After the CCTV footage of Kaoru subduing the culprit was released, public opinion exploded again.
Unlike his usual soft, almost pretty image, which made him seem far removed from anything involving brute force, the revelation of his unbelievable martial skill and the sheer strength that had let him throw a 100-kilogram man over his shoulder left most people stunned.
"Kaiki’s assassin is so scary I can’t even leave a comment."
"If he ever holds a signing event, we might have to wear medieval plate armor."
"Where did you learn martial arts???"
"I showed this to my grandfather, who’s been running a karate dojo for forty years. Mr. Kamiki, have you ever considered becoming a dojo master? Grandpa said he’d be all for it."
"It’s a secret technique from the Kamiki school."
"No, isn’t it the Kaisei school?"
"It’s the student council president school."
"Isn’t that martial art just the 'Nen' from HxH?"
"Up until the shoulder throw, it was definitely Krav Maga, and I could also see some Kali-style techniques."
"What kind of alien martial art is that?"
"If I ever meet him on the street, I’ll apologize. I’ll apologize first at the signing event too."
"Ghibli would love this. Even pigs can fly without airplanes, lol."
"If he teaches it to the kid too, that’ll be the strongest couple ever."
"That was really close... T.T"
Even Miyako, who had come back to the hospital room with the twins after calling in their kindergarten absence first thing in the morning, could only stare at the video in disbelief.
The twins were still too young to watch it "officially," but after sneaking glances at the scene of their father restraining the culprit, the little siblings broke out in a cold sweat and thought the same thing at once.
"Eek—so scary!!! Is that real?! Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely...!"
"I wasn’t thinking about it anyway, but maybe I should never even dream of a rebellious phase..."
Ruby had seen action movies over the course of sixteen years of life—twelve in her previous life, four in this one—but this was the first time she had ever seen someone practically turned into a half-invalid.
Aqua judged that, thanks to Kaoru’s attack, the culprit would likely be left with permanent disability at least in his wrist and jaw joint.
Gulping dryly, the twins quickly resolved to be good children and to treat their father with proper, respectful manners.
"...This level is fine."
"Yeah. I’ll post it."
After spending time with the twins and making up her mind, Ai consulted Miyako and then posted a tweet on her official Twitter account.
It was the usual sort of message: that her condition was fine, that she was sorry for causing worry and concern over various matters, and that she would be back in good health soon. Even so, the reaction from fans and the public remained intense.
As with Kaoru, some hardline core fans protested the concert cancellation and demanded accountability from her as a member of [B Komachi], but fortunately they were only a small minority, swept away by the flood of supportive messages wishing her a speedy recovery.
Ai was relieved to find that, thankfully, there were still no malicious comments aimed at the twins. She could endure insults directed at herself and her husband, even if it hurt, but not a single word aimed at the twins was something she would ever allow.
With her heart still uneasy as she scrolled through the tweets, Ai turned off the screen and held Aqua and Ruby tightly in her arms.
By lunchtime, a visitor came to the hospital room.
It was Tomoya Kitagawa, Kaoru’s classmate from the same department. Arriving with flashy dyed hair, piercings, and a sharp winter outfit, Tomoya straightened his glasses and bowed politely to Ai and Miyako.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Kitagawa Tomoya, Kaoru’s high school classmate and a fellow student in the same department."
"Hehe. I’m Saito Miyako."
"Ah, yes! Nice to meet you too! I’m Hoshino Ai! Kitagawa-san!"
Tomoya took Ai’s slip-up in calling his surname "Kitagawa" and let it slide with cool composure.
So the famous idol he had only ever seen on TV was his friend’s wife. And not only that—he’d been living with her in secret for over four years.
Tomoya looked back and forth between his friend and his friend’s wife with a strange expression.
Kaoru scratched his head with his left hand, then glanced at the twins, who were looking at their friend with curious, wary eyes, and said,
"Would it kill you to take out the piercings or something?"
That’s bad for the kids’ emotional development. At Kaoru’s quiet complaint, Tomoya gave a rotten little grin and shot back,
"Nah. Once the flesh grows back, I’ll just pierce it again."
"..."
Ignoring Kaoru’s deadpan stare, Tomoya politely handed Miyako the paper bag he was carrying, which contained a set of expensive traditional sweets.
Approaching the bedside rail, Tomoya looked at Kaoru’s bandaged right hand and chuckled.
"That guy Shohei was pretty upset you didn’t come to their hospital. He kept calling you a total 'Todai' bastard from the marrow of his bones."
"...This was the closest place."
"Fair enough. When are you getting discharged?"
"Tomorrow or the day after. I’m recovering faster than expected, so I’ll be out soon."
