Twist and Turn

It's an unusual day off today so I took the time and did some house cleaning. My apartment was a cheap, tiny space and the amount of dust had piled up ever since I've been arriving late at night only to sleep.

My cleanup regimen wasn't anything special, but Kiyoko instilled this habit that I do stuff not just properly but at the best level imaginable regardless of tools. A carpenter mustn't blame his equipment; he only had himself to commit and mend his errors. ‘Why can't I call for help?’ I asked, to which she only replied, ‘Given your personality, you'd just use the help as a scapegoat.’

So here I am, airing my futon and beating the living lights out of it. A cloud of dust soon appeared from my actions.

“What the hell? I'm sleeping in this dirty shit all along? Yuck.”

Meanwhile, I found stuff I never knew I had. I used to read a bunch of books and newspapers—the outdated ones, mind you. I often took the ones my superiors finished reading home so I could solve the puzzles in it either that night or tomorrow at the commute.

I caught glimpse of a certain tabloid. The headlines were useless as always. A biker gang still prowled the streets and so was the government with their stupid policies. They could've used some enforcement to those speed junkies to prevent accidents. The scene of Senna suddenly collapsing flashed through. I shook my head in a hurry and continued stacking those off to be thrown away.

As I mulled over the fate of the books, my phone played its message tone. Kiyoko sent something.

“Go to the shop at dusk? What the… I thought I'm off today?” I keyed in a reply. She only responded with an ‘I'm counting on you’ sticker. What could this sly woman be planning?

Only one way to find out. First, I needed to finish this quick and catch some z's. I bet it's gonna be a long night.

***

I arrived at whatever time I felt was dusk and was immediately greeted with a Hyuuga bowing to me as if I'm some superstar. I haven't even opened the door yet he's here waiting for me. Did Kiyoko employ a part time bellboy?

“Man, you're being stupid. Stop it,” I said.

“I would if I could. My lady's orders.”

“Hello? Uh, Fuyumi? Your guy's being an idiot here. Is this your d—”

My phone vanished from my hand. Hyuuga was sweating profusely as he tried hitting the end call button. “Whew,” Then he glared at me. “The hell you calling her up for?”

“Uh, I'm not.” Did I really dial someone?

The true reason why Hyuuga was there was to send some gifts to the shop for doing such a fine job with the Fujiwara problem and for Shinosuke's miraculous recovery. According to him, his soon to be dad-in-law could now sit himself up so he's out here giving the people who cared a little token of appreciation.

Fuyumi had been hounding my friend sending him here and there, but to think a girl with inexistent self-confidence was now capable of barking orders—to her fiancé, for now at least; it's such a huge step forward.

“Anyways,” he said. “That's the long and short of it. Enjoy the sweets, they're really good… and pricey. Ah, there’s some low alcohol stuff in there too if you’re interested.”

Then, before I could react, he's gone. That hot-guy genes of him makes even his normal bike look awesome. What a guy.

Time to head in. I turned the knob open and entered the shop—

“Ooh~AKITOOO!!!”

Kiyoko latched on to me and laughed hysterically. Was she… drunk?

Senna was trying to keep up with her from behind, “Miss Kiyoko, you've had enough to drink!”

“Nooope,” She drank straight from the bottle on her hand. It might Hyuuga's gift. “Wheee!! Drink!” She shoved the bottle in my cheek.

Then as I managed to break free due to her dancing around, I asked Senna what happened.

“My aunt can't handle her liquor,” she sadly revealed. “It's just fruit juice though. Maybe it's the chocolates.”

To think she called me here to see her fly around in a drunken frenzy (she never broke anything except her character though), well-played, Kiyoko. Well-played indeed.

“Akito, can you catch her? She might injure herself.”

“Sure, but let me enjoy it a little first—OW! Not the head again!”

Soon, I managed to get her to lie on the ‘calming sofa’ and hoped it worked its magic. Minutes later, the lady was sleeping.

“I'm starting to believe this sofa have therapeutic properties.”

“No, silly. It's just basic suggestion.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Really? Coming from you who believed in the supernatural?”

“It's not like I believe in magic, it's more of… superstition. The fact we still study the art and have found success in employing it looks real to me.”

“From what I gathered; you use psychology among other things.”

“There's also some mathematics involved, but I assure you, rocket science looks more fictitious than our process. It's really fascinating how certain things worked in determining one's fate. For example, your pen was kept in the journal in a certain fashion. That alone spawned several instances where I take my observations from the journal and the footage from the security cameras. From there, I get further information on possible candidates, which was then compared to another level of information until there’s only one left. I can show you how it's done but it's doubtful if you'd get anything from it.”

She took a deep breath and continued. “Things like gut feeling and luck were taken into account, but unlike the vagueness of these concepts, we have a way of extracting concrete data from those. That’s the reason why even with the limited scope of the events, I rarely have a hard time getting matches. Most people were easy because fate itself is helping, but for you… you might be a special case.”

I smirked as I saw beads of sweat form on her forehead from her lecture. “You're awfully talkative today.”

“Haa…” She scoffed at me. She definitely did!

Maybe I shouldn't have interrupted her in her passionate nonsense. Despite being described a ‘science’, I still think it’s some occult bullshit.

Then I realized, if Kiyoko got drunk from a little liquor, maybe Senna might've eaten something similar too.

I led her to a stool and looked at the counter where the sweets were placed. Aha, as expected. There's an opened box of chocolates. The ones with Japanese confectionery were still untouched.

I felt a tug at my sleeve. It's obvious who it was.

“What now?”

“Help me get dressed. I want to go somewhere.”

“Senna, you're a little tipsy yourself. You should postpone going out as Yuugure for today.”

She shook her head and gripped my sleeve tighter. I'm not psychic, Senna.

“Senna~” Kiyoko moaned from the sofa. “Is Akito here now? Give to him anything but the mochi, 'kay?”

“Yes, Miss Kiyoko…”

The shop was awfully quiet today thanks to the clocks getting sold the other day. I envy these so-called collectors. They could throw away copious amounts of cash to some hobby nobody but they would appreciate… why did it sound so familiar? Ah, right. Shinosuke.

Since the atmosphere became awkward, I decided to start tasting these sweets. First, I place the mochi box out of reach. From how they're acting and knowing Kiyoko, it must be something Yukina likes. I mean, if I cracked open her skull there'd be nothing else to see there other than things about Yukina. Kiyoko was, as I saw it, wearing all these masks to hide how devoid of identity she truly was.

Pathetic and pitiful. That's the normal reaction to her true form. However, once I've thought about it after some time, it wasn't so bad a trait.

To be able to fully immerse yourself in the service of another, if that's not the epitome of true, unconditional love, then I don't know what was.

Senna, still not herself, was boring holes at me. She sulking at the counter and was giving me this menacing stare without saying anything. Glad I'd never get drunk anymore. Even if I tried, it'd just gush forth like a fire hydrant without mixing into my blood that much.

But still, gotta admit, these two were so adorable doing nonsensical stuff.

Although I might want to take that back when Senna started pleading me to piggyback her up and down the stairs for God knows how many times while Kiyoko literally tried flirting with me.

Luckily, before a cat fight erupted, the two were finally exhausted and soon slept like babies.

Maybe I'll spend the night just in case.