The Medium (Chapter 1/4)
Title: The Medium
Rating: G (For this chapter)
Genre: AU, friendship, horror, angst
Characters: Sakurai, Aiba
Disclaimer: Slightly inspired from Fatal Frame.
Summary: 10 years ago Sho was saved from a haunted spirit by the town's medium, Aiba. The two of them become best-friends-forever and always stick to each other after that until one day Sho was forced to stop from seeing his only friend. What Sho doesn't expect though is to find out that he might lose Aiba in the most saddening way. Now it's all up to him to let the Final Ritual to be performed, or save Aiba and drag their town into its calamity.
Warning: Supernatural stuff and mentioned of human sacrifice.
Chapter 1
The 7 years old Sho Sakurai wailed until the top of his lungs while moving further inside his wardrobe. He curled up as he hid his face on his knees, screaming to be left alone again and again to ‘the thing’ which was now standing on the doorstep of his bedroom. No matter what his parents said to calm him down from outside of his hiding place he just kept on crying in terrified until his voice hoarse. The pale, slim figure with a long rope hung around its bruises neck unfortunately ignored his pleads and just came closer while moaning eerily. Sho hid his head with his tiny hands at this before felt a hand suddenly touched his shaking knee. Panic, he jerked it away and looked up to find a boy around his age was kneeling in front of him. The boy later helped to wipe away his streaming tears as he beamed him his brightest smile.
“It’s okay. I’m here to help you.”
10 years later
A light cold breeze blows straight to a small town at the southern area of Japan. Whistling, Sho rides his bicycle back to his home after a long day at school. The day is again dull and boring which just boost his desire more to further his study at the medical university once he graduates from his high school next year, which unfortunately is heavily opposed by his conservative father. It is not like he hates his hometown, but he craves to see the ‘outside world’ unlike most of people there who can always easily feel satisfied with their current life. As long as those people can eat, drink, and have job nothing else matter anymore. Even most of his classmates have no interest to further their study and will either choose to inherit their family’s business or working at the farm. Some of the girls as well decide to get married early since they believe that they will end up being a housewife at the end of the day anyway though their talent and intelligence certainly can give more benefits to a lot of people if it is used to the right direction in Sho’s opinion. It both saddening and sickening him by just thinking how narrow minded these people can be due to their ignorance and fear of changes sometimes.
Though, as irony as it sounds, his parents are actually is a part of those people too. The main reason why his father refuses his idea to become a doctor is because he is their only child and the sole inheritor of the shop that was built from scratch by their ancestor. Sho wouldn’t think the shop will make any difference to the town even if it close, but since the Sakurai family really proud of it due to the reason it is one of the few shops that survive the terrible renaissance decades ago, he has no choice but to live up to his parents’ expectations. Not to forget that because of the shop as well they are so well-respected in the town and Sho himself never experience a hard life.
Soon Sho eventually stops at a dessert shop. After buying two packets of strawberry Daifuku, he continues his ride to the Aiba household which is just 5 minutes away. He only stops cycling when realizes there is an unknown black car at the house yard and decide to push his bicycle instead so he won’t create any noises that will disturb the ritual which is currently being performed in the house. Some audible prayers chanting can be heard coming from inside as he knocks lightly the front door.
“Hold on please-” Soft yet hurry footsteps come closer from the other side before the door is slightly being opened by a lady on her 40s. She widens her eyes when find out who the visitor is before turning to his husband inside while whispering ‘Sho-kun’ as low as she can.
“Here, this is for Masaki.”
Sho smilingly offers the plastic bag of Daifuku he is holding once Masaki’s mother finally looks at him again. The lady bites her lower lip at this action, but takes it from him nevertheless. It is obvious that she already gave up from persuading Sho to not come over anymore even though she never let him to see Masaki since 6 months ago. At the same time, seeing that there is a space over the mother’s shoulder, Sho takes that opportunity to take a glimpse of his friend inside. His bright expression however drops when see Masaki is sitting emptily at the center of the room while being surrounded by a group of chanting priests, the latter’s body is getting skinnier that the last time he sees him.
