Chapter 17: The Ballad of Mika Mugitsune and Eiji Hamada

Izumi and I got home late.

We were tired damp and sticky from our aquarium trip.

The sun had long gone down.

It was quiet. Only the soft noises of crickets and owls kept the night alive.

Izumi was exhausted.

Thank goodness we arrived at this hour. I was beginning to think that the ride wouldn't ever end she sighed as she pushed the front door open.

Trains tend to bend time late at night. Totally understandable.

"May I use your shower and wash off?"

"You've been here long enough to forfeit asking I told her." 

"Go on ahead. I'll get some onigiri started."

I really need to learn more recipes.

"My favourite! You're the best Keizo!"

Perhaps learning can wait.

Izumi disappeared into our bathroom and shut the door behind her.

As I began clumping sticky rice together I got to thinking.

"We'd done so much in so little time..." I muttered softly.

This was a very sudden turnaround in our relationship but it felt good. Really good.

Love.

That was the word she used.

I was loved by someone.

By a girl.

Tethered to her too.

I was her conduit and stood by her for this long.

In a sense I had never really considered that kind of love to be possible before.

That kind of love distorts time.

And makes people do things they normally wouldn't do.

Then as if right on cue, Izumi emerged.

Her hair wet, eyes half lidded. 

She shuffled towards me and tugged on the collar of my jacket.

Hey she mumbled sleepily rubbing her face against my shirt. "You're warm."

I froze as the realization hit me. A grin spread across my face as she rested her chin against my chest. Her fingers curled loosely around my waist.

It was nice. It was amazing.

Izumi reached behind me mid-embrace grabbing a bunch of rice and shoved it in her mouth.

Graceful.

She smiled up at me innocently.

I did the same thing.

"What am I going to do with you?" I replied shaking my head in mock defeat.

She patted my hip gently and giggled. "Hold me."

So I did.

Naturally, our banter brought us to the couch we sprawled out lazily watching linear entertainment game shows and a variety of other stuff.

Izumi was enthralled by the imagery.

"So this person..." She gestured to the TV.

"Mhm."

"He is preparing to take a bite of that shoe... to see if it's a confectionary?"

"Mm yes."

"That seems rather silly to me..."

"Why?"

"Because he wants to consume something tasty. But gambles the experience away. Why risk tasting shoe when one could safely consume confection?"

"Well when you put it that way…"

Izumi huffed indignantly.

"This person is not smart enough to make sensible decisions."

I just laughed.

He gets paid craploads a year to be an entertainer I've seen that guy on other channels before.

Shoe guy took the bite.

It was cake.

Izumi was stunned speechless for a few seconds.

"I am happy for him but that was reckless endangerment."

"To who?"

"His tastebuds and his immunology." She nodded matter of factly.

I flipped the channel to a retro anime network.

It was a re-run of the Singular Jab Guy Anime Eiga from nineteen-ninety-before-I-was-born.

Izumi was napping sprawled out in her own special way snoring lightly.

I was about halfway through when an emergency broadcast cut into the episode.

"Emergency broadcast!" The announcer screamed. 

A scene of destruction appeared on the screen and screams of horror and panic came in and out of hearing range. People were screaming as they ran in terror or tripping over themselves trying to flee.

"There is a report of a serious scaffolding construction failure near Minami Ward Tokyo. Two high school students were confirmed dead in a traffic-related incident. The victims have been identified as Mika Mugitsune 18 and Eiji Hamada 18 confirmed dead in a traffic-related incident… crossing a side street near the construction site when scaffolding collapsed…”

I screamed. I screamed so loud I didn’t even realize my own voice was leaving my body.

I threw the remote. It smashed against the wall.

I didn’t care.

I didn’t care.

“No! No! No! No! NO! THEY CAN’T BE GONE! THEY CAN’T—”

Izumi jolted awake.

"Keizo!?"

Her hands were on her head.

She didn’t know what to do.

She didn’t know what words to put between the gap of my lungs and the jagged sobs ripping me apart.

“They… they were right here! They were right here! THEY WERE RIGHT HERE!” I clawed at the couch at the floor at everything around me as if I could grab reality itself and shake it back into place.

Izumi whispered something. I didn’t hear it. I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. My vision blurred.

“They… they were my friends! MY FRIENDS! I— I—”

Izumi was saying my name. Over and over. I couldn’t hear her anymore. “According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department—”

“They’re wrong ” I said. I laughed.

It came out cracked and high.

“They got the names wrong. That happens. That happens all the time."

My voice was hysterical. “I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS. THIS IS A HOAX. THIS IS A FREAKING HOAX.”

Izumi knelt beside me stiff and shaking her hands hovering like she was afraid I’d shatter if she touched me. When she finally reached out I shoved her away.

“DON’T! PLEASE DON’T!” I screamed. “I’M NOT—I’M NOT—”

Izumi touched my shoulder. Light. Careful.

“I am—I am so sorry ” she said her voice breaking. “Keizo I—”

I shoved her hand away.

“Don’t ” I muttered. “Don’t. Please.”

It was pathetic. I knew it. I didn’t even have the strength to be angry about that.

Izumi didn’t pull back this time.

She flinched when I pushed her lips pressing together tight eyes shining confused and hurting—but then something in her hardened. Not cruel. Resolute.

She inhaled sharply like she’d made a decision she was afraid of.

“Enough,” she said softly.

I tried to push again. My arms shook. My hands slipped uselessly against her sleeves.

“I said—”

She didn’t let me finish.

Izumi leaned forward pressed her forehead briefly against mine then wrapped her arms around me and pulled. Hard. No hesitation. No asking.

I fought it for half a second. A stupid childish reflex. And then my strength just… left.

My body went slack in her arms.

She held me tighter as I sagged one hand cradling the back of my head the other firm between my shoulders like she was afraid I’d fall apart if she let go. I felt warmth bloom around us—not heat not light but something thick and enclosing like being submerged in calm.

A protective aura. Instinctive. Unconscious.

My sobs broke against it and dulled. My shaking slowed uneven and weak. My thoughts blurred into static.

Izumi rested her chin against my hair.

“I have you,” she whispered voice trembling but sure. “Even if the world does not.”

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t.

I curled in on myself and wailed. No words. No dignity. Just sound—raw and animal and unforgettable.

The kind that means something inside you has snapped clean in half.

The TV said their names again.

Mika Mugitsune.
Eiji Hamada.

And the world didn’t stop.

It just kept going.