba’s face tensed, remembering the words “sixteen years” that he heard over the phone.

“Where is Takakura Kenzan?” Tabuki’s voice was the same as always: quiet and somehow a little sluggish.

“He’s not here. I have no idea where he is.” Sweat began to form on Kanba’s hands and back, different from the kind he had from running here, and he felt the heat rush from his body as the sweat quickly dried.

“I see,” Tabuki softly replied. He looked down at the remote control in his right hand and sighed. He pushed one of the buttons, and one of the wires holding up the gondola violently snapped.

“Ahhhhhh!” Himari let out a loud scream.

“Himari!” Kanba reached out toward the falling gondola, but he was too far away.

The gondola stopped, held back by the other wires. “It’s not good to lie.” Tabuki’s face was blank.

“I honestly have no idea where our father is! I don’t know! What do you want me to do about it?!”

Tabuki stared silently at Kanba’s face as the boy glared back at him.

“Tabuki-san, that’s enough! I’m going to call the police!” Ringo took out her phone and held it up. It was her only option. There was nothing else she could do to help.

“I don’t care if you do, honestly, but what does he think about that idea?” Tabuki uttered, looking vaguely toward Ringo.

“Stop. Don’t call the cops.” Kanba’s eyes wavered slightly.

Ringo stopped herself in mid-dial. She wondered what Kanba was doing, but at the same time she realized that she had an unexpected amount of faith in him. There had to be some reason for it.

“You see? If the police come, I won’t be the one who gets in trouble,” Tabuki chuckled, the corners of his mouth twisting. “I know your secret, Takakura Kanba. I know what you’ve been doing to earn all that money in order to save your sister.”

Kanba fell silent, steadying his breathing.

Instead of the police, Ringo quickly dialed Shoma’s number. There was no way that she wouldn’t tell him about this. She just prayed that he would pick up the phone. She slowly put the phone to her ear, only to hear the automated voice of his answering service. Idiot, she thought, and immediately called him back.

For now, she would keep calling him, no matter if she had to do it hundreds or even millions of times.

After many calls, he finally picked up with a breathless, heavy voice. “Yes?”

“Shoma-kun!” Ringo felt like she would cry just at the sound of his voice.

 

Tabuki pulled a large stack of photographs out of his back pants pocket and tossed them at Kanba’s feet. The photos showed Kanba meeting up with some men in black at the station and on the train.

“You’ve been in contact with the last remnants of that group. Your father is the one in charge of said group, isn’t he?”

Kanba picked up the photos, appearing not in the least bit shaken, and tossed them down the stairs. “And just what are these supposed to prove? You’re sorely mistaken.”

Tabuki stared wordlessly at him. “I see,” he said after a moment, and pushed the button on the remote control.

Yet another of the wires snapped with a terrible sound.

The gondola careened again. Himari collapsed on the floor with a soundless scream.

“Himari!!” Kanba cried as he looked at the gondola. He whirled on Tabuki. “What are you going to do if you meet our father?” he demanded in a voice that seemed to rise from the pit of his chest.

“He’s going to finally receive his punishment. He’s going to pay the price for his sin, for what he stole from me,” Tabuki quietly replied.

“What he stole?”

“The most important person to me in the entire world was a victim of the accident. Your parents were the ones who murdered her.”

Tabuki’s phone call echoed once more in Kanba’s mind. Sixteen years. Fed up of waiting. Of course—Tabuki had a connection to the accident.

“Momoka was a truly special girl. If she were still here, we could have avoided so many of the senseless tragedies in this world. Momoka should have been my—no, the entire world’s salvation,” Tabuki said in a single breath, his face contorted into a grin.

He didn’t actually care what happened to humanity. All Tabuki wanted was to be with Momoka forever. He wanted to see her again. He wanted Momoka to be by his side, his own personal salvation. In fact, it was strange of him to bother caring about “the senseless tragedies of this world,” now that he had come this far.

Tabuki needed Momoka, and she had been taken from him. That was the only reason for doing this.

