House of Memories | Sano Manjiro "Mikey"

VI

With trembling hands, you drove the car into a warehouse, tires screeching as you abruptly halt the car, door swinging open as you rush out, calling out for your subordinates as you instruct them to take the body on the passenger seat.

"Boss, No. 2 called, he's asking what you wanna do to the warehouse." One of your trusted subordinates asks, eyes following the body that's being carried out of your car.

Lighting up a cigarette, you take a puff before blowing the smoke out, body buzzing with adrenaline from your little escape from the authorities. "Tell Sanzu to take all his belongings then burn the whole building. Don't leave any traces."

~~~~~

It's been two days since you started ignoring your mother due to her acting off whenever she'd see you. You never tried talking to her about it, the look on her face always making you feel weird. The things that she'd say under her breath freaking you out which is why you've only been coming home for a change of clothes. You've also taken the dogs and brought them to the Sano household while your brother is back to staying with your grandparents.

It's a mess.

Your family is back to being scattered around Tokyo once more, but for some reason, it feels wrong. Feels like you're all drifting apart. It's unlike how everything was before your dad died. It feels like the space between all of you is becoming permanent and it scares you. But at the same time, you're fine with it.

You don't have much to miss anyways, barely seeing your mother nor your sisters, your brother always being with your grandparents due to no one being home to take care of him except for you.

But you set aside your worries for now.

Excitement pumped through your veins the entire day, your unusual happiness taken as a good sign by your friends since they haven't seen you this happy ever since what happened to your dad 3 weeks ago.

Everything still feels heavy, emotions still going haywire, but just for this week, 8 days before Mikey's birthday, you set aside the grief. Set aside the growing guilt. Set aside the emptiness. Just for Mikey. Just for Shinichiro's secret present that he told you about the other day in hopes of distracting you. It worked. Your mind now going into overdrive on how you're going to top Shinichiro's birthday present, not wanting to be one-upped by the smug ex-leader.

Walking back to the Sano household, you kiss Emma on the forehead as a greeting, the girl giving you a tight hug before walking out, saying something about meeting with Draken.

Shrugging, you start looking around for Dora and Yaki, but you don't see them anywhere. Not when you stopped by the dojo, not when you looked around the small garden, not when you walked around the house. Mikey isn't home as well. Probably having a meeting for Toman. Something that you rarely attend due to your growing aversion to being active in gang activity. Your dad's words still present in your mind, even when you try to talk yourself out of it.

Going to Shinichiro's room as a last resort, you hope that you'll see him inside with the two dogs splayed on the coach, playing with one of his socks or something, but instead, you're met with an empty room.

Slowly, the familiar feeling of panic grows in your chest.

Running towards where grandpa was, you asked him if he'd seen the dogs. "Hmm? Well, I called you earlier because I saw one of them peeing blood but you didn't respond so I called your mum since I remembered you saying something about one of them needing medicine or something. When your mum arrived, she took both of them, saying that she'll take them to the vet."