Akane's hands trembled as she took her phone out and called Aqua. After her first attempt had gone to voicemail, she remembered that there was probably a reason why he insisted on using her phone to text Ichigo. She stood on the dark street as her fingers began to type away, drafting, deleting, and rewriting until she was finally happy with the result, a few minutes later.
'Hey Aqua, I had this crazy thought: What if Aqua believes that now that it's over, he isn't needed anymore?
And to be honest, that thought scares me so much. It scares me because I know this feeling too, and how overwhelming it can be.
I occasionally think back to the day on which you saved me. My memories of it are faint, but one thing I know is that I never truly wanted to die.
I was just so tired of feeling like my presence was making everyone else around me miserable.
Now I know how dumb my behavior was back then, but I also still know how real it felt to me. How I really thought there was no other way for me.
Look, I just don't want to lose you, and I'm certain that you don't really want to die either.
So please, if you ever feel lost or not needed, call me. 24 hours a day; seven days a week. I will be there for you whenever you need someone.
I know all of this might sound crazy to you, but you thinking I'm a bit crazy would be ten trillion times better than losing you, while not having done anything to prevent it.
Stay safe, sleep well, and I should really learn how to shut up,
Akane <3'
She read over it once more before she sent the message. A warm feeling coursed through her stomach as she slipped the phone back into her pocket and continued on her walk. She tried to think of something else, yet the thoughts of what could be going on with Aqua in the moment, combined with the way her text made her own heart race, made it impossible to think about something else for even a second.
About 2 hours prior, December 26th, Streets of Tokyo
Ichigo and Aqua just left Shibuya; they were driving eastbound while not saying a single word to each other. The snow had stopped again, and most of it had melted already. Life on the streets was resuming as it was before. They drove for half an hour. The towering buildings around them faded into the distance behind as they left Tokyo via the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line. After they had entered the Chiba prefecture, they drove another hour south before finally coming to a stop at a rural dock.
"This is where you got your boat parked? Why don't you have it closer to where you live?" Aqua asked as he looked through the tinted glass and around the desolate area. Ichigo turned the engine off and looked around, too, yet he seemed far more nervous than Aqua. A few moments later, he reluctantly leaned back in his seat; the outside world was far too dark. If someone didn't want to be seen, they wouldn't be seen.
"Well who said I only have one… This spot is the best in the entire country… But that's besides the point, just hurry. Alright?"
Aqua did as told and stepped out of the car; he completely ignored the salty winter wind that whipped against his face. It was definitely stronger than back in Tokyo, coming right from the vast and empty Pacific Ocean. "You just wait here, I will be back in 5 minutes," Aqua said before he shut the door. The only source of light other than the moon was a lone streetlamp. He moved slowly and precisely as he checked out the area. After he had made sure that no people were nearby, at least none that weren't well hidden, he moved on to the dock itself. The dock itself looked old, yet not abandoned. There were a few boats parked, none of which looked cheap whatsoever. At the very start of it, still on solid ground, was a lone guardbooth.
Aqua sighed as he got closer and saw that the light inside it was turned off. The only problem that remained now was the single security camera, which hung right by the booth and looked out over the ocean and the boats. He made sure not to accidentally step into the field of view of the camera as he crept back to the van and sat down in his seat. "Okay, they seem to have one camera overlooking the dock, but no on site personnel. We might be far away from the crime scene, but driving seven black bags away from the shore would raise suspicion." He leaned back as he spoke. Not only metaphorically, but also literally, he tried to look at the situation from further away.
"Okay, I have an idea," Aqua said after thinking for a moment," You just have to get on your boat like you'd go out fishing. Then you drive off like you'd normally would, but instead of driving away you just drive a few meters downstream out of the range on the camera. Let's just hope the current isn't too strong."
Ichigo stayed quiet for a moment while he rubbed his forehead with his right hand. "I still can't believe you actually did this... Let's just get this over with."
