unrevised.
/ chapter 48 /
"Sorry, we're closed!" A girl's chirpy voice exclaimed the moment the bells of the door chimed.
His purple orbs shifted over to the owner of the voice. He eyed her, not expecting to see her but rather his old friend instead. His eyes searched the room in hopes to find who he came here for, but to no avail Ayame was nowhere in sight. He finally returned his gaze to the younger girl. Her hair was split into two plaits and she wore large, round spectacles accompanied by a bold maid outfit. Cosplay? Hatori questioned in his head as the girl trembled under his stoic, but unknowingly intimidating, gaze.
"Ah, actually, I'm here to see Ayame. Is he still around?" He stated as he softened his eyes in hopes not to scare her too much. Must be this face, Hatori thought, holding the lower part of his face self-consciously. Has it always been scary?
"You must be 'Haa-san'!" She concluded as she clapped her hands together with sparkly eyes. Hatori sighed at the nickname and knew immediately he'd come to the right place. Who else would shorten his name like that other than the Dog and Snake duo? "Ayame-san's at the back, I'll go get him for you. Meanwhile, you can just take a seat here."
The girl gestured to the two dark blue sofas on the other side of the room. With a nod, Hatori compliantly took a seat as the girl left. Without knowing how long he'd have to wait, he pulled out his phone and used the opportunity to quickly reply to some business emails. He suddenly felt a small, warm body next to his feat and he peeked over to the side where two big-beady navy eyes stared back at him.
"A cat?" He mumbled to himself as the small thing rubbed its head against his leg. Without a word, he picked it up and examined it. It had dark-grey fluffy fur and white paws that made it look like he had mitts on. It was quite cute.
Hatori gently placed the cat down on his lap in which it nestled in quite quickly. The cat purred as he petted its head and scratched under its chin. It nuzzled it's face into the palm of his hand, urging for more pets, and then it lifted it's head up to stare at him. It's navy eyes reminded him of Ichika's.
"Haa-san! You're here!" Ayame greeted as he entered the room with a flamboyant smile on his face as always. In his arms, he held a large red book close to his body.
The girl from before followed closely behind him. As Ayame took a seat, she placed two antique teacups down and a pot. Ayame introduced her as Mine Kuramae. She nodded her head with a smile in which Hatori returned, before she left the way she came from.
Hatori poured the tea into the cups before lifting up one of his own and taking a sip from it with the hotness of it having no effect on him.
"So, what is it that you wanted me to see?" The Dragon queried as he placed his cup down.
Ayame sighed tragically. "No greeting from you whatsoever. Haa-san is always straight to the point." He wiped a fake tear jokingly, but seeing the serious look on his friend's face showed him it wasn't time to play any games.
"There's no beating around the bush when it comes to you, Hatori, so I'll just show you now. I do warn you though, don't be too shocked, alright?"
The white-haired man took Hatori's nod as a sign to continue. He placed the book flat down on the table and opened it. It was then that Hatori noticed that this was no book at all, and rather it was a thick photo album. One he'd never seen before.
"You know, I don't remember this album existing. I actually found it in the back of my family's storage. Although built on with layers of dust and had been long forgotten, it contains a lot of our memories from when we were children from what I could see." Ayame started with a melancholy tone as he was reminiscing the past.
He watched as Ayame calmly flick through the endless pages. He then stopped by a certain page, and Hatori straightened his back in anticipation. Ayame's fingertips touched along the page ever so lightly.
"Here, this is what I wanted to show you." Ayame carefully took a picture out of its slot and placed it on the table, sliding it over to Hatori. The dark-haired man looked down at it curiously. He picked up the picture and held it closer to his face.
The bearer of the Snake Spirit nervously glanced at the man. He couldn't tell whether his silence was good or bad, and he couldn't tell the expression on his face as it was covered by the photo that he was silently staring at. What he could tell, though, was his fingers hard he gripped the photograph.
"What is this?" Hatori finally broke his silence, talking eerily low.
"I don't know." Ayame admitted. "But she was there from the start. This is proof."
The Doctor lowered his head while the expression on his face was still unreadable. The cat on his lap stood on it's paws and escaped the room in a hurry but he couldn't pay it any attention from how shocked he was. His eyes traveled back to the picture held between his now white fingertips.
The picture was taken by Shigure, he knew that from the way his arm extended to hold the camera and he also had his other wrapped around the shoulder of none other than himself. Beside a bothered-looking Hatori was Ayame who grinned from ear to ear and did a peace sign. They were all younger versions of themselves, most likely third year middle schoolers judging from their black uniforms. There was no way Hatori couldn't have missed the smaller figure standing in front of him the picture, especially from her obvious blue hair. Half of her lower face was cut off due to the height Shigure had taken the picture from, but Hatori with no doubt knew that it was her. She was a child here. Her hair was shorter than it is now, and her eyes are wide with such brightness he'd ever seen before.
Looking at the picture wanted to unlock a memory in his head, but instead it sent a pounding pain in his temples.
"What is this?" Hatori repeated, clutching his head in irritation of the pain.
Ayame shook his head helplessly. "I was shocked when I saw this too. I checked every single picture in this album and this was the only photo that has her. It's definitely her, isn't it?"
The pain striking Hatori's head seemed to increase. Hatori stared at the picture silently once again as many thoughts ran through his head. He sworn the first time he'd ever encounter her was the day he attended her little brother's funeral, but now it was so clear as day to him that was never his first encounter with her at all.
A series of how's, why's and what's scrambled in his head. Just as he squeezed his eyes shut as a feeble attempt to lessen the throbbing pain of his head, a memory occurred to him from long ago.
"Do you happen to know where Ichika Sohma resides?" Hatori enquired.
"Ichika Sohma? Ichika... Ah! The other dragon? Mm, yes. Why?"
Hatori inwardly sighed. He knew he had to lie his way out of this one. "She was at my clinic a little earlier and left something, so I'd like to return it."
"Oh?~" Shigure started. Hatori could hear the smirk in his voice and rolled his eyes. "As far as I know, I believe she stays at the house just in the corner of the Estate. It's an older-looking building detached from the rest of the other buildings here."
How come he'd never question it? How did Shigure already know where Ichika lived, and especially the details of the house, when none of them even had a clue of her existence nor where she was hidden all these years? He was too occupied with what was going on during that time that he never stopped to question it even though he'd found it a little odd that his friend already had the answer to his question.
There were so many secrets to be revealed. Too many.
Just then he was reminded of a forgotten memory that surfaced a while ago, one of which he found Ichika's tiny, battered body in middle of the streets.
There were things that were connecting but they weren't making much sense due to the gap in his memories. That was it, a gap in his memories.
What could have possibly happened for there to be one in the first place?
***
Let's just say, sh*ts about to go down in the next following chapters. Yall will get your answers soon!
Also, I'd like to say I appreciate all who have read and supported this book, it has gotten me a long way and I love reading your comments. I think the best thing about being an author is seeing the audience's reactions and thoughts! So for those who ghost read, please I definitely need your comments as they are my biggest motivation when it comes to writing. No pressure though but you're always welcome to anywhere and anytime.
I'd love to stay and talk some more but I'll just be rambling on so for now, adios, I'm off to writing the next chapter. I'll see you another day :) <3
- Eoraiv.