Family
The dense, unyielding silence of the graveyard seemed to solidify around us, dropping over the northern ridge like a heavy shroud.
It felt as though even the ancient weeping willows and the towering maple trees were collectively holding their breath, freezing their branches against the clear blue sky, waiting for the structural weight of my words to clear my throat.
Akane remained perfectly anchored to my side.
Her soft fingers were still tightly, beautifully intertwined with my right hand, her thumb maintaining a slow, rhythmic, and incredibly grounding motion against the back of my knuckles.
She just stood there in the shifting grid of golden sunlight, with her posture entirely relaxed under the heavy fabric of my old black hoodie, waiting for me to find my voice.
After some instants that seemed like an eternity, I drew a deep, ragged breath.
The freezing winter air rushed into my lungs, burning my chest, and for a terrifying second, the old reflexes of my anxiety threatened to paralyze my vocal cords entirely.
The raw vocabulary of my past was jammed at the back of my throat, locked away behind seven consecutive years of heavily enforced silence.
But then, I shifted my head slightly and looked down at her face, specifically at her brilliant amber eyes, which were wide, calm, and infinitely patient.
Akane was simply ready to absorb everything I was about to say.
And so, looking at the weathered stone of my ancestors, I finally began to speak from the very beginning, once again.
"As I said... I wasn't always an isolated ghost inside an empty house, Akane," I said, my voice sounding slightly uneven, a low, gravelly rasp that cut through the absolute quiet of the ridge. "There was a time when my house was completely full of noise, laughter, and the rich, heavy aromas of home. I still remember the smell of fresh coffee drifting from the kitchen every Sunday morning, the crisp rustle of the newspaper as my father read in his armchair, and the melody of my mother's voice singing old jazz tunes while she moved through the hallways."
Akane didn't offer a word of commentary. She kept her gaze fixed on the grey stone ledger, but her fingers executed a sudden, firm squeeze against mine, anchoring me to the present.
"They were genuinely happy," I continued, my thumb lightly tracing the fabric of her sleeve. "I was happy. My paternal grandparents used to make the journey down from this ridge to visit our house every single weekend without fail. My grandfather would pack his tackle boxes and take me down to the riverbank, teaching me how to read the currents and hold a plastic fishing rod. My grandmother would pull me onto her lap in the living room, her hands smelling of vanilla and earth, and she would tell me endless stories about the old days of the district when she was a young girl. It was... it was visually and structurally perfect. I thought that I could have that life forever."
Then, a sharp, involuntary fracture changed the cadence of my voice, the syllables catching.
"Then... everything suddenly collapsed. Both of them passed away within the span of a few short months. My grandmother went first, her body completely eaten away by cancer, while my grandfather followed her less than ninety days later, his heart simply giving out from the sheer weight of the grief, because he went crazy. Or at least... that was the official script my father used to explain it to me."
I brought my words to a temporary halt, my jaw locking tight as I fought to control the physical trembling in my vocal cords.
"I... don't want to go deep into the details of the medical reports, because it wouldn't alter the outcome. What truly matters is that the exact moment those two stones went into the dirt... my parents ceased to be the people I knew. The shift was radical. My father began logging absurd hours at his corporate desk, returning home long after the lights were out. Then he started volunteering for international business trips, staying away from the prefecture for weeks at a time. Meanwhile, my mother... at the beginning..." I took a deep breath, "...She desperately tried to maintain the household's structural integrity by taking care of me and everything else. But without my grandparents guidance, the light in her simply went out. She started spending consecutive days paralyzed in bed, refusing to open the curtains. Then she began escaping the house entirely, going out to dinners with 'associates' I had never seen before in my life, staying away for days on end."
I felt Akane's bicep go instantly rigid against my side, her tensed muscles betraying the sudden, protective heat rising within her.
"The house became completely silent," I whispered, the white vapor of my breath twisting in the sunlight. "Then they turned freezing. Then they were just empty spaces. And I... I was forced to learn everything. I figured out how to balance the checkbook, clean the grease off the stove, walk down to the market to buy groceries, and manage the utility invoices before the companies cut off the electricity. I was barely eleven years old, Akane. Eleven years old, standing in a massive, hollow kitchen, fully aware of the absolute reality that no one was ever coming down that hallway to save me." I said, looking at my grandparents. "We're not so different, you and I, after all, right?"
"And what about your maternal grandparents, Shin?" Akane asked, her voice soft as silk.
"Well, I never met them, because my mother was an orphan raised by a strict and cold step-family that she had abandoned when she married my father, as she always said. She was attached to my paternal grandparents because they treated her like their own child."
In that moment, Akane stood silent and gently caressed my back.
"Then... by the time I reached my thirteenth year, my father received a definitive, permanent corporate transfer to an executive office in Italy."
