Meredith: None But the Lonely Heart

Sukiyaki: I'm Ready, Come Catch Me, Tag, You're It, Come On, Let's Go!

Summary:

You board the bullet train, ready to shake things up. Instead you run into a very different old friend than the ones you were expecting.

Trigger Warnings: violence, self-loathing, intrusive thoughts, mental anguish, angst, self-harm references

Notes:

This Chapter's Lyrics:

It's named after Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto from the BT soundtrack. This has a bit of a nostalgic and sweet connection for me because my dad knows the song and Sakamoto's life story breaks my heart; this song is so beautiful.

First track used from the Promising Young Woman soundtrack is Come and Play With Me by DeathbyRomy with the lyric "I'm ready, come catch me, tag, you're it, come on, let's go!" This song has a very edgy pop sound (it actually reminded me of Halloween lmao and so did Uh-Oh but that will come later) and the lyrics are aggressive and belligerent, which fits my OC's challenging, vengeful mindset well.

Tokyo.

A sprawling metropolis, advanced, revered, vibrant.

You feel a sense of pride in being able to visit your roots. Your life will indeed go full circle.

You think of your maternal family name. Eguchi. How your mother explained it described the mouth of a river.

You always loved the name. You loved everything your mother, what your family taught and told you. You remembered their customs, their traditions. Your mother hailed from Northern Japan. Your grandmother was from Hokkaido and spoke the Ainu language.

You miss your mother and grandmother dearly. You practiced Japanese with your maternal side as much as you could. You were terrified of losing more than just her.

And you did, didn't you?

Lily, Jess, Timmy, Kerry, Isabelle, Joseph, Mary, June, Jack, Ahmed, Frank, Felipe, Caroline, Hiro, Jason, Helena.

You take in as much as you can, the architecture, the bustling crowds, the urban forest, before you remember you're having more fun than you deserve.

You remember you're here for what you and the American nation waited the last seven years for.

You get your stuff together and board the train. A bullet train. Advanced, efficient, sleek. The kids would've loved it.

Didn't David go to Tokyo? Maybe he traveled on the exact same train. Maybe.

The train has 1̶̧̧̨̧̧̠̞̹̮̺͉͔̘̦͗6̴̢̀̆̍LilyJessTimmyKerryIsabelleJosephMaryJuneJackAhmedFrankFelipeCarolineHiroJasonHelena cars. Ten economy, six first-class. Only a minute to stop at each station.

You boarded with no hassle from the stern yet reasonable conductor, conversing in Japanese. He seemed to be a bit more lenient and relaxed once he realized you shared a native tongue. You quietly found his prickly attitude hilarious and relatable to your current situation.

Stop projecting.

You sat in economy gathering your thoughts, your plans, your final broken hopes and dreams, mentally preparing yourself for what you had waited seven years for.

Over the course of infiltrating the criminal underworld, you were unsurprisingly nearly caught a few times, and cataloged some harsh truths.

You hated the idea of sharing any similarities with these people, but you thought of one alias alone that you would take.

Black Dahlia.

You could even simply call yourself Dahlia to avoid the odd looks from people if they learned you named yourself some overcompensated fearsome moniker or after an animal or a bug.