𝐀 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐄
𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝟑𝐫𝐝
𝐓𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘
𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓
Aizawa never really took into consideration that a vigil would be so stressful to prepare for and especially with having to deal with the media and people that aren't on his support.
As of now, the park glows under a couple of camera lights from journalists taking shots and local news vans with their crew joining them for their "live broadcasting".
Aizawa immediately feels cornered as he lays his eyes on the people who came to his wife's vigil. Reporters, colleagues, and 'friends' surround him with hungry eyes as he steps onto the platform.
They all look ready to twist and contort his words into things he doesn't mean, making him out to be a monster, someone who could lay hands on his wife.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see the detective scanning the crowd with Shimada beside her. While everyone in the crowd seems to get ready by lighting up their candles.
Aizawa takes in a deep breath before taking in the sight of the glowing candles that sparkle ever so slightly. Switching his attention away from the candles, he sees Hizashi arrive and make his way to the front of the crowd.
A volunteer gives him the microphone and everyone goes silent, waiting for him to speak.
"My wife, Aizawa [Name] has been missing now for four days. I beg anyone who has any kind of information to help us" His voice shakes a little and sweat starts to build on his palms with how tightly he's holding the microphone.
"I want to thank you all for giving me the opportunity and the time to speak with you all tonight. It has come to my attention that there's a lot of misinformation spreading around on the news and online"
"First things first, I have nothing to do with the disappearance of my wife. I am fully cooperating with the police to find [Name] because I miss her and I just want her home safe" Aizawa scans the crowd, and stares at his wife's photo on a poster.
"[Name] is my soul mate. She is sweet, charming, and wise. I love her with all my life, she's the only thing I have left" He looks away from the poster with guilty eyes and feels his stomach drop as he meets eyes with Midnight.
"Asshole" She mouthes in between the crowd making him feel even more nervous than he already is.
"I.. I know I may not always perform for the cameras as everyone would like me to, and you can all punish me for that but I just ask the media to not harass me" He says and a few claps come out from the crowd.
"You can mock me, but please don't make a circus out of this investigation" He continues.
Even through the sudden commotion and conversations, one particular voice stands out among the rest, one annoying voice he recognizes.
"Eraserhead!" Misaki, his neighbor yells as she tries to reach him but is unable to with the number of people attending the vigil.
"Where's your wife, Eraser!?" She hollers out again.
"Let the police do their jobs," Aizawa ignores her.
"What did you do to your pregnant wife?!" She yells and Aizawa feels his blood run cold.
Pregnant?
Feeling the sudden flash of cameras as the photographers keep on taking pictures of him and the pregnant woman, who continues to yell lies in the middle of the crowd.
"Did you tell them that, Aizawa? Did you tell them that [Name] is six weeks pregnant!"
"Pregnant?" That single word echoes across the park from the mouths of the people attending the vigil.
Aizawa's eyes widen and a chill runs down his spine. The bright flash of the cameras makes him feel trapped and uneasy. It's as if his surroundings start to spin and he's unable to breathe.
Questions begin to erupt from the crowd that seems to drive him into a corner. With shaky hands, he gives the mic back to the man next to him and rubs the back of his neck. Sweat forms on the top of his forehead and the fresh night air only feels hot against his skin.
Getting down from the platform Aizawa takes a look at the crowd and sees his friend staring at him with a distressed look in his eyes.
Reporters jog towards the hero who's walking away and they jam their microphones to his face, with cameramen blocking his way. Aizawa panics and starts to walk faster like the fast pace of his heartbeat.
The crowd around him grows bigger and chaos breaks loose. Questions are thrown in the air, begging for an answer.
"Why are you running away, Eraserhead!?"
"What actually happened? Tell us!"
"Hurry up, and just answer the question already!"
"What did you do to her?"
"Did you kill her!?"
Scared and anxious, Aizawa safely made it back home with the help of the police and now news vans fill the street as they flash their cameras and lights at his residence.
Kimiko hops off her car with Shimada and they both walk across the front lawn.
"Detective Kimiko! Is there any new information? Did he do it?!" A reporter calls out, trying to reach her.
"Stay behind the line, please! Don't cross this line!" Kimiko tells the reporters and knocks on the front door.
Eraserhead opens the door and ushers them both in which causes the reporters to go wild at the sight of the hero until the door closes.
"Did you know that your wife was pregnant?" Kimiko asks, trailing behind Aizawa.
"No, Misaki Kano is crazy! She doesn't even know my wife!" Aizawa turns around extending both of his hands in the air.
Kimiko takes note of Eraserhead's frustration and signals him to the dining table where she lays a dozen photos, of [Name] and Misaki through all seasons—almost a year's worth.
"Well, they look like pretty good friends to me," She says and hands a photo to the black-haired man.
