Things Fall Apart

Murder was not a common thing in Hanamichi.

In fact, it wasn’t too common across the world either.

Most people were afraid of the judgement of the legendary hero Lumie, who was said that after her passing a millennium ago, she conquered the Realm of Death and now oversaw the passing of souls into the afterlife with her harbingers.

Of course, not everyone believed this story and so crimes such as murder still happened, but it was rare nonetheless. And so when Arien discovered a human mass of magicules inside of an abandoned home, the people of Hanamachi were rightfully appalled.

It was the first case of murder in the town in a decade, and because the mass of magicules was left to fester alone for so long, a powerful portal to another realm had opened.

Portals to other realms were not too rare of an occurrence. Besides the Realm of Mortals, and the Realm of Death, there existed three other realms known as the Realm of Spirits, Realm of Dreams, and the Realm of Nightmares. Each realm had their own rules and rulers, and Lumie had taken the throne in the Death Realm.

Long ago, these realms were fractured across the planes of the Mortal Realm and Lumie had spent much of her late years patching everything up so that people didn’t accidentally slip into them while going about their daily lives. In the present day, these realms were neatly sealed away across the world, minus the Spirit Realm which still sometimes leaked malevolent spirits into the Mortal Realm.

The Death Realm was banished into an expansive ocean that no one could find, and the Nightmare Realm was banished onto a desolate continent across the sea from Hanamichi. Lastly, the Dream Realm didn’t need any banishing to do, for Lumie couldn’t find it and no one had problems accidentally falling into it like the other realms.

Because the realms had been mostly sealed away, their portals weren’t supposed to leak into the Mortal Realm, especially not in parts across the sea from where they had been sealed. But the dead magicules had created an anomaly in Hanamichi, and that anomaly allowed a portal to open into the Nightmare Realm.

Arien evacuated the children away to safety before reporting the anomaly back to the head of the North Wind Style, who owned the jurisdiction the incident took place in. They sent their guards to prevent the entering of civilians into the portal and notified the Adventurer’s Commission to send in a group of B-Rank adventurers to clear the mess up.

A large-scale search for the murderer was opened up, and the detectives from the Magistry Commission began looking for clues.

While all of this was happening, Tatsuko was left completely distraught. Fukuro’s traces had disappeared off into the portal, which meant that her best friend was lost forever. Or at least that’s what she believed at first.

She remembered how Fukuro stared out the window as if she was looking at something from far away. When Tatsuko triangulated the distance, she found out that the direction of the house that Fukuro ran off to just so happened to match the direction she was looking at. Everything was starting to become suspicious, and Tatsuko was not one to believe in coincidence.

“We need to go inside the portal,” Tatsuko said to her friends one day.

“What?” they all said in confused unison.

They were sitting outside in the park at a table that was made from the top of a tree trunk.

“I just know Fukuro ran into there for a reason, and I know she’s still alive… I can feel it.”

“Tatsuko… we are not going inside the portal,” Yoruhi said sternly.

Tatsuko pulled out a dagger and angrily slammed it into the table, much to her friends’ surprise. They had never seen her so angry before.

“You guys sound just like Vivian… and Arien,,, and mom and dad too.” she mumbled, a hint of rage behind her voice.

“You asked all of them?” Ryuji asked.

“Of course I did! I’m not just going to leave my friend in there!” she shouted. “What would you guys do if one of us got trapped in there?”

“We would go in there and save them,” Yoruhi said.

“So why is it a problem that I want to go in there to save Fukuro?!”

“Because… because she’s already dead Tatsuko.”

Tatsuko flew into a fit of rage.

“NO SHE’S NOT!” she screamed, “YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING. YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FUKURO AT ALL! HOW COULD YOU… How could you say that about her…!?”

Her anger dissolved into bitterness as her emotions began to conflict inside.

“I’m sorry Tatsuko, but there’s just nothing we can do,” Altair sadly murmured.

“How would you feel if we said the same thing about the flower on your head?!” she snapped back.