“You better go home now, Sho-kun. It’s getting late.”
Without letting Sho to say anything further, the lady quickly closes the door. Sho who at first is dumbfounded by the treatment only can sigh in disappointment before getting on his bicycle. He still can’t help from feeling worried with his friend’s condition but as much as he wants to peek inside the house to see what is going on there, he is still scared with anything that related to ghost or spirit. His childhood memory when he was pestered by a suicide spirit still traumatizes him until this very second. Having no other option, he heavy heartedly forces himself to leave the house yard. However, instead of going straight to his home, he stops at a wide grass field and walks to one particular area after leaving his bicycle on the roadside. For a while the senior of the high school student just enjoys the breathtaking view in front of him silently. Later he decides to lie down on the soft grass under him, his hands fold neatly behind his head as he drowns himself in his own swirling memory.
“Hey! You’re too fast!”
Sho laughed by the giggling shout behind him as he slowed down his ride. Yet once Masaki finally could catch him up, it was his turn to scream when his cheerful friend increased his speed on purpose to defeat him. Their finish line will always be the green field next to the roadside where they often hang out for a while after the school session over before they parted to their home.
“That’s unfair! I was waiting for you!” Though complaining that, Sho still laughed while settling himself next to Masaki on the grass. Masaki on the other hand just exploded with his trademark breathy laugh as he tried to catch his breath after their race from their favorite dessert shop.
This made Sho can’t help but staring worriedly at the latter. The distance between the two places are not too far from each other after all. He also had never seen Masaki through any difficulty in breathing even if they had competed to any further places than there before.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You already asked the same question three times today.”
Sho sighed. How come he won’t if not because of the reason that his friend just come to school today after 3 days of being unconscious? He knows that Masaki’s body usually needs a much longer time than that to recover after each completed ritual.
“Then you should eat more. You’re getting skinnier.”
Masaki giggled and thanked him as he passed him a packet of strawberry Daifuku. Instead of eating his immediately, Sho on the other hand just watched silently his friend who was munching happily the food.
“If you are so worried about me you should come to see the ritual yourself sometimes.”
This made Sho chuckled, well-aware that Masaki just kidding about it. That best friend of his after all was the one who understood the most about his fear toward scary things.
However as much as he hated those things, he had to admit that thanks to it as well he got to meet Masaki 10 years ago. The two of them have been the best buddy forever after Masaki saved him from a suicidal spirit that started to follow him when he stubbornly entered a mysterious forest despite his parents’ warning. If not because he had seen Masaki’s ability with his own two eyes at that time, he probably will also never thought that a bright smiley little boy he met was actually a Medium.
Medium is a name given to the person who can retain spirit in his or her body. Every time there is a spirit or ghost that the town needs to get rid of, the Medium will be used to keep the spirit from endangering other people while the priests will exorcist it by performing a ritual. During the meantime the Medium will have to let their body to be possessed by the spirit and can only use their strong will to avoid the spirit from either escape or taking over his or her body since the Medium will lose conscious until the ritual fully succeeded. Sho though will never bother to learn that much about this Medium stuffs if not because he had seen how bad the possession’s post-effects were to his friend several times. Sudden lost consciousness and depress a few days after each ritual is normal. Heck, he even once had to watch Masaki immobilized on bed and can’t do much aside of sleeping and blinking. He had never been so afraid to lose his only friend like that time until he insisted to sleep over for almost a week just to help to take care of Masaki. He cried silently every time he saw his friend vomiting blood or shrieking in pain at night due to chest and backbone pain after constraining 5 strong unrested spirits at the same time. Of course Sho will be more than glad if Masaki quits from taking the ‘living exorcist tool’ role after witnessing that, but his friend’s ability was too crucial that sometimes it can determine the life of an entire family. Even his life once was saved by the same ability.
“Did you bring the book with you?”
