[Yu/Megumi] - Visitor
Visitor
J Ent
Yokoyama Yu / Sato Megumi
3106 words
Author's note: Sometimes, i think i'm just full of crap.
素晴らしい今日よ さよなら
- BJ
Kanjani 8
The first day started like an ordinary day- just like any other day. Megumi got up at her usual time, left the house at the usual time, took the same train she took every day, and ended up at work at the same time.
What was different, was the boy.
She was cleaning the shelves near the window when she heard a loud crash from outside. She put her things aside and opened the door. She gasped.
“Are you all right?” she exclaimed, running towards the fallen figure. His white shirt and pants were stained red with specks of blood. He was not wearing shoes. “Ambulance,” she nodded and ran back into the store. “I’ll call an ambulance,” she muttered, as she picked up the phone. She had dialled only two digits when she saw the man get up. She gasped, dropped the phone and ran out the store again.
“Wait, wait!” she called out.
He turned around.
“You’re…” she stammered before running over. There was a long gash on his arm that ran from his arm to his wrist; it was still bleeding. “Are you… you can’t walk around like this!” she exclaimed.
He frowned. “Why not?” he said and his voice sounded very strong; even if he was dripping blood on the sidewalk.
“Because you’re dripping blood on the sidewalk!” Megumi managed to blurt out. “I… there’s a first aid kid in the shop. Won’t you let me… stop the blood first, at least?”
The man stared at Megumi, as though everything she was saying did not make sense, but he nodded anyway. “Okay.”
After Megumi pinned the last piece of gauze in place, she looked up to see that he had fallen asleep. Megumi grabbed two old jackets out of the storeroom and placed them over his sleeping figure carefully, before going back out to work. When she closed the shop at the end of her shift, he was still sleeping.
“Hey,” she said, shaking him. “Wake up.”
He opened his eyes a crack. “Hi,” he said, smiling sleepily at her. Megumi felt her heart skip a bit- hurriedly she squashed that feeling away.
“I have to close the shop, so you have to go now,” Megumi said. “Do you have some place to go? Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“Trouble?” he asked, scratching his head. “Ah, maybe… yes. Yes I’m in trouble.”
Megumi frowned. “Is it money?” she ventured to ask.
“Money?” he frowned. “Money? Ah, maybe, yes.” He nodded again.
“Ah that’s bad then. How much do you need?”
“A lot,” he said, stretching his arms out. “A lot, a lot, of… money,” he nodded. He looked down at the jacket/blankets he had just displaced, and reached for one of them, looking at it curiously.
“What about your family? Can they help?” Megumi asked.
“Family?” Megumi could see his eyes starting to cross from thinking too much, and he shook his head with a laugh. “I used to have a family.”
“So… you don’t have a home?” Megumi asked. “Or even an apartment to go back to? Or maybe a friend’s house you were staying at…?”
“No… not anymore,” he shook his head sadly.
“So… you don’t have a place to stay for tonight?”
“Nope!” he said cheerfully.
Megumi bit her lower lip. It seemed like such a stupid thing to do, but she, she felt she needed to do something for him… “Well, let’s go.”
“Where?” he asked, looking up.
“To my place,” Megumi nodded, getting up. “Come on, let’s go.”
Megumi moved out of her family home when she graduated from high school. She had been staying in the same neighbourhood since then. It was a nice neighbourhood, with all the necessary amenities and the people there were kind and the pace was slow. People took things a little less seriously, in this little suburb outside of Tokyo. When she chose the apartment, she chose it because it was fifteen minutes away from the train station. Now she was glad she had, because she loved the neighbourhood too.
“Here,” Megumi walked into the house and turned around, smiling.
He hovered at the threshold of the apartment.
“Come in,” she said.
He looked up and nodded. “Thank you,” he said, before stepping into the apartment.
“Ah,” she took two steps in and stopped, turning around. “Names. I mean, mine. I mean… my name is Sato Megumi,” she said, bowing lightly.
“I… my name?” he stammered. He had to think for a moment. “Yu.”
