Tomoyuki couldn't get Takashi's words about real friends from his head. Asking himself: "Will they really start to think of me as their friends?" the teenager came to a standstill each time, not knowing if it was even worth going with them. In the meantime, they waited for the downpour to end before following into an area unknown to Tomoyuki.
He did not consider himself a man of the same caliber as them, and wondered if having money could have made a difference.
"If to think of it that way, isn't that a major sign to hypocrisy?"
Tomoyuki could not find an answer to that question. After walking hundreds of steps on wet asphalt and slush, they began to walk down the damp street of an abandoned neighborhood on the western edge of the city. The infrastructure of the block consisted of piles of five-story houses whose construction had been frozen by the government for reasons unknown to the people who passed by. The place reeked of emptiness and despondency, and along with the colorless weather, Tomoyuki's eyes grew uneasy.
"What is this place?" Tomoyuki muttered as he walked down the dirty street. There was trash scattered on the ground that no one had to clean up, for this neighborhood was unprotected from others and free to visit.
"This is where we wait out the downpour," Takashi answered him. "This is where all kinds of junkies, teenagers, and adventurers get their asses kicked. At least no one's been visiting this block lately."
The unfinished apartment complexes, the broken asphalt roads, the construction equipment trampled at every turn weighed heavily on Tomoyuki's mind, causing him to search inside himself for the answer to what might motivate people to destroy the necessary creations for life. Needles for syringes lying in the corners of the walls, all sorts of bags of unknown powder — Tomoyuki saw before his eyes another human life that was incomprehensible to him.
They reached one unfinished building and gathered inside. The building resembled a five-story house with a base of columns and concrete structures, and inside there was nothing but a dank stuffiness.
"Hey," Jiahao took Takashi by the shoulders, giving him a heavy look. "Is it okay to show him around these parts?"
Takashi, who was climbing the stairs to the next floor, nodded steadily.
"Don't worry, he won't reveal anything," and with mocking eyes looked back at Takashi the somber teenager. "Everything is achieved by trust, isn't it, Tomoyuki-kun?"
Jiahao only hummed thoughtfully, doubting Takashi's confidence. Makoto quickened his pace to walk beside Tomoyuki as they made their way up to the top floor.
"After the events at the karaoke, you too will have to take responsibility for what you see. Now you have peeked into our den that no one knows about. This is where we are most of the time. Don't think you'll get away with it after what you've seen."
Uncertainty slid across Makoto's face as well, and he, who disagreed with Takashi's decision to take Tomoyuki with him, had no choice but to keep him on the hook.
Climbing to the top floor, they stood at the edge of the building to enjoy the fresh wind. Tomoyuki could see with his hazy eyes how pleasant it was for these three to be in this building — this top floor was their lair.
"We trusted your eyes to this place," Takashi blurted out in a welcoming smile as he saw the sunlight breaking through the thick clouds that were about to drift off the horizon. "It's peaceful here. It's deserted and pleasant enough that you start to forget about the weight on your shoulders."
Makoto and Jiahao exchanged smiles. They weren't afraid that, standing on the edge, they might fall from the fifth floor into the mud.
"Here we can forget our thoughts and atone for the sins we have committed."
Although Makoto and Jiahao did not share their friend's confidence in showing Tomoyuki their lair, they could well trust him if Takashi would take responsibility for keeping the chain dog behind their backs.
"We hope for your cooperation with us," Jiahao said toward Tomoyuki. "Though with money, you wouldn't be here without it. Be proud of that."
Then Takashi approached Tomoyuki and called after him, "I'll show you something." They headed down the stairs and made their way all the way to the basement.
"Something that may be imprinted on your mind forever," Takashi continued as they walked down the stairs. "Since you look like a rotten fish, I don't think your psyche is in any danger anymore."
"Where are we going down? The basement?"
"Exactly. You're going to have to share responsibility with us for what you see, though, or we're going to kill you, okay? Just kidding — it will only be proof of our oath."
"What oath are we talking about?"
They went down to a dark basement, the entrance to which was locked by a dark iron door. Takashi, rummaging through his pockets, pulled out a key and opened the gloomy cellar door for them.
"Where did you get the key?" Tomoyuki bothered to ask in an impassive tone.
"It used to be on the ground over there," Takashi tapped his foot on the concrete floor a couple of times. "Let's go in."
