Mrs. Kamitani couldn't stop giggling at his completele, dramatic misery.
She reached out, lightly nudging his shoulder to break him out of his tragic pose.
"Fufu—Ayato..." she laughed, her voice warm and amused as she squirmed underneath his heavy frame. "Move, give me some space! The phone is inside my pajama pocket!"
Mr. Kamitani leaned down, a stubborn, playful smile returning to his face as he planted a soft kiss on her cheek. "If it's in your pocket, just leave it. We don't need to take it out. I'm far more interested in my wife than whoever's calling."
"No way!" she laughed, pushing against his chest to pull him back. "What if it's an important emergency call?!"
She shoved her hand into her pocket, desperately grabbing her phone. Meanwhile, Mr. Kamitani playfully ran his fingers lightly over her stomach to distract her, grumbling under his breath. "Seriously... who is it anyway?"
"It's just a colleague..." she gasped, trying to look at the screen while getting away from his ticklish fingers.
Mr. Kamitani narrowed his eyes, looking up at her with a mock pout. "This 'colleague' better have an actual name. If it's not life-or-death, do not pick it up, Yuna. I swear, after so much effort the perfect moment was finally built, only for it to be utterly shattered by a phone call..."
He leaned down, playfully resting his head flat on her stomach, his voice muffled against her shirt.
"Since you denied my request to ignore it, you're going to completely pay me back by making the most magnificent breakfast in the morning."
Mrs. Kamitani sighed with a soft smile, running her hand through his dark hair. "This man..."
The phone stopped, then instantly started ringing again. She looked down at the caller ID, her eyebrows furrowing in deep confusion.
'Why is she calling me at this hour...?' She quickly swiped the screen and pressed it to her ear. "Hello...?"
Suddenly, the voice on the other end spoke.
In an instant, Mrs. Kamitani's entire body went completely rigid.
"W-What...?" she stammered, her voice turning thin, rushed, and wildly unsteady. "N-No... what did you just say...? Say it again..."
Hearing the terrifying shift in her voice, Mr. Kamitani instantly lifted his head from her stomach, his playful grin vanishing as he locked his eyes onto her face.
"H-How...?" Mrs. Kamitani breathed, her voice collapsing into a panicked whisper. "When...? When did this happen...?"
"How...? When did this...?" Mrs. Kamitani's eyes widened in horror, sweat literally breaking out on her forehead.
"Honey...?" Mr. Kamitani asked, his voice instantly turning serious as he sat upright. "Yuna, what's wrong?"
Mrs. Kamitani scrambled to her feet, completely ignoring him as she gripped the phone with trembling fingers.
"I-I'm coming!" she cried, her voice shaking uncontrollably. "Yuriko, listen to me—I'm on my way! Please... don't panic! Just stay where you are, okay?! I'm coming! I'm coming as fast as I can!"
She slammed the phone down, her breathing ragged. Mr. Kamitani quickly stood up beside her, his hands moving to help steady her, gently fixing the tangled hem of her clothes near her belly area as he looked at her pale face with deep worry.
"Yuna, look at me. What happened? Why do you look so scared?"
Mrs. Kamitani put a trembling hand over her eyes, letting out a shattered, breathless sigh.
"It... it was Yuriko's call..." she whispered, lifting her tearful eyes to meet his. Her voice shook so badly she could barely get the words out. "She said... Asuka..." She swallowed hard. "...Asuka died in a terrible accident."
The entire room instantly turned into a dead, suffocating silence. The air turned ice-cold.
The next second, Mr. Kamitani's eyes widened in absolute shock.
"What...?" he breathed, the color draining from his face. "What did you just say?" His voice broke into a disbelieving stammer. "A-Asuka...?"
"You... you heard her right..." she whispered brokenly, forcing the words through the tightness in her throat as she hurried toward her vanity. Her hands shook violently while she pulled open the drawers, searching for something—anything—to wear.
"It happened... at three in the morning..." She squeezed her eyes shut for a brief second, desperately swallowing back another sob. "...Two hours ago..."
She stood frozen for a heartbeat, clutching the clothes tightly in both hands.
Without looking back, she spoke in a quiet, trembling voice.
"...Ayato."
A long pause.
"Are you... coming with me?"
She waited for his response, her back turned to the room as she frantically sorted through her things. "Ayato...?" She called out his name again, her voice cracking. "Ayato, answer me."
