73. Relation
Sui
"Eh-" Sui pulled her head out of the machine and turned to me, "Rei-chan?" she had to confirm, "What are you doing here?"
"Time travel, maybe?" I chuckled. Calmly pulling out a handkerchief from my pocket, I wiped away a brush of oil from her face. "What about you? What are you doing in this ruined, half-base, tinkering with Mini Mosca?"
"I'm not tinkering with Mini Mosca!" she whined, "I'm fixing it."
"Yes, yes." Folding my handkerchief back together, I sighed. "I'm glad I'm seeing you become more expressive after growing up." I smiled at her.
She pouted, "And Rei-chan, you're the exact opposite."
"Huh?"
"Nothiing." she mumbled. "Shou-chan and Spanner-san are over there." she pointed in the other direction where a light brown tent was set up--
"But I came here to see you, Sui," I chuckled, "Won't you talk to your dear older brother?"
"I'm older than you now, Rei-chan." she responded.
"I'm gonna cry."
With a sigh, she picked herself up and gave me a hug. She was my height now, despite being twenty two years old. But her being taller than me was almost anticlimactic.
Ruffling her hair, I let out a sigh. "And there goes your beautiful black hair," I whined, "I thought you didn't like it short?"
"It gets in the way," was her response.
"That's exactly what thought Sae would say," I chuckle, breaking the hug. "Did my sisters change personalities in those ten years?" I joked.
Sui gave me a curt little smile, bashfully, with a cute chuckle.
"Speaking of Sae," I absentmindedly spoke up, realizing a missing link in the equation, "Where is she in this time, and what is she doing?"
Sui's eyes lowered, softened-- and she didn't dare look me in the eye.
-
The Girls
"I didn't expect Rei-san to be here too!" Haru giggled, serving me a cup of green tea, "How have you been?"
A little taken aback, I eyed the cup for a long moment. "...I'm fine," I managed, "But you girls are a lot happier than I assumed."
I'm quite sure Squalo came by just after the boycott episodes. I thought the girls would be quite a tad more depressed than overly lively.
"That's my line!" Kyoko whined, "What's this I hear? You knew about the Mafia too?"
"That's right, that's right!" Haru nodded vigorously, "Why were us girls the only ones left out?"
Pressured by the girls now, I was surrounded and could do nothing but awkwardly smile. "Uh-" I really didn't know what to think. My mind blanked out and- oh god no someone get me out of this situation help-
"Now, now, don't pressure him."
I perked up at the voice-- it was a calm, deep, woman's voice-- soothing and gentle-- "Ah, Bianchi-san." I addressed her, standing up quickly and giving her a polite bow in greeting. "It's nice to see you again."
"I should say the same," she smiled back.
Our eyes locked for one long moment-- until Bianchi broke the contact. She turned to a small figure hiding behind her-- and urged her to go forward.
With hair a rich, deep shade of purple; and surprisingly mellow violet eyes--
"I don't think we've met before," I gave her a friendly smile, "I'm Rei. Nice to meet you."
Chrome Dokuro stood forward nervously-- although she tried to duck behind Bianchi again a few times-- and with her looking hesitantly at my hand, she tried to speak up.
"A- uhm," she couldn't quite compute, "...Same here."
"She's Chrome." Bianchi offered helpfully as the girl went back to a half-hiding mode, tucking behind Bianchi and peeking out shyly, "but I suspect you already know?"
Chrome perked up curiously at that, but I only laughed.
"Yep, I did." I said, "I already knew."
The girls eyed me strangely-- but only Bianchi smiled knowingly.
"Nice to meet you, Chrome." I made my over to where she was, and leaned down slightly to meet her with a friendly smile-- "I really hope we'd get along."
Chrome definitely wasn't naive or gullible-- so even as I tried to be friendly, she was reluctant to make response. Instead, she clutched Bianchi's shirt-- and eyed me cautiously.
I sighed despairingly. First impressions were a failure, I see.
-
Takeshi
It was about the dead of the night-- no, a bit more than that-- it was nearly morning, perhaps-- I didn't know the time.
But I had gotten up and out from the room for a light walk, perhaps for the toilet too. Fuzzy-eyed, I rubbed the sleepiness away and tried to walk straight--
I ended up crashing into a bigger figure.
Stumbling back, still half-asleep, I instinctively, balanced myself and bowed quickly, "Sorry, sorry, I wasn't looking--"
"Eh?" the man was surprised.