“Yu?” Megumi repeated.
He nodded, and grinned. “My name is Yu. Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Sato-san.”
The next day, Megumi saw the futon she had laid out for Yu the night before carefully stacked and folded. She jumped out of bed, feeling a little bit of panic in her chest, before she heard the sound of a loud crash and an exclamation from the kitchenette.
She walked in, and Yu was standing there, shirtless and in the same stained white pants he was wearing yesterday, starring confused at a saucepan and a bag of instant soup mix.
“Good morning!” he said, and she was the one who startled. “I was trying to make breakfast.”
Megumi glanced at the cherubic smile on his face, and could not help but giggle. “Yu-san, I think we need to get you some clothes later.”
It was Megumi’s off day, and the lady who worked at the neighbourhood’s men’s clothing store gave Megumi a strange look when she walked in with this stranger dressed in a too small pair of sweat pants and a stained white shirt.
“Good morning, Tomokawa-san.”
“Ah, good morning, Megumi-chan,” Tomokawa-san smiled, nodding. “How are you this morning?”
“Fine,” Megumi grinned before turning into one of the aisle. She surfaced with two tee shirts. “Yu-san, do you like the green or the blue one?”
Yu shrugged. “Either or is fine.”
Megumi giggled and pushed him into the changing room.
They walk out of the store with six new shirts, two pairs of pants, one pair of jeans and sweatsuit. Megumi had blushed when she bought boxers, and Tomokawa-san finally asked the question she had wanted to.
“Is he your boyfriend?” she whispered at Megumi, after Yu had walked out carrying all of the shopping bags.
Megumi looked up from taking her change. “Ah. He’s my… cousin! He’s… I’m helping him out,” she lied, grinning and hoping she was convincing enough. “His mother asked me for a favour, to tide him over until he gets a job.”
“Ahh…” Tomokawa-san nodded, still looking sceptical. “Well, I hope he helps out with the chores.”
Megumi thought about the breakfast in the morning and grinned. “Thank you, Tomokawa-san.”
“Come again!”
When Megumi woke up for the next morning, the futon was folded and kept away, like yesterday. She got out of bed and walked over to the kitchenette, but it was neat and clean. She frowned and knocked on the bathroom door, but there was no answer.
She opened the door, and nearly crashed into him.
“Good morning, Sato-san,” he smiled.
“I… good morning,” Megumi nodded. “I… do you always wake up this early?”
“Ah! I don’t… sleep much,” he grinned. Today he was dressed in one of the shirts they bought yesterday and the blue jeans. Looking at his slippered feet, Megumi realised they had forgotten to buy shoes.
Megumi nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Let’s… I’ll make breakfast,” she said, before ducking back into the apartment.
Yu watched her, amused, before he stepped into the apartment.
The third day Yu moved into the apartment, he announced that he had gotten a job.
“Really?” Megumi asked. “When…”
“I went looking, when Sato-san was at work yesterday,” Yu said.
“Ah, that’s great! Like this, if you work and save up enough money, you’ll be able to get out of whatever trouble you’re in?” Megumi said excitedly, chopsticks waving in the air.
Yu paused for a moment, before he replied. “Ah yes. With money, I will be able to solve my problems.”
Megumi grinned, feeling happier than she had ever been.
Yu’s job was at a construction site. He worked long hours, and was usually out before Megumi woke up and only got home after Megumi returned from work. Usually, he ate whatever Megumi left for him for dinner before going straight to bed.
On the seventh day after he moved in, Megumi made a bento with leftovers from the night before and left it out for him to bring to work the next day. When she woke up in the morning, the lunch bag was gone, and a single pink flower in a pale vase sat in its place.
Megumi began to wonder, from the way her chest constricted at the sight of the flower, if she was getting ill.
On the ninth day, Yu had a day off from work. He came by at lunchtime, and Keiko was in the shop together with Megumi when he stopped by.
“Megumi… is he a friend of yours?” Keiko asked, gesturing to the door.
Megumi turned around, and grinned when she saw Yu. He grinned back and waved.
