Happy End.

Day 2. Part 1



Aru jerked, he took a step back, fast, as if Amano could creep through the glass pane like a ghost. His fingers trembled, instinctively reaching for the phone, and he wondered if it was safe to call the police. After all, technically speaking, he was an accomplice to murder… Amano gave another rap on the window, twisting his face in the sweetest pout Aru had ever seen on a man.



‘Akise, let me in. Please, I can explain.’



‘No, I won’t. Get lost!’



He pushed the blinds down. There, that was better. More barricades were put between him and crazy Amano, he felt a little safer. But the rapping continued, got louder. Aru opened the refrigerator and tried to ignore it. He fished out two store-made rice balls, and a tube of dark green wasabi. It was his favorite. If anything, Aru liked his food strong and spicy. Just like his father, he wasn’t a sweet tooth at all. He checked his watch, 00:13. Ah…he still had some time.



The rapping intensified and was punctuated by loud wailing now, interchanging from ‘A-k-i-s-e, leeet mee in!’ to ‘Pleeeease!!!’.



‘Shut up.’



Aru sat down at the kitchen table, peeling the plastic wrappings off his rice balls. He reclined against the back of his chair, and took a bite, closing his eyes.



‘What’s going on?’



Aru’s eyes flashed wide open. His father leaned in the door frame, squinting his eyes shut and stifling a yawn. Meanwhile the rapping continued. Aru smiled.



‘Eh? Annoying neighborhood kids?’ he said.



It was always worth a try.



‘Neighborhood kids know your name now?’ his father countered.



Clearly, Aru was loosing this battle. Amano seemed to hear parts of dad’s words too, so he changed his repertoire, adding unnecessary things like: ‘thought you were my friend!’ and ‘I don’t have anywhere else to go!’. Aru face-palmed. Clearly, he wasn’t going to finish that literature assignment tonight.



‘Fine. He’s an annoying friend who I really don’t want to see right now.’



Dad frowned.



‘You must always help your friends.’



Damn it. Why couldn’t he just have said ‘acquaintance’ instead of ‘friend’? That was all they were, anyway. Aru took another bite from his rice ball when dad moved back to the hallway.



‘Where are you going?’ Aru asked.



‘Get my keys.’



‘Why?!’



As if Aru still needed to ask…



‘Your friend needs a place to sleep, doesn’t he?’



‘He’s not my friend!’



‘I’m okay with it, as long as you guys don’t make any noise. And don’t stay up all night – go to sleep.’



What?! Aru stood stunned in the middle of the kitchen, half-eaten rice ball in one hand. Three minutes later the front door was unlocked, Aru hadn’t moved from his spot. One minute more and Amano stood before him, smiling gratefully.



‘Good night,’ said dad, and went upstairs.



‘Good night!’ Amano called after him.



Aru just stared. He stared as Amano sat down at the table, stared as Amano looked around, shy at first, stared as Amano pointed at the unopened rice ball on the plate.



‘Is that for me? Thank you, Akise.’



Aru stared as Amano pulled down the wrapper and started to eat. Like an absurd comedy…



‘No, I was planning to eat that, actually. And I never said you could come in.’



Amano put the rice ball down.



‘Oh. I’m sorry! Your father said it was okay, so I thought…’



‘You thought barging in on someone in the middle of the night was okay? And then rapping on their window for half an hour, creating tons of noise and waking the neighbors?!’



‘L-let me explain!’



‘You still have the audacity to ask for something like that?!’



Amano hung his head.



‘I guess not… But, would it be okay if I told you more about myself, about the world you’re living in? Then, maybe it could help you understand,’



Aru guessed it wasn’t his day today. He pressed more wasabi paste onto his rice ball and bit into it, feeling the heat build up in his nose, swelling, overpowering him.



‘I’m listening,’



‘Really? Thank you Akise!’



He sighed. Seeing Amano’s enthusiastic smile, he felt he was going to regret this…



‘The reason I came back here, Akise, is to prevent the killing. You see, in my Future, you are already dead. You, and a bunch of my other friends, my family… I, I don’t want to kill these people, but I have to. Because if I won’t, they’ll destroy everything, they’ll kill the whole freaking planet! And I can’t let them do that, do you understand?’



Aru nodded. He figured it best to go along for now – after all, there was nothing he could really frame Amano for…not yet. He’d wait until Amano did something stupid, then he’d call the cops.



‘Altogether, there are twelve Diary Holders out there, and with me, thirteen. To win the game, you have to kill all the other players. The winner gets to be the next God of Space and Time. Only there’s one catch: the people you kill cannot be brought back.’



A bitter smile formed on Amano’s lips.



‘Yuno didn’t tell me that though… I did horrible things, I killed my own friends, with my own hands, thinking that they were the enemy! I became God. But everything was gone, destroyed.’



Aru pinched the bridge of his nose, he got up and browsed through the refrigerator. The bottle of cherry juice stared back at him. He pulled it out and placed two glasses on the table.



‘Want some?’



‘Yes please! Uh…thanks.’



Now that he poured the red liquid out, Aru’s hands didn’t shake anymore. He wondered why.



‘Here you go,’



Amano brought the glass to his lips and sipped greedily. He put the empty glass down, and asked for more.



