章節 33: To Honour the Dead
Amaki Rena stifled a yawn as she stretched her arms at her study table in her bedroom, just before she reverted her attention to her laptop so she could get back to her homework.
'It's been quite a day, I'll say.'
The day had started out like any other. As was their usual custom, her father had personally awakened both Rena and her baby sister. Rena wasted no time waking up, bounding to the shower, and taking a quick bath. She then followed her father downstairs to their dining room, where she saw that their mother had cooked them her signature omurice which had long since become a hit within their immediate family. The Amaki sisters then brushed their teeth and got dressed for school, and finally their mother drove the both of them to school.
'So many things happened.'
Rena's day at school proved to be uneventful. Apart from one or two of their classes being jam-packed with classworks and then a period-ending quiz, the rest of the day consisted of lectures and little else. Instead, the real highlights of the day took place outside their actual classes. She was with her friends at their usual table in the cafeteria at the time, and Rena herself was halfway through her packed lunch before she received an unexpected – but not unwelcome – visitor.
'Shugo!?'
Rena's mouth fell open in shock as she saw him approach the table she shared with her friends. Even when she composed herself a second later, she couldn't stop her lips from curling upward in a smile.
"Hi, Shugo," she greeted him brightly, before her face fell slightly when she noticed that the reciprocal smile he gave her in return was one of mingled happiness and sadness. "Is everything okay?"
Rena took a moment to survey Furukawa Shugo as he stood before her at their table. While he was mostly the same boy she had always watched and admired from afar, she couldn't help but notice how often he seemed to be tired and stressed out as of late, just as she couldn't help but take note of the hand wraps he'd only recently started wearing. While she couldn't quite put her finger on it, it was clear that Shugo was carrying something heavy on his shoulders.
"Something happened. You're the only one I know here who might be able to help me, Rena."
She perked up at that. "What's wrong, Shugo?"
"A friend of Ayato and Ayaka's died recently," he explained. "She'd all but adopted her young niece, and now that she's gone, the poor kid's been left on her own."
Rena nodded in understanding. The rumor going around the school was that Shugo had been taken on by no less than Chief Hikawa Ryoma of the RCPD as an intern after he helped the chief's lost child find his way home. More to the point, she herself had seen firsthand how quickly he and Ayaka's brother had become fast friends ever since they transferred to St. Stephen's Academy. Between his friendship with the Akizuki siblings, as well as his well-established fondness for young children, it wasn't the least bit strange that Shugo would feel strongly about an orphaned little girl, nor was it out of character for him to want to try and help that child however he could.
"I know you're active in your mom's various advocacies, so I was kind of hoping you guys could make room for the poor kid at some point."
In all honesty, thought Rena, it was highly likely that the poor child would eventually be noticed by her mother's foundation at some point, regardless of whether Shugo or anyone else were to bring said child's plight to their attention. More importantly, there was no way either she or her mother would stand to allow a newly orphaned child to grow up all alone in the world. But as it was, it was Shugo who had come to Rena on that child's behalf, and there was no way Rena could let him down after that.
"Of course, Shugo," she smiled brightly as though to reinforce her verbal assurance. "Leave it to me. We'll take good care of her."
"Thanks so much, Rena," he said as he placed his hands on her shoulders and caused her heart to hop, skip, and jump-
"You're an angel if I ever saw one."
-Right before his next words – and the hug from seemingly out of nowhere that punctuated them – caused it to stop dead in its tracks for a brief moment.
Unsurprisingly, Rena went through the rest of the day after that with a persistent smile on her face and a song in her heart, and neither the friendly teasing her circle of friends sent her way nor the equally mischievous comments by her teachers about her unusual inattentiveness could dampen her mood. "Oh, don't mind her, Yashima-sensei," her friend Akino Ayame mischievously commented when their teacher called Rena out for not paying attention during their World Literature class that immediately followed the lunch hour. "Something nice happened at lunch, and she's still over the moon about it."
Rena gave Ayame a reproachful glare as a wave of giggles and laughter rippled across her classmates, only for her friend to respond by sticking out her tongue as though to rub it in.
Eventually, the bell rang to signal the end of their final academic period. The moment it did, Rena immediately started packing her things so she could head to their club meeting and get everything ready. She'd been elected president of the Music Club just a week ago, and when she considered how her extracurricular commitments already precluded her from attending their Friday club meetings, she knew full well it simply wouldn't do for her to be late. She had to lead her clubmates by example, after all.
But before she'd so much as set foot outside the classroom…
"Rena?"
"Hi, Ayaka," she greeted her friend with a smile. "Walk with me?"
"Sure, why not?"
The two girls walked together to the Music Room over on the second floor of the sophomore wing, during which they discussed the recent incidents that had shaken the city of Rakuen to its foundations. Between her red, puffy eyes and her unusually somber demeanour, Rena couldn't help but ask her friend how she was doing, nor could she resist the urge to help her however she could. Even if there wasn't much she could offer in the way of concrete assistance, she was hopeful that just talking about it would help ease whatever burdens appeared to be weighing the older girl down.
"Are you okay, Ayaka? I heard a few things, but I'd really rather hear you talk about it in your own words."
For what it was worth, Akizuki Ayaka didn't require much convincing. She wasted no time opening up to Rena about how one of her childhood friends had been brutally murdered, and about how the victim had left behind the niece she'd been raising since her sister had died.
