The birds sang, and in the distance you could hear the laughter of children. Unbothered by the courtesies of the adult world, they played in parks, on empty roads, and in vacant fields. "I can't believe I'm actually doing *this* on my one day off…" Kana said under her breath after she had just passed by a group of said playing kids.
The sun shone bright, but Kana's face stayed shaded. The big floppy hat she wore was not only practical for not being recognized by fans or paparazzi, but it was also great at preserving the remaining beauty of her pale skin. The colorway of the rest of her outfit matched flawlessly with it. She looked like a mix of a rich Victorian child and an ott lolita. If you saw her, you would've known that she's a someone, but you couldn't have known who that someone might've been exactly.
"I spent all my time selecting this outfit and not a moment with what I should talk about with him…" Kana reached her hands out and stretched her fingers, the leather of her white gloves wrinkled and stretched. "Maybe we should finally talk about the elephant in the room… About our friendship… We are friends, right? Definitely, we totally are…" Kana continued to mumble, sounding more like she was explaining herself to somebody rather than coming up with something to talk to Aqua about.
It was the way Akane had asked her. She sounded so devastated and hopeless. Under normal circumstances Kana would've most likely already complied with Akane's request of her visiting Aqua in jail to try and up his mood. But now? Now, not doing it was completely out of the question.
"I wonder if he still feels bad about what happened to my face…" Her fingers gently caressed over the month old-wound; the skin that had initially turned pinkish-red was now hardening slightly — something she *really* despised. But she wasn't too sad regardless. "I don't know, but I can't change it, so I shouldn't dwell on it either." Her hand fell back down to her side while her gaze rose.
Her stomach churned quietly when she saw the police station appear at the end of the road. She deliberately turned her pace down a notch. "I wonder if he also plans on making his comeback as an actor… Me, him, and Akane acting together again… I would really like that. I didn't realize it back then, but in hindsight the stageplay we did together was so much fun." Kana shook her head. The smile that had built up through the reminiscence faded slightly. "I shouldn't mention this to him… I don't want to make his time in there even more miserable."
"But then what…? What could we talk about?" She mumbled. Getting really close to the police station now, she began to fix her slightly disheveled attire — getting creases out her skirt and straightening the hat on her head.
Her hands froze for a moment while her legs kept on walking. "I got it… That's it." She lowered her hand again and made them glide over the forming scar a second time. "There is one thing I desperately need to know." Then she pushed the doors to the police station open and stepped inside.
The door fell shut behind her, leaving the playing kids and loud cars outside, barely audible through the thick walls of the building. She looked around for a second, but no matter where she looked, nobody was there. Apparently nobody wanted to commit crimes on the first really sunny day of the year. When her eyes were more adjusted to the change in lighting, she searched again, this time spotting an officer sitting behind what appeared to be a secretary's desk. He was quite distracted and half-hidden, so there was no shame in not noticing him the first time around.
"Excuse me?" Kana said as she peeked over the desk. "I want to visit someone who is temporarily incarcerated here."
The officer looked up from his phone, which had clearly been the source of his distraction, and mustered Kana's quite flashy outfit up and down for a moment. "Sure thing. I just need your name as well as their name."
Kana looked around the lobby to make sure there really was no other pair of ears listening. A habit still left over from her idol days that made her voice drop even after being sure. "I'm Arima Kana, and I want to visit Aqua."
He rolled over to his computer and began typing, not minding Kana's weird behavior and appearance all that much. "Aqua…" he said, his voice a bit impatient but not unkind.
"Hoshino… Hoshino Aqua… Uhh… Hoshino Aquamarine," Kana corrected, her cheeks flushed slightly to better match the vibrant color of her outfit's accents.
For a good ten seconds rapid typing and clicking filled the room, then it stopped. "You're too late." The officer peeked over his monitor. "Here it says he was transferred earlier this day."
A few hours earlier…
The sun had barely risen far enough to shine through the high window in Aqua's cell. He was already up. He had to be. But even if it hadn't been that way, he would've most likely been awake by that time of day. Well, there was no point in thinking about what-ifs. The only thing that counted was the "is," and the "is" said Aqua was at the bottom.
