CHAPTER 4

Kagami was sure to mind Inori's enlarged stomach when the two sisters met for lunch. The oldest Hiiragi twin stood from her chair at the outdoor café and waited for her pregnant sister to set her purse down. The two sisters hugged each other and Kagami ran her hand across Inori's big belly.

"How's my nephew doing?" Kagami asked as she sat down.

Inori giggled and patted her stomach. "He's fine, Kagami. He's only about two months away from meeting his aunts."

"Are you and Kenji sure it's a boy this time? I remember you two were absolutely convinced Miyama was going to be born a boy and then she surprised everyone." Kagami remembered.

Inori laughed. "Yes, we're sure it's a boy this time. We had more than a few ultrasounds done this time."

Kagami chuckled and could not help but feel graced by her oldest sister's beauty. Inori Hideyoshi inherited her mother's natural good looks and elegant aging genetics. For closing in on forty years old, Inori still passed for a college student and often found herself shooing away a few students whenever she visited her husband on Tokyo University's campus. Their first child was supposed to be a boy, but through a series of overestimations and slight medical errors, Miyama Hideyoshi became the second granddaughter and third grandchild of the Hiiragi family.

"So how are things with you and Ryuji?" Inori asked after she became settled in her chair.

Kagami's demeanor changed when she was asked the question. She sighed and answered, "They haven't been very good lately. We've been fighting a lot and I feel like we're drifting apart."

If only Inori knew. If anyone other than Kagami knew the truth. If any of the Hiiragi family members knew one of their own was being severely abused day in and day out. If any of them knew the true nature of Kagami's relationship with Ryuji, it would be over. Kagami would be safe and Ryuji in a best-case scenario would be disbarred and imprisoned. If nothing else, he would just be out on his ass. Unfortunately for Kagami, only she knew of her domestic peril. But no one could truly blame Kagami for wanting to stay with him. It wasn't like relationships came easily to the adult tsundere.

"Oh? What's going on?" Inori asked with genuine intrigue.

The waitress brought them glasses of water and they placed their lunch orders. When they were alone again, Kagami sighed. She told Inori that Ryuji was acting differently and how it seemed that they had both fallen out of each other's favor. She neglected to talk about the abuse. The filtered version given to Inori sounded like any other relationship that had run its course and there was nothing new to discover. It sounded like they were just naturally drifting apart as some relationships tend to do.

Knowing Kagami Hiiragi the way her oldest sister did, this didn't seem too far from reality. Relationships in general rarely came easy to Kagami, especially romantic ones. Aside from Matsuri (who had taken a vow of celibacy for religious purposes), Kagami was the last Hiiragi who was not married and did not have a family of her own. Many chopped this up to Kagami's profession and how seriously she took it but hearing Kagami's watered-down struggles revivified old memories for Inori regarding her little sister.

When Kagami was a college student and eventually a law student, Inori recalled quite a few times when the oldest twin tried to start a relationship, but it always ended the same. They were not always bad though. Incredibly awkward and cringy sometimes, but not bad. At least not by a Ryuji Hirasaka definition of bad. Throughout Kagami's academic career and into her professional career, she seemed to have an endless string of bad luck when it came to dating. Her first date as a freshman in college was with a closeted otaku who only talked about games and manga and thought that earned him a French kiss at the end of the date. Inori also recalled her sister trying online dating once, only for that to end with twice being stood up and once wishing she were stood up. In the end, her endless bad luck with men may have remolded Kagami's psyche to closeted desperation.

"It sounds like Ryuji might be another frog you have to kiss to get to your prince." Inori joked with her sister.

Kagami giggled hesitantly. "I really want this to work out for us, but I'm just wondering how much more effort do I have to put in until I have to call it quits?"

"Well answer me this, Kagami. Do you love him?" Inori asked.

Kagami and Ryuji had been dating for just shy of a year, yet the question still caught the Hiiragi twin off guard. She wasn't embarrassed and her face did not redden, yet she was still tongue-tied and stuttered to find an answer. She could only muster what? to answer her sister.

"Do you love him?"

Again, Kagami stuttered. "I…I uh…I don't-I don't think that's appropriate, Inori."

Inori tilted her head. "Well it's a pretty simple question. He is your boyfriend supposedly so do you love him or not?"

Kagami was grateful when the waitress returned with their lunches. The dialogue muted between the Hiiragi sisters as the food was placed before the individual and the waitress left again. Kagami wasted no time devouring her sandwich and was ready to inhale her soup side.

"You can't answer, can you, Kagami?" Inori asked.

The oldest twin looked at her sister, her cheeks expanded by the food, until she chewed some more and swallowed. Her pleading eyes gave Inori the right of way to keep talking.

"Look, sis, I won't pry into your personal life like some doting parent, but I do think there is a part of you that is not being honest with herself." Inori speculated and gently stirred her soup. "I believe that while you may have feelings for Ryuji, your heart beats for someone else."

Kagami squinted at her. "Someone else? Like who?"

Inori chuckled. "Nothing, just speculating. On a different note, how is that one friend of yours? The blue-haired manga creator."

