Empty auditorium.
The silence here is dense, viscous. It lies on the chairs, on the stage, on the dusty curtains that haven't been touched for years. The sun outside the windows is already beginning to set. Slanted rays break through the dirty glass, leaving long yellow rectangles on the floor. Dust dances in these rays, slowly, lazily.
In the middle of the stage stands an old, rickety teacher's chair. Kaoru sits on it.
She is leaning back, her leg crossed over the other. In her right hand, she fidgets with a lighter, clicks it, lights it, extinguishes it, clicks it again. The fire reflects in her eyes. Her gaze is cold, empty, like a doll's.
In front of the stage, on stacked chairs, the others sit.
Oota sits next to Mina, almost touching her shoulder. Her fingers nervously fidget with the edge of her sleeve, twisting the fabric into a cord, then smoothing it out. Her eyes look at the floor, at the crack that stretches from her feet to the stage.
Mina sits a little apart, hugging herself as if she's cold. On her lap is an old backpack, which she clutches like a life preserver.
Ria sits upright, her back straight, her shoulders squared. Her eyes look at Kaoru without blinking, patiently, endlessly.
Ken sits at the very front on his haunches, balancing on his heels. There's a fresh cut on his cheek. He sometimes touches it with his fingers, checking if the blood is still flowing.
Kaoru stops fidgeting with the lighter. Lifts her head.
"Well?" she says. Her voice is quiet, but in the empty hall it sounds loud. "What do you think? Gathered again for what?"
Oota lifts her gaze.
"For Renji," she replies. "Always for him."
Kaoru snaps her fingers, sharply, loudly.
"For what, specifically?" she asks. "No need for general words. General words are water. Unnecessary information. We need stones. Stones remain."
Mina unclasps her fingers, runs her hand over her face.
"We need to find him," she says dully. "Before he gets out of control. Before he finds allies."
"Or before he forgets," Ria adds. "To forget, that also means becoming stronger. Forgetting grievances means having no weak points."
Ken smirks.
"Forget?" he shakes his head. "Guys like Renji don't forget. They accumulate."
Kaoru listens. Silently. Then she closes the lighter with her palm.
"Good," she says.
She stands up. The chair creaks. She takes a step forward, toward the edge of the stage.
"So we agree. We need to find Renji. No matter the cost."
She stops at the very edge.
"But before we decide where to go, let's remember. Let's remember why we're here. Not for fun. Not for power. For the truth."
She turns to Oota.
"Oota, who killed your brother?"
Oota flinches. Her fingers dig into her sleeve.
"You know," she whispers.
"Say it out loud," Kaoru doesn't back down. "So everyone can hear. Who dismembered him that day and hung his guts on the fence of your house?"
Oota takes a breath, slow, trembling.
"Takayama," she exhales. "It was Takayama. Takayama Hushi."
Kaoru nods.
"Mina, who threw you into shit in the toilet when you were a child?"
Mina freezes. Her body becomes hard as stone.
"Takayama's people," she replies. Her voice is even, dead. "His people. Everyone worked for him. Even those who were silent. Silence is also working for him."
Kaoru turns to Ria and Ken.
"Who blew up your parents in a car? Who forced them to eat their own feces on the street?"
Ria closes her eyes for a second, then opens them.
"Takayama Hushi," she pronounces. "His order. His money. His influence."
Ken stops balancing. He lowers himself to the floor, sits down, stretching his legs out.
"Takayama Hushi," he mutters. "Old dog. But his grandson, a chip off the old block, what do you think, Kaoru?"
Kaoru doesn't answer immediately. She moves to the edge of the stage, sits down on it, dangling her legs.
"I think," she says finally, "that thoughts don't lie. If the grandfather was a monster, then who guarantees that the grandson won't grow up the same? This isn't genetics. It's fate. Fate to be who you are. Or who you were made into."
She stands up.
"I will kill Renji," she declares. "I will kill his bloodline for everything. For Oota's brother. For Mina's childhood. For Ria and Ken's parents. For my mother, whom he killed. For everyone."
She approaches the very edge of the stage.
"I will kill god," she whispers. "I will kill evil. I will kill good. I will become the peak of the universe. No creature will defeat me. And so it will be."
"If god doesn't exist, then his death won't change anything. But I'll still kill him. Because killing the absurd is the only way to make the absurd meaningful."
"This is the law of the pack. The pack chooses the peak. And if there is no peak, the pack devours itself."
Silence.
Oota swallows. Mina looks away. Ria looks straight ahead. Ken rests his head on his hands.
"Loud," he says into the void. "Beautiful. But pathos won't feed the hungry, Kaoru."
"Pathos is bullshit," she replies without turning around. "You just forgot how to use it."
She pauses.
"Someone's about to come in. Don't talk to him. He has his own world."
A minute later, the door opens.
A guy enters. Short, stocky, completely bald. He's wearing a checkered shirt and light jeans. In his hand, he holds an old cap.
Ken snorts. Ria covers her mouth with her hand. Oota chokes on a laugh.
Kaoru shoots them a warning look.
"Aki Mikuri," she introduces the guest. "Don't make fun of him. It's just how he is. Bald."
