Tsukimono (Obsession)

Author's Note:

Wow, it's been almost three years since the last update. I'm so terribly sorry. I can't even really make up for the time wasted, except to post more. This chapter is a bit rushed since I had a rather hard time getting back into the plot, and is a bit boring, but I hope some more of the drama/happiness struggle will appear soon! As usual, if you have any questions, I'll try to address them the best I can. Thanks for reading!

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Chapter 4:

"Tsukamu, go play on the swings for a bit. Mommy has to make a phone call." Takahashi Mizuki ushered her son to the playground, sitting down on a nearby bench. Tsukamu gleefully made for the swings. He loved when his mom took him to the park.

He ran over to the swings and sat on the closest one and kicked his feet on the ground, propelling his momentum. His mommy had been sad a lot lately. Every time she was sad she would take him to the park which made him happy, but also confused. She didn't talk to Daddy much, but sometimes other men would come over and they would make her happy, so that made him happy.

He looked up at the clouds, bright and puffy. As he was swinging, he felt he could get closer and closer to them. He reached out his hand and tried to grasp a cloud, but he just couldn't get close enough. He kicked his feet on the ground to swing yet higher and higher, but each time he tried to grab a cloud failed, so he eventually gave up and looked over at his mom, talking excitedly on the phone to someone.

He continued to watch his mom as he swung but was starting to get bored. The sky started to grow a pink tint and Tsukamu noticed the other kids' parents were waving them down, telling them it was time to go home. He decided to get off the swings and walked over to sit by his mom. When he was within a few steps, she looked up and smiled at him, ending her conversation and putting her phone away.

"Tsu-chan, are you ready to go home?" He nodded, grabbing onto her hand as she stood up.

"Mommy, I'm hungry!" He exclaimed, skipping alongside her and waving his arms. "Can I have some food?"

"Of course. I'll prepare you something once we get home." Their house was a short distance from the park, so it took only a matter of minutes before they arrived. Mizuki took to preparing some dinner for the two.

"Tsu-chan, can Mommy talk to you for a minute?" She asked, turning around to face her son. He nodded earnestly, wondering what she wanted to ask him. "Tsu-chan, I need you to be strong for me. The reason I'm here is for you, and I also need you to be here for me."

"What do you mean, Mommy?"

Mizuki knelt down by Tsukamu, putting her hand on his head and smoothing his hair. She was starting to tear up and Tsukamu started fidgeting, the closeness making him uncomfortable. Suddenly, Mizuki's voice went low, "Tsukamu, don't ever forget what your name means. It is a blessing so you will have the strength to reach out and grab your dreams. It will give you the strength I could not."

He didn't understand what she meant and her tone of voice was scaring him, so he pushed away from her and ran upstairs. She began yelling at him, using words he didn't quite understand but knew were bad. He started to cry and told himself he never wanted to talk to her again.

A week later, Tsukamu discovered his mother hanging from the ceiling fan. He was too young to understand she would never wake up.

--

The next few weeks passed by relatively more calm than the past few. It was a helpful break for Kiichirou, who felt he might have reached a breaking point had he not found room to breathe. His grades went back to his usual high scores and he had busied himself with planning for the Heritage Festival.

Takahashi had been avoiding him since their diner episode, and he felt as if he had finally been able to regain some control back in his life.

He only saw the other briefly at cram school. Takahashi would arrive late, just in time for the "lesson", then quickly pack up and leave. Kiichirou didn't force conversation with him.

School had just ended for the day and Kiichirou was waiting at the usual spot to greet his friends and decide what to do for the rest of the day. After all, it was Saturday, and they had the weekend ahead of them. He sat on a bench and zipped up his blazer, trying to avoid the bite of the autumn wind.

Satou was the first to arrive and stood next to Kiichirou. A few of her acquaintances walked over to chat with her momentarily but she waved them off, wanting to talk to Kii. She sat down next to him.

"Oya-kun, I haven't seen that much of you lately." She was looking away from him, gazing at the other students trying to enjoy their brief after-school socializing but also trying to hurry away from the cold breeze. He turned to her and studied her features. She had a far-away look on her face that said her mind was working at an extraordinary pace.

"I've been busy." He said. Not entirely a lie, but the tone of his voice was being untrue. He wanted her to believe that it was grades and club activities that were preventing him from spending time with his friends, not an unhealthy fascination.

He could tell she wanted to say more, but at that moment Matsumoto sauntered up to the two. "Oya-kun, try to not do our entertainment a disservice by making the school population believe Satou-chan's taken, will you?" Satou stuck her tongue out at him but didn't make a biting reply as she normally would have.

