[CLOSED] Techi Short Stories

Special Chapter - Hirate Yurina [II]

It was another day Akane didn't want to spend at work. After all, it was only a week or so after Hirate decided to take her own life. She decided to take Hirate's words literally, as she pushed aside her family, her sisters to keep herself a float. It also made her situation much worse as her coworkers seemed to know of the situation and take advantage of her emotion driven work ethic.

"Oi, Moriya," one of her co-workers called out, "I need you to work overtime for me, I forgot my wife wanted me to look after the kids."

"Sorry, I can't," Akane replied, starting to pack up her laptop, "I've got to visit my uncle's--"

"I've said this before, Moriya. But no one in this fucking company cares about anyone else's fucking business. I suggest staying here if you want to even keep this job. Heck, I doubt you'll last in this godforsaken industry."

"B-But--"

"No buts, I can fire you right here, right now."

"Y-Yes, sir..."

As he walked away, Akane could only sigh. It was one of the only times she could spend with her sisters, and yet, because of her position in her job as an accountant, she was susceptible to this abuse.

She took out her phone and had sent a message to Yuuka, saying: "Sorry, I can't make it again tonight... I'm working overtime... again. I'll be home at around midnight."

As she continued diligently working, Akane could see from the corner of her eye that the pile of papers to her left was slowly, but surely growing. Although she felt frustrated, she had known that she wasn't able to show it, or else she would be distastefully fired from the job she was working so hard to get to. Time slowly passed and at around 1am, Akane was hearing her phone ring.

She took a glance at her phone and a flood of messages from Yuuka came, one after the other.

"Akane, I don't care whether you want to keep your job, this is urgent."

"It's about Techi, please come back as soon as possible."

"Please come back Akane..."

By the mention of the affectionate nickname the other girls had called Hirate, Moriya instantly stood, packed her bags and ran out of the building; she knew at that point, she was the only one left in the office anyway so there was no one to yell at her. Her tears flowed down her cheeks as she knew she couldn't do anything more to prevent her youngest sister's death.

If it was Hirate, when Akane hung up on her or she didn't reply to her messages, the former would continually call and message her until she relented and answered. It hurt whenever Akane received messages from the group chat now, always hoping that it was Hirate who had sent a message, however, her hopes always were instantly shattered and her emotions spiraling out of control.

She didn't feel like herself as she bursted back into the home she had shared with everyone, her tearstriken, makeup stained face evidently telling her sisters that she was noted about what Yuuka had found.

"I found this letter while packing up Techi's shirts... I haven't opened it because I wanted you to be here when I did," Yuuka said before opening the letter and reading what was written.

She took each and every one of the words Yuuka had read, trying to think of the possible place Hirate could have hidden the letter to her, and that was when a lightbulb went off in her head.

Rushing upstairs to her room, she emptied out all of her drawers and spotted a white envelope float to the floor. She saw that familiar handwriting that said, "To my lovable Sergeant."