Chapter Text
Jona led Mitsuru to his police car, where the teenager was seated in the back of the vehicle. All Mitsuru had to do was specify the street he lived on and Jona knew where to take him. During the journey, which lasted less than ten minutes, the two occupants of the car never spoke. Jona would occasionally glare at Mitsuru through the rear-view mirror, who felt as though he had been arrested for his actions.
“That’s my house.”
After the long silence, Mitsuru broke it when he pointed at the house which stood by itself. It was surrounded by a large brick wall that had been painted over with white paint, a large metal gate being the only way to access his place of residence as the vehicles were kept inside the space within. Jona parked his car close by on the opposite side of the road, the duo exiting the vehicle at the same time. Mitsuru led him onto the premises and opened the front door to his house. They entered the hallway, where the stairs were.
“Afternoon, son,” Ryoto called out knowing who it was. He was upstairs. “How was your day?”
“Mr. Ebisu?” Jona called out himself. His voice surprised Ryoto, who quickened his pace and walked down the stairs. He stopped halfway. He possessed short finely trimmed hair that was the same colour as his son’s and was rather wide-eyed, even without the surprise of a police officer being in his home.
“How can I help you, officer?” he asked the stranger.
“Your son is responsible for the pregnancy my daughter has just learned she unknowingly had.”
Ryoto stared at Mitsuru, visible confusion on his face. He was positive Jona had just stated his son was responsible for making someone pregnant.
“I-I’m sorry...” The man, who was normally a judge in a court of law, was perplexed. “Did… did you just say—”
“Your son is responsible for making my daughter pregnant.” He sharply cut him off. Again, Ryoto was still baffled.
“Who is your daughter?”
“Kokoro.”
“There’s the answer to that,” Ryoto thought to himself. “It had to be one of Mitsuru’s friends.” He then walked down the stairs to properly speak to Jona. “By ‘unknowingly’, do you mean—”
“She did not know she was pregnant until delivery.” Jona once again interrupted him but was not as blunt as the last time. “She suffered a postpartum haemorrhage and we’re lucky she’s okay. She is currently at Cerasus South Hospital and is extremely upset by this whole affair.”
“What about the baby?” Ryoto hesitated slightly before he spoke. He was by no means intimidated, let alone by Jona, but the story he was being informed of greatly concerned him.
“The girl was born at seven months. She is in the NICU because she has fallen ill. You’re both lucky that she has a high chance of survival and doesn’t have any defects.” He then glared at Mitsuru before looking back at his father. “You should keep your son on a leash. He is to stay the hell away from my daughter.”
With no further words, the police officer left the house and drove off. Ryoto was still dazed, but had the strength to sternly speak to his son.
“I can’t believe this.” He looked down at Mitsuru, who was only a few inches shorter than the forty-eight-year-old. “You, my own son, are responsible for making a female friend and peer pregnant?” He was almost exasperated. “Mitsuru, when on earth did you get the time to have sex with another person?”
“The beach trip several months ago.” Mitsuru was quiet. His father was not scaring him, but he was feeling guilt from what his actions had led to. “We’d been seeing each other in secret and ran off to… you know.”
“Have sex?” Ryoto quizzed him. His son nodded back.
“I thought I pulled out. I swear. I don’t remember—”
“What were you thinking?” While calm, his father was evidently furious. “Even without the pregnancy, what you did could have affected you in other ways. Didn’t you remember a word of what your mother and I, let alone what your teachers taught you? Also, you’ve brought another person into this world. That is a huge responsibility. Your mother and I knew we wanted to have a child, and we knew it would be a great task to care for you. Were you prepared for this with Kokoro?”
“Well, no.” Mitsuru was almost whispering. “But she might give it up for—”
“Who cares what she might do with the baby!” Ryoto raised his tone. “You are still responsible for what you’ve done to her. I can only imagine the fear going on in her head when she realised she had been pregnant and didn’t know about it. She’ll be in hospital right now, wishing she knew so she didn’t make any potential lifestyle choices that could have harmed the baby. Just because the baby doesn’t have any defects doesn’t mean she’s not going to have guilt.” He paused to catch his breath, briefly turning away to collect his thoughts. “Your mother is going to be livid.”
Instantly, Mitsuru looked more worried than he had been with Jona. The reason he never feared strict male figures was because he feared strict female ones. Therefore, he possessed a personal dislike for Nana Matsumoto, all because of his mother’s behaviour.
“No.” He shook his head. “We can’t tell Mum about this.”