My voice leveled out completely, dropping into a flat, clinical, and entirely detached monotone. I was no longer speaking from a place of active pain; I was simply reading a historical report.
"It was presented as a flawless new beginning, a grand corporate advancement located thousands of miles away from the graves on this ridge. A chance for them to run away from the ghosts. My mother and father signed the paperwork immediately. They wanted to escape the silence of that house. They wanted to forget everything."
I paused, staring at the grey ledger, the image of that final family meeting flashing behind my eyelids.
"They stood in the entryway with their leather suitcases and told me, 'Come with us to Europe, Shin. Let's start an entirely new life as a family.' But I looked at them, and I completely refused. I couldn't do it. I couldn't physically force myself to turn my back on Japan. I couldn't abandon my school, my neighborhood, or the concrete ground where my grandparents were buried. This graveyard was the only tangible, sacred piece of my bloodline I had left to protect."
My fingers balled into a tight fist inside my pocket, my nails digging into my palm to keep me anchored.
"And more than anything... I couldn't leave her. I couldn't abandon Kurone. The promise we had made in that sandbox was the only structure in my entire universe that gave my existence a shred of purpose during this dark chapter. She was the only entity in the world who seemed to actively want me standing beside her. I thought she was my lifeline. Despite all the pain she had caused me, her family helped me a lot with money, and I really thought that I could have a proper life."
In that moment, Akane didn't speak, but the white-knuckled pressure of her grip around my hand increased until it was almost painful, her fingers pinning mine with a desperate strength.
"So... my parents simply got into the taxi and left," I said, a bitter, sharp smile touching my lips. "They left without me. They didn't look back through the glass window. They didn't call me from the airport to verify if a thirteen-year-old boy was emotionally capable of locking up a two-story house alone. They just... dropped me. They handed me an independent bank account, a key, and a hollow 'be careful' whispered from the threshold before the door clicked shut."
A cold, suffocating knot tightened violently in the center of my throat, but I forced myself to push past it.
"And since that exact afternoon, I have lived entirely alone. Their money arrived every month, perfectly precise. A sterile electronic bank transfer. Not a single handwritten letter has ever entered my mailbox. Not a single voice call has ever registered on my phone log. Nothing. Just numbers on a banking application."
Akane shifted her weight suddenly. Her left hand abandoned my fingers, moving up with a swift, deliberate trajectory to cup my jawline.
Her warm, calloused palm pressed against my skin, applying a firm pressure that physically forced my head around until I was compelled to look directly into her face.
"Shin," she whispered.
Her raspy voice trembled slightly, and when my eyes met hers, I saw that her golden irises were wide and glassy. She was clearly bleeding for me.
"A few years ago, my brain finally accepted the entire situation, and I completely stopped expecting anything at all from them," I continued, actively fighting the constriction in my throat, refusing to let the emotion collapse my speech. "I systematically buried all my pain beneath a wall of total silence. I trained myself never to speak about my internal state to anyone, because everything that happened to me showed that no one was listening anyway. And whenever Kurone would look at me and idly ask how I was doing, I managed to smile perfectly and say 'I'm fine' even when my veins felt like liquid ice. I did it because I was terrified of being a burden; terrified that if she saw how broken I was, she would pack her bags and walk out the door just like my parents did."
My voice finally fractured, a ragged, uneven sob breaking through the syllables.
"But the joke was entirely on me, wasn't it? She walked away anyway. She stayed in my life just long enough to systematically trade my devotion for a shiny trophy, my trust for Kenji, and openly laugh at my expense while I was destroying my own identity to keep her safe. But I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. People always handle me by walking away, right?"
A single, burning tear broke over my lower lash, cutting a fast track down my cold cheek. I didn't reach up to wipe it away because I wanted to experience and accept every single emotion.
Akane remained perfectly stone-still for a long, heavy minute, her warm hand never leaving my jawline.
The only sound on the northern ridge was the crisp, dry rustle of the wind moving through the dying maple leaves, sending a shower of orange and yellow across our feet.
Moreover, I could feel that my grandparents were listening. And I wanted to scream, 'I miss you' so much.
Then, slowly, deliberately, Akane stepped fully into my personal space, erasing every single millimeter of distance between our bodies.
"Shin," she said, her voice dropping into a low, quiet, and intensely solid register that cut through the graveyard air like a physical shield. "Listen to my voice right now. You are officially, permanently not alone."
She brought her right hand up, both of her palms now firmly framing my face, forcing my gaze to remain locked dead onto the burning gold of her irises.
