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Life is made of choices. An inconsequential decision—such as buying a microscope for your child—can forever alter the trajectory of his existence. Choosing to work at one company instead of another leads into him meeting his future wife, and getting drunk one night leads to children. Osawa didn't know it then—didn't want to know it—but drowning himself in his work was a choice, too. A cowardly one, but a choice nonetheless.
"Can you pass me the salt?" Achi, Hitomi's boyfriend, says. He hasn't stopped sweating since he and Osawa locked eyes earlier at the door.
Without looking up from the tea she's sipping, Canaan, Maria's girlfriend, passes the salt. Although the rest of them had ordered food from Sweden, a recommendation from Hitomi, Canaan had refused to eat anything. Instead, she dug through the kitchen's cupboards until she unearthed a bottle of Suntory.
Aside from the whizz of the shaker crossing the table and the rasp of the forks against the plates, the room is completely silent. Achi's voice had broken the five-minute-stalemate, but it doesn't manage to break the ice. They keep eating as Achi stares at the salt, and resignedly pours a pinch over his spaghetti. They don't need salt, usually, but Osawa supposes he's out of touch with today's youth.
In a room with six integrants, not Canaan, not Achi, not Maria, not Hitomi, not Kajiwara and certainly not Osawa break the silence.
He wonders what sort of choice led him to the situation he's in, now. And what sort of choice he can make to get out of here.
20:00-21:00 - The Regrets of a Newfound Man
Actually, Osawa knows the choice that led him there. It was his first decision after reuniting with his daughters on 4/28: hosting a family dinner.
Ai had refused him, citing that she needed some space, and had gone to spend the night to a nearby hotel. Osawa then made a second choice, and didn't let that deter him. He went to the Shibuya Scramble asked Hitomi, who said she already had dinner plans with her boyfriend, and Maria, who said she already had dinner plans with her girlfriend. Osawa hadn't know they were dating anyone.
It was the first time he'd seen Hitomi that day since the early morning, when she'd left with an attaché case containing fifty million yen. Her hair was unkempt, her cheeks flushed, and he couldn't be sure, but he thought she was wearing different clothes than before. Maria, on the other hand, he had seen at Okoshi Pharmaceuticals, but she didn't look much better than her sister. She held her hands to her chest to conceal their trembling, which hadn't stopped since letting go of that gun.
In short, they looked like they'd had a long day, just like him. And the last thing he wanted after such a long day was to spend the evening worrying about where his daughters were, if the antivirus hadn't worked, if their partners were taking advantage of their exhaustion, or if Alphard had escaped from CIA custody and was looking for revenge.
After a long moment of deliberation, Osawa committed his third mistake.
"Well," he said, and cleared his throat. "If you want to, they're welcome at the house." This was when he sealed his fate: "I'd like to meet them."
Both Hitomi and Maria gaped at him. Hitomi agreed almost immediately, but Maria's lips twisted as she thought. Still, she didn't take long to agree. They both went to fetch their partners, leaving Osawa with the realization of what he'd done.
He had on his hands a family dinner for five people, two of which were the partners of his daughters. Fathers usually do something about that, right? Moreover, he couldn't cook to save his life, as had been demonstrated earlier that afternoon, Osawa couldn't cook to save his life.
Looking back, it's obvious that his fateful choice wasn't any of those, but swearing to be a better father. Still, he can't consider that a mistake.
As for Kajiwara, Osawa stumbled across him as he passed by the main door on his way to the kitchen. Hitomi and Maria were already home, although their significant others weren't. Still, Osawa had sent them to their rooms as he set the table while he waited for the food to arrive. Only he didn't know where anything was, which was why he was wandering through the entire house in search of a spare glass. From the kitchen to his room to the living room to the kitchen again to—
The door was ajar, for some reason, and Kajiwara's head was framed in the space between the door and the wall. His expression was reminiscent of that time he was spying on Osawa and Tanaka's conversation, but, this time, there was a gauze on his cheek and his eye was covered by an eyepatch.
Osawa almost walked by. But he stopped, with his back to the door… and turned around.
For a long second, they just stared at each other, completely still.
"Kajiwara," Osawa said, and didn't say anything else. The last time Osawa had seen Kajiwara, the latter had promised he'd his daughters come home safely. And they were, both home and safe, thanks in part to him.
