Chapter 44: Whispers Beneath the Surface
The following days felt almost normal.
Almost.
Classes went on, the hallways buzzed with laughter, exams loomed. To anyone watching from the outside, Naoto and his friends looked the same—still a group of teenagers clinging to the fleeting warmth of their youth before the real world tore it away.
But underneath the surface, tension crackled like an invisible wire straining to hold.
Naoto felt it every time he caught Rika looking at him when she thought he wouldn't notice—anxious, tender, afraid. He felt it in the way Souta and Haruki stuck close, cracking dumb jokes a little too loudly. In how Aiko watched him with wary, guarded eyes. And in how Himari… how Himari seemed to be bracing herself for something too.
They all knew the storm wasn't over. It had only just begun.
---
It was on a chilly Wednesday afternoon when Naoto finally decided he couldn't pretend anymore.
He skipped the last class, slipping out under the excuse of feeling sick, though the teacher barely glanced up from her paperwork. Everyone was too busy these days—everyone had their own storms to fight.
Instead of going home, Naoto boarded a train heading out of Hoshikawa City.
Destination: a part of town he hadn't visited since he was a little boy.
Where it had all started.
Where maybe—just maybe—he could find the real truth.
---
The ride was long and quiet, the train rattling past endless fields and forgotten suburbs. Naoto sat by the window, his reflection staring back at him—tired, pale, older somehow than he should be at eighteen.
He thought about the text message.
"Choose carefully."
Choose what?
Between what and what?
Was it about Rika? About Himari? About saving his mother—or saving himself?
He didn't know.
And that scared him more than anything.
---
The old district was almost abandoned now. Empty houses stood like hollow skeletons under the gray sky. Weeds cracked the pavement. Stores sat boarded up, their signs faded and peeling.
Naoto walked slowly down the cracked streets, the air smelling of rust and rain.
He knew this place. His father had grown up here. Before everything changed. Before the Hayato family swooped in, bringing promises of salvation—and chains hidden inside those promises.
His destination was a crumbling community center, long abandoned.
But not empty.
As he pushed open the rusted gate, he saw someone waiting for him on the steps.
A woman.
Middle-aged, dressed simply, her hair tied back, a worn satchel at her side.
She stood when she saw him, her face lined with worry—and something deeper.
Pity.
"You're his boy, aren't you?" she said softly. "Takeshi Hayashi's son."
Naoto stiffened. "You knew my father?"
The woman nodded. "I knew all of them. Your family... and the Hayatos."
She gestured for him to sit.
Naoto hesitated—then obeyed.
The woman's voice dropped to a whisper, as if the crumbling walls around them could still hear.
"They never told you the real reason, did they? Why your mother got sick. Why your father disappeared."
Naoto's heart pounded. "Tell me."
She sighed, the sound heavy with years of regret.
"Years ago, before you were born, this town wasn't dying. It was alive. Your father—he was part of the movement to keep it that way. They fought against the companies that wanted to buy out the land. Companies backed by powerful families. Families like the Hayatos."
Naoto's mouth went dry.
"But in the end… they lost. Your father made a deal to protect the people he loved. He agreed to certain… conditions." Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. "And he paid for it. Your whole family did."
"What conditions?" Naoto demanded. "What did he do?"
The woman hesitated. Then she said the words that shattered the last fragile pieces of Naoto's world:
"He agreed that one day, his firstborn would serve the Hayato family.
Would become their pawn. Their tool."
Naoto staggered back, feeling as if the ground had opened beneath him.
"No," he whispered. "No, that's not—"
"It wasn't supposed to be cruel," the woman said quickly. "It was supposed to ensure your family's survival. And for a time, it did. But when your father refused to fully submit… when he tried to fight back… they made sure he disappeared.
And your mother… well, you know what's happening to her now."
Naoto felt like he couldn't breathe.
He had thought he was working for Rika's father because of a favor, a debt between old friends.
But it wasn't a favor.
It was a leash.
A life sentence passed down to him before he was even born.
And Rika…
Did she know?
Did she realize that every smile, every touch between them, had been built on a foundation of chains and lies?
---
Naoto stumbled out of the community center, the woman's voice following him like a curse.
"Be careful, Naoto. The Hayato family is powerful. You're just a piece on their board. And when you stop being useful…"
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't have to.
Naoto ran.
He didn't know where he was running to—only that he had to move, had to escape the walls closing in around him.
The cold air tore at his lungs. Tears blurred his vision.
He felt like he was drowning in a truth too heavy to bear.
All this time...
All this time, he had thought he was making choices.
But his path had been written for him from the start.
He was never free.
---
When he finally stopped, panting and shaking, he was at the edge of a river.
Not the one near his school—the old river, the one his father had brought him to as a child.
He collapsed to his knees, staring blankly at the water.
He didn't know how long he sat there.
Minutes. Hours. A lifetime.
Finally, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He pulled it out with trembling fingers.
A new message.
No sender. No name.
Just five chilling words:
"It's almost time, Naoto."
---