Sho immediately woke up from his thought. This was when he finally realized that Masaki had finished his Daifuku and was now gulping his water. Sho hastily rummaged inside his bag for a while before taking out a thick medical book that he had borrowed from the library. It instantly gained a curious look from Masaki who took it without taking off his amazed stare from him.
“Can you understand everything in this book?”
“Not everything actually, but I can say about 60%. I can always search in the dictionary, internet, or ask the school teacher if I don’t get something anyway.”
He just smiled when Masaki nodded in awe. The cheerful guy after that just continued to flip some of the book pages, sometimes stopping on anything that managed to get his attention until Sho suddenly spoke.
“When I become a doctor one day, I will make sure to treat you properly after the ritual. You don’t have to be worried anymore about your health.”
“I thought you want to work in Tokyo?”
Sho just shook his head smilingly. This reaction made his friend can’t help but frown confusedly.
“I do want to travel outside here. I want to see other places and visit anywhere that I have never been before. But I never have a thought to live in Tokyo. I’m more worried with your state now since the doctor here takes their responsibility too lightly to my liking.”
“But…there’s no need to force yourself for me, you know? I’ll be fine. I have been a Medium since I was small, so I’m already used to this.”
“Well, just like yours, it’s my dream to save people too. So you can say that you are one of future my patients. Maybe our treatment method is different, but the mission is still same, right?”
He smiled, which responded by Masaki with a wide one. He could never convey that after seeing how hard his friend work to save a lot of life and spirits, it somehow inspired him to work hard as well to be a good doctor since he was still small.
“You know, in Tokyo they have a lot of futuristic equipment for surgery. And the city is big too!”
As he started to talk excitedly, he unconsciously stood up. Masaki who recognized his sparkling eyes just chuckled in amused and listened to it attentively. To be honest the cheerful teenager actually had listen to Sho’s story about several places outside like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hokkaido, and countless more for so many times already, but he never get bored of it since he himself was curious about the ‘outside world’ of their town. After all unlike Sho who had his chances to follow his father when doing some dealing outside, Masaki unfortunately can’t leave the town due to his responsibility as a Medium.
For the entire time after that the two best friends just talked about everything they wanted to try together once they arrived at Tokyo. Only when the sun finally set on the horizon they finally bid goodnight to each other and departed to their own way.
Sighing by the memory, Sho sits up and stares blankly at the darkening view in front of him. He always misses the time he spends with Masaki so much until he visits the other one at home almost every day after school since the day Masaki’s parents decided to drop out their son so the latter can focus on his responsibility as a Medium solely, much to Sho dismay. The two of them however still can hang out together until 6 months ago when Masaki’s mother suddenly told him to stop from seeing Masaki again. The number of people who start to seek help from the Aiba family also suddenly increase from that time and even Sho notices how every single day he comes there only to find a different car at the house yard, indicating that different client is dropping by on that day. Though he is completely worried about Masaki’s condition, he knows that there is nothing he could do about it. The best thing he only can come up with is to pray for his best friend’s safety, hoping that one day Masaki will be able to break through the life he is living now for a better and happier one.
XXX
A few days later Sho is riding back to home nearly dinner time after helping his teacher to finish some paperwork regarding the final year students’ vacation. Though he already planned earlier to visit Masaki again on that day, he decides to go straight home instead considering how dark it already is and how improper it will be to intrude the family at this hour. As he rides in front of Aiba family’s household area from the roadside, he notices the existence of several cars and a priest van at the yard which is quite extraordinary judging by how late it already is. It makes him to feel weirdly…restless at one point, yet he chooses to ignore it and hasten to home instead.
Once entering the front gate Sho immediately get off from his bicycle. He is pushing his bicycle into the garage when he hears his parents are talking in low voices from the kitchen inside. At first it doesn’t bothering him the slightest until he catches his mother’s words when he is about to leave his bicycle on its place.
“This is the best choice. If you allow our son to enter the medical university in Tokyo we probably can save him from the worst.”