“Can I…” Megumi started, but Keiko was already laughing, pushing her to the door.
“Go. It’s your lunchtime anyway.”
Yu said he had gotten his salary the day before, so he was going to treat her to lunch. They stood outside an Italian café, and Yu was starring hard at the menu before Megumi finally plucked up enough courage to say, “Yu-san, maybe we should just… you need the money, don’t you?”
Yu turned to Megumi, and his eyes softened, grin widening as he said, “Sato-san,” he started. “I would like to repay you for all the help you have given me.”
“Ah, but I don’t need…” Megumi started, and then paused. She really didn’t need him to say thank you, because she had enjoyed his company as well.
“Sato-san took me in without asking me any questions. For this I am very grateful. So I should buy Sato-san lunch,” Yu said, grinning. “You wouldn’t say no, would you?”
“I…” Megumi stammered. She laughed and shook her head. “All right.”
Yu nodded and lead the way.
On the twelfth day, Megumi and Yu were watching a television drama. It was the last episode, and the hero was leaning into the heroine for a kiss.
“Why do people do that?” Yu asked, as he watched the two characters press their lips into each others. “Is this another way of saying thank you?”
Megumi laughed. “Yu-san, you’re so weird sometimes,” she shook her head. “They’re kissing. Can’t you see?”
“Kissing?” Yu asked.
Megumi was about to laugh and reply to that when he suddenly stood up. “Yu-san?” Megumi frowned.
“Ah, I’ve forgotten something… I have to go back for it,” Yu nodded, walking quickly over to the door and putting on his shoes. “Please do not wait up for me, Sato-san.”
Megumi watched as he left hurriedly; then she spotted Yu’s train pass on the table. If he was going back to pick something up from his workplace, he would need it, she rationalized. She wasn’t following him at all, she told herself, as she put on a jacket and walked out of the house.
She did not have to go far to find him- he was standing at the street corner between the bookstore and florist. She walked quickly, but paused when she realised he was not alone.
“They’re willing to forgive you.” The two people standing with Yu were dressed in white. Megumi was not surprised to see that they were not wearing shoes. “You can come back with us,” the tall one with short dark hair said.
“I…” Yu started. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“It was punishment, Yoko. No matter how right you think you were… we’re not supposed to mess with fate,” the other, much shorter man, with chin length hair said. “But they realised you did it because you were helping Yassan and Ohkura. They’re willing to let you come back.”
Yu hesitated, and both of them noticed.
“You can’t possibly want to stay here, with humans,” the taller man shook his head.
“What happened? You’ve only been here twelve days.”
“I…” Yu said, wringing his hands together.
“Look at you. You’re wearing their clothes,” the shorter man said. “I’ve seen you, doing their work. Yassan went to beg for you to come back. Even Ryo… Ryo went to plead your case! Uchi’s been worried sick about you! Are you telling me you’re willing to forsake us for that... that human.”
“Her name is Sato Megumi,” Yu said softly.
“You were not supposed to be here in the first place!” the short one burst out, and the tall one had to hold him back. “Come back, Yoko, this place wasn’t meant for you… we’re not meant to stay here! Even if you decided to because of this human, you won’t be able to fit in at all!”
Yu looked up at the two of them, before he turned to the taller man. “If she hadn’t helped me… Hina, you’d understand, won’t you?”
“Subaru has a point,” Hina said. “Even if you wanted to stay for her…”
“All she did was to help you for a while,” Subaru said. “But they’re humans. They’ll throw you out as soon as they’ve used you.”
“Sato-san is different!” Yu exclaimed, and Subaru looked surprised at Yu’s sudden outburst. “She… she didn’t ask why I was here. She thinks I’m in trouble. She gave me a place to stay. She helped me.”
“If you’re so grateful there are other things you can do for her… miracles you can perform!” Subaru exclaimed, face red because he realised this was worse than he thought it was. “You don’t have to…”
Hina held Subaru back gently and stood up to Yu. “You know that if you choose to stay… the gates will never open for you again?”
Yu nodded.
