Himeko and Chikane: Their Story 17

Chapter 17 – The Aftermath

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It was 11:15 PM and Girochi got word of a fire near an alley in Shinjuku. When he heard where it was located, he immediately went over there, knowing that's where Hana lives. He was hoping that Hana wasn't hurt in anyway possible.

When he got there, his worst fears came true. He saw a badly burnt body. He already knew it was Hana, judging by the height. He was trying hard to hold back his tears, but he knew he had a job to do. He also knew that he would have to tell his sister sooner or later about this, so he gave her a call but she didn't answer. He ended up leaving a message. At the scene was guy who was passing by when he saw the fire and reported it.

"Did you see anything else besides the fire?" He asked.

"No I didn't. Are you expecting some sort of foul play?"

"I can't say. I'm not a detective. I'll have them handle this as well." Though he suspected that it was. Instantly, he got a call from his sister.

"Hola?" (Hello?)

"Hola. Que pasa?" (Hello. What's up?)

"Yo tengo noticias mal. Hana-chan es muerte." (I have some bad news, Hana-chan is dead).

Miyako went silent for a bit, then she answered "Are you serious. Please tell me that you're kidding."

"I wish I could, but I'm not. He really is dead. Someone murdered him. I'm at the alley where he stays. He was - "

Girochi could hear some sniffles in the background. His sister started to cry.

"Don't tell me how he was killed, and don't you go anywhere, I will be right there," she said with cracks in her voice. She only lived a few minutes from the alley.

A little over five minutes later, she arrived. Seeing the police cars, ambulance, and a covered body on a stretcher, she knew he was serious.

As soon as he spotted her, Girochi came up to her. "Hi there."

"Hi. Can I take a look at the body?"

"Are you sure? You don't seem to be in the right frameset."

"I am. Please let me take a look."

Then Girochi came up to one of the paramedics and asked him to uncover the body. What she saw nearly put her to shock. It was the badly burnt body of Hana. She couldn't believe it.

"Oh my God!" Then she started to cry. Girochi pulled out some napkins from his pants pocket and gave it to her. She hysterically cried for a bit before one of the detectives spoke to her. Girochi was surprised, for she was very calm and collected most of the time. The only time he ever saw her like this was that traumatic time in Peru.

"Ma'am, I would like to offer my condolences to you, but we need to ask you a few questions."

"Okay," she responded while drying off her tears. While she was answering the detective's questions, Girochi got a call from a fellow police officer.

"Hello?"

"Hey Martinez-san, it's Chikanatsu-san. I got some bad news for you."

"What? More bad news?"

"What do you mean?" the officer asked. He was rather puzzled.

"Hana-chan is dead."

The officer didn't say anything for a bit. "Oh kami… That's not good. Was he murdered?"

"Yeah, I suspected that someone purposely set him on fire."

Chikanatsu was even more stunned. "Oh kami, that's terrible. He was a good man."

"He sure was, but tell me the bad news please. I doubt it couldn't be any worse."

The officer gulped at first. "It probably is. Your sister's ex-boyfriend, Oogami Tsubasa, is dead."

Girochi was wrong, it did get worse. "What!" he shouted. "You're kidding."

"I'm kidding as much as you are kidding about Hana-chan's death. I'm at the electronic store where he was shot by Officer Fukao-san."

Now he couldn't hold back his tears any longer, as he started to ask questions.

"But why would he do that? What happened?"

"From what the owner told us, Oogami-san entered in the store and started to smash things around him, especially the TVs. Then he went after a guy and nearly killed him. When he arrived there, he said that he saw him with the guy and he was about to throw a piece of metal at him. So he quickly shot him. I'm so sorry…"

Girochi couldn't believe it, two deaths of two people he knew very well in one night. He could have never thought of a worse night than this, besides the night that his parents died.

When she was finished being questioned, Girochi came up to Miyako and told her the other bad news. She was still crying.

