Norisuke wasn’t the sort of man to sugarcoat things when speaking to those younger than him. Rai learned this quickly while shadowing the head of the Higashikata household, alongside countless tidbits of horticultural curiosities and tell-tale differences between two fruit varieties that only someone with complete mastery over such a field could have.
It made it all the more painful, then, because that meant that Norisuke truly didn’t believe him in the slightest about the insects that had ravaged his family’s orchard.
He sat down next to his father’s shrine and sighed woefully, leaning against the hard wooden seat in an awkward, uncomfortably cramped position. He tugged at his stuffy shirt collar, all the more frustrated to be wearing these dressy clothes in a drab building of death instead of being free to do as he liked around the idyllic pear trees.
He didn’t want to have this massive ceremony for his father. He knew his father wouldn’t have wanted it either. They weren’t showy people, unlike the Higashikatas; High-quality fruit spoke for itself, and was as perfect of a representation of what putting in hard work can bear as it could get. No need to doll it up with Italian marzipan or French confectioneries or whatever the hell else they tastelessly slapped together with perfectly good fruit at the cafe above the parlor downtown.
The plant appraising apprentice wanted to go somewhere far, far away, so secluded from others that not even the trees he and his father once grew with earnest vigor could reach him. That life for him was over, now. Was it possible to build a house on stilts somewhere? He’d read stories of hermits living in the most impossible of places, like mountain towns abandoned by the government for 50 years. Rai was used to the fully-realized seasons of Morioh, even relished in the tending of their orchard in anything from an unrelenting blizzard to a sweltering heat wave if it meant he learned something new about the flora around him, something that would help his family continue to prosper. He wished he had shown that enthusiasm more openly then.
Rai was brought back to reality by the booming laughter of Norisuke, who was chattering with other, less animated folks. Other adults in the fruit business, Rai thought idly. The teenager rolled his eyes with succinct bitterness. People who had come to superficially say their ‘condolences’, all while trying to get any leeway they could on grabbing the Mamezuku land, or what was left of it at least. He didn’t want to think about another painfully stressful reminder like that until next week, at least, when he spoke to the lawyer.
He contemplated going over to them, to shut them up and give his father some peace instead of chittering like mice about business, when he noticed two figures step into the room.
Well, make it three, when he realized the tall woman there was holding a young girl, both dressed in plain black dresses. The little girl wore a fuzzy black hat with a gleaming emblem upon it, and the woman holding her wore a satin scarf around her head, an elegant noir with a deep magenta lining. She looked around the place with a bit of confusion, as if she were searching for a friend in the little crowds of people speaking softly at the funeral home. Rai noted how she seemed to give up after not finding who she was looking for, and then faced the teen herself, giving him a strained smile out of sympathy. He sat up more formally then, watching the woman approach with neutral curiosity.
“Ah, hello, Mamezuku… My name is Holly, Holly Joestar-Kira. Norisuke is a distant relative of mine. We wanted to come here and express our sympathies to you about your father…” She said, with a clear, caring voice. She motioned towards her daughter, but also the young man standing behind her. Rai blinked twice.
Kira. That was Yoshikage Kira, a freshman at his high school. The young man was wearing a sailor uniform of sorts, all draped in an onyx hue besides the careful, smoke grey lines that ran across the sailor collar. His wavy bangs covered his face as much as his reserved posture did, making not a sound since arriving at the wake. He looked at Rai for just a moment then, dark blue eyes shying away as if he wanted to be anywhere else but here. What a weird kid, Rai thought, irreverent of the grief surrounding him, almost.
Rai looked up at Holly then, realizing she hadn’t finished her thoughts from earlier. “And, well… Yoshikage and Kei here lost their own father not that long ago either.” She said, adjusting the little Kei in her hands to hold her more comfortably. “So when Yoshikage mentioned the father of his classmate had passed, I thought it was best we came to check on you.” Holly smiled again at Rai, in such a way that made him realize she was probably a very good mother. It was simple and sincere, and probably the most compassion the plant appraiser in-training had felt all day, besides Norisuke’s. He barely even noticed as she nudged her son forward with her leg, earning a small grimace from the nautically-garbed teen.
