[Paladinoras]

Update!! Back story timeee!!! XD

Btw, I consider this chapter to be my magnum opus so far...so yeah. XD

Cliches FTW! XD

Chapter 5.75 – Tears in Heaven

Spoiler:

May 25th, 10:17 AM, Temma-cho, Aoi-ku, Yamazaki Family House, Shizuoka

“YES MOM, I’M CLEANING MY ROOM RIGHT NOW!!!” I yelled out from my room, my mom’s persistent nagging finally achieving its desired effect. “Geez, she can be such a pain sometimes…A man’s room is supposed to be dirty and unkempt!” I muttered to myself, then looked around my room.

….I guess I should clean it after all. The room looked like a giant bomb filled with underwear, old manga, and unwashed T-shirts had exploded in the middle and spread all of its contents on the room. Where can I possibly start from…. Well, I guess my clothes closet was as good as any. I walked over to a wooden cabinet which held all my clothes and opened it.

Unsurprisingly, the inside of the cabinet was barely filled. Most of its original contents had been spilled over to the floor, and only about 10 pieces of clothes remained in the bare closet. I scratched my head and groped around inside for anything I might need to throw away…or take to laundry, or whatever, as long as it seemed like I tried to clean my room. “Oh…what’s this..” I murmured as I pulled out a dusty, mangled old shoebox from inside the cabinet. I dusted it off and tried to make out the letters written on lid of the shoebox. “Err…the Yamazaki-Azai Time Box…” I read the words out loud and feeling curious, I plopped myself down in front of my bed and opened the box.

The first thing I saw was an old picture of me and Mayumi, when we were both young kids…10 years old at maximum. She was wearing a small summer dress and was smiling happily, a sight that has not greeted me so often the past few years. My ten-year old self, on the other hand, seemed annoyed and was holding a lollipop in his hand. Heh, I always had a sweet tooth. I rifled through the contents of the box again and it all came back to me… this Time Box was something Mayumi and I decided to keep when we were around 11, to hold all of our past memories. I’d give her some of my stuff, and she’d give me some of hers. We weren’t supposed to open it until 10 years had passed if I remember our agreement correctly.

Oops.

I took out another object from the box and looked at it carefully. It seemed…unfamiliar. I mean, sure, after all those years, I don’t remember much about what’s inside the box, but I dunno, all of the other things seemed….familiar to the touch, I can recollect where Mayumi got them and why she decided to give it to me…but this one was different. I inspected it closer and then it hit me, it was supposed to be her birthday present for when she turned 12. I blew off some of the dust from it and found out that my suspicions had been correct, it was a beautiful, intricate floral hairpin, and a pretty pricey one too. Well, at least pricey for when I was 12. I had gotten it for her for her 12th birthday…but due to circumstances, I never did manage to give it to her. 5 years ago was a horrible time for Mayumi…and I guess I never got the chance to give it to her. As I looked back upon those days, I can’t help but feel incredibly sad…


The date was August 14th, 2004. Mayumi’s 12th birthday was coming up in 10 days, and she couldn’t wait for the day to finally come. We were much closer back in those days….in fact, it was incomparable. Back when we were 12, we were practically inseparable. Where she would go, I’ll follow her, what she would do; I’ll do it together with her. Our parents had even joked that they should arrange for us to get married when we hit the proper age. Not such a bad proposition now, come to think of it, but well, my twelve year old self was a dumbass.

Anyways, Mayumi’s parents….I couldn’t really remember how they were, to be perfectly honest. Her dad was a loving family man, but he would often have to work till late and not come home for days, something that affected Mayumi to an extent. She was the only child of her family, so she loved her father very much, and in retrospect, I am sure he did too, but well, society sucks in that way. Her mom, well, she was not a classic stay-at-home mom. She commanded a high-paying job at a multi-national corporation, and that meant she was rarely home either….mainly the reason why Mayumi ended up spending a lot of time with me, simply because there was no one home for her to play with. I barely met Mayumi’s mom, but from the little I know of her, I can tell that like her husband, she loved her young daughter very much as well, but had a bad way of showing it. She would often make Mayumi go on worthless tuitions she didn’t like because she wanted to groom her to be the perfect woman, an ideal that she herself failed to meet, I suppose, but Mayumi hated it. She wasn’t exactly a tomboy, but she loved to play around in the dirt, to get dirty, to just well…have fun like how any normal kid would. At any rate, I got along pretty fabulously with her parents because my parents got along well with her parents as well. My dad and her dad used to be workmates, if I am not wrong, and they would often drink sake together and do some other old man crap together I guess.



So anyways, on August 14th, her mom and dad had driven off to Karuizawa, a pretty famous holiday resort spot close to Tokyo, and for once, Mayumi didn’t join them. She had been down with the flu and her parents had wanted to cancel their trip, but Mayumi was adamant that they should go, not willing to let them sacrifice their relaxation time for her. Her parents had been reluctant at first, but I guess seeing their little daughter be so determined to make them go, they left anyway, leaving Mayumi in my family’s hands. I was pretty much fine with the idea, as far as I was concerned, more Mayumi equals to more fun.