"You really were born with a body built for it."
Tomoya habitually reached into his jacket as if to touch a cigarette pack, then noticed the twins staring at him and coughed awkwardly.
He hadn’t expected to meet the very people everyone in Japan was supposedly talking about right now.
Tomoya pointed at the two pretty, adorable twins who looked so much like Kaoru and Ai.
"The older one is Ruby?"
"Aqua. He’s the boy. The younger one is our daughter, Ruby. Aqua, Ruby. This is your dad’s school friend, 'Uncle Tomoya.' Say hello."
"..."
"Hello. I’m Ruby!"
"Hello. I’m Aquamarine."
Uncle? Tomoya’s face twisted as if he’d bitten into something foul, but Ruby greeted him in a sweet, cute voice full of charm, and then the taciturn Aqua followed with his own greeting.
Tomoya waved back cheerfully, then said he was off, claiming he was getting the urge to smoke, and left the room.
Kaoru already knew he had only come to see their faces, so he let him go without fuss.
Watching the two of them part so casually after less than five minutes of meeting, Ai and Miyako immediately covered their mouths and slipped into whisper mode.
"...Do boys these days all act like that?"
"Right? Maybe they actually don’t get along?"
"Yeah, they look so cold."
"I think Kitagawa-san knows Kaoru is a 'Baka-Oru' too!"
"Heh-heh-heh! Ai, he’s your husband, you know?"
"Doesn’t matter! I already knew he was a 'Baka-Oru'!"
Watching his mother-in-law and wife giggling and whispering, Kaoru pressed his temple and gave a dry laugh.
-
Two days later, on Wednesday morning.
Kaoru and Ai were discharged together. Somehow the information had leaked, because reporters had already swarmed the hospital and set up around the building from early morning.
But as a joint effort by Rentaro and Ichigo, they used two vans to move at once and fooled the reporters. Expecting Kaoru and Ai to split up and ride in separate vans, the reporters could only watch helplessly as the vans disappeared, leaving them behind like a dog chasing a chicken and staring at the roof.
After receiving a statement from the heads of both agencies that a press conference would be held the following Monday for the sake of their talent’s smooth recovery, the reporters had no choice but to withdraw, swallowing their disappointment.
Since they had immediately decided to move in together, Kaoru headed not to the mansion he had been living in, but to Ai’s mansion in Minato Ward.
The twins had also stopped going to kindergarten because of everything that had happened, and were staying home with Miyako. As soon as Kaoru and Ai opened the front door side by side and stepped inside, the twins ran toward them at top speed and threw themselves into their arms.
"Papa!!!"
"Mama!!!"
Kaoru and Ai hugged the twins together and smiled happily.
At last, as a family—
Not living separately or hiding from the world, but all four of them together. As a family.
With the joy and happiness of finally living under the same roof.
"..."
Moved by the pain and sorrow of all that had come before, Ai quietly welled up with tears, then hugged Kaoru, Aqua, and Ruby tightly and smiled.
There had been so many things, so much pain and sorrow, but they had made it here safely. All those memories flashed through Ai’s mind.
At last, for her too... this was the moment a true place of rest was born.
After arriving home and unpacking, Kaoru made calls through the contacts he had memorized using his newly activated work iPhone.
He called his friends, people from the film and drama industry, and even Gotanda and Toshiro directly.
He also called the director of the film he was currently shooting, [Wolf Tail]. The man was extremely apologetic and kept saying sorry over and over because Kaoru’s call had nearly caused a disaster, and Kaoru had to reassure him that it was fine.
Producer Sojiro still wasn’t reachable. He had said he was traveling from the Mediterranean to the coast of East Africa... but Kaoru judged that he should still be fine, and moved on to the rest of the people.
"Yeah. Things should be calm now. Take good care of Ai. I was shocked when I saw the ER photo."
"And there was the matter with Hikaru too. Haah. I was really worried.... How is your wife?"
Both Gotanda and Toshiro brought up Ai at the end of their calls, and Kaoru told them that she was recovering well and doing fine.
Toshiro, in particular, seemed to have seen Aqua and Ruby on YouTube, because he kept bringing up the twins until the call ended.
Kaoru promised Toshiro they would have dinner together soon, then hung up.
After briefly drinking some water because his throat was dry, he went into the master bedroom and found Ai on the phone with Producer Kaburagi Masaya.
"Yes, I’m fine, Producer. Please don’t worry too much."
Since Kaburagi had always taken good care of Ai, he seemed to have been very shocked by this incident. Ai smiled, winked at Kaoru with one eye, then pointed at her phone and twitched her eyebrows.
