EVEN AFTER CONTACTING POLICE IN OSAKA .. IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND THE REMAINDER OF HIS BODY, AND SO, THE CASE CLOSED AFTER HIRO WAS EXPOSED FOR DRUG DEALING. He had made it on the headline news with Anari's identity protected due to her rights as a minor. And that was how Draken had first found out.
It was no wonder Anari had gone off the radar for a week.
He was the first person to be sent off by Mikey, getting the door slammed shut in his face, nearly breaking into Mikey's room afterward by climbing through the window, but the two of them got into a little argument and ended up settling it through fighting.
Anari took shelter in the Sano family home incase reporters would be crawling in hers, it'd been a little less than a week and Shinichiro was able to set up a private funeral even without a body, there was a casket in which a framed picture of the tired male laid. Purple bags that weighed heavier than the world.
The rosy haired girl took her time, decorating the interior layered casket with chrysanthemums and lilies, and on the final petal of the fallen flower, she tossed in his windbreaker butane lighter that glowed a jadeite green from its tips. His favorite.
There were no tears, no sentiment, just a simple goodbye.
Draken was there as family as he muttered a single prayer to a cousin he hadn't really grown up knowing much.
And as cold as it sounded, Anari was able to get at the very least, Hiro's decapitated head cremated to be placed in a jar, tucked away in the back of her closet. Short and simple. There were no other friends who knew him that weren't already probably dead.
With a father still in prison and an aunt an uncle with unknown whereabouts, it was just Anari and Draken, just as it always had been from the beginning and hopefully to the end.
The head of blonde tresses peeked through the door-frame like a lingering ghost, in, and out, Anari finally put her stitching to a rest, lifting her head up, "Emma?"
Flinched, being called out, Emma crept into the room with her fingers fiddling behind her back, gaze toward the floor. "Hey .. Do you wanna eat anything?"
She was walking on eggshells after discreetly learning the news from her older half-brother, Shinichiro. Anari borrowed the guest-room for a few days, using it to start the basic base of the Tokyo Manji uniforms to hand off the more intricate handywork to Mitsuya, for her expertise only brought her this far.
"You already stuffed me with breakfast an hour ago .. and besides, you're hovering. I'll never be hungry living here." Anari spun around in the rolling chair that slid across the floor as she pushed her legs over to Emma, giving the girl a big hug that without a doubt, startled the blonde.
"Your hair looks pretty .. I guess." Emma started, playfully. The now, pinkette looked up to her with furrowed brows and a pout. "What? You wanted me to go back to blonde so I could be the Alice in the movies?" Emma only nodded her head simply. While Emma and Mikey were a little over a year apart, Anari who was younger than Mikey by a few months, was less than a year older than the female Sano.
"You've never even watched Alice in Wonderland!" Emma shoved, while the flamingo haired girl merely shone a smile, "then let's watch it together. We can have a movie night and binge everything~" The tense atmosphere melted almost as if it didn't exist in the first place as small laughter deluded the air.
"What're we watching?" Another leucos popped his head into the doorway, hands shoved into his black jeans. "None of your business, its a girls night thing!" Emma replied in steed, huffing. Mikey was always clung and glued to Anari's side that Emma never had a moment to breathe with her.
It was fun having another girl around .. most of the time it felt that way, but as of late, Mikey had been hogging her too much, so it was impossible. Not only that but, whether Anari realized it or not .. in placement of grief, she had been busying herself with everything possible. Whether it'd be starting the uniform layouts, reviving the dead shriveling garden in the back with Shinichiro, or volunteering to go grocery shopping.
She kept her guest room spotless clean and did her best not to disturb any of the dojo's students.
Mikey's figure slouched against the wall with a smug grin that annoyed even his sister who pouted and clung onto Anari's arm. Something was up.
"Yeah? Well, can I at least take her for a ride?"
Emma's eyes flew to the taller girl who took a moment to think. "We can do movie night whenever you want." Anari spoke to the youngest of the three siblings as she stared. Mumbling the incoherent words of, 'fine.'
There was a fine point line of understanding with only reading body language that Emma had entailed herself to deciphering if it was her older brother. And it seemed like Mikey genuinely had something to say, and so she let go, and allowed the girl to follow behind Mikey on his bike.
