26th of December, right after the call 1:30 pm, Kamiki's penthouse
Kamiki's penthouse is unrecognizable. The matte-black walls of his living room are now plastered with protective plastic sheeting, every piece of furniture was pushed from the center of the room against the walls, the blinds of his balcony door are almost completely closed, creating an eerie, dim setting that looks like a combination of a crime scene and a person moving out.
Kana is seated in the center of the room on a wooden chair. Her arms and legs bound to the chair, while her eyes are covered with a makeshift blindfold, made out of an old scarf by Kamiki.
I have to get out of here fast.
I know Aqua… He'll definitely come.
But he can't, I need to do this on my own.
These ropes… they are just so tight, I can't move.
I gotta do something, anything.
Aqua… don't.
Just sitting here won't get me anywhere.
I have to try something.
Anything.
Even if that means
Kana's body starts aching from sitting in such a hard chair for so long.
"H-Hey you, let me go blondie, Aqua and Ruby won't show up because of me anyways. You should've gone after Mem or Akane, then your odds would look much better."
Kana's voice is slightly raised so it won't get swallowed by the huge room.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Don't ignore me, I said you should let me go."
Kana listens for any sound. At first, the room stays quiet apart from the ticking of the large grandfather clock. But after a moment, there's something else, goosebumps form on Kana's entire body as slow steps start approaching from behind.
"Finally, I thought you left me all alone, are you here to let me g-"
Kana falls abruptly silent as she feels something cold pressing against her throat.
"You… you wouldn't kill me anyway… You need me for your plan, you're all bark and no bite, that's how things are."
Kana clears her throat before talking again, trying to sound as confident as before, but slight cracks start appearing in her mask, which gets noticed by Kamiki.
"Interesting. How can you continue to be this cocky, even when you are in such a situation. Tell me, why are you not fearing me?"
Kamiki's eyes wander down, away from Kana's face, inspecting her body, eventually landing on her arms, where they rest for a moment as he starts to look closer. Kana tries to sit as still as possible, but it is no use; he still notices the way she's shaking ever so slightly.
"No, that is not it. You do fear me. More than you would like to admit. But you still want Aqua to stay away from here… It is because you love him, right? Love is a beautiful thing, isn't it?"
Kamiki's reply sounds gentle and almost caring, like a teacher talking to a small child. He gives Kana a second to respond, but she can't get out even a single word.
"What? Cat got your tongue? You can't hide it from me. You secretly want Aqua to come and save you. How very selfish of you. You want him to risk his life and even his sister's life for yours."
Kamiki releases the pressure from Kana's throat just moments before she begins to fight her restraints again, the ropes that hold her in place are bruising her wrists and ankles, as a few droplets of blood flow down her throat and leave small stains on her shirt.
"THAT'S NOT TRUE, IT'S JUST NOT, I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS. I DON'T NEED HIM, I DON'T LOVE HIM AND I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIM."
Kana continues to shout as Kamiki starts slowly pacing around her, like a predator circling its prey. His steps are echoing through the room alongside her screams. He only stops right in front of her, minutes later, once the sound of the steps is the only noise filling the penthouse.
"Is this supposed to convince me or yourself? Let me give you a piece of advice, as a little apology."
Kamiki reaches out his hand and gently unties the blindfold, pulling it off of Kana's face, exposing her eyes to the dim light. It's not bright, but enough for Kana to blink a few times before finally adapting.
"Fuck off, I don't need your advice."
Kana's harsh words don't seem to have any effect on Kamiki; he just continues as if she hadn't said anything to begin with. His voice is still just as gentle as it was when he first spoke.
"You want to be happy with Aqua. But you feel like you don't deserve it. And you are correct, you don't. You do not deserve anything. But neither do Aqua, Ruby or I. Nobody deserves anything. Humans are all the same, we are greedy, envious, selfish and lie to each other. Stop being so obsessed with whether you deserve it or not, instead you should just take it, because if you don't, somebody else will."
The room stays quiet as Kana sits unmoving once more, trying to grasp the full meaning behind what Kamiki told her.
"What are you tr-"
Kana is cut off as her gag reflex is activated by the makeshift blindfold being roughly forced into her mouth. The room stays silent, apart from a few muffled sounds coming from Kana, until Kamiki speaks again.
"I would love to talk more with you, sadly I do have a few more things to take care of for now. But I have to admit, you are a highly interesting person Kana Arima. Although you should stop belittling yourself, people like that are usually the worst."
He turns and starts walking towards the door. After a few steps, he can hear how Kana picks up the fight against her restraints once again.
26th of December, right after the call, 1:30 pm, Gotanda Taishi's house
After the initial shock subsides again, Ruby starts to march towards the door, every step she takes more determined than the last. But Aqua is faster, only one step, and he holds her arm tight in his grasp.
"LET GO OF ME"
Tears are starting to form in her eyes as she whips her head around, looking at Aqua with the same pleading eyes that she always used to get what she wanted from him, as she tries her best to escape his merciless grip. But it's no use, not this time.
"You know that she was only dragged into this because of us… BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Ruby is now pulling back with all her strength while Aqua stands there unmoving, holding her wrist with one hand.
I just can't let this happen…
I can't put Ruby into harm's way;
I just can't let her die again.
Why did I listen…
Why did I listen to Akane?
I should've just done it last night.
That way, it would've at least only been me.
What should I do?
Ruby or Kana?
…
Ruby is the sole purpose of my life.
I can't risk her, not for anyone.
I'm sorry, Kana…
Aqua is snapped out of his thoughts by a strong surge of pain shooting through his jaw, strong enough to make his head recoil back.
After the initial moments of shock, he realizes that Ruby is gone. He sprints after her as he hears her steps on the stairs.
