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“A tragedy need not have blood and death; it’s enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.”
- Jean Racine
None of the brothers ever really pay much attention to Jyushimatsu as he enthusiastically marches out the house in the mornings and marches back in in the evenings—it’s routine, it’s normal, it’s just a thing that happens on the days he’s free and if that’s what Jyushimatsu wants to do, they’re happy to let him. He comes back covered in dirt and grime and they have to remind him to take his bath or he’ll forget, but it’s routine and it’s normal and none of them ever complain. He leaves at the same time, and, unless he’s made plans in advance, arrives home at the same time.
It’s a Tuesday evening when he doesn’t without warning. Todomatsu, taking advantage of his day off, lounges around the house with his phone and the TV on while Ichimatsu plays with ESP Kitty. The sun has been setting for a while, and there’s a tension left hanging in the air; they aren’t sure why until Todomatsu’s eyes flick up to the time at the top and notices it says 6:50, a whole twenty minutes after when Jyushimatsu would usually arrive back home.
The youngest stares at the time for a while, tries to remember if Jyushimatsu made any mention of going somewhere, but fails. Sitting up, he turns to watch Ichimatsu gently stroking the cat for a few seconds – his spare hand is rhythmically drumming into the floor. “Hey, Ichimatsu-nii-san?” A hum of acknowledgement. “Did Jyushimatsu-nii-san say he was going anywhere else after training to you?” The drumming and petting stops.
“…No.” Droopy eyes glance up before quickly returning to their original spot on the floor. Todomatsu doesn’t miss the way his bottom lip moves as he manoeuvres his teeth to bite nervously into his gum. A silence passes before he speaks again, “He should be home by now.” Ichimatsu looks no different to how he usually does, but it isn’t hard for the sextuplet to see the worry the other is feeling.
“Yeah,” Todomatsu eventually says. “He should.” Jyushimatsu doesn’t have a phone, but even if he did, Todomatsu had little doubt he would be too into his training to even realise it was ringing. Although Osomatsu is the oldest, Choromatsu is the first of the sextuplets he tries to phone – if they had a problem, he would be able to give suitable orders faster than Osomatsu would.
“Todomatsu?” The usual nickname isn’t there, replaced by his full name and a confused and worried tone—not exactly a surprise, considering in all the time they’ve had each other’s numbers, Todomatsu has only ever really phoned in an emergency. “Is something wrong?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Before Choromatsu can speak again, he continues, “Listen, did Jyushimatsu-nii-san tell you that he had made plans for today at all?”
“No, I don’t think so. Why?”
“It’s almost seven and he’s still not home.”
“Maybe he just… Maybe he just forgot to tell us? Or maybe he’s just gotten carried away with his training? Or maybe he just got distracted by something else?” Todomatsu knew as well as his usually level-headed brother that he didn’t believe any of the words he had just spoken.
“You know he’s never late, Choromatsu-nii-san. And we always stress to him to tell us if he’s going somewhere – he wouldn’t just forget.” Ichimatsu is looking over by now but Todomatsu pretends he hasn’t noticed.
“Have you asked anyone else?”
“Ichimatsu-nii-san. But that’s just because he’s here right now. He said that he hasn’t been told anything, though.”
“Right. Right, okay,” Choromatsu repeats to himself. A few seconds pass of Todomatsu nervously rubbing his hoodie underneath his fingers, before the third oldest continues. “Is it just Ichimatsu that’s at home right now?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m on my way back just now, but I’ll be passing by where Jyushimatsu usually finishes his training. I’ll phone the others, so you just wait there with Ichimatsu in case he comes home, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Also, I don’t want to doubt him, but can you try talking again to Ichimatsu and make sure he’s not hiding something from us? I don’t think he would, but if Jyushimatsu wanted to keep something secret, my guess is that he would tell him.”
“Wait, what?! But Jyushimatsu-nii-san wouldn’t—“
“He might. Have you already forgotten what happened with Homura?” Todomatsu bites the inside of his lip as he quietly answers no. “And you saw where that got him. So, can you do that for me?”