Osawa… He didn't know what to say. How to thank him. And how to tell him that he was glad the detective was safe, too.
"Mr. Osawa," Kajiwara said, and got to his feet. Through the crack on the door, he smiled. "I came to tell you about your daughters, but I see they're already here." He glanced at the three pair of shoes tucked at the corner of the entrance. "And… Forgive the impertinence, but I came to notify you about my being fine, too, although worse for the wear."
Osawa said nothing. Kajiwara's eyes crinkled.
"Well then, have a nice evening."
Kajiwara turned around to leave. It hit Osawa then, how small his back looked. Earlier, when Kajiwara had gone help his daughters, it had seemed so much bigger.
"Kajiwara," Osawa said again. He licked his lips as a epiphany struck him. Maybe words weren't needed here. Maybe all that was needed was…
"Want a banana?"
It was Osawa who spoke the words, not Kajiwara. They both froze as they realized that fact. Kajiwara looked back, and stared at the banana on Osawa's extended hand. Finally, he fully turned around, and nudged the door a little.
"Actually, I am quite a bit hungry," Kajiwara said. His eyes bore into Osawa's.
Okay. Maybe they did need words, actually.
"I've ordered too much dinner," Osawa answered, and pulled the door fully open. "Would you like some, Detective?"
21:00-22:00 - Tomato-flavored Fiasco
After that, Canaan arrived, barely sparing a glance for Osawa before climbing up the stairs to Maria's room. Then, after the meals had arrived and they were all waiting for him, Achi ran in.
In summary, that's how they find themselves in this situation: sitting in a square table around medicore spaghetti; Kajiwara and Osawa on one side, Maria and Canaan on the side to his right, Hitomi and Achi on the side to his left. Osawa has never been opposed to silence, but this one is oppressive, even for him.
He needs to break the ice.
…How does one do that again?
Usually, Osawa would let the other person either wallow in their awkwardness or start the conversation themselves. That's another habit that has come back to bite him, it seems. He is in a room with four teenagers and Kajiwara—if anyone is going to do something, it's going to be him.
"So…" All eyes land on him. To stall, he chews on his spaghetti. After swallowing, he continues, "what do you do for a living?"
It turns out to be a mistake.
Great… Achi thinks. He knew this was coming, and he was dreading it. Now he has to admit he's a NEET. Totally what Hitomi's father wants in his daughter's boyfriend.
Still, he prides himself in his honesty, so…
"I don't really have a job," he says. "And I'm not good at hitting the books either. So, I, er, don't study either."
"…I see." Osawa doesn't see.
Although he tries to keep his expression neutral, something must radiate off him, because Achi cringes.
"He picks up trash," Hitomi jumps in. "Haven't you noticed Shibuya has been more clean recently? It's all thanks to Achi."
Osawa hasn't, actually. Then again, it's been a while since he'd walked through Shibuya. If he needs to go somewhere, he just takes the car, and he usually just needs to go to work and back. Today, during that confrontation at gunpoint, has been the most he's been outside in years, maybe decades.
"What about you, Canaan?" he says instead. It's been a long day. This conversation isn't over, but he's not going to have it today.
"I'm a mercenary." Canaan sips her Suntory as her statement quiets the whole table again. "On a quest for vengeance against the person who killed my master and best friend."
"A… mercenary," Osawa says. Sweat runs down his back. What has his daughter gotten involved with? First, a kidnapping; then, a murder attempt; and now, dating a mercenary? Their mother would have a stroke. Osawa himself might be having one.
"I kill people for a living," she clarifies. They didn't need the clarification.
Maria elbows her.
"I thought we'd agreed on not saying anything about this!"
"We hadn't agreed on anything. You told me not to say anything and I said no."
Maria makes a face.
Kajiwara leans in close, until they are almost cheek to cheek.
"Now Achi doesn't seem that bad, does he, Mr. Osawa?" he murmurs, his breath brushing against Osawa's ear.
Score! Achi thinks, pumping his fist under the table. Hitomi smiles, charmed.
Before Osawa has to figure out an answer to anything in this interaction, the doorbell rings. Osawa is off his chair before anyone has time to react, and opens the intercom.
"Police," the tinny voice says. It belongs to a young man, apparently on his thirties, who looks just as haggard as Osawa feels. "Is Achi Endo here?"
