Chapter Text
They don’t stop running until the house is far, far away and out of sight behind them. They’re moving so fast that other people walking down the street have to practically leap across the sidewalk to get out of their way in time. Complaints to watch where they’re going are quickly drowned out by the wind rushing past his ears and are ignored entirely by Yumi.
She leads him through town into alleyways and around corners he hasn’t been through before with a confidence like she’s been through them a million times. For all he knows, she has. She makes a sharp left through another one that otherwise seems like a dead end and takes them out onto another street corner with a set of concrete stairs sitting beside them nearby. It’s quiet here. Aside from a few cars passing by in the distance, it’s entirely devoid of other people.
Honestly, he’s not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.
They come to an abrupt stop near the edge of the building adjacent to the stairs; only the strong hold she still has on his arm manages to stop him from completely crashing into her side. She presses her back against the wall and flattens herself out against it. A shadow drapes over them from an awning hanging above, and with her black clothes, she almost seems as though she’s trying to sink further into it. Like it will somehow camouflage her against the lighter colored, dusty brick behind her. She tilts her head toward the sky, quieting her heavy breathing from her still heaving chest into a faint whisper.
He feels his lungs burning inside his own chest. He’s never run this much in his entire life. Jim’s threats of laps around the track whenever the class is getting too rowdy have nothing on this. They just can’t. His heart is pounding faster than he ever thought possible; it practically vibrates against his ribcage. His body struggles not to follow suit.
Yumi must feel it too. She doesn’t say a word, but silently grips his hand tighter as she looks around. Her entire stance is tense; he feels how taut her muscles are from his spot beside her. When he looks up at what he can see of her face, her expression is just as pinched. Her eyes are narrowed and focused, but darting around wildly, inspecting every shadowy crevice and corner of the area around them like she’s expecting something to jump out at them at any second.
After what just happened, maybe something will. The thought makes him hold onto her tighter too.
But nothing does. And it’s only then that Yumi finally lets her body loosen, if only a little bit. Her head twists back around the corner and thuds softly against the wall as she exhales a long, shuddering breath as her eyes close, shoulders gently drooping down. A moment later, she finally looks back down at him.
“Are you ok?”
He blinks wide eyes up at her. He’s still breathless, but not just from running. His mind is buzzing with a million different thoughts all at once. Echoes of confused ‘hows’ and angry ‘whys’ and so much more bounce around his head over and over again until it makes him so dizzy he’s amazed he can still stand. And all move so fast that he barely has time to process one thought before another takes its place and demands his full attention like a bright, neon lit sign flashing in a store window. He can barely think straight about any of them. Let alone get the words to leave his lips.
It all leaves him feeling paralyzed. Mouth hanging open, all he can muster is a small nod towards her in response.
“Ok… Ok, good…” Yumi mutters, more towards herself than him. Her shoulders sag further as she leans back again. She finally unlinks her hand from his.
He didn’t realize just how tight he’d been clinging to it until he’s left clutching at nothing. Uncurling his fingers again is slow and tingly in an almost painful way.
Yumi reaches up and swipes some hair away from her face. An angry red ring flares around the edge of her wrist like a glowing bracelet under her sleeve. He finds she’s sporting a matching one on her other wrist. She’s not reacting to them—he’s not sure she’s even noticed them yet—but they look like they hurt, and are so, so out of place on her skin.
All he can think about is how they got there.
“Dad, stop! That hurts!”
He can’t get the images out of his head: the white knuckled grip holding her up effortlessly. The staticky, flickering grain of his skin. His mangled expression.
Dad’s eyes—pure, unnatural white and full of unfocused rage. Until that strange symbol pulsed through them like a heartbeat, and then disappeared just as soon as it showed up.
None of it feels real. It all seems more like something he’d see in one of his games that Mom usually tuts at him for playing because she thinks they’re ‘too violent’ for his age. He’s always scoffed at her worries. It’s just a game; it’s just fiction. He’ll be fine, he always told her. He has been fine.
This though. This is just wrong.
“Dad…” He finally gets his voice working again. His throat feels like sandpaper, and speech comes out sounding just as rough. “What…” Is all he manages to say before trailing off, mind still too jumbled to form the full question he wants to ask.
It’s enough for Yumi to understand him though. “That’s… a long story,” she says cryptically.
That… is not the kind of answer he was expecting.
What on Earth does that mean? Does she know what’s going on? Now that he looks at her more closely, she’s almost disturbingly calm about the whole thing. She finally glances down at her wrists, frowning, but seemingly assessing her injuries with an otherwise mundane look on her face. Like she’s done this a thousand times before now. Why is she like that? This is as far from normal as you can get.