"It may come as a shock to you, but she'd probably be happier not having to worry about the next fanboy swooning over her, Matsumoto-kun." Kiichirou said, poking fun at Matsumoto's secret crush. It was Matsumoto's turn to stick his tongue out at the blonde.

"So, Oya-kun, we were planning on going to the arcade again for a bit today." Satou said, changing the subject. "Matsumoto-kun's even invited Takahashi-kun again." Matsumoto nodded, watching Satou.

Kiichirou froze, his face feeling hot. Seeing Takahashi again was something he wanted to do, but because of what happened at their last meeting, he figured it wasn't a good idea to see Takahashi with his friends around. He still couldn't quite judge the narrow-eyed boy and didn't want him to lash out against Kii's friends.

"Oh, I already have plans for tonight. A classmate wanted to review the results of a test so he could study the material." Kiichirou lied. Satou and Matsumoto were quiet but didn't probe. "I should be good next weekend if you want to try and get together again." He offered. They seemed to go for it.

"Well, we'll head out, then. See you next week."

"Sure."

He watched the two of them walk away, talking about where they would meet up with Saitou.

Since he wasn't due home for another few hours, Kiichirou decided to head to the school library. When he was younger and his mom was working two part-time jobs, he would often lounge around at the library after school on her orders, so he was very comfortable in the atmosphere.

He found a desk in a secluded area of the library and set his school bag and jacket down. After getting comfortable, he decided to leaf through a baseball magazine on a nearby rack.

Seconds turned into minutes and soon he had lost track of the time, in a reading daze. A sudden vibration from his cell phone snapped him out and he flipped the phone open to read the text he had received.

Call me, it read. The text was from Satou.

He began automatically typing in her number and hit the send key, not quite sure what the text was about. Satou picked up before it could ring twice.

"Oya-kun!" Her voice sounded halfway surprised even though she had been the one to tell him to call her.

"Satou-chan, is something wrong?" He replied.

"You were lying about the study partner." He mentally pictured her wrinkling her nose at him and sighed.

"You caught me. But why bring this up now and not later?"

"Where are you?" Why was she so curious, he wondered.

"I'm at the school library. What's wrong?"

"Meet me in the Physics Club classroom, I'll be there in 20 minutes." She hung up before he could pry any further. The Physics Club only met Tuesdays and Thursdays, though officially they were supposed to also meet on Saturdays, so the classroom was always open and unused. Kiichirou was unsure of Satou's intentions but because they were close, he trusted her.

He arrived at the classroom approximately 20 minutes before Satou did so he had plenty of time to doodle in his notebook and rack up boredom. When she finally arrived, he gave her an inquisitive stare but said nothing.

"Okay, sorry to do this, but I had to get you alone somehow." Satou was short of breath and her cheeks were flushed, making her naturally attractive face seemingly radiate. Kiichirou continued to say nothing, knowing she would continue. "Oya-kun, you have to tell me what's wrong. I know you've been acting weird lately—hell, everyone can see it. You've completely changed and I just want my friend back."

Satou sat down in a desk across from Kii and gave him a puppy-eyed look. His face felt hot. He couldn't exactly go and reveal all his suspicions about Takahashi and admit that he was having some pretty strange reactions to the whole situation.

He gulped and decided to try and evade, "Satou-chan, you know that I'd tell you guys if something was wrong. I'm just really stressed out about being new to cram school and having such a big part in the heritage festival. It's a lot of responsibility."

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard." Oh well, it was worth a try. "I know you, Oya Kiichirou-kun, and if anything, you thrive on responsibility. It's situations where you have no control that you act like this. So I'll ask one more time. What's going on with you?"

Satou was a good friend, she really was. It seemed she was always there to call Kiichirou out when he made stupid mistakes or started acting like a slime. Which, admittedly, he kind of was at the moment. He decided he could confide in her, if just a little.

"Satou-chan, do you promise to keep a secret?"

She nodded, "Of course."

"Like, it's a huge secret. It could affect someone's life." She gave him an inquisitive look, but nodded yet again. "Satou-chan, remember those news reports about those recent rape victims?"

"Yeah, the Phantom Rapist." She replied, looking intrigued.

"I think I may know him." He said in finality. "I haven't been able to concentrate because I keep thinking about those cases and I know I should talk to an officer, but I don't want to get an innocent student convicted."

Kiichirou ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He could confide that much in Satou, he knew. She would keep her promise and may also provide some insight on how to deal with the issue.

"Wow, that's pretty big. Maybe you should try talking to the principal to see if you can find out his background information to see if the information matches up. Maybe we can even do some snooping of our own." There was a mischievous glint in her eyes. Kii mentally smiled; he wasn't the only curious cat around here.