Of course the police are there for him. Of course. Both daughters apparently run with criminals now.
"No," Osawa says, and hangs up. If Achi has business with the police, he can take it outside of his house. Osawa isn't going to deal with this.
Immediately, the bell rings again. Osawa is determined to let it until the man outside gets tired when Achi walks out of the kitchen. He hasn't bothered wiping his face, so it's covered by tomato sauce. It says a lot about him that that's not the biggest problem Osawa has with him.
"Is something wrong, Mr. Osawa? I can go deal with them if—oh! It's Detective Kano!"
In an instant, Achi gets between Osawa and the intercom and opens it again.
"Detective! What are you doing here?"
"Achi!" The detective's tinny voice comes through the speaker, undeniably relieved. Resignedly, Osawa opens the door. "I've been looking for you all over the city!" he continues when he comes in. "But never mind that. We have to take your witness account."
"Er, now?" Kano nods. "I'm, uh, currently in the middle of something."
Hitomi chooses that moment to come to the hall. She stands shoulder to shoulder with Achi, with less than five centimeters of space between them. Osawa is tempted to say something, but even he doesn't know what.
"Is something the matter…? Oh, hello, detective."
"Ms. Hitomi…!" Kano slaps his forehead. "Oh, right, this is your house!" He bows to Osawa. "I've been terribly rude. My name is Shinya Kano, and I'm one of the detectives assigned to this case."
"I figured, yes," Osawa says. Well, at least, it seems Achi isn't a criminal. If he was involved with this as a witness, he probably was with Hitomi, too. He feels himself warming up a little to the younger boy.
"Detective," Achi jumps in. "Can you please let me off the hook just for a few hours? I'll promise I'll swing by the station after I'm done here!"
Kano stares deep into Achi's desperate eyes. Then, Kano's face lights up in understanding.
"Don't tell me. Meeting your father-in-law?" Kano knows the feeling. He's intimately and recently familiar with it, actually. The first time you see the unimpressed expression of the man who breathed life into your girl is one moment a man never forgets. That's why, skirting all protocol and common sense, and momentarily forgetting his own exhaustion and the fact that this means even more overtime, he says, "Of course. And good luck."
"Thank you." Achi closes his hand into a fist, holding back tears. "You're a real one, detective."
Hitomi smiles at Kano, too.
Then, the detective's stomach rumbles. He smiles sheepishly.
"Oh, come have dinner with us, Kano," Kajiwara says from the dining room. Despite him speaking in his usual low tone, his voice is perfectly audible.
"This is not your house, Kajiwara," Osawa points out, pincing his nose with his fingers. "Don't go inviting people without my permission."
22:00-23:00 - This is a Scoop!
Despite being free seats at the table, Kano chooses to sit with his plate of spaghetti at a nearby armchair.
"I don't want to intrude," he explains with a genial smile. "Consider me a potted plant."
Osawa suspects he just wants to eat without being cajoled into awkward interactions. Understandable. He just wishes he'd had that foresight before organizing this fiasco.
But, now that the interruption is done and over with, he must keep on his path. He isn't going to give up so early.
"So…" he says, but trails off. Wait, what was he going to say? It was a miracle that one question had occurred to him, and he's pushing his luck going for another. But he's already started speaking—he has to say something.
Osawa's mind whirs, but nothing comes to him. Despair fills him as everyone but Canaan stares at him blankly.
"Are you okay, Dad?" Maria says. She's frowning and there's a spaghetti dangling from her mouth. She slurps it when Osawa looks pointedly at it, and continues, "You're acting weird today."
Weird? Of course he's acting weird. He'd woken up to one of his daughters kidnapped and the other risking her life to hand the ransom. He'd spent the day cooped up in his own house, full to the brink with cold policeman, a wife that's about to divorce him, and Kajiwara. He'd refused the work offer of his dreams. He'd retroactively analysed all his life and the relationship with his daughters, and came to the harrowing conclusion that he was a bad father and a bad human being. He'd torn his heart open to Kajiwara. His assistant, the only person Osawa had come to trust a little, turned out to be both the lover of his wife and one of his daughters' kidnappers. He'd been offered thousands of bananas, and accepted one. He'd been involved in a shootout, along with his daughter. His boss had taken his antiviral without permission and comitted crimes against humanity, who his own wife had threatened him with.