"I got word from another officer that Tsubasa-san is…is..." He was struggling to say the last word, as he started to cry. Finally he was able to utter it out. "Dead." Now Miyako was in total shock. She couldn't believe it. The person who was once the love of her life is now gone. Hana was bad enough, but this was truly even worse. "We need to go over there now."

She didn't respond, but instead shook her head and cried even more.

Girochi was about to drive over there, but another officer saw his state-of-mind and convinced him to let him drive him and his sister over there. As the officer was driving to the store, neither said a word during the trip. All they could think of is what was happening. They just kept crying as the police vehicle traveled down the road.

Finally they arrived, and the body was now covered up, but it was still lying on the floor. Girochi talked to his fellow officer and he removed the cover over Tsubasa's face.

When she saw the dead face of Tsubasa, she immediately broke down and cried. On her knees with her hands over her face, she wept heavily. Girochi was barely better, as tears streamed down his face from his watery eyes.

Officer Chikanatsu spotted him. "Girochi-san. I'm surprised that you came."

"I had to, as painful as it was. He was like a brother to me. He was my sister's boyfriend at one time." He responded back in tears.

Chikanatsu offered him a paper handkerchief. Then he offered the weeping nun one as well. She dried her eyes and then when she regained composure, she got angry, but true to her nature, she didn't shout.

"Why did you do this to Tsubasa-san? Why?" She pleaded angrily at the cop.

Girochi quickly came to her and tried to calm her down. "Please sis, he was just doing his job. Besides, he wasn't the one who did it."

"No I wasn't. It was another officer."

"Where is he? Where the heck is he!" she demanded furiously, going out of her usual composure.

The officer understood how upset she was. Instead, he calmly told her, "He already went back to the police department. I'm sorry ma'am."

Then his colleague came to him and told him, "Let me handle this."

"No problem." He left the area and then Miyako asked her brother a question.

"Let me see the rest of his body, please."

"I don't think you want to -"

"Please!"

"Okay…"

He pulled the sheets off the rest of his body and saw a cold, bloodied body of Tsubasa. Hysterically, Miyako quickly left the area and cried even more. Girochi came up to her and offered her his big shoulders to cry on. He too was still in tears. He knew he had to sooner or later make another phone call to tell the devastating news.

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Later on that night, while Kazuki was sound asleep, he got a phone call.

"Hello," he said with a tired voice.

"Oogami-sensei, is that you?"

"Yes it is. Hi there Girochi-san."

"Hi. I got some bad news to tell you. Tsubasa-san is dead. He was killed over an hour ago." He informed with his voice crackling.

The stoic Kazuki feared that this day would happen, but he was still left speechless.

"Are you there Oogami-sensei."

"Yes I am. How did it happen?"

Girochi told him the entire story of what happened and it left Kazuki even more numbed.

"So where are you now?"

"I'm at Gold Star Electronics in Yotsuya."

"Gold Star Electronics in Yotsuya?

"Yep."

"Listen, I'll be there in no less then twenty minutes. Don't go anywhere!"

Little did he know that Souma heard the conversation. Souma expected it had to do with his brother. As soon as Kazuki left, he started to get himself dress and got on his motorcycle.

Five minutes after Souma left, a knock was heard from the front door. Chikane was fast asleep, but Himeko was still up. She was sitting up on her bed, doing some drawing. Instantly, she got out of her side of the bed and opened the door. It was Natashi.

"Natashi-san, it's good to see you, but why are you here so late?" She asked softly, not wanting to wake up everyone else in the house.

"I got some serious news to tell you." Himeko noticed the sadness on his face, she knew it had to be serious. "Is Chikane-san up?"

"No she's not. She's not a night owl like me." Himeko chuckled, but Natashi was in no mood to chuckle. Himeko noticed and stopped her chuckling. Then she asked, "So what's the news?"

Natashi was about to tell her, but he started to cry. While crying, he told her, "Hana-chan is dead."

