Aftermath

It was dark inside the room.Only a few rays of light were coming through the window,the rest of which were blocked by the curtains.

A figure was lying motionless on the bed inside the room and appeared to be heavily bandaged.

The bed creaked and the figure had started to move.

It moved into a sitting position and started to look around it.

The room seemed familiar..

"I must be in my room"Akimitsu than pulled off the sheets off him but quickly stopped realizing his left hand hurt like hell at that moment.

"What the hell?Why is my arm bandaged?"he tried to remember anything but his head had started to hurt at that moment.

After just moving his hand along the wall,he finally found the switch and turned the light on.

Contrary to what he was expecting,the room was clean and wasn't messy at all.

"Fumiko must've cleaned it"he murmured to himself and than went out of the room to head for the washroom.

After doing his business,he turned towards the mirror and realized his hair had grown to shoulder length.

"How long was I even out?"he than opened the cupboard and started to look for any of Fumiko's hairband"must've been a damn long time for my hair to grow this much".

After two or three attempts,he finally managed to tie his hair into a bun with only one hand.

He turned towards the mirror again having no memory of what happened after going along with Ahihito for their last job.

After changing his trousers,he went downstairs to head to the kitchen only to find it empty.

Looking outside the window,he realized it was evening.

That explained everything for him since Fumiko always used to take morning and evening shifts so she must be at the hospital than.

Making himself some coffee,he took a seat by the table picking up a newspaper with the following headline in bold words:

POLICE PERPLEXED OVER MYSTERY CASE;WILL SOON ARREST ALL THE CULPRITS IN RUSHIMA INCIDENT

"Rushima incident?"just as he was wondering to himself,the door opened and Ahihito walked in.

He didn't notice Akimitsu but instead closed the door and started to walk straight towards Akimitsu's room upstairs.

"Yo"

Ahihito turned back and looked towards the table where Akimitsu was trying to standup with his right hand.

"When did you wakeup?"

"Just a while ago"he than attempted to stand up but sudden pain in his leg caused him to fall back on the chair.

"The pain is still there,huh?"Ahihto inquired after taking a seat infront of him and pouring himself some coffee.

"Yeah"after that there was an awkward silence with both of them trying to figure out how to start the conversation.

"So how many days have I been passed out?"he finally asked what had been bothering him since he woke up.

"Days?Bruh,you've been passed out like this for almost a month"Ahihito replied chuckling"we wanted to take you to the hospital but we couldn't do that because of the Rushima incident and anyways we had a nurse at home so we didn't have anything to worry about".

"Fumiko's been looking after me whole past month?Must've been hard on her both her job and this"he thought to turned himself and than his attention turned to something else.

"Wait,Rushima incident?That's where we went for the last job,didn't we?"

"Huh?"Ahihito,who was pouring coffee at that moment,had a surprised look on his face.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten all about it,Akimitsu?"

"About what?"he than hit the mug on table which broke into pieces "I seriously have no idea why am I in this condition and what even happened at Rushima and why is it even on the news?What even happened there?".

He looked at Ahihito expecting an answer but instead he was staring at the table where broken pieced of the mug were laying.

Realizing what he had done,he took a deep breath and composed himself.It was unlike him to loose his temper.

"Don't blame yourself for it.Anybody would be stressed out in situation like this.Besides,you aren't Hagetaka so-"

"Hagetaka?"this time he didn't break anything but instead shouted at top of his lungs.That name had rung a bell in him.

"Wasn't it the name of the person who appeared in his dreams"he than looked at Ahihito and wondered why did he even know about it.Maybe he had talked about it in his sleep but if that was the case what else had he heard and on top of that he knew Ahihito wasn't even gonna tell the whole story.

"Akimitsu?"he came back to his senses and Ahihito was waving his hand infront of him.

"I'll explain everything so don't worry about it"he than picked up the remote from the table to turn on the tv.

He than started changing channels looking for something particular until he stopped at some news channel.

"Look at this"he pointed the remote towards the tv and than started to listen to the news.

"The police are still investigating the whole scenario that took place in Rushima about a month ago-"

"Isn't that where-"but he was cut off by Ahihito and than he himself turned towards the tv to listen to the news.

"but the bizarre appearance of 'supernatural phenomena' has the police perplexed and who are the other five people in the footage so what does it all mean?Right now,we'll be talking to the police inspector who is incharge of the investigation".

Afterwards,a clip started to play on the screen.

"Tell me what do you think of it?"Ahihito spoke while still focusing on the screen"Tell me what you think of the clip playing on the screen".

In what he could see in the clip,a man was going berserk with something like black flames shooting out of his chest.

It seemed like some scene straight out of a movie but what was surprising he saw a familiar face.

"Sora??What the fuck is his face doing on national tv?"he shouted aghast but Ahihito interjected him.

"That should be the least of your worries right now,Akimitsu"and than pointed the remote towards the tv again.

The clip kept focusing on Sora but than it shifted to somebody else who was lying beside him against the wall.

"What the hell?What is up with him?"he was about to look at Ahihito but than that person rose his head.