“What are you talking about?” Momoka was Ringo’s older sister’s name, wasn’t it? Kanba had no idea what Tabuki meant by avoiding tragedies if she were here, or her being some kind of savior.

“The incident your father caused was just one of those tragedies. Momoka was trying to stop it.”

Oginome Ringo’s older sister was trying to stop the accident. Kanba was puzzled at this mysterious figure, whom he knew nothing about. What on earth could this one little girl have done all on her own?

“And yet, no one was saved. Momoka vanished, leaving me behind.”

“Vanished?” Not perished. Vanished. Did he mean something by that word choice?

Meanwhile, Ringo was frantically whispering at Shoma over the phone. “Please, come quick!” she hissed.

“On it!” Still connected to the call, Shoma raced toward the building where Ringo and his siblings waited, listening to Ringo’s instructions as he ran.

Unable to draw her gaze away from the dangerously swaying wires, Ringo hugged her own chilled body.

“Now, let’s continue,” Tabuki said as he pressed the button again.

Another wire snapped with a great sound, and the gondola tilted further, slipping with a terrifying jerky motion. Only one wire remained to stand between Himari and death.

“And yet, you still won’t call your father?” Tabuki looked up to see the first star of the night visible in the dark sky through the atrium.

“I’m begging you, please just stop this!” Kanba pleaded, dropping to his knees helplessly.

“Oh? What happened to all that bravado?”

“I swear, I don’t know where our father is. I really don’t! If I did, I…” Kanba trailed off. If he did know, then what? Would he bring him here?

“Is your sister really that important to you?” Tabuki asked, almost kindly.

“Obviously!”

“I see. Well then, I guess I’ll you’ll all be punished, then. The children will pay for the sins of the father.”

Ringo gripped the elevator door as though she was about to crumble, listening to Shoma’s violent panting as he ran. By what means did Tabuki mean to exact this “punishment”?

With a look of regret, Kanba lowered his eyes, and waited patiently for Tabuki’s next words.

 

A short time later, Kanba was standing by the crane, reaching out to the thick wire attached to the gondola. It looked to be twisted from countless thin metal strands. Attached to the crane itself were two large, slightly rusted pulleys, lit by the light of the moon.

“Kan-chan, stop it,” Himari softly begged, tears in her eyes.

The punishment Tabuki proposed was an incredibly simple, yet devilish one. Tabuki would cut the final wire. The gondola would drop instantaneously, Himari and all. Kanba would have to keep the gondola aloft with his own two hands. From the edge of the pulley, he would need to grip the wire and pull.

“Himari, hold on tight.” Kanba looked down at Himari, putting on a brave face. Then he gripped the wire and held it tight with both hands.

“Kanba-kun!”

“It’s over now.” With a blank expression, Tabuki pushed the button to cut the final wire.

With the fearsome sound of countless metal strands twisting and snapping, the pulley spun forcefully, and the gondola fell.

Kanba let out a roar and flung himself upward in the blink of an eye, still gripping the wire. Penguin No. 1 flew up with him, clinging to Kanba’s back. The rope that was coiled up on the ground began slipping through his hands.

“Kan-chan!” Himari screamed as Kanba was hoisted upward, swaying unsteadily. In the now-diagonal gondola, No. 3 burrowed into Himari’s body as she huddled in the corner.

The pulley continued to spin, utterly unconcerned with Kanba’s weight. His body continued whipping upward, arms still attached to the wire. At this rate, his arms were going to end up wrapped around the upper pulley.

As he clung to the rope, Kanba pulled his lower body up, wrapping his legs around the crane and digging in his feet. The rapidly slipping gondola gave a heaving groan and stopped moving. The blood dripping from Kanba’s hands ran down his arms, splashing onto his cheeks. It was clear that even if he utilized every last tendon in his body, he was soon going to lose out to the weight of the gondola and the strength of the rope.

“Hurts, doesn’t it? I know that pain well. That’s the pain of love,” Tabuki said, shrinking back as he looked up at the groaning Kanba.