“Yeah.” It comes out even quieter.
“Good. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.” And the older hangs up. Ichimatsu is looking at Todomatsu with expectant eyes and all the youngest can do is look away in guilt. Doubting Ichimatsu about something so serious isn’t something he wants to do – doubting Jyushimatsu is even worse. He nervously stares down at his phone as he considers what to do. Should he do what Choromatsu asked or should he leave it? If Jyushimatsu came home anyway, what would it matter what he did?
But what if he doesn’t come home?
“Todomatsu.” He realises he has to decide when Ichimatsu calls his name. “What did Choromatsu tell you?” Brown eyes flutter upwards to the quiet brother. Todomatsu spends a while staring at Ichimatsu as he weighs his decisions. When Ichimatsu prompts him again, he speaks.
“Ichimatsu-nii-san, are you sure Jyushimatsu-nii-san didn’t say anything to you?” He doesn’t go for subtle, doesn’t go for beating around the bush, he decides to just outright ask him: if he wants Ichimatsu to be honest, he needs to be honest as well.
“Yes, I’m sure,” the other quietly snaps, eyes lowering into a murderous glare—Todomatsu’s heart rate begins to increase but he keeps his gaze steady.
“Definitely?”
“Yes, definitely!” Ichimatsu looks guilty after raising his voice, and slowly begins petting the cat again. “What is this about, Todomatsu?”
“Choromatsu-nii-san told me to make sure you weren’t hiding anything, that if Jyushimatsu-nii-san had something he wanted to keep quiet, you’re one of the people he would trust he could tell.” The guilt that Ichimatsu showed disappears the minute he hears the accusation.
“And you believe him?! Why would I keep something quiet when Jyushimatsu could be in trouble?!” Ichimatsu is standing up now, ESP Kitty having scurried off after losing its bed.
“I didn’t say I believed him. I just told you what he said.” Ichimatsu goes quiet. “He’s just covering all the bas—“ Realising his poor word choice, Todomatsu quickly changes. “Just making sure he’s covered everything. He said that we have to stay here in case he comes back. He’s calling everyone else, and he’ll be passing by the river on the way here, so he can see if Jyushimatsu-nii-san is there.”
It takes time before Ichimatsu finally sits down again. As worried as Todomatsu is, he knows that the bond between Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu is far bigger than any of the other sextuplets. “I’m sure he’s fine, Ichimatsu-nii-san.” No response. “How about some tea? Tea’s always nice to have when you’re stressed.” Still more silence. Todomatsu sinks back into the floor in defeat.
Despite how long they’ve lived together, the youngest can’t think of how to cheer up Ichimatsu, how to reassure him, and it’s painful. He may not keep his brothers informed about his life, may ignore them if he has girls around him, may say things for his own selfishness, but at the end of the day, he doesn’t want to see them in pain, whether emotional or physical. He plays with Jyushimatsu enough that he knows how to deal with him, but Ichimatsu is a completely different ball-ga—
Ichimatsu is a completely different story.
Stop being such a downer! After slapping himself as hard as he can, Todomatsu pushes himself onto his feet. Ichimatsu is watching him in curiosity now. “I’m gonna set up Jenga so we can play it when Jyushimatsu-nii-san gets back and you’re helping me whether you want to or not.”
“But—“
“No buts! You’re helping me.”
Ichimatsu stares as Todomatsu marches out the room, before letting a small smile appear on his face. With a sigh, he stands and follows him to their room.
By the time Choromatsu finishes phoning the rest of the brothers – Osomatsu was hysteric and Karamatsu had swapped his poetic speech for rational thinking, but neither knew anything – he’s nearing the area of the riverbank where he would usually find Jyushimatsu. If it were one of the brothers, he would just assume they had decided to go elsewhere for the night before returning home and so would just leave them to their own devices. But Jyushimatsu wouldn’t do that without direction from one of the others and a message is always left if someone does so.