“Like I just said before, he MUST inherit our family’s business. Don’t make me raise my voice.”
“Then do you want to see him grieving over his friend’s death? You know how close he is with Masaki-kun, aren’t you?”
Sho feels his heart thump hard against his ribcage out of a sudden by that. Grieve? Death? What does his mother mean? Curious, he walks closer to the window.
“Our son visits Masaki-kun almost every day if you haven’t notice it yet. Unless we let him to further his study away from here, he won’t have any idea about what is happening to Masaki-kun later.”
“Then we can let him to take business or something like that! Why medical?! He is Sakurai for God’s sake!”
“Cause Sho will definitely against it! Do you think there is other way to stop him from seeing Masaki-kun?! I’ve tried so hard to make
Sho stops from seeing him since I know this will happen sooner or later, but you always take my words lightly!”
“Then don’t reveal about his friend’s leaving! I won’t let him to do anything else aside of inheriting our family’s business!”
“How long do you think we can keep it from him?! The priests are going to take Masaki-kun away by tonight!”
His mother’s angry shout make Sho instantly turns to pale. The teenager freezes, even totally blank as he tries to digest his parents’ conversation just while ago. Before he can grasp a clearer idea though, he already get back on his bicycle and starts to ride as fast as he can to Masaki’s house. He no longer care with the fact that his parents are practically screaming to each other in the house and just step on the paddle with all his might toward the winding road.
It has been a long time since the last time he cries, but somehow tonight he doesn’t bother to hide it anymore. No matter how many times he tries to wipe his blurry eyes with his back hand, the tears just keep on streaming down to his face. Yes. He knows that as long as Masaki is still a Medium there will always a possibility for the other one to lose his life during the ritual process, but each times as well he somehow will still manage to reassure himself that his friend is strong enough, that the priests will able to complete the exorcism on time, or that the spirit won’t harm Masaki at all. How fool he realizes he is now for blinding himself like that despite fully aware how weak Masaki look every time they see each other. He despises himself so much now for ignoring the coldness of his friend’s skin every time he touches the other one’s hand. And now, the worst has come. Their friendship is on the verge of its end along with the fact that his best friend might lose his life anytime soon. Yet now there he is, still crying over his own foolishness in the middle of the road. As a guy who claims himself as Masaki’s best friend ever and promise will take care of the latter at any cost without any condition, he feels ashamed with himself. He has failed to keep his words miserably.
Getting too absorbed within his despair, Sho doesn’t realize the bicycle chain is broken. Less than a second he already falls onto the ground, yelping in pain by both the burning pain on his palm and his ankle. Cringe by his terrible luck, he carefully pulls his trapped leg out from the tangled bicycle chain. He whimpers as he pushes himself from the road with his uninjured hand, hissing painfully when realizes the bleeding scratch on his palm. He later limps away from his bicycle before he notices there are bright car headlights coming closer from the other end of the road. His eyes open wide when realize those were cars that he saw at Aiba household, but before he can come up with any action, those fast moving cars and priests van just rush before him without bothering to acknowledge his presence on the roadside. It doesn’t take so long until those vehicles disappear from there, leaving the frozen and dumbstruck Sho to stand alone on the winding road behind.
Time feels like suddenly stop before Sho falls on his knees, trembling and too shock to move. His tears fall heavier as he looks emptily at the direction where Masaki has departed to, without a slight chance of returning.
-to be continued-
>It has been a while since I post something. I wrote this short series several months ago but just finally find a time to post it. I'm afraid I'll get stuck from finishing another series if I write a long one so I decided to restart with a shorter one this time ^^
>I'm very sorry to all my LJ friends who I didn't get to wish Happy Birthday and haven't received my PM yet. I couldn't use my laptop for quite a while (again) because my father need to use it for his job ^^" And I wasn't around for almost the entire Ramadhan too, so I couldn't find a time to hang out in here. And Happy Eid to those who celebrating it too :D
>Comments, improvement critics and opinion are much appreciated! Happy reading!
