Try Your Hardest | Ushijima Wakatoshi

Year 3: Part 5

Early the next morning, Ushijima contentedly made his way to the Iriye residence, practicing time and time over again in his head how he was going to apologize. Uta was very forgiving, but he was still nervous she would turn him away or be angry.

Although it kept him up late, he read every single one of the letters. The ones he sent after the Olympics were hilarious, he told Ushijima how he had a custom jersey made and was telling all his colleagues that his son was an international star. There had been two times that his father sent him plane tickets for the both times the team he coached made it to their division finals.

Lucky for him, his father had also sent money every birthday and New Years, so he currently had a very good amount of it that he used to buy Sakura mochi with. He figured if all else failed, Uta was easily convinced with food.

The storm luckily didn't last too long the previous night and the sun was shining the next morning. He prepared well for the cold this time, wearing a warm jacket, a beanie, and the scarf Uta gave him almost a year ago. It still smelled like her.

Lots of kids were out building snowmen and having snowball fights, most adults were shoveling snow off their driveway to get to where they needed to. Wakatoshi liked the winter and the cheer associated with snowy mornings. It was shaping up to be a nice day.

Unfortunately, he realized it wouldn't be the day he hoped when he reached his destination.

The gate was ajar, that alone was strange enough. But when Ushijima stepped inside, he felt like he was seeing something out of a nightmare. There's items thrown about everywhere, windows shattered, vases shattered, flowers frozen in the snow just from glancing into the open house.

He had to step out the gate just to make sure he's in the right home and he's just not confused. The nameplate still reads Iriye and he can't believe his eyes. He runs into the house, not bothering to remove his shoes and frantically looks through every room.

"Uta!" he yells when he doesn't see her immediately. Every room is the same, some of them are blood stained, one of them has a large amount of hair on the floor.

"Uta!!" he calls out again.

'Where is she? Where is she? Where is she? This can't be real. Where is she?' His mind spins with questions as he grows desperate to find her. He pulls out his phone and dials the number for the police department.

"Miyagi prefectural police."

"There's been a break in at my friend's house! I can't find her I think someone hurt her, there's blood all over the house!"

"Where is this located?"

Ushijima blanks when he realizes he doesn't know the exact address, "umm-I-"

"Leave your cellphone turned on, we will send someone right away."

He continues his search through the house, he finds that Tamako's bedroom was the only thing untouched. There was only in place he hadn't checked because it was behind the only closed door in the house, but when he approached it, he saw traces of blood.

Sliding open the door to the garden, his eyes followed a line of blood on the veranda. Something was weighing heavily on his chest, like the air around him had suddenly become a hundred times denser. He was scared to see where the trail ended because he expected to find what he was looking for at the end of it.

Slowly, with quiet, shallow breaths, he raised his eyes. Everything is silent as he sets his eyes on her laying there peacefully, like nothing could ever harm her. His worst fear has come true. For a moment he stumbles, he's about to lose consciousness from the lack of air to his head.