Psychological torture was the best term to describe what happened to him. He had an hour daily, which was already more than most, but except for that, he spent his time in utter solitude — apart from the ruthless interrogations, of course. Almost daily he was pulled out of his cell and drilled into by some detective. He never broke. He never even got particularly close to breaking. The only thing that posed a threat was him confessing just so he would get to see different rooms and settings. It was something he would obviously never do either, but the thought entertained him regardless.
His thoughts were also the only thing that kept him entertained. Initially his training did as well, but he quickly learned that a part of the psychological torture was the officers actively preventing him from exercising. One thought rushed through his head more than any other, though. It circled back and forth hour for hour and kept him awake night after night.
"I have to get out of here…" he murmured as he looked at the never-changing ceiling of the dark room he was locked and left in. An untypical thought for someone who turned himself in, but that night he wasn't thinking straight. His conviction could lead to the end of Ruby's career. It wouldn't be something that could be swept under the rug the same way his arrest did. It would be big and nasty and the downfall of what he tried to conserve.
I have to come up with a way to get out of here. If I'm convicted of even the smallest thing, it could mean the end…
The way my mandated lawyer spoke, I'd get at least a few years for this. Akane sounded more confident in what she said… Perhaps I should really appoint her as my lawyer.
… And drag her further into this mess? This trial could take months or even years while she has her own life to live… I cannot expect something like this from her.
But what then? I can't let Miyako handle it either. She has definitely already more than enough on her mind.
There needs to be another way… I don't want to go to prison.
His chest stung lightly as he turned in bed — a place he wasn't allowed to be during the day. But what did it even matter now? The pain stemmed from the rib he initially believed to be broken. Luckily, upon medical inspection at a hospital, it came out that it was nothing more than heavily bruised.
"It could be worse… I could've done nothing." He shook his head. "I don't even wanna think about what that guy would've done to Ruby if I wouldn't have interfered…" He glanced up at the camera constantly monitoring him. 'If he ever gets free and tries this again, I will finish this once and for all.'
Even though his shadowy companions, which were all along an illusion that Tera put in his mind, left. The habit of talking to himself they left behind, rooted deep within Aqua.
"Get up!" Aqua was torn out of his spaced-out state when a police officer, who looked like he should've been taking his pension for the better half of a decade already, frowned at him. At first the sound of the inspection hatch opening mixed with the officer's voice startled Aqua, but his mind was quickly taken over by a deep grudge he had begun to harbor. It hurt his pride, and that was even though Aqua was never the prideful type of person.
Most doctors walked down that path eventually, holding their heads high since they were the ones deciding over life and death. But before Aqua had the chance to go alongside them, he… Well, he died. However, the fact that he was treated exactly like the other scum that these guards dealt with rubbed him the wrong way. 'I've done nothing wrong. Why am I being treated like I am the would-be rapist?' he thought as he reluctantly stood up from his bed and made his way to the door.
He already knew the procedure. He would have to stick his hands through a small opening in the door. Then, the guard would put the cuffs on him before opening the door and escorting him to wherever he didn't want to be.
*Rrrrsssshh*
Thus, he was even more surprised when the door just opened as soon as he approached. "What is going on?" Aqua stopped in his tracks for a moment, unsure whether this was a mistake and he would be beaten down if he tried to step out.
When the officer didn't reply and instead just looked grimly, Aqua took the risk and walked out of the cell. 'What is going on here?' Aqua thought. The officer started to walk down the corridor almost immediately, barely taking note of Aqua, who trailed close behind.
They walked together, and after about two minutes of walking, they reached an office that looked to be of utmost importance. The guard knocked against the door just once before he walked away, leaving Aqua alone.
Could someone please explain to me what is actually going on here right now?
I mean-
Aqua looked around, but he really was alone.
I'm not complaining. Anything is better than living the same day over and over again.
But I believe that he could've at least told me why he was taking me here.
Aqua knew that the answer to this question would almost certainly wait beyond that door. However, the feeling he got from having at least a bit of his autonomy back (even when it was as simple as standing for a bit longer than they expected him to) was just too good to pass up on.
So standing is what he did.
Well, until he got bored of having autonomy and entered the door, after all.