Hearing the voice, I lifted my head a little more conscious--
"Eh?" I unintentionally echoed, "Ta-Takeshi?"
-
"So you really did come into the future too!" Takeshi managed a laugh, "I've been so busy with Squalo's training I didn't even get a chance to notice!"
He had just finished his training and Squalo had called it a day-- at like 5am maybe-- and despite the short break he had been given, he opted to have a little chat with me.
Clunking our cans of hot chocolate at each others', we took one short gulp before we simultaneously sighed.
I chuckled after him. "You look terrible."
He had band aids and plasters over him, and soon enough I know he'll end up looking his appearance in the Choice Arc.
He chortled. "Squalo's pretty angry, after all."
"Well, he did end up bulldozing through the seas to come here." I sighed, "Sharkdozing."
"Huh?"
"Nothin'."
I brought the can to my lips again-- but this time the hot liquid burned my tongue.
"Ouch!" flinching, the can shook and some spilled--
"Woop," Takeshi quickly got up, reaching into his pocket and finding a handkerchief. "C'mon, you know you're not good with hot drinks, Rei."
I let out a chuckle. "Sorry!"
Wiping my face clean, he patted my head and sighed. "What will you ever do without me?"
Hm? This was strange-- wasn't it usually the other way around? It was amusing to think-- when did Takeshi become so mature? When did I become the childish one? When did I become the less adult one? When did Takeshi become the older one?"
"Eat neatly," Zen used to keep saying, "it's alright if it's slow. It's alright if it goes cold." he would chant every meal, "You're a girl, so be a little more self-aware."
He would complain, but at the same time he would be cleaning up every speck of mess his little sister had made. He would always bring around a handkerchief, for her.
Oh, I realized.
"Hm, What's wrong, Rei?" Takeshi spoke up, noticing my daze.
Takeshi reminds me of Zen.
"Nothing," I told him, giving a toothy smile. "Thanks, Takeshi!"
Zen was honest, but quiet.
Eve was talkative, but dishonest.
Takeshi sat back down beside me-- and took another sip of his hot chocolate. Picking up my own-- I didn't drink it yet.
Hey, Takeshi, do you believe in the afterlife? I didn't ask. There really wasn't a reason to asking other than impulse. I needed to control that urge.
"I was most commonly known as Merah."
"Mera and Biru, you just need to tell me where these two are."
"Eve was the Red Clown."
"Red, Blue, Green; Merah, Biru, Hijau."
I sighed, putting the can down.
"What's wrong, Rei?" Takeshi asked again. I'm not sure how many times he's asked now-- but he didn't seem irritated at the lack of answer.
"Hey, Takeshi..." I spoke up slowly-- and stopped to sigh again.
Takeshi chuckled, "Take your time to ask," he assured.
I found myself leaning my head on his shoulder. It was serene-- a soothing, gentleness-- like the tranquil rain Takeshi was-- it seemed to calm me down.
"What would you do if-" I couldn't phrase it well enough, "-someone you really, really, held dear to you-- but you lost them-- like, a long time ago someone that really meant a lot to you! Like a-- sibling? family? maybe even a--"
Takeshi didn't interrupt me. I stuttered and overlapped my words, replaced them, emphasized weirdly and made strange descriptions-- but he listened silently, patiently--
I felt a sting in my throat.
"What would you do, Takeshi," I asked him, a cry in my tone, "If someone like that suddenly came back to you? You thought you'd never meet them again, but they came back to you-- and they probably don't know you're the one?"
"Well," Takeshi's answer came without hesitation.
I couldn't see his face from my angle, but he probably wasn't having much of surprise, or confusion-- I could know from here-- he was having his usual, neutral faces. Perhaps his eyes are closed-- enjoying a moment of peace. Perhaps his curt, small but sweet smile is on his face-- soft and not bright, but just gentle enough to wash away the heaviness in my chest.
I didn't even need to see it to know.
Takeshi chortled. "Well, the first thing I'd do is greet them loudly, and give them a great, affectionate hug." he joked.
That made me laugh, "Even if he doesn't know you?" I asked.
"Even if he doesn't know me." he repeated firmly.
With my head at the crook of his neck-- and with his head laid on mine-- we stayed there for one long moment--
"Thanks, Takeshi."
You're my best, best friend.