Himeko's mouth opened in shocked. "Is that so?"

"Yes. They found his body burnt at his place and I know who do it."

"Who?" She asked as tears started to fill up her eyes.

"It was the mysterious black masked crew. They left this at my place."

Natashi pulled out the letter and showed it to Himeko. It was written rather sloppy, but it was on purpose. The person who wrote it must have wrote it with his non-writing hand, so it can't be traced. Natashi proceed to read the latter.

"To Natashi-san and Nekoko-san. This is a warning to anybody who takes our stuff. In this case, it was most of our possessions that Himemiya stole from us. We will get her sooner or later, and don't try to stop us because if you do, you'll be next."

Himeko was now very frightened. It had to be that necklace that she stole from the pawn shop on their birthday. Sadness and grief of Hana filled one half of her soul while anger and upset of Chikane filled the other. She started to cry and rather loudly, as she wept on Natashi shoulders. It was loud enough to wake up Chikane.

Chikane woke up and came to the main room. She saw a sad and crying Himeko and Natashi.

"Natashi-san, what are you doing here? And why all this crying?"

Natashi regain his composure and told her, "Hana-chan was killed by the black-masked group." He was angry at her as well.

Chikane was now shocked, she hasn't realized that it was because of her actions – yet.

"What? Those bastards! Always praying on the innocent!"

"Not this time! They had a reason! Read the freaking paper and you'll find out!" Himeko yelled in anger and used the strongest word in her vocabulary. She came up to her lover and slapped the paper on her chest. Chikane knew that she must have done something very wrong for Himeko to get angry like that.

She was about to say something about it, but instead she read the paper and then she started to break down as well. While she was crying, she pleaded as well.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for it to happen like this!" She cried.

"You knew you shouldn't have stolen that necklace! I told you it was a bad idea!" Himeko yelled back.

"But I was doing it as a favor. Honest I swear!"

"Himemiya-san, this is nothing new. You've done this quite a few times. Now it has finally caught up to you, and others have paid the price because of it. In Hana-chan's case, the price was his life!" Yelled an angry Natashi.

"I'm so sorry. Please forgive me, please!" She begged as she got down on her knees and started to cry.

Natashi told her, "For you, never." And he stormed out of the place, leaving Himeko to deal with the guilty Chikane.

"I do forgive you Chikane-chan, for I know that you had good intentions in giving that necklace to Hana-chan, but what you did was still wrong." And she went back to her bed. Chikane kept on crying, she didn't even bother to go back to her bedroom.

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When he got there, he saw the body on the stretcher a few feet away. It took everything inside of him to remain calm and collective. As he was walking up to the body, one of the detectives stopped him.

"Sir, this is a crime scene, unless you got permission, you can't be around here."

Girochi came up to the detective.

"He's with me. He's the brother of the victim."

"Please, let me see him." Kazuki begged.

"Will you be okay?" The detective asked.

Still regaining his composure, he told him. "Yes."

The detective pulled up the yellow tape and Kazuki and Girochi went under it. He then pulled the cover off of Tsubasa's face. Kazuki was silent for a bit, now he was really struggling to keep his cool.

"Are you next of kin to Oogami Tsubasa."

"Yes." He struggled to reply as he started to tremble.

"Is this the body of Oogami Tsubasa?"

"...Yes."

Finally Souma arrives. Girochi heard the motorcycle's rumble and took noticed.

"Souma-san?"

Kazuki turned around and noticed. "What are you doing here?"

"Where is he?" Souma asked. It didn't take long to get his answer as he saw his brother's uncovered face in the background. In that instant moment, he suddenly lost it.

"NOOOOOOOO! NO! NOOOOOOOO!" He started to cry hysterically. Girochi and a few of the police officers rushed over to calm him down. Kazuki quickly came up to him and tried his best to calm him down, with tears of his own running down his face. This was not a night that anybody will ever forget.

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