Receiving nothing but silence, she finally turned around, looking here and there across the bedroom.
But Mr. Kamitani was completely gone.
"Where in the world did he go...?" she whispered blankly to the empty room.
_DOWNSTAIRS IN THE DARK HALLWAY_
"HAHH... HAHH... HAHH"
Mr. Kamitani was running through the dark house, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air, his mind completely exploding with terrifying, tragic memories.
"The officers called it an accident...but I never believed it." His grandmother's ancient, weeping voice echoed in his mind, recalling the tragic fate of his uncle.
"The Kamitani... the Amamiya... the Nagachika..." His mother's voice echoed in the depths of his mind. "Never believe your destinies walk separate paths. Since the First Age, the Seven Chosen Families have shared one shadow. When darkness falls upon one house... its shadow reaches every other."
A cold sweat broke across his neck as he ran down the staircase. Asuka was gone. The shadow had officially fallen on the Amamiya house tonight... which meant his own boys were in immediate, terrifying danger.
His mind flashed back further, exactly Eleven Years Ago, during the Sacred Ritual. He could still hear the ancient priest's voice, speaking with absolute, unwavering devotion against the heavy incense of the shrine:
"But do not ask me to abandon the child."
"Not after waiting so long."
"Not after carrying this prayer for generations."
"Not when the heavens themselves have finally remembered his name."
The memories clashed violently in his head, fueling a pure, total terror. He was panting frantically, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird, his vision blurring as tears finally broke from his eyes.
"N-No..." he whispered at first.
Then the whisper broke.
"No... please... please..."
His voice cracked so violently that the words hardly sounded human anymore as he cried out to God through helpless, uncontrollable sobs.
"Kami-sama..." he sobbed, stumbling through the dark hallway. "If a price must be paid... let me be the one to pay it."
"Take my years... my strength... my career... everything I've ever been..."
"...Take my life..."
"...But please..."
"...don't make me bury my children!"
With a final, desperate gasp, he threw open the door to Kento's bedroom.
He stood beside Kento's bed, his chest huffing.
Inside, Kento was sleeping completely peacefully on his bed, his eyes softly closed, his breathing even and calm.
He was sprawled out wildly across the mattress, having completely kicked his blanket off onto the floor in his usual messy sleep style.
"...Hhk..."
Mr. Kamitani let out a massive, soul-relieved sob, a hot tear slipping from his eye and falling directly onto Kento's soft cheek.
He quickly wiped the tear away with trembling fingers before it could remain on Kento's cheek, terrified that his own grief might disturb the boy's peaceful sleep.
His hands shook uncontrollably as he reached down to grab the fallen, pulling the blanket back over his son and carefully tucking it beneath his shoulders with desperate care.
"...Ah..."
A broken, ragged breath escaped his lips.
Mr. Kamitani stood frozen in the dim moonlight of the bedroom, his eyes wide and unblinking as he stared down at Kento for another long, agonizing second.
Still breathing.
Still warm.
Still here.
The sheer weight of the realization hit Mr. Kamitani all at once, and the strength completely drained from his legs. His knees weakened, threatening to give out right there on the floorboards.
"...Kami-sama..."
His voice cracked completely, reduced to a fragile, desperate rasp that barely echoed in the quiet room.
He collapsed slightly against the frame of the bed, his broad shoulders trembling violently under the heavy wave of relief.
"T-Thank You..."
"T-Thank You..."
He hurriedly brought up a trembling hand, tightly covering his mouth with his palm as he tried to forcibly choke back the agonizing sobs threatening to burst from his throat.
Another hot tear rolled down his face, spilling over his knuckles.
"...He's here..." he wept into his palm, his chest heaving as the icy terror in his chest finally began to melt away. "...He's really here..."
His breathing became terribly uneven again, a chaotic mess of hitching gasps and silent tears.
"I-I thought..."
His words dissolved into a shaky, broken gasp, unable to even finish the horrifying thought out loud. 'I thought I'd... I'd lost him...'
Unable to stand any longer under the crushing gravity of his love, he lowered his forehead against the side of the soft mattress for only a heartbeat, squeezing his eyes shut tight as he let his tears soak into the bedding.
"...Thank You..."
His lips trembled uncontrollably against the fabric, repeating the prayer like a sacred lifeline. "...Thank You for letting me see him again..."
