Empty assembly hall.
Silence here dense, viscous. She lies on chairs, on stage, on dusty curtains, which not touched for years. Sun outside windows already leans toward sunset. Slanted rays break through dirty glass, leaving on floor long yellow rectangles. Dust dances in these rays, slowly, lazily.
In middle of stage stands old, wobbly teacher's chair. On it sits Kaoru.
She leaned back against backrest, leg crossed over leg. In right hand she twirls lighter, clicks, lights, extinguishes, again clicks. Fire reflects in her eyes. Gaze cold, empty, like doll's.
Before stage, on folded chairs, sit the rest.
Oota sits next to Mina, almost touching shoulder. Her fingers nervously tug edge of sleeve, twisting fabric into rope, then straightening. Eyes look at floor, at crack, which stretches from her feet to stage.
Mina sits slightly apart, hugging herself with arms, as if frozen. On her knees she has old backpack, which she clutches, like life preserver.
Ria sits straight, back straightened, shoulders spread. Eyes look at Kaoru without blinking, patiently, infinitely.
Ken sits in front of everyone on haunches, balancing on heels. On his cheek fresh cut. He sometimes touches it with fingers, checks, whether blood flows.
Kaoru stops twirling lighter. Raises head.
- Well?, she says. Voice quiet, but in empty hall sounds loud. You think? Again gathered for what?
Oota raises gaze.
- For Renji, she answers. Always for him.
Kaoru clicks fingers, sharply, loudly.
- For what specifically?, she asks. No need general words. General words, that is water. Unnecessary information. Need stones. Stones remain.
Mina unravels fingers, passes hand over face.
- Need find him, she says dully. Before he got out from under control. Before he found allies.
- Or before he forgot, adds Ria. To forget, that also become stronger. To forget grievances, means not have weak spots.
Ken grins.
- Forget?, he shakes head. Such as Renji, do not forget. They accumulate.
Kaoru listens. Silently. Then closes lighter with palm.
- Good, she says.
Stands up. Chair creaks. She takes step forward, to edge of stage.
- So, we agree. Need find Renji. Whatever it may cost.
She stops at very edge.
- But before we decide, where to go, let's remember. Remember, why we are here. Not for fun. Not for power. For truth.
She turns to Oota.
- Oota, who killed your brother?
Oota flinches. Fingers dig into sleeve.
- You know, she whispers.
- Say aloud, Kaoru does not retreat. So everyone hears. Who on that day dismembered him and hung his intestines on fence of your house?
Oota takes breath, slow, trembling.
- Takayama, she exhales. It was Takayama. Takayama Hushi.
Kaoru nods.
- Mina, and you in childhood who into shit in toilet threw?
Mina freezes. Her body becomes hard, like stone.
- Takayama's people, she answers. Voice even, dead. His people. All worked for him. Even those who were silent. Silence, that also work for him.
Kaoru turns to Ria and Ken.
- Your parents who blew up in car? Who forced them eat their own feces on street?
Ria closes eyes for second, then opens.
- Takayama Hushi, she pronounces. His order. His money. His influence.
Ken stops balancing. Lowers to floor, sits down, stretching legs.
- Takayama Hushi, he mutters. Old dog. But his grandson too, same breed, as you think, Kaoru?
Kaoru does not answer immediately. She steps away to edge of stage, sits on it, dangling legs.
- I think, she says finally, that thoughts do not lie. If grandfather was monster, then who gives guarantee, that grandson will not grow up same? This is not genetics. This is fate. Fate to be who you are. Or who they made you.
She stands up.
- I will kill Renji, she announces. Kill his lineage for everything. For Oota's brother. For Mina's childhood. For Ria and Ken's parents. For my mother, whom he killed. For all.
She approaches very edge of stage.
- I will kill god, she whispers. Kill evil. Kill good. I will become peak of universe. No creature will defeat me. And this will be so.
- If god does not exist, then his death will change nothing. But I will still kill. Because killing absurd, only way to make absurd meaningful.
- This is law of pack. Pack chooses peak. And if peak does not exist, pack eats itself.
Silence.
Oota swallows. Mina averts gaze. Ria looks straight. Ken puts head on hands.
- Loud, he says into emptiness. Beautiful. But pathos will not feed hungry, Kaoru.
- Pathos, that is bullshit, she answers, without turning. You just forgot, how to use it.
She pauses.
- Now someone will enter. Do not speak with him. He has his own world.
After minute door opens.
Enters guy. Short, stocky, completely bald. On him plaid shirt and light jeans. In hand he holds old cap.
Ken snorts. Ria covers mouth with hand. Oota chokes with laughter.
Kaoru throws at them warning glance.
- Aki Mikuri, she introduces guest. Do not joke. This is he so. Baldness.
