PRESENT DAY,
APRIL 6, 2005.
"—arriving at Hanasakura Station. Hanasakura Station is next. Please take all belongings with you—"
The automated announcement pulled Ren back from the memory like a hand yanking him out of deep water.
He gasped, his hand going to his chest where his heart was hammering against his ribs.
The train car came back into focus, still with the same scratched windows, with the same flickering lights. Still moving forward.
Ren wiped his face quickly with his sleeve, checking to make sure no other passengers had noticed him sweating. But no one had. Just the half-asleep salaryman three rows up and the old woman with shopping bags near the door.
"Three weeks. " Ren thought. "It's been three weeks."
"He's still in that bed."
"Still not waking up."
Ren took a huge breath of air and forced the bad memories down, shoving them back into the box where they belonged. He couldn't afford to fall apart. Not now. Not when he finally had a lead to follow.
The train slowed.
"—arriving at Hanasakura Station. Please watch your step as you exit."
The brakes squealed. The car shuddered to a stop.
"Please stand clear of the closing doors."
The doors slid open with a pneumatic hiss.
Cool morning air rushed in, carrying the scent of cherry blossoms and fresh bread from somewhere nearby. Sunlight, actual sunlight flooded through the doorway after the darkness of the tunnel.
"Get a hold of yourself. " Ren told himself. "You can't afford to spiral."
"You have a school to get to."
"A person to find."
He stood on numb legs, shouldering his backpack. Other passengers filed past him—businessmen, students, elderly women with shopping bags.
Normal people living normal lives, unaware that the scrawny teenager in the corner had just relived his worst nightmare.
He stepped onto the platform and turned toward the exit.
He stepped onto the platform.
And the first thing that hit him was the light.
The brilliant, overwhelming light of Hanasakura District.
Ren squinted hard as he climbed the stairs to street level, one hand shielding his eyes, the other gripping his bag. When his vision finally adjusted, he stopped dead.
For a full ten seconds, his brain refused to catch up.
"H...holy shit." He let out filled with full of amazement.
Hanasakura District spread out before him like something straight out of a postcard. The main street was very wide and lined accurately with massive sakura trees on both sides of the streets, their branches mixed with colours of pink and white and the occasional yellow and green flowers.
The petals danced graciously through the air looking like snow and when they lost the little energy they had they fell and covered the sidewalks before being stepped on by the feet of passing pedestrians.
Traditional storefronts lined beside the shops, there were cafes and boutiques. He passed through a café where students gathered around outdoor tables, sharing breakfast and gossip. A bakery pumping warm air and the smell of fresh pastries onto the sidewalk. A bookstore with manga volumes displayed in the window.
Red paper lanterns hung from eaves, dancing gently in the morning breeze. And everywhere, everywhere, was cherry blossoma.
It was so beautiful.
Impossibly, heartbreakingly beautiful.
It was like something straight out of an animanga!
Another thing that caught his eyes was the sheer number of students around. Sakura High was the only highschool in the district, the closest being Hanami Academy in the next district.
The students always moved in groups of about 3 to 5 each. Girls with sailor-style uniforms sporting their red ribbons and the boys like him in traditional gakuran jackets. Some rode bicycles passing through the foot traffic with practiced ease and worries. The Others walked slowly, clearly in no rush to make it to the school.
Everyone looked so... normal. So happy. Like they didn't have brothers in comas. Like they weren't carrying bloodstained papers in their pockets.
It was just Ren who had those problems.
"So this is where Kaito wanted me to go. " Ren thought but that thought came with a memory of Kaito.
It was six months ago in their apartment when Kaito last came to visit. Kaito was grinning happily as he showed Ren a brochure for Sakura High.
"It's the most beautiful place in all of Japan. " He had declared, triumphantly.
"No it's not. " Ren rejected, his hyperbolic claim.
"When you go there one day, you won't say such things again. " Kaito vowed.
Kaito was right and Ren now had come back to eat his own words now at this mesmerising sight.
"It's a good school, Ren. Good sports.. Great academics, nice area. You should apply for the New session. " Kaito recommended, shaking his head.
Ren objected almost immediately. "Why? My school's highschool is just fine.
"And all my friends from middle school are going there too. " Ren added. "I can't be the only one who isn't. "
"Just trust me, okay? Trust your big bro a hundred and ten percent. I think you'll love it there. " Kaito pestered, his eyes turning into puppy dog eyes.
"I'm here now brother just like you wanted." Ren thought, bitterly. "Now tell me why. "
Ren made sure to keep his head down when he walked, his hands in his pockets, one of them rubbing against the edge of the bloodstained paper.
He could feel eyes on him, the curious stares from students and shop owners who knew everyone in their tight-knit community and immediately spotted the outsider he was.
A group of girls walked past him whispering and giggling the moment they noticed him.
"Is he new? " One of the girls inquired.
"Must be. Never seen him before. " Another answered.
"He's kind of cute tho. " The last teased. "but in a brooding way... "
More giggles soon followed and then by a hushed speculation he couldn't quite make out what they said before they went out of sight.
Ren ignored them he was always good at that and just kept his eyes forward.
"Stay invisible."
"Find Hasegawa. Get answers."
"Don't get involved in anything else more."
Simple..
Simple plan.
He should've known them that nothing about this would be that simple.
After the girls were out of sight, Ren checked his map again and this time it read that Sakura Highschool was only a further ten-minute walk from where he was. He just had to continue walking straight down the main street he was on and then take a left at the park.
A bicycle bell rang out sharply behind him, and Ren stepped aside on instinct as two students on bikes zoomed past, laughing about something. They wore the same black gakuran as him, Sakura High uniforms he deduced. One of them called out a greeting to another group across the street.
Ren clenched his jaw.
He hated that it.. hated that the world kept turning like nothing had happened. That people could laugh and smile while his brother lay dying.
He checked his phone for the time. It was 8:22 am now, only eight minutes more until the ceremony started. He was close now just needed to reach the park, then turn left, and the school would be right there.
Almost there, Kaito.
Almost there.
At Sakura High.
Were Hasegawa Fujimoto was.
Were the truth was.
Whatever that meant.
Ren heard a bell chime in the distance. The school bell probably. He was on the right path. Students around him broke into jogs, not wanting to be late.
"First day of the rest of your life," Ren muttered to himself. "Let's see what you got me into, big brother."
He started walking faster, following the flow of the running students towards the school.
And when Ren rounded the final corner and saw Sakura High School for the first time in daylight, the words died in his throat.