"You mean Konata?" Kagami asked and didn't understand why her heart suddenly jumped a beat. "I don't know. I haven't talked to her in almost a year. Why do you ask?"

Shrugging, Inori said she was just speculating again, though a faint glint in her eyes was picked up by Kagami. While trying to process it, Kagami returned to her initial reason why she asked her sister to lunch. She divulged a few more issues (abuse not being one of them) to Inori and how she makes her marriage work. She was married to a physics professor who didn't subscribe to spiritual beliefs as his wife did, yet they still made it work.

Inori made everything sound so simple that Kagami once again secretly blamed herself for Ryuji's behavior towards her. There was no single key to a happy relationship according to Inori, but rather a whole ring of keys needed to make it work. One of the biggest keys was time itself. While they were both busy professionals, Inori and Kenji always reserved a date night for the two of them so they could always talk about their marriage and events in their lives. Another key was memory over complacency. It was always important for each partner to remember why they are together and why they love each other. Memory also leads to constantly being on "the first date" as Kenji once put it. Each date should be treated like the very first date. First impressions, making sure the other is enjoying the outing, etc. If memory fades and complacency sets in, that's when any relationship becomes jeopardized.

It was in this latter logic that it began to come to Kagami. She and Ryuji were in a rough patch because they forgot why they got together. They needed to reserve some time together and maybe take a vacation somewhere. They needed to have a weekly date night with each other. Inori provided quite a few good ideas for Kagami and she thanked her sister for meeting her and once again being a fountain of wisdom. The rest of their lunch circled back to Tsukasa and all her accomplishments and how much they looked forward to seeing her again.

All the while, Inori hoped that her little sister would pick up on a few hints she had left her earlier. Inori knew this was none of her business, but she and a few others within her ranks could see that Kagami did not belong with Ryuji Hirasaka. Inori and a few select others took it a step further and speculated that Kagami Hiiragi's heart was not meant to be captured by a man at all. Inori encouraged Kagami to get back in touch with Konata Izumi one more time before the sisters finished their lunch, hugged again, and departed.

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Kagami arrived back at her law firm a little past the end of lunchtime. She was arbitrarily greeted by some of her colleagues, which surprised her. It appeared it wasn't only Ryuji she thought she was drifting away from. Kagami approached her office and saw Ayano typing away at her computer. When the secretary saw her boss, she waved her over.

"Any calls while I was out?" Kagami asked.

Ayano nodded. "Your mother called about fifteen minutes ago. She was wondering if you and Ryuji would come over to your parents' house for dinner tonight. Your brother-in-law and his kids will be there as well."

Kagami smiled. "That sounds nice."

"Ryuji also stepped out for a bit. Something about meeting an old acquaintance who might become a new client." Ayano added.

"Good," Kagami smiled.

Ayano smiled back but the gesture quickly faded. "Also, would it be possible for me to leave work an hour early today? Misao called again and she's not dealing with her brother being in prison very well. She could really use a friend."

Kagami felt her insides tighten a bit when she heard of her old friend's plights. The oldest Hiiragi twin was studying in America when Makoto Kusakabe was arrested in Tokyo for driving while intoxicated that caused the car accident leading to the death of another driver. He and Ayano had ended their relationship a year or so after high school and the former did not take it as well as the latter. Ayano Minegishi had seen red flags mounting in Makoto's behavior for months prior to the split. She ultimately called it off after a massive fight ensued between them after he got fired from his job and had no plans to go to college. Plus, his liquor store bills began to toll more than the cost of his rent.

Makoto Kusakabe agreed to a plea deal that resulted in a fifteen-month prison sentence plus five years of probation and mandatory alcoholic counseling sessions. Though Ayano never told him this directly, the judge's sentence was reminiscent of conditions she gave him a few months before the accident, just before they broke up. Stop drinking, go to rehab, look for a job, or apply to college. All conditions he failed to meet for his girlfriend…and he would ultimately fail to meet them for the judge.

What was supposed to be a simple fifteen month stay quickly degraded into a stint of thirty years to life. Feeling unprepared and unable to survive time inside, it did not take long for Makoto to seek out the protection of Yakuza gang cells. Of course, like all prison gangs, it was a blood in, blood out way of life. Makoto Kusakabe knew he would never leave that prison alive when he shanked a supposed Yakuza snitch over sixty times in the showers one day. Whether the man was a snitch or not, Makoto never knew but chose to believe he was just so he could sleep half that night peacefully. The only way he was able to sleep at all was because now he was protected and no one aside from the Yakuza knew it was him who murdered to stay alive.

Of course, membership to a prison gang might as well be a death sentence. With protection came great responsibilities to keep it. In Makoto's case, this meant participating in a planned prison riot by the other gangs. It started as a fight between members of the same Yakuza cell, though it was just a show to bring guards in and that was where they turned on them. Guards were attacked and when many were neutralized, the true bloodbaths began when gang vs gang fought. The riot lasted a gruesome fifteen minutes until more guards came to assist. Unfortunately for Makoto, a betraying surveillance camera watched him attack and brutally stab three rival gang members, earning him a laundry list of fresh charges.

