Chapter Text
Fumiya's stomach was pounding with stress the entire time he was sitting in the subway car. He had his hands clenched into fists and sweat was pouring down his forehead. He closed his eyes several times and took deep breaths, trying to get some fresh air into his lungs amidst the smell of sweat and cologne that filled the small, semi-dark car. His mind was so confused that he couldn't count the stops correctly. He had even forgotten which stop Haru had told him to get off at. He kept asking himself how this was possible.
He knew his father was dead. How could he suddenly come back after eighteen years? When Mori had checked all the census records? When Kouyou had searched the morgues and hospitals and still couldn't find any trace of him? The worst part was that Mori had wanted to come alone and not tell Chuuya about this. Surely his mother deserved to know more than anyone. And Mori himself knew how much Chuuya had been patient in these eighteen years.
Something very bad must have happened to his father. Maybe he had been paralyzed in the operation and had been in a nursing home until now. Maybe he had completely lost his memory and didn't know if he had a family or not and had been found by unexpected. Or maybe he was one of the twenty runaway soldiers. Although Haru had put that idea out of his head because those twenty people weren't soldiers. They were the commander and spies of the Japanese army who had been executed on the roof of the prison building after being tortured for information. But Fumiya wanted to hope that the news was true. And one of them was his father.
He clenched his fists and leaned his head against the wall behind him. He felt like screaming from the excitement inside him. He had a father. His father was alive. But faceless. There were no pictures of him. Many people around him had told him that he looked like him, but he had no idea what he looked like. Finally, he was going to see a face. Thinking about he was going to meet him after 18 years, made his heart beat faster. Although he hoped that there wasn't anything wrong with his face. He didn't want to see his father's face turned like a leper's or that he was paralyzed, with his mouth crooked and his skin sagging.
Fumiya turned his head and realized that he had arrived at the station he wanted. So he quickly got off and took a taxi to the Ministry of Defense Organization. Mori was waiting for him right in front of the building door. But his face was sad. There was no light in his amethyst eyes that could give him hope. Mori reached out and put his hand around his shoulders with a faint smile: "Thank you for getting here so quickly, son." Fumiya swallowed as his chest rose and fell sharply: "Where is he? Is he okay?" The old Omega closed his eyes and guided him into the building: "I'll take you to him."
Fumiya couldn't smell his pheromones because everyone in Yokohama was using suppressants. But he knew that his own scent was terrible and everyone inside the building had sensed it. The feeling of their sharp, knife-like gazes made his body shiver. Fumiya licked his lower lip and quickened his pace to urge Mori to get him to his father as soon as possible: "For God's sake Mori-san... tell me what happened." But Mori just lowered his head with a frown and didn't answer him.
All of Fumiya's hopes were dashed by this reaction. He stood up and balled his hands into fists: "I'm going to see his body. Aren't I?" Mori let out a shaky breath and walked past him with a frown to open the door to a room in the narrow, semi-dark hallway: "I wish I could give his body back to you." Fumiya couldn't breathe. A lump had formed in his throat. He didn't know what had happened. He followed him again and entered a room that looked more like a storage room, with junk that probably they didn't need. Fumiya had no idea if it was the right place to put his father's body or not. Mori walked through some cardboard and paper shelves and finally, from a shelf in the corner of the room, he picked up a small cloth bag and handed it to Fumiya.
The young alpha could see the now reddened sclera of Mori's eyes as he turned his head: "Here." Fumiya stepped forward with an uncertain expression and, while his shoulders raised, he grabbed the bag with his trembling hands and shook it slightly to determine its weight: "What is this?" As the bag shook, the contents inside made a sound like pieces of dry wood hitting each other. Mori stared at Fumiya for a moment and blinked rapidly: "Your father."
The brunette alpha looked at the bag in his hands in horror and then he dropped it. Mori stepped forward though and caught it in the air. Hearing the sound the contents made, Fumiya took a few steps back and instinctively covered his ears: "These are... his bones? No way. This is not my father!" Mori frowned at Fumiya's frightened and crying face and whispered: "The DNA test matches these to your father." Fumiya shook his head left and right several times in disgust and wiped the sweat from his forehead: "Where did you find him?" Mori frowned and ran his index finger under his eyelid to wipe away the teardrop that had gathered there: "In Yokohama. They did some digging to build a building... and..." He didn't continue. But the alpha in front of him understood the rest of the story: "They found human bones. So you figured out."
