Fading Mist

I Am Here Now

A whole week has passed, Muichiro haven't talk since that eventful day. They had decided that Muichiro would stay at Fubuki's apartement and each one of the second year would take turn taking a day off school till they think Muichiro are ready.

Today are Giyu's turn. He was washing the dishes right after breakfast, Muichiro are at the living room reading a book while Fubuki helping him with the drying. The only source of sound was from the plate and glasses clashing into one another.

Suddenly a knock can be heard, Fubuki put down the glass on his hand but he didn't immediatly go to open the door, instead he take a deep breath and turned to him "prepare yourself" Before he can question what he meant, Fubuki already leave the room and he hear the door creak open.

The sound for some reason attracted Muichiro's attention, he tried to look at the direction and found a shadowy figure, he tried to focus his eye but it come to no success. Ever since Yuichiro leave him it has always been like this.

Everytime he tried to remember someone or something it just feel so cloudy, its like he's stuck inside a room full of heavy mist. The person come closer, weirdly he can still see Fubuki right next to the person.

He feel something has landed on his head, it seem like whoever that person are was stroking his head, but why would someone random do that? Maybe whoever this person wasn't so unfamiliar with him but he just can't remember.

"Who?" He managed to voiced out, he cringed at his own voice after a whole week never hearing it causing him to forget he even has a voice.

The man turned to Fubuki who just shrugged "it's your own doing, fix it yourself" With that Fubuki make his way to the kitchen dragging Giyu who's peeking from the doorway.

"Seem like your friend really hate me" He claimed as he sit down right next to him, but now Muichiro has completely lost his interest and go back to digging the book in his hand. Just then he realized he has absolutely no idea what the book was about.

He has completely forgotten what he just read so now he go back to the first page, really reading now felt weird for him, he can clearly see one paragraph but when he move to the next paragraph it turned blurry and soon disolved into thin air.

"Muichiro don't you miss me?" The man's voice is thick of emotion which just confused him. Was this man someone important for him? If so why he couldn't even see his face?

Probably understanding Muichiro's confussion the man just scoffed "so he wasn't lying, you doesn't remember me?" Muichiro unconsciously nodded.

The man stroke his head once again "then we will restart. This time i won't do the same mistake" Muichiro doesn't understand what he meant. What to restart when there's nothing to begin with? And what mistake this man did? "I'm Tsugikuni Michikatsu, your grandfather"

Michikatsu tried his hardest to keep a straight face, he's often referred to as a legendady kendo master along with his twin brother, but seeing a face really similar to his own daughter can still break him easily. Especially when that face look really blank and expressionless.

"I can't remember" The mint orbs that look identical to his daughter's looked so dull it break his heart. It doesn't help that his grandson seem to be avoiding locking eyes with him.

"It's okay, i will get you into therapy, if you're okay with it of course" He scrached the back of his neck, he's really a bad grandfather. He doesn't even know how to properly talk to his own grandson.

"If i go to therapy.. Will the fog disappear?" Michikatsu really have no idea what Muichiro meant by that, he just take a wild guess that he is talking about his amnesia.

"I believe it will help" That's the only answer he could give, he couldn't afford giving Muichiro anymore empty hope like how he said he would visit them for their birthday... 3 years back.

"Then i want to, i want to see the other clearly again" Muichiro have tried and tried, he just cannot see his friends face without fog covering it, he can still see it unlike how he can't even see a glimpse of the man which claimed to be his grandpa's face, but it's really blurry.

The man patted his head "i wouldn't let you be alone again" Muichiro can't seem to understand what he meant by that, but he feel something... He doesn't know what it is, but it feel like a morning sun, but this time it's just around his chest. Weird but he doesn't hate it.

Fubuki and Giyu silently watched the two, they cannot hear what the two are saying but they can clearly see a tint of light appeared inside Muichiro's eyes for a milisecond before it died down once again.

This is a good sign since Muichiro have been acting like a robot for the past week. They decided to stop invading the two's privacy and sat down on the kitchen table.

Fubuki realized this is his change to ask a question that's been eating him up from the inside "where did Sanemi found Yuichiro's letter?"

"He broke into Muichiro's house and turned their bedroom upside down. He said he found it under Muichiro's bed sheet" Giyu explained shortly.

"Pardon under the bed sheet?" A really bad place to hide a suicide letter, but then again 'that does sound like Yui' Fubuki didn't even realized he was smiling until Giyu pointed it out.

"You can still smile i see" He's caught off guard by the comment, not receiving any respond Giyu coughed "Shinobu said i need to joke more"

"Please don't it doesn't suit you, i'm not even sure that can be considered as a joke"

Michikatsu buy a new house closer to the school, in his opinion staying at the old house wouldn't help Muichiro in anyway, but that wasn't the only reason. He himself also can't stand living inside his deceased daughter's house.

Now they both lived there, as promised Muichiro start to get therapy not to only help with his memory problem but also process the grief and feelings that's way to hard for him to handle by himself.

His memory was nowhere to improving but he showed no sign of considering suicide anymore which are a really big improvement. Muichiro will be fine. He will bounce back at some point, maybe not today, not this month, not even this year, but he will someday.

However this story isn't done yet. It would still continue but then again, the world doesn't revolve just around one character.