Rating: G (For this chapter)
Genre: AU, friendship, horror, angst
Characters: Sakurai, Aiba
Disclaimer: Slightly inspired from Fatal Frame.
Summary: 10 years ago Sho was saved from a haunted spirit by the town's medium, Aiba. The two of them become best-friends-forever and always stick to each other after that until one day Sho was forced to stop from seeing his only friend. What Sho doesn't expect though is to find out that he might lose Aiba in the most saddening way. Now it's all up to him to let the Final Ritual to be performed, or save Aiba and drag their town into its calamity.
Warning: Supernatural stuff and mentioned of human sacrifice.
Chapter 1
The 7 years old Sho Sakurai wailed until the top of his lungs while moving further inside his wardrobe. He curled up as he hid his face on his knees, screaming to be left alone again and again to ‘the thing’ which was now standing on the doorstep of his bedroom. No matter what his parents said to calm him down from outside of his hiding place he just kept on crying in terrified until his voice hoarse. The pale, slim figure with a long rope hung around its bruises neck unfortunately ignored his pleads and just came closer while moaning eerily. Sho hid his head with his tiny hands at this before felt a hand suddenly touched his shaking knee. Panic, he jerked it away and looked up to find a boy around his age was kneeling in front of him. The boy later helped to wipe away his streaming tears as he beamed him his brightest smile.
“It’s okay. I’m here to help you.”
10 years later
A light cold breeze blows straight to a small town at the southern area of Japan. Whistling, Sho rides his bicycle back to his home after a long day at school. The day is again dull and boring which just boost his desire more to further his study at the medical university once he graduates from his high school next year, which unfortunately is heavily opposed by his conservative father. It is not like he hates his hometown, but he craves to see the ‘outside world’ unlike most of people there who can always easily feel satisfied with their current life. As long as those people can eat, drink, and have job nothing else matter anymore. Even most of his classmates have no interest to further their study and will either choose to inherit their family’s business or working at the farm. Some of the girls as well decide to get married early since they believe that they will end up being a housewife at the end of the day anyway though their talent and intelligence certainly can give more benefits to a lot of people if it is used to the right direction in Sho’s opinion. It both saddening and sickening him by just thinking how narrow minded these people can be due to their ignorance and fear of changes sometimes.
Though, as irony as it sounds, his parents are actually is a part of those people too. The main reason why his father refuses his idea to become a doctor is because he is their only child and the sole inheritor of the shop that was built from scratch by their ancestor. Sho wouldn’t think the shop will make any difference to the town even if it close, but since the Sakurai family really proud of it due to the reason it is one of the few shops that survive the terrible renaissance decades ago, he has no choice but to live up to his parents’ expectations. Not to forget that because of the shop as well they are so well-respected in the town and Sho himself never experience a hard life.
Soon Sho eventually stops at a dessert shop. After buying two packets of strawberry Daifuku, he continues his ride to the Aiba household which is just 5 minutes away. He only stops cycling when realizes there is an unknown black car at the house yard and decide to push his bicycle instead so he won’t create any noises that will disturb the ritual which is currently being performed in the house. Some audible prayers chanting can be heard coming from inside as he knocks lightly the front door.
“Hold on please-” Soft yet hurry footsteps come closer from the other side before the door is slightly being opened by a lady on her 40s. She widens her eyes when find out who the visitor is before turning to his husband inside while whispering ‘Sho-kun’ as low as she can.
“Here, this is for Masaki.”
Sho smilingly offers the plastic bag of Daifuku he is holding once Masaki’s mother finally looks at him again. The lady bites her lower lip at this action, but takes it from him nevertheless. It is obvious that she already gave up from persuading Sho to not come over anymore even though she never let him to see Masaki since 6 months ago. At the same time, seeing that there is a space over the mother’s shoulder, Sho takes that opportunity to take a glimpse of his friend inside. His bright expression however drops when see Masaki is sitting emptily at the center of the room while being surrounded by a group of chanting priests, the latter’s body is getting skinnier that the last time he sees him.
