MYSTERY II: History repeats

“I was too late..” Kaito mumbled with trembling lips when his eyes met with the jester's, his father smiled under the paint of a mask. No, it was not a smile. The jester was snickering at him mockingly. The jingling of his dancing feet stopped but the music from Yukio's broken phone kept the silence occupied. Yukio laid curled up on a dry corner of the swamp, clutching his stomach. He was barely conscious. Kaname didn't waste a moment to rush to him and slide on his knees to pick the limp man up in his arms.

Kaito however found himself numb and frozen, Arlecchino found it to be most amusing. He giggled watching his son's widened eyes. “Are you not happy to see me, son?” Arlecchino took a step forward while Kaito took a step back. Hikari who arrived a moment late, gasped when her eyes fell on both Yukio and Saqib. “Kaito…” A weak voice reached Kaito’s ears. Saqib was on his stomach, face planted on the wet land, his scales stood with alert on his cheeks. Saqib tried to reach out his hand towards Kaito but his strength gave up, with trembling lips he yelled as loud as he could. “Run…! Get away!”

Then it clicked Kaito. He wasn't facing his father but a failure who ran away and the fact that he wasn't a child anymore. This was the man that hurt his friends… his best friend. A moment didn't pass and Kaito to ran to Saqib, much like Kaname, he cradled up his friend in his arms. Saqib's skin had gone green, his weakened state couldn't hide his yokai form anymore. A trail of blood gushed down his mouth and nose. Saqib's pupils wavered as he reached to touch Kaito’s face.

Kaito's eyes glistened with tears when he held Saqib's shaking hand against his face. “You didn't run away this time… You've grown up just fine. You don't need me anymore I'm so relieved.” Saqib smiled through his words, his voice was hoarse. Kaito shook his head, not being able to resist the tears anymore. “Shut up! I'm going to always need you, we best friends remember? You promised you'll be with me forever Saqib! Don't you dare die on me, don't leave me! I don't want to be alone again!” Kaito begged between sobbing and hot tears. Within seconds, Kaito was back to being the small child who would fall asleep hugging Saqib.

“You won't be alone.” Saqib affirmed, glancing at the others from the corner of his eyes. Kaito shook his head again, with much more persistence, his hold on Saqib's cold hand tightened. “No! I will be alone if my best friend is not there. It won't matter who is here and who is not. No one can replace you! Saqib you'll be fine! I'll take you to the hospital and I'll-” Saqib squeezed Kaito’s hand, stopping him mid-sentence. Saqib's lips curved up in a smile that Kaito could not describe it even if he wanted to. Kaito didn't utter another word after that.

“I am so.. so tired of living for so long, Kai.” Saqib expressed while caressing Kaito’s wet cheeks. Kaito nodded wordlessly. “Won't you listen to what I have to say for the last time?” Saqib requested as he watched Kaito’s tears fall on his cheeks. Kaito nodded once again and Saqib smiled gratefully. His scales fell to the wet ground as the green of his skin deepened. “Don't be too mad at your sister. She is crazy but she is not heartless. She loves you.. dearly. Enough to sacrifice everything she has..” Saqib's voice lowered in volume with each word and Kaito listened to each one of them carefully.

“I really wish I could see her face for the last time, just to know if my absence will bother her at all. I doubt it though.. that little monster..” Saqib weakly chuckled to himself. Kaito shook his head, disagreeing with him. “But most importantly… thank you. Because of you living didn't feel like a torture. Watching you grow up was the best years of my miserable life. Thank you for becoming my best friend, Kaito. I love you so much, I want you to continue living with the same love and spirit you have always had, you will do that for your best friend, right?” Saqib's words slurred as his vision started to fade.

Kaito nodded, managing to voice his words between sobs. “I will.” His voice cracked but it reached Saqib. Saqib went limp and his eyes fluttered shut as he mumbled his last words. “I'm sorry I couldn't get rid.. of your nightmare..”

Kaname, unlike the others, could see what the naked eye couldn't. The faceless woman stood over Kaito and Saqib, smiling. Kaname could tell she was smiling even though she didn't have the face. The green orb flew out of Saqib and she caught it with her rotting hands and walked towards the lake as she disappeared into the air. At that moment, Kaname knew Saqib had died. Yukio laid limp in Kaname's arms, eyes shut with a weak pulse. His skin had many scrapes and bruises, Kaname could tell that he had taken a beating before they arrived here.