The room looked like he had expected. In the backend corners of it were 2 plants, one on each side. Plastered on the walls were a variety of pictures, some of police squads, others that seemed to have been taken at award ceremonies, and again others at family barbecues. In the center of the room, well, not the dead center, but it was perfectly aligned with the door and just a bit further away from it than the center, stood a desk. Behind it was a window that honestly looked like it was shaped for the desk — or perhaps the other way around? The window, if Aqua had kept track of the corners they had turned correctly, overlooked the parking lot of the station.
"You sure took your time." At least, this police officer sounded a bit kinder than the last one. "Take a seat," he added as he signaled to a chair that stood at the other side of the desk.
Aqua was still high from the rush of control he just had, but there is a place and time for everything, and this was certainly not the time for him to be a rebel just because he could've been. "This isn't the room y'all are typically interrogating me in… Switch of methods?" Aqua asked casually while making himself comfortable, looking everywhere but at the officer, mostly the pictures on the wall.
The officer laughed a dry laugh. "No, you aren't here to be interrogated, not today at least. Today is actually your lucky day."
"My lucky day?" Aqua asked, a wary frown portrayed on his eyes and forehead.
"Do you want to guess what it could be?" the officer asked.
Aqua shook his head. "Are you trying to get me to confess to something I didn't do?"
"No…" Now it was the man that shook his head. "That wouldn't be particularly lucky now, would it?"
"Well, what is it then? Were my charges dropped?"
The man shook his head again, a faint smirk on his lips now. "Nope, that ain't it either. One more chance, or it's back to the cell it is." He got up and turned his back to Aqua, overseeing the parking lot beneath.
"Then back to the cell it is," Aqua agreed. He was definitely not in the mood to play a guessing game, so he got up and strolled back where he came from.
Just when he touched the handle of the door, the man cleared his throat and spoke up. "Both of us know you did what you're accused of… However, that is of no concern anymore, as you are free to leave."
Aqua's fingers remained wrapped around the door's handle. "What are you getting at?" he asked without turning back around.
"As I said, you're free to leave as you please," the officer replied, continuing to gaze out the window with his back facing Aqua's.
"When I asked if my charges were dropped, you told me they were not."
"That's because they weren't."
"What is it then?"
"They never existed… Or at least officially they never did."
"Tell me who you are…" Aqua mumbled in a low tone.
"Me?" the man asked. "I am the chief officer of this police station."
Aqua took his hand off the handle and tilted his head slightly. "Oh, is that so…? Well, I suppose it could be… Just in case, I still have a question… There are quite a lot of pictures on your wall…" he said, his voice sharp. "Isn't it peculiar that you yourself aren't even in a single one of them?"
"Really…? What a coincidence, you aren't in any of them either," the man said, unbothered. "I'm just joking, but I didn't think you'd be observative enough to notice."
"You aren't even a real officer, am I right?"
"Does this really matter? I don't believe my occupation should be of any concern to you."
Aqua's hand balled into a fist.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" the man said, his voice eerily calm. "An officer would be in here in less than 15 seconds… Think about your sister."
"How do you know about my sister?"
"Come on… I praised you so much for connecting the dots with the pictures, and now you're ruining it by not seeing that literally everyone in this country knows the Hoshino twins?"
Aqua's hand relaxed. "This doesn't explain anything, though."
"It doesn't need to… Matter of fact, I couldn't really tell you much even if I wanted to."
"..."
"I'm just the middle man, I was hired to tell you that you're free to go, and…" The man fell quiet before he could finish his sentence.
"and…?" Aqua asked.
Suddenly, Aqua whipped around when he felt a hand on his shoulder, startled by how silent yet quick the man crossed through the room. He instinctively grabbed him by the wrist, his fingernails drilling into the man's flesh. When their eyes met, Aqua's burnt fiercely while the man's looked like they had found utter peace.
"I believe you have noticed by now, but just in case. None of this is legal. However, if you try to go public about it, you wouldn't get far… Trust me, others have tried… But you don't strike me as the kind of person who'd try anyway."
"There is obviously a risk connected to this." Aqua loosened his grip around the man's wrist. "So why take it just to get me out? You are surely not doing this out of kindness."
The man shook his head, pulling his arm completely free from Aqua's grasp.
"Like I said, someone wanted you out, so the people who hired me made it happen."
…
The first huff of fresh air he got felt so good, Aqua could've sworn it added 20 more years of good health and prosperity to his lifespan — though the 10 days he spent in jail subtracted probably just as many if not even more. To him, it was truly mind boggling how people could spend their entire lives in such a place.