But then the unexpected happened. Her parents, driving down a freeway leading from Shizuoka to Tokyo, collided with another car at high speed. Airbags had helped them to an extent, but in the end, the severity of the crash was too much to bear and her parents passed away. When my parents heard the news, I remembered that they pretty much panicked. Not so much for their sakes, but for the sake of the young girl sleeping contentedly in our guestroom. In the end, we couldn’t hide the fact from her forever, and my parents told her the news, telling her that she’ll be fine and that they’ll do everything in their power to help her.

I could still remember all too poignantly of what happened the day Mayumi heard the news. I don’t know if any of you have ever seen a child mentally break down right in front of you, and not the types where they are spazzing over not getting that new PS3 game, the type where you can tell that their hearts had been ripped out and played upon by the cruel hands of fate, but it was a horrible sight. Her eyes widened, and she screamed out loud, a bone-chilling heart-wrenching scream that was so pained and horrifying that I couldn’t help but feel completely devastated as well. She cried her eyes out that day. She cried and cried… and cried, until I was afraid that she would dry her eyes out and go blind. As the funeral procession came about, Mayumi finally stopped crying…she simply had no tears left to cry out.



Months passed after her parents’ death, and it seemed that things were finally returning to normal, but it wasn’t. Mayumi’s grandparents had moved in to her house, as all parties involved believed that it would have been better off for Mayumi to remain in the city, where she could get an education, and where at least she would have a friend, namely me to help her out. To this day, I believed they were wrong though. There were just too many memories, too many things left undone in that house to allow Mayumi to properly grow. It would have hurt like hell for me if she had left for the village, but for Mayumi’s sake, it would have been for the best. She could start over anew; nothing from her past can haunt her.

Instead, Mayumi did what any 12-year old child would do had the people they loved most in this world died, she just…well, shut down completely. The concepts of death and sudden departure were simply too much for her 12 year old mind to understand. And worst of all, she began blaming herself. What if she had told her parents to stay? What if she had been a little bit selfish and forced them to stay…then would they have died? The way Mayumi saw it was that the world, or any god out there, was punishing her for not being selfish enough, for not being more assertive. She stopped being the nice Mayumi, and her twisted psyche made her the most destructive girl on the planet. She would throw plates around at her grandma when the food wasn’t to her liking…she would burn her grandfather’s books if she felt like there wasn’t enough space in the bookshelf….she would tell me I am the most useless friend in the world and bossed me around. I…well, I didn’t know how to react, to be honest. My memories of the girl I once knew…and come to think of it, she was probably my real first love, was conflicting with the insane bossy girl I faced back then.



School was no different either. She separated from her usual group of friends, and began hanging out with the older set of students. Back then, Mayumi and I used to go to a mixed middle school, and we pretty much just graduated from primary school, (we both skipped a grade) so we had no idea how the system really worked. Although to be fair, who the hell knows how the middle school system works…it’s just…THERE. But I digress. The middle school was filled with kids aged 13 to 15, and even the occasional 16 year old boy who failed junior high. Hanging out with the seniors wasn’t a very wise choice, those 15 year old girls had just started developing their jealous gland, and the strikingly pretty Mayumi was really always going to be a target for them. They made her their errand-girl, making her go and get every single whim they demanded. Mayumi, in turn, would often tell me to do her tasks for her. I still considered her a good friend of mine, so I wouldn’t complain much and do it regardless. Then, the requests became ridiculous. First it was bread…then CDs…then albums…then lipstick..then a full make-up set. Mayumi would burn out her pocket money trying to please them, and well, her grandparents stopped giving her cash when they found out what was happening. So she went to the only other person she knew had money.

Me.

I was reluctant to give her my money at first, but Mayumi threatened that she would stop being my friend and tell the senior boys to beat me up if I don’t give her my money. So well, I did. In truth, I was far more scared of the prospect that she would stop being my friend over the prospect that I would get beaten to a pulp. My nice 12-year old heart, I guess. I would then give her all of my money…sometimes leaving me with not enough money to buy lunch at school. Mayumi scoffed at my remarks and told me I should lose some weight anyways…so I persevered. And on. And on. And on.

But of course, appeasement never really works, and those seniors finally gave her an impossible order, to get them EACH new clothes from the Spring line or whatever. Even Mayumi knew there was no way she could possibly come up with enough money for this one, so she finally put her foot down and refused. The seniors didn’t take to it lightly, telling her that unless she coughed up with those clothes before the end of the month, they would get some senior boys to beat her up. Mayumi thought that they were only bluffing, so she left them and did not meet them for the remainder of the month.

Well, they weren’t bluffing. One day, as Mayumi was walking home from school, three 15 year old boys, who honestly looked like they were 18, came up to her and told Mayumi that they came to make her cough up the cash…or else. Mayumi wouldn’t…or should I say, couldn’t give them all that money, and the ringleader, a 15 year old boy by the name of Masakazu Tomozawa, began to harass her. He was pretty tall for a 15 year old, and he prematurely grew up I guess, dying his hair red and having piercings all over his face. I was walking home from school…and I saw the three of them, surrounding Mayumi and grabbing her clothes. My 12 year old brain didn’t see it that way, but I was sure that those guys were very much planning to violate her. From afar I could hear Masakazu’s lecherous voice…and I still remember his words, “Hmph…well, if you don’t have any money….hey, you’re kinda cute…come to think of it…I guess I can make you PAY with something else!”