"In fact, the reality is that you have never truly been alone in that dark. I was there. Even when you were completely blind to my existence, I was standing right in your shadow. I sat on that green bench and watched you from across the park. I spent two entire years of middle school wearing a heavy hood and altering my voice just to sit beside you at the arcade so you wouldn't have to face the silence. I have actively searched for your face in every single crowded hallway, behind every concrete corner, and within every single quiet moment of my life."
Her calloused thumbs moved gently across my skin, systematically wiping the wet tracks of the tears from my cheeks with a steady, reassuring pressure.
"And I am absolutely not going to walk away from you, Shin. I know that words may not be enough now, but I am never going to abandon your side, no matter how structurally difficult the path becomes. I don't care how much pain we have to organize, and I don't care how many monsters are waiting for us in the high school corridors. I am staying right here. Permanently."
The raw finality of her words hit my chest like a massive, warm tide, completely overwhelming my defense mechanisms. It was a salvific wave that washed away the residual chill of the stones beneath our feet.
"Why?" I choked out, my voice sounding broken, fractured, and entirely exposed in the daylight. "Why would you choose to anchor yourself to me, Akane? After I've just laid out every single dirty detail... after I've shown you exactly how hollow and ruined the inside of my house truly is..."
"Because I love you, dumbhead. I always did," Akane answered simply, the three words falling into the space between our lips with the weight of an absolute, unyielding law. "Because I have loved you since the exact afternoon I saw a ten-year-old boy ruin his uniform in the dirt just to make a girl smile. And because real love isn't something you display only when the weather is clear and the script is easy, Shin. Love means planting your boots into the mud and staying exactly where you are when everything is falling apart. I am staying because we're officially a couple now."
After her words, I simply reached out, my arms wrapping fiercely around her narrow waist, and I pulled her body flush against my chest. I buried my face deep into the thick, messy jungle of her black hair, inhaling the sharp, grounding scent of her peppermint shampoo.
She brought her hands down from my face, her arms locking securely around my neck, her fingers gently, rhythmically petting the nape of my skull in absolute silence.
And we stayed exactly like that. Two broken kids wrapped in each other's arms, while the golden morning sun continued to radiate down, warming the cold, grey granite of the tomb where my grandparents rested.
I had completely lost track of the passage of time in technical terms. It could have been five minutes; it could have been an entire eternity suspended on top of that ridge.
Eventually, Akane executed a slight shift in her weight, pulling her face back just far enough to look directly into my eyes, her fingers remaining intertwined behind my neck.
"Shin," she said, her expression turning incredibly serious, her golden eyes tightening into a focused glare. "Your parents are absolute, structural idiots."
The phrase was so completely unexpected, so wildly inappropriate for the solemnity of a municipal graveyard, that a short, sudden, and thoroughly strangled laugh escaped my throat before I could stop it.
"What?" I blinked, staring at her.
"They are idiots," she repeated, her tone entirely deadpan, devoid of a single grain of humor. "They managed to completely lose the most extraordinary, brilliant, and devoted son they could have ever hoped to produce. They chose a pathetic, cowardly flight across an ocean instead of staying to fight through the grief. They chose the superficial comfort of an Italian corporate contract instead of protecting the real love standing in their living room. They are completely brain-damaged, and they don't possess a single clue of what they threw away into that empty house."
Her words were razor-sharp, dripping with a volatile anger directed at the people who had abandoned me, but the look in her eyes was filled with a profound, aching tenderness that completely broke what was left of my heart.
Despite her harsh words, I could tell that there was no malice in what she said.
"But I am absolutely nothing like them," she continued, her thumb tracing the line of my lower lip. "And I am never, ever going to allow you to feel useless again. You belong to me now, Ishikawa. You are officially my ghost boy, and I am your death lady. And the baseline rule of the contract is that death ladies never, ever abandon their ghosts to the dark."
A slow, tired, but completely genuine smile finally spread across my lips, and the ice around my heart thoroughly thawed.
"You are an absolutely terrible person, Takanashi," I murmured, my voice full of affection.
"I know," she answered, a small, triumphant smirk returning to curve her dark lips. "But you already signed the contract, so there's no turning back, darling."
"I did," I admitted easily, tightening my arms around her waist to lift her toes slightly off the gravel. "I'm completely, hopelessly in love with your methods."
The sudden pink flush returned to her cheeks, vibrant against her pale skin. "Dumbhead," she murmured into my collarbone, though her voice was entirely soft, laced with a thick, undeniable warmth.
After that, we turned towards my grandparents and, with a sad but small smile, I said, "I'll return again, just wait for us. I'll tell you about the school festival." I added. After that, Akane and I bowed our heads in respect, like a last farewell to them.
Then, we eventually turned our backs on the grey stone ledger, our fingers automatically interlocking as we walked toward the iron perimeter arches.
Our steps were exceptionally slow, relaxed, and unhurried, as if both our bodies were trying to delay our return to the real world.
