The island (chapter 1)

                                                         The island (Chapter 1)



They were all waiting for Misha before crossing the bridge, and she was already half an hour late. They had to get there before the storm came...
Some of them talked about canceling the whole thing, due to the storm coming, but Shizune convinced them to stick to the plan; They would be inside the house most of the time anyway, as it was a very small island and there wasn't much to do outside. But unless Misha arrived shortly, their plans would be canceled anyway. They always kept the bridge raised during storms, to avoid an unseen ship crashing into it. They didn't have much time left to get there.

Lilly: 'Perhaps if we had a phone with us, we could've called her to make sure she's on her way.'

After Hisao's translation, Shizune stared at her cousin, a murderous look in her eyes. She knew Lilly wasn't simply trying to be practical here; She was blaming her, in a passive-aggressive way. Shizune was the one who told them all - Via Misha - not to bring any phone for the trip, when they first discussed it.

They only had a couple weeks before the final exams... Shizune knew what it meant for them, as friends; Lilly and her being cousins, they would likely see each other in the years to come, but the rest of the group would probably go to different universities, find jobs in different places. As much as Shizune told them they'd see each other again, she was realistic; This might be their last opportunity to spend time together outside of a school setting. Thus, not having phones was a great idea. They'd spend less time calling people or looking at their social media pages. There was a payphone on the island in case of emergency, but it's unlikely someone would feed it much money to call their other friends, so they'd have all the time in the world to themselves. This was a good idea.

But, good or bad an idea, it also meant that at the moment, they had no way of contacting Misha. And so they had to wait until she showed up, unless they were willing to walk back to the end of the road, where Akira dropped them; They all had left their phones with her, and Akira said she would take a nap in the car, to wait a couple hours to make sure they didn't change their mind... But that was an hour away, and none of them felt like walking back there just to make a phone call. Emi offered to run it real quick, but even for her, it'd take an hour back and forth.

Thankfully, they didn't have to resort to that, as Misha arrived soon after that. Everyone saw her coming a mile away; She was wearing a huge costume, like a mascot at a sporting event. Some giant purple dinosaur, Shizune thought she recognized it from an American cartoon for children. Misha was drenched in sweat, understandable after such a long walk wearing this heavy costume.
Shizune was the first to step up and greet her;

Shizune: [What are you wearing?]
Misha: [What?]

It seemed to take her a few seconds to even realize what Shizune was referring to;

Misha: [Oh, that? Well you said it was a costume party, didn't you?]

She looked at the group, all of them wearing normal clothes; Shizune had pants on, and the vest from her school uniform. Emi was in casual clothes. Lilly and Hanako both had warm coats on and Misha couldn't see what they had underneath, but it didn't look like costumes. Hisao was dressed as he often was, brown pants and a sweater vest. In all the group, only one had anything that could even remotely be described as a costume; Rin had some cat ears headband on... But as she was wearing normal clothes, it wasn't much of a costume, and Misha suspected that it wasn't even her idea, that Emi put them on her.

Misha: [Wait, where are your costumes?]

Shizune had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Misha was being Misha, as always.

Shizune: [I said it was a farewell party. Never said anything about costumes.]
Misha: [Oh!]

She seemed embarrassed for just a moment, then shrugged it off and addressed the group.

Misha: 'Wahaha! Seems like I'm the only one dressed for the occasion! Me and Rin!'

She moved closer to Rin, as if being close to her would make her seem more normal, in this group of 6 people in casual clothing, and the seventh dressed as a giant dinosaur. No one really knew what to say, and so they simply turned around and began walking to the bridge, to cross it before it was raised. It was their last chance to get to the island; Once the storm hit, they wouldn't lower the bridge anymore until it passed.

It was another twenty minutes walk to their destination, the only house on the island, owned by the Hakamichi family. They were all tired of walking - all but Emi - but no one complained; Misha being with them so they could finally move on, that had been enough to put everyone back in a good mood.

Misha: 'Should we sing?'

Everyone looked at her in a weird way; Maybe not that good a mood. Misha didn't care, and started singing alone, wagging her large dinosaur tail along the way, almost tripping Lilly with it; She kept her distance after that.

