Plate 9:
Brothers
Scene 1
AT NIGHT IN ASAKUSA, you could see Skytree from practically anywhere. It was like a pale, waxy candle soaring through the sky, so close that you could almost reach out and touch it, but so far that your fingers would only grasp air. In stark contrast to its quiet blue, the signs and lights outside the operation theater of Asakusa Sara General Hospital glared a deep red.
Kazuki had no idea how he ended up here after what happened.
The ambulance and patrol car had been noisy. Enta wouldn’t open his eyes. Otone ran in wailing and crying.
Kazuki stood alone outside the door, frozen.
“Uurgh… It’s so heavy, dish!”
Sara returned to Kaminari 5656 Kaikan’s Tokiwa Hall, where she now strained to move the still-frozen Keppi. She was putting her whole weight into it, when finally…
“Ah…!”
The ice statue slid right off the stage. It spun smooth circles in the air as it soared down the escalator and right out the front entrance, tumbling into the road outside. Sara peered out from a window to see that her prince finally came to a stop on top of the asphalt. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Sadly, the worst was yet to come.
The ground rumbled as a single semitruck roared down the street straight toward Keppi. The vehicle’s headlights illuminated the ice statue, revealing a glimmer of tears in the prince’s eyes.
“Noooooo!!” Sara shrieked.
Her cries were in vain. In seconds, the crown prince of the Kappa Kingdom was crushed beneath the weight of those enormous tires, shattering the statue into tiny pieces.
Scene 2
TOI AND CHIKAI’S BOAT gradually approached Eitai Bridge. At night, it lit up bright blue, giving off an entirely different aura than it did during the day. This end of the ship was furnished with a spacious dance floor. Its windows were left open, allowing the hum of the motor and the trickle of water to drift in. A breeze carried the river’s summer scent inside as well.
Chikai was slumped over on one of the benches near the open window. He still had his sunglasses on his face, even as he snoozed.
Toi had few memories of seeing his brother asleep. This was especially true of when he was younger. Despite the fact that the two had shared a room, he’d still rarely ever seen his brother rest.
Chikai was the first one to develop persistent dark circles under his eyes. After their parents died, Toi soon realized that he had them too. He learned then, as a child, that such marks appeared due to lack of sleep. Since it meant he matched his brother, Toi hadn’t minded.
Now that it was just the two of them, though, he realized that his presence just made the circles under Chikai’s eyes worse. However short Chikai’s nap might be, seeing his brother sleep in front of him made Toi feel kind of sentimental. He hoped they could find a place where his brother could sleep peacefully. He would do all he could to reach that place quickly.
He gazed into the backpack on his lap. Inside was all the easy money he’d stashed away until now, as well as the faintly gleaming Tokarev.
Beside him, Chikai suddenly shifted, causing the jacket that was draped over his knees to crumple onto the floor.
Thunk.
A hard sound indicated there was something wrapped up inside the fabric. Toi stood up and went over to grab it, only to realize that the jacket was unnaturally heavy. He discovered a black Tokarev tucked inside the inner pocket.
So his brother was carrying a gun. The truth of that overwhelmed him. Logically speaking, his brother was a wanted fugitive who had spent his life in the underworld; it made no sense for him to be unarmed. But Toi selfishly imagined his brother as the type who stubbornly refused to hold a gun, and it shook him now to lose that image of him. Chikai wasn’t simply shouldering Toi’s sins anymore; he was carrying a gun of his own accord.
Toi was still frozen with his brother’s jacket in his hands when he suddenly heard a familiar melody that seemed to suck the tension from the air. Azuma Sara appeared on the television screen suspended from the ceiling inside the ship. Before his brother could wake up, Toi hurriedly placed the jacket over Chikai and scrambled back to his seat.
“We have some breaking news, dish. ✩ This evening, a series of shootings took place in Asakusa. One of the two victims has already been pronounced dead. The other, identified as fourteen-year-old Jinnai Enta, is currently unconscious and in critical condition.”
Enta’s picture flashed across the television screen. It hadn’t been that long since Toi had been on the phone with him. At least Enta’s picture showed a boy with a warm smile, completely different from the one they used to identify his brother. Enta had worn that same expression earlier, when he was eating croquettes.
“Aaaah,” yawned Chikai. “Hm? It’s that four-eyed kid.”
Toi stiffened. “How do you know him?”
“Hm? Well, he helped me out and stuff. You two buddies?”
Unable to respond, all Toi could do was sit there as more news he didn’t want to hear came streaming into his ears.
“The police suspect twenty-five-year-old Kuji Chikai to be involved in these crimes and are currently searching for his whereabouts. There is a high possibility that this man was also responsible for the shooting that happened four years ago…”
Chikai also listened in, looking displeased at what he heard. “Stop blaming everythin’ on me. Can you believe this, Toi?”