"Thank you, Akane," I said quietly, the heavy iron gates clicking shut behind us as we stepped back onto the main asphalt road leading down the ridge.
"For what exactly?" she asked, her combat boots kicking a loose pebble down the slope.
"For just standing there and listening to the noise in my head," I said, looking down at our joined fingers. "For... for just being right there in the dirt with me."
She squeezed my hand, her shoulder bumping firmly against my bicep as she pulled herself closer to my side.
"It's literally the absolute minimum requirement of my position, Shin. You are officially my boyfriend after all."
My heart executed another sudden, violent leap against my ribs, the sheer reality of the word still hitting my system with the force of a drug. "Your boyfriend, eh? It's completely legal now?"
"Absolutely. The contract has been signed and verified," she stated with an arrogant tilt of her chin. "And there's nothing you can do. I have already received the explicit approval of your grandparents. The breeze confirmed it."
I let out a clear, free laugh, the sound echoing lightly through the quiet suburban street.
It was a weightless sound I hadn't produced since middle school. "Well, if the ancestors have verified the paperwork, I guess I have absolutely no other choice."
"None whatsoever. You are officially my prisoner, ghost boy," she purred, her golden eyes flashing with a wicked playfulness.
Then we walked in a comfortable, deep silence for a few blocks, simply absorbing the absolute peace of the late morning as the houses grew denser around us, signaling our return to the commercial district.
Suddenly, Akane stopped her boots against the pavement, her stomach letting out a distinct, highly audible growl that cut through the quiet air.
She turned her face to me, her lips pulled into a slight scowl.
"Shin, we are making an immediate, unscheduled stop at the next commercial establishment," she announced, her tone entirely serious. "I am experiencing a severe, structural lack of glucose. I'm starving."
I raised an eyebrow, looking down at her. "Did that brief walk up the ridge completely deplete your entire energy grid?"
"The emotional processing of your childhood drama completely depleted my entire energy grid," she corrected without batting an eye. "The rule of biology is simple, Ishikawa: I cry, therefore I require immediate sustenance. It's a basic reflex."
I laughed again, shaking my head at her logic. "Alright, fine. What exactly is your stomach demanding?"
"Something incredibly hot. And significantly sweet. And probably completely, thoroughly detrimental to my long-term cardiovascular health." She said, scratching her chin.
"So... a traditional bakery item, basically," I replied, teasing.
"Exactly, so move your legs." She commanded.
And then, after minutes of walking, we turned the final corner toward the commercial high street, and the peaceful isolation of our date was violently shattered for the second time.
Inside the pocket of my jeans, my smartphone executed another sudden, sharp vibration against my thigh.
"Not again... please," I muttered.
Akane seemed bothered, too.
I let out a quiet sigh of irritation, pulling the device out of my pocket. It wasn't a voice call this time. The screen illuminated, displaying a single new text banner from my class partner.
"Daiki Sakurai: Shin, where the hell are you? Takaneda-sensei just lost his mind in the staff room. The central logistics meeting for the festival has been officially scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. We need to review the vendor maps right now. It's urgent. Answer your damn phone!!"
Akane leaned her chin over my shoulder, her eyes scanning the black text across the glass screen, her peppermint scent hitting my nose.
"Well, it looks like our temporary academic vacation has officially reached its expiration date," she noted, her tone surprisingly devoid of any real bitterness or frustration. She had already gotten what she needed from the morning.
"It looks like it," I sighed, clicking the screen lock and sliding the phone back into my pocket, the weight of reality returning to settle over my shoulders. "But... it doesn't matter. At least we had this morning."
"And we are going to have a massive, infinite number of identical mornings, Ishikawa," Akane said, her voice dropping into a soft, steady whisper as she reached out, her fingers locking back through mine with an unyielding pressure. "I promise you that."
I didn't reply to Daiki because I didn't want to interrupt my date with Akane. I didn't care in that moment. If it were that important, he would call again.
Then, Akane and I kept walking until she stopped her boots directly in front of a small, traditional wooden bakery sitting at the corner of the alley.
The front door was propped open with a wooden block, and a thick, intoxicating aroma of fresh-baked bread, melted sugar, and warm cinnamon was billowing out into the cold street, wrapping around our senses.
"Are we going in, Shin?" she asked, her golden eyes looking up at me with a brilliant, happy light.
"How could I say no to you, Akane?" I answered, a massive smile splitting my face as I pushed the door open for her.
"In fact, that was a fake question," She said, before literally dragging me inside.
"I'm hungryyyyy! Moveeeee!" Akane added.
But, inside that shop, I saw a familiar figure...
—
Author's note: Okay! We're finally on the beginning of the School Festival Arc. Expect more PoVs from Akane, because she's gonna be the real protagonist. :))