Shiratori Haruto

It was evening time and the sky was dark blue. There were some clouds in the sky, slowly floating in the infinite depths of the sky. The city of Chizu was silent. Streets of markets and restaurants moving up were filled with the figures of working men and women in colored coats going back home, along with women in casuals buying their daily needs. The road in the middle of the street had a car or two running at them slowly.

In front of a narrow lane stood a wide four-five story building filled with windows at the front. It had some more buildings on both its sides, and some on the other side of the narrow lane.

Inside his little office filled with a desk on the left of the entrance and a wardrobe to keep books and files on the right front corner, Kiyoshi was sitting on his dark brown desk, writing something on paper with some other papers spread all over the desk in front of his computer system. The desk had the nameplate of ‘Yashiro Kiyoshi’ written on it in Japanese. He wore a brown overcoat as he worked diligently on the paper. Just as his pen was scribbling on the paper, all three of his fingers left the pen and it fell on the desk.

“Huff!” He exhaled out. “Literally, it’s gonna take me days to complete these papers…”

Kiyoshi then turned his head to the front, looking at the wardrobe on his left, at the corner. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking aimlessly at the wardrobe. “There’s been no update on Haruto’s case for the past month. Is it the time to close the case?” He then gulped in. “No. It’s one of the most twisted cases in the world. Literally. I can’t just stop it. I need to keep on monitoring this case, waiting for something to happen so that I can get this case solved.” He then bent his back backward, tilting his head a little up as he looked onto the roof. “But, nothing’s happened, and Haruto’s back here. So, what if… the ones behind it have already backed down from him?”

“But, what if they’re just waiting for me to think the same way, and then they’d act?”

“No, I should not assume anything.”

“Maybe the best path would be to stop thinking about it altogether.” He smiled a little as he turned his head down to his papers again. “It’s useless anyway.”

CREAK!

Kiyoshi turned his head to the front, and his eyes widened. Standing in front of the open door, with his right hand on the doorknob, donning a pair of white shirt and a black pair of trousers, and a black colored bag behind his back… was me, looking at him with my neutral eyes.

“H-Haruto…?”

“Y-Yashiro-senpai…” I replied. “Well, I wanna talk to you about something…”

“W-What is it?” He asked questioningly, a little shocked by my arrival.

THUD. THUD. I started to walk toward him, with the door behind me closing itself. CREAK.

Halfway through the desk and the door stood my figure, shyly looking at him with my innocent eyes. “Actually, I… I just wanted to tell you that I’ve regained my memories back.”

“What?” He narrowed his eyes for a second in shock, and then he smiled. “It’s a good thing, then. Now, tell me what happened with you, and why were you—”

“I can’t tell you that.”

TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK.

The clock on top of the wall behind his desk echoed through the whole room for a couple of seconds. He was looking into my eyes shocked as I looked at him innocently.

“W-What…? Why?”

“It might get you in danger, and it might be something you won’t believe,” I replied. “You see, it’s so… unrealistic…”

“I’ll believe you, Haruto,” Kiyoshi said. “I’ve seen enough in this case that I’m ready to believe even the most absurd of explanations. Literally.”

“Still, it might get you in danger, you see,” I replied.

“I don’t care. I just gotta solve this case.”

“For the world, you might vanish as I did. Your death would be in vain.”

TICK. TOCK.

“… It’s okay.”

“I still won’t.”

TIC—!

“Huff…” Kiyoshi exhaled. He was tensed as he heard those words. He tilted his head down, looking at the papers on his desk. “Just tell me that you’re not comfortable sharing this story with me, kid.”

My eyes widened.

“I can literally read your expressions like the words in a book.” Kiyoshi then turned his head to the front.

The image of two twin daughters wearing the same red and white frocks and dresses came to Kiyoshi’s mind. Then, he remembered another image of the two graves beside one another. Remembering them, his eyes got a little emotional as he turned his head to his left, holding himself back. “I promised myself that I’d solve this case for Shiratori-san. I promised that I won’t let her go through what has happened to me as a parent. I thought that… if I solve her case… I might be able to repent for my sins, and finally find salvation for my two daughters whom I promised to protect but I was unable to.” He then turned to me. “How do I get my salvation now, kid? Where do I get it from?”

I stood in front of him silently, looking at him with my hesitant eyes. A couple of seconds passed as I stood there, tensed because of the situation. “… I’ll come back.” I gulped in. “I promise you, that when I’ll be over with all of this… I’ll come back here… alive… and then I’ll tell you everything that was happening all this while. I’ll… come back… when this story will be over with.”

Kiyoshi smiled.

“… Make sure you come back as soon as possible.”