Ken exhales.
- Sorry, brother. Not out of malice.
- Happens, Aki shrugs. I'm used.
Ria lowers hand.
- Sorry. Stupid turned out.
- Everything fine. Bald many. I do not melt.
- Understand, says Mina.
Kaoru approaches Aki.
- You know that new school, where Renji transferred?
Aki freezes.
- Renji? That same?
- That same.
- And you think, he just transferred to study? Without reason? Without protection?
- We think nothing. We ask. You work at market. You hear conversations. You must know.
Aki shifts gaze to the rest, then returns to Kaoru.
- I know. But knowledge, that is not free. Information, that is knife. It can cut bread. And can, throat.
- You are afraid?, asks Ken.
Aki turns to him.
- I sell tomatoes and cucumbers at market. I saw, how drunk man cut off finger to his brother because of debt. I saw, how woman cried over dead cat, and then stood up and went to trade. I am not afraid. I am cautious.
- Caution, that is also fear, says Ria.
- No. Fear, when you run. Caution, when you look around. Weight exists.
Kaoru nods.
- You are right. Information costs money. But we have no money. We have only revenge. Revenge, that is currency, which not all accept.
- Revenge, oldest currency, says Aki. Older than gold. It was always accepted. Just exchange rate changes.
- What rate today?, asks Mina.
Aki looks at her.
- Tell me, for what you want to find him. Not short. But in detail. So I understand. Not head, gut.
Kaoru sits on edge of stage.
- Sit. This will be long.
Aki sits next.
Kaoru begins to speak. She speaks about mother, who smelled of cinnamon and baked pies on Sundays. About how once she did not return. How she was found after three days in storm drain, with gouged out eyes and broken fingers.
Oota speaks about brother. He was thirteen, he played guitar. He was found in basement after week. Intestines were wrapped around fences, in yard.
Mina speaks briefly. She was seven years old. Three in school toilet dunked her head in toilet bowl. Then threw into toilet, into shit. She does not remember, how many times. Remembers only taste.
- Human begins not with head, she says. Human begins with that place, where he was dunked head-first. If in toilet bowl, he will remember taste of shit all life. If in holy water, he will become saint. Difference only in that, in toilet bowl water was same. Just toilet bowl was closer.
Ria and Ken speak together. Parents worked for Takayama, did not sign papers. After two days car exploded. And after death someone pulled out bodies and desecrated them.
Aki listens silently. Does not interrupt.
- Heavy, he says. Not heavy to listen. Heavy to know, that this is truth.
- Now you believe?, asks Kaoru.
- Belief has no meaning. Meaning has action. I believe or not, important, what I do with this.
- And what will you do?, asks Ken.
Aki raises head.
- School "Haruka 156". Eighth district, Sakuragi street, twenty-three. Territory fenced with ordinary fence, and two guards at entrance.
- How do you know?
- I sell vegetables. I have client. Her son studies at "Haruka". She tells everything. People want, to be listened to.
Kaoru stands up.
- How to get inside without pass?
- No way. If you do not want to be caught.
- And if I want to be caught?
Aki looks at her long.
- Then you have plan. And I do not want to know it. If I am caught with it, I will lose not only vegetable stall.
- You are afraid?, again asks Ken.
- No. I do not want to die for someone else's revenge. My own I have. But it is about other.
- About what?, asks Ria.
Aki stands up.
- About cucumbers. About tomatoes. About that, to every day wake up and go to market. So no one dies. This is small revenge. But it is mine.
He goes to exit. Stops at door.
- School "Haruka". If you go, do not take knives. There are cameras. And do not look guards in eyes.
- Aki, calls out Kaoru. Thank you. For tomatoes and cucumbers too.
Aki nods and leaves.
Door closes.
Kaoru looks at door, then at the rest.
- Now we know, where he is. Remains decide, what to do.
- We'll kill, throws Oota.
- Not so simple. Fence, cameras, guards. We do not know, what he has there.
- Then what?, asks Mina.
Kaoru looks out window. Sky crimson.
- Enter. See. Understand. Maybe, he deserves more than just death. Maybe, deserves that perdition, in which every day will suffer, remember, whose grandson he is.
Ken grins.
- That is cruel.
- Revenge is not kind, Kaoru turns to him. Want kindness, go to church. And here we are cult building.
She jumps off stage.
- Let's prepare. Learn everything about school. Renji will not go anywhere.
- And if he attacks first? asks Mina.
- Then we will answer. And there will be no difference, revenge this or self-defense.
She goes to exit. The rest rise and follow her.
Oota lingers for second. Looks at empty chair.
She remembers Kim, he already like two months in South Korea, pity that he is not nearby.
Door closes.
Assembly hall again empty. Only silence.