Aqua stepped out of the van again and waited for Ichigo to do the same. "You can act like you are against this as much as you want, but you know I had no other option... Just get on the boat. I'm going to drive the van a few meters downstream and meet you there."
He walked over to the driver's side as Ichigo was already on his way to the boat. Ichigo's boat looked quite new; it couldn't have been older than 5 years. It was probably the dream boat of many men, yet here it was, parked all alone at some dock in the middle of nowhere, the hull already turned green from the seaweed growing on it. Aqua moved the van a few meters down the road. The streetlight was too far away to be of any use; now the only light source was the dim moonlight, which dipped the surrounding trees into silverish light. Ichigo steered the boat as close to the riverbank as he could without capsizing, still a good five meters away, though.
Holding the boat steady, Ichigo watched as Aqua waded through the freezing water, bringing bag after bag onboard. The icy river soaked Aqua all the way up to the hips in seconds, but he didn't care about it in the slightest. A few minutes later, all seven bags were safe and secured. Aqua felt a bit guilty as he sat down in the driver's seat of Ichigo's van, his pants soaking the fabric in seconds. He quickly drove a bit up the road until he had found a good place to park, no more than 50 meters away from the boat. During the short walk back to the boat, he looked over his shoulder at least 4 times, even though the last time they had seen another car was at least 20 minutes before their arrival.
Before he climbed back on the boat, he grabbed a few heavy rocks out of the riverbed. He groaned as he lifted them onto it while Ichigo just stood and watched. Once it was done, he too pulled himself onto the boat. His heavy clothing made this whole endeavor even more tedious than it would be with dry clothes and well rested.
...
They headed south for about thirty minutes and eventually came to a halt about 80 kilometers east of Izu-Oshima. Before they began to throw the bags over the railing, both made sure that they were filled with enough rocks to keep them submerged beneath the shallow water for good. In anticipation, they watched as they dropped the first bag, filled with rocks and plastic tarp, into the water. One minute passed, then two, yet nothing ever came back up.
"Let's hope nobody ever finds these," Ichigo said to Aqua as they lifted another bag over the railing. "3… 2… 1…" he counted before he, alongside Aqua, began to groan as they lifted the heaviest out of all of them over the railing. Besides the rocks, more than inside the others too, it was filled with Kamiki's torso, head still attached to it, yet by now pale as a ghost with its eyes peacefully closed.
A loud splash sounded as the last bag entered the ocean and disappeared beneath the moonlit surface within mere moments. This was followed only by silence, no birds, waves too shallow to note, and even their breaths felt eerie all of a sudden. "Thanks…" Aqua murmured to break the silence, which was heavy enough to almost capsize the boat itself.
Ichigo had his sight already set on the captain's booth again. "Sure, whatever," he replied as he walked away from Aqua.
Ichigo paused as the tips of his fingers felt the cold leather of the boat's steering wheel beneath them. For a moment, he just stood still while his eyes wandered over the vast ocean right outside, then the muscles inside his arms tensed up, and his fingers balled around the wheel. "God damn it," he whispered as he let go and rubbed his every with his fists. The boat sprang back to life as he turned the key, which still stuck inside the ignition.
He twitched slightly when he felt an even icier hand than his own touch his shoulder. Aqua, expression untelling, stood silently behind him with the eyes of a corpse that bored right into Ichigo. "We should not return just yet," Aqua said, "Let us stay a bit longer, make it look like a fishing trip, which would be less suspicious."
Ichigo sighed as he turned the engine off again, which made the boat fall quiet and be carried off course once more. "Do we have to? I don't want to spend any second more than necessary doing this." Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It was somewhat even in the pattern in which the boat was moved. Neither Aqua nor Ichigo was sick, but if they were, this surely would've ended quite stinky.
"Yes, we do have to. We are going to do this the correct way; if we mess up even a bit, it could be over for all of us." Aqua made a small pause to catch his breath. "Ruby, Kana, and I were all actively involved in this. I am sure you know what would happen to Ichigo Productions if we get caught. No PR team could save you."