It was a sign asking whether he wanted to talk. Kaoru nodded and held out his hand. After a long-awaited call with Producer Kaburagi, Kaoru ended by saying that he would appear on the program sometime later when he had time.
Kaoru handed the phone back to Ai. Ai took it and stared at the contact name "Takamine" for a moment, her fingers fidgeting with uncertainty.
Not missing that, Kaoru smiled as if he knew nothing and gently brushed the long violet hair that flowed like curtains around his wife’s eyes back into place.
"What is it?"
At Kaoru’s question, Ai gave an awkward, embarrassed laugh and stuck out her tongue a little before shrugging. Even while worried and anxious, she seemed to be trying not to burden Kaoru with it, acting like she was fine.
"...Hehe. Yeah... actually, I need to call the members... but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do? I’m worried they won’t answer, or that even if they do, they’ll say something awful..."
"Ai."
Kaoru pulled the worried Ai into a tight embrace and patted her back. His eyes stung. He had seen her true feelings right beside him all this time, so he understood better than anyone what she must be feeling.
She had worked tirelessly, despite her shortcomings, to become closer to the members. She had miraculously reconciled with the founding members, Takamine and Nino, and grown close to them again, but because of this incident Ai was hesitating and afraid that their relationship would return to how it had been before—or even end up worse than before.
Kaoru kissed Ai on the cheek and spoke in a quiet voice, empathizing with her unease.
"They might be angry and disappointed. If you think about it the other way around, that would make sense, wouldn’t it?"
"...Yeah. Heheh—yeah..."
Thinking it over from the other side, Ai let out a dry laugh and agreed. Even looking back on it herself, it had been a series of things that were truly hard to accept.
Kaoru nodded, answering her smile, and said,
"Still, more than anything else, I think the biggest question would be 'Why?' Takamine-san and Nino-san would probably feel the same. They’d have so many things they want to ask 'us.' They’d be angry and hurt, but they’d want to hear the reason. Whether they want an apology or an explanation... in the end, wouldn’t an honest answer matter most?"
"...You think so?"
"If it were me, that’s how I’d feel. Not that I’d hate you because I truly hated you... I guess, hmm... it would be more like, 'You should have told me too...'"
Kaoru spoke in a calm voice, recalling the reactions, feelings, and emotions of Rentaro, Toshiro, and Gotanda when he had confessed the fact that he was married to Ai and had twins with her.
Why had he hidden it? They weren’t fools; they knew he hadn’t hidden it out of malicious intent.
They accepted his explanation in their own way, along with his apology that he had been forced into it by unavoidable circumstances and was sorry he hadn’t been able to tell them in advance.
But all of them had shared the same regret: "If you’d told us, we would have understood and helped." They had comforted Kaoru with those words.
Given the special nature of an idol’s job, and the fact that the concert had suddenly been interrupted because she had left the stage, there would definitely be members who were angry and unable to hide their hurt toward Ai.
Kaoru cautiously predicted that there might even be members who, despite Ai’s sincere apology and explanation, would never be able to change their minds. If that happened, he would have to step in.
In any case, for Takamine and Nino—who had recovered their relationship after learning Ai’s true feelings—it was right to take the first step, brace themselves against their anxiety and guilt, and apologize first.
Kaoru was gently stroking his wife’s hair, having finished sorting out his thoughts and just about to speak, when Ai got there one step ahead and said what she had been holding back.
"...The press conference is next Monday, right?"
"Yeah. The two of them said that was the best time."
"Before that... at least, I want to meet Takamine and Nino and beg for their forgiveness. It would be great to talk to all the members, but, yeah... for now, I’m going to call them!"
Having made up her mind, Ai took a determined breath, slipped out of Kaoru’s arms, and picked up her phone.
Within her starlit eyes, hesitation, anxiety, tension, and reluctance all churned together in a complex storm of emotion.
Deciding to call Takamine first, Ai smiled brightly at her husband and said,
"I’ll do it!"
She called Takamine, the ringing went through... but no one answered.
Ai quickly grew dejected and stared at her phone with a darkened face. So it really would be hard to be forgiven. Disappointed and sad, but accepting reality with composure, she forced a smile and said to Kaoru,
"...Nino isn’t answering eit—"
♬♪
"Eek?!"
"!"
Kaoru, who had been worrying inwardly, was startled too, though not as much as Ai, and looked at the phone.
The name on the screen was "Takamine☆."
So shocked that her hands began to tremble, Ai didn’t know what to do for a moment, then quickly took a deep breath and answered.
"H-hello! Takamine?"
Ai spoke cautiously, her voice shaking with tension. She focused on the phone.
Then Takamine’s voice came through, and Ai’s starlit eyes quivered.
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