Eleven Red Lotuses | Kageyama Tobio | S/H

Missing Divinity Spirals the World Into Chaos

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     Kageyama stares at his phone for a few moments.  What sentence could sound more fake than answering a question that hadn't been asked?  It's like he told her she was arrested, and she immediately denied murdering the boy next door.  
     "Hello?"  The soft voice answers.  
     "Uh, hello, Shimizu-san.  Can you tell me your address?"  There was a pause.  He couldn't exactly blame her, it was pretty weird to ask, but (Y/N) could be dying and he wanted to make sure she... well, wasn't.
     "Why?"  She asks.
     "I'm coming to check on (Y/N)."  
     "Oh.  She's not here."  Kageyama pauses, eyes fixed on the floor as his nose scrunched in confusion.  
     "What do you mean she's not there?  She lives there.  Where is she?"  He asks quickly.  There's a small sigh from the other end.
     "She got in an argument with Miyu and started slamming doors and stomping around and then she left.  Mom told her to not come home tonight.  I don't know where she is, she has a thousand yen.  She could be buying food or sleeping in a motel, I have no idea."  He huffs as he looks back to his father sitting at the kitchen table.
     "Okay.  Thanks.  Bye."  He immediately hangs up.  
     "Are you going to get her?"  His father asks.  Kageyama sucks in a breath as he pulls a jacket on.
     "I hope so.  Her sister doesn't know where she is, she's been kicked out for the night."  Even in the candlelight, his father's expression and cocked eyebrow was evident.
     "And why's that?"
     "She supposedly got in an argument and started slamming doors and stuff.  It sounds weird though, it doesn't make sense."  He aggressively pulls on his shoes.  "She's just not like that..."  

     (Y/N) startles when a knocking came from the gym door.  She looks over at it, but all she saw was the curtains.  She stands up and wanders to it, pulling back the curtain to see Kageyama standing there, anxiously looking inside.  He lets out of heavy breath when she stood there, his breath fogging the glass.  
     She immediately pulls the door open and he slips inside away from the cold air.  He shakes his umbrella out into the night sky before turning inside.  
     "Gods, you're not wearing hardly anything, (Y/N), you're going to freeze."  Was the first thing he said as he slipped off the heavy jacket he'd been wearing and forced it around her shoulders.
     "What are you doing here?"  She asks.  Her voice was quiet, but not in the usual way he liked to hear.  She sounded scared of talking.  
     "I called your sister and she said you weren't at home.  I figured you'd be here if nothing else.  What happened?  An argument?  And slamming doors?  That doesn't sound like you at all."  (Y/N) sighs and looks over at the door.  She pulls the curtain closed again to stall.  
     "It was just a small thing.  No big deal."  
     "Please tell me what happened."  
     "Miyu-san was a little frustrated with something and we got into a small debate, hardly an argument."  Lies.  "She slammed my door on the way out by accident and I went ahead and said it was me."  You're lying, (Y/N).  "I guess I was a little too aggressive when I left, our house echoes sounds."  Why are you lying, (Y/N)?  The house muffles sounds, not echoes them.  Stop lying to him.  
     "Well, are you alright?  She said you weren't allowed home tonight."  He glances around, though there was nothing to see in the pitch black.  Even in the daylight, without lights on, this place was shadowed.  "You can't sleep in here.  It's cold.  Come on, we'll go to my house."  
     "Are you sure?  Do you really want your parents to meet me?  I'll be just fine here."  Kageyama stares at her for a moment in amazement at her stubbornness.
     "Yeah, I'm sure.  You're going to have hypothermia set in by morning at the latest.  My parents are chill, but even if they weren't, I'm going to prioritize your safety over saving face for them.  Let's go."  
     She hesitantly follows him out the door.  They step out into the night, rain pattering on the umbrella above their heads as she locks the gym.  

