Songs For Daddy- Chapter 36: If Today Was Your Last Day
Author: bar_ohki
Title: Songs for Daddy
Rating: This chapter is rated T.
Summary: After receiving a phone call, Hiruma abandons his job, his football team, and his friends, disappearing into nothing. After several years pass, Mamori finds a strange girl in her Kindergarten class, a girl strange enough to have the only remaining connection to the missing quarterback….
Notes: If Today Was Your Last Day is by Nickelback, I do not own it. And also I cannot get the LJ cut to work. The HTML is being particularly complicated and things just aren't working. It's really making me irritated and I apologize to those who have to deal with the long entry.
Links: To song on youtube: Video
To lyrics of song: Lyrics
To a list of chapter links: Links
To chapter 35: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Songs for Daddy
Chapter 36: If Today Was Your Last Day
It had been an interesting day for Hiruma Youichi. The day started with a cryptic call from Kongo Agon demanding he show his ‘fucking trash ass’ up at pick up after school today. Thankfully Takekura understood the situation and allowed Hiruma the afternoon off to accomplish this task.
Upon arrival at the school Hiruma was greeted with a very different scene from normal. For a start there was a limousine parked in front of the school. And for a second Kongo was standing by the gate with two large men anyone sensible would have called ‘thugs’. Hiruma only blinked once and continued on his way to pick up his daughter and have the unavoidable confrontation with Kongo.
The mothers weren’t whispering, they were starting, a bit frightened by Kongo’s men even if Kongo was giving them delightful smiles. Now that Hiruma was a bit closer he could see that Kongo was talking.
“-ust bodyguards my ladies. I hired them to be good at protecting, not to look pretty.” Kongo explained in soft tones in an attempt to calm the women down.
“Where is Hiruma-san?” Demanded another voice, male and originating from inside the limousine. So it wasn’t Kongo’s huh?
“Excuse me,” Hiruma politely coughed from behind the so-called ‘bodyguards’ that were more than a little bit startled to find him there. Not that Hiruma was going to give them any slack for not noticing him being stealthy. “I need to get through.”
“You showed up.” Kongo remarked, his expression turning annoyed and angry; undoing all calming on the women he’d been working on for the last couple of minutes.
“Is there a reason for me to not pick up my daughter from school?” Hiruma asked, feigning confusion. He then walked past Kongo so he could have a look through the school gates. The children hadn’t been dismissed just yet.
“So you are Hiruma-san.” The voice came from inside the limousine. Hiruma turned around and saw a man he had never met in his life. He was a gorgeous man, perfect black hair, dark brown eyes, finely chiseled chin. And by the look of things he had a lot of money.
“I am,” Hiruma admitted, “and you are?”
“Oguri Heikichi, Oguri Kimi’s father.” Oguri answered. The name was very familiar to Hiruma. Kimi or, as Emiko called her, ‘Guri-chan’ was often a subject of conversation at dinner time. Mostly because Emiko wasn’t sure if Kimi was actually her friend or not because she didn’t always play with Emiko like Nozomi did. So this was the young girl’s single father, recent widower.
“It is a pleasure to meet you Oguri-san,” Hiruma told the man pleasantly, “I have heard much about your daughter from mine.”
“As have I.” Oguri didn’t sound like he was particularly happy about this.
Before Hiruma could decide to be unhappy or angry with that development, the school bell rang and the children came running out to find their mothers. Nozomi was at the front of the kids simply because she was just plain faster than them. She stopped though and frowned at the group of mothers, not seeing her own in the group. After a bit of thought Nozomi decided to ask Hiru-chan’s Papa if he had seen her mother.
“Hey.” Kongo called out to his daughter making her turn around, very surprised. “Your uncle wanted me to pick you up today.” Which was code for ‘pretend I work for your uncle and don’t call me Dad’.
“Oh, okay.” Nozomi nodded and walked over to stand next to Kongo. There was a lot more muttering from the mothers now. Obviously they hadn’t been expecting that. Emiko and Kimi were coming up a bit slower. Hiruma’s eyes went wide when he noticed that Emiko was limping slightly and Kimi was holding her steady.
“Papa!” Emiko looked up at Papa, her eyes a little wide. His face was funny and tight and his hands were still in his pockets, didn’t he normally offer her a hug about now?
“Emiko, what happened?” Hiruma asked, pointing at her leg.