Ayano still felt pained memories of holding Misao close at her brother's sentencing when they learned that the earliest she could hug her brother again Misao would be in her fifties. Shortly after his first sentencing, the Kusakabe grandfather passed away. Weeks later, the grandmother followed. Misao and Makoto's parents split shortly after he was sentenced to his infinite fate.

"Of course you can, Ayano. And give Misao my best and if she needs anything, let me know." Kagami replied.

Ayano sighed. "She'll probably want a good lawyer to help her brother."

Kagami shook her head and lethargically replied, "She knows I cannot do that. I studied corporate law and I don't know much about criminal law. The best I could do was give her the names of some specialists I knew."

Ayano nodded. "She did and now her brother is going to be in prison until he's over half a century old."

Shaking her head, Kagami shrugged and added, "Well, bad things do happen to people who drink and drive and commit violent acts on camera for all to see."

Ayano agreed with Kagami. She still harbored feelings for Misao's brother, and his sentence hurt her just as much as the rest of the Kusakabe family. It had been more than a decade since Makoto was first sentenced and Ayano found it hard to rekindle her old life. Her friendship with Misao went on a steady decline ever since and it seemed the two only met so they could wallow in their shortcomings. Misao for not taking school or college seriously now stuck in a dead-end office job and Ayano for not exactly following suit, but second guessing herself on a lot of her choices in life. She had many aspirations, but often wondered if Makoto's incarceration played some role in her settling for less than she wanted.

When their conversation concluded, Kagami retreated to her office. Sitting behind her big desk, she pulled out her cell phone and saw she had a new text message from Ryuji. It stated what Ayano told her earlier and that he would meet her at her parents' house later. Kagami felt a smile twitch at her corners, but it didn't manifest. A thought suddenly came to Kagami that made a full smile project across her face when Inori mentioned her old friend.

Kagami scrolled down her text list. It took a lot longer than she thought to reach her old friend of Konata Izumi's name but when she did, the last message she received from her was nine months ago. She could not recall the context of the conversation but Kagami concluded it was long overdue.

Hey you.. how have you been?

Kagami sat back in her chair and let the quiet engulf her. Her ticking clock allowed her to think and as soon as she sent the message, she had a lot to think about. Inori's words began to resonate within her and she suddenly felt her palms and armpits begin to perspire. All of a sudden, Kagami wanted to know more about Konata. Life and career drove an unspoken wedge between the two women and Kagami didn't realize how much it hurt until Inori brought up Konata. The last time they saw each other was at the convention in New York City where Tsukasa's designer show inked her contracts with Gucci and Prada. Aside from a few "just checking in" texts, the two friends grew further apart.

Kagami knew that that was an unfortunate facet of life. People inevitably grow up and grow apart. The educated lawyer expected that would happen with many of her friends. What she did not expect was to feel her heart drum wildly when her phone chimed again and Konata's name appeared on its screen. Trembling hands stretched to collect the phone and it nearly slipped from her soggy grip.

She was surprised to see a simple reply. Not too bad. U?

Kagami expected a more grandeur message from the flamboyant otaku. The simple reply made Kagami think she accidentally texted one of her colleagues at first, but she reconfirmed Konata Izumi's number. She expected Konata to bombard her with questions, weird pics, gifs, and updates on her manga work. Konata did not relay any of that, making Kagami push the conversation forward.

How have you been?

Setting her phone back down again, her office phone suddenly chirped, and she picked it up. "This is Kagami."

"Hey, did we need to pick anything up for your parents tonight?" Ryuji's chilled voice asked.

Kagami placed a finger under her chin and hummed. "We could bring a bottle of wine."

"Good. Pick that up and don't be late."

A hostile click was heard and Kagami was left alone on her phone again. She sighed and hung up her phone, guessing that her boyfriend's meeting did not go well. If that was the case, she knew she was definitely going to hear (and probably feel) about it later.

Her phone chimed again and Konata's message read: Good and u?

Tilting her head, Kagami was confused with such deadpan and cryptic messages from Konata. Kagami's desk phone began ringing again and she resumed her work. One of her clients was calling from a field office in Brazil and needed advice on international copyright protocols. Kagami's mind immediately pushed Konata out and the oldest Hiiragi twin's last thought on the matter was maybe she caught Konata at a busy time. It was understandable as they were both nearing the top of their professions, so career proved to be the dominant hand.

Kagami continued her fast-paced profession and counted down until it was time to call it a day. Ayano Minegishi excused herself an hour prior to closing just as she requested and Kagami was right behind her. Kagami looked forward to seeing her family again as she drove down the streets of Tokyo back to the family shrine.

While she drove, Konata appeared in her mind one more time. She asked the same questions but could not congregate any answers. If the Hiiragi lawyer could not speculate on Konata's unsmiling text behavior, there was no way she could comprehend that a noose was secured around Konata's neck. One was though and the blue-haired woman was standing on a chair rocking it back and forth waiting for it to tip before Kagami's text message halted her.

A/N: A major change to the story is Misao's brother so remember this chapter as it will become very important later. Thanks for reading!