Kokoro no X (I) ~EDITING~

Thirteen

It had been a week since Sayuri's birthday - and Kagerou's death. Koichi didn't speak to me at all that entire week. Until Tuesday, at least. Until Tuesday, he was completely silent towards me. He wouldn't even look at me. I understood that he had been friends with Kagerou, but I never thought he would be this upset.

On the Tuesday of the following week, however, he started talking to me again. Very small talk, but at least he wasn't completely ignoring me. He still wouldn't text me, though, so on Wednesday, while I was working at Yasu's, I heard nothing. Not even a single word. That troubled me a bit, but then again, I had justWhat else should I expect?

It was an uneventful day at work that Wednesday. Nothing surprising happened in the store, but all around in the outside world, people kept reporting strange disappearances. All of them belonged to the Yuki clan. So it goes.

As it happens, on the way back to work that afternoon (I had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day for my broken leg--turns out you shouldn't wait a week to see someone about it), I literally ran into a nervous, confused man. He had platinum blonde hair and gray-green eyes. His face was pale, but there were red blotches, and since he was breathing hard, I guessed it was from running. I spotted his clan mark on the left side of his face. He was from the Yuki clan, and I couldn't help but wonder if he would be the next to disappear.

"Sorry, man, I'm in a hurry- Hey, happen to know where Danice's is?" he stammered.

Danice's is an American chain grocery store. Why one was here I never found out.

"Uh, it's right down the road..." I pointed up the street, extremely confused.

"Thanks, bro! Er, what's your name?" He asked suddenly, his voice suddenly ten times friendlier.

"Tamotsu Akiya-" But he was already running off.

"I'm Hitoshi! Nice meeting you, thanks again!" he called, waving a farewell.

"That wasn't... weird at all." I muttered as I walked across the street to Yasu's. It was only 2:30-ish, and there was still lots more time before closing, so, dismissing my pride (I was wearing crutches), I... urgh... hobbled through the door.

That's about the time when things got weird.

"Tamotsu! You're ba- what happened?" Satoshi broke off as he saw my crutches and the cast on my right leg.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine, I just, uh..." I tried to think of an excuse. "Ah, nevermind, you wouldn't believe me anyway."

"Tamotsu." Satoshi stared me down, meeting my gaze, and put both his hands on my shoulders. "You can tell me anything. Don't be shy."

"Wh-" But Satoshi cut me off, putting his finger over my mouth in a shushing gesture.

"It's gonna be okay," he whispered, pulling me into a hug.

"Dude." I pushed him away. "You seriously won't believe me. Okay, fine!" I added after Satoshi tried to hug me again. "Some asshat hit me with his car and broke my leg, alright?"

"YOU POOR THING!!!" Satoshi wailed.

"Who?" Yoko stood up from behind the counter. The conversation between Maiko and Kagerou pulled itself to the front of my mind.

"Tamotsu got hit by a car!" Satoshi exploded in a mess of tears and snot. Although a worried expression was etched on his face, his voice sounded a little to excited, even though he was crying.

Before Yoko even took a single step, Yasu burst through the doors to the storage room, tears streaming from his eyes as he threw his arms around my neck.