“I fell.” Emiko answered, looking away and looking a bit guilty. She was a bad lair, always had been. Hiruma only frowned a bit, knowing he’d hear the full story in a minute. He turned to Kimi.
“Thank you for taking care of her.” Hiruma told Kimi sincerely.
“I didn’t mind, Hiruma-san.” Kimi assured Hiruma as she helped hand Emiko over to him. She watched on while Hiruma insisted he have a look at Emiko’s leg while the girl shook her head and looked away. She only did that when she was ashamed of something, Kimi had learned. Thankfully Hiruma didn’t seem so easily distracted or persuaded by Emiko’s protests. She’d be okay.
Kimi nodded then went up to the limousine. It was rare for Daddy to have time to see her.
“Daddy?” Kimi asked, a little confused. Daddy opened the car door and smiled at her.
“Hello Kimi.” Oguri greeted his daughter. Kimi only smiled and gave her dad a hug.
Hiruma had finally gotten Emiko to sit down while he took her shoe off rolled up her pant leg. There was a nice wrap around it, showing that Anezaki had already tended to the wound. It was still swollen and looked like it hurt a lot.
“Emiko, did you really fall?” Hiruma asked her. Emiko looked away and nodded a little.
“…Emiko-chan, you should tell your Papa what really happened.” Anezaki told the little girl with a frown of her own.
Emiko shook her head and tried not to cry. Hiruma only put her shoe back on and rolled down her pant leg.
“She what!?” Oguri cried, a little startled. He’d been asking Kimi about her day and got a very unexpected answer.
“Hiru-chan saved me.” Kimi explained again in a small voice. “And she got hurt and-! I’m sorry!”
“…We went to the park today,” Anezaki explained, “and some older boys wanted to make Kimi play with them. Kimi didn’t want to and Emiko and Nozomi got into a fight with them trying to protect Kimi.”
“What happened to the boys?” Hiruma asked.
“They got beat up and left.” Anezaki answered. “But one of them came back and managed to hit Emiko’s leg with a stick.”
“Emiko-!” Hiruma gave his daughter a tired look. “You’re not supposed to get into fights at school.” Emiko only cringed and waited for the punishment only to get a hug?
“But I think protecting your friends is much more important,” Hiruma told his daughter with a smile, “so you’re not in trouble for this one.”
Emiko only smiled and hugged Papa tightly.
Kongo was only mildly surprised to hear his daughter had beat up boys two times her age; and he wasn’t surprised that she had done it alongside Emiko either. Looks like those two were just going to grow up to be trouble makers, not that Kongo minded. He was pretty sure Hiruma and Sakamoto would, but that was their problem, not his.
“We need to talk.” Oguri told both Hiruma and Kongo.
“Right now, or later?” Hiruma asked.
“This Friday, six pm, at Akumetsu’s. [1]” Oguri left no room for argument.
And all Hiruma could think of was that he was going to be late to his team’s party.
-that Friday, 5:50 pm, Akumetsu’s-
Kongo was already outside the bar when Hiruma arrived. He wasn’t doing anything other than standing there, looking around lazily.
“You did a background check on Oguri, didn’t you?” Kongo remarked as he eyed Hiruma.
“Just a basic one,” Hiruma answered, “to figure out why he wouldn’t approve of Emiko as his daughter’s friend. Didn’t find a reason but I did find out something else interesting….”
“Spit it out.” Kongo demanded.
“Her late mother was Megu Tsuyumine,” Hiruma explained, “the manager from Zokugaku back in high school.”
“Wasn’t she that lizard trash’s woman?” Kongo asked.
“They broke up after college,” Hiruma recounted, “I was still under the impression they were pretty close afterwards. Can’t say what their relationship was like before she died.”
Kongo nodded, not blaming Hiruma for being completely not up to date on this stuff.
“Are you two coming in or not?” Oguri demanded; he’d been waiting for the two of them to come inside for a while. Hiruma suppressed a snort and an eye roll. Kongo did not.
Oguri had arranged for them to have a private room, to talk of course. Personally Hiruma thought this whole ordeal was a little overkill but, he wasn’t paying, so he wasn’t caring. Kongo thought the entire thing was stupid. Oguri sat down and looked at both of the other men in the room with a frown.
“I don’t like the influence your daughters have been having on mine.” Oguri told them.
