Hanasakura District Streets — 5:52 PM.
The walk home felt longer than usual today.
Ren moved through the almost familiar streets that suddenly felt foreign to him. The evening crowds flowed around him— different types of people heading home from work, students spilling out of cram schools, families debating their dinner plans.
Normal lives. Normal concerns.
Ren passed Kissaten Sakura and stopped.
The café was closed. Yellow caution tape still stretched across the entrance, a harsh slash of color against the storefront. A sign on the window front read "CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. "
Ren circled around to the back alley.
The scene had been cleaned with the motorcycles gone, debris all cleared up but the past lingered if you knew just where to look. Dark stains marred the pavement, blood that rain and scrubbing had not erased yet.
His blood. Aoi's blood. Fourteen bikers' worth of violence.
"This is what this life costs. " He thought. "Blood. Pain. Fear. "
