“Himari!” Kanba reached out toward the falling gondola, but he was too far away.
The gondola stopped, held back by the other wires. “It’s not good to lie.” Tabuki’s face was blank.
“I honestly have no idea where our father is! I don’t know! What do you want me to do about it?!”
Tabuki stared silently at Kanba’s face as the boy glared back at him.
“Tabuki-san, that’s enough! I’m going to call the police!” Ringo took out her phone and held it up. It was her only option. There was nothing else she could do to help.
“I don’t care if you do, honestly, but what does he think about that idea?” Tabuki uttered, looking vaguely toward Ringo.
“Stop. Don’t call the cops.” Kanba’s eyes wavered slightly.
Ringo stopped herself in mid-dial. She wondered what Kanba was doing, but at the same time she realized that she had an unexpected amount of faith in him. There had to be some reason for it.
“You see? If the police come, I won’t be the one who gets in trouble,” Tabuki chuckled, the corners of his mouth twisting. “I know your secret, Takakura Kanba. I know what you’ve been doing to earn all that money in order to save your sister.”
Kanba fell silent, steadying his breathing.
Instead of the police, Ringo quickly dialed Shoma’s number. There was no way that she wouldn’t tell him about this. She just prayed that he would pick up the phone. She slowly put the phone to her ear, only to hear the automated voice of his answering service. Idiot, she thought, and immediately called him back.
For now, she would keep calling him, no matter if she had to do it hundreds or even millions of times.
After many calls, he finally picked up with a breathless, heavy voice. “Yes?”
“Shoma-kun!” Ringo felt like she would cry just at the sound of his voice.
Tabuki pulled a large stack of photographs out of his back pants pocket and tossed them at Kanba’s feet. The photos showed Kanba meeting up with some men in black at the station and on the train.
“You’ve been in contact with the last remnants of that group. Your father is the one in charge of said group, isn’t he?”
Kanba picked up the photos, appearing not in the least bit shaken, and tossed them down the stairs. “And just what are these supposed to prove? You’re sorely mistaken.”
Tabuki stared wordlessly at him. “I see,” he said after a moment, and pushed the button on the remote control.
Yet another of the wires snapped with a terrible sound.
The gondola careened again. Himari collapsed on the floor with a soundless scream.
“Himari!!” Kanba cried as he looked at the gondola. He whirled on Tabuki. “What are you going to do if you meet our father?” he demanded in a voice that seemed to rise from the pit of his chest.
“He’s going to finally receive his punishment. He’s going to pay the price for his sin, for what he stole from me,” Tabuki quietly replied.
“What he stole?”
“The most important person to me in the entire world was a victim of the accident. Your parents were the ones who murdered her.”
Tabuki’s phone call echoed once more in Kanba’s mind. Sixteen years. Fed up of waiting. Of course—Tabuki had a connection to the accident.
“Momoka was a truly special girl. If she were still here, we could have avoided so many of the senseless tragedies in this world. Momoka should have been my—no, the entire world’s salvation,” Tabuki said in a single breath, his face contorted into a grin.
He didn’t actually care what happened to humanity. All Tabuki wanted was to be with Momoka forever. He wanted to see her again. He wanted Momoka to be by his side, his own personal salvation. In fact, it was strange of him to bother caring about “the senseless tragedies of this world,” now that he had come this far.
Tabuki needed Momoka, and she had been taken from him. That was the only reason for doing this.
“What are you talking about?” Momoka was Ringo’s older sister’s name, wasn’t it? Kanba had no idea what Tabuki meant by avoiding tragedies if she were here, or her being some kind of savior.
“The incident your father caused was just one of those tragedies. Momoka was trying to stop it.”
Oginome Ringo’s older sister was trying to stop the accident. Kanba was puzzled at this mysterious figure, whom he knew nothing about. What on earth could this one little girl have done all on her own?
“And yet, no one was saved. Momoka vanished, leaving me behind.”
“Vanished?” Not perished. Vanished. Did he mean something by that word choice?
Meanwhile, Ringo was frantically whispering at Shoma over the phone. “Please, come quick!” she hissed.
“On it!” Still connected to the call, Shoma raced toward the building where Ringo and his siblings waited, listening to Ringo’s instructions as he ran.
Unable to draw her gaze away from the dangerously swaying wires, Ringo hugged her own chilled body.
“Now, let’s continue,” Tabuki said as he pressed the button again.
Another wire snapped with a great sound, and the gondola tilted further, slipping with a terrifying jerky motion. Only one wire remained to stand between Himari and death.
“And yet, you still won’t call your father?” Tabuki looked up to see the first star of the night visible in the dark sky through the atrium.
“I’m begging you, please just stop this!” Kanba pleaded, dropping to his knees helplessly.
“Oh? What happened to all that bravado?”
“I swear, I don’t know where our father is. I really don’t! If I did, I…” Kanba trailed off. If he did know, then what? Would he bring him here?