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Satoru didn’t know how he survived a fall that high, but he did. Fuzzy and numb, he woke up again in a car trunk. He could hardly move so when Ogino opened the trunk lid again, he played dead. There wasn’t anyone or anything to live for anymore, but he didn’t want to die around this fuckhead and wherever this was.
There was a ringing in Satoru’s ears when Ogino threw him in a corner for a clean-up team to do the dirty work. He could hear him talking to them distantly before the car drove off again. The clean-up guys were lazy, tough. The sound of their steps receded and they went somewhere inside.
When everything was silent, Satoru opened his eyes. He was at a junk yard in an open shack. There was another male body. Maybe they waited for more deliveries to get rid of them all at once.
Satoru wouldn’t stay to find out. This would not be his end. Not this dirty shithole. He forced his ruined body up with his last will power and found a way out of the compound.
Distantly he noticed blood seeping out of his thigh. His vision got darker with every step, but when he reached a street, there was suddenly a light. It was as bright as his memories of Ayumi. Satoru sank down on his knees.
There was someone getting out of a car and a voice. But Satoru couldn’t listen anymore. He closed his eyes and thought of nothing but her.
And then he opened them again. In a damn hospital. Would this life never end?
Ayumi had been full of life and love, she would have wanted him to stay alive. He could imagine her scolding tirade not to throw away a second chance word for word. Her beautiful face would have been hard with unwavering determination. There was no joy in living anymore, the guilt of causing her death teared his insides to shreds. But Satoru tried anyway. He wanted her to be proud of him when they met again.
He weaseled himself out of the police investigations by claiming memory loss and recovered most of his broken bones. The feeling to his right side returned and he even managed to walk without a walking aid again. The doctors had told him repeatedly how lucky he was. Satoru didn’t feel lucky, but Ayumi would have put her hands on her hips and told him to pull himself together with challenging eyes.
The fact that he healed and kept doing so even after he was released from the hospital showed him that the organization didn’t know that he had survived. If they had known, he would have been long dead by now. So the clean-up team must have kept their mouths shut to cover their own asses. Lucky indeed.
Over a year of mindless traveling and picking up odd but legal jobs here and there passed. Absolutely sure now that no pursuers were on his tail, Satoru decided to reconnect with his only living relative he knew about. With newly forged papers – just to be extra safe – he flew to Okinawa to meet his great aunt, her husband and their little pug. Satoru knew that Okinawa was famous for the longevity of their population. But the vitality and joy the couple still had with almost 90 years was nearly contagious.
After his great aunt Hana had cooked up a storm for them for lunch, Satoru walked the dog with her while her husband was having his usual afternoon nap. He wished he could have had something like this with Ayumi.
With the pug well behaved on the leash they strolled down the walkway at the beach. Something inside Satoru eased at the beautiful sight of the sea, the calls of the seagulls, the sunny weather, the palm trees and the fresh air – all things he never had been able to appreciate until Ayumi showed him how.
There was the laughter of a child and then a little girl shouted, “Rei-papa, look! I found another one!”
Hana tugged his arm that she had linked with hers, “Oh! That’s the family of the diner we go to on Fridays.” – She steered them over to the kid and a man with an arm orthosis. – “Hello Kurusu-san, Miri-chan! How are you doing?”
Adrenaline rushed through every part of Satoru’s body. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The man that had been lovingly smiling at the girl was Rei Suwa. The perfect weapon looking all soft and happy. The last time he’d seen him Suwa’s face had been contorted in shock and he’d been reaching out for him as if to save him from the fall.
The moment Suwa recognized him his face became blank, his eyes calculating. Satoru still knew him so could see the vague signs that he was tensing up, ready for battle. He was sure Suwa was just as menacing with one arm. Not like Satoru was any threat anymore with his bad leg and frail upper body.
Hana and little Miri didn’t notice their highly charged looks. The girl chattered excitedly, “Hello, obaa-san! Papa and I are looking for white stones and seashells to paint on. We already found this many!”
She held up a little plastic bucket with said goods. When the pug nudged her leg with a wagging tail, she giggled “Hi, Umi!” and petted his head. Then the dog hurried over to Suwa. He glanced at Satoru then crouched down to pet the dog, so Umi would leave him alone.
Satoru couldn’t help but to notice that the crouched down position could also be a good starting point for an attack. Nevertheless Satoru’s adrenaline level sank again. This wasn’t Suwa on some weird kind of undercover job. This was him with his real daughter. The wariness and protectiveness in his eyes said it all.
If Suwa was free from the organization’s clutches, too – he had to be, otherwise this wouldn’t be allowed – and if he really reached out for him to stop the fall, then he was no threat to Satoru. His memories of their fight were hazy and tinged by the rage that he’d held for the organization and by extension Suwa at that moment. But he was sure Suwa had lowered his gun…
Hana’s eyes wrinkled with her smile. “My, my, that are truly a lot! I’m sure they’ll look lovely after you painted them.”
