A/N : Since I don't know the name of Fuji's mother, I am naming her 'Suzume' for the rest of the time since she's now going to appear quite a bit from here on out.
As soon as the last bell rung, Fuji immediately bolted down the hallways to get to Yuuta as quickly as possible. He wasn't sure exactly what he would do tonight, he knew, he had to tell everyone about Jirou and about needed to leave as soon as possible. He wasn't sure where they would go, but at the moment, he didn't actually care about that. He just hoped everyone would take the time to listen to him, and believe what he was saying.
"Yuuta!" Fuji screamed out, finally finding his brother talking to his friend Mizuki Hajime. Yuuta sighed as he turned back to face his brother.
"Aniki if you say something mean to-,"
"Not now Yuuta, we have to go, now!" Yuuta gave him a confused looked and was about to question what the other was talking about until Fuji grabbed his wrist quickly dragging him away to get to the entrance of the school.
"A-Aniki?" Yuuta called, almost tripping over his own two feet. Fuji didn't answer. As soon as the two got outside, Yuuta finally realized something was definitely wrong with his brother. "Aniki? What… who are you looking for?" Yuuta asked him with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice.
"Yuuta… I have to tell you something important, no, I have to tell everyone… but not now, just go along with me… okay?" Yuuta frowned, wishing he understood what exactly was up, but did as was told.
On the way home, Yuuta went along with Fuji staying on his toes, he wasn't exactly sure what he was watching out for, but he did it anyway, staying quiet when his brother seemed to concentrate. For a few minutes Yuuta believed that his brother was just playing some stupid game, that was until he saw his brother's face. His eyes, they had so much fear packed into them. His face, it was so distressed and upset, and Yuuta found that no one, not even his brother, a person that's constantly feigning expressions, could make an expression that heartbreakingly fearful. It was then, when surprisingly Yuuta found that he just wanted to hug his brother, and try to make him feel better.
As soon as the two got home, Fuji pushed the other inside and locked the door almost immediately as it closed.
"Mom?" He called, rushing into the kitchen.
"Ah, Syuusuke, mother is at the store, is there something you-," Fuji cursed and ran his fingers through his hair closing his eyes tightly and leaning against the counter. "Syu-Syuusuke, is there something wrong?" Fuji wiped away a forming tear and slowly walked into the dining room.
"When did she leave?" Fuji asked, plopping into a chair, irritated.
"Ah… about… just a couple minutes ago."
"Only a couple?" Fuji asked, a crack in his voice. If it's one thing he could say about his mother, one thing would be that she took forever at the store, which is why he usually offered to go for her.
"Syuusuke what's wrong? You can tell me…" Yumiko spoke, following him into the room and sitting down.
"No… no, I need to tell everyone, not just you!" Fuji placed a head down on his table, trying to get himself together. "Is… is Tezuka still upstairs?" Yumiko looked to be on the brig of tears, seeing her younger brother in this state. She quickly nodded, staring at him with hurt eyes, wondering just why he couldn't tell her what was wrong.
Fuji quickly stood up and walked upstairs, since Tezuka already knew, well kind of anyway, he could easily explain the situation. Fuji got up to his room and knocked on his door once before opening it. Tezuka was sitting in the chair at Fuji's desk, reading a book. Fuji was slightly surprised by the other's quick recovery but dismissed it. Tezuka was the type who likes to move on from things, it was the same with his cat.
"Tezuka!" Fuji spoke rushing over to him. He slowly looked up, his expression the same as usual. "Tezuka, this is terrible, okay it's a long story but listen, Akutagawa-," Tezuka interrupted what Fuji was saying with a close of his book and a sigh.
"I don't want to talk about this." Fuji blinked but immediately got onto defense mode.
"But Tezuka this is serious! He's dangerous, and we need to get out of here, I'm already going to tell everyone-,"
"No Fuji, don't get anyone else involved!" Tezuka yelled, "Just because Akutagawa-kun may be interested in you and find you a nice person to be around, that doesn't mean he's trying to hurt you!" Tezuka spoke, getting out of the chair and walking to put it back on its shelf.
"Tezuka! Would you just listen to me! I have a note-," Tezuka looked back at him and Fuji froze, he had on an icy glare that froze Fuji right on the spot.
"Fuji, just stop." Fuji continued to stare, unbelievingly, until getting himself together, he clenched his teeth, feeling anger rising up inside, he tightened his hands and gave a glare right back to him.
