Fikush-ON!

Ch. 37: Flowers, Preferably Blue

"Got some info."

Tadaaki didn't bother to elaborate any further in the text message he sent me, and he sure didn't need to; I knew very well what it meant. Only a few seconds later he sent me another message, asking me and Ichiro to come meet him at his place. I had something else planned for today, but luckily Tadaaki lives in the same neighborhood, only a short distance away from my place, so no harm in paying a visit. But since Ichiro lived elsewhere, he'd obviously take longer to get there. Thus why I decided to kill some time by lying under the kotatsu and watching TV. After fifteen minutes or so, I decided to get going.

Stepping outside, I was greeted by a chilling gust of wind, causing shivers all over my body. Yeah, it's mid-December, alright... Only a bit over a week until the second term ends, and we'll get to enjoy some free time. Oh, and Christmas is also coming up. Maybe I should make some plans for a date. Generic, I know, but I think Ui would enjoy it. We'd head downtown, go somewhere to dine, maybe watch a movie... Oh, or go to a concert, that'd be sweet!

Quietly mumbling as I made plans and took mental notes, I headed over to Tadaaki's place. As I was nearing his house, I came across an intersection, where I met with Ichiro. A quiet chuckle escaped my lips; man, am I good at calculating distances or what! Greeting each other, we continued on together, and only a minute later we arrived at Tadaaki's place. The Nishikawa house resembled my house a bit, which makes sense, since they're in the same neighborhood. However, it's a bit smaller than mine, lacking one bedroom. Well, not that it matters, since we're not gonna go inside. Instead, we circled the house, heading to the small backyard. I tried my best to not glance at the house's windows.

The backyard held a small shed of a kind, for storage purposes and stuff like that. This shed, however, housed something completely else than some cardboard boxes and gardening equipment. We walked over to it, opening the door.

"Hands off your dick, you got some guests!" I gave a sarcastic greeting.

Inside the shed was Tadaaki. He was sitting on his bed, wrapped in a blanket and a controller in his hands. He was staring at a TV screen, across from the bed. As always, this whole place reeked of cigarettes.

"Yeah, yeah, don't let all the heat out," he muttered, violently smashing the controller's buttons as he kept playing his game.

Ichiro and I stepped inside, closing the door behind us. Even though this place was a literal shed, and Tadaaki has never asked us to do so, we still felt the need to take our shoes off at the door. Ichiro headed to Tadaaki's bed, taking a seat next to him. Meanwhile, I crouched down in front of a small space heater, warming myself up a bit. This thing's the only thing ensuring Tadaaki doesn't freeze to death during winter.

As I was warming my hands, I took a look around me. The shed was about six square meters in size, barely able to fit in a bed, table, chair, and a shelf. There was also a small clothes rack, storing dozens of Tadaaki's collared shirts. This whole place was powered using an extension cord running from the house. At times I've envied Tadaaki for being able to live with this kind of privacy, but the freezingly cold December afternoon made me question how the hell he puts up with the weather. Sheds aren't known for their insulation, after all.

Well, he's been living like this for quite some years, and he's probably gotten used to the cons. And besides, he has his reasons for why he moved his bedroom here. We've had this discussion many times in the past, so I don't even feel like bringing it up anymore.

Tadaaki kept playing for a short moment longer, before finally pausing the game, and setting the controller aside. "Alright, so..."

We turned to face him.

"It took me a while to find a guy who has even the slightest bit of contact with that wannabe gang, yet doesn't know about their relationship with us. Before that, I had to find a guy who knows a guy. And a guy who knows a guy and knows a guy... Shit, either Tsukuda and his playmates scare people into silence, or no one just wants to be associated with their kind of losers," he explained, and chuckled sarcastically. "I mean, yeah, we could've just looked for those fuckers directly ourselves, but if we'd happen to find them from some side alley after dark, chances are things would turn ugly real quickly."