“That you will be lost, in the human realm, in their cycle of rebirth?” Hina continued.
Yu nodded again.
Hina took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “You have two more days,” he said softly. “We’ll be back for you then.”
Then Hina took Subaru’s hand, and a moment later, they disappeared. Megumi gasped- Yu turned around.
“Sato-san,” he said, eyes widening in surprise.
“I… you left your card,” she said, holding out the card case. She looked down at her toes for a long while, but when she looked up, Yu was still there, waiting.
“Who are you, Yu-san?” she whispered.
“I was punished,” Yu said. He sat down on one of the swings at the swing set.
“Punished?” Megumi whispered, sitting down on the other swing.
Yu smiled. “In my world, I have a family of eight. You met two of them just now.”
“Yes,” Megumi nodded.
“Hina and Subaru,” Yu nodded. He grabbed the chains on the side of the swing and kicked off the ground. “Ah, so this is how this works,” he grinned, as he began to swing. “There are eight of them; I have known them… well, as long as I have existed, I believe.”
Megumi nodded again.
“The four of us were out performing a routine job,” Yu said.
“What is your job?”
“The four of us? Actually it was Yassan and Ohkura’s job we were helping with. They’re soul collectors.”
“Soul… collectors?”
“It’s terribly hard on Yassan, especially. They help children,” Yu nodded, as he continued to swing.
Megumi was not quite sure she wanted to know the details of that job.
“Maru and I had gone to help, but we were attacked,” Yu said. “It happens sometimes, there are bad spirits, who want to take control of the young spirits before we get to them, so that they can control them. It’s very nasty.”
Megumi was now sure she did not want to know the details of that job.
“Well, what happened was- I did not collect that soul. I pushed it back into its human form. I had to, to save that soul, and to save Ohkura,” Yu said, turning to Megumi.
“But you… if I understand what you’re saying… you saved that child’s life. And your friend’s life. You shouldn’t be punished!”
Yu laughed as he stopped swinging. “Sato-san?”
Megumi looked up.
“We do God’s work. We’re not supposed to change the way things are done. I’ve done a terrible thing by prolonging that child’s life. I had disrupted the pattern, the rhythm of time. I’ve already started to feel its effects,” Yu explained.
“Effects?” Megumi frowned.
Yu nodded, looking up at the sky. “I must go back, and make things right.”
She felt her heart constrict again, and she barely had the strength to whisper, “Go back?”
On the fourteenth day after he moved in, Yu suggested they go to the aquarium.
“From up there, it’s hard to see what goes on in the sea,” Yu explained. Megumi nodded and called in for a day off, before bringing Yu to the aquarium.
Yu was fascinated by the floor to ceiling tanks. He stayed especially long at the Pacific Ocean tank, watching the manta-ray swim, saying it reminded him of birds flying in the sky. They had lunch at the restaurant near the aquarium, and after spending the rest of the day watching fishes at the tropical tanks, they ended the day with a ride on the ferris wheel.
In the ferris wheel capsule, Megumi sat down next to Yu. He smiled at her before reaching for her hand, and they held hands as they rode to the top.
“Thank you for all you’ve done for me, Sato-san,” Yu said, with a soft smile.
Megumi turned to him. The constriction in her chest was the worse it had ever been; she felt like her heart was going to be squeezed right out of her chest. “Yu-san?”
“I will never forget you,” he promised, squeezing her hand.
“Yu-san,” she tugged on his sleeve urgently, shaking her head. There were so many things she wanted to say, so many things she needed to tell him, but her throat was stuck, her head was pounding, and she was not sure…
He smiled, and leaned in to press a kiss on her lips.
Megumi swore she felt her heart explode in her chest.
“For thank you,” he whispered, placing a cool hand on her flushed cheek. She reached up and held onto his hand tight, pressing it onto her face.
“Sato-san?”
“Hai.”
“Close your eyes.”
Fighting her tears, she took a deep breath and nodded. “Hai.”
When Megumi opened her eyes, he was gone.
She began to cry.
omg kill me please. >___<|||||
it's been nothing but angst for me lately.