"We were there when she was born," Ayaka shared as she wiped a tear from her eye. "She's my godchild, actually. I can't actually adopt her at this time, so…"
She trailed off. The older girl then turned her back on Rena the moment she finished talking about it, only for Rena to turn her back around and pull her into a hug.
"Come to think of it, Shugo did come see me earlier at lunch," recalled Rena as her friend pulled away. "Something about helping out an orphaned child, he said. Is that the same little girl we're talking about now?"
"That's the one, yeah," Ayaka confirmed. "Tsukiyama Akina. She's barely 7 years old, and she just lost the only person she had left in life."
'…Ouch.'
Unsurprisingly, that hit a little too close to home. More than anyone else, Amaki Rena knew what it was like to have no family left in the world. After all, she herself was an orphan once upon a time. The argument that she had her matron and fellow orphans wasn't very convincing, either, seeing as she'd never been close to any of them at the time. It was only after that afternoon at the amusement park that she only really managed to form some sort of connection to the other children – and even that was short-lived, since it wasn't long after that day that she would be happily adopted. Needless to say, it was her origins that fuelled all of the advocacies and values she held dear today.
"You can count on me, Ayaka," Rena assured her friend before pulling her in for a sisterly hug. "She won't have to be alone for much longer."
"Okay. Thanks so much, Rena."
They walked on until they'd finally arrived at the Music Room, at which point Akizuki Ayaka and Amaki Rena parted ways with one last, brief hug. From the way the older girl stopped sniffling, it was evident to Rena that her friend had taken her assurance at her word.
Which was just as well, she thought, because she meant every word of it.
------
Shugo accompanied Ayato and Ayaka back to the RCPD after school, where he met up with Riku for training at a corner of the covered court behind the main building.
"You're not focusing, Shugo. What's on your mind?"
It was around 5:30 PM by that point, and the two were halfway into their training session. Today's lesson consisted had them retreading the basics of kendo, during which the detective put Shugo through his paces in a practice bout. And if his comments were anything to go by, Riku evidently noticed that his student was preoccupied with other concerns.
"Oh, sorry, Detective," the teen apologized sheepishly. "I just can't help feeling I should've been able to see the murders coming."
Riku's eyes narrowed. "Let me guess. You really didn't sense anything before the killer struck?"
"After you called me, I asked Kurona about it-"
"Kurona?" the detective interrupted, puzzled. A second later, he understood. "Oh, you're talking about 'her'. Go on, Shugo."
"Turns out, her ability to detect evil isn't quite foolproof," explained the upstart avenger. "It won't do much good if the enemy we're up against just happens to be good at suppressing strong emotions – or, even worse, if they're genuinely convinced in the righteousness of their actions."
Riku's mouth fell open in horror.
"And apparently, it also gets harder to sense them if their evil intent happens to be overshadowed by an even stronger emotion," Shugo added. "Like the guy who attacked me at the outreach? I only saw it coming a second or two in advance, and even then, it wasn't enough for me to get out of there unscathed."
Shugo wasn't surprised at the disappointed look on the detective's face, but the fact that he somehow expected it didn't make it any easier. Between the first victim they happened to come across and the looks of devastation with which Erina and Ayaka had regarded what was left of their childhood friend, it was hard for him to shake the feeling that he bore some measure of responsibility for allowing these murders to happen.
"Shugo."
And apparently his teacher noticed it too, at least if the words he said after he'd successfully gotten the teen's attention were anything to go by.
"You're not a god, Shugo," Riku reminded him. "You're not all-powerful, and you can't be all over the place at once, supernatural powers or not. Given how both murders took place all the way across town, you'd have gotten there much too late to save those poor girls even had you known."
The troubled teen half-smiled at the detective who had assumed the role of his mentor.
"To honour the dead, we fight for the living," Riku advised him sagely. "We can't bring those two poor girls back to life, so the next best thing would be to help them rest in peace by taking down their killer."
"Your teacher speaks wisdom," whispered Kurona, just as the gentle breeze that blew into the covered courts at that moment gave the impression that her lips were brushing against his ear. "I like him."
"Think about what I'm telling you," his mentor went on. "If you really think you've failed, take that feeling of failure and use it as motivation to do better. And if you truly feel you need to make things right, then do so by doing your part. And right now, that means doing all you can in your training – not just to help us get this maniac, but others like him in the future."
Shugo thought about everything both his mentor and his spectral partner had told him. As they had said, Shugo was no god, nor was he all-powerful. And as they had said, there was no way to undo what had already been done. He couldn't go back to the nights of those murders and to try and stop the murderer, any more than he could bring the dead girls back to life. But at the very least, he could help Riku and the others find the murderer and put a stop to his abhorrent artistry, hopefully before any more innocents had to die.
And for him to do that…
"It is as your teacher has said, child," Kurona told him gently. "'To honour the dead, we fight for the living'. Henceforth, push yourself to your very limits. Train yourself as you have never trained before, that you might fight as you have never fought before."
Shugo strived to focus on those words, even as the images of the dead girls – or, rather, the sickening sculptures that had been made from their corpses – flashed through his mind-
'No, Shugo,' he told himself. 'Enough of that.'
"Alright, boss," the teen finally replied to his mentor. "Let's go again. We're gonna find this maniac and make him pay."
"That's the spirit, Shugo!" Riku exclaimed with a grin as he gave his mentee an approving clap him on the shoulder. "Oh, and one more thing?"
"Yeah?" the teen asked.
"Just Riku will do."
"Understood," replied the upstart avenger-in-training as he picked up his wooden sword to resume their lesson.
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