Tachibana Ichika

The Bar was written in English text on top of the brown colored wooden board hung on the first floor of the three-story building. It was raining heavily on the street outside, with all the buildings drenched in water. Yumiko, who was working in the middle of the faint lights inside the dining area, wiped the white shelf. She was wearing a black dress beneath her white apron. The whole area was filled with the faint patter of rain. The door on her right suddenly opened again. She turned to the right, and looked at the figure of Kurayami smiling as he looked at her. “Yumiko, I’ll be out tonight for a while, so make sure that you keep the door open when you retire to sleep, okay?”

“B-But where are you going, Yamazaki-san?” She asked, a little confusedly.

“Don’t worry, Yumiko. I’ll make sure I’m back soon.”

“O-Okay,” She nodded.

Kurayami turned his head to the front and continued to walk, tapping his shoes on the ground. He wore a thick black overcoat. Yumiko looked at his back suspiciously as he opened the door in the middle of the heavy rain, stepped out, and then closed the door behind him.

***

Suzuki Tadashi

“Aye, kid, ya still awake?”

My eyes opened widely. I moved my back up, sitting up on the hay. I turned my head backward, from where the voice came in, and wiped both my eyes with both my hands. I stood up on the ground, still running my left eye, and started to walk across the stable to the other end of the barn with the entrance at my back. “M-Matsuda-senpai, i-is something the matter?” I asked.

“Yeah, kid.”

“W-What?” I asked as I continued to walk. I stood at the other side of the large pile of hay, from which suddenly Matsuda-senpai’s head emerged from the right.

“Kid…” I looked at his eyes, which had turned completely red, his eyes wet. His hair, beard, and mustache were dark black and messy.

“W-What happened?”

“I… wanna take revenge.”

“W-W-What…?”

He stepped leftward, coming out of hay, and walking towards me slowly with a green bottle of liquor in his right hand. “Revenge. Revenge. Revenge,” He chanted as he looked at me with his expressionless dead eyes.

I stepped back, looking at him with my horrified scared eyes. “W-What are you doing, Matsuda-senpai?”

“Revenge. Revenge. Revenge.” PAT. PAT. PAT.

He suddenly moved his right hand with the bottle up in air, and waved it onto my head with full force. It hit my head. BANG! I bent my head downward, covered it with both my hands, tripped my boots, and fell down on the ground. My head was covered with red blood all over, with my both hands covered with streaks of blood on them, running down my hands to my arms. I was panting heavily with my open mouth in horror. “Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.” I opened my horrified eyes, looked at the blood running down my arm, and then looked at the sharp ends of the broken bottle in the hands of Matsuda from between my arms and hair. “W-W-W-W-What the hell has happened to this guy?!” I thought in horror as I looked at the bottle in his hands as he stood silent in front of me, looking down at me with his angry disillusioned eyes.

“You look exactly like my son,” He said. “He even had the same eyes—just like his mother,” He said in his horrific heavy voice. “I wanna avenge myself.”

I moved my hands down and turned my head up, looking at his devilish eyes with my horrified ones. “This monster…”

“Kill him,” A voice inside me said. “It’s your last chance, Tadashi. Take your revenge before he takes it all out on you. It’s your only option.”

“Kill him.”

“Kill him.”

“Kill him…”

I turned my head down at the ground, looking at the broken pieces of the glass all around me. Just on my right, I looked at a big sharp piece of glass lying just on my right.

“My kid used to love me when he was a child. But… that bitch brainwashed him and turned him against me,” Matsuda said, looking at me with his disillusioned eyes looking into infinity. “‘I hate you, dad. You don’t love mom.’  That’s what he said before he turned his back away and walked away from me and my life, never looking at me lovingly ever again.”

His lips then said, “I loved him.”

“… And I gonna kill that bitch to get my son back. But they’re rich, so I can’t do a damn thing.”

I turned my head at the top, looking at his dead eyes looking at me. I had the piece in my right hand. I gulped in, tightening my hold on the piece.

“THAT LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER STARTED HATING HIS DAD JUST BECAUSE HIS MOMMA SAID SO!” Matsuda raised the bottle up in the air angrily. “AAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

My hand moved up above my shoulder and DANG! The sharp long piece pierced right through his chest, coming out from the other side of his body, covered half in blood. I looked at the piece pierced through his clothes and his chest. Suddenly, a drop of red liquid came out. In seconds, the white clothes were soaked with red blood in the area. My arms were shaking as I opened my palm to let go of the piece. My hand was shaking. Matsuda stepped his right foot back, and soon lost his balance, falling backward on the ground. “My… hero… My son was my hero.”

“… Hero…” I kept staring at the body in front of me lying on the ground, looking into the infinity aimlessly.

I remembered Sasaki-senpai’s words as he said, “You’re the hero.”

“I am… the… hero…” I whispered to myself.

CREEEAKKKKK. The door of the barn behind me suddenly opened a little. I turned my head to the back, snapping out on my senses. “I looked at the silhouette of a man standing in front of the door. The faint noise of the patter of rain entered inside as the figure stood at the front of the door.

“I-I-I didn’t do it, s-sir…” I stood up from the ground hesitantly, twisted my body back towards him, and ran towards him. I fell on his feet and held his legs. “I didn’t do it, sir. H-He was tryna kill me, I-I swear.”

The figure in black overcoat turned his head down at me. With a sneaky smile, he said, “Don’t worry, Suzuki-kun. I know all of the truth.”

I turned my crying head at the top, looking at the face.

“Recognize me? I’m Yamazaki Kurayami. We’ve met before, didn’t we?”