“You better go home now, Sho-kun. It’s getting late.”
Without letting Sho to say anything further, the lady quickly closes the door. Sho who at first is dumbfounded by the treatment only can sigh in disappointment before getting on his bicycle. He still can’t help from feeling worried with his friend’s condition but as much as he wants to peek inside the house to see what is going on there, he is still scared with anything that related to ghost or spirit. His childhood memory when he was pestered by a suicide spirit still traumatizes him until this very second. Having no other option, he heavy heartedly forces himself to leave the house yard. However, instead of going straight to his home, he stops at a wide grass field and walks to one particular area after leaving his bicycle on the roadside. For a while the senior of the high school student just enjoys the breathtaking view in front of him silently. Later he decides to lie down on the soft grass under him, his hands fold neatly behind his head as he drowns himself in his own swirling memory.
“Hey! You’re too fast!”
Sho laughed by the giggling shout behind him as he slowed down his ride. Yet once Masaki finally could catch him up, it was his turn to scream when his cheerful friend increased his speed on purpose to defeat him. Their finish line will always be the green field next to the roadside where they often hang out for a while after the school session over before they parted to their home.
“That’s unfair! I was waiting for you!” Though complaining that, Sho still laughed while settling himself next to Masaki on the grass. Masaki on the other hand just exploded with his trademark breathy laugh as he tried to catch his breath after their race from their favorite dessert shop.
This made Sho can’t help but staring worriedly at the latter. The distance between the two places are not too far from each other after all. He also had never seen Masaki through any difficulty in breathing even if they had competed to any further places than there before.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You already asked the same question three times today.”
Sho sighed. How come he won’t if not because of the reason that his friend just come to school today after 3 days of being unconscious? He knows that Masaki’s body usually needs a much longer time than that to recover after each completed ritual.
“Then you should eat more. You’re getting skinnier.”
Masaki giggled and thanked him as he passed him a packet of strawberry Daifuku. Instead of eating his immediately, Sho on the other hand just watched silently his friend who was munching happily the food.
“If you are so worried about me you should come to see the ritual yourself sometimes.”
This made Sho chuckled, well-aware that Masaki just kidding about it. That best friend of his after all was the one who understood the most about his fear toward scary things.
However as much as he hated those things, he had to admit that thanks to it as well he got to meet Masaki 10 years ago. The two of them have been the best buddy forever after Masaki saved him from a suicidal spirit that started to follow him when he stubbornly entered a mysterious forest despite his parents’ warning. If not because he had seen Masaki’s ability with his own two eyes at that time, he probably will also never thought that a bright smiley little boy he met was actually a Medium.
Medium is a name given to the person who can retain spirit in his or her body. Every time there is a spirit or ghost that the town needs to get rid of, the Medium will be used to keep the spirit from endangering other people while the priests will exorcist it by performing a ritual. During the meantime the Medium will have to let their body to be possessed by the spirit and can only use their strong will to avoid the spirit from either escape or taking over his or her body since the Medium will lose conscious until the ritual fully succeeded. Sho though will never bother to learn that much about this Medium stuffs if not because he had seen how bad the possession’s post-effects were to his friend several times. Sudden lost consciousness and depress a few days after each ritual is normal. Heck, he even once had to watch Masaki immobilized on bed and can’t do much aside of sleeping and blinking. He had never been so afraid to lose his only friend like that time until he insisted to sleep over for almost a week just to help to take care of Masaki. He cried silently every time he saw his friend vomiting blood or shrieking in pain at night due to chest and backbone pain after constraining 5 strong unrested spirits at the same time. Of course Sho will be more than glad if Masaki quits from taking the ‘living exorcist tool’ role after witnessing that, but his friend’s ability was too crucial that sometimes it can determine the life of an entire family. Even his life once was saved by the same ability.
“Did you bring the book with you?”