‘I have to eliminate as many diary holders as possible before the game starts, without killing any civilians. That way it’ll be easier to disarm them, they won’t have any powers yet.’



Aru frowned, he sipped at his own juice and then finally said,



‘But what if Deus chooses new people to become Diary Holders, haven’t you thought about that?’



‘Ah! You have a point. Shit, then I’ve been…! I’ve been…!’



Amano clawed his hands in his hair, violently jittering on his seat.



‘This is why I need your help, Akise, you’re so much smarter than me.’



‘Doesn’t really work if you go on a killing spree without talking to me first.’



‘Gah, I’m sorry, I’m such an idiot!’



‘You are.’



Amano went full scale panic attack, and Aru considered it good time to check his watch. 02:47. Wonderful.



‘Amano, I think it’s time we went to bed.’



‘Eh? Ah, yeah, you’re probably right. We have to locate the other eleven diary holders tomorrow.’



Aru sent him a patronizing look.



‘What? It’s good to know where they are. At least we know where Yuno will be hiding – my house and the haunted Gasai mansion.’



‘Ugh, follow me.’



Aru flicked the light in the kitchen off, using his cell phone as a torch to guide them up the staircase. Amano followed. They paused at his father’s door, yellow light gleamed through its cracks, Aru shook his head. One of these days, dad was bound to get a burn-out, that much was sure. A few doors later they reached Aru’s room, he pocketed his cell phone and switched the light on.



‘You got a spare futon?’ Amano asked.



‘No, we share the bed.’



Amano gawked at him.



‘What? We’re both guys…’



‘Uh, yes, that’s exactly the problem,’ said Amano, fiddling with his index fingers.



‘Oh, get in the bed. What? You need a spare T-shirt?’



‘No, I don’t!’



‘Don’t shout. And, yes, you do. I’m not letting you in my bed wearing that.’



‘Then I’ll sleep on the floor.’



Amano grinned. He actually laid down on the wooden planks, and made a show out of how comfortable he was.



‘Yeah, real nice!’ he said.



‘No, you’re not sleeping on the floor. Amano, what’s your problem sleeping in the same bed with me – are you gay or something?’



Amano’s face turned beet red. It actually looked pretty funny, Aru thought, as he pulled a clean black shirt from his closet.



‘No! But you ARE!’



‘What?!’



‘You kissed me. In the Future, you kissed me. And that got Yuno mad, and that’s why she killed you, she chopped your head right off.’



Amano made a slicing motion with his fingers, slizzing his tongue to add the sound-effect. Aru beat up a spare pillow while staring at Amano, wide-eyed.



‘I thought about it, many times you know. First I thought it was just the stress, just the life-death situation that got to you. But that’s not it. You’re way too cool for that, you never let the stress get to you, not this much! Then I thought you’d gone crazy, but that didn’t make any sense either. The message you typed in your phone, even though I didn’t want to believe it at the time, it was way too serious. It couldn’t be, you were still sane…’



Amano went on rambling like that for a couple of minutes. In the meantime Aru found him a spare T-shirt, pillow, and set of blankets to match.



‘Look,’ he said, ‘just because we’re sharing a bed doesn’t mean anything’s going to happen. You have your set of blankets, I have mine, we can even sleep on opposite sides of the bed if that makes you happy – it’s pretty big.’



If squished together, three adults could comfortably fit inside Aru’s bed. He knew that since he’d had cousins over, multiple times…



‘But for God’s sake, go to bed!’



‘And despite Hinata being sexy as hell, you never looked at her, not even once!’ Amano continued, still sitting on the floor, legs crossed. ‘You’re gay!’



‘You realize Mao would’ve beaten me to a pulp if I had looked at Hinata, right?’



Amano blinked, cocking his head to the side.



‘Why would she do that?’



‘Ugh!’



It was no use arguing. Aru flung the black T-shirt into Amano’s lap and turned the light off – the psychopath could sleep on the floor for all he cared. He shut his eyes and tried to sleep. Hours later the mattress sagged under added weight, and bounced as someone crept under the covers, lightly brushing Aru’s legs.



‘Sorry,’ Amano whispered.



‘It’s okay.’



‘Oh, shit – did I wake you?’



‘I wasn’t sleeping anyway.’



‘Akise, what’s going to happen now?’



Aru shifted around so he could peek past the curtain, out of his window. He yawned.



‘Dawn will break.’



‘No, not that – I mean, what will happen with the Third diary holder? Whom will Deus choose?’



‘Somebody who keeps a diary, I guess…’



‘But doesn’t it bother you, I mean, someone really nice could be chosen, and’



‘Not really…’



‘Ah, I see. So you still don’t believe me.’



Outside the house, dawn was breaking, and up in his Celestial throne, Deus Ex Machina was making his choice. He studied the handful Muru Muru had selected. Nope, he didn’t like any one of them – all ignorant little brats, they weren’t fit to be anyone’s leader – let alone God. Deus shook his head. He put the device down, and went through another list, a pool with faces appeared at his hand, faces of all the diary holders that existed in this world. Deus thought long and hard, then came up with his choice. He pulled one name out of the hat, placing it on the display, together with the first eleven.



[Amano Rea]



He smiled. This was going to be a very interesting game. And, at least now he knew, among them was someone worthy of being his successor.



[End of Fourth Chapter]