“You’re talking to the wrong parent, trash.” Kongo yawned. “I don’t raise Zomi, that’s Natsumi’s job.”
“And what,” Hiruma asked, his voice cold, “is wrong with the influence Emiko has had on your daughter?”
“She’s your daughter for a start-!” Oguri began only to have Hiruma cut him off.
“-But she isn’t me.” Hiruma reminded him. “Emiko’s a lot more straightforward than I am, all she wants is a friend. A friend she’ll get into a fight and defend, or did you not remember Kimi-chan telling you that?” He was pissed of course. He’d been helping Emiko nurse that nasty bruise everyday this last week. It would be impossible for him to forget the pained expressions and her tears when he touched that wound-!
“And it’s not like I’m going to let some guy with money decide who my little girl chooses as a friend.” Kongo told Oguri. “If Zomi likes Kimi, then Zomi is allowed to be her friend.”
“Besides is it really proper of you as a parent to choose your child’s friends?” Hiruma asked. Oguri was not going to be cut any slack today.
“Kimi is going to be living in high society one of these days, she can’t be running around being influenced by little heathens like yours-!” Oguri got cut off by Kongo.
“-So why did you send her to the public kindergarten?” Kongo demanded.
“My wife-!” Oguri protested only to have Hiruma cut him off.
“I knew your wife,” Hiruma began, startling Oguri, “she was a hard, firm woman that wasn’t afraid of getting roughed up to get things done.”
Oguri was really quiet. Kongo only looked at Hiruma, mildly surprised.
“She asked that Kimi attend school under Anezaki Mamori’s teaching specifically, didn’t she?” Hiruma asked despite the fact he already knew the answer. The answer was yes.
“I think your wife wanted your daughter to have some real friends growing up, not the superficial stuff shit she’s going to have later in life,” Hiruma explained, “and from what I can tell is that Emiko and Nozomi are being those real friends for your daughter.”
Hiruma stood up and walked over to Oguri.
“Don’t make a mistake here,” Hiruma warned him, “because this will be one of those things you can never take back.”
Oguri was, well, speechless. His wife, back when she was alive, had told both him and Kimi stories from high school. The football league had been full of all sorts of interesting characters. The impression Oguri had had of Hiruma was that the man was a bat-shit crazy loose cannon. Clearly that wasn’t the case. He was in so much control that he controlled the situation. Remarkably, Hiruma was also appearing to be a very protective and loving father, something Oguri hadn’t imagined at all.
Habashira had warned him that Hiruma was too large an opponent for him. Habashira had been completely right.
“Any other fucking questions?” Hiruma asked, smirking and smug because he had clearly just won the confrontation.
“I’m still not comfortable with this.” Oguri grumbled.
“Then what is your regret, trash?” Kongo asked.
“Regret?” Oguri blinked.
“Live life with no regrets, live each day like it was your last,” Hiruma had caught onto Kongo’s meaning, “and go against the flow of the common people. That’s how we live, that’s how our daughters live, that’s, I think, how Kimi-chan wants to live.”
“Do you have the balls to live like that, fucking money?” Hiruma asked Oguri.
“You mean you live each day like it’s your last!?” Oguri gasped.
“I’m a Yakuza, trash,” Kongo pointed out, “it’s the only way to live in that business.”
“I’ve nearly died enough times,” Hiruma confessed, “and nearly lost everything enough fucking times I’ve chosen to live that way.”
“What?” Oguri stared.
“You’re not the only widower in this room, fucking money.” Hiruma left it at that.
Oguri then remembered how upset and distressed Kimi had been when her mother died. Emiko had saved her from that despair and now Oguri knew why.
“I’m just scared.” Oguri muttered lamely.
“Who isn’t?” Hiruma gave him a sympathetic look. “Children are fucking scary.”
“We done being mushy and touchy feely now? I’ve got shit to do tonight.” Kongo announced as he stood up. He was bored with this entire thing.
“You may go.” Oguri dismissed them.
“Perk up a smile,” Hiruma told Oguri before he left, “for Kimi.”
And Oguri was speechless again.
-Hiruma’s apartment, 7:40-
Hiruma was damn sure he missed the party as he rode the elevator up. He kind of felt sorry for Juumonji and his girlfriend, since the two had been babysitting while Hiruma had this heart-to-heart with Kimi’s father. And because Hiruma missed the party, they did too.