Hisao got closer to Shizune, passing an arm around her waist. It had been a while since they walked around like that, like new lovers... Sometimes they held hands, but most of the time they walked normally side by side, and looked more like friends, than lovers. Shizune knew the reason of this sudden romantic gesture, of course... The same reason she wanted this last reunion; Because their time was at an end. Hisao wanted to get the most out of whatever time remained to them. Shizune smiled, having a perverse thought about what this would mean for the few days at the residence; Could they get some time alone?

After a few minutes, she turned to Misha and realized she had stopped singing, but couldn't say when exactly. She was probably more tired than anyone else, walking around in that costume. She smiled again, this time from a comforting thought about Misha's childish nature; She would miss that. She would miss her.

Misha looked like she was feeling better lately. Shizune dating Hisao had been hard for her at first, but she came to accept it, and now even enjoyed Hisao's company.
She seemed to fare better now, happier... Shizune even thought Misha had a girlfriend; She kept seeing her in the hallways, talking with Keiko, one of the new student council members. Or rather, the future student council; The year wasn't over yet. She never asked her about it, but if she had it right, it was a good thing. There was hope for Misha, in the post-Shizune world.

When they arrived at their destination, Shizune had a silent prayer about her key actually working; She had never been there without her father, and that had been some time ago. Then again, they could always just break a window if the key didn't work, or pry a door open; It wasn't exactly a fortified castle. They didn't need to go that far, as the key turned in the lock, albeit with some difficulty.

When the door opened, everyone rushed in as if they had been walking the desert for forty days. Shizune didn't feel like giving them a guided tour, as it would mean having Misha translate everything, and with her costume she would probably struggle even passing through some doors. So she let everyone loose inside the house, taking looks around, finding out which room they liked best.

Shizune actually had made a plan for everyone, assigning rooms based on practicality; Rin's next to Emi's, both on the first floor so Emi wouldn't have to climb the stairs up and down all the time, as it would be quite difficult with her leg blades. Lilly's room was next to the bathroom, so she would have a shorter distance to walk to get there if she woke up during the night. It was all so perfect... But she threw that plan away the day before; They could improvise, for once. She knew she had to loosen up a bit. As long as she had one of the larger rooms - for her and Hisao - she didn't care about the rest.

Emi: 'I want this one!'

That was Jigoro's room, or it was when he came to the house, anyway. In his absence, it was just an empty room like any other. A few minutes later, everyone figured out which room they liked best. Shizune was in the guest room of her own house, but she didn't mind; It was one of the largest rooms, even had two beds, though she'd share one with Hisao anyway. Misha picked a smaller room in the middle of the hallway, then went to the bathroom and came out with the costume off, to leave it on her bed. Lilly and Hanako were on the first floor, next to each other. Rin didn't really care and waited for everyone else to pick, before heading into the first empty room and call it her own.

When they were all done, Shizune turned to Misha to sign something for her to translate. Her faithful translator... Much as she hated the feel of using her as a translation tool, she knew she would miss that too. Wherever she would go after graduation, she would have to go back to notepads to talk with people, unless she lucked out on another sign language enthusiast who'd like to be her friend.

Misha: 'We have so much work to do! We could use someone to cook supper for us, while we clean up the place!'
Lilly: 'I could do it. If you tell me where the things are.'

Shizune waited for Misha's translation and signed something back.

Misha: 'Hanako will help you. The rest of us will clean!'

Shizune knew she would be more useful cleaning, fixing things in the house, rather than simply staying in the kitchen to guide Lilly to different cupboards. Always trying to be efficient.
After half an hour, the house already smelled a lot better than it did when they first walked in; Part of it was the cleaning products removing - or masking - unpleasant smells around the place... But whatever Lilly was cooking certainly helped too, filling the house with the pleasant smell of a homemade meal.