The old Omega closed his eyes in pain and shook his head. Instinctively, he pressed the bag in his arms to his chest and went to Fumiya: "Let's go downstairs and get you some water. You're very pale." And they went to the third floor of the building. To Mori's private office. Mori had even warned a few people not to let anyone into his office until Fumiya left the building. He poured him a glass of water and said he had some chocolates. Because Fumiya looked pale, shaky, and shocked. However, no matter how much the old army commander asked him to drink or eat something, Fumiya rejected all of them. Because he knew he would vomit them up. He was just sitting on a chair, hunched over as much as possible.
He was hugging himself with both arms and shivering. Mori frowned at his expression and rubbed his shoulder: "It's okay, son. Be happy. Now he has been found. At least you can bury him in the village at peace in his hometown." But the young alpha didn't react to these words. Instead, he raised his head and asked with a sob: "Do you know... what happened to my father?" Mori frowned and pulled back and took his hand from his shoulder. He tilted his head so that Fumiya couldn't see his face properly: "Well.. we.. we guess he was... buried alive."
"What?"
Mori lowered his head. He couldn't say those words again. With pain and a voice that sounded like it was coming out of a deep well, he said: "buried alive..." Fumiya coughed and covered his eyes. Mori began to speak with a long, drawn-out sigh: "We think this is related to one of our biggest operational failures that are currently covered up and no one has the documents. Fumiya, I shouldn't say such things. But I feel you need to know. But if your mother's life is important to you, don't tell anyone what you heard outside of this room." Fumiya licked his lower lip and asked tearfully: "What are you saying, Mori-san?"
"War has many policies, Fumiya-kun. And behind the dark curtains, the lives of millions of people are easily sacrificed to the greedy desires of politicians. The war is a mafia, Fumiya-kun.. And that was what took my husband and children from me. In the early days of the war, when there were many land mines laid along with the enemy's advances, no one defused the bombs. Instead, after identifying a certain number of them on the ground, they would send the same number of soldiers into the field to walk on the mines and explode them. In the first two years, we were unable to carry out any surprise attacks. Because there were many spies in the army and in the command room. I even identified three of them myself. When orders from politicians about the hours and days of operations came to us commanders, we would get confused. Because they didn't match our own information. Once, a commander who was one of my close friends refused to attack when he was ordered to. Because we had received news a few days earlier that the enemy was laying mines and deploying forces in that area. Although 24 years have passed since that incident, I don't know what happened to my friend. He disappeared during the night, and the next day a new commander arrived in the area and took control of the forces.
I must say that the new commander knew as little as a goat about war. Neither ground combat nor knowledge of attacks and war plans. It was clear that he was a puppet of the government and had come here to make sure that everyone followed orders. We had at least a hundred thousand casualties who could have survived. And worst of all, they were reducing our food and supplies day by day. Even our drinking water rations lasted for three weeks. During those difficult times someone robbed the rice warehouse. And guess who the robbers were... government agents! I still don't know why they did it and the background of their work is still unclear. Sometimes, when we found out that an operation had been leaked, the order came from above that the soldiers should go to war but the commanders should stay! I never understood how stupid someone could be to give such an order.
Fortunately, not even one of my operations had been leaked, but this happened to other Alphas a lot. And I saw with my own eyes that my friends' families were threatened for carrying out this plan! And on the other hand, we didn't have access to medical care. A government inspector came to our unit after a failed operation and I swear I saw he put a gun to the head of a doctor to save a soldier whose intestines had spilled out. No matter how many times that the doctor told him he could do nothing and that everything was dirty and without facilities. he didn't believe it and shouted if he doesn't help the soldier, he will die. In the end, the doctor had to pour the soldier's intestines into his stomach and stitch it up, but the soldier died after two months of infection. Fumiya-kun.. You cannot understand what I saw. The villagers will never understand my feelings. And as for your father.. I told him to come into my unit, but the units changed. And the soldiers too... some new different people came in my unit that I didn't know them because we didn't have enough soldiers and had to hire the teen alphas like you.