"Why aren't you listening to me? Why don't you believe me? Will you just listen to what I have to say for once damn minute before making assumptions?" Fuji bit his lip again, taking deep breaths. "Fine… if you won't believe what I say," He stuck his hand in his pocket bringing out the note and threw it at him. "Read that, see for yourself!" Tezuka didn't catch it, it fell straight to the ground. "Tezuka… please!"
There was a silence, neither of them moved, neither of them said a word, the only sound was of Fuji's angry panting as he waiting for Tezuka to at least do something, twitch, grunt, move to pick up the note, anything. They just continued to stare, finally, with a sigh, Tezuka reached down hesitantly picked up the note and opened it.
Fuji waited as the other read it, not feeling the least bit triumphal. He was glad that Tezuka finally decided to read it, but was still angry that the other took such a long time to do it, they were wasting time! They had to leave. As soon as Fuji thought that over, another thought popped into his mind.
'I have to warn everyone not to leave this house yet!' Fuji took one last look at Tezuka's who's eyes were slightly widened, then walked sped out the door.
"Yumiko! Yuuta!" He yelled, rushing down the steps. Downstairs, he looked in the kitchen and dining room to see no one. Immediately panic rose, did they already leave to go out somewhere? He began biting his finger again, his eyes shooting back and forth worriedly.
"In here Syuusuke!" Fuji closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief at the sound of his sister's voice. He slowly walked in the direction of her voice, which was in the guest room, feeling relaxed now that he knew she was safely in the house. He walked through the door to see Yuuta, sitting in a large, comfortable, blue chair, and Yumiko, who was sitting on a loveseat, they seemed to be having a discussion.
"I have something to tell you two, please, don't ask questions, I promise I'll tell you both, and mother later on. Just, bear with me right now." Fuji took in a deep breath, "don't leave the house. Just… just stay here for right now." The two gave him a confused look and looked over at each other as if having their own personal conversation using their minds. "O-once again, I'll explain later…" Fuji then turned to leave.
"Syuusuke, is this about the past couple of days?" Fuji froze wondering what his sister meant?
"Wha-what?" She had a concerned look on her features, seeming disappointed. 'Did.. Did she find out? Did she know? How? How would she know about Akutagawa?' Fuji began biting his fingers again.
"Your school called, they said you've been missing a lot of your classes. Mostly your afternoon ones, especially your last period." Fuji blinked in confusion.
"… My classes?" Fuji was slightly relieved, but at the same time, felt an even bigger pile of stress fall onto his head. Yumiko sternly nodded.
"Syuusuke, is something wrong? Do you have problems in there? Is it your teacher? Or a bully?" Fuji wanted to laugh at the word bully, but not in the amused fashion.
"Ah… well… I guess I'll explain that too… later on tonight." Yumiko frowned again, hoping that he wasn't just trying to get out of it, but she knew Syuusuke better than that, he wouldn't do that. "Now… I need to go now. Remember, don't leave the house…" Fuji then turned to head back to his room.
As soon as he got to his room, Tezuka was sitting on the bed again. Staring silently down at the note still, but he didn't seem to be reading it.
"Tezuka… did you read it all?" After a second, Tezuka nodded.
"But… something concerns me…" Fuji scoffed, the whole thing concerned him. Tezuka looked up, staring into the others' eyes, it scared Fuji, just a little, but he stared back. "Why… here, on this note… it says," He licked his lips then began to read off the note, "You know, your friend Tezuka seemed to be watching on the rooftop the other day' …" An alarm seemed to go off on Fuji's head. Tezuka didn't know about the whole thing. Fuji awkwardly shuffled and began to walk to him.
"Tezuka… this… I, this is what happened…," Fuji swallowed, not knowing how exactly he was going to explain this, "that day… when I wanted the note from your bag… and you had to go deal with that crises in the classroom, I took the bag, thinking I'd give it back to you… and… well, earlier that day I think… I- I wanted the note to," Fuji stopped to think, gulping hard, "oh yeah, I wanted to note thinking that if I gave it to Akutagawa…. He would leave me alone, so I went to look for him and found he was on the roof and…" Fuji looked away, not exactly wanting to tell this part. "Well… your book bag…. Fell off and I ran without knowing it… and Akutagawa found it… and…" Tezuka seemed to not want to hear anymore. He stood up, walking over to the door. "W-Wait Tezuka!"
"So, if what you're saying is true, about Akutagawa-ku.. About him, then you're telling me that he killed my mom, because he thought I was spying on him?" Fuji cringed and avoided his gaze.
