Underneath the Red Trees

CHAPTER 75: THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER

"Why are you in your gym clothes at three in the morning?" That was the first thing Hayate asked when they arrived at Harin's flat.

"Well, you see, Hayachi, I did go to the gym, but right after I went to see Shinya. You understand that he kept me until now, don't you?"

"Are you just like... a nympho?"

"No more than you my dear," she said, grinning.

"I'm not a slut."

"Not anymore," Harin corrected. She added, "And neither am I. I only do this shit with Shinya."

"Then, you're a tramp for Shinya."

"Would you stop insulting me?"

"No," Hayate said, "It's three o'clock in the morning. I'll stop insulting you when I get my sleep back."

"Wow," Harin said, "You are such an asshole when you're sleep depraved." She crossed her legs. "Shouldn't you be used to this? Aren't you studying law?"

Hayate's eyes narrowed on her. Touma nudged him. "Stop arguing."

Dashi was pacing by the window, ripping her cuticles from nervousness. She raised her head.

"What is the matter?" Touma asked.

"My mind has become clear."

Touma's eyes widened. In his previous lifetime Dashi had never spoken in the first person. Not once.

Katsu had found Dashi in the cedar forest when Yuuki had been around the age of ten. He remembered it well. Even he, who had only been ten, found her strange. A grown woman acting like a child was relatively odd. Rather than bring her to Akagi, she had been the one to follow Katsu out of her own will. She would not explain why she followed him. At the time she did not seem to know why she followed him, just that she had to. She did not remember who she was. She didn't even have a name.

They had given her the name Dashi because she seemed to adore any foods with dashi* in them. She even ate it just as is.

*A family of stocks used in Japanese cuisine. It forms the base for miso soup, noodle broth soup, etc. It is also mixed into the flour base of some grilled foods like Takoyaki, etc.

Yuuki had been the one to suggest calling her Dashi, and she took to the name quickly.

Dashi's cuticles were bleeding, but that did not stop her from scratching at them.

"Your mind?" Hayate asked.

"When my father brought her to Akagi she had some sort of amnesia." Touma pulled Hayate with him on the sofa. Harin stood opposite them, by the wall. "What triggered them?"

"Akira Soma electrocuted me."

Hayate and Touma's eyes widened simultaneously.

"Excuse me?" Harin asked, she was just as shocked, but she was not as speechless as the men in the room. "Who did what to you?"

Dashi shook her head. "It did not hurt."

"That's bullshit."

Dashi shook her head. "I feel little to no pain. Though it still tingles, somewhat."

"How the fuck did you survive that?"

Dashi inhaled, then exhaled shortly thereafter. "I am Pandora's Box."

"What?" Harin looked to the men in the room, then back at Dashi. "I thought your name was Dashi."

"Shall I explain, then?"