Upon arriving at his floor, the elevator door opened and Hiruma smelled something he was very familiar with: gunpowder. A bit alarmed to be smelling that in his hallway, Hiruma rushed out of the elevator and down the hall, a sick feeling growing in his stomach.
The door of his apartment had been broken down. Signs of struggle littered the hallways and then there were the ominous bullet holes in the walls.
“No…!” Hiruma muttered, his eyes wide with shock and fear. This wasn’t really happening. He was not about to walk into an apartment where he might find his daughter’s corpse.
A faint whine from Chizue was enough to snap Hiruma back into reality.
“Oye!” Hiruma called into the apartment, looking for people. He found Juumonji’s girlfriend unconscious on the floor of his living room. She’d been beaten.
“Juumonji!” Hiruma yelled. Where was he? Where was that damn dog!?
Running through the apartment he found Chizue in his bedroom, on his half-destroyed bed. She’d been cut with a knife. A shallow, but painful looking wound. Gathering up Chizue in his arms he went and found Juumonji starting to come to on his kitchen floor. He looked mauled for the lack of a better word.
For a minute Hiruma could only stand there and stare. His eyes were wide and his skin was pale and chilled. As brilliant as a man he was, he could not wrap his mind around the horrible reality of the situation. Emiko was no where to be found and her babysitters were both beaten and in need of medical attention.
Chizue bit his hand and dragged him back into reality.
Thoughts went flying through his mind. He was trying to plan, trying to understand, trying to make him move. He had to do something, he had to find Emiko, he had to have answers, he had to get moving, he had to get Juumonji help. Finally he realized he needed to be talking in all this thinking he’d been doing.
“What happened?” Hiruma demanded, trying not to explode from all thoughts that shook his body.
“They took her.” Juumonji answered. He was breathing heavily and pained. Each word was an effort.
“Who!? Where!?” Hiruma’s voice was cracking under the emotional stress. His mind was just spinning at high speeds thinking up nothing. Everything in Hiruma’s life was hinging on this answer-!
“Don’t know.”
_=_=_=_=_
Plot twist~!
[1]- Akumetsu means evil killer. In this story it’s a bar.
Title: Songs for Daddy
Rating: This chapter is rated T.
Summary: After receiving a phone call, Hiruma abandons his job, his football team, and his friends, disappearing into nothing. After several years pass, Mamori finds a strange girl in her Kindergarten class, a girl strange enough to have the only remaining connection to the missing quarterback….
Notes: If Today Was Your Last Day is by Nickelback, I do not own it. And also I cannot get the LJ cut to work. The HTML is being particularly complicated and things just aren't working. It's really making me irritated and I apologize to those who have to deal with the long entry.
Links: To song on youtube: Video
To lyrics of song: Lyrics
To a list of chapter links: Links
To chapter 35: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Songs for Daddy
Chapter 36: If Today Was Your Last Day
It had been an interesting day for Hiruma Youichi. The day started with a cryptic call from Kongo Agon demanding he show his ‘fucking trash ass’ up at pick up after school today. Thankfully Takekura understood the situation and allowed Hiruma the afternoon off to accomplish this task.
Upon arrival at the school Hiruma was greeted with a very different scene from normal. For a start there was a limousine parked in front of the school. And for a second Kongo was standing by the gate with two large men anyone sensible would have called ‘thugs’. Hiruma only blinked once and continued on his way to pick up his daughter and have the unavoidable confrontation with Kongo.
The mothers weren’t whispering, they were starting, a bit frightened by Kongo’s men even if Kongo was giving them delightful smiles. Now that Hiruma was a bit closer he could see that Kongo was talking.
“-ust bodyguards my ladies. I hired them to be good at protecting, not to look pretty.” Kongo explained in soft tones in an attempt to calm the women down.
“Where is Hiruma-san?” Demanded another voice, male and originating from inside the limousine. So it wasn’t Kongo’s huh?
“Excuse me,” Hiruma politely coughed from behind the so-called ‘bodyguards’ that were more than a little bit startled to find him there. Not that Hiruma was going to give them any slack for not noticing him being stealthy. “I need to get through.”
“You showed up.” Kongo remarked, his expression turning annoyed and angry; undoing all calming on the women he’d been working on for the last couple of minutes.