Aqua let himself fall onto one of the two padded benches, one on each side of the boat. The peace of being in the middle of nowhere let the tiredness of the last 40 hours, in which he hadn't slept for even a minute, catch up to him. Yet, to Ichigo, this gesture seemed rather disrespectful, perhaps even cocky. "Are you threatening me right now, Aqua?" he barked out, "You killed someone, you're a murderer. This could have been solved differently... Where did Miyako go wrong when she raised you?"
Ichigo took another step towards Aqua, who looked to be a bit startled by Ichigo's sudden outburst. "This is so fucked up, and you just sit here, leaning back like nothing happened?" Aqua couldn't even react before he felt his ass leave the cushions as Ichigo pulled him up by the collar of his hoodie. Aqua's confusion turned into anger, similar to Ichigo's, yet so different. He grabbed Ichigo's wrist with all the strength he had left and slowly forced it away from his collar. Ichigo tried to fight back, but there was nothing he could do as he felt his hand being bent back further and further, Aqua's eyes like a raging typhoon. "You have no right to say that," Aqua growled beneath his breath, "It is not Miyako's fault I turned out this way. She was there for Ruby when you ran away from the responsibility, so keep her name out of your mouth."
Just before his wrist would snap into two, Aqua let go of his hand and pushed him back with enough force to make him land on top of the other padded bench opposite the one Aqua sat on. Ichigo gasped and froze in place as he had almost fallen over the railing and plummeted into the freezing water below. "I was not threatening anyone." Aqua's voice was the only thing even more chilly than the waters in which Ichigo had just almost found his untimely end. "I was just telling the objective truth of what would happen when we were to get caught."
Ichigo quickly hurried back onto his feet, but he learned his lesson and kept a good distance from Aqua, who looked like he had calmed down again. "What would Ai say if she could see you right now?" Ichigo's words seemed like he spat into Aqua's direction. "Do you think she would be proud of you?" Aqua stared at Ichigo for a few seconds; his eyes flashed with various emotions before he got up and turned away. He leaned over the railing and looked towards the seemingly endless ocean around them. "It's not about that, I did what I had to do," he said after a moment of silence, "And I would do it again in a heartbeat, I don't need anybody's approval. I don't need anyone, and no one needs me anymore."
Ichigo looked at the back of Aqua's head for a long minute before he turned away and headed back into the booth while muttering, "You truly are a lost cause, Aqua."
Aqua continued staring over the railing. The horizon was fading together with the ocean, which made it seem like he was in the middle of a void. The only light came from the moon high above their heads.
The moon is beautiful tonight. It is guiding you and giving you light, even when the sun is nowhere near it.
Why do I think about this right now? It is just a lone rock floating through space; it couldn't even shine without the sun.
Yeah, the moon would be nothing without the sun… Yet I somehow still think the moon is prettier...
...
Did I really go too far?
Aqua looked down at his hands.
I killed him, my own father. And afterwards, I used the knowledge I obtained so I could save lives to hack him into pieces. And I don't feel bad even in the slightest about it.
Maybe Ichigo is right. Maybe I am too far gone. Too far gone to even know how I really feel. Do I regret what happened?
No, No, I don't
Similar thoughts spiraled through Aqua's head for a while as his eyes stopped registering the unchanging black mass in front of him. He was roughly pulled back to reality as he tumbled to the side; without telling him, Ichigo had once again started the engine.
"Do you really think that?"
Aqua's head turned empty as every coherent thought he had just disappeared in an instant. A strangely familiar voice he couldn't entirely put his finger on came from his right, the complete opposite side of where Ichigo should be. He slowly turned his head as the deck suddenly felt even quieter than before. He could see a figure, leaned against the back railing of the boat; it looked like the hallucinations of Gorou he had from time to time, but this wasn't Gorou; he was far taller and slimmer, his voice too, completely off, yet beautiful. "The moon is great, she is a true beauty, but like you said, just a rock. I personally prefer the sun."