It was dangerous riding without a helmet, but yet in doing so, playing safe was no fun. You'd never get to feel the wind bashing against your face, and downright you'd look plain stupid. Exhilaration exhibited itself in the daring nights in which Mikey's rather slow bike would run freely through the emptiest streets he'd memorize like the back of his hand.
"You looked like you needed a breather." Mikey suddenly cracked the ice.
Anari curiously tilted her head. "Huh? I love it at your place, Emma's amazing and Shinichiro is helping me with the garden out in the back. You're pretty amazing too. Watching you practice in the dojo everyday is fun. I still can't kick as strong as you though."
Mikey grinned, "you'll never be able to."
"Guess so." A trinket of laughter left the cherry lips that slowly formed into a fine line, her chin was propped up on Mikey's shoulder, staring at the road ahead lit by the headlights. "Where're we going?" The road was nothing near familiar to Anari.
"Emma never said I had to be back soon .. so we're heading to a secret spot I found. Shibuya's great for seeing stars .. if there aren't clouds in the sky .. but this spot you can see both .. the sky and the city skyline. She'll probably be pissed, but its worth it."
It was clear Anari didn't wanted to be treated like glass, so she distanced herself away from as many people as she could, showing that she was exactly fine. Mikey didn't really understand it, nor did he really ever want to, the pain of losing a sibling? Even he knew he wouldn't be near as strong as Anari.
Or maybe she wasn't so strong after all, tucking away herself in the safety of the little dark pupils that seemed to overlap and overtake the doe aqua irises.
Even if she didn't want to be treated like a grieving person, regardless, it didn't do any harm to have someone or some people looking after her. Although Mikey himself promised to protect her, there wasn't anyone's arse he could kick if they were already dead. So at the very least, he'd help her back up on her feet as he always did.
Climbing the stairs up to reach a viewpoint, they had actually gone under some caution tape along the way, but it was every step worth it. Every second, every mile and every word that tumbled from their conversation was watched by the stars and forever engraved in their incandescent recollection.
Forever to be stored and forever to be a tale told.
Although the city lights were brilliant and shining on one side, the stars swirled like the epitome of a epiphany of their own serendipity.
Anari scrambled to the railing. "We're so high up I feel like I can reach the stars."
And just for a second, Anari went past the railing and shot her hand upward, like a child who'd never before seen a more beautiful sight in her life, she leaned forward, a little too close to the edge as a pair of arms pulled her backward. "Don't go tumbling now, Rin." The scare was evident in his eyes that she had nearly plummeted a mountain down.
Blinking, she calmed down a bit, "hehe .. sorry." Anari took Mikey's hand and this time, carefully leaned against the railing, gripping on his finger tips tighter to reassure she wouldn't fall.
"This can be our spot. From now to whenever." Mikey stared at his finger tips that began to become red due to lack of circulation. She was that excited. He let out a laugh, a rare one that caused Anari to snap her head around in surprise. "Did you just laugh?"
He tucked a single hand into his pocket using the other one to readjust the hold and instead sunk this fingers into the crevice of her own, properly holding hands. "Yeah."
"You should laugh more!" Anari's strawberry pink hair danced along with the playful wind that blew a gust to the side, sweeping her hair as she moved it away from her face. "The view here is amazing .. I'm totally hogging this spot forever. This'll always be our spot!"
Mikey breathed out a sigh. "The view is awesome."
"But you're not even looking at the sky at all!" Anari pointed. The light in her turquoise orbs blossomed as a shooting star crossed the sky, the girl letting out a gasp, being able to witness the likely once in a lifetime opportunity she'd get. "Make a wish!" They both chorused to one another, watching it disappear into another space in the outward void of an eternity of a galaxy, never to end.
"You know, if you ever really did win the bet .. I wouldn't complain if we had a nice house with a perfect view like this." Turning around, the half luminated face smiled, flushed cheeks inhaling the cold air, her eyes were half lidded with content as a happy-go-lucky smile flashed into his vision.
The easiness melted into their touch. "Then I guess I'd better start getting at it, huh. I'll buy this entire area for you~"
It didn't matter if she was stuck in a delusion or not. As long as it was one in which a happy ending was at the end of it. The world was a beautiful place in that one moment in which she wished every doomsday clock would halt its ticking, a moment frozen in time, captured by initials they engraved in the wooden fence railing.