Bing, the sound of an elevator, a man leaves along with the other people. The building is filled with mourns of other people around,
"This can't be...her performance was supposed to be tomorrow..."
"Ai Hoshino is dead..."
"F*ck that murderer, I'm gonna kill him once I see him personally in jail!"
"I heard some theories that there could be a mastermind behind the murder."
"Oh, really?"
Murmurs and chatters of Ai's death surround, the man lowers his head and hat as he heads towards the rooftop of the building. The higher he goes, the less people are seen until there's just no one, lights flicker, some are truly just out of order. As he reached the top did he see yet another man, waiting for him.
"What is it that you want to talk? Luckily my business was over so I had free time to bond with you~ Don't tell me this is about her...You know I love her almost just as near as you, despite that she left me by her own decision. All I wanted was to see her perfect face, nonetheless."
"..."
"I know you loved Kuyumi-san so much, if it weren't for you intervening so much I wouldn't have shown her~
So what is it you wanna talk about, Akira-sama?"
Akira turns around, with a sharp eyes, he reply
"Don't involve her name in this. This is a talk between only two of us, Karou-kun."
The sky turns darker, winds blow harder, Karou removes his hat and laughs.
"Can you stop calling me by that nickname? It makes me remember the time when she still loves me, it's Hikaru, Akira-sama.
...
After everything, I thought you had vanished ever since that day~ So what is this? You've realized you can't handle everything by yourself and thought maybe I'm right and admit defeat? We can't control her anymore, she has become too unstable, too much freedom was given unto her, too curious and growing too old–"
"There's no we in your work, she was becoming someone who will not need you anymore and you were scared of it, her independence brings you fear that she will truly leave you and never ever look back again."
Hikaru chuckles
"So like her calling me to see the children was nothing. After everything, she still wanted a complete family, and that same love brought her to her death."
"Love is something we all experience and has always been embedded inside of every human soul, Evil doings or not, you cannot deny you have passion which takes love in order to attach unto it. The world started because of love.
How about we agree on the same fact that that obsession started once with love.
You became too attached, too obsessed, too desperate, you lied for yourself in which she lied for the sake of other people, enlightened that eventually, she'll truly learn how to love, and you, you want her only for yourself, am I right?
So I'm cutting ties with you or else you might end up killing me, too."
Hikaru freezes for a moment, truth hits Hikaru more than any other punch he could've ever received. But what hit him more was Akira's claim, He hid this feeling with a mischievous smirk, trying to look independent of Akira's influence.
"So what is this?A warning? A goodbye? Like I was never a part of you before, took shelter of me, took me inside, let me experience what should've been if it weren't for my parents, you and Kuyumi gave me the experience of what love could've."
"And yours is too twisted." Akira replied with cold and sharp eyes, but admist of all of that, there was still lingering care in his eyes.
"You think you're righteous but all you did was watch, judging me. You never did a thing, you seem to be giving hope and trust before leaving the people who love you behind. I am the last of your family. Akira-sama." Hikaru whispered in his ear.
"Learning is a thing, my father had been through this before, and he had played his role to protect us, I'm doing this for my own pleasure's sake.
But this time, it'll be different...I won't be scared anymore to slow things down even if it means having to restart all over again."
Akira picks up his bag then walks past Hikaru, leaving him behind as rain drops start to fall off the sky. The sound of the door close behind haunts Hikaru as he turns to see Akira had truly abandoned him.
"Akira-sama...you..."
As Akira goes down from the rooftop, he then takes the elevator. Ding. Sounded the elevator. Akira enters the empty elevator, while so, he takes his laptop.
"Just as planned..."
click.
Minutes afterwards
Miyako noticed a black car trailing behind them, it had been since. Though, she considers this car might just have the same destination, she couldn't erase the unease in her heart about something.
After Ai's death, the make-up artist was called to pick up Ai's death for her funeral.
"Hello, I'm the make up artist for Ai's body, may the funeral home pick her up now?" he said with a smirk.
The clerk-woman was suspicious, she asks for his official I.D and documents. After confirming, she felt a bit of ease on her heart, she then called the administrative and mortuary funeral service staff that Ai's body is to be picked up now.
After releasing, with the help of 2 assistants, one of them injects something of Ai's arm. The vehicle then proceeded on a different place instead of the funeral home.
---
The beeping of the telemetry monitor echoed at the room of the hospital. Ai woke up, confused.
"Is this, heaven?" she thought.
"I thought it would all be cloudy, I never thought it would be just like earth."
"Because you are on earth." replied the man. The familiar deep and gentle voice she heard 4 years ago... Akira.
Ai was stunned.
"A-Akira-san...? W-what? But... how...? And, I'm supposed to be- (dead)..."
"Just be grateful you're still alive", he then gave her a peeled apple before proceeding to eat his.
Ai takes the apple hesitantly. She takes a bite, the overwhelming sweetness engulfed her mouth.