“Thank you Mrs. Kira, I’m, uh… Trying to cope as best I can.” Rai managed to get out, his voice a bit more ragged than he would’ve liked when addressing an elder he found some respect for. Holly smiled more fully then. “Well, you just let old Norisuke know if you ever need us, we’re right over in the northwest end of Morioh. Or maybe you and Yoshikage can watch a movie together!” She said with satisfaction, much to the chagrin of her son. Rai and Kira didn’t know each other in the slightest, since Kira was two years younger than him, only sharing a gym class. He excelled during their swimming unit, but kept to himself otherwise. Anyone that had picked on him in the locker rooms stopped a few weeks in, probably because of his sour attitude, Rai recalled. He didn’t blame them; Yoshikage Kira had a prickly aura of unease about him that the older teen couldn’t quite place.
Before he got a chance to halfheartedly take her up on the offer, Holly was greeted with a warm bear hug from Norisuke, after she had hoisted Kei down onto the ground and held the little girl’s hand. They chatted about how each other were doing, with Rai only duly noting that Holly seemed to be some kind of medical doctor by their conversation. He hadn’t even realized he was left alone with just Kira until he turned to sit back down, the younger teen sprawled on the bench, reading some comic book, without a care in the world. Okay, maybe this Kira kid really is an asshole, Mamezuku thought to himself and groaned under his breath.
“Mom’s here for another reason, too. She’s been trying to find her boss for the last few days and heard he was attending the service. Our car broke down right after he left, looks like.” Yoshikage said nonchalantly, speaking with such a straightforward voice while flipping the pages of Shounen Jump with ease. “Man, Pink Dark Boy really is going downhill. Hope the author will fix the plot holes soon enough.”
Hearing him drop that curious information in the same breath as he talked about manga made Rai’s head hurt. “Her boss was here? Who’s that?” He asked, scooting closer to Kira to try and get a closer look. The younger teen’s face was still inscrutably calm, perhaps a bit annoyed for having his personal space invaded.
“Huh? Oh, Dr. Akefu from TG University Hospital. He hasn’t shown up to work since the landslide at your place, seems like.” Kira said plainly, licking his finger to flip to the next page.
Mamezuku’s heart sank. Why the hell would those two things have anything to do with each other? Why did he say since the landslide in particular, not just the date or a rough estimate? Panic rushed through the young man’s head, and he clenched his jaw impossibly tight. He felt the insidious nagging suspicions about the insects and asbestos brought forth for some unknown reason once again, and it made him feel sick to his stomach.
“What does that have to do with what happened to my father?” Rai asked, although it sounded more like a bark when it escaped his lips. Norisuke said not to push it, not to pursue it. Leave this issue to rest, it was a freak accident, it wasn’t anything else-
Kira fixed his eyes onto Rai with pinpoint precision, his sharp, features and dark brows molded into an expression of utmost seriousness. “They have nothing to do with each other. They’re just… coincidences.”
Yoshikage spoke, in a softer voice that read as a warning in hindsight. The sailor teen stood up then, closing his manga gracefully and heading towards his mother. Rai was still reeling, internally cursing himself about how he could possibly be that stupid. If not only Norisuke confirmed it was a freak accident, but someone as stoic as Kira, it… must have been true.
“But, Mamezuku…” Kira began, his back turned away from Rai, unwavering. Rai perked up, boring holes into the back of the younger teen’s head as he awaited the rest of his statement.
“If you come across… vermin again in your garden, you must get rid of them by any means necessary. Okay?” He turned, facing his senior with determination and resolve that was just as evident in his voice. The panic in Rai’s head dissipated, being replaced with a straightforward plan for next time. God forbid there was a next time.
He didn’t question how his classmate he barely knew could have read him so easily, as Rai watched Kira join back with Holly and Kei. He didn’t question why it was as if Kira knew something he didn’t about those insects, or the devastation they may or may not have been a part of reigning. While the Joestar-Kiras silently, politely left the wake, Mamezuku only stared off into space, not noticing the tip of his pinky finger unravel like wound-up thread with languid motion.