This Time

Chapter 18

I slept through the rest of the day and when I awoke sometime in the early evening, I could definitely feel the difference in my body. It felt less like I was dying now, and more like I had a mild hangover. Rolling over I could see that this morning's tea had been replaced with a glass of water, a bottle of Advil, and a note written in Yagi's scratchy handwriting.

'Gone out for a while. Call me if you need anything.'

Tucking the note away in the drawer, I downed a couple Advil and the entire glass of water. My mouth felt dry and like it was full of cotton, and gingerly I slid out of bed to go refill the drink and visit the restroom. After returning to bed a few minutes later, fresh water on the table and teeth brushed, my eyes fell on the little book that still remained untouched. I was surprised he'd simply left it with me, and the fact he wasn't going to be with me when I looked at it made it feel like an invasion of privacy somehow.

Picking it up and taking a breath, I opened the cover. Already I could tell before flipping through any of it that at least three fourths of the plastic sleeves were still empty. The first page showed a faded picture of a blonde woman with warm brown eyes smiling kindly. She was gorgeous, and in this photo looked to be in her late twenties. She also smiled out of the picture on the following page while standing next to a tall man with a strong jaw and piercing blue eyes that shined brightly even through the aged paper.

His parents, I realized.

Sure enough, the photo adjacent held a third addition and the small, messy haired blonde child stood grinning next to his father, barely even reaching his knee. Yagi couldn't have been more than four in this picture.

"Aw, what a cutie," I said aloud, chuckling to myself.

The next two pages held images of first a primary school aged boy, and then one of him in a middle school uniform. Tucked into the pocket of the next page instead of a photo was a folded letter, and upon removing it from the sleeve to unfold it I was amused to see a Yūei acceptance letter. The fold lines were well-worn and the edges crinkled, telling the story of a boy who must have read and reread it over and over again. I tried to imagine him, young and bouncing with excitement and ready to take on the world, and my smile widened a fraction at the mental image.

Next came a picture of a dark-haired woman in a hero costume throwing a peace sign at the camera with one hand and other arm slung around the shoulders of a teenage Yagi. Both smiled brightly, and the blonde boy looked like he'd been caught mid laugh. The woman appeared again on the page after along with a man who, after a moment of staring, I recognized as a younger Gran Torino.

"Oh," I breathed as it hit me. That must be the person who gave him One for All. Funny, somehow I never would have expected it to be a woman.

Really intrigued now, I flipped the page again and felt my eyebrows shoot skyward. It was obviously a picture from a school dance, and the sharply dressed boy was pink faced as he stood awkwardly with a pretty redhead in a long blue dress. The page following was blank, and then there was an American college acceptance letter tucked into the sleeve after that. This letter was more crisp and obviously had held less excitement for its recipient.

A brunette man toasting with a beer bottle and a drastically more muscled Yagi in a letterman jacket smiled out of the final picture, and I wondered if this was the college friend he'd mentioned to me before. Instead of pictures, the last few filled pages held newspaper clippings. His debut story was there, along with the headline that announced he'd become the number one hero. A few other articles detailing different rescues or accomplishments accompanied them, and I figured these must be some of the deeds he was more proud of.

"See? Nothing exciting, really," a voice said from the doorway, and I jumped with a muffled swear.

"Need to put a bell around your neck," I muttered. I'd been so lost in thought as I went through the book, I hadn't even heard the front door.