Aizawa examines the photos and sees [Name] with a beaming, cheerful smile in almost all of them but there's no sign of her belly showing. "She's not pregnant,"
"We have her medical records coming so let's talk while we wait," Kimiko says and makes her way to the living room. "We'll start here, the scene of the crime. See– we've seen dozens of home invasions,"
"Dozens and dozens" Shimada adds in.
"This area? Looked wrong from the second I saw it. This whole thing looked staged. I mean, watch this" Kimiko points at three slender antique frames on the mantelpiece and stomps one leg, making all three of the pictures immediately fall face down.
"Yet they remained upright throughout all the life and death struggle?" She scoffs and gives the underground hero a look.
"Well, what do you want me to say?!" Aizawa starts to get very defensive.
The detective crosses both of her arms over her chest. "We did a Luminol test, and I'm sorry to tell you, but the kitchen floor lit up. Your wife lost a lot of blood in there"
"Wait– What?!" Aizawa turns around quickly to look at the kitchen.
"And then someone mopped it up"
"Wait.. If someone were staging a crime scene, then why mop up the blood?"
Kimiko looks at Eraserhead way too patiently. "No blood and no body suggests kidnapping-which tells us to look at people outside the house"
"A pool of blood and no body suggest homicide. Which tells us to look at the people inside the house and that is exactly what we're doing here"
A beat. There's a hard beat in Aizawa's heart and he tries his best to keep his cool.
"So, how is your marriage, Eraserhead? Because right now all we got is Misaki and from what she says.. It's not good at all" Officer Shimada asks him with a pushing tone and Aizawa swallows a small portion of his saliva.
"We've had a look at your finances, Eraserhead," Kimiko says and sets a couple of credit card bills on the table.
The small stack of papers has the hero's full legal name written at the top with a list below it. There is a long list of items with the amount of money spent next to it, with a date circled and marked down.
"Eleven million yen in credit-card from just the past year alone" Kimiko starts.
"And?" Aizawa argues back from just scanning the bills.
"It's odd.. how much you spend on hotel rooms"
Aizawa opens his mouth to say something but Kimiko beats him to it.
"Now before you try to use work as an excuse. I already had my team compare your work schedule with the hotel nights and I'm sorry to say.. but most of the dates don't even match"
Aizawa holds his breath and pinches the bridge of his nose as a way to calm down.
"Who is it Aizawa?"
"Oh, please! Do you really think I could cheat on my wife!" Aizawa finally snaps.
"Don't know, are you?" She asks and her phone loudly rings, interrupting their argument.
Answering the call, Kimiko paces around the room as she continues her conversation with the person on the other line.
"Are you sure?" Her tone comes out rather serious. "Hhmm.. Okay," She says and hangs up.
Turning towards Aizawa, a much more stressed and worried look can be seen in the detective's eyes.
"Pregnant,"
"She's pregnant," Kimiko says again to let it register inside the hero's head.
Aizawa takes a couple of steps back and his lower back hits the end of the table. Both of his hands grip on a few strands of his hair. Turning away from the two individuals he feels the room slightly spin as if the walls are crumbling.
Feeling deeply overwhelmed Aizawa lets out a wail and grabs a hold of a glass cup, throwing it on the floor.
"Whoa! Hey!" Shimada pushes Kimiko behind him as glass shards fly across the room.
The black-haired man says nothing with the tight knot in his throat. Surely his mother's death hit him hard but this has to be the worst feeling since that day.
He just can't believe how things escalated this quickly? It was almost yesterday when he was saying goodbye to his wife and then three days later he comes home to find her missing..
As much as Kimiko would like to give the hero a break and call it a day. Her job as a detective doesn't let her, so she takes the first step.
"So, my question becomes—" Kimiko starts but gets interrupted by Aizawa.
"I don't want to talk to you without a lawyer ever again"
By the time Hizashi had gotten to Aizawa's house, he caught the dark-haired man sitting on the bed and staring at a picture of his wife.
"Why didn't you tell me that she was pregnant?" Hizashi sits next to him.
"I had no idea, I'm just as surprised as you are," Aizawa says with a troubled look on his face.
The black-haired man stares at his solemn reflection from the glass of the picture frame and sets it face down on the nightstand.
"You told me that you didn't want kids" Hizashi wastes no time in beating around the bush.
The abrupt question causes Aizawa to weigh it out with silence.
"Then suddenly you have a pregnant wife. Which is now a major problem for you and especially when you add in a fucking secret girlfriend"
"Stop watching Channel 33" Aizawa snaps at his friend, not wanting to hear his spiel.
"Well, you have to fucking talk to me!" The blonde man yells.
A loud ring from Aizawa's disposable phone interrupts them and Hizashi rolls his eyes knowing who exactly it is.