He almost huffs. Why is his sister always so confusing?
He wants to ask, but she moves before he can get his brain there and pulls out her phone. For a minute, he thinks maybe she’s calling for help. (Although who would even believe them, let alone be able to help? Mom? One of Dad’s coworkers? The police? Is anyone really qualified in this kind of situation?)
His expectations are once again shattered when she lifts the phone to her ear. “Jeremy?”
His confusion quickly gives way to a hot anger that burns through the unfocused fog in his head.
“Jeremy?!” As in Belpois? The computer nerd who’s always skipping gym class? And always looks half ready to fall asleep at any given moment? That Jeremy? She can’t be serious“How the heck is he going to help anyo-”
Yumi raises a hand and fires a sharp look in his direction to silence him as she listens to the other end. “I’ve been a little busy. Jeremy… it’s my dad,” she says. Her face turns frustrated, and when she sees him still watching her like a hawk, she turns around before continuing in a milder tone. “No, that’s not… he’s the attack. ”
…Attack? What?
Hiroki tilts his head and tries to step closer to hear whatever Jeremy’s saying. Just for some degree of context if nothing else. Yumi, though, doesn’t let him get a good position, standing up straighter and leaning away from him before she speaks again. “He just came in out of nowhere and attacked. He was supposed to be at work. …Just a little bruised but, Jeremy…” Her eyes flicker towards Hiroki again, a flash of concern in them. “My brother was with me, and I couldn’t just leave him there so…”
Whatever Jeremy says next has her nodding a few times as she listens. “Right… Ok. On my way.” There’s no goodbye between them, she just presses a button before slipping her phone back into her pocket again. She doesn’t immediately say anything to Hiroki, merely sighs and rubs at one of her temples.
A silence stretches between them. He has so many thoughts in his head, so many questions to ask. He’s not sure where to start with them all.
What ends up coming out of his mouth first though is…
“If you were gonna call one of your friends, you could’ve at least called your boyfriend.”
When in doubt, snark wins out.
He stands by it though; at least that guy knows how to fight.
She stiffens immediately at the suggestion. “For the last time, Ulrich is not my-!” She cuts herself off with a groan and shakes her head. “Ugh, nevermind. Come on.” She turns toward the stairs.
“What? Where?”
“To the factory,” she responds irritably. Like it should be the most obvious answer in the world.
Factory…? “The abandoned one by the river?”
He’s always wondered before why that place hasn’t been torn down yet. He’s heard rumors from others in his class before that the place is haunted, or has old uranium stored underneath. It’s been the subject of a couple issues of the Kadic News too (though they’ve never gone inside, despite all of Milly Solovieff’s begging to Jim that he may or may not have overheard before).
But what does it have to do with anything going on now? Or Jeremy?
“Are there any other factories around here?” Yumi asks sarcastically.
He ignores her tone. “Why?” he demands. “What’s so special about there?”
Yumi frowns. “Hiroki—” She turns from her spot on the top stair and reaches for his hand again when she sees he hasn’t moved.
“No!” He snaps it out of her grasp, pulls it behind him and takes a step back further than she can reach. “I’m not going anywhere until you give me some straight answers for once! Tell me why it’s so important to go to this stupid factory!”
Her mouth clamps shut, a frustrated grunt on her breath. He doesn’t budge. And they’re left just staring at each other.
“Because…! Because…” Whatever words she’s looking for don’t come to her. She practically deflates, tense shoulders dropping as her angry tone peters out and a conflicted look comes over her. She bites her lip, glancing to the side and then back at him like she’s weighing her options. “Because it’s the only way to help Dad,” she finally admits a moment later.
Hiroki freezes too. “...What?”
Something bangs out in the distance, startling them both. In an instant he finds himself being pulled towards Yumi, and she takes a defensive stance in front of him. A car alarm starts sounding a second later. There’s none parked near them. It’s from somewhere else down the block. It’s (probably) nothing to do with them)
It leaves them both tensed against each other again anyway.
“Look,” Yumi starts after it beeps for the third time. He’s still looking down the street. She puts a hand on one of his shoulders and lightly squeezes it, guiding his attention back to her. She’s looking him directly in the eye in a genuine way he hasn’t seen in some time. “I promise I’ll explain the best I can, but we can’t stay here. It’s too open, ok?”
She doesn’t try to grab his hand this time. Instead, she offers her own toward him. Open with palm forward, just waiting for him to take it.
He stares. Yumi actually offering to explain something? None of this still feels real.
…But this situation at least doesn’t feel nearly as wrong.
“Fine,” he says. “Start talking.”
He takes her hand.