Everyday Life with a Murderer

Chapter 15: Healing

As Seiji made his way back from the hospital where Hideaki was staying, he strolled amidst the bustling streets of Tokyo, deep in contemplation...

"Seeing what emotions he showed today... that he's trying so hard to hide his inner problems with his behavior... The fact that he's so sensitive deep inside... I don't think being a criminal is what he was meant to be... Something must have happened to make him stray so far from the path of good...
Only, what...?
The accident he said he caused at the high school..?
Any childhood events...?
Or maybe something else?
Or maybe he got sucked into it, and he had no way out...?
Well, whatever it was, I feel that deep down inside, he's a good person...
He just lost his way, and he needs a light at the end of the tunnel..."

Seiji stopped in front of a pedestrian crossing. He waited patiently for the green light.

Minute after minute more passers-by came around him. Most of them were staring at their smartphones...

Teenagers were talking loudly to each other, laughing at this and that from time to time, the heat was terrible for Tokyo people, it was visible on the faces of more people that could be passed on the way.

It was Summer... the most steamy and hot season in Japan....

As Seiji crossed the street, he paid more attention to the people around him...

Businessmen in suits, teenagers in their school uniforms, and ordinary Japanese people in their everyday clothes...

Suddenly something dawned on him.

"Society is something in which he must find his way... something he should be a part of... He needs to blend in with the crowd, and I will be the one who will help him achieve this.
I will make him, someone who will be able to cope in life, without violence. Someone who can make a living alone without stealing from others. I will make him a normal, honest, hard-working man who will be guided by good, not evil. I'll help him get straight!" Saying this, Seiji smiled lightly, adding in thoughts...
'When I will no longer be in this world, I would at least have the certainty that Hideaki would manage without me.'

Seiji remembered what he had said to Kiminawa Ken about his roommate at his apartment back then.

----"I think he...deeply needs help... It's just... no one has given it to him yet..."----

"Yes... This is true. I'm noticing it more and more as I'm watching him... I will help him to get out from this shit he went into... I will give him a help, he needed to have way before we met..."

As he was walking, the time had passed, and the blond-haired man found himself nearing the subway station.

Suddenly, he was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing.
As he glanced at the screen of his smartphone, he noticed that it was his mother calling.

He was a little surprised by the phone call, but he picked it up.

"Hi Mom."

"Seiji! I'm calling you because Akemi won't leave me alone with this..." The woman started, in the background a voice of a teenager girl could be heard, constantly adding her 3 cents to what the mother should tell.
"Fine, alright alright. Yeah, I'll tell him that Akemi! Now quit that whining over my ear, would you??" The woman seemed a bit irritated in her voice. Then she sighed, giving a sign that she was ready to tell her case...
"Listen, Seiji, could she come to you for a few days on vacation? I know you have a job, but could you take some time off?"

"Vacation...? I don't know..." Seiji started "I don't think I could really take time off then..." Besides having a busy job schedule, he also wanted to avoid the meeting of his younger sister with his new roommate...