Sho immediately woke up from his thought. This was when he finally realized that Masaki had finished his Daifuku and was now gulping his water. Sho hastily rummaged inside his bag for a while before taking out a thick medical book that he had borrowed from the library. It instantly gained a curious look from Masaki who took it without taking off his amazed stare from him.
“Can you understand everything in this book?”
“Not everything actually, but I can say about 60%. I can always search in the dictionary, internet, or ask the school teacher if I don’t get something anyway.”
He just smiled when Masaki nodded in awe. The cheerful guy after that just continued to flip some of the book pages, sometimes stopping on anything that managed to get his attention until Sho suddenly spoke.
“When I become a doctor one day, I will make sure to treat you properly after the ritual. You don’t have to be worried anymore about your health.”
“I thought you want to work in Tokyo?”
Sho just shook his head smilingly. This reaction made his friend can’t help but frown confusedly.
“I do want to travel outside here. I want to see other places and visit anywhere that I have never been before. But I never have a thought to live in Tokyo. I’m more worried with your state now since the doctor here takes their responsibility too lightly to my liking.”
“But…there’s no need to force yourself for me, you know? I’ll be fine. I have been a Medium since I was small, so I’m already used to this.”
“Well, just like yours, it’s my dream to save people too. So you can say that you are one of future my patients. Maybe our treatment method is different, but the mission is still same, right?”
He smiled, which responded by Masaki with a wide one. He could never convey that after seeing how hard his friend work to save a lot of life and spirits, it somehow inspired him to work hard as well to be a good doctor since he was still small.
“You know, in Tokyo they have a lot of futuristic equipment for surgery. And the city is big too!”
As he started to talk excitedly, he unconsciously stood up. Masaki who recognized his sparkling eyes just chuckled in amused and listened to it attentively. To be honest the cheerful teenager actually had listen to Sho’s story about several places outside like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hokkaido, and countless more for so many times already, but he never get bored of it since he himself was curious about the ‘outside world’ of their town. After all unlike Sho who had his chances to follow his father when doing some dealing outside, Masaki unfortunately can’t leave the town due to his responsibility as a Medium.
For the entire time after that the two best friends just talked about everything they wanted to try together once they arrived at Tokyo. Only when the sun finally set on the horizon they finally bid goodnight to each other and departed to their own way.
Sighing by the memory, Sho sits up and stares blankly at the darkening view in front of him. He always misses the time he spends with Masaki so much until he visits the other one at home almost every day after school since the day Masaki’s parents decided to drop out their son so the latter can focus on his responsibility as a Medium solely, much to Sho dismay. The two of them however still can hang out together until 6 months ago when Masaki’s mother suddenly told him to stop from seeing Masaki again. The number of people who start to seek help from the Aiba family also suddenly increase from that time and even Sho notices how every single day he comes there only to find a different car at the house yard, indicating that different client is dropping by on that day. Though he is completely worried about Masaki’s condition, he knows that there is nothing he could do about it. The best thing he only can come up with is to pray for his best friend’s safety, hoping that one day Masaki will be able to break through the life he is living now for a better and happier one.
XXX
A few days later Sho is riding back to home nearly dinner time after helping his teacher to finish some paperwork regarding the final year students’ vacation. Though he already planned earlier to visit Masaki again on that day, he decides to go straight home instead considering how dark it already is and how improper it will be to intrude the family at this hour. As he rides in front of Aiba family’s household area from the roadside, he notices the existence of several cars and a priest van at the yard which is quite extraordinary judging by how late it already is. It makes him to feel weirdly…restless at one point, yet he chooses to ignore it and hasten to home instead.
Once entering the front gate Sho immediately get off from his bicycle. He is pushing his bicycle into the garage when he hears his parents are talking in low voices from the kitchen inside. At first it doesn’t bothering him the slightest until he catches his mother’s words when he is about to leave his bicycle on its place.
“This is the best choice. If you allow our son to enter the medical university in Tokyo we probably can save him from the worst.”