"Tezuka… really… I'm so sorry.. I,"
"So basically, you're the one who killed my mother!" Fuji's eyes dilated. He never thought about it that way… that he was actually the one, who killed Tezuka's mom. Sure, Jirou did all the physical work.. But if it wasn't for Fuji….
"Oh no…." Fuji hiccupped, feeling tears coming back, "Tezuka… Tezuka- I!" But Tezuka was already walking out the door, his anger getting the best of him. "No wait!" The only thing Fuji could think to do was to chase after his friend, he grabbed him while he was on the stares, holding tightly as he pulled away. "Tezuka I didn't mean to! I didn't mean for this to happen!" Tezuka said nothing, he just continued to pull attempting to get down the stairs.
"Get off, Fuji." Tezuka snapped, jerking his arm away from the other. Fuji ignored that and quickly ran in front of him, blocking his way down then pushed his body into the other's.
"Tezuka just stop! Let me explain!"
"You've already explained enough!" Fuji was flipped over so Tezuka was on top of him. "I do not want to discuss this anymore. I'm done with it, I don't want anything to do with this!" Tezuka snapped, before getting up, heading down the stairs again.
Fuji sat up, his breathing uneven and his body hot.
"Well it doesn't matter… you're already in it." Tezuka looked back with at him with a harsh glare, before finally exciting the house.
Fuji stared. He couldn't look away from where Tezuka stood. His eyelids fluttered lazily and his face had a dazed look to it.
"Syuusuke… what happened?" It was Yumiko, she walked in staring up at her brother with concerned eyes. After a while of silence, Fuji looked down at her, but looked away as soon as he did.
"I fucked up…" Yumiko frowned before quickly heading up the stairs herself. She stopped in front of him and pulled him into a hug.
"I'm hurting… like, bad…" Fuji spoke with a slight laugh. But although it hurt, he couldn't even find the tears to cry anymore.
0o0o0o
To Fuji's relief, his mother finally got home safe and sound. She had just placed the groceries when he sped it, pulling out a chair and sitting in it.
"Call everyone, and sit down." He spoke, his eyes open showing a grave glint in his eyes, he wasn't smiling.
"Is something wrong Syuusuke?" Suzume asked, slowly sitting down and beginning to call the names of her two other children.
"Yes… and I'm going to explain it… the best I can, once everyone gets down here…" Fuji spoke, his fiddled with his fingers, sweat building at the palms of his hands. He gulped, closing his eyes to think out how exactly he would explain this to everyone.
Yumiko and Yuuta walked in quietly, already sensing the grim presence. Suzume looked around with worry in her hazel eyes.
"What happened?" She asked, her voice in a whisper.
Yumiko and Yuuta shrugged and Fuji took a deep breath, readying himself. This was it.
Taking a look at everyone at the table, making sure he caught their eyes in his own, he took another breath and began.
"We need to leave." He spoke, his voice holding no amusement. "We're in trouble… I'm not sure if it's my fault… exactly, but it probably is…." Fuji's mother stared at him with stern concern.
"What happened?" Fuji locked eyes with her, his saddened orbs breaking her heart.
"Okay… I'll start from the beginning."
Fuji told them about the note that he found on his morning jog, about Akutagawa and Marui, about the coffee, about Tezuka's bag and his mother, and he even brought down the second note to read aloud to them, which was really hard to do with his cracking voice, tears making their way back into his eyes.
"And now…," Fuji sniffed wiping away his big tears that slowly rolled down, "Tezuka's out there… and… I don't know what to do!" Fuji put his head onto the table sobbing, Yumiko and Yuuta immediately jumped up to try and comfort him as Suzume just sat there, the stern look still in her eyes.
"… Why didn't you tell us when this began… Syuusuke?" She asked, her voice soft. Fuji sniffed and blew his nose into a napkin.
"Well I mean… f-first of all, I thought it was a joke, just like…." he swallowed, "just like Tezuka did… but then after… afterwards, I just didn't want to get any of you in it… and I ended up doing it anyway! And I ended up killing Te-Tezuka's mom! And now he hates me! And now he's gone! And now-," Yumiko wrapped her arms around him to try and calm him down. Suzume sighed, and placed a soft hand onto his that tightly clenched the napkin.
"It's not your fault Aniki… I mean with everything you said… isn't it Akutagawa's..?" Fuji shook his head, not even wanting to think about the one that caused all of this.