Miri thanked her with a broad grin. “Are you coming to the diner? Kazuki-papa made brownies today!”
“That sounds delicious, but right now I’m showing my great nephew Satoru a bit around. He came all the way from Osaka to visit us.” Satoru had no idea why that was a reason to be proud, but that was what she sounded like.
Before the tension that was definitely building up in Suwa could worsen, Satoru butted in, using the new name he’d just heard, “This is a really funny coincidence, Kurusu-san and I actually know each other.”
Hana’s eyes became big, “You do?”
Satoru smiled as honest as he could nowadays. First at Hana, then at Rei, “Yeah, we used to be colleagues a long time ago.”
Miri looked at him curiously and asked loudly, “Were you an oil baron, too?”
The corner of Suwa’s mouth twitched and he tousled Miri’s hair. Hana laughed. Satoru had told her that he had work in banking before losing his wife so whatever this weird question was, it luckily fit.
Suwa’s voice was still reserved as always but not completely void of inflection anymore, “You’re not still working there, are you?”
Are you here to kill or cause trouble? was what he’d really asked.
Satoru shook his head, “I think the boss would rather off me before he’d hired me again.” – He faked a chuckle for Hana, but Suwa knew he was being honest. – “I have absolutely no intention to go back to that line of work.”
Suwa nodded, still wary but less tense. Hana looked at Satoru with concern. “That sounds horrible. I didn’t know that job ended badly.”
Satoru patted her arm with his free hand. “It’s okay. I had a big disagreement with the boss because my values didn’t align with the company’s anymore. But Kurusu-san kind of saved me at the end.”
Suwa frowned but nodded. Hana looked admiringly at him, “That’s nice to hear–“ She was interrupted by a man calling Suwa’s and Miri’s names from out of the mentioned diner on the other side of the street. – “Oh, don’t let us keep you.”
They exchanged some pleasantries and in parting Suwa told him seriously, “You know where the diner is if you want to catch up.”
Satoru came back alone a few hours later. His eyes met Suwa’s through the glass front and he nodded to him with a tilt of his head that made him come outside. Satoru really didn’t want to sit down for a talk about the past. Besides, his leg was bothering him again, he’d rather not bend it right now.
He went to the side of the diner to light up a cigarette. When Suwa joined him, he offered him one, but he shook his head. There was yellow and green paint on his clothes.
Satoru skipped the small talk and came right to it, “It really is a coincidence. I didn’t know you were here. I’m trying to live as low-key as possible to stay undetected.”
Rei glanced around to make sure no one was too close. “How did you survive? Even Ogino thought you were dead.”
“Just lucky. Played dead and got away before the clean-ups did their job.” – He took a pull on his cigarette. – “Did you give him my last words?”
Satoru tried to remember them but came up blank. His only memories were of Suwa’s panicked face and looking up to the sky to think of Ayumi.
“Of course not. And we burned the book along with him.”
Something inside Satoru eased. If Ayumi’s words had been in there, they were free now. Suwa’s expression was surprising – there was anger clearly in his eyes. He’d always used to kill completely detached, just a soulless puppet. All the flickers of emotions Satoru had seen in the short time today were a huge contrast to that. And Suwa had said ‘we’, huh? “You really changed a lot.”
His face switched to determination. “Just like you said, I have something worth protecting.”
A pang of sadness shot through Satoru, Suwa had really done what he hadn’t been able to. Satoru nodded gravely. “So you really managed to leave the organization. What about your family’s legacy?”
Suwa’s expression became hard. “I don’t know and I don’t care. I made it very clear to my father that I’m not coming back.”
No way in hell had it been as easy as he made it sound. But Satoru had never grasped the relationship between Suwa and his father and it didn’t concern him now, either.
He took another, deep drag on his cigarette. It’s been eleven, maybe twelve years since he’d been introduced to Suwa. Comparing the memories of his teenaged face to the present one somehow made the passage of time so much more real. “I’ve never had an ordinary life, but meeting you again like this right now – it’s somehow the most bizarre moment.”
For a second Suwa smiled wryly, “It is.” And for the first time since the fall Satoru really felt understood.
Then Suwa added, “Are you planning to move here?”
That question was unexpected. But it must have seemed like that with Hana showing him around her neighborhood. “I haven’t thought about it.”
“It’s a nice place. No one asks too many questions.” And it was faraway, too, Satoru mused.
His leg ached and his heart missed Ayumi’s excitement for exploring new places. He stumped out the half-smoked cigarette in his portable ashtray. “I’ll let you know if I do.”
Satoru had said a lot of things to Suwa during the years he had been training him – mind the recoil, widen your stance, watch out for your blind spot. But he didn’t think “Take care.” had ever been among them. That was what he said, though, before he gave him a nod and went back to his relatives’ home.