“Of course she is going to have to hear about this.” Ryoto almost spat as he spoke. “She needs to know as much as I did.”
Mitsuru heard the front door open. For the past few hours, he had been lying on his bed in his bedroom, thinking about the revelation that he had caused. He had not been grounded; a simple grounding would not be justice in Ryoto’s eyes for what his son had inadvertently done. Any second, Mitsuru knew he would hear his mother’s voice calling out to him. He anticipated fury from her.
“Mitsuru.” He heard her voice. She was not angry—not yet at least—but there was still a commanding tone to it. “Come downstairs.”
He sat up and began his descent. He was by no means slow, as he knew either of his parents would snap at him if he was, but his pace was far from fast. He was dreading how things were going to go.
When he was at the bottom of the stairs, he entered the living room, where he saw his parents at the table in the adjacent dining room. His parents were sat at the long ends of the table—Ryoto one side, his mother Mayuko the other—and he sat in the middle as normal. He warily faced his mother, who possessed long ginger hair that was tied into a ponytail. She was a year older than her husband, her job being a curator in a local museum.
“Your father has told me you are in considerable trouble.” She was a very cold woman. “I did not want him to tell me, as you are the one responsible for whatever it is you have done.”
There was a pause. Mitsuru was almost too afraid to speak, his heart sinking in his chest.
“Well?” Her tone raised slightly. “What have you done? Mitsuru Ebisu, I demand to know.”
He briefly looked at his father, who continued frowning at him, before facing his mother again.
“Kokoro…” He swallowed, fearing what would happen next. “Kokoro gave birth today.”
Another silence occurred.
“Pardon?” Mayuko was scowling at her son, her expression never changing.
“She gave birth to a baby she didn’t know she was carrying.”
The fearful silence returned. For almost ten seconds it lasted before Mayuko quietly spoke.
“I am going to assume that you are responsible for the pregnancy?”
It was a condescending tone and one that Mitsuru always feared. He nodded back to her.
“You never said you had been seeing her romantically. For how long has this been happening?”
“Almost a year.” Mitsuru’s voice was quiet. His stern mother maintained her scowl.
“When did you find yourself the time to engage in sexual activity with her?”
This was the part of the story he dreaded telling her the most. Again, he swallowed, harder than before.
“The beach trip.” After he named the event, he looked down at the table space in front of him where his plate would normally go.
“Look at me.” Mayuko sternly made him face her again. “You were only gone a day with your friends. How did you have the time during that trip to do that? Surely you were in a public place when you did it.”
“We found an old, abandoned shack and did it there.” He really did not want to answer her anymore, a mixture of guilt and embarrassment bubbling within him.
“He also never used proper protection,” Ryoto pointed out to his wife. “He used the withdrawal method.”
“That does not matter.” Mayuko never faced him as she responded to his words. “What’s important is he is responsible for the creation of another human being and the shock he has caused for his friend.”
“That has certainly happened,” he added. As the father spoke, she faced him. “Mitsuru was taken here by Mr. Ichido, who informed me of what he did. Kokoro is most likely experiencing trauma from the birth itself as she rests in Cerasus South, as he said she was upset by what has transpired. Other than the discovery she had been pregnant, she experienced a postpartum haemorrhage.”
“Do we know of the baby’s condition?” she asked him.
“Born two months early and ill,” he replied. “However, her survival rate is high.”
“Any mention of defects?”
“There are none at all, luckily.”
Yet again, there was a silence which was painful for Mitsuru. It was like torture waiting for what was going to be said next. Both of his parents faced their offspring again.
“Mitsuru Ebisu, I have never been so ashamed.” Mayuko’s coldness never ceased. “This is the worst thing you have ever done. In fact, this is worse than when you broke Ikuno’s nose just because you wished to work with that prodigy child Hiro.”
As if his heart could not sink any lower, it did. In the last few months, he acquired guilt for the specified transgression, all because he wished to be as good, if not better than Hiro was. He ended up taking his frustration out on Ikuno, a decision that brought shame not just to himself, but his family.
“I’m at a loss.” Despite her anger, there was a miniscule hint of sadness in Mayuko’s tone. “We have raised you properly, yet you still commit terrible acts. There is no doubt that this failure is rooted deep in Franxx’s staff failing to control you, just like the staff of the other schools you have studied at. We are beyond disappointed. Your academic behaviour is fine, but your social one needs more than just improvement at times. We are done here.”
With no further communication, Mitsuru quietly and slowly left the room.