"Leader, we're actually a bit busy this Halloween!"
"Hey man, my wife is nagging me, asking when I'm ever going to spend time with the kids if not now... Dammit... She was like an angel when we were dating!!!!"
The day before Halloween.
The morning at the Hoshino residence—which had temporarily relocated to New York for the production of Enfants Terribles' new album—was as cold as ever.
Contrasting with the frigid atmosphere inside the house, the streets of New York were illuminated by Jack-o'-lanterns carved from massive pumpkins, their orange fairy lights twinkling in preparation for the holiday. Some houses had already set out candy baskets for the little monsters expected to visit.
The streets of New York, which had endured so much pain since the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse, held an eerie yet joyful vibe.
For the record, Yokishi and Shuji—who had started families of their own as time passed—planned to spend the day with their children, whom they had neglected due to the constant touring.
"Everyone's busy, I see."
After meeting Yokishi and Shuji, Hide made his way toward a lakeside cabin he had prepared in the States as a sort of vacation home.
He simply wanted to escape the city's cacophony and find peace in a secluded place. Halloween was a day for children.
Back when Ai was alive, they would exchange candy and chocolate while making plans for the end of the year, but now that she had passed away, he had long since graduated from such festivities.
Though he had children who shared both his and Ai's blood, Hide didn't have the confidence to look at faces that resembled her so perfectly.
"Why are there so many invitations?"
There were plenty of adults looking to enjoy the children's festival by throwing parties, but Hide's life was far removed from such things. He wanted to avoid noisy crowds.
Since tomorrow was the weekend, his plan was to take his medication, sleep in late, scribble down whatever melodies came to mind in his notebook, and just let the time drift by. To Hide, medication was a good tool to help him forget the most colorful moments of his life.
Regardless, the first New York Halloween following the revolution sparked by Enfants Terribles seemed grand, but Hide was indifferent to the affairs of the world.
Or so he thought. Until he opened the cabin's front door and the children—whom he had been avoiding since Ai's funeral—shouted "Trick or Treat" at him.
"Papa! Did you not miss Ruby?! ☆"
"I always miss my daughter... I'm sorry Daddy was so busy with work."
As he spoke, moments he wanted to forget resurfaced. He blankly stared at the traces Ai had left behind before belatedly greeting Saito Ichigo and Saito Miyako, who were sitting on the living room sofa.
"Hide... have you eaten dinner?"
Saito Miyako, who was legally Hide's mother-in-law, asked him in a tone filled with worry.
"I'm doing alright, Mother."
"You damn son-in-law... you've lost all your muscle... are you actually eating properly?"
As per his habit, Hide sat across from Saito Ichigo and Saito Miyako with a cigar and a glass of whiskey. Summer and autumn had passed, and the winter that held both Ai's birthday and the anniversary of her death was approaching.
Only the crackling sound of firewood in the recently lit fireplace echoed around them.
"Just how long are you going to stay like this? You already sent that bastard Kamiki Hikaru to life prison and buried the theatrical company he belonged to from the industry ages ago."
Saito Ichigo broke the silence, taking off his trademark sunglasses to look Hide in the eye and convey his sincerity.
"Father, you don't need to worry about me."
"You have to let go now."
Nothing Saito Ichigo said was wrong. In fact, Hide knew it himself. He knew that no matter how much you yearn for those who have left, they never come back.
"I don't know how. Saito, without Ai, I'm just the frontman of Enfants Terribles. She was the only person who made me feel like myself. How am I supposed to bury that and just live?"
"You have the kids. The children need you. That's why you're still alive."
As Saito Ichigo said, these pitiful children who lost their mother to a madman needed a father. That was the reason Hide, who had tried to reach Nirvana several times, miraculously survived and was still breathing.
"Ai would want that too. Hide, I believe the reason you survived in the emergency room that day was thanks to the soul of the child who had already left."
Hide listened to his father-in-law while looking at a photo tucked in his wallet from their happiest time.
In the photo, Ai was still smiling with the children, her face as beautiful as ever.
After staring at the photo for a long time, Hide made a face of resolve, threw the syringe that had been sitting on the table into the trash can, and spoke.
"I think so too, Father."
Hide intended to start acting like a father again, a duty he hadn't been able to fulfill for a while. Though it was still painful to look at his children's faces—which were the spitting image of Ai—the living had to keep on living.
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Hide drove out and bought the children's costumes. To ensure the children of the world's most famous band leader could walk the streets in peace, that much of a disguise was necessary.