J Ent
Yokoyama Yu / Sato Megumi
3106 words
Author's note: Sometimes, i think i'm just full of crap.
素晴らしい今日よ さよなら
- BJ
Kanjani 8
The first day started like an ordinary day- just like any other day. Megumi got up at her usual time, left the house at the usual time, took the same train she took every day, and ended up at work at the same time.
What was different, was the boy.
She was cleaning the shelves near the window when she heard a loud crash from outside. She put her things aside and opened the door. She gasped.
“Are you all right?” she exclaimed, running towards the fallen figure. His white shirt and pants were stained red with specks of blood. He was not wearing shoes. “Ambulance,” she nodded and ran back into the store. “I’ll call an ambulance,” she muttered, as she picked up the phone. She had dialled only two digits when she saw the man get up. She gasped, dropped the phone and ran out the store again.
“Wait, wait!” she called out.
He turned around.
“You’re…” she stammered before running over. There was a long gash on his arm that ran from his arm to his wrist; it was still bleeding. “Are you… you can’t walk around like this!” she exclaimed.
He frowned. “Why not?” he said and his voice sounded very strong; even if he was dripping blood on the sidewalk.
“Because you’re dripping blood on the sidewalk!” Megumi managed to blurt out. “I… there’s a first aid kid in the shop. Won’t you let me… stop the blood first, at least?”
The man stared at Megumi, as though everything she was saying did not make sense, but he nodded anyway. “Okay.”
After Megumi pinned the last piece of gauze in place, she looked up to see that he had fallen asleep. Megumi grabbed two old jackets out of the storeroom and placed them over his sleeping figure carefully, before going back out to work. When she closed the shop at the end of her shift, he was still sleeping.
“Hey,” she said, shaking him. “Wake up.”
He opened his eyes a crack. “Hi,” he said, smiling sleepily at her. Megumi felt her heart skip a bit- hurriedly she squashed that feeling away.
“I have to close the shop, so you have to go now,” Megumi said. “Do you have some place to go? Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“Trouble?” he asked, scratching his head. “Ah, maybe… yes. Yes I’m in trouble.”
Megumi frowned. “Is it money?” she ventured to ask.
“Money?” he frowned. “Money? Ah, maybe, yes.” He nodded again.
“Ah that’s bad then. How much do you need?”
“A lot,” he said, stretching his arms out. “A lot, a lot, of… money,” he nodded. He looked down at the jacket/blankets he had just displaced, and reached for one of them, looking at it curiously.
“What about your family? Can they help?” Megumi asked.
“Family?” Megumi could see his eyes starting to cross from thinking too much, and he shook his head with a laugh. “I used to have a family.”
“So… you don’t have a home?” Megumi asked. “Or even an apartment to go back to? Or maybe a friend’s house you were staying at…?”
“No… not anymore,” he shook his head sadly.
“So… you don’t have a place to stay for tonight?”
“Nope!” he said cheerfully.
Megumi bit her lower lip. It seemed like such a stupid thing to do, but she, she felt she needed to do something for him… “Well, let’s go.”
“Where?” he asked, looking up.
“To my place,” Megumi nodded, getting up. “Come on, let’s go.”
Megumi moved out of her family home when she graduated from high school. She had been staying in the same neighbourhood since then. It was a nice neighbourhood, with all the necessary amenities and the people there were kind and the pace was slow. People took things a little less seriously, in this little suburb outside of Tokyo. When she chose the apartment, she chose it because it was fifteen minutes away from the train station. Now she was glad she had, because she loved the neighbourhood too.
“Here,” Megumi walked into the house and turned around, smiling.
He hovered at the threshold of the apartment.
“Come in,” she said.
He looked up and nodded. “Thank you,” he said, before stepping into the apartment.
“Ah,” she took two steps in and stopped, turning around. “Names. I mean, mine. I mean… my name is Sato Megumi,” she said, bowing lightly.
“I… my name?” he stammered. He had to think for a moment. “Yu.”
“Yu?” Megumi repeated.