To top it all off, he's eating spaghetti with his daughters and their partners, one who doesn't have a future nor appears to intend to, and another who is a criminal.
And he doesn't even like spaghetti!!
Before he can put any of these feelings into words, Kajiwara comes to his aid.
"When did you meet Hitomi and Maria," Kajiwara mumbles, before drinking a sip of water.
"When did you meet Hitomi and Maria?" Osawa repeats, relieved. That's a good way to break the ice again, yes.
Achi explodes in sweat. He wipes his forehead with his napkin, and ends up covered in tomato.
Am I going to have to explain that my father organized the kidnapping of Maria and tried to kill Hitomi? he thinks. He'll lose all the brownie points he got by not being a mercenary. But he can't not say it. Achi's not that kind of guy.
What's with these questions, anyway? Is Mr. Osawa targeting him?
"Um… Er… Funny story…" he begins.
"He saved me from an assassin!" Hitomi interjects.
Maria smiles at her sister's naïve attempt to save her boyfriend. But there's no way out of this one, buddy—especially not with someone who wears his heart on his sleeve so blatantly. But eh, good for her and Canaan. If Dad is busy losing his marbles on Achi's father being Hitomi's attempted murderer, he won't flip out when he learns Canaan saved her from human trafficking a few years ago.
Predictably, Osawa says, "A what?!"
Instead of answering, Hitomi looks with big eyes at Maria. Maria raises her eyebrows at her.
If you didn't want to get into this, why did you mention the assassin? she asks Hitomi telepathically. She should've made up a stupid story about Achi trying cheesy pick-up lines on her or something. Sometimes, Hitomi is too honest for her own good.
Unfortunately, twins don't actually share a telepathic connection. Hitomi just keeps looking at her in desperation, and Osawa just keeps looking at them both with suspicion.
Maria decides to throw her sister a branch and elbows Canaan, who doesn't need telepathy to understand what she wants. She begins explaning how she met Maria.
"I met her when she was about to be kidnapped," she starts with, and follows it with describing, blow by blow, how many guys there were, how careless Maria was, how she followed Canaan home despite the latter's aforementioned job, the usual fate of kidnapping victims, and even the lewd comments made by her to-be-kidnappers.
Maria is going to kill her. She should've made up a stupid story about Maria trying cheesy pick-up lines on her or something!
"You were almost what?!" Osawa exclaims.
Osawa really has missed a lot from his daughters' lives. He knew, but, clearly, he didn't know. But seriously, though, she was almost what?!
"Daughters always get up to no good behind their father's back, don't they?" Kajiwara adds unhelpfully. Then, he launches into a story of how his daughter once got lost in the park when he was distracted, and she came back soaked and covered in mud, branches and a yellowish substance that he, to this day, doesn't know what it was. As if that was remotely comparable to this.
Just as Osawa is about to explain to Kajiwara how remotely not comparable these situations are, the doorbell rings.
Well, ring is an understatement. Ring implies one clear, resonant, vibrant sound, lingering in the air until either someone opens the door or enough time has passed to press the doorbell again. The definition of ring, if one is being lenient, can include some pestering, or even a lot of pestering.
This, however? This is not ringing. This is a bomb going off three times per second, and its blast sounds strangely alike his doorbell. Osawa's words are blown clean off his brain.
The rest of the table falls silent, too. Nobody has the wits to get off their chair and go tell this imbecile off, least of all Osawa himself.
Thankfully, this obnoxious cacophony only lasts about five seconds. Unfortunately, it's followed by a familiar voice crying out, "Mr. Osawa! I've come for my interview! Interviews, in fact! Are your daughters home?"
Minorikawa's shout is clearly audible, despite not using the intercome and the good twenty meters and five walls between here and the entrance.
Osawa closes his eyes and steels himself. He did promise.
However, he doesn't have time to get up from his chair before the doorbell begins ceaselessly ringing again. At this rate, the neighbours are going to call the police.
Kajiwara is the first to react.
"Allow me," he says, and opens the intercom. "Sir, if you don't stop it with this noise, I'm going to have to arrest you."
"Hah! As if I haven't heard that one before," Minorikawa answers.
Before this can devolve into a fight that ends on Minorikawa's arrest, Osawa interjects,
"Kajiwara. Let him in."
Kajiwara frowns.
