Midnight draped Osaka in a thin, electric haze neon reflections trembling across rain damp pavement. Kaito leaned against a brick wall still warm from the day's heat, the thump of bass from the club behind him rattling faintly through the bricks.
A lighter snapped open. Click.
The flame kissed the end of his cigarette, and he drew in a slow breath. Smoke curled into the night, dissolving lazily as he exhaled.
"Ahh... why does everybody love partying so damn much..." he muttered, dragging again.
A sudden set of footsteps too quick, too light—cut through the quiet.
Bump!
"Ouch—!" Kaito jerked sideways and shot a glare.
A girl with soft bangs and a gentle, mischievous smile stood before him, slightly out of breath. She held up a wrapped ice pop like a peace offering.
"Sorry for the wait, love," Fuyuko teased, her grin bright enough to rival the streetlights.
Kaito flicked his cigarette to the curb and stepped on it. "Thanks, Fuyuko." He tore open the wrapper and took a bite, the cold biting back against the humid air.
Fuyuko nestled against his arm, her shoulder brushing his. "Hey, Kaito..."
He glanced down mid-lick. "Hm? What is it now?"
She puffed her cheeks and pointed her ice pop like an accusing wand. "We seriously need to go home. Are the others still partying?"
Kaito rolled his eyes so hard it almost hurt. "Yeah. I'm trying to sober up a bit before dealing with them. Hikaru's probably already blackout drunk, as usual—"
A voice screeched from nowhere.
"WAAAHHHZAAA!"
Kaito's pop-ice slipped right out of his hand. Fuyuko flinched.
Hikaru stumbled into view, arms flung wide, eyes glazed with chaotic joy. "My besto friend!!!"
Kaito sighed so deeply it might've been his soul leaving his body. "You're drunk. Again. We have to go home! it's late, idiot! We have an exam tomorrow."
Hikaru laughed with the wobbliness of a newborn deer. "Don't worryyyy, I'm fine! Let's go in my car—"
Two more figures lurched out from behind him.
"Renjiro!? Riko!?" Kaito barked. "What were you two even doing? I told you to watch him!"
Renjiro staggered forward, nearly tripping over air, while Riko pointed at absolutely nothing and burst into sloppy laughter. Then, without warning—
"Ueegh—"
She folded like a rag doll and vomited spectacularly onto the sidewalk.
"Disgusting!" Renjiro yelped, recoiling even though he'd clearly had just as much to drink.
Kaito's irritation pulsed like a headache. "Of course you're drunk too! All of you! Tomorrow is literally the final exam of the year!"
Fuyuko giggled softly, stepping to his side. She slipped her arms around his, resting her cheek against his shoulder. "Looks like we're the babysitters tonight."
Kaito dragged a hand down his face. "Unbelievable..."
Time skip
The engine roared far louder than it should have.
Hikaru swung the steering wheel sharply left and right, the car swaying dangerously across the empty highway. Kaito gripped the passenger-side handle, his stomach twisting with every wild movement. In the back seat, Renjiro and Riko were barely conscious — slumped together, giggling weakly in their drunken haze as the car rocked beneath them.
"Hikaru! Watch out—drive properly!" Kaito shouted, grabbing the wheel to steady it.
Hikaru snapped at him, breath thick with alcohol. "Ehh!? I'm not drunk, you brat!" He shoved Kaito's arm away, overcorrecting the wheel and sending the car lurching the opposite direction.
The road was mercifully empty, stretching through the mountain pass between Osaka and Wakayama. It was the only reason they were alive so far.
"Hikaru, stop the car!" Fuyuko screamed from the back seat, gripping the headrest in front of her. Her voice cracked with panic. "Please—slow down, you're going too fast!"
Kaito reached for the wheel again. "Pull over and let me drive! You're going to kill us—"
"I said I'm fine! Let go!" Hikaru growled, fighting him for control.
Their struggle made the wheel jerk sharply to the right.
Everything tilted.
Gravity slipped out from under them.
The headlights caught a glimpse of empty air—then the world spun as the car rolled off the mountain road, metal shrieking as it tumbled down the steep cliff.
Kaito's eyes widen "Shi—!"
BOOM.
A deafening crunch.
Then fire.
Then silence.
Kaito's eyes snapped open.
A ragged gasp tore out of him as he lay sprawled across a massive rock. His body refused to move; pain surged from his abdomen, his back, his skull. Blood trickled down the side of his face, warm and endless. His breaths came thin and hollow.
He tasted iron.
His vision blurred as he lifted his head just enough to see it—the wrecked car below the cliff, flames swallowing the metal whole. Black smoke curled into the night sky.
His heart sank into cold dread.
"F... Fuyuko..." His voice didn't come out of his mouth, only echoed inside him in a trembling whisper. "Fuyuko..."
His vision dimmed. Consciousness leached away like water through cracked fingers.
A memory flickered.
A year ago.
His room.
Shadows closing in on the walls.
Downstairs, voices murmured — police officers speaking to his parents with heavy, defeated tones.
"We're sorry... There's no trace. Your daughter—she's simply disappeared. We fear the worst."
Kaito had listened from behind his door, chest tight, nails digging into his palms.
His sister... gone.
Back in the present, his lips trembled.
"M-Miyu... I'm sorry..." The words existed only in his heart, too weak for breath. "I'm sorry... I couldn't find you..."
Another memory surged, bright and clear despite the darkness closing in.
Yesterday.
The last time he saw her.
She walked past him toward the door, her expression strangely distant.
"Where are you going?" he'd asked from the couch.
"Somewhere..." she said — voice calm, empty, lifeless.
And then she vanished from his life.
His heartbeat slowed.
His vision collapsed to a narrow tunnel.
Darkness pooled around him...
until suddenly, a blinding white light burst through it.
Kaito felt weightless, suspended between pain and oblivion, drifting toward the brightness swallowing his vision.