“Is there a reason for me to not pick up my daughter from school?” Hiruma asked, feigning confusion. He then walked past Kongo so he could have a look through the school gates. The children hadn’t been dismissed just yet.
“So you are Hiruma-san.” The voice came from inside the limousine. Hiruma turned around and saw a man he had never met in his life. He was a gorgeous man, perfect black hair, dark brown eyes, finely chiseled chin. And by the look of things he had a lot of money.
“I am,” Hiruma admitted, “and you are?”
“Oguri Heikichi, Oguri Kimi’s father.” Oguri answered. The name was very familiar to Hiruma. Kimi or, as Emiko called her, ‘Guri-chan’ was often a subject of conversation at dinner time. Mostly because Emiko wasn’t sure if Kimi was actually her friend or not because she didn’t always play with Emiko like Nozomi did. So this was the young girl’s single father, recent widower.
“It is a pleasure to meet you Oguri-san,” Hiruma told the man pleasantly, “I have heard much about your daughter from mine.”
“As have I.” Oguri didn’t sound like he was particularly happy about this.
Before Hiruma could decide to be unhappy or angry with that development, the school bell rang and the children came running out to find their mothers. Nozomi was at the front of the kids simply because she was just plain faster than them. She stopped though and frowned at the group of mothers, not seeing her own in the group. After a bit of thought Nozomi decided to ask Hiru-chan’s Papa if he had seen her mother.
“Hey.” Kongo called out to his daughter making her turn around, very surprised. “Your uncle wanted me to pick you up today.” Which was code for ‘pretend I work for your uncle and don’t call me Dad’.
“Oh, okay.” Nozomi nodded and walked over to stand next to Kongo. There was a lot more muttering from the mothers now. Obviously they hadn’t been expecting that. Emiko and Kimi were coming up a bit slower. Hiruma’s eyes went wide when he noticed that Emiko was limping slightly and Kimi was holding her steady.
“Papa!” Emiko looked up at Papa, her eyes a little wide. His face was funny and tight and his hands were still in his pockets, didn’t he normally offer her a hug about now?
“Emiko, what happened?” Hiruma asked, pointing at her leg.
“I fell.” Emiko answered, looking away and looking a bit guilty. She was a bad lair, always had been. Hiruma only frowned a bit, knowing he’d hear the full story in a minute. He turned to Kimi.
“Thank you for taking care of her.” Hiruma told Kimi sincerely.
“I didn’t mind, Hiruma-san.” Kimi assured Hiruma as she helped hand Emiko over to him. She watched on while Hiruma insisted he have a look at Emiko’s leg while the girl shook her head and looked away. She only did that when she was ashamed of something, Kimi had learned. Thankfully Hiruma didn’t seem so easily distracted or persuaded by Emiko’s protests. She’d be okay.
Kimi nodded then went up to the limousine. It was rare for Daddy to have time to see her.
“Daddy?” Kimi asked, a little confused. Daddy opened the car door and smiled at her.
“Hello Kimi.” Oguri greeted his daughter. Kimi only smiled and gave her dad a hug.
Hiruma had finally gotten Emiko to sit down while he took her shoe off rolled up her pant leg. There was a nice wrap around it, showing that Anezaki had already tended to the wound. It was still swollen and looked like it hurt a lot.
“Emiko, did you really fall?” Hiruma asked her. Emiko looked away and nodded a little.
“…Emiko-chan, you should tell your Papa what really happened.” Anezaki told the little girl with a frown of her own.
Emiko shook her head and tried not to cry. Hiruma only put her shoe back on and rolled down her pant leg.
“She what!?” Oguri cried, a little startled. He’d been asking Kimi about her day and got a very unexpected answer.
“Hiru-chan saved me.” Kimi explained again in a small voice. “And she got hurt and-! I’m sorry!”
“…We went to the park today,” Anezaki explained, “and some older boys wanted to make Kimi play with them. Kimi didn’t want to and Emiko and Nozomi got into a fight with them trying to protect Kimi.”
“What happened to the boys?” Hiruma asked.
“They got beat up and left.” Anezaki answered. “But one of them came back and managed to hit Emiko’s leg with a stick.”
“Emiko-!” Hiruma gave his daughter a tired look. “You’re not supposed to get into fights at school.” Emiko only cringed and waited for the punishment only to get a hug?