The face looked kinda familiar,as if he knew it very well...as if it was himself.

At that moment,realization hit him and he collapsed to the floor shocked as hell at what he had seen.

It was him,himself over there but not him at the same time and he didn't even remember any bit of what had happened in the past month.

"It's Hagetaka..."he murmured to himself but loud enough for Ahihito to hear.

"I knew it"Ahihito's voice came from the side.

"Huh?"

That was the only thing he could say at that moment but Ahihito pulled him upto his feet and led him towards the door.

"Let's go outside for a walk,shall we?"

Akimitsu quickly noticed it was gonna be rainy that night considering the dark clouds that were coming from the north.

Both him and Ahihito had been silent all the way along fromhis house.

"So,I'll explain to you what happened as much as I can"Ahihito took a deep breath.

Finally he was gonna tell him about everything,about how it wasn't as he was thinking of it.All the curiosity was eating him alive.

"So do you remember what happened after we went to Rushima?Ahihito asked while he kept on walking.

Thinking back about it he didn't even remember going over to Rushima.

"I'll take that as a 'no' than"Ahihito than stopped in his tracks and pointed his index finger straight at him.

"You are Hagetaka!"

"What?How do you even know-"he was cut off by Ahihito once again.

"I don't know what you are surprised about but you'll understand everything once I explain it">

At that point,both of them had reached the local park and were standing next to the pond.

"Hagetaka is an alter personality"Akimitsu opened his mouth to object but Ahihito continued"or that's what i would like to say but its not that simple".

"Wait,Iam not getting it.Hagetaka isn't even supposed to exist in the first place,is he?"Akimitsu shot back but Ahihito stopped him and sighed.

"I guess I should start with the Rushima incident first".

Ahihito than told him about all the minute details from how Akimitsu had changed to Hagetaka,how his personality as a whole had changed and how he had killed everybody there who had tried to fight him and in the end how they managed to escape.

"Even if all of this is true,how can even Hagetaka even be true?I mean isn't that impossible"he chuckled to himself expecting Ahihito to do the same but he just had that normal expression on his face.

"I was there myself Akimitsu so I can guarantee it.You weren't Akimitsu but Hagetaka and even if you don't trust me you saw the video yourself,didn't you?That wasn't you,was it?All that destruction didn't happen by itself,did it?"

Akimitsu did not say anything instead he collapsed to teh ground with his head starting to hurt.

He was about to hit the ground when Ahihito took him by his arm and had him sit down on a bench.

"I would've thought of myself as stupid to say something like this but judging from what I heard from Sora and others that Hagetaka is another soul trapped in your body"Ahihito spoke while taking a seat.

"Another soul in my body?"

"Yes,but thats what I can make of it but it might also be somewhat different.This is just what I think."he continued"On one hand,it might seem completely stupid but after what all has happened it might not be stupid enough to even consider that".

He than stood up from the bench.

"I know this is too much for you to process and right now ofcourse you'd be in state of shock and denial but I just wanted you to know the truth before anybdoy pulled up some half crap story without telling you the truth".

They remained silent for a moment staring at the sun setting in the far distance.

Ahihito pulled out some cigarrettes and offered him one which he gladly accepted.

"Ahihito,I think I heard something about police pursuing the suspects on tv.What was that about?"he asked while Ahihito lit Akimitsu's cigarrette.

"Oh yeah,that one?"Ahihito asked while he lit his own cigarrette.

"As things stand right now,my face is on the national tv so isn't it risky for me to be here?"Akimitsu asked.

"You don't have to worry about that but there's been a rumour going around actually".

"Rumour?"Akimitsu was really getting irritated of Ahihito not giving straight-up answers.

"So thing is,what I've heard is that government is gonna be overthrown in two or three days".

"Oh,okay"it took Akimitsu a moment to realize to what Ahihito had even said.

"Wait,what?The government is gonna be overthrown?By whom?and how do you even know it?"everything he had heard from Ahihito that day was too much for him to process.

Ahihito continued from his previous statement.

"With the existence of everything that happened that day gone public before the government could even control it made public,I doubt whether whoever has these powers is gonna stay quiet and there has also been another rumour"he than looked up at Akimitsu"There is a radical party that has been gaining momentum lately.As things stand,with all the public resentment against the governemnt and with all these powers they have,how long do you think the goverment can stand?"

Akimitsu couldn't quite process it.

"Wait,isn't it bad for us?"Akimitsu asked while finishing hsi cigarrette and trying to stand up with his one hand.

"It was gonna happen at one point but the only thing we've done is speed up the process but nothing more;if we play the cards in our favour,we can even gain the upper hand"Ahihito smirked while throwing his cigarrette away and helped Akimitsu up.

"You say like you can even stop any of this keeping in mind this theory of yours might not be even true"Akimitsu answered taunted him but Ahihito shot back.

"You don't need to worry about any of it,we've made all the necessary arrangements"just than Ahihito's phone rang and he pulled it out to see who was calling him.

"It's Fumiko"he than ended the call and put phone into his pocket to turn towards Akimitsu

"It's time to go".