Ken exhales.
"Sorry, bro. Didn't mean anything by it."
"It happens," Aki shrugs. "I'm used to it."
Ria lowers her hand.
"Sorry. That was stupid."
"It's fine. There are plenty of bald people. I don't melt."
"We understand," says Mina.
Kaoru approaches Aki.
"Do you know that new school Renji transferred to?"
Aki freezes.
"Renji? That Renji?"
"The very same."
"And you think he just transferred to study? Without a reason? Without protection?"
"We don't think anything. We're asking. You work at the market. You hear conversations. You must know."
Aki shifts his gaze to the others, then back to Kaoru.
"I know. But knowledge isn't free. Information is a knife. It can cut bread. Or it can cut a throat."
"Are you afraid?" asks Ken.
Aki turns to him.
"I sell tomatoes and cucumbers at the market. I saw a drunken man cut off his own brother's finger over a debt. I saw a woman cry over a dead cat, then get up and go back to selling. I'm not afraid. I'm cautious."
"Cautiousness is also fear," says Ria.
"No. Fear is when you run. Caution is when you look around. There's a difference."
Kaoru nods.
"You're right. Information costs money. But we have no money. We only have revenge. Revenge is a currency that not everyone accepts."
"Revenge is the oldest currency," says Aki. "Older than gold. It's always been accepted. It's just the exchange rate changes."
"What's the exchange rate today?" asks Mina.
Aki looks at her.
"Tell me why you want to find him. Not briefly. But in detail. So I understand. Not with my head, with my gut."
Kaoru sits down on the edge of the stage.
"Sit down. This will take a while."
Aki sits down next to her.
Kaoru begins to speak. She speaks of her mother, who smelled of cinnamon and baked pies on Sundays. Of how one day she didn't come back. How she was found three days later in a drainage ditch, with her eyes gouged out and her fingers broken.
Oota speaks of her brother. He was thirteen, he played the guitar. He was found in a basement a week later. His guts were wrapped around fences in the yard.
Mina speaks briefly. She was eight. Three boys in the school toilet dunked her head in the toilet. Then threw her into the toilet, into shit. She doesn't remember how many times. She only remembers the taste.
"A person doesn't begin with the head," she says. "A person begins from the place where his head was dunked. If it's in a toilet, he'll remember the taste of shit for the rest of his life. If it's in holy water, he'll become a saint. The only difference is that the water in the toilet was the same. Just the toilet was closer."
Ria and Ken speak together. Their parents worked for Takayama, didn't sign the papers. Two days later, the car exploded. And after death, someone pulled out the bodies and desecrated them.
Aki listens silently. Doesn't interrupt.
"Heavy," he says. "Not heavy to listen to. Heavy to know that it's the truth."
"Now do you believe?" asks Kaoru.
"Belief doesn't matter. What matters is action. Whether I believe or not, what matters is what I do about it."
"And what will you do?" asks Ken.
Aki lifts his head.
"School 'Haruka 156'. Eighth district, Sakuraga Street, twenty-three. The territory is fenced with an ordinary fence, and two guards at the entrance."
"How do you know?"
"I sell vegetables. I have a client. Her son studies at 'Haruka'. She tells me everything. People want to be listened to."
Kaoru stands up.
"How do we get inside without a pass?"
"No way. If you don't want to get caught."
"And if I want to get caught?"
Aki looks at her for a long time.
"Then you have a plan. And I don't want to know it. If they catch me with it, I'll lose not just my vegetable stall."
"Are you afraid?" Ken asks again.
"No. I don't want to die for someone else's revenge. I have my own. But it's about something else."
"What about?" asks Ria.
Aki stands up.
"About cucumbers. About tomatoes. About waking up every day and going to the market. So that no one dies. It's a small revenge. But it's mine."
He walks toward the exit. Stops at the door.
"School 'Haruka'. If you go, don't take knives. There are cameras. And don't look the guards in the eyes."
"Aki," Kaoru calls out. "Thank you. For the tomatoes and cucumbers too."
Aki nods and leaves.
The door closes.
Kaoru looks at the door, then at the others.
"Now we know where he is. We just have to decide what to do."
"We'll kill him," Oota throws out.
"It's not that simple. Fence, cameras, guards. We don't know what he has there."
"Then what?" asks Mina.
Kaoru looks out the window. The sky is crimson.
"Go inside. See. Understand. Maybe he deserves more than just death. Maybe he deserves a destruction in which every day he'll suffer, remembering whose grandson he is."
Ken smirks.
"That's cruel."
"Revenge is never kind," Kaoru turns to him. "If you want kindness, go to church. Here, we're building a cult."
She jumps off the stage.
"We'll prepare. We'll learn everything about the school. Renji isn't going anywhere."
"And if he attacks first?" asks Mina.
"Then we'll fight back. And it won't matter if it's revenge or self-defense."
She walks toward the exit. The others rise and follow her.
Oota lingers for a second. She looks at the empty chair.
She thinks about Kim, he's been in South Korea for two months now. It's a shame he's not around.
The door closes.
The auditorium is empty again. Only silence.