attakai | a. haruchiyo & k. nahoya

6 | just a stranger

Somewhere in 2018 - wearing a black formal dress paired with black pumps, an apathetic Nari swiped red lipstick on her lips before covering half of her face with a black face mask. She didn't wanted to go outside, but something happened and Nari couldn't just let it pass her by.

And now here she is, standing on the grounds of Sano grave, standing in front of Shinichiro's and Grandpa Sano's tombs with her palms pressed together and her eyes closed.

"I'm sorry...if I didn't become the adult you envisioned me to be." Nari says, slowly opening her eyes and she placed a candle on both of their tombs. "Back then...something terribly gone wrong and..." Nari pauses, sticking the incense on the earthy ground. "I'll come back again!" she responded, trying to sound happy while smiling underneath the black face mask before walking away.

As Naoto watched Takemichi and his mother conversing from inside the funeral parlor, he caught an after image of a woman dressed in black, half of her face hidden underneath a black face mask. As he whipped his head to look at her back profile, the heels of the woman kept clacking against the smooth surface of the floor. With the way her hair looks like, Naoto's eyes widen in surprise. It was Nari.

Naoto watched as she caught majority of the attendant's attention with her mysterious appearance, but no one dared to come close to her or get her attention. That was simply too disrespectful. Tears started to well up on Naoto's eyes as he watches Nari stand in front of Hina's casket, bowing before pressing her palms together, silently mentioning her prayers.

When Nari seemed to be finished praying, their father approached her. "Excuse me" he tells her, nudging her in the shoulder. "But who are you?" He asks.

Naoto watches the scene unfold before cautiously walking up to his father, already planning an excuse to give Nari time to escape. But Nari doesn't move, instead she even responded back which surprised Naoto.

"I'm just a stranger." Nari simply responded before bowing her head. "Please excuse me." And with that, she walked away. Nari may have started walking away but Naoto won't let her. Rushing towards her, Naoto took a hold of her forearm before Nari could completely walk out the door.

"Can I help you, Naoto?" Nari asks, keeping her head straight.

"Stop running away, Hinari." Naoto begged, gripping his hold on her arm. "I can erase all the evidences against you, just come home!" He begged. As Nari turned around with her face mask tucked under her chin, it was exactly at that moment their mother entered.

"...Hinari?" Their mother's voice broke as she saw her eldest standing in front of her. Tears cascading down on her eyes. "Hinari...where have you been?"

It was now Nari's turn to have tears falling down from her eyes. But before Mrs Tachibana could cup Nari's cheeks in her hands, Nari dodged away.

"Nari?" Another voice called for her name. It was Takemichi.

"Coming here is a bad mistake." Was all Nari said before yanking Naoto's arm off hers before walking away.

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

"If coming here was a mistake, why were you even here?!" Naoto shouted as he ran after Nari. Takemichi following both Naoto and Nari in suit.

"Nari!" Takemichi calls out for her again.

"I didn't just lose a family member!" Nari shouted, turning around to face them again with her eyes and nose turning red in color from crying. "...I lost a sister." she whispered before crumbling down on the ground, sobbing.

"I can't face mother and father inside" Nari spoke between sobs. "Not when I've killed so many people." Nari shook her head, getting up on the ground.

"Get inside my car." Naoto spoke firmly, sniffing while assisting a wobbly legged Nari to get up from the ground. "The three of us can talk there."

As Naoto assisted Nari on the right side, Takemichi stood on Nari's left side and assisted her; the three of them walking to the parking lot.

"It's been a long time since we met." Nari says, glancing at Takemichi from the rear view mirror. "How have you been?" She asks.

"Nari" Takemichi begins to say, clutching his hands on top of his lap. "What happened to you?"

Nari was quiet for a moment before humming. "I, well, I followed him. I followed him so he could still think humanely." She said, sighing afterwards. "But with him around, it's quite difficult. Like I don't matter to him. Like he doesn't see me." She spoke quietly.

"Draken and I...we did our best to get to Mikey. But we feel like were going nowhere." Nari smiles sadly. "Everything was much better when we were kids." Nari adds. "If only I could go back to the time when both Mikey and Draken came to our school, I would have dropped everything and followed them...maybe then, I could have prevented them from meeting." She says.

Naoto clenched his hands tigher while Takemichi listened intently to every word present Nari is saying.

"Listen to me." Nari begins to say, looking at Takemichi through the rear view mirror again. "He doesn't what I did, but he'll be coming for the both of us. Get out of Tokyo, Hanagaki. If not Tokyo, get out of the country. He won't be able to chase after you." She says before turning her head to look at Naoto. Another small and sad smile painted Nari's lips as she reached out to place her hand on top of his.

"And you, Naoto, please stop worrying about me now." Nari says in a soft tone. "Go out and enjoy your life, date freely and marry happily. A lot of opportunities are waiting for you outside. Don't waste your time turning tables for me. I won't forgive you if I see you in prison." Nari says, just in time for a plateless black car pull over in front of Naoto's car.

"It was nice meeting you two again." Nari says, sitting up straight before hopping off.

Both Naoto and Takemichi couldn't help but watch as the car pull and move away.

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

Somewhere in 2005, a struggling Nari is walking on the stone steps of Musashi Shrine. Grunting and cursing underneath her breath, she was scaring away the other members by her slight annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Smiley asks as both him and Angry popped from behind her.

"My uniform!" Nari exclaims, turning to look at Smiley and Angry with the first three buttons of her uniform unbuttoned. "I used to button this before but now I can't..." Nari spoke, struggling to button it again before letting out a defeated sigh.

Both Smiley and Angry looked away as Nari's chest came into their view.

"Ask Mitsuya to sew you another one." Angry suggested, turning around and blocking her chest from the others. Smiley glancing at her chest sneakily.

"I will! But what if he's busy with others?" Nari asks, still attempting to button the first three buttons of her upper top uniform. "There! I go it!" She exclaims happily as she has all three buttons buttoned.

"I knew I can still-" Nari wasn't able to finish her sentence when the first three buttons popped off. One button hitting Peh yan in the head (to which he started shouting and asking everyone who was playing a prank on him), the other button hitting Takemichi in the cheek and the third button flying through Mucho but was immediately caught in his hand.