When he crosses the bridge, he doesn’t expect to see Jyushimatsu, but off in the distance is a blob of yellow and brown, and at first he thinks it’s something else until he sees the familiar uniform in more detail. “Jyushimatsu!” he calls over with a scolding, yet frantic tone as he slides down the slope and begins to run over with groceries in hand. The usually bright Matsuno is hunched over and Choromatsu doesn’t want to think the worst.
At the call of his name, Jyushimatsu immediately looks up and the fear that Choromatsu sees in his eyes stops him in his tracks—and something else. Blood is spread along the second youngest’s bottom lip and over part of his chin, and his left eye is beginning to swell up. There are cuts on his cheeks he notices, and on his hands, too, which are tightly holding something that Jyushimatsu immediately hides behind his back when he sees his older brother coming towards him.
“Jyushimatsu?! What happened to you?!” He steps closer, but every time he does, Jyushimatsu steps back—so he stops.
“I fell!” is the only answer he gives, mouth pulled into its usual wide-open smile. “It really hurt, too… But I’m okay!” Jyushimatsu’s clothes being covered in dirt is nothing new, but when Choromatsu really looks, he’s pretty sure those foot-shaped marks aren’t just coincidence.
“Jyushimatsu…” Choromatsu mutters sadly, hand reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. He doesn’t push Jyushimatsu, knows he’s so honest that if he isn’t telling them something, it’s something he really doesn’t want them to know, but he decides to text Todomatsu about the circumstances so that they can get Jyushimatsu patched up and comfortable as soon as they get back. “How about we head back home now?” Choromatsu suggests, expecting the other to happily agree, but what he gets back instead is a frantic shake of the head. “We can go back home and then we can get you washed up.” More frantic shakes of the head as tears begin to pour over.
Choromatsu’s never been good at comforting people and he panics the minute he sees his brother cry, but regardless, he quickly moves over and places an awkward hand on Jyushimatsu’s shoulder as he tries to see what’s wrong. “Did something happen? Why do you not want to go home?”
“I got it broken! I got the bat broken!” he wails as he pulls round what he had been trying to hide earlier. “And I can’t fix it!” In his hands is the bat that Todomatsu had bought for him last month as a present after Jyushimatsu had broken his last one from a mix of overuse and by hitting one of the wooden supports too hard while stupidly swinging the bat inside the house. Admittedly, it had been a cheap one, but it had certainly lasted him a while. There’s cellotape wrapped messily around various parts of the wood, and when Choromatsu looks down, he sees the cellotape and scissors still in the grass.
Has he been trying to sort this the whole time?
“I went to the shop to get some cellotape and some scissors with some spare money I had so I could try and fix it, but it isn’t working,” he mutters more quietly, dejectedly letting the bat fall to the ground.
What perhaps bugs Choromatsu most about the whole thing is the word choice. He got it broken? Not he broke it? Jyushimatsu wasn’t necessarily the most intellectual of the six, but he didn’t make such simple language mistakes. “Todomatsu won’t be angry at you, I promise,” he tells him, knowing that’s what’s frightening him. “But can you tell me what happened?”
“I was practicing my swings like I usually do, but then these guys got angry at me, saying I was playing on their field, even though I train there all the time, and they started hitting me and then they broke my bat,” he mumbles, voice becoming more choked as he continues. Jyushimatsu has never been the most eloquent at telling stories, but at the very least, Choromatsu knows what he needs to know without having to stand around for a while. Although he doesn't know the specifics, Jyushimatsu could be injured more than he was letting on and he really didn’t want to risk it.
At the same time though, Choromatsu knows he can't just take Jyushimatsu to the hospital right now – the younger wouldn’t take it well. We’ll just have to watch him tonight and make an appointment for tomorrow.
“What happened then, Jyushimatsu?” Choromatsu prompts, trying to make sure that there isn’t anything more.
But there is.