With nothing but the clothes on his back and his dead phone in his pocket, Aqua made his way away from the police station as quickly as he humanly could without looking like a crazy man. After all that talking, he didn't think it was a mistake, but just in case it was, he would at least want to spend his few minutes of freedom somewhere other than the parking lot of a police station.
Much to his relief, the clothes he wore were not the same ones he wore when he had gotten incarcerated. They were new and much needed at that since the night he turned himself in, he looked almost exactly like Sylvester Stallone's Rambo, just blond and far more scrawny. The shirt and hoodie he wore that night had been drenched by Akane's blood, so he had to ditch them before heading to the police station. Thankfully, his pants somehow managed to remain spared of her blood. Otherwise, he would have looked less like Rambo and more like Walter White in season 2 episode 3, while also catching a charge for public indecency on top of his original attempted murder charge.
Anyway, Aqua quickly slipped into a crowd of passersby. He had no real clue where he was going, nor did he know where he even wanted to go. All of this was quite a lot to try and process, while the area around him was far too loud and busy at this hour to even attempt it. He followed the sidewalk until this wasn't the case anymore. Only then did he stop and squat down in a quiet corner.
I really hope that I'm not just dreaming all of this right now…
Aqua looked down at his hands, bending his fingers and inspecting them from every angle. When they looked just as always, he stood up and turned left and glanced into a window. On the other side of it was a curtain, so all he could see was his own face's expressionless stare.
"Probably not a dream," he mumbled to himself louder than he had intended.
The man did mention that someone wanted me out… I wonder how influential you have to be to do something like this… I never even knew this would be an option, but of course it is… This makes you really wonder if Epstein is actually dead…
Aqua cleared his throat.
I mean, this makes you really wonder if whoever wanted me out could be a fan of mine… But how would they even have known about this in the first place? My arrest was never publicly announced, nor do I believe anybody I know would accidentally slip up about this.
Unless…
Akane…
If anybody knows what any of this means, it's definitely her… or Miyako? Aqua shook his head. No… I should ask Akane about this. I just hope, if she really was the one to orchestrate this, she didn't promise anything reckless in return.
His phone dead and with his wallet nowhere to be found, he made himself on his way. By now, his stomach was also growling. It was a sensation he learned to ignore, but right now it was one of the only things that occupied his mind. 'I suppose I have to wait until I get home,' he thought to himself as he passed by countless restaurants and food spots, not yet ready to trade his phone away for a hot meal like he did with his jacket.
I should probably come up with a good lie as well. I don't think I could lie to Akane even if I tried, but the man said something bad would happen if I tried to expose this to the public… Yeah… I don't think getting anyone besides Akane involved would be a good idea… and even about her I'm not too sure.
There is no way around it. I promised her I wouldn't lie to her anymore… even if she wasn't conscious during it, and even if I already broke this promise once, it still counts… but Ruby…? No, she doesn't need to know the truth.
I will just tell her the charges were dropped. This would even be far more realistic than any other possibility, so they will surely buy it.
I just wonder what they did to him… not that I care about his fate. He tried to kidnap Ruby, so for all I care, they hopefully killed him.
I suppose they made him disappear as well, though probably in a different sense than me.
Over the course of the morning, the sun rose really high over the cloudless sky of Tokyo. It had burnt down directly onto Aqua's head for easily 45 minutes by the time he finally reached Akane's house. Tokyo might be walkable, but in such circumstances even someone as famous as Aqua would've resorted to a quiet corner on the train.
The house Akane lived in with her parents was by no means old. Like many houses in her neighborhood, it didn't even really resemble Japanese architecture. Its door was out of clean wood — something Aqua knew next to nothing about, so he couldn't tell more than the fact it looked nice and expensive — with milky glass down the middle. However, one thing was luckily not modern, the lock.
I probably shouldn't ring the bell… Her parents were always very thankful and fond of me… But her father is a police officer after all, so I probably shouldn't let them know I'm here. Let me just-
Aqua lifted a particular small rock out of the flowerbed, and "Bingo." Half buried in the dirt under it was a shiny key. Akane showed this spot to him back when they were still dating, and apparently she never changed it after they broke up. She never had any reason to do so… Well, until now.
