JSWGAS Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The Oikawa family’s evening was filled with joy. Oikawa Ryūsei and Oikawa Tōru, father and son, sat on the sofa in the living room, engrossed in the sports channel broadcast, while Oikawa Miwako was washing dishes in the kitchen.

“You two really! Don’t turn the volume up so loud,” she complained as she walked out, then sat down to the side and picked up the remote control.

“Ah! Mom, why are you changing the channel!” Oikawa Tōru shouted in dissatisfaction, watching the sports channel broadcast turn into a family drama. He nudged his father sitting beside him, who remained silent, eyes focused inward.

“What, you still want to fight with your mother for the TV?” Oikawa Miwako glared at him, then looked with satisfaction as her husband obediently got up, poured her water, and brought out the fruit from the refrigerator. “Tōru, learn from your father,” she lectured her son, “A willful man won’t be popular, you know.”

Oikawa Tōru grumbled, “A willful woman won’t be popular either… but I am very popular!”

Unfortunately, my attack failed to penetrate the enemy’s armor. “Oh? How come I remember you only ranked third in Seijo Elementary School’s most popular student election? The two above you are both steady and serious good kids, so they’re more popular than you, right?”

Oikawa Tōru was stabbed by his mother, but stubbornly retorted, “That’s not true! They just don’t know how to appreciate me!”

He resentfully watched the melodramatic scenes of “I love you, you love him, he loves her” playing out on the TV, glared at his father’s fake expression of being very interested in the drama, snorted, and reluctantly went back to his room.

To satisfy his son’s hobby, the Oikawa couple installed a projector in his room, just enough to fulfill his small request to watch volleyball tapes.

Oikawa Tōru carefully finished watching a tape in his room. He paused it and excitedly sent a message to Iwaizumi Hajime.

“Koiwa! I saw a really cool way to attack! Let’s try it together tomorrow?”

Iwaizumi’s reply came quickly.

“We’ll talk about that later.”

“Just now, a strange man asked my mom at our door if she knew Taka, and then Mom went out with him, probably to Taka’s house.”

“Keep an eye on things.”

“Huh? A stranger?” Oikawa Tōru frowned, his face a little conflicted. He stood up, opened the window, and looked next door. “Koiwa is just too much of a worrywart…”

The remaining words were drowned out at his lips. Oikawa Tōru put one hand on the windowsill, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a dark figure flashing past the yard wall—a familiar figure wearing a thick leather jacket, smoothly jumping down the two-meter-high wall.

A thief?

Tōru’s eyes sharpened.

The person clearly didn’t notice his gaze. The figure, mostly hidden in the shadows, seemed to be getting a running start, then neatly jumped onto the wall on the other side, feet pushing against the wall, hands using force, looking relaxed and agile.

That face was finally exposed—it was actually the protagonist in his and Iwaizumi’s text message just now. Oikawa Tōru, in shock, couldn’t help but shout, “Taka?!”

His friend paused, and Oikawa Tōru was sure the other party heard his voice. But he didn’t look back and jumped off the wall, and in a few breaths was in the yard of the Kokonoe’s house next door. And at the corner of the wall where he disappeared, a red handprint was ostentatiously imprinted on Oikawa’s retina.

Oikawa Tōru abruptly left the window, ran out of the room, and quickly dashed down the stairs. Usually, Oikawa Miwako would scold him for making the floorboards thump so loudly, but this time, she didn’t bother.

“Was that a sound from the TV?”

“I don’t think so.”

The TV’s volume was turned down very low, and the two were discussing something. Oikawa Miwako saw her son come downstairs and asked with a frown, “Tōru, did you hear a strange sound upstairs just now?”

“…Strange sound?”

“A scream, like someone was calling for help… but it’s gone now.”

Oikawa Tōru honestly replied, “I was wearing headphones, I didn’t hear anything.” He thought of his friend he had just seen, “More than that, I just saw Taka climbing back over our wall from his own house.”

He felt that the handprint on the wall wasn’t an ordinary handprint… that color easily made people think of unpleasant things.

At Oikawa Tōru’s strong insistence, the Oikawa couple went with him to the backyard to see the place where he had witnessed Kokonoe Taka. A blood-red handprint was strikingly printed on the wall next to the Kokonoe’s house. Oikawa Ryūsei carefully observed it for a moment. “It’s blood,” he said in a low voice.

“Blood?!” Oikawa Miwako exclaimed, and the three of them looked at each other in dismay. But before long, several deafening, continuous bangs came from next door, captured by them with unmistakable clarity.

The Oikawa couple exchanged a look. “Let’s go take a look.”

Although Oikawa Tōru also wanted to follow, he was pushed back into the house by his mother at the entrance. “You stay at home,” Oikawa Miwako said with a serious expression.

“I’m worried about Taka too?!”

“No, you won’t be any help if you go,” Oikawa Miwako said sternly, exchanging a look with her husband. “Stay at home, and be good.”

Oikawa Tōru was stubborn, but Oikawa Miwako was even more stubborn than him. He could only give up, dejectedly watching his father and mother quickly put on their coats, open the door, and leave. Before leaving, Oikawa Miwako warned again, “Don’t sneak over.”

Having been seen through, Oikawa Tōru had no choice but to abandon his idea of sneaking out under his mother’s knowing gaze. But he didn’t go back inside, sitting down by the entrance and waiting after sending a text message to Iwaizumi.

…After opening the door again, the world seemed to have turned upside down.

Sirens and ambulance wails sounded in cacophony, the flashing red and blue lights breaking through the silence of the street. Oikawa Tōru only pulled the door open a crack, then a little further, finally unable to resist rushing out of the house.

His mother was tightly following the stretcher, getting into an ambulance. Her eyes were red, and her expression was angry and sad. He had never seen his usually cheerful mother show such an expression. The ambulance carrying her drove away quickly after picking up the person.

His father came out a step later. He ran over and angrily chased Oikawa back into the house. He only had time to see the door of the house next door tottering, and another stretcher carrying a somewhat familiar man was loaded into the second ambulance: it was Kokonoe Hikohito.

Then the previous ambulance was… He didn’t dare to think any further. His father locked the door, and Oikawa Tōru quickly rushed to the second floor, leaning against the window and looking out anxiously.

He watched with a pounding heart as people in police uniforms followed next to a slightly shorter person. That person was wearing a somewhat oversized leather jacket, and a strange gray-haired man was protecting him as they got into the third ambulance together.

It was Taka!