"Are you sure, Mr. Osawa?" Osawa nods. Kajiwara opens the gate and the door, and soon enough, Minorikawa barrells in as if he owns the place. Osawa breathes in, and breathes out, as the man shamelessly looks around. He watches him categorize his daughters, their partners, Kano and Kajiwara, the dinner, and finally, Osawa himself. His eyes gleam like a cat's.
I can smell something. Something familiar. I know what it is: a scoop…! Minorikawa thinks. The takeout, the family dinner, the daughters, the virologist, the two policemen. It all has to come together to form a story. This month's issue of Four-Star General Gossip is already undergoing edition, but he's going to get Mr. Toyama a follow-up that will blow his money troubles clean off the planet!
However, Minorikawa is a good enough journalist to adapt. And Mr. Osawa here clearly has had a long day. If he presses too much, he risks getting thrown off the house and not interviewing anyone. Besides, he kind of wants to take it easy, too; he's been running all around Shibuya all day, and he's been involved in terrorist attacks and almost killed by some gang. Moreover, he's had to endure Katayama's endless badgering about the time until he handed the draft less than an hour ago. He's only here because he wanted to take a rest day tomorrow after everything, and he knows he won't be able to do it if he doesn't scratch the itch now.
So it's best to start small. For everyone's sake.
He points at the twin dressed in a plaid shirt. She startles. The girl next to her coils her lips playfully.
"Hey! I'm Minoru Minorikawa and I'm going to interview you!"
"O… kay," the girl says, and introduces herself as Maria Osawa. The other twin's name is Hitomi Osawa, they tell him.
The interview proceeds as normal. Minorikawa heckles and prods and Maria gets angry as she answers. Her sister is harder to tease, but Minorikawa's nothing if not an expert, and he finds her weakness in minutes; one look at the boy next to her and a suggestive commentary, and she gets all flustered. Ah, young love.
When Hitomi explains that she entered the contest because a professor of hers, Lelando or something like that, the expressions of everyone at the table twist at the same time. It's outright eerie. Minorikawa doesn't know who to point to.
So he points to everyone.
"You!" he shouts. "What's up with that face! What's up with this guy!"
"…He's my daughter's kidnapper," Osawa says. He had considered not saying it, but he owes this man, and this is going to be on the news either way. If someone has to have the first interview, there's no harm in him doing it. So Osawa launches into a summary of this day's events from his point of view. He's so tired he doesn't bother filtering.
At first, Minorikawa asks prompting questions, but even he has to shut up and listen at the story being told. The whole table listens in silence. Sometimes, though, there's limited information and some things don't make sense. There, either Achi, Maria or Kano fills the gap. Kajiwara and Hitomi are both content with eating without speaking much after such a long day, and Canaan doesn't feel like talking at all.
"The last piece of the puzzle fell into place. There was no longer any room for doubt," Achi says. Minorikawa's wrist hurts from noting so much down.
"Your father did what." Osawa can't even formulate it as a question. The words rasp his throat as they come out. His head pulses, throbs, aches; out of every man in the world, Hitomi is dating this guy!?
Achi cringes. But he doesn't back down.
"I know it was horrible, okay?" he says. "You can go punch my dad after he's done in prison, if you want. I'll go after you."
Osawa isn't satisfied with that. If everything could be solved with a punch, there would be fewer problems in life.
"Dad," Hitomi says. She knew this was going to come to light sooner or later, but she would've preferred it wasn't here, in front of all this people, or now, when she's tired and he's tired and everyone has had enough of emotional revelations. But if there's something she's learnt today, it's that you can't plan for a good time for life to come at you; you just have to adapt. "Listen to the full story, please."
"Exactly!" Minorikawa interjects. "Don't you dare interrupt this, Mr. Osawa!"
Osawa looks ready to speak, still, but Kajiwara elbows him, so he doesn't speak. As Achi relates the scene where his father broke down crying, Osawa purses his lips. Unfortunately, given recent events, he can understand the desperation of a father to keep his daughter alive. Everything he felt when he found out Hitomi had contracterd the Ua virus, or when the police told him Maria had been kidnapped… Everything he'd felt today. If he'd been in the same situation as Daisuke Endo, he doesn't know what he would have resorted to.