Your father was also one of the people who was transferred. I think he In the last operation, he was sent ahead to check the situation, to measure the number of enemy forces and their weapons.. But he trapped and they... well... buried him alive right there. And the commander soon realized he had failed. So he retreated."
Fumiya was listening to him with a frown, his head down. He was still hugging himself and his body was shaking. His crying had stopped, but sadness still gripped him. After Mori fell silent, he raised his head and gave a faint grin: "So it seems that what they said in our textbooks was a lie." And he lowered his head again. Mori frowned and leaned back in his chair: "I advise you not to spread these words to save your mother's life..." Fumiya let out a sigh and replied: "What kind of commander are you? You yourself say that no one can understand your feelings in that situation. So how can you remain silent? How can you remain silent about everything you have seen during this time? For all those hundred thousand people... not for all the soldiers who suffered in the war... for all the people of the country who suffered for eight years. For Atsushi-san's family... or my family... my mother used to stand in front of the bus stop every Sunday and waited, hoping to see my father in the crowd. Maybe he would come back. Or even for yourself... your child and husband were victims. Just because some people were in favor of the war. How can you remain silent?"
Mori ran a hand through his black hair in response and replied, "Do you think I don't want to reveal? Do you know what happened one day after the war ended? They gathered all of us commanders in a hall and said that you must confirm everything we say, otherwise you and your family will disappear. I wanted to reveal because I no longer cared what would happen to me. But I knew they might do something to you or your parents. You had just been born, Fumiya.. I couldn't risk your life." Fumiya raised his head angrily and stood up: "So you can't call yourself a commander! I can't stand that!" Mori raised an eyebrow and said, "Even if you want to reveal something.. do you have any proof? No.. Even the document of the operation that I commanded myself is hidden from me! You can't prove anything."
Fumiya gritted his teeth and clenched his fists: "So you expect me to just keep quiet and do nothing?" Mori lowered his head with a frown and whispered: "Take your father, go home and bury him respectfully with your mother. Then go back to your normal life... because we can't bring back the lives of those who perished along the way. Maybe everything is hidden now. But we can't fix the past. And the truth remains the truth. It never gets old. It never changes. Maybe not now, but in twenty or thirty years, these truths will be revealed. And history, even if it can be corrected, will still reveal the truth ... sooner or later."
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Haru sat down next to Fumiya, who was still tightly hugging the white bag that he didn't even dare to open, and rubbed his back. Although he was ignored and Fumiya didn't make the slightest move. The young omega frowned:"Fumiya... don't act like that. My father was killed too. Right at the end of the war celebration. Our mothers left us in a kidcare center and and came back crying. All my hopes as a seven-year-old child to see his father again were dashed. I understand you, so please don't be so withdrawn. Besides, I think you've been hurt less. Because you've never seen Dazai-san. Experiencing something and losing it is harder than losing something you never had." Fumiya still didn't answer, causing Haru to lower his head in remorse and say: "I'm sorry. I'm terrible at comforting. Sometimes I forget that you and your mother didn't know about Dazai-san's death."
Fumiya's eyes widened upon hearing this. He quickly raised his head and asked in horror with surprise: "What? .." Haru lowered his shoulders with a loud sigh and hunched over: "Well .. my aunt gave birth to you. Right when you were born, Chuuya-san felt pain in the area of his neck's attachment. He said he couldn't breathe and after a few minutes he went into heat. Heat is normal for omegas after giving birth .. but not right after the baby is born! My aunt noticed at first but decided not to tell Chuuya-san about it. When Chuuya-san kept saying that he couldn't breathe and that he could taste dirt in his mouth, her suspicion turned into certainty. You know .. the mates can feel the pain of their mates when they die. And then they go into extreme heat because their attachment and bond is broken and this process is needed to regenerate the copulatory gland."