Shizune had already cleaned two rooms by herself, while everyone else was teaming up to clean just one. Emi and Hisao seemed to be the hardest workers, and half of what Misha was doing seemed counterproductive. Rin was simply walking around, dragging a wet cloth under her foot, to scrub the floor.
No technique, no organization, thought Shizune. She considered going in to supervise them, when the group heard Lilly's call;

Lilly: 'Supper is served!'

It didn't take long for everyone to drop anything they were doing, and rush to the promised meal. Shizune had no choice but to follow them. Everyone sat around the table, and waited for someone to say something; They've had lunches together quite a few times at Yamaku, but never in this different setting...
Emi, too hungry to care, was the first to speak;

Emi: 'Dig in!'

And without another word, everyone filled their plates with chicken, noodles, rice, everything Lilly prepared in large quantities. The food was good enough for the taste, and mostly, filling. This day spent walking, running around the house, cleaning, had tired everyone out. They would likely go to bed early this night. They would have enough time to actually do something fun the next day.

It was almost seven by the time they were done eating, and past nine by the time they were done cleaning. Everyone had a lot to talk about, though they tried to avoid certain topics, such as school, and the final exams. Hanako kept quiet most of the time, listening to everyone intently but rarely speaking a word. This wasn't unusual for her though, especially in a group of more than two or three people, so it wasn't exactly unexpected.

Shizune signaled for everyone to group up, a simple waving gesture that required no translation. She then turned to Misha.

Misha: 'Good work everyone! We've done enough to clean the place today, it's good enough to sleep in! We'll do the rest tomorrow if that's okay with you!'
Hisao: 'Definitely not looking forward to more work tomorrow.'

Misha was about to translate, but stopped when Hisao playfully slapped Shizune on the ass; Hisao's comment was no more than a light joke at Shizune's expense, and didn't need translation; Everyone knew Shizune's position about work, and Hisao surely had enough with the student council duties.
Shizune didn't know what he said exactly, but she blushed heavily, embarrassed at such a bold display of affection, in front of everyone.

Once she made sure that everyone had what they needed for the night, she grabbed Hisao's hand and walked to her room at a fast pace. Everyone looking at them likely had the same idea; Either she's going to chastise him for the gesture... Or on the contrary, she didn't mind it and would want something else from him.
Everyone went to bed, after Emi went to the bathroom with Rin to help her dress in a long, white nightgown. They all wanted to go to sleep now... This day had been a tiring one, and the next one might be, as well; Settling in a new place always took time.

There were some strange noises coming from Shizune and Hisao's room for an hour or two, so much that Lilly and Misha put some music on to cover it, from the small radios in everyone's room; A classical music station for Lilly, while Misha put in a pop-rock CD, kept at low volume so everyone could still sleep.

...



The alarm clock rang at seven in the morning; Even then, Shizune could not get herself to laze around. She sent Hisao to the kitchen to prepare some coffee for everyone, while she went to wake Lilly and Emi, then she went to join Hisao while these last two woke up the rest of the group.

Shizune: [Slept well?]

Her grin was more telling than her simple question; Hisao still bore marks from their night together, when she made him pay dearly for the slap on the ass he gave her in public. Their last night's session lasted a couple hours, and he was so tired afterward he fell asleep in minutes, without even caring about disposing of the condoms, or ranging all the toys and restraints they used back in their box; But there wasn't a sign anything happened when he woke up, so likely Shizune had taken care of it all while he slept.

Hisao: [Like a baby! How about you?]
Shizune: [Well enough.]

She hesitated, then signed something else;

Shizune: [Round two tonight?]

Hisao couldn't help laughing.

Hisao: [Do you want to kill me? I have a heart condition, lest you forgot.]

Shizune made a grim face when he said that. It was a good thing that Hisao was now able to joke about his condition like that, but it still made her a bit uneasy; After all, someday he might really well just die doing something like that...

Shizune: [I promise I'll be gentle.]
Hisao: [Not sure I can believe you on that!]

The coffee had been ready for a few minutes by then, and Shizune was growing impatient.

Shizune: [Could you go check on them, see what's taking them so long?]

