10th of January, 11:00 pm, Miyako's house
"I really thought you would help me… I guess, it's all on me now," Ruby murmured while slipping her phone into her pocket and hastily jumping off the bed. She momentarily forgot about her own problems as her eyes wandered through Aqua's room, still in almost the exact state he had left it in.
If I wanna find him, my best bet is searching through his room.
The police have probably taken everything that could lead me to him, but maybe there is something they didn't find.
"Time for detective Ruby to get to work and solve this case in no time," Ruby said as she stood with legs slightly spread apart and her fists pressed into her sides. She began to search through Aqua's room, drawing out the drawers, sticking her blonde head into the dustiest corners of his room to hopefully get a peek at something the forensics didn't find.
When she didn't find anything inside his drawers, she moved onto the top of his closets and wardrobes; jumping up and down like a kangaroo to catch a glimpse, but here too, everything was picked clean.
She groaned in exhaustion and annoyance as she let herself fall back onto the bed, bouncing up and down a few times on the well-padded mattress before coming to a rest.
Miyako told me that under normal circumstances, the police wouldn't have allowed us to come back here for at least a few more days. But since Aqua is quite famous, they didn't want to issue a public search warrant to not make everything even worse. Instead, they first want to attempt it by setting a trap… And it almost worked.
"They almost caught him…" Ruby murmured to herself as she got back onto her feet, wiping the sweat off her forehead with her bare hand before continuing her search. By now, almost all the easy options had been exhausted, so she turned her attention to Aqua's massive bookshelf, its peak towering almost 40cm over her head; she was barely even tall enough to reach the highest row of books.
Almost all of them looked basically the same to her, but one of them managed to capture her attention without letting go again; to anyone else, it would just be a normal textbook. "That book…" she mumbled, "He was reading it non stop before we had our dispute, maybe he hid something inside of it for me…"
Ruby got onto her toes and began to blindly reach as high as she could while pressing her body against the hard wooden frame of the bookshelf. The tips of her fingers brushed against the backside of the book, edging it closer to the edge until, "Ouch!" Ruby yelped in pain while holding her head, looking down at the textbook, which now lay in front of her.
"Come to momma," Ruby said as she picked up the textbook and began to browse through the hundreds of pages. Yet, after a few minutes of turning pages nonstop stop it became very apparent that this book was just as empty as the rest of the room. She sighed as she let her head fall back into her neck. "Come on, Aqua… Give me something to work with, I know you want it too."
Ruby blinked a few times as she looked up at the bleak ceiling, her eyes snapping around in their socket. "What am I even looking for? It's not like he planned to run away from home, and even if he did, he wouldn't leave me a hint."
Where's even the point in all of that?
There is nothing in his room that could help me…
My best bet is to just walk around and pray that I find him before the police do.
Kana was probably right. I can't ask her to throw everything away for a small chance. It would be unfair.
Ruby looked back down; right across from her, staring back with a beaming smile, was the poster of Ai she had gifted to Aqua years ago. Right beneath Ai, who was striking her signature pose, was the slogan "Never Lose Hope." She faintly smiled at the poster while pushing herself off Aqua's carpet, tumbling a bit as she took her first steps.
Mom is right, I should never lose hope.
Even if it means walking through Tokyo all on my own, even then.
Even when I don't find him in time, even then, I can say that I tried everything.
"Thanks mom, you're the best," Ruby muttered quietly as she stepped away from the poster. She quickly put on a pair of shoes and threw on a jacket over the hoodie she stole from Aqua.
On a normal night, Ruby would be sound asleep right now, but this was no normal night. The stakes were too high to even think about sleep right now; instead, she was outside, seeing a side of Tokyo she rarely saw. It was empty; most people would find it to be eerie or scary, but for Ruby, 'calming' would've been a better word to describe it.
Nobody knows him better than I do, so my chances are maybe not so bad after all.
If I were Aqua.
Where would I go?
…
I would probably just run away. He seemed pretty distraught. Hard to think that he would be thinking straight…
But for how long? Let's just say 10 minutes. Aqua ran for 10 minutes before he calmed down again.
Ruby glanced at her phone for a second so she could better determine the time it took him.
What would he do then? I guess he would look for somewhere he could go…
But where? Public transport is too risky. The authorities are searching for him…
I got it, maybe he is staying over at Ichigo's place or with the producer.
They both see him as sort of their son, and if they knew about his circumstances, they would definitely help him.
Ruby quickened her pace slightly as she dialed Ichigo's number. Ichigo, she could just call, but she didn't have the producer's number saved in her contacts since they were never that close, so she had to visit him in person.
"Y-Yes?" Ichigo said, Ruby could almost smell the clearly drunken Ichigo through her phone.
Ruby's breathing was irregular. She had been doing stamina training for the Idol-life day in and day out for years; yet something about the current situation just made her heart race a little too much. "Ichigo, is Aqua with you?"
"Straight to the point, huh?... I like it… you've grown up to be… quite the professional… woman." Ichigo was interrupted by his own hiccups every other word, making it hard for Ruby to stay composed.
