#chuichi

“This is what I want.” Chūichi stated simply, lightly pointing at the item in the display case. “Get it for me.” His tone was toeing the line of being respectful just only barely. He glanced at the salesman next to him at the corner of his eye, the same individual who’d scrunched up his nose at Tetsui before the latter retreated outside the store to ‘patrol’. 

“But sir, could I interest y--”

“It’s this one or nothing. Get it. for me.” 

Because Mya, you goddamn big baby--

“Did it not matter that we mourned for you, day after day?” Bunjiro shifted uneasily in his seat, fiddling with his cigarette lighter. “That your father--”

Laughter spilled from his lips, bitter and with a slight manic edge. “Oh, of course. The sun rises and sets with how your husband feels. There’s no room, or still isn’t any room, at all, in your heart for anything but him. For each other--”

Cheeks flushing red with anger, indignation. “Oh, you presumptuous--”

“You shipped me off to goddamn boarding school the minute I wouldn’t conform to the version of who you wanted me to be, and then when it’s all over and done with, I come out and you’re pregnant with more children and expecting me to just fucking fall in line, be exactly like y--”

“We made a mistake.”

It stopped Bunjiro’s tirade completely.  He doesn’t want to, he cannot bear it, to hear that choked up tone of voice from his...his father, the strongest man he knew. ‘Don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this, d--’

Chūichi had a hand over his eyes, but still tears slipped down his cheeks, spilling onto the table.

He felt numb, gutted. “A mistake in having me. I see. Great to know. I expected that, actually.”

“You absolute idio--”

Chūichi placed his free hand on Zoya’s and she bit off the rest of her words. His other hand reached for a napkin but then he was looking at Bunjiro and there wasn’t a lick of resentment there. Grief maybe, sorrow, regret. Hurt, certainly. “You’re our first born. We f...faiiiiiiiiled you,” Shoulders caving in, he used his arm to shield his face again but it was useless. 

Pointless.

It was clear he was crying again.

And he didn’t know what to do. His lungs felt squeezed and he couldn’t breathe right. Something hot and wet slid down his cheek and he belated realized that he was crying too now. It was an epidemic.

He didn’t know why, but ever since he woke up this morning, he’d been experiencing a feeling of...dread. If he were a suspicious sort, he’d have stayed home and cashed in some PTO time. 

Bunjiro, unfortunately, is not the suspicious type that believed in silly things like destiny or luck or any of that, so despite the fact that literally everything that could go wrong today had gone spectacularly wrong, on campus is where he stayed. 

“Turn your textbooks to page--”

The door was thrown open.

‘What the hell?’

A little annoyed, he turned his attention to the disturbance, expecting it to be shitty Matsuda again, and then he blanched. Standing there like something out of his worst nightmare, a Cheshire grin on her face, her amber eyes lit up with a terrible, terrible wicked joy, was his mother. 

Mouth dry, his lips parted, he tried to say something, anything, but then she strode toward him and he realized she was wearing heels. 

His mother always wore tall high heels right before --

“Bun. Ji. Ro.” HIs name was practically cooed and he grunted as she took out his kneecaps, bringing him to his knees. “Lookit our baby boy, Chu-kun. Isn’t he adorable for someone we haven’t seen in a decade or more?”

That saccharine tone. Oh, he hated that tone. It hid the venom that he knew she was capable of spewing, the rage that shook her voice just a little and how her hands tightened on his hair, she was struggling.

“I wouldn’t use the world adorable, honey.”

That voice...His shoulders hitched defensively and he half moved, only to still as perfectly manicured nails dug into his scalp. 

“Free period~ We’re borrowing your Sensei.”

There was a class wide cheer. Fucking brats. 

“Bring him.” 

She had to consider this.

The new floor had some benefits to everyone, the rooms expanded and it appeared there was more than the first floor. Sachi feels it’s some sort of reward for their new found efforts, finding out that Chuichi was the murderer and in return, they get a whole new floor to explore. She feels her hands tense and relax at every step she takes to the next floor. Both of her arms are well hidden under the cape and both of her hands were held together neatly. 

It didn’t look much different from the usual blank walls of the hospital, in fact the narrow halls that lead up to the same white walls. It took her a while to navigate through everything before noticing a strange machine sitting in the corridor. She didn’t approach it at first, fearing for it may be another machine like LISE. But unlike LISE, who was a hologram who made life threatening “treatments”, this machine looked completely normal. She tilted her head, stepping up to it. She was surveying it, until she felt a small buzz in her cape pocket, causing her to yelp.

After a bit of fussing, she brings it out and blinks at the sight in front of her. What did it mean to activate her dead friends? Sadly, she turned back over to the machine that seemed to contain two folders. Putting her ID back in her pocket, she clicked over to Yasu’s folder to find her card buzzing again and showing the same message.

Perhaps she wasn’t prepared for the outcome of this, but she looked over at the machine and her card. 

Yes, No and Maybe later.