That doesn't mean he's fine with the man existing even in the same city as Hitomi and Maria, but he might be fine with the son doing so. As long as he finds a job, of course.
Sitting on the other side of the table, Minorikawa makes a note of following up with this Suzune girl's story. This whole trasplant business can probably fill another article.
After that, Kano, Achi, Osawa and Maria continue telling their stories. Minorikawa sometimes fills in the blanks, too—such as the origin of the dry ice machine, or what he was doing in the S.O.S. headquarters. As the story draws to a close, Maria and Osawa going over the shotdown with Alphard, nobody dares to interrrupt anymore.
"So that's how it happened," Canaan muses, looking down at her plate. She hasn't touched her spaghetti all evening, and smoke no longer wafts off them. Still, she hasn't pushed her plate aside either.
Minorikawa begins crafting titulars on his head:
Twin Winners of Miss Midoriyama Kidnapped!
Ua Virus: the End of the World?
Love Story in the Throes of Shibuya Explosion.
The Unknown Dangers of Bombay Blood.
He could fill an entire issue with just these interconnecting stories. He will fill next month's issue with just these interconnecting stories. Mr. Toyama is going to worship him.
Still, Minorikawa's nothing if not thorough. He points at Canaan.
"Surely a foreign mercenary has some insider info to add," he says.
"Not really, no." Canaan smiles at him coyly. Her accent is thick, but her grammar and vocabulary are flawless. "I think you've heard everything of note from my friends here."
"Oho? Don't think I didn't catch that part Maria here told us about you wanting to kill Alphard."
"It is as she said. Alphard killed my best friend, so I'm going to kill her."
Minorikawa tsked. He plastered on his most condescending expression. Nine out of ten people say it's the most infurating expression they've seen in their lives, certfied!
"Are you sure about that? From what they've been telling me, this Alphard is really dangerous. What can someone like you do?"
"I am not going to rise to the bait."
She's good. But Minorikawa's not finished here. He's barely started, in fact.
"I'm sure your best friend or whatever died because you were too weak to protect them, in any case. Why are you blaming the innocent?"
Canaan doesn't frown, twitch or grimace. Actually, she holds herself very, very still, and doesn't answer. Oho, Minorikawa is getting hotter.
"Hey," Maria says, frowning. Who does this guy think he is, stepping all over Canaan's buttons? "That's—"
"I'm not speaking to you!" Minorikawa shouts, so loudly it startles her into silence. "I bet you don't know anything about this 'best friend'—" Minorikawa pauses to let everyone take in the air quotes "—she's hiding. Some partner, huh?"
Maria gasps. "You have some nerve!"
Canaan closes her eyes, resigned.
"Alright," she says. Her fingers twitch over her glass, and Maria covers them quickly with her own. "If you stop with this pointless badgering, I'll tell my side of the story."
Minorikawa takes a seat, and steals Canaan's plate of spaghetti; this is clearly going to take a while, and he's hungry. One hand clicks his pen two times, and the other loads his mouth with spaghetti in between questions. He's going to be a legend after this.
23:00-00:00 - Dawn of a New Day
It takes a long, long time to make Minorikawa leave, but finally—finally!—he does. Osawa has never been gladder to see someone's satisfied back retreating into the distance.
The others gradually leave soon after, clearly exhausted after that whirlwind of a man was done with them. Canaan briefly presses her lips to Maria's, and whispers something to her ear that makes Maria grin back. Osawa refuses to listen. There are some things a man doesn't need to know about his daughter.
On the other hand, Achi and Hitomi look at everyone but each other as they say goodbye. There's a blush high up on Achi's cheeks, and Hitomi can't stop fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. In the end, Achi leaves without touching her. Good.
As for Kajiwara, he just nods at Osawa once before departing. He may be listening from behind the closed door, but Osawa isn't in the mood to check.
The house has never been noisy, and now is no exception. Glasses and plates clink agianst each other as they drop them on the sink to be tomorrow's problem, but no one says a word. If Ai were there, maybe she would start a conversation about Canaan's manners, Achi's dismal future prospects, or Minorikawa in general, but Ai isn't here.
It's just Osawa and his girls.
Again, it's up to him. He clears his throat. But before he can speak—
"Dad," Maria says. She stacks the last of the plates on the sink and turns to look at him. "That's enough."
It's hard for him to swallow; his heart has leapt to his throat, and it's obstructing it.