“They broke Totty’s bat, so I wanted to break them.” Choromatsu’s heart leaps into his throat at the words coming out of Jyushimatsu’s mouth, but it soon settles once he continues, “But they ran away once I started to hit them back.” As upset as he is at the whole situation, Choromatsu is simply happy that their kindest is safe and, though not unharmed, at least not horribly injured. He’ll get angry later, once he makes sure Jyushimatsu is feeling better.
And he won’t be getting angry at Jyushimatsu.
With his phone now out, Choromatsu scrolls to Todomatsu’s name, and begins typing a text: ‘Todomatsu, I need you to get the medical kit out and ready. I’ve got Jyushimatsu, but I think some guys did something to him. I don’t know the details, but from what I can see, he’s not too badly injured. I’ll be making an appointment to bring him to the hospital tomorrow. It’d be great if you could forward the message onto Osomatsu and Karamatsu once they get back if they aren’t already. Also, his bat ended up breaking, and he’s really upset about it, so I’ll need you to reassure him once we get back.’ After reading over what he’s typed, he presses the send button, and focuses his attention back on Jyushimatsu.
“Let’s go back and get you patched up, okay?” At the reluctance on Jyushimatsu’s face, Choromatsu adds, “Todomatsu’s really worried about you, you know? He won’t care about the bat—and it wasn’t your fault, anyway. Okay?” Finally, the boy nods, and with a reassuring smile, Choromatsu pats him on the back and they head on their way—the middle brother tries his hardest to ignore the way that Jyushimatsu is limping.
When Todomatsu receives the message, Osomatsu is just coming in the door. He can hear him quickly taking off his shoes and running to the living room, but when he slides open the shoji, the lack of Jyushimatsu leads him to deflate. Karamatsu had arrived a few minutes previously, after they had finished setting up the Jenga and had begun doing their own thing again - in silence. He hadn’t tried any stupid gags or ‘cool’ one-liners. He had simply walked in, sat down, and leaned against the wall.
“Has Choromatsu said anything yet?” Osomatsu asks as he dejectedly walks across the floor and slides under the kotatsu.
“I just got a text from him there.” Ichimatsu and Karamatsu both perk up as Todomatsu stands. “He’s got Jyushimatsu-nii-san but he’s been hurt, so I need to go grab the first aid kit and get it all ready.”
“If you’re getting the first aid kit, that means it isn’t that bad, right?” Ichimatsu asks, desperation clear, as quietly as he’s speaking.
“You know that Jyushimatsu-nii-san wouldn’t take going straight to the hospital very well. Choromatsu-nii-san is willing to put it off for a day, so I don’t think it’s that bad. He thinks some guys did something to him, though. Broke his bat as well.”
“What?!” The two oldest voice their outrage as they stand up, fists clenched and eyes blazing anger. Ichimatsu is quiet, but the aura emanating from him is clearly anger. Todomatsu doesn’t feed it.
“Judging from what Choromatsu-nii-san told me, Jyushimatsu-nii-san is pretty upset about getting the bat broken. I don’t want him coming back to such a negative atmosphere if he’s already sad, so I think you should all rein it in a little.” That’s all Todomatsu says as he walks out toward the bathroom.
Osomatsu immediately rushes to the entrance when he hears the front door slide open and shut. When he sees Jyushimatsu taking his shoes off while hugging the broken bat to himself, the oldest’s heart breaks. It isn’t often they see the boy look so crestfallen, but when they do, they all hurt. “Are you okay, Jyushimatsu?” he asks as he walks over to them, bending down to help him take off his shoes.
“Yeah,” Jyushimatsu replies, heart not totally into it. Osomatsu glances up and wishes he hadn’t. Choromatsu had said that he was hurt, but actually seeing the cuts and bruises in person made him want to strangle whoever had done it. For the sake of keeping the other calm, he turns his head back down, and focuses on unlacing the trainers.
“That’s good. We were worried about you, you know.”
“I’m sorry.”
Karamatsu, Todomatsu and Ichimatsu are standing by the door to the living area, watching as Jyushimatsu stands up and turns towards them. They try their hardest not to react, but Osomatsu doesn’t miss the way they flinch when they see him.
