Which was why, he resolved to try. Which was why he wouldn’t give up on the eldest and he would figure out a way to help him. If this was all about the lodger, if something had happened he had to know because he couldn’t stand this, watching his brother wither and shrink and die in front of him. He couldn’t stand how quickly the sand filled hourglass had flipped on him without any warning, and he refused to let it end like this. Ichimatsu wasn’t determined or motivated these days, he didn’t outwardly show his cares or demand answers or confront things head on but this wasn’t about today’s Ichi. This was about the younger Ichimatsu that hadn’t done anything until it was too late, this was about the eldest brother who had given up a chance at freedom for his sleepy, confused little brother. This was about today’s Osomatsu who thought he had no one to turn to because Ichimatsu had never so much as reached out a hand.
Well, he was reaching out now. He just had to make his brother see.
Ichimatsu was full of thoughts and plans, he’d call up his idiot brothers and stage an intervention of some kind. Or a drinking night, really get everyone to air their grievances so they could come back together and fix this. The thought of so much limelight was terrifying, anxiety already spiking in his chest but Osomatsu had dealt with so much more for all of them before. None of his brother’s could remember, though, because they’d forced themselves not to. He’d make them see, too.
When he’d made it home later in the evening to their darkened house and made his way through the kitchen, he’d been so focused on fixing and confronting, he’d almost missed the newspaper on the kitchen table as he grabbed a glass of water to calm his nerves. With all the thoughts of the lodger and his brothers shattered smile playing in circles in his mind, his eyes had instinctively narrowed in on the headline regarding the string of robberies, sliding past the poor victim of the largest incident who’d apparently passed away earlier in the day, and skidded towards the grainy image near the bottom of the page.
‘Have you seen this man?’ The large print asked him, and it felt strangely directed, like he was swirling around the drain at the start of it all and he couldn’t look away, couldn’t resist the call. Like this paper had been here for him, like the start and the beginning of everything was unfolding right at this very spot.
A man with a bandit mask, portly and outlined in blurry pale light from the electric lighting stood menacingly in the center of a tiny store. A familiar convenience store, one just around the corner from Chibita’s, the one that was open all night and sold cheap cat treats. The man had a hunch to his shoulders, a wide stance, and was pointing a gun towards something near the far wall.
The picture was pixelated, grainy and nearly too small but he could just make out the outline of someone hiding almost out of sight, between the coffee and the baking section, crouching with their face that side of indistinguishable.
The glass in his hand fell, his grip slackening as the shock overtook him and his thoughts caught up with what his eyes were telling him. He barely acknowledged the crashing sound as the cup hit the hard floor, or the dangerous shards scattering around him because there was someone in the convenience store that night.
Someone hiding around the corner as a young girl was murdered, someone who witnessed all of it.
Someone with a dark bob of hair and a familiar red hoodie he would recognize absolutely anywhere.
Chapter 7: Area man races against time to take out trashbag with widening puncture
Notes:
This chapter title is really terrible and I apologize in advance. Also I'm sorry for how long this took!! We're getting to the part of the fic where I gotta fix some stuff (meaning, rewrite a whole garbage ton because I dunno what I'm even trying to accomplish) but I made solid progress so hurray! There were a couple of details I wanted to make sure I fixed up, but anyways! We're beginning the slow decent into hell hour so I hope you're all as prepared as you can be and that you enjoy!