He nodded, and grinned. “My name is Yu. Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Sato-san.”
The next day, Megumi saw the futon she had laid out for Yu the night before carefully stacked and folded. She jumped out of bed, feeling a little bit of panic in her chest, before she heard the sound of a loud crash and an exclamation from the kitchenette.
She walked in, and Yu was standing there, shirtless and in the same stained white pants he was wearing yesterday, starring confused at a saucepan and a bag of instant soup mix.
“Good morning!” he said, and she was the one who startled. “I was trying to make breakfast.”
Megumi glanced at the cherubic smile on his face, and could not help but giggle. “Yu-san, I think we need to get you some clothes later.”
It was Megumi’s off day, and the lady who worked at the neighbourhood’s men’s clothing store gave Megumi a strange look when she walked in with this stranger dressed in a too small pair of sweat pants and a stained white shirt.
“Good morning, Tomokawa-san.”
“Ah, good morning, Megumi-chan,” Tomokawa-san smiled, nodding. “How are you this morning?”
“Fine,” Megumi grinned before turning into one of the aisle. She surfaced with two tee shirts. “Yu-san, do you like the green or the blue one?”
Yu shrugged. “Either or is fine.”
Megumi giggled and pushed him into the changing room.
They walk out of the store with six new shirts, two pairs of pants, one pair of jeans and sweatsuit. Megumi had blushed when she bought boxers, and Tomokawa-san finally asked the question she had wanted to.
“Is he your boyfriend?” she whispered at Megumi, after Yu had walked out carrying all of the shopping bags.
Megumi looked up from taking her change. “Ah. He’s my… cousin! He’s… I’m helping him out,” she lied, grinning and hoping she was convincing enough. “His mother asked me for a favour, to tide him over until he gets a job.”
“Ahh…” Tomokawa-san nodded, still looking sceptical. “Well, I hope he helps out with the chores.”
Megumi thought about the breakfast in the morning and grinned. “Thank you, Tomokawa-san.”
“Come again!”
When Megumi woke up for the next morning, the futon was folded and kept away, like yesterday. She got out of bed and walked over to the kitchenette, but it was neat and clean. She frowned and knocked on the bathroom door, but there was no answer.
She opened the door, and nearly crashed into him.
“Good morning, Sato-san,” he smiled.
“I… good morning,” Megumi nodded. “I… do you always wake up this early?”
“Ah! I don’t… sleep much,” he grinned. Today he was dressed in one of the shirts they bought yesterday and the blue jeans. Looking at his slippered feet, Megumi realised they had forgotten to buy shoes.
Megumi nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Let’s… I’ll make breakfast,” she said, before ducking back into the apartment.
Yu watched her, amused, before he stepped into the apartment.
The third day Yu moved into the apartment, he announced that he had gotten a job.
“Really?” Megumi asked. “When…”
“I went looking, when Sato-san was at work yesterday,” Yu said.
“Ah, that’s great! Like this, if you work and save up enough money, you’ll be able to get out of whatever trouble you’re in?” Megumi said excitedly, chopsticks waving in the air.
Yu paused for a moment, before he replied. “Ah yes. With money, I will be able to solve my problems.”
Megumi grinned, feeling happier than she had ever been.
Yu’s job was at a construction site. He worked long hours, and was usually out before Megumi woke up and only got home after Megumi returned from work. Usually, he ate whatever Megumi left for him for dinner before going straight to bed.
On the seventh day after he moved in, Megumi made a bento with leftovers from the night before and left it out for him to bring to work the next day. When she woke up in the morning, the lunch bag was gone, and a single pink flower in a pale vase sat in its place.
Megumi began to wonder, from the way her chest constricted at the sight of the flower, if she was getting ill.
On the ninth day, Yu had a day off from work. He came by at lunchtime, and Keiko was in the shop together with Megumi when he stopped by.
“Megumi… is he a friend of yours?” Keiko asked, gesturing to the door.
Megumi turned around, and grinned when she saw Yu. He grinned back and waved.
