Time passed, and it was deep into the night after midnight on Sunday.
After waking up once along the way and then falling asleep again, Miyako carried Ruby in her arms and left the hospital room to go home and rest.
It was a VIP room for two, but it was still more cramped and inconvenient than home for young children to sleep in.
As Miyako opened the door, she said, "Then I’ll head out, Kaoru."
"Yes. Don’t worry. Aqua, take good care of Ruby."
"...Yes. And don’t worry about me, Dad. Please get some rest."
At Aqua’s smile, Kaoru smiled back and nodded.
At times like this, his son’s presence gave him great strength, and Kaoru felt both sorry and proud of the boy, who was still so young.
Seeing the strangely moving sight of father and son smiling in exactly the same way, Miyako soon pulled Ruby’s hood up to keep her warm and headed home.
About five minutes later, Rentarou opened the hospital room door and came in. Kaoru, who had been watching over her beside the child’s bed, stood from the chair to greet him.
"Brother."
"Kaoru."
Rentarou took off his coat and, with a grave expression, lowered his voice as if there were someone listening, speaking in a hurried whisper.
"Hah. Right now, the reporters are spreading rumors about your marriage and the twins. They asked sources at Sports Ichii and Weekly Shunsho Report. Weekly Shunsho Report already flew out from Haneda for Miyazaki Prefecture. They’ll definitely have a story out within the week. Damn it. Where the hell did they get their source...!"
"...."
"...What? You expected this?"
Seeing Kaoru’s calm expression, Rentarou swallowed a breath and asked.
Even after hearing that a notorious sports newspaper affiliated with one of Japan’s four major dailies, and a magazine house unrivaled in its reporting power and information network, had finally started moving, Kaoru remained composed.
His blue eyes stared out through the dark window and said, "The first articles will probably start appearing tomorrow. They’ll use words like suspicion and all sorts of other confusing language to fan the flames."
Turning back and sitting down beside the child’s bed again, Kaoru gently took her cold hand and said, "We have to get ahead of it first."
"...Ahead of what?"
Rentarou bit his lip and asked, letting out a rough breath. Kaoru turned to look at him and said, "There are things I’ve prepared for the future. They aren’t even finished yet, and I never thought I’d be using them now."
"..."
"We’ve already climbed onto the tiger’s back... so we have to make the other side ride it too."
He felt sorry for the child, but there was no time to ask for her permission or consent. But surely... surely his wife would trust him and nod.
Even if she was cut and clawed by pain and suffering, even if she fell, the child would surely agree with his thoughts and take his hand.
If it was going to be exposed anyway, then this was the moment to break through from a position where one had climbed onto a tiger’s back to one of unstoppable momentum.
"That’s... no. What on earth are you talking about, Kaoru?"
At Rentarou’s urging, Kaoru’s blue eyes flashed sharply as he said, "...There’s something I need you to do, Brother."
-
6:30 a.m. Early morning.
"Kaoru!?"
After a long sleep, the child woke up and, the moment she came to her senses, hurriedly sat up and called out her husband’s name.
For her, this hospital room was an unfamiliar place she was seeing for the first time since fainting, and before she fainted she had been so out of it, as if dreaming, that she couldn’t even tell whether her memory of meeting Kaoru was real or fake.
Not seeing Kaoru anywhere, the child’s starlight eyes trembled as she swung her bandaged foot down from the bed and tried to run out of the room.
"Hngh!"
Pain shot through her right hand from the IV needle, but the child gritted her teeth and forced herself upright.
Then—
"Ai!"
Hearing her voice, Kaoru came rushing out of the bathroom. He must have been washing up; he had taken off the top of his patient gown and hadn’t even had time to wipe the water from his face and bangs—
Rattle!
In his haste, he had even grabbed the IV stand with his left hand and brought it out with him as he ran to his wife. Sitting on the bed, Ai stared at her husband rushing toward her with trembling starlight eyes.
Relief flooded her so strongly that her heart shook. Ai brought a hand to the corners of her eyes, which were still puffy, and wiped away the tears welling up there.
"Hic—hngh—Kaoru—hngh—Kaoru is—hngh—alive—"
"I’m here, Ai. It’s okay now. Don’t worry. You’re safe."
Kaoru held his wife tightly as she trembled in shallow sobs, grateful that it hadn’t been a dream. The warmth of her body and the slight shaking of her shoulders came through clearly.
He awkwardly held her face away from his patient gown so her wet cheeks wouldn’t touch it, but Ai seemed not to care at all as she clung to him tightly and leaned into his arms.
"Hic—hngh! Kaoru! Don’t go anywhere, stay by my side. Don’t you dare go anywhere. Okay? Hm?"
"...Okay. Ai. I’m not going anywhere."