“But I think protecting your friends is much more important,” Hiruma told his daughter with a smile, “so you’re not in trouble for this one.”
Emiko only smiled and hugged Papa tightly.
Kongo was only mildly surprised to hear his daughter had beat up boys two times her age; and he wasn’t surprised that she had done it alongside Emiko either. Looks like those two were just going to grow up to be trouble makers, not that Kongo minded. He was pretty sure Hiruma and Sakamoto would, but that was their problem, not his.
“We need to talk.” Oguri told both Hiruma and Kongo.
“Right now, or later?” Hiruma asked.
“This Friday, six pm, at Akumetsu’s. [1]” Oguri left no room for argument.
And all Hiruma could think of was that he was going to be late to his team’s party.
-that Friday, 5:50 pm, Akumetsu’s-
Kongo was already outside the bar when Hiruma arrived. He wasn’t doing anything other than standing there, looking around lazily.
“You did a background check on Oguri, didn’t you?” Kongo remarked as he eyed Hiruma.
“Just a basic one,” Hiruma answered, “to figure out why he wouldn’t approve of Emiko as his daughter’s friend. Didn’t find a reason but I did find out something else interesting….”
“Spit it out.” Kongo demanded.
“Her late mother was Megu Tsuyumine,” Hiruma explained, “the manager from Zokugaku back in high school.”
“Wasn’t she that lizard trash’s woman?” Kongo asked.
“They broke up after college,” Hiruma recounted, “I was still under the impression they were pretty close afterwards. Can’t say what their relationship was like before she died.”
Kongo nodded, not blaming Hiruma for being completely not up to date on this stuff.
“Are you two coming in or not?” Oguri demanded; he’d been waiting for the two of them to come inside for a while. Hiruma suppressed a snort and an eye roll. Kongo did not.
Oguri had arranged for them to have a private room, to talk of course. Personally Hiruma thought this whole ordeal was a little overkill but, he wasn’t paying, so he wasn’t caring. Kongo thought the entire thing was stupid. Oguri sat down and looked at both of the other men in the room with a frown.
“I don’t like the influence your daughters have been having on mine.” Oguri told them.
“You’re talking to the wrong parent, trash.” Kongo yawned. “I don’t raise Zomi, that’s Natsumi’s job.”
“And what,” Hiruma asked, his voice cold, “is wrong with the influence Emiko has had on your daughter?”
“She’s your daughter for a start-!” Oguri began only to have Hiruma cut him off.
“-But she isn’t me.” Hiruma reminded him. “Emiko’s a lot more straightforward than I am, all she wants is a friend. A friend she’ll get into a fight and defend, or did you not remember Kimi-chan telling you that?” He was pissed of course. He’d been helping Emiko nurse that nasty bruise everyday this last week. It would be impossible for him to forget the pained expressions and her tears when he touched that wound-!
“And it’s not like I’m going to let some guy with money decide who my little girl chooses as a friend.” Kongo told Oguri. “If Zomi likes Kimi, then Zomi is allowed to be her friend.”
“Besides is it really proper of you as a parent to choose your child’s friends?” Hiruma asked. Oguri was not going to be cut any slack today.
“Kimi is going to be living in high society one of these days, she can’t be running around being influenced by little heathens like yours-!” Oguri got cut off by Kongo.
“-So why did you send her to the public kindergarten?” Kongo demanded.
“My wife-!” Oguri protested only to have Hiruma cut him off.
“I knew your wife,” Hiruma began, startling Oguri, “she was a hard, firm woman that wasn’t afraid of getting roughed up to get things done.”
Oguri was really quiet. Kongo only looked at Hiruma, mildly surprised.
“She asked that Kimi attend school under Anezaki Mamori’s teaching specifically, didn’t she?” Hiruma asked despite the fact he already knew the answer. The answer was yes.
“I think your wife wanted your daughter to have some real friends growing up, not the superficial stuff shit she’s going to have later in life,” Hiruma explained, “and from what I can tell is that Emiko and Nozomi are being those real friends for your daughter.”
Hiruma stood up and walked over to Oguri.
“Don’t make a mistake here,” Hiruma warned him, “because this will be one of those things you can never take back.”