Kanba couldn’t say a word. No matter how hard he tried to endure it, the pain was growing more and more intense. If he couldn’t force even more strength into his hands and legs, he was going to lose his grip on the rope.

“So, what are you going to do? At this rate you’re going to ruin your own hands.”

“I don’t care!” Kanba shouted in a pained scream, closing his eyes tight.

“You don’t feel obligated to her in the name of family, do you? Come on, let her go now, and be free. Cast aside your little sister. Just like my mother cast me aside.”

“No! I’m never letting go!” I’m not like your mother, Kanba thought. He would never cast Himari away.

Seeing Kanba’s stubborn resistance, Tabuki momentarily recalled a scene from the distant past: Momoka, who never let go of his hand, no matter what.

“Tabuki-san, stop this already! You don’t need revenge!”

Tabuki turned around at the sound of Ringo’s shout. Her voice was so much like Momoka’s. He was smiling, face twisted as though in tears. “I bet I’m hideous right now, aren’t I?” he asked.

Ringo felt a deep sorrow as she looked at his expression.

“Momoka worked so hard to rescue me back then,” he continued, “and here I am now, wretched to the bone. When I lost Momoka, I lost my reason to live. The man standing here before you is not the boy Momoka loved. I’m a monster, hollowed out from the inside.”

His arms drooped down, and the remote control fell to the ground.

In Ringo’s eyes, Tabuki was a horrid, pitiful monster. What would Momoka have done, in her place? If Ringo had the diary with her right now, surely there would be some hint written inside. However, Ringo was not Momoka. She couldn’t save Kanba or Himari. She could not even save Tabuki, nor could she heal those hollow parts of him.

Kanba screamed in pain.

“Kan-chan!” Himari shouted, still gripping the grate of the gondola.

“Don’t…worry about me!” Bit by bit, the wire was slipping from Kanba’s strong hands.

“Please, that’s enough already! Let go!” she pleaded with him.

“Who would ever let go?!” Kanba yelled, not noticing the cold glare Tabuki shot him.

Suddenly, Himari’s voice grew stronger. “That’s enough,” she said firmly. “It’s okay, Kan-chan. Don’t hurt yourself for me anymore. You’ve done enough.”

“Himari.” Below Kanba, Himari’s face was so firm, and mature. She smiled faintly, as pale and beautiful as ever.

“I…I know. My illness is never going to be cured, is it? I know I don’t have very long to live.”

“What are you saying? You will be cured. I’ll cure you!”

Himari lightly shook her head. “Listen, it’s okay. Just know that I was happy.” She steeled herself and looked at No. 3. “Sorry,” she whispered, knowing she was about to plunge from this gondola alone.

“Himari! Don’t!” Kanba screamed.

Himari looked straight at Tabuki, her eyes large and round. “Tabuki-san. I will accept my father’s sins. So please…forgive Kan-chan and Sho-chan.”

Tabuki frowned slightly, but said nothing.

“No! Stop it!”

“Thank you, Kan-chan. But from now on, you need to live for your own sake.” Himari smiled gently. She chose her last words quickly. If she didn’t hurry, Kanba’s arms were going to be pulled into the pulley, and probably broken.

“No, that’s—” Kanba said only to himself as he looked upon Himari’s stalwart little face. “No. No!”

“And get along with Sho-chan, okay?” Slowly, she began to climb the grate, far too high for her even with the gondola’s slant.

“Stop it!!!” Kanba screamed, his voice echoing throughout the building. “I want to live for your sake!”

If Himari died, then what was any of it for? He didn’t care if his hands were shattered, or if he had to vow never to fight with Shoma again. He would never forgive Tabuki Keiju.

His hands, along with most of the rest of his body, started to go numb, and Kanba could no longer feel the pain.

 

As I ran up the staircase, a large crimson structure came crashing down through the nearby atrium. It plummeted through the scaffolding with a fearsome sound before colliding violently with the ground, kicking up clouds of dirt. “Himari! Aniki!” I shouted.