Kaoru let out a breath as he patted his wife’s back while she sobbed pitifully in his arms.
How many tears was he making his wife and daughter shed, anyway? As a husband and as a father, he really had no face to show.
Kaoru clicked his tongue bitterly and held his wife tighter to soothe her when—
Suddenly, there was a knock at the hospital room door.
Knock, knock, knock—rattle—
"Patient. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police... oh?!"
"...."
"Hic—sniff—"
The nurse who opened the door and came in froze in surprise. Her face turned bright red in an instant, and her eyes, clouded with embarrassment, had nowhere to go.
Unfortunately, Kaoru had also frozen like a statue the moment his eyes met the nurse’s while still holding Ai.
Ah.
It was one thing to be holding his crying wife, but he was also bare-chested from washing his face, so the whole scene looked a little...
No matter how you looked at it, he seemed like some thoughtless fool who had rushed to seduce his girlfriend and was caught in the act.
Seeing the nurse’s naked reaction right in front of him only made Kaoru feel more absurdly wronged.
He needed to say, just a moment— but the detectives’ brisk footsteps were even faster than his words.
"Yes. Mr. Kamiki. As we informed you, today’s questioning..."
"...."
"Sniff—"
The two detectives, both with short hairstyles and stern-looking faces, stopped short and froze in unison.
The younger detective in particular went bright red and immediately turned his head away.
Looking at the detectives, who were in suits but wearing comfortable shoes suitable for walking and running, Kaoru awkwardly kept holding his wife close and finally managed to speak.
"Could you give us a moment... yes. I’m sorry."
"Ah, yes, yes, yes. Oh, my, I’m sorry. Yes, yes. You’re in the middle of, yes, um, doing your best(?) right now. Yes! I’m sorry!"
The detectives quickly patted the nurse, who had completely lost her composure, and hurried her out of the room.
"Sniff—why?"
Ai, who had been crying so hard that she hadn’t noticed what was happening around her, lifted her tear-streaked starlight eyes and tilted her head at Kaoru, who for some reason had been burned white with embarrassment.
Kaoru gave her an awkward smile, gently wiped the corners of her eyes with his left thumb, and said in a bitter voice, "...Nothing."
. . .
After the commotion passed, the detectives from the Metropolitan Police came back into the room. The two sturdy men had already forgotten the earlier incident and returned to the thorough posture of proper detectives.
Kaoru, now properly dressed in his patient gown, took out the snack cookies Rentarou had bought and the bottled drinks from the hospital room refrigerator to offer them.
Ai also sat close beside Kaoru and sipped her bottled drink.
The investigation began with basic questions and continued in a question-and-answer format with Kaoru responding.
Since the victim of the sudden attack was clearly identified, the atmosphere remained calm.
"...So, you’re saying you had no prior acquaintance with the suspect. And no personal grudge, either."
"Yes. He was a complete stranger. I still don’t know why. He didn’t seem like just a stalker, but some kind of..."
The younger detective sitting beside him glanced at the senior detective.
Kaoru caught that small movement sharply.
The senior detective closed his mouth for a moment at the younger detective’s look, then let out a breath and scratched near his eyebrow with a hand before speaking carefully.
"This is still under investigation, but there was one more victim besides you, Mr. Kamiki."
"Hah."
Ai, startled, jerked her shoulders and sucked in a breath. Kaoru firmly held Ai’s hand with his unbandaged left hand to reassure her and said, "You mean..."
"Yes... Normally we wouldn’t mention something like this, but the case is so serious that..."
"It was also confirmed that the man living in the room next door was murdered with a bladed weapon the day before you were attacked, on Friday.
We’re currently assuming that the ‘kitchen knife with dried blood on it’ you mentioned may have been blood from the first victim.
Of course, the exact facts will have to wait until the forensic lab results come back."
"...."
"Why... why on earth would he do that? Kaoru—what did he do wrong? Why would they do this to an innocent man...?"
With clear anger and grief flickering in her starlight eyes, Ai asked the detectives in a cold voice.
It was a motive she desperately wanted to know. Why on earth had Kaoru become the target of such a terrifying person?
The sorrow and rage of a child who had nearly lost the person she loved were beyond words, and the wound in her heart would surely remain as a scar no matter how much time passed.
Feeling the many emotions contained in the trembling hand he held, Kaoru quietly looked at the detectives and urged them to continue.
"We’re still investigating. However, the suspect is in a highly unstable mental state, so a psychiatric evaluation will be conducted. We also searched the home and secured the computer and phone for forensic analysis, and..."
The senior detective paused, pressed his lips together, then finally spoke with difficulty.