So it wasn’t true? Then who did shoot Enta? What was up with that gun his brother was carrying? In an instant, the worst possibilities flashed through Toi’s mind.
“You can go back.”
He flinched, drawn out of his reverie, only to notice Chikai wasn’t looking his way.
“If you’re gonna get off, do it now,” said Chikai. “Any further and you won’t be able to turn back.”
Was he talking literally or figuratively? Though, when Toi thought about it, maybe they were one and the same. “He’s already got someone to care for him, someone he’s closer to than me. But I’m all you have left.”
Enta wasn’t alone. He had his grandmother and Otone. There were also his parents, whom Toi had never met but heard were in good health, living overseas.
“In this world, it’s only the bad people who survive. Just goes to show you that four-eyes was one of the good ones.”
Chikai didn’t need to tell him that; Toi already knew it.
So, please…
“Yasaka, take care of him…”
At some point, while he was distracted, the boat passed beneath the center of Eitai Bridge.
An aura of grief permeated the darkened waiting room of the hospital, its electricity powered off.
Kazuki’s hoarse voice echoed through the hallway. “It was two police officers who shot Enta! Enta jumped in front of me—”
“Just calm down, kid. The culprit was Kuji Chikai.”
They had repeated this exchange a frustrating number of times now.
“We already received testimony that Kuji and Enta-kun were seen together. We also found the suspect’s fingerprints on the candy Enta-kun was carrying.” The officer recited those words like a robot. No one seemed to notice the heart-shaped pin glimmering on his chest.
“No! I’m telling you, I saw it with my own eyes, an officer…!” As he hung his head, Kazuki felt something soft and warm brush over his shoulders. When he glanced back, he saw that Otone draped a blanket over him.
“That’s enough, Kazu-kun.”
He clung to her. “But they’re wrong, I really did—”
Otone—his teacher, Enta’s sister—was unwavering. “You must have been terrified, right? Thank you for helping Enta.”
“No, it’s my fault he…” Kazuki started to say. It’s my fault he got shot.
The truth at the tip of his tongue was a terrifying one.
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “The one at fault is the man who shot Enta!” Even Otone had fallen for the police’s fabrication.
A nurse called for her, and Otone rushed away, leaving Kazuki behind. Now all alone, Kazuki had no one else he could call out to.
Someone, help… Toi…!
As Toi and Chikai landed at the Hinode Pier, they found a cheerful welcome awaiting them.
“Big broooo!” A burly man waited at the end of the dock, his waving hand causing his plump body to ripple from the motion. Apparently, he was one of Chikai’s acquaintances.
“You idiot, I told you not to draw attention to yourself!” Chikai barked at him.
“Sorry! You were late, so I was worried about ya. Oh!” The man, who was bald and looked like a street vendor, turned his attention to Toi.
“Oh, this is my little brother, Toi,” said Chikai. “Toi, this is Masa.”
“Heya, I’m Masa! I’ve been lookin’ after your bro! Nice to meetcha, Toi-san!”
“Who’s looking after who here, huh?” Chikai bonked Masa over the head.
“Ow, that hurts!” Judging by the latter’s mild reaction, it couldn’t have hurt that bad. Toi absently thought to himself that this must be their usual banter. “Anyway, for a middle school kid like you to sell that much weed is pretty amazin’. Guess I should’ve expected as much, since you two are related! You got some with you in that backpack? I’d love to split some.”
Toi understood that the man probably didn’t mean any harm. But he was really crowding Toi’s personal space.
“B-Brother,” Toi protested at Chikai.
“Well, as you can see, Masa’s an idiot, but he’s like a little brother to me. You two are pretty close in age. You should get along.”
His brother had no sense if he honestly believed that, and if it was a joke, then it simply wasn’t funny.
Scene 3
AROUND THE SAME TIME, another incident was taking place at the Asakusa Otter Police Box.
“Mabu… Are you actually Mabu?” Reo asked, a look of complete disbelief in his eyes.
The man in question stood silently before him with a large platter of freshly baked ningyo-yaki. They looked utterly perfect. A sweet aroma spread through the air.
Every previous time Reo suspected even the most trivial change in his partner, he’d been betrayed. It was too early to celebrate. It wouldn’t be easy to recreate the delicate flavor of Mabu’s original recipe. The real Mabu diligently studied and poured in hours of effort to create the taste that Reo loved. He’d had about enough of this imitation making light of the real Mabu.
No more, never again. Stop making these ningyo-yaki.
Even as he prepared as much verbal abuse as he could in his head, his heart eagerly yearned to test the flavor. Reo’s hand trembled as he carried one of the warm treats to his mouth. His sharp, pointed teeth cut right through the soft outer shell as he tore a piece off. He chewed and chewed, the taste spreading over his mouth, then swallowed. His mouth cracked open slightly.