"What?"
He guesses he hasn't been subtle today. It wasn't his intention to be, either way. Still, he thought he at least had a chance to mend their relationship. He hadn't thought they wouldn't let him.
Hitomi eyes Osawa, then Maria.
"What she means," Hitomi says, and smiles, "is that you don't have to apologize. We know," she continues. His face spasms, and she grabs his hands. "We know, and we forgive you."
"What she said," Maria says. "We've seen you today. We believe you'll change. We'll change, too."
Maria had long since given up in her relationship with her father. Since that day he didn't come looking for her at the park… Still, a part of her had always stirred whenever she saw her school friends happily converse with their own parents. Much like he did, she'd lifted a wall upon her heart to keep him away. To not get hurt.
But Hitomi has told her about him passing out when he heard she was kidnapped. And she's seen him today, when she woke up, in that shootout and in this dinner. He's genuine. That… That she can trust.
"Thanks for today," Maria says. Then, she breaks the frail atmosphere with a naughty grin. "So, how did you like Canaan?"
Hitomi looks slowly from her sister to her father. She doesn't say anything, but it's obvious that she wants to know about Achi, too.
Now, Osawa has two options:
A) Lie. As long as you're happy, he doesn't care.
B) Tell the truth. He hates them both, actually, and would prefer Hitomi and Maria refrain from dating until Osawa was dead and buried. Especially… them. A mercenary and a gang founder. Really, weren't there better options?
Life is made of choices. An inconsequential decision—such as buying a microscope for your child—can forever alter the trajectory of his existence. Choosing to work at one company instead of another leads into him meeting his future wife, and getting drunk one night leads to children. Osawa didn't know it then—didn't want to know it—but drowning himself in his work was a choice, too. A cowardly one, but a choice nonetheless.
Now, he chooses differently.
He opens his mouth to answer.
Where will these choices lead him? For once, he can't wait to find out.
Suntory. [428] Suntory was the most common form of tea consumption in Japan in the 2010s. What Canaan is drinking is an already expired bottle of iyemon, which Maria bought before that fateful travel to the Middle East. She complained the whole time about not being able to bring it with her, and it made Canaan curious. Maria forgot about it on the plane home, and hasn't drunk a bottle of Suntory since then; she now prefers Ito En. [Return]
Ran in. [428] Achi had just come from visiting Suzune the hospital, where he'd been since parting from Hitomi after avoiding the explosion. He hadn't been planning on seeing Hitomi again that day, but when Hitomi called him to invite him to dinner, he'd agreed after only a little hesitation. The only problem was that the hospital was an hour away from the Osawa residence, and Achi couldn't hail a cab because the streets were still congested. How he arrived mostly on time was a funny story, but one for another day.
Oh, by the way, Suzune was going to be fine. She's still unconscious, but a fifteen-year-old boy with compatible blood had signed as an organ donor that very same day. It was decided: as soon as he died (which was going to be soon), his heart was Suzune's. Achi felt kind of bad for him, but that was life. At least, his sister would live. [Return]
Haggard. [428] This guy is Kano, and he's been looking for Achi all over Shibuya. Although it's protocol to immidiately take accounts of all victims in a kidnapping (and explosion and murder attempt), there were enough witnesses that the Osawa family was cleared to come the next day so that they could rest that evening.
Achi, however, wasn't a direct victim, and therefore not exempted. However, since he exited the hospital (a few minutes before Kano would arrive there), he's been flitting around Shibuya for hours, looking for the fastest way to reach Osawa's house, and poor Kano had to track him down. [Return]
Understandable. [428] Comprehensible, relatable, logical. However, Osawa is just projecting. Despite his long day, Kano is always up for dinner with company, no matter how dry; he's the kind of guy who can talk for hours with a suspect who doesn't know anything, after all. In this case, though, he's seen the tension between Osawa and Achi and doesn't want to get between them. Come on, Achi! Go get him!, he cheers on his mind as he slurps his cold spaghetti. [Return]
Telepathic connection. [428] Maria already knew. She and Hitomi tried for weeks to unlock telepathy when they were eight, to no avail. [Return]
Everyone. Given this game is set in the 2000s, this is an anachronistic reference, but: picture Arataka Reigen. [Return]
Nine out of ten people. [428] The other person is his mother. [Return]