"Um... we found a large number of Word files containing photos and videos of you, Mr. Kamiki, as well as a great many ‘stories’ written about you. Our current guess is that this may be some kind of mental disorder or delusional disorder... for now, that’s the conclusion we’ve reached. But the psychiatric evaluation hasn’t been completed yet, so nothing is confirmed. It’s only a guess at this stage."
"...."
"...."
Ai closed her eyes and exhaled as steadily as she could, forcing her rough breathing into order. Tears slipped from between her closed lashes.
Her trembling breaths echoed through the silent hospital room.
Worried that Ai was growing more and more anxious, Kaoru asked the detectives whether there was anything else he needed to ask.
The detectives replied that the necessary questioning was finished for now, though further questioning could be conducted if needed.
Because the case had drawn the attention of the media and the entire nation, the detectives were clearly on edge, though they did not show it openly.
The internal situation at the Metropolitan Police was probably no different.
After leaving behind words wishing him a speedy recovery, the detectives left the room.
"...."
Kaoru sat quietly beside Ai, who had collapsed onto the bed and was wiping away tears with tissue, still unable to shake off her anger and shock.
Ai’s starlight eyes had already lost their brightness and now glowed with a dark, black light.
"I’ve never hated someone this much before. I’ve never wanted to hate someone to death like this before, so I don’t even know what I should do."
"...."
"I want to do the same thing to the person who hurt Kaoru— I want to do the same thing to them, and I’ve never been this angry before, so I don’t know whether I should cry, comfort Kaoru, or just act like nothing happened and keep living like usual— I don’t know what to do. Kaoru. How am I supposed to— my heart, hngh—hic!"
"Ai."
"Huuuuuh—hngh—how could they do that!!! How could they... to precious Kaoru... hic—how could they!!!!"
In the end, Ai’s long-suppressed emotions burst out, and she covered her face and wailed. Kaoru held her tightly and soothed her with a quiet whisper by her ear.
"It’s okay. Everything’s okay. Nothing changes the fact that I’m by your side. You don’t need to hurt this much."
"Hic-hic—hngh! Aaaah—kgh—uhh—!"
As he comforted Ai while she cried her heart out for a long time, Kaoru quietly added one more item to his future [plan].
If he said it out loud, the detectives who had just left would surely come back with handcuffs in hand to find him.
"...."
But that didn’t matter at all.
-
12:00 p.m.
By lunchtime, the internet was still blazing hot and showing no sign of cooling down.
Not just the major news portals, but every corner of the web—communities, cafés, blogs, everywhere—was buzzing with talk of Kaoru and Ai’s romance scandal.
- Idiots, lol. You were all chasing idol panties and now look at you, serves you right~
- My brother threw away his [B Komachi] album and poster in a trash bag, then regretted it and went back to get them lololol. I’m dying laughing.
- Seriously, my sister’s been crying nonstop since yesterday. What do I do? She’s a total hardcore fan who bought Kaoru’s photobook, drama DVDs, and watched the movie multiple times.
- Damn it, can’t someone come visit me if I get rushed to the emergency room too?
- To all the [B Komachi] fans who went to the concert~ If you email us your seat reservation number and bank account number, we’ll refund 50%~
- This is so shocking... damn... I can’t focus on anything... I never imagined Ai would stab us in the back like this.
- ㄴ What about Kaoru? He quit because of a scandal with Ai and started whining about privacy, didn’t he? He’s worse.
- ㄴ No way~ you idiot idol otaku. Your singer was the one who made the first move.
- The scene where Kamiki got attacked with a bladed weapon was insane... and the suspect’s photo showed some pig of a guy lol. How did he even survive that?
- Seeing the image of Ai running there barefoot makes me tear up. Isn’t that real love?
- ㄴ Real love is what your mom gives you, idiot
- ㄴ Eat shit
- The emergency room photo did make me tear up a little.
- I get how the fans feel, but honestly, isn’t this amazing? How can someone love like that???
And then time passed, and at 12:30 p.m., a shocking exclusive article was published on the website of a sports newspaper affiliated with a mid-sized media company.
< [Exclusive] Kamiki Kaoru ♥ Ai officially registered their marriage one year ago... twins confirmed under the couple’s care >
〔According to anonymous sources who contacted this paper, Kamiki Kaoru and Ai completed their marriage registration one year ago... and we have obtained information that they gave birth to twins at a general hospital in Miyazaki Prefecture four years ago... (omitted)... We have secured the hospitalization and medical records from that time, when they were admitted under aliases, and the twins’ birth registration as well... (omitted)... Many hospital staff also remember the young couple’s affectionate and harmonious appearance... (omitted)... A lawsuit to confirm the existence of a biological parent-child relationship is currently underway, and a move in the family register is expected to become possible soon.〕
With such an enormous article, the website shut down from traffic overload within two minutes.
At last, the situation had entered a new phase.
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