Steam rose and rolled into clouds. Some of them condensed into a fog on the kitchen window. A woman in her 40s was washing the dishes while her youngest son was playing video games in the living room. Different flashes of colours reflected off the kitchen surfaces from the tv screen.
She was worried about the sudden special meeting that her son was staying after school for. He wasn't the academic type and didn't tell her about any clubs he joined much less a surprise party project.
She tried to confide in her husband about her worries but when he got home, he was exhausted about work as usual, so he dropped his bag and collapsed on the bed. She was irritated in how insensitive he was and how he only has time for his work and not the family.
"Akinori! You played for three hours already! Get off the console or I'll shut it off!" She shouted.
"Mummm! But brother's not here yet! It's my turn at this time!"
She ignored her son and made more noise in the kitchen.
Click
Hidehisa unlocks the front door with his key and came in.
She inspected his appearance and face with suspicion. Disappointedly, she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary to satisfy an accusation.
"Dinner's in the fridge. Heat it up and eat. I want to hear about this meeting." Irritation is clearly audible in her voice.
Hidehisa took a couple of steps forward and turned to his left. Akinori notices his older brother looking at him from the corner of his eye.
"Forget it. You were gone all day. It's mine now." He said in a tough voice, his eyes fixed to the screen.
A couple of steps later, legs stood in from the left, blocking his view of the screen.
"It's too late! It's my turn! Aghhhh!" He yelled.
"No shouting in the house! Hide! Drop it and go warm up your dinner!" The mother shouted without turning her head. Behind her, the brothers were hidden behind the couch and only sounds, and arms flailing could be seen from the struggle. After a while, it was quiet. All video game sounds were non-existent as the game over screen was on. She had taken out his food and warmed it up for him. It was now steaming on the dinner table.
While drying the dishes with a towel, she noticed her son standing on her right.
"I warmed it up for you, go eat."
He stood there with no response. Before she asked him about it, he picked up the frying pan on the stove and banged her head. Blood splattered surprising him. He thought that there wouldn't be blood if he hit her with a blunt object. She fell dead on the floor still holding onto a white bowl which broke open on the floor. Food from the frying pan scattered on the floor.
He then went upstairs with the frying pan and opened the door to his father's room. The outside light shone in, yet he was still asleep. The sound bowl breaking downstairs didn't wake him up.
He walked to the side of the bed and swung at his head.
Whack!
The father sat up as if he were waking up normally. He got up and fell forward on his bed after taking a step. He twitched a couple of times. He had died unconsciously.
Hide signaled through the window. A couple of people went through the unlocked door. Both inspecting the bodies. One of them checked Akinori's neck pulse. Hide came and stood next to the body.
"How did you kill him?"
"I covered his mouth and nose with my hands."
…
The second guy came down the stairs and said,
"Everything's good but clean up the blood spatter in the kitchen.". He then sent a text on his phone. They piled up the bodies at the front door and soon a white van came. He saw a stream of blood dripping through the backdoor crevice and opened it. A pile of bodies laid on top of each other. There were 17 bodies laid 3 by 3 in attempt to maximise space usage. A few of the bodies were mauled and had bite wounds.
"Oi, who did the messy ones back here?" He called out to the driver.
"hah? What mess? No idea." The driver replied.
"… (-.-)"
They put the bodies on top. The back was three quarters full. The van went off and they all went into different positions, joining different teams and commencing new house raids.
***
Hikaru walked to his home while Chiho followed behind his back. Despite Chiho's earlier outburst, she was quiet most of the way and Hikaru didn't bother to fill in the silence. After waiting for Hikaru to come out, she had no idea where to start when he asked where she wanted to look. She jumped the idea of heading to "the scene of crime.". After a while of walking, she suddenly felt awkward about the whole thing. She was walking with her ex crush and the sun was near the horizon in the evening of spring. At the angle of the sun's rays, it was brighter than day.
She stared at his gait. She was entranced just by him walking. Her full attention was on his back as if there was a gold nugget secretly embedded in there.
He stopped walking suddenly. Startled, she quickly turned her gaze to her right and acted as if she was scanning the area. She peeked out of the corner of her eyes and seeing that he wasn't looking at her, she turned her head towards him. He had looked to his left. She didn't see anything, but Sakura trees lined up in the middle of the road. The wind swept up Hikaru's shoulder length hair. It was hard to read his facial expression. It was stoic, but the more Chiho gazed, she could convey something subtle, but it was hard to put her finger on it.
'Sadness? Remorse? Confusion?' She pondered. It could be none of those. His face was so stoic, she couldn't tell what she was seeing. It was like a myriad of mix feelings. A Rorschach inkblot that was constantly changing shape.