Hisao was about to go, when he heard a loud noise and a gasp, like someone fell down. Hopefully not the stairs, he thought; Lilly wasn't used to the place yet. He rushed to the stairs and found no one there, and was about to climb them to see where that noise came from, when he heard the scream;

Emi: 'RIN!'

Her voice was trembling, and there was something Hisao had never heard before in Emi's voice... Despair? Fear? Whatever it was, it made him run up the stairs and in the hallway, to see what this was about... Then he saw her.

Emi was on the floor, apparently having fallen on her ass, in shock. She seemed in pain, breathing heavily while tears were flowing on her cheeks, but Hisao barely even looked at her; He was staring past her, inside one of the rooms;

The rope was so thin, and a color similar to the wall behind her, that it looked like Rin was floating, a couple feet above the ground. Like a ghost. In her white gown, she even looked like a ghost. It was so convincing, that Hisao had to move to the side, to make sure he wasn't seeing things. "She's not floating", he thought. "She's hanging".

Her face had already turned to a dark purple or blue, and for a reason unknown to him, the thought of Prussian Blue crossed his mind, a stupid silly thought that almost made him laugh nervously. Without thinking, he rushed to her and began undoing the rope in panic, while everyone else was coming in, see what was happening; Hanako shrieked in horror at the sight, and Lilly - though she couldn't see what was happening - instinctively took Hanako in her arms and held her tightly, letting her bury her face against her chest.

Lilly: 'What is it?'

She asked that to no one in particular, and didn't get an answer. Hisao was too busy trying to undo the rope and doing a poor job at it, like he didn't know how his fingers worked anymore... Emi was in a corner, vomiting. Shizune and Misha were staring at the scene, like stuck in some horror movie they couldn't stop. And Hanako wasn't able to let a word out of her mouth.

Lilly: 'Someone tell me!'

Even Lilly seemed terrified now, they could hear it in her voice, and her speech not having her usual formality.
Misha spoke first, but could not get much out;

Misha: 'It's Rin, she... She's... She...'

Shizune took Misha in her arms, in a way similar to the way Lilly was holding Hanako; Turning her away from the scene that was so hard to bear. Misha didn't even try to finish her sentence, and cried on Shizune's shoulder.

At this point, Hisao finally managed to untie the rope around Rin's neck, but it was pointless; By the look of it, Rin had been dead for hours already. When he removed the rope, her head hit the floor with a dull sound, as her entire body fell limply. It's only then that Hisao noticed she still had the cat ears on, and he took them off. The contrast of that silly item and the morbid scene was too much to bear. She had bright yellow socks with smiley faces on, and these also gave an even weirder look to the morbid scene, but he wasn't about to take those off.

Emi: 'Why, Rin... WHY?'

Lilly had stopped asking questions, and she likely figured out what had happened, by everyone's reaction...
Even though it was pointless, Hisao tried giving Rin CPR, with a poor technique. Shizune let go of Misha and walked closer to Hisao, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, to make him look at her.

Shizune: [It's over, Hisao. Let her rest.]

Hisao pondered his actions for a moment, a look of despair visible on his face... But in the end, he gave up. They all knew she was long gone. He stood up slowly, and spoke up;

Hisao: 'We should... Call an ambulance. Call the bridge people, tell them we'll need to leave.'

Misha's face was pale, but she still translated his words to Shizune, almost without thinking about it, looking straight ahead of her, with no movements other than her hands.

Shizune: [Let's all go.]

Hisao looked around... Emi was still on the floor, barely moving. Hanako was still in Lilly's arm and wasn't faring much better, though she had never been close to Rin.

Hisao: [I'll go with you. We don't need six people to make a couple phone calls.]
Shizune: [Let's all go.]

Hisao wasn't sure why she insisted they all went, but he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't drop it, and he didn't feel like having an argument just now. Plus, there was something weird in her expression, her insistence, though he couldn't figure out what it was... She seemed uneasy about something. Then again, they all were.

Hisao: 'Let's huh... Let's go to the phone. We'll call this out, and go home.'