Aqua finally catches up to her just moments before she is at the front door. He roughly wrestles her to the ground, using his entire body to keep her pinned to the ground.
"LET GO OF ME"
Ruby shouts, punching and scratching Aqua, who tries to confine her limbs to the best of his ability, while making sure to not be too rough.
"Calm down Ruby, please don't just rush there without a plan, please snap out of it, I won't let Kana die… obviously, let's think about this carefully, otherwise both you and Kana just end up dead."
Aqua waits for a moment before slowly loosening his grip. When he feels that Ruby has stopped fighting back, he lets go of her completely, standing up and pulling Ruby onto her feet too.
"Thank you for listening to me. Go back upstairs now. I'll make us something to drink, and then we can think together."
"We don't have time for thi-"
Ruby starts arguing, but Aqua raises his voice, interrupting her before she can finish her sentence.
"No. We don't have time to argue, so get up there now and give me 5 minutes."
Aqua points towards the stairs, his tone commanding, even more than before.
"How are we supposed to take care of Kana when we can not even take care of ourselves?"
Ruby wants to respond, but reluctantly heads up the stairs so as not to waste any more time. Aqua only starts preparing the tea when he hears the door close and is sure that Ruby is in her room.
Aqua pours water into a kettle. While he waits for it to start boiling, he starts looking for two cups and teabags. When he finally finds them, he places them next to the now boiling water and pours the water into the cups.
What should I do? I don't want to put Kana in any more danger by keeping Ruby here. But I also need to keep Ruby safe at any cost. I need to choose; I either have to save Kana and risk Ruby, or risk Ruby to save Kana.
Objectively, saving Kana would be the right thing to do; she has nothing to do with any of this. Kamiki wants Ruby, not her. But if that is the case, then why do I feel like I just can not go through with it?
No, it is impossible, I just can not and will not risk Ruby, not for anybody. Keeping Sarina safe is the reason why I'm here to begin with.
But how? How can I keep her safe while also trying to save Kana? I can't be at 2 places at the same time, and if I went, Ruby would also want to go.
Aqua thinks for a few more moments about whether he could convince Ruby to stay or if he could maybe trick her. But he concludes that nothing would work.
He reluctantly puts his hand into his pocket, swiftly pulling a small plastic vial filled with powder out of it, holding it up to his face, thinking as he seemingly inspects its contents.
I still have this, it's safe if I don't use too much, I initially planned to use it for Kamiki when I see a chance… But maybe I should just. It would keep her safe until all of this is over.
It feels so wrong, even thinking about this. What kind of brother drugs his sister? Taking away her autonomy, all while she trusts me…
But it needs to be done. Even if she hates me for it, I can deal with that. I don't need her love, I can do this, I don't need anybody. I just need to do everything in my might to keep her safe.
Aqua slowly removes the cap from the small vial as the water in the cups starts to change color. He raises his shaking hand to Ruby's cup, gripping his arm with his other hand for stabilization.
Why am I shaking this much? It is the right thing to do. I shouldn't feel this way.
He pours only a tiny amount of the contents of the vial into Ruby's cup before putting the cap back on and slipping it back into his pocket.
"I'm sorry, Ruby."
His voice is silent as he grabs both cups and heads back up the stairs.
Upon entering the door, he can see Ruby pacing up and down the room. He places Ruby's cup on the nightstand next to the bed before sitting down in the office chair on the opposite end of the room.
"Took you long enough Aqua, I almost came looking for you."
Ruby says as she stops pacing and sits down on the bed, looking at Aqua.
"I thought you just left without me, but I'm so happy that you've proven me wrong."
She starts to sip from her tea.
"Now, what's your plan? How do we save Kana? We don't have much time, we only have…"
Ruby pulls out her phone and looks at the digital clock on the lock screen.
"...One and a half hours left."
Aqua stays silent for a long moment before he also starts drinking from his cup. His hand is shaking so badly, a bit of tea spills from his cup onto his pants, but he doesn't even seem to notice it.
"Hello? Aqua? Are you there?"
Ruby takes another sip from her cup, fishing her tea and placing it back down. Before getting up and walking over to Aqua, waving her hand right in front of his face.
"We have no time for this, we need to come up with a plan."
Ruby's voice is gentle, but there is urgency behind it.
"I'm sorry, Ruby."
Aqua says as he looks up, his voice is so quiet that any ambient sound would tone over it.
"For earlier? No need to be, it almost doesn't hurt anymore already. I was acting out of my mind. Now we can plan with clear minds. So come on, plan something, like you always do."
Ruby places one of her hands on Aqua's cheek before swiftly pulling it away again, grabbing the nearby office desk; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to continue standing upright.
"Can- Can you give me a hand? I'm feeling a bit light headed. I'm sure it will be over in just a minute, so don't worry."
Ruby loses her balance and falls over, but Aqua catches her before she hits the ground.
Aqua jumped up from the chair, stopping his sisters fall. Pulling her heavy and almost completely unresponsive body closer to him.
"Once you wake up it will hopefully all be over…"
Ruby's demeanor slowly starts to fall as she puts the pieces together. She trys to turn around, to look at Aqua's face, but he is holding her tight in place.
"No. The tea, don't tell me. You wouldn't do that. Please tell me you wouldn't do that."
Aqua doesn't reply; instead, he pulls the fading Ruby closer to himself. Every moment of silence confirms Ruby's suspicion even more.
Ruby can't move as her world crumples, her sight slowly fading into darkness. She was robbed of the right to choose by the very same person she trusted the most.
Still, she manages to stutter out one more sentence before her body goes limp. Making Aqua feel. Feel in a way he didn't know he could.
"Aqua, I hate you."