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Sugimura (was that his first or last name?) hadn’t been reported or seen by anyone, or contacted or otherwise communicated with anybody, for two months, three days, 14 hours and 23 to 33 minutes.
On March 4th, 20XX, he’d attended dinner or some formal event or reception with his father at the commencement ceremony of… no it was the inauguration of the new chairman of…. or …
… and after he took his leave from this fortuitous and important event, declining to take the offered and expected limousine back to his residence and instead traveling alone via his personal automobile, dropped off to him at the door by his driver, he… well…
….
All that was known for sure was what hadn’t happened. Yet, at least. Legally he was still considered alive and his case was still open to the authorities, who were presumably still trying their hardest to find the son of someone so important as his father. They’ve succeeded in establishing numerous places he hasn’t appeared and people who haven’t seen him.
He didn’t arrive home that night, or the following morning, or any day after that. Or anywhere else. Attempts to trace his phone produced no information and no reports of calls or messages had since been made. Nobody he knew had so far reported seeing him, nobody matching his description had been reported either.
His Fiancé, Okumura Haru, had last seen him ten days earlier, that evening outside the Jazz Jin where she’d been playing billiards with her friends, where he’d excitedly informed her that their wedding date had finally been decided (so excited that he tracked her down right away because he couldn’t wait another minute to tell her).
It was even more tragic, then, that it was the last she ever saw of him, their future together cut short so close to their wedding day. Many condolences were offered to her, everyone knew she had to be taking it very hard and they couldn’t imagine the pain she was going through, especially less than a year after she lost her father, who’d given his blessing for Sugimura to marry his daughter before he suddenly passed.
She’d learned of her fiancée’s disappearance a few days later, his face on the morning news on the TV in Leblanc, and it was surprising how fast information moved these days that she learned of something like this happening from the news rather than anyone she knew personally. Perhaps they wanted to keep her hopes up and not let her worry needlessly, especially after what happened to her father. They often tried to spare her feelings like that, as if she was still a child with no responsibility for other people on her shoulders, like she could afford such ridiculous indulgences.
… there were a lot of selfish things Haru wanted for herself one day that she’d probably never get to have now. Though perhaps she was realizing the future she was promised was a lie from the beginning.
Now, after so many tragedies had upended her life, and her future, she ultimately decided to step down from the position of CEO that she’d inherited from her late father. Haru said that it wasn’t the way she ever wanted it to happen, it was too soon, that her inheritance wasn’t worth the loss, and that public life was something she needed to take a long hiatus from. She was lucky for the close friends she still had to keep supporting her through this.
Despite a few advisors floating the possibility by her, she acknowledged that the company going private wasn’t an option because, thanks to her father, Sugimura had enough of a stake in the company for her to not have the opportunity to become the majority shareholder like her father was. In lieu of Sugimura’s reappearance his shares of the company went to his own father and then were split among the rest of the board.
She insisted, really, that despite the tragedies she’d faced, this specific turn of events was one she was happy, or at least content with. Her and the rest of the board had too many differences between them, she didn’t want the position anyway if she could only run the company the same way her father had, and what she really wanted more than anything was to move past the loss she’d suffered, wipe the slate clean, and get a truly new start to her life. Haru wanted something that belonged to her alone and couldn’t be taken away.
It wasn’t much to start with, but she’d moved the last of her plants from the roof of Shujin academy to her own residence. As sole member of the gardening club and now sole owner of the Okumura home she figured she had a right to such a thing, though she wondered if she even wanted to continue to live under that same roof. So for now she preferred to be outside, and she could grow her own shade as she felt the need. It was summer again, after all.
It had been quite the task but it was work she relished in. She’d done enough work now that she could carry more than her own weight in soil. She had nothing but time now and she’d dug up a lovely patch for every one of her plants, and each one was taking well to its new home. Even if she didn’t love everything she grew (and she did), after everything the pleasant exhaustion was its own reward. Nothing cleared her head like a solid wooden handle in her hands and the weight of its steel blade, straining her body as she drove its edge deep into the fresh earth. Cold, dead metal carved open the way for a fresh start and to her new life, that she took and grew with her own hands. It was hers to nurture now. And her new fertilizer was working absolute wonders.