After a long moment, he slowly lifted his head. He reached out one last time, his touch as light as a feather, gently brushing Kento's messy, dark hair back into place away from his forehead.
"...Sleep well..."
His voice was safely buried beneath a whisper, a soft vow whispered into the shadows of the room.
"...Just... keep sleeping..."
He quietly closed the door without making a sound, then turned and instantly turned open Shido's bedroom door.
"Zzzzz... hoooo... khhh... phew..."
The heavy, rhythmic sleeping sounds immediately echoed out into the dark hallway.
"Zzzzz... phew... zzzzz..."
There, inside the dark room, Shido was snoring softly, completely safe and healthy, tightly cuddling a Giant Plush Panda against his chest as he slept off his early-morning WWE trauma.
Mr. Kamitani stood in the doorway, a beautiful, broken smile finally touching his lips as he watched his son breathe.
He closed his eyes, letting out a long, shuddering breath of absolute relief, silently thanking the heavens over and over again for keeping his boys completely safe.
He stood frozen in the frame of the doorway, his eyes slowly closing as a long, shuddering wave of absolute relief washed over his exhausted body.
The tight, suffocating knot in his chest finally broke, leaving him completely breathless in the shadows.
"...Kami-sama..."
His lips trembled violently in the dark, the words slipping out as a broken, tearful whisper into the quiet hallway.
He leaned his heavy frame against the doorpost, his hand sliding down the wood as the terrifying adrenaline finally began to drain away.
"...Thank You..."
He squeezed his eyes shut tight, hot tears slipping down his cheeks as the image of his sleeping sons burned into his heart. He bowed his head deeply, his voice cracking with a raw, agonizing humility that shook his entire chest
"...Thank You... for hearing the prayer of a selfish father..."
As he quietly exited the room and shut the door, the tragic weight of the world outside settled back onto the house, leaving behind a cold stillness...
_SEPTEMBER 30th, 2016. TOKYO. 7:16 P.M._
The passage of time from the fragile silence of dawn to the screaming chaos of evening was instantaneous, a brutal collision of two entirely different worlds.
The kitchen was spinning. The protective boundary Shido had tried to maintain around Hori collapsed in an instant as both teenagers moved out of frantic, primal instinct.
Mr. Kamitani stood perfectly still in the center of the floor, his body rigid, his sharp face fixed in an expression of absolute, calculated control.
His mind—the clinical, highly disciplined mind of a High Court lawyer that could deconstruct a multi-million yen corporate fraud case in seconds—was running a furious sequence of logical evaluations.
'It is a localized medical emergency...' he told himself, his internal voice sounding exactly like it did when addressing a judge.
'An acute physiological reaction,' he told himself, his internal voice sounding exactly like it did when addressing a judge. Cold. Reasonable. Unshakeable.
Cold.
Reasonable.
Unshakeable.
'Food poisoning? No. The plates are untouched. Allergic reaction? Unlikely. Then... what could possibly make two healthy boys collapse at the exact same moment?'
He refused to look at the shadows dancing in the corner of his vision. He refused to let his mind wander toward ancient shrines or weeping mothers.
He stood there, the Shield of the Court, forcing the entire terrifying scene into a neat, legal box.
"K-Kash..." Kento choked out.
"Cough! Cough-Urgh!"
A violent, breathless cough tore through Kento's chest. The boy's face was violently pale, sweat dripping down his neck as he forced his green eyes open, looking past Shido's shoulder to lock onto Kashima.
"Hey! Hey! Look at me!" Shido shouted, his hands firmly gripping Kento's shoulders to keep him from sliding down the cabinet. "Stop looking over there! Look out for yourself first, you moron!"
Mr. Kamitani watched Shido's hands tighten around his brother. He noticed the slight tremble in Shido's fingers, the way Kento's uniform shirt was bunching up. But he maintained his posture, his breathing even.
'It's an abdominal cramp. Appendicitis can strike with that exact level of sudden intensity. I will call an ambulance. We will go to the hospital. It is entirely normal.'
He was actively lecturing his own heartbeat, demanding it to slow down. He was the father. He was the anchor. Everything was under control.
Bzzzzzz... Bzzzzzz... Bzzzzzz...
A sudden, sharp vibration cut through the heavy layer of panic in the room. It was a low, mechanical sound, rhythmic and demanding, cutting right through the sounds of Hori's sobbing and Kento's choked gasps.