"You want to know the truth? [Name] didn't want me to tell anyone that she didn't want kids!" Aizawa glares at the man in front of him.
"So, then it was okay to lie to me?"
"Look– I wanted kids! We tried and no luck! I even went to a fertility clinic for fuck sakes!" The dark-haired man defends himself.
"And it didn't work?" Hizashi sneers at him.
"No! Because all of this time she was still taking her birth control! So everything just ended up being a waste of time!"
"I just don't believe you, anymore!" Hizashi crosses both of his arms.
Aizawa disappears into the walk-in closet and returns with a vanilla folder in his hand. He pulls out a sheet marked with a "notice of disposal".
"I got this, just a year later" Aizawa shows him the sheet of paper.
"The clinic is going to toss out my sample if I don't contact them. I gave her the letter and the next day I see it in the fucking trash!"
"You were with Nemuri by then, weren't you?" The blonde doesn't budge to take his friend's side.
"I wanted a baby with [Name]! A year ago, [Name] being pregnant would have been the best news ever!" Aizawa throws the folder and all of the papers scatter across the floor.
Hizashi lets out an "I'm done" type of sigh and picks up the papers from the floor while skimming through them.
Hizashi recites the words inside his head and raises a brow. "This is the clue that you couldn't solve, right?"
Aizawa shrugs and Hizashi pulls out a letter from an envelope.
"Your prenup?" The blonde holds up the document in disbelief.
"Aizawa, why are you keeping this stuff? It's like a little folder of hate!" He sets the folder on the bed and backs away.
"Well, Hizashi– Maybe deep down I do resent her!" The tone of his voice comes out heavy and a chill runs down Mic's spine.
"Aizawa– you're my friend no matter what but you need to tell me," The blonde's eyes start to water and a knot builds up in his throat.
There's a very chilling pause and Hizashi is unable to take more of this conversation so he exits the room.
"What are you asking, Hizashi?" Aizawa trails down the stairs, just a few steps behind his friend.
"Are you asking me if I murdered my wife?!"
"I would never ask you that!" Mic dissolvingly turns around and quickly wipes away his eyes before storming out the door.
The sound of leaves that are blown away by the wind can be heard from Kimiko and Shimada as they approach Eraserhead's cabin that's just on the outskirts of the small town.
Crickets go silent from their nightly song and fireflies glow so ever slightly as the duo gets to the front door. Shimada points his flashlight against the window and notices that there's no movement inside the cabin.
"Were you able to get a search warrant?" Kimiko asks the man next to her.
"Yeah, I got it just this morning"
"Good" Kimiko says, and they both barge in through the unlocked door.
Dust covers mostly every surface of the place like a blanket and boxes are stacked in almost every room. Overall the cabin seems to be abandoned with how dull and untidy it looks. Which certainly gives an eerie type of feel that makes them both uncomfortable with the stench of old wood.
"Why was he here that night? His wife is missing, so why come here?" Kimiko thinks out loud, trying to connect the pieces.
"Who cares Kimiko, we got this already! Let's just make the arrest!" Shimada whines as he hands her his flashlight before they enter the basement.
"Shimada, do even know how hard it is to make a murder case without a body?"
"Uh, no" He lies in a joking manner.
"Well, it's incredibly difficult," Kimiko says and turns around to flash Shimada's face with the flashlight.
The male hisses from the bright light and squints his eyes. "Hhmm.. if you say so"
Now going down the stairs, Kimiko carefully takes each step as she notices water slowly dripping down from a broken pipe above her.
"Watch your step," She tells Shimada knowing that he doesn't have a flashlight.
"Yeah, yeah.." He says all annoyed as he takes the last step.
Standing next to each other they both take in the view of the many spiderwebs that decorate the ceiling. The basement is mostly empty besides the stacked boxes that are used for storage and the shelves that hold tools to cut wood.
Going one by one through the boxes without finding anything of importance. Shimada wipes away the sweat from his forehead and gives a tired look to Kimiko.
The female detective runs a hand through her hair and continues to look around until she finds the old rusty woodstove underneath the wooden stairs.
"Found something?" The male asks.
Kimiko says nothing as she opens the old woodstove with her gloved hand and she grabs a semi-burned book. A bit of ash falls from the front cover making her nose itch.
"Here, hold this" Kimiko gives Shimada her flashlight and he points it towards her to get a better view of the notebook.
Opening the book Kimiko quickly realizes that it's [Name]'s diary from the familiar cursive writing. A chill runs down her spine and a knot slowly starts to form inside her stomach as she begins to flip the pages.
Skipping and skimming through most of the diary. Kimiko gets to the end of the entry where she notices that there are a couple of pages ripped out and the rest is just empty.
Confused, she flips back to read the last entry and notices that it's recent from the date that marks July 6th.
"I'm not going to be scared anymore" Kimiko reads out loud for Shimada to hear.