I continued to hurry up the stairs, almost at the final floor. When I reached the rooftop, I saw Oginome-san, standing near the staircase. “Oginome-san!”

“Why did you save them?” Oginome-san asked someone through tears. I didn’t see who she was talking to at first.

“Ringo-chan, don’t ever become like me.”

I turned at the sudden, familiar voice to see Tabuki Keiju on the elevator behind closing doors, a look of utter exhaustion on his face.

“Tabuki-san!” Oginome-san watched in shock as the elevator descended.

“Took you long enough, Shoma,” called my brother, his voice hoarse.

“Aniki!” I cried as he walked unsteadily toward me, an unconscious Himari in his blood-stained arms.

“That blood…” A shiver ran down my spine as I saw the blood soaking into Himari’s cardigan.

“I accepted the punishment. Don’t worry.” Before he could make it over to me, he collapsed to the ground, still holding Himari.

“Punishment…?” Had Tabuki done this to Kanba’s hands? I ran over to them both, staring at my brother’s trembling, bloody hands.

“What’s with that face?” Kanba smiled wryly.

“Seriously, what happened here?”

“More importantly, hurry up and call the hospital. Himari needs her—” He suddenly started coughing, and collapsed on the spot.

“Aniki!” I caught him on my knees.

On closer inspection, although Himari was dripping with sweat, she appeared unharmed. However, they both looked ragged, smeared with sweat and snot and blood. No matter how I shook or called to them, neither one would rouse.

Penguins No. 1 and 3 both toppled over on the spot as well, unmoving.

“Why is this happening?!” I raged at no one. I felt my insides roiling. “We never asked for any of this, did we? We just wanted…
a normal…” Oginome-san clung to me as my face dripped with the tears I could not hold back. My back felt warm, and I could feel her tears soaking into my clothes.

“I’m not like that,” she insisted. “I could never hate you all!”

The powerful warmth from her arms wrapped around me slowly melted into my heart.

“I don’t think anything is pointless, even the sad and painful things. If that’s fate, then I’m sure there’s some meaning behind it. I’ll accept that, and grow stronger. So…” she said, despite how I rejected her. “Please, don’t cry.”

She was right. No matter how senseless it was, if this was our destiny, then I had to accept it and grow stronger as well. I wiped my tears on my sleeves, refusing to lie to myself anymore. I would never run from anything again. Not from my fate, nor from Oginome-san.

 

As Tabuki stepped out of the elevator, he found Yuri standing under a streetlight, waiting for him with a smile.

“You, huh?”

Yuri’s hair was wild, the sleeves of her blouse torn. She held her half of the diary in her left hand.

“What’s with that get-up? I invited you all the way here, only for you to miss the big show,” Tabuki said lackadaisically, eyebrows raised.

“You used me.” Yuri glared at him through sharp eyes.

“It was convenient,” Tabuki coolly replied, yet his body was exhausted, his mind hazy.

“I can’t believe you’d do something like this.” Yuri lowered her long lashes.

“Same to you. What were you planning in inviting those two out?” You were thinking something along the same lines, weren’t you?

Yuri furrowed her brow and bit her lip, silent.

“It turns out we really were nothing but a sham couple. Both of us just using the—”

Not caring whether Tabuki was finished speaking, Yuri smacked him across the face.

“This really sort of seems like a breakup, doesn’t it?” said Tabuki. He adjusted his crooked glasses before slipping off his wedding ring, pressing it into the hand that Yuri slapped him with. “Farewell, Yuri.”

As Tabuki walked away, Yuri said nothing in parting. She didn’t try to follow him or even stop him.

Watching the scene from the shadows of a nearby building, Masako raked back her disheveled curls, held the front of her now-buttonless coat closed, and breathed a sigh.

“Goodness. We better crush them soon.”

She slipped her right hand gently into her coat pocket, making sure the torn diary half was still there.

“Kanba. I cannot leave you in that home a moment longer.” Masako narrowed her eyes, looking up at the half-constructed building from which Tabuki emerged. “Wait for me.”