The basement was unnaturally pitch-black, but there seemed to be some outside light coming in from the lattice windows. They slowly began to walk forward.
"You know, Tomoyuki-kun. Now I'm going to be serious. Only those with access to the key can enter this place. It wasn't chosen spontaneously, and the basement holds a lot more history than you think."
The teens entered the edge of the room, where only dampness reigned and an old wooden chair sat in the middle of the hollow floor.
"Sit on the chair," Takashi's low voice revealed, pointing a finger at the chair, and Tomoyuki obeyed. Takashi sat down in the corner of the room and began to touch the brick wall as if searching for something.
Finding a crotch in the brick wall, he pulled out an unconnected brick and pulled out a dusty revolver from a rectangular hole. The silver revolver was instantly taken up by Tomoyuki, and Takashi sighed at the weapon and wiped away all its dust with the sleeve of his school uniform.
"Is that a...? A revolver?"
"First time you've seen a weapon? It's worth it to us easier to call it atonement for all our sins. Once the hook is pulled, we will no longer be sinners."
Lowering his eyes, Takashi adopted a thoughtful look: "It was given to me by a man whose face I unfortunately cannot describe. Now do you understand, Tomoyuki-kun, what a mess you're in?"
As he approached the misunderstood Tomoyuki, whose mind had previously been unable to imagine that he would ever see a real gun in his life, Takashi pointed a revolver at his forehead. Tomoyuki's surprise was impossible to portray, because an unpredictable amount of emotion flashed across his face simultaneously, as well as fear of dying in a basement where no ordinary person had ever set foot.
"Now you'll never be able to get away from us — we won't let you. You know, I thought long and hard about what excuse I could think of to keep your mouth shut about our secret from now on, so I came up with nothing more. Tomoyuki-kun, do you want to die right now?"
"Why did you come to this point…?"
"I found my move to be the most effective option."
"I will become responsible for what I see?"
"Yes," Takashi put the gun down. "From now on, you will serve as our loyalties. You will become one of us. That will be your oath, Tomoyuki-kun, but in return you will gain a carefree life. Friends should please each other with money, right?"
Tomoyuki had no choice — no hemisphere in his teenage brain allowed him to deny it — and, after thinking briefly, he agreed.
Takashi wondered what was wrong with Tomoyuki Yamashita's head. Was he so desperate that he literally accepted the offer to become a bully's chain dog?
"This is our common oath," the brown-eyed man added, and Tomoyuki managed only to nod.
Opening the drum of the revolver, Takashi uttered: "There are three cartridges inside the cylinder. It seems the number will increase by one more from now on," and pulled the cartridges out of the gun to be sure.
"Redemption for sins…"
"That's right, it will soon serve its purpose for us. I do not, however, long to die any time soon, for I am enjoying my life. I have not yet done all that I would wish of my life."
Takashi seemed tormented. He darkened, wandering through his memories, which he would not tell: only he had been told to keep his past a secret.
"If you ever want to die," Takashi said with a chuckle, "you will ask my permission."
"Look, Matsuoka-san, do you sincerely enjoy your life?"
Surprised by his strange question, Takashi responded: "Nonsense, of course I enjoy it. My life is like a holiday vow to me, as in, every new morning I thank God for giving me a new day."
Tomoyuki's face, devoid of any lucid emotion, gave the brown-eyed man no rest.
"Look, you shouldn't bother your head with unnecessary thoughts. It can be boring, so don't dig a hole under yourself and enjoy your new life. For a man every day is a fairy tale, for he should rejoice in having come into the world."
"Good," Tomoyuki replied, following Takashi out of the room.
"I understand what you're thinking right now. Whether you like it or not, we'll think about it later, of course, if you don't commit suicide today after what you've seen."
"I won't; every new day is bright for me."
With a grin, Takashi prepared to leave the entryway.
"That's good."
When Tomoyuki returned home, he sat down on the couch and crouched in his lap. He seemed to be digesting in his head all the situations he had been in lately. Asking himself questions and desperately searching for an answer, analyzing all the emotions and character traits of Takashi and his friends, he came to the conclusion that they were hypocrites and rotten; but he was not going to give them up, for he realized that there was no way back for him. Finding himself in a hopeless position, he resigned himself to everything that haunted him.