"Thanks..."
"I was quite surprised when you were revived after 6 failed defibrillation. It's a miracle considering you were dead for hours. It seems your body is quite the fighter", Akira said.
Ai listens carefully, but even after all the facts, she couldn't have a single word uttered or a feeling to express. She thought she might look disrespectful, when she comes up with a word just to keep the conversation going.
"I suppose it is", she replied with a perfect disguise of expressions.
Akira stares at her for a moment.
"You don't have to pretend. I know you're quite overwhelmed."
Ai was shocked, being read so easily. She never thought someone could ever read her like a book, "Oh..."
Silence filled the room for a moment until flashes of Ai's last memory at her dorm before her death floods over her mind.
"Aqua...Ruby! How about them?! Argh...!" She tried standing up, but her wound was still throbbing in pain.
"They're doing fine", Akira replied.
"You just came back from the dead, don't force yourself too much."
Ai sighed, feeling a bit of relief in her heart.
"Thank goodness..."
While she finally slowly relaxed, the news from Akira's laptop from the table talked about Ai's funeral, seeing Miyako and Ichigo, and her children in the background.
"...So... I really am dead...?"
"If you were really dead, why are you still feeling pain?", Akira spoke
"Hell?" Ai replied with a stubborn child's face.
Akira sighed.
"You're clearly alive, just dead in the public's eye- "
"THEN I WILL CONTINUE BEING AN IDOL! MARK MY WORDS! AKIRA-SAN!"
"Were you even listening..." Akira thought in disappointment.
"You'll just get yourself killed again-"
"Oh yeah, I'm dead." Ai replied, hitting her head.
Akira's eye twitched, "Yeah, as I said, publicly dead, but you're still alive."
Silence...
"How's that even possible... I'm confused... How did Miyako-san not even know? How is it that it's only you here... and where will I be living now if that's the case... I'm basically useless right now..."
Akira stands up to leave.
"You'll be living at my house, don't worry."
"Where are you going? Ai replied.
"Getting you released from the hospital", he replied as he closes the door from behind leaving Ai with unanswered questions.
As Akira finished signing the files to get Ai released, the clerk-woman spoke unto Akira.
"Are you sure about this..."
Awkward silence filled the hallway for a sec.
"Yeah", Akira replied with an emotionless face.
The clerk-woman frowned slightly.
"You know how heavy it is already, plus, she's unknown to you. I know, you feel responsible, but isn't this too much, Oni-chan..."
Another silence...
Akira smiled slightly.
"Am I being too stubborn? Or I really am even back then for letting things go this way. It's my fault for letting another innocent life be taken away because of taking him 7 years ago... And like us back then, we were left orphans... I...just don't want those kids to be like us..."
The clerk-woman's eyes soften.
"It's stubborn, but since it's gone this way already, just go home already and leave the damb hospital", she pouted
Akira softens, rubbing her hair playfully as nostalgia fills his heart.
"You've really grown... Ayame."
After everything is settled Akira takes Ai with him to his SUV, slowly guiding her inside. As Akira starts the engine, Ai asks.
"Wouldn't your wife be mad?"
Akira coughs.
"...I don't have any relationships whatsoever, nor a wife."
Ai tilts her head, surprised by his status and relationships.
"But... aren't you old enough to have one already?"
"...I'm only 25, it's not that old."
Awkward silence filled the vehicle, Ai stared at her lap, thinking of a way to start another conversation, she isn't used to such silence...
"Umm...Thank you again...Akira-san..." She smiled nervously.
Akira nodded.
Shivers went down on Ai's spine. She looks away slowly, laughing awkwardly to herself.
"What the heck am I doing? Why am I this nervous? (He's quite intimidating T-T)"
After an hour of driving, Akira and Ai had finally reached his village of this mountain. It was quite the small village, but it seems the people of it gets along well.
Akira gets down the car and proceeds to walk higher to the mountain. Ai looked around, confused.
"Where are we going? I thought you live there?"
"Yeah, I do live here, I just live higher up."
Ai's shoulders dropped along her jaws.
"What?! This is tiring!" she complained.
As they reach his house, Ai is mesmerized to see the large but neat and simple house, Akira offers the seat on his couch, as he lays his laptop down on the table.
"Stay here, I'll prepare your room."
"Oh, okay", Ai replied.
Sitting quietly and observing the house, she noticed a folder on Akira's laptop, named Karou-kun, she felt like she had heard a similar name before. Driven by curiosity, she opens the folder and saw a photo of Akira with Hikaru Kamiki in it. Her eyes widened in shock. She froze there for minutes until Akira returned.
"I've finished cleaning your room, come and see it-" Akira paused as he noticed Ai looking at a photo. He walks slowly and takes the laptop, then deletes the folder.
"It seems I have forgotten one." he said before laying the laptop back on the table.
Ai slowly looked back at him and asked, "Akira-san...Care to explain...?" she replied, filled with fear and confusion.