“Like I just said before, he MUST inherit our family’s business. Don’t make me raise my voice.”
“Then do you want to see him grieving over his friend’s death? You know how close he is with Masaki-kun, aren’t you?”
Sho feels his heart thump hard against his ribcage out of a sudden by that. Grieve? Death? What does his mother mean? Curious, he walks closer to the window.
“Our son visits Masaki-kun almost every day if you haven’t notice it yet. Unless we let him to further his study away from here, he won’t have any idea about what is happening to Masaki-kun later.”
“Then we can let him to take business or something like that! Why medical?! He is Sakurai for God’s sake!”
“Cause Sho will definitely against it! Do you think there is other way to stop him from seeing Masaki-kun?! I’ve tried so hard to make
Sho stops from seeing him since I know this will happen sooner or later, but you always take my words lightly!”
“Then don’t reveal about his friend’s leaving! I won’t let him to do anything else aside of inheriting our family’s business!”
“How long do you think we can keep it from him?! The priests are going to take Masaki-kun away by tonight!”
His mother’s angry shout make Sho instantly turns to pale. The teenager freezes, even totally blank as he tries to digest his parents’ conversation just while ago. Before he can grasp a clearer idea though, he already get back on his bicycle and starts to ride as fast as he can to Masaki’s house. He no longer care with the fact that his parents are practically screaming to each other in the house and just step on the paddle with all his might toward the winding road.
It has been a long time since the last time he cries, but somehow tonight he doesn’t bother to hide it anymore. No matter how many times he tries to wipe his blurry eyes with his back hand, the tears just keep on streaming down to his face. Yes. He knows that as long as Masaki is still a Medium there will always a possibility for the other one to lose his life during the ritual process, but each times as well he somehow will still manage to reassure himself that his friend is strong enough, that the priests will able to complete the exorcism on time, or that the spirit won’t harm Masaki at all. How fool he realizes he is now for blinding himself like that despite fully aware how weak Masaki look every time they see each other. He despises himself so much now for ignoring the coldness of his friend’s skin every time he touches the other one’s hand. And now, the worst has come. Their friendship is on the verge of its end along with the fact that his best friend might lose his life anytime soon. Yet now there he is, still crying over his own foolishness in the middle of the road. As a guy who claims himself as Masaki’s best friend ever and promise will take care of the latter at any cost without any condition, he feels ashamed with himself. He has failed to keep his words miserably.
Getting too absorbed within his despair, Sho doesn’t realize the bicycle chain is broken. Less than a second he already falls onto the ground, yelping in pain by both the burning pain on his palm and his ankle. Cringe by his terrible luck, he carefully pulls his trapped leg out from the tangled bicycle chain. He whimpers as he pushes himself from the road with his uninjured hand, hissing painfully when realizes the bleeding scratch on his palm. He later limps away from his bicycle before he notices there are bright car headlights coming closer from the other end of the road. His eyes open wide when realize those were cars that he saw at Aiba household, but before he can come up with any action, those fast moving cars and priests van just rush before him without bothering to acknowledge his presence on the roadside. It doesn’t take so long until those vehicles disappear from there, leaving the frozen and dumbstruck Sho to stand alone on the winding road behind.
Time feels like suddenly stop before Sho falls on his knees, trembling and too shock to move. His tears fall heavier as he looks emptily at the direction where Masaki has departed to, without a slight chance of returning.
-to be continued-
>It has been a while since I post something. I wrote this short series several months ago but just finally find a time to post it. I'm afraid I'll get stuck from finishing another series if I write a long one so I decided to restart with a shorter one this time ^^
>I'm very sorry to all my LJ friends who I didn't get to wish Happy Birthday and haven't received my PM yet. I couldn't use my laptop for quite a while (again) because my father need to use it for his job ^^" And I wasn't around for almost the entire Ramadhan too, so I couldn't find a time to hang out in here. And Happy Eid to those who celebrating it too :D
>Comments, improvement critics and opinion are much appreciated! Happy reading!