“HEY!” Yoruhi shouted, “Calm down! There’s no need to attack Altair! This isn’t her fault!”

“Well it isn’t MY fault either, and yet I still feel like I’m the one being punished for this!”

“It’s not any of our faults Tatsuko, and we’re all sad about Fukuro going missing.”

“Not sad enough to go looking for her, apparently!” Tatsuko shouted. “You guys are supposed to be my friends. Why aren’t any of you helping me?!”

“Look Tatsuko,” Ryuji said, “we all want to go looking for Fukuro as much as you.”

“SO WHY DON’T WE?! Why aren’t any of us making an attempt to go in there?!”

“Because we’re not stupid like you!” Altair suddenly shouted.

The entire friend group froze.

“You’ve always been a big stupid kid ever since I’ve met you and I was hoping that one day you’d finally grow up, but here you are still wanting to make BIG. STUPID. MISTAKES. Do you even think through the consequences of your actions Tatsuko? You say that we’re your friends and that we have to understand you, but you’re our friend too, so why don’t YOU understand US?!”

Tatsuko clenched her fists, while Ryuji tried to get everyone to calm down.

“Altair, you went too far,” he said.

“Well she’s the one who started it,” Altair accused, tears pricking her eyes.

“Altair has a point.” Yoruhi added.

“Oh, there you go again taking her side, just because she’s crying again!” Tatsuko snapped. “She’s nothing but a big stupid crybaby who—”

SMACK!

Altair slapped Tatsuko across the face.

“I’m not crying because I'm a crybaby,” she silently said, her voice trembling, “I’m crying because I’m sad and afraid I’ll lose a good friend over this.”

Tatsuko stared at her with wide eyes, her hands holding the cheek that had been slapped. Tears began to stream down her eyes.

“Why isn’t no one hugging me…” she asked, her body shaking, “why do you always hug Altair when she’s crying and not me…? You’re supposed to be my brother… You guys really are the worst friends…”

Yoruhi stood up, but Tatsuko turned around.

“Tatsuko wait!” he yelled, but she took off before he could even get another word in.

“I’m sorry…” Altair quietly whispered.

“It’s not your fault Altair… maybe she just needs some time to cool off,” Ryuji said.

The three friends silently sat at the park bench. Having had their first major fight, none of them knew what to do next.

“I… I should probably go check on her…” Yoruhi said, walking his way back home.

“...You probably should,” Ryuji said.

⋆✦-∞-⟡-∞-✦⋆

Yoruhi silently trudged along the dirt path thinking over everything they said in the conversation.

Did I mess that up? He wondered. No, I definitely messed that up. I need to apologize to her right now, otherwise things will get worse.

When he made it back to the estate and walked in front of Tatsuko’s door, he stopped for a moment, unsure if he should be bothering her.

What if I make things worse? He thought. What if she just needs some time to cool off away from us? Should I just wait until tomorrow? But if it gets worse then? No. The best move right now is to apologize. You can’t go wrong with a good apology.

He silently tapped on her door.

“Tatsuko?” he quietly called out, “are you in there?”

There was no response.

She’s giving me the silent treatment, he thought. Well, no matter. She probably doesn’t feel like seeing me right now. The least I can do is let her know my apology.

“Fukuro, we’re all very sorry about what happened today,” he said. “None of us should’ve said those things to you, and we didn’t mean for you to feel isolated from the friend group like that. We’re just all very confused on what to do after Fukuro went missing, and we just need some time to figure everything out. Hopefully we can still be friends after all of this…”

He pressed his hand on the door.

“I also want to say that—”

His voice broke off when he noticed the door creak open.

It’s unlocked? He wondered.

A gust of wind blew in from the open window in her room, opening the rest of the door to reveal that there was no one inside.

What? Where did she go…

Suddenly it clicked.

“What would you guys do if one of us got trapped in there?” her words echoed through his mind.

“We would go in there and save them,” he said out loud, running back downstairs.