"I thought our marriage was dead and then the most wonderful thing happened. I found out that I'm six weeks pregnant!"
"So for the baby's sake, I'm going to be positive from now on. Sane. Happy."
"I will practice believing that my husband loves me and will love this baby. That this child might save our marriage"
"But then again, I could be wrong"
"Because, sometimes.. by the way, he looks
at me"
"I think.. that the man of my dreams—"
"The father of my child,"
Kimiko pauses for a second to catch her breath with how cold the basement feels and Shimada's hand slowly starts to shake a bit from holding the flashlight.
"This man of mine may kill me.."
"He may truly kill me," Kimiko whispers out the last sentence and her pupils dilate from the shock and fear.
The bitter taste of alcohol numbs Aizawa's tongue as he puts the last cigarette in between his lips.
Usually, when he's mentally drained, the feeling of a nice strong drink helps him ease up a bit.. but now, there's no use in drinking or smoking when he feels nothing at all.
Outside his home, there are still people calling out his name but he hears nothing. The only thing that he hears is the sound of his breath as he exhales the smoke out from his lungs.
Just how did things end up like this?
How? And why?
Getting up from the couch, Aizawa walks to the dining room and sees that Boots is sitting in front of his empty bowl again.
"You don't know anything do you?" He says to the black cat as he fills the bowl.
Boots stares at his owner dead in the eye for a second and walks away leaving the full bowl of fresh food behind.
Aizawa's eyes follow Boots for a few seconds longer until the cat disappears out of his view.
Sighing to himself, he sits at the dining table and ponders about the clue in front of him. Remembering the old tradition he and his wife used to do each year on their anniversary brings him a small smile that doesn't last long.
Finishing his drink he sets the cup aside and grabs the empty envelope to write on as he attempts to solve the clue. Brainstorming, Aizawa scribbles out keywords and crosses out words that he doesn't consider important.
Secret.
Flowers?
H̶e̶a̶r̶t̶
Garden?
W̶h̶i̶s̶p̶e̶r̶
Unable to concentrate, Aizawa lets his pen fall on the surface of the table as he picks up the clue to read it once again. Although this time instead of hearing his voice inside his head.. he hears his wife's voice.
"Hey there, why don't we walk in the garden of my heart as we whisper and murmur about our secrets. If you openly tell me yours then a certain flower will bloom and make your eyes look alive"
A cold chill immediately penetrates down his spine as he still hears his wife's voice inside his head repeating the clue word after word like a mantra. Dropping the clue Aizawa's eyes widen and he rises from his seat with a twisted look on his face.
Sweat begins to form on the sides of his forehead and he quickly but quietly opens the back door of his house. Sprinting to the small garden in the backyard, Aizawa tries his best to not be seen.
He squints his eyes, trying his best to find those flowers he gave his wife all those years ago.
[Name]'s smile and laugh come into his mind from that day when he helped her plant them in the newly finished garden.
It takes him a moment but he recognizes the flowers, underneath a bush. He drops to his knees in an instant and desperately pats around the flowers but finds nothing.
He slams his fists down on the ground and nearly yells out in frustration, but he takes a deep breath and attempts to center himself for a moment, then a splash of red catches his eye.
Could it be?
Could it be that the answer lies beneath the stargazer lilies? A sort of relief but anxiety fills his body from the single thought that he possibly could have solved the clue.
Aizawa's s heart starts to beat faster as he rips the small pile of flowers and begins to dig deep down the dirt with his bare hands. Pushing the dirt to the side, Aizawa digs again until something white pops up from the ground.
Pulling out what appears to be a paper of some sort. Aizawa swipes the dirt off and takes out his phone to turn it on. Facing his phone down the light on the screen helps him look at the piece of paper.
He feels his heart drop.
It was a sheet of paper, with a picture of him and his wife when they first moved into their home.
Even though the picture had been cut in half, the thing that catches his eye is that the right side of his face is burned.
His mouth runs dry and he blinks before flipping the paper over, on the back there is a picture of Nemuri, but her face is completely burned; and on top of her head, cut-up pieces of magazines and newspapers, form an eerie sentence.
"Your secret, I know.." Aizawa whispers out in realization about his missing wife.
Crumbling the paper, he begins to break down, and lose the air inside his lungs as if it were crushing him.
"Oh, man. Oh god– No.." Aizawa continues to whisper out in disbelief with a sick and petrified look on his pale face.
𝐢. 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄:
apologizing again for not posting in the longest.. i just don't have motivation at all
so yeah, no excuses! i'm a lazy & unmotivated writer at the moment, but at least i pushed through with this chapter
oh btw before i forget!
thank you! whtyoustaringat <3 the last comment that you posted a while ago made me want to finish this chapter!
4.0k words
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