~Tokyo, Japan; 8:43 AM GMT+9
Akira stood silently behind the crowd of spectators and reporters that gathered in front of the yellow tape, separating them from the detectives circling the scene of a recently put out fire. An apartment building near the station had been engulfed in flames earlier that morning, and the sound of blaring sirens from ambulances, and fire trucks could be heard all the way from his apartment. He had managed to catch sight of the rising thick black smoke from the open window in his living room.
He had to wriggle through the crowd to get to the station, but stopped to take a quick look at the disaster that unfolded. The fire looked terrible from the view in his apartment window, but now looking at the aftermath up close, it was truly horrific. The entire building was charred and most of the supports crumbled and destroyed from the flames.
"My what a horrible thing,"
"I heard an entire family was still inside when the fire started,"
"My God, even the children weren't spared,"
"Earlier didn't the police say it was arson?"
"Apparently the fire started on the fourth floor,"
"That's were the family was right?"
Akira sighed as he stared ahead at the remnants of what was once a beautiful five story complex. The chatter of the crowd rang in his ears and then died out as he slowly began to lose himself in his thoughts. This was one of his episodes when a burst of emotions came over him, and he was unable to control or pull himself out of the hole he would create in his mind. Images flashed within his mind. Thoughts of a time he tried so hard to forget.
"Akira," A woman's voice called in his memories. It was gentle and warm. "Akira what are you doing?"
"Onii-chan," The quivering voice of himself at a younger age started, not lifting his gaze from the idle flower in the garden that had now held weeds. "He said I couldn't play with him today either."
"So you're just sitting here by yourself?" She asked, hiding a slight chuckle.
"I don't want to bother him," Akira replied, finding it hard to hold back his sniffle.
"Did he say when he can play with you again?"
"When he finished his science project,"
"So you'll obediently be patient?"
"He said he'd by me sweets as an apology when he's done,"
"Then why don't you play with Mio?"
"He likes to play with dirt too much," Akira sniffled. "I don't like getting dirty."
"Hm? Why's that?" She asked, reaching her hand out to pat Akira's back. "You're a kid, so it's good to get dirty once in a while."
"Onii-chan said he doesn't like it when I bring dirt into the room,"
"Haha, you always obediently listen to your brother. I guess it helps that he dotes on you as much as you follow him around all the time. Maybe one day when he gets big enough, Mio will do the same for you."
"Eh? Really?"
"Ah, maybe not huh?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Hm? Well, because we're all dead right?"
"... Mother?"
A loud ringing drowned his hearing as he immediately snapped back into reality. It had been a while since his daydreams had turned into an episode of his frequent nightmares. He hated recalling happy memories, mostly because they inevitably always turned into nightmares. This time, it was a memory from when he was five. It was one of the few memories where he could remember his mother's face clearly, without traumatic images flashing through his mind and spoiling the memory.
He wheezed and gasped as he looked around him. He was still standing amongst the crowd of people gawking at the scene of the fire. He sighed as he took a few steps back, as if escaping his racing mind. As he took one more step, about to turn around and leave, he bumped into someone.
"Oh, excuse me," He apologized with a slight bow, before raising his eyes to see the stranger he had walked into. As he did, he couldn't help his muscles tensing up as his eyes soaked in all the man's features. It was him...
"No problem," The familiar voice of the stranger said, waving his hand to stop Akira's bowing motion. "I wasn't paying much attention either."
...The detective from the other night. The one who shot at him. Detective Hideoshi Morrow. But Akira didn't know that much. He just recognized him as a very capable detective. He and his partner had been put on the case after it was found to be an act of arson that resembled a string of arson cases their team had been put in charge of.
Soon, both of them were unconsciously staring at each other. Akira couldn't help but stare at the only detective who managed to evade his attack, and Morrow was more or less staring because Akira was staring. At least, that is until a familiar scent caught his attention.
As Akira snapped out of it and bowed again lightly before passing him by, the nostalgic scent he was familiar with, and even more so recently grew stronger. He had an urge to stop Akira while his thoughts were still being processed but stood there and watched as Akira stalked up to the station that still managed to be visible from Morrow's position a distance away.
He watched as Akira put something in his mouth and throw the wrapper away in the trash by the entrance, then continue his trek inside. He didn't normally do things like this, and felt it was increasingly a major waste of his time, but his intuition wouldn't let him stay put, and gave in by walking up to the station entrance and peeking into the trash.
He made a mental note to rely on his hunches a bit more as he gazed at the wrapper he was hoping to see.
'Samizume,' Hideoshi read, as he let out a satisfied scoff.
He had recognized the scent of the candy he frequently indulged in when he was a child coming from the young man he had run into, and the wrapper he had seen again recently. He didn't exactly know what he was expecting to do with this information now, since it was basically entirely useless to him that 'a teenage boy enjoys sweets', but his intuition was ringing at the back of his mind, much louder than usual. Still, he didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle to fit it all together.
Akira couldn't help but reflexively look back at the entrance he had walked through. He saw nothing out of order, but he still had a bad feeling. He sighed and kept moving on anyways. Today was their bar's official opening day and he had to get there on time to finish helping out.
As he rode silently on the train, he attempted to stop any unnecessary thoughts that clouded his judgement, but he couldn't keep one idea that kept seeping back into his mind. 'The scene of that fire. Isn't it... exactly the same?'