The Force of Gravity ✅

Chapter One

Five years later...

"My apologies, Fuku-shachō. Because of the traffic, we—"

"It is all right, Kusshin. It was my own fault because I left the house late. We will arrive to the office when we do."

"Ah—yes, sir."

Junichiro Arachi checked his watch idly before relaxing back into black leather seat. He normally sat on the left hand side of the car but today he sat in the center. He was dressed in a slate gray business suit but his suit coat had a lighter shade. A symbol of his corporate status. He got a haircut the day before; a simple French crop cut. The haircut restored some of his youth at least, where he didn't look older than his twenty-three years of age.

Enough has been happening recently to me to cause premature aging.

Junichiro turned to his dark brown leather briefcase and opened it. He retrieved his cellphone and brought up his voice messages. He pressed play on the most recent message and listened intently. He heard heavy breathing and the rhythmic squeaking of a bed, followed by the familiar sounds of a woman moaning. The coldness inside of him returned as he listened to the message for a few more seconds before pulling his phone away. He hit pause and stared intently at the message bracket. The name in the heading was Tora. The location was Tokyo. And the date and time was the date of the previous day, April 15, 2027 at 22:34 pm.

Tora. His wife. She had called him and left that obscene "message" for him, but he knew it had been entirely by accident. She would not have deliberately left him a message of her making love to her boyfriend. To leave such a damning piece of evidence would utterly destroy her, and that was exactly what Junichiro wanted.

"I've got you," he murmured to the phone.

"I'm sorry, Fuku-shachō?" Kusshin called from the driver's seat. There was a not of alarm in his voice.

"My apologies, Kusshin," Junichiro quickly reassured him. "I was addressing my phone and not you personally."

"Ah, of course." Kusshin visibly relaxed in his seat but Junichiro knew why he had been concerned. Junichiro had used the word "teme" when he spoke at Tora's name on his phone, which was an incredibly rude word for someone of his station to use so casually. And under normal circumstances, a husband should have never used such a word against his own wife.

But as he was directing it at a voice message of his wife cheating on him, "teme" seemed to be an appropriate word for Tora.

Finally. Finally, I have a way out where it's not messy for me.

"Ah, Fuku-shachō," Kusshin called from the front. "We're at Shibuya Crossing, and I believe I see the reason why the traffic has been moving slower this morning."

"Is that so?" Junichiro asked, tucking his cell phone back into his briefcase.

"There appears to be a crowd of people and a news crew on one of the corners," Kusshin said. "How very peculiar for an event to occur at this time of the morning on a Friday."

"Hmm." Junichiro rubbed at his forehead. "There must be a special event going on at the Crossing this morning."

"Perhaps—ah!" Kusshin gasped suddenly. Junichiro said his eyes widen in the rearview mirror. "Ah...Fuku-shachō. Today is April 16th, correct?"

"It is, Kusshin."

"That accident. The one a few years ago where the car flipped onto a crowd of people after being hit by a drunk driver. Today is the anniversary, right?"