The Song of Windchimes

Apple blossom

                          ┏━°⌜防風鈴 ⌟°━┓

                               Chapter 23

                          ┗━°⌜防風鈴 ⌟°━┛

It was after practice when it happened.
Years before Ryuu was born, Grandpa had been in an accident in his family. Grandpa's father died in a car crash and his mother went mental. His mother was the leader of the gang, and his father was married off to pay off debt, but it did seem that the both of them loved each other.
With the car crash being claimed as a murder, Grandpa's mother went on a killing spree, getting her bounty to rise to numbers never seen before from their gang. Ryuu's great grandmother not only killed many men and women, but killed her own children too.

Grandpa was preparing dinner, the only time he and Ryuu were able to sit and face each other, though only in silence. He held the knife, getting ready to slice, he sighs, blinks, and suddenly.

He's back.
He's back there again.
He's back, he's in his twin sized bed, awake after acting dead as his mother stabbed at his twin brother who was laying on him. Grandpa couldn't breathe, the taste of blood in his mouth was almost nauseating. He wanted to run. He could hear the squelching of the knife stabbing through his brother's body and poking through, but not injuring him, and the knife being pulled back to be stabbed through again.
It went for what seemed forever before his 'mother' decided it was enough and left.

"-Pa..."
"Grandpa..."
"Grandpa!"Ryuu calls out for his grandfather, who was standing, hand gripping the knife so hard that his knuckles were turning white, and his breathing was heavy and ragged.
Grandpa turns around and lifts his hand quickly, jaw clenched in pure stress. The knife in his hand slices down on Ryuu's face, making the young boy fall backwards.
Ryuu holds his face, and he yells out in pain and shock, hitting the floor harshly and moving to lay on his side. Ryuu's breathing becomes heavier and louder as his grandfather yells out incoherently.

That day, Ryuu went to bed without eating and didn't sleep. 

"Oh..." Ryuu lifts his hand up to his face, reminiscing about the times with his grandpa. Before That event happened, Ryuu and his grandfather had a good relationship, not the greatest since his grandpa was the one who trained him and he definitely wasn't biased, but they were able to talk and face each other like family.  Though, after it happened, Ryuu wouldn't even look at his grandfather.

Ryuu sighs and pushes his hair back and tucks it behind his ear. "It's a small scar, nothing to worry about," his smile was strained as he adjusted to the new amount of lighting going through his just uncovered eye.

Kotoha looks at his eye, mostly at the jagged line running through his eyebrow and stopping a little lower than his cheek bone. His eye looked fine for the most part, and his scar seemed to have healed nicely. 

Kotoha hisses lightly, only able to imagine the pain that came from the wound when first inflicted on the boy's pretty face. "If I'm not in-"
PFFFFFFFFFFFFT-

"AAAAAAAAH! MY EEEEEYEES!"
"Wow! He used poison breath!"
"W-Wait! Sugishita!"

The commotion cuts off Kotoha and makes her look over to the chaos. Ryuu huffs alongside Kotoha, who leaves her spot in front of him to bring her 'brother' a towel so he could clean himself off from the spit-take he just took to the face. Ryuu shakes his head, turning back to the notebook in front of him while keeping an ear out for their conversations.

"FOR THE LOVE OF..." She pauses "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?! WIPE THE PLACE CLEAN!" She scolds as he hands a towel to Umemiya, who takes it with a trembling apology.
Umemiya turns and KOtoha walks back to her post behind the counter in front of the sink.

"Wh-what did you..." Sakura stutters, looking at Umemiya who's cleaning his face off of the tea that was sprayed onto his face, with a brain dead and comical look on his own face. Umemiya pulls away from the towel and looks at Sakura with expectant eyes.

"You had a dialogue with Togame," Umemiya wipes down the table "And that's how you grew to like him, right?"
"WH-WHAT?!" Sakura exclaims, face pink in embarrassment and confusion.
"That's why..." Umemiya mumbles "You tried to attack Tomiyama."
"That's proof that you had your conversation. At least, that's what I think."

Ryuu listens, putting his pen down and closing his notebook. "Now that I know a good kid has joined our town... It made me really happy," Umemiya smiles as he leans back in his seat.
"Then ya could've called this a 'welcome party' instead," Hiragi bring s his cup up " It's a lot easier to understand than some 'fist conversation anniversary.'"

"Oh, I guess so!" Umemiya says before laughing at himself. Ryuu gets up from his seat and goes over to where Sakura is sitting.
"Why...?" Sakura mumbles before looking down at his clenched fists. The question made Umemiya look back to him, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"How can you accept me... and let me in so easily..." Sakura asks. Ryuu pouts lightly, standing behind Sakura's booth. Just like the people in this town... and the guys in Furin..."
"I'm trying to claim the top for myself! I came here to defeat YOU! There's no way I could accept a stranger like you."

Ryuu's mouth opens to say something, but the words wouldn't stumble out as they usually would.
 "W-wait, Hold on!" Nirei stands up "Sakura-san!" everyone looks over to the blond " Uhhh... S-Sakura-san, just yesterday, you said I wasn't pathetic!"
"You saw me for who I am. And that," Nirei smiles, "made me really, really happy!"
"So, uhh... Sakura-san, you... Uhh... huh? What am I trying to say here...?" Nirei sits back down.

"It's okay. I think he gets it," Suo smiles, reassuring the freckled boy's confusion.

Umemiya looks back at Sakura and places his fist back up on the table. "Hey, Sakura?"
"Do you know what the requirements are... to talk to someone with your fists?"
"Requirements?" Sakura asks, looking over to Umemiya.

"You have to face the person... and have a desire to know more about them."
"You..." Umemiya smirks, "Were able to do that. That's why you were able to have a dialogue with Togame."

"I don't accept just anyone. But, in order to accept someone... you have to lay everything open and face each other."
"You're able to do that... and it looks to me like you Want to accept others."
"Once you can do that... You could become whatever you want. You could even...
Become the top."

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SORRY FOR THE RANDOM CHANGE IN FORMAT, I FELT LIKE THIS LOOKED BETTER AND IT'S REALLY HARD EDITING ON MY PHONE SO WOOPS.
ANYWAYS, VERY LONG AWAITED CHAPTER HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY! 
(book will update at least once a month if time allows it! I'LL TRY MY BEST! <3)