Fumiya gasped a little upon hearing these words and shook his head in disbelief a few times. He turned left and right: "How could you do this to my mother? " Haru shrugged:" Do you think why I was always supporting you in the school? Or why my mom was always helping your mother? He always told me to shut my mouth. I wanted to tell you about this million times."
Fumiya frowned and clenched his teeth angrily for a while. Then he said :"You know... When I was a kid, my mother always took me to the bus stop on Sundays and made me sit by there and wait all day. He told me that one day, Dad might get off the bus and we had to go meet him. We waited all day and I kept whining. But no matter how much I cried or screamed in anger, I couldn't stop him. He said we had to wait. Even when I got older... he still did this. And sometimes I didn't join him on the weekends, but he would go every week. Every week, he would cook Dad's favorite food. he would sweep the house and tidy up the plants in our garden. He said that if Dad came and saw that the home is not clean and we are not ready for his return, would be upset. He still doesn't talk to stranger alphas because he says Dad will be upset. How could you hide something like this from us for 18 years?!" Haru shrugged again, "Well, if we had said anything, Chuuya-san would have either been very depressed or wouldn't have believed us. During this time, we kept hope alive in your family. Believe me, our intention was only to help you. And now you can go and tell Chuuya-san everything yourself."
Fumiya blinked several times and said in a thick voice :"How can I go back and tell my mother that there are only a few bones left of the Alpha he's been waiting for these 18 years? These bones were alive, Haru.. They were a human.." Haru lowered his head with a frown and pressed his lips like a thin line: "Oh.. well.. I think he deserves to finish what he was waiting for." Fumiya nodded and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye: "Okay.."
Then he picked up his phone and called his mother. Although at first he didn't say anything about what had happened to him. He just asked how he was. However, right in the middle of his mother's speech, he lost his patience and interrupted Chuuya: "mo... Mother.." Chuuya coughed into the phone and answered in a dry voice: "What? You're eighteen now! I don't see the need to remind you that you shouldn't interrupt your mother!"
However, Fumiya didn't hear his sentence. He just glanced at Haru who was raising his thumb in support. Then he took a deep breath and said, "They... found Dad..." For almost three full minutes, it was silent on the other end of the line and Fumiya called out to Chuuya several times. After a while, the red-haired omega asked in a shaky tone, "What?... Did you see him?" Fumiya shook his head from the other end of the phone and swallowed. He knew that his mother couldn't see him, but he knew him well enough to feel his head move. Chuuya shouted in a loud, happy tone, "Oh! I can't believe it! He's with you now? Where is he? Give him the phone! I want to talk to him!" Fumiya swallowed in response, "He...he..."
But couldn't finish his sentence. He didn't want to do that to his mother. Haru was right. How would Chuuya really feel if he found out that all his waiting had been in vain? Chuuya had told him that he had opposed his father's going to the battlefield at first and they always fought because of this. until their village was besieged and he had to accept that his father would leave. How would he feel if he knew? He certainly felt guilty. Because he himself had sent him to the battlefield for a brighter hope and future... but all this was an empty dream. Fate was cruel and didn't bring blessings to anyone. After all, the war never had a good result. His mother always said that war would comes, kills and goes. But even with his departure, the situation wouldn't improve. That made the words die in his mouth: "He's resting."
Although Chuuya didn't quite understand what he meant: "Oh, okay, don't wake him up.. Is he okay? Is he having a problem? Is he amputated? Is he sick?" Fumiya swallowed the lump forming in his throat before answering and closed his eyes tightly: "No.. He's fine.. " Chuuya's tone was even more cheerful than before: "It's wonderful! What a happy news! I told you he'd come back one day. Didn't I? But you didn't believe me.. You two have to come here. Get back on the first bus right now. Oh, we have to celebrate!" Fumiya covered his mouth while sobbing: "No.. no, he wants to come home peacefully."
"It's impossible! After 18 years, he's decided to get his stupid ass up and come back! I'll go and tell Atsushi right now! When he wakes up, get up and come as soon as you can. I'm waiting." And without any further explanation, he hung up the phone.
Fin~
The pictures are down here if you don't want to see them, just pass them.
