SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

4/30 Morning Saturday

"Sanada-san! Good news!"

Takane lazily draped himself over the cubicle wall with a smile on his lips. The disheveled man's grin widened some more as Akihiko's gaze of confusion set in.

"What…?"

"CO wants to see you."

He frowned. Whatever it was, it couldn't be anything good. Akihiko shook his head as he took a deep breath in. What if he was getting something new? Something exciting finally? Resigning himself from having a quiet morning, he placed his mug down and reluctantly stood up.

"Hey chief, I heard you wanted to see me?" Akihiko called out.

A shiver went down his spine when he walked into the room. Next to the chief stood a boy in a tan peacoat, deep in discussion with the former. Clearing his throat to grab their attention, Akihiko quietly knocked at the open door. When the boy's head whipped up to look at him, Akihiko couldn't stifle a cough as a peculiar, yet unmistakable, sensation worked its way through his body. The boy merely smiled and extended his arm to him.

"Ah, Sanada-san, I assume? Goro Akechi," the boy introduced himself.

4/30 Afterschool Saturday

Ken frowned at the situation he had found himself in. In his defense, when the charming Haru Okumura asked him after class to accompany her with her gardening, the last thing he had envisioned was running around throughout Yongen-Jaya scouring for bags of topsoil.

For what felt like the hundredth time, they exited another store defeated. Ken's knees ached, still feeling the fatigue from a few days back. Meanwhile, Haru quietly hummed to herself as she scrolled through the gardening stores on her phone. He peeked at her phone and groaned. The next closest store was a few kilometers away.

"How hard could it be to find a few bags of dirt!?" Ken complained, sitting down at a nearby stack of pallets. He stretched his legs, enjoying the moment of respite.

Haru let out a soft laugh and took a seat next to him. "I'm sorry for dragging you out for this. I didn't expect it to be this hard."

Ken shook his head. "No, no. It's fine. I promised I'd help, right?" He stood up and noticed they were close to a supermarket. An idea formed in his head. "Okumura-san, ice cream break?"

Haru's eyes lit up. "Oh, yes please!"

He walked into the supermarket, straight for the freezer at the back of the store. Grabbing two of the best looking ones, he noticed the label. "Huh, Okumura Foods. Same name." He simply shrugged before turning around towards the cashier.

His eyes caught a small woman in one of the aisles, unmoving. She stood silent, somber even, unaware of the people around her. Her face was familiar to Ken but he couldn't exactly pinpoint where he knew her from. Paying no mind, he swerved skillfully around her towards the counter.

"¥500 is your total."

He reached for his coin pouch, fishing around for a few ¥100 coins. After a small thank you, Ken started to walk away when he heard something heavy drop behind him.

"Ma'am!" the cashier suddenly exclaimed, clamoring to get out of the counter

Ken turned around and saw the woman on the floor. Shit, he swore to himself and ran towards her side. He grabbed her wrist, placing his finger, desperately trying to find a pulse.

"Please, please, please…"

He visibly relaxed as he felt the subtle yet slow beat. She's alive. His mouth clenched and his eyes darted back and forth, his mind running through what he had to do next.

"Get her feet up!" Ken yelled at the cashier but the the man was stuck in a state of shock. He cursed before looking around the supermarket for anything to use, a box, or a container of some sort.

"Amada-kun?" Haru walked in, her concerned eyes locking with his. The pallet!

"Haru!" he yelled. "Grab a pallet from outside, now!"

"H-huh!?"

"Now!"

Haru stood still for a moment before running back out. He turned to the stunned cashier, anger in his voice. "Snap out of it! Call 119!"

Finally breaking through, the cashier scrambled to the back. Ken's attention went back to the woman, her frail and sickly skin looking incredibly pale.

Suddenly, he was back.

The supermarket melted away, linoleum replaced by cold pavement. The green moon illuminated the narrow alleyway, a loud sobbing filling the eerie silence. He held onto his mother's hands.

"Ken," his mother gasped. "Come here." Her desperate hands reached up to his cheek, tenderly caressing it as she choked, struggling to breathe. His heart caved in, a wave of melancholy crashing through.

Why was he reliving this now?

"Mom!"

Why now?

Suddenly, the apparition of a man materialized in front of him, slowly extending its hands to Ken's, beckoning him quietly.

Thiswas not part of it. He would know, for he had relived this moment in his head to feel his mother's touch one last time.

Why was he here?

"Amada-kun!"

Haru's voice broke through, sending Ken back to reality. He blinked at her, eyes wide and caught unprepared. The aisles of the supermarket had returned and he was on the linoleum floor, holding an unconscious woman.

"W-what do I do!? Is she gonna be okay!?" she exclaimed, holding a pallet on her trembling hands.

Ken shook his head free from the creeping thoughts. "Here, give it to me."

What was that…?

4/30 Evening Saturday

The two found themselves outside the general hospital, ice cream and topsoil forgotten, a pregnant silence between them. They had just finished being questioned by the police about the incident, unsure of what else they were supposed to do.

Concern filled Haru's mind as she stared at Ken. He had been acting weird since the incident, his eyes filled with something she couldn't exactly pinpoint. She playfully tried waving her hand in front of his face to no success.

Haru tried to break the silence. "At least it was just exhaustion and stress, right?"

Ken merely nodded, his gaze fixated at the entrance of the hospital.

Haru shifted her weight, struggling to find the right topic as the silence grew longer. "Amada-kun, are you okay?" she finally asked. "I'm sorry this is how it turned out. I feel bad. This was all my fault!"

"I remember her now," he spoke softly that Haru almost didn't catch it. His tone emanated sadness and Haru couldn't help but cast her eyes down.

"She was Suzui-san's mother."

Haru raised her eyebrow, unsure of who he meant. "Who…?"

"The girl who tried to commit suicide."

Silence returned between the two as Haru's eyes widened at the revelation. "I didn't know…"

Ken let out a soft sigh. "It's alright. Hey, we should probably get home." He tried swerving the topic of conversation. "It's getting pretty late."

He turned his back to the hospital and faced Haru, giving her a lopsided smile. "Are you taking the train?"

She shook her head and turned towards a black car parked a few meters back. "I have a ride. I would offer you a ride home but…" she trailed on, her voice getting quieter.

Ken simply nodded. "No worries. Take care."

4/30 Night Saturday

Ken laid awake in the dark room, Koromaru comfortably sleeping away beside him. Try as he might, sleep evaded him, the heaviness in his heart and the cloudiness in his mind shooting down any chance of sleep. Instead, a flurry of emotions circled through him as he thought about Kamoshida did, the suicide attempt, the hollow look in the woman's eyes, and the vision.

And the vision.

His teeth clenched. Did the situation remind him of that night? A chip in his resolve? He had long accepted his mother's death, yet why did it feel so real? His hand found its way to his cheek, trying to remember how his mother's hand felt. Soft and caring, gentle to the touch. Why did it appear now? More importantly, who was that man? Something inside him grew hot the more his mind wandered and his fist tightened to a ball, nails almost digging into skin.

How dare that man, no, that thing, desecrate the last memory of his mother!?

A thought crossed his mind.

He sat up, carefully untangling his arm from Koromaru's grasp. Reaching around to his side table, he took out his phone and navigated to the mysterious app. "There's nothing else to try but this."

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Author's Note: sorta filler, sorta not. Sets up in a low key way one of the plotlines at least. Please rate and review! I've been trying to get back into writing more by reading other books, looking at tips and styles online, drawing inspiration from lyrics, etc. Also, this is not a Haru x Ken fanfic.