Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 52: Long Time, No See

"The truth? I don't think I follow." explains Tetsuhiro to Eiji. The young man really does not seem that excited to see Yuuna's father again after three and a half years. Instead, he feels really bothered by it. It is the vibes that he gets from the man, that greatly remind him of his past friend. It is the same feeling that Shoji felt at first, although Eiji does not show any spark of salvation in his eyes anymore.

He is too tainted, too hurt, and too blind to see the truth anymore regarding what happened to Yuuna one year after The SAO Incident began.

"I know you've got connections to Shoji. Why do you treat him as your best crybaby buddy while you're too blind to see the truth?!" Eiji exclaims. Normally, mister Shigemura would be enraged if anyone only dared to talk to him like that. But just because it is his favorite former young boy he sees shouting before him, he's able to maintain his temper. 

"I... beg your pardon?" Tetsuhiro asks. He understands what Eiji means with 'being too blind for the truth', although he won't let go of the thought that Yuuna would sacrifice herself for the people she loved. Although the father was strict for her daughter ever before she dived into Sword Art Online, he knew she had a huge heart. At day one, if an outsider like Shoji knew anything about Shigemura's daughter's death in detail, he had no choice but to believe the boy. 

Sure, Tetsuhiro may have disgusted Shoji for a while, but the only reason for that was because he realized that he was the evil one among everyone involved. He did it for the money, and couldn't care less about what his daughter might have thought about him at that point. Abusing his power and money to be this cruel to a once depressed child by taking his love and past away from him once again, it's not something he wants to be reminded of again.

"So he persuaded you into believing him, god damn it you're shallow." the boy softly curses at the man. Once being a calm man who was open for ideas, he now became more furious at the boy. He didn't except a boy who had risen up from the dead to treat him like this. He was not even mad that Eiji swore the entire time and humiliated him. If anything, he was becoming furious because he humiliates Yuuna with it, and his past relationship with her.

"If you think Shoji lied about everything in his past, then you tell me what happened damn it!" Tetsuhiro starts to yell at the boy. Eiji didn't back away. Instead, he keeps standing at his spot without showing the slightest sign of fear on his face.

"Shoji ensured that Yuuna got herself killed. She didn't sacrifice herself for him because she loved him or anything. For him, Yuuna was just an extra hit point that would endure one single fucking blow!" shouts the boy, showing signs of sorrow and hatred altogether. Tetsuhiro shakes his eyes, barely being unable to control his anger and sadness. His breathing gets troublesome, and his ears try to deceive him by interpreting everything wrong.

"No... if Shoji lied about everything he wouldn't have come to me to ask about Yuna one and a half years later.." Tetsuhiro exclaims, wondering the words that he says right now. He looks at Eiji once again, trying to read the face he carries with him.

"I can... read faces. I know... if they lie. He absolutely... didn't." he says to himself with doubting tones in his voice. The reason for looking at Eiji again, was to see if he showed any signs of lying or any resemblances to Shoji. For Tetsuhiro, both youngsters are open books, and he would know when one of them spoke the truth or not. If he were to compare Eiji to Shoji, he'd say the both tell the truth about everything.

"But... neither do you. If I can't trust my own instincts anymore... was Shoji playing me all along..?" the former father asks himself, as well as Eiji. The young boy does not know what Shoji told him, but he knows that Tetsuhiro wouldn't have agreed upon helping Shoji with his troubled past if he said he had murdered his daughter despite all odds. And that's where it hit Tetsuhiro.