"Just tell me if you know where Aqua is, it can't be that hard, you useless alcoholic." Ruby groaned out in frustration, letting her pent-up anger now seep out towards Ichigo, too.
Ruby didn't get any time to regret her words before Ichioo spoke, his words filled with a sharpness Ruby hadn't expected from him. "You listen to me, young lady." His words were actually enough to make Ruby listen. She stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the narrow road, the line staying eerily silent for a moment.
"I only drink that much because your brother made me help him dump a co-" Ichigo fell completely silent mid-sentence; his annoying hiccups disappearing, too. After a short while, he continued, "Look, I have no clue where Aqua is, just leave me alone now, aight?"
Ruby shook her head. The sharpness in his voice had disappeared just as fast as it had appeared; perhaps Ichigo himself didn't even expect his words to come out like that.
She silently nodded, even though Ichigo could obviously not see her. "Alright, thanks anyway," she said.
So this is what happened to Kamiki's body after Kana and I left. He dumped him in the Pacific, where nobody will ever find him.
Serves him right, he doesn't deserve a proper burial after what he did.
…
Ruby arrived at the producer's apartment a few minutes later. From what she could see, every light was turned off. She already hovered over the doorbell with her finger when she hesitated and glanced down at the clock on her phone. "It's so late already," Ruby said under her breath.
"Aqua said that guy lives with his mom… Waking her up would be totally not cool." Ruby shifted left and right for a moment. "Aqua is more important than Granny's beauty sleep," she said to herself while already pressing down on the doorbell, just a tiny amount of guilt flashing in her eyes.
A minute in which Ruby had thought about ringing the bell again more than just a few times passed before the door was cracked open, revealing a small silverish chain that prevented it from being opened further. Behind it chain was Gotanda Taishi's face, obscured by shadows, which were a strong contrast to the dim lamp on the outside of his door next to Ruby.
He looked up and down at Ruby's body without saying a word, then he shut his door again. "You little," Ruby whispered under her breath as she was just about to start banging against it. She halted as she heard the sound of the lock of the chain being opened, quickly dropping her hand again and acting like nothing happened while her cheeks flushed a tiny bit red. "Oops," she whispered while she looked down at the floor.
Ruby looked back up as she heard the faint sound of the door being pushed open. "Care to explain why you are here?" Taishi asked, his voice neither friendly nor hostile, now completely exposed to the dim light and Ruby's gaze. His hair looked messy, and his voice was groggy, yet to Ruby, it didn't sound like he had just woken up, it sounded like he hadn't slept in 2 days.
"Yes, I wanted to ask if you knew where Aqua is. It is like super duper important and can't wait, so sorry for ringing your doorbell this late, but is he perhaps staying here with you?" Ruby said without breathing in once in between her words, the faint blush of her earlier mistake only reinforced as she bowed down slightly.
"Sorry to disappoint you, kiddo," Taishi peeked his head out of his apartment and looked left and right, "but Aqua ain't here. Haven't heard from him in like 2 weeks, hope he is doing alright," Taishi said nervously, "Is this everything?"
"No, wait. Do you know where he could be?" Ruby managed to slip her foot between the already closing door and its frame.
Taishi sighed, "Where did you search already?"
Ruby pulled her foot slowly back as she felt the pressure being removed from it. "I only asked Ichigo, but he had no clue either."
Taishi's expression turned shockingly thoughtful for a moment before he replied. "Well, what about his girlfriend… The one with the blue hair, they seemed pretty close when they visited me. But that's already like 2 years back, so I don't know."
"You're right, why haven't I thought about this before?" A small smile played across Ruby's cheeks, "Thanks for your help."
"Bye," she walked backwards and waved with both hands before she finally turned around and quickened her steps. Taishi dídn't shut the door immediately; instead, he waved after Ruby, who was already a few doors down.
…
"Why haven't I thought about that? I have to call her asap." She pulled her phone out of the tight pocket of her pair of jeans and began to dial Akane's number. The cold air and quick movement of her legs made it hard for her to hit the right numbers, but eventually she still managed to.
Each ring that came out through her phone and echoed through the alley around her weighed hard on Ruby. The chance of her finding Aqua diminishing into absurdity more and more for every second that Akane didn't pick up.
"God damn it, pick up your phone, Akane," Ruby said as her call went to voicemail, "What on earth could be so important right now?"
11th of January, a few minutes prior, streets of Tokyo.
Aqua's steps were quick, a quiet echo following along with them as he stepped through the concrete porches of the houses on the path to his hideout. "I finally have everything I need," he muttered under his ragged breaths. His pace quickened as his hideout appeared in the distance. A warmth spreading through his chest, he truly couldn't wait for it.
…
He pushed the front door to the house open and stepped inside. The inside of the house felt just as cold as the outside, maybe even a bit colder. He loudly shut the door behind him in one swift motion, not stopping once. His steps were loud and heavy, echoing through the empty hallway until he finally stood before the door leading to his makeshift ritual room.
His hand rested on the freezing handle of the door for a moment; his fingers tightly wrapped around it. Then, with one swift motion, he pushed it down, the old door creaking as he slowly opened it.