Ruby wore 'Yoshi' pajamas from Super Mario, while Aqua was disguised as Mario. The elders of the Saito family and the sole adult of the Hoshino family smiled at the sight.
The children, who looked exactly like the one who had left, seemed to have even inherited her personality.
"Father, you want me to do it too?"
"You damn son-in-law, if you don't do it, there's no point in the disguise."
Hide didn't want to wear a costume. He argued it made no sense to walk around New York in a costume at his age. However, Saito Ichigo found Hide's protests absurd.
Hide was still a vigorous man in his twenties. With all due respect to his deceased daughter, his son-in-law was a youth in his prime who wouldn't be out of place even if he chose to remarry at any moment.
Eventually, Hide punched holes in a McDonald's paper bag lying around the house and pulled it over his head. For the record, Ichigo and Miyako—who acted as parental figures for the orphaned Hide—didn't mention how ridiculous it looked.
And so, with Ruby in her Yoshi costume and Aqua as Super Mario in the back seat, Hide began to drive, wearing a McDonald's paper bag with eye holes cut out over his head.
"Damn son-in-law! Get back safe!"
—---------------------------
Just as Hide expected, Ruby and Aqua were thrilled. While Aqua seemed a bit embarrassed, Ruby expressed her joy with her whole body.
The fact that shouting "Trick or Treat" at every house resulted in someone giving her candy and chocolate with a kind smile exhilarated the girl who looked just like Ai.
Furthermore, she seemed to feel a sense of pride seeing so many people—men, women, old, and young—imitating her father, Hide, on the streets.
"Papa! Look, there are so many people copying Papa over there!"
Whenever he saw someone dressed up like him or Ai, Hide would hand out a few pieces of candy from his own pumpkin basket.
His sociable daughter had already made friends with a few kids her age despite not seeing their faces, and she was now leading a group of them around. Seeing Ruby chatting away with her friends, Hide thought he had made the right choice in coming out.
"She's just like Ai, the way she draws people to her. Like mother, like daughter."
While he was worried about Ruby running around as if she planned to sweep up all the candy in New York, Halloween with the children was a pleasant night for Hide as well.
Save for the occasional people who startled him and ran away, triggering his trauma.
It was his first Halloween outing in years. Hide was reminiscing about memories from early in his marriage, shortly after the kids were born. He would have his arms full with the children, while Ai, true to her free-spirited nature, would sweep up chocolates from the street with bold strides and feed him her spoils like battle trophies.
"It's been a while since I've seen you like this, hasn't it?! ☆"
Hide, who was leaning against a wall watching the kids, looked at a woman in surprise at the sound of a strangely familiar voice. He hadn't felt any presence at all, but a woman completely covered in a costume was suddenly beside him, eating Häagen-Dazs as she spoke.
"Excuse me? What was that?"
"Oh... I mean! It's been a while since I've seen such a lovely family! -☆ Halloween has been lonely for the past few years."
She didn't seem like a dangerous person, unlike the one who murdered Ai. He could feel a faint sense of affection for them in her tone.
"You must like Halloween?"
"I live for this day! ദ്디ˊᗜˋ)"
The woman stood beside Hide, leaning her back against the wall as well.
"So why are you here alone? Doesn't it feel lonely?"
"I just like watching the kids from here. My daughter looks exactly like my wife."
Once he finished speaking, the woman sighed and began to ramble about this and that. She said the living have to live, and if he kept moping like this, his departed wife would be furious in heaven. She definitely didn't seem dangerous, but her attitude was strange.
Most of all, her voice felt hauntingly familiar.
"Um... I never mentioned being separated from my wife... do you know me?"
"Hehe..."
"Your voice sounds familiar. Are you someone I know?"
The woman let out a small gasp, muttering that she had made a mistake. Hide stared at the woman's mouth, which was exposed so she could eat her Häagen-Dazs. He had a feeling that she was making a troubled expression, perhaps curling only one side of her lips up.
Familiar faces and familiar expressions flashed through his mind, but Hide quickly wiped those strange thoughts away.
I really need to quit the drugs... I suppose I have been using them a lot lately.
Thinking that, Hide narrowed his eyes and peered at the face that should have been invisible behind the costume.
Just as Hide was about to open his mouth to press the woman, a small child tripped over a rock while running. Instinctively, Hide caught the child, preventing a fall.
"Careful there, little one."
It was a girl with purple hair and purple eyes. Perhaps shy, the child whispered "Thank you" in a small voice before running back to her parents.
Hide nagged at the child's back not to run, just as he did with his own daughter.
"You still can't ignore it when kids are in danger, can you?"
"That's an adult's job."