"It's just… I want to get us out of here! Can't we leave? Please? I don't want anything bad to happen!" Suzume gave him a grim look.
"Well we shouldn't be so hasty over one person… we should just turn this into the police, shouldn't we?" Fuji wiped his eyes.
"I don't think they'd believe just a written note, mother…" Yumiko spoke, still rubbing her brother's back.
"And besides, he'd probably just kill us quicker…" Fuji said, tired after his rambling and day of crying.
They sighed.
"Anyway…" Fuji started, "I want to find Tezuka… I feel bad with what I said to him.. And I'm worried." Fuji spoke, slowly standing up.
"Well maybe we should just wait Syuusuke, if what you're saying is true, then we shouldn't really go outside right?" Yuuta said.
"But Tezuka is out there! And since Akutagawa pissed him off! Who knows what would happen!" Fuji spoke, fright taking over once again.
Suzume sighed and stood up.
"If we're going to look for him… we should stick together, and take the car…"
"But what if he comes back?" Yumiko asked, looking between the three.
"I'll stay." Fuji spoke, ready to risk himself for his family.
"No, we'll leave a note, we'll tell him to call us if he returns and to lock the doors. I'm not risking anything." Suzume spoke, heading to the door. "Come on, just leave the groceries, Tezuka-kun is more important now."
So the four left, being sure to lock up the house and entered their vehicle. Ready to take on the night.
Suzume started the car and began to drive slowly, Fuji noticed how everyone kept their eyes open.
"Tezuka left a while ago… he might not still be in this area."
"Well we should still make sure." Suzume spoke, keeping her guard up.
"Yeah, he could be walking back for all we know." Yumiko said. Fuji sighed staring at his phone. He had tried calling many times, but no one picked up. Because of it, Fuji was feeling sick again.
As they drove around multiple times and still nothing, Fuji jumped harshly at the ring on his phone.
"Tezuka?" He screamed, staring at the screen in shock.
"Ah! Maybe he's back home!" Yuuta said with a hopeful smile. Fuji wanted to believe it, he so wanted that to be true. He quickly answered after finally getting coming back to reality.
"H-Hello?"
"….Fuji…" Fuji's hope was instantly crushed. Tezuka's voice was quiet and broken.
"Tezuka? What's wrong? Where are you?"
"There's a code… in the note…," He harshly coughed, "just… come…"
"What?"
"The note… just… the writing is…different, there's a code…. It said, abandoned… so… I went and… don't go inside just… come.." Fuji stared at his phone, the call was disconnected.
"Abandoned….. Abandoned! What the hell does that mean, Tezuka?" Fuji asked, shaking the phone.
"What's wrong?" The three asked.
"I don't know… Tezuka was just talking about something abandoned. Talking about a code In the note… I don't know what he meant…" Fuji was clearly upset again. He leaned forward, putting his head onto the back of the seat.
"Abandoned?" Yumiko spoke, staring upwards.
"Well he was talking about a location… he kept saying just come…" Fuji grumbled, biting his nails.
"Well there's a million abandoned places in Tokyo!" Suzume cried in dismay.
"I know…" The group sat in a tense silence, no one saying anything, except for Yuuta who decided to speak up.
"The abandoned theater..?" Yuuta asked, looking around at them. Fuji sighed.
"Enough about that…" Fuji spoke with a groan. Yuuta frowned.
"Well it's worth a shot! At least we'd be starting somewhere!" Suzume looked down.
"I guess that's true…" Suzume spoke. "We could try."
"Well we're not going only to see if it's haunted." Fuji said with a glare. Yuuta glared back.
"I know!"
So Suzume finally sped off, although she seemed to not knowing exactly where she was going.
"It's left, mom." Fuji spoke with a head on his hand.
"No it's not, it's back there, we missed a turn!" Yuuta yelled.
"Wasn't it just a few roads ahead?" Yumiko asked.
"That was the other old theater, the abandoned one you have to turn left." Fuji replied.
"No, it's back there."
"Shut up." The three flinched at their mom's harsh words. "Either way we're going to get there, we'll try all directions if we have to; just stop arguing, you're hurting my ears." The three apologized and immediately ended the argument.
Fuji continued to stare at his phone.
'Well… I just hope we get there in time….' Fuji then stared out the window, when he saw a broken down building. He blinked in confusion and took the time to look around. There were people… no… they looked more like zombies, the living dead. Everywhere! Fuji paled, they were surrounded!