He picked the key up and slowly unlocked the door. They did have a security camera, but if there was no trace of him ever being there, then nobody would probably ever even check it. He was willing to risk it.
He shut the door behind him just as quietly as he initially opened it. The inside of her house was pleasantly cool compared to the heat that had built in his body from walking under the scorching sun without anything to drink.
He snuck up the stairs, hoping that in the year in which he hadn't been there anymore, she had not suddenly decided to change rooms. His steps on the carpet were almost as quiet as the house around him.
In your average family, nobody should be home at 1:00 pm. However, Akane herself quit acting and was only focused on his legal case. Her father was recovering from some injury, that's at least what she told him, and her mother had been mostly stay-at-home ever since Akane was born.
When he finally reached her door, he paused. He placed his hand on its handle but couldn't press it down yet. His heart was beating so fast for some reason it was about to jump out of his chest, while his stomach was quietly churning, not from hunger anymore, though.
'Is this really the right thing to do?' On the entire hour-long way here, he didn't doubt his plan even for a moment.
Yet, now that he felt the cold steel of her door handle in his hand, an even colder shiver ran down his spine that was followed by a sudden sense of clarity. 'Am I really doing the right thing if I pull her into this…? I know next to nothing about what's going on… But I promised it to her. I promised that we'd do things together from now on…' He shook his head, his free hand shooting into the pocket of his pants, but there was nothing he could hold onto as he slipped again… 'I cannot pull her into this. She is far too important to me. I could never forgive myself if she gets hurt again.' Slipped into old habits again.
He shut his eyes while his hand clenched into a fist. Deep inside his temple, the remnants of the old Aqua were still hidden, fighting a fierce guerrilla war against the newly learned revelations. It lasted for no more than a few seconds and ended with the new revelations having to retreat.
And retreating is what they did, and so did he. He let go of the handle and backed away from the door. He gave it one last glance before he turned and walked back where he came from. Along the hallway, down the steps, out the door, and away from her house.
What he hadn't noticed. During the entirety of his stay, in a dark corner of the hallway, was a red light, blinking every now and then to show it was there.
"Holy shit," Akane mumbled, her hand covering her mouth while the other one grasped her phone. "I was right," she mumbled, somewhat shuddering but eerily calm at the same time.
She had seen it all. The moment he stepped into the visibility cone of the cameras, she got a message onto her phone. She initially thought it was a cat, perhaps her mom, but when she opened the feed, a cold shiver ran down her spine.
She was there. During the entirety of Aqua's internal world war, Akane just stood on the other side of the door. She was quiet enough to hear a needle drop. Speaking of; long and pointy, she was clutching one with her right hand. In her left was her phone, watching Aqua's next move.
When he finally left, the needle she held dropped. Her phone did as well.
"I was right…" she mumbled, her voice void of emotion while two jet-black stars burned in her eyes. Her head was clear, but everything beneath felt like it was about to explode. With nothing to grasp and nowhere to hold onto, she looked at her wall. "I was right," she repeated. This time the hint of uncertainty that was still apparent the last time around was gone, replaced by something icy.
"He never tried to sacrifice himself to bring his mother back… It was different… so different… How could I have been so stupid and not see it? He didn't try to end himself. It was me, he tried to sacrifice me for her, goddamnit… He probably never forgot about her either. He just wanted to make me believe it, so I thought I was safe… And then, when I think I'm safe, he breaks out and finishes what he started… But why?"
"I knew you would probably never reciprocate the way I feel for you… But I never thought that you would hate me this much… After everything I did for you? After everything I have sacrificed? You want to sacrifice me just like that?!"
"No, the Aqua I love would never try something like that…"
"Aqua…" she mumbled as her hand balled into a fist. She never felt this before. This emotion was entirely new and weird to her. She felt betrayal before. She also felt hurt, anger, and fear before. But she never felt hatred. At least not this kind of it. It was the kind of hatred only someone that lost the love of their life to a murderer could feel. "You killed him."
"Whoever you are… You are not the Aqua I fell in love with… You are also not the Aqua I dated… And you aren't the Aqua I would've given my life for either…"
"I know who you are… You are the person who killed the Aqua I love. And before you can kill me as well… Before that happens, I will kill you instead."