"Aren't you worried someone might fall for you? ( ´△｀)"
"That would be a crime."
The woman leaning against the wall eating Häagen-Dazs commented as if she were jealous. And then she let out another incomprehensible, strange remark.
"Do you know me? You really seem like someone I know."
"Hide, you'll get hurt if you try to learn a woman's secret! -☆"
The woman no longer even tried to hide the fact that she knew Hide. At the same time, she seemed to have no intention of saying who she was.
"Anyway, where did the others go? I was looking forward to that too!"
"What? Who?"
"Your friends!"
If she meant his friends, she must be referring to Yokishi and Shuji, but Hide couldn't understand why she was saying that. Shuji and Yokishi had long since left for Japan, where their families were.
That fact had been reported extensively in the media; anyone living in the States would have known.
"Have you been living under a rock? Hmmm... should we at least introduce ourselves?"
At Hide's question, the woman simply stared at him. Or rather, she seemed to be staring. Hide couldn't be certain because her face was covered by the costume, hiding the exact direction of her gaze.
"Hide!! You have to be suspicious when a stranger approaches you!! What if I were a really bad person! Why are you asking for my name!! Ai will be really angry!"
Somewhere in the middle, something like static noise could be heard, but Hide let out a dry laugh at the woman's words. Who was the one who approached first and acted like they knew him?
"So you're saying you're a bad person?"
"No... that's not what I meant..."
Hide ignored the strange person who trailed off and tossed some candy to a passing child dressed as Ai. The child, accustomed to people handing out treats, skillfully waved and went on their way.
"But why have you only been throwing candy to kids dressed as Ai this whole time?"
Hide didn't answer her. He just leaned his back against the wall, watching Ruby run around with her friends and Aqua trying to calm her down.
"Hide, you still love Ai, don't you?"
Hide's head snapped toward her. He frowned at the woman for stating the obvious. To Hide, Ai was his most precious existence, more valuable than anything else.
"But I think Ai wouldn't mind if you dreamed of a future. Look for someone who can fill the void for the children."
The woman made this request in a slightly sad tone. Since this was something a fan who knew of his recent troubles might say, Hide simply lit a cigarette in silence.
"Papa! Let's go that way!"
Ruby shouted from a distance.
"Would you like to come along? My kids are quite cute."
Hide, who had yelled back to his daughter that he would follow, instinctively asked the costumed woman who now felt a bit like a friend.
"I'm going now!"
The woman rummaged through her pocket, pulled out a caramel, and handed it to him. A Korean milk-flavored caramel. It was Hide's favorite sweet snack.
"Since Hide is always giving things away! This is a gift from Ai! Since she can't be by your side anymore, don't give everything away!"
With those words, the woman placed the caramel in Hide's hand.
"Well then, Hide! See you next Halloween!"
She spoke and strode away with bold steps, before Hide even had a chance to say goodbye. Then, she suddenly spun around and opened her mouth as if for a final farewell.
"I love Hide very much too! That is absolutely not a lie!"
It was a sudden remark. And an incredibly strange one to hear from a stranger.
"Ai will be mad if you follow her too soon!"
With that, the woman vanished. Even though she was bundled in layers of costumes, the woman vanished into the darkness of the Halloween night only seconds later.
Wait... did she say Ai...?
Hide felt as if he'd been hit in the head with a blunt object and began to run toward where the woman had disappeared.
"Ai!!!"
The voice, the tone, and even that confident stride—everything was Ai. She was the one who knew him better than anyone yet knew nothing of his current state. And knowing that he loved Korean milk caramels more than any other snack was something impossible for anyone but Ai.
It was impossible, but it was certainly his wife, Ai.
Only after she had disappeared into the darkness did the noise in his head clear enough for him to realize. Even though everything had pointed to her being Ai, he hadn't seen it.
Hide ran in the direction she had gone. But no matter how much he ran, there was no sign of the woman completely covered in her costume.
"Ha... Ai, I'll do as you say. But I'm not remarrying."
Ai had briefly appeared in the shadows and then naturally vanished, as if following the laws of nature. As if his meeting with her hadn't even been real, she left without a trace.
With the single exception of the milk caramel in his hand. Hide clutched it, hot tears streaming down his face as he looked into the empty air.
"Papa! When are you coming! ( ›⤙‹ )"
Hide quickly wiped his tears and walked toward his daughter. He thought about coming out next Halloween with his father-in-law, Saito Ichigo.
Hide, who had been wandering after losing his other half, could now stand on his own as a father.
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[Halloween: The day when the souls of the dead visit the human world before traveling to the afterlife.]
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