Apparently, no one was in any arguing mood either, as they all walked toward the door without contestation, like zombies.
The storm was raging, with heavy gust of winds and some rain, but they had four umbrellas, enough for everyone, with Hisao sharing one with Shizune, and Lilly with Hanako. Shizune's planning was reliable as always, at least.
She took a few coins from her purse, and composed a number after inserting them in the slot, then she passed the phone to Hisao.
He held it to his ear for a few seconds, then hung it back.

Hisao: [No line.]
Shizune: [What do you mean, no line? It's a landline.]
Hisao: [Try it if you want.]

She had no reason to doubt his words, but she still picked the phone and tried to call for an ambulance, to see what would read on the tiny digital screen on the phone box, and whether she would feel anything that might be a sound coming from the phone; Nothing. Shizune looked sick to her stomach... She considered a moment all the reasons why this could be the case; Could be the storm. Could just be off service, it was a very old phone, and this island wasn't frequented much. Or it could just be broken. There seemed to be some damage on the side, perhaps caused by the storm, some debris maybe? Regardless, she had no idea how to fix any of these issues, so she resolved to simply explain the situation to the rest of the group, and Hisao translated for her.

Hisao: '...doesn't seem to work. Can't call anyone.'

They all waited in silence a moment, then Hisao added more, which Misha translated to Shizune this time, by force of habit.

Hisao: 'We should wait here until it works. Or just me and Shizune, just leave us an umbrella and go back inside. We'll come back soon as we called the ambulance.'
Shizune: [No, let's go back inside.]

Misha was still signing for Shizune, but she wasn't bothering to voice her words for the group anymore, so the conversation was one-way, other than Hisao and Misha who understood both sides.

Hisao: [Why? We need to wait until it works, to make that call... We can't just leave Rin there for days, can we?]

Shizune hesitated a long moment, and signed again, very slowly;

Shizune: [It's not gonna work. Let's go back inside.]

Hisao didn't know what to sign back, and resigned to sign nothing; "What does she mean, it's not gonna work?". She would explain herself inside, he thought. He mumbled something for the group, and they walked back to the house.

Once inside, they all stared at Shizune, waiting for her to sign something, anything; To make sense of the situation, and her reaction. She wasn't signing anything, and appeared to have an intense reflexion; Still, the group had to know. Emi spoke up before Hisao could do any explaining, or ask more questions to Shizune; Not sure which he would've done.

Emi: 'Why did we come back in? We need to do something...'
Hisao: 'The phone doesn't work.'
Emi: 'It'll come back, right? You don't think the storm broke it for good?'
Shizune: [Not the storm.]

Shizune's reflexion was apparently over, that or she opted to join the conversation regardless. Misha, who had been signing the whole conversation, translated her words for the group to hear.

Misha: 'Shizune thinks it's not the storm.'
Lilly: 'What do you mean, not the storm?'
Hisao: [Not the storm? What then?]

Shizune closed her eyes, as if she was about to make a speech, visualizing how it would go, what she would sign. When she opened them back, she signed a short, cryptic sentence;

Shizune: [The socks, Hisao. Think. Think!]

"The socks?" he thought. He figured she was probably talking about Rin's socks, which he noticed too, but couldn't make sense of it; How was it relevant to the discussion, anyway?

Hisao: [What do you mean?]

Shizune looked tired, disappointed about having to explain it further... And something seemed to prevent her from signing what she wanted to sign... So she found a way around it;

Shizune: [Did Rin paint with her socks on?]

At first, it was just more confusing, but when he realized what she was saying, Hisao felt sick to his stomach;
Rin was agile, and could paint with her feet, they all knew that. But she did it barefoot. Holding a brush between your toes would be difficult with your socks on... And tying a noose, even harder.
He thought he knew what she was implying, but he had to make sure.

Hisao: [What are you saying, Shizune?]

He couldn't even look at her, dreading a specific, rare gesture appearing in Shizune's signs, and so he let the other translator present do it instead.
When he saw Misha's eyes grow big, he knew before she even spoke;

Misha: 'Shizune thinks someone murdered Rin.'


End of chapter 1.
Next chapter: https://pastebin.com/vtA30QSx