Sunday: 29th November: 14:45:07

Sunday

29th November

14:45:07

“Alright, just give me a sign here, son.” The end of a sheet waggled beside Naoki, beckoning him over to a countertop, where a pen attached by a thread lay.

Naoki reached over, and made his most integral effort.

“Ahah! You’re quite a bit one of those messy signature types. Still, th’should be all I need, thank you, son. Your name was… Katsumada?”

“… Yes.” Katsumada was just staring. “And… You’re…”

“You can call me Ogawa.” The police officer chuckled, filing away the paper without so much as a glance at the increasingly perspirant standoff underway at the entrance of his police box.

“Big… Man…”

The girl looked upon the shadow dominating the entrance, black where it was breathable, white where it was shining, and saw a memory of a trim suit in place of gym clothes.

“Who thinks… He’s a big man…”

As if the memory instructed her hand, she felt her fingers tighten inside her parka. Even though the ill-fitted jacket slipped back around her neck, she stood still, staring.

Wait.

Eventually, she moved before he could, before it could.
This was her chance, after all. To do the memory right this time.
To get rid of it, this time.

Wait!!

But as you might expect, you couldn’t just flip out 100,000 yen in front of a police box. Especially in front of an officer who just uttered the words “y’heard about that guy who just had 100k snatched in Minato?”

Then, what the hell was Hana supposed to do?

Panic. Silent, slack-jawed, completely still in front of the entrance, all she could do was mentally race against the clock in the hopes that she could pass this off before things grew irretrievably awkward.

Oh, but they were way past that point from the start, weren’t they?

“—Hm. You lot alright?”

And then there was that cop. He looked the type for whom doing nothing would be doing far more than advised, but saying anything and everything that came to mind was a virtue impossible to extol sufficiently.

Whatever she did, she needed to do carefully, slowly, and ending with dragging Muscles out of sight so she could…

Ugh.

Even thinking about it was infuriating.

Doing it, on the other hand… Was simply impossible.

All Hana could do was stare in openmouthed horror, as no ideas on how to segue out of this even bothered to come to her.

“I-I—…”

And no words, either, from the sound of it.
Come on, me, damn you.

“I just…”

“—Nothing wrong. I’ll, uh, catch you around sometime, Mr. Ogawa.”

—Just then, Muscles said something!

—Just then, Naoki desperately broke the quiet. If anything, he did so on impulse, but now he didn’t know which impulse to act on. Whichever would get him out of here, he thought, as quickly and unassumingly as possible.

While he stood there, grasping, the officer just laughed.

“Sure thing, son. Stop by with your lady friend here, sometime!”

Just then, a revelation came to Naoki. Earlier in the gym, he’d felt one of his pockets dig into his side, and he seemed to remember slipping something into this outfit sometime in the summer.
A breath of hope whipped its way through his chest as he reached in to find a pair of sunglasses, only moderately squished together. They didn’t snap when he put them on, and that was enough.

“See ya.” He turned his head toward the emptiest road. He carefully measured every step, as he turned tail to follow it the hell out of there.

Behind the dark lenses his eyes followed her, as if asking “why?”

Why is she here?

Why— What am I doing?

Why is she here?!

Stop! Go!

What are you doing?!

Just st— 

Just go!!

¥¥¥

That big bastard…

He hadn’t even looked at her. She couldn’t believe it.

After everything she’d done trying to forget, out of nowhere, they’d met, and after all that, he just—?

And yet, Hana watched him walk far-too-quickly down the little river road that wasn’t going to lead him anywhere, and she sighed.

“Your man’s getting away!” The dry-cackle cough of the cop’s voice sounded out beside her. “Or… Did the two of you not know one-another?—”

She took off.

“—Oh. Alright. Have a nice day.”

¥¥¥

Naoki descended the stairs towards the river. Not because that’s where he was going, but if he at least made it look like that was where he was going, he wouldn’t have to deal with the third-hand embarassment he’d inevitably imagine from the few figures out on an afternoon stroll, who might catch sight of him wandering and otherwise looking evidently lost and distraught.