“Why don’t you come in here and we’ll get you patched up?” Todomatsu suggests with a smile on his face, gesturing at him to come. When Jyushimatsu hesitates to walk over, the youngest’s eyes fill with pity—he knows exactly what is making the boy hesitate.
With a reassuring smile on his face, Todomatsu manoeuvres between Karamatsu and Ichimatsu and stops in front of him. “I know that the bat I bought you got broken, Jyushimatsu-nii-san.” When the other’s eyes begin to fill with tears as he brings the bat round in front of him again, Todomatsu quickly continues, “But I know it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” He leans down slightly to look into the down-turned face. “How about we go shopping the next time I’m off and we can get you a new one? Would you like that?”
A smile blooms on Jyushimatsu’s face as he enthusiastically nods.
“We need to get you sorted first,” Ichimatsu quietly pipes up from the back, as he marches forward, grabs Jyushimatsu by the arm and pulls him to where they have the first aid kit sitting out. They all smile at Ichimatsu’s rare show of assertiveness, and Todomatsu follows them in, leaving Karamatsu, Osomatsu and Choromatsu by the entrance.
“Did he tell you who did it?” Osomatsu asks as Karamatsu slides the door gently shut. When Choromatsu shakes his head, the oldest sighs. “You two can do what you like, but I’m heading out tomorrow to see if I can find them.”
Choromatsu looks as if he’s about to protest, but decides against it. When one is hurt, so are the rest of them—Osomatsu, and no doubt Karamatsu, were taking this more than personally. “Whoever it was, I don’t think they were very light about it. I need to bring Jyushimatsu to the hospital to make sure he doesn’t have any internal damage. But Jyushimatsu did fight back – I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of them has some sort of injury somewhere, most likely their face. They said that Jyushimatsu was playing on their ground, so chances are you’ll find them by the river.” Without waiting for a response, Choromatsu heads into the living area.
When Osomatsu and Karamatsu look at each other, they know they don’t need any words to know what they’re going to do: the anger in their eyes is all the sign they need.
The next day, Choromatsu and Ichimatsu bring Jyushimatsu to the hospital – Ichimatsu as the calming presence, Choromatsu for dealing with the staff. Todomatsu goes to work, and Osomatsu and Karamatsu wait on the riverbank for a whole day. There’s a solemn atmosphere in the air when the two return late at night covered in cuts and bruises. The doctor reported that Jyushimatsu was fine, that he would just be a bit sore from the bruises and scratches left over from the previous day, that the swelling black eye would fade after a little while, but it serves as little comfort.
Todomatsu takes Jyushimatsu to their room to play with some of their model planes and Ichimatsu follows, having never left the second youngest since the incident. Choromatsu tells the two oldest to sit, and leaves the room for a little while before coming back with the same first aid kit that had been used to treat Jyushimatsu just the day previous. They sit in silence for a bit as Choromatsu patches them up, until Karamatsu finally says, “They called him a stupid retard straight to our faces.” The word causes Choromatsu to pause momentarily. The anger that Karamatsu and Osomatsu still feel are clear from the clenched teeth and the tears starting to fall down their faces.
“…Did you beat them up?” Choromatsu asks, as he returns to his task.
“You bet we did,” they both reply, bandaged hands clenched tight into fists on their laps.
“Good.”
It takes a while before their life can return to normal - if what they return to could even be called normal. Although Jyushimatsu returns to his peppy, active self after Todomatsu goes with him to buy a new bat, the black eye and the scratches and the bruises remind everyone of what had happened constantly. Eventually, the happiness of the second youngest is contagious enough that they go back to their joking selves within a few days. But the increased kindness and protection they show Jyushimatsu acts as a sign to everyone around them how much they fear the day that the boy will have to live on his own - how much they fear the day when the boy will have to face the unfairness of society without them around to protect him.
“There is no lasting hope in violence, only temporary relief from hopelessness.”
- Kingman Brewster, Jr.