Oguri was, well, speechless. His wife, back when she was alive, had told both him and Kimi stories from high school. The football league had been full of all sorts of interesting characters. The impression Oguri had had of Hiruma was that the man was a bat-shit crazy loose cannon. Clearly that wasn’t the case. He was in so much control that he controlled the situation. Remarkably, Hiruma was also appearing to be a very protective and loving father, something Oguri hadn’t imagined at all.
Habashira had warned him that Hiruma was too large an opponent for him. Habashira had been completely right.
“Any other fucking questions?” Hiruma asked, smirking and smug because he had clearly just won the confrontation.
“I’m still not comfortable with this.” Oguri grumbled.
“Then what is your regret, trash?” Kongo asked.
“Regret?” Oguri blinked.
“Live life with no regrets, live each day like it was your last,” Hiruma had caught onto Kongo’s meaning, “and go against the flow of the common people. That’s how we live, that’s how our daughters live, that’s, I think, how Kimi-chan wants to live.”
“Do you have the balls to live like that, fucking money?” Hiruma asked Oguri.
“You mean you live each day like it’s your last!?” Oguri gasped.
“I’m a Yakuza, trash,” Kongo pointed out, “it’s the only way to live in that business.”
“I’ve nearly died enough times,” Hiruma confessed, “and nearly lost everything enough fucking times I’ve chosen to live that way.”
“What?” Oguri stared.
“You’re not the only widower in this room, fucking money.” Hiruma left it at that.
Oguri then remembered how upset and distressed Kimi had been when her mother died. Emiko had saved her from that despair and now Oguri knew why.
“I’m just scared.” Oguri muttered lamely.
“Who isn’t?” Hiruma gave him a sympathetic look. “Children are fucking scary.”
“We done being mushy and touchy feely now? I’ve got shit to do tonight.” Kongo announced as he stood up. He was bored with this entire thing.
“You may go.” Oguri dismissed them.
“Perk up a smile,” Hiruma told Oguri before he left, “for Kimi.”
And Oguri was speechless again.
-Hiruma’s apartment, 7:40-
Hiruma was damn sure he missed the party as he rode the elevator up. He kind of felt sorry for Juumonji and his girlfriend, since the two had been babysitting while Hiruma had this heart-to-heart with Kimi’s father. And because Hiruma missed the party, they did too.
Upon arriving at his floor, the elevator door opened and Hiruma smelled something he was very familiar with: gunpowder. A bit alarmed to be smelling that in his hallway, Hiruma rushed out of the elevator and down the hall, a sick feeling growing in his stomach.
The door of his apartment had been broken down. Signs of struggle littered the hallways and then there were the ominous bullet holes in the walls.
“No…!” Hiruma muttered, his eyes wide with shock and fear. This wasn’t really happening. He was not about to walk into an apartment where he might find his daughter’s corpse.
A faint whine from Chizue was enough to snap Hiruma back into reality.
“Oye!” Hiruma called into the apartment, looking for people. He found Juumonji’s girlfriend unconscious on the floor of his living room. She’d been beaten.
“Juumonji!” Hiruma yelled. Where was he? Where was that damn dog!?
Running through the apartment he found Chizue in his bedroom, on his half-destroyed bed. She’d been cut with a knife. A shallow, but painful looking wound. Gathering up Chizue in his arms he went and found Juumonji starting to come to on his kitchen floor. He looked mauled for the lack of a better word.
For a minute Hiruma could only stand there and stare. His eyes were wide and his skin was pale and chilled. As brilliant as a man he was, he could not wrap his mind around the horrible reality of the situation. Emiko was no where to be found and her babysitters were both beaten and in need of medical attention.
Chizue bit his hand and dragged him back into reality.
Thoughts went flying through his mind. He was trying to plan, trying to understand, trying to make him move. He had to do something, he had to find Emiko, he had to have answers, he had to get moving, he had to get Juumonji help. Finally he realized he needed to be talking in all this thinking he’d been doing.
“What happened?” Hiruma demanded, trying not to explode from all thoughts that shook his body.
“They took her.” Juumonji answered. He was breathing heavily and pained. Each word was an effort.
“Who!? Where!?” Hiruma’s voice was cracking under the emotional stress. His mind was just spinning at high speeds thinking up nothing. Everything in Hiruma’s life was hinging on this answer-!
“Don’t know.”
_=_=_=_=_
Plot twist~!
[1]- Akumetsu means evil killer. In this story it’s a bar.