That was no way for a man to be. He stayed strong until he reached the bottom of the bank-side hill, until he reached a particularly slippery patch of grass where the flagstones fell away.

He was glad nobody was watching, by now. All of a sudden, the mud gave way. His legs were swept out from under him. The only reason he didn’t fall flat on his face was because his ass was in the way.

“—Oof!”

Muscular as it was, it served as sub-standard padding. Naoki rubbed off the bruise he felt forming, and glanced up.
Thank God nobody was—

Oh.

Oh, God.

Naoki watched the girl at the top of the hillside, pausing, as if wondering whether to go and help, or stop, and laugh.

She was indeed stopped. As Naoki’s sunglasses snapped in two off of his face, however, in place of a laugh she just wore a long, quiet frown.

“Um… Can I talk to you?” She called down the hillside.

“To me?” Naoki inquired.

Her frown softened, and then shifted again into a scowl. “Um… Obviously? I’m not here to give the frogs my company.”

“Right…”

She sighed, stepping tentatively down towards the bank. “I’m glad you went this way, at least. If you successfully gave me the slip after all this, I was going to be so—”

It was then that the already once-slicked track of mud took over, reducing Hana’s next words to a surprised squeak, as the sky suddenly turned horizontal.

The slip. She’d been given it, alright. She resigned herself to a storm of frustration, as the sun-soaked clouds upturned, and a gust of chill took her. At least now she had a reason to chuck the money in this guy’s face and get out of there, but she absolutely couldn’t go into her next shift muddy, and she hadn’t brought a spare pair of—

“—Pants?”

Her next thoughts, too, squeaked out of her, as another second passed, and the cold squelch of the ground waiting below never came.

“What?”

She squealed again, as a voice brushed warm against her cheek.

“—Huh?”

But through some weird animal sense she felt her altitude continue to increase, as the man brought her up into his arms, before setting Hana down onto the solid paving by the bank of the river.

“That’s where I fell, too.” The man replied sheepishly, brushing the mud off of his forearms.

“Well, thank you… For your warning.” Hana pulled the corners of her jacket up. No stains in sight, at least.

“What’s this about pants?”

“—It’s nothing!”

Naoki nodded, thankful for the mud. It disguised a chance for him to clutch his poor, burning arms. “I-I see. Glad you’re okay, at least.”

The girl tossed her hair behind her, piling it into her hood.
“I’m not!” She growled. “And I won’t be, until you—”
Ducked into her pocket. Tore out the wad of bills, carefully totalled up to ¥101,100.
“—Take this back!”

She thrust them up in the direction of his face, blinding herself to the look of total shock on it.

“Why?” Naoki asked, once he had composed himself.

“Why— Why d’you think?! It was a mistake!” The girl answered.
“It was a mistake. So we should undo it.”

What she did see was Naoki shake his head.

“No. It’s…— Wait, was that why you came out all this way? To the police, even?”

She paused. “Well—”

“You wouldn’t— They would’ve launched an investigation.” The man furrowed his brow. “You would’ve ended up becoming a suspect, even though you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Well, that’s your money’s fault!” She retorted. “I just don’t wanna have anything to do with it!”

“Why?” Again, Naoki asked. “I gave it to you—”

“—Yeah, thanks! Nobody in their right mind accepts this much for nothing!” She bit her lip. “Not as far as I’m damn well concerned. This might be nothing to you, but to me… All it is is an insult.”

“W-woah.”

Hana bit her lip. Who the hell was this guy? Making no sense. Talking to her like a damn horse. She focused her gaze, and—

And… Stopped.

He hadn’t been talking to her, after all. The hulking sculpture of a man’s eyes were wide open. His shoulders were spread, his back gently arched. She wasn’t one to read microexpressions, but he was nodding.

Processing.

He wasn’t trying to ward off the anger, or wall it out with his. He was just… Taking it in.

“An insult?” His eyes reflected the slow edge of the sunlight as the skyscape behind them began to darken gold. “What do you mean?”

“I was just…” Hana’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t…”

“You don’t…?”

“I don’t need any help.” She said.
“That’s all. So please, take it back.”