Down against Shido's chest, a faint, rhythmic light appeared from inside the fabric of Kento's uniform pant pocket.
Shido didn't hesitate, urgently sliding his hand into Kento's pocket and pulling the vibrating metal into the open.
The moment the brothers' eyes locked onto the name flashing boldly across the screen, both Shido and Kento froze.
Mr. Kamitani, breaking out of his calculated stillness, stepped forward.
His heavy steps brought him right over the broken glass to stand directly over his sons. Without a word, he reached down and firmly took the phone from Shido's grip, turning the screen to face himself.
DR. KANEKI NAGACHIKA.
The lawyer's face hardened, seeing the name flashing boldly against the screen. Even in the middle of a literal disaster zone, a sharp, unshakeable wave of familiarity snapped through his chest.
'...Kaneki.'
A raw instinct flared through his mind.
'Of course you'd call now... You've had the worst timing since we were ten years old.'
"Kento." Mr. Kamitani spoke, his voice carrying a rare, strained tone as he looked down at his son's pale, sweating face. "Where does it hurt? Tell me exactly where."
Kento couldn't answer, letting out nothing but shallow, desperate gasps for air.
"Well... actually..." Shido stuttered out, his voice cracking, his brain completely paralyzed by terror. "He just... it's just a sudden... Dad, he—"
CLICK.
Mr. Kamitani slid his thumb across the screen, picking up the call. He didn't say a word to the person on the other end yet.
He simply lifted the phone, pressing it tightly against his ear, his eyes still locked onto Kento, waiting for the clinical description of a stomach ache so he could relay it to the doctor.
"Hello." Mr. Kamitani said into the phone.
Right at that exact second, the air in the kitchen seemed to freeze solid.
Kento's head snapped back against Shido's shoulder, his teeth gritting together. Forcing his trembling hand to press directly over his shirt, right against his skin, the boy let out three raw, breathless words.
"Lower... left... Rib..."
Those three words struck Ayato Kamitani like a physical iron rod to the chest.
The lower left rib.
His mind betrayed him.
FLASH
His grandmother's ancient, weeping voice echoing through a dark mourning room. "The officers called it an accident... but I never believed it... right beneath the left rib..."
FLASH.
His mother's cold, trembling hand gripping his wrist. "Never believe your destinies walk separate paths... When darkness falls upon one house, its shadow reaches every other..."
FLASH.
The high priest at the basement Eleven Years Ago, the suffocating smell of heavy incense burning his throat. "Do not ask me to abandon the child... the heavens themselves have finally remembered his name..."
FLASH.
Asuka.
Dead at Three in the morning. Just Sixteen Hours Ago. The shadow falling on the Amamiya house.
And now, the lower left rib of his own son.
The realization didn't hit him like a thought; it hit him like a physical paralysis. Every single ounce of strength vanished from his fingers as if his his fingers ceased to obey him.
His composure, his lawyer's logic, his protective shield—everything turned entirely limp.
THUD.
The phone slipped completely out of his unfeeling grip, tumbling through the air and slamming heavily against the kitchen floor tiles.
He didn't even look down at it. He couldn't.
His wide, unblinking eyes were locked entirely on Kento's pale face, his own face draining of every single drop of color until he stood there as white as a sheet, completely frozen in the middle of his crumbling world.
From the floorboards, completely ignored, the tiny, distant speaker of the phone cut through the suffocating silence.
"Hello? Kamitani?" Dr. Nagachika's voice echoed through the line, sounding distant and confused on the other end. "Are you there? Hello...?"
The voice calling from the fallen phone sounded impossibly distant, as though it belonged to a world Mr. Kamitani could no longer reach.
A lifetime of reason collapsed in a single heartbeat. The Shield of the Court, the man who had spent his life defeating chaos with logic, stood utterly defenseless before a fate that neither evidence nor argument could overturn.
Fourteen hours ago, he had thanked Kami-sama for answering the prayer of a Selfish Father.
Now he understood.
The shadow had never stopped walking.
It had merely waited... until it reached his son.
Everything he had built—every certainty, every promise, every quiet belief that his family had escaped the darkness—crumbled without a sound.
There was no courtroom left to stand in. No verdict to challenge. No miracle left to bargain for.
And all Ayato Kamitani could do was stand there, unable to move, unable to breathe, watching his world quietly begin to fall apart.
----