Meh, oversexed boys…I blame the internet.

Anyways, I ran over to the scene and jumped in front of Mayumi, trying to protect her. Those seniors were apparently amused by my actions, and told me to bug off. I swear that I have never cursed a day before in my life before then, but that fine day, for the first time in my life, I told someone to fuck off. They didn’t receive it well either.

Now, I don’t know whoever said that if you stand up to a bully they would back off, but they obviously met some pretty weak and cowardly bullies, cause these guys didn’t back off, in fact, quite the contrary, they began to beat the living shit out of me. I tried to fight back…but three 15 year olds against a scrawny 12 year old isn’t much of a fight. They kicked…and punched, and by the end of it, I was a bloody mess. But it wasn’t all for nothing though, they were kinda creeped out watching me bleed so much, so they left Mayumi alone and dashed off in case anyone saw them.



It had been raining that day, and as the rain fell on my body, I felt…kind of an otherworldly experience. My mind was wandering away, and I guess I came pretty close to meeting the Grim Reaper. Mayumi started shrieking beside me and kneeled down, frantically trying to wipe off the blood flowing freely from well…every single orifice in my face. “Why…? Why did you do it, you idiot?? I had been so mean to you…and…” I could remember Mayumi lamenting. I should note though, that probably my knack of witty responses came during that near-death experience. Yeah, you heard me. Some people reaffirm their belief in religion, some people aim to be a better person, me, I just became witty and sarcastic. “Not so useless now…am…I…”I could distinctly recollect myself saying before I finally passed out, Mayumi’s screaming filling the background as everything turned black.

I woke up a few days later at the local hospital, with Mayumi’s head resting on the feet of my bed. Apparently, since the day I was put into this room, she had never left my side, and my parents told me that for the first time since her parents died, Mayumi cried again. She would hold my hand and cry, saying she’s sorry even though I was fast asleep. To this day, I find that kinda freaky…but also touching. Those seniors of mine had done a pretty thorough job on my body as it turns out, I had fractured my jaw, and two of my ribs were broken. Parts of my arm were also broken and I suffered mild concussion. Obviously, my parents had been incredibly pissed and basically went on a witch-hunt to find the kids who did this to me. Masakazu ended up moving away from the middle school and spent some time in juvenile hall, before rejoining a nearby high school to mine, where he remains until now.

Either way, after that day, Mayumi returned to the girl I once knew, that nice, sweet, caring girl who I came to admire. But for what’s worth, the damage had been done to our relationship. She remained a close friend to me throughout our middle school years, but she slowly drifted apart as we graduated. I couldn’t quite pinpoint what caused it back then, but after I thought about it now, and after what happened a few weeks ago, what she did…and what I did, hung heavily on her mind. She thought that she had nearly caused the death of another person she cared about, and she never did could forgive herself. I guess in the end, that is what made her drift apart from me.

“KEN, YOU BETTER BE CLEANING YOUR ROOM, OR I’M THROWING OUT YOUR GUITAR, YOU LAZY BUM!” My mom’s voice suddenly roared from the living room, destroying my epic moment of recollection and snapping me back to my senses. I put the old shoebox back in my closet, but I took out the hairpin…I had other plans for this. I got up, stretched, and looked around. I gave a deep, long sigh, and finally begin to ACTUALLY clean my room.

May 26th, 9:11 AM, Temma-cho, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka

“Oh, what’s up Ken?” Mayumi asked as she sat down on the park bench beside me. “Nothing much, I just wanted to give you something.” I told her nonchalantly, reaching into my pocket and taking out that long-overdue hairpin.

I had asked her to meet me at the Aoi Park today…and I really only had one purpose.

I stood up, turned towards her and gently clipped the hairclip on a part of her hair. Hmm, it looks great on her, I have to hand it to my twelve-year old self…he had exquisite taste.

“Hmm? What’s this for?” Mayumi quizzed me, a bit perplexed for my gift from nowhere. She was blushing a little bit, and it occurred to me that this was the first time that I have ever given anything to her…at least, personally.

I scratched my head and I could feel my face turning red as well. Damn it! I always do this at the most inopportune moment! “Oh, let’s just say it’s just something I’ve been meaning to give you for a while.” I told her. Heh, five-years-while.

“Ahh…well, thanks anyway, Ken, I’ll be sure to wear it all the time.” Mayumi beamed and for the first time in a long while, I got to see the same beautiful face of that girl in the picture taken so long ago.

I guess I always had a messed up list of priorities…but getting beat up to a bloody pulp was worth it just so I will have the chance to see that face again. If I had to redo it all over again, I wouldn’t do it any differently. As long as her face continues to give me the shortest glimpses of that beautiful smile again….I have no regrets for what happened. Now and forever.