The loud laughter rolled out of the jester who stood between the lake and them. Kaname's jaws clenched at the heartless murderer’s audacity. “Hilarious! For a yokai to die so easily and spout such nonsense with his fishy mouth-!” Arlecchino threw his head back as a tear spilled out from the corner of his eyes from barking another fit of laughter. “Could that thing even feel emotions? And you are crying for him, son?! Oh dear, this couldn't get any better! It was his own fault! If he hadn't chosen a useless boy like you and chosen me instead, he would be alive right now-! Wait..” Arlecchino paused, he pretended to think for a minute and lit up when the thought crossed his mind. “It is not that ningyo's fault, it is your fault for being so useless!”

“Shut up.” A firm and cold command, Kaito gently put down Saqib's deceased body and got up on his feet to face his father, his nightmare. Kaname wanted to rush towards him to stop him but he couldn't just leave Yukio. Thankfully, Hikari, who had been watching the whole scene unfold from a feet away, grabbed his hand. “Kai, no! We don't know if he has any weapons!” Kaito pulled his hand off her grasp and pushed her gently towards Saqib. “Stay with Saqib, I need to settle a score with that bastard.” Hikari would've normally not listened but the look in Kaito's eyes made her not want to argue. As if this was something he needed to do, no matter how risky and stupid this is. She stepped back and let him.

Arlecchino barked another laugh like a maniac. “Oh my lord! Your girlfriend is just as stupid as you are! At least my previous victims were smart enough to try to escape when they had the opportunity. Like Hiroshi, in fact he even begged me to let him go, he said he would even trade his little girlfriend in his place!” Arlecchino's face flushed with delight when he told the tale of his deeds in a sing-song tone. Hikari did not cry at his mockery. Kaito stopped right before his father's face, his eyes were blood shot from the crying. Arlecchino blinked once and twice, surprised at his cowardly son’s bravery. “Oh? You're not afraid of your father anymore? Did your wench of a sister teach you how to be brave-” Arlecchino did not get to finish his words, before his words could reach his lips, a trickle of warm red slid down his nose from his head and into his mouth. The taste of iron couldn't register his mind and he dropped to his knees, falling on his sides.

Kaito had shot his father in the head when his father was busy blabbering his mouth. Arlecchino had been murdered by the man he had called a coward. “No father. My best friend taught me to be brave.” Kaito mumbled towards the corpse. Hikari gasped, covering her mouth, both surprised and flabbergasted. She had never anticipated such a turn of events. Especially not her friend having a gun. Kaito dragged his father's corpse by the hair towards the lake and threw it in the water. The water splashed all over Kaito and the wet land, a sound of laughing women echoed in the air once again. “Stay in the damned lake you loved so much, father.” Not even a sigh escaped his lips when his said that but his throat tightened. “In the end, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I became who I hated the most, a murderer like my father. But… for Saqib, I'll do it all over again.” Kaito mumbled defeatedly as he stared at the lake, the laughter echoing in the air felt like a mockery to his face.

When Kaito returned to Hikari, she couldn't read the look on his face. He quietly carried his deceased best friend's corpse in his arms and turned to Kaname. “Let's go, we need to get Manabe to the hospital.” He told a just as surprised Kaname.

What felt like a storm ended with one simple bullet. What started centuries ago ended exactly how it started, the fox killed the fish. Again. Yukio was rushed to the hospital, thanks to Yukio's smart thinking, he didn't lose much blood and wasn't in a critical condition. The police arrived soon after the news of Yukio being injured spread, the Kanzaki family handled the rumors and the police with its money, pinning it as an attack by the Jester. Which was not a lie. Within a week, Yukio was allowed to leave the hospital. It was safe to say, both Hikari and Kaname had given him an earful for running away alone. But Yukio listened to everything without retaliating and apologized with a smile. As if the nightmare that had haunted him for all these years had finally gone. Kaname wouldn't want anything else as a conclusion.

After much dispute with the family elders of the Kanzaki family, Kaito held a proper funeral for Saqib. Initially, the elders wanted to keep the tradition alive and use Saqib's corpse for longevity but as the family head Kira shut down every such suggestion. Or at least, that is what Kaito told Kaname. During the funeral ceremony which Kaito asked Kaname to host as the shaman, Kira did not attend it. Kaname couldn't help but wonder what kind of twisted feelings of loss and greed she was going through, was it exactly as Saqib had predicted or was it much more… human?

Kaname didn't know but as he stood before the cremation house and watched the murky grey smoke escape from the chimney, he had to admit to himself. “Once again, I was nothing but a bystander watching the story unfold without being able to participate in this story.”