--

At about the middle of the next week, Matsumoto stopped Kiichirou at lunch to tell him that he'd been spending some time with Takahashi and Takahashi had asked him for Kii's phone number so they could become better acquainted.

"I didn't think you two hit it off so well, but I think he doesn't have many friends." Matsumoto said, shrugging. "Should I give him your number?"

"Sure. He seems nice enough. Well, when he's not PMSing." The two laughed at the joke. I guess Takahashi isn't all rainbows and ponies to Matsumoto, either, Kiichirou though. At least Matsumoto had a very dry sense of humor so his personality genuinely complemented Takahashi's.

When Kiichirou was sitting in his class after lunch, he received a text from an unknown number. All it said was 3:30, library. It took under a second for Kii to know who it had come from.

So, he wants to settle this, Kiichirou thought, After my accusation, I'm surprised he's so direct.

His chest became warm and he had trouble concentrating in class. It was only an hour until class ended, and then he had 15 minutes to wait in the library for Takahashi. He wondered what the other would say and what he, himself, would. It had been so long he had spoken to the other that Takahashi had resumed being just an object in Kiichirou's head, something he constantly thought about but gave his own idea of a personality to.

Sure he had many conversations with Takahashi in his head, but he wasn't sure if the other boy would really have said anything like them.

As he was consumed with his thoughts, time ticked by, and the ringing of the final bell snapped Kiichirou out of yet another daze. His anticipation of the nearing meeting was making his palms begin to sweat, something that was uncharacteristic.

After what seemed an hour of waiting near the entrance to the library, Kiichirou spied Takahashi. The other boy noticed his gaze and his eyes narrowed as he walked up to Kiichirou. Kii stood up to greet Takahashi.

"Takahashi." He continued their cycle of using familiar terms. "It's been a while."

"Oya." Takahashi turned around and started walking out of the library. Kiichirou took this as his cue and followed a few footsteps behind the other.

"Where are we going?" Kiichirou piped, his steps becoming almost hops. He was feeling a bit giddy at the prospect of talking to Takahashi again, even though their acquaintance had only been brief.

"I'm taking you to my lair where I torture and rape innocent victims." Takahashi replied nonchalantly, increasing his walking pace.

"So you admit it."

"I have nothing to admit to you." They reached the entrance doors and made their way outside. It was a day warmer than the previous few had been, but the sun was hidden behind a stretch of clouds so the air felt cool.

"Are you going to at least tell me where we're going?" Kiichirou asked as he was zipping up his jacket. He watched Takahashi do the same.

"I figured we'd get some ice cream and go to the park. What else are you supposed to do on a date?" Takahashi laughed at his own joke, though the laugh sounding tinny and insincere. Yet another ugly trait about him, Kiichirou thought.

"So you admit you like me well enough to buy me ice cream." Kiichirou countered. The shorter boy spun around and glared at him, but then turned back around just as quickly and started walking at a faster pace without saying a word.

Taken aback, all Kii could do was follow Takahashi in silence until they walked up to a nearby ice cream shop. True to his word, however, or at least true to what Kiichirou had said to him, Takahashi purchased ice cream for the two of them. Takahashi had a small cup with green tea and Kii got a cone with a scoop of banana and a scoop of chocolate.

Kii followed the black-haired boy to a table in the back of the shop and sat down across from him. They ate their ice cream in silence and watched each other, each one suspicious and curious of the other. Takahashi opened his mouth like he wanted to say something a few times, but remained quiet each time.

Finally, he did speak. Softly, he said, "I have a step-mom."

Kii blinked. He has a step-mom? What is that supposed to mean? After a moment, Takahashi glared at him again and said, "I'm telling you about myself. That's why we're here, isn't it? I'm telling you I have a step-mom, so you're supposed to ask about my real mom."

"Oh." Was Kiichirou's reply. "So you have a step-mom. Where's your real mom?"

"Dead." Takahashi replied, relaxing into his chair.

"And you wanted to tell me that so much that you told me to ask you about it?"

Takahashi slammed his hands on the table and stood up, shocking the employees and two girls who were sitting a few tables down. "Look, I'm trying to give you a chance. All you do when we're together is stare at me and try to get under my skin, but you never pry like you're supposed to. What the hell is wrong with you? Try to act normal!"

When Kiichirou didn't immediately reply, Takahashi turned and stormed out of the small shop and Kii would have been content to let him be, but Takahashi's green tea ice cream was staring him in the face and screaming excuse to stalk Takahashi more.

He had a hard time resisting those chances.