“Can I…” Megumi started, but Keiko was already laughing, pushing her to the door.
“Go. It’s your lunchtime anyway.”
Yu said he had gotten his salary the day before, so he was going to treat her to lunch. They stood outside an Italian café, and Yu was starring hard at the menu before Megumi finally plucked up enough courage to say, “Yu-san, maybe we should just… you need the money, don’t you?”
Yu turned to Megumi, and his eyes softened, grin widening as he said, “Sato-san,” he started. “I would like to repay you for all the help you have given me.”
“Ah, but I don’t need…” Megumi started, and then paused. She really didn’t need him to say thank you, because she had enjoyed his company as well.
“Sato-san took me in without asking me any questions. For this I am very grateful. So I should buy Sato-san lunch,” Yu said, grinning. “You wouldn’t say no, would you?”
“I…” Megumi stammered. She laughed and shook her head. “All right.”
Yu nodded and lead the way.
On the twelfth day, Megumi and Yu were watching a television drama. It was the last episode, and the hero was leaning into the heroine for a kiss.
“Why do people do that?” Yu asked, as he watched the two characters press their lips into each others. “Is this another way of saying thank you?”
Megumi laughed. “Yu-san, you’re so weird sometimes,” she shook her head. “They’re kissing. Can’t you see?”
“Kissing?” Yu asked.
Megumi was about to laugh and reply to that when he suddenly stood up. “Yu-san?” Megumi frowned.
“Ah, I’ve forgotten something… I have to go back for it,” Yu nodded, walking quickly over to the door and putting on his shoes. “Please do not wait up for me, Sato-san.”
Megumi watched as he left hurriedly; then she spotted Yu’s train pass on the table. If he was going back to pick something up from his workplace, he would need it, she rationalized. She wasn’t following him at all, she told herself, as she put on a jacket and walked out of the house.
She did not have to go far to find him- he was standing at the street corner between the bookstore and florist. She walked quickly, but paused when she realised he was not alone.
“They’re willing to forgive you.” The two people standing with Yu were dressed in white. Megumi was not surprised to see that they were not wearing shoes. “You can come back with us,” the tall one with short dark hair said.
“I…” Yu started. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“It was punishment, Yoko. No matter how right you think you were… we’re not supposed to mess with fate,” the other, much shorter man, with chin length hair said. “But they realised you did it because you were helping Yassan and Ohkura. They’re willing to let you come back.”
Yu hesitated, and both of them noticed.
“You can’t possibly want to stay here, with humans,” the taller man shook his head.
“What happened? You’ve only been here twelve days.”
“I…” Yu said, wringing his hands together.
“Look at you. You’re wearing their clothes,” the shorter man said. “I’ve seen you, doing their work. Yassan went to beg for you to come back. Even Ryo… Ryo went to plead your case! Uchi’s been worried sick about you! Are you telling me you’re willing to forsake us for that... that human.”
“Her name is Sato Megumi,” Yu said softly.
“You were not supposed to be here in the first place!” the short one burst out, and the tall one had to hold him back. “Come back, Yoko, this place wasn’t meant for you… we’re not meant to stay here! Even if you decided to because of this human, you won’t be able to fit in at all!”
Yu looked up at the two of them, before he turned to the taller man. “If she hadn’t helped me… Hina, you’d understand, won’t you?”
“Subaru has a point,” Hina said. “Even if you wanted to stay for her…”
“All she did was to help you for a while,” Subaru said. “But they’re humans. They’ll throw you out as soon as they’ve used you.”
“Sato-san is different!” Yu exclaimed, and Subaru looked surprised at Yu’s sudden outburst. “She… she didn’t ask why I was here. She thinks I’m in trouble. She gave me a place to stay. She helped me.”
“If you’re so grateful there are other things you can do for her… miracles you can perform!” Subaru exclaimed, face red because he realised this was worse than he thought it was. “You don’t have to…”
Hina held Subaru back gently and stood up to Yu. “You know that if you choose to stay… the gates will never open for you again?”
Yu nodded.
“That you will be lost, in the human realm, in their cycle of rebirth?” Hina continued.