     (Y/N) slipped her shoes off, though she had gotten used to the jacket and didn't think to strip it, as well.  Kageyama led her forward to the dining table where his father sat.  Various candles were littered around the edges.  They had a lot of candles and not many flashlights so until a flashlight was needed, fire would do.  
     "Hello."  He greets.  
     "Hello, sir."  Kageyama's father chuckles at that, inviting her to sit.  She glances over at Kageyama who was already in a chair, so she followed.  Masatomo gives the girl a smile.  She seemed uneasy.  
     "Don't feel worried, dear.  Tobio said you liked to draw and paint, yeah?"  He slides a watercolor sketchbook across the table to her.  She stares at it for a moment and then up at him.  
     "O-Oh.  Um, thank you."  She says quickly.  She brushes her fingers across it.  It was so high quality, and the picture on the front was absolutely beautiful.  She wondered if she could recreate it.  
     "Of course.  I know a lot of adults like to tell kids to follow stability instead of their dreams, but I'd like to cultivate those hidden talents."  
     "T-Thank you so much."  
     "But I've still gotta be a dad."  Masatomo chuckles.  "I'd like to ask you few things, since Tobio tells me you two have started dating."  (Y/N) nods and says she'd answer any questions.  "What are some of your strengths?  Your hobbies?  Your possible career?"  
     "Well, I think my biggest strength is my physical strength.  I do professional boxing matches to pay for my lessons and gym, but I'm on break for right now.  So I suppose that, mostly.  It's what I spend most of my time doing."  He nods.
     "Girls' boxing can be brutal.  How is that going for you?  How do you like it?  And if it's not too much, what got you interested in it?"  
     "Um, well, it's going well, I guess.  I'm currently undefeated, though I don't really like beating people up so I don't compete too often.  I got interested in boxing because my brother was beaten to death when his wife was almost raped on the streets.  I never want to be helpless and die or cause someone else to while defending me.  It was a logical next step."  
     "How are you doing, with the death?  How is your family doing?"  (Y/N) sighs bit as she thinks, reflexively grabbing Kageyama's hand.  
     "It's been a couple of years so I think I've numbed myself to it.  None of my family is doing particularly grand, I suppose.  My sister refuses to acknowledge he's dead, his wife still lives with us and she's not exactly a great person, per se.  My mother pretends she never had a son to begin with and my father is in jail for killing the men who killed him.  And for raping my mom repeatedly, too, I guess."  Masatomo nods.  Kageyama was a bit surprised.  He knew her family was fucked up but not that fucked up.  Not only because of what she said, but because it didn't faze her to say it.  
     "That's quite the home life.  How are you handling that?"  (Y/N) shrugs.
     "I'm never at the house, so I couldn't tell you."  
     "Why are you never at your house?  If you don't mind me asking."
     "My family doesn't like me."
     "Why's that?"  (Y/N) shrugs again, looking at Kageyama and then one of the candles.
     "To be honest, I don't really know.  My sister-in-law has hated me since the second she met me.  Since I was conceived during rape, my mom thinks I'm cursed, and, as she puts it, my sister-in-law was 'chosen' to be in the family.  They're simply stuck with me.  She tends to lie about things I did."  
     Masatomo nods, fingers laced together.  (Y/N) seem like an honest girl.  She was pretty open.  "Lie about what?"  
     "I guess I wouldn't call it lying, necessarily, but she blames me or dramatizes.  She says we got in an 'argument' today but it was really just her.  All I said was that I'd like to leave.  She'll throw things in my room whenever we're home alone together, or sometimes I'm not even there, and she'll simply nod and agree when my mother asks if I did it."  
     "So you're abused?"  (Y/N) pauses, sucking in a breath.
     "W-Well, I wouldn't say 'abuse,' that's harsh.  I don't think Miyu-san is that bad.  I mean, she can be rude and brash and immature but it's not exactly abuse."  
     "And why do you say that?"  Masatomo asks.  "She dramatizes things, but claims that they're still technically true.  She actively forces you to have a bad relationship with the rest of your family.  And since she's so nice, all of your family loves her more than they love you-"
     "Dad."  Kageyama cuts in, but Masatomo raises his hand to stop him.
     "They love her more than they love you, so you've convinced yourself that if you hate her, it must be your fault, because nobody else hates her.  So when somebody points out her abuse, you defend it and say it's not that bad, but if it's anything like you described, that's abuse.  Am I right?"