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Kiryu looked up and locked eyes with her. Kaoru Sayama. She walked down a row of graves, her arms full with an enormous bouquet of flowers. She moved with that sense of urgency and purpose which Kiryu had come to know. Even here, amongst the dead, she would not slow down.
Date clapped Kiryu on the shoulder, smiling slyly, then made his quick exit. Haruka stood up from Terada’s grave and joined Kiryu as Sayama reached him. He gazed down at her, enjoying her looks. Not in a shallow way, but in true appreciation of the woman he was willing to die with.
He didn’t know where they would or could go from there. After everything they’d been through together, Kiryu wasn’t sure how they could scratch out a normal life together.
“Hello,” she said, smiling at Haruka before meeting Kiryu’s eyes again. “It’s been a while.”
“Yeah.” Kiryu wasn’t sure what else to say. He hadn’t seen Sayama since Terada’s funeral–his true funeral, that is. It had been a few weeks. They’d exchanged a few text messages, but it was clear to Kiryu that she wasn’t sure where to go either.
“A little bird told me you and Haruka-chan were visiting Terada-san today,” she said. “Thought I would pay my respects too.” She shifted the flowers in her arms.
“Thank you,” Kiryu said. He reached forward to take the bouquet. “This is generous.”
Kaoru nodded, a tinge of guilt in her eyes before admitting, “I didn’t pay for it.” The incense Haruka had lit was almost out, so Kaoru lit some more as Kiryu arranged the bouquet on the grave. He stepped away as Kaoru knelt at the grave and prayed, returning to Haruka.
Haruka smiled when he put a hand on her head. “Ojiisan, you should ask her to come with us to dinner,” Haruka whispered.
“You think so?” Kiryu asked, tilting his head.
Haruka nodded. “Date-san said to tell you.”
Of course, Kiryu thought. He shook his head, but when Kaoru rose, his attention snapped to her. She smiled and returned to the small group, her hands clasped in front of her. Haruka grabbed Kiryu’s hand and squeezed with surprising force for such a small child.
“Sayama-san,” he said haltingly. She looked up at him with those big doe eyes. “Haruka and I were going to have dinner,” he started. He paused, thinking how he might ask her to join them, but her eyes shifted away from Kiryu’s face to behind him, her expression changing to surprise.
“Ryuji!” she said. Kiryu turned to see the man himself, sauntering by the graves, moving in a form and fashion the complete opposite of his sister. Sayama passed by Kiryu and met her brother. “I didn’t know you were discharged from the hospital.”
He shrugged, grinning. “Cuz I didn’t tell ya,” he said.
“I could have come and got you,” Sayama said.
“You think I can’t navigate a city on my own?” he asked, his tone curiously light, teasing, which sounded strange in his deep voice.
“Far as I know, you’ve been driven around by other people most of your life.”
That made Ryuji laugh, a belly-deep sound that left his eyes shining. He nodded to Kiryu. “Course I’d find you two together.”
Sayama muttered something Kiryu couldn’t hear, not that he was trying. One sight of Ryuji up and walking had him on edge. The last time the two men had been together, Ryuji, riddled with bullet holes, had been pummeling Kiryu with everything he had left. He’d nearly died.
Kiryu’s gaze traveled down Ryuji’s wide chest to his right arm. He was wearing that same fur-lined beige duster Kiryu had seen him in before, but the right sleeve was empty. It’d been rolled up a bit so it didn’t flap unbecomingly. Sayama had been the one to tell Kiryu that Ryuji had pulled through, but he’d damaged his right arm so badly it had to be amputated at the elbow. She’d sent the news via text message, which made Kiryu feel odd. That seemed like something he should have heard in person.
But he hadn’t gone to the hospital. He wasn’t sure he’d be welcomed there. When Sayama wasn’t at work, she had been there, getting to know the brother she’d never known she had. That was one reason why she and Kiryu had hardly spoken since that night.
Haruka let go of Kiryu and approached Sayama and Ryuji. They both looked down at her, but Haruka’s eyes were on Ryuji. “Sir,” she said, her voice quiet but steady, “I never thanked you for helping to save me from that castle. I want to thank you now.” She bowed carefully.
Ryuji’s face shifted from confusion to recollection. “Oh, yeah,” he said, laughter in his voice again. Kiryu could hardly recognize this man. Could this be the same Ryuji Goda who had caused an explosion in the Millennium Tower? The same Ryuji Goda who had promised Kiryu that he’d end his life and claim the title of Dragon? Perhaps their mutual headbutt–one which had given Kiryu a concussion, he’d discovered afterward–had rearranged something in Ryuji’s head. “What’s your name again, kid?”
“Haruka,” she said, looking up at him again.
“Haruka-chan,” he said, grinning again. “You’re very welcome.”
Kiryu finally approached, taking Haruka’s hand. Ryuji met his eyes. One of the only men Kiryu had met that he had to look up at. Up close, Kiryu could still see it: the fire that burned in those eyes. Not hatred, not even anger, which Kiryu had seen before, but there was still something in them that told Kiryu this would not be the last time he’d see Ryuji Goda. “You look well, Goda-san.”
“Kiryu-san!” Ryuji said. “I was wonderin’ when you’d stop skulking back there.”
“I was sorry to hear you lost your arm,” Kiryu continued, relying on manners to get through this.
Ryuji glanced down at what remained of his right arm. “Yeah, you should be!” he said. “It’s your fault.” Kiryu grimaced, unsure what to say in response to that, but Ryuji just laughed. “I’ll get my payback one day, so you better be ready, eh?”
“Are you seriously challenging Kiryu-san to a fight?” Sayama said, folding her arms over her chest.
Ryuji looked down at her. “Course I am! This is the only man who’s ever beaten me! You think I can just let that go?”
“And how are you going to beat him with one arm?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said with a shrug. Sayama sighed and shook her head, throwing her hands up. Kiryu couldn’t help the smile that played at his lips. They were so friendly, so sibling-like already. He was happy Sayama was able to have this, after everything.
“Goda-san,” Kiryu spoke up, “I was just about to invite Sayama-san to dinner with me and Haruka. Would you both like to join us?”
Sayama’s eyes widened, and she smiled. Ryuji grinned and clapped his hand on Kiryu’s back. “Look at that! Your treat, eh, Kiryu-san? Where we goin’?” He looked at Haruka, releasing Kiryu. “What’s your favorite meal, Haruka-chan?”
“Soba!” Haruka answered eagerly. “The cold kind, not the hot kind.”
“Cold soba! Sounds refreshing!”
“Soba is it,” Kiryu said. Haruka and Ryuji led the way out of the cemetery, Haruka chatting Ryuji’s ear off, as Kiryu walked beside Sayama. He glanced down at her and caught her smile as she watched Ryuji and Haruka.
There was so much that was uncertain. Kiryu wasn’t sure where he would go from here, nor what the Tojo Clan would need from him. Sayama was still a policewoman, and she had no intention of giving that up. And who knew where Ryuji stood with the Omi at this point, or what his legal status was. He had been responsible for several crimes, after all.
But that didn’t matter. What truly mattered was they were alive, together, and they would, as Ryuji said, figure it out.