Yu nodded again.
Hina took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “You have two more days,” he said softly. “We’ll be back for you then.”
Then Hina took Subaru’s hand, and a moment later, they disappeared. Megumi gasped- Yu turned around.
“Sato-san,” he said, eyes widening in surprise.
“I… you left your card,” she said, holding out the card case. She looked down at her toes for a long while, but when she looked up, Yu was still there, waiting.
“Who are you, Yu-san?” she whispered.
“I was punished,” Yu said. He sat down on one of the swings at the swing set.
“Punished?” Megumi whispered, sitting down on the other swing.
Yu smiled. “In my world, I have a family of eight. You met two of them just now.”
“Yes,” Megumi nodded.
“Hina and Subaru,” Yu nodded. He grabbed the chains on the side of the swing and kicked off the ground. “Ah, so this is how this works,” he grinned, as he began to swing. “There are eight of them; I have known them… well, as long as I have existed, I believe.”
Megumi nodded again.
“The four of us were out performing a routine job,” Yu said.
“What is your job?”
“The four of us? Actually it was Yassan and Ohkura’s job we were helping with. They’re soul collectors.”
“Soul… collectors?”
“It’s terribly hard on Yassan, especially. They help children,” Yu nodded, as he continued to swing.
Megumi was not quite sure she wanted to know the details of that job.
“Maru and I had gone to help, but we were attacked,” Yu said. “It happens sometimes, there are bad spirits, who want to take control of the young spirits before we get to them, so that they can control them. It’s very nasty.”
Megumi was now sure she did not want to know the details of that job.
“Well, what happened was- I did not collect that soul. I pushed it back into its human form. I had to, to save that soul, and to save Ohkura,” Yu said, turning to Megumi.
“But you… if I understand what you’re saying… you saved that child’s life. And your friend’s life. You shouldn’t be punished!”
Yu laughed as he stopped swinging. “Sato-san?”
Megumi looked up.
“We do God’s work. We’re not supposed to change the way things are done. I’ve done a terrible thing by prolonging that child’s life. I had disrupted the pattern, the rhythm of time. I’ve already started to feel its effects,” Yu explained.
“Effects?” Megumi frowned.
Yu nodded, looking up at the sky. “I must go back, and make things right.”
She felt her heart constrict again, and she barely had the strength to whisper, “Go back?”
On the fourteenth day after he moved in, Yu suggested they go to the aquarium.
“From up there, it’s hard to see what goes on in the sea,” Yu explained. Megumi nodded and called in for a day off, before bringing Yu to the aquarium.
Yu was fascinated by the floor to ceiling tanks. He stayed especially long at the Pacific Ocean tank, watching the manta-ray swim, saying it reminded him of birds flying in the sky. They had lunch at the restaurant near the aquarium, and after spending the rest of the day watching fishes at the tropical tanks, they ended the day with a ride on the ferris wheel.
In the ferris wheel capsule, Megumi sat down next to Yu. He smiled at her before reaching for her hand, and they held hands as they rode to the top.
“Thank you for all you’ve done for me, Sato-san,” Yu said, with a soft smile.
Megumi turned to him. The constriction in her chest was the worse it had ever been; she felt like her heart was going to be squeezed right out of her chest. “Yu-san?”
“I will never forget you,” he promised, squeezing her hand.
“Yu-san,” she tugged on his sleeve urgently, shaking her head. There were so many things she wanted to say, so many things she needed to tell him, but her throat was stuck, her head was pounding, and she was not sure…
He smiled, and leaned in to press a kiss on her lips.
Megumi swore she felt her heart explode in her chest.
“For thank you,” he whispered, placing a cool hand on her flushed cheek. She reached up and held onto his hand tight, pressing it onto her face.
“Sato-san?”
“Hai.”
“Close your eyes.”
Fighting her tears, she took a deep breath and nodded. “Hai.”
When Megumi opened her eyes, he was gone.
She began to cry.
omg kill me please. >___<|||||
it's been nothing but angst for me lately.